# So, Has NOAH's ARK Been Found? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 20, 2006, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-noahs-ark-been-found/361488 "2006-06-20T21:54:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sequent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dbc845/32.png) [@Sequent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sequent)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2006, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-noahs-ark-been-found/361488/21 "2006-06-21T21:56:32Z")
[QUOTE=CynicalGabe] I think someone found a piece of wood a few years back and claimed it was ancient. [/QUOTE] Correction: [proved it was ancient](http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/CH/CH504_2.html)…just not quite ancient enough to be, uh, Noah’s wood. :rolleyes: But as the link suggests, we’re not even sure who put the wood there in the first place. I bought some of those dirt-encrusted ancient Roman coins off eBay for a few bucks a while back and planted them in my backyard; once they germinate, they will be conclusive proof of Caesar’s Missouri Conquest. ---
**Author:** ![Will\_Repair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a698b9/32.png) [@Will\_Repair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Will_Repair)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2006, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-noahs-ark-been-found/361488/22 "2006-06-21T22:21:56Z")
[QUOTE=happywaffle] Yeah, not to jack the thread, but what’s the story on the Black Sea flooding being the origin of the Flood Story in all the cultures? [/QUOTE] [Another flood](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/megaflood/) which may have spread the world wide flood story. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2006, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-noahs-ark-been-found/361488/23 "2006-06-21T22:45:56Z")
[QUOTE=Will Repair] [Another flood](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/megaflood/) which may have spread the world wide flood story. [/QUOTE] I saw that episode of NOVA in High Def 🙂 While spectacular, it wasn’t close to world-wide, but could account for North American flood accounts. Catastrophies have had a much greater impact on human history than we realize. Even if it wasn’t one single event. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2006, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-noahs-ark-been-found/361488/24 "2006-06-21T22:50:58Z")
[QUOTE=Will Repair] [Another flood](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/megaflood/) which may have spread the world wide flood story. [/QUOTE] I saw that episode of NOVA in High Def 🙂 While spectacular, it wasn’t close to world-wide, but could account for North American flood accounts. Catastrophies have had a much greater impact on human history than we realize. Even if it wasn’t one single event. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2006, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-noahs-ark-been-found/361488/25 "2006-06-22T01:25:45Z")
Has anyone used Google Earth to zoom in on the ark? ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2026, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-noahs-ark-been-found/361488/26 "2026-10-02T18:59:04Z")
All you scoffers are going to feel like a right bunch of silly-billies very very soon: > **[Noah’s Ark Hunters Testing for Wood After Drilling Mission](https://www.newsweek.com/noahs-ark-hunters-say-they-havent-found-ancient-wood-yet-12494934)** ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2026, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-noahs-ark-been-found/361488/27 "2026-10-02T19:57:49Z")
Mount Ararat or Agri has nothing to do with the “mountains of Ararat” (note plural) mentioned in the Bible as the resting place of Noah’s ark. The name Ararat was not applied to the mountain until medieval times, probably due to confusion with the name Ayrarat. If Noah’s ark were actually found on Mount Ararat (and I am willing to place a large bet on the fact that that won’t happen), it would prove that the Biblical account of the ark’s resting place is erroneous. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2026, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-noahs-ark-been-found/361488/28 "2026-10-02T20:02:57Z")
The word itself makes some men uncomfortable. Durupınar formation. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2026, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-noahs-ark-been-found/361488/29 "2026-10-02T20:10:58Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > Durupınar Ah, yes. From the ancient Ugaritic, meaning: “Drop me off here. I’ll walk.” ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2026, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-noahs-ark-been-found/361488/30 "2026-10-02T20:15:55Z")
I have a hunch that Captain Kidd’s treasure is on Mount Ararat and Noah’s ark is on Oak Island. ---
**Author:** ![Ancient\_Nerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed655f/32.png) [@Ancient\_Nerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ancient_Nerd)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2026, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-noahs-ark-been-found/361488/31 "2026-10-02T20:27:01Z")
There was a TV special a few decades back. They had a satellite picture of Mt. Ararat. They zoomed in on a single dark pixel and tried to claim that it was the ark. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2026, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-noahs-ark-been-found/361488/32 "2026-10-02T20:27:14Z")
Not to be a wet blanket, but being as we are supposed to be fighting ignorance here, shouldn’t we forgo the ‘ship on a mountain’ bit and go straight to the ‘it’s impossible to repopulate the world with it’s diversity from a handful of one-breeding-pair of animals’? > [@CynicalGabe](#): > > I think someone found a piece of wood a few years back and claimed it was ancient. I think someone also claimed to have “found” jewelry 30’ down the Oak Island pit, too. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2026, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-noahs-ark-been-found/361488/33 "2026-10-02T20:36:28Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > shouldn’t we forgo the ‘ship on a mountain’ I would hope so, but then I have a notoriously averse attitude towards religious writings. If one follows those writings, one is going to be eager to find evidence of their truth, even as one reminds everyone that it is the faith in those truths that is the most important thing, and that the lack of evidence makes the faith more pure. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2026, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-noahs-ark-been-found/361488/34 "2026-10-02T20:44:19Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > and go straight to the ‘it’s impossible to repopulate the world with it’s diversity from a handful of one-breeding-pair of animals’? God did it. A friend of mine once said it was a mistake for the religious types to ever start trying to “prove” God using science, because science is always open to question, while a faith-based appeal to authority really can’t be challenged. “God said it, I believe it, that settles it” was always their strongest weapon, and they’ve abandoned it. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2026, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-noahs-ark-been-found/361488/35 "2026-10-02T20:46:07Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > shouldn’t we forgo the ‘ship on a mountain’ bit and go straight to the ‘it’s impossible to repopulate the world with it’s diversity from a handful of one-breeding-pair of animals’? Yes indeed. Wouldn’t DNA on modern animals show they all had a common ancestor from a few thousand years ago? (And I look forward to a diagram showing how the elephants, rhinos, giraffes, buffalo etc were all fitted in (plus the food stores and fresh water for everybody…) ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2026, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-noahs-ark-been-found/361488/36 "2026-10-02T20:46:46Z")
> [@Ancient\_Nerd](#): > > There was a TV special a few decades back. They had a satellite picture of Mt. Ararat. They zoomed in on a single dark pixel and tried to claim that it was the ark. That was a 1993 special on CBS called _The Incredible Discovery of Noah’s Ark_. It was a follow up by the same Mormon production company (Sunn Classic Pictures - don’t forget the extra n. _Sun_ Classic Pictures was a porn publisher) that made the _In Search of Noah’s Ark_ theatrical release in the 1970s. > The special included a section devoted to the claims of George Jammal, who showed what he called “sacred wood from the ark.” Jammal’s story of a dramatic mountain expedition which took the life of “his Polish friend Vladimir” was actually a deliberate hoax concocted with scholar [Gerald Larue](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_A._Larue#Noah's_Ark_Hoax "Gerald A. Larue"). Jammal – who was really an actor – later revealed that his “sacred wood” was taken from railroad tracks in [Long Beach, California](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Beach,_California "Long Beach, California") and hardened by cooking with various sauces in an oven. - [[In Search of Noah's Ark - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Search_of_Noah's_Ark)] ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2026, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-noahs-ark-been-found/361488/37 "2026-10-02T20:49:34Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > ‘it’s impossible to repopulate the world with it’s diversity from a handful of one-breeding-pair of animals’? That’s not quite what the Bible says though. It says inconsistently that Noah took a pair of each animal (Gen 6:19), and also that he took a pair each of “unclean” animals, but of clean animals and birds he took seven (or seven pairs) each (Gen 7:2). This inconsistency is the result of redacting two different traditions, the Priestly source P which specified a single rule for all animals, and the Yahwist source J which specified different handling for clean and unclean animals. Both traditions were well known when the redactor composed the blended text, so rather than deleting one he just awkwardly kept both of them. (Not that it would be possible to repopulate Earth’s fauna with just seven pairs of each species either.) ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2026, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-noahs-ark-been-found/361488/38 "2026-10-02T21:03:13Z")
> [@happywaffle](#): > > the origin of the Flood Story in all the cultures? Knowing this is an old post, but, There isn’t a “Flood Story” in all cultures, and in the ones that do have a flood myth, most of the time, it includes elements that are not in the Biblical account. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2026, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-noahs-ark-been-found/361488/39 "2026-10-02T21:14:51Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > (Not that it would be possible to repopulate Earth’s fauna with just seven pairs of each species either.) Which is the relevant part. ---
**Author:** ![Ancient\_Nerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed655f/32.png) [@Ancient\_Nerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ancient_Nerd)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2026, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-noahs-ark-been-found/361488/40 "2026-10-02T21:16:03Z")
> [@crowmanyclouds](#): > > There isn’t a “Flood Story” in all cultures, and in the ones that do have a flood myth, most of the time, it includes elements that are not in the Biblical account. Sea level rose by a hundred meters or so at the end of the last glacial period. Spoken language existed at the time so it makes sense that accounts would appear in verbal traditions in various forms. We could expect significant distortions in the stories over the years. There would be a lot of places that used to be there but are gone now. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-noahs-ark-been-found/361488.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-noahs-ark-been-found/361488.md?page=3)