Prehistory Decoded

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Are comets “certainly dangerous and destructive?” Well, no. Most of them are just transient novel objects in the sky, which many cultures have taken as omens, for good or ill. Nor are meteors usually dangerous and destructive. A tiny proportion result in airbursts or impacts, but the rest are just impressive streaks across the night sky. We know this because, at last, we can read an extremely ancient code assumed by scholars to be nothing more than depictions of wild animals. A code hiding in plain sight that reveals we have hardly changed in 40,000 years. A code that changes everything. So why do Sun et al. conclude that the Younger Dryas boundary at Hall’s Cave indicates the cooling event was likely caused by the Laacher See volcanic eruption instead, when we know this cannot be true? We need to look closely at their results to see how they arrived at this precarious position. Clearly, they ignored the evidence just discussed.

M.B. Sweatman, ‘Fundamental measure theory for pure systems with soft, spherically repulsive interactions’, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 14 (special issue), 11921-11932 (2002). S. McGurk, C. Martin, S. Brandani, M.B. Sweatman and X. Fan, ‘Microwave swing regeneration of aqueous monoethanolamine for post-combustion CO2 capture’, Applied Energy 192, 126 (2017).Martin Sweatman, a chemical engineer at Edinburgh University, is earning a place on that list with his “decoding” of ancient art as a form of astronomical notation. In a couple of peer-reviewed papers co-authored with Dimitrios Tsikritsis and Alistair Coombs, plus a number of blog posts and now a book, Sweatman claims statistical validation of his claims so powerful that no other interpretation has any chance of being correct. Any of us who quibble, according to him, simply don’t understand science. Martin interprets this image in three significantly different ways. First as a wolf, identified as the constellation Lupus, one of the eight figures on Pillar 43 that form the foundation of his statistical analysis. Second, as a fox, which he equates with the northern asterism of Aquarius, and uses as one link of a tangled chain of logic that ultimately verifies the importance of the Taurid meteor stream to the Gobekli Tepe astronomers. Third, he interprets a damaged image on Pillar 38 as an aurochs, also a critical element in the Taurid-radiant argument, and doubles down on that identification in his rebuttal: It’s a fox. Identifying it as three different animals and two separate asterisms is…well, questionable. What does the fox say? Nothing much. It’s in therapy right now, with a nasty case of identity crisis.

N, Afify and M.B. Sweatman, ‘Monte Carlo simulation of ammonia adsorption in high-silica zeolites for refrigeration applications’, submitted. M.B. Sweatman, ‘Representations of calendars and time at Göbekli Tepe and Karahan Tepe support an astronomical interpretation of their symbolism’, submitted. M.B. Sweatman, N. Quirke and P. Pullumbi, ‘Predicting ambient temperature adsorption of gases in active carbons’, COPS VII: Aix-en-Provence, Studies in Surf. Sci. and Catal. 160, 95-103 (2006).

Journal papers

R.P.S. Fartaria, N. Javid, J. Sefcik, and M.B. Sweatman, ‘Simulation of scattering and phase behaviour around the isotropic-nematic transition of discotic particles’, J. Colloid & Interface. Sci. 377, 94-104 (2012).

Researchers from the University of Edinburgh suggest the images were intended as a record of the cataclysmic event, and that a further carving showing a headless man may indicate human disaster and extensive loss of life. M.B. Sweatman, ‘Weighted density approximation for bonding in molecules: ring and cage polymers’, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 15, 3875-3890 (2003).A particularly egregious error involves the middle “handbag” image along the top edge of Pillar 43. Sweatman is unsure what animal the image represents: Now, the null hypothesis predicts a random distribution; but the null hypothesis is poorly chosen, because the sample itself is not randomly distributed, as explained above. The alternate hypothesis is a significant correlation with the nearest relevant equinox or solstice; but the alternate hypothesis is insufficient, because Sweatman does not eliminate other possible explanations for the distribution he finds. But there is another obvious explanation: the separations in Sweatman’s graph are limited by the time periods in which the selected caves were in use. Speaking of which, he then ties the date-stamp from this specious aggregation of elements to “a fairly strong climatic fluctuation at precisely this time recorded by a Greenland ice core” – but what he points to is a minor episode in a sawtoothed graph of climatic oscillations during the phase when the most recent glacial period was winding down. Is he going to propose a Taurid meteor strike for every wriggle in the graph? [To his credit, he admits in the second draft of the paper that the link with the climatic fluctuation is “unconvincing.”] Actually, I assumed that Martin would be consistent in his interpretations, especially as his statistical analysis depends on them. Indeed, he reads Pillars 2, 38, and 43 as star maps—but where the star-map interpretation is untenable, he apparently reserves the right to assign any meaning convenient to his thesis. I have 100% confidence that Martin will always be able to justify his speculations, simply by moving the goalposts. We now know what happened to these people. It probably had happened many times before and since, and it could happen again, to us. The conventional view of prehistory is a sham; we have been duped by centuries of misguided scholarship. The world is actually a much more dangerous place than we have been led to believe. The old myths and legends, of cataclysm and conflagration, are surprisingly accurate.

Since it was proposed in 2007, the theory about the catastrophic comet strike has been the subject of heated debate and much academic research. Now, researchers from the University of Edinburgh have reviewed evidence assessing the likelihood that an impact took place, and how the event may have unfolded. AB - We have interpreted much of the symbolism of Göbekli Tepe in terms of astronomical events. By matching low-relief carvings on some of the pillars at Göbekli Tepe to star asterisms we find compelling evidence that the famous ‘Vulture Stone’ is a date stamp for 10950 BC ± 250 yrs, which corresponds closely to the proposed Younger Dryas event, estimated at 10890 BC. We also find evidence that a key function of Göbekli Tepe was to observe meteor showers and record cometary encounters. Indeed, the people of Göbekli Tepe appear to have had a special interest in the Taurid meteor stream, the same meteor stream that is proposed as responsible for the Younger-Dryas event. Is Göbekli Tepe the ‘smoking gun’ for the Younger-Dryas cometary encounter, and hence for coherent catastrophism?M.B. Sweatman ‘New techniques for simulating crystals’, AICHE 2008: Philadelphia, Mol. Sim. 35, 897-909 (2009). Vase recovered from the grave of the ‘Scorpion King’, Abydos (Quibell, James Edward, 1867-1935; Green, F. W; Petrie, W. M. Flinders (William Matthew Flinders), Sir, 1853-1942 [Public domain]). J.D. Evans, S. Krause, S. Kaskel, M.B. Sweatman and L. Sarkisov, ‘Exploring the thermodynamic criteria for responsive adsorption processes’, Chemical Science 10, 5011 (2019). M.B. Sweatman ‘Comparison of absolute free energy methods for fluids and solids’, Mol. Phys. 113, 1206-1216 (2015).