Live Show Announcement

• Returning to SF Sketchfest at Sydney Goldstein theater
• Friday January 21st, 7:30 PM in San Francisco
• First live show in 2 years
• Full vaccination required + masks
• Tickets at sfsketchfest.com

Noah's Flood Story Origins

• Universal flood story known across cultures
• 1872: George Smith (Assyrian hobbyist) discovered Epic of Gilgamesh
  • Found cuneiform tablet with flood story predating Old Testament by several hundred years
  • God Enlil tells Utnapishtim to build boat (not Noah)
  • Reason: humans too noisy (vs. too wicked in Bible)
  • Similar elements: saving animals, birds sent to find dry land
• Epic of Gilgamesh written 3,400 years ago
• Story appears in Jewish Bible, Christian Old Testament, Quran

Historical Attempts to Prove Global Flood

• Bible literalists sought scientific proof in 18th-19th centuries
• Deluvialism: geological theory that physical world shaped by great flood
• Mid-1800s: geological record disproved global flood theory
• Evidence supports slow geological formation over long time periods

Universal Flood Myths Explanations

• Study found 50 cultures with flood myths
• Three main explanations:
  1. Single localized flood spread by migration
     • Proto-Indo-Europeans experienced flood near Caucasus Mountains
     • Group spread across Europe carrying flood story
     • Supporting evidence: no flood myths in sub-Saharan Africa
  2. Multiple localized floods
     • Flooding common throughout history
     • Each culture's "world" was smaller geographic area
     • Local floods interpreted as worldwide destruction
  3. Christian missionary influence
     • Missionaries spread Noah's story during colonization
     • Evidence: South Pacific flood myths changed after 1814 missionary contact
     • Maori myths shifted from tsunami-based to deluge-based stories

Geomythology Field

• Emerged in 1960s as interdisciplinary approach
• Trained geologists studying myths for historical natural disaster accounts
• Combines geological evidence with cultural traditions
• Challenges traditional dismissal of pre-scientific accounts
• Works with paleobathimetry and paleo-hydrology

Scientific Evidence for Specific Floods

• Chinese flood myth (4,000 years ago)
  • 2016 study correlated myth with geological evidence
  • Ancient landslide dammed river, created lake
  • Lake broke through dam after 6 months, caused massive flood
  • Emperor Yu's "water taming" = early engineering/dredging
• Black Sea flood (7,000 years ago)
  • William Ryan & Walter Pittman theory
  • Mediterranean burst through Bosphorus Strait
  • Waterfall 200x volume of Niagara Falls
  • Water could flood Manhattan to 3,000 feet daily
  • Mediterranean coast moved inland 1 mile per day
  • Wiped out coastal settlements on both sides
• Persian Gulf formation (7,500 years ago)
  • River valley flooded during ice age end
  • Advanced settlements suddenly appeared on gulf shores
  • Evidence: decorative pottery, stone houses, domesticated animals
  • Original settlements likely submerged (not yet found)
• Doggerland submersion (8,500 years ago)
  • Land bridge connecting British Isles to Scandinavia
  • Storegga underwater landslide in Norway triggered massive tsunami
  • Submerged settlement traces found under North Sea
  • Brittany flood legend may reference this event
• Pacific Northwest tsunami (1700 AD)
  • Magnitude 9 earthquake from Vancouver Island to Northern California
  • Ho and Quileute peoples' Thunderbird vs. Whale legend
  • Japanese Buddhist temple recorded tsunami arrival January 6, 1700
  • Geological evidence: trees still not growing back in affected areas

Mythology Patterns and Meanings

• Common elements across cultures:
  • Man and woman (usually married couple) save animals
  • Divine warning precedes flood
  • Repopulation of Earth afterward
  • Birds sent to find dry land
• Flood purposes in myths:
  1. Apocalyptic punishment - humans displeased gods
  2. Return to primordial ocean state - reset to original conditions
  3. Purification - rid world of evil, keep only good
  4. Angry gods - divine wrath unrelated to human behavior
  5. Human industriousness - people overcome natural disaster through cooperation

Alternative Psychological Explanations

• Geza Roheim (1930s Hungarian psychoanalyst): flood myths from dreams caused by drinking water/urinating at night
• Some myths literally describe gods urinating on Earth
• Birth envy theories: men's jealousy of childbirth, amniotic sac bursting
• Modern consensus: geomythology more satisfying than psychoanalytic explanations

Aqua Terra Concept

• Term coined in 1990s
• Describes lands exposed for 150,000 years during ice age
• Human societies developed on these lands
• Lost 7,000-7,500 years ago when sea levels rose
• Examples: Doggerland, Persian Gulf valley