Dodwell's surprising study of the obliquity of the ecliptic
© Wikipedia
Earth’s Axial Tilt, or Obliquity.
This Atlantipedia report (reproduced below) from 2010 concerns research by English-born George Dodwell, who held the post of Government Astronomer for South Australia for 43 years (1909 - 1952) until his retirement. He came across a study by a Professor Drayson who cited ancient astronomical observations and put forward a revision to standard Earth precession theory which Dodwell found 'untenable', but he became interested in the data.
Dodwell: 'it seemed to me worthwhile to trace out more clearly just how much, and why, the ancient and mediaeval observations of the obliquity of the ecliptic, on which Professor Drayson based his conclusions, differed from Newcomb's internationally accepted formula for the secular, or age-long, variation of the obliquity.
These observations went back to values given by Strabo, Proclus, Ptolemy, and Pappus in the early centuries of the Christian era. They indicated a consistent and increasing divergence in past ages from the values calculated by means of Newcomb's formula.' [bold added]
Atlantipedia:
George F. Dodwell (1879-1963) was a leading Australian astronomer, who made an extensive study of ancient gnomons and discovered that they deviated from the expected. A gnomon is the part of a sundial that casts the shadow. He concluded that there was consistent evidence that the tilt of the earth's rotational axis was altered around 2345 BC. This view supported those that have claimed that the poles shifted within the memory of man, possibly as a result of a close encounter or impact with an extra-terrestrial body such as a comet. Some have gone further and attribute the destruction of Atlantis to this clash. Dodwell's complete work on the subject can now be read online(a) .
Dodwell, a devout Christian, concluded that it was this sudden shift of the earth's axis that led to the Flood of Noah. Rene Noorbergen (1928-1995) mentions in his [612.20] that Dodwell wrote to Professor Arthur J. Brandenberger of Ohio State University, outlining his theory in the following manner; "I have been making during the last 26 years an extensive investigation of what we know in astronomy as the secular variation of the obliquity of the ecliptic. From a study of the available ancient observations of the position of the sun at the solstices during the last three thousand years, I find a curve which, after allowing for all known changes, shows a typical exponential curve of recovery of the Earth's axis after a sudden change from a former nearly vertical position to an inclination of 26½ degrees, from which it was returned to an equilibrium at the present inclination of 23½ degrees during the interval of the succeeding 3,194 years to A.D. 1850. The date of the change in the Earth's axis, 2345 B.C., is none other than that of the flood recorded in the , and the resulting conclusion is that the Biblical account of the flood as a universal one, together with its story of Noah's Ark, is historically true'.
Dodwell referred to a paper of F.S.Richards on the orientation of the Temple of Ammon at Karnak(b), which indicated an anomalous obliquity of the ecliptic of 25°9'55". This led to considerable debate(c) regarding the age of the temple. William Fix drew attention[871.264] to the widespread reuse of very ancient sacred sites by successive cultures, which might explain the incompatibility between the apparent age of the most recent temple and the greater antiquity suggested by the obliquity of the ecliptic. Alternatively, it might also indicate an encounter with an extraterrestrial body that affected the Earth's axis and caused widespread destruction, including, according to some theories, the destruction of Atlantis!
In 2011 Mike Baillie, the renowned dendrochronologist, had a PowerPoint presentation(d) at the Quantavolution Conference in Athens, which offered tree-ring evidence that clearly demonstrated an 'event' in 2345BC.
More recently, Andrew Bourmistroff, a Russian researcher, has determined that the orientation of the Great Pyramid at Giza is off by 9.85 degrees west of true north(e). The significance, if any, of all these details has yet to be fully determined. [bold added]
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The UK reported in 2001: 'Scientists have found the first evidence that a devastating meteor impact in the Middle East might have triggered the mysterious collapse of civilisations more than 4,000 years ago.'
'[Dr Benny Peiser] said that craters recently found in Argentina date from around the same period - suggesting that the Earth may have been hit by a shower of large meteors at about the same time.' [bold added]
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The Dodwell hypothesis raises interesting questions at least.
(a) The Obliquity of The Ecliptic
(b) Note on the Age of The Great Temple of Ammon at Karnak (PDF)
(c) Dodwells Graph Showing Earth Tilt
(e) Parameter A and the Egyptian Decans
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