-Caveat Lector-
SITCHIN'S SUMERIAN ASTRONOMY REFUTED
by Chris Siren
http://pubpages.unh.edu/~cbsiren
Here's a repost of my take on Sitchin from reading "Genesis
Revisited." I send this out to people who ask me about Sitchin
through my Sumerian or Assyro-Babylonian Mythology FAQs. I don't
include it in the FAQ because I don't want to lend legitimacy to
his writings. Now my interest in Mesopotamian mythology is
purely amateur, but I have done a fair amount of research into it
and I am also a physics doctoral student with a special interest
in astronomy and astrophysics so I have a little insight into the
astronomical aspects of this:
Enough people have written to me about his astronomical
ideas that I have developed a form reply which I include below.
As for the genetic engineering business, I don't think that holds
much water either. This much is true: there are myths from
Mesopotamia dating back to about 4000 years ago which describe
the creation of man.
In a couple of versions of those myths man is created in
order to do the work that the minor gods, the Igigi, don't wish
to do. In one version, a god who is mentioned no where else,
Geshtu-e, is killed and his blood is mixed with clay to create
the first humans. This bit is where Sitchin gets the idea of
genetic engineering. Later, Enlil, the ruling god, gets tired of
the noise that man is making and starts sending disasters after
him, including the flood. In another version of the creation of
man story, more in-line with the Sumerian version, man is created
with clay, but without any blood. Several flawed versions are
fashioned before the final form is arrived upon. I think these
myths speak more to the desire of the appreciation of human life
and the desire to see the divine within humanity than hint at
alien designs.
His planetary identifications don't sit well with me. I
have yet to see any evidence, such as an ancient sky chart or
telescope, that would suggest that the Sumerians could have
possibly seen Neptune or Pluto, or that they noticed Uranus.
Uranus is only visible with the naked eye on the clearest of
nights, moves so slowly that one would have to watch it over
years to notice movement without telescopic aid, and fails to
show up on any known pre-Galilean sky charts.
(I've seen the diagram he claims comes from this Berlin
cylinder seal in "Genesis Revisited," but the "planets":
a) seem out of proportion compared to their relative sizes
in reality (which is how one would expect one informed by the
Annunaki to depict them)
b) they are also not in proportion to the relative
brightness of those objects as seen from Earth (which one might
expect had the Sumerians heard about them from someone else and
then figured out how to find them).
c) it's not clear to me from that sketch what the Sumerians
identified those objects as. The central object -the 8 pointed
star with the circle in the middle-- was often associated with
Ishtar/Inanna as the morning or evening star. I have some
suspicion that if the seal is meant to be a depiction of the
heavens, it might be a map of a region of the sky as the planet
Venus (or perhaps another planet, but not the sun, which was
usually depicted as a disk or a winged disk) against a background
of stars.
d) for an outsider's description of the solar system, it
seems particularly odd. Why include Pluto, but not its moon
Charon, which is very large in proportion to it? Why include
Pluto, but not the asteroid Ceres, which is about 1/2 the
diameter of Pluto? Why include Pluto and Mercury and not include
those moons in the solar system which are larger than those two
planets? Why no depiction of Saturn's rings?
Below I list what planets were identified by what names by
the Sumerians.
It also seems clear from the mythology that Tiamat and Ea
were both associated with the Abyssal waters (the Apsu) beneath
the mountains and underworld as well as those same waters which
lay above the dome of the sky. Ea was designated one band of
space in the sky by the Babylonians, but it did not include all
of the zodiacal region - which would have fit for a planet - but
only the southern most portion, which a planet might wander
through during one sixth of its orbit. This makes sense as the
Persian Gulf, a source of an outflow of those Abyssal waters, lay
to the south of Sumer. The stars in his region would be below
the horizon to the south for most of the time. Anu held a
similar region to the north of the celestial equator, only
covering 1/6 th of the zodiacal region. The stars in his region
would be above the horizon longer, which is fitting as he was the
god of the heavens. Tiamat was split in to two - her celestial
half forming all the heavens, and her eyes and lower half going
to the waters beneath the earth and being used as the source of
rivers and oceans. I have not seen her associated with a
particular celestial body.
I think Sitchin is over-interpreting the Ennuma Elish
(which, by the way does not show up in Sumer, but only in
Akkadian texts which could not date back earlier than around 4000
years ago, with the earliest written account dating to around 700
B.C.). The themes expressed in that work seem more earthly and
elemental and less celestial and planetary.
Sitchin also suggests that Tiamat formed the Earth, moon and
asteroid belt. His witnesses to this event are the Anunnaki,
whom he claims came here about half a million years ago and with
whom he associates the Nephilim of Genesis 6:1. Frankly, this
strikes me as a bunch of bunk. I've really only read "Genesis
Revisited" and I haven't read "The 12th Planet," where most of
this is laid out, but the textual evidence for this, which seems
to be the Akkadian "Atrahasis", seems partly a projection of
human society on godly society and and explanation as to why we
are here and why life is so difficult at times.
When one resorts to aliens to explain the actions of our
predecessors, I think we sell our predecessors short. Sitchin
has little to go on beyond the text and some drawings which are
more easily explained in a metaphorical context than as witnessed
creations.
Sitchin has the following planetary identifications:
SUN = Apsu
MERCURY = Mummu
VENUS = Lahamu
EARTH = formed by 1/2 of Tiamat by "12th planet Nibiru-Marduk"
passing; the other 1/2 becomes asteroids and comets.
MOON = Kingu -> Duggae
MARS = Lahmu
JUPITER = Kishar
SATURN = Anshar
URANUS = Anu
NEPTUNE = Ea
PLUTO = Gaga -> Usmi
Here's a list of planets and their names by more accepted
Sumerian and Babylonian sources:
MERCURY = Ubu-idim-gud-ud, Gud-ud, Gu-ad, Gu-Utu, NABU
VENUS = Nindaranna, Ninsianna, Dibalt, Dilbad, Dilipat, ISHTAR
MARS = Salbatai, Salbatana, Sanumma, NERGAL
JUPITER = Udaltar, Mul-Babbar, Sagnae-gar, Nibiru, MARDUK*
SATURN = Genna, Sagus, Uduidim, NINIB
[*Note that "Nibiru/Marduk," Sitchin's "12th planet," is the name
commonly used in Babylonian texts for the planet JUPITER.]
Sources:
1. Christianson, Gale E. "This Wild Abyss," The Free Press - A
Division of Macmilan Publishing Co. Inc., NY., 1978.
2. O'Neil, W.M. "Early Astronomy from Babylonia to Copernicus,"
Sydney University Press, Portland, Oregon, 1986.
3. Thurston, Hugh "Early Astronomy," Springer-Verlag New York
Inc., NY, 1994.
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