Ancient astronauts
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 📖 Term
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| Type | Term |
|---|---|
| Also known as | ancient astronaut, ancient aliens, paleocontact |
Ancient astronauts (also called ancient aliens or paleocontact) is the belief that intelligent extraterrestrials visited Earth in prehistoric or ancient times and influenced human cultures, religions and technology. Archaeologists and historians reject it as pseudoarchaeology, and many critics argue that it belittles the achievements of non-European peoples.[1]
Origins
Carl Sagan and Soviet astrophysicist Iosif Shklovsky discussed the possibility of ancient contact in their 1966 book Intelligent Life in the Universe. Sagan later suggested they may have helped inspire the ancient astronaut books of the 1970s, while criticising "von Däniken and other uncritical writers" for treating speculation as evidence.[1] In Italy, the field of "clipeology" from the late 1950s looked for UFOs in ancient Roman reports of "burning shields" in the sky.[1]
Leading proponents
Erich von Däniken's Chariots of the Gods? (1968) made the idea famous. Zecharia Sitchin argued that the Sumerians were created by aliens called the Anunnaki, and Robert Temple's The Sirius Mystery (1976) claimed that the Dogon people of Mali kept knowledge from alien visitors; critics suggested the Dogon had learned it from Europeans. Other proponents include Robert Charroux and, on television, Giorgio Tsoukalos and David Hatcher Childress.[1]
Claims and criticism
Proponents point to monuments such as the Egyptian pyramids, the Nazca lines and the statues of Easter Island, ancient artworks and passages in religious texts such as the Book of Ezekiel. Archaeologists explain all of these as human achievements and say proponents' evidence is often distorted or invented.[1] Critics argue that suggesting non-white peoples could not have built their own monuments has racist implications.[1] The idea has inspired fiction including Stargate, Prometheus and The X-Files, and the History Channel series Ancient Aliens.[1] Writer Jason Colavito has traced much of it to the horror fiction of H. P. Lovecraft.[1]
References
- Ancient astronauts — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
This page was last edited on 31 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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