纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 016洪水纪念碑（3）

Our tablet is about a flood - about a man who is told by his god to build a boat and to load it with his family and animals, because the deluge is about to wipe humanity from the face of the earth. The tale on the tablet was startlingly familiar to George Smith - because as he read and deciphered, it became clear that what he had in front of him was an ancient myth that paralleled and - most importantly - 'predated' the story of Noah and his Ark. Just to remind you, here are a few snippets of the Noah story from the Bible:

"Make thee an ark ... and of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring unto the ark ... I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth."

And here's a snippet of what George Smith read on the clay tablet:

" ... demolish the house, and build a boat! Abandon wealth and seek survival. Spurn property, save life. Take on board all living things' seed! The boat you will build, her dimensions all shall be equal: her length and breadth shall be the same. Cover her with a roof, like the ocean below, and he will send you a rain of plenty."