Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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“Goddess Nammu, who later becomes Tiamat female sea serpent or dragon, Primeval Sea/Cosmic Ocean.” ref, ref

Du-Ku

“Du-Ku or dul-kug is a Sumerian word for a sacred place. According to Wasilewska et al., du-ku translates as “holy hill”, “holy mound” […E-dul-kug… (House which is the holy mound), or “great mountain. According to the University of Pennsylvania online dictionary of Sumerian and Akkadian languages, du-ku is actually du6-ku3, with du6 being defined as a mound or ruin mound, and ku3 as either ritually pure or shining: it is used in the texts on the Univ. of Oxford site as “shining”. There is no mention of nor association with the term “holy”, and instead it represents a cultic and cosmic place. The location is otherwise alluded to in sacred texts as a specifically identified place of godly judgement. The hill was the location for ritual offerings to Sumerian god(s) Nungal and the Anunna dwell upon the holy hill in a text written from Gilgamesh.” ref

Sumerian tablet of Ereshkigal

“… Enlil on the shore,  where he kept watch over the “Du-Ku, the Holy Mound of Creation,” and Mother Ki, (sometimes Antu, sometimes Ninhursag) his eyes gleaming with fond laughter. But why did they leave the safety of the Duku, the mound of creation, why did they go beyond the Waters of Mother Nammu.” ref

“Ninhursag (also Ninhursaga) is the Sumerian Mother Goddess and one of the oldest and most important in the Mesopotamian Pantheon. She replaced the earlier Mother Goddess, Nammu (also known as Namma) whose worship is attested as early as Dynastic III (2600-2334 BCE) of the Early Dynastic Period (2900-2334 BCE).” ref

“Nammu was a Mesopotamian goddess regarded as a creator deity, especially in the early Sumerian city, Eridu. Mother of An (Heaven/Sky god) and Ki (Earth/Mound of Creation?), as well as a primeval sea/Cosmic ocean, related to the goddess Tiamat.” ref

“Nammu (𒀭𒇉 ^dENGUR = ^dLAGAB×ḪAL; also read Namma) was a Mesopotamian goddess regarded as a creator deity in the local theology of Eridu. It is assumed that she was associated with water. She is also well-attested in connection with incantations and apotropaic magic. She was regarded as the mother of Enki, and in a single inscription she appears as the wife of Anu, but it is assumed that she usually was not believed to have a spouse. From the Old Babylonian period onwards, she was considered to be the mother of An (Heaven) and Ki (Earth), as well as a representation of the primeval sea/ocean, an association that may have come from influence from the goddess Tiamat.” ref

“While Nammu is already attested in sources from the Early Dynastic period, such as the zame hymns and an inscription of Lugal-kisalsi, she was not commonly worshiped. A temple dedicated to her existed in Ur in the Old Babylonian period, she is also attested in texts from Nippur and Babylon. Theophoric names invoking her were rare, with that of king Ur-Nammu until recently being believed to be the only example. In the Old Babylonian myth Enki and Ninmah, Nammu is one of the deities involved in the creation of mankind alongside the eponymous pair and a group of seven minor goddesses. Her presence differentiates this narrative from other texts dealing with the same motif, such as Atra-Hasis.” ref

“Nammu’s name was represented in cuneiform by the Sumerogram ENGUR (LAGAB×ḪAL). Lexical lists provide evidence for multiple readings, including Nammu, Namma, and longer, reduplicated variants such as Namnamu and Nannama. A bilingual text from Tell Harmal treats the short and long forms of the name as if they were respectively the Akkadian and Sumerian versions of the same word. The name is conventionally translated as “creatrix.” ref 

‘This interpretation depends on the theory that it is etymologically related to the element imma (SIG₇) in the name of the goddess Ninimma, which could be explained in Akkadian as nabnītu or bunnannû, two terms pertaining to creation. However, this proposal is not universally accepted. Another related possibility is to interpret it as a genitive compound, (e)n + amma(k), “lady of the cosmic river,” but it is similarly not free of criticism, and it has been argued no clear evidence for the etymology for Nammu’s name exists. Ancient authors secondarily etymologized it as nig₂-nam-ma, “creativity,” “totality,” or “everything.” ref

“The sign ENGUR could also be read as engur, a synonym of apsu, but when used in this context, it was not identical with the name of the goddess, and Nammu could be referred to as the creator of engur, which according to Frans Wiggermann confirms she and the mythical body of water were not identical. Nammu could be referred to with epithets such as “lady who is great and high in the sea” (nin-ab-gal-an-na-u₅-a),” mother who gave birth to heaven and earth” (^dama-tu-an-ki) or “first mother who gave birth to all (or senior) gods” (ama-palil-u₃-tu-diĝir-šar-šar-ra-ke₄-ne). The motherhood of Nammu to heaven and earth is attested in texts like the god-list TCL XV 10 and is related to the status attained from the Old Babylonian period onwards as the mother of An (Heaven) and Ki (Earth).” ref

“Few sources providing information about Nammu’s character are known. Most of them come from the Old Babylonian period. Based on indirect evidence, it is assumed she was associated with water, though there is debate among researchers over whether sweet or saline. No explicit references to Nammu being identical with the sea are known, and Manuel Ceccarelli in a recent study suggests she might have represented groundwater. Jan Lisman, who views Nammu as having been a representation of the primordial ocean/sea from which the rest of the cosmos emerged, believes that Nammu’s association with this body of water may have come from the influence of the goddess Tiamat.” ref

“In Mesopotamian religion, Tiamat (Akkadian: 𒀭𒋾𒊩𒆳 ^DTI.AMAT or 𒀭𒌓𒌈 ^DTAM.TUM, Ancient Greek: Θαλάττη, romanized: Thaláttē) is the primordial sea, mating with Abzû (Apsu), the groundwater, to produce the gods in the Babylonian epic Enûma Elish, which translates as “when on high.” She is referred to as a woman, and has—at various points in the epic—a number of anthropomorphic features (such as breasts) and theriomorphic features (such as a tail). In the Enûma Elish, the Babylonian epic of creation, Tiamat bears the first generation of deities after mingling her waters with those of Apsu, her consort. The gods continue to reproduce, forming a noisy new mass of divine children. Apsu, driven to violence by the noise they make, seeks to destroy them and is killed.” ref

“Enraged, Tiamat also wars upon those of her own and Apsu’s children who killed her consort, bringing forth a series of monsters as weapons. She also takes a new consort, Qingu, and bestows on him the Tablet of Destinies, which represents legitimate divine rulership. She is ultimately defeated and slain by Enki‘s son, the storm-god Marduk, but not before she conjures forth monsters whose bodies she fills with “poison instead of blood.” Marduk dismembers her, and then constructs and structures elements of the cosmos from Tiamat’s body. Some sources have dubiously identified her with images of a sea serpent or dragon. Tiamat also has been claimed to be cognate with the Northwest Semitic word tehom (תְּהוֹם; ‘the deeps, abyss’), in the Book of Genesis 1:2.” ref

“The Babylonian epic Enuma Elish is named for its incipit: “When on high [or: When above],” the heavens did not yet exist, nor the earth below, Abzu the subterranean ocean was there, “the first, the begetter,” and Tiamat, the overground sea, “she who bore them all”; they were “mixing their waters.” It is thought that female deities are older than male ones in Mesopotamia, and Tiamat may have begun as part of the cult of Nammu, a female principle of a watery creative force, with equally strong connections to the underworld, which predates the appearance of Ea-Enki. Harriet Crawford finds this “mixing of the waters” to be a natural feature of the middle Persian Gulf, where fresh waters from the Arabian aquifer mix and mingle with the salt waters of the sea.” ref 

“This characteristic is especially true of the region of Bahrain, whose name in Arabic means “two seas”, and which is thought to be the site of Dilmun, the original site of the Sumerian creation beliefs. The difference in density of salt and fresh water drives a perceptible separation. In the Enuma Elish, Tiamat’s physical description includes a tail, a thigh, “lower parts” (which shake together), a belly, an udder, ribs, a neck, a head, a skull, eyes, nostrils, a mouth, and lips. She has insides (possibly “entrails”), a heart, arteries, and blood. Tiamat was once regarded as a sea serpent or dragon, although Assyriologist Alexander Heidel has previously recognized that a “dragon form can not be imputed to Tiamat with certainty.” She is still often referred to as a monster, though this identification has been credibly challenged. In Enuma Elish, Tiamat is clearly portrayed as a mother of monsters but, before this, she is just as clearly portrayed as a mother to all the gods.” ref

“With Tiamat, Abzu (or Apsû) fathered the elder deities Lahmu and Lahamu (masc. the ‘hairy’), a title given to the gatekeepers at Enki’s Abzu/E’engurra-temple in Eridu. Lahmu and Lahamu, in turn, were the parents of the ‘ends’ of the heavens (Anshar, from an-šar, ‘heaven-totality/end’) and the earth (Kishar); Anshar and Kishar were considered to meet at the horizon, becoming, thereby, the parents of Anu (Heaven) and Ki (Earth). Tiamat was the “shining” personification of the sea who roared and smote in the chaos of original creation. She and Abzu filled the cosmic abyss with the primeval waters. She is “Ummu-Hubur who formed all things.” ref

“In the myth recorded on cuneiform tablets, the deity Enki (later Ea) believed correctly that Abzu was planning to murder the younger deities as a consequence of his aggravation with the noisy tumult they created. This premonition led Enki to capture Abzu and hold him prisoner beneath Abzu’s own temple, the E-Abzu (‘temple of Abzu’). This angered Kingu, their son, who reported the event to Tiamat, whereupon she fashioned eleven monsters to battle the deities in order to avenge Abzu’s death. These were her own offspring: Bašmu (‘Venomous Snake’), Ušumgallu (‘Great Dragon’), Mušmaḫḫū (‘Exalted Serpent’), Mušḫuššu (‘Furious Snake’), Laḫmu (the ‘Hairy One’), Ugallu (the ‘Big Weather-Beast’), Uridimmu (‘Mad Lion’), Girtablullû (‘Scorpion-Man’), Umū dabrūtu (‘Violent Storms’), Kulullû (‘Fish-Man’), and Kusarikku (‘Bull-Man’).” ref

“Tiamat was in possession of the Tablet of Destinies, and in the primordial battle, she gave the relic to Kingu, the deity she had chosen as her lover and the leader of her host, and who was also one of her children. The terrified deities were rescued by Anu, who secured their promise to revere him as “king of the gods.” He fought Tiamat with the arrows of the winds, a net, a club, and an invincible spear. Anu was later replaced first by Enlil, and (in the late version that has survived after the First Dynasty of Babylon) then subsequently by Marduk, the son of Ea.” ref

“Slicing Tiamat in half, Marduk made from her ribs the vault of heaven and earth. Her weeping eyes became the sources of the Tigris and the Euphrates, her tail became the Milky Way. With the approval of the elder deities, he took the Tablet of Destinies from Kingu, and installed himself as the head of the Babylonian pantheon. Kingu was captured and later was slain: his red blood mixed with the red clay of the Earth would make the body of humankind, created to act as the servant of the younger Igigi deities.” ref

“The principal theme of the epic is the rightful elevation of Marduk to command over all the deities. “It has long been realized that the Marduk epic, for all its local coloring and probable elaboration by the Babylonian theologians, reflects in substance older Sumerian material,” American Assyriologist E. A. Speiser remarked in 1942, adding, “The exact Sumerian prototype, however, has not turned up so far.” However, this surmise that the Babylonian version of the story is based upon a modified version of an older epic, in which Enlil, not Marduk, was the god who slew Tiamat, has been more recently dismissed as “distinctly improbable.” ref

“One example of an icon that was more so a motif of Tiamat was within the Temple of Bêl, located in Palmyra. The motif depicts Nabu and Marduk defeating Tiamat. In this picture, Tiamat is shown as a woman’s body with legs which are made of snakes. It was once thought that the myth of Tiamat was one of the earliest recorded versions of a Chaoskampf, a mythological motif that generally involves the battle between a culture hero and a chthonic or aquatic monster, serpent, or dragon. Chaoskampf motifs in other mythologies perhaps linked to the Tiamat myth include: the Hittite Illuyanka myth; the Greek lore of Apollo‘s killing of the Python as a necessary action to take over the Delphic Oracle; and to Genesis in the Hebrew Bible.” ref

“A number of writers have put forth ideas about Tiamat: Robert Graves, for example, considered Tiamat’s death by Marduk as evidence for his hypothesis of an ancient shift in power from a matriarchal society to a patriarchy. The theory suggested that Tiamat and other ancient monster figures were depictions of former supreme deities of peaceful, woman-centered religions. Their defeat at the hands of a male hero corresponded to the overthrow of these matristic religions and societies by male-dominated ones. Nu (mythology) – an ancient Egyptian deity with a similar role. Chaos (cosmogony) – Ancient Greek deity with a similar role. Ymir (Norse) is similar, as well as Pangu (Chinese), and Sea of Suf – a primordial sea in the World of Darkness in Mandaean cosmology.” ref

“Nu (“Watery One”) or Nun (“The Inert One”) (Ancient Egyptian: nnw Nānaw; Coptic: Ⲛⲟⲩⲛ Noun), in ancient Egyptian religion, is the personification of the primordial watery abyss which existed at the time of creation and from which the creator sun god Ra arose. Nu is one of the eight deities of the Ogdoad representing ancient Egyptian primordial Chaos from which the primordial mound arose. Nun can be seen as the first of all the gods and the creator of reality and personification of the cosmos. Nun is also considered the god that will destroy existence and return everything to the Nun whence it came. No cult was addressed to Nun.” ref

“The ancient Egyptians envisaged the oceanic abyss of the Nun as surrounding a bubble in which the sphere of life is encapsulated, representing the deepest mystery of their cosmogony. In ancient Egyptian creation accounts, the original mound of land comes forth from the waters of the Nun. The Nun is the source of all that appears in a differentiated world, encompassing all aspects of divine and earthly existence. In the Ennead cosmogony, Nun is perceived as transcendent at the point of creation alongside Atum the creator god. In the beginning the universe only consisted of a great chaotic cosmic ocean, and the ocean itself was referred to as Nu. In some versions of this myth, at the beginning of time Mehet-Weret, portrayed as a cow with a sun disk between her horns, gives birth to the sun, said to have risen from the waters of creation and to have given birth to the sun god Ra in some myths.” ref

“The universe was enrapt by a vast mass of primordial waters, and the Benben, a pyramid mound, emerged amid this primal chaos. There was a lotus flower with Benben, and from this when it blossomed emerged Ra. There were many versions of the sun’s emergence, and it was said to have emerged directly from the mound or from a lotus flower that grew from the mound, in the form of a heron, falcon, scarab beetle, or human child. In Heliopolis, the creation was attributed to Atum, a deity closely associated with Ra, who was said to have existed in the waters of Nu as an inert potential being.” ref

“Beginning with the Middle Kingdom, Nun is described as “the father of the gods” and he is depicted on temple walls throughout the rest of ancient Egyptian religious history. The Ogdoad includes along with Naunet and Nun, Amaunet and Amun; Hauhet and Heh; and Kauket and Kek. Like the other Ogdoad deities, Nu did not have temples or any center of worship. Even so, Nu was sometimes represented by a sacred lake, or, as at Abydos, by an underground stream. Nun was depicted as an anthropomorphic large figure and a personification of the primordial waters, with water ripples filling the body, holding a notched palm branch. Nun was also depicted in anthropomorphic form but with the head of a frog, and he was typically depicted in ancient Egyptian art holding aloft the solar barque or the sun disc. He may appear greeting the rising sun in the guise of a baboon.” ref

“Nun is otherwise symbolized by the presence of a sacred cistern or lake as in the sanctuaries of Karnak and Dendara. Nu was shown usually as male but also had aspects that could be represented as female or male. Naunet (also spelt Nunet) is the female aspect, which is the name Nu with a female gender ending. The male aspect, Nun, is written with a male gender ending. As with the primordial concepts of the Ogdoad, Nu’s male aspect was depicted as a frog, or a frog-headed man. In Ancient Egyptian art, Nun also appears as a bearded man, with blue-green skin, representing water. Naunet is represented as a snake or snake-headed woman. In the 12th Hour of the Book of Gates, Nu is depicted with upraised arms holding a solar bark (or barque, a boat). The boat is occupied by eight deities with Khepri, Ra’s morning aspect, standing in the middle and being surrounded by the seven other deities.” ref

“In the local tradition of Eridu, Nammu was regarded as a creator deity. There is no indication in known texts that she had a spouse when portrayed as such. Julia M. Asher-Greve suggests that while generally treated as a goddess, Nammu can be considered asexual in this context. Joan Goodnick Westenholz assumed the process of creation she was involved in was imagined as comparable to parthenogenesis. While primordial figures were often considered to no longer be active by the ancient Mesopotamians, in contrast with other deities, Nammu was apparently believed to still exist as an active figure.” ref

“Nammu was also associated with incantations, apotropaic magic, and tools and materials used in them. In a single incantation she is called bēlet egubbê, “mistress of the holy water basin“, but this epithet was usually regarded as belonging to Ningirima, rather than her. In texts of this genre, she could be invoked in order to purificate or consecrate something, or against demons, illness, or scorpions. Nammu was regarded as the mother of Enki (Ea), as indicated by the myth Enki and Ninmah, the god list An = Anum and a bilingual incantation. However, references to her being his sole parent are less common than the well-attested tradition according to which he was one of the children of Anu. Julia Krul assumes that in the third millennium BCE, Nammu was regarded as the spouse of the latter god.” ref 

“She is designated this way in an inscription of Lugal-kisalsi from the Early Dynastic period. However, this is the only known reference to the existence of such a tradition. Wilfred G. Lambert concluded that Nammu had no traditional spouse. In incantations, Nammu could appear alongside deities such as Enki, Asalluhi, and Nanshe. An early literary text known from a copy from Ebla mentions a grouping of deities presumed to share judiciary functions, which includes Nammu, Shamash, Ishtaran, and Idlurugu.” ref

“A single explanatory text equates Nammu with Apsu. It seemingly reinterprets her as a male deity and as the spouse of Nanshe. However, it most likely depends on traditions pertaining to Enūma Eliš and does not represent a separate independent tradition. As of 2017, no clear evidence for the belief in personified Apsu predating the composition of this text was known. Additionally, while the presumed theogony focused on Nammu is the closest possible parallel to Tiamat‘s role in Enūma Eliš, according to Manuel Ceccarelli the two were not closely connected. In particular, there is no evidence Nammu was ever regarded as an antagonistic figure.” ref

“Evidence for the worship of Nammu is scarce in all periods it is attested in. She belonged to the local pantheon of Eridu, and could be referred to as the divine mother of this city. The only indication of an association with a local pantheon other than that of Eridu is the epithet assigned to her in the god list An = Anum (tablet I, line 27), ^munusagrig-zi-é-kur-(ra-)ke₄, “true housekeeper of Ekur,” but it might have only been assigned to her due to confusion with similarly named Ninimma, who was a member of Enlil‘s court. The Early Dynastics zame hymns assign a separate settlement to her, but the reading of its name remains uncertain. Lugal-kisalsi, a king of Uruk, built a temple dedicated to her, but its ceremonial name is not known.” ref

“In the Ur III period, Nammu is attested in various incantations invoking deities associated with Eridu. She received offerings in Ur in the Old Babylonian period, and texts from this location mention the existence of a temple and clergy (including gudu₄ priests) dedicated to her, as well as a field named after her. She also appears in the contemporary god list from Nippur as the 107th entry. According to Frans Wiggermann, a kudurru (inscribed boundary stone) inscription indicates that a temple of Nammu existed in the Sealand at least since the reign of Gulkišar, that it remained in use during the reign of Enlil-nadin-apli of the Second Dynasty of Isin, and that its staff included a šangû priest.” ref 

“The latter king also invoked her alongside Nanshe in a blessing formula. A dedicatory inscription from the Kassite period which mentions Nammu is also known, though its point of origin remains uncertain. Based on a document most likely written during the reign of Esarhaddon, Nammu was also worshiped in É-DÚR-gi-na, the temple of Lugal-asal in Bāṣ. Shrines named kius-Namma, “footstep of Nammu”, existed in Ekur in Nippur and in Esagil in Babylon. Andrew R. George suggests that the latter, attested in a source from the reign of Nabonidus, was named after the former.” ref

“It is assumed that Nammu was not a popular deity. As of 1998, the only known example of a theophoric name invoking Nammu was that of king Ur-Nammu. Further studies identified no other names invoking her in sources from the Ur III period. However, two further examples have been identified in a more recent survey of texts from Kassite Nippur. Texts dealing with the study of calendars (hemerologies) indicate that the twenty-seventh day of the month could be regarded as a festival of Nammu and Nergal, and prescribe royal offerings to these two deities during it. “Nammu appears in the myth Enki and Ninmah. While the text comes from the Old Babylonian period, it might reflect an older tradition from the Ur III period. Two complete copies most likely postdating the reign of Samsu-iluna are known, in addition to a bilingual Sumero-Akkadian version from the library of Ashurbanipal.” ref

“In the beginning of the composition, Nammu wakes up her son Enki to inform him that other gods are complaining about the heavy tasks assigned to them. As a solution, he suggests the creation of mankind, and instructs Nammu how to form men from clay with the help of Ninmah and her assistants (Ninimma, Shuzianna, Ninmada, Ninšar, Ninmug, Mumudu and Ninnigina according to Wilfred G. Lambert‘s translation). After the task is finished, Enki prepares a banquet for Nammu and Ninmah, which other deities, such as Anu, Enlil and the seven assistants, also attend. Nammu’s presence sets the account of creation of mankind in this myth from other compositions dealing with the same topic, such as Atra-Hasis.” ref

“Du-Ku is a Sumerian word for a sacred place, which translates as “holy hill”, “holy mound” – E-dul-kug – (House which is the holy mound), “shining” a cultic and cosmic place, or “great mountain.” The hill was the location for ritual offerings to Sumerian god(s), and goddess Nungal as well as the god Anunna (or gods) dwell upon the holy hill. Also, Du-Ku is alluded to in sacred texts as a specifically identified place of godly judgement.” ref

Hursag is a Sumerian term variously translated as “mountain,” “hill,” “foothills,” or “head of the valleys.” Mountains play a certain role in Mesopotamian mythology and Assyro-Babylonian religion, associated with deities such as Anu, Enlil, Enki, and Ninhursag. Hursag is the first word written on tablets found at the ancient Sumerian city of Nippur, dating to the third millennium BCE, Making it possibly the oldest surviving written word in the world.” ref

“Du-Ku According to Wasilewska et al., du-ku translates as “holy hill”, “holy mound” […E-dul-kug… (House which is the holy mound)], or “great mountain.” Du-Ku or dul-kug [du6-ku3] is a Sumerian word for a sacred place. According to the University of Pennsylvania online dictionary of Sumerian and Akkadian languages, du-ku is actually du6-ku3, with du6 being defined as a mound or ruin mound, and ku3 as either ritually pure or shining: it is used in the texts on the Univ. of Oxford site as “shining”. There is no mention of nor association with the term “holy”, and instead it represents a cultic and cosmic place. The location is otherwise alluded to in sacred texts as a specifically identified place of godly judgement. The hill was the location for ritual offerings to Sumerian god(s). Nungal and the Anunna dwell upon the holy hill in a text written from Gilgamesh.” ref

“Ekur (𒂍𒆳 É.KUR), also known as Duranki, is a Sumerian term meaning “mountain. One of the tablets contains a creation myth, the so-called Debate between Sheep and Grain. It begins with a mountain: “On the mountain of heaven and earth, Anu spawned the Annunaki gods.” In fact, “mountain” (ḫur-saĝ) is the very first word on the tablet and could be the oldest written word. Early in the story, heaven and earth are fused together in a site described as the mountain (ḫur-saĝ) of the supreme sky god Anu. On the slopes of the primordial mountain, primitive man existed, naked and feeding on grasses like cattle. Little else existed, so Anu created the other, lesser gods and goddesses — the Annunaki —who, in turn, created sheep and grain for food. Unsatisfied, the gods “sent down” sheep and grain “from the Holy Mound” to “mankind as sustenance.” ref

“There is more to the story than this. But the opening lines of the clay tablet are important because they are the earliest extant textual references linking mountains with gods and fertility. And there are more from the same period. In another Sumerian creation story, Enki and Ninhursag, a certain Mount Dilmun (kur dilmun) is described as a paradise.⁴ Indeed, the fertility goddess Ninhursag’s name literally means “lady of the sacred mountain.” It should be noted here that the god Enki, with whom Ninhursag bears children, is the god of water. In yet another Sumerian story, Debate Between Winter and Summer, the god Enlil copulates with a mountain (hur-saj) and impregnates it “with Summer and Winter, the plenitude and life of the Land.” ref

ḫur-saĝ

“O E-ninnu (House of 50), right hand of Lagaš, foremost in Sumer, the Anzud bird which gazes upon the mountain, the šar-ur weapon of …… Ninĝirsu, …… in all lands, the strength of battle, a terrifying storm which envelops men, giving the strength of battle to the Anuna, the great gods, brick building on whose holy mound destiny is determined, beautiful as the hills, your canal ……, your …… blowing in opposition (?) at your gate facing towards Iri-kug, wine is poured into holy An’s beautiful bowls set out in the open air.” ref

“The Hymn to Enlil, Enlil and the Ekur (Enlil A), Hymn to the Ekur, Hymn and incantation to Enlil, Hymn to Enlil the all beneficent or Excerpt from an exorcism is a Sumerian myth, written on clay tablets in the late third millennium BCE and found at the temple library at Nippur. The name given this time was “Hymn to the Ekur,” suggesting the tablets were “parts of a composition which extols the ekur of Enlil at Nippur. The hymn, noted by Kramer as one of the most important of its type, starts with praise for Enlil in his awe-inspiring dais: Enlil’s commands are by far the loftiest, his words are holy, his utterances are immutable! The fate he decides is everlasting, his glance makes the mountains anxious, his … reaches into the interior of the mountains. All the gods of the earth bow down to father Enlil, who sits comfortably on the holy dais, the lofty engur, to Nunamnir, whose lordship and princeship are most perfect. The Annanuki enter before him and obey his instructions faithfully.” ref

“The hymn develops by relating Enlil’s founding and creating the origin of the city of Nippur and his organization of the earth. In contrast to the myth of Enlil and Ninlil where the city exists before creation, here Enlil is shown to be responsible for its planning and construction, suggesting he surveyed and drew the plans before its creation: When you mapped out the holy settlement on the earth, You built the city Nippur by yourself, Enlil. The Kiur, your pure place. In the Duranki, in the middle of the four quarters of the earth, you founded it. Its soil is the life of the land (Sumer). The hymn moves on from the physical construction of the city and gives a description and veneration of its ethics and moral code: The powerful lord, who is exceedingly great in heaven and earth, who knows judgment, who is wise. He, of great wisdom, takes his seat in the Duranki. In princeship, he makes the Kiur, the great place, come forth radiantly. In Nippur, the ‘bond’ of heaven and earth, he establishes his place of residence. The City – its panorama is a terrifying radiance. To him who speaks mightily, it does not grant life.” ref

“It permits no inimical word to be spoken in judgement, no improper speech, hostile words, hostility, and unseemingliness, no evil, oppression, looking askance, acting without regard, slandering, arrogance, the breaking of promises. These abominations the city does not permit. The evil and wicked man do not escape its hand. The city, which is bestowed with steadfastness. For which righteousness and justice have been made a lasting possession. The last sentence has been compared by R. P. Gordon to the description of Jerusalem in the Book of Isaiah (Isaiah 1:21), “the city of justice, righteousness dwelled in her” and in the Book of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 31:23), “O habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness.” The myth continues with the city’s inhabitants building a temple dedicated to Enlil, referred to as the Ekur. The priestly positions and responsibilities of the Ekur are listed along with an appeal for Enlil’s blessings on the city, where he is regarded as the source of all prosperity:” ref

“Without the Great Mountain, Enlil, no city would be built, no settlement would be founded; no cow-pen would be built, no sheepfold would be established; no king would be elevated, no lord would be given birth; no high priest or priestess would perform extispicy; soldiers would have no generals or captains; no carp-filled waters would … the rivers at their peak; the carp would not … come straight up from the sea, they would not dart about. The sea would not produce all its heavy treasure, no freshwater fish would lay eggs in the reedbeds, no bird of the sky would build nests in the spacious land; in the sky the thick clouds would not open their mouths; on the fields, dappled grain would not fill the arable lands, vegetation would not grow lushly on the plain; in the gardens, the spreading forests of the mountain would not yield fruits.” ref

“Without the Great Mountain, Enlil, Nintud would not kill, she would not strike dead; no cow would drop its calf in the cattle-pen, no ewe would bring forth … lamb in its sheepfold; the living creatures which multiply by themselves would not lie down in their …; the four-legged animals would not propagate, they would not mate. A similar passage to the last lines above has been noted in the Biblical Psalms (Psalms 29:9): “The voice of the Lord makes hinds to calve and makes goats to give birth (too) quickly.” The hymn concludes with further reference to Enlil as a farmer and praise for his wife, Ninlil: When it relates to the earth, it brings prosperity: the earth will produce prosperity. Your word means flax, your word means grain. Your word means the early flooding, the life of the lands. It makes the living creatures, the animals (?) which copulate and breathe joyfully in the greenery.” ref

“You, Enlil, the good shepherd, know their ways … the sparkling stars. You married Ninlil, the holy consort, whose words are of the heart, her of noble countenance in a holy ma garment, her of beautiful shape and limbs, the trustworthy lady of your choice. Covered with allure, the lady who knows what is fitting for the E-kur, whose words of advice are perfect, whose words bring comfort like fine oil for the heart, who shares the holy throne, the pure throne with you, she takes counsel and discusses matters with you. You decide the fates together at the place facing the sunrise. Ninlil, the lady of heaven and earth, the lady of all the lands, is honored in praise of the Great Mountain. Andrew R. George suggested that the hymn to Enlil “can be incorporated into longer compositions” as with the Kesh temple hymn and “the hymn to temples in Ur that introduces a Shulgi hymn.” ref

“The poetic form and laudatory content of the hymn have shown similarities to the Book of Psalms in the Bible, particularly Psalm 23 (Psalms 23:1–2) “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, he maketh me to lie down in green pastures.” Line eighty-four mentions: Enlil, if you look upon the shepherd favourably, if you elevate the one truly called in the Land, then the foreign countries are in his hands, the foreign countries are at his feet! Even the most distant foreign countries submit to him. and in line ninety-one, Enlil is referred to as a shepherd: Enlil, faithful shepherd of the teeming multitudes, herdsman, leader of all living creatures.” ref

“The shepherd motif originating in this myth is also found describing Jesus in the Book of John (John 10:11–13). Joan Westenholz noted that “The farmer image was even more popular than the shepherd in the earliest personal names, as might be expected in an agrarian society.” She notes that both Falkenstein and Thorkild Jacobsen consider the farmer refers to the king of Nippur; Reisman has suggested that the farmer or ‘engar’ of the Ekur was likely to be Ninurta. The term appears in line sixty.” ref

“Its great farmer is the good shepherd of the Land, who was born vigorous on a propitious day. The farmer, suited for the broad fields, comes with rich offerings; he does not …… into the shining E-kur. Wayne Horowitz discusses the use of the word abzu, normally used as a name for an abzu temple, god, cosmic place or cultic water basin. In the hymn to Enlil, its interior is described as a ‘distant sea’: Its (Ekur’s) me‘s (ordinances) are mes of the Abzu which no-one can understand. Its interior is a distant sea which ‘Heaven’s Edge’ cannot comprehend.” ref

“The foundations of Enlil’s temple are made of lapis lazuli, which has been linked to the “soham” stone used in the Book of Ezekiel (Ezekiel 28:13) describing the materials used in the building of “Eden, the Garden of god“ perched on “the mountain of the lord”, Zion, and in the Book of Job (Job 28:6–16) “The stones of it are the place of sapphires and it hath dust of gold”. Moses also saw God’s feet standing on a “paved work of a sapphire stone” in (Exodus 24:10). Precious stones are also later repeated in a similar context describing decoration of the walls of New Jerusalem in the Apocalypse (Revelation 21:21).” ref

“You founded it in the Dur-an-ki, in the middle of the four quarters of the earth. Its soil is the life of the Land, and the life of all the foreign countries. Its brickwork is red gold, its foundation is lapis lazuli. You made it glisten on high. Along with the Kesh Temple Hymn, Steve Tinney has identified the Hymn to Enlil as part of a standard sequence of scribal training scripts he refers to as the Decad. He suggested that “the Decad constituted a required program of literary learning, used almost without exception throughout Babylonia. The Decad thus included almost all literary types available in Sumerian.” ref

“Tien Shan, great mountain system of Central Asia. Its name is Chinese for “Celestial Mountains.” Stretching about 1,500 miles (2,500 km) from west-southwest to east-northeast, it mainly straddles the border between China and Kyrgyzstan and bisects the ancient territory of Turkistan. It is about 300 miles (500 km) wide in places at its eastern and western extremities but narrows to about 220 miles (350 km) in width at the center. The Tien Shan is bounded to the north by the Junggar (Dzungarian) Basin of northwestern China and the southern Kazakhstan plains and to the southeast by the Tarim (Talimu) Basin. To the southwest, the Hisor (Gissar) and Alay ranges of Tajikistan extend into part of the Tien Shan, making the Alay, Surkhandarya, and Hisor valleys boundaries of the system, along with the Pamirs to the south. The Tien Shan also includes the Shū-Ile Mountains and the Qarataū Range, which extend far to the northwest into the eastern Kazakhstan lowlands. Within these limits, the total area of the Tien Shan is about 386,000 square miles (1,000,000 square km).” ref

“The tallest peaks in the Tien Shan are a central cluster of mountains forming a knot, from which ridges extend along the boundaries between China, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan; these peaks are Victory Peak (Kyrgyz, Jengish Chokusu; Russian, Pik Pobedy), which at 24,406 feet (7,439 meters) is the highest mountain in the range, and Khan Tängiri Peak (Kyrgyz, Kan-Too Chokusu), which reaches 22,949 feet (6,995 meters) and is the highest point in Kazakhstan. The ranges are of the alpine type, with steep slopes; glaciers occur along their crests. The basins are bounded to the south by the low-rising Qoltag Mountains. West of the Turfan Depression is one of the greatest mountain knots of the eastern Tien Shan: the Eren Habirga Mountains, which reach elevations of 18,200 feet (5,550 meters). The ridge has considerable glacial development, as well as numerous forms of relief that indicate the area was the site of ancient glaciation.” ref

Tian Shan and Tengrism

“It is the highest part of the range – the Central Tian Shan, with Peak Pobeda (Kakshaal Too range) and Khan Tengri. In Tengrism, Khan Tengri, is the lord of all spirits and the religion’s supreme deity, and it is the name given to the second highest peak of Tian Shan. One of the earliest historical references to these mountains may be related to the Xiongnu word Qilian (traditional Chinese: 祁連; simplified Chinese: 祁连; pinyin: Qílián), which, according to Tang commentator Yan Shigu, is the Xiongnu word for “sky” or “heaven.” Sima Qian, in the Records of the Grand Historian, mentioned Qilian in relation to the homeland of the Yuezhi, and the term is believed to refer to the Tian Shan rather than the range 1,500 kilometers (930 mi) further east now known as the Qilian Mountains. The name of the Tannu-Ola mountains in Tuva has the same meaning. The Chinese name Tian Shan is most likely a direct translation of the traditional Kyrgyz name for the mountains, Teñir Too.  Khan Tengri is a mountain of the Tian Shan mountain range in Central Asia. It is on the China—Kyrgyzstan—Kazakhstan tripoint, east of Lake Issyk Kul. The name “Khan Tengri” literally means “King Heaven” in Kazakh or “King Sky” in Mongolian and possibly references the sky deity Tengri that both exist in the religion of Tengrism and Central Asian Buddhism. Local residents named the mountain Khan-Tengri for the unique beauty of snow giants. Khan Tengri is a massive marble pyramid, covered in snow and ice. At sunset, the marble glows red, giving it the name “blood mountain” in Kazakh and Kyrgyz (Kazakh: Қантау; Kyrgyz: Кан-Тоо).” ref

“Tengrianism) is a religion originating in the Eurasian steppes, based on shamanism and animism. It generally involves the titular sky god Tengri, who is not considered a deity in the usual sense but a personification of the universe. According to some scholars, adherents of Tengrism view the purpose of life to be in harmony with the universe. It was the prevailing religion of the Göktürks, Xianbei, Bulgars, Xiongnu, Yeniseian, and Mongolic peoples and Huns, as well as the state religion of several medieval states such as the First Turkic Khaganate, the Western Turkic Khaganate, the Eastern Turkic Khaganate, Old Great Bulgaria, the First Bulgarian Empire, Volga Bulgaria, Khazaria, and the Mongol Empire. In the Irk Bitig, a ninth-century manuscript on divination, Tengri is mentioned as Türük Tängrisi (God of Turks). According to many academics, Tengrism was, and to some extent still is, a predominantly polytheistic religion based on the shamanistic concept of animism, and was first influenced by monotheism during the imperial period, especially by the 12th–13th centuries. Abdulkadir Inan argues that Yakut and Altai shamanism are not entirely equal to the ancient Turkic religion.” ref

“The term also describes several contemporary Turkic and Mongolic native religious movements and teachings. All modern adherents of “political” Tengrism are monotheists. Tengrism has been advocated for in intellectual circles of the Turkic nations of Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan with Kazakhstan) and Russia (Tatarstan, Bashkortostan) since the dissolution of the Soviet Union during the 1990s. Still practiced, it is undergoing an organized revival in Buryatia, Sakha (Yakutia), Khakassia, Tuva, and other Turkic nations in Siberia. Altaian Burkhanism and Chuvash Vattisen Yaly are contemporary movements similar to Tengrism. The term tengri (compare with Kami) can refer to the sky deity Tenger Etseg – also Gök Tengri; Sky father, Blue sky – or to other deities. While Tengrism includes the worship of personified gods (tngri) such as Ülgen and Kayra, Tengri is considered an “abstract phenomenon”. In Mongolian folk religion, Genghis Khan is considered one of the embodiments, if not the main embodiment, of Tengri’s will.” ref

“The forms of the name Tengri (Old Turkic: Täŋri) among the ancient and modern Turkic and Mongolic are Tengeri, Tangara, Tangri, Tanri, Tangre, Tegri, Tingir, Tenkri, Tangra, Teri, Ter, and Ture. The name Tengri (“the Sky”) is derived from Old Turkic: Tenk (“daybreak”) or Tan (“dawn”). Meanwhile, Stefan Georg proposed that the Turkic Tengri ultimately originates as a loanword from Proto-Yeniseian *tɨŋgɨr- “high.” Mongolia is sometimes poetically called the “Land of Eternal Blue Sky” (Mönkh Khökh Tengeriin Oron) by its inhabitants. According to some scholars, the name of the important deity Dangun (also Tangol) (God of the Mountains) of the Korean folk religion is related to the Siberian Tengri (“Heaven”), while the bear is a symbol of the Big Dipper (Ursa Major).” ref

“The spellings Tengriism, Tangrism, Tengrianity are also found from the 1990s. In modern Turkey and, partly, Kyrgyzstan, Tengrism is known as the Tengricilik or Göktanrı dini (“Sky God religion”); the Turkish gök (sky) and tanrı (God) corresponds to the Mongolian khukh (blue) and Tengeri (sky), respectively. Mongolian Тэнгэр шүтлэг is used in a 1999 biography of Genghis Khan. The nature of this religion remains debatable. According to many scholars, it was originally polytheistic, but a monotheistic branch with the sky god Kök-Tengri as the supreme being evolved as a dynastical legitimation. It is at least agreed that Tengrism formed from the diverse folk religions of the local people and may have had diverse branches.” ref

“It is suggested that Tengrism was a monotheistic religion only at the imperial level in aristocratic circles, and, perhaps, only by the 12th-13th centuries (a late form of development of ancient animistic shamanism in the era of the Mongol empire). According to Jean-Paul Roux, the monotheistic concept evolved later out of a polytheistic system and was not the original form of Tengrism. The monotheistic concept helped to legitimate the rule of the dynasty: “As there is only one God in Heaven, there can only be one ruler on the earth …”. Others point out that Tengri itself was never an Absolute, but only one of many gods of the upper world, the sky deity, of polytheistic shamanism, later known as Tengrism.” ref

“Tengrism differs from contemporary Siberian shamanism in that it was a more organized religion. Additionally, the polities practicing it were not small bands of hunter-gatherers like the Paleosiberians, but a continuous succession of pastoral, semi-sedentarized khanates and empires from the Xiongnu Empire (founded 209 BC) to the Mongol Empire (13th century). In Mongolia, it survives as a synthesis with Tibetan Buddhism while surviving in purer forms around Lake Khovsgol and Lake Baikal. Unlike Siberian shamanism, which has no written tradition, Tengrism can be identified from Turkic and Mongolic historical texts like the Orkhon inscriptions, Secret History of the Mongols, and Altan Tobchi. However, these texts are more historically oriented and are not strictly religious texts like the scriptures and sutras of sedentary civilizations, which have elaborate doctrines and religious stories.” ref

“On a scale of complexity, Tengrism lies somewhere between the Proto-Indo-European religion (a pre-state form of pastoral shamanism on the western steppe) and its later form the Vedic religion. The chief god Tengri (“Heaven”) is considered strikingly similar to the Indo-European sky god *Dyḗus and the East Asian Tian (Chinese: “Sky; Heaven”). The structure of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion is actually closer to that of the early Turks than to the religion of any people of neolithic European, Near Eastern, or Mediterranean antiquity. The term “shamanism” was first applied by Western anthropologists as outside observers of the ancient religion of the Turkic and Mongolic peoples, as well as those of the neighboring Tungusic and Samoyedic-speaking peoples. Upon observing more religious traditions across the world, some Western anthropologists began to also use the term in a very broad sense. The term was used to describe unrelated magico-religious practices found within the ethnic religions of other parts of Asia, Africa, Australasia, and even completely unrelated parts of the Americas, as they believed these practices to be similar to one another.” ref

“Terms for ‘shaman’ and ‘shamaness’ in Siberian languages:

• ‘shaman’: saman (Nedigal, Nanay, Ulcha, Orok), sama (Manchu). The variant /šaman/ (i.e., pronounced “shaman”) is Evenk (whence it was borrowed into Russian).
• ‘shaman’: alman, olman, wolmen (Yukagir)
• ‘shaman’: [qam] (Tatar, Shor, Oyrat), [xam] (Tuva, Tofalar)
• The Buryat word for shaman is бөө (böö) [bøː], from early Mongolian böge.
• ‘shaman’: ńajt (Khanty, Mansi), from Proto-Uralic *nojta (cf. Sámi noaidi)
• ‘shamaness’: [iduɣan] (Mongol), [udaɣan] (Yakut), udagan (Buryat), udugan (Evenki, Lamut), odogan (Nedigal). Related forms found in various Siberian languages include utagan, ubakan, utygan, utügun, iduan, or duana. All these are related to the Mongolian name of Etügen, the hearth goddess, and Etügen Eke ‘Mother Earth’. Maria Czaplicka points out that Siberian languages use words for male shamans from diverse roots, but the words for female shaman are almost all from the same root. She connects this with the theory that women’s practice of shamanism was established earlier than men’s, that “shamans were originally female.” ref

Buryat scholar Irina S. Urbanaeva developed a theory of Tengrist esoteric traditions in Central Asia after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the revival of national sentiment in the former Soviet republics of Central Asia.

Cosmic Mountain

“Harsag/Hursag “mountain,” “hill,” can mean: (Mountain-House “Temple,” “Cosmic Mountain,” “Holy Mountain,” or “World Mountain”). The peak of the cosmic mountain is not only the highest point on earth, it is also the earth’s navel, the point where creation had its beginning” the very the root/Axis Mundi. And maybe identified with a real mountain, or it can be mythic, but it is aways placed at the center. Examples abound: the Mesopotamian ziggurat is properly called a cosmic mountain and is seen as “a mountain with a deity house.” ref

The concept of divine regulation of the world from a mountain venue was universal in ancient times. The scholar of comparative religion Mircea Eliade says that “the peak of the cosmic mountain is not only the highest point on earth, it is also the earth’s navel, the point where creation had its beginning” — the root. According to Eliade, “This cosmic mountain may be identified with a real mountain, or it can be mythic, but it is always placed at the center … Examples abound: the Mesopotamian ziggurat is properly called a cosmic mountain…” Richard J. Clifford prefers the term “cosmic mountain” to “sacred mountain.” The mention of “holy mountain” evokes mythological thoughts of the cosmic mountain that stands at the center of the world. This is the place where creation began, a point of contact between the human and divine worlds.” ref

“Peter Jensen’s landmark book Die Kosmologie der Babylonier [The Cosmology of the Babylonians] was published in Strassbourg in 1890. Jensen’s book attracted considerable attention among European Orientalists of the day, as he articulated a theory destined to become the foundation of a later school of thought concerning the” Weltberg” or “world-mountain.” His evidence was based on philological and archaeological material. In a seminal passage, Jensen homed in on the Sumerian word harsag (or hursag), found in passages describing temples. It often appears in the phrase I-harsag-kurkura, which Jensen translated as “Berghaus der Lander.” ref

“The term harsag, isolated from its contextual usage, only means Berghaus (mountain-house), and can best be translated as “temple.” There is thus a correlation made between temple and mountain. An image of a “cosmic mountain” figures prominently in religious practices throughout the ages and in attendant mythic narratives. The inaccessible mountain, stunning in its beauty yet elusive to all approach, is the most prevalent and compelling of all imaginary places recurring in cultural myth and private dream. The concept of the cosmic mountain was prevalent in different forms throughout the ancient Near East: from Mesopotamian and Ugaritic cultures, and as far as Egypt and Greece.” ref

“In Asia, one finds the elaborate religious symbolism of Mount Meru, the cosmic mountain whose complex symbolic meanings are put forth. This axis, providing an opening through the three planes, makes possible communication with the sacred. This world axis may be symbolically represented as a world pillar, a ladder, a cosmic mountain, a cosmic tree, and so forth. Mount Meru, the cosmic mountain, carried the hierarchy of beings. Under the name of one of its peaks as cosmic axis, Mandara, the mountain functioned in the Churning of the Ocean. For the mythic world of Asia, Meru is the cosmic mountain, rooted in the earth, with its top in the heavens. It is both the axial mountain and the ideal divine city, and it provides the pattern for the cities of the kings on earth.” ref

“When Hindu beliefs reached Cambodia, they merged with the religious aspect of Mount Mahendra with early Khmer rulers becoming identified as the earthly incarnations of the deities of this cosmic mountain. Similarly, in early Taoism, K’un-lun is a cosmic mountain paradise connecting heaven and earth. China has Five Sacred Mountains: Mount Tai, of the East; Mount Hua, of the West; Mount Heng, of the North; Mount Song, of the Centre; and Mount Heng, of the South. It also has Mount Kunlun, a Cosmic Mountain. The ancient Iranian mythological motif of the cosmic mountain at the edge of the world was incorporated early on into medieval Islamic cosmology, known as Mount Qaf.” ref

“The Tatars of the Altai imagine Bai Ulgan in the middle of the sky, seated on a golden mountain. The Abakan Tatars call it “The Iron Mountain”. In Iranian Sufism the mountain of visions is the psycho-cosmic mountain, the cosmic mountain seen as homologous to the human microcosm. It is the “Mountain of dawns” from whose summit the Chinvat Bridge springs forth to span the passage to the beyond. Images used in early Persian mysticism are of “emerald cities,” the “emerald rock” at the top of Qaf, the cosmic mountain (also called Alburz). East Kalmuck people in Siberia believe the world is centered on a great cosmic mountain they call Sumer. Its truncated summit is represented by the square in the middle of this picture they draw of their world.” ref

“According to scholars of the history of religion, people of widely differing cultures have believed that there is a world axis located at the center of the earth, which is marked by a cosmic mountain. Throughout Indian Asia the mythical cosmic mount Meru at the center of the universe was thought to be the axis mundi. In Sumeria the primeval sea begot the cosmic mountain consisting of heaven and earth united. It is said that the gods grasped this cosmic mountain, the axis of the world, and used it to stir the primordial ocean, thus giving birth to the universe. The cosmic mountain not only was the origin of the earth, but also came to function as the peg which secured the earth a firm support. The Center of the World is represented by the image of the Cosmic Mountain, seen also as a connecting axis.” ref

“The Cosmic Mountain, the World Tree, or the central Pillar, which sustains the planes of the Cosmos. For shamans, the connection between the seen (physical) and the unseen (spiritual) worlds, the axis mundi, is most often visualized as a great cosmic tree connecting all of the Kosmos. This cosmic tree, which functions like the cosmic mountain, is thought to make it possible for the two or three levels of the universe to communicate. Sometimes, it holds up the sky, and it plays an important role in shamanism.” ref

“The metaphorical picture is that of a huge tree atop a cosmic mountain whose height reaches heaven, whose branches encompass the earth, and whose roots sink down to the lowest parts of the earth. Both the sacred mountain and the cosmic tree are emblems of stability, and, like the top of the World Tree, the summit of the cosmic mountain is always said to be the highest place on earth. Sitting atop the cosmic mountain, one climbs the cosmic tree to reach the heavenly abode. The mountain and tree form the axis that connects the three worlds — the underworld, the earth, and the heavens.” ref

“The focal point of the cosmic motif in biblical imagery is often as not the cosmic mountain, undoubtedly because of the Sinai event. The cosmic tree rarely, if ever, appears apart from its mountainous base. Within the magic ring of myth, the cosmic mountain is preeminent, both for its universality and its spiritual resonance as the meeting – place of heaven, earth, and hell and the axle of the revolving firmament. Unlike man-made sanctuaries, Sinai was created by Yahweh — it was the temple established not by humans but by divine hands. It was the sanctuary that served as a model for all replicas, especially the Tabernacle and the temple in Jerusalem.” ref

“For the Bible, cosmic mountain imagery is also a backdrop against which to see the special relationship between Israel and her own mountains expressed in national mountain imagery. Many of the salient features of the cosmic mountain known from foreign sources appear in the religion of biblical Israel in connection with Mount Zion. The Hebrew Scriptures contain clear allusions to the Ancient Near Eastern notion of mountains as the dwelling places of deities or the place where the gods assemble. Zaphon is the name of the cosmic mountain where El and Baal exercised their kingship. Zaphon (Heb. sapôn) designates “north” and is the cosmic mountain par excellence.” ref

“The motif of rivers flowing from the cosmic mountain as a source of life has been incorporated into Hebrew literature. The Cosmic Mountain The “very high mountain” mentioned in Ezekiel 40:2, to which Ezekiel is transported at the beginning of his vision in chapters 40–48, is at once Mount Zion and the cosmic mountain, the center of the creation. To Christians, Golgotha is the center of the world, for it is the peak of the cosmic mountain and the spot where Adam was created and buried. In the beginning of his Apocalyptic vision, John is in the spiritual degree; but after he has experienced or realized in his upward march the realities of the Lamb’s book of life, he takes his place in the celestial mountain.” ref

“In Syro-Palestine, the temple was the architectural embodiment of the cosmic mountain. The primary element of a sanctuary was the bamah, the ‘high place’, the local counterpart of the cosmic mountain on which the Deity was conceived as dwelling and where he sat enthroned as cosmic king. Jerusalem was fully established as the new Sinai, a cosmic mountain and source of order. The order of Eden, restored in historical times by the covenant at Sinai, was the present and future blessing of Jerusalem. The temple of Solomon would seem ultimately to be a replica of the holy, cosmic mountain of religious literature, replicating the heavenly mountain of YHWH at Mt. Horeb/Sinai. The Jerusalem of Solomon has been characterized by Michael Fishbane as “the new Sinai, a cosmic mountain and . . . source of order.” ref

“For the Cherokee, the “world” is their world, and at its center is the Cosmic Mountain, stated above to be the axis. Their council house was consequently modeled after the Cosmic Mountain. Most ancient cultures have their standing stones, megaliths, pyramids, and obelisks. The cosmic mountain is such an important image that it has been the basis of sacred buildings. The direct antecedent of all Buddhist stupas was a cairn; and in the Sumerian myth a cairn is a summary representation of the cosmic mountain erected on the body of the anthropomorphic personation of the Mountain. Temple towers functioned as a representation of the cosmic mountain. A stupa may also suggest the stylized representation of a mountain.” ref

“These temple mountains were not uncommon in various parts of the world – for instance, the Ziggurat at Ur of the Chaldees, and Borobudur in Java. The Central Javanese complexes give the impression of being self-centered and complete in themselves as replicas of the cosmos (the cosmic mountain). As the cosmic mountain, Meru is imitated and repeated architecturally in Hindu temples, with sbikbaras, or “mountain peaks,” rising toward the heavens. It is repeated as the center post of Buddhist stupas. Though there is a common symbolism with the Brahmanic Mount Meru, the stupa is more than simply an architectural imitation of this cosmic mountain: it becomes, in its own right, the cosmic mountain. The cult of Balinese water temples embellishes the cosmic-mountain symbolism by emphasizing the role of the volcanic crater lakes as the symbolic origin of water, with its life-giving and purificatory powers.” ref

“The Shiva linga, like the Sri Chakra, is a symbol of the cosmic mountain. The three-dimensional form of the Sri Chakra is also a Shiva linga. The Iron Pillar, as the World Tree or Pillar (skambhd), surmounted by Visnu’s standard (dhvajd), is rooted in the Cosmic Mountain, which, as “Visnu’s place,” is the highest heaven. In Cambodia the linga appears, as a rule, associated with the symbolism of the cosmic mountain. At one time, there was a relationship between the temple, representing the cosmic mountain, and the essence of royal power, which was venerated.” ref

“In Mesopotamia, the temple could represent the cosmic mountain. Mesopotamian seals represent a god emerging from the cosmic mountain, supporting the interpretation of the ziggurat as the cosmic mountain, symbolic of the earth itself. Properly speaking, the ziggurat was a cosmic mountain, ie, a symbolic image of the cosmos. Religions attempted to build their sanctuaries on prominent heights. Since no such natural heights were available in the flat flood plains of Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), ancient priests and kings determined to build ziggurats, square or rectangular artificial stepped temple platforms. Functionally, temples were placed on raised platforms to give them prominence over other buildings in a city, and to allow more people to watch the services performed at the temple.” ref

“Symbolically, however, the ziggurat represents the cosmic mountain on which the gods dwell. The priest’s ascent up the stairway to the temple at the top of the ziggurat represents the ascent to heaven. The great ziggurat at Khorsabad, for example, had seven different stages; each was painted a different color and represented the five known planets, the moon, and the sun. The names of the Babylonian temples and sacred towers themselves testify to their assimilation to the cosmic mountain. The ziggurat at Til Barsip was called ” the house of the seven directions of heaven and earth.” Important temples were built on a terraced base, recalling all the more the image of the cosmic mountain, formed by diverse levels of existence and crowned with the residences of divinities and the supreme god.” ref

“These cities, temples, or palaces, regarded as Centers of the World, are all only replicas, repeating ad libitum the same archaic image — the Cosmic Mountain. The initial stone that is placed, the foundation or cornerstone, mystically represents the peak of the cosmic mountain breaking the surface of the primordial waters before rising to fill the heavens and earth. Potentates in lands influenced by Indian culture raised models in miniature of the Cosmic Mountain, on the possession of which they based claims to universal dominion. Eliade argued that the Chinese capital was perceived along similar lines — as an axis mundi, or a symbolic cosmic mountain: “In China, the capital of the perfect sovereign stood at the exact center of the universe…” The Hollow Mulberry is a cosmic mountain and it is also identified with the Yellow Emperor.” ref

Aztec temples were the axis mundi of the cosmic tree/cosmic mountain, which provided abundant “hearts” or animistic powers for agriculture. Mesoamerican parallels forcefully assert that the Teotihuacanos erected their tree, their axis mundi, in close proximity to the north house in the Plaza of the Moon near the cosmic mountain filled with life-sustaining water. Mythic cities, temples, or palaces, regarded as Centers of the World, are all only replicas, representing ad libitum the same archaic image — the Cosmic Mountain, the World Tree, or the central Pillar, which sustains the planes of the universe. The cosmic mountain of Kaf/Qaf in Sufism has significance beyond merely topographical detail.” ref

“That mountain-climbing for Rushdie, Dante, and ‘Attar possesses some symbolic significance is evident. It involves guidance in climbing the cosmic mountain and even flying beyond it, transcending the ordinary human state. The ascent of a mountain is viewed symbolically by the Chinese as a creative move upward, and the Taoist’s cosmic mountain (K’un Lun, the Abode of the Taoist Immortals) was considered the highest point on earth. The Cosmic Mountain allows the seer a vantage point of all- seeing; and its ascent is associated with loftiness. Cosmic mountain, cosmic waters, and sanctuary — this is the language of the sacred. Existing at the very heart of Creation, yet paradoxically everywhere, the archetypal Cosmic Mountain provides a crystal-clear yet constantly spiraling path to the Absolute.” ref

“Frank Korom writes, “lf we accept the contemporary criticisms, interpretations, and exegesis that has resulted from more sufficient evidence based on ever-increasing sources of information and documentation, then we must seriously question the use of axis mundi as a universal mythological concept. What began as a potentially useful analytic model for the study of a specific culture over a century ago has been transformed into a phenomenological ideal type grounded in an inaccurate original hypothesis, and scanty worldwide empirical evidence.” ref

“Hursag (Sumerian: 𒄯𒊕 ḫar.sag̃, ḫarsang) is a Sumerian term variously translated as meaning “mountain,” “hill,” “foothills,” or “piedmont.” Thorkild Jacobsen extrapolated the translation in his later career to mean literally, “head of the valleys.” Mountains play a certain role in Mesopotamian mythology and Assyro-Babylonian religion, associated with deities such as Anu, Enlil, Enki and Ninhursag. Hursag is the first word written on tablets found at the ancient Sumerian city of Nippur, dating to the third millennium BCE, Making it possibly the oldest surviving written word in the world. Some scholars also identify the hursag with an undefined mountain range or strip of raised land outside the plain of Mesopotamia.” ref

“Eḫursag is a Sumerian term meaning “house of the mountains,” sometimes etymologized as É.ḪAR.SAG with the signs É “temple” (or “house”), ḪAR “mountain” and SAG “head”. Eḫursag (Sumerian: 𒂍𒄯𒊕) is a Sumerian term meaning “house of the mountains”. Sumerian ÉḪURSAG is written as a special ligature (ÉPAxGÍN 𒂍𒉺𒂅), sometimes etymologized as É.ḪAR.SAG (𒂍𒄯𒊕), written with the signs É “temple” (or “house”), ḪAR “mountain” and SAG “head.” ref

“Ehursag is commonly associated with a temple of Enlil discovered by Sir. Charles Leonard Woolley during excavations at Ur in modern-day Iraq. He originally considered this to be a palace, a view that was later rejected in replace for a temple. The location of the royal palace at Ur remains unknown. No graves were discovered under the Ekursag during these excavations. Woolley eventually conceded that it was a “minor temple of some sort.” Modern scholars still vary on their interpretations of it as a temple, palace, or administrative building. It has even been suggested to be a wing or annex of the main temple, having had some of its foundations destroyed.” ref

“Stamped bricks used in the construction of the foundations revealed that they were built by Ur-Nammu of the Third Dynasty of Ur. Bricks from the pavement bore the stamp of his successor, Shulgi, and later ones of the Isin–Larsa period after Ur was destroyed by Elamites. Ehursag is also the name or epithet of Ninhursag‘s temple at Hiza and has been suggested to have been an interchangeable word with Enamtila. The Ehursag at Ur was restored in 1961 using ancient and modern bricks, a 2008 report for the British Museum noted that this had collapsed in some areas, especially the northwest corner.” ref

“Anunit – Mesopotamian mother or creator goddess derived from the earlier Sumerian Ki. She was Anu’s consort. Also known as Antu.

E-barra – Temple of the Sun.

E-gal-mach – Temple.

E-kur – Heaven.

E-mach – (Great Gate). Temple.

E-me-te-ursag – The temple of the War God, Zamama.

E-mish-mish – Temple.

Eridu – One of the most sacred cities of Mesopotamia. It was the resedence of the God Enki.

E-sagil – The “Temple that raises its head.”.The temple of Marduk in Babaylon.

E-shidlam – Temple.

E-ud-gal-gal – Temple.

Harsag-kalama – Temple. Possibly located in Ur (Ekhursag).” ref

The Tale of Inanna and Ebih: A Story of Honor and Might

“In the myth of Inanna and Ebih, An warned Inanna about the dangers of the mountain. He described Ebih’s thick forests, fierce lions, and wild bulls. An knew the mountain’s formidable nature. He cautioned Inanna, hoping to deter her from the perilous journey. These mountains were rugged and wild, home to fierce tribes and untamed nature. For the Sumerians, the Lulubi Mountains were a place of both awe and fear. Inanna’s journey took her through several regions, including Elam, Subir, and the Lulubi Mountains, culminating in a fierce confrontation with Mount Ebih.  Each place she visited held great significance to the Sumerians.” ref

The Lulubi Mountains: Gateway to the Wild

“The Lulubi Mountains were within the Zagros range, now on the border between Iraq and Iran. These mountains were rugged and wild, home to fierce tribes and untamed nature. For the Sumerians, the Lulubi Mountains were a place of both awe and fear. Inanna’s passage through these mountains highlighted her bravery and her determination to conquer all obstacles in her path.” ref

Mount Ebih: The Ultimate Challenge

“Mount Ebih, known today as Jabal Hamrin, is a mountain ridge on the western side of the Zagros Mountains. To the Sumerians, this mountain was more than just a physical obstacle; it was a symbol of defiance and pride. Samuel Noah Cramer, the scholar and expert in Sumerian history, likened it to the Dragon Kur, an ancient beast that represented chaos and resistance. Inanna’s confrontation with Mount Ebih was not just a battle with a mountain but a fight against a force that refused to acknowledge her divine power. Inanna’s journey culminated in a fierce confrontation with Mount Ebih. Despite Inanna’s power and might the mountain refused to show her respect and bow down to her.  And hence the myth of Inanna and Ebih was born.” ref

The Myth: Inanna and Ebih

“Inanna, the goddess of fearsome power, rode into battle, wrapped in terror. Armed with the holy a-an-kar weapon, she was drenched in blood. Her shield rested on the ground as storms and floods surrounded her. Inanna, the great lady, was a master of conflict. With her arrows and strength, she destroyed mighty lands and overpowered enemies. In the heavens and on earth, Inanna roared like a lion, causing devastation. She triumphed over hostile lands like a wild bull. With the ferocity of a lion, she subdued the rebellious and the defiant.” ref

“Inanna grew to the stature of the heavens. She became as magnificent as the earth. She appeared like Utu, the sun god, stretching her arms wide. Inanna walked in the heavens, cloaked in terror, and on earth, she wore daylight and brilliance. In the mountain ranges, she brought forth beaming rays. She bathed the mountain plants in light and gave birth to the bright mountain, the holy place. Strong with her mace, she was joyful and eager in battle, a destructive force. The people sang her praises, and all lands celebrated her.” ref

Inanna’s Declaration of Vengeance

“Inanna, the goddess of love and war, spoke with fiery determination. “When I, the goddess, walked in heaven and on earth, I roamed through Elam and Subir. I traveled in the Lulubi Mountains. As I approached the heart of the mountains, I saw that the mountain Ebih showed me no respect. It did not bow to me. It did not fear me.” She continued, her voice filled with resolve. “Since it did not honor me, I will teach it fear. I will fill my hand with the mountain range and make it tremble. Against its mighty sides, I will place my battering rams. I will storm it and begin the sacred game of Inanna. In the mountains, I will start battles and prepare for war.” ref

“Inanna’s eyes gleamed with fierce intent. “I will prepare arrows in my quiver. I will polish my lance and ready my shield. Then, I will set fire to its thick forests and chop down its evil deeds with my axe. I will summon Gibil, the mighty god of fire, the purifier, to cleanse its waters. I will spread terror through the unreachable mountains of Aratta.” Her final words echoed with power. “Like a city cursed by An, it will never be restored. Like a place frowned upon by Enlil, it will never lift its head again. The mountain will witness my might. Ebih will give me honor and praise.” ref

“You placed me at the king’s right hand to destroy rebel lands. May he, with my aid, crush enemies like a falcon in the mountains.” Inanna declared, “May he destroy lands like a snake in a crevice. May he make them slither like a snake from the mountain. Let him know the mountain’s length and depth through the holy campaign of An. I strive to surpass the other deities.” “When I roamed the heavens and walked upon the earth, I traveled through Elam and Subir. I wandered in the Lulubi Mountains. As I turned towards the heart of the mountains, I approached the mountain Ebih. But Ebih did not bow to me. It showed me no respect. As I, Inanna, came near, the mountain refused to honor me. It did not fear my presence.” ref

“With a fierce resolve, Inanna asked, “How can the mountain not fear me? How can Ebih not fear Inanna, the goddess of heaven and earth? Since it did not bow down, I will make it learn to fear.” I will spread terror through the mountains of Aratta.” Inanna’s voice echoed with power, “Like a city cursed by An, may it never be restored. Like a city frowned upon by Enlil, may it never rise again. Let the mountain see my might. Let Ebih honor and praise me.” The powerful mountain Ebih, resembling a mighty dragon, reaches to the heavens with lush gardens, magnificent trees, and abundant wildlife, capturing its fearsome and overwhelming nature.” ref

An’s Warning and Inanna’s Fury

An, the king of the gods, answered her with concern. “My little one, you seek to destroy this mountain. Do you know what you are taking on? This mountain has spread fear among the gods. It has cast terror over the holy dwellings of the Anunnaki deities. Its presence weighs heavily on the land and stretches arrogantly to the center of heaven.” An continued, painting a vivid picture of the mountain’s splendor and danger. “Its gardens are lush, filled with hanging fruit. Magnificent trees rise like crowns to the heavens. Lions roam under the canopy of trees, and wild rams and stags abound. Wild bulls graze in flourishing grass. Deer couple among the cypress trees. Its fearsome nature is overwhelming. Inanna, you cannot pass through it.” Determined and unyielding, Inanna stormed out, ready to face the mountain. She would not be deterred. The battle was hers to win.” ref

The Battle Against Ebih

“Inanna stood before the mighty mountain, her gaze fierce and unyielding. She advanced, step by determined step, her dagger gleaming in the dim light. She sharpened both edges, preparing for the battle to come. With a swift, powerful move, she grabbed Ebih’s neck, her strength like a force of nature. She plunged the dagger deep into the mountain’s core, her roar echoing like thunder across the land. Ebih, the proud mountain, fought back fiercely. Rocks tumbled down its sides, clattering and shaking the ground. From its crevices, venomous serpents spat their poison, hissing in defiance. But Inanna’s wrath was unstoppable. She cursed the forests, damning the trees to wither and die. The mighty oak trees succumbed to her drought, their leaves turning to dust.” ref

“Inanna’s assault was relentless. She poured fire onto the mountain’s flanks, thick smoke rising to choke the sky. The flames consumed everything in their path, leaving nothing but ash. The mountain’s resistance was fierce, but Inanna’s power was greater. She established her authority over Ebih, bending it to her will. Inanna’s authority over the mountain was undeniable. She conquered it completely, bending it to her will. Holy Inanna, the fierce goddess of love and war, did as she wished. Her power and determination were unmatched. Inanna, the goddess of love and war, fights the Ebih mountain. Rocks tumble down its sides, venomous serpents hiss, trees wither and burn, and a storm engulfs the mountain.” ref

Inanna’s Victory and Declaration

“Inanna stood before the mountain range of Ebih, her voice powerful and commanding. “Mountain range,” she said, “you stood tall and proud, reaching up to the heavens. You were beautiful and majestic. But you did not bow to me. You did not show respect. So, I have brought you low.” Inanna’s words were filled with righteous fury. “My father Enlil has spread my great terror over these mountains. “In my victory, I rushed towards the mountain like a surging flood. Like rising water, I overflowed the dam. I imposed my will upon you, Ebih. My victory is complete.” Inanna’s power and dominance were clear. Her triumphant speech echoed through the mountains, marking her as a force to be reckoned with. Praise rose to Inanna, the great child of Nanna, the mighty goddess.” ref

The Significance of the Myth of Inanna and Ebih

“The myth of Inanna and Ebih was a powerful tale of divine retribution and the assertion of authority. Inanna, the fierce goddess of love and war, confronted the proud mountain Ebih, which refused to bow to her. Despite warnings from An, the king of the gods, Inanna’s determination and might lead her to victory. She destroyed the mountain with relentless fury, establishing her dominance and demanding the respect she was due. For the Sumerians, myths like that of Inanna and Ebih were more than just stories. They were sacred narratives that conveyed essential truths about the world, the gods, and human society. These myths provided a framework for understanding the forces of nature and the divine, guiding their religious practices and cultural values.” ref

“Inanna’s myth reinforced the idea that the gods were deeply involved in the affairs of the world and that their favor was crucial for prosperity and survival. It taught lessons about humility, respect, and the consequences of arrogance. By venerating Inanna and other deities, the Sumerians sought to align themselves with the divine will, ensuring harmony and protection. In conclusion, the myth of Inanna and Ebih is a vivid and powerful story that encapsulates the values and beliefs of the Sumerian people. It celebrates the might of the gods, the importance of reverence, and the eternal struggle between order and chaos. Through this timeless narrative, the Sumerians expressed their understanding of the cosmos and their place within it, creating a legacy that continues to inspire and intrigue us today.” ref

The Celestial Stone: A Cultural History of Lapis Lazuli

“Sumerians believed that the stone houses the deity’s soul, which could be connected to through jewelry worn on the body. The Sumerian sky goddess Inanna had a necklace and staff made of lapis lazuli. Pigment obtained from the rich blue mineral was used to paint the Madonna’s robes. In fact, the rock, mined in the mountains of Central Asia, is vital to many cultures.”  ref

“The cold, inhospitable wilderness of the Afghan province Badakhshan is a network of rocky peaks, furrowed with treacherous gorges. The mountain range of the Hindu Kush rises there, 24,600 feet above sea level. Its name fully reflects the hostile character of this place—in Pashto, Hindu Kush means “killer of Hindus.” Despite these adverse conditions, the mines here have been exploited continuously for more than six thousand years. They are used to extract lapis lazuli—a stone which has become an attribute of divinity in many cultures, and was one of the first luxury goods.”  ref

The Rarest of Pigments

“Lapis lazuli (literally, “blue stone” in Latin) is a metamorphic rock, or one that was transformed deep in the earth’s crust. Today it is considered a semi-precious stone. It is of medium hardness, which makes it relatively easy to process. However, what determined its enormous importance is its beautiful dark-blue color, which it owes to one of its ingredients: lazurite. Ever since ancient times, stones and gems have been associated with beliefs, magical powers, and social status. They shouldn’t be treated as mere minerals—they are also elements of culture, mythology, and art. Gemstones reflect human motivations, aspirations, and anxieties.”  ref

“For many societies, blue was a color with a symbolic dimension. This probably happened because people desire everything that is unattainable or unusual—and blue pigments are some of the rarest on Earth. In the few plants and animals that boast this color, it is most frequently part of their structural coloration. This means that their bodies contain no blue pigment, but in the process of evolution, they have developed fine structures that refract light to generate various shades of blue. Wanting to obtain this color for themselves, humans had to reach for rocks and minerals. In antiquity, their choice wasn’t great. Apart from the very rare and hard sapphire and light-blue turquoise, there was only lapis lazuli.”  ref

“Throughout the ages, merchant caravans from Bactria (as Badakhshan was once called) loaded with the precious stone made their way to the cities of India, China, Rome, Greece, Egypt, and Mesopotamia, a region located in the Tigris-Euphrates basin. The documented history of lapis lazuli trade dates back to the Neolithic period. The earliest traces, some nine thousand years ago, come from the Indus River valley, where, in the mid-70s, French archeologists began to explore the remains of the ancient burial grounds of a settlement called Mehrgarh and encountered many ornaments made from the stone.”  ref

“About seven thousand years ago, the inhabitants of Mesopotamia—as possibly the first in history—had enough wealth and leisure time to start seeking luxury goods. They were overwhelmed by a desire for the blue stone. The languages of the region attest to its incredibly high value. For example, zagindurû, the Akkadian word for lapis lazuli (but also for blue pigment or blue glass), contains the root za-gin, which describes something shiny and precious. Interestingly, ancient languages didn’t usually have a separate word for the color blue itself. This is related to the above-mentioned fact that it rarely occurs in nature.”  ref

“The exclusive character of blue meant that both in Mesopotamia and other areas, it was reserved for those of high social status and the ruling classes. The usage of a whole palette of blue as the key ornamentation feature at the Northwest Palace of Ashurnasirpal II in Nimrud is a good example. The wall paintings there, as well as various architectural details such as glazed bricks, colored sculptures and large-scale bas reliefs were all blue. In ancient Mesopotamia, large quantities of small, personal objects were made from lapis lazuli. These could be figurines of animals or people, jewelry, or cylinder seals, which were used for impressing official signatures, and religious inscriptions on damp clay.”  ref

Royal Tombs

“Some of the most sophisticated lapis lazuli artifacts are undoubtedly those found in southern Iraq by Charles Leonard Woolley. In 1922, this British scholar of the ancient “Near East”—now considered a forerunner of modern archeology—took the lead at the excavation of Tell el-Muqayyar, which used to be the famed Sumerian city-state of Ur. After many setbacks, Woolley made a ground-breaking discovery. He excavated the ancient city’s necropolis from under a thick layer of desert sand and bricks. Present-day estimations indicate that the dead were buried there for almost 3,300 years.”  ref

“Woolley discovered more than two thousand burials there. The unique construction and furnishing of sixteen tombs, which he called “royal” on the basis of their inscriptions, stood out. In addition to innumerable items of jewelry, weapons, and golden vessels, the archeologists found a lyre—once belonging to Sumerian queen Pu-abi. It was decorated with a golden bull head and a stylized beard made of lapis lazuli. There were two gilded lambs resting against some golden thickets, with fleeces also made of the blue stone and shells. Finally, one of the most emblematic examples of Sumerian art was the famous ornate box, called the Standard of Ur, and also made of lapis lazuli and mother of pearl.”  ref

A Journey to the Underworld

“The aforementioned stone is also the most frequently mentioned gem in Sumerian written sources. An approximately five-thousand-year-old history of the goddess Inanna invokes it as a crucial symbol of divine power. The myth tells the story of how the great goddess, the Queen of Heaven, descended into the underworld, struggled with her sister Ereshkigal—the Queen of the Dead—and finally restored the balance between life and death. While preparing for her journey, the fearless Inanna (later called Ishtar) donned the emblems of her divine powers, which doubled as the container of her magical talents—apart from her most splendid robes and the crown of heavens, she also had a lapis lazuli necklace and staff. The choice of this stone in the legend shouldn’t be a surprise, given that in ancient Sumer, it was commonly associated with divine power. Sumerians believed that the stone houses the deity’s soul, which could be connected to through jewelry worn on the body.”  ref

“Lapis lazuli also played an extremely important role in ancient Egypt, which was reflected in the language, just like in Mesopotamia. To name the color blue, Egyptians often used the phrase “lapis-lazuli-like,” and the hue, which to them symbolized the supernatural, was associated with the home of the highest deity Ra, heaven—its Egyptian name, shbd, was also used for lapis lazuli.”  ref

“From the very beginnings of Egyptian statehood, lapis lazuli was used to create jewelry and amulets, and to decorate ornaments. The Egyptian Book of the Dead—a collection of magical texts aimed at helping the deceased in their journey through the Duat (the underworld) and into paradise—contained detailed descriptions of the use of the stone in burial rites. In the religious context, lapis lazuli was equated with resurrection, which is why many Egyptian handicraft items found in tombs contain the rock. In daily life, powdered lazurite was used by rich Egyptians as eyeshadow. Much later, this powder found application as a painter’s pigment, revolutionizing the European art world.”  ref

Garden of the gods (Sumerian paradise)

“Mount Hermon · Cedars of Lebanon, sometimes connected with the Sumerian “garden of the gods” · Tell mound at Eridu with temple dedicated to the gods. The concept of a garden of the gods or a divine paradise may have originated in Sumer. The concept of this home of the immortals was later handed down to the Babylonians, who conquered Sumer. A Sumerian paradise is usually associated with the Dilmun civilization of Eastern Arabia. Sir Henry Rawlinson first suggested the geographical location of Dilmun was in Bahrain in 1880. This theory was later promoted by Friedrich Delitzsch in his book Wo lag das Paradies in 1881, suggesting that it was at the head of the Persian Gulf.” ref

“Various other theories have been put forward on this theme. Dilmun is first mentioned in association with Kur (mountain), and this is particularly problematic as Bahrain is very flat, having a highest prominence of only 134 metres (440 ft) elevation. Also, in the early epic Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta, the construction of the ziggurats in Uruk and Eridu are described as taking place in a world “before Dilmun had yet been settled”. In 1987, Theresa Howard-Carter realized that the locations in this area possess no archaeological evidence of a settlement dating 3300-2300 BCE. She proposed that Dilmun could have existed in different eras, and the one of this era might be a still unidentified tell.” ref

“In tablet nine of the standard version of the Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh travels to the garden of the gods through the Cedar Forest and the depths of Mashu, a comparable location in Sumerian version is the “Mountain of cedar-felling.” Little description remains of the “jeweled garden” of Gilgamesh because twenty-four lines of the myth were damaged and could not be translated at that point in the text. “The name of the mountain is Mashu. As he arrives at the mountain of Mashu, Which every day keeps watch over the rising and setting of the sun, Whose peaks reach as high as the “banks of heaven,” and whose breast reaches down to the netherworld, The scorpion-people keep watch at its gate.” ref

“Archaeologist Franz Marius Theodor de Liagre Böhl has highlighted that the word Mashu in Sumerian means “twins.” Jensen and Zimmern thought it to be the geographical location between Mount Lebanon and Mount Hermon in the Anti-Lebanon range. Edward Lipinski and Peter Kyle McCarter have suggested that the garden of the gods relates to a mountain sanctuary in the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon ranges. Other scholars have found a connection between the Cedars of Lebanon and the garden of the gods. The location of garden of the gods is close to the forest, which is described in the line: Saria (Sirion/Mount Hermon) and Lebanon tremble at the felling of the cedars.” ref

Shamanism Among the Peoples of the North: Uralic, Transeurasian, Dené–Yeniseian, Chukotko-Kamchatkan, and Eskaleut languages

Elite Power Accumulation: Ancient Trade, Tokens, Writing, Wealth, Merchants, and Priest-Kings

Mesopotamia and Egypt relations

“Egypt–Mesopotamia relations were the relations between the civilizations of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, in the Middle East. They seem to have developed from the 4th millennium BCE, starting in the Uruk period for Mesopotamia (circa 4000–3100 BCE or around 6,000 to 5,100 years ago (priest-kings in Mesopotamia) to “5,100 years ago”, when the first Ancient Egyptian pharaoh/priest-king gained full state power) and half a millennium younger Gerzean culture of Prehistoric Egypt (circa 3500–3200 BCE or around 5,500 to 5,2,00 years ago), and constituted a largely one-way body of influences from Mesopotamia into Egypt.” ref

“In earlier periods of Mesopotamian history, the city-states were often ruled by king-priests who executed both royal duties related to governing the city-state and military protection as well as the priestly duties of maintaining the temple cult and serving as an intermediary between the gods and the people. However, in later times, this position of king-priest was divided, separating kings from priests.” ref

“The Ancient Egyptian Gerzeh culture, also called Naqada II, refers to the archaeological stage at Gerzeh (also Girza or Jirzah), a prehistoric Egyptian cemetery located along the west bank of the Nile. The necropolis is named after el-Girzeh, the nearby contemporary town in Egypt. Gerzeh is situated only several miles due east of the oasis of Faiyum. The Gerzeh culture is a material culture identified by archaeologists. It is the second of three phases of the prehistoric Naqada cultures and so is also known as Naqada II. The Gerzeh culture was preceded by the Amratian culture (“Naqada I”) and followed by the Naqada III (“protodynastic” or “Semainian culture”).” ref

“Sources differ on dating, some saying use of the culture distinguishes itself from the Amratian and begins circa 3500 BC lasting through circa 3200 BCE or around 5,500 to 5,200 years ago. Accordingly, some authorities place the onset of the Gerzeh coincident with the Amratian or Badari cultures, i.e. c.3800-3650 BCE or around 5,800 to 5,650 years ago, even though some Badarian artifacts, in fact, may date earlier. Nevertheless, because the Naqada sites were first divided by the British Egyptologist Flinders Petrie in 1894, into Amratian (after the cemetery near el-Amrah) and “Gerzean” (after the cemetery near Gerzeh) sub-periods, the original convention is used in this text.” ref

“The Gerzeh culture lasted through a period of time when the desertification of the Sahara had nearly reached its state seen during the late twentieth century. The primary distinguishing feature between the earlier Amratian and the Gerzeh is the extra decorative effort exhibited in the pottery of the period. Artwork on Gerzeh ceramics features stylized animals and environments to a greater degree than the earlier Amratian artwork. Further, images of ostriches on the pottery artwork possibly indicate an inclination these early peoples may have felt to explore the Sahara desert. Pictures of ceremonial reed boats appear on some Naqada II jars, showing two male and two female figures standing aboard, the boat being equipped with oars and two cabins.” ref

“Distinctly foreign objects and art forms entered Egypt during this period, indicating contacts with several parts of Asia. Scientific analysis of ancient wine jars in Abydos has shown that there was some high-volume wine trade with the Levant during this period. Objects such as the Gebel el-Arak knife handle, which has patently Mesopotamian relief carvings on it, have been found in Egypt, and the silver that appears in this period can only have been obtained from Asia Minor. Lapis lazuli trade, in the form of beads, from its only known prehistoric source – Badakhshan in northeastern Afghanistan – also reached ancient Gerzeh. Other discovered grave goods are on display here.” ref

“It is generally thought that cylinder seals were introduced from Mesopotamia to Egypt during the Naqada II period. Cylinder seals, some coming from Mesopotamia and Elam, and some made locally in Egypt following Mesopotamian designs in a stylized manner, have been discovered in the tombs of Upper Egypt dating to Naqada II and III, particularly in Hierakonpolis. Mesopotamia cylinder seals have been found in the Gerzean context of Naqada II, in Naqada and Hiw, attesting to the expansion of the Jemdet Nasr culture as far as Egypt at the end of the 4th millennium BCE.” ref

“In Egypt, cylinder seals suddenly appear without local antecedents from around Naqada II c-d (3500–3300 BCE or around 5,500 to 5,300 years ago). The designs are similar to those of Mesopotamia, where they were invented during the early 4th millennium BCE, during the Uruk period, as an evolutionary step from various accounting systems and seals going back as early as the 7th millennium BCE. The earliest Egyptian cylinder seals are clearly similar to contemporary Uruk seals down to Naqada II-d (circa 3300 BCE or around 5,300 years ago), and may even have been manufactured by Mesopotamian craftsman, but they start to diverge from circa 3300 BCE to become more Egyptian in character. Cylinder seals were made in Egypt as late as the Second Intermediate Period, but they were essentially replaced by scarabs from the time of the Middle Kingdom.” ref

“Burial sites in Gerzeh have uncovered artifacts, such as cosmetic palettes, a bone harpoon, an ivory pot, stone vessels, and several meteoritic iron beads, Technologies at Gerzeh also include fine ripple-flaked knives of exceptional workmanship. The meteoritic iron beads, discovered in two Gerzean graves, are the earliest artifacts of iron known, dating to around 3200 BCE. One burial uncovered evidence of decapitation. Discoveries at Nekhen include Tomb 100, the oldest known tomb with a mural painted on its plaster walls. The sepulchre is thought to date to the Gerzeh culture (c. 3500–3200 BCE).” ref

“It is presumed that the mural shows religious scenes and images. It includes figures featured in Egyptian culture for three thousand years—a funerary procession of barques, presumably a goddess standing between two upright lionesses, a wheel of various horned quadrupeds, several examples of a staff that became associated with the deity of the earliest cattle culture and one being held up by a heavy-breasted goddess. Animals depicted include onagers or zebras, ibexes, ostriches, lionesses, impalas, gazelles, and cattle. Several of the images in the mural resemble images seen in the Gebel el-Arak Knife: a figure between two lions, warriors, or boats, but are not stylistically similar.” ref

“Some symbols on Gerzeh pottery resemble traditional Egyptian hieroglyphs, which were contemporaneous with the proto-cuneiform script of Sumer. The figurine of a woman is a distinctive design considered characteristic of the culture. The end of the Gerzeh culture is generally regarded as coinciding with the unification of Egypt, the Naqada III period.” ref

“Prior to a specific Mesopotamian influence, there had already been a longstanding influence from West Asia into Egypt, North Africa, and even into some parts of the Horn of Africa and the Sahel in the form of the Neolithic Revolution which from circa 9000 BCE diffused advanced agricultural practices and technology, gene-flow, certain animals and crops and the likely spread of Proto-Afroasiatic language into the region. Mesopotamian influences can be seen in the visual arts of Egypt, in architecture, in technology, weaponry, in imported products, religious imagery, in agriculture and livestock, in genetic input, and also in the likely transfer of writing from Mesopotamia to Egypt and generated “deep-seated” parallels in the early stages of both cultures.” ref

“There was generally a high-level of trade between Ancient Egypt and the Near East throughout the Pre-dynastic period of Egypt, during the Naqada II (3600–3350 BCE) and Naqada III (3350–2950 BCE) phases. These were contemporary with the Late Uruk (3600–3100 BCE) and Jemdet Nasr (3100–2900 BCE) periods in Mesopotamia. The main period of cultural influence, particularly consisting in the transfer of Mesopotamian imagery, symbols, and technology to Egypt, is considered to have lasted about 250 years, during the Naqada II to Dynasty I periods.” ref

“Distinctly foreign objects and art forms entered Egypt during this period, indicating contacts with several parts of Western Asia. The designs that were emulated by Egyptian artists are numerous: the Uruk “priest-king” with his tunic and brimmed hat in the posture of the Master of animals, the serpopards , winged griffins, snakes around rosettes, boats with high prows, all characteristic of long established Mesopotamian art of the Late Uruk (Uruk IV, c. 3350–3200 BCE) period. The same “Priest-King” is visible in several older Mesopotamian works of art of the end of the Uruk period, such as the Blau Monuments, cylinder seals, and statues. Objects such as the Gebel el-Arak knife handle, which has patently Mesopotamian relief carvings on it, have been found in Egypt, and the silver which appears in this period can only have been obtained from Asia Minor.” ref

“Red-slipped spouted pottery items dating to around 3500 BCE (Egyptian Naqada II C/D), which were probably used for pouring water, beer or wine, suggest that Egypt was in contact with and being influenced by Mesopotamia around that time. This type of pottery was manufactured in Egypt, with Egyptian clay, but its shape, particularly the spout, is certainly Mesopotamian in origin. Such vessels were new and rare in pre-Dynastic Egypt, but had been commonly manufactured in the Mesopotamian cities of Nippur and Uruk for centuries. This indicated that Egyptians were familiar with Mesopotamian types of pottery.” ref 

‘The discovery of these vessels initially encouraged the development of the dynastic race theory, according to which Mesopotamians would have established the first Pharaonic line, but is now considered by many scholars to be simply indicative of cultural influence and borrowings circa 3500 BCE, although there is an established gene flow from Mesopotamia and West Asia into Egypt. Spouted jars of Mesopotamian design start to appear in Egypt in the Naqada II period. Various Uruk pottery vases and containers have been found in Egypt in Naqada contexts, confirming that Mesopotamian finished goods were imported into Egypt, although the past contents of the jars have not been determined yet. Scientific analysis of ancient wine jars in Abydos has shown there was some high-volume wine trade with the Levant and Mesopotamia during this period.” ref

“Egyptians used traditional disk-shaped maceheads during the early phase of Egyptian Naqada culture, circa 4000–3400 BCE. At the end of the period, the disk-shaped macehead was replaced by the militarily superior Mesopotamian-style pear-shaped macehead as seen on the Egyptian Narmer Palette. The Mesopotamian macehead was much heavier with a wider impact surface, and was capable of giving much more damaging blows than the original Egyptian disk-shaped macehead.” ref

“A mace is a blunt weapon, a type of club or virge that uses a heavy head on the end of a handle to deliver powerful strikes. The mace was developed during the Upper Paleolithic from the simple club, by adding sharp spikes of either flint or obsidian. The problem with early maces was that their stone heads shattered easily and it was difficult to fix the head to the wooden handle reliably. The Egyptians attempted to give them a disk shape in the predynastic period (about 3850–3650 BCE) in order to increase their impact and even provide some cutting capabilities, but this seems to have been a short-lived improvement. The Narmer Palette shows a king swinging a mace. See the articles on the Narmer Macehead and the Scorpion Macehead for examples of decorated maces inscribed with the names of kings.” ref

“A ceremonial mace is a highly ornamented staff of metal or wood, carried before a sovereign or other high officials in civic ceremonies by a mace-bearer, intended to represent the official’s authority. Ceremonial maces originated in the Ancient Near East, where they were used as symbols of rank and authority across the region during the late Stone Age, Bronze Age, and early Iron Age. Among the oldest known ceremonial maceheads are the Ancient Egyptian Scorpion Macehead and Narmer Macehead; both are elaborately engraved with royal scenes, although their precise role and symbolism are obscure. In later Mesopotamian art, the mace is more clearly associated with authority; by the Old Babylonian period the most common figure on cylinder seals (a type of seal used to authenticate clay documents) is a repeated type now known as “The Figure with Mace” who wears a royal hat, holds a mace in his left hand, and is thought to represent a generic king. Ceremonial maces are also prominently depicted in the royal art of Ancient Assyria, such as the Stela of Ashurnasirpal II and the Stela of Shamshi-Adad V, in which the Assyrian kings are shown performing rites or making religious gestures while holding a mace to symbolize their authority.” ref

“It is generally thought that cylinder seals were introduced from Mesopotamia to Egypt during the Naqada II period. Cylinder seals, some coming from Mesopotamia and also Elam in Ancient Iran, and some made locally in Egypt copying earlier Mesopotamian and Elamite designs in a stylized manner, have been discovered in the tombs of Upper Egypt dating to Naqada II and III, particularly in Hierakonpolis. Mesopotamian cylinder seals have been found in the Gerzean context of Naqada II, in Naqada and Hiw, attesting to the expansion of the Mesopotamian Jemdet Nasr culture as far as Egypt at the end of the 4th millennium BCE.” ref

“In Egypt, cylinder seals suddenly appear without any local antecedents from around Naqada II c-d (3500–3300 BCE). The designs are similar to and clearly inspired by those of Mesopotamia, where they were invented during the early 4th millennium BCE, during the Uruk period, as an evolutionary step from various accounting systems and seals going back as early as the early 7th millennium BCE in Mesopotamia. The earliest Egyptian cylinder seals are clearly similar to earlier and contemporary Uruk seals down to Naqada II-d (circa 3300 BCE), and may even have been manufactured by Mesopotamian craftsmen and subsequently sold to the Egyptians, but they start to diverge from circa 3300 BCE to become more Egyptian in character. Cylinder seals were made in Egypt as late as the Second Intermediate Period, but they were essentially replaced by scarabs from the time of the Middle Kingdom.” ref

“Lapis lazuli was imported in great quantity by Egypt, and already used in many tombs of the Naqada II period. Lapis lazuli probably originated in what is today northern Afghanistan, as no other sources are known, and had to be transported across the Iranian plateau to Mesopotamia as part of the established Mesopotamian trade network with South and Central Asia, and from there sold on to Egypt by the Mesopotamians.” ref

“Lapis lazuli is a deep-blue metamorphic rock used as a semi-precious stone that has been prized since antiquity for its intense color. As early as the 7th millennium BC, lapis lazuli was mined in the Sar-i Sang mines, in Shortugai, and in other mines in Badakhshan province in modern northeast Afghanistan. Lapis lazuli artifacts, dated to 7570 BCE or around 9,570 years ago, have been found at Bhirrana, which is the oldest site of Indus Valley civilisation. Lapis was highly valued by the Indus Valley Civilization (3300–1900 BCE or around 5,300 to 3,900 years ago). Lapis beads have been found at Neolithic burials in Mehrgarh, the Caucasus, and as far away as Mauritania. It was used in the funeral mask of Tutankhamun (1341–1323 BCE or around 3,441 to 3,323 years ago). Excavations from Tepe Gawra show that Lapis lazuli was introduced to Mesopotamia approximately in the late Ubaid period, c. 4900–4000 BCE.” ref  

In addition, Egyptian objects were created that clearly mimic Mesopotamian forms, although not slavishly. Cylinder seals appear in Egypt, as well as recessed paneling architecture, the Egyptian reliefs on cosmetic palettes are clearly made in the same style as the earlier and contemporary Mesopotamian Uruk culture, and the ceremonial mace heads, which turn up from the late Gerzean and early Semainean are crafted in the Mesopotamian “pear-shaped” style, instead of the Egyptian native style. The first man/animal composite creatures in Egypt were directly copied from earlier Mesopotamian designs. It is also considered as certain that the Egyptians adopted from Mesopotamia the practice of marking the sealing of jars with engraved cylinder seals for informational purposes.” ref

“Egyptian architecture also was influenced, as it adopted various elements of earlier Mesopotamian temple and civic architecture. Recessed niches in particular, which are characteristic of Mesopotamian temple architecture, were adopted for the design of false doors in the tombs of the First Dynasty and Second Dynasty, from the time of the Naqada III period (circa 3000 BCE or around 5,000 years ago). It is unknown if the transfer of this design was the result of Mesopotamian builders and architects in Egypt, or if temple designs on imported Mesopotamian seals may have been a sufficient source of inspiration for Egyptian architects to manage themselves. The design of the ziggurat, which appeared in Mesopotamia in the late 5th millennium BCE, was clearly a precursor to and an influence on the Egyptian pyramids, especially the stepped designs of the oldest pyramids (step pyramid), the earliest of which (Pyramid of Zoser at Saqqara) dates to circa 2600 BCE or around 4,600 years ago, well over two thousand years younger than Mesopotamian ziggurats/step pyramids. This again strongly suggests early cultural and technological influence on Egypt by Mesopotamia.” ref

“The route of this trade is difficult to determine, but direct Egyptian contact with Canaan in the Levant does not predate the early dynastic era, so it is usually assumed to have been by sea trade. During the time when the dynastic race theory was still popular, it was proposed that Mesopotamian sailors circumnavigated Arabia, but a Mediterranean route, probably by middlemen through the Canaanite port of Byblos, is also likely, as evidenced by the presence of Canaanite Byblian objects in Egypt. Glyptic art also seems to have played a key role, through the circulation of decorated cylinder seals across the Levant, a common hinterland of both empires, particularly Mesopotamia.” ref

^{“The intensity of the exchanges suggests, however, that the contacts between Egypt and Mesopotamia were often direct, rather than merely through middlemen or through trade.} Uruk had known colonial outposts of as far as Habuba Kabira, in modern Syria, insuring their presence in the Levant. Numerous Uruk cylinder seals have also been uncovered there. There have been suggestions that Uruk may have had a colonial outpost and a form of colonial presence in northern Egypt. The site of Buto, in particular, was suggested, but it has been rejected as a possible candidate.” ref

“The fact that so many Gerzean sites are at the mouths of wadis, which lead to the Red Sea may indicate some amount of trade via the Red Sea (though Byblian trade potentially could have crossed the Sinai and then be taken to the Red Sea). Also, it is considered unlikely that something as complicated as recessed panel architecture could have worked its way into Egypt by proxy, and a possibly significant contingent of Mesopotamian migrants or settlers is often suspected. These early contacts probably acted as a sort of catalyst for the development of Egyptian culture, particularly with respect to the inception of writing, the codification of royal and vernacular imagery, and architectural innovations.” ref

“While there is clear evidence the Naqada II culture borrowed abundantly from Mesopotamia, there is also a commonly held view that many of the achievements of the later First Dynasty were also the result of a long period of indigenous cultural and political development. Such developments are much older than the Naqada II period. The Naqada II period had a large degree of continuity with the Naqada I period, and the changes that did happen during the Naqada periods happened over significant amounts of time. Although there are many examples of Mesopotamian influence in Egypt in the 4th millennium BCE, the reverse is not true, and there are no traces of Egyptian influence in Mesopotamia at any time, clearly indicating a one-way flow of ideas. Only very few Egyptian Naqada period objects have been found beyond Egypt, and generally in its vicinity, such as a rare Naqada III Egyptian cosmetic palette in the shape of a fish, of the end of 4th millennium BCE, found in Ashkelon or Gaza.” ref

“It is generally thought that Egyptian hieroglyphs “came into existence a century or so after Sumerian script, and were probably invented under the influence of the latter,” and that it is “probable that the general idea of expressing words of a language in writing was brought to Egypt from Sumerian Mesopotamia.” The two writing systems are in fact quite similar in their initial stages, relying heavily on pictographic forms and then evolving a parallel system for the expression of phonetic sounds. Standard reconstructions of the development of writing generally place the development of the Sumerian proto-cuneiform script before the development of Egyptian hieroglyphs, with the strong suggestion the former influenced the latter.” ref

^{“There is, however, a lack of direct evidence that Mesopotamian writing influenced Egyptian form, and “no definitive determination has been made as to the origin of hieroglyphics in ancient Egypt.”} Some scholars point out that “a very credible argument can also be made for the independent development of writing in Egypt…” Since the 1990s, the discovery of glyphs on clay tags at Abydos, dated to between 3400 and 3200 BCE, may challenge the classical notion according to which the Mesopotamian symbol system predates the Egyptian one, although perhaps tellingly, Egyptian writing does make a ‘sudden’ appearance at that time with no antecedents or precursors, while on the contrary Mesopotamia already had a long evolutionary history of sign usage in tokens dating back to circa 8000 BCE, followed by Proto-Cuneiform. Pittman proposes that the Abydos clay tags are almost identical to contemporary clay tags from Uruk, Mesopotamia.” ref

“Egyptian scholar Gamal Mokhtar argued that the inventory of hieroglyphic symbols derived from “fauna and flora used in the signs [which] are essentially African” and in “regards to writing, we have seen that a purely Nilotic, hence African origin not only is not excluded, but probably reflects the reality” although he acknowledged the geographical location of Egypt made it a receptacle for many influences. According to Frank Yurco, “Egyptian writing arose in Naqadan Upper Egypt and A-Group Nubia, and not in the Delta cultures, where the direct Western Asian contact was made, further vitiates the Mesopotamian-influence argument.” ref

“After this early period of exchange, and the direct introduction of Mesopotamian components into Egyptian culture, Egypt soon started to assert its own style from the Early Dynastic Period (3150–2686 BCE or around 5,150 to 4,686 years ago), the Narmer palette being seen as a turning point. Egypt seems to have provided some artistic feedback to Mesopotamia at the time of the Early Dynastic Period of Mesopotamia (2900–2334 BCE or 4,900 to 4,334 years ago). This is especially the case with royal iconography: the figure of the king smiting his enemies with a mace, and the depiction of dead enemies being eaten by birds of prey appeared in Egypt from the time of the Narmer palette, and were then adopted centuries later (possibly from Egypt) by Mesopotamian rulers Eannatum and Sargon of Akkad.” ref 

“This depiction appears to be part of an artistic system to promote “hegemonistic kingship.” Another example is the usage of decorated mace heads as a symbol of kingship. There is also a possibility that the depictions of the Mesopotamian king with a muscular, naked, upper body fighting his enemies in a quadrangular posture, as seen in the Stele of Naram-Sin or statues of Gudea (all circa 2000 BCE) were derived from Egyptian sculpture, which by that time had already been through its Golden Age during the Old Kingdom. Rare etched carnelian bead have been found in Egypt, which are thought to have been imported from the Indus Valley civilization via Mesopotamian states of Sumer, Akkad, and Assyria. This is related to the flourishing of the Indus Valley civilization, and the development of Indus-Mesopotamia relations from 2600 BCE to 1900 BCE. Examples of etched carnelian beads found in Egypt typically date to the Late Middle Kingdom (c. 1800 BCE). They were found in tombs and represented luxury items, often as the centerpiece of jewelry.” ref

“The 5,000-year-old site near Beit Shemesh offers clues to how cities developed in Israel. A time of dramatic changes as population and social complexity were rapidly increasing — phenomena linked to increased urbanization and the development of more hierarchical power structures. Ancient inhabitants could have been precursors to biblical Canaanites; the temple building was found to contain a unique collection of intact miniature, ritual ceramic vessels.” ref

“From this large settlement west of Jerusalem dating from the early Bronze Age, some 5,000 years ago, findings at the site include a large public building, likely a “cultic worship site,” which contained a room with a unique collection of intact clay vessels. Adjacent to and surrounding this building, were rows of large standing stones, which were set in place “even before this enclosed public building was erected. It seems that originally, there was an open cultic activity area for the general public, which then transformed into ritual activity in an enclosed compound with more controlled access.” ref

Water and Mythology: Water Deities and Creation

“Sumerian religion was the religion practiced by the people of Sumer, the first literate civilization found in recorded history and based in ancient Mesopotamia, and what is modern-day Iraq. The Sumerians widely regarded their divinities as responsible for all matters pertaining to the natural and social orders of their society. Before the beginning of kingship in Sumer, the city-states were effectively ruled by theocratic priests and religious officials. Later, this role was supplanted by kings, but priests continued to exert great influence on Sumerian society. In early times, Sumerian temples were simple, one-room structures, sometimes built on elevated platforms. Towards the end of Sumerian civilization, these temples developed into ziggurats—tall, pyramidal structures with sanctuaries at the tops.” ref

“The main source of information about Sumerian creation mythology is the prologue to the epic poem Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld, which briefly describes the process of creation: originally, there was only Nammu, the primeval sea. Then, Nammu without a father gave birth to Utu, then went on to create An the sky, and Ki, the earth. An and Ki mated with each other, causing Ki to give birth to Enlil, the god of wind, rain, and storm. Enlil separated An from Ki and carried off the earth as his domain, while An carried off the sky.” ref 

“The Sumerians envisioned the universe as a closed dome surrounded by a primordial saltwater sea. Underneath the terrestrial earth, which formed the base of the dome, existed an underworld and a freshwater ocean called the Abzu. The deity of the dome-shaped firmament was named An; that of the earth was named Ki. First, the underground world was believed to be an extension of the goddess Ki, but later developed into the concept of Kur. The primordial saltwater sea was named Nammu, who became known as Tiamat during and after the Ur III period. Some ancient Sumerians believed that salt and other minerals were alive, and could even think independent thoughts.” ref

“The Sumerians believed that the universe had come into being through a series of cosmic births such as gods. First, Nammu, the primeval waters, gave birth to Ki (the earth) and An (the sky), who mated together and produced a son named Enlil. Enlil separated heaven from earth and claimed the earth as his domain. Humans were believed to have been created by AnKi or Enki, the son of the An and Ki. Heaven was reserved exclusively for deities, and, upon their deaths, all mortals’ spirits, regardless of their behavior while alive, were believed to go to Kur, a cold, dark cavern deep beneath the earth, which was ruled by the goddess Ereshkigal and where the only food available was dry dust. In later times, Ereshkigal was believed to rule alongside her husband Nergal, the god of death.” ref

“The major deities in the Sumerian pantheon included An, the god of the heavens, Enlil, the god of wind and storm, AnKi Enki, the god of water and human culture, Ninhursag, the goddess of fertility and the earth, Utu, the god of the sun and justice, and his father Nanna, the god of the moon. During the Akkadian Empire, Inanna, the goddess of sex, beauty, and warfare, was widely venerated across Sumer and appeared in many myths, including the famous story of her descent into the Underworld. Sumerian religion heavily influenced the religious beliefs of later Mesopotamian peoples; elements of it are retained in the mythologies and religions of the Hurrians, Akkadians, Babylonians, Assyrians, and other Middle Eastern culture groups. Scholars of comparative mythology have noticed parallels between the stories of the ancient Sumerians and those recorded later in the early parts of the Hebrew Bible.” ref 

“In the Sumerian city-states, temple complexes originally were small, elevated one-room structures. In the early dynastic period, temples developed raised terraces and multiple rooms. Toward the end of the Sumerian civilization, ziggurats became the preferred temple structure for Mesopotamian religious centers. Temples served as cultural, religious, and political headquarters until approximately 2500 BC, with the rise of military kings known as Lu-gals (“man” + “big”), after which time the political and military leadership was often housed in separate “palace” complexes. Some cities in Sumer had periods where their kings were worshipped as gods, and occasionally, these times spread to all cities in the region.” ref

“Until the advent of the Lugal (“King”), Sumerian city-states were under a virtually theocratic government controlled by various En or Ensí, who served as the high priests of the cults of the city gods. (Their female equivalents were known as Nin.) Priests were responsible for continuing the cultural and religious traditions of their city-state, and were viewed as mediators between humans and the cosmic and terrestrial forces. The priesthood resided full-time in temple complexes, and administered matters of state including the large irrigation processes necessary for the civilization’s survival. During the Third Dynasty of Ur, the Sumerian city-state of Lagash was said to have had sixty-two “lamentation priests” who were accompanied by 180 vocalists and instrumentalists.” ref

“The ancient Mesopotamians regarded the sky as a series of domes (usually three, but sometimes seven) covering the flat earth and a place where holy stars resided. Each dome was made of a different kind of precious stone. The lowest dome of heaven was made of jasper and was the home of the stars. The middle dome of heaven was made of saggilmut stone and was the abode of the Igigi. The highest and outermost dome of heaven was made of luludānītu stone and was personified as An, the god of the sky. The celestial bodies were equated with specific deities as well. The planet Venus was believed to be Inanna, the goddess of love, sex, and war. The sun was her brother Utu, the god of justice, and the moon was their father Nanna. Ordinary mortals could not go to heaven because it was the abode of the gods alone. Instead, after a person died, his or her soul went to Kur (later known as Irkalla), a dark shadowy underworld, located deep below the surface of the earth.” ref

“The Sumerian afterlife was a dark, dreary cavern located deep below the ground, where inhabitants were believed to continue “a shadowy version of life on earth.” This bleak domain was known as Kur, and was believed to be ruled by the goddess Ereshkigal. All souls went to the same afterlife, and a person’s actions during life had no effect on how the person would be treated in the world to come. The souls in Kur were believed to eat nothing but dry dust and family members of the deceased would ritually pour libations into the dead person’s grave through a clay pipe, thereby allowing the dead to drink.” ref 

“Nonetheless, there are assumptions according to which treasures in wealthy graves had been intended as offerings for Utu and the Anunnaki, so that the deceased would receive special favors in the underworld. During the Third Dynasty of Ur, it was believed that a person’s treatment in the afterlife depended on how he or she was buried; those that had been given sumptuous burials would be treated well, but those who had been given poor burials would fare poorly, and were believed to haunt the living. The entrance to Kur was believed to be located in the Zagros Mountains in the far east. It had seven gates, through which a soul needed to pass. The god Neti was the gatekeeper. Ereshkigal’s sukkal, or messenger, was the god Namtar.

“Galla were a class of demons that were believed to reside in the underworld; their primary purpose appears to have been to drag unfortunate mortals back to Kur. They are frequently referenced in magical texts, and some texts describe them as being seven in number. Several extant poems describe the galla dragging the god Dumuzid into the underworld. The later Mesopotamians knew this underworld by its East Semitic name: Irkalla. During the Akkadian Period, Ereshkigal’s role as the ruler of the underworld was assigned to Nergal, the god of death. The Akkadians attempted to harmonize this dual rulership of the underworld by making Nergal Ereshkigal’s husband.” ref

“It is generally agreed that Sumerian civilization began at some point between c. 4500 and 4000 BCE, but the earliest historical records only date to around 2900 BCE. The Sumerians originally practiced a polytheistic religion, with anthropomorphic deities representing cosmic and terrestrial forces in their world. The earliest Sumerian literature of the third millennium BCE identifies four primary deities: An, Enlil, Ninhursag, and Enki. These early deities were believed to occasionally behave mischievously towards each other, but were generally viewed as being involved in cooperative creative ordering.” ref

“During the middle of the third millennium BCE, Sumerian society became more urbanized. As a result of this, Sumerian deities began to lose their original associations with nature and became the patrons of various cities. Each Sumerian city-state had its own specific patron deity, who was believed to protect the city and defend its interests. Lists of large numbers of Sumerian deities have been found. Their order of importance and the relationships between the deities has been examined during the study of cuneiform tablets.” ref

“During the late 2000s BCE, the Sumerians were conquered by the Akkadians. The Akkadians syncretized their own gods with the Sumerian ones, causing the Sumerian religion to take on a Semitic coloration. Male deities became dominant, and the gods completely lost their original associations with natural phenomena. People began to view the gods as living in a feudal society with class structure. Powerful deities such as Enki and Inanna became seen as receiving their power from the chief god Enlil. Nammu was a goddess representing the primeval waters (Engur), who gave birth to An (heaven) and Ki (earth) and the first deities; while she is rarely attested as an object of cult, she likely played a central role in the early cosmogony of Eridu, and in later periods continued to appear in texts related to exorcisms. An was the ancient Sumerian god of the heavens. He was the ancestor of all the other major deities and the original patron deity of Uruk. Most major gods had a so-called sukkal, a minor deity serving as their vizier, messenger, or doorkeeper.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

“Not infrequently, the God of Heaven (Sky Father) and the Goddess of Earth (Earth Mother) are fused into a hermaphroditic higher deity. According to legends, the heavens and earth were once inseparable until Enlil was born; Enlil cleaved them in two. Customs and myths highlight dualistic dichotomies—for example, of heaven and earth, day and night, or man and woman—that need to be surmounted by a kind of bisexual spiritual force.” ref, ref, ref, ref

• Achamán, Guanche creator and sky god

• Amun, Ancient Egyptian god of creation and the wind
• Anhur, Ancient Egyptian originally a foreign war god
• Hathor, Ancient Egyptian originally a sky goddess
• Horus, Ancient Egyptian god of the sun, sky, kings, and war
• Khonsu, Ancient Egyptian moon god
• Mehet-Weret, Ancient Egyptian goddess of the sky
• Nut, Ancient Egyptian goddess of the sky
• Ra, Ancient Egyptian god of the sun that ruled the sky, earth and underworld
• Shu, Ancient Egyptian god of the air
• Thoth, Ancient Egyptian original moon god

• Dyeus, the chief sky father of the Proto-Indo-European religion
• Hausos, dawn goddess and daughter of Dyeus
• Menot, moon deity
• Seul, sun deity

• Asherah, sky goddess and consort of El; after the rise of Yahweh, she may have become Yahweh’s consort before she was demonized and the Israelite religion became monotheistic
• Baalshamin, “Lord of the Heavens” (c.f. Armenian Barsamin)
• El (god), original sky god and sky father of the Semitic speakers (replaced by Yahweh among Israelites)
• Yahweh, Levantine sky god of the Midianites, Israelites and other ethnic groups in the region

• Asmān, god of sky
• Māh, god of the moon
• Ohrmazd, sky father, the Great God
• Tīštar, god of Sirius star and Rainfall.
• Xwarxšēd, god of the sun
• Uša, goddess of dawn

“In comparative mythology, sky father is a term for a recurring concept in polytheistic religions of a sky god who is addressed as a “father,” often the father of a pantheon and is often either a reigning or former King of the Gods. The concept of “sky father” may also be taken to include Sun gods with similar characteristics, such as Ra. The concept is complementary to an “earth mother. “Sky Father” is a direct translation of the Vedic Dyaus Pita, etymologically descended from the same Proto-Indo-European deity name as the Greek Zeûs Pater and Roman Jupiter, all of which are reflexes of the same Proto-Indo-European deity’s name, *Dyēus Ph₂tḗr. While there are numerous parallels adduced from outside of Indo-European mythology, there are exceptions (e.g. In Egyptian mythology, Nut is the sky mother and Geb is the earth father).” ref

“The sky often has important religious significance. Many religions, both polytheistic and monotheistic, have deities associated with the sky. The daytime sky deities are typically distinct from the nighttime ones. Stith Thompson‘s Motif-Index of Folk-Literature reflects this by separating the category of “Sky-god” (A210) from that of “Star-god” (A250). In mythology, nighttime gods are usually known as night deities and gods of stars simply as star gods. Both of these categories are included here since they relate to the sky. Luminary deities are included as well since the sun and moon are located in the sky. Some religions may also have a deity or personification of the day, distinct from the god of the day lit sky, to complement the deity or personification of the night. Daytime gods and nighttime gods are frequently deities of an “upper world” or “celestial world” as opposed to the earth and a “netherworld” (gods of the underworld are sometimes called “chthonic” deities).” ref

“Within Greek mythology, Uranus was the primordial sky god, who was ultimately succeeded by Zeus, who ruled the celestial realm atop Mount Olympus. In contrast to the celestial Olympians was the chthonic deity Hades, who ruled the underworld, and Poseidon, who ruled the sea. Any masculine sky god is often also king of the gods, taking the position of patriarch within a pantheon. Such king gods are collectively categorized as “sky father” deities, with a polarity between sky and earth often being expressed by pairing a “sky father” god with an “earth mother” goddess (pairings of a sky mother with an earth father are less frequent).” ref

“A main sky goddess is often the queen of the gods and may be an air/sky goddess in her own right, though she usually has other functions as well with “sky” not being her main. In antiquity, several sky goddesses in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Near East were called Queen of Heaven. Gods may rule the sky as a pair (for example, ancient Semitic supreme god El and the fertility goddess Asherah whom he was most likely paired with). The following is a list of sky deities in various polytheistic traditions arranged mostly by language family, which is typically a better indicator of relatedness than geography.” ref

“An Earth god or Earth goddess is a deification of the Earth associated with a figure with chthonic or terrestrial attributes. There are many different Earth goddesses and gods in many different cultures mythology. However, Earth is usually portrayed as a goddess. Earth goddesses are often associated with the chthonic deities of the underworld. In Greek mythology, the Earth is personified as Gaia, corresponding to Roman Terra, Indic Prithvi, etc. traced to an “Earth Mother” complementary to the “Sky Father” in Proto-Indo-European religion. Egyptian mythology have the sky goddesses, Nut and Hathor, with the earth gods, Osiris and Geb. Ki and Ninhursag are Mesopotamian earth goddesses.” ref

“A mother goddess is a major goddess characterized as a mother or progenitor, either as an embodiment of motherhood and fertility or fulfilling the cosmological role of a creator- and/or destroyer-figure, typically associated the Earth, sky, and/or the life-giving bounties thereof in a maternal relation with humanity or other gods. When equated in this lattermost function with the earth or the natural world, such goddesses are sometimes referred to as the Mother Earth or Earth Mother, deity in various animistic or pantheistic religions. The earth goddess is archetypally the wife or feminine counterpart of the Sky Father or Father Heaven, particularly in theologies derived from the Proto-Indo-European sphere (i.e. from Dheghom and Dyeus). In some polytheistic cultures, such as the Ancient Egyptian religion which narrates the cosmic egg myth, the sky is instead seen as the Heavenly Mother or Sky Mother as in Nut and Hathor, and the earth god is regarded as the male, paternal, and terrestrial partner, as in Osiris or Geb who hatched out of the maternal cosmic egg.” ref

“In Egyptian mythology, sky goddess Nut is sometimes called “Mother” because she bore stars and Sun god. Nut was thought to draw the dead into her star-filled sky, and refresh them with food and wine. In Kongo religion, the Sky Mother, Nzambici, was the female counterpart of the Sky Father and Solar god, Nzambi Mpungu. Originally, they were seen as one spirit with one half male and the other half female. After the introduction of Christianity to Central Africa, the description of Nzambi changed to Creator God and Nzambici to his wife, “God the essence, the god on earth, the great princess, the mother of all the animals, and the mystery of the Earth.” ref

“Mother Nature (sometimes known as Mother Earth or the Earth Mother) is a personification of nature that focuses on the life-giving and nurturing aspects of nature by embodying it, in the form of a mother or mother goddess. Algonquian legend says that “beneath the clouds lives the Earth-Mother from whom is derived the Water of Life, who at her bosom feeds plants, animals and human” (Larousse 428). She is otherwise known as Nokomis, the Grandmother. In Inca mythology, Mama Pacha or Pachamama was a fertility goddess who presided over planting and harvesting. Pachamama is usually translated as “Mother Earth” but a more literal translation would be “Mother Universe” (in Aymara and Quechua mama = mother / pacha = world, space-time, or the universe). It was believed that Pachamama and her husband, Inti, were the most benevolent deities and were worshiped in parts of the Andean mountain ranges (stretching from present day Ecuador to Chile and Argentina). In her book Coateteleco, pueblo indígena de pescadores (“Coatetelco, indigenous fishing town”, Cuernavaca, Morelos: Vettoretti, 2015), Teódula Alemán Cleto states, En nuestra cultura prehispánica el respeto y la fe a nuestra madre naturaleza fueron primordiales para vivir en plena armonía como seres humanos. (“In our [Mexican] prehispanic culture, respect and faith in our Mother Nature [emphasis added] were paramount to living in full harmony as human beings.”)” ref

Shamash / Utu “Sun” / “Sun God” 

“The dawn goddess Aya (Sherida) was Shamash’s wife, and multiple texts describe their daily reunions taking place on a mountain where the sun was believed to set. Shamash (Akkadian: šamaš), also known as Utu (Sumerian: ^dutu 𒀭𒌓 “Sun“) was the ancient Mesopotamian sun god. He was believed to see everything that happened in the world every day, and was therefore responsible for justice and protection of travelers. As a divine judge, he could be associated with the underworld. Additionally, he could serve as the god of divination, typically alongside the weather god Adad. While he was universally regarded as one of the primary gods, he was particularly venerated in Sippar and Larsa. The moon god Nanna (Sin) and his wife Ningal were regarded as his parents, while his twin sister was Inanna (Ishtar). Occasionally, other goddesses, such as Manzat and Pinikir, could be regarded as his sisters, too.” ref

“Among their children were Kittum, the personification of truth, dream deities such as Mamu, as well as the god Ishum. Utu’s name could be used to write the names of many foreign solar deities logographically. The connection between him and the Hurrian solar god Shimige is particularly well-attested, and the latter could be associated with Aya as well. While no myths focusing on Utu are known, he often appears as an ally of other figures in both Sumerian and Akkadian compositions. According to narratives about Dumuzi‘s death, he helped protect him when the galla demons tried to drag him to the underworld. In various versions of the Epic of Gilgamesh and in earlier Gilgamesh myths, he helps this hero defeat the monstrous Humbaba. In the myth Inanna and An, he helps his sister acquire the temple Eanna. In How Grain Came to Sumer, he is invoked to advise Ninazu and Ninmada.” ref

“The name Shamash is a cognate of Akkadian terms šamšu (“sun”) and šamšatu (“solar disc“), as well as the words referring to sun in other Semitic languages, such as Arabic šams and Hebrew šemeš. The linguistic connection between the name of the god and the corresponding celestial body has been compared to that between Adad (and Syrian Hadad) and the word addu, “storm.” The Amorite form of the name is Samsu, as attested, for example, in the theophoric name Samsu-iluna (“Samsu is our god”). The ancient Aramaic form of the name was most likely Śameš, though many variant syllabic spellings are attested. Additionally, the name for the sun in Mandaean cosmology, Shamish (Mandaic language:ࡔࡀࡌࡉࡔ), is derived from Akkadian Shamash.” ref

“Utu was understood as a masculine deity. According to Manfred Krebernik, this most likely also resulted in his Akkadian counterpart being viewed as such, even though in the majority of Semitic languages, both the word referring to the sun itself and the names of solar deities are grammatically feminine. Julia M. Asher-Greve considers this the oldest attested example of a Mesopotamian deity’s gender being impacted by syncretism. However, not all researchers agree with the assumption that the name Shamash was ever understood as referring to a female deity in Akkadian-speaking areas. Christopher Woods argues that the only available evidence are early ambiguous theophoric names, which according to him, do not necessarily point at the existence of female Shamash, and might omit prepositions necessary to identify the gender of the deity invoked in them.” ref 

“Manfred Krebernik notes that a well-known example of a female deity in what he deems the “cuneiform cultural sphere” is Shapash. At the same time, both the Amorites and the Arameans viewed the solar deity as male, like Sumerians and Akkadians. According to Manfred Krebernik, the name Amna, attested as a synonym of Utu in the god list An = Anum and used to refer to the sun god in an inscription of Nabonidus, might be either connected to the toponym Sippar-Amnanum or to a root attested in Northwest Semitic languages, ‘-m-n, which can be translated as “to be reliable” or “to be firm.” ref

“The most common writing of the sun god’s name was the logogram ^dUTU, which could be read as Utu, Shamash, or, as attested in the god list An = Anum, as Amna. Syllabic spellings of all three of these names are also known. A further logographic spelling used the numeral 20, which was associated with him. Dozens of other variant names, epithets or possibly minor deities who came to be seen as synonymous with Utu are attested in god lists. Examples include Karkara (possibly related to Ninkar, one of the names of his wife Aya), Nimindu (possibly related to the name of the goddess Nimintabba), Si’e (“who shines forth”), Ṣalam (possibly a name referring to a winged sun symbol) and U’e (“sunrise”).” ref

Stars: Ancestors, Spirit Animals, and Deities (around 6,000 years ago, with connections to shamanism at 30,000 years ago and possibly further back to 40,000 years ago with totemism)

“The most significant myths of a given culture are usually the cosmogonic or creation myths; these sacred stories evolved and developed to explain the origin of the universe and the presence of the gods.” ref

“The major source for the Sumerian conception of the creation of the universe is the introductory passage to a Sumerian poem entitled roughly “Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Nether World.” The Sumerian poet uses two dialects in his epic and mythic compositions, the main dialect, and another known as the Emesal dialect. The latter resembles the main dialect very closely and differs only in showing several regular and characteristic phonetic variations. What is more interesting, however, is the fact that the poet uses this Emesal dialect in rendering the direct speech of a female, not male, deity; thus, the speeches of Inanna, queen of heaven, are regularly rendered in the Emesal dialect.” ref

“One of the more remarkable contributions to art made by Mesopotamia is the cylinder seal. Invented primarily for the purpose of identifying and safeguarding ownership of goods shipped or stored, it came to be used in time as a kind of signature for legal documents. The procedure consisted merely of rolling the cylinder over wet clay and thus impressing the seal’s design upon it. It is the contents of these designs engraved by the seal-cutters on the stone cylinders which are of considerable value for our study of Sumerian mythology. Especially is this true of the cylinder seals current in Sumer in the latter half of the third millennium BCE, not a few of whose designs are religious and mythological in character.” ref

“The upper design clearly attempts to portray a more or less complicated mythological story. Three of the deities can be identified with reasonable certainty. Second from the right is the water-god Enki, with the flowing streams of water and the swimming fishes. Immediately behind him is his Janus-faced messenger Isimud, who plays an important role in several of our Enki myths. Seemingly rising out of the lower regions is Utu, the sun-god, with his saw-knife and fiery rays. The female figure standing on top of the mountain, near what seems to be a rather desolate tree, may perhaps be Inanna. If the figure to the left with a bow in hand is intended to be Gilgamesh, we have in this design most of the protagonists of the tale “Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Nether World.” However, it is to be noted that Enkidu is missing, and Isimud, who is pictured in the design, plays no part in the story. And so, any close connection between the design and the epic tale is improbable.” ref

“In the central design, none of the figures can be identified with reasonable certainty. In the left half of the picture, we note a deity who seems to be rising out of the lower regions and is presenting a macelike object to a goddess. To the left is a god, perhaps Gilgamesh, who seems to be chopping down a tree whose trunk is bent to a curve. The right half of the design seems to depict a ritual scene. The lower design may illustrate graphically the meaning of such a phrase as “The nether world has seized him.” In the right half of the scene, we note a god actually within a flaming mountain (in Sumerian, the word meaning “mountain” is the word used regularly for “nether world”). To the right of the mountain is a god who may be putting it to flame with a torch. Behind this deity is a goddess with fiery rays and a ring who may perhaps be identified as Inanna. The left half of the design portrays a god holding a bull-man by the tail; both are inside a mountain.” ref

“If now we sum up the cosmogonic or creation concepts of the Sumerians, which evolved to explain the origin of the universe, they may be stated as follows:

1. First was the primeval sea. Nothing is said of its origin or birth, and it is not unlikely that the Sumerians conceived it as having existed eternally.

2. The primeval sea begot the cosmic mountain consisting of heaven and earth united.

3. Conceived as gods in human form, An (heaven) was the male, and Ki (earth) was the female. From their union was begotten the air-god Enlil.” ref

“Mountain”

“A lower design may illustrate graphically the meaning of such a phrase as, “The nether world has seized him.” In the right half of the scene, we note a god actually within a flaming mountain (in Sumerian, the word meaning “mountain” is the word used regularly for “nether world”). To the right of the mountain is a god who may be putting it to flame with a torch. Behind this deity is a goddess with fiery rays and a ring who may perhaps be identified as Inanna. The left half of the design portrays a god holding a bull-man by the tail; both are inside a mountain.” ref

“… the Zu-Bird fled with his young to the mountain… In a tablet that gives a list of the Sumerian gods, the goddess Nammu, written with the ideogram for “sea,” is described as “the mother, who gave birth to heaven and earth.” Heaven and earth were, therefore, conceived by the Sumerians as the created products of the primeval sea. The myth “Cattle and Grain” which describes the birth in heaven of the spirits of cattle and grain, who were then sent down to earth to bring prosperity to mankind, begins with the following two lines: After on the mountain of heaven and earth, An had caused the Anunnaki (his followers) to be born… It is not unreasonable to assume, therefore, that heaven and earth united were conceived as a mountain whose base was the bottom of the earth and whose peak was the top of the heaven.” ref

• “The upper design depicts the rising of Utu, the sun-god, identifiable by his fiery rays and saw-knife. He places his left foot on a mountain while attending deities throw open the gates. 
• “The deity between Utu and Enki, who is climbing a mountain, is still unidentifiable.
• “The ‘great mountain,’ father Enlil, the bright-eyed, will see thee.
• “The great mountain, Enlil, in the universe has uttered thy exalted name.
• “Enki then comes to Meluhha, the “black mountain” …
• “Thy king is the great mountain, the father Enlil, like the father of all the lands.
• “Behind him is a mountain from which sprouts a plant and on which an ibex is ascending; in front of him, a deity leads a worshipper carrying a gazelle in his arms.
• “Shrine of abundance of the land, knees opened, green like the ‘mountain,’ Hashur-forest, wide shade.
• “After on the mountain of heaven and earth, An (the heaven-god) had caused the Anunnaki (his followers) to be born.
• “Isimud, the messenger of Enki, sings the praises of the “sea-house.” Then Enki raises the city Eridu from the abyss and makes it float over the water like a lofty mountain.” ref

“Enki now turns to the pickax and the brickmold, and appoints the brick-god Kabta in charge. He then directs the building implement gugun, lays foundations and builds houses, and places them under the charge of Mushdamma, the “great builder of Enlil.” He then fills the plain with plant and animal life and places Sumugan, “king of the ‘mountain’,” in control.” ref 

“Enlil, the air-god, separated heaven from earth, and while his father An carried off heaven, Enlil himself carried off his mother Ki, the earth. The union of Enlil and his mother Ki-in historical times she is perhaps to be identified with the goddess called variously Ninmah, “great queen”; Ninhursag, “queen of the (cosmic) mountain”; Nintu, “queen who gives birth”–set the stage for the organization of the universe, the creation of man, and the establishment of civilization.” ref

“Nanna, the moon-god, and his wife Ningal are the parents of Utu, the sun-god, who rises in the “mountain of the east” and sets in the “mountain of the west.” As yet, we find no mention of any boat or chariot used by the sun-god Utu to traverse the sky. Nor is it clear just what he does at night. The not unnatural assumption that upon reaching the “mountain of the west” at the end of the day he continues his journey at night through the nether world, arriving at the “mountain of the east” at dawn…” ref

“Enlil says to the Anunnaki: “Ye great gods who are standing about, My son has built a house, the king Enki; Eridu, like a mountain, he has raised up from the earth, In a good place he has built it. Eridu, the clean place where none may enter,
The house was built of silver and adorned with lapis lazuli. The house was directed by the seven “lyre-songs,” given over to incantation, With pure songs…, The abyss, the shrine of the goodness of Enki, befitting the divine decrees, Eridu, the pure house having been built, O Enki, praise!” ref

“Mountain” (ḫur-saĝ) is the very first word on the tablet and could be the oldest written word. Near Nippur’s most important temple, Ekur (lit. “mountain house”), they unearthed a cache of clay tablets. Archaeologists estimate that these cuneiform tablets date as far back as the 3rd millennium BCE. They are humanity’s earliest extant written records.” ref 

Heaven and earth deities as partners

“The god of heaven in many areas is a partner of an earth deity. In such cases, other numina (spirits) are missing or are subject to one of the two as spirits of nature or ancestors. Myths depicting the heaven-earth partnership usually describe the foundations or origins of the partnership in terms of a separation of a primeval chaos into heaven and earth or in terms of a later separation of heaven and earth that originally lay close together, and they describe the impregnation of the earth by the seed of the god (e.g., hieros gamos, Greek for “sacred marriage”). This partnership of the god of heaven and the goddess of earth may be found in areas of Africa that have been influenced by other civilizations (especially the Sudan and northeastern Africa), in eastern Indonesia, and in some areas of America under the influence of European civilizations.” ref

“Not infrequently, the god of heaven and the goddess of earth are fused into a hermaphroditic higher deity. This accords with certain traits of ancient civilizations that try to show in customs and myths that the dichotomies—for example, of heaven and earth, day and night, or man and woman—need to be surmounted in a kind of bisexual spiritual force. Certain myths express the loss of an original bisexuality of the world and people. In a creation myth found in the Vedas, for example, it was Purusha, an androgynous primal human, who separated through a primordial self-sacrifice into man and woman and from whom the world was created with all its contrasts. Another such creation myth is the cosmic egg, which was separated into the male sky and the female earth.” ref

The god of heaven is viewed dualistically

“In several religions, the god of heaven has an antagonistic evil adversary who delights in destroying completely or partially the good, creative deeds of the god of heaven. This helps to explain the insecurity of existence and concepts of ethical dualism. In most such cases, the contrasts experienced in the relationship between heaven and earth deities have been reevaluated along ethical lines by means of exalting the heavenly elements at the expense of the earthly ones (especially in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic sects in Europe, west-central and northern Asia, and certain areas of northern Africa). The figure of an antagonistic trickster or demiurge that has a somewhat ethical component may be the result of diffusion and is rather rare in such cultures as those of the Khoisan and the indigenous peoples of Australia and North America.” ref

The god of heaven viewed monotheistically

“The god of heaven, viewed in his ethical aspect, is always an active, single god—e.g., as in Christian, Jewish, and Islamic monotheism.” ref

Earth

“Although in polytheistic religions the earth is usually represented as a goddess and associated with the god of heaven as her spouse, only rarely is there an elaborate or intensive cult of earth worship. There are in many religions mother goddesses who have elaborate cults and who have assumed the function of fertility for land and human beings, but they hardly have a chthonic (earth) basis. Some mother goddesses, such as Inanna-Ishtar, instead have a heavenly, astral origin. There are, however, subordinate figures of various pantheons, such as Nerthus in Germanic religion or Demeter and Persephone (earth mother and corn girl) in Greek religion, who have played greater roles than Gaea (the world mother). Among Indo-Europeans, western Asians (despite their various fertility deities), Chinese, Koreans, and Japanese, the gods of heaven, sun, and thunderstorms have held a paramount interest.” ref

“When the common people have displayed intensive attention to “mother earth” (such as the practice of laying down newborn babies on the earth and many other rites), this partially reflects older cults that have remained relatively free from warrior and nation-building peoples with their emphasis on war (as in the western Sudan, pre-Vedic India, and the Indian agrarian area of northern Mexico). The Andean earth-mother figure, Pachamama (Pacha Mama), worshiped by the Peruvians, stands in sharp contrast to the sun religion of the Inca (the conquering lord of the Andes region). Earth deities are most actively venerated in areas in which people are closely bound to ancestors and to the cultivation of grain.” ref

Mountains

“Especially prominent mountains are favourite places for cults of high places, particularly when they are isolated as island mountains, mountains with snowcaps, or uninhabited high mountain ranges. The psychological roots of the cults of high places lie in the belief that mountains are close to the sky (as heavenly ladders), that clouds surrounding the mountaintops are givers of rain, and that mountains with volcanoes form approaches to the fiery insides of the earth. Mountains, therefore, serve as the abodes of the gods, as the centers of the dead who live underground, as burial places for rainmakers (medicine men), and as places of oracles for soothsayers. In cosmogenic (origin of the world) myths, mountains are the first land to emerge from the primeval water. They frequently become the cosmic mountain (i.e., the world conceived as a mountain) that is symbolically represented by a small hill on which a king stands at the inauguration. Pilgrimages to mountain altars or shrines are the favorite practices of cults of high places.” ref

“The larger mountain ranges and canyons between volcanic mountains—especially in Eurasia from the Pyrenees to the Alps, the Carpathian Mountains, the Caucasus Mountains, the Himalayas, the mountainous areas of northern China, Korea, and Japan, and the mountainous areas of North and South America (the Rocky Mountains, the Andes)—are most often centers of cults of high places. Elevations of the East African Rift Valley (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda), volcanic islands of the Pacific Ocean (e.g., Hawaii), and the mountains of the Indian Deccan have also served as centers of the cults of high places.” ref

“In early civilizations, the cults of high places were closely combined with those of the earth; e.g., Mount Olympus in Greece, the mountains of Enlil or of the “Mountain Mother,” Cybele, in western Asia, and the Meru mountain in India were believed to bring heaven and earth into a close relationship and were often viewed as the middle pillar of the world pillars upholding the sky. Bush and wild spirits (such as the lord of the animals) of the cultures of the hunters and gatherers were often believed to reside in inaccessible mountainous areas (e.g., the Caucasus).” ref

“In addition to other mountain deities of a more recent date (e.g., the god of the 12 mountains and the one-legged mountain god), the Japanese mountain deity yama-no-kami has been demonstrated to have been a deity of the hunt (i.e., god of the forest, lord of the animals) in ancient Japan. Through the worship of farmers, the yama-no-kami assumed the elements of a goddess of vegetation and agriculture. The mountain goddesses (earth mothers) of non-Vedic India still incorporate numerous features of hunt deities, and, because of indigenous influences, the Vedic gods and their wives (e.g., Parvati, Uma, and Durga) have their abodes on mountains. The isolated mountains of East Africa, surrounded by clouds, are believed to be the dwelling places of the heaven and rain gods, and in Zimbabwe, pilgrimages are made to mountain sanctuaries that are viewed as the seats of the gods.” ref

Pre-Islamic peoples of North Africa and the extinct inhabitants of the Canary Islands (the Guanches people) associated mountain worship with a cult of goats and sheep, which, when practiced in rituals, was believed to secure rain and thunderstorms in the often arid landscape. Similar cults are also found in the Balkans and in the valleys of the southern Alps. According to the beliefs of many peoples, earthquakes originate in mountains. In areas of Africa where the concept of mana is particularly strong, many believe that the dead in the underworld are the causes of earthquakes, though in the upper Nile basin of South Sudan and in East Africa, an earth deity is sometimes blamed.” ref

“In some areas, a bearer who holds the world up—a concept that probably came from Arabia, Persia, or India—is believed to cause an earthquake when he changes his position or when he moves his burden from one shoulder to the other. World bearers often are giants or heroes, such as Atlas, but they also may be animals: an elephant (India), a boar (Indonesia), a buffalo (Indonesia), a fish (Arabia, Georgia, and Japan), a turtle (America), or the serpent god Ndengei (Fiji). In the Arab world, on the east coast of Africa, and in North Africa, an ox generally is viewed as the bearer, sometimes standing on a fish in the water. Generators of earthquakes also may be the gods of the underworld, such as Tuil, the earthquake god of the inhabitants of the Kamchatka Peninsula, who rides on a sleigh under the earth. The earthquake is driven away by noise, loud shouting, or poking with the pestle of a mortar. Among peoples with eschatological (last times) views, earthquakes announce the end of the world (Europe, western Asia).” ref

“The view that the tides are caused by the moon can be found over almost all the earth. This regular natural phenomenon seldom gives rise to cults, but the ebb and flow of the coastal waters have stimulated mythological concepts. Not infrequently, the moon acquires the status of a water deity because of this phenomenon. The Tlingit of the northwestern United States view the moon as an old woman, the mistress of the tides. The animal hero and trickster Yetl, the raven, is successful in conquering (with the aid of the mink) the seashore from the moon at low tide, and thus an extended area is gained for nourishment with small sea animals.” ref

“Generally, the sun is worshiped more in colder regions and the moon in warm regions. Also, the sun is usually considered male, and the moon is female. Exceptions to these generalizations, however, are notable: the prevalent worship of the sun in hot, arid ancient Egypt and in parts of western Asia; the conception of the moon as a man (who frequently is believed to be the cause of menstruation) among many hunting and gathering societies as well as certain pastoral and royal cultures of Africa; and the conception of the female sun ruling northern Eurasia eastward to Japan and parts of North America. In many state cults of ancient civilizations, the sun plays a special role, particularly where it has replaced an old god of heaven (e.g., Egypt, Ethiopia, South India, and the Andes) and especially where it is viewed as a marker of time.” ref

The sun as the centre of a state religion

“In Africa, ancient Egypt was the main center from which solar deity concepts emanated. The solar religion, promoted by the state, was concerned with the sun god Re (Atum-Re, Amon-Re, Chnum-Re), the sun falcon Horus, the scarab Chepre, and a divine kingdom that was determined by the sun (e.g., pharaoh Akhenaton’s solar monotheism c. 1350 BCE). The sun religion reached—by way of Meroe, a sun sanctuary until the 6th century CE, and the upper Nile—as far as western Ethiopia (e.g., the Hego cult in Kefa and the sun kings in Limmu) and Nigeria (e.g., Jukun). In Asia, the sun cult culminated in the religion of Mithra of Persia. Mithra was transported by Roman legionnaires to Western Europe and became the “Unconquerable Sun” of the Roman military emperors.” ref

“In Japan, the imperial deity in state Shintō is Amaterasu, the sun goddess from whom Jimmu Tennō, the first human emperor, descended. In Indonesia, where the descent of the princes from the sun is also a feature, the sun often replaces the deity of heaven as a partner of the earth. In Peru the ruling Inca was believed to be the sun incarnate (Inti) and his wife the moon. A sun temple in Cuzco contains a representation of Inti as the oldest son of the creator god. The Natchez Indians of the southeastern United States, who are culturally connected with Central America, called their king “Great Sun” and the noblemen “the Suns.” ref

The sun as a subordinate deity

“The sun, within a polytheistic pantheon, often is revered as a special deity who is subordinate to the highest deity, usually the god of heaven. This may be observed in the great civilizations of ancient Europe and Asia: Helios (Greece); Sol (Rome); Mithra (Persia); Surya, Savitr, and Mithra (India); Utu (Sumer); and Shamash (Babylonian and other Semitic areas). The sun not infrequently is considered female—Shams of some Arabs, Shaph of ancient Ugarit in Palestine, Sun of Arinna of the Hittites, as well as the female Sun of the Germanic peoples. Siberian people such as the Taymyr Samoyed (whose women pray in spring to the sun goddess in order to receive fertility or a rich calving of the reindeer) or the Tungus worship sun goddesses. They make sacrifices to the sun goddess, and her symbols are embroidered on women’s clothes.” ref

The Sun and Moon as a divine pair

“A sun god is often related to a moon goddess as one member of a divine pair (in the place of heaven and earth as “world parents”). A sun-moon god exists among the Munda in India (Singbonga); a sun-moon (earth) pair, partially seen as bisexual, exists in eastern Indonesia; and Nyambe (the sun) among the Lozi in Zambia is represented as united with the moon goddess as the ruling pair.” ref

The Sun as an attribute of the highest being

“The sun sometimes is viewed as a coordinate or subordinate attribute, or hypostasis, of the highest being. This may possibly occur because of a partially weakened influence of a stronger solarism in areas of older indigenous peoples, such as those of Sudan, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, northern East Africa, and Australia.” ref

The Sun as a mythical being

“The sun in some religions is conceived as a purely mythical being, cultically recognized in sun dances such as those of prairie-dwelling Native Americans and in various celebrations of the solstice. These rites may be either survivals of an earlier local cult of a sun deity or influences of such a cult.” ref

The Moon

“The moon is often personified in different ways and worshiped with ritual customs; nevertheless, in contrast to the sun, the moon is less frequently viewed as a powerful deity. It appears to be of great importance as the basis of a lunar calendar, but not in more advanced agrarian civilizations. The moon, infrequently associated with the highest god, is usually placed below heaven and the sun. When the moon with the sun together (instead of “heaven and earth”) constitute an important pair of gods (world parents), it frequently assumes the features of an earth deity. In tropical South America, the sun and moon are usually purely mythical figures.” ref

“Between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer, the moon is predominantly female. Only some remainders of ancient hunting peoples view the moon as a male being. In the few significant male moon gods, such as both Khons and Thoth in Egypt, Sin-Nanna in Babylonia, and Chandra in India—in contrast with the female Selene and Luna in the Greek and Roman culture—a more ancient substratum may be present. Where the moon is considered as male, he often determines the sexual life of the woman, especially among the indigenous people of Australia.” ref

“The phenomenon of the moon that attracts all people is the sequence of its phases. The waxing and waning of the moon crescent is often interpreted as gaining or losing weight (eating, dieting). Thus, the Taulipang in Brazil believe that the moon is first nourished well and then inadequately by his two wives, Venus and Jupiter. Where the moon is viewed as female, the phases represent pregnancy and delivery. Elsewhere, people see childhood, maturity, and dying as the phases of the moon: the first crescent is thus the rebirth or the replacement of the old by a new moon.” ref

“The appearance of the crescent or the full moon is sometimes celebrated by a rest from work, and some attempt to participate in the waxing and waning of the moon by analogous magical rites. Girls with small breasts stand in the full moonlight (in the Salzburg, Austria, area); persons who desire the shrinking of a tumor point to the waning moon; and newborn children often are exposed to the waning moonlight, or they (and anything else needing health or permanence) are symbolically dyed white (as if washed by moonlight). Nearly everywhere, connections between the moon phases and the rhythms of nature (the tides) and humans (menstruation) are recognized.” ref

“The three dark days of the “death” of the moon are believed by many to be dangerous. During this period the moon is believed to be defeated in a battle with monsters who eat and later regurgitate the moon; or the moon is viewed as having been killed by other heavenly beings and later revived. The period is a time in which people, if possible, do not engage in a new enterprise.” ref

“The halo of the moon is also viewed as a bad omen among many peoples. Moon spots are regarded as testimonies of a battle with heavenly opponents. In addition to “the man in the moon,” the moon’s appearance has suggested “the woman with the basket on her back,” “the spinning woman,” or “the weaving woman” (in Polynesia, “the woman who pounds tapa”). The most popular animal figure recognized in the features of the moon, the rabbit (from Europe to America), presumably earned this role because of its fertility.” ref

Eclipses of the sun and moon

“An eclipse of the sun or moon—usually interpreted as a battle between the two heavenly bodies or as the dying or the devouring of one of the two—in many religions is met with anxiety, shouting, drum beating, shooting, and other noises. Many Native Americans, the Khoisan in Africa, the Ainu in Japan, and the Minangkabau in Sumatra interpret the eclipse as the fainting, sickness, or death of the darkened heavenly body. In Arctic North America, Eskimos, Aleuts, and Tlingit believe that the sun and moon have moved from their places in order to see that things are going right on earth. The explanation that heavenly monsters and beasts pursue the stars and attempt to injure and to kill them, however, is a view found over a larger area.” ref

“Noise and shooting are believed to deter the monsters from their pursuit or to force them to return the celestial bodies if they have already been captured. In parts of China and in Thailand, the monster is the heavenly dragon; in other Chinese regions and among the Germanic tribes and northern American Indians, the culprits are dogs and wolves (coyotes); in Africa and Indonesia, they are snakes; in India, they are the star monsters Rahu and Ketu; and in South America, the beast is the jaguar. The belief in the darkening of one star by the other in a battle—e.g., between the sun god Lisa and the moon goddess Gleti in Benin—is about as widespread. An eclipse may also be interpreted (as in Tahiti) as the lovemaking of the sun and moon, who thus beget the stars and obscure each other in the process.” ref

Stars and constellations

“Worship of the stars and constellations in the modern world survives only in a very corrupt or hidden manner. True star worship existed only among some ancient civilizations of and associated with Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia, where both astronomy and astrology reached a high degree of refinement—especially after a Hellenizing renaissance of astronomy—was the origin of astral religions and myths that affected religions all over the world. Though the view is controversial, Mesopotamian astral worship and influence may have reached as far as Central and Andean America (by way of China or Polynesia). Sumerian, Elamite, and Hurrian contemplation of the stars influenced not only Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, Egypt, Iran, and India but also other areas. Knowledge of the zodiac and the planets and observation of precession extended from the West to South Asia—e.g., the Pythagoreans and Orphics (mystical philosophers) in the Mediterranean area and astrological mystics in India, Indonesia, China, and Polynesia.” ref

“The western Sudan, for example, was deeply influenced by the spirit of ancient Mediterranean and Oriental knowledge of the stars. Apart from areas in the Sudan, northeast Africa, and what is now Zimbabwe (Mwene Matapa), not much of Africa has had any considerable knowledge of the stars. Unless old hunting cultures have survived, knowledge of the stars is relatively limited among forest peoples, explained by an Ekoi man in southeast Nigeria as follows: “Ekoi people do not trouble themselves about the stars, because the trees always hide them.” The hunters of the Ituri Forest likewise have never achieved the significant knowledge of the stars that is possessed by the African steppe dwellers.” ref

“Knowledge of the stars rarely leads to a worship of the stars. True star gods are rare, for example, in large parts of Africa. In Polynesia, where significant knowledge of the stars by the seafaring people and fishermen was learned in regular schools of astronomy, there seldom occurred what can be called true religious worship of the stars. Knowledge of the stars is still relatively significant among the hunting peoples in the Southern Hemisphere. Economic considerations connected with the rising and setting of the stars, however, surpass their mythological significance by far. The stars are usually considered to be living beings, particularly animals that have been transferred to the sky. They evidently are taken seriously primarily because they indicate by their rising and setting the appearance of game to be hunted or fruits to be collected.” ref

“The widespread African interpretation of the constellation sometimes known by the name of Orion as a hunter, as game, or as a dog (from East Africa to the lower Congo and in the area of the Niger) is most likely a vestige from an earlier hunting period that has survived in agricultural civilizations. In a different form, Orion is still known in Europe as a hunter, in northern Asia as a hunter of reindeer and elk, and in North America as a hunter of bears. In South America—outside the Andean empires—a whole series of astral beliefs of the ancient hunting culture has been preserved: the concepts of stars and constellations as lords of the animals, as helpers of the hunter, or as animals themselves.” ref

“The planet Venus has probably experienced its most significant personification in the figure of the Mesopotamian goddess Inanna-Ishtar. She was viewed sometimes as female and at other times as having aspects of both genders. Through her identification with the Greek Aphrodite and the Roman Venus, Inanna-Ishtar, the queen of heaven, still survives in Roman Catholic iconography—e.g., as the Virgin Mary with the moon under her feet. African cultures also have been significantly impressed by this planet, not only in the rare figure of a Zulu heavenly goddess who determines the agricultural work of the women but even more as the evening star and the morning star, who are the wives of the moon.” ref

“In the royal culture of Mwene Matapa (Zimbabwe) and its influences in Buganda (Uganda) and southern Congo, the king is related to the moon, and his wedding with the Venus women is a type of hieros gamos (Greek: “sacred marriage”). In large areas of Africa the concept of “Venus wives of the moon” is preserved, although the moon is usually considered as the wife (or sister) of the sun. This concept was most likely prevalent at a time when the moon-king ideology was widespread in the eastern half of Africa from the Nile to South Africa, perhaps indicating South Arabian influences.” ref

“The cluster of stars sometimes, known as the Pleiades, six or seven adjacent stars in the constellation of Taurus, is viewed in many parts of the world as maidens pursued by men. The Pleiades are also interpreted as a mother hen with her chicks, especially in Eurasia, where the star Aldebaran, which is located close to the Pleiades, is often included as a part of the constellation. In Africa, the appearance of the Pleiades designates the beginning of the agricultural year. Therefore, in many Bantu languages the verb kulima (“to hoe”) furnishes the basis for their designation kilimia, the Pleiades. In addition to eastern and southern Africa, there is still a smaller area in the western Sudan that retains this belief.” ref

“Polaris (the North Star) enjoys a central significance among the Finno-Ugric and Turkish Tatars as “nail of the world” or “pillar of heaven.” Among Altai Tatars, Polaris is viewed as the negotiator of the god of heaven Ülgan; in Japan, Polaris is a god of heaven above the ninth layer of clouds. The Milky Way Galaxy, depending on a group’s economy and lifestyle, was often simply named after hunting or domestic animals: way of the tapir, the donkey, or the camel. It also is called the seam of the heavenly tent or a water stream. As the footsteps of God or the way of God, as the way of the dead, or as a deserted way of the gods, the Milky Way reveals older mythical conceptions, among which is that of the world (cosmic) tree.” ref

“The luminous phenomenon called aurora borealis, the “northern lights” of the north polar regions, is frequently interpreted by Arctic and subarctic peoples (e.g., Eskimo, Athabascan, Tlingit) as the reflection of the dancing fire of the ghosts or of the peoples farther north, as the “cooking of meat” or the ball game of these peoples. Northern Germanic tribes saw in it the splendor of the shields of Valkyrie (warrior women).” ref

Elements and forces of nature

“The natural forces of fire and water, which evidently exclude each other, are brought together in a unity of opposites in the worldviews of early archaic civilizations. Both forces are purifying as well as protective and are viewed by many as being connected with the cosmic powers of the sun and moon. Where they are truly combined, often genetically, fire (as the sun) is usually male, and water (as the moon) female. Where the fire is included more into the chthonic (earthly) sphere, it may also receive a feminine character (e.g., fire in the earth, preserved in the womb); where rain is viewed as the semen of heaven, which is usually personified as male, it takes on a male character.” ref

Water

“Many of the qualities of water make it appear to be animated; on this basis, it is psychologically understandable that water (e.g., rain, sea, lakes, and rivers) might become a natural phenomenon worthy of worship. Water is always in motion, changes color in the light of the stars, reflects the world, “speaks” with murmuring and roaring, brings new life to dry vegetation, refreshes living creatures, including the tired and the ill, and heals. Because it dissolves dirt, water is also most suitable for purifying the soul (e.g., after the violation of a taboo or the commission of a sin of any kind). Under certain circumstances, even icons have to be washed. Water also demonstrates destructive forces (seaquakes, floods, and storms). The most important mythical-religious facts symbolized by water are the following: the primal matter, the instrument of purification and expiation, a vivifying force, a fructifying force, and a revealing and judging instrument.” ref

Water as primal matter

“The conception of a primal body of water from which everything is derived is especially prevalent among peoples living close to coasts or in river areas—e.g., the Egyptian Nu (the primordial ocean) and the Mesopotamian Apsu (the primeval watery abyss) and Tiamat (the primeval chaos dragon). The earth may be fished out or emerges from the primeval water; heavenly beings (e.g., Ataentsik, ancestress of the Iroquois) appear on the emerged earth; and birds lay an egg that is later divided into two halves (heaven and earth) on the chaotic sea. Thus, water is viewed as the foundation of all things. A survival of the original primeval sea in such myths is the water that flows around the earth’s disk (e.g., Oceanus).” ref

Water as an instrument of purification and expiation

“Water is viewed as an instrument of purification and expiation, especially in arid areas. Cultic acts in such areas generally take place only after lustrations—sprinkling with water or immersion in it. The same view holds true for entry into new communities or into life (e.g., baptism). Water lustration is especially necessary after touching the dead and as a purificatory washing for priests and kings. Pictures of the gods also are sometimes anointed with water.” ref

Water as a vivifying force

“Water is viewed as vivifying, like the heavenly rainwater that moistens the earth. Water also is equated with the flowing life forces of the body (e.g., blood, sweat, and semen). In order to replace the lost liquids, water was added to the mummified dead in Egypt. The African Asante designate their patrilinear groups as ntoro, which means “water,” “river,” and “semen,” and the Wogeo of Papua New Guinea call their patrilinear clans dan—i.e., both water and semen.” ref

Water as fructifying

“Wherever early archaic culture spread the myth of heaven and earth as the world parents, there also was a belief that heaven fructifies the earth with heaven’s seed. The springs, pools, and rivers on the earth, therefore, may bring not only healing and expiation but also fertility. The Scamander River (now Turkey’s Küçükmenderes Çayı) in ancient Greece evidently was so personified; according to Aeschines, a 4th-century-bce Greek orator, girls bathed in it before marrying and said: “Scamander, accept my virginity.” Magical rites in which water serves as a substitute for semen or the fertility of men are numerous.” ref

“In Cameroon, the Bamessing corn festival (Nsiä), which is celebrated in the dry season, opens with the mourning of the dead vegetation. Reminiscent of the Egyptian Osiris and the Mesopotamian Tammuz festivals, Nsiä emphasizes that the god who gave the nourishment has died and is being mourned like a chieftain. The chief, dying symbolically with the god, has to be strengthened with a miraculous “chieftain water,” which has to be fetched by virgins of the chieftain’s clan. For two weeks, the chieftain drinks from the gourds of all the maidens after the women of the tribe have drunk from the holy water place.” ref

“Battles of gods and heroes with mythical beings, beasts, and monsters that hold back the fructifying water are widespread in mythology. The liberation of water during the mythical battle is equivalent to the end of the dry season or a drought, to the reviving of vegetation. In Indian mythology, Indra slays Urtra; in Syrian and Palestinian mythology, Baal battles with Leviathan; and in Huron mythology Joskeha, the spring hero, kills the frog that attempted to restrict the free flow of water.” ref

Water as a revealing or judging instrument

“In some cultures water serves as an instrument that reveals and judges. Reflections in the water led to a whole series of oracles originating from an alleged prophetic or divinatory power of water. A visionary look into the water’s surface was believed to reveal the future as well as past misdeeds. This ancient custom may have been preserved in the use of crystal balls by modern fortune-tellers. The custom of water divination is found in ancient Europe, North Africa, the Middle East (e.g., Babylonian fortune-telling by means of cups), eastern and northern Asia (where the use of metal mirrors by the shamans often replaces the water as a divining means), and Southeast Asia and Polynesia. Where such means of divination were severely repressed, as in sub-Saharan Africa, these methods of mirror- and water-gazing were changed into manipulated water ordeals. Water is used as a judging element in ordeals believed to demonstrate the judgment of the gods—water ordeals (e.g., immersion in water), as well as the more frequent fire ordeals. There, too, the purifying character of the water plays a role.” ref

Weather

“The worship of atmospheric powers can only with difficulty be separated from the worship of heaven. In most cases, the high god in heaven is also the god of thunderstorms and rain. Specific gods of wind and storm are found especially in countries with tornadoes and hurricanes (e.g., the Maya deity Huracan). Peoples such as the Tuareg and Arabs, who live in arid zones, dried out by the wind, speak of sand funnel spirits or of a desert god; such a creature is the “boneless Kon” of the Peruvians.” ref

“From northern Europe to the tropical forests, thunderstorm deities rule heaven and earth. The most famous group of these spiritual beings are the Indo-European thunder gods (Thor-Donar of the Germanic peoples, Taranis of the Celts, Perkunis of the Slavs, Indra of the Indians, Zeus-Jupiter of the Greeks and Romans), who throw their thunderbolts or bundles of lightning. The Finnish god Ukko and the Basque god Orko probably stem from the same root; these gods still continue in the popular beliefs of Eastern Europe or Latin America today, such as St. Elijah or Santiago. They are related to the gods Teshub and Hadad (associated with the steer and with lightning) of western Asia and also to the thunder god Shango of the Nigerian Yoruba, who is accompanied by a ram (as Thor uses a he-goat for pulling his wagon). Shango, as Yakuta, throws thunderbolts (i.e., stone axes) to the earth, as does the Mayan rain god, Chac.” ref

“The goat, the ram, or horses appear as companions of weather gods or as animals that pull the thundering sky vehicle. In other cultures thunderbirds are the companions of the thunder gods or are the lightning itself. The lightning bird Zu, or Imdugud, occurs in ancient Mesopotamia, and the Garuda (with Wadjra) in Vedic India. Thunderbirds are represented (sometimes with arrows or spears in their bills or fangs) on archaeological artifacts of the Bronze Age in Dodona in Greece, Minussinsk in Siberia, and Dong Son in Vietnam and on pots in northern Peru; they are described in myths of the Pueblo and prairie Indians of North America and among eastern and southern Africans.” ref

“Where prayers or sacrifices to gods and ancestors in the religious cult are not effective in producing rain, rain magic, which is practiced universally in similar rites, is often able to accomplish it. Trained magicians usually perform such rites, but ancestral priests or “persons holding power” also may do so. In rain magic, sprinkling, spitting, or immersion of people or things is often used to call down heavenly moisture. Smoke clouds to attract the rain accomplish the same purpose. There also must be suitable vestments (fresh greens, skins or pelts of water animals), body painting (representing clouds), or adornment with bird down. The color black in the clothing or on a killed or exposed animal is believed to be especially effective. Animals held responsible for holding the rain or water back (frogs, snakes, or mythological dragons) must be challenged. The sound of rain or thunder is produced with bull-roarers, whistling, noise pots, rattles, and chains. If excessive rain is to be stopped, the injunction to perform or refrain from certain acts (e.g., the prohibition of washing, boiling water, burning objects, making noise, and whistling) must be observed.” ref

“The rainbow often is considered a being, generally in the form of an animal, who swallows and holds back rain or water. The rainbow serpent (as a double bow, also conceived as bisexual) is a figure that is found especially in the tropics of Africa, South Asia, northern Australia (where it is called Ungud), and Brazil. Elsewhere, the rainbow is viewed as a heavenly bridge that connects the worlds of gods and men: the Bifröst bridge in the Edda, the bridge of the soul boats in Indonesia or of the creator god in Africa, and the path of the Greek goddess Iris. In Christian iconography, the rainbow is the throne of Christ; among Arabs and some Bantu of Central Africa it is the bow of god, and among the Nandi, the Masai, and the Californian Yuki, it is the robe of god.” ref

Worship of animals

“Among the numerous animals that are prominent in religion and magic, the wild animals of the forests, the sea, and the air that are most important for the hunter are the most significant. Hunting and gathering societies, rooted in the earliest human cultures, believed that they not only had to kill animals—which were economically important as nourishment and raw materials—but also that they had to avoid their revenge. The feeling of a close connection between humans and animals that was lost to the many highly industrialized societies (broadly speaking) led to an anthropomorphizing of animals to such an extent that animals were not only humanized but were held responsible for crises. See also animism; totemism.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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1. From a Gerzeh/Naqada II Late Predynastic Egyptian palette with a goddess “Bat/Hathor” cow-head sun/stars motif.
2. From a Hierakonpolis late Gerzeh/Naqada II Predynastic or early Naqada III Proto-Dynastic Egyptian porphyry fluted bowl with two reliefs on the rim, one of which was a goddess “Hathor/Bat” cow-head sun/stars motif.
3. From an Abydos tomb, u-210 which held a small seal with a goddess “Bat/Hathor” sun/stars motif from the Gerzeh/Naqada II Late Predynastic Egyptian period.
4. A Mongolian Copper Age bull sun/star shamanism petroglyph
5. A Mongolian Bronze Age deer sun/star shamanism petroglyph symbol.
6. A Kyrgyzstan Saimaly-Tash possibly Bronze Age shamanism cow-sun person symbol petroglyph.
7. Similar X-ray style images among different peoples of the North from Siberia to Central Asia with shamanism petroglyphs of horned animals with sun symbols from possibly as old as the Neolithic to the Bronze Age. ref, ref, ref

“Star-People/Worship”

“The term “star people” was taken from an existing Native American spiritual concept. Native American Star People legends, what might be termed the folklore traditions of various Indian tribes, of having been in contact with extraterrestrials, or as being their ancestors, as a study of human societies and cultures, as anthropology, so that the more incredible aspects of this topic might be afforded a conventional context. It may be perhaps the norm for native legends to reference the Sky, and ancient interactions with those who dwell in the sky, or that resulted in celestial fixtures, such as the formation of the Pleiades, due to events on earth.” ref

“The term “star worship” (Astrolatry) references the worship of stars and other heavenly bodies as deities, or the association of deities with heavenly bodies. The most common instances of this are sun gods and moon gods in polytheistic systems worldwide. Also notable is the association of the planets with deities in Babylonian, and hence in Greco-Roman religion, viz. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Babylonian astronomy from early times associates stars with deities, but the heavens as the residence of an anthropomorphic pantheon, and later of monotheistic God and his retinue of angels, is a later development, gradually replacing the notion of the pantheon residing or convening on the summit of high mountains. It has been argued that there is a parallelism of the “stellar theology” of Babylon and Egypt, both countries absorbing popular star-worship into the official pantheon of their respective state religions by identification of gods with stars or planets. Kurgan culture in the Pontic steppe north of the Black Sea were the most likely speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE). The term is derived from the Russian kurgan (курган), meaning tumulus or burial mound referenced as the Kurgan hypothesis explaining the “kurganized” cultures, such as the Globular Amphora culture to the west. From these kurganized cultures came the immigration of Proto-Greeks to the Balkans and the nomadic Indo-Iranian cultures to the east around 2500 BC. Astrolatry does not appear to have been common in the Levant prior to the Iron Age (possibly around or after 3,200 – 2,550) and becomes popular under Assyrian (2,911 – 2,609) influence. Who emerged as the most powerful state in the known world at the time, coming to dominate the Ancient Near East, East Mediterranean, Asia Minor, Caucasus, and parts of the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa, eclipsing and conquering rivals such as Babylonia, Elam, Persia, Urartu, Lydia, the Medes, Phrygians, Cimmerians, Israel, Judah, Phoenicia, Chaldea, Canaan, the Kushite Empire, the Arabs, and Egypt. As the people settled in the new land, they became exposed to Assyrian cultural ideas such as “royal ideologies, religious ideas, and mythologies…” and it “was incessantly propagated to all segments of the population through imperial art, emperor cult, religious festivals, and the cults of Aššur, Ištar, Nabû, Sîn and other Assyrian gods.” This was a process known as “Assyrianization.” The process of Assyrianization was a gradual process that occurred through generations of intermarriages, military participation, and daily interaction with Assyrian people (those who weren’t descended from the deportees’ generations earlier). Through the generations of cultural and linguistic exchange, there came to be a homogenous Assyrian identity. Mesopotamian religion refers to the religious beliefs and practices of the civilizations of ancient Mesopotamia, particularly Sumer, Akkad, Assyria, and Babylonia at least 5,500 years ago. ref, ref, ref

“Star-Worship Among the Israelites”

“This [astrolatry/astrotheology] is perhaps the oldest form of idolatry practiced by the ancients. According to Wisdom xiii. 2, the observation of the stars in the East very early led the people to regard the planets and the fixed stars as gods. The religion of the ancient Egyptians is known to have consisted preeminently of sun-worship. Moses sternly warned the Israelites against worshiping the sun, moon, stars, and all the host of heaven (Deut. iv. 19, xvii. 3); it may be said that the prohibition of making and worshiping any image of that which is in heaven above (Ex. xx. 4; Deut. v. 8) implies also the stars and the other celestial bodies.” ref 

“The Israelites fell into this kind of idolatry, and as early as the time of Amos they had the images of Siccuth and Chiun, “the stars of their god” (Amos v. 26, R. V.); the latter name is generally supposed to denote the planet Saturn. That the kingdom of Israel fell earlier than that of Judah is stated (II Kings xvii. 16) to have been due, among other causes, to its worshiping the host of heaven. But the kingdom of Judah in its later period seems to have out-done the Northern Kingdom in star-worship.” ref

“Of Manasseh it is related that he built altars to all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of Yhwh, and it seems that it was the practice of even kings before him to appoint priests who offered sacrifices to the sun, the moon, the planets, and all the host of heaven. Altars for star-worship were built on the roofs of the houses, and horses and chariots were dedicated to the worship of the sun (ib. xxi. 5; xxiii. 4-5, 11-12). Star-worship continued in Judah until the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign (621 B.C.), when the king took measures to abolish all kinds of idolatry (ib.). But although star-worship was then abolished as a public cult, it was practiced privately by individuals, who worshiped the heavenly bodies, and poured out libations to them on the roofs of their houses (Zeph. i. 5; Jer. viii. 2, xix. 13). Jeremiah (vii. 18) describes the worship of the queen of heaven to have been more particularly common among the women.” ref

“Ezekiel, who prophesied in the sixth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin (591 BCE), describes the worship of the sun as practiced in the court of the Temple (Ezek. viii. 16et seq.), and from Jer. xliv. 17 et seq. it may be seen that even after the destruction of the Temple the women insisted on continuing to worship the queen of heaven. In Job (xxxi. 26 et seq.) there is an allusion to the kissing of the hand in the adoration of the moon (see Moon, Biblical Data). According to Robertson Smith (“The Religion of the Semites,” p. 127, note 3, Edinburgh, 1889), star-worship is not of great antiquity among the Semites in general, nor among the Hebrews in particular, for the latter adopted this form of idolatry only under the influence of the Assyrians. But Fritz Hommel (“Der Gestirndienst der Alten Araber,” Munich, 1901) expresses the opposite opinion. He points to the fact that the Hebrew root which denotes the verb “to swear” is the same as that which denotes “seven,” and claims that this fact establishes a connection between swearing and the seven planets; and he furthermore declares that there are many Biblical pieces of evidence of star-worship among the ancient Hebrews.” ref

“Thus, the fact that Terah, Abraham’s father, had lived first at Ur of the Chaldees, and that later he settled at Haran (Gen. xi. 31), two cities known from Assyrian inscriptions as places of moon-worship, shows that Abraham’s parents were addicted to that form of idolatry. According to legend, Abraham himself worshiped the sun, moon, and the stars before he recognized the true God in Yhwh (see Abraham in Apocryphal and Rabbinical Literature). The golden calf, Hommel declares, was nothing more than an emblem of the moon-god, which, in the Assyrian inscription, is styled “the youthful and mighty bull” and the lord of the heavenly hosts (comp. “Yhwh Ẓeba’ot,” which term is intentionally omitted from the Pentateuch). He assigns the same character to the two calves made by Jeroboam several centuries later (I Kings xii. 28). The ancient Hebrews, being nomads, like the Arabs favored the moon, while the Babylonians, who were an agricultural nation, preferred the sun. But, as appears from Ezek. xx. 7-8, the moon-worship of the Israelites, even while they were still in Egypt, was combined with sun-worship.” ref

“The close similarity between the ancient Hebrews and the southern Arabs has led Hommel furthermore to find allusion to moon-worship in such Hebrew names as begin with “ab” (= “father”), as in “Abimelech” and “Absalom,” or with “‘am” (= “uncle”), as in “Amminadab” and “Jeroboam,” because these particles, when they appear in the names of southern Arabs, refer to the moon. The term “star-worship” (“‘abodat kokabim u-mazzalot”) in the Talmud and in post-Talmudic literature is chiefly a censor’s emendation for “‘abodah zarah.” In connection with star-worship, it is related in the Mishnah (‘Ab. Zarah iv. 7) that the Rabbis (“zeḳenim”) were asked if God dislikes idolatry why He did not destroy the idols. The Rabbis answered: “If the heathen worshiped only idols perhaps God would have destroyed the objects of their adoration, but they worship also the sun, the moon, the stars, and all the host of heaven, and God can not destroy the world on account of the heathen.” ref

Astrotheology and Shamanism

“Stellar allusions appear early in the history of religions. In Shaman: The Wounded Healer anthropologist Joan Halifax explains that the shamanic “realization of a solar identity” experienced by the tribal priest reveals to her or him the “deepest structures of the psyche.” The shamanic practices of hunter-gatherer societies rely on drugs, fasting, dance and other trance-inducing techniques to produce a state of religious ecstasy. In this state, the shaman feels as if she or he receives personally and communally meaningful information from an astral dimension. In her survey of shamanic traditions, Halifax includes examples of shamanic art that depict human forms embellished with radiant auras and interprets such images as expressions of the psyche’s core.” ref 

“If shamanism, with its emphasis on direct transcendental experience, typifies hunter-gatherer societies, then a ceremonialized expression of the stellar calling seems to be the derivative religious form in agrarian societies. When human societies organized themselves around farming, then rituals, ceremonies, and pageantries tended to supplant personal revelation as the focus of religious life. Human labor became increasingly fragmented, and other influences—lunar, atmospheric, and finally terrestrial—gave rise to pantheons, doctrines, and creeds. The religious sensibility’s solar orientation got grounded and became vitiated among these competing influences. But a handful of civilizations, rather than sprout a pantheon of nature gods, remained steadfastly solar. Mircea Eliade, in Patterns in Comparative Religion, characterizes a peculiarity of the most consistently sun-centric civilizations.” ref

“A solar deity remained the primary focus of the local religion, he observes, in those civilizations that came to exercise the greatest historical import.

“It is really only in Egypt, Asia, and in primitive Europe that what we call sun worship ever attained sufficient popularity to become at any time, as in Egypt for instance, really dominant. If you consider that, on the other side of the Atlantic, the solar religion was developed only in Peru and Mexico, only, that is, among the two ‘civilized’ peoples of America, the only two who attained any level of real political organization, then you cannot help discerning a certain connection between the predominance of sun religions and what I may call ‘historic’ destinies. It could be said that where ‘history is on the march,’ thanks to kings, heroes, or empires, the sun is supreme.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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“Anu (Akkadian: 𒀭𒀀𒉡 ANU, from 𒀭 an “Sky”, “Heaven”) or Anum, originally An (Sumerian: 𒀭 An), was the divine personification of the sky, king of the gods, and ancestor of many of the deities in ancient Mesopotamian religion. He was regarded as a source of both divine and human kingship, and opens the enumerations of deities in many Mesopotamian texts. At the same time, his role was largely passive, and he was not commonly worshipped. It is sometimes proposed that the Eanna temple located in Uruk originally belonged to him, rather than Inanna, but while he is well attested as one of its divine inhabitants, there is no evidence that the main deity of the temple ever changed, and Inanna was already associated with it in the earliest sources. After it declined, a new theological system developed in the same city under Seleucid rule, resulting in Anu being redefined as an active deity. As a result he was actively worshipped by inhabitants of the city in the final centuries of the history of ancient Mesopotamia.” ref

“Multiple traditions regarding the identity of Anu’s spouse existed, though three of them—Ki, Urash, and Antu—were at various points in time equated with each other, and all three represented earth, similar to how he represented heaven. In a fourth tradition, more sparsely attested, his wife was the goddess Nammu instead. In addition to listing his spouses and children, god lists also often enumerated his various ancestors, such as Anshar or Alala. A variant of one such family tree formed the basis of the Enūma Eliš. Anu briefly appears in the Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh, in which his daughter Ishtar (the Akkadian counterpart of Inanna) persuades him to give her the Bull of Heaven so that she may send it to attack Gilgamesh. The incident results in the death of the Bull of Heaven and a leg being thrown at Ishtar’s head.” ref

“In another myth, Anu summons the mortal hero Adapa before him for breaking the wing of the south wind. Anu orders for Adapa to be given the food and water of immortality, which Adapa refuses, having been warned beforehand by Enki that Anu will offer him the food and water of death. In the Hurrian myths about Kumarbi, known chiefly from their Hittite translations, Anu is a former ruler of the gods, who was overthrown by Kumarbi, who bit off his genitals and gave birth to the weather god Teshub. It is possible that this narrative was later the inspiration for the castration of Ouranos in Hesiod‘s Theogony. It has also been proposed that in the Hellenistic period Anu might have been identified with Zeus, though this remains uncertain.” ref

“Anu was a divine representation of the sky, as indicated by his name, which simply means “sky” in Sumerian. In Akkadian, it was spelled as Anu, and was written either logographically (^dAN) or syllabically (^da-nu(m)). In Sumerian texts, unlike the names of other deities, his was never prefaced by the dingir sign, referred to as the “divine determinative” in modern literature, since it would result in unnecessary repetition, as the same sign was also read as an. In addition to referring to sky and heaven and to Anu, the same sign could also be read as dingir or ilu, the generic term “god” in, respectively, Sumerian and Akkadian. As the number 60 was associated with him, the corresponding numeral could represent his name, and in esoteric texts by extension also the other readings of the sign DINGIR.” ref

“Anu was regarded as the supreme god, and the major god lists, such as An = Anum, place him on top of the pantheon. He could be described as the king of the gods, and was believed to be the source of all legitimate power, who bestowed the right to rule upon gods and kings alike. The highest god in the pantheon was said to possess the anûtu or anuti (^da-nu-ti), which means “heavenly power” or more literally Anuship. In the Babylonian Enûma Eliš, the gods praise Marduk, shouting “Your word is Anu!” Although Anu was a very important deity, his nature was often ambiguous and ill-defined. The number of myths focusing on him is small and he was only rarely actively worshiped.” ref

“His position has, therefore, been described as that of a “figurehead” and “otiose deity” by Assyriologist Paul-Alain Beaulieu. Wilfred G. Lambert characterized his position as head of the pantheon as “always somewhat nominal” and noted that “Enlil in practice wielded greater power” according to the Mesopotamians. Beaulieu similarly states that functionally the active head god was Enlil and later Marduk in Babylonia and Ashur in Assyria, not Anu. Evidence from Lagash indicates that at least in the Early Dynastic period, during the reign of Eannatum and Entemena, it was Enlil, rather than Anu, who was the head of the pantheon of this city, though later offering lists provide evidence on the contrary, possibly indicating a change occurred during the reign of either the Sargonic dynasty or Gudea.” ref 

“Xianhua Wang points out that in the Early Dynastic period, the rulers who mention Anu in the inscriptions and refer to him as lugal kur-kur, “king of the lands,” seem to be connected with either Ur or Uruk, while elsewhere, the same epithet designates Enlil instead. A text known from copies from Shuruppak and Ebla only refers to Anu as the divine “king of Uruk.” In later inscriptions from the period of the Old Babylonian Empire, Enlil could be mentioned both alongside Anu or on his own as the head of the pantheon. A trinity consisting of both of them and Ea is also attested. Only in Uruk in the final centuries of the first millennium BCE a change occurred, and Anu was reinvented by theologians as an active god.” ref

“Ki, “earth,” is well attested as Anu’s spouse. Her name was commonly written without a divine determinative, and she was usually not regarded as a personified goddess. Another of Anu’s spouses was Urash. According to Frans Wiggermann, she is his most commonly attested wife. She is well attested starting with the Sargonic period, and continues to appear as a wife of Anu often until the Old Babylonian period. A different, male, deity named Urash served as the tutelary god of Dilbat. Wiggermann proposes that while Ki, as generally agreed, represented earth as a cosmogonic element, Urash was a divine representation of arable land. He suggests translating her name as “tilth,” though its etymology and meaning continue to be a matter of debate. A single Neo-Assyrian god list known from three copies appears to combine Ki and Urash into a single deity, ^dki-uraš. An early incorrect reading of this entry was ^dki-ib, which early Assyriologist Daniel David Luckenbill assumed to be a reference to the Egyptian god Geb, an identification now regarded as impossible.” ref

“The goddess Antu is also attested as a wife of Anu. Her name is etymologically an Akkadian feminine form of Anu. The god list An = Anum equates her with Ki, while a lexical text from the Old Babylonian period – with Urash. There is evidence that like the latter, she could be considered a goddess associated with the earth. She is already attested in the third millennium BCE, possibly as early as in the Early Dynastic period in a god list from Abu Salabikh, though no references to her are known from Uruk from before the first millennium BCE, and even in the Neo-Babylonian period she only appears in a single letter. However, she is attested as Anu’s wife in documents from the Seleucid period from this city, and at that point in time became its lead goddess alongside her husband.” ref

“An inscription on a votive figurine of king Lugal-kisalsi (or Lugal-giparesi), who ruled over Uruk and Ur in the twenty-fourth century BCE, refers to Nammu as the wife of Anu. Julia Krul proposes that this was a traditional pairing in Early Dynastic Uruk, but according to Frans Wiggermann no other direct references to Nammu as Anu’s wife are known. A possible exception is an Old Babylonian incantation which might refer to her as “pure one of An,” but this attestation is uncertain. In older literature, an epithet of Ashratum was often translated as “bride of An,” but this is now considered to be a mistake.” ref

“The Sumerian term used in it, é-gi₄-a, equivalent of Akkadian kallatum, meant both “daughter-in-law” and “bride,” but the latter meaning relied on the social practice of fathers picking the brides of their sons. As an epithet of goddesses, it denotes their status as a daughter-in-law of a specific deity. For example, Aya was often called kallatum due to her position as the daughter-in-law of Sin and wife of his son Shamash. A goddess named Ninursala is described as Anu’s dam-bànda, possibly to be translated as “concubine,” in the god list An = Anum. According to Antoine Cavigneaux and Manfred Krebernik, she is also attested in an Old Babylonian god list from Mari.” ref

“Enki’s name is uncertain: the common translation is “Lord of the Earth.” Enki sets up his home “in the depths of the Abzu.” Enki thus takes on all of the functions of the Abzu, including his fertilizing powers as lord of the waters and lord of semen. There is also a link Enki to the Kur or underworld of Sumerian mythology. In another even older tradition, Nammu, the goddess of the primeval creative matter and the mother-goddess portrayed as having “given birth to the great gods,” was the mother of Enki, and as the watery creative force, was said to preexist Ea-Enki. Benito states “With Enki it is an interesting change of gender symbolism, the fertilising agent is also water, Sumerian “a” or “Ab” which also means “semen”. In one evocative passage in a Sumerian hymn, Enki stands at the empty riverbeds and fills them with his ‘water.” ref

“The cosmogenic myth common in Sumer was that of the hieros gamos, a sacred marriage where divine principles in the form of dualistic opposites came together as male and female to give birth to the cosmos. In the epic Enki and Ninhursag, Enki, as lord of Ab or fresh water, is living with his wife in the paradise of Dilmun. Dilmun was identified with Bahrain, whose name in Arabic means “two seas,” where the fresh waters of the Arabian aquifer mingle with the salt waters of the Persian Gulf. This mingling of waters was known in Sumerian as Nammu, and was identified as the mother of Enki.” ref

“The subsequent tale, with similarities to the Biblical story of the forbidden fruit, repeats the story of how freshwater brings life to a barren land. Enki, the Water-Lord, then “caused to flow the ‘water of the heart” and having fertilized his consort Ninhursag, also known as Ki or Earth, after “Nine days being her nine months, the months of ‘womanhood’… like good butter, Nintu, the mother of the land, …like good butter, gave birth to Ninsar, (Lady Greenery)”. When Ninhursag left him, as Water-Lord he came upon Ninsar (Lady Greenery). Not knowing her to be his daughter, and because she reminds him of his absent consort, Enki then seduces and has intercourse with her. Ninsar then gave birth to Ninkurra (Lady Fruitfulness or Lady Pasture), and leaves Enki alone again. A second time, Enki, in his loneliness finds and seduces Ninkurra, and from the union Ninkurra gave birth to Uttu (weaver or spider, the weaver of the web of life).” ref

“A third time Enki succumbs to temptation, and attempts seduction of Uttu. Upset about Enki’s reputation, Uttu consults Ninhursag, who, upset at the promiscuous wayward nature of her spouse, advises Uttu to avoid the riverbanks, the places likely to be affected by flooding, the home of Enki. In another version of this myth, Ninhursag takes Enki’s semen from Uttu’s womb and plants it in the earth where eight plants rapidly germinate. With his two-faced servant and steward Isimud, “Enki, in the swampland, in the swampland lies stretched out, ‘What is this (plant), what is this (plant).” ref

“His messenger Isimud, answers him; ‘My king, this is the tree-plant’, he says to him. He cuts it off for him and he (Enki) eats it”. And so, despite warnings, Enki consumes the other seven fruit. Consuming his own semen, he falls pregnant (ill with swellings) in his jaw, his teeth, his mouth, his hip, his throat, his limbs, his side and his rib. The gods are at a loss to know what to do; chagrined they “sit in the dust”. As Enki lacks a birth canal through which to give birth, he seems to be dying with swellings. The fox then asks Enlil, King of the Gods, “If I bring Ninhursag before thee, what shall be my reward?” Ninhursag’s sacred fox then fetches the goddess.” ref

“Ninhursag relents and takes Enki’s Ab (water, or semen) into her body, and gives birth to gods of healing of each part of the body: Abu for the jaw, Nanshe for the throat, Nintul for the hip, Ninsutu for the tooth, Ninkasi for the mouth, Dazimua for the side, Enshagag for the limbs. The last one, Ninti (Lady Rib), is also a pun on Lady Life, a title of Ninhursag herself. The story thus symbolically reflects the way in which life is brought forth through the addition of water to the land, and once it grows, water is required to bring plants to fruit. It also counsels balance and responsibility, nothing to excess.” ref

“Ninti, the title of Ninhursag, also means “the mother of all living” and was a title later given to the Hurrian goddess Kheba. This is also the title given in the Bible to Eve, the Hebrew and Aramaic Ḥawwah (חוה), who was made from the rib of Adam, in a strange reflection of the Sumerian myth, in which Adam – not Enki – walks in the Garden of Paradise.” ref

“Kur” Sumerian word can mean the “underworld,” “earth,” “ground,” “mound,” or “mountain.” The cuneiform sign for Kur was 𒆳, a pictograph of a mountain. A person’s treatment in the afterlife depended on how they were buried. In Kur, Inanna tastes the fruit and becomes knowledgeable of sex.” ref

“Atra-Hasis is an 18th-century BCE Akkadian epic, recorded in various versions on clay tablets, named for its protagonist, Atrahasis (‘exceedingly wise’). The Atra-Hasis tablets include both a cosmological creation myth and one of three surviving Babylonian flood myths. The name “Atra-Hasis” also appears, as a king of Shuruppak on the Euphrates in the times before a flood, on one of the Sumerian King Lists. The oldest known copy of the epic tradition concerning Atrahasis can be dated by colophon (scribal identification) to the reign of Hammurabi’s great-grandson, Ammi-Saduqa (1646–1626 BCE). However, various Old Babylonian dialect fragments exist, and the epic continued to be copied into the first millennium BCE.

“The epos of Atra-Hasis contains the creation myth of Anu, Enlil, and Enki—the pantheon of oldest known gods (dingirs; Sumerian: 𒀭, lit. ’divines’). Also called Anunnaki and Igigi, they seem to have been united in an organization similar to that which existed in Greece between Zeus – as ‘pure spirit or air’ the leading party – and the groups round Poseidon (ocean) and Hades (earth). It is not unlikely that the story refers to the era of the Neolithic Revolution, when Homo sapiens, evolving in form of small hordes of hunter-gatherers, began to establish political inter-group organizations, in order to be able to erect impressive monuments such as those at Göbekli Tepe (so K. Schmidt’s thesis), developing agriculture and transforming Mesopotamians steppe into the blooming landscape that went down in myths of mankind as Garden of Eden.” ref

“Near Nippur’s most important temple, Ekur (lit. “mountain house”), they unearthed a cache of clay tablets. Archaeologists estimate that these cuneiform tablets date as far back as the 3rd millennium BCE. They are humanity’s earliest extant written records. One of the tablets contains a creation myth, the so-called Debate between Sheep and Grain. It begins with a mountain: “On the mountain of heaven and earth, Anu spawned the Annunaki gods.” In fact, “mountain” (ḫur-saĝ) is the very first word on the tablet and could be the oldest written word.” ref

“Early in the story, heaven and earth are fused together in a site described as the mountain (ḫur-saĝ) of the supreme sky god Anu. On the slopes of the primordial mountain, primitive man existed, naked and feeding on grasses like cattle. Little else existed, so Anu created the other, lesser gods and goddesses — the Annunaki —, who in turn created sheep and grain for food. Unsatisfied, the gods “sent down” sheep and grain “from the Holy Mound” to “mankind as sustenance.” There is more to the story than this. But the opening lines of the clay tablet are important because they are the earliest extant textual references linking mountains with gods and fertility. And there are more from the same period.” ref

“In another Sumerian creation story, Enki and Ninhursag, a certain Mount Dilmun (kur dilmun) is described as a paradise. Indeed, the fertility goddess Ninhursag’s name literally means “lady of the sacred mountain.” It should be noted here that the god Enki, with whom Ninhursag bears children, is the god of water. In yet another Sumerian story, Debate Between Winter and Summer, the god Enlil copulates with a mountain (hur-saj) and impregnates it “with Summer and Winter, the plenitude and life of the Land.” ref

“Mountains also figure prominently in The Epic of Gilgamesh, especially when the eponymous hero seeks Utnapishtim — the Noah-like figure who has learned the secret of eternal life. To get to Utnapishtim, Gilgamesh passes through the terrible Mount Mashu, where he encounters a series of tests, before coming upon a lush, bejeweled garden paradise. The mountains are, thus, also safe harbor. Whether the Sumerian creation myths directly influenced Abrahamic traditions or share a common source with them is moot. But in the world’s oldest textual sources, ones that predate all other extant writing, mountains are the abodes of the gods and are associated with abundance, life, sustenance, fertility, and paradise.” ref

“Anu (“Sky,” “Heaven”) or Anum, originally An (Sumerian), was the divine personification of the sky, king of the gods, and ancestor of many of the deities in ancient Mesopotamian religion. He was regarded as a source of both divine and human kingship, and opens the enumerations of deities in many Mesopotamian texts.” ref

“Like Devine right of kings/Mandate of Heaven.”

“In European Christianity, the divine right of kings, divine right, or God’s mandation, is a political and religious doctrine of political legitimacy of a monarchy. It is also known as the divine-right theory of kingship. The doctrine asserts that a monarch is not accountable to any earthly authority (such as a parliament or the Pope) because their right to rule is derived from divine authority. Thus, the monarch is not subject to the will of the people, of the aristocracy, or of any other estate of the realm. It follows that only divine authority can judge a monarch and that any attempt to depose, dethrone, resist, or restrict their powers runs contrary to God’s will and may constitute a sacrilegious act. It does not imply that their power is absolute.” ref

“Divine right has been a key element of the self-legitimisation of many absolute monarchies, connected with their authority and right to rule. Related but distinct notions include Caesaropapism (the complete subordination of bishops etc. to the secular power), Supremacy (the legal sovereignty of the civil laws over the laws of the Church), Absolutism (a form of monarchical or despotic power that is unrestrained by all other institutions, such as churches, legislatures, or social elites) or Tyranny (an absolute ruler who is unrestrained even by moral law).” ref

“Historically, many notions of rights have been authoritarian and hierarchical, with different people granted different rights and some having more rights than others. For instance, the right of a father to receive respect from his son did not indicate a right for the son to receive a return from that respect. Analogously, the divine right of kings, which permitted absolute power over subjects, provided few rights for the subjects themselves. It is sometimes signified by the phrase “by the Grace of God” or its Latin equivalent, Dei Gratia, which has historically been attached to the titles of certain reigning monarchs. Note, however, that such accountability only to God does not per se make the monarch a sacred king.” ref

“The Mandate of Heaven (Chinese: 天命; pinyin: Tiānmìng; Wade–Giles: T’ien¹-ming⁴; lit. ‘Heaven’s command’) is a Chinese political ideology that was used in Ancient China and Imperial China to legitimize the rule of the king or emperor of China. According to this doctrine, Heaven (天, Tian) bestows its mandate on a virtuous ruler. This ruler, the Son of Heaven, was the supreme universal monarch, who ruled Tianxia (天下; “all under heaven,” the world).” ref

“The concept of the Mandate of Heaven also extends to the ruler’s family having divine rights and was first used to support the rule of the kings of the Zhou dynasty to legitimize their overthrow of the earlier Shang dynasty. It was used throughout the history of China to legitimize the successful overthrow and installation of new emperors, including by non-Han dynasties such as the Qing dynasty. The Mandate of Heaven has been called the Zhou dynasty’s most important contribution to Chinese political thought, but it coexisted and interfaced with other theories of sovereign legitimacy, including abdication to the worthy and five phases theory.” ref

“Because of China’s influence in medieval times, the concept of the Mandate of Heaven spread to other East Asian countries as a justification for rule by divine political legitimacy. In Korea, the kingdom of Goguryeo, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, adopted the Chinese concept of tianxia which was based on Mandate of Heaven, however in Goguryeo it was changed to be based on divine ancestry. In the Goguryeo story, Jumong was born to Hye Moss, the son of the Emperor, and Yu Hwa, the daughter of Habaek, the god of water. When Yuhwa was pregnant, she entrusted her body to the king of Buyeo and laid an egg, and the person who came out of the egg was Jumong. When Jumong, who was born of eggs, grew up and performed various strange tricks, the sons of King Buyeo became jealous, and Jumong eventually fled Buyeo and built a country called Goguryeo.” ref 

“This is a case in which Goguryeo claimed the legitimacy of expelling Buyeo under the command of heaven by setting him as the son of God. Silla is similar to Goguryeo. According to Silla’s founding story, there was no king in the area where Silla was located, but the sixth degree and its sixth degree held a meeting of painters and ruled. They wanted a monarchy in which a king existed rather than the current political system, but one day, they found an egg near a well, and one was born out of it. It is said that the village chiefs named him Park Hyuk-geose and appointed him king to create the present Silla. The earliest records are from Joseon Dynasty, which made the Mandate of Heaven an enduring state ideology.” ref

“The ideology was also adopted in Vietnam, known in Vietnamese as Thiên mệnh (Chữ Hán: 天命). A divine mandate gave the Vietnamese emperor the right to rule, based not on his lineage but on his competence to govern. The later and more centralized Vietnamese dynasties adopted Confucianism as the state ideology, which led to the creation of a Vietnamese tributary system in Southeast Asia that was modeled after the Chinese Sinocentric system in East Asia.” ref

“In Japan, the title “Son of Heaven” was interpreted literally where the monarch was referred to as a demigod, deity, or “living god”, chosen by the gods and goddesses of heaven. Eventually, the Japanese government found the concept ideologically problematic, preferring not to have divine political legitimacy that was conditional and that could be withdrawn. The Japanese Taihō Code, formulated in 703, was largely an adaptation of the governmental system of the Tang dynasty, but the Mandate of Heaven was specifically omitted.” ref

Related concepts in other religions

• Monarch as the Son of Heaven – Sinosphere
• Madkhalism – Islam
• Monarchs who are also deities:
  • God emperors
  • God kings
• Sacred kings – the occupant of the monarchy gains religious significance or has support from a deity
  • Cakravartin – South Asia
  • Kut – Central Asia” ref

“Early in the story, heaven and earth are fused together in a site described as the mountain (ḫur-saĝ) of the supreme sky god Anu. On the slopes of the primordial mountain, primitive man existed, naked and feeding on grasses like cattle. Little else existed, so Anu created the other, lesser gods and goddesses — the Annunaki —who, in turn, created sheep and grain for food. Unsatisfied, the gods “sent down” sheep and grain “from the Holy Mound” to “mankind as sustenance.” ref

“Eridu Genesis, also called the Sumerian Creation Myth, Sumerian Flood Story, and the Sumerian Deluge Myth, offers a description of the story surrounding how humanity was created by the gods, how the office of kingship entered human civilization, the circumstances leading to the origins of the first cities, and the global flood. The Epic of Ziusudra adds an element at lines 258–261 not found in other versions, that after the river flood “king Ziusudra … they caused to dwell in the land of the country of Dilmun, the place where the sun rises”. In this version of the story, Ziusudra’s boat floats down the Euphrates River into the Persian Gulf (rather than up onto a mountain or upstream to Kish). The Sumerian word KUR in line 140 of the Gilgamesh flood myth was interpreted to mean “mountain” in Akkadian, although in Sumerian, KUR means “mountain” but also “land,” especially a foreign country, as well as “the Underworld.” ref

“The concept of a garden of the gods or a divine paradise may have originated in Sumer. A Sumerian paradise is usually associated with the Dilmun civilization of Eastern Arabia. Various other theories have been put forward on this theme. Dilmun is first mentioned in association with Kur (mountain), and this is particularly problematic as Bahrain is very flat, having a highest prominence of only 134 metres (440 ft) elevation. Also, in the early epic Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta, the construction of the ziggurats in Uruk and Eridu are described as taking place in a world “before Dilmun had yet been settled”. The song of the hoe features Enlil creating mankind with a hoe and the Anunnaki spreading outward from the original garden of the gods. It also mentions the Abzu being built in Eridu.” ref

“In tablet nine of the standard version of the Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh travels to the garden of the gods through the Cedar Forest and the depths of Mashu, a comparable location in the Sumerian version is the “Mountain of cedar-felling”. Little description remains of the “jeweled garden” of Gilgamesh because twenty-four lines of the myth were damaged and could not be translated at that point in the text. The name of the mountain is Mashu. As he arrives at the mountain of Mashu, Which every day keeps watch over the rising and setting of the sun, Whose peaks reach as high as the “banks of heaven,” and whose breast reaches down to the netherworld, The scorpion-people keep watch at its gate.” ref

“Archaeologist Franz Marius Theodor de Liagre Böhl has highlighted that the word Mashu in Sumerian means “twins.” Jensen and Zimmern thought it to be the geographical location between Mount Lebanon and Mount Hermon in the Anti-Lebanon range. Edward Lipinski and Peter Kyle McCarter have suggested that the garden of the gods relates to a mountain sanctuary in the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon ranges. Other scholars have found a connection between the Cedars of Lebanon and the garden of the gods. The location of garden of the gods is close to the forest, which is described in the line: Saria (Sirion/Mount Hermon) and Lebanon tremble at the felling of the cedars.” ref

“Theophilus Pinches suggested in 1908 that Eridu was the Sumerian paradise, calling it “not the earthly city of that name, but a city conceived as lying also “within the Abyss”, containing a tree of life fed by the Euphrates river. Pinches noted “it was represented as a place to which access was forbidden, for ‘no man entered its midst’, as in the case of the garden of Eden after the fall.” In a myth called the Incantation of Eridu, it is described as having a “glorious fountain of the abyss”, a “house of wisdom”, sacred grove and a kiskanu-tree with the appearance of lapis-lazuli. Fuʼād Safar also found the remains of a canal running through Eridu in archaeological excavations of 1948 to 1949. William Foxwell Albright noted that “Eridu is employed as a name of the Abzu, just as Kutu (Kutha), the city of Nergal, is a common name of Aralu” highlighting the problems in translation where several places were called the same name. Alfred Jeremias suggested that Aralu was the same as Ariel in the West Bank and signified both the mountain of the gods and a place of desolation. As with the word Ekur, this has suggested that ideas associated with the netherworld came from a mountainous country outside of Babylonia.” ref

“The myth of Enlil and Ninlil opens with a description of the city of Nippur, its walls, river, canals, and well, portrayed as the home of the gods and, according to Kramer, “that seems to be conceived as having existed before the creation of man.” Andrew R. George suggests “Nippur was a city inhabited by gods, not men, and this would suggest that it had existed from the very beginning.” He discusses Nippur as the “first city” (uru-sag, “City-top” or “head”) of Sumer. This conception of Nippur is echoed by Joan Goodnick Westenholz, describing the setting as “civitas dei,” existing before the “axis mundi.” ref

“There was a city, there was a city—the one we live in. Nibru (Nippur) was the city, the one we live in. Dur-jicnimbar was the city, the one we live in. Id-sala is its holy river, Kar-jectina is its quay. Kar-asar is its quay where boats make fast. Pu-lal is its freshwater well. Id-nunbir-tum is its branching canal, and if one measures from there, its cultivated land is 50 sar each way. Enlil was one of its young men, and Ninlil was one of its young women.

“George also noted that a ritual garden was recreated in the “Grand Garden of Nippur, most probably a sacred garden in the E-kur (or Dur-an-ki) temple complex, is described in a cult-song of Enlil as a “garden of heavenly joy.” Temples in Mesopotamia were also known to have adorned their ziggurats with a sanctuary and sacred grove of trees, reminiscent of the Hanging gardens of Babylon. In the Kesh temple hymn, the first recorded description (c. 2600 BCE or around 4,600 years ago) of a domain of the gods is described as being the color of a garden: “The four corners of heaven became green for Enlil like a garden.” In an earlier translation of this myth by George Aaron Barton in Miscellaneous Babylonian Inscriptions he considered it to read “In hursag the garden of the gods was green.” ref

“Another Sumerian creation myth, the Debate between sheep and grain opens with a location “the hill of heaven and earth”, and describes various agricultural developments in a pastoral setting. This is discussed by Edward Chiera as “not a poetical name for the earth, but the dwelling place of the gods, situated at the point where the heavens rest upon the earth. It is there that mankind had their first habitat, and there the Babylonian Garden of Eden is to be placed.” The Sumerian word Edin, means “steppe” or “plain”, so modern scholarship has abandoned the use of the phrase “Babylonian Garden of Eden” as it has become clear the “Garden of Eden” was a later concept.

“The Epic of Gilgamesh describes Gilgamesh traveling to a wondrous garden of the gods that is the source of a river, next to a mountain covered in cedars, and references a “plant of life.” In the myth, paradise is identified as the place where the deified Sumerian hero of the flood, Utnapishtim (Ziusudra), was taken by the gods to live forever. Once in the garden of the gods, Gilgamesh finds all sorts of precious stones, similar to Genesis 2:12: There was a garden of the gods: all round him stood bushes bearing gems … fruit of carnelian with the vine hanging from it, beautiful to look at; lapis lazuli leaves hung thick with fruit, sweet to see … rare stones, agate, and pearls from out the sea.” ref

“The myth of Enki and Ninhursag also describes the Sumerian paradise as a garden, which Enki obtains water from Utu to irrigate. A Hymn to Enlil praises the leader of the Sumerian pantheon in the following terms: ou founded it in the Dur-an-ki, in the middle of the four quarters of the earth. Its soil is the life of the Land, and the life of all the foreign countries. Its brickwork is red gold, its foundation is lapis lazuli. You made it glisten on high.” ref 

“Another famous text is the Gilgamesh Epic. The 12 tablets of this epic begin and end at the walls of Uruk, the city which Gilgamesh founded. The story itself tells of the exploits of Gilgamesh and his friend Enkidu. Prominent among these adventures is the defeat of the monster Humbaba, guardian of the Cedar Mountain. With the death of Enkidu, Gilgamesh turns his efforts toward a quest for immortality which eventually brings him into contact with such figures as Utnapishtim, who, because he had survived the Flood, was granted immortality. Three times Gilgamesh nearly attains his goal only to have it slip away..” ref

Was the Bull Head a Symbol of God? Yes!

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref

ref, ref

“Kami is similar to Ainu (Indigenous Japanese hunter-gatherers) Kamuy (spirit or deity).” ref

“Many Yamato Clan Japanese (98% of Japana-agricultural non-indigenous until around 2,500 years ago) are Kami (spirits or deities), considered the ancient ancestors of entire clans (some ancestors became kami upon their death).” ref 

“Ki (Sumerian: 𒀭𒆠) was the earth goddess in Sumerian religion but Kishar (“Earth Pivot”) was an earlier personification of the earth. In the Babylonian epic Enuma Elish, Kishar can be seen as an earth mother goddess and her name also means “Whole Earth”. Samuel Noah Kramer identifies Ki with the Sumerian mother goddess Ninhursag and claims that they were originally the same figure.” ref, ref

Ki’s role in creation. In the Sumerian tradition, Ki had the prominent role of being one of the first deities born of Nammu. Sumerian religion refers to spiritual beliefs practiced from ca. 4500-1900 BCE or around 6,500 to 3,900 years ago in Mesopotamia, or modern-day southern Iraq. Many deities were diffused into other Mesopotamian cultures. She was designated as the Earth deity while An was represented by the sky, or heavens. Together, An and Ki produced natural vegetation on the Earth.” ref 

Ki (Sumerian: 𒀭𒆠: ‘sky’-‘earth’)

“Ki (Sumerian: 𒀭𒆠): ⟨𒀭⟩ is the sign for “‘sky'” and (𒆠) is the sign for “earth.” It is also read as GI5, GUNNI (=KI.NE) “hearth,” KARAŠ (=KI.KAL.BAD) “encampment, army,” KISLAḪ (=KI.UD) “the threshing floor,” and SUR7 (=KI.GAG).” ref, ref

“Dingir ⟨𒀭⟩ is a Sumerian word for ‘god’ or ‘goddess’ but originally an ideogram for the Sumerian word an (‘sky’ or ‘heaven’). The concept of divinity in Sumerian is closely associated with the heavens, as is evident from the fact that the cuneiform sign doubles as the ideogram for ‘sky’, and that its original shape is the picture of a star. The eight-pointed star was a chief symbol for the goddess Inanna. The original association of ‘divinity’ is thus with ‘bright’ or ‘shining’ hierophanies in the sky.” ref 

“The Star of Ishtar or Star of Inanna is a Mesopotamian symbol of the ancient Sumerian goddess Inanna and her East Semitic counterpart Ishtar. The owl was also one of Ishtar’s primary symbols. Ishtar is mostly associated with the planet Venus, which is also known as the morning star. The eight-pointed star was Inanna’s most common symbol, and in later times became the most common symbol of the goddess Ishtar, Inanna’s East Semitic counterpart. It seems to have originally borne a general association with the heavens, but by the Old Babylonian Period, it had come to be specifically associated with the planet Venus, with which Ishtar was identified. Starting during this same period, the star of Ishtar was normally enclosed within a circular disc.” ref 

“The centrality of the eight-pointed star found in the cave at Ghassul, surrounded by masked figures and animals, suggests that “the sun was revered and adored as a major god,” Bitassi said, which only emerges in other cultures far later. It predates the formation of the first Egyptian dynasty by a thousand years, the emergence of the first possible monotheism — the Aten cult — by nearly 3,000 years, and upends the notion that abstract deities didn’t exist that far back in antiquity. Some scholars, including Andrea Polcaro from the University of Perugia in Italy, contend that the painting reflects “homogeneous religious thinking related to an important solar cult” and served as a rudimentary solar calendar.” ref

“Samuel Noah Kramer identifies Ki with the Sumerian mother goddess Ninhursag, stating that they were originally the same figure. The Sumerians believed that, until Enlil was born, heaven and earth were inseparable. Then, Enlil split heaven and earth in two and carried away the earth while his father An carried away the sky. A deity’s temple was believed to be that deity’s literal place of residence. The gods had boats, full-sized barges which were normally stored inside their temples and were used to transport their cult statues along waterways during various religious festivals. The gods also had chariots, which were used for transporting their cult statues by land. Sometimes a deity’s cult statue would be transported to the location of a battle so that the deity could watch the battle unfold.” ref

“In the earliest texts, the term is applied to the most powerful and important deities in the Sumerian pantheon: the descendants of the sky-god An. This group of deities probably included the “seven gods who decree”: An, Enlil, Enki, Ninhursag, Nanna, Utu, and Inanna. Virtually every major deity in the Sumerian pantheon was regarded as the patron of a specific city and was expected to protect that city’s interests. The deity was believed to permanently reside within that city’s temple.” ref

“Major deities in Sumerian mythology were associated with specific celestial bodies. Inanna was believed to be the planet Venus. Utu was believed to be the sun. Nanna was the moon. “An” was identified with all the stars of the equatorial sky, Enlil with those of the northern sky, and Enki with those of the southern sky. The path of Enlil’s celestial orbit was a continuous, symmetrical circle around the north celestial pole, but those of An and Enki were believed to intersect at various points.” ref

ref

“6,000-year-old eight-point Star of Ghassul (somewhat similar to the “Star of Ishtar/Inanna” is a Mesopotamian which usually had eight points) at the site of Teleilat Ghassul, Jordan.” ref, ref, ref

Early Visual Communication: Introducing the 6000-Year-Old Buon Frescoes from Teleilat Ghassul, Jordan

“Abstract: The collection of 5th Millennium BCE frescoes from the Chalcolithic (4700–3700 BCE) township of Teleilat Ghassul, Jordan, are vital signposts for our understanding of early visual communication systems and the role of art in preliterate societies. The collection of polychrome wall murals includes intricate geometric designs, scenes illustrative of a stratified and complex society, and possibly early examples of landscape vistas. These artworks were produced by specialists using the buon fresco technique, and provide a visual archive documenting a fascinating, and largely unknown culture. This paper will consider the place these pictorial artefacts hold in the prehistory of art.” ref

“The discovery of polychrome wall paintings at the Dead Sea site of Teleilat Ghassul, Jordan (Figure 1 large-scale prehistoric polychrome wall art had been unknown up to this point. The Ghassulian culture is now known to extend for roughly a thousand years (ca. 4700–3700 BCE or around 6,700 to 5,700 years ago) across the Fifth Millennium BCE, occupying the critical pivotal point between the Neolithic village societies of the Sixth Millennium BCE, and the Early Bronze Age townships of the Fourth and Third Millennia BCE. The Ghassulian frescoes illustrated complex geometric, distinctive figurative cultic subjects in brilliant polychrome color schemes.” ref

“Comprehensive monograph on all major artworks recovered from Ghassul, provided a timely reassessment of their importance, arguing for their compositional positioning between the ‘episodic’ artworks of the preceding Neolithic and the narrative structuring of the subsequent Early Bronze. It is this transitional placement between the relatively inchoate artworks of the Neolithic, and the formalized Early Bronze Age art that continues to fascinate, as Ghassulian wall art stands arguably at the transition point between these distinct traditions, encompassing elements of both, while creating some of the most spectacular artworks known to the ancient world.” ref

The Notables/Personnages Freize (Middle Chalcolithic ca. 4200 BC) PBI Stratum III

“It has been suggested that the scene possibly depicted worshippers paying homage to a divine couple or a priest and priestess in a cultic ritual, also it has been noted, ‘Whether depicting the realm of the gods or human rulers, the hierarchical symbolism of the painting is clear. These discoveries from En Gedi, Nahal Mishmar, and Ghassul provide evidence for a religious elite, or priesthood, active in Chalcolithic society’.” ref.

The Star of Ghassul (Late Chalcolithic ca. 4000–3900 BC) PBI Stratum IVB

“The large decorated chamber belonged to a multi-roomed complex containing seven infant burials and an unusual ceramic fragment with a morphed bird and quadruped design, leading the excavators to ponder whether the structure might have been a domestic sanctuary of some kind. The centerpiece of the painted composition comprises of an intricately designed eight-rayed star, measuring 1.84 m in diameter (Figure 3). The rays alternate between red and black with uniform color at the tips and overlaid with white transverse wavy lines towards the hub, giving a pleasing sense of shimmering movement. The compound center comprises of several zones made up of combined circles, triangles and polygons, forming two more eight-rayed stars. The complex geometric design was strikingly juxtaposed with a variety of figurative and emblematic motifs.” ref “Although the left-hand side of the mural was badly damaged, the remaining fragments suggest that there were possibly three figures wearing elaborately decorated robes and masks facing the imposing star. The far figure likely wears a yellow robe with black triangular designs and a mask with curved horns and small ears. The second figure from the left has a long-fingered upraised hand, and wears a red, black and white robe with a black and white striped mask, featuring large staring eyes and a yellow top piece. Standing directly beneath the upraised hand is a smaller masked figure.” ref

“More closely connected to the star motif is an animal-like design sitting within the rays of the top left quadrant. Epstein (1985, pp. 54–58) has suggested that the object is reminiscent of a laden goat, which was an important iconographic element in the Ghassulian artistic lexicon. The small caprid-like ears, horns, beard and male genitalia evident on the design certainly render her theory plausible, however the image is heavily stylised and the vessel depicted on the back of the animal shows a crescent moon and fine white linear and dotted designs more reminiscent of astral constellations than Ghassulian ceramic ware. As the people of Teleilat Ghassul had a keen interest in the night sky, as evidenced by the large star, two other star motifs on other frescoes and a likely constellation design in the dark pigmented ‘Geometric’ fresco (Drabsch 2015, p. 155), it is possible that they might have associated important constellations with the shapes of animals and familiar objects, as many other cultures have done over the millennia (Campion 2008).” ref

“In the lower left quadrant of the star are two linear designs, one is a diagonal line with triangles attached, reminiscent of a stepped pathway and the partnering design is suggestive of an architectural plan of a structure with two small enclosures, possibly recalling the open air cultic structures of the Chalcolithic period, such as those at Nahal Mishmar and En-Gedi (Bar-Adon 1980, p. 12; Ussishkin 1971, p. 26). Superimposed over the lower right-hand ray of the star is another geometric design evocative of an architectural plan. Bar-Adon (1980, p. 224) and Seaton (2008, p. 117) have plausibly proposed a connection between the intricate design and a Chalcolithic sanctuary complex.” ref

“The plan seems to have been drawn from a raised perspective, and most likely represents the entrance to a temple complex, shown in red, with flanking poles which lead to a gated courtyard or a temple temenos. The original excavator, Mallon, made it clear in his initial analysis that this superimposition was not accidental and emphasised the fact that both the ray of the star and the architectural feature were painted on the same layer (Mallon et al. 1934, p. 140). This suggests that the ‘temple’ and the star were perceived as intricately linked, perhaps denoting that the temple belonged to the worship of a Chalcolithic deity symbolised by the eight-rayed star.” ref

“Finally, in the upper right quadrant there are an assortment of different motifs, such as curved red elements and a multi-pronged device, which Mallon suggested were musical instruments, similar to horns and a lute (Mallon et al. 1934, p. 139). These elements, along with the robed, masked figures and architectural features, are similar to those found in Hennessy’s ‘Processional’ fresco (see Figure 4), and possibly reflect the importance of music in cultic performance, as reinforced by the Early Bronze Age cylinder seal motifs of this region (Paz et al. 2013). It is not unreasonable that both frescoes display similar cultic paraphernalia and recall costumed ceremonies and processions between sacred structures during the Chalcolithic period.” ref

“The large mural, which measured approximately 3 m × 2 m, had fallen face-down from the inner surface of a semi-subterranean room, in a substantial building which possibly had a second story. Interior fittings included plastered benches, plaster-lined storage bins, and plaster-sealed mudbrick and stone worktables. Initial excavation within the building quickly identified an extensive material assemblage in situ on a patchily preserved white plaster floor. This collection included three ceramic cornet cups and ten flint chisels found in a tight group to one side of a centrally placed stone-topped table-like structure. A flintknapping assemblage of more than 130 pieces, two small ceramic vessels, and a quantity of ovicaprine long bones in the process of being modified into tools, were also found in the north-eastern quadrant (Drabsch and Bourke 2014, p. 1083).” ref

“It became evident that eight partially preserved, robed and naked figures were portrayed, wearing striped masks with dominant eyes and carrying implements or attachments of some kind, walking towards a complex geometric arrangement on the left (Figure 4). This intricate design possibly depicts an architectural complex, viewed obliquely from a raised position. It features a number of individual elements reminiscent of the temenos wall, courtyard, gatehouse, buildings with surrounding platforms and yellow parallel lines, which possibly represent wooden poles at the entrance. All of these elements reflect the Chalcolithic sanctuary complexes found at Teleilat Ghassul and En-Gedi.” ref

“The order of the processional figures is suggestive of a ranked group consisting of a large leading figure with upraised arm and six-fingered hand, who is directly followed by two distinct groups. The first group consists of an individual carrying a large hooked implement, which was possibly a musical instrument, wearing a tall striped mask, armbands and a black and red robe with elaborate white tassels. Behind this figure are two smaller individuals wearing horned masks, who in contrast to their well-dressed leader, appear to be naked and ungendered. It is possible that they were depicted in this fashion because they were uninitiated children or acolytes associated with ritual activities, deliberately rendered as neither male nor female (Drabsch forthcoming).” ref 

“Yates (1993) has noted that in many societies rites of passage play an important role in marking the progression of children to adulthood. The sequential steps often take the form of initiation ceremonies that help to construct the individual’s social position and sexual identity and until the completion of that activities has taken place the children were viewed as neither male nor female (Yates 1993, p. 48). Similarly, gender ambiguity has been linked with adult ritual activities. Both Ochshorn (1996) and Asher-Greve (1997) have explored this concept concluding that asexuality, sexual ambiguity and gender fluidity were often associated with people participating in ritual actions or performing as musicians.” ref

“The second group is made up of another elaborately costumed individual, donning a red robe with white and black trim and an unusual basketlike mask, containing an unusual, possibly metallic, object that was impressed into the plaster surface (Drabsch and Bourke 2014, p. 1092). This figure was leading three naked followers who have wing like attachments. The ornate robes worn by some of the figures and the nudity of the others would suggest a certain hierarchy, including leaders and their followers and it is likely that the scene records an important ritual event.” ref

The ‘Tiger/Landscape’ Fresco (Early Chalcolithic ca. 4700 BC) PBI Stratum II

“Possibly the oldest fresco from Teleilat Ghassul excavated to date, is the misnamed ‘Tiger’ mural, belonging to the PBI stratum II, and likely dating to the Early Chalcolithic period (ca. 4700 BCE). This tri-color mural was uncovered just above virgin soil when PBI excavations were renewed under the directorship of Robert North in 1960 in an area of Tell 3 that had produced wall paintings, such as the ‘Notables’ fresco in higher levels during previous seasons (North 1961, p. 36). The excavators record that the large mural came from an imposing room that was approximately 10 m in length, containing several painted plaster walls and a semi-circular stone structure, which they thought might have been an altar or dais (North 1960, p. 36).” ref

“North noted that the most discernible decoration was found on the innermost of a succession of ten replasterings. The black, white and red design, which North called the ‘Tiger’ due to its white stripes, was photographed and painted in situ by the resident artist before removal, at which time they found a small star and striped masks on other surfaces of the plastered wall, making a secondary tableau (North 1961, pp. 33–35). Unfortunately, most of the original fresco was badly damaged while being lifted from the trench and could not be conserved, leaving the photographs and painting produced by the excavation’s resident artist, Panayot Hanania, our only and key source of information.” ref

“Upon viewing the original photographs and the artist’s on-site painting, and analyzing North’s handwritten notebooks held at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Jerusalem, it became apparent that the distinctive ‘eyes’ on the right-hand side of the design most likely belonged to another composition, corresponding instead with the other masks and star that were noted. After the digital removal of the distracting top-layers, the misnamed ‘Tiger’ fresco featured a completely different scene. The mural now evokes a landscape painting, showing pathways, ravines, cultivated areas, mountain peaks and a rising or setting luminary (Figure 5). The subject of this painting, rather than depicting a leaping tiger, is most likely the distinctive mountain range situated immediately to the east of Teleilat Ghassul.” ref

“If one stands on the altar arc of the sanctuary complex at Teleilat Ghassul and faces east, the elongated profile of Mount Nebo and Siyagha, present an outline strikingly similar to the one recorded in the ancient fresco. These neighboring mountains are rich in Chalcolithic features and may well have been a focus of ritual activities carried out on, or about, the Sanctuary A altar arc as the sun or moon rose over the highlands. Although landscape scenes are rare during this early period, they are not completely unknown, with the fresco from Neolithic Çatalhöyük possibly depicting a volcano erupting over a nearby town being the most famous example (Mellaart 1967, p. 148).” ref

“The mid-Fifth Millennium BCE Ghassulian frescoes suggests an earlier origin for the linear narrative style, with ground lines and narrative direction in several compositions (especially in the Notables and the Procession), in obvious contradiction of Schmandt-Besserat’s scheme (Drabsch and Bourke 2014, p. 1095). This suggests linear narrative style had its origins at least a thousand years earlier than Schmandt-Besserat proposed, and perhaps more importantly given the preliterate status of the Ghassulian culture, had no demonstrable link to the development of writing.” ref

“That being said, it may be unwise to classify as ‘unstructured’ compositions which do not follow a formal linear narrative directional style, as quite sophisticated executions such as the Ghassul Star seem to combine a prominent central motif (the multifaceted star), and surrounding elements which could be argued to illustrate events within a ritual ceremony, involving processions of masked individuals, sacred animals and a sanctuary complex.” ref

“Interpretations of the richly detailed wall painting from Hierakonpolis Tomb 100, illustrating such Egyptologically significant elements as the warrior and opposed lions (the so-called ‘Gilgamesh’ motif), paired warriors in single combat, various hunting tropes, and the ‘smiting pharaoh’ motif, all set below a double line of curved-hull boats (Case and Payne 1962, pp. 12–16, Plate I; Kemp 1973, p. 37, Plates XXIII–XXV) have long been bedeviled by attempts to view them as a linear narrative (Midant-Reynes 2008, pp. 208–10). It may be that the association of individual elements may not be sequential and narrative, even though the scene is executed in two registers of linear motifs, but should perhaps be viewed as a singular multifaceted ritual/symbolic composition (Tefnin 1979, p. 224).” ref

“In the absence of clear literary/inscriptional support, some debate must remain about the introduction of linear narrative style to the mid-Fifth Millennium BCE, but there seems little doubt that as the subsequent Early Bronze Age (roughly the 4th–3rd Millennia BCE) unfolds, linear narrative compositions come to dominate seal art, both in Mesopotamia, as highlighted by Schmandt-Besserat (2007), and also in the (very probably related) seal art of the south Levantine Early Bronze Age (de Miroschedji 2011; Paz et al. 2013). Here, most interestingly, de Miroschedji draws direct parallels between the cult-related motifs on south Levantine Early Bronze Age (hereafter EBA) seals and elements well familiar in Ghassulian art, such as processions of animal-masked figures (de Miroschedji 2011, pp. 74–80), strongly implying cultural continuity between the two sequential compositional assemblages.” ref

“The second potential contribution that the Ghassul frescoes make to art-historical studies concerns color use. Red, black and white pigments were the most commonly employed, with the red/black contrast deployed to great effect on the Star, suggesting a deliberate juxtaposition with acknowledged symbolic force. Yellow pigment, while easy to obtain, was but sparingly employed, and it may be that the yellow/gold color held a special significance, only employed to highlight objects and/or people of enhanced status.” ref

“The absence of blue/green color is of perhaps greater significance, as the Ghassulian Chalco-(copper) lithic-(stone) period was the time in which copper metallurgy first comes to prominence within the material assemblages of the culture. It seems probable that both malachite (green) and azurite (blue) pigments were known to Ghassulian artists, given the broadly contemporary exploitation of the Faynan copper ores and the widespread association of Ghassulian cult and complex copper metallurgy (Levy 1986, p. 90; Bar-Adon 1980; Ussishkin 2014), and yet there is no convincing evidence that blue/green color was ever employed in Ghassulian wall art. It is possible that blue/green color was used (sparingly), but is no longer preserved, as the wet lime (buon fresco) technique might have played havoc with copper-based pigments (Cameron et al. 1977, p. 168; Pastoureau 2001, p. 22; Drabsch 2015, p. 128).” ref

“In slightly later (EBA) Mesopotamian practice, the brilliant blue coloration of lapis was employed in sculpture to indicate deity, with emphasis placed on eyes, nails and hair (Warburton 2007, pp. 230–39). Parallel with this, Egyptian Old Kingdom elite tomb architecture went to great lengths to veneer cult chambers with turquoise paneling, suggesting a similar association of blue coloration and the sacred (Edwards 1987, pp. 48–49, Plate 13; Corteggiani 1987, pp. 34–35, Plate 11). One is tempted to suggest that the later engagement with blue/green color and its explicit association with deity should not be linked to the first (Chalcolithic) exploitation of copper ores, but viewed rather as one result of the (Early Bronze Age) mining of lapis in Afghanistan, and turquoise in the Egyptian Sinai. It may be that blue/green pigments did not prove color fast when combined with fresh lime plaster, or (more probably) that blue/green colors did not feature in the Ghassulian artistic palette, playing no role in the Fifth Millennium BCE Chalcolithic cultic or artistic world-view (Thavapalan 2018, Section VI, pp 3–4).” ref

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Proto-cuneiform: 3500–2900 BCE

Cuneiform: 3100 BCE – 200 CE

Egyptian hieroglyphs: 3250 BCE – 400  CE

Cretan hieroglyphs: 2100–1700 BCE

Linear A: 1800–1450 BCE

Linear B: 1400–1200 BCE

“Linear B is a syllabic script that was used for writing in Mycenaean Greek, the earliest attested form of the Greek language. The script predates the Greek alphabet by several centuries, the earliest known examples dating to around 1400 BCE. It is adapted from the earlier Linear A, an undeciphered script perhaps used for writing the Minoan language, as is the later Cypriot syllabary, which also recorded Greek.” ref

“Greek is an Indo-European language, constituting an independent branch of Indo-European. It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system is the Greek alphabet, which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Coptic, Gothic, and many other writing systems.” ref

“Phoenician script was used across the Mediterranean civilization of Phoenicia for most of the 1st millennium BCE (1000 BCE or around 3,000 to 2,000 years ago). It was one of the first alphabets and attested in Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions found across the Mediterranean region. In the history of writing systems, the Phoenician script also marked the first to have a fixed writing direction—while previous systems were multi-directional, Phoenician was written horizontally, from right to left. It developed directly from the Proto-Sinaitic script used during the Late Bronze Age, which was derived in turn from Egyptian hieroglyphs.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Cedars of God

Cedar Forest: realm of the gods of Mesopotamian mythology

Holy Tale Behind the Cedars of Lebanon

“Uruk is the type site for the Uruk period. Uruk played a leading role in the early urbanization of Sumer in the mid-4th millennium BCE. By the final phase of the Uruk period, around 3100 BCE, the city may have had 40,000 residents, with 80,000–90,000 people living in its environs, making it the largest urban area in the world at the time. King Gilgamesh, according to the chronology presented in the Sumerian King List (SKL), ruled Uruk in the 27th century BCE. After the end of the Early Dynastic period, marked by the rise of the Akkadian Empire, the city lost its prime importance.” ref

“The Uruk period (c. 4000 to 3100 BCE; also known as Protoliterate period) existed from the protohistoric Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age period in the history of Mesopotamia, after the Ubaid period and before the Jemdet Nasr period. Named after the Sumerian city of Uruk, this period saw the emergence of urban life in Mesopotamia and the Sumerian civilization. The late Uruk period (34th to 32nd centuries) saw the gradual emergence of the cuneiform script and corresponds to the Early Bronze Age; it has also been described as the “Protoliterate period.” ref

“The Cedars of God (Arabic: أرز الربّ Arz ar-Rabb “Cedars of the Lord”), located in the Kadisha Valley of Bsharre, Lebanon, is one of the last vestiges of the extensive forests of the Lebanon cedar that thrived across Mount Lebanon in antiquity. All early modern travelers’ accounts of the wild cedars appear to refer to the ones in Bsharri; the Christian monks of the monasteries in the Kadisha Valley venerated the trees for centuries. The earliest documented references of the Cedars of God are found in Tablets 4-6 of the great Epic of Gilgamesh, six days walk from Uruk. The Phoenicians, Israelites, Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Romans, Arabs, and Turks used Lebanese timber. The Egyptians valued their timber for shipbuilding.” ref

“The mountains of Lebanon were once shaded by thick cedar forests, and the tree is the symbol of the country. After centuries of persistent deforestation, the extent of these forests has been markedly reduced. It was once said that a battle occurred between the demigods and the humans over the beautiful and divine forest of Cedar trees near southern Mesopotamia. This forest, once protected by the Sumerian god Enlil, was completely bared of its trees when humans entered its grounds 4700 years ago, after winning the battle against the guardians of the forest, the demigods. The story also tells that Gilgamesh used cedar wood to build his city.” ref

“Over the centuries, cedar wood was exploited by the Phoenicians, Egyptians, Israelites, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Romans, Arabs, and Turks. The Phoenicians used the Cedars for their merchant fleets. They needed timbers for their ships and the Cedar woods made them the “first sea trading nation in the world”. The Egyptians used cedar resin for the mummification process and the cedar wood for some of “their first hieroglyph bearing rolls of papyrus”. In the Bible, Solomon procured cedar timber to build the Temple in Jerusalem. The emperor Hadrian claimed these forests as an imperial domain, and destruction of the cedar forests was temporarily halted.” ref

“The Cedar Forest of ancient Mesopotamian religion appears in several sections of the Epic of Gilgamesh. The Lebanon Cedar is mentioned 103 times in the Bible. In the Hebrew text, it is named ארז, and in the Greek text (LXX), it is named κέδρου. Example verses include:

• “Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars. Howl, fir tree; for the cedar is fallen; because the mighty are spoiled: howl, O ye oaks of Bashan; for the forest of the vintage is come down.” (Zechariah 11:1, 2)
• “He moves his tail like a cedar; The sinews of his thighs are tightly knit.” (Job 40:17)
• “The priest shall take cedarwood and hyssop and scarlet stuff, and cast them into the midst of the burning of the heifer” (Numbers 19:6)
• “The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; the Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon” (Psalm 29:5)
• “The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like the cedar in Lebanon” (Psalm 92:12)
• “I will put in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive” (Isaiah 41: 19)
• “Behold, I will liken you to a cedar in Lebanon, with fair branches and forest shade” (Ezekiel 31:3)
• “I destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars” (Amos 2:9)
• “The trees of the Lord are watered abundantly, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.” (Psalm 104:16 NRSV)
• [King Solomon made] cedar as plentiful as the sycamore-fig trees in the foothills. (1 Kings 10:27, NIV, excerpt)” ref

“The Cedar Forest (𒄑𒂞𒄑𒌁giš eren giš tir) is the glorious realm of the gods of Mesopotamian mythology. It is guarded by the demigod Humbaba and was once entered by the hero Gilgamesh, who dared cut down trees from its virgin stands during his quest for fame. The Cedar Forest is described in Tablets 4–6 of the Epic of Gilgamesh. Earlier descriptions come from the Ur III poem Gilgamesh and Huwawa. The Sumerian poems of his deeds say that Gilgamesh traveled east, presumably, to the Zagros Mountains of Iran (ancient Elam) to the cedar forest, yet the later, more extensive Babylonian examples place the cedar forests west in Lebanon.” ref

“Tablet four tells the story of the journey to the Cedar Forest. On each day of the six-day journey, Gilgamesh prays to Shamash; in response to these prayers, Shamash sends Gilgamesh oracular dreams during the night. The first is not preserved. In the second, Gilgamesh dreams that he wrestles a great bull that splits the ground with his breath. Enkidu interprets the dream for Gilgamesh: the dream means that Shamash, the bull, will protect Gilgamesh. In the third, Gilgamesh dreams:

The skies roared with thunder and the earth heaved,

Then came darkness and a stillness like death.

Lightning smashed the ground and fires blazed out;

Death flooded from the skies.

When the heat died and the fires went out,

The plains had turned to ash.” ref

“Enkidu’s interpretation is missing here, but as with the other dreams, it is assumed he puts a positive spin on the volcanic dream. The fourth dream is missing, but Enkidu again tells Gilgamesh that the dream portends success in the upcoming battle. The fifth dream is also missing. At the entrance to the Cedar Forest, Gilgamesh begins to tremble with fear; he prays to Shamash, reminding him of his promise to Ninsun that he would be protected. Shamash responds from heaven, instructing him to proceed into the forest because Humbaba is not fully armored. Humbaba typically wears seven coats of armor, but now he is only wearing one, making him particularly vulnerable. Enkidu loses his nerve and retreats, prompting Gilgamesh to tackle him, resulting in a fierce struggle between them. The sound of their battle alerts Humbaba, who emerges from the Cedar Forest to confront the intruders. A significant portion of the tablet is missing at this point. On the remaining fragment of the tablet, Gilgamesh persuades Enkidu that they should stand united against the demon.” ref

“Gilgamesh and Enkidu enter the gloriously beautiful Cedar Forest and begin to cut down the trees. Hearing the sound, Humbaba comes roaring up to them and warns them off. Enkidu shouts at Humbaba that the two of them are much stronger than the demon, but Humbaba, who knows Gilgamesh is a king, taunts the king for taking orders from a nobody like Enkidu. Turning his face into a hideous mask, Humbaba begins to threaten the pair, and Gilgamesh runs and hides. Enkidu shouts at Gilgamesh, inspiring him with courage, and Gilgamesh appears from hiding and the two begin their epic battle with Humbaba. Shamash intrudes on the battle, helping the pair, and Humbaba is defeated. On his knees, with Gilgamesh’s sword at his throat, Humbaba begs for his life and offers Gilgamesh all the trees in the forest and his eternal servitude. While Gilgamesh is thinking this over, Enkidu intervenes, telling Gilgamesh to kill Humbaba before any of the gods arrive and stop him from doing so. Should he kill Humbaba, he will achieve widespread fame for all the times to come. Gilgamesh, with a great sweep of his sword, removes Humbaba’s head. But before he dies, Humbaba screams out a curse on Enkidu: “Of you two, may Enkidu not live the longer, may Enkidu not find any peace in this world!” Soon later Enkidu becomes sick and dies. Gilgamesh and Enkidu cut down the cedar forest and in particular the tallest of the cedar trees to make a great cedar gate for the city of Nippur. They build a raft out of the cedar and float down the Euphrates to their city.” ref

“After these events, Gilgamesh, his fame widespread and his appearance resplendent in his wealthy clothes, attracts the sexual attention of the goddess Ishtar, who comes to Gilgamesh and offers to become his lover. Gilgamesh refuses with insults, listing all the mortal lovers that Ishtar has had and recounting the dire fates they all met with at her hands. Deeply insulted, Ishtar returns to heaven and begs her father, the sky-god Anu, to let her have the Bull of Heaven to wreak vengeance on Gilgamesh and his city:

Father, let me have the Bull of Heaven

To kill Gilgamesh and his city.

For if you do not grant me the Bull of Heaven,

I will pull down the Gates of Hell itself,

Crush the doorposts and flatten the door,

And I will let the dead leave

And let the dead roam the earth

And they shall eat the living.

The dead will overwhelm all the living!” ref

Holy Tale Behind the Cedars of Lebanon

“Revered by civilizations for thousands of years, the Cedar of Lebanon is a rare wood with a natural luster and distinctive, long-lasting odor. In biblical times, this ‘true cedar’ grew extensively all around the mountains of Lebanon, giving the cedar its name. After centuries of deforestation, there are now just a handful of groves remaining, most notably the Cedars of God. For thousands of years, the cedar’s 70-100 foot height and 16-25 foot girth have inspired thoughts of strength and solidarity, with the wood widely used for shipbuilding by various ancient civilizations. Today, the national emblem of Lebanon is equally revered by woodworkers, who find its medium to coarse texture, prominent grain, characteristic knots, and high levels of durability perfectly suited to cabinet-making and joinery.” ref

The Epic of Gilgamesh

“The Cedar of Lebanon also features in the oldest epic written by man, The Epic of Gilgamesh, which dates back at least 4,000 years. The Cedar Forest was a divine, shady forest that was fought over by demi-gods and humans. It’s said that the cedars were protected by Mesopotamian Gods, which gave rise to another name for the trees – the Cedars of God. It is also said that Gilgamesh himself used cedar wood to build his great city.

‘On the Mountain the cedars uplift their abundance. Their shadow is beautiful, is all delight. Thistles hide under them, and the dark prick-thorn, sweet-smelling flowers hide under the cedars … in all directions, ten thousand miles stretches that forest …’ – (Leonard Translation, slightly modernised)” ref

Mummification of Ancient Egyptians

“Not to be outdone, the ancient Egyptians also made use of this famous tree. The Egyptians desperately sought immortality and wanted to be spoken of long after their death. To achieve this, Egyptians used mummification to strip the body of its organs, except the heart, and preserve their physical form. Cedar resin and sawdust were used in the embalming process due to their powerful bactericidal and fungicidal activity, with the enzymes in the wood capable of surviving for thousands of years. This would have helped to preserve the bodies and provide safe passage into the afterlife.” ref

Biblical Stories & Cedar Symbolism

“In the Old Testament, the ‘true cedar’ is mentioned numerous times, adding to the myth and folklore that surrounds this ancient tree. In 1 Kings 4:33, Solomon made the cedar the ‘first of trees,’ while in Isaiah 35:2, the cedar was referred to as the ‘glory of Lebanon.’ In Ezekiel 31:3-5, The Assyrian power is compared to ‘a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a forest-like shade, a high stature; and its top was among the thick boughs… its stature was exalted above all the trees of the field; and its boughs were multiplied, and its branches became long.’ Solomon used the wood of the cedar to build Jerusalem. In 1 Kings 5:6-10, it’s said that ‘Hiram gave Solomon timber of cedar and timber of fir according to all his desire,’ while one of Solomon’s most important buildings was known as ‘the house of the forest of Lebanon’ (1 Kings 7:2). The Cedar of Lebanon is also mentioned in reference to ritual cleansing. In Leviticus 14:4, the cleansed leper was sprinkled with the blood of a ‘clean bird’, into which had been put ‘cedar wood, scarlet, and hyssop.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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“In Sumerian texts, Enlil is referred to as Kur-gal (the Great Mountain). Enlil is the first attested chief deity in the Sumerian pantheon and is associated with wind, air, earth, and storms.” ref

“Enlil, later known as Elil and Ellil, is an ancient Mesopotamian god associated with wind, air, earth, and storms. He is first attested as the chief deity of the Sumerian pantheon, but he was later worshipped by the Akkadians, Babylonians, Assyrians, and Hurrians. Enlil’s primary center of worship was the Ekur temple in the city of Nippur, which was believed to have been built by Enlil himself and was regarded as the “mooring-rope” of heaven and earth. He is also sometimes referred to in Sumerian texts as Nunamnir. According to one Sumerian hymn, Enlil himself was so holy that not even the other gods could look upon him. Enlil rose to prominence during the twenty-fourth century BCE with the rise of Nippur. His cult fell into decline after Nippur was sacked by the Elamites in 1230 BCE, and he was eventually supplanted as the chief god of the Mesopotamian pantheon by the Babylonian national god Marduk.” ref

“Enlil plays a vital role in the ancient near eastern cosmology; he separates An (heaven) from Ki (earth), thus making the world habitable for humans. In the Sumerian flood myth Eridu Genesis, Enlil rewards Ziusudra with immortality for having survived the flood and, in the Babylonian flood myth, Enlil is the cause of the flood himself, having sent the flood to exterminate the human race, who made too much noise and prevented him from sleeping. The myth of Enlil and Ninlil is about Enlil’s serial seduction of the goddess Ninlil in various guises, resulting in the conception of the moon-god Nanna and the Underworld deities Nergal, Ninazu, and Enbilulu. Enlil was regarded as the inventor of the mattock and the patron of agriculture. Enlil also features prominently in several myths involving his son Ninurta, including Anzû and the Tablet of Destinies and Lugale.” ref

“Enlil’s name comes from ancient Sumerian EN (𒂗), meaning “lord” and LÍL (𒆤), the meaning of which is contentious, and which has sometimes been interpreted as meaning winds as a weather phenomenon (making Enlil a weather and sky god, “Lord Wind” or “Lord Storm”), or alternatively as signifying a spirit or phantom whose presence may be felt as stirring of the air, or possibly as representing a partial Semitic loanword rather than a Sumerian word at all. Enlil’s name is not a genitive construction, suggesting that Enlil was seen as the personification of LÍL rather than merely the cause of LÍL.” ref 

“Piotr Steinkeller has written that the meaning of LÍL may not actually be a clue to a specific divine domain of Enlil’s, whether storms, spirits, or otherwise, since Enlil may have been “a typical universal god […] without any specific domain.” Piotr Steinkeller and Piotr Michalowski have doubts about the Sumerian origin of Enlil. They have questioned the true meaning of the name, and identified Enlil with the Eblaite word I-li-lu. As noted by Manfred Krebernik and M. P. Streck; Enlil being referred to as Kur-gal (the Great Mountain) in Sumerian texts suggests he might have originated in eastern Mesopotamia.” ref

“Enlil was the patron god of the Sumerian city-state of Nippur and his main center of worship was the Ekur temple located there. The name of the temple literally means “Mountain House” in ancient Sumerian. The Ekur was believed to have been built and established by Enlil himself. It was believed to be the “mooring-rope” of heaven and earth, meaning that it was seen as “a channel of communication between earth and heaven.” A hymn written during the reign of Ur-Nammu, the founder of the Third Dynasty of Ur, describes the E-kur in great detail, stating that its gates were carved with scenes of Imdugud, a lesser deity sometimes shown as a giant bird, slaying a lion and an eagle snatching up a sinner.” ref

“The Sumerians envisioned Enlil as a benevolent, fatherly deity, who watches over humanity and cares for their well-being. One Sumerian hymn describes Enlil as so glorious that even the other gods could not look upon him. The same hymn also states that, without Enlil, civilization could not exist. Enlil’s epithets include titles such as “the Great Mountain” and “King of the Foreign Lands”. Enlil is also sometimes described as a “raging storm”, a “wild bull”, and a “merchant”. The Mesopotamians envisioned him as a creator, a father, a king, and the supreme lord of the universe. He was also known as “Nunamnir” and is referred to in at least one text as the “East Wind and North Wind.” ref

“Kings regarded Enlil as a model ruler and sought to emulate his example. Enlil was said to be supremely just and intolerant towards evil. Rulers from all over Sumer would travel to Enlil’s temple in Nippur to be legitimized. They would return Enlil’s favor by devoting lands and precious objects to his temple as offerings. Nippur was the only Sumerian city-state that never built a palace; this was intended to symbolize the city’s importance as the center of the cult of Enlil by showing that Enlil himself was the city’s king. Even during the Babylonian Period, when Marduk had superseded Enlil as the supreme god, Babylonian kings still traveled to the holy city of Nippur to seek recognition of their right to rule. Enlil first rose to prominence during the twenty-fourth century BCE, when the importance of the god An began to wane.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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“At the center of the scene is the sun god, Shamash (Sumerian Utu), with rays rising from his shoulders. He is cutting his way through the mountains in order to rise at dawn.” ref

“The sun rises from the Eiyptian Mound of Creation at the beginning of time. The central circle represents the mound, and the orange circles represent the sun in different stages of its rising. At the top is the “horizon” hieroglyph with the sun appearing atop it.” ref

“Mountain (djew): Appearance: The hieroglyphic sign for “mountain” depicted two peaks with a valley running between them. This image approximated the hills that rose up on either side of the Nile valley. Meaning: Although the djew hieroglyph did portray the mountain ranges the Egyptians saw in their everyday lives, it also was a visualization of their cosmic beliefs. Symbolically, the “mountain” was an image of the universal mountain whose two peaks were imagined to hold up the sky. The eastern peak was called Bakhu, to the west was Manu. The ends of this great mountain were guarded by two lions who were called Aker. Aker was a protector of the sun as it rose and set each day.” ref

“The Egyptian necropolis was typically located in the mountainous desert, and so the view was also closely associated with the concepts of the tomb and of the afterlife. The god of mummification, Anubis bore the epithet, “He who is upon his mountain.” Hathor, the “Mistress of the Necropolis,” while in the form of a cow, was often shown emerging from the side of the western mountain. In painted scenes, the concept of a “hill” or “heap” of such things as grain are often expressed representationally with the djew sign. The use of the hieroglyphic shape is an effective tool to convey not only the shape but the of such large heaps of grain. A variation of the hieroglyph showing a range of three peaks was used to portray the concept of “foreign land.” ref

“Akhet (Ancient Egyptian: Ꜣḫt; Gardiner: N27) is an Egyptian hieroglyph that represents the sun rising over a mountain. It is translated as “horizon” or “the place in the sky where the sun rises.” Betrò describes it as “Mountain with the Rising Sun” (The hieroglyph for “mountain” is 𓈋) and an ideogram for “horizon.” Akhet appears in the Egyptian name for the Great Pyramid of Giza (Akhet Khufu), and in the assumed name of Akhetaten, the city founded by pharaoh Akhenaten. It also appears in the name of the syncretized form of Ra and Horus, Ra-Horakhty (Rꜥ Ḥr Ꜣḫty, “Ra–Horus of the Horizons”). In ancient Egyptian architecture, the pylon mirrored the hieroglyph. The symbol is sometimes connected with the astrological sign of Libra and the Egyptian deity Aker, who guards the eastern and western horizons. Hieroglyphic for the horizon guarded by Aker.” ref

“Aker: Twin lions (yesterday and tomorrow) believed to guard the eastern and western horizons as the points where the sun touches the twin-peaked mountain top of the earth where it leaves and re-enters the underworld. Aker was an ancient Egyptian personification of the horizon, and an earth and underworld god, believed to guard the eastern (Bakhu) and western (Manu) horizons. Aker was first depicted as the torso of a recumbent lion with a widely opened mouth. Later, he was depicted as two recumbent lion torsos merged with each other and still looking away from each other. From Middle Kingdom onwards Aker appears as a pair of twin lions, one named Duaj (meaning “tomorrow”) and the other Sefe (meaning “yesterday”). Aker was thus often titled “He who’s looking forward and behind.” When depicted as a lion pair, a hieroglyphic sign for “horizon” (two merged mountains) and a sun disc was put between the lions; the lions were sitting back-on-back. In later times, Aker can also appear as two merged torsos of recumbent sphinxes with human heads.” ref

“Aker was first described as one of the earth gods guarding the “gate to the yonder site”. He protected the deceased king against the three demonic snakes Hemtet, Iqeru and Jagw. By “encircling” (i.e. interring) the deceased king, Aker sealed the deceased away from the poisonous breath of the snake demons. Another earth deity, who joined and promoted Aker’s work, was Geb. Thus, Aker was connected with Geb. In other spells and prayers, Aker is connected with Seth and even determined with the Set animal. This is interesting, because Seth is described as a wind deity, not as an earth deity.” ref

“In the famous Coffin Texts of Middle Kingdom period, Aker replaces the god Kherty, becoming now the “ferryman of Ra in his nocturnal barque.” Aker protects the sun god during his nocturnal traveling through the underworld caverns. In the famous Book of the Dead, Aker also “gives birth” to the god Khepri, the young, rising sun in the shape of a scarab beetle, after Aker has carried Khepri’s sarcophagus safely through the underworld caverns. In other underworld scenes, Aker carries the nocturnal barque of Ra. During his journey, in which Aker is asked to hide the body of the dead Osiris beneath his womb, Aker is protected by the god Geb.” ref

“In several inscriptions, wall paintings, and reliefs, Aker was connected to the horizon of the North and the West, forming a mythological bridge between the two horizons with his body. Certain sarcophagus texts from the tombs of Ramesses IV, Djedkhonsuiusankh and Pediamenopet describe how the sun god Ra travels through the underworld “like Apophis going through the belly of Aker after Apophis was cut by Seth”. In this case, Aker seems to be some kind of representation of the underworld itself. Aker appears for the first time during the 1st Dynasty with the kings (pharaohs) Hor Aha and Djer. An unfinished decorative palette from the tomb of Djer at Abydos shows Aker devouring three hearts. The location of Aker’s main cult center is unknown, though. His mythological role was fully described for the first time in the famous Pyramid Texts of king Teti.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Mount Mashu

“Mount Mashu, to the Sumerians, Mashu was a sacred mountain. Its name means “twin” in Akkadian, and thus was it portrayed on Babylonian cylinder seals—a twin-peaked mountain, described by poets as both the seat of the gods, and the underworld. References or allusions to Mt. Mashu are found in three episodes of the Gilgamesh cycle which date between the third and second millennia BCE. Gilgamesh and Enkidu gaze in awe at the mountain called “the mountain of Cedar (or Pine) Forest, the dwelling-place of the gods and the throne of Ishtar, ruled over by a demonic monster named Humbaba. Gilgamesh climbs onto the mountain, sacrifices cereals to it, and, in response, the mountain sends him puzzling dreams about his future.” ref

“Mashu was located in a forest in the “land of the Living,” where the names of the famous are written. It is alluded to in the episode “Gilgamesh and Humbaba.” In this story, Gilgamesh and his friend, Enkidu, travel to the Cedar (or Pine) Forest, which is ruled over by a demonic monster named Humbaba. While their motives for going to the Forest included gaining renown, it is also clear that they wanted the timber it contained. Humbaba, who had been appointed by the god Enlil to guard the Forest, is depicted as a one-eyed giant with the powers of a storm and breath of fire, perhaps the personification of a volcano.” ref

“It is only with the help of another god, and a magically forged weapon that Gilgamesh triumphs over Humbaba. But before his battle, Gilgamesh and Enkidu gaze in awe at the mountain called “the mountain of cedars, the dwelling-place of the gods and the throne of Ishtar.” They climb onto the mountain, sacrifice cereals to it, and, in response, the mountain sends them puzzling dreams about their futures. When they begin to fell trees, Humbaba senses their presence and, enraged, fixes his eye of death on the pair.” ref

“Although Gilgamesh finally defeats the monster, Enkidu eventually weakens and dies from Humbaba’s gaze and curse. In addition to its reputation as the “land of the Living,” this forest is also a way to the underworld or the other world. For right after killing Humbaba, Gilgamesh continues in the forest and “uncovered the sacred dwelling of the Anunaki”—old gods who, like the Greek Titans, had been banished to the underworld. Furthermore, Gilgamesh seems to go into a death-like trance here; and in the same general region, the goddess Ishtar, whom Gilgamesh spurned, threatened to break in the doors of hell and bring up the dead to eat with the living.” ref

“Mashu is mentioned directly in the episode “Gilgamesh and the Search for Everlasting Life.” This story unfolds after the death of Gilgamesh’s friend, Enkidu, a wrenching experience that makes Gilgamesh face his own mortality and go searching for eternal life. It is en route to Utnapishtim, the one mortal to achieve immortality, that Gilgamesh comes to Mashu, “the great mountain, which guards the rising and setting sun. Its twin peaks are as high as the wall of heaven, and its roots reach down to the underworld. At its gate, the Scorpions stand guard, half man and half dragon; their glory is terrifying; their stare strikes death into men, and their shining halo sweeps the mountains that guard the rising sun.” Gilgamesh is able to convince the Scorpion-people to open the gate and let him enter the long tunnel through the mountains. Eventually, Gilgamesh emerges from the tunnel into a fantastic Garden of the gods, whose trees bear glittering jewels instead of fruit.” ref

“In the view of several scholars, Mashu is also the mountain mentioned in the story that Utnapishtim told Gilgamesh. Utnapishtim, sometimes called the “Sumerian Noah,” told Gilgamesh how the gods had become angered with humanity and decided on the Flood as one means to exterminate it. A sympathetic god warned Utnapishtim and told him to build a boat and board it with his family, relatives, craftsmen, and the seed of all living creatures. After six days of tempest and flood, Utnapishtim’s boat grounded on a mountain. He released a dove and a swallow, both of which returned to him. Then he released a raven, which did not return; Utnapishtim and his family came down from the mountain. When the disgruntled gods are finally reconciled with the re-emergence of humanity, Utnapishtim and his wife are taken by the god Enlil to live in the blessed place where Gilgamesh found him “in the distance, at the mouth of the rivers.” ref

“In his classic study, Armenia in the Bible, Father Vahan Inglizian compared the above myths with the Biblical accounts of the Garden of Eden (Gen. 2) and the Flood (Gen.7-8), both of which he cited in eastern Asia Minor. Accepting Lehmann-Haupt’s equation of the tunnel through Mashu with the naturally occurring subterranean Tigris tunnel near Bylkalein, Inglizian suggested that Mashu should be sought in the Armenian Taurus mountain range, south of Lake Van. It is in this same southern area, rather than at Mt. Ararat, that many scholars, including Inglizian, place the mountain of Noah (Gen. 8.4). Inglizian suggested that the phrase “at the mouth of the rivers” describing the blessed land where Utnapishtim lived, should be understood to mean “at the sources of the [Tigris and Euphrates] rivers.” This heavenly Dilmun of Mesopotamian mythology was later identified with Bahrain on the Persian Gulf.” ref

“Mashu, as described in the Epic of Gilgamesh of Mesopotamian mythology, is a great cedar mountain through which the hero-king Gilgamesh passes via a tunnel on his journey to Dilmun after leaving the Cedar Forest, a forest of ten thousand leagues span. Siduri, the alewife, lived on the shore, associated with “the Waters of Death” that Gilgamesh had to cross to reach Utnapishtim in search of the secret of eternal life. The corresponding location in reality has been the topic of speculation as no confirming evidence has been found. Jeffrey H. Tigay suggests that in the Sumerian version, through its association with the sun god Utu, “(t)he Cedar Mountain is implicitly located in the east, whereas in the Akkadian versions, Gilgamesh’s destination (is) removed from the east” and “explicitly located in the northwest, in or near Lebanon.” ref

“Mountains are the abodes of the gods and are associated with abundance, life, sustenance, fertility, and paradise.” ref 

“The cosmic mountain is not only the highest point on earth, it is also the earth’s navel, the point where creation had its beginning.” ref

The Mountain of the Gods

“Worldwide traditions say that a cosmic mountain once rose to the center of the sky, joining heaven and earth. Now plasma science offers a confirming witness, in the behavior of high-energy plasma discharge. The ancients lived in the shadow of a colossal mountain identified as the abode of the gods. The Sumerians and the Babylonians knew it as the Khursag or the Kur, and as early as the 23^rd century BCE it was depicted on the victory stele of king Naram-Sin of Akkad, shown above. The two stars on the apex identify the rock as the residence of celestial powers to whom the mighty ruler pays homage for his victory.” ref

“This ‘cosmic mountain’ was given different names in different cultures. The Egyptians knew it as the Primordial Mound, the Israelites as Sinai and Zion, and the Greeks as Olympus and Parnassus. Further afield, the Indians called the divine peak Meru or Sumeru, the Chinese Kun-lun, Sung-shan, or Bu-zhou, the Icelanders Himinbjörg, the Aztec Colhuacan, and the Choctaw Nunne Chaha. During the 20^th century, specialists in each of these cultural areas have tended to downplay the role of the cosmic mountain, arguing that the sacred peaks and pinnacles mentioned in the ancient writings were nothing more than the mountains found locally. According to them, Naram-Sin’s ‘mountain of the sun’ simply referred to the Zagros Mountains, over which the sun appears to rise for the natives of northern Mesopotamia. However, these scholars have vastly underrated the importance of the theme.” ref

“As 19^th-century researchers have ably demonstrated, the reports given of the cosmic mountain in mythology indicate that it was a highly unusual object, rooted in a universal archetype. The mountain’s height was prodigious, reaching from the deepest underworld to the top of the sky. At the creation of the world, it rose up from the waters of chaos, pushing heaven and earth apart as it grew. It stood exactly in the center of the universe, and the forces of four cardinal directions met at its summit. It was of a luminous substance, ablaze with fire, or decked with gold and silver. Two peaks crowned its summit. A bird was seated on its top, called Anzu or Imdugud in Babylonia, Phoenix in Egypt, Garuda in India, and the thunderbird Wakinyan among the Sioux. Its interior was hollow and filled with a mysterious substance identified as the juice of life, the divine breath, a perpetual flame, lightning, or the waters of the flood. The souls of the dead traversed it on their way from the underworld to the sky or vice versa. The mythical hero or ancestor climbed it as part of his quest. And the Golden Age ended when the mountain was ripped apart, the flood gushed forth, and the bond between heaven and earth was broken.” ref

“Each of these pervading themes shows that the cosmic mountain hardly answers to any familiar phenomenon in the natural world. Clearly, it was a feature of the mythological landscape that was independently localized when different cultures identified it with different rocks in their own environment. The striking parallels cry out for an explanation nonetheless. The detailed agreement of its characteristics in cultures from far-flung corners of the world shows that there is definitely some reality behind it. And this is where plasma comes in. The remarkable synthesis between the most up-to-date findings of plasma physicists and the artifacts and traditions of ancient mankind has the potential to cast a refreshing light on the subject.” ref

“The present interdisciplinary investigation suggests that the features of the cosmic mountain—and dozens of additional motifs—can be satisfactorily accounted for if the object commemorated in these traditions included a heaven-spanning plasma discharge tube, formed during the late Palaeolithic in response to high-energy disturbances in the geomagnetic field. Extensive laboratory experiments performed under the auspices of plasma physicist Anthony Peratt have shed much light on the specifics of the morphological ‘cycle’ such a plasma column would have gone through. Down to the finest and most unusual details, this sequence matches the profile of the mythic “mountain of the gods.” Therefore, the myth of the cosmic mountain deserves rigorous cross-cultural exploration. Where cultures agree on unique details, this consensus is evidence, and it may well provide vital information about the ancient natural environment, suggesting promising lines for scientific investigation.” ref

“Mons Veneris Ancient hymns celebrating the planet Venus—as the goddess Inanna/Ishtar—describe it as residing in close proximity to the ancient sun-god. Thus, the planet-goddess is described as follows in the hymn known as “Inanna’s Descent to the Underworld”: “I am Inanna of the place where the sun makes his rising.” The phrase translated as “the place where the sun makes his rising” is ki-dutu-è. Modern scholars, quite naturally, have sought to interpret such language in terms of Venus’s familiar role as a morning star. According to this view, the phrase ki-dutu-è has reference to the eastern horizon. Upon closer examination, however, it can be shown that this phrase has reference to a specific site in heaven—the aforementioned mountain of sunrise.” ref

“Thus, Sjöberg points out that ki-dutu-è-a marks a semantic parallel to kurdutu-è-a, “the mountain where the sun rises.” The particular site in question was brimming with cosmic significance, being regarded as the birthplace of the gods and sacred residence of the ancient sun-god. Recall again the passage quoted earlier: “The valiant Utu, the bull who stands secure, who proudly displays his power, the father of the great city, the place where the sun rises.” If Sjöberg is right about an inherent connection between “the place where the sun rises” and the mountain of sunrise, one would expect to find the Venus-goddess described as a co-inhabitant of the latter mountain. That Venus/Inanna was intimately associated with a celestial mountain is well-attested. Texts from archaic Uruk invoke Inanna-kur, “Inanna of (or from) the kur,” the latter word signifying the mountain of sunrise. The epic Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta describes Inanna as the “great lady of heaven” who dwells on the top of the mountain.” ref

“The Exaltation of Inanna reports that the goddess “resides in the mountain.” “The lament for Unug” reports that Inanna/Venus “dominates” or “fills” the kur. Such passages suggest that the planet Venus didn’t merely have an occasional relationship to the celestial mountain—rather, it “dwelled” there. Early hymns to the planet-goddess localize her various mythical adventures on or about this mountain, alternately described as kur or kur-ßuba, “the pure shining mountain.” In the hymn Inanna and Ebih, the mountain is described as “the pure place of your [Inanna’s] birth.” In The Exaltation of Inanna, the planet-goddess is compared to a “flood descending from its mountain [kur].” ref

“Venus’s intimate association with the mountain of sunrise is also reflected in ancient art. In the cylinder seal illustrated in figure eight, the planet-goddess appears atop the mountain from which Shamash is about to emerge. The scene in question drew the following commentary from Amiet: “The wings which she wears on rare occasions and the stars which sometimes top the weapons emerging from her shoulders confirm her celestial character…The image of the new goddess corresponds exactly to what is known of the Ishtar of the Semites, personification of the planet Venus.” The wealth of testimony linking Inanna/Venus to the kur prompts the following question: How are we to understand such traditions? Why would the planet Venus be described as residing atop the mountain of sunrise, however the latter is to be understood from an astronomical standpoint?” ref

“This mystery has yet to be resolved, as Szarzynska acknowledged: “The problem of what the kur means in the above-mentioned name [Inanna-kur], remains, for the time being, unsolved. It seems that kur ‘mountain’ in connection with the goddess indicates the mythological mountain, the place of her birth and her appearance.” Confronted with the apparent anomaly whereby both the ancient sun-god and Venus cohabit atop a mythical mountain, conventional scholars have little recourse but to fall back upon the seemingly all-purpose explanation of the Sun and Venus appearing in the East over some ill-defined mountain range. Szarzynska’s opinion may be taken as typical in this regard: “This meaning of the kur is connected in all probability with the mountains in the East of the Sumer-country, upon which the sun rises and the planet Venus appears.” Most scholars would identify the mountains in question with the Zagros mountains.” ref

“It can be shown, however, that the kur has nothing whatsoever to do with the relatively diminutive Zagros mountain range, the latter of which, in any case, does not present a twin-peaked appearance. Nor, for that matter, does the kur have reference to any other terrestrial “mountains in the East of the Sumer-country.” The Mountain of Heaven and Earth Another name for the mountain of sunrise in Sumerian cosmology was !ursag, invoked in early hymns as “the mountain of heaven and earth” (!ur-sag-an-ki-bi-da). In various Sumerian texts the !ursag is interchangeable with the kur, and thus it is no surprise to find that Inanna/Venus is brought into an intimate relation with this sacred mountain as well. One text describes Inanna as seated upon the !ursag: “(Inanna) who takes a seat on the highlands of the bright mountain, who adorns the dais of the bright mountain.” ref

“In another hymn, Inanna is invoked as the lion (pirig) of the !ursag-mountain. If the placement of Venus atop the mountain of the sunrise represents something of a mystery, more puzzling still are those passages that describe the planet Mars (as Nergal) as occupying the same celestial mount! Thus, a Sumerian hymn relates that Nergal was given the !ursag-mountain as his special province. Nergal also features prominently in the sacred traditions surrounding the kur. Thus, an Ur III literary text describes the war-god as “filling” the kur. An epithet of the Sumerian war-god characterizes him as en.kur.gal, “lord of the great mountain.” Nergal is elsewhere said to “rise in the mountain where the sun rises [kur-u4-è].” Such traditions confirm that Nergal/Mars was intimately connected with the mountain of sunrise.” ref

“Yet how are we to explain this particular feature of Sumerian cosmography from the standpoint of modern astronomy? The planet Mars does not usually rise in the East with the Sun. Indeed, the Sun and Mars are never visible together in the sky during those relatively rare occasions when Mars moves in close proximity to the Sun, the red planet only coming into view after the Sun has gone down. Moreover, when Mars does appear in the East, it is always faint and typically invisible, being then on the other side of the Sun and thus hundreds of millions of miles away from terrestrial viewers. Equally baffling from an astronomical standpoint, are Sumerian epithets implying that Nergal/Mars is intimately associated with the site of the waning Sun. Witness the epithet Lugal-ki-dù-ßú-a: “King of the site of the Sun-set.” A closely related epithet is Lugaldù-ßú-a: “King who effects the Sunset.” Here, too, we are presented with a glaring anomaly: What does the planet Mars have to do with the West—the current site of the sunset?” ref

“Faced with these puzzling epithets, leading scholars have sought to question their literal meaning in order to synchronize the Sumerian testimony with astronomical reality. Yet the Sumerian testimony involving the planet Mars, like that surrounding Venus and Utu, is unequivocal in nature and cannot be explained away simply by wishing it were otherwise. The World Mountain In order to gain a proper understanding of Sumerian Cosmic Geography, it is necessary to resolve the original nature of the mountain of sunrise associated with the ancient sun-god and Venus. At the turn of the previous century, scholars such as Jensen and Jeremias were united in the opinion that the mountain in question had reference to the concept of a World Mountain. Samuel Kramer, Jan van Dijk, and Francoise Bruschweiler, among others, have defended this position in more recent years.” ref

“It is Mircea Eliade, perhaps, who has done the most to clarify the role of the World Mountain in ancient cosmology and religion. Eliade offered the following summary of this multivalent symbol: “The symbolism of the World Tree is complementary to that of the Central Mountain. Sometimes the two symbols coincide; usually they complement each other. But both are merely more developed mythical formulations of the Cosmic Axis (World Pillar, etc.).” Although it can be shown that the beliefs surrounding the World Mountain are remarkably consistent across cultures, Sumerologists have been reluctant to take the ancient testimony at face value and would seek instead to understand the literary descriptions by reference to figurative language.” ref

“The writings of Thorkild Jacobsen have been particularly influential in this regard. Jacobsen, in keeping with his marked tendency to localize sacred symbols and mythological themes, would interpret the !ursag as a range of mountains on the eastern border of Mesopotamia: “As seen on the eastern horizon, its shining peaks towering from earth up into heaven, the !ursag appears indeed to belong equally to both of these cosmic entities, and the epithet here applied to it, ‘of both heaven and earth,’ is therefore as forceful as it is apt.” In a recent summary of Sumerian cosmology, W. Lambert attempted to offer a compromise between the diametrically opposed positions of Jensen and Jacobsen.” ref

“While admitting that the World Mountain concept can be found in Sumerian lore, he nevertheless sided with Jacobsen in understanding it as primarily figurative in nature: “There are, it is true, some allusions to the concept of a cosmic mountain [in Sumerian Cosmology], but these occur in literary and poetic contexts, and it is not possible to reconstruct a precise image from them. The most explicit ones speak of a mountain in the East from which the sun-god rises every morning, and since the phenomenon was seen on the horizon, the term ‘mountain’ cannot be taken too literally.” Contrary to Lambert’s assertion, it is possible to reconstruct a fairly precise image of the mountain of sunrise from the literary allusions.” ref

“For example, it is certain that the World Mountain was twin-peaked in nature exactly as depicted on the early Akkadian cylinder seals showing Shamash and the mountain of sunrise (in figure four, for example). Thus, it is that very same form that characterized the World Mountain in Egyptian lore: There, the mountain of sunrise was known as the akhet, the hieroglyph for which depicts a twin-peaked mountain with an orb between its peaks: Z. In addition to the literary passages and artworks describing the World Mountain in terms that find precise parallels around the globe, it can be shown that the various cultures of Mesopotamia sought to recreate the kur in their sacred structures—an engineering strategy that might best be described “as above, so below.” ref

“In Mesopotamia, as in cultures around the globe, temples were frequently patterned after the World Mountain, as the names é-kur and é-!ursag attest.104 Of Ningirsu’s E-ninnu temple, the Lagashite king Gudea bragged that “the house is a great mountain reaching up to the skies.” Other early temples were named after the mountain of sunrise (ki-u4-è-a and kur-dutu-èa). Identical conceptions prevailed in ancient Egypt, where temples were believed to represent the akhet-mountain. The rich symbolism associated with the mountain of sunrise was also attached to ziggurats, the towering pyramid-like structures that formed a prominent component of Mesopotamian cities, including Babylon, Nippur, Ashur, and Borsippa. Henri Frankfort acknowledged that ziggurats were intended to form a terrestrial model or reproduction of the mountain associated with the ancient sun-god: “ziggurat, the massive temple tower, which stood for the ‘mountain,’ as a symbol of the earth, the Netherworld, or the place of sunrise.” ref

“Insofar as ziggurats were purposefully modeled upon the celestial prototype, important clues as to the visual appearance of the mountain of sunrise can be deduced from their architectural details. For example, in an apparent attempt to emulate the twin-peaks of the mountain of sunrise architects placed a set of luminous crescent horns atop ziggurats. Thus it is that Gudea could announce with respect to his temple-ziggurat that his builders made it “lift its horns as a bull” and “had it wear a tiara shaped like the new moon.” If we are to interpret the widespread traditions of a World Mountain as originally having reference to a celestial prototype, how are we to understand it from an astronomical or physical standpoint? A decisive clue is provided by a well-known passage from “The Gilgamesh Epic.” ref

‘There it is stated that the Mashu mountain presides over the “rising” and “setting” of the ancient sun-god: “The name of the mountain is Mashu…Which every day keeps watch over the rising and setting of the sun, Whose peaks reach as high as the ‘banks of heaven,’ And whose breast reaches down to the underworld.” Under the current arrangement of the solar system, needless to say, it is not possible for the Sun to rise and set over the same terrestrial mountain. As a result of the striking discordance between literary descriptions of Mt. Mashu and astronomical reality, some scholars have sought to find fault with Heidel’s literal translation of the passage in question: “That the Mashu mountain(s) does so [keeps watch over the rising and setting of the sun] ‘every day,’ as translated by Heidel, Speiser, and others, is obviously wrong. Even if we stipulate, for the sake of peace, the idea of a terrestrial mountain, the Sun is not in the habit of rising on the same spot every day, and it needs no profound astronomical knowledge to become aware of this fact.” ref

“Were this the only such report to be found in ancient literature, one could perhaps dismiss it as the product of figurative language and/or creative imagination. Yet, as we have documented elsewhere, analogous traditions can be found throughout the ancient world. The World Mountains of Egyptian and Hindu lore—also twin-peaked— likewise presided over the “rising” and “setting” of the ancient sun-god. Indeed, it is the very prevalence of this theme that should alert scholars to the possibility that the ancients were describing a radically different “sun” and solar system. The Polar Configuration Difficult as it must appear at first sight, it is possible to explain the scenario described in “The Gilgamesh Epic” from an astronomical standpoint.” ref

“The solution is that the ancient sun-god formerly occupied a polar station with respect to the Earth. As David Talbott first deduced in the seminal work The Saturn Myth, a polar “sun” would not actually move during the daily cycle associated with the Earth’s revolution about its axis; rather, it would remain motionless in the “midst of heaven” exactly as reported by the Sumerian scribes. Were there a twin-peaked mountain in the immediate vicinity of the ancient sun-god, it would naturally preside over the latter’s “rising” and “setting.” As it turns out, cultures everywhere remember a primeval period when the sun did not move. Thus, according to the Mayan Popol Vuh, the primeval “sun” stood fixed in the middle of the sky: “Like a man was the sun when it first presented itself…It showed itself when it was born and remained fixed in the sky like a mirror.” ref

“Certainly, it was not the same sun which we see, it is said in their old tales.”116 The Australian Aborigines from Adelaide tell of a previous World Age wherein the sun remained fixed in the sky: “The sun sits (or, is permanent), but rests or sleeps at night.” The Wiimbaio, similarly, claims that “at one time the sun never moved.” Similar reports are to be found in South America. Thus, the Orinoco of the Amazonian rain forest recalls a Golden Age associated with a “fixed” sun named Wanadi: “In the highest sky was Wanadi…There was no separation between the Sky and the Earth. Wanadi is like a sun that never sets.” The Modocs of the Pacific Northwest tell of a time when the ancient sun-god resided in the middle of the sky. Witness the following tradition: “When Kumush had done all that he could for mankind, he went to the place where the sun rises. He traveled on Sun’s road till he came to the middle of the sky, and there he built his house.” In this Modoc tradition, as in ancient Mesopotamia, “the place where the sun rises” is explicitly identified as the “middle” of the sky, in striking contradiction to astronomical reality.” ref

“The concept of a polar sun was particularly prominent in ancient Egypt. In the Pyramid Texts, the oldest body of religious texts in the world, the ancient sun-god is described as accompanied by the circumpolar stars and “fixed in the middle of the sky.” Far from being confined to ancient Egypt, the idea that the Sun once resided at the Pole is also well-attested in India. Thus, E.A.S. Butterworth cautions that the ancient sun-god must be distinguished from the current Sun: “[The primeval sun] is not the natural sun of heaven, for it neither rises nor sets, but is, as it seems, ever in the zenith above the navel of the world. There are signs of an ambiguity between the pole star and the sun.” ref

“In support of this conclusion, Butterworth emphasized the following passage from the “Chandogya Upanishad”: “Henceforth, after having risen in the zenith, he (the Sun) will no more rise or set. He will stand alone in the middle.” In the Rig Veda, an obscure passage describes the Sun as “a gay-hued stone set in the midst of heaven.” Ananda Coomaraswamy, a leading scholar of Hindu symbolism, emphasized the relationship between the ancient Sun and the Pole in Vedic sources. With apparent disregard for the astronomical difficulties posed by this finding, Coomaraswamy remarked: “It must not be overlooked that the polar and solar symbolisms are almost inseparably combined in the Vedic tradition.” ref

“Talbott’s theory also provides a ready answer to the mystery of the celestial referent for the mountain of sunrise. According to the reconstruction offered by Talbott, the World Mountain has reference to a spectacular apparition associated with the polar Sun— specifically, a column of luminous material extending downward from the Sun toward the Earth, as in Figure nine. (This particular image, it will be noted, could easily be paralleled by artworks from around the world.) A key to deciphering the multifaceted symbolism associated with the mountain of sunrise is the fact that a crescent once adorned the ancient sun-god.” ref

“The countless cylinder seals that depict a sun-disc set within the horns of an upturned crescent, according to Talbott’s reconstruction, accurately reflect the appearance of the polar heavens in prehistoric times. In ancient Mesopotamia, the crescent in question was identified with the god Sin. A prominent symbol of Sin, attested already on pictographic clay tablets recovered from Uruk IV (see figure ten), shows a crescent set atop a pillar-like standard. This symbol is best understood as a stylized version of the mountain of sunrise. Simply put: It was Sin’s crescent at the top of the polar column that formed the twin-peaks of the mountain of sunrise. Thus it is that the sun-disc is frequently set within the “horns” of such standards on early cylinder seals.” ref

“An investigation of the crescent’s unique role in the daily cycle of the ancient sun-god provides compelling support for Talbott’s model. Given the polar alignment of the various planetary bodies, as the Earth rotated about its axis, the crescent appeared to revolve around the sun-god. It was the revolution of Sin’s crescent that provided the visual imagery for the daily cycle during this particular historical period. The most prominent phase saw the crescent grow brilliant when reaching an upturned position beneath the Sun.” ref

“This was the “day” of the ancient Sumerians. “Night” was signaled when the crescent reached its uppermost position, as in Figure 11:4. At this time, the crescent dimmed substantially together with the rest of the polar configuration, presumably because of the brilliance of the current Sun. Talbott’s reconstruction of the daily cycle associated with the ancient sun-god was developed by analyzing the earliest Egyptian imagery of the solar cycle. At this point it is instructive to see how Talbott’s model accords with the evidence from ancient Mesopotamia. In the earliest Sumerian script the concept “day” or “sun” was determined by the pictograph depicted in figure twelve, transcribed UD.” ref

“Given the fact that most early pictographs are known to have had an objective reference in the natural world, it is usually a fairly easy matter to determine the natural object depicted. Yet, with regard to this particular sign, scholars are divided over whether it originally had reference to the rising sun or the waxing moon! Karl Jaritz, in his compendium of Sumerian pictographs, offered the following commentary: “The pictograph doubtless has reference to the sun rising—between hills (?)—hardly, however, the waxing crescent [as proposed by Deimel in SL II: 722] (because of the meanings), hence also the root meaning ‘sun, day, bright light, white.’ The semasiological way to the storm is not recognizable.” ref

“Talbott’s model allows us to resolve the controversy over the original celestial referent of the UD-sign. The seemingly contradictory interpretations offered by Jaritz and Deimel can both be viewed as essentially valid. The upturned form beneath the orb does indeed represent the twin-peaked mountain of sunrise, as per Jaritz. That said, the same form also represents the waxing “Moon,” as per Deimel, for it was the crescent of Sin that formed the mountain’s two upturned peaks! Additional support for Talbott’s model is provided by the Sumerian pictograph for “night”—transcribed sig (see figure thirteen). The pictograph in question shows an orb set within an inverted crescent, much as we would expect if the polar configuration was the original source for the image.” ref

“The intimate association between the ancient sun-god and Sin’s crescent also allows us to understand the otherwise peculiar fact that the UD-sign figures prominently in the spelling of Sin’s name: UD.SAR. A leading scholar offered the following commentary on this strange state of affairs: “Typical for the moon is its crescent form, both in iconography and in the texts. The latter can be shown by studying the various meanings of the sign combination UD.SAR, often transliterated as U4.SAR, or u4.s/akar. The meaning of these signs can be explained as ‘(day)-light’ and ‘growing’, perhaps an apt way of describing the crescent of the moon.” ref

“Leaving aside the implausible suggestion that “growing (day)-light” is an apt way of describing the lunar crescent, one must wonder why the Sumerians chose to use the same pictographic sign—UD—to designate two supposedly distinct celestial bodies, the “sun” and the “moon.” After all, one could just as easily translate Sin’s name as “growing (sun)-light” since “day” and “sun” are equally valid readings of the UD sign. The logical basis for the curious overlap in terminology, according to the theory defended here, stems from the fact that the very crescent that comprised Sin’s most fundamental attribute actually adorned the ancient sun-god, the illumination of which signaled the beginning of the Sumerian “day.” ref

“A similar pattern is recognizable in the sacred terminology attached to Sin’s temples. How else are we to explain the temple-names u4-è-zu and u4-gim-zal-le, both translatable as “shining as the bright Daylight”? The Gates of Heaven If scholars have been sorely vexed in their attempt to make sense of the mountain that presided over the sunrise and sunset, they have fared little better when it comes to understanding the “gates” of heaven. Thus, a familiar scene on Akkadian cylinder seals depicts the sun-god as appearing between celestial gates or doors (see figure fourteen). Insofar as there are no visible landmarks in the immediate vicinity of the current Sun that would provide an objective reference for “gates/doors,” scholars have been inclined to view the solar “gates” as imaginary in nature. Witness the following disclaimer offered by Ward: “No class of cylinders better illustrates the poetic imagination of a primitive people than those which give us the representation of the Sun-god Shamash emerging from the gates of the morning and rising over the Eastern mountains.” ref

A famous passage in “The Gilgamesh Epic” places the solar gates in the immediate vicinity of the twin-peaked mountain of sunrise: “The name of the mountain, Maß[u is its name]. When he (Gilgamesh) arri[ved] at Mt. Maßu, which daily observes the risi[ng sun and setting sun], whose tops, the firmament, r[eaches], whose foundations below reach the underworld. Scorpion-men guard its gate, whose awesomeness is magnificent, whose gaze is death. Their fearsome sheen covers the mountain-range. At sunrise and sunset they observe the Sun.” A. Leo Oppenheim, in his commentary on this passage, emphasized the incongruity occasioned by the gate’s association with both sunrise and sunset: “The most elaborate description of the sun’s gate comes from the ninth tablet (ii 1-8) of the Gilgameß Epic. There, the sun is said to enter and leave heaven every day through a mountain called Maßu that reaches up to ßupuk ßame and down to the netherworld…The use of the same gate for the rising and setting of the sun is difficult to understand, especially because the gate is said to be at the head of a long tunnel.” ref

“The Saturn theory provides a ready answer to this age-old mystery: The two “gates/doors” of the sun-god are simply the two peaks of the mountain of sunrise, understood here as the crescent of Sin. Thus, as the ancient sun-god customarily appeared between the two peaks of the mountain of sunrise, so, too, was it wont to appear between two gates. The cylinder seal depicted in Figure fourteen captures this situation exactly: It shows the gates of the sun-god resting atop the two peaks of the mountain, as if the gates were merely extensions of the latter. Indeed, it is safe to say that from whichever vantage point one approaches the symbolism attached to the solar gates, the present solar system proves to be a very poor guide. Consider the following hymn in which the opening of the heavenly doors is related to the illumination of Sin: “Sin, as you become visible, you open the doors of heaven.” ref

“Now, here is a passage that will never find a rational explanation in the familiar solar system. That said, the passage in question offers a perfectly coherent description of the crescent’s functional role in the polar configuration: As Sin’s crescent descended to a recumbent position beneath the ancient sun, it grew brilliant, thereby signaling the opening of the doors/gates of heaven and the onset of “day.” The fact that Sin’s crescentine “gate” is elsewhere likened to a mountain is also relevant here. Witness the following proverb: “The gate of Suen is a mountain great.”136 While this proverb has no obvious logical rationale given the Moon’s current appearance or behavior, it is perfectly descriptive of the structural and functional relationship that formerly prevailed between Sin’s crescent, the twin-peaked mountain of sunrise, and the gate(s) of the ancient sun-god.” ref

On Bulls and Crescents

“In The Saturn Myth, Talbott presented evidence that the spectacular apparition presented by the crescent set upon the World Pillar provided the celestial prototype for the “Bull of Heaven.” The archaic Mesopotamian traditions offer a wealth of data from which to test this particular claim. The placement of Sin’s crescent atop a pillar-like standard is archaic in nature, being attested already on pictographic clay tablets recovered from Uruk IV strata (see figure ten). And Sin himself was invoked as the “bull of heaven” very early on as was documented earlier. Sin was not the only celestial body to be represented as a bull. The ancient sun-god was also assigned a bovine form.” ref

“Recall the passage quoted earlier: “The valiant Utu, the bull who stands secure, who proudly displays his power, the father of the great city, the place where the sun rises.” Another Sumerian text describes the sun-god as a “bright bull” in conjunction with his daily appearance from the base of heaven: “Bright bull, emerging from heaven’s base, bull, you…over the Ôasur (trees).”141 According to the reconstruction offered here, the sun-god was described as a “bright bull” precisely because it displayed luminous “horns” as it flared up each day.” ref

“The fact that the sun-god’s horns are expressly linked to the daily cycle offers additional support for the model defended here. Thus, one text makes reference to the “splendid horns like the sun coming forth from his sleeping chamber.” Now, here is a remarkable statement. The first anomaly to be noted is the obvious fact that the current sun does not typically display “horns” during its daily epiphany. The second anomaly is the explicit comparison drawn between the sun’s “horns” and the onset of “day.” Although this statement is meaningless with regard to the current Sun, it is perfectly descriptive of the daily cycle during the period dominated by the polar configuration. When Sin’s crescent descended to a position below the ancient sun-god it provided the visual basis for Utu’s “horns,” the illumination of which signaled the onset of “day.” ref

“Equally telling is the fact that the horns of a bull (or bulls) occasionally substituted for the twin-peaked mountain as the site of the sun-god’s epiphany, much as would be expected given Talbott’s polar model (see figure fifteen). Of such scenes in Mesopotamian art, Van Buren writes: “The Sun-god with rays stands as in the earlier representations, pressing down with a hand on each side, but here it is not upon mountains but on the heads of two recumbent bulls whose bodies merge into the other, for they are supposed to be lying back to back to support the rising Sun-god…Here, the bulls were substituted for the mountains, for they were themselves the embodiment of the mountains.” ref

“Why on earth bulls would form the “embodiment of the mountains” is left unanswered by van Buren. Yet, while this juxtaposition of imagery is absurd in the natural world, it makes perfect sense given the visual appearance of the polar configuration, wherein the crescent horns of the mountain of sunrise are synonymous with the luminous horns of the “Bull of Heaven.” It is for this reason that the “Bull of Heaven” is intimately linked to the mountain (or place) of sunrise, as witnessed by the following hymn: “The Bull of Heaven would have no food, at the horizon is its food! O maiden Inanna, it grazes where the sun rises.” The conceptualization of Sin’s crescent as a pair of bovine horns will explain much that is obscure about ancient symbolism.” ref

“Hence, we would understand why so-called “bullmen” support the sun disc in ancient Mesopotamian art, a role elsewhere associated with Sin’s standard. Sin’s singular appearance within the polar configuration will also explain why crescent horns were attached to ancient ziggurats, the latter representing terrestrial models of the World Mountain. A bailable to Sin captures the essence of the mythological imagery: “Shining calf…rampant wild bull, the ornament of the Ekur.” On Cosmic Geography and Confusion In order to understand the Sumerian literary references to the appearance and behavior of the most prominent celestial bodies, it is necessary to have a clear understanding of the basic structure of the Sumerian cosmos.” ref

“There is a wealth of evidence that the Sumerian cosmos was conceptualized as circular in nature. Thus, the extent cosmos was commonly denoted as kippat ßamê, “circle of heaven.” The Akkadian term kippat signifies “totality, circumference of heaven/earth,” and derives from kippatu, “hoop.” Piotr Steinkeller likewise emphasized the spherical nature of the Sumerian cosmos: “Babylonian ideas about cosmic geography were by no means monolithic, being subject to change and inconsistency even during specific phases of Mesopotamian history. However, a basic understanding of how the cosmos is organized appears to have survived unchanged throughout the entire span of the cuneiform civilization.” ref

“Most importantly, the universe was thought to be spherical.”150 An illustration might help the reader to visualize the various components of the Sumerian cosmos. Figure 16 depicts two complementary maps of the Sumerian cosmos. The first circle represents the totality of “heaven,” known as An. The lower part of heaven was known as an.úr (Akk. ißid ßamê), while the upper part was known as an.pa (Akk. elât ßamê). The middle or “heart” of heaven, as we have seen, was an.ßà (Akk. qereb ßamê). As Horowitz notes, the limits of the Sumerian cosmos are strictly defined by reference to this circle of An: “In many contexts, an.pa= elât ßamê is paired with an.ur= ißid ßamê, indicating that these two parts of the sky together comprise the visible heavens.” The second circle in Figure sixteen shows the exact same cosmic area, although here the upper region is called an, “heaven” (alternately an-gal) and the lower region ki, “earth” (or ki-gal). Together, these two regions comprise the Sumerian cosmos.” ref

“Now that we have before us a set of workable definitions—those generally agreed upon by the leading scholars in the field—it is possible to elucidate certain peculiar features of Sumerian cosmography that have hitherto proved intractable. We have already documented the fact that Sumerian descriptions of the ancient sun-god’s daily epiphany do not accord with astronomical reality insofar as they make the god come forth and set in the “midst” of heaven. But the fact is that virtually everything the Sumerian scribes said about the sun’s daily cycle contradicts the Sun’s current behavior. Witness the following passage from the Sumerian hymn “Inanna and Íukaletuda”: “He raised his eyes to the lower land. He sees the high gods of the land where the sun rises. He raised his eyes to the upper land. He sees the high gods of the land where the sun sets.”153 It will be noted that this passage poses profound problems for the conventional position, for in what sense can the familiar Sun be said to “set” in the uppermost portion of heaven?” ref

“The Saturn theory offers a ready solution to this problem: During the prehistoric period dominated by the polar configuration the “upper heaven” was the very region associated with the setting or “dimming” of the sun. Thus, as outlined earlier, the “setting” of the sun or “night” was signaled by the crescent reaching the uppermost position (an.pa) on its circumambulation around the ancient sun god. Properly understood, this peculiar report from “Inanna and Íukaletuda” constitutes decisive prima facie evidence in favor of a polar configuration as reconstructed by Talbott and myself. Should it be corroborated by testimony from some other distant culture, it has the chance to transform forever the conventional understanding of the solar system’s recent history. In fact, analogous reports will be found around the globe.” ref

“Thus, among the Indigenous cultures of South America, one meets with the following tradition: “The Surinamian Caribs or Kaliña conceived the sky as divided into two parts: an upper and a lower part, under, and retîrî. Kapu is the sky. The concept ‘east’ is rendered as kapu undi (lower or eastern side of the sky), ‘west’ as kapu retîrî (upper or western side of the sky).” It will be noticed that this is the very same situation presented by Sumerian cosmic geography: the phrase translated as “east” literally means “lower sky” while the phrase translated as “west” means “upper sky.” Much as the vestigial hind limbs of the whale provide compelling evidence of former structures and a long-lost world so, too, do the respective traditions of the Sumerians and Caribs testify to a “lost” solar system, one in which the ancient sun-god came to brilliance in the lower sky and faded in the uppermost portion of the sky.” ref

‘East and West Sumerian hymns, as we have seen, often describe the ancient sun-god as “rising” from the an.úr or “base of heaven.” Modern scholars, in their attempt to assimilate the Sumerian language to current astronomical reality, routinely translate an.úr as “East” and an.pa as “West,” thereby distorting their original meaning and astronomical context. In this, they are simply following the practice of the ancient scribes: “The Sumerian words corresponding, respectively, to elât and ißid ßamê are used in certain Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian royal inscriptions to refer to East and West: ‘from sunrise [AN.ÚR] to sunset [AN.PA] wherever the sun shines.”155 But there is a glaring contradiction here, overlooked entirely by Oppenheim and other commentators on Sumerian cosmography—namely, the fact that it is quite impossible for an.úr and an.pa to have originally signified the eastern or western horizons. Remember Oppenheim’s definitions, quoted above: the former phrase (an.úr) has reference to the lower portion or “base” of heaven, while the latter phrase has reference to the heaven’s uppermost portion. In the modern solar system, needless to say, the sun does not “set” or dim in the uppermost portion of heaven.” ref

‘So, in what sense could an.pa possibly have reference to the West or place of “sunset?” Here, as elsewhere, the ancient Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian scribes were presumably struggling to assimilate the archaic Sumerian terminology relating to the sun-god’s daily cycle to their own experience, completely oblivious to the fact that the celestial landscape and sun had changed radically in the meantime. Heaven and Earth A recurring epithet of the Sumerian sun-god describes him as “King of heaven and earth.” Indeed, in an early temple hymn Utu is said to “fill” heaven and earth. Analogous conceptions are common to Akkadian astral lore as well.” ref

“In addition to his role as “King of heaven and earth,” Shamash is also invoked as “Overseer of the Above and Below.” The following hymn is typical in this regard: “Íamaß, King of Heaven and Earth, Director (muß-te-ßir) of Above and Below.” Here, as elsewhere, it is obvious that the two phrases serve as complementary couplets, heaven and earth being placed in apposition to above and below (ellati and ßaplati respectively). But what does it mean that Shamash inhabits or rules heaven and earth? The answer to this question is surprisingly simple: The ancient sun-god shone forth from the “midst” of heaven, as defined in figure sixteen. Yet the radiant splendor of the sun-god extended to the very limits of the Sumerian cosmos, including both the “heaven” above (an) and the “earth” below (ki). The following hymn describes this situation exactly:” ref

“Utu, great lord, wild bull…great king of heaven (above) and earth below…(who) illumine [sic] with splendor heaven and earth, Utu, beacon showing forth out of the inner land (var. in the heart of).” If Utu is the “King of heaven and earth,” Venus is invoked as the “great Queen of heaven and earth” (un-gal-an-ki-a). Like the ancient sun-god, Venus is also described as illuminating heaven and earth. Recall again the passage from Iddin-Dagan’s marriage hymn, quoted earlier: “I shall greet the holy torch who fills the heavens, the light, Inana, her who shines like the daylight…the respected one who fills heaven and earth with her huge brilliance.” Iddin-Dagan’s hymn is not describing Inanna/Venus in a figurative fashion, as if the bright planet merely shines “like” the daylight.” ref

“Rather, the point of reference is a spectacular apparition in the sky wherein the radiance of Venus actually filled heaven—understood here quite literally as the cosmic region spanning from heaven (an) to earth (ki). The outstanding size of Venus is a point of emphasis throughout the Sumerian literary hymns, although you would never know it from the translations offered by leading Sumerologists. As a case in point, consider the following passage from “An adab for Inana”: “Grandiloquent Inana, you have no rival in heaven or on earth…Inana, lady of heaven and of the broad earth, powerful…, who radiates…, who is diffused wide over heaven and earth.” In this passage, the adjective ma!, signifying “large, great,” is translated by the baroque and utterly misleading “grandiloquent.” ref

The phrase translated as “diffused wide over heaven and earth” is Sumerian idim-ta e3-a an uraß-a dagal bur2, wherein dagal attests to the vast extent of Venus’s radiance. The verb bur2, meaning “to loosen, to spread out,” underscores the fact that Venus’s “radiance” or form is outspread across heaven and earth. That said, what does it mean that Venus is “diffused wide over heaven and earth”? A similar passage can be found in a prayer to Inanna/Venus from the Old Babylonian period. Thus, Hammurabi invokes the planet-goddess in the following terms: “nam-ma!- zu an-ki-se3 dalla e3-a, “(Inanna), your greatness shines forth to heaven and earth.” ref

“According to Hermann Behrens, the phrase nam-ma! has reference to the high rank of Inanna/Venus within the Babylonian pantheon: “nam-ma!, ‘Erhabenheit’ ist der hohe Rang Inannas angesprochen.” Yet Inanna’s high rank has little to do with such terminology. Rather, as is evident from the passage quoted from the adab to Inanna above, the original point of reference is Venus’s massive size and spectacularly expansive brilliance, radiating from heaven to earth; i.e., throughout the entire cosmos as commonly understood by the ancient Sumerians. In this sense the translation of J. Black et al is equally misleading: “Your greatness shines forth to heaven and earth.” Most telling, perhaps, is a passage from the hymn “Inanna and Ebih” that describes Venus as rivaling heaven and earth: “My lady, on your acquiring the stature of heaven, maiden Inana, on your becoming as magnificent as the earth, on your coming forth like Utu the king and stretching your arms wide, on your walking in heaven and wearing fearsome terror, on your wearing daylight and brilliance on earth…” ref

“The passage translated “My lady, on your acquiring the status of heaven” is “nin-gu10 angin7 bulug3-ga2-za,” wherein bulug3 is a verb signifying “to grow; to flourish; to grow big; to make grow.” The original sense of this passage is that Inanna/Venus “grows” as big as heaven (An). This reading is confirmed by the following line, wherein Inanna/Venus is invoked in a similar fashion: “On your becoming as magnificent as the earth,” wherein ma!, literally large, is translated as “magnificent.” Properly understood, such language has nothing to do with figures of speech, as per the translations of Black et al and the vast majority of Sumerologists.” ref

“Rather, such language should be viewed as essentially realistic and concrete in nature: Venus’s massive size was being compared to heaven and earth itself (i.e., the circle of An as depicted in figure sixteen). “The Exaltation of Inanna” invokes the planet-goddess as follows: “Be it known that you are as lofty as the heavens! Be it known that you are broad as the earth.” Is this mere hyperbole, or a realistic description of a towering planet whose awe-inspiring splendor spanned the full range of the Sumerian cosmos, as depicted in figure seventeen? An old Babylonian hymn from the time of King Lipit places the following words in Inanna’s mouth: “Heaven has he [Enlil] set on my head as a crown, Earth has he placed on my feet as sandals.” ref

‘Such imagery makes perfect sense by reference to the cosmos depicted in figure seventeen, wherein Venus occupies the “heart” of heaven with an (heaven) overhead and ki (earth) below. The key to understanding such language is the conjunction of planets involved in the polar configuration. In addition to shining from the same sector of the sky as the “sun”— the “midst” of heaven—Venus shared much the same “light” as Utu. As the ancient sun-god flared up during the daily cycle so, too, did Venus. Hence we would explain Venus’s intimate but otherwise inexplicable association with “day” and “daylight” attested in various Sumerian hymns. Indeed, on more than one occasion, Venus’s light is described by the epithet U4, the very sign elsewhere transcribed as UD and signifying “sun” or “day.” ref

“This is the case in “A Hymn to Inana as Ninegala,” for example, wherein the expression U4-gal is translated “great light” by Jeremy Black. Iddin-Dagan’s marriage hymn employs the same epithet to describe the planet-goddess as she “fills” the sky: “In the sky at dusk the brilliant star, great brightness which fills the transparent sky.” Properly understood, such language has nothing whatsoever to do with metaphor or poetic license. On the contrary, it accurately describes the star-like Venus, a planet the likes of which has not been seen for millennia and is almost impossible to imagine nowadays. As a primary component in the polar configuration, the planet Venus played a fundamental role in the spectacular fireworks associated with the ancient “day.” As the recumbent crescent adorning the disc of Utu flared up so, too, did the heaven-spanning rays of the star-planet Venus.” ref

Venus and the Four Corners

“A prominent concept in Sumerian cosmic geography was that of the four quarters of heaven. Indeed, the phrase came to denote the Sumerian cosmos itself and thus parallels the phrase an-ki. The planet Venus is mentioned in connection with the four corners of heaven on more than one occasion. Witness the following Sumerian hymn: “Queen whose grandeur dominates the kur, who bears herself like An, is decked with splendor like Enlil, who, like her father, adorns the day and the night. Like Utu she leads in front with her glorious nature, who is unique because of her majesty in the four corners of the universe.” The phrase translated as four corners is ub-an-na.” ref

“The reference is clearly to some specific region of heaven, one intimately associated with the planet Venus. Thus, in the hymn in-nin ßà-gur4-ra Inanna’s torch is said to shine from the ub-an-na: “Your divinity shines in the pure heavens like Nanna and Utu. Your torch lights up the corners of heaven, turning darkness into light…” The planet Venus is also associated with the “corner” of heaven in “The Duties and Powers of the Gods.” There, the planet is described as follows: “to make her (Venus) burn from ‘Heaven’s Corner’ through the entire atmosphere (?).” How, then, are we to understand the phrase “four corners” of the universe from an astronomical standpoint? What does it mean that Inanna’s “torch” illuminates the four quarters” ref

“In the modern skies, the phrase has no obvious reference, and thus, it must be explained away as yet another example of the Mesopotamians’ preference for figurative language. From the vantage point of the polar configuration, however, the phrase receives an obvious and perfectly logical explanation. Consider the image in figure eighteen: Here, the disc of Utu/Shamash is seemingly divided into four sections by radiating streamers emanating from a central orb. The central orb, according to the reconstruction offered here, is to be identified with the planet Venus. It is our opinion that this cylinder seal accurately depicts a particular phase in the polar configuration’s history” ref

‘Terrestrial skywatchers interpreted the four radiating forms emanating from Venus as the “four corners” of heaven, four directions, or four winds, among other things. Statements to the effect that Venus’s torch “flamed heaven’s four quarters” thus testify to that planet’s intimate association with the “midst” of heaven, for it was from there that the four streamers radiated outward, illuminating and quartering the Sumerian cosmos (to be understood literally as the region spanning from An to Ki).” ref

“In the present monograph, we have documented the fact that Sumerian literary descriptions of the most prominent celestial bodies often fail to accord with modern astronomical knowledge. It has also been established that leading scholars readily confess their inability to explain the astronomical imagery involved. There is a simple reason for the confusion that currently distinguishes the study of Sumerian cosmic geography: The sky was radically different in order and appearance in relatively recent times, and therefore it follows that all attempts to interpret the ancient literary imagery by reference to the familiar celestial landscape are bound to fail. The theory developed here offers a perfectly logical and straightforward interpretation of the Sumerian literary descriptions of Utu, Sin, and Inanna/Venus.” ref

“This “literalist” position stands in dramatic contrast to that of mainstream scholarship, which must resort to “metaphor” and other literary devices in an attempt to explain Sumerian hymns. In reality, most modern “translations” of the Sumerian hymns describing the astral gods represent a strained attempt to explain away the unequivocal testimony of the ancient skywatchers. In their attempt to force-fit the ancient language to the familiar sky, modern scholars have made a mishmash of the Sumerian texts with the result that the true order of the solar system at the dawn of history has been distorted and thus largely obscured. Our hypothetical reconstruction of the Sumerian cosmos has the additional advantage that it is supplemented and complemented at virtually every step by the testimony of ancient art. Thus, we have seen that literary references to Venus standing within Sin or standing together with Sin and Utu find exact parallels in scenes depicted on ancient cylinder seals—this despite the fact that Venus can never attain such positions in the current skies. This striking correspondence between Mesopotamian literature and art cannot be a mere coincidence. Properly understood, the evidence of Mesopotamian literature and art testifies to a radical reordering of the solar system in relatively recent times.” ref