SUMERIANS— BABYLONIANS— ASSYRIANS 351 



in liturgies, etc.,i down even to the time of the Persian con- 

 quest) and their writing, adopted by the Babylonians and 

 Assyrians, which runs, unlike the Hebrew, from left to right, 2 

 disprove Sumerian descent from Shem. 



It is impossible at present to fix a definite period for their 

 immigration. The dates assigned vary from 7000 to 4000 B.C. 

 The statement, however, that " Aryans, Turanians, Semites 

 were all in a nomadic condition, when the early Sumerian 

 settlers in Lower Babylonia betook themselves to agriculture, 

 builded great cities, and established a stable government," 

 seems hardly exaggerated, even though it postulates a very 

 ancient era. 



The second, the Semitic Babylonians, starting possibly 

 from South Arabia by way of the Syrian coast, reached the 

 lower part of the Tigris and Euphrates about 3800 B.C. 3 It 

 was not, however, until some thousand years afterwards, that 

 they effected a conquest of the Sumerians. 



Like other defeated peoples, such as the Canaanites with 

 the Jews, the Irish with the English, " Hibernis ipsis Hiber- 

 niores," they grafted their policy on that of their victors, 

 and perpetuated many of their racial characteristics and 

 customs, as well as their religion. " The Semitic invaders 

 seem to have been completely converted. In fact Babylonian 

 religion has scarcely anything characteristically Semitic in 

 it." 4 



The third, the Ass3n:ians proper, an offshoot from Babylonia, 

 are found (before 2300 B.C.) pushing their way north along the 

 Tigris, on whose western bank they founded their first city 

 and earliest capital — Asur. Wars between them and Babylonia 

 mark the history of centuries. Their definite suzerainty over 



^ The Sumerians made extensive use of music, especially in their religious 

 ceremonies ; they were the founders, according to Langdon, of liturgical 

 music, which unfortunately it is impossible to reconstruct, as the notes 

 themselves have not survived. 



2 The Sumerian language was not well adapted to express peculiarly 

 Semitic sounds. 



* Petrie {Egypt and Israel (London, 1911), p. 15): "The Turanian race 

 akin to the modern Mongols, known as Sumerians, had civihsed the Euphrates 

 valley for some thousands of years and produced a strong commercial and 

 mathematical culture. The wandering Semite had at last been drawn into 

 this settled system of life." 



* S. Langdon, Babylonian Magic, Bologna, 1914. 



