<HTML>At <a href="[
RobertSchoch.homestead.com] URL</a>, an article published in 2000, Robert Schoch makes claims about the "cyclic" effects of cometary passes on human history. In support of this extraordinary contention, he includes the following "chronology":
<i>3195 B.C.: Possibly this marks the final end of the "Sphinx culture" (the builders of the Great Sphinx and other very ancient megalithic monuments), which, due to its
collapse and the resulting cultural vacuum, paved the way for the dynastic culture of Egypt and other Mediterranean civilizations, the development of writing as we
know it, and so forth.
2345 B.C.: The early Bronze Age crisis, discussed in VOICES.
1628 B.C.: The end of the Middle Kingdom in Egypt; dynastic changes in China.
1159 B.C.: The end of the Bronze Age, discussed in VOICES.
207 B.C.: Social disruption in China and the Far East; decline of various Hellenistic empires in the circum-Mediterranean region which cleared the way for the
dominance of the Roman empire.
A. D. 540: Collapse of the traditional Roman empire which ended the ancient world and set off the Dark Ages.
A.D. 1178: Social unrest and turmoil, particularly in the Pacific region and Asia (including the rise of the Mongols under Genghis Khan).
Based on the pattern above, I will not be surprised if our planet experiences another major cometary encounter during the twenty-first or early twenty-second
century. This predicated future event may have already been foreshadowed by the 1908 extraterrestrial impact (I believe it was cometary in origin) in the Tunguska
region of Siberia (see VOICES).</i>
I can't assess several of Schoch's dates, but he does make claims about periods I am familiar with. It is clear, in these instances, that Schoch doesn't know what he's talking about.
3195 BC: What "Sphinx culture" collapsed? None has been demonstrated, barring the Ancient Egyptians. No evidence for an earlier culture has ever been produced. So how can a non-attested culture collapse? He might as well write "the unicorn-goblin axis collapsed, clearing the way for the Ancient Egyptians." There's no evidence for unicorns or goblins either.
1159 BC: The Bronze Age did not come to an abrupt end in this year. The process was long drawn out and onging for about 200 years (1300-1100BC ). There is nothing significant about the date 1159 BC as opposed to, say, 1169 or 1149 BC of 1059 BC. It is a meaningless date.
207 BC: Even more meaningless is this date, which marks no watershed whatsoever in Roman history. At this date, the Romans were already well on their way to dominance of the Mediterranean. No Hellenistic kingdoms were in decline at this time: all were at their vigorous height. In 207 BC, the Romans had been fighting Hannibal for 11 years, he was still in Italy and still undefeated. So it's hard to see how this date somehow "cleared the way for the dominance of the Roman empire," as Schoch claims.
AD 540: The "traditional Roman Empire" (whateve that means) did not "fall" in AD 540, a date without any historical meaning in Roman history. The last emperor in the west had been deposed already in 479, and the eastern Empire was en route to becoming the Byzantine Empire (which lasted until AD 1453, a date notably absent from Schoch's chronology of supposedly crucial dates). AD 540, like the rest of the dates he includes, is meaningless.
I am not expert enough to assess the other of these supposedly crucial dates, but when makes claims in eras I do know about, they enitrely without merit. Schoch should stick to geology.
Garrett</HTML>
