George Smith (Assyriologist)
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George Smith was a pioneering English Assyriologist who first discovered and translated the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the oldest-known written works of literature.
George Smith (Assyriologist)
"The Flood Tablet", the eleventh tablet of the Gilgamesh Epic describes how the gods sent a flood to destroy the world. Like Noah, Utnapishtim was forewarned and built an ark to house and preserve living things. After the flood, he sent out birds to look for dry land (British Museum).
Translation of Ashurbanipal's "The First Egyptian War" from the Rassam cylinder.
Assyriology
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Assyriology, also known as Cuneiform studies or Ancient Near East studies, is the archaeological, anthropological, historical, and linguistic study of the cultures that used cuneiform writing. The field covers Pre Dynastic Mesopotamia, Sumer, the early Sumero-Akkadian city-states, the Akkadian Empire, Ebla, the Akkadian and Imperial Aramaic speaking states of Assyria, Babylonia and the Sealand Dynasty, the migrant foreign dynasties of southern Mesopotamia, including the Gutians, Amorites, Kassites, Arameans, Suteans and Chaldeans. Assyriology can be included to cover Neolithic pre-Dynastic cultures dating to as far back as 8000 BC, to the Islamic Conquest of the 7th century AD, so the topic is significantly wider than that implied by the root "Assyria".
Reconstruction of the Babylonian Ishtar Gate in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin
A Lamassu from the Assyrian city of Dur-Sharrukin (Oriental Institute (Chicago))
First use of the word Assyriology (Assyriologues), 1859, Ernest Renan