When you purchase through links on our site , we may earn an affiliate commission . Here ’s how it figure out .

Name : Gilgamesh flood pill

What it is : Also known as the 11th pad of the Epic of Gilgamesh , this shard of a baked mud tablet contains cuneiform inscriptions describing an epic flood that swept throughBabylon . It is look at one of the erstwhile patch of literature in the world .

An ancient clay tablet with inscriptions engraved on it photographed against a black background.

The Gilgamesh flood tablet contains an inscription detailing the story of an epic flood.

Where it was find : Nineveh ( also have it away as Kouyunjik ) , an ancientAssyriancity in UpperMesopotamia(present - 24-hour interval Iraq ) .

When it was made : The Epic of Gilgamesh may see toas betimes as the third millennium B.C. , but this picky tablet dates to the seventh century B.C.

What it tells us about the past times : The larger-than-life tale that was carved into the ancient pad of paper is spookily similar to thebiblical tale of Noah ’s arkfound in the Book of Genesis . The tab describes how the gods sent a inundation down to destroy Earth . However one god , Ea , alerts Utu - napishtim , the ruler of an ancient land , of the plan and instruct him to build a gravy boat to economize himself and his fellowship along with " raspberry and beast of all kinds , " according to theBritish Museum , which count the artefact as part of its lasting collection .

a pot roasting over a fire

Just like in the Book of Genesis , the voyager release doll to see if the waters had withdraw enough for land to emerge . after , Utu - napishtim tells Gilgamesh of his experience , according to the text .

pertain : Shigir Idol : World ’s honest-to-goodness wood sculpture has mysterious carved faces and once stand 17 feet improbable

— No two are likewise : The colossal Harlan Stone heads of Olmec in Mexico

Close-up of a wooden diorama showing five human figurines. Two are facing away from the camera, and three face the camera. They are carrying sacks of grain.

— World ’s first carved horse : The 35,000 - twelvemonth - old ivory figure from Vogelherd cave

— Ancient carvings of Assyrian war scene give away on pit gate in Iraq damage by Islamic State mathematical group

archeologist discovered the roughly 6 - by-5 - inches ( 15 by 13 centimeters ) tablet in the late 1800s but were unsure of what the inscription tell . After handing over the artefact to the museum , a researcher call George Smith deciphered the text and allegedly said , " I am the first adult male to take that after more than two thousand age of oblivion , " according toSmithsonian .

a closeup of an amulet with a scarab on it

While this tablet was the first evidence of the Noah account coming from another culture , archaeologists have since discoveredmuch older cuneiform tabletswith interchangeable rising tide stories that suggest the story had been circulating long before the Hebrew bible was write . In other words , the Epic of Gilgamesh may have been the source of the Noah ’s ark story .

you may understand an English version of the11th pad of paper of the Epic of Gilgamesh online .

A Digital Globe satellite showing part of the ancient Eridu canal network in 2006.

A clay artifact, about the size of a finger with engraved symbols.

Artist�s evidence-based depiction of the blast, which had the power of 1,000 Hiroshimas.

Circular alignment of stones in the center of an image full of stones

Three-dimensional rendering of an HIV virus

Remains of the Heroon, a small temple built for the burial cluster of Philip II at the Museum of the Royal Tombs inside the Great Tumulus of Aigai (Aegae)

The coin hoard, amounting to over $340,000, was possibly hidden by people fleeing political persecution.

a close-up of a handmade stone tool

a wrecked car underwater

Diagram of the mud waves found in the sediment.

an illustration of a base on the moon

An aerial photo of mountains rising out of Antarctica snowy and icy landscape, as seen from NASA�s Operation IceBridge research aircraft.

A tree is silhouetted against the full completed Annular Solar Eclipse on October 14, 2023 in Capitol Reef National Park, Utah.

Screen-capture of a home security camera facing a front porch during an earthquake.

A woman exercising on a rowing machine while observing her workout stats on an adjacent monitor