Younger Dryas Period (10,900 - 9700 BC): Ancient History Timeline

The Younger Dryas was a sudden return to near-glacial conditions that lasted approximately 1,200 years, interrupting the warming trend at the end of the la

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Younger Dryas Period (10,900 - 9700 BC)

The Younger Dryas was a sudden return to near-glacial conditions that lasted approximately 1,200 years, interrupting the warming trend at the end of the last Ice Age. This period is central to alternative archaeology because the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis proposes that a comet or asteroid fragment triggered catastrophic flooding, wildfires, and rapid cooling around 12,800 years ago. Evidence...

Key Events

• Sudden temperature drop of 7-8°C in decades (c. 10,900 BC)
• Younger Dryas boundary layer with nanodiamonds and melt glass
• Mass extinction of North American megafauna
• Clovis culture disappears from the archaeological record
• Abrupt warming ends the period (c. 9700 BC) with rapid sea-level rise

Explore the archaeological sites, discoveries, and theories from this transformative period in human history on Ancient Origins Explorer.