In this and the next chapter, I will focus on finding the most ancient resets to validate the theory about their cyclical occurrence. These two chapters are not necessary to understand the subject, so if you have little time now, you can save them for later and continue now with chapter 12.
Sources: I drew information for this chapter from Wikipedia (4.2-kiloyear event) and other sources.
In the previous chapters I presented five resets from the last 3 thousand years and showed that their years perfectly matches the cycle of resets determined by the alignment of the planets. It is not possible for this to be just a random coincidence. Logically, the existence of the cycle is certain. Nevertheless, it can not hurt to look even deeper into the past to check whether there were resets in the most ancient times as well, and whether the years of their occurrence confirm the existence of the 676-year cycle of resets. I would rather make extra sure that the next reset is indeed coming than make a mistake and scare you unnecessarily. I have created a table showing the years in which the resets should occur. It covers a period of the last 10 thousand years, which means we will be digging into history very deeply!
Unfortunately, the further into the past, the harder it is to find traces of natural disasters. In prehistory, people did not use writing, so they left us no records and past catastrophes have been forgotten. The earliest recorded earthquake dates back to the second millennium BC. There must have been earthquakes earlier, too, but they were not recorded. A few thousand years ago, there were far fewer people living on Earth – anywhere from a few million to tens of millions, depending on the time period. So even if there was a plague, it was unlikely to spread across the world because of the low population density. In turn, volcanic eruptions from that period are dated with an accuracy of about 100 years, which is too imprecise to help in finding the years of the resets. Information from thousands of years ago is sparse and inaccurate, but I think there is one way to find past resets, or at least the biggest ones. The most intense global cataclysms cause prolonged periods of cooling and drought, that leave permanent geological traces. From these traces, geologists can pinpoint the years of the anomalies, even if they date back thousands of years. These climatic anomalies make it possible to find the most powerful resets. I managed to find the five biggest natural disasters from several thousand years ago. We will check if any of them fell near the years indicated in the table.
Cycle variability
The last reset I have described was the Late Bronze Age collapse of 1095 BC. This was the only global cataclysm in the second millennium BC (2000–1000 BC). While the table gives 1770 BC as the date for a possible reset, there are no signs of any major cataclysms in that year. There may have been a weak reset here, but records of it have not survived. The next global cataclysm occurs only in the third millennium, not far from the year 2186 BC given in the table. However, before we see what happened then, I will first explain why there was no reset in 1770 BC.
The ancient Americans defined the duration of the 52-year cycle as 52 years of 365 days, or exactly 18980 days. I suppose this is the period when Saturn’s magnetic poles cyclically reverse. Although the cycle recurs with remarkable regularity, sometimes it can be a little shorter and sometimes a little longer. I think the variation can be 30 days at most, but is usually less than a few days. Compared to the duration of the cycle, this is a microscopic variation. The cycle is very precise, but at the same time it is very delicate. While the difference is small, it accumulates with each successive cycle. Over the millennia, the actual state begins to deviate from the theory. After many runs of the cycle, the differences become large enough that the actual discrepancy between the 52-year and 20-year cycles will be slightly different from the table’s indication.
The year 1770 BC is the 73rd consecutive run of the 52-year cycle, counting from the beginning of the table. If each of these 73 cycles were extended by only 4 days (so that it lasted 18984 days instead of 18980 days), then the cycle discrepancy would change so much that the reset in 1770 BC would not be as strong as indicated in the table. However, the reset in 2186 BC would be powerful.
If we assume that the 52-year cycle was on average 4 days longer than indicated in the table, then the reset in 2186 BC should not only be stronger, but should also occur a little later. From these additional 4 days, after 81 passes of the cycle, a total of 324 days are accumulated. This shifts the date of the reset by almost a year. It will not take place in 2186 BC, but in 2187 BC. The middle of the reset in this case would be early in that year (about January). And since a reset always lasts for about 2 years, then it should last roughly from the beginning of the year 2188 BC to the end of 2187 BC. And it is in these years that a reset should be expected. Whether there was a reset then, we will check in a moment.
There is one more thing that is worth noting. If we look at the table, we see that resets of similar magnitude repeat every 3118 years. This is theoretically the case, but due to the variability of the 52-year cycle, resets are actually not that regular. The table shows that the reset in 2024 will be as strong as the reset in 1095 BC. I think you should not be guided by this. It seems to me that the discrepancy in 1095 BC was actually somewhat larger than the table indicates, and that the reset did not have the maximum intensity. Therefore, it is possible that the reset in 2024 will be even more violent than the one in the Late Bronze Age.
Early Bronze Age collapse
Now we focus on one of the most important events in human history, 4.2 kilo-year event, when great civilizations around the world plunged into anarchy and social chaos. There is widespread geological evidence for abrupt climatic downturn around 2200 BC, that is, at the end of the Early Bronze Age. The climatic event is referred to as the 4.2 kilo-year BP event. It was one of the most severe drought periods of the Holocene epoch, that lasted about two hundred years. The anomaly was so severe that it defined a boundary between two geological ages of the Holocene – the Northgrippian and the Meghalayan (the present age). It is believed to have resulted in the collapse of the Old Kingdom of Egypt, the Akkadian Empire in Mesopotamia, and the Liangzhu culture in the lower Yangtze River area of China. The drought may also have initiated the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilization and the migration of its people to the southeast in search of habitat suitable for living, as well as the migration of the Indo-European peoples to India. In western Palestine, the entire urban culture collapsed within a short time, to be replaced by a totally different, non-urban culture that lasted for about three hundred years.(ref.) The end of the Early Bronze Age was catastrophic, bringing the destruction of cities, widespread impoverishment, a dramatic decline in population, abandonment of large regions which were normally capable of supporting considerable populations by either agriculture or grazing, and the dispersal of population into areas that had previously been wilderness.
4.2 kilo-year BP climatic event takes its name from the time of its occurrence. The International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) sets the year of this event at 4.2 thousand years BP (before the present). It is worth explaining here what exactly acronym BP means. BP is a system of counting years used in geology and archeology. It was introduced around 1950, so the year 1950 was adopted as the „present”. So, for example, 100 BP corresponds to 1850 AD. When converting years prior to the common era, an additional 1 year must be subtracted because there was no year zero. To convert a year BP to a year BC, one must subtract 1949 from it. So the official year of the 4.2 kilo-year event (4200 BP) is 2251 BC. In Wikipedia we can also find an alternative year for this event – 2190 BC – determined by the latest dendrochronological studies.(ref.) At the end of this chapter I will examine which of these datings is more reliable and what is the reason for such large differences between them.
Drought
A phase of intense aridity about 4.2 kilo-year BP was recorded across North Africa, the Middle East, the Red Sea, the Arabian Peninsula, the Indian subcontinent, and central North America. In the eastern Mediterranean region, an exceptionally arid climate began abruptly around 2200 BC, as indicated by a 100-meter drop in the water level in the Dead Sea.(ref.) Areas such as the Dead Sea region and the Sahara, that were once settled or farmed, became deserts. Sediment cores from lakes and rivers in Europe, America, Asia, and Africa show a catastrophic drop in water levels at that time. The aridification of Mesopotamia may be related to the cooler sea surface temperatures in the North Atlantic. Modern analyzes show that anomalously cool surface of the polar Atlantic causes a large (50%) reduction in precipitation in the Tigris and Euphrates basins.
Between 2200 and 2150 BC, Egypt was hit by a mega-drought that resulted in a series of exceptionally low Nile floods. This may have caused a famine and contributed to the collapse of the Old Kingdom. The date for the collapse of the Old Kingdom is considered to be 2181 BC, but the chronology of Egypt at that time is highly uncertain. In fact, it could have been decades earlier or later. At the end of the Old Kingdom the pharaoh was Pepi II, whose reign is said to have lasted for as many as 94 years. Many historians believe that this length is exaggerated and that Pepi II actually reigned 20–30 years less. The date of the collapse of the Old Kingdom should then be shifted by the same period into the past.
Whatever the cause of the collapse was, it was followed by decades of famine and strife. In Egypt, the First Intermediate Period begins, that is, the period of the dark ages. This is a period about which little is known, as few records from that time have survived. The reason for this could be that the rulers in this period were not in the habit of writing about their failures. When things were going badly for them, they preferred to keep quiet about it. About the famine that prevailed throughout Egypt, we learn from a provincial governor who boasted that he had succeeded in providing food for his people during that difficult time. An important inscription on the tomb of Ankhtifi, a nomarch from the early First Intermediate Period, describes the wretched state of the country where a famine stalked the land. Ankhtifi writes about a famine so terrible that people were committing cannibalism.
All of Upper Egypt was dying of hunger, to such a degree that everyone had to eat his children, but I managed that no one died of hunger in this nome. I made a loan of grain to Upper Egypt … I kept alive the house of Elephantine during these years, after the towns of Hefat and Hormer had been satisfied … The entire country had become like a starved grasshopper, with people going to the north and to the south (in search of grain), but I never permitted it to happen that anyone had to embark from this to another nome.
Ankhtifi
The Akkadian Empire was the second civilization to subsume independent societies into a single empire (the first was ancient Egypt around 3100 BC). It is claimed that the collapse of the empire was influenced by a wide-ranging, centuries-long drought and a widespread famine. Archeological evidence documents the abandonment of the agricultural plains of northern Mesopotamia and a massive influx of refugees into southern Mesopotamia around 2170 BC. The collapse of the Akkadian Empire occurred about a hundred years after the onset of the climatic anomalies. The repopulation of the northern plains by smaller sedentary populations occurred only around 1900 BC, a few centuries after the collapse.
Prolonged absence of rains in Asia was linked to a general weakening of the monsoon. Acute water shortages in large areas triggered large-scale migrations and caused the collapse of sedentary urban cultures in Afghanistan, Iran, and India. Urban centers of the Indus Valley Civilization were abandoned and replaced by disparate local cultures.
Floods
Drought may have caused the collapse of Neolithic cultures in central China in the late 3rd millennium BC. At the same time, the middle reaches of the Yellow River experienced a series of extraordinary floods associated with the legendary figures of Emperors Yao and Yu the Great. In the Yishu River basin, the flourishing Longshan culture was affected by a cooling that greatly reduced rice harvest and led to a significant population decline. Around 2000 BC, the Longshan culture was displaced by the Yueshi, which had less numerous and less sophisticated artifacts of pottery and bronze.
(ref.)The legendary Great Flood of Gun-Yu was a major flood event in ancient China that is said to have lasted for at least two generations. The flood was so vast that no part of Emperor Yao’s territory was spared. It resulted in great population displacements that coincided with other disasters such as storms and famines. People left their homes to live on the high hills or in nests on the trees. This is reminiscent of the Aztec myth, which tells a similar story about a flood that lasted 52 years and that people lived in trees. According to Chinese mythological and historical sources, this flood is traditionally dated to the third millennium BC, during the reign of Emperor Yao. Modern astronomers largely confirm the date of around 2200 BC for Yao’s reign, based on the comparison of astronomical data from the myth with modern astronomical analyzes.
Earthquakes
(ref.)Claude Schaeffer, the most eminent French archeologist of the 20th century, presumed that the catastrophes which caused the end of civilizations in Eurasia originated in devastating earthquakes. He analyzed and compared the destruction layers of more than 40 archeological sites in the Near East, from Troy to Tepe Hissar on the Caspian Sea and from the Levant to Mesopotamia. He was the first scholar to detect that all these settlements had been completely destroyed or abandoned several times: in the Early, Middle, and Late Bronze Age; apparently simultaneously. Since the damage showed no signs of military involvement and in any case was too excessive and widespread, he argued that repeated earthquakes might have been the cause. He mentions that many sites show that the destruction was contemporaneous with climatic changes.
(ref.)Benny J. Peiser says that the majority of sites and cities of the first urban civilizations in Asia, Africa and Europe appear to have collapsed at around the same time. Most sites in Greece (~260), Anatolia (~350), the Levant (~200), Mesopotamia (~30), the Indian subcontinent (~230), China (~20), Persia/Afghanistan (~50), and Iberia (~70), which collapsed around 2200±200 BC, show unambiguous signs of natural disasters or rapid abandonment.
Pestilence
It turns out that even the plague did not spare people in those hard times. This is evidenced by the inscription of Naram-Sin, one of the rulers of that time. He was a ruler of the Akkadian Empire, who reigned about 2254–2218 BC by the middle chronology (or 2190–2154 by the short chronology). His inscription describes the conquest of the kingdom of Ebla, which was one of the earliest kingdoms in Syria and an important center throughout the 3rd millennium BC. The inscription shows that the conquest of this area was made possible with the help of the god Nergal. The Sumerians considered Nergal to be the god of pestilence and as such saw him as the god responsible for sending diseases and epidemics.
While, for all time since the creation of mankind, no king whosoever, had destroyed Armanum and Ebla, the god Nergal, by means of (his) weapons opened the way for Naram-Sin, the mighty, and gave him Armanum and Ebla. Further, he gave to him the Amanus, the Cedar Mountain, and the Upper Sea. By means of the weapons of the god Dagan, who magnifies his kingship, Naram-Sin, the mighty, conquered Armanum and Ebla.
God Nergal opened the way for the conquest of several cities and lands up to the „Upper Sea” (Mediterranean Sea). From this it follows that the plague must have devastated quite a large area. Then, the final blow was dealt by Dagan -the god responsible for the harvest. He probably took care of agriculture and grain. So, some time after the plague a poor harvest has come, probably caused by a drought. Interestingly, according to the correct chronology (short chronology), the reign of Naram-Sin coincides with the time when the reset should have occurred (2188–2187 BC).
Volcanoes
Some scientists have criticized the decision to consider the 4.2 kilo-year event as the beginning of a geological age, arguing that it was not a single event but several climatic anomalies erroneously treated as one. Such doubts may arise from the fact that several powerful volcanic eruptions occurred shortly before and after the reset, which had an additional significant impact on the climate. Volcanic eruptions leave very distinct traces in geology and dendrochronology, but do not lead to the collapse of civilization as do plagues and droughts.
There were three huge eruptions near the time of the reset:
– Cerro Blanco (Argentina; VEI-7; 170 km³) – I have previously determined that it erupted exactly in the year 2290 BC (short chronology), which is about a hundred years before the reset;
– Paektu Mountain (North Korea; VEI-7; 100 km³) – this eruption is dated to the year 2155±90 BC,(ref.) so it is possible that it happened during the reset;
– Deception Island (Antarctica; VEI-6/7; ca 100 km³) – this eruption is dated to 2030±125 BC, so it happened after the reset.
Dating of the event
The International Commission on Stratigraphy sets the date of the 4.2 kilo-year event at 4,200 years before 1950 AD, that is, 2251 BC. In one of the earlier chapters, I showed that the Bronze Age dates given by historians should be shifted by 64 years to convert them to the correct short chronology. Note that if we shift 2251 BC by 64 years, the year 2187 BC comes out, and this is exactly the year when the reset should occur!
Geologists determined the starting point of the 4.2 kilo-year event on the basis of differences in oxygen isotopes in a speleothem (shown in the picture) taken from a cave in northeastern India. Mawmluh Cave is one of the longest and deepest caves in India, and conditions there were suitable for preserving chemical traces of climate change. The oxygen isotope record from the speleothem demonstrates a significant weakening of the Asian summer monsoon. Geologists carefully selected a speleothem that preserved its chemical properties. Then they very carefully took a sample from a place that shows a change in the content of oxygen isotopes. Then they compared the content of oxygen isotope with its content in other objects whose age is known and has been previously determined by historians. However, they were not aware that the entire chronology of that period is shifted by 64 years. And that’s how the error in dating the 4.2 kilo-year event was made.
S. Helama and M. Oinonen (2019)(ref.) dated the 4.2 kilo-year event to 2190 BC based on tree-ring isotope chronology. The study shows an isotopic anomaly between 2190 and 1990 BC. This study indicates extremely overcast (wet) conditions in northern Europe, especially between 2190 and 2100 BC, with anomalous conditions sustaining until 1990 BC. The data not only show the precise dating and duration of the event, but also reveal its two-stage nature and highlight the greater magnitude of the earlier stage.
Dendrochronologists create a chronology by linking together samples from different trees that grew at the same time. Typically, they measure only the width of the tree rings to find similar sequences in two different wood samples. In this case, the researchers additionally determined the age of the samples using radiocarbon dating. This method made it possible to accurately date timbers with much fewer rings, which increased the accuracy of dendrochronological dating. The year of the event found by the researchers differs by only 2 years from the year in which a reset would be expected.
During the 4.2 kilo-year event, all types of disasters typical of a global cataclysm occurred. Again, there were earthquakes and plague, as well as sudden and drastic climatic anomalies. The anomalies persisted for two hundred years and manifested themselves in some places as mega-drought, and in others as heavy rains and floods. All this again led to mass migrations and the collapse of civilization. Then came the dark ages again, that is, the time when history breaks. This reset was so powerful that it marked the boundary of the geological ages! In my opinion, this fact shows that the reset of 4.2 thousand years ago was probably the most severe reset in history, surpassing all those previously described.