All language subtitles for [SubtitleTools.com] Ancient Aliens Origins S01E02

NARRATOR: Accounts
from thousands of years ago,

describing high-tech
flying machines.

Medieval artwork depicting
mysterious objects in the skies.

And centuries-old reports

of unexplained aerial phenomena.

For nearly two decades,

Ancient Aliens
has traveled the globe,

exploring towering
megalithic structures,

mysterious artifacts

and stories
of otherworldly beings

in a quest for evidence
that might reveal the truth

of our extraterrestrial origins.

We have countless
ancient descriptions

that today, we would simply
refer to as "flying saucers."

NARRATOR:
Now, we take a look back

through
the Ancient Aliens archives

to the show's very origins

to examine the evidence
that we are not alone.

We have never been alone.

So, ancient close encounters.

Isn't that what
the ancient astronaut theory

-is really all about?
-GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS: Right?

And, you know, it's interesting
that for the past 15 years,

Ancient Aliens has explored
ancient mysteries,

mythologies, legends

and monuments
and things like that.

But we've also started

to incorporate
modern-day phenomena.

But the bottom line is

that these things have been
happening long before Roswell.

JASON MARTELL:
Yeah, and it's interesting.

You know, the term "UFO"
didn't really exist until 1952,

but the idea of an alien craft--

it's probably not a thought that
would have even have occurred

-to ancient man.
-Right.

But think about
all those ancient accounts

of flying shields,

flying canoes, flying chariots.

-Or flying,
fire-breathing dragons.
-Mm-hmm.

I mean, in my opinion,
all these are cases

of what I refer to
as "misunderstood technology."

I love that we're beginning

this "Ancient Close Encounters"
show

with one
of the earliest examples

that we've presented

in the first episode
of Ancient Aliens.

-And those are
those little models of birds.
-Right.

And it turns out

that these birds
feature aerodynamics,

and this has been proven.

NARRATOR:
Saqqâra, Egypt.

Located roughly
20 miles south of Cairo,

it is home to the world-famous
Step Pyramid of King Djoser.

Dating back more
than 4,000 years,

it is the oldest
of Egypt's 97 pyramids.

Saqqâra is also famous

for being one of Egypt's
oldest burial grounds,

earning it the nickname
"City of the Dead."

It was here, in 1891,

that French archaeologists
unearthed an ancient tomb

containing the burial remains
of Pa-di-Imen,

an official
from the third century BC.

Among the various items
discovered

was a small, wooden model

of what appeared 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.

The model sat largely unnoticed,
until 1969,

when Egyptologist
Dr. Khalil Messiha

was examining
the bird collection

and noticed that there was
something very different

about the Saqqâra bird.

DR. UWE APEL:
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.

On the other hand,

the wings are clearly not
bird wings.

DR. ALGUND EENBOOM:
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, um, end of the wings,

and those wings
are modeled down.

And this is a very modern
aerodynamic design.

APEL:
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.

NARRATOR:
Could the ancient Egyptians
have possessed

the power of flight?

In 2006,

aviation and aerodynamics
expert Simon Sanderson

built a scale model
of the Saqqâra bird,

five times larger
than the original,

to test that possibility.

(air hissing)

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.
-Yeah.

So it actually
would be flying now.

-Yeah.
-SANDERSON: That's good.

EEMBOOM:
Tests shows the Saqqâra bird is

a highly developed glider.

And this is a design
we use today.

NARRATOR:
During the Sanderson tests,

it was discovered
that the only thing

preventing the Saqqâra bird
from achieving flight

was the lack
of a rear-stabilizing rudder,

or elevator,
needed to maintain balance.

Is it possible
that the Saqqâra bird

ever possessed
this critical component?

What is missing is
something like an elevator.

But if you look
at this feature here,

then we may interpret

that something like an elevator
was connected here,

but was lost during history.

NARRATOR:
But if the Saqqâra bird
is capable of flight,

where would ancient Egyptians
have acquired such technology?

EENBOOM:
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.

APEL: If ancient cultures
would be able

to produce
any really flyable machine,

they would be far more advanced
than we believe today.

So it changes our viewpoint
of ancient societies.

PHILIP COPPENS: It's a fact
that our ancestors were

more intelligent

and had more technological,
superior capabilities

than our history books
give them credit for.

NARRATOR:
7,000 miles from Egypt,

the dense jungles
and rugged mountains

of Colombia contain
a vast number

of archaeological sites.

(birds singing)

Many treasure hunters believe
the legendary city of gold,

El Dorado, lies hidden here,

somewhere under a thick canopy
of trees.

While the mythical metropolis
has never been found,

early in the 20th century,

tomb robbers searching
along the Magdalena River

stumbled upon a grave site
dating back 1,500 years

to a pre-Columbian civilization
known as "the Tolima."

Among the funerary objects
found there were hundreds

of small, two to three-inch
gold figurines.

TSOUKALOS:
Many of those looked
like insects and fish.

However, out of those hundreds

that they found,
they also found about a dozen

that are eerily reminiscent

of modern-day fighter jets.

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.

NARRATOR:
Could these gold objects
really be proof

that Earth has been visited
by ancient aliens?

APEL:
One of the objects

shows a typical set of wings,
like with a modern aircraft.

And if you compare it

to something
like a space shuttle, you see

that the basic wing shape is
very similar

to wing shapes for high-speed,
aerodynamic bodies,

like a space shuttle is.

COPPENS:
There is not a single insect
in the world

which has got its wings
at the bottom.

Now when you exclude the
possibility that it's an insect,

one of the things
which remain is the fact

that this is actually, yes,
what it looks like-- a plane.

NARRATOR:
In 1997,

German aviation experts,

including Algund Eenboom
and Peter Belting,

set out to prove the speculation

by building a scale-model
replica of the Goldflyer,

fully equipped with landing gear
and a working engine.

EEMBOOM:
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.

TSOUKALOS:
They did not add an inch
or remove an inch.

They just essentially blew the
little thing into a larger size.

I mean, this is sensational,

that pre-Columbian culture knew
about aerodynamics.

NARRATOR:
Once completed,

the remote-controlled flyer

took off down a makeshift runway

and flew.

COPPENS:
When you see
this thing taking off,

you really feel
that this is the real deal.

It was a very successful test

and, uh, showed us how perfect

ancient people were working out
aerodynamic design.

What, uh, 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.

TSOUKALOS:
So we have two examples

from opposite side of the planet

and both examples

are aerodynamically sound

and they fly.

So to suggest that all
of this is coincidence,

I mean, after a while,

even coincidence
no longer makes sense.

BILL BIRNES:
Could the ancients

have seen actual entities

like ancient gods,
ancient astronauts

actually flying around in what
amounted to modern aircraft?

NARRATOR:
The answer to these questions
may be found

in ancient documents

that describe flight patterns,
aircraft specs

and even aerial battles
in remarkable detail.

NARRATOR:
Over the past 50 years,

NASA has sent astronauts
into space inside large rockets.

This method
has been described by some

as simply putting a man
on a large firecracker

and lighting the fuse.

Man's ability
to travel farther into space

will require more advanced
propulsion systems.

Several are being researched
by NASA.

ROBERT FRISBEE:
There are a wide variety

of advanced
propulsion technologies

that are being
actively developed

and studied by NASA
and other researchers.

A really exotic version of that

is to use
a launch assist catapult.

You use technology derived from
the magnetic levitation trains

to build a maglev sled
that carries your rocket,

gets it up to about Mach 1

and then launches
the rocket from it.

NARRATOR:
While these futuristic
propulsion systems

seem like something out
of science fiction,

ancient alien theorists believe
past civilizations possessed

these same
advanced technologies.

They point to a number
of cultural myths

that describe "sky people"
coming to Earth

in fire-breathing dragons
or metallic-looking machines

as proof
of extraterrestrial visitation.

CHILDRESS: In my mind,
legends and-and myths

are based on something real.

And while they've been mythified

and exaggerated in many cases,

in my mind,
some core of truth here--

in that people
really were flying in airships

in ancient times,

just like we do today.

NARRATOR:
But might these airships
have reached Earth

using the same type of
propulsion systems we use today?

The answer may be found deep
in the Indian subcontinent.

India.

Over 1.1 billion people
crowd its modern cities

and rural townships,

speaking hundreds of languages

and practicing a number
of different religions.

India is considered one
of the oldest civilizations,

with settlements dating back
over 11,000 years.

It is also home to several
of the oldest records

of ancient technologies.

Ancient Sanskrit texts
dating back as far as 6000 BC

describe in varying
but vivid detail

flying machines called vimanas.

EENBOOM:
Vimanas are airplanes

and they are powered
by some jet engines.

This seems to be true

because all the description

of the flight behavior,

elephants ran away in panic.

-(elephant trumpets)
-Grass was thrown out

because there was
a lot of pressure

from behind those vimanas.

So that we can say this is
a description of the spaceship.

NARRATOR:
Although mainstream historians
believe

the vimana texts are myths,

many of the documents
contain passages

that seem to describe
modern machinery and technology.

CHILDRESS:
The Vymaanika-Shaastra
goes into metals

that are used in these craft.

It talks about electricity
and power sources.

It talks about the pilots and
the clothing they have to wear.

It talks about the food
that they eat.

It talks even about the weapons
that are kept on these airships.

EENBOOM:
The flight manuals
of the vimanas

are quite similar
to the flight manuals you find

in the modern
passenger flight business

or, uh, when you go
to the military jet engines.

Of course,
they have also flight manuals

because it's necessary
for a pilot to get knowledge

about his plane
he wanted to fly with.

MICHAEL CREMO:
We also learn that these vimanas

could be controlled mentally.

And this is a technology

that modern militaries
are beginning to develop.

Even today, with as advanced
as we think we are,

almost every manifestation

of an actual extraterrestrial
civilization today

would look
almost like magic to us,

where it has to do with

technological
electromagnetic systems

that interface
with coherent thought

and organized thought.

This gets into-- People go,

"Whoa, now you're
losing me here."

But I tell people,
I say, "Yeah, well,

"you got to push your boundaries
a little bit

if you're talking about a true
interstellar civilization."

NARRATOR:
The Vymaanika-Shaastra suggests

vimanas were powered
by several gyroscopes

placed inside a sealed
liquid mercury vortex.

FRISBEE:
Here's an example

of a little kid's gyroscope.

You spin it,

with a heavy wheel
around a central axis.

Well, a gyroscope seems to do
a lot of strange things,

even defy gravity,

and it does this because it uses

what's called rotational,
uh, or angular momentum.

And it wants to keep
a particular orientation

on its spin axis,
the center rod.

If you push on that rod,

it will want to righten itself
up to its original orientation.

It wants to keep
that same angular momentum.

Gyroscopes are used
all over the place--

in airplanes,

in spacecraft, in submarines.

This allows 'em
to determine their position

based on where they started.

They can also use it
for finding their velocity

or even just the orientation
of the vehicle in space.

One of the texts talks
about mercury rotating

and driving some sort
of a powerful wind

or a windmill effect.

That might be some sort

of what we call
a flywheel energy storage--

where you have a spinning disc

and then you extract energy
from it slowly.

That would be the mercury.

And then that could be used

to drive some sort
of a propeller

or what we call
a ducted fan sort of system,

like you have in a hovercraft.

Mercury would be quite good
for that,

because it's a high density,

so you'd have a small package
for your power plant.

GREER:
How are these civilizations

traveling faster
than the speed of light

is a fundamental question.

It's a scientific application
of things that have been studied

for thousands of years
and they're within the Vedas.

NARRATOR:
But if vimanas existed,

could this prove

there was a worldwide
transportation network?

I find it beyos,

we have descriptions
of these gods flying around

in the so-called vimanas.

And as Erich von Däniken
has always asked the question,

what kind of a god
needs a flying vehicle

with which to move around in?

Yeah, it's a good question.
And there wasn't just one type

of vimana.
They actually describe

a whole array
of different types of craft

-in these ancient
Sanskrit texts.
-Yes.

And if we're talking about
extraterrestrials versus gods,

this makes sense. I mean,
we have stealth bombers,

we have drones,

we have space shuttles,
jumbo jets.

And in the ancient record,

we find a variety of craft

associated
with these extraterrestrials.

I mean, you see
these close encounters.

They talk
about these flying carpets,

they talk
about flying sky ships,

they talk about whole cities
hovering in the sky.

Right. And where did Erich von
Däniken first encounter these?

In the Old Testament.

NARRATOR: Myths and legends
of ancient air travel

are not limited to only vimanas.

According to the Kebra Nagast,
a holy book of the Ethiopians

dating back to at least
the sixth century AD,

the Queen of Sheba
was once given a gift

of a flying carpet
by King Solomon of Israel.

TSOUKALOS:
The Kebra Nagast

is one of the most important
texts you've never heard of.

The Kebra Nagast means
"The Book of Kings,"

and it is the most sacred book

of the Ethiopians.

In it, King Solomon,
it's described,

he had access to some type
of a flying machine.

And in that part of the world,
the term "flying carpet"

was always used very liberally.

My question is, did they really
mean actual flying carpets,

or was it another term

with which to describe
some type of a flying machine?

CHILDRESS:
This was the original
chariots of the gods

that Erich von Däniken
talked about,

the flying magic carpets

of the Arabian Nights stories.

There are traditions
in the Middle East

of King Solomon
having this airship

and flying to different places
in the Middle East,

certain mountains,
which are known as

the Mountains of Solomon.

These may have been
certain airports

or landing areas
for these vimanas.

Nicholas Roerich,

famous, uh,
Russian-American explorer

who traveled all through
Central Asia and Tibet,

in the 1920s,

he, too, claimed
that Tibetans had traditions

of King Solomon flying to Tibet
in this aircraft.

NARRATOR:
The Kebra Nagast also
describes how King Solomon

used his flying airship
to make maps of the world.

But could these have any
relation to other ancient maps

some believe may have been made
by extraterrestrials?

GRAHAM HANCOCK:
Some of these maps

show the world
not as it looks today,

but as it looked
during the last ice age.

And this is really hard
to explain.

Everybody's heard
of the-the Piri Reis map,

but they've perhaps not heard
of the Orontius Finnaeus map

or-or the Mercator maps
that show Antarctica,

uh, in great detail
hundreds of years

before Antarctica
was even discovered.

NARRATOR:
One of the most
referenced stories

of ancient aircraft is found
in a surprising place:

the Bible.

In the Book of Ezekiel,
the prophet describes

a flying chariot containing
wheels within wheels

and powered by angels.

Although Bible historians
suggest

Ezekiel was speaking
symbolically

about the terrifying enemies
facing Israel,

could this be another example
of an alien visitation

and proof that prehistoric
aircraft existed?

In the story
of Ezekiel's throne chariot,

this flying vehicle
that doesn't seem to have

any means of propulsion,

if we thought
of the word "angel"

as representing something
like celestial energy,

it sounds much more
like a-a spacecraft then,

because some of the angels
are going back and forth.

Well, that sounds like flames,
that sounds like propulsion.

Some of them are wheel-like.

Well, those sound like
flying saucers.

Our ancestors weren't idiots.

Ezekiel saw something
that was so frightening to him

that he fell to his knees.

Then out of the glory of God
came this being

in these bright clothes
that looked like metal

and told Ezekiel,

"All right, man,
we brought you here.

We want you to measure
this monument, this building."

And Ezekiel asks,
"Well, why should I do this?"

And the being says,

"That's why
we brought you here."

And then, you have 40 pages

in the second part
of the Book of Ezekiel

with measurement after
measurement after measurement

of this gigantic building,

in which, by the way,
the glory of the Lord landed.

NARRATOR:
In the early 1970s,

NASA scientist Josef Blumrich
set out to disprove the theory

that what Ezekiel witnessed
was a spaceship.

Josef Blumrich is your
proverbial rocket scientist.

He worked on
the Moon project for NASA,

and from the mind
of a rocket engineer,

started to look
at what was written

in the first part
of the Book of Ezekiel,

and after many months
of research,

Josef Blumrich
came to the conclusion

that what Ezekiel described

in his eyewitness report,

it was, indeed,
a type of spacecraft.

NARRATOR:
Josef Blumrich would go on

to write
The Spaceships of Ezekiel.

Several years later,
a German structural engineer

named Hans Herbert Beier
sketched out a blueprint

of the second section
of the Book of Ezekiel,

where Ezekiel is told
to construct

an open-topped building
to house the flying chariot.

Ezekiel's spaceship
fit exactly into the temple

that Hans Herbert Beier
recreated.

So what we have here
is a proof by indication.

Here we have a NASA engineer
and a structural engineer--

they didn't know
of each other's work--

and both pieces
fit together like a puzzle.

In any court of law,

that's evidence
that would hold up.

HANCOCK:
I think that scientists
feel uncomfortable

with the notion
of the lost civilization

precisely because the evidence
for it is so ambiguous.

It's not so in-your-face
that it's immediately obvious.

Uh, and, you know,
the result is that science

has not welcomed this idea.

It'll take much more evidence
before it's widely accepted.

TSOUKALOS:
The God that I believe in

doesn't need a vehicle

in which to move around
from point A to point B.

Whatever was described
in the Old Testament

wasn't God,

it was a misunderstood
flesh-and-blood extraterrestrial

whom our ancestors
misinterpreted

as being divine
and supernatural.

And why? Because of
misunderstood technology.

And that is
the underlying thread

that applies to all
of the ancient astronaut theory.

e

and other ancient texts,

and you do it
through a modern lens,

it's really not
that difficult to see

some type
of extraterrestrial connection.

Yeah, again,
it's about frame of reference.

What people were familiar with

and the language
they had at the time.

-Right, and the vocabulary.
-Mm-hmm.

And so, ultimately though,

I think what we are
seeing in the past

is the exact same thing,

because we have countless
ancient descriptions

of some flying objects

that today,
we would simply refer to

as "flying saucers."

NARRATOR:
Flying saucers.

UFOs.

Mainstream historians
claim sightings

of these mysterious craft

are mostly
a 20th-century phenomenon.

But according
to ancient astronaut theorists,

unidentified flying objects

have been appearing
in Earth's skies

for thousands of years.

CHILDRESS:
Depictions of flying saucers

and-and what seems to be
some kind of ancient spacecraft

go back to some of the earliest
cave paintings that we know of.

Scientists date these cave
paintings back to 20,000,

30,000 BC,

and these cave paintings
are-are in Russia,

China, Africa, South America
and other areas.

And they appear to be
some kind of a spacecraft.

WILCOCK:
You can go back
to ancient Sumerian inscriptions

from Babylon
and you actually see these discs

with wings around them.

And depictions
of people flying in them.

And you see the same thing
in Egypt where you see

round discs that have wings
coming off them.

What you're dealing with
is, most likely,

actually a flying saucer
that's being seen up in space.

NARRATOR:
Guatemala, Central America.

According to most mainstream
scholars and archaeologists,

the earliest human settlements
in this region

date back over 14,000 years.

Here can be found
numerous ancient artifacts,

and among them is this one,
the figure of a man

lying inside what appears
to be the shell of a turtle.

And when I asked
the local archaeologist there,

"What is this?"

they said, without
the flinching of an eye,

"Well, this is,
according to legend,

the giant flying turtles
which flew around in Guatemala."

The entire body
is aerodynamically fashioned.

The extremities are pressed
in an aerodynamic fashion

against the body of this turtle.

And if you look closely...

...it's as if there's
some modern-day fighter pilot

glasses or goggles.

This right here is
from the same culture,

from the same region where
they created the turtle in clay.

So they knew exactly
what a turtle looked like.

It looks like a snapping turtle.

And what we have here,

that is everything but a turtle.

It's something else.

In their frame of reference,
they were able to use the turtle

as the best example
of what they might have seen

that the gods used
to fly around in.

NARRATOR:
Halfway around the world,

in 329 BC, the Greek ruler
Alexander the Great

planned the invasion of India.

But according to ancient texts,
his army was supposedly thwarted

by a strange attack
from the skies.

CHILDRESS:
As Alexander's army was
getting ready

to cross the Indus
and invade India,

suddenly in the sky appeared
these flying discs.

And they began dive-bombing
at the war elephants

that were part
of Alexander's army.

And what these flying discs did
was cause stampedes

within Alexander's
own war elephants,

who then ran amok
throughout his army, uh,

tearing up the camps
and everything.

And after that,

Alexander's generals met
with him and they said,

"No, we're not going into India.

This, this is it.
We're gonna turn back."

And that was the end
of that war campaign.

NARRATOR:
But whether in ancient times
or much more recently,

so-called flying saucers are
often described

as being unaffected by gravity
or the basic laws of physics.

You know, I know
that people who have,

who have seen, uh,
extraterrestrial vehicles

in modern times have said

how in the world
could it be doing that?

For example,
it's moving through the sky

and it's going
20,000 miles per hour,

and makes a right-hand turn
without decelerating.

That isn't possible

using normal aerodynamics.

CHILDRESS:
When jets have been scrambled

after, uh, flying saucers,
the saucers are described

as suddenly turning
at right angles

at super speeds
and just zipping off

in what seems like
impossible aerobatic maneuvers.

And this can be explained
as the kind of technology

they're using which is,
uh, a gravity control.

It's artificial gravity.

So when you're inside of a,

a gravitational field
that you're creating yourself

around your craft,

the gravity of the Earth
doesn't have a force on you.

dozens of examples
of ancient flying objects

as they're described in legends

or depicted in ancient rock art

and also in carvings.

Up till now,
we've had lots of evidence

of ancient accounts,

but as we've shown
on the series,

these accounts are shown
all throughout the Middle Ages

-as well as the Renaissance.
-TSOUKALOS: Mm-hmm.

And it's not just accounts.

There are numerous examples
of these mysterious

disc-shaped objects that appear

in the artwork
of the time as well.

It's right there
for anyone to see.

NARRATOR: For those who believe
that close encounters

with alien beings have helped
shape Earth's history,

it is important to remember

that it isn't only
ancient history

that has been so influenced.

There have been literally
hundreds of credible accounts

of strange creatures,
UFO sightings

and otherworldly phenomena
that took place

even in the so-called Dark Ages.

BIRNES:
There have been sightings
all over the world

throughout the Middle Ages.

There are stories

going from Scotland, to England,

to Italy, to the Crusades.

(men clamoring)

Remember, the Crusades took
place over hundreds of years.

And at certain points
in the battle,

in some cases over Turkey,

in some cases over Jerusalem,
there are images...

...captured in writing
by various chroniclers

talking about
a strange cloud in the sky

that glowed red.

A strange image coming out
of a cloud in the sky.

Why would we say this is a UFO?

Because traditionally,

UFOs mask themselves by forming
a cloud around themselves,

and it's a cloud
that's going through the sky.

That's their invisibility cloak.

NARRATOR:
In his 13th-century
historical work

titled Otia Imperialia,

Gervase of Tilbury wrote
about an aerial craft

over the city of Bristol,
England,

which caught an anchor
in a church steeple.

BIRNES:
He uses specifically
the term "anchor."

Now, we don't know
what kind of anchor that is.

But a creature, a man,
climbs out of this craft

and tries to free the anchor
from the steeple,

and all the people in
the village start stoning him,

thinking he's some sort
of evil demon.

But for ancient
astronaut theorists,

evidence of an alien presence
during the Middle Ages

isn't only found in literature.

All throughout the Middle Ages,

there are
some magnificent paintings...

...and in certain areas
of the painting,

there are
what looks like to be UFOs.

They're always
floating up in the sky,

usually above the Virgin Mary

or above Jesus on the crucifix

or somewhere, we have sceneries

that depict
what looks like UFOs.

One very interesting painting is

where Jesus sits up
in the clouds

with "God"
and they're holding on

to the antennae
of what looks like Sputnik.

And theologians say
what is depicted here

is nothing else but the Earth.

But why would Earth have
two antennae sticking out of it?

And why would it be round
because the mainstream viewpoint

at the time was
that the Earth was flat.

LITTLETON:
Here are the pictures
of the crucifixion

dated around 1350, from Kosovo.

Here are presumably vehicles

with people driving them

in attendance
at the crucifixion.

Could this be a crude--
an attempt on the part

of the artist,
drawing on a tradition--

obviously, he wasn't there--

drawing on a tradition?

Could he be
reflecting a folklore?

Possibly.

BETTY ANN BROWN: The people of
the Middle Ages depicted devils

and angels frequently
in their art.

They did not depict

what we today consider aliens,

specifically,

but angels are
heavenly creatures

that come from outside
of our sphere, aren't they?

NARRATOR:
Did the medieval artists include

strange creatures and flying
spacecraft in their paintings

because they had seen them
in real life?

Or were they trying
to communicate their belief

that the miraculous events
of the New Testament had

otherworldly origins?

MAXIMILLIEN DE LAFAYETTE:
The most famous painting

that, without
any doubt in my mind,

depict a UFO with its laser beam

was made by Crivelli in 1486...

...The Annunciation to Mary.

In medieval art,

in The Annunciation
when Mary is told

that she will have a child,

but she will still be a virgin,
and the angels tell her this,

over Mary's head
is a space capsule.

But what's a UFO or
a space capsule doing over Mary?

Maybe the artist saw it,

and he's putting it
in the painting

to bring together
his own vision of a UFO,

the annunciation from the Bible,
and the mystery of salvation

that there could be
a virgin birth.

to mysterious
disc-shaped objects

in medieval art.

It's really clear this is
an ongoing phenomena.

Oh, absolutely,
because you can look

at ancient rock paintings,
for example,

of a disc shape
over somebody's head.

And you fast-forward
to the Middle Ages,

like the 1400s or something,

and you see the exact
same theme in paintings.

And this continues
into the New World.

We even have descriptions
from Christopher Columbus,

that he and his crew
had some type of an encounter

before they reached land.

NARRATOR: When Columbus
and his men first set foot

in what to the Europeans
was the "New World,"

the Indigenous people had never
encountered anyone like them.

Their skin was pale;
they wore strange clothes

made of bright,
often shiny materials;

they arrived in massive ships
and had powerful weapons.

To the Natives,

the visitors were truly aliens
from a strange, faraway world.

Beings who might just as well
have been sent from the heavens.

CHRIS PITTMAN:
Columbus wrote in his journal
that the inhabitants

eagerly came out
to see their ships,

and asked them if they had
come from the heavens.

And despite the fact
that Columbus and his men

indicated, "No, we didn't
come from the heavens,"

they called out to the people
still on the shore,

"Come out and see the people
who have come from the heavens."

Certainly, it seems
interesting to wonder

why it is that,
instead of thinking

that, possibly, they came
from some other part of the sea,

that they'd come from the sky.

NARRATOR:
But there is more to the story.

Less well-known is that Columbus

had an alien encounter
of his own,

one reported in his log

just days before he reached
the shores of the New World.

At about 10:00 p.m.
on the 11th of October 1492,

the anxious explorer was
on the deck of the Santa María

when he saw a "light glimmering
at a great distance."

Columbus wrote, "The admiral,

"standing on the quarterdeck,
saw a light.

"Calling to Pedro Gutierrez,
he told him he saw a light,

"and bid him look that way,
which he did and saw it.

"The admiral again
perceived it once or twice,

"appearing like the light
of a wax candle

moving up and down."

Summoning another member
of the crew,

the two watched
as the light vanished

and reappeared repeatedly.

BIRNES:
Seeing lights in the water
isn't really an anomaly.

We all know that certain kinds
of underwater life

give off lights.

But this light actually
traveled along with the ship.

Columbus noted in the log

a glowing object rise
out of the water

and head off
into the atmosphere.

NARRATOR:
What did Columbus see?

A phosphorescent sea creature?

An hallucination?

Or was it something more?

Something from
out of this world?

What did Columbus's men see?

What they saw

was a luminous object

that, upon breaking the water's
surface, became a UFO.

NARRATOR:
To UFO researchers
like Bill Birnes,

Columbus's sighting
is significant

not only because of
when it occurred

but also because the object was
spotted coming out of the sea,

ruling out the possibility

that what he saw
was a comet or a shooting star.

LITTLETON:
What's intriguing
is that this was in

what we call today
the Bermuda Triangle.

The Bermuda Triangle, that area,

particularly off of Bimini,
in the Bahamas,

may in fact be--
and I'm way out on a limb here--

colony headquarters,
underneath that.

Your UFO goes down
into the water

and then into a subterranean.

What better position would be
to monitor South America,

Middle America, Egypt,
than the Caribbean?

PITTMAN:
Many people believe

that it's possible that UFOs

could have established bases
on the seafloor.

To some extent,
it's true that we know more

about the Moon
or some parts of outer space

than we do about the deepest
parts of our own oceans.

This event
is extremely important,

because it is
the world's first recorded event

that illustrate
the appearance of UFO

as object emerging
from the water.

NARRATOR:
If Columbus's sighting
was so extraordinary,

why do we only find
record of it in his log?

Some believe another account
of this event exists,

in the official records
of the Spanish Inquisition.

UFO researcher
Maximillien De Lafayette

claims that Columbus's shipmate
Pedro Gutierrez

reported him to the Inquisition
after hearing Columbus describe

the lights in the sky as
resembling the Jewish menorah.

DE LAFAYETTE:
When they went back to Spain,

Gutierrez went directly
to the infamous Inquisition.

This is the Catholic
organization

created by the Vatican to
persecute and kill the infidels.

The infidels means the Jews,

the Muslim and Christian
who are not Catholic.

The Inquisition called him
for explanation, deposition.

"Did you say
that you saw menorah?"

"Why did you say 'menorah'?"

In the deposition,
which is lengthy,

you find more details,
meticulous details,

of what Columbus saw
above the water.

The file of the Inquisition,

it is in the vault
of the Vatican.

And good luck if you can go to
the secret file of the Vatican

and try to dig for document
as explosive as this one.

NARRATOR: Secret files
of the Spanish Inquisition?

UFOs and alien sightings
in the time of Columbus?

Far-fetched, perhaps.

But to proponents
of ancient astronaut theory,

these precolonial
close encounters

are considered
commonplace events.

For them,
it offers additional proof

that we are not alone.

ALEX CHIONETTI:
They have several sightings

of what we could call
UFOs today.

Along the discovery of America,
during the conquest of America,

Columbus wasn't the only one.

Also, the trip of Magellan,

Ferdinand de Magellan,
the discoverer of the Strait

who circumnavigate
the world after Columbus,

he have, also, sightings.

NARRATOR:
Seafarers often encounter
strange lights

both in the sky and below
the surface of the ocean.

Skeptics argue
that Columbus's sighting,

like many others,
was simply a natural phenomenon.

WILLIAM BRAMLEY:
At night, there are
all kinds of things,

for example, bolides.

Bolides are these
very large comets,

and they're spectacular.

It's just, like,
this enormous bright light,

with a trail that just arcs
through the sky.

But we can tell the difference.

When you have a meteor like that
or a bolide,

the characteristics
are very different

than the ones of genuine UFOs.

PITTMAN:
As far back as the 19th century,

people have speculated about
what that light could've been.

Explanations have centered
around the possibility

that it could've been
a light or a torch

being carried
by an island inhabitant.

They were, in fact,
more than 35 miles away

from any land,
which makes that impossible.

The other possibility
is that it was a meteor

traveling very close
to the horizon,

and that the movement
of the ship is actually

what made the light appear
to be moving up and down.

NARRATOR: But what if
conventional science is wrong

and the ancient astronaut
theorists are correct?

What if Columbus, Magellan
and the early explorers

really did see evidence
of extraterrestrial creatures

visiting our planet?

What does this say
about our past,

our history and our future?

1.

At dawn, the citizens
of Nuremberg awoke

to what was described
in a local news flier

as "a very frightful spectacle."

Various strange objects
were spotted in the sky,

engaged in what appeared to be
an aerial battle.

Could they have been
witnessing a close encounter?

BIRNES:
They see this incredible sight
as the Sun is coming up.

They see what they describe
as cigar-shaped objects,

circles in the air
and crosses, flying crosses.

And suddenly, these shapes
began emitting other shapes.

PITTMAN:
The spheres and discs
were seen for a long time,

as they, apparently,
were fighting in some kind

of a battle over the city.

In fact,
the battle was so evident

that the people in Nuremberg
were actually able to perceive

which side was winning.

Some of the objects
were seen to crash

into the ground and disappear
in a cloud of smoke or steam.

Other objects
were seen to fly off

and disappear
in the direction of the Sun.

BIRNES:
This entire event becomes
memorialized in a broad sheet.

Now, a broad sheet
in the 16th century

was literally a newspaper.

And that broad sheet exists
today in Zurich, Switzerland.

PITTMAN:
The Zurich Central Library,
to this day,

retains a copy not only
of the famous woodcut

that shows the 1561 sighting
over Nuremberg,

but also a 1566 woodcut
showing a sighting

from that year that was quite
similar in Basel, Switzerland.

What's fascinating
is it's a very similar event.

People saw a bunch
of circles in the air.

In fact, a proliferation
of circles in the air.

They didn't necessarily
interpret that

as a battle in the air,

but they did interpret it
as some kind of heavenly sign.

NARRATOR:
The broad sheets
that were distributed

both in Nuremberg
and in Basel five years later

advised people
to "repent for their sins"

and interpreted
these extraordinary events

as signs from God.

In old time, everything
paranormal, "extra, extra,"

hyphen, "ordinary belongs to
realm of divinity, of God's.

"God's doing this!
God is punishing us!

God is blessing us!
Go repent! Go to church!"

PITTMAN:
It's interesting to read
the Nuremberg description,

because it is written with
religious iconography in mind.

They talk about
crosses seen in the sky

on the previous day,
during that sighting.

Now, what we might think
of as a fuselage with wings

might've appeared
as a cross to people

who saw religious symbolism
constantly

in their everyday life.

It's difficult to imagine

how these things
might have appeared,

but it's certainly possible

that if these were to appear
in the sky today,

we would describe them
quite differently.

NARRATOR:
Could the people of Nuremberg
have actually witnessed a battle

between warring alien factions--

an event eerily similar
to the one written about

in the Bhagavad-Gita
over 3,000 years earlier?

And if not,

what else would explain
the vivid accounts

of luminous globes
and blood-red crosses

appearing in the sky?

Throughout the Middle Ages,

visions of strange happenings
were often attributed to God,

or to the supernatural.

But moving into what is known

as the Early Modern period
of the 17th century,

people began to look
more and more toward science,

and the stars, for answers.

And with the invention of the
refracting telescope in 1608,

there would be more eyes trained
on the stars than ever before.

Ironically,
the first report of a UFO

witnessed
through this new device

came from colonial America's
best-known Puritan minister,

Cotton Mather.

BIRNES:
There was an incredible sighting
that the very famous

New England preacher
Cotton Mather had.

Cotton Mather said that he
was looking through a telescope

at the Moon,
and in the telescope he saw

a flying light over
the surface of the Moon.

Well, how did this get recorded?

By none other than NASA.

And people
can find it themselves,

go to the NASA report on
lunar anomalies over 500 years,

and they will find
Cotton Mather's sighting

of a UFO
over the surface of the Moon.

PITTMAN:
There are a vast number
of natural atmospheric phenomena

that can appear as bright lights
in the night sky.

Certainly, uh,
meteors are a possibility.

Even certain kinds
of terrestrial phenomena

do materialize as
glowing balls of light

that, seen from a distance,
may appear to be a star.

And it's incredibly difficult

to judge the distance of a point
source of light in the night.

So, he may have thought
that it was on the surface

of the Moon,
or-or hundreds of miles away,

when in reality,
it could've been

quite close to where he was.

NARRATOR:
Though it is uncertain
what Cotton Mather saw,

ancient astronaut theorists
find it significant

that a prominent religious
figure would report

such a sighting
not as a vision from God,

but as an astronomical event.

They see it as a sign.

Not only of
the sighting's authenticity,

but that views
on the possibility

of extraterrestrial life
were starting to shift,

even within
the Christian Church.

BIRNES:
Cotton Mather was known as
a fire and brimstone preacher.

But there's a rational part
of Cotton Mather as well.

Because this
was the very beginning,

the dawn of
the Industrial Revolution.

And in this context, people
were thinking about science,

they were thinking
about machines,

and really thinking about could
there be something in space?

NARRATOR:
Although sightings
like Cotton Mather's

were still rare in the 1700s,

the increasing interest
in astronomy

sparked a new debate
over a centuries-old theory

called
"the plurality of worlds,"

the idea that life
might exist elsewhere

throughout the universe.

MICHAEL CROWE:
By the end of the 18th century,
the majority of people,

at least of educated people,

were convinced that
all throughout the solar system

there was intelligent life--

on Jupiter, on Mars, on Saturn.

All of them
had extraterrestrials.

Very possibly the Moon would
have intelligent beings on it.

I once did a tally
of the leading intellectuals

in the 18th century.

Over half of them included ideas

of extraterrestrial life
in their publications.

NARRATOR:
The premier 18th-century
astronomer William Herschel

also supported the theory that
life existed on other planets.

So did Thomas Paine, one
of America's Founding Fathers,

along with many
religious leaders of the time.

CROWE:
Preachers were preaching
about extraterrestrials

as a proof of God's goodness.

That's the idea:

that if there is
a good and beneficent God,

he would populate
all the planets, all the stars.

NARRATOR:
Though there was open debate
about the existence

of extraterrestrial life
in the 1700s,

the discussion
did not often extend

to the idea of aliens
visiting Earth.

But in 1731, a series of
sightings occurred across Europe

that were so compelling,

the possibility
could no longer be ignored.

In modern UFO sightings,

the communications about UFOs
are instant.

It's on the Internet,
it's on YouTube.

But what about some
of these 18th century

or Renaissance sightings?

Here's something incredible.

In 1731 over Kilkenny, Ireland,

there was a sighting
of a luminous object

coming out of a red cloud.

That same sighting is reported

in the span of a week
over the rest of Europe,

particularly over Romania
in Eastern Europe.

Now, here are two countries

that are not communicating
with each other.

Newspapers don't
go back and forth,

they don't speak
the same language,

there's no radio
and there's no television.

Yet, a UFO was spotted traveling

from the Irish Sea,
across Europe,

all the way to Eastern Europe
and towards Asia,

and is spotted
in different places as it goes.

Independent observations
that don't cross-pollinate.

NARRATOR: Could these
nearly identical reports

of a strange object
passing through the sky

be mere coincidence?

And if it was an alien craft,

is it possible
that earlier sightings

simply weren't reported
because they were interpreted

as signs from God?

Perhaps further clues
can be found

by exploring accounts
from North America

detailing aerial craft
and their connection

to otherworldly visitors.

the Founding Fathers,

but you really can't
talk about North America

without mentioning
Native Americans.

And they have accounts
that go back for centuries.

If you talked with a member of
the Hopi or Navajo tribe today,

they will tell you stories
of the star people

that were recorded
by their ancestors

that say these beings
have been visiting us

for thousands of years.

Right. And we all knew,
and we all remember

Zuni elder Clifford Mahooty,
who has since passed away.

But I remember
like it was yesterday

when I visited him
in Zuni Nation,

where he brought me to an
ancient sacred petroglyph site.

And you can only visit there

if you're going
with a Zuni elder.

And the petroglyphs
that he showed me there,

he himself said
that these are depictions

of the ancient flying vehicles

that his ancestors witnessed
with their own eyes.

NARRATOR: In the United States,

there are over 6,000 UFO
sightings reported every year,

more than any other country
in the world.

But why?

Is there an explanation

for such a high number
of UFO sightings?

Could aliens have
a special interest in America?

According to
ancient astronaut theorists,

not only are aliens watching
over North America today,

but in fact,
they have been visiting us

for hundreds, and possibly
even thousands of years.

And they claim the evidence can
be found in the strange sites,

structures and monuments

that lie in every corner
of the continent.

America's really
a very mysterious place

with all kinds
of strange legends.

So trying to put
all of these things together

in context
shows us that we're living

in a very unusual continent
full of magic and mystery.

NARRATOR: Serpent Mound
in Adams County, Ohio.

The kivas
at Chaco Canyon, New Mexico.

Bighorn Medicine Wheel
in Wyoming.

Many Native American tribes say
that at these ancient sites,

and countless others,

entities that they call
"star beings"

came down from the sky
to teach their ancestors.

MAHOOTY: To the Zuni people
and other tribes,

there's a spiritual connection
with the star beings.

They're the ones
that actually rule the universe

or the world that we're on.

If you look at the petroglyphs,
there's a lot of references

to those type of, uh, entities.

NARRATOR: According to tribes
like the Zuni and Hopi,

stories of these
otherworldly visitations

exist not only
in the oral traditions

passed down
from their ancestors,

but also in petroglyphs carved
into rock all across America.

On the Zuni Pueblo
in New Mexico,

there are literally
thousands of ancient carvings

that most outsiders
have never laid eyes on.

And the Zuni claim that some of
these petroglyphs

depict visitations
from star beings.

There's definitely evidence
that aliens

visited North America
in the distant past.

And there are petroglyphs

throughout this part
of the country

carved by ancient Americans
that depict just that.

What can you tell me about
this petroglyph right here?

You know, it's,
if you can see on top of that

where maybe a head would be,

-it's kind of eroded off.
-TSOUKALOS: Mm-hmm.

MAHOOTY: But on the next part
of it, there's four compartments

look like extension
of something sticking out.

TSOUKALOS:
Yeah, almost like legs.

MAHOOTY:
It could be something

-that they saw in the air.
-Mm-hmm.

TSOUKALOS:
Isn't there a legend that

beings visited
on top of this mountain?

Oh, yes.

Uh, on all of the mesas.

TSOUKALOS: In conjunction
with all the stories

of star people
descending from the sky

in fiery shields
and things like this,

when I see a pattern like that,

I always think, what if this
is something that they saw,

and then they carved
onto a rock?

MAHOOTY: And a lot of these
are sacred drawings.

They're just not graffiti like
a lot of people say they are.

-No, never!
-There is no such thing
as that in those days.

Look at that triangle up there.

TSOUKALOS: And you've got
the dots around it

that have been carved
into the rock

that remind me, like stars.

NARRATOR: Could
the ancient people in this part

of America really have been
trying to depict

encounters
with alien spacecraft?

There are legends and myths
all around the world

that can be interpreted
as having

been visits
by extraterrestrials.

And many think that such stories

don't exist here
in the United States.

But the fact is
that there are things

in this country
that nobody's even dreamed of.

NARRATOR: According
to ancient astronaut theorists,

there is evidence
that otherworldly beings

were not only witnessed
by Native Americans,

but also
by the European colonists.

And curiously, one
of the earliest UFO sightings

reported in the colonies

occurred in an area
that the local Wampanoag Nation

claimed was a point of contact
with star beings.

The Hockomock Swamp,
southeastern Massachusetts.

Located 25 miles
south of Boston,

in and around the suburban town
of Bridgewater,

this vast wetland is infamous

for being the heart
of the Bridgewater Triangle.

According to
Native American legends,

this 200-square-mile region has
been a hotbed of UFO sightings

dating back to before Columbus
arrived in the New World.

PITTMAN: Within
the Bridgewater Triangle,

a huge amount of interesting
paranormal activity

has been reported,
including very high numbers

of UFO sightings.

Some people speculate that maybe

it's the presence
of the Hockomock Swamp.

The very name "Hockomock"

means "place
where evil spirits dwell."

European colonists settled
this area in the 17th century.

But the stories
of paranormal activity here

go back long before that time.

Time and time again,
we see stories

about beings
that live in the sky,

flying canoes,

what are apparently
spaceships that land,

people that get out and interact
with the Native Americans.

NARRATOR:
On May 10, 1760,

in this same area where
Native Americans say

star beings
interacted with humans,

European colonists reported

seeing
mysterious lights in the sky.

The account appeared
in a publication

that was read throughout
the English-speaking world

called The Gentleman's Magazine.

According to historical records,

at 10:00 a.m., a sphere of fire

appeared that emitted a light

bright enough to cast
a shadow in bright sunlight.

And this object was reported to
be seen not only in Bridgewater,

but also in Roxbury
over 30 miles away.

Now that's interesting to me
because the fact that people

in two different cities
reported seeing the same thing

at the same time, to me says
that they really saw something.

It was seen
by a huge number of people.

And one observer remarked

that the sound that this giant,
uh, ball of light made...

(whooshing)

...was heard more in the middle

of its travel
than at the beginning,

which I think is
a very interesting detail

that does correlate,
to some extent,

with more modern UFO reports.

The Bridgewater sighting
of 1760 is just one

of many incredible events

that took place
in colonial America.

It was mysterious.

It was the frontier.

Something was up there
in the sky,

way before any powered flight
had been invented

by modern humanity.

believed in the idea
of extraterrestrial life

beyond Earth.

Even Benjamin Franklin
wrote about it

-in Poor Richard's Almanack.
-Yeah.

And there were some
enormously significant events

that will remind you
of ancient close encounters.

It's almost
as if the extraterrestrials

were intervening
in order to direct or ensure

the outcome of these events.

Well, and that's what some
people have suggested happened

with the encounters
during the War of 1812.

I mean, some really
strange things happened there

that some say
turned the tide of that war.

NARRATOR:
According to the Colorado-based

Mutual UFO Network--

the largest UFO investigative
organization in the world--

in the first week of 2012,

reports of UFOs in the United
States suddenly skyrocketed,

with a staggering 233 reports

coming in from 36 states.

And ever since, the numbers
have continued to grow.

If there really are aliens
still visiting Earth today,

have they taken
a special interest in America?

And might they even be helping
to determine our future?

Ancient astronaut theorists
believe

the answer may be found
by looking back

at one of the most important
events in American history.

NARRATOR:
Washington, D.C., 1814.

Two years
into the bloody War of 1812...

...the American
hopes for victory

over the invading English
army seem to be dying.

And now the unimaginable
is happening.

A foreign army is poised
to enter Washington, D.C.

CHILDRESS: It was
a very hot summer that year.

The British forces were able
to completely

overwhelm the, uh, very young
United States Army at the time.

And they marched
into Washington, D.C.

President Monroe and
all of the other politicians

had left the capital
and at the time,

the British forces were finding
it basically a deserted city.

So they began to set fire
to Washington, D.C.

starting with the White House.

And they were
basically gonna just

burn down our nation's capital.

NARRATOR:
The United States of America--

then just a few decades old--

is on the verge
of going down in flames.

But then
something strange happens.

That summer day was
a very hot, sultry day.

And at first they thought
this would really help

burn down Washington, D.C.

There weren't any clouds
in the sky.

But suddenly the weather changed
very, very drastically.

Big storm clouds moved in,

it began pouring rain.

And then suddenly,

out of nowhere,
this tornado formed...

...and it went straight
at the British troops,

and forced them to retreat.

And at the same time,

the pelting rain
put out all the fires.

And Washington, D.C. was saved.

PITTMAN:
History books record this

as a stroke of incredible
good luck for the Americans.

But some ancient alien
theorists believe

that perhaps this was
a UFO encounter.

That it was
an extraterrestrial intelligence

that created that storm...

...and changed
the course of that battle

and perhaps of American history.

NARRATOR:
Is it possible
that the storm

that helped the United States
win the War of 1812,

was actually produced
by extraterrestrials?

And if so,
were they trying to protect

the fragile American experiment?

It's interesting to speculate

that perhaps there was
something about America

that an extraterrestrial
intelligence took interest in,

whether it was
freedom of religion,

new ideas about democracy,
about a republic

or something else that drew
the attention of aliens

and might have made them

want to help this country
become a success.

And I think that
that would really be

because the United States
as a country was, uh,

prophesied to exist in a sense.

And the extraterrestrials
very much nurtured

the-- this young United States

and watched its growth
very carefully.

Like a-a parent
watching a child growing up

and being
very protective of it, too.

And when the extraterrestrials
saw this moment

where the United States,
uh, could lose this war

and-and be occupied,
they decided to step in

and change history.

NARRATOR:
Could the mysterious sightings

and strange incidents

that have been reported
throughout our history

be evidence of America's
extraterrestrial heritage?

Since the beginning
of recorded history

in North America,

we've heard of these sightings.

And we, today,
in our modern world are

re-encountering
these same creatures.

And you have to ask,
"Are they the same beings?

"Are they the same creatures
that have been seen

"for thousands of years
and now we're being asked

to find a place for them
in our world?"

at all the ancient
close encounters

that we've documented

in over 250 episodes
of Ancient Aliens,

it's really clear
that extraterrestrials have been

visiting Earth
for thousands of years.

And now in the modern era,
the story continues.

That's right.

And one of the most
famous cases,

the Roswell incident, it's
probably what really sparked

the modern era of ufology.

And it's not just a sighting,
we're talking about a craft

that actually crashes to Earth.

Well, the U.S. military itself
declared it a flying disc.

That's what they reported.

And so the Roswell incident

definitely was
a major turning point

in this entire
discussion because,

all of the sudden,
we see this stuff

with our own eyes,
in our own time.

A UFO crashing to Earth.

So I think it's only fitting

that we end this show
with Roswell,

which we introduced
to Ancient Aliens

-way back in season one.
-MARTELL: That's right.

Way back when you became known
as "the guy with the hair."

(laughing)

NARRATOR:
Mainstream archaeologists
have long rejected

the notion that extraterrestrial
beings had a hand in creating

the pyramids of Egypt.

Theologians
and religious scholars refute

the idea
that stories of the Bible

or the Mahabharata could be
describing alien encounters.

And governments
throughout history

have officially denied reports

that the Earth has been
visited by flying saucers.

But on July 8, 1947,
a UFO sighting was reported

that even
the United States government

had trouble denying.

Why? Because this time,

the report was issued
by the U.S. Army.

I'm walking
on the Foster Ranch

between Corona
and Roswell, New Mexico.

Not far from what is called

the debris field
right over that hill.

And that debris field
refers to headlines

back in July of 1947
about a disc,

one of those mysterious UFOs

actually crashing
right out here.

NARRATOR:
One night in early July 1947,

a major thunderstorm
rolled across New Mexico.

The next morning,

rancher Mac Brazel went out
to check on the damage.

JULIE SHUSTER:
Mac Brazel went out
to make sure

everything was
where it was supposed to be,

and he came across

this really
extensive area of debris,

stuff he had never seen before.

He brought it
to the local sheriff's office.

In 1947, Roswell was home

to Roswell Army Air Field.

The sheriff called the base,
the base sent Major Jesse Marcel

and at that point, it basically
became a military site

as they gathered up every bit
of debris they could find.

NARRATOR:
In their initial report,

Army officials made
a vague claim of having started

the recovery of the debris
"sometime last week."

But why didn't the Army report
their findings right away?

And why were they so ambiguous
about the timeline?

One of the biggest things
we have is the newspaper

of July 8, 1947,
where Colonel Blanchard issued

a order
to Lieutenant Walter Haut,

who was the public information
officer saying basically,

"We have in our possession
a flying saucer,

it's being taken to Fort Worth,
to higher headquarters."

Roswell was a real turning point
for ufology.

I think that was
because the military,

for the first time, admitted

that they had a crashed disc.

And because it was
admitted at the time,

of course,
it caused a sensation.

SHUSTER:
Then July 9th,
General Ramey issued

a press release saying,
"No, it was a weather balloon."

And that started
the best-documented

UFO cover-up ever.

NARRATOR:
Army officials
referred to the debris

as being part of a flying disc.

Internal memos even
referenced the crash site

as having victims.

So why,
less than 24 hours later,

did they suddenly decide
that what they had retrieved

was nothing more
than a weather balloon?

Although Blanchard and Ramey
stuck by the revised story,

Lieutenant Haut
stood by the contents

of his initial report
his entire life.

And those who believe him
think modern technology

may have recently provided
the irrefutable evidence

they have been looking for.

SHUSTER:
When Major Marcel took
the debris to Fort Worth,

and General Ramey spread it out
to give this press conference

that it was a weather balloon,

there was a picture taken,

and in his hand
is a piece of paper,

and it's a very little
piece of paper.

I mean, and this
has been blown up,

and it is a memo.

There is a leading
researcher in the field

who is pulling
the words out of this.

And they include things
like "team at Fort Worth,"

"forwarded victims
of the wreck,"

"pod or pan."

And so every year
that the technology improves,

General Ramey may be
the one to solve it.

NARRATOR:
Five years after Roswell,

the United States Air Force
coined the term

Unidentified Flying Object
or UFO.

In the decades since, thousands
of UFOs have been reported...

-MAN: Whoa!
-NARRATOR: ...photographed,

and videotaped
all over the world.

MAN:
Oh, my God!

Perhaps one of the biggest,

most revolutionary
pieces of technology

to change our view

of UFOs and flying saucers,

is the videocam.

MAN: Woah! I'm getting
a series of lights right there.

I got it, I got it, I got it.

NARRATOR:
With smartphones
now a standard part

of everyday life,

are we poised to capture
the undeniable evidence

of extraterrestrial craft
in our skies?

And if so, might society
finally be ready to accept

that there's been
an alien presence on Earth

for thousands of years?

To me, it's fascinating
that we have

so many accounts of ancient man

living amongst
their living gods.

And today, we're all about,

where did these gods go?

Yeah, I mean,

when you look back
at human history...

...these close encounters
have been the one constant,

it's the one thing that almost
every culture has recorded.

Empires rise and fall,
heroes come and go,

we're always talking
about extraterrestrials.

The fact that we have identical
stories from ancient times

to that also happening today,

illustrates to me that the same
thing is still happening.

We are part
of this larger picture

that's been going on
for thousands of years.

And we can see
the evidence all around us.

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