Sumerian gods were in a complex and clear hierarchy. The listing of all the gods of the Sumerians will take several pages, because the Akkadian, Babylonian and Assyrian gods were later added to the original Sumerian version, and as a result, a considerable “catalog” is formed, which has at least two hundred deities, so we will focus on the most significant. The main “governing body” was the Council of the Great Gods, all of them were related to each other and had clear, shared rights and duties. This Council consisted of 50 gods, and as the ancient Sumerians claimed, it was they who took the main part in people's lives. The first gods of the Sumerians were An (created the heavens) and Ki (created the earth). Ahn had an honorary position in the Council, but he did not interfere much in the management of the world. This role was assumed by Enlil and a group of worthy gods. But they did not have full power, Enlil and his "team" obeyed the seven main gods, who "created fate."

Main Sumerian gods had their advisers and made decisions together with them.
An is the supreme god, he leads the Great Council of the gods, but he does it almost silently. His advice is always helpful, but he does not take an active part in the meeting. His duties include keeping the mysterious "ME", which he transmits to all the main elements and forces of nature.

Enlil - the lord of wind and air, comes after the supreme An in the hierarchy. He approves the rulers to reign, and is also the ruler of distant countries. In the early versions of the Sumerian religion, this deity was opposed to man, tried to drive him out of new, still uninhabited lands. In later versions, Enlil had the duties of the guardian of royal power and controller for the conscientious performance of rituals, festivities and ceremonies by people. It was Enlil who was the instigator of the global flood, because. believed that there were too many people and they were out of control.

Enki is the keeper of fresh water, the opposite of Enlil. He created people and became their patron. In later versions of the Sumerian religion, he would become the god of education and schools for scribes. He is always purposeful, at any cost he wants to change the established laws of being, in his aspirations Enki can go against other gods. He loved humanity, tried to share his knowledge and secrets with him. It is Enki who secretly saves a family of worthy people from the flood (the prototype of Noah and his family). For his rebellious nature and attitude towards people as their children, Enki was disliked by other supreme gods.

Dumuzi is the god of the beginning of natural processes and the patron of pastoralists. They prayed to him with a request to increase the number of livestock. Dumuzi was the husband of Inanna, and their marriage took place every spring. It was believed that the Sumerian god goes to the underworld during the summer solstice, he leaves his fertile energy on the surface.
Inanna - the goddess of love, intelligence and the patroness of warriors, personifies the planet Venus, she has strong feelings and emotions. Her duties do not include protecting the process of conception and the birth of a new life, Inanna focuses on the very passion that arises between a man and a woman. It was believed that Inanna does not create or protect anything from the material world, she was primarily responsible for feelings and subtle processes in the spiritual world.

There were also other important Sumerian gods, for example, Ninmah, Ninhursag, they were responsible for the connection of the born world with the mother progenitor. But these deities did not have any bright characters or actions, each of them humbly performed its function, so we will not focus on them.
There was also the so-called "second echelon" of the Sumerian gods. These included the moon goddess Nanna, the sun god Utu, and the god of industriousness Ninurta, it is he who has the greatest individuality and expressiveness among other gods. In addition to being the god of labor, Ninurta is also a skilled warrior who will boldly defend his land if necessary. He is full of energy and life, constantly in labor activity. This deity represented the attachment of the ancient Sumerians to their land, and if an enemy comes, they will fiercely defend it. Later, Ninurta was also revered as the god of thunder.
The “evolution” of the goddess Nisba is also curious, initially she personified barley, which was used for sacrifices, then she became the patroness of calculations and counting, and at the end of Sumerian history she was transformed into the goddess of learning, school and writing.

Little information has also been preserved about demonology in ancient Sumer. There were three kinds of spirits: ancestral spirits, protective spirits and evil spirits.
As mentioned above, the gods of the Sumerians were in a clear hierarchy. The creator gods were considered the highest, then the god of the moon and the god of the sun, then the mother goddesses and gods of war. It is curious that the creator gods always took the floor in the Great Council under one name (if you do not take into account the numerous epithets). The rest of the deities had two or more names.
Each city-state in Sumer revered certain gods. In the city of Uruk, An and Inanna were revered, and a special temple was built for them (“House of Heaven”). Dumuzi settled in Lagash. Enlil reigned in Nippur, the most important city of the ancient Sumerians, where all the gods lived and was the place of the Great Assemblies. Enlil himself was not depicted in any way, because. was the god of the air. Enki was the ruler of Eridu, due to the fact that the city was located on the Persian Gulf, this god was often depicted as a fish. Nanna reigned in the city of Ur, he was depicted as a ruler sitting in a heavenly boat. The god Utu ruled the cities of Larsa and Sippar, he was depicted as a young man with a dagger, who separates the mountains from behind which he appears. Nergal, king of the underworld, was the patron of the city of Kutu. The rest, insignificant deities, were not depicted in any way.
Almost nothing is known to us about family ties. The god could enter into different relationships with other deities in different cities. These ties were largely influenced by the political and ideological situation in Sumer itself. In later history, many Sumerian deities merged with Akkadian ones. For example, Inanna became Ishtar; Ishkur became Adad and Enki became Ea.

In 3 thousand BC. The pantheon of the Sumerian gods has undergone great changes. Enlil became the head of the Great Assembly, followed by An and Enki, then there were 9 Anunnaki - Inanna, Nergal, Utu and other minor gods, followed by about two hundred different gods.
All Sumerian cities had their patron gods, they had families and servants, also of divine origin, i.e. the Sumerian pantheon of gods became very large.
In the late period of the history of Sumer, the gods finally "merged" with the Akkadian and Semitic. Each god received a genealogy, and the kings of the city of Ur, whose dynasty ruled at that time in Sumer, also began to be “recorded” as deities.
In the beliefs of the ancient Sumerians, the mysterious "ME" played a key role. It is believed that these are the foundations of all life, which radiate deities and sanctuaries, a kind of collection of laws for every creature, thing and event, a kind of "universal charter".

Ancient Greek geographers called Mesopotamia (Mesopotamia) the flat area between the Tigris and the Euphrates. The self-name of this area is Shinar. The center of the development of the most ancient civilization was in Babylonia ...

Goddesses of Sumer and Akkad: Inanna, Ishtar

Gods of Sumer and Akkad

Adad

Adad, Ishkur ("wind"), in the Sumerian-Akkadian mythology, the god of thunder, storm and wind, the son of the sky god Anu. God personified both the destructive and fruitful forces of nature: devastating flood fields and fertile rain; in his own jurisdiction - soil salinization; if the wind-god took away the rain, drought and famine began. According to the myths about Adad, the flood did not start because of a flood, but was the result of a rain storm, so one of the constant epithets of god is understandable - "lord of the dam of heaven." The bull was associated with the image of the god of the storm as a symbol of fertility and indomitability at the same time. The emblem of Adad was the bident or trident of lightning. In Semitic mythology, Baal corresponds to him, in Hurrito-Urartian - Teshub.

Anu

Ashur

Ashur, in Akkadian mythology, the central deity of the Assyrian pantheon, originally the patron of the city of Ashur. He is called "the lord of the countries", "the father of the gods" and is considered the father of Any; his wife is Ishtar of Ashur or Enlil. Ashur was revered as the arbiter of destinies, the military deity and the deity of wisdom. The winged solar disk over the sacred tree of life served as the emblem of God, and on the monuments of the II - I millennium BC. e. Ashur was depicted with a bow, half hidden by the winged disk of the sun, he seemed to soar in its rays.

Marduk

Marduk, in Sumero-Akkadian mythology, the central deity of the Babylonian pantheon, the main god of the city of Babylon, the son of Ey (Enki) and Domkina (Damgalnuna). Written sources report the wisdom of Marduk, his art of healing and spell power; God is called "the judge of the gods", "the lord of the gods" and even the "father of the gods". The wife of Marduk was considered Tsarpanitu, and the son of Nabu, the god of scribal art, the scribe of the tables of fate. Myths tell about the victory of Marduk over the army of Tiamat, embodying world chaos. God, armed with a bow, a club, a net, and accompanied by four heavenly winds and seven storms created by him to fight the eleven monsters of Tiamat, entered the battle. In the gaping mouth of Tiamat, he drove the "evil wind", and she could not close it. Marduk immediately finished off Tiamat with an arrow, dealt with her retinue and took away from the monster Kingu (Tiamat's husband) killed by him, the tables of fate that gave him world domination. Then Marduk began to create the world: he cut the body of Tiamat into two parts; from the bottom he made the earth, from the top he made the sky. Moreover, God locked the sky with a bolt, put guards so that water could not seep down to the earth. He determined the possessions of the gods and the paths of the heavenly bodies, according to his plan, the gods created man and, in gratitude, built the "heavenly Babylon" for him. The symbols of Marduk were a hoe, a shovel, an ax and the dragon Mushkhush, and the parts of the body of the god himself were compared with various animals and plants: “his main entrails are lions; his small entrails are dogs; his spine is cedar; his fingers are reeds; his skull is silver; the outpouring of his seed is gold."
The Babylonian creation story is a myth in honor of the Babylonian god Marduk. The ruler of Babylon, Marduk, by unanimous decision of the gods, became king in the world of the gods; he is the owner of the tables of fate taken from the defeated dragon. The creation of the world and the "judge of the gods" Marduk is dedicated to the annual holiday of Tsakmuk. The cosmogonic ideas underlying the Sumerian-Akkadian mythology distinguish between the heavenly world of the god Anu, the aboveground world of Bela, and the underground world belonging to Eya. Under the earth is the realm of the dead. The main ideas of the Sumerian-Akkadian myths, which determine the position of the three worlds, were first set forth by Diodorus Siculus.

Syn

Sin, in Akkadian mythology, the god of the moon, the father of the sun god Shamash, the planet Venus (Inanna or Ishtar) and the fire god Nusku. He was conceived by Enlil, the god of air, who possessed the power of Ninlil, the goddess of agriculture, and was born in the underworld. Sin's wife is Ningal, the "great lady". Usually God was depicted as an old man with a blue beard, who was called "a shining heavenly boat." Every evening, sitting in a wonderful crescent-shaped boat, the god sailed across the sky. Some sources claim that the month is the instrument of God, and the moon is his crown. Sin is the enemy of intruders, as his light revealed their vicious plans. One day, the evil spirits Utukku conspired against Sin. With the help of Shamash, the goddess of love and fertility, Ishtar, and the god of thunder, Adad, they blocked his light. However, the great god Marduk went to war against the conspirators and returned his radiance to Sin. Sin, whose symbol was the sickle of the moon, was considered a sage and it was believed that, waxing and waning, the moon god measured time. In addition, the tides of water in the swamps around the city of Ur, where his temple was located, provided abundant food for the cattle.

Teshub

Teshub, god of thunder, revered throughout Asia Minor. The texts of Hittite mythology speak of how the formidable Teshub defeated the father of the gods Kumarbi. Kumarbi gave birth to an avenging son, Ullikumme, who was called upon to restore power to him; created from diorite and grown to a huge size on the back of the giant Upelluri, it was so large that, trying to examine it, Teshub climbed to the top of a high mountain, and when he saw the monster, he was horrified and called on the gods for help. However, this did not bring him success. Ullikumme reached the gates of Cummia, Teshub's hometown, and forced the god to abdicate. Teshub sought advice from the wise god Enki; after some thought, he took out from the earth an ancient saw with which the heavens and earth were separated, and cut the diorite at the base. As a result, Ullikumme quickly weakened, and the gods decided to attack him again. The end of the text is lost, but it is generally accepted that Teshub nevertheless regained his kingdom and throne. Teshub's wife, Hebat, occupied an equal position with her husband, and sometimes even surpassed him. Teshub's attributes are an ax and lightning. Sometimes he was depicted with a beard, armed with a club, trampling on the sacred mountain.

Utu

Utu ("day", "shining", "bright"), in Sumerian mythology, the sun god, son of the moon god Nanna, brother of Inanna (Ishtar). In his daily journey across the sky, Utu-Shamash hid in the underworld in the evening, bringing light, drink and food to the dead at night, and in the morning he again came out from behind the mountains, and two guardian gods opened the way for him. Utu was also revered as a judge, a keeper of justice and truth. Most often, the god was depicted with rays behind his back and a crescent-shaped serrated knife in his hand.

Shamash

Shamash, in Akkadian mythology, the all-seeing god of the sun and justice. His radiance illuminated all atrocities, which allowed him to foresee the future. In the morning, the guardian, a scorpion-man, opened the gates of the huge mountain Mashu, and Shamash rose to the highest point of the sky; in the evening he drove his chariot to another high mountain and hid in its gate. At night, the god passed through the depths of the earth to the first gate. The wife of Shamash, Aya, gave birth to justice, Kitta, as well as law and righteousness, Mishara. In Sumerian mythology, it corresponds to Utu.

Enki

Enki, Eya, Ea ("lord of the earth"), one of the main deities in Sumero-Akkadian mythology; he is the master of the Abzu, the underground world ocean of fresh waters, all earthly waters, as well as the god of wisdom and the lord of the divine powers of me. The ancients revered him as the creator of grain and livestock, the organizer of the world order. One of the myths tells how Enki fertilized the earth and "determined the fate" of cities and countries. He created a plow, a hoe, a brick mold; having created plants and animals, Enki gave them to the power of the "king of the mountains" Samukan, and the shepherd Dumuzi made the master in the stalls and sheepfolds. God is also credited with the invention of horticulture, horticulture, flax growing and the collection of medicinal herbs.

Enlil

Enlil ("lord of the wind"), in the Sumerian-Akkadian mythology, one of the main deities, the son of the sky god Anu. His wife was considered Ninlil, whom he mastered by force, for which he was banished to the underworld. According to the myths that compared Enlil with a roaring wind and a wild bull, he was especially vicious towards people: he sent pestilence, drought, salinization of the soil and, to top it all off, a global flood, in which only Ut-Napishti, who built the ark on the advice of the gods. Enlil, who was often annoyed by the noise and bustle of human life, in anger sent storms, storms, terrible disasters to the earth up to the flood.

Mythology of the ancient world, - M.: Belfax, 2002
Myths and legends of the Ancient East, - M.: Norint, 2002

Sumerian woman. ancient sculpture

Southern Mesopotamia in ancient times was called the land of Sumer. It was inhabited by strong short people with large dark eyes and long straight noses. Men shaved their heads, but wore long thick beards. The Sumerians were not the only inhabitants of Mesopotamia. In its northern part was the country of Akkad. The Akkadians, like the Sumerians, eventually formed their own city-states. But they arose later than the Sumerians. The inhabitants of the Akkadian city-states adopted many of the achievements of their southern neighbors.

Akkadians often attacked Sumerian cities. More than once in their centuries-old history, the Sumerians had to defend their homes and crops from the raids of warlike nomads. To protect themselves from enemy invasions, the Sumerians had to create a strong army. Their brave warriors were well armed. They had leather armor, spears, darts, bronze axes and swords. The formidable weapons of the Sumerians were war carts - structures on massive wheels made from a single piece of wood. A charioteer and several warriors were placed on such wagons. In battle, they bombarded the enemy with darts, struck with spears.

Sumerian writing

One of the greatest achievements of the Sumerians was the invention of writing. They invented it even before the Egyptians. The rulers of the city-states needed to know exactly how much taxes went into the treasury. Tax collectors sculpted clay images of objects received from the population. These figurines were placed in clay "envelopes". For convenience, on each "envelope" they drew what is there. From these drawings, Sumerian writing arose. It consisted of several dozen icons, denoting both whole words and syllables. The inhabitants of Mesopotamia wrote on clay tablets. It was difficult to draw complex drawings on them, and therefore they were replaced by conditional images from large and small wedges. The wedges were squeezed out on wet clay with a pointed stick. Then such a "book" was burned. For its appearance, the writing of Mesopotamia is called cuneiform.

cuneiform tablet

Scientists have found many cuneiform tablets. Some of them contain business correspondence, others - records of tax collectors, and others - fairy tales and legends of Mesopotamia. The oldest of them is the legend of the king of the city of Uruk, Gilgamesh, who traveled in search of the source of eternal youth.

Compare the writing of Egypt and Mesopotamia. What do they have in common, how did they differ?

Gods of Mesopotamia

The inhabitants of Mesopotamia revered many gods. Chief among them was Enlil, the father of all higher powers. They worshiped the sun god Shamash, as well as the goddess of love and fertility Ishtar. People believed that the size of the harvest depended on her favor. The kind and wise water god Ea, who nourishes the fields of farmers with moisture, enjoyed no less respect.

In every Sumerian city there was a temple dedicated to the god who was considered the patron of the city. The inhabitants of Mesopotamia erected their temples in the form of multi-stage pyramids. Each step of such a pyramid was painted in a special color. At the temples, dwellings for priests and schools were built, where the children of the nobility and priests studied.

Scientific discoveries of the Sumerians

The Sumerian priests were excellent astronomers. From generation to generation they followed the Sun, the Moon and the stars. The results of these observations were carefully recorded. Even modern astronomers do not have such long-term astronomical observations as the ancient Sumerians had. Observing the movement of the planets for many generations, they learned to predict solar and lunar eclipses, the appearance of comets.

Sacrifice to the god Enlil. clay tablet

The mathematical knowledge of the Sumerians reached a high level. But, unlike our decimal counting system, their calculations were based on the number 60. True, in some cases we also use this counting system invented by the Sumerians. For example, we divide a circle into 360 degrees, and an hour into 60 minutes, each of which, in turn, is divided into 60 seconds.

Summing up

In the III millennium BC. e. the people who lived on the territory of Mesopotamia began the transition to the stage of civilization. The ancient Sumerians managed to create an original culture, many of whose achievements we still use.

III millennium BC e. The emergence of the first Sumerian city-states.

Questions and tasks

1. Write a story about the life and activities of the inhabitants of the Sumerian city.

2. Tell us about the origin of Sumerian writing.

3. What gods were most respected by the inhabitants of Mesopotamia and why?

4. Tell us about the development of science among the Sumerians. What achievements do we use?

§ 12. Babylonian kingdom

The formation of the Babylonian kingdom

The city of Babylon was founded in ancient times on the banks of the Euphrates. Its name means "Gate of God". The city quickly grew and prospered. This was facilitated by its favorable position at the intersection of river and caravan routes leading from the Southern to the Northern Mesopotamia. A variety of goods flocked here from all over the country: dates, grain, handicrafts. Ships of foreign merchants sailed here with cargoes of incense, dyes, fine linen, tin, and bronze. For the convenience of trade, the Babylonians were among the first to come up with money. They were silver bars. The smallest ingot (sickle) weighed 8 grams, the larger one (mina) weighed 500, and the largest (talent) weighed 30 kilograms. One shekel could buy 250 kilograms of grain or 3 liters of vegetable oil.

Babylonian kingdom

Babylon quickly grew rich and flourished. Over time, it turned into the largest city and the main trading center of Mesopotamia. Its king-rulers conquered many neighboring cities and lands, creating a vast kingdom.

What territory did the Babylonian kingdom occupy? What cities were located on its lands?

Babylon under King Hammurabi

The Babylonian kingdom reached its peak during the reign of King Hammurabi (1792–1750 BC). He was a wise ruler and a talented commander. We learn about the reign of Hammurabi from the laws that were inscribed on a basalt pillar and have come down to us almost completely. This pillar is decorated with the image of the sun god presenting symbols of royal power to Hammurabi.

Fragment of a stone on which the text of the laws of Hammurabi was engraved

From the laws you can learn about the presence in Babylon of an extensive network of irrigation facilities and officials who are obliged to monitor their condition. The laws allowed them to employ the entire able-bodied population - from free community members to slaves. Punishment was also envisaged, up to the sale into slavery, of that community member, through whose fault the irrigation facilities became unusable. Laws regulated craft and trade, stood guard over the life, health and property of people, and provided punishment for murder, theft and other crimes. They determined the duties of the people (the amount of taxes and duties, military service) and the duties of the state (protecting the life and property of the inhabitants of the state). Judges supervised the execution of laws.

In the south of modern Iraq, in the interfluve of the Tigris and Euphrates, almost 7000 years ago, a mysterious people settled - the Sumerians. They made a significant contribution to the development of human civilization, but we still do not know where the Sumerians came from and what language they spoke.

Mysterious language

The valley of Mesopotamia has long been inhabited by tribes of Semitic pastoralists. It was they who were driven north by the Sumerian aliens. The Sumerians themselves were not related to the Semites, moreover, their origin is still unclear. Neither the ancestral home of the Sumerians nor the language family to which their language belonged is known.

Fortunately for us, the Sumerians left many written monuments. From them we learn that neighboring tribes called this people "Sumers", and they themselves called themselves "Sang-ngiga" - "black-headed". They called their own language the “noble language” and considered it the only one suitable for people (in contrast to the not so “noble” Semitic languages ​​spoken by their neighbors).
But the Sumerian language was not homogeneous. It had special dialects for women and men, fishermen and shepherds. How the Sumerian language sounded is unknown to this day. A large number of homonyms suggests that this language was tonal (as, for example, modern Chinese), which means that the meaning of what was said often depended on intonation.
After the decline of the Sumerian civilization, the Sumerian language was studied for a long time in Mesopotamia, since most religious and literary texts were written in it.

Ancestral home of the Sumerians

One of the main mysteries remains the ancestral home of the Sumerians. Scientists build hypotheses based on archaeological data and information obtained from written sources.
This Asian country, unknown to us, was supposed to be located on the sea. The fact is that the Sumerians came to Mesopotamia along the riverbeds, and their first settlements appear in the south of the valley, in the deltas of the Tigris and Euphrates. At first, there were very few Sumerians in Mesopotamia - and not surprisingly, because the ships can not accommodate so many settlers. Apparently, they were good sailors, since they were able to climb up unfamiliar rivers and find a suitable place to land on the shore.
In addition, scientists believe that the Sumerians come from a mountainous area. No wonder the words “country” and “mountain” are spelled the same in their language. Yes, and the Sumerian temples "ziggurats" in their appearance resemble mountains - these are stepped structures with a wide base and a narrow pyramidal top, where the sanctuary was located.
Another important condition is that this country had to have developed technologies. The Sumerians were one of the most advanced peoples of their time, they were the first in the entire Middle East who began to use the wheel, created an irrigation system, and invented a unique writing system.
According to one version, this legendary ancestral home was located in southern India.

flood survivors

It was not in vain that the Sumerians chose the valley of Mesopotamia as their new homeland. The Tigris and Euphrates originate in the Armenian Highlands, and carry fertile silt and mineral salts to the valley. Because of this, the soil in Mesopotamia is extremely fertile, with fruit trees, cereals, and vegetables growing in abundance. In addition, there were fish in the rivers, wild animals flocked to the watering place, and there was plenty of food for livestock in the water meadows.
But all this abundance had a downside. When the snow began to melt in the mountains, the Tigris and Euphrates carried streams of water into the valley. Unlike the floods of the Nile, the floods of the Tigris and Euphrates could not be predicted, they were not regular.

Strong floods turned into a real disaster, they destroyed everything in their path: cities and villages, eared fields, animals and people. Probably, having first encountered this disaster, the Sumerians created the legend of Ziusudra.
At the meeting of all the gods, a terrible decision was made - to destroy all of humanity. Only one god Enki took pity on the people. He appeared in a dream to King Ziusudra and ordered him to build a huge ship. Ziusudra fulfilled the will of God, he loaded his property, family and relatives, various masters to preserve knowledge and technology, livestock, animals and birds onto the ship. The ship's doors were tarred on the outside.
The next morning a terrible flood began, which even the gods were afraid of. Rain and wind raged for six days and seven nights. Finally, when the water began to recede, Ziusudra left the ship and offered sacrifices to the gods. Then, as a reward for his loyalty, the gods granted Ziusudra and his wife immortality.

This legend is not just reminiscent of the legend of Noah's Ark, most likely the biblical story is borrowed from the Sumerian culture. After all, the first flood poems that have come down to us date back to the 18th century BC.

Priest kings, builder kings

The Sumerian lands have never been a single state. In fact, it was a collection of city-states, each with its own law, its own treasury, its own rulers, its own army. Only language, religion and culture were common. City-states could be at enmity with each other, could exchange goods or enter into military alliances.
Each city-state had three kings. The first and most important was called "en". It was a priest-king (however, a woman could also be enom). The main task of the king-en was to conduct religious ceremonies: solemn processions, sacrifices. In addition, he was in charge of all temple property, and sometimes the property of the entire community.

An important area of ​​life in ancient Mesopotamia was construction. The Sumerians are credited with the invention of fired bricks. City walls, temples, barns were built from this more durable material. The priest-builder ensi was in charge of the construction of these structures. In addition, the ensi kept an eye on the irrigation system, because canals, locks and dams allowed at least a little control over irregular spills.

For the duration of the war, the Sumerians elected another leader - the military leader - lugal. The most famous military leader was Gilgamesh, whose exploits are immortalized in one of the most ancient literary works - the Epic of Gilgamesh. In this story, the great hero defies the gods, defeats monsters, brings a precious cedar tree to his hometown of Uruk, and even descends into the afterlife.

Sumerian gods

Sumer had a developed religious system. Three gods enjoyed special reverence: Anu, the sky god, Enlil, the earth god, and Ensi, the god of water. In addition, each city had its own patron god. Thus, Enlil was especially revered in the ancient city of Nippur. The inhabitants of Nippur believed that Enlil gave them such important inventions as a hoe and a plow, and also taught them how to build cities and build walls around them.

Important gods for the Sumerians were the sun (Utu) and the moon (Nannar), replacing each other in the sky. And, of course, one of the most important figures of the Sumerian pantheon was the goddess Inanna, whom the Assyrians, who borrowed the religious system from the Sumerians, would call Ishtar, and the Phoenicians - Astarte.

Inanna was the goddess of love and fertility and, at the same time, the goddess of war. She personified, first of all, carnal love, passion. No wonder that in many Sumerian cities there was a custom of "divine marriage", when the kings, in order to ensure the fertility of their lands, livestock and people, spent the night with the high priestess Inanna, who embodied the goddess herself.

Like many ancient gods, Inanna was capricious and fickle. She often fell in love with mortal heroes, and woe was to those who rejected the goddess!
The Sumerians believed that the gods created humans by mixing their blood with clay. After death, the souls fell into the afterlife, where there was also nothing but clay and dust, which the dead fed on. To make the lives of their dead ancestors a little better, the Sumerians sacrificed food and drink to them.

Cuneiform

The Sumerian civilization reached amazing heights, even after the conquest by the northern neighbors, the culture, language and religion of the Sumerians were borrowed first by Akkad, then by Babylonia and Assyria.
The Sumerians are credited with inventing the wheel, bricks, and even beer (although they most likely made the barley drink using a different technology). But the main achievement of the Sumerians was, of course, a unique writing system - cuneiform.
Cuneiform got its name from the shape of the marks left by a reed stick on wet clay, the most common writing material.

Sumerian writing originated from a system for counting various goods. For example, when a person counted his flock, he made a ball of clay to designate each sheep, then he put these balls in a box, and left notes on the box - the number of these balls. But after all, all the sheep in the herd are different: different sex, age. Marks appeared on the balls, according to the animal they denoted. And, finally, the sheep began to be denoted by a picture - a pictogram. It was not very convenient to draw with a reed stick, and the pictogram turned into a schematic image consisting of vertical, horizontal and diagonal wedges. And the last step - this ideogram began to designate not only a sheep (in Sumerian “udu”), but also the syllable “udu” as part of complex words.

At first, cuneiform was used to draw up business documents. Extensive archives have come down to us from the ancient inhabitants of Mesopotamia. But later, the Sumerians began to write down literary texts, and even whole libraries of clay tablets appeared, which were not afraid of fires - after all, after firing, the clay only became stronger. It is thanks to the fires in which the Sumerian cities, captured by the warlike Akkadians, that the unique information about this ancient civilization has come down to us.

CHAPTER 6

CIVILIZATION - A GIFT OF THE GODS THE MYSTERY OF SUMER

six thousand years ago Homo sapiens underwent an incredible metamorphosis. Hunters and farmers suddenly became city dwellers, and in just a few hundred years they had already mastered the knowledge of mathematics, astronomy and metallurgy!

The first cities suddenly arose in ancient Mesopotamia, on a fertile plain lying between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, where the state of Iraq is now located. This civilization was called Sumerian - it was there that "writing was born and the wheel first appeared", and from the very beginning this civilization was strikingly similar to our today's civilization and culture.

A highly respected scientific journal "National Geographic" openly acknowledges the priority of the Sumerians and the legacy they left us:

"There, in ancient Sumer ... in cities such as Ur, Lagash, Eridu and Nippur, urban life and literacy flourished. The Sumerians began to use carts on wheels very early and were among the first metallurgists - they made various alloys from metals, they extracted silver from ore, cast complex products from bronze. The Sumerians were the first to invent writing."

"... The Sumerians left behind a huge legacy... They created the first society known to us in which people could read and write... In all areas - in legislation and social reform, in literature and architecture, in the organization of trade and in technology - the achievements of the cities of Sumer were the first of which we know anything."

In all studies on Sumer, it is emphasized that such a high level of culture and technology was achieved in an extremely short time. One writer likens it to "a sudden burst of flame", and Joseph Campbell eloquently describes it as follows:

"With stunning suddenness ... in Sumer - this ma

little muddy garden ... suddenly a whole syndrome arose that formed the embryo of a high world civilization.

Why, then, is public opinion so little aware of the Sumerians? Perhaps the reason is that for canonical science it remains a complete mystery source itself this civilization. In history books, the authors only mention the appearance of the Sumerians, without talking about their origin, as if further explanations are not required. This tactic is followed by a highly respected "Chronological Atlas of World History", - he is so embarrassed to admit our ignorance that he does not mention the Sumerians at all (the most powerful civilization of the then world!) and instead talks about the incomprehensible "appearance" of some unknown first "Mesopotamian" civilization. This mystery was revealed in one of the publications of the National Geographic Society, which said: "Much has already been written about where the Sumerian people came from, but still no one knows this."

However, there have been many attempts to explain the origin of the Sumerians as evolution previously existing cultures in Mesopotamia. In these writings, the focus is on pottery, and it is proved that the Sumerian people have lived in this region for thousands of years. But the authors of such works have little to say about why the people of Sumer suddenly needed to live in large organized cities. The best explanations for this turn out to be humane and helpless:

"More complex societies arise from the development of the organization necessary to govern the large populations that live off the lowland agricultural systems."

Such explanations are as far-fetched as theories about the sudden evolution of man. Just as the human brain is the Achilles' heel of the evolutionists' arguments, so the historians' Achilles' heel is the Sumerian technique. In seeking to describe cultural development as a gradual, smooth process, scholars ignore the astounding excellence of Sumerian metallurgy, mathematics, and astronomy (among other things), sciences that emerged in advanced forms from the very dawn of their civilization. Since this concerns the origin of all this knowledge, then, apparently, only the Sumerians themselves can discover this secret, which confuses scientists so much. And the Sumerians themselves attributed their successes and even their very origin to the gods of flesh and blood.

It is not surprising that in the textbooks on the origin of Sumer

it's so vague. According to the norms of modern science, any mention of the gods should be classified as mythology. It is clear why, having uh> the only and inconvenient for them explanation of the origin of the first civilization, the authors of these books lose the gift of words.

With this chapter, which tells about the mystery of Sumer, we can complete our survey of the mysteries of heaven and earth and proceed to explain these mysteries. At the superficial level, Sumer is the source of another unresolved mystery for scientists, but with a deeper study, it turns out that it is here that lies the key to many secrets and anomalies of the modern world. This chapter is about the Sumerians and the gods.

FIRST CIVILIZATION

Sumer was the first of the three "great" civilizations of antiquity. All of them originated in the fertile valleys of the largest rivers. Sumer arose on the plain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and other civilizations - one in the Nile Valley (about 3100 BC), the other in the Indus Valley (about 2800 BC). Undoubtedly, these last two civilizations were strongly influenced by Sumer, since the Sumerians were experienced travelers and explorers. There is no need to prove that the early civilizations on Earth were offshoots of the first - the Sumerian civilization, there is evidence that this is exactly the case.

The discovery of ancient Sumer is an exciting story that began in the 19th century. It was a period of fruitful archaeological excavations in the Middle East. From the first cities on the once fertile lands of ancient Mesopotamia, only piles of ruins remained. For those who had the time and money to travel, it was enough to delve ten feet into the ground, and glory was provided for them - they only needed to know where to dig. Following in the footsteps of biblical tales, the accounts of forerunner travelers and local folklore, archaeologists such as Sir Austen Henry Layard, an Englishman born in Paris, have found fame and fortune.

The first important discovery was made by a Frenchman. In 1843, Paul Emile Botta discovered fantastic temples, palaces, and ziggurats (step pyramids) at Dur-Sharru-Kin. It was found that in the VIII century BC, the capital of the Assyrian king Sargon II was located here. This place is currently

called Khorsabad. Botta became the discoverer of the Assyrian civilization.

While archaeologists Botta and Layard continued to search and survey. To keep up with new cities, such as Nimrud, Nineveh, etc., other scientists, in particular Sir Henry Rawlinson and Jules Oppert, began to study the numerous clay tablets found during excavations. It soon became clear that the inhabitants of ancient Mesopotamia were diligent chroniclers and carefully stored information, writing it down in cuneiform on clay tablets. In 1835, Rawlinson painstakingly copied an important trilingual inscription on a block of stone found at Begistun in Persia. In 1846, he deciphered this inscription and identified the languages ​​in which it was written. One of these languages ​​was Akkadian, related to the Assyrians and Babylonians who dominated the Middle East after the fall of Sumer around 2000 BC.

The dating adopted by Sir Henry Rawlinson was not based on any method. A few years later, Sir Austen Henry Layard began excavating the ruins of the ancient Assyrian capital of Nineveh, 250 miles north of present-day Baghdad. In addition to amazing temples and palaces, he discovered in 1850 the library of Ashurbanipal, which contained 30,000 clay tablets.

As more and more tablets were deciphered, various scholars were amazed to find in them the names of kings and the names of cities mentioned in the Bible. In one inscription, which lists the victories of King Sargon I, he is called "the king of Akkad, the king of Kish" and it is said that he won battles with the cities of "Uruk, Ur and Lagash". Scholars were astonished to discover that this Sargon reigned almost two Thousand earlier than his namesake. This meant that the beginning of the Meso-Potamian civilization dates back to a much earlier era, dating back to at least 2400 BC.

These were only the first of a number of remarkable finds, thanks to which the time of the birth of civilization was pushed back, and the museums of Europe and America were enriched with new brilliant exhibits. At that time, Sumer did not yet appear in the history books - only now, in hindsight, we understand that Sumer is what the Bible calls "Si-nar" ".

In 1869, Jules Oppert first suggested the existence of a "lost" Sumerian language and people. As happens with every new idea, this position of his was not immediately accepted.

taken. While in the second half of the 19th century they were arguing over the so-called "Sumerian question", excavations of Sumerian cities were already underway, and scientists moved from abstract reasoning to established scientific facts.

The first Sumerian city was discovered by French archaeologists in 1877. It turned out that it was the city of Lagash. The Sumerian ruins also attracted the attention of American archaeologists, and "during 1887-1900 they excavated the city of Nippur, one of the most important religious centers of Sumer. At present, the ruins of Nippur with a destroyed ziggurat rise more than five floors and are clearly visible from the main 93 miles southeast of Baghdad Further south, in the hot and dusty Uruk desert, rises the world's first zik-kurat, dedicated to the goddess Inanna, and there are examples of the most ancient writings.

The best-preserved ziggurat in all of Mesopotamia was discovered in Ur, the homeland of the patriarch from the Old Testament, Abraham. The partially restored ruins of this ziggurat still dominate the area around the modern city of Muqayyar, 186 miles southeast of Baghdad. It was here in Ur that the British archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolpey found exceptionally fine pieces of silver, gold and lapis lazuli, including the Sheep in the Bush figurine, the beautiful Queen's harp (this is the oldest harp found - it is dated 2750 BC). PX) and a wonderful women's headdress. All this can be seen now in the British Museum.

But the oldest Sumerian city has been found at Eri-du, nearly 200 miles southeast of Baghdad. The city of Eridu is now an abandoned, windswept wasteland, over which rise the ruins of the ziggurat of Ur-Nammu. The ruins of the city are spread over an area of ​​1300 x 1000 feet (433 x 330 m). Here, under the foundations of the first temple dedicated to the god Enki, archaeologists have discovered an untouched layer of soil dating back to the very beginning of civilization on Earth. This temple has been dated to 3800 BC, the time when the first calendar was introduced in Nippur.

At the beginning of the 20th century, all the Assyrian cities mentioned in the Old Testament were found, except for one. The city of Babylon was also excavated, although very little remains of its ziggurat, dedicated to the chief god Marduk. The royal city of Kish was also excavated, as well as other important Sumerian cities - Larsa, Shuruppak, Sippar and Bad Tibira.

The full picture of the chronological continuity between Sumer, Akkad, Assyria and Babylon remains a mystery, but a study of their written sources confirms the primacy of the Sumerians. Many Akkadian texts expressly indicate that they were copied from earlier originals: for example, one tablet found by Layard in Nineveh states that "the Sumerian language was not changed." Scholars have found that Akkadian scripts often use borrowed words when referring to subjects such as astronomy or the science of the gods. These borrowings testify to the existence of an earlier and significantly different writing system - the so-called pictographic, in which individual signs in the form of drawings depict various objects or images. It has now been established that the original writing system in Sumer was indeed based on pictographic signs, similar to those later used in Egypt.

For a hundred years, scholars have been translating Sumerian texts, but they have not found a single "loanword" and no trace of a previous writing system. Thus, the priority of Sumer in the invention of writing is obvious. It is now widely accepted that Sumer was the first advanced civilization on Earth, and it is unanimously agreed that the beginning of this civilization should be dated to 3800 BC.

SUMERIAN HERITAGE

There are so many clay tablets found by archaeologists in ancient Mesopotamia that a significant part of them remains untranslated to this day. Many of them deal with everyday life: records of marriages and divorces, school grammars and dictionaries, documents on trade transactions, including information about crops, prices, delivery of goods. Such records provide scientists with a remarkable picture of the Sumerian culture.

One of the greatest experts on Sumer, Professor Samuel Noah Kramer, traveled all over the world, studying the Sumerian writings, copying and translating them. In his book History Begins in Sumer, he listed 39 items in which the Sumerians were pioneers. In addition to the first writing system, which we have already spoken about, he included in this list the wheel, the first schools, the first bicameral parliament, the first historians, the first "farmer's almanac"; in Sumer

for the first time cosmogony and cosmology arose, the first collection of proverbs and aphorisms appeared, for the first time there were literary debates; for the first time the image of "Noah" was created; here the first book catalog appeared, the first money (silver shekels in the form of "bullions by weight") were in circulation, taxes were introduced for the first time, the first laws were adopted and social reforms were carried out, medicine appeared, and for the first time attempts were made to achieve peace and harmony in society.

There were many institutions in Sumer that we value (or suffer from!) to this day. In the world's first Sumerian schools, various disciplines were taught, and, judging by the annals, they had a very severe discipline - lazy, sloppy and inattentive students were often flogged. The legal system was similar to ours - there were laws that protected the employed, the unemployed, the weak and helpless, there was a system of judges and juries similar to ours today. Obviously, Sumerian society also suffered from many of the same ills that our society also suffers from. This can be seen at least from the fact that around 2600 BC, the Sumerian king Urukagina was forced to carry out the first legislative reform in order to prevent abuses of power, the use of position and monopoly.

King Urukagina stated that his god Ningirsu ordered him to "restore the former order":

In the field of medicine, the Sumerians had very high standards from the very beginning. In the library of Ashurbanipal found by Layard in Nineveh, there was a clear order, it had a large medical department, in which there were thousands of clay tablets. All medical terms were based on words borrowed from the Sumerian language. Medical procedures were described in special reference books, which contained information about hygiene rules, operations, such as cataract removal, and the use of alcohol for disinfection during surgical operations. Sumerian medicine was characterized by a scientific approach to diagnosis and prescription of treatment, both medical and surgical.

The construction business in Sumer was also very well developed, as far as the possibilities of using local building materials allowed. From the very beginning - from 3800 BC - houses, palaces and temples were built from durable bricks made from wet clay with reed mixed into it.

The Sumerians were excellent travelers and explorers - they are also credited with the invention of the world's first ships. One Akkadian dictionary of Sumerian words contained at least 105 designations for various types of ships - according to their size, purpose and type of cargo. One inscription excavated in Lagash speaks of the possibility of repairing ships and lists the types of materials that the local ruler Gudeya brought to build the temple of his god Ni-nurta in about 2200 BC. The breadth of the assortment of these goods is amazing - ranging from gold, silver, copper - to diorite, carnelian and cedar. In some cases, these materials have been transported over thousands of miles.

The first brick kiln was also built in Sumer. The use of such a large furnace made it possible to burn products from clay, which gave them special strength due to internal stress, without poisoning the air with alcohol and ash. The same technology was used to smelt metals from ore, such as copper, by heating the ore to over 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit in a closed furnace with a low oxygen supply. This process, called smelting, became necessary in the early stages, as soon as the supply of natural native copper was exhausted. Researchers of ancient metallurgy were extremely surprised at how quickly the Sumerians learned the methods of ore dressing, metal smelting and casting. These advanced technologies were mastered by them only a few centuries after the emergence of the Sumerian civilization.

Even more amazing was that the Sumerians mastered the methods of obtaining alloys - a process using catho-. Many different metals combine chemically when heated in a furnace. The Sumerians learned how to produce bronze, a hard but workable metal that changed the entire course of human history. The ability to alloy copper with tin was the greatest achievement for three reasons. Firstly, it was necessary to choose a very accurate ratio of copper and tin (analysis of Sumerian bronze showed the optimal ratio - 85% copper to 15% tin). Secondly, there was no tin in Mesopotamia at all. Thirdly, tin does not occur in nature in its natural form at all, tmspya extracting it from ore - tin stone - requires a rather complicated process. This is not a case that can be opened by accident. The Sumerians had about thirty words for various types of copper of different qualities, but for tin they used the word

AN.NA, which literally means "Sky Stone" - is also evidence that Sumerian technology was a gift from the gods.

ASTRONOMY AND MATHEMATICS

Unlike the dark time from Ptolemy to Copernicus, the Sumerians were well aware that the Earth revolves around the Sun and that the planets move while the stars are stationary. There is also evidence that they knew the planets of the solar system long before they were "discovered" in modern times (see Chapter 7).

Thousands of clay tablets have been found containing hundreds of astronomical terms. Some of these tablets contained mathematical formulas and astronomical tables with which the Sumerians could predict solar eclipses, the various phases of the moon, and the trajectories of the planets. A study of ancient astronomy has revealed the remarkable accuracy of these tables (known as ephemeris). No one knows how they were calculated, but we may wonder - why was this necessary?

Some studies have suggested that ziggurats, these characteristic examples of Sumerian architecture, may also have been used for astronomical observations. These structures were built on a square foundation with corners precisely oriented to the four cardinal points. One scientist concluded that ziggurats are ideal for astronomical observations:

"Each next step of the ziggurat can serve as a higher point of view and, therefore, depending on the geographical location, give a different horizon line. The axis between the eastern and western corners of the pyramid gives the direction of the equinox. The sides of the ziggurat open a view of the sunrise and sunset at both solstices - summer and winter."

"The Sumerians measured the rising and setting of visible planets and stars relative to the earth's horizon, using the same heliocentric system that is used today. We also adopted from them the division of the celestial sphere into three segments - northern, central and southern (respectively, among the ancient Sumerians -" the path Enlil", "the path of Anu" and "the path of Ea"). In essence, all modern concepts of spherical astronomy, including a complete spherical circle of 360 degrees, zenith, th

the horizon, the axes of the celestial sphere, the poles, the ecliptic, the equinox, etc. - all this suddenly arose in Sumer.

All knowledge of the Sumerians regarding the movement of the Sun and the Earth was combined in the world's first calendar they created - the solar-lunar calendar, which came into force in 3760 BC in the city of Nippur3. The Sumerians counted 12 lunar months, amounting to approximately 354 days, and then adding 11 additional days to get a full solar year. This procedure, called intercalation, was done every year until, after 19 years, the solar and lunar calendars were aligned4. The Sumerian calendar was very precise so that key days (for example, New Year's Day always fell on the vernal equinox) did not lag behind, as happens in other calendars.

It is hard to imagine that there could be a calendar more complex than the Sumerian, and indeed, all subsequent calendars were much simpler5. It seems incredible, but it is true. It is surprising that such a developed astronomical science was not at all necessary for this newly born society.

It fully corresponded to the widespread interest in astronomy in Sumer and the mathematical system that first arose here. It was a very advanced system, it contained, among other things, the positional principle, that is, any number could have a different meaning, depending on the place it occupied in the number. (So ​​"1" can mean 1, 10, 100, etc.) But, unlike our modern decimal number systems, the Sumerian system was sexagesimal. The base in it is not 10, but 60, but then this base is strangely replaced by the number 10, then 6, and then back to 10, and so on. And thus, positional numbers line up in the following row:

1, 10, 60, 600, 3600, 36 000, 216 000, 2 160 000, 12 960 000.

This cumbersome sexagesimal system allowed the Sumerians to calculate fractions and multiply numbers up to millions, extract roots and raise to a power. In many respects this system even surpasses the decimal system we currently use. Firstly, the number 60 has ten prime divisors, while 100 has only 7. Secondly, this is the only system that is ideal for geometric calculations, and this is why it continues to be used in our time - hence , for example, dividing a circle into 360 degrees.

We rarely realize that not only our geometry, but

we also owe the modern way of calculating time to the Sumerian number system with a sexagesimal base. The division of the hour into 60 seconds was not at all arbitrary - it is based on the sexagesimal system. Echoes of the Sumerian number system were preserved in the division of a day into 24 hours, a year into 12 months, a foot into 12 inches, and in the existence of a dozen as a measure of quantity. They are also found in the modern counting system, in which numbers from 1 to 12 are singled out, and then numbers like 10 + 3, 10 + 4, etc. follow.

It should no longer surprise us that the zodiac was also another invention of the Sumerians, an invention that was later adopted by other civilizations. But the Sumerians did not use the signs of the zodiac, tying them to each month, as we do now in horoscopes. They used them purely astronomical sense - in the sense of the deviation of the earth's axis, the movement of which divides the full cycle of precession of 25,920 years into 12 periods of 2160 years. With the twelve-month movement of the Earth in orbit around the Sun, the picture of the starry sky, which forms a large sphere of 360 degrees, changes. The concept of the zodiac arose by dividing this circle into 12 equal segments (zodiacal spheres) of 30 degrees each. Then the stars in each group were combined into constellations, and each of them received its own name, corresponding to their modern names. Thus, there is no doubt that the concept of the zodiac was first used in Sumer. The inscriptions of the signs of the zodiac (representing imaginary pictures of the starry sky), as well as their arbitrary division into 12 spheres, prove that the corresponding signs of the zodiac used in other, later cultures, could not have appeared as a result of independent development.

Studies of Sumerian mathematics, much to the surprise of scientists, showed that their number system is closely related to the precessional cycle. The unusual moving principle of the Sumerian sexagesimal number system focuses on the number 12,960,000, which is exactly equal to 500 large precessional cycles occurring in 25,920 years. The absence of any other than astronomical possible applications for the products of the numbers 25920 and 2160 can only mean one thing - this system is designed specifically for astronomical purposes.

It seems that scientists are evading the uncomfortable question, which is: how

the Sumerians, whose civilization lasted only 2,000 years, could notice and record a cycle of celestial movements lasting 25,920 years? And why does the beginning of their civilization refer to the middle of the period between the changes of the zodiac? Does this not indicate that they inherited astronomy from the gods?

GODS OF SHEM

Why was the first terrestrial civilization from its very inception so obsessed with the most complex studies of celestial phenomena? Why did the Sumerians expend such incredible efforts and build ziggurats oriented to all directions of the world? Why did they combine the role of an astronomer and a priest? Why was it so important to divide the period of the Earth's orbit by the number 12? This number brings us back to the basic principle proclaimed by the Sumerians: "Everything that looks beautiful, we have made thanks to the gods." The Sumerians, like a thousand years later and the ancient Greeks, had 12 gods in the pantheon.

With. "

The influence of the gods is so strongly felt in Sumerian culture that it has prompted one archaeologist to say that "the gods bequeathed the earth to mankind." And Professor Samuel Kramer noted that "with the help of their gods, especially Enlil - the king of heaven and earth, the Sumerians turned a flat, arid, wind-ravaged land into a flourishing, fertile state."

Of course, we do not take Samuel Cramer's remark literally. Such claims abound in academic publications, and are always, almost without exception, placed in the category of Sumerian mythology and

religious beliefs. The belief system in Sumer was incredibly detailed and intricately developed. The whole life of the Sumerians revolved around the gods, whom they treated as immortal beings * of flesh and blood. Kings could be elected and could only take the throne with the permission of the gods. In later times, wars were fought at the behest of the gods. And from the gods came special orders for the construction and reconstruction of temples in certain places.

What made the Sumerians spend thousands of man-years of labor building and maintaining hundreds of temples and ziggurats for their gods? The explanation of the official history is as follows: they invented their own gods, thus seeking to gain psychological support in the struggle against the hostile surrounding nature that they did not understand. The beliefs of the Sumerians were presented as a classic example of the human need for religion. However, with such an easy solution, the source of highly developed science among the Sumerians remains unexplained. Inventing gods is one thing, but inventing methods to measure the motion of the planets and stars is quite another!

But if we accept the "impossible" origin of the knowledge of the Sumerians, as well as other secrets of the world, which were discussed in chapters 1-5, then light may dawn before us. So - isn't there a common source behind all these incomprehensible technical phenomena? Should we still brush aside claims by the Sumerians that their civilization is a gift from the gods?

The word "god" for us is full of absurd associations, but the Sumerians did not suffer from such a complex. They called their gods AN. UNNA. KI, which literally means: "Those who descended from Heaven to Earth." In pictographic letters, they were designated DIN. GIR.

What did the term DIN mean? GIR? In 1976, Zakaria Sitchin published a detailed etymological study of this and a number of other terms used by the Sumerians and later civilizations to describe the missiles and tools of the gods. The pictographic symbol GIR (see Fig. 1 la) usually means simply an object with a pointed end, but its true meaning can be understood by considering the pictographic symbol KA. GIR (see Fig. 1 lb), which clearly shows a GIR with a streamlined body, installed in an underground room - a mine. The pictogram of the first DIN syllable (Fig. 11c) has no meaning until it is combined with the GIR pictogram to form a complex DIN pictogram. GIR (Figure 1 Id). These two syllables, written

put together are quite consistent, presenting, as Sitchin says, "an image of a rocket-propelled spacecraft with a landing craft built into it, in the same way that the lunar module was built into the Apollo II spacecraft."

In the DIN.GIR pictogram, you can see three parts, like on the Apollo rocket: the lower stage is the engine compartment with the main jet engines, the middle compartment, where fuel supplies and equipment are located, and the upper compartment, the control module. The full meaning of the symbol DIN.GIR, which is usually translated as "gods", is rendered in Sitchin's Revolve as "Righteous from Fire Rockets".

Zakaria Sitchin also discovered another name - for aircraft of a different type. While GIR seems to mean a rocket-like craft designed to fly outside the Earth's atmosphere, the other ship, designated MU, was used to fly in the Earth's sky. Sitchin notes that the original term shu-mu (shu-mu), translated as "the one that MU", later in the Semitic languages ​​turned into shem (shem) or, in another version, sham (sham). Referring to the earlier work of J. Redslob, Sitchin points out that the words shem (shem) and shamaim (shamaim) meaning "heaven", both come from the same root shamah (sham), meaning "the one that is up there".

Since the word shem (shem) had another meaning - "how someone is called", then it began to be translated as "name". For example, one inscription in the temple of Gudea was translated as follows: "his name will thunder through all the lands", while the correct reading should have been: "his MU will cover the lands from edge to edge." Realizing that the word shem (shem) or MU must denote some object, some scholars left this word untranslated.

In the Bible, the word "shem" is also translated as "name", and thus the original meaning of the text is distorted. In this regard, the example of the biblical story of the Tower of Babel noted by Zakaria Sitchin is especially important. In the obscure story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis (which has continually puzzled scholars), if we translate the word "shem" as "aircraft," the text takes on a new meaning:

"Then the people said: Let us build ourselves a city and a tower as high as the heavens, so that we may airship, and then we shall not be scattered over the whole earth."

A correct understanding of the word "shem" sheds light on

another passage from the Book of Genesis which has perpetually puzzled scholars and which is of particular importance for our study of the gods. In this case, the word "shem", which is usually translated as "name", is interpreted as "famous, glorious", on the basis that as soon as someone chooses a name for himself, he becomes famous. The passage cited refers to the Nephilim, a Hebrew word commonly mistranslated as "giants" and which actually comes from a root word meaning "those who descended from above." This value is very close to the Sumerian AN. UNNA.KI - "Those who came to Earth from heaven":

"The number of people on earth continued to multiply. Their daughters were born. The sons of God saw that the girls were beautiful, and began to take them as wives, whoever they wanted ... The Nephilim lived in that land in those days and later, when the sons of God became marry the daughters of men, these women bore children who became famous heroes of ancient times "7 (italics mine. - A.E.).

Thus, these Nephilim were not really famous heroes, but people "shema", gods from flying ships.

There is another example of linguistic confusion that I would like to clarify. This applies to cases of unfortunate association of gods with celestial bodies. The identification of the gods with the Sun, the Moon, and the visible planets has served as a basis for scientists to consider gods of flesh and blood to be the product of primitive beliefs. A classic example is the confusion that arose about the worship of the sun god in ancient Egypt and the Middle East.

According to ancient Greek legend, Helios - the god of the Sun - rides across the sky in a chariot. The Greeks renamed the sacred city of Egypt Leopolis in honor of Helios, calling it Heliopolis. In the Middle East, they named the city of Baalbek by the same name Heliopolis. Historians attribute the faith of the ancients and the sacred character of these cities to primitive forms of worship of Helios (the Sun). But let's take a closer look, where did this legend about the Sun-Helios come from?

Both cities of Heliopolis served as important abode of the gods (for reasons we will discuss later in chapter 8), and both were associated with the god known to the Akkadians as Shamash. In Sumerian texts, it is called UTU - this is how the Sumerians called the god who was in charge of places,

where were the "shems" and "eagles". The word "Shamash", when pronounced as Shem-esh, means literally "Shem-fire", and thus is often translated as "He who shines like the Sun". The Sumerian name UTU means "Shining". At the same time, in the Mesopotamian legends of UTU, Shamash is depicted rising and crossing firmament. It is easy to imagine that the story of these journeys through the sky was later distorted and transformed into a picture of the daily movement of the Sun!

enki and enlil

Now the moment has come to lift the veil of mythology and introduce the main characters of the Sumerian pantheon of gods of flesh and blood.

Over the past hundred years, scholars have marveled at the wealth of epic literature, many examples of which archaeologists have unearthed in Mesopotamia. This prompted scientists to long-term purposeful and painstaking searches and collecting together texts, from which only separate fragments were often found. The original Sumerian texts were often supplemented by later similar Akkadian versions, thanks to which it was possible to completely restore many ancient legends. As a result, a detailed and coherent picture of anthropomorphic gods with human-like emotions was created, gods who most intimately got used to the affairs of people. Scientists had no doubt that the Greek legends about Zeus, Olympus and the 12 gods of the ancient Greek pantheon originated in Sumer.

The names, family ties, powers and duties of the Sumerian gods emerged from under the archaeological debris and appeared before us with all everyday details. Every major city in Sumer was associated with one or two gods. Temples were dedicated to the most important gods: Enki in Eridu, Anu and Inanna in Uruk, Nannar in Ur, and Enlil in Nippur. The same names, or their Akkadian synonyms, reappeared again and again in later Assyrian and Babylonian cities. It is clear that these names reflect the importance that people attached to certain features of these gods, and often nicknames were attributed to them that characterized their various features and abilities.

The father of all gods was called AN (or Anu - in Akkadian), which means "sky". This name has survived to this day in Latin English.

the Lean word "annum". AN was not directly involved in everyday affairs - he was in "heaven", and only from time to time visited the Earth with his wife Antu. His temple in Ure was called E.ANNA - "House of AN". The Sumerians called it "The House of the One Who Descended from Heaven". When the gods first gave the people a kingdom (a precedent for modern royal families), it was called the "Kingdom of Anu".

Anu had two sons who descended to Earth. Although they were brothers, sometimes they fought among themselves as bitter enemies. Initially, the first-born Enki seized power on Earth, but then, by order of Anu, he was replaced by his second son, Enlil. The ancient images of the gods Enki and Enlil (seated figures) are shown in fig. 12a and 12b. The drawings show their completely human appearance and the fact that they are creatures of flesh and blood. The rivalry of the brothers was based on existence. nii gods legitimate rights to inheritance, which were determined by genetic purity. Enlil, the offspring of Anu and his cousin, inherited paternal genes through the male line much better than Enki. This practice of marrying cousins ​​seems to us today to be incest, but in those days it was perceived differently. For example, this was common among royal families in Egypt, and in the Bible Abraham also boasts that his wife was his sister. The origin of this custom is no doubt connected with the mores of the gods, and I will explain the scientific basis for this in the next chapter.

The name EN.LIL is commonly translated as "Lord of the Wind", especially by those scholars who seek to downplay Sumerian beliefs as mythology. However, a more correct interpretation of this name "The arbiter of power" is quite a suitable name for the one who became the main god on Earth and possessed such power that he handed over the kingdom to people. Enlil's city was Nippur, where the majestic E.KUR - "House like a mountain" was built. It was equipped with mysterious equipment with which it was possible to monitor the sky and the Earth. The ruins of this five-story building can still be seen a hundred miles south of Baghdad.

Enlil's brother EN.KI, meaning "Lord of the Earth", was also known as EA - "He whose house is in the water". His city was Eridu, standing on the seashore, where the Tigris and Euphrates flow into the Persian Gulf. Enki was a skilled engineer, the chief scientist and the greatest benefactor of mankind. He often spoke in defense of people at the council of the gods, and it was he who saved Noah from the Great Flood.

Why was Enki so kind to people? The Sumerians believed that it was Enki who played the main role in the creation of man9. Scientists believe that this is just a myth, but the Sumerians themselves were convinced that the gods created man as a labor force. The ancient legends describe the rebellion of ordinary gods, who protested against the burden of hard work that lay on them (we will talk about what kind of work it was in chapter 14). Then Enki resolved the disputes of the gods, offering to create a primitive creature

for work, intelligent enough that it could use tools and carry out orders, "giving it the image of the gods."

Enki was helped in the creation of man by his half-sister NIN.HAR.SAG, which means "Lady of the Mountain" in translation. She was the chief nurse of the gods, her nickname is "Mistress of Life". She, along with Enki, carried out various genetic experiments with varying degrees of success. Sumerian legends say that Ninhursag once created a man with urinary incontinence, a woman who could not give birth, and another creature without sexual organs. Enki also had failures - for example, he created a blind man with shaking hands, a diseased liver and heart failure! Now that we know how to decipher the human genome in the 20th century, we understand the excitement and pride that Ninhursag felt when she turned out to be a full-fledged person. As stated in one inscription, she exclaimed:

"How perfect or unsuccessful is the human body?

My heart is telling me

That I can make his fate good or bad."

At last the perfect man was created. Ninhursag exclaimed: "I created it! I made it with my own hands!" One text makes it quite clear that Ninhursag gave this new creature "skin like that of the gods". Having improved the ideal person - endowing him with a large brain, smooth skin and the ability for more complex finger movements, it was not at all difficult to take the next step:

move on to cloning - which is now quite a common scientific procedure - to create an army of laborers. This incredible event was forever marked with the symbol of Ninhursag - a horseshoe-shaped knife for cutting the umbilical cord - this tool was used by midwives in ancient times. Ninhursag has since become known also under the name of the Mother Goddess, and throughout the ancient world numerous primitive religious cults were associated with her name. Archaeologists have long puzzled over the meaning that sacred images of pregnant women had in early societies.

In the first chapter, I talked about the meaning of such words as "clay/dust", "rib", and described the newly created creature, which the Sumerians called LU.LU, which literally means - "The one that was mixed." In the light of the deepest controversies about the origin of man, which are discussed in chapter 2, the Sumerian version takes on tremendous significance. Maybe Enki superimposed the image (genetic blueprint) of the gods on an unsightly Homo erectus, which 200 thousand years ago suddenly made a giant evolutionary leap, turning into Homo sapiens^ Careful study of ancient texts confirms that this is exactly what happened in reality.

WARS OF THE GODS

The name Sumer was written as ~ KI.EN.GIR, which literally meant "Land of the Rocket Lords", but this name also had another meaning - "Land of Taskmasters". This last term is almost identical to the word neter,(ntr), which the Egyptians called their gods. These terms clearly indicate the role of the gods as "taskmasters" or "masters of men." Scientists

studied the Sumerian and Egyptian civilizations separately, as independent entities, but, as we shall see, the prehistory of mankind does not know such divisions.

One of the most famous and impressive Egyptian whether-. gend is the story of Osiris and Isis. Although this story is generally considered a myth, some scholars sometimes expressed the idea that she Maybe, based on real historical events. According to the records of Manetho, an Egyptian priest, and at the same time a historian who lived in the 3rd century BC, the god Osiris and his wife, and she is also a sister, Isis were the rulers of Northern Egypt for more than 6 thousand years before the beginning human civilization. As we shall see below, the tragic story of Osiris sheds light on key events in human prehistory.

This tragic story begins with the fact that the brother of Osiris - Seth tricked Osiris into lying down in a large box, and then sealed it and threw it into the sea. Isis went in search of her missing husband. The divine "wind" informed her that the box had washed ashore at Byblos, Lebanon. While she was waiting for the god Thoth to help her and revive her husband, Seth suddenly appeared again; he dismembered the body of Osiris into 14 pieces and scattered them throughout Egypt. And again Isis went in search of her husband, and she managed to find all the pieces of his body, except for the phallus. In some versions of the legend, it is said that Isis buried the body parts of her husband in the places where she found them, in others - that she connected them together, thereby laying the foundation for the tradition of mummifying the dead. Later in this story, what seems to be very similar to the cloning procedure is told: Isis removed his "essence" from the body of Osiris and used it to become pregnant. Then she secretly gave birth to a son - Horus, who, having become an adult, returned to avenge the death of his father.

The continuation of the tale of Horus and the winged disk with which he fought Set is another interesting story about an ancient technique that deserves further research. The battle ended with the defeat of Set, the god whose image has since been identified with chaos.

Until 1976, the Egyptian and Mesopotamian records were studied separately, mainly in terms of mythology. And so Zakaria Sitchin, taking the translations of the legends as reliable source data, connected these narratives together, and created a consistent reliable outline of events. So

Thus, he turned Egyptian mythology back to the earliest stages of human history, and showed how the conflict between Horus and Set led to a bitter war between the rival factions of gods - supporters of Enlil and Enki.

Why did such hatred arise between the brothers Osiris and Set? Referring to the very laws of inheritance that are set forth in the Sumerian annals, Sitchin showed that by marrying Isis, Osiris thereby prevented his rival Set from producing an heir from their half-sister. Until that time, the rivalry between Osiris and Set was resolved by dividing between them, the territory of Egypt. Now Osiris made it clear that it was his son, and not the son of Seth, who would receive the right to rule all of Egypt in the future.

Why did the defeat of Set at the hands of the avenger - Horus, entailed a general war between the Egyptian gods and the eastern gods of Mesopotamia? The key to understanding this conflict is the division of lands and strategic cities between the two divine brothers Enlil and Enki. After the Flood - and the Sumerians recognize it as a genuine historical event - according to the texts of the narratives, the earth was divided into 3 regions: the neutral region of the gods on the Sinai Peninsula, transferred under the control of the Mother Goddess Ninhur-sag; African lands under the rule of the gods from the party of Enki; and the lands of Asia, especially Mesopotamia and the Levant,10 ruled by gods from the party of Enlil.

As Sitchin noted, this division of land is in full accordance with the legend that a great god named Ptah, having arrived in Egypt from across the sea, began reclamation work in order to raise the land above the water level. Therefore, the ancient Egyptians called their country the "Lifted Land". By all indications, this god was Enki. Recall that the descendants of the son of Noah - Ham were settled in African lands, where the gods from the party of Enki ruled, while the territories of the Middle East and North Asia were assigned to two other sons of Noah - Shem and Japhet.

Noah's grandson - Canaan (son of Ham) was, according to chapter 9 of the Book of Genesis, cursed, it is not clear why. Sitchin suggested that this was due to the division of territories. Previously, scholars have been fascinated by this biblical story - it is incomprehensible, but it is still clear that it is about something very significant. As one commentator writes, chapter 9 of Genesis tells of some outrageous act, to which, apparently,

Canaan was involved. Quoting from the non-Biblical Book of Jubilees, Sitchin shows that this outrageous act was that Canaan went beyond the lands allotted to him:

"Canaan saw the land of Lebanon, and he liked it very much ... And he did not go to the land west of the sea, which he had inherited, but settled in the land of Lebanon, east and west of the Jordan River."

How could Canaan have so easily violated the orders of the gods that had given the tribe of Ham African land? Sitchin argues that such an act was impossible without the indulgence of one or another higher deity. Therefore, it is likely that the outrageous actions of Canaan coincided with the occupation of Lebanon by the god Set and his supporters, who fled here after the battle with Horus.

According to Sitchin, it was this illegal occupation of Enlil's lands that led to a general war, as a result of which Enlil's supporters drove the gods of Enki from Canaan. This war is described in many Sumerian, Akkadian and Assyrian sources, which all scholars unanimously attribute to the "Myths of Kura". These wars are also mentioned in the Egyptian ritual books. One of them speaks of "the rebellion raised by Set on the very day when a storm broke out over the Two Countries." However, all these are by no means myths - these stories are in fact a true account of one of the most critical events in the history of man, when he was first called to fight for his gods.

The leader of the Enlil clan was the god Ninurta, Enlil's firstborn, who led the battle in the "Petrel", equipped with powerful weapons. With the support of his brother Ishkur and niece Inanna, he attacked the enemy forces, led by the "Great Serpent". The annals describe this war, which probably went far beyond the original goals and led to the extermination of entire armies of people deep in African territories. The finale of this war was the siege of the "House Like Mountain", where the gods of Enki's party fled, led by himself, Ra and Nergal (whom Horus later joined). The gods of Enki's party were safe, protected by the powerful defenses of the Ekur, but they found themselves under a tight siege, with little to no food or water.

Why did one group of gods unleash such a fierce

a new and bloody war against their own fellow gods? First of all, it is necessary to note the deep antagonism that existed between the descendants of Enlil and Enki. As mentioned earlier, the firstborn son of Enki was terribly jealous of his brother Enlil, who was the rightful heir of Anu. It should be remembered that when the gods first settled on Earth (and therefore before the people in Sumer were granted kingdom and civilization), Enki was deposed by Enlil, and, as is known from the epic poem "Atrahasis" he was sent to a province called the Abzu. As we will learn in the next chapter, African territories, including Egypt, were named after the Abzu. Thus, Enki was dissatisfied with the downgrading of his position and exile in African lands.

The second important reason for the outbreak of war was the special importance of the territories captured by Set. As we will see later (in chapter 8), these territories were of great strategic importance to the gods - there were plans to build new structures for the maintenance of airships, to replace those that were destroyed during the Great Flood. Construction was planned at the place where the city of Jerusalem later arose, as well as on the Sinai Peninsula.

The war ended with the humiliating surrender of the vanquished and a peace conference at which the terms of peace were dictated by the victors. This was to have far-reaching consequences. As for the fate of Canaan and his tribe, the Old Testament says that they were not returned to the lands allotted to them, they were allowed to remain in the Middle East, but their status was lowered "- they became" servants of the Semitic tribe "12, and the tribe of Japheth expanded their lands."

INANNA - GODDESS OF LOVE AND WAR

In the Middle Eastern pantheon, one of the main deities was the goddess, whom the Sumerians called IN.ANNA (which meant - "Ani's favorite"). Her love affairs were a popular theme in ancient tales, and ancient artists willingly portrayed her! Hundreds of texts have been found that tell of Inanna's love affairs; the most famous of them - "Epic Poem of Gilgamesh". Inanna, under various names, was known in all ancient civilizations as the prototype of the goddess of love. The Assyrians and Babylonians called it

Ishtar, the Canaanites - Ashtoret, the Greeks - Aphrodite, and the Romans - Venus. According to the Sumerian texts, she was the daughter of Nannar, the granddaughter of Enlil, and the great granddaughter of Anu. She had many other nicknames, including IR.NI.NI - "Strong, sweet-smelling lady."

Inanna's exploits in the sexual field can only be compared with her prowess on the battlefield, and therefore she became not only the goddess of love, but also the prototype of the goddess of war. In many ways, these two aspects of her merge together. Her story, which Sitchin recounts in his book "Wars of Gods and Men" was very tragic: first she married Du-muzi, the son of Enki. It is not known for sure whether it was a love marriage, or whether Inanna thus tried to take possession of the lands of Enki's rival factions. But during this early period her power in the land of Enlil was undoubtedly limited by the preponderance of men. You don't have to be a feminist to understand how deeply her "feelings and ambitions" were hurt:

her grandfather Enlil had absolute power; brother Utu held key positions in the Jerusalem area; her father - Nannar was invested with "rule over Sinai, and her uncle - ISH.KUR (which means - "Far mountainous land") dominated the important center of Baalbek. Her own power base in Sumer was limited to the city of Uruk, which during this period meant very low position.

Soon after she married Dumuzi, Inanna persuaded him to acquire an heir through the usual practice - from his half-sister - Geshtinanna. Almost certainly, this was due to the "rules of inheritance" adopted among the gods. But Dumuzi's sister refused, and in a fit of rage he raped her. This was a serious violation of the rules, even for the gods, who at that time had rather loose rules of conduct. Dumuzi's older brother, Ra, who was unfriendly towards his relative and rival, the goddess Inanna, ordered Dumuzi to be arrested. The dramatic capture of Dumuzi, his flight and death are described in a Sumerian text called "His heart was full of tears." The subsequent trip of Inanna to Africa (the Lower World) is described in one of the most famous Sumerian texts, carefully copied by ancient scribes.

The death of Dumuzi, combined with the position of Africa in the Lower World (in the southern hemisphere), naturally served as a pretext for portraying the "descent" of Inanna into the Lower World in the form of a mythological narrative of a journey.

going to the underworld, or the world of the dead. This version was supported by legends that they did not return from there. But in this case, it was about lands inhabited by quite living people, and Inanna safely returned from there.

Enraged, Inanna blamed Ra for her husband's death and sought revenge. We know from one of the records that Ra fled and took refuge in the "Mountain", called the "Refuge of weeping and lamentations." Other texts say that this was the same E.KUR in which the gods of Enki's party were besieged by Ninurta's army. Sitchin again lifts the mythological veil and describes subsequent historical events:

the trial of Ra, his siege in Ekur without water and food, and then his flight.

There can hardly be any doubt that Inanna was dejected and saddened by Dumuzi's death and that her ambitions in Africa were thwarted. Indus (now Pakistan) This mysterious civilization began at the beginning, about 2800 BC, in several cities, and was in full bloom by 2500. The most striking feature of this so-called Harappan culture was its uniformity, manifested in all aspects of life - in construction, pottery, in religious beliefs. The main cities of this civilization, Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, were built in such a way that archaeologists had the impression that they were fully planned in advance before their construction began. Interestingly, the religious beliefs in Harappan were very different from the Sumerian and Egyptian beliefs, where many gods were worshiped. On the contrary, the population of Harappan had a single deity - a female goddess (see Fig. 13), whose images were strikingly similar to the goddess Inanna.

However, Inanna soon grew bored with her new responsibilities and turned her attention back to Sumer. During one

After a long visit to Enki's house, she got him drunk and lured him out of certain sacred objects called ME. It was not possible to establish exactly what these objects were, but thanks to them, Inanna gained great knowledge and power. While the Harappan civilization was repairing the damage it suffered from constant floods, the city of Uruk, which was ruled by Inanna, grew rich and grew, and Inanna herself became the supreme deity.

And then, as the ancient chronicles say, Inanna found a man who was to become an instrument of her ambitions, a man who built the city of Agad, and later founded the Akkadian empire. This man's name was Sargon the Great, and archaeologists have established that he lived around 2400 BC. The age of Inanna was beginning, and she became more dangerous both in love and in war than ever before.

DID SUMER ORIGIN FROM ATLANTIS?

What can we say about the Sumerian civilization and about these amazing stories about the gods? Outwardly, Sumer cannot impress us in the way that the sight of the Egyptian pyramids does - its ancient ziggurats are now barely recognizable mounds. But the heritage of Sumerian technology we constantly feel, and it makes a deep impression on us. Every time we look at our watch, we are reminded of the sixagesimal mathematics of the Sumerians and its close connection with astronomy. As soon as we sit behind the wheel of a car, the first Sumerian wheel immediately comes to mind. In all our present social institutions there are traits inherited from Sumer. The thousands of small Sumerian clay tablets that are now kept in museums speak much more clearly than the hieroglyphs presented to the public in Egypt. What they say is convincing and irrefutable and allows you to discover the secret of the origin of mankind.

Let's look at a few facts. First, archaeologists have proven that the Sumerian civilization arose suddenly about 6 thousand years ago. Secondly, it is indisputable that the Sumerians possessed an incredibly high level of scientific knowledge, and this knowledge, apparently, appeared suddenly, and did not develop over any long evolutionary period (who, for example, could observe and comprehend the precessional cycle, lasting 25,920 years?) Thirdly, the Sumerians explained all events, invariably connecting them with their gods.

mi. Fourthly, Sumerian legends about gods in flesh and blood are subsequently reproduced in the Hebrew stories about Yahweh and the ancient Egyptian stories about the god Ra, not to mention the so-called myths of South America and the rest of the world.

Let's now consider some options: either the Sumerians were telling the truth, or they were lying. Even if they lied (or showed unbridled imagination), then we still have to explain where they got such high technology from. If they were not taught by "aliens", then the teachers were the inhabitants of the Earth. And this suggests the existence of an earlier advanced civilization. And here, first of all, a fairly common idea about the lost civilization of Atlantis, which developed over tens of thousands of years, and then died as a result of a natural disaster, comes to mind. So, we have an elementary choice - either the gods or the Atlanteans!

Now let's deal with the simplest speculative reasoning. First, if the Sumerians learned from the Atlanteans, then where did the Atlanteans themselves come from? We still have to unravel the mystery of the appearance homo sapiens, which was well known to the Sumerians. Secondly, we do not have any direct evidence of the existence of the Atlanteans - only a lot of speculation and a myth promulgated by the Greek philosopher Plato. The "evidence" for the Atlanteans, based on an oral tradition dating back to about 350 BC, is less convincing than the Sumerian written evidence, which has lain untouched since 2000. Thirdly, if we could excavate the city of the Atlanteans at the bottom of the sea, then perhaps we would find that they also worshiped gods named Anu, Enlil and Enki.

In the previous chapters, we have listed many traces of the presence of ancient technology, which is evidenced by old maps, pyramids, structures with astronomical equipment. Supporters of the theory of Atlantis also proceed from this premise - a theory that claims that everything can be explained by the existence of a lost civilization. But now - in chapter 6 - we disagree with the adherents of this theory, for we intend to rely on hard evidence, and not on unsupported myths, rumors or hypotheses.

So, leaving aside speculative considerations, how could we apply a scientific approach to confirm the Sumerian legends about the gods? The famous astronomer Carl Sagan once said: “On the basis of written evidence alone, it will be very difficult to convincingly prove

that there have been contacts with extraterrestrial civilizations in the past."

Therefore, we will focus in the following chapters on physical evidence supporting the Sumerian legends. We need to answer a number of important questions.

The first question is "Where did the gods come from?" - is the main one in chapter 7.

Question two - "What physical evidence can be given in support of the Sumerian legends about the presence of gods on earth?" Chapters 8-10 are devoted to this issue.

Question three - "What goals did the gods pursue?" This issue is discussed in chapter 14.

The fourth and most controversial question concerns the assumption of the immortality of the gods. In chapters 12 and 13, based on the latest discoveries in the field of genetics, the possibility of slowing down the aging process is considered, which could give the impression of immortality.

Finally, to determine the role of the flesh and blood gods in stories humanity, we need to develop chronological line, which would tie together all the events so that it could withstand the most rigorous scrutiny. The basis for such a chronology is proposed in chapter 11 and developed further in chapter 13.

If we can convincingly answer all of these questions, we can set aside the Atlantis diversion and focus on the final question, "Where are the gods now?" This issue is discussed in chapters 15 and 16.

CONCLUSIONS FROM CHAPTER 6

The Sumerians had advanced knowledge in the field of metallurgy and astronomy. In the field of astronomy, they knew the period of the cycle of the precessional movement of the earth's axis, which is 25,920 years.

Scientists are unable to explain how the Sumerian civilization arose so suddenly, nor how the Sumerians mastered such amazingly high technology. The Sumerians themselves explain that it was a "gift from the gods".

The presence of high technology in antiquity can only be explained either by the presence of a race of "gods" or by the existence of a lost civilization, such as Atlantis. However, it seems that the legend of Atlantis is just one of the branches of the great mystery of Sumer and his gods.

Library creator.