Flood

The Bible and Sumerian and Babylonian myths recorded a catastrophic flood sent by the gods to destroy humankind. With the assistance of the gods, one man (variously called Noah, Ziusudra, or Utnapishtim) and his family survived by building a boat. The discovery of the legend by George Smith in 1872 in Ashurbanipal's library at Nineveh, in cuneiform tablets telling the epic of Gilgamesh, was very close in details to the Old Testament story of Noah. It is assumed by many that the stories derive from a common source. At Ur in 1929, Leonard Woolley revealed a depth of 2.5 m of silt separating the Ubaid and Uruk levels, a deposit he could account for only by just such a flood. It should be noted, however, that flood levels have been found at other sites whose dates can be more appropriately equated with Noah's. Today many archaeologists believe that the various flood stories do not represent the record of a single event, but rather a whole series of natural disasters which affected the low-lying alluvial plain of southern Mesopotamia.

‘Flood stories’ appear in the literature of many of the civilizations of western Asia. The discovery by George Smith in 1872 of a Babylonian version among the tablets of Ashurbanipal’s library in Nineveh aroused great public interest because of its similarity to the biblical account. In this version, the Noah-figure is called Uta-Napishtim; more recently an even older — Sumerian — flood story has been found in which the Noah-figure has the name Ziusudra. Archaeological stratigraphies on sites in Mesopotamia have often found traces of water-laid sand and clay deposits, demonstrating that floods were a frequent occurrence. When Leonard Woolley found such a deposit in a deep sounding at Ur in 1929 he believed that he had found evidence of Noah’s Flood. Today most archaeologists believe that the various flood stories do not represent the record of a single event, but rather a whole series of natural disasters which affected the low-lying alluvial plain of southern Mesopotamia.