A recent study claims that comet fragments may be responsible for the way civilizations were shaped. Researchers asserted that the event was instrumental in changing the lifestyles of nomads, which is a change that led to the rise of ancient cities.
Big changes for once nomadic tribes
One point of the study is that 13,000 years ago, a turnaround event happened that changed humanity forever. It usually takes extreme events to influence great change, much like having comets shards hit earth is a serious threat.
Generally, comets do not make contact with the earth. But, a big cosmic event occurred 65 million years ago, which caused the mass extinction of the dinosaurs. For humanity, it had to adapt to a catastrophe on a lesser scale, reported the Science Daily.
The research corroborates the theory that a comet collided with the earth sometime before the start of the Neolithic period. This was also around the time that the Fertile Crescent of southwest Asia gave rise to civilizations.
During this period of change, most humans in this particular region lived around Egypt, Iraq, and Lebanon. Evidence points to an abrupt shift. These people went from being in wandering groups to establishing permanent settlements. They became farmers, which then led to building self-sufficient city-states. They are located in the Fertile Crescent or the Cradle of Civilization noted ThoughtCo.
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The cosmic event
The comet strike, called the Younger Dryas impact, killed large mammals and started a mini-ice age for over one thousand years. One study from the University of Edinburgh proposed proof of a collision that also set the stage for a series of events that continues to impact the world even though it happened many thousands of years ago.
Enough evidence exists that a comet hit the earth 13,000 years ago, as affirmed by the study. Verification was done meticulously by scientists who scour four continents for geo-data. Places of interest are the United States and Greenland, thought to be where the biggest comet pieces can be found after they impacted the earth.
One of their methods to detect the ancient comet is to look for signs of excess platinum or materials that have been subject to the heat of a crashing comet. Examples of these are nanodiamonds, that are formed in comets.
What is next to prove the theory?
To prove the comet impact model, there should be more investigation into how the global climate has shifted. Under it lies clues on how changes in human settlements were made or how many animals have died in extinction events.
Dr. Martin Sweatman, University of Edinburgh's School of Engineering, the study lead, made some statements related to the hypothesis. In particular, remarked the cosmic event is depicted in the giant stone pillars of Göbekli Tepe. It might be the first temple built by people, with links to the origin of civilization in the Fertile Crescent, noted SOTT.
If a comet prompted a shift from wandering nomads to establishing permanent settlements, the civilization began with a huge bang from the sky.
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