The Anunnaki Chronicles

The Anunnaki Chronicles
By Zecharia Sitchin
Published in September 2015
384 Pages
Thibault’s Score: 2/5

Zecharia Sitchin was an Israeli ancient aliens theorist. He was an expert in ancient languages, and could translate various early languages competently, from where he draws many of his ideas. This book is a compilation of his various writings by his grand niece.

Having read a large number of primary sources, mostly from the middle ages and antiquity, I have been shocked by the number of seeming anachronisms - there are all sorts of details which, to me, seem like they possibly could be alien. For this reason, I was attracted to this book.

What I was hoping to find was an unbiased catalog of all of the anachronisms, along with a variety of explanations for them - explanations that both favor and disfavor extraterrestrial or anachronistic explanations.

Instead, Sitchin has wild theories that go far beyond what can be borne out by the evidence. You can easily point to a Sumerian tablet and ask “how the hell did they know that there were at least 10 planets, when Pluto, Uranus, and Neptune were only discovered in the last 200 years thanks to telescopes?” and offer a wide variety of theories and explanations (aliens being one of them). Instead, Sitchin has very detailed timelines explaining that XYZ had a moon base, with clones, etc… His theories seem unsubstantiated and outlandish.

I also wish that he included his complete translations of primary sources, not just quotes out of context. Then I wish I could compare his translations of primary sources with those of other academics who do not believe in aliens.

This book makes for mediocre science fiction, but bad history. I am looking for a good ancient aliens book - but this is not it.

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