Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-27
EVIDENCE Of NOAH'S'
FLOOD FOUND At UR.
DR.. Woo|Iey, Visiting Here,
Describes Discoveries of
Earliest Civilization.

Digging down beneath the ruins oi
ancient Ur, a thriving city 5000 year,
ago, DR.. c, Leonard Woolley of Oxfore
has uncovered an 8-foot deposit of clear
clay which he believes was left by the
great flood >described in the Book o.
Genesis.
The excavations at Ur. located In
what is now Mesopotamia. have been
conducted by Dr. Woolley under
auspices of the University of Penn.
sylvania Museum and the British Mu-
scum. Opening the royal tombs at Ur
he has found objects of art more splen-
did than these removed from the grave
of Tut-ankh-A Amen, who was born ap-
proximately 1000 years after the city
of Ur had vanished. Z
Will Lecture Tonight.
DR. Woolley will discuss his findings
at $50 O'Clock tonight. when he will
give an Illustrated lecture in the
Masonic Temple, Thirteenth and H
streets. under auspices of the Archaeo-
logical Society Of Washington. The
public is invited
DR.. Woolley believes there were two
clements of population in Asia Minor
before the f1ood-the Semitics and the
Sumerians The Semitics lived in small
villages which were wiped out by the
flood. while the SumerianS lived in
walled cities, some of which survived
the water
He bases this belief on the fact that
two types of pottery were found under
the clay deposlt-painted and unpaint-
ed. 1t is known that the painted pot
terry was the work OF the Sumerians,
while the implanted was made by the
Semitics Only painted pottery was
found above the clay.
This, he says, indicates that the Semi
tics were wiped out by the flood, while
the Sumerians survived and continued
their craftwork.
Finds Brick on Virgin Soil.
1t is impossible to tell, according to
The British scientist, how many thou
sands of years have elapsed since the
first cultured people lived on earth
Resting on virgin soil below the flood
deposit. and probably underneath the
successive ruins of unsupported races of
civilized peoples, he found large burnt
brick. strikingly similar to those used
in construction work today.
If the story of this solitary brick
could be told. he said, it probably would
deal with the lives Of a people who
lived in brick houses and surrounded
themselves with walls approximately
10000 years ago-at a time when man
is generally supposed to have lived in
caves and to have killed his food with
his bare hands.
There can now be little doubt but
that the section of the world now called
Asia Minor was devastated by great
flood more than 5000 years before the
birth of Christ. DR.. Woolley said. Con-
vincing proof. he said. can now be OBJ
tanned from three sources-the hiStori-
cal documents written about 1900 BIC
and upon which the Biblical story is
based; the early legends Of the flood
and the archaeological evidence only
now being discovered.
The people who lived in Ur of the
Chaldees were familiar with many of
the engineering principles in use today.
One of these Is the arch as a form of
building, abundant evidence of which
is found in the ruins. There is also EVIL
dence that this post-food city was sur
rounded by wall IS feet thick, prob
ably built for protection while the men,
DRY of the flood was still fresh in the
minds of the survivors.
In the royal tombs were found EVIL
0enceS OF repeated tragedies On COlOS-
sal scale. King after king was honored
by having courtiers, soldiers and slaves
butchered to keep him company in after
life. In one tomb-chamber there were
nine court ladies, several rows of muir
dered or sacrificed courtiers, soldiers in
all their armor and weapons. slaves,
grooms and even the oxen that had
drawn the royal burial chariot. The
bodies were laid side by side in orderly
rows around the last resting place Of
the monarch.
One of the most significant results of
the excavations, DR.. Woolley says, is
the uncovering of evidence which tends
to show that the old center of civili-
cation was in the Euphrates and rot
in the Nile Valley.
Of one thing DR.. Woolley is con-
vinced-that the age of relics must be
calculated on the height from the bot
tom rather than the depth from the top
of an excavation.
While digging in the Sudan. he I'M
covered inscriptions made in about 300
AID. at a depth of 18 inches. A little
to one side, he dug down 7 feet and
uncovered an unused United States
postage stamp and British newspaper
bearing the date of 1873.
Such discrepancies are caused by
shifting sand. he said
---- -