I’ve been asked once or twice, why I bothered to learn the most ancient forms of the Sumerian writing system – both the cuneiform and the even earlier “pictographic” system. And yesterday, while re-translating some of the “classic” epics from the land between the rivers, I came across an excellent example of the “why”.
The Barton Cylinder is a Sumerian creation myth, written on a clay cylinder in the mid to late 3rd millennium BCE, which is now in the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Based on its language and word forms, I believe that it dates to around 2500 BC, but it surely existed in a much older form and was rewritten over the ages.
I’m not alone in my assumption that it existed much earlier, as Falkenstein (1951), and Jan van Dijk concurs with the suggestion that it is a copy of a far older story predating neo-Sumerian times.
The transliteration that I am working with is from the UCLA collection of tablets online, and I have not found a clean copy of the actual signs, so I must perform my own translation based upon that earlier work – however my experience leads me to believe that at least 95% of their work is correct, so I will go with what I have.
You may wonder why I bothered to re-translate a tablet that has been gone over by the top experts in the field, one whose lines have been examined and translated by the very best of the top schools of Sumerian studies in America (UCLA, Yale, Univ. of Penn) and England (Oxford). In fact, due to the nature of the subject material, the Sumerian Creation tale, it has received more attention than most of the tablets on hand.
The cylinder takes its name from George Barton, who was the first to publish a transcription and translation of the text in 1918 in “Miscellaneous Babylonian Inscriptions”. It is also referred to as University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Catalogue of the Babylonian Section (CBS) number 8383.
The “traditional experts” all refer to this work as a “myth”. And the funny thing is, if you begin a work of translation with the idea that only the Biblical tale is correct, and that all of the pagan contributions to humanities creation stories are only “myths”, then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy and you tend to fail. As usual, I did not look at what they offered very closely, because it tends to pollute my thinking and I like to form my own unbiased impressions. So I went into it with an open mind, and I was rewarded ten-fold.
The actual, deeper meanings that are being expressed in this clay cylinder are astounding. Perhaps it’s because of a lack of empathy, or a preconceived agenda, or simply just the desire to please your superiors and deliver the answers that the establishment allows to be published, but it becomes very obvious, and quite soon, that this work of translation has been butchered from the beginning.
I will go even further; what they have offered to us, and what they teach our children in their University classes in regards to the Barton Cylinder Creation Story contents, is absolute nonsense that in no way even hints at the meanings that those ancient Sumerian scholars were expressing.
I’ve completed about half of my work, and nearly all of it will appear in a new book that I am readying as quickly as I can for publication, but I wanted to provide you with the promised example and let you see for yourselves. Send me your comments if you will – just click on the Contact the Author links to email me.
This line: 11. gu2-HAR pu2-ke4
is translated by the professionals as
“en: the beans … .”
So, this is all about something concerning beans? No. Stop. Please. You are actually making my brain ache with this translation. Four complex symbols to tell us about beans? I would laugh if it were not so sadly pathetic and transparent.
I will provide my own translation for you to compare, and then perhaps you might have an idea as to why I spend my time trying to learn and expose the truth – the truth that is being kept from us by our own University affiliated scholars, worldwide.
Here I break down the gu2-HAR pu2-ke4, word by word, with translations that come from the Univ. of Pennsylvania Sumerian corpus and Oxford University. These are the traditionally accepted, peer-reviewed meanings from their own documents, which can be easily confirmed. Just to prove that I am not “cheating”, nor am I “making things up”.
When you see ED IIIa in the Period of use column, it means that during this period, dating from the time before this Cylinder was said to be created, and in the earlier Archaic period, the word was used on other tablets or writings and defined in this way.
When you see Ed IIIb, it indicates the period of circa 2500 BC, when this Cylinder was actually created (per the experts). Later periods, such as the Akkadian or Old Babylonian, also had definitions for these words, but the timeline mismatch indicates that we should not use them.
Sign//Earliest Period when used//definition from the “experts”
gu2 = Archaic, ED IIIa “to eat, consume; to steep; to erode; to feed”
har = ED IIIb, “ring, a bird”
pu2 ED IIIa “cistern, well; hole, pit; depth; lower course”
ke4 as lil2 = ED IIIa “fool” AND jester, chaos, (shape-shifter by association) (Loki)
One comment and then I will provide the correct meaning of this line from the Barton Cylinder. Please read the entire report on ENLIL – the Shape-shifter, which I had posted
last month on this same website. It explains how the lil2 portion of his name indicates that he was a Chaos god, a jester god like Loki and the Coyote Man of the North American natives, and that by association this indicates a shape-shifter. And we have it in this line of text as well.
So what does gu2-HAR pu2-ke4 actually mean in the ancient Sumerian language?
TO FEED FROM THE RING; THE PIT OF CHAOS
I wonder why they did not want us to learn that Enlil is a Chaos God? Or why they decided to keep the information that Enlil, who is the main subject of the Barton Cylinder by the way, actually fed from the ring, the pit of Chaos, in order, perhaps, to refresh his powers? That would seem to indicate that he was known to have been continuously spewing forth his Chaos upon the Earth and its inhabitants.
Is it because of whom Enlil actually represents – a sky god who broke with conventions and decided to make himself into a God on Earth? Is it because Enlil was the one who sent the Flood upon humanity, and Enki the one who spread that secret to the Sumerian Noah who would then construct his “Ark”? Or is it because, if we connect those dots, it might lead to another being that was reported as having brought down a flood upon mankind?
Enlil went off script. Instead of teaching basic skills to mankind, such as Enki did when he taught us writing, mathematics, astronomy and other skills, Enlil became bored with the loud voices of humanity, and decided to rid himself of their presence on Earth. By going off the warpath he incited the war of the gods that ended their period of peaceful occupancy on our fair planet. Now we are left with only a few relatives, half-humans, and followers of his group. But they still pull the strings on Earth, behind the scenes, even to this day.
Many of you will not agree with my beliefs about Enlil. But to some it might just strike the match – and the flames of truth you may then begin to feed. Contact me when it does – we need to share our ideas if we are to move forward out of the grip that false history has upon us.
Don’t, please don’t become one of those who sell out mankind for money or recognition – don’t offer up false work and thus help to keep the truth buried. For as long as I am able, I will continue to bring forth the evidence for you to examine. That’s all I ask.