Quote:Abu Hureyra, Syria, Part 3: Comet airbursts triggered major climate change 12,800 years ago that initiated the transition to agriculture.

Conclusions

Previous investigations at Abu Hureyra, Syria, reported that the YDB stratum contains abundance peaks in high-temperature meltglass, nanodiamonds, magnetic spherules, carbon spherules, platinum, iridium, nickel, and chromium. This contribution builds on those investigations and presents an integrated suite of high-resolution quantitative data and novel interpretations for transitioning from hunting-gathering to hunting-cultivating at the Abu Hureyra site. Our investigation reveals slow changes in site utilization by humans for centuries up until and just after the YD onset, punctuated by a significant, abrupt change immediately at the YD onset. Thus, our investigation provides substantial additional support for the hypothesis that a cometary airburst occurred close to Abu Hureyra, proposed as one of many nearly simultaneous airbursts broadly distributed over five continents. We suggest that fragments producing these airbursts were derived from a disintegrating, ~100-km-wide large comet. This encounter is proposed to have triggered hemispheric YD climate change. Locally, this abruptly and fundamentally changed the lifestyles of Abu Hureyra villagers, as reflected in the adoption of persistent selective cultivation of domestic-type wild grains and legumes and initial control of wild animals leading to domestication. This change was a vital initial step in transitioning from exclusive hunting-gathering to sustained agriculture and herding.