Author: Emily Runzi
Runzi, Emily, 2023 Cultural Genesis: Destruction and submersion: An investigation into the lasting impact of maritime disasters on human cultural genesis in the Mediterranean from prehistory to modern times , Flinders University, College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
Terms of Use: This electronic version is (or will be) made publicly available by Flinders University in accordance with its open access policy for student theses. Copyright in this thesis remains with the author. You may use this material for uses permitted under the Copyright Act 1968. If you are the owner of any included third party copyright material and/or you believe that any material has been made available without permission of the copyright owner please contact copyright@flinders.edu.au with the details.
Sea-level rise and maritime disasters have had a tangible impact on the archaeological materials and ideologies of civilisations surrounding the Mediterranean. While maritime archaeology is beginning to delve further into the idea of submerged landscapes, a less investigated aspect of these prehistoric and historic fluctuations are the social effects on the ideologies of those living through the events. This thesis focuses on the sea-level rise of the Mediterranean from prehistoric times to the present. An ever-growing body of work exists that reports newly identified cultural material under the waves, or clues to where lost settlements may be found under submerged coastlines. The evidence for a lost world beneath the waves is clear. While the physical archaeological symbols for these events are tangible and impossible to ignore, the social impact of these events on the ideologies of groups living in the Mediterranean throughout historical times, is equally descriptive through the analysis of the beliefs held by the occupants in the form of myths and legends. Two flood narratives from this region have spread globally and are still the topic of debate today. These are the Genesis and Atlantean flood narratives. While the Genesis flood narrative holds a deep religious significance for many people, the Atlantean flood narrative served as a political tool. This thesis applies a Model of Cultural Genesis to examine the origin points for these narratives and investigate how they evolved from their original historical descriptions into the narratives that have been carried well into modern times. Central to the aims of this thesis, connections are searched for between the archaeological evidence for or against the occurrence of the Genesis flood in the Black Sea, or the Atlantean flood off the coast of Northern Africa, the historical testimonies of these events, and the social implications that can be drawn from analysing these myths against a Model of Cultural Genesis. An examination of clues for or against cultural genesis in this way can be used to determine where the catalyst for these myths may have arisen within the societal cycle of dying and renewing cultures and ideologies. While definitively identifying the origin point of these events may prove impossible with our current level of technological advancement and level of available historical information, the research contained in this thesis will serve to open a dialogue about the intangible, social impacts on the individuals who lived through historic sea-level rise and maritime disaster. These impacts have left a lasting scar on human memory in the form of mythologies and religious beliefs, of which only two are within the scope of this thesis. Whether there is a definable grain of truth to the origin of these narratives is somewhat overshadowed by the social impact of these stories which are still vivid memories in the mind of the western world today. Rapisarda (2015) argues that the story of Atlantis is ‘hard to die’. The aim of this thesis is to discover whether the Genesis and Atlantean flood narratives are hard to die due to a grain of truth within them, or a social cycle in which these stories are retold and adapted to serve societies as they may have for countless millennia.
Keywords: Archaeology, Maritime, Sea-level, sea-level rise, Disasters, cultural, flood, flood narratives
Subject: Archaeology thesis
Thesis type: Masters
Completed: 2023
School: College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
Supervisor: Wendy Van Duivenvoorde