The Dead Sea Scrolls, a collection of about 981 different texts of great religious and historical significance, were discovered between 1946 and 1956, from eleven caves located near the Dead Sea, by Bedouin shepherds first, and then later by a team of archaeologists. The scrolls contain a lot of fascinating and controversial information from the early eras of Christianity, including the story of Noah and his Ark, and the legendary flood. Since most of the scrolls were in terrible condition, the Israel Antiquities Authority established a laboratory to digitize the scrolls in order to garner more information from them.
The researchers of the Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library project, using custom-made cameras, scanned tens of thousands of fragments from the scrolls. They used sophisticated technology to photograph each fragment in very high resolution. This helped them to identify letters and words that were previously illegible. Based on their findings and studies, the researchers recently announced that the ark of Noah looked more like a pyramid than a boat.
Most of the texts in the Dead Seas Scrolls are written in Hebrew. Some are written in Aramaic, the language that Jesus spoke, and the rest in Greek. After the project was set up, experts and researchers in linguistics from the Academy of the Hebrew Language also joined to assist in the research. It was Dr. Alexey Yuditsky, one of the researchers, who initiated the interpretation of the Book of Genesis contained in the scrolls.
He specifically concentrated on Noah’s story part. As a result, the researchers were able to find out words such as ‘height of the arc’ and ‘ne’esefet, meaning collection. Dr. Yuditsky, after interpreting the text, came to the conclusion that the Ark was shaped like a pyramid. The holders of the arc were closed at the top. This means the Ark's bottom was very wide, and the top, pointed and narrow.
Noah’s Ark, in the Old Testament, is described as a rectangular box. Its sides were straight, and it had no keel or bows or hull. According to the historians, 'Ark' in Hebrew means a container or a box. Noah’s Ark has always been a mystery to the experts. According to them, none of the descriptions contained in the ancient literature satisfied naval engineering standards. Going by those designs, the Ark would have been completely unseaworthy. It also remains a fact that Hebrews had very little experience with naval engineering since they were a people without oceans.