Forge of Creation

AAT

What is Ancient Astro­naut Theory?

Ancient Astro­naut Theory (AAT) is the hypothe­sis that before first human recor­ded his­tory, Earth was visi­ted by inte­lli­gent extra­te­rres­trial beings, and this con­tact is lin­ked to the ori­gins or deve­lop­ment of human cul­tu­res, tech­no­lo­gies, and reli­gions. This theory sug­gests that gods from most — if not all — reli­gions are actually extra­te­rres­trial beings, and their tech­no­lo­gies were mis­ta­ken for the influence of divine enti­ties by pri­mi­tive man. These ideas are gene­rally dis­mis­sed and cri­ti­ci­zed by many in the mains­tream scien­ti­fic community.

AAT is a con­cept which ser­ves to sup­port the fan­tas­tic nature of many legends and mytho­lo­gies we have today. The theme is that of a per­son who comes from the “sky” as a god, or as the archetype of a “civi­li­zing hero” who brings know­ledge to man­kind. Pro­metheus is the best-known Wes­tern exam­ple. In Native Ame­ri­can lore there are nume­rous exam­ples, inc­lu­ding Que­tzal­coatl of the Aztecs and Vira­cocha of the Incas.

It is well known that mys­te­ries and gaps exist in his­to­ri­cal and archaeo­lo­gi­cal records, and there is also an absence of defi­ni­tive expla­na­tions in cer­tain con­texts from the archaeo­lo­gi­cal scien­ces. There are various archaeo­lo­gi­cal arti­facts which are out of place (OOP) and beyond the pre­su­med tech­ni­cal capa­bi­li­ties of the his­to­ri­cal cul­tu­res they are asso­cia­ted with. Also, there are depic­tions in cer­tain ancient art­works that could be repre­sen­ta­tions of actual extra­te­rres­trial visi­tors as rea­li­sed by the con­tac­ted cultures.

The cross-cultural simi­la­ri­ties of dei­ties coming from the hea­vens and the man­ner in which they speak to humans are desc­ri­bed as evi­dence of visi­ta­tions by extra­te­rres­trial beings who, with the aid of their tech­no­logy, were free to roam the Earth and exert their will at a time when man­kind was limi­ted to a neo­lithic exis­tence. The myths of gods and godes­ses are real accounts of these visi­ta­tions. The extra­te­rres­trials are divine due to their tech­no­logy, which is supe­rior to the point it can only be explai­ned as the “powers” or magic of the god or god­dess are seen by the humans as deity.

AAT pre­sents the con­cept that humans are at least par­tially des­cen­ded from or at most gene­tic crea­tions of beings who visi­ted Earth millen­nia ago. Much of human know­ledge, reli­gion and cul­ture came from extra­te­rres­trial visi­tors in ancient times.

Some nota­ble con­tri­bu­tors to the theory are the following:

• Erich von Däni­ken is a key foun­der of this theory in the late 1960s and early 1970s, gai­ning a large audience through the 1968 publi­ca­tion of his best-selling book Cha­riots of the Gods and its sequels.

• Zecha­ria Sitchin is a nota­ble con­tri­bu­tor to this theory, wri­ting the book series The Earth Chro­nic­les, begin­ning with The 12th Pla­net. He theo­ri­zes that the gods of old Meso­po­ta­mia were actually astro­nauts from the pla­net Nibiru, which the Sume­rians belie­ved to be asso­cia­ted with the god Marduk.

• Robert K. G. Temple’s 1976 book, The Sirius Mys­tery pre­sents a case that the Dogon peo­ple of north­wes­tern Mali pre­ser­ved an ancient account of extra­te­rres­trial visi­ta­tion around 5,000 years ago.

AAT may be con­si­de­red a sub­set of paleo­con­tact theory, a hypothe­sis that inte­lli­gent extra­te­rres­trials have visi­ted Earth. Carl Sagan, Iosif Samui­lo­vich Shklovs­kii, and Her­mann Oberth are three nota­ble scien­tists who have seriously con­si­de­red this possibility.

Ear­lier (legen­dary) sour­ces — while gene­rally not refe­ren­cing ancient astro­nauts per se — sug­gest the crea­tion of some monu­ments was beyond human means, such as Saxo Gram­ma­ti­cus’ sug­ges­tion that giants had crea­ted Denmark’s mas­sive dol­mens, or in tales that Mer­lin had assem­bled Sto­nehenge via magic.

Others find them­sel­ves in acci­den­tal sup­port of AAT due to corre­la­tion with their own theo­ries. These groups inc­lude Theo­sophists, Rae­lians, Scifi authors and occa­sio­nally a con­ven­tio­nal archaeologist.