To test the hypothesis that the prehistoric record contains evidence of enormous and unexpected eaps forward in science and technology, like agriculture, pyramid building, and writing, and these are evidence of the introduction of extraterrestrial aliens to ancient populations. I will use a deductive approach to the theory. The deductive approach begins by looking at a general theory and testing it with specific observations. For example, starting with the theory like all dogs like water, then formulating a hypothesis based off of this like all pet dogs in my apartment building like water, then collect evidence so have either a sample or survey if the dogs in my apartment building like water, and then analyze the results, not all dogs in my apartment building like water. This is how you would conduct research deductively. To do this with the hypothesis that the prehistoric record contains evidence of enormous and unexpected leaps forward in science and technology and that these advancements are evidence of the introduction of such innovations by extraterrestrial aliens. 

Testing this hypothesis would look something like taking the hypothesis and collecting data to prove or disprove the hypothesis and larger theory – aliens visited earth and influenced early human populations. This would of course look like archaeological artifacts, features, and sites that support or refute the hypothesis. Then we would look to analyse the results from these artifacts, features, and sites. 

One of the cases mentioned in the Ancient Aliens episode was that of the Nazca Lines in South America. The pseudoscientists and von Däniken try to explain what these lines are through the use of extraterrestrial aliens that the native peoples of the area are trying to communicate with via pictures of things they experience, like spiders, monkeys, and other assorted pictures of animals and such. He then goes on to try to explain the more geometric lines, the lines that don’t make a picture of an animal or obvious object, by stating that they are for __. The Nazca Lines, it is argued, can only be seen from the air. For example, if aliens were looking at them as they flew over the landscape. However, this can be disproven easily as the pictures and geometric lines can be seen from high ground, there is no necessity to be in the air to see them, perhaps the best view is from the air, but they can still be seen from high ground, disproving this part of their ideas of the Nazca Lines. Their next argument would be, what did they use them for? To which archaeologists would say, we don’t have a clear picture of what exactly they were used for but we have very solid hypotheses(much more solid than aliens did it). For example, maybe people walked them as a part of a ritual, or to tell a story of their ancestors, or maybe they were art for the sake of creating something beautiful. Generally, these arguments stem from ethnocentric and racist ideas that native peoples couldn’t accomplish feats like their own pyramids, the Nazca Lines, or their own writing system. These ideas and pseudoarchaeological theories are completely unfounded and often ignore the cultural context in which we find them.