THE
CULTURAL EXCHANGES AND DIFFUSION
The
First Civilization :
Four Objects that Highlight Sumerian Civilization’s Perceived
Cosmospatial Space. Declaration of Interest: This assignment was
partially supported from the earlier research grants received
from: Nguyen Vian Fund (Vietnam) and Vegusto (UK). I have chosen
four objects that highlight the different aspects of the perceived
time-spatial space of the ancient Sumer. I then go on to indicate
how such time spatial concepts were used to promote of the hierarchy
of Sumer’s kingship. The choice of these particular exhibits
arises from our growing need to understand in increasing details
the ancient environmental recollections that often refer to the
events that related to the climate change. I have also taken the
view that the long distance cultural diffusion played a far greater
role in the early societies than is often assumed although the
material evidence of this is largely lacking (due to the fact
that the nomadic peoples’ possessions had to be easily portable
thus often leaving only linguistic and mythical traditions to
study). In recent times DNA haplogroup studies have added a new
tool to trace people movement. This gives a brief overview of
cultural concepts that I think diffused from Sumer.
Object 1 : Weld-Blundell Prism (WB) :
The Weld-Blundell Prism (20cm x 9cm x 9cm) was found from the
city of Larsa. The prism contains a complete record of the Sumerian
Kings List. The object was made close to 1753 BCE as it ends with
the 14th king of the Isin dynasty, Sîn-magir, who reigned
c. 1763 – 1753 BCE (Sumerian short chronology) and it was
most likely written during Sîn-magir's final year, or shortly
after the reign of his son Damiq-ilišu commenced who was
the ruler of Isin before the city of Larsa conquered it (Van De
Mieroop, 2016: 47). According to Ashmolean Museum (Ashmolean Museum
Accession Number AN1923.4440) the owner of the original object,
the king lists aims to legitimize the inherited power of the rulers
from their predecessors in a region of Sumer. Many, especially
its pre-flood, kings reigns are expressed using extremely large
numbers such as sars and nerah and therefore many scholars of
Sumer have thought that this work to be more artistic than a real
historical record.
![](target001a.png)
Fig.
1. Weld-Blundell Prism (WB)
Sumer’s position coincides with the point in history where
human communities changed from hunter-gatherer and pastoral-nomadic
life to a settled agricultural life. During the earlier, more
mobile setting of the nomadic and pastoral lifestyle the roaming
human bandits slip easily past each other on little populated
terrain. Once people became fixed to their land as they started
cultivating it, the need to govern was almost inevitable while
the population densities also grew. Sumerian Kings List names
Sumer’s first hierarchic leader as Alulim in the town of
Eridug followed then by 128 subsequent Sumerian kings in the Weld-Blundell
Prism. The time-keeping system in Sumerian Kings List has been
difficult to understand which has been limiting its usefulness
in dating the history of the early kings (if compared to the early
Egyptian kings whose reigns’ dates are widely accepted).
Despite of the enormously varying numbers of recorded time units,
they are often cited as ‘years’. A comparative analysis
of the early time-keeping systems is necessary here. Since the
ice-ages times the passage of time was first and foremost recorded
by recording of day-tallies (i.e. Fig. 2).
![](target002a.png)
Fig. 2. An example of Palaeolithic day-keeping
rib bone used for recording days for a period about three years
from the Grotte du Taï in France with a series of over thousand
line marks. Photo: Alexander Marshack. (Bahn, 1997, p. 204.)
The Sumerian culture was not any exception when it came to recording
time by marking down day-tallies of its early rulers. The following
the early Sumerian quotation refers to recording of day-tallies
onto the wall – likely by using a black charcoal to make
them easily washable – assigned as Uruk I period tradition
:
“ ‘All men are deceivers.. therefore bake loaves of
bread, each day one loaf, and put it beside his head: and make
a mark on the wall to number the days he has slept.’ So
she baked loaves of bread, each day one loaf, and put it beside
his head, and she marked on the wall the days that he slept”
(Sandars, 1972, p. 114).
This would explain the very long reigning period numbers cited
for the first eight ruling houses of Sumer while it also stipulates
a possibility that Sumer’s time keeping and kingship ideology
was transmitted to some surrounding regions.
The recording of day-tallies explains away the problem of huge
time numbers allocated for the octet of the first eight kings
of Sumer as shown in Table 1 :
Table 1. Day-tallies of the Eight Reigning Houses of Sumer’s
Five Leading Cities
No. |
Sumerian
Ruling House |
1. |
‘Kingship
in Heaven’
Reign in
days : ---
Reign in
years : ---
Duration
in days : ---
Duration
in years : ---
Reigning
city : None |
2. |
Alulim
Reign in
days
: 28,800
Reign in
years : 80
Duration
in days : 28,000
Duration
in years : 80
Reigning
city : Eridug |
3. |
Alalgar
Reign in
days
: 36,000
Reign in
years : 100
Duration
in days : 144,000 (total
of kings 3, 4, 5 and 6)
Duration
in years : 400 (total
of kings 3, 4, 5 and 6)
Reigning
city : Eridug |
4. |
En-men-lu-ana
Reign in
days
: 43,200
Reign in
years : 120
Duration
in days : 144,000 (total
of kings 3, 4, 5 and 6)
Duration
in years : 400 (total
of kings 3, 4, 5 and 6)
Reigning
city : Bad-tibira (including kings 4, 5 and 6) |
5. |
En-men-gal-ana
Reign in
days
: 28,800
Reign in
years : 80
Duration
in days : 144,000 (total
of kings 3, 4, 5 and 6)
Duration
in years : 400 (total
of kings 3, 4, 5 and 6)
Reigning
city : Bad-tibira (including kings 4, 5 and 6) |
6. |
Dumuzid-ucumgal-ana
Reign in
days
: 36,000
Reign in
years : 100
Duration
in days : 144,000 (total
of kings 3, 4, 5 and 6)
Duration
in years : 400 (total
of kings 3, 4, 5 and 6)
Reigning
city : Bad-tibira (including kings 4, 5 and 6) |
7. |
En-sipad-zid-ana
Reign in
days
: 28,800
Reign in
years : 80
Duration
in days : 68,400 (total
of kings 7, 8 and 9)
Duration
in years : 190 (total
of kings 7, 8 and 9)
Reigning
city : Larag |
8. |
En-men-dur-ana
Reign in
days
: 21,000
Reign in
years : 58
Duration
in days : 68,400 (total
of kings 7, 8 and 9)
Duration
in years : 190 (total
of kings 7, 8 and 9)
Reigning
city : Zimbir |
9. |
Ubara-Tutu
Reign in
days
: 18,600
Reign in
years : 52
Duration
in days : 68,400 (total
of kings 7, 8 and 9)
Duration
in years : 190 (total
of kings 7, 8 and 9)
Reigning
city : Šuruppag |
10. |
The
Present Age
Reign in
days
: ---
Reign in
years : ---
Duration
in days : ---
Duration
in years : ---
Reigning
city : Kish |
|
Note
: Sumerian Kings Lists allocate the origin of Sumer’s
kingship institution to “heaven” that is then used
to justify Sumer’s city state leaders and elites power over
the commoners; the tradition held that at the beginning people
wandered under open skies which “ruled”.
The
Sumerian Octet of the first eight ruling houses mandated by a
god of heaven arrived to the Nile Valley where its city-states
developed the Egyptian Enneads and Ogdoad where their local kings
ruled supreme as the head those eight older “gods”.
The importation of the revered octet of the first Mesopotamian
kings into Egypt was used as a stepping-stone argument for the
nascent Egyptian city states rulers to assume their powers much
following earlier Mesopotamian examples.
This represents one example of cultural diffusion that originated
from Sumerian kingship. Archaeological evidence suggests Egypt’s
cultural fascination towards Sumer during the Nagada period that
preceded the unification of Egypt to one large state. Therefore,
two of the gods in the Egyptian Ogdoad are named not after the
River Nile tributaries, but after the Mesopotamian tributary,
Kerheh. Even for the Greeks the Sumer’s invention of the
regal time-keeping is reflected in the myth of Chronus (aka “chronos”
= time) whose world era is defeated in the cataclysmic event of
the Titanomachy as the present world’s sky-god took over.
The reign of Alalngar to Dumuzid represents a period of 144,000
days (400 years x 360 days). This precise number appears among
the various cultural traditions.
The very large numbers that resulted from counting the reigns
of Sumer’s ruling houses using days as time unit over many
decades were difficult to handle. This led to a short-lived effort
to count time from the first crescent after the new moon to the
next one. It divided ecliptic to 13 sectors of 28 days each =
364 days.
This transient system had each lunar quarter represented by its
7 creative suns (days) to divide the solar year to 52 weeks, whereas
the year itself was a part of a larger 52-year cycle modelled
after Sumer’s last ruling house of Ubara-tutu in the previous
world age. This 52-year megacycle was then extrapolated to even
more gigantic total world age of all previous world ages as 13
cycles of 52 years to encapsulate the Sumer’s Octet as 13
cycles x 52 years = 676 years. Herodotus later cites to the time-spatial
city plan of Babylon being designed after this time spatial concept
of Sumer as the 676 city squares that alluded these 676 years
:
“As there were 25 gates on each side of the outer
wall [of Babylon], the great thoroughfares numbered 50 in all,
and there were 676 squares, each over two miles in circumference.”
(Mackenzie 1915, 220).
![](const.png)
Fig.
3. Lunar-Crescent-Derived 13-Station Ecliptic with a Zodiacal
Ophiuchus
"But even according to the Babylonians’ own ancient
stories, there were 13 constellations in the zodiac. So they picked
one, Ophiuchus, to leave out. Even then, some of the chosen 12
didn’t fit neatly into their assigned slice of the pie and
crossed over into the next one [constellation]. .. The constellations
are different sizes and shapes, so the Sun spends different lengths
of time lined up with each one. The line from Earth through the
sun points to Virgo for 45 days, but it points to Scorpius for
only 7 days. To make a tidy match with their 12-month calendar,
the Babylonians ignored the fact that the Sun actually moves through
13 constellations, not 12. Then they assigned each of those 12
constellations equal amounts of time." (NASA, 2020).
Following a brief experiment of counting time from the new lunar
crescents (instead of counting time as days) resulted in the ecliptic
being divided to 13 sectors of 28 days and further to 52 lunar
quarters to give us our present week with its seven suns. It was
soon discovered that 364-day years still kept drifting and the
alignment between the cycles of the sun and moon was not perfect.
Consequently, the difficult 13-station division of ecliptic was
given up and a new Kish Temple Time was adopted to divide the
ecliptic to 30 lunar stations to approximate the earlier 28-day
system with mathematically easy circle divisions.
Table
2. Kish Kings on the Temple Time of 30 Stellar Stations of the
Moon
The
Kings of the City of Kish (32 kings ruled 600
years | 17,980 stations) |
The
kings of Kish that ruled over 30 day stations
of the month |
1-12.
Kings Named after 12 Stellar Stations on the Ecliptic |
The
kings of Kish that ruled over 12 month stations
of the year |
No.
|
Sumerian
Kings |
Years |
1. |
Jushur |
40
years (1,200) |
2. |
Kullassina-bel |
32
years (960) |
3. |
Nangishlishma |
22
years 4 months (670) |
4. |
En-tarah-ana |
14
years (420) |
5. |
Babum |
10
years (300) |
The
23 kings of the City of Kish ruled in total for
599 years 4 months |
(17,980 passages of stellar stations on
the ecliptic of the old lunar zodiac) |
|
In
total there were 32 kings in Kish that reigned for 17,980 stations
(599 years and 4 months) that equal to virtually six centuries.
This may not have been just a coincidence but a move made by the
next ruling city of Uruk but a calculated act of rebuttal for
the claims of then-long-leading-city of Kish that had “its
time up” and the 7th century and the future of Sumer now
handed to the 7th city of Uruk. While the durations of the Kish’s
kings’ reigns were measured against a time deferral to moon’s
approximated 30 daily stations against stellar background on the
sky, the kings names themselves were expressed as months’
stations against the year in a superior deference to the sun.
Thus the twelve first kings of Kish bear stellar names to animals
that preceded the twelve stations of the much later Mesopotamian
zodiac. By the 13th king of Kish, Etana, such a naming convention
was closed and could be no longer followed as the last vacant
station on the ecliptic became filled by the king Arwium and the
kingship was liberated from its stricture of being named after
the stellar stations depicting cosmic animals.
Table
3. Uruk Kings on the Kish Temple Time of 30 Stellar Stations of
the Moon
The
Kings of the City of Uruk (3 kings ruled 65 years | 1,944 stations) |
1st
Dynasty of Uruk: The House of Utu (2 kings) |
No.
|
Sumerian
Kings |
Years |
1. |
Utu
(The father of Uruk’s founder Mesh-ki-ang-gasher, but not
a king.) |
2. |
Mesh-ki-ang-gasher |
10
years 9 months 18 days (324) |
3. |
Enmerkar |
14
years (420) |
4. |
Lugalbanda
(The
last king whose reign was counting the passages
of stellar stations in the old lunar zodiac of
the City of Kish.) |
40
years (1,200) |
The
rulers of ‘suzerainty’ Uruk reigned for 64 years,
9 months 18 days |
(1,944
passages of stellar stations on the ecliptic of the old lunar
zodiac) |
|
The
city of Uruk was born under Kish and remained initially tied as
suzerainty to the state and therefore cited the Kish Temple Time
for its first three kings during 1,944 stellar stations, approximate
65 years. After that the leaders of Uruk re-asserted themselves
and took over Kish establishing the Divine Time of Uruk where
1/3 of time was human while the remaining 2/3 was allocated as
‘divine time.’ This still inflated ‘years’
for the next two Uruk kings x 3 after which all the inflating
sophistry was dropped for simple solar years and its cycles of
seasons.
According to the Weld-Blundell Prism the 7th city of Uruk whose,
“12 lugal mu-bi2,310 ib2-ak”, twelve kings ruled for
2,310 years: 324 + 420 + 1,200 + 100 + 126 + 30 + 15 + 9 + 8 +
36 + 6 + 36 = 2,310 years. These are made of (324 + 420 + 1,200)
stellar stations, (100 + 126) divine years, with the rest being
solar years.
The reigns of Uruk represent three Mesopotamian time recording
units that are arbitrarily added together in the Weld-Blundell
Prism as a sum to check for the copying errors (as their total
“number” was known). These 2,310 years of the Weld-Blundell
Prism are given an entirely different sum in the Su2 manuscript
that is 3,588. This Su2 manuscript sum cannot be obtained by adding
Su2 ‘years’ together, or indeed, with any possible
variant combination that could be made from extant SKL copies
(324 -> 325, 420 -> 900, 100 -> 110, 6 -> 900, and
36 -> 420).
Here
a different theological school to the Weld-Blundell Prism is represented
by Sumerian Kings List Manuscript Su2 where the lines 130-133
read: “12 lugal mu-bi 3,588 ib2-ak unugki jictukul ba-an-sig3
nam-lugal-bi urim2ki-ce3 ba-de6” This is translated as "12
kings [of the City of Uruk]; they ruled for 3588 years. Then Uruk
was defeated and the kingship was taken to Ur." Here the
reign of Uruk is represented as the completed thirteen cycles
as 3,588 equals to 276 x 13 = 52 x 69. This period of 276 years
of warming is similar to Codex Chimalpopoca :
![](target007a.png)
Fig.
3. The pre-flood world age of 676 years had 400 cold years
aside 276 warm years in Codex Chimalpopoca reflecting both 144,000-day
cold period and 13 cycles of 52-year cycle akin to the last pre-flood
king’s 52 year reign.
However, it seems that the Weld-Blundell Prism authors were well
aware of the above numbers as the total addition of the kings
omits the huge reigns of the first eight kings (or their ruling
houses) by an apparent reference to 676 years when it adds up
all 134 kings together as 28,876 (a sum of 28,200 + 400 + 200
+ 76) : the numbers exactly identify as Codex Chimalpopoca’s
climate eras. From here it can be shown that Sumerian Kings Lists
include an ethnoclimatological overlay.
Table 4. Day-tallies of the First 10 Reigning Sumerian
Houses by Berossus
No. |
10
Ruling Houses |
1. |
Alorus
In days :
36,000
In years
: 100 |
2. |
Ala-paros
In days
: 10,800
In years
: 30
|
3. |
Amelon
In days
: 46,800
In years
: 130
|
4. |
Am-men-on
In days :
43,200
In years
: 120 |
5. |
Me-gal-aros
In days
: 64,800
In years
: 180
|
6. |
Daos
(Daonos)
In days
: 36,000
In years
: 100
|
7. |
Evedorachos
In days
: 64,800
In years
: 180
|
8. |
A-mem-psinos
In days
: 36,000
In years
: 100
|
9. |
Oti-ar-tes
In days
: 28,800
In years
: 80
|
10. |
Xisouthros
In days : 64,800
In years :
180 |
|
Babyloniaca
of Berossus :
Total of days : 432,000
Total of years : 1,200 |
No. |
8
Ruling Houses |
1. |
‘Kingship
in Heaven’
In days
: ---
In years
: ---
|
2. |
Alu-lim
In days
: 28,800
In years
: 80
|
3. |
Alalgar
In days
: 36,000
In years
: 100
|
4. |
En-men-lu-ana
In days
: 43,200
In years
: 120
|
5. |
En-men-gal-ana
In days
: 28,800
In years
: 80
|
6. |
Dumuzid-ucumgal-ana
In days
: 36,000
In years
: 100
|
7. |
En-sipad-zid-ana
In days
: 28,800
In years
: 80
|
8. |
En-men-dur-ana
In days
: 21,000
In years
: 58
|
9. |
Ub-ara-Tutu
In days
: 18,600
In years
: 52
|
10. |
The
Present Age
In days
: ---
In years
: ---
|
|
Sumerian
Kings Lists :
Total of days : 241,200
Total of years : 670
|
|
The
ten Sumerian pre-flood kings that are mentioned in Berossus’
lost three volume set “History of Babylonia”, The
Babyloniaca, Book 2, were preserved by Christian apologists interested
in how the long lifespans of the Sumerian kings were similar to
the long lifespans of the antediluvian ancestors in Genesis. Most
of the names in Berossus king-lists are lost or are perceived
as completely mangled, see Table 4 comparisons to the best surviving
Sumerian Kings Lists.
The
Berossus’ History of Babylonia even in its mangled form
is very informative and reveals new important aspects on the evolution
of the Sumerian Kings Lists. The most significant feature of the
kings list of The Babyloniaca is its differing tabulation of the
first pre-flood kings of Sumer which appear as ten instead eight.
Their reigns in The Babyloniaca amount to 432,000 ‘years’
which is the duration of the Indian Kali Yug period, that of our
present world era. This is in turn the last, fourth sub-period
of Maha Yug that lasts 4,320,000 ‘years’.
This
immense number derives from the four ruling houses of Sumer from
Alalgar to Dumuzid as expressed using the Kish Temple Time multiplied
by its 30 stellar stations of the moon on the ecliptic 30 x 144,000
= 4,320,000 and indicates that the Temple Time of Kish diffused
as far east as the Indian subcontinent. Thus, we are able to cross-check
from the Indian chronologies ties to early Sumerian Kings List
dates.
Three
of the Indian chronologies appear suitable for establishing the
firm dates for the Sumerian Kings List that can further be cross-linked
among themselves.
Table
5. Indian Schools of Commencement of ‘Present World Era’
at the Flood
1st
Maha Yug School :
The Pandav's lose their war before Kali Yug era.
The Last Pandav King : Yudhishthir must transfer first 3114-3102
his power for the Kali Yug King: Zodiac Transfer takes place before
Kali Yug can start (12 years prior to Kali Yug.) Yudhishthir’s
grand-nephew’s accession then takes place when Parikshit
3102 BCE finally starts the present age (Kali Yug).
2nd Maha Yug School :
Parikshit starts the Kali Yug of present world from 2449 BCE.
(Fleet, 1911) Kish Temple Time: City of Kish 600 years + City
of Uruk 65 years = 665 years 2449 + 665 + 12-year zodiac transfer
from 13-crescent count = 3114 BCE.
3rd The Saptarshi Count :
The 7 Kings 3077 BCE – dispatched to Ursa Major. 3077-1
BCE + 1-600 CE = 37 centuries (1 year added to each passing century):
3077 + 37 = 3114 BCE.
The
Indian chronologies cite Sumer’s 144,000 day-tallies period
against the 30 stellar stations of the moon on the ecliptic resulting
in above said 4,320,000 time period that is sub-divided into era’s
four ruling houses that together made up the 144,000-day period
agreeing with the total of the four periods of the Maha Yug. Importantly,
our present age, or the Kali Yug, started 3102 BCE according to
the 1st Maha Yug School, which at first sight contradicts the
2nd Maha Yug School that begins counting from 2449 BCE. Maha Yug
cites a descent to climate chaos.
![](target009a.png)
Fig.
4. Sumer’s Meluhha colonies on the Kish Island
with trading colonies set by Susa, Kish, and pre-flood city of
Larak diffused Kish Temple Time to India.
Their neighbour, Baghu links the colonies to Brahui: the Dravidian
Indus. The 3rd Indian School is based on the Saptarshi Count,
which gives the start date of our present world age as 3077 BCE
according to a source 37 centuries after the event. As the Saptarshi
Counting counts the last year of full centuries twice as an intercalary
year to ensure there were no shortfalls in century counts, another
37 years needs to be added. Thus, 3077 BCE + 37 years = 3114 BCE.
This is also the very year for the flood recorded as the Mesoamerican
Long Count’s start.
The
last king of Kish, Aga, and the first kings of independent Uruk
like Gilgamesh, were contemporaries. Their dates are estimated
at 26th century BCE as known from other sources. It appears from
here that Sumerian Short Chronology ties well to the end of Kish’s
rule c. 2515 BCE as in the three Indian sources. Thus, all the
preceding series of six centuries of rulers can now be dated accurately
using the 32nd century 3114 BCE ocean flood event as the base
date. This gives for the accession of Alulim taking place around
3775/4 BCE on the early 38th century BCE, some 700 years before
the city-states of Egypt began to form. It corresponds well to
the commonly accepted idea that Sumer’s city-states began
forming long before the idea of city-state and kingship took off
in the Nile Valley. Hence, there were appeal to cite the Sumer’s
then legendary king octet in Egypt.
The
Japanese sun-god Amaterasu is said to have been hiding in the
cave of the underworld for 799 autumns and springs until the sun
re-emerged for the 800th semi-annual season (Fig. 5, right). China’s
annals cite 180-day ‘autumns and springs’, instead
of 360-day years–duplicating the number from 400 years to
800 seasons like Amaterasu. Japanese flags express the warrior-sun
Amaterasu. All variants agree with 144,000-day period which also
made it into the Christian Bible as the people of the Great Tribulation
in the Book of Revelation where the victors from the cosmic cataclysm
are described as accompanied with heavenly god and walking in
a presence of god on a crystal (frozen) sea. This may be taken
as yet another indication of 400 cold years of Codex Chimalopopoca
or the Maha Yug’s cited “White Ages” of the
previous world era that occurred before the flood event.
Buddha cites in the Seven Suns Sutta the ocean retreating over
100 metres or 7 palm trees height.
![](amaterasucavecrop.jpg)
Fig.
5. Sun rises in Japan
The
Mesoamerican count also seems to base on the older 13 stellar
stations on the ecliptic of the 28-day lunar crescent based system
by multiplying these to 144,000 which also equals as 400 years
of 360 days as earlier cited in Codex Chimalpoca’s as the
cold years of the previous world aside its 276 warm years.
![](target010a.png)
Fig.
6. Centzon totochtin: 144,000 days of rabbit-eating or
400 rabbit-years refer to Aztecs cold age when plant growth was
inadequate to feed the humans.
In
Indian Jatak tales the ‘benevolent rabbit’ volunteered
for human food to save mankind from starvation. Thus rabbit appears
in the moon’s face in the folk tale’s Chinese version
and its correspondents in North America as gods venerated ‘benevolence
of rabbit’ by its apparition at moon’s face.
Object
2 : Dumuzid Tablet :
![](mythedudieudumuzi.jpg)
Fig.
7. Dumuzid Tablet
The
Dumuzid Tablet is an ancient Mesopotamian clay tablet that dates
to the Amorite Period (c. 2000-1600 BC), containing a lamentation
over the death of Sumer’s king-god, Dumuzid. The original
is held in the Louvre Museum in Paris.
The
fifth king of the Weld-Blundell Prism appears as the main character
in the Dumuzid Tablet that refers to the traditions about the
pre-flood king of Sumer. In Sumerian traditions Dumuzid was the
last king of the city-state of Bad-tibira when the city last reigned
as the supreme city of Sumer. Dumuzid’s reign ends the 144,000
day-tallies long period (400 years x 360 days) that had begun
from the Alalngar’s accession to kingship in the City of
Eridug. Dumuzid was known as the god-king of the shepherds as
a reference to the preceding ages that were agriculturally very
difficult, and consequently people became more dependent on consumption
of mutton as well as warmer clothing. Once the climate warmed
and wetted, this led to the end of the era of reliance on shepherding
to cease and hence the ‘death’ of Dumuzid as the god-king
of shepherds, and the rise of the era of Inanna as the vegetative
growth of the resumed in Sumer and also elsewhere.
Inanna
and Dumuzid are represented in the lore of Sumer as a couple.
Many commentators have failed to understand the exact relationship
between the two as the two mutually exclusive opposite climatic
poles. Hence, they wonder why Inanna allows in Sumer’s lore
her spouse Dumuzid to be dragged by the galla demons - as her
replacement - into the Underworld. This must be taken as a figurative
recall of the end of the shepherding ages by the newly-resumed
agricultural ages as Inanna herself is being liberated from behind
the gates of the Underworld. Therefore, the juxtaposition of Dumuzid
versus Inanna’s loyalty to him as seen questionable, is
incorrect. Similar to Demeter–Persephone couplet of the
Greeks, the explanation of the proper seasons occurring in our
present climate age, The Return of Dumuzid sees him allowed to
return to Heaven to be with her for just one half of the year.
This is given as the folkloristic explanation of the seasons came
to be after the huge, long winter was over – like the East
Asian ‘800 autumns and springs’. In the Indoeuropean
traditions the long winter ages are called the Finbul Winter and
the Greek Demeter-Persephone is its corresponding relic seasonality
explanation. In a building inscription from the Third Dynasty
of Ur (c. 2112 – c. 2004 BC), the warrior god Shara is described
as her son. In various mythistories, sun is described as warrior
who overcomes the powers of the darkness, this often further linked
to the ending of the dark and cold world era that took place before
the present climate era of regular seasons.
Dumuzid
is also known as god Tammuz who brings fertility back to the earth.
As such he also appears as an agricultural deity that is associated
with the growth of plants akin to the framework of passing the
cold word ages discussed earlier. Much like the Chinese and Japanese
people associate the resurrection of sun as Amaterasu after 800
autumns and springs, the ancient Near Eastern peoples associated
Dumuzid with the springtime, when the land becomes fertile and
abundant. On the other hand, during the peak heat of the summer
months, when the land becomes dry and barren, Sumerians thought
that Dumuzid "dies".
Thus
during the month of Dumuzid in the mid summer, people all across
Sumer would mourn over his death as the vegetative growth of land
came to its end which was perhaps the main aspect of his cult.
In Lagash, the sixth month of the year was Dumuzid and became
a celebrated holiday that was later transmitted via the Sumerians
to Babylonians and then to other East Semitic peoples as Tammuz.
In
Jewish tradition this celebration month Tammus occurs when fruits
like first figs and grapes ripen and were celebrated of the current
agricultural year. Fig. 8.
![](target013a.jpg)
Fig.
8. Sumer’s Dumuzid as vegetation god cited as Tammuz in
Jewish Calendar
Much
akin to the Myth of Quetzalcoatl, the feathered snake, referring
to the idea of the Milky Way as a cosmic snake or dragon that
dominates the darkness of the night sky and the darkness of the
underworld and the subsequent feathering of land by its vegetation
under sunlight, a ritual associated with the Ekur temple in Nippur
links the vegetation-god Dumuzid with the snake-god Ištaran,
who in that ritual, is described as having died. This could be
seen again as synonymous to Inanna’s nakedness in the bossoms
of the Underworld as well as her manifestation of the vegetative
dying in the midsummer heat in Sumer.
The
main point of interest here being the linking of the death of
snake or dragon to Dumuzid who brought the end to the 144,000-day
climatic pandemonium when vegetation failed and people became
highly dependent on the sheep-keeping.
Object
3 : The Warka Vase :
![](warkavase.jpg)
Fig.
9. The Warka Vase
The
Warka Vase that is made of alabaster was found in a deposit of
cult objects from Uruk III period and has been dated to around
3200-3000 BCE. The original is located in the National Museum
of Iraq. The artistic vase has three registers or rows. The middle
register shows a row of naked men carrying bowls, vessels, and
baskets of agricultural farm products etc. On the top register,
the animal herders bring sheep and goats to a female figure facing
the ruler. The two twisted doorpost reeds are Inanna’s symbol
set in front of the standing female while the male holds a box
and stack of bowls which symbol became later a cuneiform sign
signifying the high priest, En, of the temple. By the archaeological
Uruk period (c. 4000 – c. 3100 BC), the god Inanna was already
associated with the city of Uruk symbolized by a ring-headed doorpost.
In Sumer’s mythistorical accounts Inanna was already associated
with the much earlier pre-flood city of Bad-tibira, like in the
Weld-Blundell Prism, through the association of its god-king of
shepherds, Dumuzid, being her spouse. Bad-tibira was then followed
by the subsequent leading cities of Larag, Zimbir, Šuruppag,
and the post-flood city Kish until finally Uruk was established
by the king Mesh-ki-ang-gasher that may have originally at its
establishment been a subordinate vassal to the city of Kish as
it respected the Kish Temple Time where passing of time was recorded
as the passages of the 30 lunar stations on the ecliptic until
the city’s secession and break up of ties with the Kish
establishment by its kings setting up the Divine Time of Uruk.
In the above-given context, it is important to remember that in
Sumerian Kings Lists like the Weld-Blundell Prism, as well as
others, there are both Dumuzid I of Bad-tibira, as well as Dumuzid
II of Uruk. These are occasionally thought as referring to one
and the same king, but this interpretation is not consistent of
Sumer’s own timekeeping as the two rulers were separated
by the flood and many centuries in between. The fusion of the
two kings is the recent handiwork of the 20th century scholars
who consider the Jemdet Nasr 31st century flooding event as the
cataclysmic flooding cited in the Sumerian Kings Lists.
The
altercation of the courses of the Mesopotamian rivers was an ever-present
threat both by deprival of water or by flooding as was in case
of Jemdet Nasr findings and the Mesopotamian River Valley cities
were well aware of these ever-present risks in particular if year
was very rainy that the river might break its banks and suddenly
re-route elsewhere. In case of localised salination of agricultural
fields, a site like Jemdet Nasr could be abandoned rather than
rebuilt immediately after river ran over the city and made it
inhabitable. This allowed land to rest and desalinate while along
a new river course better virgin agricultural land was created.
Therefore, fitting all cities and kings from Bad-tibira to Uruk
to same period to make Dumuzid I of Bad-tibira and Dumuzid II
of Uruk same person is unviable considering all the kings listed
in between them besides the flood event.
It is more likely that Dumuzid was adopted as a politically opportune
ruler name due to the name’s positive connotations from
the past as the first Dumuzid king represented the growth and
opening of new opportunities along with the new climate age his
fertile reign followed after the long aeons of unproductive and
infertile pastoral ages when the sheep-keepers ruled over the
farmer’s plough.
This
configuration maintains intact the climatic era referred and the
warming that
led to flooding and is coherent with ethnoclimatologies in rest
of world. The new commercial era introduced by the City of Uruk
and perhaps the vision of the king Dumuzid II of Uruk would see
the city to grow gigantic to anything seen yet in the scale of
the Mesopotamian urbanization and concentration of city powers.
Consequently
for the king Dumuzid, the choice of god would be the cult of Inanna
as the goddess of growth for the ambitious king of Uruk to grow
his city strong. Likewise, the construction of the walls of Uruk
by the divine-king Gilgamesh, 1/3 human and 2/3 divine whose reign
was inflated on the Uruk Divine Time to 120 ‘divine yeas’
was likewise following the megalomaniac ambitions to develop the
City of Uruk in a huge scale to anything yet seen both in the
Mesopotamia and elsewhere. Thus, the lowest register of the Warka
Vase is subdivided to pastoral and agricultural sub-registers
that reflect the complex relationship between the farmer and shepherd
in commemoration of the Bad-tibira era climate transition.
![](target016a.png)
Fig.
10. The Bad-tibira Transition from Pastoral to Agricultural
Climate Age as Inanna, the vegetation and agriculture deity emerges
from behind the seven gates of the Underworld, while the Dumuzid-age
of the god-king of shepherds is taken to the Underworld as the
agricultural life is normalised during the reign of Dumuzid I
of Bad-tibira.
Object 4 : The Cylinder Seal of Ilum-bani :
The cylinder seal of Ilum-bani was used to authorise clay-tablet
documents of the king Ibbi-Sin of the City of Ur by his servant
Ilum-bani. It could alternatively have been used to create official
seals for containers, storage doors, sacs, packages, etc. that
should not be tampered by any unauthorised personnel. It was made
during Ur III period. The seal combines the images of gods with
the cuneiform signs to identify the authorities who made it Fig.
11.
![](Ibbisincylinderseal.jpg)
Fig.
7. The quadripartioning of the cosmic plane into the
four cardinal points are already cited by the Ur III period era’s
cyclinder seals.
The idea of quadripartitioning of the time-spatial cosmos is clear
in Ur III period. The cuneiform script in the seal of servant
Ilum-bani that “praises King Ibbi-Sin as the king of Ur
and the four quarters of the universe” (Mieroop. 2016: 86).
[The emphasis added.]
The quadripartitioning of the time-spatial space in ancient Sumer
can be traced back to at least Ur III period although the Quadripartitioning
of Time appears first by the time of the god-king Dumuzid I of
Bad-tibira whose fourth dynastic house ends the 144,000 time-tallies
or the four centuries long period that began sometime during the
reign of Alalngar of Eridug, then ran through reigns of the two
preceding ruling houses of Bad-tibira before the vegetative growth
resumed during the third house of the king Dumuzid.
Table
6. Comparison of the Four Dynastic Houses Day-tallies to the Vedic
Yugs
No. |
Sumerian
ruling house |
1. |
Alalngar
In days :
36,000 |
2. |
En-men-lu-ana
In days
: 43,200
|
3. |
En-men-gal-ana
In days
: 28,800
|
4. |
Dumuzid
I
In days
: 36,000
|
|
The
four yug eras : 144,000 (total of days) |
1. |
Sat
Yug
In days
: 1,728,000
|
2. |
Treta
Yug
In days
: 1,296,000
|
3. |
Dwapar
Yug
In days
: 8,64,000
|
4. |
Kal
Yug
In days
: 4,32,000
|
|
Maha
yug four cycles : 4,320,000 (total of days) |
|
30
Lunar Stations :
144,000 ×
30 Stations = 4,320,000 Passages |
|
Note
: The Puranic Yug Cycle of Maha Yug represents time-spatial
cosmos of Sumer : 30 Moons × 144,000 Days = 360 Days ×
12 Moons × 10 Width × 10 Depth × 10 Height =
4,320,000.
The
four Sumerian kings may be seen as representing the four time
quarters in a time-spatial cosmos; the four Puranic Maha Yug cycle
is measured against the time-spatial space built on the Sumerian
Kings List as the world enters a climatic chaos, which can also
be represented by using the following two formulas :
12,000 Divine Years = 30 Moons × 400 Years, or
360 Days × 30 Moons × 400 Years = 4,320,000
The Book of Revelation lists the 12 tribes who survived the Great
Tribulation Age by numbering each tribe as 12,000 (= 30 ×
400) akin to the Puranic Maha Yug that refers to 12,000 as divine
years or Maha Yug as 4,320,000 (= 30 × 144,000).
The
eight god-kings may be arranged to four quadripartite pairs, see
: Table 7.
Table 7. Mythologized Eight Dynastic Houses of Sumer as the Four
Divine Pairs
No. |
Sumerian
ruling house : ‘Kingship in Heaven’ |
1. |
Alulim |
2. |
Alalngar
|
3. |
En-men-lu-ana
|
4. |
En-men-gal-ana
|
5. |
Dumuzid
I |
6. |
En-sipad-zid-ana
|
7. |
En-men-dur-ana
|
8. |
Ubara-Tutu
|
No. |
The
Mesopotamian ennead : Anu |
1. |
Enlil
|
2. |
Ea
|
3. |
Apsu-Rishtu
|
4. |
Tiawath
|
5. |
Lachmu
|
6. |
Lachamu
|
7. |
Anshar
|
8. |
Kishar
|
No. |
The
Egyptian ogdoad : Atum-Re* |
1. |
Nu
|
2. |
Nut
|
3. |
Hehu
|
4. |
Hehut
|
5. |
Kekui
|
6. |
Kekut |
7. |
Kerh |
8. |
Kerhet
|
|
Note
: The mythologized octet of the first eight Sumerian
dynastic houses can be seen as the basis for the later enneads
with four god-pairs. The Mesopotamian Ennead is preserved in Assyria
(with Ea recorded as Nudimmud to make it Assyrian).
Due to the low integer numbers in Table 7, coincidence cannot
be ruled out. The quartets or octets (the numbers 4 or 8) alone
cannot to prove a link to the first Sumerian kings. The unique
high numbers are required such as 676, or 144,000 with its multipliers
(i.e. 13 lunar crescents or 30 monthly lunar stations). The large
unusual numbers 1,872,000 or 4,320,000 offer unlikely chance occurrences
thus link to the four kings tallies 36,000 + 43,200 + 28,800 +
36,000 = 144,000.
The god of vegetative growth and agriculture, Inanna was worshipped
as one of the Sumerian war deities. As an omnipotent god person
one of her hymns claims :
"She
stirs confusion and chaos against those who are disobedient to
her, speeding carnage and inciting the devastating flood, clothed
in terrifying radiance. It is her game to speed conflict and battle,
untiring, strapping on her sandals."
The battle was sometimes referred to as the "Dance of Inanna"
which raged like the Titanomachy of the Greeks in order to liberate
the world from the claws of the demons of the chaotic Underworld.
The quadripartite cone of pyramid can be seen as representation
for 144,000 days before from her returned from Hades.
This imagery of Sun and Moon combating the lords of the Underworld
is found in the Mesoamerican traditions including the Popol Vuh
epic, where the two celestial bodies dance their war dances in
the ball court of the sky to bring about the end of the previous
world era and the resurrection of the Corn Man. They are seen
Fig. 8. brighter light of the Sun (Hunahpu) and the darker light
of the Moon (Xbalanque) dancing war dances with their celestial
balls around the pyramid.
![](target0191a.jpg)
![](target0191a1.jpg)
Fig.
8. The Battle of Hunahpu and Xbalanque against the Lords
of Xi’balb’a: The farmers’ ploughs disturbed
the soils and awakened the sleeping demons of the underworld to
overcome the sun and the moon whose mischief then led the world
into age of darkness and cold with little plant growth.
The Mesoamerican B’ak’tun of 144,000 kins, or day-tallies,
corresponds with the age of the four kings in the Sumerian Kings
Lists like the Weld-Blundell Prism.
The
Four Kings Era
![](pyd1.png)
As
144,000 Days
![](pyd2.png)
Fig.
12. The Quadripartite Kings of Sumer as a Pyramid
Thus,
Inanna’s war dances bear striking resemblance to the Mesoamerican
Popol Vuh where Sun and Moon wage war to resurrect the agricultural
life. Similarly, Enheduana’s poem on Inanna refers to her
power to tilt the zenith and horizon much like Hunahpu and Xbalanque
tip the earth’s axis to the Great Bear by their blowpipe
(like the seven Indian Saptarshi) turned to the new axis after
the flood.
![](macawlanding.jpg)
Fig.
13. Hunahpu blowpipes 7 Macaw (Ursa Major) down from
the world tree and so tips the Earth’s Axis to its new position
as victorious sun wins.
![](target020a.png)
Fig.
14. Present-day Collapsing Ice from Greenland Ice Sheet
The Iroquois ethnohistory recalls the events :
“The twins had hardly abandoned their stations when the
world, with no one to control it, teetered off balance, spun around,
crazily, then rolled over twice. Mountains plunged into seas with
a great splash, seas and lakes sloshed over the land; and as the
world spun through cold and lifeless space it froze into solid
ice.”
“[Inanna,
the] Beloved spouse of Dumuzid-ucumgal-ana, you are the great
lady of the horizon and zenith of the heavens. The Anuna [stars]
have submitted to you. From birth you were the junior queen: how
supreme you are now over the Anuna [the stars], the great gods!
The Anuna [the stars] kiss the ground with their lips before you.”
Nin Me Šara “Exaltation of Inana” (Inana B) by
the High Priestess of the temple of Ur, Enheduana, the daughter
of the Sargon of Akkad.
![](Saptarishi.gif)
Fig.
15. The 7 Rishis in India corresponds to Popol Vuh’s
7 Macaw (Ursa Major) in Mesoamerica like the reference of Inanna
lifting to fix stars to the new celestial Pole above the newly-positioned
Earth’s Geographic Pole as the flooding ends.
The Indian Saptarshi Reckoning begins its time counting from when
the seven stars of Ursa Major rose to their current celestial
position 3077 BCE. In the Saptarshi Reckoning an intercalary year
was added as extra for each full century, “00”, before
completed. A 6th Century AD Saptarshi source needs therefore to
add 37 years to all preceding 37 centuries (3077-1 BCE + 1-600
CE = 37 centuries). 3077 BCE + 37 years = 3114 BCE
is precise same year as in the other calendars.
Summary of the Exhibits :
It is proposed that Sumerian Kings Lists acted as a prototype
for the several time-keeping systems that refer to its 144,000
day-tallies long event and the 676/670 year duration of its first
eight royal houses before the Great Flood. In one case Sumer’s
time-keeping is followed until the city of Uruk wrestles the power
from the city of Kish and replacing its the Temple Time with the
Uruk Divine Time to record its reigns of its kings before soon
switching to ordinary solar years in keeping records of the reigns
of Sumer’s kings.
The
objects from Sumer are then compared to various traditions within
Sumer itself and also to similar kind of traditions found elsewhere
both in nearby lands as further a field. The king Dumuzid and
god Inanna came to be understood as a divine couplet that was
responsible for the ending of climatic pandemonium of 144,000
tallies.
The four kings of this era came to be seen as the four quarters
of time while the notion of the four quarters of the universe
appears in Ur III period seals. Inanna’s worship is seen
in archaeological Uruk period deposits from 4th millennium BCE.
![](sealofinanna23502150bce.jpg)
Ancient
Akkadian cylinder seal depicting Inanna resting her foot on the
back of a lion while Ninshubur stands in front of her paying obeisance,
c. 2334 – 2154 BCE
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