The ancient Sumerian Star Map that recorded an asteroid impact
A disastrous event that occurred 9800 years ago devastated the Austrian Alps. The cosmic cataclysm may have been known by the Sumerians and recorded on a find called the "Sumerian Star Map".
The Köfels Event is a gigantic mountain rockslide that occurred in the Austrian Alps about 9800 years ago, over 500 meters thick and with a front at least 5 kilometers long.
The enigmatic characteristics of the event have puzzled archaeologists for quite some time.
The hypothesis is that the gigantic landslide was caused by the impact of an asteroid (hence the expression "Köfels impact"), although not all the scientific community agrees on this theory.
The reason for the impact hypothesis is the presence of molten rock found in the region. At the moment, the only known processes capable of generating molten rock are volcanic activity or the impact of celestial bodies with the earth's surface.
However, researchers who disagree with the impact hypothesis raise the possibility that the molten rock was the result of the heat generated by the friction opposed by the mountain wall to the advancing landslide.
This hasn't stopped two British engineers from publishing a book in which they argue that the Köfels Event was caused by a meteorite, that it inspired numerous myths in ancient cultures and that it was recorded on an ancient Sumerian clay tablet.
Alan Bond and Mark Hempsell, in their book “A Sumerian Observation of the Kofels' Impact Event”, argue that the Sumerian tablet documents the impact of an asteroid which occurred on 29 June 3123 BC. It becomes the source of numerous myths, including destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and of the Greek myth of Phaeton, the son of the Sun god Apollo who, while taking a ride in his father's chariot, caught fire and crashed to the ground.
The two engineers, retranslating the tablet written in cuneiform characters, were convinced that the event documented by the Sumerians was connected to the Köfels Event.
However, their theory has problems, the most important related to chronology. Radiocarbon dating carried out on some tree trunks buried by the landslide revealed an age of around 9800 years, around 4 thousand years before the Sumerian tablet was written.
Furthermore, there appears to be no crater at the Köfels site. However, everyone admits that there was no definitive evidence to definitively exclude or affirm the cause of the event.
So, what is the connection between the sophisticated Sumerian star map and the enigmatic event that occurred in Austria?
The cuneiform tablet was recovered in the late 19th century in the underground library of King Ashurbanipal in Nineveh (Iraq), is now preserved in the collection of the British Museum and is known as “The Planisphere”, registered under code K8538. The tablet provides extraordinary evidence of highly advanced Sumerian astronomy.
For a long time it was thought to be an artefact from the Assyrian Empire, but computer comparison between the inscription and the Mesopotamian vault of heaven from 3300 BC demonstrated its more ancient Sumerian origin.
It is a real "Astrolabe", the first known astronomical instrument. It consists of a segmented circle with angle measurement markings to calculate the position of the stars.
Unfortunately, considerable parts of the planisphere are missing (about 40%), a consequence of damage that dates back to the sacking of Nineveh. Examination of the clay tablet reveals the presence of the constellations and their names.
Thanks to the use of software capable of simulating the trajectories and positions of bodies in the sky from thousands of years ago, the researchers concluded that the Sumerian planisphere records astronomical events that occurred by June 29, 3123 BC (Julian calendar).
The aspect that intrigued the researchers is the presence on one half of the tablet of an object large enough to be noticed.
The observation suggests that it may be an Aten-type asteroid, i.e. an asteroid belonging to the near-Earth group characterized by an orbit with a semimajor axis less than one astronomical unit. The name of the group derives from that of the asteroid Aten, the first object of this type to be discovered; was located on January 7, 1976 by Eleanor Helin.
The object reported on the Sumerian tablet, in proportion, would measure more than a kilometer in diameter and its trajectory would be consistent with the Köfels impact.
According to the two engineers, the peculiar trajectory of the asteroid explains why there are no signs of impact on the site. The angle of arrival on Earth would have been very narrow (about six degrees), which means that the asteroid, rather than impacting the ground, would have cut the top of a mountain called Gamskogel, about 11 kilometers from Köfels, causing the catastrophic avalanche.
Although the assumptions of Alan Bond and Mark Hempsell's theories are largely accepted, doubt remains about the chronological discrepancy: according to radiocarbon, the Köfels Event occurred around 9800 BC, while the Sumerian tablet dates back to the 4th millennium BC. How to explain this inconsistency?
The possible solutions are:
- the theory of the two British engineers is wrong and the Sumerian tablet records a different event not yet understood;
- the radiocarbon results may have been tainted by defects in the samples;
- the Sumerians knew about the catastrophic impact that occurred 4 thousand years earlier, passing it down on the tablet produced in 3123 BC
In any case, the analyzes and studies on the Sumerian planisphere and the Köfels site are not concluded. Understanding these two stories of the Earth's past could reveal surprising consequences to scholars.
