Alien Fossils: Is there something inherently human in Alien?

It was awe inspiring to see this as a kid, but it left you with questions. Was that a cannon? Was he fighting a space battle?

After so many decades I suddenly realized who the alien is meant to be. He's an astronomer and that giant gun is his telescope. Its a crashed ship, so he locked his telescope on his distant homeworld. Its literally a map pointing to an inhabited world that was populated by (and may still be home to) sentient life other than humans.

Perhaps it provides us with a connection with future Alien species beyond the nuke it from orbit philosophy.