9.
THE
ENIGMA OF THE TABLETS: WHAT WERE THE “TABLETS OF
DESTINIES”?
“The ME ... has no equivalent in English and no translator has thus far been able to provide a satisfactory explanation of the term... Traditionally, scholars translate the term as ‘divine powers’ or ‘tablets of destiny’ for want of a better descriptive term. ”“437
R. A. Boulay.
The question that now
inevitably occurs is what exactly were these “stones of power”?
What exactly were the “Tablets of Destiny” or, following Dalley’s
translation, “Tablet of Destinies”, or following Sitchin’s
translation, “Tablets of Destinies”? This enigma, in any of its
variants, is one of the central riddles to be solved for anyone
taking the war scenario of the ancient texts at their word. After
all, if a war were fought to possess or to regain them because they
conferred “the power of the universe” then obviously their
possession conferred tremendous power to their owner. Merely to
assert that they were a primary cause
of this war is not enough, one must understand why they were a cause of that war, and to
understand why they were, one must
understand what they were, with as much
precision and exactitude as possible.
From the previous
chapter it would seem obvious that Zu’s theft of the Tablets from
Enlil challenged the latter’s hegemony. It would seem equally
apparent that they were somehow used by Zu in his war against
Ninurta, that is, it would seem that the Tablets of Destinies
either were weapons of awesome power, or that they could be used as
such. And finally, it would appear that Ninurta’s inventory of the
“stones” after the recovery of the Tablets of Destinies is somehow
related, i.e., the inventoried stones may be components of the
Tablets of Destinies. But this really does not advance us much
further toward solving the riddle of these enigmatic “stones of
power.” And this situation is not aided by the fact that in some
instances it appears that the Tablets of Destinies could be used
for communications.
Part of the enigma
lies in the fact that the term “Tablets of Destinies” itself is an
uncertain translation, an academic convention that has become
accepted merely through widespread use. R.A. Boulay points out the
difficulty few mainstream Assyriologists are willing to admit: no
one knows exactly what they were, and the translation of the word
“me” (pronounced like the month May) as “stone” or “tablet” is
simply at best an educated guess:
The story of (An)Zu must have had a strong impact on the minds of ancient peoples for it concerned a struggle for power within the pantheon itself. It actually concerns the theft of the ME or “power stones” from the possession of the chief god Enlil and their recovery by his champion, the god Ninurta. The ME ... has no equivalent in English and no translator has thus far been able to provide a satisfactory explanation of the term. It seemed to apply to anything composed of system, direction, ordered events, law, arts and crafts, even weapons and mechanical devices.Traditionally, scholars translate the term as “divine powers” or “tablets of destiny” for want of a better descriptive term. But these names are grossly deficient, for in reality they were physical objects that could be carried about and upon which was engraved or transcribed instructions and standards of behavior. In this sense they seemed to be like our modern day computer storage disks and chips. The ME were actually the how-to-manuals of the ancients but embedded in “stone.”Each ME provided the possessor full authority and power over a certain aspect of life, perhaps by providing essential information and instructions on controlling certain physical equipment. In this respect they may have been control modules use to operate certain pieces of equipment. Some of the ME were called ME-GAL-GAL or “great ME” and were associated with “divine” weapons of mass destruction.438
In yet another
combination, MELAM or ME-LAM, meaning “brilliant ME,” the term
suggests that the ME “were light-emitting crystals,”439 a significant clue,
as we shall see.
Putting all these
indications together, one may outline a preliminary answer to the
riddle of what the ME or “power stones” or “Tablets of Destinies”
were:
1. They were, first of all, information or objects containing information, that allowed one to tap into “the power of the universe;”
2. They were objects of technology that in use or conjunction with the “ekurs” or “mountains of stone” - the ziggurats and pyramids of the ancient world - allowed one to access that power, and thus wield a global hegemony by virtue of being able to manipulate that power in a variety of ways;
3. In the myths previously examined, these ME are almost always understood to be weapons. Their theft from Enlil by Anzu (or, earlier, by Tiamat!) thus implies something quite important about the civilization of the ancient “gods,” and that is, that the whole idea of “kingship” resided in the implicit ability and threat to make use of this force.
4. As was also seen in the previous chapter, the greatest of the MEs, the “Tablets of Destinies,” appear to be able to effect action at a distance.
5. Some MEs are also referred to as ME-LAM, or light emitting, suggesting a connection between the Tablets of Destinies and light, or electromagnetic radiation. This interpretation is supported by the fact that the texts indicate that after their theft, “radiance” disappeared.
6. And finally, it will be noted that these particular MEs, from their first theft by Tiamat to their their subsequent theft by Anzu, and their brief (?) period in the possession of Ninurta, exercises a peculiarly corrupting moral influence on their possessors, gradually sapping their will and consuming them with the obsessive desire to control and possess them. The MEs are like the “Ring” in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings that gradually consume and corrupt the will of their possessors with their godlike powers both for destruction and for communication. They were, for Tiamat, Kingu, and even Marduk himself, then Enlil, Zu, and Ninurta, and presumably others, as they were for Tolkien’s character Gollum, their “precious.”
But having said even
all of this, we have merely rephrased what was known all along
about them. We are still no nearer a solution to the riddle; we
have merely outlined its complexity.
Clearly a more
systematic approach is needed, one that pieces together a plausible
picture of what the Tablets of Destinies were from the twin tracks
of myth and of physics; the interdisciplinary approach of what I
have termed “paleophysics” is tailor-made to answer precisely such
questions. One might even say it is tailor-made to answer this
specific question.