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Benny Peiser believes that asteroid impacts could account for the collapse of ancient civilisations. It is possible that the virtually simultaneous collapse of the first urban civilisations in the world in about 2300 BC and a second devastation some 1,000 years later were caused by the impact of cosmic debris, he says.

"Scholars who favour earthquakes as the principal cause of civilisation collapse argue that the world can expect vast earthquakes every 1,000 to 2,000 years. Scholars who prefer climate change as the principal cause argue that severe droughts caused agriculture to fail and that societies inexorably fell apart as a result. Yet what was the cause of these earthquakes, tidal waves, fire-blasts and climate changes?

"The extent to which past impacts were responsible for civilisation collapse, cultural change and even the development of religion must remain a hypothesis. But in view of the astronomical, geological and archaeological evidence, the hypothesis should not be dismissed out of hand."