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Combing The Black Sea For
An Ancient Lost Civilization

8-11-1

VARNA, Bulgaria (AFP) - Could Noah's Ark be buried beneath the Black Sea?
 
A joint US-Bulgarian venture hopes to unearth the remains of a lost civilization, which could clarify the timing and site of the legendary biblical flood.
 
The "Akademik," which will set sail from August 15-31, will use sonar technology to comb for traces of the Provadiyaska and Kamtchia river mouths in the Black Sea. Numerous towns are believed to have been situated along both rivers.
 
The supposed ante-diluvian society, predating those of Egypt and Mesopotamia, is believed to have been submerged by the Black Sea at the time of a massive flood 7,600 years ago. The flood transformed a stillwater lake into the saltwater sea.
 
US geologist Robert Ballard, famous for having discovered the remains of the sunken Titanic in 1985, is directing the expedition. He supports the belief that the great biblical flood occurred in the Black Sea.
 
"We are looking for evidence of settlements where people had been living before the flood," he said.
 
Exactly what might surface?
 
"We don't think that Noah's Ark could be found," Ballard told AFP, even if this particular flood could have propagated the myth of the biblical one.
 
Inundations occurred all over the world 7,600 years ago, but "this was the flood of the floods," Ballard emphasized.
 
His Bulgarian counterpart, geology professor Petko Dimitrov, agrees. "Organic sediment which develops in times of ecological catastrophe has been found. It dates back 7,000-8,000 years, and this is the time of the Flood attributed by the Bible."
 
Rivalling theories exist, however.
 
Deltcho Solakov, a researcher at the Bulgarian Oceanography Institute, has pointed out that the Bible cites Mount Ararat, located south of the Black Sea in the Caucasus region, as the site of Noah's sunken ark.
 
In further defense of this theory, Ballard claimed that when glaciers melted at the end of the Ice Age, water flowing from the Mediterranean surged over the Bosphorous at a speed 200 times greater than that of Niagara Falls, precisely because of the difference in the water levels of the former lake and the Mediterranean.
 
"The best place to find perfect ships is the Black Sea," said Ballard, citing its depth of 2,000 meters (6,500 feet).
 
In 1972, a neolithic necropolis containing "the oldest tomb discovered in Europe to this day" was discovered near Varna, further proof according to Dimitrov that this lost civilization exists.
 
The necropolis on display at an archaeological museum in Varna dates back to 4600-4200 B.C. It contains 294 tombs and about 3,000 gold objects, 200 copper objects, various tools made of flint and stone and numerous religious and funerary objects. The most decorated tomb belonged to a middle-aged man, either a priest or tribal chief, who was surrounded by 900 gilded objects.
 
A Bulgarian-Russian expedition also unearthed a round vessel from the Black Sea in 1985. Made of clay and sand, its inscription has still not been deciphered, but it's been nicknamed "Noah's bowl" by archaeologists.
 
Much remains to be explored, according to Ballard. At the moment, "we have better maps of Mars than of the Black Sea," he said.



 
 
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