Here's my conversation with Irving Finkel, a scholar of ancient languages and Mesopotamian history. He specializes in deciphering cuneiform tablets from Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian contexts. He became widely known for studying a tablet with a Mesopotamian flood story that predates the biblical Noah narrative. We talk about ancient writing & language, controversial theories about ancient civilizations, Noah's Ark, flood myths, Göbekli Tepe, and much more. It's here on X in full and is up everywhere else (see comment). Timestamps: 0:00 - Introduction 0:58 - Origins of human language 7:04 - Cuneiform 14:17 - Controversial theory about Göbekli Tepe 25:29 - How to write and speak Cuneiform 30:48 - Primitive human language 32:31 - Development of writing systems 33:25 - Decipherment of Cuneiform 45:57 - Limits of language 50:56 - Art of translation 56:06 - Gods 1:01:31 - Ghosts 1:11:19 - Ancient flood stories 1:21:26 - Noah's Ark 1:32:49 - The Royal Game of Ur 1:45:48 - British Museum 1:53:13 - Evolution of human civilization

Here's the links for my conversation with Irving Finkel: YouTube: youtube.com/watch?v=_bBRVNkAfk...… Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/2MAi0BvD...… Podcast: lexfridman.com/podcast Substack: substack.com@lexfridman (will start publishing my thoughts on each episodes here soon)