Case file · Non-fiction & research literature
Vallée & Aubeck, 'Wonders in the Sky'
Jacques Vallée and Chris Aubeck's catalogue of unexplained aerial events from antiquity to the late nineteenth century.
2010 CE · 37.45, -122.18 · status: account
The account
The authors compiled historical reports of aerial wonders and tried to trace each to its earliest source, explicitly flagging hoaxes, misquotations and natural explanations. It is valued as a sourcing tool because it shows how many 'ancient UFO' stories collapse when checked, while a residue stays strange.
The sceptical view
Old reports were written within religious and omen-reading frameworks, so many are best understood as meteors, comets, auroras or parhelia described in the language of their time.