Studies by De Luca and Tiso

Analysis on Noah’s Ark records by Tito De Luca and Roberto Tiso

After having talked to Prof. Utenberger who is a teacher of Greek and ancient Hebrew, we once again were able to give credibility to the discoveries made by Angelo Palego concerning the position of the only one window of Noah’s Ark and the two summits of Ararat mountains.

The first issue has to do with the translation of the Hebrew term <TSOHAR> in Genesis 6:16.

The term indicate an "Opening" in a wall near the roof (opening in the higher part of a building).

Than there is the word <CHALLON> used in Genesis 8: 6 when Noah wants to let the crow free we are said that he opens the Challon referred to as a pure and "real window".

In Genesis 8:13 when Noah wants to go on the roof top to look at the land if it (was) were dry he opens the <MIKSEH> (Latin "Operculum") which literally means "shingle coverage" (shingle roof - board coverage).

Going on with the story of the deluge, Genesis 8: 3 says:

"And the waters began receding from off the earth, progressively receding."; here the Hebrew verb used for “receding” is <SHUV> which literally contains the idea of a total inversion of an action, so if at first waters grew afterwards waters stopped growing and started to recede.

Again Genesis 8: 3, in the second paragraph, we read:

"and at the end of a hundred and fifty days the waters were lacking". "were lacking" is a translation of the Hebrew verb <CHSAR> that means " to begin lacking ", to be cut off (to run out to lose strength – to grow weaker – to fade) in other words (- to draw back – to move back - ) to give space to the emergent earth.

Genesis 8: 4 says "the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat".

"Came to rest" is the translation of the Hebrew verb <NUACH>.

It means "it was placed", on the earth "it rested" or it stopped floating.

Genesis 8: 5 says that "the tops of the mountains appeared". Here it is clear that the mountains it is talked about are those of Ararat because in the previous paragraph 8:4 it is said that the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat and according to the ancient Hebrew grammar the term "mountains" is the subject both of Genesis 8: 4 and of Genesis 8:5, therefore "the tops of the mountains” that appeared are those of Ararat.

"Tops" is rendered for the Hebrew <ROSHE'>.

To understand better please see the two verses quoted from the Revised Standard Version reproduced hereafter:

“…and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end of a hundred and fifty days the waters had abated;

Genesi 8:4 and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest upon the mountains of Ararat.

Genesi 8:5 And the waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen”

To come to an end there is no doubt that in the verse 5 cited above the tops of the mountains which is said to be seen are those of Ararat furthermore it is clear that the mountains were seen by Noah

The Hebrew term <ROSHE'> indicates the very top of the peaks of the Ararat mountains appearing from the water surface . As the peaks <ROSHE'> are the subject of the sentence reporting the running aground of the Ark on the mountains of Ararat, therefore the two peaks <ROSHE'> are undoubtedly those of Ararat and Ararat is the subject of the sentence reported by Moses who wrote the book of Genesis

In the ancient Hebrew language used by Moses to write the story of the first five books of the Bible, the term translated "they appeared" is referred to the peaks of Ararat mountains, Noah and the Ark are the topics of the story.

There is a similar use of the subject in Genesis 9:14 and 16. In these verses the subject is God who drew up a covenant and bound himself "to remember it". In Genesis 9:15 "the rainbow appears in the clouds" to God to remember Him to send the deluge not anymore.

In Genesis 8: 4 the subject is the ark that rested on the mountains of Ararat.

It is to the ark and its important content that Genesis 8: 5 addresses to. Through Noah and his family God fulfilled His purpose to preserve human race and its posterity from which finally would have discended the Messiah.

We understand that the subject of the story is Noah also from the context of the next verses from 6 to 13 in which his name (Noah) is used to underline every action, verb, etc., carried out by the same Noah.

Therefore from the study of Tito we deduce that most probably what Noah saw on the 17^th day of the tenth month (Gen 8: 4) was a very low and wide hill. Naturally much lower than the actual seize, because then it was not covered by ices.

Noah at that time did not realize that the Ark rested on the top of a mountain, he believed the Ark stopped on the plaine. Only after 73 days (Gen 8 :4), when he saw the peak of the Little Ararat appearing from the water surface in a lower position compared with the Great Ararat, he realized to be over a mountain.

Therefore when the tops of the mountains were seen by Noah he realized to be over a peak, or better a cuspid (Hebrew term <ROSHE'>) the cuspid of the Great Ararat, actually in that moment when he saw the peak (<ROSHE'>) of the Little Ararat he understood to be over the mountain.

Another aspect to clear is that verses from 8: 6 to 8:12 should be understood or read after the verse 17^th of the chapter 7^th for three main reasons:

1^st The period of 40 days are repeated three times in the verses 7:12; 7:17 and 8:6, therefore they clearly result to be the same temporal periods of the great precipitation.

2^nd If Noah saw the peaks of the mountains it would not have been a reasonable action to send out first a crow and then the dove to know if waters were decreased on the earth. In this last case the crow or the dove would have brought immediately to him olive twigs. In fact in Genesis it is said that “and sent forth a raven; and it went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth”, this means that the ark had not yet rested and the top of little Ararat <ROSHE'> was not yet to be seen.

3^rd Geneses 8: 8 say that Noah "Later sent out from him a dove ". The Hebrew translated "later" comes from <And> and it means "subsequently" which can represent even months. Therefore starting the third month on the 27^th day after the rain had ceased Noah sent out the crow. We don't know how many times the crow went and returned to Noah in the ark.

Then the Bible says "later" which may involve few months, Noah sent the dove out three times from week to week which gets to the seventh month. Finally when the dove did not return anymore he understood that it "found resting-place for its claws" (Gen 8: 9; 8: 12). Therefore it is logic to believe the ark stopped on the top <ROSHE'> of the Great Ararat in that moment.

1) On the year 600 of Noah’s life starts the deluge: it was the 2^nd month, on the day 17^th

2) The deluge lasted 40 days and ended the 3^rd month day the 27th

3) Noah opens the window and let the crow free: about the 4^th month

4) The crow goes out and reenters "until it finds earth": 4^th and 5^th month

5) Noah "later" sends out the dove: end of the 6^th month

6) Noah again send out twice every 7 days the dove: 7^th month

7) The ark stopped on the mountains of Ararat: the 7^th month, day the 17^th

8) Crow and dove don't return anymore: 7^th month

9) Noah from the same window sees the "tops of the mountains": 10^th month, day the 1^st

10) Noah removes the coverage and he sees the dry land: Year 601 of Noah 1^st month, day the 1^st

11) Noah goes out of the ark: 2^nd month, day the 27^th

Therefore as sustains Angelo Palego in his studies the only tops from a very narrow angling of a window that Noah could see they were the top of the Great one and the Little Ararat. You see photo and animations:

Look animation

Heyelani Glacier

The glacier Parrot in the northwest of the Ararat it expelled every now and then some wood beams. Beams found first from Navarra in 1955, then in 1969 from the Search expedition composed by Navarra together American colleagues and finally from our colleague Claudio Schranz in December 2002.

According to the last studies of Tito De Luca and Roberto Tiso aforesaid beams they would originate naturally from a taller position from a plane glacier slowly slipping toward valley, in a precise moment they would be expelled by the serac of Parrot glacier down. The only plane glacier that is found above the Parrot is the plateau Heyelani. An object in a tilted glacier comes in a short time grinded by the pressure of the ice. The glacier Heyelani is a static plateau and an object can withstand for a long of time hibernated under the ices. The beams recovered in the glacier Parrot undoubtedly originate from the plateau Heyelani. This glacier it would correspond to various accounts especially that of Jacob Chuchian:

From Chuchian accounts

To reach the site where the Ark is, one must follow a narrow goat trail beginning on the west side of the peak, approximately 4 feet wide, which starts out of nowhere and runs for about three miles. Near the clear spring well not far from the village they took a goat path that traversed the grasslands on the western side of the mountain. The goat path took them in the direction of the snow- fingers (so was called the Parrot glacier) and led them in a north east directions around the mountain.

He says that one can avoid the tremendous winds by taking the path. They passed Lake Kop on the left. Chuchian says his father told him that he could see where the Ark is from the rim of the crater of Lake Kop. However, he says that you would have to know exactly where it is or you would not see it :

From this point the directions are more obscure. He says that after passing Lake Kop, they continued in a north-easterly direction around the mountain. In doing so, the path led through small valleys and along rock walls. Sometimes they had to climb almost on their hands and knees as they gained altitude.

The goat trail branches off in several directions at various times. Armenians (shepherds) knew which path to take to the Ark because of (the) special insignia marking the path. From his father’s directions, he says it is approximately two canyons to the east of Lake Kop. This isolated canyon that the Ark is in is very difficult to locate. Is supposedly within a larger canyon.

Once the right canyon is located, the goat trail will continue on the right side of the canyon up a slight grade. The path then

separates at some point. The left branch takes you to below the cliff on which the Ark rests. The path will dead-end at a rock wall. At this point, if one looks to the left and down, one can see the Ark which is about 100 feet down from that vantage

Plateau Heyelani from quota 4600 mt

Plateau Heyelany from the helicopter

...two canyons to the east of Lake Kop

...North East Directions

This isolated canyon that the Ark is in is very difficult to locate. Is supposedly within a larger canyon. Once the right canyon is located, the goat trail will continue on the right side of the canyon… The path will dead-end at a rock wall. At this point, if one looks to the left and down, one can see the Ark which is about 100 feet down from that vantage.

Other accounts correlated to the glacier Heyelani

Ø Some witnesses as Ed Davis and Gregor Schwinghammer claim that the ark was in a horseshoe shaped formation. Look photos 1, 2

Ø Always Ed Davis says of a "western wall of di Ahora Gorge" Others claim "just to the right of the Ahora gorge". Also the young archaeologist Hardwick Knight pointed out the western face of the Ahora Gorge. Look photo

Ø Others as Ray Lubeck and a young shepherd declare that the ark is found surrounded by walls of rock jagged and terrain, or surrounded by small rocks, or in a valley where there are small peaks. Claimbing to a higer vantage point above the ship (ark) Look photo

Ø The most of witnesses as Gorge Hagopian, Jacob Chichian, David Duchworth, George Greene etc, claim that the ark was sitting on the edge of a cliff, sitting on the edge of ledge, or in a promontory, valley, basin. etc. Look photo.

Look the entire list of eyewitnesses of the ark

As we did not see glacialed plateau over the Parrot glacier we wondered what prevented the Ark beams from sliding downward since it is reasonable to believe that in very few years the pushing of the Parrot ice-fall (seracco) should have ground all of them and dragged the pieces down into the valley. We even tried to reckon the possible traced routes trailed by the glacier while finding its way to slope down while dragging the Ark wooden beams. But we found no solution.

So we thought of the only possibility namely that the Ark must be held by something and the ice movement toward the valley just lapped it dragging now and then very few beams.

Observing and examining the material in our possess with Roberto T iso and Angelo Palego we noticed a small glacier colled Heyelani this is the most flat place over the Parrot glacier. The Heyelani glacier is placed a little on the left and higher compared with the Parrot and is protected by a high mountain narrow pass or higher rock border all around. Such mountain narrow pass prevent the IH from dragging down the Ark and keep it steadily under the ice.

The violent explosion happened on 1840 widened deeply the Ahora gorge, and could have caused the Ark to fall in the gorge with the result of destroying it, but it did not. We are sure of this because on the first decade of 1900 many people reported to have seen the Ark still entire, or almost entire with a little portion of the roof partially exposed toward a precipice, but still most part of the Ark was covered with ice and held by it. Furthermore it is clear that if the Ark is broken into many pieces we certainly would find hundreds of beams all around the Parrot glacier, but up to now only one peace has been found in dozens of years.

Another avidence excluding the idea that the Ark might have fallen into the Ahora gorge are the low flights bravely made on 1988 by Chuck Aaron and Al Jeremy with their helicopter. They shooted (chaught) the whole area proving the Ark was not there.

Tests of the georadar has been carried out on the top of the Western Plateau and under the peak of the Eastern Plateau by Aaron and dr. Willis. and they excluded those areas as possible locations where the Ark might be. Those tests also cleared that the Western Plateau at 4800 meters high is a volcanic crater and before the deluge it was open, I mean without ice, so the Ark could not have rested inside it because it was not a levelled land.

Furthermore at that great altitude (4800 meters) the winds are is very strong and very cold and ice never melts, on the contrary all sightings of the Ark report about “melted ice surrounding the Ark”.

It is a must for us to let know the readers how many difficulties we faced in the past years investigating the Ark.

Interesting to notice the particular of the following tapestry preserved to the Museum of Etchmiadzin

Look animation

On the top of the Tapestry you can see Great Ararat and Little Ararat on the left, just as people see the two Ararat being in Erivan (Armenia).It seems to say: "use this big borer, in this point, and you'll find the proof of God exsistence".

Studies by Palego