Everyone here knows I am no fan of Sitchin, but good grief – this announcement could at least spell the man’s name correctly.
Zecharia Sitchin Passes Away
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Category Archives: Sitchin
Recent Essay on Nibiru
Most of what you’ll read on the internet about Nibiru comes from Zecharia Sitchin’s noggin and those of his cyber-acolytes. In other words, most of it’s nonsense. Here is an exception. I’ll have to admit some of it is over my head (I’m not an astronomer), but this strikes me as an earnest attempt to make sense of the Mesopotamian material on Nibiru (read: the real stuff, not what Sitchin invents in his books). It may be helpful for readers to have these other links handy:
PaleoBabble Exchange with John Halloran, Sumerian Specialist
John Halloran has had a presence on the internet since 1996. He’s the scholar who maintains the Sumerian Language Page. On that page one can find his online lexicon (dictionary) of Sumerian. That material was recently printed in hard copy book form and has been favorably peer-reviewed. In short, John is a good source for information about Sumerian words.
Recently some of my PaleoBabble posts have received comments to the effect that my criticisms of Zecharia Sitchin’s Sumerian “translations”. A commenter appealed to Dr. Halloran as a source against my criticisms. I asked the commenter if he still had the correspondence, since I doubted that Dr. Halloran would object to my criticisms. He didn’t, so I thought I’d just ask. Below is my email to John Halloran with verbatim material from the commenter (whose comments are still here on the blog as well). Below my email is John Halloran’s response.
My email (July 7, 2010):
Dear Dr. Halloran
Thanks for taking the time to read this email. I’ll be brief.
My name is Mike Heiser. I’m not a Sumerian specialist, though I have studied some Sumerian independently. My field (PhD) is Hebrew Bible and Semitic Languages. I blog regularly at a site called PaleoBabble (www.paleobabble.com) on weird ideas and beliefs associated with the ancient world. One item that crops up with some frequency is the ancient astronaut idea, specifically the work of Zecharia Sitchin. I have a site devoted to rebuttals of Sitchin (www.sitchiniswrong.com), but from time to time I need the input of a specialist. Hence my email.
Recently a visitor and commenter to my PaleoBabble blog referenced an email exchange with you wherein he reported that you said a few things that I suspect either he misunderstood or that you never said. Could you please give the following a thumbs up or down or explain? I’ve promised to blog this on my site in my ongoing effort to alert people to the fact that Zecharia Sitchin is wrong – aliens from space aren’t behind the Sumerian civilization (or any other). Here are excerpts from the commenter’s email with notes at my initials (MSH):
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1. “I wrote to John Halloran a proffessor on Sumerian at the university of Los Angelos some time ago, asking him about Sitchin and yourself, and also on true expertise regarding Sumerian. It was interesting to receive an answer stating that there is probably no “expert” on Sumerian on this planet due to the fact that the understanding of Sumerian is based on ancient Hebrew of which a large part of the vocabulary is lost to us. . . What I remember and feel safe to state is this; my question was, ‘how accurate are Sitchin and Heiser in their debate and books regarding the Sumerian language, and history as far as our heritage is concerned? His reply was this; Most authors writing historical novel type books tend to dramatise their work in order to create better sales. He also stated that so far he himself had not at that stage come accross any mention of spacecraft in the sumerian history, he also stated that so far the researchers have not yet concluded their studies on Sumerian although a 140 years of research has been done we might eventually understand the language and be able through that to fully comprehend the Sumerian history. Which is an indication that no ‘total’ expert on the language exists.”
MSH: I’m guessing this was about the fact that scholars lack a perfect knowledge of Sumerian. It would be silly to say there are no Sumerian language experts. The commenter seems to want to say that, since we can’t know every detail perfectly, no one can really comment with authority in opposition to Sitchin’s ancient astronaut interpretations of the Sumerian epics. Would you agree or disagree?
2. “If this is true then yourself and Sitchin is mostly improvising regarding that language and this can then leed to the ‘assumption’ that the readers can form their own opinions regarding what is known regarding the history as stated by anybody in connection to the Sumerian tablets! Which will make your “bone” with Sitchin totally unnecessary (sic). I have wondered since I noticed your dispute why the two of you do not rather get together and share your opinions in an effort to give this world a more studied idea on Sumerian. The man do have 40 plus years experience on the investigating side of it, compare that with your expertise in ancient languages and we might all be surprised at the outcome!”
MSH: Personally, I don’t Sitchin knows squat about Sumerian (e.g., he thinks “SHU.MU” is a rocket ship). His “translations” are not as valid as those who are experts in Sumerian; I’d say they are not valid at all. Would you agree or disagree?
3. “On John’s website on the Sumerian Language page their is question and answer section, in this section a question was asked regarding Akkadian words relating to Sumerian, the answer was that Akkadian, Phoenician, Egyptian and Hebrew are all sister languages, and that some words or vocabulary might have been borrowed from Sumerian, although none of the sister languages are a sister language to Sumerian, this could have happened in all the sister languages, apparently Sumerian survived for two thousand years after the race became extinct, and this could be the cause of the borrowing! Is it possible? I do not know, I am not an expert on any language.”
MSH: The commenter seems to be under the delusion that lots of Sumerian words are related to biblical Hebrew words. I’ve read a good bit on the Hebrew language, and there are few words in the biblical Hebrew corpus that might be traced to Sumerian. Have you seen any scholarship that says otherwise? He also seems to think that the presence of loanwords speaks to some sort of “meaning interchange” or dependency. I’d chalk loanwords up to things like trade and migration. Any thoughts?
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That’s it! I hope you can reply a bit to these. Some readers would benefit knowing that I’m not the only ANE-related scholar that thinks Sitchin’s ideas are bogus.
Thanks!
Mike Heiser
John Halloran’s response the next day (July 8, 2010):
Mike,
Are you talking about Bill XXXXX [I've removed the last name - MSH]? I wrote very little to him, and certainly not what you are quoting. My most relevant message said:
Bill,
I don’t find anything about Sumerian at that Hidden Meanings web site.
The Sumerians were hard-working farmers who pulled themselves up by their bootstraps. No aliens or UFOs required.
Regards,
John Halloran
I have already said what I need to about Sitchen at my FAQ page. [MSH: see #s 15, 33, 34 for thoughts on Sitchin].
As an undergraduate I took 48 units of Hebrew classes, a class every week for four years, from Robert Hetzron at UCSB from 1971 to 1975. Off-hand, the only Hebrew word that I can think of which comes from Sumerian would be the word for ‘palace’. This is on page 148 of Ernest Klein’s Etymological Dictionary.
Regards,
John Halloran
So what’s the lesson here? For one, that my skepticism of Sitchin’s Sumerian skills isn’t idiosyncratic. Second, that there really are not many words from Sumerian that are traceable in the Hebrew Bible. [John Halloran later told me in a follow-up email that there are 31 listed in Mankowski's Harvard Semitic Monographs study, Akkadian Loanwords in Biblical Hebrew, pp. 231-232.] There are many more Akkadian words that show up in the Hebrew Bible, but that’s because both languages are Semitic, and because of the close interactions the Israelites had with the people of Mesopotamia after the Sumerian era (things like trade, migration, war, deportation, etc.). Lastly, although I do not expect that the commenter (“Bill”) could remember the email exchange with John Halloran if it was quite some time ago, this illustrates what I typically do with such claims or “references” — I want to see them. If they are not readily obtainable, I’ll ask those people. In other words, I do fact-checking. In the past I’ve done this with wacky internet lurkers who’ve told me about how a biblical scholar (whose name they knew I’d recognize) supported their claim that Ezekiel 1 describes a spaceship. Thanks for the name, now I’ll go ask the guy myself and publish his comments. Don’t name drop on me. Know that I will check. There’s no way a real scholar is going to support Sitchin’s ideas, mainly because he isn’t a Sumerian scholar (or scholar of any other ancient language) and the things he claims don’t exist in the texts. I’m not being mean — it’s just the truth.
Guide to Ancient Astronaut PaleoBabble
I’ll be on Coast to Coast AM this evening. This time I decided to do something that will help listeners follow the discussion more easily. I’ve created a sort of quick guide to my basic responses to a range of ancient astronaut paleobabble. It’s a one-stop reference point for all sorts of links, posts, and files on my sites and blogs. Check it out.
You may also find this page of interest (it’s linked to on the above guide). A few paleobabble topics here I haven’t blogged on yet.
Yours Truly to Appear on Coast to Coast AM
The date is June 30.
The topic? Zecharia Sitchin and ancient astronauts.
As many of you know, I’ve been on Coast to Coast AM many times. It’s always fun. No matter what I’m on for, George Noory (the host) loves to talk about ancient astronauts and Zecharia Sitchin. He’s a skilled host and a great conversationalist. (Despite my disagreements with things I hear on the show, I’m a fan). The odd thing is that we’ve never actually done a whole show on that. The only time to my recollection that I was a guest with that focus was back in 2001 with Art Bell. The show that sort of started all this.
Please tell your friends to tune in! To get a preview of my take on Sitchin’s theories, you can visit my site devoted to that material.
Zecharia Sitchin and Sumerian DNA: Genetic Code for PaleoBabble
Some readers may have seen this article today. The page is the home of Cosmic Log, the science blog of Alan Boyle, science writer for MSNBC. Boyle interviewed Zecharia Sitchin (who’s hawking yet another book about how aliens are the explanation for human life and civilization). Sitchin is demanding that the proper authorities and specialists run genetic tests on Puabi, a Sumerian queen whose remains are at the Natural History Museum in London. Sitchin wants the museum to authorize the genetic testing to prove or disprove his thesis that aliens spliced their genetic material into an earth hominid to create human beings. Naturally, the demand is being made in the wake of the recent genetic testing of King Tut’s remains and the sequencing of the Neanderthal genome. Sitchin somehow thinks that his reputation and theories would be at stake if the tests were conducted.
Boyle also interviewed yours truly for this article–and I thank him here for including some of my comments in it.
It should come as no surprise that I think this is an utterly useless exercise. Sitchin’s theories wouldn’t be at stake if these tests were run. His theories collapse on their own since none of what he claims is in the Sumerian texts about extraterrestrials is there. I have an entire site devoted to Sitchin. If readers go there, I hope they watch me do exciting (but absolutely telling) things like record myself searching the online Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature for the Anunnaki. The term (and synonyms, like Anunna) occurs over 100 times in Sumerian literature — you can get the results in a file from my site — and in no instance do we read things like the Anunnaki being on or in or associated in any way with Nibiru (which Sitchin says was their extra-solar planet home). I also show his ideas about the Hebrew word “elohim” are incorrect. I won’t rehearse the site here, but there’s a lot on it that shows Sitchin’s ideas are without substance in every regard.
But even if Sitchin’s arguments weren’t vacuous, what about the testing? Think about it. Sitchin wants scientists to go find alien DNA or alien genes. Tell me, Mr. Sitchin, what would that DNA look like? Since we don’t have an example or control sample of alien DNA or an alien DNA sequence portion, we have no idea what it would look like or how to observe a match from Puabi. Sitchin’s demand is akin to demanding a zoologist to go find an animal that has never been seen — how would our zoologist know if he was looking at one. The demand is utterly pointless.
Ten years after first accepting the public challenge to debate Zecharia Sitchin on this stuff (a challenge Sitchin never accepted), I’m still amazed by how people can cling so tenaciously to ideas that are demonstrably wrong. It’s positively mystifying.
For those interested in taking some online courses with me on Sitchin’s ancient astronaut theories (and those of Barry Downing), click here.
Some Online Learning Opportunities for PaleoBabble Readers
Some of you know by now that I’m creating two online institutes. The academic calendar for the first year begins in October. One institute is called MEMRA. It focuses on ancient and biblical studies. I’m packing a lot of my content from my now fifteen years of classroom teaching for interested people who don’t care about earning credits. Courses are six weeks long (except for certain ancient language courses, which are year-long in duration).
For paleobabbler fellow-travelers, here are some MEMRA courses offered during the 2010-2011 year that may be of interest:
- ancient Egyptian history sequence (three modules); one module is on pyramds
- history of ancient Israel (has a lot of archaeological content)
- ancient Israelite religion
- ancient Egyptian religion
- history of the Old and New Testament texts (“how we got the OT / NT”)
- courses in Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic (I’m waffling on whether to offer first-year hieroglyphics).
The other institute is for topics related to what is typically called the paranormal. It’s called the Institute for Paranormal, Preternatural, and Parapsychological Studies (IPPPS). I want to address a range of topics from a critical academic perspective, stressing good sources, methods, and coherent thinking. There’s actually a lot of peer-reviewed and otherwise academically-oriented material out there on strange topics that people could be exposed to. How many people know that psychic phenomena was studied by research institutes at Stanford, Princeton, and Duke? That alleged alien abductees have been researched by two psychology professors at Harvard ( who really don’t like each others’ work)? It’s interesting stuff.
For this audience, I’m offering three courses critiquing ancient astronaut theories during the first year (two focused on Zecharia Sitchin; the other on Barry Downing’s work), along with a sequence on the history of UFO sightings in the U.S. Another faculty member who just finished his PhD in historical anthropology is offering courses in the folklore of giants, vampirism, and witchcraft.
Just a heads up.
More Fun with Zecharia Sitchin: Looking for Rocket Ships in Sumerian Texts
Squint real hard, you might see them.
This video is longer (19:00) because I go through the major lexical resources for Akkadian and Sumerian — all publicly accessible — to show that (surprise!) Zecharia Sitchin’s translations (“rocket ship”; “fiery rocket”) for SHU.MU (shumu) in Sumerian and Akkadian are bogus.
Enjoy (or grind your teeth).
Fun with Zecharia Sitchin: Let’s Search for the Anunnaki
Okay, this probably isn’t going to be fun (especially to followers of Zecharia Sitchin), but I’m trying.
Those of you who know of Sitchin and his work know that one of his major claims is that the Sumerian deities, the Anunnaki, were actually extraterrestrials. That’s right . . . aliens. Sitchin has published millions of copies of his various books that detail how the Anunnaki are from a planet (or is is a ship?) called Nibiru. And the really cool thing is that all this is right there in the Sumerian texts! Uh . . . well . . . no it’s not. Despite the fact that the New York Times ran a story on Sitchin just two weeks ago (he’s 89 now) and he says “I’m not making this up; it’s in the texts,” he IS making it up (hope you’re not shocked).
But how can I prove this to you, my dedicated PaleoBabble readers? (Wracking my brain . . . ). Oh, I know. There’s this website called The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature (ETCSL) . . . that lets you search for Sumerian words. Maybe that will help.
Yeah; it helps. This is the place where any loyal Sitchinites who come across this post may want to leave. Truth is about to send the Anunnaki home.
It ain’t exciting, but here is a video of me searching the ETCSL for the word “Anunnaki”. If you want a PDF of the search results, here it is. Better yet, after you watch it you can head over to the site and repeat the search so you can know by experience that I’m not the one making things up . . . that would be someone else.
Why There is a Publishing Process Known as “Peer Review”
For all the ancient astronaut “researchers” out there – a wonderful illustration of why peer-review of your material is important (otherwise known as the nuttiness filter).