The Deep Memory Timeline

Earth

Measured sea-level change

1992–2022 · observation interval · range

A modern observation interval. This shows what a physically measured record looks like; no ancient narrative is attached to it.

• Tracking 30 Years of Sea Level Rise — Satellite record since 1992

Human

A clay witness at Nineveh

700–601 BCE · object production range · range

Production range of K.3375, not the date of the narrated deluge.

• The Flood Tablet · K.3375 — Museum number K.3375; Neo-Assyrian, seventh century BCE

Sacred

The Watchers

Narrative time · no calendar placement · mythic

Violence is followed by divine judgment.

• 1 Enoch · Book of the Watchers — Chapters 6–16

Prometheus & the stolen fire

Narrative time · no calendar placement · mythic

Zeus sends a punitive gift.

• Hesiod · Works and Days — Lines 42–105

Utnapishtim & the vessel

Narrative time · no calendar placement · mythic

A flood overwhelms the inhabited world of the narrative.

• Gilgamesh · Tablet XI — Tablet XI, especially lines 8–31, 81–96, 133–196
• The Flood Tablet · K.3375 — Museum number K.3375; Neo-Assyrian, seventh century BCE

Noah & the ark

Narrative time · no calendar placement · mythic

The flood is narrated as judgment.

• Genesis · Chapter 6 — Genesis 6:1–22
• Genesis · Chapter 8 — Genesis 8:1–22

Manu & the rescuing fish

Narrative time · no calendar placement · mythic

The flood sweeps away other creatures.

• Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa · Manu and the fish — 1.8.1.1–10

Yggdrasil & the well

Narrative time · no calendar placement · mythic

The tree trembles during the crisis of the gods.

• Völuspá · The seeress’s prophecy — Stanzas 19–20, 47, 57–59

Puruṣa & the world-body

Narrative time · no calendar placement · mythic

The hymn thinks with a body larger than an individual life. Breath, eye, mind, head, and feet become a language for the worlds. Sacrifice organizes a set of correspondences; it does not simply recount a traveler bringing tools from a distant place.

• Ṛg Veda · Puruṣa Sūkta — 10.90, especially verses 6–14

The wooden effigies

Narrative time · no calendar placement · mythic

Flood and other agents destroy the failed creation.

• Popol Vuh · The wooden effigies — Printed pages 69–74; The Fall of the Effigies of Carved Wood

Source

1 Enoch · Book of the Watchers

1913 edition · exact

The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, 1913; CCEL transcription

• 1 Enoch · Book of the Watchers — Chapters 6–16

Hesiod · Works and Days

1914 edition · exact

Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns and Homerica, Loeb Classical Library, 1914

• Hesiod · Works and Days — Lines 42–105

Genesis · Chapter 6

1611 edition · exact

King James Version, 1611 tradition; digital transcription

• Genesis · Chapter 6 — Genesis 6:1–22

Genesis · Chapter 8

1611 edition · exact

King James Version, 1611 tradition; digital transcription

• Genesis · Chapter 8 — Genesis 8:1–22

Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa · Manu and the fish

1882 edition · exact

Sacred Books of the East 12, 1882

• Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa · Manu and the fish — 1.8.1.1–10

Völuspá · The seeress’s prophecy

1936 edition · exact

The Poetic Edda, 1936 edition

• Völuspá · The seeress’s prophecy — Stanzas 19–20, 47, 57–59

Popol Vuh · The wooden effigies

2007 edition · exact

Popol Vuh: Sacred Book of the Quiché Maya People, 2007 electronic version of 2003 publication

• Popol Vuh · The wooden effigies — Printed pages 69–74; The Fall of the Effigies of Carved Wood

Tracking 30 Years of Sea Level Rise

2022 edition · exact

NASA Science, 11 August 2022

• Tracking 30 Years of Sea Level Rise — Satellite record since 1992