Irving Finkel
India and the Beauty of Boardgames
Summary
Several of the world’s most successful board games originated in India. For many years Irving Finkel has investigated boards, dice and game pieces from across the subcontinent, along with their rules and stories. This talk will illustrate the beauty of these objects, examine why they have lasted for millennia and explore how they have spread about the world.
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.