- Part two -
This topic has haunted scientists and researchers for many centuries and has generated a huge number of versions, hypotheses, theories, speculations and publications of various genres. Heated debates about the disappeared archipelago began in ancient times. The famous phrase of Aristotle (384-322 BC) included in the epigraph of this chapter was uttered in connection with his dispute with Plato (427-347 BC) about the same story about the lost state of the Atlanteans. However, be that as it may, archaeological, geological and historical facts lead many researchers to the conclusion that about 13 thousand years ago (possibly in 11 653-11 542 BC) there really was a global cataclysm, name which is the Flood.
Now there is no longer any doubt that this event generated many questions and mysteries in the ancient history of mankind. Let's start with climatology. According to the calculations of G. Sewess in the interval from 90,000 to about 9000 BC. e. the average annual temperature on Earth has dropped at a rate of about 10 ° C over 11,000 years. But about 11,000 years ago, it began to increase at a rate of about 10 ° C per millennium. Several thousand years ago, this warming "stopped", and since then the average annual temperature has remained approximately constant.
Since, within the framework of the hypothesis under consideration, the topic of abrupt climate change is important, we will consider it in detail. The information obtained by scientists while drilling the ice of Antarctica and the Arctic gives an idea of the temperatures that prevailed on our planet many millennia ago. Information of the same kind is obtained in the study of sea bottom sediments. This method is based on the dependence of the ratio of the content of oxygen isotopes 18O and 16O in calcium carbonate on water temperature. Figure 17 gives an idea of the past climate on Earth based on the study of sea bottom sediments in the equator (A), the Vostok Antarctic polar station (B) and the Great Basin (USA) ©.
In fact, the first glaciation in the recent past began about 300,000 years ago. There was a brief warming about 40,000 years ago. In the interval from 36,000 to 12,000 BC. e. the climate became noticeably more severe and dry again. According to the Britannica encyclopedia, 20-18 thousand years ago, the average annual temperature on Earth was 5 ° C lower than modern. For example, at the latitude of Yaroslavl, it was -10 ÷ -15 ° C. Ice cover up to 1 km thick and more reached 57–40 ° N. w …
The period of intense build-up of polar caps and glaciers lasted from 60,000 to 15,000 BC. e. By the end of this period, the area of glaciation was maximum in both the northern and southern hemispheres. Around 12,000 BC e. For some reason, the cold period ended abruptly - first in the southern hemisphere, and after another 1000-2000 years - “in the northern one, and the Wisconsin glacier disappeared. It was during this period that the warm waters of the Gulf Stream penetrated into the Arctic Ocean. In fact, as Bölling warmed, the polar ice caps, which had been growing for over 40,000 years, melted in just 2,000 years.
Actually, in the recent geological past, there were two periods of climate warming: Bölling (10 450-10 050 BC) and Alleroid (9850–8850 BC). And between the VI and V millennia BC. e. the air temperature in the middle latitudes was even higher than the present one by 1–3 ° C. However, in the period from the XVI to XIV millennium BC. e., according to glaciologists, the level of the world ocean was 135 m lower than the present day. Consequently, huge spaces after this warming ceased to be land and became a shelf. Due to the melting of ice, the sea level from X to IV millennium BC. e. increased at a speed of 0.92 m per century.
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Similar data were obtained by polar explorers in Antarctica. In the area of the Vostok station in the interval 15–10 thousand years ago, the climate warmed by 5 ° C. The same data was obtained in Greenland. Meanwhile, a warming of only 2 ° C could lead to the melting of enough ice that would raise the level of the oceans by at least 6 meters. Rapid melting, splitting off and sliding into the ocean of fragments of the Antarctic ice cover, according to the calculations of American scientists, could raise the level of the world ocean by 60 m.
So, the last ice age ended about 10,000 years ago (no later than 8300 BC). What happened as a result of this? The sea level has risen (its highest level was in 9600 BC). The geographic pole has shifted by as much as 30 ° (studies by geophysicist A. O'Kelly). As a result of sharp tectonic shifts, the famous Niagara Falls was formed. In many places of the earth's surface (often atypical - for example, on mountain slopes), marine sediments, bones of marine and land animals and tektites were deposited. Mammoths, arctic bison, saigas, yaks, woolly rhinos and many other representatives of the animal and plant world became extinct (photosynthesis stopped in many areas).
In 1799, Russian researchers B. S. Rusanov and N. K. Vereshchagin described a stunning grandiose animal cemetery in loess deposits in the area of the Berelykh River in Siberia (not far from present-day Vladivostok). A huge herd of mammoths, including females and cubs (and the wolves and wolverines accompanying it), died almost instantly in the silty-loess mass right during feeding. In the stomachs and mouths of mammoths, plants were found that are characteristic of the temperate climate. Meanwhile, it is obvious that these animals perished in the cold hearth, which quickly froze and "preserved" the huge carcasses for thousands of years. Similar finds of mammoths near the Lena (1804), Berezovka (1900) and Indigirka (1971) rivers also indicate that the mammoth bodies were sharply cooled, and then “stored” in permafrost conditions to this day. The meat of the fossil giants is still edible. The radiocarbon method dated this event to the 12th millennium BC. uh …
In Russian Siberia, at the beginning of the 20th century, an average of 2,000 pairs of mammoth tusks were harvested per year. The New Siberian Islands, located beyond the Arctic Circle, are almost entirely composed of the bones and tusks of mammoths, as well as other animals. The explorer Baron Eduard von Toll discovered there the remains of a saber-toothed tiger and a fruit tree 27 m high. Green leaves and fruits were still kept on the branches.
In China, mammoth cemeteries have also long served as a source of ivory for carving all kinds of crafts. Note that the piles of bones and tusks in these "deposits" are covered with layers of volcanic ash.
While exploring Alaska, Professor Hibben of New Mexico State University investigated the mass deaths of animals. In his reports, he wrote: “The twisted parts of animals and trees are interspersed with layers of ice and layers of peat and moss … Bison, horses, wolves, bears, lions … Whole herds of animals apparently died together … Mammoths and bison were torn apart and twisted … The animals were simply torn apart and scattered over the area. Mixed with the accumulations of bones are trees, also torn, twisted and entangled; all this is covered with fine-grained quicksand, subsequently frozen firmly”| 234, p. 196-197].
More than 700 skeletons of saber-toothed tigers, as well as hundreds of bison, camels, mammoths, horses, mastodons and other animals, have been found in the so-called asphalt pits in the La Brea bitumen lakes near Los Angeles (California). Similar finds have been made in asphalt deposits in California (McKittrick and Carpinteria). Fossil remains of animals from the last Ice Age have been found in volcanic ash layers found in Colorado (Floriston Lake) and Oregon (John Day Basin). As if some huge wave stirred their bodies, which then fell into natural traps. Similar finds were made in France near Chalon-sur-Saone.
According to the Britannica encyclopedia, 73% of vertebrates weighing more than 40 kg died out in North America 11-12 thousand years ago. For Europe, this figure is 29%. The most widespread extinction of animals was in 11 000-9000 BC. e.
The fact that 10-12 thousand years ago the waters of the Gulf Stream for the first time in the history of the Earth penetrated into the Arctic Ocean (after which, in fact, warming began), evidenced by the data of studies of bottom sediments of the Kara Sea. Radiocarbon dating of the beginning of this process gives approximately IX millennium BC. e. The volcanic ash of bottom sediments of the Atlantic, bottom samples of the Arctic seas associated with the warming process, and the beginning of the retreat of glacial strata that covered Canada, Belgium, Scandinavia, and a significant part of Europe in the past have the same age - 10–12 thousand years.
Many Atlantologists associate this event with the death of the Atlantean archipelago, as a result of which a way to the north was opened for the waters of the Gulf Stream. The probable destruction of a large area of land is indirectly evidenced by a 30-meter layer of viscous bottom silt found between the Azores and Trinidad Island. In 1899, when a transatlantic cable was lifted from the ocean floor, damaged north of the Azores, chunks of tachilite, a glass-like volcanic rock formed in the air 13-12 thousand years ago, were recovered. Subsequently, the same finds, dating back to the 15th millennium, were made and studied by the Soviet geologist Maria Klinova. And in the 1950s, just south of the Azores, many limestone discs about 15 cm in size were excavated by a marine dredge.that they formed (or were made) on land about 12,000 years ago.
Geologists know for sure that the appearance and contours of coastlines before the start of warming were significantly different from those of today. For example, on the site of the Sea of Azov there was land then. The Black Sea was a freshwater lake, and the river flowing from it flowed into the Mediterranean Sea. As for the Baltic region, it (externally) was formed when the cultures of Mesopotamia and Egypt were already flourishing.
Researcher Devinier assumed that before the flood, both hemispheres of the Earth were inhabited by people of the "copper" race, who lived wherever copper could be found. These include the inhabitants of Central and South America and Berberia (Morocco), Egyptians, Chaldeans, Etruscans and Basques. Devinier distinguished a number of common features among them: a similar social structure, the same symbols (including a cross), signs of sun worship, a highly educated priesthood, versed in astronomy, embalming the dead and the construction of outwardly similar trapezoidal pyramidal temples from megaliths lined with plates, etc. There are also similarities in the way copper is processed. This will be discussed in more detail in chapters 18 and 19. But the main thing is that all these peoples have legends about some fabulously rich and developed civilization, which perished in the same way as Plato's Atlantis.
Hesiod in "Works and Days" spoke of the demigods who died between the Bronze and Iron Ages. Zeus gave them new life, settling them away from immortals and people. Kronos became their king, and they happily lived on the Blessed Isles, on the ocean shore, where the fields bear fruit three times a year and give birth to grains sweet as honey.
And in "Theogony" Hesiod, talking about the four centuries of mankind, describes the finale of one of the centuries as follows: "The life giving the earth cracked from fire … All the water and waters of the ocean were boiling … it even seemed that such a powerful blow occurred, as if the earth was split, and the sky from above fell on her."
In the legends of the aborigines of the island of Samoa, there is such a detail: "The sea rose, and in a grandiose natural disaster the earth sank into the sea."
Berossus, mentioned earlier, also wrote about the flood. According to his information, 10 kings who lived before the flood ruled in Sumer for 432,000 years. The kings, who lived after the flood, ruled for "only" thousands of years, and then the periods of reign quickly diminished to the usual by our standards terms. For a long time, the "List of Kings" cited by Berossus was considered fiction. Nevertheless, this document has been studied very carefully. Almost all major Sumerian scholars have dedicated several works to him. It was only in the second half of the 20th century that orientalists found out that at a later time the list included dynasties that ruled in parallel in different cities, which explains the "inconsistency" of the total duration of the reign with historical dates. In addition, it was found thatthat in some epochs the “List of Kings” was copied from already damaged ancient tablets (as evidenced by missing numbers in the discovered lists and comments of ancient scribes).
Edward Kiera, however, noted: “It would be a mistake to reject the earliest part of the Tsar's Lists as completely unreliable due to the too long life expectancy attributed to the most ancient kings. It would be much better to try to understand what caused this and use the information provided to us as much as possible. Undoubtedly, we will follow this advice of the famous scientist.
And yet the majority of experts, considering the Tsar's Lists a myth, accordingly considered an event that allegedly led to the death of many living creatures on Earth - the Flood as a myth. But the fact that some very large-scale floods did take place, from the point of view of geology, is a fact. The traces of real floods in the Sumerian city of Shuruppak date back to the era of Jemdet-Nasr. And here are some interesting notes Leonard Woolley made in his time:
“In 1929, the excavations of the royal cemetery in Ur were completed. The treasures found in the graves testify to an amazingly high civilization, and that is why it was especially important to establish through which stages a person rose to such heights of art and culture. The conclusion suggested itself: you need to continue digging deeper …
We started from the layer where the graves were found. At a depth of about a meter, everything suddenly disappeared: there were no more shards or ash, but only pure river sediments. Their thickness was about 2.5 m. "Well, of course, there was a flood here," Woolley's wife commented. In the next season, a depth of 19 m was reached in another foundation pit. Deeper by 7 m, we came across eight layers with ruins of houses … In the bottom three, bricks and dishes were of a different type than in the Tsar's cemetery. Then came a 6-meter layer of clay shards. Come across ovens for firing dishes. Apparently, a pottery workshop worked here for a long time (a potter's wheel was even found). 30 cm after the potter's wheel, archaeologists entered the layer of shards, indicating an extreme degree of cultural decline (simple, careless painting). The layer itself was very thin. Beneath it lay a layer of clean silt, applied by the same flood, 3.5 m thick. Even lower, traces of human settlement appeared again - three successive layers. The green clay of the lower layer was the bottom of an ancient swamp”174, p. 26-31].
So it looks like that. that either a local or a global flood was still …
Leonard Woolley noted that the legend of Noah's ark is not Hebrew. It was borrowed by the Jews in Mesopotamia and after appropriate revision is included in the Holy Scriptures. In fact, this story was recorded long before Abraham was born. Moreover, in both versions, not only many details coincide, but also phrases. If we assume that the water rose by 7.5–8 m, as reported by the Bible, then the thickness of the silt should have been 3.5 m. Obviously, the entire fertile valley between the Elam mountains and the plateau of the Syrian desert was flooded.
Sumerian traditions also say that before the flood, people lived in reed huts. Such huts have been found in Ur and El-Ubeid. The Old Testament reports that Noah built his ark from cypress and tarred it with bitumen. Lumps of bitumen with traces of the basket in which it was stored were found in the upper layer of sediments.
In 275 BC. e. one Babylonian historian wrote that the remains of the ark of Konsutros - Babylonian Noah - can still be seen in the Kurdish mountains of Armenia. The first documented ascent of Mount Ararat was made by Johann Jacob von Per-Roth. In popular science periodicals there are contradictory, but very intriguing data on aerial and space imagery, allegedly capturing the skeleton of an unknown ship on the slope of Mount Ararat, and on wooden fragments, allegedly separated from this body as "material evidence" by various people in 1876– 1969 years.
In a series of books "Faces of the Earth", published in 1883, the famous geologist V. Suess disputed the version of the Flood and the Ark. He based his arguments on the fact that Mount Nitsir mentioned in the epics has a height of only 400 m and only slightly rises above the generally flat area of Mesopotamia. In his opinion, a strong local flood-flood could well give rise to the legend of a worldwide flood. The wooden fragments, in his opinion, could be just fragments of ancient religious buildings. The biblical duration of the flood of 11 months, he believes, is explained by the usual exaggeration, and the mention of Mount Ararat is a misinterpretation of the Old Testament term for the region of Urartu in Armenia, where the peaks of Nitsir and Jebel Judi are located. Anyway,Scientists have not yet received official statements about absolutely convincing documentary finds of the remains of Noah's ark and the Flood.
At the same time, historical and geological data pose many problems and questions for scientists, one way or another affecting the global, planetary scale of such a catastrophe … The fact that powerful and ubiquitous processes shook the Earth 13-10 thousand years ago are also indicated by many other findings.
In 1968, pilot R. Brush in the area of the Bahamas of Bimini and Andros saw large stone structures under the water surface. Underwater archeology and aerial photography revealed destroyed buildings, pyramids with a base of 54x42 m, streets, fortress walls, a port with large breakwaters, mysterious circles lined with huge stones, and much more. Subsidence of land in this area is dated X-VIII millennium BC. e.
Under similar conditions, in 1936, physician F. Morgan saw three pyramids at the bottom of Rock Lake near Maryland (USA). Scuba divers examined them and confirmed that they are indeed pyramids with square and rectangular bases and a "cut" top. Geologists estimate the age of the lake at 10 thousand years.
In 1973, from the board of the ship "Akademik Petrovsky" were taken pictures of huge block buildings located on the ocean floor 240 miles southwest of Portugal.
The famous Niagara Falls, located on the border of Canada and the United States, was formed about 13,000 years ago as a result of abrupt tectonic movements of the earth's crust. Probably, these same movements lifted Lake Titicaca high up and the city of Tiahuanaco, founded, according to the research of A. Poznansky, 17,000 years ago with the participation of the fair-haired and blue-eyed god Viracocha. It is characteristic that before this catastrophe the lake was an ocean bay, as evidenced by seaweed and shells and the increased salinity of water in its southern part.
Mexican scientist García Paiona discovered a sea shell rock at the site of two huts in the Cordillera. The find was made at an altitude of 5700 m above sea level. The sharp rise of this land area occurred more than 10,000 years ago.
There is a lot of direct evidence of the flooding of vast areas of land. In 1956-1960, on the banks of the Big Zab River (a tributary of the Tigris River) in the mountains of Kurdistan, the unique Shanidar Cave was discovered with a "living" area of more than 1000 square meters, located at an altitude of 750 m above sea level. It is established that primitive people lived in it for almost 100,000 years. Of the historically fundamental four layers with a total thickness of 15 m, the so-called base of layer "B", formed 12,000 years ago, attracts attention. According to the researches of L. Seidler and R. Soletsky, at this time a giant wave swept over the cave and washed out the top three-meter layer of soil. The so-called "artists" who then settled under its vaults about 7000 years ago were replaced by more "productive" cavemen. In total, evidence of four (!) Floods was found in this cave, and this should be paid special attention to.
On January 15, 1993, the authoritative scientific journal Science described the scale of the strongest and undoubtedly catastrophic flood that occurred at the end of the last ice age in the Asian region. A wave with a height of about 450 m (!), Advancing at a speed of 5.6 * 106 m3 / s, "ripped" the ice cover of the Caspian Sea, reached Altai and partially broke through its mountains. Of course, the grandiose scale of such a cataclysm does not allow us to speak about the locality of the flood, which W. Suess insisted on.
Professor Immanuel Velikovsky in his book "The Clash of Worlds" wrote about the finds of skeletons and bones of whales at altitudes of 150-200 m on the hills near Montreal, New Hampshire and Michigan. A feature of such finds is that these marine animals somehow ended up on land, far from the coastline and at a noticeable height above sea level (in Ontario - 130 m, in Vermont - 150 m, in Montreal and Quebec - 180 m) … Along the western coast of North America, marine sediments are found 200-300 km from the coastline. Velikovsky also reported on mixed "mass graves" of polar and tropical animals in Maryland, in the Chau Kou Tien Cleft in China, and in Germany and Denmark.
At the beginning of the 19th century, Charles Darwin also thought about a global catastrophe during his travels in South America. “The mind inevitably strives to be sure of some great catastrophe. But in order to destroy animals in this way, large and small, in Southern Patagonia [southern part of South America], Brazil, the Peruvian Cordilleras, in North America up to the Bering Strait, you need to shake the very foundation of the globe, "wrote the author of the theory of evolution species.
Note that these events took place not only on the American continent. In the vicinity of modern Plymouth (England), mixed remains of hippos, mammoths, rhinos, horses, bears, bison, wolves and lions (!) Were found. The summit of Mont-Genet (Burgundy, France) was also strewn with fragments of skeletons of mammoths, horses, reindeer and other animals. In central France, cracks in the rocks at the tops of some hills are filled with fragments of bones from mammoths, rhinos and smaller animals. In Sicily, in the hills around Palermo, a huge number of hippopotamus bones were found. One gets the impression that these animals were vainly looking for salvation on these peaks from the water advancing from somewhere.
As already mentioned, in Siberia, the Yukon and Alaska, layers of volcanic ash lie interspersed with bones and tusks. Therefore, it is logical to assume that such a massive and instantaneous death of many animals could only be caused by a huge tidal wave and the subsequent violent volcanic eruptions.
Some idea of the possible scale of volcanic eruptions of that era can be obtained from the consequences of the eruption of the Indonesian volcano Krakatoa in 1883. About 18 km3 of stones, dust and ash were lifted into the air. The sky over the entire planet darkened for 2 years, sunsets everywhere became crimson, and the average temperature dropped noticeably. The rumble from the eruption was heard at a distance of 5000 km, and the 30-meter tsunami wave caused severe flooding and destruction on all radially located coasts and threw ships several kilometers inland.
The similarity of the descriptions of the flood among different peoples, often very distant from each other, can also be considered a serious argument. In total, more than 500 legends and traditions about the flood are known in the world, and most of them arose independently of the Mesopotamian and Hebrew versions of this event.
Thus, the legends about the flood and the patriarch Iyma (analogue of Noah) who escaped from it are contained in the sacred book of the Persians "Avesta" (Iran). The main deity, Ahuramazda, informed Iyma about the intention of the gods to destroy all mankind by a flood. In Persian legends, the role of Mount Ararat was played by Mount Demavend (Elbrus ridge, height 5700 m).
The Hindus have no less than five variants of flood legends. The simplest version of Satapata Brahman tells about the hero Manu (Baisbasbat). Manu learns from the fish-god, Vishnu: “On the seventh day, the three worlds will drown in the ocean. When the Universe dissolves into the ocean, the ship that I built will come to you. Take with you all the plants and all the animals, all the seeds that can give life …”After a long voyage, Manu, with the help of a wonderful fish, sticks to the top of the Himalayas, Nabandana (“Tied Ship”). A similar version can be found in the ancient epic "Mahabharata". In later legends, it is already said that the evil demon Hayagriva attacks people and gods. Vishnu - again in the form of a fish - defeats Hayagriva. By the way, Indian brahmanas consider the flood to be the beginning of new stages in the development of mankind.
In this regard, we note that, according to Seneca, Berossus and the Egyptians believed that such global cataclysms are associated with a change in the signs of the zodiac and the onset of a new sidereal year, equal to 25,786 Earth years.
According to the Tibetans, four "centuries" have also passed on Earth and now it is the fifth. We find similar information among the Hindus in the sacred book Bhagavata Purana. Descriptions of world catastrophes are found in rock inscriptions of the Yucatan Indians. The chronicles of the ancient Mexicans indicate: "The ancients knew that before the present heaven and earth were formed, man was created and life was embodied four times."
In the ancient Japanese book "Koyi-Ki" it is reported that the imperial family is traced from the son of the goddess Amaterasu, the daughter of the only married couple who survived the flood - Izanagi and his wife.
Chinese legends about the great catastrophe tell of the dragon Kun-Kun, who destroyed the pillars that supported the firmament, and the sky collapsed to the ground, flooding it with water. At the same time, ancient chronicles mention that the Earth was shaken to its very foundations, and all celestial bodies changed their usual path of movement. In the Chinese version, "Noah" was Yen Wang.
The tribes of Oceania have a legend about the great flood, after which only one person survived. Among the Tahitians, the only married couple survived the flood at the top of Mount Pitohito.
On the island of Palau (western part of Micronesia), there is a legend about the flood, with which people were punished by the gods offended by them. After the flood, one woman survived. It is curious that among the Polynesians an important role is played by Maui, who brought them knowledge, the son of the sun god Ra and his sister Sin. But Sin is a Babylonian lunar deity, and Ra is an Egyptian deity! Where does this coincidence come from?
The Hermitage contains an ancient Egyptian papyrus dating from the end of the 3rd millennium BC. e. It is a fragment of the "Shipwrecked" epic. Its main character - the captain of the ship - was thrown onto the Snake Island after a shipwreck. The huge Serpent had a beard two cubits long, a skin of gold and an eyebrow of lapis lazuli. The snake told the captain who had miraculously escaped that 75 of its fellows used to live on the island, but once, when the Snake was not on the island, a star fell from the sky and burned all its relatives. The island itself, soon after the captain's departure, plunged into the depths of the sea.
The tribes of Northern Cameroon have the idea that in ancient times the world was flooded with water and the first people appeared after the flood.
African Bushmen have a myth about the wise mantis beetle Kabu, who taught people a lot. “Once upon a time, the land was filled with great water. It was then that the Praying Mantis came to this world. According to the mythology of the Dogon, Senufo, Kono and Bozo tribes, the original world was a sea of mud.
The inhabitants of British Wales keep the legend of the evil dwarf Avens (Aidense), who caused the flood and killed all people on Earth. Escaped on the ark, in which there was "a pair of each creature", only Dueyven and his wife Dueyvich. The Icelandic version of the flood story, passed down from ancient times by word of mouth, was first recorded in the 13th century.
The Gauls, the ancestors of the modern French, considered themselves the descendants of people who came from distant islands, plunged into the ocean abyss.
In Hesiod's ancient Greek version of the Deucalion flood, we can easily recognize the universal features of the same phenomenon. The author reports that 12 titans (6 sons and 6 daughters) of Uranus (heaven) and Gaia (earth), exiled by Zeus to the Lower World (Tartarus), rebelled against Uranus. Under the leadership of Kronos, the Titans overthrew Uranus and proclaimed Kronos their ruler. However, over time, one of the sons of Kronos, Zeus, raised his hand against his father. During the ten-year war, Kronos with the titans was defeated, and Zeus overthrew the titans to Tartarus. The hostilities culminated in the division of power between Zeus, Poseidon and Hades.
Then the titan Prometheus brought fire to people from the sky. Angry Zeus planned to punish the descendants of the titans for their sins and godlessness and set out to send a flood on them. Having learned about this, Prometheus warned his son, Deucalion. He built for himself and his wife, Pyrrha, a ship on which they were saved during the flood. When the water level began to drop, their ship settled on the top of Parnassus. From Deucalion came the Hellenic race.
It is noteworthy that the ancient Greeks had three versions of the flood story. The most ancient hero is the king of Boeotia Ogyges. The second version tells about the king Dardan, who founded Troy. The third, the most recent, was described above.
There is such an interesting fragment in Plato's Timaeus. Timaeus tells the Egyptians about the origins of the Greeks. The Egyptian priests, sighing, say:
“Ah, Solon, Solon! You, Greeks, remain children forever, and there is no elder among the Hellenes / All of you are young in mind, for your minds do not preserve in themselves any tradition that has passed from generation to generation, and no teaching that has turned gray from time to time. The reason is this. There have already been and will be multiple and various cases of death of people, and moreover, the most terrible - because of fire and water … Bodies rotating in the sky around the Earth deviate from their paths, and therefore at certain intervals everything on Earth perishes from a great fire … At such times, the inhabitants of mountains and elevated or dry places are subject to more complete extermination than those who live near rivers or the sea ….
According to the information given to Solon by the Egyptians, there were three floods. In other words, 13-10 thousand years ago some powerful geological cataclysms took place. What is behind this description. A fiction or a collision of the Earth with an asteroid or its rapprochement with some bright large celestial body, a kind of killer star?
At the end of the 20th century, we know about the reality of the consequences of such disasters not only thanks to the study of the so-called astroblems, the craters left by the impacts of "bodies deviated from their paths." They also became quite obvious thanks to the unique direct observations of the Shoemaker-Levy-9 "comet train" falling on Jupiter. Relatively recently, an international organization for the study and prevention of cometo-asteroid hazard was created. 109 asteroids are on the list of potentially dangerous for our planet. The fall of a relatively small asteroid to the Earth means the almost complete destruction of highly developed life on it by "fire and water."
Calculations of the two-kilometer asteroid 1997 XF11 suggest the following. On collision with the Earth, there would be an explosion with a power equivalent to 2 million atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima. In this case, a crater with a diameter of 32 km would be formed and waves a few hundred meters high would rise, which would penetrate into the depths of the continents for thousands of kilometers. So much particulate matter would be thrown into the air that the sun would disappear for months. It turns out that the ancient priests were right, and there is every reason to believe that the likelihood of such disasters in the past was quite real.
As for the location of the legendary Atlantis and Lemuria, it is believed that it is depicted in drawings on oval black stones found in the vicinity of the Peruvian city of Ica (Fig. 18 a, b, c). A total of 16,000 of these stones have been found, and they seem to be a unique ancient stone library. Their age is considerable: more than 10,000 years. A prehistoric geographic atlas places Atlantis alongside the Americas (Fig. 19). What is depicted on these stones is a geographical map of the disappeared ancient territories. There are, of course, many other opinions about the location of the ancient centers of civilization, but it is hardly advisable to consider them in this chapter.
- Part two -
