BABYLONIAN LITERATURE. 21 



this Canaanite dynasty be placed, which, 

 pretty much as the Hyksos did in Egypt, 

 must have interrupted the series of native 

 dynasties of Chalda3a ? For various reasons 

 Dr. Chwolson has concluded to identify it 

 with the fifth of Berosus, composed of 

 nine Arabian kings, of which he fixes the 

 commencement between the years 1540 and 

 1488 before Christ. Kuthami appears to 

 have written one or two hundred years 

 after the Canaanite invasion ; the year 

 1300 is therefore the latest which can be 

 suggested as that of the composition of the 

 work which bears his name. 



The astonishment excited by this conclu- 

 sion is heightened by the circumstance that 

 the author of " The Book of Nabathrean 

 Agriculture" quotes a great number of 

 works, which themselves, again, have quo- 

 tations from other authors ; thus suggesting 

 whole centuries of culture and civilization 

 before the time of Kutliami. Professor 

 Chwolson considers that a culture of some 

 3000 years must be admitted before his 



