HOAX / FAKEBEINGS · PAINTINGS & MANUSCRIPTS
The Fergana 'Cosmonaut'
Drawn 1967 · Claimed: Fergana · Uzbekistan
NO FREE IMAGE · EXAMINE IT AT THE SOURCE
OPEN THE SOURCE ↗WHAT IT IS
A helmeted figure with breathing gear and a disc, sold for fifty years as a prehistoric cave painting from Uzbekistan. It was drawn for a magazine in 1967.
THE ALIEN READING
Erich von Däniken used it in Gold of the Gods and his films as a prehistoric rock painting of an astronaut.
WHAT THE RECORD SAYS
It is an illustration commissioned for a 1967 Sputnik article. The magazine printed a correction in its next issue, the artwork is signed, and an unfinished draft survives (Didier Leroux; Jason Colavito). Von Däniken's version is cropped and flipped.
WHERE IT STANDS
Hoax / fake. A fake: made, altered or misdated to look like an ancient record of visitors.
STATUS IS OUR CURRENT ASSESSMENT, NOT A VERDICT · REVIEWED 3 OCT 2026
THE RECORD
- DATE
- Drawn 1967
- PLACE
- Claimed: Fergana · Uzbekistan
- MADE BY
- Soviet magazine illustrator
- MEDIUM
- Paintings
- TECHNICAL
- Modern illustration, 1967 · no free image: the original is still under copyright
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FOLIO 27 · HOAX / FAKE
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FOLIO 01 · EXPLAINED
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FOLIO 02 · EXPLAINED
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FOLIO 03 · EXPLAINED
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FOLIO 04 · EXPLAINED
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