Gamma Ray Burst 774/5 A.D.

[uniface]

Gamma-ray burst 'hit Earth in 8th Century'
By Rebecca Morelle
21 January, 2013

A gamma ray burst, the most powerful explosion known in the Universe, may have hit the Earth in the 8th Century.

In 2012 researchers found evidence that our planet had been struck by a blast of radiation during the Middle Ages, but there was debate over what kind of cosmic event could have caused this.

Now a study suggests it was the result of two black holes or neutron stars merging in our galaxy.

This collision would have hurled out vast amounts of energy.

The research is published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Nature's snapshot

Last year, a team of researchers found that some ancient cedar trees in Japan had an unusual level of a radioactive type of carbon known as carbon-14.

In Antarctica, too, there was a spike in levels of a form of beryllium - beryllium-10 - in the ice.

These isotopes are created when intense radiation hits the atoms in the upper atmosphere, suggesting that a blast of energy had once hit our planet from space.

Using tree rings and ice-core data, researchers were able to pinpoint that this would have occurred between the years AD 774 and AD 775, but the cause of the event was a puzzle . . .

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21082617

[Ernie L]

I wonder what effects might that have on human health. It would I imagine affect our civilization magnitudes more than 8th century human society. I don't suppose there would be any effects observable by 8th century humans.

[Minimalist]

I wonder what effects might that have on human health

And, if anyone noticed, would they have just burned a few more witches?

[uniface]

$64 Question (that I expected somebody would have jumped on by now) :

Does this correlate with a turning-point of some sort in the archaeological record ?

[Ernie L]

$64 Question (that I expected somebody would have jumped on by now) :

Does this correlate with a turning-point of some sort in the archaeological record ?

Don't frown Uni..
I saw where you were going..hence my question " I don't suppose there would be any effects observable by 8th century humans."

Now that I think about it more I suppose human civilization could have been effected even without the solar event being observed.

...there might be evidence of a non human sort...tree ring and the such (shrug.)

I tend to think of archaeology as more ...well human in nature. Do tree rings, magnetic pole switching, asteroid events etc. fall under the archaeology umbrella ? That is a serious question from a lay person so to speak.

[uniface]

The fairly abrupt decline of a culture would be one, like when the pecan trees on which the people-who-are-not-to-be-called-what-they're-usually-known-as depended failed to produce after an untimely freeze. Or the three-legged "sheer coincidence" of Clovis checking out, the megafaunal extinctions and the chracteristec-of-a-thermonuclear-event evidence in chert, all from right around the same time.

"Life-changing" effect(s) work better ?

[Ernie L]

The fairly abrupt decline of a culture would be one, like when the pecan trees on which the people-who-are-not-to-be-called-what-they're-usually-known-as depended failed to produce after an untimely freeze. Or the three-legged "sheer coincidence" of Clovis checking out, the megafaunal extinctions and the chracteristec-of-a-thermonuclear-event evidence in chert, all from right around the same time.

Thanks for taking the time to reply Uniface...something to chew on for sure.

"Life-changing" effect(s) work better ?

no need really...I guess I got hung up on a very narrow definition ..sometimes my thought process tends towards black or white...I have to be more accepting of the possibility of shades of gray.

[uniface]

Or maybe the onset of "the Dark Ages" in Europe ?

[Minimalist]

Nah...things had been spiraling downhill long before 775.

[uniface]

Not disputed.

But I recall having read of "portents in the heavens" & "thunderbolts" falling in conjunction with comet hysteria and un-seasonable cold that wiped out a year's crops, pushing an already-skaky situation over the edge.

Hell, for that matter, "western civilisation" has been spiraling downhill for how many years now ?

[Minimalist]

Well, Charlemagne was emerging then and things were coming together at least while he lived. Of course, the Vikings also started their raids in the 8th century which definitely was a downer.

Like everything...it was kind of a mixed bag.

[uniface]

It was probably this one :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_we ... 2%80%93536

Sorry

[uniface]

On the other hand,

Some experts highlighted an entry in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle which refers to a “red crucifix” seen in the night sky, but this occurred in 776 – a year too late . ..

“In the year of our Lord 794 . . . dreadful prodigies terrified the miserable English nation ; for fearful thunderbolts and horrible fiery dragons were seen passing through the air . . .

793 AD: “In this year dire portents appeared over Northumbria and sorely frightened the people. They consisted of immense whirlwinds and flashes of lightning, and fiery dragons were seen flying in the air. A great famine immediately followed those signs . . .

LOTS of these at

http://cosmictusk.com/

[Minimalist]

And in Livy's History of Rome for every year he recounts a lot of silly omens of "stones falling from the sky" and the like and which gods were to be propitiated in order to straighten everything out.

At the end of the day superstition remains superstition.

[uniface]

Velikovsky has some interesting things to say with respect to that.

On this end, peoples' tendency to dismiss a huge body of data like those with one sweeping assumption -- that everybody back then was insane -- runs humorously in parallel with 19th Century geologists' intransigent denial of Continental Drift.

They didn't see any continents drifting around, so continents had never drifted around.

In saecula saeculorum. Amen.