"Sumerian NightLights!"

Sumerian history,literature&art.

The Sumerians invented the first writing system, developing Sumerian cuneiform writing out of earlier proto-writing systems by about the 30th century BCE. The earliest literary texts appear from
about the 27th century BCE. The Sumerian language remained in official and literary use in the Akkadian and Babylonian empires, even after the spoken language
disappeared from the population; literacy was
widespread, and the Sumerian texts that students
copied heavily influenced later Babylonian literature. Sumerian literature has not been handed down to
us directly, rather it has been rediscovered through archaeology. Nevertheless, the Akkadians and Babylonians borrowed much from the Sumerian literary heritage, and spread these traditions
throughout the Middle East, influencing much of
the literature that followed in this region.

Mesopotamian history: Mesopotamian religion;
Primordial beings: Apsû & Tiamat · Lahmu & Lahamu · Anshar & Kishar · Mummu Seven gods who decree Four primary (Anu · Enlil · Ki · Enki) · Three sky (Ishtar · Sin · Sama)
The Anunnaki (also transcribed as: Anunna, Anunnaku, Ananaki and other variations) are a group of deities in ancient Mesopotamian cultures (i.e. Sumerian, Akkadian, Assyrian, and Babylonian). The name is variously written "da-nuna", "da-nuna- ke4-ne", or "da-nun-na", meaning something to the effect of "those of royal blood" or "princely offspring". Their relation to the group of gods known as the Igigi is unclear – at times the names are used synonymously but in the Atra-Hasis flood myth the Igigi are the sixth generation of the Gods who have to work for the Anunnaki, rebelling after 40 days and replaced by the creation of humans. Jeremy Black and Anthony Green offer a slightly different perspective on the Igigi and the Anunnaki, writing that "lgigu or Igigi is a term introduced in
the Old Babylonian Period as a name for the (ten)
"great gods". While it sometimes kept that sense in
later periods, from Middle Assyrian and Babylonian
times on it is generally used to refer to the gods of
heaven collectively, just as the term Anunnakku (Anuna) was later used to refer to the gods of the
underworld. In the Epic of Creation, it is said that there are 300 lgigu of heaven." The Anunnaki appear in the Babylonian creation myth, Enuma Elish. In the late version magnifying Marduk, after the creation of mankind, Marduk divides the Anunnaki and assigns them to
their proper stations, three hundred in heaven,
three hundred on the earth. In gratitude, the
Anunnaki, the "Great Gods", built Esagila, the
splendid: "They raised high the head of Esagila equaling Apsu. Having built a stage-tower as high as Apsu, they set up in it an abode for Marduk,
Enlil, Ea." Then they built their own shrines. The Annunaki are mentioned in The Epic of Gilgamesh when Utnapishtim tells the story of the flood. The seven judges of hell are called the
Annunaki, and they set the land aflame as the storm is approaching.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 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).