Irving Finkel On The First Ghosts [53:31]

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
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.

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

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]

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]

I ain’t afraid of no ghost.

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]

Ain’t afeared o’ no haints!

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

Einhorn is Finkel!

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

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