British professor hoping to resurrect Babylonian language

LONDON • A British academic has taught himself to speak ancient Babylonian and is leading a campaign to revive it as a spoken language almost 2,000 years after it became extinct.

Martin Worthington, a fellow of St. John’s College at Cambridge University, has created the world’s first film in the ancient language with his Babylonian-speaking students dramatizing a folk tale from 701 BC.

Entitled The Poor Man of Nippur, it recounts the tale of a man with a goat who takes revenge on a city mayor for killing the animal by beating him up three times.

It is the culmination of two decades of his research into how the language, once the lingua franca of the Middle East, was spoken. He has also created a unique archive of recordings from different readers of stories and scripts from Babylon.

Worthington believes teaching spoken Babylon is the best way to understand and “get under the skin” of the language.

“It enables students to enjoy the magic of authenticity and connect through words to a world that is lost and far away,” he said.

“There are letters from spies, treaties between states, diplomatic correspondence, incantations and medical prescriptions. You can encounter a civilization that is similar to us in some ways, but also very different.”

Worthington has been learning the language since 2000, but admitted he was by no means fluent.

He tells students it is “not too difficult,” adding: “The structures are extremely regular and most learners find that at some point, often about seven months in, they suddenly get it; the structures click into place.”