Yeah, and most early culture developed along river valleys where floods would likely be common. As for the similarities between Gilgamesh and Noah, i think they're probably related to the same massive Tigris-Euphrates flood that probably seemed like a world wide flood, but may instead have been only regional.
Another more interesting hypothesis deals with the Black Sea. The idea that at the end of the last ice age, the mediterranean began rising and started sloshing up against the natural barrier that today we call the Bosporus. At some point, enough ice melted and the sea came roaring over and spilled into the depressed region that became the Black Sea. Archaeologists have found evidence for small homes underneath the sea there, about 300 feet deep. The survivors of this catastrophe passed on the story to generations that spread around the world.
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Yeah, and most early culture developed along river valleys where floods would likely be common. As for the similarities between Gilgamesh and Noah, i think they're probably related to the same massive Tigris-Euphrates flood that probably seemed like a world wide flood, but may instead have been only regional. Another more interesting hypothesis deals with the Black Sea. The idea that at the end of the last ice age, the mediterranean began rising and started sloshing up against the natural barrier that today we call the Bosporus. At some point, enough ice melted and the sea came roaring over and spilled into the depressed region that became the Black Sea. Archaeologists have found evidence for small homes underneath the sea there, about 300 feet deep. The survivors of this catastrophe passed on the story to generations that spread around the world.