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202 their chief astronomers—treveal anticipation of an idyllic, utopian time: When Nibiru will culminate . . . The lands will dwell securely, Hostile kings will be at peace; The gods will receive prayers and hear supplications. When the Planet of the Throne of Heaven will grow brighter, there will be floods and rains. When Nibiru attains its perigee, the gods will give peace. Troubles will be cleared up, complications will be unravelled. Clearly, the expectation was of a planet that will appear, rise in the skies, grow brighter, and at its perigee, at the Crossing, become NIBIRU (the Cross Planet). And as the gateway and other construction indicated, with the returning planet a repeat of the previous visit to Earth by Anu was expected. It was now up to the astronomer-priests to watch the heavens for that planetary appearance; but where were they to look in the celestial expanse, and how would they recognize the planet when still in the distant skies? The next Assyrian king, Ashurbanipal (668-630 B.c.E.), came up with a solution. Historians consider Ashurbanipal to have been the most scholarly of the Assyrian kings, for he had learnt other lan- guages besides Akkadian, including Sumerian, and claimed that he could even read “writings from before the Flood.” He also boasted that he “learnt the secret signs of Heaven and Earth . . . and studied the heavens with the masters of divina- tion.” Some modern researchers also consider him to have been “The First Archaeologist,” for he systematically collected tablets from sites that were already ancient in his time—like THE END OF DAYS