Archaeologists keep re-excavating this 4000-year-old brick | Curator's Corner S9 Ep6

This is the story of a very unassuming Sumerian brick. Sure, it bears the names of mighty gods, powerful kings and contains 'the most powerful statement written anywhere in the world', but it's also quite a common brick to come across (if you're digging at Tello, Iraq). In fact, just how easy it is to find one of these bricks is exactly what makes this specific one so unique. Because this one specific example of the 'Gudea foundation brick' has been excavated and then re-excavated by archaeologists on 3 separate occasions: the third time was in 2016, the second in the 1880s, and it was originally excavated around 323 BC (that's 2,300-years-ago).

Join Sébastien Rey, curator of ancient Mesopotamia as he walks you through the discovery of the Sumerian civilization in the 1880s and how it took archaeologists another 100 years of excavating to realise that they had been excavating through the work of a previous archaeologist. The archaeologist? Adad-nadin-akhe. His commissioner? Alexander the Great.

CONTENT WARNING:
We will find French undies in an ancient Sumerian city. Or should it be we found? After editing this video I'm not exactly sure I can think in linear time anymore.

Heavily features the archaeology of archaeology. Linear time will mean nothing. You will eat your own tail. Bring tea.

00:30 The most OTT intro yet
00:43 Ancient Girsu explainer
01:22 Yes archaeologists are up there with heroes and kings
01:30 A history of ancient Girsu Tello
02:05 Ernest de Sarzec's excavations at Tello ancient Girsu
03:15 Get your painkillers ready
03:23 Overview of British Museum excavations at Tello Ancient Girsu
03:49 Rescuing the Bridge of Girsu
04:24 How we re-excavated the 2 bricks
05:03 Fun fact: Irving rang Sébastien asking him to flip over bricks in case there was a board game on the underside of one of them. Sébastien found one 2 days later
05:10 yeah, we genuinely found French undies in an ancient Sumerian city
05:35 And now, bricks
05:50 Foundation inscription of King Gudea translation
7:27 House of the 50 Powers, Temple of the White Thunderbird translation
8:55 The most powerful statement in the world!
9:05 To make things function as they should.
9:30 Full translation of Gudea foundation inscription
9:49 Foundation brick of Adad-nadin-akhe
11:11 Temple of Alexander the Great in Iraq
12:12 What was the building Sarzec excavated?
12:26 Adad-nadin-akhe first archaeologist of Iraq
13:19 Meaning of name Adad-nadin-akhe
13:46 Coin of Alexander found in Girsu shrine
14:10 New meaning of Adad-nadin-akhe
14:28 The meaning of the Twin Temple of Herakles/Ningirsu and Alexander the Great
14:52 Recap of exactly how we ended up excavating the same brick 3 times
15:56 Next Episode Taster

#CuratorsCorner #mesopotamia #MakeThingsFunctionAsTheyShould

[britishmuseum]

Sébastien will be in the live chat and answering your questions from 16:00 BST, Thursday 29 August. If you want a notification before the premiere starts just reply to this comment. We'll reply back to each of you 20 mins before we start the Q+A with Seb and you should get a push notification from that (this seemed to work well last time). You can also use the "Notify Me" feature on your screen, but some of you have told us it isn't that reliable a feature. So do that, comment here, whatever you feel like. See you at 4pm tomorrow!

The video itself will start playing at 16:30 BST, Thursday 29 August.

[dagnolia]

people throw the words 'fascinating' and 'mystery' around; but Rarely deliver. this WAS a fascinating mystery! 👍👍👍

[truemarklander]

As an archaeologist myself and as someone who teaches university courses in the subject, I think this one of the very best videos I have ever seen that clearly explains how we can reconstruct the cultural chronology of a site. Using effective visuals and imagery and Sébastien's clear and concise narration, the story of this site and the process of archaeology in this specific context, is beautifully conveyed. Thank you for this!! I'm going to assign this video to my intro class. Excellent!!

[TheKubelman]

In 1958, at 9 years old i read a book called "They Wrote On Clay" from 1939. Hooked and fascinated ever since. THANK YOU for this video.

[TheAlchaemist]

So.... a Sumerian worker 4100 years ago not properly aligning the seal with the mud brick before letting it in the sun to bake, is triggering my OCD... great... the butterfly effect at its finest

[Rain-Dirt]

It never crossed my mind an artifact could have been re-excavated/rediscovered multiple times. I love this new knowledge!

[ignagalindo]

This video is a perfect demonstration of the rich palimpsestic quality of the history of civilizations and the delicate work of archaeology (and museums!) to unravel it without fragmenting it. Thank you for such rigorous and stimulating content!

[GnomaPhobic]

Man that's a cool story! It's easy to forget just how old human civilization in Mesopotamia really is.

[MGf-yu]

هلاو دكتور سبستيان العراق عراقك واهلا وسهلا بيك وكل أعضاء البعثه احسنت علا هذا العمل الممتاز وشكرا علا هذا العمل الممتاز الذي أبهر لا وأولهم بلدنا العراق Hello Dr. Sebastian, Iraq is your Iraq and welcome to you and all the members of the mission. Well done for this excellent work and thank you for this excellent work that has amazed the whole world. From Nasiriyah, our hearts are with you ❤️

[Dayanto]

It's crazy that the original temple was almost as old to Alexander the Great as he is to us.

[erictaylor]

I like thinking about the workers and craftsmen who made these artifacts, and how they might respond if told, "That thing you just made, it will be very important to telling people thousands of years from now for learning about your society.
Also, I find it interesting that one man considers an artifact worthless trash, then later ot is found to be something of great value.

[thealmightyaku-]

"It involves a number of heroes, and gods, and kings, and archaeologists - but I repeat myself"

[andiemorgan]

Fascinating video. Thank you.
It never ceases to amaze me how these cuneiforms and other ancient writings are deciphered!

[cowboyhank]

Absolutely brilliant piece. Condensing a story as complex as this in a quarter hour while making it easy to follow isn't easy. Documentaries quadruple this length, don't usually contain as much information. Please keep supporting these brilliant people in their passionate, no-nonsense storytelling regarding the very important work which they are doing.

[asztapaszta]

Amazing story and video production! I can't believe we can watch this for free, thank you for sharing!

[alexanderalexander]

This was brilliant thinking. It is marvelously complex and stunningly brilliant. Wow! Thank you for taking the time to explain this to me.

[LordLoki]

The description was definitely worth the read and I'm glad i already had tea at the ready.

[chassmith]

In your repairs, when you added new bricks, did they include a note in cuneform explaining what you were doing?

[lanhua]

Very exciting stream! Wonderful story connecting gods and ancient heroes with us all!

[mustafa.]

As a Iraqi citizen I want to thank the British museum for all those information, please make more videos about Mesopotamia