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CAPPADOCIA
accelerated to incredibly high energy levels penetrating
our atmosphere) would cause strong
electrical discharges to hit Earth, burning and
incinerating materials on the planet’s surface,
and also raise radiation levels on the surface of
Earth. The best way to protect oneself? Go
deep underground.
Paul LaViolette (2011, in the journal Radiocarbon)
has marshaled evidence that a major
solar flare accompanied by a super solar proton
event (SPE), or events, at the end of the last ice
age “fried the Earth” (to use the description of
LaViolette’s hypothesis in Space Daily), the same
time range that has been suggested for the
comet impact mentioned above. LaViolette
bases his conclusions on meticulous analyses of
radiocarbon concentrations in sediment cores
from the Cariaco Basin (off the coast of Venezuela)
correlated with acidity spikes, high nitrate
ion concentrations, and changes in beryllium-10
deposition rates in the Greenland ice
record, all of which he argues are indicators of
a sudden cosmic ray influx, in turn correlating
with solar activity as expressed specifically
through solar flares and SPEs. Additionally,
there would have been accompanying coronal
mass ejections (CMEs) on an enormous scale.
In his Radiocarbon paper LaViolette discusses
some of the effects on Earth of a massive
SPE and the attendant solar activity. The ozone
layer, our protection from deadly ultraviolet
(UV) rays, would have been greatly depleted,
with major ozone holes forming in some areas;
that is, if the ozone layer had not been destroyed
completely! Increased doses of damaging,
and potentially lethal, UV radiation
could have posed a major hazard for organisms
on Earth, especially in high and middle lati-
Landscape of Cappadocia seen from a hot air balloon
62 ATLANTIS RISING • Number 95
tudes. Besides the increased UV radiation, highenergy
cosmic rays that are part of a major SPE
would penetrate the atmosphere and raise radiation
levels on the ground. According to LaViolette’s
calculations, unprotected organisms at
sea level during the event could have accumulated
radiation doses of 3 to 6 Sieverts (a unit
of radiation exposure) over a period of two or
three days. Lethal radiation doses for humans
are in the range of about 3.5 Sieverts, and for
many large mammals in the 3- to 8-Sievert
range. The best mode of protection at the time,
both from the UV radiation and the cosmic ray
radiation, may have been to seek safety in caves
and other underground shelters.
Interestingly, Austrian archaeologist and
speleologist Heinrich Kusch and his wife Ingrid
Kusch have documented hundreds upon hundreds
of tunnel systems under Neolithic settlements
found throughout Europe and Turkey,
some dating back to around twelve thousand
years ago, the end of the last ice age. According
to Heinrich Kusch, based on the number of
tunnels that have survived to the present day,
the original extent of such tunnels must have
been absolutely enormous! He states that many
of the tunnels “are not much larger than big
wormholes—just 70 cm [28 inches] wide—just
wide enough for a person to wriggle along but
nothing else. They are interspersed with nooks;
at some places it’s larger and there is seating, or
storage chambers and rooms. Taken together it
is a massive underground network” (Heinrich
Kusch, quoted in the Austrian Times, 2011).
An immediate question is why were these
tunnels built? What was their use? An incredible
amount of time and effort went into their
construction, so their purpose could not have
been trivial. To quote Heinrich Kusch, “The
precision with which they were built in prehistoric
times is unbelievable. Miners and tunnel
construction engineers I spoke with were
stunned. . . . It would be hard to dig tunnels as
these even with today’s means. They are hewn
very exactly in the hardest granite and people
most probably didn’t even have metal when the
tunnels were built” (Heinrich Kusch, quoted in
the Austrian Times, 2011).
It has been suggested that perhaps these
tunnels were used by early humans to escape
predators or enemies, or perhaps they served as
underground passages from one place to another.
I believe the tunnels were built primarily
as safe havens and refuges from catastrophes occurring
on the surface of Earth. These might
have included comet and meteor bombardments,
but in particular I believe the tunnels
provided shelter from major solar outbursts. In
my opinion, the fact that such events were occurring
around twelve to thirteen thousand
years ago, the very time when many of the tunnels
were carved, is not simple coincidence.
Also, I speculate that many artificial caves and
tunnels that have been dated to later periods
(such as the Bronze Age, circa 3300 BC to 1200
BC) by archaeologists may have their origins
much earlier, at the end of the last ice age some
twelve thousand years ago.
Returning to the underground cities of Cappadocia,
they were clearly used, reused, enlarged,
and reworked for thousands of years (indeed,
portions are still utilized by the local
villagers). I strongly suspect that the earliest incarnations
of the Cappadocian underground
network date back to the end of the last ice
age. This was a time of calamity and turmoil,
with assaults from the skies, conflagrations on
the ground, and elevated radiation levels on the
surface of Earth. The best way, perhaps the only
way, to survive was by going underground. Dramatic
new evidence, which I believe helps confirm
the reality of a major solar outburst at the
end of the last ice age, has recently been released
(Ted Bunch and coauthors, PNAS, June
2012). Naturally melted and vitrified rock
dating to the end of the last ice age has been
discovered at archaeological sites in Pennsylvania,
South Carolina, and Syria (south of
Turkey), which the original researchers suggest
could be the result of a cosmic impact or explosion,
such as that of a comet or meteor. Alternatively,
I suggest a solar outburst/plasma
discharge is another possibility for the vitrified
rock. Back in the early 1960s the late astrophysicist
Thomas Gold (professor at Cornell University)
predicted that fusing and vitrification of
rock and sand is exactly the type of evidence
that would suggest a major solar outburst hit
Earth in ancient times. Now we may have the
physical confirmation.
Robert M. Schoch, a full-time faculty member at
Boston University, earned his Ph.D. in geology and
geophysics at Yale University. His most recent book is
Forgotten Civilization: The Role of Solar Outbursts
in Our Past and Future (Inner Traditions,
2012). Website: www.robertschoch.com
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