3000 BC: Notes and References

100000 BC: Global; Last Ice Age

Ice ages prevail for 90 percent of the time; At 150,000 BC emergence of Homo sapiens (possibly related to conditions during last interglacial?). The last ice age beginning about 100,000 years ago. Signals from Greenland ice cores suggest that he last glacial may have been punctuated with abrupt warm periods, leading to release of "ice armadas" into the Atlantic Ocean; these "Heinrich events" have been variously attributed to precessional components of orbital variation (McIntyre and Molfino, Science 12/13/96) and periglacial dust (Overpeck et al, Nature 12/5/96)

#484.

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30000 BC: Java;

30,000 BC: Last stands of Homo erectus (Java) and Neanderthal (Spain) species, decline in favor of Homo sapiens (NYT, 12/13/96). Paleolithic cave arat in Europe.

#493.

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20000 BC: Mesopotamia; (Illustration)

Illustration: Dry glacial climate in Near East. Monsoons are far to the south. Also, Younger Dryas cold snap.

#489.

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13000 BC: Global; End of Ice Age

About 15000 years ago the last age ended with temperatures raising several degrees C. In the Near East, a corresponding northerly migration of mosoon rains, resulting in a kind of "Garden of Eden" in Jordan, Palestine, Mesopotamia. For an excellent summary of the effects of these and other climatic changes in the Middle East, see Wright, Current Anthropology34,#4 (1993) 458-69.

#319.

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10500 BC: Global; Younger Dryas begins

Beginning of Younger Dryas. Abrupt cooling in Europe and North America, return of near glacial conditions; in the Near East, an abrupt drought, leading to retreat to oases, possibly related to development of agriculture as a coping strategy. For a nice description of this process, see Brian Fagan's The Time Detectives; for a more technical discussion, H.E. Wrights "Environmental Determinism in Near Eastern Prehistory", Current Anthropology34,#4 (1993) 458-69.

#318.

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9500 BC: Global; Younger Dryas ends

End of Younger Dryas, return of wet warm conditions in Near East, time of plenty.

#86.

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7000 BC: Egypt; Eden in Egypt

#124.

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6200 BC: Greenland; GRIP ice core

GRIP ice core shows and abrupt cooling at about 8400 years before present.

#320.

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6200 BC: Global; Severe cold snap

Severe cold snap; possible short time of hardship in Near east as in Younger Dryas.

#85.

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6000 BC: Global; Delta Environments

#149.

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6000 BC: Mesopotamia;

Sea level rise in Gulf of Persia, 4000 BC

Irrigated society, 3500 BC

#488.

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5500 BC: Europe;

5500 BC: Reported Mid-Holocene flooding of Baltic Sea by Meditteranean waters. Authors of forthcoming geological report suggest that this may be related to the Sumerian/biblical flood, though this claim is disputed by ancient Near East scholars who believe that the location is too remote from Mesopotamia. Other cultural consequences of the event are said to be spreading of agriculture to Europe.

#494.

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5000 BC: Mesopotamia;

We place the "Garden of Eden" at the time of 8000 to 6000 yrs. BP (6000-4000 BC) at which time the temperature is warming culminating in an era warmer than present, when equatorial weather patterns may have reached farther north than at present, and the westerly storms of the north would have been confined to latitudes higher than at present.

Here we show the lower Tigris-Euphrates, most recently the scene of the Gulf War, beginning with the "Garden of Eden":

#490.

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4850 BC: California; Warmest time, (bristlecone pines,)

Warmest time in Sierra Nevada, (bristlecone pines, California)

#1.

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4500 BC: Global; Territorial control and mound building

By 4500 BC the favorable climatic conditions and stabilized lower alluvial plains (the newly stabilized sea level allowed the accumulation of sediment, the beginning of delta formation, in lower river valleys. Flow regimes in lower river valleys change from braided to meandering; marshes and wetlands allow for the accumulation of rich shellfish growth, and among American native communities we see the beginnings of sedentary and territorial life styles, larger trbal or corporate action including the building of mounds in the Mississippi valley.

#330.

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4000 BC: Global; Holocene delta development worldwide

Holocene delta development worldwide transgressive sequence of deltaic deposits

#160.

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4000 BC: Mesopotamia; Mesopotamia delta

Stratigraphic relations by the authorshowing the rapid development of a rich, fertile delta in Mesopotamia

#165. Contents: Late Quaternary Chronology

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4000 BC: Europe; Atlantic hypsithermal

Atlantic hypsithermal "Eden"; wet warm conditions in Near East, time of plenty.

#2. Ice Core Evidence

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4000 BC: Ireland; Irish elm decline

Irish elm decline, 4000 to 3250 BC

#88. Iceman

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4000 BC: Global; Valleys in the Holocene

#142.

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4000 BC: US;

On Mississippi at 6000 BP, slowing sea level rise at 10-15 below present level, beginning of meander belts. Development of Pine Island Beach trend, a linear sand shoal developed when sea level slowed 10-15 ft. below present level at mouth of Mississippi (currently beneath Lake Pontchartrain). Transition from Middle to Late Archaic period. Alternative view (Penland) that sea level rose to above present level at this time. See Sancier Geomorphology and Quaternary Geologic History of the Lower Mississippi Valley, 1994 (1.4525).

#492.

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4000 BC: Mesopotamia; Sea level, Persian Gulf

Recent (1996) reviews of Persian Gulf paleosealevel indicates that levels were up to 2 meters higher than at present during the period 6000-4000 BP (Earth and Plan Sci Letters 142 (1996) 43-57.

#64.

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3700 BC: Mesopotamia; Father Burrows

#125.

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3700 BC: Mesopotamia; Burrows' flood,

Jesuit paleographer Burrows, who accompanied Leonard Woolley on his 1930s archeological dig at Ur (and who later figures a the murderer in Agatha Christie's "Murder in Mesopotamia"), dates Mesopotamian/biblical flood at 3700 BC (January 1930 Dublin Review)

#3.

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3600 BC: California; Central coast

3600 Central California coast investigations show that there had been little laminated sediment deposition on the continental shelf of California after 5000 BP, (Gardner, J.V. Geology 14, p 691-694, 1986)

#4.

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3500 BC: Mesopotamia; Leonard Woolley's flood

3500 Leonard Woolley, head of the joint British American team excavating Ur, dates the flood layer found at the base of the ruins of Ur at 3500 BC.

#6.

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3500 BC: Morocco; Arid interval

Arid interval 5010-4860 (+/- 150) at Tigalmamine in montane Morocco. Corresponding decline in oaks (Quercus rotundifolia and canariensis) in favor of Gramineae suggests reduced winter precipitation corresponding to cooler sea temperatures in North Atlantic. Lamb, H. F. et al, Nature, 373 p 134 (1995).

#70.

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3500 BC: Mesopotamia; Tigris and Euphrates alluvial plain

At about 3500 BC the lower Tigris and Euphrates alluvial plain was under extreme pressure from both rapidly rising sea and buildup of the Karun delta. Under such unstable conditions, a large storm in the Zagros mountains could trigger a diversion of the Karun in an upstream direction, resulting in a flood filling of the lower Tigris-Euphrates alluvial plain, similar to the filling of the Salton Sea in the early part of this century.

#84.

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3500 BC: South Carolina; South Carolina sea level

A recent sea level curve from South Carolina indicates a sudden sea level rise (transgression) beginning about 3500 BC, followed by an equally rapid 2 meter drop a century or two later. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Pub. 27, p. 192.

#79.

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3500 BC: Global; Holocene delta development worldwide

The sequence of Holocene delta development worldwide is indicated as beginning at 6000 BC; by 3000 BC a transgressive sequence of deltaic deposits had developed as shown on the figure. Under conditions of rapid sea level rise these fresh deposits would have been swampy and waterlogged. However, a sudden regression would leave a silty, nutrient-rich floodplain well- drained with a slightly receding (downcutting) river, a condition ideal for irrigated agriculture. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Pub. 27, p. 235. (trans.html)

#78. EF PRO-EUSTASY

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3500 BC: Mesopotamia;

Rain storms, climatic oscillation. Millennial-scale warming terminates with a period of climatic disturbance and flooding in the lower latitudes (Nile, Arizona, Morocco, Israel, Mesopotamia), followed by a drought; general, worldwide, climate-driven shock to early societies living in "edenic" geography of plenty with "fertile crescent" survivors organizing into more centrally administered culture based on irrigation.

#487.

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3500 BC: Fiji; Fiji sea level

A recent sea level curve from Fiji suggest a 1 meter drop between 3500 and 3000 BC. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Pub. 27, p. 313. (fiji.html)

#77.

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3500 BC: China; Han River delta

Recent graph of sea level data from the Han River delta.

#162.

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3500 BC: Europe; Upper treeline in alps

Upper treeline in alps and elsewhere drops 100 meters in 3500 BC then rises to 2500 BC indicating a cold spell at 3500 (Markograf 1974 in Lamb p 374)

#5.

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3500 BC: China; Han River delta

Recent data from the Han River delta indicate a rapid sea level rise (3 meters) from 4000 to 3000 BC. The data are not detailed enough to permit accurate charting of century scale variations, though the data at 3200 BC suggest the possibility of a major oscillation at that time. (Journal of Coastal Research, Special Pub. 27, p. 133.

#80.

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3500 BC: Europe; Early agriculture

Introduction of early agriculture in Europe: " The Neolithic Mosaic on the North European Plain" Peter Bogucki Princeton University; web site

#65. The Neolithic Mosaic on the North European Plain

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3400 BC: Egypt; Pharoah Sneferu at Meydum

3400 C14 date (4802) of Cypress beam at temple of Pharoah Sneferu at Meydum. First radiocarbon date by Libbey.

#7. Nubia: The Land Upriver

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3400 BC: Mississippi; Mississippi delta

Carcoal nut dated at 4869 rcybp 6 meters below MSL at Bayou Lafourche at Paincourtville in Mississippi delta represents beginning of delta formation in this area. Other C14 dates indicate regular rise in alluviation thereafter. Science

#60.

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3300 BC: California; Mid Holocene wet

Mid Holocene Atlantic wet period features high human population growth in Santa Barbara area (4600-4800 BP). This follows an earlier warmer time about 5500 BP with older milling (metate) grinding techniques and is followed by another hot spell about 3500 BP with increasing hunting, sea fishing, residential bases, status ranking, mortar and pestle use for large pulpy seeds, technology in general. From Glassow, UCSB Anthropology Dept, 4/9/93 talk at Asilomar

#9.

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3300 BC: Europe; Belgian coast

Along the Belgian coast, recent work shows that "two rather distinct retardations appear to be present; a more marked one at about 7500-7000 cal yrs. B.P. and a second one at about 5500-5000yrs. calB.P."In other words, sea level rise was temporarily reversed at these times.

The idea of irregular sea level rise, introduced my Fairbridge (1961), and subsequently dismissedby uniformitarian interpretations, has recently been reinforced by analysis of Australian coralreefs(4). Fairbridge's sea level curves are discussed in the Encyclopedia Brittanica. Theyhad been suppressed in favor of the more uniform curve of Shepard, thought the irregularmodel is now coming backinto vogue with the return to respectability of more catastrophic ways of looking at the data.

#75.

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3300 BC: Global; July summer cooling, Soviet Union

Maximum Piora July summer cooling according to pollen counts between 60 and 70 degrees latitude in the Soviet Union (4.7 ka assumed to be c14 date)

#8.

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3300 BC: California; San Francisquito Bay

The upper graph shows C14 dates for muds and vegetation in the San Francisquito Bay and delta; C14 dates have been corrected to give calendar years, and the effects of autocompaction have been removed. Comparison of these data with the world wide data shown in the lower curves provides reasonable latitude forshort term sea level regressions without proving them. It also appears that the the data arein close enough vertical agreement to suggest vertical crustal stabilityin the late Holocene in San Francisco Bay, though this is not the conclusion ofLajoie and the other authors of this USGS study.

#76.

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3270 BC: New England; Elm collapse

New England elm collapse: 4650 BP-1950+570= 3270 BC Cause remains controversial.

#10.

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3250 BC: ;

#328.

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3250 BC: Florida; Pine bursts

Iceburg-triggered Florida pine bursts events occur every 5709 years, based on a sequence beginning about 35 thousand years ago. The last pine burst was about 4650 years BP, or 3250 BC if we correct carbon dates. The one before that is 12,000 years ago, corresponding to the disastrous Younger Dryas period. That suggests that something may be about to happen. (Science, 7/9/93).

#12.

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3250 BC: Global; Atmospheric methane

Atmospheric methane from GRIP ice core with lowest value 580 ppbv at 5.2K yrs. BP followed by rapid increase of 40 ppbv over 200 years; variously attributed to clathrate or permafrost outgassing, decrease in tropospheric oxidation, or abrupt increase in low-latitude wetlands. Blunier, T, et al, Nature, 374 47 (1995).

#69.

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3250 BC: Global; Sulfate in GISP2

Sulfate in GISP2 ice core; curve is a low-tension robust spline of sulfate concentrations with average about 30 ppb. The cause of the 150 year peak at 5.2K yrs BP is not known, but the authors suggest the possibility of an anomalous nearby temporary body of open water (polynya) which generated marine biogenic sulfate. Zielinski, GA et al, Nature, 264 948 (1994).

#68.

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3250 BC: California; Santa Barbara basin off the coast

paleoclimatic data from sediment cores in the Santa Barbara basin off the coast of California, sediment bioturbidity and snail form, also indicating a discontinuity, possibly abrupt cooling, at 5.2k yrs BP.

References

Kennett, JP and Ingram, BL, A 20,000 yr record of ocean circulation and climate change from the Santa Barbara basin Nature v 377 p 510 12 Oct 95.

#74.

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3250 BC: Europe; Piora oscillation, Europe

Piora oscillation, named after Piora Valley in Europe where climatic irregularites were first noted. A major break in the climatic regime which resulted in a readvance of Alpine glaciers, a retreat of forests. Elms and linden trees declined in Europe and Norht America. In northern Europe the oak and hazel declined or disappeared. Changes occurred as far away as the Andes, Alaska, and the Kenyan highlands, so the disturbance was evidentally of global magnitude extended throughout the world. 3500 to 3000 BC. Lamb p 120 Lamb notes that this is the time of the rapid spread of New Stone Age cultures in Europe; meanwhile there seems to have been a sudden stimulus to the growth of organized civilization, to deliberate cultivation along with development of the tools necessary for such activities. In Mesopotamia, and in the arid areas of the middle east in general, a period of wet years in which oases would have expanded and wild fruits and nuts abounded would have been followed by a growing dryier and less hospitable climate in which perhaps organized civilization would have been necessary for continued survival. Flourishing of civilizations in the Indus valley notably at the city of Harappa starting about 3000 BC with lands under cultivation that exceeded the areas of Mesopotamia and Egypt occurred up until about shortly after 2000 BC when drought brought an end of this culture. As the 3rd millenium progressed the flooding became erratic and finally disappeared, giving way to a period of calm in which travel by sea and over high mountain passes encouraged northerly migration and trade and exchange of metallic and monument building technologies that we now know as the Bronze Age. Production of great funerary megaliths in northern Europe and the growth of prestige-oriented Beaker culture spelled the end of thousands of years of hunter-gatherer cultures, and the rise of centralized heirarchical civilization.

#13. http://www.usl.edu/~aa/indus_valley.txt

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3250 BC: Egypt; Egypt Nile delta

A core (5-44) taken at the south margin of one of the coastal lagoons at the north end of the Nile delta showed a layer of potsherds 25 ft. below sea level dated at 3,500 to 4,500 CYBP. The layer was underlain by 20 ft. of lagoon mud which would have compressed about 3 feet so the corrected depth would be close to 22 ft. below present sea level. Accounting for deep subsidence (6 ft., according to Stanley et al) would place the "buried civilization" at 16 ft. below sea level. Boring 5-7 drilled south of the coastal Lake Manzala, Egypt, about 40 km from today's shoreline shows a layer of delta front sand from 4 to 5 meters below ground surface deposited at about 4,600 BP (interpolated from lower date of 5,720 RCYBP) (Coutellier and Stanley).

#15.

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3250 BC: California; San Francisquito history

Historical geomorphology of San Frncisquito Creek at here

#157.

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3250 BC: Global; Stormy weather

Beginning of 1000 yrs wet, stormy weather. A neoglacial period characterized by wetter, stormier conditions; starting between 5000 and 4000 years BP and extending to about 3500 yrs BP (Enzel, Quat R 1992)

#16.

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3250 BC: Europe; Newgrange start

Occupation of Irish tomb sites. Charcoal from the Newgrange and Knowth tombs in Ireland yield dates ranging from 2800 to 3250 B.C.

#11.

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3250 BC: New England; Hemlock decline New England

Decline in hemlock pollen in 45 New England lakes. The date of the disappearance is 4650 yrs BP with a standard deviation of 300 years.

#14.

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3250 BC: Peru; Huascaran glacier

Peru Ice. We have seen elsewhere ( see methane ) how atmospheric concentrations of methane (swamp gas) during theHolocene (last 10,000 years) are related to the extent ofwetlands especially at low (tropical) latitudes.

Here in the lowermost graph we see oxygen isotope ratios andnitrate for the Huascaran glacier in Peru, showing an abrupt cooling at about 5200 BP.Compare this with the graph of methane; the two are mirrorimages. For other climatic indicators see the paleoclimatic page. Thompson et al Late Glacial Stage and Holocene Tropical IceCore Records from Huascaran, Peru Science v 269 7 July 1995. 111111111111111111111111

#73.

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3212 BC: Europe; French coastal megaliths

French coastal sites. In 1971 at Pointe aux Oies, France, near Wimereux, the French geologist Mariette (1971) discovered several Neolithic sites in brackish water, one meter below sea level. He dates them by radiocarbon at 4500 BP and believes the sea level stood at -4 m at the time of their habitation He says that there are other "menhirs" and passage graves in the intertidal zone dating from the same period of 5000-4500 BP. Another French paper indicates various sites at 4 to 5 meters beow sea level in the Seine and Somme valleys and estuaries. At Abbeville this interface is indicated as corresponding to an "emergence" (which seems to be a temporary lowered sea level) at the end of the Neolithic and beginning of the Bronze Ages, between 4600 and 3500 BP, the temporary lowering bottoming at 8 m below msl. At Montmartin, Calvados, a layer of shells dated at 4700 BP is at -2 m and is thought to have been deposited when msl was -4.7m;(Giresse 1969); at Briere, peats dated a 4630, 4480, and 4260 overlie brackish water clay at -1.3 m implying a sea level below - 4.5 at that time. (Giot, 1968) 4550 BP-1988= 3212 BC

#30.

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3200 BC: Global; GISP2 team, the latest from

Most recent studies form the GISP2 team, 1995.

#150.

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3200 BC: Ireland; Cessair

3200 BC: Cessair and followers; 2500 BC: Partholan; 2000 BC: first Nemed invasion; 1500 BC: Fir Bolg (possibly the Belgae of NW Gaul, per Julius Caesar); 1000 BC: Tuatha de Danann; 300 BC: Sons of Mil (Celts, from Spain [possibly Helvetians who had migrated from what is now Switzerland to Northern Spain]);

#81.

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3200 BC: Mesopotamia; Tigris-Euphratres

Sharp reduction of Tigris-Euphratres streamflow at 5200 cal yrs BP; also Iranian Plateau changes from humid to arid at same time. Johnson and Kay, Climatic Change, 3 (1981) p 251

#61.

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3200 BC: Mesopotamia; Mesopotamia delta

Stratigraphic relations showing the rapid development of a rich, fertile delta are compared in Mesopotamia with the generic model of delta formation suggested by Stanley, who demonstrates that development of these potting grounds for civilization would have appeared only after 6000 BC. Significantly, no comparable environmental condition existed in any great river valley for more than 100,000 years.

#83.

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3200 BC: Missouri; Pomme de Terre River

By 4600 BP Missouri"s Pomme de Terre River has undergone a major change in its regime, downcutting a channel about 15 ft deep. This is the largest record of change in the river"s behavior since 10000 BP and is interpreted as having been caused by an abrupt climatic change toward wetting. 3200 Temporary French coastal emergence starting at 3200BC

#18.

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3200 BC: ; Paleoclimate Data Page

#144.

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3199 BC: Europe; Irish oaks

Tree rings in Northern Ireland are narrow in 1153 B,c 1628 B,c 3199 B,c and 4377 BC. The 3199 BC value is associated with an acidity peak in Camp Century ice cores dated at 3150 B,c demonstrating unquestionably that adverse weather conditions, probably due either to volcanic eruption or meteoric impact, occurred at this time. Other narrow years are associated with frost rings observed in California bristlecone pines and with eruptions of Icelandic (Hekla 3 in 1159 BC) and Aegean (Santorini in 1628 BC) volcanoes. Baillie,Nature, 3/24/88

#19. Sacred Woods and the Lore of Trees

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3190 BC: Global; Heckla eruption, Iceland

Heckla eruption: 4570 BP-1950+570= 3190 BC

#20.

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3160 BC: California; Sunnyvale girl

Skull, Sunnyvale girl: 4500 bp-1950+570=3120 BC; corrected 8/8/96 at Ken Lajoie's office:: 4460-1950+650=3160 BC

#23.

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3150 BC: Global; Sulphate spike

Sulphate spike in Greenland GISP2 core.

#87.

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3150 BC: Turkey; Lake Van Oscillation

Abrupt change in sedimentation rate of Lake Van in Turkey indicative of rapid climatic fluctuation at (varve) dates of 5200 BP (3150 BC) (Palaeo, 122 (1996) p 107)

#58.

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3150 BC: Global; Paleoclimatic flood, global

Climatic conditions at time of Mesopotamian flood, from several scientific sources of paleoclimatic data. See here.

#21.

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3150 BC: Greenland; Camp Century, Greenland

Camp Century ice core acidity peak 3150 BC

#22.

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3150 BC: USA, SW; SW US flood peak

3000 SW US flood peak. According to Victor Baker of the University of Arizona, a period of flooding began in the southwest starting at about 5000 BP and ending at 3600 BP, with a sharp peak at about 4400 BP. (Starts at 3500 BC and peaks at 3150 BC)

#43.

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3150 BC: Ireland; Irish elm decline

Decline, 4000 to 3250 BC

#170. Iceman

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3150 BC: Europe; Iceman of the Alps

On September 19, 1991, two German hikers, Helmut and Erika Simon, noticed what appeared to be a body sticking out of the glacial ice at an altitude of 3200 meters in the Alps -- just over the border in Italy, as it would later turn out. Within a few days the find had attracted the attention of scientists as well as police authoriries and the corpse was hacked from the pocket of ice where it had been frozen, some considerable time before, as it turns out, for among the items the frozen man had been carrying were a copper axe and 14 arrows, and a dagger, all of apparent neolithic style. Radiocarbon dating of bits of tissue and bone yileded dates of 4525 and 4575 BP, or 3150 B,c with subsequent dating of grass from the man,s boots dated at another lab within a few years of the body. Among the many mysteries that surrounded the find was the fact taht the body was naked and apparently mummified. Clothing was found nearby, and it has been surmised taht the man may have have died of hypothermia, it being known that those suffering from this condition often remove all their clothing as death approaches. As for the mummification, it was suggested taht the man may have been dried by the autumn dry winds, the foehn, that affect the Alps, though rarely at this altitude. A further mystery was the absense of genitals, a fact that once released seemed to give rise to lurid rumors, one of which, perpetrated by some a British magazine aimed at homosexual readership..., was that the corpse's anl passage contained sperm, and that this "fact" was being suppressed by the scientists conducting the investigations. Mean while, lawyers, diplomats, scientiests, and the media were engaged in a dispute over the ownership of the body and it's associated artifacts, with the Italians claiming that the Austrians had kidnapped the body from italian terrritory. "Sometimes i think," said the weary rector of Innsbruck University, were the iceman was being kept under refrigeration pending resolution of disputes, "Lets get a shovel, and then we can bury him again. (1992 Horizon/Nova documentary; Nature, 4 March 1993.)

#17.

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3150 BC: Mesopotamia; The Flood

The Flood 3150 BC(?). Abrupt cooling at higher latitudes, possibly related to oceanic effects, especially in Northern Europe, corresponding to peak of megalith cultures. Probable oscillation in sea level shortly before 3000 BC followed by 10-15 ft. alluvial deposition in river valleys.

#486.

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3113 BC: Mexico; Mayan recreation

Last Mayan date of recreation of the world following The Flood , Aug 12, 3113 BC.

#24.

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3110 BC: China; Yangtze River

Dating of sediments in the Yangtze river delts suggests a sedimentation rate so high between 5060 and 4460 BP, accompanied by a major change of flow into a new subdelta, and followed by a period of deep water with clay deposition, that the authors are inclined to think that their date of 4460 BP must be mistaken. (Kam-biu Liu, Quat Res 1992)

#25.

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3100 BC: Boston; Sticks from fish wier

Sticks from Boston"s submerged "fish Weir" carbon dated at 4450, 4860, and 4800 years BP. This fixed the weir construction date at a little earlier than 3000 B.C. . It showed that the wattles from the famous fish weir had been carbon dated at 4800 years BP 4500 BP, altitude -27 MHW when sea level was -19 MHW or 14 ft below present sea level. Other dates 4450, 4860 BP.: "When sound wood is permanently submerged in fresh, brackish, or salt water or is buried at some depth in sand, gravel, clay, mud, or silt, the rate of decomposition is in general relatively slow," First as to sea level, the top of the 3 foot high weir was noted to be at 12 feet 10.9 inches below present sea level. Allowing for subsidence due to the 18 feet of fill that had been placed in Back Bay in the nineteenth century, (18 x 40 = 720 = 12") and assuming that the top of the weir was at mean sea level, mean sea level at the time would have been 17 feet 6 inches below present. (This might be on the high side since rebound of the earth"s crust has also occurred in the Boston area). A study of pollen analysis of the organic peat at the site by the great palynologist Arthur Knox show a significant absence of hemlock pollen at the weir level, (only one of 144 specimens of wood extracted from the weir proved to be Tsuga (anadiensis)) and a sequence of botanical changes correlative with pollen profiles in the nearby Wellington Marsh, which in combination suggest that the weir "was in use during a long dry period during which the Wellington Marsh in nearby Medford gradually dried up until shrubs and possibly trees began to grow upon the surface. This period of dryness was apparently terminated rather suddenly by an increase in rainfall and which occurred about the time the Fishweir was abandoned." The balmy period had lasted, the scholars concurred, from about 7000 to 5000 years before the present. At the time the experts concluded that the fishweir had been in use up about 1500 B.C.; though it was later shown that this date was much to recent. Curious too, the conditions that prevailed during the use of the weir, which had been covered with oysters, there prevailed a golden age in which the climate was as mild and balmy as Chesapeake Bay, an era of abundance abruptly terminated by a change in climate to wet, stormy, and colder conditions. The picture that emerged was this - a farflung community of native Americans existing for two thousand balmy years on the edge of a freshly flooded bay of

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3100 BC: Nebraska; Republican River,

The Republican River in Nebraska shows a period of rapid downcutting dated at about 4500 BP, attributed to moister conditions.

#31.

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3100 BC: USA; End of alluvial period

End of alluvial period; From 6000 to 4500 BP there is a period of active alluviation in many parts of the US. Wetter conditions improved vegetal cover and resutled in less sediment yield and consequent downcutting

#29.

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3100 BC: ; Sticks in Boston

#141.

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3100 BC: Egypt; Egypt, Unification

Egypt, Unification

#26. Pharaoh's Heart

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3100 BC: Greenland; GISP ice core

3100 BC rapid climatic change shown on GISP ice core. Science 12/22/95.

#62.

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3100 BC: Europe; Stonehenge (start)

Earliest c14 dates on digging implemts at Stonehenge

#27.

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3100 BC: California; Sierra cooling

Cooling 4500 BP. In the California Sierra, warm temperatures from 7350 to 6000 BP are giving way to cooling with lake leves returning to the highs of early Holocene.

#28.

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3090 BC: Egypt; Egypt, Nile

Earliest recorded flood recorded on a "Nilometer" in 3090 BC during the riegn of King Djer of the Early Dynastid period.

#33.

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3075 BC: Ireland; Newgrange Megalithic Tomb

Newgrange Megalithic Tomb 4425+/- 45 BP; 4415+/- 40 BP burnt soil from roof caulking of Newgrange; 4480+/- 60 BP vegetation from turf beneath main monument; 4399+/- 67 BP from site 16 near Knowth tomb site (O'Kelly, Early Ireland). (BP = uncalibrated radiocarbon date.)

#82. Geniet: Knowth

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3075 BC: Ireland; Newgrange Megalithic Tomb

Newgrange Megalithic Tomb radiocarbon dates

#164.

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3050 BC: Europe; Brittany coast emerges

Brittany coast emerges

#35.

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3050 BC: Canada; Devon Island

3050 Maximum oxygen 18 ratio for ice core taken from Devon Island ice cap in arctic Canada (Science aug 19 1994 p1060)

#34.

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3050 BC: Greenland; Methane peak,

Methane peak See 3020 BC: ; The Skull

A human skull found in a California creek may tell us the story of the biblical flood

#127.

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3020 BC: California; Stanford Man II

Stanford Man: 4350-1950+570= 2970 BC or

#37.

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3001 BC: Israel; Mt. Sedom

Israel's Mt. Sedom is a salt diapir and changes in precipitation on the mountain can be measured by observing the width of caves formed by salt dissolution. The cave widths can in turn be compared with glacial advances (bigger caves = more rain = more glaciers) and with sea levels of the Dead Sea. The largest - by far - increase in cave. Mount Sedom-- otherwise known as Mt. Sodom, said to be the site of the famous biblical event -- is a salt formation ( a diapir) bordering on the Dead Sea. Recent studies by Amos Nur at Stanford University suggest that the area was affected by an earthquake in xxx BC. This seems to correspond witht he biblical event. Changes in precipitation on the mountain can be measured by observing the width of caves formed by salt dissolution. The cave widths can in turn be compared with glacial advances (bigger caves = more rain = more glaciers) and with sea levels of the Dead Sea. The Wide caves on the face of the "mountain" located some 300 feet above the present sea level indicate an extremely wet period a millenium before this, in the early xxx age. Oak twigs and driftwood found in the caves must have been transported by floodwaters from some other part of the shore many miles away since oak trees do not grow in salt. Evidently the water level was some 300 feet higher at this time, implying heavy flooding on the Jordon River and lower evaporation rates due to cooler weather. No other event in the last ten thousand years matches this. The oak twigs have been dated by radiocarbon technique at 4350 + or - 75 RCYBP. Frumkin, A., The Holocene climatic record...1991 The Holocene 1, 3 pp. 191-200.

#42.

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3000 BC: Oregon; Diamond Pond,

3000 climate of the great basin, eastern Oregon. "By 4400 BP the water table was within 10 m of its present level. Rising water table at Diamond Pond suggests that midHolocene drought had given way to effectively moister conditions. Resultant higher regional water tables would enable the Malheur Marshes to expand into areas formerly occupoed by greasewood. This, together with the invasion of other saltbush and sagebrush communities into the upper reaches of greasewood-dominated areas, may explain the sudden drop in Sarcobatus pollen values." Peter Wigand, "Diamond Pond, Harney County, Oregon. Vegetation History and Water Table in the Eastern Oregon Desert." Great Basin Naturalist, 47(3):427-458 (1987)

#38. The Paleolimnology Home Page

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3000 BC: Jordon; Jawa: Lost City of the Black Desert

The desert ruins of Jawa, best preserved of the Near Eastern Bronze Age cities, date to about 3000 BC when the rainfall was higher in the region.

#485.

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3000 BC: Europe; Carnac Megaliths

Carnac Musee de Prehistoire. Aubrey Burl, archeologist. NYT 7/14/96

#57.

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3000 BC: California; Bristlecone pines

Coldest time (bristlecone pines)

#40.

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3000 BC: Louisiana; Native American mounds

Native American built mounds at Baton Rouge (Louisiana State University), nearby Mount Sano, and Frenchman's Bend, at Stelly, in South central Louisiana; coastal sites including Banana Bayou and Avery Island, date at 3000 BC to 2500 BC. Joe Saaunders, Jon Gibson, Northeast La State Unive. Roger Kennedy, Hidden Cities.

#54.

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3000 BC: Global; Radiocarbon base has tripled

Wendland and Bryce report that the radiocarbon base has tripled since their 1974 study. Wendland now places discontinuities in the years 4200 and 4800 rcbp (very close to the 4150, 4500, and 4750 of the original paper). Volcanic eruptions are at 4450 and 4700 BP. Statistical studies of climate and cultural discontinuities show a minor botanical and cultural discontinuity at 4240 and 4230 BP respectively

#44.

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3000 BC: USA, W; General wetting Western U.S

Transition at 3000 BC from early to middle Holocene, general wetting and deposition of alluvium in Western U.S.

#46.

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3000 BC: Mesopotamia; Natural Catastrophes during Bronze Age

http://www.knowledge.co.uk/xxx/cat/sis/cambconf.htm Natural Catastrophes during Bronze Age Civilisations: Archaeological, Geological and Astronomical Perspectives.(Upcoming Conference) See also Exploring the role of catastrophe in the recent history of the solar system and in the formative phases of ncient civilizations PLACE: Red Lion Hotel-Jantzen Beach, Portland, Oregon DATES: January 3-5, 1997

#67. SIS

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3000 BC: Europe; Wooden tracks

3000 In England, wooden tracks are built across marshy areas to maintain communications and travel; 3500-2500 BC

#41.

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3000 BC: Israel; Ancient Egyptians in Palestine

Tomb in northern Negev desert reveals skeleton of a young woman indicating presence of ancient Egyptians at Halif Terrace in ancient Palestine around 3000 BC. Thoms Levy UC San Diego. Science 10/18/96 p 349.

#56.

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3000 BC: Wyoming; Ancient French Trapper

George Gill of University of Wyoming discovers a 5000 yr old skeleton in Great Plains, exhibiting a skull that has teeth and shape "like a French trapper." (Economist, 10/19/96 p 84)

#55.

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3000 BC: Mesopotamia; Sumerians in Mesopotamia

3000 Sumerians in Mesopotamia By late fourthmillenium a network of Sumerian towns has developed in lower Mesopotamia of which perhaps the best known is Uruk, some xx northwest of Ur, though even the detailed excavations by German archeologists of the temple of Anu and the nearby Eanna complex in the xxx did not extend any deeper than 3500 B,c or roughly to the level of the flood. The city of Susa, xxx miles east on the foothills of the Zagros Mountains (now Iran) was the center of the Elamite civilization which was generally at war with the Sumerian valley occupants. The first known written documents appear at Uruk's Level IV along with representations of priestly figures. Absence of ideograms associated with war, king, and palace along with other evidence suggest a democratic and peaceable society engaged in trade to cities in the upper Euphrates, enjoying the pleasures of beer, fish, and sex, advised by sages and teachers and making exquisite pottery and engaging in diplomacy with neighboring cities. Evidently this changed sometime around 3000 BC with the arrival of strong social stratification, kings, and armies. Sumerians have moved from Eastern Anatolia bringing a new language and advanced culture to the existing Ubaidian peoples who have already started developing population centres in the lower Tigris Euphrates.

#39. Rise and Fall of Ancient Sumer

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3000 BC: Global; Sea level stillstands

Stillstands (such as we have experienced for the past millenium)or reversals of sea level rise produce seaward delta buildup and static cortemporarily lowered groundwater levels, leading to desiccation and subaerial weathering with profiles, often littered with cultural remains, inlower river valleys as shown in the lower Rhine-Meuse delta profiles below. Our late holocene civilization is currently producing such a soil horizon. Many lower river valleys such as the Rhine show a depositional surface at about 15 ft depth corresponding to the probable profile of thelower Rhine valley at about 3000 BC.

#71.

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3000 BC: Egypt; Sumerian influences on Egypt

Sumerian influences on Egypt at 3000 BC http://marlowe.wimsey.com/~rshand/streams/scripts/influence.html

#66. Sumerian Influence on EgyptSumerian

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3000 BC: China; Tibet, Sumxi Lake

In Tibet, Sumxi Lake rose during a wet period at about 5000 BP then, experiencing an "abrupt disequilibrium," fell into a great drought in 4300 BP (The Holocene, June 1993)

#48.

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3000 BC: Peru; Onset of ENSO

5000 yrs B.P. Onset of ENSO in Peru following 3000 yrs of warm stable climate. Science 9/13/96 p 1531. Probable world-wide beginning of climatic irregularity. (e.g. california, Africa, etc.)

#59.

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3000 BC: California; California hunter-gath transition

Hunter-gath transition

#45.

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3000 BC: Sahara; Canoes and elephants

In prehistory the Sahara was different, raining all the time, full of canoes and elephants, Lake Chad one hundred feet higher. For12000 years the desert had supported game allowing hunting andherding or nomadic pastoralism but then the land began to dry up. One reference says that between 6000 and 4000 BC the Nile hadbeen subject to flooding and lake leves at Fayum were high untila drier period at about 3500 BC followed by a wet spike at about3200 BC. This is supposed to be at the time corresponding to the predynastic Nagada (Naqadah?) cultures (Brewer, D.J. TheHolocene, 1992) .

#72.

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2970 BC: Europe; Floods in Netherlands

Floods in the Southern Netherlands a series of inundations occur 4,350 to 4,075 years BP corresponding an alteration of wet and dry periods (Beyens 1982)

#47.

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2900 BC: Mesopotamia; Mesopotamian flood

2900 Sir Max Mallowan, successor to Leonard Woolley, estimates date of Mesopotamian flood at 2900 BC using Sumerian King list. However many will dismiss the idea of there ever having been a single flood and assign dates hundreds of years apart for various "flood layers" in different tells..

#49.

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2900 BC: Global; Huang Ho River

First recorded Huang Ho River flood in 4275 BP Ward, 1978, "Floods, a geographical perspective."

#50.

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2800 BC: Mesopotamia; The Flood and Noah's Ark

2800 Andre Parrot in his 1954 book "The Flood and Noah"s Ark" indicates significant flood deposits at Kish, Shuurupak, Uruk, and Lagash centering on about 2800 B.C.

#52.

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2800 BC: California; Summer warming,

2800 Sudden summer warming, bristle cone pine tree rings.

#51.

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2700 BC: Nevada; Woodrat midden,

2700 Nevada; return of moisture brings first Woodrat midden in 3000 yrs at the mother of all woodrat nests, dated 4070 BP, evidently following great basin drought. Mono lake and juniper expansion between 4000-5000 BP

#63.

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2700 BC: Mesopotamia; Gilgamesh, king of Uruk

Gilgamesh, king of Uruk; general agreement among Mesopotamian scholars

#53. Internet Mesopotamian Resources

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BC: ; Sodom

#140.

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BC: Mesopotamia; Woolley and the Biblical Flood

#135.

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BC: ; Mayan Chronology

#139.

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BC: ; Chronology of the Biblical Age

#136.

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BC: ; Woolley and the Biblical Flood

#122.

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BC: ; The Biblical Noah

They called him Noah in the bible, but around Mesopotamia he was another man

#138.

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BC: ; Pliny

#91.

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BC: ; Flood, Creationism, and Historiography

#137.

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BC: ; Methane

#145.

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BC: ; Paleoclimate Data Page

#146.

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BC: ; San Francisquito Geology

#151.

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BC: ; River development

#155.

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BC: ; Dead Sea and the Bronze Age

#143.

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BC: Mesopotamia; Tigris and Euphrates alluvial plain

At about 3500 BC the lower Tigris and Euphrates alluvial plain was under extreme pressure

#166.

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BC: ; New Data from Peru

#153.

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BC: ; Iceman of the Alps

#148.

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BC: ; Sulphate spike

Sulphate spike in Greenland GISP2 core.

#169.

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BC: ; South Carolina sea level

A recent sea level curve from South Carolina

#161.

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BC: ; Fiji sea level

A recent sea level curve from Fiji suggest a 1 meter drop between 3500 and 3000 BC. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Pub. 27, p. 313. (fiji.html)

#159.

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BC: ; Dodona

#97.

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BC: ; Sealevel, late Holocene

#156.

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BC: Mesopotamia; Mesopotamia Then and Now

#123.

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BC: ; Saddam and Gilgamesh

#94.

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BC: ;

#326.