Except for the people who already knew of mortals flying beyond the stratosphere. They'd not be surprised by our space-flight accomplishments at all. There's allegedly evidence that some people cite to prove astronauts were around a long, long time ago.

Some might argue that at least hundreds of years ago our ancestors cruised through outer space in crude, wooden spaceships powered by either sail or steam. Most would argue that we made that up just now.

There really are, though, vocal proponents that argue for something called an 'Ancient Astronaut' theory. They cite quite a bit of evidence for this too. Of course none of the evidence is so grand it will knock you on your duff, proving once and for all that cavemen knew how to make oxygen tanks – compiled, however, it does make a thought-provoking list.

Wikipedia sums up part of the 'pro' arguments:

"Proponents of ancient astronaut theories point to what they perceive as gaps in historical and archaeological records and also what they see as an absence of definitive explanations in certain contexts from the archaeological sciences. Advocates of these theories put forward as evidence their interpretations of various archaeological artifacts, which they deem to have been anachronistic or beyond the presumed technical capabilities of the historical cultures they are associated with. Another common theme relies upon the interpretation of depictions in certain ancient artworks as being representations of actual extraterrestrial visitors as realized by the contacted cultures."

Some of the artwork talked about there are just anciently drawn pictures or sculptures that in retrospect, look an awful lot like today's basic image of an astronaut. Examples of this can be found in some giant Italian landscape-paintings from around 10,000 BC that seem to depict two beings wearing a circular helmet, or in 'the Great Martian Gods,' which is a picture drawn in the Saharan Desert floor of a gigantic cyclops surrounded by what looks like disk-shaped UFOs.

The alleged ancient visitations resulted in more than just pictures – the greater portion of the ancient Astronaut theories would seem to be that we are the end result. A long time ago either our ancestors or our owners came to earth, then left us behind.

Again, Wikipedia has the skinny:

"Ancient astronaut adherents often claim that humans are either descendants or creations of beings who landed on Earth millennia ago. An associated theory is that much of human knowledge, religion and culture came from extraterrestrial visitors in ancient times: ancient astronauts acted as a “mother culture.”"

So our folks basically left us, but check in from time to time to make sure we're not at each other's throats. But of course we are at each others throats, so they're not doing a very good job.

Perhaps we are a grand experiment being studied from afar, planted here ages ago for the sole purpose of seeing the evolution of consciousness and what its development makes us do.

Or perhaps really ancient people were just into sci-fi too.

They probably had a Roddenberry in a moose-skin or something. Yes, it's all clear to us now.

Ancient Astronauts