Ancient Aliens: The Official Companion Book

by The Producers of Ancient Aliens

The first official companion book to HISTORY® network’s hit series Ancient Aliens®: a powerful journey through human history that explores fascinating unanswered questions about the origins of our civilizations. With a foreword by Series Creator, Kevin Burns.

Millions of people around the world believe we have been visited in the past by extraterrestrial beings. What if it were true? And if so, what if there were clues left behind? Each week, hundreds of thousands of viewers tune in to the wildly popular Ancient Aliens® television series to seek insight into those very questions—and to become part of a thrilling, probing exploration of the mysteries at the heart of world civilizations.

The first official companion book to the hit show, Ancient Aliens® takes readers even deeper into the mysteries that have made the show a pop culture phenomenon. Filled with exciting insights and behind-the scenes stories from the show’s creators and leading experts in ancient alien theory, the book explores the key questions at the heart of the series:


Who were they?
Why did they come?
What did they leave behind?
Where did they go?
Will they return?
Transporting readers around the globe, Ancient Aliens® explores the fascinating enigmas and mysterious artifacts our ancestors left behind, from incredible objects to amazingly accurate ancient maps; from the Great Pyramid of Giza and stone megaliths at Gobekli Tepe to the Nazca Plains and mysterious structures of Puma Punku.

Accompanied by lavish 4-color photography throughout, the book allows armchair archaeologists to examine the evidence up close for the first time. Both the ultimate-fan book and the perfect gift for readers new to the show, Ancient Aliens® is a compelling journey through the mysteries of our ancient civilizations and the possibility of alien influence on our cultures.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Science, Paranormal, Aliens, Audiobook, Mystery

224 pages, Hardcover

First published November 15, 2016

Reviews

[Dide · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.8 star rating
After reading books in the fantasy genre consecutively for some time now, I think that got me inspired to go search for something between real and unreal.
The majority of the book proceeded with real and existing monuments, myths associated and scientific postulations. These parts for me were great but 20-25% towards the end, were addendums that seemed more 'What Ifs' based on these contributors imaginations🤨....I zoned out. I felt I was reading another fantasy book but one telling me no I am real (erm I have the Bible thank you)

[Richard West · Rating 5 out of 5]

OK, if you watch the TV series on The History Channel or are just plain fascinated by the fact we may have been visited by beings from "out there" in the far distant past, you need to get this. It's short, at just a tad over 200 pages and it reads fast because there are lots of fantastic pictures - many of which have appeared in other books, but are either larger or much clearer here - and there's not a whole lot of text. And what text there is, tends to amplify a bit on interviews that appeared on the TV series......and yeah, it repeats a lot as well. It's a good book for a person who has an open mind and is willing to accept the fact it would have been impossible for ancient peoples to have accomplished a lot of the engineering marvels shown without help since we can't do some of them with what we have today! Also for the Eric van Daniken (however you spell it) fan. Definitely not for the person with a closed-mind who says "it's not in the Bible, so it isn't true." Makes you think.

[Amit Mishra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a regular viewer of this series on History TV. The show ancient alien has inspired me to do my research on these topics. Moreover, their official companion book is really helpful for the beginner who wants to trace the presence of aliens since the beginning of our earth. It feels quite amazing to listen to those stories and then relates them to a real-life scenario. Sometimes, they feel real and sometimes they feel fallacy.
However, the book provides us with a lot of information about our ancient archaical sites. And the things talked in the book more or less has done the correct explanation if the happenings.

[ناصر سليم · Rating 4 out of 5]

تهیه و تنظیم این کتاب به زبان فارسی و بصورت پی‌دی‌اف توسط سید حسن موسوی انجام گرفته با ترجمه الهام کاشی.
که از سایت(بیگانگان باستانی) قابل دانلود.
این کتاب در ۲۴۷ صفحه همراه با تصاویر با کیفیت تالیف شده که البته مستندی از از یکی از معتبرترین استودیوهای مستندسازی جهان.
مهمان اصلی و معروف این مستند اریک فون دنیکن که چهره شناخته شده‌ایی برای علاقه‌مندان به باستان و موجودات فضایی.
خوندن این کتاب رو به شدت به علاقه‌مندان این موضوعات پیشنهاد میکنم

[Denver Michaels · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a solid book, but you aren't going to get anything more than you get in the television series. If you love the show, you'll like the book. Don't expect any new information, though.

[Jim Swike · Rating 3 out of 5]

I watch Ancient Aliens, this book did not tell me much more than I learned from the show. Maybe you will feel differently. ENjoy!

[John W. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun read for those who enjoy historical anomalies and/or the ancient astronaut theory. Broken down by topics with one author per chapter, the book essentially digs a bit deeper into some of those presented on the show. With info sections dispersed across each chapter, there really is a lot of content in the text, all of it colorfully displayed with beautiful photos. The only reason I give it four stars is because a lot of the content has already been presented on the show. Still, a worthwhile and fun read.

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since I watch the series religiously, most of the info in this book was a review for me, but I can say there were some details on a few things that I had not picked up from the show.

I recommend this especially for those who are curious about the show. It summarizes what it is all about.

[Alyssa DeCerce · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amazing content

[Angel · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF 50% because I was making so many notes that I stopped enjoying reading.

This is my favourite show because it's a comedy, and the book lives up to the show. Is that a 5 star or 1 star rating? It's got entertainment value, and that is its ONLY value.

The forward starts with how the company got the idea for the show, and includes the brilliant lines "Why does man dig? [...] We are looking for proof of 'Daddy.' We are looking for proof of God."

It also introduces a handful of criticisms so it can dismiss them without exploring them. And it doesn't even do it well enough to seem as though they're engaging with criticism. The main one being that a critic said that not believing third world people could have any form of technology is "a 'post-colonial' attitude." The idea that the savages must have been given their good ideas by a kind, more powerful type of person. Burns counters by saying that his team didn't say that, the guests did, and that the guests got it from ancient texts/murals. Not only does this not refute the criticism, but Burns goes on to ask "what if intelligent beings had existed on this planet thousands of years ago?" Given that he means at the same time as human beings, he is literally asking us to consider that those ancient people aren't intelligent and needed a "superior, outside guidance." Burns, what are you doing?? It would be so easy to say that you don't think ancient people were stupid but that technology would have made those feats easier. Or just say yeah, that's an interesting take on the show and maybe the interpretation of speculative archaeology does reflect our modern mindset. You can't just say 'I didn't say that, but also let me say it right now.' You make a whole show, you're not dumb!

First chapter begins the usual string of things. Here's a famous Ancient Aliens promoter describing a historical item and saying it was definitely aliens, no question, and referencing other scientific people who agree with them. In this section, the two people who agree are an "engineer" who only appears online as a sci fi writer, and "one of NASA's chief engineers" whose Wikipedia job title is "chief of NASA's systems layout branch of the program development office." I have no idea if that's actually reflective of the reliability implied by saying he's a chief engineer at NASA. Either way, this guy takes a Bible description and uses it to design a new wheel, which is actually an existing type of wheel with 2 previous patents at the time.

As per usual, there is the assumption that the Aliens are purely here to give us special information intended to be passed down through history to benefit mankind. The extended interview was cool though.

Second chapter, I love Giorgio Tsoukalos. He has a real talent for sounding both reasonable and completely convinced by whatever wild thing he's saying. That man believes in ancient aliens to the degree that he genuinely doesn't seem to understand how you could feel any other way. He asks a lot of questions, says the conventional explanations are all "impossible" with few/no reasons why, and cannot conceive of any answer other than either aliens or "I don't know." 10/10 obsessed.

Unrelated, they use pictures from shutterstock for all their pictures of Egypt and have to credit the usernames of the people who uploaded the photos. I can't tell if this is satire, it's been like 10 years and I've never been able to tell. Like it looks like genuine amateur hour, but they're so famous, and so regularly funded. Is this real? Am I insane?

The Nazca lines chapter. Childress starts out explaining the lines, how miraculous it is that their images can really only be seen from the sky, the fact that we don't know much about why they did it. Then suddenly says "it's almost as if they were etched from an airship with a beam or something." What a completely unprecedented leap? With absolutely no descriptions of how modern scientists think they were created?? A choice, definitely.

He also mentions the 'Owl Man' glyph and says "it would seem that this is one of the sky gods." He has not described any of the gods of the Nazca people, or proven that they had any in the sky. "Or if he's not one of the sky gods himself, he's one of the Nazca people who is waving to the sky gods and saying 'hi, we're here. Come and land. We know you came here before - come back. We want to see you again.'" That is such a leap to ascribe to a single picture, especially when we know next to nothing about the people, and when the other images are of animals and patterns. Why isn't the glyph of the monkey described as an appeal to the return of the gods? Because that's a silly, baseless association? Interesting that.

His whole chapter is just full of big claims with no foundation, I could write an essay on how wild his assumptions are.

Great line from Tsoukalos on Puma Punku: "We find clear evidence of a machining signature at Puma Punku." What does that mean?? What is a machining signature? (Google turns up zero results.) What do you define as clear evidence? Especially since your answer to every other question you've posed in the book is that you don't know what's true/what happened. Also he says how the blocks could be mined, but that it's no easy. So yeah, really impressive that a culture we have no other evidence for did something we struggle to do, but it's not impossible by his own admission.

He also references Wikipedia for where he got some dates for Puma Punku (not a reliable source for someone claiming to be an expert on history) and then says "but if you ask someone like me" they might be about 1000 years earlier than that. And why are you a more reliable source??

I'm literally sat here screeching about all the wild assumptions being made throughout the book, but if I listed them all, this review would go on until the end of time. I can't just comment on every third line, so I'll have to ignore some. Please don't assume anything useful or reputable happens in the gaps. Giorgio Tsoukalos is not based in reality.

Martell writes about the ancient Sumerians and the Annunaki. He makes a lot of the same assumptions, but does it without the conviction of Tsoukalos, which works in favour of believability. Not that it's based on reality. He makes the same claims - the gods were real, they flew here - and notices that the stories match most other religious civilisations. The gods came here and made humans. The Annunaki story says that they made humans as a slave race to mine gold for them. He doesn't come to the conclusion that, like many civilisations, these people saw the many properties of gold and thought that its usefulness meant it must be divine. Instead he suggests that we're genetically programmed to like gold.

He also makes some muttering about junk DNA being evidence that the aliens cobbled our DNA together to rapidly improve our species. In his defence, research into junk DNA is ongoing, and we're slowly discovering how important it is. At the time of the book's publishing, I don't know how much of that information was available. Not that it would make any difference. He'd just claim that the aliens were smarter than us and that their tech was so advanced that we couldn't decipher it and called it junk.

Special interlude: this show as a kid made me obsessed with the 'missing link.' The idea is that the fossil record goes monkey, humanoid, big gap, humans. Turns out that there is no missing link. Believing that there is shows a misunderstanding of evolutionary biology and the fossil record. We have evidence of numerous humanoids and species of human that create enough evidence of where humans began and how. There are a lot of lines that lead towards our species, including some inbreeding. There isn't a single line of evolution that leads from monkey to human, so there isn't a missing link to bridge the two.

It's interesting that Martell has no problem insisting that the writings about the gods are word for word true, but doesn't once mention the stories that are metaphorical. The images include an engraving of the tree of life, which doesn't make sense as anything other than a metaphor. The Sumerians had trees, so what was this special one about? Why did the aliens deem it important? Why include the picture to muddy your own author's argument?

Chapter 6: Childress doesn't understand the Mayans or their calendar. Actual scholars have looked at the Mayan calendar and seen that they actually have multiple calendars, denoting different amounts of time passed. That included a large calendar that ran for several hundred years, and each cycle of that calendar was a new age. It's also been translated as each turn of that calendar is a new 'world.' Hence, in 2012, that calendar ended/started again and it was the end of that world and the start of a new one. It was not about physical worlds that existed before ours.

Also, Ancient Alien researchers share the belief that nothing is ever a metaphor. Nothing depicts a ritual that held symbolic meaning to a long-dead people. They always insist that the inscriptions are literal, like King Pakal's reclining throne, which has a variety of swirling inscriptions around it and they must be apparatus. I'd be interested to see what they'd say about medieval manuscripts if presented them without context.

Next chapter, Tsoukalos again. I have to ignore all the wild claims because I'd be here all day. But I want to address his first point, that the aliens helped build structures to tell the people of the future that they existed. This is a common religious belief - that a higher power wants us to know them, and gave us the power and knowledge for us to do so. The belief is usually accompanied by the idea that the power loves us, and intends to return at some point to complete that connection. There are lots of psychological reasons that people develop these beliefs, and the power/deity that they reach out to depends on culture. When people develop these emotional connections to the divine, they rely on faith to perpetuate them. Many facts may contradict them, but their faith is stronger. This should colour the lense through which we see this research, because of how much science it ignores or outright disbelieves.

[Donna Kremer · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I think this was written for a younger, maybe less sophisticated audience. The author did not come across very believable because of the simpler text. However, the subject matter was very thought provoking. I will never look at Christ’s resurrection the same again and for that I am disturbed.

[L J Field · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining and excellent short essays on various facets of the subjects detailed in the Ancient Alien television series. At least one of the fifteen essays was fairly poor, but some of the others more than made up for it. The section on Roswell and UFO research in general by Linda Moulton Howe was particularly intriguing and offered some information I'd not seen before. All in all, an engaging book that will make you think.

[Miguel Pinto · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was kind of meh...
if you are into the ancient alien theory you're in for a treat, they go thru all the cases related to it.
for me, it was an interesting exercise of reasoning to follow the reasoning of the speakers an identity where they break from fact to pseudoscience.
in the end, they highlight good questions and present solid reasoning to some point.
easy to read, nice reasoning evaluation exercise.
so 3 three stars

[Lisa Kizer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing new learned in this book but how to spell the names of the sites the series visits. Not that I'm not interested in what the book and show covers. The book jest reiterates everything you seen on the show. No in-depth accounts on anything. Though I must say I get irritated when both the narrator and the writer say "ancient texts say" without enlighten me on where to find said "ancient texts". I want to verify their sources with more than a "they say" bs.

[Jessica Sacino · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent! This is a great read for fans of the show who want a little more depth. Each chapter was contributed by a different expert on Ancient times Astronaut Theory. It is well put together with captivating stories and wonderful photographs and illistrations. A great companion piece!

[Carolyn Di Leo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, you know what? Don't judge, because this book and it's TV show on History are just plain good fun and a girl cannot live on serious books alone. The book has lovely pictures and fun speculations, so go grab it and sit for a bit with some tea. ENJOY yourself!

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are a lot of for and against when it comes to the Ancient Alien theories but either way I wish someone can explain how our ancestors built Easter Island, the jungle pyramids, Stonehenge etc etc etc.

[Mam · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a companion book to a series I haven't watched; and I 'read' it in the audio version without the many illustrations. SO, I was not the target audience for this work, and my rating should not discourage any viewers of the series to ignore it.

[Cindy Penders · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice addition to the Ancient Aliens series

[James Crawford · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a book to go along with the Ancient Aliens programs.

There are a variety of topics presented, starting with Ezekiel's description of a flying chariot which the author shows can realistically be explained as a UFO of some kind. One thing to keep in mind is that the people of that time had no experience with advanced technology so they would have to interpret something like a UFO in terms they could understand.

Then it goes on to the construction of the pyramids and the possibility that extraterrestrials helped in some way or ways. The one good question is how did the ancient Egyptians light the interior of the pyramids in order to do the beautiful artwork that is seen. They didn't have flashlights and torches would have left soot on the ceilings. There's no evidence any soot was there, though.

My question though is this: why would extraterrestrials help building pyramids? What was in it for them? If they were there they certainly didn't leave any messages. They certainly didn't help the Egyptians improve their crops or cure diseases. The construction of the pyramids was a formidable task, yes, but too often people today look at the people back then and think they were stupid.

They weren't. Not by any means.

And there is one other thing. There is a principle that goes along like this: any time an advanced civilization comes in contact with a less advanced civilization, the latter civilization ends up being messed up at the very least and pretty much destroyed if things go really bad. Example: Native Americans. They had developed a civilization that worked very well for them.

When the white people arrived, though, they had an advanced technology in weaponry. They also used biowarefare such as giving the Native Americans blankets with smallpox germs in them. The same kind of thing would happen if ETs made themselves known. At the very least it would cause panic, religious controversies (did the aliens believe in Jesus?) and possible military action. Also, the international business corporations would probably be trying to get everything out of the aliens they could just to line their own pockes.

The Sphinx is discussed along with the possibility that it is much older than is currently believed. The Nacza lines are covered although there is no mention of the possibility that they actually had some kind of balloons that they used to help direct the workers who made the lines.

There's various other topics discussed before they get to Sumeria which is a very fascinating civilization that came up with astronomy, schools, medicine, agriculture and other advances from seemingly nowhere. Some people believe this was brought to them by survivors of Atlantis but this book goes into the theory that extraterrestrials, the Annunaki, were the ones that brought all that knowledge to them.

Again, why? Why would aliens do this? Also, our knowledge of how that civilization developed is not complete by any means. How long were they a round before all these advances were made?

The book does what most books of this type do. It assumes that just because a civilization is 'ancient' it isn't really capable of doing anything really significant on its own. They had to have helpers, people from Atlantis, from another Earth civilization long gone or from beings from other planets.

It also overlooks another principle. Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary proof. Where is the proof? There are some drawings, yes, but exactly what do those drawings actually show? Like most art they can be interpreted in different ways and there is no way to know which is the correct interpretation.

[John R. Goyer · Rating 2 out of 5]

A quick read, and mostly stuff I already have been exposed to from the TV series. I enjoy being introduced to mysteries and facts that are not yet explained - however, just like the series, there are some serious lapses of logic and reasoning in large parts of this book. Evidence is mentioned but never introduced - details are hinted at but then ignored - bold claims are made, but then the easily performed investigation or measurement isn't done. Exceptionally poor scientific method and not even close to credible.

[Cassie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book just touches up on all of the things the show goes over. If you are expecting this book to go into massive amount of detail, it won't. It's the COMPANION book to the show.

That being said, I actually enjoyed reading this book. I've been an ancient alien fan for a long time, so reading it was a pleasure. It doesn't come off as if I'm reading a text book or anything. Very smooth. The transitions from one topic to another are smooth as well. It was a quick read.

[Lara · Rating 2 out of 5]

So, this book isn't really bad or good. It's just that if you've seen every episode of the show like I have, this book is nothing new. There is literally no new information in it whatsoever so it was not exciting in the least. And that's too bad.

[Tom Hughes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great companion book!

I chose this rating based on the content and information it provides. I love the series, and this book is a great companion for the series.

[Monica Silva · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm amazed at the ancient stuff I wish I was an archeologist. Looking forward to reading more books about the ancient past.

[Ashley Stanton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was just a physical version of some of the popular episodes of the show. I was hoping for more but it was still interesting to read.

[노은경 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining!

[Tina Chandler · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great companion book to the series, especially when you get that itching thought at 2am and don't want to watch the whole series to get the one section you need

[Rodrigo Granados · Rating 4 out of 5]

no me pierdo el programa y el libro colmó mis expectativas

[Yasser Maniram · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lives up to its title. Entertaining for fans of the show and the ancient astronaut theory.