Anunnaki
From The Book of THoTH (Leaves of Wisdom)
The Anunnaki or Anunnaku are a group of Sumerian mythological and Akkadian deities related to, and in some cases overlapping with, the Annuna (the 'Fifty Great Gods') and the Igigi (minor gods). The name is variously written "da-nuna", "da-nuna-ke4</sup>-ne", or "da-nun-na", meaning something to the effect of 'those of royal blood'.(ref 1) The head of the Anunnaki council was the Great Anu, the sky god, and the other members were his offspring. His throne was inherited by Enlil, resulting in a dispute between Enlil and his brother Enki regarding who was the rightful leader. Enki was an alchemist and was said to have created mankind.
The Anunnaki were the High Council of the Gods, and Anu's companions. They were distributed through the Earth and the Underworld. The best known of them were Asaru, Asarualim, Asarualimnunna, Asaruludu, En-Ki (Ea for the Akkadians), Namru, Namtillaku and Tutu.
A conventional analysis of Sumerian religious practice can be found in A. Leo Oppenheim's book, Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization, a revised edition of which was published in 1976. Unlike popular fantasies of pseudoarchaeology, Oppenheim cautions against overconfident and sweeping interpretations of the gods of a "lost civilization".
Ancient astronaut theory
Though it is discounted by mainstream scholars, some ancient astronaut theorists such as Zecharia Sitchin (q.v.), Sherry Shriner, Laurence Gardner and David Icke claim that the Anunnaki were in fact extra-terrestrials who came to Earth in antiquity and created or tampered with the genetic makeup of primitive mankind. They propose various readings of the word, two of which are "anu-na-ki" and "an-unnak-ki", both translated something like 'those who came from heaven to Earth'.(ref 2) (Very similar to the Raëlian translation of Elohim.)
Footnotes
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Leick, Gwendolyn: A Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern Mythology (NY: Routledge, 1998), p. 7
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The reader is advised to consult the Pennyslvania Sumerian Dictionary, where such forms do not appear, and compare them to the multiply-attested instances of Leick's reading found in the same collection.
