“The First Gilgamesh. Conjectures About the Earliest Epic,”
in Pavel S. Avetisyan, Roberto Dan and Yervand H. Grekyan (eds.),
Over the Mountains and Far Away.
Studies in Near Eastern history and archaeology presented to Mirjo Salvini on the occasion of his 80th birthday.
Archaeopress Publishing Ltd: Oxford, pp. 114-119.
See full text
Out of the elements of the Sumerian cycle about Gilgamesh, a complex new epic was fashioned at the high point of the Akkadian period. The paper argues in favor of such a high date for the first composition of the epic as a literary whole, and situates it in the context of the Akkadian imperial experiment” [author’s abstract]. – As for Urkesh, the author displays a plaque (A7.36) depicting the friendly encounter between Gilgamesh and Enkidu.
Back to top: Giorgio Buccellati 2019