The Epic Of Gilgamish is, perhaps, the oldest written story on Earth. It comes to us from Ancient Sumeria, and was originally written on 12 clay tablets in cuneiform script. It is about the adventures of the historical King of Uruk (somewhere between 2750 and 2500 BCE). The author, R. Campbell Thompson, was an Assyriologist associated with the British Museum and this is one of the first essentially complete academic translations of this ancient text.