Archaeological Accounts of a Global Flood
In the 600th year of Noah’s life, on the 17th day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened
(Genesis 7:11).
Is there archaeological evidence for a global flood in the archaeological record?
Author and historian Dr. David Rohl writes,
“What we can say is that the best archaeological evidence for the flood still seems to be that found by Sir Leonard Woolley in the great Flood Pit at Ur. The archaeological date of this flood horizon is towards the end of the Ubaid Period- a point in time which is only approximately datable to somewhere between 4000 BC at the earliest and 3000 BC at the latest. What we know from the book of Genesis as Noah’s flood was an actual historical event which took place not long before the appearance of wheel-thrown pottery and writing in the ancient Near East. This catastrophic flood brought an end to the Ubaid culture and acted as a catalyst for the rapid development of civilization in the succeeding Uruk Period.”1
Let’s look at the Sumerians. The Sumerians had a tradition of a great flood event like the Israelites and they recorded it in the Kings List. The Sumerian King List is an ancient text in the Sumerian language, listing kings of Sumer (ancient southern Iraq) from Sumerian and neighboring dynasties, their supposed reign lengths, and the locations of the kingship. This text is preserved in several copies. While the list of kings is sequential the time-line is greatly exaggerated. Modern research indicates many were contemporaries and reflecting the belief that kingship was handed down by the gods. Their Kings List told of five cities that existed before the Flood- Eridu, Bad-tibira, Larak, Sippar and Shuruppak. The text reads:
“When kingship was let down from heaven, the kingship was in Eridu. In Eridu, Alulim was king and reigned for 28,800 years. Alalgar reigned for 36,000 years. Two kings reigned for 64,800 years.”
“I bring to an end [the ascendancy] of Eridu. Its kingship was carried to Bad-tibira.”
The account of the pre-diluvial dynasties ends: “Five cities were they. Eight kings reigned for 241,200 years. The Flood swept thereover.”
With the Sumerian Flood tradition linked to these particular cities, we are able to make an estimate of the date in which the Sumerians believed the Flood to have occurred. They thought of it as after the time at which Eridu flourished and before the Kings List’s first post-diluvial dynasty, Kish, rose to power.2 There was no important occupation of Eridu after the Uruk period in archaeology from 3000 BC and was virtually abandoned well before the Early Dynastic period. Excavations have shown that Kish did not become a major city until the Jemdet Nasr period (after 3000 BC). This then fixes the date at which Sumerian tradition placed the Flood- between 3000 and 2900 BC.
David Rohl writes,
“The Sumerian Kings list asserts that after the Flood kingship was once again ‘let down from heaven’, first upon Kish- then passed to Erech in the south which in the beginning of history had been Eridu, after the Flood moved to Erech. This is clearly seen in the archaeological evidence about a very early decline of Eridu. Archaeology confirms that a flood did indeed happen. It seems Leonard Woolley’s initial conclusions were right after all. He did find evidence for the flood at Ur. Woolley was right all along to identify his silt deposit at Ur with the biblical flood. The deluge struck towards the end of the Ubaid Period..” Rohl continues, “If we then realign the chronology and sync it to flood deposit of Woolley, the archaeological dating points to 3,300 B.C.- towards the end of the Ubaid period and the beginning of the Uruk.”3
The Library of Ashurbanipal
The discovery of the Temple library of Nabu and the royal library of Assyrian king Ashurbaminal (669-633 BC) in Nineveh is one of the greatest archeological finds in history since they contained tens of thousands of clay tablets. Although the vast library was discovered in 1853 AD, it took many years to translate the Akkadian Cuneiform text. Almost 19 year later, George Smith stunned the world when he first reported the discovery of the Epic of Gilgamesh on December 3, 1872. The entire library is presently housed at the British Museum, Room 55. Although the tables were fired in 1150 BC, the fact that Enlil is the chief Sumarian god in the story, is why archeologists date the origin of the story to the third millennium BC (2150 BC). A translation was released in the 1960s. Three of the tablets relate a story of a great flood. It has some similarities to the Bible story.
Since the 12 tablets are partially damaged, the text of the 12 tablets written "fills in the story” from other sources like the Epic of Atra-Hasis. It is important to realize that the first 11 tablets are a single unit and the 12th tablet is an epigraphical- by addition or appendix because we find Enkidu still alive, even though he dies in tablet 7. Centered around a peek into life after death, Gilgamesh gives Enkidu instructions about what he must do in order to come back to life. It is clearly not part the tightly knit whole of the first 11 tablets. Below are the ancient accounts of a global flood in archaeology.
The Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh was a real historical king of Uruk who seeks out is ancestor, Ut- napistim who was on Noah's ark to learn the secret of eternal life. The Gilgamesh flood story starts with man searching for the purpose of life and how mortals can attain eternal life from his ancestor named Utnapistim, who was on Noah's Ark, most likely Ham.
The story of the flood is told on the eleventh of the twelve tablets making up the Epic. Utnapishtim was the Babylonian Noah, and with his boatman Puzur-Amurri he went through seven days of terrible flood. Enkidu, the very good friend of Gilgamesh, had died at the decree of the gods and Gilgamesh realized that he, too, must eventually die. He hears of one who has escaped death and sets off to find him so that he can learn the secret of immortality. Alongside a great sea he meets Siduri the Ale-wife who provides the beer needed for travellers on the sea. After crossing the sea, known as the “waters of death”, he at last finds Utnapishtim, the only man who had ever found everlasting life.
Utnapishtim speaks to Gilgamesh, and learns of his sadness at the death of his friend Enkidu, and of his sorrow as he wandered up and down pondering the great mystery of life and death. He asks Utnapishtim how he had come to stand in the assembly of the gods and find everlasting life. Utnapishtim then tells the story of how one of the gods urged him to destroy his house and to build a vessel into which he was to bring representative living creatures.
The Epic goes on to tell in detail how Utnapishtim built the great boat which needed 30,000 baskets of pitch, and the great flood came after he and his family were safely aboard. So terrible was the storm that followed that “even the gods were afeared at the deluge, took to flight and went up to the heaven of Anu, cowered they like dogs and crouched down at the outer defences”.
In passing we should notice just how different this concept of gods is from that given in the record of Genesis chapters 6 to 9.
Gilgamesh goes home "empty handed ” deflated, depressed and without hope to his home where he lives out his life and dies. Even though the story doesn't mention his death. (The Genesis story offers hope, eternal life, blessing and promises two chapters after the flood with the promises made to Abraham.)
Noah and Shem lived 500 years after the flood and died only after Abraham was born. We are not told any details of how long Ham or Japheth lived, but they may have shared a similar age of life. It would be predictable therefore, that many flood stories would be retold and remembered. The Epic of Gilgamesh ends in with a message of hopelessness since there is no way for man to gain eternal life.
The Epic of Atra-Hasis
The Epic of Atra-Hasis is a polytheistic explanation of the present state of man, mixed with the true historical knowledge of the creation of man and the flood by those who were still living to tell the story of the ark. The gods created 7 mated pairs of humans to speed up the repopulation process. The Genesis account shows the natural repopulation of the earth through Noah's three sons and how they became the father of many specific nations known to archeology.
Also in contrast, the name "Noah" means "rest" in Hebrew, which has no direct relationship to the events of the flood, which is a proof of inspiration. Names used in myths always have some meaning to the storyline.
a. Noah's counterperson in Sumerian Eridu (2150 BC) is "Zi-ud-sura" which means "he obtained immortality".
b. Noah's counterperson in Gilgamesh (1150 BC) is "Ut-napištim" which means "he obtained immortality".
c. Noah's counterperson in Atra-Hasis (1635 BC) is "Atra-Hasis" which means "he who is very wise".
d. Noah's counterperson in Berossus (280 BC) of Atra-Hasis is "Ziusudra" which means "he who laid hold of life/immortality from long ago”.
Noah is mentioned a dozen times in the Bible after Genesis. (Isaiah 54:9; Matthew 24:37-39; 1 Peter 3:20-21) It is also mentioned in some 500 ubiquitous flood legends around the world. One of the most stunning and impressive evidences that Noah's Ark is real Bible history, is coded into the Chinese language. For example, the Chinese word for "large ship" is a compound of three other word: "Eight" "persons" "Boat”.
Large ship = Eight + persons + Boat
According to Dr. Randall Price, the question of literary dependence between the Bible and the comparative Flood accounts has been reduced to three options.
(1) they were originally Mesopotamian tales which were borrowed and adapted by the Israelites to fit their conception of God.
2) they were originally Israelite accounts that were borrowed and adapted for the Mesopotamian religion and culture.
(3) both the Mesopotamian and Israelite (biblical) accounts came from a common ancient source.
When these arguments are examined, the best explanation is that both the Mesopotamian and Israelite (biblical) accounts derived independently from a common ancient source.
Whether this was an oral tradition or a written account is uncertain, but it is understandable that as time and distance from the original account increased, changes in religious perspective occurred that modified the original account and adapted it to fit the prevailing worldview of the Babylonians.
Many flood stories, like Atra-hasis (1635 BC), record how men seeking relief of their burdened of hard labour before the flood because the gods had "cursed the ground". This agrees with Genesis and the meaning of Noah's name: "Now he called his name Noah, saying, "This one will give us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands arising from the ground which the LORD has cursed."" (Genesis 5:29) Also in Chinese, the name Noah means: "man through whom the weed curse is removed”. This is so powerful that many Chinese speaking people have become Christians as a result.
Noah- "man through whom the weed curse is removed”
Sumerian Eridu
Sumerian Cuniform: 2150 BC
Zi-ud-sudra is the "Noah-like" character in the Greek flood account by Berossus (280 BC)
Shuruppak is listed in the Sumerian Kings list (2119 BC)
The Sumerian Kings list
• Sumerian Cuniform
• 2119-2112 BC
• Mentions the global flood
• Lists Cush, Noah's grandson
• Lists Gilgamesh
• Lists Suruppak, the pre-flood town where Zi-ud-sudra built the ar
• Lists Suruppak who is also the father of Zi-ud-sudra in the Instructions of Shuruppak.
Shuruppak
• Akkadian Cuniform: 2100 BC
• Written to Zi-ud-sudra is the "Noah-like" character in the Sumerian flood story (2150 BC) and the Greek flood account by Berossus (280 BC)
• Shuruppak is listed in the Sumerian Kings list (2119 BC)
The Epic of Atra-Hasis
• Old-babylonian: 1635 BC
• Akkadian Cuneiform
• Mt Ararat: damaged tablet
• Noah or Ham: Atra-Hasis
• Unearthed in Sippar, Iraq
• Colophonal scribal markings date the tablet to Ammi-saduqa (1647-1626 BC)
The Epic of Gilgamesh
• About 1700 BC the Creation Tablets made during the reign of King Hammurabi of Babylon included the Epic of Gilgamesh. A translation was released in the 1960s. Three of the tablets relate a story of a great flood. It has some similarities to the Bible story.
• Neo-babylonian, Akkadian Cuneiform
• Noah or Ham: Ut-napištim
• Gilgamesh is a real historical king of Uruk who seeks out is ancestor, Ut-napištim who was on Noah's ark to learn the secret of eternal life.
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If you liked this article, you will love these:
My travel journal, “The Quest for Noah’s Ark”
My interview on Coast to Coast AM “The Search for Noah’s Ark”
The behind the scenes footage from the film Finding Noah called “The Quest for Noah’s Ark Film”. See the multimedia presentation of the “Story of Noah’s Ark” or the “Ed Davis Interview” who personally saw Noah’s Ark in the 1940s.
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References:
Rohl, Legend: the Genesis of Civilization, pg. 177.
The first dynasty after the Flood in Akkad, north of Babylonia not far from the site of the later Babylon. The cities earliest phase of occupation was in the Jemdet Nasr period.
Rohl, Legend: the Genesis of Civilization, pg. 174.
