h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I saw an interesting documentary last night about dendrochronologists, scientists who try to reconstruct ancient history by examining tree rings.

They've shown that the oak trees of Ireland stopped growing for about 20 years in 2350 BC because they were sitting in water. There was apparently a period of very wet weather. The conclusion is that all crops would have failed, there would have been massive starvation and when civilisation started again, it was completely different - this was the transition from Stone Age farmers to the Bronze Age. It's possible that new people came in to restore the population - the details are unclear.

Coincidentally, 2350 BC is the date that Archbishop Usher gave for Noah's Flood in his dating of the events of the Bible.

There we have the proof - Noah was an Irishman.

Some crazy people once came up with the theory that since people wrote backwards in the old days, Ararat, the place the Noah's ark landed, was really Tarara, and this obviously referred to Tara, the seat of the kings of Ireland.

Unfortunately they attacked the Hill of Tara with shovels looking for Noah's Ark. As a result, the archaeology of the most historic site in Ireland was destroyed because everything was just dug up and thrown around higgledy piggledy. The dangers of a little knowledge.

And giving us the sad phrase, 'Tarara-boom-de-ay'.

So what trees do we have today that were around in 2350 BC? The ones preserved in bogs?

Yes - bog oak. It's done by finding an old tree and another not quite so old tree and finding the outer rings of the older one that match the inner rings of the later one. Eventually you can build up a complete set of rings going back all the way from the present to about 5,000 BC. They've done the same in California with the Bristlecone Pines.

And you can carbon date individual rings, not to verify their age, but to calibrate the carbon dating process.

So you are suggesting that the study of histories is also a Study of The Rings? One author might be well pleased ...

Twenty rings for root soakings under the sky...

"There we have the proof - Noah was an Irishman."

Well, the Irish Rovers seem to think so

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EPsuOEH1fY

"There we have the proof - Noah was an Irishman."

Well, the Irish Rovers seem to think so

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EPsuOEH1fY

Crops? Were they farming by 2350 BC? I thought it started later than that.

Farming started about 10,000 BCE, at least in the Fertile Crescent...A2054675...

D'oh. Got my thousands confused with my ten thousands. Time for bed.

heheh.

But when did they start farming in the *Infertile* Crescent?

When it finally rained. See Gnomon's OP.

There was a horrific flood around that time when melting icecaps caused the Mediterranean to rise, flooding the Black Sea. Or was it the other way around, with massive ice meltwater from Russia flooding the Black Sea and parts nearby?

In Ireland the stone age people started farming in 4000 BC.

Bananas were being cultivated in Papua-New Guinea 40,000 years ago.

The Melanesians also invented thatch architecture.

Age of Stonehenge:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7625145.stm