In 2009, Douglas Simmonds, son of RAF pilot, Leonard Simmonds, who’d acquired a small cuneiform tablet while serving in the Middle East in the 1940s, took his father’s tablet to Dr. Irving Finkel, one of the world’s leading Assyriologist, a curator at the British Museum. Dr. Finkel translated the tablet and discovered that it contained a remarkable account of the Mesopotamian Flood story, where Atrahasis, the Mesopotamian Noah, was commanded by Enki, the son of the High God An, to construct a circular boat to survive the deluge.

The tablet, known as The Ark Tablet, dated to the Old Babylonian period (circa 1900-1700 B.C.), is particularly significant for its detailed portrayal of the ark as circular in shape, its emphasis on housing the heart of life within, its meticulous attention to waterproofing the vessel, and for its focus on the ark as a sanctuary offering protection from the catastrophic floodwaters. These elements collectively suggest that the ark was not just a boat, but a temple- a microcosmic model of the macrocosm.

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In 1900, Depot Charlie, Chief of the Tituni-Joshua people—whose ancestral lands are situated in southern Oregon—narrated the creation story of his people to an anthropologist, who subsequently documented it in Volume 28 of the Journal of American Folklore. The Tituni-Joshua people had significant interactions with European settlers in the late 1700s, though the extent to which these encounters shaped Chief Charlie's account remains unknown.

The Tituni-Joshua creation narrative is particularly significant for its depiction of the creator residing on the primordial waters in a sweat lodge, the mention of a foundation stone, the involvement of the First Man in the creation process, and the portrayal of the creator imparting instructions to the First Man prior to his ascension to the sky.

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In the early 1900s, the creation account of the Native American Maidu people, whose ancestral lands are located in northern California in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, was documented in Volume 17 of the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. During the mid-19th century, amid the Gold Rush, the Maidu people had significant encounters with European settlers. The extent to which these interactions influenced their creation narrative is unclear.

The Maidu account is notable for its anthropomorphic description of the creator, the inclusion of co-creators, mention of a “sky rope”, mention of a raft on the primordial waters, the growth of a sacred tree, the onset of physical entropy on the earth, and most importantly, an account of the creator visiting and imparting important instructions to the First Man, instructions which the First Man subsequently imparts to the Maidu people.

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