'White Temple ziggurat in Uruk' by tobeytravels (CCBYSA.20)

There is substantial evidence that there were widespread climatic and cultural catastrophes near the approximate dates of 3200bce (5.2kya) and 2200bce (4.2kya). This study focuses very narrowly on solely these catastrophe periods and their subsequent recovery periods. It appears that these catastrophes included numerous and possibly interconnected climatic/oceanic/meteoritic/volcanic episodic events. However, this observation should not be confused with Velikovski’s theories as he proposes entirely different dates and mechanisms than the available data suggest.

Additionally, there seems to be evidence of a subsequent recovery of civilization in around 3000bce (5.0kya) and 2000bce (4.0kya) after the former clusters of catastrophic events.

This is the sequence of events that I propose:

  • circa 3200bce – Multi-Regional Catastrophes and Collapse of Uruk of Mesopotamia and Indian Cities
  • circa 3000bce – Rebuilding of Civilization and Cultural Diffusion
  • circa 2200bce – Multi-Regional Catastrophes and Collapse of Egyptian Old Kingdom, Harrapan Culture, Canaanite Settlements, Malta and Akkad
  • circa 2000bce – Cultural Revivals, Migrations and Social Reorganizations

Furthermore, the catastrophic events clustered around the dates 3200bce and 2200bce do not appear to have been uniform, global events such as a global flood myth, for example. Rather it seems that they were a complex combination of different types of episodic events in different regions on the earth with possible cause and effect relationships. For example, a meteorite impact in one region on earth could have triggered vulcanism in another, which, in turn, triggered cooling in another, which, in turn, triggered drought in another region while triggering flooding in a different region. There also appear to have been sequential drought and flood events in certain regions.

I have been interested by ancient cultures for nearly all of my life as a hobby. As I have read more and more, I have noticed that many ancient cultural events that I read about from different parts of the world appeared to occur near the dates 3200bce and 2200bce and so I started cataloging them. These included the formation of cities around 3000bce in Mesopotamia and, later, the collapse of many cultures like the Old Kingdom of Egypt around 2200bce. These events may not have been worldwide in scope, but they do appear to have been multi-regional.

Graham Hancock has extensively researched another date, 10,500bce, in which many other synchronous events appear to have occurred around the globe at the end of the last great ice age [27].

In “Beyond the Younger Dryas – Collapse as Adaptation to Abrupt Climate Change in Ancient West Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean,” Dr Harvey Weiss of Yale University describes four early Holocene abrupt climate changes in 10,800, 6,200, 3200 and 2200 bce.[1] These coincide precisely with the dates that Mr. Hancock and myself have taken an interest in. Dr. Weiss also describes another event around 6200bce that significantly influenced the development of the ancient Egyptian culture.

Please note that the date estimates cited below from the scientific literature probably have an associated range of error of 50-300 years. But this is not a bad thing. This is a reality of measurement science. Given this range of error, any date in the range of 3000-3500 ( 3100 and 3400 for example) could actually be expressing a similar date of around 3200bce plus-or-minus the range of error. The consideration of precision and accuracy of measurement is something that those outside the field of science sometimes have difficulty with. The archeological context has to be used sometimes to place events in a more precise sequence. On the other hand, date estimates of say 3000 and 4000 are clearly different dates. Applying the upper limit of the error range, 3000 actually represents a range of 3000-300=2700 to 3000+300=3300 or 2700-3300 whereas the same treatment of the date 4000 yields the range 3700-4300 which does not overlap with the previous range and therefore is clearly related to a different time period. Reference [128] in the bibliography provides some very helpful examples if this is new to you.


Approximately 10,800-9,600bce – End of The Pleistocene/Start of the Holocene Era

This period marks the end of the Younger Dryas cold event described by Weiss[1] and Adams[116] which resulted in the well-known Pleistocene kill off. Afterwards there was a sudden warming event concentrated into a single period of under 15 years which is thought to have caused widespread coastal flooding. In “Underworld” and other his works, Graham Hancock has comprehensively described archeological finds and catastrophic events around 10,500bce that indicate a human response to these. Therefore, I will not repeat that information here, but refer you to his book, instead.

Approximately 6,200bce – Climate Change Promotes Rise of Agriculture

It appears that a second abrupt Holocene climate change occurred around 6,200bce (at least in Africa) that may have been caused by the development of agriculture. However, this climate change may not have been catastrophic in human terms in contrast with the others. In fact, this marked a transition to an extremely wet period in Africa which may have further encouraged the rise of agriculture [17]. Recent finds such as the Sahara Stonehenge, dating to 4000-4500bce, indicate that there may have been a highly-developed civilization in what is now the Saharan Desert [43]. However, it is thought that the Saharan culture became unsustainable when, after this agricultural boom, the desertification of the Sahara began around 5000bce and completed around 3000bce [14]. Archeological evidence indicates that some of the people of the once-tropical Saharan region migrated east and merged with the riverine culture of the Nile River resulting in a cultural/technological enrichment of the ancient Egyptian culture that we are all familiar with. [2]


Approximately 3,200bce – Multi-Regional Catastrophes and Collapse of Uruk of Mesopotamia and Indian Cities

The approximate date 3200bce marks the first cluster of events that seized my attention. I believe this date may mark the simultaneous occurrence of multi-regional catastrophic events around the world.

In the early decades of archeology, archeologists pointed to the centuries following this date as the appearance of the “first” highly-urbanized centers in Sumeria and Egypt. Additionally, this date had significance in the Mayan calendar and in the mythology of India. This synchonicity of cultural events in Egypt, Sumeria, India and the Yucatan first gave me the idea of possible global connections. More recently, contemporaneous advanced urban centers in Syria have also been found.

However, I now wonder if the traditional interpretations of these finds have been in error and these are merely the oldest highly-urban centers that remain above water and within the reach of our archeological technology in the desert sands. My hypothesis is that the cluster of urban centers built around 3000bce may represent the rebuilding of civilization after a major catastrophe that erased all traces of earlier sites. Therefore, I suggest that these sites dating to around 3000bce are merely the oldest that remain for us to find as opposed to the actual first locations of highly-urbanized civilization. Older coastal cities may be currently under water and therefore undiscovered. Older inland cities may still be buried in the Sahara, the Gobi or the deserts of Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, or Peru.

At least two epic floods in the Middle East preceded this series of catastrophes and are unrelated. These flood events were caused by melting of the icecaps. The Black Sea flood of 5500bce occurred when the Mediterranean Sea broke through the Bosporus and flooded a fresh water lake and the basin surrounding it.[115] The Flandrian Transgression caused the flooding the Persian Gulf in 5000-4000bce when sea water breached the Straits of Hormuz and gave rise to the flood myth of Gilgamesh and probably the Biblical Eden. [111] Either could have been the source of the Biblical flood of Noah.

Here are some of the significant events that I have observed that occurred around the approximate date of 3200bce and perhaps are, in some complex manner, connected:

General

  • 3200bce: Early Holocene abrupt climate change 3200bce [1]
  • 3100bce: Atlantic Ocean -widespread cooling by 1° to 2°C [35]
  • 3000bce: End the Holocene Climatic Optimum [124]

Americas

  • 3500-3300bce: South Carolina, USA – evidence of a sudden sea level rise around 3500bce and then a rapid 2 meter drop in 3400-3300bce. [3]
  • 3200bce: Peru – glacial ice core indicates abrupt and very large-scale climatic event [24]
  • 3200bce: glaciers in both Peru and Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro indicate extreme drought [14]
  • 3200bce: New Mexico, USA – Carrizozo lava flow [63]
  • 3114bce: Yucatan – Mayan god, Tezcatilpoca, brought a flood to destroy mankind and ending the previous age. [45]
  • 3000bce: America – El Nino Event [51]
  • 3000bce: America – Osceola mudflow at Mt. Rainier, Wa [52]
  • 3000bce: Columbia – San Lorenzo fault line formed [92]
  • 3000bce: North Carolina, USA – Sudden cooling caused decline of settlements [119]

Africa

  • 3500-3200bce: Nile River, Egypt – drier period at about 3500 BCE followed by a short wet spike at about 3200 BCE [25]
  • 3450bce Africa – Abrupt termination of the African Humid Period [60]
  • 3000bce: Egypt – Lake Chad one hundred feet higher until 3000 BCE [25]
  • 3000bce: Termination of African humid period [14]
  • 3000bce: Egypt – Sudden 1/2 meter rise of Red Sea [59]
  • 3000bce: Africa – Sudan’s the Meidob volcanoes erupted about 3000BC and 3050BC [121

Middle East

  • 3200-3000bce: Mesopotamia – late Uruk society collapsed suddenly [37]
  • 3200-3000bce:Mesopotamia – Soreq Cave and Gulf of Oman sediments indicate abrupt climate change [34]
  • 3200bce: Aegean Sea – sea surface temperature and seabed oxygen level reached modern value after a change [62]
  • 3000bce: Turkey – aridity indicated by wind-blown quartz deposited in Lake Van at source of Tigris River[35]
  • 3000bce: Turkey – Lake Van showed 30-60 meter fall in the water level.[36]
  • 3000bce: Canaan – Dead Sea water level dropped 100 meters[36]
  • 3000bce: Oman – Apparent reduction of large-scale agriculture [96][97]
  • 3000bce: Baltic Sea – Kaali meteorite must have hit the island of Saaremaa causing it to rise above sea level [113]

India

  • 3200bce: India – cities of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa, were almost completely abandoned [36]
  • 3100bce: India – legend that Dwarka became submerged and Krishna died [16]
  • 3051bce: India – Mahabharata War in Ancient India.

East Asia

  • 3000bce: Japan – End of early Jomon cultural era (started 8000-10,000bce) [89]

Europe

  • 3200bce: Romania – Cave stalagmite O-18 depletion indicates cold event [61]
  • 3117bce English Megalith alignment [48]
  • 3000bce: Sweden/Ireland/Norway – peak in micro-meteorites in peat bogs [49]
  • 3000bce: Australia/Poland – impact craters [6]
  • 3000bce: Denmark – Rapid sediment accumulation in forest [74]

Approximately 3000bce – Rebuilding of Civilization and Cultural Diffusion

Afterwards this series of apparent catastrophes, there appears to be significant evidence of the new Pacific weather patterns and the appearance of new cities and cultures, and ancient monuments and what could have been a great rebuilding of human civilization. Most of the climatic events appear to have been episodic and normal environmental conditions returned in the following centuries.

Of particular interest to me is the fact that in both America (3114bce) and India (3102bce) new calendars are started to mark the commencement of a new age of man immediately following legendary floods. In stark contrast to floods, Egypt and Mesopotamia simultaneously begin recovering from devastating droughts. Corn spreads out of Panama throughout America and appears simultaneously in archeological sites in China. Furthermore, evidence of the Jomon culture of ancient Japan is evident on the coast of South America. And even more dramatically, the transition of the copper to bronze age goes into full swing in both Greece and China. The oceans and weather patterns stablize and sea travel blooms. Driven together by the previous drought, the Saharan and Nile cultures combine in Egypt and a technological revolution resulted. New cultures and cities rise in Peru and Mesopotamia. Likewise new technologies of ceramics and architecture flourished all over the civilized world at this time in a renaissance that may have been the legendary golden age that Greek historians referred to later.

General

  • 3000bce: After rising continuously since LGM, the rate of sea-level reached present-day level and was 2 degrees warmer [94]
  • 3000bce: Copper was being refined by charcoal furnaces[126]
  • 3000bce: Cargo water craft gained widespread use[126]

Americas

  • 3114bce: Yucatan – Mayan Long Count A begins on August 13, 3114 BCE [26]
  • 3024bce: Mexico – Oldest clamshell mound in Americas at Chiapas [50]
  • 3000bce: Greenland – Minimum reached in ice sheet followed by readvancement [95]
  • 3000bce: Earliest record of corn production in Belize, New Mexico and Arizona
  • 3000bce: El Salvador – Pipil tribe arrives [131]
  • 3000bce: Mexico – Excavations in the Tehuacán valley in central Mexico have uncovered small cobs of Zea mays/maize [132]
  • 3000bce: Corn introduced into US southwest from Mesoamerica [112]
  • 3000bce: Ecuador – Jomon (Japan) style pottery found on Valdivian coast of Ecuador [98][99][123]
  • 3000bce: Peru – Huaca Prieta site on the Chicama River in Peru dates from about 3000bce
  • 3000bce: Peru -Rise of Norte Chico major residential and ceremonial centers [87]
  • 3000bce: Central Andes – Start of ceramic period [120]
  • 3000bce: Alaska – Deposition of Yukon sediment significantly increased in the Bering Sea [91]
  • 3000bce: North American – end of post-Pleistocene warming affected cultural development of midwest tribes [93]
  • 3000bce: Brazil – Manioc agriculture was intensive in the eastern Amazonian lowlands [110]
  • 3000bce: Peanuts and maize have been found at ancient Chinese sites dating back to 3000bce[123]
  • 2800bce: Panama – Monagrillo ceramics are made for many hundreds of years. [132]
  • 2627bce: Peru -Moche city of Caral in Peru peaked after rise of culture since 3000bce

Africa

  • 3000bce: Bricks first used in Egypt and Assyrian cultures[125]
  • 3000bce: Egypt – The first dynasty started with the reign of King Narmer and unification of upper & lower Egypt
  • 3000bce: Egypt – Herdsmen in Egypt attempted domestication of animals[136]
  • 2980bce: The first pyramid in Egypt [77]
  • 2780bce: Egypt – Imhotep designs step pyramid for King Zoser [125]
  • 2700bce: Egypt – Cheops builds great pyramid [125]
  • 2700bce: Egypt – Potters wheel reaches Egypt from Asia Minor[126]

Middle East

  • 3100bce: Mesopotamia – Highly-urban phase of Sumer [109]
  • 3000bce: Mesopotamia – Wheeled vehicles in use [126]
  • 3000bce: Bricks first used in Egypt and Assyrian cultures[125]
  • 3000bce: Mesopotamia – Sumerians arrive and organize under king Etana [126]
  • 3000bce: Early dynastic period of Uruk/Sumer founded [72] [73]
  • 3000bce Lebanon – Phoenicians arrive in Lebanon [46]
  • 3000bce: Syria – Outer wall of Rujm el-Hiri aligned with solstice[76]
  • 3000bce: Oman- appearance of new pottery style [80]
  • 3000bce: Asia Minor – Horses, asses and camels in use [126]
  • 3000bce: Kurgans first horse riders [134]
  • 2900bce: Mari, Syria rises in 2900bce as advanced metallurgical center
  • 2800bce: Mesopotamia – Rise of the Sumerian cities [109]
  • 2750-2600bce:Mesopotamia – Gilgamesh king of Uruk, Sumeria Gilgamesh epic includes flood story.[53][125]
  • 2750bce: Founding of Tyre, according to Herodotus.
  • 2700bce: Oldest historical king of Kish, Mebaragesi, overthrew Elamite invaders

India

  • 3102bce: India – 18 February 3102 BC is day 0 according to the Surya Siddhanta, is basis of Hindu and Buddhist calendars. [122]

Far East

  • 3000bce: South Pacific weather patterns stabilized to their modern patterns [69]
  • 3000bce: monsoon rains were stronger between 10,000 and 5000 years ago than they are today.[107]
  • 3000bce: Abacus developed [75]
  • 3000bce: South India: Introduction of pottery [82]
  • 3000bce: Nusantao maritime trading network between Taiwan, coastal South China and Northern Viet Nam developed[88]
  • 3000bce: Peanuts and maize have been found at ancient Chinese sites dating back to 3000bce[123]
  • 3000bce: Japan – Start of Jomon Middle cultural era; huge population explosion [89]
  • 3000bce: China – Silk first produced [135]
  • 2697bce: China – Huang-ti, “Yellow Emperor” [125]

Europe

  • 2900bce: First construction at Stonehenge completed [57]

Approximately 2200bce – Multi-Regional Catastrophes and Collapse of Egyptian Old Kingdom, Harrapan Culture, Canaanite Settlements, Malta and Akkad

A millennium later, another series of catastrophic events happened around 2200bce and had a tremendous affect on humanity. Drought again devastates Egypt and Mesopotamia and this time China experiences its epic flood preceeding a drought.

General

  • 2354bce: Tree-ring data indicates global climate crises[12]
  • 2200bce: Early holocene abrupt climate change 3200bce [1]
  • 2200bce: Aridification, dust, and cooling event that is marked in more than 30 regions.[18]
  • 2000bce: Atlantic Ocean – major disruption of circulation pattern[19]

Americas/Greenland/Iceland

  • 2500bce: Iceland – Evidence of major volcanic activity [22]
  • 2500bce: Gulf of Mexico – End of period of very high flow of Caribbean waters into GOM [64]
  • 2350bce: Iceland – Tree rings show a minimal growth of trees linked to a volcano in Iceland. [31]
  • 2300bce: Peru – Drought indicated by contemporaneous dust events in ice cores from Kilimanjaro and Huascara´n in Peru [58]
  • 2200bce: Greenland – Ice sheet shows layer of volcanic dust
  • 2000bce: Argentina – Impact craters [6]
  • 2200bce: Peru – Major Amazon basin drought indicated by glaciers [29]
  • 2200bce: Chile – Formation of Punta Dungeness formation in Strait of Magellan [67]
  • 2200bce: Alaska, USA – Significant change in vegetation [68]
  • 2200bce: South Carolina, USA – Holocene highstand of relative sea level identified in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina.[71]

Egypt

  • 2350bce: Egypt -Unas Causeway carving shows emaciated people weakened by famine and dying of hunger [30]
  • 2270bce: Egypt – collapse of the Old Kingdom.
  • 2150bce: Egypt – Lake Faiyum, a lake of some 65 meters dried up [47]
  • 2150bce: Nigeria- dust deposition from Kajemarum Oasis indicates shift in weather pattern[47]
  • 2000bce: Aridification near sources of Nile, Tigris and Euphrates, Indus, and Yellow Rivers [19]
  • 2000bce: Kenya – Lake Turkana abruptly changed from an open to a closed basin around 2000 BC. [102]

Middle East

  • 2300-2200bce: Mesopotamia – Disappearance of oil lamps indicates agricultural failure and shortage of olive oil. [7]
  • 2300-2200bce: Syria – Tell Beydar in northeast Syria, ruled by the Akkadians, abandoned[13]
  • 2300-2100bce:Lebanon – Phoenicians are among a wave of Semitic migration that enters the Fertile Crescent [33]
  • 2300-2000bce: Canaan – Dating of destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah [38]
  • 2300-2200bce: Akkadian empire, Egyptian Old Kingdom, Harappan 3B Indus valley, and the Early Bronze 64 civilizations of Palestine, Greece and Crete all
    reached their economic peak at about 2300 bce, but were abruptly terminated before 2200 bce by catastrophic drought [37]
  • 2200bce: Mesopotamia – sea-floor dust proves 300 year drought ended Akkadian empire [11]
  • 2200bce: Mesopotamia – Curse of Akkad mentions flaming potsherds raining from the sky.[4]
  • 2200bce: Mesopotamia – 300-year long drought followed by deposition of volcanic dust in 2200 B.C. [25]
  • 2200bce: Syria – Tell Leilan in Syria linked to collapse of Mesopotamian civilization [19]
  • 2200bce: Syria – mid-construction abandonment of the Unfinished Building in Tel Lielan [38]
  • 2200bce: Canaan – Dead Sea level drops dramatically and never recovers [20]
  • 2200bce: Malta – destruction of Malta by flood [27]
  • 2200bce: Canaan – 20% drop in rainfall and hundreds of settlements abandoned [4] [28]
  • 2180bce: Syria – Tell Leilan evidence for Akkadian empire collapse [32]
  • 2100bce: UAE – Lake Awafi, Ras al-Khaimah dried and filled with sand [70]
  • 2000bce: Aridification near sources of Nile, Tigris and Euphrates, Indus, and Yellow Rivers [19]
  • 2000bce: Iraq – impact craters in Al ’Amarah marshes of Iraq [2][105]
  • 2000bce: Mesopotamia – fall of the last Sumerian dynasty [8]

India

  • 2200bce: India/Pakistan – Harappan culture transition from urban to rural [65]
  • 2200bce: India/Pakistan – O-18 evidence of drought event [65]
  • 2000bce: South India: Introduction of Indus Valley pottery style [82]
  • 1900-1800bce: India/Pakistan – Harappan culture in the Indus Valley collapsed [19]

Far East

  • 2400-2000bce: China – famous historic flood followed by aridification in 2000bce [19]
  • 2000-1500bce: West China cold event [19]
  • 2200bce: In south Asia, the Indian monsoon that provides 80% of the Nile flow was deflected [18]
  • 2000bce: China – collapse of Neolithic cultures [19]
  • 2200bce: Asia – Largest change in south Asian monsoon system in entire Holocene.[66]
  • 2000bce: China – Caucasian Loulan mummies in Taklimakan Desert of Xinjiang, China in the driest, saltiest part of Central Asia [106]
  • 2000bce: Aridification near sources of Nile, Tigris and Euphrates, Indus, and Yellow Rivers [19]

Europe/Scandanavia

  • 2300bce: Sweden/Ireland/Norway – peak in micro-meteorites in peat bogs [49]
  • 2300bce: North Sea – Intense inland sand transport indicating massive storms [39]
  • 2290bce: Ireland – evidence of volcanic activity preserved in bogs [21]
  • 2200bce: Europe – mini-ice age [28]
  • 2200bce: Jutland – intense movement of coastal sand by water erosion[39]
  • 2000bce: Northumberland, England – coastal dune development indicates massive North Sea storms [15]
  • 2000bce: Romania – Cave stalagmite O-18 depletion indicates cold event [61]

Approximately 2000bce – Cultural Revivals, Migrations and Social Reorganizations

Afterwards the 2200bce catastrophe, there appears to be significant evidence of the appearance of new cities and cultures, and ancient monuments appear in what could have been a revitalization of surviving cultures and migration of cultures into new areas including the Beaker people arriving in England. This time period includes the biblical narrative of the migration of Abraham who was born about this time according to many scholars. Genesis refers to multiple droughts during Abraham’s lifetime.

However, the return to “normal” climate circa 2000bce may have also triggered the end of cultures who had relocated to the regions where the rainfall temporarily shifted during the climatic upsets of 2200bce. For example, the Caucasian Loulan mummies found in China’s Taklimakan Desert date to this time. [42]

Americas

  • 2000bce: Guatamala – Proposed date of start of Mayan pre-classical period
  • 2000bce: Ecuador – Structures at Santa Ana- La Florida in the south of Ecuador may belong to one first great Amazon-Andean civilizations [79]
  • 2000bce: Peru – Earliest settlements on islands of Lake Titicaca [84]
  • 2000bce: Mexico – Origins of Teotihuacan [83]
  • 2000bce: El Salvador – Olmecs first appear in Chalchuapa in western El Salvador [130]

Africa

  • 2100-2080bce: Start of Egypt’s Middle Kingdom [77]

Middle East

  • 2125bce: Neosumerian period/ziggurat construction phase started at Ur [73]
  • 2100bce: Pyramids in Greece[81]
  • 2025bce: Mesopotamia – First Babylonian empire formed by Amorites [85] [126]
  • 2000bce: Mesopotamia – Cuniform tablet: “The Curse of Agade: The Ekur Avenged” [117]
  • 2006bce: Mesopotamia – Cuniform tablet: “Lamentation over the Destruction of Ur”[117] [118]
  • 2000bce: Mesopotamia – Cuniform tablet: “Lamentation over the Destruction of Nippur”[117]
  • 2000bce: The first agricultural tribes appeared on the Bactrian Plain (Afghanistan). (NG, 3/90, p.62)
  • 2100-1800bce: Abraham born in Ur [78][103][125]

Far East

  • 2100bce: China – Start of Xia/Shang Dynasty. (Later thought to have influenced Olmec in Mesoamerica)[77] [104]
  • 2000bce: Japan – Jomon culture flourished [125]

England/Europe

  • 2200bce: England – First appearance of Beaker People [86]
  • 2050bce: England – Norfolk tree ring [137]
  • c2000bce: England – Silbury Hill, located on the prehistoric site of Avebury

Conclusions:

Why have we previously seen history from the perspective that highly-urbanized civilization began in the near east around 3000bce? My personal opinion is that because what archeology has found in past decades was not the beginning of urban civilization, but possibly the oldest remnants of the rebuilding of civilization after the slate was wiped clean in around 3200bce (5.2kya). This does not preclude the possibility that the slate was likewise wiped clean earlier, in say 10,500bce as some suggest. However, it would make the evidence harder to find.

I realize that the above lists were a statistically-biased selection of climate change/cultural disruption events. By biased, I mean that similar events also happened in isolated instances at many other times. However, what I hope to provide is evidence that there was an extreme sycnchronicity of events at these two dates.

I tried to resist excessive speculation, but rather just present the events that I have noted (with references where possible) and my impressions as food for thought, topics for discussion and possible inspiration for future research. I am not a professional writer or archeologist, so I do not see pursuing this hypothesis to completion, personally.

However, I believe that I can point out one thing that I have learned from this investigation which may be new. That is that our view of legendary ancient floods and droughts may be far too simplistic. Except for the case of true planetary ice ages, where the earths water is taken up by the ice caps on a global scale, I think that we have to explain the other events with multi-regional models instead of a global model. I mean that various mythical floods and droughts do not represent a single global flood or drought. There appears to me to be a global water balance that can produce equal yet opposite reactions in remote (yet somehow connected) regions of the planet earth during a climatic perturbation. Looking at my data collected for my proposed 3200bce and 2200bce events, we see not a single global flood or a single global drought, but both floods and droughts along with volcanic activity and meteoritic impacts in different regions of the planet.

I can point to one example as proof of concept: when the Asian monsoon patterns and Atlantic circulation patterns were simultaneously upset around 2200bce, the effect was a simultaneous epic flood in China and a drought in the Middle East[18]. Likewise, the legendary flood of China was followed by a legendary drought. Therefore, the mythical floods were local/regional events and probably did not happen in isolation, but instead, can be correlated with other catastrophic events of a different kind in the same and in other regions of the world.

Andy Blackard (September 2005)


BIBLIOGRAPHY

  1. 1- Beyond the Younger Dryas by Harvey Weiss
  2. Meteor clue to end of Middle East civilisations By Robert Matthews
  3. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Pub. 27, p. 192.
  4. Migrations, Ethnogenesis, and Settlement Dynamics: Israelites in Iron Age Canaan and Shuwa-Arabs in the Chad Basin by Thomas E. Levy
  5. Comets, Meteors & Myth: New Evidence for Toppled Civilizations and Biblical Tales
  6. A list of Recent Impact Craters
  7. The Development and Demise of the Early Bronze Age IV, Near Eastern Oil-Lamp
  8. Sumer, Babylon, and Hittites
  9. Cambridge Conference Correspondence
  10. A Holocene coastal aeolian system, Vejers, Denmark: landscape evolution and sequence stratigraphy
  11. Sea-Floor Dust Shows Drought Felled Akkadian Empire, Science 1998 279: 325-326
  12. An Antidote to Velikovskian Delusions by Leroy Ellenberger
  13. Chronology of Soil Evolution and Climatic Changes in the Dry Steppe Zone of the Northern Caucasus, Russia, During the 3rd Millennium BC
  14. Climate change and civilisation collapse Dr Benny Peiser
  15. Late-Holocene (post-4000 years BP) coastal dune development in Northumberland, northeast England
  16. Bridging the Myth and Science of the Flood By Harry Young
  17. Climate change in the Lake Valencia Basin, Venezuela, 12600 yr BP to present
  18. Revising the Contours of History at Tell Leilan by Harvey Weiss,et.al.
  19. Abrupt Climate Change around 4 ka BP: Role of the Thermohaline Circulation as Indicated by a GCM Experiment bay Wang Shaowu, et. al.
  20. Late Holocene climates of the Near East deduced from Dead Sea level variations and modern regional winter rainfall by Yehouda Enzel,e t.al.
  21. Assessing the impact of volcanic activity on mid-Holocene climate in Ireland: the need for replicate data
  22. Thufur formation in northern Iceland and its relation to holocene climate change
  23. Microanalytical Metal Technology Study of Ancient Near Eastern Bronzes from Tell Beydar
    24- Ice Cores May Yield Clues to 5,000-Year-old Mystery
  24. Ignatius Donnelly: Notes and References
  25. Lecture Notes: Olmec Culture of the Gulf Coast
  26. Underworld by Graham Hancock
  27. Disaster that struck the ancients-BBC News
  28. Cambridge Conference:Sea-Floor Dust
  29. Why did the first great civilisations collapse suddenly and at the same time around 2200 BC?.
  30. Cambridge Conference Notes
  31. Drought in Tell Leilan by Harvey Weiss
  32. Wikipedia:Phoenicia
  33. Recent Periods of Abrupt Climate Change-NOAA
  34. What scientific evidence do we have that abrupt climate change has happened before?
  35. Climate Crash: Abrupt Climate Change and What it Means for Our Future (2005) Joseph Henry Press
  36. What Drives Societal Collapse? By Harvey Weiss and Raymond S. Bradley
  37. Imperial Responses to Environmental Dynamics at Late Third Millennium Tell Leilan
  38. Sedimentology, stratigraphy and landscape evolution of a Holocene coastal dune system, Lodbjerg, NW Jutland, Denmark
  39. Cultural Responses to Climate During the Late Holocene by Peter B. deMenocal
  40. Evidence for a late Holocene warm and humid climate period and environmental characteristics in the arid zones of northwest China during 2.2-1.8 kyr B.P.
  41. The Mummies Of Urumchi – Natural History
  42. Sahara ‘Stonehenge’ oldest yet, scientists say
  43. Theosophy, Vol. 16, No. 2, December, 1927 (Pages 70-76; Size: 22K) (Number 23 of a 59-part series) Ancient Landmarks
    45- Mayan Prophecy
  44. Lebanon’s History – Phoenician Beginnings
  45. The Fall of the Egyptian Old Kingdom By Professor Fekri Hassan
  46. Megaliths Co.UK – Aatronomical Geometry – 3117 BC
  47. Geomagnetic Field variations in northern Sweden during the Holocene quantified from varved lake sediments and their implications for cosmogenic nuclide production rates
  48. Old mound may lead to new ideas about people 5,000 years ago
  49. El Nino’s past
  50. Timeline 3300BC – 1300BC
  51. The Teaching Company – “Mythology of the Near East”
  52. Abrupt Climate Changes Revisited: How Serious and How Likely?
  53. World History on Ice
  54. Global Climate Change and Peak Oil – Part II
  55. MSN Encarta:Stonehenge
  56. Kilimanjaro Ice Core Records: Evidence of Holocene Climate Change in Tropical Africa
  57. Fluctuations of sea level during the past 400 000 years: the record of Sinai, Egypt (northern Red Sea)
  58. Abrupt onset and termination of the African Humid Period
  59. Isotopic climate record in a Holocene stalagmite from Ursilor Cave (Romania)
  60. Evaluation of palaeoenvironmental changes during the last 18,000 years in the Myrtoon Basin, SW Aegean Sea
  61. Cosmogenic 36 Cl ages of lava flows in the Zuni–Bandera volcanic field, north­ central New Mexico
  62. Millennial- to century-scale variability in Gulf of Mexico Holocene climate records
  63. Climate change at the 4.2 ka BP termination of the Indus valley civilization and Holocene south Asian monsoon variability
  64. Holocene South Asian Monsoon Climate Change – Potential Mechanisms and Effects on Past Civilizations
  65. Holocene cuspate forelands in the Strait of Magellan, southern Chile
  66. Vegetation ecotone dynamics in Southwest Alaska during the Late Quaternary
  67. Evolution of late pleistocene and holocene climates in the circum-south pacific land areas
  68. Holocene vegetation dynamics in the northeastern Rub’ al-Khali desert, Arabian Peninsula: a phytolith, pollen and carbon isotope study
  69. A late Holocene sea-level fluctuation in South Carolina: Quaternary coasts of the US Marine and Lacustrine Systems, SEPM Special Pub 48, p. 155-160.
  70. History of Ancient Civilization to the Greeks: Course Manual
  71. Architectural Marvels of Ancient Mesopotamia
  72. 6000 years of forest dynamics in Suserup Skov, a seminatural Danish woodland
  73. The Development of Information and Communication Technology
  74. The Geometry and Astronomy of Rujm el-Hiri, a Megalithic Site in the Southern Levant
  75. Timeline 3300BC – 1300BC
  76. The Patriarchs and the Origins of Judaism
  77. Human settlements already existed in the Amazon Basin (Ecuador) 4000 years ago
  78. The Emerging Picture of Prehistoric Arabia
  79. European Pyramids
  80. In the Kingdom of Nataraja
  81. Teotihuacan
  82. Pilgrimage Route Uncovered at South America’s Lake Titicaca
  83. Architectural Marvels of Ancient Mesopotamia The land between the rivers
  84. Beaker People
  85. Power and the Emergence of Complex Polities in the Peruvian Preceramic
  86. Taiwan, Coastal China and Northern Vietnam and the Nusantao Maritime Trading Network
  87. Reassessing the Developmental and Chronological Relationships of the Formative of Coastal Ecuador
  88. The Transition to Agriculture: Climate Reversals, Population Density, and Technical Change
  89. Displacement of Yukon-derived sediment from Bering Sea to Chukchi Sea during Holocene time
  90. The San Lorenzo Fault, a new active fault in relation to the Esmeraldas-Tumaco seismic zone
  91. The Woodland and Mississippian traditions in the prehistory of Midwestern North America
  92. The Puzzle of Global Sea Level Rise
  93. Pan-Arctic variation in Juniperus communis: historical biogeography based on DNA fingerprinting
  94. Genetic Diversity in the Batini Barley Landrace from Oman
  95. Banana diversity in the Middle East (Jordan, Egypt, Oman)
  96. Recent Developments in Regard toAncient Transpacific Influence on the New World
  97. An LDS View of the Apparent Jomon-Valdivia Contact.
  98. Holocene periodicity in North Atlantic climate and deep ocean flow south of Iceland
  99. The secular variation of the geomagnetic field in Egypt in the last 5000 years
  100. Evidence for Major Impact Events in the late Third Millennium BC
  101. The Alpha and the Omega – Volume III
  102. Looking Inward: China’s Historical and Theoretical Contributions to Educational Technology
  103. The Umm Benni Structure, in the Mesopotamian Marshlands of Southern Iraqa, as a postulated Late Holocene Meteorite Impact Crater
  104. Caucasian Mummies Found in China Are A Puzzle to Scholars
  105. Monsoon Climate of the Early Holocene: Climate Experiment with the Earth’s Orbital Parameters for 9000 Years Ago
  106. Early World Cities
  107. Rise Of The Human Race – The Civilizations Of The Ancient Near East
  108. What is Lower Central American Archaeology?
  109. Sleuthing the Garden of Eden, Smithsonian, May 1987, pp127.
  110. Prehistoric Cultures of the American Southwest
  111. Echoes of Stone Age Cataclysms in the Baltic Sea
  112. Noah’s Ark and the Ziausudra Epic by Robert M. Best
  113. Noah’s Flood: The New Scientific Discoveries about the Event that Changed History by Ryan and Pitman
  114. Sudden climate transitions during the Quaternary By Jonathan Adams
  115. History Begins at Sumer by Samuel Noah Kramer
  116. The Making of Iraq
  117. History and Environment of North Carolina’s Piedmont
  118. Dead Bones Dancing: The Taki Onqoy, Archaism, and Crisis In Sixteenth Century Peru
  119. A Chronology of Events, Places, Ecological and Societal Impacts
  120. The Art History Club: Kali Yuga
  121. Journal of the Northern Archeology Group
  122. Wikipedia: Holocene climatic optimum
  123. History’s Timeline, a 40,000 Year Chronology of Civilization by Jean Cooke, Ann Kramer, Theodore Rowland-Entwistle
  124. The Shaping of Western Civilization by Ludwig Schaeffer, Daniel P. Resnick, George L. Netterville III
  125. The Bible as History by Werner Keller
  126. Some Thoughts on Measurement
  127. Giant wave hit ancient Scotland
  128. El Salvador History
  129. El Salvador SPANISH CONQUEST AND COLONIZATION
  130. Timeline of Art History: Mesoamerican and Central America 8000-2000BC
  131. history.literate
  132. Kurgan Invasions
  133. Silk Road Chronology
  134. Man as Agriculturalist
  135. Precise dating of the Norfolk timber circle
  136. Storegga tsunami deposits in a coastal lake on Suðuroy, the Faroe Islands
  137. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4311153.stm
  138. Critias by Plato