R.H. Allen , Starnames, Their Lore and Meaning, , [1990], 203, Referring to Draco's change of position in respect to the pole from the effect of precession, Proctor wrote in his Myths and Marvels of Astronomy:
One might almost, if fancifully disposed, recognize the gradual displacement of the Dragon from his old place of honour, in certain traditions of the downfall of the great Dragon whose "tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven," alluded to in The Revelation xii, 4;
and the conclusion of that verse, "did cast them to the earth," would show a possible reference to meteors.
Diverse Auteurs , NetBible, , [2007], Job 38:36, Who has put wisdom in the heart,51 or has imparted understanding to the mind?
51tn This verse is difficult because of the two words, טֻחוֹת (tukhot, rendered here "heart") and שֶׂכְוִי (sekhvi,
here "mind"). They have been translated a number of ways: "meteor" and
"celestial appearance"; the stars "Procyon" and "Sirius"; "inward part"
and "mind"; even as birds, "ibis" and "cock." One expects them to have
something to do with nature -- clouds and the like. The RSV accordingly
took them to mean "meteor" (from a verb "to wander") and "a celestial
appearance." But these meanings are not well-attested.
- - , Institute for Biblical & Scientific Studies, , Joshua 10:11 says, "the Lord hurled large hailstones down on them from the sky, and more of them died from the hailstones than were killed by the swords of the Israelites" (NIV).
Hittites
In the Ten Year Annals of Mursili it says, "So I marched, and as I arrived at Mt. Lawasa, the storm-god, my lord, showed his godly miracle. He hurled a meteor. My army saw the meteor; (and) the land of Arzawa saw (it). And the meteor went; and struck the land of Arzawa. It struck Apasa, the capital city of Uhhaziti, Uhhaziti fell on (his) knees; and became ill" (Younger 1990, 208).
Assyrians
In Sargon's Letter to God it says, "Adad, the violent, the son of Anu, the valiant, uttered his loud cry against them; and with a flood cloud and hailstones (lit. 'the stone of heaven'' [NA, An-el]), he totally annihilated the remainder" (Younger, 210). Omen 261 states, "When it thunders in Sebat, heaven will rain with stones" (Thompson 1900, lxxxi).
Egyptians
The Gebal Barkal Stele of Thutmose III says, "It was not known that you might learn/witness the miracle of [Amun-Re] before the face of all the Two Lands (Egypt). [It was evening, when the enemy troops came near]. [The guards] were about to come to meet in the night to make the regular (change of) watch. There were two hour-watchers; then a star came from the south of them. The like had never happened. It beamed towards them from its position. Not one remained standing there" (Younger, 217).
- - , Algemeen, , These meteor streams are now so weak that they are no longer listed among even the "minor events of special interest" that produce at best five or less streaks per hour43. However, it could well be that in Ezekiel's time, some 2600 years ago, the Zeta Draconis meteors may have produced a much more dramatic sight than they do now, and that Ezekiel may have described their flashes darting from their radiant center in the top wing of the Cherub when he said the cloud from the north around the cherubim of his vision had
"flashes of fire and brilliant light about it" (1:4), and "the appearance of the creatures was as if fire from burning coals or torches were darting to and fro among them; the fire was radiant, and out of the fire came lightning" (1:13).
- - , Algemeen, , Islam: Meteorite Worship of the black stone
Walter Reinhold: Some have suggested that Joshua 10:11 might have been describing a meteorite shower
Doug Petrovich: As far as the location of the meteorites, or whatever else fell from the sky down upon the soldiers of the coalition forces, I would cancel Gibeon out of the equation. I just finished teaching an Exposition of Joshua course a few weeks ago, and it was overwhelmingly clear that the "shower" took place between the Beth-horon Ridge and Azekah.
Jane Waldbaum: Rare artifacts possibly of meteoritic iron are more a product of the Bronze Age than the Early Iron Age. They are found sporadically in a number of regions including Iran, Turkey, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Syria. See J. Waldbaum, "The Coming of Iron in the Eastern Mediterranean: Thirty Years of Archaeological and Technological Research," pp. 27-57 in V. C. Pigott, ed., The Archaeometallurgy of the Asian Old World, (Philadelphia 1999).
Walter Reinhold: I thank all for their contributions. Apparently _no investigations_ have ever
been made of the vicinity of the "ascent of Beth-Horon" (Arabic Beit-Ur) by
competent authorities to establish whether or not a meteorite shower ever took
place. I realize that even if evidence of shower was found, it still could not
be dated as a pottery context would be neccessary and finding pottery in open
fields near meteorites would be highly unlikely (I am aware that this area was
subjected to a field survey searching for pottery shards to establish
settlements from the Stone Age to Arab times in the 1970s-80s). Of course if the
Canaanites or Israelites were superstitious enough to regard Meteorites as
"sacred stones from heaven" worthy of veneration, some could have been taken and
set up in a local shrine of some sort, and if found in a shrine with pottery
debris then a date could be established. I am not aware of any excavations
reporting meteorites as sacred stones or massebah in Canaan. Does anyone know
differently ? Are archaeologists trained in knowing the difference between a
meteorite and a local stone set up as a massebah ? I just finished reading a
fascinating book on searching for meteorites, Harvey H. Nininger, Find A Fallen
Star (1972). Nininger was convinced that the lack of documentation for
meteorites worldwide was because people were ignorant of what to look for in
identifying a meteorite. He launched his own program in Kansas and elswehere in
the Southwest, giving free talks with meteorites to pass out to the audience and
encouraging them to contact him if they found anything. He reasoned that the
most likely people to come into contact with meteorites were not PhD Scholars,
it would be "the people who worked the land", farmers and ranchers. His hunch
paid off over the years, he was flooded with stones, and new meteorite showers
where identified (he personally would go to the site and confirm it). So, it is
just possible, _if_ a metorite shower did take place near the ascent of
Beth-Horon, that the local farmers have encountered these stones in the course
of plowing up their fields and removed them to build stone fences about their
fields or deposited them in some nearby rock heap, unaware they were plowing up
meteorites. This would be a nice assignment for the Israeli Geological Survey to
undertake- educate the farmers like Nininger did, show them what to look for and
check up on what the farmers find. Nininger made an interesting observation,
despite the educating of the ranchers and farmers, he discovered that it was
neccessary to make REPEATED visits to these people inquiring about "finds." He
had discovered that yes the people did find meteorites but they were just too
busy getting on with life and its daily struggle to bother contacting him about
what they found. It was his repeated visits that jogged the memories and flushed
up from the ranchers and farmers the meteorites they had set aside and never
bothered to alert him about ! Just a thought.