tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/the-epic-of-gilgamesh-27805/articles
The Epic of Gilgamesh – The Conversation
2018-07-03T10:34:59Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/99171
2018-07-03T10:34:59Z
2018-07-03T10:34:59Z
Feasting rituals – and the cooperation they require – are a crucial step toward human civilization
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225788/original/file-20180702-116139-1nsb3r3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=136%2C161%2C5100%2C3626&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Coming together for a solstice feast in ancient Peru.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Robert Gutierrez</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>“<a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-the-epic-of-gilgamesh-73444">The Epic of Gilgamesh</a>” is one of the earliest texts known in the world. It’s the story of a god-king, Gilgamesh, who ruled the city of Uruk in Mesopotamia in the 3rd millennium B.C. Within its lines, the epic hints at how the ancients viewed the origins of their civilization.</p>
<p>Gilgamesh’s antagonist, Enkidu, is described as a wild man, living with the beasts and eating grasses with the gazelles. But he’s seduced by a beautiful temple priestess who then offers him clothing and food, saying “Enkidu, eat bread, it is the staff of life; drink the wine, it is the custom of the land.” And so Enkidu is transformed from a naked wild beast into a “civilized” man living with other people. </p>
<p>Both bread and wine are products of settled society. They represent the power to control nature and create civilization, converting the wild into the tamed, the raw into the cooked – and their transformation cannot be easily done alone. The very act of transforming the wild into the civilized is a social one, requiring many people to work together.</p>
<p>Over the past few decades, archaeological theory has shifted toward the idea that civilization arose in different regions around the world thanks to the evolution of cooperation. Archaeologists have discovered that the consumption of food and drink in ritually prescribed times and places — <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2Fb100538">known technically as feasting</a> — is one of the cornerstones of heightened sociality and cooperation throughout human history. <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=azeL_5EAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">My own research</a> in Peru bears this out. The data from my colleagues’ and my work provides yet another detailed case study for theorists to model the evolution of complexity in one of the rare places where a civilization independently developed.</p>
<h2>Signs of cooperation in Peru</h2>
<p>How does complex society originate out of the hunter-gatherer bands and small settled villages that dominated the globe well into the early Holocene around 9,000 years ago? And once such social organizations develop, what kinds of mechanisms sustain these new societies sufficiently to develop into the Uruks of the ancient world?</p>
<p>Six years ago, after 30 years of research in the Titicaca Basin in the high Andes, my colleague Henry Tantaleán and I started a long-term archaeological research program in the valley of Chincha in the south coast of Peru. Thanks to work by previous archaeologists and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1806632115">our own new data</a>, we have been able to piece together a comprehensive prehistory of the valley beginning several millennia ago.</p>
<p>One significant time period is known as Paracas; it lasted from roughly 800 to 200 B.C. This is the time when the first complex societies developed in the region, the origin of civilization in this part of the ancient world. We documented a massive Paracas presence in the valley, ranging from large pyramid structures to modest villages scattered over the landscape.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225789/original/file-20180702-116123-zaz5bh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225789/original/file-20180702-116123-zaz5bh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225789/original/file-20180702-116123-zaz5bh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225789/original/file-20180702-116123-zaz5bh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225789/original/file-20180702-116123-zaz5bh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225789/original/file-20180702-116123-zaz5bh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225789/original/file-20180702-116123-zaz5bh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225789/original/file-20180702-116123-zaz5bh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Geoglyphs that modified the landscape are still visible, delineating a path to where the sun sets on the summer solstice.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Charles Stanish</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Across the hyper-arid pampa lands above the valley, the Paracas peoples built linear geoglyphs: designs etched into the desert landscape that they lined with small field stones. We found five sets of lines that all concentrated on the five major Paracas sites at the edge of the pampa. We also found many small structures built between the lines.</p>
<p>Our research indicated that a number of these small structures and many of the lines pointed to the June solstice sunset. Previous work by our team <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1136415">and others throughout Peru</a> unequivocally indicates that the pre-Columbian peoples of the Andes used the solstices to mark important events.</p>
<p>We concluded that these sites were the endpoints of ritually significant social events that were timed by the solstices and possibly other astronomical phenomena.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225792/original/file-20180702-116123-15s5x0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225792/original/file-20180702-116123-15s5x0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225792/original/file-20180702-116123-15s5x0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225792/original/file-20180702-116123-15s5x0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225792/original/file-20180702-116123-15s5x0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225792/original/file-20180702-116123-15s5x0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225792/original/file-20180702-116123-15s5x0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225792/original/file-20180702-116123-15s5x0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Excavation of a structure in the Chincha pampa with the walls aligned to the June solstice.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Charles Stanish</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Feasting at Paracas</h2>
<p>We chose to intensively study one endpoint site, called Cerro del Gentil, to assess its significance in Paracas culture. The site is a large platform mound with three levels. The base level measures 50 by 120 meters at its maximum. Each level contains a sunken patio measuring around 12 meters on a side.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225793/original/file-20180702-116123-pdnqfm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225793/original/file-20180702-116123-pdnqfm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225793/original/file-20180702-116123-pdnqfm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225793/original/file-20180702-116123-pdnqfm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225793/original/file-20180702-116123-pdnqfm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225793/original/file-20180702-116123-pdnqfm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225793/original/file-20180702-116123-pdnqfm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225793/original/file-20180702-116123-pdnqfm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A woven cloth bag stuffed with human hair.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">PNAS</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Excavations by Tantaleán and his team in one of these patios yielded a rich trove of artifacts, including textiles, food stuffs, pottery, decorated gourds, stone objects, reeds, miscellaneous objects and human offerings. We found large pottery vessels that held chicha or maize beer, the equivalent to Enkidu’s wine. There was evidence of food preparation as well, though we did not find a resident population. We found large numbers of pottery serving vessels and evidence of termination rituals involving liquid libations poured into the patio at the conclusion of some elaborate feasts.</p>
<p>Cerro del Gentil, in fact, was a classic archaeological example of a very significant feasting place. No one seemed to live at this well-built location year-round, though there was plenty of evidence that from time to time many people were present to eat, drink and even make human sacrifices together, probably at particular special times of the astronomical calendar. </p>
<p>We used the Cerro del Gentil data to test the following hypotheses about how the earliest cooperative human groups came together: Did people start out small, feasting within their local group and then expanding to incorporate more distant groups? Or, did the earliest successful groups develop contacts with distant autonomous groups around a large region?</p>
<p>Our colleague <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=gww5znAAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Kelly Knudson</a> from Arizona State University analyzed the strontium ratios in 39 organic objects found in the patios as offerings. The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2010.04.009">ratio of 87Sr/86Sr in any organic object</a>, including humans, tells us from what geographical zone that object is from. We discovered that objects in the patio were <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1806632115">from a very broad range of ecozones</a> all around the south central Andes. Some objects came from as far as the Titicaca Basin 600 kilometers away, others from the south coast 200 or so kilometers distant.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225795/original/file-20180702-116152-pzj77p.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225795/original/file-20180702-116152-pzj77p.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225795/original/file-20180702-116152-pzj77p.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225795/original/file-20180702-116152-pzj77p.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225795/original/file-20180702-116152-pzj77p.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225795/original/file-20180702-116152-pzj77p.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225795/original/file-20180702-116152-pzj77p.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225795/original/file-20180702-116152-pzj77p.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A small geoglyph in the Chincha pampa with the center line defining the June solstice.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Charles Stanish</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Feasting rituals build a young civilization</h2>
<p>This case study demonstrates that the earliest successful complex societies in the south coast of Peru circa 400 B.C. involved a wide catchment of people and objects. At least in Paracas society, the optimal strategy of civilization building involved creating widespread alliances early on and then expanding on this model over centuries. We know this because people in Cerro del Gentil incorporated objects and even people in their offerings from distant areas.</p>
<p>In contrast, at a later ceremonial site where the catchment was quite small, all of the objects and human remains were from the immediate environs, as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2016.01.016">evidenced by strontium analysis</a>. The Paracas pattern detected at Cerro del Gentil contrasts with a strategy in which people focused on their local group and then grew incrementally over time. My colleagues and I plan to use these sorts of comparative cases to try to understand which strategies work better in which environmental and social contexts.</p>
<p>The evidence from Cerro del Gentil supports the theory I wrote about in my recent book “<a href="http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/anthropology/social-and-cultural-anthropology/evolution-human-co-operation-ritual-and-social-complexity-stateless-societies">The Evolution of Human Co-operation</a>” – that cooperation in non-state societies is achieved by “ritualizing” the economy. People construct norms, rituals and taboos to organize their economic and political life. Far from being quaint and exotic customs of “primitive peoples,” elaborate rules of behavior, encoded in rich ritual practices, are ingenious means of organizing a society where coercion is absent.</p>
<p>Ritual practices reward cooperators and punish cheaters. They therefore promote sustained group behavior toward common goals and solve what is famously known as the “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199566020.003.0008">collective action problem</a>” in human social life – how do you get everyone to work together toward something that’s in everyone’s long-term self-interest? Feasting is a key component of this kind of sociality and cooperation. Enkidu’s bread and wine is still relevant 5,000 years later.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99171/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles Stanish receives funding from
National Science Foundation
National Geographic Society
University of South Florida
Institute for Field Research</span></em></p>
How did civilization emerge from small groups of hunter-gatherers? Some archaeologists focus on cooperation as the vital ingredient – and find evidence for it in the form of feast-related artifacts.
Charles Stanish, Exec. Director, Institute for the Advanced Study of Culture and the Environment; Professor of Anthropology, University of South Florida
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/91725
2018-02-28T11:50:37Z
2018-02-28T11:50:37Z
Virtual archaeology: how we achieved the first long-distance reconstruction of a cultural artefact
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207676/original/file-20180223-108113-emp0m6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tim Collins</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The epic of Atrahasis is one of the most significant pieces of ancient Babylonian literature. It describes a creation myth, a great flood and the building of an ark, that significantly pre-dates a similar account in the Bible. The epic has survived millennia on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OC_kpFyfT0">clay tablets inscribed with cuneiform script</a>. But the third tablet of one of the most <a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1338127&partId=1&searchText=Atrahasis&images=true&page=1">complete surviving copies</a> is broken. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Ark_Before_Noah.html?id=W7mdoAEACAAJ&redir_esc=y">difficulties associated with its reconstruction</a> are summarised by Irving Finkel, cuneiform curator at the <a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/">The British Museum</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The crucial episode about the Ark and the Flood occurs in Ipiq-Aya’s Tablet III. This tablet is now in two pieces. The larger, known as C₁, might just possibly join [with] C₂ if they could ever be manoeuvred into the same room, but the former is in the British Museum and the latter in the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire in Geneva. One day I will try out the join …</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This potential join has been hypothesised for over 50 years, but never physically confirmed. Now, using 3D computational geometry, there is no longer a need to manoeuvre the physical fragments into the same room. Instead, we built 3D virtual models of the fragments and demonstrated that they <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320471011_Computational_Aspects_of_Model_Acquisition_and_Join_Geometry_for_the_Virtual_Reconstruction_of_the_Atrahasis_Cuneiform_Tablet">join precisely</a>. This is the first time that a long-distance virtual reconstruction of a cuneiform text has been achieved.</p>
<h2>Cuneiform and Atrahasis</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206302/original/file-20180213-174959-wpry8e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206302/original/file-20180213-174959-wpry8e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=812&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206302/original/file-20180213-174959-wpry8e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=812&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206302/original/file-20180213-174959-wpry8e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=812&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206302/original/file-20180213-174959-wpry8e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1020&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206302/original/file-20180213-174959-wpry8e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1020&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206302/original/file-20180213-174959-wpry8e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1020&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A cuneiform tablet fragment from the ancient city of Ur written in Sumerian c.2000BC.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Cuneiform script is one of mankind’s earliest systems of writing. It was in use for some 3,000 years in and around Mesopotamia (the region of modern day Iraq and Syria). The script was written on clay “tablets” by making wedge-shaped impressions with a reed stylus. </p>
<p>Many thousands of inscribed tablets have been excavated in the last 200 years, but they are, typically, fragmented. Joining pieces are now distributed within and between museum collections worldwide. This enormously complex worldwide 3D jigsaw puzzle constitutes an unknown number of complete and incomplete tablets.</p>
<p>The epic of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atra-Hasis">Atrahasis</a> has particular cultural significance in that a large part of the narrative concerns how the Babylonian gods, displeased with mankind, elected to send a great flood to cleanse the world. One of the gods, Ea, took pity on mankind and gave Atrahasis instructions to build an ark to preserve humans and animals alike. A modified version of the story is included in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-the-epic-of-gilgamesh-73444">epic of Gilgamesh</a> in which the character of Atrahasis is replaced by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utnapishtim">Utnapishtim</a>. The protagonist is Noah in the later account in the Old Testament.</p>
<p>The tablet that we were working with belongs to one of the most famous and complete copies of the epic of Atrahasis, known as the “Old Babylonian” copy. It was written by the scribe Ipiq-Aya in the southern Mesopotamian city of Sippar around 1635BC. Although a join between the fragments of the third and final tablet in the epic has been long suspected, it has never been verified because one of the fragments is housed in London; the other is in Geneva.</p>
<h2>Virtual reconstruction</h2>
<p>Recent advances in 3D computational geometry have made it possible to create accurate models of physical objects from sets of photographs. This makes <a href="http://virtualcuneiform.org">virtual reconstruction</a> a possibility, regardless of the physical separation of fragments.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206296/original/file-20180213-118385-6mk25i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206296/original/file-20180213-118385-6mk25i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206296/original/file-20180213-118385-6mk25i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206296/original/file-20180213-118385-6mk25i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206296/original/file-20180213-118385-6mk25i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206296/original/file-20180213-118385-6mk25i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206296/original/file-20180213-118385-6mk25i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206296/original/file-20180213-118385-6mk25i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Close up of the 3D visualisation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tim Collins</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Once in virtual form, potential joins can be discovered by mapping the elevation of the “terrain” of each fragment and then matching the peaks and valleys on one with their opposing features on the other. A perfect geometrical match can be confirmed if an orientation can be found where the distance between the fragments is zero across the whole of the joining surface. This technique has already been successfully applied to the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269101067_Computer-Assisted_Reconstruction_of_Virtual_Fragmented_Cuneiform_Tablets">automated joining</a> of fragments from the ancient city of Uruk, for example.</p>
<p>However, virtual joins had never been reported for fragments held in different collections. But, of course, physical separation of fragments is no barrier to virtual reconstruction. So during the summer of 2017, we took about 150 photographs of each fragment, C₁ and C₂, to compute detailed 3D models.</p>
<p>It is not obvious, when manually aligning these virtual fragments, that they will fit well together. A close-fitting join only became apparent when our automated virtual reconstruction algorithm was applied. The result was a near-perfect match between the inner surfaces of the two fragments.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206300/original/file-20180213-44651-11cpeyi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206300/original/file-20180213-44651-11cpeyi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206300/original/file-20180213-44651-11cpeyi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206300/original/file-20180213-44651-11cpeyi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206300/original/file-20180213-44651-11cpeyi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206300/original/file-20180213-44651-11cpeyi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206300/original/file-20180213-44651-11cpeyi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A depth-map showing the distance between the surfaces of the joined fragments.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A depth-map visualisation of the distance between the two matching surfaces shows a significant joining surface area. At the edges of the tablet, the quality of the join deteriorates due to erosion, as is clearly apparent on the original physical artefacts.</p>
<p>A possible join between the Atrahasis fragments in London and Geneva has been speculated for over 50 years. We can now declare, with certainty, that the match is confirmed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91725/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors thank the Trustees of the British Museum for permission to access and scan cuneiform tablet fragments including BM 78942+78971+80385 and Dr Jonathan Taylor whose assistance made this work possible. The authors would also like to thank Mrs Béatrice Blandin, Geneva, Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, for the permission to scan the fragment MAH 16064.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Erlend Gehlken, Eugene Ch’ng, and Tim Collins do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The possible join between the fragments of an ancient epic written in cuneiform in London and Geneva has been speculated for over 50 years.
Sandra Woolley, Senior Lecturer, Software and Systems Engineering Research, Keele University
Erlend Gehlken, Privatdozent (Associate Professor), Goethe University Frankfurt am Main
Eugene Ch’ng, Professor of Cultural Computing, Director NVIDIA Joint-Lab on Mixed Reality, University of Nottingham
Tim Collins, Senior Lecturer in Electronic Engineering, Manchester Metropolitan University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/73444
2017-05-07T19:38:11Z
2017-05-07T19:38:11Z
Guide to the classics: the Epic of Gilgamesh
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161928/original/image-20170322-27966-yag6gc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Gilgamesh explores what it means to be human, and questions the meaning of life and love.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>“Forget death and seek life!” With these encouraging words, Gilgamesh, the star of the eponymous 4000-year-old epic poem, coins the world’s first heroic catchphrase.</p>
<p>At the same time, the young king encapsulates the considerations of mortality and humanity that lie at the heart of the world’s most ancient epic. While much has changed since, the epic’s themes are still remarkably <a href="https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/05/16/editorial-contest-winner-the-resurrection-of-gilgamesh/?_r=0">relevant to modern readers</a>.</p>
<p>Depending upon your point of view, Gilgamesh may be considered a myth-making biography of a legendary king, a love story, a comedy, a tragedy, a cracking adventure, or perhaps an anthology of origin stories. </p>
<p>All these elements are present in the narrative, and the diversity of the text is only matched by its literary sophistication. Perhaps surprisingly, given the extreme antiquity of the material, the epic is a masterful blending of complex existential queries, rich imagery and dynamic characters.</p>
<p>The narrative begins with Gilgamesh ruling over the city of Uruk as a tyrant. To keep him occupied, the Mesopotamian deities create a companion for him, the hairy wild man Enkidu. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161900/original/image-20170321-5391-188gvhk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161900/original/image-20170321-5391-188gvhk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161900/original/image-20170321-5391-188gvhk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=828&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161900/original/image-20170321-5391-188gvhk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=828&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161900/original/image-20170321-5391-188gvhk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=828&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161900/original/image-20170321-5391-188gvhk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1040&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161900/original/image-20170321-5391-188gvhk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1040&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161900/original/image-20170321-5391-188gvhk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1040&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gilgamesh in his lion-strangling mode.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Enkidu.jpg">TangLung, Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Gilgamesh sets about civilising Enkidu, a feat achieved through the novel means of a week of sex with the wise priestess, Shamhat (whose very name in Akkadian suggests both beauty and voluptuousness). </p>
<p>Gilgamesh and Enkidu become inseparable, and embark on a quest for lasting <a href="https://aeon.co/essays/why-on-earth-would-we-sacrifice-our-lives-for-lasting-fame">fame and glory</a>. The heroes’ actions upset the gods, leading to Enkidu’s early death.</p>
<p>The death of Enkidu is a pivotal point in the narrative. The love between Gilgamesh and Enkidu transforms the royal protagonist, and Enkidu’s death leaves Gilgamesh bereft and terrified of his own mortality. </p>
<p>The hero dresses himself in the skin of a lion, and travels to find a long-lived great flood survivor, Utanapishtim (often compared with the biblical Noah). After a perilous journey over the waters of death, Gilgamesh finally meets Utanapishtim and asks for the secret to immortality.</p>
<p>In one of the earliest literary anti-climaxes, Utanapishtim tells him that he doesn’t have it. The story ends with Gilgamesh returning home to the city of Uruk.</p>
<h2>Mesopotamian mindfulness</h2>
<p>Gilgamesh and his adventures can only be described in superlative terms: during his legendary journeys, the hero battles <a href="https://theconversation.com/fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them-a-history-of-monsters-from-werewolves-to-hippogriffs-68526">deities and monsters</a>, finds (and loses) the secret to eternal youth, travels to the very edge of the world — and beyond. </p>
<p>Despite the fantastical elements of the narrative and its protagonist, Gilgamesh remains a very human character, one who experiences the same heartbreaks, limitations and simple pleasures that shape the universal quality of the human condition.</p>
<p>Gilgamesh explores the nature and meaning of being human, and asks the questions that continue to be debated in the modern day: what is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/feb/07/go-for-walk-discover-meaning-life">the meaning of life and love</a>? What is life really — and am I doing it right? How do we cope with life’s brevity and uncertainty, and how do we deal with loss? </p>
<p>The text provides multiple answers, allowing the reader to wrestle with these ideas alongside the hero. Some of the clearest advice is provided by the beer deity, Siduri (yes, a goddess of beer), who suggests Gilgamesh set his mind less resolvedly on extending his life.</p>
<p>Instead, she urges him to enjoy life’s simple pleasures, such as the company of loved ones, good food and clean clothes — perhaps giving an example of a kind of Mesopotamian mindfulness.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161918/original/image-20170322-27966-1rijvb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161918/original/image-20170322-27966-1rijvb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161918/original/image-20170322-27966-1rijvb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=733&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161918/original/image-20170322-27966-1rijvb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=733&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161918/original/image-20170322-27966-1rijvb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=733&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161918/original/image-20170322-27966-1rijvb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=921&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161918/original/image-20170322-27966-1rijvb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=921&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161918/original/image-20170322-27966-1rijvb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=921&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The king-hero Gilgamesh battling the ‘Bull of Heaven’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:O.1054_color.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The epic also provides the reader with a useful case study in what not to do if one is in the exceptional circumstance of reigning over the ancient city of Uruk. In ancient Mesopotamia, the correct behaviour of the king was necessary for maintaining earthly and heavenly order.</p>
<p>Despite the gravity of this royal duty, Gilgamesh seems to do everything wrong. He kills the divinely-protected environmental guardian, Humbaba, and ransacks his precious Cedar Forest. He insults the beauteous goddess of love, Ishtar, and slays the mighty Bull of Heaven. </p>
<p>He finds <a href="https://theconversation.com/rising-life-expectancy-and-why-we-need-to-rethink-the-meaning-of-old-age-64990">the key to eternal youth</a>, but then loses it just as quickly to a passing snake (in the process explaining the snake’s “renewal” after shedding its skin). Through these misadventures, Gilgamesh strives for fame and immortality, but instead finds love with his companion, Enkidu, and a deeper understanding of the limits of humanity and the importance of community.</p>
<h2>Reception and recovery</h2>
<p>The Epic of Gilgamesh was wildly famous in antiquity, with its impact traceable to the later literary worlds of the Homeric epics and <a href="http://www.reed.edu/reed_magazine/june2013/articles/eliot_circular/gilgamesh.html">the Hebrew Bible</a>. Yet, in the modern day, even the most erudite readers of ancient literature might struggle to outline its plot, or name its protagonists.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161902/original/image-20170321-5408-12bnkph.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161902/original/image-20170321-5408-12bnkph.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161902/original/image-20170321-5408-12bnkph.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161902/original/image-20170321-5408-12bnkph.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161902/original/image-20170321-5408-12bnkph.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161902/original/image-20170321-5408-12bnkph.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1341&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161902/original/image-20170321-5408-12bnkph.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1341&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161902/original/image-20170321-5408-12bnkph.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1341&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A statue of Gilgamesh at the University of Sydney.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gilgamesh_Statue_Sydney_University_Statue2.14th.JPG">Gwil5083, Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To what might we owe this modern-day cultural amnesia surrounding one of the world’s greatest works of ancient literature? </p>
<p>The answer lies in the history of the narrative’s reception. While many of the great literary works of ancient Greece and Rome were studied continuously throughout the development of Western culture, the Epic of Gilgamesh comes from a forgotten age. </p>
<p>The story originates in Mesopotamia, an area of the Ancient Near East thought to roughly correspond with modern-day Iraq, Kuwait and parts of Syria, Iran and Turkey, and frequently noted as “the cradle of civilisation” for its early agriculture and cities. </p>
<p>Gilgamesh was written in cuneiform script, the world’s oldest known form of writing. The earliest strands of Gilgamesh’s narrative can be found in five Sumerian poems, and other versions include those written in Elamite, Hittite and Hurrian. The best-known version is the Standard Babylonian Version, written in Akkadian (a language written in cuneiform that functioned as the language of diplomacy in the second millennium BCE). </p>
<p>The disappearance of the cuneiform writing system around the time of the 1st century CE accelerated Gilgamesh’s sharp slide into anonymity.</p>
<p>For almost two millennia, clay tablets containing stories of Gilgamesh and his companions lay lost and buried, alongside many tens of thousands of other cuneiform texts, beneath the remnants of the great <a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/research_projects/all_current_projects/ashurbanipal_library_phase_1.aspx.">Library of Ashurbanipal</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161905/original/image-20170321-5408-1ec8fta.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161905/original/image-20170321-5408-1ec8fta.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161905/original/image-20170321-5408-1ec8fta.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161905/original/image-20170321-5408-1ec8fta.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161905/original/image-20170321-5408-1ec8fta.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161905/original/image-20170321-5408-1ec8fta.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161905/original/image-20170321-5408-1ec8fta.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161905/original/image-20170321-5408-1ec8fta.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tablet V of the Epic of Gilgamesh.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tablet_V_of_the_Epic_of_Gligamesh.JPG">Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin, Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The modern rediscovery of the epic was a watershed moment in the understanding of the Ancient Near East. The <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/epic-hero-153362976/">eleventh tablet of the Epic</a> was first translated by self-taught cuneiform scholar George Smith of the British Museum in 1872. Smith discovered the presence of an ancient Babylonian flood narrative in the text with striking parallels to the biblical <a href="http://time.com/44631/noah-christians-flood-aronofsky/">flood story of the Book of Genesis</a>. </p>
<p>The story is often repeated (although it may be apocryphal) that when Smith began to decipher the tablet, he became so excited that he began to remove all his clothing. From these beginnings in the mid-19th century, the process of recovering the cuneiform literary catalogue continues today.</p>
<p>In 2015, the publication of a new fragment of Tablet V by Andrew George and Farouk Al-Rawi made <a href="http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/18512/1/jcunestud.66.0069_w-footer.pdf">international news</a>. The fragment’s discovery coincided with increased global sensitivity to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/ancient-cities-are-being-bulldozed-by-islamic-state-heres-what-the-world-is-losing-38548">destruction of antiquities in the Middle East</a> in the same year. The Washington Post juxtaposed the “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/10/06/a-new-chapter-in-the-worlds-oldest-story/?utm_term=.3ca1a2d4fc62">heart-warming story</a>” of the find against the destruction and looting in Syria and Iraq.</p>
<h2>Ancient ecology</h2>
<p>The new section of Tablet V contains ecological aspects that resonate with modern day concerns over environmental destruction. Of course, there are potential anachronisms in projecting environmental concerns on an ancient text composed thousands of years prior to the industrial revolution. </p>
<p>Yet, the undeniable sensitivity in the epic’s presentation of the wilderness is illuminating, considering the long history of humanity’s interaction with our environment and its animal inhabitants.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162097/original/image-20170322-31219-1rznxvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162097/original/image-20170322-31219-1rznxvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162097/original/image-20170322-31219-1rznxvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=296&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162097/original/image-20170322-31219-1rznxvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=296&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162097/original/image-20170322-31219-1rznxvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=296&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162097/original/image-20170322-31219-1rznxvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162097/original/image-20170322-31219-1rznxvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162097/original/image-20170322-31219-1rznxvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A cedar forest in Turkey.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cedar_forest.jpg">Zeynel Cebeci, Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Gilgamesh, the wilderness is a place of beauty and purity, as well as home to a wild abundance. The splendour and grandeur of the Cedar Forest is described poetically in Tablet V:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>They (Gilgamesh and Enkidu) stood marvelling at the forest,</p>
<p>Observing the height of the cedars …</p>
<p>They were gazing at the Cedar Mountain, the dwelling of the gods, the throne-dais of the goddesses …</p>
<p>Sweet was its shade, full of delight.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>While the heroes pause to admire the forest’s beauty, their interest is not purely aesthetic. Gilgamesh and Enkidu are aware of the economic value of the cedars, and the text provides a clear picture of competing commercial and ecological interests.</p>
<h2>Where to read Gilgamesh</h2>
<p>Since Gilgamesh’s reappearance into popular awareness in the last hundred years, the Standard Babylonian Version of the epic has become accessible in numerous translations. This version was originally compiled by the <a href="https://www.soas.ac.uk/nme/research/gilgamesh/standard/">priest, scribe and exorcist, Sin-leqi-uninni</a>, around 1100 BCE.</p>
<p>The scholarly standard among modern translations is Andrew George’s The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic: Introduction, Critical Edition and Cuneiform Texts (2003). </p>
<p>Despite its all-around excellence, the two-volume work is decidedly unwieldly, and the less muscle-bound reader would be well directed to The Epic of Gilgamesh: A New Translation (1999), by the same author. Most readable among modern treatments is David Ferry’s <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/57374">Gilgamesh: A New Rendering in English Verse</a> (1992), which gives a potent, poetic interpretation of the material.</p>
<p>Like the snake that steals Gilgamesh’s rejuvenation plant, the Epic of Gilgamesh has aged well. Its themes - exploring the tension between the natural and civilised worlds, the potency of true love, and the question of what makes a good life – are as relevant today as they were 4,000 years ago.</p>
<p><em>Note: Translations are sourced from Andrew R. George 2003. The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic: Introduction, Critical Edition and Cuneiform Texts, Volume 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73444/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Louise Pryke does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
From environmentalism to the meaning of life, the themes of the world’s most ancient epic are still remarkably relevant to modern readers.
Louise Pryke, Lecturer, Languages and Literature of Ancient Israel, Macquarie University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/63243
2016-08-16T12:57:56Z
2016-08-16T12:57:56Z
Ben-Hur: why classical movies are no longer truly epic
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134273/original/image-20160816-13035-1f5lydw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">© 2016 Paramount Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc.</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The new Ben-Hur film, soon to be released, is <a href="http://www.traileraddict.com/ben-hur-2016/featurette-epic">described</a> by Jack Huston, who plays Judah Ben-Hur, as “an epic in every sense of the word”. For some younger audience members the term “epic” might mean that the film is going to be “great” or “awesome”. Others might think of the ancient mythological epic poems, such as the Odyssey or the Argonautica, the story of Jason and the Argonauts. And as classicist Kirsten Day has recently <a href="https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-cowboy-classics-hb.html">argued</a>, to some the Western is seen as the modern incarnation of the ancient epic.</p>
<p>But generally the term tends to denote films set in the ancient world, true to the classical origins of epic, such as an earlier <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052618/">Ben-Hur</a> (1959), starring Charlton Heston, or Stanley Kubrick’s <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054331/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2">Spartacus</a> (1960). These films, with their large casts and long running time, have come to define the epic film genre.</p>
<p>An “epic” movie must satisfy certain audience expectations. There must be some distance set between the present day and the story presented on screen. There must be visual spectacle. And there must be a hero (in this case Judah Ben-Hur) whose journey both physical and spiritual is central to the film. This journey could take the form of a quest narrative – such as Jason’s voyage to find the golden fleece – or a narrative based on the wish for revenge, such as Maximus’s revenge for the death of his wife and child in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0172495/">Gladiator</a> (2000). </p>
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<p>It remains to be seen whether Ben-Hur hits all these notes. But whether it does or not, it will certainly not fulfil the demands of epic as it well as other, less traditional movies now can. I would argue – and this is coming from a classicist – that movies set in the ancient world can no longer adequately live up to the demands of the “epic”. Instead, we should look to films set in space as the true modern epic.</p>
<h2>Spectacle and distance</h2>
<p>The epic poems of the classical period were primarily characterised by their sense of distance – they were set in a distant past and featured long journeys to the edge of the known world, where mortals could encounter gods and monsters. While films set in the ancient world replicate this sense of distance, those set in the future allow a sense of distance more appropriate to the 21st century in terms of both time and space. No longer do we consider a journey to Africa “epic”; one to Jupiter is certainly more impressive. The unknown realm of deep space is also a more appropriate location for the supernatural in modern times.</p>
<p>The “epic” genre also demands spectacle, and arguably films set in space also provide viewers with a more epic perspective than can be achieved in ancient-world films, particularly when viewed in IMAX 3D. We are treated to sweeping views of space, and witness such events as the destruction of planets in the Star Wars and Star Trek films. There are also infinite possibilities for new landscapes and locations, such as the deserts of Jakku, the snowy landscape surrounding Starkiller Base and the forests of Takodana in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2488496">Star Wars: The Force Awakens</a> (2015). </p>
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<p>The range of perspectives offered by the camera and CGI in the 21st century also have the potential to provide a greater epic quality than that provided in ancient epic films, with their widescreen battle scenes and views of the arena from above. The visually stunning <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0499549/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Avatar</a> (2009), for example, used 3D cinematography to make viewers feel as if they were actually running through the ferns in the forests of Pandora.</p>
<h2>The hero’s journey</h2>
<p>The other requirement of the epic – the hero’s journey – is an element that translates very easily into other landscapes and genres and is seen everywhere. Superhero films that focus on origin stories also follow this model. A good example would be <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0372784/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Batman Begins</a> (2005), where Bruce Wayne becomes Batman as a response to the death of his parents. The new <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0451279/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Wonder Woman</a> film, to be released in 2017, also promises an origin story.</p>
<p>Many of the science fiction greats were directly influenced by ancient epic. When he wrote the original Star Wars film, George Lucas was influenced by the work of myth scholar Joseph Campbell’s work on the hero’s journey, based primarily on the epic of Gilgamesh. The hero’s journey is a staple part of the Star Wars narrative, whether of Luke Skywalker, Anakin Skywalker, or, as in the most recent film, <a href="http://brightlightsfilm.com/star-wars-the-force-awakens-archetype-gilgamesh-joseph-campbell-hero-mythic-myth-deepens/#.V5sR8I-cEcA">Rey</a>, the scavenger turned freedom fighter who shows natural ability in wielding a light sabre.</p>
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<p>What Rey and Wonder Woman demonstrate is that in order to be modern, the epic must be able to accommodate a range of heroes – both male and female. Female heroes are absent from the ancient epic poems, where the heroes were men, helped or hindered by often ambiguous female characters such as Circe and Medea. They are also absent in epics set in the ancient world from the 1950s and 1960s, where female characters tend to conform to the stereotypes of good woman or evil temptress. Westerns or films such as The Godfather, which some consider epic, also struggle to accommodate women. But a modern, futuristic epic, divorced from classical history, provides heroic possibilities for women as well as for men. </p>
<p>So if we are looking for 21st-century films that best embody the spirit of the ancient mythological epics such as the Odyssey, we should look to science fiction, rather than films set in the ancient world, such as Ben-Hur. The epic genre requires distance, both of time and space. The ancient world epics feature journeys that occurred deep in the past to mythical places. Today, this same sense of distance can only be provided by the future and the vast unknown that is outer space. </p>
<p>So although I am looking forward to seeing the new Ben-Hur film – and the 1959 film remains one of my favourite films of all time – I expect that we shall have to wait for the new Star Wars film, released in 2017, in order to see something truly “epic”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63243/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amanda Potter does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Films set in the ancient world can no longer adequately live up to the demands of the ‘epic’. Instead, we should look to films set in space.
Amanda Potter, Visiting Research Fellow, The Open University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/59862
2016-05-26T09:58:05Z
2016-05-26T09:58:05Z
Running numbers continue to rise – here’s why
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124116/original/image-20160526-22060-1gk1yn4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&language=en&ref_site=photo&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&use_local_boost=1&autocomplete_id=&search_tracking_id=GrYot8XnC8HrDtbFzyMg1g&searchterm=jogging&show_color_wheel=1&orient=&commercial_ok=&media_type=images&search_cat=&searchtermx=&photographer_name=&people_gender=&people_age=&people_ethnicity=&people_number=&color=&page=1&inline=393880156">oneinchpunch/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>With a reported <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/the-running-blog/2013/feb/05/why-we-love-to-run">2m</a> people running in the UK and an estimated <a href="http://www.usatf.org/news/specialReports/2003LDRStateOfTheSport.asp">10m</a> in the US, the activity is on the rise, and fast becoming the most popular form of exercise.</p>
<p>Running fits as snuggly into modern life as an eager foot into a plush pair of new trainers. It can be done alone and in almost any environment. As a solitary activity, there is no need to work around other people’s schedules. There are no courts, pitches, nets, bats, rackets or hoops necessary. You can just put on your shoes and go. It feels like the most natural way to exercise, but it has not always been this way. And it is not only these practicalities that motivate us.</p>
<p>Although running has a complicated history, we know that jogging as a <a href="http://cgj.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/06/26/1474474013491927">“palliative to sedentariness”</a> first took off in the 1960s. Since then it has become a huge business with the athletic shoe industry alone worth <a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/athletic-footwear-market-to-value-usd-844-billion-by-2018-could-grow-at-cagr-of-18-from-2012---2018-transparency-market-research-512842661.html">tens of billions</a> of dollars.</p>
<p>Before the jogging revolution, though, it was a distinctly niche activity. The few people that did it had probably been to one of the more affluent schools. A quick leaf through the periodicals of the nineteenth century, such as Bell’s Life in London, and Sporting Chronicle, confirms it was a sport for gentlemen (and sometimes for the hustlers that conned them).</p>
<p>I have covered this more extensively in <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1108162/footnotes/">my research</a>, but loosely defined, “sport” has been recorded since the beginning of documented history (The Epic of Gilgamesh from 3,500 years ago recounts scenes of wrestling and hunting) and it has been a regular mainstay of literature since then. But, exercise, as we might recognise it, being movement for the purposes of maintaining physical health, only becomes common as recently as the early nineteenth century.</p>
<p>We can see it in Jane Austen novels. Fanny in Mansfield Park is forever “<a href="https://austenprose.com/2009/02/25/mansfield-park-why-does-fanny-price-rankle-our-ire/">knocked up</a>” on the sofa as the result of a good walk, but exercise is mostly a pastime for the daughters of gentry, for whom the competition inherent in sport would not be appropriately gendered behaviour. Austen also uses the idea of exercise and movement to pass judgement on her characters: generally, those who over-indulge in it are villainous or not to be trusted, and those who possess more moderate appetites for it are usually our hero or heroine. The finest walker in Austen is Pride and Prejudice’s <a href="http://www.pemberley.com/etext/PandP/chapter8.htm">Elizabeth Bennet</a>, who seemingly strikes just the right balance when she arrives at Netherfield with flushed cheeks and muddy skirts to visit her sister – surely, the Georgian equivalent of a trail run.</p>
<p>By the nineteenth century, then, exercise emerges as an activity commonly seen around the leisured classes. Without physical work, their bodies wither and weaken, so must be exercised. Which is where the inventors came in.</p>
<p>In 1797, the Monthly Magazine announced a new patent for Francis Lowndes’s <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Uuh7FgrmEkEC&pg=PA799&lpg=PA799&dq=the+monthly+magazine+gymnasticon&source=bl&ots=WxA2--C52H&sig=3OnPhyFKytx0D7R4PLfqmj_tsXc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjY8NuVtvXMAhWD5BoKHZXrDR0Q6AEIIjAB#v=onepage&q=the%20monthly%20m">Gymnasticon</a>, the earliest of static exercise machines. The magazine explained that it may be of use “when peculiar or sedentary occupations enforce confinement to the house”.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124024/original/image-20160525-25226-1vaizx8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124024/original/image-20160525-25226-1vaizx8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=912&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124024/original/image-20160525-25226-1vaizx8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=912&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124024/original/image-20160525-25226-1vaizx8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=912&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124024/original/image-20160525-25226-1vaizx8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1146&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124024/original/image-20160525-25226-1vaizx8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1146&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124024/original/image-20160525-25226-1vaizx8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1146&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Gymnasticon. An antidote to peculiar occupations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium-large/medical-patient-gymnasticon-a-machine-everett.jpg">Public domain</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>Whenever I have displayed this image at a talk, it is guaranteed to make the audience laugh. It seems such an undignified contraption. But how different is it to, say, a cross-trainer?</p>
<p>Austen’s suspicion of exercise seems to hold true for us today. People will run in parks, but won’t do aerobics workouts in them. P.G. Wodehouse was right in his first Blandings novel, Something Fresh (1915), in which he explained that anyone who wished to exercise outdoors in London had a choice: either give up, “<a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=okiPCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA5&lpg=PA5&dq=defy+London%E2%80%99s+unwritten+law+and+brave+London%E2%80%99s+mockery&source=bl&ots=Ybl_3oBW_X&sig=8zOp6Gf-eV99zaLXDgMJohpLLjY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj0s_-QufXMAhWMDRoKHTlADDoQ6AEIHTAA#v=onepage&q">or else defy London’s unwritten law and brave London’s mockery</a>”. But if exercise is degrading why, as every year goes by, are there more runners?</p>
<h2>Not to be mocked</h2>
<p>The answer is that you only have to put on a TV to see that sport is respected worldwide, but exercise is not revered in the same way. And I think that running is popular because it has its feet in both camps of sport and exercise. It is a permissible public activity because of its associations with sport (unlike Zumba or Body Pump, for example).</p>
<p>The industrial revolution has swept away most of our forests and green spaces, and in doing so changed completely our ways of working, leaving us desperately searching for the easiest means to exercise because it is no longer a part of our working day, but an addition to it.</p>
<p>The number of runners will only continue to increase in the coming years, as austerity bites and convinces us to work ever longer hours, over more days. In rejecting our lethargy, we will continue to look to the easiest, cheapest and most accessible and enjoyable activity that we can. Running remains just about the only intense aerobic activity that does not require you to brave London’s mockery.</p>
<p>And, it’s terrific fun. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"735791209122258944"}"></div></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/59862/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vybarr Cregan-Reid receives funding from The Arts Council. He is the author of 'Footnotes: how running makes us human' published by Ebury.</span></em></p>
How did jogging go from a Victorian gentleman’s pastime to the most popular form of exercise on the planet?
Vybarr Cregan-Reid, Senior lecturer & author of Footnotes: how running makes us human, University of Kent
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.