A Brief Journey Into the Underworld of Ancient Mesopotamia and the Quest to Revive the World’s First Epic Poem

The Descent of Inanna, an ancient Sumerian text chiseled in clay tablets discovered between 1889 and 1900, represents a beautifully layered history of adventure and quest for knowledge.

Painting (1903) of the excavations at the archaeological site of Nippur in Mesopotamia by Ottoman archaeologist and painter Osman Hamdi Bey. Credit: Expedition Magazine

There are few cases of discovery so textured with layers of adventure as the quest to revive the world’s oldest epic poem, The Descent of Inanna. Some contend that the Epic of Gilgamesh i…