Atrahasis Epic flood narrative
- Date of account
- Old Babylonian composition, transmitted in later copies; c. 18th century BCE onward
- Location
- Mesopotamia; tablets from sites including Sippar and Nineveh
- Source
- model_recalled_reference
- Record updated
- 2026-10-10
Record summary
The Atrahasis Epic presents a Mesopotamian catastrophe in which human noise, divine decisions and a chosen survivor culminate in a devastating flood. Its boat-building episode is a major comparative reference for later Mesopotamian, biblical and Islamic deluge traditions. The surviving text is fragmentary, and its wording, tablet sequence and relationship to other flood accounts require specialist reconstruction. This is a literary and religious composition, not evidence for a historically verified global flood. Comparison should distinguish the flood motif from the poem’s distinctive creation, labor and population-control themes.
Investigate related details with Anomaly Graph’s account-based search, or read how matching and provenance work.