Prehistory Decoded

Recently, Mark Boslough (who else?) wrote yet another scathing piece about the Comet Research Group and the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis (YDIH) in the Skeptical Enquirer (he's a long time member of their college).  The Problem with Inadequately Reviewed Fringe Science | Skeptical Inquirer In it, he holds himself judge and jury for an entire field of science; namely extraterrestrial impacts. Indeed, he infers the YDIH is is worse than pseudoscience; he regards it as a massive fraud, similar to Piltdown Man x 100. But the YDIH is actually a complex scientific debate that has raged for nearly 20 years and has pushed the boundaries of the science of airburst impacts. Ironically, (given the volume's title - see above), Boslough doesn't address any of these emerging scientific issues. Instead, he tackles the people involved. As aleady pointed out by James Powell in his "Premature Rejection" and "Pillars of Salt" articles, Peer review and the pillar of salt:...

I will present the following paper at the... Second MULTIDISCIPLINARY STUDY DAYS geo-archaeological on Mediterranean megalithism (Palermo, Sicily, October 2-4, 2025) Title: Early Developments in Astronomy, Arithmetic and Proto-writing at Göbekli Tepe, 10,000 BCE Martin B. Sweatman, School of Engineering, University of Edinburgh.   ABSTRACT Göbekli Tepe, a megalithic site in southern Anatolia, consists of many sub-circular enclosures formed by megalithic T-shaped pillars and a large number of other rectangular buildings. The pillars of this very early settlement, some standing over 5 m tall, are adorned with a complex system of symbols, including animal symbols and other geometric symbols. It is believed to date to ~ 9,500 BCE, although an older origin date within the Epi-palaeolithic period is likely.  Recent analyses of Göbekli Tepe’s iconography suggest that its builders possessed conceptual understanding in astronomy, arithmetic, and proto-writing far earlier than previousl...

Read all about this at the Cosmic Tusk It might be easier to document where the YD black mat isn't?

In a new paper, Fitzenreiter et al. (2025) may have just located the first known surface impact feature of the Younger Dryas impact. It's near Perkins, Louisiana. The feature is a surface depression which fills with water on a seasonal basis, i.e. a seasonal lake. Clearly, it's not a crater. But that's ok, as the Younger Dryas impact hypothesis suggests the event was caused by a multitude of comet fragments and not a single large and dense impactor. So the YDIH doesn't need craters, although there may well be some associated with it. The surface feature is not very large. It's suggested to have been caused by a low altitude airburst, or touch-down airburst, that provided sufficient heat and force to scar the landscape below without forming a traditional crater. Such events are thought to be more common than crater-forming impacts, but evidence for them is harder to find (due to the lack of an obvious crater). While the paper details copious geochemical evidence for...

Origin of some of the ancient Greek constellations via analysis of Pillar 43 at Göbekli Tepe  Martin B. Sweatman and Dimitrios Gerogiorgis School of Engineering, The University of Edinburgh, The King's Buildings, Sanderson Building, Mayfield Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JL, United Kingdom. email: martin.sweatman@ed.ac.uk   key words: Greek constellations, Göbekli Tepe, Pillar 43   ABSTRACT We re-evaluate an astronomical interpretation of Pillar 43 at Göbekli Tepe in southern Turkey. Our analysis supports earlier conclusions that at least some of the animal symbols on this pillar almost certainly represent constellations related to those of the ancient Greeks. Presumably, the Greeks, Mesopotamians and other Neolithic, Bronze and Iron-age cultures towards the eastern end of the Mediterranean region were influenced in their choice of constellations and symbols by this pre-existing knowledge.   1.       Introduction This work investig...