I 



A NEW BABYLONIAN ACCOUNT OF THE CREATION 



OF MAN. 



By GEORGE A. BARTON. 



The Babylonians were particularly fond of stories of the crea- 

 tion, of the world and the beginnings of civilization. The best 

 known of these is the " Epic of Creation " in seven tablets or cantos^ 

 parts of which were discovered by George Smith in the British 

 Museum more than forty years ago. Still another was found in 

 1882 at Abu Habba by Rassam and brought to the British Museum, 

 It was later pubhshed by Dr. Pinches. The same museum contains 

 fragments of a third story of the creation which was written in As- 

 syria. 



The University Museum in Philadelphia is particularly rich in 

 texts of this kind. In 1914 Dr. Poebel published one which com- 

 bined accounts of the creation and the flood/ in 191 5 Dr. Langdorr 

 published one which contains a most interesting account of the be- 

 ginnings of agriculture/ and to these the writer is now able to add 

 another that he came upon among some uncatalogued tablets some 

 months ago.^ This last text was excavated at Nippur and is one 

 of the many tablets that lay unpacked for years in the basement of 

 the Museum. As the subjoined translation will show, the text deals 

 with the creation of man, the origin of Babylonian pastoral life and 

 the exigencies which led to the construction of cities. Some of its- 

 phrases remind us of expressions in the early chapters of the Book 

 of Genesis. The text is as follows: 



1. The mountain of heaven and earth 



2. The assembly of heaven, the great gods, entered. Afterwards 



3. Because Ashnan* had not come forth, they conversed together. 



1 A. Poebel, " Historical Texts," Philadelphia, 1914, 9 ff ., also G. A. Bar- 

 ton, " Archaeology and the Bible," Philadelphia, 1916, 278-282. 



2 S. Langdon, " Sumerian Epic of Paradise, the Flood, and the Fall of 

 Man," Philadelphia, 1915; also Barton, op. cit, 283-289. 



3 The tablet has since been catalogued as No. 14005. 



275 



