Ninety year old linguist Zecharia Sitchin is going for broke; staking his reputation and entire body of work on a proposed DNA test.
Needless to say, Sitchin's ideas - like those of another ancient-astronaut author, Erich von Däniken - have been roundly scorned by the scientific community. But now Sitchin is asking that very community to help him with the mystery of Queen Puabi.
Puabi's remains were unearthed from a tomb in present-day Iraq during the 1920s and 1930s, roughly the same time frame as the discovery and study of Tutankhamun's tomb in Egypt. Forensic experts at London's Natural History Museum determined that Puabi was about 40 years old when she died, and probably reigned as queen in her own right during the First Dynasty of Ur. Sitchin contends she was something more than a queen - specifically, that she was a "nin," a Sumerian term which he takes to mean "goddess."
He suggests that Puabi was an ancient demigod, genetically related to the visitors from Nibiru. What if these aliens tinkered with our DNA to enhance our intelligence - the biblical tree of knowledge of good and evil - but held back the genetic fruit from the tree of eternal life? Does the story of Adam and Eve actually refer to the aliens' tinkering? The way Sitchin sees it, the ancient myths suggest that "whoever created us deliberately held back from us a certain thing - fruit, genes, DNA, whatever - not to give us health, longevity, and the immortality that they had. So what was it?"
I'm a little surprised at his all or nothing approach but he's right that whether he positions himself that way or not it's how it will be taken in the increasingly blinkered scientific community. I, for one, don't share a number of Sitchin's conclusions but that doesn't mean we throw out the baby with the bathwater. There's no denying that many of his once ridiculed theories have been validated by newer scientific discoveries; such as elliptical planetary orbits. Some of these are discussed in the article and quoted interview. Sitchin is provocative and whether he's one hundred percent accurate or not is besides the point. He's done what innovators are supposed to do. He's raised very compelling questions and lent insight into the mysteries of ancient civilizations.
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