Journal of Earth Science & Climatic Change
Open Access

Black Sea floods-Research history

The fact that Prof. W. Ryan and W. Pitman found in 1998 an old shoreline and fully preserved dunes at depth 155 meters indicated that there was a flood or floods. The fully preserved dunes were a proof that the flood must have happened fast. The findings are described in their book Noah’s Flood [1], which claims that the Black Sea used to be a lake but was flooded with salty water and turned into a sea. In ancient Greek texts the lake’s name was Pontus Euxenos (and ‘Pontus’ means ‘Lake’).

However, legends on the island of Samothrace in the Aegean Sea claimed that the Black Sea flooded the Aegean with fresh water. Ryan and Pittman said maybe the islanders didn’t quite understand from where the water came, which is difficult to believe. They acknowledged only one salty water flood, which they decided must have been Noah’s Flood. However, the legends of islanders in the Aegean Sea should be trusted because rapid melting of the polar ice caps at the end of an Ice Age could be expected to bring so much water to the Black Sea from the north through the rivers, Don, Dnieper, and Dniester that there would be fresh water flood first. This fresh water would have made its way south to the Aegean and the Mediterranean probably through a river running north - south.

The continuing rapid melting of the polar ice caps with time would raise the level of the Atlantic Ocean, which would flood with salty water first the Mediterranean, then the Aegean, and finally the Black Sea, probably through the same river now flowing south – north. Both ferocious floods would have widened the riverbed. The present-day Bosporus is probably this widened river. The existence of fresh and salty water floods is supported by the present compromised equilibrium in the Bosporus. The water near the surface is twice less salty and runs from the Black Sea to the Aegean, but below 50 feet salty water is running in the opposite direction from the Aegean and Mediterranean to the Black Sea [1]. The temperature variations in the last 10,000 years show one deep minimum. This is the Big Ice Age, which ended with the Big (Noah’s) Flood. Four Mini Ice Ages followed it and now we are living through the fifth warming period.

In the year 1999, Dr. Robert Ballard, who discovered the wrecked ship Titanic, retrieved with a robot a wooden piece from a flooded house on the bottom of the Black Sea [2]. C14 dating found that the flood was about 7,000 years ago. Ryan and Pitman immediately claimed that this was Noah’s flood.

Dating the Black Sea floods based on study of the Glaciers

As we shall see, glaciers’ study supported by historical and archeological evidence (§5 to §8) show that the flood of 7,000 years ago was not Noah’s Flood. Look at the ups and downs in the temperature (Figure 1) found by study of the glaciers [3]. The first deep temperature minimum is the Big Ice Age. It seems natural to assume that the Big Flood, called Noah’s Flood, took place after the Big Ice Age, when the quick temperature increases of 4°C melted fast the huge polar ice caps. Prof. Petko Dimitrov first dated river sediments at the bottom of the Black Sea in 1979 and found that the sea level was 100 m. higher 9,750 years ago [4]; later dating in 1982 gave 9,500 years ago [5]. He claimed this was Noah’s Flood and he was right.

The second temperature peak in Figure 1 is about 7,000 years ago and follows the First Mini Ice Age. The temperature increase started at higher temperature, but the maximum it reached is about 2°C higher than the temperature maximum following the Big Ice Age. This probably caused the floods, which Ballard dated as about 7,000 years ago. Thus, based on study of the glaciers we claim that the quick melting of the polar ice caps of the First Mini Ice Age caused another pair of two floods about 7,000 years ago - one with fresh water brought from the north through the rivers Don, Dnieper, and Dniester and second with salty water from the Mediterranean in the south. Since the temperature rise was smaller (2°C), this second pair of floods was local. (The temperature increase during the Big (Noah’s) Flood was 4°C).

Figure 1: The temperature variations in the last 10,000 years show one deep minimum. This is the big ice age, which ended with the Big (Noah’s) flood. Four mini ice ages followed it and now we are living through the fifth warming period.

According to study of the glaciers (Figure 1), the periodicity of Ice Ages is in average 2,562 years. Then, the time period between the two sets of floods is 2,562 years. If 7,000 years ago is the dating of the second sets of floods, the Big Noah Flood must have taken place 2,562 years earlier or 9,562 years ago (when the huge ice caps of the Big Ice Age were melting) [6,7].

Ballard’s side-scan sonar image of the ancient shoreline confirms the two sets of two floods and our dating based on study of the glaciers

Proof that there were two sets of two floods can be found in Dr. Ballard’s side-scan sonar image of the ancient shoreline [2] (Figure 2). one layer of smooth sand was followed by a layer with shells, then another smooth layer of sand was followed by another layer with shells. This definitely indicates that two sets of fresh and salty water floods took place: the first pair - after the Big Ice Age of 9,500 years ago and the second - after the First Mini Ice Age about 7,000 years ago.

Figure 2: Dr. Ballard’s side-scan sonar image of the ancient shoreline shows two sets of alternating fresh and salty water floods.

Dr. Ballard [2] dated with C 14 the older shells as 15,500 - 7,500 years ago, which agrees with our dating of Noah’s Flood based on study of the glaciers - 9,500 years ago (Figure 1). He dated the younger second layer of shells as 7,460 - 6,820 years ago, which incorporates our dating based on study of the glaciers of the local Black Sea Floods of 7,000 years ago (Figure 1) and Ballard’s dating with C14 of the piece of wood retrieved from a flooded house on the bottom of the sea.

Why was the Black Sea called Black?

The Black Sea is called ‘black’ because there is no life of any kind below 300 meters, where the fresh-water flora and fauna of the ex-lake is slowly degrading and releasing a vast amount of hydrogen sulfide - a toxic gas smelling of spoiled eggs (or more precisely the spoiled eggs smell of it). This does not allow any life to thrive below 300 m.

Since bacteria wouldn’t live in such toxic environment, both Turkish and Ballard’s teams [2] searched the bottom of the sea hoping to find fully preserved ancient wrecked ships and they did. One of the found ancient ships was so well preserved that it looked as a new ship just released from the dock.

Archeological proofs that Noah’s flood was about 9,500 years ago

The oldest cities on planet Earth were unearthed in Anatolia on the territory of Turkey - Chatal Huyuk and Gobekly Tepe. Archeological dating indicates that Chatal Huyuk was inhabited from mid-8000 B.C. to mid-7000 B.C., i.e., from 7500 to 6500 B.C. [8]. If the city was built in 7500 B.C. or 9,500 years ago, this means Noah’s people probably built it immediately after the Big Flood. This is archeological proof that our dating of the Noah’s Flood based on study of the glaciers (about 9,500 years ago) is right.

Archeologists found in the ancient city’s houses built of sun-dried bricks, but defense walls and weapons were not found. This means that there were no wars or fighting the first 2,562 years after the Big Flood because, so few people survived. According to Herodotus [9], Noah’s people mixed with the local Aryans, who survived the Big Flood high in the mountains. This is the longest period in the history of humanity on Earth without war. It lasted from the time of the Big (Noah’s) Flood 9,562 years ago up to the second set of two local floods of the Black Sea (~ 7,000 years ago), which displaced the people living around the sea and started the wars. The fact that cities were built immediately after the Big Flood means that the survivors resumed an advanced settled agriculture.

This makes the Caucasus, Anatolia, and the Balkans the cradle of our civilization. Frank Holt in his book Thundering Zeus on page 5 writes to be fair, the Balkan peoples had been cultural elitists long before the life and death of Alexander put them in power amidst so many races [10].

Who were the flooded tribes living around the Black Sea?

Thracian tribes: West of the Black Sea, Thracian tribes lived on the Balkan Peninsula since at least 3500 B.C., according to the New Encyclopedia Britannica of 1997 [11]. However, the Greek historian Herodotus of the 5th century B.C. [9] said that the Thracians (he calls them Pelasgi) lived in the Balkans since “time immemorial”. Golden Thracian treasury was found in year 2000 near the city of Varna in Bulgaria and dated 4500 B.C. [12]. Therefore, obviously the Thracians, who were Aryans, lived on the Balkans before 3500 B.C.

Since the Thracians built numerous burial mounds on the territory of Thrace in Bulgaria, obviously they worshiped the Sun. Many of these burial mounds have been excavated and murals found in them, as well as golden jewelry and pottery with exclusively precise work, which speaks of a people with advanced culture. The modern history of the Balkans does not tell us much about the Thracians. But Herodotus says that they were dominantly blond with blue eyes, and if they happened not to be blond, they would bleach their hair. So, bleaching to become blond was done during the time of Herodotus, which was 2,500 years ago.

According to Herodotus [9], the Thracian tribes living in the Balkans (Brygs (Brits), Sacae (Saki or Saxons), Odissy, Odrissy, and etc.) mixed with the descendants of Noah (Bulgarians and Macedonians). Some of them spoke the language of Noah’s people, while others spoke the Aryan language of the Thracians. The name Aryan comes from the God of War, Ares, they worshiped.

After a while, these mixed tribes split: in the Balkans remained the mixture that spoke the language of Noah’s people, while the speaking Aryan language Thracians moved to Asia Minor, founded the country of Phrygia, and built the city of Troy. They called themselves Phrygs to distinguish themselves from the Brygs (Brits) living in the Balkans [9]. The British Isles bare the name of the Brits, also called Picts because they loved to paint themselves or Prics because they loved to tattoo themselves. The Latin word ‘picture’ means ‘painted’. From Pictish Chronicles we know that the Picts (Brits) were Aryan tribe and their kingship was inherited by maternal line [7].

The descendants of Noah: The French historian de la Croix, who wrote his Ottoman history in 1768 [13], claims that descendants of Japheth, son of Noah, and his son Homer (Gomer) inhabited the northern half of the Balkan Peninsula. Herodotus says the same but specifies that the Bulgarians and Macedonians living in the Balkans were mostly descendants of Homer, son of Japheth, and his son Togarmah [9]. However, Paisiy Hilendarski, who first wrote in 1762 the history of the Bulgarians in the Balkans [14], and independently of him Spiridon Jeroschimonach [15] claim that descendants of Sam also lived in the Balkans and that the Bulgarians’ line of descent branches from Sam, son of Noah, as well.

Plates of local clay with cuneiform writing found around the Black Sea

Plates of local clay with cuneiform (Sumerian type of) writing were found in Turkey and in the Balkans (in Bulgaria – in Karanovo, Gradestniza, and near Varna, in Rumania – in Tartaria, in Yugoslavia – in Vintcha) [16]. They were independently dated in each country as ~5300 B.C. They were just like the clay plates unearthed in Sumer and dated 3300 B.C., but they were 2,000 years older. The fact that tablets of local clay with cuneiform writing were unearthed in the Balkans and Turkey (and dated 5300 B.C.) indicate that probably the so-called Sumerians lived around the Black Sea in 5300 B.C. but fled from the Black Sea Flood of 5000 B.C. (7,000 years ago) all the way to Mesopotamia and founded Sumer. This would explain the description of flood on their clay plates. Ancient Volga Bulgarian texts claim that some Bulgarian tribes did live in Sumer, but one of them rebelled and was moved to Dagestan, where other Bulgarian tribes lived.

Also, Prof. Petko Dimitrov found on the bottom of the Black Sea near the city of Varna, Bulgaria, a bowl of Miocene sandstone (sand bound with diopside) (Figure 3). It had engraved cuneiform writing on its bottom [4,17]. The pyramids of Bosnia on the Balkans were built of huge sandstone blocks, which the Bosnians claim were made of sand bound by unknown material [18]. Could it be that they are also Miocene sandstones just like the plate?

Figure 3: The so-called Noah’s plate found by Prof. Petko Dimitrov.

The flooded tribes split into Cimmerians and Sumerians

The local Black Sea Floods of 7,000 years ago scattered the living around it descendants of Noah mixed with Aryans all over the planet. They split into two main branches: Northern branch called Cimmerians and Southern branch called Sumerians. The word ‘Cim’ (‘Kim’) or ‘Him’ means ‘winter’ or ‘cold’. (The name ‘Himalayas’ has the same origin and means ‘cold land’ [19]. They were called Cimmerian because they moved to live in geographical areas with winter. These were the tribes living north, east, and west of the Black Sea, which after the local floods spread further north, east, and west.

The flooded tribes that moved east spread all the way to China (Figure 4) from the Caucasus area (point 1) and Asia Minor (point 1’), to the Pamir mountains (point 2), and later to Takla Makan (point 3) and Alashan of North China (point 4 in Figure 4). Indian ancient texts claim that Aryans settled in the Pamir Mountains north of India around 5000 B.C. [20], which is the time of the local floods of the Black Sea. Actually, the tribes were Aryans mixed with descendants of Noah.

Figure 4: The movement of the tribes after the local Black Sea Floods of 7,000 years ago.

They founded on the plateau of the Pamir Mountains a prosperous state and named it Balk to show that they came from the Balkans. The prosperous state was on the ‘Silk Route’ exporting silk from China and spices from India to Europe and importing European textile to Asia. Balk was called ‘the state of thousands of cities’ [21] and its capital was Bactra. In Greek texts the whole country of Balk was called Bactria. It is described in the book Bactria of H. Rawlinson [21]. As the settlers in Balk kept multiplying, they moved further east and settled around the lakes Takla Makan (Figure 4) and Kuman. These lakes were probably formed during the warming that caused the Big (Noah’s) Flood following the Big Ice Age, when the huge glaciers of the adjacent mountains Altai, Tibet, Tien Shan, and Pamir were melting.

Proof that the today’s desert Takla Makan used to be a lake was a house dug from the sand of the desert with a mural the size of a whole wall. On the mural, Caucasian-looking men and women were kneeled in prayer in front of a huge lake with sail boats. C14 dating of a wooden piece showed that these Caucasians lived there around 3000 B.C. [6,22]. However, with time the lake Takla Makan gradually dried out and turned into the desert Takla Makan. The living-there tribes moved further east and settled in Alashan (now North China), which later also turned into a desert (Figure 4). The same happened with the Kuman Lake surrounded by monasteries, which was the Spiritual Center of Middle Asia. The lake gradually dried out and the monks scattered all over Asia.

According to Herodotus [9], North of the Black Sea lived the descendants of Javan, son of Japheth, son of Noah. This perfectly agrees with ancient Volga-Bulgarian texts, which claim that the Volga- Bulgarians are descendants of Javan [19]. Obviously, the local floods of the Black Sea of 7,000 years ago spread the descendants of Javan living north of the Black Sea further North and they settled along the Volga River (point 12 in Figure 4). According to Herodotus [9], West of the Black Sea (in the Balkans) lived the descendants of Homer, son of Japheth, son of Noah, mixed with the Aryan tribes Brygs and Sacae. When flooded by the local floods of 7,000 years ago, they fled further west. Since archeologists found advanced agriculture in Bavaria and on the British Isles around 5000 B.C., probably the mixture of Noah’s people and Aryans settled there and brought their advanced agriculture there [7].

Herodotus claims that the Brits (Brygs) originally lived on the Balkans [9]. The name of the British Isles, named after the Brits (Brygs) and their sudden advanced agriculture around 5000 B.C. prove that after the local Black Sea floods of 7,000 years ago, some flooded Brygs (Brits) fled from the Balkans all the way to the British Isles. After the local flood of 5000 B.C., the tribes living South of the Black Sea moved further South and settled in Mesopotamia (point 5), Palestine (point 8), and Egypt (point 9 in Figure 4) [7]. They were called Sumerians because they moved to live in geographical areas with warm weather; the word ‘sum’ means ‘summer’ or ‘warm’.

Prof. Walter and Pitman claimed that after the Black Sea Flood (of 5000 B.C.) some of the Noah’s people went all the way to Egypt [1]. The rapid cultural and economic uplift experienced in Egypt around 5000 B.C. can be explained with the migration of Noah’s people to Egypt. They brought to Egypt their knowledge, wisdom, and developed agriculture [1], p. 196). Indian and Sumerian texts [20] say that Aryan tribes settled in the Zagros Mountain east of Mesopotamia in 5000 B.C. Actually, they were Aryans mixed with descendants of Noah. Probably, the tribes living south of the Black Sea ran from the flood of 5000 B.C. all the way to the Zagros Mountains. However, only after 4000 B.C. did they settle in the valley between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates (point 5 in Figure 4) called ‘Mesopotamia’, which in Greek means ‘land between rivers’. They settled there only after they built canals between the rivers to irrigate their land and avoid floods [20]. They founded there the state of Sumer. The head of these tribes went further and settled in Baluchistan (point 6 in Figure 4). Both, Cimmerians and Sumerians were descendants of Noah mixed with Aryans. They used solar calendar, worshiped the Sun God, used the same Sumerian/ Cimmerian alphabet, and had the same myths.

The Black Sea findings of Prof. Ryan and Pitman in 1998 and the dated by Dr. Ballard piece of wood, retrieved from a flooded house on the bottom of the sea, stirred a lot of interest to the topic. As a result, an avalanche of research followed, which is reflected in the review article of Ryan et al. of 2003 [23]. In this review article Prof. Ryan claims that the sand dunes found by them at depth 155 m. were dated 9,500 years ago, which perfectly agrees with our dating of Noah’s Flood based on study of the glaciers. This article brings clarity and there is no confusion. It also agrees with the article of Livio Giosan, F. Filip, and S. Constantinescu [24], which claim that the big flood must have happened in 7400 B.C. (or 9,400 years ago).

In the year 2005, UNESCO and the International Union of Geological Sciences funded three-year multi-disciplinary studies of the Black Sea Floods. The results of these studies can be found in a review article published by S. Bardertscher, D. Fleitmann, et al. in 2009 www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/v4/n4/full/ngeo1106/html [25]. However, these studies brought more confusion than clarity to the topic.

This article claims that the Black Sea experienced two sets of two floods – each consisting of one fresh-water flood and one salty-water flood. This can be seen on the Dr. Ballard’s side-scan sonar image of the ancient shoreline of the Black Sea (Figure 2). The first two floods were Big Floods, and they took place when the huge Ice caps of the Big Ice Age were melting. Based on study of the glaciers we dated the Big Floods as 9,500 years ago, which agrees with Prof. Petko Dimitrov’s dating published in 1982 and Dr. Ballard’s dating of the first layer of shells in Figure 2.

The second pair of floods was local floods, which took place when the ice caps were melting of the First Mini Ice Age after the Big Ice Age. Based on study of the glaciers we dated them as 7,000 years ago (5000 B.C.), which is in perfect agreement with Dr. Ballard’s dating with C14 of a piece of wood retrieved from a flooded house on the bottom of the Black Sea. This second pair of floods displaced many of the descendants of Noah mixed with Aryans, who lived around the Black Sea at that time.

The author declare she has no competing interests, financial or not, and she hopes that Profs. Ryan and Pittman would accept her dating based on study of the glaciers.