VII BASIS ADR A'S ADVENTURE 251 



of error of very various kinds ; and the best of 

 them can only be regarded as approximations to 

 the truth. But I think it will be quite safe to 

 assume a maximum rate of growth of four miles in 

 a century for the lower half of the alluvial plain. 



Now, the cycle of narratives of which Hasisadra's 

 adventure forms a part contains allusions not only 

 to Surippak, the exact position of which is doubt- 

 ful, but to other cities, such as Erech. The vast 

 ruins at the present village of Warka have been 

 carefully explored and determined to be all that 

 remains of that once great and flourishing city, 

 " Erech the lofty." Supposing that the two 

 hundred miles of alluvial country, which separates 

 them from the head of the Persian Gulf at 

 present, have been deposited at the very high 

 rate of four miles in a century, it will follow that 

 4000 years ago, or about the year 2100 B.C., the 

 city of Erech still lay forty miles inland. Indeed, 

 the city might have been built a thousand years 

 earlier. Moreover, there is plenty of independent 

 archaeological and other evidence that in the 

 whole thousand years, 2000 to 3000 B.C., the 

 alluvial plain was inhabited by a numerous 

 people, among whom industry, art, and literature 

 had attained a very considerable development. 

 And it can be shown that the physical conditions 

 and the climate of the Euphrates valley, at that 

 time, must have been extremely similar to what 

 they are now. 



