Gilgamesh Essay: Analyzing, Synthesizing Sources & Developing a Strong Thesis

Kramer argues that "historical explorations have recovered hundreds of thousands of Sumerian tablets, great temples, monuments, tombs, sculptures, paintings, tools, irrigation systems and remnants of almost every aspect of the Sumerian culture.  As a result we have a fairly complete picture of what life in Sumer was like 5000 years ago."  Gilgamesh, as you know, is claimed to be one of its kings. Today, we will work in pairs to brainstorm an original thesis and roadmap comparing the two sources of Sumerian life at which we have looked: Kramer's article on the Sumerians and Gilgamesh.   Your QUESTION is "does the Gilgamesh story illuminate the lives of different classes of Sumerians?" 

AVAILABLE SOURCES: Gilgamesh, Kramer's The Sumerians, and Green's Crash Course Mesopotamia. 

SKILL GOAL # 1 how to develop a thesis and roadmap using selected analytical categories from GET PAST (not all of them). Pick no more than three topics or sub-topics. 

SKILL GOAL #2 how to compare/combine/corroborate/contradict the evidence of a secondary source with that of a primary source.* 

STARTER THESIS OPTION 1: Gilgamesh illuminated life across classes in Sumerian society because . . . (Main reasons, main evidence) 

STARTER THESIS OPTION 2: By focusing on the quest of a single king, Gilgamesh failed to illuminate the lives of  different classes of Sumerians because . . . (Main reasons, main evidence)

* Rampola calls this skill "synthesis."   As she put it on page 51, "analyzing each source, though, is not sufficient; you also need to synthesize the information in your sources. When you use several sources as a means for interpreting a historical event, you should take care to integrate evidence from each source throughout your paper. An essay for the above assignment, for example, should not take the form of two mini-papers—one on (the first source) and one on (the second source) —glued together. Rather, it should examine the two sources as they relate to each other. "

For example, when we played Clue: Montezuma edition, we discovered that the two sources agreed that Montezuma was killed (corroborating accounts), but that they differed in their interpretation of this event: the second source reported that he was killed by the Spanish while the first source reported that he was killed by other Aztecs (contradictory accounts).