Proof of Ancient Aliens?

The Byblos "rocket"

A Helicopter at Abydos?

An Egyptian Airplane?

The conical object to the right of center above is referred to by Zecharia Sitchin and others as a rocket. This assumption is based entirely on the shape. There is no textual support for this -- that is, there is no primary source from Byblos that mentions a flying conical rocket ship.

The coin itself gives us the answer. The inscription tells us that this structure is the "temple of Byblos." The conical shape is simply the architecture of this temple.

But how do we know that people of that day thought this was a temple? Because primary sources tell us so.

In a text known as The Syrian Goddess by Lucian (see www.sacredtexts.com), the writer says, "I saw too at Byblos a large temple, sacred to the Byblian Aphrodite: this is the scene of the secret rites of Adonis: I mastered these." This temple on the above coin is known to archaeologists and their work has been published (Hill, "Some Græco-Phoenician Shrines," Journal of Hellenic Studies xxxi.(1911, pl. iii., No.16). Hill notes: "The outer court was approached by steps, and its interior was screened to view from without. It had a façade of columns, and was enclosed by a plastered wall or cloister. It was open to the sky and a conical obelisk rising from the interior."

The cone in this case the cone was considered the sacred cone of Aphrodite. Sacred cones were thoght to mark the grave of an associated hero or mythical being (p. 12 in Evans, "Mycenaean Tree and Pillar Cult and Its Mediterranean Relations," Journal of Hellenic Studies 21 (1901): 99-204. (this file is large - 15 MB).

Elsewhere this shape may symbolize a tree or mountain, a very common symbol in ancient Mediterranean religions (it was very common to have the gods living on a mountain or in a lush garden -- the Old Testament, for example, describes Eden in both ways; Gen 3; Ezekiel 28).

These glyphs from one of the lintels in the temple of Seti I are frequently touted as evidence of flying craft in ancient Egypt. They are nothing of the sort.

What we have here is well known to Egyptologists: a palimpset text. A palimpset is a text that has been written over by another text (or, in the case of vellum or papyrus, both sides are used and the sides bleed into each other).  The result is a superimposition of of one text over the top of another. In this particular case, one set of glyphs was carved on the lintel, then covered over with plaster, then the lintel was recarved at another time. when the plaster fell away over the centuries, it produced the superimposed texts.

In this case, the palimpset explanation is absolutely certain for two basic reasons:

1. Both texts (both layers, top and bottom) are actually found in other places separately (other monuments, walls), and so it is easy to discern how the layering produced the weird glyphs in the picture.

2. The superimposition produced hieroglyphs that are not found in any other text or monument in Egypt. That means they aren't real glyphs -- but just superimposed "noise."

Here are some links illustrating the palimpset as it applies to the Abydos lintel:

Pharaoh's Helicopter?

And one from a UFO site (at least they were honest).

This is the so-called "glider" discovered by Dr. Khalil Messiha in the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities in Cairo. The artifact was actually originally discovered at an excavation at Saqqara in 1898.

As the Wikipedia overview (below) notes, Egyptian physician Khalil Messiha "built a model of the Saqqara Bird to test for its aerodynamic efficiency. His model was six times larger than the dimensions of the original in an attempt to its proportional aerodynamic efficiency, and was given a horizontal tailplane to act as a stabilizer, which Messiha believed is a missing part of the original model. Messiha insisted that he was able to make his model fly

So, to make it fly, a tail stabilizer was added. Basically, that's cheating. The Saqqara bird is a bird. One would expect a carving of a bird to have aerodynamic properties because, well, birds fly. Here are some links:

Overview of the Saqqara Bird

Martin Gregorie's Model and Tests

Naram-Sin's "Rocket"

Unfortunately for this idea, the stela itself is proof against this view. Notice that the stela itself has an inscription on it (the sort of grayish diagonal shading in this picture). To the right are two close ups of the inscription, and to the right of that is the translation (source: William W. Hallo and K. Lawson Younger, Context of Scripture (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2000), 244).

Notice that the inscription calls this conical shape:  A MOUNTAIN.

Perfectly obvious. Why is it that Zecharia Sitchin couldn't see this in the text?

INSCRIPTION OF NARAM-SIN: CAMPAIGN AGAINST ARMANUM AND EBLA (2.91)

Burkhart Kienast

This inscription was originally carved on the socle of a statue also showing the relief of a city on top of a mountain; it is preserved in three Old Babylonian copies on clay tablets from Ur. Exemplar A contains lines 1–118 and the captions describing the city, exemplar B has the lines 119–185 and two short captions while exemplar C seems to contain the complete text of A and B; the beginning of C is lost and therefore only a few lines (100–106) are parallel with A. The text deals with a campaign of Naram-Sin to northern Syria and with the conquest of Armanum and Ebla.

This inscription was originally carved on the socle of a statue also showing the relief of a city on top of a mountain; it is preserved in three Old Babylonian copies on clay tablets from Ur. Exemplar A contains lines 1–118 and the captions describing the city, exemplar B has the lines 119–185 and two short captions while exemplar C seems to contain the complete text of A and B; the beginning of C is lost and therefore only a few lines (100–106) are parallel with A. The text deals with a campaign of Narām-Sîn to northern Syria and with the conquest of Armānum and Ebla.

Summary of the campaign (lines 1–60)

Concerning the fact from old from the creation of men no one among the kings had overthrown Armānum and Ebla:

With the help of the weapon of Nergal Narām-Sîn, the Mighty, opened the only path (there) and he (Nergal) gave him Armānum and Ebla. He also granted him the Amanus, the Cedar Forest, and the Upper Sea. Indeed, with help of the weapon of Dagān, who has made his kingship great, Narām-Sîn, the Mighty, conquered Armānum and Ebla. And from the bank of the Euphrates until Ulisum he subjugated the people whom Dagān granted him recently and they now carry the basket (in service) of Abā, his god. Finally, he won control over the Amanus, the Cedar Forest.

Dedication formula (lines 61–81)

When Dagān had rendered judgement for Narām-Sîn, the Mighty, and given Rīš-Adad, king of Armānum, in his hand, so that he (Narām-Sîn) himself could take him (Rīšadad) prisoner in the midst of his ‘entrance, he (Narām-Sîn) fashioned his statue from diorite and dedicated it to Sîn.

Declaration of Narām-Sîn (lines 82–118)

Thus (said) Narām-Sîn, the Mighty, king of the Four Quarters (of the world):

‘Dagān gave me Armānum and Ebla and I captured Rīš-Adad, king of Armānum. And at that time I fashioned a likeness of myself and dedicated it to Sîn. No one shall remove my name! May my statue stand in front of Sîn. What(ever) his god allots to someone may he perform; (but) the task I had to perform was exceeding.

Curse formula (lines 119–185)

Whoever removes the name of Narām-Sîn, the Mighty, king of the Four Quarters (of the world), and puts his name on the statue of Narām-Sîn, the Mighty, saying “(it is) my statue”, or shows (the statue) to another man saying “remove his name and put my name in,” may Sîn, the owner of this statue, and Ištar Annunītum,

An, Enlil, Abā, Sîn, Šamaš, Nergal, Ūm, Ninkarak (and) the great gods all together curse him with an evil curse; he shall not hold the scepter for Enlil nor the kingship for Ištar; he shall not last before his god; Ninḫursag and Nintu shall not grant him a son or heir; Adad and Nisaba shall not make his furrow prosper; Enki/E’a shall fill his (irrigation) ditch with mud and not increase his understanding.

Captions according to exemplar A: Description of Armānum

(a)     From the strong wall to the great wall:

     130 cubits (is) the height of the mountain,

     44 cubits (is) the height of the wall.

(b)     From the outer wall to the strong wall:

     180 cubits (is) the height of the mountain,

     30 cubits (is) the height of the wall.

(c)     In total: 404 cubits height

     from the ground to the top of the wall.

(d)     He destroyed (?) the city Armānum.