[LNHY/ACRA] The Daily Super Short-Short Story #63 [Long, again]

[Sheesh]

Eagle wrote:

> phippsmartin <phippsmartin at hotmail.com> writes:
> 
>> Well, it does bring up an interesting point of discussion.  Was the
>> Sumarian civilization wiped out by a flood?
> 
> There is some archeological evidence for two significant local floods in
> that area, either of which may be the underlying historical event behind
> the Biblical flood account (probably with some intervening oral retellings
> before the account was written down).  There was a significant flooding
> and expansion of the Black Sea around 5600 BC at the end of an ice age,
> and it's believed that the Persian Gulf was dry land during the ice age
> period at around 10000 BC and at some point reflooded.
> 
> I think both of those events are a bit early for a wiping out of Sumerian
> civilization, though (and unless I'm misremembering my geography, the
> Black Sea flood was a little far north for that).

The flood myths appear to be related more to events the ancients saw in the
night sky rather than to actual events happening on the earth.  My guess is
that they were talking about an age when the sun was passing through what
we call the Milky Way, which would have been somewhere around 6000 BC; give
or take a couple thousand years.

-- 
The gods, which trembled, 
the stars of heaven...
their position changed, 
and I did not bring them back. --Marduk