A Strange History

By

David Calvert

‘Time will reveal everything. It is a babbler, and speaks even when not asked’. So wrote
the ancient Greek dramatist, Euripides. Certainly, it has revealed, in part, a human history
replete with strange sights in the skies, powerful beings, and age-old artefacts that cast
doubt on our understanding of archaeological, scientific and historical perspectives.
Though we should perhaps view these aberrances with a healthy dose of scepticism, it
would be wise not to ignore them out of hand.
Long before the advent of the written word, prehistoric man depicted scenes of
everyday life through literal drawings or paintings. One such cave painting (circa 2000
BCE) discovered between the border of Russia and China is one such artefact. But what
had its originator witnessed that caused him to paint images of what, to all intents and
purposes, are a space suited entity standing beneath a saucer-shaped UFO emitting a
plume of smoke from its underbelly, while in the foreground stands another entity
holding what appears to be a disc-shaped device.
How do we square such imagery with orthodox science? Is it remotely possible
for a prehistoric man to depict a scene of a modern day phenomenon by chance alone, or
is the image evidence of the archetypal phenomenon Carl Gustav Jung wrote of in his
1959 book. Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth Of Things Seen In The Sky?
His theory states that when a UFO (in its literal sense) manifests itself, its imagery
is such that it stimulates powerful unconscious mental processes in the mind of the
witness. These unconscious processes, in turn, are released into the conscious mind of the
observer causing them to give meaning to what they have seen. Cultural and personal
expectations colour the interpretation of the sighting. The projected meaning is then
passed on, ad infinitum, to others and is perpetuated and strengthened over time.
Our ancestral ‘gods’ are no longer in vogue, however, and have been replaced by
icons befitting a technologically advanced and sophisticated society.

The Hieroglyphs of Thutmose III

Hieroglyphics are one of the earliest known forms of writing and here, too, there
are disconcerting and troublesome anomalies. The papyrus text of Pharaoh Thutmose III
(1504 - 1450 BCE), found among the papers of a director of the Vatican’s Egyptian
museum, recorded aerial phenomena reminiscent to that of the Mexican UFO wave of the
1990s. This is considered to be the first sighting on record.
It began with “… a circle of fire coming in the sky …it had no head (not a comet),
the breath of its mouth had a foul odour. Its body was one rod (5 m) long and one rod
wide. It had no voice“. After some days the UFOs began to multiply, becoming … “more
numerous in the sky than ever.” and extending to …“the limits of the four supports of the
heavens.” Eventually, they climbed high and headed south.
While it is possible that some form of hysterical contagion was responsible for the
sighting there are, nevertheless, curious aspects to these UFOs that are noteworthy: their
bright circular appearance, their peculiar smell, and their silent manoeuvres seem to
mirror contemporary UFO accounts.

Alexander’s Flying Shields

Occasionally, UFOs are seen to take a hand in human affairs. No lesser personage
than Alexander the Great was allegedly aided in his conquest of the besieged city of Tyre
by five “flying shields”, moving in triangular formation. The year was 322 BCE. The
largest of the circling UFOs suddenly shot a beam of light at the city wall, breaching its
defences. Alexander’s army then poured into the city whilst the UFOs hovered overhead.
When the citadel was secured, they flew off.
Personal research, however, has cast doubt on the authenticity of these events and
reflects on the credibility of an earlier account Alexander was supposed to have had with
UFOs at Jaxartes, India. In his work Anabasis of Alexander, the second century Greek
historian, Flavius Arrianus, attributes the cities downfall to an intricate siege work that
made it possible for Alexander’s army to scale the 150 ft high walls, with not a “flying
shield” in sight.

Ezekiel’s “wheels.”

Even the Bible is not spared the Ancient Astronaut Hypothesis. The story of
Ezekiel’s wheel (595 BCE) has become a testament to its proponents of things
extraterrestrial. It is one of the most controversial theories in ufological circles.
Here the biblical prophet portrays a craft that NASA scientist, Joseph F Blumrich
claims we are all familiar with. Even allowing for some variation in Blumrich’s design,
other commentators agree that Ezekiel’s description is that of a helicopter-like craft,
comprising of a capsule supported on four legs, each containing helicopter units having
folding rotors and retractable wheels.
‘Might Ezekiel’s description of the “living creatures” with four faces and four
wings be his way of describing the legs and the four rotor units?’ Blumrich asks.
The explanation seems plausible when one considers the primitive culture Ezekiel
sprang from, and his limited vocabulary when faced with such an apparent super
technology. He might very well have interpreted it in the only way he knew - as God.
What is more, if the provenance of a helicopter hieroglyph and other astounding images
discovered in the ancient temple of Seti I is proven to be true, then it would certainly
seem that such technology existed over 3000 years ago.
One might suppose, given all this alleged superior technology, that something
other than cave drawings and ancient texts survived the ravages of time; some tangible
‘nuts and bolts’ evidence of the otherworldly intellects believed to have coexisted with
man.

The Earliest Know Battery

The 2000-year-old Baghdad battery was discovered by archaeologists in Iraq in

1936. But is it evidence of extraterrestrial know-how, or just simply the remnant of a long
lost human civilisation, whose greatness rivalled and exceeded that of our own? The
battery consists of all the components that go to make up a working battery cell. When
researchers made up a replica of it, substituting battery acid for fruit juice, it produced a
half volt of electricity, enough power to coat artefacts with silver or gold, a technique
known to us today as electroplating. Such a discovery points to a knowledge and
advanced technology being in place millennia before the Italian physicist Alessandra
Volta (1745-1827) invented the first modern battery in 1800.

Charting the Heavens

Parts of what is believed to be an early astrolabe (a device that is used to measure

the altitudes of planets and stars) were recovered from a shipwreck in the eastern
Mediterranean at the turn of the 20th century. Inscriptions on its workings dated it at
around 80 BCE. Known as the Antikythera Mechanism, it was X-radiographed in 1971
and it revealed a remarkably sophisticated internal arrangement of dials, gears, and
graded plates. Following an in-depth study of this unique instrument and its mechanisms,
Professor Derek de Solla Price concluded that it must have been some form of computing
device for studying the movements of the Sun, Moon, and planets. Whatever its function,
it is a technology far in advance of its time.
Babylonian priests possessed knowledge of Jupiter’s four largest moons, the
phases of Venus, and seven satellites belonging to Saturn, long before Galileo (1564-
1642) invented the telescope and made astronomical observations, finally establishing the
Copernican theory of the universe.

Age of Enlightenment

Even today Homo sapiens are still divided on the origins of mankind. About half
believe in the Darwinian theory of evolution, in which no intelligent intervention is
required, while the other half believe that some form of intelligence was necessary. Those
holding the latter view are split into factions: a) the creationists who see God as the
source of all life, and b) the astrogenecists, who see humanity as the product of an
extraterrestrial experiment.
The concept of extraterrestrial life is now one of the most persevering themes of
western civilisation, yet strangely its roots date back to at least the ancient Greeks. Pre-
1980s historians largely ignored it because they thought it did not constitute science or
have any intellectually respected history.
In 1977 Steven J. Dick, an astronomer and historian of science at the US Naval
Observatory wrote, The Biological Universe: The Twentieth Century Extraterrestrial Life
Debate and the Limits of Science. The debate’s history offers numerous and timely
lessons about the nature of evidence and inference. Dick has a BS in Astrophysics, and an
MA and PhD in History and Philosophy of Science from Indiana University.
However we interpret them, these and other anomalies have been with us since
the earliest times. Only now are some beginning to seriously question their provenance.
Labelling them as oddities, fanciful anecdotes, quirks, and hoaxes, simply because they
challenge our worldview of history is unscientific. To ignore them is to deny our heritage
- whatever that might ultimately prove to be.

References.

White, Michael (1997): The X Factor, issue 12, Marshall Cavendish Partworks Ltd.

Brookesmith, Peter (1995): UFO: The Complete Sightings Catalogue, BCA.

Story, Ronald D (ed.) (2002): The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Encounters,

Constable & Robinson Ltd.

Blumrich, Joseph F (1974): The Spaceships of Ezekiel, Bantam.

Watson, William H (March/April 1999): UFO Magazine, Quest Publications International

Ltd.

Alford, Alan F (September/October 1997): UFO Magazine, Quest Publications

International Ltd.

ENDS.