Page Content (OCR)
38 claimed to have seen "celestial chariots," they were re- cording fact, not fiction. Reading the biblical and extra-biblical records in the light of Sumerian sources will add greatly to our understanding of those prehistoric events. We have already examined such sources in respect to the tale of the creation of The Adam and of Eve and the Garden of Eden. Let us now examine the Cain-Abel tragedy. Why did the two feel obliged to offer the first fruits or yearlings to Yahweh, why did he pay heed only to the offering of Abel, the shepherd, and why did the Lord then rush to appease Cain by promising him that he, Cain, would rule over Abel? The answers lie in a realization that, as in the tale of creation, the biblical version compresses more than one Sum- erian deity into a single, monotheistic one. Sumerian texts include two that deal with disputes and conflicts between farming and shepherding. They both hold the key to an understanding of what had happened by going back to a time before the domestication of either grains or cattle, a "time when grains had not yet been brought forth, had not yet vegetated . . . when a lamb had not yet been dropped, there was no she-goat." But the "black-headed peo- ple" had already been fashioned and placed in the Edin; so the Anunnaki decided to give to NAM.LU.GAL.LU—"civi- lized Mankind"—the knowledge of and tools for "the tilling of the land" and the "keeping of sheep"; not, however, for the sake of Mankind but "for the sake of the gods," to assure abate. The task of bringing forth the two forms of domestication fell to Enki and Enlil. They went to the DU.KU, the "purifi- cation place," the "creation chamber of the gods," and brought forth Lahar ("woolly cattle") and Anshan ("grains"). "For Lahar they set up a sheepfold ... to Anshan a plough and yoke they presented." Sumerian cylinder seals depicted the presentation of the first-ever plough to Mankind (Fig. 13a)—presumably by Enlil who had created Anshan, the farmer (although a presentation by Enid's son Ninurta, who was nicknamed "the ploughman," should not be ruled and Lahar _Cwoolly DIVINE ENCOUNTERS their satiation.