[meteorite-list] Australian Aboriginal Geomythology: Eyewitness Accounts of Cosmic Impacts?

From: Robert Verish <bolidechaser_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 27 Sep 2010 08:33:28 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <306286.17374.qm_at_web51704.mail.re2.yahoo.com>

<http://arxiv.org/abs/1009.4251>

Australian Aboriginal Geomythology:
Eyewitness Accounts of Cosmic Impacts?

Authors: Duane W. Hamacher, Ray P. Norris
(Submitted on 22 Sep 2010)

Abstract: Descriptions of cosmic impacts and meteorite falls are found throughout Australian Aboriginal oral traditions. In some cases, these texts describe the impact event in detail, sometimes citing the location, suggesting that the events were witnessed. We explore whether cosmic impacts and meteorite falls may have been witnessed by Aboriginal Australians and incorporated into their oral traditions. We discuss the complications and bias in recording and analysing oral texts but suggest that these texts may be used both to locate new impact structures or meteorites and model observed impact events. We find that, while detailed Aboriginal descriptions of cosmic impacts are abundant in the literature, there is currently no physical evidence connecting these accounts to impact events currently known to Western science.

Comments:? Submitted to "Archaeoastronomy: The Journal of Astronomy in Culture", 51 pages, 6 Figures, 6 Tables

Subjects:? History of Physics (physics.hist-ph); Popular Physics (physics.pop-ph)
Cite as:? arXiv:1009.4251v1 [physics.hist-ph]
Received on Mon 27 Sep 2010 11:33:28 AM PDT