University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology catalogue of the Babylonian section, tablet number 14,005 from their excavations at the templelibrary at Nippur. This was translated by George Aaron Barton in 1918 and first published as "Sumerian religious texts" in "Miscellaneous Babylonian Inscriptions", number eight, entitled "A New Creation Myth".[2]
The tablet is 5 by 2.6 by 1.25 inches (12.7 by 6.6 by 3.2 cm) at its thickest point. Barton describes the text as an "elaborate statement of the non-existence of many things once upon a time" and considered it a "statement that mankind was brought into existence through the physical union of a god and a goddess."
Another tablet from the same collection, number 6893 (part of which was destroyed) was translated by
Hermann Hilprecht[10] and included translations of museum tablet numbers 7344, 7916, 15161 and 29.15.973. He also included translations from tablets in the Nippur collection of the Museum of the Ancient Orient in Istanbul, catalogue numbers 2308, 4036 and 4094.[9] Other translations were taken from Edward Chiera's "Sumerian Epics and Myths" numbers 38, 54, 55, 56 and 57.[11] In total, seventeen pieces were found by Kramer to belong to the myth. Later work has added to this and modern translation has removed the deification of Lahar and Ashnan, naming them simply "grain" and "sheep" (also known as cattle).[12]
Story
The story opens with a location "the hill of heaven and earth" which is discussed by Chiera as "not a poetical name for the earth, but the dwelling place of the gods, situated at the point where the heavens rest upon the earth. It is there that mankind had their first habitat, and there the Babylonian
herbs for Lahar and a house, plough and yoke for Ashnan, describing the introduction of animal husbandry and agriculture.[15] The story continues with a quarrel between the two goddesses over their gifts which eventually resolves with Enki and Enlil intervening to declare Ashnan the victor.[15]
Discussion
domestic animals, but cannot survive without bread. He goes on to point out that the debates on both sides are roughly equal.[19]
Quotes
The introduction to the myth reads:
When, upon the hill of heaven and earth, An created the Annunaki, since he neither spawned nor created Grain with them, and since in the Land he neither fashioned the yarn of
god of wild animals had not gone out into the barren lands. The people of those days did not know about eating bread. They did not know about wearing clothes; they went about with naked limbs in the Land. Like sheep they ate grass with their mouths and drank water from the ditches.[12]A Sumerian group of two separate shell inlay fragments forming the body and head of a sheep. c. 27th–24th century BC. From a Mayfair gallery, London, UK.
The benefits that grain and sheep bring to the habitation
are also described:
They brought wealth to the assembly. They brought sustenance to the Land. They fulfilled the ordinances of the gods. They filled the store-rooms of the Land with stock. The barns of the Land were heavy with them. When they entered the homes of the poor who crouch in the dust they brought wealth. Both of them, wherever they directed their steps, added to the riches of the household with their weight. Where they stood, they were satisfying; where they settled, they were seemly. They gladdened the heart of An and the heart of Enlil.[12]
The final merits of grain are emphasized in a proverb at the end of the myth:
From sunrise till sunset, may the name of Grain be praised. People should submit to the yoke of Grain. Whoever has silver, whoever has jewels, whoever has cattle, whoever has sheep shall take a seat at the gate of whoever has grain, and pass his time there.[12]
^Hermann Vollrat Hilprecht, The Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania: Researches and treatises, Volume 31, Number 15, University of Pennsylvania
^Edward Chiera (1964). Sumerian epics and myths. The University of Chicago Press. Retrieved 23 May 2011.
Alster, Bendt, and Vanstiphout, Herman L.J., "Lahar and Ashnan. Presentation and Analysis of a Sumerian Disputation", Acta Sumerologica 9 (1987), 1-43: commentary, composite text, translation
Vanstiphout, Herman L.J., "The Akkadian word for grain and Lahar and Ashnan", NABU (1989) No. 98: commentary
Vanstiphout, Herman L.J., "The Mesopotamian Debate Poems. A General Presentation. Part II. The Subject", Acta Sumerologica 14 (1992), 339-367: commentary
