Legends of Troy: Troy Towns

I have looked into the phenomena known as Troy Towns.  Troy Towns, or Troytowns, are labyrinths laid out usually with stones or in cut turf for people to walk in.  Labyrinths differ from mazes.  A labyrinth has one and only one path through it, while a maze offers many avenues.  Today there are not as many Troy Towns as there used to be, and they are mostly tourist attractions. But in the past they had more meaning.  

The above pics show Troy Towns in respectively Sweden, England and Scilly.  

There are lots of labyrinths.  There are Native American labyrinths, Roman labyrinths, South African labyrinths, and lots more.  There is even a labyrinth locator.  

Some Troy Towns bear other names such as Jerusalem, Ninevah or Babylon (Vavylon in Russia, where the B makes a V sound).  They seem to have been especially numerous in the north, especially England, the Baltic Sea and the White Sea shores.  The purpose of these constructions is not fully clear.  There are plenty of things to read on the topic, and lots of interesting pictures.  Including, for example, an extensive site about Swedish Troy Towns (in English): http://www.mymaze.de/trojaburg_en.htm  

My first and most pressing question in this area is, do Troy Towns have anything to do with the ancient city of Troy?  It is not clear that they do. Here is a quote from Troytowns by Haye Hamkens

Ernst Krause cites, in connexion with the name Trojaburg or Troytown, the Old German “drajan”, the Gothic “thraian”, the Celtic “troian” and the Middle English “throwen”. In addition there are the Anglo-Saxon “thrawan”, the Dutch and Low German “draien”, the Danish “drehe” and the Swedish “dreja”, and the English “throe”. All these words mean “turn” and were applied to the twists and turns of the layout. Perhaps also the “Wunderberg” used in the March of Brandenburg is a corruption of an earlier “Wenderberg”, in which case the word “wenden” (to turn around) would be the origin. The Low German word “traaje” also belongs here. It denotes a deep wagon track, a rut, and nowadays may be replaced by the word “spoor” (same in English). As a verb it means to follow in the track of another. In pronunciation the double a changes, as in the Nordic languages, to an almost pure O, so that “traajen” is pronounced like “trojen”. From here the inference would extend to the tracks, dug in the earth or formed from stones, which one must follow on entering the Troytown. When one views the spirals cut in the turf, which look like the tracks formed by a wagon, the relationship cannot be denied. 

https://www.cantab.net/users/michael.behrend/repubs/et/pages/hamkens_en.html

Full disclosure: the above work (in German) originally appeared in Germanien, which was a Nazi magazine, in the 1940s.  The analysis shows that the word Troy in "Troy Towns" may be overdetermined with far more meanings than are needed to motivate the designation.  A connection to the ancient city of Troy certainly need not be the only meaning, nor the primary one, nor any part of it, actually.  

All of the derivations are Germanic, however, and it may be that the practice of naming walkable labyrinths after the city of Troy preceded these Germanic uses, perhaps in Latin or another language, such as Etruscan.  

My next question is about the history of Troy Towns.  Part of that involves the history of their main element, the labyrinth.  Labyrinths differ from mazes. A labyrinth has only one path through it. A maze has more than one.  The classical labyrinth has a near-circular shape.  

There is an algorithm for producing a classical labyrinth, exemplified in the following gif figure. 

The above pics are from labyrinthos.  The classical patterns have a long history.  

At the current time, the earliest example of the labyrinth symbol, for which an accurate and precise date can be determined, is on a Linear B inscribed clay tablet from the Mycenaean palace at Pylos in southern Greece.

Accidentally preserved by the fire that destroyed the palace c.1200 BCE, the front of the tablet records deliveries of goats to the palace, the square labyrinth scratched on the reverse is clearly a doodle by the scribe. It is interesting that this earliest example should be found at the traditional home of King Nestor, who with Menelaos, raised the fleet of 'long black ships' to assist in the siege and subsequent downfall of Troy (dated by most scholars to c.1250 BCE), as recorded in Homer's Iliad.

The depiction of a labyrinth on an Etruscan wine jar from Tragliatella, Italy, dating from the late 7th century BCE, shows armed soldiers on horseback running from a labyrinth with the word TRVIA (Troy) inscribed in the outermost circuit. This popular connection between the labyrinth and the defenses of Troy (and indeed other fabled cities) has continued throughout the history of the labyrinth, wherever it is found.

Other finds point to an early spread of the labyrinth symbol around the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Two labyrinths scratched on a wall amidst the ruins at Gordion in central Turkey can be confidently dated to c.750 BCE and labyrinths recorded amongst rock art panels at Taouz in Morocco have been tentatively dated to c.500 BCE. Elsewhere, labyrinth graffitos and inscriptions have been found at Delos in Greece, in Egypt and Jordan, the majority dating from the first four centuries BCE and clearly the result of Greek and Roman colonization and trading influences in the region.

https://web.archive.org/web/20090630002518/http://www.labyrinthos.net/firstlabs.html

 

From the Tragliatella Wine Jug

The Tragliatella Wine Jug suggests that the word Troy was associated with labyrinths in ancient times.  Suggests, not proves.  The other side of the jug portrays another scene of what may in fact be a Troy Dance (which is the subject of a future post).  The Etruscans were rumored to be descended from the Trojans.  And Gordion, the Phrygian capitol, is not far from Troy.  

Now that we know a little about the history of Labyrinths, how about the history of Troy Towns in particular?  A Troy Town is a labyrinth laid out on the ground for people to walk in.  "Troy Town" is just a name for these things.  What does the world know about the origins of the practice of making walkable labyrinths, regardless of what they were called?  

Many of the stone labyrinths around the Baltic coast of Sweden were built by fishermen during rough weather and were believed to entrap evil spirits, the "smågubbar" or "little people" who brought bad luck. The fishermen would walk to the centre of the labyrinth, enticing the spirits to follow them, and then run out and put to sea.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_Town 

This passage suggests that the walkable labyrinth had mystical purposes.  They are frequently found by the sea, and they might go back pretty far.  

The period at which Troytowns were laid out has been the subject of lively debate. Dr Aspelin of Finland places Troytowns in the Bronze Age, while the Russian researcher Yelisseyev considers them even older. Dr Nordström of Stockholm was of the opinion that the designs were Christian ones, which were later transferred from churches into the open air. He based this interpretation on the fact that in many old Italian and French churches such mazes still exist as pavement mosaics. However, this must be erroneous, for Pliny reports in his Natural History (Book 26, 12, 19) on Troytowns in the open fields in Italy. Also the Greek and Egyptian labyrinths are much older than the Christian church. And it seems strange that such things should have developed when they have no foundation in the Christian religion. Actually the church took over Troytowns as it did many other things that for all its efforts it could not suppress. This is shown for example by the remarkable drawings in the vault of the parish church at Räntmaki in Finland. If the labyrinths set into church floors can at a pinch be explained as “the way to Jerusalem” etc., in the present case any such interpretation is impossible. For at Räntmaki the Troytown is drawn on the roof of a vault, among other drawings still apparently pagan in style. Thus only one conclusion is possible, that here a pre-Christian usage was taken over and given a new interpretation. Then during the Crusades the name “way to Jerusalem” emerged. To the same period belongs an East Prussian tradition of the Order of Teutonic Knights: in front of their castles the knights are said to have laid out mazes which they called “Jerusalem” and which they won in battle from their servants every day, amid laughter and joking. They did this in order to fulfil their vow that pledged them to unceasing struggle for the liberation of Jerusalem. Such is the tradition. It harks back to much older things and customs. And it can hardly be supposed that the knights occupied themselves with the Troytowns, nor constructed them. Much more probably, they built their castles and churches on the sites of such designs, as indeed nearly all old churches and monasteries were located on old sacred sites of pre-Christian times. ... It is a feature of all ancient designs, whether in Greece or Scandinavia, that while the rings have a common centrepoint, they are not exact circles, so that the centrepoint is displaced somewhat downwards. It can safely be assumed that the various windings of the Troytown symbolize the yearly course of the sun. The fact that there are 12 separate rings speaks in favour of this; for there are only a few Troytowns with any other division. The horizontal arms of the clearly visible cross are then perhaps to be regarded as the horizon, so that the various complicated and rather compressed turnings beneath it represent the sun’s path under the earth (during the night). Perhaps this is also the origin of the bad reputation of crossroads, which must similarly have a Pagan basis because otherwise it is quite incomprehensible that the holy symbol of Christianity should be the haunt of the Devil. The crossing point is often occupied by a stone or, in turf-cut designs, marked out as a square baulk. On it sat the imprisoned maiden, who had to be freed, as we know from many customs still in use today. Something of this is preserved in the well-known children’s song “Mariechen sass auf einem Stein” [Mariechen sat on a stone]. From many traditions and legends we know that bewitched people were changed to stone or banished into a rock. It is thus not too much to suppose that the sun as a maiden was exiled to a stone, guarded by a dragon, i.e. the winter, and that a knight, as spring, rescued her. The fact that these battles are often fought out in darkness or under the earth strengthens our hypothesis. For the Troytowns are regularly connected with the tradition of an imprisoned and rescued maiden, as has been briefly mentioned above for the Visby design, where the maiden actually appears as the builder of the maze. That she was kept prisoner under the Galgenberg (gallows hill), just as other Troytowns lie in the neighbourhood of Galgenbergs, again points to a pre-Christian origin and a subsequent satanization. ... In the oldest form of the Greek legend of Troy, Heracles kills the dragon before the gates of Troy and rescues Hesione.
https://www.cantab.net/users/michael.behrend/repubs/et/pages/hamkens_en.html

The above is another citation from Hamkens.  His final sentence mentions an old story about Troy.  Poseidon takes revenge on the King of Troy by putting a sea monster in his bay.  Hercules slays the monster, and rescues Hesione, the king's daughter, who had been chosen by lot to be sacrificed to the monster.  

Hamkens believes that the practice of laying out labyrinths to walk and play in is quite ancient.  I have not been able to find the passages in Pliny mentioned above.  An online search for "Troy" in his Natural History returned one hit that was not relevant. And Book 26 is about plants, not Italy.  

I believe the practice of laying out labyrinths for ritual and festival and entertainment purposes probably is an ancient practice, long predating Christianity.  On the age of the practice, I enjoyed a paper called Labyrinths in Pagan Sweden. The paper is based on place names rather than existing labyrinths, and argues that labyrinths were in use in Sweden from at least the early iron age.  

Another connection between Troy and walkable labyrinths has to do with a rumor about the walls of Troy. In Homer, they are strong. In legend, they are complicated, like a labyrinth.  

Caerdroea or Caer Droea is a Welsh word meaning "a labyrinth, a maze; maze cut by shepherds in the sward, serving as a puzzle." It also means "Troy, Walls-of-Troy". Variations include Caer Droia and Caerdroia, the latter being the spelling generally used today.

Because of the similarity between Welsh troeau (a plural form of tro 'turn') and the second element Troea ('Troy'), the name was later popularly interpreted as meaning 'fortress of turns' (caer = 'fort').[citation needed]

Many turf mazes in England were named Troy Town or The Walls of Troy (or variations on that theme) presumably because, in popular legend, the walls of the city of Troy were constructed in such a confusing and complex way that any enemy who entered them would be unable to find his way out.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caerdroia

This is our third connection.  There is the Tagliatella Wine Jug, the story about Hercules and Hesione, and now the story about the complex walls.  That is all we have to connect the city of Troy with the institution of the walkable labyrinth.  

Recall that there are the labyrinths carved at Gordiam 500 years or more after the bronze age collapse. Those labyrinths are at least near Troy.  What about at Troy itself?  

The royal residences of the sixth and seventh city of Troy stood on concentric terraces, so that the innermost district was of a circular construction. This round structure continued in the trenches outside the fortress walls. In antiquity, concentric rings in the form of a labyrinth were in fact closely connected with Troy. Engravings on a wine jug from the Roman city of Tragliatella (around 620 BCE) depict a ceremonial “Troy dance” that was mainly performed when cities in early Italy were founded, and then, significantly, before the city walls were to be erected. Hundreds of stone labyrinths in England and Scandinavia bear names related to Troy, ranging from Troy Town to Trelleborg. Half a century ago, some experts assumed that a maze-like structure would eventually be discovered in the city plan of Troy. It is quite possible that this circular city plan also continued in the floodplain below the castle – and down there the trenches could have taken the form of navigable canals.

https://luwianstudies.org/the-lower-town-of-troy/

Concentric circles are not a labyrinth.  But the connection between Troy and labyrinths could be based on something like it anyway.  Atlantis was supposed to be composed of concentric circles.  And the circles were supposed to be pierced or crossed by one, and only one avenue.  Something like this. 

That design is undeniably similar to those below. 

Am I saying that the Atlantis story describes a labyrinth?  No.  The thesis that the Atlantis story describes a labyrinth is false.  Read it for yourself.  

But the proposition that the labyrinth design and the Atlantis design suggest one another is worth entertaining.  It also offers another way of connecting Troy with labyrinths.  

So now we have four connections: the Tragliatella Wine Jug, the tale of Hercules and Hesione, the rumor about walls so complex that attackers got lost in them, and something about concentric circles pierced by a single pathway.  At least four things might connect the ancient city of Troy with the human passion for walkable labyrinths.  

UPDATE: 

I found some informative videos about this matter: 

I have nothing at stake in the Troy debates

As explained in my first post above, I am not an archeologist. I am not an historian. I am not a hydrologist. I have no commitments one way or the other on any question in Homer. Ancient literature is not my bag. I prefer ancient history to ancient writers.  As a philosopher, I consider Plato a pox on the discipline. We can discuss his bad metaphysics and politics later.  My twitter handle is @not4plato, and, at age 59, Aristotle is the only ancient writer I have ever warmed up to (NB: I did not say philosopher, I like Socrates, Diogenes, both Zenos, Chrysippus, and some other ancient philosophers, most of whom left little or no writing).  

Homer's accuracy rate as a war correspondent is of no interest to me. His accuracy rate as a describer of the plain of Troy, or of anything else, does not concern me a bit.  It looks to me like he described the springs at Pinarbasi pretty accurately. Perhaps I will do a blog post on that.  I am not alone in that opinion.  Some scholars also think that he described those springs.  I got the idea from them.  Many scholars believe that he also described the citadel at Hisarlik accurately.  Although others might find a problem here, I do not. I figure Homer is probably not just one person anyway.  And even if he was an historical individual, he wove a tale that just happens to imply (if you are looking for his models) that the springs 6 miles away are right in front of the gates of the citadel on Hisarlik. That kind of thing is not much of a price to pay for a good story.  He knew a springs he could describe, and he used what he knew.  They were not right in front of the gates of the fortress in which he set his story, but he put them there anyway.  (And again we only know about this because of the search for his models.)  Or perhaps one of the poets Homer relied on got misinformed, and was told that Pinarbasi was the original site of Troy, and then wrote the parts about the hot and cold springs outside the gates of the city.  It doesn't matter much to me.  I am happy either way.  The Iliad is primarily entertainment, not history.  

I figure that Homer, or the poets that are collected by that name, never saw the great city in the plain at Troy.  It had been obliterated by flooding by the time any of the writers in question saw the locations they described.  I am thinking that what Homer called a swelling of the plain (throsmos) just is the ancient city in the plain at Troy.  It would have been more obvious in his times, only 500 or so years after being destroyed, provided it was destroyed in the late bronze age. I am not very interested in the niceties of the story (i.e., the Greek camp and where Homer says the river is -- Homer is inconsistent with the names of the rivers anyway). There should be no lumps or bumps in a flood plain. If there was one big enough for fifty thousand men to camp on, it was probably a buried city. What does that mean for the poet as war correspondent? There are two possibilities. 1. The city in the plain was buried in mud for hundreds of years by the time of the Trojan War, and the war was fought on top of it as Homer describes it. 2. The city in the plain was destroyed in the late bronze age, and Homer or some other poet saw the city 500 years later as a lump in the plain, and went on to invent a story about camping and fighting on top of the lump.  I don't care which is true.  That does not mean that I do not want to know which is true, just that I have nothing at stake in the answer.  

As for the accuracy of the historical tale, I have never been able to stomach the idea of a ten year naval siege of a city as an historical fact. Nor boats big enough to carry 80 to 100 men that remain sea worthy after laying on their sides on a beach for ten years. Nor thousands of men going to war over a woman.  Nor a city so small that grown men in armor could chase one another around it three and a half times, then stop and fight.  If the city was the size of an American high school athletic track, a quarter mile around, it would be notably smaller than the little city on Hissarlik, but running around it once in armor would be too much for most men.  The final Hector and Achilles scene belongs in theater, not in history. It requires a tower on a stage with two actors running around it while Helen watches from a window.  And Achilles and Ajax belong in myth, not history.  And I don't necessarily enjoy hearing what the gods think.  And a shepherd, or whatever Paris was, who is offered wisdom, power or a woman and chooses the woman is some kind of a fool.  But at least the story includes a hint that the war could have been about power, rather than a woman. 

Do I think there was a Trojan war? I think that question means: do I think there was a conflict that could have been remembered that way?  Of course I think that is possible.  

If I am being asked, did the war Homer described happen or not, I would say I am not aware of which war that is, but probably not.  If that means a ten year siege, then no.  A Trojan horse? Definitely no.  Any of Homer's characters doing what Homer said they did?  Any? Well, no. I do not affirm any of that at all.  Again, I have not read the book since high school. Not a fan of ancient literature. 

None of what I am denying is inconsistent with my also holding that Homer's lines could contain some accurate information.  

There may have been major military operations at Troy several times in its history. The citadel shows signs of that.  One or more of those campaigns might be remembered in a story like Homer's.  

The city in the plain may have gone down in a war.  Maybe in the time Homer is trying to describe.  It may have gone down in a war and been flooded into oblivion 500 years before Agamemnon, too.  Or perhaps it merely met with a flood it could not handle and was never destroyed by looters.  And perhaps this happened in the time of the bronze age collapse. Perhaps it happened long before that. Who knows?  Nobody.  And it will stay that way until archeologists dig into the tell.  After that, we will all know.  

I do not hold to anything that is in conflict with whatever the ultimate answer is.  I have nothing at stake in this.  I found an anomaly by accident.  My sole interest is in getting it investigated by professionals.  

Of course I know a few things, not much though, about Wilusa, Ahhiyawa, the Sea Peoples, the bronze age collapse, the Hittites, the Luwians and what have you.  I don't study that stuff.  But I think about those things now and then.  Could the sacred water system of Wilusa be the water courses of the city in the plain of Troy?  Why not?  They impress me.  They might impress the Hittites too.  Then again, Wilusa might be in southwest Anatolia.  

I would like to know what the people who built that city in the Trojan plain called themselves.  I am only mildly interested in the term Wilusa as compared to that.  

Yet more anomalies in the plain of Troy

 I have recently discovered more probable flood control interventions in the plain of Troy.  

1.  An anomaly to the east of a berm identified in an earlier post.  

In the photo below, the area I am talking about is bounded by a road on its north side.  It is just south of, and has a shape similar to the hill below Kalifat.  This is kind of small and worn down, but it was surely larger three or four millennia ago.  

2. There is a prominence on the east side of the Mendere, near the top of the plain.  

There are at least three anomalies that need explaining here. 

I have circled a declivity in orange. In yellow two prominences are circled.  I figure these are ancient and that they probably have to do with flood control.  The two prominences can be treated as one problem.  I think they deflect flood waters.  I have no explanation for the declivity.  It might be intended to slow down flood waters by making them fill the declivity before moving forward down the plain. But it seems to be on such a steep incline that it would not stop much water.  The photo might be misleading as to how steep that incline is, however.  

Below is a flood control vision involving the two prominences at the top of the plain. We are looking south east.  

When the Medere is flooding, the water spreads out at the top of the plain. The structures at the top of the plain begin the process of channeling the water so as to get most of it past the city in its least harmful way, namely, in the river bed west of the city.  These structures also divert some water toward the edges of the plain, slowing its approach to the city. So, they divide the flood into three parts, two edges and a center.  

Outlined in yellow below are all seven of the raised earth anomalies I have identified in the plain.  

Pictures of the tell at Troy

 

New angles on flood control in the plain of Troy

"Where the winter stream of the Bunarbashi-Su joins the Mendere, there are some immense blocks of irregular shape; they may have formed part of the wall of a small fortress" (Dr Peter Forschhammer, Topography of the Plain of Troy, p 39).  

Forschhammer tells us that he saw large blocks in the area he calls the winter channel of the Burnarbashi Su, which is a place in front of Pinarbasi where the western most rivulet in the plain can discharge eastward into the bed of the main river in the center of the plain.  

It turns out there is a low, wide, unnatural looking prominence in that area. It may have been a part of a flood control system.  I have circled it in the upper right of the picture below. In these diagrams we are looking east.  Yellow lines mark unnatural, raised earthworks. 

The plain experiences annual floods as well as ephemeral or flash floods.  Forschhammer, who spent a month in the plain in the 1840s, describes the flash floods, which occur frequently.  

“When the rain, beginning in Mount Ida, extends to the plain, the wide and deep bed of the Menderé is completely filled; in a half or a quarter of an hour it rushes over its banks on both sides; on the left side it fills the swamps below Bunarbashi, while the Kirk Jos sends off a stream in the direction of its ancient bed to join the Menderé farther down. On the right it covers the high part of the plain over to the Kalifat Asmak, and transforms that stream into an impetuous river . If the rain continues a few hours, it often happens that the inundation prevails over the whole plain from the Hellespont to the springs at Bunarbashi. It happens also that about the season of the heaviest rains, the strong south-west winds blow, checking the current of the Hellespont, and raising the level of its waters, while these again impede the discharge of the rivers, and increase the inundation in the lower part of the plain.” 

(DP Forschhammer, cited by Charles Maclaren, in The Plain of Troy Described,1863 p. 62f )   

By Hellespont he means the Dardanelle Straights into which the entire plain empties.  By the Kirk Jos he means the Pinarbasi Su, which is the western-most rivulet in the plain.  It begins at a field of springs in front of Pinarbasi which are called Kirk Jos, or Forty Eyes.  The 40 is a holy or lucky number, not their actual number.  

Forschammer is talking about the same connection between the Pinarbasi Su and the Mendere in both passages.  In the picture below, the bent red arrow in the top right heads into what Forschhammer calls both the "winter channel" of the Pinarbasi Su, where he saw large blocks, and the "ancient bed" of the Kirk Jos, toward which the springs send a stream during heavier rains.   

Finally, again from the east, the following picture shows a more complete look at the situation of the city during heavy rains and flash flooding. The blue circles are places where the water pools and deepens and slows down. Imagine each circle growing larger as the flood gets worse.  

The city in the plain had water coming at it from all sides in any extended rain storm, and was  built to handle flooding.  The plain was also modified to manage flooding. 

 

Dimensions of the tell at Troy

 

A mile is 5280 feet. This part of the tell at the spot of the line is 88 feet short of that. 

Diagram of a possible flood control plan in the plain of Troy

In the following diagram, yellow lines outline unnatural piles, the red arrows represent the direction flood waters are diverted.  Pooling water is represented by blue circles. Pilings channel the water, pools deepen as the storm continues. The general idea of flood control is to break up, slow down and/or channel the water toward its least harmful destination. The least harmful channel in the plain of Troy is the channel on the west side of the city. 

The system seems to be built to protect the city in the plain from floods by slowing and channeling water.  It has occurred to me that the south west side of the tell might contain a sea wall, or flood wall.  So, perhaps something like this.  

“When the rain, beginning in Mount Ida, extends to the plain, the wide and deep bed of the Menderé is completely filled; in a half or a quarter of an hour it rushes over its banks on both sides; on the left side it fills the swamps below Bunarbashi, while the Kirk Jos sends off a stream in the direction of its ancient bed to join the Menderé farther down. On the right it covers the high part of the plain over to the Kalifat Asmak, and transforms that stream into an impetuous river . If the rain continues a few hours, it often happens that the inundation prevails over the whole plain from the Hellespont to the springs at Bunarbashi. It happens also that about the season of the heaviest rains, the strong south-west winds blow, checking the current of the Hellespont, and raising the level of its waters, while these again impede the discharge of the rivers, and increase the inundation in the lower part of the plain.” 

(Peter Forschhammer, cited by Charles Maclaren, 1863 p. 62f )   

Forschhammer is talking about rain beginning in Ida.  But rain starts in the clouds.  He is thinking of two different phenomena.  One of them is a flash flood coming down the Scamander/Karamendere in the middle of the plain, which is caused by rains that never fell in the plain of Troy.  The water from such rains can reach the plain via the river, which originates on Ida.  

His second thought is a flash flood caused by rains in the plain (and elsewhere).  When the rain is hard and extended enough, the whole plain begins to move. Imagine ankle deep water from side to side in the plain. Then imagine knee deep water from side to side.  Now waist deep.  You get the picture.  

The city in the plain survived hundreds of floods.  It may have been destroyed in the end by a big flood, but it survived an annual flood and several flash floods every year of its existence.