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sensational. On the hill of Kuyundjik (former Nineveh) a calculation was found with the final result in our notation of 195,955,200,000,000. A number with fifteen digits! Our oft-quoted and extensively studied ancestors of Western culture, the Greeks, never rose above the figure 10,000 during the most brilliant period of their civilisation. Anything beyond that was simply described as ‘infinite’. The old cuneiform inscriptions credit the Sumerians with a literally fantastic span of life. Thus the ten original kings ruled for a total of 456,000 years and the twenty-three kings who had the arduous task of reconstruction after the Flood still managed to hold the reins of government for a total of 24,510 Periods of years that are quite incomprehensible to our way of thinking, although the names of all the tulers exist in long lists, neatly perpetuated on seals and coins. What would happen if here too we dared to take off our blinkers and look at the old things with fresh eyes, the eyes of today? Let us suppose that foreign astronauts visited the territory of the Sumerians thousands of years ago. Let us assume that they laid the foundations of the civilisation and culture of the Sumerians and then returned to their own planet, after giving this stimulus to development. Let us postulate that curiosity drove them back to the scene of their pioneer work every hundred terrestrial years to check the results of their experiment. By the standard of our present-day expectation of life the same astronauts could easily have survived for 500 terrestrial years. The theory of relativity shows that the astronauts would only have aged about forty years during the outward and return flight in a space-ship that had travelled just under the speed of light! Over the centuries the Sumerians would have built towers, pyramids and houses with every comfort, they would have sacrificed to their gods and awaited their return. And after hundreds of terrestrial years they actually did return to them. 'And then came the Flood and after the Flood kingship came down from heaven once again,’ it says in a Sumerian In what form did the Sumerians imagine and depict their 'gods'? Sumerian mythology and some Akkadian tablets and pictures provide information about this. The Sumerian 'gods' were not anthropomorphic and every symbol of a god was also connected with a star. Stars are depicted in Akkadian picture tablets as we should draw them today. The only remarkable thing is that these stars are circled by planets of various sizes. How did the Sumerians, who lacked our techniques for observing the heavens, know that a fixed star has planets? There are sketches in which people wear stars on their heads, while others ride on balls with wings. There is one picture that instantly reminds one of a model of an atom: a circle of balls arranged next to each other that radiate alternately. If we look at the legacy of the Sumerians with 'space eyes' it teems with questions and enigmas beside which the terrors of the deep and the wonders of the heavens pale into insignificance. ¢ Drawings of spirals, a rarity 6,000 years ago, at Geoy Tepe. ¢ A flint industry credited with an age of 40,000 years at Gar Kobeh. ¢ Similar finds at Baradostian are estimated to be 30,000 years old. ¢ Figures, tombs and stone implements at Tepe Asiab are dated 13,000 years back. * Petrified excrement, which is possibly not of human origin, was found at the same place. years, 3 months and 3 1/2 days. cuneiform inscription. Here are only a few curiosities from the same geographical area: