Irving Finkel Teaches Us Cuneiform

[Music] hi I'm Matt and I'm Tom I'm early and this is the park bench with dr. Irving Finkel well that'd be so formal this is a very serious occasion but no formalities necessary I'm going to teach you guys how to write uniforms right okay you have to pay attention you have to keep up we're not repeating anything at all and if we do our legs out also could you briefly introduce yourself explain why you want qualified teachers yeah my name is dropped Irving Finkel I'm a curating exam and I am one of those people who reads kinetic from writing and we have a hundred and thirteen thousands happening in our collection and we need more people to come and read them and it's most interesting writing in the world and it's the oldest one do you say a hundred the British Museum's 130,000 behind that very walk right whenever box is all waiting for young scholars to dedicate their lives to this monkish work what percent of them do people know what they say very tricky question I would say some know a bit about some of them and some don't see very involved and then we know little bit about most often very very well yes um he's been popsicle right so this is the first thing this is the real cabin okay oh wow this doesn't belong to museum actually he belongs to somebody else I golden so it's a school tablet it's round and you can see this is writing here like if you can get a bit this is Nick who is our art Amarok from the museum so you want to come around the back here I get a close-up um that's just the mood of the people shoulders you know okay Ellen Terry okay so this again these signs one two one two one two there are school exercises you can probably already see into an advanced TV that this sign is the same yep okay so this writing is called unit and its marked looks like this very word as a type of Bullard and I'll be photographs on a bargain affability private leaving that aside the tip this cue nail few nails is the Latin courage and this is the point because all this writing is not like we do a defense on the data part is increasing or like fitting into the face of the clay with a stylus but you displaced a clay to make the file so it actually and you obviously now realize a very straightforward matter so in this writing there are only three components okay there's one up right wing's like so there's one horizontal way to write something and there's one diagonal wave like so so as it significantly because it looks mostly compensated when you draw it but that blood elimination of just three things are not opposed you okay I don't use the word whacking but it's happening the clay in the right boiling point as I'll show you in a moment when you have to do it or there I am just press your stylus into the clay gently and displace the surface to make these shapes and I'll show you how to guide right but you see the thing is there are hundreds and hundreds of signs and what we've got here is a uniform code chart which you can take over making pretty sure if you like we and range as it were after our alphabet these signs in irretrievable way now the crucial thing is that all the signs are still ugly right they never thought of the out of it so for example if you wanted to write the word banana in keynote or I don't know if you ever had that urge but okay I don't have what you would need to do is to find on this chart the sign bar and the sign na and the sign now write them in sequence and then you in your mind pushing together and it spells the word exes elaborate why you're still in challenging like that you're only much more interesting much more elegant and a lot older right so the thing is if you go to school you have to learn the hard way you have to learn the science bit by bit if you take it up now which I hope you will as a tomorrow you need approximately six years of dedicated weather to master the entire script but on one simple episode like this you can get the hang of it then s for example assume that one of you had a resounding complicated geeky ethically fascinating name like excellent what we have here is that the convention was running it got another thing on the end first point is this spelling is not believe that this name wouldn't be any different if we didn't have a B so from now on you can forget wasting your time in the end got men so we have a thing which sounds like Matt alright I'm going to pull this camera down to get as you get a close-up on this to class okay I'm not quite sure we're going to get your handwriting in at with the clarity we need it we'll be tracking oh yeah if we can if we can pull this all the top camera down here there we go all right yeah so our task now is to write this word Matt the ending this script so now we've got hanged it we have to find in row which is those very very quickly my partner that's oh look we go about it like this will be the syllable MA and syllable act okay again so this is mark so you have one vertical which and one two three horizontal okay then we find at you wouldn't care forget now I'm using what you would have get out here no it would accept that I'm hearing speed okay so I just worked out because I figured what was going to happen like a good like there's no way ahead of it so this one in did you see one final vertical it has three so if it's rather like this very similar effect about it this is a crucial point it has to at the front now how can you tell the listen swing that vertical on that horizontal you've got the long stroke there it's a long strokes are that big in the middle is not one long stroke side effect of having three horizontal on that creature exactly okay so the point is when the stylus which used to be a read within questions of the surface of the claim it displaced the play and the end of the stylus left a kind of corner in the clay so that gives it this shape you will see when you do it no problem so are supposed to have to keep the car happily we do need another name so you know anybody here who's got the reins over here with a simple manically Tom talent song I know you said a problem you see the problem it exactly it's the same problem I had in in teachers when I went up to Canada if they know oh it's no oh wow so you're alerted to this different I have to be the Tom Tom or Tom 14 or 10,000 to we went with Pam I think I know one betrayed in there Wow an American is vicious because obviously at least some accent in the world that would know that a cam as well Tom looks like burning it yeah well I remember personally choice over what go down let's go examine okay Tammy rather fine so would you like to find it side are there what keema boy yeah okay now notice it he got three I want any boasting or anything heaviness so we need to begin to write tar and then an okay yep so tar is one so is there any pattern here is there any person between at and Alvin God all lines have their origin which is unrelated ones with the other but they end up in this format that the historical explanation to each of the signs is different because they began as pictured right and the process of taking a simple child's going sailor foot which a child would recognize now into a scenario form sign the process of adjusting we work differently in each case so the signs end up looking like it's the historically they're all really write it as a simplification of something that was more complicated so the lines are copying that rather than having any formal layout with base world there if you have a thing that looks like this yeah which in the idea oh look at the color so through you know the only live addition to meet this order intelligence well indeed you are absolutely right or the thing is this is in the old day say 3000 in Syria you wanted to talk about birds because that's what boys did you know they said you would draw a realistic and in in due course that's to say over perhaps a thousand years the time ended up like this so it's made of waiting so some somehow or other and we know that it's a very protecting in these case that this needs to that okay that's how it works because they limit get to write that then it to draw bird well it isn't it also did another problem is you know table your recent experiments of NASA team there's your standard or Faison faculty and the point that you draw your chains to gather and when you have a curve it's most destructive so impressing it's a much sharper and need to feed so you see the big lens of this is with its name time and and and is it a you've got all the complicated one other knife relax okay no problem you've got to horizontal as we already know yep and then you've got four of these diagonals so there's one day one calm star and then three thrifting on top and people might head out the shadows oh okay see right then in fact you're an is one two three four five six so you see the pins going to say that's really complicated if you consider how many strokes I have two one two three four it's five in English to write them brother yes it's a long time since I've done any but I know it seems a lot more complicated because I'm not used to the system I think what we need to do now is to see how far you absorb this crucial right okay so this is the thing let me just demonstrate once more that all of these signs have these three components like son so if you take this one it has one horizontal and one diagonal yep this one has four diagonals to horizontals and traversal just be grateful yeah that's not so and you can perhaps the beat shape if you have your play you have your stylus and you know how to produce these three you can change see some writing okay so I creepy made some novelty speaking yes there they are they in fact appears binary Australia is they're very fine to about 1800 BC kind of profile don't need some stymie and what we use by preference is these popsicle sticks around the corner America yeah yeah you can have long or short well I'm going to go a long life yet I knew that well I don't I'm doing the short straw yeah yeah okay so this is the thing if you take your stylus mm-hmm and but hold on I'm sorry to keep that just there there we go is that complicated but also that yeah okay so you have your and you're both right hand right yes okay you have to write with the sharking okay because you're going to make use of this right angle so you have the left hand edge and the top edge which have a right angle where they Lea affair so when you hold the sign is how did it come to be the firmly with about an inch free between the finger and the thumb of that in this position not like lines not like I'm so not not that but that's nice and project so as the simple principle is is if you take this stylus and you'll apply it to the claim if you play totally flat nothing happens if you do it in this way that the right edge drops into the clay it displays you and um Perth is my ear you can see you have a wonderful long tail and its diagonal have left by the corner look I did log dog so I think I really just mean okay Holy Smoke now obviously is going to be giving you the next step is to produce a origin so you simply turn this through now you can even like 90 degrees and again you apply that lower age and pressing and displace the clay and you will have a horizontal so makes your come around gala love it I love it yep you see you see how easy it is then the third thing is we have to make a diagonal so this is this is slightly more tricky if you press this into your hand the corn has a point could you press it a long way you get splinter then you gradually believe it it's not there's no need to go that aside but if you take the corner the sharp bit and we put it in apply it to the clay you display who are cut an angle you see what I mean yes so if you want you to do something that is an yep starting from scratch we have to horizontals one to improve easy if you do the big diagonal here which is a bit of room then you want to do these three so you do smaller stripes on sign if you produce it so for our little daeho's a booth to horizontal like one large diagonal comfortable diagonals and then one then three I mean I'm not it's a first attempt it doesn't quite match the sign though I'll take that it's recognizable people babbling would be extolled I along here he would say and I've made it smaller but I've definitely the bigger the stylus is Paula fifth and none but they do exactly actually they're both really very who is considering you are total beginners it's secured okay you I think you've gone rather well so I went to my name now one would write like ebony I'm a team with that one which is three vertical it don't well where is it notice that the tab this horizontal goes all the way under he doesn't stop right when you write mark you have one and then one two three yeah when you do that thing of park you have to have a long vertical and then a short one on top okay and now I've your attain I will go I can do I'm going to turn right minute what do you use for other things than the syllabus otherwise that's like like some language we've also have them represent words yes right yes that is actually how it and actually have it started off they first had one sign for a things like tree or king om callously ban and then they realized was that one usable to express language so those same signs were given extremely so you could either do one side for a thing or we could write fanatically so they have both tools at one sorry they open your way now I know that's quarter I'm not quite sure I've got that I noticed it goes over the yeah - you say that then the the point about schooling about learning as we know that attention among pupils will guarantee by applications of a large cache and we have her Anna - yeah I mean I got great line a great buzz that somebody will be but what am I got wrong that I'm not anything wrong really and where is this car check that out a master Shi yes these two should stop and not go through ah my knees beautiful that and little Matthews that crossed over out as you have to get the angle right yeah I've got Matt there I think you have now you'll notice also that with this upper wedge here he goes soaring up into the air like a television Airy nothing wrong that but the ideal conception anyways is that the head is more or less the same height above and below the eye Angela's a flat if I don't know Connery in it that's exactly right and I tend something else about its bit when you wrote a tablet is a proper SCADA scholar or a businessman assistant or something like that they all had a sense of calligraphy they didn't just give you but one of the crucial points was that when you wrote a sequence of signs when one sign ends it just me blows it's essentially joined up writing drawing but after writing that's precisely the point and if they said I'd rather do it have to write with I don't think the left hand is inert and the right hand does all the work because sometimes they've been feeding you kind of sculpt the fire and they push it up to medium and you can do all sorts of subtle delicate things that you wouldn't think will possibly in very while you're very familiar leg rafi and it is analogous to get a form of calligraphy i and the marvelous thing about all these starters that when they finish them right in their business documents or love letters him it's curry or whatever they wrote they load everything then the stuff is all those and indestructible because in Iraq where all this happened the Sun was all the time if you leave your cap now from all the clay becomes place to handle and then once it's in the ground is destruction or they get buried or with a gesture there I'm not right in thinking the main reason we have so many tablets now is by accident just because they dried in the Sun Sun I'm here I'm on left them because they didn't want them anymore no were they were they kept in new life you get lost again very they destroyed and broken but the only seldom five I mean they knew how to fire cabinets they wouldn't fact they knew about all that kiln work but normally thinking as a normal domestic tablet would just dry and people could handy but in the ground even if they're not fired even if they are wet bills for three or four thousand East when they come out they are that man so yeah like you can laminate paper but you wouldn't do it for everyday like yes but are they biodegrade if it's been at some some librarians like you laminate the wheels who do you see that when you look at this example if you look at a normal tan dirt a bit of writing it's fine it looks first last of the right we're liking at all but if we know if it's terribly small but you can see the house I think it was also the training that all these signs are made up in the same way of vertical and diagonals in total so a professional scribe was like very neatly like a newspaper something at this time and when you are completely uncured like there should the people enjoyed so people say well what's way up we go but now of course you all be able to go out into the world explain this to people help them over difficulty we need very much of course the theory Allah sees had to do on a daily mapping are you in the basque you some of these you know I've got this little bad leg is so important to realize one hand found in Spain well thank you very much you should you should plug the hip socket what you're doing oh that why you're here is man spotted Christianity going she just remember that Israel I was standing when you afford identifies you Tomatoes going keep this is something else forget all that if you've got some really remarkable this is a lump of stone okay and you can see now you know it is made up to face care of thousands of we're exactly the same as small ones big ones as we've been doing but this is a lump of stone it's broken naturally Oh in fact it was a lug on a water vessel which is very heavy and eventually it sheared off and you have nature the hand of nature imitating today's Almighty's very alarming Matewan compatible ion the Babylonians but the thing is did somebody person brought this ones to medium can you heat it and I looked and I realized it was a natural thing it's just the kind of flute is break in this way any idea what would have happened in this area and under Syrian library the 7th century when they were very interested in old writing or something exactly something a ditch in the rock taking the community and show you to the key right after you all my heavens must be the most important but what does it say man I'm hanging under family and and the guys we had read and it seems me that person who personified scholarship and earnings and work them see the moment this happened he would realize of all they know all the tradition of all the in scholarship all their living will be worth nothing because the first time a real neck between the God provides he couldn't breathe so this is an interesting situation the hold of their science would go so it seemed to me what would happen is this guy I would have to a get this thing back and kill everybody can oversee me so I these other idea at the same time I mean really lost of that but at the same time all I don't just about it's all I can see there must have been psychopaths in antiquity as there are today there's one of those things people learn at school and go on to practice there's an adult now and it was then good healthy cycle tackles so eaters quietly impressing things removes I find it makes me feel more relaxed if I just do it in antiquity there were no peace officers and there's no sense of clues so if you had a very intention person you need to do a sequence of Americans in order to cover them no one would go looking for footprints and you know I think this looks like a psychological type they could do it if they were clever unchecked so we had this stone missus provoked kind of thing we were listed in with real Mesopotamia about magician than a diamond and all that with this madman that loosened the world in order to follow this through authority it's a horror story on unbearable auditions grown men have been known to keep out of bed and go down and make hot chocolate and that is the book which you so delicately you need I mean cool it's a little bit like being on a talk show - do you want to pop yours Padre yeah there isn't anything else we need to bring up for your back so we're directing the checker anyway the thing is it it's a horrible story I don't if you have the habit to send you probably hack if you're sitting in front of the camera somebody asking something and it out comes this reason intelligent narrowing kid that you've never thought about the subject before you ever had that someone presses a button yes yes that's what happened to me this whole story I'm thinking like an amendment and when I read it it was fun it is very very frightening so if I recommend all people in Britain to buy three copies of this book and in order to do that they have to optical kickstart train actually bring enough they're actually it's remarkable teeth because that is they would have gone insane with what to do with it and in point of fact among rulers Reggie there are one or two combinations which are real so it makes the sign so ducking underneath the camera zoom the camera off you would play there we go there is a link to that in the description below this video click on the link to find out more as always and there's one thing I'm learning and that's what if time machines exist I don't like eat the Hawthorne because things like you might have ulterior motive okay so tomorrow same time same place on the baby Carlton to today same time if you've got a time machine well thank you very much for joining us and teaching me to write my name in Canadians you've been so good I think you can take them over oh okay free toy thank you so much this is this coincident is running into you I was just walking here with another play and all of us I'm sure that's that guy on it yeah yeah yes I did Royal game of ur will you naughty look again is there wasn't much yes I'll just have you know trestle table and Yun Canberra quit yes and functional if you came here to help us film it's a it's a game or a time machine

Channel: Matt and Tom

Views: 502,042

Rating: 4.9715123 out of 5

Keywords: Matt Gray, Tom Scott, mattg, mattgray, unnamedculprit, tomscott, tomscottgo, Matt And Tom, Irving Finkel, british museum, park bench, cuneiform, MattGrayYes

Id: zOwP0KUlnZg

Length: 23min 28sec (1408 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 22 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/Danzarr]

great, now i can translate the copy of the necronomican I had laying around.

[u/sixft7in]

I'm looking for Ray Finkle!