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'Fake News' Found on a 3000-Year-Old Tablet

The world's first-ever 'fake news' was spread by a Babylonian god, who tricked humans for his self-interest, claims researcher.
PUBLISHED OCT 10, 2024
Cover Image Source: This tablet is the 11th tablet of the Epic of Gilgamesh. (Photo by CM Dixon/Print Collector/Getty Images)
Cover Image Source: This tablet is the 11th tablet of the Epic of Gilgamesh. (Photo by CM Dixon/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Riddles of a 'trickster god' could be the earliest ever example of 'fake news' in the world, according to a researcher at the University of Cambridge in the U.K. These 'riddles' are present as markings in the 3000-year-old Gilgamesh ("Flood") Tablet, Newsweek reported.

The tablet is part of a series that narrates the Epic of Gilgamesh. Flood tablet is the eleventh one in that series, and focuses on the story of Utnapishtim (a Babylonian Noah). 

Image Source: Getty Images/Photo by Elif Bayraktar (The definition of the word Literature in a dictionary, under magnifying glass, translator and language concept - stock photo)
Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by Elif Bayraktar

The Flood tablet was discovered by Assyriologist, George Smith, in 1872, Daily Mail reported. Scholars believe that the story featured on the tablet is the same as the Genesis tale in the Bible but with fewer gods. The tablet is currently placed at the British Museum and is believed to have been inscribed by a scholar of the time named Sîn-lēqi-unninni, according to researchers.

In the story, God Ea asks Utnapishtim to build a boat, Newsweek reported. Utnapishtim does what he is told, and enters the boat with his family and animals. Just when the boat's door is closed, rains come and cause a flood that wipes away the rest of humanity.

Martin Worthington, a fellow of St John's College, University of Cambridge stated that in the entire story, several lines reflect double meanings. Worthington specializes in the fields of Babylonian, Assyrian, and Sumerian grammar, literature, and medicine, Fox News reported.

One of the lines that reflect dual meanings is, "ina lilâti ušaznanakkunūši šamūt kibāti," which could be read as 'at dawn there will be kukku cakes,' as well as 'at dawn, he will rain down upon you darkness,' Telegraph reported. One of the versions indicates that if Utnapishtim and his fellow villagers build the boat, also called the ark, then they will receive an abundance of food. The other one implies that at dawn, a flood will be coming the way of the villagers.

"Ea tricks humanity by spreading fake news. He tells the Babylonian Noah, known as Uta–napishti, to promise his people that food will rain from the sky if they help him build the ark," Worthington explained, Telegraph reported. "With this early episode, set in mythological time, the manipulation of information and language has begun. It may be the earliest ever example of fake news," he added.     

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons/Photo by Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg) (Male deity wears a horned helmet and holds a cup from which water overflows; god Ea (Enki). Nude Ishtar appears in the background. Old Babylonian period, 19th-17th century BCE. On display at the Pergamon Museum, Germany.)
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons/Photo by Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg) (Male deity wears a horned helmet and holds a cup from which water overflows; God Ea (Enki) at the Pergamon Museum, Germany.)

Worthington explained that the inscription managed to trick humans by using words that can be pronounced in two different ways, and give a distinct meaning in both the cases, Fox News reported. "What the people don’t realize is that Ea’s nine-line message is a trick: it is a sequence of sounds that can be understood in radically different ways, like English 'ice cream' and 'I scream,'" Worthington shared.

Worthington believes that Ea lied in the story because of his self-interest, Fox News reported. He knew that the floods would wipe out humanity and therefore found a way in which the group suffered a major blow, but at the same time, some people managed to come out of the disaster. "Babylonian gods only survive because people feed them. If humanity had been wiped out, the gods would have starved," Worthington stated. "The god Ea manipulates language and misleads people into doing his will because it serves his self-interest. Modern parallels are legion!"

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