Recently, I traversed a research rabbit hole that left me fascinated. The subject? Anunnaki and ancient Mesopotamian religion (not aliens from planet Nibiru) – this is not what I set out to research. In fact, I wanted to verify a couple of loosely related details for a short story I’m writing. I ended up with the following which is nowhere near a complete overview:

1. There are hundreds or thousands of gods in ancient Sumerian/Akkadian/Assyrian/Babylonian beliefs, entire generations, even. All decisions they make are in grand assemblies.
2. Anunnaki are the oldest generation of gods. Offspring of “An” or “Anu” (the supreme god, also god of the heavens) and Ki (the earth goddess, possibly Ninhursag), they serve as judges in the underworld and decree the fates of mortal humans. There are seven or eight main Anunnaki (An/Anu, Enlil, Enki, Ninhursag, Nanna, Utu and Inanna), but some sources imply larger numbers.
3. Enlil, the oldest of the Anunnaki (and often compared to Jesus Christ), is apparently so holy that not even the other gods can look at him. He separated the earth and heaven from each other in order to make earth livable for human beings.
4. As for heaven, there are either three levels or seven, but heaven is for gods, not people. Upon death, mortals go to a dark underworld from which they cannot escape unless another takes their place.
5. With the passing of (“real” history) time, a Babylonian god named Marduk (or Bel) rose through the ranks to basically supplant the roles of Anu and Enlil. From how I perceive it – and I could be wrong – Marduk was the creation of Babylonian nationalism inserting him into stories that well pre-date them. Those stories began to morph so as to justify and explain his presence. One says that the old gods are at war with the younger gods when Marduk takes his great leap to stardom. The Anunnaki promise to make Marduk head god if he defeats the enemy gods, and he does; supposedly this story (found in the Enuma Elish) inspired Hesiod’s Theogony (in which the Greek gods of Olympus defeat the ancient Titans).