Gilgamesh Tomb Believed Found

(BBC) -- 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.

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? the remains of 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.

"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.

Dr Oppenheimer has an interesting take in his excellent book, Eden In The East

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

In an exhaustively researched and creatively argued reassessment of mankind's origins, British physician Oppenheimer, an expert in tropical pediatrics, contends that the now-submerged area of Southeast Asia was the cradle of ancient civilization. From time to time, scholars from various disciplines have argued for the existence of a vastly old ``founder civilization.'' Among the most famous was Charles Hapgood, who based his theory of a lost seafaring civilization on his analysis of the famous 16th-century ``Piri Re'is'' maps of the Antarctic land mass. In this tradition, Oppenheimer blends evidence from geology, genetics, linguistics, archaeology, and anthropology to argue persuasively that such a civilization existed on a submerged land mass in Southeast Asia, which geologists call the Sunda shelf. Pointing to geological evidence for the submersion of the shelf by abrupt rises in the sea level about 8,000 years ago, Oppenheimer contends that the coastal cultures of Southeast Asia were drowned by a great flood, reflected in flood mythologies scattered from the ancient Middle East (such as the biblical story of Noah) to Australia and the Americas. According to the author, tantalizing archaeological evidence exists of settlements under a ``silt curtain'' left by the sea floods in drowned coastal regions from Southeast Asia to the Middle East, while linguistic markers indicate that languages spread from Southeast Asia to Australia and the Pacific. The shared flood story is one striking example of similar Eurasian myths according to the author; the ancient Middle East and Asia share other myth typologies, conspicuously including creation and Cain and Abel myths, which point to common origins in a progenitor culture. Absorbing, meticulously researched, limpidly written, and authoritative: should be regarded as a groundbreaking study of the remote past of Southeast Asia, and of civilization itself.

Thank you. If you read the conclusions of the Lorey paper it too states that in all probability the Bible's story probably predates that of the Gilgamesh Epic.

"From the early days of the comparative study of these two flood accounts, it has been generally agreed that there is an obvious relationship. The widespread nature of flood traditions throughout the entire human race is excellent evidence for the existence of a great flood from a legal/historical point of view.20 Dating of the oldest fragments of the Gilgamesh account originally indicated that it was older than the assumed dating of Genesis.21 However, the probability exists that the Biblical account had been preserved either as an oral tradition, or in written form handed down from Noah, through the patriarchs and eventually to Moses, thereby making it actually older than the Sumerian accounts which were restatements (with alterations) to the original."

I teach this epic.

Gilgamesh was a harsh king who raped other men's brides, so the gods heard the prayers of the people and sent Gilgamesh a cave man named Enkidu to absorb his energies. They go an a quest.

Gilgamesh and his sidekick Enkidu slay a giant named Humbaba who guards the cedar forest. The god of light, Shamash, helps them prevail by sending winds from four sides that pin down the giant. Humbaba controls fire, so this is like the Greek Prometheus legend. Gilgamesh conquers fire when he kills the guardian of the forest Humbaba.

Enkidu has a dream about a gloomy underworld where even kings eat dirt and work as servants. He dies having complained about how unfair it is that he must go to the gloomy underworld even tho' he slayed Humbaba with the help of the god of light, Shamash.

After Enkidu dies, Gilgamesh goes on a quest for eternal life as a man. He is 2/3 god and thinks he deserves more than the underworld. He visits the Mesopotamian Noah, Unapishtim, who was given eternal life as a man (he lives forever) because he survived a flood. Gilgamesh wants Unapishtim's advice about how to get eternal life.

The gods sent a flood because man was too noisy. However, one god, Ea, the sly god of the waters, warned Unapishtim the flood was coming. Ea was not supposed to tell the gods' plan, but he was also loyal to Unapishtim; so he told Unapishtim's house walls, and the walls told Unapishtim in a dream. This is more understandable when you know that their houses were made of woven reeds. Basically giant upturned baskets. Whatever Ea said to the walls would have gone right into the house.

Unapishtim builds an ark like in the Bible. The other gods are horrified by the flood and the death of mankind. They get mad at the mean god Enlil who sent the flood. Unapishtim gets eternal life on earth as a man from the remorseful gods.

Gilgamesh is tested by Unapishtim and is found undeserving of eternal life. He can't stay awake for even a week, so how could he live forever?

Still, Unapishtim relents a bit tells Gilgamesh where he can get a flower that gives man eternal life. Gilgamesh gets this flower under a deep channel in the water, but a snake steals it when Gilgamesh is taking a nice bath.

Gilgamesh is devastated. He had wanted to be a savior to his people and give them eternal life. (Get that?) Initially Gilgamesh had started his quest for his own immortality, but he had matured and wanted to give his people eternal life.

Gilgamesh is very sad, but when he gets to his walled city in a boat on a canal, he shows the ferryman all the magnificent features of the wall.

The narrator suggests that Gilgamesh had a kind of immortality because he built a wall that protected his people.

In 5600 BC, the Black Sea, which had been a fresh water lake, was innundated by salt water from the Medeterranean.
Russians and American scientists have proved this because all the freshwater shellfish at a certain depth in the sea bed died at the same time.The water flooded a lot of land around the Black Sea. This happened very fast.

This could have been the source of the flood story. On the other hand, massive flash flooding is a big problem is Mesopotamia. The rivers have changed their channels many times because of it. This caused cities to die and new cities to be born.

They had all these canals to keep water for agriculture.
The need to cooperate to build the irrigation ditches may have prompted the creation of cities.

The British Museum has the Gilgamesh clay tablets. The writing is cunieform. The Flood Story is on display just opposite the Rosetta Stone.

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