Philosophy
Austen Henry Layard
March 5th, 1817 to July 5th, 1894
In 3123 BC, a Sumerian astronomer saw a devastating asteroid, perhaps a half-mile wide, according to an interpretation of a clay tablet, made by researchers from Bristol University, reported in The Times on 31 Mar 2008. The ancient date was indicated by a computer recreation of the night sky using symbols on the tablet recording the positions of constellations The Planiform tablet found by Henry Layard at Nineveh, likely a 700 BC copy of the astronomer's notes, described in cuneiform a "white stone bowl approaching" that "vigorously swept along." The asteroid probably crashed into the Austrian Alps, leaving a swath of cataclysmic damage such as, for example, the Genesis destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
British scientists have deciphered a mysterious ancient clay tablet and believe they have solved a riddle over a giant asteroid impact more than 5,000 years ago.
Geologists have long puzzled over the shape of the land close to the town of Köfels in the Austrian Alps, but were unable to prove it had been caused by an asteroid.
Now researchers say their translation of symbols on a star map from an ancient civilisation includes notes on a mile-wide asteroid that later hit Earth - which could have caused tens of thousands of deaths.
The circular clay tablet was discovered 150 years ago by Sir Austen Henry Layard, a leading Victorian archaeologist, in the remains of the royal palace at Nineveh, capital of ancient Assyria, in what is now Iraq.
The tablet, on display at the British Museum, shows drawings of constellations and pictogram-based text known as cuneiform - used by the Sumerians, the earliest known civilisation in the world.
A historian from Azerbaijan, who believes humans originally came to Earth from another planet, has interpreted it as a description of the arrival of a spaceship. More mainstream academics have failed to decipher its meaning.
Now Alan Bond, the managing director of a space propulsion company, Reaction Engines, and Mark Hempsell, a senior lecturer in astronautics at Bristol University, have cracked the cuneiform code and used a computer programme that can reconstruct the night sky thousands of years ago to provide a new explanation.
They believe their calculations prove the tablet - a copy made by an Assyrian scribe around 700 BC - is a Sumerian astronomer's notebook recording events in the sky on June 29, 3123 BC.
The pair say its symbols include a note of the trajectory of a large object travelling across the constellation of Pisces which, to within one degree, is consistent with an impact at Köfels.
Mr Hempsell said: "All previous work has drawn a blank on what the tablet is about.
"It is such a big jigsaw and the pieces we have found fit together so well that I think we have a definitive proof."
The Köfels site was originally interpreted as an asteroid impact, however the lack of an obvious impact crater led modern geologists to believe it to be simply a giant landslide.
However, the Bond-Hempsell theory, outlined in their book published today, A Sumerian Observation of the Köfels Impact Event, suggests that the asteroid left no crater because it clipped a mountain and turned into a fireball.
Mr Hempsell said: "The ground heating, though very short, would be enough to ignite any flammable material, including human hair and clothes.
"It is probable more people died under the plume than in the Alps due to the impact blast."
He added that extreme changes caused to rock and other substances at the site had previously led to the Köfels impact being erroneously dated to around 8,000 years ago.
Austen Henry Layard [Wikipedia]
It has been noted that Austen Henry Layard put the "adventure and romance" in archaeology.
Here are a few of Layard's works...
His autobiography...
Volume I
Flipbook
.pdf
Volume II
Flipbook
,pdf
A Popular Account of Discoveries at Nineveh
Flipbook
.pdf
Discoveries among the ruins of Nineveh and Babylon
Flipbook
.pdf
Early adventures in Persia, Susiana, and Babylonia...
Flipbook
.pdf
Nineveh and Babylon; a narrative of a second expedition to Assyria during the years 1849, 1850, & 1851
Flipbook
.pdf
Nineveh and Its Palaces...
Flipbook
.pdf
Nineveh and Its Remains...
Flipbook
.pdf
Outline of the history of Assyria...
Flipbook
.pdf
The Buried City of the East, Nineveh...
Flipbook
.pdf
The Ninevah Court in the Crystal Palace
Flipbook
.pdf
- Carl William Blegen...homer, "iliad", Troy
Carl William Blegen January 27th, 1887 to August 24th, 1971 Carl William Blegen was an archaeologist who unearthed evidence that supported and dated the sack of Troy recorded in Homer's Iliad. Storage jars, skeletons and ash piles (which he...
- Mounting Evidence On Dinosaur Extinction
An adult triceratops. "'Last dinosaur' fossil adds weight to theory asteroid wiped out creatures" Horn thought to be of a triceratops found in sedimentary rock was deposited shortly before mass extinction 65.5m years ago by Ian Sample July 13th,...
- Trash To Treasure...a Rare Clay Tablet
"Ancient tablet bears writing, to scientists' surprise" A 2-inch-by-3-inch clay tablet is older than expected — dating to 3,350 years ago — and is found at a site in Greece where researchers did not expect to find writing. by Thomas H. Maugh...
- Dead Dinos
This is odd for such a bold statement, this is only the second article I have seen on the subject. I still think it does not represent the whole story of the dinosaur's demise. "30 Years Later, What Killed The Dinosaurs Is Revisited" March 8th,...
- Chicxulub Asteroid Caused The Demise Of The Dinosaurs
Extinction of the dinosaurs is blamed on an asteroid impacting Chicxulub in the Gulf of Mexico...so says a blue ribbon panel of experts. I don't buy it for other factors are suspect too...climate, diet, size of the creatures, biological. Be careful...
Philosophy
Babylon's Nineveh, Austen Henry Layard, asteroid
Austen Henry LayardMarch 5th, 1817 to July 5th, 1894
In 3123 BC, a Sumerian astronomer saw a devastating asteroid, perhaps a half-mile wide, according to an interpretation of a clay tablet, made by researchers from Bristol University, reported in The Times on 31 Mar 2008. The ancient date was indicated by a computer recreation of the night sky using symbols on the tablet recording the positions of constellations The Planiform tablet found by Henry Layard at Nineveh, likely a 700 BC copy of the astronomer's notes, described in cuneiform a "white stone bowl approaching" that "vigorously swept along." The asteroid probably crashed into the Austrian Alps, leaving a swath of cataclysmic damage such as, for example, the Genesis destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
"Clay tablet holds clue to asteroid mystery"
by
Nic Fleming
March 31st, 2008
Telegraph.co.uk
by
Nic Fleming
March 31st, 2008
Telegraph.co.uk
British scientists have deciphered a mysterious ancient clay tablet and believe they have solved a riddle over a giant asteroid impact more than 5,000 years ago.
Geologists have long puzzled over the shape of the land close to the town of Köfels in the Austrian Alps, but were unable to prove it had been caused by an asteroid.
Now researchers say their translation of symbols on a star map from an ancient civilisation includes notes on a mile-wide asteroid that later hit Earth - which could have caused tens of thousands of deaths.
The circular clay tablet was discovered 150 years ago by Sir Austen Henry Layard, a leading Victorian archaeologist, in the remains of the royal palace at Nineveh, capital of ancient Assyria, in what is now Iraq.
The tablet, on display at the British Museum, shows drawings of constellations and pictogram-based text known as cuneiform - used by the Sumerians, the earliest known civilisation in the world.
A historian from Azerbaijan, who believes humans originally came to Earth from another planet, has interpreted it as a description of the arrival of a spaceship. More mainstream academics have failed to decipher its meaning.
Now Alan Bond, the managing director of a space propulsion company, Reaction Engines, and Mark Hempsell, a senior lecturer in astronautics at Bristol University, have cracked the cuneiform code and used a computer programme that can reconstruct the night sky thousands of years ago to provide a new explanation.
They believe their calculations prove the tablet - a copy made by an Assyrian scribe around 700 BC - is a Sumerian astronomer's notebook recording events in the sky on June 29, 3123 BC.
The pair say its symbols include a note of the trajectory of a large object travelling across the constellation of Pisces which, to within one degree, is consistent with an impact at Köfels.
Mr Hempsell said: "All previous work has drawn a blank on what the tablet is about.
"It is such a big jigsaw and the pieces we have found fit together so well that I think we have a definitive proof."
The Köfels site was originally interpreted as an asteroid impact, however the lack of an obvious impact crater led modern geologists to believe it to be simply a giant landslide.
However, the Bond-Hempsell theory, outlined in their book published today, A Sumerian Observation of the Köfels Impact Event, suggests that the asteroid left no crater because it clipped a mountain and turned into a fireball.
Mr Hempsell said: "The ground heating, though very short, would be enough to ignite any flammable material, including human hair and clothes.
"It is probable more people died under the plume than in the Alps due to the impact blast."
He added that extreme changes caused to rock and other substances at the site had previously led to the Köfels impact being erroneously dated to around 8,000 years ago.
Austen Henry Layard [Wikipedia]
It has been noted that Austen Henry Layard put the "adventure and romance" in archaeology.
Here are a few of Layard's works...
His autobiography...
Volume I
Flipbook
Volume II
Flipbook
A Popular Account of Discoveries at Nineveh
Flipbook
Discoveries among the ruins of Nineveh and Babylon
Flipbook
Early adventures in Persia, Susiana, and Babylonia...
Flipbook
Nineveh and Babylon; a narrative of a second expedition to Assyria during the years 1849, 1850, & 1851
Flipbook
Nineveh and Its Palaces...
Flipbook
Nineveh and Its Remains...
Flipbook
Outline of the history of Assyria...
Flipbook
The Buried City of the East, Nineveh...
Flipbook
The Ninevah Court in the Crystal Palace
Flipbook
- Carl William Blegen...homer, "iliad", Troy
Carl William Blegen January 27th, 1887 to August 24th, 1971 Carl William Blegen was an archaeologist who unearthed evidence that supported and dated the sack of Troy recorded in Homer's Iliad. Storage jars, skeletons and ash piles (which he...
- Mounting Evidence On Dinosaur Extinction
An adult triceratops. "'Last dinosaur' fossil adds weight to theory asteroid wiped out creatures" Horn thought to be of a triceratops found in sedimentary rock was deposited shortly before mass extinction 65.5m years ago by Ian Sample July 13th,...
- Trash To Treasure...a Rare Clay Tablet
"Ancient tablet bears writing, to scientists' surprise" A 2-inch-by-3-inch clay tablet is older than expected — dating to 3,350 years ago — and is found at a site in Greece where researchers did not expect to find writing. by Thomas H. Maugh...
- Dead Dinos
This is odd for such a bold statement, this is only the second article I have seen on the subject. I still think it does not represent the whole story of the dinosaur's demise. "30 Years Later, What Killed The Dinosaurs Is Revisited" March 8th,...
- Chicxulub Asteroid Caused The Demise Of The Dinosaurs
Extinction of the dinosaurs is blamed on an asteroid impacting Chicxulub in the Gulf of Mexico...so says a blue ribbon panel of experts. I don't buy it for other factors are suspect too...climate, diet, size of the creatures, biological. Be careful...