"harry" wrote in message news:0aba4c13-5348-40ce-aa04-

stuff snipped

There are many "flood epic" legends around the ME. This was obviously
a one off event. Gilgamesh etc. This is the likely explanation.
http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/blacksea.htm

Flood epics are interesting in that they serve societal interest in a
round-a-bout way by getting people to thing and worry about floods and to
place at least some "seeds for cities" on the very highest ground around.
Almost every Judeo-Christian-Islamic myth has a precursor in Egyptian,
Chinese or Indian mythology. What's his name - I am thinking Rudd Fleming
but he was an English prof who looked like . . . Joseph Campbell. Synapses
still firing!!! He was a walking encyclopedia of theology, mythology,
psychology and sociology. Did a PBS series around the same time as "Ascent
of Man" the Jacob Bernowski (or something like that) series on anthropology.

--
Bobby G.