“No holy house, no house of the gods in a holy place had as yet been built, no reed had grown, no tree been planted, no bricks had been made, no structure formed, no house had been built, no city founded, no city built where living things could dwell. Nippur was unbuilt, its temple of Ê-kur was unerected; Erech was unbuilt, its temple of Ê-ana was unerected;(297) the deep sea was uncreated, Eridu unbuilt. The site of (its) holy house, the house of the gods, existed not, all the earth was sea, while in the midst of the sea was a water-course. In those days was Eridu built and the temple of Ê-Saggil founded, Ê-Saggil wherein dwells the divine king of the holy mound in the midst of the deep;— Babylon was built, Ê-Saggil completed;— the spirits of the earth were created together, they called it by the mighty name of the holy city, the seat of their well-being.(298) Merodach(299) tied (reeds) together to form a weir in the water, he made dust and mixed it with the reeds of the weir, that the gods might dwell in the seat of (their) well-being.(300) Mankind he created,— the goddess Aruru created the seed of mankind with him,(301)— the cattle of the field, the living creatures in the field, he created; the Tigris and Euphrates he made, and set them in their place, giving them good names. Moss and seed-plant of the marsh, reed and rush he created, he created the green herb of the field, the earth, the marsh, the jungle, the cow and its young, the calf, the sheep and its young, the lamb of the fold, the grove and the forest, the goat, (and) the gazelle multiplied (?) for him. Bel-Merodach(302) filled a space at the edge of the sea, [there] he made an enclosure of reeds, he constructed [a site?], he created [the reeds], he created the trees, he laid [a platform] in the place, [he moulded bricks], the structure he formed; [he built houses], he founded cities, [cities he founded and] filled them with living things; Nippur he built, Ê-kur he erected, Erech he built, Ê-ana he erected,(303) [the deep he created, Eridu he built].”