Then we have ancient writings from India and Sumeria especially, this is regarded as fantasy by many, but it may be that we are not able to interpret these writings properly and thus they are ignored by many. The resemblance between the biblical stories and some of the Sumerian writings is too close to be ignored, and one has to assume that the bible was heavily influenced by the legends of Sumeria. The writings of Zacharia Sitchin tell a story of a mystery planet which comes round every 3500 years or so and of the Sumerian Annunaki who came from this planet and created man in order to be their slaves. Just how much credibility this story has, is uncertain, I have yet to have it confirmed that the Sumerian writings actually mention this planet (called Nibiru), so I don't know how much "artistic licence" is involved with Sitchins books.
In ancient writings, including the bible, there are many indications of flying machines in ancient times. Before we ourselves had flying machines, everyone discounted these stories as fantasy. In the last hundred years or so aircraft have become commonplace on earth, and we need to take a closer look at these stories of ancient flight, after all in ancient times building skills far surpassed anything we can do, therefore we must consider the possibility that the previous civilisations were way ahead of us in other fields as well. Apart from the written record there are other indications that flight was a reality. The amazing markings on the Nasca plains in Peru for instance can only be seen from the air, and I would argue that they were indeed designed to be viewed from the air, also in Peru, the fortress of Sacsayhauman is built to resemble the head of a puma, this can only be observed from above. Also the numerous "winged" beings depicted in sculptures and paintings from around the world definitely imply the ability to fly. I think the time has come for making carefull study of the various writings and other indications of flight by serious scholars, ancient writings from India will be an especially important area for research.

It is currently widely accepted that the Sumerians were the first civilisation on earth and that they sprang into being rather suddenly. I have a problem with that theory, and to me it does not make sense. For these people suddenly to have writing systems, accounting systems etc, is not possible via the normal evolution theory, but what really convinces me that civilisation is considerably older than is currently accepted is a something called the "precession of the zodiac". This is a somewhat obscure cycle that takes about 26000 years to come full circle and takes 72 years just to move 1 degree, and is apparently caused by a wobble in the earths axis. It seems the ancient Egyptians and the Sumerians were aware of this cycle. This is absolutely astounding that a civilisation which supposedly only started in around 6000 BCE could be aware of a cycle which takes 26000 years to complete. This knowledge suggests that records were kept for at least the duration of 1 such cycle which would push the start of written records back to no later than 32000 BCE as an absolute minimum. It is more likely that records would have been kept for at least the duration of 2 such cycles before this phenomenon would become accepted into their knowledge pool. Knowledge of this cycle has come to us from the Sumerians and Egyptians, but where did they get such knowledge if their civilisation only started in about 6000 BCE. Hiparchus is credited with the discovery of this movement of the earth in the 2nd century AD, however I would say that he in fact merely refined what the Babylonians already had recorded.

It seems to have become an accepted fact that the earth has suffered several calamities over time, the last of which seems to have occured around 10000 BCE or 12000 years ago ( the so called younger dryas episode). The ages of various structures on earth seems to be the subject of much debate, the Sphinx in Egypt for instance, has some stating that it is no more than 4500 years old, whilst others supply evidence of an age exceeding 12000 years. There seems to be no definite evidence to support the ages of many ancient structures, which would indicate that they were built before our current society started to use written records. The fact that there are no written records to support the theories of a younger age would indicate that these stuctures were already in existence before written records were kept, this would make them at least 8000 years old and quite possibly 16000 years old (considering the catastrophic period of 10000 bce). It is therefore a distinct possibility that these structures existed before the "deluge" referred to in many ancient writings and "myths". If this is indeed so, then there must have existed a civilisation before that, far superior to what we have today. It certainly seems strange that a civilisation supposedly started in around 6000 BCE could have built the pyramids within a few thousand years, whilst we are still unable to achieve such a feat 4500 years later. Therefore it is reasonable to assume that there was indeed an earlier age that we are unaware of. This makes more sense than the theories given to us by our current textbooks. If we were to assume that there were survivors of the "cataclysm" who were for some reason or other unable to breed, is it not possible that they would resort to genetic manipulation in order to ensure the survival of intelligent life on earth ?
One could expand on such a theory which could help to explain why the civilisations around the world were "kickstarted" so suddenly. How could it be that the people of the earliest societies had such in-depth knowledge of writing, mathematics, metalurgy, astromony and astrology etc. when they were a short time before "hunter gatherers" of the stoneage. Ancient texts actually speak of "lords" or "gods", who gave them insructions. From around the world there are myths which speak of such benefactors, and of course most of them were able to fly, usually in quite noisy machines or "thunderbirds". If in those times the "gods" or "lords" were active in different parts of the world, their genetic experiments could have differed slightly from one area to the next, which would explain why there came into existence different races in various areas. There is evidence which suggests that people in widely different areas had similar technology, this is evident in the similarities of building techniques, this would imply that either there was communication between continents thousands of years ago, or that the same instructors were active around the world. I would suggest that it is likely that the source of technology was from the same instructors, who had the ability to travel extensively throughout the world with their noisy flying machines.

There are quite a number of groups around the world who support what has become known as "The Ancient Astronaut Theory". Whilst I am not in any way discounting the possibility of such theories, I am somewhat sceptical. The reason for my sceptism being that the cost of space travel is very high and must be very high from all parts of the universe. When one looks at ancient texts which involve flying machines, they all seem to point to a technology which uses some sort of combustion to power their machines. Combustion implies fuel, which would be needed in very large quantities in order to achieve interstellar travels. Of course I may be completely wrong and they may have other means of powering space travel.

Another aspect which is ignored but indicates that humanity is far older than we have been led to believe is the depiction of dinosaurs in carvings on some very old buildings. We only know of dinosaurs from fossils and they are supposed to have become extinct about 60 million years ago. It is therefore hard to understand how it came about that artists could carve dinosaurs more than a thousand years ago, how would they know what they looked like if they had never seen them? A lot of what is "discovered" today can possibly be written off as fake, but a stone carving on a building would be very hard to fake, and for what purpose? There have also apparently been finds of man made objects which have been buried in coal seams and old rock formations, which must surely have been there for many years. These objects include a brass bell, screws with threads and even a steel hammer with a wooden handle. The feilds of archeology and paleaontology seem unable to progress in response to new discoveries, one would almost compare them to a doctor still using leeches to bleed his patients in today's medical feild. It is going to require a new breed of scholars who will uncover our true history, those currently in charge at various institutions will probably have to die out before real progress can be made. There are many authors who have obviously given very serious thought to the origins of mankind and deserve to be taken seriously. It is true that most of them are just as prone to overlooking evidence which does not fit their theories as the "establishment" academics, but a lot of what they say makes very good sense. I refer to authors such as von Daniken, Childress, Hancock, Gleeson and many others, these people deserve to be taken seriously, which is not to say that their theories are correct.

There are still some people who do not accept that the earth was subjected to disasterous episodes over the years. To anyone on earth the evidence of such events is in plain sight almost everywhere. On my own doorstep I see hills with layers of sedimentary shale which recur at different levels, this can only occur if the original lake in which these sediments formed was pushed up and folded over, this would indicate a very serious disturbance of the earths crust, such evidence is available to anyone who bothers to look. Oil deposits are also an obvious pointer to severe disruption on earth, oil is apparently formed when biological matter is subjected to high pressure with the absence of air, which means that the plant and animal material must have been fresh when it was covered and subjected to pressure. Climate change is something else that has obviously occurred in the past and will occur in the future. Oil deposits as mentioned before are from biological matter and yet seem to be most abundant in some of the driest areas of the world, the climate must have been very different at some time in the past for these deposits to have formed. Today everyone is very concerned about global warming, yet 40 years ago there was talk of global cooling and there was even a suggestion of coating glaciers with coal dust to encourage them to absorb heat to prevent the onset of another ice-age. Who knows what the next 40 years will bring. What has all that to do with origins of man? Quite a lot I would say, since any being living on the earth is going to be affected by these severe changes to their habitat.

Another peculiarity which I think may be a clue to our past is division of a circle into 360 degrees, it has occurred to me that this number of degrees to a circle is not something we have invented in modern times, its origins are shrouded in the mists of time. Why then 360 degrees, why not 100 or 1000. Is it possible that at the time this system of 360 degrees was introduced that the length of a year was 360 days and that it was therefore logical to divide a circle into 360 degrees. If the rotation of the earth was about 1.5 percent slower, then a year would indeed have been 360 days, if any evidence of this exists I really don't know, but it may be worth considering. Of course such a rotation speed of the earth would have made things much easier from a time keeping point view, and calenders would have been much simpler than todays.

The Judeo, Christian and Moslem writings all refer to times when the lifespan of humans was much greater than it is now and the Sumerian "king list" speaks of kings who reigned for thousands of years, what are we to make of these writings? Is there perhaps a mistake in the translations that have occurred over time and we therefore misunderstand what was written, or is it possible that humans did indeed have a very long lifespan in the past ? It seems that in ages past the earth was very different to what it is today, and there are myths referring to a "golden age" which was without storms and around the earths atmosphere there was a layer of water supended. The bible indeed speaks of the waters which were above the firmament, which were divided from those below the firmament. If there was such a layer of water suspended in the outer atmosphere, then it would have the effect of shielding the harmfull effects of the sun from the planet. It would also help to create a uniform climate in all areas and lessen the effects of the seasonal changes. Such conditions would encourage plant growth and cause the atmosphere to be oxygen rich, night time dew would make rainfall unneccesary. Plants would obviously live much longer and grow more prolifically but would man also live longer and perhaps larger under these conditions ? Imagine Leonardo Da Vinci or Einstein living for thousands of years, what might they achieve given so much time. If men did live through such a "golden age" and lived for thousands of years, then it would be hardly surprising if they were able to achieve a very high technological standard. There is even a possibility that gravity was lower during such times, indeed, as I understand things, an increase in the mass of a planet will also increase gravity.

On a daily basis the earth is bombarded by small particles of matter from space, these are usually burnt up on entering the atmosphere, but whether they burn up or not, they do increase the mass of the earth, so very gradually the gravity of the earth must also be increasing. If one were to imagine a fairly large planetoid striking the earth, the results would be catastrophic for any life on earth. Such a calamity would nevertheless increase the gravity on earth to a fairly large degree, it could also cause the water suspended in the outer atmosphere to collapse and rain down on the earth which would cause a world wide flood. Has there been such a flood ? according to legends from all over the world, there has indeed been such a flood, and evidence of this flood is still visible in many areas. Other effects of such a calamity could include the tilting of the earths axis, extensive earhquakes, a dramatic increase in volcanic activity and possibly an increase in the rotational speed of the earth.

If there was in existence before this calamity a sophisticated civilisation, they would possibly have been able to predict such a calamity, we need to consider what might they have done about it? Could they have done anything? Possibly they may have built underground shelters to protect people from the horrific event, so that they could at least survive. On every continent there are underground tunnels and caves, many of them definitly not natural, the origins of these caves is not known. Could it be that they were excavated by a previous civilisation to protect people from the disaster they were expecting?
In my humble opinion the answer is yes, it could well be, and this would explain the existence of such caves better than any other explanation I have heard. Amongst many peoples there are legends of a time when they lived in caves, they begin their calenders from the time they emerged from these caves, we should perhaps pay more attention to these old "myths".

Bearing in mind all of the above, it is possible that we could have had an earth whose axis had little or no tilt, there could have been a canopy of water in the outer atmosphere, gravity could have been 30% lower than it is today and the length of a year was 360 days. There would have been no high mountains as we see today and of course sea levels would have been much lower than at present since a large part of the earths water would have been held in suspension by the outer water canopy, thus the surface area of exposed land would have been far greater.
Such conditions would lead to a more or less uniform temperature worldwide and a very humid climate. The more damaging elements of sunlight would be screened out by the canopy of water. Such conditions would be ideal for plant life and plants would live longer and grow very prolifically, this in turn would create an oxygen rich atmosphere which would benefit animal life.
If there were intelligent people on earth during such a time, it makes sense that they could have been larger than modern humans and also live much longer. Could this be the explanation of all the "myths" of extraordinary long lived people? If some of these people survived, could they be the "gods" refered to in the bible? It would seem to me that this is more likely than the alien origin theory and the pure evolution theory. From the perspective of our ancestors who recorded history in the bible and other religious texts, these survivors would have seemed superhuman, as indeed they probably were, they would then have glorified them as "Gods".
Such ideas seem very far fetched and will be scoffed at by many, but there is evidence to support such way out ideas. Old texts describe high technology which surpass's our own current levels, for instance the existance of "vimanas" in indian texts. Hidden in many religious texts are clues to currently unknown technology, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, stikes a chord in modern humans who are aware of the destructive power of nuclear weapons.

In the time of Solomon there was a tool capable of precisely splitting stone, it was called the "Shamir". This "Shamir" had to be stored in a lead box, which strongly suggests radioactive material. Moses had what is reffered to as the "rod of god", which was of enormus help in battle and seems to have been some sort of "ray gun". The "ark of the covenant" also sounds much like a technical device of some sort. Was this "rod of god" perhaps also radioactive and stored in the "ark", which was covered in gold (which also shields radioactive material). To ignore such evidence as being fantasies of the ancients, is not helpfull. All over the world there are structures and evidence of a technology which we still do not understand, a proper study of these "myths" from our past will, in all likelyhood, enhance our future. I have to ask the question, what is preventing scientists from properly studying our past?

The material I have read over the years leads me to suspect that there was indeed a golden age where intelligent people existed and had technology surpassing our current levels. A natural catastrophe occurred which all but eliminated that civilisation world wide, the few survivors were male and still had some of their advanced technological devices, and were able to use their knowledge of genetics to ensure the survival of intelligent life on earth. They were aware of a further catastrophe about to strike the earth and made provision for some of their genetically created humans to survive the cataclysm by creating tunnel systems and boats which would survive the coming floods and so ensure that intelligent life survived. It is even possible that some of these "gods" could have survived to this day and have bases in isolated areas from where they venture out on inspection missions around the earth in much more sophisticated flying machines than they previously used in biblical time, this would explain the sightings of UFO's occuring around the world. That these UFO's exist can no longer be disputed, but the assumption that they come from somewhere else in the universe is a little unlikely, I would be inclined to think they come from the earth itself. I have also heard theories of overlapping realities and different dimensions and so on, but being a practically minded person, I have some difficulty with such theories. Another very strange and unexplained happening is the crop circles, which seem to defy rational explanation, but regularly make an appearance in various parts of the world, most especially England.

I am fully aware that most people will dismiss these theories as the ravings of an overactive imagination, but it should be borne in mind that the " official" histories and explanations we are given do not fit the evidence available.