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Motif Diffusion Map — The Great Flood

One story, five millennia, rendered from the vault's dated occurrence table. Drag time forward. Routes are colored by transmission verdict: contact · descent · convergence / unresolved. Every glyph clicks through to the vault note that justifies it.

⚖ This map shows the documented Near Eastern lineage (high confidence). The global distribution is a separate, open question (Q5).
3000 BCE 1000 CE 3001 BCE
the documented corridor — detail below ↓ Descent within Mesopotamia — one continuous scribal tradition: the Ziusudra → Ūta-napišti onomastic chain. Descent within Mesopotamia — SB Gilgamesh XI incorporates Atra-ḫasīs (keeps the hero’s name in two lines). Contact corridor — Gilgamesh fragment at Megiddo, 14th c. BCE. Contact corridor — Atra-ḫasīs fragment RS 22.421 sails up the Levantine coast to Ugarit, 13th c. BCE. Contact — exilic channel, 597–539 BCE. Timing open (Q4): Late Bronze inheritance is the live alternative. Q4 alternative route — Late Bronze Levantine circulation instead of (or before) the exilic borrowing. Both render because the question is open. Contact, medium confidence — the same story radiating west to Greek Deucalion via Levantine–Anatolian channels. Nippur — Descent root — ‘the Flood’ as epoch divider in Old Babylonian Sumerian King List recensions (c. 1900–1800 BCE, 2-text); Eridu Genesis narrative (Ziusudra), tablet CBS 10673, c. 1600 BCE. Click → vault note. Babylon · Sippar — Old Babylonian Atra-ḫasīs tablets, colophon-dated to the reign of Ammi-ṣaduqa, c. 1635 BCE (2-text). Click → vault note. Megiddo — Contact — Gilgamesh fragment found at Megiddo, 14th c. BCE: cuneiform scribal training in Canaan (2-text). Click → vault note. Ugarit — Contact — Atra-ḫasīs fragment RS 22.421 at Ugarit, 13th c. BCE: the Babylonian text physically circulating on the Levantine coast (2-text). Click → vault note. Nineveh — Within-tradition descent — Standard Babylonian Gilgamesh XI redaction (hero Ūta-napišti) c. 1200–1100 BCE; extant copies 7th c. BCE, Nineveh libraries. Gilgamesh XI demonstrably incorporates Atra-ḫasīs. Click → vault note. Jerusalem — Contact — Genesis 6–9 (Noah), composition c. 7th–5th c. BCE; Judah’s literate elite in Babylonia 597–539 BCE. Borrowing timing open: Late Bronze vs exilic (Q4). Click → vault note. Greece — Contact, medium confidence — Deucalion: securely Pindar, Olympian 9.42–53 (466 BCE); plausibly the same contact radiating west via Levantine–Anatolian channels. Click → vault note. unresolved — Q5. Gun-Yu flood epic — Suigongxu bronze c. 900 BCE. Independent occurrence: cannot derive from Mesopotamia by any documented route. Click → vault note. Gun-Yu flood epic Suigongxu bronze c. 900 BCE · unresolved — Q5 unresolved — Q5. Manu and the fish — Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa c. 700–600 BCE. Independent occurrence: cannot derive from Mesopotamia by any documented route. Click → vault note. Manu and the fish Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa c. 700–600 BCE · unresolved — Q5 unresolved — Q5. North America — recorded 16th c. CE+ (post-contact). Independent occurrence: cannot derive from Mesopotamia by any documented route. Click → vault note. North America recorded 16th c. CE+ (post-contact) · unresolved — Q5 unresolved — Q5. Mesoamerica — recorded 16th c. CE+ (post-contact). Independent occurrence: cannot derive from Mesopotamia by any documented route. Click → vault note. Mesoamerica recorded 16th c. CE+ (post-contact) · unresolved — Q5 unresolved — Q5. Andes — recorded 16th c. CE+ (post-contact). Independent occurrence: cannot derive from Mesopotamia by any documented route. Click → vault note. Andes recorded 16th c. CE+ (post-contact) · unresolved — Q5 unresolved — Q5. Oceania · Australia — recorded 16th c. CE+ (post-contact). Independent occurrence: cannot derive from Mesopotamia by any documented route. Click → vault note. Oceania · Australia recorded 16th c. CE+ (post-contact) · unresolved — Q5

The corridor, up close

Babylonia → Ugarit (RS 22.421) → Megiddo → exilic Jerusalem → Greece. Dashed = medium confidence or open alternative (Q4).

Descent within Mesopotamia — one continuous scribal tradition: the Ziusudra → Ūta-napišti onomastic chain. Descent within Mesopotamia — SB Gilgamesh XI incorporates Atra-ḫasīs (keeps the hero’s name in two lines). Contact corridor — Gilgamesh fragment at Megiddo, 14th c. BCE. Contact corridor — Atra-ḫasīs fragment RS 22.421 sails up the Levantine coast to Ugarit, 13th c. BCE. Contact — exilic channel, 597–539 BCE. Timing open (Q4): Late Bronze inheritance is the live alternative. Q4 alternative route — Late Bronze Levantine circulation instead of (or before) the exilic borrowing. Both render because the question is open. Contact, medium confidence — the same story radiating west to Greek Deucalion via Levantine–Anatolian channels. Nippur — Descent root — ‘the Flood’ as epoch divider in Old Babylonian Sumerian King List recensions (c. 1900–1800 BCE, 2-text); Eridu Genesis narrative (Ziusudra), tablet CBS 10673, c. 1600 BCE. Click → vault note.Nippur c. 1900–1800 BCE Babylon · Sippar — Old Babylonian Atra-ḫasīs tablets, colophon-dated to the reign of Ammi-ṣaduqa, c. 1635 BCE (2-text). Click → vault note.Babylon · Sippar c. 1635 BCE Megiddo — Contact — Gilgamesh fragment found at Megiddo, 14th c. BCE: cuneiform scribal training in Canaan (2-text). Click → vault note.Megiddo 14th c. BCE Ugarit — Contact — Atra-ḫasīs fragment RS 22.421 at Ugarit, 13th c. BCE: the Babylonian text physically circulating on the Levantine coast (2-text). Click → vault note.Ugarit 13th c. BCE Nineveh — Within-tradition descent — Standard Babylonian Gilgamesh XI redaction (hero Ūta-napišti) c. 1200–1100 BCE; extant copies 7th c. BCE, Nineveh libraries. Gilgamesh XI demonstrably incorporates Atra-ḫasīs. Click → vault note.Nineveh c. 1200–1100 BCE Jerusalem — Contact — Genesis 6–9 (Noah), composition c. 7th–5th c. BCE; Judah’s literate elite in Babylonia 597–539 BCE. Borrowing timing open: Late Bronze vs exilic (Q4). Click → vault note.Jerusalem 7th–5th c. BCE Greece — Contact, medium confidence — Deucalion: securely Pindar, Olympian 9.42–53 (466 BCE); plausibly the same contact radiating west via Levantine–Anatolian channels. Click → vault note.Greece 466 BCE
descent (within-tradition lineage) contact (attested corridor) convergence / unresolved (ghost layer) dashed = medium confidence or open question

The journey, as a log

  1. 1901 BCEdescentNippur — “the Flood” appears as an epoch divider in Old Babylonian Sumerian King List recensions — the descent root. note →
  2. 1636 BCEdescentBabylon · Sippar — Old Babylonian Atra-ḫasīs tablets, colophon-dated to the reign of Ammi-ṣaduqa. note →
  3. 1601 BCEdescentNippur — Eridu Genesis narrative (hero Ziusudra), tablet CBS 10673. note →
  4. 1351 BCEcontactMegiddo — Gilgamesh fragment found at Megiddo — cuneiform scribal training in Canaan. note →
  5. 1251 BCEcontactUgarit — Atra-ḫasīs fragment RS 22.421 — the Babylonian text physically on the Levantine coast. note →
  6. 1201 BCEdescentNineveh — Standard Babylonian Gilgamesh XI redaction (hero Ūta-napišti); extant copies 7th c. BCE. note →
  7. 601 BCEcontactJerusalem — Genesis 6–9 (Noah), composed c. 7th–5th c. BCE; Judah’s elite in Babylonia 597–539 BCE. Borrowing timing open (Q4). note →
  8. 467 BCEcontactGreece — Deucalion — securely Pindar, Olympian 9.42–53 (466 BCE); plausibly the same contact radiating west (medium confidence). note →

Data: motif: the great flood (occurrence table + transmission analysis). Coordinates are an editorial geo layer over the vault's dated attestations — the notes stay the single source of truth for every claim. Proposal: motif-diffusion-map.