Mid Eastern flood myths Why they could be about the black sea

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Mid Eastern flood mythsWhy they could be about
the black sea
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• Great flood myth are found in every corner of
  the planet. They often refer to giants or divine
  creators even sea monsters, which point back to
  prehistory. They embody actual geologic and
  historic events as well as describing the divine
  cosmology, and cosmogony of the universes and the
  pre-cosmic chaos of the cosmos. These "myths" can
  be taken not only literally on many levels, but
  also serve as spiritual, psychological,
  scientific, historical, and ethical, explanations
  for many cultures. It is now in the 20th century,
  which encompasses the great revolution of the
  scientific cosmology that we gain yet another
  perspective on the subject

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• About 300 cultures around the world have stories
  of a massive flood. In Judeo-Christian
  countries, the most famous is the story of Noah's
  Flood, as recorded in the Bible Genesis,
  chapters 6 to 8.The story of the worldwide flood
  of Noah has fueled conflicts between geologists
  and conservative Christians since the early 19th
  century.

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• The Noah Flood story is almost certainly derived
  from a Babylonian flood story, specifically the
  flood myth in the Epic of Gilgamesh. However the
  hebrew version is a monotheistic text re-writing
  of the original Babylonian polytheistic text.

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• The Greeks had the flood story of Deucalion, son
  of Titan Prometheus, who was king of Phthia
  during the time Zeus destroyed the human race in
  his own anger-inspired flood Zeus'... flood did
  the job in only nine days.  Deucalion and his
  wife, Pyrrha were the lone survivors, thanks to a
  warning by Prometheus.  Deucalion constructed a
  boat, which, after the event, came to rest on the
  top of Mt.  Parnassus

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• Perhaps the great flood is not only important
  because of the catastrophic meaning but the
  symbolic meaning of a second techom,( Hebrew word
  in the book of Genesis meaning, a one watery
  chaos) and a second resurrection of genesis.
  Perhaps there have been many catastrophic floods.
  It is well known that some of the oldest lands
  are in the polar regions. In the north mammoths
  lived in the hundreds of thousands, then were
  mysteriously killed, stacked up in piles in some
  places, perhaps by a catastrophe or serious
  flood. Another strange occurrence, which science
  is aware of, is that the current polar regions
  have been frozen and then tropical more than
  once.

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Theory of black sea flood
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• Circa 5 million BCE What is now the
  Mediterranean Sea was once a larg dry valley. A
  narrow height of land between what is now Spain
  and Northern Africa held back the Atlantic Ocean.
  The height of land collapsed -- perhaps due to an
  earthquake, and the Atlantic Ocean flowed in to
  form the Mediterranean Sea.

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• 120,000 to 18,000 BCE During the last ice age,
  sheets of ice up to two miles thick covered much
  of the northern parts of North America, Europe
  and Russia. So much water had been withdrawn from
  the world's oceans that their level was about 400
  feet (120 meters) lower than it is today. 

• 120,000 to 18,000 BCE During the last ice age,
  sheets of ice up to two miles thick covered much
  of the northern parts of North America, Europe
  and Russia. This caused so much water to be
  withdrawn from the world's oceans that their
  level was about 400 feet (120 meters) lower than
  it is today. 

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• 18,000 BCE Temperatures started to warm again.
  The ice at the southern boundaries began to melt.
  Some of the water fed what is called the New
  Euxine Lake a fresh water lake located within
  the area of today's Black Sea. It had a small
  outlet to the Sea of Marmara, Aegean and
  Mediterranean Seas. 

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• 13,000 BCE The flow of freshwater from the
  glaciers into this lake had almost stopped.

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• 10,500 to 9400 BCE The temperature and
  precipitation dropped in the area-- an event
  called the Younger Dryas. The flow of fresh water
  into the New Euxine lake almost stopped. The lake
  level dropped, due to evaporation. Eventually,
  the lake level fell below its outlet to the Sea
  of Marmara. The New Euxine Lake then became a
  landlocked, fresh water lake. Tribes in the Near
  East were experiencing drought conditions. They
  gravitated to the shores of this and other large
  lakes where the water supply was fresh and
  abundant. They built villages, hunted, fished and
  learned to cultivate grain crops. In short they
  built cultures there.

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• 9400 BCE Decent levels of temperature and
  rainfall returned once more.

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• 6200 BCE Another ice age arrived. With it was a
  lessening of rainfall which produced difficult
  times for those farmers throughout the Middle
  East who were not located beside a water supply.
  Many agurculural villages in Anatolia and along
  the Fertile Crescent were left while others
  stayed. Villagers from many cultures migrated in
  large numbers to the New Euxine lake. Along the
  shores of the lake there would have been villages
  with farmers and hunters from many cultures in
  the region.

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• 5650 to 5500 BCE Warmth and percipitation
  returned once again. The New Euxine lake was
  still landlocked and fresh. But the Mediterranean
  Sea and Sea of Marmara  had gradually risen to a
  level some 426 feet (130 meters) higher than the
  lake. It was held back by a small rise of land at
  the Bosporus River. Now the Bosporus Straight is
  near present-day Istanbul, Turkey.

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• Eventually, the ocean level rose high enough to
  overflow into the Euxine Lake. It would have cut
  a small channel down to the lake. In a short
  time, the flow would reach 10 cubic miles of
  water per day -- 200 times the flow of the
  present Niagara Falls. Its velocity would have
  reached 50 miles per hour (over 80 km/hour)! Its
  noise would have been audible 120 miles (200 km)
  away. The lake level would have risen about six
  inches a day. The shoreline would have expanded
  up to a mile each day in some areas. The effect
  on the multiple cultures who had settled on the
  lake shore would have been catastrophic.

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• At one site, 150 meters (500 feet) under water,
  archeologists found more than 30 stone blocks,
  pieces of wood and other objects. Because the
  site appeared rectangular and the stone blocks
  did not appear to be part of a natural geological
  formation. Archeologist have concluded that the
  site that was once occupied by people.

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• A tell near Ilipinar which is south of the
  Bosporus Straight, has been excavated. At the
  approximately 5500 BCE level the excavation
  reveals a sudden change in pottery design.
  Archeologists have studied other tells in the
  area which also showed similar abrupt changes in
  pottery at the same time. This shows that one
  society was overrun by another culture at about
  the same time that the New Euxine Lake was
  flooded. Presumably the more recent culture were
  refugees from the flooded lake.

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• A massive transfer of water happened about 5600
  BCE- over seven and a half millennia ago. The
  Black Sea shoreline greatly expanded to the north
  and east. Its water level was raised many
  hundreds of feet. It changed from a fresh-water
  landlocked lake into a salt water lake connected
  to the world's oceans. This could have had many
  effects on the people living on the shore of the
  Black Sea. It could have triggered mass
  migrations across Europe and into the Near East,
  Middle East and Egypt. It may have been the
  source of many flood stories in the area, and
  very possibly the source of the story of Noah's
  flood in the Biblical book of Genesis