We are going back in time in search of another global catastrophes. Below, I present once again the table with the cycle of resets. According to the table, the divergence of the cycles in 2186 BC was 95.1%, indicating a possible weak reset. In fact, the reset in that year was very powerful, which means that the actual cycle of resets in that period differed slightly from the data in the table. The 676-year cycle indicates that the next reset was to occur in 2446 BC. However, because the cycle was shifted, the discrepancy in the year 2446 BC was not really 3.5% as indicated in the table, but must have been greater. So there should be no reset then and indeed there is no information about disasters in that year. Moving on, we come to the year 2862 BC. There was no global cataclysm here as well, although some information can be found that there were severe earthquakes in some places around that year. The next major cataclysm we have to search only in the earlier millennium.

Prehistory to history transition

The end of the fourth millennium BC is a turning point for humanity, when the era of prehistory ends and antiquity begins. It is also a time when global climatic anomalies occurred. Therefore, I think it is worth taking a closer look at what happened during this period. Keep in mind, however, that very little historical evidence from this period has survived. Let’s take a closer look at the year 3122 BC given in the table. The divergence of the cycles here is supposed to be 5.2%. This is quite a lot, but if the cycle has shifted a little, a reset may have occurred here. In that case, it would also have to start a little earlier than the table indicates. The period of cataclysms would have been here in the years 3122–3120 BC.

Global cataclysm

Studies of ice cores show that around 3250–3150 BC there was a sudden increase in the concentration of sulfur compounds in the air, with a concomitant decrease in methane concentration.^{(ref., ref.)} And the dendrochronological calendar shows a climatic shock beginning in 3197 BC. The tree rings recorded a 7-year period of severe weather conditions caused by an unknown cataclysm. It was the most severe anomaly in the entire fourth millennium BC. I believe that this year should be shifted forward 64 years, just as I have shifted other dates from this dendrochronological calendar. So it turns out that some great cataclysm took place in the year 3133 BC. This is very close to the year 3122 BC, which is given in the table as the year of a possible global cataclysm. It is possible that the dendrochronologists’ indications are wrong by these 11 years. After all, we know that in periods of climatic anomalies, trees can bear leaves and fruit twice a year. Gregory of Tours wrote that this was the case during the period of the Justinianic Plague. Under such conditions, trees also produce two rings per year, and this can result in an error in dendrochronological dating. There are several hypotheses about what could have caused this climatic shock. It may have been a volcanic eruption, although there is no known eruption that fits here in size and time. Many researchers of cataclysms are passionately looking for the impact of a large asteroid hitting the Earth at that time.

Abrupt climate change

At that time there is a sudden global cooling and drought. In paleoclimatology, this period is known as the Piora Oscillation. The phenomenon is named after the Piora Valley in Switzerland, where it was first detected. Some of the most dramatic evidence for the Piora Oscillation comes from the region of the Alps, where cooling caused the growth of glaciers. The duration of the Piora Oscillation is variously defined. Sometimes very narrowly, to the years around 3200–2900 BC,^(ref.) and sometimes much more broadly, from about 5.5 thousand years BP (3550 BC) or from about 5.9 thousand years BP (3950 BC). In fact, the entire fourth millennium BC was characterized by recurring periods of cold and drought. It is possible that each of these years had to do with resets, because also in 3537 and 3953 BC the discrepancy of the cycles was small and it is possible that there were resets then. Here I will focus only on the events related to the sudden climate change about 5.2 thousand years ago.

The 5.2 kilo-year BP event has been identified globally as a period of abrupt climate change. According to paleoclimatologists, it was caused by a prolonged positive phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation.^(ref.) The climate at that time was very similar to that of the 4.2 kilo-year event. There was frequent and heavy rainfall in Northern Europe. Surveys from western Ireland reveal evidence of an extreme climatic event, probably a series of storms, around 3250–3150 BC.^(ref.) This coincides with a series of effects from Switzerland to England to Greenland, that suggest changes in the Atlantic regime. In turn, there were droughts in the south. In Africa, recurring droughts have led to the formation of the Sahara Desert in areas that were once relatively humid and bustling with life. You can learn more about the green Sahara in this video: link.

The area of today’s Sahara was once covered by savannah with great lakes and numerous rivers. Many animals lived there: giraffes, lions, hippos, but also humans, which is proved by the rock paintings found in many places in the desert. They were left behind by people who formerly lived in this area. Until a few thousand years ago, the Sahara was a place suitable for living. However, successive waves of prolonged droughts recurring throughout the fourth millennium BC led to the formation of the desert. The areas of North Africa were no longer habitable. People were forced to look for a new place, somewhere near water. They began to migrate and settle near great rivers.

Great migrations and the rise of the first countries

Due to the gradual desertification of the Sahara, particularly during the 5.2 kilo-year event, people began to abandon nomadic lifestyle en masse and move to fertile regions such as the Nile Valley and Mesopotamia. The increase in population density in these places led to the emergence of the first urbanized, hierarchical societies. The first civilizations began to emerge in Egypt, north central China, on the coast of Peru, in the Indus Valley, Mesopotamia, and more broadly in Western Asia.^(ref.)

The history of ancient Egypt begins with the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt around 3150 BC.^(ref.) For centuries, Upper and Lower Egypt were two separate social and political entities. The historical record of the unification is murky and full of inconsistencies, half-truths, and legends. Most likely King Mena united the two territories, probably by military force.

In Mesopotamia, around 3150–3100 BC, the prehistoric Uruk culture collapses.^(ref.) Some commentators have associated the end of the Uruk period with the climatic changes linked to the Piora Oscillation. Another explanation given is the arrival of East Semitic tribes represented by the Kish civilization.^(ref.) So, as it was the case with other resets, climate change and migration contribute to the decline of cultures. By the 3rd millennium BC, urban centers in Mesopotamia had developed into increasingly complex societies. Irrigation and other means of exploiting food sources provided opportunities to amass large food surpluses. Political organization became increasingly sophisticated, and rulers began to undertake major building projects.^(ref.)

Around 3100 BC, writing was invented in Mesopotamia and Egypt. This event marks the boundary between prehistory and antiquity.^{(ref., ref.)} I believe that writing was invented just then, because that is when people began to need it. As they lived in larger and larger societies, they needed to write down various pieces of information, e.g. what belongs to whom.

The first monumental buildings were also erected during this period. Newgrange – a great corridor tomb in Ireland, dates back to ca 3200 BC.^(ref.) The earliest phase of the Stonehenge is dated to 3100 BC.^(ref.) This shows that also in the British Isles, a well-organized civilization emerged at the same time.

The year of the creation of the world

It is possible that all these great social changes were the result of a global cataclysm and subsequent climate change. Unfortunately, information from that period is imprecise, so it is not easy to determine the exact year of these events. The most reliable year is 3133 BC, given by dendrochronologists.

Mayan mythology may also help determine the year of the cataclysm. The Maya believed that before the present world there were three earlier ones. The first world was inhabited by dwarf creatures that resembled animals and could not speak. In the second world, people were made of mud, and in the third world, people were made of wood. As in Aztec mythology, here too all worlds ended in cataclysms. Next the present world was created. According to the Popol Vuh, a sacred book of the Maya, the first father and first mother created the Earth and formed the first humans from maize dough and water.

The Mayan Long Count calendar starts with the year of the creation of the world, which the Maya believe was 3114 BC. Interestingly, this is only a few years away from a possible reset in 3122–3120 BC! It is a very interesting coincidence that the Mayan era begins at the same time as the first countries in the Middle East are founded, although they developed independently.

The Maya also recorded the dates of some events before the present era. One of the inscriptions discovered in the temple at Palenque gives the date 12.19.11.13.0 (3122 BC) signed as: „Birth of First Father”.^{(ref., ref.)} Next to it there is the date: 12.19.13.4.0 (3121 BC) – „Birth of First Mother”. If we assume that the creators of the present world were born just after the destruction of the previous world, then the global cataclysm would occur in 3122–3121 BC, and this would be completely in line with the cycle of resets!

Although the information from the beginning of history is very vague and imprecise, I have found numerous evidence of a reset around 3121 BC. It is not known what exactly happened here, but probably there were all the disasters that we know from the previously described resets. Cataclysm researchers look for a large asteroid impact here, which I think is very likely. Certainly there was a sudden climate change again, resulting from a change in the circulation of the oceans and atmosphere. Due to the drought, the fertile areas where people led a peaceful and prosperous life disappeared. The time of great migrations was here again. People started gathering near rivers, where they founded the first countries. It seems that in this case the cataclysm contributed to the development of civilization. The era of prehistory ended and antiquity began.

Black Sea deluge

Sources: Written on the basis of a geological study – An abrupt drowning of the Black Sea shelf af 7.5 Kyr B.P, W.B.F. Ryan et al. (1997) (download pdf), as well as an article on this topic in New York Times, and other sources.

Thousands of years ago, there was a freshwater lake in the area of today’s Black Sea. It was separated from the Mediterranean Sea by a narrow isthmus, and the water level in the lake was about 150 meters below sea level. However, about 7,500 years ago, sea water suddenly broke through the isthmus. Great masses of water inundated vast areas, forming the Black Sea.

In 1997, an international team of geologists and oceanographers proposed a hypothesis of a catastrophic inflow of Mediterranean sea water into the Black Sea freshwater lake. This is the most approved scenario for the formation of the Black Sea. William Ryan and Walter Pitman of Columbia University and their colleagues have reconstructed the history of this catastrophic deluge from data gathered by a Russian research ship. Seismic soundings and sediment cores revealed traces of the lake’s former shorelines. Boreholes in the Kerch Strait unearthed coarse gravel with fluvial fauna at a depth of 62 meters in the bed of the ancient Don River, more than 200 km seaward of the present river mouth. Radiocarbon dating of the sediments determined a transition from freshwater to marine organisms around 7500 BP (5551 BC).

During the last glaciation, the Black Sea was a big freshwater lake. It was separated from the Mediterranean Sea only by a small isthmus over the today’s Bosporus Strait. The surface of the Mediterranean and the Sea of Marmara had gradually risen to a level some 150 meters (500 feet) above the level of the lake. Then sea water suddenly poured in through the Bosphorus. According to the researchers, 50 to 100 km³ (12–24 mi³) of water were cascading every day with a force 200 times mightier than that of Niagara Falls. Deep grooves in the Bosporus today seem to testify to the force of the roaring influx that changed the Black Sea forever. The speed of the water could have reached over 80 km/h (50 mph). The terrifying sound of rushing water could be heard from a distance of at least 100 km (60 mi). Dr. Pittman concluded that the lake’s surface must have been rising at the rate of 30 to 60 cm per day. The relentless water was encroaching on the land at a rate of half a mile to a mile per day. In less than a year, the Black Sea transformed from a freshwater landlocked lake into a sea connected to the world’s oceans, inundating former shores and river valleys far inland. More than 100,000 km² (39,000 mi²) of land was submerged, which essentially gave the body of water its today’s shape.

Dr. Ryan and Dr. Pittman postulate that this deluge had catastrophic consequences for people living on the Black Sea coast. They speculate that the people who were forced off their lands by the flood were partly responsible for the spread of farming into Europe and advances in agriculture and irrigation to the south, in Anatolia and Mesopotamia. These cultural changes occurred at about the same time as the rise of the Black Sea. Within the next 200 years, farming settlements began to appear for the first time in the river valleys and plains of central Europe.

The authors of the study suggest that the memory of the Black Sea deluge was passed down from generation to generation, after centuries finding its place in the Bible as Noah’s Flood. Some scientists disliked the mixing of religion and science, and raised strong criticisms. Some scientists disagree with the thesis that the creation of the sea was just at that time or that the deluge was so sudden and extensive. One of the authors of the study, W. Ryan addressed this issue once again in another study.^(ref.) He states that: „Common in the syntheses of different researchers is the distinction of a level around 7.5 thousand years ago that separates the marine stage of the Black Sea from the prior freshwater stage.” The researcher adds that the study of a core from the bottom of the Black Sea shows that about 8.8 thousand years ago the strontium content in the water increased, which means that even then water from the Mediterranean Sea overflowed into the lake in certain quantities. The core also shows that already 8.8 thousand years ago there were organisms characteristic for brackish water in the Black Sea, but only since 7.5 thousand years ago typically marine organisms live.

According to the table, the reset should occur in the year 5564 BC. After taking into account the cycle variation, it should probably be exactly in the years 5564–5563 BC. In the title of their study, the researchers put the date 7.5 kilo-year BP, which means that they date the deluge to around 5551 BC. This is very close to the year of the expected reset. The scientists relied on radiocarbon dating of the remains of mussels found in the seafloor layer from the time of the deluge. Dating of various specimens yielded the following results: 7470 BP, 7500 BP, 7510 BP, 7510 BP, and 7580 BP. The researchers calculated the average of these results, that is, 7514 BP, and then rounded it up to 7500 BP, which they included in the title of the study. However, it is worth noting that the result before rounding – 7514 BP (5565 BC) – almost perfectly matches the year given in the table! The difference is only one year! You can see that geologists’ dating can be very accurate if it is not based on the erroneous chronology established by historians (the middle and short chronologies are only for the Bronze Age). Another reset has been found!

It is worth considering what was the reason that sea water suddenly broke into the Black Sea lake, and why this happened exactly at the time of the reset. The Bosporus Strait is located in a seismic region, near the boundary of tectonic plates. I think there must have been an earthquake so strong that the tectonic plates moved apart, opening the strait and allowing the water to overflow. There were probably more different cataclysms at the time of this reset, but only the deluge was so great that its traces survived for thousands of years.

Greenlandian age to Northgrippian age transiton

Sources: Written based on Wikipedia (8.2-kiloyear event) and other sources.

Another reset emerges from history some 676 years before the Black Sea deluge. The table shows the year 6240 BC as the year of the next reset. But if we factor in the cycle variation, this reset should probably last from the second half of 6240 BC to the second half of 6238 BC. Around this time, a period of prolonged climate cooling and aridification suddenly begins again, which geologists call the 8.2 kilo-year event. It was an anomaly even more powerful than the 4.2 kilo-year event, and longer, as it lasted between 200 and 400 years. The 8.2 kilo-year event is also considered the boundary point between the two geological ages (Greenlandian and Northgrippian). The International Commission on Stratigraphy identifies the year of this climatic shock very precisely. By the ICS, the 8.2 kilo-year event began 8236 years before the year 2000,^(ref.) that is, in 6237 BC. That is only a year or two away from the year when a reset should have occurred! We are already very far back in history – more than 8 thousand years back, and the table’s indications are still amazingly accurate! Geologists also deserve credit for being able to date an event that occurred several thousand years ago with such great accuracy!

The effects of the sudden drop in temperature were felt all over the world but were most severe in the North Atlantic region. The disruption in climate is clearly visible in Greenland ice cores and in sedimentary records of the North Atlantic. Estimates of the climate cooling vary, but a decrease of 1 to 5 °C (1.8 to 9.0 °F) has been reported. Cores drilled into an ancient coral reef in Indonesia show a cooling of 3 °C (5.4 °F). In Greenland, the cooling was 3.3 °C in less than 20 years. The coldest period lasted for about 60 years.

Summer monsoons over the Arabian Sea and tropical Africa weakened dramatically.^(ref.) Drier conditions have been recorded in North Africa. East Africa was affected by five centuries of general drought. In West Asia, especially in Mesopotamia, the 8.2 kilo-year event manifested itself in a 300-year episode of drought and cooling. This may have led to the creation of Mesopotamian irrigation agriculture and surplus production, which were essential for the earliest formation of social classes and urban life. Reduced rainfall brought difficult times for farmers throughout the Near East. Many farming villages in Anatolia and along the Fertile Crescent were abandoned, while others dwindled. People were moving from the Near East to Europe about that time.^(ref.) In Tell Sabi Abyad (Syria), significant cultural changes are observed around 6200 BC, but the settlement was not abandoned.

We see that the same pattern repeats itself again. Suddenly and without warning, global cooling and droughts appear. People try to adapt to the changing conditions. Some people abandon the gathering lifestyle and turn to farming. In some regions, mass migrations of people occur again. In some places the archeological traces of the cultures of that time are lost, or we can say that the dark ages have come again.

According to scientists, this event may have been caused by the sudden influx of large amounts of fresh water into the Atlantic Ocean. As a result of the final collapse of the Laurentide Ice Sheet in North America, meltwater from the Ojibway and Agassiz lakes were to have drained into the ocean. The initial water pulse could have caused a sea level rise of 0.5 to 4 m and slow down the thermohaline circulation. This was to reduce heat transport northward across the Atlantic and cause significant cooling of the North Atlantic. The meltwater overflow hypothesis is, however, considered to be speculation due to its uncertain onset date and unknown area of impact.

If the explanation proposed by the scientists is correct, then we are dealing with a case very similar to the Black Sea deluge, but this time water from huge lakes was supposed to pour into the ocean. This, in turn, was to disrupt the ocean circulation and cause a period of cooling and drought. But while the influx of lake water into the ocean may explain the 8.2 kilo-year event, it does not explain the cause of the cooling periods described previously. Therefore, I think that the cause of the disruption of the thermohaline circulation was different. I believe the cause was gases released from the underground into the ocean during the reset.

The 9.3 kilo-year event

The next sudden climate change discovered by paleoclimatologists is known as the „9.3 kilo-year event” or sometimes as the „9.25 kilo-year event”. It was one of the most pronounced and abrupt climatic anomalies of the Holocene, similar to the 8.2 kilo-year event, albeit of a lesser magnitude. Both events affected the Northern Hemisphere, causing droughts and cooling.

^(ref.)David F. Porinchu et al. researched the effects of the 9.3 kilo-year event in the Canadian Arctic. They state that mean annual air temperature dropped by 1.4 °C (2.5 °F) at the 9.3 kilo-year, compared to 1.7 °C at the 8.2 kilo-year, relative to the long-term Holocene average of 9.4 °C (49 °F). It was therefore an event only slightly weaker than the one that set the boundary of the geological ages. This study links climate change in the central Canadian Arctic to the North Atlantic. The event coincides with periods of North Atlantic cooling and a weakened Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation.

^(ref.)Philippe Crombé from Ghent University studied the 9.3 kilo-year event in Northwestern Europe. He dated the event between 9300 and 9190 BP, so it lasted 110 years. He identified various environmental changes such as decreased fluvial activity, increased wildfires and changing vegetation, as well as cultural changes related to lithic technology and raw material circulation. He noted a decreased number of archeological sites from the time of the climatic event.

^(ref.)Pascal Flohr et al. researched the 9.25 kilo-year event in Southwest Asia. They found no evidence for a widespread cultural collapse or migration in Southwest Asia at the time of the cooling and aridification event. However, they did find indications for local adaptation.

According to the table, the reset should have been in 7331 BC, or actually in the years 7332–7330 BC. Two of the scientific studies mentioned above date the beginning of the sudden climate collapse to the year 9300 BP. The third study gives the year 9250 BP. All these years are rounded as researchers are unable to determine exactly when it happened. The average of these three dates is 9283 BP, which is the year 7334 BC. Again, this is amazingly close to the table’s indications! We have just found a reset from over 9 thousand years ago!

End of the Ice Age

Paleoclimatologists sometimes recognize even older global climate events from the Holocene epoch that brought cooling and droughts, such as the 10.3 and the 11.1 kilo-year BP. However, these are events that have been poorly researched and described. It is not known exactly when they began or what they looked like, but one can surmise that they too were related to the cycle of resets.

So far, we were looking for the years of cataclysms to confirm the existence of a 676-year reset cycle. Now that we are sure of the existence of the cycle, we can do the opposite and use the cycle to find the year of the cataclysm. Thanks to the knowledge of the cycle, we can, for example, determine the exact year of the end of the Ice Age!

The Ice Age ended with the passing of the last cold period in the history of the Earth, called the Younger Dryas. The climate warming occurred suddenly. Ice core surveys show that in Greenland the average annual temperature rose by about 8 °C (14 °F) over just 40 years.^(ref.) But the transition may have been even faster. According to some sources, it took less than 10 years.^(ref.) The most approved explanation for this rapid and dramatic climate change is the sudden acceleration of thermohaline circulation. During the Ice Age, this major ocean current that distributes water and heat all over the Earth was probably completely shut down. However, at some point, this oceanic conveyor belt suddenly switched on, and this caused the global warming of the climate by several degrees Celsius. I think the cause of this event was nothing but a cyclical reset. Using various methods, scientists date the end of the Ice Age to the years from 9704 BC to 9580 BC.^(ref.) In turn, the cycle of resets indicates that in this period the only probable year for a global cataclysm is 9615±1 BC. And most likely this is the exact year of the end of the Ice Age and the beginning of the Holocene!