They taught him how to make calculations with numbers. "The tablet concludes with a postscript: "Thus was the line of priests created - those who are allowed to approach Shamash and Adad." "By the time of the seventh generation after Enosh, on the Eve of the Deluge, the Earth and its inhabitants were gripped by a new Ice Age. The Mesopotamian texts detail the sufferings by mankind, the shortages of food, even cannibalism....The biblical version tells us little about Noah ("Respite"), apart from the fact that he was "righteous and of pure genealogy." The Mesopotamian texts inform us that the hero of the Deluge lived in Sharuppak, the Medical Center run by Sud. "The Sumerian texts relate that as mankind's hardships were increasing, Enki suggested, and Enlil vehemently opposed, the taking of measures to alleviate the suffering. What upset Enlil no end was the increasing sexual relationships between the young male Anunnaki and the Daughters of Man.... "....This growing togetherness between the young astronauts and the descendants of the Primitive Worker was not to Enlil's liking. The Sumerian texts tell us that "as the Land extended and the people multiplied," Enlil became increasingly "disturbed by Mankind's pronouncements" and its infatuation with sex and lust. The gets together between the Anunnaki and the daughters of Man caused him to lose sleep. "And the Lord said: "I will destroy the Earthling whom I have created off the face of the Earth." "The texts imform us that when it was decided to develop the deep mines in the Abzu, the Anunnaki also proceeded to establish a scientific monitoring station at the tip of Africa. It was put in charge of Ereshkigal, a granddaughter of Enlil.... "....Enlil now saw his chance to get rid of the Earthlings when this scientific station at the tip of Africa began to report a dangerous situation: the growing icecap over Antarctica had become unstable, resting upon a layer of slippery slush. The problem was that this instability had developed just as Nibiru was about to make its approach to Earth's vicinity; and Nibiru's gravitational pull could upset the ice cap's balance and cause it to slip into the Antarctic Ocean. The immense tidal waves that this would cause could engulf the whole globe. "When the Igigi orbiting Earth confirmed the certainty of such a catastrophe, the Anunnaki began to assemble in Sippar, the spaceport. Enlil, however, insisted that mankind be kept unaware of the coming Deluge; and at a special session of the Assembly of the Gods, he made all of them, especially Enki, swear to keep the secret. "The last part of the Atra-Hasis text, a major part of the Epic of Gilgamesh, and other Mesopotamian texts describe at length the events that followed - how the catastrophe of the Deluge was used by Enlil to achieve the annihilation of mankind; and how Enki, opposed to the decision which Enlil forced upon the Assembly of the Gods, contrived to save his faithful follower Ziusudra ("Noah") by designing for him a submersible vessel that could withstand the avalanche of water. "The Anunnaki themselves, on a signal, "lifted up" in their Rakub Ilani ("chariots of the gods"), the fired-up rocket ships "setting the land ablaze with their glare." Orbiting the Earth in their shuttlecraft, they watched in horror the onslaught of the tidal waves below. All that was upon the Earth was swept off in one colossal avalanche of water: A.MA.RU BA.UR. RA.TA - "The flood swept thereover." Sud, who had created Man with Enki, "saw and wept. . . .Ishtar cried out loud like a woman in travail. . . the gods, the Anunnaki, weep with her." Rolling back and forth, the tidal waves swept the soil away, leaving behind vast deposits of mud: "All that had been created turned back to clay." "In The 12th Planet we have presented the evidence for our conclusions that the Deluge, bringing about an abrupt end to the last Ice Age, had occurred some 13,000 years ago. "As the waters of the Deluge "went back from off the land"....the Anunnaki began to land on Mount Nisir ("Mount of Salvation") - Mount Ararat.... Enlil was outraged to discover that "the seed of Mankind" was saved; but Enki persuaded him to relent. "The Old Testament, focusing its interest on the line of Noah alone, lists no other passengers in the rescue ship. But the more detailed Mesopotamian Deluge texts also mention the Ark's navigator and disclose that at the last moment friends or helpers of Ziusudra (and their families) also came on board. Greek versions of the account by Berossus state that after the Deluge, Ziusudra, his family, and the pilot were taken by the gods to stay with them; the other people were given directions to find their way back to Mesopotamia by themselves. "The immediate problem facing all that were rescued was food. To Noah and his sons the Lord said: "All the animals that are upon the earth, and all that flies in the skies, and all that creepeth on the ground, and all the fishes of the sea, into your hands are given; all that teemeth and that liveth, shall be yours for food." And then came a significant addition: "As grassy vegetation all manner of grain have I given you." Mr. Sitchin explains at this point the origin of "vegetation" as producing "grain," fruits and vegetables, after the Deluge, and how they grew in the high land rather than the plains, which were not suitable until the earth dried after many years. Domestication of animals which provided meat, milk, and wool. "How did it all come when it did? Modern science has yet to find the answer; but the Sumerian texts had already provided it millennia ago. Like the Bible, they relate how agriculture began after the Deluge, when (in the words of Genesis) "Noah began as a husbandman"; but like the Bible, which records that there had been tilling of the land (by Cain) and shepherding (by Abel) long before the Deluge, so do the Sumerian chronicles tell of the developement of crop-growing and cattle-rearing in prehistoric times.