I just watched a documentary about the flood mythology in ancient cultures, including the Biblical version of Noah's ark. Apparently, the earliest version of the flood myth came from ancient Babylonia in about 1750 BCE, which describes a reed boat supported with wooded beams and made waterproof by painting the outside with bitumen or pitch. But the thing that caught my attention was this boat's shape: it was round.
Round reed boats were commonly used in ancient Babylon all the way to the 20th century. They were called quffas and the larger ones could hold 125 tons or more.
Now, as a Latter-day Saint, why is this so interesting?
Because in the Book of Mormon there is one record that supposedly was written long before Nephi sailed across the sea on a boat of his own making in about 600 BCE. The Book of Ether details the people of Jared who fled the Tower of Babel by constructing six barges.
