1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:10,000 For many UFO buffs, sightings are not a contemporary phenomenon. 2 00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:22,000 According to them, there's undeniable proof throughout the world that we were visited long ago by beings from outer space. 3 00:00:23,000 --> 00:00:29,000 These visitors supposedly left permanent traces of their passage here on Earth. 4 00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:35,000 Were our ancestors' gods actually astronauts from another planet? 5 00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:58,000 The Earth is a planet that is a part of the Earth's universe. 6 00:00:58,000 --> 00:01:04,000 The Earth is a planet that is a part of the Earth's universe. 7 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:10,000 The Earth is a planet that is a part of the Earth's universe. 8 00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:16,000 The Earth is a planet that is a part of the Earth's universe. 9 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:21,000 The Earth is a planet that is a part of the Earth's universe. 10 00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:35,000 In the aftermath of World War II, the UFO phenomenon became all the rage in the media. 11 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:41,000 At first it was thought that these unidentified flying objects were Russian or American secret weapons. 12 00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:45,000 Then the public began speculating that they were alien spaceships. 13 00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:51,000 Apparently these mysterious visitors were concerned over the invention of the atomic bomb. 14 00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:58,000 Then in the 1960s, popular authors threw a spin in the contemporary timeline of these sightings. 15 00:01:58,000 --> 00:02:06,000 They explained that aliens had not landed for the first time in 1947, but rather several thousand years earlier. 16 00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:14,000 Louis Powers, Jean-Bergier, Robert Chauroux, Zechariah Sitchin and especially Eric Von Danikin 17 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:19,000 heralded in this new vision of ancient astronauts. 18 00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:25,000 There's another whole area of interest in UFOs which is usually labeled the ancient astronauts 19 00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:32,000 and most popularized by the author Eric Von Danikin and in fact actually by a lot of other people even before him. 20 00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:39,000 He has often happens, he was more the person who bought it to the public than actually created much of that in the first place. 21 00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:46,000 He certainly extended his researches beyond what a lot of those had done and I'd have to say I think sometimes some of his researches were, 22 00:02:46,000 --> 00:02:54,000 shall we say a little shaky at times, what he did in real service more than the evidence he put forward was that he brought the subject to the fore 23 00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:58,000 and he got people interested in it and some of those people did very good research into it. 24 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:07,000 Ancient astronaut theory basically says that the, if you like UFO people or some kind of entities visited the Earth many, many years ago 25 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:11,000 and were part of the formation of our history. There are many possibilities. 26 00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:16,000 They could have been the entities that we regarded as our first gods perhaps. 27 00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:22,000 They could be the origins of the human race. They could be the people who created the human race and so on. 28 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:27,000 And ancient astronaut theory certainly looks back on that as that possibility. 29 00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:39,000 The theory of ancient astronauts, which has a very long history, was first introduced to the public in the 1960s 30 00:03:39,000 --> 00:03:50,000 when Louis Pauls and Jacques Bergier wrote a book on the subject called The Morning of the Magicians, which became a huge success. 31 00:03:51,000 --> 00:04:00,000 Its success paved the way for other authors, who had been thinking along the same lines. 32 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:05,000 And soon, other books began appearing on the market. 33 00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:19,000 In 1963, French author Robert Charrou wrote a book dedicated solely to the theory of the Magicians. 34 00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:34,000 And then, in 1968, Swiss author Eric von Daniken wrote Chariots of the Gods, which became a huge international success. 35 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:54,000 In the late 1960s, a Swiss author Eric von Daniken wrote a bestseller called Chariots of the Gods, 36 00:04:54,000 --> 00:05:04,000 which explained how aliens had visited Earth in ancient times and had crafted dozens of famous archaeological relics. 37 00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:08,000 His theory soon spread throughout the world. 38 00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:16,000 Well, perhaps a bit less in France, where the same ideas had already been introduced by Robert Charrou. 39 00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:31,000 When Charrou published his first book on ancient astronauts in 1963, there was a major difference between it and the book written by Pauls and Bergier, 40 00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:43,000 which had first introduced the idea that perhaps aliens had visited ancient Earth and had created the human race and civilization. 41 00:05:43,000 --> 00:06:05,000 Charrou took the same theory and provided so-called facts to back it up, such as archaeological monuments and extracts from holy scriptures of different religions. 42 00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:13,000 His thick book was filled with what he considered to be valid proof of this theory. 43 00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:22,000 Von Daniken took the same approach. He wanted to show that the human race had been created by extraterrestrial beings. 44 00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:34,000 His book was filled with facts designed to prove this. 45 00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:45,000 It was much more of a success than Charrou's because Daniken was able to express himself in very simple terms. 46 00:06:45,000 --> 00:06:55,000 Whereas Robert Charrou came from a more occult, esoteric background, and tended to use a language level that most people could not understand, 47 00:06:55,000 --> 00:07:03,000 filled with illusions that were difficult to decipher, unless you came from the same background as he did. 48 00:07:04,000 --> 00:07:17,000 Von Daniken, on the other hand, used a clear and concise language that the average person could understand. 49 00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:22,000 But was there any basis to the questions raised by these authors? 50 00:07:22,000 --> 00:07:27,000 According to them, the Great Pyramid of Keops, found on Egypt's Giza Plateau, 51 00:07:27,000 --> 00:07:39,000 a true architectural feat could not have been built without extraterrestrial intervention, fact or fantasy. 52 00:07:39,000 --> 00:07:45,000 If we want to determine whether the Egyptians really built the pyramids themselves, 53 00:07:45,000 --> 00:07:56,000 or whether they had outside help from extraterrestrials, because they were simply too huge and too complex for the time, 54 00:07:56,000 --> 00:08:01,000 then I think we need to look at known scientific data. 55 00:08:01,000 --> 00:08:06,000 We shouldn't stray from known facts and propose wild theories. 56 00:08:06,000 --> 00:08:14,000 If we look at historical data on how the pyramids were built, how the work was organized, 57 00:08:14,000 --> 00:08:19,000 and what goals the Egyptians had in mind when they built these monuments, 58 00:08:19,000 --> 00:08:23,000 then I think the facts speak for themselves. 59 00:08:23,000 --> 00:08:28,000 Obviously, some of the details are missing, and the more archaeologists investigate, 60 00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:33,000 the more the answers they find lead to further questioning. 61 00:08:33,000 --> 00:08:47,000 But we don't need visitors from outer space to explain the existence of the pyramids. 62 00:08:47,000 --> 00:08:51,000 It's easy to talk about extraterrestrials these days. 63 00:08:51,000 --> 00:08:55,000 The idea that they exist has been around for a long time. 64 00:08:55,000 --> 00:08:58,000 But now they're being seen in a different light. 65 00:08:58,000 --> 00:09:04,000 I personally don't believe all those stories about aliens building pyramids or Mesopotamian temples. 66 00:09:04,000 --> 00:09:08,000 Explanations were given long ago on how the pyramids were built, 67 00:09:08,000 --> 00:09:11,000 and they were more complicated than the Mesopotamian temples, 68 00:09:11,000 --> 00:09:16,000 since the pyramids were made from large stones that had to be carried across great distances. 69 00:09:16,000 --> 00:09:20,000 The pyramids of Giza were built from stones that may have come from Aswan, 70 00:09:20,000 --> 00:09:22,000 a village at the other end of the Nile. 71 00:09:22,000 --> 00:09:26,000 There are still quarries in Aswan where you can see the vestiges of these huge blocks 72 00:09:26,000 --> 00:09:32,000 that were cut and shipped by barge to the lower end of the Nile to be used in building pyramids. 73 00:09:32,000 --> 00:09:36,000 The Sumerians, on the other hand, used sun-dried and baked bricks to make their temples, 74 00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:41,000 which was much easier at the time since there were no stones available in their region. 75 00:09:41,000 --> 00:09:45,000 There was no stone in the region. 76 00:09:45,000 --> 00:09:49,000 How and with what were the stone blocks cut out of the quarries? 77 00:09:49,000 --> 00:09:53,000 How were they transported and joined together to the thousandth of an inch, 78 00:09:53,000 --> 00:09:56,000 asks Vondanikin in chariots of the gods. 79 00:09:56,000 --> 00:10:01,000 Vondanikin feels that nothing else can explain how builders overcame the difficulties 80 00:10:01,000 --> 00:10:05,000 involved in putting together a structure like the Great Pyramid. 81 00:10:05,000 --> 00:10:11,000 Imagining that the builders placed ten stone blocks per day, each weighing about 15 tons, 82 00:10:11,000 --> 00:10:18,000 he says that it should have taken 664 years to place the two million plus stones used in its construction. 83 00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:23,000 The problem is that Vondanikin multiplied the true weight of the stones by ten 84 00:10:23,000 --> 00:10:27,000 and added an extra 300,000 stones in his calculations. 85 00:10:27,000 --> 00:10:38,000 Whenever we discuss the building of the Kayops pyramid, or Kufu, as it was known in ancient Egypt, 86 00:10:38,000 --> 00:10:46,000 the first thing that everyone wants to do, be it students or authors, is to quantify everything. 87 00:10:46,000 --> 00:10:53,000 How many stone blocks did they use? How were they moved? How long did it take? 88 00:10:53,000 --> 00:10:59,000 These questions can be answered. On average, the blocks weighed about two and a half tons each. 89 00:10:59,000 --> 00:11:04,000 They could have been hauled on a wooden sled by a team of 14 to 17 men. 90 00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:10,000 This calculation was based on the time that it took to haul the two million plus stones that were required 91 00:11:10,000 --> 00:11:13,000 during the time period that we know the pyramid was built. 92 00:11:13,000 --> 00:11:19,000 Some blocks were bigger, weighing more than ten tons, but they weren't used as often. 93 00:11:19,000 --> 00:11:24,000 They serve primarily for what might be considered the roof. 94 00:11:24,000 --> 00:11:31,000 Naturally, these blocks took longer to move, and more men were required to haul them. 95 00:11:32,000 --> 00:11:39,000 Apparently, some people prefer to believe that the construction of these extraordinary monuments 96 00:11:39,000 --> 00:11:47,000 was due to some mysterious intervention rather than human ingenuity, crafting, and patience. 97 00:11:47,000 --> 00:11:51,000 There's something basic that these people are forgetting, 98 00:11:51,000 --> 00:11:56,000 and that's the fact that these pyramids and temples were built by thousands of workers, 99 00:11:56,000 --> 00:12:02,000 at a time when laborers came cheap if not free, and unions were unheard of. 100 00:12:07,000 --> 00:12:12,000 These days, it's hard to believe that such a huge project could have been designed and built by humans. 101 00:12:14,000 --> 00:12:20,000 The pyramids could never be reproduced. They're one of the seven wonders of the world. 102 00:12:21,000 --> 00:12:27,000 Denying the human aspect of this project merely shows a blatant lack of interest 103 00:12:27,000 --> 00:12:31,000 in what archaeology or history might be trying to tell us. 104 00:12:34,000 --> 00:12:38,000 Claiming that a miraculous or mysterious force was behind the project 105 00:12:38,000 --> 00:12:41,000 is simply taking an easy way out. 106 00:12:43,000 --> 00:12:48,000 Von Daniken even went so far as to say that the Egyptians had no architectural knowledge. 107 00:12:48,000 --> 00:12:49,000 He wrote, 108 00:13:01,000 --> 00:13:06,000 Von Daniken was not the only one who believed in the concept of an instant civilization. 109 00:13:06,000 --> 00:13:09,000 Practically all proponents of the ancient astronaut theory 110 00:13:09,000 --> 00:13:13,000 imagined that a super civilization sprang out of nowhere. 111 00:13:13,000 --> 00:13:17,000 Another example of an instant civilization were the Sumerians. 112 00:13:17,000 --> 00:13:22,000 Who built their empire in Mesopotamia around the same time that ancient Egypt existed. 113 00:13:22,000 --> 00:13:27,000 If this concept of an instant civilization seems a bit radical to you, 114 00:13:27,000 --> 00:13:32,000 perhaps you'll take comfort in knowing that it has not received much support from the scientific community. 115 00:13:32,000 --> 00:13:38,000 Professor Daniel Purshull, now retired, was a specialist in Mesopotamian archaeology. 116 00:13:38,000 --> 00:13:45,000 We have to go back to the 5th millennium BC to find the first traces of a culture in Sumer, 117 00:13:45,000 --> 00:13:52,000 which is now part of southern Iraq, not far from the Persian Gulf, and in Egypt. 118 00:13:52,000 --> 00:13:58,000 The two largest cultures of the time appeared in this region around 5000 BC. 119 00:13:58,000 --> 00:14:01,000 We can refer to them as cultures. 120 00:14:01,000 --> 00:14:08,000 Since archaeological expeditions have found vestiges of a society dating from that time period, 121 00:14:08,000 --> 00:14:14,000 in terms of architecture, buildings and common everyday items. 122 00:14:14,000 --> 00:14:22,000 For example, the oldest artifacts found were painted ceramic plates dating from the 5th millennium BC. 123 00:14:22,000 --> 00:14:27,000 After that archaeologists found statues of the ancient Roman Empire. 124 00:14:27,000 --> 00:14:31,000 These cultures developed gradually. 125 00:14:31,000 --> 00:14:38,000 We have artifacts from Sumer and Egypt that predate the time when these societies began to record their history, 126 00:14:38,000 --> 00:14:43,000 which was around 3200 BC. 127 00:14:43,000 --> 00:14:52,000 Whereas Vondanikin remained vague about the origin of these ancient visitors from outer space, 128 00:14:52,000 --> 00:14:55,000 Zecharia Sitchin was quite specific. 129 00:14:55,000 --> 00:15:01,000 A major archaeology buff, Sitchin wrote an entire series of books about the history of the human race, 130 00:15:01,000 --> 00:15:05,000 as it relates to aliens in the Earth Chronicles. 131 00:15:05,000 --> 00:15:11,000 According to him, ancient visitors came from either Marduk or Nibiru, a planet beyond Pluto, 132 00:15:11,000 --> 00:15:16,000 with an eccentric orbit that brought it close to Earth every 3600 years. 133 00:15:16,000 --> 00:15:21,000 During one of its passages, the ancient visitors came to the Earth Chronicles, 134 00:15:21,000 --> 00:15:26,000 and during one of its passages near Earth, the inhabitants of this planet, the Anunnaki, 135 00:15:26,000 --> 00:15:29,000 made contact with the primitive ancestors of the Sumerians. 136 00:15:29,000 --> 00:15:33,000 Sitchin also speaks of Sumer as an instant civilization. 137 00:15:33,000 --> 00:15:39,000 Their shrine was supposedly nothing more than a site for idolizing these visitors from outer space. 138 00:15:39,000 --> 00:15:44,000 Research into Mesopotamia shows that Sumerians were merely descendants of nomad tribes, 139 00:15:44,000 --> 00:15:47,000 making them 100% human. 140 00:15:48,000 --> 00:15:55,000 They came from Asia and Iran, and settled in an area that is now southern Iraq. 141 00:16:00,000 --> 00:16:08,000 They built city-states like Uruk, Uruk and Lagash, each of which had its own leader. 142 00:16:09,000 --> 00:16:16,000 At one point, the leader of one city-state decided he wanted to rule the entire region, 143 00:16:16,000 --> 00:16:20,000 which he more or less succeeded in doing. 144 00:16:20,000 --> 00:16:27,000 Some city-states were strong and independent, while others were more passive and submissive. 145 00:16:27,000 --> 00:16:30,000 There were political movements. 146 00:16:30,000 --> 00:16:35,000 This first Sumerian civilization was invaded and occupied by the Goutis, 147 00:16:35,000 --> 00:16:41,000 who ruled for a while, but ended up assimilating into the population. 148 00:16:41,000 --> 00:16:47,000 There was a subversive movement by Sumerians following attacks by King Sargon. 149 00:16:47,000 --> 00:16:53,000 The Sumerians took the upper hand culturally at least for a very long time, 150 00:16:53,000 --> 00:16:58,000 and in terms of religious practices, they ruled until the Christian era. 151 00:16:59,000 --> 00:17:05,000 The Sumerian gods were not created out of thin air. 152 00:17:05,000 --> 00:17:14,000 They emerged over time as the individual city-states merged into one civilization. 153 00:17:19,000 --> 00:17:25,000 At first there was divine trinity, consisting of Anne, and Lille, and Ancu. 154 00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:32,000 Each of these gods had been worshipped by an individual city. 155 00:17:32,000 --> 00:17:38,000 Eventually, the trinity was replaced by a single god, Marduk. 156 00:17:39,000 --> 00:17:46,000 The other gods still existed, but Marduk became the main god who was worshipped. 157 00:17:47,000 --> 00:17:54,000 The other three gods were generally associated with specific sites, or legends. 158 00:17:55,000 --> 00:18:01,000 Sumerians were similar to Egyptians in the sense that they worshipped several gods at once. 159 00:18:08,000 --> 00:18:13,000 Sitchin's most radical concept was that of a twelfth planet in our solar system, 160 00:18:13,000 --> 00:18:19,000 based on the precept that the sun and moon were considered as planets in ancient times. 161 00:18:20,000 --> 00:18:25,000 Professor Misio Kaku, one of the world's most well-known quantum physicists, 162 00:18:25,000 --> 00:18:31,000 doubts that any major planet exists past Pluto, the furthest in our solar system. 163 00:18:33,000 --> 00:18:39,000 Some scientists have speculated that there is a tenth planet, a planet beyond the orbit of Pluto. 164 00:18:39,000 --> 00:18:42,000 Well, beyond Pluto we have what is called a kuiper belt. 165 00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:49,000 These are small pieces of debris made out of ice, a cometary belt, too small to form a large planet. 166 00:18:50,000 --> 00:18:55,000 Also, we realize that if there was a tenth planet, it would cause gravitational disturbances. 167 00:18:55,000 --> 00:18:57,000 That's how we discovered Neptune. 168 00:18:57,000 --> 00:19:03,000 Neptune tugs on Uranus, and that's how, by looking at Newton's laws of motion, 169 00:19:03,000 --> 00:19:10,000 by the power of pure mathematics, we were able to locate the position of a hypothetical planet called Neptune. 170 00:19:11,000 --> 00:19:17,000 Now, the orbit of Pluto, even though it's eccentric, is calibrated according to Newton's laws of motion. 171 00:19:17,000 --> 00:19:24,000 We don't see any large perturbations on Pluto's orbit other than the fact that Pluto itself has a moon. 172 00:19:24,000 --> 00:19:30,000 Given the fact that Pluto has a moon, we can track the trajectory of that two-body system, 173 00:19:30,000 --> 00:19:34,000 and we see no basic deviation from Newton's laws of motion. 174 00:19:34,000 --> 00:19:37,000 That's why we don't believe that there is a tenth planet. 175 00:19:38,000 --> 00:19:44,000 If such a planet had existed, its passage near Earth some 3,000 years ago 176 00:19:44,000 --> 00:19:49,000 would have had such a major impact that the effects would still be felt today. 177 00:19:49,000 --> 00:19:54,000 A planet with an eccentric orbit would also be sterile, as explains Pierre Bastien, 178 00:19:54,000 --> 00:19:57,000 an astrophysicist at the University of Montreal. 179 00:19:57,000 --> 00:20:01,000 A planet with an orbit also eccentric. 180 00:20:01,000 --> 00:20:08,000 If a planet existed with such an eccentric orbit, circling the Sun every 3,000 years, 181 00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:15,000 approaching as close as the Earth is now, then backing off to a distance more than 100 times 182 00:20:15,000 --> 00:20:21,000 the distance between the Earth and the Sun, otherwise known as 100 astronomical units, 183 00:20:21,000 --> 00:20:27,000 then such a planet could never develop life forms, certainly not easily. 184 00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:32,000 Since the conditions required to produce life would be too unstable. 185 00:20:35,000 --> 00:20:39,000 Most of the time the temperature would be too low for life to evolve. 186 00:20:39,000 --> 00:20:43,000 Then, for a very brief period of time, a few months perhaps, 187 00:20:43,000 --> 00:20:47,000 the temperature would rise high enough to melt some of the ice, 188 00:20:47,000 --> 00:20:52,000 only to drop back down to the freezing point again afterwards. 189 00:20:52,000 --> 00:20:56,000 These aren't ideal conditions for life to emerge. 190 00:21:02,000 --> 00:21:07,000 Despite the strong criticism of Sitchin and Vondanikin's speculations, 191 00:21:07,000 --> 00:21:14,000 the idea that extraterrestrials rank up amongst the gods was not dismissed by everyone as a mere flight of fancy. 192 00:21:15,000 --> 00:21:19,000 Jean Cazaux has written several books about UFOs. 193 00:21:19,000 --> 00:21:24,000 He feels that the ancient astronaut theory is the only explanation for mysteries 194 00:21:24,000 --> 00:21:28,000 found in major religious works, such as the Bible or the Mahabharata. 195 00:21:31,000 --> 00:21:34,000 The theory of ancient astronauts is fantastic. 196 00:21:34,000 --> 00:21:40,000 According to the theory, visitors were here before we were, and perhaps we are the visitors. 197 00:21:40,000 --> 00:21:43,000 Perhaps we were co-creators of the human race. 198 00:21:43,000 --> 00:21:47,000 I'm not saying that the theory jives with the childish view of the Raleons, 199 00:21:47,000 --> 00:21:51,000 who simply put a spin on the stories found in the Bible. 200 00:21:51,000 --> 00:21:56,000 It's actually quite feasible to imagine that we co-created the human race 201 00:21:56,000 --> 00:22:01,000 with extraterrestrial beings who came to Earth to assist in human evolution. 202 00:22:03,000 --> 00:22:07,000 One author who supports this theory is Zacharia Sitchin, 203 00:22:08,000 --> 00:22:13,000 who points to the Samarian civilization as an example of this intervention. 204 00:22:14,000 --> 00:22:18,000 Another author who supports it is Lawrence Gardner. 205 00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:22,000 Personally, I think that it's an incredible theory, 206 00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:26,000 one that provides answers to a lot of questions that are raised in reading the Bible. 207 00:22:30,000 --> 00:22:33,000 According to proponents of the ancient astronaut theory, 208 00:22:33,000 --> 00:22:37,000 the Old Testament abounds with references to these visitors from outer space. 209 00:22:37,000 --> 00:22:42,000 The cloud that led the Hebrews out of Egypt was supposedly an alien spaceship, 210 00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:46,000 and the Ark of the Covenant, the golden chest used to carry the Ten Commandments, 211 00:22:46,000 --> 00:22:49,000 was supposedly a transmitter. 212 00:22:52,000 --> 00:22:57,000 If you replace the words archangel, angel and yave with more modern words, 213 00:22:57,000 --> 00:23:02,000 you will see that the stories in the Bible are quite similar to stories we hear these days. 214 00:23:03,000 --> 00:23:08,000 Take for instance the time when Yave presents himself to Joshua 215 00:23:08,000 --> 00:23:11,000 and provides him with strategic plans. 216 00:23:11,000 --> 00:23:17,000 Yave provides Joshua with military advice, designed to win a battle, 217 00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:22,000 telling him to advance on the left flank and wait for a noise over the trees, 218 00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:26,000 which will be Yave arriving, kind of acting like a human and not a god. 219 00:23:26,000 --> 00:23:29,000 If we look at the story through the eyes of this new theory, 220 00:23:29,000 --> 00:23:33,000 we see that it was a real person who appeared over the trees, 221 00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:37,000 someone armed with technological and mental abilities far exceeding anything known 222 00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:41,000 by the primitive Hebrews who lived two or three thousand years ago. 223 00:23:41,000 --> 00:23:44,000 If the Bible describes actual events that happened, 224 00:23:44,000 --> 00:23:48,000 then it's only natural for us to have questions about those events. 225 00:23:48,000 --> 00:23:51,000 But should the Bible be considered as a history book? 226 00:23:51,000 --> 00:23:53,000 Nothing is less certain. 227 00:23:53,000 --> 00:23:54,000 Who wrote the Bible? 228 00:23:54,000 --> 00:23:56,000 What was their motivation? 229 00:23:56,000 --> 00:24:01,000 These are basic questions that we need to ask in order to understand the history of the Bible. 230 00:24:01,000 --> 00:24:06,000 Robert David of the University of Montreal is an expert on the books of the Old Testament. 231 00:24:06,000 --> 00:24:14,000 The scriptures were written over a period of approximately one thousand years. 232 00:24:14,000 --> 00:24:19,000 People in positions of authority had to find a way to carry on their traditions. 233 00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:23,000 Scribes were charged with recording some of these traditions, 234 00:24:23,000 --> 00:24:25,000 but who wrote them and when? 235 00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:29,000 That is what remains at the crux of the controversy. 236 00:24:29,000 --> 00:24:33,000 For instance, look at the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, 237 00:24:33,000 --> 00:24:37,000 which were supposedly written by Moses. 238 00:24:37,000 --> 00:24:41,000 It seems quite clear nowadays that Moses didn't really write those. 239 00:24:41,000 --> 00:24:44,000 They had to have been written much later. 240 00:24:44,000 --> 00:24:48,000 There has been some debate over when exactly these books were written, 241 00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:56,000 but it has been concluded that the Torah, as it appears today, was written somewhere around 500 BC. 242 00:24:56,000 --> 00:25:02,000 It's estimated that Moses lived somewhere around 1200 to 1250 BC, 243 00:25:02,000 --> 00:25:07,000 which means that the traditions were carried down verbally for close to 700 years. 244 00:25:07,000 --> 00:25:11,000 Very little was written down at the time. 245 00:25:11,000 --> 00:25:17,000 When I say that, we need to keep in mind that these books were not presented as news stories back then. 246 00:25:17,000 --> 00:25:21,000 There was no such thing as journalism at the time. 247 00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:26,000 Certain people were charged with writing down the specific objectives of a community, 248 00:25:26,000 --> 00:25:32,000 which was generally to spread the word that Yahweh was God, the God. 249 00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:37,000 The books of the Old Testament were written from a certain perspective relating to the Torah, 250 00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:41,000 and this perspective was continually changing with each author. 251 00:25:41,000 --> 00:25:43,000 They were not objective. 252 00:25:43,000 --> 00:25:46,000 In fact, they were quite subjective. 253 00:25:46,000 --> 00:25:50,000 They were not as their writings pertain to a specific community. 254 00:25:50,000 --> 00:25:54,000 They were written down to a community of people. 255 00:25:54,000 --> 00:26:02,000 Objectivity aside, the Old Testament contains passages which raise valid questions. 256 00:26:02,000 --> 00:26:08,000 For instance, in the first few verses of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible, God is referred to as Elohim, 257 00:26:08,000 --> 00:26:12,000 a plural noun that can be translated as God's. 258 00:26:12,000 --> 00:26:18,000 This ambiguity has inspired many supporters of the ancient astronaut theory. 259 00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:24,000 In the Hebrew scripture, several different words are used to express the concept of God. 260 00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:32,000 Yahweh is the proper name used, but you can also find the expressions el, Elohim and Eloha. 261 00:26:32,000 --> 00:26:36,000 I know that the word Elohim is often used by supporters of alien theories, 262 00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:40,000 with the claim that Elohim means God's. 263 00:26:40,000 --> 00:26:43,000 So it must mean extraterrestrials. 264 00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:47,000 The word el is used for God in other languages as well. 265 00:26:47,000 --> 00:26:52,000 The plural form Elohim is used in two different ways in the Old Testament. 266 00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:57,000 The Hebrews used the pluralized form of Elohim to refer to gods and divine beings. 267 00:26:57,000 --> 00:27:05,000 So when the text speaks of foreign gods, such as Canaanite gods, Elohim is used in a pluralized form. 268 00:27:05,000 --> 00:27:13,000 On the other hand, when the text speaks of the God of Israel, the word Elohim is always used in the singular. 269 00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:17,000 The suffix him isn't only found in the name Elohim. 270 00:27:17,000 --> 00:27:21,000 It is also used in two or three other Hebrew words. 271 00:27:21,000 --> 00:27:28,000 It expresses a concept similar to the royal we conveying the majesty and supremacy of this God. 272 00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:31,000 That's why the verbs appear in the plural form. 273 00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:33,000 The scriptures are very clear. 274 00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:37,000 When the word Elohim is used, the verb form is always in the singular 275 00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:40,000 when the passage refers to the national God. 276 00:27:40,000 --> 00:27:45,000 Can we find the same clarity in reference to chariots of the gods? 277 00:27:45,000 --> 00:27:47,000 To quote Ezekiel chapter 1, 278 00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:51,000 In the 30th year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, 279 00:27:51,000 --> 00:27:56,000 as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, 280 00:27:56,000 --> 00:27:58,000 and I saw visions of God. 281 00:27:58,000 --> 00:28:01,000 I looked and behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, 282 00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:06,000 a great cloud and a fire unfolding itself, and a brightness was about it. 283 00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:10,000 And out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. 284 00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:12,000 And this was their appearance. 285 00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:17,000 They had the likeness of man, and every one had four faces, and every one had four wings, 286 00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:23,000 and their feet were straight feet, and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf's foot. 287 00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:26,000 Through the eyes of a generation used to the idea of space travel, 288 00:28:26,000 --> 00:28:30,000 this passage could easily be interpreted as the arrival of a UFO. 289 00:28:30,000 --> 00:28:34,000 But is Ezekiel's vision so different from others found in the Bible 290 00:28:34,000 --> 00:28:37,000 that we need to resort to aliens to explain it? 291 00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:41,000 And what are we to make of Elijah's ascension to heaven in a chariot of fire? 292 00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:47,000 Was this merely an allegory, or was it really the first alien abduction, as some people claim? 293 00:28:47,000 --> 00:28:52,000 The whole chariot issue was something altogether different. 294 00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:55,000 Israelites lived in the mountains in biblical times. 295 00:28:55,000 --> 00:28:58,000 They obviously don't live there now, but they did back then. 296 00:28:58,000 --> 00:29:02,000 They didn't own chariots. They fought on foot. 297 00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:07,000 Their enemies were the ones with the chariots, like the Canaanites, who lived on the plains, 298 00:29:07,000 --> 00:29:10,000 where it was flat enough for chariots. 299 00:29:10,000 --> 00:29:14,000 Since the Israelites didn't live on the plains, they didn't have chariots. 300 00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:18,000 The Egyptians, Canaanites, and Babylonians were the ones with the chariots. 301 00:29:18,000 --> 00:29:21,000 Chariots were a symbol of power. 302 00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:24,000 With a chariot, you could travel quickly from one place to another. 303 00:29:24,000 --> 00:29:27,000 Generally, chariots were used symbolically in the Scriptures. 304 00:29:27,000 --> 00:29:32,000 And here I'm thinking of Elijah and Elisha, since they were closely linked at the time. 305 00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:39,000 Elijah fought in the name of Yahweh against Baal, the god of Canaan, and against other pagan gods. 306 00:29:39,000 --> 00:29:43,000 One way to portray Elijah as a fighter is to put him in a chariot. 307 00:29:43,000 --> 00:29:46,000 That's how you win against great armies. 308 00:29:46,000 --> 00:29:50,000 This concept of a chariot of fire came from Deuteronomy. 309 00:29:50,000 --> 00:29:55,000 Whenever the author of the book of Deuteronomy wants to indicate the presence of God, 310 00:29:55,000 --> 00:29:57,000 he uses the fire symbol. 311 00:29:57,000 --> 00:30:02,000 As in, the Lord thy God is a consuming fire. 312 00:30:02,000 --> 00:30:04,000 It's a universal symbol. 313 00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:09,000 If we look at religions throughout the world, we see that fire is a symbol of God. 314 00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:13,000 There's a reason why we light candles and burn incense. 315 00:30:13,000 --> 00:30:15,000 They are associated with fire. 316 00:30:15,000 --> 00:30:22,000 So the reason why Elijah is portrayed on a chariot of fire is because he has been fighting in the name of God. 317 00:30:22,000 --> 00:30:25,000 The story could be interpreted literally. 318 00:30:25,000 --> 00:30:29,000 But I think the chariot is more symbolic than anything. 319 00:30:29,000 --> 00:30:32,000 The same applies for Ezekiel. 320 00:30:32,000 --> 00:30:36,000 The temple was destroyed, and the people were exiled. 321 00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:40,000 The Bible gave the impression that God lived in the temple. 322 00:30:40,000 --> 00:30:45,000 So when the temple was destroyed, what became of Yahweh? 323 00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:51,000 Ezekiel somehow transferred the shekinah, the presence of God, to Babylon. 324 00:30:51,000 --> 00:30:54,000 How did he manage that? 325 00:30:54,000 --> 00:30:59,000 The concept of Yahweh was just as imaginary as Baal was to the Canaanites. 326 00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:01,000 These gods didn't walk on earth. 327 00:31:01,000 --> 00:31:03,000 They moved on clouds. 328 00:31:03,000 --> 00:31:09,000 One way to transfer the presence of God from the temple to Babylon was on a chariot. 329 00:31:09,000 --> 00:31:15,000 It was used as an element of combat once again because he was going up against the Babylonian gods, 330 00:31:15,000 --> 00:31:18,000 and he had to invoke God in their community. 331 00:31:18,000 --> 00:31:20,000 It was strictly symbolic. 332 00:31:20,000 --> 00:31:23,000 God didn't move around in a rocket. 333 00:31:23,000 --> 00:31:25,000 At least I don't think so. 334 00:31:30,000 --> 00:31:36,000 Despite these explanations, the Bible continues to fascinate mystery lovers. 335 00:31:36,000 --> 00:31:39,000 Each new book written about ancient astronauts 336 00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:44,000 inevitably contains countless references to the Old Testament. 337 00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:49,000 This fascination with the Bible is understandable. 338 00:31:56,000 --> 00:32:02,000 As a man-made creation, the Bible attests to the incredible history of the human race. 339 00:32:02,000 --> 00:32:05,000 People are always quoting the Bible because it's a monument of sorts, 340 00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:10,000 accessible to all as compared to other books that are more difficult to comprehend. 341 00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:14,000 The Bible is easy to obtain, to read, and to understand to a certain degree. 342 00:32:14,000 --> 00:32:20,000 There are a few passages that aren't quite clear, but in general it's not hard to understand. 343 00:32:20,000 --> 00:32:25,000 Quoting the Bible means going back to the foundations of human history, 344 00:32:25,000 --> 00:32:29,000 looking up the fundamentals in a founding document. 345 00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:34,000 I think that there is something to be said for the use of biblical references. 346 00:32:35,000 --> 00:32:38,000 This is true for those seeking aliens in the Bible, 347 00:32:38,000 --> 00:32:43,000 but it's also true for devout believers who are seeking elements to reflect on. 348 00:32:43,000 --> 00:32:49,000 If we were to examine the Koran or any other major religious works, 349 00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:53,000 we would find plenty of material open to interpretation. 350 00:32:53,000 --> 00:32:55,000 When you start from a certain point of view, 351 00:32:55,000 --> 00:32:58,000 you can find pretty much whatever you want to support your view 352 00:32:58,000 --> 00:33:01,000 if you look in literature throughout the world. 353 00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:07,000 I feel that it's important that the Bible is a monumental work that everyone is familiar with 354 00:33:07,000 --> 00:33:10,000 and that can be easily consulted. 355 00:33:10,000 --> 00:33:14,000 The problem lies in what people do with the information that they find. 356 00:33:14,000 --> 00:33:16,000 That will always be the case. 357 00:33:16,000 --> 00:33:21,000 People will always run into problems if they try to take every story literally, 358 00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:25,000 because some things just could not have actually happened. 359 00:33:25,000 --> 00:33:30,000 I'm curious as to why people in search of aliens don't go hunting at the bottom of the sea as well, 360 00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:33,000 since sea monsters allegedly exist too. 361 00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:35,000 Does the Loch Ness monster exist? 362 00:33:35,000 --> 00:33:37,000 It's something to think about. 363 00:33:37,000 --> 00:33:43,000 There is an imaginary side to the scriptures which prevents us from taking them literally under certain circumstances. 364 00:33:43,000 --> 00:33:46,000 Just because a serpent spoke to Eve in the Garden of Eden 365 00:33:46,000 --> 00:33:50,000 doesn't mean that people go around looking for a talking snake. 366 00:33:50,000 --> 00:33:55,000 By the same token, why do some people go looking for rockets and Loch Ness monsters in the Bible? 367 00:33:55,000 --> 00:33:58,000 Because they are taking it literally. 368 00:33:58,000 --> 00:34:04,000 There are traps in taking that approach, since the Bible is filled with codes that represent that time period. 369 00:34:04,000 --> 00:34:09,000 And it's up to us to study the Bible and find the symbolic meaning behind the scriptures. 370 00:34:09,000 --> 00:34:13,000 We imprint certain codes in our modern material as well. 371 00:34:13,000 --> 00:34:17,000 I only hope that 3,000 years from now, when they read our material, 372 00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:21,000 they won't make the same mistakes that we are making with these 3,000-year-old scriptures. 373 00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:27,000 Otherwise, who knows what strange things might be taking place 3,000 years from now? 374 00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:30,000 I think that's what we will do in 3,000 years. 375 00:34:57,000 --> 00:35:07,000 Once again, the Bondanican implies that the architects of this culture were bestowed with knowledge from extraterrestrial beings. 376 00:35:07,000 --> 00:35:15,000 In reality, the Mayans did not have very advanced knowledge. 377 00:35:16,000 --> 00:35:25,000 Mayan temples were built using very simple mathematical shapes, like the square, the rectangle and the triangle. 378 00:35:25,000 --> 00:35:31,000 The direction the temples faced depended on the solar system, as they knew it at the time. 379 00:35:31,000 --> 00:35:36,000 It's easy to jump to the conclusion that these temples are evidence of hidden knowledge. 380 00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:40,000 But as far as I'm concerned, that would be faulty reasoning. 381 00:35:40,000 --> 00:35:44,000 I would like to see proof of this mysterious hidden information. 382 00:35:44,000 --> 00:35:47,000 The proof is spoken of, but never described. 383 00:35:47,000 --> 00:35:52,000 Conclusions are presumed without facts to back them up. 384 00:35:52,000 --> 00:36:00,000 The way that the Mayan culture was organized and their day-to-day life did not point to a highly complex society. 385 00:36:00,000 --> 00:36:05,000 On the contrary, they were barely more than an agricultural society. 386 00:36:05,000 --> 00:36:13,000 They had a tiered social structure, very centralized, with a religious base spread throughout small villages. 387 00:36:13,000 --> 00:36:21,000 Compared to other ancient civilizations like the Chinese, Mesopotamians or Egyptians, the Mayan temples are not very impressive. 388 00:36:21,000 --> 00:36:27,000 They're big, that's true, but from a technological standpoint, they're not very impressive. 389 00:36:28,000 --> 00:36:37,000 In 1949, archaeologist Alberto Rose Luillet discovered an entrance to the temple of inscriptions in Palenque in the Chiapas jungle. 390 00:36:37,000 --> 00:36:43,000 Luillet did not get deep inside the temple until the summer of 1952. 391 00:36:43,000 --> 00:36:53,000 He discovered the tomb of King Bacar, which revolutionized Mayan archaeology and added fuel to the controversy over ancient astronauts. 392 00:36:54,000 --> 00:37:01,000 The lid of King Bacar sarcophagus was adorned with a scene of a spaceman at the controls of his craft. 393 00:37:01,000 --> 00:37:06,000 At least that was Eric Vondanikin's interpretation of the stone carving. 394 00:37:06,000 --> 00:37:19,000 In Vondanikin's vivid imagination, ornaments such as a kwezow, a feathered serpent, and the god-truck mule became a laser gun, landing gear, and the helm of a spacecraft. 395 00:37:20,000 --> 00:37:26,000 Archaeologists didn't see anything more than King Bacar on horseback ascending to heaven on a blade of wheat. 396 00:37:26,000 --> 00:37:34,000 Regardless of what Vondanikin supporters may say, he didn't simply interpret history. He rewrote it completely. 397 00:37:34,000 --> 00:37:39,000 The ease and total lack of integrity with which he made that claim was incredible. 398 00:37:39,000 --> 00:37:46,000 He came up with an instant interpretation with no regard whatsoever for the culture on civil rights. 399 00:37:47,000 --> 00:37:54,000 The designs and geometric shapes of the stone were typical of artwork found elsewhere during that period. 400 00:37:54,000 --> 00:37:59,000 With an active imagination, these designs could be perceived as anything. 401 00:37:59,000 --> 00:38:11,000 In the 18th century, they might have appeared as a galley, whereas during the rule of the pharaohs, they might have appeared as symbols representing horrors or satan. 402 00:38:11,000 --> 00:38:20,000 So you see, this scene could be interpreted in whatever manner the viewer wishes, but it's a different manner altogether to jump to conclusions and totally disregard all other information known about this culture. 403 00:38:20,000 --> 00:38:27,000 He tried to make a case where there was none. I could just as easily make up something about a subject that interests me. 404 00:38:27,000 --> 00:38:40,000 Around 900 A.D., the Mayans deserted their large cities in Yucatan, and the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of Yucatan. 405 00:38:40,000 --> 00:38:46,000 The city of Yucatan and the Chapa's jungle and headed south, leaving behind the temples and pyramids. 406 00:38:49,000 --> 00:38:59,000 Von Däniken claimed that this mass exodus was the result of unfulfilled contact with aliens. The gods from outer space had missed an important rendezvous. 407 00:38:59,000 --> 00:39:05,000 Did the author really think that the Mayans' behavior was unique? 408 00:39:06,000 --> 00:39:21,000 Just as humans must eventually die, so too civilizations must eventually come to an end. The disappearance of the Mayans is not unique in the annals of history. 409 00:39:21,000 --> 00:39:24,000 There were other disappearances as well. 410 00:39:25,000 --> 00:39:38,000 For instance, some species of animals disappeared, and also other civilizations, like the Samarians, whose civilization crumbled at the end of the third millennium. 411 00:39:39,000 --> 00:39:54,000 As for the Mayans, given their geographical location and the information we can deduce about their civilization, it seems most likely that their culture crumbled after a series of poor crops, drought and unstable weather conditions. 412 00:39:54,000 --> 00:40:02,000 We tend to think that civilizations go on forever, and if they end, it's because of an external force. 413 00:40:03,000 --> 00:40:13,000 As a civilization crumbles, we may see economic problems, social upheaval, and desertion of villages. 414 00:40:13,000 --> 00:40:26,000 Sometime around the year 1300 BC, the cities of Canaan were also abandoned, following a major economic crisis. 415 00:40:27,000 --> 00:40:37,000 Canaanites went back to a nomadic and semi-nomadic way of life, so the abandoned Mayan villages were not unique. 416 00:40:39,000 --> 00:40:46,000 To supporters of the ancient astronaut theory, nothing proves their case more than the Nazca lines in Peru. 417 00:40:47,000 --> 00:40:55,000 It is estimated that these huge figures were drawn by Nazca Indians between 500 and 1000 AD. 418 00:40:55,000 --> 00:41:03,000 The drawings are so large that they were not discovered until the 20th century, when pilots flew over the Nazca plain. 419 00:41:03,000 --> 00:41:09,000 The fact that they can only be seen completely from above has led some authors to speculate as to why they were drawn. 420 00:41:09,000 --> 00:41:13,000 What if they were markers or landing strips for gods? 421 00:41:16,000 --> 00:41:28,000 We know that mathematically and geometrically, it's relatively easy to build a straight line over a very long distance. 422 00:41:28,000 --> 00:41:38,000 We've seen it done here in this area, and also in the southwest United States, where highways were built in a straight line between cities, 423 00:41:39,000 --> 00:41:45,000 passing over hills and valleys, using markers such as sticks and fires. 424 00:41:48,000 --> 00:41:55,000 The Romans measured land as they built their famous roads, without the assistance of aliens. 425 00:41:55,000 --> 00:42:02,000 Even though archaeologists have now solved most of the mysteries raised by Eric von Daniken and those who followed in his footsteps, 426 00:42:02,000 --> 00:42:06,000 it would be foolish to think that scientists have all of the answers. 427 00:42:06,000 --> 00:42:12,000 History has quite a few gray areas that lend themselves to speculation and interpretation. 428 00:42:12,000 --> 00:42:22,000 Obviously, there have been gray areas where questions have been raised and we've been unable to find the answer through archaeology or ancient writings. 429 00:42:22,000 --> 00:42:29,000 There are still some gaps in our history, but over time, these are being filled in. 430 00:42:29,000 --> 00:42:34,000 The question is, how do we find the answer to the question? 431 00:42:35,000 --> 00:42:48,000 There are still some gaps in our history, but over time, these are being filled in, as we make new discoveries and come across ancient documents that have not been previously studied. 432 00:42:50,000 --> 00:42:55,000 As they are studied, they address questions that had previously gone unanswered. 433 00:42:56,000 --> 00:43:03,000 But we don't need to call in visitors from another world to fill in the blanks. 434 00:43:08,000 --> 00:43:13,000 There's no problem here on Earth that requires the intervention of outside forces. 435 00:43:13,000 --> 00:43:18,000 At least I haven't seen any up until now, and I'm very open-minded. 436 00:43:18,000 --> 00:43:24,000 I would be very happy to learn that we have made initial contact with an alien civilization. 437 00:43:25,000 --> 00:43:28,000 I think that would be fantastic. 438 00:43:31,000 --> 00:43:40,000 But if the arguments proposed by Von Daniken and Sitchin don't hold water, then why is the ancient astronaut theory still so popular? 439 00:43:41,000 --> 00:43:56,000 Spending hours and hours with your nose buried in old documents, doing serious research to find out what happened in the past and what objects were used for is not very exciting work. 440 00:43:57,000 --> 00:44:05,000 On the other hand, writing a novel filled with fanciful and mysterious ideas, that's a lot more exciting. 441 00:44:05,000 --> 00:44:12,000 It has an element of suspense. There's not much suspense in history books, but there's plenty of suspense in those novels. 442 00:44:15,000 --> 00:44:20,000 Oddly enough, and in spite of weak arguments to support the ancient astronaut theory, 443 00:44:20,000 --> 00:44:28,000 the prospects of a past contact with aliens has led generations of readers to become interested in ancient civilizations. 444 00:44:30,000 --> 00:44:35,000 Without this suspense found in books by Von Daniken and others following in his footsteps, 445 00:44:35,000 --> 00:44:42,000 these mystery lovers would never have discovered the Sumerians, the Mayans, or the Naska Indians. 446 00:44:43,000 --> 00:44:48,000 Eric Von Daniken is without a doubt a lousy archaeologist, but interestingly enough, 447 00:44:48,000 --> 00:44:54,000 his theories have forced historians to join the debate and explain their material in layman's terms. 448 00:44:55,000 --> 00:45:02,000 If it weren't for aliens, these men of science probably wouldn't have stepped down from their ivory tower. 449 00:45:12,000 --> 00:45:18,000 The Sumerians are the only ones who have the same theory of the Sumerians. 450 00:45:18,000 --> 00:45:24,000 The Sumerians are the only ones who have the same theory of the Sumerians. 451 00:45:24,000 --> 00:45:30,000 The Sumerians are the only ones who have the same theory of the Sumerians. 452 00:45:42,000 --> 00:45:48,000 The Sumerians are the only ones who have the same theory of the Sumerians. 453 00:45:48,000 --> 00:45:54,000 The Sumerians are the only ones who have the same theory of the Sumerians. 454 00:45:54,000 --> 00:46:00,000 The Sumerians are the only ones who have the same theory of the Sumerians. 455 00:46:00,000 --> 00:46:06,000 The Sumerians are the only ones who have the same theory of the Sumerians.