Alt-History Fault Line #5 — Anunnaki: Sumerian Lexical Scholars vs. Sitchin Translation Fabrication

CAD (Chicago Assyrian Dictionary) + ePSD (electronic Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary) + Michael Heiser establish Anunnaki as Mesopotamian deities with documented etymology — 'princely offspring' from Sumerian. Sitchin's 'Anunnaki = extraterrestrial gold-miners from Nibiru' translations are WHOLLY FABRICATED — not a translation dispute but invented etymology rejected by every credentialed Assyriologist. Engine: Apr 17 audit divergence already specifies Sitchin Tier-3 quarantined; this V2 finding documents the falsification mechanism (CAD/ePSD baseline). Sitchin remains in operator-class memetic-substrate map for downstream-impact role (Tsoukalos, Ancient Aliens TV) but is NOT data-rigor source. Webb discipline applies cleanly: data-rigor verdict (Falsified at translation level) separable from operational-significance verdict (substrate-formation for ancient-astronaut TV ecosystem).