They found a wood structure. Remind me again how that makes it the Ark? It couldn’t possibly be an old monastery or anything else?
Look - my house is made of wood! It must be Noah’s Ark!
Agreed. See my post #15.
“Remind me again how that makes it the Ark? It couldn’t possibly be an old monastery or anything else?”
The article clearly states, “The group of archaeologists ruled out an established human settlement, explaining one had never been found above 11,500 feet in the vicinity.”
My guess is that they believe it’s the ark because it is said to have rested in the mountains of Ararat not your front yard.
Are they right? Who knows, but it’s much more interesting than your flip response would suggest.
It is unlikely to be an old monastery or anything of the sort. I think general scientific consensus would be that a human would have great difficulty surviving at that altitude, and the idea that humans could have exerted the physical energy to build such a structure at such a height is considered outside the realm of possibility. (Not to mention the effort of getting wood to those heights - I don't believe trees can grow at anything near those altitudes). So they have a large wooden structure that most likely was not built on site and could not have been moved to the site by humans. That would lead one to believe it arrived at it's current placement through an unusual natural occurence (such as a flood). After that it is a leap of faith to say it is "Noah's Ark" - but it is certainly a extraordinarily unusual discovery. But unless they find a to-do list in Mrs. Noah's handwriting -smile- we are left with something extraordinarily unusual that COULD be explained by the story of The Flood. Or Martians could have dropped it there.
My money would go on The Flood explanation. -smile-
At a 12,000 foot altitude? On that utterly barren mountain?
I dunno. Sounds like an unlikely place to build a monastery, even if you wanted a remote location. The top of Mt. Ararat might as well be Mars.
I'd like to see some detailed drawings/photos of the layout of that structure to get a better sense of what it might have been.