“Such was the message Enmerkar wanted to send to the king of Aratta. But it was too subtle, too unusual to be entrusted to a messenger. Very likely the messenger would make a mess of it. These people were used to delivering threats of massacres that could be announced in a few simple words.

“So Enmerkar began to etch signs on a clay tablet. They looked like seals. But Enmerkar was relying on the king of Aratta’s intelligence. If he were really such a lover of riddles, he would be able to solve these mute riddles, too. Invisible to each other, concealed in the mountain forests, Enmerkar and the king of Aratta sent each other riddles and answers to riddles. They realized they had never understood anyone or been understood so well, without needing to see each other. It was the first writing, the first reading.

“Enmerkar managed to solve all the riddles the king of Aratta sent him. Then they agreed that shipments of grain, barley, and dates would be sent to Aratta. And in return Aratta would send metals, gold and silver. Lapis lazuli, too. Inanna would be satisfied at last.”

“Enmerkar was Inanna and Ea’s favorite. As lover to Inanna, as king to Ea. But he wasn’t the only one. The king of Aratta was also a favorite of Inanna’s. Both men had celebrated ceremonies that involved the goddess getting up from their beds. Both were convinced that Inanna was on their side. Secret help was needed. When the king of Aratta challenged Enmerkar with a string of riddles, Ea, without ever appearing, suggested the answers. They could be signs etched on clay. Those tiny bars, like so many nails, would have other uses aside from resolving differences with the king of Aratta, barricaded away behind seven mountain chains. They would complicate and enhance the life of all the Black Heads. But Ea never claimed the invention as his own, as if he knew almost nothing about it. Unlike the Anunnaki, Ea never gloried in many of the things he had done.”

“There were three heavens, made with different stones and different colors. Reddish gleams filtered down from the highest. The middle one was sapphire. The lower, jasper. On this heaven, Anu, Enlil, and Ea chose to trace the script of the night sky. Like silent craftsmen, absorbed by their work, they etched signs on the jasper. Which became drawings. Stars and constellations. They served as a model for Enmerkar when he etched those signs on clay.

“One day Enlil went into the goddess Nisaba’s temple and laid a tablet of lapis lazuli on her knees. Then the council of the Anunnaki met. They spoke of something they called the Tablet of the Bright Heavens. It was a map of the signs that Enlil, Anu, and Ea had just etched on the jasper. From then on Nisaba would be invoked as chief scribe of heaven, goddess of the pure stylus. And an unbridgeable gap was established between Anu, Enlil, and Ea and all the other Anunnaki. These three alone had drawn a way through heaven. And they alone each possessed a portion of the sky.”