Ancient Literature Quiz one- Answers

1. The history of literature begins with the invention of writing, in Bronze Age Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt.Writing developed out of Proto-literate sign systems in the 30^th Century BC.
3. Oldest known literary texts date from the 27^th or 26^th Century BC.
4. Some ancient literature have been recovered by archaeologists.
5. Earliest written literature dates from about 2600 BC (classical Sumerian).
6. Earliest authors known by name are Shuruppak and Urukagina.
7. Abu Salabikh is around 12 miles northwest of the site of ancient Nippur.
8. Abu Salabikh is located in Iraq which is ancient Sumer.
9. It's contemporary name is uncertain; perhaps this was Eresh or Kesh.
10. The Euphrates was the city’s highway and lifeline.
11. Abu Salabikh was excavated by an American expedition from the Oriental Institute of Chicago led by Donald P. Hansen.
12. Between 1963 and 1965 found around 500 tablets and fragments.
13. Instructions of Shuruppak a well-known Sumerian Wisdom text of which the Abu Salabikh tablet is the oldest copy.

1. My son, let me give you instructions; you should pay attention! Let me speak a word to you; you should pay attention! Do not neglect my instructions! Do not transgress the words I speak! The instructions of an old man are precious; you should comply them!
2. Don’t not buy a donkey
3. You should not locate a field on a road.
4. You should not plough a field at a road.
5. You should not make a well in your field.
6. You should not place your house next to a public square.
7. You should not vouch for someone and should not let somebody vouch for you.
8. You should not make an inspection on a man.
9. You should not loiter about where there is a quarrel.
10. You should not cause a quarrel.
11. You should not steal anything.
12. You should not break into a house.
13. You should not wish for the money chest.
14. You should not commit robbery.
15. You should not cut yourself with an axe.
16. You should not make a young man a best man.
17. You should not play around with a married young woman.
18. You should not sit alone in a chamber with a married woman.
19. You should not pick a quarrel.
20. You should not disgrace yourself.
21. You should not lie.
22. You should not boast.
23. You should not eat stolen food with anyone.
24. You should not sink your hand into blood.
25. You should not speak improperly.
26. You should scatter your sheep into unknown pastures.
27. You should not travel during the night.
28. You should not curse strongly.
29. You should not draw up water which you cannot reach.
30. You should not drive away a debtor.
31. You should not establish a home with an arrogant man.
32. You should not undo the garden’s reed fence.
33.  You should not use violence.
34. You should not commit rape on someone’s daughter.
35. You should not drive away a powerful man.
36. You should drive away a young man.

1. Instruction of Shuruppak intended to teach proper piety, inculcate virtue, and preserve community standards.
2. Ubara-Tutu is recorded as the final king of Sumer prior to the deluge.

1. You should not boast in beer halls.
2. With your life you should always be on the side of Utu.
3. You should not work with leather.
4. You should not pass judgment when you drink beer.
5. Make words of prayer bring abundance.
6. Prayer is cool water that cools the heart.
7. You should not beat a farmer’s son.
8. You should not buy a prostitute.
9. You should not buy a slave.
10. You should buy a free person.
11. You should not travel alone eastwards.
12. You should not work using only your eyes.
13. The negligent one ruins his family.
14. The good is in the hands; the evil is in the heart.
15. A loving heart maintains a family; a hateful heart destroys a family.
16. You should be humble before the powerful.
17. You should not choose a wife during a festival.
18. You should not buy a bull.
19. Don’t be a drunkard.
20. You should not abuse nothing.
21. You should not throw a lump of earth into the money chest.
22. You should not abduct a wife.
23. Unite forces
24. You should not kill.
25. You should not speak arrogantly to your mother.
26. You should not question your personal GOD.

1. Without a suburbs a city has no center either.
2. Don’t get lost

1. Three names of Kesh temple hymn. Kesh temple hymn or liturgy to nintud or liturgy to nintud on the creation of man and woman.
2. The kesh temple hymn is a Sumerian myth.
3. Tablets written on clay.
4. Kesh temple hymn and the instructions of Shuruppak is the oldest surviving literature in the world.
5. Nintud is the goddess of creation.
6. The Kesh hymn is composed of 134 lines divided into 8 songs.
7. Abzu is the cosmic waters / energy table beneath the earth’s surface
8. Nintud is Ninhursag
9. Kesh is a holy site
10. Kesh is the first house
11. The city Kesh is the power of the land and the life of Sumer.
12. The Kesh city is like a boat flying high in the heavens.
13. Kesh is roaring like a house.
14. Kesh foundation is fixed in the Abzu.
15. Kesh house founded by Anu or An.

1. Ninhursag is the patron goddess of Kesh.
2. Enlil is the Lord of the storm and is the god of breath, wind, loft and breadth.
3. Enlil is the son of Anshar and Kishar.
4. Kur is the underworld.
5. Enlil and Ninlil’s first child was Nanna/ Suen/ Sin the moon god.
6. Enlil was the inventor of the mattock.
7. Enlil was the father of Ningursu and Nanna, and Nisaba.
8. Enlil killed his creations with a flood.
9. Utnapishtim survived the Enlil flood
10. Enlil number is 50
11. Nidaba is the Sumerian goddess of writing, learning, and the harvest.
12. Nidaba is the daughter of An and Urash.
13. Nidaba is the sister of ninsun, the mother of Gilgamesh.
14. Nidaba and Ninhursag might be one in the same.
15. Nisaba is also half-sister of Nanshe and Ninurta.
16. In some tales she is considered the mother of Ninlil.
17. Nisaba is the scribe of the gods.
18. Nisaba keeps records, chronicles events, and perform various other book work duties for the gods. She is also a caretaker for Ninhursag’s temple at Kesh, where she gives commands and keeps temple records.
19. Nisaba is the chief scribe of Nanshe.
20. On the first day of the New Year, she and nanshe work together to settle disputes between mortals and give aid to those in need.
21. Nisaba is considered the teacher of both mortal scribes and other divine deities.
22. Nisaba is associated with grain.

1. Abzu also called engur is the name for the primeval sea below the void space of the underworld Kur and the earth Ma above.
2. It may also refer to fresh water from underground aquifers that was given a religious fertilizing quality.
3. Lakes, springs, rivers, wells, and other sources of fresh water were thought to draw their water from the ABZU.
4. In the city of Eridu, Enki’s temple was known as E-2 Abzu house of cosmic waters and was located at the edge of a swamp, an Abzu.
5. Enki lived in the Abzu since before human beings were created.
6. Ninhursag is a mother goddess of the mountains and one of the seven deities of Sumer.
7. Ninhursag is a fertility goddess.
8. Ninhursag is the true and great lady of heaven.
9. Ninhursag’s hair is sometimes depicted in an omega shape.
10. Ninhursag means lady of the sacred mountain.
11. Ninhursag had many names.
12. Ninhursag is the wife of Enki, she was also referred to as Damgulanna great wife of heaven or Damkina faithful wife.
13. Ninhursag is the mother of all children and mother of the gods.
14. Ninhursag had shrines in Eridu and Kish.
15. Ninhursag’s daught is Ninsar lady greenery.
16. Enki’s seed planted in the earth spawned 8 first plants.
17. Ninhursag completed the birth of mankind.
18. Ninhursag acts as a midwife whilst the mother goddess Nammu makes different kinds of human individuals from lumps of clay at a feast given by Enki to Celebrate the Creation of humankind.
19. Ninhursag’s symbol is the omega symbol.
20. Regarding Ninhursag- Hathor is at times depicted on a mountain, so it may be that two goddesses are connected.
21. Ninhursag’s temple, the Esagila was located on the KUR of Eridu, although she also had a temple at Kish.
22. The Anunnaki are a group of deities in ancient Sumer.
23. Anunnaki means princely offspring or offspring of Anu.
24. Anunnaki are the deities of fertility, associated eventually with the underworld, where they became judges.
25. Anunnaki parents are Anu and Ki.

1. Most prominent of the Anunnaki being Enlil god of air.
2. Enlil cleaved heaven and earth in two.
3. Igigi are the 6^th generation of the gods who have to work for the anunnaki.
4. There are 300 Igigi gods of the heaven.
5. Anu and Ki are children of Anshar and Kishar.
6. According to later Assyrian and Babylonian myth, the Anunnaki were the children of Anu and Ki, brother and sister gods, themselves the children of Anshar and Kishar (Skypivot and Earthpivot, the Celestial poles), who in turn were the children of Lahamu and Lahmu ("the muddy ones"), names given to the gatekeepers of the Abzu (House of Far Waters) temple at Eridu, the site at which the creation was thought to have occurred. Finally, Lahamu and Lahmu were the children of Tiamat (Goddess of the Ocean) and Abzu (God of Fresh Water.
7. Tel Abu Salabikh means father of flints.
8. Nin-IN is the principal son and mighty warrior of the chief god Nippur Enlil.
9. For Sumerians God is man / is a human.
10. The qualities of human society shaped the God and beliefs of Sumerians
11. Supposedly Sumerians created GOD in their own image.
12. The history of GOD is the history of man.
13. The first God was self existing.
14. The first mother father founded his own house and called it after his name E-An house of An.
15. Kalam means house country in Sumerian culture.
16. An =Parent E-An =Temple Unu =City
17. An is king of the Anunnaki.
18. Enlil Epoch before 4000 B.C. An Epoch after 4000 B.C.
19. Marduk epoch is around 2232 B.C.
20. An epoch is completely prehistoric.
21. An is the God of Kur
22. Enlil is the offspring of Kur.
23. 7 Great gods of Sumer.
24. An or Anu must have been the first and foremost as well as the oldest god known to the early Babylonians.
25. Neo-Babyloanian bilingual creation story.
26. Anu is the god of everything in a subjective and objective sense he is both the author of everything and everything himself.
27. The children of Anu are consider the begotten Gods and Goddess.
28. Anu husband Antum wife parents of Igigi and Anunnaki.
29. An is Enlil’s beloved father.
30. Enlil is both God of was and God of peace.
31. People must acknowledge that Anu is the father and Enlil his son.
32. Enlil protects his family, people land, and country from all hostiles.
33. Enlil is the Sherperd of mankind.
34. Enlil Sustains life.
35. Enlil has seven manifestations
36. Seven represents fullness completeness totality.
37. Enlil’s seven manifestations 7 names / 7 sons of son  / 7 sons of father / 7 weapons / 7 messengers Manifestations of Enlil the son are  seven gods.
38. Emblem of Enlil’s authority is a pure or bright scepter.
39. Enlil is the scribe of An.
40. Enlil enforces An will and command.
41. To understand about An humans most look on the earth and in the sky.
42. Anicent Sumerian year divided into 2 seasons and 12 months.
43. Heaven counterparts to the 12 months are the 12 zodiac signs
44. Aries Nisan September being the first month and pisces addar august being the 12^th month.
45. The close humans get to nature the wiser they will grow in all things pertaining God.
46. Enlil reveals the will and glory and name of God by using visions and dreams.
47. Enlil is the god of the night visions.
48. Heaven father / the powers of nature son, the earth Mother. Nature trinity.
49. Adam’s Calendar is located in Kaapsche Hoop
50. First civilization emerged from the ABZU.
51. Largest gold nugget ever found in South Africa weighed 175 ounces or 5 kilograms.
52. Golden kingdom of Monomotap.
53. Seven tablets of creation of heaven and earth, Creation of Adamu
54. Zidusudra is the Sumerian Noah.
55. All of the old testament stories before Abraham are well recorded in the Sumerian texts and tablets pre dating the Bible by 3000 years.
56. Adamu is basically the Biblical Adam.     
57. Anunnaki interacted with humans, they informaed them, and the punished the people also.
58. The first holy trinity arose in Sumeria. It was Ane-the father, and his two sons, Enlil and Enki. Togther they ruled the planet.
59. Enlil was given the northern half of the planet and Enki was given the southern part.
60. Enlil and Enki were supported by an extended family of a total of twelve central deities, each with special task and responsibilities.
61. The Sumerian tablets refer to the sons of the Anunnaki as the Nephilim.
62. Mtthos means written word, spoken words, legend and tales of historic accounts sworn to be true by kings and preists.
63. Gold has always played a part in human activity
64. Enki, is referred to as a medical master with knowledge of life and death and the caretaker of the first gold mines.
65. First holy trinity consists of the gods of Anu, Enlil, and Enki.
66. God is eternal.
67. God is merciful
68. God protects
69. God makes safe.
70. God is fear inspiring
71. God is the shepherd. The she[herd of righteousness
72. God listens to our prayers
73. Jerusalem the city of peace connection
74. Ur is a good place
75. Shirpurla is a pure place.
76. God gives us commandments to follow.
77. Endu is the life of heaven
78. God and Goddesses give us their words of wisdom.
79. In Sumerian Sa nagba imura mean He who saw everything.
80. Utnapishtim mean long life.
81. Dilmun a place of no sickness.
82. The reference to the Flood appears after the mention of eight kings and five antediluvian cities (Eridu, Badtibira, Larak, Sippar and Shuruppak).
83. Sumerian Adapa could very well be the biblical Adam.
84. Adapa was tested with bread and water while Adam and Eve were tested with the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
85. Hammurabi's famous code
86. Adapa was offered not only bread and water but also new garments and oil with which to anoint himself.
87. http://io9.gizmodo.com/musicians-recreation-of-ancient-sumerian-songs-will-hau-1676603467
88. Pray to GOD everyday