Irving Finkel

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Irving L. Finkel (born 1951 (age 62–63)) is a British archaeologist and Assyriologist. He is currently the Assistant Keeper of Ancient Mesopotamian script, languages and cultures in the Department of Middle East in the British Museum, where he specialises in cuneiform inscriptions on tablets of clay from ancient Mesopotamia.[1]

Finkel earned a PhD in Assyriology from the University of Birmingham with a dissertation on Babylonian exorcistic spells against demons. He then spent three years as a Research Fellow at the University of Chicago Oriental Institute. 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 the museum's collection of cuneiform tablets.[2]

In addition to his work on cuneiform tablets, Finkel studies the history of board games, and is on the Editorial Board of Board Game Studies.[2]

Finkel has also written a number of works of fiction for adults and children, and founded the Great Diary Project, a project to preserve the diaries of ordinary people.[2]

Finkel is an Honorary Member of the Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity of the University of Birmingham and a Council Member of the Anglo-Israel Archaeology Society.

Selected publications

  • I.L. Finkel, 'The Ark Before Noah: Decoding the Story of the Flood', (Hodder & Stoughton, 2014) ISBN 978-1444757057
  • I.L. Finkel and M.J. Geller (eds.), The Wellcome Conference on Babylonian Medicine (Styx, 2007)
  • I.L. Finkel, ‘Report on the Sidon Cuneiform tablet,’ Archaeology & History in Lebanon, 24 (Autumn 2006) pp. 114–20
  • I.L. Finkel, ‘Documents of the Physician and Magician,’ and ‘Explanatory Commentary on a List of Materia Medica,’ in I. Spar and W.G. Lambert (eds.), Cuneiform Inscriptions in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, (2005)pp. 155–76; pp. 279–83
  • I.L. Finkel, ‘Parchisi in Arab Garb, Board Games Studies, 5 (2003) pp.65-78
  • I.L. Finkel, J.E. Reade, ‘On some inscribed Babylonian alabastra,’ Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, (2002)

References and sources

  1. ↑ "Irving Finkel". Retrieved 2014-01-20. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "About the Great Diary Project". Retrieved 2014-01-20. 

External links

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