According to a recently digitized fragment of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Noah's Ark was very different from what it is today. The two thousand year old text provides evidence that the famous ark was in the shape of a pyramid.
More than 50 years ago, a stone thrown by a Bedouin shepherd into a cave led to the greatest archaeological discovery of the 20th century. The Bedouin heard a stone hit an earthen jug and split it. This is how the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. The rolled scrolls and fragments contained approximately 800 ancient manuscripts. About a quarter of these, more than 200 manuscripts, were copies of the Hebrew text of the Bible.
Almost five years have passed since then. In the laboratory of the Israel Antiquities Authority, tens of thousands of fragments of the scrolls were scanned with a specially made camera. Each fragment was photographed 28 times at high resolution using different wavelengths of light. Sophisticated technology allowed researchers to read previously illegible letters and words. Some recently digitized fragments have brought famous Bible stories to life.
“The new interpretation of the fragments changed our understanding of the Noah's ark. Thanks to scanning, the illegible words after the phrase “at the top of the ark” became clear. New scanned images show that they are followed by the word “collected,” says researcher Alexei Yuditsky. "This means that the ribs of the ark were gathered together at the top in the shape of a pyramid."
Dr. Yuditzky said that a Greek translation of the Bible dating from the third century BC used a Greek verb with a similar meaning to describe the ark.
The Dead Sea Scrolls contain information about many controversial and exciting moments of the past, the stories of Noah and the legendary flood to name just a few. Scholars are convinced that Noah's story is not just a biblical story.
The story of the "Great Flood" sent by God (or gods, according to earlier accounts) to destroy humanity for its sins, is a widely accepted version accepted by many religions and cultures around the world and dates back to early human history. From India to ancient Greece, Mesopotamia, and even among North American Indian tribes, there are plenty of stories that are very similar to each other. Some of them are so similar that the question arises whether all cultures on the planet have experienced such an event.
Only after the 7th millennium BC, when the world ocean level began to decline, people began to return to normal life. And in 6000-5000. BC. signs of human activity near the sea began to appear. Is it just a coincidence that the current history begins its countdown from this time? Was early humans so primitive that they left no trace of their existence, or was all of early human history “washed away” by the Great Flood after the last ice age? It seems that once the unfavorable climatic conditions receded, humanity began to flourish again.
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