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Researchers have pinpointed the date of what could be the oldest solar eclipse yet recorded. The event, which occurred on 30 October 1207 BC, is mentioned in the Bible, and could have consequences for the chronology of the ancient world.
Using a combination of the biblical text and an ancient Egyptian text, the researchers were then able to refine the dates of the Egyptian pharaohs, in particular the dates of the reign of Ramesses the Great. The results are published in the Royal Astronomical Society journal Astronomy & Geophysics.
The biblical text in question comes from the Old Testament book of Joshua and has puzzled biblical scholars for centuries. It records that after Joshua led the people of Israel into Canaan -- a region of the ancient Near East that covered modern-day Israel and Palestine -- he prayed: "Sun, stand still at Gibeon, and Moon, in the Valley of Aijalon. And the Sun stood still, and the Moon stopped, until the nation took vengeance on their enemies."
"If these words are describing a real observation, then a major astronomical event was taking place -- the question for us to figure out is what the text actually means," said paper co-author Professor Sir Colin Humphreys from the University of Cambridge's Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy, who is also interested in relating scientific knowledge to the Bible.
Colin Humphreys and Graeme Waddington. 'Solar eclipse of 1207 BC helps to date pharaohs.' Astronomy & Geophysics (2017). DOI: 10.1093/astrogeo/atx178.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 30 2017, @09:00PM (14 children)
Oh, look, someone took some of the gibberish from the magic book of ball gargling and claims to have nailed it down and linked it to some historical fact. Like that is the first time that has ever happened. These retarded monkeys really, really, really, want the rest of the magic book to be real so they can continue justifying molesting their children.
So is it really real, or just bollix? Who the fuck knows. That quote could mean fucking anything. Look at it funny form the side, while high on something and it can mean whatever you freaking want. Same goes for anything else from that gibberish book.
The whole article is just bullshit speculation, and does not belong on a tech news site.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 30 2017, @09:06PM (13 children)
Sure, there's a lot of trash in that ancient collection of books.
However, it's unwise to dismiss it entirely.
For example, many cultures across the planet speak of an ancient flood, and the devastation of an old civilization. Is it any wonder, then, that the geological record speaks of massive flooding, the loss of whole continents' worth of land to the ocean, and a comet/asteroid strike almost 13 thousand years ago?
There's a reason people handed down particular stories.
(Score: 1, Disagree) by khallow on Monday October 30 2017, @10:09PM (4 children)
Which might not have actually happened. Evidence for that is very weak.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 30 2017, @10:23PM (1 child)
It's not weak in the slightest. Sure, there is a lot of naysaying, but when has that not been the case in any field of inquiry?
Fine, the evidence for a massive catastrophe is weak. You know what's also weak? The evidence that these recognized ancient civilizations had anything to do with the megalithic architecture that they appropriated; indeed, Göbekli Tepe showed us that the "mainstream" view of the development of civilization is entirely wrong, a fact which is not disputed.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 31 2017, @01:06AM
I'll dispute it. You keep posting the same thing, pushing your "ancient global civilization" agenda with your only evidence being "go read a book that repeats my assertions". That's not evidence, it's conning people into wasting time reading your talking points.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 31 2017, @07:02AM (1 child)
That might have actually happened. Evidence against it is very weak. Your move, khallow!
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Tuesday October 31 2017, @01:45PM
(Score: 2, Insightful) by KilroySmith on Monday October 30 2017, @10:27PM (7 children)
I've always interpreted the "flood" stories to Homo Sapiens climbing mountains, and finding fish fossils. This discovery would repeat itself in many cultures on (nearly) every continent, allowing the flood myth to appear universal.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 30 2017, @10:42PM (4 children)
People didn't care about that stuff in the past, so that explanation seems unlikely.
Besides, the geological evidence is quite strong for a very in-your-face experience with flooding.
You really think the people of the world are going to hand down stories brought back by a few mountain climbers? Forget it! Something catastrophic happened!
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday October 31 2017, @12:07AM (3 children)
And you have evidence for this, right?
What's the height of this flooding?
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 31 2017, @01:07AM
Your style of argumentation is known as "willful ignorance".
(Score: 1) by Gault.Drakkor on Tuesday October 31 2017, @01:30AM (1 child)
Well there are these: Even historical fiction has basis in fact occasionally.
Circa 5600 BC
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sea_deluge_hypothesis [wikipedia.org]
Sea levels rising after last ice age. rise of ~100 m from ~20000 BC years ago to ~5000 BC years ago.
https://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/briefs/gornitz_09/ [nasa.gov]
Pleistocene Epoch floods in central Asia. between 12000 BC and 9000 BC.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altai_flood [wikipedia.org]
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ancient-sea-rise-tale-told-accurately-for-10-000-years/ [scientificamerican.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday October 31 2017, @02:16PM
But that doesn't mean that everyone is equally successful at doing so. For example, the Bible was a repository of oral tales and writing is generally considered to be more reliable than speech. But they experienced considerable drift with the tale of Noah and the Flood, which among other things, inherited a weird shift of aging. Peoples' ages as recorded in the Bible prior to the global Flood are an order of magnitude greater than after, with the fig leaf of God deciding for no apparent reason that people are living too long. The easier explanation is that they were measuring ages in lunar months for these ancient stories, and years for later.
A more notable drift likely happened to stories that took place before the Babylonian captivity (for example, the books of Joshua through Kings, which describes the period of time from the initial conquest of Canaan through to end of the reign of King Solomon, who was the last ruler of a united Hebrew kingdom) since these stories would be valuable for propaganda purposes.
And one thing about flooding is that it's a common human experience. Even the driest parts of the world experience flooding on occasion. How to determine that stories of flooding are about distant prehistoric causes rather than more recent ones?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 30 2017, @11:36PM
It was more that humans used to live along rivers in flood plains. Massive floods are part of nature. They happened then and they happen now. Just long enough apart to usually be a once in a lifetime event for most. Story repeated over and over all over the world. The difference is that back then they didn't know it was just their small corner of the world that was 6 feet underwater and assumed it was the entire earth. Of course, every now and then some wise guy would have a big boat. After all, they lived along a river. But over time the stories were warped to support the alleged existence of a non existent magic sky daddy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 31 2017, @12:59AM
i always took it as the end of the ice age and crater lakes flooding over their banks, earthen walls that had been frozen in place giving way in giant mudslides, and entire communitites of ancient peoples being swept away in a furious anger of rushing water.
and that it happened the world over, for global warming doesn't only affect those that believe in it.