◆ PARALLAX

Channel 4 is running another ancient aliens thing this weekend. Brace for impact.

The gods gave humanity writing, law and three commercial breaks.

Pre-emptive note for documentary viewers: if a narrator says "mainstream scholars cannot explain" and then does not name the scholars, the journals, the object number, the tablet number, or the alternative readings, you are being sold mood. Mood is not a source.

Documentary just showed Oannes as a fish-suit alien teacher. That seems very close to the Apkallu though.

Oannes is close to the Apkallu tradition, yes, and that is exactly why the television version is a loss. The fish-cloaked sage emerging from the waters to teach civilisation is one of the great culture-hero images of the region. It sits at the join between abyss, craft, temple and kingship. Calling it a diving suit is the least interesting thing you can do to it.

And note the time problem. Berossus is late, writing in Greek under Hellenistic conditions, preserving older material through a new frame. That does not make him useless. It does mean you cannot treat his Oannes paragraph as a direct transcript from Eridu 3000 years earlier.

Late source does not mean false source.

Correct. Late source means handled source. You ask what hands it passed through, what language changed, what audience was being addressed, and what older material can be triangulated. That is not debunking. That is reading.