User:LizCannon25/Ancient Nuclear Warfare

The possibility of ancient nuclear warfare, also known as ancient atomic warfare or prehistoric nuclear warfare, was first proposed by author Erich von Däniken in the 1960s. His theory asserts that nuclear weapons were produced and utilized by ancient cultures or ancient astronauts in the distant past. Von Däniken and other authors claim to have found evidence for nuclear weapons in the Bible, the Mahabharata, Libyan desert glass, and vitrified architecture.

The Bible
In Chariots of the Gods?, von Däniken claims that aliens had destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah with nuclear weapons. He cites the following passage from the Bible as evidence of what happened to the two settlements:


 * By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. Then the LORD rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah-from the LORD out of the heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities-and also the vegetation in the land.  But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.  Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the LORD.  He looked down toward all the land, like smoke from a furnace.  So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.

Jason Colavito proposes that this description shows little in common with what actually happens when an atomic bomb detonates. First, a blast creating a wave of energy knocks down everything around it. A nuclear bomb can set off fires depending upon the presence of flammable material.

However, it is impossible to test von Däniken's theories because the remains of neither Sodom nor Gomorrah has been found. This begs the question of whether they existed at all.

The Mahabharata
The Mahabharata has also been cited as containing evidence of ancient nuclear weaponry. David W. Davenport and Ettore Vincenti assert that a nuclear bomb destroyed Mohenjo Daro. This intepretation has also been suggested by David Hatcher Childress, who cites the following excerpt:

“Gurkha, lying a swift and powerful vimana, hurled a single projectile charged with all the power of the Universe. An incandescent column of smoke and flame, as bright as ten thousand suns, rose in all its splendor.

It was an unkown weapon, and iron thunderbolt, a gigantic messenger of death, which reduced to ashes the entire race of the Vrishnis and Andhakas.

The Corpses were so burned they were unrecognizable. Their hair and nails fell out. Pottery broke without an apparent cause, and the birds turned white.

… After a few hours, all foodstuffs were infected… … to escape from this fire, the soldiers threw themselves in streams to wash themselves and all their equipment."

However, Colavito argues that this excerpt was edited in favor of Childress’ argument and is a misquotation of the Mahabharata.

Desert Glass
According to Childress, Libyan desert glass results from the detonation of an atomic bomb 8,000 years ago. He rejects explanation of glass as the result of a projectile hitting the Earth, claiming there is no evidence of an impact crater. Other authors note that Childress bases his on pieces of the glassy trinitite left at nuclear test sites such as the Trinity nuclear test at Alamogordo, New Mexico. Skeptics such as Evelyn Mervine refute Childress' theory by noting that humans did not live on Earth 28 mya, the period to which the feature is dated, so the possibility of a weapon at this time is not plausible. Furthermore, geologists note the glass could have originated by high temperature fusion following the impact of a meteorite. Furthermore, remote sensing has helped map out remnants of an impact crater previously claimed not to have existed.

Vitrified Forts
Childress also discusses the possibility that vitrified forts in Scotland are proof of nuclear warfare in the ancient past. Childress says it would have been impossible for a fire to high enough temperatures to vitrify rock and proposes the hot blast of a nuclear bomb caused the vitrification.

An alternative explanation is that the vitrification resulted from the combustion of timber. Friend reports, “The new evidence indicates that vitrification occurred at lower temperatures than previously modeled and thus the melts could have been achieved more easily than previously thought”. Brian Dunning argues that the atomic blast at the Trinity Test reached 5.5 million Kelvins, which is a lot hotter than what it takes to vitrify stone. Also, the blast left specific signatures no one has found at any vitrified fort.

Reasons for Believing
It is important to note this theory followed creation of the atomic bomb in 1945. To quote Colavito,


 * ... it seems that contemporary anxieties are being projected backward into the past. Until the first nuclear blast in 1945, no human civilization had possessed the power to completely destroy civilization

Imagining ancient nuclear warfare serves two purposes. First, assertion that there were ancient atomic bombs affirms believe in advanced civilizations in the ancient past and contributes to the belief that technology has declined from the distant past to the present. Second, it suggests that possession of nuclear weapons does not foreshadow the end of humanity because humans are still in existence today.