Zecharia Sitchin and the Extraterrestrial Origins of Humanity

Written by dedicated Sitchin acolyte M.J. Evans, Zechariah Sitchin and the Extraterrestrial Origins of Humanity rehashes Sitchin’s life work on the theory that aliens evolved humanity to mine gold. Per this over-arching retelling of Sitchin’s interpretations of ancient Sumerian tablets and his own findings at sacred sites around the world, the tale of ancient Sumer and ancient Egypt is really about the politics of the families that colonized the earth, interbred with humans, and even tried to wipe humanity out with a deluge. In Sitchin’s narrative, an “ill wind” wiped out those first cities – something he interpreted as an indicator that this race of aliens had nuclear weapons and that they destroyed themselves with it. Evans reprises much of her former mentor’s works from what appears to be a genuine concern about repeated nuclear war.

The reason this topic bears importance now is because Sitchin also predicted – based on patterns and prophecies discerned in those ancient texts – that another nuclear war, directed at Israel, could happen in 2024. Modern events in the United States make this supposition highly plausible, although any ancient alien connections to said events are still not.  Ultimately what Sitchin offers us is an alternate mythology, one more tree of story and myth to look to for metaphor and lessons in modern day.

Books like this are troubling to review, because the hypothesis is so far out there that it requires a background in Biblical, Egyptian, and Mesopotamian scholarship to fully comprehend whether the idea really holds merit. In the absence of that, the idea must be compared to an arc of plausibility encountered over decades of reading about everything from aliens to historic diabolic witchcraft. Even for a writer with a lifestyle grounded in the “woo” many of these ideas just seem too farfetched to be true. The existence of the website http://sitchiniswrong.com/  makes it clear that other scholars did consider his ideas and came to conclusions about how civilization began, the majority of which bear no resemblance to the space opera appearing in Sitchin’s Annunaki tales.

While Evans is passionate in her defense of Sitchin’s work and lays forth a well-written book, it is difficult to digest this as nonfiction. Perhaps, in time, archaeological evidence or returning Anunnaki will prove Sitchin was right. Until then, this work must remain on the fringe, an idea that tests the limits of intellectual tolerance. How far outside of the box can you go before something is really all that harmful? How much can the tolerance for weird stretch? Certainly, even if these ideas end up being incorrect, they harm no one – the reframing of original sin alone might liberate some people. Skip this book when looking for sources in Biblical archaeology to cite, but when looking into creative interpretations, it makes a good afternoon’s read.

~review by Diana Rajchel

Author: M.J. Evans Ph.D.
Bear and Company
pp. 210 $18.00