Marshall University professor and amateur archaeologist, Kelly Green, has based her findings on recently discovered manuscripts. What is of particular interest is, the badly decayed scrolls are were found, not in Israel, but in a Seneca caverns. "We've had them authenticated by the best scholars we could afford -- they tell us the language, the writing, the materials, and the smell are all consistent with documents that would have been written around Noah's time," said an excited Green at a press conference at The Greenbrier. "It's early in the process of document recovery and translation, but we are seeing definite clues that Noah and his family landed in America, likely, somewhere in the Appalachian Mountain region."
For those who may not recall the Biblical account (Genesis 6-9), God had enough of man's sin, so he told Noah to build a ship to save as many as he could. God directed that two of every animal would be saved, as well as Noah, his wife, and their sons and wives. The heavens opened up and rained upon the earth and the earth flooded from beneath for forty days. They floated in safety in that ark for one hundred and fifty days. When the time seemed right, Noah used the clever trick of releasing doves til one finally brought back a living twig, and they left the ship to replenish the earth -- and get away from the smell of all those cooped up animals. Where the ark landed has been a mystery, until now.
Green believes the time frame is critical, "They drifted for half a year. There's no reason to think the ark couldn't have traveled the strong tidal forces half-way across the globe."
"The newly discovered manuscripts are intriguing," said Dusty Binder, a noted Biblical scholar. "But simply re-looking at the Old Testament account can provide important clues. For instance, the Bible says the ark came to rest 'upon the mountains of Ararat'. If we translate that into the Appalachian dialect, which combines words, reverses grammar and often drops unnecessary words, it becomes not a proper name, but the question, 'WHERE AT [is this] MOUNTAIN?'"
Sure enough, there is a very large wooded structure on Seneca Rock, long assumed to be an ancient hunters cabin. Green will be leading a study group of Marshall Archeology students up to Seneca Rock to locate the lost ark this Winter.
