The sudden and catastrophic collapse of the Bronze Age civilizations was one of the most dreadful events in history. Towards the beginning of the 12th century BCE, cities across the eastern Mediterranean region – in Cyprus, Crete, Greece, Anatolia, Egypt, Syria, Levant, etc. – went up in flames, never to rise again, and the cultural expressions and religious institutions of the Bronze Age were lost forever. Historian Robert Drews, Professor of Classical Studies, Emeritus, at Vanderbilt University, wrote in the book, The End of the Bronze Age: Changes in Warfare and the Catastrophe ca. 1200 BC, that, 

“Within a period of forty to fifty years at the end of the thirteenth and the beginning of the twelfth century almost every significant city in the eastern Mediterranean world was destroyed, many of them never to be occupied again…Throughout the eastern Mediterranean, the twelfth century BC ushered in a dark age, which in Greece and Anatolia was not to lift for more than four hundred years. Altogether, the end of the Bronze Age was arguably the worst disaster in ancient history...”[1]

The intensity and geographic scale of this devastation are quite mind-boggling. When the archaeologists of the mid-19th century started exploring the ancient Bronze Age sites in the eastern Mediterranean, they found that the cities and palaces – which were constructed of megalithic blocks of stone - had been entirely leveled and almost everywhere they detected a layer of ash containing charred wood. At Hattusa, the capital of the mighty Hittite Empire, the excavators found a layer of “slag, formed when mud-bricks melted from the intense heat of the conflagration,”[2] while at Mycenae, the “masonry structures within the fortification walls (of the citadel) melted in a fire of great intensity.”[3]

Everywhere there were signs of a massive, violent conflagration that had brought on the utter demise of these longstanding centers of culture. Many of these sites – such as Hattusa or Mycenae - remained unoccupied, forgotten, and lost from the pages of history for thousands of years, until they were dug up by archaeologists in the 19th century. At some of the sites, archaeologists have detected signs of rebuilding after the initial wave of devastation in the early 12th century BCE. However, even the rebuilt cities did not last long and were destroyed and abandoned shortly. Apparently, whatever had brought on this widespread disaster lingered on for some time during the 400 years of the Dark Ages that followed.

However, not all cultures in the region were utterly decimated in the 12th century itself. In some cases, the collapse was long drawn out. In Egypt, the rule of Ramses III – the last of the great pharaohs - ended in 1155 BCE with his murder, following which there was a “mega drought” lasting 150 years or more, which caused a severe economic crisis.[4] The end of the 20th Dynasty in 1069 BCE marked the end of Egypt as an independent power. The period from 1070 BCE – 664 BCE is called the “Third Intermediate Period” of Egypt, when the Libyans and the Kushites claimed the throne, at a time of political turmoil, social disintegration, droughts and famine. 

Another ancient empire that survived the initial wave of destruction in the 12th century was Assyria, even as most cities in the Levant and Southern Mesopotamia went up in flames. However, upon the death of Ashur-bel-kala in 1056 BCE, even Assyria went into a comparative decline for the next hundred or so years. The empire shrank significantly, and by 1020 BCE, Assyria appears to have controlled only areas close to Assyria itself.

The effect of this catastrophic civilizational collapse on the people of the eastern Mediterranean was traumatic, to say the least. There was large-scale depopulation, and the people lived in small, isolated, settlements. Some squatters occupied the ruins of the big cities and lived in small huts. Famine gripped the lands, and people migrated in search of food. The ancient trading networks came to a grinding halt. A Dark Age gripped the lands for nearly 400 years, during which time the entire cultural edifice of the Bronze Age was lost forever. 

When the Iron Age began at around 750 BCE, the construction of megalithic cities and palaces had ceased. The pottery had simple geometric patterns. Iron replaced bronze as the metal of choice for manufacturing tools and weapons. Chariots were no longer used in warfare. The Linear B writing of the Mycenaean period was forgotten, and the Greeks had to re-learn the alphabet from the Phoenicians in the 8th century BCE. It was almost as if an “epoch” of humanity was over and the old had given way to the new.

Modern historians think of the Greek Dark Ages as a time of “transition” from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age. Robert Drews used the term “dawn time” to refer to this period of catastrophe and transformation. He wrote that,

“The end of the eastern Mediterranean Bronze Age, in the twelfth century BC, was one of history’s most frightful turning points. For those who experienced it, it was a calamity. In long retrospect, however, the episode marked a beginning rather than an end, the “dawn time” in which people in Israel, Greece, and even Rome sought their origins. ...The metallurgical progress - from bronze to iron - was only the most tangible of the innovations. More significant by far were the development and spread of alphabetic writing, the growth of nationalism, of republican political forms, of monotheism, and eventually of rationalism.”[5]

The philosophers of ancient Greece generally thought of the Dark Ages as a time when a “Shift in the Ages” took place from the “Age of the Heroes” to the “Iron Age”. Many Greek writers dated the famous battle of Troy described in the Iliad, to around the same time that the Late Bronze Age collapse had occurred: Ephorus had dated it to 1135 BCE, Sosibius to 1172 BCE, and Eratosthenes to 1184 BCE. 

As it turns out, the ruins of the city of Troy were discovered by Heinrich Schliemann in 1870, in the course of his excavations on the mound of Hisarlik, which overlooks the plain along the Turkish Aegean coast. The excavations at the site have revealed multiple occupation layers dating back to 3600 BCE. 

What is interesting is that, Troy was destroyed at around 1180 BCE – coinciding with the onset of the Late Bronze Age collapse - following which the city was rebuilt but was destroyed again in 1050 BCE, possibly due to an earthquake. Troy was again rebuilt by the survivors, but suffered yet another destruction by a fire in 950 BCE. This tells us that the entire Mediterranean region was visited by an extended period of catastrophes during the Dark Ages. Robert Drews makes a similar observation: 

"Altogether, then, the Catastrophe seems to have begun with sporadic destructions in the 1st quarter of the thirteenth century, gathered momentum in the 1190s, and rages in fully fury in the 1180s. By about 1175 the worst was apparently over, although dreadful things continued to happen throughout the twelfth century."

The question is, what could have caused this widespread and long drawn-out calamity in the Mediterranean region that obliterated the Bronze Age cultures that had flourished in the region for nearly three millennia? 

The Sea Peoples

Some historians believe that the so-called “Sea Peoples”- a loose, seafaring, confederation of uncertain origin – are to blame for these upheavals. The principal evidence for the invasions of the Sea Peoples comes to us from the inscriptions and pictorial reliefs on the walls of the mortuary temple of Ramesses III at Medinet Habu. 

They tell us that, during the eighth year of the pharaoh’s reign, a coalition of foreign states that originally lived “on the islands in the middle of the (Aegean) sea” attacked Egypt. The attackers are said to have defeated a number of countries in the Eastern Mediterranean, including Hatti (Hattusa), Alashiya (Cyprus) and Arzawa (a small city in Western Anatolia). Ramesses III claims to have slaughtered the Sea Peoples in a naval battle, and took many of them as captives.[6]

Scholars now believe that the Sea Peoples were a military alliance of “western Anatolian petty states”, since the names of some of the individual tribes that made up the Sea Peoples (which have been mentioned in the Egyptian inscriptions) are, to a large extent, identical to the neighbors of the Hittites in the west and the southeast.

But, if we think about it, the Sea Peoples were not such a powerful adversary, since they were easily annihilated by Ramses III, and therefore - while they might have defeated a few Hittite cities - they were unlikely to have reduced those cities to utter rubble. Besides, the Late Bronze Age collapse took place over a vast swathe of land in the eastern Mediterranean and the Sea Peoples certainly didn’t go anywhere after the thrashing they received in Egypt. Moreover, the catastrophic events in the Mediterranean region had persisted for some time during the Dark Ages. It was not just a collapse of cities that we are dealing with here. Famines had overtaken the lands, trade networks were disrupted, people forgot how to read and write, and all the cultural expressions of the Bronze Age were lost.

Clearly, this was not the work of some invaders of uncertain origin, but of Mother Nature. A major environmental cataclysm must have brought this on.

Some historians have pointed to the eruption of the Hekla volcano in Iceland as a potential trigger. The eruption of Hekla has been dated to around 1021 BCE (±130), and it caused worldwide temperatures to drop for nearly 18 years, as recorded in Irish bog oaks.[7] Since the explosion occurred nearly two hundred years after the beginning of the Late Bronze Age collapse it cannot be a regarded as a cause, although it certainly contributed to the woes already inflicting the people. 

Meteor Airbursts? 

A possible cause for the Late Bronze Age collapse could be a series of meteor airbursts above the eastern Mediterranean region. When meteors explode in the air, they do not leave any impact craters, but their effects on human civilization can be utterly devastating. Shock waves from meteor airbursts can flatten cities and the intense temperatures from the explosions can cause violent conflagrations capable of melting mud-bricks and stone walls – which is what has been seen at many Late Bronze Age sites. 

A well-known example of a meteor airburst is the Tunguska event of June 30, 1908, when a large meteor - about 120 feet across weighing 100 million kilograms - exploded over Eastern Siberia with the force of 1000 Hiroshima nuclear bombs, and flattened over 2000 square kilometers of forest. Strong seismic waves and near-hurricane gusts of wind were felt 600 kilometers from the site. Locally, hundreds of reindeer were killed, but there was no evidence that any person was killed in the blast, due to the remoteness of the location. The same explosion over a densely populated city would have had tragic consequences on human life. 

In the eastern Mediterranean, a devastating meteor airburst had occurred a few centuries prior to the Late Bronze Age collapse. In 2021, a team of scientists discovered that the Bronze Age city of Tall el-Hammam in Jordan had been completely flattened by a Tunguska-sized meteor airburst at around 1650 BCE. The high temperatures from the airburst melted pottery shards and clay bricks and produced diamond-like carbon, while the incredible pressures shocked quartz crystals. Their findings were published in the journal Nature.[8]

Some researchers believe that Tall el-Hammam could be the biblical city of Sodom mentioned in Genesis, which, in addition to Gomorrah, had been destroyed by God, since its inhabitants had become wicked. As per Genesis, fire and sulfur had rained down on the cities, which leveled the buildings, killed all the inhabitants and destroyed the vegetation in the fields.[9]

James Kennett, emeritus professor of Earth Science at UC Santa Barbara, who was leading the research team, said that “All the observations stated in Genesis are consistent with a cosmic airburst…but there's no scientific proof that this destroyed city is indeed the Sodom of the Old Testament.”[10]

While the biblical identity of Tall el-Hammam will continue to be debated, it is becoming evident that meteor airbursts can have devastating consequences on human civilization, and many such events have occurred in the past. But, did anything of this sort occur during the time of the Late Bronze collapse?

The Kaali Crater 

A recent scientific paper published in the International Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics (2020), claims that the Kaali Crater in Estonia - which is named after a small village called Kaali located close to the impact site - was caused by a meteorite impact between 1183 - 1162 BCE. The force of the impact set up a Baltic-wide mega-tsunami at 1171 BCE, and caused a violent seismotectonic effect in Sweden. 

The author of the paper, Nils-Axel Morner, a retired geologist of Stockholm University wrote,

“At about 1200 cal. yr. BC something quite unique occurred in the Baltic region: a meteorite impacted the ground on Saaremaa Island in Estonia giving rise to the Kaali Crater and 8 minor impact marks. At the same time along the Swedish east coast, we record high-magnitude paleoseismic activity, ground shaking with power of fracturing the bedrock, intensive methane venting tectonics, and the occurrence of a mega-tsunami with a run-up on the order of 15 m. In this paper, we propose that all the events occurred at the same time, and that the geodynamic events along the Swedish east coast were all triggered by the Kaali impact.”[11]

The main Kaali Crater has a diameter of around 110 m and a depth of 25 m, including its debris rim. Today, the crater has a lake in it, fed by groundwater and precipitation. There are eight minor craters within 1 km of the main crater, with diameters ranging from 12 – 40 m. It is believed that these craters were created when a large meteor, weighing anywhere between 400 – 1000 tons entered the earth’s atmosphere and fragmented into multiple pieces, which struck the Saaremaa Island in Estonia with a velocity of about 10 - 20 km. per second.

There have been ongoing debates about the age of the Kaali Crater, with the span of uncertainty ranging between 1700 BCE – 1000 BCE. New mathematical models used by Brendan Duffy for the computation of the boundary age for the onset of sedimentation within the crater provide dates ranging from 1183 BCE - 1162 BCE. This is in close agreement with the 1171 BCE date for the Baltic-wide mega-tsunami that has been recorded at 11 sites in Sweden. 

Nils-Axel Morner has proposed that a large meteor fragment must have fallen into the Baltic Sea, somewhere between Estonia and Sweden, and caused the mega-tsunami. Around the same time, there was an abnormal peak of seismotectonic events at 13 sites in Sweden resulting in bedrock deformation, large-scale liquefaction, and explosive methane venting tectonics. 

The timing of the impact i.e. between 1183 - 1162 BCE coincides with the catastrophe that struck the eastern Mediterranean at the beginning of the 12th century BCE. Since multiple fragments of the meteorite struck the land in Estonia, and a large fragment probably fell into the Baltic Sea, all of them may have originated from a large, disintegrating, comet. 

It is quite possible that some large chunks of cometary debris exploded over the eastern Mediterranean region, flattening the Bronze Age cities, and causing the mud-bricks and stone masonry to melt. Cosmic airbursts and impact events can also destroy the vegetation in the fields and induce widespread aridity, thereby causing famines. Since volcanism can also be triggered by meteor impacts, the Hekla eruption could have been a result of these bombardments. 

The reason why the Sea Peoples were invading other cultures of that time was possibly because they were one of the first victims of the meteor airbursts; and having lost their homes and food sources, they were searching around for a new place to settle. 

There are indications that meteor impacts continued to occur during the Dark Ages. Lars Franzen and Thomas Larsson of Goeteborg University, Sweden, have presented evidence from sites in Tunisia and Sweden, which show that,

“A major atmospheric cooling event, accompanied by excessive precipitation, which led to flooding, occurred around 1000 BCE. The event was sudden and widespread, and the finding of small glassy spherules pointed to a possible impact origin. Franzen and Larsson suggested that an asteroid or comet of diameter in the range 0.5-5 km may have landed in the eastern Atlantic around 1000 BCE, affecting in particular Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.”[12]

Now, why would the earth be subjected to an extended period of bombardment from asteroids and meteors? From where did these impactors originate? The answer to that question probably lies within the dense core of the Taurid meteor stream. 

The Taurid Swarm

The Taurids are the largest meteor stream in the inner solar system. It contains some large chunks of rocks that have struck the earth in the past. Most scientists believe that the Beta Taurids – which is the section of the stream we cross from June 5 to July 18, with peak activity on June 29 – was the source of the Tunguska meteor of June 30, 1908. 

The progenitor of the Taurid stream was a giant comet, around 50 - 100 km in diameter, which had entered the inner solar system at least 20,000 to 30,000 years ago. The comet was tossed into a short-term orbit around the Sun, and disintegrated in stages, leaving behind a trail of debris known as the Taurid meteor stream or Taurid Complex.[13]

The giant progenitor comet of the Taurid meteor stream still remains hidden in the center of the Taurids, moving within a tightly packed swarm consisting of several large comets formed by the fragmentation of the progenitor (all of which are in a dormant state), and dozens of full-size asteroids up to 1 km wide. This dense cluster of comets and asteroids within the Taurid meteor stream is called the “Taurid Resonant Swarm”. The faint Comet Encke, which is the only visible comet within the Taurid meteor stream today, could be a recently reactivated fragment of the Taurid progenitor comet. 

In an article in National Geographic, Australian astronomer Duncan Steel provided an estimate of how often we get hit by the comets and asteroids within the Taurid swarm:

“Every 2,500 to 3,000 years or so, the core of the Taurid stream passes near Earth and produces much more intense meteor showers for a few centuries, said Steel. A gap of a few centuries separates the era of intensity between Northern Taurids and Southern Taurids.”[14]

This is a significant observation from the perspective of the Late Bronze Age collapse. If the earth had passed through the dense core of the Taurids towards the beginning of the 12th century BCE, then it would have resulted in intense meteor showers over a period of a few centuries – with consequent cosmic airbursts and impact events - which could account for all the calamities that befell the eastern Mediterranean region over the next 400 years. 

The area of collapse, in fact, was much wider than the eastern Mediterranean. In reality, the Greek Dark Ages was a time of global collapse of civilization. 

A Global Catastrophe

Everywhere we look around the world, the period from 1200 BCE – 700 BCE was the time when the erstwhile Bronze Age cultures collapsed and gave way to the Iron Age civilizations. In Persia, for instance, the Median kingdom emerged in the 8th century BCE, but what do we know about the Bronze Age cultures of the region? Very little, for all of them disappeared, and it is only at sites like Jiroft that we get an inkling of Bronze Age Persia.

The Indus Valley civilization had already undergone a catastrophic collapse at around 1900 BCE due to a host of environmental conditions – notably droughts and earthquakes - and most Indus cities had been abandoned by 1700 BCE. However, a Late Harappan, post-urban culture continued to survive in parts of Sindh and Saurashtra, which was characterized by relative poverty in their material culture – crude pottery, poorly constructed buildings, disappearance of urban amenities etc. The Late Harappan phase continued till around 1000 - 900 BCE,[15] and ended due to factors not clearly known. After a gap of nearly 400 years we see the emergence of the 16 Great Kingdoms (Mahajanapadas) in the Gangetic plains at around 600 BCE, marking the beginning of the Iron Age culture of India. While certain Harappan traditions were carried over to the later-day Indian civilization, many elements of their skills, beliefs, customs, and socio-cultural setup were lost forever.

Catastrophe also struck the Olmec civilization of Mesoamerica at this time. The center of Olmec culture in the early years was at San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan. However, in c.950 BCE there was a wholesale destruction of San Lorenzo monuments. The site was abandoned at around 900 BCE, and the center of power shifted to La Venta soon afterward. Mesoamerican scholars believe that severe environmental changes may have been responsible for this shift in Olmec centers, with certain important rivers changing course.

Apparently, the Greek Dark Ages was a time when civilizations across the world got a drastic reboot. The old ways of doing things were violently erased, and while some elements of the Bronze Age societies were carried forward, we mostly see the emergence of new artistic styles, religious beliefs, philosophies, architecture, and modes of governance. This brings to mind those haunting words that the Egyptian priest of Sais had spoken to Solon, the Athenian law-giver when Solon had gone to Egypt at around 600 BCE: 

“Whereas just when you and other nations are beginning to be provided with letters and the other requisites of civilized life, after the usual interval, the stream from heaven, like a pestilence, comes pouring down, and leaves only those of you who are destitute of letters and education; and so you have to begin all over again like children, and know nothing of what happened in ancient times, either among us or among yourselves.”[16]

The “stream from heaven” that the Egyptian priest spoke of, could refer to the Taurid meteor stream, which seems to play a crucial role in the periodic annihilation of civilization. In my book Yuga Shift, I have proposed that the Greek Dark Ages correspond to the period of transition between the descending Kali Yuga and the ascending Kali Yuga in the Yuga Cycle, and I have identified the Taurid meteor stream as the primary trigger for the cataclysms of the transitional periods between the Yugas.

References

[1] Robert Drews, The End of the Bronze Age: Changes in Warfare and the Catastrophe ca. 1200 B.C., Princeton University Press, 1993, p. 3-4.
[2] Ibid p. 8.
[3] Ibid p. 24
[4] Dave Roos, “What Caused Ancient Egypt’s Decline?”, History, 10 August 2022, https://www.history.com/news/decline-ancient-egypt-causes
[5] Ibid p. 3.
[6] "The Sea Peoples’ Inscriptions and Excavation Results", Luwian Studies, https://luwianstudies.org/the-sea-peoples-inscriptions-and-excavation-results/
[7] Mike Baillie, “Do Irish bog oaks date the Shang dynasty?” Current Archaeology 1989, 10: 310–313.
[8] Ted E. Bunch et al, “A Tunguska sized airburst destroyed Tall el-Hammam a Middle Bronze Age city in the Jordan Valley near the Dead Sea”, Scientific Reports, 2021, Vol.11, Article No.18632, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-97778-3
[9] Genesis 19:24-26.
[10] Sonia Fernandez, “Evidence that a cosmic impact destroyed ancient city in the Jordan Valley”, Phys.org, 20 September 2021, https://phys.org/news/2021-09-evidence-cosmic-impact-ancient-city.html
[11] N. Mörner, “The Kaali Impact as Trigger of a Mega-Tsunami Event and Violent Seismotectonics in Sweden”, International Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 2020, Vol.10, No.3, pp. 235-246, https://www.scirp.org/journal/paperinformation.aspx?paperid=103095
[12] Trevor Palmer, Robert N. Brandon, Perilous Planet Earth: Catastrophes and Catastrophism Through the Ages, Cambridge University Press, 2003, p. 344.
[13] D.I. Steel, D.J. Asher, S.V.M Clube, “The Taurid Complex: Giant Comet Origin?” International Astronomical Union Colloquium, 1991, Vol. 126, pp. 327-330, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0252921100067063 
[14] John Roach, “Meteor Shower Promises Seven Shooting Stars an Hour”, National Geographic News, 7 November 2003, https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/11/1107_031107_taurids.html
[15] Jim G. Shaffer, “Reurbanization: The Eastern Punjab and Beyond”, Studies in the History of Art, 1993, vol. 31, pp. 53–67.
[16] Plato, Timaeus, http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/timaeus.html

LINKS VIDEOS

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It has been nearly two decades since a mysterious humanoid encounter took place high up in the Himalayas, and the group of eminent glaciologists and geologists of ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization), who had observed this strange humanoid entity for nearly 45 minutes, are still baffled by what they had witnessed and what it all means. 

The bizarre event unfolded on September 27, 2004, on the penultimate day of a week-long expedition undertaken by the Ahmedabad-based, Space Application Centre (SAC) of ISRO. The 5-member team of scientists were camping in the Samudra Tapu glacier region, roughly 14,500 feet above sea level, not far from the ethereal Chandratal Lake which is steeped in local legends about otherworldly beings. The objective of the expedition was to study the Samudra Tapu glacier using satellite data, and other means.

One of the earliest accounts of the incident had been published in SiliconIndia, a few days after it had occurred. Although brief, it contained some intriguing details. Apparently, the humanoid entity was spotted at around 7 am, and it had “hovered around for about 45 minutes, some 200 metres from the stunned scientists.” Anil Kulkarni, the marine and water resources scientist of ISRO, went on to provide more details about the incident:

“There were balloons attached to this unusual object. It had ‘legs’ but we could not see the ‘hands’. It was moving closer to the hilltop. The object started moving in our direction when we started walking towards it. But when our porters made a noise, it moved away towards the hilltop,” he said. The object remained stationary for about five minutes after reaching the hilltop, then moved away in another direction before it disappeared, he added. “Interestingly when it was exposed to the sun, it turned black and in the shadow of the hill, it became white,” the scientist said.[1]

Nearly a year after the incident had occurred, a more detailed account of the events of that unusual day was published in the India Today magazine. The report states,

Around 6.45 a.m., as the scientists were preparing to leave their tents, one of the porters spotted a white object on top of an adjacent mountain ridge, and screamed: "Sir, the snow man is coming."
Anil Kulkarni, a senior ISRO scientist who has been mapping glaciers for a quarter century, and his team members saw what appeared to be a robot floating a few inches above the ground, approaching the camp along the mountain slope. Kulkarni and his co-researcher, geologist Sunil Dhar, pulled out their digital cameras and began shooting the object even as the team raced towards the mountain to investigate.
The oblong object, between 3 and 4 feet high, kept moving down the slope towards the team. It had a cylindrical head with two balloon-type attachments, a body, hands and two legs. “It seemed to be walking, planting and pacing its steps like a human being,” recalls Dhar.[2]

The scientists were flummoxed by what they had seen. They submitted the photographs to ISRO, and each of the scientists gave their versions of what had happened on that day. The report was circulated to the army and the SASE (Snow and Avalanche Study Establishments) - the only agencies stationed in high altitude areas. 

According to Kulkarni, the object could have been an UFO or an advanced espionage device capable of complex maneuverability. “It is a riddle beyond human perception,” said Dhar who, along with Kulkarni, contacted robotic labs across the world to determine what is technologically possible in unmanned flying vehicles. “But there is no known matching technology yet in the civilian realm to explain the mysterious object we saw so up close,” according to Kulkarni. “It didn't look like a man-made object,” opined geologist Rajesh Kalia.[3]
But, if it was not a balloon, UAV, spying robot, or any kind of man-made object for that matter, what could it possibly be?

If we put on our Sherlock Holmes hat, and apply that famous logic of his i.e. “When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth,” then we are inevitably led to the conclusion that, what the team of scientists had seen at Samudra Tapu was a humanoid being, possibly of alien origin! 

This is not the first time that bizarre humanoid entities of a similar nature have been sighted, although it is certainly one of the first cases where a team of experienced scientists were the witnesses, which is why the matter received mainstream coverage. A quick perusal of some of the UFO and humanoid reports from around the world reveals that, what the ISRO scientists had seen on that day conforms to a general pattern. But first, let us take stock of some of the conspicuous attributes of this humanoid entity. 

1. It was a dwarf, humanoid being, between 3 to 4 feet tall. 
2. It had a large cylindrical head, hands and legs. 
3. It had two balloon-type attachments, probably on its head. 
4. It had robot-like movements, and appeared to pace its legs like a human. 
5. It floated a few inches above the ground, as it came down the mountain slope. It effortlessly went up the slope in a similar manner
6. It appeared white, but turned black when sunlight fell on it. 
7. It seemed to be a curious, non-threatening entity, which came down from the hilltop to “observe” the team of scientists and, perhaps, even interact with them, but moved away when it sensed the excitement and anxiety of the group. 

Similar sightings of dwarf humanoid beings with oversized heads, dressed in a silvery or gray suit, and walking in a robotic manner while floating a few inches above the ground, have been reported from all parts of the world for more than half a century. In some cases, the humanoid beings were spotted coming in and out of an UFO. Typically, these types of sightings are dismissed as hallucinations, observational mistakes or made-up stories, but now that a team of highly experienced scientists, who are trained in making observations at high altitudes, have seen a similar humanoid entity at close quarters for more than 45 minutes, it is a matter that cannot be treated flippantly any more. 

Let’s peruse some of the similar cases that have been reported over the years. One of the earliest sightings of a similar nature occurred way back in 1937, at a place near the small town of Chashniki in the Vitebsk Region of Belarus. A 7-year old girl named Ludmila Chepik was shepherding some cows and collecting flowers on a meadow near the River Uloy when suddenly she saw a “man” descending from the sky towards her without a parachute. 

“He descended to about 1 to 2 meters from her. The man was approximately 113 cm – 143 cm in height (dwarf like), of athletic built, with broad shoulders and a disproportionately large head. The man wore dark, tight-fitting clothing and had a helmet on his head, with a cone-shaped or “bulb” shaped protrusion on top. His face was visible, reddish in color and was wearing something resembling a transparent visor. The entity spent approximately 1 minute with the witness. He opened his visor, produced a protracted smile at the girl, looked around, and touched the grass with an oval device in his hands. After that, he waved his hands, and zoomed soundlessly up into the sky at high speed. After gaining an altitude of about 100 meters, he seemed to compress into a ball and dissolve into thin air.”[4]

On September 2, 1954, in Coldwater, Kansas, 12-year old John Jacob Swaim had just finished driving a tractor when he saw something downright bizarre.

“A dark complexioned little man about the size of a 5-year old child, with pointed nose & ears, was crouching about 20 feet away. The little man wore shiny clothing and carried 2-foot long cylinders on his back. He ran, apparently floating, to a 50 foot disc hovering 5 feet above the ground, jumped in, and took off without tilting the saucer, lights shone from windows as it flew off faster than a jet. At the site were found numerous pear shaped footprints 2" x 4.5", with very narrow heels.”[5]

In the idyllic city of Clermont Ferrand, in the Puy-de-Dome administrative department of France, something out of the ordinary had transpired in March 1969. 

“On the slopes of the bare hill, Puy-de-Chanturgue, Miss B. saw, about 600 feet away, 3 little humanoid forms of squat aspect and uniform gray color. Without touching the ground, they were moving rapidly back and forth. After she had watched these “gnomes” for 3 to 4 minutes they suddenly disappeared.”[6]

In August 1973, Edmund, a 19-year old youth from the Amparo settlement, in the Novo Friburgo municipality of Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, was in the fruit garden of the farm when he noticed agitation among the nearby fruit trees. He went out to investigate the matter, and saw a strange spherical object with metallic sheen, around 2 meters wide, hovering just above the ground and revolving slowly. As he gazed at it from a distance of about 4 meters,

“At this point an aperture appeared in the side of the craft with a loud bang; from it emerged a small humanoid figure in a one-piece suit that covered his head. Strapped to his back was a rather large, squarish backpack. The entity did not walk, but floated, with a "feverish" swinging of arms and legs in midair. The entity approached Edmund to within a distance of a meter, at which time the youth became panic stricken and fled, seeking others at the farmhouse. As he ran off, he looked back and saw the little being still “hovering” in the air at the spot where he stopped when the boy ran off.”[7]

A number of strange humanoid sightings were reported during the UFO invasion of Italy in 1978, of which a couple surprisingly similar to what the Indian scientists saw in the high Himalayas. On August 28, 1978, at 02:30 a.m., near Chieti, Italy, a baker named Amerigo Rocci was on his way to work when his car broke down. While checking under the hood, a powerful bright light illuminated the area around him.

“Approaching the light he noticed five strange figures, the height of an eight-year old child. The figures moved in unison in "synchronized" movements and appear to float 25 cm above the road. The figures wore a dark gray tight-fitting diver's suits that covered them from head to toe. They had thick necks and from the top of their heads protruded an “antenna” like device resembling a funnel. The beings were about 500 meters away and Rocci was not able to see any facial features. The beings glided away in single file from the witness, who noticed that the last figure was carrying something resembling a “shovel” like apparatus.”[8]

Another equally inexplicable event occurred in San Vito Chietino, Italy, on December 23, 1978. At around 8:30 pm, the Bucco family was returning from visiting relatives when a dazzling light began to follow their vehicle. The light overtook the vehicle and the vehicle suddenly stopped without the driver applying the brakes. 

“Then, at the same time a strange little man crossed road in front of the vehicle in bounding jumps. While Francesco and Fiorentina Bucco saw only one humanoid, the other two passengers in the vehicle reported seeing two. The figure or figures wore brown astronaut like suits, large helmets with black square visors, and 5-digit white gloves. The beings were about 1 meter in height, and moved over the road in unison, in a strange robot-like manner, floating 20-35 cm above the road, as if moving and bouncing on an invisible cushion. Mr. Bucco noticed a green flashlight like object wrapped over the humanoid's shoulder.”[9]

A mystifying account was reported from the small town of Los Zazos in the Tucuman province of Argentina, which had many of the classic ingredients of a humanoid encounter. A goat-herder called Flores de Mamani, was walking her animals back to her ranch along an isolated hillside when she suddenly felt paralyzed, completely unable to move. 

“She was leaning back against a rock when she saw, a hovering sphere very close to her position. The normally fierce dog remained quiet and the goats remained very still. A door-like opening became visible on the sphere and two little men came out. They wore brown diver's suits, and had what appeared to be backpacks on their backs. The witness attempted to scream but could not. The beings were about 4 feet tall, heavy set and there appeared to be some stripes on their shiny brown suits. They wore helmets with a glasslike visor. She also noticed what appeared to be two antennas coming out of their suits. They seemed to glide just above the ground. The sphere was described as shiny and silvery with several multi-colored lights around it. 
One of the little men then approached the witness grabbed her arm and tied a rubber hose around it, and then he proceeded to extract blood from the witness arm using a syringe like instrument. She felt no pain. The other little man then proceeded to milk one of the goats that remained completely still. Soon the little men glided back to the silvery sphere and went inside. The sphere then shot away at tremendous speed.”[10]

The dwarf humanoids seem to be very interested in collecting samples, for, in many humanoid sighting reports they have been seen collecting samples of vegetation or soil and putting them into the cylinders strapped to their back. They have also been seen poking the ground with long stick-like devices and digging holes with shovels. It’s almost as if they are interdimensional scientists keeping tabs on the planetary health and ecosystem.

Some witnesses have described these humanoid entities as “gnomes” (from Latin gnomus, meaning "earth-dweller") – that legendary race of dwarf people possessing various magical abilities, who are said to live in lavish comfort in underground chambers. The gnomes were said to be a wise, intelligent race who were beneficent to humans and were proficient in smithing, crafting, and mining. In ancient and medieval mythologies, gnomes were believed to guard mines and subterranean treasures. The Encyclopedia Brittanica tells us that, in Germanic legends, “Mine-dwelling dwarfs were usually more capricious and spiteful than their mountain brothers. They could be heard moving about the lower levels and were sometimes seen by miners, who took care to placate them by gifts of food.”

This is why the next report is so important – for it is one of those rare humanoid sighting that took place inside a mine.

This fascinating encounter took place on August 27, 1989, deep within a mine 1070 meters below the earth’s surface in Donetsk, Ukraine. An electrical worker in one of the mines was working the night shift when he suddenly saw two strangers standing at the end of the electric train depot. The figures moved slowly along the garage, stopping from time to time and studying different areas and equipment located there. Finally, the witness gathered up enough courage to confront the strangers, and walking out of his hiding place he yelled, “Who are you? What are you doing here? “and began to walk slowly towards the pair. 

“After taking several steps he looked closely and literally became numb with fear as he realized that the entities standing before him were not human. They were short creatures, dwarf-like with sallow facial complexions, and features he could not recognize as human. Both were dressed in silvery colored coveralls and their chest they had lighted circles and luminous dots circling around, like the screen of an oscillograph. After standing for a while, the entities turned around and walked away, quickly moving away floating just above the ground. In several seconds they vanished behind a bend on the underground tunnel.”[11]

Now that we have looked at a few similar humanoid sighting reports that have come in from all over the world over the past century or so, it becomes quite obvious that what the Indian scientists had witnessed in the Samudra Tapu glacier region of the Himalayas, some 14,500 feet above sea level, was not something unique or unprecedented. Everything that the scientists had noted about the humanoid entities has been reported elsewhere: the silvery suits, the oversized heads, the helmets with a pair of “balloon” or “funnel” or “bulb”-shaped extensions on top, the robot-like movements while floating a few inches above the ground, etc. Typically, such reports go unnoticed, but since the sighting in the Himalayas was reported by a group of respected scientists it generated more interest, at least in India.

It’s time to roll up our sleeves and tackle the big question: Who are these humanoid entities that have been spotted around the world, including the upper reaches of the Himalayas, and have been seen getting in and out of UFOs? Some witnesses have described them as “gnomes”, and since these entities have also been sighted inside mines, the “gnome” angle definitely needs to be explored. Perhaps, the gnomes are not imaginary beings as they have been made out to be, and maybe there is something to the ancient stories that speak of them.  

In India, the dwarfs or gnomes were called yakshas (also yakhhas, jakkhas or jakhs). They were the custodians of the earth’s wealth and were regarded as the protectors of sacred sites and villages. Yakshas statues were placed outside temples, on either side of the entrances, to ward off intruders. Not long ago, people used to set up altars for them under trees, made offerings of food and prayed to them for wealth, protection and fertility. A lot of interesting details about the yakshas have been recorded in the ancient Indian texts, which I shall probably discuss at a later time, but a couple of points stand out in relation to this case.

Firstly, in ancient Indian legends, the yakshas have often been associated with the flying vehicles called “vimanas”. The Ramayana relates that, in the Treta Yuga, after killing the rakshasha Ravana in a fierce battle, Rama had returned from Lanka to Ayodhya on the spacious, dome-shaped, vimana called “Pushpaka”, which was gilded and shone like the sun and was operated by thoughts or voice instructions.[12] The Pushpaka vimana originally belonged to Kuvera, who was the “chief of the yakshas”, and it had been snatched away from him by his half-brother Ravana, who was a rakshasha i.e. giant. 

Incidentally, the yakshas had access to many such vimanas. As per the Puranic Encyclopedia, Ravana had attacked Kuvera's city Alaka located on Mount Kailash, and "in the fight that followed, between Kubera and Ravana, the former fell down unconscious. But the yakshas brought two vimanas and carried Kubera to the palace.”[13]

The association of the yakshas with vimanas bolsters the argument that they could be the dwarf humanoids reported in UFO sightings. Another intriguing point about the yakshas throws light on the humanoid encounter that took place in the Himalayas. While yakshas were said to inhabit remote forests, hills and lakes, their favorite haunt was the Himalayan ranges. In the Mahabharata, there are many passages that highlight this. For instance,

“This Himalaya is inaccessible, and abounds with Yakshas (dwarfs) and the Rakshasas (giants), and searching about for me, they will be distracted.”[14]
“We shall now ascend that white rock, the mountain Mandara (one of the peaks of the Himalayas), inhabited by the Yakshas, Manibhadra and Kuvera, king of the Yakshas.”[15]

One of the mighty peaks of the Himalayan range is Mount Kailash, which is sacred to the Hindus, Buddhists and to all the mountain folk, and is an important place of pilgrimage. Kuvera’s city Alaka was said to be established on the summit of Kailash. The Mahabharata states, “It was here, on the breast of Kailasa, O Galava, that Kuvera, was installed on the sovereignty of the Rakshasas (giants), the Yakshas (dwarfs), and the Gandharvas (elves).” In the book Yaksas, the renowned scholar and art-historian Ananda Coomaraswamy, who was also a curator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, wrote of Kuvera that,   

“His city Alaka (or Alakapuri) situated on Mt. Kailasa (also the abode of Siva) is a magnificent walled town, where dwell not only Yaksas, but also Kinnaras (sirens), Munis (sages), Gandharvas (elves) and Raksasas (giants)...Kubera has many beautiful palaces, groves, gardens, etc., on Mt. Kailasa. These need not be referred to in detail, but it may be remarked of the grove Caitraratha that its trees have jewels for their leaves and girls as their fruits.”[16]

Let’s look at a few images of Mount Kailash (6638 m), which is located in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. Even though it is not a very high peak, being nearly 2000 m lower than Mount Everest, it has never been scaled. And that’s because the peak has a pyramidal shape with steep sides, and some sections are almost vertical which makes climbing impossible. The inhospitable climatic conditions and almost perennial snow cover makes the task even more challenging. 

The Chinese government had imposed restrictions on climbing the sacred peak – so as not to offend the religious sentiments - once the region came under the control of China in 1951, but prior to that many mountaineers had tried to work out a route to the summit, but failed.  In 1926, Hugh Ruttledge studied the north face of Mount Kailash, and described it as “utterly unclimbable”. His mountaineering colleague Colonel R. C. Wilson attempted to climb via the southeast ridge, when he ran into heavy snowfall, and aborted the effort.

My question is, when we look at the imposing, awe-inspiring images of Mount Kailash, does it seem like it could have ever hosted the walled city of Kuvera called Alaka, complete with palaces, groves and gardens? Absolutely not. You can’t even stand steadily on those steep, treacherous, snow-covered slopes on a windy day, let alone build a city. In which case, one needs to ask, why did the Indian texts make such an extravagant claim? Was it a made-up story, or could there be more to this than meets the eye?

My guess is that, Kuvera’s city Alaka may have been built “inside” Mount Kailash and not on its summit or slopes. In other words, there may exist giant, well-lit, and lavishly decorated caverns inside the Kailash Mountain where the yakshas and other magical beings live. Isn’t that what is said of the gnomes, in general? While they usually live underground, they also inhabit the interiors of mountains, and “gnome tunnels” were said to lead to fabulous places inside mountains. A Welsh story written by Walter Map at around 1183 CE, in De Nugis Curialmn, tells of a dwarf king who led Herla, and ancient king of the Britons, to his own kingdom. 

“He [Herla] and his guide entered a very lofty cliff and after a space of darkness they passed into the light, seemingly not of the sun but of many lamps, like the palace of the sun in Ovid’s description.”[17]

Apparently, a similar belief is still associated with Mount Demerdzhi in Crimea, which is a popular tourist destination, for, on the slope of the mountain lies the so-called “Valley of Ghosts” that contains a large number of stone formations resembling humans, animals, mysterious creatures, pyramids and other puzzling objects. The region generally remains enveloped in a characteristic haze, and when the light conditions change the stone formations seem to magically change their shape and color. Although these formations are said to have been “naturally formed”, it is not impossible that some of them may have been sculpted by intelligent hands eons ago, and then suffered erosion over time.

In Albert Rosales, “1978 Humanoid Reports”, there is an entry about an odd incident that occurred on Mount Demerdzhi in June 1978.

A local teenager, Andrey, from the nearby town of Alushta had climbed to the top of Mount Demerdzhi and had camped there to spend the night. During the night a bright light pointed directly at his face suddenly awakened him. He opened his eyes and saw the outlines of several human-shaped figures. They had domed-shaped heads connected directly to their shoulders. Their faces were not visible or were absent…Apparently the witness was paralyzed and everything was brightly lit around him. Andrey felt no fear or any other emotions during the encounter; he soon fell asleep and could not remember anything else. A local legend states that Demerdzhi is hollow and had been excavated thousands of years before by a race of dwarfs in an effort to extract supposed treasures buried within. A local clairvoyant, Lenura Azizova, claims that there still exists an ancient underground alien base under the mountain.”[18]

The possibility of a “city of the yakshas” being concealed inside Mount Kailash is not a very outlandish proposition, if we think about it. Not only do we have analogous stories coming down to us from ancient times, but there are persistent local beliefs along similar lines in other parts of the world.

Now that we have explored the Himalayan humanoid encounter from a few different perspectives, what would you say happened on that intrigue-filled day at the Samudra Tapu glacier? I would reckon that the scientists saw a “juvenile” yaksha, who was ambling around the mountainside, going about his normal routine of collecting samples of soil, snow and vegetation, when he chanced upon the group of scientists who had camped there. The yaksha may not have seen humans, or at least interacted with them, before, and was led on by his curiosity. But on sensing the agitation within the group, it moved away and probably returned to his “yaksha city” hidden in the interiors of the mountains to tell his friends what he had just seen.

It may feel somewhat strange to hear of “yakshas” or “gnomes” being talked about as real entities, but a couple of thousand years ago no-one would have batted an eyelid to hear what I just proposed. Yakshas were an integral part of the belief systems of the people in the subcontinent, and many “yakshas shrines” were erected in their honor. Much has been forgotten over time as the inter-dimensional interactions began to dry up, but the increased sightings since the 1950s suggest that we could be living at a time when contact is re-established.     

References

[1] "UFO photo puts Indian scientists in fix", SiliconIndia, 06 October 2004, https://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/ufo-photo-puts-indian-scientists-in-fix-nid-25663-cid-2.html
[2] Ramesh Vinayak, "UFO sighting in Himachal Lahaul-Spiti district remains a mystery", INDIA TODAY Feb 13, 2006, https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/science-and-technology/story/20060213-ufo-sighting-in-himachal-lahaul-spiti-district-remains-a-mystery-783701-2006-02-12
[3] Ibid.
[4] Albert Rosales “1937 Humanoid Reports” Case # 4, Source: Aleksandr Kuzovkin, Selected reports of UFO observations in the USSR, 1982
[5] Albert Rosales “1954 Humanoid Reports” Case # 63, Humcat 1954, Source: Sheriff Floyd Hadley & Rev. Albert Baller
[6] Albert Rosales “1969 Humanoid Reports” Case # 51, Humcat 1969, Source: LDLN Circle of Clermont Riom
[7] Albert Rosales “1973 Humanoid Reports” Case # 103, Humcat 1973, Source: SBEDV Bulletin # 104
[8] Albert Rosales “1978 Humanoid Reports” Case # 189, Source: Archivio S.U.F.
[9] Albert Rosales “1978 Humanoid Reports” Case# 303, Source: Archivio S.U.F.
[10] Albert Rosales “1990 Humanoid Reports” Case# 13, Source: Pablo Villarrubia Mauso 
[11] Albert Rosales “1989 Humanoid Reports” Case# 210, Source: Gennadiy Ya. Leszshenko, “Edge of the Unknown or What is Behind the Curtain” Donetsk, 1994.
[12] Valmiki Ramayana, 6.124 - 126, https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-ramayana-of-valmiki/d/doc424752.html
[13] Vettam Mani, Puranic Encyclopedia, Motilal Banarsidass, 1975.
[14] Mahabharata 3.178.8839
[15] Mahabharata 3.139.7068
[16] Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, Yaksas, The Smithsonian Institution, 1928, p. 6.
[17] Vernon J. Harward Jr., The Dwarfs of Arthurian Romance and Celtic Tradition, E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1958, p 6-20
[18] Albert Rosales “1978 Humanoid Reports” Case# 132, Source: Anton Anfalov