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dragoness_e2020-01-18:
In my youth, the "Ancient Astronauts" thing was really, really big--"Von" Daniken was at the height of his notority, his books were bestsellers, as were Berlitz's "Bermuda Triangle" and Pyramid Power, and New Age Woo-woo in general. People really wanted to believe maybe-benevolent aliens were out there, helping us, or something (the other interpretation of what ancient aliens were all about gave us the movie Stargate).
For me, it lost its luster not just from the debunkings of individual sites and items, but from the realization that the central thesis of Ancient Astronauts was that our ancestors--no, Those People's ancestors!--were too stupid to pile one rock on top of another in the simplest known configuration for creating tall structures. Oh look, racism was the true core mystery. What a surprise.
In my youth, the "Ancient Astronauts" thing was really, really big--"Von" Daniken was at the height of his notority, his books were bestsellers, as were Berlitz's "Bermuda Triangle" and Pyramid Power, and New Age Woo-woo in general. People really wanted to believe maybe-benevolent aliens were out there, helping us, or something (the other interpretation of what ancient aliens were all about gave us the movie Stargate).
For me, it lost its luster not just from the debunkings of individual sites and items, but from the realization that the central thesis of Ancient Astronauts was that our ancestors--no, Those People's ancestors!--were too stupid to pile one rock on top of another in the simplest known configuration for creating tall structures. Oh look, racism was the true core mystery. What a surprise.
