Sumerian creation myth

The earliest record of a Sumerian creation myth, called The Eridu Genesis by historian Thorkild Jacobsen,[1] is found on a single fragmentary tablet excavated in Nippur by the Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania in 1893, and first recognized by Arno Poebel in 1912. It is written in the Sumerian language and dated to around 1600 BCE.[1] Other Sumerian creation myths from around this date are called the Barton Cylinder, the Debate between sheep and grain and the Debate between Winter and Summer, also found at Nippur.[2]

The beginning of the tablet is lost, but the surviving portion begins by recounting how the gods An, Enlil, Enki, and Ninhursanga created the Sumerians and comfortable conditions for the animals to live and procreate. Kingship then descends from heaven, and the first cities are founded: Eridu, Bad-tibira, Larak, Sippar, and Shuruppak.

After a missing section, we learn that the gods have decided not to save mankind from an impending flood. Zi-ud-sura, the king and gudug priest, learns of this. In the later Akkadian version recorded in the Atra-Hasis Epic, Ea (Sumerian Enki), the god of the waters, warns the hero (Akkadian Atrahasis) and gives him instructions for building an ark. This is missing in the Sumerian fragment, but a mention of Enki taking counsel with himself suggests similar instructions in the Sumerian version.

Flood myth

Before the missing section, the gods have decided to send a flood to destroy mankind. Enki, god of the underworld sea of fresh water and equivalent of Babylonian Ea, warns Ziusudra, the ruler of Shuruppak, to build a large boat, though the directions for the boat are also lost.

When the tablet resumes, it describes the flood. A terrible storm rages for seven days and nights. "The huge boat had been tossed about on the great waters." Then Utu (Sun) appears and Ziusudra opens a window, prostrates himself, and sacrifices an ox and a sheep.

After another break, the text resumes with the flood apparently over, and Ziusudra prostrating himself before An (Sky) and Enlil (Lordbreath), who give him "breath eternal" for "preserving the animals and the seed of mankind". The remainder is lost.[3]

The Epic of Ziusudra adds an element at lines 258–261 not found in other versions, that after the river flood[4] "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 up-stream to Kish).[5] 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".

Some modern scholars believe the Sumerian deluge story corresponds to localized river flooding at Shuruppak (modern Tell Fara, Iraq) and various other cities as far north as Kish, as revealed by a layer of riverine sediments, radiocarbon dated to c. 2900 BCE, which interrupt the continuity of settlement. Polychrome pottery from the Jemdet Nasr period (c. 3000–2900 BCE) was discovered immediately below this Shuruppak flood stratum. None of the predynastic antediluvian rulers have been verified as historical by archaeological excavations, epigraphical inscriptions or otherwise, but the Sumerians purported them to have lived in the mythical era before the great deluge.[6]

A Sumerian document known as the Instructions of Shuruppak, dated by Kramer to about 2600 BCE, refers in a later version to Ziusudra. Kramer stated Ziusudra had become a "venerable figure in literary tradition" by the 3rd millennium BCE.[7]

Legacy

Other flood myths with many similarities to the Sumerian story are the story of the Dravida king Manu in the Matsya Purana, the Utnapishtim episode in the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Genesis flood narrative in the Bible. The ancient Greeks and Romans had two similar myths from a later date: the Deucalion story and Zeus' world flood in Book I of Ovid's Metamorphoses.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumerian_creation_myth

Epic of Gilgamesh

The Epic of Gilgamesh (/ˈɡɪlɡəmɛʃ/)[2] is an epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia, regarded as the earliest surviving notable literature and the second oldest religious text, after the Pyramid Texts. The literary history of Gilgamesh begins with five Sumerian poems about Bilgamesh (Sumerian for "Gilgamesh"), king of Uruk, dating from the Third Dynasty of Ur (c. 2100 BCE).[1] These independent stories were later used as source material for a combined epic in Akkadian. The first surviving version of this combined epic, known as the "Old Babylonian" version dates to the 18th century BCE and is titled after its incipit, Shūtur eli sharrī ("Surpassing All Other Kings"). Only a few tablets of it have survived. The later Standard Babylonian version compiled by Sîn-lēqi-unninni dates from the 13th to the 10th centuries BCE and bears the incipit Sha naqba īmuru[a] ("He who Saw the Abyss", in modern terms: "He who Sees the Unknown"). Approximately two-thirds of this longer, twelve-tablet version have been recovered. Some of the best copies were discovered in the library ruins of the 7th-century BC Assyrian king Ashurbanipal.

The first half of the story discusses Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, and Enkidu, a wild man created by the gods to stop Gilgamesh from oppressing the people of Uruk. After Enkidu becomes civilized through sexual initiation with a prostitute, he travels to Uruk, where he challenges Gilgamesh to a test of strength. Gilgamesh wins the contest; nonetheless, the two become friends. Together, they make a six-day journey to the legendary Cedar Forest, where they plan to slay the Guardian, Humbaba the Terrible, and cut down the sacred Cedar.[3] The goddess Ishtar sends the Bull of Heaven to punish Gilgamesh for spurning her advances. Gilgamesh and Enkidu kill the Bull of Heaven after which the gods decide to sentence Enkidu to death and kill him.

In the second half of the epic, distress over Enkidu's death causes Gilgamesh to undertake a long and perilous journey to discover the secret of eternal life. He eventually learns that "Life, which you look for, you will never find. For when the gods created man, they let death be his share, and life withheld in their own hands".[4][5] Nevertheless, because of his great building projects, his account of Siduri's advice, and what the immortal man Utnapishtim told him about the Great Flood, Gilgamesh's fame survived well after his death with expanding interest in the Gilgamesh story which has been translated into many languages and is featured in works of popular fiction.

Distinct sources exist from over a 2000-year timeframe. The earliest Sumerian poems are now generally considered to be distinct stories, rather than parts of a single epic.[6] They date from as early as the Third Dynasty of Ur (c. 2100 BC).[7] The Old Babylonian tablets (c. 1800 BC),[6] are the earliest surviving tablets for a single Epic of Gilgamesh narrative.[8] The older Old Babylonian tablets and later Akkadian version are important sources for modern translations, with the earlier texts mainly used to fill in gaps (lacunae) in the later texts. Although several revised versions based on new discoveries have been published, the epic remains incomplete.[9] Analysis of the Old Babylonian text has been used to reconstruct possible earlier forms of the epic.[10] The most recent Akkadian version, also referred to as the Standard Babylonian version, consists of twelve tablets and was edited by Sîn-lēqi-unninni,[11] who is thought to have lived sometime between 1300 BC and 1000 BC.[12]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_of_Gilgamesh

>>13587183

Some 15,000 fragments of Assyrian cuneiform tablets were discovered in the Library of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh by Austen Henry Layard, his assistant Hormuzd Rassam, and W. K. Loftus in the early 1850s.[14] Late in the following decade, the British Museum hired George Smith to study these; in 1872, Smith read translated fragments before the Society of Biblical Archaeology,[15] and in 1875 and 1876 he published fuller translations,[16] the latter of which was published as The Chaldaean Account of Genesis.[14] The central character of Gilgamesh was initially reintroduced to the world as "Izdubar", before the cuneiform logographs in his name could be pronounced accurately.[14] In 1891, Paul Haupt collected the cuneiform text, and nine years later, Peter Jensen provided a comprehensive edition; R. Campbell Thompson updated both of their work in 1930. Over the next two decades, Samuel Noah Kramer reassembled the Sumerian poems.[16]

In 1998, American Assyriologist Theodore Kwasman discovered a piece believed to have contained the first lines of the epic in the storeroom of the British Museum, the fragment, found in 1878 and dated to between 600 BC and 100 BC, had remained unexamined by experts for more than a century since its recovery.[17] The fragment read "He who saw all, who was the foundation of the land, who knew (everything), was wise in all matters: Gilgamesh."[18] The discovery of artifacts (c. 2600 BC) associated with Enmebaragesi of Kish, mentioned in the legends as the father of one of Gilgamesh's adversaries, has lent credibility to the historical existence of Gilgamesh.[19]

Relationship to the Bible

Further information: Panbabylonism

Various themes, plot elements, and characters in the Hebrew Bible correlate with the Epic of Gilgamesh – notably, the accounts of the Garden of Eden, the advice from Ecclesiastes, and the Genesis flood narrative.

Garden of Eden

The parallels between the stories of Enkidu/Shamhat and Adam/Eve have been long recognized by scholars.[39][40] In both, a man is created from the soil by a god, and lives in a natural setting amongst the animals. He is introduced to a woman who tempts him. In both stories the man accepts food from the woman, covers his nakedness, and must leave his former realm, unable to return. The presence of a snake that steals a plant of immortality from the hero later in the epic is another point of similarity.

Advice from Ecclesiastes

Several scholars suggest direct borrowing of Siduri's advice by the author of Ecclesiastes.[41]

A rare proverb about the strength of a triple-stranded rope, "a triple-stranded rope is not easily broken", is common to both books.[citation needed]

Noah's flood

Andrew George submits that the Genesis flood narrative matches that in Gilgamesh so closely that "few doubt" that it derives from a Mesopotamian account.[42] What is particularly noticeable is the way the Genesis flood story follows the Gilgamesh flood tale "point by point and in the same order", even when the story permits other alternatives.[43] In a 2001 Torah commentary released on behalf of the Conservative Movement of Judaism, rabbinic scholar Robert Wexler stated: "The most likely assumption we can make is that both Genesis and Gilgamesh drew their material from a common tradition about the flood that existed in Mesopotamia. These stories then diverged in the retelling."[44] Ziusudra, Utnapishtim and Noah are the respective heroes of the Sumerian, Akkadian and biblical flood legends of the ancient Near East.

Additional biblical parallels

Matthias Henze suggests that Nebuchadnezzar's madness in the biblical Book of Daniel draws on the Epic of Gilgamesh. He claims that the author uses elements from the description of Enkidu to paint a sarcastic and mocking portrait of the king of Babylon.[45]

Many characters in the Epic have mythical biblical parallels, most notably Ninti, the Sumerian goddess of life, was created from Enki's rib to heal him after he had eaten forbidden flowers. It is suggested that this story served as the basis for the story of Eve created from Adam's rib in the Book of Genesis.[46] Esther J. Hamori, in Echoes of Gilgamesh in the Jacob Story, also claims that the myth of Jacob and Esau is paralleled with the wrestling match between Gilgamesh and Enkidu.[47]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_of_Gilgamesh

Sumerian literature constitutes the earliest known corpus of recorded literature, including the religious writings and other traditional stories maintained by the Sumerian civilization and largely preserved by the later Akkadian and Babylonian empires. These records were written in the Sumerian language during the Middle Bronze Age.

The Sumerians invented one of the first writing systems, developing Sumerian cuneiform writing out of earlier proto-writing systems by about the 30th century BC. The Sumerian language remained in official and literary use in the Akkadian and Babylonian empires, even after the spoken language disappeared from the population; literacy was widespread, and the Sumerian texts that students copied heavily influenced later Babylonian literature.

Most Sumerian literature is written in left-justified lines,[1] and could contain line-based organization such as the couplet or the stanza,[2] but the Sumerian definition of poetry is unknown. It is not rhymed,[3][4] although “comparable effects were sometimes exploited.”[5] It did not use syllabo-tonic versification,[6] and the writing system precludes detection of rhythm, metre, rhyme,[7][8] or alliteration.[9] Quantitative analysis of other possible poetic features seems to be lacking, or has been intentionally hidden by the scribes who recorded the writing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumerian_literature

Sexagesimal, also known as base 60 or sexagenary,[1] is a numeral system with sixty as its base. It originated with the ancient Sumerians in the 3rd millennium BC, was passed down to the ancient Babylonians, and is still used—in a modified form—for measuring time, angles, and geographic coordinates.

The number 60, a superior highly composite number, has twelve factors, namely 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, 30, and 60, of which 2, 3, and 5 are prime numbers. With so many factors, many fractions involving sexagesimal numbers are simplified. For example, one hour can be divided evenly into sections of 30 minutes, 20 minutes, 15 minutes, 12 minutes, 10 minutes, 6 minutes, 5 minutes, 4 minutes, 3 minutes, 2 minutes, and 1 minute. 60 is the smallest number that is divisible by every number from 1 to 6; that is, it is the lowest common multiple of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

In this article, all sexagesimal digits are represented as decimal numbers, except where otherwise noted. For example, 10 means the number ten and 60 means the number sixty.

Modern usage

Further information: Degree (angle) § Subdivisions, Arcminute, Arcsecond, Hour, Minute, and Second

Modern uses for the sexagesimal system include measuring angles, geographic coordinates, electronic navigation, and time.[16]

One hour of time is divided into 60 minutes, and one minute is divided into 60 seconds. Thus, a measurement of time such as 3:23:17 (3 hours, 23 minutes, and 17 seconds) can be interpreted as a whole sexagesimal number (no sexagesimal point), meaning 3 × 602 + 23 × 601 + 17 × 600 seconds. However, each of the three sexagesimal digits in this number (3, 23, and 17) is written using the decimal system.

Similarly, the practical unit of angular measure is the degree, of which there are 360 (six sixties) in a circle. There are 60 minutes of arc in a degree, and 60 arcseconds in a minute.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexagesimal

>>13587196

>>13587185

>>13587177

>>13587183

For the sake of convenience, let us simply ignore what appears to be one of the earliest Mythos on earth and pick up some where in the middle.

Pick a point in time, any point because who really cares about the truth?

I just want to believe whatever I want to believe and for whatever reason I want to believe it.

Yet otherwise I am a deep digger hard core investigator who really wants to get to the bottom of things.

I care so much about what other people believe that I am willing to sit back and watch them fall into the same trap repeatedly.

I call it Love and don't you dare tell me that this is not Love.

I Care so much.

>>13587216

Pretend to be ANON moar!

>>13587221

Who whined first?

Q DROP 3925

Q !!Hs1Jq13jV6 ID: 110248 No.8736051 📁

Apr 9 2020 14:21:27 (EST)

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1208873492025925632📁

Do people really believe the biggest scandal in modern US history will go unpunished [Scot-Free]?

Backchannels are important.

Patriots stand at the ready [shills whine].

Q

>>13587233

Do you know why the deep state cannot break this ANON?

Because this anon is BROKEN!

Phil is a complete badass.

Anon doesn't hang with Pussies!

Anon has no idea why Anon is here!

PUSSIES!

kek

>>13587251

You don't know WTF you are talking about, Pussy!

Go quote some Bible or some other shit that you don't know what the fuck you are talking about!

Crazy Horse, Sioux name Ta-sunko-witko, (born 1842?, near present-day Rapid City, South Dakota, U.S.—died September 5, 1877, Fort Robinson, Nebraska), a chief of the Oglala band of Lakota (Teton or Western Sioux) who was an able tactician and a determined warrior in the Sioux resistance to European Americans’ invasion of the northern Great Plains.

As early as 1865 Crazy Horse was a leader in his people’s defiance of U.S. plans to construct a road to the goldfields in Montana. He participated in the massacre of Captain William J. Fetterman and his troop of 80 men (December 21, 1866) as well as in the Wagon Box fight (August 2, 1867), both near Fort Phil Kearny, in Wyoming Territory. Refusing to honour the reservation provisions of the Second Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868), Crazy Horse led his followers to unceded buffalo country, where they continued to hunt, fish, and wage war against enemy tribes as well as whites.

When gold was discovered in the Black Hills, Dakota Territory, in 1874, prospectors disregarded Sioux treaty rights and swarmed onto the Native American reservation there. General George Crook thereupon set out to force Crazy Horse from his winter encampments on the Tongue and Powder rivers in Montana Territory, but the chief simply retreated deeper into the hills. Joining Cheyenne forces, he took part in a surprise attack on Crook in the Rosebud valley (June 17, 1876), in southern Montana, forcing Crook’s withdrawal.

Crazy Horse then moved north to unite with the main Sioux encampment of Chief Sitting Bull on the banks of the Little Bighorn River, where he helped annihilate a battalion of U.S. soldiers under Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer (June 25, 1876). Crazy Horse and his followers then returned to the hill country to resume their old ways. He was pursued by Colonel Nelson A. Miles in a stepped-up army campaign to force all Native Americans to come to the government agencies. His tribe weakened by cold and hunger, Crazy Horse finally surrendered to General Crook at the Red Cloud Agency in Nebraska on May 6, 1877. Confined to Fort Robinson, he was killed in a scuffle with soldiers who were trying to imprison him in a guardhouse.

Ta-sunko-witko was a great man.

Let's all lie to ourselves and if enough people believe we can call it the Truth!

We can put it all in a book that people will read and believe without question.

It will make them feel warm and fuzzy which is all that really matters.

Warm and Sticky!

>>13587309

Q DROP #997

Pope will have a Terrible May

Q !xowAT4Z3VQ 3 Apr 2018 - 8:45:50 PM

Anonymous

3 Apr 2018 - 8:43:05 PM

>>884736

P = pope?

>>884748

[Pope] will be having a terrible May.

Those who backed him will be pushed into the LIGHT>

Dark to LIGHT.

TRUTH.

Q

FUN FACTS:In a recent Poll. 70% of American Catholics thought Favorably of Pope Francis

The Moar you know!

Dig

Bury me

Underneath

Everything that I am

Rearranging

Dig

Bury me

Underneath

Everything that I was

Slowly changing

I would like to beat the face

Of any motherfucker that's thinking they can change me

White knuckles grip pushing through for the gold

If you want a piece of me I broke the motherfucking mold

I'm drowning

In your wake

Shit rubbed

In my face

Teething

On concrete

Gums bleeding

Dig

Bury me

Underneath

Everything that I am

Rearranging

Dig

Bury me

Underneath

Everything that I was

Slowly changing

I struggle in violated space

Sell out motherfuckers in the biz that try to fuck me

Hang from their T's rated P.G. insight

I ain't selling my soul when there's nothing to buy

I'm livid

In my space

Pissing

In my face

Fuck you

While you try

To fuck me

Dig

Bury me

Underneath

Everything that I am

Rearranging

Dig

Bury me

Underneath

Everything that I was

You ain't fuckin' changing me

Dig

Dig

Dig

Dig

C'mon motherfucker dig

C'mon motherfucker dig

C'mon motherfucker dig

Let me help you tie the rope around your neck

Let me help to talk you the wrong way off the ledge

Let me help you hold the glock against your head

Let me help you tie the rope around your neck

Let me help to talk you the wrong way off the ledge

Let me help you hold the glock against your head

Let me help you chain the weights onto your legs

Get on the plank fuck!

Dig

Bury me

Underneath

Everything that I am

Rearranging

Dig

Bury me

Underneath

Everything that I was

Slowly changing

Wish you were committing

Suicide

Sucking on a motherfucking tailpipe

Dead man walking on a tight rope

Limbless in the middle of a channel

Bombs away

>>13587336

At least she tried…

>>13587344

"The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion."

Albert Camus

>>13587357

How the US stole thousands of Native American children

2,796,653 views•Oct 14, 2019

Vox

9.51M subscribers

The long and brutal history of the US trying to “kill the Indian and save the man”.

Toward the end of the 19th century, the US took thousands of Native American children and enrolled them in off-reservation boarding schools, stripping them of their cultures and languages. Yet decades later as the US phased out the schools, following years of indigenous activism, it found a new way to assimilate Native American children: promoting their adoption into white families. Watch the episode to find out how these two distinct eras in US history have had lasting impacts on Native American families.

In the Vox series Missing Chapter, Vox Senior Producer Ranjani Chakraborty revisits underreported and often overlooked moments from the past to give context to the present. Join her as she covers the histories that are often left out of our textbooks. Our first season tackles stories of racial injustice, political conflicts, even the hidden history of US medical experimentation.

https://youtu.be/UGqWRyBCHhw

>>13587370

How the US poisoned Navajo Nation

866,703 views•Oct 12, 2020

Vox

9.51M subscribers

The biggest radioactive spill in US history.

As World War Two was ending, the growing nuclear arms race put the US in need of uranium. It turned to Navajo Nation, where the uranium mining industry thrived for four decades – but left disease, pollution and the biggest radioactive spill in US history.

That spill in Church Rock, New Mexico upended the lives of nearby residents, who had to grapple with toxic water, livestock and a lifetime of illnesses. Now, they are still waiting for it to be cleaned up.

https://youtu.be/ETPogv1zq08

>>13587381

Native American Boarding Schools

246,317 views•Jan 8, 2019

Indigenous Americans

14.6K subscribers

A moving and insightful look into the history, operation, and legacy of the federal Indian Boarding School system, whose goal was total assimilation of Native Americans at the cost of stripping away Native culture, tradition, and language. #NativeAmerican​ #Indigenous​ #IndianBoardingSchools

https://youtu.be/Yo1bYj-R7F0

Saint Kateri and Native American Catholics

10,213 views•Nov 16, 2015

Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly

21.1K subscribers

November is Native American Heritage Month. An estimated 25 percent of Native Americans are Catholic, but there are also longstanding tensions between the Catholic Church and some indigenous tribes. Early missionary efforts were often tied to colonization and its devastating effects on native cultures. For some Native Americans, their complicated relationship with the Catholic Church is symbolized in its first Native American saint, Kateri Tekakwitha. Managing editor Kim Lawton visits the annual Tekakwitha Conference to ask Native Americans what Saint Kateri's legacy means to them.

>>13587401

Do you lie to yourself and others for money or for free?

>>13587406

and P = Paysuer?

>>13587411

The "gods" came there in the spaceships and shit but lets not talk about that SHIT!

>>13587414

Let's pretend instead!

>>13587418

Let's pretend we know some shit, want to?!

>>13587426

And apparently neither does yours!

kek

>>13587432

Maybe pray to Saint kiddie fucker for guidance?