Some additional information:
From a 1999 article in Universe entitled, "The Dark Ages: Were They Darker Than We Imagined" by Greg Bryant:
It is a fact that debris from the Solar System does hit Earth and such are called meteors. In the 1950s the writer Velikovsky published "Worlds In Collision" which without scientific basis suggested a huge comet once came near Earth then settled into orbit as Venus, causing many indignant astronomers to also reject later scientifically-founded discoveries about meteor fragmentations along with possibly important revelations about the heaven that exist in both myths and historical records. But this has changed some as admitted for example by David Morrison, principal author of NASA's Spaceguard Survey Reports in 1992 and 1995, and also in the wake of significant comet impacts on Jupiter. Obviously any connections between meteors which are from the heavens also holds implications for society, religion, and civilization in general. So what is the evidence?
Consider history and the Dark Ages. In the 6th century AD the Roman Empire was finished, nothing happening in the sciences. Italian historian Flavius Cassiodorus wrote in AD 536 of decreased sunlight of a bluish color, body shadows unseen at noon, a heatless summer,
eclipse phenomena through almost a whole year, crops chilled by north winds and no rain. Procopius backed what he said, Lydus said solar dimness for nearly a year killed fruits unseasonably, and Michael the Syrian said solar darkness lasted 18 months, with about 4 hours of feeble sunlight daily, messing up fruits and wine. In China, stars vanished from sight for 3 months, sunlight dimmed, it didn't rain, snow was seen in mid-summer, famine was widespread, and the Emperor abandoned the capital. Justinian Plague went from central Asia, to Egypt then Europe.
Science is helping confirm such historical accounts. Mike Baillie, Professor of Palaeoecology at Queens University, Belfast, Northern Ireland conducted a complete and continuous review of global tree growth patterns over the last 5,000 years and found 5 major
environmental shocks worldwide shown in very thin ring widths 2354-2345 BC, 1628-1623 BC, 1159-1141 BC, 208-204 BC, and AD 536-545, which correspond with "dark ages" in civilisation. The weak tree growth of 2350 BC had been previously associated with an Icelandic volcano's eruption but that period also had floods, the creation of new lakes, and the start of Chinese history. French archaeologist Marie-Agnes Courty has also claimed new data about a catastrophe in the Middle East. Samples from 3 separate regions all appear to
contain a calcite material found only in meteorites, and debris analysis shows an apparent combination of "a burnt surface horizon and air blast."
In fact some 40 cities throughout N Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and Asia may have been devastated or disappeared about the same time in a series of catastrophes. The 12th century BC is associated with the "Greek Dark Ages", the end of the Hittite civilisation, end of Bronze Age Israel, end of the Bronze Age Shang dynasty in China. Ancient Chinese history speaks of rulers needing a "mandate from heaven," says that at the time "many gods and spirits were annihilated in this battle, and several stellar dignitaries were replaced by newcomers to the celestial domains." A likely source for what they called "dragons in the sky" are fragments from a disintegrating comet or asteroid like what hit Tunguska in 1908. Such impacts would have begun the various dark ages by casting up dust envelope the Earth, dimming the Sun and skies, causing earthquakes or tsunamis, etc. Impacts from meteor fragments occur more often than impacts from more intact masses of comet/asteroid impacts such as now believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs.
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From The Telegraph – London Nov 4, 2001
HOLY LAND POSSIBLY HIT BY METEOR ABOUT 2300 BC
Scientists have found the first satellite photo evidence a devastating meteor impact in the Holy Land or Middle East region might have triggered the mysterious collapse of entire civilisations about 4000 years ago. Images of southern Iraq show a 2-mile-wide circular depression which if as an impact depression will mean the area was hit by a meteor as powerful as hundreds of nuclear bombs. It lies where a shallow sea then existed so that impact would have caused devastating fires and flooding., explaining why many early cultures went into sudden decline around 2300 BC including the Akkad of central Iraq with its mysterious semi-mythological emperor Sargon; the 5th dynasty of Egypt's Old Kingdom following the building of the Great Pyramids and the sudden disappearance of hundreds of early settlements in the Holy Land.
The crater's faint outline was accidentally found by Dr Sharad Master, geologist at the U of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, on satellite images of the Al 'Amarah region, about 10 miles nw of the Tigris-Euphrates confluence home of the Marsh Arabs. In the journal Meteoritics & Planetary Science, Master says a survey of the crater itself could reveal dateable melted rock which if to about 2300 BC could explain the Gilgamesh legend saying "Seven Judges of Hell" raised torches lighting the land, storm turned day into night and flooded the area. Dr Benny Peiser, lecturer on meteor impacts at John Moores U in Liverpool (UK), said this would corroborate the research of himself and others, and craters recently found in Argentina from around the same period suggest Earth may have been hit by a shower of large meteors about the same time.
