An ancient baked clay tablet containing cuneiform inscriptions has been discovered in Nineveh, an ancient Assyrian city in present-day Iraq. This fragment of literature, known as the Gilgamesh flood tablet or the 11th tablet of the Epic of Gilgamesh, dates back to the seventh century B.C. and is considered one of the oldest pieces of literature in the world.
The story on the tablet closely resembles the biblical tale of Noah’s ark from the Book of Genesis. It describes how the gods sent a flood to destroy Earth, but one god, Ea, warned Utu-napishtim to build a boat to save himself, his family, and various animals. Mirroring the biblical account, Utu-napishtim released birds to check for dry land.
Decoded by researcher George Smith in the late 1800s, this valuable piece of ancient literature predates the biblical account and suggests that the Epic of Gilgamesh may have been the source of the Noah’s ark story. The similarities shared among different cultures and their mythologies can be gleaned from this ancient text.
