 |
| Sang Tan / AP
Irving Finkel, curator in charge of cuneiform clay tablets at the British Museum,
holds up a 4,000-year-old Babylonian clay tablet that tells the story of a circular ark
|
The Book of Genesis includes detailed specifications for Noah's Ark: The wooden vessel was to measure about 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 30 feet high (300 by 50 by 30 cubits, or 137 by 23 by 13 meters).
But a 4000 year old Babylonian "Ark Tablet" on display at the British Museum describes a different picture of the big boat. The Babylonian boat was said to be made of braided rope, stiffened by wooden spars and sealed with bitumen. And it was supposed to have a round base, measuring 230 feet wide (70 meters wide).
Fundamentalist Christians have taken issue with the Babylonian version. We may get a chance to make up our own minds about which tale holds more weight. Britain's Channel 4 has begun filming a documentary about an effort to reconstruct the circular ark.
More here
Not even the BBC can dismiss...
ReplyDeleteOne Head, Two Ducks, Three Squawking Geese, Four Olympic Oysters, Five Corpulent Porpoises, Six Pairs of Don Winkle's Tweezers, Seven Thousand Macedonians Dressed in Full Battle Array...