The Topper Site

[Minimalist]

There was a book that I read a few years ago, called Watermark or something like that.

It proposed to explain all the mythology of the world on a basis of a comet rolling through the solar system. At the time I thought it lacked any evidence at all. Now, I may have to dig it out of the bookcase again.

[Cognito]

This artifact remains in situ protruding from the wall at the clovis/pre-clovis level.

Anyone care to speculate? It will come out this week. It seems to have a definate edge. Sorry I don't have a better picture.

Beags, that item appears to be about 2-1/2" to 3" long, made of light chert, and looks like a small scraper, on the verge of being a hand axe. It has all the right strikes. The question is: is it bifacial? Pretty cool stuf.

[Beagle]

That artifact is at the same level or a couple of centimeters higher than the Topper Chopper, which was pre-clovis (around 18000bp) and is in the same pit.

Nicely done Charlie.

[Beagle]

I'll be sure to find out if it's bifacial or not. It'll take a few days.

[Cognito]

I'll be sure to find out if it's bifacial or not. It'll take a few days.

Beags, just rob the mirror out of wifey's makeup kit and have someone use it to look at the underside. Tell her it's for the advancement of science (and not to satisfy our curiosity).

[Beagle]

We better let her have a couple more drinks. And wait 'till she's let the awning out.

This is the campground - lots of room.

[Minimalist]

Curiosity got the best of me, guys. The book is called Watermark and the secondary title is "The Disaster That Changed The World and Humanity 12,000 years ago." The author is one Joseph Christy-Vitale and it is copyrighted in 2004. Mr. Christy-Vitale is said to have a degree in Comparative Literature from San Diego State University.

Anyway, I quote from the back cover.

" The Echoes of Our Past


Twelve thousand years ago, the human race barely escaped annihilation when a piece of exploded star passed through our solar system, unleashing an apocalypse. Great fires raged, mountains rose and fell, a maelstrom of cosmic debris bombarded Earth, continents broke apart and oceans swept across the land. Millions of people, animals and plants perished almost overnight. Entire societies, cultures and belief systems were lost forever. The resulting aftershock shaped humantiy for thousands of years and continues to haunt us to this day. This is not fiction. This is history."

Like I said, when I first read it I dismissed it as nonsense. Now, in light of this recent report...............

[Charlie Hatchett]

Makes you wonder if he had a chat with Firestone, et al. during the earlier phases of their research.

[Beagle]

It's possible. Parts of this theory have been around for a long time. The idea that the "Carolina Bays" were caused by a comet strike or meteor storm was first proposed in the 1930's.

I also saw an idea years ago that the original native americans had been extinguished along with the other megafaunal extinction.

Firestones' physical evidence seems to have pulled some ideas together.

[Beagle]

Here is a pic of Al Goodyear (R) having a conversation with his former professor, Dan Morse (L).

Note the surveying equipment to the right rear. All artifacts of signifigance were carefully measured as to their orientation in 3 dimensions. The graduate student there is Shane Miller from the University of Tennessee. Very sharp, very nice person.

[Charlie Hatchett]

It's possible. Parts of this theory have been around for a long time. The idea that the "Carolina Bays" were caused by a comet strike or meteor storm was first proposed in the 1930's.

I also saw an idea years ago that the original native americans had been extinguished along with the other megafaunal extinction.

Firestones' physical evidence seems to have pulled some ideas together.

Definitely an interesting hypothesis. I've been keeping up with any updates that come along.

BTW, I've been posting your images from Topper
over on my forum. Just want to make sure that's
O.K. Also, you should post them over at Virgina's
site. I know she would really enjoy seeing them.
Especially the one of Tom holding the axe with a
"in your face" look on his face.

That's me running my mouth. I had looked at it before and thought Tom had left with it, so I sat down. Then there he was, giving me another look. He said that I can tell my friends that there are indeed hand axes in North America.

[Minimalist]

Makes you wonder if he had a chat with Firestone, et al. during the earlier phases of their research.

I dug around inside the book and found that he credits this book with much of what he wrote.

http://www.knowledge.co.uk/xxx/cat/earth/

When the Earth Nearly Died
Compelling Evidence of A Catastrophic World Change 9,500 BC
(c) 1995 by By D S Allan and J B Delair. 386pp.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Republished in 1997 as
"Cataclysm : Compelling Evidence of a Cosmic Catastrophe in 9500 B. C."

[Charlie Hatchett]

Makes you wonder if he had a chat with Firestone, et al. during the earlier phases of their research.

I dug around inside the book and found that he credits this book with much of what he wrote.

http://www.knowledge.co.uk/xxx/cat/earth/

When the Earth Nearly Died
Compelling Evidence of A Catastrophic World Change 9,500 BC
(c) 1995 by By D S Allan and J B Delair. 386pp.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Republished in 1997 as
"Cataclysm : Compelling Evidence of a Cosmic Catastrophe in 9500 B. C."

Apparently this idea has been tossed around in academic circles for a while.

Makes you wonder if Clovis technology was really only around for 200-500 years, or if the 14C/12C ratios, assumed to be constant, were actually in great flux during that timeframe?

[Beagle]

How does an archaeologist take a break while on a dig?

[Beagle]

http://uscnews.sc.edu/ARCH190.html

Believing that if Clovis and Redstone people thrived near the banks of the Savannah River, Goodyear thought the area could haven been an ideal location for a more ancient culture. Acting on a hunch in 2004, Goodyear dug even deeper down into the Pleistocene Terrace and found more artifacts of a pre-Clovis type buried in a layer of sediment stained with charcoal deposits. Radio carbon dates of the burnt plant remains yielded dates of 50,000 years, which suggested man was in South Carolina long before the last ice age. Goodyear's finding not only captured international media attention, but it has put the archaeology field in flux, opening scientific minds to the possibility of an even earlier pre-Clovis occupation of the Americas.

I realize that I've posted this article in another thread, but I'm sticking it here also for the sake of continuity.