There Were Giants Upon the Earth

by Zechariah Sitchin

  THE BEROSSUS VERSION

  One must assume that among the crucial texts that were copied and recopied, a version of the tale of Marduk, Tiamat, and the Celestial battle had to be in the hands of Berossus when he compiled his three volume Babyloniaca.

  This, apparently, he did. According to the historian Alexander Polyhistor—one of the sources for the Berossus Fragments—in Book I, Berossos wrote (among other things):

  There was a time in which there was nothing but darkness

  and an Abyss of waters, wherein resided most hideous

  creatures . . .

  The one who presided over them was a female named

  Thallath, which according to Chaldean means "the Sea" . . .

  Belus (= The Lord') came, and cut the female asunder;

  and out of one half of her he formed the Earth,

  and of the other half the Heavens;

  at the same time he destroyed the creatures of the Abyss . . .

  This Belus, whom men call Deus, divided the darkness,

  and separated the Heavens from the Earth,

  and put order in the universe . . .

  He also formed the stars, and the Sun, and the Moon,

  together with the five planets.

  Did Berossus have access to a complete and undamaged copy of Tablet V of Enuma elishl This interesting question leads to a more general one: Where, in which library, among which collection of tablets, did Berossus sit, copy from the tablets, and write his three volumes?

  The answer might lie in the discovery in the 1950s that a mound called Sultantepe, a few miles norh of Harran (now in Turkey), was actually the site of a major scribal school and library—where many tablets until then missing were found. +

  VII

  Of Anunnaki and Igigi

  It was probably near midnight when the public reading of Enuma. elish (in Babylon accompanied by reenactments, a kind of Passion Play) had reached the statement that the creation of the heavens and the Earth—by Marduk—has been accomplished. Now it was time to translate his celestial supremacy to supremacy among the Anunnaki—the heavenly gods who came to Earth.

  With admirable subtlety, the name Enlil—the deity who probably was the hero of the creation tale in its Sumerian original—is mentioned (for the first time) alongside those of Anu and Ea/Enki: It is slipped in in the very last line of Tablet IV. Then, as the tale continues on Tablet V, other deities—including Marduk's real mother, Damkina (renamed Ninki after Ea was titled 'Enki' = 'Lord of Earth')—take the stage; and the listener (or reader) finds himself witnessing Marduk's coronation as 'king' not only by the Anunnaki gods, but also by another group of deities called Igi.gi (— 'Those Who Observe and See').

  It is a grand assembly of all the leading gods. Marduk is seated on a throne, and his proud parents, Ea/Enki and Damkina, "opened their mouths to address the great gods," saying thus: "Formerly, Marduk was [merely] our beloved son; now he is your king; proclaim his title "King of the gods of Heaven and Earth!" Compliance to that request/demand followed:

  Being assembled, all the Igigi bowed down;

  Everyone of the Anunnaki kissed his (Marduk's) feet.

  They were assembled to do obediance;

  They stood before him, bowed, and said:

  "He is the king!"

  They gave sovereignty to Marduk;

  They declared for him a formula of

  good fortune and success, [saying]:

  "Whatever you command we will do!"

  The text does not state where the Assembly is gathered. The narrative suggests that the coronation of Marduk is taking place on Nibiru, and it is followed by an assembly of the gods assigned to Earth. Reminding the gathered gods of his royal lineage (some ancestors who preceded Ea and Anu are invoked), Marduk, as the newly elected Chief, loses no time in outlining his divine program: Hitherto, he tells the gathered gods, you have resided in E.sharra, "the Great Abode" of Anu on Nibiru; now you will reside in "a counterpart abode thereof that I will build in the Below." "In the Below"—on Earth—Marduk says, he has created Firm Ground suitable for a New Home:

  I have hardened the ground for a building site,

  to build a home, my Luxurious Abode.

  I will establish therein my temple,

  its shrines will affirm my sovereignty . . .

  I will call its name Bab-ili ['Gateway of the gods'].

  As the gathered gods rejoiced at hearing Marduk's project to establish Babylon, he went on to assign them their duties:

  Marduk, the King of the gods,

  to Above and Below divided the Anunnaki.

  To follow his instructions,

  three hundred he assigned to the Skies,

  as Those Who Watch he stationed them.

  In like manner the stations on Earth he defined,

  Six hundred of them on Earth he settled.

  He issued all the instructions;

  To the Anunnaki of Heaven and of Earth

  he allotted their tasks.

  The gods assigned to 'Mission Earth' are thus divided right off into two groups: Three hundred, named Igi.gi ("Those Who Observe and See'), have 'sky duties' and will be stationed "above the Earth" (on Mars, as we explain later). Six Hundred, the Anunnaki 'of Heaven and Earth', will be stationed on Earth itself; and their first task per their Lord's instructions, is to establish Babylon, and raise therein Marduk's stage- tower E.sag.il—the 'House Whose Head Is Lofty'. (For depictions of Anunnaki and Igigi in their stations, see Fig. 64.)

  By the end of Tablet VI Bab-ili (Babylon), the "Gateway of the gods," with its "Tower that reaches heaven," are ready; the Celestial Marduk is now also Marduk on Earth; and the reciting of Enuma elish proceeds to Tablet VII, which is a laudatory list of Fifty Names, fifty epithets of empowerment.

  "With the title 'Fifty' the great gods proclaimed him (Marduk)

  supreme," the epic states in conclusion.

  * * *

  Obviously, the epic's Babylonian text has rushed events here 'fast forward'. Life has yet to emerge and evolve on Earth; Enki and his first crew of fifty Anunnaki are yet to splash down; cities of the gods need to be established; Man has yet to appear; and the Deluge still has to sweep over—for only in its aftermath does the episode of the Tower of Babylon take place. Whether the omissions are deliberate or not, the fact remains that all the interim developments still need to take place— not only according to the Bible, but also according to varied cuneiform texts.

  Indeed, even before one contemplates the events on Earth, one ought to parse the enigma of events on Nibiru, where the coronation of Marduk presumably took place. Who are the assembled gods? Who are the 'Forefathers' that Marduk invoked? The divine-royal abode he plans to establish on Earth is to serve as a counterpart to the divine- royal abode of the god Anu, the E.sharra, on Nibiru. A king of what kingdom was Anu? Who were the Anunnaki and the Igigi, assigned to duties for Mission Earth? How did they come to be present, to reside, on planet Nibiru? Why did fifty of them—accompanying Ea/Enki—go to Earth in search of gold? And why, at its peak, were 600 Anunnaki and 300 Igigi needed?

  While Enuma elish provides no such answers, we are not entirely at a loss to know them. Varied ancient texts fill-in data and details, name names and describe events. We have already mentioned some of those texts; we will bring to light many others—some even in languages other than Sumerian or Akkadian. Together they provide the dots that can be connected to form a coherent and continuous tale. Paramount in that context is what they tell us about ourselves—how Man and Mankind came to be on this planet Earth.

  We can start unraveling the ball of yarn with Anu, the ruler on Nibiru during Marduk's confirmation as supreme leader of the Anunnaki and the Igigi. He was also ruler on Nibiru during the first arrival on Earth, for Ea/Enki invoked his status as "firstborn son of Anu" in his autobiography. One can assume that it was Anu's form of Kingship that was "brought down from heaven" by the Anunnaki, and it was from his court that the traditional insignia of kingship emanated:
A divine headdress (crown, tiara); a scepter or staff (symbol of power, authority); and a coiled measuring cord (representing Justice); these symbols appear in divine investiture depictions at all times, in which the god or the goddess grants these objects to the new king (Fig. 56).

  AN/Anu as a word meant 'Heaven'; as a name-epithet it meant 'The Heavenly One'; and its pictogram was a star. References in varied texts provide some information about Anu's palace, his court, and its strict procedures. We thus learn that in addition to his official consort (his spouse, Antu) Anu had six concubines; his offspring were eighty in number (only fourteen of whom bore the divine titles En for males or Nin for females [Fig. 57]). His court aides included a Chief Chamberlain, three Commanders in charge of the Rocketships, two Commanders of the Weapons, a 'Minister of the Purse' (= Treasurer), two Chief

  Figure 56

  Figure 57

  Justices, two 'Masters of Written Knowledge', two Chief Scribes, and five Assistant Scribes. The rank and file of Anu's staff were termed Anunna—meaning 'Anu's Heavenly Ones'.

  Anu's palace was located in the "Pure Place." Its entrance was

  constantly guarded by two royal princes; titled "Commanders of the Weapons," they controlled two divine weapons, the Shar.ur (= 'Royal Hunter') and the Shar.gaz (= 'Royal Smiter'). An Assyrian drawing (Fig. 58), purporting to depict the gateway to Anu's palace, showed its two towers flanked by "Eaglemen" (= uniformed Anunnaki 'astronauts'), with the Winged Disc emblem of Nibiru centrally displayed. Other celestial symbols—a twelve-member solar system, a crescent (for the Moon) and seven dots (for Earth) complete the presentation.

  When an Assembly of the gods was called, it took place in the Throne Room of the palace. Anu sat on his throne, flanked by his son Enlil seated on the right and his son Ea seated on his left. Texts that recorded Assembly proceedings indicate that virtually anyone present could speak up; some of the deliberations were heated debates. But in the end Anu's word was final—"his decision was binding." Among his epithets was "Divine 60"—granting Anu, under the sexagesimal ('Base 60') numbering system, the highest rank.

  The Sumerians and their successors have kept not only meticulous King Lists; they also maintained elaborate God Lists—lists of gods arranged by importance and rank and grouped by families. In the more detailed lists, the prime name of the god or goddess was followed by their epithets (that could be quite numerous); in some lists that attained a canonical status, the gods were arranged genealogically—giving, so to say, their royal pedigree.

  There were local god lists and national god lists, short ones and

  Figure 58

  long ones. The most comprehensive, known to scholars by its opening line as the series An:god-Anu and deemed the Great God List, occupies seven tablets and contains more than 2,100 names or epithets of gods and goddesses—a mind-boggling number for sure, but considerably misleading if one realizes that sometimes a score or more listings were really epithets for the same deity (the younger son of Enlil, for example, who was called Ishkur in Sumerian, Adad in Akkadian, and Teshub by the Hittites, had another 38 epithet-names). The Great God List also included the deities' spouses and offspring, chief 'viziers' and other personal attendants.

  Each tablet of this series is divided into two vertical columns, the one on the left giving the deities' Sumerian name/epithet and the matching one on the right the equivalent name or meaning of the epithet in Akkadian. Among other shorter or partial god lists thus far discovered was also one known as the series An:Anu Sha Ameli; despite its Akkadian title, it is an earlier basic listing of the Sumerian pantheon (listing only 157 names and epithets).

  It is from such lists that we learn that the names chosen in Enuma elish for various planets were not accidental; they were names borrowed from the canonical god lists in order to enhance the genealogical claims of Marduk to supremacy—his being the son of Ea/Enki, in turn the firstborn son of Anu, who in turn was the scion of a royal Nibiruan line of twenty-one predecessors!

  The list (arranged by couples) includes besides Anshar and Kishar, Lahma and Lahama (familiar as celestial names from Enuma elish) also unfamiliar names such as An.shargal and Ki.shargal, En.uru.ulla and Nin.uru.ulla; and (significantly) a couple oddly named Alala and Belili. This list of Anu's predecessors ends with the postscript "27 en ama aa"—'twenty-one lordly mothers and fathers' (arranged as ten couples plus an unespoused male one). The Great God List then names the children and functionaries of Anu's Group, skipping his two principal sons and daughter (Ea/Enki, Enlil and Ninmah), who are listed separately with their own family groups and aides.

  Whichever way these god lists are studied, the major and dominant position of the divine king Anu is unmistakable. Yet a text titled Kingship in Heaven, found intact in a Hittite version, reveals that Anu was a usurper, having seized the throne on Nibiru by forcefully deposing the reigning king!

  After calling upon the "twelve mighty olden gods," "the god fathers and the god mothers," and "all the gods who are in heaven and those upon the dark-hued Earth," to pay heed to the account of the usurpation, the text went on to say:

  Formerly, in the olden days,

  Alalu was king in heaven.

  Alalu was seated on the throne.

  Mighty Anu, first among the gods,

  stood before him, bowed at his feet,

  set the drinking cup in his hand.

  For nine counted periods

  Alalu was king in heaven.

  In the ninth period, Anu gave battle to Alalu.

  Alalu was defeated, he fled before Anu.

  He descended to the dark-hued Earth—

  down to the dark-hued Earth he went.

  Upon the throne Anu was seated.

  Serving, then, as the royal Cup Bearer—a task calling for utmost loyalty—Anu betrays the king's trust and seizes the throne in a bloody coup d'etat. Why? Though he bears the epithet-title "First among the gods," the text fails to reveal the relationship between Anu and the reigning king; but the narrator's appeal to the Olden Gods, "The fathers and the mothers" of the gods, indicates a conflict or struggle over the throne whose roots go back several generations—a conflict caused by past events, genealogical relationships, or dynastic rivalries. With succession rules that tried to untangle conflicting claims between a firstborn and a legal heir, between a son by a spouse and another by a concubine, and a rule granting primacy to a son by a half-sister, Anu evidently had a claim on the throne that (in his view) trumped that of Alalu.

  Such conflicting claims, one must conclude, began long before the Anu/Alalu incident and, as we shall see, continued after that. Certain aspects of the god lists serve as clues to an old and festering problem regarding Kingship on Nibiru—issues that in time affected events on Earth. In the Great God List (the extant version was probably compiled in Babylon) the Enki Group follows that of Anu's; the Enlilites come next, followed by Ninharsag's group. But in other lists—including the shorter Sumerian one—it is the Enlil Group that follows Anu's. These varied positionings reflect a tug-of-war that calls for a closer look.

  The Great God List contains another a puzzling feature: When it comes to Enki (but not so for Enlil) it inserts into his listings the names of predecessor ancestor-couples that are different from those of Anu's; they bear such names as En.ul and Nin.ul, En.mul and Nin.mul, En.lu and Nin.lu, En.du and Nin.du, etc. These are divine predecessor couples of Enki that are not found in the Anu group. It is only when the list comes to the tenth couple, named Enshar and Kishar, that an apparent match with Anshar and Kishar in Anu's list occurs. Since Anu was Enki's father, the separate or non-Anu ancestor couples had to represent the line of Enki's mother, who had to be someone other than Antu—in other words, a concubine. That, it became clear as events unfolded, was a serious hierarchial defect.

  In his autobiography Enki declared, with some desperation: "I am _the leader of the Anunnaki, engendered by fecund seed—the firstborn son of divine An, the Big Brother of all the gods." Firstborn indeed he was; engendered b
y "fecund seed" he was—but only from his father's side. When it came to be seated beside the enthroned Anu, it was Enlil who sat on the right. In the numerical ranking of the elite Twelve Great Gods, Enlil was second to Anu with the rank of 50; Enki followed with the lesser rank of 40. Though Enki was the firstborn, he was not the Crown Prince; that title with the right of succession was granted to the younger Enlil because his mother was Antu—and Antu was not just Anu's official spouse, she was also a half-sister of Anu, providing Enlil with a double dose of the "fecund" genetic seeds.

  A picture thus emerges of two old-time clans, vying for Kingship on Nibiru; at times at war, at times seeking peace through intermarriage (a device not unknown on Earth, where warring tribes or nations often resorted to royal intermarriage to bring peace), and taking turns on the throne—sometimes violently, as in the case of Anu's coup against Alalu. The name of the deposed king (Alalu in Hittite) is clearly different from the many 'En- ones, but is virtually identical to the oddly named Alala in Anu's list, suggesting affiliation to a different clan and access to the throne through intermarriage.

  That emphasis on one's genetic "seed" line and Succession Rules was reflected in the Bible's tales of the Patriarchs.

  * * *

  Was the violent overthrow of Alalu, causing him to flee his home planet, an isolated event—or an episode in a history of continuous (even if intermittent) fighting between two clans, perhaps—in planetwide terms—between two nations on Nibiru? The data in the God Lists suggests that his overthrow was a continuation of unresolved strife between the Niburian clans. It was neither the first nor the last violent 'regime change': Some texts suggest that Alalu himself was a usurper, and that later on attempts were made to overthrow Anu .. .