[Rockhounds] geomythology

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

With the possibility of a catastrophic global sea level rise of 3ft (1m) by
2050 which could force millions of people to leave their homes, researchers
have now started to look at ancient stories about land lost to the sea and
downed cities in a new way. These aren’t always just good stories, full of
poetry and symbolism, but vessels that transmit the collective memory of
those that lived through it, and inside which there may be factual evidence
as to what might have happened thousands of years ago when the ice sheets
melted.

Some researchers argue that tales of hot boulders thrown into the sea or
the building of sea walls comprise factual information, albeit exaggerated
and distorted to some extent. They give us insight into how our ancestors
felt about the rising sea levels and what they did about it, and they can
provide evidence that their response was remarkably similar to ours. The
insights of ancient peoples may in fact save lives in the future.

These researchers are geomythologists. American volcanologist Dorothy
Vitaliano coined the term in a 1967 lecture (basing her ideas on those of
the Ancient Greek philosopher Euhemerus, who set out to find the real
events or people behind popular myths. While geomythologists’ research into
the origins of the legend of Atlantis or the myth of the Loch Ness monster
may grab the headlines in a sensationalist manner, it is their job is to
study ancient stories once regarded as myths or legends, but which are now
seen as possible observations of natural phenomena by pre-literate peoples.


https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210507-the-myths-that-hint-at-past-disasters