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Updated November 28th, 2019 at 13:42 IST

Cambridge researchers reveal 3,000-year-old example of 'fake news'

One of the earliest examples of 'fake news' has been discovered by the researchers at the University of Cambridge by the study of a 3,000-year-old clay tablet.

Reported by: Aanchal Nigam
Cambridge
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One of the earliest examples of 'fake news' has been discovered by the researchers at the University of Cambridge. The study of a 3,000-year-old Babylonian story of Noah and the Ark through a clay tablet discovered in present-day Iraq has revealed that it had nine lines of stories etched to it. The Gilgamesh Flood story which was believed to have inspired the Biblical tale can now be interpreted in many ways. This happened due to the art of tricking the readers into various meanings of one word while telling the story of the flood, deploying the first known pre-historic version of 'fake news'. 

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The play of words

Cambridge University's Dr Martin Worthington's new research analysed the game of words in the story which has uncovered the duplicitous language by the 'Trickster God' of the Babylonian period called 'Ea'. Worthington said that God tricks humanity by spreading fake news and was apparently motivated with self-interest. He tells the Babylonian Noah to tell people that food will rain from the sky if they help him in building the ark. However, what people did not understand was that Ea's nine-line message was a trick, and is a sequence of sounds which can be understood in many different ways. It is similar to the wordplay of English 'ice cream and 'I scream'. The hidden meaning of Ea's message is that he warns of the Flood. This is how according to St. John's College, Cambridge, Ea is the earliest known starter of 'the flood of fake news'.

According to the official website, Worthington said, “Once the ark is built, Noah and his family clamber aboard and survive with a menagerie of animals. Everyone else drowns.  With this early episode, set in mythological time, the manipulation of information and language has begun. It may be the earliest ever example of fake news”.

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Published November 28th, 2019 at 13:13 IST

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