Irving Finkel

Irving Finkel was born in 1951 and read Assyriology at the University of Birmingham under Professor W. G. Lambert. For three years he was Research Fellow at the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute, as assistant to Professor Miguel Civil; in 1979 he was appointed assistant keeper at the British Museum, in what is now the Middle East Department. There, he curates, reads, and translates Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets, specializing in Babylonian magic, medicine, and literature. He is the founder of the Great Diary Project, which rescues manuscript diaries for the future. He is the author of numerous books, including The Ark Before Noah (2015) and The First Ghosts (2023), and lectures and broadcasts whenever possible, including for YouTube. He is married and lives in London with his spouse and five children.