Alright, ya'll. Sir-Kennywayne here, back at it again after spending way too long watching some dude break down ancient writing. This time, I stumbled into a YouTube video with some fancy British professor, Dr. Irving Finkle. The dude’s a philologist—I had to look that up—and some kind of expert on old Mesopotamian stuff, like, really old. Like, before Jesus old. It’s wild, man.
So, picture this: a dude who can read these inscriptions on clay tablets that are thousands of years old. It's like something out of a movie. I didn't even know this was a job, but hey, I guess if you're rolling in dough, you can have a rare and fascinating job like this. The whole thing got me thinking and sparked more questions than I can answer.
Dr. Finkle is the real deal. He works at the British Museum and had me hanging on every word. He talks about these Sumerians and Babylonians like they're your neighbors, which is kinda crazy considering they’ve been gone for thousands of years. He even made their writing seem cool with all that wedge talk— “cuneiform” is what they call it, fancy I know. He learned it from a real taskmaster, a "Sherlock Holmes" type who made him shine or be embarrassed which reminds me of my teachers who did something similar... just with less grace.
One thing that blew my mind is that these Mesopotamian people were doing math and science way back when, like, they were predicting eclipses before anyone knew it was a thing. And they had this whole different number system, not the basic ten fingers deal we all use. They had 60 as their main number, which the doc said the mathematicians believe was more fertile! It made me wonder if they knew something we’d missed.
I'm not gonna pretend I understood everything, I mean the guy is pretty smart. But it hit home when he talked about how, despite different clothes, gods, and lifestyles, people back then were people, just like us. They had the same problems – wanting to be loved, fighting over stuff, worrying about their health, and dealing with their family being a mess. Like, some things never change, right? The doctor said human nature was unchanging which made me think how long will we humans be messing with the world?
He mentioned that they believed that when you die, your spirit goes down into this waiting room until a new baby is born that needs it. It was wild and almost comforting in a way. I guess that’s what people wanted way back when? They needed that comfort like we all need our daily dose of Splinterlands!
This whole thing was a reminder that there's a whole bunch of stuff out there that I don't know anything about. This video wasn't just some dry history lesson, it made me think about the world and humans in a new way. I’m still not going back to school, but I may start watching more videos like this one, if it’s something that can challenge and expand my thinking.
Anyway, if you want to check it out, I’ve posted the link below. Hope it opens your mind to some new ideas like it did mine.
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