

An artist's interpretation of Noah's Ark. Image Credit: Domenico Morelli

Museum expert Irving Finkel believes that the biblical vessel wasn't the shape depicted in most pictures.

A huge wooden boat large enough to house two of every animal species on the planet, the seemingly infeasible Noah's Ark has been a staple of the biblical flood story for generations and its final resting place has long been something of a mystery.While some believe that the story and the ark itself are nothing but a myth, others have dedicated their lives to researching and locating the vessel. Now Dr Irving Finkel believes that he has identified a new interpretation of the ark in the form of an ancient cuneiform script found on a 4,700-year-old clay tablet.The ancient writing provides building instructions for an ark depicted as a round coracle approximately 65m across and 6m high. Built using ropes and waterproofed rushes, the circular vessel would have been quite different to the traditional boat-like ark traditionally depicted in biblical artwork.