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113 woven episodes, the narrative sets the stage for the related events as a time of conflict and clashes in which the IGI.GI ("Those Who Observe and See")—the corps of astronauts who remained in Earth orbit and manned the shuttlecraft (as distinct from the Anunnaki who had come down to Earth)— "barred the gates" and "patrolled the city" against oppo- nents whose identity is lost in the damaged tablets. All of this spells actuality, a record of facts. The unusual presence of the Igigi in a city on land, the fact that Utu/Shamash was commander of the Spaceport (by then in the Fourth Region), and the designation of the pilot- cum-spacecraft of Etana as an Eagle, suggest that the conflict echoed in the Etana tale had to do with space flight. Could it be an attempt to create an alternative space center, one not controlled by Utu/Shamash? Could the Eagleman who was involved in the failed attempt, or the intended spacecraft, be banished to languish in a pit—an underground silo? A depic- tion of a rocketship in an underground silo (showing the command module above ground) has been found in the tomb of Hui, an Egyptian governor of the Sinai in Pharaonic times (Fig. 31), indicating that an "Eagle" in a "pit" was recog- nized in antiquity as a rocketship in its silo. Figure 31 The Gates of Heaven