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239 kar. It was uniquely built with decorated high columns (Fig. 78) and must have been as lavish and impressive as the hymns that sang With lapis-lazuli was adorned, Decorated with the handiwork of Ninagal. In the bright place . . . the residence of Inanna, the lyre of Anu they installed. With all that. Erech was still a "provincial" town, lacking the stature of other Sumerian cities, which had the distinction of hav- ing been rebuilt on the sites of pre-Diluvial cities. It lacked the sta- tus and benefits that stemmed from the possession of the "Divine MEs." Though they are constantly referred to, the nature of the ME is not clear, and scholars translate the term as "divine com- mandments," "divine powers," or even "mythic virtues." The ME, however, are described as physical objects that one could pick up and carry, or even put on, and which contained secret knowl- edge or data. Perhaps they were something like our present-day computer chips, on which data, programs, and operational orders have been minutely recorded. On them the essentials of civilization aed The or even These MEs were in the possession of Enki, the chief scientist of the Anunnaki. They were released by him to benefit mankind grad- ually, step by step; and the turn of Erech to attain the heights of civilization had, apparently, not yet come when Inanna became its resident deity. Impatient, Inanna decided to use her feminine charms to improve the situation. "A Queen Am I!" its praises had described: mandments," were encoded.