Contributions And Characteristics Of The Epic Of Gilgamesh

Sabir Alshoja History 1110/Spring 2018/Dr. Laumann The Epic of Gilgamesh Paper 2/13/18

In 2000 B.C.E The Epic of Gilgamesh was written the society that created it were called the Sumerians. The Sumerians were from Mesopotamia which is modern day Iraq. They invented a system of written language called cuneiform, that changed course of human history. They used pictograms as their writing, which made communication significantly easier. As it’s said, “They used styluses made of bones or hollow reed stems to incise pictograms…onto clay tablets” (Spodek, 54). Some other key features of the Sumerian society were that they created the first wheeled carts and sailboats. The Sumerians used wheeled carts for efficiently carrying goods for trade, as the author stated, “traders carried merchandise by land, river, and sea”; they weren’t confined to land alone (Spodek, 53) . They also had the first-class system or economic specialization. The military rulers and priests had most of the power, but artisans, astronomers, warriors, and farmers comprised the class below them and provided the city with a more sophisticated economic specialization than other small towns. Like most every other early civilization, they were ruled by a king named Gilgamesh. The two main characters in the epic are Gilgamesh and Enkidu. Anu, the father of Gods, created Gilgamesh and provided him with strength unlike any other. Sadly, he used all that strength into raping women