Watermark: The Disaster That Changed the World and Humanity 12,000 Years Ago

by Joseph Christy-Vitale

Book Overview

THE ECHOES OF OUR PAST
Twelve thousand years ago, the human race barely escaped annihilation when a piece of exploded star passed through our solar system, unleashing an apocalypse. Great fires raged, mountains rose and fell, a maelstrom of cosmic debris bombarded Earth, continents broke apart, and oceans swept across the land. Millions of people, animals, and plants perished almost overnight. Entire societies, cultures, and belief systems...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743491904
• ISBN13: 9780743491907
• Release Date: June 2004
• Publisher: Gallery Books
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.3" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

What if?! Page Turner!

This was a great book to wet the appetite of ancient What-ifs. The author does a great job in linking ancient mythology, geology, animal extinctions and astronomy into a very probable scenario. In all this was a great page turner that feels like a well written historical account of cataclysm backed by evidence. It is not too packed with data to feel like a geology textbook. Also not being to dreamy like a UFO chaser. Why only 4 stars? I felt that the last few chapters were a little rushed and mostly speculation, but what else is there to go by? I would have liked a little more images, diagrams and something make it just a little more evident. Next I am reading "Cataclysm" by D.S. Allen and J.B. Delair for a little more scientific evidence of all those bone-caves that Vitale wrote about. Thank you for your great chase through ancient history Joseph!

Stunning, entertaining, educational, . . . but not gospel!

Having finished reading this book a few days ago, I felt that the author had cleared up many of the mysteries I had grown up with as a child. Questions such as: Why is the axis of Uranus tilted so? Was there an Atlantis? Who/what killed the mammoths? Was the story of Noah's Ark real? and Why is the flood myth almost universally found in all cultures and folklore? Having a substantial education in science, I was quite skeptical of the author's claim that a chunk of supernova came careening its way through our solar system, wreaking havoc among the planets. It didn't seem likely that supernova ejecta would ever recondense into appreciable blobs until it had fully dissipated into the surrounding interstellar medium. However, looking at detailed photos of planetary nebulae (nova & supernova remnants) I've notices that the outer (leading) edges often coalesce into sizeable clumps, that may indicate fairly solid cores within them. As for one editorial review claiming that no iron isotopes had been found for the time period indicated (~12,000 years ago), an article (http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/NSD-mammoth-extinction.html) prove the reviewer wrong. In fact, there is a growing body of evidence that a comet exploded over Canada about that long ago, killing the mammoths and the clovis culture (paleoamericans) inhabiting north America at that time. For more information, see the book "The Cycle of Cosmic Catastrophes" by Richard Firestone, Allen West, and Simon Warwick-Smith. And while I still don't buy a number of the ideas put forth in the book - one body tipping Uranus, tilting Neptune, creating Saturn's rings, exploding the planet between Mars and Jupiter, and then producing Noah's Flood and a subsequent ice age - I do like the way the author ties together the many disparate deluge, destruction and creation myths from around the world into one more or less cohesive whole. And that he does with great humanity and optimism both for our past, and our future. He refers to the people who lived before that time as being members of an enlightened Golden Age, who lived by the One Law (the Golden Rule) and who were rather saintly (kind, moral, just, and compassionate), compared to the selfish, mean-spirited, and often ruthless individuals who run the world today. This may be a fantasy, but the author takes care to detail the widespread reports of teachers and helpers, who appeared all over the world after the catastrophe, to help survivors regain their humanity and civilization. I give this book four stars for the excellence of the writing and the scholarship in drawing together so many diverse tales and disciplines. I refuse the fifth star because the science is fairly dubious in a number of instances. For instance, I can only barely imagine a mechanism by which enormous lightening bolts might be heard on Earth, over half-a-billion miles of vacuous space! And the odds of one celestial body upsetting so many planets during one pa

debunkers smorgasbord

Naturally science writers will hasten to debunk this book. Anything that threatens the current world view held by the organized science industry... and I use the term 'industry' advisedly... threatens the rice bowl of all who support the current theories. And the thing to remember is that they are all theories. No matter how convinced and sincere they are. One will note that a super nova would still be visible. That is a theory. New jaw dropping discoveries are being made in the cosmos on an almost daily basis. Personally, I like Vitales version/theory. His assumptions (insert joke here) seem to fit the facts better. Is he right? Are the scientists right? They don't know, although they would have you think they do, and neither do we. When everyone has slammed their books on the counter, and postured and posed and shouted their versions, and all the dust has settled, there are still mysteries.. caves full of bones, etc.. and Vitales theories fit better. In My Humble Opinion. You go to your church, I'll go to mine.

A stunning portrayal of what may have happened

A stunning, emotionally gripping account of a cosmic horror that may have happened to our ancestors. The usual account of prehistoric times tells us that "there was an ice age and a time of mountain-building" and that "many prehistoric species were hunted to extinction by early humans". That's it. How could something as huge as a giant Planet Killer be ignored and forgotten? This was an unforgettable book that I would recommend to anyone interested in prehistory. At the same time, it is only an introduction. The author touches briefly on many subjects; now I want to read about them in greater depth. I want to see how much of this theory is backed up by research and how much is just speculation. If this really happened... I want to know more!

Using brains for a change, instead of being an Ostrich

Anything that exposes where Science ignores evidence because they can't explain it is worth a read. Especially when that evidence proves their current theory is just a security blanket the crying baby is afraid to give up.This is insightful and logical. In reality, it helps us start to understand why we're using such a small percent of our brain. Why would biology/evolution build such a structure and not use it? A caveman with a large brain makes zero sense. Watermark makes sense.