Prelude To Disaster

The information concerning the last years of the Era of Ishtar comes to us from a number of texts. Put together, they unfold a tale of dramatic and incredible events: the usurpation of supreme powers on Earth by a goddess; the defilement of Enlil’s Holy of Holies in Nippur; the penetration of the Fourth Region by a human army; an invasion of Egypt; the appearance of African gods in the Asian domains; acts and occurrences that were unthinkable before; upheavals among the gods, which served as a stage on which human rulers played out their roles and human blood was spilled without mercy.

Faced with the reemergence of her olden adversary, Inanna could simply not give up, no matter what the cost. Seating on Sargon’s throne first one of his sons and then another, enlisting in her campaigns her vassal kings in the eastern mountainlands, she fought as an enraged lioness for her disintegrating empire, “raining flame over the land . . . attacking like an aggressive storm.” “You are known by your destruction of the rebel lands,” intoned a daughter of Sargon in a plaintive poem; “you are known by massacring their people” . . . turning “against the city that said not ’the land is yours,’ " making “its rivers run with blood.” For more than two years Inanna wrought havoc all around, until the gods decided that the only way to stop the carnage was to force Marduk back into exile. Having returned to Babylon when Sargon tried to remove some of its hallowed soil—an act whose symbolism was rooted in legendary events—Marduk fortified the city and in particular ingeniously enhanced its underground water system, making the city impervious to attack. Unable or unwilling to remove Marduk by force, the Anunnaki turned to Marduk’s brother Nergal and asked him to “scare Marduk off the divine seat” in Babylon.

We know of these events from a text named by scholars The Erra Epos, for in it Nergal is called by the ancient chronicler ER.RA—a somewhat derogatory epithet, for it meant “The Servant of Ra.” It is a text that could better be called The Tale of the

Sins of Nerval, for it puts the blame on Nergal for a chain of events with a catastrophic ending; but it is an invaluable source for our knowledge and understanding of that prelude to disaster. Having accepted the mission, Nergal/Erra journeyed to Mesopotamia for a face-to-face talk with Marduk. Arriving in Mesopotamia, he first stopped at Erech, “the city of Anu, the king of all the gods,” but, of course, also the place to huddle with Inanna/Ishtar. Arriving in Babylon, “into the Esagil, temple of Heaven and Earth, he entered, and stood before Marduk.” The momentous encounter has been recorded by the ancient artists (Fig. 81); it depicts both gods holding on to their weapons, but the helmeted Marduk, standing on a platform, does extend some symbol of welcome to his brother.

Fig. 81

Combining praise with reprimand. Erra told Marduk that the wonderful things he had done for Babylon, and especially its waterworks, made Marduk’s reputation “shine as a star in the heavens,” but have deprived other cities of their waters. Moreover, while crowning himself in Babylon, “lights up its sacred precinct.” it angered the other gods; “the abode of Anu with darkness it covers.” Marduk, he concluded, could not go on against the will of the other Anunnaki and certainly not against the will of Anu.

But Marduk, citing changes that were made on Earth in the aftermath of the Deluge, explained that he had to take matters into his own hands:

In the aftermath of the Deluge, the decrees of Heaven and Earth had gone astray. The cities of the gods upon the wide Earth were changed around; They were not brought back to their locations . . . As I survey them again, of the evil I am disgusted; Without a return to their [original] places. Mankind’s existence is diminished . . . Rebuild I must my residence which in the Deluge was wiped away; Its name [I must] call again.

Among the post-Diluvian disorders that bothered Marduk were some failures on the part of Erra himself to account for certain divine artifacts—“the instrument of giving orders, the Oracle of the Gods; the sign of kingship, the Holy Scepter which contributes brilliance to Lordship. . . . Where is the holy Radiating Stone which disintegrates all?” Marduk asked. If he were forced to leave, Marduk said, “on the day I step off my seat, the flooding shall from its well cease to work . . . the waters shall not rise . . . the bright day to darkness [shall turn] . . . confusion shall arise . . . the winds of draught shall howl . . . sicknesses shall spread.”

After some more exchanges Erra offered to return to Marduk “the artifacts of Heaven and Earth” if Marduk would personally go to the Lower World to pick them up; and as to the “works” in Babylon, he assured Marduk there was nothing to worry about: he (Erra) would enter Marduk"s House only to “erect the Bulls of Anu and Enlil at thy gate”—statues of Winged Bulls as were actually found at temple sites—but would do nothing to upset the waterworks. Marduk heard this;

The promise, given by Erra. found his favor. So did he step down from his seat. and to the Land of Mines, abode of the Anunnaki, he set his direction.

Thus persuaded, Marduk agreed to leave Babylon. But no sooner he had done that than Nergal broke his word. Unable to resist his curiosity. Nergal/Erra ventured into the Gigunu, the mysterious underground chamber which Marduk had stressed was off limits; and there Erra caused its “Brilliance” (radiating source of energy) to be removed. Thereupon, as Marduk had warned, “the day turned into darkness,” the “flooding was disarrayed,” and soon “the lands were laid to waste, the people were made to perish.” All of Mesopotamia was affected, for Ea/Enki, Sin and Shamash, in their cities, became alarmed; “with anger [at Erra] they were filled.” The people made sacrifices to Anu and Ishtar but to no avail: “the water sources went dry.” Ea, Erra’s father, reproached him: “Now that Prince Marduk had stepped off, what have you done?” He ordered that a statue of Erra, which had been prepared, should not be set up in the Esagil. “Go away!” he ordered Erra. “Take off to where no gods ever go!” “Erra lost his voice” only for a moment, then uttered words of impudence. Enraged, he smashed Marduk’s abode, set fire to its gates. Defiantly, “he made a sign” as he turned to leave, announcing that his followers, however, would stay behind: “as to my warriors, they shall not go back.” And so it was that when Erra returned to Kutha, the men who had come with him stayed behind, establishing a long-lasting presence for Nergal in the lands of Shem; a colony was assigned to them not far from Babylon, perhaps as a permanent garrison; there were “Kutheans who worship Nergal” in Samaria in biblical times; and there was official worship of Nergal in Elam, as evidenced by an unusual bronze sculpture (Fig. 82) found there, depicting worshipers with unmistakable African features performing a cultic ceremony in a temple courtyard. The departure of Marduk from Babylon brought to an end Ishtar’s conflict with him; the rift between Marduk and Nergal and the latter’s retention of an Asian presence unintentionally created an alliance between Ishtar and Nergal. The chain of tragic events that no one could have predicted and that no one had perhaps even desired was thus being forged by fate, leading the Anunnaki and Mankind ever closer to the ultimate disaster. . . .

With her authority restored, Inanna renewed the kingship in Agade and put on the throne a grandson of Sargon, Naram-Sin (“Sin’s Favorite”). Seeing in him, at last, a true successor to Sargon, she encouraged him to seek grandeur and greatness. After a brief period of peace and prosperity she goaded Naram-Sin to embark on an expansion of the erstwhile empire. Soon Inanna began to encroach on the territories of other gods; but they were unable or unwilling to fight her: “The great Anunnaki gods fled before you like fluttering bats,” a hymn to Inanna stated; “they could not

Fig. 82

stand before your fearsome face . . . could not soothe your angry heart.” Rock carvings in the annexed territories depicted Inanna as the ruthless conqueror she had become (Fig. 83). At the beginning of her campaigns Inanna was still called “Beloved of Enlil” and one “Who carries out the instructions of Anu.” But then her thrust began to change in nature, from the suppression of rebellions to a calculated plan for seizing supremacy. Two sets of texts, one dealing with the goddess and the other with her surrogate, the king Naram-Sin, record the events of those times. Both indicate that the first out-of-bounds target of Inanna was the Landing Place in the Cedar Mountain. As a Flying Goddess Inanna was quite familiar with the place; she “burnt down the great gates” of the mountain and, after a brief siege, obtained the surrender of the troops guarding it: “they disbanded themselves willingly.”

As recorded in the Naram-Sin inscriptions, Inanna then turned south along the Mediterranean coast, subduing city after city. The conquest of Jerusalem—Mission Control Center—is not specifiPrelude to Disaster 255

Fig. 83

cally mentioned, but Inanna must have been there, too, for it is recorded that she had gone on to capture Jericho. Lying astride the strategic Jordan River crossing and opposite the Anunnaki stronghold at Tell Ghassul, Jericho—the city dedicated to Sin—had also rebelled: “It said not ‘It belongs to your father who begot you”: it had promised its solemn word, but turned away from it.” The Old Testament is filled with admonitions against “straying after alien gods”: the Sumerian text conveys the same transgression: The people of Jericho, having given a solemn promise to worship Sin, Inanna’s father, have switched allegience to another, alien, god. The surrender of this “city of date-palms” to an armed Inanna was depicted on a cylinder seal (Fig. 84). With the conquest of southern Canaan, Inanna stood at the gateway to the Fourth Region, the region of the Spaceport. Sargon had

Fig. 84

not dared cross the forbidden line. But Naram-Sin, encouraged by Inanna, did. . . .

A Mesopotamian royal chronicle attests that not only did Naram-Sin enter the peninsula, but he had gone on to invade the land of Magan (Egypt):

Naram-Sin, offspring of Sargon, marched against the town of Apishal and made a breach in its wall, conquering it. He personally caught Rish-Adad, king of Apishal, and the vizier of Apishal.

He then marched against the country of Magan and personally caught Mannu-Dannu, king of Magan.

The accuracy of the above-mentioned Babylonian royal chronicle has been independently confirmed in its other details, so there is no reason to doubt this part of it, too—incredible as it sounds, for it entailed the passage of a human king and a human army through the Sinai peninsula, the gods’ own Fourth Region. Since time immemorial, a trade route between Asia and Africa had wound its way along the peninsula’s Mediterranean coast—a route later on enhanced by the Egyptians with watering stations and by the Romans as their vital Via Maris. Ancient users of this route thus kept well away from the central plain where the Spaceport was located. But whether Naram-Sin, at the head of an army, just marched through along the coastal route is questionable. Alabaster vases of Egyptian design, which have been found by archaeologists in Mesopotamia and Elam, identified their owner (in Akkadian) as “Naram-Sin, King of the Four Regions; vase of the Shining Crown of the land Magan.” That Naram-Sin began to call himself “King of the Four Regions” affirms not only the conquest of Egypt but also suggests the inclusion of the Sinai peninsula in his sphere of influence. Inanna, it appears, was more than “just passing through.”

(A foreign invasion, about the time of Naram-Sin, is also known from Egyptian records. They describe a period of disarray and chaos. In the words of the papyrus known to Egyptologists as The Admonitions of Ipuwer, “Strangers have come into Egypt… the high-born are full of lamentation.” It was a period that saw the shift of the center of worship and kingship from Memphis-Heliopolis in the north to Thebes in the south. Scholars call the century of disarray “The First Intermediate Period”; it followed the collapse of the sixth Pharaonic dynasty.)

How could Inanna, with apparent immunity, intrude on the Sinai peninsula and invade Egypt unopposed by the gods of Egypt? The answer lies in an aspect of the Naram-Sin inscriptions that has baffled the scholars: the apparent veneration by this Mesopotamian ruler of the African god Nergal. Although this made no sense at all, the fact is that the long text known as The Kuthean Legend of Naram-Sin (or, as it is sometimes called, The King of Kutha Text) attests that Naram-Sin went to Kutha, Nergal’s cult center in Africa, and erected there a stela to which he affixed an ivory tablet inscribed with the tale of this unusual visit, all to pay homage to Nergal.

The recognition by Naram-Sin of Nergal’s power and influence well beyond Africa is attested by the fact that in treaties made between Naram-Sin and provincial rulers in Elam, Nergal is invoked among the witness gods. And in an inscription dealing with Naram-Sin’s march to the Cedar Mountain in Lebanon, the king credited Nergal (rather than Ishkur/Adad) with making the achievement possible: Although since the era of the rulership of man none of the kings has ever destroyed Arman and Ebla, Now did the god Nergal open up the path for the mighty NaramSin. He gave him Annan and Ebla, presented him with the Amanus and with the Cedar Mountain and with the Upper Sea.

This puzzling emergence of Nergal as an influential Asian deity, and the audacious march of Inanna’s surrogate Naram-Sin to Egypt—all violations of the status quo of the Four Regions established after the Pyramid Wars—have one explanation: While Marduk had shifted his attention to Babylon, Nergal assumed a preeminent role in Egypt. Then, having gone to persuade Marduk to leave Mesopotamia without further struggle, the amicable parting turned into a bitter enmity between the brothers. And this led to an alliance between Nergal and Inanna; but as they stood for each other, they soon found themselves opposed by all the other gods. An assembly of the gods was held in Nippur to deal with the disruptive consequences of Inanna’s exploits; even Enki agreed that she had gone too far. And a decree for her arrest and trial was issued by Enlil.

We learned of these events from a chronicle titled by scholars The Curse of Agade. Deciding that Inanna had indeed gotten out of hand, “the word of the Ekur” (Enid’s sacred precinct in Nippur) was issued against her. But Inanna did not wait to be seized or held for trial: she forsook her temple and escaped from Agade:

The “word of Ekur” was upon Agade like a deathly silence; Agade was all atremble. its Ulmash temple was in terror; She who lived there, left the city. The maiden forsook her chamber; Holy Inanna forsook her shrine in Agade. By the time a delegation of the great gods arrived in Agade, they only found an empty temple; all they could do was strip the place of its attributes of power: In days not five, in days not ten, The crownband of lordship, the tiara of Kingship, the throne given to rulership Ninurta brought over to his temple; Utu carried off the city’s “Eloquence”; Enki withdrew its “Wisdom.” Its Awesomeness that could reach the Heaven, Anu brought up to the midst of Heaven.

“The kingship of Agade was prostrated, its future was extremely unhappy.” Then “Naram-Sin had a vision,” a communication from his goddess Inanna. “He kept it to himself, put it not in speech, spoke with nobody about it. . . . Seven years Naram-Sin remained in wait.”

Did Inanna seek out Nergal during her seven-year disappearance from Agade? The text does not give the answer, but we believe that it was the only haven available to Inanna, away from Enlil’s wrath. The ensuing events suggest that Inanna—even more audacious than before, more ambitious than ever—must have obtained the backing of at least one other major god; and that could have been only Nergal. That Inanna would hide in Nergal’s Lower African domain seems thus a most plausible assumption.

Did the two, talking over the situation, reviewing past events, discussing the future, end up forging a new alliance that could rearrange the divine domains? A New Order was indeed feasible, for Inanna was shattering the Old Divine Order upon the Earth. A text whose ancient title was Queen of All the MEs acknowledges that Inanna had indeed, deliberately, decided to defy the authority of Anu and Enlil, abrogated their rules and regulations, and declared herself the Supreme Deity, a “Great Queen of Queens.” Announcing that she “has become greater than the mother who gave birth to her. . . even greater than Anu.” she followed up her declarations with deeds and seized the E-Anna (“House of Anu”) in Erech, aiming to dismantle this symbol of Anu’s authority: The heavenly kingship was seized by a female . . . She changed altogether the rules of Holy Anu, Feared not the great Anu.

She seized the E-Anna from Anu— that House of irresistible charm, enduring allureOn that House she brought destruction; Inanna assaults its people, makes them captive. The coup d’etat against Anu was accompanied by a parallel attack on Enlil’s seat and symbols of authority. This task was assigned by Inanna to Naram-Sin; his attack on the Ekur in Nippur and the resulting downfall of Agade are detailed in The Curse of Agade text. From it we gather that after the seven-year wait Naram-Sin received further oracles and thereupon “changed his line of action.” Upon receiving the new orders:

He defied the word of Enlil, Crushed those who had served Enlil, Mobilized his troops, and Like a hero accustomed to high-handedness Put a restraining hand on the Ekur.

Overrunning the seemingly undefended city, “like a bandit he plundered it.” He then approached the Ekur in the sacred precinct, ‘“erecting large ladders against the House.” Smashing his way in, he entered its Holy of Holies: “the people now saw its sacred cella, a chamber that knew not light: the Akkadians saw the holy vessels of the god”; Naram-Sin “cast them into the fire.” He “docked large boats at the quay by the House of Enlil, and carried off the possessions of the city.” The horrible sacrilege was complete. Enlil—his whereabouts unstated, but clearly away from Nippur—“lifted his eyes” and saw the destruction of Nippur and the defilement of the Ekur. “Because his beloved Ekur had been attacked.” he ordered the hordes of Gutium—a mountainland to the northeast of Mesopotamia—to attack Akkad and lay it waste. They came down upon Akkad and its cities “in vast numbers, like locusts . . . nothing escaped their arm.” “He who slept on the roof died on the roof; he who slept inside the house was not brought to burial . . . heads were crushed, mouths were crushed … the blood of the treacherous flowed over the blood of the faithful.”

Once, and then a second time, the other gods interceded with Enlil: “curse Agade with a baleful curse.” they said, but let the other cities and the farmlands survive! When Enlil finally agreed, eight great gods joined in putting a curse on Agade. “the city who dared assault the Ekur.” “And lo,” said the ancient historian, “so it came to pass . . . Agade is destroyed!” The gods decreed that Agade be wiped off the face of the Earth; and unlike other cities that, having been destroyed, were rebuilt and resettled, Agade forever remained desolate. As to Inanna, “her heart was appeased” finally by her parents. What exactly happened, the texts do not state. They tell us. however, that her father Nannar came forth to fetch her back to Sumer while “her mother Ningal proffered prayers for her, greeted her back at the temple’s doorstep.” “Enough, more than enough innovations, O great queen!” the gods and the people appealed to her: “and the foremost Queen, in her assembly, accepted the prayer” The Era of Ishtar was over.

All the textual evidence suggests that Enlil and Ninurta were away from Mesopotamia when Naram-Sin attacked Nippur. But the hordes that swept down from the mountains upon Akkad were “the hordes of Enlil,” and they were in all probability guided into the great Mesopotamian plain by Ninurta.

The Sumerian King Lists call the land from which the invaders came Gutium, a land in the mountains northeast of Mesopotamia. In the Legend of Naram-Sin they are called Umman-Manda (possibly “Hordes of Far/Strong Brothers”), who came from “camps in the dwelling of Enlil” situated “in the mountainland whose city the gods had built.” Verses in the text suggest that they were descendants of soldiers who had accompanied Enmerkar on his distant travels, who “slew their host” and were punished by Utu/Shamash to remain in exile. Now tribes great in number, led by seven chieftain brothers, they were commanded by Enlil to overrun Mesopotamia and “hurl themselves against the people who in Nippur had killed.”

For a while feeble successors to Naram-Sin attempted to maintain a central rule as the hordes began to overrun city after city. The confused situation is described in the Sumerian King Lists with the statement: “Who was king? Who was not king? Was Irgigi king? Was Nanum king? Was Imi king? Was Elulu king?”’ In the end the Gutians seized control of the whole of Sumer and Akkad; “Kingship by the hordes of Gutium was carried off.” For ninety-one years and forty days the Gutians held sway over Mesopotamia. No new capital is named for them, and it appears that Lagash—the only Sumerian city to escape despoiling by the invaders—served as their headquarters. From his seat in Lagash Ninurta undertook the slow process of restoring the country’s agriculture and primarily the irrigation system that collapsed following the Erra/Marduk incident. It was a chapter in Sumerian history that can best be called the Era of Ninurta. The focal point of that era was Lagash, a city whose beginnings were as a “sacred precinct” (the Girsu) for Ninurta and his Divine Black Bird. But as the turmoil of human and divine ambitions grew, Ninurta decided to convert Lagash into a major Sumerian center, the principal abode for himself and his spouse Bau/Guia (Fig. 85), where his ideas of law and order and his ideals of morality and justice could be practiced. To assist in these tasks Ninurta appointed in Lagash human viceroys and charged them with the administration and defense of the city-state.

Fig. 85

The history of Lagash (a site nowadays called Tello) records a dynasty whose reign—uninterrupted for half a millenniumbegan three centuries before the rise of Sargon. An island of armed stability in an increasingly violent environment, Lagash was also a great center of Sumerian culture. While Sumer’s religious holidays emanated from Nippur, Lagash originated traditions of festivals tied to an agricultural calendar, such as the Festival of First Fruits. Its scribes and scholars perfected the Sumerian language; and its rulers, to whom Ninurta granted the title “Righteous Governor,” were sworn to a code of justice and morality.

Prominent among the very First rulers of the long dynasty of Lagash was one named Ur-Nanshe (circa 2600 B.C.). More than Fifty of his inscriptions were found in the ruins of Lagash; they record the bringing of building materials for the Girsu, including special timbers from Tilmun for the temple’s furnishings. They also describe extensive irrigation works, the digging of canals, and the raising of dykes. On one of his tablets Ur-Nanshe is depicted heading a construction team, not loath to do some manual work himself (Fig. 86). The forty known viceroys who followed him left a written record of achievements in agriculture, construction, social legislation, and ethical reforms—material and moral achievements that would make any government proud.

Fig. 86

But Lagash had escaped the ravages of the turbulent years of Sargon and Naram-Sin not only because it was the “cult center” of Ninurta, but also (and primarily) because of the military prowess of its people. As “Enid’s Foremost Warrior,” Ninurta made sure that those selected by him to govern Lagash should be militarily proficient. One (named Eannatum) whose inscriptions and stelae have been found, was a master tactician and victorious general. The stelae show him riding a war chariot—a military vehicle whose introduction has been customarily attributed to later times; they also show his helmeted troops in tight formations (Fig. 87).

Commenting on this, Maurice Lambert (La Periode Pre-Sargonique) wrote that “this infantry of spearmen, protected by shieldbearers, gave the army of Lagash a defence most solid and an attack most rapid and versatile.” The resulting victories of Eannatum even impressed Inanna/Ishtar, so much so that she had fallen in love with him; and “because she loved Eannatum, kingship over Kish she gave him. in addition to the governorship of Lagash.” With this Eannatum became the LU.GAL (“Great Man”) of Sumer; and holding the land in a military grip, he made law and order prevail.

Fig. 87

Ironically the chaotic period that had preceded Sargon of Agade found in Lagash not a strong military leader but a social reformer named Urukagina. He devoted his efforts to a moral revival and to the introduction of laws based on fairness and justice, rather than on a crime-punishment concept. Under him, Lagash proved too weak to maintain law and order in the land. His weakness enabled Inanna to bring the ambitious Lugal-zagesi of Umma to Erech, in an attempt to restore her country wide dominion. But the failings of Lugal-zagesi led (as we have already described) to his downfall by the hand of Inanna’s new choice, Sargon.

Throughout the period of the primacy of Agade, governorship continued uninterrupted in Lagash; even the great Sargon skirted Lagash and left it intact. It escaped destruction and occupation throughout the upheavals of Naram-Sin, primarily because it was a formidable military stronghold, fortified and refortified to withPrelude to Disaster 265

stand all attacks. We learn from an inscription by Ur-Bau, the viceroy at Lagash at the time of the Naram-Sin upheavals, that he was instructed by Ninurta to reinforce the walls of the Girsu and to strengthen the enclosure of the Imdugud aircraft. Ur-Bau “compacted the soil to be as stone . . . fired clay to be as metal’’; and at the Imdugud’s platform “replaced the old soil with a new foundation,” strengthened with huge timber beams and stones imported from afar.

When the Gutians left Mesopotamia—circa 2160 B.C.—Lagash burst into new bloom and produced some of Sumer’s most enlightened and best-known rulers. Of these, one of the best-known from his long inscriptions and many statues was Gudea, who reigned during the twenty-second century B.C. His was a time of peace and prosperity; his records speak not of armies and wars but of trade and reconstruction. He crowned his activities with the building of a new, magnificent temple for Ninurta in a vastly enlarged Girsu. According to Gudea’s inscriptions, “the Lord of Girsu” appeared unto him in a vision, standing beside his Divine Black Bird. The god expressed to him the wish that a new E.NINNU (“House of Fifty”—Ninurta’s numerical rank) be built by Gudea. Gudea was given two sets of divine instructions: one from a goddess who in one hand “held the tablet of the favorable star of heavens” and with the other “held a holy stylus,” with which she indicated to Gudea “the favorable planet” in whose direction the temple should be oriented. The other set of instructions came from a god whom Gudea did not recognize and who turned out to have been Ningishzidda. He handed to Gudea a tablet made of precious stone; “the plan of a temple it contained.” One of Gudea’s statues depicts him seated with this tablet on his knees, the divine stylus beside it (Fig. 88).

Gudea admits that he needed the help of diviners and “searchers of secrets” to understand the temple plan. It was, as modern researchers have found, an ingenious one-in-seven architectural plan for the construction of a ziggurat as a seven-stage pyramid. The structure contained a strongly reinforced platform for the landing of Ninurta’s airborne vehicle. The participation of Ningishzidda in the planning of the ENinnu carried a significance that went beyond mere architectural assistance, as evidenced by the fact that the Girsu included a special shrine for this god. Associated with healing and magical powers, Ningishzidda—a son of Enki—was deemed in Sumerian inscriptions to have known how to secure the foundations of tern-

Fig. 88

ples; he was “the great god who held the plans.” As we have already suggested, Ningishzidda was none other than Thoth, the Egyptian god of magical powers who was appointed guardian of the secret plans of the pyramids of Giza. Ninurta, it will be recalled, had carried off with him some of the “stones” from within the Great Pyramid when the Pyramid Wars ended. Now, with the thwarted efforts of Inanna and then Marduk to lord over gods and men, Ninurta wished to reaffirm his “Rank of Fifty” by the erection of a step-pyramid for himself at Lagash, an edifice to be known as the “House of Fifty.” It was for that reason, we believe, that Ninurta invited Ningishzidda/Thoth to come to Mesopotamia, to design for him a pyramid that could be built and raised high, not with massive stone blocks as in Egypt, but with the humble clay bricks of Mesopotamia.

The stay of Ningishzidda in Sumer and his collaboration there with Ninurta were commemorated not only in shrines to that visiting god, but also in numerous artistic depictions, some of which were discovered during the sixty years of archaeological work at Tello. One of these (Fig. 89a) combined the emblem of Ninurta’s Divine Bird with the serpents of Ningishzidda; another (Fig. 89b) depicted Ninurta as an Egyptian Sphinx.

Fig. 89

The time of Gudea and the Ninurta-Ningishzidda collaboration coincides with the so-called First Intermediate Period in Egypt, when the kings of the IX and X dynasties (2160 to 2040 B.C.) abandoned the worship of Osiris and Horus and moved the capital from Memphis to a city the Greeks later called Heracleopolis. The departure of Thoth from Egypt may thus have been an aspect of the upheavals occurring there, as was his subsequent disappearance from Sumer. Ningishzidda (to quote E. D. van Buren, The God Ningizzida) was “a god called forth from obscurity in Gudea’s time,” only to become a “phantom god” and a mere memory in later (Babylonian and Assyrian) times.

The Era of Ninurta in Sumer, lasting through the Gutian invasion and the ensuing period of reconstruction, was only an interlude. A mountain dweller at heart, Ninurta soon began to roam the skies again in his Divine Black Bird, visiting his rugged domains in the northeast and even farther away. Constantly perfecting the martial arts of his highland tribesmen, he gave them mobility through the introduction of cavalry, thereby extending their reach by hundreds and even thousands of miles.

He had returned to Mesopotamia at Enlil’s call, to put an end to the sacrilege perpetrated by Naram-Sin and to the upheavals caused by Inanna. With peace and prosperity restored, Ninurta again absented himself from Sumer; and, never one to give up, Inanna seized upon this absence to regain the kingship for Erech. The attempt lasted only a few years, for Anu and Enlil did not condone her deed. But the tale (contained in an enigmatic text on a partly broken tablet catalogued as Ashur-13955) is most fascinating; it reads like an ancient legend of the Excalibur (King Arthur’s magical sword, which was imbedded in a rock and could be pulled out only by the one who was chosen for kingship); and it throws light on preceding events, including the incident by which Sargon had offended Marduk.

We learn that when “Kingship was lowered from Heaven” to begin at Kish, Anu and Enlil established there a “Pavilion of Heaven.” “In its foundation soil, for all days to come,” they implanted the SHU.HA.DA.KU—an artifact made of alloyed metal whose name translates literally “Supreme Strong Bright Weapon.” This divine object was taken to Erech when kingship was transferred there from Kish; it was moved about as kingship moved about but only when the change was decreed by the Great Gods. In accordance with this custom, Sargon carried the object to Agade. But Marduk protested, because Agade was a brand-new city and not one of the cities selected by “the great gods of Heaven and Earth” to be royal capitals. The gods who chose Agade— Inanna and her supporters—were in Marduk’s opinion “rebels, gods who wear unclean clothing.”

It was to cure this defect that Sargon went to Babylon to the spot where its “hallowed soil” was located. The idea was to remove some of that soil “to a place in front of Agade,” there to implant the Divine Weapon and thus legitimize its presence in Agade.

It was in punishment for this, the text states, that Marduk instigated rebellions against Sargon and also inflicted upon him a “restlessness” (some take the term to mean “insomnia”) which led to his death.

We read further in the enigmatic text that during the Gutian occupation that followed Naram-Sin’s reign, the divine object lay untouched “beside the dam-works for the waters” because “they knew not how to carry out the rules regarding the divine artifact.” It was at that time Marduk’s contention that the object had to remain in its assigned place, “without being opened up,” and “not being offered to any god,” until “the gods who brought the destruction shall make restitution.” But when Inanna seized the opportunity to reinstitute kingship in Erech, her chosen king, UtuHegal, “seized the Shuhadaku in its place of resting; into his hand he took it”—although “the end of the restitution has not yet occurred.” Unauthorized, Uthu-Hegal “raised the weapon against the city he was besieging.” As soon as he had done that, he fell dead. “The river carried off his sunken body.”

Ninurta’s absences from Sumerand Inanna’s abortive attempt to recapture the kingship for Erech indicated to Enlil that the matter of the divine governing of Sumer could no longer be left open-ended; and the most suitable candidate for the task was Nannar/Sin. Throughout the turbulent times he was overshadowed by more aggressive contenders for the supremacy, including his own daughter Inanna. Now he was finally given the opportunity to assume the status befitting him as the firstborn (on Earth) of Enlil. The era that followed—let us call it the Era of Nannar—was one of the most glorious in Sumerian annals; it was also Sumer’s last hurrah. His first order of business was to make his city, Ur, a great metropolis and the capital of a vast empire. Appointing a new line of rulers, known by scholars as the Third Dynasty of Ur, Nannar achieved for this capital and for Sumerian civilization unprecedented peaks of material and cultural advancements. From an immense ziggurat that dominated the walled city (Fig. 90)—a ziggurat whose crumbled remains, after more than four thousand years, still rise awesomely from the Mesopotamian plain—Nannar and his spouse Ningal took an active part in the affairs of state. Attended by a hierarchy of priests and functionaries (headed by the king, Fig. 91), they guided the city’s agriculture to become the granary of Sumer; directed its sheep breeding to make Ur the wool and garment center of the ancient Near East: and developed a foreign trade by land and water that made the merchants of Ur remembered for millennia thereafter. To service this thriving trade and the far-flung links, as well as to improve the city’s defenses, the city’s surrounding wall was in turn surrounded by a navigable canal, serving two harbors—a West Harbor and a North Harbor—with an inner canal connecting the two harbors and in turn separating the sacred precinct and the palace and administrative quarter from the residential and commercial parts of the city (Fig. 92). It was a city whose white houses—many of them multistoried (Fig. 93)—shined as a pearl from a distance; whose streets were straight and wide, with many a shrine at their intersections: a city of an industrious people with a smooth-functioning administration; a city of pious people, never failing to pray to their benevolent deities.

Fig. 90 Fig. 91

The first ruler of the Third Dynasty of Ur. Ur-Nammu (“The Joy of Ur”) was no mere mortal: he was semi-divine, his mother being the goddess Ninsun. His extensive records state that as soon as “Anu and Enlil had turned over kingship to Nannarat Ur,” and Ur-Nammu was selected to be the “Righteous Shepherd” of the people, the gods ordered Ur-Nammu to institute a new moral revival. The nearly three centuries that had passed since the moral revival under Urukagina of Lagash witnessed the rise and fall of Akkad, the defying of the authority of Anu, and the defilement of Enlil’s Ekur. Injustice, oppression, and immorality had become the common behavior. At Ur, under Ur-Nammu. an attempt was launched once again by Enlil to steer mankind away from “evil ways” to a course of “righteousness.” Proclaiming a new code of justice and social behavior. Ur-Nammu “established equity in the land, banished malediction, ended violence and strife.” Expecting so much from this New Beginning, Enlil—for the first time—entrusted the guardianship of Nippur to Nannar and gave Ur-Nammu the necessary instructions for the restoration of the Ekur (which was damaged by Naram-Sin). Ur-Nammu marked the occasion by erecting a stela, showing him carrying the tools and basket of a builder (Fig. 94). When the work was completed, Enlil and Ninlil returned to Nippur to reside in their restored abode. “Enlil and Ninlil were happy there,” a Sumerian inscription stated.

The Return-to-Righteous-Ways involved not only social justice among people, but also proper worship of the gods. To that effect Ur-Nammu, in addition to the great works in Ur, also restored and enlarged the edifices dedicated to Anu and Inanna at Erech, to Ninsun (his mother) at Ur, to Utu at Larsa, to Ninharsag at Adab; he also engaged in some repair work at Eridu. Enki’s city. Conspicuously absent from the list are Ninurta’s Lagash and Marduk’s Babylon.

Fig. 92 Fig. 93

The social reforms of Ur-Nammu and Ur’s achievements in commerce and industry have led scholars to view the times of the Third Dynasty as a period not only of prosperity, but also of peace.

Fig. 94 Fig. 95

They were thus puzzled to find in the ruins of Ur two panels depicting its citizens’ activities—one a Peace Panel, and the other, surprisingly, a War Panel (Fig. 95). The image of the people of Ur as trained and ready warriors seemed totally out of place.

Yet the facts, as told by the archaeological evidence of weaponry, military garb, and chariots of war, as well as in numerous inscriptions, belie the image of pacifism. Indeed, one of the first acts of Ur-Nammu was to subdue Lagash and slay its governor, then occupy seven other cities.

The need for military measures was not limited to the initial phases of the ascendancy of Nannar and Ur. We know from inscriptions that after Ur and Sumer “enjoyed days of prosperity [and] rejoiced greatly with Ur-Nammu,” after Ur-Nammu then rebuilt the Ekur in Nippur, Enlil found him worthy of holding the Divine Weapon; with it Ur-Nammu was to subdue ‘“evil cities” in “foreign lands”: The Divine Weapon.

that which in the hostile lands heaps up the rebels in piles, to Ur-Nammu. the Shepherd, He, the Lord Enlil, has given it to him; Like a bull to crush the foreign land. Like a lion to hunt it down; To destroy the evil cities,

Clear them of opposition to the Lofty.

These are words reminiscent of biblical prophecies of divine wrath, through the medium of mortal kings, against “evil cities” and “sinful people”; they reveal that beneath the cloak of prosperity there was lurking a renewed warfare among the gods—a struggle for the allegiance of the masses of mankind. The sad fact is that Ur-Nammu himself, becoming a mighty warrior, “The Might of Nannar,” met a tragic death on the battlefield. “The enemy land revolted, the enemy land acted hostilely”; in a battle in that unnamed but distant land, Ur-Nammu’s chariot got stuck in the mud; Ur-Nammu fell off it; “the chariot like a storm rushed along,” leaving Ur-Nammu behind, “abandoned on the battlefield like a crushed jug.” The tragedy was compounded when the boat returning his body to Sumer “in an unknown place had sunk; the waves sank it down, with him [Ur-Nammu] aboard.” When the news reached Ur, a great lament went up there; the people could not understand how such a Righteous Shepherd, one who had been just for the people and true to the gods, could have met such a disgraceful end. They could not understand why “the Lord Nannar did not hold him by the hand, why Inanna, Lady of Heaven, did not put her noble arm around his head, why the valiant Utu did not assist him.” Why had these gods “step[ped] aside” when Ur-Nammu’s bitter fate was determined? Surely it was a betrayal by the great gods: How the late of the hero has been changed!

Anu altered his holy word . . . Enlil deceitfully changed his fate-decree . . . The manner in which Ur-Nammu had died (2096 B.C.) may have accounted for the behavior of his successor, of whom one can use the biblical contempt for a king who “prostituted himself” and “did that which was evil in the view of the Lord.” Named Shulgi. he was born under divine auspices: it was Nannar himself who had arranged for the child to be conceived at Enlil’s shrine in Nippur. through a union between Ur-Nammu and Enlil’s high priestess, so that “a little ‘Enlil’ … a child suitable for kingship and throne, shall be conceived.”

The new king began his long reign by choosing to keep together his far-flung empire through peaceful means and religious reconciliation. As soon as he ascended the throne, he embarked on the building (or rebuilding) of a temple for Ninurta in Nippur; this enabled him to declare Ur and Nippur to be “Brother-Cities.” He then built a ship—naming it after Ninlil—and sailed to the “Land of Flying for Life.” His poems indicate that he imagined himself a second Gilgamesh, following in that earlier king’s footsteps to the “Land of Living”—to the Sinai peninsula. Landing at “The Place of the Ramp” (or “Land-fill Place”), Shulgi built there an altar to Nannar. Continuing his journey on land. Shulgi reached the Harsag—Ninharsag’s High Mountain in the southern Sinai—and built there an altar, too. Winding his way in the peninsula, he reached the place called BAD.GAL.DINGIR (Dur-Mah-Ilu in Akkadian), “The Great Fortified Place of the Gods.” He now was indeed emulating Gilgamesh, for Gilgamesh, arriving from the direction of the Dead Sea, had also stopped to pray and make offerings to the gods at that gateway place, situated between the Negev and the Sinai proper. There Shulgi built an altar to the “God Who Judges.”

It was the eighth year of Shulgi’s reign as he began the journey back to Sumer. His route via the Fertile Crescent began in Canaan and Lebanon, where he built altars at the “Place of Bright Oracles” and “The Snow-covered Place.” It was a deliberately slow journey, intended to strengthen the imperial bonds with the distant provinces. It was as a result of this journey that Shulgi built a network of roads that held the empire together politically and militarily and also enhanced trade and prosperity. Getting personally acquainted with the local chieftains, Shulgi further cemented his ties with them by arranging marriages for his daughters. Shulgi returned to Sumer, boasting that he had learned four foreign languages. His imperial prestige was at its peak. In gratitude he built for Nannar/Sin a shrine in the sacred precinct of Nippur. In return he was rewarded with the titles “High Priest of Anu, Priest of Nannar.” Shulgi recorded the two ceremonies on his cylinder seals (Figs. 96. 97).

Fig. 97 Fig. 96

But as time went by, Shulgi increasingly preferred the luxuries of Ur to the rigors of the provinces, leaving their government to Grand Emissaries. He spent his time composing self-laudatory hymns, imagining himself a demigod. His delusions eventually caught the attention of the greatest seductress of all—Inanna. Sensing a new opportunity, she invited Shulgi to Erech, making him “a man chosen for the vulva of Inanna” and engaging in lovemaking in the very temple dedicated to Anu. We quote Shulgi’s own words:

With valiant Utu, a friend as a brother, I drank strong drink in the temple founded by Anu. My minstrels sang for me the seven songs of love. Inanna, the queen, the vulva of heaven and earth, was by my side, banqueting in the temple.

As the unavoidable restiveness at home and abroad grew, Shulgi sought military support from the southeastern province of Elam. Arranging for his daughter to marry Elam’s viceroy, Shulgi gave him as dowry the city of Larsa. In return the viceroy brought into Sumer Elamite troops, to serve Shulgi as a Foreign Legion. But instead of peace the Elamite troops brought more warfare, and the yearly records of Shulgi’s reign speak of repeated destruction in the northern provinces. Shulgi attempted to retain his hold on the western provinces by peaceful means, and his thirty-seventh year of reign records a treaty with a local king named Puzur-Ish-Dagan—a name with clear Canaanite/Philistine connotations. The treaty enabled Shulgi to reclaim the title “King of the Four Regions.” But the peace in the west did not last long. In his forty-first year (2055 B.C.) Shulgi received certain oracles from Nannar/Sin, and a major military expedition was launched against the Canaanite provinces. Within two years Shulgi could claim once more that he was “Hero, King of Ur, Ruler of the Four Regions.”

The evidence suggests that Elamite troops were used in this campaign to subdue the provinces and that these foreign troops had advanced as far as the gateway to the Sinai. Their commander called himself “favorite of the God Who Judges, beloved by Inanna, occupier of Dur-Ilu.” But no sooner had the occupying troops withdrawn than the unrest began again. In the year 2049 B.C. Shulgi ordered the building of “The Wall of the West” to protect Mesopotamia. He stayed on the throne one more shaky year.

Although, until the end of his reign. Shulgi continued to proclaim himself “a cherished of Nannar,” he was no longer a “chosen” of Anu and Enlil. In their recorded view “the divine regulations he did not carry out, his righteousness he dirtied.” Therefore, they decreed for him the “death of a sinner.” The year was 2048 B.C. Shulgi*s successor on the throne of Ur was his son Amar-Sin. Though the first two years of his reign were recalled by their warfare, three years of peace did follow. But in the sixth year an uprising needed subduing in the northern district of Ashur, and in the seventh year—2041 B.C.—a major military campaign was required to suppress four western localities and “their lands.” The campaign, apparently, was not too successful, for it was not followed by the customary bestowal of titles on the king by Nannar. Instead we find that Amar-Sin turned his attention to Eridu—Enki’s city!—establishing there a royal residence and assuming there priestly functions. This twist in religious filialtics might have been prompted by the practical desire to gain control of Eridu’s shipyards; for in the following (ninth) year, Amar-Sin set sail to the same “Place of the Ramp” where Shulgi had gone. But reaching the “Land of Flying for Life” he got no farther: he died of a scorpion’s (or snake’s) bite.

He was replaced on the throne by his brother Shu-Sin. The nine years of his reign (2038-2030 B.C.), though recording two military forays against northern localities, were more conspicuous by their defensive measures. These included the strengthening of the Wall of the West against the Amorites and the construction of two ships: the “Great Ship” and the “Ship of the Abzu.” It looks as though Shu-Sin was preparing an escape by sea. . . .

When the next (and last) king of Ur, Ibbi-Sin, ascended the throne, raiders from the west were clashing with the Elamite mercenaries in Mesopotamia proper. Soon Sumer’s heartland was under siege; the people of Ur and Nippur were huddled behind protective walls, and the influence of Nannar had shrunk to a small enclave.

Waiting in the wings, as once before, was Marduk. Believing that his time for supremacy had finally come, he left his land of exile and led his followers back to Babylon. And then Awesome Weapons were unleashed, and disaster— unlike any that befell mankind since the Deluge—struck.