by a TV movie.
Imagine what would have happened if an alien spaceship (let’s say it was a flying saucer) landed just outside a small village and the occupants got out to say hello. What would be the reaction of the humans to these visitors?
Some humans would have viewed the visitors as interlopers, threatening their territory. Perhaps they would try to attack the people from the sky.
Some would have been terrified, for early mythologies understood the gods who controlled the heavens to be powerful and not to be crossed. They might have venerated the aliens as gods, realizing they had powers and abilities far beyond the Earthly technology of the time.
From the aliens’ perspective, however, what would they have thought of the Earthlings standing before them? They may have been amused at the reaction. They may have been prepared for the humans’ response, as they likely would have considered the various possibilities as they prepared to land.
Indeed, why would they land and contact humans at all? In the fictional world of Star Trek, we are told of the “Prime Directive,” Starfleet’s General Order Number One, which forbids any interference with the normal and healthy development of alien life and culture. In particular, a developing society is not to be given any knowledge or technology that is beyond its ability. Although this is a fictional law, it does make sense, as natural development should be preferred over outside intervention.
In another fictional story, Olaf Stapleton’s book Star Maker, primitive people are not told of the alien race observing them to keep their “independence of mind.”
But these laws are fictional. It would not be surprising to find that an alien race might have different ideas about interference with a planet’s development. They might view their assistance as essential to our development. Perhaps their evolution was similarly boosted.
If aliens visiting Earth were not bound by such a non-interference law, they might show themselves openly and perhaps even share technology with the primitives. They might give the chief of the tribe special weapons to defeat enemies or show the people how to smelt metals into utensils and other things. Aliens might use their own devices to help manufacture items for use in the village, or provide food when hunting is unsuccessful and crops fail.
UFOS AND ALIENS IN LITERATURE
In 1657, Cyrano de Bergerac had written the “Comical History” of his Voyage to the Moon, where he met beautiful creatures living in lush palaces in Edenlike surroundings. This was also true of the first real science fiction story, “The Diamond Lens” by Fitzjames O’Brien, published in 1858. In this story, a man uses a powerful microscope to see and communicate with a tiny female creature “of perfect beauty.” In other words, early stories about aliens pictured them as basically people like ourselves, but with remarkable powers and wisdom that surpassed our own abilities and knowledge.
If any of these scenarios happened in the past, there might be evidence of alien intervention still on the Earth. Some artefacts might exist in museums or are still buried in archaeological sites, waiting to be discovered. The premise of Arthur C. Clarke’s classic 2001: A Space Odyssey is that after nudging our evolutionary development in primitive times, aliens left an artefact on the Moon, waiting for us to travel into space and eventually find it.
If aliens visited Earth during the Bronze or Iron Age, they would have been here during Biblical times. How would they have been viewed by Mesopotamian peoples?
Many books have been written about the concept of alien intervention in early human history. Barry Downing, whose book The Bible and Flying Saucers set the tone for many later authors, built upon ideas from earlier writers. Some, such as Robert Charroux, wrote extensively about ancient artefacts that puzzled historians and were thought by some to have alien origins. Downing’s thesis can be summarized in the following passage:
... if beings from another world came to Earth with the intention of molding a specific religious perspective on a group of people — chosen people, the Jews — and if these beings in their UFO caused the parting of the Red Sea, provided manna in the wilderness, put on a display of power at Mount Sinai while giving Moses various instructions, and finally led Israel through the wilderness to the Promised Land, hovering night and day over the Tent of Meeting, then I dare say that the people involved in this sequence, the people who were under the influence of the beings in the UFO, might very well record the events in which they were involved.
Downing’s interpretation of biblical events as being caused or designed by extraterrestrial aliens is not unique, and the idea has been explored in depth by numerous others.
One explicit work about direct alien intervention was that of Josef Blumrich, The Spaceships of Ezekiel, a detailed analysis of the “wheels” seen by Ezekiel in a vision. He believed these were actually part of a landing module similar to the one that NASA sent to the Moon. This wasn’t surprising, since Blumrich was the chief of a NASA department at the time.
The most popular writer on the theme of ancient astronauts was Erich Von Daniken, whose wildly popular book, Chariots of the Gods?, was published in 1968. It took the world by storm when it was translated into English and became easily accessible. It led to several sequels, a storm of controversy, skeptical analysis, and even the creation of a tourist theme park in Europe which has now been closed.
Von Daniken himself was preceded by several authors, including Morris K. Jessup, whose much earlier work UFOs and the Bible (1956) suggested that holy book “is a treasure house of UFO data.” Modern UFO-related books continue the theme of aliens as our ancestors and the reason for our development of civilization. Many authors are of the belief that the pyramids and other ancient monuments were either built by aliens or with their assistance. Similar claims are made about Stonehenge in England and the large ornate cities of the Aztecs in Central America.
In Peru, unusual linear markings adorn the seacoast and interior desert. These Nazca lines, as they are most often called, were created in about 1,000 B.C. by the agricultural society that was inhabiting the area at the time. Why they produced the lines and shapes is not known, but what is known is that the designs were made by removing a dark layer of surface rocks to expose lighter sand. Some of the designs include monkeys, hummingbirds, and fish, but also simple geometric shapes. In addition, the lines in some cases are several kilometres long, spanning valleys and rugged areas along the coast.
Since the largest of the designs is almost 200 metres across, it has been suggested that the designs and figures are best seen from the air, leading to speculation that they were made for aerial visitors’ benefit. In 1955, writer James Moseley suggested that the Nazca lines were markings to direct space visitors towards specific places on Earth.
Von Daniken took this a step further and suggested that the lines were actually airstrips for alien navigation and vectoring in for contact. However, because the lines run across very uneven ground this is unlikely. Would alien interstellar spacecraft even need runways?
One thing is certain with regard to monuments and other ancient artefacts preserved over the centuries. Ancient peoples, once thought to be uneducated and unaware of basic principles of science, possessed a better understanding of mechanics and astronomy than previously thought. There is evidence that many buildings and monuments seem to be aligned with celestial phenomena such as the sun and planets, and some temples show an advanced knowledge of engineering and construction. While this may suggest to some that aliens helped humans in their early development, perhaps it just shows that humans are at least a bit smarter than we give them credit for.
