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The buried book

Composed in Babylonia more than three thousand years ago, The Epic of Gilgamesh is the story of one hero's travels in search of immortality, of a vengeful goddess, a cunning serpent, and a devastating flood. It was the world's first great epic, which would later be echoed in The Odyssey, the Bible, and The Thousand and One Nights. But in 612 BC, the clay tablets that bore the story were lost - buried in the burning ruins of the palace of Ashurbanipal, the last great king of Assyria, as his enemies laid his kingdom to waste.... [This book] begins with the rediscovery of the epic and its deciphering in 1872 by George Smith, a brilliant self-taught linguist who created a sensation when he stumbled upon Gilgamesh among the thousands of tablets in the British Museum's collection. From there the story goes backward in time, all the way to Gilgamesh himself. --Dust jacket.

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  • "Loss and rediscovery of the great epic of Gilgamesh"

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  • "Composed in Babylonia more than three thousand years ago, The Epic of Gilgamesh is the story of one hero's travels in search of immortality, of a vengeful goddess, a cunning serpent, and a devastating flood. It was the world's first great epic, which would later be echoed in The Odyssey, the Bible, and The Thousand and One Nights. But in 612 BC, the clay tablets that bore the story were lost - buried in the burning ruins of the palace of Ashurbanipal, the last great king of Assyria, as his enemies laid his kingdom to waste.... [This book] begins with the rediscovery of the epic and its deciphering in 1872 by George Smith, a brilliant self-taught linguist who created a sensation when he stumbled upon Gilgamesh among the thousands of tablets in the British Museum's collection. From there the story goes backward in time, all the way to Gilgamesh himself. --Dust jacket."@en
  • "A critical study of the ancient Babylonian epic of Gilgamesh describes its composition around 1200 B.C., its loss in 600 B.C., its rediscovery and deciphering in the nineteenth century, and the fast-paced story itself of a great Middle Eastern hero and his exploits."
  • "A critical study of the ancient Babylonian epic of Gilgamesh describes its composition around 1200 B.C., its loss in 600 B.C., its rediscovery and deciphering in the nineteenth century, and the fast-paced story itself of a great Middle Eastern hero and his exploits."@en
  • "Composed by a poet and priest in Middle Babylonia around 1200 BCE, the Epic of Gilgamesh foreshadowed later stories that would become as fundamental as any in human history, the Odyssey and the Bible. But in 600 BCE, the clay tablets that bore the story were lost--buried beneath ashes and ruins when the library of King Ashurbanipal was sacked in a raid. This book begins with the rediscovery of the epic and its decipherment in 1872 by George Smith, a brilliant self-taught linguist, who created a sensation when he discovered Gilgamesh among thousands of undistinguished tablets in the British Museum. From there the story goes backward in time, all the way to Gilgamesh himself.--From publisher description."@en
  • "A critical study of the ancient Babylonian epic of Gilgamesh describes its composition around 1200 B.C., its loss in 600 B.C., its rediscovery and deciphering in the nineteenth century, and the fast-paced story itself."
  • "The oldest surviving fragments of the Babylonian epic we now call Gilgamesh date back to the 18th century--the 18th century before the Christian era, that is, more than 3,700 years ago. Etched in the wedge-shaped letters known as cuneiform on clay tablets, Gilgamesh stands as the earliest classic of world literature In The buried book, David Damrosch, a Columbia professor of comparative literature, organizes his text as an archaeological dig, opening with a prefatory account of Austen Henry Layard's discovery and excavation of the ruins of Nineveh in the 1840s, then gradually working his way back from the Victorian era into ancient times. His first and second chapters describe the career of George Smith, a self-taught Assyriologist, who one momentous afternoon in 1872 was working at the British Museum, going through a pile of Layard's clay tablets. Suddenly, Smith realized that he was reading about "a flood storm, a ship caught on a mountain, and a bird sent out in search of dry land.""@en
  • "In The Buried Book, David Damrosch, a Columbia professor of comparative literature, organizes his text as an archaeological dig, opening with a prefatory account of Austen Henry Layard's discovery and excavation of the ruins of Nineveh in the 1840s, then."@en

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  • "Audiobooks"@en
  • "Audiobooks"
  • "Sound recording"@en
  • "Sound recording"
  • "History"@en
  • "History"
  • "Downloadable audio books"@en

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  • "The buried book"
  • "The buried book"@en
  • "The buried book the loss and rediscovery of the great Epic of Gilgamesh"
  • "The buried book the loss and rediscovery of the great Epic of Gilgamesh"@en
  • "The buried book [the loss and rediscovery of the great Epic of Gilgamesh]"@en
  • "The buried book the loss and rediscovery of the great epic of Gilgamesh"@en
  • "The buried book : the loss and rediscovery of the great Epic of Gilgamesh"@en

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