There Were Giants Upon the Earth

by Zechariah Sitchin

  Woolley reasonably concluded that the city's ruling elite was buried in these particular 660 tombs. But then Woolley unearthed the special sixteen tombs grouped together (Fig. 113) and landed an unprecedented find. They were entirely unique—unique not only in Sumer, but throughout Mesopotamia, throughout the whole ancient Near East; unique not only for their period, but for all periods. Clearly, Woolley

  Figure 112

  Figure 113

  surmised, only someone of the highest importance had been buried in such-special tombs and unique burials; and who was more important than the king or his consort, the queen? Cylinder seals in which names were combined with the titles Nin and Lugal convinced Woolley that he had discovered the Royal Tombs ofUr.

  His greatest single find was the tomb designated PG-800. Unearthing and entering it was an event in the annals of Mesopotamian archaeology comparable to the discovery and entering of Tut-Ankh-Amen's tomb in Egypt's Valley of the Kings by Howard Carter in 1922. To protect his unique find from modern robbers, Woolley notified his sponsors of the find by a telegram written in Latin; the date was January 4, 1928.

  Subsequent scholars have accepted that logic and continue to refer to this unique group of tombs as the Royal tombs of Ur, even though some have wondered—because of what those tombs contained—who in fact was buried in several of them. Since to such scholars the ancient 'gods' were a myth, their bewilderment stops there. But if one accepts the reality of the gods, the goddesses, and the demigods—one is in for a thrilling adventure.

  * * *

  To begin with, the sixteen special tombs, far from being simple pits dug in the ground large enough to hold a body, were chambers built of stones for which a large excavation was made; they were set deep in the ground, and they had vaulted or domed roofs whose construction required engineering skills extraordinary for those times. To those unique structural features was added one more: Some tombs were accessible via well-defined sloping ramps that led to a large area, a kind of forecourt, behind which the actual tomb chamber was located.

  Next to the exceptional architectural features, the tombs were unique in the fact that the body they held, lying on its side, was sometimes not just in a coffin but at times in a separately constructed enclosure. To all that was added the fact that the body was surrounded by objects of extraordinary opulence and excellence—in many instances, one- of-a-kind anywhere, any time.

  Woolley designated the Ur tombs by a "PG" ('Personal Grave') code and number; and in a tomb designated PG-755, for example (Fig. 114), there were more than a dozen objects beside the body in the coffin, and more than sixty artifacts elsewhere in the tomb. The objects included a splendid golden helmet (Fig. 115), a superb golden dagger in a magnificently decorated silver sheath (Fig. 116), a silver belt, a gold ring, bowls and other utensils made of gold or silver, gold jewelry with or without decoration with lapis lazuli (the blue gemstone prized in Sumer), and a "bewildering variety" (to quote Woolley) of other metal artifacts made of electrum (a gold-silver alloy), copper, or copper alloys.

  All that was entirely amazing for its time, when Man's metallurgical acumen was just advancing from use of copper (that needed no smelt-

  Figure 114

  ing) to the copper-tin (or copper-arsenic) alloy we call Bronze. Objects of such artistry and metalworking techniques as the dagger and the helmet were absolutely unknown anywhere else. If these observations bring to mind the opulent golden death mask and magnificent artifacts and sculptures found in the tomb of Egypt's Pharaoh Tut-Ankh-Amen (Fig. 117), let it be remembered that he reigned circa 1350 B.C.—some twelve centuries later.

  Other tombs contained both similar and different objects made of gold or electrum, all of outstanding craftsmanship. These included utensils of daily use, such as cups or tumblers—even a tube used for drinking beer—and all were made of pure gold; other cups, bowls, jugs,

  Figure 115

  Figure 117

  and-libation vessels were made of pure silver; here and there, some vessels were made of the rare alabaster stone. There were weapons— spearheads, daggers—and tools, including hoes and chisels, also made of gold; since gold, being a soft metal, deprived these implements of any practical use, those implements (usually made of bronze or other copper alloys) must have served only a ceremonial purpose, or were a status symbol.

  There was a variety of board games (Fig. 118), and numerous musical instruments made of rare woods and decorated with astounding artistry, lavishly using gold and lapis lazuli for the decorations (Fig. 119);

  Figure 118

  among them was a unique lyre made entirely of pure silver (Fig. 120). There were other finds, such as a complex sculpture (nicknamed 'The Ram in the Thicket', Fig. 121), that did not emulate any object or tool but were art for art's sake. For them, the artisans again lavishly used gold and combinations of gold with precious stones.

  Similarly mind boggling was the array of jewelry, ranging from elaborate diadems and "headdresses" (a term employed by the archaeologists for lack of a better word) to chokers, bracelets, necklaces, rings, earrings, and other ornaments; they were all made of gold, semiprecious stones, or combinations thereof. In all of these objects, as in the ones mentioned earlier, the artistry and the techniques used to make and shape them— to create alloys, to combine materials, to weld them together—were

  Figure 121

  unique, ingenious, and unmatched compared to any finds outside these tombs.

  One must bear in mind that none of the materials used in all of those objects—gold, silver, lapis lazuli, carnelian, rare stones, rare woods— were locally found in Sumer (or even in the whole of Mesopotamia). They were rare materials that had to be obtained and brought over from afar; yet they were used without any concern for rarity or scarcity. Above all there was the obviously abundant use of gold, even for the making of common objects (cups, pins) or tools (hoes, axes). Who had access to all those rare riches, who at a time when household utensils were made of clay or at best of stone, used uncommon metals for common goods? And who wanted everything possible to be made of gold, even if it rendered them impractical to use?

  As one peruses records from those 'Early Dynastic' days, one finds that a king considered it a major achievement, by which that whole year was to be remembered, if he managed to have made and present to a deity a silver bowl—seeking in return prolonged life. Yet here, in selected tombs, myriad exquisitely crafted artifacts, utensils, and tools were made not just of silver but mostly of gold—an abundance and a use nowhere connected to royalty. Gold, it will be recalled, was the purpose of the Anunnaki's coming to Earth—to be sent back to Nibiru. In so far as an early and lavish use of gold here on Earth and for common vessels is concerned, we find gold mentioned only in inscriptions relating to Anu's and Antu's state visit to Earth circa 4000 B.C.

  In those texts, which were identified by their scribes as copies of original ones from Uruk, detailed instructions specified that all the vessels used by Anu and Antu for eating, drinking, and washing "shall be made of gold"; even the trays on which food will be served had to be golden ones, as had to be the libation vessels and censers used in washing. A list of the variety of beers and wines that were to be served to Anu specified that the beverages had to be served in special Suppu ('Liquid holding') vessels made of gold; even the Tig.idu ('Mixing vessels') in which food was prepared had to be of gold. The vessels, according to those instructions, were to be decorated with a 'rosette' design to mark them as 'Belonging to Anu'. Milk, however, was to be served in special alabaster stone vessels, not in metal ones.

  When it came to Antu, golden vessels were listed for her banqueting, mentioning the deities Inanna and Nannar (in that order) as her special guests; the Suppu vessels for them, as well as the trays on which they were served, also had to be of gold. All that, one ought remember, at a time before Mankind was granted civilization; so the only ones able to make all those objects had to be craftsmen of the gods themselves.

  Remarkably, the Anu and An
tu list of eating and drinking vessels that had to be made of gold, and in one specific case (for milk) of alabaster stone, reads almost as an inventory of objects discovered in the 'royal' tombs ofUr; so the questions 'Who had to have common utensils made of uncommon metals, who wanted everything possible to be made of gold?' led to "The gods" as an answer.

  A conclusion that all those objects were for the use of gods, not mortal royalty, becomes more probable as we reread some of the Sumerian hymns to their gods—such as this one, inscribed on a clay tablet from Nippur (now languishing in the basement of the University Museum in Philadelphia). A hymn to Enlil, it extols his golden hoe with which he broke ground for the Dur.an.ki, the Mission Control Center in Nippur:

  Enlil raised his hoe,

  the hoe of gold with lapis lazuli tip—

  his hoe whose tied-on blade

  of silver-gold was made.

  Similarly, according to the text known as Enki and the World Order, his sister Ninharsag "has taken for herself the gold chisel and the silver hammer"—again utensils that, made of these soft metals, were only symbols of authority and status.

  When it comes to the harp made of silver, we find that a rare musical instrument called Algar is specifically listed as one of Inanna's possessions in a 'Sacred Marriage' hymn to her by the king Iddi- Dagan: The musicians, it says, "play before thee the Algar instrument, of pure silver made." Though the precise nature of the instrument, which gave out "sweet music," is not certain, the Algar is mentioned in Sumerian texts as a musical instrument played exclusively for the gods; except that Inanna's was made of pure silver.

  Such mentions of objects similar to those found in Ur's special tombs are found in other hymns; they become virtually countless when it comes to jewelry and such; and they are especially overwhelming when it comes to Inanna/Ishtar's jewelry and attire.

  Yet as portentous as all that is, what was encountered in several of the 'Royal Tombs' was even more mind boggling; for even more unusual than the objects and opulence that accompanied some of the deceased was their accompaniment by scores of other human bodies buried along with them.

  * * *

  Burials with others buried alongside the deceased were an unheard-of phenomenon anywhere in the ancient Near East; so the discovery of two 'companions' buried with the deceased in a tomb (designated PG-1648) was already unusual. But what was found in some of the other tombs surpassed anything ever found before or thereafter.

  Tomb PG-789, named by Woolley the King's Tomb' (Fig. 122), began with a sloping ramp that led to what Woolley designated "the Burial Pit' and to an adjoining burial chamber. Presumably, the tomb was entered and looted by grave robbers in antiquity, which may account for the absence of the main body and precious objects. But there were other bodies all over: Six companion' bodies were lying in the access ramp; they wore copper helmets and carried spears, as soldiers or bodyguards would. Down in the pit were remains of two wagons, each one drawn by three oxen whose skeletal remains were found in situ together with the bodies of one oxen-handler and two drivers per wagon.

  All that was just a glimpse of what Woolley called "the king's retainers”—fifty-four of them, found in the 'Death Pit' (their precise locations marked by a skull sign in Fig. 122)—who, judging by the objects found near the bodies, were mostly males who held decorated spears with electrum spearheads; near them lay loose silver spearheads, reign rings made of silver, shields, and weapons; bulls and lions were a prominent feature of sculptures and decorations. While all that bespoke a military leader, the objects found near a smaller number of bodies identified as females bespoke appreciation of art and music: A sculpted bull's head made of gold with a lapis lazuli beard, wooden lyres exquisitely decorated, and a musical 'sound box' with panels

  Figure 122

  whose inlaid decorations depicted scenes from the tales of Gilgamesh and Enkidu.

  An artist's 1928 rendition of what the assemblage in the death pit might have looked like, before everyone there was drugged or killed to be buried in situ (Fig. 123), gives a chilling reality to the scene.

  Adjoining PG-789 was a similarly planned tomb, PG-800, that Woolley named "the Queen's Tomb." Here too he found accompanying bodies both in the ramp and in the pit (Fig. 124)—five bodies of guards, an oxcart with its grooms, and ten bodies presumably of female attendants who carried musical instruments. But here there was a body lying on a bier, placed in a specially constructed burial chamber, where it was accompanied by three attendants. This chamber was not robbed in antiquity, probably because it was a secret sunken chamber: Its roof, rather than its floor, was on the same level as the floor of the pit. Judging by the skeletal remains as well as by the profusion of jewelry, ornaments, and even a large wooden chest for clothing, it was the body of a female—the 'Queen', as Woolley called her.

  Figure 123

  Figure 124

  The female's body was adorned—virtually from head to toe—with jewelry and accessories made of gold, gold-silver alloy (electrum), lapis lazuli, carnelian, and agate. Gold, and gold in combination with lapis lazuli and other precious stones, dominated these finds; gold and silver were the metals of which objects in daily use were made (with rare alabaster stone sometimes used for bowls); so were various artfully sculpted objects, such as the heads of a bull and of a lion. With a somewhat lesser opulence but similarly adorned were the female attendants who were buried with her: in addition to an elaborate golden headdress, each one was wearing golden earrings, chokers, necklaces, armbands, belts, finger rings, cuffs, bracelets, hair ornaments, wreaths, frontlets, and a variety of other adornments.

  Near those two tombs Woolley found the forepart of another large tomb, PG-1237 (see site map, Fig. 113). He unearthed the ramp and the pit, but did not find the burial chamber to which they must have belonged. He named the find "the Great Death Pit" because it contained seventy-three bodies of attendants (Fig. 125). Based on the skel-

  Figure 125

  etal remains and the objects found on or near the bodies, only five of them were males, lying alongside a wagon. Spread in the pit were sixty- eight female bodies; the objects found near them included an outstanding lyre (since known as the 'Lyre of Ur'), the 'Ram in the Thicket' sculpture, and a bewildering variety of jewelry. As in the other tombs, gold was the dominant material. (It was ascertained later that Woolley did find a burial chamber abutting PG-1237, but because the body in it was wrapped in reed matting, he considered it an intrusion from a later time and not the original burial.)

  Woolley unearthed a few other 'death pits' without finding the burials with which they had been associated. Some, as PG-1618 and PG-1648, held just a few bodies of what Woolley termed 'retainers'; others held many more: PG-1050, for example, held forty bodies. One must assume that they were all entombments essentially similar to PG-789, PG-800 (and probably also PG-755); and that intrigued scholars and researchers from Woolley on, for these entombments had no parallel anywhere, nor were they mentioned in the vast literary trove of Mesopotamia—with one exception.

  A text dubbed The Death of Gilgamesh by its first renderer in English, Samuel N. Kramer, describes Gilgamesh on his deathbed. Informed by the god Utu that Enlil will not grant him eternal life, he is consoled by promises of "seeing the light" even in the Nether World where the dead go. Missing lines deprive us of the link to the final 42 lines, from which it could be surmised that Gilgamesh was going to retain in Nether World the company of "his beloved wife, his beloved son . . . his beloved concubine, his musicians, his entertainers, his beloved cupbearer," the chief valet, his caretakers, and the palace attendants who had served him.

  A line (line 7 in the fragment's reverse side) that can be read to include the words "whoever lay with him in the Pure Place" or "When they had lain down with him in the Pure Place" is taken as an indication that The Death of Gilgamesh in fact describes an 'accompanied burial'— presumably an extraordinary privilege granted to Gilgamesh, who was "two-thirds of him divine," as compensation for not gaining the immortal
ity of the gods. While this explanation of the legible lines remains debatable, there is no escaping the uncanny similarity between the Death of Gilgamesh text and the stunning reality uncovered at Ur.

  Another recent debate whether the attendants, who were certainly part of the funeral procession, stayed to be buried voluntarily, were drugged, or perhaps killed as soon as they reached the pit, does not change the basic fact: There they were, demonstrating a most unusual practice, unemulated and not practiced anywhere else where kings and queens galore were buried over thousands of years. In Egypt, the 'Afterlife' notion included objects but not a host of co-buried attendants; the great Pharaohs were buried (amid an opulence of accompanying objects) in tombs hidden deep underground—lying by themselves in complete isolation. In the Far East, the buried Chinese emperor Qin Shihuang (circa 200 B.C.) was accompanied by an army of his subjects— but they were all made of clay. And though from A.D. times and on the other side of the world, we might as well mention a recent find in Sipan, Peru, of a royal tomb in which four bodies accompanied the deceased.