Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-24
.U|R SILT DEPOSIT
REVEALS DELUGE
Clay Bed Is Seen as Backing
Up Genesis Version of
Great Flood.
by RALPH V. d. MAGOFFIN.

Geology has demonstrated that this
old round world of ours was IN process
Of formation millions of years before 1t
was ready to sustain life. Biology,
paleontology and botany have shown
that plant and animal life antedated
mankind by other millions OF years.
Archaeology and anthropology nave
found ancient, men and things they
made that are at present datable thou
sands of years before man could write.
In fact to make a comparison, we
might say that If the world were CEN
fury old, then man had been WrlClng
since only minute ago.
It had become a sort OF custom 10
call everything about which we knew
nothing prehistoric or antedlluvlan un.
til the sciences above mentioned ana
others stepped into the field and proved
that shells, fossils and artlfactS, IN
their various strata set forth in their
own language a history truer to fact
and without the recognized shortcom-
ingS of written man-made history,
whether accidental, perverse or per-
Verted.
silt Of Great Flood Found.
It was not only the monuments that
betokened advanced Civilizations in the
Nile and Mesopotamian Valleys. 1t was
that a warm climate and a fertile soil,
such as any alluvial area in the semi
tropics would guarantee, made 1t pos
sibie to say in fearless anticipation that
the earliest real centerS OF CIVILIZATION
would be found in the river valleys OF
the Nile, the Tigris and EuphrateS. the
Brahmaputra, the Ganges, the Indus,
the Hoang-Ho and the YangSte.
Many Of the reasons why archeolo..
AND
farther back in Egypt and Mesopotamia
are self evident. But the weightlest
reason Is competition. The archeolo-.
sists working In the river valleys OF
those two countries are determined 10
outdo each other by proving their own
"diggings" take civilization back 10 an
earlier date than those OF the other
eellow.
that IL has disclosed the stratum OF
silt which was laid down by the greai
flood.
Old City Of Ur Buried.
The ROYAL tonnbs at Ur, which were
at the bottom of deep shafts, had all
been dug through a great Strained
rubbish dump, which was full OF whole
and broken pottery.
The first and greatest law OF excava-
ton is to 60 down to virgin soil. ms
was done. The virgin soil was found
It was a clean clay which had been de.
posted by water. In it there was MOI
a sign of pottery or extraneous remains
of any kind. One not only wants, but
needs to be sure in such case. So the
excavators went on through the aoso-
lutely clean clay for feet. Then
to their amazement, they came upon
a stratum full of fine chips and broken
pieces of painted pottery and some
kiln brick. Here was poser!
But it did not take long to see thai
there had been a city of Ur. which the
painted pottery and other things proved
to have been settlement OF rea
civilization and which suddenly hac
been overwhelmed with so great ar
inundation of the Euphrates that
feet of clean clay had been deposited
over the ancient site. A flood, indeed
and If flood, why not the flood?
Corroborating Evidences Struck.
The Sumerians, as early as 1000 B. C..
knsw the legend of great flood, as
tn Babylonian deluge, as told in the
Xpic of Gilgamish proves. It has LONG
been acknowledged that the flood, as tolc
in Genesis, was historical flood local
lied somewhere in Mesopotamia. Dt-
rector Woolley says he has now the
archaeological evidence to establish the
legend as fact and, If so, he can date
1t within IS years or so. Langdon al
Kish, some 140 miles from Ur OF the