Nephilim is often translated as giants, a legitimate and appropriate interpretation, but one which may be only partially accurate. A better definition might be those who came down, those who descended, or those who were cast down. The Anunnaki of ancient Sumerian texts is similarly defined as those who from heaven to earth came.
the Old Testaments book of Genesis was extracted from the older Sumerian records, if only because of the similarity in their Comparative Religions. The Enuma Elish, the Sumerian Epic of Creation, and Genesis have a variety of common elements. Stories of a Great Flood and Deluge, among other stories, are also common to both Sumerian and Biblical accounts.
The Sumerian records recorded in great detail the stories of the Anunnaki, and among these, that of Enki, Enlil, Ninki, Inanna, Utu, Ningishzida, Marduk, and many others. Chief among these stories was the continuing conflict between Enki and Enlil, the sons of the supreme god of the time, Anu. Much of ancient human history, and the Biblical Genesis, can be explained as the militant differences between these two half-brothers, and how they affected the life of all sentient beings on Earth.
Sitchins book, The 12th Planet, published in 1976 was the first modern volume to begin to describe the Anunnaki, their arrival on Earth supposedly some 485,000 years ago, and from where they had come -- a planet called Nibiru. Sitchin believes Nibiru to be in an orbit about our sun, but in a strongly elliptical orbit which requires 3,600 Earth years to make a complete orbit. Nibirus perihelion (closest point of approach to the Sun) is thought to be within the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, at a distance from the Sun of approximately 2.75 A.U. (an A.U. being the distance from the Sun to the Earth). (the Annals of Earth include a detailed description of how Nibiru created the asteroid belt by destroying a planet, Tiamat, in roughly the same orbit, and which created the Earth in the aftermath, the Earth being a remnant of the greater, destroyed planet.)
The most fundamental question with respect to the Anunnaki is whether or not theyre still on Earth! Sitchin has pointed out that he never said they left (and there is no evidence that they did).
"Robert Sepehr" http://www.planetxvideo.com (less info)