Why are flood myths in so many ancient stories? – Big Think

Flood myths, a painting of animals of varying kinds, cueing up to enter an ark that is floating in the distance.
Why are flood myths so common in stories from ancient cultures around the world? by Tim BrinkhofTim Brinkhof (bigthink.com)

Could the prevalence of flood myths around the world tell us something about early human migration or even the way our brains work?

Especially common in world mythologies are stories about world-ending floods and the chosen individuals that managed to survive them, like the biblical Noah and Utnapishtim, the ark builder in the Epic of Gilgamesh, a text thought to be even older than the Abrahamic religions. In Aztec mythology, a man named Tata and his wife Nena…