Before the Flood

A historian draws on archeological evidence to prove that the flooding of the Black Sea and the resulting diaspora inspired the flood story in Genesis.

In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.

The Biblical flood described in Genesis has long been a subject of fascination. Proof of the flood, which is an element of so many creation myths, began in earnest when archaeology started connecting physical evidence with Biblical story.

As bestselling historian Ian Wilson reveals in this fascinating book, evidence of a catastrophic event has been building steadily, culminating in the work of William Ryan and Walter Pitman, who posited that around 5600 BC there had an inundation in the Black Sea of such proportions that it turned the freshwater lake into a saltwater lake by connecting it to the Mediterranean. In September 2000, Robert Ballard (of SS Titanic fame) explored parts of the Black Sea near the Turkish shore and found the remains of wood houses, proving there had been a flood, destroying everything around it for hundreds of miles and killing tens of thousands of people.

Exploring all the archeological evidence, Wilson explains how the Black Sea flood and the Biblical flood are connected. Scrupulous in its details and compelling in its sweep, Before the Flood is narrative detective history at its most provocative.

“[A] sweeping narrative of history, mythology and philology. . . . sure to spur some lively debates.” —Publishers Weekly