I’ve heard a lot of stuff about people claiming that Sumerian tablets/Egyptian Hieroglyphs/Dogon beliefs show that aliens have visited Earth in the past.
Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find any books on the topic. Only websites.
Does anyone know a good book or two that explores the issue from both sides? I know I don’t believe it happened, but I want to see why people think they have (and why people don’t think they have).
Although he sort of skirts around the alien concept, check out Graham Hancock’s “Fingerprints of the Gods”. Really strong evidence there that there was at least one major–possibly global–advanced civilization before Egypt. Very interesting.
And for shits and giggles get Erich Von Daniken’s “Chariots of the Gods” and Zachariah Sitchin’s (sp?) books, I think one is called “The 12th Planet”. Intriguing ideas there, but a little to much on the wingnut side for me.
Perhaps the most famous is von Däniken’s Chariots of the Gods series. Regarding von Däniken, James Randi comments:
Many skeptics have gone on record to debunk most of von Daniken’s claims and I doubt that virtually any serious scientist gives credibility to any of his ideas. Unfortunately, von Daniken’s work still turns up under the nonfiction section of many retail outlets.
Check out Randi’s Flim-Flam! for a chapter (6) on von Däniken.
BULLPUCKY!
Try L. Sprague DeCamp’s Lost Continents, which debunks Atlantis, the most common “Elder Civilization” cited. LINK
Or The Fringe Of The Unknown, which dispells the fallacies of the whole idea of elder civilizations.
LINK
Cecil Adams’s Enlightenment–
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_069.html
And a staff report on a related subject–
Try Jim Marrs. He has a website too.
Awesome. I’d found books proving that the Pyramids could actually be built with the ancient technologies (not hard to find), and recent 'zine articles talking about how they would have oriented them northwards, but so few of the ones that sparked the need for proof… if ya know what I mean?
Don’t let these people trick you. Undocumented civilizations like Atlantis and Lemuria did exist; trust me, I know from personal experience. Heck, I’m why a couple of them are undocument. 
I have read a book published in the Uk re the Dogon and the connection to Sirius.
I can’t remember the author but it was something like Temple or Templeman.
Either do a google search or refer to the bibliography of one of Graham Hancocks books (they may not be true but they are well referenced)
For an extremely thorough de-bunking of “Chariots”, try Crash go the chariots!: an alternative to “Chariots of the Gods” by Clifford A. Wilson. It’s been awhile since I read it, but it’s an entire book devoted to reviewing and rebutting all of von Daniken’s book.
Oh, really? I’ve read Fingerprint of the Gods and saw NO ‘evidence’. Hancock keeps talking about how overwhelming the ‘evidence’ is, but never actually mentions it. Perhaps you can give me a breakdown of the ‘evidence’. And remember, “The plural of anecdote is not data”.
Forgive me. I wish there was Graham Hancock anti-fan club, I’d run for president.
Topics such as those you mention are covered in Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology by Kenneth Felder.
Alright, I’ve narrowed my field of interest specifically to the pyramids. I’ll (of course) be sure to check out the books you’ve all mentioned, but are there any books specifically claiming that the Egyptians were alien-ly aided to align/construct them?
The book you’re thinking of is Robert Temple’s The Sirius Mystery, which was shown to be nonsense decades ago.
http://www.csicop.org/si/7809/sirius.html
http://www.debunker.com/texts/dogon.html
Subsequent research by the Dutch anthropologist, Walter van Beek, confirmed it as such.