Epic of Gilgamesh

©
(Sumer Palaeography)

Addendum:
SumerEpigraphy
Land of Living
Bull of Heaven
Deluge
Gilg and Agga
Nether World
Death of Gilg

Till the 19th century, the humanity did not even know, that Mesopotamia once existed (apart of the knowledge of some Egyptian and Greek historical accounts of Babylon, and the mythical Tower - one of the seven wonders of the world) - even less its ancient culture, the cuneiform writing, the epic of Gilgamesh or the Sumerian people and language. In the times of the Ancient Greeks, who led Europe into the civilized world, the memory of ancient Mesopotamia was already completely gone, only Herodotus, the well acquainted historian mentioned, that the Persians have some strange letters for writing. The scholars in the last century thought, that these strange letters are nothing else, but decoration not worth of any further investigation.
The total darkness slowly started to disperse when Grotefend, the German high-school teacher succeeded, from recurring signs of the names Dairios, Xerxes and Hystaspes, to decipher the meaning of 12 cuneiform signs. Other scholars followed, and soon 60 signs were deciphered. A magnificent breakthrough happened with Layard's and Rassam's discovery (1850) of the clay-tablet library of king Assurbanipal in the ruins of once famous city of Nineveh. From the thousands of clay fragments, what for an ordinary bypasser would look like a rubbish-heap, some tablets emerged, which seemed to consist the oldest ever known written artistic expression of the humanity, the poem of Gilgamesh. But their significance was not recognized till some 20 years later, when the story of the Deluge was deciphered in the British Museum, a story, which surpassed by age, even the Torah of the Ancient Jews.
Here I tried to compile our knowledge about this, not only important, but the same time most beautiful voice of ancient artists. I hope you will enjoy reading this document with the same pleasure, as I enjoyed to write it!

Since Jan 2001

FCounter by bCentral

©Picture on right: the hero Gilgamesh holding a lion that he has captured. Bas-relief from Khorsabad. 8th century BCE, Louvre. [3]
©Title picture: mythological scene. Impression from a late Assyrian chalcedony cylinder seal. 990 to 600 BCE. [3]

© (Sumer Palaeography)
Addendum: SumerEpigraphy Land of Living Bull of Heaven Deluge Gilg and Agga Nether World Death of Gilg	Till the 19th century, the humanity did not even know, that Mesopotamia once existed (apart of the knowledge of some Egyptian and Greek historical accounts of Babylon, and the mythical Tower - one of the seven wonders of the world) - even less its ancient culture, the cuneiform writing, the epic of Gilgamesh or the Sumerian people and language. In the times of the Ancient Greeks, who led Europe into the civilized world, the memory of ancient Mesopotamia was already completely gone, only Herodotus, the well acquainted historian mentioned, that the Persians have some strange letters for writing. The scholars in the last century thought, that these strange letters are nothing else, but decoration not worth of any further investigation. The total darkness slowly started to disperse when Grotefend, the German high-school teacher succeeded, from recurring signs of the names Dairios, Xerxes and Hystaspes, to decipher the meaning of 12 cuneiform signs. Other scholars followed, and soon 60 signs were deciphered. A magnificent breakthrough happened with Layard's and Rassam's discovery (1850) of the clay-tablet library of king Assurbanipal in the ruins of once famous city of Nineveh. From the thousands of clay fragments, what for an ordinary bypasser would look like a rubbish-heap, some tablets emerged, which seemed to consist the oldest ever known written artistic expression of the humanity, the poem of Gilgamesh. But their significance was not recognized till some 20 years later, when the story of the Deluge was deciphered in the British Museum, a story, which surpassed by age, even the Torah of the Ancient Jews. Here I tried to compile our knowledge about this, not only important, but the same time most beautiful voice of ancient artists. I hope you will enjoy reading this document with the same pleasure, as I enjoyed to write it!
Since Jan 2001 FCounter by bCentral
©Picture on right: the hero Gilgamesh holding a lion that he has captured. Bas-relief from Khorsabad. 8th century BCE, Louvre. [3] ©Title picture: mythological scene. Impression from a late Assyrian chalcedony cylinder seal. 990 to 600 BCE. [3]