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Thanks, for the link and ping. One of the problems in Ryan and Pitman's book "Noah's Flood" (besides the premise of the title) is right in the book. Catal Huyuk was burned and abandoned right at the time of this Black Sea flood, after about 3000 years of occupation, and presumably by the hypothesized displaced farmers.

The Mellaart excavation (about 3 per cent of the site) 40+ years ago found no signs of indigenous development. It's as if the culture which built the town came from elsewhere, all prefab and ready to go. One suggestion is that the people who settled at Catal Huyuk came from what is now the continental shelf, offshore of Turkey, on the Mediterranean side. The town was (or may have been) involved in the obsidian trade, which is very old, reaching back to the end of the Ice Age (at least).

Also, agriculture is at least 14,000 years old, based on RC dating of a double-row (domesticated) barley sample. While I don't doubt that there were farmers down in the former lands around the proto-Black Sea, I'm sure they didn't invent farming. :')