The Tablet of the Floods

A Mesopotamian tablet, dating back to 1900 B.C., details the construction of an ark… Another piece of evidence for the millennia-old story of the Flood.

A Mesopotamian clay tablet, on display at the British Museum in London, is indeed shaking up what we thought we knew about Noah’s Ark.

By deciphering the 60 cuneiform lines (the oldest writing system in the world) inscribed on both sides, Irving Finkel, a prominent British Assyriologist, discovered that the tablet held a treasure: a detailed description of the construction of the Ark itself, intended to save from drowning one pair of every species present on Earth—more than a thousand years before the version in the Book of Genesis.

The most astonishing and unexpected part is that this cuneiform tablet describes the animals boarding the Ark: “They went in, two by two, in pairs.” Just like in Genesis! What is even more remarkable is that this discovery leads us to reconsider the story of the Flood and Noah’s Ark: “There was obviously a flood and an ark in ancient Mesopotamian times,” explains Finkel…

“In this tablet, the god Enki tells Atrahasis that the base of the boat must cover an area of 3,600 square meters and that its diameter is 70 meters,” explains Irving Finkel, who had to perform extensive conversion calculations to transcribe the ancient units of measure.

The god also specifies that the coracle must be made of palm fiber ropes. After coiling these ropes together to form a giant round basket, Atrahasis must reinforce everything with wooden ribs placed inside, while also installing struts to support an upper deck.

The space created must then be divided with partitions to separately house “bulky animals or those mortally incompatible.” Twenty of the tablet’s sixty lines are then dedicated to the boat’s waterproofing, which must be achieved by applying a thick layer of bitumen.

Then, on line 52, a previously unknown detail appears: the animals must board “two by two.” “This is a detail very close to the biblical account. It’s the first time it appears on a Mesopotamian tablet,” says an enthusiastic Irving Finkel. Proof, if it were needed, of the astonishing longevity of this story.

Unfortunately, I cannot include here the full text of Mr. Finkel’s translation, as it appears it has not been transcribed anywhere other than in his dedicated book.