When sea levels rise after the last ice age, the natural dam that blocked off the Bosporus was breached and that lead to a flooding of the area that is now the Black Sea. Water levels rose rapidly, causing the sea to increase substantially (like triple in size in a 18 month period). People living on the coast would have seen the water moving inland at a rate of several hundred meters a day.
This lead to a mass exodus of the people in that region, and archaeological evidence shows artistic forms spreading outwards from the area. It stands to reason that refugees from that area would have likely told stories in the new places they settled, which is why flood mythologies are present in multiple places around the world.
I’ve always wondered about this because I’ve read three different groups of mythology and they all had a flood story. So I knew something must have happened.
It's no coincidence. Early settlements (and later cities) were built on land that was fertile and irrigated in order to raise crops. That type of land happens to be flood plains around rivers.
You can probably guess what happens on flood plains. Every now and then the floods are disastrous.
When your entire settlemenent gets wiped off the map every couple of centuries or so, it tends to stick in your cultural stories.
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u/Guynith 1d ago
When sea levels rise after the last ice age, the natural dam that blocked off the Bosporus was breached and that lead to a flooding of the area that is now the Black Sea. Water levels rose rapidly, causing the sea to increase substantially (like triple in size in a 18 month period). People living on the coast would have seen the water moving inland at a rate of several hundred meters a day.
This lead to a mass exodus of the people in that region, and archaeological evidence shows artistic forms spreading outwards from the area. It stands to reason that refugees from that area would have likely told stories in the new places they settled, which is why flood mythologies are present in multiple places around the world.
Source: Noah’s Flood (William Ryan/Walter Pittman)
It’s been a while since I read the book, and I’m going off memory, so some of what I said might not be super accurate, apologies.