Thanks to my new position, The Neighborhood may take a turn towards more world history and a touch less American history.
Today’s video is not only essential in understanding early civilizations, but is also a great storytelling tool.
The Epic of Gilgamesh is perhaps the oldest written story of all time. There may be older tales, but so far none had been written for posterity before this Sumerian tale.
According to most historians, the epic was first written as a series of five poems about the legendary king of Uruk, four of which were combined to create a cohesive story around 1900 BCE, though the actual poems date well before that date (some as early as 2700 BCE). Later, a longer 12-tablet version was written between 1300-1100 BCE. Only a few small pieces of the earlier poems remain, and only about 2/3 of the later version survive.
The story is sweeping in scope and dense in meaning. Gilgamesh, the demi-god king of Uruk, begins as a despotic, even monstrous figure. Through various adventures, including fighting mythic beasts, angering the gods, losing his best friend and a journey through the underworld, Gilgamesh gains anunderstanding of himself, his place in the universe and his own mortality.
These adventures, many believe, form the basis to many later myths and legends, particularly the Greek myths and several stories of the Bible–specifically that of Noah and the flood, which owes much to Gilgamesh. It gives a window as to how ancient Mesopotamians viewed themselves and the universe, and also is a piece of excellent storytelling.
Gilgamesh has been retold numerous times, translated and adapted into several versions. To date, no good video adaptation of the epic exists. Of those available, it is difficult to find a version that connects with children.
Today’s film was created by a YouTube user and condenses the epic into an 11 minute animated adventure. It isn’t perfect: lots of details were missed, some of which critical to the story (where did Ishtar go? She plays a central role.) but it is kid-friendly, covers the basic tenets of the epic, and is short enough to use in both a social studies classroom and a literacy workshop.
Videos for the Classroom: Crash Course!
I cringe at the word “kid-friendly” — sounds like a bad Law and Order: SVU episode.
One of the constant missions of the Neighborhood is to find resources that tap into the caffeine-addled brains of young people. In the quest to find “kid-friendly” material, most of what I find is directed at…okay, I’ll say it…good little white children. Good little pasty white kids that sit still and believe anything told to them because a happy smiling face in a toga (or bonnet or Abe Lincoln-esque stovepipe hat) tells them so.
Today, even the good little white kids aren’t really that good nor that white–you can thank TMZ, MTV and YouTube for that.
So to connect with today’s kids, we need something a little edgier. Crash Course! is a series of films about history and science, told in an irreverent, snarky way by brothers John and Hank Green. The World History series I saw was pretty entertaining, although the producers do make clear that historical people have sex (they get around it with a folksy word that I forgot). They are, however, loaded with data, facts and historical debate, when necessary–these guys don’t hide their biases, and it’s important for kids to see someone unashamed of their opinions.
If it weren’t for the occasional sex references, I’d recommend Crash Course! to middle schoolers on up. It’s perfectly fine for high school, but you may need some discretion with younger viewers. I’ve attached the episode on Alexander the Great to get an idea. Enjoy.
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