Magnetometry at Uruk (Iraq): The city of King Gilgamesh

Uruk (Tell Warka) is one of the most famous sites for the early cultural development at Mesopotamia. The Sumerian city state was also important for the origin of writing and Uruk was the scene of action of mans oldest epic, the famous Epic of Gilgamesh (2600 B.C). During the time of the Sassanides, 400 A.D. the city was given up completely. Today the ruin is dominated by shallow hills and wadis, covered by pottery, mudbricks and slags. The area is totally free of modern buildings and far away from the modern village of Warka. Therefore it is an ideal place for uncompensated cesium magnetometry. The most sensational find was the discovery of a canal system inside the city. Furthermore the magnetogram shows the remains of buildings of the Babylonian type as well as garden structures, a middle Babylonian graveyard and the so called "New Years Temple" of the God Anu or Godess Ischtar. The city wall, which we prospected in a length of more than one kilometer, includes a water gate and is nearly 40 meters broad. From magnetometry it is evident that it was build by burned mudbricks as it was described by the Epic. In the west of the "New Years Temple" in the middle of the former Euphrates river we detected the remains of a building which may be interpreted as a burial. But if this building is the grave of the famous King Gilgamesh as it was described by the Epic of Gilgamesh it must remain speculative.