Ancient astronauts
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
"We think of giants as occasional visitors to this earth. Of course--Stonehenge, for instance. It may be that, as time goes on, we shall have to admit that there are remains of many tremendous habitations of giants upon this earth."--The Book of the Damned (1919) by Charles Fort "There had been aeons when other Things ruled on the earth, and They had had great cities. Remains of Them . . . were still be found as Cyclopean stones on islands in the Pacific. They all died vast epochs of time before men came, but there were arts which could revive Them when the stars had come round again to the right positions in the cycle of eternity. They had, indeed, come themselves from the stars, and brought Their images with Them. --"The Call of Cthulhu", H. P. Lovecraft |
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Ancient astronauts (or ancient aliens) is a pseudoscientific concept based on the belief that intelligent extraterrestrial beings visited Earth and made contact with humans in antiquity and prehistoric times. Proponents suggest that this contact influenced the development of modern cultures, technologies, and religions. A common claim is that deities from most, if not all, religions are actually extraterrestrial in origin, and that advanced technologies brought to Earth by ancient astronauts were interpreted as evidence of divine status by early humans.
The idea that ancient astronauts actually existed is not taken seriously by academics, and has received no credible attention in peer reviewed studies. Ancient astronauts have been widely used as a plot device in science fiction.
Well-known proponents in the latter half of the 20th century who have written numerous books or appear regularly in mass media include Erich von Däniken, Zecharia Sitchin, Robert K. G. Temple, Giorgio Tsoukalos, David Hatcher Childress, and others.
Megalithic sites
Evidence for ancient astronauts is claimed to include the existence of ancient monuments and megalithic ruins such as the Giza pyramids of Egypt, Machu Picchu in Peru, or Baalbek in Lebanon, the Moai of Easter Island and Stonehenge of England. Supporters contend these stone structures could not have been built with the technical abilities and tools of the people of the time and further argue that many could not be duplicated even today. They suggest that the large size of the building stones, the precision with which they were laid, and the distances many were transported leaves the question open as to who constructed these sites.
These contentions are categorically rejected by mainstream archeology. Some mainstream archeologists have participated in experiments to move large megaliths. These experiments have succeeded in moving megaliths up to at least 40 tons, and they have speculated that with a larger workforce larger megaliths could be towed with the use of known ancient technology. Such allegations are not unique in history, however, as similar reasoning lay behind the wonder of the Cyclopean masonry walling at Mycenaean cities in the eyes of Greeks of the following "Greek Dark Ages", who believed that the giant Cyclops had built the walls.
Proponents
Many publications have argued for the ancient astronauts hypotheses. Notable examples include these: Template:Div col
- 1919: Charles Fort (book, The Book of the Damned)
- 1954: Harold T. Wilkins (book, Flying Saucers from the Moon)
- 1956: Morris K. Jessup (book, UFOs and the Bible)
- 1957: Peter Kolosimo (book, Il pianeta sconosciuto (The Unknown Planet))
- 1958: George Hunt Williamson (book, Secret Places of the Lion)
- 1958: Henri Lhote (book, The Search for the Tassili Frescoes: The story of the prehistoric rock-paintings of the Sahara)
- 1959: Jacques Bergier and Louis Pauwels (book, The Morning of the Magicians)
- 1960: Brinsley Le Poer Trench (book, The Sky People)
- 1961: Matest M. Agrest (article, The Astronauts of Yore)
- 1963: Robert Charroux (book, One Hundred Thousand Years of Man's Unknown History)
- 1964: W. Raymond Drake (book, Gods or Spacemen?)
- 1965: Paul Misraki (book, Flying Saucers Through The Ages)
- 1967: Brad Steiger (book, The Flying Saucer Menace)
- 1967: John Michell (book, The Flying Saucer Vision)
- 1968: Erich von Däniken (book, Chariots of the Gods?)
- 1968: Barry Downing (book, The Bible and Flying Saucers)
- 1969: Robert Dione (book, God Drives a Flying Saucer)
- 1969: Jean Sendy (book, Those Gods Who Made Heaven and Earth; the novel of the Bible)
- 1972: Thomas Charles Lethbridge (book, The Legend of the Sons of God: A Fantasy?)
- 1974: Charles Berlitz (book, The Bermuda Triangle)
- 1974: Josef F. Blumrich (book, The Spaceships of Ezekiel)
- 1974: Claude Vorilhon aka Rael (book, Le Livre Qui Dit La Vérité (The Book Which Tells the Truth))
- 1974: Robin Collyns (book, Did Spacemen Colonise the Earth?)
- 1975: Graham Cairns-Smith (a biochemist who suggested that the ancestors of humans might have had alien biochemistries and presented evidence to support this possibility in a biological research journal)
- 1975: Serge Hutin (book, Alien Races and Fantastic Civilizations)
- 1976: Robert K. G. Temple (book, The Sirius Mystery)
- 1976: John Baxter, Thomas Atkins (book, The Fire Came By: The Riddle of the Great Siberian Explosion)
- 1977: John Philip Cohane (book, Paradox: The Case for the Extraterrestrial Origin of Man)
- 1977: Warren Smith (book, UFO Trek)
- 1978: George Sassoon and Rodney Dale (book, Manna Machine)
- 1978: Zecharia Sitchin (book, The 12th planet)
- 1980: J. J. Benítez (book, Los astronautas de Yavé — Spanish: Yahweh's astronauts)
- 1984: Salvador Freixedo, (book, ¡Defendámonos de los Dioses! — Spanish: Let Us Defend Ourselves from the Gods!)
- 1988: Salvador Freixedo, (book, La Granja Humana — Spanish: The Human Farm)
- 1988: Riley Martin (book, The Coming of Tan)
- 1989: Salvador Freixedo, (book, La Amenaza Extraterrestre — Spanish: The Alien Threat).
- 1993: David Icke (book, --and the truth shall set you free)
- 1996: Alan F. Alford (book, Gods of the New Millennium)
- 1996: Murry Hope (book, The Sirius Connection: Unlocking the Secrets of Ancient Egypt)
- 1996: Richard C. Hoagland (book, The Monuments of Mars: A City on the Edge of Forever)
- 1998: Lloyd Pye (book, Everything You Know is Wrong — Book One: Human Evolution)
- 1998: James Herbert Brennan (book, Martian Genesis)
- 1999: David Hatcher Childress (book, Technology of the Gods, The Incredible Science of the Ancients)
- 1999: Laurence Gardner (book, Genesis of the Grail Kings: The Explosive Story of Genetic Cloning)
- 2003: Burak Eldem (book, 2012: Appointment With Marduk)
See also
- Ancient Aliens (TV series)
- Ancient astronauts in popular culture
- Close encounter
- Deluge myth
- First contact (science fiction)
- Gibborim
- Grey alien
- Little green men
- Men in Black
- Pseudoarchaeology
- Pseudoscience topics (list)
- Reptilians
- The Space Gods Revealed (book)
- UFO conspiracy theory
- Xenoarchaeology (archaeology on supposed alien cultures)