New clay tablet adds 20 lines to Epic of Gilgamesh

New clay tablet adds 20 lines to Epic of Gilgamesh


Newly discovered clay Tablet V of the Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh. in the Sulaymaniah Museum in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq has corrected the order of chapters, filled in blanks and added 20 lines to the Epic of Gilgamesh.


Read various versions of The Epic of Gilgamesh:
Project Gutenberg:

• An Old Babylonian Version of the Gilgamesh Epic by Clay and Jastrow. (also on archive.org)
• The Epic of Gilgamish by Stephen Langdon
• Assyrian International News Agency Books Online (PDF)

Audio Readings and books:

From Internet Archive: The Epic of Gilgamesh - a new translation

by Prince Frederick, MD Performed by George Guidall. 

Hear The Epic of Gilgamesh Read in its Original Ancient Language, Akkadian.  Standard Version, Tablet XI, lines 1-163, read by Karl Hecker


The University of London’s Department of the Languages and Cultures of the Ancient Near. Readings of Gilgamesh, The Epic of Anzu, the Codex Hammurabi and other Babylonian texts.

Cuneiform

• English to Cuneiform Translator. Babylonian,or here,  Sumerian
Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative.
• Cuneiform the system of writing used in the ancient Middle East. Cuneiform was employed for writing a number of languages from about the end of the 4th millennium BC until about the 1st century BC.
• Akkadian Akkadian
• Elamite
• Hittite 
• Old Persian Cuneiform
• Sumerian
• Ugaritic

Akkadian was a semitic language spoken in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq and Syria) between about 2,800 BC and 500 AD. It was named after the city of Akkad and first appeared in Sumerian texts dating from 2,800 BC in the form of Akkadian names. Read more on omniglot.com

Sumerian was spoken in Sumer in southern Mesopotamia (part of modern Iraq) from perhaps the 4th millennium BC until about 2,000 BC, when it was replaced by Akkadian as a spoken language, though continued to be used in writing for religious, artistic and scholarly purposes until about the 1st century AD. Sumerian is not related to any other known language so is classified as a language isolate. Read more on omniglot.com

Source:http://pandora.cii.wwu.edu/vajda/ling201/writingsystems/sumeriancuneiform.htm

Links

Sumerian language and writing system:

• ancientscripts.com Sumerian
• Wikipedia Cuneiform 
• Wikipedia.org Sumerian language
• sumerian.org
• Sumerian Lexicon

Akkadian language and writing system:

• Akkadian, an introduction collected by John Heise
• Wikipedia Akkadian language
• Wikipedia Akkadian Cuneiform
• ancientscripts.com Akkadian
• The Akkadians - by Robert A. Guisepi and F. Roy Williams
• Akkadian Dictionary

Early Akkadian Literature - a Text Corpus of Babylonian and Assyrian Literary Texts from the 3rd and 2nd Millennia BC:

Book Review: The Book of Phoenix

The Book of Phoenix by Nnedi Okorafor

Who Fears Death Prequel

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Book of Phoenix is the prequel to Nnedi Okorafor's World Fantasy Award-winning novel,  Who Fears Death.


Rarely do I read a prequel that surpasses the novel, but that is exactly what Nnedi Okorafor has done with The Book of Phoenix. This book is magical, it is a story tellers story.






Details:
Series: Who Fears Death
Published May 5th 2015 by DAW


Links:
Nnedi Okorafor

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Book Review: Sister Mine by Nalo Hopkinson

Sister Mine by Nalo Hopkinson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sister Mine is one of those books that is hard to review in a simple or singular comment.
Hopkinson weaves so many threads and individual pieces into Sister Mine.
The story mixes and crosses so many genre's and sub genre's, plots and threads that at points the story feels chaotic and lacking in cohesion. In a way this lack of cohesion and multiple subplots works. Though at times it clutters the story.

Hopkinson has managed to pull the plot complexity, and multiple layers of myth and epic fantasy, and wrap them in a contemporary fiction. Sister Mine is a story of dysfunctional families, sisterly love, sibling rivalry, individual identity and growth. While also being a mystery, a ghost story, a story about the power and magic of music, the myth of the child of gods.

I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys the modern twist on mythology, and for anyone that is looking for the non-standard Contemporary or Urban fantasy.

Awards:

• Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy (2013)
• Sunburst Award Nominee for Adult (2014)

Details:

Published March 12th 2013 by Grand Central Publishing

Links:
Nalo Hopkinson


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Book Review: American Gods by Neil Gaiman

American Gods by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I highly recommend American Gods, though it is a book that most people will either love or hate.

American Gods, is in many ways a reflection of the American melting pot. Combining the varied mix of beliefs, myths and ideals of America. It surpasses genre, melding and mixing mystery, fantasy, suspense and history.

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