Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions - James Randi [61]
The carving on the sarcophagus lid from Palenque, Mexico, that, according to Erich von Daniken, includes a representation of an ancient astronaut in flight aboard a space vehicle. Actually, this figure depicts the Mayan ruler Pacal. Typically stylized figures of a quetzal bird, an earth god, and a cross form the "rocket."
We know the name of the inhabitant of the coffin and the date of his death. The costume of the carved figure on the lid is not at al unusual, but typical of a Mayan nobleman of the period. He is characteristically drawn, and with the meticulous care typical of Mayan work. The details of the artwork that von Daniken points out in an attempt to prove his point are quite common in other carvings of the era, being stylized serpent heads, earth gods, and birds, not technical wonders. AH the components of the "rocket sled" can be found in other relief sculptures—highly stylized, it is true, but nonetheless there and accounted for. Ronald D. Story, in his book The Space-Gods Revealed, does a neat job of explaining the "astronaut" on the coffin lid.
Three quetzal birds, common motifs in Mayan art. These are from the Temple of the Foliated Cross (top), the Temple of the Cross (center) and the Pacal. sarcophagus (bottom). The similarity is obvious.
Three earth god figures from the same sources as the quetzal birds, respectively. The carving on the bottom represents the rear of a rocket in von Daniken's imagination.
Von Daniken next turns to the remarkable Nazca "lines," one of the most truly tantalizing mysteries of Peruvian archaeology. In the desert near the towns of Nazca and Palpa are remarkable figures drawn in the sand. Some are hundreds of yards long; there are trapezoids, rectangles, and triangles. Some are long straight lines extending a mile into the desert with great accuracy. Others—the most provocative—are drawings of such things as spiders, lizards, and birds. I will not dwell on my personal opinions and observations concerning these artifacts but will confine myself to von Daniken's distortion of their nature.
One idea he would have us accept is that they were "landing fields" for spaceships bearing astronauts from afar. Then, pray tell, why would such a craft need a long strip like this for landing? And if any did land, where are the traces? These figures are only scraped into the surface; would not the spaceships have made equally prominent markings?
Three cross figures representing a maize "tree," from the same sources as the quetzal birds and earth gods. Von Daniken chose only the Pacal cross (bottom) as the body of a "rocket."
Gerald Hawkins, who visited the Peruvian desert some years back to apply to the lines the same technique he had successfully used on the ruins of Stonehenge, found to his satisfaction that the long lines were not astronomically oriented. So the mystery remains. But an "ancient astronaut" theory is hardly necessary.
At one point, von Daniken sticks his foot in his typewriter when he says that a section he has selected shows a "parking bay" for a UFO. It turns out, when you take a good look around, that he is actually referring to part of the leg of a giant bird drawing. He now admits that he was wrong on this point, but his Chariots of the Gods? still carries the error, thirty-five languages and ten years after it appeared.
Not at all loath to travel, von Daniken next makes a pilgrimage to Easter Island, where he uses another genuine item of archaeology to make his spurious point. He says that the construction of the huge statues there was impossible by ordinary folks. Really? Well, Thor Heyerdahl was interested to hear this. Apparently von Daniken never heard of the demonstration that Heyerdahl organized at Easter Island wherein an entire statue was carved, transported, and erected by the folks who