The same three-stage avian reconnaissance protocol from a grounded vessel, with overlapping species (dove, raven) and the identical inferential logic: the bird that does not come back is the good news. The raven's valence is inverted between the two — first success in one, first failure in the other — exactly the kind of transposition a copied record would show.
Grounded on Mt. Nimush, Utnapishtim runs a serial bird-test: 'I sent forth a dove and released it' — it returns; a swallow — it returns; then a raven, which 'saw the waters slither back' and does not come back. Non-return is the proof that land has emerged (XI ~145–154).
Noah opens the window and sends a raven, then a dove which finds no rest, then the dove again — 'in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated' — then a third time, and 'she returned not again unto him any more.'
Kovacs trans. of XI: dove/swallow/raven sequence ending 'The raven went off, and saw the waters slither back'; KJV 8:11 olive-leaf verse quoted above. Third witness: Plutarch (De sollertia animalium 13, 968F) gives Deucalion a dove whose return meant storm and whose flight meant fair weather — the only Greek source to attach the Semitic bird-signal to the Greek ark.
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An identical four-beat sequence: landing → burnt offering → the deity smells the smoke and is moved → vow of never-again sealed by a physical token of remembrance (a string of sky-blue lapis at the goddess's throat; a bow of color in the cloud).
In both, heaven never announces the flood openly.
Same skeleton with no shared geography: humanity's crime is an affront to the senior god's comfort or dignity, a council formalizes extermination, the killing is halted mid-course by subversion within the pantheon itself, a remnant survives, and the wearied god afterward binds or removes himself.
The identical test, posed and failed: the world-encircling sea-serpent hooked from a small boat, drawn up just far enough for a face-to-face look, and then lost.