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Noah's Ark in Sumerian, Akkadian,
Assyrian & Babylonian Lore
Part 5 - A Few Questions
by R.E. Slater
NASB Bible Verses - Genesis 5:32 to 10:1
ESV Bible Verses - Genesis 5:32 to 10:1
RSV Bible Verses - Genesis 5:32 to 10:1
Wikipedia - Noah's Ark
SERIES - "INDEX - Noah & the Genesis Flood"
NOAH: Did He Live During The Neolithic Period?
by Don Peter
Introduction
Compelling evidence showed Adam existed 60,000 years ago. Our remaining hominid cousins, Neanderthal and Denisovan, went extinct by 30,000 to 20,000 years ago because of competition and interbreeding with Homo sapiens.
According to biblical scholars, one of Adam’s descendants, Noah, the last patriarch of Genesis, built an ark and witnessed the destructive power of the Great Flood in around 2400BC. The scholars measured the timeline of Noah’s existence to be in about 1000 Anno Mundo (AM).
However, putting Noah’s presence on this earth around two thousand four hundred years before Christ is impossible because ancient civilizations around Egypt, the Levant, Mesopotamia, India, and China had been going on since 5,000 to 4,000BC.
Most of these civilizations mentioned the myth of the Great Flood orally or had recorded it in writing in their literature or scriptures. Some characters mentioned had striking similarities with Noah.
So, if the ancient civilizations mentioned the Flood over four to five thousand years ago, how is it possible Noah only existed in 2400BC based on the understanding of biblical scholars? The only reasonable period Noah could fit in was during the Neolithic Period.
Why is it possible Noah existed during the Neolithic Period?
The Neolithic Period is the final division of the Stone Age, rising independently in several parts of the world, about 12,000 years ago when the first farming developments appeared.
The Late Stone Age introduced the Neolithic Revolution, comprising a progression of behavioral and cultural characteristics and changes, especially the introduction of farming and the use of domesticated animals.
The Neolithic Period also corresponded to the Late Maxim Glacier or the Last Ice Age.
The Great Flood
As I mentioned earlier, ancient people had been talking about the Great Deluge. The Flood must have been critical that many of the civilizations said about this catastrophic event.
Among the civilizations mentioning the Flood are Mesopotamian flood stories, Manavantara-Sandhya in Hinduism, the Gun-Yu in Chinese folklores, Deucalion and Pyrrha in Greek fables Bergelmir in Norse mythology.
It’s a shred of circumstantial evidence, but all these stories reinforced the fact that Noah existed. The ancient civilizations had been passing these stories from their ancestors to their descendants. Thus the Flood must have occurred way back before their time.
The Bible mentioned the Great Flood was a universal flood, which meant the entire earth submerged underwater. Based on the scripture’s account in the Book of Genesis, God sent down the Flood to punish humankind as they had turned wicked.
However, based on scientific evidence, a universal Flood covering the entire globe is impossible. Scientists reason, the fossilized remains of ancient animals and plants would not have clustered uniformly together but scattered around in a mess.
The Last Maxim Glacier and localized floods
Before 10,000BC, ice-sheet covered the world. The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), also referred to as the Late Glacial Maximum, was the most recent time during the Last Glacial Period that ice sheets were at their greatest extent.
Ice sheets covered much of North America, Northern Europe, and Asia and profoundly affected the earth’s climate by causing drought, desertification, and a significant drop in sea levels. Then, deglaciation began causing an abrupt rise in sea level and the decline of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.
The Last Maxim Glacier happened during the Neolithic Period. The melting ice cut off land-route connections because of the rising sea level. Homo-sapiens couldn’t travel around freely, but those who had ended up permanently stuck in their new environment.
The Last Maxim Glacier also caused many floods around the world. These floods created sedimentary deposits and constructional landforms. Among the most famous geographical landmarks created by the Last Maxim Glacier was the Black Sea.
The world never experienced a universal flood. But many ancient people might have encountered Paleoflooding, including Noah and his tribe. These floods were common during the Last Maxim Glacier. Therefore, Noah must have been the viceroy appointed by God during the Last Ice Age.
The Ark and the animals
In the Book of Genesis, God warned Noah of an impending flood and commanded Noah to build an ark. The Bible mentioned the size and dimension of the ship which Noah constructed. The Ark could carry Noah’s family and the entire pairs of animals of the world.
Scientists believed constructing the Ark as described by the Bible was possible. However, housing all the world’s animals into the ship would be unfeasible. Noah will have to accommodate millions of animals, which will be a logistical nightmare for the caretaker.
However, if Noah existed during the Neolithic Period, then bringing the pairs of animals makes sense. People of the Late Stone Age were taming wild animals and collect edible grasses. Therefore, protecting and preserving these domestic species would become essential for future generations. In that case, Noah must have only carried pairs of recently domesticated animals.
The birth of idol worshipping
Adam received a gift from God, as he inherited the power to understand art and language. God also inspired Adam to commit himself to serve the One true God and also purifying his commitment.
But generations later, Adam’s descendants strayed from his commitments. Since Adam had transmitted his knowledge down, Homo sapiens not only make better tools and invent extra words, they shaped carvings, especially female figurines.
Primitive men related their experiences through oral stories as they invented more and more new words. Soon, Homo sapiens mixed facts with fantasy, and their generations after accepted all their stories as the truth.
Because of men’s inquisitive nature, they asked questions about things they could not understand or see, such as natural phenomena, death, and God. Humankind then invented fiction stories to explain the unexplainable. Soon, the figurines they created became deities, which they claimed became God’s intermediaries.
Symbolic Revolution influenced the Neolithic Religion. By examining figurines and early art depicting women as goddesses and bulls as gods, archeologists developed several vital ideas about the evolution of perception and duality during the Neolithic Period. Marija Gimbutas, the pioneer of feminist archeology, put forward a notion of a woman-centered society surrounding goddess worship.
Conclusion
Adam and Noah, viceroys of God
After Adam, God assigned probably many viceroys or messengers to the various Stone Age tribes. Mentioned in the Bible and Quran, the most significant of them all was Noah, who lived during the Neolithic Period.
Adam had reminded his children to continue serving One God, but Homo-sapiens marveled at what they could create as time passed. Because of their creativity, they shaped figurines, which they later worshipped.
The last Stone Age before civilization
Humans achieved so much that by the Late Stone Age, they were on the way towards developing early civilization. Men had forgotten to serve One God.
The Agricultural Revolution made men independent from depending too much on nature. The Symbolic Revolution made Homo sapiens obsessed with their artifacts to the extent they worshipped their creation.
The Flood and the Ark
Because of this, God sent Noah to warn his people of impending doom if they continue to worship idols. If they listened to Noah, they would have been saved by following him into the Ark. However, since they refused to listen, the Great Flood destroyed them.
Noah and the Neolithic Period
Noah must have existed during the Neolithic Period and witnessed the end of the Maxim Glacier. The melting of the ice created many localized floods, enabling Noah and his tribe to see the Great Flood.
During the Neolithic Period, humankind domesticated wild animals. These were the beasts that Noah carried in his Ark. Noah and the people who survived produced descendants that eventually created ancient civilizations.
*Jason referred to his Bible and then the Quran. He had stayed up all night to uncover the story of the flood. Many Jews, Christian, and Muslims were very sure that the great flood during the time of Noah was a universal catastrophe, and the whole world was flooded. They believed that only Noah and his family survived, while all the rest of humankind, up to that point, were wiped out. To them, the seed of humanity had began with Adam and ended during the flood.
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