Adventurers, explorers, kings, gods, and goddesses come to life in this "useful, entertaining and informative" story of the first great epic (The Washington Post)

Composed in Middle Babylonia around 1200 BCE,The Epic of Gilgameshforeshadowed later stories that would become as fundamental as any in human history:The Odysseyand the Bible. But in 600 BCE, the clay tablets that bore the story were lost to the world, buried beneath ashes and ruins.

David Damrosch begins with the rediscovery of the epic in 1872 and from there goes backward in time, all the way to Gilgamesh himself.The Buried Bookis an illuminating tale of history as it was written, stolen, lost, and--after 2,000 years and countless battles, conspiracies, and revelations--finally found.