Okay, get out your tinfoil hats, it’s time to talk about aliens.

No, I’m not talking about illegal immigrants, but the green googly-eyed creatures that fly around in UFOs and hail from outer space type.

Aliens seem to be ingrained in the human psyche—either by way of true belief they do exist or for entertainment purposes.

There are a number of television shows and movies devoted to the topic of aliens like “V,” “The X-Files,” “E.T.” and who could forget the dreaded “Alien Autopsy” that aired on Fox a decade or so ago.

Then of course there are the documentary-style shows that delve into the investigations of UFOs, crop circles and “first-hand” alien encounters.

I happen to come upon a show such as this a couple of weeks ago on—of all channels—the History Channel.

The channel features a show called “Ancient Aliens,” which profiles theorists that believe extraterrestrials with superior knowledge of science and engineering landed on Earth thousands of years ago, sharing their expertise with early civilizations.

The ancient alien theorists utilize two sources to solidify their thought processes, including religious texts and structural marvels such as the Egyptian pyramids and the ruins on Easter Island.

In Peru, there is a place called the Nazca Desert and it is home to one of the most mysterious designs perhaps on Earth.

The Nazca Lines are a group of geoglyphs that stretch 50 miles long. Some of the lines are perfectly straight, while others meander and connect into large scale images, including monkeys, hummingbirds, spiders and humans.

While archeologists and scholars theorize that the people of the Nasca Culture (those who lived in that area between the 1st and 8th centuries AD) created the lines using simple tools and surveying equipment, ancient alien theorists believe it was those from other worlds that assisted the Nasca people in mapping out the lines.

Unfortunately, the Nazca Lines, along with the great pyramids and even the Book of Ezekiel, are on the lists of ancient alien theorists as hard evidence of alien contact with early inhabitants and cultures.

After watching the program, my conclusion was that it all was a little bit of a stretch. Why was is it so hard for some to believe ancient indigenous people created well uniformed civilizations, documents and structures that could last for a millennia?

There seems to be this rampant idea among these theorists that just because these people didn’t have earthmovers, saws, levels and hardhats they couldn’t put two stones together.

It’s very prejudicial to think of these ancient cultures as primeval and dim when they created some of the most wondrous structures on Earth.

As we learn more and more about ancient civilizations from around the world, it has become apparent that people from thousands of years ago knew their “stuff,” including math, astrology, science, religion, law, agriculture and language. These ancient cultures were far more complex than meets the eye and just because we don’t know their secrets does mean it they were alien accomplices.

So, until a little green Martian lands his UFO in the middle of Times Square and takes credit for building all of the ancient structures and writing the earliest human texts, I’m sticking with my theory—the human one.

Amanda VanDerBroek is a Staff Writer for the Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald. For comments and column suggestions email: amanda.vanderbroek@r-cnews.com or call (252) 332-7209.