Deciphering Secrets of Ancient Civilizations, Noah's Ark, and Flood Myths | Lex Fridman Podcast #487

Origins and Evolution of Writing:

• The earliest evidence of writing dates to approximately 3500 BC in Mesopotamia (between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers).
• Writing likely evolved from pre-existing pictographic communication systems used by traders who lacked a shared language, rather than starting purely with sound representation.
• The critical "invention" was the realization that a picture could represent a sound (phonetic value), allowing for the recording of grammar, literature, and complex language rather than just simple pictographs.
• Irving Finkel posits that this phonetic shift was a "light bulb moment" where a limited system became a tool to record any language heard, including foreign ones like an early form of French.

Standardization and Lexicography:

• Early scholars recognized the risk of exponential, uncontrolled growth of signs and invented lexicography (systematic sign lists) to standardize the script.
• This rigorous standardization, including the definition of signs for wood, colors, countries, and gods, allowed the system to remain stable and recognizable for over three millennia.
• Scholars in the 3rd or 2nd century BC (e.g., during Alexander's time) could read and understand tablets written in the 3rd millennium BC due to this preserved structural regularity.

The Name and Material:

• The script is named "cuneiform" (from Latin cuneus, meaning wedge) because the signs are wedge-shaped, a feature most visible on Syrian reliefs and clay tablets.
• Approximately 130,000 cuneiform tablets currently exist in museums, with millions more believed to remain buried in the ground, protected by clay.
• The tablets served as a medium for everything from mundane business contracts and letters to elaborate royal campaigns, magic, medicine, and high literature.

Controversial Historical Hypotheses:

• Finkel challenges the consensus that pictographs preceded phonetic writing, arguing it is improbable that early societies would adopt the least flexible system first; he suggests a long prior history of pictographic communication evolved directly into writing.
• He asserts that the site of Göbekli Tepe (circa 9000 BC) likely utilized a writing system, citing a green stone seal found there as evidence of official ratification and sealing, implying writing predates the Sumerian system by thousands of years.
• He argues that the destruction of Ashurbanipal's library at Nineveh was likely a result of the Babylonians and Elamites looting and burning the city, meaning the surviving "duplicates and broken things" do not represent the full extent of the library.

Decipherment and Linguistics:

• The decipherment of cuneiform relied on the trilingual Bisutun inscription (Old Persian, Elamite, Akkadian), where the readable Old Persian allowed scholars to crack the other two.
• Finkel credits the clergyman Edward Hinks with crucial contributions to decipherment, noting that Henry Rawlinson, often called the "father of Assyriology," was more of a "stepfather" who initially published significant errors.
• The system is syllabic (e.g., "museum" is written as mu-zu-mu) and multivalent, where a single sign can have multiple sound values and meanings depending on context.
• Sumerian is a language isolate with no known relatives, while Akkadian (Babylonian) is a Semitic language related to Hebrew, Arabic, and Aramaic; scholars must master both to read texts.

Literature and the Flood Myth:

• The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Atrahasis tablet contain flood narratives that predate the biblical story of Noah by roughly 1,000 years.
• The Mesopotamian flood story features a round coracle boat, which was practical for the rivers of Mesopotamia, contrasting with the coffin-shaped biblical ark.
• Finkel argues the "noise" in the flood myth is a euphemism for overpopulation, serving as a Malthusian explanation for the gods' decision to wipe out the population to enforce population control.
• He attributes the existence of the Biblical flood story to Judean refugees in Babylon who recycled Babylonian narratives to explain their own displacement and sin.

Ancient Games and Gambling:

• The "Royal Game of Ur" (c. 2600 BC) was a widespread race game played across the Middle East for nearly 3,000 years without written rules for most of its history.
• Finkel reconstructed the rules using a 2nd-century BC tablet that described the game's mechanics, noting its unique blend of strategy and chance similar to modern backgammon.
• The game is believed to have been used for "time pass" (leisure) and potentially gambling, with literary fragments known as the "gambler's lament" indicating the emotional stakes of losing.

Religion, Philosophy, and Human Nature:

• Finkel argues that ancient polytheism was more pragmatic and less dogmatic than modern monotheism, viewing gods as unpredictable forces that required "bribes" and were taken for granted rather than constantly debated.
• He contends that monotheistic religions introduced the concept of absolute "right vs. wrong," leading to historical inquisitions and religious intolerance.
• The ancient view of death and ghosts was matter-of-fact; people buried the dead and made offerings to ancestors without questioning their existence, treating them as an integrated part of reality.

The British Museum and Modern Language:

• Finkel describes the British Museum as a unique institution dedicated to the narrative of the entire human race, serving both the living and the "unborn" by preserving artifacts for future scientific and cultural examination.
• He criticizes the modern decline in language precision due to digital communication (emojis, abbreviations), arguing that vocabulary defines the quality of thought.
• He notes that while ancient people lacked modern scientific knowledge (e.g., Einstein's relativity), they possessed a naturalness of human behavior uncluttered by the "addictive" nature of the electronic universe.

Future-Proofing Knowledge:

• The "raindrop" analogy is used to describe how a few surviving tablets allow the reconstruction of a vast "waterfall" of human history, even though the surviving material is biased and incomplete.
• Finkel expresses hope that future generations will continue to study and protect these artifacts, viewing the preservation of knowledge as a sacred duty that transcends current political or cultural disputes.
• He suggests that the "slowness" of time and the distance provided by history allow for a clearer understanding of human progress and failure than the immediate, chaotic present.