Epic of Gilgamesh
Mesopotamia · c. 2100 – 1200 BCE
The oldest surviving long-form literature, assembled across a millennium of tablet traditions.
What the document is
A Standard Babylonian poem preserved largely through Ashurbanipal's library, with earlier Sumerian antecedents.
Why it matters
It documents flood narrative traditions that predate later Near Eastern accounts.
How we treat this record
Attested in primary written sources that historians treat as reliable for this claim.
- Q01How much of the epic is still missing?
- Q02What is the relationship between flood accounts?
Where this source sits
The land between the lower Tigris and Euphrates
31.32° N, 45.64° E
Open the world fileDocuments that share themes, people, or historical periods with Epic of Gilgamesh.
Sumerian King List
Open Debatec. 2100 – 1800 BCE
A dynastic list mixing verifiable kings with reigns of tens of thousands of years.
Shares Gilgamesh and Ashurbanipal · flood traditions · cuneiform literature · Same period: Sumer, Babylon
Code of Hammurabi
Documentedc. 1754 BCE
282 provisions carved on a diorite stele — a legal monument as much as a working law code.
cuneiform literature · kingship · Same period: Babylon
Dead Sea Scrolls
Documentedc. 250 BCE – 68 CE
Roughly 900 manuscripts that reset what scholars knew about Second Temple Judaism and textual transmission.
manuscript discovery · textual transmission
Nag Hammadi Library
Documentedc. 350 CE (copies)
Thirteen codices that transformed the study of early Christian diversity.
manuscript discovery · textual transmission
Where Epic of Gilgamesh connects to the rest of the ancient record — the worlds it belongs to, the chapters it sits in, the documents that record it, and the questions still open.
Worlds
All worlds →Sumer
Southern Mesopotamia · c. 4500 – 1900 BCE
The first society that wrote down what it owed, and so became legible to us.
Epic of Gilgamesh comes out of this world
Mesopotamia
Tigris–Euphrates · c. 6000 – 539 BCE
The wider river world where cities, law and bureaucracy first appear together.
Epic of Gilgamesh comes out of this world
Babylon
Central Mesopotamia · c. 1894 – 539 BCE
The city that wrote down the sky, and turned it into predictive mathematics.
Epic of Gilgamesh comes out of this world
Assyria
Northern Mesopotamia · c. 2025 – 609 BCE
An empire that carved its own campaigns into the walls — and expected you to believe them.
Epic of Gilgamesh comes out of this world
Deep Time
All deep time →Sumer
4500 – 1900 BCE
Cities, cuneiform, and the earliest written administration on record.
Epic of Gilgamesh sits in this chapter
Babylon
1894 – 539 BCE
Law codes, astronomy tablets, and the mathematics of a base-60 world.
Epic of Gilgamesh sits in this chapter
Assyria
2025 – 609 BCE
Empire logistics, siege warfare, and the library that preserved Mesopotamian literature.
Epic of Gilgamesh sits in this chapter
Evidence Files
All evidence files →Baghdad Battery
Khujut Rabu, Iraq · c. 250 BCE – 250 CE
Were these jars electrochemical cells, or storage vessels misread by modern expectations?
Open file in Mesopotamia
Bronze Age Collapse
Eastern Mediterranean · c. 1200 – 1150 BCE
Why did an interconnected system of empires fail within roughly fifty years?
Open file in Assyria