Dick Fischer wrote:
> George Murphy wrote:
>
> >I would like to see a citation from a recognized philologist with
> competence
> >in these languages to the effect that "Erech" or "Uruk" is derived
> from
> >"Enoch" - but I won't hold my breath. It reminds me of the claim of
> the
> >apocryphal British Israelite claim that MacDonald is derived from
> Moses: Just
> >drop the oses and add acDonald.
>
> Originally, George, I come from Kansas City. When I tell people that,
> typically
> they say, "Oh, you are from Kansas." When I attended college at the
> University
> of Missouri (pronounced Mizzourah) none of my fellow class mates ever
> made
> that mistake.
>
> Actually, Kansas City, Missouri is more complicated than that. Going
> north and
> over the river takes you through North Kansas City, a separate city
> completely, to
> Kansas City North, which puts you back in Kansas City again! Doesn't
> confuse
> us a bit, but to those of you unfamiliar, I can imagine it might.
>
> Now, you don't wish to sit at a desk for two solid years in the
> Library of Congress
> researching all this stuff, as I did. You would rather sit at your
> computer and carp.
> It's easier. I understand that.
>
> So, for your edification and illumination, here are three paragraphs
> of my book
> complete with references:
>
> Naming the city "Enoch" may seem like an unnecessary addendum, a bit
> of Bible
> trivia, but it is not without significance. According to the
> Sumerians, kingship
> resumed at Kish after the flood. Twenty-three kings ruled there
> until, "Kish was
> smitten with weapons; its kingship to E-Anna(k) was carried." 1 In
> The Makers of
> Civilization, Waddell translated E-Anna(k) directly as "Enoch,"
> reckoning it as the
> Sumerian equivalent for Enoch, the city built by Cain. 2
>
> Although the flood erased early inhabitants, at least some of the
> pre-flood cities
> were rebuilt. It was at Enoch that Mes-kiag-gasher became high priest
> and king
> and reigned 324 years. 3 His son, Enmerkar, built or continued
> building Uruk
> located virtually across the street. Uruk is the biblical Erech, part
> of Nimrod's
> kingdom (Gen. 10:10). Enoch or "E-Anna(k)" (translated "the House of
> Heaven")
> is the oldest preserved temple near Uruk, and was supposedly the
> dwelling place
> of the goddess Inanna, the Accadian "Ishtar." 4
>
> E-Anna(k), now called "Eanna" by archaeologists, has been excavated.
> A deep
> sounding was made in the Eanna precinct at Warka in 1931-32. The
> pottery was
> identified as Ubaid from level 18 up to level 14. It transitioned to
> the Uruk period by
> level 10. From Woolley's analysis, the pottery from the earliest
> period he found at
> Ur, that he called "Al 'Ubaid I," was unrepresented at Warka, 5
> demonstrating that
> both Ur and Eridu were established before E-Anna(k). And, of course,
> Adam's
> Eden would have been older than Enoch, the city Cain built.
>
> Here is an aside from Jacobsen I did not include in the book. It is
> an endnote
> following the lines, “Kish was smitten with weapons; its kingship was
> carried to
> E-Anna(k)."
>
> “As first pointed out by Poebel (PBS IV 1, p. 115), the phrase
> presupposes that
> only the temple precinct E-Anna(k) existed at the time. The city Uruk
> was built
> under En-me(r)-kar.”
>
> Further in the Sumerian king list it says, “Enme(r)-kar, son of
> Mes-kiag-gasher,
> king of Uruk, the one who built Uruk, became king.” By the way, the
> fourth king
> named at Uruk was the fabled Gilgamesh.
>
> 1. Thorkild Jacobsen, The Sumerian King List (Chicago: The University
> of
> Chicago Press, 1939), 85.
>
> 2. L. A. Waddell, The Makers of Civilization (New Delhi: S. Chand,
> 1968), 62.
> Jacobsen, The Sumerian King List, 85.
>
> 3. Jacobsen, The Sumerian King List, 85.
>
> 4. Samuel Noah Kramer, From the Poetry of Sumer (Berkeley: University
> of
> California Press, 1979), 174.
>
> 5. Seton Lloyd, "Ur-Al `Ubaid, Uquair and Eridu," Iraq, n.s., 22
> (1960), 24.
>
> Dick Fischer - The Origins Solution - www.orisol.com
> "The answer we should have known about 150 years ago."
I would still like to see a citation from a recognized philologist with
competence
in these languages to the effect that "Erech" or "Uruk" is derived from
"Enoch". Maybe Waddell is one, though the fact that you said nothing
about this makes me dubious. Nothing else you say here is in response
to the point that I raise.
Nothing is easier than to come up with popular etymologies of the "looks
like" & "sounds like" variety. Usually they are frequently spurious.
Pointing out unproven claims isn't all of scholarship but it's a
necessary part of it. Call it carping if you wish.
Shalom,
George
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