I worked with a world mythology class back in April. I didn't run this group through the normal modified PBL activity. The class was in a tech enhanced classroom, so we did live searching using topics that the students were planning on researching. One student was interested in researching different versions of the great flood story. We found articles, but I think I would have had an easier time with the topic if I had already read The buried book : the loss and rediscovery of the great Epic of Gilgamesh by David Damrosch.
I finished The buried book during my first week of vacation. I highly recommend it if you are interested in the story of Gilgamesh, the history of Mesopotamia, or Victorian era archeology. Damrosch recommended the books below for further study.
Books about Gilgamesh
- The Epic of Gilgamesh: A New Translation by Andrew George ("best and most complete translation")
- The Babylonian Gilgamesh epic : introduction, critical edition, and cuneiform texts by Andrew George (scholarly)
Akkadian literature
- Myths from Mesopotamia : creation, the flood, Gilgamesh, and others by Stephanie Dalley
- Before the muses : an anthology of Akkadian literature by Benjamin R Foster
- Ancient Near Eastern texts : relating to the Old Testament by James Bennett Pritchard
- Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature
Mesopotamian history
- A history of the ancient Near East, ca. 3000-323 B.C. by Marc Van de Mieroop
- The ancient Near East : a history by William W Hallo; William Kelly Simpson
- Ancient Iraq by Georges Roux
- Mesopotamia : the invention of the city by Gwendolyn Leick
Victorian Era Archaeologist Writings
- Nineveh and its remains by Sir Austen Henry Layard
- Early adventures in Persia, Susiana, and Babylonia, including a residence among the Bakhtiyari and other wild tribes before the discovery of Nineveh by Austen Henry Layard, Sir
- The Chaldean account of Genesis, containing the description of the creation, the fall of man, the deluge, the tower of Babel, the times of the patriarchs, and Nimrod: Babylonian fables, and legends of the gods; from the cuneiform inscriptions by George Smith
- Asshur and the land of Nimrod: being an account of the discoveries made in the ancient ruins of Nineveh, Asshur, Sepharvaim, Calah, Babylon, Borsippa, Cuthah, and Van. Incl. a narrative of different journeys in Mesopotamia, Assyria, Asia Minor, and Koordistan. by Hormuzd Rassam
- Narrative of the British mission to Theodore, king of Abyssinia ; with notices of the countries traversed from Massowah, through the SoodaÌ‚n, the AmhaÌ‚ra, and back to Annesley Bay, from MaÌgdala. by Hormuzd Rassam
Victorian views on the Middle East
- Orientalism by Edward W. Said
- The conquest of Assyria : excavations in an antique land, 1840-1860 by Mogens Trolle Larsen
- Empires of the sand : the struggle for mastery in the Middle East, 1789-1923 by Efraim Karsh; Inari Karsh
