Eden was known by different names in different nationalities, the most well known
being Gu-Edinna and Kisad Edini The ancient name of the alluvial plain of Babylonia was Gu-Edinna or Kisad Edina, although some archeologists believe the name was properly restricted to "the plain" on the western bank of the river where the Bedouins pastured the flocks of their Babylonian masters. This "bank" or kisad, together with the corresponding western bank of the Tigris (according to Hommel the modern Shatt el-Uai), gave its name to the land of Chesed, hence the Kasdim/Kasdinof the Old Testament. In the early inscriptions of Lagash the whole district is known as Gu-Edinna, the Sumerian equivalent of the Semitic Kisad Edini. The coast land was similarly known as Gu-gbba (Semitic Kisad tamtim), the "bank of the sea." The Sumerian cities of Lagash and Umma were approximately 20 miles apart.
Inscriptions from Gu-Edinna mention a king Entemena, who's headless statue was also discovered, and stolen in 2003 when the Bagdad Museum was looted. It was after recovered and returned to the people of Iraq in 2006.Bearing the cuneiform inscription,
"Entemena Whom the God Enlil Loves," the statue is one of the most significant and historic artifacts returned to the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad. It is the oldest known representation of a Mesopotamian king. The inscription recorded a treaty with Lagash and the recovery of boundaries. The names mentioned in the inscription come from the area Biblical evidence gives for pre flood Genesis. Part of the inscription show the importance of Gu-Edina:
I,Eannatum the powerful, called by Ningirsu, to the [enemy] country,
with anger, that which was in all times I proclaim! The prince of Umma,
each time when with his troops he eats the Gu-edina, the well-beloved
lands of Ningirsu, may the [latter] lay him low."
Since Gu-Edinna was the best land in Mesopotamia, it was well guarded, defended. Administraters were put in charge of crops, timber cutting and collecting taxes.The inscription mentions a King Ili, which was also the name of the god “Ili”. Who was the one god, and creator of all the other gods. That would indicate that the knowledge of one God was handed down, rather than being fabricated by Biblical scholors. It is most likely the source of the Canaanite and early Hebrew god “El.”Kadi was a goddess of justice. The Anunaki were the Biblical Ananikim, or the people of Anunaki. In Sumerrian legend they were the seven judges of the underworld. In the Gingamesh epic, they were watchers and the the children of the god of heaven. Edin is also mentioned in the tale of “Inana and Bilulu.”Edin-Lila indicates the plain, or bank,”of Ili the Creator. It is believed that Il and Kadi became the Hebrew El Shadai:
“Then the son of old woman Bilulu, matriarch and her own mistress, --
Jirjire, a man on his own, fit for the fields and a knowledgeable man --
was filling pen and fold with his captured cattle, and was stacking his stacks and
piles of grain.
He left scattered in the fields his victims struck down with the mace.
Sirru of Edin-lila, no one's child and no one's friend, sat before him and held converse
with him.”
“My lady went to Bilulu in Edin-lila.
Her son Jirjire like the wind there did ......
Sirru of Edin-lila, no one's child and no one's friend, .......”
Although Sumerian texts place Eden in Mesopotamia, that is not where they place the creation. It was in a place called Dilmun, which was the habitat of the gods rather than man. The Bible states that Adam and Eve were placed in the garden, indicating they were created elsewhere. The creation stories outside the Bible do not contradict the Bible in that respect. Historians have generally agreed that Dilmun is present day Bahrain. Sumerian texts suggest that it is in a mountainous region, which doesn’t describe Bahrain, or any island in the Persian gulf. Dilmun was known to have traded with a place called Megan, believed to be in India. Texts dated from around 3300 b.c. mention Dilmun or Tilmun, and there is nothing found on Behrain that dates earlier than 2200 b.c. The epic of Gilgamesh sheds more light on the location of Dilmun.
In the Land of the Crossing
in mountainous Tilmun --
the place where Shamash ascends --
they caused him to dwell.
It also agrees that it was a Mountainous region at a place of crossing, on Mt mashu. Dilmun was described as a place where the sun rises, which wasn’t south in Bahrain, but east of Sumer. Together all the evidence points to Dilmun being across the mountains of Iran, rather than south on one of the islands in the Persian gulf. The following Sumerian text indicates that man was once an herbivour and was naked. The Bible agrees with that:
“Like mankind, when first created,
They knew not the eating of bread,
Knew not the dressing of garments,
Ate plants with their mouths like sheep,
Drank water from the ditch.”
The quote below also verifies that that were four rivers flowing from one, as the Bible claims. From A Sumerian Epoch:
“From these fertile sweet waters flow the four
Great Rivers of the Ancient World, including
the Tigris and the Euphrates”.
The Eridu Genesis gives the names of the other two rivers as Ullugarra and Nigarra:
