Zecharia Sitchin

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ion).
Zecharia Sitchin
Born July 1920 (age 90)
Baku, Azerbaijan SSR
Died October 9, 2010( 2010-10-09)
New York, New York
Citizenship United States
Alma mater London School of Economics, University of London
Known for Ancient astronauts
Website
http://www.sitchin.com/
Zecharia Sitchin (July 11, 1920 October 9, 2010[1]) was an Azeri-born American a
uthor of books promoting an explanation for human origins involving ancient astr
onauts. Sitchin attributes the creation of the ancient Sumerian culture to the A
nunnaki, which he states was a race of extra-terrestrials from a planet beyond N
eptune called Nibiru. He believed this hypothetical planet of Nibiru to be in an
elongated, elliptical orbit in the Earth's own Solar System, asserting that Sum
erian mythology reflects this view. Sitchin's books have sold millions of copies
worldwide and have been translated into more than 25 languages.
Sitchin's theories are not accepted by scientists and academics who dismiss his
work as pseudohistory and pseudoscience. Sitchin's work has been criticized for
flawed methodology and mistranslations of ancient texts as well as for incorrect
astronomical and scientific claims.[2][3]
Contents [show]
1 Ideas and works
2 Popularity
3 Criticisms
4 Bibliography
4.1 Earth Chronicles volumes
4.2 Companion volumes
4.3 DVDs
5 See also
6 References
7 External links
7.1 Criticisms

[edit] Ideas and works

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al may be challenged and removed. (March 2010)
Similarly to earlier authors such as Immanuel Velikovsky and Erich von Däniken, Si
tchin advocated theories in which extraterrestrial events supposedly played a si
gnificant role in ancient human history.
According to Sitchin's interpretation of Mesopotamian iconography and symbology,
outlined in his 1976 book The 12th Planet and its sequels, there is an undiscov
ered planet beyond Neptune which follows a long, elliptical orbit, reaching the
inner solar system roughly every 3,600 years. This planet is called Nibiru (alth
ough Jupiter was the planet associated with the god Marduk in Babylonian cosmolo
gy).[4] According to Sitchin, Nibiru (whose name was replaced with MARDUK in ori
ginal legends by the Babylonian ruler of the same name in an attempt to co-opt t
he creation for himself, leading to some confusion among readers) collided catas
trophically with Tiamat (a goddess in the Babylonian creation myth the Enûma Eli ),
which he considers to be another planet once located between Mars and Jupiter. T
his collision supposedly formed the planet Earth, the asteroid belt, and the com
ets. Sitchin states that when struck by one of planet Nibiru's moons, Tiamat spl
it in two, and then on a second pass Nibiru itself struck the broken fragments a
nd one half of Tiamat became the asteroid belt. The second half, struck again by
one of Nibiru's moons, was pushed into a new orbit and became today's planet Ea
rth.
According to Sitchin, Nibiru (called "the twelfth planet" because, Sitchin claim
ed, the Sumerians' gods-given conception of the Solar System counted all eight p
lanets, plus Pluto, the Sun and the Moon) was the home of a technologically adva
nced human-like extraterrestrial race called the Anunnaki in Sumerian myth, who
Sitchin states are called the Nephilim in Genesis. He wrote that they evolved af
ter Nibiru entered the solar system and first arrived on Earth probably 450,000
years ago, looking for minerals, especially gold, which they found and mined in
Africa. Sitchin states that these "gods" were the rank-and-file workers of the c
olonial expedition to Earth from planet Nibiru.
Sitchin wrote that Enki suggested that to relieve the Anunnaki, who had mutinied
over their dissatisfaction with their working conditions, that primitive worker
s (Homo sapiens) be created by genetic engineering as slaves to to replace them
in the gold mines by crossing extraterrestrial genes with those of Homo erectus.
[5][6] According to Sitchin, ancient inscriptions report that the human civiliza
tion in Sumer, Mesopotamia, was set up under the guidance of these "gods", and h
uman kingship was inaugurated to provide intermediaries between mankind and the
Anunnaki (creating the "divine right of kings" doctrine). Sitchin believes that
fallout from nuclear weapons, used during a war between factions of the extrater
restrials, is the "evil wind" described in the Lament for Ur that destroyed Ur a
round 2000 BC. Sitchin states the exact year is 2024 BC.[7] Sitchin says that hi
s research coincides with many biblical texts, and that biblical texts come orig
inally from Sumerian writings.
[edit] Popularity
Since the release of his first book The 12th Planet in 1976, now in it's 45th pr
inting, Zecharia Sitchin has written seven other books as part of his Earth Chro
nicles series as well as six other companion books, all of which are still in pr
int today. Sitchin's books have sold millions of copies worldwide and been publi
shed in more than 25 languages as well as braille.[8] New York Times reporter Co
rey Kilgannon noted that despite academic dismissal of his work, Sitchin has "a
devoted following of readers".[3]
Critic Michael Heiser called Sitchin "arguably the most important proponent of t
he ancient astronaut hypothesis over the last several decades".[9] Sitchin and h
is theories have been featured internationally in print reviews and articles as
well as television programs such as the History Channel's Ancient Aliens the Ser
ies.[10][11]. Sitchin was also a frequent guest on the Coast to Coast AM radio s
how, which in 2010 presented Sitchin with a life-time achievement award.[12]
According to some writers, Sitchin's ideas along with those of Eric von Däniken ma
y have influenced the beliefs of the religious cult of Raëlism,[13][14] and writer
Mark Pilkington sees the mythology of Japan's Pana Wave religious group as root
ed in Sitchins The 12th Planet and its sequels.[15] Gods of the New Millennium a
uthor Alan F. Alford admits he initially became "infatuated" with Sitchin's theo
ries but later became a critic of Sitchin's interpretations of myth.[16]
[edit] Criticisms
Criticism of Sitchin's work falls primarily into three categories: 1) translatio
ns and interpretations of ancient texts, 2) astronomical and scientific observat
ions, and 3) literalism of myth.
Translations and Interpretations
When Sitchin wrote his books only specialists could read the Sumerian language,
but sources such as the 2006 book Sumerian Lexicon,[17] have made the language m
ore accessible to non-experts. Ancient language scholar Michael S. Heiser, state
s that he has found many inaccuracies in Sitchin's translations and challenges i
nterested parties to use this book to check their validity.[15][18] Prof. Ronald
H. Fritze, author of the book Invented Knowledge: False History, Fake Science a
nd Pseudo-religions",[19] mentions the example of Sitchin's claim that the Sumer
ian sign Din-Gir means "pure ones of the blazing rockets", adding that "Sitchin'
s assignment of meanings to ancient words is tendentious and frequently strained
."[20] Fritze also commented on Sitchin's methodology, writing that "When critic
s have checked Sitchin's references, they have found that he frequently quotes o
ut of context or truncates his quotes in a way that distorts evidence in order t
o prove his contentions. Evidence is presented selectively and contradictory evi
dence is ignored."[20]
Sitchin bases his arguments on his personal interpretations of pre-Nubian and Su
merian texts, and the seal VA 243. Sitchin wrote that these ancient civilization
s knew of a twelfth planet, when in fact they only knew five.[21] Hundreds of Su
merian astronomical seals and calendars have been decoded and recorded, and the
total count of planets on each seal has been five. Seal VA 243 has 12 dots that
Sitchin identifies as planets. When translated, seal VA 243 reads "You're his Se
rvant" which is now thought to be a message from a nobleman to a servant. Accord
ing to semitologist Michael S. Heiser, the so-called sun on Seal VA 243 is not t
he Sumerian symbol for the sun but is a star, and the dots are also stars.[21][2
2] The symbol on seal VA 243 has no resemblance to the hundreds of documented Su
merian sun symbols.
In a 1979 review of The Twelfth Planet, Roger W. Wescott, Prof. of Anthropology
and Linguistics at Drew University, Madison, New Jersey, noted Sitchin's amateur
ishness with respect to the primacy of the Sumerian language:
Sitchin's linguistics seems at least as amateurish as his anthropology, biology,
and astronomy. On p. 370, for example, he maintains that "all the ancient langu
ages . . . including early Chinese . . . stemmed from one primeval source -- Sum
erian". Sumerian, of course, is the virtual archetype of what linguistic taxonom
ists call a language-isolate, meaning a language that does not fall into any of
the well-known language-families or exhibit clear cognation with any known langu
age. Even if Sitchin is referring to written rather than to spoken language, it
is unlikely that his contention can be persuasively defended, since Sumerian ide
ograms were preceded by the Azilian and Tartarian signaries of Europe as well as
by a variety of script-like notational systems between the Nile and Indus river
s.[23]
Astronomical and Scientific Observations
Sitchin's "planetary collision" view 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-form
ed Earth. However, Sitchin's proposed series of rogue planetary collisions diffe
r in both details and timing. As with Immanuel Velikovsky's earlier Worlds in Co
llision thesis, Sitchin states that he has found evidence of ancient human knowl
edge of rogue celestial motions in a variety of mythological accounts. In Veliko
vsky's case, these interplanetary collisions were supposed to have taken place w
ithin the span of human existence, whereas for Sitchin these occurred during the
early stages of planetary formation, but entered the mythological account passe
d down via the alien race which purportedly evolved on Nibiru after these encoun
ters.
While Sitchin's scenario for the creation of the Solar System is hard to reconci
le with the Earth's current small orbital eccentricity of only 0.0167, Sitchin's
supporters maintain that it would explain much of Earth's peculiar early geogra
phy due to cleaving from the celestial collision, i.e., solid continents on one
side and a giant ocean on the other.[citation needed]
According to former Immanuel Velikovsky assistant turned prolific critic,[24] C.
Leroy Ellenberger,[24] "[Sitchin statement that] from an equal start, the Nefil
im evolved on Nibiru 45 million years ahead of comparable development on Earth w
ith its decidedly more favorable environment. Such an outcome is unlikely, to sa
y the least, since Nibiru would spend over 99% of its time beyond Pluto. Sitchin
's explanation that heat from radioactive decay and a thick atmosphere keep Nibi
ru warm is absurd and does not address the problem of darkness in deep space. Al
so unexplained is how the Nefilim, who evolved long after Nibiru arrived, knew w
hat happened when Nibiru first entered the solar system."[25]
The scenario outlined by Sitchin, with Nibiru returning to the inner solar syste
m regularly every 3,600 years,
. . . implies an orbit with a semi-major axis of 235 astronomical units, extendi
ng from the asteroid belt to twelve times farther beyond the sun than Pluto. Ele
mentary perturbation theory indicates that, under the most favorable circumstanc
es of avoiding close encounters with other planets, no body with such an eccentr
ic orbit would keep the same period for two consecutive passages. Within twelve
orbits the object would be either ejected or converted to a short period object.
Thus, the failed search for a trans-Plutonian planet by T.C. Van Flandern, of t
he U.S. Naval Observatory, which Sitchin uses to bolster his thesis, is no suppo
rt at all.[25]
Sitchin in the case of Adam s alien genes [26] states that 223 unique genes found by
the Human Genome Sequencing Consortium are without the required predecessors on
the genomic evolutionary tree. Later researchers have argued that the conclusion
from the Human Genome Sequencing Consortium can not be drawn due to a lack of a
comprehensive gene database for comparison. An analysis by Salzberg identified
40 potential genes laterally transferred into the genome from prokaryotic organi
sms. Salzberg also argues that gene loss combined with sample size effects and e
volutionary rate variation provide an alternative, more biologically plausible e
xplanation.[27]
Literalism of Myth
Peter James, co-author of the controversial book Centuries of Darkness,[28] has
criticized Sitchin both for ignoring the world outside of Mesopotamia and more s
pecifically for misunderstanding Babylonian literature:
He uses the Epic of Creation Enuma Elish as the foundation for his cosmogony, id
entifying the young god Marduk, who overthrows the older regime of gods and crea
tes the Earth, as the unknown "Twelfth Planet". In order to do as he interprets
the Babylonian theogony as a factual account of the birth of the other "eleven"
planets. The Babylonian names for the planets are established beyond a shadow of
a doubt Ishtar was the deity of Venus, Nergal of Mars, and Marduk of Jupiter and co
nfirmed by hundreds of astronomical/astrological tables and treatises on clay ta
blets and papyri from the Hellenistic period. Sitchin merrily ignores all this a
nd assigns unwarranted planetary identities to the gods mentioned in the theogon
y. For example, Apsu, attested as god of the primeval waters, becomes, of all th
ings, the Sun! Ea, as it suits Sitchin, is sometimes planet Neptune and sometime
s a spaceman. And the identity of Ishtar as the planet Venus, a central feature
of Mesopotamian religion, is nowhere mentioned in the book instead Sitchin arbitra
rily assigns to Venus another deity from Enuma Elish, and reserves Ishtar for a
role as a female astronaut.[29]
William Irwin Thompson comments on what he calls Sitchin's 'literalism':
What Sitchin sees is what he needs for his theory. So figure 15 on page 42 is ra
diation therapy, and figure 71 on page 136 is a god inside a rocket-shaped chamb
er. If these are gods, why are they stuck with our cheap B movie technology of r
ockets, microphones, space-suits, and radiation therapy? If they are gods, then
why can't they have some really divine technology such as intradimensional worm-
hole travel, antigravity, starlight propulsion, or black hole bounce remateriali
zations? Sitchin has constructed what appears to be a convincing argument, but w
hen he gets close to single images on ancient tablets, he falls back into the li
teralism of "Here is an image of the gods in rockets." Suddenly, ancient Sumer i
s made to look like the movie set for Destination Moon. Erich Von Däniken's potboi
ler Chariots of the Gods has the same problem. The plain of Nazca in Peru is tur
ned into a World War II landing strip. The gods can cross galactic distances, bu
t by the time they get to Peru, their spaceships are imagined as World War II pr
op jobs that need an enormous landing strip. This literalization of the imaginat
ion doesn't make any sense, but every time it doesn't, you hear Sitchin say "The
re can be no doubt, but..."[30]
[edit] Bibliography
[edit] Earth Chronicles volumes
The 12th Planet, New York: Harper, 1976, ISBN 038039362X
The Stairway to Heaven, 1980, Avon Books (Bear & Company, 1992, ISBN 0939680890;
Harper, 2007, ISBN 0061379204)
The Wars of Gods and Men, 1985, Avon Books (Bear & Company, 1992, ISBN 093968090
4)
The Lost Realms, Avon Books, 1990, ISBN 0-380-75890-3
When Time Began, 1993, (Harper, 2007, ISBN 006137928X, ISBN 978-0061379284)
The Cosmic Code, Avon Books, 1998, ISBN 0-380-80157-4
The End of Days: Armageddon and Prophecies of the Return, William Morrow, 2007,
ISBN 978-0-06-123823-9
[edit] Companion

The Sumerian cuneiform deciphering skills of Zecharia Sitchin, a linguist in com

mand of many ancient languages who has set the scientific world on its ear with
his astounding interpretations of ancient writings. In 1976, Sitchin's first boo
k, The Twelfth Planet, began an odyssey that has literally transformed the field
of ancient history; in 1993 came the sixth book in his Earth Chronicle series,
When Time Began. Among other mindboggling assertions, this book links the comple
x calendar of Stonehenge and the puzzling ruins of Tiahuanacu in Peru to the anc
ient culture of the Sumerians, and by extension, to the Annunaki. These are the
beings Sitchin insists not only created the Sumerian culture, but who also genet
ically created human beings as we know them. And yes, they live on this mysterio
us 12th planet, Nibiru.
To date, Sitchin has deciphered more then 2,000 clay cylinders from that ancient
land on the Persian Gulf that existed some 6,000 years ago. Some of these fragm
ents, which date to 4,000 B.C., are in museums around the world. One fragment in
particular, presently in Germany, indicates that Earth is the seventh planet, c
ounting in from Pluto. The time frame here is four millennia before modern astro
nomy confirmed the existence of Pluto as an actual planet in our solar system. S
o how did an ancient race of people know this fact? Sitchin says it is because t
hese ancient people did not come from Earth, but from Nibiru. Profound family sq
uabbles eventually caused the Annunaki to abandon planet Earth, leaving human be
ings to fend for themselves. These early humans would never possess the ability
to travel among the stars like their creators, nor would they possess the immort
ality of their creators. Eons later, however, we humans finally have sent an int
elligently designed satellite probe beyond the confines of our solar system. Are
we repeating our past? This is but one of the perplexing questions Sitchin inve
stigates in the Earth Chronicles. Not only an eminent archeologist, Sitchin is a
lso a formidable analyst of ancient cultures, in fact, perhaps the best ever.
His explicative comparisons of similar but disparate mythologies provide a fulle
r understanding of world religions. Among other things, Sitchin's investigations
indicate that there may be an outpost in orbit around Mars preventing current h
umans from getting there (a fact verified by both U.S. and Russian space probe p
roblems in that neighborhood). But the primary focus of this impressive research
is ancient Sumer. The decipherment of that culture's clay tablets, buried for m
illennia, reveals roots that stretch all the way back to 450,000 B.C. The reason
Sitchin was motivated to learn to read cuneiform tablets was his initial curios
ity as a

Cuneiform tablets
boy concerning the meaning of "Nefilim", an enigmatic group mentioned in the Old
Testament. Translated, "Nefilim" means "those who came down." "Came down from w
here" is the starting point that makes the Earth Chronicles better reading than
any Sherlock Holmes mystery. In order to unlock the mystery, Sitchin takes on a
journey all around the world to ancient cities and former civilizations.
It would be impossible to do justice to his research in such a brief review as t
his one; however, there are some very significant findings on the existence of t
his other race of people. Perhaps the most compelling is the "face on Mars," the
structure in the area called Cydonia on the Red Planet. What is it? If the rela
tionship of the face on Mars is analyzed for its distance to other pyramidal str
uctures also discovered on Mars, the geometric relationship is found to be ident
ical to the distances of the Egyptian Sphinx and the pyramids in the surrounding
areas of Egypt. Sitchin concluded the placement of these pyramids indicates tha
t they served as landing markers for the Annunaki after they entered the Earth's
atmosphere from outer space. Sitchin also has asserted that the early pyramids
were not designed by the Egyptians. NBC-TV aired a program on Nov.10, 1993 entit
led "The Mystery of the Sphinx", indicating that the Sphinx is 2,000 years older
than previously thought. This corroborates Sitchin's findings that someone othe
r than the Egyptians designed the pyramids.
One astounding assertion after another has made Sitchin the most controversial w
riter of our time because he challenges everything we thought we knew about huma
n civilization. It's easy to dismiss Sitchin's research in the same way that oth
er people dismiss UFO's, Eric Von Daniken and countless other researchers who cl
aimed to have found evidence for extraterrestrial visitors to this planet. But S
itchin is well aware of this devil's advocacy, and vaporizes the arguments of sk
eptics with solid scholarship, including the most rigorous translations of Sumer
ian text, Vedic tales and excerpts from the original Greek and Hebrew versions o
f the Bible. This ability to translate many languages is no small achievement. T
hose of us who will never possess the ability to decipher 6,000-year-old clay ta
blets must trust that Sitchin has done his job accurately. But his sources revea
l an utter integrity, including the finest, most respected citations and referen
ces imaginable.
The two most recent individuals to pay attention to Sitchin were Colin Powell an
d Norman Schwarzkopf, the American Generals who were key figures in the recent G
ulf War. The landing place of the Annunaki was in an area once called Eridu, now
called Southern Iraq. The main reason Saddam Hussein was not captured was becau
se he was holding out in an ancient step pyramid constructed by one of those ear
ly civilizations mentioned by Sitchin, and which the Americans were loathe to bo
mb, because of their inestimable historical value. Once the gloss of the media i
s removed from concensus reality, an entirely new picture emerges as to who know
s what concerning what Sitchin has uncovered. This writer may never know who kno
ws what, but the circumstantial evidence in the Earth Chronicles concerning the
Annunaki is absolutely compelling.

Where does one look for their arrival?

Answer: In the Southern skies. The fact becomes incontrovertible once you study
Sitchin. He points out that NASA has located a massive black object in the South
ern skies, and the recent reactivation of the telescopes in Argentina and Chile
seems to indicate a renewed interest in that portion of the heavens. Assimilatin
g all the findings is really beyond the ability of any single person; however, a
dedicated team could assemble all the relevant information. Though the informat
ion would necessarily be classified top secret, Sitchin has in fact laid out all
the secrets in the Earth Chronicles. It is now up to us to revamp our own under
standing of who we are as a species called humans so we can, as Sitchin says, "b
e more prepared when the Anunnaki arrive."
Many of us will never travel all over the world to visit the ancient observatori
es. However, Sitchin has, and what he has found concerning the placement of thes
e observatories on the surface of the Earth also is startling. All the observato
ries are inclined to the Southern hemisphere. They also are on the same Earth la
titude. In his latest book, we learn that many of these observatories measure ex
act lunar and solar risings and settings with an accuracy unmatched by any moder
n measuring equipment. The field of astronomy and astrology are made completely
understandable by Sitchin, who shows that the concept of "Divine Time" was somet
hing these ancient astronomer priests created to predict the arrival of their cr
eators. Farfetched, to be sure, but when logic and patience are afforded to Sitc
hin's conclusions, one comes away with the realization that humanity has been mi
sled in regards to our actual origins.
The biochemical research is especially haunting. Our entire DNA structure is lik
e a Contact time-release capsule. When we were originally programmed, our basic
DNA structure was limited to a double-helix strand. The triggering mechanism tha
t enables us to function as we do is affected by stellar radiation. We are now a
t a place in the orbit around our central galaxy where the radio frequencies of
the center of the galaxy, as well as many other star systems, are communicating
new information to us. The release of this information, according to Sitchin, co
incides with the next arrival of the 12th planet. The government's attempt to co
nstruct a Freedom Space Lab will be aimed to ascertain the whereabouts of Nibiru
.
The big question, of course, is what will these beings whom we have confused wit
h gods think of us now? In the past we were not granted the same powers they had
, but as a result of thousands of years of genetic selection, we have in some wa
ys become like gods. Most all of the ancient languages have now been deciphered,
and the 22 Hebrew letters have been found to contain information based on light
-generating systems. Our understanding of torodial force fields, fibonacci serie
s, fractals and open topological vector spaces have been expressed in the langua
ge of mathematics. Star fields begin to look more like computer-generated printo
uts than random points of light in the night sky. If there is one thing Sitchin
has definitely accomplished, it has been to expand the human imagination. The le
gendary cultures of Atlantis and Lemuria no longer apear fantastic, but as effor
ts of other races to survive on planet Earth. The SETI project, the goverment's
official Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence has been canceled, and then re
activated by a private consortium of companies. The most recent Mars probe compl
etely disappeared. The answer given to these enigmas are unsatisfactory, when we
ighted against the evidence that another race of people is about to visit our pl
anet, as they apparently have many times in the past. Remember, it takes Earth o
ne year to orbit the sun. It takes Nibiru 3,600 years, according to Sitchin. The
refore, one year for the Annunaki is equal to 3,600 Earth years. He has complete
d all this research, he says, to prepare us, the human race, for the return of o
ur creators.
The work of Zecharia Sitchin is without question the most mind-stretching cosmol
ogy available to date. Furthermore, it appears unchallengeable academically.
I personally recommend everyone to begin reading Zecharia Sitchin immediately.