Hi guys, today I want to talk about the wide-spread flood myth, also known in biblical
history as Noah s Flood . For well over a century, scholars recognized the Noah's Ark
story having very close parallels to earlier Mesopotamian sources. The most famous is The
Epic of Gilgamesh, dating back to 2100 BC. There have been many attempts to locate the
sedimentary deposits left by the Great Flood. In this video, I use the Sumerian flood story,
modern excavations as well as climate and sediment information to trace back to this
crucial event. Most flood records share a similar story about gods deciding to destroy
mankind with a great flood. A benevolent god did not want to annihilate all humans and
revealed the plan to a virtuous man. Per god s instructions, this man built a big boat
whereby his family, craftsmen, animals and he survived. Afterwards, this man offered
the gods a sacrifice and was granted immortality. Cultures that share this common flood myth
were in or close to the Fertile Crescent and might have originated from a single source.
In prehistory times, about 10-6,000 years ago, Mesopotamia was warm and humid with reliable
summer monsoon rainfall. At least 7,500 years ago, Mesopotamians used reed boats made waterproof
with bitumen (a kind of tar). They built an extensive trading network on the Euphrates
and Tigris. Traveling and trading between states and regions was prevalent then and
a good story was easily passed along. The earliest written records of the thrilling
flood story were found here in Sumerian Cuneiform. In Eridu Genesis, dated around 1600 BC, the
Sumerian Noah Ziusudra was King of Shuruppak where he received warning of the impending
disaster. His counterpart Utnapishtim was the flood hero in the Epic of Gilgamesh which
poem dates 500 years earlier. Here Utnapishtim is referred to as the man of Shuruppak So,
it appears the great flood occurred at Shuruppak, which is current day Tell Fara in Iraq. Shuruppak
is on the Lower Mesopotamia, a delta plain built up by sediment deposition from the Tigris
and Euphrates. It is one of the flattest places on Earth. Most major Mesopotamian cities were
built on the banks of the Euphrates, which was a fresh water source, trade route and
general lifeline. The Euphrates has changed its course many times due to avulsion, which
is when an established river channel diverts out or changes into a new permanent course.
As a result, cities on the river banks are highly susceptible to avulsion flood events.
Geological records from this region also prove South Mesopotamia was vulnerable to seasonal
flooding and heavy erosion from water and wind. In 1931, a joint team did an excavation
at Shuruppak and found a 0.6m or 2 flood sediment layer dated around 2900 BC. Two feet of sediment
is not an indication of a biblical flood. This cannot be the Great Flood. Maybe deeper
core drills will reveal major flood sediment. Before we dig deeper, you might wonder how
credible is the Sumerian Flood Story and can it be used as guidance to search for the Great
flood. The great deluge was mentioned several times in the Epic of Gilgamesh, which is loosely
based on the historical King Gilgamesh, who ruled Sumerian Uruk in 2700 Besides this epic
poem, the 4,000 year-old Sumerian King List also recorded a great deluge with Pre-flood
and After-flood sections. The King List recorded some kings who reigned for tens of thousands
of years, which makes it difficult to take literally. However, some mythical kings are
supported by archeological findings. For example, after the deluge, the 21st king of Kish on
the list, HYPERLINK "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enmebaragesi" \o "Enmebaragesi" Enmebaragesi , is the first
name confirmed by archaeological finds. Scholars also discovered artifacts associated with
HYPERLINK "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enmebaragesi" \o "Enmebaragesi" Enmebaragesi and his son
Aga with Gilgamesh where Gilgamesh was described as the vassal to the Kish kings. Such findings
have lent credibility to the Gilgamesh s historical existence and the Sumerian King List. It shows
that the list is not a successive list, where separate kings and kingdoms co-existed at
the same time. The kingship moved among different kingdoms. On the King list, before the flood,
the first kingship was at Eridu. After the flood, the kingship was first at Kish, then
Uruk, followed by Ur. These are all proven archeological sites and their carbon dated
times are in line with this sequence. Gilgamesh was the 5th king in Uruk and Enmerkar was
the 2nd. Based on a clay tablet, Enmerkar reigned between 34-3100 BC. That means the
great flood happened 5100 years ago. The ancient city Kish is at the archeological site called
Tell al-Uhaymir in Iraq, and is carbon dated to be established around 53-4300 BC. Does
that mean the flood happened 7300 years ago? Please hold that thought and I ll come back
to it later. Since we have potentially established that the Epic of Gilgamesh could be based
on real events, I want to point out some important information it revealed about the Great Flood.
The tablet describes a frightful storm on the Euphrates in daytime, with black clouds,
thunder and lighting. The dikes overflowed The land was shattered like a pot. All day
long the south wind blew rapidly and the water overwhelmed the people like an attack. No
one could see his fellows. They could not recognize each other in the torrent The flood
and wind lasted six days and six nights, flattening the land. So there was a big storm and perhaps
an earthquake since the land was shattered like a pot. There were dikes onsite which
means local people were already dealing with seasonal flooding. The dikes, however, were
insufficient to protect against this great flood. A side note, archeologists found a
7,000 year-old sea wall in Tel Hreiz, Israel. This proves that some ancient people used
dikes to fight floods. The one thing which really caught my eye was the description of
the south wind. A south wind blows from the south to the north. Please note the Euphrates
flows from northwest to southeast and discharges into the Persian Gulf. The south wind would
have gone against the natural river current. Was the river flooding in the normal direction
north to south or opposite where the south wind blew? The Euphrates receives most of
its water from rainfall, melting snow and ice. If the great river flood was caused only
by increased water flow or discharge, then it would not change its flowing direction.
Imagine a boat floating on a river, if the river current flows to the south with strong
winds coming from the opposite direction, that means the wind works as a counter force
against the boat s movement which might make the boat rotate, tilt or stand still. This
was not how the story was presented because Utnapishtim or Noah s boat floated for days
with the flood and wind. For a flood to be catastrophic and wipe out all settlements
and people, the wind and the river current needed to be in the same or similar directions,
which would create a greater force and therefore more damage. I think this is evidence that
the Euphrates flowed backwards during the Great Flood. Also, after the flood, the Sumerian
Noah s ark was stuck at higher ground for days while the water receded. The Mesopotamian
plain is fairly flat with a gentle slope from northwest to southeast. If the great Euphrates
flood flowed in the normal direction, then the ark would have been carried into the Persian
Gulf. The river had to have been running backwards from south to north, from a lower plain to
a higher point, so the boat or ark could have gotten stuck on a mount. This is further proof
that the river was flowing in a countercurrent direction during this particular flood. Can
a river flow backwards? Yes. Although the reversal of river flows can seem dramatic,
many rivers have flowed backwards for a variety of reasons. In America, both the Mississippi
and Chicago rivers have flowed backwards several times in history. Three earthquakes that struck
the Louisiana Territory in 1811 and 1812 shook the ground so violently that the Mississippi
River temporarily ran backwards, sucking boats along with it. More recently, in 2020, 2012
and 2005, hurricanes Laura, Issac and Katrina all caused the Mississippi to flow backwards.
The latter two, reversed the course of the Mississippi for about 24 hours. These hurricanes
caused major devastation wherein coastal towns were obliterated. In 2012, after Hurricane
Isaac, the Mississippi River not only flowed backwards but also showed an increase of water
to the extent that it was flowing faster backwards than it does forwards on average. The Mississippi
ranks as the 14th largest river by discharge in the world, much bigger than the current
Euphrates which doesn t break into the top 140. Even during wetter climate conditions
in prehistory times, the Euphrates couldn t have had the same high discharge or water
flow rate as the Mississippi. If hurricanes and earthquakes can lead to the reversal of
the Mississippi for 24 hours or so, they can make a much greater impact on the Euphrates.
So it s conceivable that thousands of years ago, there was a huge storm, hurricane or
earthquake, which struck towns along the Euphrates banks and made the river flow backwards in
an accelerated speed for days. If the Euphrates flowed backwards, then the Persian Gulf sea
water flowed into the freshwater river. Therefore, we should expect marine deposits near the
estuary. There is indeed such evidence of marine deposits and transgression in multiple
sites in Lower Mesopotamia. These sites include the ancient cities of Eridu and Ur which are
more inland today, however, thousands of years ago they were close to the coastline. This
map is from a 2013 research paper. Scholars surveyed multiple areas near major Mesopotamian
sites and drew a map with the estimated Persian Gulf coastline from 4,000 BC. We can see the
coastline passed the ancient city of Uruk approaching Shuruppak where the Sumerian Noah
resided. This information correlates with another part of the Epic of Gilgamesh. After
the flood, our hero looked for coastlines on the horizon and saw a region of land. He
couldn t see the coastline because his boat had been pushed much further inland. Why did
he look for the coastlines? Is that because he used to see coastlines in the city of Shuruppak?
Currently Shuruppak is pretty far from the coastline, but if estuarine deposits showed
up in core samples near Uruk, then maybe there was a time that the estuaries extended even
further northwards, close to Shuruppak. Therefore ancient people could see coastlines. Here
is a map of Sumerian ancient cities that have discovered flood sediments, some show marine
transgression. Since we know the Great Flood happened before Gilgamesh and Enmerkar s time
which is 5100 years ago, I highlighted the flood sediment that is old enough to be considered.
With what s available, most flood deposits are not significant enough to be the great
deluge. Except for one site at Ur, where Sir Leonard Woolley discovered an 8 or 3.75m thick
flood clay layer dating back to 3500 BC. In the 1930s this was considered the biblical
flood even though the flood sediment layer was not found at Sumerian Noah s city Shuruppak,
but 66 miles away. The flood layer found at Shuruppak was much smaller and dated to be
hundreds of years later. We know that the Great Flood came before the Uruk kings at
3100 BC. The flood layers at Ur and Shuruppak are from different eras. Thus, it s unlikely
either indicates the Great Flood. On another note, geologist Carol Hill argued the depth
of flood deposits does not automatically correlate to the depth of a past flood. The reason is
major floods can cause erosion just as much as sediment deposition, and sediment might
be deposited in low areas during flooding events. The best indicator of a major flooding
event is likely by dating remains such as pottery, etc. both above and below a flood
sediment horizon, or by carbon-dating the organic matter within that sediment. Such
a comprehensive study has never been done for the ancient cities of Mesopotamia especially
not with the most recent technologies. Currently there is not enough data to pinpoint the great
flood s deposits. Let me circle back to the south wind. When do we see strong south winds
in the Mesopotamia region? Analysis of paleoclimatic data suggests that Southwest Indian monsoon
strength for the Middle East region was greatest between 9,000 and 7,000 years ago, except
for a brief cold and arid period around 8,200. Mesopotamia started to get dry and arid 6,000
years ago. Sediments and archaeological evidence indicate that between 3-2,000 BC this area
became severely arid. Between 9-7,000 years ago, Mesopotamia had more rain, wind and environmental
conditions for hurricanes and storms, all potential prerequisites of the Great Flood.
early Holocene sea level rise also happened during this time frame. At the end of the
Younger Dryas cooling period, glaciers melted and there was a continuous sea level rise
of 60m between 12 to 7,000 years ago. When rising sea level and marine transgression
backed up the river flow and prevented river-floods from rapidly draining away, this could have
played a critical role in the flooding history of Mesopotamia. So, between 8-7000 years ago,
the Mesopotamia climate was humid and warm. There were strong seasonal monsoons which
brought lots of rain, along with melting ice which increased the Euphrates discharge volume;
moreover, the sea level rise causing marine transgression, pushing the estuary and coastline
to Uruk and maybe even closer to Shuruppak, thus backing up river floods. When considered
all together, this timeframe represents the most likely period for extreme flooding events
in lower Mesopotamia. It also matches the flood descriptions in the Epic of Gilgamesh:
south wind, strong rainstorm or hurricane and the river back flowed. Earlier I talked
about the pre-flood and after-flood Sumerian cities Eridu and Kish. Kish was carbon-dated
to be established 53-4300 BC. Some records claim that Eridu existed as early as 6500
BC. A sample at the base of the mound was carbon-dated to be around 5700 BC. The timeframe
between the establishments of Eridu and Kish could indeed fit into the narrative that the
great flood came 7300 years ago, before Kish was built. s wrap this up: by using the ancient
text of the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Great Flood most likely occurred between 8000- 7300 years
ago while the Euphrates flowed backwards due to a heavy storm and/or earthquake. Deeper
borehole drills are needed especially at Shuruppak to study whether there was a great deluge
that interrupted the continuity of the Mesopotamian civilization. What do you think? If you have
any insights, please leave me a comment. If you like my video, please give me a thumb
s up and subscribe. I have a wide range of topics that I want to share with you. This
is Curious Being, I am Tina. Thanks for watching and see you next time. W[SO urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags
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country-region urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags place Hi guys, today I want to talk about
the wide-spread flood myth, also known in biblical history as Noah s Flood Normal Microsoft
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