New Conference Paper: Meteor Strikes Recorded in Prehistoric Art: From Göbekli Tepe to Lascaux

The following paper will be presented at the conference "Fourth International Symposium on Megalithic Monuments and Cult Practices", October 10-14, South West University "Neofit Rilski", Bulgaria.





METEOR STRIKES RECORDED IN PREHISTORIC ART: FROM GÖBEKLI TEPE TO LASCAUX

 

Martin B. Sweatman

 

Abstract: Earth has endured an episode of coherent catastrophism over the last 20-30 thousand years or so. This means strikes by comet fragments were much more common and violent during this period than the long-term average. Over most of this time, humans were unable to record these comet strikes in writing. But, it seems they were still able to record what happened to them, and when, with a form of proto-writing that involved constellations and precession of the equinoxes. Here, I describe evidence for two cosmic impacts recorded on stone; Pillar 43 at Göbekli Tepe and the Lascaux Shaft Scene. Each is an artistic masterpiece designed to endure. The impact described at Göbekli Tepe is probably the well-known but controversial Younger Dryas impact. This, it seems, was a pivotal moment in pre-history, as it ushered-in the agricultural transition in the Fertile Crescent. The impact probably recorded by the Lascaux Shaft Scene is currently unknown. Nevertheless, it appears to have had an equally dramatic effect on the hunter-gathers of south-west France. One that took millennia to recover from. Both these cosmic impacts seem to be described using almost the same kind of proto-writing and similar constellations. Are there other prehistoric examples waiting to be decoded?

 

The paper is now available online at Proceedings of the Fourth International Symposium Megalithic Monuments and Cult Practices, Blagoevgrad, 10–14 October 2024 - satrae.swu.bg

On reading it through again I noticed a mistake in the section "The pillars of Gobekli Tepe". 

The sentence should be "The earliest radiocarbon dates yet recovered (from Enclosure D) are around 1200 years YOUNGER than the Younger Dryas impact ...". Not OLDER. Oops.

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