Re: Noah's Flood

[R. A. Hettinga]

At 8:57 PM -0700 on 9/14/00, Tim May wrote:


> the Mediterranean inundation was more than
> 10 million years ago.

Oh, well.

Here I thought it was closer than that, historically.

I do remember that there were salt pans on the floor of the Med that only
could have gotten there if it was dry down there once, but I didn't realize
that it was 10 million years ago, which is several times as far back most
people could say we were even human...


Cheers,
RAH
-- 
-
R. A. Hettinga 
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation 
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

Re: Noah's Flood

[Tim May]

At 4:45 PM -0400 9/14/00, R. A. Hettinga wrote:
>At 1:19 PM -0700 on 9/13/00, Tim May wrote:
>
>
>>  The big news today was the announcement that human habitation remains
>>  have been found where the Ryan and Pitman theory predicted.
>
>Evidently, there's oceanographic evidence that the Mediterranean itself was
>dry at one time, with an equivalent event (well of type, it was by
>definition, larger) at Gibraltar, though, it seems to me that it was
>sometime very much closer to the last ice age than the events described in
>today's news.

It's well-established that the Mediterranean inundation was more than 
10 million years ago. Apples and oranges, archaeologically or 
anthropologically speaking.

--Tim May
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Re: Noah's Flood

[R. A. Hettinga]

At 1:19 PM -0700 on 9/13/00, Tim May wrote:


> The big news today was the announcement that human habitation remains
> have been found where the Ryan and Pitman theory predicted.

Evidently, there's oceanographic evidence that the Mediterranean itself was
dry at one time, with an equivalent event (well of type, it was by
definition, larger) at Gibraltar, though, it seems to me that it was
sometime very much closer to the last ice age than the events described in
today's news.

There was some discussion at the time that *that* was the cause of the
flood myth, but this recent discovery is clearly a much more memorable
event, in terms of human history and especially its closer proximity to the
advent of writing.

Cheers,
RAH
-- 
-
R. A. Hettinga 
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation 
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

Noah's Flood

[Tim May]

A year and a half ago I read one of the most interesting, 
interdisciplinary books I've ever read, "Noah's Flood," by Ryan and 
Pitman. Not a religious book, but a book combining oceanography, 
geology, fish biology, pottery studies, DNA analysis, mythology, and 
several other fields.

The big news today was the announcement that human habitation remains 
have been found where the Ryan and Pitman theory predicted. This has 
profound significance for our culture, for understanding the spread 
of Indo-European language, and for the apparent "diaspora" happening 
at around this time.

(It would not surprise me if the earliest known agricultural 
implements are found in the next few years.)

This is not a Cypherpunks topic, but I believe I've mentioned the 
Ryan and Pitman book here before. And it shows how science is done.

To quote one of the many stories appearing today:


Wednesday September 13 3:00 AM ET
New Evidence of Great Flood Found

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The first evidence that humans lived in an area now 
covered by the Black Sea - perhaps inundated by the biblical flood - 
has been found by a team of explorers.

``Artifacts at the site are clearly well preserved, with carved 
wooden beams, wooden branches and stone tools,'' lead researcher 
Robert Ballard said.
...
Columbia University researchers William Ryan and Walter Pittman 
speculated in their 1997 book ``Noah's Flood'' that when the European 
glaciers melted, about 7,000 years ago, the Mediterranean Sea 
overflowed into what was then a smaller freshwater lake to create the 
Black Sea.

Last year Ballard found indications of an ancient coastline miles out 
from the current Black Sea coast. The new discovery provides evidence 
that people once lived in that now inundated region.

(end excerpt)
-- 
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Timothy C. May  | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
ComSec 3DES:   831-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
"Cyphernomicon" | black markets, collapse of governments.