Hi guys, today I want to discuss the Younger Dryas Event, which happened almost 13,000
years ago. Scholars theorize a dramatic and devastating global wide cataclysm occurred
during this time, wiping out a previous, highly advanced civilization. Did this really happen?
Younger Dryas was a sudden cooling period between 12,800 to 11,600 years ago when the
earth was coming out of its last glacial period. This event is very important because it happened
right when humans supposedly made their big change from nomadic hunter-gatherers to sedentary
societies with towns, cities and resulting civilizations. This crucial period had major
lasting impacts on humanity.
The cause of the Younger Dryas cooling event is controversial. I am most interested in
the cosmic impact hypothesis. This highly-debatable theory claims Earth had a catastrophic encounter
with a meteor or meteors 12,800 years ago. This catastrophe triggered an “impact winter”
with a subsequent global cooling, which led to human cultural shifts and population declines.
It contributed to the death of mastodons, mammoths and dire wolves, which is the megafauna
extinction.
This hypothesis is bolstered by recent scientific evidence. A 19-mile or 31-kilomenter impact
crater was found beneath the Hiawatha Glacier in Greenland and was dated to be 12,800 years
old. In several continents, scientists found the following anomalies in the Younger Dryas
sediment layers: ice core samples showing high-levels of "combustion aerosol”, a layer
of black mat caused by biomass burning, high-temperature melt-glass nanodiamonds found in hundreds
of sites, and a sudden spike of the platinum level extending to South America and Africa.
These are all very real sign of a big cosmic impact and are all dated to the same timeframe.
Moreover, the evidence points to a fragmented comet, as opposed to a singular event. A single
comet impact would likely not have caused such widely scattered materials like those
discovered all over the world. A large fragmented comet with debris clusters is capable of causing
thousands of airbursts within a span of minutes across continents. This likely ignited the
widespread biomass burning found in the Younger Dryas layer.
Some scholars hypothesize that this cosmic impact could have caused the demise of a previous
highly-advanced civilization. That sounds plausible since the Younger Dryas Impact can
be considered a global level catastrophe.
Speaking of a highly-advanced civilization, the world-wide megalithic phenomenon could
be proof of its existence. Most known enigmatic ancient megalithic structures and sites are
located in Eurasia, Africa and South America. They include the Giza pyramids, Baalbeck,
Machu Pichu, Sacsayhuaman, Puma Punku, Yangshan Quarry and Longyou caves. Some sites show
amazing precision cuts, others contain huge stone blocks or giant caves, which experts
find very difficult to explain how they were constructed by ancient manual labor. Most
megalithic structures lack accurate historical records. Stone is almost impossible to date.
Were these sites created by workers using hand tools? What if these sites are remnants
left from previous highly sophisticated civilizations?
If such a civilization encountered a cataclysm that destroyed its technology while decimating
its population, then it is possible that such a cataclysm would have returned any survivors
to a Stone Age existence. Perhaps this Greenland comet impact can explain the disappearance
of this lost civilization? We know another huge comet hit Earth around
65 million years ago causing the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction, including non-avian dinosaurs.
That particular asteroid slammed into a shallow sea in what is the current day Gulf of Mexico.
Tsunamis, earthquakes, landslides and major earth changing events followed. That collision
released a huge dust and soot cloud that covered the planet blocking out sunlight. It triggered
enormous wild fires and global climate changes. This mass extinction paved the way for the
rise of mammals including humans. Was the fragmented comet that hit Greenland
as devastating as the one that killed the dinosaurs? NO. The impact crater that ended
the dinosaur era was significantly larger and more extreme than the crater at Greenland.
The Greenland comet caused a similar yet smaller scale episode of wild fires, climate change
and sun-blocking dust which led to an “impact winter.” The impact from the dinosaur-ending
comet killed 76% of all life on Earth at that time while the lesser Younger Dryas comet
might have led to the megafauna extinction.
Let’s return to the topic of a previous advanced civilization. If a cataclysm occurred
during the Younger Dryas and set back a civilization to the Stone Age; then we would expect evidence
of severe damage and a sudden major population decrease or population bottleneck. Did that
happen after the Younger Dryas comet impact? Not really.
Here is a chart of the effective population size for the last 500,000 years which was
published in the 2016 scientific journal Nature. We see after the Younger Dryas event, maybe
some regional population declined but overall, the population had no significant changes.
A 2005 paper studying population in ancient Western Europe showed a significant population
increase around 15,000 years ago, supposedly before farming was practiced, followed by
a rapid decrease well before the Younger Dryas event. It also noted signs of human migration
between regions when climate altered.
This was further supported by other scientific studies. A 2015 published report announced
that European, Asian, and American populations experienced a bottleneck around 15 to 20,000
years ago, while the African population experienced a bottleneck of lower severity at the same
time. These noticeable population bottlenecks happened before the Younger Dryas Impact.
Also, in the Mesopotamia area, scientists actually found a rapid and continuous population
growth between 13,000 and 11,000 years ago. From these scholarly reports we see there
was no obvious global population decrease during Younger Dryas.
The comet impact seems to vary among different areas. In North America, studies suggest a
significant decline and reorganization in human population during the early centuries
of the Younger Dryas, varying in extent by region. Some propose the Younger Dryas caused
the downfall of the Clovis people in North America.
This is debatable. We know of the Clovis culture from their unique fluted spearheads and arrowheads.
They hunted large animals like mammoths. The end of the Clovis age came about 12,800 years
ago, around the same time of the possible cosmic impact. Archaeological sites that were
heavily utilized before, such as stone quarries in the southeastern US, appear to have been
largely abandoned, and there was a substantial decline in the numbers of stone tools which
indicates less human activity.
Some researchers, however, argue that the Clovis people didn’t simply vanish. It seems
that climate change, as well as the disappearance of large animals forced the Clovis people
to adapt, move to other places and invent new technologies in order to survive. Researchers
say other post-Clovis cultures like the one discovered at Folsom in northern New Mexico,
derived from the Clovis with the same fluted arrowheads.
The natural disaster caused major destruction for Paleolithic people, but it didn’t end
their culture. So such a disaster shouldn’t be devastating enough to destroy a highly-sophisticated
civilization, which has better means to protect and insulate its population thus preserving
and recovering its technology.
Even in the much colder time of the Last Ice age, scientists found that the climatic conditions
were not as harsh as often presented. During the last glacial maximum, the climatically
suitable area for humans covered at least 36% of Europe. Researchers studied the dynamics
of human population in Europe. The correspondence between the population simulation and archaeological
data suggests that population dynamics were indeed driven by major climate fluctuations,
with population size sometimes reduced to 30% of the highest. I think, however, it might
not necessarily mean that 70% of the population died. It could be that some groups migrated
to warmer regions. After all, Europe is a portion of Eurasia which also connects to
Africa.
When talking about the Ice Age, we usually picture an image of ice- and snow-covered
landscapes. Actually, this is not the case. At the coldest time, the Last Glacial Maximum,
the average surface temperature was about 6 degrees Celsius or 11 degrees Fahrenheit
lower than today. That is a big difference for sure, but we are talking about the global
average and not the regional average. Some regions could have been impacted less and
some more severe therefore much colder. Also, let’s compare the temperature differentiation
between New York and Florida. A New York winter is about 20 degrees Celsius or 40 degrees
Fahrenheit colder than Florida; in the summer the temperature difference is about 5 degrees
Celsius or 8 degrees Fahrenheit. Does that mean New York is inhabitable during the winter?
No. American Native Indians lived in the northeast America for thousands of years. There must
have been many areas that were habitable for humans during the Last Ice Age as well as
in the Younger Dryas.
Since the Younger Dryas impact affected areas on different levels, is it possible that a
regional highly-advanced civilization was devastated because it was located in an area
that got hit hard?
The highly-advanced civilization theory derives from the unexplainable huge-stone megalithic
sites. These amazing structures show impressive masonry ability that even with today’s technology,
we probably couldn’t duplicate. They are the indicators or road signs of where a highly-advanced
lost civilization once existed. Here is a map of many such megalithic sites.
Did these areas get destroyed by the fragmented comet 12,800 years ago? Let’s compare the
megalithic map with the recently updated Younger Dryas boundary map. We can see there is some
overlap, but many megalithic sites are not within the areas that received the worst devastation.
This means the cosmic impact shouldn’t have completely ravaged the lost civilization that
built these sophisticated megalithic sites. Due to the different styles of these stone
sites, we might be dealing with the possibility that multiple civilizations were involved.
Moreover, the Younger Dryas global cooling event was not as chilling as the Last Glacial
Maximum. Humans survived the Last Glacial Maximum and one can thus assume that they
wouldn’t have a problem surviving a lesser cooling event.
Humans in the past have revealed themselves time after time to be highly resilient, likely
more so than we currently believe. We are making new discoveries, which change our perspectives
of the past and in turn the way we think about our distant ancestors. For example, in a 2019
issue of Science, researchers provided the first evidence that our African ancestors
had settled for hundreds of years in the high mountains during the last ice age 45,000 years
ago. Previously scientists believed people couldn’t reside at high elevations during
glacial times since it was an inhospitable region. This recent study reveals important
information about humanity’s potential to adapt physically, genetically and culturally
to harsh changing environmental conditions.
Ok, so human populations didn’t drop significantly 12,800 years ago in the Younger Dryas cosmic
impact. This is somewhat of a surprise since I expected it could be the explanation to
the ending of a lost advanced civilization. I believe there existed one or more advanced
civilizations before ours. These ancient people were the real creators of the mind-boggling
megalithic structures. We need to keep searching for answers if we want to unravel this mystery.
If you have any insights, please leave me a comment. If you like my video, please give
me a thumb’s up and subscribe. I have a wide range of topics that I want to share
with you. This is Curious Being, I am Tina. Thanks for watching and see you next time.