EVIDENCE is growing that a mighty comet smashed into the earth just a few thousand years ago, impacting on the myths and religion of early civilisations.

Numerous ancient writings, including prophecies such as the Book of Revelation in the Bible, appear to describe cataclysmic events involving objects falling from the sky. Now researchers are starting to uncover scientific evidence that something catastrophic and climate-changing happened more than 4,000 years ago.

Tree-ring studies of Irish Oaks by scientists at Queen's University, Belfast, have revealed that around 2354-2345 BC there was an abrupt downturn in the climate.

Archaeologists carrying out digs in Northern Syria have discovered signs of a catastrophic environmental event occurring at about the same time. Their analysis reveals evidence of widespread destruction caused by what was described as a ''blast from the sky''.

Around this time, there was a near simultaneous collapse of Bronze Age civilisations.

Dr Bill Napier, an astronomer at Armagh Observatory, and Dr Victor Clube, from Oxford and Armagh Universities, have been investigating the evidence of a major comet impact in the third millennium BC.

Writing in Frontiers magazine, Dr Napier suggests that the Comet Encke, first observed in 1786, might be a remnant of the object along with its associated stream of meteors, called the Taurids.

This giant mother-comet is thought to have been actively disintegrating as recently as 5,000 years ago. At this time, and for some millennia afterwards, the night sky would have been lit up by a bright zodiacal light.

Dr Napier wrote: ''One of the most puzzling features of early societies is their preoccupation with the sky. People have assumed that this was driven by the need for a calendar. But this does not account for the doom-laden nature of their early sky-centred cosmic religions.''