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Mythological griffins (vultures) are winged monsters with a lion's body and an eagle's head. Their other kind has the head of a lion and the body of a snake. According to legends, these monsters often attacked people and could easily carry off an adult in their claws. Drawings of griffins and other flying creatures are found on artifacts dating from the 7th millennium BC. e. There are often images of scenes of battles between griffins and humans. The Persian texts of Zend-Avesta mention a mysterious monster who guarded the Golden Mountain and served the gods as a watchman. On the wall of one of the premises of the ancient palace of Knossos, located in the northern part of the island of Crete, there are griffin guards guarding the throne of King Minos.
Perhaps the aliens used griffins as guard dogs or guards for human slaves. It was almost impossible to hide from such bloodhounds, observing the surroundings from a bird's eye view.
During archaeological excavations in Turkey, one of the most ancient cities on our planet was discovered - the settlement of Chatal-Huyuk, in which temples-sanctuaries, built 6 thousand years before the birth of Christ, have been preserved. On the walls of houses there are images of flying monsters chasing people. It is noteworthy that people are drawn either without heads or clutched in the claws of these monsters. Probably, the frescoes reflect real events that took place in time immemorial.
The ancient tribes that inhabited Asia Minor and Palestine 6-7 thousand years ago had a strange custom of burying their dead without a head. In the city of Jericho, archaeologists discovered graves in which the skeletons of people were preserved, but there were no skulls. Scientists also found separately buried heads, covered with a layer of plaster. At the same time, the number of bodies of the deceased did not correspond to the number of skulls - the latter were clearly fewer. For what purpose such a burial ceremony was performed and why the heads of people were disguised under a layer of plaster is unknown.
In the Krasnoyarsk Territory and Khakassia, during the excavation of the burial grounds of the Afanasyev and Okunev cultures, archaeologists in a number of cases also did not find human skulls. In the burials of the Indians of Peru (the Nazca desert and the Chavigna area), scientists sometimes find decapitated bodies, where instead of a head, an ordinary pumpkin in a turban is attached to the skeleton.
Judging by the few drawings that have survived to our time, griffins were clearly not indifferent to human heads: either human brains were a tidbit for flying monsters, or head vivisection was performed for some other need. To save the heads of the dead from the encroachments of terrible monsters, relatives coated their skulls with a special compound and buried them separately from the bodies. In the settlement of Chatal-Huyuk, men were buried right under the floor of the houses.
Legends about griffins have survived to our time. Medieval artists and sculptors quite often depicted these monsters on the walls of castles, churches, and heraldic signs. On the capital of the Church of Saint-Pierre in Chauvigny there is a relief on which a monster with the head of a lion and the body of a snake bites off a man's head. In terms of the plot, it is very close to the ancient frescoes of Chatal-Huyuk.
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Herodotus in the 5th century BC e. wrote about the constant wars between winged monsters and Arimasp. From his narration it follows that in time immemorial, both those and others really existed on our planet:
Aristeus, the son of Caistrobius, a husband from Proconnes, [3] said in his poems that, possessed by Phoebus, he reached the Issedons, and that one-eyed men live above the Issedons - the Arimasps, and above these - Hyperboreans, reaching the sea. Except for the Hyperboreans, all these tribes, starting with the Arimaspians, have always attacked their neighbors. And just as the Issedons are driven out of the country by the Arimasps, the Scythians are by the Issedons.
The Roman writer and scientist Pliny the Elder in Natural History referred to the mysterious monsters with the body of a lion, long ears and a curved beak as real creatures. He described the gold mines located in the Ural Mountains, because of which vultures are constantly at war with the Arimasp:
Then there are the Ripean mountains and regions, due to the constant snowfalls and the resemblance to feathers, called Feathers. This part of the world, rejected by nature and shrouded in darkness, serves only for the formation of ice and the cold abode of the northeastern wind … Not far from the place of origin of Aquilon and … a cave called Hekmitron (that is, "earthly door", or "earthly constipation"), the already mentioned Arimasps live with one eye in the middle of the forehead; they seem to be constantly at war because of mines with vultures, which legend represents in the form of winged animals digging gold in underground mines, and the animals take gold with amazing greed, and the Arimasps kidnap; many wrote about this, especially Herodotus and Aristeus of Prokoness.
In the VIII-III centuries BC. e. in the basins of the Kama and Volga rivers, there was a mysterious Ananyino culture, named after the toponym of the village of Ananyino in Tatarstan, where the first unusual artifacts were found. In the Kama region (Perm region), during the excavation of an ancient settlement, archaeologists discovered numerous bronze objects with images of bird-winged people. One of the creatures has three heads, and each has a third eye. Perhaps this is exactly what the Arimasps looked like. Archaeologists have found similar images and statues in the Krasnoyarsk Territory.
In the ancient Peruvian city of Chavin, archaeologist Julio Cesar Tello discovered strange human heads made of stone that adorned the walls of the main sanctuary. In 1620, the Spaniard Antonio Vasquez de Espinosa, in his work "The Sum and Description of the Western Indies", wrote about Chavin and its ruins:
In this village … there is a large building made of hewn stone … This is the most famous sanctuary, which is venerated in the same way as we venerate Rome or Jerusalem; the Indians gathered here to make their sacrifices, because the devil of this place explained to them many signs, and they converged from all over the empire …
On the forehead of the stone "devil" was a vertically positioned third eye.
One of the greatest scientists of the early Middle Ages, Bishop Isidore of Seville, mentioned the vulture in his writings and called it a previously living but extinct creature. The Englishman John Mandeville, during his travels in Bactrian (a country located in the Amu Darya region and partly on the territory of modern Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan), wrote about vultures:
… monsters with the front part like an eagle, and the back like a lion; the strength of the bar is equal to the strength of a hundred eagles.
The Bactrians were afraid of vultures and believed that they were able to carry a horse along with a rider. Sometimes people managed to kill the vulture. Mandeville saw bows made from the ribs of this monster.
At 40 kilometers from Bukhara (Uzbekistan), archaeologists uncovered a ten-meter cultural layer above the ancient settlement of the Sogdians. The settlement of Varakhsha arose in the antique period and reached its heyday in the 7th – 8th centuries AD. e., having existed until the XI century. In the southern part of the settlement, the high walls of the citadel and the mud-brick palace rise. The walls of some halls of the palace are covered with paintings depicting scenes of battles, hunting, etc. The multicolored images of the battle of kings and heroes sitting on elephants with yellow and white griffins are especially interesting.
It should be noted that various peoples living in regions of the world remote from each other depicted griffins in almost the same way.
The Roman poet Virgil wrote about an even more fantastic animal - the hippogriff, which was a cross between a horse and a vulture:
Not a ghostly horse under a magician - a mare
Born into the world, his father was a vulture.
In his father he was a wide-winged bird, He is like a father and, like that, zealous.
Among the rock carvings found on the eastern bank of the Jordan (Beth El), there are images of hippogryphs. One of them is harnessed to a chariot, the other is being led on a bit.
In 1939, during excavation work in the gorge of the Kargala River near the city of Alma-Ata (Kazakhstan), the burial of a shaman woman (Kargalinsky treasure) was found, which contained about 300 gold objects: rings, earrings, relief plaques, etc. The most interesting find is a diadem in the form of an openwork rectangular plate with the image of a winged horse and rider. It is possible that hippogriffs were used by aliens and humans as vehicles. According to ancient legends, these horse-bird hybrids were intelligent enough, but could not fly.
In addition to the various flying monsters mentioned in the legends, there is also information about the "bird-men" who usually fly at night. Petroglyphs depicting people with wings are preserved on the walls of caves, rocks and ceramics of the Neolithic era. During excavations of an ancient burial ground in the Chaaptykovo ulus (Krasnoyarsk Territory), the archaeologist A. N. Lipsky discovered mysterious drawings of bird-headed creatures. The image of goddesses with bird heads [4] was found in Jabaren (Tassili, Algeria).
In the megalithic tomb of Icebister (England), built in 3150 BC. e., five burial chambers have been excavated. The bones of 342 people were found in the main chamber. In the same place, in addition to burial offerings, there were the skeletons of at least eight huge birds (the birds did not have their heads). Archaeologists have suggested that these are the remains of extinct sea eagles. Another version is also possible - these are the bones of birdmen.
Mention of half-women, half-birds can be found in the earliest Greek myths. The wind-wielding harpies populated the coast of the Mediterranean island of Crete, dwelling in caves along with other monsters. In search of food, they left their nests and attacked nearby settlements. The terrible, fetid winged maidens personified the approaching disaster, they left devastation behind them, since from birth they were punished by eternal hunger. Fast as the wind, the harpies swooped in suddenly and swiftly, kidnapping children and breaking people's lives.
There is another kind of winged women in Greek mythology. The sirens lured sailors with their singing, directing their ships to the island rocks. On ancient vases and in Pompeian wall paintings, they were usually depicted as women with bird paws and wings, and sometimes with a fish tail. Sirens are mentioned in Homer's Odyssey. Odysseus escaped death thanks to Kirk's warning. He covered the ears of his companions with wax, and ordered himself to be tied to the mast. Apollonius of Rhodes described the sirens as seductive beauties with enchanting voices. With the sound of songs they put travelers to sleep, and then tore them apart and devoured them.
Birds are also mentioned in Slavic legends. Alkonost and Sirin were usually represented as birds with a female head and a beautiful face. They were sometimes depicted with wings, but with human hands, body and face of a woman. According to legends, they lived across the sea, and there they bred their chicks. It was believed that the Alkonost laid their eggs on the seashore and, plunging them into the depths of the waters, made the sea calm for seven days until the chicks hatch. Therefore, he was often credited with the ability to control wind and weather. Legends about the wonderful voice of the Alkonost and Sirin were widely spread. It was believed that the singing of these birds is so beautiful that it can bewitch a person and make him forget about everything in the world. Some beliefs called Alkonost a bird of joy, and Sirina - a bird of sorrow.
Images and figurines of winged people have been found in Iran as well.
Flying creatures existed not only in the distant past, there are numerous eyewitness accounts of the observation of "bird-people" in our time.
On September 18, 1887, a human-like creature with wings was observed in the sky over Brooklyn. Three years later, in the Coney Island area, several people witnessed an unusual incident:
… a man with bat wings and frog legs … He was flying at least 1000 feet in the sky towards the New Jersey coast … his face was fierce and determined.
The famous researcher of the Far East V. K. Arseniev describes an incident that happened to him in the Sikhote-Alin mountains on July 11, 1908:
The rain stopped, the air temperature remained low, and fog appeared over the water. Suddenly I noticed a strange footprint on the path, similar to a human footprint. My dog Alpha bristled and growled, and then I heard someone pushing their way, stomping heavily, through the bushes growing along the road. However, this creature did not run away, but stopped nearby, holding its breath. So we stood for several minutes … Then I bent down, picked up a stone and threw it at an unknown animal. And then something happened that I had never expected: I heard the sound of wings. From the fog something large and dark rose and flew over the river. Soon the creature disappeared into the thick fog. My dog, not a little scared, huddled at my feet. After supper, I told my Udege guides what had happened. They immediately told me an incredible story about a man,which supposedly can fly. According to them, hunters often come across his tracks - they appear in the most unexpected places and just as abruptly break off, as if a person who was just on the ground took off into the air.
In 1952, US Air Force Private Sinclair Taylor, while guarding a military facility near Kyoto, Japan, heard a loud clapping noise. Looking up, he saw a huge "bird" in the moonlight:
This creature, which began to slowly descend, had a human body. He was over seven feet tall, and his wingspan was nearly equal to his height. I opened fire and shot at him until I ran out of cartridges. The creature fell to the ground. But when I approached the place where it fell, I did not find anyone there.
The chief of the guard, who arrived at the scene, listened to Taylor's story and said that he believed him: a year ago, another sentry saw the same creature.
Ufologist Don Wortley recorded a similar story he heard from Earl Morrison, who served in Da Nang in Vietnam in 1969. Around 1 am Morrison and two of his colleagues were sitting in the bunker and talking when they saw something in the sky approaching them:
At first we noticed the wings resembling those of a bat, only much larger - they were just gigantic. When the creature flew closer, we saw that it looked like a woman. A naked woman. She was black. Her skin, body, wings - everything was black. But she was glowing. A strange greenish glow emanated from her in the darkness. She was already almost above us, but we did not hear any sounds. As she flew over our heads, we noted that she was about 6 feet tall. We looked at her, and she soared in the sky directly above us, completely silent, we did not hear the flapping of her wings. Once she even blocked the moon - that's how close she was. It became dark, even though the eyes were gouged out, but we still saw her - after all, her body was glowing quite brightly. And then she flew towards the camp. When she was already at a decent distance from us,we suddenly heard the flapping of her wings. You know, the most common wing noise. So she flew away, and we looked after her for a long time.
In November 1966, a winged creature without a neck and with eyes glowing in the dark was seen by about a hundred eyewitnesses in Scandinavia, England and the United States.
President of the Association of Ufologists A. Rempel in 1997 gave interesting information about flying creatures:
… And here is what Yong Wang Shan, whom many hunters and ethnographers know in the Primorsky Territory, said: “We call this creature a flying man, and the indigenous people call it a devil. It lives in the area of the Pidan and Oblachnaya mountains and the surrounding area. He was especially often seen in the 1930-1940s and in the 1980-1990s.
The hunter A. I. Kurentsov met the mysterious monster face to face. At night, he woke up feeling that he was being watched, and soon there was a feeling of fear, even panic. Suddenly, with a peripheral vision, the hunter saw something huge and dark rapidly falling onto the fire. To avoid a collision, Kurentsov fell over onto his back. It turned out that a man flew over him, almost touching the ground. Kurentsov noticed webbed wings like those of a bat. The hunter quickly jumped up and hid behind the trunk of a nearby tree, from where he did not leave until dawn.
Inessa Grigorieva saw a bird-man in January 1997 in the village of Anisimovka:
Walking with the dog on the outskirts of the village, I noticed a large bird flying in my direction. I looked closely, trying to determine what it was, and was dumbfounded. I saw two human-like legs hanging down. The wings were motionless, the monster moved silently, it had a clearly human face …
Numerous petroglyphs, drawings, reliefs and figurines depicting winged creatures have survived from time immemorial. Descriptions of flying monsters are found in the myths and legends of various ancient peoples. The modern evidence of bird-man observations is also quite numerous. Perhaps winged creatures existed on Earth in the distant past and continue to appear occasionally to this day.
"Extraterrestrial footprint in the history of mankind", Vitaly Simonov
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