Noah’s Ark mystery solved? Marine archaeologists analyse ancient shipwrecks

Off the coast of the town of Nessebar, Bulgaria, are 60 shipwrecks almost perfectly preserved which date back to 400BC. The shipwrecks were found in 2016 at depths between 1,000ft and almost 6,000ft, where there is so little oxygen that the decay process takes much longer. Now, experts believe the shipwreck could help solve a longstanding theory which relates to Noah’s Ark.

In 2000, marine geologists William Ryan and Walter Pitman claimed they found evidence that the Black Sea, 20,000 years ago, was a small lake rather than the colossal 436,000 square kilometre sized body that is present today.

However, towards the end of the last Ice Age, which finished around 12,000 years ago, glaciers began to melt, causing sea levels to dramatically rise, connecting the relatively small lake to the Aegean Sea.

The pair of marine geologists believed they found evidence of housing in the depths of the Black Sea which proved it was once dry land.

They claim this could be the origin story of Noah’s Ark in which the Earth was flooded almost instantly as a punishment from God to Man, according to the Bible.

However, researchers from the Black Sea Maritime Archaeology Project (MAP) analysing the shipwreck believe there is no evidence that the flooding was rapid, but rather a gradual process due to rising sea levels.

Essentially, MAP says this disproves Mr Ryan’s and Mr Pitman’s theory that dramatic flooding in the Black Sea is not the origin story of Noah’s Ark.

Maritime researcher Dr Zdravka Georgieva said: “The geophysicists and other specialists from the oceanographic centre in Southampton, say there’s no evidence to support this theory.

“What we collected doesn’t prove this catastrophic flood. Data shows a more likely gradual sea level rising.”

READ MORE: Bible PROOF? ‘Noah’s Ark’ remains FOUND during mountain excavation

Yeung Wing-cheung, a filmmaker who helped discover the remains, said: “It’s not 100 per cent that it is Noah’s Ark but we think it is 99.9 per cent that this is it.”

The team stated the structure had several compartments, including wooden beams.

Additionally, they discovered what seems to be wooden walls, doors, nails and even staircases.

source: express.co.uk