Archeological Evidence of Noah's Ark

This research will examine archaeological evidence associated with the story of Noah's Ark told in Genesis. The Genesis story of Noah's Ark, which describes a great flood that destroys all life and civilization except for an extended family and the extended family of livestock in its care, is premised on the idea that the family patriarch, Noah, received instructions from God to build a gigantic boat, or ark. The ark serves as home and haven, allowing Noah, family, and animals to ride out the 40-day rain and the long-term flood that follows. When the waters recede sufficiently, Noah and family return the animals to the world and then reestablish a human presence in the world. No tangible record of Noah and the flood exists except in Biblical text. However, Noah and the flood narrative have been identified with a prototype from Babylonian myth, the hero Utnapishtim, who survives the primordial deluge and passes the tale on to the Sumerian archetypal hero Gilgamesh (Campbell, Hero 186). Campbell explains that "imagery of the various creation stories of the Bible derives from a general fund of Sumero-Semitic myth, of which the Babylonian epic of Creation is an example" (Campbell, Masks 85).

The power of Biblical text to capture Western imagination, both religious and secular, in combination with absence of a fossil or other archaeological record has fostered archaeological research and speculation within the disciplines of the scientific method, including attempts to

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ricize the ark by pointing to what is described as an ark-shaped formation on the top of Mt. Ararat in Turkey, the formation having been discerned from declassified aerial photographs taken by American spy planes. Characterized as "ark-eology" by critics (e.g., Shaeffer 19), this line of evidence points to the "Ararat anomaly," the name given to the ark-shaped and keel-shaped rock formations said to be composed of petrified wood, which proves the historicity of the Noah story. Confirmation of the interpretations of the photographs has not yet been accomplished on the ground. Several expeditions to the summit of Ararat were spoiled by climber misadventure, political instability in the region (site of modern Kurdish-Turkish conflict), and/or bad weather (Toumey 14). Indeed, one former intelligence photo specialist has said that the dimensions of the Ararat formation do not conform with Biblical measurements of the ark (Shaeffer 19). Toumey makes a more general point with regard to the search for artifacts of biblical confirmation, citing an ark expedition in which former moon astronaut James Irwin participated: Irwin also was part of a recent wave of conservative Christians whose ark-hunting expeditions follow a predictable pattern:

Category: History - A