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Neutral, sourced explainers. Each one sets out the alternative idea in its proponents’ terms, then the mainstream counterpoint, with links to the original work.

Key theories

Meteor Crater, Arizona — Photo: National Map Seamless Server · Public domain

The Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis

Around 12,900 years ago the climate abruptly plunged back into near-glacial cold for ~1,200 years. The hypothesis proposes that a comet or its fragments struck …

Animal reliefs on a Göbekli Tepe pillar — Photo: Zhengan · CC BY-SA 4.0

A Lost Ice Age Civilisation

Graham Hancock and others propose that an advanced seafaring culture existed before ~12,000 years ago, was largely destroyed by cataclysm and rising seas, and p…

The twelve-angled stone in Cusco’s Inca masonry — Photo: Ljuba brank at Slovenian Wikipedia · Public domain

Precision Megalithic Stonework

Ben van Kerkwyk (UnchartedX), Brien Foerster and others document granite boxes, stone vessels and polygonal walls with tolerances they argue are hard to achieve…

Solstice light at Newgrange — Photo: Dentp · CC BY-SA 4.0

Astronomical Alignments & Sky Maps

Many sites align to solstices or equinoxes. Alternative researchers go further, e.g. the Orion Correlation (Bauval: Giza mirrors Orion’s Belt c. 10,500 BCE) or …

Pakal’s sarcophagus lid, Palenque — Photo: Arian Zwegers from Brussels, Belgium · CC BY 2.0

Ancient Astronauts & Ancient Aliens

The theory that visitors from other worlds influenced early civilisations, remembered as sky gods and shown in art and monuments. It was popularised by Erich vo…

Radio telescopes of the Very Large Array — Photo: ESO/P. Horálek · CC BY 4.0

Non-Human Intelligence & Ultraterrestrials

The idea that non-human intelligences have long shared our world, in another dimension or hidden on Earth, and lie behind UFO reports, folklore and ancient myth…

The monkey geoglyph, Nazca — Photo: Diego Delso · CC BY-SA 4.0

The Nazca “Tridactyl Mummies”

Three-fingered bodies said to come from the Nazca desert, presented by Jaime Maussan to Mexico’s Congress in 2023 as a non-human species, backed by CT scans and…

Paracas culture textile — Photo: Unknown creatorUnknown creator, Nasca or · Public domain

Elongated Skulls: Paracas and Beyond

Brien Foerster and others argue that some elongated Paracas skulls show volume and anatomy beyond head-binding, possibly a distinct lineage.…

Fragment of the Antikythera mechanism — Photo: Joyofmuseums · CC BY-SA 4.0

Out-of-Place Artefacts, Giants & Lost Technology

Objects that seem too advanced for their time, such as the Antikythera mechanism, the Baghdad battery, the Dendera lights and the Piri Reis map, plus worldwide …