Also, you should also listen to "The Ark Before Noah" by Irving Finkel
the reason why you should listen to him read his own book, is because he is a one of a kind academic that _lives_ his craft. its infectious as it is informative.
it gives a background about how Sumerian and Akkadian was decoded.
Thankyou for the reminder of that book. I've been a big fan of Finkel's for a long time, for exactly the reason you describe and his playful humour. I've been trying to find something on Audible to listen to and this sounds right up my street.
I heard this point made a while back about how design choices and/or technical limitations led to different parts of ancient cultures being preserved:
- Some civilizations wrote on clay but built with wood/straw. We know a lot about their writing but almost nothing about their structures.
- Some civilizations wrote on papyrus but built with stone. We know a lot about their structures but not a lot about their writing (unless it was written on a building). The ancient Egyptians are the classic example here.
