Legend of Keret

The Legend of Keret Tablet

Three rectangular clay tablets, which were discovered at Ras Shamra in the First Syrian Republic in 1930–1931 by a team of French archaeologists, tell the epic tale of Keret. The text is written in the cuneiform abjad known as the Ugaritic alphabet. (Although there is no direct connection between this script and Mesopotamian cuneiform, it does resemble it.) Not all of the tablets found were in good condition, and some of the tablets that contained the story's resolution seemed to be missing. Ilimilku, a high priest who also penned the Tale of Aqhat and the Myth of Baal-Aliyan, two other well-known Ugaritic epic poetry unearthed at Ras Shamra, wrote the inscriptions on the tablets.