Nexus - 0224 - New Times Magazine-pages

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commonplace, at a stellar level. Astronomically speaking, novas and supemovas are not actually rare events. On that basis it would simply be a matter of time before such an event occurred which affected the solar system, Earth included, but perhaps a very long time before one erupted close enough to cause measurable incon- venience to terrestrial life. great depths under gravel or even fire-formed rocks are noted. Sobering accounts exist of how hilltop survivors, accompanied by numerous animals which had shared their refuges, slowly descended to lower ground following the ebbing away of the Deluge waters, while phenomenal winds dried out those surfaces. Similar are those accounts which relate how cave survivors, again often entombed with various animals, dug themselves out before emerging into what had become a thoroughly unfamiliar world, and were obliged to contemplate a new beginning. Other traditions mention how lone individuals at first believed themselves to be the sole survivors of this appalling catastrophe and how they wandered and blundered about, often in the gloom and choking smoke engendered by erupting volcanoes, only occa- sionally glimpsing a similarly-disoriented bird or animal hurrying in some other direction as they skirted the evidence of devastation and death on all sides. Descriptions are also to hand of small bands of survivors wading for days through shallows and across mud-flats in order to reach higher, friendlier terrain visible at some greater distance. “Such terrain was perhaps identifiable as ‘friendlier’ through clearly supporting human and animal sur- vivors, or still-erect trees or vegetation. Several traditions specifi- cally mention such refugia, and how the tremendous fires and floods generated by Phaeton's visit had not swept uniformly across the heaving globe. Tradition, of course, has no cause to invent such details unless the described scenarios had once actually occurred. aq ee From an evolutionary viewpoint such events could be highly significant. Upon their eruption, the survival of the luckiest would replace the Darwinian norm of the fittest. Interestingly, the last known event possibly in this category, preceding the visit of Phaeton, seems to have been that which ended the reign of the dinosaurs some 65 million years ago. Punctuated and uniformitar- ian evolution may thus actually go hand in hand. Inevitably, the ‘lucky’ survivors of this dire event represented a varied cross-section of pre-Phaetonic plant, animal and human life. Numerically impoverished and widely scattered, either as lone individuals, traumatised couples or heterogeneous groups, the human survivors had, according to many remarkable traditions and ancient histories, escaped destruction by taking refuge on high peaks (later called "mounts of salvation") or in caves (the entrances of some of which were sealed up), or had saved them- selves in arks (several were allegedly built), on rafts, uprooted trees, logs or even on huge floating balls of gum or resin. Significantly, several discoveries of large ancient ships buried at WAG MARAWUEIRE ) OUT UEME RORY TEEIwO WE AEE EAwEES CHEAP UuenAeRe ee eens Although intrinsically no more than intriguing adjuncts to the traceable physical aftermath effects of this cataclysm, the consistent signal received from these ancient recollections—especially their graphic descriptions of conditions which could only accumulate during a world disaster of this magnitude—goes far towards underscoring the basic validity of the accounts as a whole, and that, despite the ridicule so often unwarrantedly heaped upon them in certain quarters, they constitute pre- cious documents of what was once awful reality. That so many racial, tribal and national ‘histories’ the world over begin by claiming that all later generations descended directly from Deluge-sur- viving single pairs or cave groups cannot be entirely coincidental. Incomplete and spotty, they are irreplaceable records of transient things and experiences that could, by their very nature, never be permanently etched into Earth's great stone book, the geological record. Life as we know it had literally to begin again. It would have to propagate and multiply, and Man, the most industrious of Nature's terrestrial creations, would have to seek out the most favourable habitats and locate and harvest the most immediately accessible resources. These endeavours would occupy centuries and would be irregularly governed (and sometimes blighted) by the often harsh and unpredictable meteorological fluctuations that seriously affected much of the Earth during aftermath times. Steadily less severe as the Holocene has unfolded, these are to a con- siderable extent nevertheless still with us. Yet, given the scale and ferocity of Phaeton's onslaught, it is indeed fortunate that these are not, even more than 11,000 years later, more acute than they now are. oo Spews fire approaching the PHAETON/MARDUK © ; Solar System \ Pieces torn off Marduk here Uranus oo Equatorial alignment changed, moons deranged y . "y, NNGe “— captured P, ene on Orbit changed Collects 2 moons? JUPITER ae )), Schematic diagram of the path apparently taken by Phaeton/Marduk through the solar system. Not to scale. Based on Sumerian texts and recent astronomical data, and on the main effects attributable to its passage. 14 * NEXUS SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST, OR THE LUCKIEST? FEBRUARY - MARCH 1995