The Epic of Gilgamesh

[Agumn]

The Epic of Gilgamesh IMO should get defined and clear original work info, if possible with locked editing. As far as I see in the edit history, people just randomly remove info, revert it, or add nonsense (such as the original publication year being -6500, when writing didn't exist).

There are two "Gilgamesh"es that we could consider as the original versions. One is the "Old Babylonian", from 18th century BC, called "Shūtur eli sharrī". The other is the redaction by Sîn-line-unninni, 13th-11th century BC, "Sha naqba īmuru". (centuries according to Andrew George edition) Some people added the year -2100, which is the era when five Sumerian "Bilgames" poems that precede the epic were written down. Those poems, however, were only models for parts of the epic, and are in practice distinct works.

Now, which of the two abovementioned versions should be considered the original one? The Babylonian is older, the oldest extant written version, but Sîn-line-unninni's is the "standard", the most complete version, upon which the modern translations are based. I say we pick one and lock the edits (or at least add a librarian note) to avoid unnecessary "corrections".
I am personally for the Babylonian version, but I'd like to hear others' opinions.

[rivka, Librarian Moderator]

Unfortunately, there is no way to lock works from editing.

As far as the book in question, I am not familiar enough with it to have an opinion.