1-157-639 - Ann Ronan Picture Library/Heritage-Images

Cuneiform tablet relating part of the Epic of Gilgamesh, Neo-Assyrian, 7th century BC. A tablet from the library of the Assyrian King Ashurbanipal (reigned 669-631 BC) who amassed a collection of thousands of cuneiform tablets in his palace at Nineveh, northern Iraq. The Epic of Gilgamesh records the adventures of Gilgamesh, a legendary ruler of Uruk, and his search for immortality. This, the eleventh tablet of the epic, describes Gilgamesh's meeting with Utnapishtim who, like Noah in the Old Testament, built a boat to survive a great flood, which killed the rest of mankind. From the British Museum.