Differences among culture areas across the world are strikingly visible even in the early Holocene, in terms of material culture, art styles and media, subsistence strategies, technology, methods of dealing with the dead, and asterisms that can be inferred from internal evidence and later narratives. Ignorance of the archaeological evidence does not mean the evidence can be ignored. M.B. Sweatman ‘Self-referential Monte-Carlo method for calculating the free energy of crystalline solids’, Phys. Rev. E. 72, 016711 (2005). M.B. Sweatman ‘Preface to the special issue on ‘Monte Carlo Codes, Tools, and Algorithms”, Mol. Sim. 39, 1123-1124 (2013). The School’s Dr Martin Sweatman has decoded a system of Pictish symbols and revealed its link with other symbol systems used by ancient civilisations across the world. The Pictish riddle

Sweatman’s paper includes five dated figures from this phase of Cosquer Cave, tied to three equinox dates, plus two stags/megaloceros added in a later blog post: M.B. Sweatman, ‘Weighted density functional theory for simple fluids: Supercritical adsorption of a Lennard-Jones fluid in an ideal slit pore’, Phys. Rev. E 63, 031102 (2001).Sweatman, however, regards his mistakes as irrelevant. I pointed out that up to six of his eight identifications could be second-ranked (i.e., wrong) without affecting his conclusions. He proudly agreed, and claimed that was evidence of the strength of his statistical case; in fact, it’s a red flag that his methodology may be detached from reality. I pointed out that the “aurochs” on Pillar 38 was a fox. His reply: “It is rational…given our preceding statistical case, which provides the necessary confidence, to interpret it as an aurochs.” In other words, damn the facts, we’ve got stats. That is circular reasoning, and it’s also a pretty good summary of this paper’s approach. In fact, because these animal symbols have been used for so long over such a wide area of Eurasia, it seems likely that they could have found their way to the Americas. So, it is not unreasonable to suggest that the Jaguar Warriors of the Olmec and Maya, circa 1,500 to 0 BC, are also associated with the constellation Cancer, which was the summer solstice constellation throughout this period. And perhaps the Eagle warriors of the later Aztec civilisation were associated with the constellation Sagittarius, which has since been the winter solstice constellation. So why do Sun et al. conclude that the Younger Dryas boundary at Hall’s Cave indicates the cooling event was likely caused by the Laacher See volcanic eruption instead, when we know this cannot be true? We need to look closely at their results to see how they arrived at this precarious position. Clearly, they ignored the evidence just discussed.

To begin with, the animal/asterism matches are based on an invalid reading of the Lascaux Shaft scene, building on an unfounded interpretation of Catal Huyuk, building on a demonstrably flawed interpretation of Gobekli Tepe. But let’s ignore for the moment the fact that Sweatman’s “zodiac” is baseless, and just look at this test. Possibly the most devastating cosmic impact since the extinction of the dinosaurs, it appears to coincide with major shifts in how human societies organised themselves, researchers say. Vase recovered from the grave of the ‘Scorpion King’, Abydos (Quibell, James Edward, 1867-1935; Green, F. W; Petrie, W. M. Flinders (William Matthew Flinders), Sir, 1853-1942 [Public domain]). M.B. Sweatman ‘Catastrophism through the ages, and a cosmic catastrophe at the origin of civilisation’, Archaeology & Anthropolgy Open Access, Vol 1, issue 2 (2017). J.D. Evans, S. Krause, S. Kaskel, M.B. Sweatman and L. Sarkisov, ‘Exploring the thermodynamic criteria for responsive adsorption processes’, Chemical Science 10, 5011 (2019).M.B. Sweatman, ‘Analysis of free energy functional density expansion theories’, Mol. Phys. 98, 573-581 (2000). Books It is thought that the comet strike -- known as the Younger Dryas impact -- also wiped out many large animal species and ushered in a mini ice age that lasted more than 1,000 years. You know, in archaeology we are not allowed to decide that a lion is an ibex, or a fox is an aurochs, just for the convenience of a pet hypothesis. But the wider importance of this error will become clear below, when we look at Sweatman’s treatment of Catal Huyuk. Sweatman’s analysis focuses on the so-called “shrines,” actually the decorated living rooms of some domestic structures, separated from the rooms devoted to food preparation and storage. They were also where the bodies were buried—literally, under the floor. Common decorations were wall paintings and installations incorporating horns, animal skulls and teeth, and high-relief plaster effigies of leopards, bucrania, and a “splayed” figure now interpreted as a stylized bear.