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Irving Leonard Finkel (born 1951) is a British
philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as ...
and Assyriologist. He is the Assistant Keeper of Ancient Mesopotamian script, languages and cultures in the Department of the Middle East in the
British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docume ...
, where he specialises in
cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo- syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedg ...
inscriptions on tablets of clay from ancient
Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...
.


Early life and education

Finkel was born in 1951 to a dentist father and teacher mother, one of five children (including a sister named Angela), and grew up at Palmers Green,
North London North London is the northern part of London, England, north of the River Thames. It extends from Clerkenwell and Finsbury, on the edge of the City of London financial district, to Greater London's boundary with Hertfordshire. The term ''nor ...
. He was raised as an
Orthodox Jew Orthodox Judaism is the collective term for the traditionalist and theologically conservative branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as revealed by God to Moses ...
but became an
atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
as a teenager. He earned a PhD in Assyriology from the
University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingha ...
under the supervision of
Wilfred G. Lambert Wilfred George Lambert FBA (26 February 1926 – 9 November 2011) was a historian and archaeologist, a specialist in Assyriology and Near Eastern Archaeology. Early life Lambert was born in Birmingham, and, having won a scholarship, he was edu ...
with a dissertation on Babylonian exorcistic spells against demons.


Career


Philology

Finkel spent three years as a Research Fellow at the
University of Chicago Oriental Institute The Oriental Institute (OI), established in 1919, is the University of Chicago's interdisciplinary research center for ancient Near Eastern (" Orient") studies and archaeology museum. It was founded for the university by professor James Henry B ...
. In 1976 he returned to the UK, and he was appointed as Assistant Keeper in the Department of Western Asiatic Antiquities at the British Museum, where he was (and remains) responsible for curating, reading and translating the museum's collection of around 130,000
cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo- syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedg ...
tablets. In 2014, Finkel's study of a cuneiform tablet that contained a
Flood narrative A flood myth or a deluge myth is a myth in which a great flood, usually sent by a deity or deities, destroys civilization, often in an act of divine retribution. Parallels are often drawn between the flood waters of these myths and the primaeval ...
similar to that of the story of
Noah's Ark Noah's Ark ( he, תיבת נח; Biblical Hebrew: ''Tevat Noaḥ'')The word "ark" in modern English comes from Old English ''aerca'', meaning a chest or box. (See Cresswell 2010, p.22) The Hebrew word for the vessel, ''teva'', occurs twice in ...
, described in his book ''The Ark Before Noah'', was widely reported in the news media. The ark described in the tablet was circular, essentially a very large coracle or kuphar and made of rope on a wooden frame. The tablet included sufficient details of its dimensions and construction to enable a copy of the ark to be made at about 1/3 scale and successfully floated, as documented in a 2014 TV documentary ''Secrets of Noah's Ark'' that aired as an episode of PBS's NOVA series.


Board games

Finkel studies the history of board games, and is on the Editorial Board of ''Board Game Studies''. Among his breakthrough works is the determination of the rules of the Royal Game of Ur. He also owns a replica set of the Lewis chessmen which were used as props in the first Harry Potter film.


Great Diary Project

Finkel founded the Great Diary Project, a project to preserve the diaries of ordinary people. In association with the Bishopsgate Institute, Finkel has helped to archive over 2,000 personal diaries. In 2014, the V&A Museum of Childhood held an exhibition of the diaries of children written between 1813 and 1996.


Literary

Finkel has written a number of works of fiction for children. He appeared in the 2014 memoir ''The Boy in the Book'' by
Nathan Penlington Nathan Penlington (born in Rhyl, North Wales), is a writer, poet, live literature producer and magician. His work has appeared on stage, in print and on the radio. Career Nathan Penlington currently performs at venues and festivals across the ...
.


Personal life

Finkel lives in southeast London with his wife Joanna and has five children.


Selected publications


Academic

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Fiction

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References


External links

*. *. *.
The Great Diary Project
The Jager File, 24 September 2010. Retrieved 15 April 2013

{{DEFAULTSORT:Finkel, Irving 1951 births Alumni of the University of Birmingham British archaeologists English Assyriologists British Jewish writers Jewish atheists Employees of the British Museum Living people Tabletop game writers British philologists Jewish scholars 20th-century archaeologists 21st-century archaeologists Assyriologists