A recent article in the
Los Angeles Times1
highlighted that U.S. archaeologists have found the remains of a 7,500-year-old
building more than 300 feet below the surface of the Black Sea. This is
being heralded by some as the strongest evidence yet of a catastrophic flood
similar to the one portrayed in the Biblical account of Noah's ark.
Last November, explorer Robert Ballard, famed as the discoverer of the
Titanic, reported evidence of a submerged shoreline several miles
offshore from the current edge of the Black Sea and hundreds of feet below the
surface. The newly found house appears to have been on that beach.
"Now we know that people were living on that surface when [the flood] took
place, because we are finding evidence of human habitation," Ballard said in a
telephone interview with the Washington Post from his ship 12 miles off
the Turkish coast.
"This is amazing. It's going to rewrite the history of ancient civilizations
because it shows unequivocally that the Black Sea flood took place and that the
ancient shores of the Black Sea were occupied by humans," said marine geologist
William B.F. Ryan of Columbia University. "This is a stunning confirmation of
our thesis."
Ryan and his colleague Walter C. Pittman III have argued - first in a series
of research articles and ultimately in a book published last year called
Noah's Flood - that rising waters in the Earth's oceans caused the
Mediterranean to crash through a natural earth dam blocking what is now the
Bosporus Strait.
For as long as two years, water rushed through the narrow Bosporus with the
flow of 200 Niagara Falls, eventually inundating an area the size of
Florida. They argued that residents who fled the area carried stories that
eventually were incorporated into the flood stories that seem to permeate
numerous cultures worldwide.
Ballard's team found the rectangular structure 311 feet below the sea's
surface about 12 miles east of the Turkish city of Sinope. The
construction material of the 39-by-13-foot structure was identified as
traditional Black Sea "wattle and daub" architecture: wood branches and sticks
embedded in a clay matrix. "This struck a bell because it was familiar to
me from [ancient buildings on] land," said archaeologist Fredrik Hiebert of the
University of Pennsylvania, part of Ballard's team.
The expedition also found old tree branches, pieces of wood and a trash heap with polished
stones and other debris indicating human habitation, Ballard said. Nearby,
they discovered two old shipwrecks containing ceramic amphorae -
large clay vessels used for transporting olive oil, wine and other
materials. The team is not yet sure if the wrecks are from the same period
or later.
The team photographed the structure and recovered some
artifacts from the site using a remote-controlled submersible, called
Argus
, that is not much
bigger than a washing machine. It is connected to the ship by fiber-optic
cables.
The artifacts were extremely well preserved for their age because the depths of the
Black Sea have a very low oxygen level - too low to support the marine
worms and bacteria that normally would destroy wood, sails and other
materials.
Ballard has long argued that this anoxic environment should make the floor of
the Black Sea a literal museum containing the preserved hulks of hundreds or
even thousands of ancient vessels. He plans to begin exploring the sea
floor after he examines the immediate area of the newly discovered house to see
if more dwellings lie nearby. "Now we are looking for neighbors," he
said.
For a Flood of
Information
There are, of course, many other evidences of the Flood of Noah as reported
in Genesis. For those who are interested in exploring this topic further,
we suggest you contact:
- Institute for Creation Research, 10946 Woodside Avenue North, Santee, CA
92071, www.icr.org
- Dr. Kent Hovind, Creation Science Evangelism, 29 Cummings Road, Pensacola,
FL 32503, www.drdino.com
- Ken Ham, Answers in Genesis, P.O. Box 6330, Florence, KY 41022, www.AnswersInGenesis.org
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