Excavating Cuneiform Tablets in Iraq with the Girsu Project | Curator's Corner S8 Ep3
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- čas přidán 19. 04. 2023
- The British Museum is currently excavating at the ancient Sumerian city of Girsu, in Southern Iraq. However, most of the Girsu Project's time has been spent, not so much excavating the ancient city itself, but excavating through the spoil heaps (piles of dirt) left behind by French archaeologist over 80 years ago. Within these great mounds of dirt are countless objects, including cuneiform tablets, that were abandoned, and that are currently at risk of being lost forever due to erosion of those spoil heaps.
The Girsu Project is a joint initiative to save endangered heritage sites led by the British Museum, the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (SBAH) of Iraq, and the J. Paul Getty Trust.
Photo of Girsu landscape used in thumbnail: Kevin Percival Photography
Find out more about the Girsu Project and the recent discovery of The Lord Palace of the Kings of the ancient Sumerian city Girsu here: www.britishmuseum.org/researc...
00:49 Introduction to the ancient Sumerian city of Girsu, Tello Iraq
01:09 French excavations at Girsu, Tello Iraq
01:50 British Museum excavations at Girsu, Tello Iraq
02:41 Excavating at Tablet Hill
5:29 Registering cuneiform tablet
07:10 Conservation of a cuneiform tablet
10:40 Before and after cleaning cuneiform tablet
11:02 Photographing cuneiform tablets
12:19 Translating cuneiform tablets
14:50 Sumerian dating system (year names)
16:40 Iraq Museum, Baghdad
#curatorscorner #cuneiform #mesopotamia
After all the turmoil in Iraq, it is good to see that this type of respectful collaborative work is underway.
Definitely. We need to save this wonderful history. And there are so many wonderful people who are doing their best to do so in terrible conditions. Really brave people.
Hardly 'respectful' when you introduce a worker just as 'Ali'! If he is an Iraqi this is HIS history and you are the guests.
As an Iraqi living in England, who likes to visit the British Museum every now and then, I thank you for this most magnificent work! Best of luck for your next episode
What about Enoch the Scribe? When did he write?
Since his existence can’t be verified (same goes for every person in the Bible before Omri) he is a figure of faith and as such can’t be out in such a category.
There is a very similar figure in Mesopotamian mythology called Uanna in Sumerian or Adapa in Akkadian. If you accept Enoch being copied after Uanna and Adapa the answer would be that a Sumerian would probably tell you he had been a Sumerian. I can encourage you to read the versions of the Adapa myth. It is fairly easy to read and offers a great picture onto the mindset of the Sumerian and Akkadian culture.
There will be plenty more episodes of Curator's Corner from Iraq in a few months time (we shot a lot). However, if you can't wait that long. you can find out about the excavations in Iraq, and the wider work of the Girsu Project here: www.britishmuseum.org/research/projects/girsu-project
Wonderful & Thank you !
Excavating Cuneiform Tablets in Iraq with the Girsu Project | Curator's Corner S8 Ep3 1000am 21.4.23 i always recall that the issues with dating are manifold - artefacts being dated incorrectly due to soil samples the artefact was encased in being dated as opposed to the artefact , itself...
this is wonderful, thankyou for sharing
Went begining to visit BM rooms on the web site. Make me think about a way to read all data translation near tablets on a dedicated website, usable as a virtual library as it is done with ancient books freely readable and translatable on line. This is a common treasure of Humanity and Earth. And I see the project is just about that, to reunite in one data every artefacts wich were 'stolen' by private owners or Museums around the occidental world. Go I will be very attentive to the suite to come!👍🧡💚🙏😎👌
@@JJONNYREPP hope errors will be rewind in context👍🐣 ... What I stand to is more the text on the tablets and what a data net can put in relation, dates will come with the puzzle building, not on the ground, that's for sure! 🙏💚🧡
Iraq is such an amazing place, it's like standing at the center of the world and the beginning of time being there.
Timewise it is. Other than that, it's a hellhole of oppression.
الشكر خاص للدكتور سبستيان والدكتوره فاطمه. والدكتوره ايبرو. وكل الكادر المسؤولين عن البعثه البريطانيه. وعن الكادر العمل الذي بذلو جهودهم على اكتشاف الآثار أجدادنا وحضارتنا العريقه في العراق. ومعرفه اكثر عن الرموز وكتابه المسماريه وتعرف عليها لأنها اول كتابه في العالم هيه التي انطلق من العراق وبخط السومري ثقافه حضاره العراقيه. ❤ العراق منبع الحضارات والرموز الدينيه.
Great job. You can tell you worked hard on this, with clips from 2022 just now being shown. The process is everything, and seeing 6 experts from all fields from front to back(and the workers behind it!) is something that museums are privileged enough to be able to show. Bravo!
Absolutely did. Thanks for noticing, means a lot.
yes.. agree!
It’s amazing how small these ancient tablets are, when you see one held in a human hand. From the photos I’ve seen, I assumed they were larger (maybe as big as a sheet of modern stationery). But most of those photos were enlarged from life size, I see now.
It makes it very challenging to find those little clay nuggets in a big heap of earth.
Honestly spotting them at all is a whole skill in and of itself. That's why they call Ali 'Mr Brick' - he has a real knack for spotting the tablets, and telling the difference between them, the rubble of mudbricks that would have made up the original building they were housed in, the old mudbricks that were broken up and used as packing for the foundations of that building. Not to mention that the soil and dirt they are mixed up in is also effectively clay. If more people were familiar with excavating cuneiform, we wouldn't be using the phrase 'needle in a haystack' anymore.
@@britishmuseum Basically, you’re looking for small dirt clods in a mountain of dirt clods. At least when you have a needle in a haystack, the needle is made of a different material from the hay.
I love that better information technology has allowed the British museum to resolve the moral problem of either stealing treasures or else leaving them where they will be destroyed.
Nearly 18 minutes about cuneiform and zero Irving Finkel? How can this be?
I was wondering the same thing. Perhaps he retired? It seems there is a new curator of cuneiform?
@@christianfrommuslim He and Jon are both curators together - Jon Taylor has been at the British Museum for years. He and Irving Finkle actually wrote a book on cuneiform together a few years ago!
If you guys want more dr I.F. You’ll find his lectures at archeology now
Thank you very much for all the hard work you are doing. You made us proud ourselves, I think Iraqi govrnment should reward you all generousely for letting us know our ancient civilisations...👏👏👏🇮🇶🇮🇶🇮🇶🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧
What about Enoch the Scribe? When did he write? Pre-Sumerian?
A great video I may show to my students in world history. I've been trying to do more on "how do we know all this" and not just "here's the story." Oh, and I definitely noticed that some of the tables were about withdrawing beer!
This video is by far the most informative video that I have seen on the processes of an archaeological dig. (In situ, so to speak) Usually, you only see the more important finds & it's not uncommon that the process is glossed over or even entirely omitted. This is what people who are considering a career in archaeology need to see. The common view is that archaeology is something akin to the Indiana Jones movies... Whereas, it's a much more painstaking process of discovery, recovery, conservation, recording, collation & THEN the final process of explaining the finds. Kudos to whomever decided to do a show & tell on the archaeological process!
Thanks so much for this. The hope was to try to give a reality as archaeology, at least from a ground level practical level, is so alien to just about everyone. However, if I'm honest, this was not a planned video. It was my spare time while I was there filming something else, as the process was just so fascinating. Which goes some way to explaining why there isn't that much variety in the shots.
I enjoyed following the tablet thru from discovery to translation and interpretation. Especially since it came from a rubbish pile of discarded soil deemed unimportant. Kudoes to the Curator's Corner editors at the Museum.
Thanks Bones! that genuinely means a lot. Was a killer of an edit
Wonderful of you to share this impressive and collaborative effort to reveal Iraq’s history ! Warm Greetings and Delighted to donate 🇮🇶🇬🇧🇨🇦
They figuring out what to steal 😅
It is amazing how we were connected from various parts of the world, today, while watching in awe how people from thousands of years ago communicate with each other, leaving a testimony of their passage in our planet in tiny tablets full of information. Thank you British Museum; i can't wait for the other episodes!
PS: Also, the editing!! That was super good!! Bravo Nick Harris!
That's such a lovely observation. And really fitting. Mesopotamia often gets credited with inventing writing, but it frequently gets glossed over that they had postal systems and so used that writing to engage in some of the first complicated long distance communication.
Next episode, 2 weeks. Next Girsu episode... a little longer than that.
@@britishmuseum It is amazing how modern they were, isn't it?
Two weeks? I will wait for them! It will be worth it!
👍Agree. With some censoring, but already this is Amazing, to be able to study the window opened to the big Picture of History and past times where the Ancestors were so well organized, without this net we have, showing that there is a life after electricity... Perhaps I have to learn how to practice cuneiform! That could be the next degree of civilization!
@@patriciaoudart1508 Indeed! Great observation!!
@@britishmuseum of course we find cuneiform tablets letters in around Mediterranean sites, and scriptures were used for better things than accounts and business, the amazing thing I learnt from Erwin Finkle (sorry if bad written🙀) from his humoristic🤗👌🙋 view about his cuneiform Culture, this is a a Revelation in itself!🤗👍😎☀️
I would like to thank you for all these efforts, but would like that make a special thank that you finally addressed the Mesopotamia is in Iraq where before no one wanted to admit it. as Iraqis this mean a lot to us. So really thank you and and a special thanks to Dr. Irving too.
It was lovely and refreshing to see Ali and other diggers acknowledged as part of the teams of archaeologists in this short video. The photo of the 'French' archaeology team, like the 'British' teams around the middle East seem to be mostly local people. Ignored in the official reports. Just like the English workmen who did most of the actual digging in 18th and 19th century digs in England. Including, I hate to say our favourite Time Team as I have been told by one 'back room' digger, with a senior digger appearing just for the photo op.
Great video! Whenever I read about Mesopotamean history, the archaeology mentioned always refers back to those excavations a century ago or more. I never hear about much that's more recent , and I've wonder if the political situation in the region has allowed for continued archaeology. It's good to hear that work is continuing there and that people of Iraq will get the benefit of it.
Good to see these being saved.
It is nice that the tablets are returning to Iraq. However, with the instability of the region, as well as for renown of their culture, it is good that artefacts are spread around the world.
I think this for any culture - Greek, Chinese, etc. It is more glory to that culture and people group if their great accomplishments are spread around the world.
We are now discovering other ancient cultures in various places which in ways are as rich and fascinating as those of Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome. But because of the artefacts of the latter are well known, their cultures are more well known and respected. (and of course, writing brings attention to a culture.)
That was so cool! I love seeing ancient stuff from thousands of years ago
Where is Irving Finkel?? Give us more Finkel, please.
My thoughts exactly!
Thanks for shining more light on this fascinating subject!
Greetings from the Netherlands🇳🇱.
incredible the amount of work has gone into in writing and hiding all these tablets,
well done mr. Irving Finkel!
Your comment makes no sense.
@atlantic_love it is called "a lighthearted joke", would you like it to be explained further?
The reference to Finkel at 14:04 is absolutely brilliant. Well done!
You are the first person to acknowledge this. You have made my day!
@@britishmuseum Prof Finkel said it in the "game of ur" video :) good catch
Great video showing the work of the professionals. Their work is fascinating! And glad that the tablets will be permanently displayed in Iraq.
This is amazing, thank you so much for sharing your findings with us. As an Iraqi I'm happy to see how much you care about our ancient history and continue to educate the entire world about it ❤
نشكر اهتمامكم بالثقافه العراقيه لقد كانت تجربه ممتعه
Please, be safe guys! You are a true treasure for the human history!
Very fascinating! Thank you for this program. Cheers from northeast Arkansas, USA. 😊
I've been a fan of the Curator's Corner videos for many months, and it is really exciting to be able to follow the process of archeology from end to end. I hope you can produce other 'behibd the scenes' episodes. Thanks!
Thanks for shining more light on this fascinating subject!Greetings from the Netherlands.. Thanks for shining more light on this fascinating subject!Greetings from the Netherlands..
Fabulous how much we can learn from what is essentially a shopping list.
I saw "Cuneiform" and was really hoping the eminent Irvine Finkel would be making an appearance
I love this concept of the BM being the archaeologists to support Iraq in discovering their own past. The BM and archaeological community at large benefit due to the new information and discoveries, but the Iraqis also benefit! Quite wonderful.
A bit surprised 3D scans are not done.
Very good work . Thankful efforts. God bless you and your family. And to more work, effort and discovery. In order to show this heritage and the origins of civilization and more light on the face of humanity. I ask God to bless you and protect you.
Ramadan Mubarak.
It's good to see how artifacts are processed from excavation to museum. Thanks for the hard work and for sharing us the info.
Where is Irving Finkel?
A very interesting example of why writing was one of humanities best ideas. I wonder how they were all archived and catalogued. Such bulky items to have to organise and retrieve.
Hat’s off to everybody involved in this mind numbingly patient and difficult excavation, by the way, where’s Irving Finkel?
He's currently working on a big book all about the Royal Game of Ur, and publishing another. He's here, he's primed for a shoot next month, but he's not working on the tablets from Girsu
Where is Irvng?
Hang on! Where's the bearded wizard that taught us "The game of Ur"? I hope he's not dead...
Not dead. 🐿️ Away at other mesopotamian things. Never fear!
Irving finkel you mean, he is a national treasure 😂
@@britishmuseum Thank God! His absence here was noticed.
Love from Mesopotamia(Iraq) ❤️🌹
Love British Museum❤❤❤
Looks somewhat similar to the inscriptions on the birch bark manuscripts found in Novgorod (Velikiy), Staraya Russa, Smolensk and other locations :)
What an awesome video, great editing and I loved seeing the entire walkthrough of the process.
This was wonderfully put together. I really appreciate following the tablet through the whole process.
thankyou for showing and explaining this stuff..
so good..
great job 🙂 x
would love to see/hear more translation from the tablets, even if it is boring, a small amount be interesting i'm sure.
8:55 it's obviously a frosted mini-wheat
Very interesting
Thank you
Fascinating project. Fantastic work!
So nice, comprehensiv e and detailed, love to see every part of the process
Fantastic video thank you for the update!
Excellent! Thank you!
Great work!
Excelent! Many thanks❤
Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.
Fascinating, every step. Wonderful to see that this work is being done. I tried to donate but nothing happens when you click the donate button.
Excellent!
Love the term "paperwork" applied to materials millennia before the invention of paper :)
Paperwork is one of those weird concepts that predates its namesake. Human history constantly overlaps, frequently in a very timey wimey way
@@britishmuseum Never heard timey-wimey before. What exactly does it mean?
@@alicemilne1444 It's from Doctor Who. It refers to the complexity of time (especially if you're a Time Lord 😆 ). In this case, it probably has to do with the fact that ancient civilisations may be far removed in time, but actually had a lot in common with our age. 🙂
@beth12svist Thanks. Last time I watched Dr Who was back in the 1960s. The phrase hadn't been invented then. 😁
@@alicemilne1444 No, I think it's from the third season of the renewed series, so relatively recent. Very beloved by those who "grew up" with it, though, since it perfectly captures the handwavy nature of things that are difficult to explain but understood intuitively. 😁
When thinking about it, cuneiform writing existed at the same time as Egyptian Hieroglyphics. I love ancient history....!
Square to rectangle..& clay...great editing
Those tablets remind me of the postcards my grandmother used to send; every square cm was filled with writing. The reason was that sending a postcard was 5 cents cheaper than sending a letter.
Keep up the good work
Brilliant!
wow british museum is really beautiful and we'll preserved!
I love the shopping list tablets not much have changed in 3000 years
سلام عليكم
شكراً جزيلاً البعثة البريطانية تعمل بتنقب مدينة كرسو عمل جيد وممتاز وبدرسه وحترافيه في مجال التنقيب بدقة عالية والحفظ على الآثار العراقية نشكر مدير المتحف البريطاني ونشكر دكتور استبيسان ودكتوراه فاطمه وتعامل بروح انسانيه مع العمال في مدينه كرسو ونرجو منكم الترجمه الاستفادة اكثر من مقطع فيديو وياك حيدر يوسف من مدينة كرسو
Curious if "The translator" could be translating from written into spoken word? Or could most of the people of the time and area read? If so, Would that be more interesting then translating from one language into another? Love this channel!! Thanks for doing a great job in showing the world our past!
Only tuned in to see the wonderful Irving Finkel! Where is he!? He would explain all this with humour and clarity…
I think those grain and flour rations given to workers were not only as food but also as payments and they kept records of them just as we keep records of income and expenditure.
Super
It blows my mind with the modern translator filling in a Google spreadsheet full of information, that’s pretty much what the tablet itself is, just someone filling in a form for a bureaucracy. If you could go back to 4000BC you could make a similar video ending with the scribe going “I note if it’s fine flour or coarse flour, and record it down here using this cutting edge technology called “writing “
We really should have got Jon to fill out the Google Sheet on a tablet rather than a laptop - then we get to go full circle.
All the excavating done in iraq is estimated to be 12% only imagine what stories and history still under the ground this study is done by an iraqi archeologist prof from stony brook University in New York
following ❤❤❤
Ancient Harappa of India had an Indus trade colony in the city of Girsu. We need the name of those translators!!! This is the only site we know of that might crack the ancient script of the Indus civilization! Very cool.
Quick question. Do we know what the Sumerians (Akkadians, Hittites, etc) called the script we now refer to as Cuneiform?
For example, in English we call the Latin script the Alphabet. In Welsh we call it 'Y Wyddor' (The principle), and so on. Because they obviously wouldn't have called it Cuneiform themselves?
Hopefully they can dig up my refund from that damn Ea Nasir!
No offence, but my hero is Dr. Finkle 😂
Absolutely!!!
Accountants get a bad rap but are the reason we even have writing 🙂
🗿CALZONES ROTOS 🗿
Ingredientes:
2 1/2 tazas de harina sin polvos de hornear
4 cucharaditas de polvos de hornear
Pizca de sal
3/4 taza de azúcar
1 naranja, su ralladura
1 huevo
1/2 taza de leche
1 cucharadita de aceite
Aceite para freír
Azúcar flor para espolvorear.
Preparación:
Paso 1
En un bol mezclar la harina, polvos de hornear, pizca de sal, azúcar y ralladura de naranja. Agregar el huevo, leche y aceite. Amasar hasta formar una masa suave. Dividir la masa en dos trozos. Mientras se trabaja con una, tapar la otra con un paño de cocina.
Paso 2
En una superficie lisa enharinada uslerear la masa de 1/2 cm de grosor. Cortar rectángulos de 8x4 cm. Con un cuchillo hacer un corte de 2 cm al centro a lo largo. Pasar una punta por el corte y sacarla hacia el otro lado. Repetir el proceso hasta terminar con toda la masa.
Paso 3
En un sartén hondo calentar aceite a fuego medio. Agregar los calzones rotos cuidadosamente al aceite caliente para evitar quemarse. Freír 3-4 minutos por lado o hasta que estén cocidos y dorados. Estilar en papel absorbente. Espolvorear con azúcar flor y servir.🗿
Awesome work, wish you best findings guys...BTW, who is funding such excavation campaigns? Has the iraqi gov. invested in any?
Занимательная история
I’m so pleased to hear that the objects will be returning to the museum in Iraq 🤗
Yes, this is good. But with the instability of the region, as well as for renown of their culture, it is good that artefacts are spread around the world.
Devuelvan el Moái 🇨🇱🇨🇱🇨🇱
سوف اقوم بالمشاركه وابذل قصارى جهدي للوصوله لأكبر عدد ممكن من المشاهدين للتعرف على حضاره العراق
The museum there looks amazing.
Where's Irving finkel what have you done to him!!
Yes and when they were talking about the really big trench, I really wanted Phil from Time Team to be there
@@kathrynstemler6331 HA!
But Ali was amazing and I am glad the artifacts will be returned to the people of Iraq and hopefully soon we can visit them there to celebrate their huge historical legacy ❤️🇮🇶
Apparently he was busy elsewhere
Return the art
sounds like a fun collaboration. When the tablets are translated, are they translated into both English and Arabic?
They’re usually translated into English, however all of the symbols must be written in their letter forms before translation. It’s easier to translate those letters from Akkadian/Sumerian/Hittite etc. into a modern language. There’s a lot of literature in French, German and Arabic in addition to the English records. It tends to depend on the research team. For this one, I’d guess both English and Arabic!
❤❤
Silly me, so excited to see the tablet held up ... that declared some measure of grain.
Of course, it did!
Can I let folk know of a fun video from Stand up Maths Matt (??) Called something like ' the worlds first maths mistake' as recorded for us to all to see baked into a cuneiform tablet. 😅
The mention of the diaspora of Sumerian objects to museums around the world is truly an example of culture appropriation.
Were the tablets bisque fired? Hard to imagine being in a hurry to get a caravan on the road & having to wait for your inventory receipt to dry out and be fired. What kind of kilns did they use?
At around 9:10 she says they were sun dried.
As a former civil servant I rather find these types of administrative finds very interesting. Although I've never been involved in barley distribution - only photocopy paper. 😁
The age of Taurus in this great year!🤔😲😎
Thank you for doing this important work. But apart from the texts, also the images on cylinder seals are important from Sumer. They tell us much more than is previously thought. The main misunderstanding is that some symbols are misinterpreted and therefore we don't understand what the cylinder seals tell us. The eight beamed symbol exists in many variations and it is interpreted as a symbol of the sun. And the crescent moon is seen as a symbol of the moon. Both are wrong. The eight beamed 'star' is the symbol of the planet Nibiru and the crescent moon is the symbol of our planet Earth. We can see on some seals that the Nibiru symbol is in between the seven stars of the Pleiades and the crescent moon. This is an important but completely forgotten, neglected or denied piece of information about our past. In cuneiform texts we often find the eight beamed symbol that means god, heaven or planet. To learn much more about the interpretation of cylinder seals, the cycle of recurring floods, the rebirth of civilizations and its timeline, ancient high technology and alien deities, read the eBook: "what I know about Nibiru". This book answers many of your questions. You can read it on every computer, tablet or smartphone. Search: know nibiru
*cleans tablet*
oh great, another speeding ticket
We greatly respect you at the British Museum, as tourist business peddlers and chatterbox professionals, in London. But we need our moai back, he is our sacred friend, our lost friend, our friend stolen by a gang of sailors and Royal Navy officers in 1868. He will restore mana to our island, Rapa Nui, Easter Island. Please be decent people. You are not owners of Humanity. You are not reservoirs of our souls. Without our moai we are bodies, but without souls. We need him, he is our family.