Archaeologist Joel Klenck reports that within Noah’s Ark on greater Mount Ararat, explorers retrieved a calf-skin parchment from Area A1, Locus 14, in an archaeological context from the Late Epipaleolithic Period (13,100 and 9,600 BC), exhibiting Paleo-Hebrew letters and numbers.

Lighthouse Point, FL -- (ReleaseWire) -- 09/30/2022 --Harvard University educated archaeologist, current president of the applied archaeology firm, PRC, Inc., and non-profit Ararat Conservation, Inc., and former maritime executive, Joel Klenck, reports that within the rediscovered Noah's Ark a calf-skin parchment was found in a context dating between 13,100 and 9,600 BC. The parchment exhibits Paleo-Hebrew letters, numbers, and grammar. Moreover, the characters reflect the writings of four individuals, most likely Noah, Shem, Ham, Japheth, or their wives, as noted in Genesis 6:10 and the Qur'an.

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 the Late Epipaleolithic Period (13,100-9,600 BC).

Noah's Ark offers life or death 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. The Noah's Ark Codex is priceless and supports the views of the three Abrahamic faiths that the Semitic language group includes 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 harm to Turkish civilians."

The prehistoric maritime barge exhibits angled hulls, 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 there is no pottery, but a Late Stone Age (13,100-9,600 BC) assemblage featuring stone tools and containers, vegetal baskets, textiles, cords, bone and wood artifacts, a prehistoric diet of chickpea, bitter vetch, pea, and cereal grains in various stages of domestication.

Conversely, near entrances leading inside the Ark, later cultures constructed small areas of worship, with unique artifact placements, showing veneration for thousands of years with pottery types from the Pottery Neolithic (7,000-5,800 BC) through Medieval periods (AD 700-1375), filled with the residue of wine, milk, and seeds. Also, stone figures, from the Sumerian Early Dynastic Period (2,900-2,334 BC), were found in these small worship areas.

Akkadian seals from 2,300 BC portray the Ark on greater Mount Ararat and Hittite tablets from 1,300 BC mention Noah. 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.

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. Klenck battles a group with ties to the PKK, who denigrate and destroy Noah's Ark, a prehistoric shrine for Islam, Christianity, and Judaism.

The archaeologist notes: "The Codex rebuffs modern linguistic views that the earliest languages emerged from an amalgam of populations distributed throughout the globe. Instead, the presence of the Ark on Mount Ararat, and its Paleo-Hebrew manuscript, supports claims by the Patriarch Moses, Jesus Christ, and Islam's Prophet Muhammed that the Semitic language group includes the first language on earth, which survived the catastrophic global flood.

Notable scholars such as Abraham Ibn Ezra (AD 1089-1167) opined the initial chapters of Genesis were memorized by each generation from Adam to Moses. 'Toledot' are first mentioned in Genesis 2:5 and continue, for example, in Genesis 5:1, 6:9, 10:1, 10:32, and 11:10. Ibn Ezra theorized that Toledot, which means 'account' or 'generations,' were used as segments so early descendants would memorize key Biblical accounts from creation, through the Flood, to the Exodus from Egypt. With the Codex evidencing a written language, Paleo-Hebrew, before the Flood, at the end of the Pleistocene and Late Stone Age, Ibn Ezra's claims about memorization should be revised. In lieu of the Noah's Ark Codex, Toledot represented written documents that were compiled by Moses in his writing of the Pentateuch, from Genesis to Deuteronomy.

The context where the Codex was found was in Area A1, Locus 14, a small enclave within the second deck of the vessel, that was used to heat food and water. The manuscript was found in a small hidden niche, behind partially cut, vertically placed, cypress beams which formed the walls of the installation. In Locus 14, the precursors of ceramic containers were found, where Noah and his family placed wood containers, covered with clay mud, and heated them in the Ark. These containers elucidate the origins of ceramics manufacturing, where it was assumed that pottery developed from gypsum and burnt lime containers or White Ware (Vaiselles Blanches).

Now, due to Noah's Ark, archaeologists must contend with a simpler model for the origins of pottery: Stone Age populations fashioned wood containers, covered them with clay, and heated them over fires. Eventually, humans eliminated the wood containers and focused on solely clay containers that were hardened via heat, thus providing the genesis of ceramic manufacturing.

There are several different types of handwriting in the Codex, from the heavy blocky writing of one individual to the lighter gracile characters of an editor which corrects a misspelling, the Paleo-Hebrew word for 'life.'

The Noah's Ark Codex is written on specially prepared parchment known as klaf or vellum, made from the skin of kosher animals such as a calf. The cover of the Codex measures 14.67 cm in length and 10.59 cm in width. Both the cover and three bindings are made of soft leather. The Codex comprises seven (7) pages of thin klaf, with disintegrating edges, measuring 9.75 cm in length and 7.53 cm in width.

Vellum has much collagen. When water in paint impacts the parchment's surface, the collagen melts, forming grooves in the klaf and raised surfaces for the paint. Vellum is affected by the environment, especially humidity. The context where the Codex was found was in Locus 14, Area A1, the most elevated and best preserved section of the Ark. Locus 14 is surrounded by four larger structures and ultimately the vessel's hull. The interior and exterior of these structures are covered by layers of pitch or bitumen and resin. Area A1 has an elevation above 4000 meters on greater Mount Ararat and is buried under eight (8) meters of glacial ice and lithic material, with no humidity. Much of the paint of the Codex has faded. What remains are the grooved striations caused by the melting of the collagen when the paint was initially applied in the Late Epipaleolithic Period (13,100-9,600 BC).

The Codex is written right to left, similar to modern Hebrew and Arabic, and from top to bottom. The pages are mostly adhered together. Somewhat tragically, the discoverers of the manuscript pried apart two sections of the manuscript exposing pages 2, 3, 4, and 5. For pages 2 and 4, impressions of the collagen striations in the vellum are discernable but portray reverse images. Hence, at this point, scholars can discern the reverse of pages 2 and 4, and front of pages 3 and 5. The Paleo-Hebrew characters evidence a range of clarity from bold, deeply incised letters to faint striations. Multi-spectral and x-ray imaging is needed to discern more verbiage and symbols from the Codex.

The Codex also shows the first evidence for illumination, where three images: Mount Ararat, the mountain range immediately south of Ararat, and a camel are covered with gold powder mixed with either gum arabic or egg, a layer known as shell gold. Lastly, the Codex portrays two 5-candle menorahs without bases under greater Mount Ararat.

There is a belief among Kurdish populations, living near greater Mount Ararat, that Noah's Ark contains gold. This belief is correct. The illumination on the Codex was made from gold powder somewhere within the vessel. The Ark is in a remote location, on the highest mountain in the Near East, distant from sources of gold. Also, the Codex reveals imagery, such as the low northern summit behind the southern plateau, present only at the end of the Epipaleolithic Period, around 9,600 BC, before volcanism increased the elevation and altered the morphology of the Mountain's north side.

Also, the Codex suggests there might be other klaf manuscripts inside Noah's Ark. The authors of the Codex do not fully utilize the space of the vellum pages and instead treat the manuscript as a literary exercise featuring Paleo-Hebrew word plays, brief expressions, and descriptions of the illuminated images. Also, the manuscript mentions aspects about Noah and the Flood described in Genesis and the Qur'an but does not match phrases in either document. As such, I believe other manuscripts, such as 'Toledot' sections noted in the Bible and discussed by Ibn Ezra are still hidden in the vessel."

Klenck concludes: "This precious Codex, like so much of the artifacts and architecture in Noah's Ark, must be controlled by the central government of Turkey. Now, priceless artifacts from Noah's Ark, lauded by the Muslim Prophet Muhammed, Jesus Christ, and the Patriarch Moses, which represent the dawn of civilization and the origin of the Neolithic Period, are being looted and damaged with limited supervision by Turkish archaeological authorities. This destruction of the Ark and its artifacts is a catastrophe."

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