[meteorite-list] Kaalijärv - Part 1 of 2

From: Bernd Pauli HD <bernd.pauli_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:01:30 2004
Message-ID: <3CFD06DC.4082436E_at_lehrer1.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de>

"E.P. Grondine" wrote:

> If anyone has MAPS at hand, I would be most
> interested in the citations of Tacitus and Pytheas.

Hi E.P. and List,

VESKI S. et al. (2001) Ecological catastrophe in connection with the
impact of the Kaali Meteorite about 800-400 BC on the island of
Saaremaa, Estonia (MAPS 36-10, 2001 pp. 1367-1375, excerpt):

Indirect written evidence of the impact age has been investigated by
Meri (1976). Meri analyzed the voyage of Pytheas from Massalia
(Marseilles), who between 350–325 B.C. visited Britain and possibly also
the island of Saaremaa (Ultima Thule) to get information on the Baltic
Sea (Metuonis) and its amber. Pytheas wrote in his book on the "Earth
Sea" —"the barbarian showed me the grave where the Sun fell dead". The
same metaphor was repeated in the epic "Argonautics" of Rhodos
Appolonios (295–215 B.C.) where a sailor found a "deep lake in the far
north—the burial of the Sun, from which still fog rose as from the
glowing wound." This gave Meri (1976) the reason to suggest that Lake
Kaali and the meteorite catastrophe were known among the geographers and
philosophers before Cornelius Tacitus, who in his book De Origine et
Situ Germanorum Liber wrote "Upon the right of the Suevian Sea [the
Baltic] the Aestyan nations [Estonians] reside, who use the same customs
and attire with the Suevians [Swedes]. They worship the Mother of the
Gods." (Tacitus, 1942). The Mother of Gods, Cybele, is associated with
meteorites (Burke, 1986). The island of Saaremaa has been inhabited
since the Mesolithic (5800 B.C.; Kriiska, 2000). During the Neolithic
and Bronze Age, Saaremaa was densely populated; indeed, half of the
bronze artefacts of Estonia come from this island (Ligi, 1992). Three
Late Bronze Age fortified settlements (Asva, Ridala and Kaali) are known
from Saaremaa (Aaloe et al., 1977). The main economy was cattle rearing
and agriculture. Archaeological evidence around, inside, and on the
Kaali crater slopes suggests human habitation since 700–500 B.C.
(Lõugas, 1978). This conclusion is based on artifacts and a radiocarbon
date of 2320 ± 40 14C years B.P. (410–350 B.C.) from an archaeological
setting (a stronghold) on the crater rim. In this context it is
interesting to point out that the fortified settlement of Asva (20 km
east from the main crater) burned down according to the radiocarbon
dating of charcoal from a ?30 cm charred settlement layer between 2585 ±
50 and 2520 ± 60 14C years B.P. (800–400 B.C.; Aaloe et al., 1977),
which is close to the age of the Kaali impact (Rasmussen et al., 2000).
Received on Tue 04 Jun 2002 02:28:44 PM PDT