Paper May Shed Light on Timing and Location of the Flood

 In the Christ-centered model for early Genesis, the flood is a local or regional one aimed at the line of Messiah and the limited set of creatures formed in chapter two in the relatively recent past and not the wider set of people and animals formed in chapter one over a longer period of time. It is far beyond the scope of this post to demonstrate that the text of Genesis is speaking about such a flood rather than a global one. Rather this post is limited to comments on a paper which may shed light on the timing and location of such a flood. 

Timing is based on a range of dates, taking the Ussherian method of date calculation from the Genesis genealogies as a "theoretical minimum" since it can be used only to obtain a minimum date rather than an exact date for reasons which are beyond the scope of this post. In the Masoretic text this would set 2348 BC as the minimum date for the flood. The numbers in the Septuagint indicate something around 3311 BC would represent this minimal date. The upper limit when applying the methods discussed in Early Genesis the Revealed Cosmology to the latter would put the upper limit of the flood at around 4400 BC. 

The location of this flood is constrained in that it must at least abut what is known as "the mountains of Ararat". This is a much wider area than what is now known as Mt. Ararat, but still a limited area. The two regions I have been looking at the most is the Araxes River Valley down to Lake Urmia and the region north of the Sinjar Mountain Range. This paper examines pollen samples in the former location. 

The study looked at pollen samples from the Arishat Mire in Armenia. The report noted "

Van 5 (ca. 5900 to ca. 4100 cal BP) is characterized by a large
expansion of Poacea and ferns at the expense of trees. Sparganium decreases but Typha increases. A wet meadow grows on Vanevan mire."

Interesting but not remarkable. It is squarely within the proper time frame for the proposed flood, but there could be another explanation for the growth of grasslands at the expense of trees- humans could have converted forests to crop fields and pasture. Unfortunately the data was not granular enough here to document how abruptly the change occurred. 

But then there was this:

Occurrences of crops and grazing pollen indicators disappear during LPAZ Van 5 :only Centaurea cyanus, Rumex acetosa and Juglans are recorded from ca 4890-4520 cal BP.

That last is Walnut trees but the first are wildflowers. The period is 370 years so if the Walnut appeared last of the three it would still be consistent with what I am looking for- signs of a flood which ended human habitation of the area. To be consistent with the event, it would have needed to occur just before the period in which crops and grazing pollens vanish. That is just before 2877 BC (the paper is from 2013). 

While this is within the range of dates for the flood, I consider it too early by 800 years given what seems to have occurred with known human habitation of the rest of the area. The Kura-Araxes culture was in the area before 2877 BC and persisted afterward for up to another 800 years. The Shulaveri-Shomu culture disappeared from this area around 3800 BC., prior to the arrival of the Kura-Araxes. If they were the clan of Adam, then the break in pollen should be earlier.  

While their results are not consistent with my hypothesis unless their date is shifted back 800 years, they are also not consistent with the human record of the area. The Kura Araxes culture was known to have been there before, during and after the time they say grazing and crop pollens vanished. I wish I had more details about the mechanics of pollen deposition after floods. I'd also like more details on their collection process. 

The break at 5900 years BP fits well with the hypothesis that the flood was in this location and time. If there was a sudden break in the occurrences of crops and grazing pollen around 5900 BC, or even somewhat later, but other marshy or wetland pollen is found for centuries after then the results of this study are still consistent with my hypothesis. It would represent a period where a flood took out crops and grazing pollens, but there was a several-hundred year period where a series of different foliage competed until by 4890 BP those few reported pollens dominated.