Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1914-04-05
Of an Ancient Tablet from
Babylonia, Which Gives an Entirely
New Chronology to the World,
Makes Its Creator Goddess, and
Relates New Version of the Flood

FIVE cities are named after five other great
dynities Hummdad, Bad.nigar Larak, who
gave his power to Pabilhareg: Shippar, who
gave power to Shama. the sun-god, and last
Shurrupak.
The poem goes on TO tell how priests were
set over the cities, canals, rivers and streams
created, and the land watered so that grain
might grow
Once more the top of the column is missing
and we come upon only these scattered words
THE place the people. Ia rainstorm
Their. they made" indicating that the
wrath Of the gods was kindled against men
FOR some impiOusness and the narrative CON
tnues substantially as follows:
IA that time Nintu walled like a woman in
travail The holy Ishtar walled on account of
the people. Enk who WAS the god of wisdom
whom the two great regnant gods con sulted on
all occasions and who seems to have been a
sort Of Ulysses held counsel with Anu EnkiI
and Nintu over the proposed destruction OF
mankind At that time Ziugidda was king and
high priest Of Shurappak. meaning city of the
last day Of the food and he made obeisance
to the gods and prayed, prostratng himself in
humility and daily and personally he was In
contact with them by means Of dreams and
conjured them daily by the name Of heaven
and earth"
The ensuing Is very complicated poetry fan
of parallelism like that of the Hebrew Psalms
but the meaning Of il all is that Enki desired
to save Nintus creatures and ordered Ziu
gidda TO stand by a wall and listen and he
told him by our command a raiustOrm will
be sent to destroy the seed of mankind This
IN the decision of the assembly of the gods"
Unfortunately much Of the rest of this ac-
count IS lost as 1t appears on the reverse side
OF the tablet. but we learn that Ziugdda
standing by the wall, heard the story and un.
derstood that the destruction Of mankind nv
flood was at hand. Thus said the god
Enk. ITO destroy the seed of mankind is the
decision Of the gods" etc. and what is missing
apparently Is an injunction to King Ziugidda
TO escape.
The account begins again with a description
Of wlndstorms which possess great power the
transforms in their entirety went with them
and the storms We're terrible After seven
days the rainstorm had stormed over the land
and carried away the huge boat Then the
sun god came forth shedding light over heaven
and earth. Zugidda opened the (roof) of his
ship and the light of the sun god was let into
the interior of the huge boat
After the storm and the waters had disap-
peared, Hiugidda prayed to the gods of heaven
with a loud voice and sacrificed an OK. sheep
and something with a great horn" the name
of which Is missing Evidently the PRAYER was
answered and il would appear that Enld and
Nintu persuaded the gods not TO continue their
wrath further As in all Oriental tales when
an orring one is forgiven he is loaded with
new honors and presents SO in this case the
gods forgive the human beings and give them
Immortality, which before they did not pos
scss And as for Zugidda NOAH he is hoa-
orod 10y being taken to an island in the Per
sian Gulf where he lives in a sort of Paradise
and many cpics tell of now he was visited
by heroes in later years
The fact that Nintu. the Creator. is named
ms the equal of the gods points to a very early
period of civilization il. Babylonia when
woman was at first the superior and aferward
the tull equal OF man
The tablet comes from Nippur which has
long been known as one of the most ancient
sites of civilization in all Babyouia. in fact
10 was because of references to it's ancient
power found on tablets in Nineyeh and other
cities that the University Of Pennsylvania
selected this site
The fate of the other tablets belonging TO
this series. which would give us the entire
story is not yet known but it is only natural
to expect some astonishing revelations when
the other tablets are found either in the
museum at the university or more probably in
the museum at Constantinope to which by far
the largest number of tablets had To be taken
nr Poehel discussing the tablet i'm the latest
number OF the Museum Journal the official
publication OF the University Of Penn syyauia
saws
"a Babylouan story OF the deuge has been
known TO us for long time from a poem that
rs Embedded i'm the famous Gugamesh epic
There exist. also. several fragments OF other
versions OF the story and the Museum pos
-