“This, the eleventh tablet of the Epic, describes the meeting of Gilgamesh with Utnapishtim. Like Noah in the Hebrew Bible, Utnapishtim had been forewarned of a plan by the gods to send a great flood. He built a boat and loaded it with all his precious possessions, his kith and kin, domesticated and wild animals and skilled craftsmen of every kind.
Utnapishtim survived the flood for six days while mankind was destroyed, before landing on a mountain called Nimush. He released a dove and a swallow but they did not find dry land to rest on, and returned. Finally a raven that he released did not return, showing that the waters must have receded.
This Assyrian version of the Old Testament flood story was identified in 1872 by George Smith, an assistant in The British Museum.”
*THAN*
Is it??
(Source: charcharichigo)
It’s Official!!!! Kinoko’s The Epic of Gilgamesh #1 is Complete. These will be available @Stumptown Comics Fest this weekend, through my Etsy by Monday (http://www.etsy.com/shop/kinokogallery?ref=seller_info) and if you see me in person, I’ll prolly be carrying, so please just ask.
Historical Timeline of Mesopotamia - Iraq - The Cradle of Civilization -
الجدول الزمني لحضارة وادي الرافدين
Cities with ruling dynasties starting along the tigris & euphrates rivers 3500 BC. Although I’ve seen ancient artifacts indicative of highly organized societies dating even further back.
- The British Museum
The bull on the Lyre of Ur!
(Source: brettkingery)
From Tell al-‘Ubaid, southern Iraq
Early Dynastic period, about 2500 BC
“
This limestone statue was excavated in 1919 besides the ruins of the temple at Tell al-‘Ubaid dedicated to the Sumerian fertility goddess Ninhursag. A very damaged sculpture was found alongside it, with only the upper part of the body surviving. A cuneiform inscription identifies it as Kurlil, an official in the city of Uruk who had dedicated the image to the goddess Damkina at Tell al-‘Ubaid. A cuneiform sign on the right shoulder of this statue, though very worn, can be identified as part of Kurlil’s name. The figure is therefore probably another donation by him.
The statue is typical of figurines set up in a temple to pray on behalf of the donor, though Kurlil’s cross-legged pose here is unusual.
An inscription tells us that Kurlil was responsible for building work on the Temple of Ninhursag.”
King Ashurbanipal in a detail of a Neo-Assyrian relief depicting a lion hunt (British Museum).
Stuff to envy!
New book to at to my collection:
Sumerian Mythology by Samuel Noah Kramer.
I really wanted this book for a while, but the book store was out of it. So I was happy when the store had two new copies in store last friday. ^^
URUK RISES AGAIN IN DIGITAL 3D
Uruk: 5000 Years of the Megacity that marks the 100th anniversary of the first excavations at Uruk
The Staatliche Museen’s Vorderasiatisches Museum (Museum of the Ancient Near East) and the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen, Mannheim collaborated with the German Archaeological Institute’s Orient Department and the German Oriental Society to create a comprehensive display, featuring objects from the Vorderasiatisches Museum’s own collection and the Uruk-Warka collection of the German Archaeological Institute, which is maintained by the University of Heidelberg. The German-held works will be supplemented by further extraordinary objects from other museums, including the British Museum in London and the Louvre in Paris.
The exhibition – along with these stunning digital models of the buildings promises to be an impressive demonstration of the emergence and blossoming of one of the oldest known cities in human history and will reveal how the many facets of urban life known to have first evolved in Uruk impacted not just on the ancient Near East, but the wider world as a whole.
Photo © artefacts-berlin.de; Scientific material: German Archaeological Institute (DAI)
Cool video at source too!