What is the ancient nuclear war theory?
The ancient nuclear war theory holds that an advanced scientific civilization existed before our own and was destroyed in a war using nuclear weapons. Ancient India is most often told of as its setting, and the theory spread along with talk of super-ancient civilizations and OOPArts.
What is offered as evidence
A common piece of evidence is the description of divine weapons such as the “Brahmastra” in the Indian epic Mahabharata. Expressions such as “a brilliance like ten thousand suns gathered together” and “the corpses were burned beyond recognition” were said to suggest nuclear explosions. Claims that skeletons were found lying as if they had fallen in the streets of Mohenjo-daro, a city of the Indus civilization, and that there are stones turned to glass by intense heat, have also been presented as evidence.
Did an ancient nuclear war really happen?
The skeletons of Mohenjo-daro are known to have been buried at different times, and are not evidence that many people died at once. No radioactivity or traces in the rock layers that would prove a nuclear explosion have been found at the site. The epic descriptions are thought to express the grandeur of mythological weapons. Most glassy stones found in deserts and elsewhere were formed by meteorite impacts or lightning. Flying vehicles of Indian myth, the vimana, are also linked with this theory.
