Posted on 11/05/2001 7:38:35 AM PST by dead
Perusal of an article about Saddam Hussein's canal-building projects has led a scientist to a startling discovery about the mysterious collapse of Middle East civilisations more than 4,000 years ago.
Sharad Master, a geologist at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, saw on satellite images of southern Iraq a large circular depression which he believes is a meteor crater.
If confirmed, it would indicate an impact equivalent to hundreds of nuclear bombs, causing devastating fires and flooding in an area which would have been shallow sea at the time.
The discovery could explain why so many early cultures went into sudden decline around 2300 BC, including the Akkad culture of central Iraq and the fifth dynasty of Egypt's Old Kingdom, along with hundreds of settlements in the Holy Land.
Until now, archaeologists have put their demise down to wars or environmental changes. Recently, however, some astronomers have suggested meteor impacts.
"It was a purely accidental discovery," Dr Master said last week. "I was reading a magazine article about the canal-building projects of Saddam Hussein, and there was a photograph showing lots of formations - one of which was very, very circular."
The faint outline was on satellite images of the Al 'Amarah region, north-west of the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and home of the Marsh Arabs.
Analysis of other satellite images since the mid-1980s showed that for many years the crater contained a small lake. The draining of the region, as part of Saddam's campaign against the Marsh Arabs, caused the lake to recede, revealing a ring-like ridge inside the larger depression - a classic feature of meteor craters.
Dr Master has reported his findings in the journal Meteoritics & Planetary Science.
The Sunday Telegraph, London
This topic was posted , thanks again, dead.
Shock & Awe, 2300 BC.
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