GILGAMESH , a Sumerian hero, god, and ruler of the city-state Uruk, is the subject of a classic epic poem that Mesopotamian tradition attributes to the priest-exorcist and scribe Sin-leqi-unnini. The poem was the product of a lengthy compilation effort, which resulted in the composition of the national poem of Babylon. Until the 1990s there were five known Sumerian works that described the deeds of Gilgamesh, king of Uruk. The Sumerologist Samuel Noah Kramer identified them as: "Gilgamesh and Agga," "Gilgamesh and Hubaba," "Gilgamesh and the Bull of Heaven," "Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Underworld," and "The Death of Gilgamesh." The environment in which they were conceived and composed has been generally regarded as the court of the third dynasty of Ur (c. 2100–2000 bce), whose sovereigns sought to trace a direct link between the figure of Gilgamesh and the royalty of Uruk. Giovanni Pettinato has suggested that a 107-line text found in 1975 at Tell Mardikh-Ebla is related to the Gilgamesh saga. This text, and the entire library from which it comes, can be dated to 2500 to 2400 bce. The events described in this text concern relations between the king of Uruk and the city of Aratta. The narrative fits well with the tradition of epic wars between the royal dynasty of Uruk and the colony founded in an indeterminate location in Iran: both King Enmerkar and Lugalbanda, the supposed divine father of Gilgamesh, waged war against Aratta according to the four epics that concern these figures.
