>As I mentioned to you in my private note to you, I have begun to think I
>made a big mistake doing that. My courage failed me. Here is why. The
>reason is that now the occurrences of H. Erectus appears to be centered on
>Turkey. He is found in Spain at 1.8 myr, Africa at 1.8 myr, Java at 1.8
>myr, Pakistan at 1.8 myr, Georgia (former soviet union) at 1.6 MYR . I may
>have really blown it and your note has properly made me regret not staying
>with what I probably should have. From now on I will only advocate a Turkish
>landing site.
Is there any way of getting a handle on what direction the prevailing winds
would have taken in your scenario? If so, and if they were westerly (or
maybe southwesterly -- I don't have a map in front of me) then Turkey would
seem reasonable.
>However, if you will note, in my reply to Terry, I said that a couple of my
>criticisms of a Mesopotamian flood would be molified if the ark landed in
>Iran. But such a flood still could not last a year. Mine can.
Fair enough. The way the account is written, with specific numbers of days
for each phase, it seems natural to estimate the length of the flood in the
neighborhood of a year. So if it was a continuous flood, then Noah would
have ended up in the Persian Gulf in the Mesopotamian flood scenario,
_assuming_ the flooding was continuous. However, Noah had probably boarded
up all the hatches, couldn't see out, and was unlikely to open them unless
it seemed quiet for some period of time. If the waters rose and fell and
the ark grounded frequently, with heavy rains and storms coming
intemittently, your 3-5 mph estimate might be quite high. Noah wouldn't
have known whether it was safe to exit, since he woulnd't have opened any
hatches until it had been quiet outside (no thunder, no rain on the roof,
no boat motions) for long enough that he felt safe.
Bill Hamilton
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William E. Hamilton, Jr, Ph.D. | Staff Research Engineer
Chassis and Vehicle Systems | General Motors R&D Center | Warren, MI
810 986 1474 (voice) | 810 986 3003 (FAX) | whamilto@mich.com (home email)