The flood myth arose independently on every inhabited continent.

Evidence

The peoples of the Americas had NO contact with the peoples of the Old World for thousands of years — they could not possibly have borrowed Noah, or Manu, or Utnapishtim, or Deucalion. And YET they too tell of the world-drowning flood and the few survivors of an earlier age. So the flood-story cannot be explained by CONTACT alone (though contact explains some matches, like Noah and Utnapishtim). The flood appears, independently, on every inhabited continent — which means that something makes human beings ALL OVER THE EARTH, separately, tell of a great flood. — , A Year of World Stories, 15578

Categorization

• QUESTION: Invites pursuit of the competing explanations for the global flood motif.