The Moon God Kings of Akkad and Sumer

THE

MOON GOD KINGS

OF

AKKAD AND SUMER

KEITH L. ELDRIDGE

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2013 by Keith L. Eldridge. All rights reserved.

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Published by AuthorHouse 06/24/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4817-4063-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-4062-3 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-4064-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013906900

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CONTENTS

Chapter 1:   Antediluvian times

Chapter 2

Chapter 3:   AKKAD and SUMER

Chapter 4

Chapter 5:   KING RIMUSH (son of Sargon) (2214-2206)

Chapter 6

Chapter 7:   NARAM SIN (Beloved of Sin) (2190-2154)

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11:   THE DESTRUCTION OF EKUR, THE SANCTUARY OF ENLIL (2015 BC)

Chapter 12:   SHAR-KALI-SHARII (2153-2129)

Chapter 13:   SUMER

Chapter 14:   UTU HEGLE (2061-2055)

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17:   UR NAMMU’S CODE OF LAWS

Chapter 18

Chapter 19:   SHULGI (2029-1982)

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22:   IBBI-SUEN (1963-1940)

Chapter 23:   ISIN

AFTERWORD

THE MOON GOD KINGS OF

AKKAD AND SUMER

AND THEIR AMAZING ACCOMPLISHMENTS

It has often been said when discussing human history and the story of man’s history on the planet that the more things change, the more things remain the same. In many respects there is much justification for this view. Humanity evolves slowly, and the desire for power, for prestige, and the causes of love and of war sometimes seem to remain unchanged throughout civilization’s recorded past. And the forces which drove our ancestors can sometimes touch us, with humor and pathos, across millennia.

Yet, we have clearly changed as the centuries have passed.

It is with an awareness of these simultaneous processes that the following events are being presented. Our actors lived in the cradle of civilization—in ancient Akkad and Sumer, beginning some five thousand years ago.

We hope that you will be intrigued by their characters and their actions and feel sympathy for the motives that made them act as they did. We also are presenting details about the culture, religion and daily lives of a few of these people which will, hopefully, make them seem as more than strangers to our modern eyes.

The events recorded here took place in the ancient kingdoms of Sumer and Akkad and even before that, in the days before the terrible inundation that we all know of as The Flood. The effect of events that took place in those ancient kingdoms have been felt throughout history right down to the present day.

The rulers of these kingdoms at that time were:

Antediluvian rulers:

King Usi-Water 7 years

Estar Muti 11

Ishme Shamash 11

Shu illisher 15

Nanyyia 7

Lugalzaggesi 25

Ziusudra, who found a life of long days

Akkadia:

Sargon 2270-2215

Rimush 2214-2206 (son of Sargon)

Man-ishtishu 2205-2191(son of Sargon and twin brother of Rimush)

Naram Sin 2191-2154 (Sargon’s grandson)

Shar-kali-sharii 2153-2129 (Naram Sin’s son)

Sumer:

Utu Hegle 2065-2061

Ur Nammu 2048-2931

Shulgi 2029-1982 (Ur Nammu’s son)

Amar Suen 1981-1973

Ibbi Suen c1963-c1940

Hopefully, this tale has been told well enough that you will feel yourself among these ancient peoples, sharing their sorrows and triumphs. But, before we continue, a background must be established, including religious beliefs that will enable you to follow the tale, knowing enough to bring you in to what we describe.

Long before the times of which we write, on the wide spreading plane fed by the two great rivers, Tigris and Euphrates, humans first appeared and under the tutelage of a host of Gods both male and female began the totally transfixing drama that still unfolds before us today. And as humans learned to control the floods by building dams and dykes, plant and harvest seeds and live in settlements and work metals, life improved dramatically. How man learned to mine and smelt and combine metals we may never know, but he did, and he tamed animals and crossbred them to improve the stock. In this race for development, animosity and jealousy sometimes ruled, and both weapons as well as ploughs were invented. War became a science, families became villages, villages became walled cities and the first urban communities were born in Mesopotamia, the cradle of civilization.

About their religious beliefs, these ancient peoples, if we envision it as the childhood of our race, put their trusting hands into the natural forces that they could see around them. According to ancient records this is the way it was: The union of An and Ki produced Enlil, who became leader of the Sumerian Gods, but, for his rape (very human behavior) of the air Goddess Ninlil, Enlil was banished from Dilmun, home of the Gods. Ninlil had a child, Nanna or Nannar, God of the moon. Nannar and Ningil gave birth to Inanna, God of war and fertility. I have chosen the name Nannar over Nanna for the reason that in English, which this book is written in, Nanna has a very female ring.

What follows is, for the most part, a series of narratives recorded by several palace scribes and executives of the monarchs of Akkad and Sumer. Dates have been inserted at various points to establish a time line for events.

CHAPTER 1

ANTEDILUVIAN TIMES

I am Ishar, a scribe at the court of King Usi-Watar in the city of Kish on the Euphrates River. There was a terrible battle as we went against King Zimuder, and Usi-Watar, our king and priest winning it, appointed me as court scribe and recorder of all that happens in and around our land on our mighty river. I write now to tell how we live and act in this age, so that others will know as much about us as I can honestly record. So first, to begin at the beginning, I will tell about how we humans were created from river mud to serve the Gods, but being naturally wicked and disobedient and apt to stray, we have installed a priesthood to link us to the higher powers and learn of their wishes and plans for our well being and development. So in this way we are kept on a straight and narrow path of good behavior and progress. The priests keep careful watch on all business dealings, hoping to keep us honest. A queen or king is elected to serve for a year or even longer if times are good. They are good now and have been for some years, so Usi-Watar may well stand a chance of being elected again. But as rulers, the king and his queen, Amala, have many responsibilities. It is no easy position. They must not only learn to sing all the religious songs, but to find, and see to the training of good singers and composers. If a poet fails too many times, other and better writers are sought for. Another of the king’s responsibilities is as a member of the clergy (for the king is the chief priest). He must keep a careful watch on the crops and harvests, for if the crops are poor too many times it means that the Gods are displeased and his head may be struck off!. This is by ancient rule, but I, and many others are against it, for in other respects he may be a good and wise ruler. There are many religious festivals and all of these are holidays from work in the fields. For instance, there is the festival of the New Moon at spring planting and harvest time when the great orb appears over the horizon to begin His journey across the sky, and at this time our specially trained singers lead us in singing the beautiful songs and prayers of worship accompanied by music. We also have days for licensed sexual practice, for we believe we must celebrate this special activity that the Gods have given us. You see, then, that we have many days, if not of rest, of great variety, interspersed with toil, for we must work to feed and clothe ourselves. Fortunately, we live in a warm country, even too warm at times. I have been told that there are places where people go about in the skins of large animals, a bear for instance. This I find very hard to believe. How could it be that cold?

But, created as we are, we often err, and frequently go to war, from jealousy of what others have, or for things that would make our lives more comfortable if we had them. We live by exchanging goods that we have for things that we do not have. So much dried fish for so many animal pelts. from which we have learned to remove the hair, for clothing, etc. But how many sheep, say, for so much gold? A very scarce metal, so, very valuable! For a little gold the people in the north want too many sheep we think, and if they laugh at what we will give, we must go to war. In addition we need bronze, also very scarce, for we must have it to make weapons to battle for the metals we need to make war for the things we need! It is a cycle that goes round and round!

Those who are very old among us can remember being told when they themselves were young that people wandered hither and yon without clothing of any kind and without shame, eating whatever they found in this garden-like land. Very much like the animals around them. It must have been a very pleasant life, until something happened and we humans suddenly became very self-conscious and ashamed of our animal-like condition and hastened to cover ourselves by whatever means! First by various plants and then with animal skins. Because we must work to learn many and various skills, we rose to where we are today, and although we must do many kinds of work nearby, this obviously gives us more power, as in war, when we often fight for the things we need. So generally speaking, I think things are better. Most of the time, it is only the men who go to war, leaving the women to care for the children, the crops and animals, but not always. Sometimes, if we are pressed for enough men, women must go also. So it was when we went against King Estar Muti, for he would not be reasonable on the matter of some metals we knew that he possessed.

We were, of course, led by Usi-Watar, a good organizer, for he insisted that the men and women who followed him must be obedient to him, and as he was backed by priestly authority, he was generally obeyed. And if he was not obeyed it meant a flogging by a priest! For armaments we had bows and arrows, some tipped with flint, spears and stone knives chipped to sharpness by people of great skill. All that could be summoned were two hundred men and a few women who could be spared by their families.

King Estar Muti had many more men, more shields and better weapons. And as we were the offending army we met on their territory. Before the battle Usi-Watar spoke to us in this way, Now my friends, he said, You are a well trained force, do as we have been doing in our training and we will win the day, and will gain easily the things that we badly need! We sent up a cheer at this, and soon after sent a strong shower of arrows at their approaching force. But now, though they had great losses, the opposing army charged at us shooting as they came. And obviously their general had no control over them. Hold your ground! called Usi-Watar as they fell upon us and our spears, many of our men having no more than pointed sticks hardened in fire. We did, and their losses were dreadful before they scattered and fled from us.

We chased them to their settlement of low brick and reed huts, scattered along the river’s edge, where we, on the king’s order, formed up to look more like a fighting force. But, when we entered the village there was no one there! We took what we wanted and found much that was strange to us, for instance bowls and cups of bronze, also knives of the same stuff. This was our introduction to bronze, and we learned later that it could be crafted into weapons and many other things of great use. We also found some gold, a soft, heavy and pliable metal that was used for royal crowns. Also some jewels for priests and kings We took no food, for Usi knew that would be manifestly unfair. So, singing and laughing and dancing we turned for home. And as we marched, there was much talk about the battle, so easily won. And as we talked an idea sprung to mind! I said to Usi, What a wonder it would be if we could form a confederation of both our peoples! And why not? he said. For do we not worship the same Gods? And we speak the same language. As we discussed this idea and its details the long journey seemed to be shortened.

Finally, at home we turned gold over to the priests for fair distribution, and the weapons we had captured we kept to be copied. The gold was turned into thin strips for the payment of army leaders and for good singers in our choirs, and many other things that were otherwise hard to come by. We took most of the bronze to improve our weapons. And as all this was going on we were thinking and discussing the idea of combining our two peoples. And the more we thought of it the better we liked the idea.

And it was at this point that we were struck by the terrible plague in which we lost our King Usi-Watar and half our people! It raged up and down the river. It affected us and so many of our precious children in this way: ugly boils broke out in the groin area and spread gradually all over the body, this accompanied by loss of appetite followed by vomiting and then quickly by death. This dreadful thing was with us for somewhat over two moons, and then suddenly it was over, gone back to the underworld, I suppose, where it belonged.

So now our small community was faced with a dilemma! We could barely survive on the numbers we now had (there were still many wild beasts roaming the land), and we found out that the group led by Estar Muti was no better off. We had no choice but to unite, making our total numbers, with a few wanderers who joined us about the same as we were before, and that a pitiful number indeed!

We called our new community Kish, and under Estar Muti, a wise ruler, we slowly began to rebuild. One of the first things he did was to call us together and spoke to us in this fashion.

Friends all, he said, we have, there is no doubt, been through a terrible time, probably as a punishment for our evil doings, but from now on things are going to be better. We are going to better our community by trade, or if necessary, by war! (Great applause at this.) And he went on in this vein, telling us that our first task must be to create an army worthy of the name and thus defend and enrich ourselves. By the time he had finished we were ready to take on the world! He did tell me in private, though, that there was much hard work ahead in bringing the army up to strength, for one thing, we needed more children and quickly, for on this he said, depended all else. And I, Ishar, may as well tell you now that this proved to be true, for, under this great ruler we went on to many other achievements and victories. We, in due time, surrounded our community with high walls of sun-dried mud bricks, and later because some thinking soul, more clever than the rest of us was able to reason that if a sun-dried brick was hard, one heated in a fire would be even harder. He made himself an oven, much as we had been doing for many years to bake bread, and produced some fine hard bricks!

This, as you may imagine, changed everything completely for us, and soon large and small kilns sprang up all over the country and our rebuilt walls, I am afraid, made us feel impregnable. We had made a vast step forward! We made gates of sturdy wattle, fixed in the walls by large bronze hinges. This done, we felt very pleased with ourselves and stopped all work for a religious celebration.

And so the years went by, crops were bountiful, a long peace enabled us to grow and develop. For even better protection a dyke was dug around our city allowing our great river, to embrace us! After such accomplishments I may say