The Legacy of Mesopotamia
Cuneiform and Epics
Lesson 2-3
WS: Gilgamesh the First Superhero
Online Story: Gilgamesh and the Cedar Forest
TN SPI – 6.4.3, 6.5.10
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Key Terms
• Cuneiform (Qnee i form)– a groups of wedges and lines
used to write several languages of the Fertile Crescent
• Epic – a long poem that tells a story
• Oral traditions – stories passed down through the
generations by word of mouth
• Primary Source – an eye witness account of an
historical event
• Secondary Source – information about an historical
event from a source who was not an eye witness
• Gilgamesh – Sumerian who ruled the city-state of Uruk
c2600 BC
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Sources of Information
• Primary Source – an eyewitness account
or summary of a historical event based on
direct observation
• Secondary Source – a second hand
account or summary of a historical event
not based on direct observation.
Oral Traditions
• Writing is said to have begun with oral
traditions.
• Before the invention of writing, history was often
passed through generations by word of mouth.
• Stories were told of heroes and events of the
past.
• These stories changed as they were told and
retold over the years.
• They contained facts mixed with personal beliefs
and exaggerations.
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Origins of Writing
• Sumerian became the world’s first written
language.
• They used symbols to represent words.
• Over time the symbols were combined
with wedges and lines.
• This wedge-shaped writing became
known as cuneiform.
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A Record in Clay
• The Tigris and Euphrates rivers provided
scribes with the clay they used to write on.
• Each spring, the rivers washed down clay
from the mountains.
• Scribes took the clay and shaped it into
flat surfaces called tablets.
• Tablets ranged in size from the size of a
postcard to larger tablets that were used
for reference purposes. (dictionary)
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Written Language
• Scribes decided that the symbols should
be set in rows, that each row should be
read from left to right, and that a page
should be read from top to bottom.
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Scribes and Writing
• Scribes held positions of great respect in
Mesopotamia. They kept records of:
– Farm animals
– Sales and trades
– Tax payments
– Gifts for gods
– Marriages and deaths
– Military records
– Government records
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Epic of Gilgamesh
• The ancient Sumerians were great story
tellers. Thousands of years ago, they
created the story of Gilgamesh.
• Gilgamesh is one of the oldest recorded
stories in the world. It's about an ancient
King of Uruk who may have actually
existed and whose name - Gilgamesh - is
on the Sumerian King List.
• According to the story, Gilgamesh was not
just a hero. He was the first superhero! He
was part god and part human. He had
many special powers.
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Epic of Gilgamesh
• The story of Gilgamesh
was first told aloud in the
marketplaces of
Mesopotamia and later
written down as one of the
world’s first epics – a long
storytelling poem.
• Twelve tablets that tell
parts of the tale were found
in Nineveh in the library of
the Assyrian king
Ashurbanipal.
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