| Royal epics of Uruk |
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Lugalbanda in the Mountain Cave (or Lugalbanda I, Lugalbanda in the Wilderness) is a Sumerian mythological account. It is one of the four known stories that belong to the same cycle describing conflicts between Enmerkar, king of Unug (Uruk), and an unnamed king of Aratta. The story is followed by another known as Lugalbanda and the Anzu Bird, together forming the two parts of one story. The stories, from the composer’s point of view, take place in the distant past. The accounts are believed to be composed during the Ur III Period (21st century BCE), although almost all extant copies come from Isin-Larsa period (20th-18th centuries BCE).[1][2] Tablets containing these stories were found in various locations of southern Iraq, primarily in the city of Nippur, and were part of the curriculum of Sumerian scribal schools during the Old Babylonian period (20th-17th centuries BCE).[3]
- ^ Vanstiphout, H. (2003). Epics of Sumerian Kings, Atlanta: SBL. p.1
- ^ An unpublished Ur III period fragment exists. Michalowski, P. (2009) “Maybe Epic: The Origins and Reception of Sumerian Heroic Poetry” in Epic and History, D. Konstans and K. Raaflaub (eds.), Oxford: Blackwells. p.18 and n.8.
- ^ Vanstiphout, p.13