Further Explanations for Ancient Flood Myth

[Bar Sinister]

Recent discoveries reveal more evidence that the release of ancient Lake Aggasiz into the Atlantic raised ocean levels and may have drowned early civilizations located in what is now the Persian Gulf. Prior to the event the gulf was probably a river valley and any early human settlements there would have been destroyed. The latest theory helps to explain the sudden appearance of early civilizations in the region known as Mesopotamia; sometimes called the "Cradle of Civilization. The article states:

Rose stated in a summary of the study that recent archeological discoveries along the Persian Gulf coast show relatively advanced cultures with no apparent precursor settlements to explain how they attained their level of cultural sophistication. "These settlements boast well-built, permanent stone houses, long-distance trade networks, elaborately decorated pottery, domesticated animals, and even evidence for one of the oldest boats in the world," Rose noted.
"Perhaps it is no coincidence that the founding of such remarkably well-developed communities along the shoreline corresponds with the flooding of the Persian Gulf basin around 8,000 years ago," he added. "These new colonists may have come from the heart of the Gulf, displaced by rising water levels that plunged the once fertile landscape beneath the waters of the Indian Ocean."

Read more: Massive Canadian melt may have triggered flood of biblical proportions​

Massive Canadian melt may have triggered flood of biblical proportions

 

[Cliffy]

During the last Ice Age the sea level dropped almost 400 feet in the northern hemisphere. With Canada being mostly covered by a kilometer of ice, the water had to come from somewhere. Recent archaeological finds on the west coast have shown that humans had traveled, hunted and ate along the coast as evidenced by finds in a cave off Queen Charlotte Island at a depth of 160 feet below present sea level. After the glaciers melted, the oceans rose to their previous levels. That is why just about every culture had flood myths.

 

[petros]

So that's why there is so much fresh water in MB?

 

[YukonJack]

I thought that the religious holy books attribute the Flood to rain, rather than ice fields melting.

 

[petros]

Just one says rain but all the others say deluge and flood.

 

[lone wolf]

It was precipitation of some sort that fed the ice fields....

 

[Bar Sinister]

I thought that the religious holy books attribute the Flood to rain, rather than ice fields melting.

The Biblical account of the flood is based on much older accounts by other Middle Eastern civilizations. In fact most ancient cultures have some sort of flood story; quite possibly all due to the worldwide increase in sea levels following the last ice age.

 

[bill barilko]

You guys need to spend some time on the various archaeology boards-all kinds of info/comment/opinion.

 

[Cliffy]

You guys need to spend some time on the various archaeology boards-all kinds of info/comment/opinion.

Got links?

 

[Dexter Sinister]

I think the oldest flood story we have is from the Epic of Gilgamesh, about 4700 years old if my memory is correct. It may also be the oldest literature we have. It's very similar to the biblical flood story and is widely thought to be the source of it, picked up by the Israelites during the Babylonian captivity. This glacial ice damn breaking is the third possible explanation I've seen advanced recently. Others are the Bosporus opening up and flooding low lying areas around the Black Sea, and the Strait of Hormuz opening up to flood the Persian Gulf, both as a result of tectonic plate movements. Another possibility is much simpler, a major flood of both the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.The landscape's pretty flat where they run through southern Iraq, and in the days before mass communications and widespread travel, that could have looked to the ancient Mesopotamians like the whole world was flooded. Certainly THEIR whole world would have been flooded. The biblical story talks about both rain and the fountains of the great deep opening up. It's not clear what that means exactly, but it does suggest a surge of water overland, which any of those four possibilities would have produced. I doubt we'll ever know for sure. But most cultures have flood stories, even the aboriginal cultures of North America's plains have them, which are probably from those once in a thousand years floods the local rivers produce. And we all know from recent experience that it doesn't take a really big rise in water levels to flood most of southern Manitoba.

 

[petros]

Where is Humbaba when you need him?

or am I thinking Enkidoo(sp)? It's been awhile since reading it.

 

[Dexter Sinister]

Humbaba was the monstrous giant, guardian of the Cedar Forest where the gods lived, Enkidu was Gilgamesh's traveling companion.

 

[ironsides]

Then the floods were not myths, they happened. If these civilizations were pre the 8000 year mark of the floods, what were they like, just how advanced were they.

 

[Dexter Sinister]

Then the floods were not myths, they happened.

Yes, floods happened, but not globally, there's no evidence of that and plenty of evidence against it, they've been mythologized to serve another agenda.

 

[Ariadne]

During the last Ice Age the sea level dropped almost 400 feet in the northern hemisphere. With Canada being mostly covered by a kilometer of ice, the water had to come from somewhere. Recent archaeological finds on the west coast have shown that humans had traveled, hunted and ate along the coast as evidenced by finds in a cave off Queen Charlotte Island at a depth of 160 feet below present sea level. After the glaciers melted, the oceans rose to their previous levels. That is why just about every culture had flood myths.

Not more people that need special privileges ... we‘re in a recession!

Maybe it was the Hawaiians that hunted along the coast ... they‘ll be lining up behind the Tamils to claim a piece of Canada.

 

[Tonington]

Not more people that need special privileges ... we‘re in a recession!

We are?

 

[Nuggler]

:glasses11:jeez, i member when the ol' Reedo Canal flooded one yeer. Plumb inundated the duck blind. Nothin to compare to thet Messypotania thingy, but pretty scary if you wuz there at the time.

 

[ironsides]

Yes, floods happened, but not globally, there's no evidence of that and plenty of evidence against it, they've been mythologized to serve another agenda.

Globally was the world to these people who lived in the area of the floods, it was the only world.they knew. The stories of a great flood engulfing the world was not a myth but a factual account of what happened to their world at that time. The stories we passed on thru religious accounts, that was about the only we could have learned what happened back then sorting thru what was just a story and what was fact. What were these people like, what knowledge if any did mankind lose by the destruction of these villages/cities?

 

[petros]

There were three floods.

 

[Dexter Sinister]

Globally was the world to these people who lived in the area of the floods, it was the only world.they knew.

That reads like you're disagreeing with me, but that's what I said in post #10.