A massive flood that gave rise to the myth of Noah and his ark may also have brought farming to Europe. Reconstructions of a mega-flood some 8,000 years ago show that the loss of arable land to the water could have pushed farmers into areas previously occupied by hunter-gatherers, a theory seemingly backed up by archaeological evidence (study abstract).

“Entire coastal communities must have been displaced, forcing people to migrate in their thousands,” says study author Chris Turney, of the University of Exeter (press release). “As these agricultural communities moved west, they would have taken farming with them across Europe. It was a revolutionary time.”

If you’re seeking Biblical parallels this ties up nicely with the story of Noah. After he came off the Ark the first thing he reportedly did was start farming.

According to Turney, the flood itself was triggered by the collapse of a massive ice sheet in North America. This pushed sea levels up 1.4 metres and breached a ridge across the Bosporus Strait. See Nature from 2004 on this theory (subscription required).

As this ridge had kept the Black Sea as a freshwater lake the breach flooded an area 73,000 square kilometres and pushed farmers from what is now the Balkans into Europe. “The flooding of the Black Sea was not well dated but we got it down to about 50 years. As soon as the flooding is done, farming goes crazy across Europe,” he told Reuters.

There’s also a nod to modern climate change. With 145 million people living within a metre of sea level today, Turney asks how we’d deal with a similar occurrence (The Times). “The latest estimates suggest that by AD 2050, millions of people will be displaced each year by rising sea levels. For those people living in coastal communities, the omen isn’t good.” (Press release).

Worryingly, that might make Al Gore our Noah…

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