I’m slightly obsessed with the Epic of Gilgamesh and own it in 3 translations already, including the 1960 Nancy Sandars translation, the 2003 (republished) Andrew George edition and the 2004 Stephen Mitchell version. Of them, I know the first is outdated (although some parts of the translation are still superb), the second is of high scholarly quality and the third is very much a version and not a translation (the author even positions himself as a new Sin-leqi-unninni) and should be enjoyed as its own piece of literature.

The modern versions make clear that new pieces of the story are being discovered all the time, and the In Our Time Gilgamesh episode from 2016 makes mention of recent new finds (without actually expanding on what they are though).

So is there anything more recent than Andrew George’s translation (which turns 20 this year!) incorporating the more recently discovered pieces of the story?

Alternatively, what are the best journal articles to read about developments on the story for a layperson/non-assyriologist like myself?

Latin's rules are very static and formal, which makes sense for a language preserved in liturgical contexts and in science writing up through the 18th century. I just wonder if a modern Latin speaking time traveler, who learned it in High School, would be inteligible to all Romans. Rome existed for a very long stretch of time. We can't understand English from 1000 years ago.

As we know, the USSR and the US were not the best of friends. During the break up of the Soviet Union, the US was the first country to recognize Kazakhstan as a sovereign nation. Why was this? My hypothesis is that the US wanted to support the independence of the leaving republics like Kazakhstan because it would further weaken the USSR which would be in the interest of the US.

If you google it, there’s a significant spike around 1850, compared to modern day. Why is this? Where old timey folk going around calling each other “bruh?”

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Come share the cool stuff you love about the past! Please don’t just write a phrase or a sentence—explain the thing, get us interested in it! Include sources especially if you think other people might be interested in them.

AskHistorians requires that answers be supported by published research. We do not allow posts based on personal or relatives' anecdotes. All other rules also apply—no bigotry, current events, and so forth.

For this round, let’s look at: Travel! Why did people in your era travel? Did they have vacations? Business travel? Pilgrimage? Where did they go? How did they go?

Next time: Healing and Healers!

On Malta there are megalithic ruins (e.g. in Tarxien) erected about 3000 BCE. I have two questions:

1. what do we know about the mythology of people who lived there? In case the answer is "barely nothing", I have a broader question:
2. what do we know about the mythology of people living in central Mediterraenean area in the most ancient times (let's say 8000-2000 BCE)? I know some things about the Minoan Greeks and Egyptians, but what about those living a bit to the west and those before Minoans?

Different cultures have their own ideas of what behaviors and dress are stereotypically considered masculine or feminine - what is "woman's work" or "man's dress," etc. - and I've been wondering if explorers and colonists interacting with Native Americans, as outsiders looking into those cultures, interpreted everything through their own masculine/feminine lens, so to speak. Do we know how Europeans handled behavior that fell outside their experience of gender norms?

Could a single blacksmith also smelt there own metal without specializing in it or do they buy from someone who specialized in making them?

Thousands of women served in the Soviet military during World War II with some serving in units that were not composed exclusively of females, such as Lyudmilla Pavlichenko and Aleksandra Samushenko. If she get into a relationship with one of her male comrades, were there any consequences for either of them if they were found out?

In case there isn’t was the closest thing that can be considered prove of his existence

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Generally, I find there's a huge drought of available works when it comes to analysis of Irish Kingship, particularly when talking about the evolution of the concept beyond 1169.

At it's core I want to know if Irish Kings generally wore crowns, and if they did, do we've any idea what they looked like. By extension of this, I'm curious if we've any idea about how this practice evolved? Like would some of the last Gaelic petty kings of the 15th and 16th century wear crowns?

Any reading recommendations on this general topic would also be greatly appreciated

In the US there are 2 narratives I am familiar with. The predominant narrative that is taught in most schools is that Russia is a bureaucracy that controls everything without democratic principles like the US has. I am not intrested in that narrative for my question.

The other, which is the one I'm most intrested in hearing the Russian historians' view about, is that the intent of the revolution was to accomplish something like a stateless nation with no Big Brother government and where everyone would be equal, and to accomplish that a Vanguard group would take over control of all the important assets and resources to bring about a stateless nation for the benefit of everyone, but unfortunately the Vanguard group never turned over power to the people. Do Russian historians agree with that interpretation of the historical record or do they tend to gravitate towards a different narrative?

I watched the last episode of the Chernobyl miniseries on HBO tonight and it got me thinking. If you were sentenced to, say, 10 years of hard labor a year or two prior to the dissolution of the Soviet Union...what happened to you after?

Was your sentence altered in some way? Re-adjudicated? Did you serve it out as ordered despite the change in government?