FAKING ANCIENT ART
IN UZBEKISTAN
Another case of fraud in the ancient astronaut theory.
Jason Colavito
2012
In The Gold of the Gods (1972; English translation 1973), Erich von Däniken makes an astonishing claim about a cave painting in Uzbekistan, a painting he argues is proof that ancient humans drew images of the aliens who came to earth in prehistory, around the time that (fake) stone plates (see below) recorded their coming:
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Dr. Vyacheslav Saizev [sic], who published important data about the stone plates, found a rock painting (fig. 27) near Fergana, in Uzbekistan, not far from the Chinese frontier. Not only does the figure wear an astronaut’s helmet, not only can we identify breathing apparatus, but in his hands, isolated by the spaceman’s suit, he holds a plate of the kind found by the hundreds at Baian Kara Ula! (p. 81)
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Here is how this image appeared in The Gold of the Gods, where it superficially seems to confirm all of von Däniken's claims.
Dr. Saizev's "astronaut" as it appeared in The Gold of the Gods (p. 82).
In the film version of Chariots of the Gods? released in 1970 in West Germany and in 1973 in the United States as In Search of Ancient Astronauts, Dr. Zaisev appears and confirms that this painting was found in Uzbekistan and is quite ancient. According to the English version of the documentary, Soviet scholars "carefully copied" the rock painting. Here is how it appears in the documentary:
One of several versions of the alleged cave painting. Note that von Däniken cropped and flipped the original image.
It is rather astonishing that ancient cave dwellers from the Stone Age were using sophisticated types of composition, shading, and perspective not invented until the Renaissance in Europe. Perhaps the aliens taught art lessons? But as the British version's narration states:
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We must look and look again to grasp the significance of this prehistoric drawing. A creature wearing the headgear of an astronaut, the helmet well attached to his space suit, connecting tubes, breathing apparatus—the trappings of a space voyager. And suspended in the void: a spaceship shaped like two saucers, one atop the other.
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Funny thing, though: this isn't an ancient cave painting. The illustration was drawn to illustrate a 1967 Sputnik magazine story on the ancient astronaut theory. The above image appears to be a sketch or study for the final, inked version. Here's the relevant page image:
The 1967 Sputnik magazine article. The illustration, signed by the artist, is a finished, inked version of the concept sketch seen in the film.
To be fair, Sputnik claimed the picture was real even though the artist's name appears on the published image, no photo of the alleged original exists, and the two extant versions of the "carefully copied" painting differ in many details large and small. The French text reads: "The drawing representing a 'cosmonaut' was discovered on rocks in the vicinity of the city of Ferghana (Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan)."
The picture also appeared in an April 1967 Flying Saucers magazine story, apparently copied from the Sputnik original. In both cases, the disc held by the "alien" is one of the alleged Dropa stones, a a series of large discs covered in hieroglyphs supposedly telling of the crash of a flying saucer and its occupants’ subsequent activities in nearby China. These discs do not exist, but interestingly the author of the Sputnik article, Dr. Zaisev, was also involved in promoting he Dropa stones. He would later confess that the image was a hoax.
When confronted with the evidence of a hoax, von Däniken refused to admit the painting was a fake. In 1974, he told Playboy magazine that
The picture also appeared in an April 1967 Flying Saucers magazine story, apparently copied from the Sputnik original. In both cases, the disc held by the "alien" is one of the alleged Dropa stones, a a series of large discs covered in hieroglyphs supposedly telling of the crash of a flying saucer and its occupants’ subsequent activities in nearby China. These discs do not exist, but interestingly the author of the Sputnik article, Dr. Zaisev, was also involved in promoting he Dropa stones. He would later confess that the image was a hoax.
When confronted with the evidence of a hoax, von Däniken refused to admit the painting was a fake. In 1974, he told Playboy magazine that
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“First [Zaisev] published an article saying it was old, then he told the movie crew the same thing, and only now does he say it is not old at all. You can never be sure when they [Russians and the Chinese] tell you something that they really mean it. They sometimes have reasons to say one thing in private and another in public.”(p. 60)
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It's a bit difficult to believe that von Däniken had no doubts about the painting at the time of publication, given that The Gold of the Gods carefully crops the image to hide the most ridiculous and obviously modern parts, and even reverses the image to obscure its origin.
But von Däniken cared nothing for the evidence of hoaxing. Even more brazenly than in The Gold of the Gods, the complete image is reproduced, with photo credit to Constantin Film (the production company behind the Chariots film version), as figure 61 of the follow up book to Gold, In Search of Ancient Astronauts: My Pictorial Evidence for the Impossible (1973; English version 1974)--even many years after von Däniken was alerted that the picture was not ancient. In the 1974 book, von Däniken again claims the painting is absolute proof that ancient people witnessed ancient astronauts.
Sadly, this case of ancient astronaut fraud continues to be repeated down to this very day as fact despite its obviously fraudulent nature.
But von Däniken cared nothing for the evidence of hoaxing. Even more brazenly than in The Gold of the Gods, the complete image is reproduced, with photo credit to Constantin Film (the production company behind the Chariots film version), as figure 61 of the follow up book to Gold, In Search of Ancient Astronauts: My Pictorial Evidence for the Impossible (1973; English version 1974)--even many years after von Däniken was alerted that the picture was not ancient. In the 1974 book, von Däniken again claims the painting is absolute proof that ancient people witnessed ancient astronauts.
Sadly, this case of ancient astronaut fraud continues to be repeated down to this very day as fact despite its obviously fraudulent nature.
