EXCAVATIONS AT UR OF CHALDEES CONFIRM BIBLE FLOOD STORY

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6863, 19 March 1929, Page 7

EXCAVATIONS AT UR OF CHALDEES CONFIRM BIBLE FLOOD STORY

Archaeologist’s Belief EIGHT FEET OF CLAY UPON ORIGINAL SITE SUMERIAN LEG-END. Times Cable. Received Monday, 7.50 p.m. LONDON, Marcli 16. The Biblical story of the flood in the days of Noah is true, though even distinguished theologians have ridiculed it. ' This, at least, is the conclusion reached by Professor Leonard Woolley, head of the British Museum’s expedition is Ur of the Chaldees, who declared sen.sational discoveries in his latest excavations are capable of no other interjjret tation. Professor Woolley describes how ex cavators unearthed strata indicating ' that the earliest settlements on the Euphrates delta had been overwhelmed. When the workmen reached the claj deposit, they announced it was virgin, but Professor Woolley decided to see if there was anything below. Be bored through eight feet of clay and the a. found deposits indicating that Ur was a civilised and properly built town. The excavators believe the catastrophe which wiped it out could only have been a flood and only a flood of unexampled magnitude could have deposited an eight foot bank of clay upon Ur's original site. Professor Stephen Langdon, of the Oxford Assyriolo£ist, says the recent revelation'of the Kish excavations suggested there had been two great deluges at Kish, the second one marking the end of the long period of Sumerian civilisation. I The Sumerians were the first people to possess the legend that a flood occurred and that man built a boat to escape therefrom. The Babylonians and Greeks borrowed the legend, while the whole Hebrew tradition is borrowed from the Babylonian. Presumably, human history does not go much further back than 5000 B.C.