In recent years Ur has figured prominently and often as an important witness of the Great Flood of prehistoric times. But whatever may have been the cause and extent of that particular upheaval, it appears that the ancient city perished, paradoxically enough, for lack of water. A sudden shift in the course of the Euphrates probably doomed to desiccation the strip of land on which Ur had risen to become at length a powerful royal centre. That fitful whim of a lazy river may be placed at some period near the end of the pre-that time, however, Ur had endured for perhaps apsr leo-nCgh arsis ftiivaen m eirlale. nnBiay. Nothing short of a natural catastrophe, it would appear, could bring to a close a career of such heroic proportions.