The First International Symposium
on the Interdisciplinary Significance
of the Black Sea Flood, c. 6700 BC
Liguria Study Center, Bogliasco, Italy
June 3-7, 2002
This symposium was inspired by the book Noah’s Flood: The New Scientific Discoveries About the Event that Changed History (1998). This text by geologists William Ryan and Walter Pitman discusses the sudden flooding of the Black Sea basin by Mediterranean waters c. 5600 BC. Symposium participants assembled at the Liguria Study Center, Bogliasco, south of Genoa, prepared to discuss possible implications for the Neolithic societies in the Black Sea region as a result of this catastrophe. Imagine our surprise when Bill Ryan presented us with the results of new research that pushed the date of the flood back to c. 6700 BC! The symposium was punctuated by lively discussions and participants were encouraged to rewrite their papers for the forthcoming IAM publication in light of the new scientific findings.
Liguria Study Center
The interdisciplinary nature of the symposium was amplified by the participation of visual and performing artists from Australia: Anna Hueneke, as artist-in-residence, created spontaneous paintings inspired by the daily sessions; and the Mirramu Dance Company from New South Wales, directed by Elizabeth Cameron Dalman, performed an original choreography for this occasion, “Dreaming the Deep.”
Presentations:
William Ryan ~ USA
“Human responses to circum-Mediterranean and Black Sea climates and sea-levels.”
Cristina Biaggi ~ USA
“The possible influence of the Black Sea flood on the warlike nature of the Kurgan culture.”
Mary Brenneman ~ USA
“First off the ark: A psycho-mythological study of the black bird.”
Walter (Ted) Brenneman ~ USA
“Submerged city and ark: Comparative symbolism in Celtic and Near Eastern flood mythology.”
Bogdan Brukner ~ Serbia and Montenegro
“The possible influence of the Black Sea flood on the formation of the Vin_a Culture”
Glenda Cloughley ~ Australia
“When sweet and bitter waters meet: Some consequences for psyche and culture of the inundation of paradise.”
Miriam Robbins Dexter ~ USA
“Colchian Medea and her circumpontic sisters.”
Harald Haarmann ~ Finland
“On the formation of Old World civilizations and the catastrophe that triggered it”
Ivan Marazov ~ Bulgaria
“The flood in Bulgarian folklore”
Susan Moulton ~ USA
“The flood motif in Western art.”
Vicki Noble ~ USA
“Medea of Colchis and the shaman women of the Silk Road”
Adrian Poruciuc ~ Romania
“The shepherd and the sea flood: An archaic motif of Romanian folklore”
Elizabeth Cameron Dalman ~ Australia
Dance performance: “Dreaming the Deep” by Mirramu Dance Company
With Vivienne Rogis and Peter Camarotto
Anna Hueneke ~ Australia
Artist in Residence