The history of one of the

worlds oldest recorded

epic

The Epic of
Gilgamesh
AZ. Hornoz

Later, the Akkadians, Babylonians,

Hittites, Assyrians, and Chaldeans
took over their cities and adopted
their culture.

These proceeding races adapted

their own version of the Epic of
Gilgamesh.

Sumeria

Anu father of gods and god

of the sky (similar to Zeus)

Enlil god of the

air

Utu sun god;

lord of truth and justice

There is no evidence that the

events in the epic actually
happened, however there was a
Gilgamesh who ruled the Sumerian
dynasty of Uruk in 2,700BCE.

 Gilgamesh was the actual king

of ancient Uruk about 2700
B.C.
This statue depicts Gilgamesh
as a powerful ruler and lionkiller.

Gilgamesh was written down

on
over
40,000
clay
cuneiform tablets in 2,000
BCE.
Scholars
were
able
to
translate Sumerian cuneiform
by comparing it to later
Akkadian tablets with similar
stories.

The earliest writing in Mesopotamia was a picture writing

invented by the Sumerians who wrote on clay tablets using long
reeds. The script the Sumerians invented and handed down to
the Semitic peoples who conquered Mesopotamia in later
centuries, is called cuneiform, which is derived from two Latin
words: cuneus , which means "wedge," and forma , which means
"shape." This picture language, similar to but more abstract than
Egyptian hieroglyphics, eventually developed into a syllabic
alphabet under the Semites (Assyrians and Babylonians) who
eventually came to dominate the area.

The legend itself was adapted by a number of

different cultures following the decline of the
Sumerian empire.

The Akkadian people easily take over

Sumerian culture.

Sumers lack of a unified government.

However, Sumerian culture is maintained
through these shifts in power.
Under their king, Sargon, the Akkadians produce
a version of Gilgamesh.

Akkadians (2100 - 2000

BC)

There was also a version from

the Old Babylonian empire under
Hammurabi.
The Babylonians recognized
the value of Sumerian culture and
adopted much of it as their own.
Sumerian became a literary
language.

Babylonians (1700-700
BC)

In first millennium under the Assyrian

empire the Epic of Gilgamesh took on
its final written form.
The final translation was added to the
Kings library at Nineveh.
After the destruction of Nineveh by the
Chaldeans in 612 BCE, the epic was
lost until the library was excavated in
1872 CE.

Assyrians (700-600
BC)