"IT IS TRUE"

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16914, 1 April 1929, Page 7

"IT IS TRUE"

EXCAVATOR'S CLAIM AGE-OLD SILT I LONDON, March 17. The Biblical story of the Flood, in the days of Noah, "though even distinguished theologians have ridiculed it, is true. .-

That, at least, is the conclusion reached by Professor Leonard Woolley, head of the British Museum's expedition in Ur of the Chaldees. The sensational discoveries resulting from the • latest excavations, he says, are capable: of flo other interpretation. s ; . - "Ho would have been an optimist, indeed, who hoped to produce material evidence of tho flood which is recorded in the Book of Genesis," writes Professor Woolley. in an article in tho Times, on his further researches.

"In no other way, however, " can I interpret the facts that our excavations afford."

Professor Woolley states that the expedition authorities considered 'themselves richly rewarded by the recent' discoveries of the Royal tombs, but the most sensational discovery has - nothing to do with these. ".'-*.' .-'

VIRGIN SOIL REACHED. He points out that, as they burrowed deeply and more deeply, the various strata, composed of house refuse, broken pottery, ashes, etc., sloped' more and more sharply, until they sloped at an angle of .roughly 45 degrees. The last strata suddenly flattened out arid various fragments of each stratum lay on tho bottom as a smooth deposit of water-laid mud.

"In another part of the city," he continues, "we discovered that houses had been built on ground which had gradually risen until the terraced town stood high above the plain. v j . .^,O- - thus got definite proof of wliat had hitherto only been assumed—that tho earliest settlement had .been founded on an island in a marshy delta of the Euphrates, and rubbish heaps had been flung out from the walls,' gradually increasing the size of the island. These heaps were subsequently used as cemeteries, though only after an immense lapse of time,. - ■ ' , ~

"We decided to sink deeper,' in the hope of finding evidence of much earlier civilisation, and eventually the 'workmen announced that they had reached virgin soil, consisting of clean water-laid clay, without the slightest admixture of pottery, ashes, and other human debris.

'FLOOD DEPOSIT BFT ; DEEP. "In order to make sure, we diug deeper, through eight feet of. solid, clean clay, and suddenly unearthed a ; flat stratum, richly littered, with flints and pottery, and then again, still * 4 deeper,, more pottery vessels.and sherds of a type hitherto unknown. ■■•*."-■ "Finally, we found burnt brick, also of quite a new type. .;This brick that Ur was not a mere village of mud huts when the vessels'and flints r , , were employed, but a town, civilised and properly built. . ,

"Further excavations revealed,•a-fe'v, feet above the sea-level, true "virgin soil, consisting of clean river silt of ; the island. "What wo. believe is that.this catastropho which buriei the eytreirieTy early habitations, completely overwhelming the oldest settlement and -"causing an entire breach of ■civilisation's oontinuity, can only ha v e heen The Flood.

"Onlv a flood of unexampled m'asmittide could have deposited an «teifrht-foot bank of clay upon Ur's original site."