Flight of fancy

Were Christopher some years older he would have known that von Daniken has been exposed as a charlatan and fabricator.

Historians who have studied the carvings, and many more than Daniken ever looked at, were able to offer more mundane explanations than space ships and space helmets.

One of von Daniken’s other books purported to show aliens performing brain surgery.

It was rather disappointing for Mr Daniken when researchers were able to find the man responsible the carvings on the stones. Finally, it was shown that many of the photographs were distortions of scale. Pictures claimed to show parking bays for flying saucers turned out to show areas only about a yard square, not one big enough for a huge flying saucer.

Erich von Daniken made a vast amount of money out of his books, much more than he ever made out of his inn-keeping in Switzerland, but his books were a fantasy, a product of a vivid imagination and a sharp business mind.

Eric Gendle, Middlesbrough.

ARCHAEOLOGY has provided evidence which supports and proves claims made within mythology.

Both have provided evidence showing the possible existence of early civilisations which were destroyed by the last Ice Age.

The writings of Erich Von Daniken, and others who believe his claims in ancient astronauts, have not only been disproved by people who actually have qualifications in, or an understanding of, archaeology and symbolism.

But the undeserved credibility some have given their claims has discredited and, in some cases, irreparably damaged genuine research into human pre-history, whilst degrading the cultures of entire races.

If Christopher Wardell (HAS, July 6) and others think that Stonehenge was built by aliens, they should ask themselves why there is no evidence to support this within Ireland where the megalithic culture began?

They should also ask themselves why Von Daniken makes no mention of the late Seventies, when he was forced to admit by the BBC that he’d paid to have evidence forged.

CT Riley, Spennymoor.