The Anunnaki In The Great Religions of the World
The Anunnaki can be found throughout the Great Religions of the World. This is true regardless of whether we look at modern religion or ancient religion.
One of the more profound connections discovered are those between Sumerian Religion and other great traditions of the world. The Anunnaki appear in a surprising number of ancient traditions in distinct, yet clearly related — if not hereditary — forms.
The challenge for me has not been the establishment of the connections themselves — since they are often are self-evident in the existence of exact names, stories, themes, or gods — but the discernment of a chronology within the legendary accounts themselves. Moreover, determining the origin, nature, or direction of transmission.
For example, what is the connection between Sumerian and Akkadian tradition? The Akkadians had their own semitic names for what are clearly the Sumerian gods. They shared the same traditions. There are certain scholars who believe that the Akkadian traditions learned Sumerian Religion, and over time invented Akkadian names, which eventually became the principle names during later Babylonian times after the Rise of Sargon and the Formation of the Akkadian Empire.
However, this is not clear.
The purpose of this attempt is to unveil the most ancient details in their oldest (and theoretically mostaccurate form) and in so doing uncover what I call theOriginal Story.
It is my belief that in general, if you have to look too closely to see a connection, the chance that you are forging that connection yourself, artificially, is increased. Either the traditions have gods, heroes, legends, events, themes, symbols and characteristics in common, or they do not.
For example, the Seven Sages are a group that feature throughout ancient mythology, from Sumer in the Middle East potentially as far afield as the Americas in a surprising account from one specific Native American tribe. The Seven Sages are known as the Apkallu in Babylon, yet they are also found in Egypt, and in ancient layers of Vedic traditions where they are known as the Saptarishi (literally the ‘seven sages’). They play a fundamental role in Hindu, Sumero-Akkadian, and Egyptian cosmology. Where did they emerge first, and what peoples were the original bearers of these beliefs?
We the Seven Sages are one single significant number of important details in common. In the Sumerian religion we have the Anunnaki and Igigi classifications of gods, whereas in Norse myth we have the Vanir and the Aesir gods, while in Vedic tradition we have the Asuras and the Devas, and in the Zoroastrian we have the Ahuras and the Daevas. The central Anuna gods of the Sumerian pantheon find their counterparts in Hindu, Norse, Celtic, Greek, Egyptian and Roman mythology as well. For arguments sake, assume they are all connected, a part of the same original traditions that diverged from one another at intervals perhaps thousands of years apart from one another, and flourished individually in relative isolation from one another (with influence of once-foreign local beliefs and environmental features) allowing the traditions to evolve in new, novel, and distinct ways, accounting for the differences.
What culture carried the tradition from one region to another, and when? Which tradition is the oldest and the most accurate? A more curious question, why are the Ahuras ‘good’ and the Daevas ‘evil’ in Zoroastrianism, but opposite in Hindu belief? Interestingly, the Norse, Germanic, Vedic, and Iranian people are all Indo-European — ethnically and linguisitically related. It is not far-fetched to see elements of shared culture. The Sumerians are the only anomoly in this grouping, as they so often are. (is the Vedic tradition in a specific regard older than the Sumerian account, or vice versa, and what culture transmitted it to each culture individually
The Anunnaki survive to this day in Judaism, in Christianity, and in Islam — all of the Abrahamic traditions — and it is my belief that these stories are found in other great religions also (although that statement requires significant qualification in proof which I shall give in detail). In Judaism the elohim — the angels of god — are the Anunnaki as the ancestors of the Jews called them. Their name means the same thing. In later Judeo-Christian traditions found in the Book of Enoch, the Watchers are clearly inspired from the Anuna. They, like the Anunnaki, descended from heaven and taught mankind. In addition, the Biblical term Anakim, which is a synonym for Nefilim (tenuously translated as “those who descended” from heaven) is linguistically close to Anunnaki, Anuna, and Anunakena — Anakim).
The Anunnaki are alive today in the great religions of the world. As I stated earlier, the “perpetuity of an idea itself is not evidence of its veracity”, even while it confirms its power in the human psyche. With that being said, I do not believe that the fact the Anuna gods persevered for 5000+ years is a coincidence. is the but in a slighltly different form due to a combination of gradually shifting and evolving traditions, and the translation from one language to the next over the millennia from their inception. In addition to the fact the ancient traditions of the Jews found in the Tanakh (which is literally the Old Testament) were literally thousands of years removed in time and space from the land and beliefs of their ancestors. As I said before, the fact that an idea persists isn’t evidence of anything. However, when we find the same story being told in Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Jewish, Christian, Islamic, Celtic, Greek, Roman, Norse, Zoroastrian, and Vedic scripture, perhaps we should begin to consider the possibility that there is a deeper, far more profound and more ancient story emerging…
Contents
Resonance Between Sumerian Religion and Indo-European Religion
One of the things that we find extensive reference to,
The Impact of Sumerian Religion
The true Impact of Sumerian Religion is hard to estimate. In some ways, it is even harder to speak about. Even if we consider its regional impact on the development of native religions alone, its influence is incalculable. Yet when we also consider its greater cultural impact, it becomes even more challenging to fathom.
One of the phenomena that we are going to discuss is the relationship between the gods of Sumer, and the gods of the majority of pantheons west of the Himilayas. Since we will see an extensive relationship between figures like Enki and Poseidon and Indra, Thor and Enlil. These influences are so numerous as to consider a more intimate relationship — a common Ancestral Tradition from deep antiquity.
Therefore the assumption that all must trace back to Sumerian Religion specifically (because, after all, it is the oldest by far with written documentation of their gods going back to 3500 BCE) is not always the case. For one, we do not know how ancient deep elements of Sumerian Religion were before they were referenced in writing. The gods were too important to trust to a new technology that had not been seen in any generation before — yet they begin to appear as some of the earliest instances of writing.
This is equally true when we consider Norse, Celtic, Vedic, Hindu, and Zoroastrian Religion as well. The date of composition is not equal to the date of
In the case of Sumerian Religion
The Origins of Sumerian Religion
Little is truly known about the origins of Sumerian Religion. Little can be known in the time before writing. What we do know is that the names of Anu, Enlil, Enki, Ninhursaga, and Inanna were recorded in symbol as early as 3200 BCE.
It is a definitive fact that the gods, and many of the tales surrounding them, reach far beyond 3200, deep into antiquity. This is something that we know for a fact, as Sumerian Religion remembers events going back thousands of years.
The memory of the Great Flood is the most convincing, which is a universal myth of the thousands of years of flooding around the world at the End of the Last Ice Age, especially around the close of the Younger Dryas c.10,000 BCE.
However, Sumerian myth and legend is rich, and also remembers less contentions events (such as the invention of the oven and a time before bread, along with the invention of the plow, and the times before agriculture when Man was more like a wild animal.
Equipped with knowledge from modern archaeology, anthropology, and the study of prehistory, we are getting ever more accurate dates on all of these events, and can confirm the antiquity of the event relative to the Sumerians in many cases. In this way, we can estimate ages for certain memories, like we can for the Mesopotamian Flood Myth.
There are many problems to consider when we think of the origin of Sumerian Religion. Where did the Sumerian People come from? When did the arrive? What were the phases of development of the tradition during the final centuries of prehistory?
What is their relationship with the Semitic Akkadians? How do we explain so many similarities between Indo-European Myth and Legend and Sumerian Religion?
Answers to all of these questions (that we can possible obtain) are crucial to answering the question of the Lost Civilization and the Lost Story of Humanity.
Further Reading
- Placing Sumerian Religion in the Context of Indo-European Myth
Placing Sumerian Religion in the Context of Indo-European Myth and Legend
A curious problem that we face in our attempt to understand the traditions of Sumerian religion, is to place them in the context of greater Indo-European myth.
There are extensive common elements between Sumerian and Indo-European religions. Such deep similarity, contradicted defiantly by an unquestionable originality — which itself speaks to the antiquity of Ancient Greek Religion to the Ancient Greeks themselves — make this relationship somewhat a riddle.
We know that Sumerian Religion was the first to be recorded, followed by Ancient Egyptian Religion, and the documentation of early Greek Religion practiced by the Minoan Civilization (who were contemporaries with Egypt, Sumer, Akkad, and the Indus-Valley Civilization). So we do see evidence of all religions at roughly the same time.
So what we know is that Sumerian, Greek, and Egyptian religion existed around 3000 BCE. In Sumerian and Egyptian, records from the following centuries that contain religion as well as document some events that could have occurred at that time, meaning that we might be able to guess . Unfortunately, in the case of Greek Religion, no such ancient record exists, so we must rely on compositions that are much younger, which cannot confirm more ancient phases of the religion. (This is one of the reasons why Mesopotamian Religion’s documented descent from Sumerian Religion is so valuable.)
On the one hand, the traditions of the Sumerians are directly (and definitively) related to the traditions of the Ancient Greek, Ancient Egyptian, Vedic Traditions, all of whom were roughly contemporary.
When we trace through times we find that the Sumerian myths are remembered in Canannite myth, Hittite and Hurrian myth, traditions of the Hebrews, right into the Old Testament and the New Testament of the Bible — regardless of how many changes took place towards that final form.
The challenge is that neither the Sumerians of Akkadians (nor, presumably, the Ancient Egyptians) were Indo-European people like the Greeks and Romans, the Vedic Peoples of India, Iranians, Hittites, Hurrians, Germanic peoples and Celts.
How can we explain this?
I do not buy that the traditions just spread naturally over time. There is evidence of an organic spread of traditions through history. Buddhism does not appear to have spread violently. While there may have been forceful transmission events, it seems that peaceful diffusion based on the illumination and lure of the traditions themselves was the norm. HInduism didn’t spread too far at all. However, the spread of Islam and of Christianity was through violence. Cultural domination. The Amerindians, the First Peoples of the Americas, became Christian through the domination — rape, pillage, destruction, genocide, and forced assimilation — of the native peoples over centuries. Christianity was brought to Africa, the Middle East, and Asia in a similar way. Indeed, it was Roman domination of Europe which ultimately made Europe a Christian continent, with a concerted centuries-long conversion effort by sending missionaries in ahead — or in the wake of — conquering armies. This is how Islam spread also through the Middle East, Central Asia, North Africa, and Southeast Asia: violence.
The transmission of religion in the last few thousand years has been anything but peaceful. It is not always violent. Religions like Buddhism, Taoism, and Hinduism was absorbed through natural cultural influence. Judaism was preserved by its people, and doesn’t seem to grow as outwardly in the same way as the aforementioned three.
Scholars and thinkers brought them, and they appealed to people because the thinking and spirit of them is inherently beautiful. (Read some of the Vedic scriptures, Buddhist ideas, or Taoist wisdom and…) Yet the proliferation of the Original Mythology in ancient times appears to have taken a different path.
The True Nature of the Anuna Gods
With all of the characteristics discussed here, there are significant reasons to question our conception of the ancient gods.
The most convincing to me is the way that the Anuna are referenced in certain mythological contexts, and the references to the “abodes of the Anuna” (not in reference to the temples in the Sumerian cities).
This is the most archaeologically grounded references from myth that we have. It sounds quite clearly that they are referencing definite places in their environment. If we did not have so many preconceptions regarding ancient peoples, our understanding of them and their beliefs, the exact flow of history, the obvious conclusion is that the Sumerians are referring to ancestor peoples.
(some of them arising from deeply entrenched religious traditions while others from a degree of scholarly rigidity, one might say, a skepticism so firm that it leaves behind scientific stoicism in favour of dismissal without due consideration or investigation)
Whether they are cultural, ethnic, or simply regional ancestors — people who lived in the land before their arrival, or people who lived in the land alongside their ancestors — is not known. Archaeological investigation will play a role in unravelling this mystery, but it is my belief that genetics will be the source of the most elucidating information. for giving us the most solid facts that our theories can be forged against.
There is a common belief that the Anunnaki and other primordial deities are a human memory of an extraterrestrial race interacting with ancient man. I believe there is validity in this idea for a number of reasons. Yet from a purely mythical, anthropological, genetic and archaeological perspective, that possibility is significantly more complex than the majority recognize because the Sumerians themselves perceive their gods as ancestors. Gilgamesh, for one, is considered as 2/3 divine. Given the number of wives he took to bed in the Epic of Gilgamesh as King of Uruk, we can assume that he had many, many children. At this early date it Sumerian History, probably somewhere in the Early Dynastic of Pre-Dynastic Era, his noble lineage probably flourished. Meaning there are a great many Sumerian people a thousand years later who are related, and can therefore be considered partially divine according to Sumerian mythical context. Moreover, we do not know exactly when and where the Anuna flourished. Their precise time period cannot be ascertained with certainty because they are tied in with so many historical periods. On the one hand, they are explicitly antediluvian, dating back to 10,000 BCE. On the other hand, they are said to have “taken up abodes alongside the Sumerian people.” Furthermore, by the time of Sumerian History, they appear to be long gone. They are associated with ruin mounds, as opposed to living cities.
Even more confusing is that in Biblical times of the Old Testament, when Moses sent out his Twelve Spies to explore the Land of Canaan, they come accross the Anakim, who are associated with the Nefilim. Who might be the descendents of the Anuna / Anunnaki / Angels / Elohim / Watchers. We don’t know when Moses lived, even if he lived (since parts of his story are Akkadian and clearly refer to the Akkadian King Sargon of Akkad, Sargon the Great) and certainly not the degree of historicity of the tale.
In the end, we have a great many legendary and mythical references that are hard to substantiate and to place firmly in history. Yet the common threads come together powerful, and tell a story that is relatively convincing in its internal consistency over time, between both traditions and cultures vastly separated from one another. The Anunnaki are one of the great mysteries of the past.
The Various Faces of the Sumerian Gods
One of the ways that we can trace the Resonance of the Gods, is by examining how clearly the Sumerian gods are associated with deities on all sides.down to peoples, cultures, and regions
Enki with Poseidon, Loki,
The Sumerian myth recounts how
In one myth the Sumerians recount how Enki “established a shrine in the sea, a holy shrine, whose interior is elaborately constructed. The shrine, whose interior is a tangled thread, is beyond understanding.”
This is a curious memory that is difficult to interpret. For some reason the interior of the structure in confusing like a “tangled thread” that is “beyond understanding” that humans are capable of somehow. Moreover the Anuna are afraid to approach it for some reason.
Hades, Enlil, Set, Thor [?]
Anu, Zeus, Odin
The Impact of the Identities of the Gods
For many years, I didn’t believe that it mattered exactly which of the Indo-European and Afro-Asiatic god, the Sumerian gods map to. I figured that it was just a cultural phenomenon that was not exactly logical. After all, there is no rhyme or reason why Japan loved American baseball, ait becoming…