Ussher aside...
Lion, are you suggesting that Noah and his family didn't build the ark themselves, but employed contractors? If Noah and his family built it, then, ipso facto the knowledge needed to build it would have survived. If it didn't, then the people who built these complex systems would have been among the drowned. So we have a case of Noah hiring people to build his boat, knowing that they'd drown. Did he chortle when he paid them? DID he even pay them? "Yeah Eshebenibal, you can count on the payment next week, heh heh heh."
Also, I will note that we have archaelogical traces of civilizations that are older than the dates given for the flood, and they showed no such technological advancement. Also, I must point out that if the flood took place so soon after creation, technology would have had to progress many times faster between creation and the flood than it has since. (which chronology are we using? The accuracy of this statement depends on it. I think that by chance, Ussher's would have roughly similar rates, simply because he calls for a younger earth than the others)
I don't posit a date of the Flood. Certainly not Ussher's
The Bible seems to be quite clear about the timeline from the Deluge thru the Exodus. FWIW, Genesis provides a similarly clear timeline back to Adam. I am not going into detail on this, as it is not relevant to questions about the claims surrounding the Deluge. Below are portions of the text in question, I include a larger section where it clearly describes the continuum of generations in Ge 11:10-15.
11:10-15 These are the records of the generations of Shem. Shem was one hundred years old, and [j]became the father of Arpachshad two years after the flood; 11 and Shem lived five hundred years after he became the father of Arpachshad, and he had other sons and daughters. 12 Arpachshad lived thirty-five years, and became the father of Shelah; 13 and Arpachshad lived four hundred and three years after he became the father of Shelah, and he had other sons and daughters. 14 Shelah lived thirty years, and became the father of Eber; 15 and Shelah lived four hundred and three years after he became the father of Eber, and he had other sons and daughters.
Ge:
11:10 This is the account of Shem. Shem was one hundred years old when he became the father of Arphaxad, two years after the flood. And after becoming the father of Arphaxad, Shem lived five hundred years and had other sons and daughters. (+2)
12 Arpachshad lived thirty-five years, and became the father of Shelah; (+37)
14 Shelah lived thirty years, and became the father of Eber; (+67)
16 Eber lived thirty-four years, and became the father of Peleg (+101)
18 Peleg lived thirty years, and became the father of Reu; (+131)
20 Reu lived thirty-two years, and became the father of Serug; (+163)
22 Serug lived thirty years, and became the father of Nahor; (+193)
24 Nahor lived twenty-nine years, and became the father of Terah; (+222)
25 and Nahor lived one hundred and nineteen years after he became the father of Terah (+341)
26 Terah lived seventy years, and became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. (+431)
21: 5 Now Abraham was one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. (+100)
25: 26 Afterward his brother came forth with his hand holding on to Esau’s heel, so his name was called [r]Jacob; and Isaac was sixty years old when she gave birth to them. (+160)
47: 9 So Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The
years of my sojourning are one hundred and [j]thirty; few and [k]unpleasant have been the [l]years of my life, nor have they [m]attained the [n]years [o]that my fathers lived during the days of their sojourning.” 10 And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from [p]his presence. 11 So Joseph [q]settled his father and his brothers and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had ordered. 12 Joseph provided his father and his brothers and all his father’s household with [r]food, according to their little ones. (Jacob enters Egypt - +290)
Ex:1240 Now the time [ah]that the sons of Israel lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years. 41 And at the end of four hundred and thirty years, [ai]to the very day, all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. (+430)
Nu 32: 13 So the Lord’s anger burned against Israel, and He made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until the entire generation of those who had done evil in the sight of the Lord was destroyed. (+470)
So we have 431 years between the end of the Deluge to the birth of Abram; 290 years between Abram’s birth and Jacob entering Egypt; and the years in Egypt and the wandering at 470. These totals 1,191 years from the Deluge to the invasion of Canaan. One may be able to quibble on a couple decades here or there due to some textual issues, but in the end such quibbling wouldn't really change the timeline issues one iota.
So following the Bible literally, one ends up with the first estimation that's required, when did the 40 years of wandering end and the ‘invasion’ begin. I think it would be fair to say that the vast majority of Christian apologetics place the invasion between 1200 and 1400 BCE. Adding the above 1,191 years would provide a range of 2391 – 2591 BCE for the end of the Deluge.
