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The Sumerians bequeathed to humanity a long list of "firsts" without which ensuing and modern civilizations would have been impossible. To those that were already mentioned, an- other "first" that has endured almost without a break has been Kingship. As all others, this "first" too was granted to the Sumerians by the Anunnaki. In the words of the Sumerian King Lists, "after the Flood had swept over the Earth, when Kingship was lowered from Heaven, Kingship was in Kish." It was, perhaps, because of this—because "Kingship was lowered from Heaven"—that kings have deemed it a right to be taken aloft, to ascend unto the Gates of Heaven. Therein lie records of attained, attempted, or simulated Divine En- counters filled with soaring aspirations and dramatic failures. In most, dreams play a key role. The Mesopotamian texts relate that, faced with the reality of a devastated planet, Enlil accepted the fact of Mankind's survival and bestowed his blessings upon the remnants. Real- izing that henceforth the Anunnaki themselves could not con- tinue their stay and functioning on Earth without human help, Enlil joined Enki in providing Mankind with the advance- ments that we call the progress from Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) to Mesolithic and Neolithic (Middle and New Stone Ages) to the sudden Sumerian civilization—in each instance at 3,600-year intervals—that marked the introduction of ani- mal and plant domestications and the switchover from stone to clay and pottery to copper tools and utensils, then to a full-fledged civilization. As the Mexopotamian texts make clear, the institution of 40 108 THE GATES OF HEAVEN