Archæology and the Bible

by George A. Barton

IV

A NEW BABYLONIAN ACCOUNT OF THE CREATION OF MAN

To supplement Part II, Chapter II, [p. 257].

Since the first edition of this book went to press, the writer has had the good fortune to discover among the tablets from Nippur in the University Museum in Philadelphia a new Babylonian account of the creation of man. The text is written in the Sumerian language, and the script is of the mixed cursive variety that was employed during the time of the first dynasty of Babylon and the Kassite dynasty. The text is accordingly older than 1200 B. C., and may have been written before 2000 B. C. It reads as follows:

1. The mountain of heaven and earth

2. The assembly of heaven, the great gods, entered. Afterwards,

3. Because Ashnan had not come forth, they conversed together.

4. The land Tikku had not created;

5. For Tikku a temple-platform had not been filled in;

6. A lofty dwelling had not been built;