Gilgamesh: a flood story on an identified tablet.
Begin with a museum witness to a literary tradition before comparing flood narratives.
Identify the witness
The British Museum record describes Sm.1881 as a fragment of Gilgamesh Tablet XI with the story of the flood. The tablet is a specific physical witness, not the complete history of the epic. British Museum ↗
A narrative is a cultural source
The text can inform study of literature and religious ideas. Establishing a particular flood event requires additional geological and archaeological evidence. British Museum ↗
Compare exact passages
Use a named edition and translation when comparing narratives. Shared features alone do not determine the direction, date, or mechanism of transmission. British Museum ↗