What Is the Ancient Astronaut Theory?
The ancient astronaut theory, or ancient alien theory, is a family of pseudoscientific, pseudohistorical, and/or pseudoarchaeological set of beliefs that claims alien beings visited Earth and influenced ancient civilizations. These beliefs can vary a great deal depending on the author. Why are they pseudo? Because there is no definitive proof either way. The Ancient Astronaut Theory is unique to itself and not to be confused with other paths associated with aliens and extraterrestrials. The Ancient Astronaut Theory is a discussion about how aliens solely deserve credit for ancient civilizations accomplishments.
Generally, it entails various claims that these ancient astronauts are the real builders of ancient architecture or helped supply the knowledge and tools for ancient architecture, the real pioneers of ancient science, and directly contributed to the advancement of human technology.
However, their beliefs have overwhelmingly rejected by specialists, historians, archaeologists, scientists, and biblical scholars.
Let’s explore the ancient astronaut theory, claims about ancient aliens and the pyramids, and what archaeology actually shows.
Did Ancient Aliens Build the Pyramids?
There is no evidence that an unidentified outside civilization built the Egyptian Pyramids or any like structure on Earth.
Proponents of the Ancient Astronaut Theory claim aliens built or helped build the Egyptian Pyramids, Stonehenge, the Moai statues, and Pumapunku.
For these ancient structures, proponents often argue they would have been too impressive for early human societies to make. This often undermines the ingenuity and timeline of progress needed to make these structures possible. For instance, the Pyramid of Giza is undoubtedly impressive, but it wasn’t the first pyramid made by the Egyptians. They built other pyramids before that one, and many of these attempts were not initially successful. Many early attempts had mistakes, but the architects, engineers, and laborers learned from these when building and planning the Pyramid of Giza.
The Giza site has been extensively studied for hundreds of years, and archaeologists have unearthed the complex society that thrived around it. You had the main labor force and artisans, and their living quarters. But this project needed planning. So, there were administrative areas. Tools and maintenance also had to be considered, so it’s no surprise that workshops were in the area. And your workers have to eat, right? Bakeries, animal bones, and foodstuffs were in the area. All this to say that this was meticulously planned out careful organization from the Egyptians and not some an unidentified outside civilization.
To ascribe sole right and claim of the creation of the pyramids to aliens means you are erasing the daily devotion and labor of the human workers. In modern times we know the builders of the pyramids were not slaves, they were Egyptian citizens, who were housed in barracks and were given regular food and vitamin-rich beer. They were also given time off to recover from injuries sustained while building so they could fully-recover and return to work. However, despite being housed, fed, clothed, and receiving attention to injuries, they battled horrific schistosomiasis, early arthritis, and other long-term injuries to their bodies for their back-breaking work. To give sole credit to aliens means you have erased them – their hard work, their devotion, their contribution which has stood the test of time for thousands of years.
Does the Bible Describe Ancient Aliens?
Some proponents of the Ancient Astronaut claim that the Bible documents some of these ancient astronauts, beings, and their activity, citing verses and stories as alluding to extraterrestrial beings, spacecraft, or encounters with ancient astronauts. Ezekiel is a rather common one for proponents to cite, especially around fiery beings and wheels and gleaming metal, which believers of the ancient aliens hypothesis say refers to these extraterrestrials and their spacecraft. However, Biblical scholars point out that such literal readings or heavily reinterpreted modern readings deny the context in which this was written and ignores the clear symbolism meant to explain certain holy truths about God and the holy kingdom.
The hypothesis has a long and varied history, but it grew significantly with the work of Erich von Däniken, especially his book Chariots of the Gods? and its claims that there is potential evidence of alien contact from ancient ruins, religious traditions, artwork, and mythology. Later writers extensively developed upon these ideas and offered other elaborate explanations involving extraterrestrial beings. Many of these touch on other ancient civilizations, with a notable amount appropriating, misinterpreting, and dismissing Indigenous peoples and their societies.
Is There Any Evidence Ancient Aliens Visited Earth?
Of course, then there’s the big question of a Fermi-paradox flavor: Where are these aliens? Scientists do not presently know if intelligent extraterrestrial civilizations exist somewhere out there in the universe, let alone that they have already come here, influenced ancient civilizations, and then vanished without leaving any unambiguous evidence behind.
The lack of evidence for ancient alien visitation does not mean there is a lack of evidence about extraterrestrial life somewhere out there in the cosmos. Those are two separate questions.
Ancient Astronaut Theory Debunked?
The ancient astronaut theory remains popular to this day with much variety about its claims. The appeal of the theory lies in just how wonderful ancient monuments, myths, and civilizations are, and there is still so much for us to learn about them.
But exceptional achievements do not require extraterrestrial theories. We have archaeology, history, and science. We have unearthed a great deal of evidence that explains how ancient societies developed, used math, engineering, organized large workforces, developed construction methods, and passed their knowledge down to new generations. And what that evidence says is this: ancient societies were capable of exceptional achievements on their own.