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3
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- But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD . This is the account of
Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time,
and he walked with God. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for
all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah,
"I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled
with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them
and the earth. So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it
and coat it with pitch inside and out. This is how you are to build it:
The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. Make a
roof for it and finish the ark to within 18 inches of the top. Put a
door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. I am
going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the
heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on
earth will perish. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you
will enter the ark-you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives
with you. You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures,
male and female, to keep them alive with you. Two of every kind of bird,
of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along
the ground will come to you to be kept alive. You are to take every kind
of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for
them." Noah did everything just as God commanded him…and on the
seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the
mountains of Ararat.
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5
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- Length 450 Feet (~150
Meters)
- Width 75 Feet (~25
Meters)
- Height 45 Feet (~15 Meters)
- Volume 1,396,000 Cubic Feet
- Gross Tonnage 13,960 Tons
- Capacity 522 Railroad
stock cars
- Capacity 125,280 Sheep-sized
animals
- Genus Couple Thousand Less at the time of the flood
- For example, 2 dogs contain variations for all other dogs today
- Animals 16,000 Individual
animals necessary
- Not many large land animals – challenge to name them all
- Could have been young animals also
- Cubit around 18-21 inches (150x25x15 cubits)
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- Liberal theologians have criticized many things throughout the Bible.
Archaeology has shown many of these criticisms to be wrong from Genesis
12 through Revelation. But Genesis 1-11 is still viewed as myth.
- “If” part of Noah’s Ark were discovered or archaeological evidence
dating back to the period of Noah and his family and descendants
populating the area, it would illuminate the Bible more and provide support
for the Bible and Noah back to Genesis 5, cutting that gap practically
in half.
- And Noah is only nine generations from Adam, assuming there are no
missing generations. Noah’s Ark would actually give support for all
three major world religions spawning from Abraham – Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam.
- Noah’s Ark on a high mountain like Mount Ararat could provide some
support for the flood described as worldwide in the Bible, which many
critics dismiss as simply a local or regional flood, although the
mountain could have been uplifted after the ark landed.
- Historians wrote about Noah’s Ark surviving throughout history –
Berossus, Josephus, and others listed below.
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7
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8
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- B.C. Circa Dates
- 6000-3000 Noah/Flood
- 1450-Moses/Genesis
- 3500-2200 Transcauc.
- 1275-900 Urartian
- Tribes - Uruadri/Nairi
- 858-585 – U. Kingdom
- 585 – Destruction of
- U. Kingdom by Medes.
- 600-100 Armenians,
- Turks, and Kurds enter
- 300 – “rrt” becomes
- “Ararat” under
- Armenian influence.
- Pre-Urartu civilizations
- (Early Transcaucasian,
- Sumerians, Hurrians,
- Hittites) more
- important remains.
- Is “rrt” really Urartu?
- “Almost certainly”
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9
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10
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11
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12
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- Mount Ararat – Agri Dagi, Turkey
- Mount Judi (Cudi in Turkish) – Southeast Turkey
- There are at least four other Mount Judi/Cudi’s
- Durupinar “Impression”
- Mount Suleiman, Iran
- Mount Nisir
- Black Sea
- Mesopotamia
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14
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15
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16
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17
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18
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19
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20
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21
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- Archaeological Evidence
- Flood Evidence
- Literature Evidence
- Eyewitness Testimony
- Geologic Scenario
- Fallacy of Negative Proof
- Cudi Concerns
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22
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- Ararat, its plain and river valley, include extremely old pottery and
cultural sites
- Chalcolithic sites
- Early Bronze Age (EBA) sites
- Mount Ararat is situated very nicely to start the post-flood
civilization in the Araxes River Valley
- Archaeological sites are dated and identified by the pottery located at
each site and the subsequent layers
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23
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- 5th millennium B.C.
- Sialk Tepe, Iran – single primary site so could question extent of
“culture”
- 4th millennium B.C.
- Predynastic Egypt
- Kura-Araxes (Karaz / Pulur / Khirbet Kerak) Early Transcaucasian
culture
- Proto-Elamite civilization
- Sumeria: Ur, Uruk, Kish
- Susa
- 3rd millennium B.C.
- Old Kingdom of Egypt
- Elam
- Lagash
- Akkad: Agade, Isin, Babylon, Larsa
- Mari
- Amorite & Troy I–V
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24
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- Red-Black Burnished Ware Sites
- Termed by R.J. Braidwood at Tell Judeideh in Amuq
- Kura-Araxes (River Valleys) – Kur-Araz – source region
- Pulur / Karaz – Eastern Turkey Highlands
- Orontes River valley – Amuq plain (Phase H)
- Syrian coast (Ras Shamra - Ugarit and neighbors)
- Khirbet Kerak = Tell Beit Yerah
- Tell Yaqush
- Early Transcaucasian Culture
- Named to cover all sites and culture by Charles Burney
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25
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- The Kura-Araxes name (given by modern archaeologists) comes from the
Kura and Araxes river valleys where the culture originally developed.
The territory they inhabited are generally thought to be present day
Armenia, Georgia and the Caucasus.
- The Kura-Araxes culture or the Early Transcaucasian culture was a
civilization that existed from 3400 B.C until about 2000 B.C. The
earliest evidence for this culture is found around the Ararat Plain and
Kura river valleys; it spread to Georgia by 3000 B.C., and during the
next millennium it proceeded westward to the Erzurum plain, southwest to
Cilicia, and to the southeast into an area below the Urmia basin and
Lake Van, down to the borders of present day Syria. Altogether, the
early Transcaucasian culture, at its greatest spread, enveloped a vast
area approximately 1000 km by 500 km.
- The Ararat plain, one of the largest of the Armenian Plateau, stretches
west of the Sevan basin, at the foothills of the Gegham mountains. In
the north the plain borders on Mount Aragats, and in the south, on Mount
Ararat. The Arax river divides it into two. The southern part is what is
today Turkey and the rest is primarily Armenia and Nakchivan. The Ararat
plain and the Sevan basin have the longest duration of sunshine on the
planet Earth--about 2,700 hours per year.
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26
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- Karaz pottery is quite distinctive. Vessels of all sizes were invariably
hand-made and generally fired twice to produce a contrasting color
scheme of red and black: a reducing (smoky) atmosphere in a kiln turned
the pots black, whereas an oxidizing one basked them red.
- The exterior surface of vessels were often well burnished, especially in
the later periods when a silvery sheen was produced with graphite. Many
pots were ornamented with incised and relief patterns.
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27
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28
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29
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30
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31
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32
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- “[The map of Early Transcaucasian culture] shows too that certain
centres of settlement may be discerned, among them the Araxes valley. By
its geographical situation alone, it could be argued, this could have
been the original home from which this culture subsequently expanded in
all directions.”
- Charles Burney
- The People of the Hills: Ancient Ararat and Caucasus
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33
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- “It is evident that we cannot understand a single element, the Kh. Kerak
ware, unless we see it as belonging to a whole phenomenon. It is the
great affinity, indeed almost homogeneity of the pottery, both shapes,
surface treatment and decoration, which unifies the whole wide range of
separated regions, from Transcaucasia (the Kura-Arax culture of B.
Kuftin), Armenia and Azerbaidjan, through Eastern and central Anatolia,
to the whole length of the Levant, into one phenomenon. Diffusion of ceramic culture to such
an extent requires the interpretation of an ethnic movement emanating
from a region where that culture is at home, the Transcaucasian
regions.”
- Ruth Amiran, 1965, Yanik Tepe, Shengavit, and the Khirbet Kerak Ware. Anatolian
Studies 15: 165-167. Ankara: British Institute.
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34
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- “In the Amuq Khirbet Kerak ware, termed ‘Red-Black Burnished Ware’ by
R.J. Braidwood, has been found in stratified context at Tell Judeideh,
the most important site, and similarly at Çatal Hüyük, Tell Ta’yinat and
Tell Dhahab: it was thus very well established… the explanation must lie
in parallel development from a common cultural background in the Hurrian
highlands of eastern Anatolia.”
- Charles Burney
- The People of the Hills: Ancient Ararat and Caucasus
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35
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- “The arguments for the placing of the original nucleus of the Early
Trans-Caucasian culture in the Araxes valley around Erevan are not based
solely on the elimination of alternatives for varying reasons, nor only
on the quality of the pottery nor again on the fertility of the region
and its potentiality as the cradle of an expanding population… in favour
of the theory of an original centre of this culture in the middle Araxes
valley, the plain around Erevan; but they surely indicate it as the most
probable centre.”
- Charles Burney
- The People of the Hills: Ancient Ararat and Caucasus
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36
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- “It is now becoming increasing clearer that the origin of the Early
Bronze culture in eastern Anatolia is to be sought in the Armenian
highlands... Speculation about the importance of this area in the Early
Bronze Age arose after the publication by Kuftin in 1943 of the material
from the area of Igdir which he connected with similar material from
Kiketi, Armavir Blur, Kyul Tepe (Nakhichevan), Elar, Shresh Blur,
Shengavit, and Trialeti… The Transcaucasian Early Bronze
culture…succeeded both directly and indirectly in having a wide
influence in every direction open to it.”
- Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati of UCLA, “The Excavations at Korucutepe,
Turkey: The Early Bronze Age Pottery and Its Affinities” in Journal of
Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 33, No. 1. (Jan., 1974), pp. 44-54.
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37
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- “The central position of the Plain of Ararat and of its mountainous
vicinity stipulates the importance of a specific study of this region…
The data…indicate that all of the geographic zones ever inhabited in
this region were populated to some extent during the early stages of the
Kura-Araxes... An early Kura-Araxes settlement was recently discovered
in the mountain zone near Aparan in the upper part of the basin of
K’asakh river which is a left tributary of the Araxes. At the same time,
early Kura-Araxes (second half of the 4th millennium BCE)
settlements located on the alluvial flatland of the Plain of Ararat…have
been partially...”
- Dr. Gregory E. Areshian, UCLA, Adjunct Professor at Cotsen Institute of
Archaeology at UCLA
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38
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- “The revealing of monuments that display the transitional stage from the
Late Chalcolithic to the Early Bronze Age in Nahchivan… indicate that
the area was one of the first centers of arising and formation of the
Early Bronze Age. Archaeological excavations in Nahchivan have exposed
such ancient sites as Kültepe I, Kültepe II, Ovchular tepe, Makhta
Kültepe, Khalaj, Arabyengije, Shortepe that belong to the Kur-Araz
culture. The monument’s stratigraphy indicates that the Kur-Araz culture
settlement is based on the Chalcolithic level… In none of monuments of
the northern Caucasus and Transcaucasia the cultural layer was
accumulated so much as in Azerbaijan (in Kültepe I - 22.2 m, including
the Early Bronze Age — 9.5 m, in Kültepe II — 14 m, including the Early
Bronze Age 10 m). Recently, archaeologists in the Caucasian studies are
inclined to date the Kur-Araz culture between the mid-4th and the
mid-3rd millennia b.c. A study of the monuments situated in Nahchivan
produces new evidence for dating this culture. The facts show that the
Kur-Araz culture had more ancient roots in this area.”
- Abbas Seyidov, “Nahchivan in the Bronze Age”, Baku, “Elm”, 2000, 318 p.
Chapter I
- Nakhichevan Science Centre, The National Academy of Sciences
Azerbaijan Republic
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39
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- “The more or less contemporary Kül Tepe II 14C date should
also be taken into consideration: 3766-3543 cal B.C. (LE-163). Recently
three dates were received from the AMS Facility at the University of
Arizona for Satkhs, the site which is situated in Dzhavakheti (8 km
northeast of Nino Tsminda), i.e. in the southeast direction from
Amiranis Gora and Kura-Araxes layers of which have ceramic parallels
with Mokhra Blur (Ararat valley), Kvatskhelebi and Amiranis Gora:
3072-2916 cal B.C. (AA-7768), 3343-3043 cal B.C. (AA-12853) and
3301-2926 cal B.C. (AA-12854) (Isaak et a/. 1994: 26, 28f). One date was
obtained from a level associated with Early Bronze Age materials of the
north-west Armenian site Horom in the Shirak valley: 3371-3136 cal B.C.
(AA-7767) and two dates were from a tomb of the same site: 3341-3048 cal
B.C. (AA-10191) and 3990-3823 cal B.C. (AA-11130). All three vessels of
this tomb reveal in the opinion of the excavators relatively early forms
of the Kura-Araxes culture (Badaljan et al. 1994: 14,Table Illc).”
- Proceedings of the International Conference “The Beginnings of
Metallurgy", Bochum, 1995
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40
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- “This part of Eastern Anatolia, whether it be for its potential in
pasture land, or for its location within the Anatolian route structure,
is of special importance. Routes either going West from Nakhichevan via
Erzurum to Central Anatolia or going South from Transcaucasia to Upper
Mesopotamia cross this region extending between Lake Van and the Araxes
river : it actually stands at the crossroads between Anatolia, the
Caucasus, Central Asia and Upper Mesopotamia.”
- French Archaeologist C. Marro and Turkish Archaeologist A. Özfirat,
2003,“Pre-classical Survey in Eastern Turkey. First Preliminary Report
: the Agrı Dag (Mount Ararat) region" , Anatolia Antiqua XI
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41
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- “The scarcity of pre-classical sites stands in sharp contrast to the
situation in nearby Nakhichevan, which in some ways constitutes the
extension of the Araxes valley to the East, where Kültepe I and II, two
of the largest settlements dated respectively to the Chalcolithic and
the Bronze Age, are located. This situation also stands in contrast with
that prevailing on the Armenian side of the Araxes valley, where dozens
of Early Bronze Age sites are attested in the valley itself as well as
in its hinterland.”
- Many of the Ararat graves have been plundered by locals or buried in
farmers’ fields
- C. Marro and Turkish Archaeologist A. Özfirat, 2003,“Pre-classical
Survey in Eastern Turkey. First preliminary Report : the Agrı Dag
(Mount Ararat) region" , Anatolia Antiqua XI
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42
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- Proposition that this one ethnic group’s culture that produced some of
the world’s oldest pottery were close descendants of Noah’s family on
the ark
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43
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- Hagano tepe
- Gıcık mevkii
- Astepe
- Colpan
- Çetenli
- Cimen Mevkii
- Sarigül
- Strictly Turkish Ararat Chalcolithic archaeological sites
- None listed from cross-border Armenia, Iran, or Nakhchivan (Kül Tepe –
Neolithic)
- Estimations of time periods include that of Amuq E / Early Amuq F
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44
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- Igdir & Agrı Province Area Höyüks, Turkey
- Yaycı
- Gökçeli
- Malaklu / Melekli
- Arzap / Sağlıksuyu / Kazan
- Çetenli
- Köskköy
- Üzerlik Tepe
- Zali
- Erevan & Echmiadzin, Armenia
- Shresh-Blur
- Keghzyak
- Mokhra-Blur
- Sev-Blur
- Metsamor
- Shengavit
- Jerahovid
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45
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46
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47
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48
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49
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50
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51
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52
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53
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54
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55
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56
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57
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58
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59
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- “A number of sherds of Kuro-Araxes manufacture (black or grey polished,
contrasting interior/exterior, grit-tempered) seem much earlier than the
EBA II-III wares, but their shapes is reminiscent of Late Chalcolithic
more than EB I types (pl. V : 1-3) : these are low-collared jars with a
simple, slightly everted rim. Another type also rather alien to the
Kuro-Araxes repertoire is a large-necked jar with a slightly flaring
collar and a horizontal lug (pl. VII : 3)… It is possible that such
pottery [found at Sağliksuyu] represents some kind of
proto-Kuro-Araxian ware; a hypothesis which, if confirmed, would be very
interesting as regards to the puzzle of the origins and development of
the Early Bronze Transcaucasian culture.”
- The broadlines chronology are the following :
- EBA I = ca. 3400-2900/2800 ; EBA II = ca. 2900/2800-2600 ; EBA III = ca.
2600-2200.
- French Archaeologist C. Marro and Turkish Archaeologist A. Özfirat,
2003,“Pre-classical Survey in Eastern Turkey. First preliminary Report
: the Agrı Dag (Mount Ararat) region" , Anatolia Antiqua XI
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60
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61
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- 8 crosses
- symbolize the
- 8 souls saved
- in Flood of Noah
- Byzantines
- convinced this
- was the mountain
- of Noah
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62
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63
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64
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- If the Early Transcaucasian Culture was descended from Noah, what about
other archaeological sites that pre-date that culture such as Çatal
Hüyük, Sialk Tepe, Jericho, etc.?
- Some of Noah’s descendants could have started those sites before the
Early Transcaucasian Culture arose
- Some assumptions could have been made in the stratigraphical
archaeological dating of those sites
- Some of the radio carbon dates might not be correct or consistent,
especially if Noah’s flood affected the carbon dating methodology since
that has not been considered
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65
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66
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67
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68
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69
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70
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71
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72
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87
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88
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89
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90
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91
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- Stones with
- holes used by the
- Ancients for
- astronomical and
- calendar studies
- similar to those
- stones with holes
- in Carahunge
- www.carahunge.am
- Earlier than
- 2500 B.C.
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92
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- A date of less than 4,500 years is unacceptable because it is known that
at that time Armenians already had an accurate Solar Calendar.
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93
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94
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95
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96
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103
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104
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105
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111
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112
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113
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114
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115
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116
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- Archaeology
- report in Turkish
- and English
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117
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118
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- Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati, Journal of Near Eastern Studies 33, 1974,
44-54 and Ugan‘t-Forschungen I I , 1979, 413-30), ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN
STUDIES
- Peoples of the Hills by Charles Burney, 1971, London
- Formerly Abr-Nahrain. An Annual published by the School of Fine Arts,
Classical Studies and Archaeology, University of Melbourne
Curr. vol.: Vol. 43 (2006)
Iss./vol.: 1
Pgs./vol.: ca. 150 p.
Editors: Sagona A.
ISSN: 1378-4641
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119
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- Sagona, Antonio G. (1984) The Caucasian Region in the Early Bronze Age,
(British Archaeological Reports International Series 214), Oxford: 3
vols, 563 pp. inc 155 figs, 4 tables, 18 maps and 24 plates, (1984).
ISBN 0 86054 277 7.
- Reviewed by A. F. Harding, Antiquity 59/227 (1985) 224-225.
- MARRO C. et HAUPTMANN H. (ed.), 2000, Chronologies des Pays du Caucase
et de l'Euphrate aux IVème-IIIème millénaires / From the Euphrates to
the Caucasus : Chronologies for the 4th.-3rd. millennium B.C. / Vom
Euphrat in den Kaukasus : Vergleichende Chronologie des 4. und 3.
Jahrtausends v. Chr., 512 pages, Varia Anatolica XI, Paris, De Boccard.
- MARRO C., and ÖZFIRAT A., 2003,“Pre-classical Survey in Eastern Turkey.
First preliminary Report : the Agrı Dag (Mount Ararat) region"
in Anatolia Antiqua XI, IFEA, Paris, p. 385-422.
- ÖZFIRAT A., Van University Professor (Yili) 2002 survey
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120
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- MARRO C., and ÖZFIRAT A., 2004, “Pre-classical Survey in Eastern Turkey.
Second preliminary Report : the Ercis region”, in Anatolia Antiqua XII,
Paris, p. 227-265.
- MARRO C., ÖZFIRAT A., 2005, “Pre-classical Survey in Eastern Turkey.
Third preliminary Report : the Dogubeyazit region”, in Anatolia Antiqua
XIII, Istanbul, p. 319-356.
- MARRO C., 2004,
"Upper-Mesopotamia and the Caucasus : essay on the evolution of
routes and road networks from the old Assyrian kingdom to the Ottoman
empire" , in A. Sagona, A
view from the Highlands. Studies in Honour of Charles Burney, Peeters,
Leiden, p. 91-120.
- MARRO C., à paraître, "Late Chalcolithic ceramic cultures in the
Highlands (4000-3500 BC)" in K. Rubinson and A. Sagona, Ceramics in
Transition (provisional title), Peeters, Leiden.
- MARRO C., à paraître, "Upper-Mesopotamia and Transcaucasia in the
Late Chalcolithic period (4000-3500 BC)" in B. Lyonnet and Y.
Pietrovski, Les cultures du Caucase aux 4 ème-3 ème mill. av. n.è. Leurs
relations avec la Mésopotamie .
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- Eastern Turkey : an architectural and archaeological survey
- T.A. Sinclair
- Volumes 1, 2, 3, 4
- Revue des Études Arméniennes
- ISSN 0080-2549
- E-ISSN 1783-1741
- Volume 19 (1985)
- Pages 285-304
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- Sedimentary Layer of Limestone in Ararat Valley
- Limestones and fossils interbedded with volcanic basalt and andesite
- Fossils in Ararat Valley & Plain
- Salt Mines in Araxes River Valley
- Pillow Lava on Aararat
- Mountains Visible from Ararat
- Flood Traditions around Ararat
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- “There is the puzzle of the upturned limestone beds surrounding Mount
Ararat, on the Turkish, Russian and Persian sides. Near the city of
Doğubayazit these limestone formations, some 1,000 feet in
thickness, are tilted from as much as 45 degrees with respect to the
horizontal to almost vertical. The true cause is apparent, although
others have not apparently sensed it. The strata dip away from Mount
Ararat on every side just as the surface dirt crust does when a seedling
bursts up through. Evidently Mount Ararat burst up through the limestone
beds to form a near 20,000-foot peak or series of them; and, thus
provided shelter for the Ark from the tempestuous storm as the waters
began to recede.”
- Clifford Burdick, Archaeological Research Foundation (ARF), 1967 Geologic
Report of Mount Ararat
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- Fossil layer
- At 14,800 ft.
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- “We were searching along the northern edge of the Ahora Gorge and there
is absolutely no passageway between the Ahora Gorge and the Parrot
Glacier. That’s when I found the fossil layer and the actual fusion line
between the old and new mountains. The fossil layer was at 14,800 feet.
It was a sedimentary layer between 18 and 20 inches thick and looked
like seashell fossils. It was in a spot that I couldn’t get over to
without rope. Because of all the things [going on] I didn’t have a rope
that day. And I, climbing with an inexperienced boy and if I was left
dangling, I’m sure he would have left me to dangle for awhile.”
- Bud Crawford, Archeological Research Foundation (ARF) Tape, 1967
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146
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- “On my first trip to the mountain with Dr. Hewitt [ARF President], I
remember him pointing out a couple of plant fossils just below the snow
and ice on the east side of the Ahora Gorge. Botany studies on the
mountain was a passion with him and he would stop constantly looking for
any thing that resembled plant life. He mentioned that on some of his
previous trips on the mountain he had seen other plant fossils as well
as a fish fossil up near the edge of the glacier.”
- Ray Anderson, Ararat Climber
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147
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- “In regard to sedimentation on Mount Ararat, we saw shale during our
climb in 1983. It was on the
northeastern side of the mountain, above 10,000 feet. We did not see any other sedimentary
layers.”
- Scott Van Dyke, Petroleum Expert
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148
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- “Steep-sloped Ararat would not retain sedimentary deposits on its
slopes…”
- “If Mount Ararat was erected as a submarine stratovolcano then it would
be highly unlikely that conditions on the sloping side of the active
volcano would be conducive to the preservation of ‘diluvium’ (‘coarse
superficial accumulations…glacial and fluvio-glacial deposits of the Ice
Age’) or fossils (Hunter 2003:62).”
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149
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150
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151
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152
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153
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- “There are also cube-shaped salt clusters, as big as grapefruit, which
Harry “Bud” Crawford found on Mount Ararat 7,000 feet high and several
hundred feet in the mountain and there was a sedimentary layer of
limestone at 14,200 near Ark Rock.”
- Noah’s Ark-Opposing Viewpoints
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154
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155
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156
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157
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158
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159
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160
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161
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162
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163
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164
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165
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166
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167
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168
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- Ark Petrified Wood Piece – Echmiadzin, Armenia
- Echmiadzin – Monastery with ark wood meaning “those who descended”
- Noah’s wife’s tomb – Marand, Iran
- Marunda of Ptolemy (meaning “the mother is there”)
- Arnoiodn – Eastern district meaning “at Noah’s foot”
- Kargakonmaz – Town meaning “the raven won’t land”
- Temanin – Town meaning “the eight” in Iran
- Masis – Mount Ararat in Armenian meaning “mother”
- Noah planted first vineyard – Ahora (Arghuri) “he planted the willow or
vine”
- Vineyard still there in 1966
- Nakhchivan – Araxes River Valley 35 miles southeast
- In Armenian can mean "the place of descent", a biblical
reference to the descent of Noah’s Ark on the adjacent Mount Ararat and
tradition that Noah founded
- Ptolemy’s Geography written in A.D. 150 referred to it potentially
showing Ararat / Araxes Valley tradition at that time
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- Petrified Wood
- A.D. 318 Allegedly Found
- 1933 Echmiadzin
- Archbishop Mesrop Photo by Carveth Wells, Kapoot
- “There was a piece of reddish-colored petrified wood, measuring about
twelve inches by nine and about an inch thick. ‘You may examine it as
much as you like,’ said the Archbishop. It was obviously petrified wood,
as the grain was clearly visible, but having expected to see a piece of
wood that was curved like the side of a boat, I remarked that I was
surprised to find it was flat. Archbishop Mesrop had a sense of humor.
He instantly remarked, ‘You have forgotten the rudder, Mr. Wells!’
- So this was the piece of wood I had come so far to see, and the thing
that so many other travelers, including Lord Bryce, had been
unsuccessful in seeing.”
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170
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171
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172
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- Noah’s Wife’s Tomb in Marand, Iran
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173
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174
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175
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- The Sumerians, one of the first civilizations in the world called Ararat
by “Arrata” in the Armenian Highlands
- In their great epic poems of Gilgamesh and King Uruk, they identify the
land of their ancestors as the Arratans in the highlands of Armenia.
- Shem and Ham’s descendants went toward Mesopotamian areas
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176
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- Language Divergence. Languages are related, as are genes. One of
thousands of examples is the word for “from, of.” It exists in French
(de), Italian (di), Spanish (de), Portuguese (de), and Romanian (de).
So, these languages, now spoken generally in southwestern Europe, are
twigs on a tree branch called the Romance languages (Romance referring
to Rome). This branch joins a larger branch that includes all languages
derived primarily from Latin. They merge with other large branches, such
as the Germanic branch that includes English, into a family called the
Indo-European languages. When these and other languages are traced back
in time, they appear to converge near Mount Ararat, a likely landing
site of Noah’s Ark. Linguists admit that they do not understand the
origin of languages, only how languages spread.
- Dr. Walt Brown, In the Beginning: Compelling Evidence for Creation and
the Flood
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177
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178
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179
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- An assumption that readers of the Bible make when they discuss how
people moved “from the east” into the plain of Shinar is that people did
that immediately after getting off the ark
- Where do the Scriptures say that there is no time between Genesis 8:4
and Genesis 11:2?
- This again is an argument from silence
- For Mount Ararat, since the Early Transcaucasian culture could have
moved down the Araxes River valleys to the Caspian and south to the
Zagros, this easily could have been a pattern
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180
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181
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182
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183
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184
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185
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- Flood begins
- Vulcanism in NW-SE elongated fault through Ararat basement complex of
granitic, trachyte rock
- Same line as the Aras river flowage, the triple peaks of Greater
Ararat, Lesser Ararat and Unnamed volcano of Iran, and parallel to
Tendürek mountains
- Lava extruded with some pillow lava occurring
- Sediments in Eastern Turkey laid down including limestones and fossils
interbedded with volcanic basalt and andesite
- Lava cooled by flood at ark landing site
- 150 days after flood start, ark landed on cooled lava of Ararat summit
- Ararat is probably a smaller mountain at the time, which enables easier
descent to Ararat Plain and Araxes Valley
- 222 days later, Noah’s family and animals leave ark traveling down the
fertile Araxes Valley toward Nakhchivan
- Japheth stays in the Transcaucasian area resulting in the
Transcaucasian culture, Europeans, etc.
- Ham & Canaan go south and southwest into the Fertile Crescent into
Mesopotamia, Levant, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya
- Shem’s descendants go to Mesha toward Sephar in the eastern mountains
and result in Elam, Assyria, Chaldeans, Lydia, etc.
- Vulcanism continues on portions of Ararat with lava flows and
pyroclastic volcanic dust (tuff) that with the pitch already on the ark
helps petrify the ark
- Ataturk University Professor Nazmi Orüc has found at least three
periods of volcanism in the Aras Valley with lava interbedded with
sediments
- Parasitic cones are at 3,300 and 3,800 meters elevation
- Perhaps hydrocarbon-containing fumes thus vented may have had a
preservative effect on the Ark as well, like creosote that is used at
the base of electric poles to keep them from rotting
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186
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- Ice Age (Quaternary Glaciation) from receding flood adds ice to Ararat
summit helping seal petrified Ark as the dome builds up higher and
higher
- More pillow lava occurs when extruded under ice, snow and melting
waters shown by spheroidal weathering
- Ararat grows under the pressure of lava possibly higher than today when
a deep-seated fracture from the intrusive force of a magmatic intrusion
of granite or trachyte or syenite causes the northeast side to explode
1-3 cubic miles of volcanic rock debris and whitish toward northeast
over 100 square miles creating the Ahora Gorge that shows the internals
of the mountain
- Doming effect is apparent when one views the same limestone formations
on all sides of Ararat as the bed dips away from the mountain on the
Turkish, Armenian, and Persian sides (previous photo)
- The original mountain is coarse-grained porphyry with a light buff
color and much pyrite indicating a deep-seated intrusive that cooled
slowly, permitting the phenocrysts to form first then the whole mass
was uplifted through the cover-rock allowing the remainder of the magma
to cool more quickly and form fine grained crystals and glass. This
inner core may represent the original mountain from creation.
- The many small "parasite" cones on the slopes helps explain
why the ark may not have been destroyed over time by volcanic activity:
the pressure was vented from those "parasite" cones, such
that there was no single main cone from which magma would spew out and
bury everything from the top down
- Ark probably broke into pieces during the violent eruption of mountain
either
- Little Ararat and other parasitic cones are of more recent origin
because it is smoother and less gullied and eroded
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- Historians are not eyewitnesses to what they wrote about Noah’s Ark
landing site
- Historians copy other historians and accounts
- Second-hand, third-hand & many-generations later accounts
- Historians try to “correlate” other writings
- Historians had many ark landing sites
- No consistent location over the millennia
- Urartu, Ararat, Nisir, Quardu, Armenia, Lubar, Baris, Parthia,
Gordian/Cordyene, Cudi
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188
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189
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190
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191
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- Noah’s Ark on high mountain like Mount Ararat could provide support for
the flood described as worldwide in the Bible, which many critics
dismiss as simply a local or regional flood.
- Historians wrote about Noah’s Ark surviving throughout history –
Berossus, Josephus, etc.
- There are dozens of “alleged eyewitnesses” from 1856 to 1989 who claim
to have seen a boat-like structure sticking out of the ice and moraine
on Mount Ararat.
- The theory, based on the purported eyewitnesses, is that after an
“extreme” melt back of the ice cap, Noah’s Ark is revealed with a
portion sticking out of the ice.
- Currently, nothing is visible on the surface of Mount Ararat. Therefore,
researchers should be proactive and use RADAR to look underneath the ice
cap today, which is 17 square miles, 14,000-17,000 feet in elevation,
and up to 300-400 feet deep in order to finish the prime research on
Mount Ararat. Ataturk University sponsors ArcImaging to complete this research
and other archaeological research in the region.
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- Ancient historians recorded location/sightings
- Berossus, Hieronymus, Nicholas of Damascus, Josephus
- Recent sightings since 1856
- Dozens of alleged eyewitnesses and they claim there were many more with
them - documented in The Explorers Of Ararat book
- Eyewitness did not know each other
- Most all eyewitnesses are now dead
- Some eyewitnesses claim to have touched and walked on Noah’s Ark
- Many eyewitnesses are W.W. II and Military veterans
- Researchers have spoken with 25-50 alleged eyewitnesses
- There are drawings, paintings, and testimonies but no photos
- Why did the 90% of alleged eyewitnesses see a boat connected with the
ice when the explorers over the past 50 years did not?
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193
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194
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195
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- It was a year without much snow—a "smooth year" or "no
snow year." There's one of those about every twenty years. We got
to the ark. My uncle dropped his pack, and together we began to haul
stones to the side of the ship. Within a short time we had stacked a
high pile of rocks against the side of the ship. "Georgie, come
here," he said, grabbing me by the arm. "You are going on top
of the holy ark." I stood up straight and looked all over the
ship. It was long. The height was about forty feet. "Look inside
the ark," my uncle called up to me. "Look for the holes. Look
for the big one. Look inside and tell me what you see.” Yes, there was
the hole, big and gaping. I peeked into the blackness of the hole, but
saw nothing. Then I knelt down and kissed the holy ark. The top of the
ark was covered with a very thin coat of fresh fallen snow. But when I
brushed some of it away I could see a green moss growing right on top.
When I pulled a piece off…it was made of wood. The grain was right
there. I remember small holes running all the way from the front to the
back. I don't know exactly how many, but there must have been at least
fifty of them running down the middle with small intervals in between.
My uncle told me these holes were for air. That roof was flat with the
exception of the narrow raised section running all the way from the bow
to the stern with all those holes in it. I remember my uncle took his
gun and shot into the side of the ark, but the bullet wouldn't
penetrate. Uncle then pulled his long hunting knif
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Notes