Erich von Daniken§

Swiss author, born in 1935, whose Chariots of the Gods? (1968) turned the ancient-astronaut idea into a mass phenomenon; it sold in the tens of millions and produced an Oscar-nominated documentary in 1970. His method is accumulation rather than translation: monuments, myths and images from every continent are gathered as anomalies that visiting engineers would explain, among them the Nazca Lines read as an airfield, the Palenque sarcophagus lid read as a pilot at his controls, and the stonework of Puma Punku. He was convicted in Switzerland in 1970 of fraud and embezzlement arising from his hotel career, and wrote his second book in prison. In 1998 he founded the Archaeology, Astronaut and SETI Research Association and remains its figurehead. The division of labour with Zecharia Sitchin is the useful thing to hold on to: von Daniken supplied the frame and the sites, Sitchin supplied the named cast and the chronology, and Ancient Aliens runs both at once. Where Sitchin’s case can be attacked at a dictionary entry, von Daniken’s has to be taken site by site, which is slower and has been done less often.

Connections§

Ancient Astronaut Hypothesis · Zecharia Sitchin · Ancient Aliens · Nazca Lines · Tiahuanaco · Ancient Machining · Kenneth Feder · Vimanas