Michael A. Rappenglück

vhs Gilching and Observatory Gilching · Management Staff

Anthony F. Aveni, Creation Stories: Landscapes and the Human ImaginationNew Haven, CT and London: Yale University Press, 2021. Hardback, 220 pp. ISBN 978-0-300-25124-1. £20.00.

Archaeological sites undoubtedly destroyed by a meteorite impact had not been identified so far. For such a proof, both a meteorite impact and its definite effects on an archaeological site would have to be evidenced. This review article reports on geoarchaeological investigations, involving mineralogy, petrography, and geophysics, which establishe...

The poster is a critical discussion of an article by Kenkmann et al. (GSA Bulletin, 2022). In the article, the Wyoming crater strewn field is declared to be a field of impact secondary craters from an unidentified primary crater. Our poster rejects this interpretation as consistently methodologically problematic to absolutely untenable. Many of the...

Introduction: ln 2022, an article was published in the GSA Bulletin [1] claiming that a secondary crater field of a major impact structure has been detected for the first time in the state of Wyoming in the United States, as has long been known from the Moon, other planets, and their moons. 31 craters are confirmed by shock effects, and more than 6...

The archaic and ancient views of the lifeworld were essentially based on the unity of the network of forces in the world with which these societies felt connected. Heaven was important, but it was only one aspect of their respective world, which contained at least earth and the underworld or was divided into many cosmic spheres in between. The view...

Secondary craters in impacts on moon, planets and their moons are a well known phenomenon, which has been investigated many times. In the article commented by us here, the authors report on a crater strewn field in the American state of Wyoming, which is interpreted as a field of secondary craters of a so far unknown larger primary impact structure...

This review systematically presents all finds of geogenic, impact-induced, and extraterrestrial iron silicide minerals known at the end of 2021. The respective morphological characteristics, composition, proven or reasonably suspected genesis, and possible correlations of different geneses are listed and supported by the available literature (2021)...

The 2009 SEAC Annual Meeting was deliberately planned within the celebrations for the International Year of Astronomy. It should contribute to a deepening of the understanding of human beings as inhabitants of the spaceship Earth in a vast space of countless worlds by looking back at the cultural history of astronomy and with a view to a common sta...

Cultural Astronomy is the endeavour to understand the role of the sky in past and present societies, and how these societies incorporated the sky into their culture. This broad ranging discipline is closely related to archaeology when investigating material remains of the past. Cultural Astronomy also explores the role of the heavens from the persp...

Playing, an important activity already well known from advanced animals, is an a priori of human personal and social development. It is quite a special way how man becomes familiar with the natural world around him, with social structures, and with himself. Playing can be defined as a voluntary activity, using peculiar tools, which is goal-oriented...

9.1 Introduction 9.2 From Astro-Archaeology to Cultural Astronomy 9.3 How can the range of topics and the methodology of Cultural Astronomy be determined? 9.4 The Integral Methodology as a scientific approach − Case studies from the Palaeolithic 9.5 Some points of an Integral Methodology 9.6 Conclusion

This study briefly reviews the major cosmological and cosmogonic aspects of the cosmic mountain motif as transmitted by various cultures worldwide in myths, rituals, and buildings. Previous research has collected meritorious elements of the motif, but has only touched on the underlying cosmological and cosmogonic model. This study therefore discuss...

This study gives a short overview of the most important cosmological and cosmogonic aspects of the motif of the cosmic mountain as they are transmitted by different cultures worldwide in myths, rituals and buildings. Previous research has meritoriously collected elements of the motif but has only touched on the underlying cosmological and cosmogoni...

Wolfschmidt, Gudrun: Cultural Heritage and Architecture of Baroque Observatories. In: From Alexandria to Al-Iskandariya -- Astronomy and Culture in the Ancient Mediterranean and Beyond. European Society for Astronomy in Culture - Société Européenne pour l'astronomie dans la culture (SEAC), Proceedings of the 17th Annual SEAC Meeting 2009 in Alexand...

The largest meteorite impact of the Holocene known to date occurred during the Bronze/Iron Age in southeastern Bavaria, between Altötting and the edge of the Alps. The event is known as the "Chiemgau Impact". More than 100 craters with diameters from 5 m up to several hundred meters are distributed over an area of about 60 km length and 30 km width...

The finds of iron silicides composed, among others, of xifengite, gupeiite, hapkeite with inclusions of titanium carbide, khamrabaevite and moissanite, and CAIs, together with about 30 elements including uranium and REE, which have been regarded as extraterrestrial for about 15 years in the crater strewn field of the Chiemgau impact, have been enri...

The asteroid impact near the Russian city of Chelya-binsk in 2013 was the largest airburst on Earth since the 1908 Tunguska event. Meanwhile, there are scien-tists who consider airburst as much more dangerous for mankind than direct projectile impacts to form meteor-ite craters [1]. In the geological past impact cratering accompanied by giant airbu...

During the Palaeolithic epoch parallel to the emerging human mind and self-consciousness the abstracting, logical-mathematical (arithmetic and geometrical) thinking developed from a neural basis, which already was present in the animal kingdom. Moreover, in the evolution of man, processes of counting and calculating, internally running automaticall...

Durability and change are necessary for the stability and development of both the individual and a human society. Most of human evolution is characterized by the existence of nomadic or semi-nomadic economies: migration has been an essential element of human development. Today, again we are all “on the road”. On the one hand, people need stable liv...

In English: “Chiemgau Impact” is an event which took place in the Bronze Age / Iron Age with the creation of a large meteorite strewn field by the impact of a comet / asteroid in southeast Bavaria. The research is interdisciplinary from the outset. It covers, among other things, geology, geophysics, limnology, archaeology, mineralogy, speleology,...

Among the archaic cosmologic and cosmogonic concepts of cultures worldwide and across time the metaphor of the world as a giant living entity is significant. People cultures considered the universe to be e.g. an animal, a giant human, or an egg. The anatomy of certain creatures, in particular of the human being, served as an excellent model for the...

The symbolism of the World Tree has not hitherto been explored from the perspective of possible astronomical references, despite widespread examples of the concept across the world and attention from various fields of study. The aim of the current study is to respond to that gap, using an interdisciplinary methodology that draws on approaches from...

Tantalizing information about a possible existence of diamond stars has recently refocused attention of the scientific community on the basic properties of carbon-rich planets and stars. Since the carbon-rich star types are known for a usual presence of oxygen, it is not clear how carbon and oxygen can co-exist under extreme PT-conditions at a C/O...

Across cultures and through time people used costuming for presenting essential parts of their worldviews. They often linked dress, appliqués and accessories to certain concepts of cosmography and cosmogony, including the interplay of forces in nature. Costumes showed the intermediary and changeable position of man in nature and his relationship wi...

This study provides insights into the primarily symbolic intentionality and uses of the Nebra Disk. It will be argued that in spite of the disk's fascinating artwork, the Nebra Disk clearly reflects ancient pictorial traditions and motifs, and hence it does not support the farfetched conclusions drawn previously by most researchers. Finally, this c...

During the Upper Paleolithic (40–12 ka BP) people used observation-based and early kinds of rule-based astronomical systems of time reckoning. Paleolithic versions of almanacs and calendars based on lunar, solar, lunisolar, and sidereal time reckoning are recorded on mobile objects and cave walls. Typical are combinations and synchronizations of as...

In some cases there is evidence for astronomical depictions among the rock art of the Franco-Cantabrian Upper Paleolithic (40–12 ka BP). Phenological almanacs, some kind of lunar time reckoning, certain asterisms, and manifestations of cosmovisions are probably present.

Introduction: The Holocene Chiemgau impact event is considered to have produced a large meteorite crater strewn field in southeast Germany in the Bronze Age/Celtic era ([1], and ref. therein). The impact is documented by impact melt rocks and various glasses, strong shock metamorphism, geophysical anomalies and ejecta deposits, and substantiated by...

The aquatic world plays an essential part in ecosystems. On the earth it provides the fertilizing, vital basis for life. Devastating giant flooding, however, has been destructive and fatal for certain cultures. Archaic people identified the realm of the water world as the primeval and lasting cosmic ocean, which surrounds and intersperses the world...

A specific mode of human existence shows up in modelling the structures and processes of the world onto the living space, consisting of certain landscapes, locations, and habitations. Concepts of housing the world are implemented in the lodgings, cultic buildings, settlements, territories, and the artificial shaping of the landscape. These structur...

CAIs Ca_2Al_2O_5 and CaAl_2O_4 add to SiC and (Ti,V,Fe)C pure crystal inclusions in an iron silicide (xifengite, gupeiite, hapkeite) matrix constituting metallic particles from the subsoil in the Alpine Foreland. A cosmic origin is suggested.

We studied exotic carbon matter from the field composed of amorphous carbon and the monocrystalline carbyne allotrope ("chaoite"). The required PT conditions (4-6 GPa, 2500-4000 K) are evidence of a formation in a so-far unsettled shock event.

Carbynes and DLC in naturally occurring carbon matter from the Alpine Foreland, South-East Germany: Evidence of a probable new impactite S. Isaenko (1), T. Shumilova (1), K. Ernstson (2), S. Shevchuk (1), A. Neumair (3), and M. Rappenglück (3) (1) Institute of Geology Komi SC UB RAS, Syktyvkar, Russian Federation (shumilova@geo.komisc.ru), (2) Facu...

SEM and TEM analyses of millimeter- to centimeter-sized particles from Holocene soils reveal a multi-stoichiometric iron silicide matrix containing purest crystals of titanium carbide and cubic moissanite. A cosmochemical origin is suggested.

We acknowledge the observations of Doppler et al . on our paper and we are grateful to Antiquity's editor for this opportunity to reply to their objections. Firstly, it should be noted that we have not claimed that the Chiemsee once included the Tüttensee. We agree that the region in which both lakes lie was glacially formed. But while Lake Chiems...

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.

A more exact dating of the Chiemgau meteorite impact in Bavaria, southeast Germany, that produced a large strewn field of more than 80 craters sized between a few meters and several hundred meters, may provide the indispensable fundament for evaluating its cultural implications and thus enable an extraordinary case study. A straightforward answer h...

The Chiemgau strewn field in the Alpine Foreland discovered in the early new millennium comprises more than 80 mostly rimmed craters in a roughly elliptically shaped area with axes of about 60 km and 30 km. The crater diameters range between a few meters and a few hundred meters. Geologically, the craters occur in Pleistocene moraine and fluvio-gla...

Did in the Holocene meteorite impacts of a size capable to affect human cultures happen at all and – if the answer is “yes” – which cultural implications did they have? Since a few years this question is fiercely and controversially discussed. The Chiemgau meteorite impact event may provide an important contribution to the discussion. This event st...

Did in the Holocene meteorite impacts of a size capable to affect human cultures happen at all and -- if the answer is ``yes'' -- which cultural implications did they have? Since a few years this question is fiercely and controversially discussed. The Chiemgau meteorite impact event may provide an important contribution to the discussion. This even...

Birds played an important role in the cosmographies and cosmovisions of ancient cultures all over the world. Evidences are given by artifacts, symbols, myths, and rituals. People studied carefully the body, the behavior, and the phenology of birds. Thereof they associated certain species to the luminaries, special celestial phenomena, archaic calen...

Archaeological and ethnological records worldwide give evidence that cosmovisions played an important role in the life of man since Paleolithic epochs. Parallel to the reduction of instincts man developed cultural systems to establish and maintain order and rhythm in his personal and social life and to organize the world into a meaningful system. C...

Since the Bronze Age turtles and tortoise were related to a cosmic symbolism by ancient cultures in different parts of the world, with a certain concentration in the northern hemisphere. The paper attempts to categorize aspects of the cosmic turtle symbolism, using mainly an ethnoastronomical approach, partly supported by archaeological evidences....

Decades of research work done by several scientists all over the world since the beginning of the 20th century confirmed the idea, that Palaeolithic man looked up to the starry sky and recognized prominent patterns of stars as well as the course of the celestial bodies. Though sometimes highly speculative, the investigations made clear, that time-f...

The cave of Lascaux is famous for its prehistoric paintings and above all for is magnificent portrayals of animals in the "Salle des Taureaux". Although the animals receive a great deal of attention during the guided tours, the sign-like shapes which are also depicted, are mostly passed over. But the puzzle surrounding one of these figures might no...