by Jon Saboe
The Cult of Inanna, Queen of Heaven, continued to spread throughout the world, adapting slightly with each new settlement and culture. In the East, far beyond Indus, she was venerated as the sacred mother, Shing Moo. In the far mountains of the northwest there were legends of Hertha, the mother of the Earth, and along the shores of the Great Sea, temples to Attis, Diana, Proserpina, Ceres, and Hecate sprang up as new communities and cities adopted her story—which was invariably the same:
The Queen of Heaven had been impregnated by the gods and produced a new god-king with great influence over humanity. This new god-king was very demanding and wrathful, and could only be controlled by his mother. Only by worship and sacrifice (strangely, in the form of money or other gifts to the temple) could she convince her son to show mercy and use his power to benefit humanity.
Only in one region was there a major deviation from this account. In the southern deserts of Dedan, the semi-nomadic people called the Sabeans had no tolerance for a female leader or guide of any variety, so they changed her gender. He was still the moon god, but he was known as Allah, and he was revered for his fertility and prosperity for all who revered him. He was the father of three divine children.
There was truly, only one purpose for the spread of this cult. It was designed to saturate humanity with a legend which would pre-date the arrival of the Zeh-ra, and sow confusion and mistrust wherever the true message of redemption was told.
These were also the days of great god-kings: men of influence who claimed to be descendants of the Queen of Heaven, and rose to power with great speed and ruthlessness, often reigning for more than a century. It was difficult for the average person to dismiss their claims, since they inherited great longevity, and all could see that they were often two or three times the age of their most elderly subjects.
It was also a time of great turmoil as some cultures made great advancements in science and innovation, while others degenerated into ignorance, forgetting all that their predecessors had known. Great wars constantly plagued the earth as nations continually tested one another’s strengths.
Finally, it was a time of great climatic upheaval as the deserts in the south grew at an ever-increasing rate; their moisture disappearing into the north where it became imprisoned in the vast ice sheets which were now spreading inexorably across the very regions into which humanity was attempting to migrate.
As had been predicted, the day came when šeg fell on the very mountains that Peleg had traveled—and, in the years that followed, was finally experienced in the plains of Shinar.
Shem hated writing.
It wasn’t the act of writing that he despised—it was the concept that frustrated him.
It only served to weaken the memory. Throughout his life, great compositions and diaries had been communicated orally, and it was assumed that the listener would retain every word after the first hearing.
So much had changed, Shem thought with a sad shake of his head. Humanity could no longer be expected to recall large quantities of information, and now that there was such an ever-expanding variety of languages, maintaining an oral tradition throughout the confused and degenerating human race was impossible.
With a sigh, Shem returned to his stylus and continued marking the papyrus in front of him. He was visiting a newly formed library in Kemet, and had decided to create as many written records as possible, and donate them.
The curators welcomed the obviously aged man who spoke so many languages, and gave him a place to work. The people of Kemet valued elderly visitors from the Mesopotamian cities; partly because of the intrigue they had for the people of the northern lands and their amazing longevity, and partly because of an integral admiration which their culture held for all things aged.
They had their own version of the legends of the “Watchers”, and many believed that long-lived visitors from Shinar were descendants of the long lost race. They called them Urshu, and it was very difficult for Shem to dissuade them that he was simply an ordinary man. However, he could never quite bring himself to explain his true identity in the history of the human race.
Shem began writing, and the first item that he had produced, of course, was the Creator’s Amar—in seven different languages. He had then taken the writings and calculations of Peleg and produced an account of the Urbat and its travels, including details of the south polar passage and precise maps of the continental outlines which Peleg had created. It was entitled, “Hydrographic Treatise of the Great Discovery’s Urbat: Cartographs and Surveys of its Circumnavigation with Southern Transpolar Passage” by Captain Phaxâd and Chief Cartographer Peleg.
No one had ever heard of the Urbat, and few vaguely remembered tales of the Great Discovery, but in the years and decades that followed, visitors from many lands were inspired by this account, and numerous exploratory expeditions set out from the ports of Kemet, Minoa, Dedan, Indus, and even the new Greek settlements to confirm and build upon the information it contained, and to chart new maps and shipping routes.
After Shem had placed Peleg’s book in the library, he began transcribing the diary of his sister-in-law, Amoela.
She had been the wife of his brother, Japheth, and had studied history under his great-grandfather, Methuselah, himself a great historian. (A brief wave of sadness struck Shem as he recalled how Methuselah, in spite of his great learning, had refused to accept the Zeh-ra. Although he was the oldest man to have ever lived, he could have lived much longer. Shem remembered the shuddering inside of the rising, tilting ark and listening to the pounding floodwaters, knowing that his great-grandfather—and his friend—was about to be consumed by them.)
Amoela’s diary recorded, in great detail, the almost two thousand years of human history before the Great Deluge. Shem’s mind attempted to return to that world as he converted her words to print. There were accounts of the great Family Wars, the attempted extermination of those who taught of the coming Zeh-ra, and, more recently, the arrival of the Nephilim in their great golden airships, pretending to be life from other worlds—before they began their systematic enslavement and perverse hereditary experiments.
It had all been a great illusion, but Shem recalled the terrifying nights when his father and brothers wondered when they would come for them. Providentially, it had never happened.
Her son, Javan, had actually transcribed Amoela’s diary into writing, once before, but Shem had heard that he had placed it in her hands when she was buried. It was too inconceivable that future generations might actually discover her remains and her writing, so Shem dutifully translated her words into the languages of both Kemet and Sumer in hopes that future generations would benefit from her wisdom.
During his years in Kemet, Shem occasionally still received information from other lands, including news that Abram had finally been blessed with a son, Isaac, who had recently married. Abram’s new nation was slowly growing, and Shem was confident that the truth of the Amar would soon be spreading as His nation multiplied according to His promise.
Shem had moments of concern as he contemplated future generations who would hear the Amar, and believe it to be borrowed from “older” writings, such as the origin myths of other lands—not knowing that the Amar predated all of them.
He also received the sad news that his son, Arphaxad, and grandson, Salah (father of Eber) had also died, having succumbed to the ever-decreasing lifespans.
Shem knew that his time on earth was also drawing to a close. His eyes were going dim, and he now had difficulty breathing. He completed as many writings as he could, and then decided to visit the home of Melchiz'edek one last time.
When he reached the City of Peace, he was saddened to learn that Melchiz'edek had died just a few months before his arrival. The population of the city was also diminishing as people chose to move away, closer to the major cities where commerce was more profitable. Several long-time friends greeted him, and he remained there, until, one day, his failing eyes closed for the last time, and he departed his body; his S
pirit already re-united with his Creator.
He was taken to the caves of Amud, where he was entombed with some of the original settlers of the City of Peace. It had been sealed for many decades, but was reopened as a tribute to Shem and all that he had given them. He was buried with nothing but the clothes he wore and his small leather bag which contained a collection of unusual stones and an old reed flute, dried and aged beyond usability.
Shem had bridged two worlds. And throughout his entire life, he had learned to receive the grace and wisdom of his Creator, and, in so doing, he had accomplished all that he had been meant to accomplish.
Before Time and Space, Nothing existed within Nothingness.
A fluctuation occurred in the Nothingness, creating vast quantities of heated energy compressed within a primordial point of time and space, which exploded into an expanding void, coalescing and cooling to form particles and gasses. Powerful shockwaves created ripples which forced the gasses together, forming stars and galaxies.
Some of these stars exploded, spewing large clouds of gas and dust—portions of which collapsed violently, igniting new stars. The remaining debris coalesced into asteroids, planets, and gas giants which fell into orbits around them.
On one of these planets, great lightning and winds, along with a vast ocean of vapors, mixed with randomly occurring amino acids, forming the first simple creatures, both visible and invisible, from which came more complex animals—first those without, and then those with sensation.
Eventually, they increased in variety as they emerged from the oceans, becoming male and female, and acquiring new abilities as they encountered varied and diverse environments. Many of these became self-aware—including humans who pondered the heavens—the sun, moon, stars, and planets—believing themselves to be conscious.
But their consciousness was just an illusion.
Late 20th Century Origins Myth
Afterword
Fact Vs. Fiction
Every expert is accompanied by
an equal and opposite expert.
Although The Days of Peleg is a work of fiction, many of the elements contained within its pages are based on actual historical events and characters, and correctly portray technologies and institutions of that time. I wish to present selected examples from those scattered throughout the book:5
Ur was, during the time of this story, a major seaport. Since that time, the sea has receded so that it is now many miles from the ocean.
Inanna was a real person who was the daughter of Sargon and was given control of Ur, presiding over the rise of moon (Suen or Sĭn) worship there.
Uruk was a financial center which boasted functional stock and commodity markets.
Gutian “savages” invaded the Mesopotamian plains from the northwest and tried for many decades to destroy their civilization before eventually being driven out.
The mass suicide in the opening of Part IV was an historical event, and, in fact, was one of several such events.6
Escape of Tammuz from Erset la Tari (Hades) is an actual Sumerian Epic, depicting Tammuz’s death, Inanna’s elegy over him, his revival in the underworld where he is crowned as lord, and Inanna’s rescue—returning Tammuz and his light and love back to earth. (Read this at www.DaysOfPeleg.com)
As for more speculative or ambiguous historical events, I did my best to remain within the realm of possibility—if not plausibility. Inevitably, there will be different categories of readers who will be unsatisfied for one reason or another. Biblical traditionalists may be disconcerted to read that ancient man did more than simply wear robes and tend sheep. Hard-core “ancient astronaut” aficionados will be upset that I did not include an underground space command complex in Mt. Sinai, or magnetically propelled air-fighters raining down nuclear destruction over the Indus valley.
But most importantly, there are the Darwinists, who will be greatly offended by the notion that the earliest humans were every bit as intelligent and thoughtful as they themselves are (if not more so); and that all intellect (including theirs) is a product and gift of the Creator. I would be tempted to apologize, if it weren't for the fact that this was one of the primary motivations for writing this book.
History is not an exact science, and topics are invariably divided into multiple schools of thought. Two such schools must be acknowledged: First, there is a school of thought which believes that Sargon and Nimrod were one and the same person—which I have embraced for story-telling purposes within The Days of Peleg. For similar reasons, I have subscribed to a second (minority) school of thought which contends that Joktan and his descendants migrated eastward to what is now modern Afghanistan, and became the progenitor of the Chinese and other far-Eastern peoples.7
Another area of contention may be found within Shem’s discourse on causality and thought, during which numerous readers were undoubtedly shouting (mentally) “Quantum Mechanics!” in an attempt to bring some chance and uncertainty into the equation. Events at the quantum level do indeed appear to provide pure randomness and degrees of probability, but there is an inherent “stochastic determinism” 8 which ultimately overrides the chaos and produces the inevitable outcomes upon which our classical scientific laws rely. Regardless of which quantum mechanics’ school one subscribes to, the end result (i.e. when the wave function collapses) is always predictable. Also, the Planck-sized scale at which quantum effects occur are much too small for even the tiniest of organic structures to be affected.9 It must also be remembered that “Chaos Theory” does not propose that everything is chaos, but rather that everything is interconnected deterministically, creating the illusion of chaos. (If a butterfly flaps its wings in China…) Events are causal, yet, due to chaos, unpredictable.
Finally, for those who insist that timescales within The Days of Peleg are too restrictive, I have utilized the corrected timelines of Peter James, instead of the more conventional, faulty, Egyptian ones.10 These have been used in conjunction with events and times written by the historian, James Ussher, in his Annals of the World.
For those who may be interested, I have compiled a chapter-by-chapter “Fact vs. Fiction” section at DaysOfPeleg.com, where additional archaeological and historical notes may be found, in addition to sources and commentaries on the various OOPARTS which appear liberally throughout the text.
Jon Saboe
December, 2006
Appendix A
What the Sumerians Knew
One of the greatest enigmas in the studies of ancient history is the emergence of the Sumerians, who supposedly migrated from some unknown place and, with no apparent preliminary development, immediately began to build cities, observatories, libraries, and the civil infrastructures which accompany such undertakings. Only a fraction of the known Sumerian writing has been translated, and the translation efforts have been hampered by the fact that no known language has been found that relates to Sumerian. Bilingual Sumerian-Akkadian documents provided some of the initial keys, but linguistic comparisons are still difficult since Akkadian and other languages borrowed the cuneiform style of writing used by the Sumerians, and a great deal of confusion still exists. The amazing architecture of their cities and ziggurats is fairly well known, but there are many other accomplishments which are not so well known. They had a very advanced financial and economic system, complete with stock markets and commodities trading. (There were even complex accounting tables which reconciled lunar and solar calendars in the calculation of debt, annual percentages, and compound interest earnings.) It was not uncommon to find plumbing and indoor running water. There was thriving commerce along the Euphrates River, where large, pontoon barges carried goods from city to city. Advanced medicine, law, metallurgy and chemurgy were practiced, and sophisticated agriculture, with irrigation canals, crop rotation, and the utilization of grains for non-culinary use was abundant.
Finely crafted artwork such as pottery, sculptures, and paintings abounded, and there was even a large market for cosmetics. Special schools taught art, music, a
nd theater, and graduates from these schools formed an important, professional class.
But perhaps the most amazing knowledge possessed by the Sumerians was in the field of astronomy. Their earliest writings show that they knew the three-dimensional arrangement and mechanics of the Solar System. They knew the Sun (Utu) was a sphere, and that all of the planets (Mul-Apin), including the Earth, traveled around it. They created accurate tables of lunar and solar eclipses, and knew of the phases of Venus. They claimed twelve celestial bodies inhabited the Solar System, (Sun, Moon, and ten planets) and correctly divided them into two categories: inner and outer planets.
They acknowledged that the outermost three could not be seen, but they correctly identified the colors of the first two—green and blue, respectively. The fact that we only recognize nine planets (until the recent demotion of Pluto) is potentially solved by a variety of conflicting Sumerian legends involving the destruction of one of the planets—often in conjunction with the time of the flood.
Supposedly a planet named Nibiru, traveling between the first and second outer worlds (Mars and Jupiter), once existed in the regions now occupied by the Asteroid Belt, but was either destroyed or somehow ‘went away’. Whatever the case, they were convinced it should be there. (For the sake of The Days of Peleg, it was assumed destroyed, and the object seen by astronomers in Chapter 5 was most likely Vesta, an asteroid orbiting in the same path—and the only one regularly visible to the naked eye).
However, the most remarkable item in the vast reservoir of Sumerian astronomical awareness is the accurate measurement of the Earth’s precession. This is the slight wobble in the Earth’s axis which causes a line from the North Pole to draw a slow circle in the sky as the years progress. As a result, the “North Star” can change over the course of several centuries. The Sumerians accurately knew that it takes 25,800 years for this circle to return to its original “North Star”, and made reference to it (calling it the “Great Year”) in some of their writings as a warning to future generations of navigators and astronomers.
