The hypothesis that prehistoric record contains evidence of enormous and unexpected leaps forwards in science and technology such as Agriculture and pyramid building writing by Ancient Aliens could be tested through a Deductive approach. Civilizations throughout history have learned to use trial and error when it comes to their agricultural knowledge. Prehistorical people were hunter gathers, and had to move wherever their food and resources moved. As time went on, civilizations became better at using irrigation systems and other techniques for agricultural purposes. The Ancient Egyptians used the Nile River to their advantage and created Delta systems to thrive throughout their countryside. Multiple cultures and peoples over time discovered new ways to grow their agricultural systems. If Aliens had inserted themselves into such civilizations, then what would be the point of all the trial and errors. Aliens are supposedly such highly intellectual beings so shouldn’t they have had all the answers from the beginning?
In Watching Ancient Aliens, one of the mystery’s brought up was that of Nazca Lines. Lines that appear on top of a large plateau that look identical to runway strips, and giant art works that can only be seen from the sky. Von Daniken points to the fact that they must have been for aliens to see from above almost as in to point them towards the people of Nazca. Historically speaking, the Nazca people most likely used those lines for irrigation systems to draw out and connect water. The art work may have been done in large scale to be seen from above, but it could have to do with religious practices. The same way the old ladies at church raise their hands to the sky while praising god. Just because something’s pointed to the sky does not mean it’s to signal aliens. People and cultures overtime have had numerous ways of practicing faith. We just don’t always understand it from their cultural perspective so we come up with crazy theories to explain it.
Another point to be made is why couldn’t early humans have created such masterpieces such as the pyramids? In all the videos watched on Aliens building the pyramids, it is always brought up that it would be too hard for a simple human to complete such a project. In all honesty I think it is perfectly possible for human beings to create such magnificent structures. It would take a long time to do build the pyramids but when you have thousands of slaves ding the work under pressure, I’m sure it could be possible. The same question goes for the American Stonehenge. Why is it so hard for some to believe that humans in fact are capable of moving large rocks into a celestial formation?
Cultures and civilizations overtime have shown slow processes of technological advances, same as we do today. Trial and error were how past civilizations grew into better agriculture. The same way we continue to come up with more efficient ways of transportation and communication today, such as iPhone. People didn’t need Aliens to help them find their way, they just needed to figure it out slowly.
Hello, I also focused on the Nazca lines for my blog post. I agree that the lines could have been made for irrigation systems. It would make a lot of sense considering the these lines were made away from many water sources, and at a high elevation. I love your example of the old ladies at church very comedic, but it draws a great point. Just because something is pointed to the sky does not mean it is aliens. I also said in my blog post that the Nazca people could have been praising their gods with these large scale pictures. One thing i brought up is that maybe every picture represented a different god, if these people were polytheistic. This would explain all the different types of geoglyphs found in Nazca. I also completely agree that many of the claims about ancient peoples can be ethnocentric. We cannot be sure what they were capable of back in this time, and to discredit them by saying they were not smart enough or advanced enough to make structures of this size would be unfair. I also agree with your claim about the American Stonehenge. That entire part of the episode that we had to watch about that was so incredibly stupid to me. The man investigating was like “it feels old, therefore its gotta be”. Many of these claims are not backed up with any science at all. As for your last statement, I agree that we should not jump to crazy conclusions like aliens, we just need to give credit where credit is due and realize that these past structures were created by ancient peoples over long spans of time.
I enjoyed your blog post very much. Your use of comparing the possible ritual of walking the lines and women in church raising their hands to the sky, and stating that “just because something’s pointed to the sky does not mean it’s to signal aliens. I enjoyed this statement because I don’t think they often consider the similarities in ideologies between the past and the present. Both ancient civilizations and modern civilizations have been known to praise or build upwards in order to pray or pay respect to their god/gods. This was a really interesting dynamic to bring into your post. I agree with questioning why pseudoarchaeologists find it hard to believe that early humans could not have the intelligence for such advancements and structures. Turning the questioning onto the pseudoscientists creates whole into their arguments. The only real justification for many of their ideas is that early humans were too savage to create such things. When you question this and ask for evidence of this savagery, it’s often that they say that they did not have the intelligence of current white civilizations. These two things that you did in your post are very effective in arguments against pseudoarchaeologists and further that argument as well.