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Ancient Aliens
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Ancient Aliens
I am doing research into the Ancient Alien phenom started by Von Daniken, and perpetrated by Giorgio Tsoukalus et al.
What all have people heard, best books to read, best people to talk to, advice, suggestions and such...
Help would be appreciated.
What all have people heard, best books to read, best people to talk to, advice, suggestions and such...
Help would be appreciated.
Re: Ancient Aliens
Well, there's always Von Daniken's own Chariots of the Gods, but that's just a starting point and I'm sure you already knew that.
Apart from The Skeptics Dictionary, I can't think of any resources that dealt specifically with ancient aliens. My archaeology textbooks gave the actual uses for things like the Nazca lines and, of course, legit speculation on how the pyramids were built and stuff like that. I could have sworn that Joe Nickell wrote a book about it, but looking at Amazon I can't find anything like that. This one I found might be interesting, though:
http://www.amazon.com/Invented-Knowledge-History-Science-Pseudo-Religions/dp/1861894309/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1277682880&sr=1-3
One thing I find interesting that you can take or leave is that the ancient alien people always pick the achievements of cultures that we consider to be "non-white" to attribute to aliens. Nobody ever attributes Minoan culture to aliens, even though their cities used ashlars just as big as pyramid blocks and they had indoor plumbing in 3000BC, and I figure it might have something to do with the fact that we regard Greek culture and its predecessors as "white," so nobody questions there ability to build amazing structures. Aztecs, Egyptians, Mayans, Inca, Africans, etc. are all considered "non-white," and the correlation between "non-white" achievement and claims that they only could have done it with aliens to help out is a bit provocative, I think.
Apart from The Skeptics Dictionary, I can't think of any resources that dealt specifically with ancient aliens. My archaeology textbooks gave the actual uses for things like the Nazca lines and, of course, legit speculation on how the pyramids were built and stuff like that. I could have sworn that Joe Nickell wrote a book about it, but looking at Amazon I can't find anything like that. This one I found might be interesting, though:
http://www.amazon.com/Invented-Knowledge-History-Science-Pseudo-Religions/dp/1861894309/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1277682880&sr=1-3
One thing I find interesting that you can take or leave is that the ancient alien people always pick the achievements of cultures that we consider to be "non-white" to attribute to aliens. Nobody ever attributes Minoan culture to aliens, even though their cities used ashlars just as big as pyramid blocks and they had indoor plumbing in 3000BC, and I figure it might have something to do with the fact that we regard Greek culture and its predecessors as "white," so nobody questions there ability to build amazing structures. Aztecs, Egyptians, Mayans, Inca, Africans, etc. are all considered "non-white," and the correlation between "non-white" achievement and claims that they only could have done it with aliens to help out is a bit provocative, I think.
Re: Ancient Aliens
Yah, I've gotten Von Daniken's crap. I was hoping to get some help with the myth crap, but I'm beginning to see that it doesn't matter what the myth say, there's no physical evidence.
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