Historical references suggest that in the absence of claims of unknown aerial phenomena that amazed and inspired their people, Pharaoh Amenophis IV would not have taken the name Akhenaton and introduced the cult of the Sun Disk into Egypt and Emperor Constantine might not have established Christianity in Rome in 312 AD. Ancient chronicles assure us that beings from celestial realms (referred to as Magonia, Nirvana, Heaven, or Walhalla) were responsible for telling Mary she would bear the son of God, for instructing Japanese emperor Amekuni to honor the Supreme God, for inspiring Mohammed to found Islam in Medina in 612, for saving the life of a priest named Nichiren shortly before his execution in 1271, for helping Henry V of England win a decisive battle over French knights at Agincourt in 1415 and for convincing Charles Quint to abandon the siege of Magdeburg in 1551.
Other episodes – whether or not we believe in their actual physical reality – have acquired a colorful place in human history: Emperor Charlemagne was thrown from his horse when an unknown object flew over him in 810 AD; Joan of Arc was inspired to take the leadership of French armies and throw the English out of France after getting her instructions from beings of light in 1425; Christopher Columbus saw a strange light as he approached America; and the claim of an apparition in Guadalupe was responsible for converting millions of Mexican Indians to Catholicism in 1531.
Among great scientists and scholars who carefully recorded sightings of aerial phenomena they could not identify and did not hesitate to publish their observations were mathematician Facius Cardan, Sir H. Sloane (president of the Royal Society), Charles Messier, Cromwell Mortimer (secretary of the Royal Society), and such illustrious literary figures as Casanova and Goethe. So much for Stephen Hawking’s “cranks and weirdos.”
Structure of this work
Part I, A Chronology of Wonders, contains 500 selected events that give, in varied detail, descriptions of aerial phenomena that have remained unidentified after we exhausted analysis with the means at our disposal. For convenience of the reader, it is divided in six distinct periods, with commentaries about the social and historical characteristics of each period, as it affects the context and reporting of unusual events in the sky.
We stopped the compilation before 1880, at the beginning of a new era when man, thanks to newly-invented balloons and lighter-than-air devices, had begun to fly at last.
Before that date, human observers were often confused by atmospheric effects, optical illusions, meteors, and comets, and the visionary experiences common to prophets and excited crowds, but there were no man-made craft in the sky until 1783, when Louis XVI of France granted permission for the first human balloon flight, and of course no heavier-than-air machine at all over the period we cover.
We have tried to recognize common errors, only keeping in our catalogue truly intriguing descriptions suggestive of actual physical anomalies. During the period we study there were no airplanes, no searchlights playing on cloud banks, no rockets fired into space, and none of the shenanigans of secret prototypes or clandestine operations of psychological warfare often recruited by skeptics to “explain” modern UFOs. After 1879, while the sky is still somewhat pristine, research into unidentified aerial phenomena becomes more complex with the frequent reporting of balloons, “airships,” and the hoaxes typical of the new Western media, including competing journalists with blurred standards of accuracy.
Part II, Myths, Legends, and Chariots of the Gods, draws the lessons from the larger body of physical data that has come to form man’s view of the universe. By restricting ourselves to a period stretching from Antiquity to the Age of Flight, we were able to apply systematic standards to reports of unknown things in the sky. In the process, we had to make our way through much material that did not fit our criteria for valid entries as aerial phenomena, yet provided considerable insight into cultural, religious, or social attitudes of the time. Some of the rejected material is assembled in this section of the book but our assessment of it is not final. We recognize that much is still to be uncovered about the literature of this phenomenon. Further study of this material by other researchers may, in time, yield revised data that should be included in future catalogs of aerial phenomena.
Part III, Sources and Methods, discloses our selection criteria and the process through which we assembled the chronology. It also delves into the difficult issues of scholarship, when the problem is to decide which version of a particular historical event is worthy of being retained, and which is inaccurate, deceptive or frivolous.
In this section we also explain how the emergence of the Internet has changed the methodology of research into ancient material by making previously inaccessible documents searchable, and, equally importantly, by allowing the building of networks of communication among interested researchers and scholars in many countries.
In our Conclusion we will review the major patterns we were able to extract from the historical unfolding of the observations, and we will ask how they relate to the phenomenon as it continues to be observed today.
Symbols
In order to facilitate future reference, we have used the following symbols to indicate the nature of each account:
Unidentified Aerial Light
Unidentified Aerial Object
Abduction
Phenomenon with physical evidence
Entity (alone)
Entity associated with an aerial phenomenon
Communication
These symbols are extracted from the Dover Publications collection of Medieval Ornaments (copyright 2002).
PART I
A Chronology of Wonders
PART I-A
Chronology to 1000 AD
Ancient records of unknown phenomena in the sky pose special challenges. Unlike modern accounts, they are often kept in remote libraries, neglected by scholars, written in little-understood languages and seldom translated with accuracy. Indications of their existence are found in secondary sources, typically slanted to particular belief systems in religious or political terms, and are therefore doubtful. When they are quoted on the Internet or in popular literature they are often so garbled as to become unrecognizable.
The study of such cases has to begin with the search for a primary source, often a chronicler, a historian, or an astronomer, together with an assessment of the context in which the sighting was made. Not surprisingly, ancient civilizations with the most advanced astrology and meteorology have produced good records of this type. China and the Roman Empire, in particular, have given us valuable astronomical reports, often with precise dates. Japan and the Middle East are also prominent.
Given the lack of knowledge at the time about the nature of celestial objects such as meteors or comets, observations of such phenomena were often reported as “portents” or “omens.” Chroniclers generally pointed to specific historical events that followed the observation, attributing a cause-and-effect relationship to the sighting. This was a natural tendency, with two unintended consequences: on the one hand, it has contributed to slanting the narrative to special political or religious viewpoints; on the other hand, the association with historical records has served to preserve the basic facts of the sighting, enabling us, hundreds or thousands of years later, to better understand such phenomena as comets, meteors, and novae. And among these records we find accounts that still have no conventional explanation within today’s science. In some cases, the reframing of remarkable sightings as mystical events has probably resulted in the loss of accounts that would interest us today as physical anomalies.
In extreme cases, this process has led to the popular belief that “the Gods” were intervening in human affairs through celestial manifestations. Indeed, it was convenient for secular or clerical rulers to claim that divine powers were supporting their views or guided them in battle.
In selecting cases for inclusion in this Chronology we have paid special attention to such biases in order to steer clear of the suggestion that aerial phenomena intervened directly in terrestrial hi
story. Of course, as the reader will see, the societal and psychological impact was a real and lasting one, but only because of the interpretations witnesses and their contemporaries gave to the events.
This process continues today in the many heated controversies about unidentified flying objects, their origin, their nature, and their possible technological implications. For this reason, the study of the oldest records is crucial to an understanding of unidentified aerial phenomena that are still commonly reported.
As we go further back in time, our unidentified cases owe more to mythology than to history. Yet we wish to show the reader the rich variety of experiences that were reported throughout the ages. Accordingly, in this initial section we have relaxed our selection standards in terms of date and contents, while providing critical comments when appropriate.
The symbol denotes cases whose nature or source, in our opinion, needs new information because it is vague, unreliable, or insufficiently documented. We included them for illustration purposes, and to stimulate further research.
1.
Ca. 1460 BC, Upper Retjenu, Lebanon
A “star” defeats the Nubians
The stela of Gebel Barkal, erected in honor of Thutmosis III, describes a fantastic celestial event during a war: “A star fell to their South position. It struck those opposed to him (the Nubians). None could stand…” (Lines 33-36).
“[The star] positioned itself above them as if they didn’t exist, and then they fell upon their own blood. Now [the star] was behind them (illuminating) their faces with fire; no man amongst them could defend himself, none of them looked back. They had not their horses as [these] had fled into the mountain, frightened…Such is the miracle that Amon did for me, his beloved son in order to make the inhabitants of the foreign lands see the power of my majesty.”
Source: this document, of undisputable authenticity, was first published in 1933, in a German Egyptological journal, Zeitschrift fur Agyptischen Sprache und Altertumskunde 69: 24-39.
The text, now on display in the Museum of Jardum, Sudan, was found by archaeologists excavating in the Temple of Amon, located at the bottom of the Gebel Barkal Mountain in the great Bayunda desert. The stela, which is made of granite and measures 173 cm by 97 cm, was erected on 23 August 1457 BC in honor of Thutmosis III’s important victories in Asia.
2.
1347 BC, El-Amarna, Nile Valley, Egypt
Akhenaton’s flying disk
Pharaoh Akhenaton (Amenophis IV) had a unique experience that was to shape Egyptian history. According to inscriptions on the ‘Frontier Stelae’ found on the circumference of El-Amarna, Akhenaton was strolling along the river admiring the splendors of nature one summer morning when he looked up and saw “a shining disc” descend from the sky.
He heard the voice of the Solar Disc itself tell him that he was to build a new capital for Egypt, and give it the name Akhetaton, “The Horizon of the Solar Disc.” During the time of Amenophis IV, Egypt’s capital became the City of Akhetaton. The ideographic symbol for the word “horizon” was a disc floating over a mountain range.
Akhenaton also founded a new religion based on the worship of the Solar Disc, thus assuring his immortality in our history books as the most powerful heretic of ancient Egypt. Although it refers here to the shape of the sun itself, it is interesting to find that the basic disc shape often mentioned in art and ancient manuscripts has been quoted (or misquoted) as evidence of “flying saucers” by contemporary writers.
Source: David P. Silverman, Josef William Wegner, and Jennifer Houser Wegner. Akhenaten and Tutankhamun: Revolution and Restoration (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2006), 44-47.
3.
Circa 850 BC, shores of the Jordan River, Israel
Abduction of Elijah
The prophet Elijah (1 Kings 16:29 to 2 Kings 2:18) practiced his ministry in Israel during the reigns of King Ahab (874-853 BC) and his son King Abaziah (853-852 BC). The trouble began when Ahab married the pagan princess Jezebel and erected an altar to Baal in Samaria.
Baal was the Sun-God of the Phoenicians, and a Sacred Pole was used to chart Baal’s journey through the twelve signs of the zodiac. According to the Old Testament, by embracing the religion of a “false God,” Ahab did more to anger “the Lord” than any of the kings of Israel before him.
The prophet Elijah (Elias) the Tishbite then delivered a divine message to King Ahab that God would bring a drought to his kingdom. The significance of this message was that Baal was worshipped for his supposed power over the sky and the weather, so God’s message was a direct challenge to Baal and a sign of displeasure.
Fig. 1: The abduction of Elijah (Gustave Doré)
The second chapter of 2 Kings mentions an episode when Elijah revealed he was about to be taken away:
“And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me. And he said, Thou hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so.
“And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.” – 2 Kings 2:11.
Elijah was the only Old Testament prophet who did not die, but was said to be taken up to heaven. Even today, Jews are waiting for Elijah to return. An empty chair and a goblet of wine are set at the Passover feast table as a reminder of this belief. The Mormons, on the other hand, believe that Elijah came back on April 3rd 1836, appearing before Joseph Smith.
Source: Unless otherwise indicated, we are using the King James Version of the Bible.
4.
Ca. 593 BC, Chaldea, near the river Chebar, Iraq
Ezekiel’s abduction
The Bible states that Prophet Ezekiel saw a strange craft appear in the sky above him. It consisted of “wheels within wheels,” a brilliant dome, and four beings. He was transported to a mountaintop, without knowing how he got there, and remained stunned, an experience reminiscent of numerous contemporary reports by people claiming abductions.
We are not so naïve as to believe that the Ezekiel account in the Bible, which was written down centuries after the life of the prophet by that name, represents a first-hand report of an observation, any more than the abduction of Elijah in the previous account. Wikipedia notes that “the academic community has been split into a number of different camps over the authorship of the book. W. Zimmerli proposes that Ezekiel’s original message was influenced by a later school that added a deeper understanding to the prophecies. Other groups, like the one led by M. Greenberg, still tend to see the majority of the work of the book done by Ezekiel himself. Some scholars have suggested that the person described by the Book of Ezekiel may have suffered from temporal lobe epilepsy, which has several characteristic symptoms that are apparent from his writing. These symptoms include hypergraphia, hyperreligiosity, fainting spells, mutism, and pedantism, often collectively ascribed to a condition known as Geschwind syndrome.”
Even with these qualifications, the account is remarkable for Ezekiel’s description of a phenomenon that would resonate with the people of his time, and still strikes us by its awesome imagery:
“Then I looked, and behold, a whirlwind was coming out of the north, a great cloud with raging fire engulfing itself; and brightness was all around it and radiating out of its midst like the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire. Also from within it came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance: they had the likeness of a man. Each one had four faces, and each one had four wings.”
The text goes on: “Now as I looked at the living creatures, behold, a wheel was on the earth beside each living creature with its four faces. The appearance of the wheels and their workings was, as it were, a wheel
in the middle of a wheel. When they moved, they went toward any one of four directions; they did not turn aside when they went.
“When the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them; and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up. Wherever the spirit wanted to go, they went, because there the spirit went; and the wheels were lifted together with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. When those went, these went; when those stood, these stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up together with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels” (Ezekiel 1: 4-21).
Fig. 2: The abduction of Ezekiel
Later Ezekiel describes what today would be characterized as “abduction”:
2:9 And when I looked, behold, a hand was stretched out to me, and a written scroll was in it
3:12 Then the spirit lifted me up, and as the glory of the Lord arose from its place, I heard behind me the sound of a great earthquake.
3:13 It was the sound of the wings of the living creatures as they touched one another, and the sound of the wheels beside them that sounded like a great earthquake.
3:14 The spirit lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness in the heat of my spirit, the hand of the Lord being strong upon me.
3:15 And I came to the exiles at Tel-Abib, who dwelt by the river Chebar. And I sat there overwhelmed among them seven days.
Wonders in the Sky Page 3