ancient astronauts - von Daniken - The Skeptic's Dictionary

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href="http://skepdic.com/contents.html#X">x</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/contents.html#Y">y</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/contents.html#Z">z</a></li> </ul> <webContent><h1>ancient astronauts</h1> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3">The term 'ancient astronauts' designates the speculative notion that aliens are responsible for the most ancient civilizations on earth. The most notorious proponent of this idea is Erich von D盲niken, author of several popular books on the subject. His <i>Chariots of the Gods? Unsolved Mysteries of the Past</i>, for example, is a sweeping attack on the memories and abilities of ancient peoples. Von D盲niken claims that the myths, arts, social organizations, etc., of ancient cultures were introduced by astronauts from another world. He questions not just the capacity for memory, but the capacity for culture and civilization itself, in ancient peoples. Prehistoric humans did not develop their own arts and technologies, but rather were taught art and science by visitors from outer space.</font></p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3">Where is the proof for von D盲niken's claims? Some of it was fraudulent. For example, he produced photographs of pottery that  he claimed had been found in an archaeological dig. The pottery depicts flying saucers and was said to have been dated from Biblical times. However, investigators from <i>Nova </i>(the fine public-television science program) found the potter who had made the allegedly ancient pots. They confronted von D盲niken with evidence of his fraud. His reply was that his deception was justified because some people would only believe if they saw proof ("The Case of the Ancient Astronauts," first aired 3/8/78, done in conjunction with BBC's <i>Horizon</i> and Peter Spry-Leverton)! </font> </p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3"> Most of von D盲niken's evidence is in the form of specious and fallacious arguments, but the idea for his claims may have come from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=1591023521/roberttoddcarrolA/">the Cthulhu Mythos series of science fiction horror stories by H. P. Lovecraft</a>. (See <a href="http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/04-04-26/">"Charioteer of the Gods: H.P. Lovecraft and the Invention of Ancient Astronauts"</a> by Jason Colavito.) Von D盲niken's data consists mainly of archaeological sites and ancient myths. He begins with the ancient astronaut assumption and then forces all data to fit the idea. For example, in <a href="nazca.html">Nazca</a>, Peru, he explains giant animal drawings in the desert as an ancient alien airport. The likelihood that these drawings related to the natives' religion or science is not considered. He also frequently reverts to false dilemma reasoning of the following type: "<em>Either</em> this data is to be explained by assuming these primitive idiots did this themselves <em>or</em> we must accept the more plausible notion that they got help from extremely advanced peoples who must have come from other planets where such technologies as anti-gravity devices had been invented." His devotion to this theory has not dwindled, despite contrary evidence, as is evidenced by still another book on the subject, <em>Arrival of the Gods : Revealing the Alien Landing Sites at Nazca </em>(1998)<em>.</em></font></p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3">There have been many critics of von D盲niken's notions, but Ronald Story stands out as the most thorough. Most critics of von D盲niken's theory point out that prehistoric peoples were not the helpless, incompetent, forgetful savages he makes them out to be. (They must have at least been intelligent enough to understand the language and teachings of their celestial instructors--no small feat!) It is true that we still do not know how the ancients accomplished some of their more astounding physical and technological feats. We still wonder how the ancient Egyptians raised giant obelisks in the desert and how stone age men and women moved huge cut stones and placed them in position in dolmens and passage graves. We are amazed by the giant carved heads on Easter Island and wonder why they were done, who did them, and why they abandoned the place. We may someday have the answers to our questions, but they are most likely to come from scientific investigation not pseudoscientific speculation. For example, observing contemporary stone age peoples in Papua New Guinea, where huge stones are still found on top of tombs, has taught us how the ancients may have accomplished the same thing with little more than ropes of organic material, wooden levers and shovels, a little ingenuity and a good deal of human strength. <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/lostempires/"><i>Nova's</i> "Secrets of Lost Empires"</a> made no appeal to alien teachers in the attempt to figure out how the ancient Egyptians might have raised a giant <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/lostempires/obelisk/">obelisk</a>, how the medieval warriors built their <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/lostempires/trebuchet/">catapults</a> and how & why the sculptors of <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/lostempires/easter/">Easter Island</a> did what they did.</font></p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3">We have no reason to believe our ancient ancestors' memories were so much worse than our own that they could not remember these alien visitations well enough to preserve an accurate account of them. There is little evidence to support the notion that ancient myths and religious stories are the distorted and imperfect recollection of ancient astronauts recorded by ancient priests. The evidence to the contrary--that prehistoric or 'primitive' peoples were (and <i>are</i>) quite intelligent and resourceful--is overwhelming. </font> </p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3">Of course, it is possible that visitors from outer space did land on earth a few thousand years ago and communicate with our ancestors. But it seems more likely that prehistoric peoples themselves were responsible for their own art, technology and culture. Why concoct such an explanation as von D盲niken's?  To do so may increase the mystery and romance of one's theory, but it also makes it less reasonable, especially when one's theory seems inconsistent with what we already know about the world. And why restrict one's examples to Egypt, Mexico, and other non-European countries? What about the builders of Newgrange or Stonehenge? The ancient astronaut hypothesis is unnecessary. <a href="occam.html">Occam's razor</a> should be applied and the hypothesis rejected.</font></p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial"><strong><font size="3">See also </font> </strong><font size="3"><a href="aliens.html">alien abduction</a>, <a href="faceonmars.html">the face on Mars</a>, <a href="nazca.html">the Nazca lines</a>, <a href="dogon.html">Sirius</a>, <a href="sitchin.html">Zecharia Sitchin</a>, <a href="ufos_ets.html"> UFO,</a> </strong>and</font></font><strong style="font-weight: 400"><font size="3" face="Arial"> <a href="velikov.html">Velikovsky</a>. </font></p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3"><a href="comments/vondancom.html"><strong>reader comments</strong></a></font></p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3"><b>further reading</b></font><strong></p> <p style="text-align: left"><strong><font size="3">books and articles</font></strong><strong style="font-weight: 400"><p style="text-align: left"> <font face="Arial" size="3"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=1573920215/roberttoddcarrolA/">Bullard, Thomas E. "Ancient Astronauts," in <i>The Encyclopedia of the Paranormal</i> edited by Gordon Stein (Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1996), pp. 25-32.</a></font></p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3"> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=1591023521/roberttoddcarrolA/"> Colavito, Jason. (2005). <i>The Cult of Alien Gods - H. P. Lovecraft and Extraterrestrial Pop Culture</i>. Prometheus.</a></font></p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0345320298/roberttoddcarrolA/">De Camp, L. Sprague. <i>The Ancient Engineers</i> (New York: Ballantine Books, 1977).</a> </font> </p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3"> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0415305934/roberttoddcarrolA/"> Fagan, Garrett G. <i>2006. Archaeological Fantasies: How Pseudoarchaeology Misrepresents the Past and Misleads the Public. </i>Routledge.</a></font></p> <p style="text-align: left"> <font face="Arial" size="3"> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=076742722X/roberttoddcarrolA/">Feder, Kenneth L. <i>Frauds, Mysteries and Myths</i>, 4th ed. (McGraw Hill Co., 2001).</a></font></p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3"> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0450044467/roberttoddcarrolA/">Story, Ronald. <i>Guardians of the Universe</i> (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1980).</a></font></p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3"> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0064650928/roberttoddcarrolA/">Story, Ronald. <i>The Space-gods Revealed: a Close Look at the Theories of Erich von D盲niken</i>, 2nd ed. (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1976). </a> </font> <p style="text-align: left"><strong>websites</strong> <p style="text-align: left"> <font face="Arial" size="3"><a href="http://www.debunker.com/texts/vondanik.html">Erich von Daniken's "Chariots of the Gods?": Science or Charlatanism? </a>by Robert Sheaffer</font></p> <p style="text-align: left"><a href="http://csicop.org/sb/2007-03/egypt.html"> <font size="3">Who Were the Ancient Engineers of Egypt? James Trefil</font></a></p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3"><a href="http://members.shaw.ca/mjfinley/vondaniken.html">The Maya "Astronaut"</a> by Michael Finley</font></p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3"><a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/alienactivity/nazca3a.html">Nova - Hot Science</a> </font> </p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3"><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/science/correx/archives/lies.htm">Chariots of Lies</a>: the CorreX files by Paul Willis (The site is now known as the <strong>Correx Archives</strong> due to legal threats from 20th Century Fox Alien Network for breach of copyright)</font></p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3"><a href="http://skepdic.com/essays/sitchin.htm">Sitchin's Twelfth Planet</a> by Rob Hafernik</font></p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3"> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Von_Daniken#Legal_troubles"> Eric's legal troubles</a></font></p> </webContent> Last updated 03-Jan-2012 </p> </div> </div> <div class="right"> <div class="right_it"> <div class="search"> <form method="get" action="http://www.google.com/custom" target="_top"> <input type="hidden" name="domains" value="skepdic.com" /> <input type="text" name="q" maxlength="255" value="" size="20" /> <input type="submit" name="sa" value="Search" /> <br /> <div class="search_2"> <input type="radio" name="sitesearch" value="" /> Web     <input type="radio" name="sitesearch" value="skepdic.com" checked="checked" /> Skepdic.com <br /> <img src="_images/logo_google.gif" alt="Google" width="48" height="19" /> </div> <input type="hidden" name="client" value="pub-3542920166946725" /> <input type="hidden" name="forid" value="1" /> <input type="hidden" name="ie" value="ISO-8859-1" /> <input type="hidden" name="oe" value="ISO-8859-1" /> <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="GALT:#008000;GL:1;DIV:#336699;VLC:663399;AH:center;BGC:FFFFFF;LBGC:336699;ALC:0000FF;LC:0000FF;T:000000;GFNT:0000FF;GIMP:0000FF;FORID:1;" /> <input type="hidden" name="hl" value="en" /> </form> </div> <div class="center"> <p align="right"><a href="http://skepdic.com/authorpage.html"><strong>Books by R. 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