WORLD LITERATURE ONE

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WORLD LITERATURE ONE

• FROM MAN TO CIVILIZATION A TIMELINE.

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Homo habilis2.2 to 1.6 million years ago.This
species made tools.
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Homo erectusleft Africa one million years ago.
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Homo sapiensfirst emerged in Africa 500,000
years ago.
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Homo sapiens neandethalensisa regional variety
of Homo sapiens arose about 100,000 years ago in
Europe and western Asia.
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45,000-40,000 years agoHomo sapiens sapiens
first moves out of Africa into southwestern Asia
and Europe.
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20,000 years ago Human habitation begins in the
Francthi cave in southeastern Greece.
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10,000-8,000 B.C.Transition from Paleolithic to
Neolithic Age the beginning of agriculture and
permanent settlements.
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8,000 B.C.Walled settlement at Jericho in
ancient Palestine Catal Huyuk (Turkey) founded
more than 8,000 years ago thriving community for
1000 years.
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7,000-6,000 B.C.Agriculture and domestication
of animals under way in southern and eastern
Europe, including Greece.
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7,000-5,000 B.C.Settlements of permanent houses
being built in fertile plains in Greece.
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3500 B.C.The Sumerians, the first civilization
in Mesopotamia, the Fertile Crescent. These
people were not indigenous to the area, but came
from the Indus Valley, 1500 miles away.
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THE FIRST CIVILIZATIONS

• Mesopotamia the area between the
  Tigris-Euphrates Rivers.
• Present day Iraq
• This area has been called the Cradle of
  Civilization
• This is the land of Gilgamesh

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ABOUT 3500-4000 B.C.

• Sumeria, the worlds first known civilization
• Later civilizations in the valley
• Babylon, near Baghdad, Iraq,
• And, much later Assyria 600-800 B.C.

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BACKGROUND OF GILGAMESH

• Source
• Ceram, C.W. Gods, Graves, and Scholars. Alfred
  Knopf New York, 1978.

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GILGAMESH, STORY OF THE SUMERIANS, OLDEST KNOWN
CIVILIZATION

• Location-Mesopotamia
• A rich agricultural region located between the
  Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.
• 2000 B.C. Assyria, to the north-Ninevah, chief
  city

• 2000 B.C. Babylonia, to the south-Babylon, chief
  city.
• Ninevah, Assyria was the pre-eminent city of the
  prehistoric world, much like Rome was to Greece.

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Paul Emile Botta

• Physician to a rich Arab, in 1841 discovered the
  first Assyrian palace.

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The Gilgamesh tablets were written in Akkadian,
in cuneiform script on clay tablets or stone.
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Akkadian is a Semitic language that has a
relationship to Hebrew and Arabic and one of the
principal languages of Babylonia and Assyria.
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EXAMPLE OF AKKADIAN SCRIPT
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However, the original language of the epic was
Sumerian, the earliest written language in
Mesopotamia and one that has little if any
connection to any other known language.
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Gilgamesh developed over a period of nearly a
thousand years.
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Development of Gilgamesh

• The epic developed over a period of nearly a
  thousand years.
• The Standard Version was found in the ruins of
  the great royal library of Assurbanipal, the last
  great king of the Assyrian empire.
• It was written on 12 hardened clay tablets.

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Utnapishtims Story of the Flood

• This portion of Gilgamesh was discovered and
  published in 1872.
• At that time no one suspected that the biblical
  story of Noah and the Great Flood was neither
  original nor unique.
• This Flood story is very much like the one in
  Genesis, only far older.

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Gilgamesh Themes

• Many of the mysteries of the human condition are
  explored for the first time in our literature.
• The complex and perilous relationship between
  gods and mortals.

• The relationship between nature and civilization.
• The depths of friendship.
• The mortality of humans, and
• The immortality of art.