by D. Vogt

Created on: July 13, 2010   Last Updated: August 07, 2010

Exoarchaeology, also known as xenoarchaeology, is the theoretical study of remains and artifacts left by extraterrestrial civilizations. The field parallels astrobiology (the physical study of alien species). Since no actual extraterrestrial cultures have ever been identified, this field is currently a theoretical one, which can be divided into two broad groups: paranormal researchers who believe they possess evidence of alien intervention in Earth's history (so-called "ancient astronauts"), and scientists and novelists who have speculated about the types of large, noticeable artifacts that an actual alien culture might leave behind for us to find.

Many popular science fiction books and TV shows refer to exoarchaeology as though it will one day become a legitimate field of study. Assuming we ever do encounter other intelligent civilizations, this is no doubt true. In Star Trek, Jean-Luc Picard's much-referred-to hobby in archaeology usually involved alien cultures, and would properly be preferred to as exoarchaeology.

- Theoretical Exoarchaeology -

Unlike Picard, we have no alien artifacts to work with. Instead, exoarchaeology today is a theoretical exercise, an attempt to think about with what sorts of artifacts an alien culture might leave for us to find. For a century, this has involved attempts to identify possible evidence of alien visits to the Moon and Mars, beginning with the infamous mis-labelling of natural features on the Martian surface as artificially constructed "canals." However, what we now know about Mars suggests that an advanced civilization almost certainly never existed there, and certainly does not exist there now. This does not rule out the search for artifacts left by visitors, in either place.

However, the theoretical search for artifacts has always gone much further. If other civilizations do exist, but some of the basic laws of the universe are as unbreakable as we think, then it will always be tremendously expensive and time-consuming to travel between the stars. This means that alien civilizations, and perhaps future humans, will not be racing about the galaxy in warp-capable starships, but will instead be content to explore the universe through large numbers of unmanned probes, perhaps sending a bulky colony ship here and there when something sufficiently interesting is uncovered.

Such probes would almost certainly have to harvest raw materials as they went, in order to sustain their very long-term missions, and are therefore known

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