This is the scenario postulated by Ryan and Pitman that transpired less than seven thousand years ago. The Ice Age, they remind us, tied up immense amonts of sea water, dropping coastlines and leaving lowlands isolated. The cold, dry air spilling off the glaciers swept over a freshwater lake northeast of the Mediterranean Sea. The lake evaporated faster than the rivers feeding it could replace. Ultimately, the lake's surface was far below sea level, but the sea was restrained by a land barrier. Once breached, the salty ocean water poured through what is now the Bosphorus to flood the lake's basin. At its height, the flow must have been ten times that of Niagra Falls and gushed through the break at over 70 kph. Evacuation of settlements scattered populations in many directions. The Tigris-Euphrates valley provided one major refuge. There, people settled and the story of the great flooding would have been paramount in their legends.

The revelation of how a flood myth became so important in the arid lands of Mesopotamia and Palestine was slow in exposure. The authors narrate the explorations of early researchers in these areas. Among the many revelations was that the Noachean Flood myth of the Hebrew Bible was actually taken from Babylonian sources during the Jewish Exile. Why should a desert people have a story about the inundation of the entire world? Ryan and Pitman relate how samples from the sea floor sediments indicate a bizarre and sudden shift in ancient sea life offered the first clues. It took high technology to reveal the details, the authors note, but hints were visible to those who knew how to look. Small boats still hang rock-filled nets deep into the waters of the Bosphorus because the deep, northward-flowing currents can pull small boats to the Black Sea against the surface water coming out of it.

This is an excellent account of how scientific detective work merged with innovative thinking. The methods of investigation are well-detailed and the analyses explained clearly. The writers even studied the methods of passing oral traditions and how basic themes persist even when presentation style and emphasis may change. There are excellent maps and the illustrations are "personalised" by transforming photographs into drawings. The footnotes are page-referenced, making sources easily understood by the reader new to the topics, although a full bibliography would have enhanced the work. Since this book was published, support for the thesis has come from the finding of human habitation deep underwater along the Turkish Black Sea coast. On the other hand, a research team has challenged the idea of the Aegean Sea flooding the Black Sea, proposing that the process was reversed. Such is the delightful experience of reading science! [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Based on scientific arguments, Ryan and Piton hypothesize that the origins of the first known civilizations derive from the Black Sea basin. The Black Sea, having once been a fresh water lake and the single largest available source of potable water available on the Eurasian land mass, was the likely homeland of the ancestors of those who eventually founded the civilizations in Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Egypt and beyond. Geological and fossil evidence suggest that the depth of this fresh water lake was approximately 400 feet shallower than its present depth. At some point around 5500 BC, the dam broke that prevented the waters of the Mediterranean from mixing with this fresh water lake. Ryan and Pitman argue that this flooding happened rapidly forcing any inhabits to permanently evacuate the region.

The book is intriguing and reads like a suspense novel. At times, though. it is written in highly technical jargon (such as the use of the word "tsunami" --why don't they just say "tidal wave" if they are seeking to appeal to a mass audience?). Also annoying is the tendency of Ryan and Pitman to refer to themselves in the third person --as Ryan and Pitman, instead of acknowledging that they themselves are the authors. I think it would have been even more accessible had they simply said "we believe...".

Perhaps the most refreshing aspect of Ryan and Pitman's theory is that they recognize it as such. "Short of finding the remains of Neolithic settlements beneath the mud of the present Black Sea shelf, no archeological observation can prove a human occupation of the now submerged landscape." Indeed, they challenge future marine archeologists to search "the drowned remains" for the archeological evidence that would support their theory.