The Anunnaki (also transcribed
as: Anunnaku, Ananaki is an ancient Sumerian word
for ‘those who came from Heaven to Earth’) are a
group of Sumerian and Akkadian deities related to,
and in some cases overlapping with, the Annuna (the
'Fifty Great Gods') and the Igigi (minor gods). The
name is variously written "da-nuna",
"da-nuna-ke4-ne", or "da-nun-na", meaning something
to the effect of 'those of royal blood'[1]. It is
thought that the title originally came from the
Sumerian (Anu=heaven, na=and, Ki=Earth), described
as the fifth generation of Gods in the Babylonian
creation epic, the Enuma Elish. The term Anunnaki in
this context would be identical to "hashamayim ve'et
ha'arets", the heaven and earth used in the opening
verse of Genesis 1:1.
According to later Babylonian myth, the Anunaki were
the children of Anu and Ki, brother and sister gods,
themselves the children of Anshar and Kishar (Skypivot
and Earthpivot, the Celestial poles). Anshar and
Kishar were the children of Lahm and Lahmu ("the
muddy ones"), names given to the gatekeepers of the
Abzu temple at Eridu, the site at which the Creation
was thought to have occurred. The head of the
Anunnaki council was the Great Anu, (rather than
being just a sky god, Anu in Sumerian actually means
"sky"), of Uruk and the other members were his
offspring. His place was taken by Enlil, (En=lord,
lil=wind,air), who at some time was thought to have
separated heaven and earth. This resulted in an
ongoing dispute between Enlil of Nippur and his half
brother Enki of Eridu regarding the legitimacy of
Enlil's assumption of leadership. Enki, (En=lord, Ki=Earth),
in addition to being the God of fresh water, was
also God of wisdom and magic, regarded by some as an
alchemist. When the Igigi went on strike and refused
to continue to work maintaining the universe, on the
Shappatu (Hebrew. shabbat, Eng. sabbath) Enki
created humankind to assume responsibility for the
tasks the Gods no longer performed.
The Anunnaki were the High Council of the Gods, and
Anu's companions. They were distributed through the
Earth and the Underworld. The best known of them
were Asaru, Asarualim, Asarualimnunna, Asaruludu,
En-Ki (Ea for the Akkadians), Namru, Namtillaku and
Tutu.
A conventional analysis of Sumerian religious
practice can be found in A. Leo Oppenheim's book,
Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead
Civilization, a revised edition of which was
published in 1976. Unlike popular fantasies of
pseudoarchaeology, Oppenheim cautions against
overconfident and sweeping interpretations of the
gods of a "lost civilization".
Contents
1 Ancient astronaut theory
2 Ancient Sumerian cuneiform texts and Postmodern
Geopolitics
3 Footnotes
4 External links
Ancient astronaut theory
Though it is discounted by authentic scholars, some
ancient astronaut theorists such as Zecharia Sitchin
(q.v.), Sherry Shriner, Laurence Gardner and David
Icke claim that the Anunnaki were in fact
extra-terrestrials who came to Earth in antiquity
and created or tampered with the genetic makeup of
primitive mankind. They propose various readings of
the word, two of which are "anu-na-ki" and "an-unnak-ki",
both translated something like 'those who came from
heaven to Earth'.[2] (Very similar to the Raëlian
translation of Elohim.)
In 2004 the ancient astronaut idea was presented in
a seven issue storyline of the Silver Surfer
character by Marvel Comics. Initially presented as
aliens who gave humanity consciousness, it is
implied in the last issue of the story that the
Annunaki were nothing more than gods in stories told
by the Sumerians.
[edit]
Ancient Sumerian cuneiform texts and Postmodern
Geopolitics
In 1976, Zecharia Sitchin translating ancient
Sumerian cuneiform texts published the first of his
books: The 12th Planet. He described the
technological wonders and knowledge of the ancient
civilization of Sumeria. Sitchin outlines how the
Anunnaki, an ancient group of extraterrestrials who
interacted with the Sumerians, may have brought
advanced technology to their civilization.
The Anunnaki are often depicted in ancient
pictographs as winged creatures.
The Sumerians believe in existence of a planet that
orbits two solar-systems called Nibiru which is home
to two races; the Anu and the Nephillium. Every 3600
years this celestial body enters our solar system.
According to Sumerian mythology the Anu came to
earth and created a slave race, humans, by bonding
their genetic material with that of homoerectus. The
Anu were described as god-like humans, but about
twice as large (giants). They have geneticly (re)engineered
humans as a slave race to mine gold and restore
Nibirus atmosphere. At the some point Anunnaki
passed control of Earth to the humans, but flooded
it in attempt to wipe them out.
Nibiru was supposed to return in spring of 2003.
Some think this technology might be buried in an
ancient city such as Uruk (in modern day Iraq),
which the German government had recently begun plans
to excavate, and that the Annunaki continued to come
and go between their planet Nibiru and Earth,
conducting genetic engineering with our species.
What made Sitchin's work controversial was that he
claimed that the Sumerians were aided in starting
their civilization by an advanced race of beings
called the Anunnaki (Sumerian word for Extra
Terrestrials - ‘those who came from Heaven to
Earth’). He described technological wonders
possessed by the Anunnaki, and a factional war
between the Anunnaki who finally departed the planet
around 1700 BC. Sitchin described the home world of
these beings as a mysterious planet that
periodically returns to the vicinity of the solar
system every 3,600 years. Sitchin’s translations,
when combined with ancient historical records
allegedly supporting the existence of Alien races in
human affairs, suggest to some an important role was
played by this ancient ET race in the genesis of
humanity.
Sitchin’s translations proved to be very
controversial and mainstream archeologists dismissed
the work as too speculative.
Footnotes
^ Leick, Gwendolyn: A Dictionary of Ancient Near
Eastern Mythology (NY: Routledge, 1998), p. 7
^ The reader is advised to consult the Pennyslvania
Sumerian Dictionary, where such forms do not appear,
and compare them to the multiply-attested instances
of Leick's reading found in the same collection.
[edit]
External links
In depth look at the Anunnaki
SitchinIsWrong.com Website, written by a scholar
with an M.A. and Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible and Ancient
Semitic Languages, devoted to addressing the flaws
of the ancient astronaut hypothesis popularized in
the writings of Zecharia Sitchin.
- Spiritual Sumerianism
