09-23-23 Guarding the Cedars: Gilgamesh, and John Perlin’s ”A Forest Journey” - This Old Tree

In this months This Old Tree host Doug Still talks to John Perlin Historian, author of A Forest Journey: The Role of Trees in the Fate of Civilization. The two discuss the story of Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh, the Sumerian king of Uruk, threatens to cut down the sacred Cedar Forest and claim its wood for his people. First, he must kill the terrifying guardian of the forest, Humbaba. Can he do it? What will the gods think, and what will it mean for humanity? The story's message is central to John Perlin's republished book, A Forest Journey: The Role of Trees in the Fate of Civilization. Forests, and the wood they provide, have been crucial to human society since the beginning of recorded time, and now the fight against climate change. But what does history tell us about how we treat them?