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In the Biblical Old Testament, chapter 1 of the Book of Ezekiel recounts a vision in which Ezekiel sees “an immense cloud” that contains fire and emits lightning and “brilliant light”. It continues: “The center of the fire looked like glowing metal, and in the fire was what looked like four living creatures”. These creatures are described as winged and humanoid, they “sped back and forth like flashes of lightning” and “fire moved back and forth among the creatures”. The passage goes on to describe four shiny objects, each appearing “like a wheel intersecting a wheel”. These objects could fly and they moved with the creatures: “When the living creatures moved, the wheels beside them moved; and when the living creatures rose from the ground, the wheels also rose”.

In chapter 4 of Chariots of the Gods?, entitled “Was God an Astronaut?”, von Däniken suggests that Ezekiel had seen a spaceship or spaceships; this hypothesis had been put forward by Morris Jessup in 1956 and by Arthur W. Orton in 1961. A detailed version of this hypothesis was described by Josef F. Blumrich in his book The Spaceships of Ezekiel (1974)

The characteristics of the Ark of the Covenant and the Urim and Thummim have been said to suggest high technology, perhaps from alien origins.

Robert Dione and Paul Misraki published books in the 1960s claiming the events in the Bible were caused by alien technology. Barry Downing, a Presbyterian minister wrote a book in 1968 claiming that Jesus was an extraterrestrial, citing (John 8: 23) and other biblical verses as evidence.

Some ancient astronaut proponents such as Von Däniken and Barry Downing believe that the concept of hell in the Bible could be a real description of the planet Venus brought to earth by extraterrestrials showing photos of the hot surface on Venus to humans.

Other artistic support for the ancient astronaut theory has been sought in Palaeolithic cave paintings. Wondjina in Australia and Val Camonica in Italy (seen above) are claimed to bear a resemblance to present day astronauts.
Supporters of the ancient astronaut theory sometimes claim that similarities such as dome shaped heads, interpreted as beings wearing space helmets, prove that early man was visited by an extraterrestrial race.

More support of this theory draws upon what are claimed to be representations of flying saucers in medieval and renaissance art.
This is used to support the ancient astronaut theory by attempting to show that the creators of humanity return to check up on their creation throughout time.

The ancient Nazca Lines comprise hundreds of enormous ground drawings etched into the high desert landscape of Peru, which consist primarily of geometric shapes, but also include depictions of a variety of animals and at least one human figure. Many believers in ancient astronauts cite the Nazca lines as evidence because the figures created by the lines are most clearly depicted or only able to be seen when viewed from the air. Writing professor Joe Nickell of the University of Kentucky, using only technology he believed to be available to people of the time, was able to recreate one of the larger figures with a reasonable degree of accuracy.