Von Daniken's Evidence

Building on previous works by other authors (including Italian Peter Kolosimo, who was later critical of von DÐ"¤niken), von DÐ"¤niken claimed that if intelligent extraterrestrial life exists and has entered the local Solar System in the past, then there is the possibility of finding traces of their visits on Earth, on neighboring planets, or elsewhere in space. He also supports the hypothesis that human evolution may have been manipulated through means of genetic engineering by extraterrestrial beings.

The evidence that von DÐ"¤niken has put forward to support the paleo-contact hypotheses can be categorized as follows:

Artifacts have been found which are alleged to represent a higher technological knowledge than is presumed to have existed at the times when they were manufactured. Von DÐ"¤niken maintains that these artifacts have been manufactured either by extraterrestrial visitors, or by humans who obtained the necessary knowledge from them. Such artifacts include Stonehenge, the statues of Easter Island, the Antikythera mechanism, and the Piri Reis map.

In ancient art throughout the world, themes are observed which can be interpreted to illustrate astronauts, air and space vehicles, non-human but intelligent creatures, and artifacts of a high technology. Von DÐ"¤niken also points out details that are similar in the art of unrelated cultures.

Origins of religions might be a reaction to contact with an alien race by primitive humans. The humans considered the technology of the aliens to be supernatural and the aliens themselves to be gods. According to von DÐ"¤niken, the oral and literal traditions of most religions contain references to visitors from “stars” and vehicles traveling through air and space. These, he says, should be interpreted as literal descriptions which have changed during the passage