(ORDO NEWS) — Big Think: scientists talked about the likelihood of aliens visiting the Earth.
With what degree of probability can we talk about the contacts of the ancient Sumerians with aliens?
The author of the Big Think article cites the opinion of astrophysicist Carl Sagan, who believes that although there is no direct evidence of space aliens visiting the Earth, the legends say otherwise.
The respected astrophysicist Carl Sagan considered this hypothesis.
There is nothing reckless in the hypotheses that aliens visited the Earth. If they came to Earth before the invention of writing, which appeared about 5.5 thousand years ago, we may never know about it!
- Astrophysicist Carl Sagan considered the hypothesis that ancient people may have recorded alien visitations. Sagan wrote that one story of the ancient Sumerians – about a fish-like creature called Oann – “deserves more detailed study.”
- Although this legend seems very intriguing, Sagan admitted that there is no concrete evidence of contact between the ancient Sumerians and aliens.
There is nothing reckless in the hypotheses that aliens visited the Earth. The Milky Way is ancient and huge, it has many habitable planets, that is, other intelligent life forms have had plenty of time to master interstellar travel at subluminal speeds and organize distant expeditions lasting several centuries.
Think about it: if some extraterrestrial intelligent species made short visits to Earth about once every 15,000 years, there is no way we can verify this.
After all, writing appeared about five and a half thousand years ago, that is, if the aliens made several short stops on Earth before this moment, we will never know about them.
But what if aliens really came to Earth several thousand years ago, and their visit was reflected in ancient written documents? How might a story about the contact of ancient people with aliens look like?
Eminent astrophysicist and popularizer of science Carl Sagan, along with his colleague Iosif Shklovsky, shared their thoughts on this topic in their 1966 book, Intelligent Life in the Universe.
“Such hypotheses are entirely justified and deserve careful analysis,” Sagan wrote.
However, he added the following: “Obviously, the reconstruction of contact with an extraterrestrial civilization is fraught with difficulties.
A simple story about the appearance of a strange creature that works miracles and lives in heaven is not enough.”
After all, all the ancient writings are full of fictional folklore stories about divine beings and supernatural phenomena. What exactly could highlight a potential alien contact story?
“A description of the structure of the body of an intelligent being, a clear statement of astronomical realities that primitive people could not have learned on their own, or a clear statement of the purpose of the contact would increase the plausibility of the legend,” Sagan explained.
After that, he mentioned one legend that meets the requirements listed above – with the caveat, of course: “I do not claim that this legend is indisputable evidence of contact with aliens, but it still belongs to such legends that deserve more careful study”.
Sagan recounted the Sumerian legend of Oanna (Oannes). The Sumerians are the oldest civilization known to us , and existed in a region called Southern Mesopotamia from about 4500 to 1900 BC.
Numerous ancient texts tell of a creature called Oannes, who emerged from the waters of the Persian Gulf near Babylonia, “whose body was the body of a fish, and under the head of the fish he had another head, and under the tail of a fish he had legs like a man.”
According to this legend, Oann taught the ancient Sumerians “literacy, and mathematics, and mastery of the arts of various kinds, taught to live in cities, found temples, establish laws, taught the principles of geometry.”
Other creatures similar to Oanne are mentioned in other ancient sources, where it is said that they returned to check on the Sumerians. They were called Apgallu.
“The descendants of the Sumerians themselves describe the Sumerian civilization as a civilization of non-human origin,” Sagan noted. “A whole series of strange creatures visit the Sumerians for several generations.
Their only obvious purpose is to educate humanity. And each of these creatures is aware of the mission and achievements their predecessors.”
Interestingly, the Sumerians did not call Apgalla gods.
However, Sagan emphasized that it is possible to talk about the contacts of the ancient Sumerians with aliens only at the level of hypotheses and assumptions, because there is no concrete evidence to support these hypotheses.
“It will always be extremely difficult to convincingly prove the fact of the contact of ancient people with an extraterrestrial civilization solely on the basis of ancient texts,” Sagan wrote.
As one of the many possible alternative interpretations of such legends, it is necessary to consider the hypothesis of direct contact of ancient people with an extraterrestrial civilization. ”
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