Noah's Ark Found?

Yeshiva World is reporting that a group of Chinese and Turkish evangelicals have found the legendary boat atop Mount Ararat. The story, which came from Fox News (who's page won't load now) has this to say:

The group claims that carbon dating proves the relics are 4,800 years old, meaning they date to around the same time the ark was said to be afloat. Mt. Ararat has long been suspected as the final resting place of the craft by evangelicals and literalists hoping to validate biblical stories.

Yeung Wing-Cheung, from the Noah’s Ark Ministries International research team that made the discovery, said: “It’s not 100 percent that it is Noah’s Ark, but we think it is 99.9 percent that this is it.”

There have been several reported discoveries of the remains of Noah’s Ark over the years, most notably a find by archaeologist Ron Wyatt in 1987. At the time, the Turkish government officially declared a national park around his find, a boat-shaped object stretched across the mountains of Ararat.

Nevertheless, the evangelical ministry remains convinced that the current find is in fact more likely to be the actual artifact, calling upon Dutch Ark researcher Gerrit Aalten to verify its legitimacy.

Gerrit Aalten is the head of NoahsArkSearch.com, a site dedicated to the discovery of the Ark. On the site, one can find pictures of fossils found on Ararat. As to why they are looking on Agri Dag specifically, a reference to the theologian Philostorgius is given, although the translation of his work that is quoted makes it fairly clear that he based his assumption that the Ark was on Agri Dag because that is near the source of the Euphrates River. As I said in an earlier post, Urartu is a huge area. The article continues:

Representatives of Noah’s Ark Ministries said the structure contained several compartments, some with wooden beams, that they believe were used to house animals.The group of evangelical archaeologists ruled out an established human settlement on the grounds none have ever been found above 11,000 feet in the vicinity, Yeung said.

During the press conference, team member Panda Lee described visiting the site. “In October 2008, I climbed the mountain with the Turkish team. At an elevation of more than 4,000 meters, I saw a structure built with plank-like timber. Each plank was about 8 inches wide. I could see tenons, proof of ancient construction predating the use of metal nails.”

This is no different than every other excursion up the mountain that claimed to see the structure—you go all the way up there for the find of the millenium and you don't bring down any photographs? Color me skeptical.


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