The World’s Worst Script: Cuneiform | Irving Finkel in conversation with William Dalrymple
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- Опубліковано 29 вер 2024
- Irving Finkel introduced by William Dalrymple
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Proud to be an Iraqi, thank you Dr Irving for these stunning information
why? you guys have destroyed your own culture by becoming slave to the arabs and their religion. And now those ISIS fools are destroying all those artifacts and statues of mesopotamia.
Strange to watch such a gripping lecture, where the camera keeps cutting over to the audience full of people paying no attention to the speaker.
Heart-breaking that so many are not drinking at the Finkle well. ;'(
That's extra credit for ya...
No surprise. Arrogant rudeness seems to be deeply embedded in the culture. It's so infuriating to see this kind of disrespect for such a legend.
Don’t expect “attention” in your country to be the same as yours. This was not addressed to specialists but general public. Im glad people of all kind and ages have payed attention at least 3 minutes. Me too, 30 years ago perhaps id found it not interesting. Now im passionate!
@yaniraorellana4756 Very good point. So maybe the blame goes to the event coordinator. However, it doesn't change the fact that too many in the audience were just plain rude.
I'm no specialist but if I'm sitting in a seat placed there for "listeners" the least respect I can give is to LISTEN.
Still, I'm also aware that this is an old school englishman addressing a crowd of those who lived through or are offspring of those who were under British rule. They might still be a little salty...pun intended.
Irving Finkel is a treasure. This introduction by Dalrymple is embarrassing
My thoughts exactly!
rly ? i mean rly ?
The sorry we didn't get this guy or this guy. I'm too drunk to be up here. And here is some dude 😅
@@amyfox9659 Sorry for being late with response I was quite busy at that moment in time but i was in shock that rly somebody replied :D... I guess u should all drink alcohol from time to time i do not bite :D or weld "Spear of destiny" as a great champion of God, El :) although sometimes it can be heard in my compositions(music) but umm yeah :D it is not like i try to scare everybody around with not only umm quite well informed regarding topic of Ancient Sumerians or Egyptians deity's but also welding "spear of destiny" as a Arche Angel Michael :D. And um Im sorry for the last comment ~i mean at that time meant what i meant~ but it was firmament so elevated spirit that hear jokes about boring not working microphone while doing almost impossible with craft (music composing from scratch) also implementing stories from ancient mythology(trying to tell their stories but with using no words) it just can make you little upset or sad, nothing enigmatic, sinister or ya know(spear of destiny kind of staff)xD, I like Mr Irwin i think his knowledge regarding topic is out of this world rly
I always skip the self-important ppl introducing lecturers. They don't have a clue that nobody is there to hear THEM talk .
I am a tattoo artist, third generation fine artist and my brother and I always went to museums . It is cool to be smart!!! ♡ FROM AMERICA!!!
The audience looks like they don't understand anything... or that if they understand, that it is rather boring... or they are just there, so others could see them on TV, thinking: Oh, this person is attending a foreigners lecture on a dead language and dead writing... 😉 Seriously, Irving Finkel is genius, and a progressive one at that!
Irving Finkel could be giving a hour-long lecture on paint drying and I'd still be nailed to my chair listening.
Hah. In sound guy's defense, the mic was hot. But Dr Finkle swapped mics before they could get a stagehand out there to adjust the boom for him.
so many people chatting and just wandering about, must be very distracting and rather annoying.
So how about returning all those thousands of tablets to Iraq? Those that "somehow" have miraculously ended up in the British museum 🤷♂️?
The worst audience ever.
Alot of people of the older generation would argue that the current day generation would be bored by this. But man this guy is very interesting and i was floored the whole time by how informational it was and how much I’ve learned. But yeah fuck that audience i found it very disheartening to see his time wasted on that. I always considered older men like him who’ve purely dedicated their lives to their study to be absolute pillars to society and history. Keep on dude you’re one of the greats.
@Janitor Queen He wasn't being racist for goodness sake. He was probably annoyed by the ppl coming and going and having conversations as Finkel spoke. In my opinion the majority of the audience thoroughly enjoyed the talk.
I would just quickly like to mention that a lot of those people did show great enthusiasm, and that a lot of them were probably there listening to lectures for quite a while. And I don't care how much you love something, listening to many hours of lectures on the subject will be tiring (not boring, but tiring). So I feel we can't put too much blame on this audience, although it would have been nicety see them more "with it"
The audience have a culture thousands of years older than you or that clown Finkelstein.
How could Dr Finkel NOT ALWAYS be the first choice?
EXACTLY!
Please stop editing these videos in a way that causes us to miss out on slides
If they have to chose between the lecturer and the slides, they should chose the slides. We can handle it.
ditto
infuriating
@Janitor Queen Kinda like when they do a close up of the singer mincing and gyrating during the guitar solo.
Can't get enough of Irving's lectures.
You like being brainwashed.
🌹
Boo! Hiss! for the cameraman and editor. We don't need to see Irving. We certainly don't need to see the audience. Shots of the visuals Irving has on the screen would be appreciated.
checking your phone while your guest is talking?, and that terrible introduction?... Mr. Finkel deserve way more than that.
He did say he’s not coming back.
Anybody else notice the camera guy is finding pretty girls in the audience and panning to them? Just thought it was funny, heh.
glenrkat would have been nice if they zoomed in on the screen occasionally...
For real tho they should have shown more of the slides than the crowd
He's probably 75 yr dirty ol bugger!
You could have 660k views instead of just 66k if only you put IRVING FINKEL in the actual title of this presentation….
Indians walking out because he didn't propagate the myth that Sanskrit was the first language.
This is so wrong but it is wide spread in India.
I only discovered Irving Finkel recently, - he is one the funniest characters; but also extremely knowledgeable on a wide variety of subjects. Always a fascinating and illuminating talk ~ Thanks for posting!
Brilliant and delightful
He's old and stupid.
that's the definition of assyriologist, pretty much 😜
"Hello, I am this afternoon's cock-up." I absolutely love Irving.
99% of the audience is attending a wrong lecture. maybe , except that 3 guys near the stage, on the right side ... ?
Had the pleasure of meet him after this lecture. He is utterly delightful!
Lucky you. I really wish they put good videos with the ppt s for PPL who can t afford to visit far flung museums and as token of stealing/ dislocating all the artifacts
Hard to watch because of all the shots of the audience sleeping, chatting, or fiddling with their mobile phones.
I agree that the shots to the audience are strange but I can't judge them, I do the same thing (eating, checking messages, drawing on my ipad, falling asleep) at home while listening to these lectures but I remember every little detail and I love Dr. Finkle and am fascinated by the subject. They're just having a rest
You can always spot someone who studies ancient history because they say things like "eighteenth century" and dont think to add BC/BCE most of the time.
Well, given that he was talking about it in context of Ancient Sumerian, I think it was understood.
Anyone notice Irving routinely throws shade on Egyptology?
Because of the importance of the civilization that birthed their ideologies. But yes, yes I do and it's hilarious. He sold "throws shade" at smartphones and slide machines. Lol
He litterally called the guy a cave man to his face lmao
I think it's because they're more popular despite not necessarily being more interesting. I love Egyptian history but I can relate to being sassy about mainstream topics lol
Rude, jabbering audience is ruining this.
@Judy Snyder this is about both math and sciences! They are like this on most things that I've noticed. Probably worse now that there is Facebook...... Lol
This is an open air event with hundreds of other people who are not watching the lecture. That is where the noise is coming from. If you look at the audience they are rarely talking.
you clearly never had a lecture in India. The audience was neither "rude" nor "jabbering"
Yep, appears to be a tough crowd
Irving finkel: here's a picture
Me: waiting for production to switch the camera to the right subject...
evidently the camera man thought the purpose of the video was to watch the animated speaker rather than the slides the speaker was talking about which he spent time putting together and went through trouble to bring all the way to India. Hello dummy we want to learn about the sumerian writing but you didn't bring close up pictures as we needed in the otherwise very unique and rare videos
Unbelievable insult for such an authority
Or of course an editor could have edited in proper slides rather than wobbly images of the slides. In any case, in the case of Irving Finkel I just enjoy listening to the man. He is amazing.
Dr. Finkel is always a pleasure to listen to! Thanks for posting.
Don't think I've ever seen such a bored looking group of people in a lecture as fascinating and interesting as this.
Yes terrible camera work Its not about the face of Finkle nor about the audience. Its about his story words and the slides.
showing people in the audience yawn is bad
Yeah I think it's disrespectful to both him and the audience they're recording, yawning is normal but the editing makes it look like they're so bored
I love this guy... 21:50 "OH AND YOU CAN TELL THAT ROGUE, IF I DON'T GET THAT MONEY SOON!!!!" ahahahah
Love his lectures.
Yep Irving Finkel is one of the greatest storyteller, not to talk about his amazing knowledge , my favourite curator by far (just knowing the ones i know by the UA-cam series of the British Museum ) i've seen some of his conferences and all of them had been great , not only the amount of knowledge you get to know , and i love history but the enterteining he makes them to be and those funny moments he spread sometimes
I still can’t get over the introduction. How stupid do you have to be, to invite someone such as Irving Finkel, the most important treasure in the British Museum, and give him such an introduction.
He likes being funny. If you don't like it I suggest cultivating a sense of humor so you can react like a healthy person and not a socially sick one.
Agreed, it was cringe-worthy. This man is a treasure, and should not have been introduced as an 'after-thought'.
Not at all funny.
It is called humour. I dont think Finkel took any offence. Why do you?
@@cyb-m 🤦 it wasn’t funny🤦 Dalrymple was ignorant because he hadn’t bothered to watch any UA-cam clips of Irving Finkel - he thought he was making a Dad joke about his family telling him what to do - but he was just wilfully ignorant. That’s the offence everyone is offended by😐
This is what happens when you get a gutka brand the sponsor a literature festival. The crowd are more interested in the gutka than the brilliant talker.
@Janitor Queen nutmeg mixed with tobacco is gutka - in short
26:40
It is evident that the Library of Ashurbanipal is equivalent to the Library of Alexandria. And it's ironical that Ninevah's royal library survived fire.
Save the library! - Quick, burn it!
Good lecture, tough audience.
Irving is a treasure. Love listening to him talk about cuneiform and Babylon.
I saw him speak about his new book at Watkins bookstore here in London. He was very entertaining. The First Ghosts: A rich history of ancient ghosts and ghost stories from the British Museum curator. Great speaker....
Fascinating lecture! Dr. Finkel is such a great speaker, and has a wealth of knowledge.
Why the totally misleading title for the video? Finkel says nothing of the sort, and in fact much to the opposite.
He says that at the very beginning. It was just a excerpt.
Must be Dr. Finkel's literature was too old for them. Half the people in the room don't belong there and are RUDE!
I am frustrated that we are shown the audience so much... like why waste a camera filming them? I would rather see a clearer frame of the images in his presentation than some bored and annoyed people whispering to each other.
Also I'd be mortified if I was in the audience and saw that they filmed me randomly just sitting there
His lecture went wasted on them :/
Especially the idiots on their mobile phones. If they don't want to listen why are they there?
@@squareysquare3150 I wonder if it's a cultural thing .... the mobile phone etiquette. I've heard of this phenomenon before ...unrestricted mobile phone use during a major classical music performance in Lebanon (admittedly a few years ago) . A hippy once said to me "it's cultural, that's why we don't understand it". Personally, I find it really sad. Someone please tell me what I'm missing (I suspect, reluctantly, a fair huge bit). In short, I.F. is worth listening to!
Is it any irony thing? I love it but so many peeps don't get it
I hope there were members of indian linguistics and archaeology community in the audience. and enough people interested...because he is a wonderful speaker, but the jaipur crowd is looking for novelists and authors of best selling of the usual non fiction type...moreover, this event is really a 'fair'...people milling around all the time, with open air sessions everywhere, and people hopping from speaker to speaker😀
The host did say that irving was called at the last minute to fill an empty slot. And I did hear laughter at some of his jokes so it couldn't be all that bad.
Thank you for your explanation. Cameraman mainly focused on nubile females but in general it is a large and focussed audience. People are being silly.
I would love if Irving Finkel was my mentor. Such an interesting man and so much of it comes from how interesting he himself finds things. I find so much joy listening to someone talk about their passion, and this man sure found his passion.
Interesting that you said this. I said the same, then I realized that by choosing to spend my time watching his lectures, no matter how old, I’ve made him my mentor by paying attention to his words and his body language. I only hope to be able internalize his mannerisms. I want to be like him. He nurtures my mind.
Love Irving's style. Computers are useful for those of us out of the country to see the British Museum contents. If anything, it makes us want to go there even more.
Finkel is wasted on this bunch. Probably the most unappreciative and distracted audience ever. Probably more concerned about their chapatis and curry for the evening.
You piece of
He's like a whip-smart Terry Pratchett character come to life.
Disrespectful introduction for a highly qualified and very knowledgeable ancient language historian. Have no idea who the missing lecturer was.
Will return to view this lectures again.
I adore this man, he is incredible - shame on the public
Why? What are your standards?
When it all kicks off I'm enlisting with the British Museum's militia.
I love him
Yep... me too.
I was going to say - movable type for stamping bricks! The destruction of knowledge, the annihilation of truth, is a fundamental sin, one of the worst imaginable. With other crimes, justice can be done as long as the truth can be discovered. But if information itself is destroyed, then justice is made impossible.
@Janitor Queen That's just a subset of the routinized destruction of documents by security services in the US, UK and elsewhere. Freedom of Information was intended to protect the documentary record as much as anything else, and its rolling back and neutering over the decades has been so as to protect such destruction of records. Personally as a British socialist, I don't give a shit about Trump or US election outcomes. They're both evil, they're both worse, they both carry on global imperialism and no other country including my own is safe from the threat of coups and political interference and potential bombing as long as the US empire remains and the imperialist ruling class retains control over US society, through the Constitution designed to prevent democracy and entrench oligarchy. Jan 6 was a completely insignificant pinprick compared with the damage done by the US coups which have succeeded in the world, including the 2014 coup in Ukraine under Obama, and compared with the thousands murdered on the streets of America every year by US police. When the US State Department and the CIA gets involved in another coup attempt in Washington, then you'll have something to worry about, because those expletive deleteds mean business and don't care how many people get killed to install the client regime of their choice.
Wow your lecture was amazing. It was amazing to hear so much is out there to learn for my grandchildren’s knowledge. I hope I can tell them about this so they see the world and it’s history of language. I was researching the history of knuckle bone,dice. Then I saw you.
I wonder what lead you to be researching the history of knuckle bone dice. Just curious because I found out about them from Dr. Finkel's lectures
so why is the title "The world's worst script"?
A six year old typo lol! Someone should tell them, titles can be edited now & perhaps that wasn't possible before.
how rude are some of the audience
The man is underrated. The Sir David Attenborough of Assyriology.
The presentation is problematic. Dr. (I assume) Finkel is a substitute speaker. The audience isn't into him at 1st.. I, however, was thoroughly engrossed
Can hear people talking during lecture? How rude, Dr. Finkel is wonderful!
The mention of the Indus valley people reminded me of the fact that in the ...9th century (I believe) King Alfred the Great had sent a diplomat to India, for what reason I don't know nor do we know the outcome but it is none the less very in that England and India were in contact with eachother eleven hundred years ago which shows the importance of India all those years ago and that countries although half a world away corresponded, that we have no other record of such diplomatic back and forth can easily be put down to the chaos, war and wholesale destruction that was part of English life then, in that respect Dr Finkel is right when he jokingly said that we should return to the use of clay tablets.
I happened to read today that Indian ambassadorial delegations to England were required, on return, to squeeze through a golden replica of a yoni, thus being culturally reborn. Makes sense to men. Finkel 's reasons for holding on to other people's cultural artefacts seemed to me however to be entirely spurious.
What a terribly rude audience
would have loved to attend this session. crowd is restless, not getting his humour. lets see how it goes
He is such a fun presenter.
Cuneiform: *gets called the world's worst script*
Chinese script: *AM I A JOKE TO YOU?*
I'd still love Irving Finkel only for all he knows about stuff, but then he adds to it a quality of one of the best stand-up comedians I've ever had the pleasure to enjoy. I just seriously and utterly can't with him!
Japanese might be even worse, arguably... There's this little snag of "alternative readings"...
@@hakanstorsater5090 Chinese also has "alternative readings".
Isn’t the earliest known Chinese writing system 1500 years younger than cuneiform..?
@@vaudevillian7 You referring to China's oracle bone script which dates to around the 2000 BC? I think cuneiform is supposed to be from about 3500 BC.
what a bad introduction!
Really great. But i have no idea where the title comes from and what it has to do with the talk.
What a D💡FULL 👴🏻! I love him!!
I see what you did there :D
Just my opinion but I'll take Irving Finkel over Neil "I peddled the idea that the Kaiser wasn't really so bad and got funding" Fergusson...
🤔 SO MANY ways this organisation got things wrong🤦 apologising for Irving Finkel😳😖🤦
Do NOT return these treasures to a culture which will destroy them and we will lose them for all time
So true!
It is the effing USUK and their 'jihadist' patsies who oversaw destruction of the artefacts and monuments of the ME, is it not?
Keep all the monuments from the lands you ruled and colonized. Still think British or for that matter west is civilized. They luted the entire world , still doing from Arabia and Africa. Western world is self centered and have closed boarders while they invade all the other lands.
India had civilization before west. If they didn’t have script, they believed by repeating till you get by heart all its scriptures didn’t need scripts.
....... i.e. the American army.
I like this guy. He looks just like my dad. He passed away in 2017.
Why not show the tablets he was talking about? We could always listen to him, without seeing him. The point was to see what he was talking about.
Irving Finkle’s standup kills even in India
Probably shouldn't talk about Nebuchadnezzar and 'the matrix' without clarification
Great lecture from Mr. Finkel, as always.
The kind of side notes he makes, e.g. about teachers beating children, makes it all the more memorable as well as being very entertaining.
Is he my spirit animal? Maybe.
Is he one my favourite scholars appearing on UA-cam? Absolutely.
Kinda surprized the camera man managed to find so many pretty girls to film.
I thought at some point he'd might run out - but apparently no.
I guess I would've done the same. 🙃
Thanks for coming to my Finkel talk
No one eats clay? Haven't you read the epic of Gilgamesh? ;)
Epos, not epic, but epic anyway 😉
horrible edits. sad we cant see the dame slides. ANNDD FINKEL IS THE MAN!!!!
This was a special lecture. Well done!
LOVE THIS GUY
Another typically fascinating and charming lecture by one of our treasures. Thank you, Professor Finkel. And kudos to the Jaipur Literature Festival for sponsoring him.
Subscribed. Lunch is on me if you're ever in town. Cheers from sunny Vienna, Scott
ننتظر ترجمة هذه المحاضرة التي تبدوا شيقة خصوصا و هو يتكلم عن بلدنا العراق تحياتي 🌹
🫡
🐝🌿=Belief=Queen Goddess Asherah
Aphrodite is the mother of Artemis, Diana to the Romans, who goes on to become the preeminent Bee Goddess of her region. Aphrodite's priestesses were called Melissa's and a golden honeycomb was placed on her shrine at Mt. Eryx.
The transition from Asherah-as-tree-goddess to trees-as-metaphor-for-divinity happens clearly in the Book of Proverbs. Wisdom (AKA Chochmah AKA Lady Wisdom) is embodied as a goddess-like character, meant to be understood metaphorically, She is a tree of life to those who hold fast to her and her supporters are blessed,” as we return the Torah to the ark, implying that the Torah is the tree of life.
Seshat, in ancient Egyptian religion, the goddess of writing and measurement and the ruler of books. She was the consort of the god Djhuty (Thoth), and both were divine scribes (sesb). She was portrayed as a female wearing a headband with horns and a star with her name written on it.
Saraswati is the Hindu Goddess who invented the Sanskrit language. She is the patron Goddess of writers, musicians, artists, and students.
In Greek mythology, Peitho (Ancient Greek: Πειθώ, romanized: Peithō, lit. 'Persuasion' or 'winning eloquence') is the goddess who personifies persuasion and seduction. Her Roman equivalent is Suada or Suadela. She is the goddess of charming speech.
Irving is one of the most amusing speakers I have ever heard.
what a boring crowd
I’m an Egyptologist and I’m jealous of Dr. Finkelstein: I want to give a lecture in an Indian train station during rush hour, too!
You may or may not be an Egyptologist, but you clearly NEVER have been to an Indian train station.
@@maikmost8589 - Yes, as to the first; clearly so, as to the second.
Well, his lecture is not wasted on me. I well remember being posted near the ancient city of UR and having a chance to roam around it. This is where the first writing in Sumerian was probably invented. And it was likely the most important invention mankind has. I was enchanted. It made me day dream about a story: the Ghosts of Mars. Where the past and the present come together..
The hall where the event is taking place is like a waiting room of a railroad station. I admire Prof. Finkel he could finish his speech in such circumstances. Well done professor.
If another comet hit the Earth now, in 1500 years people will be studying your children's clay statutes and writings to find out about our civilisation.
Editor.... NOT interested in the audience. Interested in Irving....
It seems like the audience do not understand at all the discourse. Almost all of them are bored or are sleeping (the man with Diesel on his blouse). Probably it was on their free time and the interest was limited.
There is a popular board game called Jaipur.
11:27 "The minute writing starts, there's a jolly good sign for beer" man kind has gone nowhere lmao. It's cathartic reading of our history and knowing that humans have been about the same since the dawn of history. Technology is the only big difference.
This guy is great, love the things he gives lectures on and how he gives the lectures. I do hope he comes back next year though, despite the comedic difficulties!
24:42 oh it's fascinating that here he says that the ghost is the lady and the shackled man is her bait while in most lectures I've heard him say that the man is the ghost and the lady is his bait. I assume that this is an older lecture and he has since come to the conclusion that the man being the ghost is more likely. I wonder what the process was of figuring this out?
Love listening to Irving but these lectures have been very poorly recorded and the shots of the crowd are pretty embarrassing to see. Seems like the blind leading the blind here. I agree with 7:00 in that I wouldn't go return to this event.
Will please add a script of English translation , It would be more useful.
"You are the most handsome person I have ever seen..." lol!
Chaos!
Absolutely riveting. Thank you. I will watch this again and again. So fascinating.