FLOOD PROOF?

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16914, 1 April 1929, Page 8

FLOOD PROOF?

CHALDEAN DISCOVERIES SCIENTISTS DISAGREE LONDON, March 18. 'l'lio recent discoveries at Ur of the Chaldeea by the- British Museum's ex-pedition—-which, Protessor Leonard Wool ley, its leader, believes afford definite proof, that the deluge recorded in the Bible, actually occurred—have provoked a most interesting controversy. Dr. H. 11. Hall, Keeper of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, at the British Museum, says: "The Hebrew story of the'Flood was derived from a Sumerlan legend. Historians have always believed that the real deluge overwhelmed the cities of Babylonia, and was prob ably due to a phenomenal melting or the' Khurdestan and Armenian snows.

"But the Flood did not destroy all traces of previous inhabitants, relics of whom havo been found on many Babylonian sites. Sumerian tradition, according to the cuneiform text, sliows definitely that there was no distinction of race before and after the deluge, and. therefore, undoubtedly a largo proportion of the antediluvians survived the catastrophe."

"NO DOUBT NOW" "During' our excavations at Kish we made discoveries which we were loth to believe confirmed the deluge of the Book of Genesis, but there is no doubt now," writes Mr. Stephen Langdon, Oxford, Professor of Assyriology.

He adds that they found two precipitations of clay potsherds- and fish, which could only be explained by supposing H huge Hood in that part of Mesopotamia. He dates it between 5400 and 3200 B.C.

They later found, at a lower level, Sumerian buildings, and also a thin alluvial strata at water level. He dates these at 4000 B.C. There thus seems to have been two great deluges at Kish, marking the beginning and the end of a long period of Sumerian civilisation. "Our excavations." Professor Langdon adds, "reach virgin soil 9ft. below water level, disclosing unmistakable Neolithic traces. According to these researches, human history does not go much beyond 5000 B.C. But, if the Hood of the Sumerian, Babylonian, and Hebrew traditions is historical, it is still doubtful whether it refers to the first or second deluge. According to the Book of Genesis, it should be the later one, about 3400 8.C." ' 'FUNDAMENTAL 1M PORT ANTE" Sir Ernest Budge, who was the British Museum's Assyriologist for 11 years, says: "The Babylonians and Sumerians did not doubt that a great flood really occurred when their civilisation was , highly advanced. This tradition was so widespread that it must have had historical foundation.

"The great flood in Mesopotamia, in 1888, was a sample of what its floods can be. It rained then for five days and nights, and many miles, of land became a raging sea. But the deluge must have been much more serious, seeing that, traditionally, it flooded the world. Professor Woodley's discovery of an Sit. layer of flood-deposited clay, on the original site of Ur, is of fundamental importance, and further careful research should be undertaken. His material evidence of The Flood outweighs in importance his discoveries of samples of the artistic skill of the Sumeriaus and liabvlonians."