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Summary: Appears as if a flood happened
Review: It appears as if a flood of the Black Sea region happened. Robert Ballard, the discoverer of the Titanic, recently found evidence of habitation 300? feet under the Black Sea. This book provides the interesting story of the theory that a former lake under the Black Sea was flooded by the Mediterranean Sea. This flood could have provide the basis for the flood mythology in many cultures including the Deluge in the Bible. While likely, the Deluge will be difficult or impossible to prove without a doubt. I believe this book is best used from a scientific standpoint and not as proof for a religion. Yet, many parts of the Bible appear to be supported by recent archaeology. The section of the book that describes a diaspora of the peoples that lived on the shore of the former lake is more difficult to prove. I read this book in conjunction with the Mummies of Urumchi by E. J. W. Barber, Elizabeth Wayland Barber. I found them complementary on the subject of the Indo- European language group in Western China. To ever prove something such as this diaspora requires the combination of linguistics with archaeology among many other disciplines. While the authors are not experts in those fields, I applaud them for attempting this study. Science more and more requires a consilience of disciplines. I recommend this book as a thought provoking book.
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Summary: Fascinating explanation for ancient legends
Review: The story of Noah's flood was one of my favorite biblical epics. This work is almost equally compelling. Utterly convincing in it's presentation of the evidence - the book demonstrates that the Black Sea was once a fresh water lake but was inundated by rising levels of salt water from the Mediterranean Sea. This monumental assault by Mother Nature on the indigenous residents of the lakeside apparently made somewhat of an impression. A grand mix of history and science that is highly worth your time.
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Summary: Good research but faulty conclusion
Review: Ryan and Pitman do a terrific job of developing and presenting the evidence for the flood of the Black Sea region about 7000-7500 years ago. However, it's a stretch for them to extrapolate evidence for the flood of the Black Sea into the Great Flood. Evidence for the latter as a world wide event reaches far beyond the shores of the Black Sea. As the 'Ice Age' ended, during several thousand years the ocean level rose 400-600 feet. Recent submarine archaeological finds off the coast of India and in the Caribbean indicate that the Black Sea was not the only vicinity whose population became displaced. There are in excess of 200 megalithic sites under the Mediterranean, and roads leading away from sites on Malta go straight under the sea. Other undersea sites include those off the coast of Denmark and Germany. Like the Black Sea, the Baltic was also once a fresh water lake, and likely flooded in much the same way and at the same time. To be sure, refugees from the Black Sea region resettled in what is now Turkey, as well as in every other direction from its former shores. From what is now Turkey, elements of that culture migrated southeastward into Mesopotamia to found the civilization of Sumer. The archaeological record demonstrates that. In Ancient times, Phrygia (north central Anatolia, now Turkey) vied with Egypt for the distinction of being the oldest civilization, and Phrygia eventually won the argument (on flimsy grounds). Geographic evidence embedded in the Bible's Garden of Eden story points to the Zagros Mountains in the same region for its origin. As for the Great Flood, its likelier cause was a comet or asteroid impact about 11,200 years ago. The physical evidence all over the planet suggests that. If we look at ice core samples from Greenland and Antarctica, for example, the Younger Dryas demonstrates a warming spike at that point in time, then a re-freeze from the nuclear winter wrought by the impact event and then gradual warming and melting over several thousand years to produce the rising sea levels that flooded coastlines worldwide, including that of the Black Sea. (A lot more evidence points to 11,200 years ago as well. It also coincides with a mass extinction, including more than half of the large mammal species in North America, for instance. DNA research shows a genetic bottleneck at this point among the human species, indicative of a vast temporary diminishment of the human population worldwide. There are a dearth of archaeological human occupation sites around the world at this point and for several hundred years following. Geophysical evidence in North America, India and Egypt demonstrates sand superheated into glass in a fashion normally unknown in nature. A large crater 600 mi. x 750 mi. lies at the bottom of the western North Atlantic, the remnant of the primary impact site(s). The Carolina Bays comprise over half a million smaller crater remains scattered all over North America, in a pattern from Alaska to the southeast U.S., with greatest concentration in the latter region. Erosion analysis dates them to that point in time as well.) Read the book. It contains a lot of valuable information. Bear in mind, though, that it is just one part of a much bigger story.
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Summary: Noah's Flood and the Milky Salty Sea
Review: The authors' exposition of the geological evidence for the Black Sea flooding is excellent. Their exposition of the archaeological and historical evidence for its human impact is somewhat less so, although interesting nonetheless. They have presented an interesting thesis regarding the impact of the flooding on early western history. Still, the balance of the evidence suggests that, although their thesis is plausible with regard to the north shore of the Black Sea and the migration of neolithic peoples to Europe and elsewhere, it is doubtful with regard to the south shore, the migration of peoples to Iraq and the Levant, and Noah's flood. The problem is that, because the Black Sea's southern shore slopes steeply, a rather narrow strip of land, not highly suited to agriculture, was flooded there. It is hard to believe that the population dislodged southward could have been very large in comparison to the population already living southward. Sumerian origins are generally associated with an early farming culture in Iran rather than Turkey, and archaeology suggests that the homeland of the Semitic peoples was Arabia and adjacent regions rather than Turkey. Then, too, it seems unnecessary to go all the way to the Black Sea for an explanation of an Iraqi flood story, as a massive Indian Ocean hurricane coming up the Persian Gulf is a more obvious candidate. The Sumerian and Biblical stories associate the flood with heavy rainfall, consistent with an Indian Ocean storm of some kind, and the Black Sea flooding was not caused by rainfall. On the other hand, the ultimate association of the Black Sea flooding with the migrations of the Indo-Europeans or the Central European neolithic farmers or both seems quite reasonable. A much larger area of land was flooded, and archaeology does attest to substantial migrations from the Black Sea region into Europe beginning around that time. Although the Black Sea flooding seems hard to associate with the Sumerian and Biblical flood stories, its memory may have been preserved among the peoples most affected by it. There is an otherwise hard-to-explain story which apparently goes all the way back to when the Indo-Europeans had not yet split up. One version (Scandinavian) involves a pair of giants grinding salt at the bottom of the sea. Another version is the classical Indian myth of the churning of the sea of milk. The Indian story is the more elaborate of the two, but both stories are about the creation of a salty ocean through a grinding or churning process by supernatural beings, and are clearly related. Direct transmission from India to Scandinavia or vice versa can be ruled out, as can a Middle Eastern or Mongolian transmission, so the connection must be a very ancient one. Strangely, though, they are not the kind of stories that would usually be associated with an inland people like the early Indo-Europeans. The Black Sea flooding may provide an answer as to how they came into existence.
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Summary: A Wonderful Mix of Scientific Detection and Ancient History
Review: This is one of the most exciting books of scientific discovery I have ever read. The authors make a compelling case that what is now the Black Sea was a fresh water lake in 5600 BC. As a result of a long period of dryness, the surface of the lake was 350 feet below the level of the Mediterranean-fed Bosporus. The Bosporus dam was breached and two hundred times as much water as flows over Niagara Falls today began to pour into the Black Sea at a speed of 50 m.ph. The noise and vibration could have been heard and felt throughout the Black Sea littoral. The authors argue, due the area's relatively attractive climate, that the littoral was probably populated. The flood must have struck them with awe and caused the survivors to migrate. The Sumerian "Deluge" story, the Akkakian "Atrahasis" epic, the Epic of Gilgamesh, and Noah's Flood are 7000 year old echoes of this awesome event.
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Summary: Good Research
Review: The research involved in this theory is quite excellent and intriguing. I quite enjoyed reading of how they came to this theory of the Great Flood actually being the result of the Black Sea being flooded from the Mediterranean. As the story of the flood is to be found in many different cultures -- including Navajo culture -- there must be some basis to the flood story. This is quite plausible.
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Summary: Authors changed their mind about the sudden flood
Review: I have not checked the many previous reviews but for the record need to point out that, drawing on new evidence, the authors retracted their concept of a "catastrophic flood" for the Black Sea. Newer evidence showed that the intrusion of Mediterranean sea water into the Black Sea took place over a longer time frame from about 10,000 years before the present. Nevertheless, the authors provide a lot of good background, both scientific, archeological, and scriptural. I would have given the book 5 stars earlier.
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Summary: Not as Earth-shattering as I thought
Review: Granted, the book is an interesting look at an ancient event. But once I looked at more critically, it doesn't seem as if this was "Noah's Flood." Sorry, anti-Bible folks, but this flood seems far too recent, and too small in scope on its effect on humans, to be Noah's flood and to account for the proliferation of accounts of a devastating flood. The flood accounts around the world refer to something far more devestating than a flood that effected only a relatively small population. People had moved out amongst the world far before the flood in this book occured. Nor was the flood "global" as some creationists claim. For a good look at the most literal way to read and study the flood account, see "The Genesis Question" by Hugh Ross.
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Summary: Great story and no fantasy
Review: This book does an outstandng job of exploring what might have given rise to the great flood stories. It does not assert that the ideas considered are what did give rise to the stories, but postulates reasonable ideas and stimulates critical thinking. The authors then relate the story of their scientific mission to explore the relevant seas and coasts and they definitely have discovered some interesting things. Whether they have any relationship to the great flood talek or not, their discoveris are interesting, and their thoughts about the flood are also interesting. This is neither a theologic essay, nor a radical argumnent about what might have been.
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Summary: An epic adventure within an epic's origins
Review: Near the end of their chronicle of the discovery of the catastrophic Black Sea flood, authors Pitman & Ryan quote another researcher's wonder at the power of the oral tradition. The quote, from Albert Lord's analysis of the Trojan War epic, speaks to Pitman's and Ryan's research and their part in the oral tradition.
In truth, the story of the Black Sea covers more than plate tectonics, glaciation, human evolution or ten cubic miles of water flowing through a narrow channel in less than a day over seven thousand years ago. The neat trick with this book is that the authors have managed to include all that and more.
There are really two stories here. One is about the evolution of the human species from the Pleistocene to the present day, told in scientific language with scientific explanations for the actions & discoveries of the story's scientific participants. The other story is an epic tale of crafty researchers, cooperating scientists, story-tellers, myths and legends, told in skillfully written & documented prose that sweeps the reader along in the current of human successes, failures & terrors.
Beginning with Rawlinson's work in 1835 on a monument in Persia, Pitman & Ryan weave the reader through a fabric of time that is, as Lord is quoted saying, a past "of various times . . . assembled into the present performance." Using this motif, the authors introduce themselves only as two participants in a story of discovery, narrated by a fictive bard who is present only in the words. However the authors' parts in the discovery of the Black Sea flood event deserves respect. Meanwhile they have written a book that shows the respect they have for all who have been part of the story. Most importantly, they also have not forgotten the story itself.
In the final chapters Ryan & Pitman review the Black Sea's effect on history from the geological, genetic, linguistic and archeological evidence. They then compare this evidence with the numerous universal flood legends. Ryan & Pitman show how the power of the historical and geological event that created the Black Sea is the power behind the oral tradition. They then close the last chapter with the final lines of the story of Atrahasis: "I shall sing of the flood to all people! Listen!"
Most intriguing of all the information in this book is a dedication that includes a quote from the Gilgamesh epic. The dedication reveals the epic nature of the science and the mythos involved the Black Sea. It shows the sensitivity that the authors have for a legend and event that made humanity the species smart enough to wonder why and sensitive enough to pursue the wonder of life itself.
Whether you're interested in the science or the myth, Noah's Flood is a marvelous read. Clearly written, scientifically concise, sensitive to the human heritage in the rise of agriculture, language & story, it is worth the time you'll take in reading it. And you'll gain a sense for timeless wonder of the story within the words.
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