Coming from Heaven. Book 3

By Elena Kryuchkova and Olga Kryuchkova

The final part of the trilogy "Coming From Heaven". The distant past and the events of the 19th century are intertwined, giving the end of the history of the ancient deities and William.

Excerpts from the book:
“...I never managed to find the golden temple of Inanna,” Mr. Adamson confessed at the end of his story. “Nevertheless, I found some very interesting golden tablets...” he said. “And besides them, there are a number of other interesting ancient objects.”
“Tablets?” Alice was surprised. “The cards told me that you would find what you wanted on the expedition. Maybe these are the golden tablets? May I have a look at them?”
“They must be in the British Museum by now. My colleague George Smith took on a huge responsibility and personally escorted the valuable cargo. However, I have photographs of tablets and other artifacts found in Uruk.”
William took a box of photographs from one of his huge suitcases, opened it, and set it on the table. Alice picked up several photographs. In the photo, the tablets looked as thick as thick cardboard. They were covered with thin and even symbols, similar to Sumerian cuneiform.
“Are they made of gold?” Alice asked casually. Chris, meanwhile, mesmerized, looked at one of the photographs.
“Yes, outwardly the metal looks like gold...” confirmed William. Alice, meanwhile, put her hand on the black-and-white photo.
“This is not gold, although it is very similar in appearance,” the medium suddenly, quite unexpectedly, declared.
“Why are you so sure?” exclaimed in one voice her brother and Aldridge.
“How could you tell from black-and-white photography?” wondered William. “Metal is similar to gold, but clearly lighter than it. Perhaps some kind of alloy...”
“I just know,” she replied calmly. “I feel like this metal came here from afar. This is not a product of the earth's interior...”
Chris and William looked at each other meaningfully, but didn't argue. Alice looked up from the photo and looked at her brother with an attentive gaze.

***

Enki entered the courtroom. Ereshkigal sat at a wide wooden table made of Elamite cedar, decorated with rich inlays. She studied another case, recorded by scribes on ten clay tablets. Unwittingly, Ereshkigal was distracted from her occupation and looked at the visitor. To her surprise, she saw the High Emissary himself.
“Venerable Enki?!” she exclaimed, rose from the table and bowed slightly to the Emissary.
He only replied with a slight nod of his head.
“Are you without an entourage?” Ereshkigal was again surprised.
“Yes... I arrived alone on a very urgent matter...” said a relative with a tremor in his voice.
Ereshkigal knew immediately that something serious had happened. Otherwise, Enki would have summoned her to his residence in Eridu. She immediately motioned for the scribes to leave. Enki sat down beside the massive table on a sturdy wooden chair with a high carved back.
“Are you ready to listen to me?” he asked the High Judge. She nodded.
The High Emissary told her about the disappearance of the golden tablets and the attendant circumstances, including the theft of natural resources. And about what Ninshubur sent to the Dumuzid residence in order to collect the necessary evidence.
The judge listened carefully, and then exclaimed:
“It's outrageous! I am sure that Inanna and Dumuzid are both involved in this case! They acted together! And my sister deliberately distracted you!”
“Ereshkigal, do not get excited...” Enki tried to calm his granddaughter. “I can't believe Inanna was involved in this. But Dumuzid could easily have done such a thing... And he had serious reasons for that...”

• Language: English
• Publisher: Elena Kryuchkova
• Release date: Dec 4, 2021
• ISBN: 9780463959732

Elena Kryuchkova

Elena Kryuchkova started her creative path in 2012. She writes in different genres, such as: esotericism, fantasy, Slavic fantasy, sci-fi, dystopia, post-apocalyptic and others. Has several graphic works. A number of her novels were co-authored with Olga Kryuchkova.She is inspired by various fantasy and science fiction.Loves cats and draws.

Book preview

Characters

England

- William Adamson — teacher of mythology and ancient history

- Alice Adamson — medium, William's younger sister

- Chris Aldridge — Alice’s lawyer and future spouse

- Genevieve Adamson-Parker — the mother of William and Alice, was married to Harold Adamson, later — to Raymond Parker

- Grace Adrian — sister of Harold, aunt of William and Alice, owner of a rich Scottish estate

- Umberto Tommaso — secret agents of the Vatican

- Eliza Neyton — a mysterious person

Sumerian Kingdom

- Inanna — daughter of Nanna and Ningal, the sister of Utu. Known as the goddess of love, fertility and harvest

- Utu — son of Nanna and Ningal, the elder brother of Inanna. Known as the sun god

- Lahar — daughter of Enki, twin sister of Ashnan, half-sister of Aruru. Known as the cattle goddess

- Ashnan — daughter of Enki, twin sister Lahar, half-sister of Aruru. Known as the goddess of grain

- Aruru — daughter of Enki, half-sister of Ashnan and Lahar. Known as one of the incarnations of the goddess Ki (Ninhursag) and creator of Enkidu

- Enlil — son of Anu, brother of Enki, husband of Ninlil

- Enki — father of Aruru, Ashnan, Lahar, grandfather of Inanna, Ereshkigal and Utu

- Ninhursag — Enki's wife and sister

- Anu — the great-grandfather of Inanna, Ereshkigal and Utu (Enki's father)

- Ereshkigal — the younger sister of Inanna and Utu, judge

- Nergal — husband of Ereshkigal

- Ninsun — mother of Gilgamesh

- Ninurta — grandson of Anu and father of Ninsun

- Dumuzid — Inanna's husband, Geshtinanna's brother

- Ninshubur — Enki's servant, later served Inanna for a while

- Lugalbanda — King of Uruk, father of Gilgamesh

- Gilgamesh — son of Ninsun and Lugalbanda, King of Uruk

- Enkidu — the creation of Aruru, the friend of Gilgamesh

- Shamhat — Priestess of Inanna, temple prostitute

- Humbaba — guardian of the Cedar Forest, a metal beast

- Siduri — Anunnaki's scientist from Dilmun Island

- Urshanabi — ‘ferryman’ in the Underworld

- Utnapishtim — man who survived the giant flood and received eternal life

This story is fiction and any similarity to real people or events are coincidental.

The names of real people who lived in the past are marked with footnotes. But the description of their life in this story is fictitious.

This story is completely fiction.

Book 3. Golden Tablets

Chapter 1

England, London, 1872.

William Adamson completed the archaeological site in Uruk. Alas, he never found the golden temple of Inanna, and there was no longer a financial opportunity to continue the expedition. However, he did not return to England empty-handed.

Having settled all the formalities with the local authorities, the members of the expedition left the territory of southern Iraq and went back to England. William previously wrote letters to his sister and mother, where he announced his return.

Adamson and Smith, as leaders of the expedition, decided to make their way to England by waterway. They hired a ship, carefully loading crates of carefully packed archaeological material onto it. The golden tablets (also carefully packed) were carried by Mr. Adamson in his private cabin — their value was too great.

The ship descended the Euphrates into the Persian Gulf, passed it, rounded the Arabian Peninsula and entered the Red Sea. The newly erected and controlled by France, the Suez Canal, allowed ships to enter the Mediterranean Sea without hindrance. And not go around the entire African continent.

The voyage lasted almost a month, the ship hired by Adamson and Smith, alas, was not fast. In addition, the ship had to enter major ports from time to time in order to replenish the supply of fresh water and provisions. The last money of the expedition was spent on this. And in the end, William had to buy provisions at his own expense.

During the voyage, he and George Smith eagerly tried to decipher the inscriptions on the golden tablets. But in vain. The result was only unfinished scraps of phrases. But they managed to decipher a number of clay tablets.

The texts stated that after Gilgamesh, son of Lugalbanda and grandson of the sun god Utu, ascended the throne, prosperity began in Uruk. The new Ruler carried out a number of administrative reforms, annexed neighboring cities and regions to his possessions. He subdued all the temples and declared his power to be divine, for he was the son of the goddess Ninsun and the grandson of the god Utu.

Gilgamesh put in order the tax system, imposed restrictions on private trade, subjecting it to strict administrative control. For this, a bureaucratic apparatus was created from wealthy merchants. The sale of land was strictly limited and controlled by a special government agency.

Several tablets listed directly the articles of the laws of ancient Uruk. For example, a law that imposes penalties for serious offenses. Namely: perjury, witchcraft or sorcery, change of already rendered judgments. The punishment was the death penalty, and the judge paid a huge fine and was deprived of office. The law on the imposition of the death sentence for a warrior if he sent a mercenary on a campaign in his place. For a warrior received an allotment of land for performing military service, and personal military service was his sacred duty. The tablets contained laws: on the protection of the property of the King, close to the King, and temples; establishing responsibility for the seizure of someone else's property — theft was punishable by death. There were also laws on the conduct of trade and commercial transactions; bodily harm; regulation of responsibility for the use of someone else's land — huge fines and prison sentences were imposed for violation of the law; performing transactions with real estate. In a word, the code of Gilgamesh, the Ruler of the legendary Uruk, consisted of several dozen articles and was quite voluminous.

Discovered by William Adamson in the tomb of Gilgamesh, the Ruler of Uruk, the golden tablets turned out to be truly a find of the century. William and his colleague George Smith intended to decipher them without fail on their arrival in London with the help of renowned Assyriologists.

In addition to the golden tablets, described with great care, the catalog of the archaeological expedition included various ancient vessels, jewelry, weapons, the remains of a war chariot, and household items. And also many clay tablets praising the rulers, father and son — Lugalbanda and Gilgamesh; tablets with a code of laws, as well as containing sacred hymns dedicated to Inanna, Ninsun, Enki and other Sumerian deities.

Upon arrival home, Adamson planned to sell some of the artifacts found to private collectors in order to recover financial losses during the expedition. After all, according to the agreement concluded with the British Museum, he had every right to do so. Although, William had to check this with the Museum.

The bulk of the unique finds came under the jurisdiction of the British Museum. William knew that this would make them available to the general public. The golden tablets, the most valuable of the expedition, were certainly sent to the Museum's vaults. Archaeologists have done a titanic job in Uruk: they photographed and, if possible, described the tablets. However, they could not decipher them, because along with the familiar Sumerian symbols, completely unknown signs were present on the artifacts.

And therefore there was a long intense and responsible work to study and decipher the golden tablets. It could only be provided by the British Museum, with the involvement of all renowned Assyriologists. William also intended to take part in the work ahead. However, he decided not to transfer photos