A Facebook user published a photograph of a reported “three-thousand-year-old statue unearthed in Cappadocia” on April 26, 2021, in a post that consisted of an image and words — but no further details.
Two captions, one in Portuguese and one in English, would appear on Facebook accounts set to English by default:
A three-thousand-year-old statue was discovered at Capadócia.
In Cappadocia, a three-thousand-year-old statue was discovered
The picture was posted to Reddit’s r/Incredibly on May 7, 2021. The same image and language did not include any supporting material, much like the Facebook version:
The picture was shared to r/interesting by the same account:
Top commenters on the story were suspicious of the claim as provided, speculating that the image had been changed to prevent reverse image searches from revealing what the snapshot truly showed:
“Cool… Do you want to contribute an article? Do you require any other information? Is there any proof that this isn’t nonsense? Because Google returns nothing and the image appears to have been slightly rotated, you can’t imagine doing a reverse search.”
“Based on the quality of this figure, I would declare 100 percent phony before checking into it.” It’s in too nice of shape to be that ancient. After investigating this allegation with no proof and debunking similar claims of bicycles and astronaut statues on antique temples, my beginner opinion would be: false. It is, nonetheless, a cool-looking statue, if not very ancient.”
“sus”
The image was widely circulated, and it conjured up images of “ancient astronauts,” a concept that straddles the line between conjecture and pseudoscience (at least according to Wikipedia, where all conspiracy theories ultimately end up as entries):
The belief that intelligent extraterrestrial creatures visited Earth and established contact with humanity in antiquity and prehistoric times is referred to as “ancient astronauts” (or “ancient aliens”). It is sometimes portrayed in a pseudoscientific manner. According to proponents, this encounter impacted the formation of contemporary civilizations, technology, religions, and human biology. Most, if not all, religions’ gods are extraterrestrial in origin, according to popular belief, and superior technology delivered to Earth by ancient aliens was perceived as proof of divine status by early humans.
Most academics dismiss the existence of ancient astronauts, and peer-reviewed research has found no evidence of their existence. When proponents of a concept submit evidence supporting their ideas, it is sometimes skewed or made up. Erich von Däniken, Zecharia Sitchin, Robert K. G. Temple, Giorgio A. Tsoukalos, and David Hatcher Childress are well-known proponents from the latter part of the twentieth century who have produced multiple books or often appear in the media.