Dr. Irving Finkel
AIA Norton Lecturer

"The Ark Before Noah"

Dr. Finkel will be joining our Stanford AIA Chapter on Friday, November 11 at 8:00pm, Packard Building, Room 101
Reception to follow.
Lecture is free and open to the public.


Dr. Irving Finkel is the Assistant Keeper of Ancient Mesopotamian script, languages and cultures in the Middle East Department of the British Museum. Dr Finkel is the curator in charge of cuneiform inscriptions on tablets of clay from ancient Mesopotamia, of which the Middle East Department has the largest collection- some 130,000 pieces – of any modern museum. This work involves reading and translating all sorts of inscriptions, sometimes working on ancient archives to identify manuscripts that belong together, or even join to one another.

Museum work also includes working with children and adults to promote greater familiarity with the ancient Middle East, by means of lectures, workshops and media activity. Dr Finkel specializes in ancient Mesopotamian medicine and magic, and is also interested in literature, religion and the history of ideas in this part of the world. He is also interested in the history of board games throughout the world, and especially the preservation of traditional board games in many non-western societies. He has participated in the Museum websites about Mesopotamia and Games.

For more information on Dr. Finkel:

Dr. Finkel's Bio, British Museum

Dr. Finkel's Books:

The Ark Before Noah: Decoding the Story of the Flood
The Cyrus Cylinder: The King of Persia's Proclamation from Ancient Babylon
The Lewis Chessmen: and What Happened to Them