This is gonna be a real debate clash because there's people that don't believe in it, and people that do believe, and the ones that won't believe until they actually see it.
The only things that influence my viewpoint is the history of UFO's and the timeline that they were reported in. It isn't just limited to the 20th century 1900+ and beyond. I recall reading some old books WITH credible painting by early AD authors and painters who would recall about strange lights and objects taking off super fast back like we're talking 1400 AD. Roswell aside, let's take a dive into it and see:
Let me see if I can find a few.
Here you go, off wikipedia (note, not all sources cited here should be credited, but I believe the following info is accurate enough to denote the fact that UFOs have been around for quite some time).
"The Baptism of Christ", 1710, by Aert de Gelder. Proponents say this painting depicts UFOs.
On April 14, 1561 the skies over Nuremberg, Germany were reportedly filled with a multitude of objects. Woodcut from 1566 by Hans Glaser.
Drawing of E. W. Maunder's November 17, 1882 "auroral beam" by astronomer Rand Capron, Guildown Observatory, Surrey, UK, who also observed it.
This cave painting is c.10,000 BC and is from Val Camonica, Italy.
It appears to depict two beings in protective suits holding strange implements.
Petroglyphs dating back thousands of years ago by ancient Indians in the American Southwest. According to Indian folklore, two objects collided high in the sky and one crash-landed in the region of Death Valley. Some men arrived (presumably in another ship) and spent some time repairing the damaged craft and were observed by the local Indians. The two images below may possibly depict the ship (left) used by the men who came to repair the damaged craft. In comparing the two images, the one on the right seems to depict structural damage around the edges and the bottom. Could it be the one that allegedly crashed? The images are stills taken from an old TV series entitled "In search of..." hosted by Leonard Nimoy.
Two cave paintings from Tanzania. Both are estimated to be up to 29,000 years old. The one on the left is located in Itolo and depicts several disc shaped objects. The other painting is from Kolo shows four entities surrounding a women. Notice also the entity looking down from inside some sort of box or object.
This is an old Chinese illustration from a fictional book entitled "Illustrated Survey of Weird Countries" (c.1400 A.D.) and had the following original caption: "Ji Gung Land: The people could make flying cars that travelled far with a suitable wind. In Tarng's day (c.1700 B.C.), Ji Gung people flying a car on a westerley reached Yew Jo. Tarng dismantled their car so it could not be demonstrated to the people ... Later an east wind came on which he had them fly the car back to their own country [5,000 km] west of our gateway."
Illustration depicting a sighting of a burning wheel in the year 900 over Japan.
This is a tapestry called Summer's Triumph It was created in Bruges in 1538 and presently resides at the Bayerisches National Museum. You can clearly see several disc shaped objects in the top of the tapestry.
A fourteenth century fresco of the Madonna and Child depict on the top right side the image of a UFO hovering in the distance. A blow up of this fresco reveals tremendous details about this UFO including port holes. It seems to indicate a religious involvement between UFO's and the appearance of the Christ Child.
My note: The current Original painting is in the "Loeser Collection" in italy.
This painting is called "The Madonna with Saint Giovannino". It was painted in the 15th century by Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449-1494) and hangs as part of the Loeser collection in the Palazzo Vecchio. Above Mary's right shoulder is a disk shaped object. Below is a blow up of this section and a man and his dog can clearly be seen looking up at the object.
The painting above was done by Carlo Crivelli (1430-1495) and is called "The Annunciation with Saint Emidius" (1486) and hangs in the National Gallery, London. A disk shaped object is shining a pencil beam of light down into Mary's crown chakra. A blow up of the object is next to the painting.
With these few examples above, note that this isn't all the collection of UFOs in ancient history.. We can assume, fast and quick flying objects should not have been available as early as those times. Therefore, how did they get there?
Looking at wikipedia - CLAIMS, note CLAIMS of the first seen flying man-made objects:
First flying machine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
11th entry, most realistic:
Pilâtre de Rozier, Paris, France, first trip by a human in a free-flying balloon (the Montgolfière). 9 km covered in 25 minutes. October 15, 1783
We all know that the first "real" airplane was made by the Wright Brothers during the 1900s. Early stages of their flight models were depicted by glider type aircrafts, NOT round things.
There are only 3 grand logical assumptions we can draw:
1. The artists have lied or these were imaginary (albeit kind of doesn't make sense, due to the fact that we have MANY many early paintings depicting UFOs pre-Wright Brothers)
2. The artists have actually seen them
2a. The artists mistook it for something else
2b. The artists were under the effect of drugs
2c. The artists were influenced by something else to draw them
3. These paintings are fake
(4.) Someone took a time machine back from the future and did these to these guys.
I find it hard to argue with
Logical Reasoning, which is my approach to the whole UFO situation. If A occurred, then B and C have to occur subsequently otherwise it doesn't make sense how A got to C in the first place. I have my thoughts and doubts that some of the incidents out there today are hoaxes, but not all.
If enough supporting evidence in the past suggests that UFO's exist, then why can today's evidence be shunned?
So, what's everyone's take now?