The Knowledge of the First Civilizations | Dr. Irving Finkel

Video Description

Dr. Irving Finkel of the British Museum joins John Michael Godier to discuss the origins of ancient Sumerian writing, the development of cuneiform tablets, and the early flood myths that shaped the world’s oldest known stories. Finkel explains how the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh and the Babylonian Flood Tablet predate the Biblical story of Noah’s Ark, revealing how ideas about divine floods, survival, and human memory first emerged in ancient Mesopotamia. Dr. Irving Finkel https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG132564 https://thegreatdiaryproject.co.uk/ 00:00 – Introduction: Dr. Irving Finkel and the British Museum 02:00 – How the First Writing Systems Began 05:30 – Pictographs, Trade, and the Birth of Communication 09:45 – The Invention of Cuneiform 13:00 – Sumerian: The First Known Language 17:10 – How Babylonian and Akkadian Evolved from Sumerian 21:00 – Language Connections from Mesopotamia to Hebrew and Arabic 24:15 – Commerce and the Spread of Early Writing 28:40 – The Role of Writing in Civilization 33:00 – The Origins of the Flood Myths 36:15 – A Babylonian Story Older Than the Bible 40:00 – Historical Memory of Real Floods in Mesopotamia 44:20 – The Fear of Floods and the Psychology of Ancient Myths 48:30 – From Babylon to the Bible: How the Flood Story Traveled 52:45 – The Shape of the Ark: Circle or Square? 56:10 – Why the Biblical Ark May Have Been a Mistranslation 59:40 – Flood Stories Around the World 1:03:10 – Missionaries and the Global Spread of Flood Legends 1:06:30 – The Babylonian World Map and Ancient Cosmology 1:10:00 – How Ancient Mesopotamians Understood the Earth 1:14:00 – Geometry, Circles, and the Ark’s Design 1:18:00 – Lessons from the First Civilizations 1:21:20 – The Legacy of Ancient Knowledge and Why It Endures 1:25:00 – Closing Reflections: Preserving Humanity’s First Stories YouTube Membership: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz3qvETKooktNgCvvheuQDw/join Podcast: hhttps://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/john-michael-godier/subscribe Apple: https://apple.co/3CS7rjT More JMG https://www.youtube.com/c/JohnMichaelGodier Want to support the channel? Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/EventHorizonShow Follow us at other places! @JMGEventHorizon Music: https://stellardrone.bandcamp.com/ https://migueljohnson.bandcamp.com/ https://leerosevere.bandcamp.com/ https://aeriumambient.bandcamp.com/ FOOTAGE: NASA ESA/Hubble ESO - M.Kornmesser ESO - L.Calcada ESO - Jose Francisco Salgado (josefrancisco.org) NAOJ University of Warwick Goddard Visualization Studio Langley Research Center Pixabay