Noah's Flood

#Noahs_Flood

#WilliamRyan

#WalterPitman

The connection between Noah’s Flood and William Ryan refers to a scientific hypothesis proposed by William Ryan and Walter Pitman, two geologists from Columbia University, in the late 1990s.

Their work is most famously detailed in their 1998 book:

“Noah’s Flood: The New Scientific Discoveries About the Event That Changed History”

The Ryan–Pitman Black Sea Deluge Hypothesis

Core Claim:

A catastrophic flood of the Black Sea around 5600 BCE may be the historical basis for the biblical story of Noah’s Flood.

Key Elements of Their Hypothesis

1. Pre-Flood State:

The Black Sea was a much smaller freshwater lake, cut off from the Mediterranean by a land barrier at the Bosporus.

2. Sea Level Rise:

At the end of the last Ice Age, global sea levels rose rapidly.

Around 5600 BCE, the Mediterranean Sea breached the Bosporus Strait, causing:

Saltwater from the Mediterranean to gush into the Black Sea basin

A dramatic rise in the Black Sea’s level

A catastrophic flood, potentially up to 200 times the flow of Niagara Falls

3. Impact:

• This rapid flooding may have:

Submerged settlements around the Black Sea rim

Triggered mass migrations

Been preserved in regional oral traditions, including Near Eastern flood myths (e.g., Noah, Gilgamesh)

Archaeological and Geological Evidence

• Sediment analysis shows a sudden change from freshwater to saltwater species.

• Shoreline mapping reveals ancient coastlines now submerged.

• However, some archaeologists (like Fredrik Hiebert) have found limited evidence of catastrophic displacement or civilization collapse in the region at that time.

Scholarly Reception

• Support:

• Provides a plausible, localized origin for flood myths

• Aligns with ancient oral traditions being based on real environmental events

• Criticism:

• Some geologists and archaeologists argue the flood may have been more gradual than catastrophic

• Dating and extent of human habitation around the Black Sea before 5600 BCE is still debated

Broader Implications

• The hypothesis is part of a wider scholarly trend linking myths to natural disasters (e.g., tsunamis, volcanic eruptions).

• Suggests that early Holocene climate events had profound cultural impacts that shaped mythologies.

Would you like a comparison of this hypothesis with other flood traditions, or a deeper look into the geological critique of their model?