114 
6. I shall bo very thankful for information where I am 
ignorant, and correction when I am wrong. 
7. Those who are labouring’ in this field will be well aware 
how tentative and provisional are all results at present. 
UR OF THE CHALDEES. 
8. The name of Ur Casdim emei'gesin Scripture first as the 
birthplace of Terach’s sons. Ur is identified by its own in- 
scriptions with the ruined town Mugeyer, on the west side of 
the Euphrates, and gave the name Ur-ma (i.e. Urland) to the 
whole region of which it was the capital.* 
9. “ It is a curious fact/'’ writes the lamented George Smith 
in his work on the “ Chaldasan Account of Genesis/'’ f ‘’’that 
the rise of the kingdom of Ur (cir. B.C. 2000 to 1850) coin- 
cides with the date generally given for the life of Abraham, 
who is stated to have come out of Ur of the Chaldees; by 
which title I have no doubt the Babylonian city of Ur is meant. 
10. There is not the slightest evidence of a northern Ur, 
and a northern land of the Chaldees at this period.” 
1 1 . The city was the centre of a most fruitful and cultivated 
district, “ the only natural home of the wheat-plant,” shady 
with palm-groves, tamarisk, acacias, and pomegranates, and 
irrigated with the utmost care. 
12. Sir Henry Rawlinson believes that Eden was in this part 
of Babylonia ; and indeed three of the river-names of paradise 
arefound here, — Hiddekel, Gikhkhan, J andEuplirates. Itwould 
surely be likely that in “ the garden which the Lord planted,’” 
the wheat would be a most treasured gift, and it has been 
held as emphatically a divine boon by different nations. 
13. From the port the “ships of Ur” set sail on the sheltered 
sea, which at that time reached some 120 or 130 miles higher 
than at present. § 
1 4. If the chief settlement of the Semitic people was then in 
Arabia, it would be natural for the sons of Shem to prefer the 
city on that side of broad Euphrates, and open to the pastoral 
ranges of the desert. It is true, however, that there was a 
subordinate channel of the Euphrates which ran to the west 
of Ur. The people of Terach, always keen in commerce, 
would find here the head-quarters of that “ multitude of men 
of different nations” who had colonized Clialdma, of whom 
Berosus writes. The sons of Shem were not the first civilizei’s 
of Babylonia. The far-spreading Turanians were beforehand 
* T. S. B. A., iii. 229. 
t T. S. B. A., i. 300. 
t p. 298. 
§ Kawlinson, Anc . Mon., i. 
