Chronology & Catastrophism REVIEW1998:1 Click here for cost
It’s Time to Get Serious About Manetho, by Dale F. Murphie
The kinglists of Egyptian priest Manetho in c. -260 represent the foundation plank of all reconstruction of that nation’s history. Are the chronological problems identified today the result of errors on his part, or have modern scholars misread his work from the start?
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Tunguska-Type Impacts Over the Pacific Basin Around the Year AD 1178, by Emilio Spedicato
Canterbury annals record an unusual event in AD 1178, which has been interpreted as a cometary or meteoritic impact on the hidden face of the Moon. This paper collects evidence of climatic changes and tsunamis due to possible impacts of cometary-meteoric bodies over the Pacific Ocean and their effects on civilisations on the Pacific coasts of Mexico and Peru, the emergence of the Incas in the high Andes and the migration of the Mongols to central Asia and China.
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A Theory of Lunar Disturbance, by Len Saunders
Considerable thought has been given to collisions with Earth and evidence has been adduced for such events within recent history. Because of its proximity, it seems reasonable to suppose that the Moon has shared Earth’s experiences, so it is not unreasonable to imagine that it, too, has suffered recent collisions, or near-collisions. …………….
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Experiments with Time, I: Catastrophes and Chronologies, by Geoffrey Knowler Barnard
An alternative chronology – the ‘Absolute Chronology’ for the ancient Middle East is presented and its consequences for a number of well known problems examined. These include the Dark Age of Greece, the ‘Assuruballit problem’, the enigma of the Babylonian Painted Palace and the Egyptian ‘Third Intermediate Period’. Further aspects will be considered in Part II of the article.
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The Oera Linda Book, by Derel Briarley
….. Oera Linda book was a chronicle of the Frisians passed down through the ruling family, O’er Linda (over the land), who became the Over de Lindens. In 1848 Cornelius Over de Linden received it but, as he could not understand the language it was written in, he ignored it for twenty years before having it examined by an expert in Frisian antiquities who was satisfied with its genuineness. ……………….. is the Oera Linda book genuine? …………………………………….
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Dating the Hammurabi Dynasty Using the Venus Tablets, by John D. Weir
The famous library of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal contains an astrological section of about 70 clay tablets [1]. The 63rd tablet gives a sequence of setting and rising dates of the planet Venus covering a period of 21 years. The various surviving copies of this record are known as the Venus Tablets [2]. …………………..the phrase inserted between the 8th and 9th years of the sequence, ‘Year of the Golden Throne’, is the date-formula of the eighth ruler of the Hammurabi Dynasty, King Ammisaduqa [3]. Accordingly, the sequence could now be used for dating purposes. This resulted in a series of ‘solutions’ giving possible dates within the limits thought to be archaeologically possible. …………….. Ammisaduqa was king of Babylon from 1921 BC to 1900 BC (i.e. -1920 to -1899). While the dating problem itself seemed to be solved, another quite different problem arose out of the text of the Venus Tablets. None of the solutions yielded a very good fit and alternative versions of the text fitted one solution and not another. Also, some of the data was found to be displaced. How could this anomaly be explained? ……………. At no time was it suggested that some of the anomalies might be arising because the astronomical observations originated at some date other than the accepted solution [7]. The idea that they might be due to cosmic catastrophe came later …………..
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Assyrian History: The ‘Black Hole’, by Eric Aitchison
Historical revisions draw their adherents along strange paths. Those who need to stay in touch with the various revisions must also follow these paths but, like Hansel and Gretel, should keep some markings to allow themselves to make their way back to what they believe is sanity. Velikovsky’s radical historical revision was and is the impetus for the new and emerging variations. Heinsohn has a revision, Lasken has a revision, Rohl has a revision; whilst Damien Mackey continues to support the basic Velikovsky line, ……….. new contributors such as Dale Murphie offer another slant ……………………………………
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Chronology & Catastrophism REVIEW 1998:2 Click here for cost
In Defence of Higher Chronologies, by Professor Lynn E. Rose
………. Since there are ample indications that the Middle Kingdom of Egypt and the First Babylonian Dynasty were contemporary, or at least overlapped [7], my lowering of the Middle Kingdom led me to endorse an earlier claim by Gunnar Heinsohn that the First Babylonian Dynasty needs to be lowered to Persian times …………….. I have been much involved with radical chronology-lowering and might be expected to be receptive to further such lowerings. Nonetheless, there are definite limits to this and the present paper is concerned with three cases of additional lowering that seem to go too far. 1. Gunnar Heinsohn …………. 2. Benny Peiser …………. 3. Heribert Illig ………….
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New Physics Supports Planetary Catastrophism, by Wal Thornhill
The strongest conventional argument against planetary involvement in prehistoric catastrophes is that a Newtonian system should have some orbits showing evidence of recent encounters. It is argued [in this paper] that the fault in this argument lies in our misunderstanding of the nature of gravity. Evidence is presented that certain planets were much closer to the Earth in prehistory and the nature of that evidence lends support to a new model for gravity.
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Venus, Mars … and Saturn, by Ev Cochrane
Velikovsky’s [intended] book ‘The Age of Saturn’ has never been published, but researchers in the USA have continued to investigate the role of Saturn in mythology and history. This article presents a summary of their ideas, which suggest that the ringed planet was a major influence on Earth in the past.
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Snapshots of the Gods?, by Charles Raspil
Interpreting ancient art as being representational rather than symbolic may answer some riddles of mythology and religion: 1. what do the Buddha, Typhon, Jesus, Astarte, Nimrod, Humbaba and other deities and phantasms of the ancient world have in common?; 2. why do certain floral patterns follow the gods all over the world?; 3. how beautiful was Helen of Troy?; 4. what did the gods really look like?; 5. why are dragons and serpents found below in Hell? ………………………………………………………
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A Tale of Two Mountains: Ararat and Sinai, by Damien F. Mackey
Moses wrote the Exodus account in terms of ‘a miniature flood story’, portraying himself as the new Noah. This article illustrates the Flood-Exodus parallelisms ……………..and ultimately draws the conclusion that the reason why Mount Sinai was revered as ‘the mountain of God’, even prior to the Exodus …. was because it was the mountain upon which Noah’s Ark had landed. ………….
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Experiments with Time, II: Synchronisms and Stratigraphies, by Geoffrey Knowler Barnard
In [Part I] of ‘Experiments with Time”, the Egyptian Conventional Chronology was revised downwards and related to a new interpretation of the Mesopotamian chronologies. These involved the separation of each of the Assyrian and Babylonian king lists into two parallel dynasties [1]. This relationship created a new chronological structure which forms the basis of the ‘Absolute Chronology’. This is now further developed by the use of Schaeffer’s comparative stratigraphy, to show how it relates to other countries of the Ancient World. This will be done partly by chronological synchronisms and partly by stratigraphical comparisons.
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In Defence of Higher Chronologies, by Professor Lynn E. Rose