Cuneiform

Cuneiform

Cuneiform is a writing system in which signs are carved on soft clay tablets using a reed stylus. Cuneiform writing was used throughout the ancient world for more than three millennia until around 75 c.e. Continuous lines etched into the clay formed the earliest signs. Because drawing was a relatively slow process, signs were later created with individual cuneus, or wedge-shaped strokes, impressed into the clay.

The wedge shapes became so characteristic of the script that, even though unnecessary, they were included when inscriptions were later engraved in stone or metal. The earliest cuneiform texts were excavated at the southern Mesopotamian city of Uruk and dated just before 3000 b.c.e. Denise Schmandt-Besserat proposed a sequence in which small clay tokens found throughout the Near East are the precursors to cuneiform writing.

From the eighth millennium b.c.e., clay tokens of various shapes were used to represent quantities of items in order to keep track of agricultural products. To prevent unauthorized tampering, tokens were sealed and enclosed in hollow clay envelopes.


Because the tokens would be hidden, they were first impressed onto their envelopes for easy identification. Soon it was recognized that the impressions themselves could convey the same information, without the cumbersome use of tokens. It is plausible that the etched sign was a natural progression from the impressed image.

Most of the early cuneiform signs originated as pictograms, which attempt to replicate the appearance of objects they represent. For example, the sign for a bull resembles a bull’s head. Sometimes these pictograms were used symbolically to express the natural association of ideas.

The sign picturing a star was also used to denote heaven or god, since the celestial realm was considered an abode of the gods. At the earliest stage numbers were not depicted in the abstract (for example, five) but were inextricably linked to the item being counted (for example, five grain rations).

This way of conceptualizing numbers derived from the token system, in which each token simultaneously indicated quantity and identity of the object represented. Later development, however, led to abstract, context-independent numerical signs.

A basic cuneiform sign could be qualified by etching hatched lines over the part to be accentuated, a procedure known as gunification. In this manner, by etching the appropriate place on the sign for head, a new sign for mouth could be signified. Furthermore, combining two or more existing signs may create new signs.

The sign for woman closely juxtaposed with the sign for foreign land yielded the sign for slave woman. Thus, the sign for bread within the sign for mouth resulted in a new sign meaning to eat. Logographic writing of the signs can obscure the language used in a cuneiform text. This means that each sign represents a word and, thus, gives no indication of how that word is to be pronounced.

For example, the sign for king could be read in Sumerian as lugal or in Akkadian as sharrum. Indeed, the earliest use of cuneiform was merely mnemonic and not as a visual means to represent spoken language. In some archaic texts the signs even seem to be written in a random order, showing no attempt to reflect the linear sequence of spoken language.

Nonetheless, the language of the Uruk tablets is shown to be Sumerian because of rebus writing, whereby a sign is used to represent different words or grammatical forms with the same pronunciation. For example, the sign for arrow (pronounced as “ti”) also has the meaning life. This would make sense only in Sumerian, where the word life is pronounced as “ti.”

The total number of cuneiform signs is limited by polyphony, the case that a single sign may be read in different ways. Thus, the sign picturing a human foot could be read in Sumerian as gin (to walk), gub (to stand), or tum (to bring). Such ambiguity in meaning is sometimes clarified by the use of a determinative sign, which indicates the semantic category that the word belongs to.

For example, the same sign could mean “day,” “Sun,” or even “sun god.” By attaching the god determinative before this sign, the meaning becomes unequivocal. Conversely, cuneiform has cases of homophony, whereby different signs share the same pronunciation.

The use of logograms (word signs) for verbs suited the Sumerian language, which varied by adding affixes to an unchanged verbal root. By contrast, Akkadian inflected its verbs in such a way that could not be expressed by using the same cuneiform sign. Accordingly, with the spread of Akkadian in Mesopotamia, there was pressure to apply the rebus principle to cuneiform signs so that they indicated syllables instead of whole words.

For example, the Akkadian verb “he gave” (pronounced as “iddin”) could be expressed by a sequence of these three syllable signs: id + di + in. This procedure preserved in writing the vowels of Akkadian, in contrast to the use of purely consonantal alphabetic scripts for several other Semitic languages. In the third millennium b.c.e. cuneiform was also used for the Semitic language at Ebla in northern Syria, as well as the Elamite language in western Iran.

With Akkadian’s ascendancy as the lingua franca, the use of cuneiform spread as far as Egypt. Hittite, Hurrian, and Urartian documents have all been found in cuneiform script. When early pictograms are oriented to a position natural to the objects they depict, the signs appear in columns from top to bottom, and the columns are read from right to left.

However, at some point in time, cuneiform signs experienced a 90-degree rotation in the counterclockwise direction (i.e., signs were now read in each row from left to right, and the rows read from top to bottom). The flexibility, with which tablets would be rotated during cuneiform writing, may have helped ancient scribes become familiar with reading signs in different orientations.

Damascus and Aleppo

Citadel of Aleppo

Damascus and Aleppo were two cities situated at the center of the Silk Road, a key intercontinental trade route that linked the Roman Empire to China. Caravans traveling on the Silk Road traded in silk, perfumes, and spices in the Far East.

The city of Aleppo, for example, lay at the crossroads of two trade routes, one from India and the other from Damascus. They were important trading centers of caravan traffic and powerful centers of urban culture. Both regions are situated near the Mediterranean coast (about 62 miles from the sea).

The two towns contain agricultural land and nomad territory. Both Damascus and Aleppo suffered earthquakes, epidemics, and internal strife throughout history but were able to regain their prominence successfully after every adversity.


Damascus (Dimashq as-Sham in Arabic) is one of the oldest cities in the world that is still inhabited. The ancient city of Damascus lies within city walls. Excavations reveal that the earliest inhabitants lived there sometime between 10,000 and 8000 b.c.e. The city of Aleppo, on the other hand, was inhabited from 1800 b.c.e., according to archaeological records. After 800 b.c.e. the Assyrians, the Persians, and then the Greeks, in 333 b.c.e., ruled Aleppo.

Damascus only achieved prominence in 1100 b.c.e. after the coming of the Semitic peoples known as the Aramaeans. The Aramaeans built up the infrastructure in the city in the form of canals and tunnels linked to the Barada River. The water distribution system was then improved upon by later rulers of the city, the Romans who conquered Syria in 64 b.c.e., and members of the Omayyad dynasty.

Because of their similarities, Damascus and Aleppo were rivals, and comparisons were often made of them. Even though Aleppo was more successful in economic terms, it seems that Damascus thrived even more as a center of Islam. Islamic intellects often congregated in Damascus, and Islamic art flourished in the city.

Conditions in Damascus were very well suited for the flourishing of the intellectual and artistic milieu, as it had been the center of large empires of those who ruled over it. Damascus was after all the base for the Muslims against the crusaders in the seventh century c.e. During that time it was the center of administration of the caliph.

Damascus became the military and political base of Muslim fighters against the crusaders. Nuraddin first acquired Damascus and Aleppo in 1154, followed by Saladin after his death. In 1260 Mongols attacked the cities, which fell to the hands of the Mamluks in 1317. Damascus continued to enjoy political prominence under the Mamluks as the capital of the Mamluk Empire until 1516, though this period witnessed another Mongol invasion of Damascus in 1400.

Damascus occupies an important position in Sunni tradition as one of the holiest Muslim cities along with Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem, because landmarks events in Islamic history occurred there. It is the birthplace of Abraham and is also where Moses was buried.

Ebla

The ancient city of Ebla is identified with modern Tell Mardikh in north Syria, 34 miles south of Aleppo. It created a sensation when archaeologists uncovered the largest single find of third-millennium cuneiform tablets there. The University of Rome has excavated the site since 1964, under the leadership of Paolo Matthiae.

Ebla is poorly attested in the Early Bronze I–II Periods (c. 3200–2700 b.c.e.), with an absence of Uruk pottery. This suggests that Ebla did not emerge directly due to the development of Sumerian colonies along Syrian trade routes, by which means the “Uruk culture” was disseminated.

By 2400 b.c.e. Ebla had grown into an urban center of more than 135 acres. A palace constructed on the acropolis (designated as “Royal Palace G” by archaeologists) testifies to the increasing importance of centralized administration.


Ebla’s urbanization may possibly be interpreted in terms of the sociopolitical climate prevalent in Syria at that time. With the Mesopotamian city-states extending their influence through long-distance trade, those in Syria felt the pressure to organize and assert their political independence.

Upon excavation Royal Palace G revealed a large archive of cuneiform texts, dated to 2400–2350 b.c.e. The texts span the reigns of Kings Igrish-Halam, Irkab-Damu, and Ishar-Damu, as well as the tenure of important court officials such as Ibrium, Ibbi-Zikir, and Dubukhu-Adda.

The archive contained a grand total of about 1,750 whole tablets and 4,900 tablet fragments. A severe fire, which destroyed the palace, had fortuitously baked and hardened the tablets, thus helping to preserve them.

Scholars generally agree that these cuneiform texts were intended to be read in the local language, Eblaite. However, the texts tend to be written with numerous Sumerian logograms (word signs). This means that Eblaite pronunciation and grammar are often not reflected in the writing.

Some have considered Eblaite to be northwest Semitic, possibly an antecedent for the later Canaanite dialects. Others have noted its affinities to east Semitic languages, such as Old Akkadian.

It is conceivable that Eblaite represents a time before the northwest and east branches of the Semitic family were clearly distinguished. Alternatively, Eblaite may represent the dialect of a geographical region that was influenced by much interaction with both East and West.

Among the tablets are lexical texts that list the Sumerian logograms followed by their Eblaite translations. These represent the earliest attested bilingual dictionaries. Other lexical texts list words according to various categories, such as human vocations, names of fishes, and names of birds.

The sequence and arrangement of these lists are identical with those in southern Mesopotamia, signifying Ebla’s indebtedness to the Sumerian scribal tradition.

Several texts mention, “Young scribes came up from Mari,” and may suggest a means by which Mesopotamian scribal practices passed into the Syrian regions. The Ebla scribes, nonetheless, preferred their own method of number notation and system of measures, instead of adopting Mesopotamian forms.

The vast majority of tablets consist of administrative and economic records, which elucidate much of Ebla’s society. The highest authority at Ebla was designated by the Sumerian title EN, which is translated in Eblaite as malikum (king).

The Sumerian title LUGAL was used in Ebla for governors, who were subordinate to the king. This contrasts with the usage in Mesopotamia, where LUGAL typically denotes an individual of higher rank than an EN.

Royal inscriptions, which laud the king’s power and legitimize his reign, have not yet been found at Ebla. Also, Ebla does not follow the usual Mesopotamian practice of naming years according to significant acts of the king.

Such reticence has encouraged the view that Ebla’s king did not rule as an absolute monarch but as one reliant on leading tribal elders for aspects of state administration. The cult of dead kings is attested at Ebla, with ritual texts describing various sacrifices offered to previous rulers of the dynasty.

Ebla was divided into eight administrative districts. The districts on the acropolis were named saza, while those in the countryside were named ebla. It was the palace, rather than the temple, that chiefly directed the city’s economics.

The palace was responsible for the ownership of land, the sustenance of Ebla’s workforce, and even the record of animals used in religious sacrifices.

In Ebla, however, the system of labor management was not as highly developed as that of Mesopotamia. Agriculture and industry often remained under the management of local communities, which in turn reported to supervisors from the palace.

The most important deity at Ebla was Kura, who functioned as the patron god of the royal household. The pantheon at Ebla included a core of Semitic deities that persisted into later times and appear in Canaanite religion.

Native names were used for deities, and Sumerian gods were worshipped only when there was no Semitic equivalent. This selective appropriation of Sumerian deities suggests that the people of Ebla were well familiar with divine roles and cultic practices in Sumerian religion.

Ebla was strategically located at the junction of major trade routes and engaged in the commerce of products such as wool, flax, olive oil, barley, and wine. Its treasury of gold and silver was immense for its time. International contact extended as far as Egypt, and Ebla’s access to Anatolia supplied it with prized bronze tin.

Various cities between the Euphrates and Balikh Rivers, though far away from Ebla itself, actually came under Ebla’s control. Ebla was interested in northern Mesopotamian trade routes, which would allow it to bypass Mari on the way to southern Mesopotamia. Perennial conflicts ensued between Ebla and Mari.

Both Sargon and Naram-Sin boasted that they conquered Ebla, and the fire that destroyed Royal Palace G most likely dates to either of their reigns. Ur III records, however, imply that Ebla was rebuilt, and that its citizens had name types that show continuity with those of pre-Sargonic Ebla.

The archaeology of the Old Syrian Period (c. 1800–1600 b.c.e.) indicates that Ebla experienced resurgence during this time. However, around 1600 b.c.e. the Hittites king Murshili I destroyed Ebla and effectively ended its political power.

Fertile Crescent

Fertile Crescent

The Fertile Crescent describes an area of land roughly occupied by modern Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq. North of the Arabian Desert and west of the Zagros Mountains, this area is irrigated by several rivers, most notably the Tigris and Euphrates in Iraq and Syria, and the Nile in Egypt.

The two major river basins are connected by the Levant, a stretch of fertile land along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, to form a green crescent-like shape. Once among the most fertile agricultural lands on Earth, the crescent remains visible from space today.

Normally, the ebb and flow of plant and animal populations encouraged people to move around, following them. The Nile, however, experienced fairly predictable annual floods, and the Tigris and Euphrates regularly overflowed and irrigated the surrounding land, now called Mesopotamia.


Aided by the first domesticated animals, people found that they could settle in fixed communities, eating the harvested produce of one year’s floods while waiting for the next year’s crop to grow.

They helped this process along with irrigation ditches, encouraging the production of wheat and barley, which they supplemented with figs and dates. Cows, meanwhile, demanded an increasing quantity of domesticated grass, in order to provide enough meat and milk for a rapidly growing human population.

The First Cities

By around 7000 to 5000 b.c.e. the settled human population had grown large enough to support the first permanent settlements. In ancient Egypt the Nile was revered as part of the primeval sea, which gave way to a primeval hill, on which humankind built some of the first cities, such as Memphis (c. 3500 b.c.e.).

Mesopotamian origin myths went one step further, treating Eridu (settled around 5400 b.c.e.) as the world’s first city. In fact, the oldest continually-inhabited cities are not along the major river valleys at all, but in the Levant, where Damascus, Syria, and Jericho, Israel, boast histories of as much as 9,000 years.

Eridu, one of the first cities in fertile crescent

Initially small, these cities grew in both population and number until the Fertile Crescent was dotted with hundreds or even thousands, containing a few million people between them.

A diverse array of crops and other agricultural goods promoted communication and trade among these cities and thus the first economies, but population pressures, both within the cities and among neighboring nomads, led to an increased demand for territory and security and thus to the earliest forms of organized warfare.

Both trends lent themselves to increasingly complex hierarchies and political organizations among the various city-states so that by the third millennium b.c.e. cities began to band together under a common leadership, creating the first empires.


Egypt

Though Egypt probably emerged late as a civilization of city builders, it was among the first to emerge as a unified state. As early as the first documented pharaoh, Narmer, Egypt emerged as a federated imperial state, with several communities working together toward common secular and spiritual goals.

The most remarkable accomplishment of the earliest Egyptians was the great Pyramids of Giza, constructed around 2500 b.c.e. under the pharaohs of the Fourth Dynasty. Ten centuries and 14 dynasties later, Egypt expanded into the Levant, using chariots and archers to reach as far as the city of Mari, on the western Euphrates.

Throughout its history up to about 1000 b.c.e. Egypt remained remarkably unified. Despite the occasional foreign invasion Egypt maintained a cultural unity rarely fragmented beyond more than two kingdoms, and these were usually based on the two largest cities, Memphis and Thebes.

During brief periods of more general civil strife, smaller city-states emerged, including Saïs and Tanis, but these were often subsumed again into the larger kingdom once political control was reestablished.

Occasionally, however, even the capital of unified Egypt would change, for example when the pharaoh Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti established a new power base at Heliopolis, reflecting a change in Egyptian religion from reverence of the Nile to worship of the Sun.

Mesopotamia and The Levant

In contrast to Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Levant experienced considerable fragmentation and change. Subject to continual invasions and balance-of-power struggles, these city-states tended to be more militarized and for more than a millennium much less adept than their Egyptian counterpart at building secure, stable empires.

Over time, however, they mastered the art, and the Assyrians briefly unified the entire Fertile Crescent under a single sovereign entity, in the middle of the seventh century b.c.e.

Initially, Mesopotamia was broken into tiny city-states, with each town and its surrounding land claiming all the prerogatives of a sovereign state. Collectively called Sumer, the city-states near the Tigris and Euphrates delta developed a distinctive culture, featuring literature such as the Epic of Gilgamesh.

Although Gilgamesh’s town of Uruk clearly influenced others, neither it nor any of the other city-states of Sumer established a clear military or political dominance over the others.

The first major military power in Mesopotamia was not native to the region at all but an invader: the Gutians, who had domesticated the horse and invaded over the Zagros Mountains. Although repulsed by the Sumerians, militia in the individual towns—such as the 24-man garrison of Lagash—could not overcome the next invasion, from northern Arabia.

Sargon of Akkad unified southern Mesopotamia c. 2350 b.c.e. not only by force with his 6,000-man army but also by adopting the local culture. This empire only lasted until 2100 b.c.e., however, before native Sumerian rule was restored by the third dynasty of Ur.

The first leader of this new empire, Ur-Nammu, organized neighboring city-states into administrative districts and imposed one of the world’s first codes of laws across the whole federation. His son, Shulgi, conquered a few neighboring city-states and was revered as a god, though his empire was soon dwarfed.

The problem with Sumer-Akkad was that local food supplies were unable to cope with a growing population—still less so in periods of drought and when the cult of personality failed Shulgi’s successors.

All three factors came into play when the Amorites, another North Arabian tribe, came into the fertile valley of the Euphrates River around 2000 b.c.e. and established themselves at Babylon, blocking the major trade route.

Slowly they absorbed almost all of the territory and culture of their more numerous subjects, but some Sumer-Akkadians may have moved altogether to a different collection of city-states on the northern Tigris, in the old kingdom of Assyria.

Assyria and Babylonia

Though it went through many evolutions, these migrations ultimately set the stage for the major Mesopotamian rivalry of the next 1,500 years, between Assyria and Babylonia—both of them centers of trade, culture, and learning, which became increasingly militaristic and antagonistic over time.

At first, early Babylon was the more impressive, with leaders such as Hammurabi writing their own codes of laws and increasingly advanced institutions of politics, culture, and religion.

Assyria, meanwhile, grew rich as a trading empire but fell subject to invasion by the Mittani, a mysterious people who may have introduced iron working to the region. When Assyria reemerged around 1350 b.c.e., it was no longer a trading empire but a state governed by a continual call to war.

For some 700 years Assyria steadily expanded, dominating its neighbors and unifying large areas of the Fertile Crescent, until by 671 b.c.e. the entire region was subject to the rule of a single leader, Esarhaddon, governing from the city of Nineveh on the middle Tigris.

Deeply religious and eminently pragmatic, many Assyrian leaders combined respect for their neighbors with a calculated ruthlessness. Although they allowed many conquered peoples to retain their political institutions, Assyrian bas-reliefs suggest that their leaders favored a policy of large-scale devastation and deportation for recalcitrant populations, and later dynasties built centers of culture at home from the spoils of rival neighbors.

Despite suffering from one or two major expeditions, Assyrian hegemony worked relatively well for Phoenicia, a collection of semifederated maritime trading states in the northern Levant that provided tribute from islands in the Mediterranean.

The Israelite lands were less compliant, however, and required a judicious mix of deportations, depredations, and diplomacy to remain a subject people. Babylon proved more recalcitrant by the early seventh century b.c.e., revolting three times in 15 years, before Great King Sennacherib completely destroyed it in 689 b.c.e.

Though Esarhaddon ordered the city rebuilt and repopulated, Assyria never fully controlled its neighbor to the south, and late Babylon retrieved the upper hand at long last near the end of the seventh century b.c.e., establishing a smaller Mesopotamian empire that endured for about 70 years, before the Fertile Crescent was unified again under the rule of Cyrus II of Persia.

Gandhara

Gandhara

Gandhara survived multiple conquests through the ancient and medieval periods. It was located on the Silk Road in the area that is now eastern Afghanistan and the northwest portion of Pakistan. Gandhara was a thriving center of trade and culture between the sixth century b.c.e. and the 11th century c.e.

In Buddhist and Hindu texts Gandhara is described as lying along the Uttarapatha (northern path) connecting a high road that followed the Ganges River and continued east through the Punjab and the Taxila Valley into Bactria.

In the Indian epic Mahabharata the kings of Gandhara are mentioned as being allies of the Kuravas in their wars against the Panduvas. The Greek historian Herodotus referred to the region as Paktuike and lists it as one of 20 provinces of the Persian Empire.


During the Persian Empire, at the end of the reign of Cyrus II (558–530 b.c.e.) and under Darius I (521–486 b.c.e.), Gandhara was part of the seventh satrap. It was under the Achaemenid’s control (roughly between 530 and 380 b.c.e.) that administration of the government became organized, aligning itself within the Persian system.

After 380 b.c.e. a series of small kingdoms arose in the region until the invasion by Alexander the Great in 327 b.c.e. Alexander’s control of the area was short-lived. The Mauryan Empire was launched from Gandhara.

The founder, Chandragupta II (r. 322–298 b.c.e.) was a young man living in Taxila during the conquest by Alexander. After successfully launching an assault on the kingdom of Magadha, Chandragupta defeated the Selucid Greeks in 305 b.c.e. and went on to become ruler over much of India.

For the next 150 years Gandhara was part of the Mauryan Empire. The great Mauryan ruler Ashoka, who lived from 304 to 232 b.c.e., was in his early career the governor of Gandhara. Under Ashoka, Buddhism began to flourish in the region.

After the fall of the Mauryans, around 185 b.c.e., Demetrius, the king of Bactria, invaded Gandhara but did not occupy it for long. The reign of Gandhara’s king Menander, who ruled from the cities of Taxila and Sagala until 140 b.c.e., marked a brief period of independence.

Following that period the kingdom came under the influence of Sakas, and by the beginning of the Common Era, the Parthians. Under the Parthians cultural and artistic ideas of the Greeks were brought to the centers of education and commerce. The famous Gandhara school of art began to apply Greek conventions to Buddhist figures. Gandharan artists were the first to depict the Buddha in human form.

Their emphasis was both on realism and the ideal beauty of the human form. While exquisite pieces of art from 50 b.c.e. to 400 c.e. survived, probably the most recognizable is the Fasting Buddha, which depicts a meditating Buddha whose bones are literally exposed due to his starvation.

The golden age of Gandhara took place during the rule of the Kushans. Countless remains of Buddhist monasteries, large statues, and various Buddhist stupas survived from this era.

The Kushan monarch Kanishka (128–151 c.e.) ruled his kingdom from Peshawar in Gandhara. The empire stretched from southern India to the border of Han China. From Peshawar, Buddhist culture, religion, and art were spread to the Far East.

After 241 c.e. Gandhara became a vassal of the Sassanians. Until the fifth century it remained a center of culture, artistic activity, and commerce. This period was marked by the production of giant statues of the Buddha that were carved into mountainsides and other large statues that were placed in monasteries.

By the middle of the fifth century the Huns invaded Gandhara, and the culture slid into a period of decay. Buddhism fell into decline, while some practice of Hinduism resurfaced. The Sassanids drove out the Huns in the middle of the sixth century.

Even though the Sassanid Empire came under the control of Islam after 644, the Arabs seemed to have little interest in Gandhara. Buddhism continued there under Turkish rule until the area’s conquest by Hindushahi around 870.

The Hindushahi capital was moved to Udabhandapura in Gand, and the kingdom once again prospered, at least through the early part of the Middle Ages. Around 1021 the region was taken over by Muslim leaders, and the kingdom of Gandhara was absorbed into the Islamic world. British archaeologists revived interest in the history of the region in the mid-19th century.

Gilgamesh

Enkidu and Gilgamesh. Characters out of the earliest
Mesopotamian creation story cycle called the Enuma Elish.

Gilgamesh (meaning "the old man is now a young man") is perhaps the greatest hero in ancient Near Eastern literature. The story of this hero is based on a legendary king of the same name who ruled the Mesopotamian city of Uruk sometime between 2700 and 2600 b.c.e.

The name of Gilgamesh appears on the famous Sumerian King List, which dates to the late third millennium b.c.e. Later kings viewed Gilgamesh with great respect; some considered him as their personal god. As of yet, no inscriptions have been found that can be attributed to him.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is the heroic tale of this legendary king. It is a compilation of various preexisting stories, some of which circulated as early as the Ur III dynasty in Sumer (c. 2100–2000 b.c.e.). There are two versions of this epic, the first of which is the Old Babylonian version.


This version dates to the second millennium b.c.e. and lacks the prologue and the famous flood story. The second is the standard version, which was discovered in Nineveh at the royal library of the seventh-century b.c.e. king Ashurbanipal of Assyria.

Tradition states that a master scribe and incantation priest by the name of Sin-leqe-unnini was the author. This version has been found in a variety of areas ranging from Palestine and Syria to modern-day Turkey, in addition to Mesopotamia. There is also evidence that it was included in school writing exercises.

Cylinder seals and statues depict a powerful hero grappling with wild animals, which scholars refer to as the "Gilgamesh figure", though there is no written evidence to connect Gilgamesh with the hero as depicted.

Some examples of this picture occur at times before the historical Gilgamesh ruled the city of Uruk. It is possible that this figure was connected with Gilgamesh at some point in Mesopotamian history. It is also possible that this heroic figure was connected with other Sumerian deities in extreme antiquity.

As the epic opens, Gilgamesh is described as a tyrant. He forces the male citizens to complete his building projects while taking the young women for himself to satisfy his sexual desires. So oppressive is the reign of Gilgamesh that the people of the city cry out to the gods to give them relief.

In response the gods create Enkidu, a being who is part man, part animal to challenge Gilgamesh. After engaging in battle and finding themselves to be near equals, the two become fast friends and adventuring heroes.

Gilgamesh and Enkidu slaying the bull of heaven

On their first adventure together they slay a giant named Humbaba (Huwawa), who is the guardian of a great cedar forest. After returning to Uruk, Gilgamesh is approached by the goddess Ishtar, who wants the hero to become her lover. He refuses her advances, which infuriates the goddess.

She asks An, the father of the gods, to send the monstrous Bull of Heaven to destroy the heroes. After the monster kills hundreds of young men from the city, Enkidu seizes it by the tail, while Gilgamesh plunges a sword into its neck, killing it.

After the Bull of Heaven is dead, Enkidu has a dream in which the council of the gods meets to decide which of the heroes should die for the killing of Humbaba and the Bull of Heaven. They eventually decide on Enkidu, who dies after suffering an illness that lasts for seven days.


Grief stricken, Gilgamesh reflects on his own mortality and decides to search for the secret of eternal life. Gilgamesh hears that a man named Utnapishtim was granted eternal life by the gods. Utnapishtim had survived a great flood that destroyed humanity, after which he was granted eternal life by the gods.

After Gilgamesh finds this man, Utnapishtim tells him that he cannot have eternal life in the same way. Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh of a certain plant that has the ability to make the old young again, and Gilgamesh leaves to find this plant.

After discovering it, Gilgamesh decides to bathe in a pool after his long journey. While he is bathing, a snake comes along and devours the plant, which is an etiological myth explaining why snakes shed their skins.

The hero returns home to his city of Uruk sadder but wiser. He realizes that the only way a person can achieve immortality is by accomplishing great works that will outlive him in future generations. He looks around his city and sees the mighty walls he has built and is satisfied.

If fame is a measure of immortality, then one might argue that Gilgamesh actually achieved it. This outlook is similar to the heroic outlook found in the Homeric epics and in the Greek mythology and pantheon.

There is a 12th tablet, though it contains stories that do not quite fit with the rest of the epic. In this tablet Enkidu is still alive. Gilgamesh accidentally drops two items down a hole, which leads to the underworld.

Enkidu goes to fetch the items but discovers that he cannot return to the land of the living. The Epic of Gilgamesh is famous for its inclusion of the flood story, which resembles the one in Genesis of the Jewish scriptures.

The Old Babylonian version, however, did not contain the flood, suggesting that it was not originally associated with Gilgamesh. The flood story existed in several forms in Mesopotamia including an Akkadian work entitled The Atrahasis Epic.

Hittites

The Hittites were Indo-Europeans who entered Anatolia in approximately 2300 b.c.e. and in the following centuries managed to become one of the dominant powers of the ancient Near East. The word Hittite derives from their term for central Anatolia, hatti, which was derived from those who lived in the area before the Hittites, the Hattians.

Most of the information regarding the Hittites comes from thousands of clay tablets discovered in the Hittite capital of Hattusha. Three distinct Indo-European languages have been deciphered in these texts: Hittite, Luwian, and Palaic.

The texts were written in cuneiform and hieroglyphic scripts, and many words were borrowed from the local population and from surrounding nations. Hittite history is usually divided into the Old Kingdom and the New Kingdom.


The Old Kingdom covered the period from 1750 to 1600 b.c.e., while the New Kingdom lasted c. 1420–1200 b.c.e. The intervening period (c. 1600–1420 b.c.e.) is sometimes referred to as the Middle Kingdom.

During the Old Kingdom the Hittites were able to achieve foreign expansion. First, during the reign of Hattushili I, the Hittite army campaigned to the west as far as Arzawa and to the southeast as far as northern Syria.

Second, during the reign of Murshili I, the army made the long march through Syria and into Babylonia, where they were able to overpower Babylon and bring to an end the first dynasty of Babylon (c. 1595 b.c.e.). However, during the reigns of Murshili’s successors, the kingdom seems to have lost control of lands to the east and southeast.

Hittite empire map

The founder and first ruler of the New Kingdom was Tudhaliya II (c. 1420–1370 b.c.e.). Although he was able to revive the kingdom, it was not until the reigns of Shuppiluliuma I (c. 1344 b.c.e.), and Hattushili III (c. 1239 b.c.e.) that the Hittites were able to achieve their greatest foreign expansion.

They were able to expand the kingdom throughout all of Syria, defeating Mittani, and extending almost as far south as Damascus. Battles with the Egyptians, most famously the Battle at Kadesh, led to a treaty between Hattushili III and Ramses II in which a Hittite princess was given to Ramses in marriage.

Although the treaty with Egypt remained in force for the remainder of the Hittite New Kingdom, new threats arose that eventually led to the demise of the Hittites. Assyria under Shalmaneser I became aggressive toward the Hittites. In addition, various smaller nations surrounding the Hittite homeland began to pressure the Hittites militarily and economically.


Unfortunately, it is still impossible to tell the exact nature of the downfall of the Hittite capital Hattusha. What is clear is that limited Hittite rule continued in other areas, particularly Carchemish. These local centers were ruled by Neo-Hittite dynasties governing individual city-states. These city-states were eventually absorbed into the Neo-Assyrian Empire.

Hittite religion and cultic practices are becoming increasingly better known through archaeological excavations. Unfortunately, no mythological text in the old Hittite script has yet been discovered. However, one myth of west Semitic origin has been found in a Hittite translation.

It tells the story of the virtuous young male BaalHaddu refusing the advances of the married Asherah in a fashion reminiscent of the biblical account of Joseph and Potipher’s wife found in the book of Genesis. Cultic practices are illuminated in the various festival descriptions found in royal archives and in texts from provincial centers.

Much is known about these festivals, special times when the statue of the deity was brought out from the temple and honored with sacrifices and offerings given amid music and dancing. New moon festivals were held to mark the beginning of each new month.

Knowledge of ancient Near Eastern temples, including the Solomonic Temple of the Old Testament, is greatly advanced through the excavations of various Hittite temples.

At least five temples have been uncovered in the capital of Hattusha, and some estimate there to be as many as 20 present in the city. Every Hittite city had at least one temple staffed by both male and female personnel serving as cooks, musicians, artisans, farmers, and herders.