The massive Tammuz-Liturgen und Verwandtes by P. Maurus Witzel, a masterwork on the Sumerian and Akkadian "Tammuz texts," only helped perpetuate the misconception. The epic tales of Ishtar's search were taken to mean a journey "to the realm of the dead, and her eventual return to the land of the living."
The Sumerian and Akkadian texts describing the descent of Inanna/Ishtar to the Lower World inform us that the goddess decided to visit her sister Ereshkigal, mistress of the place. Ishtar went there neither dead nor against her will - she went alive and uninvited, forcing her way in by threatening the gatekeeper: If thou openest not the gate so that I cannot enter, I will smash the door, I will shatter the bolt, I will smash the doorpost, I will move the doors.
One by one, the seven gates leading to the abode of Ereshkigal were opened to Ishtar; when she finally made it, and Ereshkigal saw her, she literally blew her top (the Akkadian text says, "burst at her presence"). The Sumerian text, vague about the purpose of the trip or the cause of Ereshkigal's anger, reveals that Inanna expected such a reception. She took pains to notify the other principal deities of her journey in advance, and made sure that they would take steps to rescue her in case she was imprisoned in the "Great Below."
The spouse of Ereshkigal - and Lord of the Lower World - was Nergal. The manner in which he arrived in the Great Below and became its lord not only illuminates the human nature of the "gods" but also depicts the Lower World as anything but a "world of the dead."
The tale, found in several versions, begins with a banquet at which the guests of honor were Anu, Enlil, and Ea. The banquet was held "in the heavens," but not at Anu's abode on the Twelfth Planet. Perhaps it took place aboard an orbiting spacecraft, for when Ereshkigal could not ascend to join them, the gods sent her a messenger who "descended the long staircase of the heavens, reached the gate of Ereshkigal." Having received the invitation, Ereshkigal instructed her counselor, Namtar: "Ascend, Namtar, the long staircase of the heavens; Remove the dish from the table, take my share; Whatever Anu gives to thee, bring it all to me."
When Namtar entered the banquet hall, all the gods except "a bald god, seated in the back," rose to greet him. Namtar reported the incident to Ereshkigal when he returned to the Lower World. She and all the lesser gods of her domain were insulted. She demanded that the offending god be sent to her for punishment.
The offender, however, was Nergal, a son of the great Ea. After a severe reprimand by his father, Nergal was instructed to make
the trip alone, armed only with lots of fatherly advice on how to behave. When Nergal arrived at the gate, he was recognized by
Namtar as the offending god and led in to "Ereshkigal's wide courtyard," where he was put to several tests.
Sooner or later, Ereshkigal went to take her daily bath.
. . . she revealed her body.
What is normal for man and woman,
he ... in his heart . . .
. . . they embraced,
passionately they got into bed.
For seven days and nights they made love. In the Upper World, an alarm had gone out for the missing Nergal. "Release me," he
said to Ereshkigal. "I will go, and I will come back," he promised. But no sooner had he left than Namtar went to Ereshkigal and
accused Nergal of having no intention of coming back. Once more Namtar was sent up to Anu. Ereshkigal's message was clear:
I, thy daughter, was young;
I have not known the play of maidens. . . .
That god whom you didst send,
and who had intercourse with me -
Send him to me, that he may be my husband,
That he might lodge with me.
With married life perhaps not yet on his mind, Nergal organized a military expedition and stormed the gates of Ereshkigal,
intending to "cut off her head." But Ereshkigal pleaded:
"Be thou my husband and I will be thy wife.
I will let thee hold dominion
over the wide Lower Land.
I will place the Tablet of Wisdom in thy hand.
Thou shalt be Master, I will be Mistress."
And then came the happy ending:
When Nergal heard her words,
He took hold of her hand and kissed her,
Wiping away her tears:
"What thou hast wished for me
since months past - so be it now!"
The events recounted do not suggest a Land of the Dead. Quite the contrary: It was a place the gods could enter and leave, a place of lovemaking, a place important enough to be entrusted to a granddaughter of Enlil and a son of Enki. Recognizing that the facts do not support the earlier notion of a dismal region, W. F. Albright (Mesopotamian Elements in Canaanite Eschatology) suggested that Dumuzi's abode in the Lower World was "a bright and fruitful home in the subterranean paradise called 'the mouth of the rivers' which was closely associated with the home of Ea in the Apsu."
The place was far and difficult to reach, to be sure, and a somewhat "restricted area,*' but hardly a "place of no return." Like Inanna, other leading deities were reported going to, and returning from, this Lower World. Enlil was banished to the Abzu for a while, after he had raped Ninlil. And Ea was a virtual commuter between Eridu in Sumer and the Abzu, bringing to the Abzu "the craftsmanship of Eridu" and establishing in it "a lofty shrine" for himself.
Far from being a dark and desolate place, it was described as a bright place with flowing waters.
A rich land, beloved of Enki;
Bursting with riches, perfect in fullness . . .
Whose mighty river rushes across the land.
We have seen the many depictions of Ea as the God of Flowing Waters. It is evident from Sumerian sources that such flowing waters indeed existed - not in Sumer and its flatlands, but in the Great Below. W. F. Albright drew attention to a text dealing with the Lower World as the Land of UT.TU - "in the west" of Sumer. It speaks of a journey of Enki to the Apsu: To thee, Apsu, pure land, Where great waters rapidly flow, To the Abode of Flowing Waters The Lord betakes himself. . . . The Abode of Flowing Waters Enki in the pure waters established; In the midst of the Apsu, A great sanctuary he established. By all accounts, the place lay beyond a sea. A lament for "the pure son," the young Dumuzi, reports that he was carried off to the Lower World in a ship. A "Lamentation over the Destruction of Sumer" describes how Inanna managed to sneak aboard a waiting ship. "From her possessions she sailed forth. She descends to the Lower World."
A long text, little understood because no intact version has been found, deals with some major dispute between Ira (Nergal's title as Lord of the Lower World) and his brother Marduk. In the course of the dispute, Nergal left his domain and confronted Marduk in Babylon; Marduk, on the other hand, threatened: "To the Apsu will I descend, the Anunnaki to supervise . . . my raging weapons against them I will raise." To reach the Apsu, he left the Land of Mesopotamia and traveled over "waters that rose up." His destination was Arali in the "basement" of Earth, and the texts provide a precise clue as to where this "basement" was: In the distant sea, 100 beru of water [away] ... The ground of Arali [is] . . .
It is where the Blue Stones cause ill,
Where the craftsman of Anu
the Silver Axe carries, which shines as the day.
The beru, both a land-measuring and a time-reckoning unit, was probably used in the latter capacity when travel over water was involved. As such it was a double hour, so that one hundred beru meant two hundred hours of sailing. We have no way of determining the assumed or average sailing speed employed in these ancient distance reckonings. But there is no doubt that a truly distant land was reached after a sea voyage of over two or three thousand miles.
The texts indicate that Arali was situated west and south of Sumer. A ship traveling two to three thousand miles in a southwesterly direction from the Persian Gulf could have only one destination: the shores of southern Africa. Only such a conclusion can explain the terms Lower World, as meaning the southern hemispher
e, where the Land of Arali was, as contrasted with the Upper World, or northern hemisphere, where Sumer was. Such a division of Earth's hemispheres between Enlil (northern) and Ea (southern) paralleled the designation of the northern skies as the Way of Enlil and the southern skies as the Way of Ea.
The ability of the Nefilim to undertake interplanetary travel, orbit Earth, and land on it should obviate the question whether they could possibly have known of southern Africa, besides Mesopotamia. Many cylinder seals, depicting animals peculiar to the area (such as the zebra or ostrich), jungle scenes, or rulers wearing leopard skins in the African tradition, attest to an "African connection."
What interest did the Nefilim have in this part of Africa, diverting to it the scientific genius of Ea and granting to the important gods in charge of the land a unique "Tablet of Wisdom"?
The Sumerian term AB.ZU, which scholars have accepted to mean "watery deep," requires a fresh and critical analysis. Literally, the term meant "primeval deep source" - not necessarily of waters. According to Sumerian grammatical rules, either of two syllables of any term could precede the other without changing the word's meaning, with the result that AB.ZU and ZU.AB meant the same thing. The latter spelling of the Sumerian term enables identification of its parallel in the Semitic languages, for za-ab has always meant and still means "precious metal," specifically "gold," in Hebrew and its sister languages. The Sumerian pictograph for AB.ZU was that of an excavation deep into Earth, mounted by a shaft. Thus, Ea was not the lord of an indefinite "watery deep," but the god in charge of the exploitation of Earth's minerals!
In fact, the Greek abyssos, adopted from the Akkadian apsu, also meant an extremely deep hole in the ground. Akkadian textbooks explained that "apsu is nikbu"; the meaning of the word and that of its Hebrew equivalent nikba is very precise: a deep, man-made cutting or drilling into the ground.
P. Jensen (Die Kosmologie der Babylonier) observed back in 1890 that the oft-encountered Akkadian term Bit Nimiku should not be translated as "house of wisdom" but as "house of deepness." He quoted a text (V.R.30, 49 - 50ab) that stated: "It is from Bit Nimiku that gold and silver come." Another text (III.R.57, 35ab), he pointed out, explained that the Akkadian name "Goddess Shala of Nimiki" was the translation of the Sumerian epithet "Goddess Who Hands the Shining Bronze." The Akkadian term nimiku, which has been translated as "wisdom," Jensen concluded, "had to do with metals." But why, he admitted simply, "I do not know."
Some Mesopotamian hymns to Ea exalt him as Bel Nimiki, translated "lord of wisdom"; but the correct translation should undoubtedly be "lord of mining.'' Just as the Tablet of Destinies at Nippur contained orbital data, it follows that the Tablet of Wisdom entrusted to Nergal and Ereshkigal was in fact a "Tablet of Mining," a "data bank" pertaining to the mining operations of the Nefilim.
As Lord of the Abzu, Ea was assisted by another son, the god GI.BIL ("he who burns the soil"), who was in charge of fire and smelting. Earth's Smith, he was usually depicted as a young god whose shoulders emit red-hot rays or sparks of fire, emerging from the ground or about to descend into it. The texts state that Gibil was steeped by Ea in "wisdom," meaning that Ea had taught him mining techniques.
The metal ores mined in southeastern Africa by the Nefilim were carried back to Mesopotamia by specially designed cargo ships called MA.GUR UR.NU AB.ZU ("ship for ores of the Lower World"). There, the ores were taken to Bad-Tibira, whose name literally meant "the foundation of metalworking." Smelted and refined, the ores were cast into ingots whose shape remained unchanged throughout the ancient world for millennia. Such ingots were actually found at various Near Eastern excavations, confirming the reliability of the Sumerian pictographs as true depictions of the objects they "wrote" out; the Sumerian sign for the term ZAG ("purified precious") was the picture of such an ingot. In earlier times it apparently had a hole running through its length, through which a carrying rod was inserted.
Several depictions of a God of the Flowing Waters show him flanked by bearers of such precious metal ingots, indicating that he was also the Lord of Mining.
The various names and epithets for Ea's African Land of Mines are replete with clues to its location and nature. It was known as A.RA.LI ("place of the shiny lodes"), the land from which the metal ores come. Inanna, planning her descent to the southern hemisphere, referred to the place as the land where "the precious metal is covered with soil" - where it is found underground. A text reported by Erica Reiner, listing the mountains and rivers of the Sumerian world, stated: "Mount Arali: home of the gold"; and a fragmented text described by H. Radau confirmed that Arali was the land on which Bad-Tibira depended for its continued operations.
The Mesopotamia!! texts spoke of the Land of Mines as mountainous, with grassy plateaus and steppes, and lush with
vegetation. The capital of Ereshkigal in that land was described by the Sumerian texts as being in the GAB. KUR.RA ("in the
chest of the mountains"), well inland. In the Akkadian version of Ishtar's journey, the gatekeeper welcomes her:
Enter my lady,'
Let Kutu rejoice over thee;
Let the palace of the land of Nugia
Be glad at thy presence.
Conveying in Akkadian the meaning "that which is in the heartland," the term KU.TU in its Sumerian origin also meant "the bright
uplands." It was a land, all texts suggest, with bright days, awash with sunshine. The Sumerian terms for gold (KU.GI - "bright out of earth") and silver (KU.BABBAR - "bright gold") retained the original association of the precious metals with the bright (ku) domain of Ereshkigal.
The pictographic signs employed as Sumer's first writing reveal great familiarity not only with diverse metallurgical processes but also with the fact that the sources of the metals were mines dug down into the earth. The terms for copper and bronze ("handsome-bright stone"), gold ("the supreme mined metal"), or "refined" ("bright-purified") were all pictorial variants of a mine shaft ("opening/mouth for dark-red" metal).
The land's name - Arali - could also be written as a variant of the pictograph for "dark-red" (soil), of Rush ("dark-red," but in time meaning "Negro"), or of the metals mined there; the pictographs always depicted variants of a mine shaft. Extensive references to gold and other metals in ancient texts suggest familiarity with metallurgy from the earliest times. A lively metals trade existed at the very beginnings of civilization, the result of knowledge bequeathed to Mankind by the gods, who, the texts state, had engaged in mining and metallurgy long before Man's appearance. Many studies that correlate Mesopotamian divine tales with the biblical pre-Diluvial list of patriarchs point out that, according to the Bible, Tubal-cain was an "artificer of gold and copper and iron" long before the Deluge.
The Old Testament recognized the land of Ophir, which was probably somewhere in Africa, as a source of
gold in antiquity. King Solomon's ship convoys sailed down the Red Sea from Ezion-geber (present-day Elath). "And they went
to Ophir and fetched from thence gold." Unwilling to risk a delay in the construction of the Lord's Temple in Jerusalem, Solomon
arranged with his ally, Hiram, king of Tyre, to sail a second fleet to Ophir by an alternate route:
And the king had at sea a navy of Tarshish.
with the navy of Hiram.
Once every three years came the navy of Tarshish, bringing gold and silver, ivory and apes and monkeys.
The fleet of Tarshish took three years to complete a round trip. Allowing for an appropriate time to load up at Ophir, the voyage in each direction must have lasted well over a year. This suggests a route much more roundabout than the direct route via the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean - a route around Africa.
Most scholars locate Tarshish in the western Mediterranean, possibly at or near the present Strait of Gibraltar. This would have been an ideal place from which to embark on a voyage around the African continent. Some believe that the name Tarshish meant "smeltery."
Many biblical scholars have suggested that Ophir shoul
d be identified with present-day Rhodesia. Z. Herman (Peoples, Seas, Ships) brought together evidence showing that the Egyptians obtained various minerals from Rhodesia in earliest times. Mining engineers in Rhodesia as well as in South Africa have often searched for gold by seeking evidence of prehistoric mining. How was the inland abode of Ereshkigal reached? How were the ores transported from the "heartland" to the coastal ports? Knowing of the reliance of the Nefilim on river shipping, one should not be surprised to find a major, navigable river in the Lower World. The tale of "Enlil and Ninlil" informed us that Enlil was banished to exile in the Lower World. When he reached the land, he had to be ferried over a wide river.
A Babylonian text dealing with the origins and destiny of Mankind referred to the river of the Lower World as the River Habur, the "River of Fishes and Birds." Some Sumerian texts nicknamed the Land of Ereshkigal the "Prairie Country of HA.BUR." Of the four mighty rivers of Africa, one, the Nile, flows north into the Mediterranean; the Congo and Niger empty into the Atlantic Ocean on the west; and the Zambezi flows from the heartland of Africa in an eastward semicircle until it reaches the east coast. It offers a wide delta with good port sites; it is navigable inland over a distance of hundreds of miles.
Was the Zambezi the "River of Fishes and Birds" of the Lower World? Were its majestic Victoria Falls the water-lulls mentioned in one text as the site of Ereshkigal's capital?
Aware that many "newly discovered" and promising mining sites in southern Africa had been mining sites in antiquity, the Anglo- American Corporation called in teams of archaeologists to examine the sites before modern earth-moving equipment swept away all traces of ancient work. Reporting on their findings in the magazine Optima, Adrian Boshier and Peter Beaumont stated that they had come upon layers upon layers of ancient and prehistoric mining activities and human remains. Carbon dating at Yale University and at the University of Groningen (Holland) established the age of the artifacts as ranging from a plausible 2000 B.C. to an amazing 7690 B.C.
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