Myths, Floods and Archaeology of the Ancient Middle East

Date of Award

2008

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Baram, Uzi

Keywords

Gilgamesh, Ballard, Robert, Noah, Woolley, Leonard, Oral Histories, Floods

Area of Concentration

Anthropology

Abstract

This thesis explores textual resources and material traces to evaluate the significance of mythology for archaeology, to gain a more robust anthropological understanding of how humans understood, and understand, the world around them. A great flood, for instance, would have been reconciled with the survivor�s world-view. Leonard Woolley's 1920s find of a flood layer in the Sumerian city of Ur, and Robert Ballard�s 1990s finds in the Black Sea, exhibiting the ancient shoreline of a freshwater lake flooded by the Mediterranean, provide supporting material evidence. This thesis will also consider oral traditions recorded in the flood-related passages of Tablet XI of the Epic of Gilgamesh and the flood story of Noah from Genesis 6-9. Their commonalities support an assumption that they originate from either the same source or very similar redactions, possibly linked to the same event. The Middle East is the setting for these stories and source events, and its varying landscape shaped lives and legends. This thesis is not trying to prove one theory or story right or wrong, but is presenting a scholarly evaluation on the possible links and origins of Mesopotamian flood myths with the support of material evidence to comment on the use of oral traditions.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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