Page "Immanuel Velikovsky" Paragraph 1

His books use comparative mythology and ancient literary sources ( including the Old Testament ) to argue that Earth has suffered catastrophic close-contacts with other planets ( principally Venus and Mars ) in ancient times.

In positioning Velikovsky among catastrophists including Hans Bellamy, Ignatius Donnelly, and Johann Gottlieb Radlof, the British astronomers Victor Clube and Bill Napier noted "... Velikovsky is not so much the first of the new catastrophists ...; he is the last in a line of traditional catastrophists going back to mediaeval times and probably earlier.

" Velikovsky argued that electromagnetic effects play an important role in celestial mechanics.

He also proposed a revised chronology for ancient Egypt, Greece, Israel and other cultures of the ancient Near East.

The revised chronology aimed at explaining the so-called " dark age " of the eastern Mediterranean ( ca.

1100 – 750 BCE ) and reconciling biblical history with mainstream archaeology and Egyptian chronology.