Prije potopa: Dokaz da je biblijski potop bio stvaran događaj
British historian Ian Wilson (known for his books on the Shroud of Turin and Jesus) offers the most thorough defense of the thesis that the biblical flood was a real historical event, not just a myth, in his work Before the Flood.
Wilson places the Flood in 5600–5500 BC and connects it with the sudden intrusion of the Mediterranean Sea into the then freshwater Black Lake (today the Black Sea). Geological evidence (sapropel layer, underwater Bosporus canyon, wooden remains at -150 m) shows that the water level rose 100–150 meters within a few months, submerging tens of thousands of km² of fertile coastline and hundreds of settlements.
The author compares:
- the Sumerian epic of Ziusudra/Utnapishtim,
- the Babylonian Gilgamesh,
- the biblical story of Noah and dozens of other flood myths from the region.
All match in detail (the great ship, the birds released to search for land, the mountain on which the ship ran aground). Wilson shows how the surviving carriers of the Neolithic culture fled to Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Indus Valley, carrying with them the memory of the catastrophe that became the core of all later flood myths.
The book is rich in maps, photographs of underwater sites, and quotes from geologists (Ryan & Pitman). While it does not prove every word of Genesis, it convincingly shows that behind the “myth” lies a real mega-catastrophe that changed the course of civilization. A classic work of “scientific biblical archaeology.”
Multiple copies are available
