Zecharia Sitchin
From SkepticWiki
Zecharia Sitchin (born 1922) is a best-selling author who, along with other writers, has promoted 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 have largely been ignored by mainstream scientists or historians.
He was born in Baku, capital of Azerbaijan, and raised in the British Mandate of 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
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, forming 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 and 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 unlikely, Sitchin's supporters argue that it would explain Earth's peculiar early geography due to cleaving resulting from the celestial collision i.e. solid continents on one side and a giant ocean on the other, 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. 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] Skeptical Response
His 'planetary collision' theory does superficially resemble 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 however differ in both details and timing. 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 Velikovsky's case, these interplanetary collisions were supposed to have taken place within the span of human existence, whereas for Sitchin these occurred during the early stages of planetary formation, but entered the mythological account passed down via the alien race which purportedly evolved on Nibiru after these encounters.
Similar theories have been advanced by authors such as Immanuel Velikovsky, Erich von Daniken, and Laurence Gardner.
