In a new article called Recent Cosmic Impacts on Earth: Do Global Myths Reflect an Ancient Disaster?, contributor Thomas F. King takes a look at a recent work by archaeologist and geomythologist Bruce Masse. Geomythology is a fairly new scholarly field which mines ancient mythologies to identify evidence of physical events. Some geomythological efforts are successful, some not so much: the attempt to identify Atlantis has consistently failed over time. Masse, an archaeologist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, has been working on identifying textual evidence in myths of historic period cosmic impacts--that is, destruction myths that may have been created as a result of the impact of an asteroid within human history.
That asteroids make catastrophic impacts on our earth is not disputed, of course, as was shown by recent studies of the Chicxulub asteroid impact off the Yucatan Peninsula of 65 million years ago. Some scholars believe Chicxulub was responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs. But Masse's work postulates that the recently discovered Burckle Crater off Madagascar may be reflected in wide-spread destruction myths possibly dated around 2800 BC.
Recent Cosmic Impacts makes for interesting reading, as we have come to expect from Tom King, whose previous works here include Amelia Earhart and Archaeology, so pick a link and follow on through.
That asteroids make catastrophic impacts on our earth is not disputed, of course, as was shown by recent studies of the Chicxulub asteroid impact off the Yucatan Peninsula of 65 million years ago. Some scholars believe Chicxulub was responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs. But Masse's work postulates that the recently discovered Burckle Crater off Madagascar may be reflected in wide-spread destruction myths possibly dated around 2800 BC.
Recent Cosmic Impacts makes for interesting reading, as we have come to expect from Tom King, whose previous works here include Amelia Earhart and Archaeology, so pick a link and follow on through.
- Recent Cosmic Impacts on Earth: Do Global Myths Reflect an Ancient Disaster?
- Contributor Biography: Thomas F. King
- Atlantis Rediscovered? Has geology found the lost continent?
- Climate Change and Archaeology: Past Perspectives, more reading on what archaeology can teach us about the impacts of nature
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