Prehistory Decoded

  Megalithomania Conference, 4th - 5th May 2024

Holliday et al.'s "comprehensive refutation" of the Younger Dryas impact hypothesis (YDIH) is a highly misleading  Gish gallop. An earlier blog post addressed the presence of impact melts and microspherules in the YDB (Younger Dryas boundary). By themselves, they confirm a cosmic impact at Abu Hureyra near the YD onset. Due to the similarity of debris at the YDB across a wide range of sites, it's likely there were cosmic impacts across a wide area within a short timespan. Other blog posts examined the presence of nanodiamonds and platinum in the YDB. As they occur in the debris layer with microspherules at Abu Hureyra, they are also good impact indicators. They are present in many other YDB layers, along with apparent impact spherules, signalling a widely distributed cosmic impact. The previous blog post showed this layer of impact debris distributed across four continents within a narrow timeframe suggests a single event or highly correlated series of events wit...

Researchers associated with the comet research group have just published four new papers on micro-fractures in quartz, and how they can be used to diagnose cosmic impacts. The first paper is a detailed study linking shocked quartz to airbursts. The next three below apply this new understanding to the Younger Dryas impact specifically at Abu Hureyra, which is about 100 miles south of Gobekli Tepe. The journal is also new - "Airbursts and cratering impacts". It was set up so that papers rejected by the "impact mafia" can still be fairly reviewed and published. The impact mafia is a determined group of researchers who are expert in the more well-established science of large ground impacts where the existence of a large crater makes the diagnosis of an impact obvious. By requiring the same kind of evidence for the diagnosis of all cosmic impacts , they are effectively preventing the diagnosis of lower-energy impact events, for example small ground impacts or large airbu...

In this presentation I describe some of the supporting evidence for the astronomical interpretation of Gobekli Tepe. Many other presentations at Cosmic Summit 2023 are also available on YouTube, courtesy of George Howard who organised the whole thing. Here's the playlist .

The location of several Greenland ice cores, from Steffensen et al. (2008). Over the next few months/year I'll post a regular series of blog posts that deconstruct Holliday et al.'s (2023) (henceforth, just Holliday et al.) "comprehensive refutation" of the YDIH. Some common themes will become apparent. Essentially, there are no refutation arguments at all in it, so their title is misleading. Remember, the meaning of 'refute' is to 'disprove', but there are no arguments in Holliday et al. that disprove the YDIH. It's also worth looking up the  'Gish gallop' fallacy, because that is what is happening here. Holliday et al.'s paper might be extremely long, but it is lacking in serious arguments, and there are certainly no refutations. First up in this blog post is the timing of the YD climate change (specifically its onset) and the Greenland platinum spike. The relevant sections of Holliday et al. are 3.3 and 5.1. My comments are in itali...