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The odd part of the cuneiform decipherment (the latest known use of cuneiform had been something like 400 AD) is that the first big archive, which had been baked to crispy when the ancient city that had stood there was burned by invaders, were examined, and the patterns of the characters were looked at, the archive was found to have been in two languages, just based on the patterns (no one had any idea what languages or anything else). One group resisted all attempts; the other one yielded a previously unknown, extinct Semitic language, similar enough to living Semitic languages, that it could be read.

As more and more people worked on translating the texts (Akkadian, which is archaic Assyrian), quirks in the text suggested that the other, unknown language (the other pile of tablets) could be the original language for which cuneiform was invented. And it turned out to be true -- Sumerian. By the time their language was revived, the Sumerians hadn't been a going concern for almost 4000 years, as it turned out.

snip from "The Atrahasis Epic" adapted from the B.R. Foster translation

The outlook of the weather changed.
Adad the storm god began to roar in the clouds.
They heard his clamor.
Atrahasis brought pitch to seal his door.
By the time he had bolted his door
Adad was roaring in the clouds.
The winds were furious as he set forth,
He cut the mooring rope and released the boat.
[...]
... the storm
... were yoked
Anzu rent the sky with his talons,
He ... the land
and broke its clamor like a pot.
... the flood came forth.
Its power came upon the peoples like a battle
one person did not see another
they could not recognize each other in the catastrophe.
The deluge bellowed like a bull
The wind resounded like a screaming eagle. [also "Like a wild ass screaming, the winds howled"]
The darkness was dense, the sun was gone

[/snip]