Dr Irving Finkel - Illustrious new member of the Society

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01 March 2014

Dr Irving Finkel PhD is the assistant keeper of Ancient Mesopotamian script, languages and cultures in the Department of the Middle East at the British Museum, where is the curator of the world’s largest collection of cuneiform clay tablets. He is the author of the much acclaimed book "The Ark Before Noah: Decoding the Story of the Flood."

He is a man of many and varied interests.  His specialist subjects include Ancient Mesopotamian Studies and cuneiform writing - of which he is a world authority. He has also written a number of children’s books, as well as writing and presenting a four part Channel 4 series on Mesopotamian medicine, dentistry and magic entitled "The Wedge Between Us."

Irving Finkel is particularly important to all who have an interest in coracles because he translated an ancient clay tablet which dates from 1850 BC. This tablet is a copy of the Babylonian Story of the Flood, which referred to a large vessel capable of surviving the flood, which gave rise to the account of Noah and the flood in Genesis.

Of immense interest is that the tablet makes it clear that the Ark is not a boat shaped craft but a huge circular craft, identical to the modern Iraqi coracle known as a Quffa and in use until very recently. Moreover the tablet contains a full and detailed account as to how this vast coracle should be built, thus enabling us to say with complete certainty that coracles were being used millennia before the birth of Christ and were the earliest form of water transport.

Sir Peter Badge

Dr Finkel's book "The Ark Before Noah: Decoding the Story of the Flood" (Hodder & Stoughton, ISBN: 978-1444757057) is available from and all good bookshops RRP £25.00. Further reading: British Museum blog "Was the ark round? A Babylonian description revealed"