Posted on 04/29/2003 6:13:45 AM PDT by Constitution Day
Archaeologists in Iraq believe they may have found the lost tomb of King Gilgamesh - the subject of the oldest book in history.
The Epic Of Gilgamesh - written by a Middle Eastern scholar 2,500 years before the birth of Christ - commemorated the life of the ruler of the city of Uruk, from which Iraq gets its name.
Now a German-led expedition has discovered what is thought to be the entire city of Uruk - including, where the Euphrates once flowed, the last resting place of its famous King.
"I don't want to say definitely it was the grave of King Gilgamesh, but it looks very similar to that described in the epic," Jorg Fassbinder, of the Bavarian department of Historical Monuments in Munich, told the BBC World Service's Science in Action programme.
Magnetic
In the "book" - actually a set of inscribed clay tablets - Gilgamesh was described as having been buried under the Euphrates, in a tomb apparently constructed when the waters of the ancient river parted following his death.
"We found just outside the city an area, in the middle of the former Euphrates river, we detected the remains of a such a building which could be interpreted as a burial," Mr Fassbinder said.
He said the amazing discovery of the ancient city under the Iraqi desert had been made possible by modern technology.
"By differences in magnetisation in the soil, you can look into the ground," Mr Fassbinder added.
"The difference between mudbricks and sediments in the Euphrates river gives a very detailed structure."
This creates a "magnetogram", which is then digitally mapped, effectively giving a town plan of Uruk.
'Venice in the desert'
"The most surprising thing was that we found structures already described by Gilgamesh," Mr Fassbinder stated.
"We covered more than 100 hectares.
"We have found garden structures and field structures as described in the epic, and we found Babylonian houses."
But he said the most astonishing find was an incredibly sophisticated system of canals.
"Very clearly, we can see in the canals some structures showing that flooding destroyed some houses, which means it was a highly-developed system.
"[It was] like Venice in the desert."
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It's good to be the king...
A tad bit off topic:
Yesterday I heard an interview with a guy that on his 9th trip to the ME they have found the Ark of Noah in Iran, not in the mountains of Turkey (Ararat).
I wonder why all the sudden we are finding so much old stuff in the middle east.
What!? After seeing Raiders of the Lost Ark you STILL don't know?? ;^)
We'd only have 2/3's of it!
Not much has changed, has it!
UMmmm... doughnuts!
I was hoping they found the tomb of the missing '12th' Iman and be done with that whack job in Iran.
B4L8r
A few years ago my department was debating what to call a new server that we were building for use as in internal webserver. I wanted it to be called Homer. Why? Because Depending upon who is thinking of the name, it could have one of 3 different meanings:
"Darmok on the ocean"
"Tanagra on the ocean"
"Darmok at Tanagra"
"Jalad on the ocean, Jalad at Tanagra"
"The beast at Tanagra"
"Darmok and Jalad, on the ocean"
;-) I see you liked it too.
"Darmok!"
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