FOREWORD

 

"The last decades of the twentieth century have witnessed an upsurge of human knowledge that boggles the mind. Our advances in every field of science and technology are no longer measured in centuries or even decades but in years and even months, and they seem to surpass in attainments and scope anything that Man has achieved in the past.

"But it is possible that Mankind has come out of the Dark Ages and the Middle Ages; reached the Age of Enlightenment; experienced the Industrial Revolution; and entered the era of high-tech, genetic engineering, and space flight - only to catch up with ancient knowledge?

"For many generations the Bible and its teachings have served as an anchor for a searching Mankind, but modern science appeared to have cast us all adrift, especially in the confrontation between Evolution and Creationism. In this volume it will be shown that the conflict is baseless; that the Book of Genesis and its sources reflect the highest levels of scientific knowledge.

"Is it possible, then, that what our civilization is discovering today about our planet Earth and about our corner of the universe, the heavens, is only a drama that can be called "Genesis Revisited" - only a rediscovery of what had been known to a much earlier civilization, on Earth and on another planet?

"The question is not one of mere scientific curiosity; it goes to the core of Mankind’s existence, its origin, and its destiny. It involves the Earth’s past; it deals with where we are going because it reveals where we have come from. And the answers, as we shall see, lead to inevitable conclusions that some consider too incredible to accept and others too awesome to face.

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Chapter One
THE HOST OF HEAVEN
 

In the beginning
God created the Heaven and the Earth.

"The very concept of a beginning of all things is basic to modern astronomy and astrophysics. The statement that there was a void and chaos before there was order conforms to the very latest theories that chaos, not permanent stability, rules the universe. And then there is the statement about the bolt of light that began the process of creation.

"Was this a reference to the Big Bang, the theory according to which the universe was created from a primordial explosion, a burst of energy in the form of light, that sent the matter from which stars and planets and rocks and human beings are formed flying in all directions and creating the wonders we see in the heavens and on Earth? Some scientists, inspired by the insights of our most inspiring source, have thought so. But then, how did ancient Man know the Big Bang theory so long ago? Or was this biblical tale the description of matters closer to home, of how our own little planet Earth and the heavenly zone called the Firmament, or "hammered-out bracelet," were formed?

"....It is only appropriate that we begin the quest for answers where the events began to unfold - in the heavens; where also, from time immemorial, Man has felt that his origins, higher values - God, if you will - are to be found. As thrilling as discoveries made by the use of microscopes are, it is what telescopes enable us to see that fills us with the realization of the grandeur of nature and the universe.

"....For the first time, perhaps, we can grasp the meaning and feel the scope of the Psalmist’s words:

The heavens bespeak the glory of the Lord
an the vault of heaven reveals His handiwork.

"A fantastic era of planetary exploration came to a magnificent climax when, in August 1989, the unmanned spacecraft designated Voyager 2 flew by distant Neptune and sent back to Earth pictures and other data.

"....Thus it was that for several days at the end of August 1989, headlines concerning another world pushed aside the usual news of armed conflicts, political upheavals, sports results, and market reports that make up Mankind’s daily life fare....

"....As the dazzling images of an aquamarine globe appeared on our television screens, the commentators stressed repeatedly that this was the first time that Man on Earth had ever really been able to see this planet, which even with the best Earth-based telescopes is visible only as a dimly lit spot in the darkness of space almost three billion miles from us. They reminded the viewers that Neptune was discovered only in 1846, after perturbations in the orbit of the somewhat nearer planet Uranus indicated the existence of another celestial body beyond it.... And thus not only the average TV viewer but the astronomers themselves were about to see what had been unseen before - it would be the first time we would learn the true hues and makeup of Neptune.

"But two months before the August encounter, I had written an article for a number of U.S., European, and South American monthlies contradicting these long-held notions: Neptune was known in antiquity, I wrote; and the discoveries that were about to be made would only confirm ancient knowledge. Neptune, I predicted, would be blue-green, watery, and have patches the color of "swamplike vegetation"!

Neptune

Neptune’s both Hemispheres, above.
Neptune’s clouds, below.

"The electronic signals from Voyager 2 confirmed all that and more....

"....This beautiful planet was found to be encircled by several rings made up of boulders, rocks, and dust and is orbited by at least eight satellites, or moons.... the largest, Triton, proved no less spectacular than its planetary master....
 

Viewing Triton at the JPL

"....The discoveries thus fully confirmed my prediction: Neptune is indeed blue-green; it is made up in great part of water; and it does have patches whose coloration looks like "swamplike vegetation." This last tantalizing aspect may bespeak more than a color code if the full implication of the discoveries on Triton is taken into consideration: there, "darker patches with brighter halos" have suggested to the scientists of NASA the existence of "deep pools of organic sludge."

"....Such gratifying and overwhelming corroboration of my prediction was not the result of a mere lucky guess. It goes back in 1976 when The 12th Planet, my first book in The Earth Chronicles series, was published. Basing my conclusions on millennia-old Sumerian texts, I had asked rhetorically: "When we probe Neptune someday, will we discover that its persistent association with waters is due to the watery swamps" that had once been seen there?

"This was published, and obviously written, a year before Voyager 2 was even launched and was restated by me in an article two months before the Neptune encounter.

"How could I be so sure, on the eve of Voyager’s encounter with Neptune, that my 1976 prediction would be corroborated - how dared I take the chance that my predictions would be disproved within weeks after submitting my article? My certainty was based on what happened in January 1986, when Voyager 2 flew by the planet Uranus.

"....Scientists are still analyzing the photos and data from Uranus and its amazing moons, seeking answers to endless puzzles.

  • Why does Uranus lie on its side as though it was hit by another large celestial object in a collision?

  • Why do its winds blow in a retrograde direction, contrary to what is normal in the Solar System?

  • Why is its temperature on the side that its hidden from the Sun the same as on the side facing the Sun?

  • And what shaped the unusual features and formations on some of the Uranian moons?

Especially intriguing is the moon called Miranda, "one of the most enigmatic objects in the solar system," in the words of NASA’s astronomers, where an elevated, flattened-out plateau is delineated by 100-mile-long escarpments that form a right angle (a feature nicknamed "the Chevron" by the astronomers), and where on both sides of this plateau, there appear elliptical features that look like racetracks ploughed over by concentric furrows.

"Two phenomena, however, stand out as the major discoveries regarding Uranus, distinguishing it from other planets. One is its color.... we have become familiar with the gray-brown of Mercury, the sulphur-coloured haze that envelopes Venus, the reddish Mars, the multihued red-brown-yellow Jupiter and Saturn. But as breathtaking images of Uranus began to appear on television screens in January 1986, its most striking feature was its greenish-blue color - a color totally different from that of all the previous planets seen.... The other different and unexpected finding had to do with what Uranus is made of.

"As the images of Uranus grew bigger on the TV screen the closer Voyager 2 neared the planet, the moderator at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory drew attention to its unusual green-blue color. I could not help cry out loud, "Oh my God, it is exactly as the Sumerians had described it!" I hurried to my study, picked up a copy of The 12th Planet, and with unsteady hands looked at page 269 (in the Avon paperback edition). I read again and again the lines quoting the ancient texts. Yes, there was no doubt: though they had no telescopes, the Sumerians had described Uranus as MASH.SIG, a term which I had translated "bright greenish."

"A few days later came the results of the analysis of Voyager 2’s data, and the Sumerian reference to water on Uranus was also corroborated. Indeed, there appeared to be water all over the place: as reported on a wrap-up program on the television series NOVA ("The Planet That God Knocked on Its Side"), "Voyager 2 found that all the moons of Uranus are made up of rock and ordinary water ice." This abundance, or even the mere presence, of water on the supposed "gaseous" planets and their satellites in the edges of the Solar System was totally unexpected.

"Yet here we had the evidence, presented in The 12th Planet, that in their texts from millennia ago the ancient Sumerians had not only known of the existence of Uranus but had accurately described it as greenish blue and watery!

"What did it all mean? It meant that in 1986 modern science did not discover what had been unknown; rather, it rediscovered and caught up with ancient knowledge. It was, therefore, because of that 1986 corroboration of my 1976 writings and thus of the veracity of the Sumerian texts that I felt confident enough to predict, on the eve of the Voyager 2 encounter with Neptune, what it would discover there.
 

Uranus Rings and Moons

"....The 1989 flyby of Neptune provided still more corroboration of the ancient texts. In them, Neptune was listed before Uranus, as it would be expected of someone who is coming into the Solar System and sees first Pluto, then Neptune, and then Uranus. In these texts or planetary lists Uranus was called Kakkab shanamma, "Planet Which is the Double" of Neptune. The Voyager 2 data goes far to uphold this ancient notion. Uranus is indeed a look-alike of Neptune in size, color, and watery content; both planets are encircled by rings and orbited by a multitude of satellites, or moons. An unexpected similarity has been found regarding the two planets’ magnetic fields: both have an unusually extreme inclination relative to the planets’ axes of rotation - 58 degrees on Uranus, 50 degrees on Neptune. "Neptune appears to be almost a magnetic twin of Uranus," John Noble Wilford reported in The New York Times. The two planets are also similar in the lengths of their days: each about sixteen to seventeen hours long.

"...."Planet which is the double," the Sumerians said of Uranus in comparing it to Neptune. "Size and other characteristics that make Uranus a near twin of Neptune," NASA’s scientists announced. Not only the described characteristics but even the terminology - "planet which is the double," "a near twin of Neptune" - is similar. But one statement, the Sumerian one, was made circa 4,000 B.C., and the other, by NASA, in A.D. 1989, nearly 6,000 years later...

"In the case of these two distant planets, it seems that modern science has only caught up with ancient knowledge. It sounds incredible, but the facts ought to speak for themselves. Moreover, this is just the first of a series of scientific discoveries in the years since The 12th Planet was published that corroborate its findings in one instance after another.

"Those who have read my books (The Stairway to Heaven, The Wars of Gods and Men, and The Lost Realms, followed the first one) know that they are based, first and foremost, on the knowledge bequeathed to us by the Sumerians.

"....Indeed, all the basic elements of modern astronomy are of Sumerian origin: the concept of a celestial sphere, of a horizon and a zenith, of the circle’s division into 360 degrees, of a celestial band in which the planets orbit the Sun, of grouping stars into constellations and giving them the names and pictorial images that we call the zodiac, of applying the number 12 to this zodiac and to the divisions of time, and of devising a calendar to this very day....

"....And there are illustrations on cylinder seals depicting the Solar System in which the Sun (not Earth!) is in the center, orbited by all the planets we know of today....

"....The ancient explanation regarding the origin of Pluto reveals not just factual knowledge but also great sophistication in matters celestial. It involves an understanding of the complex forces that have shaped the Solar System, as well as the development of astrophysical theories by which moons can become planets or planets in the making can fail and remain moons. Pluto, according to Sumerian cosmogony, made it; our Moon, which was in the process of becoming an independent planet, was prevented by celestial events from attaining the independent status.

"Modern astronomers moved from speculation to the conviction that such a process has indeed occurred in our Solar System only after observations by the Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft.... in the words of the Voyager’s project’s chief scientist Edward Stone, that "Triton (Neptune’s moon) may have been an object sailing through the Solar System several billion years ago when it strayed too close to Neptune, came under its gravitational influence and started orbiting the planet."

Edward Stone (lighter jacket) in this photo examining pictures of Neptune.

Examining Triton

 

"....Indeed, as we continue to expound the Sumerian cosmogony, it will become evident that not only is much of modern discovery merely a rediscovery of ancient knowledge but that ancient knowledge offered explanations for many phenomena that modern science has yet to figure out.

"....How on Earth could the Sumerians have known all that so long ago, at the dawn of civilization?

"The answer lies in the second difference between the Sumerian depiction of the solar System and our present knowledge of it (the first difference, like Mr. Sitchin explains, is Pluto and its odd orbit). It is the inclusion of la large planet in the empty space between Mars and Jupiter. We are not aware of any such planet; but the Sumerian cosmological, astronomical, and historical texts insist that there indeed exists one more planet in our Solar System - its twelfth member; they included the Sun, the Moon (which they counted as a celestial body in its own right for reasons stated in the texts), and ten, not nine planets. It was the realization that a planet the Sumerian texts called NIBIRU ("Planet of the Crossing") was neither Mars nor Jupiter, as some scholars have debated, but another planet that passes between them....

"....It is from that planet, the Sumerians texts repeatedly and persistently stated, that the ANUNNAKI came to Earth. The term literally means "Those who from Heaven to Earth Came."

"....The advanced knowledge we find in Sumerian texts is thus, in effect, knowledge that was possessed by the Anunnaki who had come from Nibiru.... the Anunnaki came to Earth about 445,000 years ago. Way back then they could already travel in space. Their vast elliptical orbit made a loop - this is the exact translation of the Sumerian term - around all the outer planets, acting as a moving observatory from which the Anunnaki could investigate all those planets.

"....On their planet Nibiru, the Anunnaki/Nefilim were facing a situation we on Earth may also soon face: ecological deterioration was making life increasingly impossible. There was a need to protect their dwindling atmosphere, and the only solution seemed to be to suspend gold particles above it, as a shield. (Windows on American spacecraft, for example, are coated with a thin layer of gold to shield the astronauts from radiation).

"....The Sumerian texts that describe all these events and their condensed version in the Book of Genesis have been extensively dealt with in The 12th Planet.

"....Among the scientific advances that will be discussed in the ensuing chapters will also be the mounting evidence for the existence of Nibiru....

"....But after the publication of The 12th Planet and the evidence therein - which has not been refuted since its first printing in 1976 - and the evidence provided by scientific advances since then, the discovery of Nibiru cannot remain just a matter involving textbooks on astronomy. If what I have written is so - if, in other words, the Sumerians were correct in what they were recording - the discovery of Nibiru would mean not only that there is one more planet out there but that there is Life out there. Moreover, it would confirm that there is intelligent beings out there - people who were so advanced that, almost half a million years ago, they could travel in space; people who were coming and going between their planet and Earth every 3,600 years.

"It is who is out there on Nibiru, and not just its existence, that is bound to shake existing political, religious, social, economic, and military orders on Earth. What will the repercussions be when - not if - Nibiru is found?

"It is a question, believe it or not, that is already being pondered.

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Chapter Two
IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE
 

"It was Voyager [project] that focused our attention on the importance of collisions," acknowledged Edward Stone of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), the chief scientist of the Voyager program. "The cosmic crashes were potent sculptors of the Solar System."

"The Sumerians made clear, 6,000 years earlier, the very same fact. Central to their cosmogony, worldview, and religion was a cataclysmic event that they called the Celestial Battle.

"....Even more important, whenever these modern scientists have come upon a satisfactory answer - it fits and corroborates the Sumerian one!

"....The realization that there had to be one or more major collisions that changed the Solar System from its initial form became inescapable after the Uranus flyby in 1986, as Dr. Stone has admitted. That Uranus was tilted to its side was already known from telescopic and other instrumental observations even before the Voyager encounter. But was it formed that way from the very beginning, or did some external force - a forceful collision or encounter with another major celestial body - bring about the tilting?

"The answer had to be provided by the close-up examination of the moons of Uranus by Voyager 2. The fact that these moons swirl around the equator of Uranus in its tilted position.... made scientists wonder whether these moons were there at the time of the tilting event, or whether they formed after the event, perhaps from matter thrown out by the force of the collision that tilted Uranus.

"....findings by Voyager 2 were not the only clues suggesting that the moons of Uranus were not formed at the same time as the planet itself but rather some time later, in unusual circumstances. Another discovery that puzzled the scientists was that the rings of Uranus were pitch-black, "blacker than coal dust," presumably composed of "carbon-rich material, a sort of primordial tar scavenged from outer space" (the emphasis is Mr. Sitchin’s). These dark rings, warped, tilted and "bizarrely elliptical," were quite unlike the symmetrical bracelets of icy particles circling Saturn. Pitch-black also were six of the moonlets discovered at Uranus, some acting as "shepherds" for the rings. The obvious conclusion was that the rings and moonlets were formed from the debris of a "violent event in Uranus’s past.... "A likely possibility is that an interloper from outside the Uranus system came in and struck a once larger moon sufficiently hard to have fractured it."

"....In simpler words, it means that in all probability the moons in question were created as a result of the collision that knocked Uranus on its side. In press conferences the NASA scientists were more audacious. "A collision with something the size of Earth, travelling at about 40,000 miles per hour, could have done it," they said, speculating that it probably happened about four billion years ago.

"Astronomer Garry Hunt of the Imperial College, London, summed it up in seven words: "Uranus took an almighty bang early on."

"But neither in the verbal briefings nor in the long written reports was an attempt made to suggest what the "something" was, where it had come from, and how it happened to collide with, or bang into Uranus.

"For those answers, we will have to go back to the Sumerians. . . .

"Before we turn from knowledge acquired in the late 1970s and 1980s to what was known 6,000 earlier, one more aspect of the puzzle should be looked into: Are the oddities at Neptune the result of collisions, or "bangs," unrelated to those of Uranus - or were they all the result of one catastrophic event that affected all the outer planets?

"Before the Voyager 2 flyby of Neptune, the planet was known to have only two satellites, Nereid and Triton. Nereid was found to have a peculiar orbit: it was unusually tilted compared with the planet’s equatorial plane (as much as 28 degrees) and was very eccentric - orbiting the planet not in a near-circular path but in a very elongated one, which takes the moon as far as six million miles from Neptune and as close as one million miles to the planet. Nereid, although of a size that by planetary-formation rules should be spherical, has an odd shape like that of a twisted doughnut. It also is bright on one side and pitch-black on the other....

"The dark material that shows up on one side of Nereid could be explained in one of two ways - but both require a collision in the scenario. Either an impact on one side of the satellite swept off an existing darker layer there, uncovering lighter material below the surface, or the dark matter belonged to the impacting body and "went splat on one side of Nereid." That the latter possibility is the more plausible is suggested by the discovery, announced by the JPL team on August 29, 1989, that all the new satellites (six more) found by Voyager 2 at Neptune "are very dark" and "all have irregular shapes,"....

"The theories regarding Triton and its elongated and retrograde (clockwise) orbit around Neptune also call for a collision event.

"....The data collected by Voyager 2 from the actual flyby of Triton supported this theoretical conclusion. It also was in accord with other studies (as by David Stevenson of Caltech) that showed that Triton’s internal heat and surface features could be explained only in terms of a collision in which Triton was captured into orbit around Neptune.

""Where did these impacting bodies come from?" rhetorically asked Gene Shoemaker, one of NASA’s scientists, on the NOVA television program. But the question was left without an answer.

"....The Sumerian texts speak of a single but comprehensive event. Their texts explain more than what modern astronomers have been trying to explain regarding the outer planets. The ancient texts also explain matters closer to home, such as the origin of the Earth and its Moon, of the Asteroid Belt and the comets. The text then go on to relate a tale that combines the credo of Creationists with the theory of Evolution, a tale that offers a more successful explanation than either modern conception of what happened on Earth and how Man and his civilization came about.

For the rest of this chapter Mr. Sitchin presents the Celestial Battle in a very rich description, with charts and graphics, with which if you are not familiar, then you may view on these pages by going to The 12th Planet.

Mr. Sitchin then ends:

"Modern astronomy and recent discoveries uphold and corroborate this millennia-old tale.

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