Ancient Mysteries & Interpretations
A Sumerian epic contains a passage, the "Spell of Nudimmud," about a time when all people spoke to the god Enlil "in one tongue," and Enki changed the speech in their mouths. Scholars debate whether it describes a past confusion of languages, like Babel, or a hoped-for future unity.
Ancient text: documented · Meaning of the passage: debated
"And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech" (11:1). People in Shinar build a city and a tower with brick and bitumen; God confuses their language and scatters them. Genesis 10:8–12 credits Nimrod with Babel, Erech (Uruk) and Accad, and with Nineveh.
Enmerkar of Uruk contends with the lord of Aratta. The epic also includes the earliest story of writing a message on a clay tablet, because the messenger cannot remember it.
Source: ETCSL (Oxford): Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta, translation ↗; H. Vanstiphout, Epics of Sumerian Kings: The Matter of Aratta (SBL, 2003)
The "Spell of Nudimmud" (lines 134–155) describes a time when "the whole universe, the people in unison" spoke to Enlil in one tongue, and Enki "changed the speech in their mouths… into which contention had been put." Thorkild Jacobsen and Samuel Kramer read it as a past event, close to Babel; Herman Vanstiphout and others read it as a spell hoping for a future time when all peoples will praise Enlil in one language.
Babylon's great ziggurat, Etemenanki ("House of the foundation of heaven and earth"), was rebuilt by Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar II in the 7th–6th centuries BC on older foundations; its base measured about 91 by 91 meters. Modern reconstructions are informed estimates, not photographs.
Genesis calls Nimrod "a mighty hunter before the LORD" and founder of Mesopotamian cities. Proposed historical analogues include Sargon of Akkad (who founded Akkad), Tukulti-Ninurta I of Assyria, and the god Ninurta. None is secured; Nimrod may be a composite memory of early Mesopotamian kingship.
Traditional reading
The Sumerian passage, read as past history, preserves the same memory as Genesis.
Scholarly reconstruction
If the passage describes a future hope, it is not a Babel parallel, though it shows Mesopotamians reflecting on language and divine rule.
Source: H. Vanstiphout, Epics of Sumerian Kings: The Matter of Aratta (SBL, 2003)
Scholarly reconstruction
Genesis 11 mocks Babylon's ziggurats and their claim to reach heaven: God must "come down" even to see the tower.
Ziggurats, brick and bitumen building, and Mesopotamian reflection on language are all documented. A Sumerian text possibly recalls one original language; its meaning is debated. The specific Babel event cannot be identified archaeologically, and linguistics traces language diversity over a much longer span.
The epic was copied in Old Babylonian scribal schools and rediscovered in the 20th century; it is available in translation through Oxford's Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature.
What the evidence shows
Source: ETCSL (Oxford): Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta, translation ↗
Source: H. Vanstiphout, Epics of Sumerian Kings: The Matter of Aratta (SBL, 2003)
Source: D. J. Wiseman, Nimrod and Mesopotamian kingship; see also Y. Levin, "Nimrod the Mighty, King of Kish," VT 52 (2002)