On Wed, 8 Oct 2003 10:31:51 -0400, Craig Smith <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

snip
> There is substantial evidence that those figures were
> deliberately inflated by a factor of ten,

The Annunaki ("The Twelfth Planet", by Zechariah Sitchin) were supposed to
have lifetimes of about a quarter million years. Divide by a factor of ten,
still impressive.
Of course the Sumerians could have been great BS-ers, but while it has been
fashionable to scoff at ancient writings, sometimes archaeology finds the
claims to be true.

William