20x07 - Secrets of the Sumerians

[bunniefuu]

It is the world's
first known civilization

and also its most mysterious.

What's remarkable
about the Sumerians

is they invent the wheel,

they invent mathematics,

they invent writing,

but we don't know where they
came from or who they were.

The Sumerians are credited
with dozens of innovations

that are essential
to modern society.

We live with the legacy
pioneered by

the Sumerian civilization.

And they claimed
that it was all made possible

by beings who came
down from the sky.

These gods coming to Earth,

they gave them gifts.

They gave them knowledge.

Could it be that
the ancient Sumerian tablets

contain the secrets
of our alien past?

The first civilization

began right there,

due to a direct intervention

by extraterrestrials
visiting from another planet.

There is a doorway
in the universe.

Beyond it is
the promise of truth.

It demands
we question everything

we have ever been taught.

The evidence is all around us.

The future
is right before our eyes.

We are not alone.

We have never been alone.

In the heart of the Middle East,

there is a region
known as the Fertile Crescent.

It is believed to be
the very first place

with organized farming,
in which humans cleared

and modified vegetation
to grow crops.

Within this region
was Mesopotamia,

where several of the world's
first-known civilizations

emerged thousands of years ago.

In ancient Mesopotamia,

you had gardens,
you had control of water.

Now it's completely different.
Now it's arid.

You look at that place
and think, well, wait,

what was this?

The climate was different.

The vegetation was
completely different then.

Often called
the Cradle of Civilization,

Mesopotamia was the home
of the Akkadian Empire

that arose in 2334 BC,

the Assyrian Empire
that began in 2025 BC,

and the Babylonian Empire,

established in 1894 BC.

For centuries,
archaeologists thought

these were the earliest
peoples to inhabit the area.

But in the 1800s,
ancient clay tablets

were discovered
that would dramatically alter

the established timeline
for human civilization.

In the 19th century, it was
a time of great exploration

in Mesopotamia.

And they're finding
these cuneiform tablets.

And there were
various languages involved

with these tablets.

You had Akkadian, you had
Assyrian, you had Babylonian.

But in the mid-1800s,
the Reverend Edward Hincks,

an Irish scholar with
Trinity College, Dublin,

began to notice there was
evidence of a much older script.

And this was very important.

It meant that there must be
some other earlier civilization.

In 1869, more than two decades
after Edward Hincks discovered

this unique cuneiform language,

archaeologists gave it
the name "Sumerian."

This was based
on Akkadian writings

that referenced
the land of Sumer,

which scholars believed
to be the place

where the mysterious language
originated.

Then, in 1877,
at the ancient site of Girsu,

in present-day Iraq,

nine massive stone statues
were found,

all depicting
a king named Gudea,

who ruled over 4,100 years ago.

Engraved on each of the statues
was Sumerian writing,

indicating to scholars
that these were

the first depictions
ever found of a Sumerian.

The discovery
of the Gudea statues at Girsu

was definitive proof
that Sumerian cuneiform text

came from a lost civilization.

And the fact is,
people have been discovering

Sumerian structures
and artifacts,

and crediting them
to other civilizations.

So now they knew there
was a civilization called

the Sumerian,

but it wasn't until the 1920s,

when thousands of artifacts
and cuneiform texts

had been discovered,
that they realized

how far
this civilization went back.

In 1928,

an article appeared in
the Scientific American Magazine

with the subtitle,

"Who Were the Ancient Sumerians?

No One Knows."

But after nearly
a century of collecting clues,

archaeologists had determined
at least one indisputable fact:

the Sumerians were the earliest
civilization ever discovered,

emerging around 5000 BC

and pre-dating
all other known civilizations

by at least 2,500 years.

The Sumerians disappeared
from sight entirely.

They were extinct,
like the dinosaurs.

And the only reason
that we know about them today

is with the advent
of archeology,

when people excavated
in the Middle East,

and they found evidence
of the Sumerians

and their archeology
and their writing.

Once archaeologists became aware
of the Sumerian civilization,

they launched
major excavations in Iraq,

and began to discover that
the Sumerians were responsible

for many
world-changing innovations,

like the wheel.

The first stone potter's wheel
with an axle

was found in
the Sumerian city of Ur,

and dated to 3129 BC.

This eventually led to
the first wheeled vehicles.

Most of the things
that we take for granted,

the Sumerians invented.

That's why they're
so crucially important.

The Sumerians are key
in writing.

The Sumerians are key
in mathematics.

The Sumerians are the ones
that invent the plow.

They're the ones
that first start to work copper.

They're the ones that first
understand how to smelt metals.

The Sumerians also built
some of the first known

pyramidal structures.

When it comes to
the Sumerian ziggurats,

and the temples
they constructed,

most of the construction
was made of mud brick.

So, much of this is
either washed away

or been buried over time.

But there are elements of
the temples,

such as the giant statues,
which have survived.

They are made of stone.

And some of them are
in amazing condition.

According to
mainstream historians,

the first ziggurats were built
around 4000 BC,

predating the earliest
step pyramids in Egypt

by 1,300 years.

But perhaps even more impressive
is that the Sumerians designed

these structures by using
an advanced counting system.

One of the first civilizations

to really implement mathematics
was the ancient Sumerians.

And the interesting thing is
they used mathematics

on a base 60 system...
that's called sexagesimal...

as opposed to
the decimal system, with ten,

that we use today.

It gives you
much more flexibility

in the use of numbers

than if you just use
a decimal system.

And it led to all sorts
of extraordinary discoveries

in mathematics, in astronomy
and other things as well.

For example, they could make

accurate plans of
a major building to scale,

and they could calculate
how many bricks they needed.

In fact,
they had a very modern approach

to the practical problems
of, for example,

architecture and calculation.

While much has been discovered
over the past 100 years

about the Sumerians
and their accomplishments,

the origin of
this highly developed culture

remains a mystery.

What's remarkable about
the Sumerians

is nobody knows
where they came from.

We don't know who they were.

The ancient Sumerians had
technology,

they had science.

And this is even thousands
of years before

the great rise of
the civilizations in Egypt.

Where did
this knowledge come from?

How did they acquire
such profound information?

What could explain how this
mysterious group of people

so rapidly advanced
from hunter-gatherers

to form the world's
first civilization?

According to
ancient astronaut theorists,

the answer can be found

by examining the recently
translated Sumerian tablets

that describe
otherworldly beings

who descended from the sky.

When archaeologists began
uncovering Sumerian relics

in the 19th century,
they knew nothing

about this
long-lost civilization.

Artifacts offered few clues
about the Sumerian culture,

and many of their structures,

which were made from mud bricks,

had almost completely eroded.

But fortunately, what did manage
to survive the ravages of time

were thousands of clay tablets
containing Sumerian writing.

The Sumerians had a fully
developed phonetic language

that they had written
on clay tablets

in what's called cuneiform.

"Cuneiform" comes
from the Latin cuneus,

meaning, literally, "wedge."

And what they did is
they had reed styluses

that had a wedge shape,
and they would use wet clay

and imprint those
into such a way

that it would be writing.

One of the great things
that the Sumerians did was

precisely writing
with a stylus in clay,

and then f*ring the clay
so it becomes a brick.

And over the centuries,

that brick becomes
essentially stone.

And so, unlike papyrus,

that gets damaged, you know,

we find out all the time

about papyri
that get discovered,

and we can't open them.
They're too fragile.

That's not the case
with these tablets.

The first tablets
were discovered

before archaeologists
were even aware

that there was
a Sumerian civilization,

but linguists received
an important tool

to help decipher them in 1850.

British archeologist
Austen Henry Layard

was leading excavation efforts

at an ancient Assyrian palace

when he came upon a library

of more than 30,000
cuneiform tablets.

Some of the tablets contained
not only the mysterious writing

that would later be
identified as Sumerian

but also Babylonian
cuneiform next to it,

which linguists had deciphered
a few years earlier.

Finally, scholars had
what they needed

to translate
the unknown language,

but it would be
several more decades

before they could
effectively read the texts.

It wasn't until
the early 20th century

that we could actually translate
these cuneiform tablets.

And so we went for a period
of many thousands of years

not knowing about these people.

Then, suddenly,
there's an expl*si*n

of knowledge about them
in the 20th century.

The ancient Mesopotamians,

they used those clay tablets

for all sorts of documents...

private and permanent,
and long term and short term.

And we can read them today
as if they've just been written.

Researchers discovered
detailed business ledgers,

official government
correspondence,

and even medical texts.

But most interesting
to ancient astronaut theorists

is a set of seven tablets
known as the Enuma Elish,

that describe powerful beings
who came down from the sky.

The Enuma Elish consists

of two different books,

and in both books,

it speaks that long ago,

the gods created humans
in order to spread knowledge

here on planet Earth.

The Enuma Elish is
a very important creation myth.

And it indicated
that these gods...

what they call the Anunnaki,
which quite literally means

from the sky to the earth...

came to create man
in their image.

The Anunnaki are
the founder gods

of their civilization.

And they were masters

of the arts and sciences,

bringing civilizing qualities

to this part of the world.

So for the Sumerians,

their knowledge wasn't
self-derived.

Their inventions,
their great things

were not of their own design.

They were taught by the gods.

The Anunnaki nurtured
the Sumerians

to create
this great civilization.

But who were the Anunnaki?

Were they extraterrestrials?

That's what
the Sumerians are saying.

Could it be
that the Anunnaki were not gods

but otherworldly visitors?

Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes,

and suggest
further evidence can be found

in a recently translated
Sumerian tablet

that sheds new light
on a famous story of the Bible.

Dr. Irving Finkel,

one of the world's foremost
experts on cuneiform writing

and a curator
at the British Museum,

publishes a translation
of a Sumerian tablet

that dates back 3,700 years.

The text contains a passage
that is nearly identical

to the biblical story
of Noah and the Great Flood.

Now, anybody who's ever read
the Book of Genesis

and knows about the flood
there with an ark and Noah

and the animals of both genders
and so forth...

...is astonished when they read

the Sumerian text
for the first time.

Because it's a funny thing.
They are the same story.

When this tablet came
across the desk to me,

it was one of those
heart-stopping moments.

The tablet is at least
a thousand years older

than the story in the Bible.

So, of course, this means

that the Sumerian story
and the biblical story

are inseparably bound together.

There's no doubt about it.

The tablet deciphered
by Dr. Finkel

is part of a Sumerian story
known as the Epic of Gilgamesh,

whose protagonist
is believed to be based

on a historical king who ruled
in the third millennium BC.

The oldest story
in the Western world is

the Epic of Gilgamesh.

This is a story that's
at least 4,000 years old.

It covers a lot of things,
but among other things,

the restless search
for immortality

and the fact that man
was deprived of immortality.

In addition to descriptions
of a Great Flood,

the Epic of Gilgamesh
also includes

the story of the Anunnaki

and their relationship
with humankind.

According to the text,
Enlil, who is the Anunnaki king,

is in conflict
with his brother Enki,

who is the creator
of the first humans.

Enki is seen as benevolent
and an advocate

for the advancement
of humankind.

But Enlil is seen as sort
of militaristic and anti-human.

And so throughout
the Sumerian epics,

there's this continuing battle

between these two
opposing forces, these brothers.

The two brothers have
very different thoughts

about this new human race
that is rapidly multiplying.

King Enlil wants to send

a great deluge to Earth
to destroy humankind,

which he sees
as getting out of control,

but Enki fights to save
the civilization

he had helped to create.

In the story we're told
that the god Enki takes aside

one of the human beings

and tells him to build an ark
and to take them to safety.

According
to the Sumerians themselves,

there's this other civilization
that's pre-flood,

and it had all of
this knowledge as well.

They had writing,
they had the wheel,

they had mathematics,
they had...

all these agricultural
sciences, too.

But the flood wiped out
these people.

What was left
were the Sumerians.

After the flood, it was said

that the gods imparted
specific knowledge

and wisdom and teachings

to certain Sumerians to go
and restart civilization.

And this is where
the whole Sumerian culture

is said to have emerged from.

Could the fact that the same
account of a Great Flood

appears in both the Hebrew Bible
and a Sumerian story

written at least
a thousand years earlier

support the notion

that this was a real event?

One caused
by otherworldly visitors?

And if so,
who were these beings?

Perhaps further clues
can be found

by examining
an alternate translation

of the Sumerian tablets

that reveals incredible
and highly controversial details

about the Anunnaki.

A controversial book
is published

called The 12th Planet
which contains

a new translation
of ancient Sumerian tablets.

Its author,


is a Sumerian researcher

who has spent more than a decade

studying the cuneiform writing.

Sitchin's translation suggests

that the origins
of the Sumerian civilization

and their gods, the Anunnaki,

are far more profound

than mainstream
scholars suggest.

Zechariah Sitchin was
in a unique position,

being raised
on the Hebrew Bible...

...being able to speak
ancient languages,

and, specifically, being able
to translate cuneiform script.

He was able to deduce the story

and tell us what's the meaning
behind a lot of these tablets.

My friend Zecharia Sitchin
was a brilliant man,

and the idea of the Anunnaki,
in his meaning,

were the teachers
from outer space.

The Anunnakis were
extraterrestrial visitors.

They were here.

And they created humans
according to their own image.

In Sitchin's interpretation
of the Sumerian stories,

after the flood, the Anunnaki
returned to the Earth.

But they start to take a... sort
of a step away from humanity.

In fact, they start
to vanish from the story,

but they leave behind teachers
who instruct humanity

in the various arts and sciences

and rudimentary knowledge
about civilization

and how to conduct themselves.

And this, according to Sitchin,

is the origin of the Sumerians.

This is where they got
their knowledge.

This is why they're
the first with all of their

discoveries and inventions,
and it comes from the Anunnaki.

While the Sumerians themselves
identified the Anunnaki

as beings who came
down from the sky,

most scholars interpreted them
as fictional characters.

But Sitchin claimed
that the texts are clearly

historical accounts
of extraterrestrials

that the Sumerians encountered,

and he says they even specify

what planet
these visitors came from.

Zecharia Sitchin postulates

that the Anunnaki were
actually ancient astronauts

coming from a planet
he called Nibiru.

A planet that was
out of our vision,

and that it was
on an elliptical trajectory,

and that it only came by Earth
every 3,000 or so years.

As Sitchin anticipated,

when he introduced the world
to his controversial translation

of the Sumerian
creation story in the 1970s,

the academic community was
quick to dismiss it.

His critics claimed
that a planet

with an elliptical orbit
like Nibiru

could never exist
in Earth's solar system.

But 40 years later, in 2016,

astronomers at Caltech announced
that they had found evidence

of a new celestial object
just beyond Pluto.

The recent discovery

by two astronomers at Caltech

is incredible.

They find evidence

that in our solar system,

there could be a Planet X

that goes around
the solar system,

perhaps once every
few thousand years,

in a highly elliptical orbit.

While astronomers
have yet to confirm

the existence of Planet X,

some researchers believe

its theoretical location
and orbit

align exactly
with what Zechariah Sitchin

claimed to find 40 years earlier

in the ancient Sumerian tablets.

And another discovery
in the 1980s

echoed one of his
even more profound theories.

A pillar of Zacharia Sitchin's
hypothesis

was his belief that the Anunnaki

had genetically altered
the human genome

around 250,000 years ago.

Now, we have discovered
something quite remarkable.

Scientists looking
into the human genome

discovered a genetic alteration

that fused
two of our chromosomes

into one very important
chromosome

around 250,000 years ago

that suddenly unlocked
human potential,

gave us our human abilities,

including the ability
to do mathematics,

to produce art, to do science.

Might the discovery
that the human genome

underwent a major change


help to validate
Sitchin's translation

of the cuneiform tablets?

Could the Anunnaki have played
a role in creating humans,

as described
in the Sumerian texts?

Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes,

and suggest this also
lends support to the notion

that human DNA was manipulated

by extraterrestrials.

It's amazing to see

that somewhere
this new genetic makeup began,

and there is nobody before that
that had this.

So, how did this all happen?

A group of extraterrestrials
arrived on our planet.

And one of our ancestors,

call it an ape or whatever,
it doesn't matter.

They took a few cells.

They changed the DNA code
in the cell.

Because of this
artificial mutation,

we are breaking out
of the family tree.

This is handed down
in Sumerian cuneiform.

It is always a question
of translation:

How do you look at these things?

Could Zechariah Sitchin's
translation be correct?

Were the Anunnaki
real extraterrestrial beings

who helped the Sumerians
develop their civilization

and also taught them about
the creation of humankind?

And if so, is there
any physical evidence

to support their stories
of alien visitation?

Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes

and point to a site
that contains

the largest
megalithic stone blocks

ever discovered.

Archaeologists
from the British Museum

are excavating
the ancient site of Girsu

when they uncover ancient walls
made of mud bricks.

It would soon be determined

that these walls were
part of two temples

built roughly 4,500 years ago

to venerate
the Sumerian god Ningirsu.

They announced the discovery
of the Lord Palace of the Kings

and the
White Thunderbird Temple.

Now, these are mythical sites

that have been looked for
for generations.

These were only recorded
in tablets and text previously,

and the whole Thunderbird mythos

is related to Ningirsu.

Ningirsu was a thunderbird

that was like the avatar
of this kind of great god.

The reason why this temple
was constructed

is that a king
of the local city-state

had had a series of dreams

about the god Ningirsu.

The story of
the thunderbird god Ningirsu

comes from the account
of King Gudea,

the same king
whose statues were found

at this very site in 1877.

Discovered alongside
those statues

were the largest cuneiform
cylinders yet discovered,

inscribed by King Gudea himself.

Gudea wrote that
the giant winged god Ningirsu

instructed him
to build these two temples

to honor him.

The archeologists themselves say

that this temple was built

due to a vision that a man had,

uh, where a gigantic thunderbird

descended from the sky.

And personally,
I think that this

has to do with extraterrestrials

because if you know nothing

about high technology

and somebody descends
from the sky in a vehicle,

well, of course you're going
to signify a person with wings

because they came from the sky.

Could it be that King Gudea's
account of a giant winged deity

was in fact an encounter
with some type of aerial vehicle

carrying
an extraterrestrial visitor?

Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes

and suggest further evidence

that the Sumerians
witnessed alien craft

coming down from the sky

can be found
in the Epic of Gilgamesh.

In the Epic of Gilgamesh,

Gilgamesh encounters
the Anunnaki

at what's called
the Landing Place.

The Landing Place
is where the gods

came to meet with Gilgamesh.

In the text, it talks about
sort of a ship

that goes from here
to the heavens.

In the ancient world,
that's the gods

who are transporting
in chariots, you know?

In the modern world,
is that a spacecraft?

Is that a rocket ship?

Gilgamesh was watching the gods

descending and ascending
from the planet.

He actually talks about
hearing loud sounds

and seeing fire and smoke

as the gods took off
into the heavens.

To me, this sounds
exactly like a rocket ship.

In his book The 12th Planet,

Sumerian researcher
Zacharia Sitchin

proposed that the Landing Place
described in the epic poem

is a megalithic site
that can be visited to this day.

According to Sitchin,

the actual location
is Baalbek in Lebanon,

where we find
this massive platform

that resembles what we would
think of as a landing port.

Today, most people know Baalbek

as being the site
of the Roman Temple of Jupiter,

built in the first century BC.

But beneath the temple
is a massive stone platform

that is believed
to have been built

thousands of years earlier.

It is constructed
from megalithic blocks

that weigh as much
as 800 metric tons,

or 1.6 million pounds.

That platform is incredible
because it features

some of the largest stones

ever carved and created
by humans long ago.

These blocks are on
the fourth level up.

So, somehow,
they had to be lifted up.

And in my opinion,
they had a technology

imparted to the local population

by the extraterrestrials.

As far as ancient astronaut
theorists are concerned,

the story of the Landing Pad

in the Epic of Gilgamesh,

along with
King Gudea's encounter

with a giant winged being,

strongly suggest
that the Sumerian people

witnessed flying craft
coming down from the sky.

And they say the most
compelling detail of all

is the Sumerian description

of the god Ningirsu
as a thunderbird.

When I hear
that a giant thunderbird person

descended from the sky,
I'm like, wait a second.

We've heard
these stories before.

In North America,
many First Nation myths

begin with thunderbirds,

that thunderbirds existed

out of which
the so-called kachinas came,

and the kachinas were
the first bringers of knowledge.

You have other stories like that
also in ancient India.

Imagine you know nothing
about technology

and then you see a big plane
fly over your head.

Well, first of all,
it looks like a bird.

And second of all,
it makes a lot of noise,

thundering noise.

So, of course you would
call that a thunderbird.

And that to me illustrates

an example
of misunderstood technology.

Within the thousands
of Sumerian tablets

that have been translated

are countless stories
about the Anunnaki

and their interactions
with humans.

Could they be
the first written accounts

of extraterrestrial encounters?

Perhaps further clues
can be found

by examining
what some researchers believe

are the remains of an Anunnaki.

British archaeologist
Sir Charles Leonard Woolley

undertakes
an extensive excavation

of the Sumerian city of Ur.

The excavations began to reveal

an extraordinary necropolis.

And as more and more
rich funerary goods,

pieces of art and jewelry
started to come up,

it became clear that this was
a very important center

and had been
since Sumerian times.

Woolley soon realized
that what they had found

in the center of Ur was
a massive cemetery

containing
more than 1,800 graves

filled with incredible
artifacts and riches,

including 16 royal tombs.

It was a very spectacular find
and astonished the world.

And Woolley wrote about it
in the press

as these things became clear
and people rushed

to get the newspaper
to find out the next episode.

Because it was very dramatic
and very exciting.

Woolley's team unearthed

one extraordinary relic
after another,

including
a gold cosmetic container

in the shape of a cockleshell,

a gold vessel
in the shape of an ostrich egg,

and the head of a lion
made of silver,

lapis lazuli and shell.

Woolley's team of archeologists
excavated more than one grave

with musical instruments
and gold and jewelry.

They found this classical
Sumerian civilization

a very affluent one.

Ur was first
discovered nearly 70 years

before Woolley's excavations
when, in 1853,

archaeologists unearthed
a ziggurat

and found it inscribed with
the name of the ancient city.

It was considered
an extraordinary find,

because biblical scholars
believed it was

the same city of Ur

that is mentioned
in the Book of Genesis

and was the home of Abraham.

The Bible tells us
the story of Abraham.

Abraham was raised

in this city of Ur.

And this is important,

because Abraham
is considered to be

the patriarch
of Judaism, Christianity,

and Islam alike,

because the message of Abraham

was that there is
only one true God.

During Woolley's excavations
in 1926,

an even more compelling find
was made

relating to an event
described in both the Bible

and the Sumerian text
the Epic of Gilgamesh.

As Woolley and his team dug
beneath the burials,

they got to a depth
of about 64 feet,

where they found a layer
of what appeared to be silt

about 13 feet thick,

suggesting that flooding had
taken place at this time.

And the team dug
in other spots, 14 in all,

and found the exact same thing
in all 14 locations.

And Leonard Woolley believed
this was evidence

of the Great Flood found in both
the Bible and Sumerian texts.

And that this was a real event.

But of all
the discoveries made at Ur,

perhaps none are
more extraordinary

or controversial
than a large stone tomb

containing the body
of a Sumerian queen.

Leonard Woolley unearthed
this fabulous,

incredible tomb of Queen Puabi,

which was an astonishing
discovery at the time.

They found her body intact,

covered with gold ornaments
and wearing

this incredible golden headdress

with cylinder seals
attached to her body

that identified her
as this queen.

Numerous artifacts
found within the tomb

identified it
as belonging to Queen Paubi.

And researchers believe
she was a very important figure

based on
the staggering number of jewels

that were buried with her.

When researcher Zecharia Sitchin

examined Puabi's skull
decades later,

he determined that,
while severely damaged,

it displayed
some remarkable anomalies.

As Zecharia Sitchin investigated

the discovery of Queen Puabi,
he found

that her skull appeared
to be elongated.

This led him
on a line of speculation

that she must have been
a Anunnaki-human hybrid.

Her characteristics look
almost alien.

Was she possibly some type
of extraterrestrial?

Queen Puabi's remains
are now housed

at the London Museum
of Natural History.

For years,
Zecharia Sitchin implored

the museum to test her DNA,
but they refused.

Unfortunately,
mainstream science said,

"No, this isn't worthy
of our time."

To me, this seems like,
you know, a-an eye-opener

that we have actual remains
that could be tested

and possibly confirm
an extraterrestrial origin.

Could the remains
of Queen Puabi provide

incontrovertible evidence
that the Sumerian civilization

was the product
of alien intervention?

Ancient astronaut theorists
believe another,

perhaps even
more important question

lies in whether
this mysterious civilization

is much older
than archaeologists

have ever imagined.

Most mainstream historians agree

that, according
to the archaeological evidence,

the Sumerians appeared
in Mesopotamia

around 5000 BC.

But in the cuneiform texts
that have been translated,

the Sumerians themselves say
that civilization

actually began
with their ancestors,

who lived
thousands of years earlier...

...in a time before
what the Epic of Gilgamesh

and the Hebrew Bible describe

as the Great Flood.

The origins of the Sumerians
is still under scrutiny.

Some people have speculated

that they may have come
from a lost sunken land.

Now, this is
an intriguing possibility

with all the flood myths
and so forth.

What is quite interesting,
related to this, is the fact

that off the coast of Israel,

we have the submerged town
of Atlit Yam,

which dates back
to over 7000 BC.

This is a series
of stone circle structures,

avenues, and communal
and domestic buildings.

And so if there was
a submerged area,

which the Sumerians
were said to come from,

perhaps we need to look out
into the Mediterranean.

Do the underwater ruins
of Atlit Yam,

which date back
more than 9,000 years,

serve as evidence
that the Sumerian stories

of a pre-flood civilization
are true?

Remarkably,
even older stone structures

have been discovered
at the archeological site

of Göbekli Tepe,

which is located
just 400 miles northwest

of ancient Sumer.

Göbekli Tepe was
discovered in 1994

by Professor Klaus Schmidt

of the German
Archaeological Institute.

He started finding
huge standing stones.

And many of these were carved

into human form.

They would have
arms on the side of them,

hands that come around
to the front.

Radiocarbon dating of artifacts
unearthed at Göbekli Tepe

suggest the ancient site
is over 12,000 years old...

more than 5,000 years older
than the Sumerians.

But some researchers
have noticed

a curious connection
between the two cultures.

Göbekli Tepe is
a massive complex.

And it features a carving
of these three handbags

that appear
above this bird-like creature.

And what's fascinating
about this is that you can find

carvings of similar handbags
about 400 miles to the south

where the ancient Sumerians
lived.

And there, the handbags are held

by these winged figures
called Anunnaki.

This suggests that there is

some previously unknown
connection

between the Sumerians
and Göbekli Tepe.

Maybe this is the answer

for where the Sumerians
actually came from.

Is it possible that
the builders of Göbekli Tepe

are the ancient ancestors
of the Sumerians?

Ancient astronaut theorists
believe

the answer might be found
in the thousands

of Sumerian texts
that have yet to be translated.

Experts estimate that up to 90%

of the original texts
have been lost.

But there must be
a treasure trove

still out there waiting
to be translated.

And they could contain
information

that will force us to rethink

everything we thought
we knew about our past.

The fact that the Sumerians
were the first to come up

with mathematics...

agriculture...

astronomy...

engineering.

Our entire human civilization

is built on exactly that.

And they received this knowledge

from the so-called gods.

And to me, these people
that came from the sky weren't,

you know, ethereal beings...

but extraterrestrials visiting
from another planet.

Does the discovery
of the Sumerians

and the recent translations
of their ancient clay tablets

reveal that humankind

and human civilization

are the result
of alien intervention?

And might there be even
more astounding revelations

about our past contained
within the hundreds of tablets

that have yet to be deciphered?

And the thousands more
that may still lie hidden

beneath the desert sand?

Perhaps it will be
the oldest known civilization

on Earth that provides the truth

about humanity's
evolution on this planet...

...and our close encounters

with extraterrestrial beings.