Irving Finkel

And gradually they piece together the literature.

And the assumption has always been that if you put them all together again, you're going to have the whole library.

But it's the absolute opposite.

Because what happened was that the Babylonians in the south, in my opinion, they worked hand in glove with the Elamites from Iran.

They had a pincer movement and they beat Assyria.

They conquered Assyria.

And they ran through the capital and they set fire to everything, pinched all the women and took all the jewelry and all the gold.

And people say that in a fit of pique, they destroyed the library.

But

But they wouldn't destroy the library because it was the giant brain from which the Assyrians ran a world empire and it had all the knowledge in the world.

They destroyed that.

They spoke the same language.

They had the same writing system.

They'd have taken them all safely home.

Cart after cart after cart.

And I think what's left there is duplicates and broken things and things that got drops and everything.

And that's what everyone thinks is it.

So this is also a controversial point.

You just messed up.

It's starting trouble.