<b>The Epic of Gilgamesh</b>&nbsp;is an epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia. The literary history of Gilgamesh begins with five Sumerian poems about Bilgamesh (Sumerian for &quot;Gilgamesh&quot;), king of Uruk, dating from the Third Dynasty of Ur (c. 2100 BC).<br />These independent stories were later used as source material for a combined epic in Akkadian. The first surviving version of this combined epic, known as the &quot;Old Babylonian&quot; version, dates back to the 18th century BC and is titled after its incipit, Shutur eli sharri (&quot;Surpassing All Other Kings&quot;). Only a few tablets of it have survived. The later Standard Babylonian version compiled by S&icirc;n-leqi-unninni dates from the 13th to the 10th centuries BC and bears the incipit Sha naqba imuru (&quot;He who Saw the Abyss&quot;, lit. &#39;&quot;He who Sees the Unknown&quot;&#39;). Approximately two-thirds of this longer, twelve-tablet version have been recovered. Some of the best copies were discovered in the library ruins of the 7th-century BC Assyrian king Ashurbanipal.<br /><br /><b>Reginald Campbell Thompson </b>(21 August 1876 &ndash; 23 May 1941) was a British archaeologist, assyriologist, and cuneiformist. He excavated at Nineveh, Ur, Nebo and Carchemish among many other sites.