The fall of Phaethon: a Greco-Roman geomyth preserves the memory of a meteorite impact in Bavaria (south-east Germany)

Abstract

Arguing from a critical reading of the text, and scientific evidence on the ground, the authors show that the myth of Phaethon – the delinquent celestial charioteer – remembers the impact of a massive meteorite that hit the Chiemgau region in Bavaria between 2000 and 428 BC.

The sinkhole enigma in the Alpine Foreland, Southeast Germany: Evidence of impact-induced rock liquefaction processes

“…The Chiemgau strewn field [35][36][37][38][39][40] discovered in the early new millennium and dated to the Bronze Age/Celtic era comprises more than 80 mostly rimmed craters scattered in a region of about 60 km length and ca. 30 km width in the very South-East of Germany ( Figure 14, Figure 1).…”

“…Physical and archaeological dating confines the impact event to have happened most probably between 2,200 and 500 B.C. [37,38]. The impactor is suggested to have been a roughly 1,000 m sized low-density disintegrated, loosely bound asteroid or a disintegrated comet in order to account for the extensive strewn field [36].…”

Response to ‘The fall of Phaethon: a Greco-Roman geomyth preserves the memory of a meteorite impact in Bavaria (south-east Germany)’ by Rappenglück et al. (Antiquity 84)

“…The crater rim proposed by Rappenglück et al (2010) does not exhibit the shape normally expected of crater walls; instead it takes the form of a gravel terrace, in part more than 200m wide, built up by meltwater on the edge of the ice. Moreover, it is confined to the western and southern shores of the Tüttensee (Figure 1) and shows fluvial crossbedding in a gravel pit.…”

“…This continuous and undisturbed sequence of peat overlying lake deposits from 4800 to 12 500 BP clearly contradicts the existence of structures which would be expected from a 2500-year-old impact crater. Above all, Rappenglück et al (2010) propose an impact which not only created the Tüttensee basin but also caused massive shock effects in the rock leading to melting and the formation of nanodiamonds.…”

“…The article by Rappenglück et al (2010) has proposed a connection between the historical myth of the fall of Phaethon and a meteorite impact in south-eastern Bavaria. The authors contend that the well-known myth of the crash of the sun chariot represents the survival of a memory of this natural catastrophe and suggest therefore that this confirms that the impact took place during the Iron Age, some 2500 years ago.…”