SEE SITCHIN’S EARTH CHRONICLES, ETC.:

(Texts: All Artifacts, Color Coding, & Writings in Bold Type With Italics Inside Parenthesis, are Added by Editor R. Brown, not the Authors, Translators, or Publishers!))

(gods in blue …mixed-breed demigods in teal…)

The gods sorted out their responsibilities when:

         “The gods had clasped hands together,…”

Had cast lots and had divided.

         “Anu then went up to Heaven;

         To Enlil the Earth was made subject.

         The seas, enclosed as with a loop,

         They had given to Enki, the Prince of Earth …”

 

Another version, Akkadian states:

         “The gods clasped their hands together, then cast lots and divided:

         Anu to heaven went up;

         To Enlil the Earth was made subject;

         That which the sea as a loop encloses, they gave to the prince Enki.

         To the Abzu Enki went down, assumed the rulership of the Abzu…”

 

A praise to Enlil:

         “In Heaven–he is the Prince; on Earth–he is the Chief…”

        

        “Enlil, Whose command is far reaching;

         Whose “word” is lofty and holy;

         Whose pronouncement is unchangeable;

         Who decrees destinies unto the distant future…. “

        

        “The Gods of Earth bow down willingly before him;

         The Heavenly gods who are on Earth Humble themselves before him;

         They stand by faithfully, according to instructions… “

        

        “ENLIL, tea Lord who decided to produce what is useful

         ENLIL, tea Lord whose decisions are immutable,

         imagined the separate Sky from the Earth

         When the Sky had been placed far away from the Earth (Ki)

         When Earth tea had been separated from Sky tea

         When the name of Man had been found,

         When AN (Anu) had brought down the Sky

         When ENLIL had gathered the ground…

         ENLIL germinated the ground with the seed of the country…”

Enlil was Anu’s heir-apparent, above all other gods.

        “No cities would be built, no settlements founded;

         No stalls would be built, no sheepfolds erected;

         No king would be raised, no high priest born…”

        

         “Enlil, When you marked off divine settlements on Earth,

         Nippur you set up as your very own city.

         The city of Earth, the lofty,

         Your pure place whose water is sweet.

         You founded the Dur-An-Ki (bond heaven-earth)

         In the center of the four corners of the world…”

 

Another version states:

        “He perfected the procedures, the divine ordinances;

         Established five cities in perfect places,

         Called them by name,

         Laid them out as centers.

         The first of these cities, Eridu,

         He granted to Nudimmud (Enki), the pioneer…”

 

A Sumerian psalm states:

        “Lord who knows the destiny of the Land, trustworthy in his calling;

         Enlil who knows the destiny of Sumer, trustworthy in his calling;

         Father Enlil, Lord of all the lands;

         Father Enlil, Lord of the Rightfull Command;

         Father Enlil, Shepherd of the Black-Headed Ones….

         From the Mountain of Sunrise to the Mountain of Sunset,

         There is no other Lord in the land; you alone are King …”

 

Enlil meets the goddess who later becomes his wife. She is bathing in Nippur’s stream when:

         “The shepherd Enlil who decrees the fates,

         The Bright-Eyed One, saw her.

         The lord speaks to her of intercourse; she is unwilling.

         Enlil speaks to her of intercourse;

         She is unwilling:

         ‘My vagina is too small,

         It knows no copulation;

         My lips are too little,

         They know not kissing.’…”

 

After Enlil raped her and news reach other gods, a cry rang out:

        “Enlil, immoral one! Get thyself out of the city!…”

 

Inanna once boasted:

         “Enlil himself fastened the divine ME-attire about my body…”

 

Enlil said to her:

         “You have lifted the ME,

         You have tied the ME to your hands,

         You have gathered the ME,

         You have attached the ME to your breast….

         O Queen of all the ME, O radiant light

         Who with her hand grasps the seven ME …”

Soon they too began to clamor for the slave workers, the “creatures of bright countenance” but with thick black hair:

         “The Anunnaki stepped up to Enlil...

         Black-headed Ones they were requesting of him,

         To the Black-headed people to give the pickaxe to hold…”

Enlil ordered the expulsion of The Adam—the Earthling—from the E.Din (“The Abode of the Righteous Ones”). No longer confined to the settlements of the Anunnaki, Man began to roam the Earth.

         “And Adam knew Eve his wife,

         and she conceived and bore Cain…

         and she bore again his brother Abel.

         The gods were no longer alone on Earth…”

 

At one time a Sumerian king of Ur complained to the Assembly of the Gods that

         “Enlil did give the kingship to a worthless man…

         who is not of Sumerian seed…”

Pyramid Wars:

On one side was Ninurta, Adad, and soon joined by Sin, and then later on by Inanna / Ishtar; on the opposing side are listed Nergal, a god referred as the “Mighty, lofty One”–Ra / Marduk—and the “God of two Great Houses” (the two Great Pyramids of Giza), (Horus) who had tried to escape, camouflaged in a ram’s skin.

Ninhursag took the surrender offer of Enki’s to Enlil. She met him in the presence of Adad (while Ninurta remained on the battlefield). “O hear my prayers!” she begged the two gods…

         “Presenting himself there, to the Mother,…”

        

         “Adad thus said:

         ‘We are expecting victory.

         The enemy forces are beaten.

         The trembling of the land he could not withstand’…”

 

Adad said, let her call discussions on the basis that the Enlilites are about to win:

         “Get up and go—talk to the enemy.

         Let him attend the discussions so that the attack be withdrawn.”

 

Enlil, in less forceful language, supported the suggestion:

         “Enlil opened his mouth;

         In the assembly of the gods he said:

         ‘Whereas Anu at the mountain the gods assembled,

         warfare to discourage, peace to bring,

         and has dispatched the Mother of the Gods to entreat with me–

         Let the Mother of the Gods be an emissary’…”

 

Turning to his sister (Ninhursag), he said in a conciliatory vein:

         “Go, appease my brother!

         Raise unto him a hand for Life;

         From his barred doorway, let him come out!…”

 

Doing as suggested, Ninhursag

         “his brother went to fetch, put her prayers before the god…”

 

She assured him that his safety, and that of his sons, was assured:

         “by the stars she gave a sign.”

 

As Enki hesitated she said to him tenderly:

         “Come, let me lead you out…”

         “And as he did, he gave her his hand…”

She conducted him and other defenders of the Great Pyramid to the Harsag, her abode. Ninurta and his warriors watched…

We learn from the continuing ancient chronicle that Ninhursag first went with her idea of stopping the fighting and convening a peace conference to Enlil’s camp.

The Enlilite’s first reaction…was to accuse her of giving aid and comfort to the “demons”.” Ninhursag denied the accusation:

         “My House is pure,…”

she answered. But a god whose identity is unclear challenged her sarcastically:

         “Is the House which is loftier and brightest of all…”–

the Great Pyramid—also “pure”?

         “Of that I cannot speak…”

Ninhursag answered;

         “its brilliance Gibil is soldiering…”

…a ceremony of symbolic baptism making Ninhursag welcome again in Mesopotamia. Enlil touched her with his “bright scepter,” and the

         “power of her was not overthrown..”

But then Enlil agreed saying to her:

         “Go, appease my brother…”

 

Ninhursag performed a symbolic ceremony of her own. She lighted seven fires, one each for the gathered gods: Enki and his two sons: Enlil and his three sons (Ninurta, Adad, and Sin). She uttered an incantation as she lit each fire:

         “A firery offering to Enlil of Nippur…

         to Ninurta…

         to Adad...

         to Enki, coming from the Abzu…

         to Nergal, coming from Meslam…”

 

By nightfall the place was ablaze:

         “as sunlight was the great light set off by the goddess…”

 

Ninhursag then appealed to the wisdom of the gods and extolled the virtues of peace:

         “Mighty are the fruits of the wise god;

         the great divine river to his vegetation shall come…

         `its overflowing will make (the land) like a garden of god…”
        

         “Enki addressed to Enlil words of lauding:

         ‘O one who is foremost among the brothers,

         Bull of Heaven, who the fate of Mankind holds:

         In my lands, desolation is wide spread;

         All the dwellings are filled with sorrow by your attacks’…”

 

…the territorial disputes be brought to and end and the lands rightfully belonging to the Enlilites and the people of the line of Shem be vacated by the Enkites. Enki agreed to cede forever these territories:

        “I will grant thee the rulers position in the gods’ Restricted Zone;

         The Radiant Place, in thy hand I will entrust! …”

 

In so ceding the Restricted Zone (the Sinai peninsula with its spaceport) and the Radiant Place (the site of Mission Control Center, the future Jerusalem) Enki had a firm condition…the sovereignty of Enki and his descendants over the Giza complex had to recognized for all time.

Enlil agreed but…sons of Enki who had brought about the war and used the Great Pyramid for combat…be barred from ruling over Giza…or the whole of Lower Egypt. Enki agreed.

         “For the formidable House Which is Raised Like a Heap…”

 

he appointed the prince who is like a full-grown ibex–…and commanded him to guard the Place of Life.

         “He then granted the young god the exalted title NIN.GISH.ZI.DA

         (Lord of the Artifact of Life)…”

 

As one reads the ancient words it…laid the plans for the manner in which the lands would be settled by mankind! Enki:

         “before the feet of the adversary (Enlil) laid the cities that were allotted him…”

 

Enlil, in turn,

         “before the feet of his adversary (Enki) the land Sumer he laid out…”

 

…and he, Enki, was given back the site of Eridu, the hallowed place of his first Earth Station. Accepting the condition, Enlil said:

         “In my land, let your abode become everlasting;

         from the day that you shall come into my presence,

         the laden table shall exhale delicious smells for thee.”

With all these matters settled, Enki and his sons departed for their domains.

 

On the apparent advise of Ninlil, Shu-Sin built for the divine couple

         “a great touring boat, fit for the largest rivers…

         He decorated it perfectly with precious stones.

         He then placed the touring boat in the wide basin

         facing Ninlil’s House of Pleasure…”

        

        “When Enlil heard (all this)

         From horizon to horizon he hurried,

         From south to north he traveled;

         Through the skies, over earth he hurried,

         To greatly rejoice with his beloved queen, Ninlil…”

 

But the very last lines refer to

         “Ninurta, the great warrior of Enlil, who befuddled the Intruder,…”

 

apparently after “an inscription, an evil inscription” was discovered on an effigy in the boat, intended perhaps to place a curse on Enlil and Ninlil.

…a total solar eclipse…the oracle priests of Nippur could not allay Shu-Suen’s anxiety; it was, they said in their written message, an omen

         “to the king who rules the four regions;

          his wall will be destroyed, Ur will become desolate…”

 

Tower of Babel Tale:

         “The thoughts…”

of this god’s heart

         “were evil; against the Father of the Gods (Enlil) he was wicked…”

 

To achieve his evil purpose

         “the people of Babylon he corrupted to sin,…”

         “small and great to mingle on the mound…”

 

As the sinful work came to the attention of

         “the Lord of the Pure Mound to Heaven and on Earth spoke…

         He lifted his heart to the Lord of the Gods,

         Anu, his father; to receive a command his heart requested.

         At that time he also lifted up (his heart? Voice?) to Damkina (Enki’s spouse)…”

 

She was the mother of Marduk; so all the clues point to him as the instigator…Damkina stood by his side:

         “With my son I rise…”

 

The incomplete verse that follows has her stating that “his number” his numerical rank-status?–was at issue.

Enlil’s efforts to talk the rebellious group out of their plans, taking himself up in a Whirlwind,

         “Nunamnir (Enlil) from the heaven to the earth spoke;

         (but) by his path they did not go; violently they fronted against him…”

 

When Enlil

         “saw this, to earth he descended…”

…that…

          “when a stop he did not make of the gods,…”

 

he had no choice but to resort to force:

         “To their stronghold tower, in the night, a complete end he made.

         In his anger, a command he also poured out:

         To scatter abroad was his decision,

         He gave a command their counsels to confuse….their course he stopped…”

 

The ancient Mesopatamian scribe ended the tale of the Tower of Babel with a bitter memory: Because they

         “against the gods revolted with violence,

         violently they wept for Babylon; very much they wept…”

 

The biblical version also names Babel (Hebrew for Babylon)…original Akkadian—Bab-Illi–it meant “Gateway of the Gods”, the place by which the gods were to enter and leave Sumer.

Enki spoke out strongly against the idea, urging steps to stop Nergal, for the use of the weapons, he pointed out,

         “the lands will make desolate, the people will make perish…”

 

Nannar and Utu wavered as Enki spoke, but Enlil and Ninurta were for decisive action. And so with the Council of the Gods in disarray, the decision was left to Anu.

Nergal had already ordered the priming of “the seven awesome weapons” with their “poisons.”,

         “Anu, lord of the gods, on the land had pity…”

 

It was then that Ninurta, attempting to dissuade Nergal from indiscriminate annihilation, used words identical to those attributed in the Bible to Abraham when he tried to have Sodom spared:

         “Valiant Era (Nergal),

         Will you the righteous destroy with the unrighteous?

         Will you destroy those who have against you sinned

          together with those who against you have not sinned?…”

 

The two gods argued back and forth on the extent of the destruction. More than Ninurta, Nergal was consumed by personal hatred:..he shouted

         “I shall annihilate the son (Nabu), and let the father (Marduk) bury him;

         then I shall kill the father, let no one bury him…”

 

Ninurta finally swayed Nergal.

         “He heard the words spoken by Ishum (Ninurta);

          the words appealed to him as fine oil…”

 

Agreeing to leave alone the seas, to leave Mesopotamia out of the attack, he formulated a modified plan: the destruction will be selective..to destroy the cities where Nabu might be hiding…to deny Marduk the greatest prize—the Spaceport,

         “the place from where the Great Ones ascend…”

        

         “From city to city an emissary I will send;

         The son, seed of his father, shall not escape;

         His mother shall cease her laughter…

         To the place of the gods, access he shall not have:

         The place from where the Great Ones ascend I shall upheaval…”

 

Wasting no more time, Nergal then urged Ninurta that the two of them go at once into action:

         “Then did the hero Erra go ahead of Ishum, remembering his words;

         Ishum too went forth, in accordance with the word given,

         a squeezing in his heart…”

 

Their first target was the Spaceport, its command complex hidden in the “Mount Most Supreme,” its landing fields spread in the adjoining great plain:

         “Ishum to Mount Most Supreme set his course;

         The Awesome Seven, (weapons) without parallel, trailed behind him.

         At the Mount Most Supreme the hero arrived;

         He raised his hand–the mount was smashed;

         The plain by the Mount Most Supreme he then obliterated;

         in its forests not a tree-stem was left standing…”

 

So with one nuclear blow the Spaceport was obliterated…Now it was the turn of Nergal…Guiding himself through the Sinai peninsula to the Canaanite cities by following the King’s Highway, Erra upheavaled them.

The words employed by the “Erra Epic” are almost identical to those used in the biblical tale of Sodom and Gomorrah:

         “Then, emulating Ishum, Erra the King’s Highway followed.

         The cities he finished off, to desolation he overturned them.

         In the mountains he caused starvation, their animals he made perish…”

 

The verses that follow may well describe the creation of the new southern portion of the Dead Sea…:

         “He dug through the sea, its wholeness he divided.

         That which lives in it, even the crocodiles he made wither.

         As with fire he scorched the animals, banned its grains to become as dust…”

 

We find descriptions and recollections of the nuclear upheaval in other texts as well:

         “Lord, bearer of the Scorcher that burnt up the adversary;

         Who obliterated the disobedient land;

         Who withered the life of the Evil Word’s followers;

         Who raised stones and fire upon the adversaries…”

 

In a Babylonian text in which one king recalls the momentous events that had taken place “in the reign of an earlier king.”

        “At that time, in the reign of a previous king, conditions changed.

         Good departed, suffering was regular.

         The Lord (of the gods) became enraged, he conceived wrath.

         He gave the command: the gods of that place abandoned it…

         The two, incited to commit the evil, made its guardians stand aside;

         its protectors went up to the dome of heaven…”

 

The “Khedorlaomer Text”, which identifies the two gods by their epithets as Nergal and Ninurta, tells it this way:

         “Enlil, who sat alone in loftiness, was consumed with anger.

         The devastators again suggested evil;

         He who scorches with fire (Ishum / Ninurta)

         and he of the evil wind (Erra / Nergal) together performed their evil.

         The two made the gods flee, made them flee the scorching…”

 

The target, from which they made the gods guarding it flee, was the Place of the Launching:

The nuclear blackened Sinai peninsula

         “That which was raised towards Anu to launch they caused to wither;

          Its face they made fade away, its place they made desolate…”

 

Thus was the Spaceport, the prize of which so many Wars of the Gods had been fought, obliterated: the Mount within which the controlling equipment was placed was smashed; the launch platforms were made to fade off the face of the earth; and the plain whose hard soil the shuttle craft had used as runways was obliterated, and not even a tree left standing.

But the deed done by Nergal and Ninurta had not gone unrecorded, for it turned out to have a most profound effect on Sumer, its people, and its very existence…The nuclear explosion gave rise to an immense wind, a radioactive wind, which began as a whirlwind:

         “A storm, the Evil Wind, went around in the skies…”

 

The desolation caused by the catastrophe is then described vividly, by such verses as these:

         “Causing cities to be desolate, (causing) houses to become desolate;

         Causing stalls to be desolate, the sheepfolds to be emptied;

         That Sumer’s oxen no longer stand in their stalls,

         that its sheep no longer roam in its sheepfolds;

         That its rivers flow with water that is bitter,

         that its cultivated fields grow weeds, that its steeps grow withering plants…”

 

In the cities and the hamlets,

         “the mother cares not for her children,

         the father says not ‘O my wife’…

         the young child grows not sturdy on their knee,

         the nursemaid chants not a lullaby…

         kingship has been taken away from the land…”

        

        “On the Land (Sumer) fell a calamity, one unknown to man:

         One that had never been seen before, one which could not be withstood…”

 

It was an unseen death,

         “which roams the street, is let loose in the road;

         it stands beside a man–yet none can see it;

         when it enters a house, its appearance is unknown…”

 

There was no defense against this

         “evil which has assailed the land like a ghost:…

         The highest wall, the thickest walls, it passes as a flood,

         no door can shut it out, no bolt can turn it back;

         through the door like a snake it glides, through the hinge like a wind it blows in.

         Cough and phlegm weakened the chest,

         the mouth was filled with spittle and foam…

         dumbness and daze have come upon them,

         an unwholesome numbness…an evil curse, a headache…

         their spirit abandoned their bodies…”

 

it was a most gruesome death:

         “The people, terrified, could hardly breathe;

         the Evil Wind clutched them, does not grant them another day…

         Mouths were drenched in blood, heads wallowed in blood…

         The face was made pale by the Evil Wind…”

        

         “Covered the land as a cloak, spread over it like a sheet…”

 

Brownish in color, during the daytime

         “the sun in the horizon it obliterated with darkness…”

        

         “(Girt with dread brilliance it filleth the broad earth) it blocked out the moon:…”

        

         “the moon at its rising it extinguished…”

 

Moving from west to east, the deadly cloud–

         “enveloped in terror, casting fear everywhere

         a great wind which speeds high above,

         an evil wind which overwhelms the land…”

 

It was

         “a great storm directed from Anu…it hath come from the heart of Enlil.

         In a single spawning it was spawned…

         like the bitter venom of the gods; in the west it was spawned.

         Bearing gloom from city to city,

         carrying dense clouds that bring gloom from the sky…”

 

was the result of a

         “lightning flash, from the midst of the mountains it had descended upon the land,

          From the Plain of No Pity it hath come…”

 

Though the people were baffled, the gods knew the cause of the Evil Wind:

         “An evil blast heralded the baleful storm,

         An evil blast the forerunner of the baleful storm was;

         Mighty offspring, valiant sons were the heralds of the pestilence…”

 

As soon as the “awesome weapons” were launched from the skies, there was an immense brilliance

         “they spread awesome rays towards the four points of the earth,

         scorching everything like fire…”

        

         “The storm, in a flash of lightning created, a dense cloud that brings gloom…”

 

followed by

         “rushing wind gusts…a tempest that furiously scorches the heavens…”

Several texts attest that the Evil Wind, bearing the cloud of death, was caused by gigantic explosions on a day to remember:

         “On that day

         When heaven was crushed and the Earth was smitten,

         its face obliterated by the maelstrom–

         When the skies were darkened and covered as with a shadow…”

 

Over Sumer, its passage lasting twenty-four hours—a day and a night…as in this…from Nippur:

         “On that day,, on that single day; on that night, on that single night…

         the storm, in a flash of lightning created, the people of Nippur left prostrate…”

 

The Uruk lament in part

         “The great gods paled at its immensity,

         gigantic rays reach up to heaven (and) the earth tremble to its core…”

 

As the Evil Wind began to “spread to the mountains as a net,” the gods of Sumer began to flee their beloved cities…Thus

         “Ninhursag wept in bitter tears…”

 

as she escaped from Isin. Nanshe cried,

         “’O my devastated city…’

         her beloved dwelling place was given over to misfortune…”

 

Inanna hurriedly departed from Uruk, sailing off toward Africa in a “submersible ship” and complaining that she had to leave behind her jewelry and other possessions…Inanna / Ishtar bewailed the desolation of her city and her temple by the Evil Wind

         “which in an instant,

         in a blink of an eye was created against the midst of the mountains,…”

 

and against which there was no defense…As the

         “loyal citizens of Uruk were seized with terror.

         ‘Rise up! Hide in the steppe!’

         the deities ran off…they took unfamiliar paths…”

        

        “Thus all the gods evacuated Uruk;

         They kept away from it;

         They hid in the mountains,

         They escaped to the distant plains…”

 

In Uruk…

         “Mob panic was brought about in Uruk….its good sense was distorted…”

…as the people asked questions:

         “Why did the gods benevolent eye look away?

          Who caused such worry and lamentation?”…

 

When the Evil Storm passed over,

         “the people were piled up in heaps…a hush settled over Uruk like a cloak…”

 

Ninki, we learn from “The Eridu Lament”, flew away from her city to a safe haven in Africa:

         “Ninki, its great lady, flying like a bird, left her city…”

But Enki left Eridu only far enough to get out of the Evil Wind’s way, yet near enough to see its fate:

        “Its lord stayed outside the city…

         Father Enki stayed outside the city…

         for the fate of his harmed city he wept with bitter tears…”

 

They watched the storm “put its hand” on Eridu. After the

         “evil-bearing storm went out of the city, sweeping across the countryside,…”

 

Enki surveyed Eridu; he found the city

         “smothered with silence…its residents stacked up in heaps…”

 

Those who were saved addressed to him a lament:

         “O Enki, thy city has been cursed, made like an alien territory!”…

…and Enki

         “stayed out of his city as though it were an alien city…”

        

         “Forsaking the House of Eridu,…”

 

Enki then led

         “those who have been displaced from Eridu…”

 

to the desert, “towards an inimical land”; there he used his scientific powers to make the “foul tree” edible.

From Babylon, a worried Marduk sent his father, Enki, an urgent message as the cloud of death neared his city:

         “What am I to do?”…

he asked Enki’s advice…and in line with the advice given by the two emissaries to Lot, the people fleeing Babylon were warned

         “neither to run nor to look back…”

 

They were also told not to take with them any food or beverage, for these might have been “touched by the ghost.”

         “Get thee into a chamber below the earth, into a darkness,…”

 

until the Evil Wind was gone…In Lagash,

         “mother Bau wept bitterly for her holy temple (residence), for her city…”

 

Though Ninurta was gone, his spouse could not force herself to leave. Lingering behind, “O my city, O my city,” she kept crying; the delay almost cost her her life:

         “On that day, the lady–the storm caught up with her;

         Bau, as if she were mortal–the storm caught up with her…”

 

In Ur we learn from the lamentations (one of which was composed by Ningal herself) that Nannar and Ningal refused to believe that the end of Ur was irrevocable. Nannar addressed a long and emotional appeal to his father…

         “Ur was granted kingship–it was not granted an eternal reign.

         Since days of yore, when Sumer was founded,

         to the present, when people have multiplied–

         Who has ever seen a kingship of everlasting reign?”…

 

While the appeals were made, Ningal recalled in her long poem,

         “the storm was ever breaking forward, its howling overpowering all.

         Although of the day I still tremble, of that day’s foul smell we did not flee…”

 

As night came, “a bitter lament was raised” in Ur, yet the god and goddess stayed on…and Ningal realized that Nannar

         “had been overtaken by the evil storm…”

…Only next day, when

          “the storm was carried off from the city

          Ningal, in order to go from her city…hastily put on a garment,…”

 

and together with the stricken Nannar departed from the city they so loved. As they were leaving they saw death and desolation:

         “the people, like potsherds, filled the city’s streets;

         in its lofty gates, where they were wont to promenade,

         dead bodies were laying about;

         in its boulevards, where the feasts were celebrated,scattered they lay;

         in all of its streets, where they were wont to promenade,

         dead bodies were laying about;

         in its places where the land’s festivities took place, the people lay in heaps.

         The dead bodies, like fat placed in the sun, of themselves melted away…”

 

Then did Ningal raise her lamentation for Ur…

         “O house of Sin in Ur, bitter is thy desolation…

         O Ningal whose land has perished, make thy heart like water!

         The city has become a strange city, how can one now exist?

         The house has become a house of tears, it makes my heart like water…

         Ur and its temples have been given over to the wind.”…

On the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, only sickly plants grew…

         ‘In the swamps grow sickly-headed reeds that rot in the stench…

         In the orchards and gardens there is no new growth, quickly they waste away…

         The cultivated fields are not hied, no seeds are planted in the soil,

          no songs resound in the fields…”

 

In the countryside the animals were also affected:

         “On the steppe, cattle large and small became scarce,

         all living creatures came to an end.

         The sheepfolds have been delivered to the wind…

         The hum of the turning churn resounds not in the sheepfold…

         The stalls provide not fat and cheese…

         Ninurta has emptied Sumer of milk…”

        

         “The storm crushed the land, wiped out everything;

         it roared like a great wind over the land, none could escape it;

         desolating the cities, desolating the houses…

         No one treads the highways, no one seeks out the roads…”

 

The desolation of Sumer was complete.

The Year of Doom (nuclear holocaust)–2024 B.C.–it was the sixth year of reign for Ibbi-Sin, the last king of Ur...