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25 AN Star "god" 8b) and its reading, in the Akkadian language, changed to Illu - "The Lofty Ones." The Mesopotamian Creation texts provide not just the an- swer to the puzzle of who were the several deities involved in the creation of The Adam, causing the Bible to employ the plural Elohim ("The Divine Ones") in a monotheistic version of the events and to retain the "us" in "Let us make Man in our image and after our likeness"; they also provide the background for this achievement. The evidence leaves little room for doubting that the Elohim of Genesis were the Sumerian DIN.GIR. It was to them that the feat of creating The Adam was attributed, and it was their diverse (and often antagonistic) leaders—Enki, Enlil, Ninmah—who were the "us" whom the first Homo sapiens first encountered. The explusion from the Garden of Eden brought to an end the first chapter in this relationship. Losing Paradise but gain- ing knowledge and the ability to procreate, Humankind was henceforth destined to be bonded with Earth— In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread, until your return to the earth, The First Encounters = Heavens = Figures 8a and 8b