In the field of academic Biblical Studies, these are termed Ancient Near Eastern Parallels. Biblical narratives are shaped to fulfill theological functions, but drawing on a common stock of pre-Patriarchal awareness among societies in the Fertile Crescent speaks to the preservation of still more ancient traditions. I’m a believer, but I see no reason to suppose, for example, that some of Graham Hancock’s theoretical reconstructions of pre-cataclysmic advanced human society aren’t eminently possible. The otherwise unexplainable (in the context of “court archaeology”) megalithic structures on earth demand that such ideas be taken seriously.