Ancient Cuneiform Tablets Suggest Sumerian King Gilgamesh May Have Been Real

Ancient cuneiform tablets whitethorn beryllium that Sumerian king Gilgamesh was a existent humanities ruler. Credit: Wikimedia Commons / Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg) CC BY 4.0

A postulation of ancient cuneiform tablets astatine Denmark’s National Museum whitethorn connection uncommon grounds pointing to the humanities beingness of Gilgamesh, the Sumerian leader celebrated successful 1 of the world’s oldest known stories.

Researchers from the National Museum and the University of Copenhagen precocious completed the archetypal broad reappraisal of the postulation done a task called “Hidden Treasures: The National Museum’s Cuneiform Collection.” The enactment progressive examining, cataloging, and digitizing each the tablets.

One tablet carries a transcript of a wide recognized king database that names some legendary and humanities rulers. Assyriologist Troels Pank Arboll said the tablet is simply a schoolhouse substance signaling kings who ruled during the precocious 3rd millennium B.C.

He noted that different known versions of the database besides sanction Gilgamesh, and that the Sumerian hero’s quality connected it makes this 1 of the fewer surviving documents supporting the anticipation of his humanities existence. Arboll said researchers had nary anterior cognition that Denmark held a transcript of the list.

Cuneiform king database links Sumerian leader Gilgamesh to existent history

The postulation besides contains tablets recovered from the Syrian metropolis of Hama, which Assyrian forces attacked and looted successful 720 B.C., taking astir materials backmost to their capital, Assur, successful present-day Iraq. Several clay tablets were near down and aboriginal acquired by the Danish museum.

Arboll said those texts, present adjacent to 3,000 years old, are thought to person originated from what was apt a ample temple library, and that astir nary akin texts from that portion and epoch person been recovered elsewhere.

The main quality successful the Epic of Gilgamesh, the past Uruk king is simply a apt campaigner to person been the biblical king Nimrod. Credits: Kadumago, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Hama tablets screen aesculapian treatments and ritual practices. One describes a nightlong ceremonial intended to shield an Assyrian king from threats to his rule, including governmental instability.

The ritual required burning tiny figures of wax and clay arsenic an exorcist spoke a prescribed series of chants. Researchers said uncovering specified a substance successful Hama was unexpected, fixed however acold the metropolis sat from the Assyrian superior and the main literate centers of Babylonia.

Tell Shemshara letters, brew receipts and a period of collection

Additional texts came from Danish excavations astatine Tell Shemshara successful bluish Iraq successful 1957. They see letters betwixt a section ruler and an Assyrian king from astir 1800 B.C., on with administrative documents and an past brew receipt.

Researchers said specified records bespeak the applicable needs that made cuneiform penning cardinal to aboriginal analyzable societies.

This is what happens erstwhile a 5,000-year-old exertion meets the integer age. Researchers from the National Museum of Denmark and the University of Copenhagen person analysed, identified and digitised a ample postulation of cuneiform tablets. Photo: Troels Pank Arbøll pic.twitter.com/wHkiPFGySS

— Tom Marvolo Riddle (@tom_riddle2025) April 16, 2026

The depository has built its postulation implicit much than a century. Many tablets are much than 4,000 years aged and written successful extinct languages, including Sumerian and Akkadian. Thorkild Jacobsen, the archetypal idiosyncratic to gain an Assyriology grade from the University of Copenhagen, donated a important portion of the holdings successful 1939.

The task is led by Nicole Brisch of the University of Hamburg and Anne Haslund Hansen of the National Museum, with enactment from the Carlsberg Foundation, the Augustinus Foundation, and the Edubba Foundation.