Chapter 8. THE LAND OF NOD
Cain’s
family settled in the land of "Nod," where they established a
"city." We propose this tribal group followed a route later known as
the Great Khorasan Road, leading Cain, son of Adam, to the Kermanshah Valley in
the central Zagros Mountains. There, we believe he founded the settlement of
"Enoch," its remnants linked to the archaeological site of Sheikh-e
Abad (34°36'42"N, 47°16'11"E). In this village, the newcomers
mastered musical instruments, developed metalworking techniques, and some
adopted nomadic herding, living in "tents with flocks." As a farmer,
Cain likely preserved knowledge of agriculture. Favorable conditions, division
of labor, and acquired skills probably fueled population growth among these
settlers.
According
to Genesis, 1,056 years after Adam’s death, Noah, a ninth-generation
descendant, is born. During his lifetime, humanity faces a catastrophic event
called the "Flood." The text describes the disaster unfolding
gradually, worsening after Noah’s family takes refuge in a constructed vessel.
For an unspecified reason, "seven days later, the floodwaters were upon
the earth," though their source is unclear. The global cataclysm continues
with relentless, torrential rain for forty days and nights. The waters
"multiplied," mysteriously persisting without further precipitation,
eventually covering "all the high mountains." The flood level rises
for 150 days. Then, a wind arises, the rain ceases, and the "fountains of
the deep" close. Until the tenth month, the waters gradually recede,
"returning" somewhere unspecified, flowing between oft-mentioned
mountains. A drying process follows, concluding the next year, "in the
second month, on the twenty-seventh day." This climatic anomaly wipes out
all land-dwelling creatures except Noah, his seven relatives, and the animals
aboard the ark.
The text
omits when this flood struck Earth. Could a deluge of biblical scale have
occurred? Uncertainty persists about where Noah lived before the catastrophe
and in what era.
We
previously suggested Cain migrated to the Kermanshah Valley during global
warming around 11,700 years ago (9750 BCE). A brief cooling, the Preboreal
Oscillation, lasting 200–250 years, followed, ending around 11,270 ± 30 years
ago (9270 ± 30 BCE) with a rapid 4 ± 1.5°C temperature rise. This shift to
warm, wet conditions between 11,270 and 11,210 years ago spurred forest growth
in modern-day Netherlands and the Baltic Sea region. In southwest Europe,
regional coolness 11,270 years ago gave way to aridity, favoring xerophytes and
conifers. Around 11,200 years ago, Latvian lakes saw increased organic
deposition due to thriving diatoms and woody debris. Norway’s Barents Sea coast
experienced a two-phase warming, peaking around 11,200 years ago, fostering
continuous vegetation. By 11,150 years ago, northern Europe’s mild climate
melted terrestrial ice sheets. In North America, lake ecosystems flourished
11,700 ± 70 and 11,150 ± 70 years ago, rapidly processing organic matter.
Concurrently, the global ocean level rose in two stages due to freshwater
influx, with sea levels climbing up to 250 centimeters per century between
11,500 and 8800 years ago. These observations lead us to hypothesize that a
swift climatic anomaly—global warming around 11,270 years ago—underlies the
biblical flood narrative.
Genesis
states the flood began when Noah was 600 years old, "in the second month,
on the seventeenth day," and ended "in the six hundred and first
year, on the first day of the first month." Yet, the era remains
unspecified. The Book of Jubilees, written between 153–105 BCE, offers a clue,
stating the flood started in the twenty-seventh jubilee, fifth week, seventh
year, and ended the following year, with Noah opening the ark’s hatch on the
second month, twenty-seventh day, of the eighth year—dated as 1317 years from
creation. Converted from the Hebrew to the Gregorian calendar, this places the
flood’s onset on April 11, 2445 BCE, concluding May 9, 2443 BCE.
Using these
dates, the disaster struck 4,470 years ago from 2025. However, the third
millennium BCE saw uninterrupted human progress, with no record of a global
flood. Ancient urban civilizations note population growth in Asia, North
Africa, and likely worldwide. Earth’s five mass extinctions, the largest 251
million years ago, killed 90% of marine species and 70% of terrestrial
vertebrate families—long before humans existed, primarily affecting oceans,
unlike Noah’s flood, which spared marine life.
Scholars
observe that Genesis’s flood account draws from two hypothetical Judean
sources: the "J source" (828–722 BCE) and the "P source"
(715–687 BCE, possibly post-586 BCE). Both describe a planetary catastrophe,
with waters covering "all high mountains."
Earth’s
highest peak, Sagarmatha (Everest, 27°59'18"N, 86°55'30"E), stands at
8,848 meters. Per Genesis, ocean depth reached this height along current
coastlines, rising "fifteen cubits" higher after forty days. Assuming
a cubit equals roughly 0.5 meters, the flood’s surface hit 8,855.5 meters above
today’s sea level.
Earth’s
water resides in the mantle, atmosphere, oceans, lakes, rivers, snow, ice,
aquifers, permafrost, compounds, and organisms, accumulating over 4,406 million
years. Total volume is approximately 1.386 billion cubic kilometers, against
Earth’s 1,083.21 billion cubic kilometer volume and 5.972 sextillion kilogram
mass. The planet’s interior, at 410 kilometers deep, reaches 1,920°K
(1,646.85°C) and 13.5 GPa, precluding vast liquid reservoirs underground.
The global
ocean averages 3,682.2 meters deep, covering 361.84 million square kilometers,
with a 1.3324 billion cubic kilometer volume. Mantle water, bound in minerals
or melts, could form an 800-meter layer if released from 400–670 kilometers
deep. The mantle’s transition zone holds 1–2% water by mass, with Earth’s
non-core water equating to 2.6–8.3 oceans, though estimates range from 2.8 to
98.8, with 17.6 deemed reasonable.
Earth’s
mean radius is 6,371 kilometers, increasing to 6,379.848 kilometers at Everest
during the flood, assuming waters rose fifteen cubits above peaks. Covering
Everest would require roughly 4.519 trillion cubic kilometers of water—over
half Pluto’s 7.02 billion cubic kilometer volume. Mantle minerals could
theoretically supply and reabsorb this volume, with Earth’s crust potentially
redistributing it into cavities.
Some
researchers suggest water arrived via carbonaceous chondrite meteorites, yet
Genesis mentions no cosmic bombardment, only rain and the "great
deep." Reasonably, adding 4.52 trillion cubic kilometers in forty days is
implausible—equating to 221,200 millimeters per square meter daily (153,611.1
liters per minute, or 2.56 cubic meters per second). Norway’s Mardalsfossen
waterfall (88 cubic feet per second) or India’s Nohkalikai (100 cubic feet per
second) illustrate such flow.
Genesis
notes the rains stopped after 150 days, and waters "went from the
earth," draining and evaporating. Seven months later, mountain peaks
emerged, and the ground dried. At 30°C, with strong airflow, 1.664 kilograms of
water evaporates hourly per square meter. Over Earth’s 510 trillion square
meter surface, 7,435 quintillion kilograms could vaporize yearly. The flood’s
4.519 trillion cubic meter volume, at 997 kilograms per cubic meter, weighs 4.506
quintillion kilograms. At this evaporation rate, without further rain, it would
take 1,650.1 years to dissipate, assuming it escapes Earth’s gravity. Noah,
living 950 years, wouldn’t witness the end. Did the author inflate his age to
match the catastrophe’s scale?
Heating
could hasten drying but would render water uninhabitable by denaturing proteins
and depleting oxygen. Genesis confirms marine life survived, with only
terrestrial creatures perishing. Rapid chemical binding of water into
compounds, turning Earth into a chemical vat, isn’t considered.
These
arguments suggest the flood was local, not global. Genesis exaggerates a
hydrological disaster, typical of folk epics, likely recalling a tragic valley
inundation in mountains, not a plain like Mesopotamia’s. This offers the most
plausible explanation.
The text
implies the flood began gradually, escalating with forty days of ceaseless
rain. We propose initial water came from melting mountain snow and ice,
followed by rainfall. Heavy precipitation often accompanies warming, especially
near cyclone centers, though cold-sector rains are brief. We hypothesize the
flood unfolded in mountains, repeatedly mentioned in Genesis. A
"wind" heralds the disaster’s end, suggesting typical weather shifts
and moisture-laden air movement. The flood level rises 150 days post-rain,
explained by melting snowpacks, emptying highland lakes, and draining slope
soils.
The author
places the catastrophe among ridges, likely with perennial snows and glaciers.
Only sustained warming could supply meltwater alongside rain, flowing downhill.
The flood doesn’t end abruptly but recedes over six months, draining
"back" naturally, not vanishing miraculously.
We propose
the flood occurred in a Zagros basin west of the Iranian Plateau, where landslides
or rockfalls blocked drainage. Gradual erosion of this natural dam allowed
outflow, followed by spontaneous drying. Genesis suggests no mystical forces;
high temperatures and vapor transport, driven by wind, dried the land. A mild
climate emerged, evidenced by Noah’s post-flood vineyard—absent in
"pre-flood" narratives. Ancient grape seeds, found in India (66
million years) and Colombia (60 million years), predate this.
Noah, who
saved his family via the ark, remains enigmatic—his time, place, and prototype
unclear. As Cain’s descendant, he likely lived in the same region. We suggest
Cain migrated to the Zagros’s Kermanshah Valley (34°19'26"N,
47°04'25"E) before the 11,700-year-ago warming, with Noah born near the
Preboreal Oscillation’s end (11,270 years ago). Today, Kermanshah is Iran’s
agricultural hub, with warm summers, snowy winters, and diverse flora and
fauna, once spanning 800,000 hectares of forest.
We believe
a flood in this valley inspired Genesis’s tale, supported by the text’s focus
on mountains. Noah’s use of "pitch" (bitumen, a mountain-derived oil
byproduct) for the ark reinforces this. Genesis mentions "pitch pits"
near mountains, used also for baby Moses’s basket. Sumerians employed bitumen
from 3800–2500 BCE for adhesives, waterproofing, and masonry, while hominids in
Syria used it 80,000–50,000 years ago for toolmaking.
Kermanshah
lies at 1,350–1,392 meters elevation, its valley stretching northwest to
southeast between Zagros ridges. The Gharehsoo River crosses it, feeding the Karkheh
basin (50,000 square kilometers). Nearby valleys include Mahidasht (with
Halashi, Robat, Kuzaran, Ravansar), Sahneh, and Mianrahan-Kamyaran (with
Kamyaran). Javanrud thrives northwest, near Ban Galan valley.
Gharehsoo’s
tributaries drain Ban Galan’s north, while its south feeds streams like
Rudkhaneh-ye Hivas and Ab-i Marik, irrigating Mahidasht. Gharehsoo merges with
the Raz Avar stream near Kermanshah, flowing southeast. At Tangeh-ye Do Ab
(1,246 meters, 34°10'38"N, 47°20'46"E), it joins the Gamasiab, whose
sources lie in highland valleys like Sib Anar (1,900 meters). Their confluence
forms the Seymare, cutting a canyon through the Zagros, merging with the Zal to
create the Karkheh, feeding the Hawizeh Marshes.
Gharehsoo’s
211-kilometer basin covers 5,793 square kilometers, 48% mountainous (up to
3,351 meters), 52% hills and plains (minimum 1,300 meters). Gamasiab’s
900-kilometer basin spans 11,040 square kilometers, with elevations from 1,275
to 3,680 meters. Together, their 16,833-square-kilometer watershed feeds the
Seymare. If blocked, this could flood Kermanshah, Mahidasht, Sahneh, and
Mianrahan-Kamyaran, with the lowest point at Cham-e Heydar (1,242 meters).
Water reaching 1,409 meters could spill east toward Do Ab, or, at 1,430–1,440
meters, north via Ban Galan into the Sirwan, a Tigris tributary. This region,
our "Land of Nod," encompasses these valleys and plains.
A second
condition for flooding—beyond a Seymare blockage—is excessive inflow outpacing
evaporation and filtration, causing severe inundation on the Gamasiab and
Gharehsoo. For local flora and fauna, with mudslides and rockfalls, this would
indeed be a "biblical flood."
While a
global flood is theoretically possible, Earth’s water could cover all land, but
preserving terrestrial life under such conditions defies geophysics and
biochemistry. No material evidence supports a global catastrophe, and human
populations never dwindled to eight individuals. Mass extinctions predate Homo
sapiens.
We propose
the flood legend stems from a real, large-scale inundation in a Zagros basin,
likely Kermanshah and adjacent plains, corroborated by regional topography and
drainage patterns. Genesis’s vaguer account targets a less educated audience,
framing a natural disaster east of Mesopotamia, likely in the Zagros or Iranian
Plateau. The tale, passed through generations, was exaggerated to cosmic
proportions, as folklore often is.
Genesis
reflects a scientific polish on a folk narrative, hinting at a brilliant
consultant behind the text. This unknown scholar intuited Earth’s capacity to
absorb vast water volumes, calling its depths the "abyss"—a term from
Egyptian mythology, alongside sky, land, and sea, created by Ptah. The author
grasps gravity’s role, noting water "went back" (draining and seeping),
and the hydrological cycle, using "returning." Evaporation is
distinguished as "the earth dried." Such phrases, with the 150-day
flooding and ten-month drying timeline, lend credibility, though the era
remains elusive, complicated by millennia-old intentional edits.
This effort to convey the catastrophe’s scale scientifically reveals an ancient polymath, versed in geography, locating Eden and Nod near Assyria, Arabia, and possibly the Hindu Kush (Kush) and Indus River (Gihon). This savant, perhaps widely traveled or highly educated, mastered agriculture, economics, botany, zoology, metallurgy, music, medicine, pottery, and warfare. Such erudition suggests a high-ranking figure, not a tribal chief but a leader in a civilized state. Dating the flood narrative’s creation could clarify where Genesis’s concept emerged.
Retelling done by Grok, an artificial intelligence developed by xAI.
Author:
Arkhipov S.V. – candidate of medical sciences, surgeon, traumatologist-orthopedist.
Citation:
Архипов С.В. Дети человеческие: истоки библейских преданий в обозрении врача. Эссе, снабженное ссылками на интерактивный материал. 2-е изд. перераб. и доп. Йоэнсуу: Издание Автора, 2025.
Arkhipov S.V. Human Children: The Origins of Biblical Legends from a Physician's Perspective. An essay with references to interactive materials. 2nd revised and expanded edition. Joensuu: Author's Edition, 2025. [Rus]
Purchase:
PDF version is available on GooglePlay & Google Books
Keywords
ligamentum capitis femoris, ligamentum teres, ligament of head of femur, history, first patient, injury, damage, Bible, Genesis
Comments
Post a Comment