The Magic of Ancient Games | Dr. Irving Finkel

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[@authormichellefranklin]

I love how Dr Finkle looks like he's talking to us from his basement with a single swinging light bulb illuminating his face. He's the best!

[@juneroberts5305]

His knowledge is a light in the darkness... - so it's fitting. 😁

[@lindsayheyes925]

Enlightenment, after the style of Rembrandt.

[@ColonelSanders17]

His basement in Detroit

[@MikeWhiskyTango]

A candle stub on a skull.

[@TheRockCollect]

Dr. Finkle is the keeper of all that WAS in Ancient Mesopotamia. He is completely badAzz. I love how he glows in the darkness.

[@notanemoprog]

Dr. Irving Finkel = _Planetary_ Treasure!

[@cherylm2C6671]

You said it! Happy Holidays to you and yours, too!

[@thehuable]

*Universal ❤

[@phantomb8832]

Dr. Finkel's enthusiasm is contagious!

[@BlissfulBombshells]

I LOOOVE to Listen to him Speak!!! I have turned family & friends on to listening to him. We ALL simply relish our archeological story~times with him🤗❣ More More MORE!!!

[@jeffbrownstain]

I love this man

[@elanjacobs1]

Irving Finkel is the David Attenborough of history

[@neva_nyx]

Dr. Finkel, please make more presentations like this! I love the Sumerian and Akkadian studies. I could listen to anything and everything about them all day!

[@pedroarroyo345]

Yes pleasee

[@sharonkaczorowski8690]

When I was a undergraduate I once had a job helping a folklorist catalog her collection…it left me addicted to folklore and the cultures which produce it, including their games…really everything.

[@cgln8760]

What he doesn't say, is that it was him that found and translated the tablet that explained the rules.

[@ArchaeologyNow]

Exactly! And we wish we had brought that up!

[@crownhouse2466]

This was again wonderful. I could listen to Dr. Finkel for hours on end, thank you so much!

[@vistatownsend4622]

As a school teacher myself, I found it fascinating to see how teachers in ancient times used games in the class, as we still do today.

[@wareforcoin5780]

I'm going to listen to this at work, today is going to be a good day.

[@Celler2]

Sumerian is really interesting. Za-na, is an action and a word. Obvious transcription- a something a game host would say to a potential participant who is walking by the curious looking game / volunteered to play. Za-na - Za - meaning “for” , na - meaning “the act of giving” a something is said when handing over an object to someone. Ex: if you are hosting a game at some point you would say Za-na as you would try to hand a game piece to a potential player. next action word e-za-na e - meaning “and”. za na - again referring to a position of power the player would represent if they would only accept the piece and play a set. The female player action words are also very interesting, it sounds current when pronounced. Thank you for converting Sumerian to English letters!

[@ArchaeologyNow]

How fascinating! Thanks for sharing this.

[@phantomb8832]

'Someone's Witch'... 'Screamers'... I get the feeling that some of these games would have been terribly brutal but also such fun.

[@cherylm2C6671]

I think it was to teach the kiddies about magicians and 3 cup guys.

[@castlebrookbooks1037]

Thank you Dr. Finkel for your life's work that helps us engage with the people of the past. So much connectivity and continuity with past times.

[@Pizza_Hoot]

Love that Irving is always completely present when he's talking with someone. Maybe that's why he's so magnetic :]

[@robertwilson8789]

I can always listen to Dr. Finkle. What an intelligent oddball !

[@Stargateluminary]

We love Irving (Master mind) Finkel!! 🙌🏼 I must add, and I was waiting for Senet to be mentioned, it was a game that settled disputes. It was a game that brought to life the true telling and wager of who was guided in highest by the guardians and deities. So although anybody could play it on their “free time”, it was greatly to settle matters of disagreement. Who has the higher guided hand/head/mind. From the emotions that cause us to feel intensely and irrationally to the accepting of where they stand, played out and done with, no further animosity. To Honor the game and the players winning or not. And on a much larger scale it is the game of life, who should ascend, risen and aware of the supernatural realities, grasping the scepter, living dying and living again to play the game. As Egypt was the place to be for student and masters, disciplines and soul missions, “the calling”. 🙏🏼💫

[@lindellsy]

Clicked on this very fast !! Always is a joy to learn from him

[@KerrikkiLurgan]

I missed the live stream! I watched Tom Scott playing the game of Ur with Irving.

[@ArchaeologyNow]

He has 3 more live stream events comkng this spring. Check out the community section or the calendar section of archaeologynow.org for dates

[@dannahbanana11235]

It's incredible that we still use the exact symbols for doors today as we did thousands of years ago. I've always drawn those lines for doors and never had any clue how old it was as a symbol.

[@studiesonmagic]

I absolutely love Dr. Finkle s work! Beyond his jokes (which are genuinely funny) and his Father Christmas look, he is an extraordinary scholar!

[@nimeryaspawnbrd1049]

that's not Father Christmas... that's Sargon II of Akkad 😂❤

[@PattyUresti]

What a lovely topic, thank you for this video!

[@katrinajohnson3776]

WOW! How generous and thoughtful of you to do.

[@markmanning8832]

I love Dr. Irving Finkel. I have liked his talks so much that I bought books on Sumerian to learn it. So far - not - that - good. :-) Harder than I thought it would be. :-)

[@sharonkaczorowski8690]

Thank you very much for bring back so many happy memories of childhood.

[@ShawnLangley-nt3iw]

Just discovering you Dr. Finkle...... Thank you for your choice of work

[@1234z7]

Dr. Finkle. Hope you are well. 🙏

[@cherylm2C6671]

I like how this man thinks! Thank you for sharing so much NOW ancient history. About the school games and trade games (mancalla?) the way you explained it makes so much easier to understand. I had never considered archaeology as a favorite subject, but I've been mistaken before. Thank you again for your lectures and your scholarship.

[@larryfinley9221]

Fascinating window to the past.

[@shaybernhisel4627]

I Love watching your videos guy...so much light in the dark

[@xDR1TeK]

I can't have enough of Dr. Finkel.

[@Kargoneth]

Thank you for this video.

[@nimeryaspawnbrd1049]

If i remember correctly my Egyptology class back in university (it was 20+years ago), "a hundred sed festivals" was basically the pharaoh's golden jubilee

[@mikesummers-smith4091]

I strongly suspect that the Game of Ur had hustlers. "It's an easy game, you'll soon pick it up." "I'm having terrible luck today." "You're playing well." "To the devil with this game, shall we double the stakes?" Now you clean up, loudly thank the deity of your choice for the change in fortune, and suggest a return match soon to give your victim the opportunity to get his losses back.

[@Inisfad]

As I’m listening to this, I can’t help but think of all the things from our time that will be lost to future generations, because those things are on the internet and will not be preserved

[@matthewlawrenson2734]

Finkle rules!

[@anastasialudwika]

Game of Ur is really marvelous!!!!!❤

[@geoff2027]

A witch and a necromancer meet at the gates of Ur, a board is drawn and the fates gasp......

[@ArchaeologyNow]

FABULOUS opening line for a great novel.

[@TheNAWorks]

Dr Finkel is so cool

[@user-pz2lt7ox1r]

Thank you for this video

[@sharonkaczorowski8690]

Girls play a game to see who can scream the loudest…I remember playing it and it was exhilarating. Especially in a time (the 50s) when we were still expected to be prim and proper.

[@sharonkaczorowski8690]

I remember these games…screaming contest, hide and seek, skipping rope (which has a whole subset of games) touch tag, races, tic tac toe, hop scotch, pick up sticks, round the rosy, slapping hands harder and harder (pain tolerance game), jumping over someone kneeling (can’t remember the name…frog something), baseball, plus some board games like Chinese checkers, checkers, chess, monopoly…amazing how very old many of them were. I love that Bruegel.

[@sharonkaczorowski8690]

Also blind man’s bluff…

[@sharonkaczorowski8690]

Oh and one involving moving a knife between the fingers as fast as possible…can’t remember the name. Got in big trouble for that one.

[@Jimminy812]

@@sharonkaczorowski8690 The two you couldn't remember I think are games called Leapfrop and Five Finger Fillet

[@dangerouswitch1066]

i would donate if i had any money. thank you for this presentation!

[@ramonav.6983]

Amazing!

[@RonAaron33]

Thanks!

[@pedroarroyo345]

This guy is a real life wizard

[@nesanesa9547]

Yes, marvellous ..many many thanks xxxx n

[@FriedPi-mc5yt]

Dr. Finkle is the best.

[@richardh8082]

Thank you! :)

[@JM222444]

I know a game you might find enjoyable. It isn't ancient, in fact it's a fun, single- player card game utilizing statistics. It's very hard, but I've beaten it about a dozen times. I'll try to explaine the rules so you can try it yourself. It is called "6 Card Peak": Start the game by dealing a deck of cards in two stacks facing down (left & right); You will need a playing square (something that can be picked up easily like as a stone or a soda cap), The goal of the game is to move all the cards to the Right side using simple facts, which are: Every turn use both hands to flip a card from the left side and the right stack. Before each turn you have a choice to move the playing square to the left side or the right side. You are trying to have the playing square on the side of the higher facing card (face valued card.) If you get it right & the playing square is on the side with the higher value you move both cards to the right cash pile, and if you get it wrong and your playing square is on the lower side you move both cards to the left cash pile. The game requires multiple rounds to win. Feel free to shuffle your cards at the end of each round or start a new game at any time if you feel like it is not winnable.

[@whisped8145]

14:24:30 Yes, the significance of toys and games must not be underestimated. The games people played tell much about their way of thought, their sophistication, what mattered to them, old and young. I cannot fathom how someone studying anything to do with humanity can dismiss them as trivial - you would have to dismiss childhood and growth and all that connects to it, affects it, as trivial as well. What is not more important than that? - Our boardgames of today might not survive as well, but at least some of the more commonly played might here or there, or the special edition of something. I can only wonder what an archeologist of the far future would think of something like Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition - the rules alone could not be reconstructed as even today we struggle interpreting them right for contradictions and errors. But it sure would be fun assuming the future would come up with wild theories about how much and who played games like these.

[@yyy.y_copyright]

Thanks

[@Inisfad]

I would love to know how Dr. Finkel accomplished learning these languages, like Sumerian and Akkadian, etc.

[@deejayk5939]

Long intro, but worth it!

[@patrickbrownrigg1058]

1:23~, one question of note is the “floor plan” is rectilinear. Whereas north surrounding Haran are the circular inward spiraling of buildings with architecture like Gobekli Tepe and Urfa, Catal Hoyuk. What factors changed and when?

[@Bingbangboompowwham]

Finkle says, quite often, “if you’re not sleeping…” Don’t slouch on our regard, Dr. Finkle. You’re invited to speak

[@andymuir401]

Wow was that for real. I’m sorry Don Finkel. If she’s done fundraising then I would love to hear what you have to say. Thank you so much for the attempt sir..

[@henk0735]

modern day sage, wizardly bugger🕉️

[@jessestreet2549]

Finkel is scamming everyone. he learned cuneiform in scribe school from Sumerians. he's older than he looks. i suspect he was Merlin in a later age and the inspiration for Albus Dumbledore.

[@ChannelPBH]

He definitely wouldn’t look out of place in the unseen university… Am now off to spend some time imagining him in conversation with the librarian.

[@MrBlazingup420]

Are those 58 holes within the 20 squares of Senet, if so, is the game linked to Tarot, it has 78 cards, and 20+58=78, The early French occultists claimed that tarot cards had esoteric links to ancient Egypt, the Kabbalah, Indic Tantra, or the I Ching, and these claims have been frequently repeated by authors on card divination. I read that they had a long hallway with panels on each side, showing images, I've noticed similarities in their star maps, gods and goddesses too.

[@MrBlazingup420]

Or is the game Ur that you are speaking about, seems a little word play you can get Tarot with Ur.

[@Tactical_Turtwig]

I desperately wish I could hear him say "10 points to Ishtar"

[@space-time-somdeep]

❤

[@billiverschoore2466]

Thank you for sharing your fun findings! 35:40 oops Breughel: might tweak the "Holland" to a more accurate "Brabant", or possibly "Vlaanderen" or "the Netherlands". Games and stories: the game of being human... 🌳🕊💚

[@factanonverba7547]

This man is a keebler master chef

[@bobsblackwell3594]

The list of cuniform games fpr girls and boys feels like an Amazon gift search result 😂. Brilliant!

[@seanfaherty]

Go or Weiqi was played in antiquity , still being played. I don't disagree with Dr Finkel lightly but I do believe he missed one

[@irvingfinkel7945]

Fair point I was only really talking of the ancient Near Eastern world before chess, but Go is a venerable contribution from another world, and its origins remain shrouded in time.

[@hopenield8234]

You did mention at the beginning that you only covered ‘dead’ games that were no longer played, unlike Go.

[@seanfaherty]

@@hopenield8234 ohhhh I should have known I wasn't paying attention . I always was that kid at the back of the class. Thanks

[@albertbraun5351]

I love Letterman's new show

[@ArchaeologyNow]

Hah!

[@Writhe_n_Shine]

Hopefully, scholars in the future can read our silicon chips as well as this man reads these clay tablets. I absolutely love Dr. Finkel, but if I have any critique at all, it is that he underestimates the investigative talent of children. Though their 'sources' may never be reputable at a scholarly level, children are encyclopedic in their knowledge of the games they play. As an adult that knowledge may fade, so maybe there is an argument to be made about the remembrance of only seven or eight games, but I consider that tenuous. The idea that Brueghel could not have come to his painting without intellectual study discredits the self reflection that any of us could have about the world we watched around us as we grew up. Were there really only eight games you played, or witnessed being played Dr? Or were there only eight you could systematically record by accepable peer reviewed standards? The Dr. Succeeds at bringing to life the people he speaks about, but he is, in fact, a modern-day version of one of these scribes. We are reminded by the Dr. Himself that these were the elite and intellectual class of their time, taught to associate with the world in a different way, and certainly trained to record it in a specific way also. Children of the world have their own nature and reason beyond these scholastic walls. I am thankful for our scribes, then and now, for bringing these things to life.

[@MrBlazingup420]

Inanna is the goddess who speaks through the mouths of men, she uses them like pieces on a board game

[@Glitch-Gremlin]

How sad is it an ancient board game is far more fun than anything ive played in like... ever!

[@igrim4777]

Very sad because these games pale in comparison to actual good games available today. You must have played some of the worst games around.

[@zafarali2182]

Dear Sir, have you ever tried to match Cuneiform with Chinese writing.

[@ArchaeologyNow]

An interesting question. It would probably take putting two experts in the same room together to get a response!

[@nickscurvy8635]

Do yall have a patreon? That way I can give some money monthly to you guys. I love your videos.

[@ArchaeologyNow]

Oh my goodness! How kind. We have been thinking about it and now you are spurring us on! We will get back.

[@yyy.y_copyright]

.. for the first time in my life I start seriously thinking that 'orgy' is the Root of 'organisation' ... what a game?! ...

[@1911olympic]

He looks so much like Tim Allen in the Santa Clause films! And he is at least as funny!

[@RobertWF42]

Is there no electricity in the British Museum?

[@ArchaeologyNow]

Hah!

[@RobertWF42]

@@ArchaeologyNow Funding cuts to the humanities, sigh.

[@ArchaeologyNow]

@@RobertWF42 or maybe they prefer the dank dark atmosphere!

[@lumpygasinavacuum8449]

Its father time.

[@gwendolyn2001]

I want to marry Dr. Finkel.

[@cholulahotsauce6166]

Get in line

[@gwendolyn2001]

@@cholulahotsauce6166 I think he can handle more than one of us!

[@juneroberts5305]

​@@cholulahotsauce6166 I was thinking the same. 😂

[@dannahbanana11235]

28:43 forbidden chocolate bar

[@jenniferb9506]

Skip to 2:40

[@enkilm]

Why is this woman asking the questions instead of reading the our questions she asked my question already!

[@wynbock]

#939 LIKE!🦋 3:26AM 4/21/23

[@lacey3880]

I promise to try uni corn language

[@dangerouswitch1066]

they were playing ancient D&D.

[@ArchaeologyNow]

Hah!

[@JamesMadisonsSpiritAnimal]

Merlin!

[@patrickmcdonough5311]

Senet is real with Inkarnation.. ❤ ita absolut real

[@GGMC556]

Is this Ray's dad?

[@fko3143]

Magic is illusion

[@patrickmcdonough5311]

And ITS a Reinforcement

[@MrBlazingup420]

Many games use Dice, where you cane find 3 sevens by adding the numbers that sit opposite of each other, but it use use a clear dice, you find that there is only 1 true 7 on the dice, looking through the dice, the 1 sits in the center of 6 dots, 3 on each side, whereas the other 4 sides all reveal 5 dots, @3:58 I noticed that those dice on the screen are all fives, and the pieces pyramidal, if you take 3 Sevens (777) and join them, they create a 60 degree triangle, 60x7=420, I bet the game is better being Stoned. LOL, and by the way even the time stamp is Coded with a 7, add 3+5+8=16 and 1+6=7, where in the center of 7, you find Eve hiding, between the S'N, play the words "Sin Eve" backwards, it says Venus, and Seven in reverse "Novus", meaning New. Thoth, however, played a game of senet with the moon god Iah (Khonsu), or is it Sin the Moon God in which he gambled, and won, five day's worth of moonlight. He took this moonlight and created the five "super-added days" which Nut could give birth in.

[@MrBlazingup420]

What is the Echo to Moon played in reverse "New Womb"

[@khaderlander2429]

This guy looks spitting image of Darwin.

[@MrBlazingup420]

She is the goddess who speaks through the mouths of men. Play the words "Her Mistress, Boy/Girl" in reverse, it says "Virgo, September", Virgo be Latin for Virgin, 'vir' be Latin Man, 'gyne' be Greek Woman, together a Virgin, a Man/Woman. a Boy/Girl "Virgo". Goddess of the "Magic Rhythm", played in reverse "Mother Wisdom"

[@MSbabasayee]

Bejjli kharrkhti Kano Mian unghlian dal. Some people's fear's to loss's good deed's sounds some people don't wanted listen 👂👂 closed 🔒 taqwah. 2nd heart's becoming 🖤 means stay ignore mater's . We experience for people's who looks truth thanks

[@artist_hajiagha]

Dr can you tell us why Christianity don't take shower and why they like homeless and why not working not creating jobs . Is in Canada government doesn't care at all 😅

[@ledacedar6253]

Your guest wasted time yadda yadda! Just focus on What your doing niw; forget your learning curve of Tech! We aren’t here to listen to that but to catch all Irving Finkel illuminates!

[@luislambert3670]

p̳r̳o̳m̳o̳s̳m̳ 😁