Archaeologist Responds: Do Prehistoric Sites on Mount Ararat Represent Noah’s Ark?

Archaeologist discusses the association between recently discovered prehistoric sites on Mount Ararat and the account of Noah’s Ark in the Torah (Old Testament) and Quran.

Beginning in 2010, Dr. Joel Klenck, Harvard University educated archaeologist and president of the archaeological contract firm PRC, Inc., surveyed prehistoric sites on Mount Ararat in eastern Anatolia and analyzed their material assemblages. These sites are associated with the Biblical and Quranic accounts of Noah’s Ark by several religious organizations. Here, the archaeologist discusses if the prehistoric sites represent the remains of the legendary Noah’s Ark.

Klenck states, “In essence, the association between the prehistoric sites on Mount Ararat and Noah’s Ark involves two questions. The first question is whether the archaeological features on Mount Ararat correlate with aspects of the various accounts of Noah’s Ark in the Torah (Old Testament), Quran, and other sightings in history? My answer to this question: Yes. The monumental wood structure and its artifacts correlate nicely with Ark stories and comprise a three-story structure, made of mostly cypress wood, with an array of botanical remains including wild grains and legumes.

The site possesses an archaeological assemblage of great antiquity with architectural features exhibiting coats of pitch, walls angling outward, mortise-and-tenon features, cross-beams at all levels of construction, with animal dung in the interior of the edifice. The origins of the site are from the Late Epipaleolithic (13,100 to 9,600 B.C.) / Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (9,600-8,500 B.C.) transition or the change from the Stone Age to the beginning of agricultural communities.

Modern science had determined that this period associates with a transition from the Younger Dryas, a cool and dry period, to a very wet ‘pluvial’ period where sea levels increased throughout the world, several land masses such as Doggerland were covered with water, and deserts such as the Sahara and Atacama exhibited rivers and lakes.” [...] sbwire.com

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