SIS REVIEW Vol. II:1 Click here for cost
Some Notes on Senmut’s Ceiling, by Malcom Lowery
The ceiling of the tomb of Senmut, decorated with astronomical charts, is characterised by ‘irrational orientation’, which Velikovsky takes as support for a historical exchange of the poles. The background to this is outlined here as an introduction to the detailed study following.
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Senmut and Phaeton, by M. G. Reade
The ‘astronomically objectionable’ Senmut ceiling is here inspected: with a new identification of some of the constellations, it is found to give strong support for a past inversion of the Earth’s axis. It is interpreted, moreover, as pointing to a celestial spectacle of such religious significance that it was mythologised and enshrined in permanent record on Egyptian monuments. Students of Dr. Velikovsky’s Worlds in Collision will be aware that he cites the astronomical ceiling decoration of the tomb of Senmut, architect to Queen Hatshepsut of Egypt, as part of the evidence that the world was at some time ‘upside down’ …………..
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Worlds in Collision and the Birth of Monotheism, by Hyam Maccoby
The catastrophes postulated by Velikovsky have considerable implications for the development of the Israelite religion. The unique circumstances of the Exodus may have brought about a ‘mutation’ in the Israelites’ view of man and the universe, enabling them to abandon the worship of nature and embrace monotheism, and of incalculable influence on the development of religious thought. …………………………………
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Peoples of the Sea: An Art Historical Perspective, by Lewis M. Greenberg
This approach to Peoples of the Sea is confined primarily to the art-historical aspects and implications of Velikovsky’s historical reconstruction. It is hoped that the discourse presented here will spur other art historians and archaeologists to enter into a rational discussion of the Revised Chronology. ‘The gauntlet is there and must be taken up.’
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Electricity in Astronomy Part (IV), by Eric Crew
Although the charge on a single electron is small, there are such immense numbers of electrons that forces due to accumulated electrical charges are often far more significant than gravitational and all other forces. It can be shown how vast electrical charges can accumulate in astronomical space: the process is here described in detail.
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SIS REVIEW Vol. II:2 Click here for cost
The Primordial Light?, by Harold Tresman & B. O’Gheoghan
What is the reality behind Saturn’s place as the original deity in cosmogonic myth? What is the significance of the ‘Golden Age’ and other legends surrounding this planetary god? The following paper is based on an idea arrived at some years ago and presents the startling conclusions of the authors’ researches into the traditions of different peoples.
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Senmut and Phaethon: Supplementary Notes, by Michael Reade
The author’s paper in our last issue concluded that the astronomical ceiling in the tomb of Senmut records the event remembered by the Greeks as the ‘Fall of Phaethon’, involving the passage of the comet Venus and an inversion of the poles. Some further thoughts are appended here.
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Recent Origin and Decay of the Earth’s Magnetic Field, by Thomas Barnes
The only dependable historical data on the strength and direction of the Earth’s main magnet are the evaluations which were first made by Gauss in the 1830s and the subsequent evaluations made through worldwide magnetic observatory collaboration every few decades thereafter. These data show an exponential decay in the Earth’s magnetic field with a half-life of only 1,400 years. A solution to Maxwell’s equations for the electric currents and associated magnetic field of the Earth’s magnet reveals that there is an electric current of 6.16 billion amperes flowing in the core of the Earth and a power loss (going into heat) of 813 megawatts at the present time. It is obvious that this magnetic decay phenomenon could not have been going on for more than a few thousand years, as the magnetic field would have been implausibly large for the Earth. This is strong physical evidence that there must have been a relative recent origin of this electromagnet or some unknown catastrophic ‘re-energising’ event ……..
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A Commentary on Barnes’ Magnetic Decay, by John Milsom
As Professor Barnes’ paper is an attack on conventional palaeomagnetism, it is worthwhile summarising the orthodox position, which may not be familiar to some readers of the [SIS] Review. Palaeomagnetism is based on the determination of the permanent magnetic moments of rocks. It is assumed that the part of the ‘permanent’ magnetisation that is most difficult to destroy in the laboratory was imprinted on a rock at the time of its chemical or sedimentary formation, or when it last cooled through the Curie temperature of the contained ferromgnetic minerals. …. Determinations of past field strengths are subject to many errors and difficulties, but increases of an order of magnitutde or more are unlikely to pass undetected. ……………. Barnes’ theory can only be accepted if it is also accepted that there is an organised conspiracy to suppress data which would support him. …………
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The Critics and Stellar Energy
Ralph Juergens’ paper, ‘Galactic Space Charge and Stellar Energy’ (SISR I:4), was designed as a ‘springboard for further discussion’. Some members’ [Ragnar Forshufvud, D. Quilfoyle, Eric Crew and Michael Tobias] responses are given here, with Juergens’ reply.
…….. Let us start by investigating what is wrong with Juergens’ model. First, as he admits, his model has the serious drawback of implying a potential gradient of 5 x 1012 V/m at the outskirts of the galaxy and not much less in the neighbourhood of our solar system. ……………….. [Ragnar Forshufvud]. ……………. in re-emphasising the possibility that stars obtain their energy from external sources, [Jurgen’s] makes a valid point which stellar atronomers should always consider. One feels, however, that Mr Juergens theory will have some difficulty …………. unless it is put on a somewhat sounder experimental and theoretical basis ………….. [D. Quilfoyle] …………. [re:] Nuclear energy in stars. The extensive work for many years in connection with laboratory nuclear physics and the associated theory provides substantial support for the conventional view of stellar energy source as nuclear fusion processes and it is difficult to see how it could be seriously wrong, as Jurgens suggests ……. [Eric W. Crew]. …… While I agree with some of Juergen’s calculations, I differ markedly with him on others. ……….. …. However, from my calclations, one of us is making a mistake ……………. [ Michael Tobias] [Juergens’ reply follows]
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SIS REVIEW Vol. II:3, Special Issue – ‘From Exodus to Akhnaton’ Click here for cost
Dating the ‘Admonitions’: Advance Report, by Malcom Lowery
Velikovsky places the events recorded in the ‘Papyrus Ipuwer’ contemporary with those of the Exodus, which coincides in the Revised Chronology with the end of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt. A paper examining the ramifications of this conclusion is being prepared and is offered here in summary.
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A Chart to Illustrate the Conquest of Canaan, by John Bimson
It is now generally agreed among biblical scholars that the Israelite Conquest of Canaan under Joshua took place towards the end of the Late Bronze Age, in the second half of the 13th century BC and it is held that archaeological evidence supports this date. In a previous article (SISR I:3, pp. 2-7), Dr Bimson argued that the Conquest, in terms of [Velikovsky’s] Revised Chronology, must be associated with the destructions of the Middle Bronze Age cities of Palestine. The accompanying table clearly shows this new placement to be preferable when the archaeological evidence is set against the biblical records.
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The Hyksos and the Archaeology of Palestine, by John Bimson
In a previous article [1] I attempted to show that the conventional date for the end of the Middle Bronze Age in Palestine (c. 1550 BC) is too high by over a century. At the end of the Middle Bronze Age almost all the major MB II cities in Palestine were violently destroyed. I argued that these destructions were the work of the Israelites under Joshua ………….The implication of the Old Testament traditions is that the Exodus occurred in the middle decades of the 15th century BC and that the conquest began about a generation later ……………. Immanuel Velikovsky’s proposed revision of Egyptian chronology also assumes a 15th century date for the Exodus. The article referred to above illustrated some ways in which my redating of the MB II C destructions lends support to Velikovsky’s scheme and I promised to show ….other ways in which that redating ‘elucidates …. and complements Velikovsky’s revised Egyptian chronology’. The present article fulfils that promise with regard to problems which currently face archaeologists working with Middle and Late Bronze Age finds…………
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Did Thutmose III Despoil the Temple in Jerusalem?, by Eva Danelius (a Critical Commentary to Chapter IV of Ages in Chaos). With ‘A Response to Eva Danelius’, by Immanuel Velikovsky
Velikovsky claims that Shishak, who looted Solomon’s Temple in the reign of Rehoboam, was not the Libyan Shoshenk I, but Thutmose III of the XVIIIth Dynasty. How well can this claim be reconciled with the evidence of the Bible and the records of Thutmose III? ……………
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The Dating of the el-Amarna Letters, by Peter James
In the Revised Chronology, the el-Amarna correspondence is dated to the mid-9th century and Abdi-Hiba of Jerusalem identified with Jehoshaphat of Judah. A slightly later date and the identification of Abdi-Hiba with Jehoshaphat’s son, Jehoram, give a closer ‘fit’ between the Letters and the biblical account and better support Velikovsky’s case.
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The Sulman Temple in Jerusalem, by Immanuel Velikovksy
The el-Amarna letters, most scholars believe, date from the 14th century BC, while there is no doubt that the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem was constructed in the mid-10th century BC. As a further challenge to the conventional scheme, Velikovsky presents evidence that the Temple of Solomon was mentioned in the el-Amarna letters, resulting in an ‘anachronism’ of four centuries in the accepted chronology that would be fully corrected by his proposed lowering of Egyptian dates by over five hundred years.
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The Two Jehorams, by Martin Sieff
Velikovsky identifies Rib-Addi of the el-Amarna correspondence with Ahab of Israel and attributes to that ruler the deeds ascribed in the Bible to his son Jehoram. A more literal reading of the biblical evidence shows that Rib-Addi, if he was a king of Israel, must be identified with this Jehoram and not with Ahab.
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A Chronology for the Eighteenth Dynasty, by Geoffrey Gammon [Note: some of the names within cartouches provided on p. 94 are incorrectly placed against some kings’s names. Corrections can be obtained by emailing ]
A crucial test of the Revised Chronology presented by Velikovsky in Ages in Chaos is whether the new synchronisms adduced between the XVIIIth Egyptian Dynasty and the Israelite Monarchy and Divided Kingdom form an internally consistent sequence. Using the latest available data, Geoffrey Gammon has devised a working model for the chronology of Israel drawn up by biblical scholars.
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Radiocarbon Dates for the Eighteenth Dynasty, by Euan MacKie
Despite Dr Velikovsky’s endeavours, radiometric data from the New Kingdom of Egypt is still very limited. The results given by samples tested and published are collected in the accompnying table and their significance assessed below.
For twelve years after the publication of Ages in Chaos Velikovsky made repeated efforts to have his Revised Chronology tested by the new method of radiocarbon dating. A full catalogue of the most important correspondence that he engaged in during those years was published in Pensée [1] and makes very disconcerting reading. ……… In 1964 Velikovsky did succeed in securing the test of a mixed sample of wood from the tomb of Tutankhamun (P. 726). The result given was 1030 + [or] – 50 b.c., which, corrected by the Suess calibration to c. 1250-1350 B.C., falls just within the range of the conventional date for Tutankhamun’s death. However, as Velikovsky [2] and Burgstahler [3] have pointed out, the result from cedarwood (which composed just under half of the sample),a slow-growing tree which may be matured for long periods of time before use, would be expected to predate the tomb by anything up to several centuries. …………………….
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SIS REVIEW Vol. II:4 Click here for cost
Worlds in Collision and the Prince of Denmark, by Irving Wolfe
What are the enduring factors in the attraction of a great work of art? Approaching the field of literature from the context of past catastrophes, Dr. Wolfe proposes startling depths to the world’s greatest narratives.
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Isotopic Anomalies in Chronometric Science, by Don Robins
The relative abundance of isotopes of an element in a sample often gives a clue to the sample’s history. Radioactive decay is only one of the ways in which an isotopic abundance can be caused to deviate from the conventional norm. This has particular relevance to the Bristlecone Pine recalibration of radiocarbon dates.
Roy MacKinnon’s paper in the Summer 1977 issue of SIS Review [1] raised a number of important questions over the reliability of radiometric dating in Geochronology and related areas; perhaps the most serious being the discordance that can exist between datings obtained by different methods. If a discordant dating cannot be explained by experimental error or contamination then it is generally disregarded in favour of the date that best confirms the suspected archaeological context. The purpose of the present paper is to consider some of the natural isotopic fractionation processes that may possibly account for some of the anomalous dates. ………………
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A Response to Dr Milsom, by Thomas Barnes
This paper continues the discussion begun in SISR II:2 with Dr. Barnes’ article, ‘Recent Origin and Decay of the Earth’s Magnetic Field’.
Dr. Milsom’s summary of the orthodox position on palaeomagnetism is helpful in that it enables us to concentrate on the pertinent problems that separate our two positions. It is informative to examine those problems in relation to the two positions. The first problem concerns the type of raw data upon which these positions rest. …………..The second problem, and perhaps the most important one, pertains to the extractability of the desired ‘signal’ from the raw data and the adequacy of the associated data reduction process employed . …………..
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The Determinants of Scientific Behaviour, by Brian Martin
Observations of the response of scientists to unorthodoxies indicate that conventional explanations of their behaviour are not fully adequate. Two further factors, links to outside interests and vested interests in professional expertise, demand greater attention by sociologists of science. ………….
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How Much Did They Know?, by Michael Start
The question of the nature of knowledge in earlier civilisations is a vast one, often relegated to the ‘lunatic fringe’. This review article attempts a preliminary survey via some of the literature* ………..
[* the books considered in the article are Hamlet’s Mill by Santillana and Dechend; Secrets of the Great Pyramid by Peter Tomkins; Historical Metrology by A. E. Berriman; and Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings by Charles H. Hapgood.]_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________