Artists Depiction of the Ziggurat at Ur
Posted on 01/30/2005 2:51:03 PM PST by blam
Gilgamesh Tomb Believed Found
Posted 01-25-2005 10:02:40 (GMT 1-25-2005
(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.
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? 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.
'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."
Nah, it's only the German politicians and military. German archeologists are fearless.
Cunieform is a wedge-shaped writing; it's not a language.
This is the written version that has the flood story.
It's the authoritative version. This is the one in the school books.
The flood story excited the archeologists who dug up the clay tablets in the ruins of the Assyrian King Asherbanipal's library.
The story survived three cultures--Sumerian, Babylonians and Assyrian. (Susan B. Anthony).
The Sumerians had Gilgamesh stories but the Babylonians put them into a unified epic.
The one I'd heard reports of are also written cuneiform tablets, form Iraq over the last few years although still incoplete. I'll have to see if I can find the link.
In my view, there is no doubt that the Utnapishtim story preserves an oral tradition of Noah--you don't have too much difficulty with that because Noah and his family who all had first hand knowledge lived long after the flood.
The difficulty is presented by Gilgamesh himself. Who was he?
Noah lived 350 years after the flood. His son Shem, was still alive at the age of 446; Noah's grandson Arphaxad was 346 years old at the time of his grandfather's death.
Falstich has the Post Flood Summarian King's List starting less than 100 years after the flood but the first king is in Kish; the Sumarian's are united under the King in Urak about 75 years later so in Falstich's timeline, Gilgamesh would fall somewhere between 100 and 175 years after the flood.
Assuming 25 year generations (birth of the father to birth of the son), Gilgamesh could have been four or five generations removed from Noah and might well have located his great-great-great grandfather to have received the account denominated Utnapishtim.
Sure the Utnapishtim story is a little off the precise account in Genesis which Moses received from God but Noah was old; Gilgamesh was writing with a chisel, not a word processer.
Hapgood's analysis is intesting but speculative. The Summerian King's list (prior to the flood) has Summer in the same area. Other descriptions such as the rivers out of Eden; Eve's tomb in Mecca; and other artificats that predate the flood imply a common location.
The stories in Southeast Asia and the Pacific presumably migrated there with the population expansion. No doubt though that the flood is in the common history of ancient man--and the flood is not some local flood in the Black Sea.
Yes, I have been persuaded by Oppenheimer's argument. Prior to this change, I was a Black Sea as Noah's Flood story person
"The stories in Southeast Asia and the Pacific presumably migrated there with the population expansion. No doubt though that the flood is in the common history of ancient man--and the flood is not some local flood in the Black Sea."
The amazing thing, the expansion came from SE Asia. The original Caucasians probably came from China. And, Oppenheimer says the Gilgamesh writings mentions immigrants from the east ("wise men from the east"), I've not read Gilgamesh.
Dr Robert Schoch, (geologist/geophysist), has a book titled, Voyages Of The Pyramid Builders, that essentially has the same theme, that the world's first/great civilizations were 'seeded' from SE Asia, 7-8,000 years ago. (That was when the last Ice Age melt/surge occurred.) Both interesting and thought provoking books. I've just completed Oppenheimer's most recent book too, Out Of Eden.
Thanks for continuing my education. Terrific post.
Gilgamesh lived 2700-2500 BC.
The Black Sea flood was about 5600 BC.
This is a long time for oral tradition to survive, I think; however, people dated everything before and after the flood just as we now date everything before and after Jesus. I don't know how long oral tradition survives.
The flooding of the fresh water Black Sea with salt water from the Mediterranean may have displaced populations and sent them West. The sea filled with salt water and also would have sent water rushing up river channels resulting in massive flash-flooding inland along rivers.
That's the story, but I found it in the course of my work for a presentation on the Internet.
Some years ago when I was in Turkey I visited the Naval Museum. It had some displays about Reis and his work, including some of his maps. I asked if I could see the famous Piri Reis map of the "new world." I was told it wasn't there in the Museum, but was in the former Imperial Palace. Some time later I toured the Palace, and asked if I could see the map. I was told it wasn't there, it was in the Naval Museum.
I hope the Turkish bureaucracy hasn't lost the thing.
I knew that.
Cuneiform is an elegant solution to the problem of making permanent records. Really permanent. Some wet clay and a couple of sticks with triangular ends and you are in business. Really hypersuper permanent grocery receipts.
There was a big business in making archeological fakes during Saddam.
Graduate students were sometimes pressured to make fakes, oxidize them and bury them in the ground for discovery and sale to other countries.
A lot of Western archeologiest were drawn into collaborative arrangements with Iraqi officials in charge of antiquities.
Find the link. There is a lot of funky stuff when it comes to Iraqi archeological finds. It got very criminalized.
You probably need official academic papers to see the thing now. Ever since Hapgood every amateur Atlantis hunter in the world has wanted to take a look at it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.