Babylonian language is brought back to life in a short film nearly 2,000 years after the language dies out

A violent story from 701BC has been brought to life in the 21st century via a short film that uses the extinct Babylonian language.

Babylonian was the ancient language during the time of the Mesopotamian empire which dominated vast swathes of the Middle east for two millennia. 

It went extinct around the time of Jesus and hasn't been used for around 2,000 years but a University of Cambridge professor has revived the deceased dialect.  

A twenty minute film, titled 'The Poor Man of Nippur', is filmed exclusively in the old language and tells the tale of a young man who sought revenge on a City Mayor who cheated him out of his prized possession - his goat.

The animal was killed and the scorned owner sought his vengeance by physically assaulting the offending official “three times over”.

Predating Aesops fables, the story of man's affection for beast first regaled members of the Mesopotamian civilisation more than 2,700 years ago.

It was immortalised in clay where it was written as 160 lines of text and tells the story of a pauper called Gimil-Ninurta. 

It is believed the story itself is far older than 701BC as a fragment of another clay tablet was discovered in the library of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal.

The film was created by members of the Mesopotamian community at the University of Cambridge and headed up by Dr Martin Worthington, a Fellow at St John's College. 

 Two decades of research has led to the unravelling of the language's mysteries which was once used widely throughout the Middle East as well as by Babylonian kings and Egyptian pharaohs.

Dr Worthington said: 'As a story of three-fold revenge, The Poor Man of Nippur is one people today can easily relate to. 

“Though it has the plot of a folk tale, it is written in high poetic style. 

“The only character with a name is the hero called Gimil-Ninurta. 

“His name means 'revenge of the God Ninurta', Ninurta being a god of Nippur. This fits the plot perfectly.”