[Mike Darancette]

The minimal growth of trees around 2350 BC has been associated in the past with the eruption of a volcano in Iceland. Yet, the period in question is also associated with floods, the creation of new lakes, and even the start of Chinese history. Furthermore, Marie-Agnes Courty, an archaeologist from France, has claimed new data regarding a catastrophe said to have occurred in the Middle East. Samples from three separate regions all appear to contain a calcite material found only in meteorites, and analysis of debris show what seems to be a combination of "a burnt surface horizon and air blast."

Is this the Iraqi Meteor strike?

[blam]

"Is this the Iraqi Meteor strike?"

That was my thought. In fact, we may have had celestial showers each year for a while if the earth continued to pass through the comests trail that would be littered with derbis.

[blam]

"Is this the Iraqi Meteor strike?"

Yes. I also think this incident probably provided the imagery outlined in Revelations, the end of the world.

[WoofDog123]

"Is this the Iraqi Meteor strike?"

I think that was around 150 years after? It would still fit into the time band of a couple of centuries proposed here.

I assume Hekla did erupt in 2350 (I cannot recall now but it is too simple to verify for scientists, given the studies done in iceland, so it must have), but presents of extra-terrerstrial-type compounds in sediment layers in the ME is another story entirely.

[SunkenCiv]

the first is from circa 1997, the second from 2001:

Causes And Effects Of The
2350 BC Middle East Anomaly
Evidenced By Micro-debris Fallout,
Surface Combustion And Soil Explosion
by Marie-Agnès Courty

Occurrence in a previously recorded thick tephra deposit of particles identical to some of the mysterious layer and resemblance of its original pseudo-sand fabric with the exploded one of the mysterious layer confirms that the later is contemporaneous with the tephra deposit It has been however impossible to find typical tephra shards in sites located at a few km around the one with the tephra deposit The restricted occurrence of the later suggests that the massive tephra accumulation can no longer be considered as a typical fallout derived from the dispersion of material from a terrestrial volcanic explosion.

Meteor clue to end of Middle East civilisations
by Robert Matthews, Science Correspondent

"Studies of satellite images of southern Iraq have revealed a two-mile-wide circular depression which scientists say bears all the hallmarks of an impact crater. If confirmed, it would point to the Middle East being struck by a meteor with the violence equivalent to hundreds of nuclear bombs. The catastrophic effect of these could explain the mystery of why so many early cultures went into sudden decline around 2300 BC. They include the demise of the Akkad culture of central Iraq, with its mysterious semi-mythological emperor Sargon; the end of the fifth dynasty of Egypt's Old Kingdom, following the building of the Great Pyramids and the sudden disappearance of hundreds of early settlements in the Holy Land."