Chronology & Catastrophism Workshop 2011:1 Click here for cost
(This issue also contains Steve Mitchell’s column, ‘MEDIEVAL EUROPE – DATING
AND RECENT DEVELOPMENTS: Bede’s Chronicae – A Confused Chronology? PART 1)
World Ages, by Peter Fairlie-Clarke
In this paper I explain why I believe that the data on the ages at death of the Patriarchs in the Book of Genesis is reliable and show how I use it to identify and date the first 6 ‘World Ages’ experienced by mankind. This analysis assumes that, during the 1st World Age, the Earth was in a co-axial relationship to the primordial deity known to the Greeks as Ouranos, ………………….. It also assumes that Immanuel Velikovsky was correct in suggesting, in his book Worlds in Collision [2], that the Earth’s year-length was increased when it experienced a terrible catastrophe at the time of the Exodus ……It also assumes that the lifespan of ancient mankind was no greater than modern mankind and that only a few of the Patriarchs lived beyond the biblical full age of three score years and ten. ………
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Chronology & Catastrophism Workshop 2011:2 Click here for cost
Punt: Homeland of the Egyptians, by Emmet Sweeney
The land of Punt is not usually accompanied, in Egyptian inscriptions, with the determinative for a foreign country; a fact which illustrates that the Egyptians regarded the region as in some way connected with their own country. Why this should be the case is well understood: the Egyptians claimed to be of Puntite origin. In the words of Flinders Petrie, the land of Punt was ‘sacred to the Egyptians as the source of the race.’ [1] …….. According to the thesis presented by Velikovsky in Ages in Chaos, and supported by the present writer in various publications, Punt was Israel/Lebanon [2], and the famous expedition of Hatshepsut to that territory was identical to the expedition of the Queen of Sheba ……… Is there anything in ancient tradition to indicate that the Egyptians, or a segment of the Egyptians, had come from the region of Israel/Lebanon? There is much to indicate it. …………..
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Chronology & Catastrophism Workshop 2012:1 Click here for cost
Venus: Problem Solving, by Peter Warlow
At the 2004 AGM (reported in C&C Workshop 2004:2, p. 2), Peter Warlow spoke ………. telling how 10 years previously, he had investigated the correlation between the temperature a planet was expected to be in relation to its distance from the Sun. This supported the idea that Venus was an anomalous body which had once come too close to Earth and could have been the cause of the ‘tippe-top’-type of Earth reversal that he had suggested would explain the magnetic reversal evidence ……… We now present this paper, verbatim, as an example of his Velikovskian-type thinking and note that, almost 10 years later, astronomers still peddle the same version of the formation of the solar-system as they have for around 100 years, despite the contradictory evidence ………….
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Astronomy is supposed to be a science, not a religion. So why are astronomers struggling in their efforts to explain Venus? As the recent articles in Astronomy (Feb. 2003) clearly show, they are positively floundering. Indeed, every article, paper and TV programme published since the Magellan probe results came in reveals the same dire situation. There has been no progress in understanding at all. …. Yet a simple solution to the problem exists. As I indicated in a paper published in the Journal of Physics: A in 1978, Venus must be a new planet. That was an obvious conclusion long before we had the Magellan data, and those data merely confirm the idea. …….
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The Neo-Hittites – a case of déjà vu? Empire Hittites v Neo-Hittites – Nine Points of Comparison, by P. J. Crowe and B. S. Curnock
This article is based on the Hittite research of Barry Curnock and is the first of a series of articles which cover specific aspects of that research. ……..
Introduction– More than any other part of conventional ancient history, the history of the Hittites demands a re-assessment. ………Can a civilisation disappear and then be recreated two hundred years later? Yet this is the story of the Hittites as told in any book on ancient history, a disjointed history which splits two parts of the Hittite experience into different times, with no apparent link between them, each part lasting for about three hundred and fifty years………………… In this article we offer the possibility of a different solution. Could the Egyptian-based early part, and the Assyrian-dated later part, actually be two versions of a single, continuous Hittite history? …………..
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Chronology & Catastrophism Workshop 2012:2 Click here for cost
(This issue also contains Steve Mitchell’s column, MEDIEVAL EUROPE – DATING
AND RECENT DEVELOPMENTS: Bedes Chronicae – A Confused Chronology?, PART 2)
No articles in this issue
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Chronology & Catastrophism Workshop 2013:1
Experiments in Chronology – Part I: The Hittite Homeland, by B. S. Curnock and P. J. Crowe
Introduction – The rationale for these chronological experiments is set out in a separate introductory paper [1]. Briefly, they aim to test the hypothesis that the early ‘Empire’ Hittites amd later Neo-Hittites were in reality the same continuous civilisation, the ‘Empire’ Hittites having been dated many centiries too early from their links to Egyptian kings. ….
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Can ‘Zerah the Ethiopian’ be Amenhotep II?, by Eric Aitchison and Daphne Chappell
This paper examines some revisionists’ assertion that the biblical ‘Zerah the Ethiopian’ is to be identified as Amenhotep II and Velikovsky’s belief that the year 9 campaign of Amenhotep II to Retenu resulted in his defeat by Asa [king of Judah] at Mareshah.
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Further Support for a Velikovskian-like Scenario?, by Sjef van Asten
C&C Review 2012 and C&C Review 2004:3 contain several objections from Emmet Sweeney to the ideas of David Rohl in his ‘New Chronology’ [1]. Rohl identified Labayu from the el-Amarna correspondence, the time of Amenhotep III and Akhenaten, with the biblical king Saul (mid-11th century BC), and moved the el-Amarna period about three centuries down in time from the orthodox dating. Sweeney, however, moved the era of this correspondence down in time by about five to five and a half centuries, to the time of the biblical kings Baasha king of Israel and Asa king of Judah (turn of the 10th and 9th century BC). While not necessarily agreeing with Sweeney’s synchronisms, additional support for a timeline along the lines that Velikovsky proposed, as given below, suggests that the reduction as proposed in the New Chronology may not be sufficient to explain the similarity in artistic expressions and cultural achievements between two distinctly different periods of time. ……..
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Under the heading ‘Comment’ and the title ‘Ignoring Data’,this issue also contains a complaint by Charles Ginenthal that several ancient history revisionists (and their supporters) ignore, or have failed to:
‘… build their chronologies on consistent levels of scientific and technological data. In that respect any chronology based on interpretations of ancient documents for their foundations, or “pillars”, runs headlong into the contradictions of scientific, technological and other forms of evidence which I have presented in the first three volumes of Pillars of the Past (PoP) [1]. There seems to be an epidemic among authors of avoiding such evidence and I will discuss three examples from Chronology & Catastrophism Review 2012. …’
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Chronology & Catastrophism Workshop 2013:2
New Moon?, by Slade Barker
When George Darwin proposed the ‘fission’ theory of the Moon’s origin, he also realised that the angular momentum of Earth would slowly transfer to the Moon via tidal friction. As a consequence, Earth’s rotation rate would decrease and the Moon’s orbital distance would increase. Measuring the decrease in Earth’s rotation rate was the subject of Laurence Dixon’s paper, ‘Retrocalculation and the Delta T Function’ [1]. If we assume that Earth’s orbital period has remained constant over the ages and that transfer of angular momentum from Earth to the Moon has proceeded as prescribed by the tidal drag theory, then we could estimate what we would expect the ancient length of the day to be. ….. The first attempt, to my knowledge, to produce some evidence of the number days in ancient years was [by] John Wells [2] of Cornell University.
American Ice-Sheet, by Peter Fairlie-Clarke
If the Earth suffered a series of pole-shifts in the last few thousand years, then it is possible to reconcile evidence of a warm Arctic region with evidence for ice-sheets over North America and a 2.5 million year ‘Ice-age’ is not required. I have been aware for a long time of geological evidence, that much of North America was quite recently covered by ice and that the Great Lakes were sculptured by ice, [which] is considered by some to be a potent argument against any suggestion that the Arctic was ice-free only a few thousand years ago. Immanuel Velikovsky [1] and Dwardu Cardona [2] both wrote convincingly about the Arctic having a temperate climate in the quite recent past. In addition, Derek Allen indicated that the evidence of a recent temperate climate in arctic regions is frozen in place ……. [3]’.
Archaeoastronomical Simulations Assuming Crustal Rotation, by John Plaxton
Two internet videos of astronomical simulations [1] – using scripts in the programme ‘Stellarium’ – display simultaneous celestial events that resemble two historically-recorded observations seen in China and Israel. Other records and ancient myths corroborate these simulations. When independent, but more powerful and comprehensive simulations confirm these events, a nearly simultaneous worldwide ‘time mark’ would exist for the chronologies of many cultures.
Dark Earth discovered below the floor of the Undercroft at York Minster, by Steve Mitchell
A ‘FOCUS’ article. To be read in conjunction with ‘Dark Earth, a challenge to the chronology of Britain in the first millennium AD’, in Chronology & Catastrophism Review 2013, pp. 2-28.
The following appeared in The Press (a York newspaper) on February 7th 2013: [only parts of the quote are given here].
ARCHAEOLOGISTS have found evidence of a previously unknown settlement below York Minster, dating back more than 1,000 years. Experts working at the Minster say the finds – including a nine century coin – help to plug a gap in York’s history between the departure of the Romans in the fifth century and the arrival of the Normans in 1066. ……. The coin found is a sceatta, a silver coin …. minted for Archbishop Eanbald, who had connections to the famed court of Charlemagne, say the archaeologists ….. The British Museum initially discounted the coin as a Victorian fake, before authenticating it. ……….
I was curious as to why the British Museum (BM) claimed that the coin was a fake and then changed their mind. ….. It is, I suspect, all down to the murky reputation of the documentary records. ….. I have tried to spell out that there are no trustworthy annals beyond 748 [AD] in the Bedea Continuuo [3] and all entries in the Anglo Saxon Chronicles have to be treated with the utmost caution until we pick up the unadulterated history of King Alfred of Wessex [4].
THE DAVID SALKELD MEMORIAL MEETING
7th September 2013. Held at the Harlequin, Redhill, Surrey. A series of papers presented in honour of the late David Salkeld by friends and colleagues.
David Salkeld: Scholar, Leader and Friend – Trevor Palmer
A personal and general acknowledgement of his services and attributes.
…….Having secured the future of the SIS by his financial acumen, he now turned his attention to broader issues, particularly his belief that members should have more opportunity to mix socially. David had enjoyed his participation in the SIS-sponsored tour of Egypt in 1984 and was aware that, when he became Chairman, the Society hadn’t organised a residential conference in the UK since the one at Glasgow in 1978 ….. That was soon to change. The first Cambridge Conference was held in 1993 and another four residential conferences took place within the next nine years. ………. He made 10 thought-provoking contributions to Review, not including book reviews and letters. ….. His fertile restless mind was forever trying to formulate plausible, rational explanations for baffling events of phenomena described in ancient writings, or for equally baffling processess such as the origin of life on Earth.
The Mysterious ‘Shamir’ -David Roth
Concerning David’s interest in Old Testament traditions and texts and their relevance to ancient history and catastophes. One-such tradition was that of ‘Shamir’, whose properties he sought to determine. He thought Shamir might have originated as a radioactive isotope, part of the Uranium/Radium series (see C&C Review 2003, where the work and research of R. V. Gentry is also discussed.)
[Shamir] …. was the size of a barley-corn and could cut the hardest of diamonds. Two main uses are described – engraving the stones in the high priest’s breastplate – and cutting the stones and hard wood for Solomon’s Temple. ….. According to The Legends of the Jews, Shamir was to be kept in a woollen cloth in a lead basket filled with barley-corn. ……….Where I was able to get involved in David’s thought-processes and help a little was when he was researching the origin and etymology of the word Shamir ….. [Shamir appears] in the Hebrew Bible – in Isaiah (8 times) and once each in Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Zechariah ….. In C&C Review 1996:1 Phillip Clapham had an article published on Shamir which mentioned most of the aspects thereof …The Proto-Saturnian System’s Linear Alignment – Dwardu Cardona (read in absentia by Wal Thornhill)
A subject that provoked intensive but friendly and constructive debate between him and Dwardu over many years.
…. One of the issues about which David and I disagreed concerned the proto-Saturnian configuration. As I, together with other colleagues of mine, have posited, this configuration involved three planets – Venus, Mars and Earth – in a linear configuration that was axially strung along the Birkeland current emanating from proto-Saturn’s southern pole. Not only that, but taking our cue from Ralph Juergens, some of us have accepted that this confiuration had been travelling outside the demarcation of the solar system before it penetrated the Sun’s heliospheric boundary on its way toward the Sun. It is not that David himself did not agree with this. In fact he did, but, as he pointed out to me toward the end of 2010, such a configuration could only have existed while it was travelling through the Sun’s heliosphere. Prior to that, while it had still been outside the solar system, the configurations’s planetary brood would have been in equatorial orbit around proto-Saturn. …….. back in 1978, this axial planetary coupling had been the greatest stumbling block in my own unravelling of the proto-Saturnian scenario. As far as I knew at that particular time, there were no such coupled bodies known from anywhere in the Universe. ………. I was also under the false impression that celestial mechanics, as then known, would not allow for such coupling. ……… that such linear formations did exist in space eventually came to me through the discovery of the jetting star designated as HH 409 ………
Peter Warlow’s ‘Tippe-top’ Theory -Barry Curnock
Relating the theory (printed in facsimile in SIS Review III:4, from Peter’s paper in the Journal of Physics, 1978); Victor Slabinski’s criticism and rejection of it (in a subsequent issue of the Journal of Physics, reprinted in SIS Review V:2); and in turn, David’s re-instatement of the theory – a firm rebuttal to Slabinski, showing that his criticism was based on a false premise and Peter’s theory was valid (C&C Review Vol. XI, 1989).
[Tippe-tops] … can be made of plastic or metal and they often appear as gifts in Chrismas crackers. .. The most interesting thing about the Tippe-top is the continuation of the imparted spin whilst the top turns over. …… It is spun in one direction and although it turns over, the spinning is still the same way – the spinning does not travel with it; it is independent. The spinning – called ‘angular momentum’ by physicists – stays in place and this, as we will see, was the prompt to the theory. Geomagnetic reversals have been known to geologists for a long time. Earth’s magnetic field has not always been in the position that it has at present; in the past it has been reversed. A geomagnetic field is defined as a change in Earth’s magnetic field such that the positions of magnetic north and south are interchanged. When that happens a compass would point to the south, not to the north. ……. Immanuel Velikovsky was one of the first to look at geomagnetic reversals as an issue in terms of astronomical events. …………. Our good friend and late colleague Peter Warlow (1936-2011) devised the Tippe-top theory after watching a child playing with the toy and realising its action during the turnover.Scythians and Sumerians (A presentation of Gunnar Heinsohn’s Ideas) – by Emmet Sweeney
David’s approach to most things was very open-minded, but it was made it clear that, although similarities between Scythians and Sumerian intrigued David and he considered they needed to be fully investiagated, Emmet was by no means aware that David was actually supportive of Heinsohn’s overall chronological scheme.
…………. Heinsohn notes, for example, that in site after site throughout upper Mesopotamia the Akkadian strata lie directly underneath those of the Mitanni, though the textbooks claim that these two peoples and empires were separated from each other by about seven centuries. ……. there are serious chronological problems for Heinsohn’s equation of the Sumerians with the post-Assyrian Scythians. ……. there nonetheless appears to be a connection between the Sumerians and the ancient land of Scythia – one that goes back long before the time of the Assyrian Empire. ……… Sumerian indeed appears to be related to an ancient language of the steppes – that of the Hungarians. Parallels between Hungarian and Sumerian were first noted almost a century ago, though at the time they were dismissed as largely coincidental. More recently however it has become clear that the parallels are far too numerous and precise – involving not only vocabulary but grammar and syntax – to be dismissed in this way. ……… it would now appear that Hungarian is far more closely related to Sumerian than to any of the so-called Ural-altaic languages, such as Finnish, whose family Hungarian is said to belong to. It needs to be stressed at this point that the term ‘Scythian’ was applied indiscriminately by the ancient authors to all the peopes of the steppes and did not have the ethnic-linguistic connotations it now has.
David and the Polar Configuration (Proto-Saturn) – Wal Thornhill
Relating Wal’s friendship with David; his contact and work with him and the SIS, and further research into the theory since the latter’s death – which research would have been of great interest to him.
1997 marked the publication of articles about Saturn …. three articles were by David Talbot, Dwardu Cardona, and a joint one by Harold Tresman and Bernard Newgrosh [under an his alias, Brendan O’Gheoghan]. ………. It was Immanuel Velikovsky, in a short article in Kronos V, no. 1, that really made me think about it. It was such an incredible leap from anything that I had heard before yet, somehow instinctively, I sensed that there was something to be investigated and that in some ways it made good sense. The essay was based on a lecture given by Velikovsky at the University of the New World, Valais, in Switzerland in 1971, but it referred back to an article that he had written in the 1940s called ‘Saturn and The Flood’, so it has quite a history. …….. I spent decades trying to figure out how you would get a linear arrangement of planets that could be dynamically stable. When I first went to Portland in 1994 to address the meeting that David Talbott had arranged for the first international conference on the Saturn theory, at that stage I really had no idea how this configuration that he was describing would work ……. I took a long while to get over the idea that Einstein knew what gravity was all about and, in ditching that idea, to find a modified version of gravity. …………… In the last few years, the result of that has been what I call Electrically Modified Newtonian Dynamics [‘EMOND’] which hinges on the fact that when you put charge on a planet or a star, or extract charge to any great degree, the actual apparent mass and gravity of that star or planet will change. It is possible, using Electrically Modified Newtonian Dynamics, to explain how to end up with a stable system of many bodies orbiting the Sun after a very short period of time when chaos reigned. ……….. Electrically Modified Newtonian Dynamics then helps explain the electrical capture of proto-Saturn into the Sun-system, the avoidance by planets of each other, and rapid orbit stabilisation.