Bill Napier has a significant paper coming out soon in the Monthly Bulletin of the Royal Astronomical Society, and I got a look at it pre-publication. While I cant share the paper itself, I can share the abstract STRIKE and a few snippets STRIKE. The paper is significant because for the first time it provides an astronomical context for the 12,900 event. Napier shows that the event is entirely compatible with a swarm of airbursts from the Taurid Stream, host to the short period Comet Encke. More later…
Update: I am working to get excerpts approved for the blog, but, until then, the abstract:
Palaeolithic extinctions and the Taurid Complex
W.M. Napier, Cardiff Centre for Astrobiology, Cardiff University, 2 North Road, Cardiff CF10 3DY, UK
Accepted 2010 February 21. Received 2010 February 20; in original form 2010 January 23
Intersection with the debris of a large (50-100 km) short-period comet during the Upper Palaeolithic provides a satisfactory explanation for the catastrophe of celestial
origin which has been postulated to have occurred around 12900 BP, and which presaged a return to ice age conditions of duration »1300 years. The Taurid Complex
appears to be the debris of this erstwhile comet; it includes at least 19 of the brightest near-Earth objects. Sub-kilometre bodies in meteor streams may present the greatest
regional impact hazard on timescales of human concern.