Well, the early Sumerian kings were said to live super long lives, so the proto-Hebrews wouldn't want to play second fiddle...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jushur
Just a 4000 year old tablet:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumerian_King_List
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After the power grab by Octavian/Augustus in Rome he ordered Virgil to write him the epic Aeneid where he inserts Julius Caesar (Octavians adopted father) as the descendent of Aeneas, the mythical Greek hero and founder of Rome.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_commentary_of_the_Aeneid
The ancients did this all the time. It's propaganda. They want to legitimate their own rule, so they put themselves in the lineage of some mythical king and backdate it as far back as possible. If you're going to make up some mythical divinely ordained mythical king, why not add some bells and whistles and give him a 1200 year old life? It's all just made up anyway. It's extra important for usurpers.
Yeah, that was sort of my point. As well as later civilizations in Mesopotamia have obviously repeated and borrowed from the tales told by the earliest writers we have...aka the Sumerians.
Your post triggered something I remember some 20+ years or so ago, reminding me of people from Scotland, who wanted to learn an old Scottish heritage tradition that is
forgotten in Scotland. It was an old tradition dance that is 'only retained' overseas in Nova Scotia. It's a phenomenon, that I suspect must be quite usual when people
take those traditions even habits, to far off lands, whilst still retaining them many generations after.
I remember hearing of a similar thing when I went to the South Pacific many years ago. I learned there were people of a particular island, who speak with some a 200+ year old English dialect, or phrases. In the states there are places or a place (I can't remember off the top of my head) that still speak in a particular English accent .
What I'm alluding to here is: Hebrews were from the same area, and I don't think this is the type of issue that some people think, to be the "dambuster smashing" the Hebrew narrative. The stories are similar - Gilgamesh is like Nimrod of the bible, and there's the flood similarities. Hebrews coming from those areas around ancient Iraq and for them to have similar stories is not really borrowed or plagiarised imo.
Like the Scotttish tradition being
retained in a far off land from where it originated from and the the place of origin losing the details of traditions. I would say it was the same for the Hewbrews. Just as an instant response and quich thought, I'll also say: Text written on stones and rocks will always be dated older than texts written on papyrus and skins,in which these two writing mediums would need
regular copying to new and very portable writing mediums for nomadic people to write down about their lives and customs, as they travel from place to place on great treks and journeys.