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Ancient Greeks and Romansgrew up with the story of Deucalion and Pyhrra, who saved
their children and a collection of animals by boarding a vessel shaped like a giant box.
Irish legendstalk about Queen Cesair and her court, who sailed for seven years to avoid
drowning when the oceans overwhelmed Ireland.
European explorers in the Americas were startled byIndian legends that sounded similar
to the story of Noah.Some Spanish priests feared the devil had planted such stories in the
Indians' minds to confuse them.
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During the Ice Age, Ryan and Pitman argue,the Black Sea was an isolated freshwater
lakesurrounded by farmland.
About 12,000 years ago, toward the end of the Ice Age, Earth began growing warmer. Vast
sheets ofice that sprawled over the Northern Hemisphere began to melt.Oceans and seas
grew deeper as a result.
About 7,000 years ago theMediterranean Sea swelled.Seawater pushed northward, slicing
through what is now Turkey.
Funneled through the narrow Bosporus, the water hit the Black Sea with200 times the force
of Niagara Falls.Each day the Black Sea rose about six inches (15 centimeters), and coastal
farms were flooded.
Seared into the memories of terrified survivors,the tale of the flood was passed
downthrough the generations and eventually became the Noah story.
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If the thesis is correct,signs of human habitation should lie beneath the Black Sea.A 1998
expedition, says Ballard, reported "a series of features that appear to be man-made structures."
Ballard's 1999 expedition revealed an ancient shoreline. Also found were shells from freshwater and
saltwater mollusk species. Their radiocarbon dates support the theory of a freshwater lake inundated by
the Black Sea some 7,000 years ago.
"Now we've got to take it to the next level," says Ballard. Ballard and his team will use sonar and
remotely operated vehicles to search for evidence of human inhabitation, including buildings, pottery, and
ships.
Nationalgeographic.com producer Sean Markey is searching along with Ballard. Join him on the Black
Sea viadispatches on the expedition's progress.
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