a) Zecheriah Sitchin
Another proponent in the Ancient Astronaut theory was Zecheria Sitchen. Amongst the many claims that he made centred around a civilisation of extra-terrestrials named the Annunaki having visited Earth and being responsible for the human race as we see it, he had the idea that a mural from the tomb of Huy circa 1300BCE depicted what appears according to Zecharia Sitchin in his book, The Stairway To Heaven, is a
rocket in a silo. And he was able to provide a lined drawing. Huy was known to be a viceroy in Nubia and in the Sinai peninsula during the reign of the Pharaoh Tutenkhamun. Decorated with scenes of people, places and objects from the two domains of which he was viceroy, his tomb was preserved with a depiction of a very curious looking scene that Zecharia perceived in his individual way as a rocket ship with its shaft contained in an underground silo, it's upper stage with the command module above the ground, The shaft, as he perceived, was subdivided like a multi-staged rocket. Inside the lower part, two people attended hoses and levers and there is a row of circular dials above them. The cutaway of what he perceived as the silo, he imagined were
surrounded by tubular cells for heat-exchange or some other
energy-related function. Above ground, the hemispherical shape beneath
the pyramid, was the base of his imagined upper stage of the rocket and
was painting as scorched, as though from re-entry into Earth's
atmosphere and there are "peep holes" all around it's bottom. The cabin
is surrounded by worshippers, in a landscape of date palm trees and
giraffes. The underground chamber is decorated with leopard skins, and
this provided a direct link with certain phases in the Pharaoh's Journey
to Immortality. The leopard skin was the distinctive garb symbolically
worn by the Shem priests as he performed the Opening of the Mouth
ceremony. It was the distinctive garb symbolically worn by the gods who
towed the Pharaoh through "The Secret Path of the Hidden Place" of the
Duat—a symbolism repeated to stress the affinity between the Pharaoh's
journey and the rocketship in the underground silo.
b) Sitchin Is Wrong
Those
needing to debunk the claim that the image is based on anything as it is
seen, such as Dr. Michael S. Heiser, have come to assume that this drawing was loosely inspired by
something else, a wall painting from the tomb of a High Egyptian elsewhere
official since there was to be found no image of this painting in anything
online about the tomb of Huy. However, while he attempted to look at comparative imagery from a nearby tomb that gave perhaps an general clue as to what the picture was about in conventional terms showing baskets, leopard skins, giraffes and indeed a stool with a monkey sitting on top placed approximately where the rocket capsule would have been in the mural that interested Zecharia that seemed quite interesting, Dr Heiser's attempt to claim that Dr Sitchin was a fraud for creating this drawing was a complete waste of time
c) Lepsius' drawing
The image by Carl Richard Lepsius in the book Monuments from Egypt and Ethiopia: Vol III: published in 1900. It isn't entirely Zecharia's fault if he really can't see anything in the picture beyond his easily criticised science fictional outlook. The shapes are strange enough to ask what they are for a moment before just considering them to be odd buildings. Around the side of the so-called capsule are heads of nubian people with the vertical feather sticking out of their caps rather than peep-holes. The spike leading down from the capsule has become the tail of a leopard skin draped down the side. The scorch marks become the black and white hide of oxen. Are these simply decorative ornaments spread across a table top?
 |
| New Kingdom, 18th dynasty, a wall image: representation of Panther fur in a private grave TT40 of Huy, |
 |
| detail from mural featuring additional buildings |
d) Mural Facsimile at the Metropolitan museum of Art
However the mural exists and images representing the actual mural have been shown in the internet. A facsimile is shown at the Metropolitan museum of Art done in Tempera on paper back in 1923-1927 by Charles K Wilkinson. The photo found at the bibliotecapleyades is slightly different and one might ask if it is of the actual mural.. The details really are not clear and it might be hard for me to say anything about how correct it was for anyone to draw one thing or another of the details in any certain way.
e) Comparable images in other murals
However if you look at these sorts of murals you will find some sort of smallish structure of similar size placed before the Pharaoh, often it seems to be a table of offerings with a central pillar.
 |
| depiction of part of the mural from Huy's tomb showing "Rocket Silo" |
f) Looking further at the pyramidal devices.
What can be seen above the place where the Sitchin's rocket and silo is found are more of these pyramidal structures on a bowl covered in ox hide, and the upper parts of the branches of trees are seen to extend to the top of the structure. I might wonder if these are conical structures, and represent a sort of tents or teepees built on stilts each with a date palm growing through the centre rather than rocket ships, and perhaps they built these things raised off the ground.
 |
| Black and white ox from the same mural |
f) A photo of the actual mural itself?
A photo of the actual mural itself seems to exists on the internet from the bibliotecapleyades site and it offers us no further clues. It looks much like the facsimile at the Metropolitan museum of Art
- Zecharia Sitchin: .... a drawing found in the tomb of an Egyptian governor of a
far land shows a rocket-head above ground in a place where date trees
grow. The shaft of the rocket is clearly stored underground, in a
man-made silo constructed of tubular segments and decorated with
leopard skins.
Very
much in the manner of modern draftsmen, the ancient artists showed a
cross-section of the underground silo. We can see that the rocket
contained a number of compartments. The lower one shows two men
surrounded by curving tubes. Above them there are three circular
panels. Comparing the size of the rockethead -
the ben-ben -
to the size of the two men
inside the rocket, and the people above the ground, it is evident
that the rockethead - equivalent
to the Sumerian mu, the "celestial chamber" -
could easily hold one or two
operators or passengers.
(The Twelfth Planet, 159-160)
- Zecharia Sitchin: An even more startling depiction has been found in the tomb of Huy, who
was viceroy in Nubia and in the Sinai peninsula during the reign of the
renowned Pharaoh Tut-AnkhAmon. Decorated with scenes of people, places
and objects from the two domains of which he was viceroy, his tomb
preserved to this very day a depiction in vivid colors of a rocketship:
its shaft is contained in an underground silo, its upper stage with the
command module is above ground (Fig. 27). The shaft is subdivided, like a
multi-stage rocket. Inside its lower part, two persons attend to hoses
and levers; there is a row of circular dials above them. The silo
cutaway shows that it is surrounded by tubular cells for heat-exchange
or some other energy-related function. Above ground, the hemispherical
base of the upper stage is clearly depicted in the color painting as
scorched, as though from a re-entry into Earth's atmosphere. The command
module—large enough to hold three to four persons—is conical in shape,
and there are vertical "peep holes" all around its bottom. The cabin is
surrounded by worshippers, in a landscape of date palm trees and
giraffes. The underground chamber is decorated with leopard skins, and
this provides a direct link with certain phases in the Pharaoh's Journey
to Immortality. The leopard skin was the distinctive garb symbolically
worn by the Shem priest as he performed the Opening of the Mouth
ceremony. It was the distinctive garb symbolically worn by the gods who
towed the Pharaoh through "The Secret Path of the Hidden Place" of the
Duat—a symbolism repeated to stress the affinity between the Pharaoh's
journey and the rocketship in the underground silo. ( Stairway to Heaven, Zecharia Sitchin, p70
- Detail of a wall painting from the tomb of a high Egyptian official,
showing an Egyptian scribe recording deliveries of Nubian products
shortly after Egypt's conquest of Nubia. Visible are ebony logs, ivory
tusks, baskets of ostrich eggs and gold ingots, ostrich feathers,
leopard skins, resins, tamarind nuts, aromatic herbs - even a green
monkey. Reign of King Thutmose III. About 1479-1425 BC (Source at Dig Nubia)
- Dr. Michael S. Heiser: There are odd similarities in the style and content to Sitchin's drawing and this mural from a nearby tomb. Notice the cone at the top, Sitchin's command module. Is this just a monkey on top of a triangle table? Remember Sitchen said the silo cutaway shows it is surrounded by tubular cells for heat exchange or some other energy related function, we see these circular golden objects, baskets, could these be Sitchin's tubular cells. Notice the stack of leopard skins, remember what Sitchin says about them? He says the underground chamber is decorated with Leopard Skins, and this provides a direct link with certain phases in the Pharaoh's Journey, and while there are no giraffes or worshippers in this scene like there are in Sitchen's drawing, there are on other walls in the very same temple and of the same style too which is further evidence that this is where Sitchen based his drawing from, and if it is, he has added many self-servicing details like people pulling levers and hoses and charring on the command module from re-entry as well as people. Is Sitchin manipulating common tomb murals that he must know have nothing to do with space travel. Probably this evidence against Sitchen has gone unnoticed for so long is because Sitchin says the mural is from the tomb of Huy when it is actually from the tomb of "Rekmiyer", this would make his trail almost impossible to follow. After thirty years , no one can seem to find a photo of Sitchin's mural at the tomb of Huy despite the fact that photos of that tomb are common and widely available while someone might still produce a photo of this mural and can confirm it to be authentic and from the temple of Huy, I find it very unlikely but it is possible (Sitchin Is Wrong: Youtube)
- Panther skin from Western Thebes (Qurnet Murrai), left posterior wall of the private tomb No. 110 (numbering according to Carl Richard Lepsius: Monuments from Egypt and Ethiopia: Vol III:. Thebes Hinrichs, Leipzig, 1900, pp. 301-302). The proper name of the king was scraped down to the beginning of "Amen" from the throne name no characters have been preserved; Lepsius reconstructed the cartridges entries in the assumption that it was to Tutankhamun due to the obtained character for "Amun" at the wall display in the private grave 110 . (source: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huy (Vizekönig_von_Kusch)
- Masterpiece of Nubian gold work
Ebenso überreichte man dem König einen vergoldeten Schrein und nicht
unerwähnt bleiben darf eines der Meisterstücke der nubischen
Werkstätten; eine Art Sockel mit einer darrüberliegenden langen
Platte, auf der man in Goldarbeit eine ganze nubische Landschaft von Wawat
dargestellt hatte.
(Translation) Similarly, as you handed the King a gilded shrine and not go unmentioned may be one of the masterpieces of the Nubian workshops; a type of socket with an overlying long plate, where it had presented a Nubian landscape of Wawat in gold work.
Diese Landschaft gruppierte sich um eine pyramidenförmige, von Trophäen umgebene Hütte. Darauf war ein Wald von Dattelnpalmen mit sehr hohen Wipfeln zu erkennen und zwei Giraffen erhoben ihre Häupter bis zu den Dattelntrauben. An der Platte selbst hingen Felle von Großkatzen und rechteckige Tafeln, die mit Goldscheiben geschmückt waren.
(Translation) This landscape is clustered around a pyramid-shaped, surrounded by trophies hut. It was with very high tops to detect a forest of date palms and two giraffes raised their heads up to the dategrapes. On the Board itself hung skins from big cats and rectangular panels, which were decorated with gold discs.
Nachdem die offizielle
Präsentation der nubischen Produkte vor dem König beendet war, trat
Amenophis-Huy am Ende der Zeremonie vor den König und erhielt seine hoch
angemessene Belohnung. Huy verbeugte sich respektvoll vor dem König, um
keinen Zweifel daran zu lassen, wem dieser ganze Aufwand gilt. Am Ende
der Zeremonie trat Huy aus dem Palast, nachdem er seine angemessene Belohnung
erhalten hatte: "Gold an Hals und Armen,
immer wieder, außerordentlich viele Male."
(Translation)After the official presentation of the Nubian products was terminated before the king, entered Amenhotep-Huy at the end of the ceremony before the king and received his high adequate reward. Huy bowed respectfully before the king to leave no doubt as to whom does this whole effort. At the end of the ceremony Huy came out of the palace after he had received his proper reward: "Gold on the neck and arms, again and again, very many times." (Bild: Ausschnitt des Gesamtbildes:
Lepsius, Abt. III, Blatt 118 - bearbeitet von Nefershapiland)(http:///Huy%20Vizekoenig%20v.%20Kusch.htm)
Many thanks for your research and work of public enlightenment, so needed as it is in cases such as this one.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks. It is quite a bewildering effect that Sitchin has had on the public with his ideas. I suppose that I take it as form of surrealism. If it turns out that he was right all along, I'm sure that everyone would be impressed by the further confusion. I'd better make a few corrections to some of the sentences. Many thanks!
Delete