Over a series of published books (starting with
Chariots of the Gods? in 1968), Swiss pseudoarcheologist
Erich von Däniken claimed that extraterrestrial "ancient astronauts" had visited a prehistoric Earth. Von Däniken explains the origins of religions as reactions to contact with an
alien race, and offers interpretations of Sumerian texts and the
Old Testament as evidence.
[69][70][71]
In his 1976 book
The Twelfth Planet, Russian-American author
Zecharia Sitchin claimed that the Anunnaki were actually an advanced
humanoid extraterrestrial species from the undiscovered planet
Nibiru, who came to Earth around 500,000 years ago and constructed a base of operations in order to mine gold after discovering that the planet was rich in the precious metal.
[69][70][72] According to Sitchin, the Anunnaki
hybridized their species and
Homo erectus via
in vitro fertilization in order to create
humans as a slave species of miners.
[69][70][72] Sitchin claimed that the Anunnaki were forced to temporarily leave Earth's surface and orbit the planet when Antarctic glaciers melted (which, if the Arctic glaciers also melted, would raise water levels a couple hundred meters), causing the
Great Flood,
[73] which also destroyed the Anunnaki's bases on Earth.
[73] These had to be rebuilt, and the Anunnaki, needing more humans to help in this massive effort, taught mankind agriculture.
[73]
Ronald H. Fritze writes that, according to Sitchin, "the Annunaki built the pyramids and all the other monumental structures from around the ancient world that
ancient astronaut theorists consider so impossible to build without highly advanced technologies."
[69] Sitchin expanded on this mythology in later works, including
The Stairway to Heaven (1980) and
The Wars of Gods and Men (1985).
[74] In
The End of Days: Armageddon and the Prophecy of the Return (2007), Sitchin predicted that the Anunnaki would return to earth,
possibly as soon as 2012, corresponding to the end of the
Mesoamerican Long Count calendar.
[70][74] Sitchin's writings have been universally rejected by mainstream historians, who have labelled his books as
pseudoarchaeology,
[75] asserting that Sitchin seems to deliberately misrepresent Sumerian texts by quoting them out of context, truncating quotations, and mistranslating Sumerian words to give them radically different meanings from their accepted definitions.
[76]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anunnaki