TCD MS 10516 folio 92 recto
[12th October 1916] now far inland. This would dispose of the modern suggestion that the present junction of the rivers is the site of the ancient Garden of Eden, for, wherever this garden may have existed, there was certainly at that time no junction of these mighty streams.
It surprised me that the delta of this river should have advanced to so great a distance within the period of human history. For since Ur was a city on the sea-coast and now lies 150 miles inland, we must conclude that from the time of its prosperity until now, the silt of the Euphrates has filled a great trough in the ocean 150 miles in length. Chaldean dates are unreliable and all calculations of this kind are based on somewhat conjectural testimony. But if we are correct in believing that Ur reached the height of its prosperity 4500 years ago and was than a sea coast town, we must