Perceptions

Sketches from the
Ancient Sky

Obaidur Rahman

Wandjina Petroglyphas..

When it comes to the subject matter of UFO's and extra-terrestrials people usually relate to the incidents that took place in the second half of 20th century especially after the 1947's famous Roswell incident. Although the belief and enthusiasm on this aspect surely skyrocketed in the later half of the previous century with hundreds of UFO sightings, alien abductions and other paranormal incidents that are linked with extra-terrestrial origin, but the question is, have the extra-terrestrial life-forms (if there is one or more) been visiting earth for only these last 6/7 decades or so or since ancient times when this planet was formed 4.5 billion years ago?

Experts suggest that the visitation of the third kind have always been there and there are evidences of it as well. As the modern day encounters are either photographed or captured on videos, the testimonies of old encounters weren't much different either. Dated as old as 10,000 BC, cave painting found in Val Camonica, Italy, shows two extraterrestrial visitors or beings with the appearance of modern-day astronauts. Similar type of prehistoric artwork was found in Toro Muerte desert in Peru and a petroglyph of such in Tassili, Sahara was even nicknamed “the Martian” by the archeologists. A 29,000-year-old cave painting in Itolo, Tanzania, depicts objects which plainly have the looks of the disc shape UFO that we know today. Cave paintings of “Pech Merle” near Le Cabrerets, France, artwork that are estimated to be from 15,000 BC, show a landscape full of wildlife along with a number of saucer shaped objects. There is a 7000 year old rock carving in the province of Querto, Mexico, where four figures appear as their arms outstretched towards what seems to be a large oval object radiating beams of light. Some 5000 year old cave paintings near the Glenelg river region of Kimberley; Northern Australia shows a series of drawings of Wandjina, as they are referred by the Aborigines, which strikingly have the similar looks like that of Grey aliens, a kind of extra-terrestrial being that not only many of today's alien witnesses have claimed to have encountered but also similar to the alien beings that are thought to be captured during the UFO crash at Roswell! Somewhere along the Russo-Chinese border there is a cave painting which was painted around 2000 BCE which shows a space-suited figure holding a disc shaped object that appears to be a communication device and not only that the figure's helmet has two antennae on it and above it there is a flying saucer emitting a plume of smoke. In the last century a 4000 year old Lalladoff plate was recovered from Nepal which clearly shows a disc shaped UFO and the figure of that Grey alien entity. The most astonishing part is that many of these paintings and artworks were amongst the other ordinary everyday subject matter and this out of context depiction of these UFO's and alien beings by the cavemen makes them highly appealing. Now, what would oblige the ancient of men to do that?

The Dogons say their astronomical knowledge was given to them by the Nommos, amphibious beings sent to Earth.

Many of such illustrations baffle the scientific community and there is further evidence that many ancient civilizations take a direct reference to extra-terrestrial beings in their religious and cultural aspects with exceptional command over the knowledge of the sky that was learnt just yesterday by the modern-day astronomers. One such is The Dogons, a tribe living in Mali, West Africa, who are known for their vast cosmic knowledge and sophisticated cultural life. According to their tribal folklore, the Dogons are the descendants of Nommos, a race of amphibious beings that resembled mermen and mermaids who came from a planet that orbits the star Sirius, the brightest one in the sky. Every half-century the Dogons perform a ritual where they celebrate this twin planet of Sirius which is known as Sirius B in the astronomical community today. The most amazing fact is, neither the Sirius B is visible to the naked eye nor back in the days the Dogon people did pose any necessary astronomical equipments to see it and the knowledge of the existence of this Sirius B planet was acquired by the scientific community only in 1978 whereas the Dogons knew of it in details for more than 1000 years! What is more interesting is that these Nommos could also be traced back to other civilizations like that of Babylonian, Akkadian, Sumerian and Egyptian. Speaking of Egypt, the mystery that still shrouds in every aspect of her great Giza Pyramids are often linked with Extra-terrestrial interventions after all the great ancient Egyptian god, Ra, had been known to ride across the sky in a “fiery chariot” which, many say, very well could have been an extra-terrestrial vessel.

There are some hieroglyphics on the ceiling of the Temple of Abydos in Egypt which was built 5000 years shows modern military technology like helicopter, submarine, gunboat, plane and a fighter jet and a Sub machine gun. The heroes of Celtic myth like Chuchulain of Ireland were known to have weapons which had striking similarities of modern day missiles and tanks. In Vedic literature there are references to Vimanas (aircrafts) as well as nuclear weapons. Researchers are mystified on the origin of the revealing of such contemporary equipment that was architected merely in between the last 150 years. Many ancient monuments like the Giza Pyramids, Machu Picchu in Peru, Moai of Easter Island, Stonehenge of England, the pyramids of Latin America are often linked with advanced alien civilisation because there is a belief that these massive stone structures were impossible to build, despite having the imagination to illustrate them, by the primitive indigenous people with their prehistoric tools of that time.

When it comes to explaining these mysterious strings of events and establishments, astrophysicist I.S Shklovski and Carl Sagan in their 1966 book “Intelligent life in the Universe” argued that scientists and historians need to consider seriously on the possibility of extraterrestrial contacts during the recorded history of mankind which are thought to be noted in the pre-scientific narratives. But perhaps the most authoritarian work on this regard is the work of Swiss author Erich von Daniken who in his worldwide bestseller book “Chariots of Gods: Unsolved mysteries of the past” presented the evidence that alien visitation did take place on Earth in the ancient times. Daniken along with his fellow scholars explain that at the dawn of great civilizations like Egypt, Maya and the ancient Chinese, the primitive people of these regions were visited by some extra-terrestrial race who basically commenced their process of civilisation in the world and matured the human evolution as the “heavenly” beings shared their knowledge with mankind and the later often mistook these beings as Gods and angels! And there is the other side of the argument that states these explanations are nothing but an effort by some western “experts” to undermine the abilities of those ancient civilizations.

But there is no denying that from time to time in human history, mankind experienced a sudden boost in their advancement which often seemed miraculous. Take the case of the world that was in 1910's and the progressed stage of now. What is the mystery behind such rapid enhancement of science and technology that took place in the last 70/80 years? Skeptics will have their say on the possibilities of alien life-forms and hoaxes of UFO encounters however the indescribable enormity of the universe compels us to believe that celestial life-forms is sincerely a grave possibility. Let's take the observation of Hubble Space Telescope which rationally states that there ought to be around 6.25 billion life-supporting solar systems (like that of ours) amongst the 125 billion galaxies in the universe. So, the possibility that the earth has been visited by the extra-terrestrial races and contact was made with mankind which the latter depicted in the forms of cave paintings to sacred transcripts cannot be entirely wiped out. Then comes this obvious question that, how come then the ordinary alien race and the mankind aren't enjoying any rapport if the formers' intentions are all good? The truth is whenever there is an advanced civilisation that meets an inferior one, the inevitable result is conflict over control and dominance and we can see its proof by looking at mankind's history. Besides, if you were an extra-terrestrial race, knowing all about the violent and hostile nature of human species, would you jeopardize your well being and still care to be his best friend?

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