What's the dating of the standard Akkadian version of the Gilgamesh Epic?
Upvote:11
Yes, you do understand correctly.
The best preserved tablets containing the standard Akkadian version were discovered in the Library of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh by Hormuzd Rassam in 1853. These tablets are now held in the British Museum:
- The Flood Tablet - Epic of Gilgamesh - Library of Ashurbanipal - image source British Museum (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
However, even though the tablets recovered from the Library of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh had been written in the 7th century BCE, they included the the name of Sîn-lēqi-unninni, who was the person that had compiled that version of the text sometime between 1300 BCE and 1000 BCE.
As a result, we can say that the tablets from the Library of Ashurbanipal were 7th century BCE copies of a much earlier (c. 1200 BCE) text.
It is worth stressing just how rare it was for the name of the person who compiled the text to be included in a cuneiform text at this date. However, Sîn-lēqi-unninni was not the author of the Epic of Gilgamesh.
As Andrew George observed in the introduction to his 1999 translation:
He [Sîn-lēqi-unninni] could not have been the original composer of the Babylonian epic, for a version of it already existed in the Old Babylonian period, but probably he gave it its final form and was thus responsible for the edition current in first-millennium libraries, the text that here we call the standard version.
- George, Andrew: The epic of Gilgamesh: the Babylonian epic poem and other texts in Akkadian and Sumerian, Penguin Books, 1999, p xxv
If you are interested in learning more about the origins of the Epic of Gilgamesh, and how the story evolved, I'd highly recommend The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic: Introduction, Critical Edition and Cuneiform Texts by Dr Andrew George of SOAS (published by Oxford University Press in 2003).
More post
- 📝 What were the differences between the Waffen SS and the Wehrmacht in their role during the war?
- 📝 What was this small state in the south of France in 1789?
- 📝 Has China ever sent officials to collect tribute under the tributary system, instead of receiving missions, besides Zheng He's voyages?
- 📝 Why didn't former slaves become low-wage workers after emancipation?
- 📝 What uniform is General Redvers Henry Buller VC GCB GCMG wearing in this colored photo?
- 📝 Map of Osaka Castle circa late 1600s
- 📝 What happened to all the French guillotines?
- 📝 Who is in this c.1866 photo?
- 📝 How and why did e.g. Chechnya differ in status from entities like Armenia?
- 📝 Buying/Renting/Leasing houses during history?
- 📝 How was Hoche and Binding's text, arguing for the murder of certain disabled people, received within eugenics movements worldwide?
- 📝 Conscientious objectors in Germany during WWI
- 📝 How long did it take for a diplomat to travel between Berlin and Vienna in the 1770's?
- 📝 Who was 'Viscount Yi' and what did he do to survive in the court of a madman?
- 📝 Did JFK really say "Hitler is one of the greatest men…one of the most significant figures that ever lived"?
- 📝 How were dogs used in WW1
- 📝 How did currency exchange work in the Middle Ages, especially if the coins are not recognized?
- 📝 How did a few blacks and Indians attain good education during apartheid in Cape Town?
- 📝 Am I imagining this or did I just found one of the oldest "hidden" erotic artworks ever?
- 📝 Are there any examples of single combat between kings/generals ending a war?
- 📝 During Iranian Hostage Crisis, were shredded documents reassembled by children?
- 📝 Earliest evidence of objects intended for future archaeologists?
- 📝 Why was the Marian reforms' inclusion of landless masses necessary?
- 📝 Former French PM Blum was in Buchenwald -- what is known about his life there?
- 📝 If I were a well-to-do ancient Roman, could I make money by investing in the construction of an aqueduct?
- 📝 Churchill's words about war escaping - any reference in his biography or memoir?
- 📝 What is the relation between the "Jacobins" and the "Montagnards" (French Revolution)?
- 📝 When was glass first used to protect art?
- 📝 Is the Krishna (a god within Hinduism), an appropriated historical figure?
- 📝 When did the Holy Roman Empire collapse?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 What's the dating of the standard Akkadian version of the Gilgamesh Epic?
- 📝 Are images of the original tablets for the Epic of Gilgamesh available online?
- 📝 What were the factors that caused the world to move away from the Gold Standard in the 20th century?
- 📝 Why was the Gilgamesh flood tablet such a sensation?
- 📝 How do we know that Louvre version of Mona Lisa painting is the original one painted by Leonardo Da Vinci?
- 📝 What was the British version of the Enigma machine?
- 📝 What was the standard spoken language (dialect) in the Three Kingdoms period?
- 📝 Before the use of Anno Domini dating (BCE/CE), how were years numbered?
- 📝 What is the original German version of Bismarck's phrase about intentions and capabilities?
- 📝 Why was there a 2nd version of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact that gave Lithuania to USSR?
- 📝 Why was the first production PzKpfw V (Panther) called the Ausf.D, and the second production version called the Ausf.A?
- 📝 At what point did high school become a standard prerequisite for university students in the USA?
- 📝 Is (or was) there a version of the Maltese Cross with the right arrowhead missing? Does it have a name?
- 📝 Can anyone point me to an online version of the 1900 amendment to the Franco-Russian Military Convention 1892?
- 📝 What kind of wood was the standard decking for aircraft carriers in World War 2?
- 📝 How did historians find out about the undoctored version of Stalin's doctored photographs?
- 📝 Is there a standard authority on the textual history of the authors of antiquity?
- 📝 What was the standard pistol used in Yugoslavia during WWII?
- 📝 Where can I find the original Arabic version of bin Laden's 1996 fatwa?
- 📝 Why did the musket become the standard infantry combat weapon in European armies around 1700?
- 📝 Why was a gold standard not stipulated in the U.S. Constitution?
- 📝 How accurate is Belloc's version of European economic history in The Servile State, with regards to the seizing of the monastic lands?
- 📝 What is the evidence to repudiate this version of the "stab in the back" myth?
- 📝 Articles 3 & 5 of the Tripartite Pact are unclearly formulated. Was this standard for the period?
- 📝 Was there a revised English version of General Order 1 re: the division of Korea?
- 📝 Gregorian dating in the Julian time period?
- 📝 What is the dating of the earliest manuscript of the Book of Arda Wiraz?
- 📝 Which astronomical events have been the most important in dating historical events?
- 📝 Why did Hitler attack the Soviet Union when he was still busy fighting the United Kingdom?
- 📝 When did people decide that all caps means the writer is shouting?