Ancient images carved into stone at an archaeological site in Turkey tell the story of the comet that triggered a small-scale ice age more than 13,000 years ago, scientists at the University of Edinburgh revealed this week in the Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry publication.
The researchers said that carvings on a rock called the Vulture Stone suggest that a collection of comet fragments hit the Earth leading to human disaster around 11000 BC.
The carving of a headless man is believed to symbolize the extensive loss of life and it is reported that the event, which wiped out woolly mammoths, helped to spark the rise of human civilization on Earth.
For decades, scientists speculated that a comet could have caused the drop in temperature that occurred during a period known as the Younger Dryas.
This period is crucial in the history of humanity as it is pinpointed as the era during which agricultural practices began and the first Neolithic civilizations made their mark.
Before the comet strike, vast swathes of wild wheat and barley had allowed nomadic hunters in the Middle East to set up base camps. However, the icy conditions that followed caused communities to work together in the fight to maintain crops which led to the rise of communal farming and the first towns.
The Telegraph reports that experts analyzed symbols carved onto stone at Gobekli Tepe in southern Turkey in a bid to find out if they could be linked to constellations.
The scientists interpreted the animals in the carvings as astronomical symbols and matched their positions to patterns of stars using computer software, leading researchers to date the event to 10,950BC.

Source: Arab News