Why an ancient Mesopotamian tablet is key to our future learning | Tiffany Jenkins | TEDxSquareMile

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Published 2017-06-21
In our ephemeral, digital world where everything is mediated through a computer screen and summoned by the click of a mouse, ancient objects in dusty old museums are essential to future of learning. In the late eighteenth century, a clay fragment from a piece of the world’s oldest literature overturned orthodoxies and advanced knowledge of the past. It’s an important lesson: evidence from the past will help us to rethink what we know which is never complete. Ancient history and the tangible artifact - something real, not virtual - will take us out of the cloud and bring us back down to earth.

Tiffany Jenkins is an author, academic, and ex-columnist for the Scotsman. She wrote the critically acclaimed Keeping Their Marbles: How The Treasures Of The Past Ended Up In Museums And Why They Should Stay There, published in 2016. She is the writer and presenter of the 2016 BBC Radio 4 series, A Narrative History Of Secrecy. She has been a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics, and was previously the director of the Arts and Society Programme at the Institute of Ideas. Her first degree is in art history, her PhD in sociology.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx
All Comments (21)
  • @borlani
    All the way through I was completely spellbound and transfixed by Tiffany's incredible self- discipline at not kicking any of the balloons around the floor. I couldn't have done that.
  • @louis8312
    From George Orwell : Who Control the past control the Future, Who controls the present controls the past.
  • @gargos25
    Her message is to visit museums, especially with ancient pieces. I visited one yesterday in Istanbul and was blown away. This comes with age, I believe. I didn't appreciate what I was seeing, as a kid.
  • @MVanDamm
    Items like this need to be 3D scanned and made available for download and printing. Imagine the impact in a classroom hearing this Ted Talk and the students then touching and experiencing this piece of history. Amazing!
  • @Kell_M
    This tablet is one of thousands which have been translated. The Sumerians explain in great detail their daily lives, marriage and birth certificates, day to day transactions, amongst other things.. The story of Adam and Eve is told in these tablets too, only in much greater detail. Most of what we know today about 'The Annunaki' is all thanks to these absolutely precious, relics of time. Knowledge left behind for us, by our ancestors, the great Sumerians...
  • @johnhunter2058
    "... you have to be obsessed with your subject, to the point where people think you are weird ..." YAY! I qualify!
  • @RonzigtheWizard
    When I was young right after I had managed reading I would go to the library every week and take out the maximum number of books about history and legends. The lady at the library thought I couldn't have read them but I did. I spent most of my time reading and as well as history and legends I also read all the books written for young boys. I found the books about history and legends far more exciting than the stories written for boys my age. I learned that stories of a great flood was part of history and legend from countries all over the world from those books. Trips to the museum in Toronto Canada where I was born was a highlight of my early years. There are all kinds of really exciting things to see in any museum. I highly recommend anyone who reads this to take their kids to museums as often as possible.
  • @stjett
    The Sumerian kings list has been around, I've studied it over twenty years ago and recently a breakthrough was made over its numerical code. It make biblical references on the flood and lifespan of those before the flood. It then ties into history. She needs to speak more on the artifact, because it is astonishing.
  • @Britspence381
    Ms. Jenkins' description of George Smith reminds me of a quote from the movie about Alan Turing: ‘Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine.’ Very interesting video.
  • @ericgibson2079
    We need a sense of the past taught in schools big time. Our best sense too.
  • @garethhutchings4045
    Thank you Ms Jenkins for presenting this talk. I remember , as a child in the 50's, spending days in the museum with friends, thoroughly entranced by the exhibitions.
  • @charlesyanni5195
    Thank you for the experience of hearing you talk about this! I will gratefully take your advice and view such artifacts in public museums. I will also try to let the experts, the museum staff, explain these items where such guides are available. Thank you.
  • @nigelgrimmett851
    Interesting that the more knowledge we obtain the more some people try to hide it or deny it.
  • @soultraveler4496
    The more you know,,, the more questions you won't know...reality is unfathomable...
  • @kjekelle96
    I think the main message is something like this: In out current high-paced, busy lives, where summoning information and stuff is easy beyond belief, it's also easy to get lost in being only on the surface of things. We have to learn to go deeper into specific material or occupations (again), to be really engaged, from time to time at least, in one thing at a time and nothing else (instead of many things all over the place, but superficially). And we have to do this because if you do it long enough it will make whatever you're engaged in even more interesting and meaningful, and arousing even. We need stuff like this to keep in touch with who we really are, and how to live, a large part of which is constituted by the incredible depth and mystery of our vast history. That's how I understand what she's illustrating with her story.
  • @raevj
    It is becoming more evident that there were many scientifically-advanced, pre-historical civilizations.
  • @rich4444hrsm
    I understand, museums must be maintained for people like you Tiffany to be inspired to succeed in your endeavors. I think that is very fair and an admirable goal for all of us to aspire to.