A stalagmite from Hsārok Cave in the Zagros Mountains of Kurdistan provides a detailed climate record from 18,000 to 7,500 years ago, revealing rainfall fluctuations that correspond with the timing of early agriculture and the rise of civilization in the Fertile Crescent.
Researchers have found shocked quartz at three Clovis culture archaeological sites, supporting the Younger Dryas impact hypothesis, which proposes a fragmented comet explosion contributed to megafaunal extinctions and the disappearance of the Clovis culture.
