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17 the earliest times there had been a place called "Eden," a real place whose events were real occurrences? Ask anyone where Adam was created, and the answer will in all probability be: In the Garden of Eden. But it is not there where the story of Humankind begins. The Mesopotamian tale, first recorded by the Sumerians, places the first phase at a location "above the Abzu'"—far- ther north than where the gold mines were. As several groups of "Mixed Ones" were brought forth and pressed into service for the purpose for which they were created—to take over the toil in the mines—the Anunnaki from the seven settlements in the E.DIN clamored for such helpers too. As those in south- eastern Africa resisted, a fight broke out. A text which schol- ars call The Myth of the Pickax describes how, led by Enlil, the Anunnaki from the E.DIN forcefully seized some of "the Created Ones" and brought them over to Eden, to serve the Anunnaki there. The text called The Myth of Cattle and Grain explicitly states that "when from the heights of Heaven to Earth Anu had caused the Anunnaki to come," grains that vegetate, lambs and kids were not yet brought forth. Even after the Anunnaki in their "creation chamber" had fashioned food for themselves, they were not satiated. It was only After Anu, Enlil, Enki and Ninmah had fashioned the black-headed people, Vegetation that is fruitful they multiplied in the land. . . In the Edin they placed them. The Bible, contrary to general assumptions, relates the same tale. As in the Enuma elish, the biblical sequence (chap- ter 2 of Genesis) is, first, the forming of the Heavens and of Earth; next, the creation of The Adam (the Bible does not state where). The Elohim then "planted a garden in Eden, eastward" (of where the Adam was created); and only there- after did the Elohim "put there" (in the Garden of Eden) "the Adam whom he had fashioned." And Yahweh Elohim took the Adam, and placed him in the Garden of Eden to till it and to keep it. The First Encounters