Either way, the aliens are claimed to have had direct contact with humans from all around the world. Considering the man-power needed to influence humans on a global scale, it seems odd that no evidence has emerged to support the ancient alien hypothesis. Shouldn't there be a dead alien, a crashed ship, lost tools or parts, evidence of alien-inflicted human wounds (gods did attack humans)? Keep in mind, aliens are assumed to have influenced humans over periods of thousands of years on a global scale. Isn't it more likely that aliens didn't influence humans on a global scale over thousands of years?
Are you thinking it would take armies of aliens to influence primitive, ancient human civilizations on a global scale? A single alien could influence an entire villages of early human civilizations.
Yes, I think it would be an enormous undertaking. I'm not necessarily talking about military, but the resources needed to travel light years through space, the expertise needed to maintain a ship that can travel light years through space, and the expertise needed to understand human culture and communications on a global scale. We don't even understand a
handful of ancient South American cultures/languages and we've been studying their sites for decades.
Religions are an attempt, among other things, to provide an explanation for the unexplained. I would think that in the early development of human civilization, an alien of far superior technology could pretty easily convince an entire city or village that it was a God. Early humans were pretty gullible. What we do not know, what we cannot explain, back then that would be a lot of things, could only be described in terms familiar to humans- goats, birds, fire, weather, etc. We were pretty noob.
What about remains of early humans and their ancestors that practiced ritualistic burials? Were these influenced by aliens? Couldn't religions have been entirely imagined to explain the world as it is? Do we need aliens to be analogous to gods? I think we are a very creative.
I'd think that once a form of communication between the aliens and humans is established, the aliens wouldn't need to reside physically on the earth for thousands of years, they could have just stayed in orbit or went on their way exploring the universe, and drop by every now and then... and even if they did not, even if only a single Alien was left to "rule" each civilization... it wouldn't take many aliens to influence human civilizations methinks.
Considering that traveling near light speed is kind of like a "time machine" to the future, I suppose that it's possible that they "checked in" once in a while. Still, I think it is an enormous undertaking.
And if so little number of aliens actually on earth, the probability that we'd find the bodies of such thousands of years later if there were only dozens (if that) residing on earth seems slim to me. The aliens may very well honor their dead and have their own traditions of burial so if any aliens died on earth, their bodies might not have been left on earth.
We've found bones on the order of millions of years old. We're talking the past 10000 years. Indeed, aliens may practice ritualistic burial, but that doesn't mean they can always recover their dead. A sophisticated alien race with a mastery over space travel does not necessarily mean they can dive miles under the ocean, nor does it mean they can always track the location of a crash on land (for example).
Let me just say beyond watching a few Ancient Aliens episodes on The History Channel, I am by far not thoroughly familiar with the claims of the Ancient Alien theorists. So I'm just speculating for the fun of it.
I don't mean to nit pick, but it really bothers me to call it a theory. It is not a theory, it is a hypothesis and one that lacks any evidence so far. However, it is a convenient explanation to some aspects of the past. However, I really think our ancestors were a lot cleverer and smarter than we think.
EDIT: You'll have to forgive me. I have this bad habit of extrapolating paragraphs based on the first few sentences. I'm re-reading your post to make sure I've properly responded to each point.
