Gilga 2 Essay, Research Paper

The epic of Gilgamesh was found in the mid nineteenth century, written on over twenty five thousand clay tablets. After much studying and deciphering, this ancient Sumerian epic has finally been translated, though many of the tablets have not been found. it appears that all the most important elements of the story probably existed as separate poems when they were first written. One of the oldest pieces of literature found today, Gilgamesh is at least 1,500 years older than Homer’s epics, and was probably composed and recited many years, before being written down. According to scientific data, the tablets were probably written down in the first centuries of the second millennium B.C., in Mesopotamia.

The tradition reaches back to the time of the Archaic Sumerian civilization. The Sumerians were the first literate inhabitants of Mesopotamia, so their language is found on the tablets of Gilgamesh. In some other historical material, records have been recorded about several expeditions, many ones similar to the ones taken by Gilgamesh. One example contains a man who made a path into a cedar mountain on which no one had ventured before.

The Sumerians

Among the earliest civilizations, there was a diverse group of people in the fertile valleys between the Tigris and Euphrates valley called the Mesopotamia. These were known as the Sumerians. The Sumerian civilization has left us with an enduring portrait of their society, philosophy, government, religion, and daily life.