It could be asked why is newness important for spiritual change? If reality is recognized as a recurring sequence then it might not be such a bad idea to embrace what it is; the mysterious now and turn back time by regarding the new as unimportant and to go back to some other space and leave again. To separate the need to differentiate from the troubling search for new perspectives, which are often empty vessels that temporarily appease a form of existential boredom. This idea of going back, and paying to leave and the notion of recurring patterns and eternal recurrence lies at the heart of much of our identity, or the search thereof.
'' Langdon’s enduring legacy was the Oxford Editions of Cuneiform Texts (OECT) founded in 1923, in the first instance to publish the Weld-Blundell Collection in volumes 1-3, the latter undertaken by Godfrey Driver. OECT 2 presented what subsequently became known as the “Weld-Blundell prism,” featuring a well-preserved version of the Sumerian King List.''
A resemblance to the Bible’s recounting of the descendents of Adam appears in the clay prism known as the Sumerian King List above. Compiled in the second millennium B.C. it now resides in the Ashmolean museum in Oxford. But, outdoing mere Biblical mortals however long lived, Methusaleh reached the age of nine hundred and sixty-nine, this Sumerian list records legendary kings of fantastic longevity. In Eridu, A-lulim is described as ruling 28,800 years. Two kings ruled for 64,800 years. Then, we are told, ”the flood swept over the earth”.
The boundaries of entire lands and the nature of their ancient civilizations can be made clear by following clues in the Bible. It is almost as if one waves a magic wand over a blank area of the earth, and it becomes filled with roads, cities, people and all the paraphernalia of throbbing life. Books such as Werner Keller’s ”The Bible as History” from 1955 have consistently showed the validity of historical memory of the Bible being tenable. The ram peering from the branches of a tree, below, was found in the city of Ur, the birthplace of the patriarch Abraham. As a substitute offering for the boy Isaac, the ram was established as an important part of ancient Hebrew sacrificial ritual. The figure dates from the third millennium B.C.
Ram in Thicket. Ur.
”Gold leaf covers the ram’s head, legs and genitals as well as the tree and its flowers. While its ears are copper, the beast’s eyes, horns and shoulder fleece are made of lapis lazuli. The remainder of its coat is composed of white shell. The ram and tree stand on a rectangular base decorated with a shell, red limestone and lapis lazuli mosaic. Scholars theorize that the work was used as a bowl or table support. ”
''Something is wrong here. War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption, and the Ice Capades. Something is definitely wrong. This is not good work. If this is the best God can do, I am not impressed. -- George Carlin
Into the melting pot of Egypt poured the races of the ancient world. On the wall painting above from the tomb of Seti, c. 1300 B.C., they are distinguished by the color of their skin and their special dress. White skinned people of Put or Libya, to the west; black skinned people of Cush, or Nubia to the south; brown skinned people of Canaan to the east; reddish skinned sons of Mizraim including the Philistines and inhabitants of Caphtor, or Crete.
The scene of Pharaoh drawing a taught bow behind his racing steeds is a ceremonial painting from the tomb of Tutankhamun, fourteenth century B.C. It recalls the hot pursuit of the Israelites, to the Red Sea when the hand of the Lord discomfited the six hundred picked chariots of the Egyptians, ”took off their chariot wheels and made them drive heavily”. These swift and proud chariots had been the core of Pharoah’s fighting force. The making of bricks in Egypt is shown on the wall painting below from the tomb of Rekhmire at Thebes, fifteenth century B.C. We see men bringing water from a pool to moisten the clay while others knead and carry it for shaping in brick molds. Nile mud, a combination of clay and sand, was the basic ingredient, while the straw which the Israelites sought in the fields held the clay together.
tomb of Rekhmire
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