-Caveat Lector-
Hey Das,, Just how do you think man got here then?
I think Sitchen's idea of aliens is the most probable..so what do ya say
Peter
We are about to go on a Journey. All Aboard
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----- Original Message -----
From: Das GOAT <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Sunday, October 17, 1999 9:51 AM
Subject: [CTRL] Sitchin's "Sumerian Astronomy"
> -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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DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic
screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters
and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright
frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects
spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL
gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers;
be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and
nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
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