"Thus Western Asia has been swept times and again, almost without number, by conquering hordes and the no less severe ethnical disturbances of peaceful infiltrations converging from every point of the compass in turn.... How, then, is it possible to learn anything today from the contents of this cauldron, filled with such an assortment of ingredients and still seething from the effects of the disturbance incidental to the harsh mixing of such incompatible elements[1156]?" Some of the problems must for the present be regarded as insoluble, but with the evidence provided by archaeologists and anthropologists an attempt may be made to read the ethnological history in these obscure regions.
Babylonia, People and Civilisation.
The earliest Semitic wave was traceable in Babylonia, but, as seen above, opinions differ as to its origin and date. "At what period the Semites first invaded Babylonia, when and where they first attained supremacy, are not yet matters of history. We find Semites in the land and in possession of considerable power almost as early as we can go back[1157]." The characteristic Semitic features are clearly marked, and the language is closely connected with Canaanitic and Assyrian[1158]. From the monuments we learn that the Babylonian Semites had full beards and wore their hair long, contrasting sharply with the shaven Sumerians, and thus gaining the epithet "the black-headed ones." In nose and lips, as in dress, they are clearly distinct from the Sumerian type[1159].
When history commences, the inhabitants of Babylonia were already highly civilised. They lived in towns, containing great temples, and were organised in distinct classes or occupations, and possessed much wealth in sheep and cattle, manufactured goods, gold, silver and copper. Engraving on metals and precious stones, statuary, architecture, pottery, weaving and embroidery, all show a high level of workmanship. They possessed an elaborate and efficient system of writing, extensively used and widely understood, consisting of a number of signs, obviously descended from a form of picture writing, but conventionalised to an extent that usually precludes the recognition of the original pictures. This writing was made by the impression of a stylus on blocks or cakes of fine clay while still quite soft. These "tablets" were sun-dried, but occasionally baked hard. This cuneiform writing was adopted by, or was common to, many neighbouring nations, being freely used in Elam, Armenia and Northern Mesopotamia as far as Cappadocia.
Assyria, People and Civilisation.
Assyrian culture was founded upon that of Babylonia, but the Assyrians appear to have differed from the Babylonians in character, though not in physical type[1160], while they were closely related in speech. "The Assyrians differed markedly from the Babylonians in national character. They were more robust, warlike, fierce, than the mild industrial people of the south. It is doubtful if they were much devoted to agriculture or distinguished for manufactures, arts and crafts. They were essentially a military folk. The king was a despot at home, but the general of the army abroad. The whole organisation of the state was for war. The agriculture was left to serfs or slaves. The manufactures, weaving at any rate, were done by women. The guilds of workmen were probably foreigners, as the merchants mostly were. The great temples and palaces, walls and moats, were constructed by captives.... For the greater part of its existence Assyria was the scourge of the nations and sucked the blood of other races. It lived on the tribute of subject states, and conquest ever meant added tribute in all necessaries and luxuries of life, beside an annual demand for men and horses, cattle and sheep, grain and wool to supply the needs of the army and the city[1161]."
Syria and Palestine. Canaanites: Amorites: Phoenicians: Jews.
The early history of Syria and Palestine is by no means clear, although much light has been shed in recent years by the excavations of R. A. S. Macalister at Gezer[1162], where remains were found of a pre-Semitic race, of Ernst Sellin at Tell Ta'anek and Jericho[1163], and the labours of the Deutscher Palästina-Verein and especially G. Schumacher at Megiddo[1164]. Caves apparently occupied by man in the Neolithic period were discovered at Gezer, and are dated at about 3500 to 3000 B.C. from their position below layers in which Egyptian scarabs appear. Fragments of bones give indications of the physical type. None of the individuals exceeded 5 ft. 7 inches (1.702 m.) in height, and most were under 5 ft. 4 inches (1.626 m.). They were muscular, with elongated crania and thick heavy skull-bones. From their physical characters it could be clearly seen that they did not belong to the Semitic race. They burned their dead, a non-Semitic custom, a cave being fitted up as a crematorium, with a chimney cut up through the solid rock to secure a good draught[1165].
The first great influx of Semitic nomads is conjectured to have reached Babylonia, not from the south, but from the north-west, after traversing the Syrian coast lands. They left colonists behind them in this region, who afterwards as the Amurru (Amorites) pressed on in their turn into Babylonia and established the earliest independent dynasty in Babylon[1166].
The second great wave of Semitic migration appears to have included the Phoenicians[1167], so called by the Greeks, though they called themselves Canaanites and their land Canaan[1168], and are referred to in the Old Testament, as in inscriptions at Tyre, as "Sidonians." They themselves had a tradition that their early home was on the Persian Gulf, a view held by Theodore Bent and others[1169], and recent discoveries emphasise the close cultural (not necessarily racial) connection between Palestine and Babylonia[1170].