
The Newly Discovered Tablet V of the Epic of Gilgamesh - diodorus
http://etc.ancient.eu/2015/09/24/giglamesh-enkidu-humbaba-cedar-forest-newest-discovered-tablet-v-epic/
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fitzwatermellow
For lovers of the ancient world, this sort of thing is more news worthy than a
visit from Vatican City's Holiest. Sola lingua bona mortua est...

huskyr above called out the use of ancient.eu's social buttons as being a
distraction. But to be honest I've rarely seen a web or native digital library
of ancient sources experience that was acceptable to non-scholastic audiences.
Take a look at UCLA's CDLI - Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative:

[http://cdli.ucla.edu/](http://cdli.ucla.edu/)

A search for "Gilgamesh" yields a trip back to an ancient page layout
Endukugga himself might have been more comfortable browsing. I realize these
are digital humanities projects funded with scarce grant resources. But I
can't help thinking they would appeal to a much wider audience, that would be
enriched tremendously by the wisdom of the ancients, if only presented in a
more user-friendly manner.

~~~
thaumasiotes
> Sola lingua bona mortua est...

It's hard for me not to understand this as "the only good language [ever?] has
died".

~~~
masklinn
"The only good language is a dead language" as a callback to "the only good
indian is a dead indian"?

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ableal
Sheesh, people, masklinn is just quoting old "westerns" that used to be
mainstream fifty years ago.

And providing useful info. Calm down, please.

(P.S. Nowadays all that is being remade with "zombies", probably because it's
much easier to beat up on the dead. So far.)

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brianbreslin
Smart move to offer to buy the artifacts without fear of prosecution. They
probably saved tons of items which otherwise would have been lost forever.

~~~
hugh4
They would have wound up in the hands of rich collectors, where they'd
probably be a lot safer than they are in Baghdad right now, a few hundred km
from an army which would happily destroy all pre-Islamic artefacts.

Especially this one, which is a story with other gods in it! Can't get much
more unislamic than that...

So yeah, as long as ISIS or any of its successors never takes Baghdad it's
safe. I'd rather it were in some rich dude's house though.

~~~
rdl
If it stays here
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulaymaniyah_Museum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulaymaniyah_Museum))
it is probably safer from IS than basically anywhere else in the region.

Baghdad is still relatively safe, but could be better. I could see them
loaning it to the National Museum at some point, but only temporarily, and not
for many years.

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melling
Speaking of Gilgamesh, what happened to that Kickstarter movie based on
Gilgamesh? It has been over 3 years.

[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1331941187/the-tube-
ope...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1331941187/the-tube-open-movie)

~~~
xerophyte12932
Don't know about that but the Fate Zero anime has Gilgamesh as a main
character and is pretty good.

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infimum
I don't know enough about the epic of Gilgamesh but the Fate series tends to
take a lot of freedoms with its interpretation of mythical figures, so it
might not be accurate enough for some people.

~~~
xerophyte12932
Ah yes, depends on if you are seeking accuracy or amusement

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huskyr
I really don't want to be 'that' guy, but this article is pretty much
unreadable due to the fact that there are six social media buttons hovering
_over_ the text. Madness.

[http://imgur.com/T4l8UQ4](http://imgur.com/T4l8UQ4)

~~~
pwg
And yet, running NoScript, here is how it looks:

[http://postimg.org/image/i2blngyfv/](http://postimg.org/image/i2blngyfv/)

No social media buttons hovering over the page at all.

~~~
huskyr
I could do that. I'm just feeling pity for the 99.9% of internet users who
_don 't_ know how to use NoScript / AdBlock / whatever.

