Previous cultures may be associated with similar stillstands or regressions;
for example, the red bottom profile shows the probable profile of the lower
Rhine valley at about 3000 BC.(5)
Similar lower-river sequence of sea level and
sediment can be observed in San Francisco Bay. In these (and presumable
all other deltas in regions of crustal stabilty) we should expect the occurrence
of a soil surface with archaeological materials corresponding to the 3000
BC sea level reversal (regression) at a depth of 10 to 20 ft below existing
sea and ground levels.
In fact the discovery of a skull radiocarbon dated at 3000 BC at the base of the recent alluvium in San Francisquito Creek conforms to the surface of late Hilocene alluvium dated at about 3000 BC (profiles taken from Lajoie's USGS study of holocene sediments in San Francisco Bay.
Global warming will presumably bury "our" horizon in much the fashion that the events of 3000 BC buried the mid-holocene culture.
(1) Stanley, D.J. and Warne, D.F. (1994), Science vol. 265, p. 228.
(2) Tanner, William F. (1995), AAAPG Bulletin 79/10, p. 1568.
(3) Denys, L. and C. Baeteman (1995),Marine Geology vol. 124, p. 16.
(4) Jarcombe, P., et al (1995),Marine Geology vol. 127, p. 1-44.
(5) van de Plasshe, O. (1995),Marine Geology vol. 124, p. 117.
Copyright 1996 Kirribili Press. Return to Scientific
Summary Chronological
Index Ignatius
Donnelly and the End of the World