Erich von Daniken

Erich Anton Paul von Daniken was born in Zofingen, Switzerland in 1935 and worked as a hotel manager before publishing the book that made him one of the best-selling nonfiction authors of the twentieth century.

Chariots of the Gods, published in German in 1968 and in English the following year, argues that ancient monuments, artifacts, and religious texts record visits by extraterrestrial beings, on the premise that ancient peoples could not have produced these things unaided. The Nazca lines become landing strips, the Pyramids require outside assistance, and the vision of Ezekiel describes a spacecraft.

The book sold in the tens of millions across dozens of languages and spawned a documentary film, a sequence of follow-up volumes including Gods from Outer Space and The Gold of the Gods, and an industry that continues to run.

His method has been examined at length by archaeologists, historians, and scientists, and the specific claims have been repeatedly and thoroughly refuted.

The recurring criticisms are that he misreads artifacts, presents coincidence as evidence, structures questions so that an absence of explanation reads as support for his own, and relies on readers not knowing what specialists know. The objection underneath is that the argument requires ancient non-European civilisations to have been incapable of their own achievements.

He was convicted of fraud and embezzlement in Switzerland in 1970, in connection with his hotel management, and served a portion of a prison sentence, during which he continued writing.

He founded the Archaeology, Astronautics and SETI Research Association, and a theme park based on his ideas opened in Switzerland in 2003 and later closed. He has appeared extensively in television programming built on ancient astronaut claims, which has carried the material to audiences far larger than the books reached.

Whatever else is true of him, his influence on popular understanding of prehistory has been enormous, and it is the reason a substantial amount of contemporary archaeological outreach exists.