Ancient Astronaut Theories: Popular Interest, Scientific Skepticism, and Human-Centric Explanations of Antiquity

To the point

Ancient Astronaut theories claim aliens helped ancient humans build monuments and shape cultures, popularized by Erich von Däniken and continued by Zecharia Sitchin, Robert K. G. Temple, and Giorgio Tsoukalos, while scientists like Carl Sagan and Iosif Shklovsky urged skepticism because the claims are speculative and poorly documented, archaeology shows monumental works can be achieved with available tools and labor, and critics warn the ideas reflect biases and knowledge gaps, so although they persist in media and fringe circles, human ingenuity and cross-cultural collaboration better explain ancient achievements.