Stoneage apocalypse

[Greg Boyles]

Just watching this doco: http://topdocumentar...age-apocalypse/

 

 

 

Was thinking that, assuming this really did occur, that it could be the source of the biblical adam and eve creation myth and other similar myths.

 

It could be a highly distorted and symbolised account of real events that have been passed down through thousands of generations, where stoneage survivors did indeed find a realtively unaffected region that allowed them to survive.

Edited October 27, 2011 by Greg Boyles

[granpa]

as bad as toba was it pales in comparison to whatever caused these:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tektite

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australite

 

most scientists believe that australites formed during a large asteroid or comet impact on the Earth. The impact ejected myriads of small rocks right out of the atmosphere. The australites acquired their streamlined, aerodynamic forms when they re-entered the Earth's atmosphere while molten and travelling at high velocities.

 

Edited October 27, 2011 by granpa

[Greg Boyles]

as bad as toba was it pales in comparison to whatever caused these:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tektite

http://en.wikipedia....wiki/Australite

 

 

 

 

Interesting.

 

Not yet having looked at the links, did these occur during the stoneage?

[granpa]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australasian_strewnfield

 

The Australasian strewnfield, covering at least one-tenth of the Earth's surface, is the largest and the youngest of the tektite strewnfields. The 800,000 year-old strewnfield includes most of Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Thailand, Southern China, Laos and Cambodia). The material from the impact stretches across the ocean to include the islands of the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Java and reaches far out into the Indian Ocean and south to the western side of Australia.

 

The impact crater may have been between 32 and 114 kilometres in diameter. Also, some recent estimates suggest that the strewn field may cover 30% of the earths surface (Povenmire et al.).

[Moontanman]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australasian_strewnfield

 

The Australasian strewnfield, covering at least one-tenth of the Earth's surface, is the largest and the youngest of the tektite strewnfields. The 800,000 year-old strewnfield includes most of Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Thailand, Southern China, Laos and Cambodia). The material from the impact stretches across the ocean to include the islands of the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Java and reaches far out into the Indian Ocean and south to the western side of Australia.

 

The impact crater may have been between 32 and 114 kilometres in diameter. Also, some recent estimates suggest that the strewn field may cover 30% of the earths surface (Povenmire et al.).

 

 

So no, these impacts did not occur at the same time as the human genetic bottle neck 75,000 years ago?

[granpa]

human beings go back at least 1.5 million years

[Moontanman]

human beings go back at least 1.5 million years

 

 

The OT was something that happened 75,000 years ago, you said the youngest of the impacts was 800,000 years ago, not the same...

[granpa]

the topic was:

 

the source of the biblical adam and eve creation myth and other similar myths.

[Moontanman]

the topic was:

 

 

Did you not read the link that went with the OT?

 

Some 75,000 years ago, something apocalyptic occurred that left relative few humans alive to carry on the species.

The cause of this bottleneck is now believed to have been a massive volcanic eruption on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

A super-eruption from the site of Lake Toba in Sumatra blasted out more than two hundred cubic miles of ash over an area of over a million square miles.

This program investigates the devastating aftermath of the most powerful volcano of the last twenty-five million years – including the theory that it triggered a human genetic bottleneck leaving a tiny band, as low as a few thousand survivors to preserve the human race – and looks at the threat of super-volcanoes in the 21st century.

[granpa]

go troll someone else.

[Moontanman]

go troll someone else.

 

I'm a troll... moi?

 

BTW grandpa, if you think I'm trolling you I suggest you report me, because name calling is indeed against the rules...

Edited October 27, 2011 by Moontanman

[JohnB]

Was thinking that, assuming this really did occur, that it could be the source of the biblical adam and eve creation myth and other similar myths.

 

It could be a highly distorted and symbolised account of real events that have been passed down through thousands of generations, where stoneage survivors did indeed find a realtively unaffected region that allowed them to survive.

 

Greg, it's possible. I think it unlikely though simply on the grounds of age. 75,000 years is a long time to carry those myths.

 

I've wondered about the origins of the myths myself and tend to lean towards a more recent genesis. The Holocene Impact Working Group suggest the Burkle Crater in the Indian Ocean as a source. A cometary impact somewhere between 2,800 and 3,000 BC, it ties in well with legends from the time and after as a probable cause for many creation and flood myths.

 

An interesting extra is that the comet that made the Burkle Crater is hypothesised to have missed us the first time and struck on the way out of the Solar System. Since a comets tail always points away from the Sun this means that as it came closer the tail would have been seen as a large, bright snake of light in the sky, getting brighter and larger every night until the impact. I do wonder if this is the genesis for both Dragons and the universal view that comets are bad omens since both these ideas seem to date from prehistory.

 

I think it would be very interesting to see a Planetarium reconstruction of what such an event would have looked like from the ground. I sometimes look up at the night sky and try to visualise it, the sky being split by a bright ribbon of light constantly growing brighter. Just imagining it is scary, it would have paniced early humans to actually see it. (It would panic me if I saw it! )

[granpa]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greek_flood_myths

 

Greek mythology knows four floods, the sinking of Atlantis, the flood of Dardanus, the flood of Ogyges, and the flood of Deucalion. Two of these ended two of the Ages of Man: the Ogygian Deluge ended the Silver Age, and the flood of Deucalion ended the First Bronze Age

 

 

http://www.uib.es/depart/dctweb/LuisPomar/Luis/GreatFlood-controversy.pdf

 

Controversy over the great flood hypotheses in the Black Sea in light of

geological, paleontological, and archaeological evidence

 

Edited October 28, 2011 by granpa

[Essay]

An interesting extra is that the comet that made the Burkle Crater is hypothesised to have missed us the first time and struck on the way out of the Solar System. Since a comets tail always points away from the Sun this means that as it came closer the tail would have been seen as a large, bright snake of light in the sky, getting brighter and larger every night until the impact. I do wonder if this is the genesis for both Dragons and the universal view that comets are bad omens since both these ideas seem to date from prehistory.

 

 

Hey Cool! That sounds like the information that I was wondering about....

 

http://www.sciencefo...post__p__633161

 

New Trends in Soil Micromorphology

Kapur, S., Mermut, A. R., Stoops, Georges

Published: 2008

LC Call Number: S593.2 /.N48 /2008

Hardcover, ISBN 978-3-540-79133-1

 

 

"...have allowed us to interpret the 4kyr BP dust-event as the fallout of a distal impact-ejecta rather than a sudden drought.

 

"...link the fallout of the far-traveled dust with high temperature effects at the soil surface and violent deflation of surface horizons by high speed winds."

 

"Results are based on soil data from the Eastern Khabur basin (North-East Syria), the Vera Basin (Spain), and the lower Moche Valley (West Peru) compared with a new study at the reference site of Ebeon (West France)."

 

"In the four regions studied, the intact 4kyr BP signal is identified as a discontinuous burnt soil surface with an exotic dust assemblage assigned to the distal fallout of an impact-ejecta."

 

"Studies showed how a high quality signal allows [discrimination of] the short-term severe landscape disturbances linked to the exceptional 4 kyr BP dust event from more gradual environmental changes triggered by climate shift at the same time."

 

I wasn't sure if this might be the first evidence on an impact event, but other's are on the trail it seems.

 

That idea of a tail hitting before the impact might explain some of those similar (heating and deflation) observations, which are so widespread.

 

Thanks!

~

 

p.s. &.. Thanks for the graph Grandpa; as I notice the big dip at 4kyr BP....

[Greg Boyles]

human beings go back at least 1.5 million years

 

1.5 million to 800,00 years ago was the time of our ape like ancestors Australopithecus which had not yet developed language.

 

Hence it it would be more likely that the garden of eden myth etc originated from 75,000 years ago when our ancestors had most likely developed at least rudimentray language.

Edited October 28, 2011 by Greg Boyles

[granpa]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_erectus

 

Homo erectus (from the Latin ērĭgĕre, "to put up, set upright") is an extinct species of hominid that lived from the end of the Pliocene epoch to the later Pleistocene, about 1.8 to 1.3 million years ago

[Greg Boyles]

http://en.wikipedia....ki/Homo_erectus

 

Homo erectus (from the Latin ērĭgĕre, "to put up, set upright") is an extinct species of hominid that lived from the end of the Pliocene epoch to the later Pleistocene, about 1.8 to 1.3 million years ago

 

 

Fair enough,, Australopithecus was earlier still.

 

But futher down that Wikipedia page:

 

The discovery of Turkana boy (H. ergaster) in 1984 gave evidence that, despite its Homo-sapiens-like anatomy, it may not have been capable of producing sounds comparable to modern human speech. Ergaster likely communicated in a proto-language lacking the fully developed structure of modern human language but more developed than the non-verbal communication used by chimpanzees.