RECENT ANTHROPOLOGY. 151 



that the nations who founded the ancient civilization of Babylonia, 

 who invented the cuneiform writing, and who carried on the astro- 

 nomical observations which made the name of Chaldean famous for 

 all time, may have been not dark- white peoples like the Assyrians who 

 came after them, but perhaps belonged to the yellow race of Central 

 Asia, of whom the Chinese are the branch now most distinguished in 

 civilization. M. Lenormant has tried to identify among the Assyrian 

 bas-reliefs certain figures of men whose round skulls, high cheek-bones, 

 and low-bridged noses present a Mongoloid type contrasting with that 

 of the Assyrians. We can not, I think, take this as proved, but at any 

 rate in these figures the features are not those of the aquiline Semitic 

 type. The bronze statuette of the Chaldean king called Gudea, which 

 I have examined with Mr. Pinches at the British Museum, is also, with 

 its straight nose and long, thin beard, as un-Assyrian as may be. The 

 anthropological point toward which all this tends is one of great in- 

 terest. We of the white race are so used to the position of leaders in 

 civilization, that it does not come easy to us to think we may not have 

 been its original founders. Yet the white race, whether the dark- 

 whites, such as Phoenicians or Hebrews, Greeks or Romans, or the fair- 

 white's, such as Scandinavians and Teutons, appear in history as fol- 

 lowers and disciples of the Egyptians and Babylonians who taught 

 the world writing, mathematics, philosophy. These Egyptians and 

 Babylonians, so far as present evidence reaches, seem rather to have 

 belonged to the races of brown and yellow skin than to the white 

 race. 



It may be objected that this reasoning is in several places imper- 

 fect, but it is the use of a departmental address not only to lay down 

 proved doctrines, but to state problems tentatively as they lie open to 

 further inquiry. This will justify my calling attention to a line of 

 argument which, uncertain as it at present is, may perhaps lead to an 

 interesting result. So ancient was civilization among both Egyptians 

 and Chaldeans, that the contest as to their priority in such matters as 

 magical science was going on hotly in the classic ages of Greece and 

 Rome. Looking at the literature and science, the arts and politics of 

 Memphis and of Ur of the Chaldees, both raised to such height of cul- 

 ture nearly five thousand years ago, we ask. Were these civilizations 

 not connected ? did not one borrow from the other ? There is at present 

 a clew which, though it may lead to nothing, is still worth trial. The 

 hint of it lies in a remark by Dr. Birch as to one of the earliest of 

 Egyptian monuments, the pyramid of Kochome, near Sakkara, actu- 

 ally dating from, the first dynasty, no doubt beyond 3000 b, c, and 

 which is built in steps like the seven-storied Babylonian temples. 

 Two other Egyptian pyramids, those of Abu-sIr, are also built in steps. 

 Now, whether there is any connection between the building of these 

 pyramids and the Babylonian towers, does not depend on their being 

 built in stages, but on the number of these stages being seven. As to 



