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"Chariots of the Gods" at 50: An Early German Review

2/24/2018

50 Comments

 
Picture
I would be remiss if I were to let this month go by without marking the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of the seminal work of the ancient astronaut theory, Erich von Däniken’s Chariots of the Gods?. The book was published in February 1968 as Memories of the Future, retailing for 16 marks, and it would soon become synonymous with the idea—long discussed in UFO and ancient mystery books—that space aliens came to Earth from the skies. While in Europe, readers quickly took to the book and it became a bestseller within months of its release, in the United States, the book did not become a byword for countercultural archaeology for a few years, starting when the National Enquirer serialized it in 1970 and even more so in 1973, when an NBC-TV adaptation of the book, lightly reedited from an Oscar-nominated European movie version, introduced von Däniken’s ideas to a mass audience, who went on to buy millions of copies of the book, which had been released in English translation in Britain in 1969 and America in 1970.
Chariots New Cover
​Penguin RandomHouse is currently reading a new fiftieth anniversary edition for publication, with a new foreword and afterward by the author, and the question mark that once rendered the title into an interrogative removed. The title is now a statement of presumed fact rather than a point of inquiry. You can see from the sumptuous cover design how much effort the publishers have put into creating a sumptuous package for a faulty text. The book is due out in July. I have seen some of the prepublication marketing materials, and I have requested a review copy. Penguin isn’t always open to sending me review copies when requested, but I will be cautiously optimistic about receiving one for review.
 
However, what I would have liked to see instead is a critical edition of Chariots, one that included extensive notes and commentary to explain and explicate the many mistakes and lines of faulty reasoning that von Däniken committed. A fully annotated Chariots, beautifully produced, would have been a worthy contribution to science and history. Of course, that will never happen because the publisher’s audience isn’t those looking for truth but those who think they’ve already found it.
 
To mark the occasion, however, I thought it might be interesting to share some excerpts from one of the original German reviews of the book from the time of its release. The anonymous review, entitled “Jehovah the Astronaut,” appeared in Der Spiegel on May 13, 1968. Since I do not have the permission of Der Spiegel to translate the entirety of the review, I will instead present a few relevant excerpts to look at how German readers first learned about one of the twentieth century’s most influential archaeology books.
 
The review starts off with a tone of bemusement, and it is clear that the reviewer does not believe that von Däniken is entirely serious, and the opening paragraphs offer a bit of linguistic play on the book’s claim that humans were created by aliens from apes:

In the distant past, alien astronauts discovered the Earth and taught the apes propriety and culture. Through the artificial insemination of female earthlings with astronaut sperm and the radical extermination of failed specimens by means of a flood, they succeeded in breeding Homo sapiens. The ennobled apes worshiped the astronauts as gods.
 
With this at least amusing hypothesis, the Swiss hotelier and amateur researcher Erich von Däniken, 33, attempts to solve the unsolved mysteries in human history—thankfully, without beastly seriousness, but with fantasy. His book is currently the most successful work of the Econ-Verlag publishing house.
​After summarizing a number of the book’s major claims, many of which the reviewer wrongly attributes to von Däniken’s original research rather than simply copying from earlier authors, the reviewer quickly recognizes that there is a general theme that represents the real purpose of the volume: “The underlying claim is that modern science has been unable to conclusively explain numerous finds [and therefore] the numerous hypotheses of the antiquarian have in fact the same degree of credibility as the theory of Däniken the amateur.”
 
The remainder of the review is mostly a summary of Chariots’ major claims, focusing on the allegation that Sodom and Gomorrah had been destroyed by a nuclear bomb (a claim originally made in Soviet propaganda a decade earlier), the claim that the Ark of the Covenant was a device for communicating with space aliens, and the claim that the lid of Pakal of Palenque’s sarcophagus (then mistakenly believed to represent the god Kukumatz rather than a king) was actually a depiction of a man in a rocket.
 
The reviewer draws no conclusions about the book, but ends the review with a surprising statement I had not seen elsewhere. According to the writer, Werhner von Braun had endorsed von Däniken’s claims about Pakal’s “rocket”!
​In fact, archeology has not yet been able to explain the puzzling stone carving of Palenque. Däniken says, “After all, one is not seeing ghosts when one is analyzing actual objects.” Rocket builder Wernher von Braun also seems impressed by the space-faring Kukumatz. Braun said, “I won’t deny this possibility.”
​That would have been amazing, if only it were true. Far from being a piece of enterprising reporting from Der Spiegel, it was actually a bit of fake news. The reviewer took a quote out of context and wrongly claimed that it referred to Pakal’s coffin lid. Instead, it was a quotation from an interview von Braun gave to von Däniken and which is quoted in Chariots. The quote is a little different:
[Von Däniken:] “Is there a possibility that older intelligences could have paid a visit to our earth in the dim mists of time?”
 
[Von Braun:] “I won’t deny this possibility. But to the best of my knowledge no archaeological studies have so far provided any basis for that kind of speculation.”
That’s just about perfect. Der Spiegel ended its initial coverage of Chariots of the Gods with an out-of-context misrepresentation of a serious scientist’s words. It’s really no wonder that the public were so easily duped, when the media couldn’t quite bring themselves not to play along.
 
Fun fact: Von Däniken’s first publisher, Econ-Verlag, only agreed to review his manuscript because he had this quote from von Braun, giving his enterprise credibility with the publishing house.
 
But as the first months wore on and the book’s success multiplied beyond initial expectations, it became clear that Chariots was not a silly fad but a serious development in the public understanding or science. A year later, Der Spiegel had changed its tune massively, but it was too late. Here is how the March 17, 1969 article alleging that von Däniken was a fraud and a plagiarist opened:
Erich von Däniken, 33, author of the massive bestseller “Memories of the Future” (SPIEGEL 20/1968), has forgotten both the past and the present.
 
He forgot, according to the prosecutor of the Swiss canton of Grisons, to repay loans in the amount of about 1,000,000 Swiss francs, and he forgot, so complains the Munich columnist Richard Kaufmann in the “Süddeutsche Zeitung,” the source of his memories of the future, a book by the French author Robert Charroux.
​The critical account of the book’s success looked aghast at the volume’s massive sales—215,000 copies in a year—but with greater horror at the public’s embrace of what even its publisher called “the work of an emotional non-writer.” More importantly, the media were gradually coming to realize that the professional and scientific elites had dropped the ball in either ignoring or smiling in bemusement at a book that no one at first thought was any different than dozens of other UFO books, widely dismissed in Germany as “fairy tales for adults.” Something had changed. It was the book for its time.
​In taverns and in offices, on the tram and at parties, “Dänikitis” (as “Handelsblatt” terms it) is rife. Thousands of Germans are discussing whether the Bible’s heavenly hosts were astronauts from a distant planet, whether the Jewish Ark—in which the tablets of stone were kept—had actually been an intercom between Moses and Jehovah’s spaceship, or whether the sinful cities Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by a nuclear bomb blast.
 
As a book that literally “takes your breath away,” the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation praised Däniken’s imaginative work. And the Stuttgart weekly newspaper “Christ und Welt” asked where “the voice of the so-called serious science” is hiding, or if there is instead “nothing to refute.”
The remainder of the article discusses the various plagiarism charges leveled against both von Däniken and Charroux. Charroux’s German translator accused von Däniken of ripping off Charroux, while von Däniken countered by alleging that both he and Charroux were jointly copying from Jacques Bergier and Louis Pauwels’s Morning of the Magicians, though I can’t believe that this made things better. Nevertheless, the resolution of the controversy resulted in both Charroux and Pauwels and Bergier being added to the bibliography of Chariots and the most cynical conclusion possible: The two authors’ publishers decided to work together to promote both authors jointly, as part of a genre of ancient astronaut studies. It was a precedent that would carry the ancient astronaut theory and its round-robin of mutual plagiarism and copying straight through the next half century.
 
So as we celebrate the golden jubilee of a very bad book, it’s worth remembering that it stands for the entirety of its genre with good reason: Unlike any book of its kind before, it was unoriginal, emotional, dubiously sourced, and cynically exploited for financial gain by publishers and media figures alike, all to the detriment of the public, until it was too late.

I will have additional reporting and analysis of Chariots of the Gods? throughout this fiftieth anniversary year.
50 Comments
T. Franke link
2/24/2018 09:47:47 am

Interesting depiction of von Däniken's beginnings in Germany. Let me add that "Der Spiegel" was and is Germany's leading political magazine for intellectuals, with a clear bias to the political left.

It may be of interest to see which books were popular in Germany in the field before Erich von Däniken made his success. It was "Gods, Graves and Scholars" by CW Ceram in 1949, and "The Bible as History" by Werner Keller in 1955. Both books rather rational and conservative.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gods,_Graves_and_Scholars
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Keller_(writer)

I find it conspicuous that Erich von Däniken had his success exactly in the year 1968. Is it possible that the changes in societal and political atmosphere in these days made his success possible?

The revolt of 1968 had much to do with distrust against authorities and against conservative ways of looking at things. Is it possible that Erich von Däniken had success because this rather leftist distrust in scholarly and religious authorities and in conservative views opened the minds for his ideas?

Maybe also a kind of protest against the Classics as such? You can well say that Erich von Däniken is writing without respect before authorities, that he offers disrespectful re-interpretations of classical themes, and that he widened the scope of civilizations way beyond classical Greece and Rome.

Reply
Machala
2/24/2018 11:27:03 am

It's funny how time and age play tricks on the memory. Was there an English language translation of this out prior to 1972 ?

I can recall exactly, when I was working in Dublin, Ireland in 1968, purchasing Clarke's " 2001: A Space Odyssey " . I could have sworn that some short time after that, I read ( in English ) " Memories of the Future " by Erich von Däniken.
I remember being struck by several things that made me think the book was a colossal fraud.

First, the title was a direct rip-off of Russian writer Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky's "Memories of the Future".

Second, his whole premise seemed to have been lifted directly from Clarke's works and Pierre Boulle's "La Planète des singes" - both books ( and eventual movies ) popular at the time.
My initial reaction was: " Is this guy serious ? "

Anyway, I my have conflated my dates, or originally read in in German, but I could have sworn I read it in English prior to1972, the date your say the English translation came out.

At any rate, I wasn't impressed by the book, but I was by the original Terra-Filmkunst German documentary "Chariot of the Gods" which I know I saw in London in 1970.

Great revue, Jason. Looking forward to more.

Reply
Jason Colavito link
2/24/2018 11:48:39 am

If I recall correctly, 1970 was when the English translation was published as a book in Britain, and as a serial in the National Enquirer in the U.S. American publishers waited until 1972 to release it in book form for American audiences.

Reply
David Bradbury
2/25/2018 04:28:14 am

According to the Bodleian Library catalogue, "Chariots of the Gods?" translated by Michael Heron was published in London in 1969 by Souvenir. ISBN: 0285629115

Americanegro
2/25/2018 08:36:14 pm

And AS YOU SHOULD KNOW, Triple D, books are often marked "Copyright the-year-before-publication".

"Look at me, la la la, I looked at the Bodleian Library Catalog. Dazzled yet ladies? Freshen those drinks?"

Americanegro
2/25/2018 09:02:43 pm

Then again I've been wrong before. Nevertheless it's common for the first edition (and this would be the first English) first printing to not have a printing date. I'm sure the boffins at the Bodleian, those dears, did the best they could.

David Bradbury
2/26/2018 04:00:30 pm

FWIW, EvD was the subject of a snide article about his troubles with the law, in the Daily Mirror, 8 October 1969:
"THAT assiduous researcher of the past, author Erich von Daniken (who produced the book Chariots Of The Gods in which he posed the question: Was God An Astronaut?) must be bitterly regretting his lack of attention to the present. ..."

Americanegro
2/26/2018 07:46:18 pm

Yeah, totes snide, Triple D.

"At the age of 19, he was given a four-month suspended sentence for theft."
...
"While in Egypt, he was involved in a jewelry deal which resulted in a nine-month conviction for fraud and embezzlement upon his return to Switzerland." [remind you of anyone?]
...
"In November 1968 von Däniken was arrested for fraud, after falsifying hotel records and credit references in order to take out loans for $130,000 over a period of twelve years. He used the money for foreign travel to research his book. Two years later, von Däniken was convicted for "repeated and sustained" embezzlement, fraud, and forgery, with the court ruling that the writer had been living a "playboy" lifestyle."

Clearly Plumbier, the Theosophists, Kiesinger and the Jesuits were behind these conviction. The repeated jail sentences were sufficient incentive for him to drop his investigation of stonehole lore.

David Bradbury
2/27/2018 03:22:57 am

Just quoting obvious relevant bits from Wikipedia is boring. Here are some almost irrelevant bits from Wikipedia:
"Ernest Hecht OBE (21 September 1929 – 13 February 2018) was a British publisher, producer, and philanthropist. In 1951, he founded Souvenir Press Ltd."
"Born in 1929 in Czechoslovakia, Ernest Hecht arrived in Britain as a Kindertransport (Jewish refugee) child in 1939"

Americanegro
2/27/2018 11:33:43 am

It's like you're TRYING to sound like a pompous ass. Still, if that's you're thing, go with it.

David Bradbury
2/27/2018 04:06:54 pm

The good news is, I'm not a Grammar Nazi.

Americanegro
2/27/2018 05:22:08 pm

That's like saying you haven't killed a single baby, today, yet.

David Bradbury
2/27/2018 05:52:44 pm

Context is everything: over here it's nearly the end of today.

Americanegro
2/27/2018 06:35:57 pm

It's like you're SUCCEEDING in sounding like a pompous ass. Still, if that's your thing, go with it.

William Gruman
6/5/2019 03:53:02 pm

- retired old man: saw C of G at a bookstore in 1972, bought, never read, but fascinated by pix only available from a satellite's "view". It changed my thinking entirely about humanity. My belief in God and Heaven, and my overall beliefs remain intact - even moreso after absorbing the meaning of the pix. There is nothing that can touch the route we all will take upon death. It is truly marvelous, and miraculous, making all potentially other civilizations different from humans.

Americanegro
2/24/2018 12:07:15 pm

"Second, his whole premise seemed to have been lifted directly from Clarke's works and Pierre Boulle's "La Planète des singes" - both books ( and eventual movies ) popular at the time."

That's quite a sumptuous leap of logic.

Reply
Machala
2/24/2018 01:01:23 pm

When you're in your 20's, you are allowed some sumptuous leaps of logic
I got married for the first time, in late 1967 - did a lot of logic leaping, around that time.

David Bradbury
2/25/2018 04:38:49 am

As far as I can tell from library catalogues and Abebooks, "Memories of the Future" was a subtitle in English translations, which always used "Chariots ..." as the main title.
As for "lifted directly from Clarke's works" the likeliest explanation is that it was written to take advantage of pre-publicity for the "2001" film.

Reply
Machala
2/25/2018 08:38:04 am

David,
Yes, that was my thinking, at the time. I'm not sure why , except again for capitalizing on the popularity of the genre, I linked Boulle's " Planet of the Apes " to EVD's book.

David Bradbury
2/25/2018 09:16:50 am

To an extent, "Chariots" benefited from some unanticipated synchronicities.
"2001" was originally scheduled for release in December 1966, but was delayed until summer 1968. Meanwhile, the Apollo Lunar Module was also behind schedule, so Apollo 8, which had been planned to test L.M. docking in Earth orbit, was repurposed to test Lunar orbit with just the Command Module. Hence, in December 1968, with "2001" still in cinemas, human beings were sending back genuine images of themselves in Lunar orbit.

Americanegro
2/25/2018 12:12:09 pm

So just like Charroux's work and Morning of the Magicians then.

Machala
2/24/2018 12:02:55 pm

Thanks, Jason.

I guess I'm not as dotty, as my wife thinks I am !

Reply
Clete
2/24/2018 12:17:38 pm

I too remember reading his book, in fact I still, somewhere, have the American English paperback somewhere around here. I never throw anything away, especially books. I found it mildly interesting, proposing theories without supporting evidence to back them up. I think I read the whole thing in about a day and then almost immediately forgot about it. I was surprised when it became as popular as it did.

Reply
Ralf Buelow
2/24/2018 12:20:47 pm

Three remarks: The German movie version of "Chariots of the Gods" was nominated for an Oscar but lost it to "Woodstock" in 1971. The SPIEGEL supported Erich von Daeniken until March 1973, when they dropped him after "The Gold of the Gods" came out. See the article about (to use the German title) "Aussaat und Kosmos" http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-42645390.html And the success of "Chariots" in West Germany owes a lot to the general enthusiasm about NASA spaceflights and the Apollo project.

Reply
Jason Colavito link
2/24/2018 12:47:15 pm

You're right, I meant to write "Oscar-nominated." I'll fix that.

Reply
Martin S. Kottmeyer link
2/24/2018 01:07:48 pm

I have a Bantam paperback copy of Chariots of the God before me. The Printing History reads Putnam's edition published February 1970; 2nd printing; February 1970; [Econ-Verlag info]; First published in Great Britain 1969 by Souvenir Press Ltd.; Universe Book Club edition published May 1970; Six-part serialization in NATIONAL ENQUIRER February 1970; Bantam edition published February 1971

Reply
Jason Colavito link
2/24/2018 01:44:11 pm

Well, that's what I get for trusting reference books. I looked in my copy, and it says the same thing. I constantly seem to find that fact-checking occurs much less frequently than we'd like to think. I'll fix it, and the typo noted below.

Reply
expat link
2/24/2018 01:25:10 pm

Ouch!! Sorry to be a grammar Nazi, but "forward and afterward" should be "foreword and afterword".

Reply
Stickler
2/24/2018 01:49:20 pm

Spelling ≠ Grammar

Reply
Dunior
2/24/2018 02:08:19 pm

I read "Chariots of the Gods" when I was eleven years old in '73. I think that was kind of the age range the book was aimed at. As I got just a little older I found it hard to believe. That was the age I went through my "UFO" phase. Ah yes...back in the days before the entire UFO subject was hijacked by channelers and other New Age Madness ala David Wilcock and Corey Goode....memories. At that age I had subscribed to a UFO newsletter from the back of a comic book. It had a strangely appropriate name "Caveat Emptor." It was a mimeographed periodical of about three pages of stories and observations with none of the hyperbole.

Reply
Rackham
2/25/2018 11:34:03 pm

So true. I recall reading a lot of Charroux's books at that age. It was fascinating for a young individual... but as you say, it got quickly harder to believe, mainly as every books, and at some point chapters, would contradict themselves. When I exhausted Charroux's corpus, I switched to Daniken but felt it sounded recycled and less convincing. The suspension of disbelief didn't work. The funny thing is having all these fringe books, it's fun to see all intentional and intentional references to these claims in modern works of fiction.

Reply
Kal
2/24/2018 02:36:41 pm

Ha, "UFO phase". I guess I never got out of that. :)

I read Chariots and the miniseries was rebroadcast in the 1980s, and there were VHS copies, and I always thought it a science fiction historical book, and did not take it seriously. It however has influenced my early scifi writings. But so did Cosmos and 2001.

It was fun seeing this EVD guy on AA later on making off like his bizarre story was somehow actual history, when in the 1970s and such, it was more a fantasy day trip thing, not a real thing.

If you remember the 60s you weren't there.

This book was published in the year of the Dog, the year I was born. It is now the year of the Dog again. Must be aliens! Ha.

Reply
Kal
2/24/2018 02:37:25 pm

Correction, the US printing was in 1970. Then 1971, as you said.

Reply
Wayne
2/24/2018 03:36:15 pm

So, you can not only polish a turd, you can apparently recycle it endlessly...

Reply
Murgatroyd
2/26/2018 01:21:06 pm

Wayne wrote:

<< So, you can not only polish a turd, you can apparently recycle it endlessly...

Well ... presumably, If it was recycled for long enough, it would eventually achieve archaeological distinction as a coprolite ...

Reply
A Buddhist
2/24/2018 04:02:26 pm

After summarizing a number of the books major claims
should be
After summarizing a number of the book's major claims

when an NBC-TV adaptation of the book, lightly reedited from an Oscar-nominated European movie version [Which European country/countries?]

Reply
Jason Colavito link
2/24/2018 04:09:09 pm

The movie originated in Germany as a German-language production before being re-released in Britain with English narration. Alan Landsburg brought it to America and had Rod Serling narrate an edited version.

Reply
A Buddhist
2/24/2018 04:49:19 pm

Why not have
"when an NBC-TV adaptation of the book, lightly reedited from an Oscar-nominated European movie version"
become
"when an NBC-TV adaptation of the book, lightly reedited from an Oscar-nominated German movie version"?
Europe is a rather large continent, in which are many countries, and EVD is associated with 2 countries: Germany and Switzerland.

Jason Colavito link
2/24/2018 06:21:26 pm

Why? Because I can't remember whether they used the German or the British version as the base for the NBC version.

A Buddhist
2/25/2018 09:12:30 am

Thank you for the clarification.

Pacal
2/24/2018 05:05:47 pm

I read the book when I was 12 years old in 1971. I was initially convinced. (Remember I was 12) Then I went to my small collection of archeology books and after rereading them I concluded Chariots of the Gods was nonsense. So I was a believer for less than a year.

Frankly far more enjoyable than the book was the "documentary". I was not aware that it had been nominated for an Oscar. The documentary is so outstanding in it's wrong headedness that it should be considered the Plan Nine From Outer Space of documentaries. When I saw the documentary for the first time I thought "This is so stupid!". But it made up for the stupidity by being so much off the wall, insane, fun.

Reply
E.P. Grondine
2/25/2018 11:16:42 am

Hi Jason -

I think that you have to analyze the "Ancient Aliens" phenomenon as a religion generated in response to the collapse of traditional religions.

Usually, first they will proclaim biblical accounts or accounts from other religions as being real, and then they replace god with ancient aliens.

That is the best explanation I can come up with for many people's desperate need to believe this nonsense.

Reply
BigNick
2/25/2018 01:15:03 pm

So if we were to poll Ancient Aliens viewers, the vast majority don't attend church?

Or is it possible that many viewers watch to feel like they know something that smarty pants college educated people dont.d

Or is it possible that they are distrustful of the establishment and want media that proves there case to them

No, your right. They are creating their own religion. That's the best explanation.

Reply
Clete
2/26/2018 11:45:47 am

Actually, I think the majority of their audience is watching because there isn't a football game being broadcast and their too lazy to watch anything of substance.

E.P. Grondine
2/26/2018 12:40:55 pm

Hi Clete -

If you look at Netflix numbers, you will find that a significant audience finds shows of this type what they want.

E.P. Grondine
2/26/2018 01:06:54 pm



So if we were to poll Ancient Aliens viewers, the vast majority
"So if we were to poll Ancient Aliens viewers, the vast majority don't attend church?"


Based solely on those I've encountered, it appears that many viewers do attend church, or at least did. Often times they are looking for "rational' explanations of religious materials, and Anceint Aliens provides them with that.

"Or is it possible that many viewers watch to feel like they know something that smarty pants college educated people don't?"

Based on my limited sample, that certainly plays a part in the phenomenon. Some believers certainly attempt to derive status in this way.

"Or is it possible that they are distrustful of the establishment and want media that proves there case to them."

That plays a role as well. It is known that on a individual basis when you have a sudden loss in status you sometimes end up with paranoid schizophrenia with delusions of grandeur. Now with the decline of American manufacturing, apply that on a societal basis.

"No, your right. They are creating their own religion. That's the best explanation."

It certainly looks like they are creating their own system to play the role of religion for the individual. In other words, in many cases it is not much more than replacing G*d with Ancient Aliens, regardless of religious system .

Americanegro
2/25/2018 12:25:50 pm

Might white of you to offer those weak-minded folk your guidance, Chief!

Reply
Erich Von Daniken
2/28/2018 03:09:03 am

Jason you cannot stand my sucess. My theory have been proven and millions believe what I have written. The ancient alien theory will be proven more and more and all the facts continue to show we are have been visited. Man was created by aliens and they have been here to see us grow.
You are so sad, and no one believes you, only the sad losers that comment here daily. So sad.

Reply
Only Me
2/28/2018 12:36:06 pm

"we are have been visited"

All your base are belong to us?

Reply
Alulkoy
4/26/2019 02:48:47 pm

Only undeducated White European Americans believe your garbage, especially if they are from colonized countries and continents like the Americas, Australia, and New Zealand and Australia. Especially since White Eurpeans have no deep history, in the places they colonized. They want to believe that the indigenous peoples from those places were not able to make the high civilizations in their homelands, because for the most part the Europeans are Nordicists and they have no high civilizations in their own homelands because their ancestors were unable to make great civilizatIons. Civilizations like the Aztec, Maya, Olmec, Caral, Inca, and Egypt were all more advanced than Van Danikens own Northern European ancestors. Its obvious that Van Daniken and his followers are a bunch of insecure Northerners who think by attributing non white civilizations to White Gods and Ancient Aliens, it makes their own ancestors less incapable. Its only insecurity and its obviously a inferiority complex!

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        • The Life of St. Issa (Hoax)
        • On the Person of Jesus Christ
      • Giants in the Earth >
        • Fossil Origins of Myths >
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          • Fossil Elephants
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          • Fossils and the Supernatural
          • Fossils, Myth, and Pseudo-History
          • Man During the Stone Age
          • Fossil Bones and Giants
          • American Elephant Myths
          • The Mammoth and the Flood
          • Fossils and Myth
          • Fossil Origin of the Cyclops
          • Mastodon, Mammoth, and Man
        • Fragments on Giants
        • Manichaean Book of Giants
        • Geoffrey on British Giants
        • Alfonso X's Hermetic History of Giants
        • Boccaccio and the Fossil 'Giant'
        • Book of Howth
        • Purchas His Pilgrimage
        • Edmond Temple's 1827 Giant Investigation
        • The Giants of Sardinia
        • Giants and the Sons of God
        • The Magnetism of Evil
        • Tertiary Giants
        • Smithsonian Giant Reports
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        • Jewish Encyclopedia on Giants
        • Index of Giants
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        • Lanier's A Book of Giants
      • Science and History >
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        • Old Mythology in New Apparel
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        • Maspero's Review of Akhbar al-zaman
        • The Holy Grail as Lucifer's Crown Jewel
        • The Mutinous Sea
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      • Extreme History >
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        • Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel
        • Origins of the Egyptian People
        • The Secret Doctrine >
          • Volume 1: Cosmogenesis
          • Volume 2: Anthropogenesis
        • Phoenicians in America
        • The Electric Ark
        • Traces of European Influence
        • Prince Henry Sinclair
        • Pyramid Prophecies
        • Templars of Ancient Mexico
        • Chronology and the "Riddle of the Sphinx"
        • The Faith of Ancient Egypt
        • Spirit of the Hour in Archaeology
        • Book of the Damned
        • Great Pyramid As Noah's Ark
        • Richard Shaver's Proofs
    • Alien Encounters >
      • US Government Ancient Astronaut Files >
        • Fortean Society and Columbus
        • Inquiry into Shaver and Palmer
        • The Skyfort Document
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        • Unidentified Flying Objects (Abstract)
        • "Flying Saucers"? They're a Myth
        • UFO Hypothesis Survival Questions
        • Air Force Academy UFO Textbook
        • The Condon Report on Ancient Astronauts
        • Atlantis Discovery Telegrams
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        • Noah's Ark Cables
        • The Von Daniken Letter
        • CIA Psychic Probe of Ancient Mars
        • Scott Wolter Lawsuit
        • UFOs in Ancient China
        • CIA Report on Noah's Ark
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      • Ancient Extraterrestrials >
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        • What Is Theosophy?
        • Plane of Ether
        • The Adepts from Venus
      • A Message from Mars
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      • Orville Wright on UFOs
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      • Flying Saucers Are Real
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    • The Supernatural >
      • The Devils of Loudun
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      • The Cursed Car
    • Classic Fiction >
      • Lucian's True History
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      • The Novel of the Black Seal
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      • Pharaoh's Curse
      • Edison's Conquest of Mars
      • The Lost Continent
      • Count Magnus
      • The Mysterious Stranger
      • The Wendigo
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      • The Lost World
      • The Red One
      • H. P. Lovecraft >
        • Dagon
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        • History of the Necronomicon
        • At the Mountains of Madness
        • Lovecraft's Library in 1932
      • The Skeptical Poltergeist
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      • Queen of the Black Coast
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    • Miscellaneous Documents >
      • The Balloon-Hoax
      • A Problem in Greek Ethics
      • The Migration of Symbols
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      • De Profundis
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      • The Bathtub Hoax
      • Crown Prince Rudolf's Letters
      • Position of Viking Women
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      • James Dean's Scrapbook
      • James Dean's Love Letters
      • The Amazing James Dean Hoax!
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