Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Researchers: Asteroid Destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah
FOX NEWS ^ | March 31,2008 | Lewis Smith

Posted on 03/31/2008 4:48:42 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

A clay tablet that has baffled scientists for 150 years has been identified as a witness's account of the asteroid suspected of being behind the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Researchers who cracked the cuneiform symbols on the Planisphere tablet believe that recorded an asteroid thought to have been more than half a mile across.

The tablet, found by Henry Layard in the remains of the library in the royal place at Nineveh in the mid-19th century, is thought to be a 700 B.C. copy of notes made by a Sumerian astronomer watching the night sky.

He referred to the asteroid as a "white stone bowl approaching" and recorded it as it "vigorously swept along."

Using computers to recreate the night sky thousands of years ago, scientists have pinpointed his sighting to shortly before dawn on June 29 in the year 3123 B.C.

About half the symbols on the tablet have survived and half of those refer to the asteroid. The other symbols record the positions of clouds and constellations. In the past 150 years scientists have made five unsuccessful attempts to translate the tablet.

Mark Hempsell, one of the researchers from Bristol University who cracked the tablet's code, said: "It's a wonderful piece of observation, an absolutely perfect piece of science."

He said the size and route of the asteroid meant that it was likely to have crashed into the Austrian Alps at Köfels. As it traveled close to the ground it would have left a trail of destruction from supersonic shock waves and then slammed into the Earth with a cataclysmic impact.

Debris consisting of up to two-thirds of the asteroid would have been hurled back along its route and a flash reaching temperatures of 400 Centigrade (752 Fahrenheit) would have been created, killing anyone in its path.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; History; Religion; Science
KEYWORDS: 3123; 312306; 31230629; 3123bc; 4frisconext; 4sanfrancisco; alanbond; alps; archaeology; asteroid; astronomy; austria; bondhempselltheory; bristoluniversity; catastrophism; citiesoftheplain; cuneiform; deadsea; epigraphyandlanguage; godsgravesglyphs; gomorrah; greatriftvalley; henrylayard; impact; june29; koefels; kofel; kofels; kofelsimpactevent; lakelucerne; markhempsell; nineveh; planisphere; planispheretablet; pontiuspilate; pwn4g3; science; sodom; sodomandgomorrah; sumeria; sumerian; sumerians; switzerland; tallelhammam; une29; valleyofsiddim; whereisyourgodnow; zot
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-40 last
To: Momaw Nadon

“Which book of the Bible is that passage from?”

It is not - I wrote it.

Sorry if I offended you.


21 posted on 03/31/2008 5:39:11 PM PDT by patton (cuiquam in sua arte credendum)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]


· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic ·

 
Gods
Graves
Glyphs
Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.
GGG managers are Blam, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
 

· Google · Archaeologica · ArchaeoBlog · Archaeology magazine · Biblical Archaeology Society ·
· Mirabilis · Texas AM Anthropology News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo ·
· History or Science & Nature Podcasts · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists ·

 
Catastrophism
 
· join · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post new topic ·
 

22 posted on 03/31/2008 5:39:56 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/_____________________Profile updated Saturday, March 29, 2008)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: tet68
A layman’s discription of a nuclear blast and radiation sickness, couldn’t ask for clearer.

I can understand how there would be blast effects from an asteroid, but I don't think an asteroid impact would cause radiation sickness.

23 posted on 03/31/2008 5:39:58 PM PDT by Momaw Nadon ("...with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: patton

The most ancient stories (check some of the stone carving/paintings in Nikel Oblast in Russia) have it that the woman turns into a stone ~


24 posted on 03/31/2008 5:42:52 PM PDT by muawiyah
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Momaw Nadon

Well now, that would depend on the compostion of the rock, don’t you think?


25 posted on 03/31/2008 5:43:37 PM PDT by patton (cuiquam in sua arte credendum)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

I once read a story that if it were not for Hollywood movie reviewers “Ishtar” might have been a smash flick.


26 posted on 03/31/2008 5:47:09 PM PDT by Radix (How come they call people "Morons" when they do not know as much? Shouldn't they be called "Lessons?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: muawiyah

Flash to ash seems more likely.

But what do I know?

Nada.


27 posted on 03/31/2008 5:47:54 PM PDT by patton (cuiquam in sua arte credendum)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: patton
Well now, that would depend on the composition of the rock, don’t you think?

That makes sense, especially since Iridium is a marker of the K-T boundary.

28 posted on 03/31/2008 5:50:58 PM PDT by Momaw Nadon ("...with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: muawiyah

A stone.

Now, there is a world of opportunity here, to write something.

But I am in so much trouble already, for pissing off “true believers” - in a number of religions.

Maybe I should quit while I am behind.


29 posted on 03/31/2008 5:56:45 PM PDT by patton (cuiquam in sua arte credendum)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: Fractal Trader

Thanks FT, alas, a duplicate.


30 posted on 03/31/2008 5:59:01 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/_____________________Profile updated Saturday, March 29, 2008)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: Momaw Nadon
Oh, how interesting - an asteroid might do funny things to our weather?

Who knew.

31 posted on 03/31/2008 5:59:52 PM PDT by patton (cuiquam in sua arte credendum)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: aruanan
Isn’t this the same tablet that was supposed to document an asteroid hitting Europe about 5000 BC (maybe it was 5000 years BP).

Multitasking???

32 posted on 03/31/2008 6:05:26 PM PDT by JimSEA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: patton
The word "stone" is one of the fundamentals in the Basque language. They use it in combination with all kinds of other sounds to make up a variety of words. Basque is, BTW, one of the most ancient of languages and was well developed in the "stone age".

One might suppose the folks in the vicinity of Sodom did pretty much the same thing.

So, the story comes down to us as "stone" instead of "crispy critter".

33 posted on 03/31/2008 6:07:17 PM PDT by muawiyah
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]


A Sumerian Observation of the Kofels' Impact Event Comet/Asteroid Impacts and Human Society Asteroids: Deadly Impact
A Sumerian Observation
of the Kofels' Impact Event

by Alan Bond
and Mark Hempsell
Comet/Asteroid Impacts
and Human Society

ed by Peter T. Bobrowsky
and Hans Rickman

intro (PDF)
due to links here
Asteroids:
Deadly Impact

National Geographic


34 posted on 03/31/2008 6:10:15 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/_____________________Profile updated Saturday, March 29, 2008)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: muawiyah

ooooh, more stuff to think about.

nd maybe write.


35 posted on 03/31/2008 6:10:29 PM PDT by patton (cuiquam in sua arte credendum)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

as an aside: 3300 BC is at least 1100 years before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.


36 posted on 03/31/2008 6:16:22 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/_____________________Profile updated Saturday, March 29, 2008)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

Whoops. 3123 B.C. is at least 900 years before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.


37 posted on 03/31/2008 6:17:17 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/_____________________Profile updated Saturday, March 29, 2008)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Watch out for that asteroid, San Fransicko!!


38 posted on 03/31/2008 6:18:02 PM PDT by Lancey Howard
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv; SeekAndFind
"3123 B.C. is at least 900 years before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah."

I was thinking that it was this 'swarm' that did it:

Disaster That Struck The Ancients

39 posted on 04/01/2008 8:11:27 PM PDT by blam (Secure the border and enforce the law)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]

According to a fringey book I'm reading right now, the Tollmans attribute the Kofels crater to this theorized sevenfold (plus Kofels) impact event.
Great Comets, Great Floods
by Carla Helfferich
Alaska Science Forum
July 13, 1994
Authors Edith Kristan-Tollmann and Alexander Tollmann, both of the University of Vienna's Geological Institute in Austria, suggest that a cometary crash is the cause of the flood we usually associate with Noah... By combining historical record with geological clues, the Tollmanns picture several cometary fragments -- probably seven of them -- smacking into the earth about ten thousand years ago. The great splashdown took place near the autumnal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere, spring in the Southern, with the major fragments hitting the oceans over a span of days at most. (Oddly, the Tollmanns are less certain of the year than of the time of year; because of the many internal clues in the tales and commentaries worldwide, Mesopotamian and Scandinavian sources agree on the season.) ...The geologic evidence is--or should be--less arguable. The Tollmanns think they've found described in the scientific literature a worldwide array of tektites of the right age, for example. Tektites are rocks melted by an impact and splashed away as molten drops that then solidify again as they cool. Because they are inorganic, they are usually dated by stratigraphy -- the age of the layers within which they lie -- and that is an admittedly imperfect science.

40 posted on 04/12/2008 11:51:56 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/_____________________Profile updated Saturday, March 29, 2008)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-40 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson