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stated, ".. . The folklore of every culture, it turned out, had a rich reservoir of stories about humanoid beings that flew in the sky, used devices that seemed in advance of the technology of the time." "UFOs seem to have been around for a long time. We can find odd references to ‘circles of fire in the sky' in many historical documents and even in cave paintings. While we seem to be experiencing a great upsurge in reported sightings in our own day, every age seems to have had similar stories." It is widely believed that man's most ancient civilizations arose in the Middle East, near the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, in the region known as the Fertile Crescent. In fact, the most ancient written records we possess are from the Sumerians, who abruptly appeared in this area in the third millennium B.C. The history of Sumer has primarily been reconstructed from thousands of clay tablets and cylinders written in cuneiform script. Recorded on those tablets are stories of the "gods which came down to Earth from the heavens." Popular authors—such as Erich von Daniken, Zecharia Sitchin, and others—have interpreted these texts as visitations by highly advanced "ancient astronauts" who flew to Earth in spaceships and were worshiped as "gods" by virtually every ancient culture. Proponents of this "ancient astronaut" theory believe that these extraterrestrials were responsible for the abrupt appearance of complex human societies and high technology that permitted ancient man to build the pyramids, Stonehenge, and many other artifacts that cannot be duplicated to this day. Many scholars disagree, arguing that the cuneiform texts are too cryptic to be interpreted as extraterrestrial visitations. Nevertheless, the Sumerian cuneiform texts do speak of beings from the heavens coming to Earth and interacting with mankind. In support of the ancient astronaut theory, proponents point to a number of engravings that were carved on stone in ancient Sumer and Mesopotamia. These petroglyphs depict scenes which, according to the ancient astronaut theory, represent ancient flying ships piloted by humanoid extraterrestrials. One of the most fascinating is a Sumerian engraving discovered on a clay cylinder which is suggestive of an ancient flying ship floating above the ground with wings or, as some have suggested, extended solar panels. TS From the mythology of ancient Assyria we find the story of Ashur, the winged god of war. This ancient deity is typically represented as a humanoid form, bow in hand, 23 UFO researchers John Weldon and Zola Levitt echoed this in their book, UFOs: What on Earth Is Happening ?: ANCIENT ASTRONAUTS?