8.12.5. CIVILIZATION

1. MANDELKEHR; BRONZE (AGE)
2. ROHL "FIRST INTERMEDIATE" [EGYPT]
3. NOTES
4. HOMER'S ILIAD & ODYSSEY
5. OLDEST CEMETERIES


MOE MANDELKEHR'S CATASTROPHIST MODEL (Bronze Age)

Moe Mandelkehr did several papers that are viewable at Catastrophism.com. His model says cataclysms occurred ca. 2300 BC when Earth encountered the Taurid Meteor Stream. Here are some highlights.

__[[ARCHEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE]]
An Integrated Model for an Earthwide Event at 2300 BC. Part II: The Climatological Evidence [SIS C&C Review]
_From: SIS Chronology & Catastrophism Review 1987
_This article is the second in a series presenting evidence for a possible earthwide event at 2300 BC. The first article covering the archaeological evidence presented strong indications of site destructions widespread around the globe as well as migrations [1. The climatological evidence in this article shows very distinct climatic changes at that time which could have been a major stimulus for the migrations. Furthermore, the climatic changes were most likely to have been brought about by a global temperature drop which has also been established at about 2300 BC. ... The climatic change which took place around 2300 BC is clearly discernible; it took the form of a global cooling, with substantial trends toward either increased wetness or dryness in all regions of the Earth.

__[[CLIMATE CHANGE]]
The Causal Source for the Climatic Changes at 2300 BC [SIS C&C Review]
_From: SIS Chronology & Catastrophism Review 1999:1 (Jul 1999)
_A number of years ago, I wrote three articles on cultural discontinuities, climatic changes and geological transients - all occurring at about 2300BC [1.
_The primary causal factor for the overall event was the widespread and dramatic climatic changes arising from an abrupt cooling of the Earth. This caused a significant synchronous glacial buildup in both Polar and sub-Polar regions. The increased loading on the land areas and decreased loading in ocean areas (due to water taken by the glaciers) resulted in global crustal stress, leading to earthquakes and crustal deformation. Cultures in all geographical regions were affected by these climatic and geological disturbances. In the areas of the most advanced cultures, climate deterioration brought about survival hardships. The disastrous earthquakes brought about by crustal stress caused large-scale site abandonments but the climatic effects were the dominant influence on people. This paper covers the climatic changes, the global cooling causing the climatic changes and the proposed causal source for the global cooling.
__[[COMMENT: I mentioned lately that the book Homer in the Baltic showed that the Greek and Trojan War occurred in Finland and the people who fought in it came from the area around the Baltic Sea. The book said that climate change forced many of the people to migrate to the Mediterranean area.]]

__[[CATACLYSMS]]
The Causal Source for the Geological Transients at 2300BC [SIS C&C Review]
_From: SIS Chronology& Catastrophism Review 1999:1 (Jul 1999)
_A large body of evidence testifies to the occurrence of a sizeable geological disturbance at about 2300BC. This took the form of crustal movements, sea level changes, earthquakes and geomagnetic transient phenomena. My previous article attempted to develop a causal source for the climatic changes; the intent of this article is to do the same for the geological disturbances.
__[[METEOROID STREAM]]
_My premise is that the event at 2300 BC was caused by the Earth's encounter with a massive meteoroid stream. ... Meteoroids originating from comets are ... fragile and either burn up or fragment in the atmosphere. [[Actually, comets that have been studied up close were found to be rock solid, maybe with some dust.]] Experience has shown that very few cometary meteoroids ever arrive at the Earth's surface. Almost all craters on the Earth are made by asteroidal meteoroids that are iron or rocky-iron in composition, mainly associated with asteroids. Very simply, the most likely scenario is that the geological effects were due to an understandable geological event - the growth of glaciers resulting from the general Earth cooling. The glacial growth took water out of the ocean areas, causing an essentially synchronous drop in sea level around the Earth. The glacial crustal loading on land areas and the corresponding decreased loading in the water areas resulted in crustal warping in many regions and widespread earthquakes.
__[[COMMENT: A Saturn Flare seems likely to have formed the Taurid Meteor Stream and other meteor streams.]]
__[[GLACIATION]]
_The time around 2000 BC has actually been marked as a phase of renewed glacial activity and, as mentioned in my previous article, was designated as a 'little ice age' by Matthis [3. The glacial advances on the North American continent are consistent with the colder, moister conditions that have been reported as beginning then in that area. ... Rothlisberger has recently published an authoritative book on glacial activity over the last 10,000 years [15, a compendium of worldwide glacier measurements. He shows an essentially simultaneous glacial buildup starting at about 2300BC for all areas - Alaska/Yukon, Scandinavia, the Alps, Himalayas, Tropics (South America), southern South America and New Zealand [16. Glacial advances, of course, occurred before that time but he designates the time around 2300BC as an important glacial event.
__[[COMMENT: The North American Ice Sheet seems to have existed during the Golden Age, after the Great Flood and before the Younger Dryas event. That ice sheet likely only affected southern Canada and northern U.S. plus part of the north Atlantic and the Arctic Oceans, the locations according to Cardona.]]
__[[SEA LEVEL CHANGES]]
_The sea level changes at 2300 BC provide beautiful support for the reported glacial growths. They simply occurred as a result of water being taken out of the ocean areas by the glaciers. ... At about 2300 BC, the rate of sea level rise decreased along the coasts of all land areas- North and South America, Scandinavia, Europe, the Middle East, China and the Far East, Africa, Australia and New Zealand and the islands of the Pacific Ocean. ... According to McLean and Woodroffe, 'throughout Pacific atolls, there is evidence to indicate that reefs on many atolls were at or above present level 4500-4000 years BP'.
__[[CRUSTAL MOVEMENTS]]
_(P)late tectonics ... succeeds in explaining a large number of observations in relatively simple terms. Vertical movements can respond quickly (within years) to geological forces. ... Large subsidence rates have been detected in regions where water reservoirs have been constructed- 20mm/year or more is not uncommon. On the other hand, where gas or water pumping has occurred, reducing geographical loading, uplift rates are 50-100mm/year in some areas [25. Vertical movements responding to recent construction and pumping activity show the rapidity with which this phenomenon occurs. Movements can also vary greatly over even short distances: in Israel recently, measured movements were 5-10mm/year in the north, 10mm/year in the south and 25 mm/year on the coastal plain [26. A large number of crustal movements started around 2300BC, as summarised in Table 3. In a number of cases, they caused cultural migrations and discontinuities, when rivers changed course and settlements had to be abandoned. The crustal movements contributed to the overall trauma at this time. The dates clearly cluster around 2300BC. A question arises as to the degree of clustering around 2300BC. The answer lies in the fact that glaciers are located in many places on the Earth; furthermore, water taken from the oceans would also cause crustal vertical movements to occur in many oceanic areas. Changing climatic conditions would also affect lake levels. Uplifts and subsidences could then have started essentially simultaneously at 2300BC on a global basis with the beginning of the glacial growth. Stresses would then be extended throughout the asthenosphere as material was redistributed in the shallow layer. The effect on the crustal plates of stress change from the asthenospheric adjustment flow was probably severe. Crustal plates normally exist in high stress boundary conditions with other plates; they can be triggered by small stress changes. When this occurs, the plates move, vertically and/or laterally with respect to each other, to a lower stress condition. During an earthquake, vertical movements of 10-15 metres can occur suddenly, at rates of metres per second. In many cases, when this happens, each plate remains in an uplifted, subsided, or tilted position relative to its previous position [27.
__[[EARTHQUAKES]]
_A prominent aspect of the 2300BC event was widespread site destruction and abandonment throughout the regions of advanced civilisations. At many sites, destruction by earthquake was not recognised by the excavators, because of the difficulty of obtaining evidence. ... Schaeffer is prominent in reporting earthquake destruction [28. An obvious reason for this is that he was interested in a pattern comprising earthquake activity. ... Because of the Moon's eccentricity of 0.055, its distances from the Earth at apogee and perigee are about 407,000 and 357,000km respectively. The gravitational force at perigee is then 30% higher at perigee than at apogee. Tamrazyan analysed hundreds of earthquakes in Transcaucasia between 1917 and 1950 and found strong earthquake-tidal correlation. The number of earthquakes was strikingly higher at the time of full moon and perigee than at first or last quarter and apogee.
_In view of the widespread earthquake activity, my first reaction was to try to accumulate similar voluminous data on volcanic eruptions. However it wasn't there.
_Notes and References 15. F Rothlisberger, 10000 Jahre Gletschergeschichte der Erde, Verlag Sauerlander, 1986. 16. Ibid.
__[[COMMENT: Mandelkehr's model seems a bit too tame to describe the Younger Dryas event. North America and Siberia were obliterated. Doggerland, between Britain and Europe, was inundated. I have to think about this.]]

__[[GEOMAGNETISM]]
Geomagnetic Effects of an Earthwide Event in 2300 [SIS C&C Review]
From: SIS Chronology& Catastrophism Review 2001:1 (Apr 2001)
_(M)y model is based on the Earth's encounter with a massive meteoroid cloud. This meteoroid cloud produced the atmospheric dust which shielded the Earth from Solar radiation - the resultant sudden colder environment triggered the Arctic into a frozen configuration, thus causing the glacial buildup at high latitudes and lower sea levels at the Equator. The bottom line is that in both their model and my model there was glacial buildup and resultant geomagnetic effects. Also, as I shall show, sharp magnetic pulses or 'extensions' did occur at 2300 BC. I have found reports of the magnetic excursion/transient/pulse measured at many localities around the Earth - Czechoslovakia [12, Australia [13, Japan [14, China [15 and Oregon state in the northwestern US [16 respectively. Specifically in the case of the Oregon curve, the investigator Verosub remarks on the significant peak at about 4000 years ago, 'a peak almost 20 percent stronger than the present value' [17. Actually, the actual curve shows the peak very close to 2300 BC. Curves exist for all these locations [[all showing maximum intensity near 2300 BC]].
__[[RADIOCARBON DATING]]
_Excellent long term correlation has been established between past radiocarbon level and geomagnetic field strength [39. ... (T)here is a noticeable negative transient in radiocarbon level beginning right around 2300 BC, summarised by Johnston and supported by Seuss.... [This] 'puts uncertainties on any samples from calendar dates of 2500-2100 BC'.
__[[COMMENT: Cardona makes it sound like C14 dating is even more complicated and unreliable than that.]]

The Ring About The Earth at 2300 BC [SIS C&C Review]
_From: SIS Chronology& Catastrophism Review 2001:2 (Jan 2002)
__[[MYTHS]]
_What was it that caused the dust over the north Polar region that started all the geophysical effects? There are two possibilities: the more mundane one would be a volcanic eruption; the more dramatic one would be an encounter between the Earth and a massive meteoroid stream, the Taurids. I strongly favour the latter, based on the appearance of new religions in cultures all over the Earth at that time, reflecting an extraordinary happening; this would not have occurred in the case of a volcanic eruption. The religions have, of course, disappeared but their residual mythology remains. ... As would be expected, the religions at 2300 BC had much to say about thunderbolts hurled at the Earth, reflecting the fall of meteoroids. Surprisingly, the religions also appeared to speak of a ring extending around the Earth. This interpretation of the mythology is a possible viable alternative to other current interpretations. Since the ring was observable everywhere on the Earth's surface, it would be expected that it would be described by all cultures - and it was. Most commonly, it was described as a circle of flowing water. I have also found 24 interpretations, including a celestial mountain, a serpent holding its tail in its mouth, a time regulator, a chariot wheel and a set of horns.
__[[COMMENT: I think the myths state that the ring was around the Saturn System, not the Earth. Venus appeared for a time as a comet and formed the ring of dust etc around Saturn.]]

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Search Results for BRONZE

Radiocarbon Dates and Cultural Change [SIS C&C Review]
_From: SIS Review Vol III No 4 (Spring 1979) Home¦ Issue Contents Radiocarbon Dates and Cultural Change Euan W. MacKie
_Dr MacKie, author of "The Megalith Builders" and "Science and Society in Prehistoric Britain", is Assistant Keeper in the Hunterian Museum of the University of Glasgow. He has excavated at Mayan and Scottish sites and published numerous articles and historic journals, and is a founder member of the Society. If severe natural catastrophes as suggested by Velikovsky affected a wide area in the past, this is likely to have resulted in marked cultural discontinuities- rise and fall of cultures, movements of peoples, etc. In its important role of relative dating, radiocarbon appears to provide indications of this for the end of the Neolithic in Europe and the Old Kingdom (EBA) in Egypt. A FEW YEARS AGO I suggested that C14 dates for cultural and environmental changes in the past might one day be able to confirm or disprove any hypothesis which proposed that there have been simultaneous and world-wide such changes, due primarily to natural
...
fall of cultures, movements of peoples, etc. In its important role of relative dating, radiocarbon appears to provide indications of this for the end of the Neolithic in Europe and the Old Kingdom (EBA) in Egypt. A FEW YEARS AGO I suggested that C14 dates for cultural and environmental changes in the past might one day be able to confirm or disprove any hypothesis which proposed that there have been simultaneous and world-wide such changes, due primarily to natural causes [1. There are now enough dates available, from archaeological ... About thirty temples of varying sizes are now known, expertly constructed of dressed limestone or cut into the rock, and characterised by the use of large flat slabs of stone. This megalithic temple culture collapsed and the great structures were apparently already ruined and abandoned when Early ____Bronze Age newcomers came to the island. The earliest, and most reliable C14 date for the cremation cemetery these newcomers laid out over the wreckage of the great temple of Tarxien, near Valletta, is 1930 150 bc. It is a single date, with a

Metallurgy and Chronology [SIS C&C Review]
_From: SIS Review Vol III No 4 (Spring 1979) Home¦ Issue Contents In Passing Metallurgy and Chronology Peter J. James
_The future of interdisciplinary studies must lie with scholars well versed in a chosen field and not unwilling to follow through the ramifications of problems in their own disciplines into other areas of study. For its first two parts alone, John Dayton's Minerals, Metals, Glazing and Man* (or "Who Was Sesostris I?") deserves to grace departmental libraries in a number of fields, including archaeology, art history, geology, chemistry and metallurgy. Beautifully produced and copiously illustrated, it satisfies an urgent need- mainly on the part of archaeologists- for a comprehensive work of reference on a number of important and interrelated topics. Its main themes- the composition of ancient glazes and pigments, techniques of application, the provenance and geology of the metals (excluding iron) used in antiquity, mining, smelting and casting- are lucidly explained and illustrated with numerous maps, charts and tables of chemical analyses. [*
...
the Hungarian/Bohemian basin as the ideal centre for the discovery of metallurgy, rather than Caucasia or the Near East. He carefully refuses to be dogmatic about this however, and names Cornwall and Spain as alternative sites with ideal geology for the discovery of metal-working.
_C14 Dating and "Before Civilisation"
_Dayton's work on geology and metallurgy thus forms another line of evidence against the traditional picture drawn by V. GORDON CHILDE and others in the early part of this century, of a barbarian Europe dependent for all its skills on the
... "
_With apparently little concern for his own safety, Dayton develops his work, "which started out as a simple study of the evolution of glazing technology", throughout the book into a massive and devastating attack on traditional chronology, concluding that the history of the ____Bronze Age is utterly wrong from start to finish. His scope is vast and his claims are sweeping and extraordinary. In challenging the accepted dates and synchronism for the Early and Middle, as well as the Late ____Bronze Ages, his work is potentially more disrupting than

Recent Developments in Near Eastern Archaeology [SIS C&C Review]
_From: SIS Chronology& Catastrophism Review 1996:1 Home¦ Issue Contents Recent Developments in Near Eastern Archaeology
_IRON AGE CHRONOLOGY ON THE MARCH AGAIN
_In C&C Workshop 1990:2 p. 23 I drew attention to articles downdating some aspects of Iron Age archaeology in Palestine. There have been further developments in this area.
_United Monarchy: Alternative View
_A very important article is 'The Archaeology of the United Monarchy: an Alternative View' in Levant 28 (1996 pp. 177-187) by Israel Finkelstein, a leading Israeli archaeologist. He suggests that tenth century archaeology should be downdated into the ninth century, thus breaking the false link between Solomon (who remains in the tenth century, of course) and fortifications at Megiddo, Hazor and Gezer, together with the red slipped, hand burnished style of pottery (Iron Age IIA). Also, the numerous destructions usually attributed to Shishak would require other explanations. Finkelstein particularly cites the cases of Jezreel and Arad. At Jezreel the pottery of the large fortified enclosure is of Iron IIA style but is
...
for such data has appeared recently in an article in Radiocarbon (37 p. 218) and in a letter to Nature (382 p. 213-4), both by Bruins and van der Plicht. The Bruins and Plicht items were mainly about some new High Precision C14 measurements on grain samples from the final Middle ____Bronze destruction at Jericho, collected during Kenyon's 1950s excavations. Garbled reports appeared in the national press. Their main finding was a very precise uncalibrated date of 3311 +/- 13 years BP. Unfortunately, due to
...
this period would need further downdating and shortening. Also, the Philistines would have already been in Palestine long before Ramesses III, the IIIC1b pottery merely representing a fresh wave of immigrants [Bimson JACF 4 p. 74; see also R Drews The End of the ____Bronze Age Princeton University Press, 1993, p. 52ff and Bunimovitz, Tel Aviv 17 pp. 210-222. Iron Age IIC in Jordan There has been a startling but little noticed development in the Jordanian view of Iron Age IIC. This period has long been thought

Natural Catastrophes During ____Bronze Age Civilisations [Aeon Journal]
_From: Aeon V:1 (Nov 1997) Home¦ Issue Contents Second SIS Cambridge Conference Natural Catastrophes During ____Bronze Age Civilisations Archaeological, Geological, Astronomical and Cultural Perspectives
_July 11 to July 13, 1997: Fitzwilliam College: Cambridge: UK A Report by Birgit C. Liesching
_Preliminary Remarks If the Portland World Conference sponsored by Kronia Communications in January of 1997 provided a surfeit of possible planetary scenarios, each more preposterous than the previous one, the Second Cambridge Conference was deliberately set up to by-pass any planetary possibilities. One speaker even appeared to deny that any catastrophes of an extraterrestrial nature were required to cause the destructions attested in the Near and Middle East. The Conference was a worldwide event, with attendees and speakers from as far away as Australia, South Africa, Hawaii, Japan, Canada, the USA, even Russia, and various Continental European countries in addition to the bulk who came from the UK. There were about 100 attendees, of whom 66 had booked for the whole conference. Including the speakers, maximum overall attendance would have
... wild speculation, it was refreshing to listen to a calm, rational scholar talking about such mundane things as the weather in the Netherlands. In about 2620 BP, van Geel informed us, there appears to have been an increase in cosmic rays which showed up in C14 changes. Something drastic apparently took place and it had a dramatic effect on farming in the mountainous regions of Northern Europe. Catastrophic changes in the landscape have been dated to this time period, as also mass migration of entire populations. A more oceanic climate,

Linking Giant Impact Craters to Mass Extinctions [SIS Internet Digest]
... From: SIS Internet Digest 1998:1 (June 1998) Home¦ Issue Contents Cambridge-conference Email Network The Cambridge-conference Email Network (or CCNet) was originally set-up for people interested in the 2nd SIS Cambridge Conference on "Natural Catastrophes during ____Bronze Age Civilisations." The network (which is, incidentally, independent of any organisation), was to keep speakers and participants of the Cambridge meeting and other interested members up-to-date regarding the programme, new research findings and new reports related to the themes of the conference. In the meantime, the CCNet has attracted some 120 members from 20 countries from around the globe and includes some of the leading astronomers, Earth scientists, historians, science journalists and other people concerned about the hazards from space. In addition to the conference topics, many other issues have been addressed on the CCNet over the months, including: The British School of Neo-Catastrophism; The Mass Extinctions Debate; Historical Catastrophism& Civilisation Collapse; Cometary Impacts and the Origins of Life on Earth; Assessing the Impact Hazard: How dangerous are NEOs?; The Implications of Neo-Catastrophism on Science, Philosophy& Religion. The electronic archive of the CCNet can be found at abob.libs.uga.edu/bobk/cccmenu.html If you are interested in joining the Cambridge-conference Email Network, send an email request to the moderator, Benny J Peiser at: Cambridge-Conference@livjm.ac.uk Linking Giant Impact Craters to Mass Extinctions 20 January 1998 Roadblocks on the kill curve: Testing the Raup hypothesis. C. W. Poag. PALAIOS, 1997, Vol.12, No.6, pp.582-590. US Geological Survey, Woods Hole, MA 02543. The documented presence of two large (similar to 100-km diameter), possibly coeval impact craters of late Eocene age, requires modification of the impact-kill curve proposed by David M. Raup. Though the estimated meteorite size for each crater alone is large enough to have produced considerable global environmental

The Evolution of the ____Bronze Age [SIS C&C Review]
... , repeatedly, of technology from Central Europe into Italy is clear, as was movement from Bohemia via the Rhine to Holland and to Ireland. Spain and the activities of the Beaker Folk remain a mystery. The lateness of Cornish tin and copper is surprising and more C14 dates might clear up this aspect. Renfrew's 'Fault Line' can be seen between Western and Eastern Europe but was crossed, first via the Danube and secondly by the Brenner and the Adriatic.* The dates given in the left-hand side of the columns in italics ... From: SIS Chronology& Catastrophism Review 1995 (Vol XVII) "Proceedings of the SIS 1995 Braziers College Conference" Home¦ Issue Contents The Evolution of the ____Bronze Age John Dayton Notes These uncorrected dates, for all their possible variations and differing materials, do show a logical progression and overall provide a valuable relative system, with copper and ____bronze technology developing first in those areas that have copper and tin and then being diffused eastwards. The Copper Ages of Spain, Bohemia and the Balkans develop about the same time, c

1. Forum [SIS C&C Review]
... From: SIS Chronology& Catastrophism Review 1992 (Vol XIV) Home¦ Issue Contents Forum IIa. Early ____Bronze Age Exodus/Conquest- presented by Bob Porter Introduction Placing the Exodus at the end of the Old Kingdom (end of 6th Dynasty) and the Conquest at the end of Early ____Bronze Age (end of Early ____Bronze III) has obvious benefits in terms of giving a good match with the biblical record:- 1). Egypt entered a dark age (the First Intermediate Period) as might be expected following the loss of its Pharaoh and army, most of its crops and animals, and some of its other wealth. The disasters of the Ipuwer Papyrus ['Admonitions of an Egyptian Sage', some of them paralleling the Exodus plagues, are normally put at this time (CAH I:2, pp. 200-1) although Velikovsky and others have argued for a placement in the Second Intermediate Period. 'The Prophecy of Neferti' also tells of disasters between the Old and Middle Kingdoms (Gardiner 1961, p. 126). Gardiner says ...

4. Forum Part Two [SIS C&C Review]
... event is by applying Occam's razor to a large number of independent sections where the events are at least approximately synchronous, and it's a reasonable postulate that they are indeed synchronous and that the hypothesis demands a common ultimate cause." [1 In July 1993, the Society for Interdisciplinary Studies organised the Cambridge Conference with the explicit aim of documenting 'evidence that the Earth has suffered catastrophes of cosmic origin in historical times'. The SIS conference followed Immanuel Velikovsky's original idea that cosmic catastrophes had caused both the destruction of the Middle and Late ____Bronze Age civilisations and the emergence of the Iron Age cultures. Despite the fact that the gathering was an enjoyable event for all participants, its results appear to be less impressive, at least from the point of view of a catastrophist. In fact, neither the collapse of the Middle ____Bronze Age nor the destruction of the Late ____Bronze Age- not to mention disasters in later times- are any longer associated with cosmic catastrophes. According to Bernard Newgrosh's conclusions on the conference, evidence seems to exist for just one single global catastrophe

24. The Archaeology of Shiloh and Pottery Chronology [SIS C&C Review]
... re-established the Iron Age I date for the pottery and its destruction by the Philistines! They also established that Shiloh had been a religious centre in the preceding Middle ____Bronze (MB) and Late ____Bronze (LB) periods. According to the revised chronology suggested in an earlier article [Porter 1990, the MB town would have been the main Israelite one with the sanctuary and the Ark: the Iron Age I period would not represent the arrival of the Israelites since they would have arrived much earlier- at the end of the Early ____Bronze Age. It will be proposed here that the confusion of Iron I and Iron II pottery is due to both types being in use together, but the idea is so foreign to everyone's thinking that they have tried to rationalise the pottery into one period or the other. It will be proposed that: i). LB in the central hill country is overlapped by MB and Iron Ages and is not really a separate time period in this area. ii). Much LB pottery represents the goods of the richer and/

28. ____Bronze Age Multi-Site Destructions (A Preliminary Review) [SIS C&C Review]
... From: SIS Chronology& Catastrophism Review (1994) "Proceedings of the 1993 Cambridge Conference" Home¦ Issue Contents ____Bronze Age Multi-Site Destructions (A Preliminary Review) Robert M. Porter Introduction I shall consider the events at or near the ends of the Early ____Bronze, Middle ____Bronze and Late ____Bronze Ages, attempting to update Claude Schaeffer's major work [1. The full title, in English, of Professor Schaeffer's book is 'Stratigraphy Compared and Chronology of West Asia (3rd& 2nd Millennia BC)'. It is still often quoted for its details although its main thesis was not well received by most scholars, Velikovsky being an exception. Schaeffer proposed several waves of destruction throughout the Near East, some of which he attributed to earthquakes. The areas covered included Anatolia, Syria, Palestine, the Caucasus, NW Iran and he also touched on Egypt and Mesopotamia. In this preliminary review I shall stay within the Fertile Crescent, concentrating on Syria (which was Schaeffer's home ground), for it provides the link between Mesopotamia and Egypt. To establish

30. On Dayton and Dating [SIS C&C Review]
... biblical archaeologist and lecturer in Old Testament Studies at Trinity College, Bristol, is a consultant and regular contributor to the Review. I would like to add some comments to Peter James' review of the book by John Dayton, Minerals, Metals, Glazing and Man (Harrap, London, 1978), which appeared in SISR III:4, 1979, pp. 81-3. Dayton's book rightly questions the conventional chronology of the ancient Near East, and provides a huge compendium of data in favour of lower dates for the Late ____Bronze Age. However, Dayton's own revised time-scale does not always make the best sense of the evidence. In particular, his proposed revision of the history of glazing techniques incorporates some unsound reasoning. Dayton traces the beginnings of clay glazing to the 15th century BC (following the conventional chronology): "In Mitanni at this time we have the first crude attempts to glaze clay" (p. 394). In Egypt during the same period, in particular during the reign of Thutmose III, glazing "takes a great leap

37. what the experts say [Mythopedia Website]
... and supernovae) – what the experts say (last update 28 th October 2002) The conjunction of these ideas, linking astronomy and history, therefore suggests that human societies may have been witness to a somewhat more active celestial environment during past millennia. [1 Could the prehistoric 'sky' have been much more active than now? [2 In fact, the extreme preoccupation of most early societies with celestial imagery and the making of astronomical observations appears to be part of a world-wide phenomenon during the period leading up to and including the ____Bronze age This would be consistent with the presence of a once powerful extraterrestrial source with the capacity to cause both local and global destruction and to trigger a common social response. [3 Further arguments for a possibly more active sky in the past include the fact that iron was apparently first known through its occurrence in meteorites and the fact that flood myths and related ceremonies from around the world frequently seem to have a common historical basis [4 indirect support for such a picture comes from a wide range of historical arguments which suggests that

45. The Rise of Blood Sacrifice [Aeon Journal]
... From: Aeon IV:5 (Nov 1996) Home¦ Issue Contents The Rise of Blood Sacrifice Gunnar Heinsohn The first stage of civilization appeared in the ____Bronze Age with temple-centered urban settlements. It is not known why priest-kings were suddenly accepted as hierarchically superior rulers entitled to provisions by their fellows who thereby turned themselves into mankind's first commoners. Sophisticated blood rituals became the most prominent activities of the first permanent lords. The origin of these sacred procedures remained equally enigmatic. Though well documented, the textual and archaeological sources which point to catastrophic preconditions for the emergence of a sacrificial elite, are only rarely taken into consideration by students of religion. This paper tries to show the essential correctness of Mesopotamian myths, which claim the first "cult places" and their priestly personnel to have emerged as institutions for "beclouded" people in need of "counseling" after natural disasters had inflicted "destructions" on their habitats. ENIGMAS OF SACRIFICE The debate on the emergence of human and animal sacrifice in Mesopotamia's Early ____Bronze Age has been well under way for a hundred

51. New Paper on ____Bronze Age Catastrophes [SIS Internet Digest]
... From: SIS Internet Digest 1997:2 (Feb 1998) Home¦ Issue Contents New Paper on ____Bronze Age Catastrophes Tue, 14 Oct 1997 11:01:41 ____Bronze Age myths? Volcanic activity and human response in the Mediterranean and North Atlantic regions. P. C. Buckland, A. J. Dugmore& K. J. Edwards in Antiquity 273 (1997), pp. 88-105 A first rule of statistics is that the existence of a correlation does not itself prove a causal connection. This is the heart of the recurrent question in later European prehistory whether in the Mediterranean or in the Atlantic northwest about volcanic eruptions, their impact on climate, and then of the climatic impact on human populations. The burial under tephra of the Late ____Bronze Age settlement of Santorini is proof of a particular catastrophe: but is there evidence of wider European calamity? A search for precision beyond that currently available is a frequent aspect of archaeological interpretation. Tensions exist as a result of the need to resolve events on a human time-scale using techniques often incapable

56. Proceedings of the 2nd SIS Cambridge Conference [SIS Internet Digest]
... From: SIS Internet Digest 1998:2 (Dec 1998) Home¦ Issue Contents Proceedings of the 2nd SIS Cambridge Conference www.knowledge.co.uk/sis/cambproc.htm The Second SIS Cambridge Conference, entitled "Natural Catastrophes during ____Bronze Age Civilisations: Archaeological, Geological, Astronomical and Cultural Perspectives", was held at Fitzwilliam College between 11-13 July 1997. The first paper in the Proceedings is based on the keynote address by science journalist Robert Matthews. In this, Matthews makes two main points: (1) that observations made in the distant past may be far more accurate than we generally assume; and (2) that, because of the dangers from asteroids and comets, the Earth has never been, a safe place to live. Then follows a series of papers by astronomers concerned with those hazards from space. The next and largest group of papers are concerned with archaeology, geology and climatology.The next group of papers is concerned with events which are slightly more recent, occurring around the time certain Late ____Bronze Age cultures came to an end.The Proceedings

65. The Flood from Heaven: Deciphering the Atlantis Legend by Eberhard Zangger [SIS C&C Workshop]
... rising sea water at the end of the most recent Ice Age around 11,000 years ago and showing no evidence of having been lowered by seismic activity. Hence, some have looked in another time and/or place for Atlantis. Immanuel Velikovsky wrote in Worlds in Collision that there must be one nought too many in the age of Atlantis as given by Plato, which would place its destruction within the period of his postulated Venus-induced catastrophes. Others have suggested that the story could be a garbled account of the destruction of the ____Bronze Age Minoan civilization of Crete as a consequence of a massive volcanic eruption on the nearby island of Thera, but it now seems clear that these two events occurred at different times (see JACF 4, pp. 29-39), even though the actual dates are still problematical (see C&C Review XIII, pp. 35-37). Yet others have argued that everything Plato wrote about Atlantis was a complete fiction, designed to allow him an opportunity to express his views on how an ideal society might operate. Kukal himself

67. 2nd SIS Cambridge Conference Abstracts [SIS Internet Digest]
... From: SIS Internet Digest 1997:1 (Sep 1997) Home¦ Issue Contents 2nd SIS Cambridge Conference Abstracts The 2nd SIS Cambridge Conference, Natural Catastrophes during ____Bronze Age Civilisations: Archaeological, Geological and Astronomical Perspectives, was held at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, between 11th-13th July 1997. These abstracts are taken from the SIS Web site where you'll also find biographical information. Details at: www.knowledge.co.uk/xxx/cat/cambconf.htm
_Sat 12 July Abstracts 9:00 Prof. Mark E. Bailey, Armagh Observatory Sources and Populations of Near-earth Objects: Recent Findings and Historical Implications.
_Near-Earth objects (NEOs) comprise a heterogeneous population of objects from a variety of sources ranging from long-period comets to the main asteroid belt. Recent dynamical results show that the orbits are chaotic, and that comets may in principle evolve into orbits similar to those of objects usually classified as asteroids (and vice-versa), and that comets and asteroids may resemble one another depending on the phase of their physical evolution and heliocentric distance. This paper reviews progress towards understanding

69. Minerals, Metals, Glazing and Man, by John Dayton, Reviewed by Geoffrey Gammon [Catastrophism & Ancient History Journal]
... Hejaz and later of excavations at Tel-es-Sweyhat in the Euphrates Valley. He has also published a challenging paper entitled "The Problem of Tin in the Ancient World." 1 A few years ago Dayton began what was initially intended to be a Ph.D. thesis on the purely technical question of the nature of ancient glazes and glazing. However, in the course of this study he came across many examples of glazed objects appearing in what were clearly anachronistic contexts, in terms of the accepted chronology of the Aegean and Near East in the ____Bronze Age. This disturbing development obliged him to widen the scope of his inquiry to embrace the chronology as well as the invention and spread of metallurgy and the technology of glazing. In his book Minerals, Metals, Glazing and Man, 2 Dayton states his considered view that "the technical and geological evidence was in direct contradiction to archaeological theories, some of which had been accepted blindly and uncritically for over a hundred years." In essence, this is not only a manual of the technology of glazing but also an attempt

2. Minerals, Metals, Glazing and Man [SIS C&C Review]
... From: SIS Review Vol IV No 1 (Autumn 1979) Home¦ Issue Contents Minerals, Metals, Glazing and Man John Dayton assisted by Ann Dayton 'One can only hope that this fascinating interdisciplinary work receives the attention it deserves.'- S.I.S. Review. This textbook approaches archaeology from an entirely new viewpoint, but which however is basic to it. The existing system is founded on divisions into stone, Copper, ____Bronze and Iron Ages, and yet the geological sources and the technology of the production of these materials have never before been correlated to the archaeological eras. The writer therefore presents a novel system based on the geological occurrence of metals and minerals and the smelting and casting of them, and introduces to archaeology an extra horizon based on glazing and the appearance of different coloured glazes which are made with metallic oxides. Such a system immediately shows up the anachronisms of accepted archaeological chronology, and technology when applied in this manner by a qualified archaeologist who is also a geologist and metallurgist shows that high technology originates outside the Fertile Crescent, and

74. Five Midianite Cities: A Response to Dwardu Cardona's "The Cities of the Plain" [Catastrophism & Ancient History Journal]
... defeated Midianite kings (Numbers 31:8) suggesting this was the case. Taken by itself, this does not lend any great support to my overall scheme-- my point is simply that it is consistent with a large mass of data supporting the correlation (first proposed by Donovan Courville) that the Israelite conquest of Canaan occurred at the end of Early ____Bronze III. [4 Secondly, the fact that all five cities were abandoned-- at least three were destroyed by fire-- at the end of the Early ____Bronze Age lends more support to my position than to Mr. Cardona's. If his synchronism is correct we would expect to find only four of the five sites abandoned at the end of the period. If the sites were indeed Midianite cities then it is not surprising that all were abandoned after Israelite conquest. Thirdly, John Osgood has pointed out that the nature of the destruction at these five sites is "not the type of geological destruction that the narrative of Sodom and Gomorrah [Genesis 19 would suggest, but far closer to

82. Homer in the Baltic [Aeon Journal]
... From: Aeon VI:6 (Dec 2001) Home¦ Issue Contents Homer in the Baltic Felice Vinci Summary The real scene of the Iliad and the Odyssey can be identified, not in the Mediterranean Sea where it proves to be undermined by many incongruities, but in the north of Europe. The sagas that gave rise to the two poems came from the Baltic regions, where the ____Bronze Age flourished in the 2nd millennium bc, and many Homeric places, such as Troy and Ithaca, can still be identified. The blond seafarers who founded the Mycenaean civilization in the 16th century bc brought these tales from Scandinavia to Greece after the decline of the "climatic optimum." Then they rebuilt their original world, where the Trojan War and many other mythological events had taken place, in the Mediterranean; through many generations the memory of the heroic age and the feats performed by their ancestors in their lost homeland was preserved and handed down to the following ages. This key allows us to easily open many doors that have been shut tight until now,

87. Calibrated Radiocarbon and the 'Methodological Fault-Line' [SIS C&C Review]
... /2350 to 2000/1950 BC for the EB IV period whereas William Dever, in a chart in the article following Richard's, showed EB IV starting at 2350 BC. 9. Adopting the data of J. Callaway& J. Weinstein: 'Radiocarbon Dating of Palestine in the EB Age', BASOR 225 [1977, pp. 1-16, who also note (p. 12) the great difficulties in reconciling these high dates produced by calibrated radiocarbon with dates normally adopted by historians and archaeologists. 25 of their 55 Early ____Bronze Age radiocarbon dates had to be selected out of the study, a 45% rejection rate which they found 'quite disappointing'- cf. Hole [6 who, ten years later, encountered similar problems with early radiocarbon dates. 10. I. M. Shaw: 'Egyptian Chronology and the Irish Oak Calibration', JNES 44 [1985, pp. 295-304 11. see table and references in my article in JACF 2 [1988, pp. 60-68 12. S. W. Manning: 'The Thera eruption; the

97. On the Length of Reigns of the Sumerian Kings [SIS C&C Review]
... .; Berossos: Manethos und die orientalischen Konigsannalen, p. 174 and addenda (Nachtrage) p. 231: 'Denn was hat der Mond und der Mondmonat mit dem Sonnenjahr oder dem Bauernjahr zu tun?' ['What has the moon and the lunar month to do with the solar year, or with the year of the farmer?'copyright (c) Hildegard Wiencke-Lotz, 1988 Ai, Jericho and 'deviant' C14 dates In 1972 J. Callaway published the first of his main reports on his excavations at Ai, The Early ____Bronze Age Sanctuary at Ai. In it he published a number of C14 results which helped him to establish dates for his strata (pp. 116, 159, 200, 305). They agreed reasonably with conventional archaeological dates and were consistent with each other, and were carried out at two separate laboratories (Texas and Gakushuin). But at the time of testing no-one knew about radiocarbon calibration: the effect of calibration is to add over 500 years to the dates, making them much too old. By 1977 calibration had

115. Monitor [SIS C&C Workshop]
... the 10,000 year record of earthquakes in the Holy Land reports that Jericho has been repeatedly destroyed by earthquake. There is evidence of residents fleeing leaving food behind. The Jordan is also frequently briefly dammed by collapsing banks as in biblical references to it ceasing to flow. Akhenaten's many gods University of Toronto magazine Winter 1991, p. 4 Sandstone blocks unearthed near Karnak bear inscriptions by Akhenaten mentioning taxes due to 'every god and every goddess' which is rather intriguing considering the heretical pharaoh was supposedly the world's first monotheist. European ____Bronze Age catastrophe Earthwatch magazine March/April 1992, p. 56 A ____Bronze Age village in northern Spain, dating from 2000 BC, shows a catastrophic abandonment with pottery and metal objects scattered everywhere. The riddle of the sphinx New Scientist 15.2.92, p. 20; Kindred Spirit Vol.2 No.6 pp. 32-33 and The Times 16.5.92, p. 16 Computer graphics have been used to produce a picture of the sphinx as it supposedly used to be. Not surprisingly this reinforces the accepted dating of 2600 BC because the computer model referenced

120. Cosmic Catastrophism [Aeon Journal]
... and cultures of the ancient Near East. *** In addition, there is other conclusive evidence against Velikovsky's chronology. The ruins of ancient Near Eastern cities form tells, that is, mounds composed of debris built up as a result of centuries of occupation and repeated destructions. This debris generally occurs in layers or strata with the remains of the earliest occupation at the bottom and deposits of more recent times on top. Archaeologists study the pottery and other artifacts in these layers and group them into assemblages which have been designated Early ____Bronze Age, Middle ____Bronze Age, Late ____Bronze Age, Iron Age, Hellenistic Age, etc. Artifacts characteristic of the Middle ____Bronze Age are found below layers containing Late ____Bronze Age objects, and these in turn are beneath remains belonging to the Iron Age. As I pointed out many years ago, this stratigraphical archaeological evidence from the eastern Mediterranean cannot be reconciled with Velikovsky's synchronizations. (113) Archaeologists usually assign the remains of Iron Age levels in Palestine to the period of the Hebrew monarchy, and Velikovsky accepted this dating.