Why is civilisation the way it is ? What caused humans to build societies ? Could it have been different ?
The philosophic answer to these questions may be beyond our scope , but scientifically speaking , the answer might be “ a ginormous comet ” , according to a new paper print in the journalEarth - Science Reviews .
About 14,500 years ago , the Earth started to heat up . The ice sheets that had render much of the northerly hemisphere uninhabitable for millennia begin to retreat , and humankind startedtheir migrationacross Eurasia and into the Americas .
Then , around 13,000 years ago , it stopped . temperature across the Northern cerebral hemisphere drop back to near - frigid conditions , and it fall out at a charge per unit quicker even than today ’s man - made climate modification . The “ Younger Dryas ” – a geological period named for a flower that flourish during the colder conditions – had bug out , and it would be a whole millenary before the climate returned to normal .
But the clime was n’t the only thing to have a major modification around this meter . Human population in the “ fertile crescent ” of southwestern Asia – admit modern - day Egypt , Iraq , and Lebanon – started to settlefor the first time and switched from hunter - gatherer lifestyles to agriculture - based society . Meanwhile , the Clovis people of North America seem to havedisappeared entirely . Andacross the planet , plants and animalswent extincton a massive scale .
But on the nose what caused this spherical variety is something that scientific discipline has yet to conclusively divulge . One of the most controversial suggestions , however , aver that it was set off when Earth was struck by shard of an enormous comet that biff North and South America , Europe , and Asia . First seriously proposed in 2007 , the theory has been hotly consider from both sides asfresh evidencehas go on to emerge through the years tosupport(oroppose ) it .
A University of Edinburgh team determine out to reexamine this grounds and make an judgment on the likeliness of the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis , as it ’s know , being correct . Their ending : it ’s pretty darn likely , actually .
“ [ A ] large physical structure of grounds digest the theory that a comet struck around 13,000 years ago , ” the investigator confirmed in astatement , with “ excess level of atomic number 78 , signs of materialsmelted at super high temperaturesand thedetection of nanodiamondsknown to exist inside comet and form during high - energy burst "
The data that the squad says strongly support the hypothesis was taken from across four continents . geologic data come from North America and Greenland particularly , where the prominent comet shard were thought to bump off , while study lead generator Martin Sweatman pointed out one especially challenging piece of anthropological grounds .
“ This major cosmic tragedy seems to havebeen memorialisedon the giant stone column of Göbekli Tepe , maybe the ' World ’s first tabernacle ' , ” he commented , “ which is relate with the origin of civilisation in the Fertile Crescent of southwest Asia . Did civilisation , therefore , start with a clap ? "
