Ancient Aliens

[David T. Cole]

A place to discuss particular episodes and moments from the show's run. Please remember this isn't a complete catch-all topic -- check out the forum for character topics and other places for show-related talk.

 

Here's a recap of seasons 1-6:

 

http://previously.tv/ancient-aliens/definitive-answers-to-questions-posited-by-the-opening-credits-of-ancient-aliens-after-watching-all-five-convincing-seasons/

[ari333]

This show may have its moments of cheese (ok, many moments of cheese),  but I enjoy it like a guilty pleasure.

 

I went on a kick one time and binged watched many eppys in a row. Sometimes they hit on some really interesting things that are more factual like the various histories of civilizations which I find kind of fascinating.

[Ananayel]

So last night, in the time slot usually occupied by actual new episodes, there was a "new" episode called "Ancient Aliens: Special Edition." I guess that's what's holding down the time slot now, since it's got it's own Zap2It listing and there are several more coming up. This was basically a rerun of the Mysterious Structures ep. Usually when shows do this, like with Finding Bigfoot: Further Evidence" and "Ghost Adventures: Extra Pulses" there is extraneous extra comment in the form of pop-up bubble commentary, behind the scenes facts, tweets, etc. There didn't appear to be any of that for AA:SE. Does anyone have any idea what makes this a "Special Edition" and not a rerun? Because I couldn't find anything.

 

And of course they're renew it! They have to - there are so many topics they haven't covered yet, like Aliens and Holiday Traditions, Aliens and Climate Change, and Aliens and the Common Cold. Plus, each one probably costs $42.78 and the cost of Giorgios's hair gel to produce.

Edited June 21, 2014 by Ananayel

[Chicklet]

May Giorgio never change his hair. His hair has provided much bonding time in my family. A family that mocks together has a fun time.

[Arynm]

I also turn in to find out the height of Giorgios hair. Imagine my chagrin when his hair is not sticking straight up, like it was in the special. I think the episodes are just better the higher his hair is.

[Ananayel]

Gird yourselves, folks! Supermarathon tomorrow (Friday June 27) on H2, starting at 8am Eastern and going until 4am Saturday. That's enough Giorgio to last for at least six months, if you ask me.

[radishcake]

Ooooh a marathon! Sounds like fun! I'll be checking it out. :)

[Jeebus Cripes]

I have found my people! This show is my obsession. I don't care how often people laugh at me for it, because one day those aliens will return... That said, will there ever be something new for them to talk about? They occasionally drop a nugget here and there that is news to me, but most of the episodes (even the new ones) are just rehashing the same stuff they've already covered many times over.

[ari333]

Heck, I'll watch anything that is weird and possibly factual heh. I like the structures and pyramids, and anything paranormal sends me into grab-a-popcorn-ecstacy. I love the ones where they piece together how civilizations may have lived, just day to day stuff, and they back it up (at times) with facts and folks who actually have a PhD in something related. :) (As opposed to some dude in a field who says he was abducted; Although to be honest I'd prolly watch that too.) I'm a pushover.

[Ananayel]

And another one! July 4, H2, starts sometime in the morning before I'm up, goes to 11:00. Alas, without my faves Aliens and Bigfoot and Aliens and the Wild West. If you get tired of Twilight Zone on Syfy, drop into H2 for actual Twilight Zone stuff.

[radishcake]

Twilight Zone & Ancient Aliens is a great combo! 

[Ananayel]

Supposedly, Season 7 starts tonight, with "The Reptilians." That's what the official website is calling it - season 7, but there's only one episode listed. Zap2It lists it as being episode 8-2, which is just wrong on all levels. I've seen no promotion, but the official Facebook page is also calling it a new season. So, yay, I guess? More Giorgio, and if they're going with Reptlians (which I can't even believe it took them so long to get there) they surely will have David Icke on, pretty please. He's priceless. And oh my god you guys, I just noticed that Giorgio is getting his very own show that premieres right after tonights AA! It's called In Search of Aliens, and now I can't wait - a full dose of Giorgio!

[radishcake]

 

The Reptilian alien is a fixture of science-fiction, from H.P. Lovecraft’s tales of Valusians to the Cardassians in Star Trek, to the Visitors of the television series V. But could ancient myths about reptilian creatures provide evidence that they are more than just a pop-culture creation? Legends of serpent beings can be found on every continent. The Bible, the Quran and the ancient texts known as the Nag Hammadi codices all describe reptilian entities interacting with humans. In Central and South America people worship the feathered serpent god called Kulkukan or Quetzalcoatl. In India, the Nagas are half-human half-reptile gods who live underground in a place called Patala. And in China and Japan, many emperors claim to be the descendants of dragons. Could these stories represent real Reptilian beings that people all over the world actually encountered in the ancient past?

 

[Jeebus Cripes]

David Icke was used very sparingly, which surprised me. Just as well, because I believe the dude's a charlatan. Jesse Ventura had his number on his Conspiracy Theory show. It was funny to see him squirm. 

 

The story about humans having webbed fingers before Noah was an interesting tidbit I'd never heard before. 

Edited July 28, 2014 by Jeebus Cripes

[Ananayel]

That episode of Conspiracy Theory was classic. I admit I have a soft spot for Jesse Ventura, against all my better judgement, and things like him holding Icke's feet to the fire about whether he believed all that garbage or was just in it for the money and the women are why. Icke was probably used sparingly because he'll charge them a giant fee for anything more.

 

For your reading pleasure.

[Jeebus Cripes]

Indeed. Ventura's show is a good guilty pleasure. At best it's thought provoking, at worst it's still entertaining as hell.

[SoSueMe]

Guilty pleasure for me too. Those Nazca lines are too cool.

 

I don't know why exactly, but Giorgio's face always reminds me of a koala bear. 

[radishcake]

The Great Sphinx in Giza is the largest and most studied monolithic sculpture on Earth, yet it remains one of humanities greatest mysteries. This ancient monolith defies explanation, pre-dates our earliest known civilizations and may hide the secrets of our very origins. While mainstream archeology theorizes that the Sphinx was built around 2500 BC, geological evidence suggests it is much older. If this is true, then who--or what--created the Sphinx? Researchers are now proposing the existence of a second, twin Sphinx on the Giza Plateau. If so, has it been deliberately hidden from mankind? The face of the Sphinx is believed to represent Egyptian pharaoh Khafra, yet the size and proportion of the massive carving suggests the head has been altered. Could the statue have originally represented an otherworldly being that came to Earth some 10,000 years ago, as Ancient Astronaut theorists propose?

 

[radishcake]

Who knew the mummies had secrets?? Apparently the ancient aliens! Synopsis will be added when it becomes available!

[jumper sage]

Anyone see this?  I agree they usually just repackage their old segments but this one was a refreshing change.  Discussion on the many different types of hominids that existed at the same time as Homo Sapiens.

I am an armchair scientist and love following the unearthing of Denisovans and Homo Floresiensis.  I loved learning that we didn't kill off Neanderthals but merely absorbed them and Denisovans.  I don't mean to be so simplistic so this source will go into better detail.  They also talk about Homo Neladi.

I was so glad to find an episode that while it had it's crazy alien twists also had a nice conversation of evolution.  Sure they say humans have made a jump that does not follow Darwins theory and can't imagine different hominids on the planet at the same time.  

The link above to the review of the episode does such a great job, I won't repeat it.  I would like to add the finding of the Polar Bear hybrid negates their theory of big leaps and, as an added bonus, adds to the discussion on climate change.

[David T. Cole]

Hi, I edited the topic title to follow our standard episode topic format. There's a switch in the editor to turn on when creating episode topic that will help you out. Thanks. I have to catch up on so many episodes of AA but I'm waiting for a head cold which is a wonderful state of mind in which to watch AA.

[Archeologystudent]

There are several claims in this episode that I find to be flawed.

·         Egyptians gained beliefs of afterlife from ancient aliens

o   If ancient aliens influenced ancient Egyptians and helped shape their religion and beliefs about the afterlife, why wouldn’t they have tried to spread these beliefs to other ancient civilizations. It isn’t likely that the aliens would have simply decided that Egyptians were the sole inheritors of their knowledge, and the aliens had to have known of other humans or could have detected them with technology advanced enough for space travel. Since the belief in the afterlife is so varied between cultures and not even universal, it couldn’t have been the work of aliens.

·         Mummification and winged creatures were a result of a universal alien culture

o   If the beliefs behind the winged creatures/gods was inspired by aliens, and so was mummification, then the practices should be less varied then they are, while the winged creatures are found in multiple ancient cultures, their depictions as shown in the episode are only comparable on the surface, as the Egyptian god is the body of a man with the heads of a bird, and other such depictions are men with wings or creatures with wings. If these were supposedly from the same source, they would all be universal. The same can be said for the different mummies. The Chilean mummies depicted do have their organs removed, but that step is necessary for the process of drying the body, and was probably found to be useful by trial and error, furthermore, there is no mention that their organs were preserved in jars like the ancient Egyptians did, and if they could have been incased in mud, they should have been capable of making mud jars. The fact that these winged creatures and mummy practices are similar are not unusual, as throughout more modern history, similar breakthroughs have surfaced in different areas at the same time, such as the birth of agriculture and the industrial revolution.

·         The Chachapoya sarcophagi

o   Again, if this knowledge was passed down from aliens it would make since that they should have given this knowledge to all ancient humans, or at least all humans in the area, yet the show clearly states that this tribe was the only one to make the sarcophagi. So why wouldn’t the other tribes have made them as well? surely, they would have heard of the aliens and their tales of the afterlife.

These claims, while interesting, can be proven to be coincidental or explained in more logical manners, and while I myself believe in aliens, I find it hard to believe that aliens had anything to do with mummification, or any ancient civilization for that matter.

[anthromajor]

The Sphinx has long been established as the face of Egypt identity known today. Although it is hard to pinpoint the exact construction period, the Sphinx is approximated around the 4th king of 4th dynasty, c. 2575–c. 2465 BCE for the pharaoh Khafre. This can be linked to the Sphinx temple, the Causeway and the Khafre mortuary temple that are all part of a complex which predates Dynasty IV. The lion has long been a symbol associated with the sun in ancient Near Eastern civilizations. Images depicting the Egyptian king in the form of a lion smiting his enemies date as far back as the Early Dynastic Period. This shows the Sphinx could be loosely based off of what they have seen in the region. This concept is not new to civilizations depicting strong animals in accordance to rulers of societies. he royal human head on a lion's body symbolized power and might, controlled by the intelligence of the pharaoh, guarantor of the cosmic order, or ma'at. Its symbolism survived for two and a half millennia in the iconography of Egyptian civilization. An easy way to identify the Sphinx's authenticity from the Egyptians is the material used to construct the monument. The material of the Sphinx is the limestone bedrock of what geologists call the Muqqatam Formation, which originated fifty million years ago from sediments deposited at the bottom of sea waters that engulfed northeast Africa during the Middle Eocene period. The good, hard limestone that lay around the Sphinx's head was probably all quarried for blocks to build the pyramids. To do so, they trenched out a deep, U-shaped ditch that isolated a huge rectangular bedrock block for carving the Sphinx. This enclosure is deepest immediately around the body, with a shelf at the rear of the monument where it was left unfinished and a shallower extension to the north where important archaeological finds have been made. Today, much of the work on the Great Sphinx at Giza is not directed at further explorations or excavations, but rather the preservation of this great wonder of Egypt. This is the focus, and while some might even today have the antiquity authorities digging about the monument looking for hidden chambers holding the secrets of Atlantis, that is not likely to happen any time soon. 

[CaptainAnthro]

While the sphinx may be somewhat of a marvel in our eyes today as people of lesser technology couldn't possibly have created something like this, right? wrong, actually, The same goes for the claims surrounding the pyramids being some kind of constellation map, specifically Orion's belt. dated to around 2575 BC the sphinx would sit within the time range of Khafre, from a lore perspective symbolism has long been important to those in the east, the lion (sphinx) is no exception. The image of leaders absolutely massacring enemies with lion motifs have been around for ages and the use of a sphinx to portray that imagery is no surprise. Not to discount anyone's theory as to alternative meanings behind these amazing wonders of the ancient world, but the idea that the sphinx is modeled after an other worldly being is a bit far-fetched.

[CaptainAnthro]

I respect all people and what they believe but here are times in which the mind takes an idea and runs with it. Such as the idea of getting a belief in the afterlife from an otherworldly being. an idea in the afterlife stems from religion, and the religion had morphed over thousands of years. The notion that an ancient civilization could understand let alone follow instructions or an explanation about the afterlife. I find it hard to believe that an idea that had been formulated from abstract or even outlandish claims can be hard to follow.

when it comes to the sarcophagus, as there is only 1 active creation of the artifact. Had this been passed down from some other life form then surely the aliens would've told other tribes about the item.

[AnthroQueen]

I am currently an Anthropology student and watching this episode made me think about Japan and the influence of Shintoism within their culture. This episode jumped from topics quickly and looked over what Shintoism means and is to the Japanese. Although, the overarching view within the episode is that aliens are visiting Japan because of their connect to Shintoism and their rapid growth cannot be explained in humanistic terms.

 

Japan’s economic miracle is addressed in the episode with the reasoning that Japan could not have developed that quickly on their own. However, the economic miracle can be explained by the results of the benefits of post World War II Japan from the Cold War. The Japanese government not only accepted aid from the U.S. Marshall Plan, but economic intervention from the government themselves.

 

The episode also states that Japan has had an increased number of UFO sightings. However,like that majority of UFO sightings, they can be the results of balloons, weather phenomenas, meteors, and hoaxes. The unexplained UFO sightings all around the world are typically fundamentally different from the other sightings. UFO sighting have a logical reasoning behind them, which can be explained scientifically.

 

Another issues raised in the episode was the keyhole shaped Kofun. These tombs were built during the Yayoi and Kofun period around 3rd to 6th century AD. The Kofun have large monoliths on top of the tomb. The episode also mentions the Ishi-no-Hoden megalith, or the Iwafune Shrine in Japan. The mythology does call the shrine a “Heavenly Sky Boat,” however if we focus on a comparative approach to the sky boat and the importance of communication between the gods and people we can see how these megaliths can represent cultural significance.

 

We know from other cultures around the world that humanity has been able to move large stones with the use of human ingenuity. On Easter Island, they more than likely rocked the large statues back and forth to move them forward. In Ancient Egypt, the stones were moved with sleds while pouring water in front to increase movement for the sled. Just because humanity did not have the technology that we do today does not mean the people in the past were unintelligent.

 

Although Ancient Aliens can be a fun idea to discuss. There is no factual, scientific evidence that can be given to any of these theories.

[scowl]

For some reason, Japan rates among the lowest in the world in UFO reports per capita.

[AnthroAvenger]

The foundational argument for this episode of Ancient Aliens is predicated upon the hosts’ assumption that, due to their extremely large size, the Nazca lines could only have been seen by ancient peoples from the air. According to their logic, this must mean that the ancient Nazcan people received help from technologically advanced extraterrestrials who guided them in their construction. However, their assumption is false; the Nazca lines lie directly adjacent to a mountain range. The ancient Nazcans could very feasibly have ascended the mountains to some height to view their handiwork, if they had wanted to.

Much is made about the various shapes and figures scattered throughout the Nazca lines. One contributor points out that one of the massive triangular shapes is depressed 24 inches into the ground, a feat they claim ancient humans would have been incapable of. Humans were stacking stones up to the heavens over in Egypt (see: The Pyramids at Giza) millennia before the Nazca are even identifiable as a culture, so the idea that a determined group of humans could not stamp down or remove a 24-inch layer of dirt from a large space is ludicrous and quite frankly, insulting. They also claim that the planning and construction of such a large triangular shape would be beyond the reasoning capabilities of the ancient Nazcan people. By definition, all that is required for a triangle is a base line from the ends of which two lines extend in the same direction. The two lines will always meet eventually, when building on such a massive scale, why would the Nazcans care where the lines met? It would be big either way, no planning needed.

Another contributor suggests that the figures align with the stars in some convoluted way. However, statistical reasoning shows that with such an abundance of lines drawn in such an abundance of configurations, it is almost impossible for some of them not to line up with stars and constellations at some point in the year in some fashion. (1) Another host suggests that the large figure commonly known as El Astronato is meant to represent an astronaut visitor pointing toward the sky. However, nothing definitively points to this being the truth. It ultimately looks like a humanoid figure with simplified facial features (which would be admittedly difficult to sculpt on such a scale), and the figure could just as easily be waving as pointing, as there are no fingers scraped out in the dirt.

One important thing to note is that most scholars now agree that the Nazca lines were made at two different times, in two different sets. The more pictorial glyphs representing animal and human figures came first, followed by most of the simpler linear geoglyphs (2). A cultural examination of Nazca mythology offers a much more reasonable and rather convincing explanation for the existence of these large geoglyphs. One scholar suggests that the Nazcan people created the lines as part of an incredibly complex and large-scale practice of ancestor veneration. By creating and maintaining the lines by walking along them, they reenacted their creation myth, perhaps in an effort to bring water to their arid land. Through this, they connected themselves to their gods and ancestors paid respects to their creator god by crafting images of the animal forms legends said he took (3).

 

1. Iammarino, Darren. “The Nazca Geoglyphs: A Pictographic Creation Story.” Skeptic, 2016, 18.

2. Iammarino, Darren. “The Nazca Geoglyphs: A Pictographic Creation Story.” Skeptic, 2016, 21.

3. Iammarino, Darren. “The Nazca Geoglyphs: A Pictographic Creation Story.” Skeptic, 2016, 24-5.

[Lykoi]

A tactic I have found to be of frequent use on Ancient Aliens is the strategy of Gish Gallop, a technique that was constantly abused and created by Duane Gish the young earth creationist. Gish Gallop is basically the fallacious debate tactic that supporters of conspiracies and challengers of science use by creating a series of weaker arguments and misinterpretations to drown out the opponent in a flood of fictions and distortions to prevent rebuttal of the whole argument. Ancient Aliens uses this same tactic - a series of small, fast intrusive arguments that buries any counter arguments. 

The main point of this episode was to make the convincing argument that aliens exterminated the dinosaurs so that there would be more room and less competition for our species.  My first issue with this hypothesis is that throughout the entire episode they don't use any explicit evidence their claims.  Instead, they use evidence from fundamentalist Christians: Michael Cremo, author of Forbidden Archaeology, and Willie Dye, credited biblical archaeologist with past young creationist views that were lacked to mention; not very reliable scholarly sources (4, 5). 

One piece of "evidence" that was used by the creationists was referencing that some researchers had found human footprints alongside the footprints of dinosaurs (Cremo). This line was used out of context in Cremo's interview but was used in parallel with another piece of evidence that Roland T. Bird, credited paleontologist, found human footprints that were associated with dinosaur trackways in Texas.  When researching upon these footprints, it's easily found that he found many dinosaur footprints and trackways, but no human tracks. It was even found that carved human tracks were carved in the same stone by locals - but creationists, blinded by dogma, use these fake tracks to misinterpret them as human footprints (2). 

Dye creationist later uses the Ica stones from Peru as evidence to support the idea that humans and dinosaurs coexisted - the famous fake stones that are engraved with images of dinosaurs and humans interacting. These stones were created by farmer Basilio Uschuya and his wife, yet the Ica stones are presented as evidence by both Dye and Ancient Aliens as if they are authentic ancient artifacts recovered from the age of dinosaurs (1).  

While trying to prove the idea that aliens exterminated dinosaurs and that humans coexisted with them, the show continues on to argue that carbon-14 dating isn't reliable for aging dinosaurs.  But if someone in the field were to actually be asked, it is known that paleontologists don't use carbon-14 to age non-avian dinosaurs - carbon dating is used for materials containing carbon up to 60,000 years old.  Paleontolgoists use radiometric dating for estimating non-avian dinosaurs, just as you use different dating systems for different rocks and ages.

Lastly, the episode makes a case that the coelacanth, an archaic lobe-finned fish that predates evolution of the dinosaurs, is in modern existence of non-avian dinosaurs. The show contradictingly concludes that aliens manipulated dinosaur DNA to turn them into less threatening animals like the coelacanth - ignoring the fact that coelacanths were already around in the oceans for more than 360 million years (3). So did the aliens exterminate the dinosaurs or did the dinosaurs survive into modern day by being molecularly manipulated into being fish? As usual, Ancient Civilizations continues their redundant arguments that consist of small pieces of seemingly irrelevant and false information for their overall conclusions.

References

1. Polidoro, M. (2006) Ica Stones: Yabba-Dabba-Do! Skeptical Inquirer, 26(5)

2. http://www.footprintsinstone.com/history/roland-t-bird/

3. Amemiya, C. T., Alfoldi, J., Lee, A. P., Fan, S., Philippe, H., MacCallum, I., … Lindblad-Toh, K. (2013). The African coelacanth genome provides insights into tetrapod evolution. Nature, 496(7445), 311–316. 

4. http://www.mcremo.com/

5. http://yorkshiretales.com/allaboutmormonism/page_bogus_doctor_willie_dye.html

[scowl]

You have to read the classic book that started this nonsense: Chariots of the Gods written by convicted criminal Erich von Däniken. He did brilliant job of finding all the mysteries (and several that weren't mysteries at all) in the world and explaining them with crazy extraterrestrial theories. Back in the early 70's, everyone was talking about this book, even educated people, because hardly anyone knew anything about the artifacts in the book. It started a whole industry of "In Search Of" movies and a TV series. The concept was nearly killed by a classic episode of Nova on PBS in which actual archaeologists explained that everything in the book had mundane explanations. Everyone who saw it felt like they had been had. It was a total bummer! 

But a good money-making scheme never ever dies. Once FOX made a bundle in the 90's with the Alien Autopsy special showing a true alien autopsy, and then cleverly aired a followup special showing that it was probably a fraud, it was only a matter of time before someone dug out their old paperback of Chariots of the Gods and sold the ideas to a new generation of suckers. 

[SexxyRexxy]

The episode hints at alien involvement with the intricacies of our bodies (primarily blood type ). I theorize that this extraterrestrial involvement is responsible for the “distribution” of disease/illness. Strategically placed in certain demographics, bloodlines, etc. as a means of experimentation. Ultimately that this experiment might be to determine which “human form” offers the most promise in regards to evolving our species. 

[hypnotoad]

I recently discovered this show watching mini-a-thons on A&E. You know if you drank every single time the narrator says 'ancient astronaut theorists believe,' you would be really drunk.

Quote

Sometimes they hit on some really interesting things that are more factual like the various histories of civilizations which I find kind of fascinating.

Agreed. I do like learning some things about ancient cultures and Gods. But then the show ruins that information with ALIENS!

This show is a new guilty pleasure for me for sure.

[OoohMaggie]

14 hours ago, hypnotoad said:

Agreed. I do like learning some things about ancient cultures and Gods. But then the show ruins that information with ALIENS!

In what way is your information ruined by Aliens?

[OoohMaggie]

I’ve always been intrigued as to how people can dismiss ‘Aliens’ with the wave of a hand, and yet as soon as the word ‘Gods’ is mentioned, things are taken so much more seriously. No thought seems to be given to the fact that ‘Aliens’, could be mistaken for ‘Gods’ by those people without the intellect, knowledge or imagination to consider otherwise.

[WalkerTalker]

On 10/24/2018 at 2:43 PM, OoohMaggie said:

I’ve always been intrigued as to how people can dismiss ‘Aliens’ with the wave of a hand, and yet as soon as the word ‘Gods’ is mentioned, things are taken so much more seriously. No thought seems to be given to the fact that ‘Aliens’, could be mistaken for ‘Gods’ by those people without the intellect, knowledge or imagination to consider otherwise.

It has been a while since I read the bible. But, I do remember a verse in the beginning stating  how they prepared a site for him, God. Draped in red curtains and alter, etc. He came with feet of fire. They described how they prepared for his coming. They described how he arrived, feet of fire. After reading that chapter/verse a person has to believe either in a God, or someone, or something more powerful than all of us. Yet that verse to me describes a spaceship,God, powerful person coming to earth from above. People during that time would have no knowledge of spaceships. So, the description of feet of fire might be how one describes a spaceship. Or, it could be a literal description and that could be a God, or powerful person. So, it is not far fetched to believe in aliens, God, Gods, or all of them. If you believe in God you will know the truth at some point as God will remove or lift the veil and all will be known. But, I think right after that he destroys the earth. You know what they state I can tell you, but then I have to kill you, or be careful what you ask for.  They say once the Temple Mound is rebuilt in Jerusalem the end will come. I state then don't build the TM there and we are all safe, da.

[scowl]

I don't believe aliens or gods or any other supernatural beings are necessary to explain anything, nor do practicing anthropologists. 

[hypnotoad]

Quote

In what way is your information ruined by Aliens?

Because I don't think human belief in Gods has to be explained by aliens. I don't believe every 'God' was an alien. I don't believe human belief in vampires (or other such monsters) means those things were actually aliens after human blood. I don't generally like the attitude that ancient humans weren't capable of building this or that so it must be aliens. It isn't that I don't believe aliens exist, I just don't believe every single thing that we cannot explain was done by aliens. Oh I'm sorry ancient astronauts. YMMV of course.

[Notwisconsin]

This should be listed among the scripted shows like the Office or Parks and Rec. It's fact-free and has no right to be taken seriously. it's one of the shows that destroyed the History channel.

[jumper sage]

On 10/28/2018 at 12:06 AM, scowl said:

I don't believe aliens or gods or any other supernatural beings are necessary to explain anything, nor do practicing anthropologists. 

I agree.  Civilizations have risen and fallen for millennia.  There is no reason to think it won't haven again.

I also don't disregard other life forms out there since we are a life form that is out there.

[LennieBriscoe]

Woot! I just bought a ticket to attend a talk and book-signing by Graham Hancock in NYC this May (2019)!!

[AnimeMania]

New Episode! Season 14 premieres on May 31, 2019 at 9:00   History Channel. 

[BenootAnthro]

While Ancient Aliens has risen in popularity, its sense of proof is exactly enough. To be able to prove your theory is right, you have to do your best to prove it wrong. It sounds backwards, but if you can’t prove it wrong, then there is no other option but the truth. This process is called the Scientific Theory and its taught in most classrooms.

 

The bit of evidence I want to talk about was the Saqqara bird. The artifact in question is a small wooden carving of what is presumably a bird, but what the show claims is that it actually was a plane, in which extraterrestrials used to visit the Egyptians. Now, that does not sound right to me at all. First of all, the painting on the figurine is of that of a bird. The beak is well defined, and you can clearly see the eyes. The cool part is not that it was based off a plane, but rather planes where first based off birds.

 

The wings of the figurine are thicker towards the body, but thinner at the edge. Planes are modelled the same exact way, so I see why the show counted that as evidence, but they jumped the gun so to speak. While it does look like a plane, it is in fact modelled after the same thing as planes, birds.

 

The Saqqara bird is theorized to be a ceremonial tool, as it could symbolized that of Horus, one of Egypt’s main deities. It was placed in the tomb to ensure safe passage in the afterlife. I personally believe it probably was a to, made to glide like the birds, like we do now. Ancient civilizations were teaming with ideas that are similar to ours, from math to calendars. Human ingenuity is absolutely incredible, and this little guy just shows it.

[LennieBriscoe]

Mini-tour!

https://www.ancientalienslivetour.com/

I have my ticket and my M&G (mask required)!

(P.S. I didn't go to the abovementioned NYC event.) 

Edited March 27, 2022 by LennieBriscoe

[CouchTater]

On 3/27/2022 at 1:39 AM, LennieBriscoe said:

Mini-tour!

https://www.ancientalienslivetour.com/

I have my ticket and my M&G (mask required)!

(P.S. I didn't go to the abovementioned NYC event.) 

I'm jealous!  I want to go, but no one I know is interested.  😒

[iRarelyWatchTV36]

This series is a definite guilty pleasure.  Honestly, most Fridays/nights its on for background noise, but I watch more for chuckles than true belief - at least about every last thing they theorize about.  Humor found in Giorgio's hair, the constant repetition of "ancient alien theorists believe .....", certain actions/reactions from the theorists, etc.

And you can tell a documentary series has been on (arguably too) many seasons when "new" episodes are just parts of past episodes repackaged as a 'Top Ten ________' or like the current new season's batch, taking past clips and editing them together of them revisiting sites labeled as 'On Location: _______'.

[iRarelyWatchTV36]

Watched some earlier seasons' eps this morning - during this day's marathon - and thankfully Giorgio grew out of the 'fake baked' tan phase (or maybe it was the spray-on kind, idk).

Wasn't a good look, and really stands out in HD.

[jennblevins]

Well, the Ancient Aliens Live tour has finally found its way to my city, so I’ve purchased tickets. Has anyone here been to one of these?  I have no idea what to expect, other than no legroom (according to reviews of the venue).