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188 Fig. 59 Because of this neat collapse, it was possible to piece together some of the astounding murals that were painted and overpainted on these walls. In one instance a cagelike mesh shown over the ob- ject created on the wall a three-dimensional illusion. In one house every wall appeared to have been painted with some scene; in an- other a recessed divan was so built that it enabled the dweller, while reclining, to view a mural that covered the whole opposite wall. It depicted a row of people—the first two of whom were seated on thrones—facing toward (or greeting) another person who had apparently stepped out of an object emitting rays. The archaeologists who had discovered these murals during the 1931-32 and 1932-33 excavations theorized that the rayed object might have been similar to a most unusual rayed "star" found painted in another building. It was an eight-pointed "star" within a larger eight-pointed "star," culminating in a burst of eight rays (Fig. 60). The precise design, employing a variety of geometric shapes, was artistically executed in black, red, white, gray, and combinations thereof; a chemical analysis of the paints used showed that they were not natural substances but sophisticated compounds of twelve to eighteen minerals. The mural's discoverers assumed that the eight-rayed "star" had some "religious significance," pointing out that the eight- pointed star, standing for the planet Venus, was the celestial sym- bol of Ishtar. However, the fact is that no evidence of any religious worship whatsoever, no "cult objects," statuettes of gods, etc., had been found at Tell Ghassul, yet another anomaly of the place. This, we suggest, indicates that it was inhabited not by worshipers but by those who were the subject of worshiping: the "gods" of antiquity, the Anunnaki. In fact, we have come upon a similar design in Washington, THE WARS OF GODS AND MEN