Did ancient civilizations nuke themselves into oblivion… or did the History Channel just get bored again? This week we dive headfirst into the rabbit hole of Ancient Nuclear Wars – from the “radioactive” skeletons of Mohenjo-Daro, to alleged atom-bomb craters in the desert, to the Mahabharata passages that sound suspiciously like somebody watched a Cold War documentary and got way too excited. We’ll talk vimanas (ancient flying machines), biblical firestorms, desert glass, and why every weird rock seems to mean “aliens with launch codes” to at least one guy on YouTube.
Along the way, we’ll pit wild fringe theories against boring things like geology, archaeology, and physics (booooo), ask whether Oppenheimer accidentally subtweeted the Vedic gods, and decide if the only real ancient WMD was still… humans and their bad decisions. Was there a Bronze Age Fallout-style apocalypse, or is this just another case of modern nuclear anxiety cosplaying in ancient texts? Tune in as Hysteria 51 flips the Geiger counter on Ancient Nuclear War.
Special thanks to this week’s research sources:
- Pauwels, Louis, and Jacques Bergier. The Morning of the Magicians: Secret Societies, Conspiracies, and Vanished Civilizations. Destiny Books, 2008.
- Discussions of the Jodhpur “radioactive ash” story as a modern hoax or unsubstantiated legend. (Isvara Archive)
- Libyan Desert Glass and impact evidence (reidite, zircon breakdown, dating to ~29 million years ago). (Wikipedia)
- Jason Colavito’s work on “ancient atom bombs,” Mahabharata misquotes, and the myth’s modern origins. (JASON COLAVITO)
- Background on Pauwels & Bergier’s The Morning of the Magicians and its role in popularizing “fantastic realism.” (Wikipedia)
- References to Matest Agrest’s interpretations of Sodom, Gomorrah, and Baalbek as nuclear/spaceport events. (Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
- Coverage of modern proponents like Billy Carson and Ancient Aliens episodes promoting the ancient nuclear war narrative. (Daily Express US)
- Research on Tall el-Hammam and cosmic airbursts as real Bronze Age city-destroying events. (uaf.edu)
- K. A. R. Kennedy’s work and later summaries on Mohenjo-Daro skeletons and the debunking of the “massacre” and “radiation” stories. (Ancient Origins)
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