I saw something recently, about Dr. Robert Ballard leading an expedition to the Black Sea. They found the remnants of ancient structures far below the surface of the sea, suggesting that the Sea was much smaller in ancient times. Now, of course, the Black Sea connects to the Mediterranean by the narrow Bosphorus Straight, between Turkey and Greece. How did this open up? And how low was the level of the Black Sea before being flooded? Anything elese turn up at the bottom of the sea? And, does this flooding of the Black Sea Basin explain the “Noah’s Ark” story in the Boble? How sudden would the flooding take-was it weeks, months or years?
The Black Sea was a shallow freshwater lake until about 5,500 years ago. It flooded when the Mediterreanian broke through the Bosporous, as seal levels rose partially in response to changes in global temperatures combined with local events. Estimates have the shoreline increasing a mile a day until the basin filled completely. There were human setlements in the area at the time. Flood myths emerged at around the same time, starting with the Gilgamesh Epic, upon which the Noah’s Ark story is derived.
Pretty much as I understood the history of the area, but what is the evidence that the biblical account is derived from the Gilgamesh Epic rather than from independant sources ?
You can read the Gilgamesh flood story here.
Some glaring similarities between Utnapishtim and Noah make it obvious they share a heritage. Both are warned by God or gods to build an ark to escape the flood, and to store all creatures on the ark. Both release a dove and a raven to find land after the ark hits a mountain. Both offer a sacrifices.
The question really is weather Noah was taken from Gilgamesh and the Sumerian stories from which Gilgamesh was borrowed, or if they all come from a common source such as an oral tradition carried down by the Hebrews and then stolen by the Sumerians. The latter view is the one held by The Institute for Creation Research in their discussion of the flood tales.
Discussion of this will probably tend towards Great Debates.
A recent story at Science Daily Magazine had someone disputing the speed of the flood. That it would have taken much longer to fill in.
Another problem with the Black Sea Flood=Noah’s Flood: Noah’s flood dried up. The Black Sea hasn’t. Also wrong side of Turkey, etc.
The Tigris-Euphrates probably had enough floods without having to wander far afield. There was also a comet impact site recently found in the area that is of an interesting age which could have caused all sorts of Vengance Of God type things.
Beware of Pop-Science Explains the Bible type stuff.
(It’s not even clear if the “ark” was a boat. Some old Talmudic commentary indicates it was an enclosed cave-like shelter. The thinking was that the boat part was borrowed from the Greek flood story.)
I imagine the Greenpeace activists had to take cover pronto and stop spraypainting the harp seals gathered at the Black Sea’s shore.
The Smithsonian magazine had an interesting article about this not too long ago.