The biblical story of Noah's Ark and the great flood is a well-known narrative, but its origins and historical accuracy are debated. Scientists have searched for solid evidence to support the idea of a massive flood that destroyed all life on earth. The Epic of Gilgamesh, an ancient Mesopotamian text, shares a similar story, leading some to believe that the biblical account is based on earlier oral traditions.
Researchers have suggested that the flood myth may be linked to the rising of sea levels around 7,500 BC, which caused widespread flooding in the Black Sea region. However, further investigation reveals that the process of the Black Sea changing from a freshwater lake to a saltwater sea was a gradual one, spanning thousands of years, rather than a sudden catastrophic event.
The myth of the flood may have originated from the experience of ancient people living in the region, who witnessed the devastating effects of rising sea levels and the flooding of their homelands. The story was likely passed down through oral traditions and eventually written into the biblical account.
The documentary ends by highlighting the relevance of the flood myth to modern-day climate change, warning that a new flood story may need to be told if humans do not take action to stop the devastating consequences of global warming.
Here are the key facts extracted from the text:
1. The Book of Genesis describes a flood that lasted 40 days and 40 nights, destroying everything on earth except for Noah, his family, and a pair of each animal species.
2. The Book of Genesis was written in Jerusalem in the 7th century BC.
3. The Epic of Gilgamesh, written around 1600 BC, contains a similar flood story to the one in the Bible.
4. The Atrahasis epic, dated to 1800 BC, also contains a similar flood story.
5. The Bible uses the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Epic of Gilgamesh uses the Epic of Atrahasis, suggesting a common oral story that predates these written accounts.
6. The climate and landscape in the Holy Land make it unlikely that a huge flood occurred there.
7. The idea for the flood story may have originated in Mesopotamia, where the Epic of Gilgamesh was written.
8. The British Museum in London has a collection of cuneiform tablets, including the Epic of Gilgamesh.
9. The Assyriologist Dr. Irving Finkel is an expert on the Epic of Gilgamesh.
10. The flood story in the Epic of Gilgamesh was translated by George Smith over 120 years ago.
11. The discovery of the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Atrahasis epic suggests that the Bible's flood story may be a plagiarism.
12. The end of the last ice age, around 20,000 years ago, had global consequences, including rising sea levels.
13. The Persian Gulf was a fertile alluvium during the Ice Age, and may have been a template for the description of the Garden of Eden in the Bible.
14. The Fertile Crescent, an area between Iraq and southern Turkey, is considered the oldest agricultural area on earth.
15. Around 11,000 years ago, a gradual change occurred in the Fertile Crescent, where hunters and gatherers became sedentary farmers and livestock breeders.
16. The Neolithic Revolution, which occurred around 11,000 years ago, was fueled by global climate change.
17. Solar radiation increased, temperatures rose, and the ice began to melt, leading to a stable warm period.
18. The water in the ice sheets dissolved and rolled over the land masses into the oceans, causing sea levels to rise.
19. The Black Sea was once a freshwater lake, but became a saltwater sea around 9,500 years ago.
20. The Black Sea Maritime Archeology Project has been studying the bottom of the Black Sea for three years.
21. Researchers have found evidence that the Black Sea changed from a freshwater to a saltwater sea around 9,500 years ago.
22. The stalactite cave in northern Turkey, Sofular, contains a natural climate archive that can be used to reconstruct climatic abnormalities.
23. The stalactite cave shows that the Black Sea reached its current size 9,500 years ago.
24. The study of the stalactite cave also shows that there was an outflow of water from the Black Sea into the Mediterranean around 9,500 years ago.
25. The meltwater from the glaciers, which the large rivers bring, is responsible for the expansion of the Black Sea.
26. A process that probably began as early as 15,000 BC, and continued until the water overflowed into the Sea of Marmara.
27. The seas mixed when the Mediterranean rose thousands of years later.
28. This process took a very long time, until the Black Sea was completely transformed into a brackish sea as we know it today.
29. The Pitman-Ryan theory, which suggests that the Mediterranean broke through the Bosphorus and flooded the Black Sea, is no longer scientifically tenable.
30. With the major melting of ice, sea levels worldwide will rise by 120 meters, causing floods and changing the face of the earth.
31. Scientists have calculated that if the glacier ice at the poles melted completely, the result would be a rise in sea level by a further 65 meters.
32. Global warming is progressing unstoppably, and the climate is changing more abruptly and quickly than in the past.
33. The data clearly shows that today's climate change is man-made.
34. A major ice melt would have far more serious consequences in the 21st century than in ancient times, including mega floods that could overwhelm coastal areas and river landscapes.