Since I grew up with Erich von Däniken and later loved books by Graham Hancock it was just a matter of time when this book will come my way - chronologically, Zecharia Sitchin comes somewhere right between them, as he bursted on a scene with this best-selling book in the middle of 1970s and his writing fits right up my alley because I was always sucker for a theories about ancient astronauts. This particular book made a huge splash and as expected, brought a wrath from academic circles so the guy has quite a reputation for being weirdo who proposes outrageous theories and so I approached this book with some reserve, thinking it would probably be too wild to accept, to my biggest surprise it was actually very interesting and quite griping read.
Zecharia Sitchin was not just your next-door neighbour obsessed with aliens but in fact had some strong credibility, was well educated journalist who could read ancient Sumerian clay tablets and came up with some really interesting theories - I was impressed mostly with the way he connected dots between civilisations of Rome, Greece, Egypt and ancient Mesopotamia, finding not just similarities between them but pointing towards ideas they all shared and how it all points towards the oldest kingdom of all - Sumer - where the roots of the language, religion and legends apparently came from. Every God from the pantheon of Romans, Greeks and Egyptians was already known in ancient Sumer under different name, Zodiac constellations, calendar cycles of 12 months, even the number of the planets in our solar system was already known to Sumerians. They were actually aware of Asteroid belt ("bracelet") separating planets in our solar system so it is really mind-boggling to realise this sophisticated level of astronomy and astrology was actually higher way back in the ancient past and eroded later.
Sitchin cleverly introduces some truly interesting historical points before he drops the main bomb - finally focusing on Sumer, he comes up with the idea that Sumerians were introduced to all this knowledge by ancient astronauts escaped from planet that was destroyed by some collision (hence Asteroid belt still visible in our solar system) and who mined Gold on our planet for their purposes, establishing bases in what is now Middle East (hence first, ancient civilisations). Looking back at the Bible, creation and global flood stories (similar to many religions, with variations) Sitchin claims that we humans were "created" by genetic manipulation in order to provide "Gods" with working force for mining - echoes of this ancient work in the mines are still present in stories about "hell", which Graham Hancock also mentions - even if all of this sounds quite wild, it was fascinating to read because the book cleverly connects dots and links, although I am aware that Sitchin might have just misinterpreted ancient symbols and he might have saw what he wanted to see in these clay tablets. Even if Sumerians actually wrote something entirely different, the book was surprisingly easy to read, was quite thought-provoking and I understood where Sitchin points at.
p.s.
latest news that fit nicely with my essay
http://www.sciencealert.com/this-ancient-babylonian-map-of-jupiter-just-changed-history-as-we-know-it
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