The end of the original Planet of the Apes I shuddered. When Charlton Heston—SPOILER ALERT!—discovered the ruins of the Statue of Liberty on that beach, he realized that he had never left Earth. Instead, he was the survivor of an ancient, extinct civilization that left almost no trace of its existence.
Stories like that lead me down the path of speculative stories from a variety of authors and researchers who specialize in the concept of advanced peoples who may have occupied this planet before us.
One of the most fascinating theories I have come across comes from a book called The cycle of cosmic catastrophes: how a Stone Age comet changed the course of world culture.
I like my Planet of the Apes I have had this experience for many years and I can’t stop wondering about it.
And yes, there is a musical angle to what I’m about to describe.
Homo sapiens emerged about 300,000 years ago and for the next 260,000 years we were nomadic hunter-gatherers, wandering from place to place following the seasons and animal migrations. We outlived similar species (Neanderthals, Denisovans, Homo erectus and several others), probably because we developed larger brains more quickly. This is not speculation, it is an accepted scientific fact.
Archaeological and geological evidence — mostly radiocarbon spikes in ancient tree rings — points to a star about 200 light-years away that went supernova about 41,000 years ago. We’re not sure which star that is because astronomers can’t find any trace of it. Humans on the side of the planet facing that part of the sky would have seen a sudden, dazzling flash of light that created a new light in the heavens larger and brighter than the full moon. It would have remained in the sky day and night for nearly a month before beginning to fade. Within a decade, it was gone.
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But the supernova wasn’t done with us. The explosion sent shock waves through the Oort Cloud, a region surrounding the outer part of the solar system that contains a seemingly infinite amount of rocks, ice balls and other debris. The shock waves altered the orbits of many, many of those objects, sending them on trajectories toward the Sun.
In the centuries that followed, untold numbers of them struck the Earth. Some were large enough to alter the climate, leading to a period of intense glaciation that began about 26,000 years ago. The ice was especially thick in North America, piling up several miles high. The Earth was colder than it had been in at least 150,000 years. It was tough on all species of homo, but homo sapiens was tough.
But that wasn’t all that happened. The supernova emitted a massive burst of gamma radiation that produced reactions in our atmosphere. A tremendous amount of radiation, at least seven times worse than what Chernobyl had offered, silently fell upon the planet. The ozone layer was also damaged, allowing harmful radiation from the Sun to reach the surface. All living things on the planet were exposed to disease and death for decades, perhaps centuries. Many species became extinct. DNA damage was extensive, and whatever survived could not escape mutations at the cellular level.
Some of those mutations, however, appear to have had a beneficial effect on Homo sapiens. Around the time all that radiation was bombarding the planet, a change appears to have occurred in a key human gene called microcephalin, which regulates fetal brain size. Scientists have found evidence of other specific mutations in our DNA dating back to the time of this supposed supernova. These changes supposedly allowed humans to be born with larger brains, with greater processing power and therefore capable of more complex thought.
These mutations coincide not only with the emergence of language, tool making and the domestication of dogs, but also with ancient cave paintings and – here is the musical connection – the first musical instruments (vulture bones transformed into flutes).
Today, evolutionary biologists and neuroscientists tell us that, for reasons still unknown, our brains are wired for music in very specific and very useful ways. There doesn’t seem to be an evolutionary need for music, but we all come equipped that way.
The theory continues. Humans with large brains rapidly developed civilization, reaching its peak (according to Plato’s myths described in Timaeus and Critias) the naval and technological empire of Atlantis. When it was destroyed by another Oort Cloud cometary disaster sometime around 10,000 BC (an event that ended the last ice age), the few survivors scattered across the planet, distributing their technology, mathematics, and art throughout the Middle East, Egypt, and Central and South America.
Putting on my Ancient aliens Voice, is it possible that everything from language to art and music can be traced back to a star that exploded 200 light-years away some 41,000 years ago?
If that’s the case, then we—and all our music and art—are really just a fluke of the universe.
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