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The Spread of Human Civilization


The Mediterranean Region

Almost every culture on Earth includes an ancient flood story.


Details vary, but the basic plot is the same: Deluge kills all but a
lucky few.
The story most familiar to many people is thebiblical account of Noah and his
ark.Genesis tells how "God saw that the wickedness of man was great" and decided to
destroy all of creation. Only Noah, "who found grace in the eyes of the Lord," his family, and
the animals aboard the ark survived to repopulate the planet.

Older than Genesis is theBabylonian epic of Gilgamesh,a king who embarked on a


journey to find the secret of immortality. Along the way, he met Utnapishtim, survivor of a
great flood sent by the gods. Warned by Enki, the water god, Utnapishtim built a boat and
saved his family and friends, along with artisans, animals, and precious metals.

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.

Next: The Theory

German Engraving of Noah's Ark, 1658


1999 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved.

Columbia University geologists William Ryan and Walter Pitman


wondered what could explain the preponderance of flood legends.
Their theory: As the Ice Age ended and glaciers melted, a wall of
seawater surged from the Mediterranean into the Black Sea.

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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.

Next: The Search

Black Sea map courtesy of William Haxby.


1999 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved.

Figures below are from


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(Pitman and Ryan, 1999. Noah's Flood)

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Bob Ballard and Current Research


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Maritime explorer Bob Ballard is combing the floor of the Black


Sea in search of the remains of ancient dwellings, which would
buttress a new theory that a cataclysmic flood struck the region
some 7,000 years ago-swelling the sea and eventually becoming the
basis of 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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Sonar image courtesy of David Mindell.


1999 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved.

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