Clay tablet holds clue to asteroid mystery

By Nic Fleming, Science Correspondent
31/03/2008


The tablet shows drawings of constellations and pictogram-based text known as cuneiform


British scientists have deciphered a mysterious ancient clay tablet and believe they have solved a riddle over a giant asteroid impact more than 5,000 years ago.

Geologists have long puzzled over the shape of the land close to the town of Köfels in the Austrian Alps, but were unable to prove it had been caused by an asteroid.

Now researchers say their translation of symbols on a star map from an ancient civilisation includes notes on a mile-wide asteroid that later hit Earth - which could have caused tens of thousands of deaths.

The circular clay tablet was discovered 150 years ago by Sir Austen Henry Layard, a leading Victorian archaeologist, in the remains of the royal palace at Nineveh, capital of ancient Assyria, in what is now Iraq.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/03/31/scitablet131.xml

I'd always thought that an asteroid that large would cause a massive global extinction event, much like the one that wiped out the dinosaurs.

in those thousands of recovered tablets from that area.

http://www.physorg.com/news126183668.html

Includes an estimate that the asteroid was 1 kilometer in diameter, not 1 mile.

This article: http://www.springerlink.com/content/ql712l48q4578n67/ discusses fused minerals at the site that could indicate a meteor or asteroid impact.

Fascinating reports.

Sinistrous

A lot of invaluable information has been lost to mankind forever, thanks to us.

An article with this quote:
A historian from Azerbaijan, who believes humans originally came to Earth from another planet, has interpreted it as a description of the arrival of a spaceship. More mainstream academics have failed to decipher its meaning.
is taken seriously?

Yes a kilometer wide asteroid hitting the Alps would be catastrophic. And the evidence left would be much more pronounced.
I look at this announcement the way I look at the discovery of Noah's Ark every 10 years. Yawn.
BTW. this is what a much smaller meteor left 50,000 years ago.

There is so much wrong here I don't know where to begin. edhopper is right.

Best emad posts ever:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1427310

As this site makes it clear, the claim by these Bristol Bozos is preposterous.

http://bluecollarscientist.com/2008/04/01/a-sumerian-observation-of-the-kofels-impact-almost-certainly-not/



The University of Bristol should hang its head in shame for issuing this ridiculous story. Let's see how long this link

http://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2008/212017945233.html

remains active.