Monday, January 4, 2010

The Ark was a Round Reed Raft

A small cuneiform tablet brought back from Iraq by a British officer who served there in 1945 to 1948 -- probably bought in a bazaar, says his son -- has just been translated. Written around 1700 BC, it preserves part of the Babylonian flood myth, including the instructions for building the ark:

In his translation, the god who has decided to spare one just man speaks to Atram-Hasis, a Sumerian king who lived before the flood and who is the Noah figure in earlier versions of the ark story. "Wall, wall! Reed wall, reed wall! Atram-Hasis, pay heed to my advice, that you may live forever! Destroy your house, build a boat; despise possessions And save life! Draw out the boat that you will built with a circular design; Let its length and breadth be the same."

The tablet goes on to command the use of plaited palm fibre, waterproofed with bitumen, before the construction of cabins for the people and wild animals.

So much for all those expeditions to Mt. Ararat looking for the remains of a wooden ship.

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