Page 219 - Foundations

a series of ancient Assyrian tablets that Smith was instrumental in discovering, cataloguing, and
translating. Found among the ruins of the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh were tens of thousands
of fragments of clay tablets that were used as the writing material of the day. George Smith estimates
that in the Royal Library at Nineveh there must have been about 10,000 complete tablets, though they
no longer remain whole. The Assyrians would write upon the soft clay tablets and then fire them in
a kiln to harden them. This rendered these writings relatively impervious to decay, though the media
they were scribed upon was fragile. At this same site The Epic of Gilgamesh was found. It is
considered the world’s first truly great work of literature. The first surviving edition of The Epic of
th
Gilgamesh, a Babylonian version, is dated to the 18 century B.C.. The Epic of Gilgamesh includes
an account of the flood of Noah.

Clay Tablet Fragments From Nineveh

If you begin to look into the ancient history of astronomy, you will find the terms Chaldean,
Babylonian, and Assyrian mentioned frequently, for they are arguably the most ancient societies in
which evidence exists of the knowledge of astronomy or astrology. All three of these nations existed
in what is referred to as “the Fertile Crescent” which includes the land lying between the Tigris and
Euphrates rivers. This area is also called “the cradle of civilization.”