Overview
- Prof. Faruk Kaya of Agri Ibrahim Cecen University reported that pottery fragments were uncovered during recent roadworks near the boat‑shaped Durupınar Formation in eastern Turkey.
- The team says the ceramics date to the Chalcolithic period, roughly 5500–3000 BC, indicating human activity in the area during that time.
- A 2022 collaboration between Agri Ibrahim Cecen University and Istanbul Technical University analyzed rock and soil samples, with researchers reporting mixed clays and marine remnants in the mound’s soils.
- Kaya is urging authorities to safeguard the formation, citing tourists removing marked stones and seasonal landslides that are accelerating damage.
- Mainstream archaeologists reject claims that the formation is the biblical Ark, and previous independent radar reports of subsurface anomalies remain unverified in peer‑reviewed research.