Catastrophic Flooding of the Black Sea and Noah
Thursday, 22. November 2007, 17:15:38
There are many reasons for earth scientists to be interested in the Black Sea. New disciplines like geoarchaeology (interdisciplinary studies of archaeology and earth sciences) and geomythology (study of alleged references to geological events in mythology) are also at play.
Probably many of you read, a few years ago, how a catastrophic refilling of the Black sea about 7500 years ago was linked with the biblical account of Noah’s flood. The story was brought in National Geographic (May 2001), Scientific American (February 1999), New Scientist (October 4, 1997), Earth (August 1998), and other media. Their story was based on an article by Ryan, Piman et al. in Marine Geology (v. 138, p. 119–126 - An abrupt drowning of the Black Sea shelf) and a later book by Ryan and Pitman in 1999, Noah’s Flood: The new scientific discoveries about the event that changed history: New York, Simon & Schuster.
In their book Ryan and Pitman suggest the Black Sea was once a much smaller, land-locked freshwater lake, fed by ancient rivers, and surrounded by fertile plains. Neolithic people would have flocked to farm these Eden-like plains to farm them while supplementing their diets with the lake's abundant shellfish. At this time - about 7,500 years ago - the global climate was still rapidly warming following the last Ice Age, causing the seas to rise. Ryan and Pitman hypothesise that, when sea levels rose beyond a critical point, the Mediterranean Sea overflowed, deluging the Black Sea basin with salty water and destroying the fertile plains around the once-shallow freshwater lake.
I found it a good story, and many of the points plausible. It is no surprise, however, that the theory was controversial, and met with a certain disbelief and criticism. For instance a paper published in May 2002 in GSA Today suggested that 7500 years ago the water was probably flowing slowly in the opposite direction from the Black sea through the Marmara Sea and into the Mediterranean. I mention this paper, Persistent Holocene Outflow from the Black Sea to Eastern Mediterranean Contradicts Noah’s Flood Hypothesis, because it is freely available online (and of course interesting as well).
Now the tale is popping up again, but with a different timing.
According to an article in Quaternary Science Reviews(Volume 26, Issues 17-18, September 2007, Pages 2036-2041) titled Catastrophic early Holocene sea level rise, human migration and the Neolithic transition in Europe the event is supposed to have been somewhat earlier - at around 8000 years ago.
The research paper assesses the impact of the collapse of the North American (Laurentide) Ice Sheet. The collapse of the Laurentide Ice Sheet released a deluge of water that increased global sea levels by up to 1.4 metres and caused the largest North Atlantic freshwater pulse of the last 100,000 years. Before this time, a ridge across the Bosporus Strait dammed the Mediterranean and kept the Black Sea as a freshwater lake. With the rise in sea level, the Bosporus Strait was breached, flooding the Black Sea. The authors believe this event to be behind the various folk myths that led to the biblical Noah’s Ark story. Archaeological records show that around this time there was a sudden expansion of farming and pottery production across Europe, marking the end of the Mesolithic hunter-gatherer era and the start of the Neolithic.
The researchers estimated that nearly 73,000 km2 of land was lost to the Black Sea over a period of 34 years. Based on the knowledge of historical population levels, this could have led to the displacement of 145,000 people. Archaeological evidence shows that communities in Southeast Europe were already practising early farming techniques and pottery production before the Flood. With the catastrophic rise in water levels it appears they moved west, taking their culture into areas inhabited by hunter-gatherer communities.
And how about coastal communities today? The latest estimates suggest that by the year 2050, millions of people will be displaced each year by rising sea levels.
• http://www.exeter.ac.uk/news/newsnoah.shtml
• http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-11/uoe-fk111507.php
• http://www.physorg.com/news114703512.html
PS of 24 Nov. 2007: Chris at Highly Allochthonous wrote a great post on the subject.
Probably many of you read, a few years ago, how a catastrophic refilling of the Black sea about 7500 years ago was linked with the biblical account of Noah’s flood. The story was brought in National Geographic (May 2001), Scientific American (February 1999), New Scientist (October 4, 1997), Earth (August 1998), and other media. Their story was based on an article by Ryan, Piman et al. in Marine Geology (v. 138, p. 119–126 - An abrupt drowning of the Black Sea shelf) and a later book by Ryan and Pitman in 1999, Noah’s Flood: The new scientific discoveries about the event that changed history: New York, Simon & Schuster.
In their book Ryan and Pitman suggest the Black Sea was once a much smaller, land-locked freshwater lake, fed by ancient rivers, and surrounded by fertile plains. Neolithic people would have flocked to farm these Eden-like plains to farm them while supplementing their diets with the lake's abundant shellfish. At this time - about 7,500 years ago - the global climate was still rapidly warming following the last Ice Age, causing the seas to rise. Ryan and Pitman hypothesise that, when sea levels rose beyond a critical point, the Mediterranean Sea overflowed, deluging the Black Sea basin with salty water and destroying the fertile plains around the once-shallow freshwater lake.
I found it a good story, and many of the points plausible. It is no surprise, however, that the theory was controversial, and met with a certain disbelief and criticism. For instance a paper published in May 2002 in GSA Today suggested that 7500 years ago the water was probably flowing slowly in the opposite direction from the Black sea through the Marmara Sea and into the Mediterranean. I mention this paper, Persistent Holocene Outflow from the Black Sea to Eastern Mediterranean Contradicts Noah’s Flood Hypothesis, because it is freely available online (and of course interesting as well).
Now the tale is popping up again, but with a different timing.
According to an article in Quaternary Science Reviews(Volume 26, Issues 17-18, September 2007, Pages 2036-2041) titled Catastrophic early Holocene sea level rise, human migration and the Neolithic transition in Europe the event is supposed to have been somewhat earlier - at around 8000 years ago.
The research paper assesses the impact of the collapse of the North American (Laurentide) Ice Sheet. The collapse of the Laurentide Ice Sheet released a deluge of water that increased global sea levels by up to 1.4 metres and caused the largest North Atlantic freshwater pulse of the last 100,000 years. Before this time, a ridge across the Bosporus Strait dammed the Mediterranean and kept the Black Sea as a freshwater lake. With the rise in sea level, the Bosporus Strait was breached, flooding the Black Sea. The authors believe this event to be behind the various folk myths that led to the biblical Noah’s Ark story. Archaeological records show that around this time there was a sudden expansion of farming and pottery production across Europe, marking the end of the Mesolithic hunter-gatherer era and the start of the Neolithic.The researchers estimated that nearly 73,000 km2 of land was lost to the Black Sea over a period of 34 years. Based on the knowledge of historical population levels, this could have led to the displacement of 145,000 people. Archaeological evidence shows that communities in Southeast Europe were already practising early farming techniques and pottery production before the Flood. With the catastrophic rise in water levels it appears they moved west, taking their culture into areas inhabited by hunter-gatherer communities.
And how about coastal communities today? The latest estimates suggest that by the year 2050, millions of people will be displaced each year by rising sea levels.
• http://www.exeter.ac.uk/news/newsnoah.shtml
• http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-11/uoe-fk111507.php
• http://www.physorg.com/news114703512.html
PS of 24 Nov. 2007: Chris at Highly Allochthonous wrote a great post on the subject.
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