Posted on 06/30/2006 8:26:43 AM PDT by DannyTN
Team believes it found Noah's Ark Returns from Iranian mountain with petrified wood, marine fossils
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: June 30, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
A 14-man crew that included evangelical apologist Josh McDowell says it returned from a trek to a mountain in Iran with possible evidence of the remains of Noah's Ark.
The group, led by explorer Bob Cornuke, found an unusual object perched on a slope 13,120 feet above sea level.
Cornuke, president of the archeological Base Institute and a veteran of nearly 30 expeditions in search of Bible artifacts and locations, said he is cautiously, but enthusiastically, optimistic about the find.
Some of the team's photos can be seen here.
Also on the team were Barry Rand, former CEO of Avis; Boone Powell, former CEO of Baylor Medical Systems; and Arch Bonnema, president of Joshua Financial.
The team returned with video footage of a large black formation, about 400 feet long – the length of the ark, according to the Bible – that looks like rock but bears the image of hundreds of massive, wooden, hand-hewn beams.
Bonnema observed: "These beams not only look like petrified wood, they are so impressive that they look like real wood – this is an amazing discovery that may be the oldest shipwreck in recorded history."
The team said one piece of the blackened rock is "cut" at 90-degree angle.
Sealed with pitch
Even more intriguing, they said, some of the wood-like rocks tested this week proved to be petrified wood.
It's noteworthy, they pointed out, that the Bible recounts Noah sealed his ark with pitch, a black substance.
When the retrieved pieces were cut open, a marine fossil was discovered. In the area around the object, the team found thousands of fossilized sea shells, and Cornuke brought back a one-inch thick rock slab replete with fossilized clams.
With the discovery of wood splinters and broken pottery at the remote 15,300-foot level, the team says it also found evidence that ancients considered it an important worship site for hundreds, if not thousands of years.
Cornuke became involved in the search for the ark after meeting Apollo 15 astronaut James Irwin, participating with him in several searches on Mount Ararat in Turkey, but with disappointing results.
Cornuke began looking elsewhere, after finding clues in the Bible such as Genesis 11's reference to descendants of Noah coming to the Mesopotamian valley from the east. Cornuke believes that would put the biblical mountains of Ararat somewhere in northern Iran.
He also points to ancient historians such as Nicholas of Damascus and Flavius Josephus who wrote, just before and after Christ, that timbers of the ark had survived in the higher mountains of present-day Iran.
Cornuke noted that during World War II, an American Army officer and road construction engineer in Iran named Ed Davis said he saw the ark on a high mountain in the country after being led there by Iranian friends. After the war, according to Cornuke, Davis passed a lie detector test affirming he saw timbers from an ark-like object.
Before his death, Davis gave Cornuke a map showing the way to the object.
"It was right where Ed said it was in his map," Cornuke said. "After seeing it from a distance, I thought it at first unimpressive, but once we stood on the object we were all amazed at how it looked just like a huge pile of black and brown stone beams."
Noah tours
Cornuke's is the latest of many expeditions – most of them at Turkey's Mount Ararat – in search of Noah's Ark.
As WorldNetDaily reported, a new travel website is promoting summer tours to a Turkish site near Mount Ararat believed by many to be the fossilized remains of Noah's Ark.
Many believe this is Noah's Ark, already found on a mountain next to Mt. Ararat (courtesy: wyattmuseum.com)
Noah's Ark Holidays, which bills itself as an "ethical travel referral website" is behind the offer, with a pitch for the location in Dogubayazit, Turkey.
The late Ron Wyatt, whose Tennessee-based foundation, Wyatt Archaeological Research, also believed the ark is located at Dogubayazit, some 12-15 miles from Ararat.
Meanwhile, as WorldNetDaily reported in March, others who believe the vessel is on Ararat itself became excited with the release of a new, high-resolution digital image of what has become known as the "Ararat Anomaly."
Satellite image of 'Ararat Anomaly,' taken by DigitalGlobe's QuickBird Satellite in 2003 and made public for the first time in March 2006 (courtesy: DigitalGlobe)
The location of the anomaly on the mountain's northwest corner has been under investigation from afar by ark hunters for years, but it has remained unexplored, with the government of Turkey not granting any scientific expedition permission to explore on site.
In both the Old and New Testaments, the Bible speaks of Noah and the ark, and Jesus Christ and the apostles Paul and Peter all make reference to Noah's flood as an actual historical event.
According to Genesis, Noah was a righteous man who was instructed by God to construct a large vessel to hold his family and many species of animals, as a massive deluge was coming to purify the world which had become corrupt.
'Noah's Ark' by Pennsylvania artist Edward Hicks, 1846
Genesis 6:5 states: "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."
Noah was told by God to take aboard seven pairs of each of the "clean" animals – that is to say, those permissible to eat – and two each of the "unclean" variety. (Gen. 7:2)
Though the Bible says it rained for 40 days and 40 nights, it also mentions "the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and fifty days."
The ark then "rested" upon the mountains of Ararat, but it was still months before Noah and his family – his wife, his three sons and the sons' wives – were able to leave the ark and begin replenishing the world.
There are (and were) many Byzantine era shrines in the Dead Sea area to St. Lot. The Pillar of Salt is mentioned by quite a few people that traveled to that area. In fact, there are still formations called "Lot's wife" of large salt pillars that are very popular tourist destinations.
As to the Ark, well part of me really hopes it is true. Kind of a dream of mine. But I doubt it. Most old accounts of the ark place it in what is now Turkey (Plato, Eusubias, etc), so Iran isn't that probable.
You're not factoring in the God effect.
How did Jesus feed the multitude with just a few fish and a couple of loaves?
You cannot apply natural laws to God.
I don't know, I wasn't there.
"What about Helen Thomas? "
Is she a living thing? Does she breathe? If not, she wouldn't have had to have been on the ark. Does she breathe? Is she even an earth creature? Demons wouldn't have needed to be on the ark.
Interesting. Wonderful.
I'm not sure what a world wide flood that covers the tops of the highest mountains looks like. I don't know what geological processes occurred during the flood or afterwards either, but it sounds like they were intense with "mountains rising and valleys falling".
"Ever think that the flood story is a lesson that was not to be taken as a literal event?"
No because Jesus refers to them as real. If there was a misconception, I think He would have corrected it or at the very least not perpetuated it.
The following article provides scripture references for Jesus's comments regarding the flood. In addition, it lists several evidences for the flood and refutes the claim that it was only a local flood.
Was the flood global?
The apostle Peter in 2 Peter 3 even warned that people would assume that "all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation" and thereby forget creation and the flood.
But again, what you think is irrelevant and likely incorrect. Who are we to guess or second-guess the infinitely complex reasoning of God. Just because it seems reasonable to you does not make it reasonable to God.
Any geologist can quickly recognize that this rock is not from wood and is not related in any way to an 'ark'.
I'm sure there are perfectly logical reasons for finding a 400-foot long boat 15,000 feet above sea level. (/sarcasm, I think)
I posted some articles in this thread on rapid petrification of wood. But I don't claim that the conditions on the mountain mimic the conditions necessary for rapid petrification.
If they really did find petrified wood up there, then there are only three possibiliities. Either the wood petrified in place up there by some process. Petrified wood was carried up there. Or the wood was petrified prior to that rock being elevated to mountain status.
If a nail you're seeing is just a tiny bit below and to the left of dead center, I don't believe that's a nail, but I'm not sure what it is.
If you go the article linked in post 15, you find that they had a geologist with them who said the following...
Reg Lyle, oil and gas geologist said “the object appears to be a basalt dike, however, it is absolutely uncanny that the object looks like hand hewn timbers, even the grain and color look just like petrified wood….I really need to keep an open mind about this.”
But they are also reporting that tests run on the samples of the rock they brought back are showing it to be petrified wood.
*She is the sole evidence supporting the hopeful monster theory
A basalt dike, eh? Well, this would be the first basalt dike ever seen with stratification and layering!
Basalt is igneous in origin; this is a metamorphosed sedimentary rock formation. And if you were to follow it back in the mountainside, it would extend far longer than any imaginable ark, for 1000's of yards, maybe miles.
The qualifications of this Lyle 'geologist' are extremely suspect. Making so simple an error about a basalt dike would get him flunked in every freshman geology course.
Dikes come from intruded magma, like, y'know, it's hot. Dikes then always cause each side to show signs of baking, that is, mineral alteration of the country rock. Evidence of this? Hmm. Lyle is either a complete phony (follow the money from his speaking tour!) or is so blinded by desire-to-believe that he is incapable of honest judgment.
Oh, it is probably galvanized, stainless steel or titanium. Noah would not have used common iron if he was thinking about leaving evidence for the ages. /sarc/
In that hour, he that shall be on the housetop, and his goods in the house, let him not go down to take them away: and he that shall be in the field, in like manner, let him not return back. Remember Lot's wife.
*I gotta go with Jesus one this one :)
If Constantine's mother Helen didn't find this artifact, I don't believe it. :-)
There is an ark story that puts the ark in the region of Kashmir after it was driven up along the valley of the Indus River which is present day Pakistan.
Yes I read the article you linked to. But that was a very unique situation where the wood was submerged into a volcanic pool which is loaded with dissolved minerals, and it certainly is not the way most petrified wood is formed.
My guess is that this find in Iran is not petrified wood. But even if it is, it can be dated by radiometric dating, and it would have to test out as being 4,000 years old or less to remain a candidate for being the ark.
And then there's the problem that exposed wood does not petrify. That's not how the process works.
Way too many problems with this story, in my opinion.
There is an ark-like, flood story in 100 or more creation myths from various human societies.
Let them all be compared and see if Genesis can hold. Teach the controversy!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.