(Q) Underwood & Underwood 



TITK MOUND COVERING THE REMAINS OF UR OF THE CHALDEES 



Ur of the Chaldees is best known as the place out of which came the patriarch Abraham. 

 When we first meet the Babylonians, some four thousand years before Christ, they were 

 already a civilized, metal-using people, living in great cities, possessed of a complicated 

 system of writing, and governed under firmly established civil and religious dynasties and 

 hierarchies (see page 135 I. 



When, then, did this first gathering of 

 hitman beings into organized communities 

 take place, and what was the race which 

 took this momentous step ? As to the 

 question of when, we are hopelessly ig- 

 norant. Berosus, the old historian of 

 Babylonia, tells us of kings before the 

 Deluge who reigned for incredible pe- 

 riods — 36,000 years in one instance — 

 while some of his kings after the Deluge 

 come down to comparatively modest 



spans, such as 2,400 and 2,700 years. It 

 is easy to ridicule such wild fancies, but 

 ,not so easy to put facts in their place. 



Pretty much all that can be said is that 

 somewhere about 4000 B. C. we do seem 

 to get into touch with actual and unmis- 

 takable historic facts. That date is at 

 least 1,500 years before the date at which 

 Abraham is believed to have gone forth 

 from the land in search of his inheritance. 



But the pioneers had been at work long 



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