The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-08-23
Diverse of tablet found by Prof which legend
Fal of Man..

line 10y line. every particle Of the in
sCription. His vacation was almost
over and he could not make a transla-
tion before sailing for England. but on
arriving there he set Ia work and some
months later gave to .Assyrian scholars
private and preliminary account
which Immediately compelled fervor
of interest and speculation.
The fragment. according to Langdon.
contains the upper portion Of the oh
verse and the lower portion of the re-
verse of "A three column tablet. judy
ing from the opening and closing lines
of our text" he says, eve have here
hymn to Nirharsag or Aruru the god
dess who according to Bahylonian
tradition created man."
Here was the first point that aston
ishcd those who wcr, familiar with the
story Of creation as found in the Bible.
According to the tradition recorded on
this clay tablet about I 500 years ago, IL
was not God hut goddess who created
man. How far back this tradition had
existed. from whom it came down TO
the babylon scholar who recorded it
in the library at Nppur no one knows
But it was recorded in the Sumerian-
| dead language as Greek is to-day. The
l!ahylonian word of scholarship used
Sumcrian just rs the modern world uses
Latin.
In its complete state" Prof Lang
don's preliminary announcement con-
tinurs, the tablet contained about 2iO
lines. The remnants of the first two
columns apparently sing the heroic
of ha b,.r H..
events which took place in her city,
OPS.
"Not much can be made out Of he
| diverse until We reach column 3,
whore we find ourselves in the midst of
a dispute between N.utud tone of the
Sumer.an titles Of the goddess MIN
harSag) and Enki, or la. Evidently
| EuN, the water god, had decided to
destroy men by dclugc. Nintud sum
mons the plous. with whom she was
not wroth, into her temple. together
with certain divine anonted ones
| probably Priests.
"No commands to build an ark are
| given, but the text says that Nintud
| said to the king 80 my king, the
dc,uge sweeps away; yea, the deluge
iwecps away Whcrcupon His foot on
| the boat s;ra!ghtway he set, and two
guards he placed Then Ea
Ol,ukp sent waters which swept over
b the fields. The waters of Ia pos
/ - sscd the fields ON the first day Of
/ the first month it began and on the
ninth day of the ninth month there was
IA passing away of the waters
Prof, Langdun encountered then
considerable break in the triangular
fragment Of this precious tablet, but
after that found the name Of the king
who survived the flood.
He is called Tagtug, "a gardener
/ whom Enki summons to his temple
and reveals secrets to him. Now fnki
or Ia, god of wisdom and the sea, is
the Cannes of Berossus, who soon
after the creation Of men rose from the
sea to teach th'm culture and civiliza-
ton. Undoubtedly we have here a
! brief mention Of more retailed ac-
count in Sumcrian." Tagtug, whose title
shows him to have attained immor-
tally, is undoubtedly, in Prof, Lang
don's opinion, "thc Sumeriln original
Of the Hebrew Noah" After further
explanation, together with comparison
|of synonyms and references to other
| inscriptions. the oxford Assyriologist
| continues:
I'VE have therefore southern Shur-
uppak version in which the name of
the hero IS Identical with that of the
Semitic Hahy!onlan. a name which re-
votls also his translation to the isle of
the blessed, where h., his wife ana the
pilot received the boon of eternal life.
This is the version which has been
givcn by BcVossus, who says thai
Nisuthros, his Wife. his daughter ana the
pilot were translated to the far away
heavens.
"Iiut the northern version, On which
the Biblical account Is based, knows of
no translation to eternal lifc. Although
/ Tdgtug appears as an immortal after
the Dcluge and in our tablet lEnki re-
vcas to him wisdom, yet, as We shall
see, he lost this incompatible gift by
eating of some forh, dGen tree, HI