Found this:
This is not a new story. I used it in a report I gave in the fall. They have discovered this a while ago.
It is a very interesting discovery.
The ancient Sumerians (Gilgamesh was Sumerian) dug irrigation ditches all over their land and these were also used as roads--as in Venice.
The city was also called Warka and there is a very famous Warka Vase in the Bagdhad Museum. It was stolen during the American invasion, but the boys who stole it were forced to bring it back by their mother. She found it under their bed and said she would kill herself if they didn't take it right back. So they did.
The Warka Vase is like the Rosetta Stone for Iraq. It is an early example of storytelling in pictures. IT is a tall vase with comicbook like frames that show pictues about the culture, agriculture, religion.
Is that where the Uruk Hai come from?
I thought the Germans were too scared to be in Iraq.
Holy crap! If this pans out it would be one of the most signifigant finds in archaeological history!
BTTT
I thought Helen Thomas' diary was the oldest book in history.
INTREP - Commodore P.J. Wiseman has demonstrated that Adam wrote the first 4 chapters of Genesis in about 4000 BC
Fascinating.
I'm only including the link because I remember posting the article here on FR.
Still very interesting!
-CD
I just love your posts. I swear I would never know what was happening in the world of archaeology if it weren't for you! (so thanks!)
Uruk, according to the Gilgamesh Epic, was approached by boat. The people dug all these canals/irrigation ditches and then went around by boat. The "city" was the cultivated area in those times.
When the river was high, water could be captured in the ditches and used to irrigate.
They still have these irrigation ditches all over the place in Iraq, and we have lost soldiers who drove into these canals and drowned.
Fishermen along the rivers live in houses made of woven reeds--giant baskets. These are right next to the water and probably are replaced frequently. I saw a picture of one of these houses in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The Mesopotamian Noah, Unapishtim, was warned by a god named Ea/Enki who whispered to the walls of his house that a flood was coming. It was a reed house, the epic specifies. The houses are still the same thousands of years later.
Technically, the walls told Unapishtim the flood was coming. My students always think this is crazy until I explain that the god Ea/Enki has divided loyalties.
He isn't supposed to tell man about the flood because that would be disloyal to the gods, but he wants to warn man.
He defends his breach of confidence to the other gods by "explaining" that he only told the walls, not Unapishtim.
Clearly, he is being disingenuous. Ea/Enki was the god of waters and was known for his slyness. Water is sly and two-faced in Mesopotamia--just like Ea/Enki. Water gives you life and also takes it.
When people ask Unapishtim (Mesopotamian Noah) why he is building a boat, he tells them (on the advice of Ea) to say that Enlil is mad at him so he has to move to the sea, but "on you he will rain down an abundant harvest of bran and wheat."
Ea is very two-faced, and this pun illustrates his dual nature. Bran and wheat can also mean rain down misfortune and sorrow in their language.
Ea is like those later Greek oracles who always speak the truth, but people don't understand.
At the end of the story, the other gods turn against Enlil who convinced them to send the flood. He isn't allowed to eat the food sacrificed because he brought the flood.
The gods are not all-knowing. They are shocked by the flood and hide behind their walls in heaven "like dogs."
I find the Sumerian mythology interesting because of the influence that it had on the religions we are familiar with. The Hebrews were influenced by these myths during their Babylonian captivity. The concept of a Lord of Light and a Lord of Darkness influenced the Jewish concepts of God and the devil. The further evolution of these ideas is seen in Mithraic and Persian beliefs which had a influence on Christianity. The area described in this post also influenced concepts of the Garden of Eden with it's elaborate gardens. While Gilgamesh's only relation to the bible may be the flood stories the whole area gives birth to so many figures found in the bible. If anybody is interested in astrology there is a interesting connection between the epics of Gilgamesh and the signs of the Zodiac, if you give any credence to Robert Graves. This was a very nice post, I like the archaeological and historical ones.
bump