The Black Sea Flood Question: Changes in Coastline, Climate and Human Settlement

ISBN-13: 9789402404654 / Angielski / Miękka / 2016 / 971 str.

Valentina Yanko-Hombach;Allan S Gilbert;Nicolae Panin

Opis

This book brings together eastern and western scholarship on a controversial subject: a catastrophic inundation of the Pontic basin which might have inspired the biblical story of Noah's flood.

Spis treści

Preface Introduction Victor R. Baker List of contributors. General 1. Oxic, suboxic, and anoxic conditions in the Black Sea James W. Murray, Keith Stewart, Steven Kassakian, Marta Krynytzky, and Doug DiJulio 2. Molluscan paleoecology in the reconstruction of coastal changes Daniela Basso and Cesare Corselli 3. Climate modeling results for the Circum-Pontic Region from the late Pleistocene to the mid-Holocene Alexander V. Kislov and Pavel M. Toropov Principal Flood Scenarios 4. Status of the Black Sea flood hypothesis William B.F. Ryan 5. The Marmara Sea Gateway since ~16 ky BP: non-catastrophic causes of paleoceanographic events in the Black Sea at 8.4 and 7.15 ky BP Richard N. Hiscott, Ali E. Aksu, Peta J. Mudie, Michael A. Kaminski, Teofilo Abrajano, Dogan Yasar, and André Rochon 6. The late glacial great flood in the Ponto-Caspian basin Andrei L. Chepalyga 7. Controversy over Noah’s Flood in the Black Sea: geological and foraminiferal evidence from the shelf Valentina V. Yanko-Hombach Research in the Northern Sector 8. On the post-glacial changes in the level of the Black Sea Pavel N. Kuprin and Valentin M. Sorokin 9. The post-glacial transgression of the Black Sea Valery I. Shmuratko 10. Climate dynamics, sea-level change, and shoreline migration in the Ukrainian sector of the Circum-Pontic Region Yuri Shuisky 11. The Middle Paleolithic and early Upper Paleolithic in the northern Black Sea region Viktor P. Chabai 12. Environment, sea-level changes, and human migrations in the northern Pontic area during late Pleistocene and Holocene times Pavel M. Dolukhanov and Konstantin K. Shilik 13. HoloceneMediterranization of the southern Crimean vegetation: paleoecological records, regional climate change, and possible non-climatic influences Carlos E. Cordova 14. Pontic-Caspian Mesolithic and Early Neolithic societies at the time of the Black Sea flood: a small audience and small effects David W. Anthony 15. Fluctuations in the level of the Black Sea and Mesolithic settlement of the northern Pontic area Vladimir N. Stanko Research in the Western Sector 16. The northwestern Black Sea: climatic and sea-level changes in the Late Quaternary Nicolae Panin and Irina Popescu 17. Sea-level fluctuations and coastline migration in the northwestern Black Sea area over the last 18 ky based on high-resolution lithological-genetic analysis of sediment architecture Evgeny G. Konikov 18 Water-level fluctuations in the Black Sea since the Last Glacial Maximum Gilles Lericolais, Irina Popescu, François Guichard, Speranta-Maria Popescu, and Laurence Manolakakis 19. Archaeological and paleontological evidence of climate dynamics, sea-level change, and coastline migration in the Bulgarian sector of the Circum-Pontic Region Mariana Filipova-Marinova 20. Dendrochronology of submerged Bulgarian sites Peter I. Kuniholm, Maryanne W. Newton, and Bernd Kromer 21. The Neolithization of the north Pontic area and the Balkans in the context of the Black Sea floods Valentin Dergachev and Pavel M. Dolukhanov 22. Holocene changes in the level of the Black Sea: consequences at a human scale Douglass W. Bailey Research in the Southern Sector 23. Morphotectonic development of the southern Black Sea region and the Bosphorus channel Yücel Yilmaz 24. Sea-level changes modified the Quaternary coastlines in the Marmara region,

Blurb

Stimulated by "Noah’s Flood Hypothesis" proposed by W. Ryan and W. Pitman in which a catastrophic inundation of the Pontic basin was linked to the biblical story, leading experts in Black Sea research (including oceanography, marine geology, paleoclimate, paleoenvironment, archaeology, and linguistic spread) provide overviews of their data and interpretations obtained through empirical scientific approaches. Among the contributors are many East European scientists whose work has rarely been published outside of Cyrillic. Each of the 35 papers marshals its own evidence for or against the flood hypothesis. No summary or overall resolution to the flood question is presented, but instead access is provided to a broad range of interdisciplinary information that crosses previously impenetrable language barriers so that new work in the region can proceed with the benefit of a wider frame of reference. The three fundamental scenarios describing the late glacial to Holocene rise in the level of the Black Sea—catastrophic, gradual, and oscillating—are presented in the early pages, with the succeeding papers organized by geographic sector: northern (Ukraine), western (Moldova, Romania, and Bulgaria), southern (Turkey), and eastern (Georgia and Russia), as well as three papers on the Mediterranean. The volume thus brings together eastern and western scholarship to share research findings and perspectives on a controversial subject. In addition, appendices are included containing some 600 radiocarbon dates from the Pontic region obtained by USSR and western laboratories.

Audience
Scientists, researchers and students in geology, climatology, archeology, oceanography, linguistics, history, geography as well as Black Sea specialists.