The Great Flood and the Disappearance of Ancient Civilizations
An oceanographer, Robert Ballard, stated some time ago that he had found evidence of the Great Flood along an ancient coastline located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Dead Sea, which disappeared due to a massive flood about 8,000 years ago. Ballard claimed that his findings proved the truth of the biblical account.
However, in my personal opinion, such discoveries were unnecessary to confirm the occurrence of a global flood in the past, whose memory has survived in the myths of all the world’s peoples. Contrary to popular belief, the legend of a Great Flood—or of a catastrophic event of some kind that struck the Earth—is not exclusive to the Judeo-Christian tradition. In fact, it is safe to say that it is an inheritance from Sumerian myths, which the Hebrews, whose earliest origins were in Mesopotamia, would have absorbed over time.
The Sumerian myth of Gilgamesh, the Sumerian hero who was two-thirds divine and one-third human, tells of how, after the death of his friend Enkidu, he wandered in despair in search of his ancestor Utnapishtim (who possessed the knowledge to bring Enkidu back to life!). Once Gilgamesh found his ancestor, he learned that Utnapishtim, by the will of the god Ea, was the sole survivor of a flood sent by the gods to punish corrupt humanity. The same god, Ea, gave Utnapishtim the dimensions of a vessel to construct in order to save himself and carry with him "the seed of all living creatures."
After days and days of navigating waters churned by the fury of the elements, the wrath of the gods finally seemed to subside. Utnapishtim released a dove, and then a swallow, but as neither found a place to rest, they returned. It was only when he released a raven, which did not return because it found ample food among the numerous carcasses, that Utnapishtim decided to descend to land, now free of the waters.
Similarly to Utnapishtim and the biblical Noah, other peoples in the Eurasian region recall similar catastrophes in their myths, along with individuals chosen by the gods to save themselves and revive humanity. In Greek tradition, we find Deucalion and Pyrrha, husband and wife, who survived on an ark and repopulated the earth by casting stones behind them. In Iran, there is the tale of Yima, while in India, Vaivasvata is mentioned.
With such a specific and universally recurring legend, even the duration of the flood varies little (from 40 to 60 days), suggesting that, rather than being purely mythical, it was likely a real event that left a profound trauma on humanity worldwide.
I say "humanity worldwide" because, while the similarities among the myths mentioned might be explained by the geographical proximity of these peoples, this theory collapses—and, at the same time, strengthens the argument that it is more than mere myth—when we find similar accounts in the traditions of peoples from Central and South America. These myths date back millennia before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors, ruling out the possibility of "contamination."
For instance, the Aztec myth of Coxcox tells of his survival by climbing an enormous cypress tree; the Olmec myth mentions Tepzi; in the Colombian Chibcha myth, Bochica survived the flood by creating a hole in the ground; and Tamandere, the Guarani Noah of South America, also tells of survival. In all these cases, the animals saved reflect the local fauna.
Given that a catastrophe struck the Earth, decimating human populations, as well as animal and plant life, two questions arise: Was it truly a flood? And when did this catastrophe occur?
The idea of a worldwide cataclysm caused solely by rainfall, submerging all but the highest peaks, is highly debatable. The amount of water on Earth cannot fluctuate so drastically as to justify such an event. The biblical text states: "the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened." Perhaps "the fountains of the deep" refers to a rise in terrestrial water levels. However, this hypothesis can also be dismissed, as it is difficult to explain where all that water could have come from and where it would have gone afterward.
A more plausible explanation could involve a catastrophic event, accompanied by other natural phenomena such as earthquakes, tsunamis, land uplifts and subsidence, and volcanic eruptions. These combined forces might have caused flooding in various low-lying regions of the planet, which were then passed down in oral traditions and later written records as a similar story across different cultures.
The accumulation of such catastrophic natural elements could easily lead the frightened witnesses of those times to believe the end of the world had come. Such an event likely occurred between 10,000 and 13,000 years ago, a period that scientists today identify as the time of the last verified magnetic pole shift.
According to the Codex Chimalpopoca, written in the ancient Aztec language Nahuatl, four terrifying upheavals were caused by the Earth's axis shifting. In Norse mythology, it is said that when the wolf Fenrir broke free from his chains, "he shook himself, and the world trembled. The ash tree Yggdrasil (the axis of the world) was shaken from its roots to its highest branches. Mountains split apart, the earth lost its shape, and stars fell from the sky."
At that time, the polar axis, which some geologists suggest had its northern point in Hawaii, was displaced. The Earth rocked violently before settling into a new position with new poles. Immense clouds of cosmic dust blocked solar radiation, causing areas that once enjoyed a temperate climate (such as Antarctica and Siberia) to undergo sudden cooling. This could explain the discovery of perfectly preserved mammoth bodies in Siberia, with undigested food still in their stomachs.
Meanwhile, other regions, such as North America and northern Europe, which were once covered in ice, experienced rapid thawing. This melting contributed to rising sea levels, possibly affecting the Arctic ice cap as well.
Those well-versed in geology might argue that recent estimates of the Arctic ice cap, based on deep core drilling, date these immense glaciers to no less than 5 million years ago, creating a clear discrepancy with the dates mentioned so far. This discrepancy can be explained by suggesting that the current Arctic ice cap is merely a remnant of a much larger polar region that melted during that immense disaster.
Regarding the hypothesis of an ice-free Antarctica around 12,000 years ago, there is substantial supporting evidence. Geological analyses and ancient maps depict the continent in a deglaciated state—conditions not seen since at least 4000 BCE. This profile of an ice-free Antarctica was confirmed by a seismic reflection survey conducted during the Geophysical Year of 1949.
What Caused Such a Catastrophe?
The most plausible hypothesis is a massive impact with an asteroid or a large meteorite, or perhaps a series of cosmic impacts. Many legends from around the world recount the existence of three moons in the past, with the subsequent fragmentation or fall of two of them onto Earth at different times. According to a scholar named Hörbiger, traces of gigantism found in some human skeletons, as well as in flora and fauna, could be explained by a reduction in Earth's gravitational force balanced by the pull of an additional moon—or moons—that he called a "Tertiary Moon," which later fragmented, creating a "serpent of fire" (a trail of fragments) mentioned in many myths.
Another hypothesis, supported by Professor Charles Hapgood—who studied ancient maps and drew conclusions from them, with Albert Einstein endorsing his theory—is the "slippage of the Earth's crust." This theory proposes that significant shifts in the thermoconvective currents within the more fluid layers of the mantle (beneath the lithosphere) caused massive tectonic disruptions.
While this theory may explain large-scale tectonic events, it may not alone justify the rapid melting of glaciers and equally sudden glaciation in other areas. A combination of the two factors—meteorite impact and crustal slippage—seems more plausible, suggesting a cause-and-effect relationship.
Connections to Atlantis
Curiously, Plato, in his Timaeus and Critias, places the destruction of the fabled continent of Atlantis at approximately 11,000 years ago. This coincides with the time frame scientists have identified for the last major pole shift (10,500–13,000 years ago). According to this theory, the few survivors of this mythical continent—possibly Antarctica, buried eternally under ice—spread across the world. These survivors are linked to the semi-divine figures found in various myths, such as Osiris, Oannes, Viracocha, Kukulkan, and Quetzalcoatl, who shared their knowledge with the primitive, frightened survivors who had sought refuge on the highest points of the Earth to escape the waters.
This dissemination of knowledge might explain why agriculture appeared almost simultaneously around the world approximately 9,000 years ago. These survivors laid the foundations for civilizations such as those in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Central America, providing them with advanced astronomical (e.g., the Sumerians' and Mayans' knowledge of the solar system, which included planets discovered only recently with modern equipment), engineering (e.g., pyramids, the Sphinx, Tiahuanaco, Baalbek stones, Teotihuacán, Machu Picchu, Angkor Wat), religious, and cartographic knowledge (e.g., the maps of Piri Reis, Buache, Mercator, and Fineo, all of which were based on ancient original documents that depict geographic knowledge far beyond what was believed possible before recorded history).
The Decline of Civilization
Over time, traces of this advanced civilization faded. Natural events, internal conflicts (many semi-divine figures, like Osiris, were forced to flee or were even killed due to worsening relations with the populations they had aided), the lack of proper preservation of their knowledge, and unknown causes led to the eventual decline and loss of this extraordinary legacy.
I’ll close with a simple note (dedicated to the many supporters of the extraterrestrial hypothesis as a significant factor in human genesis, and to those who believe in lost technologies) regarding the phrases I highlighted when referencing the myth of Gilgamesh (page 1): the mention of the "seed of all creatures" and the "knowledge to revive a dead friend"—does that ring any bells in today’s context, where cloning is akin to a witch hunt?
After all, if we were to save animal and plant species from another flood today, wouldn’t it be easier—and far less dangerous and troublesome—to build an ark (or a spaceship) designed to hold vials containing DNA samples rather than the entire array of species? Wouldn’t you agree?
But that’s another story.
