Tristan Hughes

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Over 5,000 years ago, in the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, one of the greatest technological leaps in human history occurred.

One created with neither stone nor gold, but with clay.

This is cuneiform, the first ever writing system known to archaeology that would spread across Mesopotamia and beyond.

a writing system preserved today on thousands of fascinating tablets that continue to reveal more and more secrets about these ancient civilizations.

From simple pictograms used to count jars of beer in ancient Sumer, to the complex wedges that told the story of the Great Flood long before the Bible, cuneiform became the script of civilizations like the Babylonians, the Assyrians and the Persians.

Today we're joined by friend of the podcast, the one, the only, the legend, Dr Irving Finkel, Senior Assistant Keeper at the British Museum and one of the world's leading experts on cuneiform.

Irving, it is such a pleasure to have you on the show.

Delighted to be here.

Let me tell you.

Yes, it's been much too long.

And the first time having you in our... Luxurious studio environment, I think they would call it.

Bookcase.