ORGANIZATION OF MYTHOLOGY (EYE-WITNESS) EVIDENCE
Chapters 21 to 46, contained in Volumes 2 and 3, constitute a critical part of the book – the eye-witness accounts of what happened at 2300 BC.
Volume 1 has described intense geophysical transients, climatic changes and cultural disruptions. A specific meteoroid stream is identified based on annual commemorations being held, and evidence is presented that the encounter with the meteoroid stream could have caused the reported physical occurrences. This still has to be considered circumstantial evidence – we need descriptions of the event from people who were there. We have it in the form of mythology.
The people, in the face of a devastating situation, turned to the gods. Limited information exists on gods and religions existing before 2300 BC, but there is strong evidence of religions starting at that time. There were two reasons for the creation of religions – one, to attempt to explain what had happened; and two, to attempt to gain the support of the gods so that it wouldn’t happen again.
The dominant component of the religions, as it is with any religion, is the mythology. Religions fade away, but the mythologies of the religions survive long afterward. The surviving mythologies provide us with a glimpse into the original religions.
The mythology pattern presented in the book is not particularly believable. It involves a massive rain of thunderbolts together with water from the sky. Oh yes, one other thing – as part of this circus, a ring is formed around the Earth for a short time.
The whole idea is, of course, far-fetched in the extreme – except for three things. First, essentially all existing mythology can be shown to be relevant to the event – this is not a case of using only that material that helps my particular notion. Second, all the mythologies from various cultural areas that can be dated, and there are a sizeable number of them, can be shown to be dated to a specific time – 2300 BC. This puts the mythologies into the category of eye-witness reports of a specific event on the time track. Third, the densely clustered meteoroid stream that the Earth encountered can be shown to have existed at the stated time of the encounter in the mythologies. It is rated as the dominant stream in the Solar System.
Chapters 21 and 22 establish a basis for the following mythology material.
Chapter 21 The Dating of the Mythology Appearances This chapter establishes the most important evidence – the mythologies first appearing at the time of the encounter at 2300 BC. The dating took many forms – documents generated by the advanced cultures, histories in which deities were converted into individuals, linguistic links between different cultures, geological occurrences, and astronomical relationships. This is supported in later chapters by individual reports of specific deities initially appearing at 2300 BC.
Chapter 22 The Ring Formed Around the Earth This is a key chapter in that it presents a potentially viable physical explanation for the formation of a ring surrounding the Earth. The mythology describing the ring is worthless without an explanation of the possible physical generation of the ring. The chapter also discusses visual features of the ring, impacting on later mythological interpretations.
The final step is the description of the mythology itself. I had considerable difficulty with the organization of the mythology, because of the interlinked relationships. The approach that I finally selected was to start with basic elements, gradually building up the story by adding new facets. The description is contained in Chapters 23 to 46.
Each chapter is organized in identical order by seventeen cultural regions. The first two, the Middle East and Egypt, are the most important since they had writing at 2300 BC, and were able to directly describe the event. The next two, India and Iran, although not having writing at that time, had excellent oral transmission, so that their descriptions are the most graphic of any of the cultures. Britain and China are next, since their historical records indicate a 2300 BC date. The next cultural areas are Greece, the Hebrews, Scandinavia, Europe and the Pacific Ocean – they can be linked to this time period by archaeological or geological evidence. The last areas are North America, Mexico, Central America, Peru/South America, Japan and Africa. This last group has no apparent dating references but offers significant contributions to the general patterns. At the end of each of the chapters, a table demonstrates the considerable contribution of each of the seventeen cultures to that particular facet of the mythology.
Surprisingly, most of the mythologies describe the ring around the Earth, with the meteoroid bombardment and flooding coming in second. One could speculate on the reason for this – the bombardment and flooding occurred for a short time while the ring was relatively long-lasting. In the book, the ring is addressed first in the majority of chapters, and then later combined with the other phenomena.
Chapters 23 to 25 describe the main manifestations or interpretations of the ring surrounding the Earth in the mythologies. The three chapters introduce the observed ring as encircling waters, mountains and serpents respectively.
Chapter 23 The Stream Surrounding the Earth The unevenness of the material moving in the ring, the ice particles making up the total debris, and the reflection of sunlight gave a strong impression of moving water.
Chapter 24 The Mountain of the North The surrounding mountains are described as resting on the waters, carrying the waters, and containing waters, thus showing a strong relationship between the two concepts.
Chapter 25 The Encircling Serpent The serpents complete the pattern by resting on mountains, and being closely associated with water. Ten of the seventeen cultural mythologies report the encircling serpent holding its tail in its mouth.
Chapter 26 is an interruption in the mythology flow.
Chapter 26 The Circular Monuments Large circular monuments were constructed at 2300 BC, typified by the British Stonehenge. The circles are located both in the Old World and New World. Their construction has been pretty much of a mystery in terms of motivation. It isn't that much of a mystery if the circles on the Earth mirrored the circle in the sky.
The descriptions of the ring continue with chapters 27 through 42. The ring was imagined as many things.
Chapter 27 The Horns of the Gods The observed width of the ring is widest overhead and decreases toward the horizon, thus giving the appearance of horns.
Chapter 28 The Chariots of the Sun Curiously, in a number of cases, the ring was visualized as a single chariot wheel.
Chapter 29 The Measurers of Time The ring traveled across the sky with the stars, and circled the Earth in a 24-hour period.
Chapter 30 The Watchful Eyes Watching is what gods are expected to do.
Chapter 31 Paradise and the Path of the Dead The ends of the ring at the horizon are seen to move on to the Underworld.
Chapter 32 The Spinners and Weavers The ring was inclined about 70 degrees from the equator, providing an oscillating motion to observers on the Earth. The back-and-forth movement of the ring in the sky is suggestive of a loom. Many goddesses associated with the event are shown sitting at a loom.
Chapter 33 The Bow Above the Flood The bow represented the weapon of the god, particularly if it was hung in the sky to signify that it would not hurl projectiles or cause floods in the future.
Chapter 34 The Supports of the Sky The over-reaching segment of the ring was thought to support the heavens.
Chapter 35 The Light and the Darkness The ring appeared differently during the day and at night – darkness and sunlight reflection moved along the ring with the changing position of the Sun. There are unusual descriptions of the ring, particularly at dawn just before the appearance of the Sun.
Chapter 36 The Separation of the Heavens and the Earth This separation is a recurring theme in the mythologies and could be related to the light and dark aspects of the ring.
Chapter 37 The Seven-Headed Serpent, the Seven-Branched Stream and the Seven-Peaked Mountain Rather than being a single ring, there actually were six to twelve rings observed in the sky, with seven being the number most often described in the mythologies. This chapter applies the multi-ring configuration to the earlier Chapters 23, 24 and 25. The myths of a multi-headed serpent are prevalent in the literature.
Chapter 38 The Celestial Seven-Branched Tree The World-tree is dominant in the mythologies -- it was sufficiently important to warrant its own chapter. Curiously, in a number of mythologies, the branches of the tree hung downward and the roots grew upward, reflecting the appearance of the multiple rings.
Chapter 39 The Flowing Hair The closely spaced rings changed their apparent position with respect to each other with time as the ring changed its aspect angle, thus appearing like waving hair.
Chapter 40 The Magicians, Tricksters, and Shape-Shifters This same effect of the multiple rings would appear as the ability of deities to change form.
Chapter 41 The Cross and the Movement of the Cross in the Sky The cross is never described in the mythologies as being directly observed in the skies. However, it is a dominant religious theme and deserves attention. The cross and its most frequently encountered variant, the swastika, are representative of the encircling ring. The bent ends of the swastika were originally curved, indicating the ring going under the Earth.
Chapter 42 The Double-Axe, the Thunderbolt, and the Sacred Cross The double-axe symbol is identified both with the thunderbolt (falling meteoroid) and lightning; and is closely linked to the cross.
The next four chapters describe the meteoroid fall and flash flooding, combined with the appearance of the ring. Surprisingly, although the experiences were awe-inspiring and cataclysmic, there is less mythology addressed to those aspects than to the appearance of the ring. Even so, there is sufficient material to provide assurance that they did occur.
Chapter 43 The Meteoroid Fall and the Flood The discussion starts with the physical aspects of both the meteoroid fall and the flash flooding, particularly with respect to their visual and sound effects on ground observers.
Chapter 44 The Total Scenario I: The Conflict with the Serpent The meteoroid fall is closely associated with a fight between the deity and a multi-headed serpent (represented by the multi-ring configuration around the Earth).
Chapter 45 The Total Scenario II: The Conflict with the Mountain and with the Waters Again, the close linkage between the waters, mountains and serpents comes to bear on the conflict associated with the meteoroid fall.
Chapter 46 The Total Scenario III: The Followers In a large number of mythologies, the deity has followers who are representations of the falling meteoroids.
The investigation involved many different fields of inquiry
Roadmaps are provided in the book to guide the reader through the different areas of evidence --
Archaeological and Geophysical
The Earth and its inhabitants were very different after 2300 BC --
Destruction, Deterioration and Disappearance
The mythology is a strong supporting element --
The Appearance of Mythology at 2300 BC
Nuts and Bolts