From The Alpha and the Omega - Volume III
by Jim A. Cornwell, Copyright © July 20, 2002, all rights reserved
"Volume III - Sumerian Flood Story"
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Sumerian Flood Story
The Flood story is a worldwide catastrophe, which has circulated in all of antiquity, with all kinds of versions from Sumerian, Akkadian, Ugaritic, and Hittite that were passed down from generation to generation and from country to country. The first texts about the Flood (Akkadian abübum, of a devastating storm surge were discovered in 1872 by George Smith, making headline news in all papers, because of the similarities with the story in the bible (dated almost two millennia later). This was also stirred up by the English archeologist Sir L. Woolley, who found in his 1929 excavations a deposit of silt of a few meters thickness, under which artifacts were found dated to the 5th millennium. These deposits, however, are always localized to a small area, as Woolley himself has later discovered. Time, place and extend of this flood are inconsistent with the literary tradition, and a local breakthrough of the river is a sufficient explanation. Some floods did have a great impact on the Mesopotamian civilization and that some of them occurred around 2900 B.C.
As I have promoted in my work, I believe the Biblical Deluge came around 6000 B.C., and some recent discoveries around the Black Sea, may present evidence that it occurred between 6000 B.C-5000 B.C.
Many Scholars presently promote that the first cities (Jemdet Nasr period) is where the urban revolution, and the building of the first cities, took place in 3100-2900 B.C. in the transition from prehistory to history. This is based on a change in human settlement patterns from isolated settlements to larger village communities, and a dry climate at the end of the 4th millennium allowed habitation of the Great Plains in the extreme south of Mesopotamia, the area later called Sumer. Also the production of bronze, an alloy of copper and other metals, mainly tin, allowed for the manufacturing of new weapons, for which protection was sought by the construction of fortifications around the villages and walls around cities.
The Jemdet Nasr period of Mesopotamia and the archaic period of Egypt were contemporary, but many authorities consider that Egypt owes her civilization to the people of the Euphrates. It was believed that Uruk had influenced as far west as Egypt in the Naqada II (or Gerzean) period about 3100-2900 B.C., because of jars characteristic of Late Uruk pottery and cylinder seals appeared in Egypt at that time. Egyptian art showed some influence from Mesopotamia, in carved ivory knife handles and slate palettes, even Egyptian hieroglyphic writing, and so-called 'paneled-facade' type of architecture found in Egyptian tombs all dating between 3200 to 2800 B.C.
Old Sumerian Age is called the Early Dynastic period (2900-2400 B.C.) or Old Sumerian period, and is divided into three periods in which different cities dominate. It is characterized by strong rivalry between city-states and an increasing division between state and religion, even though the people shared a common religion and spoke the same language, Old Sumerian. Most of the texts in Old Sumerian language are derived from those tablets (more than 30,000) found before 1900 B.C. in Nippur, a holy city, the religious capital of Sumer, seat of Enlil, the supreme god of the Sumerian pantheon. These are presently located in Istanbul, Jena and Philadelphia, and include the oldest versions of literary works, such as the Gilgamesh Epic and the Creation Story, administrative, legal, medical and business records, and school texts.
The city of Kish, in the Early Dynastic-I, the Golden Age (2900-2700 B.C.), was located north of Babylonia near modern Tel el-ehêmir, and is the first postdiluvial city mentioned in the Sumerian King Lists. After the great Flood, the first kings had Semitic names, as an age in which the world lived in harmony. Excavations show a specialization in labor as the first monumental building of a palace (where a king is in power), and a high quality of craftsmanship (golden daggers in tombs). The title 'King of Kish', in Akkadian šarkiššati (Shar Kish sati), was used to show prestige, as if meaning 'king of the whole world', even after death. Protecting water flow and the control of the Euphrates in the neighborhood of Kish was of vital importance to the rulers in the south of Mesopotamia.
Some scholars date the Sumerians around 3000 B.C., as being democratic assemblies that gave way to kingships, and evolved into hereditary monarchies. Kish was the leading Sumerian city, and at this time were the introduction of pictographs used to keep administrative records, and its cuneiform land sales for formal contracts. This is also when they had 3-D statues, such as the Warka head. The White Temple arose, noting the ziggurat's traditional design. There was a temple at Tell Uqair with mosaic decorations, as well as Eridu and Kish, being just simple palaces.
This file was created on November 20, 2004.
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