Prehistory Decoded

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The dating from the carvings agrees well with timing derived from an ice core from Greenland, which pinpoints the event – probably resulting from the break-up of a giant comet in the inner solar system – to 10,890BC. M.B. Sweatman, N. Quirke and P. Pullumbi, ‘Predicting ambient temperature adsorption of gases in active carbons’, COPS VII: Aix-en-Provence, Studies in Surf. Sci. and Catal. 160, 95-103 (2006).

Dr Sweatman’s research uses theoretical methods and computer simulations of simple particles. They clearly show giant clusters of molecules with the right balance of forces can reproduce. No chemistry is involved. However, these theoretical predictions have yet to be confirmed by experiment. Sweatman’s analysis focuses on the so-called “shrines,” actually the decorated living rooms of some domestic structures, separated from the rooms devoted to food preparation and storage. They were also where the bodies were buried—literally, under the floor. Common decorations were wall paintings and installations incorporating horns, animal skulls and teeth, and high-relief plaster effigies of leopards, bucrania, and a “splayed” figure now interpreted as a stylized bear. M.I. Petaev et al., Large Pt anomaly in the Greenland ice core points to a cataclysm at the onset of Younger Dryas, PNAS 2013; 110 : 12917.

At Ancient Origins, we believe that one of the most important fields of knowledge we can pursue as human beings is our beginnings. And while some people may seem content with the story as it stands, our view is that there exist countless mysteries, scientific anomalies and surprising artifacts that have yet to be discovered and explained. This new insight has profound implications for many academic disciplines. Textbooks on the history of astronomy are hopelessly wrong, and textbooks on prehistoric culture and ice age art will need to be radically updated. Zodiacal dating Martin interprets this image in three significantly different ways. First as a wolf, identified as the constellation Lupus, one of the eight figures on Pillar 43 that form the foundation of his statistical analysis. Second, as a fox, which he equates with the northern asterism of Aquarius, and uses as one link of a tangled chain of logic that ultimately verifies the importance of the Taurid meteor stream to the Gobekli Tepe astronomers. Third, he interprets a damaged image on Pillar 38 as an aurochs, also a critical element in the Taurid-radiant argument, and doubles down on that identification in his rebuttal: Their focus on osmium is curious. While it is true that asteroids – that originate from the asteroid belt in the inner solar system – tend to be rich in osmium, and osmium enhancement is therefore a good indicator of an asteroid strike, the same is not known to be generally true for comets. Yet the prevailing model of the Younger Dryas impact involves a highly fragmented comet, not an asteroid. It seems, then, that Sun et al.’s strategy is likely to lead to confusion. We’ll return to this issue later when we discuss their results.

On July 31 st 2020, Sun et al. published a paper in Science Advances [1] that suggests the Younger Dryas cooling event nearly 13000 years ago was triggered by the Laacher See volcanic eruption rather than a cosmic impact, the usual explanation. Until now, over 60 primary peer-reviewed journal papers together with dozens of supporting responses all agree the Younger Dryas event was caused by Earth’s collision with debris from a disintegrating comet. Only one paper has previously suggested it was caused by the Laacher See volcanic explosion – and that paper was thoroughly refuted only a year later. Sweatman, however, regards his mistakes as irrelevant. I pointed out that up to six of his eight identifications could be second-ranked (i.e., wrong) without affecting his conclusions. He proudly agreed, and claimed that was evidence of the strength of his statistical case; in fact, it’s a red flag that his methodology may be detached from reality. I pointed out that the “aurochs” on Pillar 38 was a fox. His reply: “It is rational…given our preceding statistical case, which provides the necessary confidence, to interpret it as an aurochs.” In other words, damn the facts, we’ve got stats. That is circular reasoning, and it’s also a pretty good summary of this paper’s approach. The goal of Ancient Origins is to highlight recent archaeological discoveries, peer-reviewed academic research and evidence, as well as offering alternative viewpoints and explanations of science, archaeology, mythology, religion and history around the globe. We know this because, at last, we can read an extremely ancient code assumed by scholars to be nothing more than depictions of wild animals. A code hiding in plain sight that reveals we have hardly changed in 40,000 years. A code that changes everything.

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Or, perhaps instead, the platinum and osmium abundances are patchy – the so-called “nugget” effect. Essentially, clumps of these rare metals – probably bound-up inside other kinds of particle, might have been distributed unevenly across the floor of the cave shortly after the impact event. Or perhaps both explanations are correct – perhaps the undulating nature of the boundary, the different physical pathways through the environment of osmium and platinum, and the nugget effect are all in play here. Another complicating factor in the interpretation of Hall’s Cave is that volcanic eruptions can also produce abundances of platinum group metals, since these metals are more highly concentrated in Earth’s interior than its crust. So, by focussing on osmium, Sun et al. seem to be deliberately muddying the water, as osmium by itself cannot be used to distinguish between a volcanic eruption and a cosmic impact, especially if caused by a comet. M.B. Sweatman and L. Lue ‘The giant SALR cluster fluid: a review’, Advanced Theory and Simulations 1, 1900025 (2019). M.B. Sweatman and D. Tsikritsis, ‘Comment on ‘More than a vulture: A response to Sweatman and Tsikritsis”, Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry 17, 57-70 (2017).

Researchers from the University of Edinburgh suggest the images were intended as a record of the cataclysmic event, and that a further carving showing a headless man may indicate human disaster and extensive loss of life.And suddenly, aurochs equals bison equals Capricornus. Sweatman even explicitly permits himself to make no distinction between aurochs and bison in his later statistical test; however, the Paleolithic peoples clearly did make the distinction, as both aurochs and bison images are present together in many of the caves he uses. Do both represent Capricornus, even when they occur in the same cave? Bear in mind also that aurochs=Capricornus is a junk identification based on an error, carried forward from the GT paper. Furthermore, abundances of magnetic microspherules, containing over 85% iron, have been found at the Younger Dryas boundary layer in various locations, strongly indicating a cosmic impact and contra-indicating a volcanic eruption. Quite simply, it is impossible for a volcanic eruption to produce these iron-rich particles. My immediate concern was not, however, the heretical possibility that our constellations might be much older than conventionally thought, because I knew that ‘conventional’ scholarship was rarely scientific and easily wrong. Indeed, as a scientist, I am constantly ‘on the lookout’ for evidence that breaks convention. This might be surprising. Contrary to what some people think, scientists are generally not part of an establishment conspiracy. The best results, for scientists, are not those that confirm the conventional view, but rather the contradictory or unexplainable ones. This is where there is most to gain, if you dare to look.