Prehistoric part

In the ancient legends of many nationalities, there is a fairy tale about the great flood that destroyed the world:

Among all the legends about the great flood, the most well-known one is recorded in the sixth to eighth chapters of Genesis. According to the Bible, God is determined to destroy the civilization of this world because of human's evil deeds on the earth. God ordered the righteous Noah to build a huge ark, leaving at least one pair of every creature in the world in the ark. The ark is130m long, 22m wide and13m high. It is divided into upper, middle and lower floors, and each floor has an independent cabin. Then there was a heavy rain in the sky, which made the water level rise continuously. The flood came and wiped out all the creatures on the earth, only the creatures in Noah's ark were preserved. So, after the flood receded, Noah's family continued to live in a new land. They have also become the ancestors of all ethnic groups in the Middle East.

Sumer:

The legend of Mesopotamia is very similar to the Bible. Before the story began, many nationalities had a heated debate about whether to destroy the world with floods.

In Sumerian mythology, Ennier, the wind god and the king of gods, thought that human beings were too noisy, so he released floods, droughts and plagues to destroy human beings. However, the kind-hearted water god Jean taught Ala Haasis the knowledge of irrigation, grain storage and medicine, so human beings survived. Ennier was quite angry and decided to secretly summon several gods to unleash a huge flood to completely exterminate mankind. However, Enqi knew about it and arranged Utna Bishtim to take refuge by boat in advance. Later, he gave Utna Bishtim the ability to live forever and told him to live in seclusion in the mountains. Ernie was very angry and accused Jean of obstructing his plan. Jean explained to him that in order to achieve the necessary balance, innocent human beings should not be completely extinct, and the remaining human beings should be sterilized. However, on the other hand, if human beings don't believe in God and degenerate, they can be slaughtered by God. This is the earliest version of the flood record.

Maya:

Maya Indians have a holy book, Bobo Wu Jing, which they regard as their lifeblood, and there are also records about this flood in which the gods are angry and punish mankind. The book says that the gods created human beings at the beginning of the world. However, this is not a smooth experiment. The gods first carved human figures out of wood and made them speak. These Woodenhead later lost his favor because they forgot the existence of the Creator. So the gods decided to launch a flood to destroy mankind. ...

China:

According to the legend of our country, the cause of the flood was the war between the water god Zhu Rong and the fire god. In a rage, the workers broke the big pillars that supported the sky, so that the sky collapsed and the flood was terrible.

In addition, there is a legend about Dayu's water control, which tells that he has been devoted to water control since his father. But because of poor work, he was killed by Emperor Yao. When he took over, he asked Gun's son Yu to continue his father's work (there are two other versions: the legendary ancient emperor Zhu Rong killed Da Yu's father Gun in Yushan on the orders of the Yellow Emperor; The other is that the gun was killed by Emperor Shun in Yushan. As a result of this work, the people lived and worked in peace and contentment, so Shunchan was established and started the first dynasty of China: Xia (whose son established Xia Dynasty).

At present, according to the excavation of China's east coast by Chinese archaeologists, it is pointed out that the former coastline is farther than the present coast.

Besides Dayu's flood control, another famous flood in China appeared in the story of the goddess mending the sky. "Huainanzi Lan Mingxun" said: "Looking at the past, the four poles are abandoned, Kyushu is cracked, the sky is not restored, the ground is not placed, the fire is not extinguished, and the water is endless. Wild animals eat people, while birds prey on the old and the weak. So nuwa refined five-color stones to make up the sky, and the broken claws were enough to set up four poles, killing the black dragon and helping Jizhou, and accumulating reed ash to stop the lewd water. Tianbu, four poles are positive; Water is dry, Jizhou is flat; When a cunning worm dies, it destroys people's livelihood; Go back to the state and hold a round of days. "

The legend of Taiwan Province province:

Ami nationality

The flood legend of the Ami, also known as the Sagaya flood legend, tells that a long time ago, before an important festival, God asked people to make sacrifices to the gods in the shrine, but successive bumper harvests made people forget their respect for God, and the gods were furious and drowned many tribes. The chief of one of the tribes led his people to climb the high mountain in Sakkila to take refuge, but the flood kept rising. Later, the chief received instructions from the gods to sacrifice a pair of men and women. The chief's daughter and a young man died.

Atayal nationality

According to the legend of the Atayal people, their ancestors were born in Paswakan in Archean. Pasvakan means that a stone cracked and a person was born. A man and a woman got married, gave birth to the ancestors of the Atayal, and gave birth to many descendants. One day, it suddenly rained heavily and was attacked by floods everywhere. After people fled to the top of Dabajian Mountain, they found a pair of brothers and sisters who broke the taboo and got married. People throw them into the water, and the water immediately recedes, forming two rivers, one is He Xiong (Da 'anxi) and the other is Nv 'he (Dajiaxi).

In addition, the Mondonians, the largest Afeng Indian in the United States, and the northern Indians in Southern California have similar flood legends. In the memory of human mythology, this flood is overwhelming and very spectacular. According to the statistics of relevant experts, there are more than 50 known flood myths and legends all over the world. Most of them have clear context and complete narration, and after textual research, most of the flood legends are formed independently, that is, they are purely oral narratives of their own nation and have nothing to do with a certain dominant culture.

The great flood is a legend shared by many nationalities in the world. Anthropologists have found that Mesopotamia, Greece, India, China, Maya and other civilizations have legends of world extinction. Among them, the legends of various nationalities in Mesopotamia are obviously homologous. Christians believe and claim that this legend has become varied because of the gradual dispersion of the residence of various ethnic groups in the future. On the other hand, with the re-understanding of our past culture and legends around the world, we are surprised to find that the legend of the "great flood" is circulating all over the world. So, today's historians are trying to find legends around the world and try to find some information about the past from them? .

However, there are also some ethnic groups with a long history, such as Egypt, Mongolia, North Korea, Japan, Central Asia, etc., but there is no legend of "the flood destroyed the world", which has aroused doubts from opponents.

2. Has there ever been a prehistoric flood?

Has the flood ever happened and how did it happen? This question is still a mystery.

Scholars who believe that prehistoric floods have never happened believe that prehistoric humans usually thrive along rivers, and some rivers often change course. The flood recorded in many myths is only a deep impression left by the phenomenon of river diversion.

However, scholars who believe that prehistoric floods have occurred believe that the myths handed down by many different civilizations should not be just coincidences.

Kramer and other scholars believe that a pure global flood system does not exist; Most flood legends in China originated from Sumerians in the two river basins. They are based on archaeological discoveries. Sumerian clay tablets containing the earliest flood legend were discovered at the beginning of this century; Later, in the excavation of Ur, the ancient city of Sumer, a sand layer with a thickness of 1 1 ft was found underground. According to the test, it was accumulated by a catastrophic flood in the two river basins around 4500 BC, which also submerged a prehistoric people named Wu Baudhuin. Therefore, Kramer and others are convinced that Sumer's flood story is the memory left by this catastrophe, which is exaggerated by folklore as the world flood. This story has gradually evolved into a worldwide cultural phenomenon through its spread among ancient Babylonians, Jews and other nationalities.

A group of scholars, represented by Fuller in England, also pointed out that a world flood is impossible. They think that all kinds of flood stories have different origins and do not come from the same source. In all parts of the ancient world, tsunamis caused by volcanic earthquakes, tidal waves caused by hurricanes, floods caused by heavy rains or snowmelt may all be said to be caused by people who suffered greatly. Moreover, many stories are pure myths, the result of subjective imagination, and they are not credible.

Another opinion is the opposite. They believe that1when the Quaternary Ice Age of the earth began to retreat before 2020, the climate became warmer, glaciers melted and flooded, and the sea water rose continuously, engulfing the bare continental shelf and continental bridge, and a large-scale seawater immersion occurred, flooding many coasts and part of the land. Therefore, the worldwide flood did happen, but it did not reach the level of flooding everything. At that time, people close to the sea and water suffered huge losses and were forced to move to the highlands, with terrible flood stories. So most parts of the world have legends about the world flood. Many cultural relics submerged in seawater and traces of seawater immersion have become strong arguments for this statement.

In addition, some experts put forward other different opinions in three other aspects:

1. Foreign impact theory: A huge asteroid hit the Pacific Ocean, causing tsunamis, earthquakes and other disasters, causing floods. (But I haven't found any evidence of this effect yet. Personally, I think this statement is not credible. )

2. Earth volcano theory: The eruption of the Earth volcano caused a great flood.

3. Theory of planetary change: the movement of the earth's axis causes the changes of the north and south poles, the climate changes dramatically, the original temperate zone becomes polar, the polar ice and snow melt, and the sea level rises. The whole atmosphere changes violently, forming a super storm, thus forming a flood.

Of course, some experts have put forward the hypothesis that aliens cause floods, which is a bit unrealistic, so I won't waste much ink here. Let's analyze whether the existing theory makes sense logically.

Global warming leads to sea level rise: during the fourth ice age, the sea level was lower than it is now 130m. This statement has become an academic knowledge, because only in this way can the ancestors of Asia cross the Bering Continental Bridge and reach the American continent. From this point of view, it seems reasonable that the sea level rise above 100 meters flooded the habitat of primitive humans, which is a prehistoric flood. However, even if glaciers melt, sea level rise should be a relatively slow process, and sea level rise can be determined. But this process should last for thousands of years, and the sea level may rise by more than ten to dozens of centimeters every year. Because I can't find the exact prehistoric data, the above is just my guess. In fact, the sea level is still rising by a few millimeters every year, and most people are indifferent to it. Prehistoric humans would never regard the slow rise of seawater as a disaster. Therefore, it seems a bit far-fetched to regard global sea level rise as evidence of a major flood.

Asteroids hit the earth and triggered a global tsunami: if such an asteroid falls into the Pacific Ocean, it will trigger a global tsunami. Survivors regard this event as a devastating flood that God punishes mankind. This statement also makes sense. The only problem is that there is no evidence that such an asteroid has hit the earth in the past 1 ten thousand years. Therefore, this statement remains to be verified.

Planetary change theory: this statement also makes the same mistake as the previous sea level rise theory. In the absence of external interference, even if the position of the earth's poles changes, it must be a very slow process, and it is absolutely impossible for the poles to suddenly deflect at a large angle. Therefore, this statement cannot be a strong evidence of the flood.

Do you think there was a flood in prehistoric times?

Third, my understanding of the "prehistoric flood"

Although I deny the above statement about the great flood, it doesn't mean that I think the "prehistoric great flood" is a myth. On the contrary, I think the prehistoric flood must have happened, and it was global, simultaneous and lasted for a long time.

According to climatologists' speculation, the fourth ice age was about1.20 thousand years ago. The earth's climate began to warm for some reason, and the global glaciers began to recede. In the past, experts and scholars always thought that the rising sea water made people think it was a big flood, but they ignored one point. With the warming of the temperature, the glacial meltwater of rivers on land is also increasing, which may be a very slow process at first until about 7000-8000 years ago. Due to the retreat of the white ice sheet, the dark seawater and surface area increase, the solar reflectivity decreases, and the efficiency of the earth to absorb heat is obviously improved, so the global temperature is warming faster and faster, and the sea level rise caused by the thermal expansion of seawater is more and more obvious. However, seawater is not the main reason why the prehistoric flood left a deep collective memory for all ethnic groups in the world. The culprit of the terrible nightmare of prehistoric ancestors is the large-scale glaciers accumulated on the plateau. This nightmare begins around May every year. With the increase of temperature, a large amount of glacier melt water began to flood into rivers. In midsummer, the flood reached its peak, a large area of human settlements were flooded, and plants were flooded before they could bear fruit. Food shortage became the primary problem faced by prehistoric people at that time.

It never rains but it pours. This passage can be used to describe the experience of prehistoric ancestors. The flood was accompanied by heavy rain, because the water vapor in the atmosphere increased greatly. This phenomenon should be as long as the melting of glaciers, and it will gradually disappear until the relationship between the melting of glaciers and the formation of new glaciers reaches a balance point, which also corresponds to two prehistoric myths in China-Dayu's flood control and maiden's mending the sky. Because the prehistoric calendar has not been invented, people didn't know how long the disaster lasted at that time, and this memory may have lost many details in the process of inheritance, but human beings are a species used to listening to stories. After the flood subsided, the witnesses of this history told it as a story from generation to generation, and it has been introduced to our ears until today.

When I was collecting information about prehistoric floods, I didn't collect any fairy tales about the floods in Egypt, Japan, North Korea and Mongolia because of limited information. According to my reasoning, such a large-scale and long-term flood will only occur in the continent where glacial meltwater is formed and in areas where rivers are relatively large. Egypt's Nile water source is not formed by glacial meltwater, so there is no myth about flood, and the Nile floods once a year when the rainy season comes in Africa. People have long been accustomed to this rule, which may be another reason why there is no flood myth.

Some people may think that this is just my wild guess. To tell you the truth, I'm not entirely sure that the possibility I analyzed is correct. It's just another way to think about why the myth of the great flood will spread around the world. Inspired by the causal relationship of floods in the south after the snowstorm in 2008. At the beginning of 2008, affected by La Nina phenomenon, a large area of southern China suffered from snow disaster and ice disaster. I still remember when I was in high school, which happened to be during the winter vacation. Because of the freezing rain, the branches and leaves of all plants were covered with a thick layer of ice, and the ice on the wires was as thick as beer bottles. Many power lines and towers were crushed or collapsed by snow and ice, resulting in large-scale power outages. At the same time, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is covered with more ice and snow than usual. When the temperature warmed up in May, the snow and ice began to melt, and the water level in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River was rising due to the increase in rainfall, which triggered a large-scale flood. The following is a news report about the flood:

Since the beginning of June 2008, there has been a continuous and large-scale heavy rainfall process in southern China, and severe rainstorm and flood disasters have occurred in some areas. Basin floods occurred in the Pearl River, major floods occurred in the main stream of Xijiang River, major floods occurred in some tributaries, and floods exceeding the warning level occurred in more than 40 rivers across the country. Heavy rainfall caused landslides in some areas, damaged houses, flooded crops, and seriously damaged some water conservancy, transportation, water supply, power supply, communication and other facilities.

? The main affected areas of this flood.

? The disaster affected twelve provinces (cities, autonomous regions) in Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan, Fujian, Sichuan and Chongqing to varying degrees.

? Preliminary statistics of losses caused by floods

? According to the preliminary statistics of the National Defense General, as of June 17 and June 6, the rainfall in southern China has caused disasters in 476 counties and cities in186 townships in 12 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities), with 27.63 million people affected, 37 people killed, 9 people missing and 65,400 houses.

? Although the degree of flood disaster in South China is lower than that in previous years, it is difficult to make an accurate estimate of disaster losses because the duration of heavy rainfall in the future is difficult to determine. According to the analysis of relevant experts, if the heavy rainfall lasts until the grain harvest period in July, the light conditions of grain crops are insufficient, and the crops may fall down due to precipitation, and the disaster losses may increase significantly.

? Where is the possible flood disaster in the future?

? Since the beginning of this year, the area affected by crop flooding and the affected area are much lower than 1998, which are 1 1.05% and 8.83% respectively. With the continuous heavy rainfall, the affected area may further expand, but according to the current data, the affected area and affected area of this year's flood may even be lower than the level in 2006.

? The Pearl River Basin is the hardest hit by floods in South China this year. If the new round of rainfall is heavy and the Xijiang River recedes slowly, the soil storage capacity in the early stage has basically reached saturation, which is easy to cause disasters such as flash floods, and the flood control situation in the Pearl River Basin is not optimistic. According to the main characteristics of climate factors and the current climate background, the Hydrological Bureau of the Yangtze River Committee made a comprehensive forecast of the drought and flood trend in the Yangtze River basin in this flood season: from May to 10, the rainfall in the Yangtze River basin was generally normal. During the main flood season from June to August, the rainfall in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River is basically normal, with more in the middle and lower reaches, and obviously more near the main stream of the middle reaches, and there may be concentrated rainfall in some areas of the basin.

? The main feature of the climatic factors affecting the drought and flood trend in the flood season in the Yangtze River basin this year is that the El Ni? o event with weak intensity occurred last winter and this spring, which on the one hand led to the rare low water in the Yangtze River basin and even the difficulty in drinking water in some areas. On the other hand, there is a lot of snow on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and the temperature in most parts of China is high, which will inevitably lead to an increase in snowmelt water.

The ice disaster and snow disaster in 2008 only lasted about two months, and the warming temperature brought considerable floods. Glaciers that melted more than 7,000 years ago have accumulated on the earth for hundreds of thousands of years, and the destructive power caused by their melting is unimaginable.

Fourth, the extinction of prehistoric animals.

? Whenever we talk about the progress of human civilization, it is generally believed that human beings are very cruel animals. Wherever they go, large animals will become extinct. It is undeniable that human beings are mainly responsible for the extinction of many animals, but if the extinction of a large number of prehistoric animals is attributed to prehistoric people, I object to this view.

? From the evidence of fossil archaeology, the extinction of mammoths, mastodons and other animals has great suspicion for human beings. About 12000 years ago, the first hunters crossed the Bering Strait from Siberia (scholars think that the sea level at that time was 130 meters lower than it is now, so it is also called Bering Continental Bridge) and arrived in Alaska, USA. About 1000 years later, mammoths were basically extinct in the American continent.

? Paul Martin, a geoscientist at the University of Arizona, described the encounter between hunters and mammoths with "blitzkrieg": they found a large number of large mammals on the North American continent. These animals have never seen a human, so they can't run when they see a human. They are docile and easy to kill. Because they can always kill large animals to get a stable food source, the population increases rapidly. The hunters who entered the North American continent in the early days killed all the large mammals in one place and began to kill in another place. All the large animals they went to were extinct. When they reached the southernmost tip of South America, most of the large mammals in the whole American continent were extinct.

? Professor Martin's point of view has many loopholes. First of all, he must have overestimated the hunting ability of prehistoric humans and underestimated the resistance of mammoths when they were hunted.

Let's start with mammoths. Combined with archaeological data and existing wild elephants, mammoths should also be a social animal. Prehistoric humans should not take the initiative to provoke mammoths as long as they are not stupid. Occasionally, some solitary mammoths may be besieged and killed by humans. Moreover, even if the mammoth is killed, it is very troublesome to move the meat weighing one ton back to its own camp. Don't think that only humans ate meat at that time, and other carnivores were eyeing it. And it is difficult to eat more than one ton of meat in a short time. Endless meat will bring two troubles, one is corruption, and the other is that the smell easily attracts other carnivores and poses a threat to the elderly, women and children in the camp.

A single mammoth may be targeted by different tribes at the same time, and if it is not properly distributed after hunting, it may also cause conflicts between tribes. Then what do you mean by prehistoric people hunting mammoths?

In addition, is it really appropriate to say that mammoths, mastodons, hairy rhinos and other animals are tamed? Now we all know that elephants are not weak in cognitive ability and intelligence. They live in groups. Even if early humans just set foot on the American continent, mammoths were killed by humans unprepared. As long as humans did not kill all the mammoths at once, the mammoth leaders of this group would firmly remember this scene in their minds. Will it be docile to kill them in the future? This is obviously a naive idea.

/kloc-since 0/600 years, human beings have really dealt a devastating blow to many wild animals and plants, leading to the extinction of many species. But as far as I know, apart from the silly great auk that has been described, human beings have not made a species extinct through continuous killing, but more because of indirect reasons, which I will mention later in the chapter on agricultural revolution. The extinction of mammoths may have little to do with humans.

? In an article published in Nature in 20 14, an interdisciplinary team composed of scientists from 12 countries showed that the Arctic flora in the past 50,000 years was mainly herbaceous flowering plants, which was a nutritious food for large herbivorous mammals. However, from 25,000 to 1.5 million years ago, most of the land in the Arctic was covered with ice, which led to a sharp decline in the diversity of herbaceous flowering plants. At this stage, large mammals barely survive from the ice-free zone. With the climate change at the end of the ice age, herbaceous plants were further reduced and then replaced by grassland. This grassland, which is relatively deficient in nutrients, is not a good food substitute, which led to the final extinction of large mammals in the Arctic region 6,543,800 years ago.

? During the Ice Age, land plants Group was considered to be mainly grassland and sedge, which was based on the study of pollen found in permafrost. However, the development of DNA analysis makes it possible to extract and sequence DNA from ice age plant materials preserved in Arctic permafrost. In addition, additional information about plant selection was found from the stomach contents of corpses preserved in permafrost and the animal excreta of extinct large herbivores such as long-haired rhinoceros and mammoth. Mary of Southampton University in England? Professor Edwards revealed the results of this research and DNA analysis at the press conference.

Scientists have obtained permafrost samples from Siberia, Canada and Alaska. Many preserved plants are preserved in the form of roots and other plant parts. Scientists sequenced DNA extracted from frozen plant materials and compared it with modern related northern herbs and museum samples.

/kloc-more than 0/0000 years are mainly non-grasses. The stomach contents of frozen corpses of extinct mammals and animal excreta obtained from permafrost show that these animals prefer non-grasses.

Dale, a paleontologist at the University of Alaska at fairbanks? Professor Dale guthrie explained the significance of this discovery. "In modern biological systems dominated by large herbivores, such as bison, a large number of non-grasses are rarely found. Ecologists who study ancient ecosystems suspect that herbivores were part of the positive cycle in the ice age environment, and their excreta fertilized the land and made non-grass plants flourish. At the end of the ice age, the climate changed dramatically, becoming warmer and wetter. This situation no longer supports the relationship between mammals and non-herbaceous plants, and other types of plants (such as woody shrubs and trees) dominate the terrain. This change may have serious consequences for animals and may indirectly lead to the extinction of a large number of mammals at the end of the ice age. "

According to my guess, before 12000, two tribes may have reached America through the Bering Strait. One of them may have followed some mammals that migrated northward to the Arctic Circle, that is, the ancestors of the Inuit now, and the other one went south to Central America, which is slowly warming up, and migrated to the southernmost tip of South America.

Unfortunately, global warming began shortly after humans arrived in America. Every summer, glacial meltwater begins to repeatedly scour every inch of land. A large number of plants were flooded before they could be civilized, and even seeds were washed away by the flood. Food shortage is one of the main reasons for the extinction of a large number of herbivores. Secondly, these large animals grew a thick layer of fur during the long cooling process in the fourth ice age. It is difficult for large animals to cool down, and the warm and humid climate is not what they like, so they have to migrate to the south, and those areas covered by glaciers for tens of thousands of years were almost deserted during the period when the glaciers just melted. This further gave these big guys a fatal blow. The pregnant mother mammoth may give birth to a dead baby due to malnutrition, and the newborn baby mammoth may die because the mother has no milk.

? All extinct animals in prehistoric times have one characteristic. They have done too much "addition" on genes during their long evolutionary journey. In order to resist the cold, they add a thick layer of fur to themselves, and their bodies get bigger every generation. Because their huge bodies can be used to store and generate more heat, the process of cooling the earth may last for millions of years, while the process of warming may only last for hundreds of years. These have done too much "addition" on genes. Prehistoric humans just entered the American continent when these prehistoric behemoths were extinct, just like a new immigrant accidentally broke into a house where a murder had just happened and was caught by the police. In the eyes of the police, if you didn't kill this man, who else did?