Before the flood: the biblical flood as a real event and how it changed the course of civilization

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In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. The great Biblical flood so described in Genesis has long been a subject of fascination and speculation. In the 19th century the English archbishop James Ussher established it as having happened in the year 2348 B.C., calculating what was then taken as the age of the earth and working backward through the entire series of Biblical "begats." Proof of the flood, which is an element of so many creation myths, began in earnest when archaeology started connecting physical evidence with Biblical story. The dream of proving the Bible as literal truth has proven irresistible, producing both spurious claims and serious scholarship. As best-selling historian Ian Wilson reveals in this fascinating new book, evidence of a catastrophic event has been building steadily, culminating in the work of William Ryan and Walter Pitman. Several years ago Ryan and Pitman had posited that around 5600 BC there had an inundation in the Black Sea of such proportions that it turned the freshwater lake into a saltwater lake by connecting it to the Mediterranean. Were that true, they estimated that there would be signs of civilization 300 feet below the surface of the Black Sea. In September 2000, using his famous underwater equipment, Robert Ballard (of SS Titanic fame) explored parts of the Black Sea near the Turkish shore and found the remains of wood houses. There had been a flood, and whether God's wrath or not it had destroyed everything around it for hundreds of miles, killing tens of thousands of people. Exploring all the archeological evidence, Wilson explains how the Black Sea flood and the Biblical flood have to be connected. In particular, Wilson argues, learnedly and persuasively, that the center of the civilized world was further to the West than previously thought-not in Egypt or Mesopotamia but in what is today Northern Turkey. The earliest, antediluvian civilizations may have migrated east into those places we have come to call the cradles of civilization, forced by the Black Sea flood to create new settlements. Scrupulous in its details and compelling in its sweep, Before the Flood is narrative detective history at its most provocative, contributing a vital new chapter to the debate about the Bible and origins of the modern world.

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ISBN:
9780312304003
9781466867383

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Grouped Work ID1dc62284-609d-10ed-040a-4c7efc401bfb
Grouping Titlebefore the flood the biblical flood as a real event and how it changed the course of civilization
Grouping Authorian wilson
Grouping Categorybook
Grouping LanguageEnglish (eng)
Last Grouping Update2024-12-13 18:50:48PM
Last Indexed2024-12-23 22:30:15PM

Solr Fields

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author
Wilson, Ian, 1941-
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hoopla digital
author_display
Wilson, Ian
display_description
In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. The great Biblical flood so described in Genesis has long been a subject of fascination and speculation. In the 19th century the English archbishop James Ussher established it as having happened in the year 2348 B.C., calculating what was then taken as the age of the earth and working backward through the entire series of Biblical "begats." Proof of the flood, which is an element of so many creation myths, began in earnest when archaeology started connecting physical evidence with Biblical story. The dream of proving the Bible as literal truth has proven irresistible, producing both spurious claims and serious scholarship. As best-selling historian Ian Wilson reveals in this fascinating new book, evidence of a catastrophic event has been building steadily, culminating in the work of William Ryan and Walter Pitman. Several years ago Ryan and Pitman had posited that around 5600 BC there had an inundation in the Black Sea of such proportions that it turned the freshwater lake into a saltwater lake by connecting it to the Mediterranean. Were that true, they estimated that there would be signs of civilization 300 feet below the surface of the Black Sea. In September 2000, using his famous underwater equipment, Robert Ballard (of SS Titanic fame) explored parts of the Black Sea near the Turkish shore and found the remains of wood houses. There had been a flood, and whether God's wrath or not it had destroyed everything around it for hundreds of miles, killing tens of thousands of people. Exploring all the archeological evidence, Wilson explains how the Black Sea flood and the Biblical flood have to be connected. In particular, Wilson argues, learnedly and persuasively, that the center of the civilized world was further to the West than previously thought-not in Egypt or Mesopotamia but in what is today Northern Turkey. The earliest, antediluvian civilizations may have migrated east into those places we have come to call the cradles of civilization, forced by the Black Sea flood to create new settlements. Scrupulous in its details and compelling in its sweep, Before the Flood is narrative detective history at its most provocative, contributing a vital new chapter to the debate about the Bible and origins of the modern world.
format_category_eh
Books
eBook
format_eh
Book
eBook
id
1dc62284-609d-10ed-040a-4c7efc401bfb
isbn
9780312304003
9781466867383
itype_eh
ADULT BOOK
last_indexed
2024-12-24T05:30:15.910Z
lexile_score
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literary_form
Non Fiction
literary_form_full
Non Fiction
primary_isbn
9780312304003
publishDate
2002
2014
publisher
St. Martin's Press
St. Martin's Publishing Group
recordtype
grouped_work
subject_facet
Ancient
Bible. -- Genesis -- Antiquities
Deluge
Electronic books
History
Religion
title_display
Before the flood : the biblical flood as a real event and how it changed the course of civilization
title_full
Before the Flood : The Biblical Flood as a Real Event and How It Changed the Course of Civilization [electronic resource] / Ian Wilson
Before the flood : the biblical flood as a real event and how it changed the course of civilization / Ian Wilson
title_short
Before the flood
title_sub
the biblical flood as a real event and how it changed the course of civilization
topic_facet
Ancient
Antiquities
Deluge
Electronic books
History
Religion

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