Ancient Aliens s18e13 Episode Script

1
Prehistoric rock art
depicting astronauts.
Oh, look at that.
- The spaceman?
- The spaceman!
Exactly!
Look at the helmet.
An ancient temple
covered in
otherworldly writings.
It’s all here,
in this sanctuary,
the whole story of
humanity’s place in the stars.
Incredible petroglyphs
of mysterious flying objects.
So this one here
looks like a UFO.
For more than a decade,
Ancient Aliens has examined
the oldest and most
mysterious carvings on Earth
up close and in person.
Now we take a look back
at some of
the most extraordinary glyphs.
Glyphs, that according to
ancient astronaut theorists,
tell a worldwide
story of alien visitation.
On Ancient Aliens, we have
traveled across the world
examining some of the most
mysterious stone carvings,
often referred to as glyphs.
Our ancestors spent countless
hours carving images and symbols
as a record
of what they thought were
the most important
pieces of their history.
Many glyphs depict strange,
humanoid figures,
and tell stories of visitors
coming down from the sky.
William Henry got to see
some of these incredible glyphs
up close in
the mountains of northern Italy.
Val Camonica, Italy.
June 13, 2019.
Ancient astronaut
theorist William Henry
has traveled to this
UNESCO world heritage site
to investigate what he believes
could be forensic evidence
that the early civilizations
of this region came into
contact with extraterrestrials.
Hi, I’m William.
Nice to meet you.
Joining him is Luca Giarelli,
the head
of the Val Camonica Historical
and Anthropological Society.
Luca has spent years
studying this mysterious region
of northern Italy and wants to
show William the rock carvings
for which this
alpine valley is famous.
This place is massive.
I’m ready, let’s go.
I’m here at
Val Camonica because it is
a treasure trove of images
from the ancient world that have
been well-documented
and studied by scholars.
They don’t agree on the meaning
of the images but some of them
are very openminded
to the ancient astronaut theory.
Footprints. Wow!
Look like deer.
Look at this, incredible.
Wow.
Oh, look at that.
The spaceman, exactly.
Look at the helmet!
Right. It’s like he’s glowing.
The Camunian Rose.
Wow.
19 Camunian Roses?
Archaeologists call this
mysterious symbol
the Camunian Rose
because of
its flower-like shape.
While its exact meaning
is lost to history,
some believe
it to be a religious symbol
or a representation of
the movement of the stars.
But ancient astronaut
theorists suggest it might
also depict something else
the vessel
that brought these helmeted
figures to Val Camonica.
Look at that.
That looks like a spaceship.
It’s like you’d look up
in the sky,
and you would see this kind of
twirling,
spinning ship in the sky.
It seems to me, just looking
at it, they are trying to talk
about beings coming from other
worlds, maybe to this place.
Tell me about
that five-pointed star.
Mm-hmm.
Sometimes
the-the stars mean energy,
like energy from the stars
would come to this place
or star beings
would come to this place.
- Yeah.
- Mm-hmm.
Okay, so this is
like a newspaper then.
It says, this was in
the sky above us
at some point,
and this spaceman came down
and maybe met
the Camunian people.
According
to the ancient stories,
the city of Turin, just
155 miles from Val Camonica,
was founded by a character
from Greek mythology called
Phaeton who came
to Earth from the stars.
Legend states that Turin
was founded by the god Phaeton,
who is a son of the sun god
Helios and in the myth
of Phaeton,
we learn the story of how
he descended
to Earth in a fiery chariot.
Perhaps crashing
into Mount Musinè.
This also led
to something fortuitous
because he brought gifts
to this place.
He had great skills,
was a metallurgist.
And taught this
to the local people.
When we look at myths
such as the myth of Phaeton,
here is
really the story of a UFO
landing on a mountain
and interacting with the locals.
Given the-the
connection with the spacemen
that are etched into the rock,
that we have to be open
to the possibility that what
the ancient artist is trying
to portray is something
that he actually saw in the sky,
something
coming out of the heavens.
Is there a connection
between the stone carvings found
at Val Camonica and the story of
Phaeton’s descent from the sky?
And do other clues exist here
that point
to ancient alien contact?
Were there any other cultures
that were
connected with the valley?
- What sort of engravings?
- Uh
Mm-hmm. Oh, the horned god,
yeah. Right.
That means the Celts were here.
So is the only location
where we see the spaceman?
- Even deeper into the woods?
- Yeah.
I’d love to go. All right.
Luca guides William up
a steep portion of the valley
for a rare look
at another carving
hidden from public view.
I’m all right, thanks.
Wow.
We’re-we’re like on
the edge of a cliff here.
Wait a minute, that-that’s one
of them, isn’t it right there?
Yeah. How cool!
Wow!
- Like the other one.
- Yeah, these are just like the other guys.
Exactly.
- The detail is amazing.
- Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
There’s clearly
some kind of an exchange
that’s happening here.
It’s like they’re
making a photograph
of what happened at this place.
They’re trying to say,
"At this spot,
this is what we saw here."
Of-of all places to
find a rock like this.
This is a very secretive,
almost initiatory place
where select people would be
brought here to be told
- this story about these extraterrestrials.
- Yeah.
Do the so-called "spacemen"
of Val Camonica commemorate
an extraterrestrial visitation,
as ancient astronaut theorists
suggest?
Perhaps
further clues can be found
by examining an Egyptian
temple covered in hieroglyphs
that tell the story
of the creation of humankind.
Of all the mysterious
glyphs we’ve examined
on Ancient Aliens,
some of the most astounding
can be found in Egypt, where
they’re known as hieroglyphs.
One the most extensive
collections of hieroglyphs
is at the Temple of Edfu,
and in 2018,
Ramy Romany gave us
a rare opportunity
to see them for ourselves.
Edfu, Egypt. April 2018.
Egyptologist Ramy Romany has
invited author and researcher
Andrew Collins
to join him on a visit
to one of the most impressive
and best-preserved shrines
in Egypt, the Temple of Edfu,
located on the west bank
of the Nile,
465 miles south of Cairo.
Look at this temple.
This is, like,
my most favorite façade
in all of
the temples of ancient Egypt.
According to mainstream
archaeologists, Edfu is believed
to have been built
sometime between 237 and 57 BC.
It is dedicated to
the falcon-headed god, Horus
the son of Osiris and Isis.
This temple was one of
the last temples that was ever
built in ancient Egypt,
during the Roman times.
When they built
that temple, they were like,
"We want
to preserve the stories.
"So let’s
gather all the mythology
of ancient Egypt and
try to put it in one temple."
It took 150 years
to make this happen.
And then finally,
we have the book
of ancient Egyptian mythology.
It’s right in front of us
on all these walls.
Every wall
is absolutely covered,
uh, in hieroglyphs and images,
not only of the foundation
of ancient Egypt
and the first temple,
but also how
the world came into being.
How Egypt came into being,
how the universe
was essentially
founded in the first place.
I mean,
there’s just so much here.
The most sacred part
of Edfu is its inner sanctum,
featuring a 12-foot-tall
granite stone.
This is it, right here.
This is how it all began.
Every symbol, every text,
every little drawing in here
represents the most sacred thing
for ancient Egyptians.
The question that humans now
still ask themselves,
"How did it all began?
What created us?"
Every religion talks about it.
Scientist tries to figure out.
Ancient Egyptians had an answer,
and it was right there.
Right on top
of this is the pyramidion.
That pyramidion is
the primeval mound
that appeared in the middle of
marshes where all the gods came
and landed on for the first
time to start creating humanity.
This is
the beginning of humanity.
And the pyramidion is
almost like a miniature
of what we see at Giza,
with the Great Pyramid,
uh, which is so fascinating,
because what we have here is
a focus of all of
these chapels finishing
with this incredible structure
pointing towards the stars.
It’s actually pointing towards
the origins
of the gods themselves.
There’s another piece
of evidence here
that you might like.
This is the boat
or a symbol of the boat
that they believed
the gods came on to the first
primeval stone.
- Oh, that’s quite extraordinary.
- The first primeval mound.
The gods would have arrived
on this ship.
So it’s all here, in this
sanctuary, the whole story
of humanity’s beginning,
you know, its place
in the stars,
and how it arrived here
in the first place. This to me
strongly suggests
that they were aware
that our origins are
found amongst the stars.
Or could it just simply be
humans trying to make religions
explain what
science can’t explain?
But I don’t think
it’s about religion.
This is about cosmology.
An ancient cosmology
that we’re now beginning
to understand for the first
time, within science.
We can now essentially
say that the idea that
life came from the stars
is almost certainly a reality.
Whether it came here
on a meteorite, or whatever,
somehow
the ancient Egyptians knew this.
Are the ancient hieroglyphs
carefully inscribed
on the granite
stone at the Temple of Edfu
merely the fanciful notions
of ancient Egyptian priests,
or could they be based
on actual historical events?
Perhaps the answers can be found
by examining an ancient glyph
that can only be seen
from the sky.
On Ancient Aliens,
we have traveled
around the world investigating
incredible glyphs that,
for me, prove we are
not alone in the universe.
Some of the most dramatic
examples of this are geoglyphs
enormous symbols
that have been carved
into the Earth and can
only be seen from the sky.
In 2018, David Childress
got a bird’s-eye view of one
of the most amazing
geoglyphs we’ve ever examined.
Located in the desert just
west of the Arizona border,
an estimated
300 gigantic figures
can be seen
etched in the arid ground.
Known as the Blythe Intaglios,
these ancient carvings
depict animals, spirals,
and perhaps most significantly,
gigantic humanoid figures.
These intaglios are unique
in that they’re always found on
the shorelines of ancient lakes
that existed
12,500 years ago and prior.
In April 2018,
ancient astronaut theorist
David Childress
traveled to Blythe to meet
with historian Patricia Robles
and Alfredo Figueroa,
an elder of
the local Chemehuevi tribe.
He is also known
to many in the region as
"The Guardian of the Glyphs."
David was eager to see
firsthand whether
the legends surrounding
these unique
geoglyphs could be true.
They can only be seen
from the air, really, right?
Well, they can be
seen from the ground
but you can see it all intact.
If you’re walking on it,
you really don’t know what
- you’re walking on.
- Exactly. Yeah, right.
We’ll be able to see it
with the drone, I think.
Oh, that’s excellent,
you got a drone?
- Excellent, excellent.
- Yes, we got Let me get
- Oh, that’s wonderful.
- It’s the best way.
- Okay, let me get it.
- Thank you.
Who builds this and-and why?
The original tribes
here were the Aztecas.
- The Aztecs.
- Right.
- Okay.
- How about
There he goes.
Wow, that’s pretty interesting.
With the drone camera, David,
Patricia and Alfredo
are able to see the Blythe
Intaglios from a vantage point
that their creators
never could have
at least, not without the
aid of some form of aircraft.
But if this is true,
then why were they created?
And for whom?
- All right, this is
- Is Omecihuatl.
"Cihuatl" means "woman."
And she is pregnant,
right here, see.
She’s like having a baby then.
- Aw, okay.
- And right next to her,
is the Ocelot.
Ocelot is the jaguar.
Okay, so you can see it’s a cat
because it has a very long tail.
- Uh, is that?
- Well, the tail is supposed to be
- like a "U."
- A loop.
And in the cosmos, it represents
the-the Big Dipper.
Here in this place,
they came down.
And because they descended from
the cosmos,
our ancestors created
these images
and aligned them
with the constellations.
So that we would
understand that story.
But of all the Blythe Intaglios,
the ones Alfredo is
most eager to show David are
those that are the largest
and arguably the most dramatic.
This is big. This thing is huge.
That’s right.
They are the ones representing
the Aztec gods Kokopelli
better known as Quetzalcoatl
and Cicimitl,
the Aztec star god.
Which glyph is this one?
What we’re seeing here
is Kokopelli.
And he represents Quetzalcoatl.
The Aztec, uh,
god of Quetzalcoatl.
- So this one is
- Cicimitl.
Cicimitl.
His face there.
You see his nose.
He’s not like
a normal person, is he?
No, he looks just like a
an E.T.
He looks like an
extraterrestrial, uh-huh, yeah.
An extraterrestrial?
Is it possible that these
incredible geoglyphs represent
not just mythological gods,
but actual alien beings
whose arrival on Earth was
witnessed by the Azteca people?
Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes,
and Alfredo Figueroa is
convinced that it was here,
the location of
the Aztecs’ legendary home
of Aztlan where extraterrestrial
visitors came down from the sky.
Aztlan is very
important in Aztec mythology.
It was a place
where the gods came down
to give them
the information and prophecies
that the Aztecs had.
I mean, you’re maintaining
that this whole area here,
around Blythe
and the Colorado River
is an ancient homeland
of-of the Aztecs
- and-and the gods, too?
- Yes.
The geoglyphs were made by
the Nahuatl people.
The Nahuatl are the origin
of the Aztecas and the Mexicas.
So, they’re the ones
that made ’em at-at first.
And then the Nahuatl
people made these geoglyphs
to-to honor
the-the creator gods.
Right, and to not
forget where we came from.
Where we came from,
that’s right.
Could it be
that Blythe, California
really was the ancestral
home of the Aztec people,
and that more
than 1,000 years ago
the area was visited
by extraterrestrial beings?
Ancient astronaut theorists
suggest that the answers may be
found by examining the most
mysterious glyphs of all.
Incredible images of visitors
from the sky.
Any discussion ofd
mysterious glyphs has to include
the incredible ancient rock
art of the Native Americans.
In 2013,
I got the rare opportunity
to examine
a remarkable collection
of petroglyphs in the Zuni
territory of New Mexico
with tribal elder,
Clifford Mahooty.
Located at an
elevation of over 6,000 feet,
this barren desert land
has been home to the Zuni
for at least 1,300 years.
Stretching
roughly 700 square miles,
it contains 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.
To the Zuni people
and other tribes,
there’s a spiritual
connection with the star beings.
They’re the ones that actually
rule the-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.
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.
In 2013,
ancient astronaut theorist
Giorgio Tsoukalos,
traveled to New Mexico
to meet with Zuni elder
Clifford Mahooty,
and get an exclusive look
at this mysterious rock art.
What can you tell me about
this petroglyph right here?
Well, you know, if you can
see on top of that
where maybe a head would be,
it’s kind of eroded off.
But on the next part of it
there’s four compartments
look like extension
of something sticking out.
Yeah, almost like legs.
It could be something
that they saw in the air.
Isn’t there a legend that beings
visited on top of this mountain?
Oh, yes.
Uh, on all of the mesas.
Look at that triangle up there.
And you’ve got the dots
around it that have been carved
into the rock that remind me
of, like, stars.
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?
For something like this
that they saw maybe in the sky
or had an encounter,
they would come over here
and say, "Well, it, um,
it looked like this."
So they were put on there
and say, "Well, the best
of my-my recollection,
here’s what it looked like."
So they would put it on there.
So this is a permanent record.
- Right. Oh, no. That is why stone was used.
- Yeah. Yeah.
- It is the only permanent record that we have.
- Mm-hmm.
Yes. And-and
the thing about it is that
how does
it connect to present day?
I mean, there
are certain things out here
where you can look at it.
Okay, for example, the UFO.
We didn’t know anything about
UFOs until the last century.
But all those years,
they knew about them.
They saw them,
and somebody says, "Okay,
I’m going to put this
down here for longevity."
And they say,
"Grandson, I want to show you
what I saw
when I was a young man."
And they’ll come over
and show you,
that’s exactly what I saw
and here’s what it looked like.
Is it possible
that these ancient rock carvings
in remote areas
of the Zuni territory
provide a historical record
of extraterrestrial contact?
You can find petroglyphs
that are similar to those
in the Zuni territory all
throughout North America.
And surprisingly,
nearly identical drawings
can be found on
the other side of the planet.
New South Wales, Australia.
The Bulgandry preservation site
is one of numerous
sacred Indigenous locations
where ancient rock art
and engravings can be found.
Many are believed to
date back thousands of years.
Wow.
In February 2016, researcher
and publisher Giorgio Tsoukalos
traveled to Australia to meet
with Aboriginal Elder
Kevin Gavi Duncan
to learn about one of the oldest
carvings that can be found here.
So what are we looking at here?
So this image is
an actual image of what we say
is our Godfather
creator being, Baiame.
- That’s what our people believe.
- Okay.
Baiame came from a place
that we call the Morning Star
- within the Mirrabooka.
- Mm-hmm.
"Mirra" means "stars"
and "booka" means "river."
That is the Milky Way
that flows across the night sky.
- No kidding? Okay.
- Yes.
And so he is one
of those Sky-Heroes
that has descended
from the Milky Way?
Yes.
He’s a Sky-Hero.
And Baiame is carved
in the manner that you see,
he has his arms out.
And he holds
the Moon in one hand
and the Morning Star
in the other
which is a bit like
what we call planet Earth.
And these are the two moons
which exist
around the Morning Star
and the Mirrabooka
that Baiame came from.
Mm-hmm.
And this is the canoe.
He sailed
through the river of life,
um, in the Mirrabooka across
the sky world.
So he sailed
through the Milky Way?
Yes, he sailed
through the Milky Way.
And this was his vessel
that he sailed,
and he landed, to the Earth.
And he crushed the top
of the mountain which is
the sacred mountain of
Mount Yengo not far from here.
And when he landed,
they said the fire
came from his feet and it burnt
the mount the top
of the mountain and all
around it every time he landed.
So the landings
were always associated
- with a lot of noise, smoke and fire?
- Yes!
The fire trail that was
left when Baiame was
leaving the top of the mountain
into the sky world, when
Baiame had left was so bright
people interpret
that as a spaceship
- of some kind as coming and going.
- Yeah.
But this is the way we simply
interpret Baiame’s spaceship.
Right. But it’s
because the vocabulary
didn’t exist at the time.
- Yes.
- So, to me, those are all
wonderfully poetic ways to
describe eyewitness accounts
of things that were incredible.
Yes. This site is considered
around 8,000
to 10,000 years old.
Wow!
These carvings. These rock
paintings, these are our books.
They are considered to be
basically our truth.
Do the petroglyphs found
in Australia and North America
tell the same
story of alien visitation?
Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes,
and suggest that another series
of rock carvings
found in Australia
may reveal the truth about
how these otherworldly visitors
arrived on planet Earth.
On Ancient Aliens,
we’ve examined glyphs all over
the world and we find strikingly
similar imagery again and again.
But what
was completely unexpected
was the discovery of
what are clearly Egyptian
hieroglyphs not in Egypt,
but in Australia.
Central Coast,
New South Wales, Australia.
Deep in
the Brisbane Water National Park
is a mysterious site
known as the Gosford Glyphs.
The site consists of two
massive, eight-foot-high walls
engraved with
over 300 ancient carvings.
Carvings that experts say do
not resemble Indigenous artwork,
but Egyptian hieroglyphs.
After deciphering the texts,
21st century
Egyptologist Ray Johnson
believed them to
reveal the burial site
of Lord Nefer-Ti-Ru,
a member of the Egyptian
royal family
who died while visiting
the area with his brother
sometime
between 2637 and 2614 BC.
Absolutely beautiful out here.
Oh, I know.
While visiting the area in 2016,
Giorgio Tsoukalos
met with local
ancient astronaut theorist
Evan Strong
to get a firsthand look
at these enigmatic carvings.
- And here we are.
- Wow!
That’s incredible.
I had no idea.
I mean, this looks totally
different than on pictures.
So what do
these hieroglyphs say?
Well, at least one
panel talks about two brothers,
two princes,
coming here from Egypt.
They were shipwrecked.
One of ’em ended up getting
bitten by a snake. He then died.
The theory is
then he was interred here
and that’s why you’ve
got hieroglyphs here.
- Mm-hmm.
- Because he died here.
But there’s these other
walls with a mixture of symbols.
This one over here,
it’s more of a philosophical
astrophysics style
thing with symbols meaning
all sorts
of esoteric stuff so
Now, have-have
these symbols at all been
interpreted by Egyptologists?
- There’ve been a few actually.
- Mm-hmm.
A few different
people have done that.
- And what was their reaction?
- Well, Raymond Johnson was one
of the first people
to come here and-and translate.
He actually sent some
of his translations off
to the Cairo library
and Dr. Abu Dhia Ghazi,
ended up saying, "Yep,
you’re on the right track."
It’s something
called proto-Egyptian.
And how old
do you reckon these are?
We’re thinking
because of the prevalence,
at least in one
panel of proto-Egyptian,
that it’s about 4,600 years old.
Wow. Are there any hieroglyphs
that stand out to you?
Yeah, definitely.
Follow me down here,
and I’ll show you
this other one.
So this one here, um, we call
the UFO glyph and people have
called it that since they’ve
been coming here because
it kind of looks like a UFO.
Yeah, it definitely
has the classic UFO shape.
It’s got the-the rays
or whatever you want to call it.
What would you suggest
if anyone says, "Well",
"this is not a UFO.
It’s some other symbol,
but certainly not that"?
I think someone
suggested that it’s jewelry
but it’s a completely
different symbol that’s
upside down and
it really doesn’t quite fit in.
It’s one of
those symbols here that,
that doesn’t fit into the canon.
In your opinion,
why do you think the Egyptians
made it all the way
to Australia?
I think they were looking
for esoteric wisdom, definitely.
- From the Aboriginals?
- Yes.
The ancient Egyptians, we have
stories, and Aboriginal stories,
about their arrival,
and about their visits
long before
Europeans had arrived here.
Naturally we would
have shared ceremony
with these people, because they
have the same similar beliefs
as our people.
Egyptians have that same
spiritual connection
to the sky world.
Hieroglyphs found in Australia?
Might the continent
have actually served
as a pilgrimage site
for visitors seeking
a direct connection
to the so-called gods?
Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes,
and suggest further evidence
of this otherworldly link can be
found in one of the most
remote places in the world.
What’s fascinating
about many of the glyphs
we’ve examined on Ancient Aliens
is that they depict
the natural world of our
ancestors with extreme accuracy.
But every now and then
we find a bird that looks
more like an airplane
or a serpent with wings
or even a turtle
descending from the sky.
And this is exactly
what I found at one
of the most remote locations
in the world,
the Marquesas Islands.
Ancient astronaut theorists
Giorgio Tsoukalos
and David Childress
set out to explore
the remote Marquesas Islands,
in search of evidence
that extraterrestrial contact
took place here
in the remote past.
- Hello. I’m Giorgio.
- Hello.
- Pleasure to meet you.
- I’m Aniata.
Hi, I’m David.
Arriving on
the island of Nuku Hiva,
they are met by local guide,
Aniata Kimitete.
- Let’s go explore.
- Great.
All right.
She has brought them
to an area known
as Kamuihei,
a sacred place
believed to be rich
in what the natives call
"mana" or "spiritual power."
So we are arriving at
this spot where I really
- wanted to show you about this site.
- Oh, look at this.
What we see here,
it’s what we call petroglyphs.
Yeah.
So you have three turtles.
So one,
two, three.
Here.
And also on the rock
you can see a canoe.
- Okay.
- So you have the head of the canoe here
that looks
a little bit like a bird.
Their canoes had
a bird head at the front.
You see the beak.
- Yeah, that looks like a bird head.
- Yeah.
And what is the significance
of the turtles?
The turtle is actually
the messenger from the gods.
He was a very sacred animal.
People were
not allowed to eat them.
You know, I think this is
really interesting what you said
that the turtle is regarded
here as messenger of the gods,
because
this is not something new.
It’s not something
native to this area.
There are other
parts of the world where
the turtle is described by
having descended from the sky.
And the idea that this
is here too considered
a messenger of the gods,
that to me is a connection
to potential extraterrestrials.
Throughout the planet,
numerous ancient cultures
have origin stories
that involve some sort
of divine or cosmic turtle.
Followers of Japanese Shinto
venerate the Kame-ishi.
A stone turtle that portends
the end of the world.
In Guatemala, there are
legends of giant flying turtles
and even artifacts that feature
the image of a man wearing what
appears to be a helmet
lying inside a turtle shell.
In North America,
the Iroquois Indians tell tales
of a "sky goddess" who falls
to Earth from the heavens,
whereupon a giant turtle rises
up from the ocean to catch her.
I think it’s interesting
here this canoe which would
have been very large,
has the bird head on it.
And you have the birdmen
of Easter Island that are
so famous.
One of Easter Island’s
ancient traditions
involves Tangata manu,
or the Birdman cult.
According to legend,
the creator god Make-Make
was looking in a mirror and
saw a bird land on his shoulder.
Seeing his image
combined with the bird,
he decided to make a son
who was half man, half bird.
In turn, the Rapa Nui
people of Easter Island
worshiped the birdman as
the predecessor of all humans.
One of the central
focuses of the rituals,
the annual
rituals at Easter Island
was that of Tangata manu,
the birdman.
And the birdman is
a universal symbol that we find
in many parts of the globe
that relates to ancestry
associated with figures,
characters in
feather coats who were seen
to be able to go between
this world and the next.
And here we have
the same ideas on Easter Island.
Is there more
to see on the island?
- We have a lot more to see on the island.
- Okay.
- So let’s go.
- Okay.
After showing Giorgio
and David
the ancient petroglyphs,
Aniata takes them
to a site that has
some of the most striking
statuary in the Marquesas.
Right now we are
at the Tohua of Temehea.
So the Tohua
is the gathering place.
And so this sculpture
here is a modern sculpture.
But, is this
based on something old?
Yes. Because the site
that we are on was rebuilt.
Even though it’s modern,
it’s really based
on the original statue.
- Oh, wow. Okay.
- Is this considered a Tiki?
Yes, this Tiki
represents the population.
So to the Marquesan
people, what is a Tiki?
A Tiki at first
was the representation
of our god of magic and sorcery.
He was one of
the only god in French Polynesia
that has the face of a man.
He became our protector,
because when you have a Tiki
by your side, then you are
protected from your enemy.
In the Marquesas, the word
"Tiki" can be used to refer
both to an ancestral figure
that came
to the islands in ancient times,
as well as the statues
that represent him.
They are variously
carved in both wood and stone,
and often depict a being
with large, goggle-like eyes.
And this is what Tiki looks
like as a god?
Yes, because they say
in the legend that when Tiki
left the Earth,
they made the sculpture
of how he looked like, just
to have something
to remember from Tiki.
So that’s how
he looked like actually.
It looks very strange to me.
If this is
a representation of what
your ancestors thought
this figure looked like,
it doesn’t look like a man,
it looks weird.
Yeah. I mean, he-he sort
of looks like a man,
but with these big goggle eyes
and the elongated head
and everything, he looks
like an extraterrestrial.
Is it possible that
glyphs found on nearly
every continent reveal
that ancient people
all over the world
encountered
extraterrestrial visitors?
Ancient astronaut theorists
suggest that some
rock art provides a record
not only of alien contact,
but even
of how they got here.
Could these
mysterious petroglyphs
provide the best evidence
yet of ancient alien contact?
To me, the ultimate proof
lies in the fact that
all over the world,
cultures that were separated
by thousands of miles
carved the same strange figures
and symbols again and again,
leaving us with
a record of extraterrestrial
intervention on Earth.
Our alien origins are in
plain sight for anyone to see.
You only need to read
the writing on the wall.