Anunnaki 101: The Ancient Gods of Sumer

Who were the Anunnaki and why do we care? The short answer is: The Anunnaki were the deity pantheon of the ancient Sumerians. And interest in the Sumerian culture has been active and persistent since it was discovered in the 19th century — for several reasons.
Who were the Sumerians?
The Sumerians appear on the archaeological record beginning around 4,500 BCE. Located in present-day Iraq, the region, a.k.a. Mesopotamia has long been referred to as “the cradle of civilization.” Sumer was a handful of city-states initially ruled by priests, each organized around a city and temple now called a “ziggurat.” The ziggurats, dedicated to Anunnaki worship, were layered pyramids with flat tops. These communities were considered to be “servant-slave” populations dedicated to serving the temple gods, the Anunnaki. Over time, priesthood rulership gave way to kings.
The Sumerians were skilled trade merchants and acquired lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, cedar from Lebanon, and gold from the Indus Valley. Their agrarian culture gave us the plow as well as “time” — the 24-hour day and 60-minute hour.
Sumerian history is gleaned from archaeological and geologic evidence — written records are in the form of cuneiform tablets. Reportedly, some half-million tablets have been recovered, but only a small number have been translated. Much was also learned from translations of Babylonian records; Sumer was considered “ancient” in Babylonian times.
Sumerians worshiped the Anunnaki, said to be the children of earth and sky; An, the sky god, and Ki, the earth goddess. Chief among them was Enlil, the god of air. This pantheon was passed to the Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian cultures. The Epic of Gilgamesh, the story of the historical king of Sumerian city-state Urek, is an ancient literary relic of Sumerian culture.
Above is the mainstream “narrative” regarding the Anunnaki — others have drawn different conclusions based on archaeological evidence, analysis of Sumerian mythology, and translations of cuneiform tablets.
The Flipside of the Annunaki Story
Author Michael Cremo (“Forbidden Archaeology”) has researched the history of archaeology for 40-plus years, documenting findings that have been excluded from mainstream, academic archaeology; findings that would disrupt the widely accepted story of human origins.
Cremo, along with author Zecharia Sitchin, Erich von Däniken (author, “Chariots of the Gods”), author and researcher Michael Tellinger, and several others, makes compelling arguments that the Anunnaki were, in fact, off-world beings posing as “gods.” This theory also asserts that these “sky” gods genetically engineered the human race a slave species, which may account for weak links in the evolutionary story. These theories gave birth to the “ancient astronaut” hypothesis asserting that off-world beings have been posing as gods to influence human affairs for millennia.
Many believe that the Annunaki extracted massive amounts of gold using human labor — this is derived from multiple discoveries of ancient mining tunnels in South Africa, as well as relics and links to the Sumerians. “No one knows why they wanted gold, no one knows how much was taken,” said Tellinger. He added that the Annunaki introduced the concepts of money, finance, and debt to human societies.
A theory that these beings originated from “Nibiru,” a.k.a. “Planet X” has been added to alternate Anunnaki narratives, as well as the likelihood of the off-world gods bringing advanced technologies that account for sophisticated megastructures such as the pyramids or Stonehenge. Out-of-place artifacts and tool discoveries contribute to these premises. The Sumerians are also known for sophisticated astronomical and mathematical knowledge, speculated to have passed from the Annunaki.

Annunaki god Enki
While no lists of the Annunaki pantheon exist, it is known that each Sumerian city-state had its own Annunaki god/overseer assigned by senior Annunaki Marduk.
Some, perhaps inspired by Theosophical Society founder Helena Blavatsky’s book “The Secret Doctrine,” assert that the Annunaki are/were a reptilian race that survives to this day, deeply entrenched in human affairs. In her book, Blavatsky wrote of “dragon men” who influenced the lost Lemurian civilization.
David Icke has been on the disclosure/conspiracy lecture circuit since 1999 — he accurately reported that U.K. TV and radio star Jimmy Savile was a rampant pedophile, proven true after Savile’s death in 2011.
Icke believes the imposter Anunnaki gods continue to manipulate humanity from seats of political, corporate, and financial power worldwide. He explains that these beings not only exploit humans but feed off collective fear; Icke calls for a disconnect from mainstream media and Orwellian entrainment that triggers fear and anxiety — an aggregate hypnotic state.
Many share Icke’s view. On the surface, the Anunnaki/Reptilian narrative appears to be a completely unbelievable hypothesis. But follow the breadcrumbs for a fascinating story reaching from ancient times to modern, and draw your own conclusions.
Was The 1977 Southern Television Broadcast Interruption A Hoax?

Government agencies that regulate television and radio signals are pretty astute when it comes to maintaining the security of the airwaves. But just after 5 p.m. on Nov. 26, 1977, unsuspecting viewers in England who tuned into the nightly news experienced a Southern Television broadcast interruption by a ‘voice from space.’ To this day, no one knows for certain who was behind the interruption.
Southern Television Broadcast Interruption a Hoax?
On this particular Saturday evening, unbeknownst to those working at an independent television station in Southern England, thousands of viewers were subjected to a six-minute message from an entity referring to itself as Vrillon of the Ashtar Galactic Command.
During the broadcast, Vrillon warned his unassuming audience of the dangers humans were getting themselves into by using weapons of mass destruction. Vrillon also confirmed the UFO phenomenon and his race’s presence “seen as lights in the skies.” Vrillon warned humanity to be wary of false prophets and the evils of money, before imploring his audience to live in harmony and put down its weapons.
The transmission returned to the evening’s normally scheduled programming of Looney Tunes before viewers were assured by news broadcaster, Andrew Gardner, that everything was alright and that it was simply a hoax. But some began to panic, frantically phoning the station under the assumption that the apocalypse was upon them, despite Ashtar Command’s seemingly peaceful dispatch.
News stations distorted the story, reporting different names and versions of Vrillon’s message. This added to the confusion creating a War of the Worlds-type anxiety among those who couldn’t fathom the possibility of a hoax. Adding to the conspiracy is the fact that the culprit of the transmission has still never been discovered.
Many believed the broadcast to be the doing of the Raëlian community, the UFO church founded just four years earlier by Claude Vorilhon, whose name sounds and looks uncannily similar to the Ashtar Commander, Vrillon. Was the name Vrillon just a misconstrued pronunciation of Vorilhon?
The Southern Television broadcast is often compared to the Max Headroom Chicago broadcast interruption of 1987 or the Captain Midnight HBO interruption a year earlier. Though the culprit in the latter case turned out to be a disgruntled employee.
The particular broadcasting system that was being used by the Southern Television station was unusual in that it bounced one signal to another transmitter on the Isle of Wight, rather than using a direct landline like most television transmitters at the time. This allowed the signal to be interfered with, though it would take someone well-versed in the technology to intercept and interrupt it.
What is strange about the Ashtar Command broadcast is that not everyone heard the name “Vrillon” that night. Some say they heard the name “Asteron,” some heard “Gillon,” and others heard “Bramaha.” Adding to the intrigue is the fact that the only audio or video evidence of the message is a reenactment.