# Tales of catastrophe: the authenticity of Mediterranean palaeo-disasters in films.

Olivier Planchon, Matthew Jacobson, Cécile Allinne, Pierre Pouzet, Nick Marriner

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Olivier Planchon, Matthew Jacobson, Cécile Allinne, Pierre Pouzet, Nick Marriner. Tales of catastrophe: the authenticity of Mediterranean palaeo-disasters in films.. Archéologie, société et environnement, 2025, 4 (1), 31 p. 10.21494/ISTE.OP.2025.1283. hal-05064405

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# Tales of catastrophe: the authenticity of Mediterranean palaeo-disasters in films

## Récits de catastrophes : l'authenticité des paléodésastres méditerranéens dans les films

Olivier PLANCHON<fnref n="1" />, Matthew J. JACOBSON<fnref n="2" />, Cécile ALLINNE<fnref n="3" />, Pierre POUZET<fnref n="4" />, Nick MARRINER<fnref n="5" />

**ABSTRACT.** This article explores the enduring allure of ruins from ancient civilizations and the depiction of catastrophic events in cinema, focusing on the portrayal of natural disasters in antiquity and prehistoric times. A reflection from an archaeological and environmental point of view is based on literary and scientific sources of natural events that inspire the film synopses. Using films from the Peplum genre's "Golden Age" in the mid-20th century, we analyze how cinema reimagines historical calamities, ranging from the destruction of the Colossus of Rhodes to the demise of Pompeii. While some palaeo-disasters in these films are scientifically plausible, such as the Vesuvius eruption in Pompeii, others, like the Black Sea deluge hypothesis in Noah and The Ten Commandments' multi-disaster scenario, persist as enduring myths. The article also addresses debated hypotheses, including the meteoritic impact in Sodom and Gomorrah and the speculative cataclysm in 10,000 BC, emphasizing their reliance on myths and pseudo-archaeological theories. This exploration contributes to understanding the complex interplay between cinematic imagination, historical events, natural disasters and enduring cultural myths.

**RÉSUMÉ.** Cet article explore l'attrait durable des ruines des anciennes civilisations et la représentation d'événements catastrophiques au cinéma, en se concentrant sur la représentation des aléas naturels dans l'Antiquité et la préhistoire. Une réflexion d'un point de vue archéologique et environnemental est basée sur les sources littéraires et scientifiques des événements naturels qui inspirent les synopsis des films. À partir de films de l"âge d'or" du genre péplum, au milieu du XXe siècle, nous analysons la manière dont le cinéma réimagine les désastres historiques, de la destruction du colosse de Rhodes à la disparition de Pompéi. Si certaines paléo-catastrophes montrés dans ces films sont scientifiquement plausibles, comme l'éruption du Vésuve à Pompéi, d'autres, comme l'hypothèse du déluge de la mer Noire dans Noé et le scénario multi-catastrophes des Dix Commandements, persistent comme des mythes durables. L'article aborde également des hypothèses débattues, notamment l'impact météoristique à Sodome et Gomorrhe et le cataclysme spéculatif de 10 000 ans avant J.-C., en soulignant leur dépendance à l'égard des mythes et des théories pseudo-archéologiques. Cette exploration contribue à la compréhension de l'interaction complexe entre l'imagination cinématographique, les événements historiques, les catastrophes naturelles et les mythes culturels durables.

**MOTS-CLÉS.** Films "péplum", Catastrophes naturelles, Archéologie, Géologie, Paléoclimatologie.

**KEYWORDS.** Peplum movies, Natural disasters, Archaeology, Geology, Palaeoclimatology.

<footnote n="1">¹ Biogéosciences - UMR 6282 CNRS, Université Bourgogne Europe, 6 Boulevard Gabriel, 21000 Dijon, France, olivier.planchon@u-bourgogne.fr</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² Division of Agrarian History, Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Ulls väg 27, 756 51, Uppsala, Sweden, matthew.jacobson@slu.se</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ Université de Caen Normandie, CRAHAM - UMR 6273 CNRS, Esplanade de la Paix, 14000 Caen, France, cecile.allinne@unicaen.fr</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴ Université d'Angers, Nantes Université, Le Mans Université, CNRS, Laboratoire de Planétologie et Géosciences, LPG UMR 6112, 49000 Angers, France, pierre.pouzet@univ-angers.fr</footnote>

<footnote n="5">⁵ ThéMA - UMR 6049 CNRS, Université de Franche-Comté, 32 rue Mégevand, 25030 Besançon, France, nick.marriner@univ-fcomte.fr</footnote>
**Introduction**

The allure of ruins and remnants from ancient civilizations has captivated human imagination for centuries (Habib, 2011; Schnapp, 2020). The portrayal of these ruins, in addition to the depiction of untamed nature, gained prominence during the Romantic era and Renaissance, evoking a sense of aesthetic fascination (fig. 1a). Similarly, the romantic fascination with natural disasters, catastrophes and cataclysms, inspired by Greco-Roman mythology and biblical narratives, has fueled artistic depictions of once-thriving cities reduced to ruins by calamities (fig. 1b). While ruins may not always result from disasters, human imagination and art, whether in painting, literature or theatre, have often interwoven the two concepts.

<figure><img src="image_2.png" /><figcaption>**Figure 1.** *Representations of monumental remains in ruins through an example of the painting of the Romantic era. A. Louis-François Cassas, 1801: Vue d'une partie des ruines du temple de Junon à Agrigente. Sources: Fereng, 2020 et Utpictura18¹; B. John Martin, 1831: The fall of Babylon. Source: Wellcome Images, Library reference: ICV No 34964, Photo number: V0034440²*</figcaption></figure>

Since the 1930s, cinema has looked to harness the universal fascination with disasters and cataclysms (e.g. *Deluge*, directed by Felix E. Feist, Admiral Productions, USA, 1933), captivating audiences through peplum films and post-apocalyptic storylines (Musset, 2019; Yeates, 2021; Planchon *et al.*, 2022). The “Sword-and-sandal” or “Peplum” genre, set in ancient times including Greco-Roman antiquity, ancient Egypt and biblical settings, constitute clear manifestations of both historical narratives and mythical catastrophes (Hennebelle, 1998; Aziza, 2008; Lochman *et al.*, 2008; Aknin, 2009; Baron, 2016; Bessières, 2016; Clavel-Lévêque, 2017). The origin of this cinematographic genre is confused with that of cinema, at the end of the 19th century, with a French animated silent photographic view entitled *Néron essayant des poisons sur des esclaves*, produced by the Lumière brothers and directed by Georges Hatot, and released in 1897 (Seguin, 1999). The term “peplum” (Latin word *peplum*, derived from the ancient Greek word *πέπλος/péplos*, meaning “cloth used to drape itself for making a “toge”’) appears during the 1950s and 1960s, which marked a “Golden Age” of this cinematographic genre (Fourcart, 2012; Champclaux & Tahir-Meriau, 2016; Atkinson, 2018), with these films often featuring real or mythical disasters. Notable examples include the Colossus of Rhodes’ destruction by an earthquake in 227 BCE (*The Colossus of Rhodes*, 1961) and Pompeii’s demise following the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE (*The Last Days of Pompeii*, 1959).

<footnote n="1">¹ https://utpictura18.univ-amu.fr/notice/15600-ruines-temple-junon-lacinia-a-agrigente-l-f-cassas</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² https://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/obf_images/fc/fc/32d4c8b927dea8bfbf69f55cbd10.jpg</footnote>
A palaeo-disaster generally refers to a natural disaster or catastrophic event that occurred in the distant past, typically during historical, ancient or geological epochs. These events are often studied to better understand Earth's history and the processes that have shaped the planet over millions of years, but they also offer crucial information about the evolution of ancient societies during (pre)history. Some examples of palaeo-disasters include meteorological events (significant heatwaves, storms, wildfires or droughts: Woodhouse & Overpeck, 1998); sea-level related events (coastal flooding: Morton et al., 2007); geological events such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions (Leterrier et al., 1982); or impact events (the impact of large asteroids or comets on Earth that can also result in widespread fires, tsunamis, and dramatic climate changes: Vellekoop et al., 2014). Various methods are employed in reconstructing (pre)historical events and exploring their socio-economic repercussions. These approaches can include fields like palaeoclimatology, glaciology, sedimentology, ancient history and geoarchaeology. They encompass a variety of sources, including fossil or archaeological remains, geological evidence and computer modelling (Liritzis et al., 2019).

This article aims to probe cinematic portrayals of past disasters in antiquity and prehistoric times. The disasters depicted, described or evoked in these films encompass a wide spectrum, from climate change and severe weather events to earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and meteorite impacts. By analyzing these films, we look to evaluate the ways in which cinema reimagines historical calamities and their impacts on ancient civilizations, shedding light on the enduring allure of palaeo-disasters and their role in shaping artistic narratives. The locations of the sites described in the studied films, as well as other sites referenced in this article, are shown in *figure 2*.

<figure><img src="image_3.png" /><figcaption>**Figure 2.** Location of the sites described in the studied films, and other sites referenced in the comments and analyses.</figcaption></figure>
The list of films proposed here is not exhaustive, but the question developed in this work led us to search for examples of films representative of all types of possible scenarios studied in the article. We have selected some famous “blockbusters” from the late 1950s to the present day, to draw examples of natural disaster scenarios from various periods in the history of cinema (mainly American cinema). In this article, the cinematographic language will not be studied as an aesthetic object, with its language and its regime of truth, and the authors propose here a reflection of a specific cinematographic genre from an archaeological and environmental point of view, based on literary and scientific sources of natural events that inspire the film synopses.

# 1. Disasters documented in historical sources

## 1.1. The Disappearance of the Colossus of Rhodes: seismic hazard, historical event and film interpretation

The film entitled *The Colossus of Rhodes* (Italian: *Il colosso di Rodi*; directed by Sergio Leone, CTI, Cineproduzioni Associati, CFF, and Procusa, France, Italy and Spain, 1961) ends with the destruction of the *colossus* and the city of Rhodes by an earthquake (**fig. 3**).

<figure><img src="image_4.png" /><figcaption>**Figure 3.** *The earthquake that would have caused the destruction of the Colossus of Rhodes around 227 BCE: images from the film The Colossus of Rhodes (Italian: *Il colosso di Rodi*), directed by Sergio Leone, CTI, Cineproduzioni Associati, CFF, and Procusa, France, Italy and Spain, 1961.*</figcaption></figure>

A. Destruction of Rhodes by the earthquake of circa 227 BCE; B. Earthquake: collapse of a temple (interior view).

The Colossus of Rhodes (Ancient Greek: ὁ Κολοσσοῦ Πόδιος/ho Kolossòs Rhódios) was an over 30 m tall bronze statue of the Greek sun god Helios, erected in the city of Rhodes. It was designed by Chares of Lindos and was constructed around 292 BCE to celebrate the Rhodian's successful defence against Demetrios I of Macedon during the siege of Rhodes (305–304 BCE). It has been considered, since antiquity, as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. An earthquake caused its destruction in the 3rd century BCE. Although classic antique writers, like Polybius (202–120 BCE; V, 88–90) and Pausanias (2nd century CE; VIII 2.7.1 and 43.3; see translation by W. H. S. Jones and H. A. Ormerod [Pausanias, 1918]), already reported that a strong earthquake destroyed the city of Rhodes, the date of the event is uncertain, e.g., between 234 and 218 BCE according to Emanuela Guidoboni et al. (1994). However, when following historical sources, other authors agree on a date of 227 BCE (Kontogianni et al., 2002; Papadopoulos et al., 2007; Stiros & Blackman, 2014).

The Eastern Mediterranean is subject to very high seismicity, with the Hellenic Arc and Trench system (including the area of the island of Rhodes) being one of region's most active seismic structures (Ambraseys & Jackson, 1998; Papadopoulos et al., 2007). On the Hellenic arc, the triple point of contact between the Hellenic microplate, and the Anatolian and African plates, makes this Europe's most seismically active region (Ambraseys, 2009). Throughout history, the Eastern
Mediterranean region has been the theatre for a multitude of seismic events, many of which are clearly documented since antiquity (Nur & Burgess, 2008). The Rhodes earthquake of c. 227 BCE is considered “one of the most famous in Hellenistic times” (Laronde, 2006). However, radiocarbon dating of earthquake contexts has not identified this event (Pirazzoli et al., 1996). The only records of an earthquake during this period are at 2360 (410 BCE) ± 70 BP in Poros, 2190 (240 BCE) ± 60 BP in Rahi, 2111 (161 BCE) ± 100 BP in the Hatay region in the extreme south of present-day Türkiye. More recent work by Stathis Stiros and David Blackman (2014) and Andy Howell et al. (2015) estimates a one-meter seismic subsidence around 220 BCE, recorded by ship sheds built around 250-225 BCE; the links between the natural hazard and the event leading to the destruction of the Colossus are proposed by these authors. Nevertheless, the geological factors contributing to this significant subsidence remain challenging to decipher even today. These events sharpen focus on the recent and active history of this hazard in the Mediterranean. The recent earthquakes of 2023 in Türkiye and Syria had magnitudes between 7.5 and 8 on the Richter scale. They resembled that of 1999 in Türkiye along the Anatolian fault at İzmit (Magnitude between 7 and 7.5). In Italy, two major earthquakes of magnitude 7 occurred in 1908 (Messina) and 1915 (Avezzano). Given the active history of this hazard in the Mediterranean, it should be remembered that many of them, including the particularly powerful 365 CE earthquake in southern Crete, have also caused destructive tsunamis (see section 2.1.).

## 1.2. The eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE and the demise of the Roman cities on the Bay of Naples

The films *The Last Days of Pompeii* (Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei, Mario Bonnard and Sergio Leone, ABC Filmverleih, Transocean-Film Vasgen Badal & Co, Cineproduzioni Associate, Domiciana, and Proclusa, West Germany, Spain, Italy, and Monaco, 1959) and *Pompeii* (directed by Paul W. S. Anderson, Constantin Film and Impact Pictures, USA, Germany and Canada, 2014; fig. 4) narrate two versions of the same event: the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE and the destruction of the Roman city of Pompeii in southern Italy.

<figure><img src="image_5.png" /><figcaption>**Figure 4.** *The eruption of Vesuvius and the destruction of Pompeii in 79 CE: images from the film Pompeii* (Paul W. S. Anderson, Constantin Film and Impact Pictures, USA, Germany and Canada, 2014).</figcaption></figure>

**A. Eruption of Vesuvius and volcanic bombs rushing down on Pompeii; B. Tsunami flooding the port;**

**C. Pyroclastic flow rushing on Pompeii.**
The only account of the event by an eyewitness consists of two letters addressed to the historian Tacitus by Pliny the Younger (Pliny the Younger, 2001 & 2016: Letters, LXV, To Tacitus), who was 18 years old at the time of the eruption. After observing the early stages of the volcanic activity from the port of Misenum, on the other side of the bay of Naples (~35 km from the volcano), his uncle, Pliny the Elder, launched a rescue fleet. At the same time, he also decided to closely study the phenomenon, venturing to the shore where he tragically succumbed to asphyxiation due to the toxic gases. In the other letter, Pliny the Younger shares his observations following his uncle's departure with Tacitus. The eruption of Mount Vesuvius caused the death of > 3,000 people in the Pompeii and Herculaneum region, killed by the pyroclastic flow (temperature: 300-500°C), fragments of rocks ejected by the volcano, or collapsed roofs weakened by the earthquake and the weight of the ash (Sigurdsson & Carey, 2002; Giacomelli et al., 2003). The accounts provided by both Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger have bestowed their name upon a distinct category of volcanic eruptions known as "Plinian". They are characterized by their immense explosive force and continuous emission of a plume of hot gas, ash and pumice. The plume rises to tens of kilometers in height and its solid components then fall over a large area, forming a thick deposit of coarse ejecta (Walker, 1981; Doronzo et al., 2022). The region of Naples is particularly susceptible to volcanic activity. Vesuvius itself is still active and erupted several times until 1944 (Scandone & Giacomelli, 2008). The Phlegraean Fields located in direct proximity to the city of Naples form with Mount Epomeo, Vesuvius, and all the underwater dormant volcanoes in the surroundings, the Campanian volcanic arc (Carlino, 2019). Numerous large eruptions have occurred in this region over the past 40,000 years (Scandone et al., 2006). For example, a Bronze Age village on the site of present-day Nola (La Croce del Papa, 20 km north of Pompeii), met a comparable fate around 1700 BCE due to an eruption from Mount Vesuvius and was fossilized under ash in the same way as Pompeii (Livadie, 2011).

The long time lag between these two films highlights the technical differences in special effects, which make the well-known successive phases of the eruption of Vesuvius (Doronzo et al., 2022) all the more spectacular in the 2014 version, but not necessarily more realistic (e.g. the tsunami episode is greatly exaggerated: fig. 4b; see Scarth & Tanguy, 2001). The 1959 version is interesting because it includes archival images of the eruption of Vesuvius in March 1944 (Lambert, 2023).

## 2. Fictional and mythical catastrophes: bridging reality and imagination?

Other films draw their inspiration from fictional or mythical events, often using narratives of divine wrath and retribution on a city, a continent, or even a planetary cataclysm. A myth is "an ancient story or set of stories, especially explaining the early history of a group of people or about natural events and facts" (Cambridge Dictionary, 2024). Ancient Greece is the origin of the name and concept of mythology. Ancient Greek thought opposed the logos (ancient Greek λόγος/lógos) and the mythos (ancient Greek μῶθος/muthos), i.e. the "reasoning" and the "myth". The first is everything that can be rationally accounted for (objective truth). The second is all that is addressed to the imagination (Grimal, 2008). According to Paul Veyne (1983), a myth is a narrative that cannot be reduced to a religious meaning or function, but also fulfils a social function. The listener's attention is less focused on the narrative content of the myth, on a story whose degree of fiction or truth should be assessed, than on the presence, in the background, of certain symbolic values. According to Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1945), mythical space is defined on the one hand as nature, as it is seen from a scientific point of view; on the other hand, it is combined with numina (divine powers), monsters, and living beings. It is therefore a much more complex space than the one whose scientists are studying natural phenomena (Dan et al., 2020). This is a complex issue that cannot be reduced to a simple opposition between imaginary construction (fiction) and scientific truth, since there are many debates and controversies about certain scientific issues. Some of these debates and controversies will be detailed
in this article, in a nuanced manner according to the probable degree of veracity of the fictional or
mythical events described.

**2.1. Fictional tsunami on Argos and the destruction of ancient coastal cities in the Eastern Mediterranean**

The film *Clash of the Titans* (Desmond Davis, Charles H. Schneer Productions, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Titan Productions, and Peerford Ltd., USA and United Kingdom, 1981) defies the conventional approach of peplum films by immediately unveiling a catastrophe. A remake of this film was released in 2010, with the same title (Louis Leterrier, Legendary Pictures, The Zanuck Company, Thunder Road Pictures, USA, United Kingdom, Australia), but the natural disaster described in the 1981 version is not described again in the 2010 version. A seldom-seen occurrence in the genre, the film opens with the tumultuous wrath of Poseidon, the sea god, unleashing a tsunami that engulfs the coastal city of Argos (fig. 5) situated on the Peloponnese of Greece. The event is fleeting but spectacular: is it plausible in this geographic context?

<figure><img src="image_6.png" /><figcaption>**Figure 5.** *Destruction of Argos by a tsunami: images from the film Clash of the Titans (Desmond Davis, Charles H. Schneer Productions, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Titan Productions, and Peerford Ltd., USA and United Kingdom, 1981).* **A.** Argos before the tsunami; **B.** The tsunami submerges the city of Argos.</figcaption></figure>

According to Edward Bryant (2005), 10.1% of tsunamis recorded since 47 CE have occurred in the Mediterranean Sea. As a collision zone between the African and Eurasian plates, and also located near the contact with the Arabian plate, the Eastern Mediterranean Basin is considered as a highly seismic area (see section 1.1.), and consequently at risk of tsunamis (fig. 6) (Bryant, 2005).

<figure><img src="image_7.png" /><figcaption>**Figure 6.** *Distribution of tsunamis in the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions, focusing on event epicenters from 6150 BCE, as documented in the Euro-Mediterranean Tsunami Catalogue (Maramai et al., 2014).* In particular, this map underscores the elevated seismic hazard levels prevalent in the Central and</figcaption></figure>
Eastern Mediterranean. Maximum tsunami intensities are based on the 6-degree Sieberg-Ambraseys scale
(Ambraseys, 1962).

Many earthquakes in Eastern Mediterranean marine and coastal contexts generate strong tsunamis, some of them being propagated long distances across the basin (Galanopoulos, 1960; Ambraseys, 1962; Antonopoulos, 1980; Papadopoulos & Chalkis, 1984; Soloviev, 1990; Papazachos & Papazachou, 1997; Soloviev et al., 2000; Papadopoulos, 2001). Much like the dramatic events that played out at the beginning of the film *Clash of the Titans*, the coasts of the Peloponnese have historically been vulnerable to the impact of tsunamis resulting from earthquakes originating at considerable distances, for instance in 365 and 1303 CE (Altinok et al., 2011; Guidoboni et al., 1994). Furthermore, earthquakes are considered as the most common type of short-term cataclysmic events (Mordechai & Pickett, 2018). However, earthquakes are not the sole potential triggers for tsunamis in this region, volcanic activity (intimately related to tectonics) can also be the cause. A “mega-tsunami” was reportedly triggered around 1600 BCE by the eruption of the Thera volcano in the current Santorini Archipelago (the “Minoan” eruption), the oldest evidence of the effects of a tsunami in the region (Şahoğlu et al., 2021). The tsunamis caused by the eruption of the Santorini volcano and the collapse of the caldera following this eruption strongly affected Crete and impacted the Minoan civilization (Lespez et al., 2021), and could also have affected the Peloponnese and sites further afield such as the Levant (Goodman-Tchernov et al., 2009).

Another particularly powerful seismic event occurred in 479 BCE in the Aegean Sea, as described by Herodotus (Herodotus, The Histories, Book VIII: Urania), with a significant impact during the Greco-Persian Wars (Stefanakis, 2006; Mathes-Schmidt et al., 2019). In 365 CE, a “cataclysm” was also noted in the literature, following a powerful earthquake with its epicenter south of Crete, causing a tsunami attested in 29 different historical sources (Jacques & Bousquet, 1984) and various geological archives (Polonia et al., 2013; Boulton & Whitworth, 2018). Although less significant, the events of 373 BCE (Gulf of Corinth) and 66 CE (off Phalasarna) also left important archaeological traces (Stefanakis, 2006). The ancient polis of Helike (Ἐλίκη) on the north coast of the Peloponnese was destroyed and submerged by the earthquake and tsunami of 373 BCE (Lafond, 1998; Engel et al., 2016). According to Dora Katsonopoulou and Ioannis K. Koukouvelas (2022), this catastrophic event and the ruins of Helike were already well known to several ancient scholars and writers of the ancient Greco-Roman world, and were originally recorded by contemporary authors such as Aristotle (Met. 1.6.343, Met. 2.8.368, and Mu. 396a) and Herakleides of Pontos (preserved in Strabo 8.7.2). Therefore, considering the posterity of this disaster, Adalberto Giovannini (1985) speculated that the submersion of Helike could have inspired Plato to describe the destruction of Atlantis.

In the absence of archaeological or geomorphological evidence, it is challenging to make definitive claims regarding the destruction of Argos. By contrast, there is well-documented evidence confirming that Helike was indeed devastated by an earthquake and/or tsunami (Lafond, 1998; Engel et al., 2016; Katsonopoulou & Koukouvelas, 2022). On the basis of the examples described above, the disasters depicted in the film *Clash of the Titans* are geologically plausible in the Eastern Mediterranean. The circumstances surrounding the destruction of the ancient ports of East-Canopus and Thonis-Heracleion (ancient Greek: Κάνωπος and Θῶνις - Ήράκλειον) on the coast of the Nile delta could be similar to those attributed to the destruction of Helike at the end of the 2nd century BCE (Robinson & Goddio, 2015). However, it has also been suggested that the lowering of the Canopic lobe of the Nile delta led to the submersion of the two ancient estuarine-harbor cities, whose remains lie 4–7 m below present mean sea level (Flaux et al., 2017). In recent history, the Mediterranean Sea has the highest number of documented historical tsunamis since 1840, accounting for 10.5% of such events worldwide (for approximately 90 dated records: Léone & Péroche, 2021). The most recent example
is the low-intensity tsunami observed in October 2020 on the coasts of Samos, İzmir, and Vathy, following an earthquake of magnitude 6.5–7 in the Aegean Sea near the island of Samos (Triantafyllou et al., 2021).

## 2.2. Sodom and Gomorrah: from an earthquake to the hypothesis of a meteoritic impact

In the film *Sodom and Gomorrah* (dir. Robert Aldrich, Titanus, Pathé Consortium Cinéma, and Société générale de Cinématographie, Italy, France and USA, 1962), the city of Sodom is destroyed by an earthquake (**fig. 7a**), followed by a massive explosion (**fig. 7b**).

<figure><img src="image_8.png" /><figcaption>**Figure 7.** Destruction of Sodom: images from the film Sodom and Gomorrah (dir. Robert Aldrich, prod. Titanus, Pathé Consortium Cinéma, and Société générale de Cinématographie, Italy, France and USA, 1962). **A.** Destruction of Sodom by the earthquake; **B.** Final destruction of Sodom by fire.</figcaption></figure>

Sodom and Gomorrah (Hebrew: סְדֹם וּמָרָה / Sədōm wʻĂmōrāh) were ancient cities mentioned in the Book of Genesis, i.e. the first book of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (Genesis/from Greek: Γένεσις/Génesis, “origin”; Hebrew: גַּרֶאשִׁית / Bərēšīt, “In the beginning”; see e.g. Freedman *et al.*, 2000), in which God destroyed them for their wickedness (Greene, 2004). Biblical tradition places them south of the Dead Sea, in present-day Jordan, but their exact location remains uncertain. According to the biblical narrative, they were destroyed by “brimstone and fire” unleashed by divine wrath, along with most other cities around the Dead Sea (Genesis 19. 24–29).

The Dead Sea and Jordan Rift, part of the immense Afro-Arabian fault system, is a highly seismic region whose impacts have been documented by historical sources dating back to antiquity (Klinger *et al.*, 2000; Al-Zoubi *et al.*, 2006; Hamiel *et al.*, 2009). Indeed, this valley-oasis is one of the oldest inhabited regions in the world, where agriculture, and village communities and urban conglomerates occurred among the earliest known occurrences (approximately 12,000 years BP: Zeder, 2011; Grosman *et al.*, 2016). Some of these prehistoric settlements are still inhabited today, including for example Jericho (Arabic: أريحا / Rīḥa or Arīḥā). Located in the Jordan Valley, Jericho is often considered to be one of the oldest cities in the world, with archaeological excavations dating the oldest remains of the Jordan Valley to the 10th millennium BCE (Murphy-O’Connor, 1998; Freedman *et al.*, 2000; Gates, 2011). At every stage of its long history, the city of Jericho has suffered violent earthquakes (Reches & Hoexter, 1981). Since the site has been inhabited for > 11,000 years, there is a wealth of archaeological traces of past earthquakes (archaeoseismics) dating back to the Neolithic period (Alfonsi *et al.*, 2012). These discoveries have prompted seismic interpretations of the biblical narratives regarding the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, as well as the collapse of the wall of Jericho (Reches & Hoexter, 1981; Harris & Beardowin, 1995; Nur & Burgess, 2008).

The explosive demise of Sodom shown in the film *Sodom and Gomorrah* (**fig. 7b**) is inspired by the description of the biblical cataclysm, which itself has been the focal point of a contentious theory
suggesting that this calamity resulted from a meteorite impact of even greater magnitude than the Tunguska event in 1908 (Bunch *et al.* 2021). This hypothesis was soon questioned by Mark Boslough (2022) who alleged that the pro-meteoritic impact argument had relied on manipulated images. Mark Boslough (2022) argued that some images published by Ted E. Bunch *et al.* (2021) from the Tall el-Hammam excavation had been photoshopped and rotated to match the hypothetical compass direction of the supposed blast. In his opinion, four of the seven images had the north arrows used by archaeologists to orient images digitally edited out. With no north arrows, photos can be reoriented, as was done for *e.g.* the figure 44c of the paper of T. E. Bunch *et al.* (2021), which has shadows indicating the sun would be shining from an impossible direction at that latitude in January. Still according to Mark Boslough (2022), colored arrows are annotations added by Ted E. Bunch *et al.* (2021) to point out features in the photograph.

### 2.3. *Ancient catastrophes: investigating multiple disaster scenarios in the Exodus narrative*

The film *The Ten Commandments* (dir. Cecil B. DeMille, prod. Paramount Pictures and Motion Picture Associates, USA, 1956) proposes a “multi-disaster” scenario, with the description of some of the *Plagues of Egypt* and the cataclysmic events surrounding the Crossing of the Red Sea (fig. 8).

<figure><img src="image_9.png" /><figcaption>**Figure 8.** Some examples of the Plagues of Egypt and submersion of the army of Pharaoh Ramses II by the Red Sea: images from the film *The Ten Commandments* (dir. Cecil B. DeMille, prod. Paramount Pictures and Motion Picture Associates, USA, 1956). **A.** Turning water to blood; **B.** Hailstorm; **C.** Pestilence is spreading before the killing of the firstborn (the 5th, 6th and 10th plagues were combined in the film); **D.** After the Crossing of the Red Sea by the Hebrews, the Red Sea closes to the Egyptian army.</figcaption></figure>

The *Ten Plagues of Egypt* (Hebrew: מִצְרַיִם; English: *The Ten Plagues* or *The Ten Commandments*, *i.e.* the *Book of the Exodus* (from Ancient Greek: Ἐξοδος, Éxodos; Hebrew: שְׁמוֹת/Šəmōt, “Names”), the second book of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (Freedman & Myers, 2000). According to the biblical narrative, the Plagues of Egypt were ten disasters inflicted by the God of Israel on Egypt in order to compel the Pharaoh to emancipate the enslaved Israelites (Freedman & Myers, 2000).

Is there any historical and/or archaeological evidence of these events?
Siro I. Trevisanato (2005 & 2006) believed that the eruption of the Santorini volcano around 1600 BCE could have been the source of the Plagues of Egypt: his theories are summarized in **table 1**.

<table><caption>**Table 1.** *Theories of the Ten Plagues of Egypt, summarised from Siro I. Trevisanato (2005 & 2006).*</caption><thead><tr><td></td><td>Plague</td><td>Hebrew</td><td>Theory</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1</td><td>Blood</td><td>דָם / dām</td><td>Winds would have carried the volcanic ash to Egypt, including mineral cinnabar which could have been capable of turning a river a blood-like red color.</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>Frogs</td><td>צָפְרָעִים / tsefar dae'im</td><td>The accumulated toxic acids (e.g. sulphuric acid) in the water would have caused frogs to leap out and search for clean water.</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>Lice</td><td>כִּנִּים / kinnim</td><td>Insects would have burrowed eggs in the bodies of dead animals and human survivors, which generated larvae and then adult insects.</td></tr><tr><td>4</td><td>Flies</td><td>עָרָב / 'ārov</td><td>Same as above.</td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td>Pestilence</td><td>דֶּכֶר / dever</td><td>The grass would have been contaminated, poisoning the animals that ate it.</td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td>Boils</td><td>שֶׁחִין אֲבָעֵבֶּעֶת / shahin avatsebu'ot porēaḥ</td><td>Volcanic ash projected into the atmosphere through acid rain would have caused skin diseases (boils) in the population.</td></tr><tr><td>7</td><td>Hail</td><td>בָּרָד / bārād</td><td>High concentrations of airborne particles would have caused climatic and meteorological disturbances (volcanic winter), e.g. hailstorms.</td></tr><tr><td>8</td><td>Locusts</td><td>אַרֶבֶּה / arbêh</td><td>High humidity from unusual rainstorms would have created optimal conditions for locusts to thrive.</td></tr><tr><td>9</td><td>Darkness</td><td>הֹשָׁד / hoshekh</td><td>The last explosion of the volcanic eruption, the most violent and which projected the greatest amount of particles into the atmosphere, could also explain the several days of darkness.</td></tr><tr><td>10</td><td>Killing of the Firstborn</td><td>מֵת כָּל־ / mēt kōl-bekhōr</td><td>S. I. Trevisanato (2005 & 2006) argues that according to an ancient Egyptian text (Papyrus Leiden I 344 recto/The Dialogue of Ipuwer and the Lord of All: 4.3-4, 5.6, 6.12), the firstborn of aristocrats could have been sacrificed in the hope that such a significant sacrifice would lead their gods to stop punishing them. Unless, according to John Marr, epidemiologist at the New York Public Health Department, the culprits may be toxic molds that developed in the upper layers of Egyptian attics? If the firstborn had been served first, absorbing the mycotoxin-contaminated food decimated them all (Humbert, 2015).</td></tr></tbody></table>

None of these controversial theories have been validated by archaeological evidence. For example, the catastrophic events described in *The Dialogue of Ipuwer and the Lord of All* are all the more difficult to interpret because they are not dated (Enmarch, 2009); they could describe earlier events, such as the collapse of the Old Kingdom and the First Intermediate Period (22nd-21st centuries BCE). Therefore, they may have no connection with either the biblical texts, or with the Minoan eruption: perhaps they described the 4.2 ka (Weiss et al., 1993; Stanley, 2003; Kaniewski et al., 2018; Bini et al., 2019) or 3.2 ka aridification events (Kaniewski et al., 2019), or could they describe something we have no evidence for? The historical and archaeological veracity of the Plagues of Egypt is still under discussion, but are these debates relevant to the content of the texts taken into account?

Following the portrayal of the Plagues of Egypt, the film *The Ten Commandments* shows the epic “Crossing of the Red Sea” by the Hebrews in a spectacular manner. According to the biblical narrative in chapter 14 of the *Book of Exodus*, the Hebrews moved towards a body of water called the Sea of
Reeds (Hebrew: ים־סוף / Yam-Suf), whose waves opened before Moses and his people and then closed to the Egyptian army (fig. 8d; Freedman & Myers, 2000). The location of this Sea of Reeds is controversial, as there are several lakes or lagoons between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea (Gulf of Suez), e.g. Lake Manzala, Lake Timsah and the Bitter lakes. Using mesoscale models reproducing the southern (Gulf of Suez) and northern (Lake Manzala) extremities of the region concerned, Doron Nof and Nathan Paldor (1992; northern end of the Gulf of Suez) and Carl Drews and Weiqing Han (2010; Lake Manzala) showed that moderate winds (wind setdown) may have made some of these shallow water bodies temporarily and partially accessible on foot. Such a geographical configuration would imply that Moses knew exactly where to pass, that the ford was very narrow, and that the pharaoh's army missed the ford and plunged into shallows or mudflats. However, it would be very surprising if the pharaoh, and his scouts, did not know the geography of their own kingdom.

The film *The Ten Commandments* places the Plagues of Egypt and the “Crossing of the Red Sea” under the reign of Ramses II (1279–1213 BCE), so these dates do not correspond to the estimated dating of the Santorini volcano eruption (around 1600 BCE). In addition, much of the narratives of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament may have been assembled in the 5th century BCE (Berquist, 2007; Römer, 2007; Evans, 2008), so eleven centuries after the Minoan eruption, and well after the Crossing of the Red Sea. D. Humbert (2015) reported that Jean-Louis Schlegel, sociologist of religions, recalls that some sacred texts could perhaps be based on real events. But these texts are interpreted as being of divine origin and sometimes understood as “punishments” of God, so they are told in narratives that emphasize the marvellous and the miraculous: religious myths are not scientific books of palaeontology, archaeology or history (Humbert, 2015). The same reasoning can be applied to the myth of Atlantis.

## 2.4. The collapse and sinking of Atlantis: from Plato's narrative to a science fiction scenario

The film *Atlantis the Lost Continent* (dir. George Pal, prod. Metro Goldwyn Mayer, USA, 1961) applies the scenario of a *plinian* volcanic eruption as it occurred in Pompeii, to the disappearance of the mythical city of Atlantis (fig. 9a). The film also offers an opportunity to blend a philosophical narrative with elements of peplum and science fiction (fig. 9b).

<figure><img src="image_10.png" /><figcaption>**Figure 9.** *Images from the film* *Atlantis the Lost Continent* (dir. George Pal, prod. Metro Goldwyn Mayer, USA, 1961). **A.** *The volcanic eruption*; **B.** *The heat ray*.</figcaption></figure>

The origin of the myth of Atlantis (ancient Greek: Ἀτλωντίς/Atlantís) comprises two philosophical narratives by Plato (428–348 BCE): the *Dialogues*, including the *Critias*, and the *Timaeus* (see translations by David Horan [Plato, 2021]). These *Dialogues* set out how Athens stopped the belligerent expansionism of the people from Atlantis, an island that Plato located beyond the Columns
of Hercules. After the victory of Athens against the Atlanteans, a cataclysm caused by Zeus engulfed Atlantis in the ocean that still bears its name today.

Rediscovered in the Western world during the Renaissance, the myth of Atlantis has been the subject of diverse theories and speculations (Vidal-Naquet, 2005), including its hypothetical location (Kieffer, 2004). Among the many theories of the location of Atlantis, it is certainly the one that situates the lost continent on the archipelago of Santorini (in modern Greek: Σαντορίνη/Santoríni) that is closest to the scenario described in the film *Atlantis the Lost Continent*, at least the final catastrophic volcanic eruption (fig. 9a). According to some researchers (Galanopoulos & Bacon, 1969; Marinatos, 1971; Pellegrino, 1993), the eruption of the Santorini volcano in the Minoan era is one of the possible origins of the myth of Atlantis. Without getting into the debates, let us only recall that the Minoan eruption occurred around 1600 BCE (Sigurdsson et al. 2006), while Plato dates the collapse of Atlantis to 9,000 years before the time of Solon, an Athenian statesman of the 7th and 6th centuries BCE (Gill, 1977; Kieffer, 2004; Vidal-Naquet, 2005).

The prevailing consensus is that the myth of Atlantis is a fictive creation of Plato, more akin to a fable than an historical account (Gill, 1979; Naddaf, 1994; Nesselrath, 2002; Leveau, 2005). The interpretation of Plato's story based on real events by some authors is therefore, in this sense, a pseudoarchaeological approach (Collina-Girard, 2009). In this context, and as a source of creative inspiration, Atlantis has become and still remains a theme widely treated in art, literature, cinema or video games, in the genres of fantasy, peplum and/or science fiction (Treuil, 2012). The originality of the film *Atlantis the Lost Continent* is precisely to be a mixture of peplum and science fiction. The film was directed by Georges Pal, the same director as the science fiction film *The Time Machine* released in 1960. Among the various science fiction aspects (e.g. a submarine) shown in the film *Atlantis the Lost Continent*, the heat ray (fig. 9b) draws attention to the scientific discoveries and technical experiments undertaken during antiquity. This device, which consists of a crystal that absorbs and concentrates sunlight onto a single point, recalls “Archimedes’ heat ray”. If the device producing the heat ray shown in *Atlantis the Lost Continent* is inspired by the invention attributed to Archimedes, some descriptions given to us by the ancient documentary sources must be cited. Indeed, Archimedes would have invented such a device, which would have been used against the Roman fleet during the siege of Syracuse in 213 BCE. According to the Byzantine mathematician, engineer and architect Anthemius of Tralles (474–534 CE; see translation by M. Dupuy [Anthemius of Tralles 1777]), Archimedes would have developed giant mirrors to focus sunlight in order to set alight the sails of approaching Roman ships (Huxley, 1959; Rashed, 2002; La Souchère, 2018). Nonetheless, the scientific credibility of Archimedes’ heat ray has been a topic of debate since the Renaissance. It was in the 20th century when the technical impossibility of this experiment, due to the constraints of the ancient context and events in question, was conclusively confirmed (Simms, 1977). Recent experiments have demonstrated the feasibility of the concept at the time (Wallace, 2005), but the multitude of contradictory results stemming from various reconstructions has only served to intensify the controversy surrounding this subject (La Souchère, 2018). This device was developed and deployed in 1969, well after the siege of Syracuse, using the “solar oven” built in Odeillo in the French Eastern Pyrenees.

## 2.5. From Hollywood to scientific hypothesis: 10,000 BC, lost Ice Age civilizations and ancient apocalypse theories

In the film *Atlantis the Lost Continent*, George Pal attributes the creation of a “burning ray” and other technologically anachronistic innovations to Atlantis. Through this narrative choice, he inadvertently perpetuates the myth of the sunken city as a symbol of a scientifically and technologically advanced civilization lost in the annals of time. This is a theme that is often found in
fictional literature, cinema, and also the vast field of pseudoarchaeology. Several decades after the “golden age” of peplums, the film 10,000 BC by Roland Emmerich revives this theme, marrying the myth of Atlantis with the monumental architecture of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia (fig. 10). The film 10,000 BC (dir. Roland Emmerich, prod. Warner Bros., Legendary Pictures, and Centropolis Entertainment, USA, 2008) is a prehistoric-fantasy film, depicting, 12,000 years ago, an advanced civilization predating that of ancient Egypt or Mesopotamia but with similar monumental architecture (pyramids: fig. 10a; ziggurat: fig. 10b), blending both the anachronistic and the spectacular.

<figure><img src="image_11.png" /><figcaption>**Figure 10.** Images from the film 10,000 BC (dir. Roland Emmerich, prod. Warner Bros., Legendary Pictures, and Centropolis Entertainment, USA, 2008). **A.** Construction works on pyramids; **B.** Battle in front of the “Almighty” palace, with architecture inspired by Mesopotamian ziggurats.</figcaption></figure>

The film 10,000 BC features pyramids constructed 10,000 years BCE, and interestingly, it shares certain elements with the 1994 film *Stargate*, both of which were directed by Roland Emmerich. We will discuss this later in the article. Historically, Mesopotamian ziggurats were built from the 5th millennium BCE onwards and the pyramids of Egypt were built in the 3rd millennium BCE (Crawford, 2004; Bard, 2015). The film 10,000 BC is inspired by the controversial and pseudoscientific theories of British journalist Graham Hancock, developed in his book *Fingerprints of the Gods* (Hancock, 1995). G. Hancock argues that an advanced civilization (associated with Atlantis in the film 10,000 BC) was destroyed thousands of years before the construction of the pyramids of Egypt.

In his book *Magicians of the Gods* (Hancock, 2015), Graham Hancock supports the controversial Younger Dryas impact hypothesis as a cause of a global cataclysm at the end of the last ice age that would have caused the collapse of this lost ice age civilization. Indeed, he attributes the abrupt climate change of the Younger Dryas to a meteoritic impact.

The Younger Dryas, the last cold stadial of the Late Glacial (dating of the Late Glacial: approximately 14,500 to 11,700 years BP), was a period of rapid climate change that marks the transition from the Last Glacial Period to the Holocene (our current interglacial period). The Late Glacial period was characterized by oscillating climatic conditions associated with alternating warm interstadials and cold stadials (Peteet, 2001). Quaternary climate variations, i.e. the cyclic alternation between glacial and interglacial periods, have been explained by orbital forcings (cycles of tens to hundreds of thousands of years: Milanković, 1941; PAGES, 2016). At much shorter timescales, abrupt climate changes during the Late Glacial have been attributed to episodes of massive iceberg discharges in the North Atlantic Ocean (Heinrich, 1988; Broecker, 1994). The Younger Dryas was thus the last major cold period before the Holocene warming, dated between 12,900 and 11,700 years BP (Rasmussen et al., 2014; Cheng et al., 2020; Naughton et al., 2023). This cold oscillation was
attributed in particular to the breakup of Lake Agassiz, a large meltwater lake on the margins of the North American ice sheet (Stokes et al., 2015), and also to iceberg breakups and freshwater discharges from the Laurentine (Carlson et al., 2007; Murton et al., 2010) and Fennoscandian ice sheets (Muschitiello et al., 2015) in the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans (Tarasov & Peltier, 2005). The sudden and massive inflow of fresh water into the North Atlantic Ocean would have disrupted thermohaline circulation and climate (Broecker et al., 1989; McManus et al., 2004; Wünsch, 2006; Eisenman et al., 2009; Carlson, 2013; Ritz et al., 2013; Teller, 2013).

Richard B. Firestone et al. (2006 & 2007) proposed a controversial theory suggesting that a cosmic impact played a pivotal role in triggering the cooling of the Younger Dryas period. In their theory, the fall of an asteroid to Earth would have resulted in an “impact winter” resulting from the injection of dust and ash into the Earth’s atmosphere (Covey et al., 1994). Although no impact crater from this era has been identified, traces possibly associated with a major cosmic impact have been found at various sites around the world (Kennett et al., 2015; Sweatman, 2021), but its role in driving climate change during the Younger Dryas is debated (Pinter et al., 2011; Van Hoesel et al., 2014). Indeed, this hypothesis has come into scrutiny, primarily due to evidence from the Late Glacial Period, which reveals other cold episodes resembling the Younger Dryas but unrelated to meteoritic impacts (Carlson, 2008; Boslough et al., 2012). Mark Boslough (2022) also points out that the article by Richard B. Firestone et al. (2007) has co-authors in common with the paper by Ted E. Bunch (2021; see section 3.2.) which proposed a similarly controversial theory, to explain the destruction of Sodom.

Graham Hancock recently presented his theories in eight episodes pseudoarchaeological series entitled *Ancient Apocalypse*, produced by ITN Productions (a UK-based media production) and released by Netflix in 2022. The American Archaeological Society opposed the classification of this series as “documentary” and asked Netflix to reclassify it as “science fiction”. This was due to the false interpretation of certain archaeological discoveries (fanciful dating, false evidence), its lack of alternative interpretations and evidence contradicting those of Graham Hancock, and some themes considered as conspiratorial, or even racist (accusation of white supremacism), deemed harmful to both the public and the scientific community <fnref n="3" />. One of the key arguments of Graham Hancock is the construction of some monumental structures, e.g. the megalithic site of Göbekli Tepe in Türkiye, built in the 10th millennium BCE (Schmidt, 2011 & 2015), which he considers too complex to have been built by hunter-gatherers. According to him, a more advanced civilization must have imparted this construction technique to them. This concept, known as hyperdiffusionism, developed in the early 20th century (Smith, 1915; Perry, 1918 & 1923), has been widely criticized as purely speculative, pseudoscientific and based on racist theories (Williams, 1991; Kehoe, 2008; Storey & Jones, 2010). Indeed, hunter-gatherers were anatomically modern humans and thus had the same cognitive capacities. Furthermore, there is no inherent evolution of knowledge, implying that they could have engaged in advanced calculations and orchestrated the construction of monumental structures (Fagan, 2006; Kehoe, 2008).

When the most recent episodes (Season 2) were released on 16 October 2024, *Ancient Apocalypse* was still considered a documentary series by all the websites that promoted it.

## 2.6. From Noah's Flood to current global warming: examining climate change narratives

The Hebrew flood myth is included in the cataclysmic and destructive amalgam imagined by Graham Hancock (Hancock, 2002). The Flood refers to a very old legendary catastrophic flood

<footnote n="3">³ Sandweiss, D. H., 2022. Letter to Netflix company officials regarding the series “Ancient Apocalypse”. Society for American Archaeology, November 30, 2022. URL: https://documents.saa.org/container/docs/default-source/doc-governmentaffairs/saa-letter-ancient-apocalypse.pdf</footnote>
assumed to have been caused by torrential and continuous rains. Best known as Noah’s Ark story in the Hebrew Bible (Bandstra, 2010), similar flooding narratives are common in many cultures. Indeed, more than 600 versions have been listed around the world and the similarities have led scholars to investigate the common cultural and historical threads that might have influenced the development of such stories across different societies (Ducœur, 2016). The Genesis flood story (chapters 6–9 of the *Book of Genesis*) describes God’s decision to return the universe to its pre-creation state of watery chaos (Leeming, 2010). The biblical flood, in particular, has long been the focus of numerous theories, interpretations (Cohn, 1996) and artistic adaptations extending from ancient times to the modern era of cinema. In the film *Noah* (dir. Darren Aronofsky, prod. Disruption Entertainment, New Regency Pictures, and Protozoa Pictures, USA, 2014), the biblical Flood narrative was reimagined through the lens of contemporary ecological concerns, addressing issues such as resource overexploitation and depletion (*fig. 11a*) and resulting conflicts. This adaptation effectively transposes present-day anxieties about humanity’s near future into a remote historical setting.

<figure><img src="image_12.png" /><figcaption>**Figure 11.** Images from the film *Noah* (dir. Darren Aronofsky, prod. Disruption Entertainment, New Regency Pictures, and Protozoa Pictures, USA, 2014). **A.** A world overexploited and devastated; **B.** The Flood seen from inside Noah’s Ark.</figcaption></figure>

In the film *Noah*, the biblical patriarch is depicted as the first “environmental activist”, mirroring present anxieties of the Anthropocene. The resulting rise in alarmism and discourses of fear in society (Walter, 2008; Marriner *et al.*, 2010; Latour, 2015; Aït-Touati, 2019 & 2021) has encouraged cinema to incorporate an eco-apocalyptic dimension in the scenarios (Neyrat, 2015). For example, some scenes of the Flood in the film *Noah* (*fig. 11b*) are reminiscent of scenes from the New York flood in the film *The Day After Tomorrow* by Roland Emmerich (2004) and *London's Flood* by Tony Mitchell (2007): see Olivier Planchon *et al.* (2022). With such a scenario, we can consider the film *Waterworld* by Kevin Reynolds (1995) as a continuation of the film *Noah...* Or rather, given the release dates of the two films: *Noah* a prequel of *Waterworld*.

The Flood narrative is the basis of various catastrophist theories (Ducœur, 2016), including the creationist and pseudoscientific theory of “Flood geology”, which attempts to argue that such a global flood actually occurred (Isaak, 2007). Holocene global warming and its repercussions are occasionally highlighted as factors contributing to the genesis of flood myths, exemplified by the contentious Black Sea deluge hypothesis (Ryan *et al.*, 1997). During the peak of the Last Glacial Maximum between 22,000 and 18,000 BP, with the growth of the large ice sheets, the mean level of the oceans was between 120 and 130 m below its current level (Rotaru *et al.*, 2006; Murray-Wallace & Woodroffe, 2014; *fig. 12*).
<figure><img src="image_13.png" /><figcaption>**Figure 12.** *Mediterranean coastline during the Last Glacial Maximum (22,000-18,000 BP; data source: Zickel et al., 2016).*</figcaption></figure>

From the Late Glacial Period, global warming and associated ice-cap melting caused a rapid 20 m rise in sea level during the Bølling warm interstadial (14,600–14,100 BP), then an average of 1.5 cm per year until 7,500 BP (Deschamps et al., 2012). Rising sea levels completely reshaped the geography of the world’s coastlines, particularly in areas with a wide continental shelf. Thus, Northern Europe, freed from the ice, split into peninsulas and archipelagos, and the plain covering the current Persian Gulf about 12,000 years BP became almost completely submerged by 8,000 BP (Lambeck, 1996; Cuttler et al., 2012). Following an abrupt sea-level rise caused by the collapsing Laurentide ice sheet in Canada, the Mediterranean Sea suddenly poured through the Bosphorus about 7,600 BP, into the freshwater lake at the bottom of the current Black Sea basin (Ryan et al., 1997). This influx of seawater would have dramatically expanded the size of the Black Sea and inundated land that had previously existed in the region. Some authors have interpreted the abrupt rise of the Black Sea, resulting from a catastrophic inflow of Mediterranean seawater, as the origin of the Biblical Flood because of its brutality (Ryan & Pitman, 1998; Ballard et al., 2000; Yanko-Hombach et al., 2011; Yanchilina et al., 2017). Indeed, the level of the Black Sea would have risen ~150 m in just two years, flooding an area of more than 100,000 km² and probably displaced populations to its newly formed shorelines. Such an event might have imposed substantial stresses upon contemporary human populations and persisted in cultural memory as the Great Flood (Yanko-Hombach et al., 2011). The physical side of this is still debated, with other less dramatic theories proposed to explain the filling of the Black Sea. The Laurentide ice sheet retreated over a long period (mostly between 12,000 and 6,000 BP: Dyke, 2004). William B.F. Ryan et al. (2003) revised the dating of the early Holocene flood to 8,800 years BP, and a non-catastrophic progressive flood model (or gradual inflow model) has been proposed to explain the Late Quaternary sea-level history of the Black Sea (Ferguson, 2012; Ferguson et al., 2018). A time gap of approximately 900 years between the initial marine inflow and the extinction of lacustrine species in Black Sea sediments suggests that it took roughly ten centuries to establish the present-day bidirectional exchange with the Mediterranean and the global ocean (Soulet et al., 2011). In conclusion, the intricate and debated theory of the Black Sea deluge hypothesis should be noted in contrast to the biblical account of Noah’s flood, which is depicted as a global event.
Holocene warming and the climatic optimum, in a context of more contrasting seasons (obliquity of 24.23° 9000 years BP versus 23.45° currently: Kutzbach, 1981; Guetter & Kutzbach, 1990), strengthened the monsoons and shifted rainbelts to higher latitudes (COHMAP Members, 1988) leading to pluvial periods on the “green Sahara” (Gasse, 2000; Lézine, 2009) and the Arabian Peninsula (Lézine et al., 2010; Dinies et al., 2015; Fersi et al., 2016; Nicholson et al., 2021). Rock engravings and paintings depicting savanna fauna in various parts of the Sahara (Butzer, 1958), but also in the Namibian desert in southern Africa (Blümel, 2002), are first-hand accounts of this period marked by more frequent and abundant rainfall over today's arid areas. In the Eastern Mediterranean, dominated by mid-latitude climate systems, records of speleothems show maximum precipitation during early-to-mid Holocene (Bar-Matthews et al., 1999; Verheyden et al., 2008; Fleitmann et al., 2009; Develle et al., 2010; Cheng et al., 2015), and fluctuations of the Dead Sea lake levels show an early Holocene wet phase (Migowski et al., 2006). Early Holocene conditions were therefore not as catastrophic as some authors claim. On the contrary, this time of generally favourable climatic conditions after the cold and dry Younger Dryas was also the time of the Neolithic Revolution (Bar-Yosef, 2011). The Neolithic Revolution was the wide-scale transition of numerous human cultures from a lifestyle of hunting and gathering to one of agriculture and settlement, thanks to the domestication of various types of plants (into crops) and animals (see e.g. Bocquet-Appel, 2011; Price & Bar-Yosef, 2011; Pollard et al., 2015). As an example, this occurred in the Southern Levant before 11,500 BP (Zeder, 2011). With the development of agriculture, the Neolithic was characterized by the development of the first villages and pre-urban agglomerations, such as Jericho (see section 2.2). The construction of the monumental megalithic complex of Göbekli Tepe (see section 2.5) is part of the cultural changes observed at this time in the Eastern Mediterranean and Southwest Asia (Weninger et al., 2009; Dietrich et al., 2019, Peters et al., 2020).

Thus, the Holocene period was subjected to climatic conditions in which human civilization was certainly able to develop across continents. However, the impending Anthropocene climate change presents a starkly different narrative—a warning articulated in the film *Noah*. This cautionary tale draws more from the Club of Rome's "Limits to Growth" report (Meadows et al., 1972) than from the biblical *Book of Genesis*.

## Conclusion

Apart from the *Clash of the Titans*, *The Ten Commandments*, and *10,000 BC*, a destructive natural disaster is the final outcome of all the studied movies. In the three films cited above, the disaster (not shown in *10,000 BC*) only occurs at the margin of the main plot. In the other movies studied in this paper, the disasters can be divided in two categories: on the one hand those in which disasters are at the center of the storyline and that are the direct subject of the movie, i.e. the cause of the disaster (*The Last Days of Pompeii* and *Pompeii*) or the object on which the disaster will manifest itself in the most spectacular way (*The Colossus of Rhodes*), are sometimes presented from the beginning of the film; on the other hand, movies in which disasters only influences the characters' decisions in the final scenes (*Sodom and Gomorrah*, *Atlantis the Lost Continent*, and *Noah*).

Some of the palaeo-disasters presented in these fictions are plausible, such as the tsunami in the *Clash of the Titans* movie; or the possible earthquakes that destroyed the Colossus of Rhodes, and the hypothetical event that lead to the destruction of Sodom. Moreover, the Vesuvius eruption that destroyed the cities of the Bay of Naples, including Pompeii, is scientifically attested and has been precisely dated to 79 CE. Nevertheless, the Black Sea deluge hypothesis seen in *Noah*, and the multi-disaster scenario depicted in the fictional retelling of *The Ten Commandments*, persist as enduring myths in contemporary understanding. Even if a volcanic eruption near Santorini occurred in the past,
the stories around the Atlantis lost city also remain myths. The meteoritic impact hypothesis described in the Sodom and Gomorrah fictions, and supposed to be one of the causes of their destruction, is still highly debated in the scientific literature. The cataclysm of unknown origin that led to the demise of an Ice Age civilization in the film 10,000 BC is inspired by myths and legends such as Atlantis, but on which also rely some very controversial pseudo-archaeological theories. Roland Emmerich was criticized on this, but Emmerich's co-writer, Harald Kloser, replied: "Roland and I never intended for 10,000 BC to be a documentary" (Turan, 2008). If some other films assumed the use of myths (Sodom and Gomorrah, Clash of the Titans, The Ten Commandments, Atlantis the Lost Continent, and Noah), all selected films studied in this article do not claim they are scientifically accurate, nor do they have scientific advisors on staff (so far as we can tell). If the peplums are certainly not historical documentaries, they are a reflection and witness of the society of their time (Winkler, 2004; Bessières, 2019).

## Conflicts of interest

No conflicts of interest to declare.

## Evaluation

Reviewers for this paper are Ania Szczepanska and Christophe Petit.

## Peer-reviewer responsibilities

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## Filmography

Aldrich, R., 1962. *Sodom and Gomorrah*. Titanus, Pathé Consortium Cinéma, and Société Générale de Cinématographie, Italy, France and USA, 154 min.

Anderson, P. W. S., 2014. *Pompeii*. Constantin Film and Impact Pictures, USA, Germany and Canada, 105 min.

Aronofsky, D., 2014. *Noah*. Disruption Entertainment, New Regency Pictures, and Protozoa Pictures, USA, 138 min.

Bonnard, M., Leone, S., 1959. *The Last Days of Pompeii* [Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei]. ABC Filmverleih, Transocean-Film Vasgen Badal & Co, Cineproduzioni Associate, Domiciana, and Proclusa, West Germany, Spain, Italy and Monaco, 100 min.

Davis, D., 1981. *Clash of the Titans*. Charles H. Schneer Productions, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Titan Productions, and Peerford Ltd., USA and United Kingdom, 118 min.

DeMille, C. B., 1956. *The Ten Commandments*. Paramount Pictures and Motion Picture Associates, USA, 220 min.

Emmerich, R., 1994. *Stargate*. Canal+, Centropolis Film Productions and Carolco Pictures, USA and France, 121 min.
Emmerich, R., 2004. *The Day After Tomorrow*. Centropolis Entertainment, Lions Gate Films, and The Mark Gordon Company, USA, 124 min.

Emmerich, R., 2008. *10,000 BC*. Warner Bros., Legendary Pictures, and Centropolis Entertainment, USA, 109 min.

Feist, F. E., 1933. *Deluge*. Admiral Productions, USA, 70 min.

Leone, S., 1961. *The Colossus of Rhodes* [*Il colosso di Rodi*]. CTI, Cineproduzioni Associati, CFF, and Proclusa, France, Italy and Spain, 128 min.

Leterrier, L., 2010. *Clash of the Titans*. Legendary Pictures, The Zanuck Company, Thunder Road Pictures, USA, United Kingdom and Australia, 108 min.

Mitchell, T., 2007. *Flood*. Justin Bodle, United Kingdom, 110 min.

Pal, G., 1960. *The Time Machine*. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Galaxy Films, USA, 103 min.

Pal, G., 1961. *Atlantis the Lost Continent*. Metro Goldwyn Mayer, USA, 90 min.

Reynolds, K., 1995. *Waterworld*. Gordon Company, Davis Entertainment, and Licht/Mueller Film Corporation, USA, 135 min.