A Failed Challenge To An Enigma of Ancient
Astronomy
by Zecharia Sitchin
I was recently pleasantly surprised to encounter an old friend:
The colorful cover of the first edition of my first book The 12th Planet
(1976), reproduced in the April 2000 issue of Sky &
Telescope. The photo was
provided by the astronomer E.C. Krupp for his article "Lost Worlds" about
misconceived predictions of planetary dooms (such as that regarding
5/5/2000).
Almost a full page is then devoted to "a different
astronomical misconception" -- "Zecharia Sitchin's books about ancient space
colonists from a lost "12th planet" that once violently invaded our solar
system." Conceding (or lamenting?)
that “credulous readers are persuaded by Sitchin that the traditions
of ancient Sumer validate this unorthodox reconstruction of solar system
history," the article suggests in a sidebar (see reproduction) that "Sitchin's
case originates in an Akkadian cylinder seal from the third millennium B.C.;
a portion of it features a six-pointed star surrounded by eleven dots of
varying size; Sitchin judged that the star symbolizes the Sun and the smaller
elements are supposedly planets, including the lost 12th world."
The Embarrassing Ancient Depiction
My inclusion in an article about misconceived predictions
of doom (in which I have not engaged -- and this is not the only
misrepresentation in the article) was thus an excuse to tackle the embarrassing
depiction on cylinder seal VA/243 which I had found in the Vorderasiatisches
Museum in (then East) Berlin. On this seal, as on many others, the
"mythological scene" is decorated with celestial symbols -- in this case,
I have suggested, showing the Sun surrounded by all the planets we know of
today, plus the Moon and plus one more planet passing between Mars and Jupiter,
the planet named NIBIRU by the Sumerians:
The depiction and my interpretation thereof have
embarrassed astronomers for the past quarter of a century, because it is
just not possible for ancient peoples to
have
known about post-Saturn planets, to say nothing about one more yet to be
acknowledged "unknown planet." My
explanation that the knowledge was provided by the Anunnaki ("Those
who from Heaven to Earth came”) -- Extraterrestrial visitors to Earth
-- is an even greater anathema to the scientific
establishment.
What then to do about cylinder seal
VA/243? It exists, it is authentic,
it is at least 4,500 years old, If
not Sitchin's interpretation -- what?
The "Teapot" of Sagittarius
So now, a quarter of a century after The 12th Planet
was published, the Sky &Telescope article comes to the
rescue. The sidebar and its
two illustrations offer an alternative.
The one on the right purports to show my interpretation of the seal
-- colorful, but conveniently omitting the key planet between Mars and
Jupiter... The other shows how the "dots" around the central object can
be connected to "roughly resemble the Teapot of
Sagittarius":
 |
Sky
& Telescope's sidebar, reproducing the first edition (1976) cover
of
The 12th Planet and the magazine's two
illustrations. |
The solution to
the embarrassing enigma of ancient knowledge, as stated in
the article's sidebar,
is this: The depiction "could easily represent a bright planet -- such as
Jupiter -- in the midst of familiar stars; in fact, the arrangement around
the star like object roughly resembles the Teapot of Sagittarius."
And so, if the central object is not the Sun but Jupiter (with which the
ancients were familiar) and the surrounding objects not planets but the stars
of Sagittarius (with which the ancients were familiar)-- Sitchin's
extraterrestrials and Nibiru are
not needed.
A clever theory -- but based on a misplaced teapot...
A "Rough Resemblance"?
Sagittarius, one of the twelve zodiacal constellations (a Sumerian first),
was named PA.BIL (The Defender) by them and was depicted in antiquity as
an Archer, a name and a depiction retained to this
day. But some modern astronomers
(while having afternoon tea?) decided that the central part of Sagittarius
resembles a teapot:
A
"spout" formed by connecting the stars Al Nasi, Kaus Media and Kaus Australis
(stars gamma, delta and epsilon of the constellation);
A "handle" shaped by the stars designated
zeta (Ascella), tau, sigma (Nunki) and phi; and a "lid" indicated by Kaus
Borealis (designated lambda).
When these eight stars are connected by imaginary lines, a "teapot" seems
to emerge:
Nice
Try -- But An Impossible One
One need not be an astronomer to see that the "teapot" imposed upon the
ancient depiction (magazine's left illustration) is far from being similar
to the actual celestial one;
But one might
have to be an astronomer to realize that the offered solution is not only
improbable -- it is impossible: Jupiter moves about the Sun in the
ecliptic (the plane of planetary orbits around the Sun); it never
dips enough in the southern skies to appear in the midst (the
magazine's words!) of the Teapot!
The illustration of Sagittarius that shows the "teapot" also indicates
the ecliptical path, in which Jupiter
moves. AND THE TWAIN CAN NEVER
MEET!
Jupiter, once in about twelve years, does scratch the northernmost protrusion
of Sagittarius; but it never comes even close (in astronomical terms) to
the Teapot, and could have NEVER been observed "in the midst" of the
Teapot.
And so, even after a quarter of a century, "Sitchin’s misconception"
continues to stand.
Z. SITCHIN
June 2000
Reproduction is permitted if accompanied by the
statement
© Z. Sitchin 2000
Reproduced by permission.
