Ancient astronauts

Ancient assha- *ahem* astronauts are aliens purported to have come to Earth thousands of years ago. Some claim that these aliens form the basis for the mythological gods of ancient cultures. Others suggest that we are descendants of these aliens. A few claim that they came, placed random pieces of architecture in random spots, and left, i.e. that structures made of stone such as the pyramids at Giza, Stonehenge, and the Nazca lines were made by a civilization advanced enough to achieve space travel, yet for some reason preferred to use local materials and, apparently, locally available tools such as copper chisels.

The woo is out there
UFOlogy
Aliens did it...
... and ran away
v - t - e
Fiction over fact
Pseudohistory
How it didn't happen
v - t - e
"Ancient aliens" redirects here. For the pseudohistory show, see Ancient Aliens.
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“”How would it be if we discovered that aliens only stopped by earth to let their kids take a leak?
—Jay Leno

If someone presents these arguments to you, they may or may not be persuaded by sensible, rational explanations. While many are simply too firmly set in their cognitive dissonance to budge, some of them can have their minds changed pointing out the gaping holes in the argument. While one's initial instinct is to brush them off as loons, bear in mind that this nonsense has been given an air of legitimacy thanks to garbage on the History Channel masquerading as real science. Try talking about it in a non-attacking way, and being patient. If they still cannot be budged (or accuse you of being one of the "sheeple"), then your efforts are better spent elsewhere.

The main result of the ancient astronauts' influence in the late 20th and early 21st centuries has been to upwardly mobilize sundry con artists, cynical authors and loonies (von Däniken, Scientology) and provide fodder for really stupid shows on the US basic cable History Channel.

Purported evidence
What ancient astronaut believers genuinely think. (Source)

Any obscure and/or exotic (at least to the average Westerner) piece of archaeology, history or mythology has been used as evidence for ancient extraterrestrial visitation at some time or other. (Impressive ancient ruins? Aliensdidit! Descriptions of gods or demons coming from the sky? Aliens!) A non-exhaustive list:

The quest for oddities has its fun moments, such as the carving of an astronaut in the decorations of the New Cathedral in Salamanca (in Spain). The Cathedral was built between the 16th and 18th centuries, but the figure itself was carved by a playful restorator in 1992.[1]

It's hardly ever white cultures who get science and technology from aliens

This is not a coincidence.[2][3][4]

gollark: Ah yes, I just misread that as the symbol for `and` instead.
gollark: The Rust one is inaccurate, you need `&` and `.clone()` too.
gollark: Did you know that FORTH stands for Function Oriented Reductionist Transform Hypermatrix?
gollark: This is PHP, there's so much indirection that CPU caches are probably the least of your worries.
gollark: You know what they say, release bees into the mainframe.

See also

Proponents

References
  1. A Spanish Mystery, Snopes.com
  2. https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018/01/02/close-encounters-racist-kind Close encounters of the racist kind
  3. http://theconversation.com/racism-is-behind-outlandish-theories-about-africas-ancient-architecture-83898 Racism is behind outlandish theories about Africa’s ancient architecture
  4. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/08/how-to-fake-an-alien-mummy/535251/ The Racism Behind Alien Mummy Hoaxes
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