How was the creation of Man accomplished?

The text “When the gods as men” contains a passage whose purpose was to explain why the “blood” of a god had to be mixed into the “clay.” The “divine” element required was not simply the dripping blood of a god, but something more basic and lasting.

The god that was selected, we are told, had TE.E.MA—a term the leading authorities on the text (W. G. Lambert and A. R. Millard of Oxford University) translate as “personality.”

But the ancient term is much more specific; it literally means “that which houses that which binds the memory.” Further on, the same term appears in the Akkadian version as etemu, which is translated as “spirit.”

In both instances we are dealing with that “something” in the blood of the god that was the repository of his individuality. All these, we feel certain, are but roundabout ways of stating that what Ea was after, when he put the god’s blood through a series of “purifying baths,” was the god’s genes.

The purpose of mixing this divine element thoroughly with the earthly element was also spelled out:

In the clay, god and Man shall be bound, to a unity brought together; So that to the end of days the Flesh and the Soul which in a god have ripened— that Soul in a blood-kinship be bound; As its Sign life shall proclaim. So that this not be forgotten, Let the “Soul” in a blood-kinship be bound.

These are strong words, little understood by scholars. The text states that the god’s blood was mixed into the clay so as to bind god and Man genetically “to the end of days” so that both the flesh (“image”) and the soul (“likeness”) of the gods would become imprinted upon Man in a kinship of blood that could never be severed.

The “Epic of Gilgamesh” reports that when the gods decided to create a double for the partly divine Gilgamesh, the Mother Goddess mixed “clay” with the “essence” of the god Ninurta. Later on in the text, Enkidu’s mighty strength is attributed to his having in him the “essence of Anu,” an element he acquired through Ninurta, the grandson of Anu.

The Akkadian term kisir refers to an “essence,” a “concentration” that the gods of the heavens possessed. E. Ebeling summed up the efforts to understand the exact meaning of ki ir by stating that as “Essence, or some nuance of the term, it could well be applied to deities as well as to missiles from Heaven.” E. A. Speiser concurred that the term also implied “something that came down from Heaven.” It carried the connotation, he wrote, “as would be indicated by the use of the term in medicinal contexts.”

We are back to a simple, single word of translation: gene. The evidence of the ancient texts, Mesopotamian as well as biblical, suggests that the process adopted for merging two sets of genes—those of a god and those of Homo erectus—involved the use of male genes as the divine element and female genes as the earthly element.

Repeatedly asserting that the Deity created Adam in his image and in his likeness, the Book of Genesis later describes the birth of Adam’s son Seth in the following words:

And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and had an offspring in his likeness and after his image; and he called his name Seth.

The terminology is identical to that used to describe the creation of Adam by the Deity. But Seth was certainly born to Adam by a biological process—the fertilization of a female egg by the male sperm of Adam, and the ensuing conception, pregnancy, and birth. The identical terminology bespeaks an identical process, and the only plausible conclusion is that Adam, too, was brought forth by the Deity through the process of fertilizing a female egg with the male sperm of a god.

If the “clay” into which the godly element was mixed was an earthly element—as all texts insist—then the only possible conclusion is that the male sperm of a god—his genetic material—was inserted into the egg of an ape-woman! The Akkadian term for the “clay”—or, rather, “molding clay”—is tit. But its original spelling was TI.IT (“that which is with life”). In Hebrew, tit means “mud”; but its synonym is bo , which shares a root with bi a (“marsh”) and be a (“egg”).

The story of Creation is replete with plays on words. We have seen the double and triple meanings of Adam—adama–adamtu–dam. The epithet for the Mother Goddess, NIN.TI, meant both “lady of life” and “lady of the rib.” Why not, then, bo –bi a–be a (“clay–mud–egg”) as a play on words for the female ovum? The ovum of a female Homo erectus, fertilized by the genes of a god, was then implanted within the womb of Ea’s spouse; and after the “model” was obtained, duplicates of it were implanted in the wombs of birth goddesses, to undergo the process of pregnancy and birth.

The Wise and learned, Double-seven birth-goddesses had assembled; Seven brought forth males, Seven brought forth females. The Birth Goddess brought forth The Wind of the Breath of Life. In pairs were they completed, In pairs were they completed in her presence. The creatures were People– Creatures of the Mother Goddess. Homo sapiens had been created.

The ancient legends and myths, biblical information, and modern science are also compatible in one more aspect. Like the findings of modern anthropologists—that Man evolved and emerged in southeast Africa—the Mesopotamian texts suggest that the creation of Man took place in the Apsu—in the Lower World where the Land of the Mines was located. Paralleling Adapa, the “model” of Man, some texts mention “sacred Amama, the Earth woman,” whose abode was in the Apsu.

In the “Creation of Man” text, Enki issues the following instructions to the Mother Goddess: “Mix to a core the clay from the Basement of Earth, just above the Abzu.” A hymn to the creations of Ea, who “the Apsu fashioned as his dwelling,” begins by stating: Divine Ea in the Apsu pinched off a piece of clay, created Kulla to restore the temples. The hymn continues to list the construction specialists, as well as those in charge of the “abundant products of mountain and sea,” who were created by Ea— all, it is inferred, from pieces of “clay” pinched off in the Abzu—the Land of Mines in the Lower World. The texts make it abundantly clear that while Ea built a brick house by the water in Eridu, in the Abzu he built a house adorned with precious stones and silver. It was there that his creature, Man, originated: The Lord of the AB.ZU, the king Enki… Built his house of silver and lapis-lazuli; Its silver and lapis-lazuli, like sparkling light, The Father fashioned fittingly in the AB.ZU. The Creatures of bright countenance, Coming forth from the AB.ZU, Stood all about the Lord Nudimmud.

One can even conclude from the various texts that the creation of Man caused a rift among the gods. It would appear that at least at first the new Primitive Workers were confined to the Land of Mines. As a result, the Anunnaki who were toiling in Sumer proper were denied the benefits of the new manpower. A puzzling text named by the scholars The Myth of the Pickax is in fact the record of the events whereby the Anunnaki who stayed in Sumer under Enlil obtained their fair share of the Black-Headed People. Seeking to reestablish “the normal order,” Enlil took the extreme action of severing the contacts between “Heaven” (the 12th Planet or the spaceships) and Earth, and launched some drastic action against the place “where flesh sprouted forth.”

The Lord, That which is appropriate he caused to come about. The Lord Enlil, Whose decisions are unalterable, Verily did speed to separate Heaven from Earth So that the Created Ones could come forth; Verily did speed to separate Earth from Heaven. In the “Bond Heaven-Earth” he made a gash, So that the Created Ones could come up From the Place-Where-Flesh-Sprouted-Forth.

Against the “Land of Pickax and Basket,” Enlil fashioned a marvelous weapon named AL.A.NI (“ax that produces power”). This weapon had a “tooth,” which, “like a one-horned ox,” could attack and destroy large walls. It was by all descriptions some kind of a huge power drill, mounted on a bulldozer-like vehicle that crushed everything ahead of it:

The house which rebels against the Lord, The house which is not submissive to the Lord, The AL.A.NI makes it submissive to the Lord. Of the bad… the heads of its plants it crushes; Plucks at the roots, tears at the crown. Arming his weapon with an “earth splitter,” Enlil launched the attack: The Lord called forth the AL.A.NI, gave its orders. He set the Earth Splitter as a crown upon its head, And drove it into the Place-Where-Flesh-Sprouted-Forth. In the hole was the head of a man; From the ground, people were breaking through towards Enlil.

He eyed his Black-headed Ones in steadfast fashion. Grateful, the Anunnaki put in their requests for the arriving Primitive Workers and lost no time in putting them to work: The Anunnaki stepped up to him, Raised their hands in greetings, Soothing Enlil’s heart with prayers. Black-headed Ones they were requesting of him. To the Black-headed people, they give the pickax to hold. The Book of Genesis likewise conveys the information that “the Adam” was created somewhere west of Mesopotamia, then brought over eastward to Mesopotamia to work in the Garden of Eden: And the Deity Yahweh Planted an orchard in Eden, in the east… And He took the Adam And placed him in the Garden of Eden To work it and to keep it.