The Ark was circular

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jan/01/noahs-ark-was-circular/print

This agrees with my earlier interpretation of round boats preceding longboats.

[Note: see bottom for interesting boat coffins & Urumqi mummies of China Tairm Basin]
The bible mentions rectilinear measurements, but those may have referred to the interior cabins/pens (and perhaps magnified in size and carrying capacity by editors?), not necessarily to the overall circular form.

Note: Noah may have been titled Atram Hasis, from Ad-iram (adramite of Ptolemy/Chatramotitae of Erasthenos/Hadramaut/Ch'Ad/Akkad) while hasis = aziz (Arabic: "highly valued'), related to Oasis & Hasidic (temple well - flowing spring), compare to (at-Ra)Moses (Nile Hebrew), (at)Ra-M-ses (Nile Pharaoh), also the English word Admiral (via Arabic) while Noah relates to Nao-katu/Navigate/boat maker-user.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jan/01/noahs-ark-was-circular/print
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There are dozens of ancient tablets that have been found which describe the flood story but Finkel says this one is the first to describe the vessel's shape. "In all the images ever made people assumed the ark was, in effect, an ocean-going boat, with a pointed stem and stern for riding the waves – so that is how they portrayed it," said Finkel. "But the ark didn't have to go anywhere, it just had to float, and the instructions are for a type of craft which they knew very well. It's still sometimes used in Iran and Iraq today, a type of round coracle which they would have known exactly how to use to transport animals across a river or floods." Finkel's research throws light on the familiar Mesopotamian story, which became the account in Genesis, in the Old Testament, of Noah and the ark that saved his menagerie from the waters which drowned every other living thing on earth. In his translation, the god who has decided to spare one just man speaks to Atram-Hasis, a Sumerian king who lived before the flood and who is the Noah figure in earlier versions of the ark story. "Wall, wall! Reed wall, reed wall! Atram-Hasis, pay heed to my advice, that you may live forever! Destroy your house, build a boat; despise possessions And save life! Draw out the boat that you will built with a circular design; Let its length and breadth be the same." The tablet goes on to command the use of plaited palm fibre (rope), waterproofed with bitumen (kophar), before the construction of cabins (qufa/coop/kytos) for the people and wild animals. It ends with the dramatic command of Atram-Hasis to the unfortunate boat builder whom he leaves behind to meet his fate, about sealing up the door once everyone else is safely inside: "When I shall have gone into the boat, Caulk the frame of the door!"

How sensible, a woven round boat with rectangular frame interior to divide compartments.

Note that ancient Egyptian measurements were probably based on the sphere. http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0033895
An Ancient Relation between Units of Length and Volume Based on a Sphere

and this note from Chris Tedder: The sun is depicted as a disc rather than a sphere. For example, the sun held between the horns of Hathor in the Dyn 4 ‘Menkaure triad’, is a disc with a slightly curved surface. (pic: [heritage-key.com] ). If they had understood the sun was spherical rather than a disc, we should at least see a hemisphere between the horns.  http://heritage-key.com/egypt/triad-menkaure

The circular form was obviously important to the AE (circular sun, moon, horizon etc.), and I suspect they incorporated it into the design of the sqd 5 1/2 pyramid with a geometrical / mathematical relationship to the square base.

For example, the floor level of the sarcophagus chamber and the level of the floor lines of the shafts as they intersected with the face of the pyramid, can be determined graphically using a circle /square combination:
[sites.google.com]
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Note comparison to my drum-wheel/merkaba theory.
An interesting sidepoint. The Road to Ubar (by Nicholas Clapp) mentions the Arabian tale The City of Brass, where Emir Musa (famed for invading Spain, and later dying at Al Ula (Dedan kingdom)  Arabia on the way back to Damascus, traveled to a mysterious brass city, and on the way back, found a coastal mountain which fits the Dophar description (dark skin mountain Hamitic people living in caves wearing leather =matches= Shahra people speaking language of birds not Arabic that herded cattle around caves).
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ancientarcheology/message/455

In the story: "The men talked about how Solomon had had great powers and was able to put jinns in brass bottles. Solomon had poured melted lead on the bottles and sealed them with his signature..." Lastly in the story "Musa was not sympathetic to Talib; he said, "You acted in a dishonorable way!" The group loaded the riches of the city on their camels. Then they closed the gates before leaving. The party rode along the coast and reached a high mountain next to the sea. It had many caves. People lived in them and Emir Musa said, "Who are those people?" Sheikh Samad said, "They are the people who have the bottles."

{Note: Frankinsense was transported at Qana port on the So. Arabian coast by animal-skin boats (bottles??) floated downstream from Dophar mtns. I think 'bottles' was originally 'boats', from putti/pot/boat/hut/punt skin round boats, like those used on Tigris River and India. Perhaps bottle was diminutive for boat eg. bo(a)t-le. Anyway, note similarity of Noah/Atram saying to 'caulk the ark door', and the story of Solomon sealing the bottled jinns/genies. DDeden}

"Only the king of those people could speak Arabic. He came to the group and welcomed Emir Musa, Sheikh Samad, and the others. They learned that the people of that mountain were descended from Ham, who was one of the sons of Noah. The sea was called Al-Karkar. The king gave a banquet for Musa, Samad, and the rest of the party. He presented them with twelve bottles that had been found in the sea. They gave him and his people gifts that included gold and silver. Musa, Samad, and their companions made the trip back to Syria."

Names-Titles for priests/diviners/fortunetellers/spirits:
Hebrew: Cohen/Coan/Kohannim (link to Goshen)
Egyptian: Coptian/Coptician
Japanese: Koshin-to (ancient shin-to) cf Buddhist Zen-do
Hawaiian: Kahuna (spirit priest)
Hopi AmerInd: Kachina (spirit doll/dance)
So. Arabian: Kahin (soothesayer/fortuneteller)

Adam - Atram - Abram



http://wikimapia.org/#lat=26.6666835&lon=37.9069304&z=18&l=0&m=b
http://mideasttour.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?orderby=updated

See story & photos of Chinese Turkestan 4ka Mummies & canoe coffins covered with cowhide accompanied by long (male?) paddles & (female?) punt sticks:

http://blog.hmns.org/tag/xiaohe/


Of the fifteen burial sites uncovered thus far, Xiaohe remains the oldest. The 167 excavated graves yielded more than a thousand artifacts from the period 2000 to 1450 BCE. Victor Mair notes:

There were five levels of burials in coffins in the shape of overturned boats. Live oxen were slaughtered at the site and their still-wet hides were used to wrap the coffins. After they had dried, the hides sealed the coffin tight as a drum, so that not even a speck of sand could enter the burial (Mair 2010, 47).

At the surface, large wooden obelisks were driven into the ground. Those accompanying the tombs of females are pointed in angular fashion, while those over male graves are shaped like paddles. Speculation based on similar grave decorations in northern Europe suggests the possibility that each obelisk is a sexual symbol, perhaps to demonstrate the individual’s virility or fertility.

DDeden