12 Planets in Sumerian Thought?
Does the cylinder seal above convey the fact that the Sumerians who fashioned it knew of 12 planets in our solar system? That's what Zecharia Sitchin claims about the seal. But he's wrong, and it isn't difficult to demonstrate. All one has to do to agree with Sitchin here is (a) ignore what the seal says; (b) ignore what is known about Sumerian astronomy from cuneiform astronomical texts (all published, but in scholarly books); and ignore standard Sumerian iconography -- artistic representations of stars. That's all.
VA243
The cylinder seal is now in a museum in Berlin. It goes by the number "VA243". Here's an analysis of the seal in PDF.