Of the shockingly low number of humans who survived, most lived in thehigher altitudes of mountain ranges and were able to hide in caves toescape the furies of the turbulence. Unlike the more advanced BronzeAge peoples who tended to cluster and build on low-lying plains nearrivers and ocean shorelines, the inhabitants of the mountains were StoneAge nomads. It was as though the cream of the crop, the Leonardo daVincis, the Picassos and Einsteins of their era had evaporated intonothingness, abruptly leaving the world to be taken over by itineranthunters and backwoods trappers, a phenomenon similar to the glory ofGreece and Rome cast aside in favor of centuries of ignorance - andcreative lethargy. A neolithic dark age shrouded the grave of thehighly cultured civilizations that once existed in the world, a dark agethat would last for two thousand years. Slowly, very slowly, didmankind finally walk from the dark and begin building and creatingcities and civilizations again in Mesopotamia and Egypt.
Pitifully few of the gifted builders and creative thinkers of the lostcultures survived to reach high ground. They had erected mysteriousmagaliths and dolmens of huge upright stones across Europe, Asia, thePacific Islands and into the lower Americas. Their only visible legacyconsisted of these monuments commemorating the frightful destruction andloss of life, which also acted as warnings to future generations of thenext cataclysm. Within two hundred years, they had been assimilatedinto the nomadic tribes and ceased to exist as a race of advancedpeople.
For hundreds of years after the convulsion, humans were afraid toventure down from the mountains and reinhabit the lower lands andcoastal shorelines. The technically superior seafaring nations were butvague thoughts of a distant past. Ship construction and sailingtechniques were lost and had to be reinvented by later generations whosemore accomplished ancestors were revered simply as gods.
All this death and devastation was caused by a hunk of dirty ice nolarger than an average shopping mall.
The comet had wreaked its unholy havoc, mercilessly, viciously. TheEarth had not been ravaged with such vehemence since a meteor had strucksixty-five million years earlier in a catastrophe that exterminated thedinosaurs.
For thousands of years after the impact, comets were associated withcatastrophic events and thought to be portents of tragedies. They wereblamed for everything from wars and pestilence to death and destruction.Not until recent history were comets considered nature's wonders, likethe splendor of a rainbow or clouds painted gold by a setting sun.
The biblical flood and a host of other calamity legends all had theirties to this one tragedy. The ancient civilizations of Olmecs, Mayansand Aztecs of Central America had many traditions relating to an ancientcataclysmic event. The Indian tribes throughout the United Statespassed down stories of waters flooding over their lands. The Chinese,the Polynesians ana the Africans all spoke of a cataclysm that decimatedtheir ancestors.
But the legend that was spawned and flourished throughout the centuries,the one that provoked the most mystery and intrigue, was that of thelost continent and civilization of Atlantis.
Clive Cussler, Clive Cussler and Dirk Pitt Revealed
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