49. George Smith: the man behind the headlines SHORT VERSION

150 years ago, a young George Smith made headlines around the world. He had pieced together an Akkadian version of the Flood story found on fragments of clay tablets. Who was Smith, and why did his discovery have such a dramatic impact? What happened to him next? And what is his legacy?

We're joined by guests Sophus Helle, Gareth Brereton, Strahil Panayotov, and Enrique Jimenez.

2:46Smith finds a marvel
10:24who was Smith?
14:26the fateful 3rd expedition
17:26the mysterious Mr Mathewson
20:58Carchemish and the Hittites
25:50quarantine!
27:44to Aleppo by horse
33:50a tragic end
38:10Mathewson's career
39:35Smith's family and legacy
42:33Smith's notebooks

The sad story of Boscawen can be found in Ruth Horry’s “Assyriology at the Margins. The Case of William St. Chad Boscawen (1855–1913)” in IRAQ 77 (2015) pp. 129-142

You can read more about the Egibit tablets in Strahil V. Panayotov and Cornelia Wunsch, "New Light on George Smith’s Purchase of the Egibi Archive in 1876 from the Nachlass Mathewson", in: Melammu: The Ancient World in an Age of Globalization (2014)

Music by Ruba Hillawi

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