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145 Flying objects that we cannot identify did not pop into our vision for the first time in 1947. People have seen mysterious things in the sky throughout history, although they called them by different names. Reports of flying craft and humanlike occupants can be traced back into antiquity, where they merge with religion, myth, or superstition. A venerable Chinese tale speaks of a far-off land of flying carts inhabited by one-armed, three-eyed people riding winged chariots. A Sanskrit text describes aerial dogfights among gods piloting flying machines. Ancient Egyptians recorded sightings in hieroglyphics. Citizens of the Roman Empire saw airborne vehicles; Livy reported phantom craft in the sky.’ Perhaps the most oft-quoted description from ancient times is found in the Old Testament’s Ezekiel 1, which may have been written around 590 B.C. Here is one translation, edited for length: A stormy wind came out of the north, and a great cloud, with fire flashing forth continually, and a bright light around it ...in the midst of the fire something like glowing metal. And in the midst of it were figures resembling four living beings . . . they had human form. Each of them had four faces and four wings . . . they gleamed like burnished bronze....under their wings on their four sides were human hands. . . . In the midst of the living beings there was something that looked like glowing coals of fire, like torches darting back and forth among the living beings. .. . lightning was flashing from the fire. And the living beings ran to and fro like bolts of lightning. ... there was one wheel on the earth beside the living beings, for each of the four of them.... they were lofty and awesome, and the rims. ... were full of eyes. And whenever the living beings moved, the wheels moved with them. And whenever the living beings rose from the earth, the wheels rose also.... over the heads of the living beings there was something like an awesome gleam of crystal.... above the expanse was something resembling a throne. ... high up was a figure with the appearance of a man... . when I saw it, I fell upon my face and heard a voice speaking.* Astronomer John MacVey concluded that, even clothed in its quaint Biblical language, this is clearly a description of an aerial craft.’ Others disagree, seeing this vision as a supernatural experience or a hallucination. Its meaning seems to lie in the mind of the reader. As is the case for other sightings of strange aerial phenomena far in the past, we do not have the evidence to prove or disprove the theory that Ezekiel saw a UFO. One investigator concluded that all accounts of UFO-like sightings handed down through the ages are doubtful—until verified."® What may have been the world’s first military investigation of UFOs occurred in Japan in 1235, when a warlord observed lights circling in the night sky. He ordered learned members of his entourage to study this phe- nomenon and issue a report (they concluded that the wind was making the stars sway).'! Ancient Sightings