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187 Assyrian Imperial period. In addition to inscriptions on monuments and palace walls, the main source of information about Assyria in those days is the annals of its kings, in which they recorded what they did, year by year. Judging by that, their main occupation was Conquest. With unparalleled ferocity, its kings set out on one military campaign after an- other not only to have dominion over the olden Sumer & Akkad, but also over what they deemed essential for the Re- turn: Control of the space-related sites. That this was the purpose of the campaigns is evident not only from their targets, but also from the grand stone re- liefs on the walls of Assyrian palaces from the ninth and eighth centuries B.C.E. (which one can see in some of the world’s leading museums): as on some cylinder seals, they show the king and the high priest, accompanied by winged Cherubim—Anunnaki “astronauts”—flanking the Tree of Life as they welcome the coming of the god in the Winged Disc (Fig. 87a,b). A divine arrival was clearly expected! Historians connect the start of this Neo-Assyrian period to the establishment of a new royal dynasty in Assyria, when Tiglath-Pileser II ascended the throne in Nineveh. The pat- tern of aggrandizement at home and conquest, destruction, and annexation abroad was set by that king’s son and grandson, The Day of the Lord FIGURE 87a