We Are Not Alone?
We Are Not Alone?
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The authors are both Assistant Professors at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State
University, Mr. LeGrand specializing in the history of science and Mr. Boese in ancient
history. Mr. LeGrand received his Ph.D. in the history of science from the University of
Wisconsin and has published articles in Isis, Annals of Science, Ambix, and Organon. He
is currently on leave to serve as Visiting Lecturer at the University of Melbourne,
Australia. Mr. Boese, who formerly taught history and German at Washington Senior
High School in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, received his Ph.D. from the University of
Washington in 1973. He has published articles on ancient slavery and the teaching of
ancient history in Context and the South Dakota Social Science Association Journal.
359
school of thought holds that the myths of the past obscure all but a few
traces of highly advanced cultures which were responsible for apparent
similarities in the mythology and monuments of peoples scattered
throughout the world. The story of Atlantis, recounted by Plato, was
used by Ignatius Donnelly as a means of explaining similarities between
Old and New World civilizations. The success of his writings in the late
nineteenth century continues to spawn numerous imitations, markedly
inferior to Donnelly but nonetheless very popular, such as Mu and
Lemuria, two "lost worlds" in the Pacific.
Interventionists, on the other hand, claim that much of the same
evidence cited by supercivilizationists points to extraterrestrial
visitations. Such works as those of von Daniken, Jessup's UFO's and
the Bible, Tomas' We Are Not the First, and Dione's God Drives a
Flying Saucer all share a common outlook. According to them, ancient
man's achievements in technology, much of his mythology and his
artistic and architectural inspirations, and even his religious views are a
product of his contact with beings from other worlds. The
interventionists do, however, offer varying answers to the questions
why, how often, when, and from where these visitors came. Moreover,
they differ in the evidence cited and the specific interpretations of that
evidence.
The final radical view studied in class was that of Immanuel
Velikovsky. He selects his evidence to fit his preconception that the Old
Testament is a true account of geological events rather than of God's
direct action. Essentially, he also advocates an interventionist
interpretation, but the intervening force for him is a comet. At first
glance, his claims appear to be based on a solid foundation of research
and documentation. He cites a wealth of sources including early
twentieth-century German works on Babylonian astronomy, C. E.
Brasseur de Bourbourg's nineteenth-century translations of Mayan
documents, numerous scientific articles and monographs, Egyptian
papyri, rabbinical literature, and the Old Testament. Indeed, it is
understandable why the average reader would be overawed by the
prodigious "scholarship" of Velikovsky.
This enormous range of interpretations, from the outrageous to the
orthodox, was presented using a variety of techniques. The standard
and the more significant radical explanations of ancient history were
imparted by lectures, class discussions, video-tapes, films, and
extensive assigned reading. Less familiar views, such as Robert Dione's
whimsical theory that God and his angels are really rocket pilots
superintending a laboratory experiment, i.e., man, were the subjects of
multimedia presentations by students. Among the highlights of the
course were two debates by student panels, one on the "Velikovsky
Affair" and the other on assessment of the value of radical views of the
lift them into place; no way to fit them together to the nearest .001 of
an inch; neither grain nor housing for the several hundred thousand
workers involved; and no reason for undertaking the project if the
orthodox view be true except for "the whim of an eccentric king."
Therefore, for von Daniken, though he nowhere states precisely what
purpose he believes the Great Pyramid served, it could not have been
built by the ancient Egyptians. The mystery can be solved only through
an appeal to heaven, or, more accurately, to outer space.
Egyptians could quarry and dress soft stone, such as the limestone
facing of the pyramid, with the copper saws and other tools then in use
and the harder types of stone with heat and metal wedges followed by
"bashing" and polishing with stone such as dolorite. These
approximately 2,300,000 blocks (not 2,600,000) with an average weight
of 21/2 tons (not 12 tons) could each be moved with ropes and wooden
sledges (as depicted in tomb paintings) by ten men the short distance
from the Nile or the local quarry. These blocks could then be moved up
earthen ramps (described in numerous Egyptian texts and indeed
partially preserved at the Meidum pyramid) and emplaced.
Incidentally, the blocks are fitted together with precision only in the
case of the limestone sheathing and then with an average gap of .02 inch
(not .001 inch). As for the work force, a permanent cadre of 4000 men
(housed in the huts excavated in the last century) assisted by a 100,000-
man levy (not several hundred thousand) of laborers (fed by the grain of
the Nile Valley which later sustained all of Egypt as well as 250,000
Romans) could have completed the construction of the Great Pyramid
in twenty years.
Scholars readily admit that there are unanswered questions about
the pyramids, including the Great Pyramid, such as how the four-sided
pyramidal shape came to be chosen. For them, however, there is no
great mystery about where or how the pyramids were built-provided
all the evidence is considered. As for the purpose or function of the
pyramids, a matter virtually ignored by von Daniken, there is a mass of
evidence, ranging from ancient texts and inscriptions to recent
archaeological excavations, all according with the view that the
pyramids were royal tombs and centers of religious rites. One may
claim that the Great Pyramid was a landing beacon for spacecraft, but
only at the cost of ignoring the enormous body of evidence that points to
the tomb theory and indeed, in some cases, of misrepresenting or
misunderstanding that evidence as seen above.
It is quite true that there are other constructions of ancient man
that are not as fully understood by scholars. The cryptic lines on the
Plain of Nasca in South America are claimed to be a landing field for
spacecraft, a route map for ancient aircraft, fertility symbols, or an aid
to predicting astronomical events. Scholars do not agree on one
explanation of these lines because the evidence is insufficient and too
ambiguous. It might be well to point out, however, that the pyramids
have been studied for centuries, whereas the lines at Nasca only came
to the attention of scholars a few decades ago. Perhaps with further
study, this "mystery," too, will be solved without recourse to some deus
ex machina such as a visitor from another planet.
This manner of misusing, or even fabricating, evidence is relatively
HISTORY 4700
"Strange Views of the Past"
1. Introductory Remarks