Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1914-04-05

tablet IS one dug up at Nippur, in ancient
Babylonia some years ago by one of the nu-
suem expeditions 1t has Just been translated
by Or. Arno Poebel, the distinguished Oriental
scholar The tablet goes back at least to the
time Of Abraham C2i00 y. Co and perhaps
earlier. and differs in many ways from tho
story heretofore known as the Babylonian
Creation Story, and much more from the Bibli-
cal account.
The striking novel features these:
That 1t was a female deity who created
mankind, known as the blackhcaded," from
the color Of the hair
That new deties new characteristics Of
the goddess are discovered in the original
documents. although they have been limited at
I'm other ways. The character Of the female
goddess is now made important from the earli-
est time and equal with the two male ruler
gods Later tablets speak Of them as unim-
portant.
That the first seven preduvan cities and
the special god OF each are discovered.
That the older Babylonian name OF the
Scriptural Noah is Xiugidda
That deuge ruins Of the preduvlan cities
were not all destroyed some not until neo-his
toric times. There Is historic basis to much OF
the statement in this epic.
Parallelisms with the story found in
Genesis are.
The Creation is according to the second &C
count, as found in the second chapter Of
Genesis. beginning with verse ,. whereby man
Is created first, then the ground and then the
most important things in order and thus re-
versed our ideas of evolution
The wickedness of man caused determine
tion by the gods upon the destruction Of the
race. but Ziugidda was saved because he was
pious
The race was saved by one man building an
ark in which he collected men and animals.
Although in Genesis God is represented
deliberately saving Noah in this tablet the
spite of mankind is through the agency Of one
of the gods, who informs Ziugidda of his i'm.
pending fate, who thus s enabled TO prevent
mankind from disappearing. Other important
features will be shown later
This tablet belongs to the period Of Ham
murab Cthe Amraphel of Genesisl contem-
porary of Abraham. and is especially import
ant as it offers a new chronology for the world.
When taken In connection with another tablet
which states that 10000 years elapsed he
tween the Creation and the Flood and the state
ment made on this tablet that - .223 years had
elapsed between the food and an event pre-
cedng the reign of Hammurabi by $50 years.
we get an enormous total for the time In which
mankind has existed. one that is much more
IN accord with the conclusions of science than
any heretofore suggested. The total to our
time would be 515.3G6 years from the Creation
About thirtyseven years ago George Smith.
The English scholar and explorer. brought back
from tabylOuia the cylinders which gave a
Babylouian account Of the origin of mankind
and much of his earlier history, and these not
only excited great interest in the scholastic
world. but had n profound effect upon the theo
logical teachings, The parallclism between the
Babylonlau story and that of Genesis dcvel-
oped a new school IN theological criticism
But the cylinders of Smith only dated back to
the reign OK Assurbanipal in the seventh cen
fury. B. c.
The new cylinder is written In sumerian, the
ancient language of the country that existed
before the Babylonians occupied it,
The tablet is badly broken. Originally Il
was about seven inches square This would
t...Hf. B..