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Sheldan Collins/CORBIS

Large dhows are proof that sewn boats can be sizeable vessels, and they give a good idea of what Noah’s Ark might have looked like. Though vessels such as this one are usually nailed together, until recently they were sewn together using ancient techniques. Moreover, the white coloring of the hull indicates that it has been smeared with a lime-oil “paying”—a coating that protects it from worms that would otherwise make the wood porous and useless. The description of the construction of the ark in the Gilgamesh epic indicates that it had a similar paying. Noah’s Ark might have had it, too.