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Noah's Ark 'Was a Massive Double-Decker Coracle'
International Business Times ^ | 15 Dec 2013 | Fiona Keating

Posted on 12/16/2013 10:52:52 AM PST by Theoria

New evidence suggests that Noah's Ark was round, made from reeds and the length of six double-decker buses.

For years, archaeologists have scoured the world for factual evidence for the Bible story of Noah's flood, but due to scant documentation, many believe the fable to be an Old Testament myth.

Now, however, a new book claims that Noah's Ark was a round coracle and looked very different from its traditional image.

In The Ark Before: Decoding the Story of the Flood by Irving Finkel, there are claims that the vessel had two decks with cabins for the animals.

British Museum expert Dr Irving Finkel reveals how decoding the symbols on a 4,000-year-old piece of clay enabled a new interpretation of the Noah's Ark myth.

The evidence comes from a 4,700-year-old tablet of clay covered in cuneiform writing, which contains "detailed instruction manual for building an ark," says Finkel, an assistant keeper of the ancient Mesopotamian script, languages and cultures department at the British Museum.

Finkel, an expert in deciphering ancient cuneiform script, discovered the text contained instructions for building a round coracle 65 metres in diameter, with walls six metres high. It was apparently made from ropes and rushes waterproofed with bitumen, and the animals were loaded "two by two", according to the Sunday Times.

The tablet was originally found in the Middle East by Leonard Simmons, who served in the RAF from 1945-48. However, the ancient artefact wasn't subject to any research until Simmons's son Douglas took it to the British Museum in 2008.

(Excerpt) Read more at ibtimes.co.uk ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: 300manyearsoflabor; ark; beforenoah; beforethebible; catastrophism; coracle; cuneiform; epigraphyandlanguage; godsgravesglyphs; greatflood; irvingfinkel; noah; noahsarc; noahsark; reed
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To: El Cid

What’s Gopher Wood?


101 posted on 12/16/2013 1:06:05 PM PST by Natufian (t)
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To: Theoria

How did the two kiwi birds, which have no wings and cannot swim, get off of the ark and get down to New Zealand; and they are not found anywhere else in the world. Never mind the all of the different species of kangaroos found only in Australia.


102 posted on 12/16/2013 1:07:23 PM PST by forgotten man
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To: gdani
Never mind the size of the Ark - how did he keep the animals from killing each other & the humans?

According to Genesis 1, man and all the animals were vegetarians:

Genesis 1:29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

This changed after the flood. In Genesis 9:

Genesis 9:2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.

3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.

103 posted on 12/16/2013 1:10:13 PM PST by Ol' Dan Tucker (People should not be afraid of the government. Government should be afraid of the people)
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To: El Cid

My father is a preacher so I did take it literally for about 10 years, too long by my estimation. The bumping my head off walls of logic (or illogic) is enlightening, not frightening.


104 posted on 12/16/2013 1:11:54 PM PST by Fuzz
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To: forgotten man

They hitched a ride with Noah’s 8 descendants who populated the entire planet. Coconuts don’t migrate, however.


105 posted on 12/16/2013 1:13:30 PM PST by Fuzz
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To: Natufian
What’s Gopher Wood?

Another, 'I don't know'.

Could be plywood, composite wood ... or maybe it was some special super-dooper water resistant wood that no longer exists.
I thought the 'pitching' inside and out was the important part to ensure the water proof seal, but maybe the gopher wood (whatever that was) was also important.

106 posted on 12/16/2013 1:16:05 PM PST by El Cid (Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house...)
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To: Fuzz
How could 100 different cultures scattered throughout the world have the same story if the only people that survived were from just one of those cultures?

Genesis 11:11 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.

2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.

3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.

4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.

6 And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.

8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.

9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

107 posted on 12/16/2013 1:16:08 PM PST by Ol' Dan Tucker (People should not be afraid of the government. Government should be afraid of the people)
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To: Repeat Offender

“all with knowledge of the flood. “

But all of them (except one) forgot about Noah. Seems strange given that he’s the central character and hero of the story.


108 posted on 12/16/2013 1:16:58 PM PST by Natufian (t)
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To: GeronL
Isn’t the way they usually built things back then?

I believe so. "Rivets" seemed out of place.

109 posted on 12/16/2013 1:17:58 PM PST by tacticalogic
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To: Fuzz
My father is a preacher so I did take it literally for about 10 years, too long by my estimation.

I am sorry that you came to a point to reject the truth. Hopefully it is just a rebellious phase.

110 posted on 12/16/2013 1:18:57 PM PST by El Cid (Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house...)
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To: El Cid

Gopher wood?

I had the same question of why they were ignoring the detailed instructions in the Bible.


111 posted on 12/16/2013 1:19:28 PM PST by OldNewYork (I have voted against free ice cream. And I will do it again.)
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To: Repeat Offender

Not forgetting the Egyptians who have a written history that precedes, is co-existent with, and which continues uninterruptedly after the time of the Flood, yet somehow they were unaware of that catastrophic global event. Not forgetting the Chinese who also have no memory of such a flood.


112 posted on 12/16/2013 1:19:36 PM PST by Natufian (t)
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To: Natufian
But all of them (except one) forgot about Noah. Seems strange given that he’s the central character and hero of the story.

It is not a big deal that different cultures called Noah by different names. Utnapishtim from Sumeria, Menu from India, Nu-ah from China, etc.

113 posted on 12/16/2013 1:22:55 PM PST by El Cid (Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house...)
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To: El Cid

I’ll take my chances with explanations that don’t defy credulity, especially when I’m specifically asked to reject logic.


114 posted on 12/16/2013 1:23:15 PM PST by Fuzz
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To: MrB

That was my point to molsen209 in post #3.

I don’t use the /sarc tag in cases like this....


115 posted on 12/16/2013 1:24:05 PM PST by G Larry (Let his days be few; and let another take his office. Psalms 109:8)
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To: Rebelbase

Where is that?


116 posted on 12/16/2013 1:24:50 PM PST by Lady Heron
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To: Theoria

What I really came here to say was that Genesis is pretty clear on the dimensions....which do NOT result in a circular ark.

“Right.....What’s a cubit”

“Let me see....I used to know....”


117 posted on 12/16/2013 1:26:06 PM PST by G Larry (Let his days be few; and let another take his office. Psalms 109:8)
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To: Fuzz

The world is a hologram!!!

/sarc


118 posted on 12/16/2013 1:26:56 PM PST by GeronL (Extra Large Cheesy Over-Stuffed Hobbit)
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To: Fuzz
Coconuts don’t migrate, however.

They could have been carried by swallows.

119 posted on 12/16/2013 1:27:01 PM PST by sportutegrl
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To: GrandJediMasterYoda

Comes out in March. I supplied most of the wood to build the two arks.
http://www.braylog.com/id41.html

Pray America is Waking


120 posted on 12/16/2013 1:28:41 PM PST by bray (Repeal Obamacare)
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