Did Noah build in Circles?
The Biblical Noah's ark was a substantial vessel, 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide and 30 cubits high. That translates to a ship 450' long, 75' wide and 45' high - about the size of a ship I once visited in Sheerness which carried a cargo of frozen lamb from New Zealand to Britain. Although we have no information about the exact shape of this craft - did it have pointy ends, for example or was a gable roof built into the height, was the bottom flat or rounded? - the proportions are respectable and represent a ship which could cope with most things the open ocean could throw at it.
In contrast, the ship which Utnapishtim was instructed to build was a far less sea-worthy vessel. According to the Epic of Gilgamesh, Utnapishtim was told to build a craft whose length and breadth were equal. Other versions include the height as well, which would appear to indicate that the boat was a floating cube! The instability of such a craft would mean that it would float as easily on its side or its roof as on its bottom. A recently identified tablet, however, calls this description into question.
Between 1945 and 1948 Leonard Simmons from London was a member of the RAF. At this time the British airforce was occupied in policing the world and one of the important British air bases was at Habbaniyeh, in the desert just outside Baghdad. Simmons, who was largely self-educated with a keen interest in history, was unlike his contemporaries in that he had a lively interest in the country where he was posted and instead of squandering his leaves in pursuit of "bints and beer", spent as much time as possible travelling around the place looking at ancient ruins and archaeological excavations.
In those days there was no legal reason why he should not indulge in a little harmless collecting, either by picking things up himself or by buying from antiquities dealers or from people who had heard of his interest and brought him objects to purchase. By the time Simmons' tour of duty was over and he returned to Britain he brought back with him a tea-chest full of his "treasures" - interesting bits of pottery, tablets in various stages of preservation, and seals or seal impressions.
Jobs were not easy to come by in post-war Britain and Simmons counted himself lucky to find a job as a scenery shifter with the BBC. It had nothing to do with the history of which he was so passionately fond - unless you count the odd historical costume drama - but it put food on the table and paid the rent. Leonard's greatest disappointment was when he showed a few of his treasures to some of the history boffins who appeared on the BBC and had them dismissed as "commonplace" and "worthless".
On his death, Leonard's son Douglas inherited the tea-chest of souvenirs. Hearing that the British Museum was running an Open Day, on impulse Douglas picked one of the better preserved tablets and took it along. He joined the queue of people clutching old silver teapots, fake Ming vases and hideous Dresden shepherdesses and when it was his turn one of the attendants glanced at his tablet and pointed him towards Dr Irving Finkel of the Mesopotamian Department.
Finkel is one of those dedicated individuals who can read 4,000 year old cuneiform as easily as you and I can read a newspaper. He took the tablet and turned it this way and that to catch the light, then started to read it, muttering a rough translation of the first couple of lines. After that he stopped and, eyes shining, demanded if Douglas knew what he had?
Douglas, of course, didn't, but he listened with growing excitement as Dr Finkel told him that the tablet represented part of the legend of Atrahasis. First written down around the time of Hammurabi, the three tablets of the Atrahasis Epic tell firstly of the creation of the world, then of how mankind multiplied on the earth and made such a nuisance of themselves that Enlil determined to wipe them out. The third tablet describes how Enki, who had been sworn to silence, got round his oath by speaking, not to Atrahasis but to a reed wall nearby, warning it that Enlil was sending a flood and suggesting that if only Atrahasis were to find out, it would be a good idea for him to pull down his house and build a boat.
Most of the tablets which contain the Atrahasis Epic are more or less damaged and it may be this which leaves the description of the boat unclear. However in the Simmons Tablet we are given a piece of vital information: "Lay out the boat that you will build with a circular design. Let its length and breadth be equal," Enki tells Atrahasis.
Suddenly, all that about equal length and breadth makes sense: people in Iraq still make a ghufa, a circular basket of reeds coated with bitumen to make it water-tight. Such craft can be small, only big enough for a single fisherman, or they can be large enough to carry several people and a cow or a couple of goats! Although they might not be seaworthy, on the still waters of the Euphrates or Tigris they are perfectly adequate.
Atrahasis was instructed to make a ghufa large enough to take his whole household, including his domestic animals. Unlike the ordinary ghufa, however, this one was to have a roof and a door. Somewhat callously, Atrahasis instructs the craftsman he employed to build the boat, "When I have gone into the boat, shut the door and caulk the frame." Atrahasis alone knew of the coming flood and he abandoned the workmen outside the boat without a qualm once they had ensured his own safety by making the door waterproof!
Although we cannot prove it, the fact that one version of the story describes the boat as circular is a strong indication that the other versions intended a circular boat to be understood when they specified that length and breadth were to be equal. It is unlikely, however, that the Biblical story of Noah is as indebted to Atrahasis and Gilgamesh as some have claimed. A "circle" 450x75' would be an ellipse - which would possibly make the Ark even more sea-worthy than the boxy rectangle of most paintings! (However the difficulty of making an elliptical boat would probably have defeated ancient ship-builders, so a box is more likely.)
The Bible describes Noah's Ark as made of "gopher wood". Although 450' was extremely large for a wooden boat, it is just conceivable that it could be built. There may even be some special quality in gopher wood which would make it particularly suitable for such as purpose. However there is no way that an extraordinarily large ghufa could be made out of palm fibre and bitumen! A couple of people and a cow, yes; a complete household and all its cattle, no.
Perhaps Moses wasn't as much of a plagiarist as some might think!
© Kendall K. Down 2010
