Before the Flood: The Biblical Flood as a Real Event and How It Changed the Course of Civilization

well i thought this book began well, with a description of the various Flood myths the world contains. then it proceeds to locate a very possible actual event that the myths could celebrate. So far, so good. then after a chapter on the Robert Ballard expedition to the Black Sea, and his remarkable findings of rectangular dwellings at the site of a former sea-shore, now 90M beneath the waves, it gets rather more cosmic. And that's when I start re-channelling the me that read a number of works by Emmanuel Velikovsky. The book becomes a survey of possible sites for a superior civilization, with iron-working as a common technology, spread across the Mediterranean basin, up the Danube, and perhaps as far as the Punjab. then it goes into show more hiatus for 1500 years, reverts to copper-working as its primary technology, and is responsible for the usual Sumerian and Egyptian format for the advance of civilization until now.
perhaps the book was written to raise enough furor to get a good deal more submarine exploration of the Black sea, and I hope it does, but it goes into Atlantean studies, and that's very dodgy, as far as I'm concerned. I think i'll go read a stodgier book, "Deep History" in the near furure. show less

This seemed like the exact sort of novel that I would love and maybe that's why I was harder on it than I needed to be. I didn't enjoy the episodic nature of the stories, nor did I find any of the characters in any way sympathetic. Samuel is so petulant and bitter; it makes it hard to care about what's happening to him and to his small New Brunswick town. I'm not, nor have I ever been, a teenage boy, so perhaps this is an accurate portrayal of what teenage boys are like. Even so, it's so unrelentingly peevish that the whole work was soured.

Approximately 5600 BC the Mediterranean Sea burst through the Bosporus and inundated the Black Sea, turning a fresh water lake into a salt water lake and drowning any existing coastal dwellings. Ian Wilson describes the underwater, submersible-aided, Black Sea archaeological discoveries of William Ryan, Walter Pitman and Robert Ballard. Wilson hypothesizes that the Black Sea food and the Biblical flood may be connected and that the center of the civilized world was located around the Black Sea in Turkey.

The author has a clear, elegant writing style that avoids overly-technical jargon and repetitive waffling. Ideas are presented logically and there is a clear differentiation between archaeological evidence, specialist interpretation and show more author interpretation. There is no religion bashing and no religion preaching in this book. All in all, a very nice archaeological detective story.

NOTE: This edition of the book has the photographs and illustrations printed very darkly, making it hard to determine some of the details. So if purchasing this book, see if you can find another edition or look up the pictures on the internet.



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I loved this book. It is full of intrique and danger. This book is about a young man who comes to be on this earth as a messenger from God. Even if your not a Christian you can read this book and enjoy it. I would recommend this book to anyone.