5. The story of the Tower of Babel, an important historical construction in the Old Testament, contains noteworthy similarities to an ancient Sumerian legend
The Tower of Babel, appearing in the Book of Genesis, serves as an origin myth to explain the different languages of the world. In the aftermath of the Great Flood, a united mankind embarks on a project to construct a great tower to reach heaven. Thwarting this effort, God confuses their speech and scatters humanity throughout the world to preclude future attempts. Believed to have been inspired, at least in part, by the Etemenanki – an ancient ziggurat dedicated to the Mesopotamian god Marduk – in Babylon, which would have been observed by the Israelites during the Babylonian Exile, the biblical narrative also draws considerably from a Sumerian legend.
Composed in the 21st century BCE, more than a millennium before the Bible, Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta is was an ancient Sumerian account of a series of conflicts between Enmerkar, King of Uruk, and an unnamed ruler of Aratta. The motivation behind the conflict, according to the story, was the demand by Enmerkar of tribute from Aratta to aid with the construction of a gigantic ziggurat in Eridu designed to reach the divine Enlil. Imploring the god Enki to restore the linguistic unity of mankind so that they might once again cooperate in peace, the Uruks are refused and a great war ensues among the nations of man.