According to Zecharria Sitchen, Nibiru is a planet that returns to an orbit between Jupiter and Mars every 3,600 years. He refers to it as the 12th planet--the home of the Gods who seeded our present root race.

Years Ago:

450,000 On Nibiru, a distant member of our solar system, life faces slow extinction as the planet's atmosphere erodes. Deposed by Anu, the ruler Alalu escapes in a spaceship and finds refuge on Earth. He discovers that Earth has gold that can be used to protect Nibiru's atmosphere.

445,000 Led by Enki, a son of Anu, the Anunnaki land on Earth, establish Eridu -Earth Station I - for extracting gold from the waters of the Persian Gulf.

430,000 Earth's climate mellows. More Anunnaki arrive on Earth, among them Enki's half-sister Ninhursag, Chief Medical Officer.

416,000 As gold production falters, Anu arrives on Earth with Enlil, the heir apparent. It is decided to obtain the vital gold by mining it in southern Africa. Drawing lots, Enlil wins command of Earth Mission; Enki is relegated to Africa. On departing Earth, Anu is challenged by Alalu's grandson.

400,000 Seven functional settlements in southern Mesopotamia include a Spaceport (Sippar), Mission Control Center (Nippur), a metallurgical center (Shuruppak). The ores arrive by ships from Africa; the refined metal is sent aloft to orbiters manned by Igigi, then transferred to spaceships arriving periodically from Nibiru.

380,000 Gaining the support of the Igigi, Alalu's grandson attempts to seize mastery over Earth. The Enlilites win the War of the Olden Gods.

300,000 The Anunnaki toiling in the gold mines mutiny. Enki and Ninhursag create Primitive Workers through genetic manipulation of Ape woman; they take over the manual chores of the Anunnaki. Enlil raids the mines, brings the Primitive Workers to the Edin in Mesopotamia. Given the ability to procreate, Homo Sapiens begins to multiply.

200,000 Life on Earth regresses during a new glacial period.

100,000 Climate warms again. The Anunnaki (the biblical Nefilim), to Enlil's growing annoyance marry the daughters of Man.

75,000 The "accursation of Earth" - a new Ice Age-begins. Regressive types of Man roam the Earth . Cro-Magnon man survives.

49,000 Enki and Ninhursag elevate humans of Anunnaki parentage to rule in Shuruppak. Enlil, enraged. plots Mankind's demise.

13,000 Realizing that the passage of Nibiru in Earth's proximity will trigger an immense tidal wave, Enlil makes the Anunnaki swear to keep the impending calamity a secret from Mankind.

B.C.

11,000 Enki breaks the oath, instructs Ziusudra/Noah to build a submersible ship. The Deluge sweeps over the Earth; the Anunnaki witness the total destruction from their orbiting spacecraft.

Enlil agrees to grant the remnants of Mankind implements and seeds; agriculture begins in the highlands. Enki domesticates animals.

10,500 The descendants of Noah are allotted three regions. Ninurta, Enlil's foremost son, dams the mountains and drains the rivers to make Mesopotamia habitable; Enki reclaims the Nile valley. The Sinai peninsula is retained by the Anunnaki for a post-Diluvial spaceport; a control center is established on Mount Moriah (the future Jerusalem).

9780 Ra/Marduk, Enki's firstborn son, divides dominion over Egypt between Osiris and Seth.

9330 Seth seizes and dismembers Osiris, assumes sole rule over the Nile Valley.

8970 Horus avenges his father Osiris by launching the First Pyramid War. Seth escapes to Asia, seizes the Sinai peninsula and Canaan.

8670 Opposed to the resulting control of all the space facilities by Enki's descendants, the Enlilites launch the Second Pyramid War. The victorious Ninurta empties the Great Pyramid of its equipment.

Ninhursag, half-sister of Enki and Enlil, convenes peace conference. The division of Earth is reaffirmed. Rule over Egypt transferred from the Ra/Marduk dynasty to that of Thoth. Heliopolis built as a substitute Beacon City.

8500 The Anunnaki establish outposts at the gateway to the space facilities; Jericho is one of them.

7400 As the era of peace continues, the Anunnaki grant Mankind new advances; the Neolithic period begins. Demi-gods rule over Egypt.

3800 Urban civilization begins in Sumer as the Anunnaki reestablish there the Olden Cities, beginning with Eridu and Nippur.

Anu comes to Earth for a pageantful visit. A new city, Uruk (Erech), is built in his honor; he makes its temple the abode of his beloved granddaughter Inanna/lshtar.

3760 Mankind granted kingship. Kish is first capital under the aegis of Ninurta. The alendar begun at Nippur. Civilization blossoms out in Sumer (the First Region).

3450 Primacy in Sumer transferred to Nannar/Sin. Marduk proclaims Babylon "Gateway of the Gods." The "Tower of Babel" incident. The Anunnaki confuseMankind's languages.

His coup frustrated, Marduk/Ra returns to Egypt, deposes Thoth, seizes his younger brother Dumuzi who had betrothed Inanna. Dumuzi accidentally killed; Marduk imprisoned alive in the Great Pyramid. Freed through an emergency shaft, he goes into exile.

3100 350 years of chaos end with installation of first Egyptian Pharaoh in Memphis.Civilization comes to the Second Region.

2900 Kingship in Sumer transferred to Erech. Inanna given dominion over the Third Region; the Indus Valley Civilization begins.

2650 Sumer's royal capital shifts about. Kingship deteriorates. Enlil loses patience with the unruly human multitudes.

2371 Inanna falls in love with Sharru-Kin (Sargon). He establishes new capital city. Agade (Akkad). Akkadian empire launched.

2316 Aiming to rule the four regions, Sargon removes sacred soil from Babylon. The Marduk-Inanna conflict flares up again. It ends when Nergal, Marduk's brother, journeys from south Africa to Babylon and persuades Marduk to leave Mesopotamia.

2291 Naram-Sin ascends the throne of Akkad. Directed by the warlike Inanna, he penetrates the Sinai peninsula, invades Egypt.

2255 Inanna usurps the power in Mesopotamia; Naram-Sin defies Nippur. The Great Anunnaki obliterate Agade. Inanna escapes. Sumer and Akkad occupied by foreign troops loyal to Enlil and Ninurta.

2220 Sumerian civilization rises to new heights under enlightened rulers of Lagash. Thoth helps its king Gudea build a ziggurat-temple for Ninurta.

2193 Terah, Abraham's father, born in Nippur into a priestly-royal family.

2180 Egypt divided; followers of Ra/Marduk retain the south; Pharaohs opposed to him gain the throne of lower Egypt.

2130 As Enlil and Ninurta are increasingly away, central authority also deteriorates in Mesopotamia. Inanna's attempts to regain the kingship for Erech does not last.

B.C

2123 Abraham born in Nippur.

2113 Enlil entrusts the Lands of Shem to Nannar; Ur declared capital of new empire. Ur- Nammmu ascends throne, is named Protector of Nippur. A Nippurian priest-Terah, Abraham's father - comes to Ur to liaison with its royal court.

2096 Ur-Nammu dies in battle. The people consider his untimely death a betrayal by Anu and Enlil. Terah departs with his family for Harran.

2095 Shulgi ascends the throne of Ur, strengthens imperial ties. As empire thrives, Shulgi falls under charms of Inanna, becomes her lover. Grants Larsa to Elamites in exchange for serving as his Foreign Legion.

2080 Theban princes loyal to Ra/Marduk press northward under Mentuhotep I. Nabu, Marduk's son, gains adherents for his father in Western Asia.

2055 On Nannar's orders, Shulgi sends Elamite troops to suppress unrest in Canaanite cities. Elamites reach the gateway to the Sinai peninsula and its Spaceport.

2048 Shulgi dies. Marduk moves to the Land of the Hittites. Abraham ordered to southern Canaan with an elite corps of cavalrymen.

2047 Amar-Sin (the biblical Amraphel) becomes king of Ur. Abraham goes to Egypt, stays five years, then returns with more troops.

2041 Guided by Inanna, Amar-Sin forms a coalition of Kings of the East, launches military expedition to Canaan and the Sinai. Its leader is the Elamite Khedor-la'omer. Abraham blocks the advance at the gateway to the Spaceport.

2038 Shu-Sin replaces Amar-Sin on throne of Ur as the empire disintegrates.

2029 Ibbi-Sin replaces Shu-Sin. The western provinces increasingly to Marduk.

2024 Leading his followers, Marduk marches on Sumer, enthrones himself in Babylon. Fighting spreads to central Mesopotamia. Nippur's Holy of Holies is defiled. Enlil demands punishment for Marduk and Nabu; Enki opposes, but his son Nergal sides with Enlil.

As Nabu marshals his Canaanite followers to capture the Spaceport, the Great Anunnaki approve of the use of nuclear weapons. Nergal and Ninurta destroy the Spaceport and the errant Canaanite cities.

Zecharia Sitchen's Background

Zecharia Sitchin was born in Russia and raised in Palestine, where he acquired a profound knowledge of modern and ancient Hebrew, other Semitic and European languages, the Old Testament, and the history and archeology of the Near East. He is one of the few scholars who is able to read and understand Sumerian. Sitchin attended and graduated from the University of London, majoring in economic history. A leading 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.

The Earth Chronicles series is based on the premise that mythology is not fanciful but the repository of ancient memories; that the Bible ought to be read literally as a historic/scientific document; and that ancient civilizations--older and greater than assumed--were the product of knowledge brought to Earth by the Anunnaki, "Those Who from Heaven to Earth Came." ...I trust that modern science will continue to confirm ancient knowledge.

Excerpts From Mr. Sitchen's Speech

There is one more planet in our own solar system, not light years away, that comes between Mars and Jupiter every 3,600 years. People from that planet came to Earth almost half a million years ago and did many of the things about which we read in the Bible, in the book of Genesis.

I prophecize the return of this planet called Nibiru at this time. The planet is inhabited by intelligent human beings like us who will come and go between their planet and our planet. They created homo sapiens. We look like them. I call them the Annunaki.

The starting point for my research goes back to my childhood and schooldays. I wondered about the Nefilim, who are mentioned in Genesis, Chapter six, as the sons of the gods who married the daughters of Man in the days before the great flood, the Deluge.

The word Nefilim is commonly, or used to be, translated giants. There were the days when there were giants upon the Earth. I questioned this interpretation as a child at school, and I was reprimanded for it because the teacher said you don't question the Bible. But I did not question the Bible, I questioned an interpretation that seemed inaccurate, because the word, Nefilim, the name by which those extraordinary beings, the sons of the gods were known, means literally, Those who have come down to earth from the heavens.

All the ancient scriptures, the Bible, the Greek myths, the Egyptian myth and texts, the pyramid texts, everything, led to the Sumerians, whose civilization was the first known one six thousand years ago. I focused on Sumer, the source of these legends and myths and texts and information. I learned to read the cuneiform Sumerian texts and came upon their persistent and repeated statements that those beings, whom the Sumerians called Anunnaki, came to earth from a planet called Nibiru. The planet was designated by the sign of the cross and Nibiru meant, planet of crossing.

The question thus shifted in my research from who were the Nefilim and the Anunnaki, to, what planet is Nibiru? Forced to become proficient in astronomy, I had to learn enough about it to deal with the subject. I found out that the scholars were divided.

Some said it (Nibiru) was Mars, which of course was described and known to the ancient people, and others said, no, it was Jupiter. Those who said it was Jupiter and not Mars, had very convincing arguments why it could not be Mars. And those who said it was Mars and not Jupiter had very convincing arguments also.

Being able to go directly to those ancient sources, clay tablets and cuneiform scripts, it seemed to me that neither was right, because the description of Nibiru and its position when it nears the Sun indicated that it could not be Mars, and it could not be Jupiter. And then one night I woke up with the answer: Of course, it is one more planet that comes periodically between Mars and Jupiter; it is sometimes nearer to Mars and sometimes nearer to Jupiter, but it isn't Mars or Jupiter.

Once I realized that this was the answer, that there is one more planet, everything else fell into place. The meaning of the Mesopotamian Epic of Creation on which the first chapters of Genesis are based and all details about the Anunnaki, who they were and who their leaders were and how they traveled from their planet to Earth and how they splashed down in the Persian Gulf and about their first settlement, their leaders and so on and so on, everything became clear! The Sumerians had immense knowledge.

They knew about Uranus and Neptune and described them and they knew about Pluto. They were proficient in mathematics and, in many respects, their knowledge surpassed moderm times. They said, "All that we know was told to us by the Anunnaki."

The first book's innovation, its impact, was the realization that the ancient peoples, beginning with the Sumerians, knew of and described and spoke of one more planet in our solar system.

It was not a discovery like that of Pluto in 1930 (of which the Sumerians knew six thousand years ago). Pluto was a very interesting astronomical discovery; textbooks had to be revised. But to the average person, the man on the street, it really made no difference. Nibiru, on the other hand was a different story. If Nibiru exists, (and this is the planet that astronomers nowadays call 'Planet X' then the Anunnaki exist.

So the existence of Nibiru is not a matter of just one more globe in our solar system. This is different, because if Nibiru exists, and the Anunnaki exist, then the Sumerian claim that they come back to our vicinity every 3,600 years, at which times in the past they gave us civilization, then we are not alone and there are more advanced people than us in our solar system.

The first book, The Twelth Planetlays the foundation and describing Sumerian knowledge and concluding with the existence of one more planet is really the key to understanding what it is all about. What the tales of Genesis are, what the tales of creation are, what our past was, and in a way what our future will be.

The second book, The Stairway to Heaven, looks at the tales of ancient times, primarily from two new aspects. One was to bring the Egyptian texts and mythologies into the picture and show how they fit with the Sumerian [texts] and what they really meant. The second was to look at the issue of man's search for immortality. And this ties in with the Sinai, it ties in with the landing place, with the spaceports in the Sinai Peninsula, the role of Jerusalem and all that.

The third book, The Wars of Gods and Men, continues the story and shows what happened after Kingship, a new phase of civilization, was given to mankind. Dealing with the conflict that began with the rivalry between two half brothers, Enlil and Enki. It relates how this conflict continued among their sons and their grandchildren, leading to actual warfare which I call the Pyramid Wars (there were two) in which, eventually, mankind became involved. That is how mankind learned to make war. And this deals with a moral or theological subject: Is man a warrior by nature, or was he taught to become a warrior?

Book four, The Lost Realms, is the tale of the Americas. Not just what they call pre-Columbian times but four, five thousand years ago, which was before the Incas, the Mayans and the Aztecs. Who really was in the Americas, how ancient are some of the antiquities and how were such incredible megalithic structures built? What for, How come, and By Whom? The Lost Realms shows that it is part of the same story, that the same Anunnaki brought mankind or part of mankind to the Americas.

Book five, Genesis Revisited, a companion book, was really written because in the fifteen years since the first book was published, there have been many scientific advances, especially in astronomy and all the discoveries of the Voyager Spacecraft, in geology, biology, the discovery of DNA, the ability to create babies in a test tube, linguistics, and [in unlocking the secrets of] the origin of languages. Each such discovery corroborated what the Sumerians had known and had written, and therefore fully confirmed what I said in my first book. And each time there was such a discovery I would literally jump out of my seat and say, My god, this is exactly what the Sumerians said six thousand years ago!

If you read the relevant page in The Twelfth Planet, you will see that I quote a Sumerian text that says exactly how the Adam, the first Homo sapiens, was created.* You will see that this is a process that today we call the test tube baby process. I quote a text that describes Uranus and Neptune as Voyager 2 saw them in 1986 and 1989. 1 finally sat down and put together all this scientific evidence, all these scientific discoveries to show how they match and corroborate ancient knowledge. Hence the subtitle of Genesis Revisited is Is Modern Science Catching Up With Ancient Knowledge?

The knowledge that we have acquired corroborates what the Sumerians knew six thousand years ago. You wonder how is it possible, how could they know? How, as another example, could their symbol of the entwined serpents, that we still use today to denote medicine and healing and biology, be 6,000 years ago, the symbol of Enki, who engaged in genetic engineering to bring about the Adam? That was a symbol of the DNA, the double helix of DNA.

How could they know without telescopes and spacecraft that Neptune is a watery planet? They provided the answer by saying All that we know we have learned from the Anunnaki. So, you say, Ok. There were Anunnaki. Now, who were the Anunnaki and where were they from? The Sumerians say, They came here from Nibiru. And you say, What is Nibiru? So they say, It is one more planet in our solar system.

Now, if you say, I'm really impressed by the Sumerian knowledge, and, maybe they knew what they were talking about regarding the Anunnaki. But I don't think there is another planet with these advanced beings on it near Earth. If so, what is your explanation of who Anunnaki were? Was there really a race of giants who existed on Earth half a million years ago? Do you believe there was a civilization on Earth half a million years ago that surpassed our own and disappeared? When the focus shifts to explaining those other people, you have no explanation. I then say, if you have no explanation, why not accept the word of the Sumerians?

The second aspect of the answer is this. Nowhere in all these books do I use a text, or do I refer to a tablet and say, I went to this or that place in the Near East and as I was visiting that place, I shifted the soil with my foot or with a stick and look what I found! I found this tablet and look what it says! It says that there was somebody called Enki who travelled from Nibiru to Earth and splashed down in the Persian Gulf. No, nowhere do I say, "Look what I found".

All the time I say, "There is a tablet in the British Museum, its catalogue number is such and such; it was discovered in this and this place; the text was first published by this and this scholar, here is what it says. All the information, all the sources that I am giving, are academically, scientifically, scholarly known and accepted sources."

We look like them. They made us through genetic engineering. They jumped the gun on evolution, and made us to look like them physically, and to be like them emotionally. That is what the Bible says: Let us make the Adam in our likeness and after our image. Physically, outwardly and inwardly. So much of what they are, we are.

There is a tremendous difference in the lifespan, which is the cause of the notions of their immortality. Because one year to them is one orbit of theirs around the sun. So, one of their years equals three-thousand-six-hundred of ours. This is the key difference between us and them. Then there is the difference in their technological advancement which enables them not only to travel in space, and to have traveled half a million years ago, but also to revive the dead and do other things which in biblical times were considered miracles.

I feel that just as they came to earth and created us through genetic engineering, and mixed their genes with those of Ape-woman, that one day we will go out in space and land on another planet somewhere and do the same thing. In this sense, I believe things are ordained in a grand pattern.

But can events within this grand pattern be determined by individuals? I think so. Take the story of the Deluge and the destruction of mankind and the saving of the seed of mankind, through Noah and his ark. Enlil decided to use the opportunity of the avalanche of water to destroy mankind, while Enki told Noah, (the Sumerian Ziusudra) about what was coming. Enki taught Noah how to build an ark and cover and seal it so it wouldn't be swamped, and Noah was able to take himself and his family and others, according to the Sumerians, into the ark and save the seed of mankind. Here you have a conflict between two leaders of the Anunnaki.

One felt one way and one felt another way. So the question of free choice, of what is right, what is wrong, what should be done, what should not be done, is there all along.

The name 'Sumer' is derived from the Babylonian name for southern Babylonia: mŠt umeri `the land of Sumer'. (construct state of mŠtum `country' followed by genitive of Sumer; unknown meaning in Akkadian).

The Sumerians called their country ken.gi(r) `civilized land', their language eme.gir and themselves sag.gi6.ga `the black-headed ones'.

In the 1920's Sir Leonard Wooley excavated the city of Ur. It was from his discoveries that information about Sumer began to surface. The city was dominated by a large step-pyramid known as a "Ziggurat". The ziggurat was made of sun-dried bricks and served as a religious and government center. Ur is also known as the home of the Biblical "Abraham".

The Sumerian Civilization was perhaps the first recorded civilization yet its origins are unknown. Sumerian people orginially migrated from the Armenian region of the Black and Caspian sea area.

Its beginnings were a collection of farming villages around 5000 BC.

The early dynastic era developed around the delta area of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The oldest city founded was Eridu which has been suggested as the site of the "Garden of Eden".

The Uruk period, stretched from 3800 BC to 3200 BC. It is to this era that the Sumerian King Lists ascribe the reigns of Dumuzi the shepherd, and the other ante-diluvian kings. After his reign Dumuzi was worshiped as the god of the spring grains. This time saw an enormous growth in urbanization such that Uruk probably had a population around 45,000 at the period's end. It was easily the largest city in the area, although the older cities of Eridu to the south and Kish to the north may have rivaled it.

Irrigation improvements as well as a supply of raw materials for craftsmen provided an impetus for this growth. In fact, the city of An and Inanna also seems to have been at the heart of a trade network which stretched from what is now southern Turkey to what is now eastern Iran. In addition people were drawn to the city by the great temples there.

The Eanna of Uruk, a collection of temples dedicated to Inanna, was constructed at this time and bore many mosaics and frescoes. These buildings served civic as well as religious purposes, which was fitting as the en, or high priest, served as both the spiritual and temporal leader. The temples were places where craftsmen would practice their trades and where surplus food would be stored and distributed.

Other city-states, including Lagash, Nippur and Kish also were founded around the same time. Early city-states were ruled by a priest-king who was originally elected by the people. Later, the ruler assumed his throne through a birthright.

The Jemdat Nasr period lasted from 3200 BC to 2900 BC. It was not particularly remarkable and most adequately described as an extenson and slowing down of The Uruk period. This is the period during which the great flood is supposed to have taken place. The Sumerians' account of the flood may have been based on a simultaneous flooding of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers onto their already marshy country.

The Early Dynastic period ran from 2900 BC to 2370 BC and it is this period for which we begin to have more reliable written accounts although some of the great kings of this era later evolved mythic tales about them and were deified. Kingship moved about 100 miles upriver and about 50 miles south of modern Bahgdad to the city of Kish.

One of the earlier kings in Kish was Etana who "stabilized all the lands" securing the First Dynasty of Kish and establishing rule over Sumer and some of its neighbors. Etana was later believed by the Babylonians to have rode to heaven on the back of a giant Eagle so that he could receive the "plant of birth" from Ishtar (their version of Inanna) and thereby produce an heir.

Meanwhile, in the south, the Dynasty of Erech was founded by Meskiaggasher, who, along with his successors, was termed the "son of Utu", the sun-god. Following three other kings, including another Dumuzi, the famous Gilgamesh took the throne of Erech around 2600 BC and became in volved in a power struggle for the region with the Kish Dynasts and with Mesannepadda, the founder of the Dynasty of Ur. While Gilgamesh became a demi-god, remembered in epic tales, it was Mesannepadda who was eventually victorious in this three-way power struggle, taking the by then traditional title of "King of Kish".

Although the dynasties of Kish and Eresh fell by the wayside, Ur could not retain a strong hold over all of Sumer. The entire region was weakened by the struggle and individual city-states continued more or less independent rule. The rulers of Lagash declared themselves "Kings of Kish" around 2450 BC, but failed to seriously control the region, facing several miltary challanges by the nearby Umma. Lugalzagesi, ensi or priest-king of Umma from around 2360-2335 BC, razed Lagash, and conquered Sumer, declaring himself "king of Erech and the Land". Unfortunately for him, all of this strife made Sumer ripe for conquest by an outsider and Sargon of Agade seized that opportunity.

Sargon united both Sumer and the northern region of Akkad - from which Babylon would arise about four hundred years later - not very far from Kish. Evidence is sketchy, but he may have extended his realm from the Mediterranian Sea to the Indus River. This unity would survive its founder by less than 40 years. He built the city of Agade and established an enormous court there and he had a new temple erected in Nippur. Trade from across his new empire and beyond swelled the city, making it the center of world culture for a brief time.

After Sargon's death, however, the empire was fraught with rebellion. Naram-Sin, Sargon's grandson and third successor, quelled the rebellions through a series of military successes, extending his realm. He declared himself 'King of the Four corners of the World' and had himself deified. His divine powers must have failed him as the Guti, a mountain people, razed Agade and deposed Naram-Sin, ending that dynasty.

After a few decades, the Guti presence became intollerable for the Sumerian leaders. Utuhegal of Uruk/Eresh rallied a coalition army and ousted them. One of his lieutenants, Ur-Nammu, usurped his rule and established the third Ur dynasty around 2112 BC. He consolidated his control by defeating a rival dynasty in Lagash and soon gained control of all of the Sumerian city-states. He established the earliest known recorded law-codes and had constructed the great ziggurat of Ur, a kind of step-pyramid which stood over 60' tall and more than 200' wide. For the next century the Sumerians were extremely prosperous, but their society collapsed around 2000 B.C. under the invading Amorites. A couple of city-states maintained their independence for a short while, but soon they and the rest of the Sumerians were absorbed into the rising empire of the Babylonians.

The early dynastic period ended C. 2600 BC when a destructive flood destroyed the Sumerian city-states. This has been suggested as the source of "Noah's flood".

The Sumerian civilization ended when the Tigris Euphrates valley was overrun by the Hittites C. 1600 BC.

John Halloran: Click Here

The Sumerian tablets are dated around 4000 BC and accurately relate the stories of celestial planets that exist in our solar system complete with their moons, their dominate gaseous or aquatic features, their colors and their sizes all of these being accurate.

The tablets even record the existence of Pluto, Neptune, and Uranus. These are planets that were not discovered by our scientists until the last 3 centuries...Pluto being discovered in this one.

According to researchers like Sitchen the Sumerian civilization had high rise buildings, streets, market places, schools, temples, metalergy, medicine, surgery, textile making, gourmet foods, agriculture, irrigation, international trade, music, zoo's, warfare, kingships and courts.

This society seemed to spring suddenly into full bloom apparently from nowhere.

The Sumerians are responsible for the first monumental temples and palaces, for the founding of the first city states and most likely for the invention of writing (all in the period of 3100-3000 BCE) are the Sumerians. The first written signs are pictographic, so they can be read in any language and one can't infer a particular language. A pictogram of an arrow means `arrow' in any language. A few centuries later, however, these signs were used to represent Sumerian phonetic values and Sumerian words. The pictogram for an arrow is now used to represent ti, the Sumerian word for `arrow', but also for the phonetic sound ti in words not related to `arrow'. So it is generally assumed that the Sumerians were also responsible for the pictographic signs, or possibly together with (or with a large influence of) the contemporaneous Elamites. If the Sumerians aren't the ones who actually invented writing than they are at least responsible for quickly adopting and expanding the invention to their economic needs (the first tablets are predominantly economic in nature). For more information on Sitchen Click Here

Sumerian art and architecture was ornate and complex.

Art was primarily used for religious purposes.

Painting and sculpture was the main median used.

Most cities were simple in structure, the ziggurat was one of the world's first great architectural structures.

Sumerians developed a complex system of sewers and flush toliets to rid cities of waste and unhealthy affects of swamps.

Sumerian/Elamite Cylinder Seals (French Sceaux-cylindres, German Zylindersiegel) are small (2-6 cm) cylinder-shaped stones carved with a decorative design in intaglio (engraved). The cylinder was rolled over wet clay to mark or identify clay tablets, envelopes, ceramics and bricks. It so covers an area as large as desired, an advantage over earlier stamp seals. Its use and spread coincides with the use of clay tablets, starting at the end of the 4th millennium up to the end of the first millennium.

After this time stamp seals are used again. Cylinder seals are important to historians. The seals were needed as signature, confirmation of receipt, or to mark clay tablets and building blocks. The invention fits with the needs caused by the general development of city states. Inscriptions are mostly carved in reverse, so as to leave a positive image on the clay with figures standing out. Some are directly carved and leave a negative imprint.

Regarding the clay tablets found at Uruk: The language of these texts is not known so they cannot be 'read'. However, as the script is largely pictographic, they can at least be partly understood. Whether the elaborate writing system of the early Uruk texts with its large number of signs was the result of a l ong development or of a rapid breakthrough, perhaps by a single individual, is not known. Already, in earlier periods there were tablets with signs that had been impressed on them rather than written with a stylus. The signs corresponded to the measures of quantity that appeared on the Uruk tablets. Stamp and cylinder seals for identifying ownership of property, and tokens for recording commodities, were other possible sources.

The Babylonian/Mesopotamian creation myth, Enuma Elish, When on high, was written no later than the reign of Nebuchadrezzar in the 12th century B.C.E. But there is also little doubt that this story was written much earlier, during the time of the Sumerians. Drawing some new light on the ancients, Henry Layard found within the ruins of the library of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh, texts that were not unlike the Genesis creation in the Bible. George Smith first published these text in 1876 under the title, The Chaldean Genesis, Akkadian text written in the old Babylonian dialect.

The Babylonian god finished his work within the span of 6 tablets of stone. The last and 7th stone exalted the handiwork and greatness of the diety's work. Thus the comparison must be made that the 7 days of creation found in the Bible, borrowed its theme from the Babylonians and them form the Sumerians.

Sumerian, the oldest known written language in human history, was spoken in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq and peripheral regions) throughout the third millennium BC and survived as an esoteric written language until the death of the cuneiform tradition around the time of Christ.

The Sumerian language, which is related to no other known tongue, was only properly deciphered this century. A considerable literature in Sumerian is currently being reconstructed from fragmentary clay tablets housed in the museums of the world.

Lexicon of Sumerian Logograms: Click Here

A logogram is a meaningful cuneiform sign. The most important words in Sumerian had their own cuneiform signs, whose origins were pictographic, making an intial repertoire of about a thousand signs or logograms. Sumerian was an agglutinative language not just in its verb construction, but also in its noun or morpheme construction.

Hammurabi's Law Code was the earliest known law code in existence.

The code contained 282 laws.

The code was based on retribution, not justice and varied unfairly between social classes.

Sumerian literature is among the earliest known writings.

Literature was almost always religious oriented or a historical record of kings. The "Gilgamesh Epic" is generally regarded as the greatest literature prior to the O.T. Epic poem centered around the heroic tales of a great king. This epic is very similar to parts of the O.T. suggesting they were contemporary.

By about 3000 BC, the Sumerians were drawing images of tokens on clay tablets. At this point,different types of goods were represented by different symbols, and multiple quantities represented by repetition. Three units of grain were denoted by three 'grain-marks', five jars of oil were denoted by five 'oil-marks' andS so on.

There are two important limitations to such a system. Firstly, every different type of good for which you want to make a record must have its own distinctive sign. We saw how the increasing complexity of economic life led to a great proliferation of styles of tokens. Each of These tokens now had to be rendered by its own sign, and, of course, all the signs had to be learned. The second Limitation concerns not the range of goods available, but their quantity.

Recording a delivery or disbursement of three jars of oil by writing the oil-jar symbol three times is simple and convenient. Recording a delivery or disbursement of several hundred jars of oil the same way is no longer so convenient and is also a system to prone to error. The large temple complexes that developed in the late fourth millennium, such as the temple of Inanna at Uruk, were considerable economic enterprises, dealing in large quantities of goods and labor. Gradually, a new system had to be developed.

The first great innovation after the act of writing was the separation of the quantity of the good from the symbol for the good. That is, to represent three units of grain by a symbol for 'three' followed by a symbol for 'grain-unit' in the same way that we would write 3 sheep or 3 cows or, more generally, 3 liters or 3 kilometers. A system of this sort is a metrological numeration system, a system of weights and measures. The 'three' symbol is not completely abstract, but is given value by its context, by having the units appended. The development of this concept over the third millennium is a fascinating and extremely complex story that is as yet only partially understood.

Whereas we use the same number signs, regardless of their metrological meaning (the '3' for sheep is the same sign as the '3' for kilometers or jars of oil), the Sumerians used a wide variety of different symbols. Nissen, Damerow and Englund have identified around 60 different number signs, which they group into a dozen or so metrological systems.

Any metrological system contains a number of different-sized units with fixed conversion factors between them, so that, for example, there are 12 inches in a foot and three feet in a yard, and so on. Just as in our old weight and measure systems, Sumerian metrology featured all sorts of conversion factors, although it is notable that they were all simple fractions of 60.

In the basic sexagesimal system used for counting most discrete objects, a single object, a sheep or cow or fish, is denoted by a small cone. Ten cones equaled one small circle, six small circles equaled one big cone, ten big cones equaled was a big cone with a circle inside it, six of those was a large circle and ten large circles was given by a large circle with a small circle inside. This last unit was then worth 10x6x10x6x10 = 36000 base units. Note that the circle and "cone-shape" could be easily made by a stylus pressing on the clay, either vertically for the circle or at an angle for the cone.

For discrete ration goods a 'bisexagesimal' system was used with conversion factors 10, 6, 2, 10 and 6, so that the symbol for the Largest quantity, this time a large circle containing two small circles, denoted 6x10x2x6x10=7200 base units.

Yet another system was used for measuring grain capacity. Here the conversion factors were 5, 10, 3, and 10, so that the largest unit, a large cone containing a small circle, was worth 10x3x10x5=1500 of the small units.

Adding to the confusion for modern scholars attempting to unravel these complex metrological systems was the fact that a single sign might be used in several systems, where it could mean different multiples of the base unit. In particular, the small c ircle could mean 6, 10 or 18 small cones, depending on context (as well as other multiples of base units denoted by other symbols).

Gradually, over the course of the third millennium, these signs were replaced by cuneiform equivalents so that numbers could be written with the same stylus that was being used for the words in the text.

The final step in this story, occurring probably some time in the Ur III period, right at the end of the third millennium, was the introduction of a sexagesimal place value system. The number of signs was reduced to just two: a vertical wedge derived from the small cone often used for the base unit, and a corner wedge, derived from the small circle. The corner wedge had a value of ten vertical wedges. In the sexagesimal counting system described above, the next size unit was the large cone, worth six circles. In the place value system, this unit was denoted by the same-sized vertical wedge as the base unit, and it was worth six corner wedges. Now the pair of symbols could be repeated in an indefinitely larger alternating series of corner and vertical wedges, always keeping the same conversion factors of 10 and 6. The price paid was that a vertical wedge could now mean 1, or 60 (6x10), or 3600 (60x60), and so on. It's actual value was determined by its place.

The sexagesimal place-value system greatly facilitated calculations, but, of course, at the end of the day, the final answer had to be translated back into the underlying metrological system of units. So a problem would be stated in proper units and the solution would be given in proper units, but the intermediate calculations were carried out in the new sexagesimal place value system.

The Sumerians always described their gods (the planets) starting with Pluto, then Neptune, Uranus, etc., as if they were seeing the planets from a heavenly body (or spacecraft) that was entering our solar system from the outside. The Sumerian Records also talk about a "twelfth" planet, one whose elliptical orbit brought it close to earth for a brief period every 3,600 years.

Looked at from this new perspective, the Sumerian religious epics contain a startling story.

The "twelfth" planet, known as Marduk was inhabited by humanoid beings very much like ourselves, known as Nibiru. A problem with their atmosphere sent them on a mission throughout the solar system in search of gold, a metal which they believed could be used to heal their planet.

Using rocket ships to shuttle people and supplies between their planet and Earth, during those months when Marduk's elliptical orbit brought it close to Earth, the Nebiru established colonies in Mesopotamia (now southern Iraq) hundreds of thousands of years ago. They eventually found rich veins of gold in southern Africa, and established mines exploited by the worker element of their society, called the Annunaki. Eventually, the Annunaki tired of this unpleasant work, revolted, and forced the Nibiru leaders to find another source of labor. Their solution, related in great detail in the Sumerian records, was to create a slave race by splicing their genes with the genes of the most advanced primate on the planet at that time (approximately 240,000 years ago). Thus was born the human race (Homo sapiens).

Recently scientific discoveries (the uncovering of neolithic gold mines in southern Africa, the tracing of all human DNA back to a single source, called "Eve" by the genecists), have tended to confirm Sitchin's interpretation of the Sumerian records.

Why science has never found "the missing link" (the fossil record that would show the evolutionary path from the early hominids to modern man) is also explained by Sitchin's interpretation: the "missing link" is not a fossil, but rather a genetic experiment performed by beings from another planet in our solar system in an effort to create a slave race for themselves.

According to Drunvalo Melchizedek , Sitchin's interpretation of the Sumerian records agrees very closely with the history of the earth as told to Drunvalo by Thoth, an ascended master and one of Drunvalo's most important teachers. However, according to Thoth, the Sumerian records do not talk about the spiritual work on higher dimensions that was a necessary part of the creation of a new race of beings. This was performed by the Sirians, and was performed in the Halls of Amenti.

Sumerian religion was the unifying and dominant force which provided the basic value structure of the society. Sumerian civilization was characterized by polytheism, animism, anthropromorphism. Sumerians had a strong belief in life after death. Sumerians also believed that each person had a "Ghost" which followed the individual at all times. Earth was looked upon as a scary and gloomy place. Priests used divination (fortune-telling), astronomy and temple prostitution to control society. Sumerian gods were cruel and capricious.

-- An: God of heaven, may have been the main god of the pantheon prior to 2500 BC., although his importance gradually waned. It seems likely that he and Ki/Ninhursag were the progenitors of most of the gods. His primary temple was in Erech. He and Enlil give various gods, goddesses, and kings their earthly regions of influence and their laws.

-- Ninhursag: Ki is likely to be the original name of the earth goddess, whose name more often appears as Ninhursag (queen of the mountains), Ninmah (the exalted lady), or Nintu (the lady who gave birth).

It seems likely that she and An were the progenitors of most of the gods. She is the mother goddess and assists in the creation of man. There she added constructive criticism to Enki as he shaped several versions of man from the heart of the clay over the Abzu.

In Dilmun, she bore eight new trees from Enki. When he then ate her children, she cursed him with eight wounds. After being persuaded by Enlil to undo her curse, she bore Enki eight new children which undid the wounds of the first ones. Most often she is considered Enlil's sister, but in some traditions she is his spouse instead.

-- Enlil: Ruler of all other gods represented by the air or wind: Leader of the pantheon from at least 2500 BC An and Ki's union produced Enlil (Lord of 'lil') He assumed most of An's powers. He is glorified as "'the father of the gods,' 'the king of heaven and earth,' ' the king of all the lands'". He is portrayed him as a patriarchal figure, who is both creator and disciplinarian. He effectuates the dawn, the growth of plants, and bounty. He also invents agricultural tools such as the plow. He is also banished to the nether world (kur) for his rape of Ninlil, his intended bride, but returns with the first product of their union, the moon god Sin (also known as Nanna). Most often he is considered Ninlil's husband, with Ninhursag as his sister, but some traditions have Ninhursag as his spouse.

-- Anu: The Sky god father and king of the gods. He is the son of Anshar and Kishar. He lives in the third heaven. The Eanna in Uruk was dedicated both to him and consort. His first consort was Antu. They produced the Anunnaki - the underworld gods, and the utukki - the seven evil demons. His second consort was Innina (Ishtar). He is a god of monarchs and is not friendly to the common people. He is a "King of the Igigi". He is assigned the sky as his domain in Atrahasis'. His 'kishru's (shooting stars) have awesome strength. He has the ability that anything he puts into words, becomes reality. He is Niudimmud's (Ea's) father.

-- Enki or Ea: God of the Earth and water and of vegetable and animal marsh life in Enki contrary to the translation of his name, Enki is not the lord of the Earth, but of the abzu (the watery abyss and also semen) and of wisdom. This contradiction leads Kramer and Maier to postulate that he was once known as En-kur, lord of the underworld, which either contained or was contained in the Abzu. He did struggle with Kur as mentioned in the prelude to "Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Underworld", and presumably was victorious and thereby able to claim the title "Lord of Kur" (the realm). He is a god of water, creation, and fertility. He also holds dominion over the land. He is the 'keeper of the me', the divine laws.

The "me" were assembled by Enlil in Ekur and given to Enki to guard and impart to the world, beginning with Eridu, his center of worship. From there, he guards the me and imparts them on the people. He directs the me towards Ur and Meluhha and Dilmun, organizing the world with his decrees. Later, Inanna comes to Enki and complains at having been given too little power from his decrees. In a different text, she gets Enki drunk and he grants her more powers, arts, crafts, and attributes - a total of ninety-four me. Inanna parts company with Enki to deliver the me to her cult center at Erech. Enki recovers his wits and tries to recover the me from her, but she arrives safely n Erech with them. Enki sails for the Kur, presumably to rescue Ereshkigal after she was given over to Kur. He is assailed by creatures with stones.

These creatures may have been an extension of Kur itself. He is friendly to Inanna and rescued her from Kur by sending two sexless beings to negotiate with, and flatter Ereshkigal. They gave her the Bread of Life and the Water of Life, which restored her.

He blessed the paradisiacal land of Dilmun, to have plentiful water and palm trees. With Ninhursag, he created eight new types of trees there.

He then consumed these children and was cursed by Ninhursag, with one wound for each plant consumed. Enlil and a fox act on Enki's behalf to call back Ninhursag in order to undo the damage. She joins with Enki again and bears eight new children, one to cure each of the wounds.

At the direction of his mother Nammu and with some constructive criticism from Ninhursag, he created man from the heart of the clay over the Abzu. Several flawed versions were created before the final version was made.

-- Ishtar: referred to as the "Whore of Babylon"in the O.T., She was the goddess of love and fertility.

The various city gods in whom the early settlers trusted appear to be powers in the basic economies characteristic of the region in which their cities were situated. Thus in the south we find a group of city gods closely related to marsh life and its primary economies, fishing and hunting.

Erred ruled in the west, and, in the east, Nanshe, goddess of fish; Dumuzi-abzu, the power to new life in the watery deep; and others in Nina and Kinirsha.

Along the lower Euphrates deities of orchardmen alternate with deities of cowherders. There lie the cities of Ningishzida, 'Lord of the good tree'; Ninazu, 'The Lord knowing the waters'; and Damu, 'the child', power in the sap that rises in trees and bushes in the spring.

But here also are the bull god Ningublaga, city god of Kiabrig; the bull god and moon god Nanna in Ur; and, in Kullab, Ninsuna, 'Lady of the wild cows', with her husband Lugalbanda.

Farther north, in a half-circle around the central grassland of the Edin lie the cities of the sheepherders (Uruk, Bad-tibira, Umma, and Zabalam) with their chief deities, Dumuzi the shepherd and his bride Inanna.

To the north and east lie cities of the farmers, Shuruppak and Eresh, with grain goddesses like Ninlil, Ninshebargunu, and Nidaba; Nippur with Enlil, wind god and god of the hoe, and his son Ninurta, god of the thundershowers and of the plow. Under the local name of Ningirsu,Ninurta was worshipped also in Girsu to the southeast. Earlier Babylonia --the southern region of Mesopotamia-- was made up of two regions: A southern area called by modern archaeologists Sumer (anciently Sumerum) A northern half called Akkad, and it is from these two areas that the principal languages of Mesopotamia take their names: Sumerian, an agglutinative, ergative language of which no related language is preserved, and Akkadian, a member of the Semitic family of languages -including also Arabic, Hebrew, Aramaic, Phoenician and Ugaritic.

Sumerian scientific achievements were important to the modern world. -- Sumerians invented the wheel C. 3700 BC. -- Sumerians developed a math system based on the numeral 60 which was the basis of time in modern world. -- Earliest concepts in algebra and geometry were formulated. -- A system of weights and measures were developed which served the ancient world until the Roman period. -- Many of the constellations were mapped by the Sumerians. -- Bronze metal -- Ziggurats

Social Classes were similar to those in other early civilizations. -- Upper class contained nobles, priests, government officials and warriors. -- Merchants, traders and artisans made up a middle or "Freeman" class. -- Serfs and slaves made up majority of population and were responsible for all manual labor. -- Sumerian society was "Matriarchial" and women had a highly respected place in society.

Sumerian writing is generally regarded as the first written language. It was called "Cuneiform". Tools included clay tablets and a wedged shapped stylus to produce writing. Over 200,000, many from city of Mari, have been preserved. Writing was deciphered by Sir Henry Rawlinson after finding the "Rock of Behistun" in present-day Iran.

Leonard Cottrell, The Quest for Sumer

For the Sumerian region "intelligible written records begin at about 3000 BC. From these, and from archaeological research, it is evident that even at this early period there were large cities with splendid temples and elaborately-planned houses.

Stone-carving was well-developed, also metal-working and the fashioning of jewelry. Extensive foreign trade contributed lapis-lazuli from Afghanistan, shells from the Persian Gulf and rare stones such as calcite, obsidian and diorite, none of which are found in southern Mesopotamia. But in the early Dynastic Period t here was no unified state of Sumer, unlike Egypt which had become unified by 3200 BC."

Michael Roaf Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia In Sumer "the crucial transition from village to city took place in the Early and Middle Uruk periods which, according to radiocarbon dating, probably lasted between 700 and 1,000 years (about 4300-3450 BC)."

"The ancient site of Uruk was occupied for 5,000 years from early in the Ubaid period until the 3rd century AD. In the fourth millennium BC Uruk was the most important city in Mesopotamia and included two major religious centers: Kullaba, where there was a temple of An, the god of the sky, and Eanna, where the Goddess Inanna (later known as Ishtar) was worshipped."

"The earliest known examples of writing are found on clay tablets from Uruk dating to about 3300 BC. Already it was a complete system with more than 700 different signs....The first tablets recorded the transfer of commodities such as grain, beer and livestock or were lists used by scribes learning how to write."

Walter B. Emery Archaic Egypt "During the fourth millennium there were major developments in metallurgy." Objects at Nahal Mishmar "were an alloy of copper and arsenic, which was easier to cast and harder than pure copper and was often used before tin bronze in the second millennium BC."

"The first use of the plow in the Near East also dates from the Urik period....Plows, wheels, boatsand donkeys were almost certainly in use before the Uruk period" in Northern Europe.

"At a period approximately 3,400 years before Christ, a great change took place in Egypt, and the country passed rapidly from a tate of Neolithic culture with a complex tribal character to [one of] will-organized monarchy.

"At the same time the art of writing appears, monumental architecture and the arts and crafts develop to an astonishing degree, and all the evidence points to the existence of a luxurious civilization. All this was achieved within a comparatively short period of time, for there appears to be little or no background to these fundamental developments in writing and architecture."

Jaromir Malek In the Shadow of the Pyramids

The inhabitants of Upper Egypt were on the whole of a smaller, gracile type with long narrow skulls, compared with the taller and more heavily built mesocephalic Lower Egyptians. On monuments, all men have dark curly hair and their bodies are dark red to indicate the heavily sunburnt light-brown skin (brown was absent from the palette of the Egyptian artist). The conventional depiction of the lighter complexion of women was yellow. A similar picture of population stability of obtained from an analysis of the Egyptian language, even through the variety of current opinions is as great as in the case of physical anthropology. Connections exist with ancient and modern Semitic languages of western Asia, as well as Cushitic, Berber and Chado-Hamitic languages of Ethiopia, Libya and the western Sudan. These, however, suggest a common origin rather than a superimposition of one language upon another. The prehistoric inhabitants of Egypt and the historic Egyptians therefore spoke the same language in different stages of its development.

Walter B. Emergy

The civilization of the Jemdet Nasr period of Mesopotamia and the archaic period of Egypt are apparently roughly contemporary, but the interesting point is that in Mesopotamia many of the features of civilization appear to have a background, whereas in Egypt they do not. It is on this basis that many authorities consider that Egypt owes her civilization to the people of the Euphrates. There is no doubt that there is a connection, but whether direct or indirect we do not know."

Michael Roaf Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia The influence of Uruk even reached as far west as Egypt in the Naqada II (or Gerzean) period contemporary with the Late Uruk and Jemdet Nasr periods [about 3100-2900 BC]...Lugged and spouted jars were characteristic of Late Uruk pottery. Cylinder seals also first appeared in Egypt at that time. Some were imports from the east, but others had been made locally and used Mesopotamian or Iranian motifs."

"Late Predynastic (before about 2920 BC) art from Egypt also showed some influence from Mesopotamia. In particular, carved ivory knife handles and slate palettes contained Mesopotamian motifs, even though the objects themselves were typically Egyptian."

Leonard Cottrell The Quest for Sumer

"There are certain elements in Egypt's Early Dynastic Period which seem to betray unmistakable Sumerian influence. Egyptian hieroglyphic writing may be one. Another is the so-called 'paneled-facade' type of architecture found in Egyptian tombs from the First to the Third Dynasties (3200 to 2800 B.C.)."

"...The most remarkable evidence of cultural connection is that shown in the architecture of the Early Dynastic tombs of Egypt and Mesopotamian seal-impressions showing almost exactly similar buildings."