Morris Jastrow Albert Tobias Clay
Authorship and attribution
Morris Jastrow Jr. and Albert T. Clay are the scholars responsible for this 1920 study of an Old Babylonian version of the Gilgamesh epic, published in the Yale Oriental Series. They are modern interpreters of ancient texts, not the authors of the epic itself. Their volume works from recently discovered tablets and combines the presentation of the ancient material with scholarly reconstruction and discussion. Keeping those layers distinct helps readers recognize where surviving evidence ends and editorial interpretation begins.
A collaboration whose roles are stated
The title page identifies Jastrow as professor of Semitic languages at the University of Pennsylvania and Clay as professor of Assyriology and Babylonian literature at Yale. Their prefatory note assigns the introduction, commentary, and appendix to Jastrow, and the text of the Yale tablet to Clay; transliteration and translation are joint work. The edition thus gives unusually concrete evidence for distinguishing responsibilities within a collaborative byline.
An Old Babylonian Version of the Gilgamesh Epic
Jastrow and Clay present an Old Babylonian version of the epic through transliteration, translation, commentary, and a substantial introduction. The book is a scholarly study of particular textual witnesses, not a seamless modern retelling of the whole Gilgamesh narrative. Damaged passages and comparisons with other versions make reconstruction part of the reading experience. The prefatory note distinguishes the authors' responsibilities, while their joint translation gives readers access to the material under discussion. Questions about the hero, his companion, and the development of the epic emerge through close attention to words and surviving fragments. Published in 1920, the study belongs to a particular stage of research; its historical value includes showing how scholars argued from incomplete evidence rather than concealing that incompleteness. Scholarly study with transliterations and English translations by Morris Jastrow Jr. and Albert T. Clay.
Read the apparatus as part of the argument
A damaged tablet cannot supply the uninterrupted experience of a modern narrative without editorial decisions. Attend to where the study moves from presenting signs to translating words and then to reconstructing a larger story. Compare the confidence of a proposed interpretation with the surviving evidence cited for it. Its 1920 publication date matters: later discoveries can change the available material without erasing the value of seeing how these scholars reasoned from their witnesses.