[snip]... you may have heard that Robert Ballard (the same guy who discovered the Titanic) has proposed an alternate explanation for the flood legends. In 1999, he came forward with the claim that the creation of the Black Sea was the inspiration for the tale of Noah. According to his theory, this vast body of water was a small freshwater lake in a large fertile basin about 8,000 years ago, when suddenly a natural disaster caused a sudden inflow of salt water. Early humans who fled the incoming deluge concocted the story of the ark. [/snip]
Ballard didn’t propose this, William Ryan and Walter Pitman theorized it based on seafloor evidence and cores from the Black Sea. And they didn’t say the Ark story was concocted, they followed in many footsteps and claimed the OT authors merely plagiarized the entire Deluge story during the Babylonian Exile. Hope that helps.
http://www.google.com/search?q=ryan+and+pitman+site:freerepublic.com
I knew that William Ryan and Walter Pitman first came up with the idea, but I couldn't remember their names (and decided it was too off-topic to research further). But I do remember Ballard playing a large role in investigation. In fact, I can even remember him holding a dramatic press conference and announcing to the world "We have discovered Noah's flood at the bottom of the Black Sea!"
And they didn’t say the Ark story was concocted, they followed in many footsteps and claimed the OT authors merely plagiarized the entire Deluge story during the Babylonian Exile.
I wasn't referring exactly to the Noah story, but as I recall, their claim was that all of the flood legends originate in the Black Sea deluge (which I dispute). I believe that the Babylonian Exile story was their attempt to explain the origins of Genesis (a claim I find very problematic, but again, that's getting off-topic...).