Excavations in the ancient city of [[Ninevah]] in 1853 unearthed 12 clay tablets detailing the story of a mythical king of Uruk named Gilgamesh, and written between 2750-2500 B.C. [http://www.ancienttexts.org/library/mesopotamian/gilgamesh/index.html] Tablet 11 of this ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' had the hero learn the secret of immortality by going to the island of Utnapishtim, where he discovers that Utnapishtim is also the builder of the ark which carried man and animals on the seas of the flood. | Excavations in the ancient city of [[Ninevah]] in 1853 unearthed 12 clay tablets detailing the story of a mythical king of Uruk named Gilgamesh, and written between 2750-2500 B.C. [http://www.ancienttexts.org/library/mesopotamian/gilgamesh/index.html] Tablet 11 of this ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' had the hero learn the secret of immortality by going to the island of Utnapishtim, where he discovers that Utnapishtim is also the builder of the ark which carried man and animals on the seas of the flood. |