4. The chaos of the sea was she who bore the whole of them. 5. Their waters were collected together in one place, and 6. the flowering reed was not gathered, the marsh-plant was not grown. 7. At that time the gods had not been produced, any one of them; 8. By name they had not been called, destiny was not fixed. 9. Were made also the (great) gods, 10. the gods Lakhmu and Lakhamu were produced (the first), and 11. to growth they........ 12. the gods Sar and Kisar were made next. 13. The days were long; a long (time passed), (and) 14. the gods Anu (Bel and Hea were born of) 15. the gods Sar and (Kisar)....... On the reverse of this tablet there are only fragments of the eight lines of colophon, but the restoration of the passage is easy; it reads:— 1. First tablet of “At that time above” (name of Creation series). 2. Palace of Assur-bani-pal king of nations, king of Assyria, 3. to whom Nebo and Tasmit gave broad ears 4. (his) seeing eyes regarded the engraved characters of the tablets; 5. this writing which among the kings who went before me 6. none of them regarded, 7. the secrets of Nebo, the literature of the library as much as is suitable, 8. on tablets I wrote, I engraved, I explained, and 9. for the inspection of my people within my palace I placed. This colophon will serve to show the value attached to the documents, and the date of the present copies. The fragment of the obverse, broken as it is, is precious as giving the description of the chaos or desolate void before the Creation of the world, and the first movement of creation. This corresponds with the first two verses of the first chapter of Genesis. 1. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2. And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” On comparing the fragment of the first tablet of the Creation with the extract from Damascius, we do not find any statement as to there being two principles at first called Tauthe and Apason, and these producing Moymis, but in the Creation tablet the first existence is called Mummu Tiamatu, a name meaning “the chaos of the deep.” The compound Mummu Tiamatu, in fact, combines the two names Moymis and Tauthe of Damascius. Tiamatu must also be the same as the Thalatth of Berosus, which we are expressly told was the sea. It should, therefore, be corrected to Thavatth, as M. Lenormant proposed some years ago. It is evident that, according to the notion of the Babylonians, the sea was the origin of all things, and this also agrees with the statement of Genesis i. 2. where the chaotic waters are called tĕhôm, “the deep,” the same word as the Tiamat of the Creation text and the Tauthe of Damascius.