1

The stars of Gbekli Tepe

and their survival in Sumerian and Akkadian myths
Elke Baumgarte
Knowing is a barrier to learning. (Frank Herbert)

Scientists in the field of Ancient Near Eastern studies have always denied that the ancient
Mesopotamians had any knowledge about precession of the poles and equinoxes. It seems that
the archaeological findings at Gbekli Tepe have proved them wrong.
The mysterious site in the south-east of Turkey, being excavated by a joint Turkish-German
team, is possibly the most important archaeological discovery ever. Many of the animals
carved into the stones are animals known to be representations of stars and constellations: bull
(Taurus), several snakes (Draco, Hydra, Serpens), scorpion (Scorpio), eagle (Aquila), which
managed to survive until the present time. Others, like boar (a), spider (uttu),
leopard/panther (nimru) and more, are known to have been Sumero-Babylonian stars or
constellations1. Gbekli Tepe may not only have been the first temple, as the excavator, the
German archaeologist Klaus Schmidt2

proposed, but also the first university, with

astronomy as curriculum.
Gbekli Tepes circles of pillars were clearly built for astronomical observation and
documentation. The observations here go incredibly deep into the past, so this must have been
the place (or maybe one of the places) where over thousands of years problems like
precession of the poles and equinoxes and other celestial mysteries were discovered and
documented. When Neolithic people, mostly being nomads, who by definition are always on
the move, want to study the - very slow - changes in the sky over long periods of time, they
have to find themselves a fixed place from where to observe. Circle formations all over the
world are known to be tools for observing the movement of celestial bodies. Stone circles, be
it Stonehenge in the UK, Nabta Playa in Egypt, Mzora in Morocco or Native American
medicine wheels, helped to recognize and remember the slow changes in the location of rising
and setting stars and planets on the horizon. Too slow to notice in one person's lifetime, but
noticeable if you manage to remember what your ancestors told you. And if you live in a
1

The animals identified as northern lions in Gbekli Tepe are probably leopards. Male lions have manes and the
creatures here are clearly male, but have no manes. Also, lions tails are relatively thin, with a tassel at the end,
while the tails on the Gbekli Tepe pillars look like leopards tails. Leopards are also very much present in not so
far away atalhyk.
2
(Schmidt, 2008)

2
society that has not yet invented writing, the next best thing to do is to create symbols and
pictures as memory aids, carve them into stone or paint them onto cave walls or scratch them
into rock or wood. i-ur, the Sumerian word for plan, design, blueprint (of the world, the
universe or a building), literally translated means: scratch wood. A hint, that before the
Sumerians invented clay tablets, they probably already used wood and stone to memorize
symbols.
Every time the known constellations had changed too much through precession some had
disappeared below the horizon, new ones had risen the visible sky no longer matched the
myth, which memorized the layout of known stars and constellations. The old circle would
have to be left, a new circle had to be built, and the myth had to be edited. This would explain
why the circles in Gbekli Tepe were covered up so often. They no longer were up to date.
Ever since Giorgio De Santillana and Hertha von Dechends book Hamlets mill was
published3 , we know how knowledge was transmitted through time. But it is Gbekli Tepe
that shows us how it was acquired. The stone carvings at Gbekli Tepe demonstrate that the
knowledge the Sumerians remembered was at least 12,000 years old at the time when they
first wrote it down. The stories depicted on the pillars of Gbekli Tepe are referred to in
several Sumerian and Assyro-Babylonian epics and myths. The Sumerian poem Ninurta and
the turtle4 for instance, and the Akkadian Anzu Epic5 tell about the precession of the North
Pole.
Pillar 43 in Gbekli Tepe in particular commemorates a moment in time when the North Pole
was in the constellation Cygnus (the original Anzu(d) bird) and the vernal equinox point was
in the Claws of Scorpio around 15,000 BCE.

Precession
The earth's axis is off the right angle to the rotational plane by 23,5 and behaves like a
spinning top, due to the combined pull of the gravity of sun and moon. The extension of the
axis through the center of the earth and both celestial poles describes a full circle around the
pole of the ecliptic against the background of the stars. The celestial poles movement along
this circle is 1 in 72 years and takes nearly 26,000 years to complete.6

(Santilliana, 1969)
ETCSL 1.6.3. Ninurta and the Turtle
5
(Dalley, revized edition 2000), p. 203 onward
6
see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axial_precession
4

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On its way around this precessional circle the pole moves through several constellations.
Through Cepheus with Panther/Leopard (they were joined at the hip, so to speak) from
approximately 22,000 to 18,000 BCE. Through Cygnus from about 16,000 to 13,000 BCE.
Through Lyra around 12,000 BCE. It entered the constellation Hercules by 10,000 BCE, but
the stars of Hercules are weak and rather far from the precessional circle, and the following
stretch has no visible stars at all. So for the next seven thousand years there was no visible
Pole Star in the North and people had to look for guidance somewhere else, namely to the
South Pole and its precessional circle, and to Canopus after it became visible above the
horizon in Mesopotamia. From about 3000 BCE onward Canopus was sitting exactly on the
horizon for a short time every year, and for the next few thousand years it slowly lifted a little
off the southern horizon in a very low arc. But around 3000 BCE the pole in the north then
entered the constellation Draco, and Thuban ( Draconis) became the northern Pole Star. In
our time Polaris ( Ursae Minoris) is Pole Star and 2000 years from now it will be - full circle
- back in Cepheus again.

Going around in circles

The Panther
The leopard or panther is the first in the circle of constellations that can be identified on the
pillars of Gbekli Tepe and later still can be recognized in Sumerian myths with the help of
ancient texts. Its general position in the sky was passed down through the millennia and
eventually written down on clay tablets by Assyrian and Babylonian astronomers. How old
the actual observations really are is not known. But in the first Millennium BCE they were
collected and written down by Mesopotamian scribes in a series of texts called MUL.APIN
(plow star), after the first line on the tablet, as was customary for ancient Mesopotamian
texts. Broken clay tablets with fragments of these texts were found by archaeologists in
temple and palace libraries and scribal schools all over the Middle East. An astronomer and a
philologist, David Pingree and Hermann Hunger have collected, compiled, transcribed and
translated this esoteric material under the name MUL.APIN.7
In these first millennium BCE texts, the name of the panther is written with the cuneiform
signs UD.KA.DU.A, which literally translated means The (storm)demon with the wide
open mouth. It is read nimru leopard/panther, however, by ancient and modern scholars
7

(Pingree, 1989)

4
alike, an Akkadian name derived from the word for bright. Hunger and Pingree placed it in
the northern sky, built from parts of the constellations: Cygnus, Lacerta, and parts of
Cassiopeia and Cepheus.8

Illustration 1: The northern lionin Gbekli Tepe

The Lion stele from Gbekli Tepe enabled the recognition of the panther constellation in the
sky. The texts in MUL.APIN already pointed in the right direction.
The head of the panther is made up of the stars Schedar ( Cas), Caph ( Cas), Kappa () and
Gamma () Cassiopeiae. The stars Eta () and Upsilon (1+2) Cas. make up the wide open
mouth. The square shape of the head is easily detected with the naked eye (lower part of
Cassiopeia). The back is shaped by the sharp contrast between the Milky Way (contour of the
back) against the black starless background of the sky.

(Pingree, 1989), p. 138: (Path of Enlil) 27

Illustration 2: The panther Nergal

mul

UD-KA-DU-A > dU.GUR > nimru Nergal > The panther Nergal9

Illustration 3: Naked eye impression of Panther

9

(Pingree, 1989), p.26: I i 28

The belly is not clearly visible, but the belly of an earthly panther would be hidden in
vegetation too. The only visible parts of a leopard on the prowl are its head, back and tail. The
constellation of Lacerta forms part of its hind legs, but most important is the tail. The panthers
tail shares several stars with Cepheus, beginning at the base with Erakis, Herschels blood-red
Garnet star ( Cep), Nu ( Cep), and Al-Kurhah, Xi ( Cep), who all three in time were Pole
Star on or near the precessional circle. The rest of the tail consists of Iota () Cep, HIP
11386410, Omicron () Cephei and HIP 114831, forming an S-curve over the panthers back.
For four thousand years - from 22,000 to 18,000 BCE - the pole moved through the
constellation Cepheus. From 20,000 to 18,000 BCE it also wandered along the tail of the
Panther. To the Stone Age people that must have been quite a sight, especially when
observing the behavior of the red star Erakis. The Panther and Cepheus turning around each
other all night every night for thousands of years. A scene worth remembering. It might even
have been the behavior of this bright red star - Erakis - that inspired the ancients to undertake
efforts to keep an eye on the situation and to remember it. At first - when Al-Kurhah was Pole
Star - they would have seen this bright red star making circles around the pole. In time the
circle would have grown smaller when Xi Cephei became Pole Star until at last it would make
circles around empty space for a very long time. No wonder the Sumerians and the
Babylonians after them still held some faint memories of that far past. Though by then the
accent was no longer on the Panther Nergal, but more on the god Nergal - dNergal11. The
Sumerians visualized Nergal as a young warrior with a scimitar and a mace 12, the son of Enlil,
the Lord of the northern hemisphere of the sky (air), but some of the qualities he was
endowed with remember his predatory past:
Nergal, dragon covered with gore, drinking the blood of living creatures.13
Nergal, you pour their blood down the wadis like rain14
(Said of ulgi): as if you were Nergal, your battle mace drools with gore and your spear
reaches into the blood of the land.15

10

HIP = Hipparcos star catalogue

The little d before the gods name is the determinative for divinity. It always means that the name following the
little d is the name of a god
12
http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/amgg/listofdeities/nergal
13
ETCSL 2.5.2.1. An adab to Nergal for u-ilu (A) - 16
14
ETCSL 2.5.2.1. An adab to Neragal for u-ilu (A) - 52
15
ETCSL 2.4.2.24 A praise poem of ulgi 119-120
11

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Moreover, the several cuneiform signs with which Nergals
name was written over time, record either his position on or
his movement around the precessional circle of the North
Pole. The oldest and also the longest remembered name is
UD-KA-DU-A, the (storm)-demon with the wide open
mouth. It stems from the time when the North Pole was in
the tail of the panther. The name UD-KA-DU-A was still

Illustration 4: Heavenly storm

remembered in Neo-Babylonian and Neo-Assyrian times (first

millennium BCE), when it was written down in MUL.APIN.
Before this statement can be validated, something needs to be said about the first sign in the
name UD. It is one of many ancient code words which carried the knowledge about
precession through the millennia. (There are more. They will be dealt with later.) This sign
has many meanings and can be read and pronounced in many ways: ud storm; u4
day,daylight; utu sun, sun god; babbar white and several other words meaning bright, pure
and/or shine. In the compound name UD-KA-DU-A, ud here means storm.
When mythographers speak about storm, they do not talk about the weather. They often use
weather terminology to explain heavenly phenomena. The ud /storm, refers to the nightly
and eternal movement of the stars around the North Pole and is tied to the pole, a whirlwind
of stars.
When the pole moves along the precessional circle toward the next constellation, the storm
moves with it. Whoever holds the pole - constellation, animal or god has power over the
storm(weapon), the tool to destroy the old world and to create a new one. The storm weapon
ud together with amaru 16, the flood weapon (= the movement of the celestial equator), are
the tools by which the gods achieve the reorganization of the heavens, after precession has
obliterated the orally transmitted positions and stations of stars and constellations. When the
pole moves, the two equinox points and two solstice points also move, they move out of the
four constellations in which they reside at that moment, and with them the celestial equator
moves, turning to water what used to be land, hence the flood (see later).
In several Sumerian texts the power of the storm and the power to cause a flood together
with the power to flatten the rebel lands (ki-bala) are attributed to Nergal:
1.Lord, furiously raging storm, confusing the enemies and unleashing (?) great terror over the
land
6. Lord, mighty storm, raging with your great powers
16

amaru another of those code words

8
14-15.Nergal, angry sea, inspiring fearsome terror, whom no one knows how to confront,
youth whose advance is a hurricane and a flood battering the lands
47. Warrior, you are a great and furious storm upon the land...17
1-3.Hero, majestic, awe-inspiring son of Enlil, battering like a storm and roaring against the
rebel lands (ki-bal). Immense at his front, at his rear surging as a flood, after he ,
17-18. When you command the storm which flattens the hostile land, you devastate its
evil18

These citations place the power of precession of the pole and of the equinoxes, to rearrange
the heavens, into the hands of Nergal, the Panther: storm, flood and ki-bala (see later)
Other names of Nergal19 mirror the fact that he eventually ended up in the underworld.
When the North Pole moved away from the constellation UD-KA-DU-A nimru, the
Panther slowly left the circumpolar space and disappeared below the horizon. The
circumpolar space is a circle around the pole. The stars inside this circle never set. They are
visible all night, every night, all year round. When the pole with its circle moves because of
precession, old stars and constellations are slowly left behind, while new ones enter. While the
pole moved forward, the Panther slowly slipped backward, to disappear eventually for
longer and longer periods every night below the northern horizon, the underworld, which is
expressed by several of his names, for instance: dKI.UNU and dKI.GIR3.UNU.GAL. Both
are to be read dNergal, but the original meanings of the cuneiform signs with which these
names are written hint at the fact that he no longer was the center around which the universe
used to circle, but that he was in the underworld. (UNU urugal2 underworld), or in his
tomb (UNU.GAL unugal tomb). The name dU.GUR also reads dNergal. By this name
he was known in Neo-Assyrian times in the first Millennium BCE20, which confirms the fact
that the priests of that time must have known about the precessional movement of the
northern stars, because the name dU.GUR speaks about it: U u totality, world (same
meaning as ki) ; GUR gur to turn, to turn away, to return!21
Nergal you, Lord, are one who has the power to carry off and bring back... 22

17

ETCSL 2.5.2.1. An adab to Nergal for u-ilu (A) 1, 6, 14-15, 47

ETCSL 4.1.5.2 A hymn to Nergal 1-3, 17-18
19
http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/amgg/listofdeities/nergal/index.html
20
(Pingree, 1989), I i 28. p.26
21
ePSD
22
ETCSL 2.5.2.1. An adab to Nergal for u-ilu (A) - 26
18

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The Anzud bird and its chick
17,000 years ago, an otherwise nameless star ( Cygni) was Pole Star. Pillar 43 in Gbekli
Tepe tells exactly that. The constellation we know as Cygnus, the swan, with the star Albireo
as its head at the end of a long neck, was seen by the ancients in an upside-down position,
with Deneb ( Cygni) as its head, and Albireo ( Cygni) as its tail. The bird they projected
into the sky and carved into stone was recognizably a vulture. Vultures had a very revered and
possibly feared position in ancient societies. It seems to have been connected to the cult of the
dead. Giving the bodies of the dead to the vultures was part of an ancient ritual, as can be seen
on the murals of atalhyk.23 It is still practiced by Zoroastrians in Iran and Parsi in India.
The birds impressive presence in the (night) sky has been passed down to the Sumerians
through the millennia. They knew it as the Anzu(d) bird (IM.DUGUDmuen). As the Sumerians
had different burial customs, the association with the cult of the dead eventually got lost.
The fledgling on pillar 43 is the representation of the constellation Lyra - the Anzud chick.

Illustration 5: Pillar 43 in Gbekli Tepe, Turkey

23

atalhyk is a Neolithic settlement in southern Anatolia, Turkey, which had its heyday about 6000 BCE

10

This scene documents a time around 15,000 BCE, when the Pole Star was near the elbow of
the Anzud Bird (delta Cygni) and the vernal equinox was in the Claws of the Scorpion 24,
part of contemporary Libra. The star chart below shows the sky as the makers of pillar 43 in
Gbekli Tepe wanted it to be remembered. The line through the North Pole near the elbow of
the Anzud bird is the equinoctial colure, the meridian which passes through both celestial
poles and both equinox points. A few thousand years earlier, around 17,000 BCE, when the
pole was half-way between Erakis in the Panthers tail and Deneb, the Anzud birds eye, this
equinoctial colure lay almost exactly parallel to the Milky Way through the Eagle (Aquila),

Illustration 6: 15,000 BCE seen from Gbekli Tepe, Turkey

the Dead Man (Scutum) all the way to Scorpio. That the ancient star gazers oriented
themselves by the Milky Way as long as possible, even after the celestial colure had changed
its position, as can be seen in Pillar 43, is easy to understand. The Milky Way is a strong
beacon for finding your bearings in the sky, but even the Milky Way is affected by precession
eventually. When the sky changed so much that the visible stars and constellation no longer
matched the myth - the story that was memorized to remember them by - it was time for the
gods to act, to destroy the old world and to create a new one.
24

The names Zubenelgenubi = The southern claw ( Lib) and Zubeneshamali the northern claw ( Lib), are
Arab names which are still with us, but no longer part of Scorpio.

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The Tablet of Destinies

The time documented on pillar 43 shows the Pole Star safely installed in the constellation
Cygnus (Anzud bird), but the time before that - after it had left Cepheus and the panther, but
before it entered Cygnus (about 17,000 BCE) is remembered in the Akkadian Anz epic.25
This epic recounts the controversy and strife about the ownership of the Tablet of Destinies
(Sum.: dub-nam-tar-ra; Akk.: up mti ). Whoever holds the Tablet of Destinies has the
authority to rule the world, the universe. It is the legitimation to wield those powers. The
Tablet of Destinies is one of the code words which carried ancient knowledge through time.
The storm was the hurricane of stars dancing around the pole that moves with the pole
wherever it goes, but the Tablet of Destinies refers to the pole itself. The god Enlil is the
original holder of those powers. He is the ruler of the northern hemisphere of the sky. It is his
Enlilship, his power of kingship, his power to rule, his power to decree fates, his power to
create and destroy worlds. He grants these powers consecutively to his sons Nergal (the
Panther) and Ninurta (most probably our constellation Hercules). The constellations on the
precessional circle of the North Pole, as the sons of Enlil, in time inherited the Tablet of
Destinies. Exceptions are Thuban ( Draconis), who is the mother of them all

26

and the

Anzud bird (Cygnus), who did not inherit the Tablet, but stole it.
It was recorded that after the pole had left the constellations Panther and Cepheus, the gods
got worried and warned Enlil about an intruder. Enlil saw this stranger (Anzu(d) Cygnus)
coming nearer and nearer, and he wondered: he is not one of mine, whose (son) is he?
Following the old adage Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer he gave him a
position as doorkeeper:
Ellil27 appointed him to the entrance of the chamber which he had perfected.
He would bathe in holy water in his presence. His eyes would gaze at the trappings of Ellilpower: His lordly crown, his robe of divinity, the Tablet of Destinies in his hands. Anzu gazed,
and gazed at Durankis god, father of the gods, and fixed his purpose, to usurp the Ellil-power.
Anzu often gazed at Durankis god, father of the gods, and fixed his purpose, to usurp the
Ellil-power.

25

(Dalley, revized edition 2000) p.203-227

she has many names: Ninmena,Lady of the crown, Nintur, Lady who gives birth, Ninma, Great Lady,
Mother of the Gods , Ninursaa and many more
27
Akkadian name of Sumerian Enlil
26

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I shall take the gods Tablet of Destinies for myself and control the orders for all the gods,
and shall possess the throne and be master of rites! I shall direct every one of the Igigi!
He plotted opposition in his heart, and at the chambers entrance from which he often gazed,
he waited for the start of day.
While Ellil was bathing in the holy water, stripped and with his crown laid down on the
throne, he gained the Tablet of Destinies for himself, took away the Ellil-power. Rites were
abandoned, Anzu flew off and went into hiding.28

The powers bound to the Tablet of Destinies: the right to rule the world, the capacity to
change heaven and earth, to flatten mountains (kur), to destroy enemy lands (ki-bala), to
cause a flood (amaru), the right to decree the fates of the gods (nam-tar) are all linked to the
precessional movements of the North Pole. That the rites were abandoned documents the
fact that worship to one god stopped he lost the Tablet of Destinies (the pole), meaning his
legitimation to rule - while offerings to and worshipping the new one are still pending.
- The right to rule is originally derived from the task to measure, that is: to measure and
survey the sky, after precession changed it so much that it no longer fitted the traditional
description of Heavenly Geography. (cf. the double meaning of the word ruler). Gods are
very often depicted with a rod and a coil of rope in their hands: surveyors tools!
- The capacity to change heaven and earth also is a consequence of precession. Stars and
constellations very slowly move from their rightful stations, while new ones are taking their
places. It is remarkable that the Sumerian social organization was based on the concept of the
rotation of terms of office (bala), borrowed from the gods, who suffered this eternal, forced
replacement over and over again through the millennia.
- The capacity to flatten mountains and destroy enemy lands: In mythological texts and
references mountains (kur) are solstices.
A very famous cylinder seal29 portrays the sun god Utu/ama rising at vernal equinox in the
middle between two mountains, the summer and winter solstices (kur), with Inanna/Itar
(Venus) rising heliacally before him and holding a date spadix (an), a symbol for the sky god
An/Anu, over his head, which places ama at the place were the Stars of Anu rise.30
Compare Egyptian hieroglyphs N 26

mountain and N27

horizon, two mountains on

the horizon and the sun rising between them. 31

28

(Dalley, revized edition 2000), p. 206-207

ME 89115AN32572001 (the Adda seal) The Trustees of the British Museum
30
due east. See also: (Pingree, 1989), p.139
31
(Gardiner, 1988 (3rd ed.)), p. 489. See also Egyptian mythology: Sunrise at creation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egyptian_creation_myths#mediaviewer/File:Sunrise_at_Creation.jpg
29

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Illustration 7: Utu/ama rising due east in the middle between two mountains (kur)

As stated before, when the pole moves, the equinox points move, as do the solstice points.
They move slowly out of one constellation into the next one or better, the constellations
slowly move away from the equinox and solstice points, while new ones take their places and
by doing so the old mountains flatten, while the next ones are slowly growing: ki-bala.
Myths, which memorized the old mountains had to be edited to accommodate the new ones.
In Mesopotamia the mountains on the Eastern horizon, the Zagros Mountains, provided an
excellent metaphor to use as symbol for these heavenly goings-on. The peoples living in the
Zagros Mountains were constantly tempted to raid the fertile and rich lowlands of Sumer and
Akkad. So the Sumerians and their successors, the Babylonians, were forever battling these
pesky invaders. There are countless praise poems to gods and kings lauding them for
defeating these rebel lands (ki-bala). The battling of the gods referred to the precessional
activities concerning the heavenly mountains (kur the solstice points). The kings, however,
were obliged to do the same on the earthly plane (the Zagros mountains). The Sumerian word
ki-bala mostly translated as rebel lands or enemy lands literally translated means
overturned or revolving Earth, describing precession of the equinoxes.
- The capacity to cause a flood: From most ancient times onward people saw in the patterns in
the starry night sky mirror images of their world below. Animals, trees, rivers, mountains,
deserts, oceans, even cities had their counterparts in the sky. They divided the sky into two
equal hemispheres, most perfectly at spring equinox. The dividing line between these two
halves is the celestial equator. South of this imaginary line was water (Abzu), where sea
creatures lived, like fish (Piscis austrinus), whales (Cetus), and snakes (Hydra, the seven
headed serpent of mythology, among others). Biblical Leviathan also lived here.
The northern hemisphere was seen as being air, where birds (Cygnus, Aquila) and other
winged creatures lived, winged horses (Pegasus), winged lions, winged and/or feathered

14
serpents and eventually winged gods, and of course other air breathing creatures, like deer,
gazelles, bears, lions, goats, sheep, and humans. The surface of the earthly oceans served as
metaphor for this dividing line, the celestial equator. Creatures living on the surface of the
waters, across the borderline, partly in water and partly in the air above show qualities of
both: man with fishtail (kullu32 fishman, mermaid Aquarius), goat with fishtail (suurma Goatfish Capricorn) and even the Bull of Heaven (Taurus), who in Sumerian times
stood in the vernal equinox point, partly in air and partly in water, was equipped with
wings and sometimes a fishtail33. This dichotomy of the sky into water and air is known to
many mythologies, for instance Chinese Feng Shui, the basic philosophy of cosmic
harmony, means Wind/Water and in Genesis 1, 2 Gods spirit (rua) hovers over the waters of
the deep. Rua meaning: wind, spirit, breeze, ghost, phantom, mind or air. Interesting in
this context is the fact that the Sumerian word ll in the name of Enlil, the Lord of the northern
hemisphere, has exactly the same meanings and he also hovers over the waters of the deep
(abzu).
Concerning the celestial equator, some more can be said about the constellation Hydra. In
Sumerian times the celestial equator ran through the whole length of the constellation Hydra,
the water snake, making the equator clearly visible to any observer. Gudea of Laga (about
2130 BCE) called it dNira:
The shining ropes attached to the doors are holy dNira parting the abzu.34

Parting the Abzu means parting heavenly waters from heavenly air- the celestial equator.
The doors of the temple are metaphors for the Gates of Heaven - sun-rise and sun-set at
vernal equinox - and dNira (Hydra) is connecting them (more or less). Gudea, the builder of
Ninirsus temple, used heavenly terminology to describe an earthly structure.
It is also Hydra, which shows most easily the movements of the celestial equator. The star
chart below shows the sky as the Sumerians saw it around 3000 BCE, when Thuban (
Draconis) was Pole Star and the sun rose in the constellation Bull of Heaven (Taurus) at the
spring equinox.

32

ku6-lu2-u18/19-lu > kullu, kulullu > Fischmensch (Borger, 2003), p.441

(Macgregor, 1998), Festschrift Rmer p. 150-153
34
ETCSL 2.1.7. The building of Ninirsus temple - 733
33

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Illustration 8: Nira (Hydra) parting the Abzu

8000 years earlier, around the year 11,000 BCE, when the pole was still close to Vega and the
vernal equinox was in Virgo, the constellation Hydra was deep inside the heavenly waters as
is shown below.

Illustration 9: 11,000 BCE Hydra deep inside the Heavenly Waters

16
It is the movement of the celestial equator at the equinox points, however, which is causing
the flood. It covers with water what used to be land. A square earth inside a round heaven is
a very ancient mind picture that is known to many mythologies. The Sumerians called it kiub-da-limmu-ba, the Four corners of the earth, or an-ub-da-limmu-ba. the Four corners of
the sky.

Illustration 10: The square earth (the four corners of the earth ki-ub-da-limmu-ba)

The quadrangular earth is a square plane stretched inside the circle of the ecliptic, each corner
touching the ecliptic at the start of a new season: spring summer autumn winter,
covering the suns path in a years time.
The plane of the ecliptic crosses the celestial equator at an angle of 23,5, plunging half of the
Earth into (heavenly) water - the Abzu , one of the several underworlds the Sumerians
distinguished.
Both halves are called earth, ki in Sumerian and eretu in Akkadian. At the equinox points,
where constellations slowly slip under water and others rise out of it, parts of the square
earth, which used to be above water, where people and gods lived , is slowly covered by the
moving equator and is thus flooded by the waters of the underworld the flood ( amaru) of
the Sumerians, and also Noahs flood and all the other floods in worldwide mythologies.

17
In real life the Sumerians lived in a low lying river delta, floods were familiar to them, so they
did not have to look far for a metaphor for rising heavenly waters.
- Decreeing the fate of the gods: the holder of the Tablet of Destinies (North Pole) had the
power to decide the fate of the gods, to determine their place in the order of things. Stars or
constellations, holding important places and functions in the heavens, for instance on the four
corners of heaven, the two solstice and two equinox points, guarding entrances and exits to
and from the underworld and the heavens,or being servants and ministers to certain gods, the
resident gods slowly lose their stations and are replaced by others. The winged inhabitants
of the northern hemisphere slowly disappear below the surface of the Heavenly waters and
glide into the underworld - the fallen angels of mythology: That is the fate of the gods.
The Sumerian word for god is diir (= dingir). J.Halloran35 analyzed the etymology of this
word as derived from: di decision and ar to deliver. Thus diir is the one who makes
decisions over ones life. In the land that invented astrology, this means that the Sumerian
gods originally were based on stars and constellations, until the cloak of divinity of the stars
took on a life of its own, and the stars became gods. These gods from then on could act
independently of their starry origins, particularly after politics and the power plays of
rulers and priests got involved.

The Eagle and the Dead man

There is another remarkable scene to be found on pillar 43 in Gbekli Tepe. That is the Eagle
(Aquila) with the Dead Man. The headless and erect little man is part of the constellation
Scutum (the Shield). In the Akkadian MUL.APIN text, he is listed as

mul

AD6 corpse

36

pagru Dead Man. It is an unobtrusive constellation with weak stars, but it is located in the
middle of a bright spot in the Milky Way. When one is lucky and lives in a place with little
humidity and no light and air pollution, as the builders of Gbekli Tepe surely did, one can
actually see the headless little man.

35
36

(Halloran, 2006), p.43

(Pingree, 1989), I i 12, p. 33

18

Illustration 11: The Dead Man (Scutum)

One arm upraised towards Aquila ( Aql, Aql and Sct), one arm straight down shoulder to
hip ( + Sct) , and three weak nameless stars suggesting an erected penis 37 at the lower end
of the rump ( + Sct). Headless, because the heads of the dead were probably preserved by
those ancient people and reconstructed with clay to resemble the former owners, for worship
or loving memory, as is documented in Jericho and several places in ancient Syria. The body
was then offered to the vultures.
This scene shows similarities to an Akkadian myth called Etana and the Eagle, and though
the poem may have been inspired by the same group of constellations portrayed on pillar 43,
an eagle, a serpent and a man, this little man seems not to be the Etana of the myth.
In short, the myth tells about an eagle and a snake living together in the same tree, the eagle in
the branches, the snake between the roots. They had sworn before the sun god not to harm
each other. The eagle in a weak moment could not resist temptation and ate the snakes young.
When the god heard the wailing of the snake about the loss of its offspring he gave him
advice how to punish the eagle. You must seize it by the wing, cut its wings, feather and
pinion, and throw it into a bottomless pit, ., and so he did.
The eagle cried for mercy for a very long time and eventually the sun god showed pity and
sent a man, Etana, to find the eagle in his pit. The eagle would show him a place where the
plant of birth grew, for which Etana had prayed to the sun god for a very long time, because
he wanted a son. Etana found the eagle in his bottomless pit (underworld), fed him until he

37

Nameless objects that only rated numbers: HIP 92136, HIP 92488 and HIP 92674

19
was strong enough, and taught the eagle to fly
again. The eagle then took Etana on his back and
together they flew out of the pit and up to heaven.38

Illustration 12 The Eagle in the deep pit with his

wing and tail feathers clipped (by the celestial
equator)

The little man on pillar 43 seems not to be the man of this myth, because he is clearly dead
(headless), while Etana still had his head when he left the underworld ( bottomless pit) on the
eagles back and he even got his son, as promised.39 On the other hand, this might just be an
example of how the ancients edited their orally transmitted knowledge, to keep up with the
changes in the sky, due to precession

The Boar
To return to the precessional circle, the creators of Gbekli Tepe had to deal with the fact that
there was no star strong enough to be easily seen anywhere near that circle for over 7000
years after it left Vega ( Lyrae)40. For a while Vega still could have served as Pole Star
because of its brightness. But when the pole entered the constellation Hercules, the ancients
had to think of something else. They found a way to keep track of the pole, even when they
could no longer see it. They worked with two fixed points, the Boar (a), the head of the
constellation Draco and the star iota Herculi. By connecting Eltanin ( Dra) and iota Herculi
( Her) with an imaginary line and then extend that line until it crossed the precessional circle,
they knew approximately where the pole was supposed to be at that time (10,000 BCE).
38

(Dalley, revized edition 2000), p.194. See also illustration 6: The Eagle reaches Heaven (circumpolar space)
This means the Etana myth covers (and therefore remembers) about 11,000 years.
39
ETCSL 2.1.1. The Sumerian Kinglist 68-69
40
A possible exception existed for a short period around 7800 BCE, when one of the stars of the constellation
Hercules (Ninurta?) was near enough to the precessional circle and strong enough to be seen with the naked eye,
to have served as Pole Star.

20

Illustration 13: The Boar (Pillar 12, compl. C., Gbekli Tepe and Boar = head of Draco. Pointer stars: Eltanin iota
Her and North Pole.

On pillar 43 in Gbekli Tepe the pole is shown as a raised dot. When the pole was in Cygni,
the intended star was near enough to the precessional circle and strong enough to be seen with
the naked eye. On pillar 12, though, the dot is represented as a hole, a negative dot, because
the indicator star is weak and far from the precessional circle. The hole in front of the Boars
head is not the pole itself, but a pointer in the direction of it, through iota Herculi.
Although the Boar has not made it into Sumerian mythology by then pigs had been
thoroughly domesticated and the Sumerians valued them mostly as pork there are some
remnants of his being a constellation to be found in Scandinavian myths. There he was
known as Gullinbursti, Freyrs Golden Boar.
He is Gullinbursti, he can charge over earth, air and sea alike, and no horse can keep up with
him. And no matter where he goes, running through the night or plunging into the gloom under
all the worlds, hell always be surrounded by brilliant light. He carries it himself, because his
bristles shine in the dark41

After this last effort to keep track of the whereabouts of the North Pole, there was no longer
any fixed place in the north from where to measure the sky, so people needed to look for that
stable, unmoving spot from where to start surveying the heavens, somewhere else. In the epic
Ninurta and the turtle the Anzud chick dropped the Tablet of Destinies into the Abzu, the
cosmic underground waters, where Enki/Ea lived, the Lord of the southern hemisphere, the
Lord of the Heavenly Waters. From then on people looked at the precessional circle of the
South Pole and to Lord Enki for guidance for the next 7000 years.42

41

(Crossley-Holland, 1982), The Norse Myths, p.52

Ninmena ( Dra), who expected to be the next in line to inherit the Tablet of Destnies was upset:
ETCSL 1.6.3. 6-7: Ninmena gave out a wail: And what about me? These divine powers have not fallen into my
42

21

Bibliography
Allen, R.H. (1063). Star Names, Their Lore and Meaning. New York: Dover Publications
ETCSL: Black, J.A., Cunningham, G., J.Fluckiger-Hawker, E., Robson, E., Taylor,J., and Zlyomi,
G.: The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature
(http://www-etcsl.orient.ox.ac.uk/), Oxford 1998-2006
ETCSL 1.6.3.
Ninurta and the turtle
ETCSL 2.1.1.
The Sumerian Kinglist
ETCSL 2.1.7
The building of Ninirsus temple
ETCSL 2.2.2.
The lament for Urim
ETCSL 2.4.2.24.
A praise poem of ulgi
ETCSL 2.5.2.1.
An adab to Nergal for u-ilu
ETCSL 4.15.2.
A hymn to Nergal (B)
Dalley, Stephanie (revised edition 2000). Myths from Mesopotamia. Oxford:
Oxford University Press
Dietrich, Manfried &. Loretz, O.: (1998)dubsar anta-men, Festschrift Willem H.Ph.Rmer, UgaritVerlag, Mnster,
Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary Project (PSD)
ePSD: http://psd.museum.upenn.edu/epsd/nepsd-frame.html oracc: http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/index.html
Halloran, J. A. (2006); Sumerian Lexicon, Los Angeles: Logogram Publishing
Macgregor, Sherry; Two Neo-Assyrian Examples of Lahmus, from Festschrift Rmer (Dietrich &
Loretz, 1998) p. 150-153.
Pingree, H.H. (1989). MUL.APIN, An Astronomical Compendium in Cuneiform,
Archiv fr Orientforschung, Beiheft 24
Santilliana, G., (1969); Hamlet's Mill, An Essay Investigating the Origins of Human Knowledge and
its Transmission through Myth; Jaffrey, New Hampshire: David R.Godine Publ.
Schmidt, Klaus, (2008); Sie bauten die ersten Tempel; Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag
All citations of Sumerian texts, unless otherwise mentioned, are from ETCSL

Illustrations
The Gbekli Tepe pictures are copyrighted by D.A.I (German Archaeological Institue)
They gracefully allowed me to use them in my article.
Page 4: Northern Lion; page 9: Pillar 43; page 18: Pillar 43 (detail); page 20: The Boar, Pillar 12 in
structure C.
Page 13: The Adda Seal ME 89115AN32572001 The Trustees of the British Museum
All star charts are generated by Starry Night Pro 6 and 7

(continuation from page 20) hands. I shall not exercise their authority. Also: after the Tablet of Destinies fell
into the Abzu, it was no longer Enlil who fathered her children, but Enki (cf. Marduk)

22
Glossaries
Reading and writing conventions:
Sumerian words in the text are written in italics. Words written with upper case letters are the names
of CUNEIFORM SIGNS.
- Question marks (?) in the citated texts means: original cuneiform text at this point is either damaged
or not (yet) understood.
- Words marked with an asterisk (*) are words that double as code words for ancient knowledge,
concerning precession of the poles and equinoxes.
Sumerian
ab

- sea, ocean

abzu [AB.ZU]

- literally translated means:knowing/understanding the ocean; (cosmic)

underground water, southern hemisphere of the sky; Heavenly waters

amar-anzudmuen

- the Anzu(d) chick; the constellation Lyra

amaru*

- flood, disaster; precession of the equinoxes

an

- 1. sky, heaven; sky god d An/Anu; 2. date spadix; 3. up, above

ki-ub-da-limmu-ba*

- the four corners of the earth

AN.ZU

- lit.: knowing/understanding the heavens, the sky of the northern

hemisphere

anzu(d) muen

- a mythological bird of prey (eagle/vulture); the Thunderbird of mythology;

the constellation Cygnus

apin

- plow

babbar

- white

bala*

- to rotate, to turn over; term of office, reign; rotation

di

- judgement, decision

diir

- god, deity; determinative for deities

dub

- tablet, (clay)tablet

dub-nam-tar-ra*

- Tablet of Destinies; code word for the North Pole

du

- to open

dur-an-ki*

-bond of heaven and earth, umbilical cord; (part of) equinoctial

colure, connects the North Pole with the vernal equinox point. When
one moves, the other moves, too.

ar

- to deliver, to deposit

i-ur

- (lit.: scratch wood) plan, design, drawing, blueprint

gur

- to make a circular motion, to go around, to return (to)

IM.MI /
d
IM.DUGUDmuen

- The cuneiform signs with which the name of the Anzud bird is written,
should be read Anzu(d) (Sum.) or Anz (Akk.)

ka du

- to open the mouth

ki

- place, earth, land, underworld, country; determinative for cities

23
ki-bala*

- rebel lands, lit.: overturned or revolving earth; precession of the

equinoxes and solstices

ki

- totality, world

- dNergal

- dNergal

kullu43

- fishman, mermaid; constellation Aquarius

kur*

- land, (foreign) country, mountain, underworld; east, east wind;

KI.UNU
KI.GIR3.UNU.GAL

points of summer and winter solstice sun rise

kur-nu-gi*

- land of no return, underworld; the southern (watery) half of the

plane earth inside the ecliptic circle

ll (lil2)

- air, wind, breeze, ghost, breath, spirit, phantom

ma

- goat

me

- aura, ideal norm; the emanation of a gods power and splendor, also
said of sacred objects and cultural achievements.

mul

- star, constellation, planet; determinative for stars

muen

- bird; determinative for birds

nam-tar

- destiny, fate

- pig, a constellation (the head part of the constellation Draco)

suur

- carp

suur-ma

- goatfish; constellation Capricorn

- totality, world

ud*

- storm, storm demon, storm weapon; the Heavenly Storm

UD-KA-DU-A

- the storm-demon with the wide open mouth; the constellation Panther

unugal

- tomb

urugal

- underworld

uttu

- spider; the goddess dUttu; a constellation, not yet identified

zu

- wisdom, knowledge; to know, to understand

Akkadian
anz

- a mythological eagle/vulture; Akkadian name for Sumerian anzu(d);

constellation Cygnus

aps

- Akkadian word for Sumerian abzu, celestial underground water

eretu(m)

- earth; earth beneath the surface, underworld44

nimru

- leopard, panther; a demon; the constellation Panther

pagru

- body, corpse, dead person; (part of) the constellation Scutum

up mti *

- Tablet of Destinies, codeword for the North Pole

43
44

(Borger, 2003), p. 441: kullu, kulullu > Fischmensch

(Black, George, & Postgate, 2004 ,2nd corrected printing), p. 79

24
Astronomical terms
A.E.

- autumnal equinox

celestial equator

- is an imaginary line in the sky that mirrors the earthly equator, forming a
circle that connects the two equinox points at vernal equinox, cutting the
sky into two equal halves.

circumpolar circle

- a circle around the poles. The stars inside this circle never set. They are
always visible all year round.

equinoctial colure

- the meridian that connects both celestial poles and two equinox points

precessional circle

- see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axial_precession

solstitial colure

- the meridian that connects both celestial poles and two solstice points

V.E.

- vernal equinox

ecliptic

- The ecliptic is the apparent road of the sun, moon and planets across the sky.
The plane of the ecliptic crosses the plane of the celestial equator at an angle
of 23,4 due to the inclination of earths rotational axis, which also causes the
wobble that creates the precessional circles at the poles.

Names of Gods
An/Anu

- The Sumerian/Akkadian name of the sky god

Enki/Ea

- The Sumerian/Akkadian name of the god of the waters,springs, rivers,

oceans; Lord over the southern hemisphere of the sky.

Enlil/Ellil

- The Sumerian/Akkadian name of the god of air, winds, spirits;

the Lord of the northern hemisphere of the sky.

Igigi

- originally a name for the Great gods of heaven, later for all the gods
of heaven
- Sumerian goddess of writing and accounting; also responsible for feeding the
gods45 and the daily distribution of barley rations46, a hint at the beginnings of
bookkeeping

Nisaba

Ninursaa

- Lady of the mountain range (in the north), another name of the mother of
the gods

Ninmena

- the Lady of the Crown, one of the many names of the mother of the gods;
also Pole Star about 3000 BCE ( Dra)

Ninurta

- Sumerian god, son of Enlil (possibly the constellation Hercules)

ama

- sun, Sun God; Akkadian name of dUtu

- dNergal

Utu

- dUtu, sun, sun god; Sumerian name of the Akkadian god ama

U.GUR

45

ETCSL 1.1.3. Enki and the world order 417: The planning of the gods meals is to be in her (Nisabas)
hands.
46
Excerpt Handbuch der Assyriologie, Selz: 1989, 492 proposes that Nisaba(k) derives from Nin-saba-(ak),
which in turn comes from Nin-e-ba-(ak) Lady of grain rations.