[Rockingham]

There is good reason to think that the Noah story is a Judaic version of the Gilgamesh story from Mesopotamia. That would place the flood in that region and not the Black Sea, which would jibe with evidence for one or more catastrophic floods in Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf.

The Noah story in the Bible would then be true as to there having been a flood, not factually accurate as to Noah, but morally true as to Man's relationship with God.

[FarCenter]

The Persian Gulf was freshwater lakes and rivers leading out through the Strait of Hormuz until about 12,500 years ago, when the rising sea level allowed saltwater intrusion into the central basin of the Persian Gulf. The western basin flooded about a 1000 years later.

Shoreline reconstructions for the Persian Gulf since the last glacial maximum

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0012821X96000696?via%3Dihub

[Bookshelf]

Maya flood myths recorded by Diego de Landa and in the Chilam Balam of Chumayel holds that the only survivors of the flood were the four Bacabs who took their places as upholders of the four corners of the sky.
Mesoamerican flood myths - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesoamerican_flood_myths

[gnarledmaw]

How did the people of places as far away as Japan and South America also know the story from Mesopotamia?