Chronology & Catastrophism REVIEW 2001:1 Click here for cost
Geomagnetic Effects of an Earthwide Event in 2300 BC, by Moe Mandelkehr
In C&CR 1999:1, two papers appeared describing (1) large scale climatic changes at 2300 BC including, in particular, significant global drops in temperature and (2) crustal phenomena occurring at that time caused by glacial build-up due to the lowered temperatures and consequent crustal loading. This paper is a continuation of that logical structure. It covers a range of geomagnetic phenomena occurring or starting at 2300 BC in response to physical stresses in the structure of the Earth. As such, it supports both of the previous papers. The conclusion is that something important happened at that time that warrants attention..
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On Velikovsky’s Orbits, by Laurence C. Dixon
In this paper a set of orbits are given that encapsulate Velikovsky’s changing orbits of Earth, Venus and Mars, yet satisfy Newton’s laws of motion by conserving total energy and angular momentum.
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An Investigation into the Reality of the Early Medieval Dark Age, by Trevor Palmer.
A previous paper [1] discussed the attempt of the Russian mathematician, A. T. Fomenko, to deny the existence of an entire 687-year period of English history. According to Fomenko, the kings generally believed to have ruled in England from AD 640-1327 were alter egos of Byzantine rulers, some of whom were, in turn, duplicates of each other. If history was corrected to take this into account, the Roman occupation of Britain ended only 8, not 15, centuries ago. Fomenko’s’ many bizarre claims, based on statistics but unsupported by convincing historical arguments, made it very difficult for readers to take his ideas seriously. This could have disguised the fact that there is a kernel of truth in what he is trying to say. If the insertion of 7 spurious centuries within the Christian Era is beyond the realms of possibility, how about a smaller number? In particular, have 3 phantom centuries been inserted as a ‘dark age’ between 600 and 900 AD, as argued by a number of German scholars? ……………… An
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The Dark Age Hiatus: a response to Clark Whelton, by Steve Mitchell
The theory proposed by [Heribert] Illig and others that centuries are missing from the middle of the first millennium AD is due to their misunderstanding of the Gregorian calendar reform and not some astronomical miscalculation. In choosing to delete 10 days from the calendar, Pope Gregory made a political decision and not a scientific one. The article shows how the correct number of days were actually calculated and the thinking behind Gregory’s choice not to push for the ‘correct’ answer. It goes on to show how the hiatus in the Dark Ages is only apparent and not real.
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T he Origin of the Sacred 260 day Calendar of Early Mesoamerican Civilisations: a hypothesis, by Bob Johnson
The Maya were obsessed with cycles of time, but the ‘sacred cycle’ of 260 days has no known relationship to naturally occurring cycles of our era. By combining the well-documented old year of 360 days and a hypothetical period of orbital revolution for Venus of 260 days into a new calendar round, a simple means of predicting the appearances of the planet is generated. Evidence for the assumption of a 360 day year and changes in the period of Venus are presented in support of the hypothesis. The Dresden Codex appears to be a late attempt to reconcile this simple predictor mechanism with the actual movement in the skies of our era, in which much of the simplicity is lost. The longevity of the 260 day sacred calendar may be due in part to the inherent conservatism of the Mesoamerican peoples, and in part to the resonances between the new calendar round and the old cycles, both of which are centred on a subcycle of 5 synodical periods.
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More Problems with Sothic Dating, by Jess E. Lasken
This paper is a follow-up to the paper in C&CR 1999: ‘Sothic Dating: the Shameless Enterprise’. Contrary to the assumptions of Sothic dating, as late as the Persian period the Egyptians were actually using a calendar that was 41 days ahead of the calendar [that] Sothic dating posits. Gem Geminus and P. Paris I have been misused ……………….
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Thiele’s Assyrian Reliance, by J. Eric Aitchison
The Bible has three instances of correlation with Hezekiah [of Judah] and Hoshea [of Israel]. Thiele ignores these correslations and goes into the most complex arguments to come up with a scheme that is not only not supported by the Bible, but is denied by the Bible. The end result of Thiele’s chronological contortions is to have Pekah [of Israel] rule elsewhere and to distort the period allocated to Uzziah [of Judah]. If Hoshea is redated, so must [be the Assyrian king] Tiglath-pileser [III]. Aligning Tiglath-pileser III with a redated Hoshea causes Tiglath-pileser, and those conventionally contemporary with him, to move chronologically. The question of whether Menahem [Israel] and ….Uzziah could ever be contemporary with Tiglath-pileser III is then considered, along with the question of who ‘PUL’ might have been.
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Chronology & Catastrophism REVIEW 2001:2 Click here for cost
An Unexplained Arctic Catastrophe, by Derek S. Allan
Recent claims by scientists that Arctic Ocean ice is melting for the ‘first time in 50 million years’ run counter to well-established facts about this region. It is appropriate to examine the evidence to determine if those latest assertions really are correct, or whether, with the advantage of hindsight, the earlier ‘well-established facts’ were false. ……………….
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The Ring About the Earth at 2300 BC, by Moe Mandelkehr
As postulated in earlier papers, dust in the Earth’s North Polar region at 2300 BC initiated widespread geophysical changes. The dust was a result of the Earth encountering a massive meteoroid stream, the Taurids. The event was sufficiently traumatic that religions were formed in essentially all cultures on the Earth. Thunderbolts were a prominent theme of the religions, but a new theme appeared – a ring surrounding the Earth. A possible mechanism for the ring formation was capture of small particles in the Earth’s upper atmosphere coupled with later particle fragmentation.
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The Valley of Colours, by Nesta Caiger
Whilst on a regular trip to the famous, ancient town of Deir el-Medina, Jim Dunn and Alastair Fox went on a somewhat hard-going exploration across very rough ground in order to take photographs of various sites of antiquity and obtain excellent pictorial views. They were guided across a particularly interesting but unknown area which …. was ‘Wadi el Laon’. This means ‘Valley of Colours’. ………… the site was ancient and though it was within walkable distance and could really be regarded as being ‘near to Deir el-Medina, it was virtually unknown to foreign visitiors. Alastair Fox inspected and picked up various pieces of ‘rock’ and discoverd three different types of colours. In some cases all three colours were enclosed in the specimens he had retrieved. These were dark brownish red, dark yellow and in some pieces very small traces of white could be seen…………….The rock-like colours, often very powdery, came off onto one’s hands, clothes, etc. and one was immediately struck with the use to which these ‘handy’ materials might be put – virtually a rock ‘palette’ which could be held in one’s hand, ……………………….. Written accounts in the past have tried to describe the methods in which the painters of tomb interiors obtained their materials ……………………on the return to England Nesta Caiger had pieces of the rock in her care and they were taken, firstly to the Geological Museum, Kensington, for analysis and later to the Natural History Museum, Kensington. ……………
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Apocalyptic Imagery in Modern Political Spectacle, by Irving Wolfe
Examination of the giant annual Nazi rallies at Nurembeg in the 1930s and in particular the spectacular large-scale night-time visual effects, as the unconscious replication of Velikovsky-style catastrophic phenomena by a nation-sized politico-religious cult living at what they felt was the approach of the End Time and Divine Wrath and Judgement of the World. [They are] interpreted as evidence for the presence and persistence of catastrophic memory buried in our collective subconscious, able to be brought close to consciousness (with terrible results) when circumstances degenerate to apparent disorder, pointlessness, hopelessness and chaos.
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The Role of the Nile in Egyption Chronology, Lynn E. Rose
The 1996 reprint of the 2nd edition of [Kenneth] Kitchen’s The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt (1100-650 BC) [1] included a new Preface emphasising a west-Theban graffito that supposedly noted the arrival of the flood …….. in Year I of Baienre (Merneptah). This is the usual reading. Later, an alternative reading by David Rohl will be considered. …………… Kitchen’s purpose is to discredit various alternative chronologists. He insists that ‘The game is up’ for Peter James [5], David Rohl [6] and, especially, Velikovsky [7]. According to Kitchen, the graffito ‘destroys completely, finally and irrevocably all these ambitious but ill-founded attempts to move Egyptian chronology by centuries.’ ……….
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The Biblical 40-Years Periods, by John Crowe
This preliminary study of the Bible numbers is part of a wider investigation into the quality of evidence used for chronological purposes. There are two minimum requirements which must be met before anything reported as written on on ancient tablets, monuments, or papyri can be regarded as a fact. The first is an audit of the translation and the second is convincing independent supporting evidence. The numbers contained in ancient historic texts are much easier to translate than names of people and places but may be harder to verify. It is especially important therefore to consider them carefully before use. Unfortunately, probably because verification may seem impossible, this premise is generally ignored by both conventional ancient historians and revisionists. Key building blocks in all chronologies and revisions of Old Testament (OT) history are the 40-year reigns accorded in the Bible to Saul, David and Solomon and the three 40-year periods in the life of Moses. So far as I am aware, all the chronological revisions presented in SIS publications have included David and Solomon with reigns of 40 years, as stated in the OT. One or two contributors have questioned the likelihood …………………………………………….
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