BY THE RIVERS OF BABYLON 51 



that these differences are not as serious as they appear 

 to be. We suppose that the scattered population was 

 driven south-eastwards from Europe. But the region 

 to the north of the Black Sea and round the Caspian 

 was not covered by the ice-sheet, and there would 

 be a retreat of Europeans along this line. In the 

 Caucasic regions, it is supposed, the ancestors of the 

 "Aryans" developed. They spread in time partly to 

 the north (the ancestors of the Slavs, Teutons, Greeks, 

 and Romans) and partly to Asia Minor (the ancestors 

 of the Hindus and Persians, who were one people 

 until the third millennium B.C.). Further south 

 would be the great pool of the Semitic peoples, which 

 sent streams into Babylonia, Arabia, and Syria. 

 Further east, beyond the Caspian, would be another 

 human centre, from which a branch would in time 

 pass across Asia to China, and another branch may 

 have gone south, across Persia, to Mesopotamia. 



In this way we get a general idea how each civiliza- 

 tion may be related to the crowding together of the 

 race, to the east of the Mediterranean, on account of 

 the glacial condition of Europe. Our knowledge on 

 this point is, however, very imperfect, and we leave it 

 open whether the Sumerians were a branch of the 

 Mediterranean race which followed the route from 

 (on the modern map) Aleppo to Baghdad, or whether 

 they came from beyond the Caspian and were related 

 to the early Mongolians. 



What is clear is that by at least 3,000 b.c. (some 

 say 4,000 b.c.) a fair civilization, with many cities 

 and rulers, existed in Babylonia. At that early date 

 Babylon itself was an insignificant place up river. 

 The region was, like early Egypt, divided into petty 

 princedoms, or city states, a large number of which 



