A few weeks ago, a fascinating piece appeared in the prestigious magazine U.S. News & World Report (September 25, 2000, p. 38). Authored by journalist Michael Satchell, the article was titled, “An enduring mystery – Evidence points to a flood of biblical proportions.” Satchell’s essay called attention to an amazing archaeological discovery beneath the surface of the Black Sea, a massive body of water (170,000 square miles—greater in size than the state of California) between Europe and Asia, and linked to the Mediterranean Sea.
The article rehearsed a recent find by an archaeological team led by Robert Ballard (who found the Titanic). According to Satchell, these scientists have been exploring beneath the surface of the Black Sea off the Turkish coast “for evidence of an apocalyptic natural event that could have inspired the Genesis account of the great flood.” In mid-September, the expedition discovered “a large wooden building 12 miles offshore at a depth of more than 300 feet.” Ballard described the find as “beyond our wildest imagination.”
Apparently there is an “ancient coastline some 550 feet below the present sea level.” It is speculated that several thousand years ago, melting glaciers “sent the Mediterranean Sea pouring through a natural dam across the Bosporus Strait, inundating a huge freshwater lake and creating the Black Sea.”
Hershel Shanks, editor of Biblical Archaeology Review (a liberal journal), suggested that
“those who believe in the legend [emp. WJ] of Noah’s Ark will find great comfort in this [find] . . . Any connection between Noah’s flood and this new finding is speculative, but it cannot be disproved.”
It cannot be known for certain, of course, whether or not the evidence cited above bears any relationship to the Genesis Flood—
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