by
Damien F. Mackey
Somehow, Judean history has drifted into
Sumerian folklore and become much earlier dated.
Last year I wrote:
A friend sent me this article (below) yesterday (29th May, 2023), with the comment:
…. Thought of you when I saw this story on the new palace discovery. If I've understood your revision correctly this supposedly Sumerian palace would be a C9th Solomon era palace in Iraq. Nonetheless an interesting find to help fill out the archeological picture especially when you can make your own corrections for chronology. ….
'Lost 4,500-yr-old Sumerian Palace Found in Iraq'
….
And he said to [Abraham], “I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” – Genesis 15:7 (ESV)
Cradle of Civilization
A team of Iraqi and British archaeologists recently discovered the ruins of a lost palace belonging to Sumerian kings from the ancient city of Girsu, now modern day Tello, Iraq. The dig site, called Tablet Hill, was described as “the cradle of civilization” and “one of the most fascinating sites I have ever visited,” by British Museum Director Hartwig Fischer during a press conference at the Iraq embassy in London in February. This important heritage site is believed to hold keys to new information about one of the earliest known civilizations.
The ruins belong to Sumerians, an ancient people that occupied Sumer, located in the southern region of Mesopotamia.
They established many city-states and their culture thrived there until around 1700 BC when the Babylonians took control of the region during the reign of Hammurabi, the last Sumerian king. ….
To which I initially commented:
…. Somehow, Judean history has drifted into Sumerian folklore and become much earlier dated.
The second most important city, strategically, to Jerusalem, was Lachish (La Quiche), which I identified as Ashdod (Ashduddu) of the Assyrian records.
To be distinguished from Ashdod-by-the-Sea, which is the Philistine Ashdod on the coast.
Then I picked up that same combo, Lachish/Ashduddu in Sumer (and central Mesopotamia), as Lagash (Lakish)/Eshnunna (interchange d and n and you get the same name).
I don't know how this happened. Perhaps when the Jews went into Mesopotamian exile, their history (mainly from the era of Solomon to Hezekiah, it appears), became written into Sumerian.
Then dated early by the Sumeriologists.
Why this focus on Lachish over Jerusalem?
Well, Jerusalem gets mentioned as the religious capital of Lagash, as, I would suggest, your Girsu.
So these finds in Mesopotamia are incorrectly attributed - unless Judean names also became duplicated in Mesopotamia???
So I would query that that Sumerian palace is actually in a place known as Girsu. ….
….
Or it could possibly be, as you suggest, King Solomon's own building in Iraq:
1 Kings 11:8 Solomon built such shrines for all his foreign wives to use for burning incense and sacrificing to their gods. ….
[End of e-mails]
Furthermore, Ur of Mesopotamian Sumer is irrelevant to Abram (Abraham), who could never have been here.
The patriarch Abram hailed from Ur of the Chaldees, which is Urfa (also Şanlıurfa), or Edessa, in SE Turkey.
Swampy Sumer was settled relatively late, due to the lasting effects there of the Flood.
So it can by no means be called “the cradle of civilization”, which was Eden (the site of Jerusalem, before the Flood, and then Mount Karaca Dağ (Mountain of Noah’s Ark) and its environs in SE Turkey, after the Flood.
Nor does the reign of King Hammurabi belong to c. 1700 BC.
Hammurabi was a contemporary of King Solomon, some 800 years later than the conventional date for Hammurabi.
With Gudea, too, now necessarily re-dated and identified as King Solomon himself, and with Gudea’s Girsu now as Jerusalem, and Lagash (or Lakish) now as Lachish:
Prince of Lagash
(DOC) Prince of Lagash | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu
then Gudea’s temple building in Girsu must be recognised as King Solomon’s Temple building in Jerusalem.
Many of the patterns are the same, with a dream from heaven inspiring the project.
That would make Gudea’s god involved, Ningirsu, “Lord of Girsu”, a Sumerian appropriation of Yahweh himself.
In the polytheised Sumerian version, the god typically has a female consort.
He even picks up a father.
It reads just like the Mormons:
Latter Day Satanism
(5) Latter Day Satanism | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu
The goddess could, perhaps, be an appropriation of Solomon’s Wisdom, which is invariably represented as a “She”. Thus e.g. Wisdom 7:24-30:
For wisdom is more mobile than any motion; because of her pureness she pervades and penetrates all things.
For she is a breath of the power of God, and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty; therefore nothing defiled gains entrance into her.
For she is a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the working of God, and an image of his goodness.
Though she is but one, she can do all things, and while remaining in herself, she renews all things; in every generation she passes into holy souls and makes them friends of God, and prophets;
for God loves nothing so much as the man who lives with wisdom.
For she is more beautiful than the sun, and excels every constellation of the stars. Compared with the light she is found to be superior,
for it is succeeded by the night, but against wisdom evil does not prevail.
Ningirsu is typically represented like Yahweh is in the Old Testament (notably Exodus) as a hero, a warrior god, a god of storms.
More recently, August 2024, I have been able to clarify the situation about Sumer, which ought the better help to explain the unexpected Judean factor.
See my articles on this:
A new location proposed for Sumer
(1) A new location proposed for Sumer | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu
“The Sumerian Problem” – Sumer not in Mesopotamia
(1) “The Sumerian Problem” – Sumer not in Mesopotamia | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu
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