What it is: Also known as the 11th tablet of the Epic of Gilgamesh, this fragment of a baked clay tablet contains cuneiform ...

When a vast library of texts amassed by Mesopotamian King Ashurbanipal was burned to the ground about 2700 years ago, the clay tablets were preserved by the heat. Selena Wisnom's new book reveals more ...

In 1872, the young curator George Smith created a sensation when he unearthed Gilgamesh's broken tablets in the museum's collection. Smith immediately perceived that the character of Uta-napishtim ...

Self-taught scholar George Smith pieced together the Epic of Gilgamesh from broken tablets in the British Museum. At age 14 Smith left formal schooling and became an apprentice in a publishing ...

Setting the tablet on the table, Smith jumped up and rushed about the room in a great state of excitement." What he had uncovered would become known in the West as The Epic of Gilgamesh ...