Long before UFOs were a modern mystery, the skies of antiquity were already alive with inexplicable lights, flames, and flying shields.
In a startlingly overlooked NASA technical report titled Unidentified Flying Objects in Classical Antiquity, astrophysicist Richard Stothers compiled a rigorous, document-based study of aerial phenomena recorded across thousands of years of ancient history.
These weren’t vague legends. They were recorded by reputable Roman historians, statesmen, and even early scientists-treating them not as superstition, but serious celestial events.
“What we now call UFOs have been manifesting in the same basic forms since humans began keeping written records.”
🏛️ Sources from Classical Literature
Stothers’ study focuses on meticulously documented events from sources such as:
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Livy’s History of Rome
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Plutarch’s Lives
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Julius Obsequens’ Prodigiorum Liber
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Cassius Dio’s Roman History
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Josephus’ Jewish Wars
These texts describe phenomena that modern observers would call UFOs, but in the language of their time: “shields,” “chariots,” “fiery globes,” and “flying vessels.”
One example: in 100 BCE, in central Italy, a large round object resembling a “globe or round shield” was seen moving across the sky.
The object reportedly sparkled and was witnessed by multiple observers.
⚔️ Flying Shields and Chariots of Fire
The term “flying shield” (clipeus ardens) appears repeatedly in the ancient texts.
These accounts are consistent: silent or noisy objects in the sky, often metallic or fiery, sometimes splitting apart or moving in non-ballistic trajectories.
In 66 CE, over Jerusalem, Josephus writes that “chariots and troops of soldiers in their armor were seen running about among the clouds.”
This occurred during daylight, was witnessed by many, and is framed in the context of war-interpreted by many at the time as a divine omen.
“Aerial phenomena described in antiquity are consistent with many modern UFO reports in form, behavior, and witness response.”
🔭 Scientific Approach to Ancient Anomalies
Rather than approaching these stories as myth or exaggeration, Stothers treats them as observational data.
He filters the accounts for astronomical plausibility, weather anomalies, and narrative consistency, eliminating natural explanations like meteors or comets for many of the sightings.
He argues that while some cases can be chalked up to atmospheric phenomena or celestial events, others defy all known explanations-even with modern understanding.
🕰️ Echoes of the Modern Phenomenon
What’s most compelling about the report is the eerie resemblance between ancient accounts and modern sightings:
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Descriptions of metallic craft with reflective surfaces
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Reports of luminous spheres moving against the wind
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Accounts of objects that hover, then accelerate rapidly
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Repeated interpretations as omens, even when described neutrally
This continuity across centuries suggests something persistent-not just in human psychology, but potentially in the phenomenon itself.
📚 A Forgotten NASA Document
Stothers’ paper was quietly published through NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, with little fanfare.
It remains one of the most rigorously sourced analyses of pre-modern UFO accounts ever written. Yet, it’s virtually unknown in public discourse.
There’s no claim of alien contact or definitive conclusions.
But the report shows one thing clearly: unexplained aerial events are not a modern invention.
They’ve been with us as long as we’ve had the capacity to record the sky.
