We found a lost temple using maths sent by an ancient Sumerian god | Curator's Corner w. Matt Parker

It's not every day you get to say 'I found a lost, presumed to be mythical, ancient Sumerian temple'. Unless you're curator of ancient Mesopotamia Sébastien Rey. Because he did exactly that - rediscovering the Temple of Ningirsu in Girsu, in Southern Iraq. And he did it by cracking an ancient Sumerian maths puzzle that had stumped archaeologists for over 140-years.

Join Matt Parker and find out how unit fractions and predictive archaeology are 'way better than the golden ratio'.

Huge thanks to Matt Parker for coming along for the ride. You can check out his video with curator Ilona Regulski on the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus here:    • The first known maths author  

If you've been inspired by Ilona and Matt, and want to learn to read ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs you can do so with this video:    • Learn how to read Ancient Egyptian Hi...  

If you'd like to find out more about how we excavate at Tello, ancient Girsu, you can watch us excavate a cuneiform tablet from the ground, watch it being conserved, translated and delivered to its final home in the Iraq Museum in Baghdad:    • Excavating Cuneiform Tablets in Iraq ...  

Find out more about the work of the Girsu Project here: https://www.britishmuseum.org/researc...


00:20 Setting Matt Parker an ancient Sumerian Maths problem
01:15 Matt's first attempt at deciphering the tablet of Gudea
02:14 Is it a ruler?
02:16 It IS a ruler!
02:48 The most iconic statue of ancient Mesopotamia: the statue of king Gudea
03:56 The dream that built the temple of Ningirsu in Girsu Tello
04:33 The archaeological search for the lost temple of Ningirsu
05:12 How the British Museum excavated the lost temple of Ningirsu
05:19 Discovering the first temple gate
05:48 The clue that helped crack the temple of Ningirsu metrology
06:28 Matt's second attempt at deciphering the tablet of Gudea
07:48 Measuring out the temple of Ningirsu
09:08 Using predictive archaeology
09:17 Matt Parker: archaeologist
10:15 Proving the sceptics wrong... by digging more holes
10:43 The oldest architectural plan known in history
11:25 The beginning of abstract numeration in ancient Mesopotamia
12:37 Building with maths because it's nice
13:35 What came first, the statue of Gudea or the temple of Ningirsu?
14:45 Mathematics; the divine language of the Sumerians
15:36 Sumerian fractions are officially better than the golden ratio
15:41 Who is Ningirsu?

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