"In Christian Europe, Xenophanes findings, and all similar observations, came to be
 explained by the great biblical catastrophe of the Flood,

 There had indeed been a gigantic flood in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley early in its
 period of written history.  The evidence for that flood was obtained by the English
 archeologist Charles Leonard Woolley (1880 - 1960), who in the 1920s discovered thick
 layers of water-deposited sand dating back to 2800 B.C.

 ...

 The tale was told in dramatic form in the Epic of Gilgamesh, which originated with the
 Sumerian civilization soon after the flood, and which spread thoughout the civilized
 world of the time.  It was picked up by the Israelites, and eventually, two different
 versions were recorded in the Bible in Chapters 6 through 9 of the Book of Genesis.
 The date, as given by the Ussher chronology, was 2349 B.C.

 ...

 Everything, therefore, that seemed awry on Earth was blamed on the Flood.  All remains
 of ancient living things were said to be animals drowned in the Flood.  All rocks not
 where they ought to be were said to be rocks thrown about in the Flood.  Ancient
 speculations about slow changes on Earth, about the formation of river deltas, about
 changes in sea level, about erosion, were all brushed aside as Flood related.  Earth
 was formed in 4004 B.C. (or at some date not far removed) and it underwent this
 tremendous cataclysm 1,655 years later, and that was it.

 And yet not everybody was satisfied: 6,000 years was not enough."

 ----

 Isaac Asimov - p. 197 "Exploring the Earth and the Cosmos" ISBN 0-1402-2512-9

-------------------------------------------------

              FURTHER REFERENCES

  GO - "search perceptions" - in SEARCH-ENGINE


file-ID www.perceptions.couk.com/asimov.txt