“To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational,” -Stephen Hawking

Extraterrestrial life is any life that does not originate from the planet Earth. If extraterrestrial existence were to be proven, the term would include small, single celled life-forms to large intelligent life-forms like humans. Commonly known as “aliens”, these life forms are often portrayed as intelligent life forms, but according to Prof. Stephen Hawking, a leading physicist and cosmologist, aliens are most likely just bacteria-like life forms. Hawking does warn about the possibility of contact with a few advanced aliens and said in an interview with the Sunday Times Online (timesonline.co.uk) “If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn’t turn out very well for the Native Americans.”

As I will discuss later, aliens have been in our arts thousands of years ago, long before advanced technology was mainstream. All these portrayals of aliens in art since thousands of years ago suggest that there is a good chance that aliens do exist.

There have been many reported sightings of aliens and UFOs all around the world. There also have been many famous incidents where people claim to have been abducted by aliens. Besides Stephan Hawking, many other scientists, including Lord Martin Rees, former President of the Royal Society, and physicist Dr. Michio Kaku, either believe that they exist, or believe that humans have a good chance of finding extraterrestrials. By giving the concept of aliens all of this attention throughout the years, people have accumulated a large amount of curiosity. This curiosity has helped the concept of extraterrestrials make its mark in our arts.

Throughout history, aliens or extraterrestrials have been featured in our arts. Cave excavators have found cavemen drawings of vehicles flying in the air. In the past 100 years, speculation about aliens soared, particularly during the Space Race. This was the period of the 1950s to the 1970s when the United States and the former Soviet Union competed for superiority in space technology. Outer space was the new frontier. During that time, comics, movies, and posters featuring aliens were very popular among the youth population. The world was seeing firsthand the birth of the extraterrestrials’ portrayal in the modern arts.

During the second half of the 20th century, many famous space movies came out. Some of these movies include 2001: A Space Odyssey and E. T. the Extra-Terrestrial. E. T. the Extra-Terrestrial was so touching that the critics acclaimed it as a classic. Historian and film critic Leonard Maltin liked it so much he went on to include it into his list of “100 Must-See Films of the 20th Century”. Even to this day, many movies related to aliens still come out and are very popular. For example, not too long ago in 2008, the movie WALL-E directed by Andrew Stanton was released to universal critical acclaim. According to the website RottenTomatoes.com, a movie review aggravator, 96% of critics gave the movie positive reviews. Then, in 2011, World Invasion: Battle Los Angeles, was released. This is about an alien invasion and the United States Military’s attempt to stop it. Excluding home media distribution, Battle: LA raked in a total of $192,886,000 according to the website, BoxOfficeMojo (boxofficemojo.com). Clearly, people really love watching alien and space related movies!

Many teenagers that are interested in extraterrestrial art read books and comics instead of watching movies. For example, a famous American comic book series created by DC Comics, Superman, is based upon aliens. The main character Superman is an alien from the fictional planet of Krypton. First published in 1938, Superman, created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster, is so well-known it is often considered an American cultural icon. Besides Superman, H. G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds is another very well known piece of literature including aliens. The War of the Worlds was widely praised by critics after its release in 1898. Now, it is considered to be one of the most famous and recognizable pieces of alien invasion literature.

Last but not least, we have aliens as portrayed in art. This is very interesting because, throughout history, the idea or concept of aliens has been with us. Just under four million years ago, there were cavemen roaming around the Earth. These men were known to draw on the walls of the caves where they lived, and archeologists have found that these men sometimes drew pictures of what looks like flying saucers or various non-human species. Furthermore, it is shown that some Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics show aliens standing next to the Pharaohs. In addition to these cave drawings and hieroglyphics, another common site of extraterrestrials in art is in Christian art.

Though it may be naïve to believe in aliens after seeing the alien-looking characters that people thousands of years ago have drawn on the cave walls, it does make one think. At that time, there were no computers, no televisions, not even books or scrolls to give these ancient people these ideas. The only way to get these ideas was to imagine it (but if they imagined it, they must have had a very colorful imagination) or to actually see it. Without solid evidence, it is hard to say for sure, but these pieces of art add weight to the argument that extraterrestrials exist.

In Christian religious art, there are many portrayals of aliens and extraterrestrial figures. For example, some people argue that the Saints are aliens. They do, in fact, come from heaven, somewhere that is not on this planet. Also, in some paintings of the crucifixion of Jesus, images of flying saucers are shown to be circling the area. Furthermore, there are pictures depicting priests and other religious figures of the church getting messages from beams of light coming from flying saucers. Likewise, all around the world, gods or deities from different denominations are to a point, depicted with a bright light shining on them. Also, all most all gods are shown to be able to fly or have special abilities. Whether these similarities actually say something, or they are just a coincidence, we just may never know.

Religions aside, more examples of extraterrestrial art can be found all around the world. In the country of Ecuador, there have been artifacts recovered where there were extremely detailed statues of alien like creatures in space suits. These artifacts are estimated to be thousands of years old. In the United States, Native American Indians are also known to have portrayed unknown creatures throughout their history. A great example would be a cave carving in Sego Country, Utah, where mysterious living beings were depicted carrying long, tall staffs. Also, a unnamed German artist drew what he supposedly saw in the sky, “two glowing wheels”. This picture was created in the year 1697. Lastly, in the Middle Eastern nation of Iraq, many of its carvings of the ancient Sumerian Gods are actually portrayed as alien-like reptiles.

Just like everything else in this world, we cannot be sure of anything. What we have to do is be open minded, stay just a little skeptical, and with that information, make educated conclusions based on what we sense is right or wrong. That being said, we can come to the conclusion that we probably will not ever know for sure whether or not aliens exist. Even though this may be true, people can kind of grasp the idea that aliens probably are out there. This theory can be supported through aliens in art throughout the centuries. I do not doubt one bit that there may be living creatures from another world.