Introduction
The ancient Sumerian saga of Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta was composed prior to 2000 BC. According to the Sumerian King List, Enmerkar probably ruled around 2600 BC or earlier, making him one of the earliest known kings. The text itself is a composite compiled from 27 tablets and fragments discovered in at least 3 different locations in Mesopotamia. The story focuses on Enmerkar, king of Uruk, and his conflicts with the unnamed king of Aratta. Enmerkar was called the founder of the city of Uruk, and he attempted to build the E-Abzu ziggurat temple in the city of Eridu, often considered the earliest known city in the world. (Ziggurats are large, stepped platform structures made from fired clay bricks and constructed with a temple at the top.)
According to the story of Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta, the ziggurat Enmerkar attempts to construct is a gigantic ziggurat, so massive that it is called “a holy mountain,” “a temple brought down from heaven,” and “an abode of the gods.” Then, a magic incantation is sung: a prayer that all the people may address the god Enlil in a single language, and that the god Enki will change the speech in their mouths so the speech of mankind is truly one. The ziggurat, however, is never completed.
The story contains many interesting similarities to the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel. Let’s look at a few of them.
Both of the stories specifically mention • the building of a massive tower temple • intended to reach toward the heavens, • which is never completed, • a direct connection to the city of Erech/Uruk, • reference to a single language of humanity, • that is affected by an act of divine intervention. I
There are also a couple of major differences in the stories, the most striking of which is that in the Enmerkar story, the gods are asked to change many languages back into one; the Tower of Babel story shows God changing the single common language into many. The Enmerkar story does not mention the failure to complete the tower temple, where the Genesis account does, and attributes it to God’s response to mankind’s pride and rebellion.
One interesting side note: while the ziggurat at Eridu is attributed to Enmerkar, the Tower of Babel is often attributed to Nimrod because he established the city of Babel. A few scholars have even suggested a connection between Enmerkar and Nimrod because • both were kings, • who ruled over Erech/Uruk, • who have an association with a massive tower or ziggurat, and • who are associated with the changing of human speech through divine intervention.
Summary
Though the details don’t match exactly, the similarities in the stories of Enmerkar and of the Tower of Babel demonstrate a remarkably similar cultural memory of a past event a memory modified by the passage of time, no doubt, but a story known and accepted by the audience for whom it was written.
