noah's ark discovered?
By Guy Gugliotta
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 13, 2000; Page A01
Archaeologists said yesterday they have discovered the remains of a man-made structure more than 300 feet below the surface of the Black Sea, providing dramatic new evidence of an apocalyptic flood 7,500 years ago that may have inspired the Biblical story of Noah.
The expedition also spotted planks, beams, tree branches and chunks of wood untouched by worms or mollusks, a strong indication that the oxygen-free waters of the Black Sea's 7,000-foot-deep abyss may shelter intact shipwrecks dating back to the dawn of seafaring.
"It is beyond our wildest imagination," explorer Robert D. Ballard, leader of the expedition, said yesterday. "Wood is existing much shallower than we thought. When we do go deep, it can only get better."
The discovery is the latest from the Black Sea project to look for ancient shipwrecks and perhaps evidence of a great flood. Late last year, the team discovered the outlines of an ancient coast 550 feet below the current waterline, the first visual evidence that a flood had occurred in the region eons ago.
This month, working from a ship 12 miles east of the Turkish port city of Synope, Ballard's team used special "side-scan" sonar to map anomalies on the sea floor, then sent a robotic submersible to investigate the most promising sites.
At 311 feet, the submersible found a collapsed rectangular building 39 feet long and 13 feet wide, "about like a good-sized barn," Ballard said in a telephone interview from the site.
University of Pennsylvania archaeologist Fredrik Hiebert described the construction technique as a "cluster of wood stuck in a clay matrix" - traditional Black Sea "wattle and daub" architecture: "This struck a bell, because it was familiar to me from land," Hiebert said. "Literally my jaw dropped."
The expedition also found old tree branches, pieces of wood and a trash heap with polished stones and other debris indicating human habitation, Ballard said.
In the same general area, the submersible identified two old shipwrecks with many intact wooden planks and ceramic amphorae - jars used in ancient times to transport liquids such as olive oil or wine. Researchers are unsure if they are from the same period or related to an ancient flooded settlement.
Archaeologists have long been interested in the Black Sea, because its waters are anoxic - lacking in oxygen - below a depth of 500 feet. In theory, organic material that shipworms quickly gobble elsewhere would lie untouched in the Black Sea's sterile depths. Later this month Ballard plans the first-ever exploration of the Black Sea floor.
Interest in the Black Sea quickened last year with the publication of "Noah's Flood," by Columbia University geologists William Ryan and Walter Pitman, suggesting that the modern-day sea was formed 7,500 years ago when melting glaciers raised sea level until the waters of the Mediterranean breached the natural dam at the Bosporus.
According to the theory, a cataclysmic deluge followed. Seawater from the Mediterranean poured into the Black Sea basin at 200 times the volume of Niagara Falls. The heavier salt water plunged to the bottom of the existing fresh water lake and began to fill the basin like a bathtub.
The theory holds that the rising lake-sea inundated and submerged thousands of square miles of land, destroying communities, killing people and wiping out uncounted species of plants and animals as the ecosystem flipped from fresh water to salt water in a period of only two years.
The flood also created a two-layered body of water, which permanently interfered with the normal convection that brings deep water to the surface for oxygenation. The less dense fresh water lay like a lid on top of the denser Mediterranean water, sterile once its original oxygen had been used up. Today the top 500 feet of the Black Sea supports a thriving marine life, but the rest is as dead as the ancient day when the flood waters settled.
Scholars regard both the book of Genesis and the story of Noah as legends written between 2,900 and 2,500 years ago, and have questioned whether any natural disaster could be conclusively identified as the inspiration for Noah's flood.
Still, the event described by Ryan and Pitman appears horrible enough to be remembered by scribes and poets long enough to become the source of the Biblical story.
"Among scholars who take the Bible literally this will be confirmation," said Hershel Shanks, editor of Biblical Archaeology Review. "Critical Bible scholars are almost unanimous in regarding the flood story as a legend. On the other hand, legends arise not out of immagination but from an experience. I don't think we'll ever know what flood that was."
Last year, Ballard's expedition, which is supported by the National Geographic Society, the Office of Naval Research, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the J.M. Kaplan Fund and the University of Pennsylvania, discovered evidence of an old coast.
tests of shell samples showed that freshwater mollusks had lived in the waters until 7,500 years ago, but had been replaced with marine species 600 years later. The next question, Ballard said, was "did anyone live here?"
On land, Hiebert's archaeological work at Synope suggested that the likeliest spot for settlements was between 165 feet and 330 feet above sea level. The "sweet spot" for pre-flood communities, therefore, should be in waters 170 feet to 435 feet deep, he said.
On Sept. 2, Ballard's team began to scan this band of territory: "if you drained it back, it would be rolling countryside with meandering streams," Ballard said. "We located the countryside, and located the river systems."
Shortly after that, they found the submerged building with intact wood about 200 feet above where they expected to find it: "Now we're looking for the neighbors," Ballard said.
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 13, 2000; Page A01
Archaeologists said yesterday they have discovered the remains of a man-made structure more than 300 feet below the surface of the Black Sea, providing dramatic new evidence of an apocalyptic flood 7,500 years ago that may have inspired the Biblical story of Noah.
The expedition also spotted planks, beams, tree branches and chunks of wood untouched by worms or mollusks, a strong indication that the oxygen-free waters of the Black Sea's 7,000-foot-deep abyss may shelter intact shipwrecks dating back to the dawn of seafaring.
"It is beyond our wildest imagination," explorer Robert D. Ballard, leader of the expedition, said yesterday. "Wood is existing much shallower than we thought. When we do go deep, it can only get better."
The discovery is the latest from the Black Sea project to look for ancient shipwrecks and perhaps evidence of a great flood. Late last year, the team discovered the outlines of an ancient coast 550 feet below the current waterline, the first visual evidence that a flood had occurred in the region eons ago.
This month, working from a ship 12 miles east of the Turkish port city of Synope, Ballard's team used special "side-scan" sonar to map anomalies on the sea floor, then sent a robotic submersible to investigate the most promising sites.
At 311 feet, the submersible found a collapsed rectangular building 39 feet long and 13 feet wide, "about like a good-sized barn," Ballard said in a telephone interview from the site.
University of Pennsylvania archaeologist Fredrik Hiebert described the construction technique as a "cluster of wood stuck in a clay matrix" - traditional Black Sea "wattle and daub" architecture: "This struck a bell, because it was familiar to me from land," Hiebert said. "Literally my jaw dropped."
The expedition also found old tree branches, pieces of wood and a trash heap with polished stones and other debris indicating human habitation, Ballard said.
In the same general area, the submersible identified two old shipwrecks with many intact wooden planks and ceramic amphorae - jars used in ancient times to transport liquids such as olive oil or wine. Researchers are unsure if they are from the same period or related to an ancient flooded settlement.
Archaeologists have long been interested in the Black Sea, because its waters are anoxic - lacking in oxygen - below a depth of 500 feet. In theory, organic material that shipworms quickly gobble elsewhere would lie untouched in the Black Sea's sterile depths. Later this month Ballard plans the first-ever exploration of the Black Sea floor.
Interest in the Black Sea quickened last year with the publication of "Noah's Flood," by Columbia University geologists William Ryan and Walter Pitman, suggesting that the modern-day sea was formed 7,500 years ago when melting glaciers raised sea level until the waters of the Mediterranean breached the natural dam at the Bosporus.
According to the theory, a cataclysmic deluge followed. Seawater from the Mediterranean poured into the Black Sea basin at 200 times the volume of Niagara Falls. The heavier salt water plunged to the bottom of the existing fresh water lake and began to fill the basin like a bathtub.
The theory holds that the rising lake-sea inundated and submerged thousands of square miles of land, destroying communities, killing people and wiping out uncounted species of plants and animals as the ecosystem flipped from fresh water to salt water in a period of only two years.
The flood also created a two-layered body of water, which permanently interfered with the normal convection that brings deep water to the surface for oxygenation. The less dense fresh water lay like a lid on top of the denser Mediterranean water, sterile once its original oxygen had been used up. Today the top 500 feet of the Black Sea supports a thriving marine life, but the rest is as dead as the ancient day when the flood waters settled.
Scholars regard both the book of Genesis and the story of Noah as legends written between 2,900 and 2,500 years ago, and have questioned whether any natural disaster could be conclusively identified as the inspiration for Noah's flood.
Still, the event described by Ryan and Pitman appears horrible enough to be remembered by scribes and poets long enough to become the source of the Biblical story.
"Among scholars who take the Bible literally this will be confirmation," said Hershel Shanks, editor of Biblical Archaeology Review. "Critical Bible scholars are almost unanimous in regarding the flood story as a legend. On the other hand, legends arise not out of immagination but from an experience. I don't think we'll ever know what flood that was."
Last year, Ballard's expedition, which is supported by the National Geographic Society, the Office of Naval Research, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the J.M. Kaplan Fund and the University of Pennsylvania, discovered evidence of an old coast.
tests of shell samples showed that freshwater mollusks had lived in the waters until 7,500 years ago, but had been replaced with marine species 600 years later. The next question, Ballard said, was "did anyone live here?"
On land, Hiebert's archaeological work at Synope suggested that the likeliest spot for settlements was between 165 feet and 330 feet above sea level. The "sweet spot" for pre-flood communities, therefore, should be in waters 170 feet to 435 feet deep, he said.
On Sept. 2, Ballard's team began to scan this band of territory: "if you drained it back, it would be rolling countryside with meandering streams," Ballard said. "We located the countryside, and located the river systems."
Shortly after that, they found the submerged building with intact wood about 200 feet above where they expected to find it: "Now we're looking for the neighbors," Ballard said.
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oh great...not again! how many arks are there now![:D] 0 -
I remember when that story first came out.. 0 -
From 2000.
The point is ??
Doug0 -
Doesn't the ark only come around every 7 years? 0 -
Ok, they found a "wooden stucture" in the Black Sea. And then have headlines proclaiming it as possibly Noah's Ark? Then give 0 evidence to support such a claim in the text?
Well I guess it possibly is. VERY VERY REMOTE POSSIBILITY. Looks to me like someone wanted a headline. I guess it doesn't matter these days if it's TRUE.0 -
I can't wait till they discover the real Mount Olympus where the actual Zues and Apollo lived. I wonder if they'd find any spare lighting bolts Zues had left over. 0 -
I have always wondered just how improved our lives could have been had Noah swatted those two mosquitoes..... 0 -
It's Jesus's tool shed.
He was a carpenter, you know.0 -
I thought Noah anchored-up on top of a mountain. I never heard any story about it sinking... 0
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