We can start our historical journey in 1449 BCE, the Year 2 of the famine (1450-1444 BCE), which is corroborated by scientific study on the amount of fossil pollens embedded in the Bronze Age Mediterranean areas ("Vegetation and Climate Changes during the Bronze and Iron Ages (~3600-600 BCE) in the Southern Levant Based on Palynological Records," by Dafna Langgut, Israel Finkelstein, Thomas Litt, Frank Harold Neumann, and Mordecai Stein. 2013).
Before that famine, which coerced Jacob and family to dwell in Egyp, there were another consecutive famines in Abram and then in Isaac's days, which are also reflected in the same scientific study.
During the tight policy of no-Hyksos entering Egyptian politics in 1532 BCE under Ahmose I (Nebpehtyre), a famine was in a certain land of Canaan.
"And there was a famine in the land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar.
And YHWH appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell you of" -Genesis 26:1-2
It was not an advisable for Isaac (1637-1459 BCE) to go to Egypt obviously because king Ahmose was pushing away foreigners that could establish political power in Delta, apparently making difficulty for pasturage rights, besides of the historical fact that disaster occured there probably because of the second Thera eruption. The first calamity happened a hundred years ago - during Abram's days.
The famine during Abram's time was followed by a plague.
"And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land. And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, I know that you are a beautiful woman to look upon:
The princes also of Pharaoh saw her, and commended her before Pharaoh: and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house. And he entreated Abram well for her sake: and he had sheep, and oxen, and male donkeys, and menservants, and maidservants, and female donkeys, and
camels.
And the LORD plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abram's wife." -Genesis 12:10-11,15-17
It was there in Egypt when Abram is mentioned of having camels, probably from a pharaoh who was hospitable to him, most likely because the pharaoh in Nile Delta that time was a Hyksos, Levant man whose lineage is likely originated from Minoan or Great Green islands.
As far as archaeological findings are concerned, domesticated camels were known in Saudi back to 5500 BCE.
In the 2000 BCE 'Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta,' line 179-207
"camels"
are mentioned as "donkeys of the mountains" (ANSE.GAM.MAL) located east of Syria.
In Alalakh Level VII (1600 BCE), in Syria north of Israel, a cuneiform text mentions of feeding camels, saying:
"1 SA.GAL ANSE.GAM.MAL"
(that is, "one [measure of] fiddler - camel.") - Alalakh tablet 269:59
This was during the time of Abraham that Syrians were domesticating ANSE.GAMAL.
Hebrews have untranslated this animal name into "gamal," which the Greeks borrowed and made into "kamelos," which became "camel" in English.
Not only in Mesopotamia, most abundant attestation and biological evidence for domesticated camels are in Egypt. Between the hieroglyphic inscription of king Ammenemes (1841 BCE) and a 15th century BCE Proto-Sinaitic inscription, are petroglyphs of caravan with dromedary camel sketched on a rock in Wadi Nasib, Egypt.
It was in Egypt when Abram (c. 1660 BCE), 430 years before Exodus, apparently received domesticated camels from a pharaoh, if he did not get camels from Syria.
Whether in Syria, Arabia, Egypt, Armenia, and Mesopotamia domesticated camels were ordinary during the time of Abraham (1738-1563 BCE).
The servant of Abraham went into Aram Naharaim, Syria, to the city of Nahor with 10 camels (Genesis 24:10-64). Isaac inherited the camels.
Jacob (1578-1432 BCE) received camels in Syria by his father-in-law, Laban (Genesis 30:40-43).
This was how the camels from Egypt and Syria were inherited by the Hebrews from Abraham to Jacob.
And the Bible is proved true when archaeologists found a lot of evidence about domesticated camels even before Abraham's days.
Abram got camels when the pharaoh gave more favor to him when he sojourned in Egypt during a famine in Canaan.
The famine took place after the Minoan sojourners built their first altar for human sacrifice in Egypt in circa 1660 BCE, a practice that later was used to test Abraham's loyalty.
Three consecutive famines - with almost identical hundred-year interval - probably caused by droughts which hit certain places in Canaan, and scientific data gathered by archaeologist Finkelstein et al. perfectly corroborated them.
Both the scientific study and Bible have unveiled the mystery of Thera eruption: there were famine-causing eruptions in around 1660-1630 BCE according to another scientific findings and in 1550-1530 BCE according to history and archaeological findings in Akrotiri: that is, the erupted materials of 1630 BCE were pushed further to Egypt during the 1530 BCE eruption, or more probable volcanic materials left in Thera in 1630 BCE were continued to be poured out in 1530 BCE.
1449 BCE: YEAR 2 OF FAMINE
Using scientific studies about the quantities of certain plants in Mediterranean, we are sure that there was a possible drought or famine in 1450 BCE.
Since the famine of circa 1660-1630 and 1550-1530 BCE happened during Abram and Isaac's days respectively, then the famine in 1450-1444 BCE was during Jacob's days, hence biblical timeline and scientific timeline at this point are very precise.
Josephus quoted Manetho in one occasion that king Thutmose met the Shepherds (ancestors of Jews) but Josephus carelessly connected it with the event engaged in by king Ahmose I.
"That this nation, thus called Shepherds, were also called Captives, in their sacred books. When this people were gone out of Egypt to Jerusalem, Tethmosis the king of Egypt, who drove them out, reigned
afterwards
25 years and 4 months, and then died." (Against Apion, i.15)
This paragraph was likely inserted by Josephus into Amosis' event because of the phrase "25 years and 4 months," which coincided the length of reign of Ahmose I. In Manetho's report, that "25 years & 4 months" is referring to the remaining time of Thutmose III (24th April 1479 - March 11, 1425 BCE) after meeting the Shepherds and asking them to leave Egypt and go to Canaan. The same event is recorded in the Bible:
"And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Say unto thy brethren, This do ye; lade your beasts, and go, get you unto the land of Canaan;
Now thou art commanded, this do ye; take you wagons out of the land of Egypt for your little ones, and for your wives, and bring your father, and come. And the
children of Israel did so:
and Joseph gave them wagons, according to the commandment of Pharaoh, and gave them provision for the way. So he sent his brethren away, and they departed: and he said unto them, See that ye fall not out by the way. And
they went up out of Egypt,
and came into the land of Canaan unto Jacob their father" -Genesis 45:17,19,21,24-25
After 25 years & 4 months, on March 11, 1425 BCE, Thutmose III died. Therefore, he met the Shepherds in 1450 BCE and asked them eagerly to go to Canaan around November 11th, 1450 BCE. The Shepherds reached Canaan and went back to Egypt in 1449 BCE. They were also called Captives, from Hebrew root "asar" - most likely referring to "Asher," the possible cryptic hypocorism of the name "Israel" during the wars in Late Bronze Age Collapse.
How we are so sure that the pharaoh met by Jacob and company was no other than Thutmose III?
Because it was king Thutmose III who first reported the existence of a toponym "Abel," which was invented by Canaanites for the mourning Egyptians when funeral party of Jacob was held in the site.
"And they came to the threshingfloor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan, and there they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation: and he made a mourning for his father 7 days. And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, 'This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians:' wherefore the name of it was called
Abel
Mizraim, which is beyond Jordan." -Genesis 50:10-11
King Thutmose III, in his list 99, considered the region of "Abel" as a major road to be passed on from Iyyim to Karkor.
87) Rehuyba,
88) i-q-r,
89) Akrayim,
90-91) Abel Jattir,
92-93) Abel Kanathoth,
94) [m-q]-r-p,
95) Iyin (Iyyim),
96) [Abel-]keramin,
97) Beth-(aram),
98) Zaphon,
99) Abel
100) Arodi (y-r-[t]),
101) Karkor,
102) Akaqbar (el-Aqraba),
103) q-p-t,
104) Gedor
In 1449 BCE was the Year 2 of the famine.
"For these 2 years has the famine been in the land: and yet there are 5 years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.
So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and He has made me a
father to Pharaoh,
and Adon [lord] of all his house,
u-moshel [and a governor]
throughout all the land of Egypt.
And there will I nourish you; for yet there are 5 years of famine; lest you, and your household, and all that you have, come to poverty." -Genesis 45:6,8,11
Genesis 47:8-9 says Jacob was 130 years old that Year 2 of famine, giving 1578 BCE as his birth-year.
In 1449 BCE, children of Israel went up out of Egypt and came into the land of Canaan.
"And the children of Israel did so: ...
... and they departed: ...
And they went up out of Egypt, and came into the land of Canaan unto Jacob their father" -Genesis 45:21,24-25
According to 1Kings 6:1, this took place 480th year before king Solomon built the temple of YHWH in Jerusalem.
"And it came to pass in the 480th year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the 4th year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of YHWH." -1Kings 6:1
Court records of Tyre publicly reported that in the 12th year of king Hirom built the temple in Jerusalem to help king Solomon. When was the regnal years of king Hiram?
Assyrian king Shalmaneser reported that Baal-Ezer II paid tribute in 841 BCE, thus Baal-Ezer II succeeded Ethbaal I, the father of Jezebel & father-in-law of king Ahab, in 847 BCE, and this means Hiram I reigned between around 980 and 947 BCE.
King of Tyre:
Hirom I (980-947 BCE).
Baal-Ezer I (946-930).
Abdastartus (929-921).
Astartus (920-901).
Deleastartus (900-889).
Astarymus (888-880).
Phelles (879 BCE).
Ethbaal I (878-847).
Baal-Ezer II (846-841 BCE).
King Hiram started to reign in 981 or 980 BCE. His regnal Year 12 was in 969 BCE, when he built the temple in Jerusalem, or his 12th year was in 968 BCE, which was the Year 4 of Solomon as king.
1449 BCE
- 480 years
____________
969 BCE
The report of the Bible and the historical record precisely agreeing to each other.
Indeed, the children of Israel went up out of Egypt to go to Canaan to their father Jacob in 1449 BCE, which was the Year 2 of the famine and when Jacob was 130 years old. That biblical Jacob was contemporary of historical Thutmose III is evident in the invention of the toponym
"Abel Misraim,"
wherein Joseph had his father Jacob a funeral service (Gen 50:11) and it was Thutmose III who first reported the toponym "Abel" of the same vicinity.
Jacob and Esau (Edom) were twin brothers born to Isaac by Rebekah in 1578 BCE.
"And Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Arammi Paddan-Aram [Syrian of Padanaram], the sister to Laban ha-Arammi [the Aramean].
And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau's heel; and his name was called Jacob: and Isaac was 60 years old when she bore them." -Genesis 25:20,26
Isaac was born in 1637 BCE. His mother died in 1600 BCE (Gen 23:1), few weeks or months before he married Rebekah in 1599 BCE. Abraham, his father, died in 1563 BCE.
Isaac was born in 1637 BCE just at the turn of the year after the swift devastation of Sodom and Gomorrah.
The destruction in 1638 BCE in the area where Sodom was included is verified by the scientific studies done in the 1650 BCE stratum of Tall el-Hammam palace.
We know the date because Abraham was celebrating a feast together with the three human beings in that month of Abib. The occasion was known as
" KA'ETH HAYAH "
("time/occasion of Life).
Haya here may refer to the "spring" of new life, which was the start of the new life in the farm and plants. We are not sure if Ha-i-a-am-ma, the Hattian grain goddess, also known Kait, has a connection with this feast.
The "messengers" of YAH called the occasion " lamohed" ("appointedtime," set feast or meeting).
If this feast of Haya (Life) was indeed on the first day of the Spring season, then it happened on April 4, 1638 BCE, which is Abib 1.
Of the three human beings that visited Abraham (1738-1563 BCE), one of them was the spokesperson of the God YAH, and the two were his "malakoh" ("messengers"). It appears that the spokesperson of YAH sent the two messengers (angels) to Sodom to monitor the expected superbolide phenomenon and warn the nephew of Abraham.
The Hebrew term "malakoh" is usually translated as "angels," literally means "messengers." In this story, the two "angels" were human beings or messengers of YAH. Lot saw these two human being angels (messengers), and after a few hours there was a "feast" to be celebrated that night. Lot did bake "unleavened bread" for them (cf. Genesis 19:3).
This could be the "feast" of the new moon of new beginning of life of Abib (spring), that occurred on 2nd day of Nisan, the 1st day of Abib - on April 4, 1638 BCE. In Egyptian calendar, the new moon ("Psḏntyw") is the conception of god Thoth in prior to that era.
"He ... is conceived ... on Psḏntyw"
The two human being angels went in Sodom to monitor that night "in the street" the predicted fall of some fires from heaven, and even perhaps to measure the speed and direction of the superbolide, suggesting that they were stargazers of YAH. It was the spokesperson of YAH who told to Abraham upon the hearing of the other two men (angels) that Sodom and Gomorrah were about to be hit of destruction from heaven (Yah), and the two men were facing and going to Sodom that time (cf. Genesis 18:1-33).
Abraham identified YAH as the Maker (Possessor) of the Heaven, but the Canaanites paganized it and might have called it "Lahmu" and may have identified as "the Maker of the Constellations" and they even built a temple for it and called "Bith-Lahmu" (which was renamed later "Beth-Lehem," most likely by king David).
Formerly, the family of Abraham was servant of some gods, most likely the moon-god Sin (which was when translated in Egyptian language was "yah," which happened to be a homophone of Hebrew word "Yah," the God of Abraham, but retained by the Hebrews during the exodus of Moses as "Sin" as reflected in the mount of God as "Sinai," mountains of moon-god Sin). (cf. Joshua 24:2-3) So, it is not hard to think why Abraham was associating himself with the stargazers of YAH - the Maker of the Heavens. Before Abraham was converted, he was possibly using the Egyptian term " Yah" for his god and later retained it (borrowed) to mean a generic term for a "god", and with this term he called "El Elyon," the God of Melchizedek, king of Salem, as YAH - the Maker of the Heaven, and later he even called "El Shaddu" ("God of the Mountain/Earth of Armenia") as YAH. (cf. Genesis 14:19, 22 & 24:3).
Abraham himself was also monitoring the celestial lights of heaven, but the stargazers of YAH were much learned about the date of the awaited superbolide phenomenon, most likely because of its repetitions. Through Abraham this phenomenon became known among the Hebrew prophets (and, in fact, Moses under the instruction of YHWH invented the Ark of the Covenant and certain arrangements of crystals to exactly determine when it would happen and what direction).
By April 5, 1638 BCE when the surrounding was still dark, this superbolide splashed its light before hitting the ground and enough to cause blindness to Sodomites outside the house of Lot, and the two human angels (messengers) perceived that after this intense splash of light, fires or dibris would follow within that day.
"But the men [messengers] put forth their hand, and pulled Lot into the house to them, and shut to the door. And they smote the men [sodomites] that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves to find the door. " - Genesis 19:10-11
The blindness it had brought to the Sodomites suggests that this 1638 BCE Superbolide splashed highly energetic ultraviolet light was stronger than the 15-megaton 150-meter Tunguska superbolide of June 30, 1908.
Abraham was connected to the messengers of YAH who went to Sodom to witness the feast of this splash of light in the day of the new moon of April 5, 1638 BCE.
Before this feast, these two human beings (angels) were visitors of Abraham together with another man, who was the spokesperson of YAH. Abraham bake them a cake and they ate, for they were human beings.
" And they said unto him,
' Where is Sarah thy wife?'
And he said, ' Behold, in the tent.' " - Genesis 18:9
And the man that represented YAH said:
" I will certainly return unto thee next (spring season) in this OCCASION OF LIFE; and see, Sarah thy wife shall have a son."
Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him, and she laughed and talked to herself audibly,
" After I am waxed old shall I have sexual desire, my lord [Abraham] being old also?"
Abraham and Sarah those days were in old
and stricken in age, and Sarah was menopause.
And YAH (through the spokesperson) said unto Abraham,
" Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying,
' Shall I of a surety bear a child, who am old? '
Is there a thing too hard for YAH?
At
LAMOHED
(appointed time)
of the time (occasion) of Life, I will come back to thee, and Sarah shall have a son." (cf. Genesis 18:10-14).
The name Sarai is a plural form of Sarah, and this may mean that there were at least more than one Sarah in Abraham's house, and all could be considered to refer to the eldest Sarah.
The exact date that Sarah could have a male baby was at the occasion of Life (or at the return of the Spring season), and scientific calculation gives the exact date that there was a Spring equinox on April 5, 1638 BCE (2h 56m UT), Nisan 2.
No way for the ancient Hebrews to determine April 5, 1638 BCE (Nisan 2 of the Jewish traditional calendar) as the Spring equinox except if they kept the record from Abraham. And knowing that date would lead us to know the year when was Isaac born.
This indirectly makes it scientific and historical, that Isaac was born in 1637 BCE.
The cult of Yah this time was associated with those who monitor the lights of the heaven. It is reflected in the following scenario, when Yah asked Abram to look to the dark sky.
"And he brought him forth abroad, and said,
Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them:
and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be." -Genesis 15:5
The followers of this stargazer knew that it's difficult to number the stars, and one possible reason is because of the appearance of new stars or the reduction of falling stars. Three members knew that there was an impending of falling star toward Sodom. Science of calculating the date, hour, and direction of a superbolide - powerful falling star - was known among the members of the cult. This knowledge was passed down to Moses, Joshua, Deborah, David, Elijah, Elishah, and Isaiah and used those dibris in asteroid belt as missiles against the enemies of Israel. It seems that Moses, Joshua, Deborah, Elijah, and Isaiah knew how to move certain dibris in asteroid belt during Earth's passage and chose particular dibris to be fallen to a particular place and time (Exodus 9:23,28, Joshua 10:10-11, Judges 5:20-22, 2Kings 1:10,12,14; 6:17-18).
The superbolide is designated "fire of God from heaven" in Job 1:16 and its fragments are called "arrows" of Shaddai (Job 6:4). And its path is called "bow".
"My defence is of God, who saves the upright in heart. God judges the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day. If man does not repent, he will whet His sword; He has bent His bow, and made it ready. He has also prepared for him the instruments of death; He ordaines His arrows against the persecutors." -Psalms 7:10-13
"(To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.) Hear my voice, O God, in my prayer: preserve my life from fear of the enemy.
But God shall shoot at them with an arrow; suddenly shall they be wounded. And all men shall fear, and shall declare the work of God; for they shall wisely consider of his doing." -Psalms 64:1,7,9
"Bow thy heavens, O LORD, and come down: touch the mountains, and they shall smoke. Cast forth lightning, and scatter them: shoot out thine arrows, and destroy them. Send thine hand from above; rid me, and deliver me out of great waters, from the hand of strange children" -Psalms 144:5-7
King David revealed that the superbolide, identified by Joshua as "mesh," had an appointed time when to fall.
"He appointed yareah [moon] for
לְמוֹעֲדִ֑ים
[lemoh'dim]
seasons:
the
mesh [sun-like brightness]
knows its going down." -Psalms 104:19
The appearance of this "mesh" (sun-like brightness) was associated with the moon or lemohed. Joshua, David, and Ezekiel mentioned "mesh" in connection with the moon.
"And when I shall put thee out, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the
mesh [sun-like brightness]
with a cloud, and yareah [moon] shall not give its light." -Ezekiel 32:7
The Hebrew word "mesh" appears only 4 times in the Bible.
First, Joshua named it, upon the hearing of Israelites asked YHWH to keep silent a "mesh" (sun-like brightness) so that their enemies were not be afraid, because Egyptians during Moses' time in Rameses were frightened because of the loud sound banged by the fire from heaven (Exo 9:23-34). To avoid the escape, Joshua, after seeing the "mesh" (explosion), prayed to YHWH to make the "mesh" (superbolide) silent, or no thunder or bang be heard and let the moon accompanied it so that enemies would not think there was an unusual event on the sky (that is, enemies would not stop fighting). Joshua's troops led the enemies toward Beth-Horon and Azekah.
"Joshua therefore came unto them suddenly, and went up from Gilgal all night. And YHWH discomfited them before Israel, and slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them along the way that goes up to Bethhoron, and smote them to Azekah, and unto Makkedah. And it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel, and were in the going down to Bethhoron, that YHWH cast down
great stones
from heaven
upon them unto Azekah, and they died: they were more which died with hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword." -Joshua 10:9-11
"Then spoke Joshua to YHWH in the day when YHWH delivered up the Amorites before the descendants of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel,
Mesh [Sun-like brightness],
דּ֔וֹם
[dowm]
be silent
בְּגִבְע֣וֹן
[ba-gib'own]
to Gibeon;
and yareah [Moon], in the valley of Ajalon.
וַיִּדֹּ֨ם
[wa-yidom]
And silent was
הַשֶּׁ֜מֶשׁ
[ha-shemesh]
the sun,
And yareah [moon]
עָמָ֗ד
['amad]
stood on it,
until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies.
Is not this written in the book of Jasher?
וַיַּעֲמֹ֤ד
[wa-ya'amod]
and stood behind
ha-shemesh [the sun]
ba-hashi [at half (night)]
ha-shamayim [the heaven]
and hasten not
לָב֖וֹא
[labow]
to go in
תָּמִֽים
[tannim]
entirely sound
about a day." -Joshua 10:12-13
In this passage, the May 16th, 1208 BCE solar eclipse reported by Jasher (writer of king David) is quoted to prove that unusual event related to the passage of sun in the sky is possible, as the silencing of "mesh" (sun-like brightness) can happen, as what had happened during the superbolide explosion in Joshua's time.
The word "mesh" is used 4 times in the Hebrew Scriptures and on its 3 appearances in the Bible it is always related to the moon and "lamohed." It seems that "mesh" is derived from the root "shemesh" ("sun"). Its short form ("mesh") may mean it's like the sun. Psalms 104:19 suggests that "mesh" had an appointed time: if the "lamohed" in Genesis is referring to the onset of the month of Spring season (Abib 1), then "mesh" or superbolide previously was occurring during the month of Spring season, usually Nisan. Hebrew prophets seem have the ability to use mesh or its great stones as missiles against enemies.
The destruction of Sodom appeared to be intended, to destroy the threat that the sodomite foreigners was putting between Jericho and Jordan. Hammurabi of Babylon and Zimri-Lim of Mari had male lovers. But this new trend was apparently not expected to become rampant in Sodom after the migration of Minoan youth there. Minoan workers were also increasing in Avaris in Egypt that they blatantly erected altar for human sacrifice in around 1660 BCE. The loyalty of residents in Hebrons and nearby cities were under testing, as these two new practices (human sacrificing and gayism could deplete them with males both in mental and physical and would make them easily be defeated by more populous enemies). The region around Hebron was known impenetrable by Egyptians and Mesopotamians since time immemorial, but this time Minoans might have weaken them if their men don't want females and if they practice human sacrifice. Many were complaining to the priest about this sodomites' problem. Abraham started the initiative to forbid human sacrifice after he succeeded the test of the messenger of Yah.
The members of Yah knew that there was a missile from heaven falling toward Sodom but they did not warn its government (king Bera) to evacuate on the pretext that they would be spared if there are 5 righteous men in it - meaning, only 3 (Lot an official at its gate, and his two daughters) were the remaining righteous in the area. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was sudden or in just few hours.
"... the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her." -Lamentations 4:6
Not only Sodom and Gomorrah but even their neighbors were devastated, too.
"As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbour cities thereof, saith the LORD; so shall no man abide there, neither shall any son of man dwell therein." -Jeremiah 50:40
According to prophet Isaiah, the area was overthrown.
"... as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: ..." -Isaiah 13:19-20
According to Moses, hot salt covered its land.
"And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and burning salt, that it is not sown, nor bears, nor any grass grows therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which YHWH overthrew in His anger, and in His wrath:" -Deuteronomy 29:23
Scientists confirmed all these biblical reports about the destroyed Sodom and nearby settlements. They discovered that in the stratum of 1650 BCE are evidence of a swift powerful intense destruction. The location: Tall el-Hammam.
Ruins of Tall el-Hammam are dug exactly in the place where the Bible locates Sodom in the plain of Jordan, east of Jericho. We designated this as
"archaeological Sodom."
After 14 years of digging it, in 2018 archaeologists announced their findings from the palace and nearby areas.
Genesis 19:1 describes that Lot was an elder guard in the "gate of Sodom," giving hint that it was a walled city.
The walled city destroyed by a fast intense heat is found by archaeologists in Tall el-Hammam.
At an annual meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research held in Denver, Colorado, archaeologist Phillip Silvia reported (in "The 3.7kaBP Middle Ghor Event: Catastrophic Termination of a Bronze Age Civilization" that) that they have found pieces of pottery aged 3,700 years old that turned into glass. It would need at least 4,000° Celsius to change clay pot into zircon crystal, that heated it within one second, says the head of the scientists.
"... in an instant devastated approximately 500 km² immediately north of the Dead Sea, not only wiping out 100 percent of the (cities) and town, but also stripping agricultural soils from once-fertile fields. " - The 3.7 kaBP Middle Ghor Event, page 15
There is an evidence at eastern Middle Ghor showing it was then covered with a super-heated brine of Dead Sea
anhydrite salts
pushed over the landscape by the event's frontal shock waves. In other words, the blast also caused a Dead Sea tsunami to cover the land. (BusinessInsider, by Peter Farquhar 30th Nov. 2018)
This scientific finding confirmed the report of Moses that Sodom and Gomorrah were covered by burning salt (Deut 29:23).
It verified too the report of prophet Jeremiah that
Sodom
"was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her." - Lamentation 4:6
"... that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and
burning salt,
that it is not sown, nor bears, nor any grass grows therein, ... " - Deuteronomy 29:23
Expectedly, any human or animal on the ground would be covered by the burning salt. Unfortunately, in just a few seconds, Lot's wife, when stopped running and look back, became a victim of that burning salt: she became a pillar of salt.
Needless to say, there is a scientific explanation how Lot's wife became a pillar of salt. Her flesh was melted and she was engulfed by the burning salt.
"Then YHWH rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from YHWH out of heaven; And He overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.
But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became
a
pillar of salt.
And Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the LORD: And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace." -Genesis 19:24-28
This event took place in the stratum dated between 1650 BCE. In the Bible, the disaster happened in 1638 BCE.
The superbolide explosion was enough to blind men outside shelters, as its heat intensity reached up to 4,000 degrees Celsius within a second, enough to transform clay into zircon crystal. Clay jar made around 1650-1600 BCE became zircon crystal on its surface, around a millimeter thick, indicating that the super intense heat lasted only in few seconds. Human retina under such intense light was burned, confirming the report that sodomites outside the house became blind.
"And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with
blindness,
both small and great: so that they wearied themselves to find the door." -Genesis 19:11
There was an explosion at the dawn and the splash of its light was powerful than UV. Within few minutes it heated up the Dead Sea, whose shock waves traveled going to Tall el-Hammam, overthrowing the cities on the ground, this could be the apparent reason why this region was known both to Egyptians and Hebrews as "Abel" or place of mourning.
"As God overthrew Sodom and the neighbor cities thereof,... " - Jeremiah 50:41
Some details in the Bible are corroborated by scientific findings, and both agree that the destruction took place in 1650-1600 BCE, but the only problem both do not agree with the feeling-based opinion of many that the event happened in around 2066 BCE, that's why some thinkers believe that the fire from heaven and the destruction were not physical but spiritual or symbolic. Needless to say, science and the Bible are wrong, and the feeling-based opinion is the correct one.
For those who are using wrong chronology, the Bible confirmed by Science is wrong. But we are not after their feeling-based opinion. We are after the facts and biblical teachings.
Because of wrong chronology they are even prone to alter the biblical teaching. They located Sodom not in Tall el-Hammam.
There are two ways to locate "Sodom."
The popular was by associating it to the name "Jebel Usdum," which could be meant
"Hill of the Dumah."
Prophet Isaiah locates this " Dumah" near Seir, and it has nothing to do with Sodom.
The biblical and accurate way is by the passages of the Bible itself.
And according to Genesis, Sodom could be seen from Bethel or Hebron and it was located in the plain of Jordan in the east of Jericho before going to Zoar.
"And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.
And he went on his journeys from the south even to
Bethel,
unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai;
And Lot lifted up his eyes, and had seen all the
plain of Jordan,
that it was well watered every where, before YHWH destroyed
Sodom
and Gomorrah, even as the garden of YHWH, like the land of Egypt, as you come unto
Zoar.
Then Lot chose him all the
plain of Jordan;
and Lot journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from the other.
... and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom. " - Genesis 13:2-3,10-12
Sodom was one of the cities of the plain, plain of Jordan in the east.
And Zoar is east of Jericho.
"And the south, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, unto Zoar. " - Deuteronomy 34:3 (KJV)
Sodom was visible from Hebron, where Abraham lived (Genesis 13:18 & 18:1 & 23:19).
"And Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where he stood before YHWH: And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace." -Genesis 19:27-28
If Sodom and Gomorrah were in Seir or Edom, then for sure Abraham could not see them from Hebron.
After this disaster, Lot's daughters taught that no men would impregnate them, because that's the practice in Sodom. Not even their husbands impregnate them, for Minoan youths there might have brought the practice of sodomy. This was also why Lot had a got to offer his two daughters to be raped by gays, because he knew that if his sons-in-law did not impregnate his daughters, how much more the gays would do. In prostration, ...
"The firstborn said unto the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to penetrate us after the manner of all the earth:
Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father." -Genesis 19:31-32
These women were gotten pregnant.
"And the firstborn bore a son, and called his name
Moab:
the same is the father of the Moabites unto this day. And the younger, she also bore a son, and called his name Benammi: the same is the father of the bene-Ammon unto this day." -Genesis 19:37-38
Because of this, Moses clarified that no Moabites and Ammonites would be allowed to enter in the congregation of YHWH till their 10th generation (Deut 23:3). Needless to say, the case of Lot's daughters were not consented.
When the descendants of Moab, Israel, and Edom became populous after more than 200 years, their names entered the history of Egypt, for king Rameses II (1279-1213) in his Topographical List 22.d-10 made mention "m-y-b" (Moab) and king Merneptah (1213-1210 BCE) named "Israel" and "Edom" in Victory Stele line 27 and Papyrus Anastasi VI, 4.56, respectively.
Moses reported that the original inhabitants of Moab were Emims, historically correct because during Abram's days the descendants of Abi-Yamimu (Father Emim) were ones of those who fought Amarpiel in circa 1664 BCE.
"And YHWH said unto me, Do not distress the Moabites, neither contend with them in battle: for I will not give you of their land for a possession; because I have given Ar unto the sons of Lot for a possession. The
Emims
dwelt therein in times past, a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims; who also were accounted giants, as the Anakims; but the Moabites call them Emims.
You are to pass over through Ar, the coast of Moab, this day:
And when you come nigh over against the bene-Ammon, do not harass them, nor meddle with them: for I will not give you of the land of the bene-Ammon any possession; because I have given it unto the descendants of Lot for a possession.
That also was accounted a land of Rephaim: Rephaites dwelt therein in old time; and the Ammonites in ancient time call them Zamzummims;
A people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims; but YHWH destroyed them before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead" -Deuteronomy 2:9-11,18-21
This description of Moses that Emim or Zamzummim were also giant or taller people is apparently accurate, because Abi-Yamimu (Father Emim) was one of the three rulers of ly-Anaq (people of Anaq).
In addition, Joshua and company said that Anak's descendants were taller or giant people. The Moabites called them "Emim," obviously from the name "Yamimu," whereas the Ammonites called them "Zamzummim," who were apparently the Genesis 14:5's "Zuzim," who king Rameses II called "Shasu," likely referring to the "Shasu of Arbar." The troop of Joshua named them "Sheshai" of Arba. According to Rameses' depiction of these Shasu in his Karnak Kadesh Inscription, they are giants, and his army scribe Hori (fl.1230-c.1170 BCE) wrote that Shasu between Joppa and Debir are 7 or less than 9 feet tall. All these are telling us that Moses is accurate to what he has recorded regarding these giants.
Ly-Anaq whose leader was Abi-Yamimu (Father Emim) is mentioned in an Execration Texts written between 1800 and 1640 BCE (ANET 328, e1).
These Emim in Shaveh-Kiriathaim and Zuzim in Ham (Aamu) were defeated by league of Khedor-la-omer of Eram in circa 1664 BCE. One of the members of this league was Amarpiel (Amatpiel), a leader of another alliance in Syria (Gen 14:1).
According to the letter of governor Itur-Asdu of Nahor to king Zimri-Lim:
"There is no king who is strong by himself alone. Hammurabi of Babylon has 10 or 15 kings, likewise Rim-Sin of Larsa, Ibalpel of Eshnunna,
Amarpiel
of Qatna; whereas Yarim-Lim of Yamhad has 20 kings."
This letter proves that the Bible is accurate in suggesting in Genesis 14:1 that king Amarpiel (Amraphel) of Shinar (Between Two Rivers) was leading kings. Amatpiel's sister was married to Zimri-Lim.
Moses likely adopted king Rameses II's terminology "Shinar" for the area in which Qatna (34°50′06″N, 36°51′57″E) was belonged, as the name "Qatna" had been ceased to be used as a toponym during the great drought in the Late Bronze Age Collapse. The term "Qatna" is strictly related to waterways and it grew on the shore of Mishrifeh Lake which completely dried up in c. 1200 BCE. Ugarit, Byblos and Hazor were among the vassals under Ishi-Addu, the father of Amarpi'el (Amutpiel II).
Ishi-Addu explicitly declared that as long as he lives, he "will never make peace with Sumu-epuh, even if Shamshi-Adad would conclude peace with Sumu-epuh."
Sumu-Epuh (c.1714-1684), the king of Yamhad (Aleppo) kingdom was contemporary of Yahdun-Lim of Mari (died c.1700 BCE) and Shamshi-Adad I (1698-1666).
Rameses II (1279-1213 BCE) locates "Shinar" near Naharina and Hatti in his Topographical List 25.2-4, replacing the toponym Qatna, and it is expected since Qatna was likely inexistent this time.
Amatpiel II reigned around 1677-1664 BCE and led an alliance of 15 kings. In the Bible, Amarphel and Arioch became involved in a war when another member, Khedor-la-omer, had been revolted by king Bera of Sodom, Birsha of Gomorrah (Amorah), Shinab of Admah, Shemeber of Zeboiim, and king of Bela (Zoar).
Ariukki or Ar-ri-wuk (Arioch) was under Zimri-Lim when the latter conquered Elamarza (Elasar) in the border of upper Habur river and as far as Urkesh in circa 1668 BCE. Ariukki replaced Terru (Terah) on the throne of Urkash-dim (people of Urkesh) as the life of Terru was under threat by the Habiru (Hebrews) and he escaped nearer to Mari, until king Hammurabi emancipated Zimri-Lim's kingdom by giving permit to the citizens to evacuate before he would crash the city to the ground, and one of the evacuees were Abram and his family.
Abram at first did not join the war of Khedor-la-omer, until his nephew, Lot, was captured by the Syrian kings.
"And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Khedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim; that these made war with Bera king of Sodom, and with Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, and Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela, which is Zoar. All these were joined together in the vale of Siddim, which is the salt sea.
Twelve years they served Khedorlaomer, and in the 13th year they rebelled. And in the 14th year came Khedorlaomer, and the kings that were with him, and smote the Rephaims in Ashteroth Karnaim, and the
Zuzims in Ham, and the
Emims
in Shaveh Kiriathaim, and the Horim in their mount Seir, unto El-Paran, which is by the wilderness. And they returned, and came to Enmishpat, which is Kadesh, and smote all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites, that dwelt in Hazezon-Thamar. And there went out the king of Sodom, and the king of Gomorrah, and the king of Admah, and the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (the same is Zoar;) and they joined battle with them in the vale of Siddim; With Khedorlaomer the king of Elam, and with Tidal king of Goiim, and Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar; four kings versus five.
And they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their victuals, and went their way. And they took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed. And there came one that had escaped, and told
Abram
the Hebrew
- for he dwelt in the plain of Mamre the Amorite -
brother of Eshcol, and brother of Aner: and these were confederate with Abram.
And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his retainers [trained servants], born in his own house, 318, and pursued them unto
Dan.
And he divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and smote them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus. And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people. And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the
slaughter of Khedorlaomer,
and of the kings that were with him, at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king's dale. And Melchizedek king of
Salem
brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of El-Elyon. And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of El-Elyon, possessor of heaven and earth: And blessed be El-Elyon, who has delivered your enemies into your hand. And he gave him tithes of all." -Genesis 14:1-9,11-20
The Dan here refers to Danuna near Hobah or Damascus.
Ham here is the place where Aamu lived, android and hence could be the etymon of the name "Aamu." During the time of Abram (1738-1563 BCE), its inhabitants were known as "Zuzim," the ancestors of Shasu.
More than a century before Abram, Abishai the Hyksos who came from Aamu of Shu visited the tomb of Khnumhotep II in 1892 BCE with their presents. If "Shu" here is a short form of "Shutu," then it could be Moab as Numbers 24:17 reported that Moses being a scepter would destroy descendants of "Sheth" or Moab, which was from Abel Shittim to Edom's border. The root word of "Aamu" is "Aam-" plus plural suffix "-u." In Hebrew Bible, this "Aam" is "Ham," a place devastated by the troops of king Amarpiel (Amatpiel) in circa 1664 BCE. Zuzim were the inhabitants of Ham, as the inhabitants of Shu were Aamu. When Khedor-la-omer defeated all defectors, Abram was surnamed "Hebrew" and the reason given in Genesis 14:13 is because Amorites in Hebron confederated with Abram who dwelt in the area. Abram was gotten involved because his nephew Lot was held captive. Without his prior intention to be involved, Abram was forced to fight even the troop of Arioch (Ariukki or Ar-ri-wuk) was one of the enemies.
This Ariukki was the one who replaced Terru, after the latter escaped from Urkash-dim (people of Urkesh) because of death threats. Unlike Ariukki, Terru (Terah) refrained from taking the title "king" ("shar" or "endan") because that was the practice of his ancestors since the time of Tubtiyamutu (Tudiya Adamu). Thus Adamu (Adam) used the title "issiak" instead, to mean vicar or governor [of God]. Terru (Terah) was king in function, but was not calling himself or allowing others to call him "king."
On contrary, the successor, Ariukki, had had the title "king."
It is known in history that king Zimri-Lim married his daughter to the king of Ilansura and he conquered Elamarza. Either Elamarza, which the king of Mari called "Idamaras," or Ilansura is called "Ellasar" in the Bible. The Bible gives us hint that Ariokh might have ruled in Elamarza (Ida-Marash) or Ilansura as he was called king of Elasar. It is expected since his suzerain Zimri-Lim had gone without trace after king Hammurabi emancipated the Mariote kingdom in 1665 BCE. With this chaos in Syria, Canaanites revolted to Syrian kings.
Formerly, Hammurabi of Babylon and Zimri-Lim were allied, although Hammurabi did not address Zimri-Lim as "king of Mari" but Zim-ri-Li-im LUGAL DUMU Si-im-a-al (ARM XXVI 385:6'), meaning Zimri-Lim [tribal] king of Sim'alites. In fact, in 1668 BCE Zimri-Lim sent troops to Hammurabi to fight Elam, Eshnunna, and Larsa.
Zimri-Lim was saying in a letter (44bis:16) that his vassal leader Shadum-laba of Ashnalkum is the "be-li-ka" ("master") of Terru.
In Urkesh, "LU.MESH Urkeshayi.Ki" (Urkesh-lim) or men of Urkesh, as well as the gathering of Habiru (Hebrews), got mad to Terru (Terah) after chosing Zimri-Lim (1680-1665 BCE) as suzerain lord. Despite of this situation, Terru asked a "hassianum" (royal prefect) protection for his people, which he called "DUMU.MESH a-li-ia" or "dim" of my city (44bis:8). Terah's own people considered him "nakru" ("to be enemy") and he said "ittiya ul idabbubu" ("they do not speak with me") and "lemnetim idabbubu" ("they speak evil things ") because "izeru" ("they hate") him. Terru was forced to leave Urkesh to save the life of his family.
"And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Urkashdim. And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Urkashdim, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there." -Genesis 11:28,31
The Bible reported that Terah's son Haran died in Urkash-dim, after of which he decided to transfer to Canaan, but found his haven in Haran, in the region of birthplace of Abram and nearer to Zimri-Lim. The fate of Terru became at stake when Zimri-Lim became stubborn probably because of an oracle which might have burned Hammurabi to anger.
Itur-Asdu (c.1674 BCE), the governor of Nahor, advised Zimri-Lim to have a confederation of kings, as Amarpiel (Amatpiel) of Shinar, and so on had had with themselves. Mari's king did not absorb completely his vassalage cities, but remained them independent, although it seemed that later he ignored this, probably because of the published prediction that
"if an eclipse occur on Shabatu 14th,... the destruction of Babylon is near" (EAE tablet 20).
Actually the double eclipse being predicted occured in 1532 BCE, before the last king of Babylon, Samsuditana (1530-1499 BCE) reign. Therefore, the prediction is accurate, only if understood accurately, too. King Hammurabi was not afraid, rather he might have challenged it by marching to Mari and planning to destroy the kingdom. In 1665 BCE, after asking the citizens to evacuate, as he was about to defeat Zimri-Lim, king Hammurabi destroyed the capital city to the ground without too much bloodshed.
The asylum became an imperative for Abram to be taken particularly after he had a dream that Yah, his God, was asking him to go to a country outside his birthplace Haran or Nahor.
This was a part of human era when men practiced to communicate with gods or deities in dreams during sleep state (cf. Gen 20:3,6), which was the way Abram met Yah (cf. Gen 13:14-15). In Genesis 15:1,12,13,17,18 such way of communicating with God is called "vision," or in Job 33:14-17's terminology "vision of the night" (cf. Gen 42:6, Job 4:13, 20:8). This ability has apparently been decreasing as millennium passed by, probably because human brain is in devolution, ceasing some abilities that were anciently ordinary. Dreams became important during Terah's days, that governor Kibri-Dagan of Terqa district sent letters to the king that even non-commissioned dreams must be delivered. In a shrine at Terqa, god Dagan appeared in a dream to Malik-Dagan of Saggaratum pungently chiding Zimri-Lim, saying: "Why had Zimri-Lim not consulted Dagan regularly?" Were he to have done otherwise, Dagan would surely have delivered the Banu-Yaminites in his hands so that, by now, they would have been suing for peace! (11.24b-31)
Why kings were believing in those men or women who saw deities in dreams? Because even the kings were prone to seeing deities in dreams, as for example pharaohs in history and in the Bible (Gen 20:3,6). Dreamer (halomoth) was one of the highest government positions during Abram's days. Abraham's great grandson was hired as such in Egypt. Joseph was a "father to pharaoh," particularly a priest who was interpreting dreams (cf. Gen 37:19, 47:22,26).
Even in modern day there are dream-inducing curses from inscriptions.
For an instance, as a young archaeologist excavating at Kom Abu Billion, Zahi Hawass after transporting artifacts from Greco-Roman site, had his cousin died on the same day, whereas after one year of that same date his uncle died, too, and then his auntie exactly on the 3rd year.
At Giza he dug the pyramid's builders' tombs where he read the curse:
"All people who enter this tomb who will make evil against this tomb and destroy it may the crocodile be against them in water, and snakes against them on land. May the hippopotamus be against them in water, the scorpion on land."
He spared the mummies. But, later, when he had to remove Bahariya Oasis' two child mummies to a museum, he reported a disturbing dream, in which he was haunted by the children, and this haunting continues in his other dreams. The phenomena did not stop until the mummy of the father was reunited with the children in the museum. Appearing as not co-incidences, Hawass concluded that those mummies should not be displayed. (Valley of the Golden Mummies, Zahi A. Hawass, pp. 94–97, American University Press in Cairo Press, 2000, ISBN 9774245857).
This is how dreams could affect humans, not only in ancient times but even in our modern day. And in ancient kingdoms, there were dream interpreters.
It was in Mari for the first time that the word "Nabû" was used as a prophetic title for a "diviner" (Durand 1988: 444–45), particularly the nabû of Hanaeans by whom an omen has to be taken on the king's behalf, putting a binary question to them and obtaining, apparently, a favorable answer. In the Bible, "nabi" is derived from the root "n-b" ("openness") and understood, particularly from Moses' time and on, as "spokesperson" of God to king and people (cf. Deut 18:18).
The first biblical person identified with this designation "nabi" (prophet), that means intercessor, is Abram (Gen 20:7). There is no doubt that the title "nabi" was either borrowed from or brought to Mari by Abraham. In Deuteronomy 13:1 Moses defines "prophet" as "dreamer of dreams," who gives sign and wonder. Moses was not just that prophet.
"And He said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I YHWH will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream.
My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of YHWH shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?" -Numbers 12:6-8
In support of this declaration, the name Yahweh was not known to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob but to Moses (Exo 6:3).
God appeared as El Shaddai (God of Shaddai) to Abraham, the name used for this God since Adam's time was "Ya" or "ia," which was hacked by the scribes or priests of Enki and used for Enki's name.
In Abraham's days, "Ea" ("Ya") was known as the God who foretold about a devasting flood to a particular man, who was asked to build huge vessel to survive. Even the astronomer scribe of king Ammisaduqa (1550-1530 BCE) mentions
"Ea nagbeshu ubbala"
"Ea his floods will bring."
In the dictionary of Eblaite bilingual list D, the synonym of "Enki" is
'à-u9,
which could be what Hebrews (in Joshua's altar) called God
"YWH" (pronounced by northern Israel as "Yau," and by Judahites as "Yahu," and by Greeks as "Iao" or "Yao"). This Au is usually translated "Ea," from the root 'E-A" meaning "House of Water." Prophet Jeremiah, says that YHWH comes from Kwe and "the fountain of living waters." The Sumerians hacked the name "Ea" as Eblaites in their administrative documents are always writing the name of the local god "Hayya" with the logogram "Enki" ("Lord Earth"). In Assyrian document, the first adherent of "Ya" or "A" is
Tud-i-ya Adamu,
also known in Hammurabi's Babylonian lineage list as
Tubtiyamutu.
The word
"Amutu"
was likely deified by the Egyptians as
"Atum,"
which, according to king Rameses II (officially reported in the Stela Hildesheim),
is the creator or patron god of Moses.
Tubtiyamutu reigned twice: first as Tudiya ("Beloved of Ya"), and then, when demoted from the Garden, as Adamu (Adam). The Garden was located in Eden, defined by prophet Ezekiel as "Cedar" belonged to Assyria and Lebanon (Eze 31:3,8-9,16,18). In Gilgamesh Epic, this region is named Eren (or GISH.Eren GISH.tir) meaning "Cedar Forest." Eden was a wide region ranging from Diyarbakir to Tyre, and one area of it was a Garden in Karaca, of which settlement in its east in around 2350 BCE had opened its earth according to Genesis 4:11.
Adam was assigned in the Garden, according to Genesis 2:14, located "toward the east of Assyria" near Gihon (Gozan), Pihon (Bahiani), and Kush (Naharaim-Mitanni). Assyrian kinglist reported that Tudiya reigned in Azuhinum, Assyria.
"And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it... became into four heads.
First is Pison, which winds in the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; The 2nd river is Gihon, that runs on the whole land of Kush.
And the name of the 3rd river is Tigris, which goes
toward the east of Assyria.
And the 4th river is Euphrates. And God YHWH took the Adam, and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it." -Genesis 2:10-11,13-15
This was the region identified by king Amenhotep II as "the Land of God, in the country of Naharina" in relation to "the one from the land of Amu" (which he inscribed in his war chariot in the Theban tomb chapel of Qenamun [Davies 1930: pl. 22; Sethe 1906-1957: 1393, 9-10]).
Amu related to Kush was one of the sources of gold of Egyptians, hence Pison in Havila near Kush was in Naharina. This may give us hints that the toponym "Kush" being Hurrian originated may have reached Makhtesh Ramon, particularly from Punon to the said makhtesh as early as around 2000 BCE because of trading gold, and then the black men living in Makhtesh Ramon brought the name "Kush" in the southern part of Sudan (upper Nubia).
It seems that the term "Pun-n.t" was used by Egyptians for three regions that were rich in gold, namely, Havilah near Syrian Kush, Punon, and Eritrea. Punon here appears to be a decoy or landmark (to locate Saudi's gold mining sites), and the "Dwellers-on-the-Sand" who were associated with the "gold of Amu" could be the inhabitants of wilderness of Makhtesh Ramon - Punon, whose Edomite traders during Late Bronze Age Collapse and Iron Age were connected to Qurayyah, Saudi.
Syrian Kush could be directly identified by king Ramesses III by the phrase "the gold of Amu" (Medinet Habu VI: pl. 452 , Kitchen 1983a: 328, 4). In the list in the temple of Edfu, this "Amu" is substituted with the "Land of God" ('ta netjer'), which according to king Amenhotep II is in Naharina (Chassinat and Rochemonteix 1933: 71-72). In the list from Philae, this "Land of God" is appearing as under the jurisdiction of Byblos. Prophet Ezekiel locates Eden, the land of God, from Lebanon, Tyre to Assyria; and particularly the gemstones were rich in Tyre (Ezek 28:12-15). Tefrer could be a place in or under jurisdiction of Tyre.
Later, the inhabitants of Eden were transferred to Tellasar (hence called Bit Adini, Beth Eden).
In history, the first to be identified as adherent of "Ya" was
Tubti-Ya Amutu
(Babylonian name for "Tudiya Adamu"), the first
issiak
(governor [of God])
and called "Adam" in Hebrew. He was well known with the name Tudiya, and after that he reigned again with the name Adamu (Adam/Atum).
The Bible reported that he was demoted from Garden and ruled in the eastward of Eden.
"Tud-i-ya" means "Beloved of Ya," and his second name "Adamu" if considered "A-Dumu," may mean "Son of A" (or "Deified A" if 'A-Damu'). In Babylonian, his name could be understood as "A-Dumu" (hence "Amutu," which may be Egyptianized into "Atum" to mean "A-Damu" - deified divine).
The Sumerian term "A," translated in Akkadian word "mu," literally means "Water," but in this name it's taken as a divine name. For this reason, cuneiform scripts that have "DINGIR" (divine) & "MU" (water) can be construed to represent the words "ana," "ila," and "DINGIR-a" where the ending "-A" is the divine name. This shows how superior "A" ("Ya") that all other terminologies for god or deity are completed by adding the name "A" (an accusative case ending).
Ya was considered divine Water expectedly because Adam was assigned to Garden watered by many rivers.
Prophet Jeremiah identified Yahweh as "Fountain of the Living Waters" & described to be "mi-Kwe yisrael YHWH" ("from Kwe, Yahweh of Israel"). Kwe was the ancient name for Cilicia during Moses' days.
" Mi-Kwe yisrael YHWH, ... because... Yahweh, the fountain of living waters." -Jeremiah 17:13
Yah (Yahweh) is associated to rivers that watered the Garden of Eden.
Ancient Sumerian-speaking people called the Fountain of the Living Waters as
"E-A,"
literally means "House of Water" which was borrowed by Akkadians for the name "Ea." The Eblaites rendered it as "Au" ("Yau" in Israelite, "Yahu" in Judahite, "Ya-u-um" in Nippur Murashu 5th century BCE Aramaic, "-ia-u" in Akkadian, "iao" or "iauo" in Greek).
For a certain reason, later priests hacked the name "Ea" ("[Lord of the] House of Water") and used it for the name "Enki" ("Lord of Earth"), until the invisible "Ea" was portrayed as visible idol god Enki.
The lineage of Abraham, however, maintained to use the original "Ya," the God that warned Noah of a flood, as evidenced by the rediscovery of Jacob (Gen 35:3-5), until Edomites and Israelites adopted other gods.
Ugarit in the 15th century BCE has apparently used that name "House of A" as the first two letters of alphabet, probably signifying beginning.
Hebrews renamed the first alphabetic letter "A" into "aleph" ("ox, cow").
This is how the name "A" became useful. Nevertheless, the first recorded reigning person to use that in a theophoric name was Tud-i-ya A-Damu (Tubtiyamutu).
The suffix "-Damu" in his name was used in Ebla and Emar as a deified kingship suffix, and in Assyria the word "adamu" may mean "to make," by implication "to create," synonymous to Egyptian " 't-m" ("to complete"), which was deified to mean "Creator." The name "A.Damu" may be understood in Eblaitic naming system as "Ya is God" or "Deified Water." Although his identity has nothing to do with the meaning of his name, Egyptians considered "Atum" as the Creator God. He himself avoided to be identified as God, as he did not let any one call him "king," a title he considered for the God only.
The practice that was known from Adamu (Adam) is of refraining using the title "king" (shar or endan) because they believed that title is only for the God. Tud-i-ya Adamu ("Adam, Beloved of Ya") was the first to be named issiak or vicar (governor), of Ya.
Terru, during his term as "king," did not also use the title "king" which suggests he was from the lineage of Adamu. Terah's son, Abraham did the same practice. When Egyptians of Saqqara identified Aburahan (c.1630 BCE) as one of their enemies, they did not call him "king."
A contemporary record is mentioning Abraham as
ABURAHAN,
the ruler of Shamkhuna
in Brussels Execration Texts #55 (1800-1630 BCE). The Egyptians of Sakkara considered him as a mortal enemy during his latter years and hence was cursed.
His name in Egyptian record is not difficult to conceive since it was a practice of Egyptians to alter some names ending with "-m' into with "-n," as in "Naharim" into "Naharina," "Shekhem" into "Shamkhuna," "Iyyim" into "Iyin," Kerumim into Kerumin, and "abrhm" into "abrhn" (i.e. Abraham into Aburahan).
Shamkhuna here is what the Bible describes as the promised land, corresponding to what the Egyptian records describe as surrounded by Akko (Execration Texts e49), Beth-Shemesh (e60), Hazor, Kinnereth, Pella, Sakmum (namesake Shichem), Jerusalem (e45), Lachis (e59), and Ashkelon.
There were three legal things that protected Abram to travel abroad and have land. First, it was an order from king Hammurabi to leave Mari kingdom and go elsewhere, and Haran and Nahor this time was under the jurisdiction of Mari. Second, migrating or escaping people under the title Habiru (Hebrews) was legally allowed to have another landlord or suzerain king, although Abram did not use the surname "The Hebrew" until the Habiru in Hebron confederated with him. Third, as a "nabi" the dream of Abram that his God is promising him a land to be possessed was legally valid that time.
For the adherents of Zimri-Lim, a land being promised by a certain god in a dream as an inheritance was considered valid.
Even Jephthah, after the recent defeat of Balak (1190 BCE), reminded Ammonites about that law in a rhetorical question:
"Will not you possess that which Chemosh your god gives you to possess? So whomsoever YHWH our God shall drive out from before us, them will we possess." -Judges 11:24
Adding to a promised land, Abraham bought a piece of land in Hebron.
"And Ephron dwelt among the children of Heth: and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the audience of the children of Heth, even of all that went in at the gate of his city, saying,
My lord, hearken unto me: the land is worth 400 shekels of silver; what is that between me and you? bury therefore you dead.
And Abraham listened to Ephron; and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the audience of the sons of Heth, 400 shekels of silver, current money with the merchant.
And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre: the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan." -Genesis 23:10,15-16,19
This biblical claim that silver was used as a money that time is proved correct by scientific studies, as published by the Journal of Archaeological Science, which concluded that silver originating from Anatolia (Hittite land) was used as a currency in the Levant in around 1600 BCE, precisely during the days of biblical Abraham (1738-1563 BCE). These findings confirmed the biblical report that silver was used as a currency by Abraham in Canaan, and it also brings the timeline of Abraham in 1600 BCE, which is also the timeline of the destruction of Tall el-Hammam in Sodom. Sarah died in 1600 BCE, just few weeks before Isaac married Rebekah in 1599 BCE. Therefore, Abraham bought the cave for Sarah, literally, in 1600 BCE.
The archaeological corroborations of
Sodom's destruction (1638 BCE),
Abraham (1738-1563 BCE),
Sarah's sepulchre bought by silver currency (1600 BCE),
Terah (1807-c.1662 BCE),
migration of Abram (1665 BCE),
Emim (1664 BCE),
giants (Zuzim, probably ancestors of Anak'),
Amraphel (1664 BCE), and
Ariokh (1664 BCE),
to Tall el-Hammam destruction (1650-1600 BCE) in Sodom,
Aburahan of Shamkhuna (1800-1630 BCE Execration Texts),
silver currency (1600 BCE),
Terru (fl. c.1678-c.1665 BCE),
emancipation of Mari kingdom (1665 BCE),
Abi-Yamimu (in 1800-1640 BCE Execration Texts),
ly-Anaq (1800-1640 BCE Execration Texts),
Amatpiel II (c.1677-c.1665 BCE), and
Ariukki or Ar-ri-wuk (c.1665 BCE)
are more than statistical value of mere coincidences or chance. All of these simply mean, both the Bible and archaeology are accurate and corroborating each other.
In Masoretic Bible, Terah died at the age of 205 (Gen 11:32), but in Samaritan Pentateuch at 145 years old. Stephen, the deacon and first Christian martyr, also said that Abraham left Charran after the death of Terah (Acts 7:4), implying that Terah died around 1665 BCE.
Terah was the son of Nahor the Elder (fl. 1836-1790 BCE). The first appearance of the toponym Nahor is inscribed in the Cappadocian tablet (c.1705-1666 BCE). This place could be named after Nahor I.
Serug (fl. 1866-1807 BCE) was the father of Nahor, and his name is likely retained in Assyrian inscription as "Sarugi," a place named after him. His father was Peleg (fl. 1928-1868 BCE), whose name became well known in Hebrew Scriptures as the name of a river south of Mitanni which could be the "Palagi" in Assyrian record referring to on Euphrates just above the mouth of Habur river.
Peleg's father's name, Eber (fl. 1962-1865 BCE), was probably the most popular because it was used as "Habiru" since 1800 BCE by those who migrating to other kingdoms without threat of extradition. Since the descendants of Eber lived in the territory of Hurrians, the Hurrians understood the term "hāpiri" (derived from "Hapiru") as "nomad."
Eber was the son of Selah (fl.1992-1904), the son of Arphaxad (fl.2027-1933), the son of Shem (fl.2127-1956 BCE).
Shem was the son of Noah.
Babylonians traced the lineage of king Hammurabi from Tubtiyamutu (Tudiya Adumu) to Nuabu, after of which another branch of lineage is named. The name "Nuabu" means "Whose Father is Noah," chronologically speaking is contemporary of the biblical Shem. There was a split spreading out of race during the time of Shem and Nuabu.
The founder of the Old Babylonian Kingdom was proud to be identified with the name
Sumuabum ("Whose Father is Shem"),
who reigned in 1798-1785 BCE. It's expected since the story of the flood in Aratta was started to be spread out during his era.
The oldest reference to a flood in Aratta is recorded in circa 2000 BCE published post Neo-Sumerian cuneiform text "Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta."
"...has surrounded Aratta, on its right, for her like a rising flood. They are people whom she has separated from other people, ... After the flood had swept over,... sprinkled the water of life upon those who had stood in the face of the flood and made the Land subject to them." - lines 563-576 (translated on ETCSL)
The scribe did not forget to mention a known flood that happened in Aratta. In the Bible, a flood took place over the mountains of Ararat around 2029 BCE, coincided with this alluded Arattan flood.
The Bible, whether in Old or New Testament, does not mention "Great Flood" or "worldwide flood," rather it describes it as a fountain flood or rain flood in the region of "mountains of Ararat." Fountain flood is smaller than a river flood. Rain is not a global rain. In fact the phrase "rain upon the earth" is mentioned too that happened during the days of Job (5:10), king Ahab (1Kings 18:1), and so on. Moses used it to mean to a particular area, not necessarily to the entire planet.
"And Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, and spread abroad his hands unto the LORD: and the thunders and hail ceased, and the rain was not poured
upon the earth."
-Exodus 9:33
Moses did not forget to tell how far was the rain during Noah's flood when he wrote:
"And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were
under the whole heaven,
were covered." -Genesis 7:19
The range of distance was "under the whole heaven" or as far as the sight of eyes can see (cf. Job 28:24). Very explicitly, Moses describes this distance "under the whole heaven" as from Eziongiber to Heshbon, that is more than 2° on earth grid map, or 200 kilometers.
"And when we passed by from our brethren the children of Esau, which dwelt in Seir, through the way of the plain from Elath, and from
Eziongaber,
we turned and passed by the way of the wilderness of Moab. Rise ye up, take your journey, and pass over the river Arnon: behold, I have given into thine hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land: begin to possess it, and contend with him in battle. This day will I begin to put the dread of thee and the fear of thee upon the nations that are
under the whole heaven,
who shall hear report of thee, and shall tremble, and be in anguish because of thee." -Deuteronomy 2:8,24-25
For this reason, Moses was not unaware of his writing about the report of Joshua's troop pertaining to the Nefilim that they had seen in Hebron.
"There were Nefilim in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.
But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD." -Genesis 6:4,8
Nefilim were known in Noah's time, but their descendants were still in existence during Moses' days, which means those men outside Ararat region were spared from the flood. In fact Genesis 6:4 is very explicit in saying:
"There were Nefilim in the earth in those days; and also after that..."
Moses proved it true that there were Nefilim after the generation of Noah.
"And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto them, Get you up this way southward, and go up into the mountain:
And they ascended by the Negeb, and came unto Hebron; where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)
And there we saw the
Nefilim, ...
and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight." -Numbers 13:17,22,33
The flood happened in the region called "mountains of Ararat."
The whole earth here refers to the "face of the ground," biblically called "dry land" (or soil).
"The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained; And the ark rested in the 7th month, on the 17th day of the month, upon the
mountains of Ararat.
And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the
tops of the mountains
seen. Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the
face of the ground;
But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the
face of the whole earth:
then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark. And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the
earth dried." -Genesis 8:2,4-5,8-9,14
The "face of the whole earth" is distinguished from the "tops of the mountains," and when Genesis speaks that the earth dried up it does not mean the seas and ocean are gone, rather the ground or soil is dried up.
Can we have a biblical back up that the "whole earth" of Ararat does not necessarily mean "global"?
Yes!
"Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith the LORD, which destroyest
all the earth:
and I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain. Set ye up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of
Ararat,
Minni, and Ashchenaz; appoint a captain against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough caterpillers.
As Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of
all the earth."
-Jeremiah 51:25,27,49
Moses himself, who is believed the writer of original of Genesis, was using that phrase "face of the whole earth" to mean face of the dry ground, a particular area not the entire globe.
"For they covered the
face of the whole earth,
so that the land was darkened; and they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left: and there remained not any green thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the field, through
all the land of Egypt."
-Exodus 10:15
The "face of the whole earth" in Moses usage does not to be understood as worldwide or global, rather it means the face of the land under the sight, and in this case "all the land of Egypt" and that's why he used the word "ayin" ('eye') for this area. In this term "all the land of Egypt," it does not include Goshen, but the land being covered by the insects.
We should not use modern understanding to what Moses has anciently meant - for their idioms, phrases or jargons.
Thus, the world being referred to in Noah's time was the world of the area of the flood, the area where Noah preached about God (Heb 11:7), or in apostle Peter's terminology: "the world of the ungodly" (2Peter 2:5).
Besides, God is not a God of chaos or illogical to think that He would ask Noah to build the ark and gather animals within 7 days if he's not capable. Ark could be built within 7 days because according to Genesis it was made of reeds covered with pitch, and he had gathered the animals of the earth of his area. That is, according to the Bible it will take 4 months to travel from Babylon to Jerusalem (Ezra 7:8-9), and it be illogical for Noah or animals to travel that far while his deadline was 7 days.
Moses untranslated some words originally used in the 21st century BCE:
Ararat (from Aratta),
gopher (from gipar), and
tebat (from tiba-).
If this is the case, then "ase-gopher" is likely untranslated from
"Gish-gipar"
(usually understood later as "woody reed-made," but in ancient days it may mean flammable reed-made material). Tebat was borrowed by Moses from Eblaite "ti-ba-ti..." (from phrase "tibati il-il," meaning "arks of the gods," translation of the Sumerian "dub-lá-ki," "sacred construction" [TM. 75. G. 1302 obv. II 11- III 1]). We can also find it in the toponym "ti-ba-ù.ki" ("he is the Ark" [MEE 2,40 rev.IV6]), which could be the etymon of the word
"tubbû,"
which is, has no equal sides (or no equal length, width, and height).
On contrary, Gilgamesh Epic says that every side of the ship had equal measurement, making the ship a box, and obviously plagiarizing Moses probably by thinking that Moses borrowed the Egyptian term "t-b-t" ("coffin, box wood"). This is a clear example what the Gilgamesh Epic editor has plagiarized from Moses: they wrongly understood "tebah" as an Egyptian-loaned word that's why they thought it as a box, without knowing that it was borrowed from Eblaite word that means ship or boat.
The publisher of that plagiarism, king Ashurbanipal himself, admitted that there were confusion for them about the events before the Flood:
"I have read cunningly written texts in obscure Sumerian and Akkadian that are difficult to interpret. I have carefully examined inscriptions on stone from before the
Deluge
that are sealed, stopped up, and confused." -Ashurbanipal Assyrian Tablet 002
Inside the tebat or reed-made elongated vessel was the
bayith (house) of Noah,
and in it Noah made "kinim" (nests), making the ark a zoo-vessel. It has 3 stories.
Nondestructive scientific examination of an ark fossil in the "mountains of Ararat" found a door-like structure in upper before going to the 2nd story, and again this corroborates what the Bible describes about Noah's ark.
"Make thee a
tebat ase-gopher
[ark of reed-made wood];
kinim [nests]
shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt cover it
mi-bayith
[in the house]
and outside with kopher.
And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be
300 cubits,
the breadth of it 50 cubits, and the
height of it 30 cubits.
A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the
door
of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, 2nd, and 3rd stories shalt thou make it." -Genesis 6:14-16
Again, this match of the biblical report with the "door" between upper story before the middle story in the side of the ark fossil is not just a mere coincidence. Rather it proves that the Bible is telling the truth, which cannot be surpassed by Gilgamesh Epic or any ancient Flood tale.
GOPHER
This is one of the untranslated words used in Genesis borrowed from the 21st century BCE Sumerian term "ĝipar" (Akkadian: gipāru). As the Sumerian signs used for it may mean 'reed mat that plows or divides rain drops,' MI.NI.GISH (gipar) had an appearance of plowed field, but made of reeds instead of soil. This gipar was originally a woven reed mat used as a wedding bed. House of priests used this reed mat as covering or structure, that sooner had popularized the term "Gipar" to mean as a temple of priests. When bricks were used as a substitute for reeds in building priests' houses or palaces, the meaning of the word "gipar" changed into "cloister."
Hebrews, probably from the line of Noah through Moses, changed its meaning when it was used with covering pitch (bitumen). Kopher derived from the word "kaphar" ("cover"), akin to gipar, was used for pitch, a flammable material used to protect woody material from entering water.
Moses derived the word gaphərît ("brimstone") from gopher, and prophet Isaiah clearly identified what it is.
"For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he has made it deep and large: the pile thereof is
fire and much wood;
the breath of YHWH, like a
stream of
gapharit [brimstone],
does kindle it." -Isaiah 30:33
Gapharit is a flammable liquidy substance with fire, implying that the gopher is flammable, and in the case of Noah's ark, covered with this flammable liquidy substance.
"Make a
tebat aseh-gopher
[woody reed-made ark];
nests shall you make in the tebah [ark],
wə· kāpartā
[and shall pitch] it
mi-bayit [in the house]
and outdoor with
kopher [pitch]." -Genesis 6:14
Gipar houses were easily built, say 7 days, and its material (reeds, etc.) were abundant in ancient days among people.
Noah made his house inside a tebat gofer (reed-made ark), and he built qinnim (nests/rooms of animals) in that ark. He coated it with kopher or bitumen.
The fossil of that tebat aseh-gopher (woody reed-made ark) is still extant in our time in the region of the "mountains of Ararat."
GILGAMESH EPIC FLOOD STORY is much younger than the Epic of Gilgamesh that has no "Flood Story."
The epic that has "Flood Story" was edited by Sîn-lēqi-unninni, who is thought to have lived in 1100 BCE, and whose editor lived around 880 BCE based on the fact that the toponym
"Nisir"
he mentioned in tablet 11, line 141 was not older than 890 BCE. It was king Ashurnasirpal II (Annals, column 2, lines 34-39) who first mentioned "Nizir" in 881 BCE.
The Babylonian Standard version of Gilgamesh Epic (shown here) was written during the time of king Ashurbanipal (669- c.627 BCE) and which most likely partly plagiarised from
Atra-Hasis 1540 BCE version,
Moses' 1200 BCE "Flood Story,"
and largely from Sîn-lēqi-unninni 1100 BCE version.
The scribe of king Ashurbanipal did not know the ship's exact resting place & called it "Sha-du-u matu Nisir" ("Unknown hill country").
In tablet 11, line 57 by saying each side with 120 cubits, It seemed that the scribes understood that the boat's shape is a square, may be interpreting Moses' word
"tebat"
as a literal 'box,' as they deflected from older versions of coracle (circular vessel). Moses untranslated "tebat ase-gopher" from the
etymon of
"tubbû" (elongated basket),
and "ase" (wood), and much older word 21st century BCE
"gipar" (reed-made).
And their 6 stories could be a wrong understanding of Moses' report of 3 stories. These square and circular boats suggest that the scribes did not understand what
"tebat ase-gopher"
mean. They used the approximate area (acre) of the ark to measure their versions of (square or circular) ship. They also used "Nisir" as the resting place (to mean "Unknown" or "Hidden"), whereas Moses has the much older term "Ararat," derived from the 21st century BCE
"Aratta,"
which probably was transliterated by king Shalmaneser I (1266- c.1233 BCE) as "Urartri" (Urartu).
Moses' Flood Story: 13th century BCE "Ararat."
Gilgamesh Epic Flood Story: 9th century BCE "Nisir."
This Flood Story (tablet 11) was partly plagiarised from Atra-Hasis and Moses' versions. Likely, it was king Ashurbanipal (669- c.630 BCE) who commissioned the plagiarism for his Flood Story version and inserted it to Sîn-lēqi-unninni's edition.
Older version of the Epic of Gilgamesh written around 1530 BCE do not have a Flood tale.
The much older edition of Epic of Gilgamesh was actually not the epic but poems about Gilgamesh written during the period of Ur 3rd dynasty (2016-1908 BCE). These poems do not contain Flood tale.
ARK FOSSIL'S TRACES
Moses (Genesis 8:4) identified the region where the Noah's ark had rested: "mountains of Ararat," with untranslated word derived from
"Aratta,"
known as the 13th century BCE Assyrian "Urartri" (Urartu).
The Gilgamesh Epic (tablet 11, line 141) does not know the exact location but gives the toponym "Nisir" (Unknown), which was first historically mentioned in 881 BCE.
The whereabouts of Utnaphistim (Noah) is described being near Mashu (now known Mt. Ararat), which may be connected by Josephus to the following passage:
"...and were covered the whole high
he-harim
(the [twin] mountains)
that were under the shamayim (lofty -where waters are in)." -Genesis 7:19
Josephus (Against Apion 1.19) may have understood these high he-harim ([twin] mountains) as Ararat volcano, which is called
"Mashu" (Twin Mountain)
in Gilgamesh Epic and 30 kilometers north of the "mountains of Ararat." Philostorgius (EH 3.7-8) located the ark near Yanicurcur, and Nicolaus Damascenus (UH, book 96) said it was on
Mt. Baris (eponym of Bazargan).
Gilgamesh Epic 11.140 says that the vessel is
"is-bat-ma" (held-tight)
and does not move, which is referring to it as being deposited in the mound, giving insight that the Gilgamesh Epic was written c. 640 BCE when the ark was tightly deposited in the soil.
Philosophumena 10.26 says both the
"dimensions and the relics of the ark"
were still preserved in the time of Hippolytus (AD 222-235). Exactly, the length of the ark fossil was found in the same region.
The measurement used by Moses was Egyptian standard unit. Acts 7:22 says that Moses had learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, hence expectedly he employed Egyptian cubit unit when he wrote the earliest edition of the book of Genesis to measure the Noah's ark. The ark's length is 300 cubits. One Egyptian royal cubit is 523.5 mm or 20.61 inches, making 300 cubits
515.25 feet
(or around 521 feet if 20.83 inches a cubit). This 300 cubits is what we can discern on the said ark by its remaining shape of its fossil.
Genesis 6:16 says that the ark had 3 storeys. In contrary, Gilgamesh Epic (11.57) says 6 stories.
Nondestructive archaeological examination, done by geophysicist John Larsen in 2014, supports the biblical claim, after he detected the 3 storeys, and measured them as follows:
upper with 3.2,
middle with 4.7, and
lower story with 7.8 meters
height, a total of 30 cubits in height.
In a separate examination, in the 2nd floor, using 100 MHz GPR as deep as 7.2 meters, scanning has detected more structures.
All of these confirmations: the location in the region of "mountains of Ararat," 300 cubits length of the ark fossil, and 3-story space of the ark-shaped fossil are not mere coincidences, rather they are corroborating evidence that indeed the Bible is accurate of its report about Noah's ark.
ARK FOSSIL
Can we find the Noah's ark?
As far as history is concerned, historians testified of the fossilized remains of the said ark, but they did not mention of the ark itself.
We can ascertain about this ark fossil by:
1) the exact location in the hills of Ararat just south of Araxes and Masis, on the boundary of Armenia near Carra, Nakhar, Naxcawan, and "fountain" of Euphrates river in Mt. Abos;
2) the dimensions of the fossil ark, as are testified in the 3rd century to be still detectable; and
3) the HARDENED (or fossilized) remains of the ark in east of Mt. Abos (in Baris).
Let us go back to ancient history.
"The Armenians, and the Persians themselves, are of opinion that there are still upon the said mountain some
remainders
of the Ark, but that time hath
so hardened
them, that they seem absolutely petrify'd." - Adam Olearius (1633)
From ancient history we can be ascertained that there is now no "the ark" itself but the
hardened or
fossilized
remains
of it, according to Olearius. Therefore, what the ancient pilgrims were telling was the fossil of the ark, and not the ark itself.
1) King Sennacherib is reported (in Tractate Sanhedrin 96a, Babylonian Talmud) to have taken a plank of the Noah's ark around 680s BCE.
2) Berosus (c. 275 BCE) reported in Chaldean History that some part of the said ship was still there. And this fossilized ark is said "preserved" in the terminology of Josephus, and the fossilized parts are called "relics" by Hippolytus (c. 235 AD).
" This Berosus, therefore, ... gives us a history of the deluge of waters that then happened,... and agrees with Moses' narration thereof. He also gives us an account of that ark wherein Noah, the origin of our race, was
preserved, ..." -Josephus, Against Apion 1.19
3) According to Alexander Polyhistor (c. 50 BCE), paraphrasing Berosus, "a small portion of it remains in the mountains of Korduats."
4) Encyclopedist historian Nicolaus Damascenus (c.64 BCE - c.13 AD), in book 96 of his "Universal History," said that the timber remains are greatly preserved (fossilized).
"And of the Ark, the
remains
are to this day to be seen ..." - wrote Theophilus of Anthioch (c.169 - c.182 AD) in Apology to Autolycus 3.19
" But where can I not find evidence of the rite? This even to this day the
remains
of Noah's Ark are still shown in Cardyaei." -Epiphanius of Salamis, Cyprus (c.310-402 AD), Panarion 18.3.3
"Do not the mountains of Armenian testify to it, where the Ark rested? And are not the
remains
of the Ark preserved there to this day for our admonition." -John Chrysostom (c.349-407 AD)
By Babylonian world map, Gilgamesh Epic, reports of king Esarhaddon and Tobit, Babylonian Talmud, 1st century encyclopedia Universal History book 96 of Nicholaus Damascenus, and Moses (Torah), we can determine the exact location of the resting place of Noah's ark: that is, just north of Urartu city or south of Araske river in the place near Nisar or Bazargan where the "temple of Baris" was located.
Now, with this specific area, the next question is, the Ark?
The Bible reported that the ark rested or deposited in the vicinity after the fountain flood was abated. And expectedly as the years passed by, mountain's minerals moved and entered in the organic substance of the ark, and replaced the organic chemicals with natural minerals and what left on the ark are the remains we called today "fossil" (cf. Job 14:18).
The location was known
"Nisir"
(Gilgamesh Epic, tablet 11, line 141), and later the specific area where the ark was held tightly, was called
"Nisar,"
a Babylonian goddess of agriculture, but king Sennacherib made it masculine by calling it
"Nisrokh"
(Isaiah 37:38),
referring to the fossil or rock house (ark), which he replicated by a fortable temple he made & called "Araske" (Josephus, Antiquities 10.1.5). The Jews called the remain of fossil that king Sennacherib had gotten as
"nisra, "
which means "plank" and which also corresponds to the word "tebah" - "ark" (Tractate Sanhedrin 96a, Babylonian Talmud).
The Bible describes it as a "(zoo-)house" inside an ark.
And prophet Isaiah in mentioning king Sennacherib who had made a god, which was possibly a replica of the ark, called the god as "Beth Nisroch" (House Great Nisar). And this house was made of rock (remain of fossil) of Noah's ark.
" And Yah said unto Noah, Come you and all your
house into the ark;
for you have I seen righteous before me in this generation. " - Genesis 7:1
Hippolytus (c. 222-235 AD) called the fossilized or preserved parts of the ark as "relics."
"... and relics of this ark are,... shown to this day in the mountains called Ararat, ... " - Refutation of All Heresies 10.26
In the "History of Babylon" written by Berosus the Chaldean (c. 257 BCE), the asphalt of the remains of the ark is called "bitumen."
"It is said there is still some part of this ship in Armenia, at the mountain of the Kordyaeans; and that some people carry off pieces of the bitumen, which they take away, and use chiefly as amulets for the averting of mischiefs. " - Berosus
REDISCOVERY
First it was rejected, as its shape seemed to be superficial only.
After the 1987-1988 investigation, geologist Salih Bayraktutan recommended that the area must be a protected archaeological site.
In 1987 Dr. Bayraktutan surveyed the site with ground penetrating radar that involved 72 separate traverses spaced 2 meters apart, & with exploration seismograph, & took meticulous 1200 magnetometer readings.
The claim of David Franklin Fasold, a marine officer who headed the 1985 team that was allowed excavation rights by the Turkish government, was that the boat-shaped mound could be a "fossil" of an ark.
Contrary to this, Ron Wyatt claimed that it is the Noah's ark.
Self-styled archaeologist R. Wyatt is wrong because biblical report says that the
"tebat ase-gopher"
(reed-made bitumized vessel)
rested (which may mean later was buried) in the mountains of Ararat, that is, the ark now would be disintegrated and has left only its shape, perpetuates by the mud flow and earth materials that invaded in and replaced its reeds, woods, and pitch. What is there is the trace of the shape of the ark, not the woody ark itself.
THE ARK ITSELF DECAYED,
WHAT REMAINS IS THE SHAPE OF ITS FOSSIL
The first recorded to take part of the fossil from it was king Sennacherib (Babylonian Talmud Tractate Sanhedrin 56a, cf. Antiquities 10.1.5), but later it was buried, until it was resurfaced during the time of Berossus (c.275 BCE) and was heavily looted, and probably renovated during the time of Hippolytus (AD 235) who called its fossil as "relics" (Refutation of All Heresies 10.26).
Natural activities on the site reburied it and it was gone for centuries until continuous rains in the 1948 brought its surface back again on May 19 of that year.
On a NATO mapping mission by an army captain, Turkish government was informed in 1959 that there is a boat-shaped structure near Mt. Ararat.
Ara Güler's photograph of the ark-shape mound shows the structure that was later distorted by a rock from below that wrecked its right side middle part.
Earthquakes jiggled it and showed it to be indeed an ark shape.
Scientific investigation done by John Larsen - after Turkish government permitted his then latest resistivity ground imaging instrument in 2014 - proved that the shape is not only superficial but reaching as deep as 35 meters. It's ark-shaped deep down and not just once thought we believed it to be a nature's accident.
The Bible is proved accurate on its report about the size, storeys, and location of the ark.
Another accuracy is what kind of flood had happened?
The Bible clearly described it as a rain/fountain flood on the earth (dry land of the ground of Ararat mountains).
Genesis 7:4-13,17-24
"For yet 7 days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the
face of the earth.
And Noah did according unto all that YHWH commanded him.
And Noah
בֶּן
[ben]
[became] son
600 years
when the flood of waters was upon
הָאָֽרֶץ
ha-’ā·retz
[the soil/earth].
And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood. Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creeps upon the earth [soil], there went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.
And it came to pass after 7 days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.
בִּשְׁנַ֨ת
[bishnat]
In the year
שֵׁשׁ
shesh [six]
מֵא֤וֹת
me’oht
[hundred]
שָׁנָה֙
[shanah]
year,
of Noah's life, in the 2nd month, the 17th day of the month, the same day were all the
מַעְיְנֹת֙
[ma‘yenoth]
springs
of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. In the
selfsame day
entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark;
And the flood was 40 days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth. And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went
upon the face of the waters.
And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and
all the high hills,
that were under the whole heaven, were covered.
Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered. And all flesh died that moved
upon the earth,
both of fowl, and of cattle, and of animal, and of every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth, and every man:
All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the
dry land,
died. And every living substance was destroyed which was
upon the face of the ground,
both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.
And the waters prevailed upon the earth a 150 days." -Genesis 7:4-13,17-24
In this passage, it may suggest that there was a flood 600 years before Noah became son of Terah. And yes, there was a most violent flood, in Kish, during the days of Gilgamesh in circa 2600 BCE (evidenced by the 40 cm/6 inches deposited water-borne material from the streets).
The Bible has also explicitly said that
"in the year 600 Years"
in 2029 BCE all the springs (fountains) of the great deep were bursted forth and clouds brought continuous rain, resulting to a flood on the dry land (upon the earth).
The word "bishnath" is used by Moses as a calendar year counting:
"And Aaron the priest went up into mount Hor at the commandment of YHWH, and died there,
בִּשְׁנַ֣ת
[bishnath]
in the Year
הָֽאַרְבָּעִ֗ים
[ha-’arbaim]
the 40
after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the 1st day of the 5th month." -Numbers 33:38
This is not for the age of Aaron but for the age of a certain calendar counting, in this case of their exodus. In all mentioning of "bishnath" in the Bible (Lev 25:13,54, 27:24, 1Kings 15:25,28,33, 16:10,15,23,29, 22:41,51, etc.), it always not referring to the biological age of a person but the age of the calendar counting of an event or office.
The usual flood of Tigris-Euphrates Rivers may come between the beginning of April and the early part of June.
The biblical flood was a fountain flood and rain flood.
Its area is "upon the earth," explicitly defined "upon the face of the ground" in Genesis 7:23, and the ground here refers to the "dry land," in contrast to the high hills. The mountains or high hills were covered by the rain. The twin high hills here could be the twin volcanoes known "Mashu" in Gilgamesh Epic and "Masis" in ancient Armenian which later named "Mount Ararat" by the Westerner writers. The natives themselves called it Erkuahi (Two [Mountains]). Around 30 kilometers from the south of Masis (Mt. Ararat) is the area anciently known "hills of Ararat."
The practice of carrying animals on boat is depicted on clay tablet as early as 3000 BCE. And many devastating floods happened since then in Mesopotamia, and it seems that Noah learned another incoming flood and Yah, his God, warned him about it.
Between 2300 and 1920 BCE there was a plenty of plants in Mediterranean, coincidentally there was or were floods in China brought out by unbearable amount of water bursted forth by earthquake. The allusion of flood in Aratta was inserted in the 2000 BCE published Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta. In the Bible, fountain/rain flood took place in the "mountains of Ararat" in 2029 BCE.
The heroism of Noah reached Babylonia most likely by sailors from Armenian region, as men of Armenia were selling wine to Babylon. Historiographer scribes started to divide history by the 2900 BCE flood as evidenced in the
SUMERIAN KINGLIST WB 444.
A vertical cuneiform clay prism 9 inches by 4 inches which was published, most likely, by king Damiq-ilishu (1721-1698 BCE).
The last king mentioned in this list is "Suen-magir" (1731-1721 BCE) of Isin. By this time the Arattan flood story had already reached southern Mesopotamia by wine sellers from Ararat region and gave inspiration to some scribes to mention in their list a "flood" that had happened in c. 2900 BCE.
During the time of king Shulgi (1998-1951 BCE) the Ararat flood was not yet popularly known in Ur, Isin or Babylon, and was not mentioned in Sumerian Kinglist.
After the 2029 BCE Ararat Flood, Sumerian writers became awakened to mention "flood" and they made a kinglist clay tablet "WB (Weld-Blundel) 62" in around 1900 BCE, listing "Ziusudra" as the last king prior to Flood.
This was why when Suen-magir (1720 BCE) version of Sumerian Kinglist was published, "flood" is used to divide era.
The name of a flood hero and the flood tale are though neither mentioned in this WB 444.
The said list is now the standard version and known Weld-Blundell prism 444 (AN 1923.444), and divided as follows:
Lines 1 - 39 : before the flood. "Then the flood swept over," the text says (which appears as paraphrased from 2000 BCE "Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta" story, but applied to 2900 BCE flood).
The last antediluvian king is...
" Ubara-Tutu [reigned] 5 sars, 1 ner.
After the flood swept over, and the kingship was descended from heaven, the kingship was in Kish [whose kings were]
Jushur,
Kullassina-bel..."
Lines 40-265: 1st Kish dynasty to Lugalzagesi (2264-2239 BCE).
Lines 266-377: Akkad to Isin (2238-1698 BCE).
Lines 378-431 : summary.
In this list, the scribes used "sar" that could be interpreted variously. Literally, "sar" may mean 3600 units, but understood by Berosus & other scribes as "3,600 years."
Sar could probably also mean a "year" (365 days).
And likely it may mean "18 years" as a measurement of recurrence of solar eclipse.
The 18th century BCE scribes probably used this "sar" and other time measurements ("ner," "sos") for religious purposes we don't yet know until now.
Alulim, the first remembered ruler of Eridug, reigned in 8 years - would make appear 28,800 years by using "8 sars," for example.
The last king before the 2900 BCE Shuruppak flood is Ubara-Tutu, and the 630 BCE Gilgamesh Epic version identified him as the father of Utnapishtim, making the year of reign of Gilgamesh & Utnapishtim in 2900 BCE.
It may mean that originally, Sumerian kinglist did not have flood hero, and it was only later when it was added.
The oldest mention of flood in Aratta is in the ca. 2000 BCE published Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta. As this flood inspired that ancient scribe, there could be a high probability that the flood of Ararat could have also inspired the Southern Mesopotamians to include their version of the flood (actually by just adulterated toponyms and hero). The earliest to be an example is WB 62, published in around 1900 BCE and unearthed from Larsa, and has identified "Ziusudra" as the last king prior to the flood.
King Suen-magir (1721 BCE) does not mention the flood tale but he reported that there was a flood after king Ubara-Tutu.
The story of Ararat flood became popular, and later in 1600 BCE in the earliest Sumerian creation myth "Eridu Genesis" the tale (Flood) was incorporated with
"Ziusudra"
saying that he was a "gudug" priest who learned the impending flood.
In later edition, writers changed his Sumerian name into Akkadian
"Atra-Hasis"
and likely the full story of 2029 BCE Ararat River Flood was ascribed to the Sumerian king and the toponyms were also changed into the Sumerian places.
The "Epic of Atra-Hasis" was likely composed during the reign of Babylonian king Ammisaduqa (1550-1530 BCE) as a colophon (scribal identification) in his period mentions this epic.
This epic was probably derived from older script and plagiarized from Ararat River Flood.
The god in the epic is named "Ea," which in its hacked form "Enki," was synonymous to Eblaite "A-u" (Yahu) in the time of Abram (1738-1564 BCE) to Jacob.
And many versions and editions of it had spread out to west, and a fragment of this epic has been recovered too in Ugarit, Syria.
Around 880 BCE when the epic was plagiarized by Assyrians to be added in the
Gilgamesh Epic of Sin-leqi-nninni (1100 BCE),
and they changed the name of the flood hero into
"Utnapishtim,"
not personal but a descriptive name.
Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (669-631/627 BCE) plagiarized and edited the epic to make it highly mythicised than historical, changing some elements of "Atra-Hasis Epic" and guessing what Moses (Hezekiah edition) meant for the term "tebah."
The hero of the 2029 BCE Ararat Flood inspired Sumerian writers and later the 10th generation king of Assyria from "Adam" named himself as
"Nuabu" ("Whose Father is Noah")
and, later, the founder of Old Babylonian kingdom named himself as
"Sumuabum" ("Whose Father is Shem")
in 1798 BCE.
The story of Noah might have reached southern part of Euphrates by wine sellers that sooner Babylonians amalgamated "Noah" with the last king of Shuruppak "Ziusudra." The hero of Ararat fountain flood and the last king of flooded Shuruppak, although too far both from distance and time, were combined, and the result is the name "Atrahasis."
The flood incident happened on a river near a hill, and that place - where mouth of river is the source of water - was too far away from Sumer or Shuruppak. The place where the flood hero was a priest (mouthpiece of God Ya) was near twin mountain Mashu (Masis) and near the sacred stones.
Around 1540 BCE the "Tale of Atra-Hasis" was popular in Babylon.
It reached Ugarit, Syria down to Galilee, that even Jesus Christ describes of it:
" For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, " - Matthew 24:38 (KJV)
It resembles of a possible another version of " Atrahasis."
"He invited his people... to a banquet... He sent his family on board. They ate and they drank. But he was in and out. He could not sit, could not crouch, for his heart was broken and he was vomiting gall. " - Atra-Hasis 3.2.40-47
When Ashurbanipal plagiarized it, he changed the idea that " Anunnaki" in the incident were humans (priests):
"The Anunnaki, the great gods were sitting in thirst and hungry" - Atrahasis OB III. 30-31
" The gods feared the deluge " - Gilgamesh Epic 11.113
And he changed it from a river flood into a sea flood.
"Like dragonflies they have filled the river. " - Atrahasis 3.4.6-7
" Like the spawn of fishes, they fill the sea." -Gilgamesh Epic 11.123
In the Bible it is a fountain/rain flood. In the Bible the
"fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills" in "a land of brooks of water" is a natural phenomenon (Deut 8:7).
But on that day of 2029 BCE there was a much evaporation of water or pressure from below, that the rocks could not contain the water from depths and clouds could not withhold from the sky.
"... were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth 40 days and 40 nights." -Genesis 7:11-12
All animals and men on the dry land died when water covered it. The fountains of depths that broke are in the earth of Armenia, specifically south of Masis (Mashu). The natives called the area Erkuahi, which means "[Region of] Two," which may be referred to in Genesis as "ha-harim" ('The Dual Mountain').
"... and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged; The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained; And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the 150 days the waters were abated. And the ark rested in the 7th month, on the 17th day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat." -Genesis 8:1-4
The ark was floating on Ararat until it was held captive by its mountains on 25th September 2028 BCE. In Bible calendar it happened
bishnat (in the year)
600 Year,
during Noah's life, or 600 years after the devastating flood of Kish.
One of the descendants of Tudiya Adamu was proud to be identified as "Nuabu" ("Whose Father is Noah").
Nuabu was the 12th king from "Tudiya" or the 10th king after "Adamu" (Adam).
Assyrian kinglist has the following rulers who lived in tents:
Tudiya,
Adam;
1) Yangi,
2) Suhlamu,
3) Harharu,
4) Mandaru,
5) Imshu,
6) Harshu,
7) Didanu,
8) Hanu,
9) Zuabu,
10) Nuabu.
These rulers were not called "kings" but
"issiak" (vicars/governors [of God]),
as Adam was the first vicar of God in Eden, in Assyria. The title "shar" ("king") was given to the God by this lineage. It was king Erishum I (1828-1789 BCE) who built the temple of Ashur, founding the actual city - although an inscription of king Shalmaneser I (1266/1258- c.1232 BCE) claims that it was king Uspia who first dedicated a temple in Assyria.
Before this incident, it is believed that peoples could use one language to understand each other, probably besides of their own languages. This one language is reflected on what the king of Uruk has recited:
"Incantation of Nudimmud,"
a hymn imploring Enki (Ea) to restore the linguistic unity of the inhabited regions, named as Shubur (Diyarbakir region), Hamazi, Sumer, Uri-ki (the region around Akkad), and the Martu (Amorite in Syrian) land:
"On that day when there is no snake, when there is no scorpion, when there is no hyena, when there is no lion, when there is neither dog nor wolf, when there is thus neither fear nor trembling, man has no rival! At such a time, may the lands of Shubur and Hamazi, the many-tongued, and Sumer, the great mountain of the 'me' of magnificence, and Akkad, the land possessing all that is befitting, and the Martu land, resting in security — the whole universe, the well-guarded people — may they all address Enlil together in a single language! For at that time, for the ambitious lords, for the ambitious princes, for the ambitious kings — Enki, the lord of abundance and of steadfast decisions, the wise and knowing lord of the Land, the expert of the gods, chosen for wisdom, the lord of Eridug, shall change the speech in their mouths, as many as he had placed there, and so the speech of mankind is truly one."
It came to pass that the whole earth of Kedem was of one language, and talked of one topic.
"And it came to pass, as they journeyed from Kedem, that they found a plain
בְּאֶ֥רֶץ
[ba-'eresh]
in the earth
of Shinar; and they dwelt there.
And they said one to another, 'Go to, let us make brick, and bake them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and asphalt had they for mortar.'
And they said, 'Go to, let us build us a city and a
migdal [tower],
whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.' " -Genesis 11:2-4
Moses uses here the term Shinar, popular during the time of Rameses II, instead of a much older "Babylon" or "Kadingra." Although Qatna may also mean "Kedem," but it was ceased to be used during the latter days of Moses (1309-1189 BCE) likely because of the drought that disturbed its inhabitants. Shinar was more broad since it may mean Between Two Rivers, thought to be river of Syria and of Babylonia (Euphrates). In Isaiah 11:11 Shinar is described to be a neighborhood of Hamath. From Thutmose IV's tomb's chariot, topographical list 8.2, "Shinar" near Kadesh, is between Naharin and Tunip. Shinar was a district wherein lay Babel, Erekh, Akkad (Gen 10:10), and Calno (Palistin; Isa 10:9-10). Thousands of years before this settlement, men were using bitument for their instruments in Syria. There was an abundant bitumen or asphalt in the city of Hit, which was under Babylonians probably during the planning of building of the Migdal Babel.
"But came down YHWH to see the city and the Migdal, which the sons of
ha-'adam [Adam] had built." -Genesis 11:5
The builders were descendants of Adam. In history, three ancient peoples were claiming to be descended from Adamu (Adam), namely, the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Hebrews. Since the builders came from Qedem and settled to Shinar, then they could be from Semitic people.
Genesis 11:8 says that "they ceased building Ha'ir [the city]" because of "balal" (mixing) on their language and speech on all the land, and it was called "Babel."
As indicated by Genesis 10:29-30, the aborted building of Migdhal Babel may have happened during the time of Ophir and Havilah, grandsons of Eber (fl. 1962-1865 BCE), almost coinciding with the founding of Old Babylonian Kingdom.
Old Babylonian Kingdom
Sumuabum (1798-1785).
Sumulael (1785-1749).
Sabium (1749-1735).
Apil-Sin (1735-1717).
Sin-mubalit (1716-1697).
Hammurabi (1696-1654).
Samsuilliuma (1654-1616).
Abi-eshuh (1616-1588).
Ammi-Datana (1588-1551).
AMMI-SADUQA (1550-1530).
Samsu-ditana (1530-1499 BCE).
The prediction that 'if eclipse would happen on Sabbatu 14, the Babylon is near to its end' came true when on Sabbatu 14th of 1547 BCE the predicted eclipse of the sun and moon occurred, near the last king of Babylon, Samsu-ditana (1530-1499 BCE).
Hittite king Mursili I sacked Babylon in 1499 BCE, resulting to the end of Old Babylonian Kingdom.
Hittite Kingdom
Mursili I (1524-1494 BCE).
Hantili (1494-1464).
Zidanta I (1464-1454).
Ammuna (1454-1434).
Huzziya (1434-1429).
Telepinu (c.1428-1203 BCE).
Alluwama.
Hantili II.
Tahurwaili.
Zidanta II.
Huzziya II.
Muwtalli I.
Tudhaliya I (?1370 BCE).
Arnuwanda I.
Tudhaliya II (1360?-1344).
Tudhaliya III (1344 BCE).
Suppiluliuma I (1344-1322).
Arnuwanda II (1322-1321).
MURSILI II (1321-1295).
Muwtalli II (1295-1272).
Mursili III (1272-1267).
Hattusili III (1267-1237).
Tudhaliya IV (1237-1209).
Arnuwanda III (1209-1207).
Suppiluliuma II (1207-c.1190 BCE).
In the 14th century BCE (1399-1300 BCE), there were 7 kings in Hattusa, whereas in 1299-1200 BCE were 6 kings and in 1499-1400 BCE were 5 kings. Expectedly, from 1428 to around 1370 BCE there could be 6 kings. If this is so, then, ultrashort chronology is the accurate timeline for Old Babylonian Kingdom.
Muwtalli II (1295-1272), Hattusili III (1267-1237), and Tudhaliya IV (1237-1209) were contemporaries of king Rameses II (1279-1213 BCE).
For the timeline of Old Babylonian Kingdom, we use here absolute dating determined by: Hammurabi's regnal years (1696-1654 BCE) derived from the ousted of Isme-Dagan I in 1655 BCE, just before his own death.
This Isme-Dagan reigned 11 years (1666-1655) in Assur, according to a limmu-list of eponyms unearthed at Kanesh in 2003, after succeeding his father Shamshi-Adad I (who reigned 33 years).
Shamshi-Adad I was an Amorite from Terqa, Syria who seized the control of Assyria when he overthrew Erishum II (1666 BCE), the successor of Naram-Suen (1728-1693).
It was this Shamshi-Adad to whom Ishi-Addu (1688-1677) was referring the declaration: "even if Shamshi-Adad would conclude peace with Sumu-epuh, I will never make peace with Sumu-epuh, as long as I live!"
Within 6 years, from 1688 to 1683 BCE, Ishi-Addu had a correspondence with Mari. And he was an ally of Shamshi-Adad.
Shamshi-Adad tried to usurp Assyrian throne but king Naram-Suen defeated him, and he "went to Kar-Duniash (Babylon) in the time of Naram-Suen" (Assyrian King List).
Yasmah-Adad married the daughter of Yahdun-Lim, and to make sure of sitting in the throne of Mari, a servant of Shamshi-Adad assassinated Yahdun-Lim of Mari, coercing Zimri-Lim (the legitimate successor) to flee to Yamhad. Shamshi-Adad appointed his own son, Yasmah-Adad, as its king.
Yasmah-Adad married Beltum, the daughter of Ishi-Addu in 1687 BCE. He also informed Ishi-Addu that 2000 Suteans were conducting a raid against Qatna. In 1679 BCE when Shamshi-Adad was no longer able to rule and control Mari, Yasmah-Adad was removed, and likely killed, and Zimri-Lim replaced him. Shamshi-Adad however died in 1666 BCE after he ousted Erishum II (1693-1666) of Assyria.
The length of reign, particularly limmu years, between Naram-Suen and son Erishum II is 64 years.
The start of reign of Naram-Suen can be determined by a solar eclipse.
In the 23rd limmu (that is, of Puzur-ishtar ben Nur-ilishu in 1705 BCE) in eponym of Naram-Suen of Assyrian there was a solar eclipse (Aug.29) at 45N 32E for 03m 16s 403 km. This solar eclipse makes Naramsin's first year in between 1729 and 1728 BC during the limmu of Shu-Suen son of Bab-ilum.
Note: This could be the first time that the name "Bab-ilum" was used as a name of a person, likely implicating that its etymon "Bab-ila" became popular during this era, coinciding with the timeline of Eber's grandsons and of the founding of Old Babylonian Kingdom and apparently of the aborted building of Migdal Babel.
We have a precise dating for the Assyrian king Naram-Suen (1728-1693 BCE), and also of the end of the reign of his son Erishum II in 1666 BCE as the total of their limmu years is 64.
The absolute dating for Hammurabi of Babylon can be derived from the astronomical observations of Venus' positions between Year 1 and Year 21 of his great grandson Ammi-Saduga recorded in EAE (Enuma Anu Enlil) Tablet 63, also known "The Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa."
It was Franz Xaver Kugler (1912) who first succeeded in identifying the enigmatic "Year of the Golden Throne" ("Venus" tablet K.160) as potentially the 8th year of the reign of Ammisaduqa, based on one of his regnal year names.
The Year 8 and Year 9 of the tablet has "year of the golden throne," which is also mentioned in Ammisadaga's year name. To determine the exact dates of Venus first and last appearances in that 8th year, we can know the precise year near the time of Mursili I's sacked of Babylon during Ammisaduqa's successor, Samsuditana. It is because every around 2920 days (about 8 years), the Venus cycle happens. Venus cycle is when all Venus, the Sun and the fixed stars arrangements repeat approximately.
The astronomical observations took place in the following years, one of which is the 8th year of Ammisaduqa:
1509 BCE (Supershort Chronology).
1542 BCE (Ultra Low Chronology).
1574 BCE (Low Chronology).
1630 BCE (Middle Low Chronology)
1638 BCE (Middle Chronology).
1694 BCE (High Chronology).
This means Babylon may have been sacked in:
1466 BCE (Supershort Chronology)
1499 BCE (Ultra Low Chronology).
1531 BCE (Low Chronology).
1587 BCE (Middle Low Chronology)
1595 BCE (Middle Chronology).
1651 BCE (High Chronology).
Encyclopedias and other books are arbitrarily using the Middle Chronology (1595 BCE) for the fall of Old Babylonian Kingdom, with 1792-1750 BCE as king Hammurabi's regnal years, even though this Middle Chronology brings out numerous errors.
We use absolute dating of Ultrashort Chronology 1499 BCE for the fall, corroborated by many supporting datings (e.g. the solar eclipse of August 29, 1705 BCE during 23rd year of Naram-Suen of Assyria reported in the Mari Eponym Chronicle [in the year eponymous of Puzur-Ishtar], the reign of Telepinu in 1428 BCE, the prediction of eclipse in 1532 BCE before the fall of Babylon [EAE tablet 20], the war of Amarpiel of Shinar, Ar-ri-wuk, and Abram in 1664 BCE [strengthens by the sudden destruction of Sodom in 1638 BCE], the disappearance in 1665 BCE of Zimri-Lim (the suzerain of Terru/Terah).
Adding to these corroborative dates and events is the possibility of volcanic report in Year 12 and likely of Year 14 in the Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa, which is synchronous to the historical archaeological Thera eruption in circa 1530 BCE. In fact, most recent pottery style (e.g. Cypriotic) found at Akrotiri was dated to ca.1500 BCE in the Late Minoan 1A.
It says that on UD.15.KAM (the 15th day) of Sabati (11th month), Ninsianna (Venus) in the west disappeared 3 days. Most likely volcanic dust hindered the visibility of Venus. If this was really connected to Thera eruptions, then we can have precise dates 1538 and 1536 BCE as the volcanic ash scattering on the sky from Santorini to Mesopotamia hindered the observation for Venus.
"In month XI, 15th day, Venus in the west disappeared, 3 days in the sky it stayed away, and in month XI, 18th day, Venus in the east became visible: springs will open, Adad his rain, Ea his floods will bring, king to king messages of reconciliation will send."
Precision in chronology is very important to have an accurate history. And one of the very scientific approaches to determine exact dates is by astronomical reports, which are also an advance advice from the Bible:
"And God said, Let there be lights in the expanse of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years" -Genesis 1:14
For example, Allan Poe Bona Redoña determines the exact birthdate of prophet Jeremiah to be on 15th April 657 BCE after the solar eclipse report in Jeremiah 15:9-10, the eclipse which occurred over 39.339° 18' N 35°24'E, within 5 minutes 12 seconds, 299 km (186 mi) wide.
The allusion of May 16th, 1208 BCE annular solar eclipse by Jasher (Josh 10:13a, cf. Habak 3:11), likely corroborated by king Merneptah in Victory Stele and probably by Deborah, gives precise date of the war of Deborah that happened during the pharaoh's time. This quotation was used to prove that Joshua's request to keep "Mesh" (sun-like brightness) silent is possible, and which gives the timeline of Joshua near or contemporary of Deborah's.
Another example, the reign of king Rameses II can be precisely dated by the report of "psḏntyw" on II Peret 27 in his regnal Year 52. In ancient Egyptian calendar, "psdntyw" is known in the temple calendar (lunar month) as the conception of god Thoth in the Middle Kingdom, hence identified as the new moon. Thus, psdntyw means "new moon." And date of particular new moon can be scientifically identified. The new moon in concern is on the 27th day of the 2nd month of Peret in the Year 52 of king Rameses II. If Rameses II started to reign in 1279 BCE, then the said new moon is on December 20th, 1228 BCE, hence his accession date of III Shemu 27 is on May 31st, 1279 BCE.
Our best evidence to support the Ultrashort Chronology for Old Babylonian Kingdom is the lunar eclipse recorded on economic tablet text dated in the month Abu found in the east of Tigris river in Tell Muhammad, a site near Tell Harmal in Baghdad. The other text speaks about a year name 38th year after Babylon was resettled. These texts are from Nisan and Abu, and one date is Abu day 10, thus giving us hint that the document is mentioning events in that week. The only lunar eclipse occurred that era in Abu is 16th May, 1459 BCE which ended at 19h 40m one hour after sunset.
This date means that in 1496 BCE Babylon was resettled, just after it was destroyed by king Mursili I in 1499 BCE. Strengthening this date "1499 BCE" as the possible end of Babylonian king Samsuditana (1530-1499) is the double eclipses of moon and sun predicted in Enuma Anu Enlil (EAE) tablet 20:
“If an eclipse occurs on the 14th day of Shabatu (month XI), and the god, in his eclipse, becomes dark on the side south above, and clears on the side west below; the north wind (blows, and) (the moon) begins the last watch, and he (the moon) is seen with the sun. His horns bend (toward) the sky. He (the moon) did not obscure (cover up) his entire šurinnu [crescent], and disappeared. You observe on the 28th, and the eclipse is near; begins and becomes red; it (the šurinnu) will show you the eclipse. Observe his eclipse, (that of) the god who in his eclipse was visible and disappeared, and bear in mind the north wind. The prediction is given for Babylon: the destruction of Babylon is near.”
According to this Eclipse of Babylon I, Babylon is in its "near" destruction if an eclipse of the moon occurred on Shabatu 14th and solar eclipse becomes red on Shabatu 28th. Since pair of eclipses is very rare, we can easily determine the year. Between 1600 and 1490 BCE, the pair of eclipses falls on
1508 BCE, penumbral lunar: December 10 (mag. -0.11),
solar: December 26 (mag. 0.41), 3N° 28°E;
1532 BCE, lunar: April 14 (mag. 0.81),
solar: April 29 (mag. 0.44), 54°N 24°E; and
1547 BCE, lunar: January 31 (mag. 25),
solar: February 15 (mag. 0.81), 9°N 29°E.
For 22 seconds, it is very unlikely that Babylonians could notice the eclipse on December 26, 1508 BCE.
The problem of 1532 BCE solar eclipse is that April is too far to be the month Shabatu. The Babylonian month Shabatu is between latter part of January and first part of February.
The solar eclipse of 1547 BCE was two times longer than 1532 BCE and it also the corresponding to the phrase "eclipse... becomes red..." because solar eclipse on February 15 was an annular one.
With high certainty, the solar eclipse being predicted is on February 15, 1547 BCE during the time of king Ammisaduqa, before the last Babylonian king Samsuditana would reign. The prediction does not say that the pair of eclipses will happen "in" the year, rather it clearly stated that it will occur when "the destruction of Babylon is near." And yes, king Ammisaduqa was near to the destruction of Babylon because it was Samsuditana who reigned during the destruction of Babylon.
With this, we can safely say that Samsuditana reigned in 1530-1499, Ammisaduqa in 1550-1530, and Hammurabi in 1696-1654 BCE.
Therefore, the lunar eclipse during 11th year or Year 12 of Hammurabi as reported by Asqudum was observed on December 6, 1684 BCE. This date means Hammurabi took the throne in 1696 BCE, exactly in the timeline of the Ultrashort Chronology.
“To my lord speak thus: Thus (speaks) your servant Asqûdum. On the 14th day (of the month), an
an-ta-lu-ú-um [eclipse]
of the moon took place. The taking place of this
an-ta-le-e-em [eclipse]
was evil, (but) the omen for my lord was good and the omens were good for the upper district (meaning the upper part of the Euphrates river valley). Now (from) where my lord is, he should take these omens for his own good and for the good of the city of Mari, and let not the heart of my lord be troubled. Also, would that my lord sends me a response to my tablet so that he will put my heart at ease.” -Asqûdum to Yasmah-Adad (?), ARM XXVI/1 84
The letter was sent by king Zimri-Lim's diviner Asqudum likely to Yasmah-Adad at the time when Shamshi-Adad was gone from Syria. Asqudum's eponym was in the Year 12 of Hammurabi.
Discrepancies in regnal years of Shamshi-Adad are causing difficulty to determine the synchronous timeline because Shamshi-Adad claims that he reigns in Assyria even without sitting on the throne in Ashur. This was not the case for Naram-Suen and Erishum. Now if he had had not sit on the throne of Ashur, then by implication the legitimate king (Erishum) was likely sitting in his behalf. Adding to this confusion is the report in 5th year name of Ibal-pi'el of Eshnunna (1680 BCE) indicating some reverence to Shamshi-Adad I at his passing, or more probably the passing or disappearance of capability of Shamshi-Adad to rule, and by the 8th and 9th year-names of Ibal-pi'el, the Eshnunna king attacked and destroyed the armies of Ashur and Mari, giving chance for Zimri-Lim to return to Mari in circa 1670 BCE and defeat Yasmah-Adad, son of Shamshi-Adad I.
If Ultrashort Chronology is the accurate timeline for 1st Babylonian Kingdom, then the solar eclipse reported in Mari Eponym List (MEC) in the 23rd limmu of Naram-Suen in Assyria during the year eponym Puzur-Ishtar occurred on August 29th, 1706 BCE. This perfectly matches the dating of Kanish Eponym List (KEL) which gives 123 years as the temporal distance between Erishum I and the solar eclipse during the 23rd of Naram-Suen.
Eponym of Naram-Suen of Assyria in Kanish Eponym List:
1) Shu-Suen son of Bab-ilum, 1728 BCE.
2) Ashur-imitti son of ili-bani, 1727 BCE.
3) Enna-Suen son of Shu-Adhur, 1726 BCE.
4) Akkutum son of Alahum, 1725 BCE.
5) Mas-i-ili son of Irishum, 1724 BCE.
6) Iddi-ahum son of Kudanum, 1723 BCE.
7) Samayal son of Shu-Balum, 1722 BCE.
8) ili-Ahum son Sukkalia, 1721 BCE.
9) Ennam-Anum son of Adhur-malik, 1720 BCE.
10) Ennum-Ashur son of Duni-Ea, 1719 BCE.
11) Enna-Suen son of Shu-Ishtar, 1718 BCE.
12) Hannanarum, 1717 BCE.
13) Dadia, 1716 BCE.
14) Kapatia, 1715 BCE.
15) Ishma-Ashur son of Ea-dan, 1714 BCE.
16) Ashur-mutappil son of Azizum, 1713 BCE.
17) Shu-Nirah son of Azuzaya, 1712 BCE.
18) Iddin-abum, 1711 BCE.
19) ili-dan son of Azuza, 1710 BCE.
20) Ashur-imitti son of Iddin-Istar, 1709 BCE.
21) Buzia son of A is, 1708 BCE.
22) Dadia son of Shu-ilabrat, 1707 BCE.
23) Puzur-Ishtar son of Nur-ilishu, 1706 BCE.
The limmu Puzur-Ishtar is in 1706 BCE during the 23rd year of Naram-Suen. This total solar eclipse that was observed at 45°N 32°E and lasted for 3 minutes and 16 seconds occurred on 29th August 1706 BCE. With this, the Year 1 of Naram-Suen is in 1728 BCE and the accession of Erishum I was in 1828 BCE.
Erishum I (limmu: 38 year names).
Ikunum (limmu: 15 year names).
Sargon I (limmu: 39 year names).
Puzur-Ashur II (limmu: 7 year names).
Naram-Suen 23rd year solar eclipse.
38 + 15 + 39 + 7 + 23 = 122
1706 BCE solar eclipse + 122 years = 1828 BCE Erishum I.
This will give 1828-1789 BCE as Erishum's regnal years, and this is highly accurate because Erishum was a contemporary of Sumuabum, who reigned in 1798-1785 BCE according to Ultrashort Chronology of Old Babylonian Kingdom. Adding 12 years to the timeline of Assyrian's Chronology will make the death of Erishum in 1801 BCE, which means Erishum died before Sumuabum became king of Babylon and it will lead to error.
Ikunum (1789-1774 BCE) is perfectly contemporary of Sumulael (1785-1749 BCE).
The reconstruction of KEL will give 121th year from Erishum I's accession to Shamshi-Adad's birth year (1707 BCE) if there is another Shamshi-Adad, who was contemporary of Naram-Suen. It is possible that Ishme-Dagan was doing military actions using the name of his father making his service 40 years, the last 10 years of which was when he was the king of Assyria.
It is clear in the report that Shamshi-Adad went to Kar-Duniash (Babylon) in the time of Naram-Suen. If Shamshi-Adad was born in the 22nd year of Naram-Suen, then he was fighting Naram-Suen at his teenage year, which is very unlikely. This may mean that there was another "Shamshi-Adad" born in the Naram-Suen's 22nd regnal year, and he could be Ishme-Dagan, who was acting on behalf of his father Shamshi-Adad.
"Shamshi-Adad, son of Ila-Kabkabu, went to Kar-Duniash (Babylon) in the time of Naram-Suen. In the eponym of Ibni-Adad, Shamshi-Adad went up for Karduniash. He took Ekallatum, where he stayed 3 years. In the eponym of Atamar-Ishtar, Shashi-Adad went up from Elkallatum. He ousted Erishum, the son of Naram-Suen, from the throne and took it. "
It seems to this report that after hiding in Kardunias (Babylon), Shamshi-Adad ousted Erishum from controlling Ekallatum. It also apparent that Naram-Suen had defeated him which in return coerced him to seek refuge to the Amorites of Kardunias (which this time might have been ruled by Sin-mubalit, the father of Hammurabi).
Hammurabi, during the 33rd year of Shashi-Adad I (1666 BCE), conquered Assyria: this ended the dynasty founded by Puzur-Ashur I, as Erishum II ended reigning in 1666 BCE.
And before Hammurabi died (1654 BCE), he defeated Ishme-Dagan, and Mut-Ashkur became a local ruler of Assyria.
Assyrian King List (AKL) credits Ishme-Dagan I with a reign of 40 years, this is probably by including 30 years under the shadow of "Shamshi-Adad."
Archaeological findings and limmu inscriptions suggest a reign of only 11 years for Ishme-Dagan, or from 1666 to 1655 BCE.
Hammurabi allowed Ishme-Dagan's generals into his secret council meetings, to the dismay of Zimri-Lim (1679-1665 BCE), Hammurabi's then ally.
Zimri-Lim was an ally of Hammurabi (1696-1954 BCE) before 1665 BCE. This gives us hint that around 1670s BCE Ishme-Dagan was reigning or active in behalf of Shamshi-Adad, who died in 1666 BCE.
Assyria was under Shamshi-Adad, whose seat of power was not in Ashur but in Shubat-Enlil; and it was Erishum II who was sitting on the throne of Assyria, probably during his reign.
Dadusha (1705-1684 BCE) of Eshnunna in 1686 BCE joined with Shamshi-Adad and was successful to subdue the city of Qabara in Arbela (Erbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan) and its king Banu-Ishtar in the area between two Zab rivers.
Ishme-Dagan's army was defeated by king Dadusha as commemorated in a year-name coined by Dadusha. This simply means that Ishme-Dagan (1666-1655 BCE), at his 22, was active in around 1685 BCE to fight king Dadusha.
All these events show that Ishme-Dagan was active from the days of Dadusha (1705-1684) to Zimri-Lim (1679-1665) and his own time (1666-1655 BCE) which probably counted by the Assyrian King List as his 40 years in service, even though he reigned only 11 years.
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