Discovery of 6,500-Year-Old Skeleton in Pennsylvania Museum

AP/Matt Rourke photo

An archaeology Penn Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania made a discovery, not in the field, but in its own storage rooms – a 6,500-year-old human male skeleton. The skeleton was stored in a box resembling a coffin with no documentation. The skeleton is of a man who was about 50 years old and was 5-ft, 9-in tall that was excavated in southern Iraq in 1930. The dig site was near Nasiriyah, Iraq and location of the ancient city of Ur.

According to Fox News, Dr. Janet Monge, curator of the anthropology section of Penn Museum knew the skeleton was in storage, but researchers did not determine its significance until a record digitization project was in process. Researchers then linked the skeleton to the field records of Sir Leonard Woolley. The rare remains have been dated to 4,500 BCE, older than Ur's cemetery and discovered under the cemetery dated back to 2,500 BCE.

The skeleton was found cut into deep silt that indicates the man had lived after the epic flood, thus nicknaming the skeleton “Noah”. [See also AP/Guardian press release]

Sir Leonard Woolley

Sir Leonard Woolley (1880-1952) was a British archaeologist best known for his excavations at Ur in Mesopotamia, considered one of the first modern archaeologists who was knighted in 1935 for his contributions to archaeology. His work was a joint venture between the British Museum and the University of Pennsylvania which began in 1922, making important discoveries. Agatha Christie visited Woolley's site for background for her novel, Murder in Mesopotamia, inspired by the discovery of the royal tombs of Ur. Christie met Woolley's assistant, Max Mallowan, who she later married.

The find revealed an extensive insight into ancient Sumerian culture and the body of Queen Pu-Abi accompanied by two attendants, poisoned to serve the queen in the afterlife. Cylinder seals found with the body was what identified the tomb belonging to Queen Pu-Abi. T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) worked with Woolley on a Hittite city of Carchemish from 1912-1914.

After extensive work in ancient Ur (modern Iraq) led to Woolley's proposal that it was an ancient flood area described in the Book of Genesis.