by Nick Ford

Created on: March 14, 2010   Last Updated: July 13, 2010

Brace yourself for a flight of the imagination.  Exoarchaeology, sometimes known as xenoarcheology, is a hypothetical branch of archaeology that looks for the physical signs of past and present alien cultures.

Although this may sound far fetched and not a subject to pursue in these financially tight recessionary times the subject can be developed through careful thought. It rests of course on the totally unproven assumption that there is intelligent life in the universe beyond the planet earth.

Percival Lovell could be called the father of exoarchaeology. Lovell was an extremely rich American who left a diplomatic areer in 1893 at the age of 38 to devote the remaining 23 years of his life to planetary astronomy. Lovell was particularly interested in the canals on Mars. In 1877 the Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli reported long filament like structures on the surface of Mars which he called canali. Lovell published three influential books, Mars (1895), Mars and Its Canals (1906), and Mars As the Abode of Life (1908) which interpreted the canals as evidence for intelligent life on Mars. Lovell speculated that a sophisticated society was tapping the dwindling water supplies of the Red Planet by directing seasonal water from the polar ice caps.

Lovell made an important contribution to the public imagination.His work inspired H G Wells to write the classic story of alien contact, the War of the Worlds. Since that time numerous authors have explored the issues involved in the quest and discovery of alien civilisations.  Many of their topics deserve consideration because we know so little about exoarchaeology.

What would be the motive driving an alien civiilisation that left artifacts for us to find?

Does a civilisation need to leave its home planet and leave artifacts?

Do civilisations even need to have a physical form at all?

Could an alien civilisation be so advanced that we are already under observation without our knowledge?

What are we to make of folklores and myths that talk of people beyond the stars?

Many exoarchaeologists are content to look for evidence of alien civilisations on Earth. Conceptionally this is one of the easier forms of exoarchaeology and has the potential to reveal astonishing results. Their investigations have led practitioners to study UFO encounters, The alignments of the Pyramids and ancient monuments to the stars on the basis that a superior intelligence must have helped with the design and

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