Original subtitles

An ancient figurine

of a modern-day airplane.

A primitive statue of a man in a spacesuit.

Mysterious crystal skulls

whose origins are entirely unknown.

For more than a decade on Ancient Aliens, we've traveled

the globe and investigated strange objects

found on every continent on Earth.

I'm counting down what I consider

to be the top ten alien artifacts.

Artifacts that, in my opinion,

provide strong evidence that in the distant past,

extraterrestrials walked among us.

Ancient artifacts offer us a fascinating glimpse

of how our ancestors lived.

And for ancient astronaut theorists like me,

some artifacts provide critical evidence

to support the notion that extraterrestrials

visited Earth in the remote past.

One compelling example is a group of precisely-carved

objects that are not only surrounded in controversy,

but may possess a technology far more advanced than our own.

Number ten on my countdown

the crystal skulls.

- Lubaantun, Belize. - Central America.

Here, in the jungles of the Yucatán Peninsula,

lie the ruins of an ancient pre-Colombian city that

thrived in the eighth century AD.

In 1924,

explorer Frederick Albert Mitchell-Hedges

and his daughter Anna

discovered a human-sized skull made of clear quartz crystal.

Mitchell-Hedges was told by the Mayans that

his skull was over 3,600 years old.

This is fascinating, because this would pre-date

Mayan civilization.

Mitchell-Hedges and his daughter

kept the skull under lock and key

for almost four decades

before allowing it to be studied.

When it comes to the Mitchell-Hedges crystal skull,

it has been analyzed on a number of occasions.

Frank Dorland in the 1960s did it as a private individual.

Hewlett-Packard did it as well, and the British Museum did

a very short analysis in 1980 as well.

So this skull has been subjected to

a number of detailed scientific analyses.

In all of those occasions, what was found was that it was

almost impossible for a human being to make this.

The Mitchell-Hedges skull

was milled or worked

in a way that went counterclockwise

to the creation of the crystal.

Crystal grows in a certain direction.

And if you don't mill or work the crystal

in that particular direction, it'll shatter.

So how was it done?

Quartz crystal is extremely hard.

And almost any object that's made out of

carved quartz crystal would probably

have to be created using power tools.

Although hundreds of people have claimed to be

in possession of ancient crystal skulls,

a curious legend can be found in multiple cultures

that says there are exactly 13 crystal skulls

located around the planet that are of otherworldly origin.

These include the Synergy Skull,

discovered in the Melanesian Islands

of the South Pacific,

the Amar Skull of Tibet,

the Einstein Skull, found in Mexico,

and the Mitchell-Hedges Skull.

Researchers suggest that not only were these 13 skulls

constructed using advanced technology,

but that they may contain ancient knowledge,

hidden from mankind for thousands of years.

What we know as a fact is that crystal is

able to store information.

So what we need to ask ourselves is whether

crystal skulls were made out of crystal

because our ancestors wanted to put information in them.

While we might not have a means of extracting it,

I think we really require it for ourselves,

to try and make an effort to see what kind of information might

be present within these crystal skulls.

The moment you lay eyes on a crystal skull,

you know you're looking at something extraordinary.

But the next artifact on my countdown

could be described as a simple wooden toy.

That is, until you take a closer look, and see that

this bird-shaped object is more like a modern-day glider.

My number-nine alien artifact: the Saqqara Bird.

Saqqara, Egypt.

French archeologists digging at the Step Pyramid of King Djoser

unearth a tomb over 2,000 years old.

In it they find a small wooden model

of what appears to be a bird lying beside a papyrus

bearing the inscription, "I want to fly."

The artifact was later sent to the Cairo Museum,

where authorities placed it alongside

several other bird figurines.

But the Saqqara Bird was noticeably different.

It's interesting, because on one hand,

clearly, it should look like a bird, because it has eyes

and has a typical nose of a bird.

Uh, on the other hand, the wings are clearly not bird wings.

To the middle of the rump,

you'll see this wing a bit thicker.

In this region, the lift-up is the highest.

The whole thing becomes thinner to the end of the wings,

and those wings are modeled down.

And this is a very modern aerodynamic design.

Then the other point is birds have no rudders, because a bird

doesn't need a rudder, because of its aerodynamic architecture.

And so there is the idea they are not representing birds,

but flying machines, or aircraft.

Aircraft?

Could the Saqqara Bird reveal that

the ancient Egyptians possessed the power of flight?

To find the answer, in 2006, aviation and aerodynamics

expert Simon Sanderson built a scale model

of the Saqqara Bird,

five times larger than the original,

and tested its aerodynamic properties in a wind tunnel.

We're running at a constant speed, slowly increasing

the angle of attack and then measuring

the forces which it's producing.

That way we can learn about its flight characteristics.

At ten degrees, we're producing four times weight and lift.

So it actually would be flying now.

- Yeah. - That's good.

Tests show the Saqqara Bird is

a highly-developed glider.

And this is a design we use today.

But if the Saqqara Bird is capable of flight,

where would ancient Egyptians have acquired such technology?

I think that people in ancient times

were visited by beings coming not from this Earth.

And they gave us culture and scientific technologies

to improve our life on Earth,

coming from the primitive to a higher-developed culture.

The next artifacts on my list might be microscopic in size,

but they're enormously significant.

They appear to be advanced nanotechnology,

and they were found so deep beneath the earth

that geologists estimate them

to be thousands of years old.

We're potentially looking at actual remnants

of alien technology.

And that's why number eight on my countdown

is the Russian nanotubes.

Eastern Russia, 1991.

Geologists lead an expedition into the mineral-rich

Ural Mountains in hopes of locating gold deposits.

For decades, people hiking in this area of the Urals

near the Kozhim, Naroda and Balbany rivers,

have reported witnessing unidentified craft

and strange anomalies in the sky.

On this occasion, however, the geological team encounters

something unexpected not above the Earth, but below it.

While excavating at depths of over 30 feet,

they discover a scattering of tiny metal coils and springs.

They discovered very unusual objects

that were tiny springs

that were always somehow curled towards the left side.

Most of them could not be seen unless you use the microscope.

Just a few were maybe a few millimeters in size.

That soil wasn't touched

for hundreds of thousands or more years.

The area where it was found was probably

tens of kilometers around.

It's as if something exploded thousands of years ago,

and the fragments were lying all over the place.

The metal fragments were sent to the Russian Academy

of Sciences in St. Petersburg for analysis.

They found thousands of these things.

They have to look at them through microscopes.

Some of them are just one ten thousandth of an inch in size.

They're all kinds of spirals and tiny machined bits.

When they look at it, they seem to be exactly like

the kind of tiny nanoparticles

and machine bits that we are creating today.

Testing revealed that the fragments were composed

of rare metals, and appear to have been manufactured.

But based on the depth at which they were found,

geologists estimate they would date back

tens of thousands of years.

So what could explain this seemingly impossible discovery?

Ancient astronaut theorists suggest clues may be found

by examining the materials that make up the nanospirals,

like tungsten and molybdenum... Elements commonly used

in NASA spacecraft.

Molybdenum is an additive that we use to put in steel

to make steel have various properties.

And it's used in manufacturing aircraft.

Could it be, as ancient astronaut theorists speculate,

that the nanospirals have come from

an extraterrestrial craft?

Ural Mountains are a very interesting space

in the paranormal history of Russia.

And I've studied a lot because there have always been

incredible UFO sightings in the Ural Mountains.

So, is this a debris field from a crashed

extraterrestrial craft in the Ural Mountains?

There could be crash sites all over the world

that are hundreds of thousands of years old.

Oftentimes, artifacts that support

the ancient astronaut theory

are hiding in plain sight.

For example, there's an Egyptian temple carving

that some scholars believe is a representation of a snake

and a lotus flower.

But in my opinion, what you're looking at is

the depiction of modern technology.

Number seven on my countdown of alien artifacts,

the Dendera light bulb.

Dendera, Egypt.

370 miles south of the Giza Plateau

stands the Hathor Temple.

The narrow passageways of this more than

2,000-year-old monument are lined with curious images,

and one that is of particular interest

to ancient astronaut theorists.

Underneath this structure is the so-called

Lotus Flower of Dendera.

And there are not just a few inside the crypt,

but they're, in fact, also on the outside wall on top.

That's something that's often not discussed.

So what are we looking at here?

Egyptology suggests that this bulb-like thing,

it essentially is the aroma of the lotus flower,

and that the snake in the middle illustrates fertility.

What's often not discussed is that

the surrounding hieroglyphics... 'cause you have monkey gods

standing around with sharp knives.

It indicates danger, death.

And there are textual references

that say that this has something to do with a bringer of light.

Why would there be descriptions of bringers of light?

Egyptologists maintain that it actually portrays

the moment of creation.

But it definitely resembles a lightbulb or a lamp.

Here is a replica of the bulb that's shown

in the Dendera reliefs in Egypt.

What's interesting about this bulb is the fact that

on the wall relief, we see the bulb is actually

plugged into what appears to be a power source.

So what we have here is a bulb, which very easily

could have been used by the Egyptians to light

the deep recesses of tombs and crypts.

How did the ancient Egyptians

light the insides of their structures?

Because some structures, not only are they deep underground,

but there's different corners, and different shafts

and corridors, sometimes on multiple levels.

And some of these places are filled with hieroglyphics.

The extraterrestrials did not let these people

work in the dark.

Of course they provided lighting sources.

And then that was also put in stone.

Because otherwise, nobody would believe

that truth in the future.

I've read the creation stories of countless ancient cultures,

and in nearly every one of them,

the gods came down from the sky,

usually in some type of flying craft,

surrounded by smoke and fire.

Now, to me, these are nothing else

but extraterrestrial encounters.

And if you want further proof, just take a look

at how the ancient people of Japan depicted their gods.

Number six on my alien artifacts countdown:

the Dogu statues.

On the East Asian islands of Japan,

remnants of the ancient world can still be found in the midst

of a modern, hi-tech society.

And the most incredible are not the opulent palaces and shrines,

but a collection of extremely ancient clay vessels

and figurines,

some of which date back more than 12,000 years.

They are credited to a people called the Jomon.

The earliest culture that we can identify in Japan is the Jomon,

which is originally a Stone Age culture running roughly

from 10,000 BCE to 300 BCE.

It is a culture that we don't know an awful lot about,

because they had no writing system.

All we have is artifacts.

The little that we do know about the Jomon

comes from archaeological evidence.

And one of the most representative artifacts

that is tied to the Jomon is the Dogu statue.

Approximately 15,000 Dogu figurines,

resembling strange humanoid beings,

have been found at various Jomon sites in Japan.

Ancient astronaut theorists suggest these figurines

represent the Kami, a group of beings

the Japanese believe descended to this world

in the ancient past.

Shintoism is the primary religion of Japan,

and they worship what they call the Kami,

which are these celestial beings that are able to inhabit

basically anything, from a human being to an animal,

and even inanimate objects.

Then they also describe them as having come down

from their celestial palace in the sky.

And these figurines look like these humanoid beings

that are in some type of space suits.

There are thousands of these statuettes

that have been recovered,

and these figures have goggle-type eyes,

and they have rivets all over their body,

indicating that they're wearing some kind of a space suit

or technological armor.

So you have to ask yourself, were these statues

sky beings who came and directed the Japanese

to have their civilization and culture,

and that ultimately these sky gods are their ancestors?

As far as ancient astronaut theorists are concerned,

the Dogu figures were not inspired by the imagination,

but depict very real visitors that the people of Japan

encountered thousands of years ago,

and provide a compelling record of extraterrestrial contact.

We're coming up on the halfway mark in my countdown

of the top ten alien artifacts,

and this next object is truly remarkable.

It's an ancient figurine that was discovered in Mexico,

but to me, it clearly depicts a man in a modern flight suit.

The number-five artifact in my top ten countdown:

the rocket man of La Venta.

Throughout the world, ancient illustrations

and statues can be found that depict figures

dressed in strange attire

that, as far as ancient astronaut theorists

are concerned, is eerily reminiscent

of modern-day space suits.

Examples include cave art in Italy, Australia,

and the American southwest,

as well as sculptures, like the statue of Pachamama

in Tiahuanaco, Bolivia,

depictions of the Mayan god Kukulkan in Mexico,

curious figures carved into the Hoysaleswara Temple

in India, and a strange sculpture found

in Guatemala City.

But perhaps most intriguing of all is a small figurine

attributed to the Olmec,

a civilization that emerged around 1400 BC

in the area of modern-day Mexico.

The Olmecs are one of the most mysterious

ancient cultures known to the history of our planet.

And in La Venta, we have carvings

that show the Olmecs in very bizarre scenes.

One of them is this plumed serpent that appears to be

floating in the sky, and you actually see a person

sitting inside this flying snake.

And so you have to wonder if somehow the Olmecs had access

to aviation technology, and I personally think they did.

Because at the Museum of Natural History in New York City,

there is a Olmec figurine about this tall,

and you can tell that this guy is wearing

some type of a flight suit.

You've got the legs here like in a modern-day astronaut suit,

and there's also some type of a life-support pack

that's on his chest.

There are six wings,

and the head is clearly enclosed

by a skullcap similar to modern-day astronauts.

In my opinion, it is the smoking gun

of our ancestors having aviation technology

thousands of years ago.

When it comes to ancient artifacts depicting advanced

technology, one of the most extraordinary examples

I've ever seen is a tiny gold figurine

that looks remarkably similar to a modern-day airplane.

In fact, it's such an important piece of evidence

for the ancient astronaut theory

that I wear a replica on my shirt pocket.

Number four on my countdown

of the top ten alien artifacts: the gold flyer.

The Southern highlands of Colombia.

In the late 19th century, tomb robbers

searching along the Magdalena River

stumbled upon a gravesite dating back 1,500 years

to a pre-Colombian civilization known as the Tolima.

Among the funerary objects found there

were hundreds of small two to three-inch gold figurines.

So the Tolima culture placed inside tombs little tiny

objects made of gold, and they found hundreds of thousands

of those in the form of different animals:

birds, fish, frogs, insects.

However, out of these hundreds of thousands,

there were 17 that looked like modern-day airplanes.

They have a triangular shape,

they have an upright tail fin,

stabilizers,

and a fuselage.

And they have nothing in common with

anything similar in nature.

In 1997, German aviation experts,

including Algund Eenboom,

set out to test the Gold Flyer's flight capabilities

by building a scale-model replica,

fully equipped with landing gear and a working engine.

It was rather simple because we don't need

to put much parts to this shape

because this shape is perfect.

Everything was already done by the native people

2,000 years ago.

Once completed, the remote-controlled flyer

took off down a makeshift runway, and flew.

When you see this thing taking off,

you really feel that this is the real deal.

It was a very successful test,

and showed us how perfect ancient people were working out

aerodynamic design.

What shows you that there must be something happened.

We are not quite sure how it did, but that it did.

This is applied science.

This isn't just thinking somewhere.

This is people going out there and making sure and proving

what I still see... Anybody can see this...

That this is real, this is genuine.

This little thing, which sits in a museum, could fly.

In 2017, I flew to Romania with Erich von Daniken to check out

one of the most remarkable artifacts

we had ever heard of.

An aluminum object said to be at least 40,000 years old.

And even more extraordinary is that it was scientifically

tested and found to have been made from an aluminum alloy

that doesn't match anything humans have ever manufactured.

Number three on my countdown of the top ten alien artifacts

is the wedge of Aiud.

1970.

Workers digging a trench along the banks of the Mures River

unearth two giant bones,

and with them, a mysterious metal object

buried 35 feet beneath the surface.

This strange object, known today as the wedge of Aiud,

is an aluminum alloy that appears to have been made

thousands of years before humans were able to smelt

or fabricate metal.

It was ten meters in depth, associated with some bones,

which they later identified as woolly mammoth bones.

They were extinct 40,000 years ago,

so they must be older than that.

The wedge was analyzed three times, to my knowledge.

The main metal in its composition is aluminum.

Humans didn't really start working with aluminum

until well into the 1800s.

So when you look at this wedge and you analyze it,

it really has most of the modern properties

we would associate with aluminum.

For decades, government officials refused to reveal

where the wedge of Aiud was being held.

But its location has recently come to light.

On January 18, 2017,

at the National History Museum

of Transylvania, ancient astronaut theorists

Giorgio Tsoukalos and Erich von Daniken

were offered a rare opportunity to get a firsthand look

at the wedge of Aiud.

Museum curator Ana Gruia

has taken it out of a storage locker

where it has been deliberately hidden

from the public since the early 1970s.

Okay, I'm just gonna put my gloves on.

This is great.

So, this is it.

Oh, okay.

This is strange.

And here, this is the... where they took the sample out,

and here, to make the analysis.

And here you see two pieces that are broken off, sort of.

So maybe it was attached or something.

But very strange.

So what does the museum have to say about this?

This is a very strange piece.

It is. It is a strange piece for us as well.

As historians, we do not consider it

a historical object that we're used to.

We don't know what it was used for, and we

acknowledge these uncertainties about its dating,

and its composition as well.

So we have a real mystery here.

But you see this patina over this whole object?

And this creates another problem.

Yes. Because you cannot fake a patina.

It's impossible to artificially create a patina.

The patina is a thin coating of various metal compounds

that forms on the surface of the metal

during exposure to atmospheric elements.

The older the object, the thicker

the patina layer will be.

It takes hundreds, if not thousands of years

for a thick layer of patina, as this apparently is,

for it to develop.

So, we-we still have a mystery here.

In all of your adventures, how does this compare

to some of the other things that are inexplicable?

I am helpless. I have no idea.

That says it all right there.

Very bizarre. Bizarre.

Could the wedge of Aiud be a physical remnant

of an extraterrestrial visitation

that occurred thousands of years ago?

Ancient astronaut theorists say yes...

and suggest that even more compelling evidence

of alien contact exists on the other side of the world,

hidden deep within an ancient tomb.

When it comes to finding proof that extraterrestrials

visited Earth, the evidence is not always obvious.

But sometimes it can be crystal clear

if you know what to look for.

To me, this next artifact irrefutably depicts

an astronaut in the cockpit of a rocket ship.

Number two on my list of the top ten alien artifacts:

the sarcophagus lid of King Pakal.

Palanque, Mexico.

1952.

Archaeologist Alberto Ruz Lhuillier discovers

the pyramid tomb of King Pakal,

who ruled over the ancient Mayan city

from 615 to 683 AD.

This is the famous Temple of the Inscriptions behind me.

Perhaps the most famous pyramid in all of the Mayan world.

The French-Mexican archeologist Alberto Lhuillier

began his excavations at the top.

It took him four years

to slowly excavate, step by step,

down the pyramid, until he finally came

to the tomb of Lord Pakal,

and the giant sarcophagus and lid

that the pyramid were built around.

Arguably the most remarkable Mayan artifact ever found,

the stone sarcophagus lid of King Pakal has produced

considerable controversy.

Mainstream scholars believe the depiction is of King Pakal

on a journey to Xibalba, the land of the dead.

But ancient astronaut theorists believe the king is portrayed

seated at the controls of a spacecraft.

You see a man bending forward,

almost like a racing motorcyclist.

He has his nose on some kind of oxygen mask.

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