An exploding meteor may have wiped out ancient Dead Sea communities

Archaeologists at a site in what's now Jordan have found evidence of a cosmic calamity

A superheated blast from the skies obliterated cities and farming settlements north of the Dead Sea around 3,700 years ago, preliminary findings suggest.

Radiocarbon dating and unearthed minerals that instantly crystallized at high temperatures indicate that a massive airburst caused by a meteor that exploded in the atmosphere instantaneously destroyed civilization in a 25-kilometer-wide circular plain called Middle Ghor, said archaeologist Phillip Silvia. The event also pushed a bubbling brine of Dead Sea salts over once-fertile farm land, Silvia and his colleagues suspect.

People did not return to the region for 600 to 700 years, said Silvia, of Trinity Southwest University in Albuquerque. He reported these findings at the annual meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research on November 17.

Excavations at five large Middle Ghor sites, in what’s now Jordan, indicate that all were continuously occupied for at least 2,500 years until a sudden, collective collapse toward the end of the Bronze Age. Ground surveys have located 120 additional, smaller settlements in the region that the researchers suspect were also exposed to extreme, collapse-inducing heat and wind. An estimated 40,000 to 65,000 people inhabited Middle Ghor when the cosmic calamity hit, Silvia said.

The most comprehensive evidence of destruction caused by a low-altitude meteor explosion comes from the Bronze Age city of Tall el-Hammam, where a team that includes Silvia has been excavating for the last 13 years. Radiocarbon dating indicates that the mud-brick walls of nearly all structures suddenly disappeared around 3,700 years ago, leaving only stone foundations.

What’s more, the outer layers of many pieces of pottery from same time period show signs of having melted into glass. Zircon crystals in those glassy coats formed within one second at extremely high temperatures, perhaps as hot as the surface of the sun, Silvia said.

High-force winds created tiny, spherical mineral grains that apparently rained down on Tall el-Hammam, he said. The research team has identified these minuscule bits of rock on pottery fragments at the site.

Examples exist of exploding space rocks that have wreaked havoc on Earth (SN: 5/13/17, p. 12). An apparent meteor blast over a sparsely populated Siberian region in 1908, known as the Tunguska event, killed no one but flattened 2,000 square kilometers of forest. And a meteor explosion over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013 injured more than 1,600 people, mainly due to broken glass from windows that were blown out.


https://www.sciencenews.org/article/exploding-meteor-may-have-wiped-out-ancient-dead-sea-communities

I love reading things like this Thor, shows really how lucky we are that a meteor hasn't devastated more countries. We are so close to one coming past us in a few days. Well million miles but close enough. Hope one never stops going past as it can cause a catastrophic disaster if it comes here.

Perhaps this kind of thing can account for the sand turned to glass in the Sahara and in India, in the city flattened by what some think was a nuclear explosion.

Vintage wrote:Perhaps this kind of thing can account for the sand turned to glass in the Sahara and in India, in the city flattened by what some think was a nuclear explosion.

Did you mean the Libyan desert Vintage?

Maybe, I remember reading a bit about it but not a lot of detail right now, is that where it is then, pretty intriguing where ever it is.
Ah yes, Libya, just looked it up.

Vintage wrote:Maybe, I remember reading a bit about it but not a lot of detail right now, is that where it is then, pretty intriguing where ever it is.

There is many pieces of glass in the Lybian desert, which its been tested. That would require high tempretures like 6,000 degrees to form. As chemical analysis, shows this glass, is formed from the same silicon that is found within the desert sand.

A meterorite, would provide an explanation for that

Or an Atomic explosion ?

nicko wrote:Or an Atomic explosion ?

Be a bit hard for an atomic explosion to have created the glass that was fashioned into jewelry worn by Tutankhamun ...

*THE Ben Reilly* wrote:

nicko wrote:Or an Atomic explosion ?

Be a bit hard for an atomic explosion to have created the glass that was fashioned into jewelry worn by Tutankhamun ...

 

Mohenjdaro how ever its spelt (now in Pakistan of course not India) lower levels of the buildings are intact, the majority of people if not all died and seem to have died at the same time and very suddenly.

The bodies seem to have been pressed into the ground, there are no blast or burn injuries on the skeletons and animals don't seem to have fed on the bodies either. They are irradiated though.
So what happens to bodies with an air burst blast like say Tunguska
where it seemed to be all pressure, could an atomic bomb have the same effect if exploded high enough in the air thinking of the EMP blasts which knock out electronics but don't seem to do any damage
Anyone know if that's true.

Vintage wrote:Mohenjdaro  how ever its spelt (now in Pakistan of course not India)  lower levels of the buildings are intact, the majority of people if not all died and seem to have died at the same time and very suddenly.

The bodies seem to have been pressed into the ground, there are no blast or burn injuries on the skeletons and animals don't seem to have fed on the bodies either. They are irradiated though.
So what happens to bodies with an air burst blast like say Tunguska
where it seemed to be all pressure, could an atomic bomb have the same effect if exploded high enough in the air thinking of the EMP blasts which knock out electronics but don't seem to do any damage
Anyone know if that's true.

That is very interesting Vintage

Do you have a link on any of this?>

https://subharanjangupta.wordpress.com/2011/08/07/evidences-of-neclear-explosion-in-mohenjo-daro/

Vintage wrote:https://subharanjangupta.wordpress.com/2011/08/07/evidences-of-neclear-explosion-in-mohenjo-daro/

Thanks, will have a read