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The Great Flood
Posted by
Jor-el
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04 January 2011
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A Historical/Scientific Perspective.
I know many believe the flood account to be a derived story from The Gilgamesh epic, "Atrahasis" (Noah) was warned of a plan to destroy humanity by a flood, so he built an ark and saved his family and friends.
Now according to the bible the Flood was caused by rain and by the fountains of the deep being broken open. In other words something other than just rain caused the flood. The mention of the fountains of the deep being broken open indicates a cataclysm of some kind that tore the waters from their correct place.
Well I think that I may have found a possible explanation for the event.
The majority of the myths describe a torrential, long duration rainstorm, in many cases accompanied by a huge tsunami. The water is often described as hot, sometimes coming as hot ocean swells, sometimes as burning rain. The described durations of the flood storm in the various myths, when plotted, form a bell-shaped curve with the great majority clustering between four and ten days. Tsunamis are described as extending between 15 and 100 km inland. Survivors typically find refuge in places between 150 and 300 meters above sea level.
Supernatural creatures are associated with the flood storm in nearly half the cases studied. Typical are giant snakes or water serpents, giant birds, giant horned snakes, a fallen angel, a star with fiery tail, a tongue of fire, and similar elongated things in or from the sky. Looking in detail at descriptions in the mythology, particularly those of the Indian subcontinent, we see a close resemblance to the naked-eye appearance of a near-earth post-perihelion comet.
Sixteen of the myths examined describe when the flood storm occurred in terms of seasonal indicators. Fourteen myths are from Northern Hemisphere groups, and place the event in the spring. The one from the Southern Hemisphere places it in the fall, that is, spring north of the equator. Seven stories give the time in terms of lunar phase, six at the time of the full Moon, another two days later. Stories from Africa and South America say it happened at the time of a lunar eclipse, which can only occur when the Moon is full. A 4th century BC Babylonian account specifies a full Moon in late April or early May.
Chinese sources recount how the cosmic monster Gong Gong knocked over a pillar of heaven and caused flooding toward the end of the reign of Empress Nu Wa, around 2810 BC. The 3rd century BC Egyptian historian Manetho says there was an "immense disaster" (but doesn't say what kind) during the reign of the pharaoh Semerkhet, around 2800 BC. The tomb of Semerkhet's successor, Qa'a, was built of poorly dried mud bricks and timbers showing unusual decay; the following pharaohs of the second dynasty relocated the royal cemetery to higher ground. Analysis of astrological references in multiple myths from the Middle East, India and China, describing planetary conjunctions associated with the flood storm, whose actual times of occurrence can be reconstructed using contemporary astronomy software, leads one to conclude that the event happened on or about May 10, 2807 BC.
What was it that happened?
Well it seems the myths provide clues to that, too. For one thing, they report massive rain, falling for days at a time. This turns out to be exactly what can be expected if a large comet plunged into the deep ocean, it would loft nearly ten times its mass of water into the upper atmosphere, where it would spread widely and then fall, taking days to empty the skies. A large impact in the ocean would also cause gigantic tsunamis, as many of the myths report. In India, for example, Tamil myths tell of the sea rushing 100 km inland, a hundred meters deep.
Plotting the distribution of great flood myths together with specific reported phenomena like directions from which great winds blew or tsunamis came, we find that the most efficient way to account for them is by positing a very large comet impact in the central or southern Indian Ocean. This might not account very well for flood myths in the Americas, but flooding there could have resulted from partial disintegration of the incoming comet, with two or more pieces falling on different parts of the earth over a period of hours or days. Some of the myths speak of multiple events happening in close succession. But the really big impact, the most lethal of the bunch, occurred somewhere south of Madagascar.
And this particular impact crater has in fact been found. It is 30 km wide. It is 3800 meters below the surface of the ocean, and gues what it happened between 2800 B.C. and 3000 B.C. It would have caused a 2,000,000 megaton explosion and caused a number of succesive mega tsunamis that would have been over 200 meters in height. It is called the Burckle crater and It is in the Mid Indian Ocean.
Sources:
Impact Craters as Sources of Megatsunami Generated Chevron Dunes
Verifying the Sources of Holocene Age Megatsunami Deposits
Tsunamis from Impacts
Ancient Crash, Epic Wave
Google Earth View of Burckle Crater
Further evidence of said event can be found...
Seasonal and calendrical dating of the flood.
The seasonal and lunar data within the myths are remarkably consistent. Sixteen of the 175 myths describe seasonal indicators or name an exact month. Of these, 14 are in the northern hemisphere spring (late April – May – early June), whereas one from the southern hemisphere is situated in the fall (equivalent to the northern hemisphere spring). In terms of described lunar phase, six of seven worldwide stories indicate that the flood began at the time of the full Moon, whereas the other story indicates a time two days later, the 17th day of the lunar cycle. In addition, there are stories in Africa and South America that place the flood at the time of a partial lunar eclipse, a phenomenon that only takes place at the time of a full Moon. The 4th century BC Babylonian historian, Berossos provides an exact day and month of the 15th of Daisios, which translates to the day of the full Moon in late April or early May (Verbrugghe and Wickersham 1996, p 49).
Equally striking are specific calendrical markers associated with these myths (Masse 1998, pp 64–65) from Chinese annals, and from well-dated archaeological contexts in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and elsewhere in the ancient Near East. China’s Han Dynasty chronologists provide the date of 2810 BC for the end of the reign of first empress Nu Wa (Walters 1992). Nu Wa was a supernatural woman who at the end of her reign repaired the cosmic damage and flooding caused by the red-haired horned cosmic monster Gong Gong who knocked over a pillar of heaven, upsetting the universe. It is of some interest that Nu Wa mended the sky with melted stones of many different colors, thus matching the Biblical rainbow, as do in their own way a substantive number of traditions elsewhere in the world.
The 3rd century BC Egyptian historian, Manetho, noted that during the reign of Semerkhet, 7th of the 8 kings in Egypt’s First Dynasty, “there were many extraordinary events, and there was an immense disaster” (Verbrugghe and Wickesham 1996, p 132). Although the nature of these events (also stated as “portents” in other renditions of Manetho) and disaster are not specified, there are several reasons to link them with the hypothesized Flood Comet impact. Semerkhet’s reign is around 2800 BC, based the most recent dating of the First Dynasty between ~2920 to 2770 BC (Kitchen 1991). Not only does Semerkhet have the shortest reign of the First Dynasty kings, but he is the only one to lack an elite tomb at Saqqara (Wilkinson 1999, p 80).
Semerkhet’s successor, Qa‘a, the final king of the dynasty, is of interest in two respects. One is the translation of a variant of his name as “abundance” in the sense of “flood” (Weigall 1925, p 49). The other consists of unusual aspects of his tomb at Abydos noted by its excavator, Sir Flinders Petrie. Petrie (1900, pp 14–16) documented serious wall collapse in the lesser chambers due to insufficiently dried mud bricks; wooden timbers were unusually decayed as compared with earlier tombs; the entrance passage turned at an odd angle and was closed by rough bricks; and clean white sand was placed in and around the coffins of retainers. Re-excavation in 1992 indicated that the structure apparently was built in two or more stages over a long period of time (Wilkinson 1999, p 237). These data together suggest that the tomb of Qa‘a was under construction at the time of the Flood Comet impact, suffered extensive water damage, and after a lengthy period of time was repaired and completed. This interpretation is also consonant with the fact that the succeeding kings of the 2nd dynasty abruptly shifted the location of their royal tombs at Abydos from the upper floodplain of the Nile to the nearby mesa tops, but returned to the original upper floodplain location at the end of the 2nd dynasty.
The ancient Near East exhibits a number of paleoflood deposits of various ages, typical for any region prone to flooding. Of particular interest are deposits at the ancient Mesopotamian cities of Shuruppak (modern Tell Farah), home of the legendary flood survivor, Atrahasis (Lambert and Millard 1969), and that of Kish (modern Tell Oheimer). These cities are mentioned in the famous Sumerian King list, created around 2300 BC by Enheduana, priestess of the Moon-god at Ur and daughter of King Sargon of Akkad (Postgate 1992, pp 27–28). The document lists five antediluvian cities, the last of which was Shuruppak, and then goes on to state: “After the Flood had swept over (the earth) (and) when kingship was lowered (again) from heaven, kingship was (first) in Kish” (Pritchard 1969, p 265). Sir Max Mallowan (1964) defined specific paleoflood deposits at both cities that he equated with Noah’s Flood. The current date for these flood deposits and the establishment of Kish as a major city is estimated to be around 2800 BC (Porada et al. 1992).
This is also the time of abrupt movement of at least half of the people in Palestine from valley floors to the hill country of Galilee, Samria, and Judah, only to return to the valley floor a few generations later (Mazar 1990, pp 111–113). This unique settlement pattern is accompanied throughout much of the ancient Near East by the construction or enhancement of massive walls around most settlements, suggesting unsettled times. Many curious things from an archaeological perspective occur at around 2800 BC, including the marked dispersal and migration of five major language groups in five different parts of the world, Bantu (Africa), Indo-Aryan (Near East and Europe), Uto-Aztecan (North America), Austronesian (Southeast Asia), and Gé-Pano-Carib (South America). Significantly, this date also is roughly the boundary between the middle and late Holocene climate regimes, moving from warmer and dryer to cooler and wetter conditions.
Astrological aspects of the flood are mentioned in a number of myths. For example, Peruvian and Hindu myths mention a conjunction of planets immediately prior to the flood, whereas Hopi traditions (e.g., Mails and Evehama 1995, pp 506–509) note that the previous world ended several thousand years ago when there were violent signs in the sky and when certain “stars” (presumably planets) came together in a row. The Roman philosopher, Seneca, indicated that the 4th century BC Babylonian historian, Berossus, could date the end of the world by fire and flood by calculating when all the planets would again be positioned in a row (Verbugghe and Wickersham 1996, p 66).
Aquarius, “Water Bearer,” is almost universally noted in Old World zodiacal mythology as being a source of water, with myths from China, Greece, Mesopotamia, and Egypt all specifically linking the constellation to the flood or at least some form of watery deluge (Motz and Nathanson 1988). In Greek mythology as well as in Babylonian symbolism, the asterism representing the urn carried by the Water Bear, which is located at approximately Zeta Aquarii, was the location from which the floodwaters came forth.
Pisces is of special interest due to the widespread historical astrological belief that conjunctions of planets within this sign, in particular Jupiter and Saturn, portend spectacular events and occasionally dire consequences. For example, in Biblical astrology it was predicted that another deluge would occur in the year AD 1524 when Jupiter, Saturn and Venus were in conjunction with Pisces (Allen 1963, p 341; North 1989, pp 63–68). The beginning of the modern Hindu age (yuga) of Kali after the flood, is stated by the 5th century AD Hindu astronomer, Âryabhata, as beginning at dawn on February 18, 3102 BC at a time when the naked-eye visible planets were in conjunction at 0° Aries, near the star Zeta Piscium (Pingree 1972; Gleadow 1968, pp 138, 147). A similar concept was expressed by the 9th century Arab astrologer, Albumasur, who predicted the destruction of the world when the five planets, Sun and Moon were in conjunction in the last degree of Pisces (Allen 1963, p 77). However, astronomy software demonstrates that such a conjunction of the five visible planets did not occur in 3102 BC or any year near that date.
This cluster of astrological details can be subjected to systematic analysis similar to that done for the environmental details in the flood myths described above to see if there is a logical explanation for these diverse statements. As reconstructed by astronomy software programs (RedShift Multimedia Astronomy 3.0©, TheSky, version 5©), it turns out that the year 2807 BC was highlighted by an extremely rare quadruple conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter at the boundary between Pisces and Aquarius (22 January, 26 April, 2 August, 10 November) with another such conjunction (including Venus) occurring on January 11, 2806 BC. On February 7, 2807 BC, the five planets were situated evenly in a row within Aquarius and Capricornus spaced about 10° apart from one another just before sunrise as seen in India, while on February 25 they were similarly situated in Aquarius in a row along with the Moon, spaced about 5° apart. During the middle of March at dawn, Venus and Mars were conjoined for several days with Saturn and Jupiter adjacent to Zeta Piscium. On April 25, 2807 BC there was a total eclipse of the Sun, and on May 10, 2807 BC there was a partial lunar eclipse.
The seasonal, calendrical and archaeological data form a compelling and logical story that well complements the rest of the environmental information in our sample of 175 flood myths. The principle of Occam’s razor suggests that an oceanic comet impact on or about May 10, 2807 BC more simply and better explains the combined mythology, archaeology, paleoenvironmental record and documentary history surrounding the boundary between the middle and late Holocene (ca. 2800 BC) than do our current diverse models and theories of Holocene cultural evolution and climate change.
Modeling the Flood Comet Impact Event
Based on a reading of the preliminary set of flood myths summarized above, there are several aspects of the hypothesized impactor that can be logically elicited from these details, particularly in reference to the modeling of Toon and his colleagues (Toon et al. 1994, 1997) and the web-based impact modeling programs of Melosh and Beyer (2005) and Marcus et al. (2005).
In order to model likely impact effects, it is useful to first briefly discuss the Earth’s atmosphere (Salby 1996). The atmosphere is dominated in volume by a mixture of molecular nitrogen (78%) and molecular oxygen (21%), with water vapor, carbon dioxide, ozone and other trace species comprising the remaining 1%. Although water vapor is a trace species, it plays a significant role in cloud formation, radiative processes and in energy exchanges with the oceans. About 60% of the overall water vapor is situated in the trophosphere, and then steady decreases in percentage at higher elevations. Gravity stratifies the atmosphere vertically, whereas the Earth’s rotation creates meridional stratification and the development of large-scale circulation such as airflow around centers of high and low pressure. Atmospheric pressure and density decrease exponentially with increased elevation above the Earth’s surface, but temperature varies in pronounced ways giving rise to the designations troposphere (lower atmosphere) from 0–10 km, the stratosphere (10–50 km) and mesosphere (50–85 km) of the middle atmosphere, and the thermosphere of the upper atmosphere (above 85 km). Upper troposphere circulation is characterized by subtropical jet streams, while the polar-night jet operates in the lower mesosphere. Collectively, the temperature- related layers below 100 km are termed the homosphere. In the heterosphere (100– 500 km), molecular diffusion suppresses turbulent air motions and airflow is nearly laminar. The highest layer of the atmosphere is the exosphere, in which molecular collisions are rare and in which some molecules can achieve velocities that enable them to escape the Earth’s gravity and enter deep space.
Toon et al. (1997) have noted that only limited modeling has been accomplished thus far of the potential atmospheric effects of water injection by the plume of a large abyssal oceanic impact. This was evident at the ICSU workshop in that virtually none of the presentations and papers addressed the effects and hazards of such a massive water injection.
The review and modeling of the effects of water injections in Toon et al. (1994, pp 817–821) is directly pertinent to defined effects of the hypothesized Flood Comet impact. A large comet hitting the abyssal ocean would loft an amount of water equal to about 10 times the mass of the comet into and through the middle and upper atmosphere. The latent heat of the water would cause the vapor cloud to adiabatically expand. High-altitude portions of the vapor cloud will form ice crystals that will fall downward, evaporate and humidify the lower atmosphere. Toon et al. (1994, pp 818–819) note: “Condensation after a 104 megaton impact may occur over several days, during which time the water will have been transported great distances from the impact site.” They go on to note “a water-rich atmosphere is unstable with respect to vertical motions because any descending air parcels will have a water vapor partial pressure exceeding the vapor pressure, leading to rainout of the water, latent heat release and convective mixing.” In simple terms, this means that there will be a lot of rain and very unstable atmospheric conditions. Toon et al. (1994, p 805) also note that submicron dust loading of the atmosphere caused by large terrestrial impacts may be countered by the water vapor in a large oceanic impact, and that “ice clouds formed by oceanic impacts have the potential to sweep some or all of the dust from the sky.”
The environmental data in the flood myths fit remarkably well with the above modeling for a large oceanic comet impact above the threshold for global catastrophe at or greater than 106 MT (100 gigatons). The hypothesized Flood Comet impact is associated with six or seven days of intense atmospheric rainout, accompanied by hurricane-force winds for the duration of the period of rainout. Presumably the winds and a sizeable percentage of the rainfall are part of a system of ocean-fed worldwide cyclonic storms generated and sustained by the air pressure blast wave, the impact plume, the spread of water vapor, and its subsequent rainout. The intense darkness accompanying the flood storm is an indication of the amount of submicron and larger dust grains that accompany the water injection into the atmosphere, which is then seemingly effectively removed during the process of rainout. Intriguingly, the current myth sample suggest that torrential rainfall may have been limited to mid and low latitudes between about 55° N and 55° S. The few myths outside this range do not specifically mention rainfall.
Regardless of interpretation, the impacting comet was large enough to result in a seabed crater. Myths from Greece, Mesopotamia, India and Taiwan all indicate that the flood storm originated somewhere to their south, suggesting a possible impact location in the abyssal depths of the Atlantic-Indian Basin. Prior to the ICSU workshop, I originally modeled the impact in the general vicinity of 38° east longitude and 58° south latitude, a location reasonably close to recently discovered Burckle Crater (Sect. 2.4.1). The putative diameter of abyssal Burckle Crater at around 29 km can be modeled as the impact of a comet slightly larger than 5 km in diameter and a speed of 51 km s–1 entering the ocean at an act angle of 45° (Marcus et al. 2005). The energy produced by such an impact is approximately 2 × 107 MT. Of interest is the fact that such an impact would eject rocky debris to a distance of approximately 9000 km from the impact site, which is the approximate distance in which myths mention hot or fiery water falling from the sky (Fig. 2.2).
The common motif about rainbows and other similar phenomena immediately after the flood as described in a number of our sampled myths is fully consistent with the atmospheric physics of injecting a large column of water into and through the upper atmosphere. This would have led to the formation of high altitude ice clouds, that would become visible once the atmosphere had sufficiently rained out and stabilized, including the removal of obscuring dust particles. This rainbow effect, a greatly enlarged version of the common winter halo effect around the Sun and Moon, would dissipate as the ice volatilizes.
Map depicting the location of Burckle Crater candidate abyssal impact structure in relation to selected environmental variables as stated in a sample of 175 “Great Flood” myths. In addition to depicting the approximate locations of the sampled flood myths themselves, the variables include the apparent direction traveled by the flood storm; hot water noted as coming from the ocean; hot water and “thick resin” noted as coming from the sky; and intense heat and ignition fires at the start of the flood storm (the latter includes a story from Egypt not in the sample of 175 myths). The figure also depicts a “hypothesized ejecta re-entry splash ring” modeled as the approximate boundary between the limits of rocky ejecta and condensed water vapor from the hypothesized Burckle Crater impact.
What does not fit the model of a single large Indian Ocean impact is the presence of a number of mega-tsunami myths from Brazil, the western coast of North America, the Arctic Ocean and in other locations outside the Indian Ocean basin. Likewise, the presence of hot or fiery water falling from the sky in several North and South American myths cannot have been caused by atmospheric re-entry ejecta from the Burckle Crater event. Myths from north-western North American describe the flood storm as coming from the north. And as noted in Sect. 2.4.1, Burckle Crater by itself cannot explain the large volume of rainfall indicated by worldwide mythology.
Not only was the Flood Comet likely composed of several fragments (Abbott et al. 2005), one may have considerably lagged behind the others. There are several stories from New Guinea and Australia about a flame or bright light witnessed oddly enough during the middle of the flood storm. One such Aboriginal Dreamtime story from Australia is as follows (Smith 1930):
An old goanna [lizard] stuck his head out [from the protective cave], but quickly withdrew it … “I have seen a wonderful sight, an awful monster with an eye as big and bright as the Moon. But wait a moment, his eye is brighter than the Moon, and nearly as bright as the Sun” … They all gathered together to discuss what they had seen, and each had a different account to give their new Intelligence that had arrived with the rain, the thunder, and the lightning. There was one thing, however, regarding which they were all agreed, and that was the brightness that shone from this formless being. Strange to say, whenever rays of light appeared to the vision of the watcher they were stamped upon his memory and also upon his body, and were plainly visible to those round about.
Also of interest along with these particular myths are descriptions of a second tsunami along the coast of New Guinea three days after the onset of the flood storm.
The internal consistency of these sets of myths from Australia and New Guinea are suggestive of a second smaller impact two or three days after the first, therefore indicating that the comet had calved into several separate fragments, perhaps in a prior perihelion passage of the Sun. Such a situation may help to explain the imagery of giant supernatural twins or companions that is prevalent in Mesopotamian, Egyptian and even Mesoamerican myth and iconography between the period of about 3200 BC to around 2650 BC (Masse 1998).
Source material taken from: Comet/asteroid impacts and human society: an interdisciplinary approach By Peter T. Bobrowsky, Hans Rickman
Now according to the bible the Flood was caused by rain and by the fountains of the deep being broken open. In other words something other than just rain caused the flood. The mention of the fountains of the deep being broken open indicates a cataclysm of some kind that tore the waters from their correct place.
Well I think that I may have found a possible explanation for the event.
The majority of the myths describe a torrential, long duration rainstorm, in many cases accompanied by a huge tsunami. The water is often described as hot, sometimes coming as hot ocean swells, sometimes as burning rain. The described durations of the flood storm in the various myths, when plotted, form a bell-shaped curve with the great majority clustering between four and ten days. Tsunamis are described as extending between 15 and 100 km inland. Survivors typically find refuge in places between 150 and 300 meters above sea level.
Supernatural creatures are associated with the flood storm in nearly half the cases studied. Typical are giant snakes or water serpents, giant birds, giant horned snakes, a fallen angel, a star with fiery tail, a tongue of fire, and similar elongated things in or from the sky. Looking in detail at descriptions in the mythology, particularly those of the Indian subcontinent, we see a close resemblance to the naked-eye appearance of a near-earth post-perihelion comet.
Sixteen of the myths examined describe when the flood storm occurred in terms of seasonal indicators. Fourteen myths are from Northern Hemisphere groups, and place the event in the spring. The one from the Southern Hemisphere places it in the fall, that is, spring north of the equator. Seven stories give the time in terms of lunar phase, six at the time of the full Moon, another two days later. Stories from Africa and South America say it happened at the time of a lunar eclipse, which can only occur when the Moon is full. A 4th century BC Babylonian account specifies a full Moon in late April or early May.
Chinese sources recount how the cosmic monster Gong Gong knocked over a pillar of heaven and caused flooding toward the end of the reign of Empress Nu Wa, around 2810 BC. The 3rd century BC Egyptian historian Manetho says there was an "immense disaster" (but doesn't say what kind) during the reign of the pharaoh Semerkhet, around 2800 BC. The tomb of Semerkhet's successor, Qa'a, was built of poorly dried mud bricks and timbers showing unusual decay; the following pharaohs of the second dynasty relocated the royal cemetery to higher ground. Analysis of astrological references in multiple myths from the Middle East, India and China, describing planetary conjunctions associated with the flood storm, whose actual times of occurrence can be reconstructed using contemporary astronomy software, leads one to conclude that the event happened on or about May 10, 2807 BC.
What was it that happened?
Well it seems the myths provide clues to that, too. For one thing, they report massive rain, falling for days at a time. This turns out to be exactly what can be expected if a large comet plunged into the deep ocean, it would loft nearly ten times its mass of water into the upper atmosphere, where it would spread widely and then fall, taking days to empty the skies. A large impact in the ocean would also cause gigantic tsunamis, as many of the myths report. In India, for example, Tamil myths tell of the sea rushing 100 km inland, a hundred meters deep.
Plotting the distribution of great flood myths together with specific reported phenomena like directions from which great winds blew or tsunamis came, we find that the most efficient way to account for them is by positing a very large comet impact in the central or southern Indian Ocean. This might not account very well for flood myths in the Americas, but flooding there could have resulted from partial disintegration of the incoming comet, with two or more pieces falling on different parts of the earth over a period of hours or days. Some of the myths speak of multiple events happening in close succession. But the really big impact, the most lethal of the bunch, occurred somewhere south of Madagascar.
And this particular impact crater has in fact been found. It is 30 km wide. It is 3800 meters below the surface of the ocean, and gues what it happened between 2800 B.C. and 3000 B.C. It would have caused a 2,000,000 megaton explosion and caused a number of succesive mega tsunamis that would have been over 200 meters in height. It is called the Burckle crater and It is in the Mid Indian Ocean.
Sources:
Impact Craters as Sources of Megatsunami Generated Chevron Dunes
Verifying the Sources of Holocene Age Megatsunami Deposits
Tsunamis from Impacts
Ancient Crash, Epic Wave
Google Earth View of Burckle Crater
Further evidence of said event can be found...
Seasonal and calendrical dating of the flood.
The seasonal and lunar data within the myths are remarkably consistent. Sixteen of the 175 myths describe seasonal indicators or name an exact month. Of these, 14 are in the northern hemisphere spring (late April – May – early June), whereas one from the southern hemisphere is situated in the fall (equivalent to the northern hemisphere spring). In terms of described lunar phase, six of seven worldwide stories indicate that the flood began at the time of the full Moon, whereas the other story indicates a time two days later, the 17th day of the lunar cycle. In addition, there are stories in Africa and South America that place the flood at the time of a partial lunar eclipse, a phenomenon that only takes place at the time of a full Moon. The 4th century BC Babylonian historian, Berossos provides an exact day and month of the 15th of Daisios, which translates to the day of the full Moon in late April or early May (Verbrugghe and Wickersham 1996, p 49).
Equally striking are specific calendrical markers associated with these myths (Masse 1998, pp 64–65) from Chinese annals, and from well-dated archaeological contexts in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and elsewhere in the ancient Near East. China’s Han Dynasty chronologists provide the date of 2810 BC for the end of the reign of first empress Nu Wa (Walters 1992). Nu Wa was a supernatural woman who at the end of her reign repaired the cosmic damage and flooding caused by the red-haired horned cosmic monster Gong Gong who knocked over a pillar of heaven, upsetting the universe. It is of some interest that Nu Wa mended the sky with melted stones of many different colors, thus matching the Biblical rainbow, as do in their own way a substantive number of traditions elsewhere in the world.
The 3rd century BC Egyptian historian, Manetho, noted that during the reign of Semerkhet, 7th of the 8 kings in Egypt’s First Dynasty, “there were many extraordinary events, and there was an immense disaster” (Verbrugghe and Wickesham 1996, p 132). Although the nature of these events (also stated as “portents” in other renditions of Manetho) and disaster are not specified, there are several reasons to link them with the hypothesized Flood Comet impact. Semerkhet’s reign is around 2800 BC, based the most recent dating of the First Dynasty between ~2920 to 2770 BC (Kitchen 1991). Not only does Semerkhet have the shortest reign of the First Dynasty kings, but he is the only one to lack an elite tomb at Saqqara (Wilkinson 1999, p 80).
Semerkhet’s successor, Qa‘a, the final king of the dynasty, is of interest in two respects. One is the translation of a variant of his name as “abundance” in the sense of “flood” (Weigall 1925, p 49). The other consists of unusual aspects of his tomb at Abydos noted by its excavator, Sir Flinders Petrie. Petrie (1900, pp 14–16) documented serious wall collapse in the lesser chambers due to insufficiently dried mud bricks; wooden timbers were unusually decayed as compared with earlier tombs; the entrance passage turned at an odd angle and was closed by rough bricks; and clean white sand was placed in and around the coffins of retainers. Re-excavation in 1992 indicated that the structure apparently was built in two or more stages over a long period of time (Wilkinson 1999, p 237). These data together suggest that the tomb of Qa‘a was under construction at the time of the Flood Comet impact, suffered extensive water damage, and after a lengthy period of time was repaired and completed. This interpretation is also consonant with the fact that the succeeding kings of the 2nd dynasty abruptly shifted the location of their royal tombs at Abydos from the upper floodplain of the Nile to the nearby mesa tops, but returned to the original upper floodplain location at the end of the 2nd dynasty.
The ancient Near East exhibits a number of paleoflood deposits of various ages, typical for any region prone to flooding. Of particular interest are deposits at the ancient Mesopotamian cities of Shuruppak (modern Tell Farah), home of the legendary flood survivor, Atrahasis (Lambert and Millard 1969), and that of Kish (modern Tell Oheimer). These cities are mentioned in the famous Sumerian King list, created around 2300 BC by Enheduana, priestess of the Moon-god at Ur and daughter of King Sargon of Akkad (Postgate 1992, pp 27–28). The document lists five antediluvian cities, the last of which was Shuruppak, and then goes on to state: “After the Flood had swept over (the earth) (and) when kingship was lowered (again) from heaven, kingship was (first) in Kish” (Pritchard 1969, p 265). Sir Max Mallowan (1964) defined specific paleoflood deposits at both cities that he equated with Noah’s Flood. The current date for these flood deposits and the establishment of Kish as a major city is estimated to be around 2800 BC (Porada et al. 1992).
This is also the time of abrupt movement of at least half of the people in Palestine from valley floors to the hill country of Galilee, Samria, and Judah, only to return to the valley floor a few generations later (Mazar 1990, pp 111–113). This unique settlement pattern is accompanied throughout much of the ancient Near East by the construction or enhancement of massive walls around most settlements, suggesting unsettled times. Many curious things from an archaeological perspective occur at around 2800 BC, including the marked dispersal and migration of five major language groups in five different parts of the world, Bantu (Africa), Indo-Aryan (Near East and Europe), Uto-Aztecan (North America), Austronesian (Southeast Asia), and Gé-Pano-Carib (South America). Significantly, this date also is roughly the boundary between the middle and late Holocene climate regimes, moving from warmer and dryer to cooler and wetter conditions.
Astrological aspects of the flood are mentioned in a number of myths. For example, Peruvian and Hindu myths mention a conjunction of planets immediately prior to the flood, whereas Hopi traditions (e.g., Mails and Evehama 1995, pp 506–509) note that the previous world ended several thousand years ago when there were violent signs in the sky and when certain “stars” (presumably planets) came together in a row. The Roman philosopher, Seneca, indicated that the 4th century BC Babylonian historian, Berossus, could date the end of the world by fire and flood by calculating when all the planets would again be positioned in a row (Verbugghe and Wickersham 1996, p 66).
Aquarius, “Water Bearer,” is almost universally noted in Old World zodiacal mythology as being a source of water, with myths from China, Greece, Mesopotamia, and Egypt all specifically linking the constellation to the flood or at least some form of watery deluge (Motz and Nathanson 1988). In Greek mythology as well as in Babylonian symbolism, the asterism representing the urn carried by the Water Bear, which is located at approximately Zeta Aquarii, was the location from which the floodwaters came forth.
Pisces is of special interest due to the widespread historical astrological belief that conjunctions of planets within this sign, in particular Jupiter and Saturn, portend spectacular events and occasionally dire consequences. For example, in Biblical astrology it was predicted that another deluge would occur in the year AD 1524 when Jupiter, Saturn and Venus were in conjunction with Pisces (Allen 1963, p 341; North 1989, pp 63–68). The beginning of the modern Hindu age (yuga) of Kali after the flood, is stated by the 5th century AD Hindu astronomer, Âryabhata, as beginning at dawn on February 18, 3102 BC at a time when the naked-eye visible planets were in conjunction at 0° Aries, near the star Zeta Piscium (Pingree 1972; Gleadow 1968, pp 138, 147). A similar concept was expressed by the 9th century Arab astrologer, Albumasur, who predicted the destruction of the world when the five planets, Sun and Moon were in conjunction in the last degree of Pisces (Allen 1963, p 77). However, astronomy software demonstrates that such a conjunction of the five visible planets did not occur in 3102 BC or any year near that date.
This cluster of astrological details can be subjected to systematic analysis similar to that done for the environmental details in the flood myths described above to see if there is a logical explanation for these diverse statements. As reconstructed by astronomy software programs (RedShift Multimedia Astronomy 3.0©, TheSky, version 5©), it turns out that the year 2807 BC was highlighted by an extremely rare quadruple conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter at the boundary between Pisces and Aquarius (22 January, 26 April, 2 August, 10 November) with another such conjunction (including Venus) occurring on January 11, 2806 BC. On February 7, 2807 BC, the five planets were situated evenly in a row within Aquarius and Capricornus spaced about 10° apart from one another just before sunrise as seen in India, while on February 25 they were similarly situated in Aquarius in a row along with the Moon, spaced about 5° apart. During the middle of March at dawn, Venus and Mars were conjoined for several days with Saturn and Jupiter adjacent to Zeta Piscium. On April 25, 2807 BC there was a total eclipse of the Sun, and on May 10, 2807 BC there was a partial lunar eclipse.
The seasonal, calendrical and archaeological data form a compelling and logical story that well complements the rest of the environmental information in our sample of 175 flood myths. The principle of Occam’s razor suggests that an oceanic comet impact on or about May 10, 2807 BC more simply and better explains the combined mythology, archaeology, paleoenvironmental record and documentary history surrounding the boundary between the middle and late Holocene (ca. 2800 BC) than do our current diverse models and theories of Holocene cultural evolution and climate change.
Modeling the Flood Comet Impact Event
Based on a reading of the preliminary set of flood myths summarized above, there are several aspects of the hypothesized impactor that can be logically elicited from these details, particularly in reference to the modeling of Toon and his colleagues (Toon et al. 1994, 1997) and the web-based impact modeling programs of Melosh and Beyer (2005) and Marcus et al. (2005).
In order to model likely impact effects, it is useful to first briefly discuss the Earth’s atmosphere (Salby 1996). The atmosphere is dominated in volume by a mixture of molecular nitrogen (78%) and molecular oxygen (21%), with water vapor, carbon dioxide, ozone and other trace species comprising the remaining 1%. Although water vapor is a trace species, it plays a significant role in cloud formation, radiative processes and in energy exchanges with the oceans. About 60% of the overall water vapor is situated in the trophosphere, and then steady decreases in percentage at higher elevations. Gravity stratifies the atmosphere vertically, whereas the Earth’s rotation creates meridional stratification and the development of large-scale circulation such as airflow around centers of high and low pressure. Atmospheric pressure and density decrease exponentially with increased elevation above the Earth’s surface, but temperature varies in pronounced ways giving rise to the designations troposphere (lower atmosphere) from 0–10 km, the stratosphere (10–50 km) and mesosphere (50–85 km) of the middle atmosphere, and the thermosphere of the upper atmosphere (above 85 km). Upper troposphere circulation is characterized by subtropical jet streams, while the polar-night jet operates in the lower mesosphere. Collectively, the temperature- related layers below 100 km are termed the homosphere. In the heterosphere (100– 500 km), molecular diffusion suppresses turbulent air motions and airflow is nearly laminar. The highest layer of the atmosphere is the exosphere, in which molecular collisions are rare and in which some molecules can achieve velocities that enable them to escape the Earth’s gravity and enter deep space.
Toon et al. (1997) have noted that only limited modeling has been accomplished thus far of the potential atmospheric effects of water injection by the plume of a large abyssal oceanic impact. This was evident at the ICSU workshop in that virtually none of the presentations and papers addressed the effects and hazards of such a massive water injection.
The review and modeling of the effects of water injections in Toon et al. (1994, pp 817–821) is directly pertinent to defined effects of the hypothesized Flood Comet impact. A large comet hitting the abyssal ocean would loft an amount of water equal to about 10 times the mass of the comet into and through the middle and upper atmosphere. The latent heat of the water would cause the vapor cloud to adiabatically expand. High-altitude portions of the vapor cloud will form ice crystals that will fall downward, evaporate and humidify the lower atmosphere. Toon et al. (1994, pp 818–819) note: “Condensation after a 104 megaton impact may occur over several days, during which time the water will have been transported great distances from the impact site.” They go on to note “a water-rich atmosphere is unstable with respect to vertical motions because any descending air parcels will have a water vapor partial pressure exceeding the vapor pressure, leading to rainout of the water, latent heat release and convective mixing.” In simple terms, this means that there will be a lot of rain and very unstable atmospheric conditions. Toon et al. (1994, p 805) also note that submicron dust loading of the atmosphere caused by large terrestrial impacts may be countered by the water vapor in a large oceanic impact, and that “ice clouds formed by oceanic impacts have the potential to sweep some or all of the dust from the sky.”
The environmental data in the flood myths fit remarkably well with the above modeling for a large oceanic comet impact above the threshold for global catastrophe at or greater than 106 MT (100 gigatons). The hypothesized Flood Comet impact is associated with six or seven days of intense atmospheric rainout, accompanied by hurricane-force winds for the duration of the period of rainout. Presumably the winds and a sizeable percentage of the rainfall are part of a system of ocean-fed worldwide cyclonic storms generated and sustained by the air pressure blast wave, the impact plume, the spread of water vapor, and its subsequent rainout. The intense darkness accompanying the flood storm is an indication of the amount of submicron and larger dust grains that accompany the water injection into the atmosphere, which is then seemingly effectively removed during the process of rainout. Intriguingly, the current myth sample suggest that torrential rainfall may have been limited to mid and low latitudes between about 55° N and 55° S. The few myths outside this range do not specifically mention rainfall.
Regardless of interpretation, the impacting comet was large enough to result in a seabed crater. Myths from Greece, Mesopotamia, India and Taiwan all indicate that the flood storm originated somewhere to their south, suggesting a possible impact location in the abyssal depths of the Atlantic-Indian Basin. Prior to the ICSU workshop, I originally modeled the impact in the general vicinity of 38° east longitude and 58° south latitude, a location reasonably close to recently discovered Burckle Crater (Sect. 2.4.1). The putative diameter of abyssal Burckle Crater at around 29 km can be modeled as the impact of a comet slightly larger than 5 km in diameter and a speed of 51 km s–1 entering the ocean at an act angle of 45° (Marcus et al. 2005). The energy produced by such an impact is approximately 2 × 107 MT. Of interest is the fact that such an impact would eject rocky debris to a distance of approximately 9000 km from the impact site, which is the approximate distance in which myths mention hot or fiery water falling from the sky (Fig. 2.2).
The common motif about rainbows and other similar phenomena immediately after the flood as described in a number of our sampled myths is fully consistent with the atmospheric physics of injecting a large column of water into and through the upper atmosphere. This would have led to the formation of high altitude ice clouds, that would become visible once the atmosphere had sufficiently rained out and stabilized, including the removal of obscuring dust particles. This rainbow effect, a greatly enlarged version of the common winter halo effect around the Sun and Moon, would dissipate as the ice volatilizes.
Fig. 2.2.
Map depicting the location of Burckle Crater candidate abyssal impact structure in relation to selected environmental variables as stated in a sample of 175 “Great Flood” myths. In addition to depicting the approximate locations of the sampled flood myths themselves, the variables include the apparent direction traveled by the flood storm; hot water noted as coming from the ocean; hot water and “thick resin” noted as coming from the sky; and intense heat and ignition fires at the start of the flood storm (the latter includes a story from Egypt not in the sample of 175 myths). The figure also depicts a “hypothesized ejecta re-entry splash ring” modeled as the approximate boundary between the limits of rocky ejecta and condensed water vapor from the hypothesized Burckle Crater impact.
What does not fit the model of a single large Indian Ocean impact is the presence of a number of mega-tsunami myths from Brazil, the western coast of North America, the Arctic Ocean and in other locations outside the Indian Ocean basin. Likewise, the presence of hot or fiery water falling from the sky in several North and South American myths cannot have been caused by atmospheric re-entry ejecta from the Burckle Crater event. Myths from north-western North American describe the flood storm as coming from the north. And as noted in Sect. 2.4.1, Burckle Crater by itself cannot explain the large volume of rainfall indicated by worldwide mythology.
Not only was the Flood Comet likely composed of several fragments (Abbott et al. 2005), one may have considerably lagged behind the others. There are several stories from New Guinea and Australia about a flame or bright light witnessed oddly enough during the middle of the flood storm. One such Aboriginal Dreamtime story from Australia is as follows (Smith 1930):
An old goanna [lizard] stuck his head out [from the protective cave], but quickly withdrew it … “I have seen a wonderful sight, an awful monster with an eye as big and bright as the Moon. But wait a moment, his eye is brighter than the Moon, and nearly as bright as the Sun” … They all gathered together to discuss what they had seen, and each had a different account to give their new Intelligence that had arrived with the rain, the thunder, and the lightning. There was one thing, however, regarding which they were all agreed, and that was the brightness that shone from this formless being. Strange to say, whenever rays of light appeared to the vision of the watcher they were stamped upon his memory and also upon his body, and were plainly visible to those round about.
Also of interest along with these particular myths are descriptions of a second tsunami along the coast of New Guinea three days after the onset of the flood storm.
The internal consistency of these sets of myths from Australia and New Guinea are suggestive of a second smaller impact two or three days after the first, therefore indicating that the comet had calved into several separate fragments, perhaps in a prior perihelion passage of the Sun. Such a situation may help to explain the imagery of giant supernatural twins or companions that is prevalent in Mesopotamian, Egyptian and even Mesoamerican myth and iconography between the period of about 3200 BC to around 2650 BC (Masse 1998).
Source material taken from: Comet/asteroid impacts and human society: an interdisciplinary approach By Peter T. Bobrowsky, Hans Rickman
