Section 1 Chapter – 6 Wood on Ararat
Did you know that it is possible in 10 seconds, to determine if any wood found on Ararat is from the original Noah’s Ark or not (above or below the snow line)? More than any other consideration, the presence of wood on Ararat, especially above the snow line, has fueled the hysteria of explorations on the mountain. Since the bible identifies the Ark as having been made of wood (Gopher wood), and there are no trees growing above the snow line on the mountain, folk deduce that if there is wood there it must be from the ship. This questionable logic is not the most radical of ideas and thinking, it at least reveals that some semblance of thought is going into the search, however, we have already discussed the faulty foundation on which many have constructed their thinking. Noah’s Ark landing on Agri-Dagu is very shaky ground. If the ship had landed in that area, within close proximity of the development of the mountain, it would have been destroyed long ago. Seismic activity and volcanic eruptions are a post flood phenomenon, the perfect world God engineered 6,000 years ago was in perfect balance and pristine. And this strata-volcano is relatively young in its full development, 3 thousand years or less.
The first account of notable wood was placed on the summit in 1829 by Professor and doctor Johann Jakob Friedrich Parrot. He was part of a small group expedition that dispelled the long-embraced myth and superstition that anyone going up Agri-dagi to actually see the remains of the Ark, would not live to reveal the find. Parrot and his small group after leaving their base camp at Akori, a large Armenian village near the Saint Hakob of Akori Monastery (also called St. James Monastery), climbed the mountain with ease and there placed a wooden cross on the summit and returned informing the superstitious folks that he didn’t see any ship on the mountain. Parrot describes Akori as a prosperous, cozy, and hospitable place.
This would indicate that even before Parrot’s climb there was plenty of wood on the mountain. Below the area which would eventually become the Ahora Gorge, this local Armenian village had been established centuries earlier and eventually would grow to over 2,000 residences. There were hundreds of homes that had been built near the St. James Monastery. Most of the building material was just like today in the rural areas around Agri-dagu, mostly stone with the use of dried manor for heat, but some wood was incorporated into the structures.
St James of Nisibis, a favorite saint of the Armenians, before his death around 341 A.D. attempted to find Noah’s Ark on Agri-dagu. He is believed to be the first Christian to attempt such a feat. “According to legend, St. Jacob tried many times to climb Mount Ararat to find Noah’s Ark which was buried under thick layers of ice at Parrot Glacier upon the top of the mountain. He would climb the mountain, fall asleep and wake up downhill from where he was. After repeated failed attempts, one day God said to him in a dream “Do not try to find the Ark anymore. I will give you a piece of a wood of what the Ark was hewn”. When he woke up, to his amazement he found the wood lying nearby. He decided to build the monastery at the location that he found the wood” (Wikipedia – Saint Hakob of Akori monastery). Supposedly that piece of wood was housed at the monastery, which was destroyed along with the village nearby in the earthquake in 1840.
In 1955, after two unsuccessful searches, Fernand Navarra supposedly found hand-hewn wood in an ice wall that he claimed to have previously found at the 13,750-foot level years earlier. He retrieved a small sample of the wood, which seemed to be apparently very old. Initial estimates placed the age at 5,000 yrs, however 2 carbon-dating tests placed it between 1300 and 1900 years (woops!).
In 1969, Navarra and others supposedly found more old wood at two different sites. The supposed wood finds, and his book made him the go-to-guy for future expeditions as a mountain guide. What with all the history that the mountain had been through and the fact that Parrot’s cross that he erected on the summit in 1829 was missing, any claim of possible wood from Noah’s Ark should be held in suspicious arms.
The real test though would be a quick examination of any wood claimed to have come from Noah’s Ark. A biblical archaeological researcher could make a determination of any wood samples in about 10 sections. Most explorers and even Christian pundits who have invested their credibility in the mountain, as the final resting place of the Ark, have forgotten or never realized that pre-flood wood possessed a unique characteristic. Due to the perfect environmental conditions that God created pre-flood, the extremes we experience in nature today did not exist then, it had never even rained. As compared to post-flood wood that grows in our current environment (wet/dry seasons), pre-flood wood developed or had been created minis what we call growth rings. Tree ring dating is called dendrochronology, this science did not exist before the Noahatic flood, as there were no wet/dry seasons.
Dendrochronology is the scientific method of dating tree rings to the exact year they were formed. As well as dating them, this can give data for dendroclimatology, the study of climate and atmospheric conditions during different periods in history from wood. Dendrochronology derives from Ancient Greek dendron, meaning “tree”, khronos, meaning “time”, and -logia, “the study of”. (Wikipedia)
This explanation is also a bit disingenuous as you cannot use this science to definitively come to the exact age of every tree examined, as there could be (post-flood) more than one wet/dry condition during any particular year. In other words, each ring may not represent a yearly period of time. The science certainly has its place and benefits, but question could be called on the presented age of any sample.
As recent as 2010 China explorers, along with a Turkish guide claimed to have found Noah’s Ark on the mountain on one of their explorations. At a press conference, the group consisting of over 15 explorers from Hong Kong and Turkey were gathered to show the press some of the specimens they brought from the alleged Ark consisting of ropes, nails and pieces of wood. They indicated the wood had been dated to 4,800 years ago. First of all, I would sincerely question the rope having survived for thousands of years, since it was most likely a plant-based fiber. Second, I did take the time to check out the photos of wood that they presented, and sure enough you can easily see the rings in the wood (busted!). Something else that really called into question the integrity of the leaders of the group was the lack of total transparency; they forgot to mention the reports from the two additional labs, both indicating that the wood samples were of modern origin. If you do any real investigation of the claims, you will discover other fraudulent aspects to the story.
This same group had a bit of bad luck years before with what they claimed was wood from Mount Ararat. They had found and filmed what they felt was ‘the petrified wood from Noah’s Ark’ high on Ararat. Instead of having the sample tested, they made an announcement to the world, jumping the gun. As it turned out the sample was a rectangular shaped volcanic rock.
These incidences only reveal how desperate some are (even amongst Christian groups), to attempt to persuade those in the world that the Scriptures are true. Unfortunately, in many cases the motive is fame and fortune. God isn’t interested, nor can He bless, in that kind of activity. It actually does more harm when the truth comes out to the cause of the Gospel, so, let be careful and factual in what we take to the world.