| Transcript |
| · | Intro |
| 0:00 | · | In The British Museum, we have objects of all sizes. |
| 0:03 | · | Some pinheads, and some gigantic, and everything in between. |
| 0:06 | · | And once in a while, one of the very smallest things |
| 0:10 | · | turns out to have information in it |
| 0:13 | · | which is totally unexpected. |
| 0:15 | · | My name is Irving Finkel |
| 0:16 | · | and I'm a curator in The British Museum in the Middle East Department |
| 0:19 | · | and welcome to my corner. |
| 0:27 | · | Curator's Corner with Irving Finkel So what we have here |
| 0:29 | · | is a clay tablet. |
| 0:30 | · | As a matter of fact, it is not a real clay tablet |
| 0:34 | · | it is a replica |
| 0:35 | · | because the real clay tablet has to be on exhibition all the time |
| 0:39 | · | and also it's very delicate |
| 0:40 | · | we couldn't wave it around in front of the screen |
| 0:42 | · | and say "look at this, look at that" |
| 0:44 | · | that would be terribly irresponsible. |
| 0:46 | · | So but we can use this |
| 0:47 | · | replica |
| 0:48 | · | for demonstration purposes with impunity. |
| 0:51 | · | The ancient Mesopotamians |
| · | Ancient Mesopotamian Cuneiform Tablets |
| 0:53 | · | Sumerians, Babylonians, all those people |
| 0:55 | · | they wrote on clay, that was their natural activity |
| 0:59 | · | and clay tablets which have impressions of writing on |
| 1:02 | · | are pretty good, they're pretty stable |
| 1:04 | · | you can handle them |
| 1:04 | · | you can't play football with them |
| 1:06 | · | but they're pretty reliable |
| 1:08 | · | but what happens in antiquity |
| 1:10 | · | is there are wars, and buildings collapse |
| 1:12 | · | and fires, and disasters |
| 1:13 | · | and people die and they go away |
| 1:15 | · | and other people come and trample on things |
| 1:17 | · | and when archaeologists find them |
| 1:19 | · | it is not often that an ancient inscription on a piece of clay |
| 1:24 | · | comes to light in perfect condition. |
| 1:26 | · | So this tablet |
| 1:28 | · | you can easily see that it isn't complete |
| 1:30 | · | there's stuff missing here there's stuff missing there |
| 1:33 | · | and it also looks like elephants |
| 1:35 | · | have danced a polka over the surface |
| 1:37 | · | because many of the signs are damaged or squashed |
| 1:42 | · | But nevertheless, this piece of cuneiform inscription |
| 1:46 | · | is a remarkable thing. |
| · | The oldest map of the world, in the world |
| 1:48 | · | This is the oldest map of the world! |
| 1:52 | · | ...in the world. |
| 1:53 | · | It has two sides, this is the front or 'obverse' |
| 1:56 | · | and this is the back or the 'reverse' |
| 1:58 | · | and the reverse consists of lots of lines of cuneiform |
| 2:02 | · | in different ruled sections. |
| 2:04 | · | So it's full of information, even though it's a bit damaged. |
| · | What is the Babylonian Map of the World? |
| 2:08 | · | But the other side is the remarkable thing. |
| 2:10 | · | Firstly there's some lines of cuneiform |
| 2:13 | · | ruled across very firmly at the top |
| 2:15 | · | and this is about the early creation of the world |
| 2:18 | · | and how animals were put in the sea and in different parts of the universe |
| 2:21 | · | it's a kind of brief summary of creation |
| 2:25 | · | which has nothing to do with the map |
| 2:26 | · | because there's a clear border between that and this |
| 2:30 | · | and it's this which is so exciting |
| 2:32 | · | because if you look carefully you will see that the flat surface of the clay |
| · | The Babylonian Map of the World explained |
| 2:36 | · | has a double circle drawn in the surface of the clay. |
| 2:39 | · | Now the double ring is very important |
| 2:42 | · | because it has cuneiform writing in it |
| 2:44 | · | which says it's the "Bitter River" |
| 2:47 | · | and this water was deemed to surround the known world |
| 2:52 | · | because the area inside the double ring... |
| 2:55 | · | is Ancient Mesopotamia itself. |
| 2:59 | · | Now this word 'Mesopotamia' is the Ancient Greek word |
| 3:02 | · | for what is modern Iraq. |
| 3:06 | · | So inside the drawing of this circle |
| 3:08 | · | we have very interesting things. |
| 3:10 | · | There is a great river that runs from north to south |
| 3:14 | · | which is the Euphrates river. |
| 3:17 | · | and the river is straddled |
| 3:19 | · | by a long oblong which is obviously |
| 3:23 | · | the city of Babylon. |
| 3:24 | · | So this is a very important ring of water |
| 3:27 | · | because it meant for the Babylonians, they had a sort of idea |
| 3:30 | · | of the limits of their world where they lived |
| 3:33 | · | in about the 6th century BC |
| 3:35 | · | with these important rivers which brough life and food to them |
| 3:39 | · | waterways for transport |
| 3:41 | · | all the way down to the Persian Gulf it was kind of depicted in small |
| 3:46 | · | and if you look carefully at the picture you will see |
| 3:48 | · | that in the surface of the known world there are these rings drawn |
| 3:53 | · | with little bits of cuneiform inside those |
| 3:56 | · | and those tell you the name of the city which it represents or sometimes the tribe. |
| 4:02 | · | So you have, encapsulated in this circular diagram |
| 4:06 | · | the whole of the known world in which people lived, flourished and died. |
| · | What are the triangles on the Babylonian Map of the World? |
| 4:13 | · | However... |
| 4:14 | · | there's more to this map than that |
| 4:16 | · | because if you look at the outer ring |
| 4:19 | · | you will see that going off at different angles are triangles |
| 4:23 | · | sometimes people say they are islands |
| 4:26 | · | sometimes people say they are districts |
| 4:28 | · | but in point of fact they are almost certainly mountains |
| 4:32 | · | because the idea is that if you go across the water |
| 4:35 | · | you see these jutted, pointed things, above the horizon |
| 4:40 | · | which are remote lands far beyond the limits of the known world |
| 4:45 | · | which go out in different directions from the perimeter of existence |
| 4:50 | · | and they are, for the Babylonians... places full of magic, and full of mystery. |
| 4:56 | · | Now when you look at the diagram, sort of geometrically |
| 5:00 | · | it is evident there were originally eight of them. |
| 5:04 | · | And we can be sure of this, partly by calculation of what makes sense |
| 5:08 | · | and also, on the other side, the inscription which I showed you before |
| 5:14 | · | tells you what is on each of those triangles. |
| 5:18 | · | There was a place where the sun was never seen |
| 5:21 | · | there was a tree that had jewels instead of fruit |
| 5:26 | · | and there were giant birds that couldn't fly |
| 5:28 | · | all those sorts of things |
| 5:30 | · | there were traditional stories associated with each of these districts |
| 5:35 | · | recorded together with the diagram to show where they were. |
| 5:39 | · | Well, of course probably nobody ever went there |
| 5:41 | · | we're talking about the imaginative world |
| 5:44 | · | of cosmology, of theology, of tradition, of inherited ideas... |
| 5:50 | · | But the thing is this |
| 5:52 | · | up until quite recently, we didn't know which description on one side |
| 5:57 | · | went with which triangle on the front. |
| 6:01 | · | And this is an irksome matter because we know there's supposed to be eight |
| 6:05 | · | but there was nowhere near eight on there |
| 6:07 | · | so we had to work out which place |
| 6:09 | · | the three which we could read clearly matched up with the descriptions on the back |
| 6:14 | · | and it wasn't really possible. |
| 6:15 | · | And then something happened |
| · | Missing triangle on the Babylonian Map of the World |
| 6:17 | · | one of those missing triangles |
| 6:19 | · | came to light in the collection. |
| 6:24 | · | Now, in the 19th century |
| 6:26 | · | when tablets were excavated |
| 6:28 | · | they were very careful to bring back everything. |
| 6:31 | · | So, a big lump of clay |
| 6:33 | · | any small bits lying around it |
| 6:35 | · | any small bits not lying around it |
| 6:37 | · | anything they could find with writing on was carefully, carefully excavated. |
| 6:42 | · | And sometimes the very small pieces |
| 6:44 | · | which we couldn't join to anything were put in special trays |
| 6:47 | · | for the long-term future when it might be possible to see what we could do about them. |
| · | Edith Horsley - Cuneiform LEGEND |
| 6:52 | · | Now what happened, was this... |
| 6:54 | · | Once upon a time... |
| 6:56 | · | There was a lady called Edith Horsley. |
| 7:00 | · | And Edith Horsley loved cuneiform stuff |
| 7:03 | · | and she came to classes that I used to teach after work |
| 7:07 | · | once a week to learn about cuneiform |
| 7:09 | · | and she was very very enthusiastic about it |
| 7:11 | · | and very attentive, and a good student. |
| 7:13 | · | And when the class came to an end after several months |
| 7:16 | · | she said she wanted to do something more... |
| · | Channel 4 News report on Babylonian Map of the World September 1995 |
| 7:20 | · | For as long as anyone can remember, this has been a map with a central piece missing |
| 7:24 | · | but from today, no longer. |
| 7:26 | · | Nicholas Glass reports on an unexpected moment of archaeological excitement in The British Museum. |
| 7:31 | · | The British Museum has boxes of tablet fragments, but it's only in the last two months or so |
| 7:37 | · | when Edith Horsley was first invited to work at the museum |
| 7:40 | · | that they began trying to sort things out. |
| 7:43 | · | Well even as a child I was intrigued by the signs that are used in cuneiform. |
| 7:49 | · | but it wasn't until I attended Irving Finkel's lectures that I became an addict. |
| 7:56 | · | As a volunteer, Edith comes in just once a week |
| 7:59 | · | she was asked to keep an eye out for any piece with a geographical or astronomical image on it. |
| 8:05 | · | I saw this quite small piece with this triangle on it, |
| 8:11 | · | and the signs inside |
| 8:12 | · | and I thought it was probably a map. |
| 8:17 | · | So I put it in the little section where I put the pieces that I think are of special interest |
| 8:22 | · | 'cause Dr. Finkel can't go through all of these trays obviously. |
| 8:27 | · | So I put those aside and he became quite excited when he saw it. |
| · | BABY IRVING! |
| 8:32 | · | She put aside a little pile of half a dozen pieces that didn't look like everything else |
| 8:36 | · | and I went through them one by one |
| 8:37 | · | and she said "look, this one's got some lines on it" |
| 8:40 | · | and as soon as I saw it I knew it must belong to this tablet |
| 8:43 | · | because as I say, it's such an unusual thing. |
| 8:46 | · | It's actually rather funny because the map wasn't in |
| 8:48 | · | its normal place it was downstairs on exhibition |
| 8:51 | · | and so I got out an old photograph of it |
| 8:53 | · | and the photograph was at a different scale |
| 8:56 | · | so when I put the fragment on the photograph I was sure that it must |
| 8:58 | · | belong but I couldn't quite see where it would fit |
| 9:00 | · | and it was only the following morning that I |
| 9:02 | · | took the fragment downstairs to the exhibition where it's on public view |
| 9:06 | · | and by looking at the original tablet I |
| 9:08 | · | could see straight away that it fitted perfectly in the hole. |
| 9:11 | · | And it did. |
| 9:11 | · | And as a matter of fact, when I put it in experimentally in the gallery in front of Edith |
| 9:17 | · | we couldn't get it out again afterwards, it was such a snug fit |
| 9:20 | · | and it had to go down to conservation to be dealt with properly and glued in position. |
| 9:25 | · | So, having opened a bottle of bubbly and danced around in the gallery |
| 9:29 | · | the time came to think very seriously about what this meant. |
| 9:33 | · | Because the tablet is very famous |
| 9:35 | · | it's often reproduced in all sorts of different encyclopedias |
| 9:38 | · | and books about ancient ideas, and histories of maps of course |
| 9:42 | · | and it's quite a famous object, and to make a join to that was an extraordinary thing. |
| 9:47 | · | But then there was the question of what did it tell us... |
| · | What the missing piece revealed |
| 9:51 | · | Against one of the diagonals, there was in cuneiform, the expression "The Great Wall" |
| 9:59 | · | I'm going to read you what the scribe tells us about this triangle. |
| 10:04 | · | "To the fifth, to which you must travel seven leagues" |
| 10:08 | · | that means you have to row across the bitter river |
| 10:12 | · | for seven leagues before you can land at the foot of the mountain |
| 10:16 | · | "The Great Wall, its height is 840 cubits |
| 10:23 | · | its trees up to 120 cubits. |
| 10:27 | · | by day you can't see in front of yourself, by night, lying on . . ." |
| 10:32 | · | it's still broken |
| 10:33 | · | "then you must go another seven leagues in the sand and you must. . ." |
| 10:37 | · | There's always dot dot dots, because nothing is perfectly preserved |
| 10:41 | · | but the important thing is, we now know which of the triangles |
| 10:45 | · | goes with the description of this gigantic wall. |
| 10:49 | · | As a result of Edith's discovery, we've got three of these triangles in a row |
| 10:55 | · | and that is a great boon, because you can imagine |
| 10:58 | · | if you have isolated triangles, trying to match them to the description on the back |
| 11:02 | · | it's very difficult to get anywhere seriously and reliably. |
| 11:06 | · | But when you've got three in a row |
| 11:08 | · | all you have to do is find three descriptions in a row and it stands to reason |
| 11:12 | · | that you'll be able to somehow match them up |
| 11:14 | · | and that is what we did. |
| 11:16 | · | And the discovery was very clear once you realised |
| 11:20 | · | that the counting was anti-clockwise, and not clockwise. |
| 11:25 | · | So, number four says "To the fourth, to which you must travel seven leagues" |
| 11:29 | · | because it's like a kind of fairytale, everybody knows it's always the same introduction |
| 11:34 | · | so each time you have to travel seven leagues across the water. |
| 11:38 | · | Then it gets a bit broken, |
| · | The ark and parsiktu-vessel |
| 11:39 | · | then it says you see something which "are as thick as a parsiktu-vessel" |
| 11:47 | · | This parsiktu measurement, is something to an Assyriologist which makes their ears prick |
| 11:53 | · | and the fact is it's only once otherwise known from cuneiform tablets |
| 12:01 | · | and it's rather an interesting cuneiform tablet too. |
| 12:05 | · | Because it is the description of the Ark |
| 12:08 | · | which was built, theoretically, in about 1800BC |
| 12:13 | · | by the Babylonian version of Noah |
| 12:16 | · | and in this account, the details are given |
| 12:19 | · | and the God says "you have to do this, this and this" |
| 12:22 | · | and then the Babylonian Noah says "I did this, |
| 12:24 | · | this and this. I've done it! And I made these structures as thick parsiktu vessel" |
| 12:30 | · | he says out of his own mouth, in the original story. |
| 12:33 | · | So this word 'parsiktu' is like a kind of |
| 12:39 | · | [RINGING NOISE] noise |
| 12:40 | · | it immediately locks into this thing on the map. |
| 12:44 | · | Immediately, and incontrovertibly. |
| 12:46 | · | So what it means, speaking plainly here |
| 12:49 | · | if I may speak plainly here |
| 12:51 | · | is that if you went up this mountain all the way |
| 12:54 | · | with your sandwiches, and breaking regularly for |
| 12:57 | · | [INHALES] |
| 12:57 | · | lungfuls of fresh air |
| 12:59 | · | eventually you would see against the night sky, or the dark sky of the outer universe |
| 13:04 | · | silhouetted, the ribs, the ribs made of wood |
| 13:08 | · | as thick as a parsiktu vessel |
| 13:11 | · | of the wreck of the Babylonian Ark |
| 13:14 | · | which, like the one in the Bible, came to rest on a mountain. |
| 13:18 | · | And if you come down the mountain, and cross over the water back to the homeland |
| · | Mount Ararat and Mount Urartu |
| 13:23 | · | the first place you come to is called 'Urartu', it's drawn on the map. |
| 13:27 | · | Now, the interesting thing about that is that in the Bible |
| 13:31 | · | Noah, in his Ark, landed on a mountain where the name is 'Ararat' |
| 13:36 | · | and 'Ararat' is the Hebrew equivalent of the Assyrian 'Urartu'. |
| 13:43 | · | That's quite a meaty thing, quite an interesting thing to think about. |
| 13:47 | · | Because it shows that the story was the same, and of course that one lead to the other |
| 13:51 | · | but also, that from the Babylonian point of view, this was a matter of fact thing. |
| 13:56 | · | That if you did go on this journey |
| 13:58 | · | you would see the remnants of this historic boat |
| 14:02 | · | which saved all the life of the world for the long-term future, |
| 14:05 | · | from which we of course profit today |
| 14:08 | · | still there, in the crags, against the dark sky. |
| · | What does it all mean? |
| 14:19 | · | So what does this actually mean to us? |
| 14:21 | · | Well, lets imagine that we can borrow a time machine and go back to Ancient Mesopotamia |
| 14:25 | · | I've always thought this was a good idea, we'll have a party, we'll all go together. |
| 14:29 | · | And when we get there somebody might say "Any idea where the Ark is?" |
| 14:32 | · | and I'll go "We have the map! Here it is! and in fact it's THERE! That's where it is." |
| 14:38 | · | And what we have to do is get in our rowing boat, off we go |
| 14:40 | · | and we will see it for ourselves. |
| 14:40 | · | So although it is a map which would not encourage you perhaps |
| 14:40 | · | And what we have to do is get in our rowing boat, off we go, and we will see it for ourselves. |
| 14:44 | · | So although this is a map which would not encourage you perhaps |
| 14:47 | · | to moat across Iraq today in a land rover |
| 14:50 | · | when it comes to operating beyond the limits of the known world, |
| 14:54 | · | into the world of imagination, it's indispensable. |
| 14:58 | · | So, for the first time we can pronounce with authority, that if we were an ancient |
| 15:02 | · | Babylonian we would know where to go to see the remains of that wonderful boat. |
| · | Author of Babylonian Map of the World |
| 15:07 | · | But then there's the actual question of who wove it together? |
| 15:11 | · | Well it's often the case with cuneiform tablets that at the bottom of the reverse |
| 15:16 | · | there's a bit that tells you the name of the scribe, what's called the colophon. |
| 15:21 | · | And unfortunately, the scribe's name is broken. There's no trace of it left. |
| 15:29 | · | But, his father's name is there. Because in Babylonia, they always said, "Mr. So-and-So, son |
| 15:36 | · | of Mr. So-and-So." And the dad was called Iṣṣuru. Now ‘Iṣṣuru' is the Babylonian word for ‘bird'. |
| 15:47 | · | Now this is rather an interesting thing, because we know all about peoples names in Mesopotamia. |
| 15:52 | · | They usually meant something intelligible like ‘Servant of Such and Such a God', |
| 15:55 | · | or ‘She's Beautiful Beyond Compare' – no one is called |
| 15:59 | · | Bird. There's no other case of a person called Bird, it's not a very good name! |
| 16:04 | · | So what does that mean? |
| 16:06 | · | You look at this for the first time in the museum case, which I hope you will now do, |
| 16:10 | · | and peer through and make out the details, you would think “Ah! I see, |
| 16:15 | · | it's a sort of birds-eye view of the world!” Well I think that's what it is. It's a Birdy |
| 16:22 | · | Birdy family, and this is a birds-eye view of the known world and what lies beyond it. |
| 16:29 | · | So that gives it a special kind of warmth of understanding. Because it's failings as |
| 16:35 | · | it were from a cartographical point of view are irrelevant, |
| 16:39 | · | it is not what they're interested in. |
| 16:41 | · | And it's given us a tremendous insight into many aspects of Mesopotamian thinking, |
| 16:46 | · | it's also a triumphant demonstration of what happens when you have a very small |
| 16:51 | · | totally uninformative and useless fragment of dead boring writing that no one can |
| 16:57 | · | understand and you join it onto something in the collection which is much bigger |
| 17:01 | · | and a whole new adventure begins all over again! |
| 17:07 | · | Hey you! Cuneiform nerd! Do you want some more cuneiform? Of course you do. Below is a playlist |
| 17:12 | · | full of all the videos we've ever made concerning cuneiform, and you can see in the top left |
| 17:17 | · | corner right now a preview of the next episode of Curator's Corner, which also covers cuneiform. |
| 17:23 | · | We are going to the ancient Sumerian city of Girsu in southern Iraq, where Sebastien Rey will |
| 17:28 | · | talk you through two bricks that were found in the same building. That's pretty normal, |
| 17:33 | · | buildings are made of bricks. The weird thing is, is that these bricks were made |
| 17:37 | · | 1500 years apart from each other, but were in the same building. Also, crazy thing, |
| 17:43 | · | Sebastien's excavated both of these bricks, but one of those bricks has |
| 17:47 | · | been excavated twice previously. And the first time it was excavated was 2300 years ago! |
| 17:54 | · | Archaeology is weird. |
