The Wars Of The Olden Gods

Anu’s first visit to Earth and the decisions then reached set the course of events on Earth for all the millennia that followed. In time they led to the creation of The Adam—Man as we know him. Homo sapiens; they also planted the seeds of future conflict on Earth between Enlil and Enki and their descendants.

But first there were the lingering and bitter struggles between the House of Anu and the House of Alalu, an enmity that burst out on Earth into the War of the Titans. It was a war that pitted “the gods who are in heaven” against the “gods who are upon dark-hued Earth”; it was. in its last climactic phase, an uprising of the Igigi! That it had taken place in the early days of the settlement of the Nibiruans on Earth and in the aftermath of Anu’s first visit to Earth, we know from the Kingship in Heaven text. Recalling the adversaries, it refers to them as “the mighty olden gods, the gods of the olden days.” After naming five ancestors as “the fathers and mothers of the gods” who preceded Anu and Alalu, it begins the tale with the usurpations of the throne on Nibiru. the flight of Alalu, the visit of Anu to Earth, and the ensuing conflict with Kumarbi.

The story in the Kingship in Heaven text is augmented and continued in several other Hittite/Hurrian texts, which scholars call collectively The Kumarbi Cycle. Laboriously pieced together (and still badly fragmented), the texts have recently become more intelligible by the discovery of additional fragments and versions, reported and fitted into place by H. Guterbock (Kumarbi Mythen von Churritischen Kronos) and H. Otten (Mythen vom Gone Kumarbi—Neue Fragmenle). How long Kumarbi remained aloft after the fight with Anu is not clear from these texts. We do learn that after the passage of some time, and after Kumarbi managed to spit out the “stones” that Anu caused to grow in his belly. Kumarbi came down to Earth. For reasons that may have been explained in missing parts of the texts, he went to Ea in the Abzu.

Mutilated verses then deal with the appearance on the scene of the Storm God Teshub, who, according to the Sumerians, was Enlil’s youngest son Ishkur/Adad. The Storm God annoys Kumarbi by telling him of the wonderful attributes and objects that each god will grant him, Teshub; among these attributes shall be Wisdom, which shall be transferred away from Kumarbi. “Filled with fury Kumarbi went to Nippur.” Breaks in the texts leave us ignorant as to what went on there, at Enlil’s headquarters; but after a stay of seven months Kumarbi went back to consult with Ea.

Ea suggested that Kumarbi “ascend to heaven” and seek the help of Lama, who was “mother of the two gods” and thus, apparently, an ancestral matriarch of the two contesting dynasties. With some self-interest, Ea offered to transport Kumarbi to the Celestial Abode in his MAR.GID.DA (celestial chariot), which the Akkadians called Ti-ia-ri-ta, “the flying vehicle.” But the goddess, having found out that Ea was coming without the permission of the Assembly of the Gods, sent “lightning winds” against Ea’s spacecraft, forcing him and Kumarbi to return to Earth. But rather than go down all the way, Kumarbi chose to stay with the orbiting gods whom the Hittite/Hurrian text calls Irsirra (“Those Who See and Orbit”), the Sumerian IGI.GI. With ample time on his hands, “Kumarbi was full with thoughts . . .thinking them out in his mind … he nurses thoughts of creating misfortune … he plots evil.” The essence of his thoughts was that he should be proclaimed “the father of all the gods,” the supreme deity! Gaining the backing of the orbiting Irsirra gods, Kumarbi “put swift shoes on his feet” and flew down to Earth. There he sent his emissary to the other leading gods, demanding that they recognize his supremacy.

It was then that Anu decided that enough was enough. To vanquish once and for all the grandson of his adversary Alalu, Anu ordered his own grandson, the “Storm God” Teshub, to find Kumarbi and kill him. Ferocious battles then ensued between the terrestrial gods led by Teshub and the sky-borne gods led by Kumarbi; in one battle alone, no less than seventy gods participated, all riding in celestial chariots. Though most battle scenes are lost in the damaged text, we know that in the end Teshub had prevailed. But the defeat of Kumarbi did not end the struggle. We learn from additional Hittite epic tales in the Kumarbi Cycle that before his demise, Kumarbi managed to impregnate a goddess of the mountain with his seed, leading to the birth of his Avenger, the “Stone God” Ullikummi. As he hid his marvelous (or monstrous) son among the Irsirra gods, he instructed him to grow and attack Teshub’s “beautiful city Kummiya . . . Attack the Storm God and tear him to pieces . . . shoot down all the gods from the sky like birds!” Once he attained victory on Earth. Ullikummi was to “ascend to Heaven for Kingship” and seize by force the throne on Nibiru. Having issued these instructions, Kumarbi passed away from the scene. For a long time the child was hidden. But as he grew upassuming giant proportions—he was seen one day by Utu/Shamash as he was roaming the skies. Utu rushed to Teshub’s abode, to inform him of the appearance of the Avenger. After giving Utu food and drink to becalm himself, Teshub urged him to “mount thy chariot and ascend to the skies,” to keep an eye on the growing Ullikummi. Then he went up the Mountain of Viewing to see the Stone God for himself. “He looked at the awesome Stone God, and in wrath shook his fist.” Realizing there was no alternative to battle, Teshub readied his chariot for combat; the Hittite text calls it by its Sumerian name ID.DUG.GA, “The Flowing Leaden Rider.” The instructions for outfitting the celestial chariot, for which the Hittite text heavily employed the original Sumerian terminology, merit quoting. They called for revving up the vehicle with the “Great Cracker”; attaching the “Bull” (power-plant) that “Lights Up” in front and the “Bull for Lofty Missile” in the back end; installing the radarlike or navigational device “That Which Shows The Way” in the forepart; activating the instruments with the powerful energy “Stones” (minerals); and then arming the vehicle with the “Storm Thunderer,” loading it with no less than eight hundred “Fire Stones”:

The “Great Cracker” of the “Bright Lead Rider” let them lubricate with oil and stir up. The “Bull that Lights Up” let them put between the horns. The tail’s “Bull that is Lofty Missile” let them plate with gold. The forepart’s “That Which Shows The Way” let them put in and turn, provide it with powerful “Stones” inside. Let them bring out the “Storm Thunderer” which scatters rocks for 90 furlongs, making sure the “Fire Stones” with 800 … to cover. The “Lightning Which Flashes Frightfully” let them bring out from its storage chamber. Let them bring out the MAR.GID.DA and make it ready!

“From the skies, from among the clouds, the Storm God set his face upon the Stone God.” After the ini tial unsuccessful attacks. Ninurta, the brother of Teshub/Adad, joined the battles. But the Stone God remained unharmed and carried the battle to the very gates of Kummiya. the Storm God’s city.

In Kummiya, Teshub’s spouse Hebat was following the battle reports in an inner chamber of the god’s house. But the missiles of Ullikummi “forced Hebat to leave the house, and she could no longer hear the messages of the gods . . . neither the messages of Teshub, nor the messages of all the gods.” She ordered her messenger to “put the Swift Shoes on his feet” and go to the place where the gods were assembled, to bring back news of the battle; for she feared that “the Stone God may have killed my husband, the noble prince.”

But Teshub was not killed. Advised by his attendant to hide at some mountainous sites, he refused: If we do that, he said, “there will be no king in Heaven!” The two then decided to go to Ea in the Abzu, to seek there an oracle according to “the old tablets with the words of fate.”

Realizing that Kumarbi had brought forth a monster that was getting out of hand. Ea went to Enlil to warn him of the danger: “Ullikummi will block off the Heaven and the gods’ holy houses!” An assembly of the Great Anunnaki was called. With all at a loss for a solution, Ea had one: From the sealed storehouse of the “stone cutters,” let them bring out a certain Olden Metal Cutter, and let them cut under the feet of Ullikummi the Stone God. When this was achieved, the Stone God was crippled. When the gods heard this, “they came to the place of assembly, and all the gods began to bellow against Ullikummi.” Teshub. encouraged, jumped into his chariot; “he caught up with the Stone God Ullikummi at the sea, and engaged him in battle.” But Ullikummi was still defiant, declaring: “Kummiya I shall destroy, the Sacred House I shall take over, the gods I shall drive out . . . up to Heaven I shall go to assume Kingship!”

The closing lines of the Hittite epic are completely damaged; but can we doubt that they told us the Sanskrit tale of the final battle between Indra and the “demon” Vritra?

The Wars of the Olden Gods 95 And then was seen a dreadful sight, when god and demon met in fight. His sharpened missiles Vritra shot, his thunderbolts and lightnings hot . . . The lightnings then began to flash, the direful thunderbolts to crash, by Indra proudly hurled . . . And soon the knell of Vritra’s doom was sounded by the clang and boom of Indra’s iron shower. Pierced, cloven, crushed, with horrid yell the dying demon headlong fell . . . And Indra smote him with a bolt between the shoulders.

These, we believe, were the battles of the “gods” and the Titans of the Greek tales. No one has yet found the meaning of “Titans”: but if the tales had a Sumerian origin, and if so did these gods' names, then TI.TA.AN in Sumerian would have literally meant “Those Who in Heaven Live”—precisely the designation of the Igigi led by Kumarbi; and their adversaries were the Anunnaki “Who are on Earth.”

Sumerian texts indeed record an olden life-and-death battle between a grandson of Anu and a “demon” of a different clan; the tale is known as The Myth of Zu. Its hero is Ninurta, Enlil’s son by his half-sister Sud; it could well have been the original tale from which the Hindu and Hittite tales were borrowed.

The setting for the events described in the Sumerian text is the time that had followed Anu’s visit to Earth. Under the overall command of Enlil, the Anunnaki have settled to their tasks in the Abzu and in Mesopotamia: The ores arc mined and transported, then smelted and refined. From a busy spaceport in Sippar, shuttlecraft take the precious metals aloft to the orbiting stations operated by the Igigi, thence on to the Home Planet by periodically visiting spaceships. The complex system of space operations—the comings and goings by the space vehicles and communications between Earth and Nibiru, while both planets pursue their own destined orbits—is coordinated from Enlil’s Mission Control Center in Nippur. There, atop a raised platform, was the DIR.GA room, the most restricted “holy of holies” where the vital celestial charts and orbital data panels—the “Tablets of Destinies”—were installed.

It was into this sacred chamber that a god named Zu gained access, seizing the vital tablets and thereby holding in his hands the fate of the Anunnaki on Earth and of Nibiru itself. By combining portions of Old Babylonian and Assyrian versions of the Sumerian text, a good deal of the tale has been restored. But damaged portions still held the secret of Zu’s true identity, as well as an explanation of how he had gained access to the Dirga. Only in 1979 did two scholars (W. W. Hallo and W. L. Moran) come up with the answer by using a tablet found in the Babylonian Collection of Yale University to reconstruct the beginning of the ancient tale. In Sumerian the name ZU meant “He Who Knows.” one expert in certain knowledge. Several references to the evil hero of this tale as AN.ZU—“He Who Knows the Heavens”—suggest a connection with the space program that had linked Earth with Nibiru; and the now-restored beginning of the chronicle indeed relates how Zu. an orphan, was adopted by the astronauts who manned the shuttlecraft and orbiting platforms, the Igigi—learning from them the secrets of the heavens and of space travel.

The action begins as the Igigi, “being gathered from all parts,” decided to make an appeal to Enlil. Their complaint was that “until that time for the Igigi a break-taking place had not yet been built.” In other words, there simply was no facility on Earth for the rest and recreation of the Igigi, where they could relax from the rigors of space and its weightlessness. To voice their complaint they selected Zu to be their spokesman, sending him to Enlil’s center in Nippur. Enlil, “the father of the gods, in the Dur-An-Ki, saw him, and thought of what they [the Igigi] said.” As “in his mind he pondered” the request, “he studied the heavenly Zu closely.” Who, after all, was this emissary, not one of the astronauts and yet wearing their uniform? As his suspicions grew, Ea—aware of Zu’s true ancestry—spoke up; he suggested to Enlil that a decision on the request of the Igigi could be postponed if Zu were delayed at Enlil’s headquarters. “Your service let him enter,” Ea said to Enlil; “in the sanctuary, to the innermost seat, let him be the one to block the way.”

To the words that Ea spoke to him the god [Enlil] consented. At the sanctuary Zu took up his position . . . At the entrance to the chamber Enlil had assigned him. The Wars of the Olden Gods 91

And so it was, with Ea’s connivance, that an adversary god—a secret descendant of" Alalu—was admitted to Enlil’s innermost and most sensitive chamber. We read that there Zu “constantly views Enlil, the father of the gods, the god of the Bond-Heaven-Earth … his celestial Tablet of Destines Zu constantly views.” And soon a scheme took shape: “The removal of the Enlilship he conceives in his heart”: I will take the celestial Tablet of Destinies; The decrees of the gods I will govern; I will establish my throne, be master of the Heavenly Decrees; The Igigi in their space I will command! “His heart having thus plotted aggression,” Zu saw his chance one day as Enlil went to take a cooling swim. “He seized the Tablet of Destinies in his hands” and in his Bird “took off and flew to safety in the HUR.SAG.MU” (“Mountain of me Sky-Chambers”). No sooner had this happened than everything came to a standstill: Suspended were the divine formulas; The lighted brightness petered out; Silence prevailed.

In space, the Igigi were confounded; The sanctuary’s brilliance was taken off. At first “father Enlil was speechless.” As the communications were restored, “the gods on Earth gathered one by one at the news.” Anu, on Nibiru, was also informed. It was clear that Zu must be captured and the Tablet of Destinies restored to the Dir-Ga. But who will do it? Several of the younger gods known for their valor were approached. But none dared track Zu to the distant mountain, for he was now as powerful as Enlil, having also stolen the “Brilliance” of Enlil; “and he who opposes him shall become as clay … at his Brilliance the gods waste away.” It was then that Ninurta, Enlil’s legal heir, stepped forth to undertake the task, for—as his mother Sud had pointed out—Zu deprived not only Enlil but also Ninurta of the “Enlilship.” She advised him to attack Zu in his hideaway mountain also with a weapon of “Brilliance,” but to do so only after he was able to approach Zu behind a dust screen. To achieve the latter she lent Ninurta her own “seven whirlwinds that stir up the dust.” With “his battle courage grown firmer,” Ninurta repaired to 98 THE WARS OF GODS AND MEN Mount Hazzi—the mountain encountered in the Kumarbi tales— where he hitched to his chariot his seven weapons, attached the whirlwinds that stir up the dust, and set out against Zu “to launch a terrifying war, a fierce battle’”: Zu and Ninurta met at the mountainside. When Zu perceived him. he broke out in rage. With his Brilliance, he made the mountain bright as daylight;

He let loose rays in a rage.

Unable to identify his challenger because of the dust storm, Zu shouted to Ninurta: “I have carried off all Authority, the decrees of the gods I |now| direct! Who are thou to come fight with me? Explain thyself!” But Ninurta continued to “advance aggressively” against Zu, announcing that he was designated by Anu himself to seize Zu and restore the Tablet of Destinies. Hearing this, Zu cut off his Brilliance, and “the face of the mountain was covered with darkness.” Unafraid. Ninurta “entered the gloom.” From the “breast” of his vehicle, he let loose a Lightning at Zu. “but the shot could not approach Zu; it turned back.” With the powers Zu had obtained, no lightning bolt could “approach his body.” So “the battle was stilled, the conflict ceased; the weapons were stopped in the midst of the mountain; they vanquished not Zu.” Stalemated. Ninurta asked his younger brother Ishkur/Adad to obtain the advice of Enlil. “Ishkur, the prince, took the report; the news of the battle he reported to Enlil.” Enlil instructed Ishkur to go back and tell Ninurta: “In the battle do not tire; prove thy strength!” More practically, he sent Ninurta a lillu—a missile (pictographically written )—to attach to the Stormer that shoots the projectiles. Ninurta in his “Whirlwind Bird.” he said, should then come as close as possible to the Bird of Zu, until they are “wing to wing.” Then he should aim the missile at the “pinions” of Zu’s Whirlbird. and “let the missile fly like a lightning; when the Fiery Brilliance will engulf the pinions, his wings will vibrate like butterflies; then will Zu be vanquished.” The final battle scenes are missing from all the tablets, but we know that more than one “Whirlbird” participated in the combat. Fragments of duplicates, found in the ruins of a Hittite archive at a site now called Sultan-Tepe, tell us that Ninurta arrayed “seven whirlwinds which stir up the dust,” armed his chariot with the The Wars of the Olden Gods 99 “111 Winds” weapons, and attacked Zu as suggested by his father. “The earth shook . . . the [illegible] became dark, the skies became black … the pinions of Zu were overcome.” Zu was captured and brought back before Enlil in Nippur; the Tablet of Destinies was reinstalled where it belonged: “Lordship again entered the Ekur; the Divine Formulas were returned.” The captured Zu was put on trial before a court-martial consisting of the Seven Great Anunnaki; he was found guilty and sentenced to death; Ninurta, his vanquisher, “cut his throat.” Many depictions were found showing the trial scene, in which Zu, on account of his association with the Igigi astronauts, was dressed up as a bird. An archaic relief found in central Mesopotamia illustrated the actual execution of Zu. This one shows Zu—who belonged to those “Who Observe and See”—as a demonic cock with an extra eye in the forehead (Fig. 26). Fig. 26

The defeat of Zu lingered in the memory of the Anunnaki as a great deliverance. Perhaps because of the assumption that the spirit of Zu—representing betrayal, duplicity, and all evil in generalpersists in causing ill and suffering, the trial and execution of Zu were transmitted to mankind’s generations in the form of an elaborate ritual. In this annual commemoration a bull was chosen to stand for Zu and atone for his evil deed.

Long instructions for the ritual have been found in both Babylonian and Assyrian versions, all indicating their earlier Sumerian source. After extensive preparations, a “great bull, strong bull who treads upon clean pastures” was brought into the temple and purified on the first day of a certain month. It was then whispered into the bull’s left ear through a reed tube: “Bull, the guilty Zu are you”; and into the right ear: “Bull, you have been chosen for the rite and the ceremonies.” On the fifteenth day the bull was brought before the images of “the Seven Gods Who Judge” and the symbols of the twelve celestial bodies of the Solar System. The trial of Zu was then reenacted. The bull was put down before Enlil, “the Great Shepherd.” The accusing priest recited rhetorical accusational questions, as though addressed to Enlil: How could you have given “the stored treasure” to the enemy? How could you have let him come and dwell in the “pure place”? How could he gain access to your quarters? Then the playacting called for Ea and other gods to beseech Enlil to calm himself, for Ninurta had stepped forward and asked his father: “Point my hands in the right direction! Give me the right words of command!” Following this recital of the evidence given at the trial, judgment was passed. As the bull was being slaughtered in accordance with detailed instructions, the priests recited the bull’s verdict: His liver was to be boiled in a sacrifical kettle; his skin and muscles were to be burned inside the temple; but his “evil tongue shall remain outside.” Then the priests, playing the roles of the other gods, broke out in a hymn of praise to Ninurta: Wash your hands, wash your hands! You are now as Enlil, wash your hands! You are as Enlil [upon] the Earth; May all the gods rejoice in you! When the gods looked for a volunteer to fight Zu, they promised the vanquisher of Zu: The Wars of the Olden Gods 101 Thy name shall be the greatest in the Assembly of the Great Gods; Among the gods, thy brothers, thou shall have no equal; Glorified before the gods and potent shall be thy name! After Ninurta’s victory the promise had to be kept. Bui therein was the rub and the seed of future fights among the gods: Ninurta was indeed Enlil’s Legal Heir but on Nibiru, not on Earth. Now, as the commemorative temple ritual makes clear, he was made “as Enlil—upon Earth.” We know from other texts dealing with the gods of Sumer and Akkad that their hierarchical order was also expressed numerically. Anu was given the highest number of the Sumerian sexagesimal system, 60. His Legal Heir, Enlil, had the rank of 50; the firstborn son (and heir in the event of Enlil’s demise), Ea, was 40. Now, as the enigmatic statement that Ninurta has become “as Enlil” attests, he, too, was given the rank of 50. The partly mutilated ending of the temple ritual text contains the following legible verses: “O Marduk, for your king speak the words: ‘I release!’ O Adad, for your king speak the words: ‘I release!’ " We can safely guess that the mutilated lines also included a similar release by Sin of his claim to kingship among the gods and recognition of Ninurta’s Enlilship. We know that thereafter, Sin —Enlil’s firstborn on Earth—held the rank of 30, his son Shamash 20, and his daughter Ishtar 15, and Ishkur (Adad in Akkadian) the rank of 10. (There is no record of Marduk’s numerical rank.) The conspiracy of Zu and his evil plotting remained also in mankind’s memory, evolving into a fear of birdlike demons who can cause affliction and pestilence (Fig. 27). Some of these demons were called Lillu, a term that played on the double meaning “to howl” and “of the night”; their female leader, Lillitu—Lilith— was depicted as a naked, winged goddess with birdlike feet (Fig. 28). The many shurpu (“purification by burning”) texts that have been found were formulas for incantations against these evil spirits—forerunners of the sorcery and witchcraft that had lasted throughout the millennia. In spite of the solemn vows taken after the defeat of Zu to honor and respect Enlil’s supremacy and Ninurta’s position as second-incommand, the basic factors causing rivalry and contention had remained—breaking into the open from time to time in the ensuing Fig. 27 millennia. Realizing that this would be so, Anu and Enlil provided Ninurta with new, marvelous weapons. Anu gave him the SHAR.UR (“Supreme Hunter”) and the SHAR.GAZ (“Supreme Smiter”);

Enlil gave him several weapons, of which the unique IB—a weapon with “fifty killing heads”—was the most awesome, leading to references in the chronicles to Ninurta as “The Lord of the Ib.”

Thus armed, Ninurta became the “Foremost Warrior of Enlil,” ready to fight off all challenges to the Enlilship. The next such challenge came in the shape of a mutiny of the Anunnaki who were working in the gold mines of the Abzu. The mutiny, and the events that had led to it and followed it, are fully described in a text called by scholars The Atra-Hasis Epic—a fullfledged Earth Chronicle which, inter alia, records the events that had led to the creation of Homo sapiens—Man as we know him. The text informs us that after Anu had gone back to Nibiru and Earth was divided between Enlil and Enki, the Anunnaki toiled in the mines of the Abzu for “forty counted periods”—forty orbits of their planet, or 144,000 Earth-years. But the work was difficult and backbreaking: “inside the mountains … in the deeply cut shafts . . . the Anunnaki suffered the toil; excessive was their toil, for forty counted periods.”

Fig. 28

The mining operations, deep inside the earth, were never interrupted: the Anunnaki “suffered the toil day and night.” But as the shafts grew deeper and the toil harsher, dissatisfaction grew: “They were complaining, backbiting, grumbling in the excavations.” To help maintain discipline Enlil sent Ninurta to the Abzu. but this strained relations with Enki even more. It was then that Enlil decided to go to the Abzu and personally evaluate the situation. The discontended Anunnaki seized the opportunity to mutiny!

The Alra-Hasis chronicle, in language as vivid as that of a modern reporter, in more than 150 lines of text, unambiguously describes the events that followed: How the rebellious Anunnaki put their tools on fire and, in the middle of the night, marched on Enlil’s dwelling; how some shouted “Let us kill him … Let us break the yoke!”; how an unnamed leader reminded them that Enlil was the “Chief Officer of Old Time,” and advised negotiations; and how Enlil, enraged, took up his weapons, but he, too, was reminded by his chamberlain: “My lord, these are your sons. . . .” As Enlil remained a prisoner in his own quarters, he sent a message to Anu and asked that he come to Earth. When Anu arrived, the Great Anunnaki assembled for a court-martial. “Enki, Ruler of the Abzu. was also present.” Enlil demanded to know who the instigator of the mutiny was, calling for a death penalty. Not getting the support of Anu, Enlil offered his resignation: “Noble one,” he said to Anu, “take away the office, take away the power; to Heaven will I ascend with you.” But Anu, calming Enlil, also expressed understanding of the miners’ hardships. Encouraged, Enki “opened his mouth and addressed the gods.” Repeating Anu*s summation, he had a solution to offer: While the Chief Medical Officer, their sister Sud, was here in the Abzu with them: Let her create a Primitive Worker; And let him bear the yoke . . . Let the Worker carry the toil of the gods, Let him bear the yoke! In the following one hundred lines of the Alra-Hasis text, and in several other “Creation of Man” texts that have been discovered in various states of preservation, the tale of the genetic engineering of Homo sapiens has been told in amazing detail. To achieve the feat Enki suggested that a “Being that already exists”—Apewoman—be used to create the Lulu Amelu (“The Mixed Worker”) by “binding” upon the less evolved beings “the mold of the gods.” The goddess The Wars of the Olden Gods 105 Sud purified the “essence” of a young male Anunnaki: she mixed it into the egg of an Apewoman. The fertilized egg was then implanted in the womb of a female Anunnaki, for the required period of pregnancy. When the “mixed creature” was bom, Sud lifted him up and shouted: “I have created! My hands have made it!” The “Primitive Worker”— Homo sapiens—had come into being. It happened some 300,000 years ago: it came about through a feat of genetic engineering and embryo-implant techniques which mankind itself is beginning to employ. There has undoubtedly been a long process of evolution; but then the Anunnaki had taken a hand in the process and jumped the gun on evolution, “creating” us sooner than we might have evolved on our own. Scholars have been searching for a long time for the “missing link” in man’s evolution. The Sumerian texts reveal that the “missing link” was a feat of genetic manipulation performed in a laboratory. . . . It was not a feat over and done with in an instant. The texts make clear that it had taken the Anunnaki considerable trial and error to achieve the desired “perfect model” of the Primitive Worker, but once achieved, a mass-production process was launched: fourteen “birth goddesses” at a time were implanted with the genetically manipulated Apewomen eggs: seven to bear male and seven to bear female Workers. As soon as they grew up, the Workers were put to work in the mines; and as their numbers grew, they assumed more and more of the physical chores in the Abzu. The armed clash between Enlil and Enki that was soon to take place, however, was over these same slave laborers. . . . The more the production of ores improved in the Abzu, the greater was the work load on the Anunnaki that had remained to operate the facilities in Mesopotamia. The climate was milder, rains were more plentiful, and the rivers of Mesopotamia were constantly overflowing. Increasingly the Mesopotamian Anunnaki “were digging the river,” raising dikes and deepening the canals. 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 pickax to hold. We read of these events in a text named by Samuel N. Kramer The Myth of the Pickax. Though portions are missing, it is under- 106 THE WARS OF GODS AND MEN stood that Enki refused Enlil’s request for the transfer of Primitive Workers to Mesopotamia. Deciding to take matters into his own hands. Enlil took the extreme step of disconnecting the communications with the home planet: “In the “Bond Heaven-Earth’ he made a gash . . . verily did he speed to disconnect Heaven from Earth.” Then he launched an armed attack against the Land of the Mines.

The Anunnaki in the Abzu assembled the Primitive Workers in a central compound, strengthening its walls against the coming attack. But Enlil fashioned a marvelous weapon, the AL.A.NI (“Ax That Produces Power”) equipped with a “horn” and an “earth splitter” that could drill through walls and earthworks. With these weapons Enlil drove a hole through the fortifications. As the hole widened “Primitive Workers were breaking out toward Enlil. He eyed the Black-headed Ones in fascination.”

Thereafter the Primitive Workers performed the manual tasks in both Lands: In the Land of the Mines they “bore the work and suffered the toil”; in Mesopotamia, “with picks and spades they built gods’ houses, they built the big canal banks; food they grew for the sustenance of the gods.” Many ancient drawings engraved on cylinder seals depicted these Primitive Workers performing their tasks, naked as the animals of the field (Fig. 29). Various Sumerian texts recorded this animallike stage in human development: Fig. 29

When Mankind was first created. They knew not the eating of bread. Knew not the dressing of garments. Ate plants with their mouth like sheep. Drank water from the ditch . . .

How long, however, could young female Anunnaki be asked (or forced) to perform the roles of “birth goddesses”? Unbeknownst to Enlil, and with the connivance of Sud, Enki contrived to give the new creature one more genetic twist: granting to the hybrid beings—incapable of procreating, as all hybrids are—the ability to have offspring, the sexual “Knowing” for having children. The event is echoed in the biblical tale of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and although the original Sumerian text of the tale has not yet been found, a number of Sumerian depictions of the event were indeed discovered. They show different aspects of the tale: the Tree of Life; the offering of the forbidden fruit; the angry encounter that ensued between the “Lord God” and the “Serpent.” Yet another shows Eve girdled in a garment around her loins while Adam is still naked (Fig. 30), another detail related in the Bible.

Fig. 30

While the Serpent God features in all these ancient depictions, the illustration reproduced here is of particular significance as it writes out, in archaic Sumerian the god’s epithet/name as The “star” spells “god” and the triangular symbol reads BUR. BURU. or BUZUR—all terms that make the epithet/name mean “God Who Solves Secrets.” “God of the Deep Mines.” and variations thereof. The Bible (in the original Hebrew) calls the god who tempted Eve Nahash, translated “Serpent,” but literally meaning “He Who Solves Secrets” and “He Who Knows Metals,” the exact parallels of the god’s name in the Sumerian depiction. This depiction is of further interest because it shows the Serpent God with his hands and feet in tethers, suggesting that Enki was arrested after his unauthorized deed. In his anger Enlil ordered the expulsion of The Adam—the Homo sapiens 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. Little did the Anunnaki then know the role that the Primitive Worker would play in the wars between them.