1810-1895

English archaeologist who deciphered the cuneiform, or wedge-shaped writing used in ancient Mesopotamia. Rawlinson's work made it possible to identify ruins uncovered in Iraq as Assyrian capitals, including the famed Nineveh of the Bible. A huge library of clay tablets found in Nineveh yielded evidence that the Mesopotamian civilization was even older than that of Egypt. Among the most important works to emerge from the Nineveh library was the Epic of Gilgamesh, an account of the creation of the world and the great flood similar to those found in the biblical Book of Genesis.