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Ancient Near East [[image:Leonard_Woolley_at_Ur_1931.jpg align="center" caption="Max Mallowan, Agatha Christie and Leonard Woolley at Ur in 1931"]]
Some of the exciting topics we will look at are:


 * The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Flood
 * Leonard Woolley's discovery of Ur
 * The Persian city of Persepolis

THE GREAT FLOOD
From //The New American Bible//

CHAPTER 6


 * Warning of the Flood**. 5 When the LORD saw how great was man's wickedness on earth, and how no desire that his heart conceived was ever anything but evil, 6 he regretted that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was grieved.

7 So the LORD said: "I will wipe out from the earth the men whom I have created, and not only the men, but also the beasts and the creeping things and the birds of the air, for I am sorry that I made them.” 8 But Noah found favour with the LORD.

9 These are the descendants of Noah. Noah, a good man and blameless in that age, 10 for he walked with God, begot three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.

11 In the eyes of God the earth was corrupt and full of lawlessness. 12 When God saw how corrupt the earth had become, since all mortals led depraved lives on earth, 13 he said to Noah: "I have decided to put an end to all mortals on earth; the earth is full of lawlessness because of them. So I will destroy them and all life on earth.”
 * Preparation for the Flood**. 14 "Make yourself an ark of gopherwood, put various compartments in it, and cover it inside and out with pitch. 15 This is how you shall build it: the length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. 16 Make an opening for daylight in the ark, and finish the ark a cubit above it. Put an entrance in the side of the ark, which you shall make with bottom, second and third decks. 17 I, on my part, am about to bring the flood [waters] on the earth, to destroy everywhere all creatures in which there is the breath of life; everything on earth shall perish. 18 But with you I will establish my covenant; you and your sons, your wife and your sons' wives, shall go into the ark. 19 Of all other living creatures you shall bring two into the ark, one male and one female, that you may keep them alive with you. 20 Of all kinds of birds, of all kinds of beasts, and of all kinds of creeping things, two of each shall come into the ark with you, to stay alive. 21 Moreover, you are to provide yourself with all the food that is to be eaten, and store it away, that it may serve as provisions for you and for them.” 22 This Noah did; he carried out all the commands that God gave him.

CHAPTER 7

1 Then the LORD said to Noah: "Go Into the ark, you and all your household, for you alone in this age have I found to be truly just. 2 Of every clean animal, take with you seven pairs, a male and its mate; and of the unclean animals, one pair, a male and its mate; 3 likewise, of every clean bird of the air, seven pairs, a male and a female, and of all the unclean birds, one pair, a mate and a female. Thus you will keep their issue alive over all the earth. 4 Seven days from now I will bring rain down on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and so I will wipe out from the surface of the earth every moving creature that I have made." 5 Noah did just as the LORD had commanded him.


 * The Great Flood**. 6 Noah was six hundred years old when the flood waters came upon the earth. 7 Together with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives, Noah went into the ark because of the waters of the flood. 8 Of the clean animals and the unclean, of the birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, 9 [two by two] male and female entered the ark with Noah, just as the LORD had commanded him. 10 As soon as the seven days were over, the waters of the flood came upon the earth.

11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month: it was on that day that

//All the fountains of the great abyss burst forth, and the floodgates of the sky were opened.//

12 For forty days and forty nights heavy rain poured down on the earth.

13 On the precise day named, Noah and his sons Shem, Ham and Japheth, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of Noah's sons had entered the ark, 14 together with every kind of wild beast, every kind of domestic animal, every kind of creeping thing of the earth, and every kind of bird. 15 Pairs of all creatures in which there was the breath of life entered the ark with Noah. 16 Those that entered were male and female, and of all species they came, as God had commanded Noah. Then the LORD shut him in.

17 The flood continued upon the earth for forty days. As the waters increased, they lifted the ark, so that it rose above the earth. 18 The swelling waters increased greatly, but the ark floated on the surface of the waters. 19 Higher and higher above the earth rose the waters, until all the highest mountains everywhere were submerged, 20 the crest rising fifteen cubits higher than the submerged mountains. 21 All creatures that stirred on earth perished: birds, cattle, wild animals, and all that swarmed on the earth, as well as all mankind. 22 Everything on dry land with the faintest breath of life in its nostrils died out. 23 The LORD wiped out every living thing on earth: man and cattle, the creeping things and the birds of the air; all were wiped out from the earth. Only Noah and those with him in the ark were left.

CHAPTER 8

7, 24 The waters maintained their crest over the earth for one hundred and fifty days, 1 and then God remembered Noah and all the animals, wild and tame, that were with him in the ark. So God made a wind sweep over the earth, and the waters began to subside. 2 The fountains of the abyss and the floodgates of the sky were closed, and the downpour from the sky was held back. 3 Gradually the waters receded from the earth. At the end of one hundred and fifty days, the waters had so diminished 4 that, in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5 The waters continued to diminish until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains appeared.

6 At the end of forty days Noah opened the hatch he had made in the ark, 7 and he sent out a raven, to see if the waters had lessened on the earth. It flew back and forth until the waters dried off from the earth. 8 Then he sent out a dove, to see if the waters had lessened on the earth, 9 But the dove could find no place to alight and perch, and it returned to him in the ark, for there was water all over the earth. Putting out his hand, he caught the dove and drew it back to him inside the ark. 10 He waited seven days more and again sent the dove out from the ark. 11 In the evening the dove came back to him, and there in its bill was a plucked-off olive leaf! So Noah knew that the waters had lessened on the earth. 12 He waited still another seven days and then released the dove once more; and this time it did not come back.

13 In the six hundred and first year of Noah's life, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the water began to dry up on the earth. Noah then removed the covering of the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was drying up. 14 In the second month, on the twenty seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.

15 Then God said to Noah: 16 "Go out of the ark, together with your wife and your sons and your sons' wives. 17 Bring out with you every living thing that is with you – all bodily creatures, be they birds or animals or creeping things of the earth – and let them abound on the earth, breeding and multiplying on it." 18 So Noah came out, together with his wife and his sons and his sons' wives; 19 and all the animals, wild and tame, all the birds, and all the creeping creatures of the earth left the ark, one kind after another.

20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and choosing from every clean animal and every clean bird, he offered holocausts on the altar. 21 When the LORD swelled the sweet odour, he said to himself: "Never again will I doom the earth because of man, since the desires of man's heart are evil from the start; nor will I ever again strike down all living beings, as I have done.”

//6, 5 8, 22: The story of the great flood here recorded is a composite narrative based on two separate sources interwoven into an intricate patchwork. To the Yahwist source, with some later editorial additions, are usually assigned 6, 5 8; 7, 1 5. 7 10. 12. 16b. 17b. 22 23; 8, 2b 3a. 6 12. 13b. 20 22. The other sections come from the "Priestly document". The combination of the two sources produced certain duplications (e.g., 6, 13 22 of the Yahwist source, beside 7, 1 5 of the Priestly source); also certain inconsistencies, such as the number of the various animals taken into the ark (6, 19f; 7,14f of the Priestly source, beside 7, 2f of the Yahwist source), and the timetable of the flood (8, 3 5. 13f of the Priestly source, beside 7, 4. 10. 12. 17b; 8, 6. 10. 12 of the Yahwist source). Both biblical sources go back ultimately to an ancient Mesopotamian story of a great flood, preserved in the eleventh tablet of the Gilgamesh Epic. The latter account, in some respects remarkably similar to the biblical account, is in others very different from it.

6, 15: The dimensions of Nosh's ark were approximately 440 x 73 x 44 feet, a foot and a half to the cubit. The ark of the Babylonian flood story was an exact cube, 120 cubits in length, width, and height.

8, 4: Ararat: ancient Urartu, north of the Mesopotamian plain, part of modern Armenia.//

THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH
The Epic of Gilgamesh

Utnapishtim was a Sumerian king who reigned at Shurrupak, which was 110 kilometres north of Ur in ancient Sumer early in the third millennium BC (about 3000 BC). Sumer was the first great civilisation of the ancient Near East and is regarded as the birthplace or ‘cradle’ of civilisation; it flourished between about 3000 and 2000 BC.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is one of the first great works of world literature. It is a poem of about 3500 lines and describes the life and adventures of Gilgamesh, a Sumerian king who was ruler of the city of Uruk in about 2700 BC. According to the epic, one of Gilgamesh's closest friends, Enkidu, has died. Grief stricken by the loss of his friend and depressed about the future, Gilgamesh sets out on a long and dangerous journey to find the secret of eternal life. He seeks out his wise old ancestor, Utnapishtim, who according to the story had been given immortality as a special favour from the gods. But when, after an exhausting and horror filled journey, he succeeds in finding Utnapishtim and puts the question to him, the old man tells him that immortality is not for man. Gilgamesh asks him to explain how it is that he, Utnapishtim, has managed to gain immortality, and it is in answer to this question that Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh the story of the great flood.

The Flood Tablet from the library of Assyrian King Ashurbanipal, was translated by an assistant at the British Museum named George Smith in 1872. It was a Babylonian version of the much older, great Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, which is believed to have been written as early as 2600 BC.

The following is an excerpt from the poem. The gods of Sumer had decided to punish mankind by sending a huge flood, but one of them, the god Ea, who looked kindly on Utnapishtim, revealed to him in a dream what they intended. So Utnapishtim decided to build an ark.

//What I had I loaded upon the boat: Any silver and gold I had, I loaded it on the boat: All my family and kin and all the living things, I loaded upon the boat: The beasts of the field, the wild creatures of the field: I made them all embark. I entered the vessel and closed the door. With the first glow of dawn, a black cloud arose from the horizon. . . And the brightness turned into darkness and the land was shattered. . . No one could see his brother. The gods were frightened by the flood; and they fled for shelter into the heavens. The gods cowered like dogs, they crouched against the outer wall. . . For six days and nights the winds blew and storms swept the land. When the seventh day dawned, the flood subsided like an army after a battle. The sea grew quiet, the tempest was still, the flood ceased. . . And all of mankind had turned to mud. I opened a hatch and light fell upon my face. Bowing low, I sat and wept, tears running down my face. I beheld the world, the horizon of the sea. I looked about for coast lines in the expanse of the sea; There emerged a mountain. On Mount Nisir, the ship came to a halt. For seven days Mount Nisir held the ship fast. On the seventh day I sent forth a dove; The dove went forth but came back, Since no resting place for it was visible, she turned around. Then I sent forth and set free a swallow: The swallow went forth but came back. Then I sent forth and set free a raven. The raven went forth and seeing that the waters had diminished, It eats, it circles, it caws, it comes not back.//

The ark had come to rest on Mount Nisir, now identified as Pir Omar Gudrun, a 3000 metre high mountain east of the Tigris River in the Lesser Zab Basin. When Utnapishtim had made certain that the waters had abated, he disembarked and offered a thanksgiving sacrifice:

//The gods smelt the savour, the gods the sweet savour smelt; (aye) the gods did assemble like flies over him making the offering.//

Eventually Enlil, the god who had been chiefly responsible for the flood and who now regretted the destruction he had caused, granted the gift of immortality to Utnapishtim and his wife with the words:

//Utnapishtim has until now only been mortal, Now, indeed, Utnapishtim and [also] his wife shall be equal Like to us gods; in the distance afar at the mouth of the rivers Utnapishtim shall dwell.//

Adapted from //The Epic of Gilgamesh//, Tablet XI, II, 80 195, in J. B. Pritchard, The Ancient Near East, pp. 68 71

And so ends the part of the Epic of Gilgamesh that recounts the story of the flood. As for Gilgamesh, who had journeyed so far in his quest for immortality, Utnapishtim eventually tells him about a certain plant that will give eternal life. After more adventures, Gilgamesh manages to find the plant only to lose it to a serpent who steals it from him while he is bathing in a stream. And so Gilgamesh must ultimately accept the fact that death, not eternal life, is the lot of humankind.


 * Compare the two accounts of the Flood – the Bible Story of Noah and the Epic of Gilgamesh.**


 * How many similarities between the Gilgamesh flood story and the Bible story can you find in this account? Make a list of the major similarities.
 * In what details are the two accounts different?
 * What is the approximate difference in time between the writing of these two accounts?
 * Do you think it is likely that the later Hebrew account of the flood may be based on the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh? How might this have happened?
 * From what you have read of the Gilgamesh epic, do you think it is pure invention or might it have some basis in fact? Give reasons for your answer.
 * Does the Gilgamesh epic bring us any closer to finding out whether the Great Flood was an actual event?