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50,000+ BC: The arrival and behavior of humanity is driving many of Australia's indigenous large animal species to extinction
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-- "Early Human Activity In Australia May Have Led To Animal Extinctions", 1-7-99, University of Colorado at Boulder
-- "Fossil Eggshells Hold Clues To Major Animal Extinctions As Reported In Science", 1-7-99, American Association for the Advancement of Science |
The Australians may also be using the fires as an attempt to drive off or kill Gigantopithecus they have discovered living on the continent (giant man-apes). They call them "Yowie".
| -- Yowie The Australian Bigfoot, Bigfoot The Wild Man of the West ["http://www.realshades.com/mystic/beasts/beast-bigfoot-01.html"] found on or about 10-20-99 |
Signposts 50,999 BC-10,001 BC Contents
48,000 BC: Human population numbers begin to expand now beyond a long-time plateauThe plateau in population numbers may have existed for more than 100,000 years. The plateau may have been as low as 11,000 to 18,000 during that time.
| -- "Study Alters Time Line for the Splitting of Human Populations" By NICHOLAS WADE, March 16, 1999, The New York Times |
Or, the plateau may have been as high as 40,000.
| -- "Ancient 'volcanic winter' tied to rapid genetic divergence in humans", News From the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, September 1998, News Bureau University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 807 S. Wright St., Suite 520 East Champaign, IL 61820-6219, found on or about 9-10-98 |
Signposts 50,999 BC-10,001 BC Contents
48,000 BC-38,000 BC; As the human population slowly grows, great breakthroughes are made in the development of hand toolsThe humans of this time may be acting much the same as their 20th century decendents would, given similar conditions.
Innovations in advanced stone tools are spreading throughout the central Rift Valley of Kenya, in Africa. Physical ornamentation is also being performed now.
| -- "'Modern' behavior began 40,000 years ago in Africa, evidence suggests", the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign July 1998; "Ancient 'volcanic winter' tied to rapid genetic divergence in humans", News From the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, September 1998, News Bureau University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 807 S. Wright St., Suite 520 East Champaign, IL 61820-6219, found on or about 9-10-98 |
Other breakthroughes may be occurring in the creation of musical instruments, such as flutes. Thus, humanity is not only extending its physical attributes by way of stone tools and physical accentuation, but expanding the scope of its powers of speech and acoustic expression as well, with artificial implements such as musical instruments.
| -- "Archaeologists Find Oldest Playable Flute In China" By Patricia Reaney Reuters Limited; http://dailynews.yahoo.com; News Science Headlines, September 22 1999 |
Signposts 50,999 BC-10,001 BC Contents
Approximately 42,000 BC: Human beings worldwide are by now hunting big game and assembling animal traps, as well as possibly becoming more selective in their roaming movements over the continents
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-- "Humans Switched To Fast Food When Slow Prey Ran Out"
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent, Reuters Limited; http://dailynews.yahoo.com; 1-9-99
-- "U.S. News: Archaelogists study dogs to learn about humans (7/5/99), The secret life of animals" BY JONAH BLANK , Science & Ideas 7/5/99; U.S. News Online ["http://www.usnews.com/"] |
Signposts 50,999 BC-10,001 BC Contents
Approximately 40,000 BC- 18,000 BC: Humanity is getting good at creating and wielding stone-based weaponry, including spears and spear throwing devices, knives, and bows and arrows| -- "Milestones in Technology", February 26, 1999; The Knoxville News-Sentinel ["http://www.knoxnews.com/"] |
Signposts 50,999 BC-10,001 BC Contents
Approximately 40,000 BC: Tiny bands of seafarers from greater Australia are slowly making their way across the Pacific in ever bolder treks between islandsLikely most of the earliest instances of these are not intentional, but accidental: people become lost, or are pursued by enemies into unexplored territories, or involuntarily pushed by bad weather or food shortages into these courses. Of those that are purposeful, the majority are likely foolhardy expeditions by young men seeking to prove their manhood or outdo peers or elders in some way.
Those expeditions which lead to 'permanent' settlements on idyllic Pacific islands are for the most part doomed; eventually wiped out via violent storms or enormous tidal waves, leaving behind little or no evidence they were ever there. Many of the islands are thus essentially paradise-like traps which periodically are wiped clean of higher forms of life by bad weather or monster waves. So it is little wonder that virtually no traces of habitation older than a couple thousand years or so can be found on most Pacific islands which fail to meet a certain critical mass in size and shape, and exist on likely routes of navigation based on sea currents and other factors.
It now appears the best way to track humanity's forays across the oceans is to look for mysterious extinctions of bird life and other lower species in the far past of each island, rather than more direct signs of human habitation.
| -- `Eco-noble savages' who never were: Prehistory contains many examples of people driving animal species to extinction, explains James Steele, British Archaeology, no 12, March 1996: Features, British Archaeology homepage |
Signposts 50,999 BC-10,001 BC Contents
38,000+ BC: A gift-economy of sorts has emerged in southern Africa; Only some 5% of the works of people from this time or before worldwide will survive to be re-discovered in the 18th-21st centuries
| -- Venerable Beads; Breakthroughs; DISCOVER Vol. 19 No. 10 (October 1998); http://www.discover.com |
The stone components ancient peoples worldwide use in their daily lives now likely constitute only some 5% of the items they actually shape and exploit; everything else will typically turn to dust or be salvaged and reshaped by later peoples long before 18th through 21st century scientists will ever get the chance to examine them. Thus, the history of this time will be largely written later based only on the shaped rocks left behind by the people, rather than more perishable items such as tools and clothing made from fibers garnered from wood and other plants. Animal fiber-based implements and accessories will decay to dust. Wooden structures will collapse and rot away. Those of stone or other hardy materials may be dismantled and their components used in other ways, or simply scattered, again and again and again, rendering their original use and form indecipherable long before the 18th century AD.
Consider for a moment what future scientists of 42,000 AD might think of our own civilization circa 2,000 AD, if nothing but a few bricks and bits of concrete remained.
| -- The Need to Weave: The First Americans Used More Fiber Than Flint ["http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/0799toc/7special3-weave.shtml"] by J.M. Adovasio and D.C. Hyland, Discovering Archaeology, First Americans, http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/ found on or about 1-20-2000 |
Keep in mind that the five percent figure is an estimate which does not take into consideration the massive loss of human settlements and artifacts due to rising global sea levels during 15,000 BC- 3,000 BC-- especially in the regions of southeast and southern asia. Considering migration patterns and population densities of the time worldwide, it may be that the vast majority of even this meager 5% of artifacts estimated to remain behind may include a substantial number resting on the bottom of the sea. That is, those stone artifacts found on dry land during the 18th-21st centuries may represent a far smaller and more primitive set of items by far than what has been submerged by rising seas by 3,000 BC.
Signposts 50,999 BC-10,001 BC Contents
Approximately 38,000 BC: The central Sahara is beginning to see shifting weather patterns drastically curtail its annual rainfall| -- Britons find ancient empire that made Sahara bloom ["http://www.independent.co.uk/news/World/Africa/2000-07/sahara150700.shtml"] By David Keys, 15 July 2000 |
Signposts 50,999 BC-10,001 BC Contents
Approximately 37,000 BC - 35,000 BC: Childhood ends for one AustralianSignposts 50,999 BC-10,001 BC Contents
34,000 BC: A "huge explosion" rocks the Phlegraean Fields near where Naples Italy will be situated in 1999 AD
| -- "The Mediterranean: Sea of Man's Fate" by Rick Gore, National Geographic December 1982, page 713 |
If something like a prehistoric Roman civilization existed in this area prior to the explosion, there'd be precious little evidence of it remaining afterwards.
Signposts 50,999 BC-10,001 BC Contents
Approximately 33,000 BC: Pottery is being made and used in China by now, if not before
| -- Egypt announces discovery of 30,000 year-old skeleton ["http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/scitech/SciTechRepublish_550172.htm"]; 8 May 2002; ABC News Online |
Signposts 50,999 BC-10,001 BC Contents
31,000 BC - 12,000 BC: Substantial fluctuations in global climate afflict humanity and other lifeforms
| Sources include Introduction - The Mammoth Saga ["http://www.nrm.se/virtexhi/mammsaga/welcome.html.en"], The Extinction - The Mammoth Saga ["http://www.nrm.se/virtexhi/mammsaga/dismamm.html.en"], Woolly Mammoths: Evidence of Catastrophe? ["http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/mammoths.html], Late Pleistocene Extinctions ["http://www.museum.state.il.us/exhibits/larson/LP_extinction.html"], Fauna - The Mammoth Saga ["http://www.nrm.se/virtexhi/mammsaga/fauna.html.en"], Glacier Maps ["http://www.museum.state.il.us/exhibits/larson/glacier_maps.html"], Adaptation to Cold : The Mammuth Saga ["http://www.nrm.se/virtexhi/mammsaga/coldadap.html.en"], Environmental Causes (of extinction) ["http://www.museum.state.il.us/exhibits/larson/env_change_extinction.html"] |
Signposts 50,999 BC-10,001 BC Contents
Approximately 30,000 BC: Modern humans are now living in central Europe; The simple bow and arrow weapons system has been in use for some time now (at least in certain regions)
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-- Neanderthals and modern humans may have coexisted By PAUL RECER, Nando Media/Associated Press October 25, 1999, http://www.nandotimes.com
-- military technology; Encyclopedia Britannica ["http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/1/0,5716,118831+19,00.html"], found on or about 2-16-2000 |
Possible precursors to the bow and arrow include the atlatl; a sort of lever designed to fling arrow-like projectiles at high speed towards their targets. The atlatl was definitely a contemporary to the bow and arrow in some locations, and may have preceded it in others by thousands of years.
| -- The Learning Kingdom's Cool Fact of the Day for March 1, 2000: Ancient Weapon (http://www.LearningKingdom.com and http://www.cool-fact.com/). Other relevant URLs include World Atlatl Magazine ["http://www.atlatl.net/"] and The World Atlatl Society ["http://www.worldatlatl.org/"] |
Signposts 50,999 BC-10,001 BC Contents
29,000 BC: The artwork in the Chauvet caves in southern France is created.
| -- "Was The Lack Of Language The Force Of Driving Stone Age Art?", New Scientist ["http://www.newscientist.com"], 12-9-98 |
Signposts 50,999 BC-10,001 BC Contents
Approximately 28,000 BC - 26,500 BC: The last pure blooded Neanderthals disappear from the Earth; Neanderthals possessed sophistocated glue technology
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-- "Skeleton Shows Early Man, Neanderthals Interbred"; http://dailynews.yahoo.com; News Science Headlines Tuesday April 20 1999, Reuters
-- Youngest Neanderthals Yet Found By Rebecca Dudzik, Discovery News Brief , Discovery Communications, http://gemini.online.discovery.com/, found on or about October 26, 1999 |
Neanderthals have led hard lives. For many of their last surviving millennia Neanderthals were often competing directly with Cro-Magnons for food. Both used similar weapons and kill techniques, to acquire the same sorts of food. Neither (where they share the same physical territories) seem to possess the likes of snares, bows and arrows, or throwing spears. But the Cro-Magnons appear to outdo the Neanderthals in planning their hunts and efficiently corroborating among themselves. This may indicate more advanced language and cooperative/negotiation skills among the Cro-Magnons as compared with the Neanderthals.
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-- Neanderthals Worked Themselves to Death By Blake Edgar, Discovery News Brief, http://www.discovery.com/, found on or about 11-19-99
Neanderthals survived up to 26,000 BC. Another factor possibly responsible for the domination of human ancestors over Neanderthals may have been disease; the more modern humans may have brought in new diseases for which the Neanderthals had little or no immunity. -- Bones Show Neanderthals Survived Later Than Thought By Maggie Fox, Reuters; http://dailynews.yahoo.com; News Science Headlines, October 25 1999 -- Scientists document most recent date for Neandertals, EurekAlert! ["http://www.eurekalert.org/"] 25 OCTOBER 1999, Contact: Ann Nicholson, ann_nicholson@aismail.wustl.edu, Washington University in St. Louis and http://www.pnas.org |
Note that human adolescence may now be losing its traditionally most important sources of perceptual differentiation,
as all the known direct hominid competitors to Homo sapiens appear to be going extinct or undergoing absorption into the Homo sapiens line. Skin color may now be emerging as an easy-to-discern secondary choice for the adult differentiation mindsets first generated during the adolescent stage-- to be possibly joined later by ethnic, religious, and other differences more subtle still.
Now, it appears the adolescent prejudice and harassment against others (once largely reserved for all together different hominid lines) may be being turned to the persecution of our own kind, based on different tints of skin color alone. In the future perhaps Homo sapians will often treat one another as they once treated neanderthals.
Signposts 50,999 BC-10,001 BC Contents
28,000 BC -8,000 BC: The great North American ice sheets come and go-- repeatedlySea levels also fluctuate somewhat in concert with the changes in the ice sheets-- thereby alternatively widening and narrowing passage bottlenecks between continents, such as the Bering Straits. This leads to several new infusions of fresh invaders from Asia. Some are disenchanted or outcast members of the original 'status quo' tribe, but many others are simply part of a growing number of strangers over-running the Strait sentinals due to population growth on the Asian continent.
Though these new explorers add to the potential for conflict in the new land, they more importantly strengthen the total numbers of human beings there-- something that is crucial to overcoming the giant super bears and other challenges of the alien continent.
| -- "University of Cincinnati Geologist Finds North American Glacial Advances Coincide with Iceberg Calving Events", Research News Releases, Public Relations Home Page, University of Cincinnati Home Page |
Signposts 50,999 BC-10,001 BC Contents
Approximately 26,000 BC: Early agricultural efforts may be underway on Buka Island in the Solomons| -- WHERE DID AGRICULTURE REALLY BEGIN? From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #86, MAR-APR 1993 by William R. Corliss, citing Leigh Dayton; "Pacific Islanders Were World's First Farmers," New Scientist, p. 14, December 12, 1992 |
Note that various animal husbandry/breeding/domestication efforts by humanity have already been underway for roughly a hundred thousand years by now, in various parts of the world. The earliest efforts may have involved wolves and horses, among other beasts.
It appears from the citation below that many people have already been very familiar with the basics of agriculture for millennia-- but up to now have been able to get by pretty handily by merely reaping what nature automatically sowed in the vicinity, with tools like flint sickles. That is, they performed little or no sowing or field preparation themselves, but merely gathered wild grain as it appeared, and sometimes stored large quantities of it for the winter.
Thus, hunter-gatherers/foragers possessed much agricultural knowledge and skills (and applied them virtually wherever they roamed) long, long before they began the permanent settlements and fixed-in-place farming practices 20th century humanity will perceive as full-blown agriculture.
| -- Scientific American: Wonders: Time Travelers in the Field by Philip and Phyllis Morrison, February 2000 |
Signposts 50,999 BC-10,001 BC Contents
Approximately 25,125 BC: Virtually all of the greater southeast asian peninsula has arisen from undersea
Much before now the peninsula looked not much different from what it would appear circa 1999 AD. However, sea levels lowered by the Ice Age have now exposed vast tracts of sea bottom to make them enormous dry land supplements to the previous land mass.
The higher altitude lands had already been fairly heavily populated by human beings, some relatively advanced, others more primitive. But now over succeeding millennia, as the newly exposed lowlands become lush grasslands, then forests, supporting a booming wealth of plant and animal life, the more advanced peoples will begin to move to the plains to better enjoy the plenty and more easily construct settlements (the highlands require jungle clearing for construction, and offer poor soils for cultivation, by comparison to the newly exposed seabottoms).
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-- "Traces of our Forebears", National Geographic, October 1988
-- "OLDEST ICE CORE FROM THE TROPICS RECOVERED, NEW ICE AGE EVIDENCE" from a project supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Science Foundation, 12-3-98 -- OF TIME AND THE CORAL - AND OTHER THINGS, TOO From Science Frontiers #71, SEP-OCT 1990 by William R. Corliss, citing Richard A. Kerr; "From One Coral Many Findings Blossom," Science, 248: 1314, 1990 Sources include altitude maps of North America, Europe, and Asia, The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, Second Edition, 1989, Columbia University Press Sources include depth maps of the Pacific Ocean floor and Atlantic Ocean floor, The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, Second Edition, 1989, Columbia University Press -- Bartholomew World Physical map, HarperCollinsPublishers, 1992 -- BOOKS: LOST CONTINENT BY JOHN EDWARD TERRELL, Archaeological Institute of America ["http://www.archaeology.org/"], Volume 53 Number 2, March/April 2000; Review of book In Eden in the East: The Drowned Continent of Southeast Asia, by Stephen Oppenheimer, London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1999, $35.00; 560 pages, ISBN 0297818163 -- "ANCIENT SEAFARERS"BY PETER BELLWOOD, SPECIAL REPORT, Volume 50 Number 2 March/April 1997, the Archaeological Institute of America, http://www.archaeology.org/9703/etc/specialreport.html -- "Evidence For Earliest Maritime-Based Societies In The Americas Reported" In Science Magazine, 17 SEPTEMBER 1998, American Association for the Advancement of Science -- Rise in Sea Levels To Double, Discovery News Brief , http://www.discovery.com/, found on or about 9-15-99 -- Beringia Land Bridge Lasted Until 11,000 Years Ago, 11/26/96, Anthropology News Briefs ["http://realindy.com/anthronews.htm"] -- Mystery of the First Americans, NOVA, PBS, 2-15-2000 -- "University of Cincinnati Geologist Finds North American Glacial Advances Coincide with Iceberg Calving Events", Research News Releases, Public Relations Home Page, University of Cincinnati Home Page -- Americas Populated in Spurts ["http://www.discovery.com/news/briefs/20000222/history_bering.html"] By Becky Oskin, Discovery.com News, Feb. 22, 2000 |
Signposts 50,999 BC-10,001 BC Contents
Approximately 25,000 BC- 24,000 BC: It appears at least some peoples worldwide today possess the skills to produce twine/string, nets, and woven cloth
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The 24,000 BC estimate comes from "Clothing of figurines may be record of Ice Age tribes' skills" By Byron Spice, Science Editor, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ["http://www.post-gazette.com/"], June 21, 1999
25,000 BC- 18,000 BC: Women in central europe and possibly elsewhere possess surprisingly high quality clothing now, which may often be reserved for special occasions. They are also wearing jewelry and various forms of body art. Most people of this time tend to live as hunter-gatherer nomads in groups smaller than 25 or so individuals. Small groups may meet with others during winter seasons to allow cross-matings between the younger members, and perhaps cement or renew tribal alliances and personal friendships, as well as trade information and stories. Here is where the finest dress was likely worn, during various related rituals. -- Cave Women Wore Evening Gowns By Jonathan Leake, December 28, 1999, http://www.foxnews.com/, Associated Press |
Signposts 50,999 BC-10,001 BC Contents
23,000 BC: The near unrecognizable shape of world continents today is due to reduced sea levels greatly expanding areas of dry landNGDC/WDC A for MGG - Marine Geology & Geophysics Images ["http://web.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/image/images.html"] may be helpful in visualizing vast regions of land submerged circa the 20th century but exposed as dry land around 23,000 BC.
| AUTHOR'S NOTE ON CONFLICTING DATE ESTIMATES: In my research I found conflicting dates for the most recent glacial maximum. Apparently the conflict is due to newer, more accurate information correcting or refining older determinations, and some writers failing to take note of these corrections in their own articles. Please refer to this page for more information regarding the conflicting dates for the last global glacial maximum. END NOTE. |
23,000 BC is the glacial maximum of the present Ice Age.
Ice sheets up to 10,000 feet thick reach as far south as near the vicinity of London England. The Earth boasts considerably more dry land now than it will circa 2000 AD, as the Ice Age has lowered the oceans even as it created the great ice sheets. The ice production itself also extends the mobility of land creatures like man via seasonal sea ice (at least in some regions).
In western europe, men can literally walk from France to the British Isles. But much of this area is similar to 20th century arctic tundra.
The land bridge between Asia and Alaska is at minimum around 700 miles wide, complemented by possible seasonal sea ice stretching some 700 miles beyond that in each of the north and south directions (for a potentially walkable bridge between continents ranging from some 700 to 2100 miles wide, depending on the season).
Note that 23,000 BC represents the glacial maximum-- which means although land bridges like the Bering are at their widest and most dry around 23,000 BC, they were likely passable for lengthy periods both before and after this time. How large a timespan are we talking about here? The bridge seems to have been more or less dry somewhere between 31,000 BC and 8,500 BC-7,500 BC, or 23,000 years total (yes, Beringia was dry for 23,000 years, and near the middle of this span was the global glacial maximum date of 23,000 BC; a strange coincidence, I admit). To see more information regarding these matters please refer to this page.
The continent of Australia now is substantially larger in land area than it will be in 2000 AD, with its northern border consisting of New Guinea, and its southern border Tasmania. Southeast Asia too is much larger than it will be circa 2000 AD, with a single continuous land mass including Java, Indonesia, Borneo, and an India, Vietnam, China, and Korea all boasting vastly swollen coastlines.
The most inviting spots climate-wise of this time would seem to include Middle Africa, the swollen mass of Southeast Asia, and Australia, all straddling the equator of a planet deep in the thros of an Ice Age. All these places offered large amounts of grass and dry woodland and forests, with perhaps around 30-50% rain forest and 20% or so desert or tundra.
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-- "Traces of our Forebears", National Geographic, October 1988
-- "OLDEST ICE CORE FROM THE TROPICS RECOVERED, NEW ICE AGE EVIDENCE" from a project supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Science Foundation, 12-3-98 |
Signposts 50,999 BC-10,001 BC Contents
Approximately 23,000 BC - 13,500 BC: By 23,000 BC a group of relatively advanced city-states may have arisen upon the lowlands of the southeast asian peninsula, presently swollen by lowered sea levels to much larger than they will be circa 1999 ADSignposts 50,999 BC-10,001 BC Contents
23,000 BC: Global sea levels of this time are at their lowest point for many millennia both past and future-- making this the most opportune time for many extraordinary migrations of human beings between continents; Clothing, baskets, cords, and hunting nets are being made and used in EuropeThe continents of eurasia and the americas are connected via a dry land bridge between Siberia and Alaska. The open sea barriers between Antarctica, Australia, South America, and various intervening islands are the shortest and shallowest they've been in eons-- and may perhaps be gone entirely at times due to the formation of seasonal sea ice during this Ice Age period. In any case, some reasonable seamanship via boat or raft could possibly overcome many of the obstacles that remain. Australia and Tasmania are one land mass now, and Australia began being populated by humanity over 25,000 years ago.
There are already people living in South America too by now-- apparently Australians who had crossed the Pacific.
The appearance of the Bering land bridge, combined with intensifying competition for food and territory in eastern asia, encourages a veritable boom in migration over the bridge and into north america. These vast new numbers of people will help a lot to turn the tide against the great bear predators up to now making it too dangerous for people to spend much time onshore in north america. But they will also spell the doom of the much smaller numbers of Australians already living in South America.
At least some europeans are producing baskets, textiles, hunting and fishing nets, and cords from plant fibers by now.
| -- The Need to Weave: The First Americans Used More Fiber Than Flint (http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/0799toc/7special3-weave.shtml) by J.M. Adovasio and D.C. Hyland, Discovering Archaeology First Americans, http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/, found on or about 1-20-2000 |
Signposts 50,999 BC-10,001 BC Contents
20,000 BC: Temperatures in the northern hemisphere are quite frigid; what appears to be counting notches are being made in bone by some peoples| -- Greenland's Ice Yields Further Clues About Climate Change, October 9, 1998 News Release U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey |
Cro-Magnon predecessors to humanity are cutting notches into bone implements. Many are in groups of five. This may represent some of the earliest counting methods of mankind.
| -- 20,000 B.C. Bones of Contention, A Brief History of Computing ["http://www.cnet.com/techtrends/0-1544318-7-1656936.html?tag=st.sr.1544318-7-1656936-rost.back2.1544318-7-1656936"], found on or about 4-15-2000 |
Signposts 50,999 BC-10,001 BC Contents
Approximately 18,000 BC- 12,000 BC: Earth is bombarded five times by heavier than usual cosmic dust concentrations from space
| -- OF DUST CLOUDS AND ICE AGES, From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #44, MAR-APR 1986 by William R. Corliss citing Paul A. LaViolette; "Evidence of High Cosmic Dust Concentrations in Late Pleistocene Polar Ice (20,000-14,000 Years BP)," Meteoritics, 20:545, 1985 |
Signposts 50,999 BC-10,001 BC Contents
Approximately 16,000 BC: Early farmers may be living and working in Indonesia and elsewhere in southeast Asia-- as well as the Middle East|
Agricultural land clearing for crops may have been occuring in North Sumatra of Indonesia around 16,000 BC.
-- REMARKABLY EARLY DATES FOR AGRICULTURE From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #13, Winter 1981 by William R. Corliss, citing...B.K. Maloney; "Pollen Analytical Evidence for Early Forest Clearance in North Sumatra," Nature, 287:324, 1980 Apparent ancient agricutural efforts have been found for the following places and times: Buka Island of the Solomons, 26,000 BC; Wadi Kubbaniya of Egypt, 16,000 BC-15,000 BC; the highlands of New Guinea, 8,000 BC-5,000 BC; -- WHERE DID AGRICULTURE REALLY BEGIN? From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #86, MAR-APR 1993 by William R. Corliss, citing Leigh Dayton; "Pacific Islanders Were World's First Farmers," New Scientist, p. 14, December 12, 1992 |
It appears from the citation below that many people have already been very familiar with the basics of agriculture for millennia-- but up to now have been able to get by pretty handily by merely reaping what nature automatically sowed in the vicinity, with tools like flint sickles. That is, people performed little or no sowing or field preparation themselves, but merely gathered wild grain as it appeared, and sometimes stored large quantities of it away for the winter.
Thus, hunter-gatherers/foragers possessed much agricultural knowledge and skills (and applied them virtually wherever they roamed) long, long before they began the permanent settlements and fixed-in-place farming practices 20th century humanity will perceive as full-blown agriculture.
| -- Scientific American: Wonders: Time Travelers in the Field by Philip and Phyllis Morrison, February 2000 |
In the Middle East the typical human diet has included a proportion of 40-60% meat-- until now. Suddenly the population is feasting upon grain at a substantially higher rate than before. Crude sickles from this time have also been found.
| -- Paleoanthropology (revised 16 December 1999) by Francis F. Steen, Department of English, University of California at Santa Barbara, http://cogweb.english.ucsb.edu/EP/Paleoanthropology.html |
Signposts 50,999 BC-10,001 BC Contents
Approximately 15,000 BC: Another "huge explosion" rocks the Phlegraean Fields near where Naples Italy will be situated in 1999 AD; Tiahuanacu in South America may be a thriving city and seaport at this time
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-- "The Mediterranean: Sea of Man's Fate" by Rick Gore, National Geographic December 1982, page 713
One of the oldest combinations of cities and seaports on Earth circa 2004 AD may be Tiahuanacu, built by a pre-Incan civilization in the Andes near present day La Paz, Bolivia, and Lake Titicaca. It appears to have lost its access to a sea route millennia ago, as perhaps some combination of seismic lifting of its grounds and a local change in climate reducing rainfall dried up various waterways. Local legends of the area describe hidden gateways within the high Andes to a vast network of subterranean cities and tunnels spanning the entire planet, populated by unusual beings which only occasionally come to the surface. Tiahuanacu and the Peruvian Sacayhuaman are considered to be such gateways, with the surface Tiahuanacu paling by comparison to its subterranean sister city in size and grandeur. Despite today being two miles higher than sea level, Lake Titicaca appears to have once been connected to the ocean, based on the salt water life living there. It may be the original link was surface waterways long since dried up by climate change, and uplifting of local grounds, or else subterranean channels now cut by underground shifts or possibly themselves now dry due to the same climate circumstances. Local carvings appear to depict elephants and toxodons (both long extinct from this region of the world), among other entities. -- Tiahuanacu, ancient seaport 12,500 feet above sea level ["http://www.fortmorgantimes.com/Stories/0,1413,164%257E8315%257E1051665,00.html"] By JOHN STAFFORD; December 13, 2002; Fort Morgan Times and other sources |
Signposts 50,999 BC-10,001 BC Contents
15,000 BC to 3,000 BC: The Great Global Erasure of Much Evidence of Ancient Human Civilizations: World sea levels rise at least 325 feet over 12,000 years, erasing virtually all traces of 30,000+ years worth of possible civilizations and technology use (as well as robbing humanity of the bulk of its collective knowledge and history) along many low lying continental and island coastlines, while glacial melt transforms many fertile inland valleys into new rivers and lakes; as if this wasn't enough, volcanic activity increases dramatically as well, ruining with fire and lava many works which may have escaped the flood watersRising global sea levels and catastrophic continental glacier meltdowns submerge the coasts and rich inland valleys where much of prehistoric human civilization has been developing up to now, leaving little more behind than a handful of isolated higher altitude inland settlements exhibiting technologies and practices often significantly inferior to those drowned by the rising water and flooding.
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-- "ANCIENT SEAFARERS"BY PETER BELLWOOD, SPECIAL REPORT, Volume 50 Number 2 March/April 1997, the Archaeological Institute of America, http://www.archaeology.org/9703/etc/specialreport.html
-- "Evidence For Earliest Maritime-Based Societies In The Americas Reported" In Science Magazine, 17 SEPTEMBER 1998, American Association for the Advancement of Science -- Rise in Sea Levels To Double, Discovery News Brief , http://www.discovery.com/, found on or about 9-15-99 |
Vast regions of what had been dry and inviting land, riversides, and coastal areas around the planet gradually disappear beneath the rising oceans during this time, as the immense glaciers of the Ice Age retreat at last. Any and all settlements, villages, cities, harbors, trading centers, fortesses, roads, canals, and other traces of civilization built up in these areas during the past 33,000 years or so are now submerged and/or washed away.
Note that all this destruction, damage, and general flux must also be having catastrophic and traumatic effects on the cultures forced to give up their greatest monuments and works of many lifetimes, often faced with no choice but to move to higher ground with only what can be carried on their back.
The thousands (perhaps hundreds of thousands) of people the world over forced to leave the comfort of well established communities to start again in less hospitable locales, often facing new competition from entrenched long term natives and the hazards of unfamiliar flora and fauna and climate, must surely have suffered a high rate of attrition among their numbers. Such a population would have suffered from increased vulnerability to disease, malnutrition, and predation. This period may well mark another significant die off worldwide, in a larger scale and longer spanned version of the early settlements of North America, participants of which left a much more civilized nation for an unfamiliar wilderness, and often suffered enormous mortality rates for their reward.
The histories of several early European settlements in North America after Columbus include accounts of very high death tolls due to starvation and other causes in the new land. And keep in mind these were peoples with techology and tools significantly advanced over those commonly expected of the peoples of 15,000 BC to 3,000 BC.
There's scientific evidence for the possibility that this global rise in sea level is also interfering with the development of agriculture-- perhaps even spoiling/erasing entirely millennia of already established farming methods, and forcing the practice to virtually be re-invented again later on, after sea levels have more or less stabilized once more. Similar impacts may be occuring in other fields of technological innovation as well.
The vast expanse of super Australia is broken up into the several considerably smaller landmasses which will be known in 1999 AD as Australia, New Guinea, and Tasmania. Enormous chunks of previously dry Southeast Asia disappear beneath the waves, leaving only the remnants later to be known as Java, Indonesia, Borneo, India, Vietnam, China, and Korea to mark their passing.
The tundras spanning what someday will be known as the English Channel and Bering Strait are also inundated.
| -- page 446, "Traces of our Forebears", National Geographic, October 1988 |
Around 10,500 BC (12,500 years ago) global temperatures suddenly rose about 20 degrees Fahrenheit in only 50 years.
This sudden warming-- as well as much of the other temperature increases before and after-- may have been spurred in part by explosive eruptions of green house gases from the icy methane hydrates which normally lie dormant on the sea bottom throughout the world.
Some speculate that the decrease in the weight of the oceans above the deposits (caused by all that water being tied up on land in glaciers) may have caused spontaneous collapses of the icy materials into its constituent gases, which then erupted out of the oceans to add to the warming of the Earth.
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Substantial and highly flammable gas desposits line the ocean floor in many areas in a frozen, pressurized form, which might be on occasion released by meteor impacts, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, warm gaseous or liquid emissions from still deeper in the sea floor, warming of the oceans, or a reduction in sea levels (lower sea levels reduce the confining pressure, while warming thaws the icy deposits). Releases of gas from these deposits can be either highly localized or global in nature. Wherever sufficient quantities of this gas are released, the atmosphere itself may catch fire, sparked by events like natural lightning strikes.
-- METHANE HYDRATE: PAST FRIEND OR FUTURE FOE? From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #77, SEP-OCT 1991 by William R. Corliss, citing "Did Methane Curb Ice Ages," New Scientist, p. 24, May 25, 1991, and Tim Appenzeller; "Fire and Ice under the Deep-Sea Floor," Science, 252:1790, 1991 Unexpected releases of this sea-bottom gas may explain many unexplained phenomena at or around the sea, such as ship sinkings, unusual light sightings, and even lost aircraft. -- GAS HYDRATES AND THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #25, JAN-FEB 1983 by William R. Corliss, citing Richard D. McIver; "Role of Naturally Occurring Gas Hydrates in Sediment Transport," American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Bulletin, 66:789, 1982 |
We're talking serious global climate change here folks. At this point the mostly slow and gradual loss of most of humanity's best works along sea and river coastlines worldwide suddenly accelerates enormously. And this time even many inland areas previously insulated from the catastrophic inundation of the coasts are drowned as well-- as this sudden thaw melts vast glacial ice sheets much faster than during the previous 5000 years, creating vast new inland seas and causing previously existing pools to overflow their banks in floods of such magnitude that they would be unimaginable 1999 AD humanity. We're talking destruction of inland cities and settlements here comparable to the worst tidal wave damage inflicted by the sea on coastal towns.
So to recap, here we have evidence of 5000 years of gradual creeping washing away of most all human works of civilization existing along coastlines and river ways. Then there comes a 50 year long period of surprise flash floods from the great inland ice sheets, that decimate inland areas which may previously have been protected from coastal flooding-- and as all this water washes into the ocean the sea level rises more too, accelerating the ongoing loss of coastal settlements there. People lose their cities, and rebuild them, only to lose them again and again. Such catastrophic repeated losses of wealth and organization would have sapped the strength and vitality of any civilization.
It seems likely that most historical records could have been repeatedly moved to higher ground during the slow rise of sea levels over the first 5000 years. But it also seems likely that the sudden catastrophic releases of glacial melt over the next 50 years would have caught many inland repositories unaware-- resulting in disasterous losses of recorded knowledge worldwide.
Be sure to take note of the likely sudden worldwide loss of historical and technological records and works here folks-- over a period of just 50 cataclysmic years, and among both coastal and inland locations.
After this though the inland and coastal floodings subside once more to the 'normal' long term rates of this era of global drowning (except for continued occasional catastrophic natural dam bursts of enormous inland seas and lakes created by bottled up glacier melt), and humanity faces once more the slow creeping watery end of ever more settlements as coastlines and river borders expand inland, pushed upwards via the relentless rising seas.
Oh yes-- there's also significantly increased volcanic activity worldwide too. For it seems that as the weight of the melting glaciers is removed from the land masses, many dormant volcanoes re-awaken. We'll never be able to know how many prehistoric Pompeiis were created during this great eruptive event-- but these too help steal away large chunks of human history as they occur.
So here is strong evidence for the possibility of not only prehistoric human works like major cities and ports being wiped off the face of the Earth on a global scale, but also many important stores of knowledge and history that may have been held in such places. Any information stores which survived such inundation would likely have suffered a great dispersion/degradation of their contents, being broken up and moved to random locations of varying stability and safety in an attempt at preservation in the face of seemingly unpredictable changes in sea levels, inland flooding, volcanic eruptions, and climate during the period. And even where libraries somehow found a home safe from the ongoing disasters, the likely higher than normal death rates and relatively short generational spans among those aware of the prized locations likely caused knowledge of the value and locations of such stores to be lost within only a century or two (keep in mind such repositories would also require protection from thieves and vandals, making it vital to hide them well too). It could be there are quite a few well hidden and preserved stores of knowledge from these days still in existence by the 21st century, likely hidden in places of high ground and possibly deserts; but they may only be found by random discovery. And, of course, the ravages of time will also have reduced all but the very sturdiest or well placed records to dust by 2,000 AD or later.
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-- "Antarctic Ice Core Hints Abrupt Warming Some 12,500 Years Ago May Have
Been Global", 1 OCTOBER 1998,
University of Colorado at Boulder
-- "Surprise: Geologists Find Glaciers Can Suppress Volcanic Eruptions", 12-8-98, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
This steady encroachment of the sea affects most all the world's coastlines and low altitude inland waterways. But it especially decimates the communities of Australians built up over thousands of years along the western coastline of South America. The long term calamity severely weakens the culture, making it much more vulnerable to the invading Asians from the north after 11,000 BC or so.
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Megafloods followed the end of the Ice Age in North America and Eurasia around 13,000 BC. Refuse from one such flood indicates a flood depth of 250 meters.
-- Damburst By Daniel Pendick, From New Scientist ["http://www.newscientist.com"], 7 August 1999 (issue 2198) |
This lengthy period of tremendous change (mostly for the worse) that perhaps more than 50% of people worldwide endure during this period may help embed or strengthen an already present instinctive dislike for change in the populace as a whole. Older practices, traditions, and religions may be strengthened as a result, while many new ideas and recently developed technologies may be abandoned or ignored-- in some cases even where such abandonment reduces the survival chances of the people involved. Many people might now surrender their free will to the closest charismatic leader they can find. Destiny and fate increasingly seem beyond the individual's control. Domination of the poor by the rich and powerful may appear to be the natural order of things and blasphemy to even consider overturning. Scarcity and hardship likely crank up the degree of "us-versus-them" hostility created in or sought out during adolescence, and hardened in adulthood. Some factions of humanity may manage to deepen the genetic basis for hostility towards those who are different, within their own succeeding generations. Thus the stage is set for ever bloodier wars, on ever larger scales, for thousands of years to come.
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Approximately 13,000 BC: This is an especially cold period worldwide| -- Research suggests new way of predicting climate change By JEFF DONN, December 2, 1999, Nando Media/Associated Press, http://www.nandotimes.com |
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Approximately 12,000 BC: Domesticated dogs may now be helping Siberian peoples to finally begin to overcome the packs of giant Hyenas obstructing the path to the Bering Land Bridge and North America
| -- Oversized Hyenas May Have Delayed Human Arrival in North America ["http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/DyeHard/dyehard.html"] By Lee Dye; ABCNEWS.com; Nov. 20, [2002 is the year date stamped here][this particular columnist's works always use the same URL, with newer stories simply replacing previous ones there; so don't expect to see this article when you visit-- unless ABC will let you dig into their archives. -- JRM] |
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12,000 BC and later: Lead content residues in the biosphere offers clues to what remained of early human civilization after suffering through some 3000 years of the Great Global ErasureAUTHOR'S NOTE: The great global erasure described above has already been active for about 3000 years before the period covered by the lead content analysis cited below even begins. Thus, most or all the most advanced metal-working and mining centers of the world may well have been flooded or shut down already by ongoing climatic disasters-- rendering them 'invisible' to this study. END NOTE.
Late 20th century scientific analysis of lead content residues in the biosphere will one day offer the perspective below on one particular span of human history and civilization:
By around 6,500 BC Ice Age glaciers had withdrawn sufficiently to expose lead deposits in Scandinavia/northern europe to the elements.
About 5,700 BC the center of gravity of lead-related changes in the biosphere shifts to northern Africa, likely brought about by vegetation reducing the lead exposure in northern europe, while climate changes in Africa began converting grasslands into the Sahara desert.
Biospheric lead related to human civilization development shows a big change occuring around 4,000 BC (6,000 years ago); namely, humanity was clearing forests to begin substantially new and large agricultural efforts. (too, rising global sea levels were finally stabilizing again after steadily forcing settlements to move further inland and upwards in altitude for more than ten thousand years by now)
1,000 BC saw human acitivity overtake natural sources of lead in terms of lead dust added to the biosphere.
What does all this mean for lost civilization/Atlantis fans? That the possibility of an ancient advanced civilization as described in the Atlantis myth is pretty much restrained by the following conditions for this period:
#1: Such a city-state didn't exist at all during 12,000 BC and later in the hemisphere containing europe and africa (all lead sources are accounted for). Of course, a substantial civilization using lead might have conceivably existed in east asia or the Pacific rim without leaving much trace in the areas involved in this study-- with perhaps a slightly greater probability for avoiding detection favoring the south Pacific (like Australia/Indonesia, western South America, or eastern Antartica). It could also have existed almost anywhere worldwide so long as it did so before 12,000 BC. Another possibility is that such a lead utilizing civilization simply existed for too short a time (less than a century or two), or never grew large enough to leave a significant mark in the lead record (fabled Atlantis the Village just doesn't have the same ring to it though, does it?).
OR
#2: Such a city-state didn't utilize any metalworking technology for which lead was a significant element. This one is highly unlikely for any early human civilization we're aware of today, since lead is one of the easiest to use and locate, and most abundant building blocks for metal working technology on Earth, and years or decades of use/scrutiny are required to determine its detrimental health effects-- so the main reason a civilization might limit lead use was likely unknown to most young human civilizations. Of course, it's always possible a civilization might happen upon a core technology much less dependent upon metals than our own....in which case they would leave behind little or no metallic traces like these....
OR
#3: The most UN-likely possibility of all is an advanced civilization almost immediately moving underground or undersea for some reason (voluntarily I mean, NOT disaster-wise), taking their lead traces with them. In that case, like the legendary remote mountain-living Bigfoot, relics or actual survivors of that civilization might still be available somewhere today. Why couldn't a thriving civilization of this sort still be hidden away somewhere, rather than existing merely as relics or isolated survivors by the late 20th century? Any population large enough for genetic stability, and equipped with a reasonable level of technological sophistication for the sort of history we're speculating on here, would definitely have been detected and documented a long time before 1999 AD. There'll just be no way to hide such a thing on Earth by the late 20th century-- unless you're talking about technology on par with what we'd expect star faring aliens to possess.
| -- "14,000 Years Of Atmospheric Lead Emissions Recorded In Swiss Peat Bog" As Published In Science Magazine/ American Association for the Advancement of Science, 10 September 1998, and "Getting the lead out: Swiss bog records human history" September 14, 1998, WASHINGTON (AP)The Associated Press |
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11,000 BC: Grain is now being ground via stone/pestle, and pottery skills enhance the practicality of heating water for cooking and other uses; humanity is also forced out of their roaming ways and into the practice of committing themselves to a single location long term, along with active cultivation of grains and other food plants (as opposed to the more casual plant food collection performed before)| -- Milestones in Technology, February 26, 1999; The Knoxville News-Sentinel ["http://www.knoxnews.com/"] |
Some of the earliest fixed-site farmers exist today in the area of Syria. A severe multi-year drought is forcing hunter-gatherers to become more intensive farmers.
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-- First farmers discovered, October 28, 1999, Sci/Tech, BBC News, http://www.bbc.co.uk/
There's evidence that life expectancy suffered a sharp drop around the time that humans took up farming; and the farming practice itself began rather abruptly. Increases in disease and violence also seemed to accompany the start of agriculture. -- INVENTION OF AGRICULTURE MAY HAVE BEEN A STEP BACKWARD From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #15, Spring 1981 by William R. Corliss, citing Roger Lewin; "Disease Clue to Dawn of Agriculture," Science, 211:41, 1981 |
Counter-points to the citation just above: Humanity didn't take up full-scale agriculture until it was forced upon them by hard times and increased populations (which rendered hunting and foraging impractical); ergo, the rising death rates likely were occuring before and/or during the start of farming efforts, and continuing throughout the critical months/years it required to get the endeavor to suitably pay off. Greater disease and violence are to be expected in a culture transitioning from nomadic hunter-gatherers to fixed site farming, as well as within larger and more concentrated populations compared to previous, more dispersed conditions. Keep in mind that crop thefts were probably rampant, and warranted violent repercussions from the victims, under the harsh circumstances. This was farming under anarchy, perhaps somewhat similar to the conditions facing outlaw marijuana growers in late 20th century USAmerica, complete with guards, weapons, raids, ambushes, and traps.
The anomalous discontinuity of the record. The evidence that agriculture begins rather abruptly in the Mideast suggests that these early farmers were already familiar with the basics of the practice, which minimized the need for experimentation and graduated steps in ramping up production.
Aha! It appears from the citation below that many people have already been very familiar with the basics of agriculture for millennia-- but up to now have been able to get by pretty handily by merely reaping what nature automatically sowed in the vicinity, with tools like flint sickles. That is, they performed little or no sowing or field preparation themselves, but merely gathered wild grain as it appeared, and sometimes stored away large quantities of it for the winter.
Thus, hunter-gatherers/foragers possessed much agricultural knowledge and skills (and applied them virtually wherever they roamed) long, long before they began the permanent settlements and fixed-in-place farming practices 20th century humanity will perceive as full-blown agriculture.
| -- Scientific American: Wonders: Time Travelers in the Field by Philip and Phyllis Morrison, February 2000 |
One other notable development here: the new fixed-in-place settlements and farms vastly increase territoriality among peoples now. This may mark the earliest stirrings of the notions of substantial personal property, ownership, real estate, and borders or boundaries. As well as a seachange in markets and civilization. These changes may represent the first stirrings of nation-states.
At least for this region.
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11,000 BC-1,900 AD: Largely geographic differences increase disease resistance and accelerate technological and organizational development among some human factions, while stunting them in others (eurasians win the luck of the draw in geographic terms, allowing them to dominate other continental groups for millennia)The human tribes of western europe rise to dominate much of the rest of the planet due to extraordinarily good geographic fortune on their part.
The enormous size and diversity of the euasian continent offered a much greater number of animal and plant species overall than much of the rest of the world, and the quality of these species was superior too to many other areas (in terms of species conducive to domestication by man), possibly due to the increased competition between species over the huge land mass over eons, compared to what was possible on smaller masses. Eurasia's predominantly east-west axis also contributed strongly to such competition, as native life could exploit the same latitudinal climatic environment across almost half the planet. Thus, a slightly better genetic variant of dog or grain could spread relatively rapidly over thousands of miles in eurasia, either naturally, or via transport by humanity. This situation was fairly unique on Earth, as many other land bodies suffered a north-south axis instead, which strongly discouraged the spread of animal and plant species due to widely varying climates within only a few hundred miles in many cases. Thus, the Americas and Africa were at a distinct disadvantage in the environment they offered for any native humans to develop the plant and animal domestication stages of technology and organization.
Australia too suffered from a shortage of high quality domesticable plants and animals, as it was simply too small, arid, and isolated to develop them, among other things.
The same critical mass in size and latitudinal consistency which allowed plant and animal advances to flourish also encouraged human populations to boom and change, as well as interact in both peaceful and war-like ways, essentially always seeking a more effective way to organize themselves and exploit the natural resources around them. New ideas that produced tangible benefits or competitive or military advantages over one's neighbors also tended to be adopted and spread over all of eurasia over the millennia.
The increasingly large and concentrated human populations in eurasia during this time, as well as their increasingly close proximity to newly domesticated animals, also led to a flourishing environment for the development of new diseases too. Small pox, tuberculosis, the flu and more seemed to have first appeared here, from this convergence of circumstances.
Like their more complex cousins of plant and animal life, these infectious diseases too easily swept the latitudinally friendly eurasian continent, killing off those portions of eurasian humanity too vulnerable to the new scourges-- and also incidently arming the eurasians with their own natural biological weapons should they meet with strangers from other continents.
So the eurasians enjoyed not one but several important advantages over their human cousins living elsewhere on the planet.
But these advantages also often spelled greater stresses on the eurasians compared to others too; the eurasians paid a high price for the technological, organizational, and biological edges they gained over others. This price included death and suffering on massive scales from disease and war and plain old bullying and greed, that was rarely seen in some areas isolated from eurasia during this time.
Eventually the eurasians ventured beyond the boundaries of their home continent-- and discovered vast new vistas of land, peopled with human beings often hundreds of years or more behind them in the technologies of food production, transport, weapons, military tactics, and politico-economics.
The overwhelming advantages the eurasians enjoyed in technology and organization made the less technologically sophistocated peoples they encountered easy prey for conquering and enslaving. But the eurasians may have been able to subjugate them without any of those aids at all, anyway. How? By the biological weapons the eurasians all carried in the form of deadly viruses that foreign natives had never encountered, and thus had little resistance towards. 95% of the total native population of the americas alone (of the time of european invasion) are estimated to have died from those scourges. So the eurasians could have taken many foreign lands by numbers alone-- after their naturally evolved but invisible biological weapons decimated the native populations.
| -- "Why Did Human History Unfold Differently On Different Continents For The Last 13,000 Years? A Talk By Jared Diamond", The Third Culture, found on or about 1-2-99 on the web |
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Approximately 10,500 BC: A sudden 20+ degree F rise in temperatures worldwide is causing substantial climate changeOver a period of 50 years polar temperatures rise close to 60 degrees. There is also a rapid rise in methane levels in the atmosphere.
| -- Ice cores suggest abrupt climate change 12,500 years ago By Paul Recer, Augusta Georgia/Associated Press, 10/02/98, http://www.augustachronicle.com/ |
This suggests that the lowered sea levels of the Ice Age (combined with perhaps a few other phenomena such as land slips) has resulted in a large scale release of methane hydrates from the sea floor into the atmosphere. This 'green house' gas would have helped warm the Earth rather suddenly, causing many glaciers to begin a rapid melting collapse, and sea levels to surge in height faster than before.
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Substantial and highly flammable gas desposits line the ocean floor in many areas in a frozen, pressurized form, which might be on occasion released by meteor impacts, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, warm gaseous or liquid emissions from still deeper in the sea floor, warming of the oceans, or a reduction in sea levels (lower sea levels reduce the confining pressure, while warming thaws the icy deposits). Releases of gas from these deposits can be either highly localized or global in nature. Wherever sufficient quantities of this gas are released, the atmosphere itself may catch fire, sparked by events like natural lightning strikes. The gas may also contribute to global warming during releases, being a so-called 'green house' gas, which helps the Earth's atmosphere to retain solar heat.
-- METHANE HYDRATE: PAST FRIEND OR FUTURE FOE? From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #77, SEP-OCT 1991 by William R. Corliss, citing "Did Methane Curb Ice Ages," New Scientist, p. 24, May 25, 1991, and Tim Appenzeller; "Fire and Ice under the Deep-Sea Floor," Science, 252:1790, 1991 A lengthy period (1000 years) of unusually cool weather around 10,500 BC (called the Younger Dryas) may have forced Middle Eastern peoples to begin active cultivation of food plants like wheat, rye, einkorn, and barley, as natural growths became too sparse to support them. -- How Climate Shaped History ["http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/paleoclimate990127.html"] By Kenneth Chang, ABCNEWS.com, found on or about 6-17-2000; original publication date may have been January 29, 1999 |
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