This instalment from the British Museum video series Curator’s Corner focuses on a small clay tablet that, at first glance, seems somewhat unremarkable but is, in fact, one of the most astonishing artefacts in the museum’s collection. Indeed, as the always entertaining British Museum curator Irving Finkel details, the ancient Babylonian tablet, which was created circa the 6th century BCE, is the ‘oldest map of the world, in the world’. Finkel explains how, like many early maps, the tablet integrated both practical information about the world as the ancient Babylonians understood it, and mythology. He also explores the exceptionally fascinating story of how he and other researchers were able to decode the map since it was first acquired by the museum in 1882. The result is an enlightening glimpse into both the ancient Babylonians’ understanding of their world, and how archeological puzzles can sometimes be solved over the course of centuries.
Video by the British Museum
videoArchitecture
Steep climbs lead to sacred spaces carved high into the cliffs of Ethiopia
9 minutes
videoEngineering
How water-based clocks revolutionised the way we measure time
10 minutes
videoEcology and environmental sciences
Join endangered whooping cranes on their perilous migratory path over North America
6 minutes
videoArchaeology
At a prehistoric pigment mine, researchers glimpse our earliest moments in the Americas
25 minutes
videoArchitecture
A 3D rendering of the Colosseum captures its architectural genius and symbolic power
17 minutes
videoLanguage and linguistics
Do button-pushing dogs have something new to say about language?
9 minutes
videoComputing and artificial intelligence
Why large language models are mysterious – even to their creators
8 minutes
videoEthics
Plato saw little value in privacy. How do his ideas hold up in the information age?
5 minutes
videoInformation and communication
‘Astonished and somewhat terrified’ – Victorians’ reactions to the phonograph
36 minutes