THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH (Tablet One)

One of the exciting things about the EPIC OF GILGAMESH is that there are probably parts of it still waiting to be discovered, hidden beneath the sands of Mesopotamia. What you hear in this video is from TABLET ONE (a Prologue) of a series of cuneiform tablets recovered from the excavations of the library of the Assyrian King Ashurbanipal in the ancient city of Nineveh. The translator of the Epic Of Gilgamesh, assyriologist Andrew R. George, whose translation is provided in the subtitles, is one of only a small handful of people in the world able to read Old Babylonian cuneiform script, and his help with the correct pronunciation of the original Babylonian text was essential. For more about Professor George and his work, there are some very entertaining videos of his lectures on YouTube, as well as an impressive list of published books. If you want to read the entire Epic, I highly recommend the following book which can be ordered through Amazon.