The extraordinary story of a Sumerian brick found three different times
This unassuming piece of clay carries the names of gods and kings, yet its true uniqueness lies in its discovery. Watch as curator Sébastien Rey explores how archaeologists repeatedly unearthed this same 4,000-year-old artifact across three different centuries.
The Gudea foundation brick is a common find in Tello, Iraq, but this specific specimen is remarkable for its repetitive history of excavation. It was first uncovered around 323 BC, rediscovered in the 1880s, and most recently excavated in 2016.
The video explores the 'archaeology of archaeology,' detailing how it took a century of work to realize later teams were excavating through sites previously disturbed by the archaeologist Adad-nadin-akhe, acting under the commissioner Alexander the Great.
Source: Archaeologists keep re-excavating this 4000-year-old brick | Curator's Corner S9 Ep6
