* Astronomy

700 BC Clay Tablet Describes 3123 BC Austrian Asteroid Impact

A clay tablet inscribed around 700 BC had hidden its secrets from researchers for over 150 years, but now its cuneiform script is translated and known to describe an asteroid impact at Köfels, Austria that occurred way back in 3123 BC.
Read more

Ed ~  It should be noted that the fused rock may be due to geology and large rock-slope failures, and this asteroid impact theory is highly speculative.

The tablet, found by Henry Layard in the remains of the library in the royal place at Nineveh in the mid-19th century, is thought to be a 700BC copy of notes made by a Sumerian astronomer watching the night sky.
He referred to the asteroid as white stone bowl approaching and recorded it as it vigorously swept along.
Using computers to recreate the night sky thousands of years ago, scientists have pinpointed his sighting to shortly before dawn on June 29 in the year 3123BC.



Read more

Title: Fused rock from Köfels, Tyrol
Authors: Fused rock from Köfels, Tyrol

The vesicular glass from Köfels, Tyrol, contains grains of quartz that have been partially melted but not dissolved in the matrix glass. This phenomenon has been observed in similar glasses formed by friction along a thrust fault and by meteorite impact, but not in volcanic glasses. The explosion of a small nuclear device buried behind a steep slope produced a geologic structure that is a good small-scale model of that at Köfels. Impact of a large meteorite would have an effect analogous to that of a subsurface nuclear explosion and is the probable cause of the Köfels feature.

Read more


Clay tablet holds clue to asteroid mystery
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.

Read more