2 A SHORT HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



ably one principal place of origin, or " cradle," of the human 

 race from which have spread all known varieties of mankind, alive 

 or extinct, and that this was probably in " Indo-Malaysia " in 

 that remarkable valley which lies between the rivers Tigris and 

 Euphrates and in its upper part is known as Mesopotamia (be- 

 tween the rivers). 



Mesopotamia, or the broad valley of the Tigris and Euphrates, 

 was the cradle of civilization in the remotest antiquity. There can 

 be little doubt that man evolved somewhere in southern Asia, possibly 

 during the Pleiocene or Miocene times .... [And] as paleolithic man 

 was certainly interglacial in Europe, we may assume that he was 

 preglacial in Asia. . . . 



The earliest known civilization in the world arose north of the 

 Persian Gulf among the Sumerians .... but the Babylonians of 

 history were a mixed people, for Semitic influences according to 

 Winckler began to flow up the Euphrates Valley from Arabia during 

 the fourth millennium B.C. This influence was more strongly felt, 

 however, in Akkad than in Sumer, and it was in the north that the 

 first Semitic Empire, that of Sargon the Elder (about 2500 B.C. 

 according to E. Meyer) had its seat. . . . The supremacy of Babylon 

 was first established by the Dynasty of Hamurabi (about 1950 B.C., 

 earlier according to Winckler) which was overthrown by the Hittites 

 about 1760 B.C. Then followed the Kassite dominion, which lasted 

 from about 1760 to 1100 B.C. ... It was probably due to them that 

 the horse, first introduced by the Aryans, became common in south- 

 west Asia; it was introduced into Babylon about 1900 B.C. but 

 was unknown in Hamurabi's reign. Hadd&n. 



ARCHEOLOGY. The study of antiquity, and especially of 

 prehistoric antiquity, is known as archeology (the science of 

 antiquities or beginnings), and is based upon finds of ruins, 

 tools, weapons, caves, skeletons, carvings, ornaments, and 

 similar remains or evidences of human life and action in pre- 

 historic times. It has been well described as " unwritten history." 

 Remains of all kinds have long been roughly but conveniently 

 classified into three groups corresponding to three periods of 

 development, viz. : a Stone Age, a Bronze Age, and an 



