Ark Discovered?
After 4,800 years, the mystery is over at last: Noah's Ark has been found, and it's sitting 13,000 feet above sea level near the peak of Turkey's Mount Ararat.
At least, that's what an evangelical Christian organization calling itself Noah's Ark Ministries International is now trumpeting with near-total certainty.
"It's not 100 percent that it is Noah's Ark, but we think it is 99.9 percent that this is it," Yeung Wing-Cheung, a filmmaker who was part of the 15-member team that recently unearthed the presumed remains of the ark, told Fox News.
Carbon dating of the seven wooden compartments discovered beneath the snow on Mount Ararat -- long thought by believers to be the ark's final resting place -- shows they are about 5,000 years old, the group says. That would put its construction at right about the time the Bible says God flooded the earth, instructing Noah to save himself, his family and two of every animal species aboard a floating ark.
News of the find has the Web buzzing, with excitement among the faithful being tempered by skepticism from other quarters. This, after all, is not the first time the legendary ark has been "discovered":
In 2006, a national security analyst reported a "new and significant development" in the quest for the ark: a high-resolution satellite image of the northwest corner of Mount Ararat, where ark hunters had long been intrigued by a large, ice-submerged "anomaly." Not only was the anomaly thought to be the site of the ark's landing, but its proportions seemed to match almost perfectly the Bible's description of Noah's vessel. Despite the similarities, other observers argued the anomaly was an oddly shaped rock formation, or even just shadows.
In 1993, CBS aired a documentary hailing the discovery of Noah's Ark, also on Ararat. It turned out that "The Incredible Discovery of Noah's Ark" was predicated largely on evidence provided by one George Jammal, who later acknowledged having made the whole thing up, "discovering" his small wooden bits of ark along some California railroad tracks.
In 1955, a French explorer named Fernand Navarra claimed to have found a wooden beam from the ark on Ararat. His report was buoyed by a Spanish forestry organization that dated the beam at 5,000 years old. But Navarra's guide on the ascent later said the explorer had hauled the 5-foot-long plank up the mountain with him.
In the 1930s, a German newspaper published an April Fools' Day story citing a successful ark-hunting expedition that included one academic from "Yalevard University" and another named "Prof. Stoneass." The story was later translated and reprinted in a Russian newspaper. In the early 1970s, the American ark enthusiast Eryl Cummings investigated the theory that the story was, in fact, authentic, and the silly names simply translation errors.
And Noah's Ark is far from the only biblical artifact that continues to spur excitement and debate. Consider the Shroud of Turin, a linen that some believe was laid over Jesus' body at the time of his burial, or the supposed discovery of the Garden of Eden last year in Kurdistan.
It's no surprise then, that we've seen a number of biblical hoaxes, too. For instance:
In 1990, a silver cross bearing an early Christian symbol was discovered in the United Kingdom. The Chi-Rho Amulet was thought to be among the most significant of early Christian finds until, in 2008, an inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry test determined that it was, in fact, a fake dating from the 19th century.
The trial of an accused Israeli forger has dragged on now for three years after accusations he knowingly put forward a forged ossuary bearing the inscription "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus." Many scholars have pronounced the limestone bone box a fraud, though some still proclaim its authenticity. The jury, as it were, is still out. See Chick's KILLER STORM.
At least, that's what an evangelical Christian organization calling itself Noah's Ark Ministries International is now trumpeting with near-total certainty.
"It's not 100 percent that it is Noah's Ark, but we think it is 99.9 percent that this is it," Yeung Wing-Cheung, a filmmaker who was part of the 15-member team that recently unearthed the presumed remains of the ark, told Fox News.
Carbon dating of the seven wooden compartments discovered beneath the snow on Mount Ararat -- long thought by believers to be the ark's final resting place -- shows they are about 5,000 years old, the group says. That would put its construction at right about the time the Bible says God flooded the earth, instructing Noah to save himself, his family and two of every animal species aboard a floating ark.
News of the find has the Web buzzing, with excitement among the faithful being tempered by skepticism from other quarters. This, after all, is not the first time the legendary ark has been "discovered":
In 2006, a national security analyst reported a "new and significant development" in the quest for the ark: a high-resolution satellite image of the northwest corner of Mount Ararat, where ark hunters had long been intrigued by a large, ice-submerged "anomaly." Not only was the anomaly thought to be the site of the ark's landing, but its proportions seemed to match almost perfectly the Bible's description of Noah's vessel. Despite the similarities, other observers argued the anomaly was an oddly shaped rock formation, or even just shadows.
In 1993, CBS aired a documentary hailing the discovery of Noah's Ark, also on Ararat. It turned out that "The Incredible Discovery of Noah's Ark" was predicated largely on evidence provided by one George Jammal, who later acknowledged having made the whole thing up, "discovering" his small wooden bits of ark along some California railroad tracks.
In 1955, a French explorer named Fernand Navarra claimed to have found a wooden beam from the ark on Ararat. His report was buoyed by a Spanish forestry organization that dated the beam at 5,000 years old. But Navarra's guide on the ascent later said the explorer had hauled the 5-foot-long plank up the mountain with him.
In the 1930s, a German newspaper published an April Fools' Day story citing a successful ark-hunting expedition that included one academic from "Yalevard University" and another named "Prof. Stoneass." The story was later translated and reprinted in a Russian newspaper. In the early 1970s, the American ark enthusiast Eryl Cummings investigated the theory that the story was, in fact, authentic, and the silly names simply translation errors.
And Noah's Ark is far from the only biblical artifact that continues to spur excitement and debate. Consider the Shroud of Turin, a linen that some believe was laid over Jesus' body at the time of his burial, or the supposed discovery of the Garden of Eden last year in Kurdistan.
It's no surprise then, that we've seen a number of biblical hoaxes, too. For instance:
In 1990, a silver cross bearing an early Christian symbol was discovered in the United Kingdom. The Chi-Rho Amulet was thought to be among the most significant of early Christian finds until, in 2008, an inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry test determined that it was, in fact, a fake dating from the 19th century.
The trial of an accused Israeli forger has dragged on now for three years after accusations he knowingly put forward a forged ossuary bearing the inscription "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus." Many scholars have pronounced the limestone bone box a fraud, though some still proclaim its authenticity. The jury, as it were, is still out. See Chick's KILLER STORM.
posted by chickcomics | 11:30 PM
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