Irving Finkel Writes In Ancient Cuneiform

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In this episode of The Ancients, Tristan Hughes is joined by Dr Irving Finkel to uncover how cuneiform actually worked and how you would write it yourself. More than five thousand years ago, a revolutionary script emerged in the fertile lands of Mesopotamia that would transform how people counted, governed, worshipped and told stories. This was cuneiform, the world’s earliest known writing system. From humble beginnings as simple pictograms tracking beer and grain, to the wedge-shaped signs that recorded myths, laws and epic tales long before the Bible, this episode explores how cuneiform spread across Sumer, Babylon, Assyria and Persia — and why these clay tablets remain one of archaeology’s richest windows into the ancient world. 0:00 Introduction to Cuneiform 1:40 The Oldest Script Known to Archaeology 3:10 Sumerian: The Language Without Relatives 5:05 Akkadian and the Spread of Cuneiform 8:45 The Behistun Inscription: Unlocking the Code 13:15 Why Clay? The Ultimate Data Storage 16:15 From Pictograms to Protocuneiform 23:55 The Shift to Straight Edges and Wedges 28:50 Accounting for Beer: Early Tablet Bookkeeping 37:30 How to Write: The Three Basic Strokes 38:02 Dr. Finkel Writes Cuneiform 1:08:00 The Decline and Legacy of the Script Presented by Tristan Hughes. Producers are Joseph Knight & McKenna Fernandez, senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff. Editor is Matthew Wilson. Channel manager is Vilde Øksnes. Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe. All music from Epidemic Sounds. #HistoryHitPodcast #TheAncients #IrvingFinkel