The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Records and Legends of Assyria and Babylonia

CHAPTER II. THE HISTORY, AS GIVEN IN THE BIBLE, FROM THE CREATION TO THE

Chapter 55,236 wordsPublic domain

FLOOD.

Eden—The so-called second story of the Creation and the bilingual Babylonian account—The four rivers—The tree of life—The Temptation—The Cherubim—Cain and Abel—The names of the Patriarchs from Enoch to Noah.

“And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed.” There also He made every pleasant and good tree to grow, including the tree of life, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. A river came out of Eden to water the garden, and this river was afterwards divided into four smaller streams, the Pishon, flowing round “the Hawilah,” a land of gold (which was good) and bdellium and onyx stone; the Gihon, flowing round the whole land of Cush; the Hiddekel or Tigris, and the Euphrates.

It is to be noted that it was not the garden itself that was called Eden, but the district in which it lay. The river too seems to have risen in the same tract, and was divided at some indeterminate point, either in the land of Eden or on its borders.

The whereabouts of the Garden of Eden and its rivers has been so many times discussed, and so many diverse opinions prevail concerning them, that there is no need at present to add to these theories yet another, more or less probable. Indeed, in the present work, theories will be kept in the background as much as possible, and prominence given to such facts as recent discoveries have revealed to us.

It had long been known that one of the Akkadian names for “plain” was _edina_, and that that word had been borrowed by the Babylonians under the form of _êdinnu_, but it was Prof. Delitzsch, the well-known Assyriologist, who first pointed out to a disbelieving world that this must be the Eden of Genesis. The present writer thought this identification worthless until he had the privilege of examining the tablets acquired by Dr. Hayes Ward in Babylonia on the occasion of his conducting the Wolfe expedition. Among the fragments of tablets that he then brought back was a list of cities in the Akkadian language (the Semitic Babylonian column was unfortunately broken away) which gave the following—

Transcription. Translation. Sipar, D.S. Sippara. Sipar Edina, D.S. Sippara of Eden. Sipar uldua, D.S. Sippara the everlasting. Sipar Šamaš, D.S. Sippara of the Sun-god.

Here at last was the word Eden used as a geographical name, showing that the explanation of Delitzsch was not only plausible, but also, in all probability, true in substance and in fact. Less satisfactory, however, were the learned Professor’s identifications of the rivers of Eden, for he regards the Pishon and the Gihon as canals—the former being the Pallacopas (the Pallukatu of the Babylonian inscriptions), and the latter the Guḫandê (also called the Araḫtu, now identified with a large canal running through Babylon). He conjectured that it might be the waterway known as the Shatt en-Nîl. Whatever doubt, however, attaches to his identifications of the rivers, he seems certainly to be right with regard to the Biblical Eden, and this is a decided gain, for it locates the position of that district beyond a doubt.

To Prof. Sayce belongs the honour of identifying the Babylonian story of the nature and position of Paradise as they conceived it, and here we have another example of the important details that the incantation-tablets may contain concerning beliefs not otherwise preserved to us, for the text in question, like the bilingual story of the Creation, is simply an introduction to a text of that nature. This interesting record, to which I have been able to add a few additional words since Prof. Sayce first gave his translation of it to the world, is as follows—

“Incantation: ‘(In) Êridu a dark vine grew, it was made in a glorious place, Its appearance (as) lapis-lazuli, planted beside the Abyss, Which is Ae’s path, filling Êridu with fertility. Its seat is the (central) point of the earth, Its dwelling is the couch of Nammu. In the glorious house, which is like a forest, its shadow extends, No man enters its midst. In its interior is the Sun-god Tammuz. Between the mouths of the rivers (which are) on both sides.’ ”

The lines which follow show how this plant, which was a miraculous remedy, was to be used in the cure of a sick man. It was to be placed upon his head, and beneficent spirits would then come and stay with him, whilst the evil ones would stand aside.

From the introductory lines above translated, we see that Êridu, “the good city,” which Sir Henry Rawlinson recognized many years ago as a type of paradise, was, to the Babylonians, as a garden of Eden, wherein grew a glorious tree, to all appearance a vine, for the adjective “dark” may very reasonably be regarded as referring to its fruit. Strange must have been its appearance, for it is described as resembling “white lapis-lazuli,” that is, the beautiful stone of that kind mottled blue and white. The probability that it was conceived by the Babylonians as a garden is strengthened by the fact that the god Aê, and his path, _i.e._ the rivers, filled the place with fertility, and it was, moreover, the abode of the river-god Nammu, whose streams, the Tigris and Euphrates, flowed on both sides. There, too, dwelt the Sun, making the garden fruitful with his ever-vivifying beams, whilst “the peerless mother of heaven,” as Tammuz seems to be called, added, by fructifying showers, to the fertility that the two great rivers brought down from the mountains from which they flowed. To complete still further the parallel with the Biblical Eden, it was represented as a place to which access was forbidden, for “no man entered its midst,” as in the case of the Garden of Eden after the fall.

Though one cannot be dogmatic in the presence of the imperfect records that we possess, it is worthy of note that Eden does not occur as the name of the earthly paradise in any of the texts referring to the Creation that have come down to us; and though it is to be found in the bilingual story of the Creation, it there occurs simply as the equivalent of the Semitic word _ṣêrim_ in the phrase “he (Merodach) made the verdure of the _plain_.” That we shall ultimately find other instances of Eden as a geographical name, occurring by itself, and not in composition with another word (as in the expression _Sipar Edina_), and even a reference to _gannat Edinni_, “the Garden of Eden,” is to be expected.

Schrader(5) has pointed out that whilst in Eden the river bears no name, it is only after it has left the sacred region that it is divided, and then each separate branch received a name. So, also, in the Babylonian description of the Eridu, the rivers were unnamed, though one guesses that the Tigris and the Euphrates are meant. The expression, “the mouth of the rivers [that are on] both sides” (_pî nârãti ... kilallan_), recalls to the mind the fact, that it was to “a remote place at the mouth of the rivers” that the Babylonian Noah (Pir-napištim) was translated after the Flood, when the gods conferred upon him the gift of immortality. To all appearance, therefore, Gilgameš, the ancient Babylonian hero who visited the immortal sage, entered into the tract regarded by the Babylonians of old times as being set apart for the abode of the blessed after their journeyings on this world should cease.

The connection of the stream which was “the path of Ae” with Eridu, seems to have been very close, for in the bilingual story of the Creation the flowing of the stream is made to be the immediate precursor of the building of Êridu and Êsagila, “the lofty-headed temple” within it—

“When within the sea there was a stream, In that day Êridu was made, Êsagila was built— Êsagila which the god Lugal-du-azaga had founded within the Abyss.”

In this Babylonian Creation-story it is a question of a stream and two rivers. In Genesis it is a question of a river and four branches. The parallelism is sufficiently close to be noteworthy and to show, beyond a doubt, that the Babylonians had the same accounts of the Creation and descriptions of the circumstances concerning it, as the Hebrews, though told in a different way, and in a different connection.

Two trees are mentioned in the Biblical account of the Creation, “the tree of life” and “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” By the eating of the former, a man would live for ever, and the latter would confer upon him that knowledge which God alone was supposed to possess, namely, of good and evil, carrying with it, however, the disadvantage of the loss of that innocence which he formerly possessed. Like the Hebrews, the Babylonians and Assyrians also had their sacred trees, but whether they attached to them the same deep significance as the Hebrews did to theirs we do not know. Certain, however, it is, that they had beliefs concerning them that were analogous.

The most familiar form of the sacred tree is that employed by the Assyrians, to a certain extent as a decorative ornament, on the sculptured slabs that adorned the walls of the royal palaces. This was the curious conglomeration of knots and leaves which various figures—winged genii with horned hats emblematic of divinity, eagle-headed figures, etc.—worship, and to which they make offerings, and touch with a conical object resembling the fruit of the fir or pine. An ingenious suggestion has been made to the effect that the genius with the pine-cone is represented in the act of fructifying the tree with the pollen (in an idealized form) from the flowers of another tree, just as it is necessary to fructify the date-palm from the pollen of the flowers growing on the “male” tree. This, however, can hardly be the true explanation of the mystic act represented, as similar genii are shown on other slabs not only holding out the conical object as if to touch therewith the figure of the king, but also doing the same thing to the effigies of the great winged bulls. Of course, the fructification of the king would be not only a possible representation to carve in alabaster, but one that we might even expect to find among the royal sculptures. The fructification of a winged bull, however, is quite a different thing, and in the highest degree improbable, unless the divine bull were a kind of representation of the king, which, though possible, is at present unprovable.

This symbolic scene, therefore, remains still a mystery for scholars to explain when they obtain the material to do so. It seems to be a peculiarly Assyrian design, for the offering of a pine-cone or similarly-shaped object to the sacred tree has not yet been found in Babylonian art. The Babylonian sacred tree is, moreover, a much more natural-looking object than the curious combination of knots and honeysuckle-shaped flowers found in the sculptures of Assyria. As in the case of the tree shown in the picture of the Temptation, described below, the sacred tree of the Babylonians often takes the form of a palm-tree, or something very like one. (See pl. III.)

As has been already remarked, the tree of Paradise of the Babylonians was, to all appearance, a vine, described as being in colour like blue and white mottled lapis-lazuli, and apparently bearing fruit (grapes) of a dark colour. That the Babylonian tree of life was a vine is supported by the fact that the ideograms composing the word for “wine” are _geš-tin_ (for _kaš-tin_), “drink of life,” and “the vine,” _giš geš-tin_, “tree of the drink of life.” In the text describing the Babylonian Paradise and its divine tree, the name of the latter is given as _kiškanû_ in Semitic, and _giš-kin_ or _giš-kan_ in Akkadian, a word mentioned in the bilingual lists among plants of the vine species. Whether the Hebrews regarded the tree of life as having been a vine or not, cannot at present be decided, but it is very probable that they had the same ideas as the Babylonians in the matter.

It is noteworthy, in this connection, that the Babylonians also believed that there still existed in the world a plant (they do not seem to have regarded it as a tree) which “would make an old man young again.” Judging from the statements concerning it, one would imagine that it was a kind of thorn-bush. As we shall see later, when treating of the story of the Flood, it was this plant which the Chaldean Noah gave the hero Gilgameš instructions how to find—for the desire to become young again had seized him—and he seems to have succeeded in possessing himself of it, only to lose it again almost immediately, for a lion, coming that way at a time when Gilgameš was otherwise occupied, carried it off—to his own benefit, as the hero remarks, for he naturally supposed that the lion who had seized the plant would have his life renewed, and prey all the longer upon the people.

The title of a lost legend, “When the _kiškanû_ (? vine, see above) grew in the land” (referring, perhaps, to the tree of life which grew in Êridu), leads one to ask whether “The legend of Nisaba (the corn-deity) and the date-palm,” and “The legend of the _luluppu_-tree” may not also refer to sacred trees, bearing upon the question of the tree of knowledge referred to in Gen. ii. As, however, the titles (generally a portion of the first line only) are all that are at present preserved, there is nothing to be done but wait patiently until it pleases Providence to make them further known to us.

The _kiškanû_ was of three kinds, white (_piṣu_), black (_ṣalmi_), as in the description of the tree of Paradise, and grey or blue (_sâmi_). In view of there being these three colours, it would seem that they refer rather to the fruit of the tree than to the tree itself. Now the only plant growing in the country and having these three colours of fruit, is the vine. Of course, this raises the question whether (1) the _kiškanû_ is a synonym of _gištin_ or _karanu_, or (2) the word _gištin_, which is generally rendered “vine,” is, in reality, correctly translated. Whatever be the true explanation, one thing is certain, namely, that in the description of Paradise, the word black or dark (_ṣalmu_), applied to the tree there mentioned, cannot refer to the tree itself, for that is described as being like “white lapis” (_uknū êbbu_), a beautiful stone mottled blue and white.

[Plate III A.]

Babylonian Mythological Composition. Impression of a cylinder-seal showing a male figure on the right and a bull-man on the left, holding erect bulls by the horns and tails. In the centre is a form of the sacred tree on a hill. Date about 2500 B.C. British Museum.

[Plate III B.]

Babylonian Mythological Composition. Impression of a cylinder-seal showing Istar, goddess of love and of war as archeress, standing on the back of a lion, which turns its head to caress her feet. Before her is a worshipper (priest) and two goats (reversed to form a symmetrical design), leaping. Behind her is a date-palm. Date about 650 B.C. British Museum.

Among other trees of a sacred nature is “the cedar beloved of the great gods,” mentioned in an inscription of a religious or ceremonial nature, though exactly in what connection the imperfectness of the document does not enable us to see. It would seem, however, that there were certain priests or seers to whom was confided the “tablet of the gods,” containing the secret of the heavens and earth (probably the “tablet of fate,” which Merodach took from the husband of Tiamat after his fight with her for the dominion of the universe). These persons, who seem to have been the descendants of En-we-dur-an-ki (the Euedoranchos of Berosus), king of Sippar, were those to whom was confided “the cedar beloved of the great gods”—perhaps a kind of sceptre. They had, however, not only to be of noble race, but also perfect physically and free from every defect and disease. Moreover, one who did not keep the command of Šamaš and Addu (Hadad) could not approach the place of Ae, Šamaš, Marduk, and Nin-edina, nor the number of the brothers who were to enter the seership; they were not to reveal to him the word of the oracle, and “the cedar beloved of the great gods” was not to be delivered into his hands.

There is hardly any doubt, then, that we have here the long-sought parallel to the Biblical “tree of knowledge,” for that, too, was in the domain of “the lord of knowledge,” the god Ae, and also in the land which might be described as that of “the lord of Eden,” the “hidden place of heaven and earth” for all the sons of Adam, who are no longer allowed to enter into that earthly Paradise wherein their first parents gained, at such a cost, the knowledge, imperfect as it must have been, and evidently undesirable, which they handed down to their successors.

Adam.

The name of the first man, Adam, is one that has tried the learning of the most noted Hebraists to explain satisfactorily. It was formerly regarded as being derived from the root _ādam_, “to be red,” but this explanation has been given up in favour of the root _ādam_, “to make, produce,” man being conceived as “the created one.” This etymology is that put forward by the Assyriologist Fried. Delitzsch, who quotes the Assyrian _âdmu_, “young bird,” and _âdmi summāti_, “young doves,” literally, “the young of doves,” though he does not seem to refer the Assyrian _udumu_, “monkey,” to the same root. He also quotes, apparently from memory, the evidence of a fragment of a bilingual list found by Mr. Rassam, in which Adam is explained by the usual Babylonian word for “man,” _amēlu_.

The writer of Genesis has given to the first man the name of Adam, thus personifying in him the human race, which was to descend from him. In all probability, the Babylonians had the same legends, but, if so, no fragment of them has as yet come to light. That the Hebrew stories of the Creation had their origin in Babylonia, will probably be conceded by most people as probable, if not actually proven, and the fact that the word _a-dam_ occurs, as Delitzsch has pointed out, in a bilingual list would, supposing the text to which he refers to be actually bilingual, be a matter of peculiar significance, for it would show that this word, which does not occur in Semitic Babylonian as the word for “man,” occurred in the old Akkadian language with that meaning.

And the proof that Delitzsch was right in his recollection of the tablet of which he speaks, is shown by the bilingual Babylonian story of the Creation. There, in lines 9, 10, we read as follows—

Akkadian (dialectic): Uru nu-dim, a-dam nu-mun-ia. Babylonian: Âlu ûl êpuš, nammaššu ûl šakin.

“A city had not been made, the community had not been established.”

Here we have the non-Semitic _adam_ translated by the Babylonian _nammaššu_, which seems to mean a number of men, in this passage something like community, for that is the idea which best fits the context. But besides this Semitic rendering, the word also has the meanings of _tenišētu_, “mankind,” _amelūtu_, “human beings.”

The word _adam_, meaning “man,” is found also in Phœnician, Sabean, and apparently in Arabic, under the form of _atam_, a collective meaning “creatures.”

The possibility that the Babylonians had an account of the Fall similar to that of the Hebrews, is not only suggested by the legends treated of above, but also by the cylinder-seal in the British Museum with what seems to be the representation of the Temptation engraved upon it. We have there presented to us the picture of a tree—a palm—bearing fruit, and on each side of it a seated figure, that on the right being to all appearance the man, and that on the left the woman, though there is not much difference between them, and, as far as the form of either goes, the sexes might easily be reversed. That, however, which seems to be intended for the man has the horned hat emblematic of divinity, or, probably, of divine origin, whilst from the figure which seems to be that of the woman this head-dress is absent. Behind her, moreover, with wavy body standing erect on his tail, is shown the serpent, towering just above her head, as if ready to speak with her. Both figures are stretching out a hand (the man the right, the woman the left) as if to pluck the fruit growing on the tree. Notwithstanding the doubts that have been thrown on the explanation here given of this celebrated and exceedingly interesting cylinder, the subject and its arrangement are so suggestive, that one can hardly regard it as being other than what it seems to be, namely, a Babylonian representation of the Temptation, according to records that the Babylonians possessed. The date of this object may be set down as being from about 2750 to 2000 B.C.

Future excavations in Babylonia and Assyria will, no doubt, furnish us with the legends current in those countries concerning the Temptation, the Fall, and the sequel thereto. Great interest would naturally attach to the Babylonian rendering of the details and development of the story, more particularly to the terms of the penalty, the expulsion, and the nature of the beings—the cherubim—placed at the east of the garden, and “the flaming sword turning every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.”

Though the Babylonian version of this Biblical story has not yet come to light, the inscriptions in the wedge-writing give us a few details bearing upon the word “cherub.”

The Hebrews understood these celestial beings as having the form which we attribute to angels—a glorified human appearance, but with the addition of wings. They are spoken of as bearing the throne of the Almighty through the clouds (“He rode upon a cherub, and did fly”), and in Psalm xviii. 11 he is also represented as sitting upon them. In Ezekiel i. and x. they are said to be of a very composite form, combining with the human shape the face of a cherub (whatever that may have been), a man, an ox, a lion, and an eagle. It has been supposed that Ezekiel was indebted to Assyro-Babylonian imagery for the details of the cherubic creatures that he describes, but it may safely be said that, though the sculptures furnish us with images of divine creatures in the form of a man with the face of an eagle, or having a modification of a lion’s head, and bulls and lions with the faces of men, there has never yet been found a figure provided with a wheel for the purpose of locomotion, and having four heads, like those of which the prophet speaks. We may, therefore, safely conclude, that Ezekiel applied the word _kerûb_ (cherub) to the creatures that he saw in his vision, because that was the most suitable word he could find, not because it was the term usually applied to things of that kind. It is hardly likely that the guardians of the entrance into the earthly Paradise and the creatures that bore up the throne of the Almighty were conceived as being of so complicated a form as the cherubim of Ezekiel.

Whatever doubt may exist as to the original form of this celestial being, the discussion of the origin of the Hebrew word _kerûb_ may now be regarded as finally settled by the discovery of the Assyro-Babylonian records. It is undoubtedly borrowed from the Babylonian _kirubu_, a word meaning simply “spirit,” and conceived as one who was always in the presence (_ina kirib_) of God, and formed from the root _qarābu_, “to be near.” The change from _q_ (qoph) to _k_ (kaph) is very common in Babylonian, and occurs more frequently before _e_ and _i_, hence the form in Hebrew, _kerûb_ (cherub—the translators intended that _ch_ should be pronounced as _k_) for _qerûb_ (which the translators would have transcribed as _kerub_).

Originally the Assyro-Babylonian word _kirubu_ seems to have meant something like “intimate friend,” or “familiar,” as in the expression _kirub šarri_, “familiar of the king,” mentioned between “daughter of the king,” and “the beloved woman of the king.” An illustration of its extended meaning of “spirit,” however, occurs in the following lines from “the tablet of Good Wishes”—

“In thy mouth may there be perfection of speech (_lû asim dababu_); In thine eye may there be brightness of sight (_lû namir niṭlu_); In thine ear may there be a spirit of hearing” (_lû_ KIRUB _nišmû_, lit. ‘a cherub of hearing’).”

The cherubim were therefore the good spirits who performed the will of God, and, in the minds of the Assyrians and Babylonians, watched over and guarded the man who was the “son of his God,” _i.e._ the pious man.

The cherub upon which the Almighty rode, and upon whom he sat, corresponds more to the _guzalū_ or “throne-bearer” of Assyro-Babylonian mythology. They were apparently beings who bore up the thrones of the gods, and are frequently to be seen in Babylonian sculptures thus employed, at rest, and waiting patiently, to all appearance, until their divine master, seated on the throne which rests on their shoulders, should again give them word, or make known that it was now his will to start and journey forth once more.

The story of Cain and Abel, and the first tragedy that occurred in the world after the creation of man, has always attracted the attention of the pious on that account, and because the first recorded murder was that of a brother. This is a story to which the discovery of a Babylonian parallel was least likely to be found, and, as a matter of fact, none has as yet come to light. Notwithstanding this, a few remarks upon such remote parallels which exist, and such few illustrations of the event that can be found, may be cited in this place.

These are contained in the story of Tammuz or Adonis, who, though not supposed to have been slain by his brother, was nevertheless killed by the cold of Winter, who might easily have been regarded as his brother, for Tammuz typified the season of Summer, the Brother-season, so to say, of Winter. As is well known, the name Tammuz is Akkadian, and occurs in that language under the form of Dumu-zi, or, more fully, Dumu-zida, meaning “the everlasting son,” in Semitic Babylonian _âblu kênu_. It is very noteworthy that Prof. J. Oppert has suggested that the name of Abel, in Hebrew Habel, is, in reality, none other than the Babylonian _ablu_, “son,” and the question naturally arises, May not the story of Cain and Abel have given rise to the legend of Tammuz, or _Ablu kênu_, as his name would be if translated into Semitic Babylonian?

Unless by a folk-etymology, however, the Semitic Babylonian translation of the name of Tammuz can hardly be a composition of Abel and Cain, because the first letter is _q_ (qoph) and not _k_ (kaph), the transcription Cain for Kain or Kayin being faulty in the A.V. Still, we feel bound to recognize that there is a possibility, though naturally a remote one, that the legend of Tammuz is connected with that of Cain and Abel, just as the division of the Dragon (in the Babylonian story of the Creation) by the god Merodach into two halves, with one of which he covered the heavens, leaving the other below upon the earth, typifies the division of the waters above the earth from those below in the Biblical story of the same event.

There is a legend, named by me (for want of a more precise title) “The Lament of the Daughter of the god Sin,” in which the carrying off (by death?) of “her fair son” is referred to. Here we have another possible Babylonian parallel to the story of the death of Abel, in which the driving forth of her who makes the lament from her city and from her palace might well typify the expulsion of Eve from Paradise, and her delivery into the power of her enemy, who is, to all appearance, the king of terrors, into whose hands she and her husband were, for their disobedience, consigned. In this really beautiful Babylonian poem her “enemy” seems to reproach her, telling her how it was she, and she alone, who had ruined herself.

Though there may be something in the comparisons with the story of Cain and Abel which are quoted here, more probably (as has been already remarked) there is nothing, and the real parallels have yet to be found. In any case, they are instances of the popularity among the Babylonians and Assyrians of those stories of one, greatly beloved and in the bloom of youth, coming, like Abel, to an untimely end through the perversity of fate, and by no fault of his own. Though neither may be the original of the Biblical story nor yet derived from it, they are of interest and value as beautiful legends of old time, possibly throwing light on the Biblical story.

As yet the Babylonian and Assyrian records shed but little light on the question of the patriarchs of the early ages succeeding Adam, the details that are given concerning them, and their long lives. Upon this last point there is only one remark to be made, and that is, that the prehistoric kings of Babylonia likewise lived and reigned for abnormally long ages, according to the records that have come down to us. Unfortunately, there is nothing complete in the important original of the Canon of Berosus first published by the late G. Smith, and the beginning is especially mutilated.

The likeness between Enoch and the Akkadian name of the city of Erech, Unug, has already been pointed out, and it has been suggested that the two words are identical. This, however, can hardly be the case, for the Hebrew form of Enoch is Ḫanôḳ, the initial letter being the guttural _ḫeth_, which, notwithstanding the parallel ease of Hiddekel, the Akkadian Idigna (the Tigris), weakens the comparison. The principal argument against the identification, however, is the fact that, in the bilingual story of the Creation, the god Merodach is said to have built the city, and such was evidently the Babylonian belief.(6)

The name of Enoch’s great-grandson, Methusael, finds, as has many times been pointed out, its counterpart in the Babylonian Mut-îli, with the same meaning (“man of God”).

[Plate IV.]

Lower part of the obverse of a terra-cotta tablet from Nineveh, inscribed with the names of Babylonian kings in Sumerian and Semitic Babylonian. The 13th line (that running across two columns) has the statement, "These are the kings who were after the Flood. They are not written in their proper order." The names of Sargina (Sargon of Agadé) and Hammurabi (Amraphel) also occur. Found by Sir A. H. Layard and Hormuzd Rassam.