"Charred remains of Noah's Ark": What was discovered 9 meters deep near Mount Ararat?

The Noah's Ark Scans team announced on October 26 that it had extracted from a depth of nearly nine meters beneath the ship-like formation at the Durupinar site, about 29 kilometers south of Mount Ararat, pieces of wood, some of them charred, and is sending them for laboratory tests. No carbon-14 dating or wood-species identification has yet been published, and the team stresses that no conclusions can be drawn.

The Noah's Ark Scans research team announced on October 26 that it had pulled from the ground, from a depth of nearly nine meters beneath the ship-like formation at the Durupinar site in eastern Turkey, pieces of wood, some of them charred. The site lies about 29 kilometers south of Mount Ararat. The samples were sent for laboratory tests meant to determine what the material is, how old it is, and whether it is connected to the structure buried at the site. No carbon-14 dating results or identification of the wood species have been published yet, and no proof has been presented that the material is part of a vessel. The team members themselves stress that no conclusions can be drawn before the test results are received. Andrew Jones, the organization's founder, told the Daily Mail that he does not rule out that these are charred remains of Noah's Ark, but also offered a less dramatic explanation: the remains of a campfire lit by a shepherd at the site hundreds of years ago. The researchers also raise the possibility of a lightning strike or volcanic activity, and point out that the Book of Genesis describes the ark as coated with pitch, a sealing material that may be flammable. The discovery joins a series of findings from recent months. Radar scans identified straight lines, angles, cavities and three layers in the formation, which is about 157 meters long. Dr. Çenker Atila of Sivas University, who leads the archaeological research, said that in the scriptures the ark had three stories, and the scans also identified a three-layered formation. However, radar scans are not images of rooms, and changes in the properties of materials can also be produced by natural geological processes. Geologists who have studied Durupinar in the past explained its shape by the folding of rock layers, erosion and sediment movement. The team also reported pottery shards outside the formation, which it claims date from the Chalcolithic period to the Iron Age. Jones himself admits that the findings do not unequivocally identify the formation as the remains of the ark, and defines the radar findings as a new line of evidence rather than final proof.