Only Perception: 諾亞大洪水帶動歐洲農業

2007-11-18

諾亞大洪水帶動歐洲農業

【聯合報╱編譯陳世欽／路透倫敦十七日電】 2007.11.18

研究人員十七日表示，大約八千三百年前的一場大洪水導致歐洲大陸最早期的農耕人口四散遷徙，可能因此促使歐洲的農耕活動擴張。

主持這項研究的英國艾塞斯特大學地質學家特尼及其研究團隊發現，當時的北美冰原崩解後，全球海平面升高一點四公尺，造成歐洲東南部數以萬計住民遷徙，從而將農耕技術帶到其他地區。

研究人員在「第四紀科學論評」期刊發表報告指出，研究顯示，一場大洪水曾經衝破隔開地中海與黑海的一道山脊，使歐洲東南部洪水氾濫，這場洪水與歐洲農業的興起有直接關聯。部分人士認為，這場大洪水可能就是「諾亞方舟」故事的起源。

研究人員估計，洪水淹沒的範圍大約七萬三千平方公里，持續卅四年，迫使很多人遷徙他處。

以前的考古證據顯示，洪水為患時，該地區已有農耕活動。尼特的研究小組認為，人口大遷徙導致歐洲大陸的農耕與製陶活動擴張。特尼指出：「洪水出現時，農耕活動似乎停擺，約一個世代後又在歐洲各地重新出現。」他說，這些人將農耕技術帶到以狩獵、採集維生者聚居的地區，在此之前，這些地區應無任何農耕活動。

※ 相關報導：

＊ Noah's Ark flood spurred European farming - Reuters
http://uk.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUKL1700215420071118

By Michael Kahn

LONDON (Reuters) - An ancient flood some say could be the origin of the story of Noah's Ark may have helped the spread of agriculture in Europe 8,300 years ago by scattering the continent's earliest farmers, researchers said on Sunday.

Using radiocarbon dating and archaeological evidence, a British team showed the collapse of the North American ice sheet, which raised global sea levels by as much as 1.4 metres, displaced tens of thousands of people in southeastern Europe who carried farming skills to their new homes.

The researchers said in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews their study provides direct evidence linking the flood that breached a ridge keeping the Mediterranean apart from the Black Sea to the rise of farming in Europe.

"The flooding of the Black Sea was not well dated but we got it down to about 50 years," said Chris Turney, a geologist at the University of Exeter, who led the study. "As soon as the flooding is done, farming goes crazy across Europe."

The researchers created reconstructions of the Mediterranean and Black Sea shoreline before and after the rise in sea levels. They estimated the flood covered some 73,000 square kilometres over a 34-year period, causing mass displacement of people.

Previous archaeological evidence has shown communities in the region were already farming when the flood hit. The Exeter team suggests the mass migration caused a sudden expansion of farming and pottery production across the continent.

"We looked at all the earliest data on farming in Europe and we found a little bit of farming in Greece and the Balkans just before the flood," Turney said in a telephone interview. "When the flood happened, farming seemed to stop but it was re-established a generation later across Europe."

The researchers believe these people took their skills to new areas previously populated by hunters and gatherers where there had been no evidence of farming, Turney said.

The study also underscores the potential impact rising sea levels may have in the future, the researchers said. An expected one metre rise by the end of the century due to climate change would displace some 145 million people, Turney added.

It also paints a picture of the kind of mass disruption that has prompted some scientists to link the ancient flood to the origins of the biblical story of Noah's Ark, Turney said.

"When the Black Sea flooded at end of last ice age some people have suggested it was the origins of the Noah's Ark myth," he said. "If you lived in that basin it would have seemed like the whole world had flooded."

(Editing by Maggie Fox and Catherine Evans)

＊ Catastrophic early Holocene sea level rise, human migration and the Neolithic transition in Europe
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2007.07.003