Hi everyone. I'm sort of in a history-minded phase right now, thanks to heavy homework for history class.
A while ago, I read a recent thread in this subforum, pertaining to Noah's Ark. I noticed some discussion concerning the validity of the flood account found in the Old Testament, which has sparked some interest for some users. I didn't think much of it more than what others have already explained. But I've just been reading through texts on the history of civilization and noticed something interesting about Sumerian religion.
After the Neolithic Revolution, bringing about sustainable agriculture, civilization started to pop up in infancy. The first being in the Tigris-Euphrates river valley. What is considered the probable ancestors of the Sumerian people began developing communities in the Zagros foothills. In time, they moved down to the fertile plains between the Tigris and Euphrates. Rich farmland was relatively abundant thanks to flooding from the two rivers.
The Sumerians had quite an impressive civilization, building the first major monuments, developing the first system of writing, and connecting several major cities. It was a rich and complex culture for the time, and its survival depended heavily on the flood-waters of the rivers. The people worshiped many powerful gods of nature, much in hope of good inundations. Thanks to the development of cuneiform writing, religious myths centered around floods were written and eventually became pretty well known.
Following civilizations also heavily depended on flood-enriched agriculture. One very famous tale is the Epic of Gilgamesh. Isn't it reasonable to consider that the Hebrew flood account likely has its roots in these earlier stories? Reason being early civilization's critical dependency on floods.