Position in chronology
Cuneiform tablet- Atra-hasis, Babylonian flood myth MET 266810
Featured in a dossier
The Mesopotamian Sky: Anunnaki, Nibiru and “Ancient Astronauts”
This tablet is one of the primary sources examined in that investigation.
Read the investigationFeatured in a dossier
The Flood Before Noah: Ziusudra, Utnapishtim and the Tablets Behind Genesis
This tablet is one of the primary sources examined in that investigation.
Read the investigationNot yet translated
This tablet is catalogued and photographed, but no published translation exists yet. Our translation engine works through the untranslated corpus every night, oldest first — this page will update the day its turn comes. If you are a specialist and can read it, we would love your help.
The world it comes from
Persian rule, the long twilight of cuneiform.
Scholarly note
Tablet image sourced from Wikimedia Commons (CC0). No scholarly translation referenced in source metadata. Source description: Babylonian or Achaemenid; Cuneiform tablet; Clay-Tablets-Inscribed
Attribution
Image: This file was donated to Wikimedia Commons as part of a project by the Metropolitan Museum of Art . See the Image and Data Resources Open Access Policy — Wikimedia Commons. source
Translation excerpted from Wikimedia Commons file: File:Cuneiform tablet- Atra-hasis, Babylonian flood myth MET 266810.jpg. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ACuneiform_tablet-_Atra-hasis%2C_Babylonian_flood_myth_MET_266810.jpg. Description: Babylonian or Achaemenid; Cuneiform tablet; Clay-Tablets-Inscribed.
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The single most important literary discovery of the 19th century. It rewired the understanding of the Bible's literary context and proved that the Mesopotamian flood tradition is older. It is the oldest surviving epic poetry in human history.
The literary tradition is no longer anonymous from this point. Authorship — the idea that a specific human voice composes a specific work — enters the historical record with her.
The single most influential Mesopotamian king list — the model for every later attempt to chronicle the deep history of the region. It transmits the political theology of divinely granted kingship, an idea that would echo through Babylon, Assyria, and into the Hebrew Bible. The Weld-Blundell prism (WB 444) at the Ashmolean is the most complete surviving copy.