Darren Aronofsky’s $130 million Hollywood epic “Noah” starring Russell Crowe has displeased Christian fundamentalists with its non-literal approach to the Old Testament story. Jewish moviegoers might also find it irksome that Aronofsky and his team of designers probably got the shape of the ark wrong. Irving Finkel’s “The Ark Before Noah: Decoding the Story of the Flood” was published too late for the filmmakers to revise their design.
Finkel, assistant keeper of ancient Mesopotamian script, languages and cultures in the department of Middle East at the British Museum, makes a convincing argument that the ark was likely circular, rather than the shape traditionally represented in centuries of religious art. A 3,700-year-old clay tablet made available for study only in 2009, and now known as the Ark Tablet, details instructions for building an ark from reeds and bitumen (a waterproof tar or petroleum found in natural deposits), as part of a Mesopotamian flood narrative.
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