By Steve Yarwood
Caves, Ancient Astronauts and “Holy Flying Saucers Batman”…Religion.
“Nothing before Roswell or Arnold should be treated seriously.” – Professor C Forrester (1993)
Since the dawn of time (I’ve always wanted to write that) man has creatively expressed himself. The most popular forms of expression are art, writing, dance and music. So it comes as no surprise that ancient cave dwellers used to draw on their cave walls about things they saw or experienced. Uncle Ug out hunting sabretooth tigers on one wall, Uncle Ug getting disemboweled by a sabretooth on another wall, a strange looking creature flanked by what looks like some form of craft above the fireplace.
For me there is honesty in the naivety of cavemen doing their drawings. I mean, really, it’s not like they were out for a quick buck was it. No prehistoric newspapers or magazines wanting to pay a fortune for a UFO story. Nope. Old Furface painted either what he had seen or what he perceived to have seen. I say perceived as one can only imagine how he would have interpreted say for instance, a motor car if one hurtled towards him at night. Huge glowing eyes and all that. So he drew things the best way he could and with no ulterior motive.
This is not to say that every cave painting of a disc in the sky is proof of alien craft in prehistoric skies or every bug eyed creature is proof of prehistoric alien contact. Not at all. But in certain cave paintings/petroglyphs there are some amazing similarities to aliens that are professed to have been seen in modern times.
Take for instance The Wandjina. Supposedly a set of all-powerful and very intriguing Creation Gods that visited Australia.
These Wandjina apparently came down from the Milky Way, creating the Earth, everything and everyone on it during Dreamtime. As it was going to be a bigger job than originally thought the original Wandjina nipped back home to get help.
Using a Dreamtime Snake the Wandjina reappeared and spent their Dreamtime creating more on Earth and teaching those that they had created. Oh yeah… and in the process became Gods to the natives. In the pictures that were drawn of them, The Wandjina have no mouths, this was because they were so powerful they didn’t need to speak.
Unlike many of the pantheon of the Gods that have appeared over the Millennia the Wandjina are still worshipped and respected to this day. Of course eye witness testimony is virtually nonexistent as it’s estimated the paintings were probably done around 174,000 BC . If you look at the pictures taken from Australia’s Kimberley region you’ll notice that these Wandjina bear a striking resemblance to our little friends “The Greys”. Big heads, huge black eyes (nope, not Sophie Ellis Bextor) and look to be wearing skintight coveralls. As an afterthought and a piece of trivia, in 1938 there was a huge amount of Aboriginal treasure discovered that included primitive, powerful Wandjina pictures. They were discovered by a sea captain. His name…Captain Grey. How’s that for coincidence?
The picture above is an example of how the Wandjina were painted. There are many other cave paintings worldwide and I would really need to dedicate a complete book to the subject to do them any justice. Get your researchers head on and go have a look see if you’re that interested. (I’ve included a list of some good books on the subject at the end of this article.)
Amongst the many subjects that will cause a serious UFOlogist to have that sharp intake of breath, one certainly has to be the Ancient Astronaut Theory. Love it or hate it we will be forever stuck with it. Ancient Astronaut theories have little support from the scientific community at large. For those of you are unfamiliar with this theory here’s a brief outline. The ancient astronaut theory (or if you wish to give it it’s best Sunday title” paleocontact” ) is based on various, observations, proposals and ideas that in ancient times intelligent extraterrestrial beings (usually called ancient astronauts, ancient aliens and sometimes Star People) have visited Earth and that this contact is more than likely linked to the origins and the development of human cultures, lore, technologies, and quite possibly, because some of the theories put forward suggest that, the deities from most, possibly all, our religions are in fact, ancient extraterrestrial astronauts and that it was their use of their technologies that gave them their divine status……even religions. Phew.
For me it all gets very Star Treky. Lots of references to “The Old Ones” and some very wooly thinking. Followers of the theory believe that any gaps or inaccuracies within history or archaeology can be fixed or bridged with these assertions. The scientific community pooh pooh these ideas stating that .” gaps in contemporary knowledge of the past do not demonstrate that such speculative ancient astronaut ideas are a necessary, or even plausible, conclusion to draw.“ [1]
Carl Sagan and I.S. Shklovshki, in their book “Intelligent Life In The Universe (1966) give a complete chapter arguing that the scientific community should look to the possibility of ancient extraterrestrial contact. Not being ones to chance their reputation though they also stated that their ideas were both unproven and indeed speculative.
Proponents of ancient astronaut theories point to what they perceive as gaps in historical and archaeological records, and to what they see as absent or incomplete explanations of historical or archaeological data. Ancient astronaut proponents cite evidence that they argue supports their assertions, notably, archaeological artifacts that they argue are anachronistic or beyond the presumed technical capabilities of the historical cultures with which they are associated (sometimes referred to as “Out-of-place artifacts”); and artwork and legends which are interpreted as depicting extraterrestrial contact or technologies.
Interestingly enough Sagan and Shlklovki argued the case of the Summerian tale of Oannes as worthy of being looked at closely because of the details of the story and it’s consistency it could quite possibly be a case of paleocontact.
The story of Oannes:
“A man, or rather a monster, Half man and half fish, coming from the sea, appeared near Babylon; he had two heads; one, which was the highest, resembled that of man, the other that of a fish. He had the feet of a man, and the tail of a fish; and his speech and voice resembled that of a man: a representation of him is still preserved. This monster dwelt by day with men, but took no food; he gave them knowledge of letters, arts, and sciences; he taught them to build towers and temples; and to establish laws; he instructed them in the principles of geometry; taught them to sow, and to gather the fruits of the earth; in short, whatever could contribute to polish and civilize their manners. At sun set he retired to the sea, in which he passed the night. There appeared likewise others of the same species.”
Berossus, from ancient fragments (Isaac Preston Cory)
Oannes was a mythical being who allegedly taught mankind wisdom, agriculture, mathematics and a lot more.. A 3rd century BC writer called Berossus gave the name Oannes to the being.
As you can see from the above writing Berossus described Oannes of having “the body of a fish but underneath the figure of a man”. This has given way to many theorists suggesting a man in a frogman suit. Anyway this being is supposed to have risen out of the waters of the Persian Gulf and instructed man in science, mathematics, art and writing. Whattaguy.
Sagan cropped up again in 1979 with another book, Broca’s Brain. Once again he reiterated that his and Shklovski’s earlier conclusions that “extraterrestrial visits to Earth were possible, but unproven and perhaps improbable.” He added also that they may have helped give birth to the amount of Ancient Astronaut books that appeared during the seventies. He was most disapproving of Von Daniken and similar writers who only shown one side of the story and then blindly lead people down the path of what was being told them as if it was utterly and unequivocally true. These writers seemingly built on the original ideas put forward by Sagan and Shklovski ,not as guarded speculations but as “valid evidence of extraterrestrial contact.” Similarly Sagan argued that many of the legends, OOPART’s and artifacts that were often paraded as irrefutable evidence to support the Ancient Astronaut theories could be easily explained with more conventional theories.were and that….”very few require more than passing mention“.
Of course it’s only a quantum leap away from tieing into major religions and citing works of those religions as absolute proof of ancient visitation.
Proponents cite ancient mythologies to support their viewpoints based on the idea that almost all ancient creation myths of the gods who descend from the heavens to Earth to either create, instruct humanity or both are actually representations of aliens from the stars, whose fantastic futuristic technology perhaps gives the impression to the slightly backward prehistoric Earth folk that these alien visitors are in fact gods. To draw an analogy to quite recent occurrences in modern times we only have to look no further than the Cargo Cults. Early in the 20th century isolated cultures were exposed to Western technology. These “Cargo Cults” were discovered in the South Pacific: cultures who believed that various Western ships and their cargo were being sent from the Gods as fulfillment of prophecies concerning their return from wherever they disappeared to in days long gone.
What better way of being godlike than but by flying. Flying machines are often mentioned in ancient texts. One example that is often cited is the Vimanas. Vimanas are flying machines that are found in the Sanskrit writings of the great Indian Epics. A vimana can be thought of as a chariot of the gods, a sort of mythical self-moving aerial car although other descriptions make the Vimana more like a house or palace, and in at least one instance it is said to be seven storeys high. These tales range from fantastic aerial battles employing various weaponry, sort of like an ancient script for Star Wars, to the mundane relating simple Vimana technical information, Vimana flight procedures, and various flights of fancy. Also if you get a chance have a look at the Vaimanika Shastra: allegedly this is an ancient text on aeronautics that was “channeled” in 1918-1923, and eventually published in 1973 starting the enthusiasm for “Vedic UFOs”.
Probably the most famous, most documented and most wheeled out piece of ancient man meets spaceman texts come from the Bibles Old Testament, the Book of Ezekiel to be precise. Ezekiel tells of this flying object as a fiery whirlwind which, when descended to the ground, gave the appearance of being made of metal. It is described by him, among other things, as a wheel within a wheel containing four occupants, “living creatures”, whose likeness was that of man. The passage goes on to say that wherever the wheels went the creatures went, and when the living creatures were lifted up the wheels were lifted up. J Blumrich did extensive research into this and his book, that I’ve included details of at the end of this chapter, is well worth a look at.
The apocryphal Book of Enoch tells of similar flying objects and beings, but goes further in that Enoch is taken on journeys to various corners of the Earth and Sheol (the Underworld) in one of these objects and at one point even travels to the heavens where he is given the knowledge of planetary movement and describes a solar calendar.
Much within the bible has been seen by many as a veritable catalogue of alien meetings and out of this world technology. The characteristics of the Ark of the Covenant and the Urim and Thummim are identified as suggesting high technology, perhaps from alien origins.
The ark was said to have many powers, perhaps its greatest being the ability for it to be used as a device to communicate with God. The two passages below describle this:
⦁ And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.
⦁ And David went up, and all Israel, to Baalah, that is, to Kirjath-jearim, which belonged to Judah, to bring up thence the ark of God the LORD, that dwelleth between the cherubims, whose name is called on it
It was also, however, described as being a hugely powerful (and extremely deadly) weapon of mass destruction. Joshua chapter 6 describes the Ark of the Covenant being used in the destruction of the city of Jericho.
The Urim and Thummim are generally translated as “lights and perfections” or “revelation and truth” and were a scrying medium or divination process used by ancient Hebrews (usually Israelites) in revealing the will of God on a contested point of view or other problem. The Urim and Thummim were a breastplate worn by the high priest. A similar breastplate can be seen at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark when Belloq opens the Ark.
The book of Genesis (6:1-4) also tells us of such an encounter where the “sons of heaven” had intercourse with the “daughters of man” which produced the Nephilim. “Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.”
I don’t want to get bogged down too much here as we start to enter the realms of some serious Theological ideals. Again at this point I suggest if this has piqued your interest then further reading is warranted.
12,000BC China: The Dropa, the name given to visitors from Sirius, came down from the clouds with their air gliders.
8000BC Australia: The Aborigine believed in “dawn beings” from the stars. Australian aboriginal cave drawings depict celestial beings, with antenna and x-ray style drawings. They were very advanced in “aerodynamics”. The boomerang is identical to a modern day aircraft wing. Aborigine means “from the beginning”.
4000BC: The Sumerians from today’s Iraq had contact with extraterrestrial civilizations according to their text. The extraterrestrials also interbred with humans and traveled with them to the stars. The kings were taken to the stars by the extraterrestrials. Sumerian text coincides with “the book of genesis”. Their astronomy was highly developed. They had numbers with 15 digits! The Sumerians say extraterrestrials are from Mars, the star system Pleiades, and the star Sirius. Sumerian text shows drawings of solar system.
3000BC China: From the book ” Memories of the Sovereigns and the Kings ” published in the 3rd century AD, in China, in the third millennium B.C., before the birth of Huang Ti or of Chi You , “sons from the sky”, would descend to Earth on a star which was the shape of a saucer.
2345BC China: The, Hsui-nan-tzu, a Chinese classic there is a description of ten suns appearing in the sky.
2000BC: Peru’s pre-Incan civilization records the gods were from the star system Pleiades. Inca ruins have been found at 13,000 feet, with one stone weighing 20,000 tons. Legend tells of spaceships that came from the stars. Inca ornaments of “platinum” were found. Text reveals the Inca’s knew the earth was round.
1766BC China: The Emperor Cheng Tang commissions Ki-Kung-shi to construct a flying chariot. After construction the aircraft was tested, reaching the province of Honan. The vessel was destroyed by imperial edict, as he Emperor feared the mechanism might fall into the wrong hands.
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Just to end this chapter I’d like to finish by waffling a little bit about Ooparts
OOPARTS (Out Of Place Artifacts) a brief outline.
An out-of-place artifact (OOPArt) is an artifact radically out of time or place, an anacronism, often to a seemingly impossible extent. An example would be the alleged human sandal print found in the Wheeler Formation, West Utah, U.S.A, which dates to the Middle Cambrian, about 500 million years ago. In the “print” are two apparently crushed trilobites. From what I’ve been told about human history trilobites and humans don’t mix. Another famous out-of-place artifact is the Coso artifact, a spark plug from the 1920s found encased in a lump of hard clay or rock that one of the discoverers claimed had to be 500,000 years old. Studies seem to suggest that the surrounding rock may be a natural byproduct of the sparkplug rusting in the ground. Strangely though the sparkplug has disappeared for further analysis. Personally I believe the Coso artifact is indeed a spark plug made in the 1920s (a Champion model no less), and is more likely that it existed in conditions for the rapid accretion of hard clay around it than it would be for a time traveler to go back 500,000 years into the past and toss a spark plug into the ground.
A more recent example is the Kensington runestone, a Norse artifact that is alleged to be from the 14th century, found in Minnesota, USA. Again there is the divide of those who say it’s a hoax and those who say otherwise. It is up to the individual to look at what facts are on hand and then make their own opinion based on what they have learned.
Out-of-place artifacts are beloved by fans of anomalous phenomena (Forteans) and creationists, who see antediluvian human artifacts as evidence that man really did exist in the earliest days of the Earth’s existence, as Genesis claims (no not Phil Collins’ lot). The problem with most OOPArts is that they can rather easily be identified as hoaxes or instances of pareidolia (seeing what we want to see) rather than verified as genuine.
Advocates of out of place artifacts are quite often impossible to convince of the false nature of even the most superficial hoaxes, such as Acambaro figures. These new-looking and unbroken carvings of dinosaurs allegedly dating from thousands of years ago. One or two were found at first and when the researcher offered to pay for each piece found then quite obviously more followed, over 32,000 more figures. These figures were representations of everything from the supposed dinosaurs to peoples from all over the world including Egyptians, Sumerians, and even “bearded Caucasians.
But what complicates matters is that some out-of-place artifacts have been verified as genuine. Others, like the Kensington runestone, have fluctuated back and forth between considered by the experts to be a hoax or genuine.
Another verified oopart is the Maine Penny. The Maine Penny (also known as the Goddard Coin ) is an 11th century Norse coin found in a Native American settlement. Via a series of trades, this Norse coin made it from 11th century Viking settlements in Newfoundland hundreds of miles south, to Maine. Some journey for a coin.
One verified out-of-place artifact is the Baghdad Battery. That name has got a great ring to it. Baghdad Battery. This in fact is a common name for several artifacts dated to around 250 BC that consist of a cylinder and an iron bar within a terracotta jar. These batteries could have been used to electroplate gold onto silver objects, and, if they were really used as batteries to light up the inside of pyramids, as has been suggested, then they would predate Alessandro Volta’s invention in 1800 of the electrochemical cell by 1,700 years.
Yet another verified out-of-place artifact is the Antikythera mechanism, a mechanical computer used to calculate the position of the Sun, Moon, and planets. Originally recovered in 1901 it was many decades later until the significance and importance of the mechanism was seen. Professor Michael Edmunds of Cardiff University who led the most recent study of the mechanism said: “This device is just extraordinary, the only thing of its kind. The design is beautiful, the astronomy is exactly right. The way the mechanics are designed just makes your jaw drop. Whoever has done this has done it extremely carefully…in terms of historic and scarcity value, I have to regard this mechanism as being more valuable than the Mona Lisa.”
Finally we have the Iron Pillar of Delhi in India. Dated to 300 BC, it has resisted corrosion for 2,300 years due to a number of unusual material factors. There are several theories that have been put forward to explain its superior corrosion resistance but for all the theories they can be broadly classified into two categories: the environmental theories and the material theories.
Proponents of the environmental theories argue that the mild climate of Delhi is responsible for the corrosion resistance of the Delhi iron pillar. It is known that the relative humidity at Delhi does not exceed 70% for quite significant periods of time in the year, which therefore results in very mild corrosion of the pillar.
Whilst on the other hand, many investigators have stressed the importance of the material of construction as the primary cause for the corrosion resistance of the pillar. The ideas put forward point to the relatively pure composition of the iron used, the presence of Phosphorus (P) and the absence of Sulphur/Magnesium in the iron, its slag-enveloped metal grain structure, and passivity enhancement in the presence of slag particles.
As ever the arguments go on and on and as I am not a metallurgist I certainly don’t want to be too drawn in on it.
Chapter Two coming soon!
[1] Carl Sagan 1979
List of Reading Material In Relation To Chapter One
CAVE PAINTINGS
Cave Paintings and the Human Spirit by David S Whitley
Supernatural: Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind by Graham Hancock
The Ajanta Caves: Ancient Paintings of Buddhist India by Benoy K. Behl and Milo C. Beach
The ancient caves of Szechwan Province, China by David Crockett Graham
On the Edge of Magic: Petroglyphs and Rock Paintings of the Ancient Southwest by Salvatore Mancini
ANCIENT ASTRONAUTS
Strange Creations: Aberrant Ideas of Human Origins from Ancient Astronauts to Aquatic Apes by Donna Kossy
Ancient Astronauts, Cosmic Collisions and Other Popular Theories About Man’s Past by William H. Stiebing Jr.
Chariots of the Gods by Erich von Daniken
Twelfth Planet: Book I of the Earth Chronicles (The Earth Chronicles) by Zecharia Sitchin
The Lost Book of Enki: Memoirs and Prophecies of an Extraterrestrial god by Zecharia Sitchin
The Sirius Mystery: New Scientific Evidence of Alien Contact 5,000 Years Ago by Robert Temple
The Science of the Dogon: Decoding the African Mystery Tradition (Paperback)by Laird Scranton
The Spaceships of Ezekiel by Joseph F. Blumrich
The Meaning of the Word Nephilim: Fact vs. Fantasy by Professor Michael S. Heiser (Free online download)
