Archaeologists have announced their discovery of remnants of a man-made structure under the Black Sea that provides evidence of a flood that may have inspired the biblical story of Noah.
The expedition by explorer Robert D. Ballard also found beams, planks and other chunks of wood that had not been touch by mollusks or worms, The Washington Post reported.
“It is beyond our wildest imagination,” Ballard said in an interview with the newspaper. A robotic submersible is being used to investigate the site, It found a collapsed rectangular building – “about like a good-sized barn,” Ballard said – as well as two shipwrecks with jars used in ancient times to carry such liquids as wine or olive oil.
Columbia University geologists William Ryan and Walter Pittman suggested in their 1999 book “Noah’s Flood” that the modern-day sea was created 7,500 years ago when melting glaciers caused the Mediterranean Sea to overflow.
Scholars view the discovery as supportive of the theory about the quick rise in sea level causing the destruction of communities and deaths of people, animals and plants.
“Among scholars who take the Bible literally this will be confirmation,” said Hershel Shanks, editor of Biblical Archaeology Review. “Critical Bible scholars are almost unanimous in regarding the flood story as a legend. On the other hand, legends arise not out of imagination but an experience. I don’t think we’ll ever know what flood that was.” (RNS)
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