Source:  NY Daily News

Experts are cynical about the authenticity of an evangelical Christian group’s claim to have found Noah’s Ark in Turkey.

“I’m waiting for them to convince me,” Professor Eric Cline, chair of the Classics department at George Washington University, told “Good Morning America” on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, a group of Chinese and Turkish evangelical explorers boasted that they had found the iconic religious boat on Mount Ararat (where the Bible says the ark came to rest after the great flood).

“It’s not 100% that it is Noah’s Ark, but we think it is 99.9% that this is it,” Yeung Wing-cheung, a Hong Kong documentary filmmaker and member of the group, told AFP.

“There’s a tremendous amount of solid evidence that the structure found on Mount Ararat in Eastern Turkey, is the legendary Ark of Noah,” said Dutch Ark researcher Gerrit Aalten, head of NoahsArkSearch.com, at the press conference to announce the discovery.

Despite Aalten’s enthusiasm, others are less inclined to quickly believe in the discovery.

“I don’t know of any expedition that ever went looking for the ark and didn’t find it,” Paul Zimansky, an archaeologist at Stony Brook University in New York state, told National Geographic.

The evangelical group says it found wood structures on Ararat, and carbon dating placed it at 4,800 years old. But even this doesn’t necessarily mean it’s Noah’s Ark – or that the “structure” they found is that old.

“All that we know at the moment is that the expedition members are showing us pictures and samples of a structure made out of wood,” Cline told The Christian Post.

“It could be ancient, it could be medieval, it could even have been constructed last week,” he said. “Even carbon-14 dating will only tell us how old the wood is; it will not tell us when the structure was constructed.”

“If the finds are published in a full and comprehensive manner, one will truly be able to assess it,” Dr. Aren M. Maeir, a professor at Israel’s Bar Ilan University, told The Christian Post. “Meanwhile, it joins many other such discoveries – and sound quite hard to believe.”

The actual location of the group’s find is being kept secret, but they are hoping to return, this time with more experts who they hope will verify their find.

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My Take: Imagine the possibilities of what could happen every time someone finds wood scraps near this ancient Turkish location?  Exterior wood doors made from the wood of Noah’s Ark?  What a prize that decorative wooden door would be if it were proven to be truly made from even a sliver of the ark’s materials.  I’m pretty skeptical myself that the real ark has been found.  I know others have claimed to have located it, but frankly, I don’t think wood could have lasted that long.

I have been to other ruins in Turkey and seen exquisite excavations of some early Roman temples and edifices and there is no doubt as to that kind of authenticity.  Ephesus is perhaps the largest, most complete excavated ruin in the Aegean region and it is well-worth it.  Many people try to get married there, counting on their fancy San Diego CA wedding services companies to organize the details.  But it is a sacred space in Turkey and marriages are not allowed.  You can get married just outside the walls on public land, however, I think getting those San Diego CA wedding flowers over the Aegean Sea could be problematic.

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