Chronological snobbery

"Ancient Aliens" is a series devoted to promote the ridiculous (and ridiculously popular) speculations of Erich von Däniken. Geezus. I assumed Däniken was dead!

The first few minutes of Episode One did give me some entertaining moments of "déjà vu", since I also believed in Däniken and similar writers...at the age of 12, or thereabouts. Then I read a book debunking Däniken & Friends, and realized that *real* archaeology is even more fascinating than the rather dull explanation that "aliens" from Sirius were behind it all.

The rest of the almost 90 minute "documentary" was less entertaining. I mean, these guys haven't changed a lot in 40 years, have they? The Nazca lines, the Mayan "astronaut" at Palenque, the Hindu vimanas, the Piri Reis map, "who built the Egyptian pyramids", Ezekiel's wheels within wheels...

I won't attempt a detailed debunking here (you can probably find it in cheap paperbacks published 40 years ago), but I have to complain about the Euro-centric chronological snobbery which assumes that ancient peoples were primitive blockheads and simply cannot have built large stone structures or "discovered electricity" all by themselves. Why not draw the opposite conclusion instead: the Black African Pharaohs of the Old Kingdom really were pretty smart guys. So were, I suppose, their architects.

Another thing that makes my head hurt when watching this are the philistine over-simplifications. The Nazca lines or the Mayan ruler at Palenque fit a certain cultural context, carefully described by competent scholars. So yes, we *do* know that the Mayan ruler is "descending into the underworld", rather than manning a space rocket. Yet, Däniken and his followers still babble on about the "remarkable similarities" between ancient pieces of art and modern astronauts with helmets?!

Further, "Ancient Aliens" lack a proper spiritual understanding. The idea that religious scriptures are really about flesh-and-blood alien astronauts (or is it silicon and green goo?) is another piece of warped chronological snobbery, as if the ancients didn't have a proper spiritual life featuring shamans, prophets and other visionaries of supernatural realities, not "aliens" in Flash Gordon outfits. (The only exception would be Michael Cremo, who is a devotee of the Hare Krishna movement. Presumably, he therefore believes that the "aliens" really were gods! So what's he doing on this show?)

But the worst thing is surely the illogic of it all. If the aliens came here in hovering UFO-type craft, why did the Nazca people build long "airstrips" to make them come back? If the aliens landed in Egypt, why did they teach the Pharaohs stone masonry, rather than setting up a futuristic city in the Nile delta? Why did some alien craft look like the Apollo moon rocket, surely a piece of space junk from the perspective of a civilization that can use anti-gravity to hover in a luminous craft á la wheels-within-wheels? Etc.

I admit that I stopped watching this travesty after about 45 minutes, and haven't bothered watching the other 4 episodes. This really is opium for the masses. And, of course, chronological snobbery! Not even the token sceptics can save this production, which I therefore only award one star.