Almost 13,000 years ago, a group of prehistoric nomads undertook a historic life change. They ended their hunter-gatherer journey and became the first known pioneers of a new milestone in human civilization: agriculture.
Where the ancient settlers of Abu Hureira came from the idea of agriculture will never be known. But according to a new analysis of curious particles found in the soil, these nomads witnessed an exploding comet. The research team believes that the cosmic impact may well have played a cultural role.
Today, the archaeological excavations of Abu Hureira are carried out deep under water and are covered by the largest Syrian lake, Lake Assad. The reservoir was created in the 1970s when a dam blocked the waters of the Euphrates River.
Typical examples of Abu Hureyr glass melt. (Moore et al., Scientific Reports, 2020)
Among the flint tools, bones, and hut-like structures, the researchers found something else: spherical balls of glass that form during extremely hot, high-energy events, usually associated with cosmic collisions involving asteroids and comets.
For years, researchers have argued that the existence of these tiny balls scattered throughout Abu Hureira is proof that the ancient village was part of the so-called Young Dryas influence hypothesis.
The claim that a comet or asteroid hit the Earth 12,800 years ago, triggering a wave of extinction for some species and even a sudden, mini-ice age called the Younger Dryas.
Some have gone so far as to speculate that this sudden change in environmental conditions on Earth caused the prehistoric inhabitants of the village of Abu Hureira to suddenly switch from hunting and gathering to farming, coinciding with the beginning of agriculture in West Asia. However, not everyone likes this argument.
A number of scientists dispute the hypothesis of the influence of the Younger Dryas, although new evidence has been provided to support this idea in recent years, including the discovery of a giant impact crater under the Greenland ice sheet and more.
The latest study takes a closer look at what temperatures would be required for the types of glass found at Abu Hureira to emerge.
Micrographs of silicon dioxide on molten glass. (Moore et al., Scientific Reports, 2020)
The results suggest that the required temperature would be well beyond the modest capabilities of prehistoric villagers.
“Our findings provide much more compelling evidence of very high temperatures that can only be attributed to cosmic forcing,” says geologist James Kennett of the University of California, Santa Barbara.
In new analyzes examining the geochemical composition and structure of ancient layers of molten glass, the researchers found that molten grains of quartz, chromeferide, and magnetite in the glass would require temperatures above 1720 ° C, while some of the materials in the glass most likely required 2600 ° C.
Based on these results, scientists say that virtually all terrestrial explanations for Abu Hureira's glass formation can be ruled out, leaving only one likely cause.
A high-energy, high-temperature hyperspeed event took place near Abu Hureira ~ 12,800 years ago, most likely an air explosion of a space body, possibly accompanied by a collision with the surface.
Researchers think that much of the village would have been destroyed, but the fact that life in the settlement continued, suggests that a group of survivors managed to recover, recognizing that changes will now be necessary and old ways of surviving would no longer support them in this brave new the world and its cooler, drier environment.
“Several hundred people lived in the village. Most of them must have died, ”archaeologist Andrew Moore of the Rochester Institute of Technology told The Times.
'I seem to have survived enough to start life anew. This disaster struck the settlement, but the people returned and continued. At that time, they added agriculture to the economy. '
The results are presented in Scientific Reports.
Sources: Photo: (Jennifer Rice / CometResearchGroup.org)
