'Anunnaki' in Mesopotamian Texts

Many of the presentations on this channel are about the Annunaki and the different interpretations of this group throughout Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian history by various researchers, scholars, and authors. In a change of pace, we offer this particular video as a brief summary of the mainstream academic view of the Annunaki. Of course, this subject is relegated to the category of mythology in these Mesopotamian cultures by the academic world. Nevertheless, it is important to understand what academia does in fact acknowledge about this group known as the Annunaki. Just as with the term Nibiru, many social media critics and armchair debunkers go so far as to argue that the term Annunaki is not even real nor does it exist in the actual ancient record. As the following material will prove, such a premise is erroneous if not blatantly ignorant. The earliest known usages of the term Annunaki come from inscriptions written during the reign of Gudea between 2144 and 2124 BC and the third dynasty of Ur. In the earliest text, the term is applied to the most powerful and important deities in the Sumerian pantheon, the descendants of the sky god An. This group of deities probably included the seven gods who decree, An, Enlil, Enki, Ninhursag, Nana, Utu, and Inanna. Although certain deities are described as members of the Annunaki, no complete list of the names of all the Annunaki has survived and they are usually only referred to as a cohesive group in literary texts. Furthermore, Sumerian texts describe the Annunaki inconsistently and do not agree on how many Annunaki there were or what their divine function was. Originally, the Annunaki appeared to have been heavenly deities with immense powers. In the poem, Enki and the World Order, the Annunaki do homage to Enki, sing hymns of praise in his honor, and take up their dwellings among the people of Sumer. The same composition twice states that the Annunaki decree the fates of mankind. Virtually every major deity in the Sumerian pantheon was regarded as the patron of a specific city and was expected to protect that city's interests. The deity was believed to permanently reside within that city's temple. One text mentions as many as 50 Annunaki associated with the city of Iridu. In Inanna's descent into the netherworld, there are only seven Annunaki who reside within the underworld and serve as judges. Inanna stands trial before them for her attempt to take over the underworld. They deem her guilty of hubris and condemn her to death. Major deities in Sumerian mythology were associated with specific celestial bodies. Inanna was believed to be the planet Venus. Utu was believed to be the sun. Nanna was the moon. An was identified with all the stars of the equatorial sky, Enlil with those of the northern sky, and Enki with those of the southern sky. The path of Enlil's celestial orbit was a continuous symmetrical circle around the celestial pole, but those of An and Enki were believed to intersect at various points. Akkadian text of the 2nd millennium BC follows similar portrayals of the Annunaki from Inanna's descent into the netherworld, depicting them as Chthonic underworld deities. An abbreviated Akkadian version of Inanna's descent, written in the early 2nd millennium, Ereshkigal, the queen of the underworld, comments that she drinks water with the Annunaki. Later in the same poem, Ereshkigal orders her servant Namtar to fetch the Annunaki from Eagle Jina to decorate the threshold steps with coral and to seat them on golden thrones. During the Old Babylonian period between 1830 BC and 1531 BC, a new set of deities known as the Igigi are introduced. The relationship between the Annunaki and the Igigi is unclear. On some occasions, the categories appear to be used synonymously, but in other writings, such as the Poem of Ira, there is a clear distinction between the two. In the late Akkadian Atrahasis epic, the Igigi are the sixth generation of the gods who are forced to perform labor for the Annunaki. After 40 days, the Igigi rebel and the god Enki, one of the Annunaki, creates humans to replace them. From the Middle Babylonian period, from 1592 to 1155 BC onward, the name Annunaki was applied generally to the deities of the underworld, whereas the name Igigi was applied to the heavenly deities. During this period, the underworld deities Namkina, Nurgal, and are listed as the most powerful among the Annunaki, alongside Marduk, the national god of ancient Babylon. In the standard Akkadian epic of Gilgamesh, circa 1200 BC, Utnapishtim, the immortal survivor of the great flood, describes the Annunaki as seven judges of the underworld who set the land aflame as the storm approaches. Later, when the flood comes, Ishtar, the East Semitic equivalent to Inanna, and the Annunaki mourn over the destruction of humanity. In the Babylonian Enuma Elish, Marduk assigns the Annunaki their positions. A late Babylonian version of the epic mentions 600 Annunaki of the underworld, but only 300 Annunaki of heaven indicating the existence of a complex underworld cosmology. In gratitude, the Annunaki, the great gods, build Isagila, a splendid temple dedicated to Marduk, Ea, and Enlil. In the 8th century BC poem of Ira, the Annunaki are described as the brothers of the god Nurgal and are depicted as antagonistic towards humanity. A badly damaged text from Neo-Assyrian period between 911 and 612 BC describes Marduk leading his army of Annunaki into the sacred city of Nippur and causing a disturbance. The disturbance causes a flood which forces the resident gods of Nippur to take shelter in the Isumesha temple to Ninurta. Enlil is enraged at Marduk's transgression and orders the gods of Isumesha to take Marduk and the other Annunaki as prisoners. The Annunaki are captured but Marduk appoints his frontrunner Mushtesh-er-Hablum to lead a revolt against the gods of Isumesha and sends his messenger Neretagmil to alert Nabu, the god of literacy. When the Isumesha gods hear Nabu speak, they come out of their temple to search for him. Marduk defeats the Isumesha gods and takes 360 of them as prisoners of war, including Enlil himself. Enlil protests that the Isumesha gods are innocent so Marduk puts them on trial before the Annunaki. The text ends with a warning from Damkhena, another name for Ninhurzag, to the gods and to humanity pleading them not to repeat the war between the Annunaki and the gods of Isumesha. In the mythologies of the Hurrians and Hittites, which flourished in the mid to late 2nd millennium BC, the oldest generation of gods was believed to have been banished by the younger gods to the underworld, where they were ruled by the goddess Lelwani. Hittite scribes identified these deities with the Annunaki. In ancient Hurrian, the Annunaki are referred to as Kouroulis Siounis, which means former ancient gods, or Kateris Siounis, which means gods of the earth. Hittite and Hurrian treaties were often sworn by the old gods in order to ensure that the oaths would be kept. In one myth, the gods are threatened by the stone giant Ulikumi, so Ea, the later name for Enki, commands the former gods to find the weapon that was used to separate the heavens from the earth. They find it and use it to cut off Ulikumi's feet. Although the names of the Annunaki in Hurrian and Hittite texts frequently vary, they are always eight in number. In one Hittite ritual, the names of the old gods are listed as Aduntari, the Diviner, Sulki, the Dream Interpreter, Urpitia, Lord of the Earth, Nara, Namsara, Mintki, Amunki, and Api. The old gods had no identifiable cult in the Hurrio Hittite religion. Instead, the Hurrians and Hittites sought to communicate with the old gods through the ritual sacrifice of a piglet in a pit dug in the ground. The old gods were often invoked to perform ritual purifications. The Hittite account of the old gods' banishment to the underworld ultimately became the source for the Greek poet Hesiod's narrative of the overthrow of the Titans by the Olympians and the Theogony. The Greek sky god Uranus, whose name means heaven, is the father of the Titans and is derived from the Hittite version of Anu. In Hesiod's account, Uranus is castrated by his son Kronos, just as Anu was castrated by his son Kumarbi in the Hittite story. While the preceding material is a brief summary of the accepted mainstream academic view of the Anunnaki in the overall ancient Mesopotamian mythos, virtually all open-minded historical and theological scholars agree the Old Testament's book of Genesis was extracted from the older Sumerian records, if only because of the similarity in their comparative religions. As mentioned earlier, the Enuma Elish, the Sumerian epic of creation, and Genesis have a variety of common elements. Stories of a great flood and deluge, among other stories, are also common to both Sumerian and biblical accounts. Indeed, a plausible conclusion is that the Anunnaki were as real as Noah, Moses, or Abraham. Researcher and scholar Lawrence Gardner has written, quote, every item of written and pictorial attestation confirms that the ancient Sumerians were absolutely sincere about the existence of the Anunnaki, and those such as Enki, Enlil, Ninhurzag, and Inanna fulfilled earthly functions with designated community duties. They were patrons and founders, they were teachers and justices, they were technologists and kingmakers, they were jointly and severally venerated as archons and masters, but they were certainly not idols of religious worship, as the ritualistic gods of subsequent cultures became. In fact, the word which was eventually translated to become worship was avad, which meant quite simply work. The Anunnaki presence may baffle historians, their language may confuse linguists, and their advanced techniques may bewilder scientists, but to dismiss them is foolish. The Sumerians have themselves told us precisely who the Anunnaki were, and neither history nor science can prove otherwise. End quote. The Sumerian text recorded in great detail the stories of the Anunnaki, and among these, that of Enki, Enlil, Ninki, Inanna, Utu, Ningizidda, Marduk, and many others. Chief among these stories was the continuing conflict between Enki and Enlil, the sons of the supreme god of the time, Anu. Much of ancient human history and the biblical genesis can be explained as the militant differences between these two half-brothers, and how they affected the life of all sentient beings on earth. But, the Anunnaki were more than just a pair of squabbling half-brothers. They were the council of gods and goddesses who periodically met to consider their future actions with respect to each other, and probably as a smaller non-descript item on their agenda, the fate of mankind. The Anunnaki, depending upon the context, were the progenitors of the Nephilim, the lesser individuals of the race from which Anu, Enki, Enlil, Inanna, and the other notables had sprung. They were in fact the Beneha Elohim, which translates as the sons of the gods, or equally likely the sons of the goddesses. An analysis of the correlations between the Anunnaki, Igigi, Nephilim, and the fallen angels, also known as the Gregori or Watchers, is beyond the purview of this presentation. Such an analysis will be the focus of a separate treatment. We hope you enjoyed this brief summary of what you could describe as Anunnaki 101. Understanding the limits of the academic paradigm is essential when going beyond its simplistic premise that mythology explains away everything that is inconvenient in the historical record regarding our origins. If you liked the presentation, please give us a thumbs up and subscribe to the channel for future episodes.