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Musings on Dark Ages, Climates and Connectedness

Context & Perspectives

Presented to Ancient Artifact Preservation Society (AAPS)

by Karl Hoenke26 September 2009

Marquette, Michigan

Overview

• Why’d it take us so long?• Dust Veils & Dark Ages• Things “out of place” • Glance at prehistoric Copper Industry • Introduce a few pre-Columbian maps• Recommended reading

Average World Temperatures °F

1060 50 40 30 20100 90 80 70 0

Thousands of Years Before Present (kBP)

0

-9

-18

-27

-36

+9

Comet Hit – End Ice Age

Toba Eruption – Mankind reduced to ~3,000 individuals (bottleneck)

Younger--Dryas

Average Today = 57 °F

48 °F

39 °F

30 °F

21 °F

Nome

Chicago

Nashville

Calgary

30 20 10 0

Thousands of Years Before Present (kBP)

Average Today = 57 °F

48 °F

39 °F

30 °F

21 °F

Stability

Average World Temperatures °F

± 2.5°F !!!

Temperature Perspectives

-3 °F

+2 °F

Selected, but Key Dates

• 11,000 BC Comet struck N.A.• 5,500 BC Black Sea Inundated• 2,354 BC• 1,628 BC• 1,159 BC Dust Veil Events• 207 BC• 540 AD

11,000 BC Comet strikes Upper Midwest Ice Sheet

• Approximate End of cave painting era in Europe• Megafauna disappear from North America• World ocean levels rose 300 feet, episodically, over next 6,000

years, inundating coastal settlements world-wide• Signs of recovery in Europe:

– Ćatalhüyük & Göbekli Tepe, Turkey (9,000 BC)– Jericho, Israel (9,000 BC)– Woodhenges, Britain (8,000 BC)– Megalithic Culture, Atlantic Europe, (5,000 BC)

• Signs of recovery in North America– Archaic (& Red Paint) cultures begin ~5,000 BC– Mound cultures begin ~3,000 BC– Old Copper Culture begins ~3,500 BC

5,500 BCMediterranean Floods Black Sea

• Indo-Europeans disperse• Farming begins penetrating Europe EW• Major shift from Matriarchal to Patriarchal

societies in Mediterranean region• Possible event remembered as Gilgamesh

and Biblical Flood

World-Wide “Dust Veil” EventsTree Rings Show 5-10 Year Effects

• Chinese, Roman, Mayan, Sumerian, Akkadian, Egyptian:– “Sun has no warmth”– Crops fail due to extended draughts– Wide-spread famines– “Sun casts no shadow”– “Stars not seen”– Summer frosts kill crops

• Irish bog oaks, California bristlecones, German & Turkish trees show no-growth rings

• Ice cores may show sulfur signals, narrow bands

Synopsis made from Baillie’s Exodus to Arthur

Three Candidates for Disturbances

• Volcanoes– May produce Sulfur signal in ice cores– Effects last 2-3 years at most

• Marine “Outgassing”– Effects local or regional– Effects may imitate plagues

• Comet &/or Bolide Strikes– Effects differ for marine or land hits– Can vary from local to world-wide– Can have prolonged effects– Effects captured in myth imagery

2,354 BCEruption of Hekla IV

• Chinese floods & famine• Sudden water level rises in Irish lakes• Weak link to Egyptian 1st Intermediate Period

1,628 BC Probable date of Thera/Santorini eruption

• Stonehenge abandoned• Hyksos rule of Egypt (2nd Intermediate period) • Three fourths of “men” of Ireland die• End of Minoan hegemony, power shifts to Greece• End of Xia Dynasty in China• Biblical Exodus?

• Recovery begins ~ 200 yr later in Egypt

1,159 BC

• End Mediterranean, Aegean, Egyptian, Syrian Cultures

• Trojan War, “Sea Peoples”• Irish King list cites “Catastrophes” • End Shang dynasty in China• Bronze Age ends in Europe

• Recovery begins with rise of Classic Greece, 800 BC• 1100 BC, Chou dynasty begins 900 year run

207 BC

• Chinese lose “Mandate of Heaven”, dynasty change amid famines

• “Stones fall from sky” in Mediterranean• Roman famines, epidemics• California tree rings extremely narrow

• Rapid recovery in Mediterranean

540 ADLikely Comet Impact

• Chinese lose “Mandate of Heaven”, suffer famines• “Failure of bread” in Ireland• Justinian plague & Collapse of Roman Empire• Gupta dynasty ends in India, 540 AD• Brief Mayan “intermediate” period• Coldest summer, including frosts, in 1500 yr

• Recovery appears with – Classic Mayan (600 AD)– Beginning of Medieval Europe (~1,000 AD)– After 500 yr of brief dynasties, Song stabilized China, 960 AD

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Short-List of “Things out of Place” - 1Item Origin Attested in: Dated:

Hookworm(s) Tropical E./S.E. Asia

Central Brazil <5,300 BC

Corn, Maize Widespread New World

India, Indonesia (CiS)

2,500 BC

Coca South America

Egypt 1,000 BC

Excerpted from “Biological Evidence for Pre-Columbian Transoceanic Voyages” by John Sorenson and Carl Johannessen, 2006CiS = carved in stone

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Short-List of “Things out of Place” - 2Item Origin Attested in: Dated:

Cocaine & Tobacco

South America

Egyptian mummies

1,200 BC

Pineapple American Tropics

India, E. Polynesia, Nineveh (CiS)

600 BC

Sweet Potato Tropics China, Polynesia

300 AD

Excerpted from “Biological Evidence for Pre-Columbian Transoceanic Voyages” by John Sorenson and Carl Johannessen, 2006CiS = carved in stone

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Short-List of “Things out of Place” - 3Item Origin Attested in: Dated:

Chili Pepper (C. Annuum)

Widespread New World

India, Polynesia

900 AD

Turkey Widespread New World

Hungary 1,000-1,200 AD(letter to Chris)

Asian Chickens

China, Japan Chile Pre-Columbian

Excerpted from “Biological Evidence for Pre-Columbian Transoceanic Voyages” by John Sorenson and Carl Johannessen, 2006CiS = carved in stone

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Leve

l of M

inin

g Ac

tivity

2,400 BC 600 BC1,200 BC1,800 BC3,000 BC

Copper Removal from Keweenaw RegionRoger Jewell Model

Collapse of Bronze Age

Minoan Civilization

Bronze Age Begins

Old Copper Culture

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Some pre-Columbian MapsMegalithic stone maps of Europe, c.3-5,000 BC

Show directions, days of journey to Atlantic islands and North America

Marco Polo map, 1297 and wall map in Doge’s Palace, Venice, before 1428

Show China, Siberia, Alaska, North American coast to Oregon

Zheng He map, 1418 Shows Azores, West African rivers, Maldives, Ascension, clear NW Passage over Russia, Spitsbergen, Greenland,, Pacific (S.A., Andes, Rocky Mts, Bering Strait)

Waldseemuller’s “Green Globe”, 1506

All continents in correct relative positions: Strait of Magellan, Antarctic (including interior mountains), Raspadura Canal

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Recommended Reading• Roger L. Jewell, Ancient Mines of Kitchi-Gummi, 2004• Victor H. Mair (ed), Contact and Exchange in the Ancient

World, 2006 (paper by Sorenson and Johannessen)• Charles Mann, 1491, 2006 (Pre-Columbian conditions)• Gavin Menzies, 1421, 2002 (Chinese world tour)• Gavin Menzies, 1434, 2008 (Chinese visit to Europe)• Firestone, Allen & West, Cycle of Cosmic Catastrophes,

2006 (comet theory)• Mike Baillie, Exodus to Arthur, 1999 (Dust Veil Events)• Mike Baillie, New Light on the Black Death, 2006

QUESTIONS ???

Average World Temperatures

25Today

5

20

15

10

40

35

30

25

65

60

55

50

45

75

70

Timeline of Selected EventskBP = Thousand Years Before Present

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Americas 1st populated by sea, estimated 18-30 kBP

Bering Land Bridge Opens

Australia colonized by sea (~40-50 kBP)

Modern Sapiens Bottleneck to Approximately 3,000 Individuals

Stonehenge

Younger-Dryas (12.8-11.5 kBP)

Earliest “City” -- Catalhuyuk

Modern Sapiens (Cro-Magnon) Occupies Europe, Paints Caves!

Modern Sapiens Successfully Leaves Africa

Early Modern Sapiens Moves “Out of Africa” (~100 kBP)

S

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Textbook Paradigm denies any contact between N.A. & rest of World for 10,000 years!

Virtually Blank N.A. Slate

Japan Current Route

Today

1

4

3

2

8

7

6

5

13

12

11

10

9

15

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Timeline of Selected EventskBP = Thousand Years Before Present

Clovis Culture (11.0-10.8 kBP)

Topper Site, South Carolina (19-16 kBP, to 50 kBP?)

Many Sites (Meadowcroft, Cactus Hill, Monte Verde, etc)

Comet strikes N.A. Ice Sheet

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Maximum Ice Sheet(18-14 kBP)

Bering Land Bridge OpensBering Land Bridge Opens

27Today

1

4

3

2

8

7

6

5

11

10

9

Timeline of Selected EventskBP = Thousand Years Before Present

Copper Mining in Keweenaw (7-3.2 kBP)Most intense period 4.5-3.2 kBP

Chinese Explore N.A. West

East Coast “Red Paint” Culture

East Coast “Megalithic Culture

Polynesians Leave Taiwan (5.7 kBP)

Fengtien jade trade Taiwan to Asia (5.2 kBP)Egyptians import cedars & obelisks (5-2 kBP)

Uluburun ship sinks w/10 tons of copper (3 kBP)

Vikings, L’Anse Aux MeadowsColumbus

Hittite, Egyptian, Levant cultures Collapse, Trojan War (1,200 BC)

Folsom Culture

Plainview Culture

Indian Ocean trading

Using the World’s Oceans Events in Americas

Greek, Persian & Roman Navies, & Trading

Adena, Hopewell & Mississippian Mound Builders

African trade to Central America

Clovis Culture (11.0-10.8 kBP)Bering Land Bridge Opens

Bronze Age (Europe, E Med.)

Black Sea floods at Bosporus