106 Creation Epic

Museum Description: Epic of Creation

Room: 55/Case: 8/Number: ME K 3473

Genesis 1:1

The Babylonian Creation Epic is well known, and focuses on Marduk, the national god of Babylon who was possibly a deified Nimrod.  It had been claimed that the Bible 'borrowed' from these myths.  Scholars now accept this is a disproved theory.  It is interesting that the order of the Bible's creation account broadly agrees with current secular scientific understanding.

This is written in cuneiform, a form of writing that literally means 'wedge-shaped'.   It took many years for cuneiform to be deciphered, and it was solved largely due to a carving in a cliff in Behistun in multiple languages.  1-2 million cuneiform tablets are estimated to have been found already, and about another 25,000 are found every year.  Only about one tenth of the tablets in existence have been read even once, so there could be many more interesting discoveries just waiting to be found.  Other similar or related artefacts are on display in The British Museum.