The Astronauts of Val Camonica
The account
Figures with rays surrounding their heads were supposedly helmeted astronauts seen by the ancient peoples of the Alps.
What investigators found
Archaeologists interpret these figures as deities, solar symbols or people wearing ritual adornments.
The story
The Val Camonica valley, in northern Italy, holds one of the largest collections of rock art in the world, with more than one hundred thousand figures carved into stone over thousands of years, from Prehistory to the Iron Age. It was the first Italian site inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, in 1979. The carvings show hunts, animals, weapons, houses and scenes of daily life.
Some human figures have heads surrounded by rays or by a rounded outline, which led ancient astronaut theorists to see them as helmeted space travelers. The archaeologists who study the valley disagree: these images appear in a context of religious and solar symbols and are interpreted as deities, priests or warriors wearing adornments. Nothing about them requires an origin beyond Earth.