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Zecharia Sitchin

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Zecharia Sitchin (born 1922)<ref>Ronald Story, ed., The Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Encounters, (New York: New American Library, 2001), s.v. "Zecharia Sitchin," pp. 552.</ref> is a best-selling author of books promoting the ancient astronaut theory of mankind's origins. He attributes the creation of the ancient Sumerian culture to the Annunaki (or Nephilim) from a hypothetical planet named Nibiru in the solar system. He posits that Sumerian mythology reflects this thesis. His ideas are not supported by mainstream scientists or historians.

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[edit] Life

Zecharia Sitchin was born in Baku, capital of Azerbaijan, and raised in Palestine, where he acquired a knowledge of modern and ancient Hebrew, other Semitic and European languages, the Old Testament, and the history and archaeology of the Near East. Sitchin graduated from the University of London, majoring in economic history. A journalist and editor in Israel for many years, he now lives and writes in New York. His books have been widely translated, converted to Braille for the blind, and featured on radio and television.

[edit] Theories

Fertile Crescent
myth series
Image:Palm tree symbol.svg
Mesopotamian
Levantine
Arabian
Mesopotamia
Primordial beings
The great gods
Demigods & heroes
Spirits & monsters
Tales from Babylon
7 Gods who Decree  

4 primary:

3 sky:


According to Sitchin's interpretation of Sumerian cosmology, there is a hypothetical planet which follows a long, elliptical orbit, reaching the inner solar system roughly every 3,600 years, called Nibiru (the planet associated with Marduk in Babylonian cosmology). Nibiru collided catastrophically with Tiamat, a hypothetical planet that was between Mars and Jupiter, would have formed the planet Earth, the asteroid belt, and comets. Tiamat, as outlined in the Enûma Elish, is a goddess. According to Sitchin, however, Tiamat may have been what we now know as Earth that, when struck by one of planet Nibiru's moons, broke it into two separate pieces. On a second pass Nibiru itself struck the broken pieces and one half of Tiamat became what is now known as the asteroid belt. The second half, being struck again by one of Nibiru's moons, was pushed into a new orbit and created today's planet Earth. Although most scientists argue that the scenario is impossible, Sitchin's supporters argue that it would explain how the Earth's continents were divided and would also explain why the Earth is layered in sediments.

According to Sitchin, Nibiru was the home of a technologically advanced human-like extraterrestrial race, called the Anunnaki in Sumerian myth who were called the Nephilim in the Bible. He claims that they first arrived on Earth probably 450,000 years ago, looking for minerals, especially gold, which they found and mined in Africa. These "gods" of the Anunnaki were the rank and file workers of the colonial expedition to earth from planet Nibiru, known later as Marduk by the Babylonians. Sitchin believes that the Anunnaki genetically engineered Homo sapiens as slave animals to work in their gold mines by crossing extraterrestrial genes with those of Homo erectus. Sitchin claims that ancient inscriptions report that human civilization in Sumer of Mesopotamia was set up under the tutelage of these "gods" and human kingship was inaugurated to serve as a go-betweens between the Anunnaki and man. Sitchin proposes that fallout from nuclear weapons used during a war between separate factions of the extraterrestrials is the "evil wind" that destroyed Ur around 2000 BC, as recorded in the Lament for Ur.[1] Sitchin claims that his research coincides with many biblical texts and that the biblical texts come originally from the Sumerian writings of their history.

In a recently published book, entitled 2012: Appointment With Marduk, Turkish researcher Burak Eldem presented a new theory suggesting an orbital period of 3,661 for the planet Nibiru and positing a "return date" in the year AD 2012. According to Eldem's theory, 3,661 is one-seventh of 25,627, which is the total time span of "Five World Ages" according to the Mayan Long Count Calendar. The last orbital passage of Marduk, he adds, was in 1649 BC and caused great catastrophes on earth, including the Thera eruption. Sitchin has recently put forth his own date for the next passage of Nibiru in the year 2085, but the date most talked about is 2012 which marks the end of the Maya calendar.

[edit] Controversy over his theories

Although his 'planetary collision' theory superficially resembles a theory which is seriously entertained by modern astronomers —the giant impact theory of the Moon's formation about 4.5 billion years ago by a body impacting with the newly-formed Earth, Sitchin's proposed series of rogue planetary collisions post-dating the early formation of the solar system finds little or no support within the scientific arena. As with Immanuel Velikovsky's earlier Worlds in Collision thesis, Sitchin claims to find evidence of ancient human knowledge of rogue celestial motions in a variety of mythological accounts. In Velilovsky's case, these interplanetary collisions were supposed to have taken place within the span of human existence, whereas for Sitchin these occurred much earlier, but entered the mythological account passed down via the purported alien survivors of these encounters. In neither case are their respective interpretations of mythology held to be reliable by the great majority of scholars in the field and are strongly disputed by archeologists and astronomers.<ref>Sitchin has stated in an interview that: "Privately, many scholars tell me that I am right, but publicly they have to protect the status quo. Even so, my books are being used in many college and university courses. They are called alternative archeology, so changes are happening."</ref>

David Icke (a well-known New Age conspiracy theorist) has spoken about Sitchin as a "gate keeper" or a henchman of the Illuminati occult network. Sitchin reportedly told David Icke not to investigate the matter of reptilian bloodlines further, which has turned out to be, in many ways, the foundation of David Icke's work. Similar theories have been advanced by authors such as Immanuel Velikovsky, Erich von Däniken, and Laurence Gardner.

[edit] Astronomical and environmental objections

If planet Nibiru's orbit takes 3,600 years, then its aphelion would be further away than Pluto. At such a distance from the Sun, temperatures are so low that water would exist as ice, life as we know it would probably be impossible. If a form of life can exist in such conditions, then it would not be water-based and could conceivably perish at Earth's much warmer temperatures.

Sitchin counters that Nibiru has an internally generated heat source. To quote Sitchin: "My answer has been that we need not go that far out to freeze to death, just rising above Earth’s surface would do the trick. It is the planet’s atmosphere that retains the warmth, be it warmth obtained from the Sun, or from an internal source of heat. The crucial issue for the Anunnaki, I explained, was to prevent the loss of Nibiru’s atmosphere; they sought to do that with a shield of gold particles, and they came here to obtain the gold."

[edit] Genetic objections

Argument against Stichin's theories:

If alien visitors to Earth created humans, then evidence for this would have been found by now within our DNA. Since DNA sequencing is now cheap and easy, the conspiracy theory idea that our true DNA sequences have been suppressed would seem to be discounted, the idea being that since almost anyone can sequence our genes, if there was any extraterrestrial DNA to be found it would have been by now. Additionally, humans and chimpanzees share up to 99% of their DNA and the remaining 1% is posited by some to be of bacterial origin. Thus, present-day genetics fails to produce evidence that supports Sitchin's theories and more readily supports the idea that humans evolved through a series of DNA mutations from a precursor ape-like species.

Counter argument in support of Sitchin's theories:

Our DNA does indeed contain genes that are of terrestrial origin, it's just that these genes have not been identified. Indeed, the gene that predisposes people to heart-disease, for example has also not yet been identified. On the second point, it is the 1% that makes all the difference. As there are 20,000 genes in the roundworm, human DNA contains between 25,000 and 65,000 genes (depending on who you ask) so even 1% is somewhere between 250 and 650 genes that are different to chimpazees. On the 3rd point: That present-day genetics has not yet discovered evidence that supports Sitchin's theories is simply because no self-respecting geneticist would threaten their reputation by publishing any papers that support such a theory.

Sitchin counters that the human genes "do not have the required predecessors on the genomic evolutionary tree" and that they could originate with genetic engineering.

[edit] Sitchin Bibliography

  • The 12th Planet (Earth Chronicles, No. 1), 1976.
  • The Stairway to Heaven (Earth Chronicles, No. 2), 1980.
  • The Wars of Gods and Men (Earth Chronicles, No. 3), 1985.
  • The Lost Realms (Earth Chronicles, No. 4), 1990.
  • Genesis Revisited: Is Modern Science Catching Up With Ancient Knowledge?, 1991.
  • When Time Began (Earth Chronicles, No. 5), 1993.
  • Divine Encounters: A Guide to Visions, Angels and Other Emissaries, 1995.
  • The Cosmic Code (Earth Chronicles, No. 6), 1998.
  • The Lost Book of Enki: Memoirs and Prophecies of an Extraterrestrial god, 2002.

[edit] References

<references />

[edit] See also

[edit] Sources

[edit] Books

  • The 12th Planet (Earth Chronicles, No. 1), 1978.
  • The Stairway to Heaven (Earth Chronicles, No. 2), 1980.
  • The Wars of Gods and Men (Earth Chronicles, No. 3), 1985.
  • The Lost Realms (Earth Chronicles, No. 4), 1990.
  • Genesis Revisited: Is Modern Science Catching Up With Ancient Knowledge?, 1991.
  • When Time Began (Earth Chronicles, No. 5), 1993.
  • Divine Encounters: A Guide to Visions, Angels and Other Emissaries, 1995.
  • The Cosmic Code (Earth Chronicles, No. 6), 1998.
  • The Lost Book of Enki: Memoirs and Prophecies of an Extraterrestrial god, 2002.

[edit] External links

[edit] Pro-Sitchin sites

[edit] Anti-Sitchin sites

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