The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1916-01-14
NEWLY DISCOVERED STORY
OF THE GARDEN OF EDEN
Scientific American.o

O1SSOVERED STORY
OF THE GARDEN OF EDEN
Scientific American
>,. oome years ago among the ruins or
Nlneveth there was found cylindric-
al stone seal engraved with the figures
OF man, woman and a serpent ga
thered about a tree. AT once it was
suggested that the ancient BABYLON
! ians were familiar with the ola Semitic
story OF Adam and Eve in the Garden
OF Eden, or the story of the Fall of
man. Also among the ruins of Nine
ven was discovered large collection
OF clay tablets. hundred thousand in
number, inscribed with the literature
OF the Babylonians and Assyrians.
when the tablets were read, the world
was surprised 10 find among them
the story of the Creation of the
world, and also story of the DeIupe
SO similar to the biblical story that it
was evident the Hebrew and Assyrian
stories were the same.
or several years an expedition from
the, University of Pennsylvania car
RED on excavations in the Babylonian
city CIT yo OF Nippur. where something like
/Oo0O inscribed objects were brought
to Philadelphia. In the autumn OF
i9lZ Professor Stephen Langdon, an
American of Oxford, England, while
visiting the museum of the University
OF Pennsylvania, noticed a fragment
OF a tablet bearing an inscription
which suggested the story of the Gar
den OF Eden. The fragment was car
rled to Oxford and carefully examined.
and at last few lines of a Babylonian
story resembling the biblical story
were discovered. Upon Prof. Lang
don's next visit to Philadelphia search
was made for other fragments of the
tablet. Two were found and fitted to-
gether, and the tablet became nearly
complete. The tablet is of baked clay
OF a light brownish color, measuring
"a inches in length and in width.
One side is fiat; the other is slightly
convex. Upon each side are three
columns of cuneiform writing, con-
tanning about US lines; originally it
contained about 800 lines. Scholars
are agreed that it comes from about
l,OOO years before the biblical story
was written in its present shape.
The story is written In the Sum rian
hrst cultured people to live in the
/ AN"N AtNSOPotdhlldu valley 10 the
north of the Persian Gulf. To Just
what race they belonged, or where
they originally lived, no man knows.
We are only sure that at a very early
time, probably about $500 B. c., they
came to Babylonia bringing a high
civilization with them. They wrote
their language in cuneiform character.
upon tablets of clay and stone. They
had highly developed religion, liter
ature and art. Poems and legends and
historical inscriptions have come from
them. They were the worlds cultur-
Ted people of 5000 years ago, just as
were the Greeks of a later period.
After the Sumerians had occupied
Babylonia for several centuries, the
Semitic Babylonians. from whom the
Jews descended, entered the valley.
They conquered the older civilized
Sumerians, possessed their cities, and
adopted their culture. The Scmites
had no written language, but soon
they began to write their spoken Ian
guage in the Sumerian characters.
They adopted many of the Sumerian
religious customs, and made that
earlier civilization their own. 1t was
| these cultured Sumerians who wrote
the story upon the tablet in the Uni
versity of Pennsylvania.
| A brief outline of the story is as fol-
lows:
Enki. the god of the sea. and his
wife or daughter Ninella. ruled over
Mankind in Paradise. Paradise was
the land of Dilmun. or the modern
island Of Bahrein. In Paradise sick
ness was unknown. Sin had not en-
tered. Though the years passed, 1t
was land of perpetual youth. No
wild animals DESTROYED the focks. and
no storms ragged. Enki. the god, de-
cided to destroy mankind with food,
and he revealed his purpose to Nintud,
the goddess who had created man
kind. For nine months and nine days
the food ragged, and men were dissolv-
ed in the water 'like tallow and fat"
But Nintud, the mother-goddess, de-
termined to save the king, Tagtug.
and him she called to the shore and
embarked on a boat. Tagtug, who was
thus saved. corresponds to the bibli-
cal Noah. 1t was the custom of the
Babylonians to defy their kings after
death. The goddess Nintud explained
to the god Enki how Tagtug has es-
capped the universal destruction. and
had become a god. He then became
gardener. Enki revealed to him the
secrets of trees and plants. Tagtue
was permitted to eat of the fruit of all
the trees, excepting that of the Cassia
But he ate of the fruit of the Cassia
tree, and at once the goddess Nintud
| tool from him immortaIity He was