Was the Black Sea Catastrophically Flooded during the Holocene? – geological evidence and archaeological impacts
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2011
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Two hypothetical fl ood scenarios have been proposed for the Black Sea, describing events that
may have profoundly aff ected prehistoric settlement in Eastern Europe and adjacent parts
of Asia. Th e fi rst, a Late Pleistocene ‘Great Flood’ (Chepalyga 2003, 2007), suggests that
the brackish Neoeuxinian Lake in the Black Sea basin was rapidly inundated by Caspian
Sea overfl ow via the Manych Spillway shortly after the Late Glacial Maximum (LGM),
c. 17–14 ka BP. Th e second, an Early Holocene ‘Noah’s Flood’, proposes catastrophic infl ow
of Mediterranean seawater to a Black Sea freshwater lake at either 7.2 ka BP (Ryan et al.
1997) or at 8.4 ka BP (Ryan et al. 2003) when an abrupt sea-level jump accompanied
the Laurentide Ice Sheet collapse (Turney and Brown 2007). Th ese hypotheses claim that
massive inundations of the Black Sea basin, and ensuing large-scale environmental changes,
drastically impacted early societies in coastal areas, forming the basis for Great Flood legends
and other folklore, and accelerating the spread of agriculture into Europe. We summarize the
geological, palaeontological, palynological, and archaeological evidence for prehistoric lake
conditions, vegetation, climate, water salinity, and sea-level change, as well as submerged
prehistoric settlements, agricultural development, coastline migration, and hydrological regimes.
Comprehensive analysis shows that the Late Glacial inundation in the Black Sea basin was
more prolonged and intense than the Holocene one, but there is no underwater archaeological
evidence to support any catastrophic submergence of prehistoric Black Sea settlements during
the Late Pleistocene or Early Holocene intervals.
Опис
Ключові слова
archaeological oceanography, megaflood, Neolithic catastrophe, palynology, foraminifera
Бібліографічний опис
An offprint from Submerged Prehistory // edited J. Benjamin, C. Bonsall, C. Pickard, A. Fischer : Oxbow Books. - 2011