Hello,
I'm looking for information on Noah's Ark. We are looking to build a small replica (about the size of a coffee table) of the Ark for a display. We'd be making it out of wood.
What would the boat have looked like? Noah was Mesopotamian right, so what sort of boats would they have been making. It's often shown as bulbous with a flat bottom, I was under the impression that ships that large would have to be deep and narrowed at the bottom to prevent capsizing (can't remember where I heard that)
What were the boat's dimensions? How large would it be, and how many floors/decks
Is there anything else to keep in mind when building this?
Thank you for your help.
You likely won't get a lot of answers from AskHistorians, because strictly speaking the Genesis flood narrative as it appears in the Torah, Bible, and Quran has no historical foundation — it is not history but mythology, based on a number of similar flood narratives in Mesopotamian and Sumerian stories such as the Epics of Gilgamesh and Ziusudra. (You can get a simple overview of flood myths from Wikipedia.)
But putting that aside, a lot of people have tried to imagine what a "Noah's Ark" vessel would be like. To try to answer your questions:
What would the boat have looked like?
According to the Genesis mythological timeline, Noah would have been building his ark around 2348 BC. (A lot of scholars have various methods of computing this based on biblical texts, the details are left to you as an exercise.) And according to the texts, he hailed from Shuruppak.
Boats of that time period and in that area of the world have not survived as artifacts, but we have iconographic references to boats of wooden construction with flat bottoms and high curving ends. (Ships and Shipbuilding in Mesopotamia (PDF), Makela, Texas A&M; Ancient Mesopotamian Materials and Industries: The Archaeological Evidence Roger and Moorey) These boats were largely used for trade on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, as well as the Arabian Gulf.
How the boats were framed and joined is a question without a conclusive answer. But if you build your model as a wide flat vessel (like a modern day barge) with square ends, that is in line with many academic opinions. (For further reading, see Greenhill, B. 1995. The Archaeology of Boats and Ships, an Introduction.)
What were the boat's dimensions? How large would it be, and how many floors/decks
This is the easier question, because the answer appears in the text you are working from (Genesis 6:14, King James):
14 Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.
15 And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.
16 A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.
This gives you pretty explicit instructions regarding dimensions, the 3-floors/decks construction, a window 1 cubit from the top, and pitching both inside and out.
Side note: What is gopher wood? (גפר, gofer) No one knows, it's a term not used elsewhere in the Bible or in Hebrew. Many translations render it as "squared wood" or similar. The Aramaic Targum Onkelos, considered by many to be the definitive translation of Hebrew scripture renders this word as קדרוס (qadros) i.e., cedar. And one of the earliest known boats, buried beside a pyramid at Giza and dating from around 2500 BC, is made from planks of cedar. If you choose that material, at least your model will smell nice.
Side note #2: What's a cubit? It's an ancient measure using the forearm of an adult human (from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger). It therefore varies a lot by region — but for your model you don't have to worry about it. Just make sure you use the 300:50:30 proportion.
Note also that the dimensions of Noah's Ark as given in the text are problematic for two reasons: The cubit value puts the ark beyond the shipbuilding technology of the time period. And importantly, just in terms of material strength, the size of wooden ships is limited to about 300 feet. (F. D. Hobbs, "Transportation," Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th ed.) It would be physically impossible to build a working vessel as described in Genesis 6:14.
Is there anything else to keep in mind when building this?
Because it is a mythical story, you can't really get it wrong. Have fun.
Obviously there is not great historical evidence for such an ark actually existing (seeing as the Bible is not a reliable primary source, particularly for the old testament). Hopefully, however, someone can get you some information about what a Mesopotamian ship would have looked like around Noah's time.
As far as what the Bible has to say, you can read Genesis 6:14-16. From the NIV:
14 So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. 15 This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high. 16 Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit high all around. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks.