(word processor parameters LM=1, RM=70, TM=2, BM=2) Taken from KeelyNet BBS (214) 324-3501 Sponsored by Vangard Sciences PO BOX 1031 Mesquite, TX 75150 NOAHARK1.ASC October 29, 1990 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Vangard Notes >>> We of Vangard Sciences highly recommend that everyone read David Fasolds' book "THE ARK OF NOAH." I know that some of you are going to wonder why should they should take the time to read about Noah and the Ark of Man. In Mr. Fasolds' book he covers many things that have happened in the past that can be related to our present as well as our future. Jerry Decker and I - Ronald Barker have had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Fasold on several occasions, and found that he tells you all the true facts and leaves out the BS, just as he does in his book. He gives you the information to back up what he says. Mr. Fasolds' discovery of the ARK of Noah has been verified by some of the top scientists in the field. Mr. Ron Wyatt from Madison, Tennessee one of the top scientists in the country on sub-surface radar research, Dr. John Baumgardner from Los Alamos research center, Mr. Vendyl Jones (A.K.A. Indiana Jones)., and many others who we will not list. David makes no claims as to actually discovering the Ark. He rediscovered it after many other researchers had pronounced the site as not the remains of a ship, but a geological formation. The true discoverer of the Ark is a Turkish farmer named Reshit Sarihan. An earthquake occurred in 1948 which shifted the ground where the Ark had rested all these centuries. At that time, not much notice was taken of the exposed shape until a military photo reconaissance overflight took pictures which showed the shape of a very large ship. However, David did make the contacts and do the quite incredible amount of research necessary to locate and verify his site as the TRUE ARK of NOAH. He has spent over $100,000 of his own money and in excess of 6 years on the ARK project. We consider ourselves extremely fortunate to have been allowed to meet such a fascinating and capable researcher as David Fasold. His work is currently unappreciated and not even suspected by the masses. Page 1 It seems orthodox Christianity MUST FIND THE ARK ON THE MOUNT OF ARARAT TO VERIFY THEIR FAITH. In truth, the translations in the Bible have been so in error that many people searching for these wonderful historical treasures have been led astray. The primary problem has been their failure to consult other ancient texts concurrent with the event. Corruption of records takes on an almost logarthmic certainty as time passes. Each ruler wants history to begin with him or to alter past history to his views. This is one of the things we most admired about David, his tenacity and his wide ranging research efforts. He consulted dozens of texts including the Torah, the Koran, the Epic of Gilgamesh and many others to piece together the true location. If you ever get a chance to hear him speak or to meet or speak with him, DON'T PASS IT UP! He will hypnotize and enthrall you with his anecdotes and the recounting of his discovery of the ARK. I - Jerry Decker, had the privilege of attending the 1989 International Geophysical Symposium as a guest of Vendyl Jones and David Fasold. Both gave presentations which simply mesmerized these Engineers and Scientists from all over the world. It was truly amazing to see how these people clustered around both David and Vendyl to ask questions about their researches. Another thing that David has noted which we all find very interesting is that the day of the earthquake in 1948 is the same date that Israel became a nation, just as in Biblical prophecy! The following story is taken from David Fasolds' book "THE ARK OF NOAH", published in 1988 by Wynwood Press of New York. The ISBN number is 0-922066-10-8 and it can be ordered from most book suppliers such as Taylors or Waldenbooks. David tells us it is soon to come out in paperback. The hardback version sells for $18.95. BUY IT, you will not regret the purchase! To give you an idea of what is in his book we include the Preface written by David Fasold, the introduction written by Charles Berlitz and Chapter 2 pages 52 to 56 title HOMO IGNORAMUS. The chapter points out that in pre-flood times, the calendars registered 360 days per year. After the flood the calendars changed to 365 days a year. Page 2 David found an interesting Egyptian myth which tells the story of how the Moon was coerced into sharing some of its light. In fact, it had to do with a slowing down of the Earth's rotation which, since it is a giant armature, necessarily reduced the magnetic field. Zecharia Sitchin's excellent books also give many translations relating to events in pre-dawn times. Also why did people live such long life spans as compared with people of today. Is it possible that the slowing down of the Earth's rotation caused a change in the human body's electric field due to the decreased magnetism? Is this why the Dinosaurs died out? Or could it be that one who had eaten of the "AMOMUM" root (the root of Youth) as mentioned in the Epic of Gilgamesh: " Its name is The Old Will Be Made Young. " I too will eat it, and I will return to What I Was In My Youth." ( These are some of the questions into which we of Vangard Sciences are interested and looking into.) Mr. Fasolds' book can be purchased at any book store or you can write to him. ADDRESS: Mr. David Fasold 9921 Carmel Mtn. Rd. San Diego, Ca. 92129 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Page 3 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Brief Review THE ARK OF NOAH by DAVID FASOLD -------------------------------------------------------------------- The Ark of Noah is the story behind one of the greatest archaeological finds of the century. Read either as an astonishing story of archaeological detection, or as an undeniable confirmation of the Old Testament account of Noah's Ark, this book is important beyond question. David Fasold had become fascinated with the centuries-old mystery of Noah's Ark and decided to search for it himself. Heading one of the last teams allowed excavation rights in Turkey, he deduced the Ark landed not on Mount Ararat, as had been popularly thought, but on Mount Mahser Dagi (the Doomsday Mountain) some seventeen miles south of the traditional site. An outlined structure had been uncovered on Mahser Dagi in a 1948 earthquake, but geologists had reckoned it to be a natural object. David Fasold's translations and interpretations of the Sumerian accounts of the Great Flood led him inexorably back to Mahser Dagi. He uncovered stone sculptures previously thought to be totem or steles dating from the proper period. In fact, these carved monoliths were deemed anchors from a seagoing craft - a craft Fasold determined to be the Ark of Noah. Fasold's team ascended Mahser Dagi and found the remains of a boat whose dimensions exactly matched those given in Genesis. To his surprise, drilling samples revealed the boat to be made not of wood, as was commonly supposed, but of reed and pumice (gopher wood), and constructed using techniques historically coincident to Noah's time. After the discovery, Fasold's site was sealed off and officially declared the landing place of Noah's Ark by the Turkish government. Filled with incontrovertible photographs of the actual Ark, as well as documents of the material analysis, David Fasold's The Ark of Noah is a compelling and controversial addition to the world of popular archaeology. David Fasold is a former merchant marine officer. Nearly two decades as a marine salvage expert provided him with the background and knowledge that proved indispensable to his later expeditions. "The usual pattern for searches to take place only on Mount Ararat has been changed by the exploratory investigations of David Fasold." -------------------------------------------------------------------- Page 4 -------------------------------------------------------------------- The Preface by David Fasold from his book "The Ark of Noah" In an attempt to establish the origin of modern man and the seed that has germinated into the flourishing of civilizations, the archaeologist has lifted his brush from the sands of time to paint a portrait of the ancient Near East splashed with colors of enlightenment. For his devoted labors in illuminating these areas of understanding, we are grateful. But it remains a painting poorly executed, for the artists of anthropology have not yet succeeded in producing within that balance of shadow and light any expression of harmony that allows the viewer to envision from whence he came. This painting remains muddled by a modern-day myth that the legends burned into the memories of the ancients and impressed onto tables of clay were not actual records of an historical event. Thus the historians have failed to reclaim from obscurity that dark "land of the crossings" from which the settlers have come, survivors of an advanced culture that was cleaved by an event of such catastrophic proportions as to literally divide history and the development of man into a new age. This experience of an overwhelming deluge still remains as the most solemn and awesome recollection of the human race. My portrayal, then is the fertile crescent born anew, a rejuvenation of civilization reawakened from a slumber of the dead by the descendants of this past age, borne upon the survival ship that traversed the eras in a voyage of circumstance and necessity, the descendants of Noah and progenitors of modern man. In the attempt to retrace our ancestors' footsteps to the door of the Ark itself, however attractive such a mission might appear, I have failed to interest the Academic community at large in participating. Understandably, such a proposal raises serious doubts. But when an invitation is extended to view the tangible remains of the antediluvian vessel high upon the mountains of Urartu, the response of science should be investigation pure and simple, not ridicule and scorn. Perhaps reluctance on their part is the only safe ground, for should this prove to be the most controversial artifact ever recorded, the legend is exonerated and the biblical Flood is true. Even their high towers of "qualifications" will not save them from the deluge of error. Does the theory that man has come from the lowest depths of humanity to his present elevated position have validity? Is it time Page 5 for the history of man to be rewritten, this time with more foundation and truth? Or is it time to return to the original accounts, and read them with the seriousness they deserve? For those who have always believed, I claim no discovery and my hope that it will be greeted as representing the first confrontation with a startling new body of evidence and a sense of what the discovery has meant to those explorers who experienced it. To those for whom a devotion to truth and understanding bring a spark of life... welcome aboard the mother ship of mankind, built to bridge two worlds, which rode upon that cataclysm of old and bore us to our new beginnings. DAVID FASOLD -------------------------------------------------------------------- Page 6 -------------------------------------------------------------------- INTRODUCTION to David Fasolds' book The Ark of Noah by Charles Berlitz -------------------------------------------------------------------- Has Noah's Ark finally been found? The location of the legendary Noah's Ark on Mount Ararat has been reported a number of times in antiquity and the Middle Ages by such travelers as Marco Polo and other merchants and pilgrims following the caravan trails. It has been reported seen in modern times by mountain climbers, shepherds, fugitives, and explorers, religious and laic. Some climbers claim not only to have seen the Ark but to have touched it and even taken wood from the giant hull. Since World War I it has sometimes been sighted by aircraft pilots from military or private planes. It has been reported on the mountain in World War II and in the subsequent Cold War period. The problem has long been how to positively identify it, inasmuch as climbers or viewers of Mount Ararat may be influenced by seeing something where the Ark is supposed to be. Pictures of something which might be the Ark have been taken from a space capsule at seven hundred miles altitude over the mountain, but the shape loses its cohesion when subjected to magnification. Other photographs taken from planes seem to have been lost, sometimes in mysterious circumstances. Further, photography from the air or on the side of the mountain near the Russian border, where the Ark is supposed to be frozen most of the time under the ice, is presently not only difficult but, like reported photographs from high-altitude spy planes such as the U-2, dangerous. When one climbs to the upper reaches of Mount Ararat one risks being struck by lightning, falling into deep crevasses through thin ice over glaciers, blown off the mountain by unexpected winds, hit by stone avalanches, attacked by wolves or wild dog packs, or shot by bandits or rebels. The dedication of the climbers, many of whom feel they are on a religious mission, is a definite manifestation of the power of the belief that Noah's Ark is waiting to be found on Mount Ararat. But the Bible never mentions Ararat specifically, rather "the mountains of Ararat," Ararat being a form of the old word form Armenia-Urartu. The fixation upon Mount Ararat itself is anciently based on Saint Jacob's testimony. He said that an angel carried him up the mountain to show him the Ark, and then took him down again. Page 7 Explorers and searchers for the Ark must face the element of popular disbelief in the very presence of such an artifact on Ararat as "How can you find something that dies not exist?" The popular legends concerning Noah's Ark, the enormous size of the ship allegedly built by Noah and his three sons, the gathering in and feeding of the horde of animals that were summoned, two by two of each species, and finally, the illogicality of a flood that could cover the whole earth, may be based on the memories of a great flood but are certainly difficult concepts for the nonbeliever to accept. But there are startling indications of a catastrophe which affected the whole earth ten r eleven thousand years ago. This was a combination of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, cosmic storms, sudden changes in sea level and climate. We are now able to ascertain that catastrophic flooding occurred in different parts of the earth as large areas of the land and water changed places. To many of the earth's inhabitants, the world seemed to be drowning in a great flood, from which only a few "chosen" people escaped. The legend of the Flood and the Ark is older then Greece, older then Egypt, older the Babylon and the cultures that preceded it. The memory of the Flood, as this world disaster appeared to most of the ancient peoples inhabiting the earth at that time, is still preserved in national and tribal traditions throughout the world. Only the name of each local survivor varied in prehistoric northern Europe, East Asia, the American continents, Africa, and the Pacific. In the ancient Middle East, although the name Noah was antedated by other local names, the story is the same. Noah's name, common to the great religions of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, is now the most famous name among the ship captains who survived, as is the place of salvation - the mountains of Ararat. During the last few years, the search for the Ark of Ararat, on the high icy plateau, in crevasses, and even under the ice, has been intensified. The usual pattern for searches to take place only on Mount Ararat has been changed by the exploratory investigations of David Fasold, a deep-sea diver and holder of a master's ticket in the merchant marine. Fasold has dedicated years of his life and considerable personal funds to long explorations of the Ararat area, with the premise that Noah's Ark has already been found. The true Ark, he claims, was photographed from the air in 1959 after a mud slide uncovered a stone formation closely resembling a ship. This stone shape of a ship is not on Ararat but twelve miles away on a lower range. The dimensions of the ship are almost identical to the biblical description of the Ark: approximately 450 feet, 75 feet wide, and 45 Page 8 feet high-except for the height-but the stone ship is still rising from the enveloping solidified mud. Fasold claims the stone form is a real ship, not fossilized but made of reeds covered with cement. As we now know, cement was used thousands of years before Rome in different parts of the Middle East. During his year of on-the-spot research, Fasold has ben assisted by scientists who include a Los Alamos specialist and a radar field technician. They have used the most sensitive radar devices that can detect formations and mineral content, not only under water but under land, up a depth of forty feet, as well. Starting with frequency generators to determine metal concentration of spikes inside wooden beams, he traced thirteen bow- to-stern interior divisions and nine interior bulkhead-to-bulkhead supports. A more detailed search with subsurface interface radar revealed clear outlines of closed sections, beams and cross beams, collapsed decks, iron and other metals used in clamps, and pins at approximately eighteen-to twenty-inch intervals. The discovery of the inner plan of the stone shape of a gigantic ship could not have been ascertained without digging into the shape except by using the subsurface radar. Here we have an example of advance technology revealing history that has not been generally accepted as such, obscured up till now by the mists of legend and time. The huge drag stones used on ancient ships have been found on a plateau several miles away, possibly dropped there when the ship started to go aground. The Ark survived because of its cement covering and lay under layers of frozen mud until it surfaced in 1948. The discovery of this stone ship and ongoing tests over, and soon inside, the vessel have created a world sensation, not only in archaeology but also in Middle East politics and the study of the world's lost history. If this is indeed the Noah's Ark of the Bible, its complete appearance and identification may cause many to entertain somber reflections. Colonel James Irwin, an astronaut who walked on the moon and who has long searched for the Ark, has expressed what many fundamentalists feel: "... the finding of the Ark could very well herald the return of the Messiah and the end of the earth." If the appearance of the Ark is a warning, one must admit it comes at an appropriate moment in world history. The Turkish Ministry of Culture has now made the remains the focus of a national park, and Turkish archaeologists, hopefully with Page 9 international collaboration, will continue the investigation. Meanwhile, a sign indicates the direction to the ship. It says: NUH'UN SEMISI (Noah's Ark). It is an interesting coincidence and historic justice that the ancient ship, unrecognized since 1948 by formal archaeologists and religious searchers, should finally be identified by a fellow sea captain - a professional colleague and ideological descendant of Noah. Introduction by Charles Berlitz -------------------------------------------------------------------- HOMO IGNORAMUS Chapter 2 Pages 52 to 56 From David Fasold's Book The Ark of Noah There are other inconsistencies in the authorized account that are easily explained by this new sequence of events. The crow and the dove take on more significant roles and are explained in a later chapter. Where the olive leaf came from which obviously could not have drifted, taken root, and sprouted in only seven days and the purpose of the seven-day wait between the sending forth of the dove, the period of time between the coming to rest and the ground being dry, is also answered by discovery of the drogue anchors. But could the idea of an earlier period comprised of a shorter year be acceptable? Attempting to reconcile the pre-Flood ear and that period of time shortly thereafter with our present system of 29 1/2 day lunar months and a solar year of 365 1/4 days may not be realistic. Immanuel Velikovsky compiled vast material from various cultures that concludes there have been occasions of perturbations in the vault of the heavens and the earth, during which the moon has receded to an orbit of 35 to 36 days' duration. The Flood was the result of an event that changed everything! Peter relates the ancients' understanding that for the most part, the world is turning its back on today regardless of the evidence. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water Page 10 and in the water... But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment... 2 Peter 3:5,7 KJV Are we willingly ignorant that the old heavens as viewed from our planet have passed away with the land that was standing above the water of the prediluvian period? Portions of that landmass sank beneath the waters and through tectonic upheaval little of the old world remains beneath our feet, while the heavens that are above us now in this new elliptical orbit of 365 1/4 days is reserved for a future time when it, too, will change. John speaks of this in a foreseen future event when there fell great stones out of the heavens preceded by an earthquake "such was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great" that "every island fled away, and the mountains were not found" (Revelation 16:18,20 KJV). Peter precedes these comments by stating that we should know this first, that there shall come in the last days of our present system scoffers, saying, "Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation" (2 Peter 3:4 KJV). It is here that Immanuel Velikovsky begins to take a rather hard look at Homo Ignoramus. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. The day consists of 23 hours, 56 minutes. The year consists of 365 days, 5 hours, and 49 minutes. The moon circles the earth's terrestrial axis points in the direction of the polar star. After winter comes spring, then summer and fall. These are common facts, but are they invariable laws? asks Velikovsky. What single spectacle impressed itself upon the mind of man that evoked the astonishment of the survivors, but a change in the order of the universe, and it caused the Flood! Today, the willfully ignorant discredit traditions of upheavals and catastrophes by the shortsighted belief that no forces could have shaped the world we live in that are not now at work. In my opinion, this belief, which is the very foundation of modern geology, may have been a proud ship at her launching, but it is now full of so many holes it doesn't float! There is no law of celestial mechanics that says the earth must have this particular rate of rotation. The earth's equator is inclined to the plane of its elliptic at an angle of 23.45 degrees. This causes the change of the seasons during the earth's annual revolution around the sun. It is not necessarily a general law that a planet must be so, and from my reading of the account in Genesis, there had been a change. Page 11 For the theologian, the reason for the Flood and the cause of the Flood are two entirely different matters. The mechanics of the event may never be fully explained as to an outside influence disturbing the earth, which caused the tilt and change in orbit, resulting in a total breakup of the crust, or if the earth received a direct impact, as the Book of Revelation predicts, it will in future form the star Wormwood. An immediate change in the atmosphere is noted by Noah at the first sighting of a rainbow and his mention of seasons of heat and cold. In the years thereafter there appeared to be a decreasing of longevity, especially in the succeeding generations, and an abrupt change during the days of Peleg. The oldest account of this phenomenon is recorded by Emperor Ho-ang-ti who, according to the chronology of China, was a contemporary of Reu. In his medical book he proposed an enquiry "whence it happened that the lives of our forefathers were so long compared with the lives of the present generation." All was not peaceful on the earth when Noah stepped out of the Ark. The readjustments of tectonic plates caused by the oblation of the earth at its new equatorial zones since the axis shift may have still been causing havoc during later generations. If we are to accept the Masoretic text as accurate, my figures would have Peleg living from 101 post-Flood to the year 340, but I have doubts as to this early date. Nahor, Terah's father, died approximately the same year, so there may be indications of another catastrophic event. Genesis 10:25 relates that during Peleg's day the earth was torn asunder by a violent upheaval. He may have met his death during this event. Peleg's name is not in itself a proper name. It means "a division." There are about thirteen verbs translated "divide," each with a different shade of meaning. The popular explanation is that the world was divided among the various companies of people and that this coincided with the dispersal from the Tower of Babel. If this was the meaning, the name is derived from palag "to divide by cleavage." The Egyptians, too, have recorded this event when the earth's crust was rent during Peleg's time as the work of the Lord (Thoth) Tehuti pens ta, "cleaver of the earth." During more stable times he was remembered as Thoth-Hapi-Tem neb Xut, "Lord of the Horizon." This brings to mind Isaiah 24:1 KJV: "Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof." Page 12 Babylonian tablets record actual dates such as "the thirty- third day of the month" during that period. The abrupt decrease in longevity, according to the Masoretic text, can be seen by the graph on the following page. In summation of this chapter, I am proposing that the solar year prior to the Floor was undergoing a slow change, something that is alluded to in the study of the calendar at the Tiahuanaco ruins on the Alti Plano in South America, which in my view must now be considered the remains of a pre-Flood city. I have attempted to show that the solar year of the Flood as described in the Genesis account is referring to a year of three hundred days. In the following chapter about the pre-Flood kings, my proposal coincides with the biblical account of the reigns of the Ten Patriarchs as listed in the Genesis account before the Flood. Could it be possible that the orbit of the earth was disturbed by outside influences passing through our solar system, causing a change in the earth's orbit around the sun to an elliptic path of a longer year? Would the axis shift be a result of this disturbance, or would the shift itself be the cause of the change? If all things have remained the same, what then are we to make of the orbiting satellite, whose distance from the earth was 5.9 terrestrial radii, that made 447 revolutions around the earth in a year ancient Americans? If the interpretation of these ancient calendars is valid, then perhaps we should apply a shorter year to the pre-Flood accounts of the Mesopotamians. Page 13 Here is a list showing the decline in longevity from pre-Flood patriarchs through the post-Flood generation, finally reaching the life expectancy of today. The tradition of longevity in ancient man is recorded by the following historians: Manetho, Berosus, Mochus, Hestiaeus, Hieronymus, Hesiod, Hecataeus, Hellanicus, Acusilaus, Ephorus, Nicolaus, and Josephus. (numbers = age) Pre-Flood * Adam..............................930 * Seth..............................912 * Enos..............................905 * Kenan.............................910 * Mahaleel..........................895 * Jared.............................862 * Methuselah........................969 * Lamech............................777 * Noah..............................950 Post-Flood Shem..............................602 * Arphaxad..........................438 * Salah.............................433 * Eber..............................464 * Peleg.............................239 * Reu...............................239 * Serug.............................230 * Nahor.............................148 * Terah.............................205 * Abraham...........................175 * Isaac.............................180 * Jacob.............................147 * Job...............................140 * Levi..............................137 * Kohath............................133 * Amaram............................137 * Moses.............................120 * Joshua............................110 * Eli................................98 * David..............................70 * Vangard Notes >>> Is it not interesting how the lifespan of Man decreased so rapidly after the Flood, from 1000 years down to 70 ?? It makes us wonder what happened after the Flood to cause such a radical change in Mans' metabolism. Is it because of the loss of the "Amomum" or "youth" root of Noah, or perhaps because of something else which occurred to pollute the atmosphere or water of the planet, such as the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah with what has been suspected of being atomic explosions ?? Page 14 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Story submitted by Ronald Barker of Vangard Sciences ***** SPECIAL NOTE ***** In March of 1990 the government of Turkey will be opening a park at the site of the Ark. In April or in August of 1990 PBS will be releasing a TV documentary on the discovery of the Ark of Noah. (as of this date (October 29, 1990, the producers of the documentary have yet to air the program) -------------------------------------------------------------------- If you have comments or other information relating to such topics as this paper covers, please upload to KeelyNet or send to the Vangard Sciences address as previously listed. Thank you for your consideration, interest and support. Jerry W. Decker.........Ron Barker...........Chuck Henderson Vangard Sciences/KeelyNet -------------------------------------------------------------------- If we can be of service, you may contact Jerry at (214) 324-8741 or Ron at (214) 242-9346 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Page 15