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suddenly realized that he was prodding a layer of clay -- the pure clay of a kind that could only
have been deposited by water!

At first Woolley thought this clay was the result of the Euphrates River overflowing its
banks at this point in bygone days. But, after taking measurements of the adjacent area and refining
his calculations, he realized that the layer of clay was much too high up in elevation to have been
left by the river. The foot of the shaft, where the layer of clay began, was several yards above the
level of the Euphrates. Urging the workers to dig on and make the shaft deeper, Woolley watched
with bated breath as basket after basket came out of the shaft and their contents were examined.
Suddenly, at nearly ten feet, the layer of clay stopped as abruptly as it had started. Expecting virgin
soil underneath the layer, Woolley could hardly believe his eyes when what now emerged into
view was ancient rubbish and countless potsherds of an earlier civilization! The appearance and
quality of the pottery was noticeably inferior to that above the layer of clay.

There could only be one possible explanation for this great clay deposit beneath the hill at
Ur, which clearly separated two epochs of settlement: The Flood of Noah! Unmistakable traces of
marine organisms embedded in the clay proved the layer was not only the result of river flooding
-- they had been left there by an encroachment of the sea! How far did the layer of clay extend?
What area was affected by this inundation? An extensive search now commenced for traces of the
Flood in other locations in Mesopotamia.

Another startling discovery was made by Stephen Langdon at Kish -- another Sumerian
city. His discovery confirmed the findings of Woolley at Ur. In the location of Kish, Professor
Langdon found a stratum eighteen inches thick consisting of clay, shells and small fish. This layer
separated the debris above from the debris below consistently around the entire site. Below the
stratum, to about fifteen feet, Professor Langdon found a continuous civilization with implements of
the so-called Neolithic age and painted pots dating not later than 4,000 BC. The excavations at
Kish show a complete and continuous stratification.

Other traces of inundation were found at Fara (Shuruppak), Nineveh and Uruk (Erech).
Gradually, by a variety of tests, the limits of the Flood waters could be established. According to
Woolley, the disaster engulfed an area north-west of the Persian Gulf amounting to approximately
400 miles long and 100 miles wide. This layer closed the last prehistoric period -- the Jemdet
Nasr Period of the archaeologists. The evidence uncovered by Woolley at Ur dates to approxi-
mately 2,900 BC, and the layer of clay was clearly caused by a flood of unprecedented magnitude.
However, the flood was local and wiped out the Mesopotamian civilization of that time along the
banks of the river Euphrates and assumed great importance in the minds and in the traditions of the
Akkadians and the Babylonians who came after the Sumerians.

Recently, as earth scientists made new discoveries about the history of rapid climate
change, they learned that the Mediterranean Sea had once been a desert and that five million years
go (according to their calculations), the Atlantic Ocean burst through the Straits of Gibraltar and
refilled the Mediterranean basin. The two geophysicists -- William Ryan and Walter Pitman --
posed the scientific question, "Could some more recent, similar catastrophe have been the source
of Noah's Flood?"

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