Irving Finkel On The First Ghosts [53:31]

YouTube ^ | April 24, 2025 | After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds and the Paranormal

[SunkenCiv]

Watch this full podcast episode where Anthony Delany and Maddy Pelling talk with Irving Finkel about the first ghost, going all the way back to ancient Mesopotamia. The earliest evidence of human belief in ghosts comes from 5,000 years ago in Mesopotamia. Who were these first ghosts? What was the underworld they lived in like? What do these most ancient ghosts tell us about today? 

Maddy and Anthony's guest today, Irving Finkel, Assistant Keeper [ASSISTANT?] of Ancient Mesopotamian script, languages and cultures in the Department of the Middle East in the British Museum and author of 'The First Ghosts: Most Ancient of Legacies'. 

Irving Finkel On The First Ghosts | 53:31 
After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds and the Paranormal | 61.1K subscribers | 192,390 views | April 24, 2025

[SunkenCiv]

00:00 - The Descent of Ishtar
02:25 - How To Become a Mesopotamian Expert
09:33 - Spells, Witches & The Paranormal on Ancient Tablets
16:25 - The World's First Ghost Story
28:52 - A Journey Into The Mesopotamian Underworld
42:26 - Stripped Naked: A Goddess at the Gates of The Underworld

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YouTube transcript reformatted at textformatter.ai *will not* follow. Dr. F can knock out 8000 words in 53 minutes. Trust me, I've got the numbers right in front of me.

[SunkenCiv]

Seems apropos, Halloween comin' up and all. All those long-dead Demwits voting early...

[SunkenCiv]

from the Transcript: [snip] ...in those days professors used to pride themselves on not having any students at all so they could do their research. Yeah, I remember hearing professors boasting about haven’t had a student for years kind of thing because now they take anybody who can walk who has a little pocket money that they can squeeze out of them and fill the universities in a way that they were never intended to be filled. [/snip]

[SunkenCiv]

from the FRchives, sorted:

• 3,500-Year-Old Babylonian Tablet May Contain Earliest Known Depiction of a Ghost [10/23/2025]
• Ghosts at the museum: Are ghosts haunting the British Museum? [06/16/2020]

Some geology, nature, academia topics, of possible interest but not in the catalog:

• After hanging out for thousands of years, Polar Caves' suspended boulder takes a tumble [10/25/2026]
• Meet Chiricahua, America's Newest National Park [10/25/2026]
• Does anybody still major in the humanities? [10/26/2026]

[ComputerGuy]

I ain’t afraid of no ghost.

[SunkenCiv]

I built this and didn't put the header in, it's from the FRchives, appears to be the Irving Finkel keyword, sorted:

• The First Library in the World : Ashurbanipal Explained by Dr. Irving Finkel [7:07] [10/14/2026]
• 3,500-Year-Old Babylonian Tablet May Contain Earliest Known Depiction of a Ghost [10/23/2025]
• Archaeologists unlock 3,000-year-old secrets about creation of universe and monsters after deciphering oldest known map of the world [09/12/2024]
• The Babylonian Map of the World with Irving Finkel [17:59] [08/03/2024]
• Mystery of Noah's Ark Solved!...The shape of the ark has been a puzzle for millennia. Until now. [08/01/2022]
• Irving Finkel and the Chamber of Lewis Chessmen [06/19/2022]
• Ghosts at the museum: Are ghosts haunting the British Museum? [06/16/2020]
• Recently Deciphered 4,500-Year-Old Pillar Shows First Known Record of a Border Dispute [12/17/2018]
• The men who uncovered Assyria [03/23/2015]
• The men who uncovered Assyria [03/23/2015]
• The real Noah's Ark? [01/13/2015]
• Before Noah: Myths of the Flood Are Far Older Than the Bible [04/07/2014]
• Noah's Ark would have floated... even with 70,000 animals [04/03/2014]
• The Ark: Could Noah's Tale Be True? [04/01/2014]
• Does An Ancient Tablet Tell the Real Story of Noah's Ark? [03/27/2014]
• How the ark changed shape [02/13/2014]
• British Museum: Prototype for Noah's Ark was round [01/25/2014]
• Ancient tablet suggests Noah's Ark was round [01/24/2014]
• Noah's Ark 'Was a Massive Double-Decker Coracle' [12/16/2013]
• Extracts of Cyrus Cylinder found in China [08/03/2010]
• Relic reveals Noah's ark was circular [01/02/2010]
• BBC Report: Noah's Ark "...more credible version based on Babylonian sources." [03/19/2004]

[ArtDodger]

Ain’t afeared o’ no haints!

[SunkenCiv]

I suspect they’re more commonly seen when (brace yourself) people are three sheets (rimshot!) to the wind.

[dfwgator]

Einhorn is Finkel!

[SunkenCiv]

If he had just the one eye, that would mean he’s also a flying purple people eater.

[ComputerGuy]

I can’t top that one. Not even with five sheets.
Or six. Or seven.

[AdmSmith]

I could listen to Irvin Finkel for hours.

[MayflowerMadam]

Later.

[SunkenCiv]

You’re in luck — there is a lot of him on YouTube, in September he did the BM’s 100th episode, and it’s over 40 minutes. That means about 4000 minutes as of last month.

[AdmSmith]

I’ll have to lock myself away for a few days ;-)

[SunkenCiv]

Heh... when he opens the door for trick-or-treaters, they give him candy.

[Paal Gulli]

" I could listen to Irvin Finkel for hours.

He could read a phone book and make it sound dramatic.

His views on the existence of ghosts surprised me because even though he's not a labcoat-type scientist I usually think of him as a very logical individual. But I was overlooking that Judaism has a healthy streak of mysticism running through it; reincarnation, the Kabbalah, etc.

[Jim Noble]

Some moron brought a cougar to a party and it went berserk.

The walls in the 53rd precinct were bleeding.

[Jim Noble]

Some moron brought a cougar to a party and it went berserk.

The walls in the 53rd precinct were bleeding.