The Babylonian map of the world is the oldest map of the world, in the world. Written and inscribed on clay in Mesopotamia around 2,900-years-ago, it is, like so many cuneiform tablets, incomplete. However, Irving Finkel and a particularly gifted student of his - Edith Horsley - managed to locate a missing piece of the map, slot it back into the cuneiform tablet, and from there set us all on journey through the somewhat mythical landscape of Mesopotamia to find the final resting place of the ark. And yes we mean that ark, as in Noah's ark. Although in the earlier Mesopotamian version of the flood story, the ark is built by Ziusudra.

CONTENT WARNING:
Contains a baby Irving. His beard is not white.

00:00 Intro
00:52 Ancient Mesopotamian Cuneiform Tablets
01:48 The oldest map of the world, in the world
02:07 What is the Babylonian Map of the World?
02:34 The Babylonian Map of the World explained
04:13 What are the triangles on the Babylonian Map of the World?
06:17 Missing triangle on the Babylonian Map of the World
06:52 Edith Horsley - Cuneiform LEGEND
07:20 Channel 4 News report on Babylonian Map of the World September 1995
08:32 BABY IRVING!
09:48 What the missing piece revealed
11:39 The ark and parsiktu-vessel
13:22 Mount Ararat and Mount Urartu
14:18 What does it all mean?
15:07 Author of Babylonian Map of the World
17:07 Next episode of Curator's Corner    • Archaeologists keep re-excavating thi...  




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