The Babylonian Map of the World with Irving Finkel | Curator’s Corner S9 Ep5

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