Archaeologist Joel Klenck confirms a Late Epipaleolithic (13,100-9,600 BC) site in the southern gorge of greater Mount Ararat is Noah’s Ark. This archaeological site exhibits all traits of an ancient Trot-on / Trot-off maritime barge, being unlike all terrestrial, land-based structures.

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Lighthouse Point, FL -- (ReleaseWire) -- 03/01/2024 -- Harvard University educated archaeologist, current president of the applied archaeology firm, PRC, Inc., non-profit Ararat Conservation, Inc., and former maritime executive, Joel Klenck, reports, "It is 100% certain that a prehistoric site is Noah's Ark, located in the southern gorge of greater Mount Ararat and dating to an interval within the Late Epipaleolithic period (13,100-9,600 BC). This site exhibits all traits of an ancient Trot-on / Trot-off maritime barge, being unlike all terrestrial structures."

Klenck confirms, "Noah's Ark is the greatest archaeological site in history. The Ark is in the southern gorge of greater Mount Ararat, 158 meters in length, in two general areas, within ten smaller locations, 3,900 to 4,700 meters in elevation, currently exhibiting 14 archaeological features, and accessed by tunnels 4 to 11 meters beneath the surface. The vessel dates to a shorter duration at the end of the Late Epipaleolithic period (13,100-9,600 BC)."

Klenck states, "Noah's Ark offers prosperity or harm to the Turkish Republic. Noah's Ark will provide at least $38 billion dollars annually to the Turkish Republic via religious tourism because the Ark is lauded by Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. One artifact from the vessel, the Noah's Ark Codex, is essentially priceless, worth at least $1 billion, and supports the beliefs of three Abrahamic religions that Arabic and Hebrew are from the earliest (Semitic) language group and Hebrew represents the earliest language. The nearest city, Dogubayazit, could soon rival Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem, and Rome. If the central government of Turkey does not protect Noah's Ark, the PKK, a violent Marxist terrorist organization, renown for killing women and children, will the discover the vessel, exchange its looted codex and artifacts for armaments, and spread Stone Age pandemics from tons of thawing animal feces in the Ark, bringing death to nations that surround Mount Ararat."

The prehistoric maritime barge exhibits an angled hull, thousands of cages, frozen animal dung on midden floors, sloping ramps, three decks, ballasts, cargo holds, nautical carpentry using stone adzes, and the interior and exterior of the vessel covered with pitch. Inside the Ark is a Late Stone Age assemblage featuring stone tools and containers, vegetal baskets, textiles, cords, bone and wood artifacts, a prehistoric diet of chickpea, pea, bitter vetch, and undomesticated cereal grains, and no pottery. Conversely, near the Ark's entrances, later cultures constructed small areas of worship, with unique artifact placements, showing veneration for thousands of years with bowls or jugs, from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period (8,800-6,500 BC) through modern times (ca. AD 1907), with the residue of wine, milk, and seeds, also featuring stone figures from the Akkadian Empire period (2,334-2,218 BC). The structure matches descriptions of Noah's Ark by the Patriarch Moses in Genesis, renown scholars Berossus and Josephus, and Islam's Prophet Muhammed throughout the Quran. Akkadian seals from 2,300 BC portray the Ark on greater Mount Ararat and Hittite tablets from 1,300 BC mention Noah.

Armenians hid Noah's Ark since 247 BC and improved its concealment to support Armenian independence. When this revolution failed, the leader of the Armenian Church, Mkrtich Khrimian (1820-1907), issued orders to further conceal the Ark, a secret insured by Stalinist purges, which impacted Armenian history, causing a range of emotions.

The archaeologist translated the Noah's Ark Codex, the earliest language from the late Stone Age (13,100-9,600 BC), and its images and symbols. Found within Noah's Ark on greater Mount Ararat, the calf-skin parchment exhibits a language similar to Biblical Hebrew, reflects Ark accounts in Genesis and the Qur'an. The vellum document also indicates the number of clean animals and birds (7,112) and total animals (39,035) that survived the Flood, and shows the original location of Noah's Ark, currently on the highest plateau in the southern gorge.

Klenck battles a group with ties to the PKK, a Marxist terrorist group, and the Yazidis, who worship the Devil according to some adherents of other monotheistic religions. This group also has significant ties to leftist secular and religious right wing groups, within the United States and Europe, who denigrate or illegally remove artifacts from Noah's Ark, a prehistoric archaeological site and shrine to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

The archaeologist continues: "Utilizing deductivist (processual) archaeological method and theory, archaeologists establish a hypothesis, form a null-hypothesis, and compare the traits of an archaeological site to the characteristics of the null-hypothesis. If the comparisons are unlike the null hypotheses, then archaeologists reject the latter and confirm the former. Here, the hypothesis is that Ararat site represents a Trot-on / Trot-off maritime barge. The null hypothesis is the Ararat site represents a land-based structure such as a temple, palace, fortification, domestic dwelling, or animal pen. We evaluate each null-hypothesis below.

Not A Temple

Having excavated or conducted ethnoarchaeological research at the Chalcolithic burial grounds at Shiqmim, Middle Bronze Age temple at Tel Haror, Byzantine Church at Nessana, Oneota burial ground at Robinson Reserve, Bedouin Weli tombs in southern Israel, and the Polynesian cult center at Luatele, the principal Ararat site, dating to the Late Epipaleolithic period (13,100-9,600 BC), is not a temple or cult site. Compared to any cultic site from any archaeological period, the main Ararat site is not a worship locale because the site has no open spaces, no images of any deities, no human burials, no niches for deities, no religious iconography or imagery, and no ornate architecture or artifacts. The exterior walls slope inward, the main floors are angled, there are ladder-like, notched tree trunks in the center and sides of the structure connecting the three floors. The artifacts within the edifice are strictly utilitarian comprising wood bowls covered in burned clay, grinding stones, stone vessels, and vegetal baskets, without any ceramics or pottery. Further, although the main Ararat site has no animal bones or skins, much of the interior of the site is filled with animal feces, while animal pens and cages abound throughout the 158-meter-long edifice.

However, outside the main structure, later cultures for thousands of years constructed small worship areas, deposited votive objects, or both. These cultic artifacts range in time, from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period (8,800-6,500 BC), evidenced by a White Ware ("Vaisselle Blanche") bowl made of limestone mixed with ash, straw, and gravel, through modern times (ca. AD 1907), typified by single-handled jugs with wine and milk residue.

To reiterate, in the southern gorge of greater Mount Ararat, there is a 158-meter-long, monumental wood site, from the last period of the Stone Age (13,100-9,600 BC), filled with cages and pens, exhibiting tons of thawing animal feces, with the remains of feathers, scales, fir, hair, and skin, from thousands of animals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians, showing only utilitarian artifacts. Yet, at entrances into this ancient site, cultures from the beginning of the Farming Age (8,800-6,500 BC) to modern Armenia, ending around 1907, worshipped and venerated this non-religious archaeological site.

Not a Palace

Similarly, the Ararat site is not a palace. Habitations for elites are clean and wide open spaces, with level floors, sumptuous rooms, with ornate architecture and artifacts. The Ararat site is filled with animal cages and pens, exhibiting feces, feathers, fur, scales, and other non-bone faunal remains. Now, the retreating glacial ice has melted the feces within the Ararat locale, causing nauseous and grotesque scents, that no elite person would tolerate. Moreover, within the principal structure, the main floors are sloping, the wood furniture is physically connected to the timber walls, and all sorts of notched cross-beams protrude at irregular elevations on the often-angled partitions. Moreover, the habitation sites for humans are small, cramped quarters, which also feature basalt bowls filled with undomesticated grains for herbivores that also left animal droppings within these installations. Other multi-purpose habitations are evident. For example, the Noah's Ark Codex, was found in a locus (14) for food preparation. Moreover, the artifacts solely comprise utilitarian specimens including basic grinding stones, simple baskets made of palm and other vegetal material, unelaborate wood and bone artifacts, wood bowls covered with clay, and stone bowls and covers. Worse still, the loci with fecal material are near storage locations filled with undomesticated seeds of chick-pea, pea, and bitter vetch, making a more likely vector for contamination and disease. The small, cramped, dirty, multi-use, human habitations are unlike any elite installations from any archaeological periods.

Not a Fortification

Having been an artillery officer in the U.S. Marines, excavated or surveyed Turkish fortifications at Tel-Haror and Karkur, test pits at the Turkish hospital at Nessana, and hundreds of martial contexts in Polynesia and the United States, the Ararat site is not a defensive fortification. The Ararat site has no Turkish artifacts from any period, no martial architecture, no munitions, no weaponry, and no military supplies. Further, Turkish fortifications are built on elevated areas or on slopes immediately below a ridgeline. Here, the Ararat site is located at the bottom of a gorge, surrounded on three sides by ridgelines, where enemies could easily target Turkish defenders with direct and indirect fire weapons. Turkish fortifications mostly comprise functional entrenchments that are usually chest deep, dug into soil and rock, and are straightforward to emplace. The location of the Ararat site is within layers of ice and rock, in a moving glacier, comprising three wood floors, as much as eleven (11) meters beneath the surface, with wood beams weighing over a ton, with elaborate joinery, sealants made of resin from aged cypress and bitumen, from wood nowhere near Mount Ararat, inside a monumental structure. During Seljuk (1037-1308) and Ottoman (1299-1922) periods, and especially during World War I (1914-1918) and the Turkish War of Independence (1919-1923), entrenchments rarely exhibited multiple floors below ground, or were solely linear, but featured rock battlements, and offsets, which extended at right angles to the main trench. This design prevented enemy forces from "walking" artillery or mortars detonations in a line to dispatch Turkish soldiers. The Ararat site is distinctly linear, exhibits three floors beneath the surface, with apertures level with the ground, a perfect nightmare for Turkish defenders. In defending heights, Turkish commanders placed entrenchments across a ridge, crest, or summit and never linearly at the bottom of a gorge, to avoid enfilade fire, where enemies could fire into lines of Turkish defenders, dispatching multiple warriors with each bullet or mortar round. The Ararat site is located along a line, at the bottom of the southern gorge, which would allow adversaries to detonate mortar or artillery explosions in a linear manner down the canyon and dispatch Turkish soldiers with relative ease. As such, the Ararat site is not a Turkish fortification because there are no Turkish artifacts and no martial architecture or remains. No Ottoman or Turkish commander would place a fortification at the bottom of a gorge, with no elevated rock battlements, along the length of a canyon, enabling an enemy to target Turkish soldiers with devastating enfilade fire or with direct and indirect fire, from three ridgelines surrounding the Ararat locale.

Not a Domestic Dwelling

I have excavated or surveyed hundreds of domestic dwellings from four continents, in the Levant, Europe, North America, and Polynesia, ranging from prehistoric to modern times, covering diverse materials including stone, mudbrick, wood, hide, brick, and concrete. Compared to any domestic dwelling from any archaeological period, the main Ararat site is not a standard habitation because the site is at least 2,000 meters above the vegetation line, not near any natural resources, such as water, crops, or grass, and is so difficult to access being blocked by millions of large- and medium-sized boulders and an entire gorge of sand-like scree. While the descent in the scree is easy and safe, ascending the scree in the southern gorge to reach the Ararat site, is extremely difficult. Also, the Ararat site is monumental, being 158 meters in length with three floors, with storage installations up to 12 meters in diameter. Also, the building techniques: mortise-and-tenon joinery, coak-and-dowel combinations of two wood types, with resin and bitumen sealants, and notched crossbeams in the middle of the walls, does not align with land-based habitations, where the roof and beams would hold the structure together. At the Ararat site, the joinery and cross beams were designed to bind the inner and outer walls together, the latter sloping inward toward the center. Also, the main floors slope downward or upward and the Ararat structure is completely filled with animal cages and pens of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and insects, as shown by the feces, feathers, fur, scales, and other non-bone remains, within the edifice. Some enclosures are very small, 20 cm in length; others are very large, up to 4 meters in length, with wood prongs at the perimeter of the cages. Further, the building materials that comprise the main Ararat site are not from eastern Anatolia, but comprise cypress, oak, and teak from hundreds of miles away. Furthermore, the artifacts within the principal Ararat edifice, such as the palm baskets, bitumen sealants, and lithic artifacts, represent materials and types from the Levant during the Late Epipaleolithic period (13,100-9,600 BC), at least 630 miles (1,014 km) distant from eastern Anatolia.

Not a Pen

I have surveyed numerous pens, especially near the border between Israel and Egypt, and studied Bedouin pens in their nomadic settlements, to ascertain the difference between sacred sites and ordinary caprovine pens. The Ararat site is not a standard pen because it comprises monumental architecture, with three floors, and enormous storage installations covered with seeds. Although the site is filled with cages and pens, of different sizes (20 cm to 4 m in length), for mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and insects, the Ararat site is 2,000 meters above the vegetation line and impossible for most animals and humans to access, with millions of boulders covering the mountain and scree filling the southern gorge. In all areas of the world, from different archaeological periods, animal pens are simple enclosures made of boulders or other readily accessible materials. At the Ararat site, the thousands of cages and pens are within a monumental wood structure with complicated architectural features such as exterior walls that slope inward toward the central base of the structure, complex mortise-and-tenon and coak-and-dowel joinery, notched cross beams at different levels of the walls, and walls notched and shaped with stone adzes exhibiting a range of resin and bitumen sealants. Further, many of the wood beams that form the Ararat structure are enormous, multi-ton, planks of mostly cypress and, to a lesser extent, oak. No human group would built such an elaborate, monumental structure, by carrying wood beams and artifacts from the Levant, at least 630 miles distant, each weighing more than a ton, to build a three-tiered structure, 2,000 meters above the vegetation line, on boulder-covered Mount Ararat, to construct a standard animal enclosure.

Not a Kurgan Burial

The Ararat site is not a burial from any period, and certainly not a Kurgan tumulus from the third millennium BC. There are no skeletal remains of human, horse, donkey, or other animals or weapons of any kind including wood weapons with lithic inserts. The structure is a box-like, 3-floor wood structure at the bottom of a gorge covered with ice. Within the edifice there are no alters, stone fences, moats, bulwarks, poles, or columns. The artifacts comprise a strictly utilitarian assemblage such as grinding stones and baskets. There are no mound covering this Ararat site. Further, there are no statutes, statuettes, carvings, art, or iconography of person(s) and no geometrical ornamentation on the architecture of any kind or shape. Hence, the Ararat site does not represent a burial or burial complex.

Definitely a Trot-on / Trot-off ["To-To"] Maritime Barge

As a shipping executive at Crowley Maritime and Bernuth Lines, I was responsible for $250 million of assets ranging from Lift-on/Lift-off ["Lo-Lo"] self-propelled ships, where cargo containers are lifted on and off vessels with cranes, to Roll-on/Roll-off ["Ro-Ro"] propelled ships or towed barges, where vehicles drive (roll) containers on an off maritime vessels. I was also the Vice-President of ship assist for all tugs from San Diego to Alaska, which safely guides enormous vessels to the dock on the entire West Coast of the United States. With regard to archaeology, I have completed considerable archaeological surveys, excavations, and in depth reviews of archaeological work within maritime communities in Polynesia, specifically for all seven islands in American Samoa as well a doing archaeological work along the U.S. Gulf Coast.

The Ararat site fulfills all the traits of an ancient maritime vessel. The main floors are sloped, a principal feature of Trot-on / Trot-off and Roll-on / Roll-off barges, to allow animals to ascend and descend to the thousands of pens and cages within the structure.

The outside walls of the structure slope and curve inward, toward the bottom center of the edifice, because these features represent the hull of a maritime vessel.

The Ararat site features notched cross-beams, mortise-and-tenon, and coak-and-dowel joinery, at different elevations on the walls, because this joinery binds the hull to the interior structures, a common feature in in naval architecture.

The exterior of the Ararat site is made of planks of Mediterranean cypress shaped with stone adzes.

Both sides of most of the beams are covered with sap caused by the aging of the trees and from Cypress canker, caused by fungal spores entering small cracks and wounds formed in the bark of the tree. Drought and nutrient deficiencies, a feature of the Late Epipaleolithic (13,100-9,600 BC), likely weakened many cypress trees, making them susceptible to canker disease.

In the interior of the Ararat site, the structure comprises both cypress and oak that are not aged making them easier to shape with stone adzes. Both cypress and oak are preferred wood in ancient maritime vessels because these species resist electrical conductivity and are less likely to degrade on the water. In ancient Turkish cultures, especially during the Seljuk and Ottoman Empires, the Mediterranean cypress was considered the tree of life and continues to be planted in graveyards and sacred grounds in Tuerkiye. Cypress wood sap has a pleasant odor that masked the the smell of the dead, a likely consideration in assuaging the odor of animal waste in the interior of the Ararat site. In addition, Egyptians utilized cypress wood to preserve mummies and prevent them from spoiling. Both Turkish and Egyptian cultures may have derived cypress tree beliefs from the Ararat edifice.

Also, the exterior walls of the Ararat site exhibit barnacles and other crustaceans, which is a common feature on maritime vessels throughout history, but surprising on a feature that is on greater Mount Ararat at elevations between 3,900 and 4,700 meters above sea level.

Along the eastern and western sides of the Ararat site, thousands of medium and large-sized boulders were deposited between the exterior cypress walls and rough cut beams, because these features represent ballasts that prevented the ancient barge from capsizing, a feature that continued in all large maritime vessels throughout history.

The lack of animal skeletal remains within the Ararat site, as opposed to the considerable fecal matter and other non-skeletal animal byproducts in the structure, are traits characteristic of To-To ships and barges, where animals are released at the destination ports, while their waste and other byproducts remain within the To-To vessel.

The Ararat site features thousands of cages and pens, of birds, carnivores, and herbivores, measuring 20 cm to 4 m in length, with many installations showing sloping floors. These features in the Ararat site are similar to the pens of modern To-To ships, which despite being larger, also feature sloping floors to wash off feces and other animal byproducts, but for fewer species, mostly sheep, goat, cattle, and chickens.

Moreover, the habitation sites for humans are small, cramped quarters, which feature wood furniture affixed to the walls, basalt bowls filled with undomesticated grains for herbivores that also left animal droppings within these installations. These multi-purpose habitations abound. For example, the Noah's Ark Codex, was found in a context where food was prepared.

Moreover, the artifacts solely comprise utilitarian specimens including basic grinding stones, simple baskets made of palm and other vegetal material, unelaborate wood and bone artifacts, wood bowls covered with burnt clay mud, and stone bowls and covers.

Worse still, the cages with fecal material are near storage pits filled with undomesticated seeds of chick-pea, pea, and bitter vetch, making a more likely vector for contamination and disease. The small, cramped, dirty, multi-use, human habitations are similar to small rooms aboard maritime vessels, which exhibit furniture such as beds, shelves, and tables attached to the walls, to prevent safety issues during rough seas.

Another feature in maritime vessels are ladders between decks in the center and sides of the edifice, which is found at the Ararat site with notched trunks abounding in the interior connecting the three floors.

Also, the Ararat site exhibits a series of chutes for the delivery of seeds into storage pits to narrow pathways for heavy ropes and cords. Small enclosures for heavy ropes are common in maritime vessels, especially for the lowering and raising of anchors. Further, chutes are still used today to fill cargo vessels with grain.

The origin of the Ararat site is most likely in the Levant due to the overlap of artifacts: distribution of Mediterranean cypress, palm and grape from the vegetal baskets, and stone bowls similar to Natufian containers from Eynan."

Conclusions

Joel Klenck concludes: "Utilizing deductivist (processual) archaeological method and theory, the Ararat site is 100% Noah's Ark because all the traits at the archaeological site match a Trot-on / Trot-off maritime barge, while rejecting all null hypotheses, as the locale is unlike all land-based structures such as cult sites, palaces, fortifications, domestic dwellings, and animal pens. Because the principal Ararat site is a Trot-on / Trot-off maritime barge, and Noah's Ark was a Trot-on / Trot-off maritime barge in the Bible and Qur'an, the main Ararat site is definitively Noah's Ark.

The willful degradation and illegal artifact removal from Noah's Ark, a holocaust of historic preservation, caused by some secular leftists and religious right wing groups, must halt. What follows will be efforts by Tuerkiye and others faithful to the tenets of historic preservation, to mitigate the loss of Noah's Ark, a precious, ancient archaeological site that is valuable to science, three Abrahamic faiths, the Republic of Tuerkiye, surrounding nations, and the global community."

About PRC, Inc.
Founded in 2007, PRC, Inc., provides comprehensive worldwide archaeological services including surveys, excavations, and research.

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