EVIDENCES UF TilK MIGKATION OF ABUAM. OU 



Abnim in the Bible chronology are : Usher, B.C. 1996 ; Hales, 

 B.C. 2153 ; and for the arrival in Canaan, Usher, B.C. 1921 ; 

 Hales 2078; and we shall see, from the comparison of these 

 dates with the raonaments of the period, that the chronology 

 of Hales is in fairly close agreement with the records. 



The Eistonj of Ohaldea B.C. 2500 to B.C. 2000. 



In this important period, within which falls the exodus of 

 the family of Terah, the history is naturally not given with 

 that clearness of detail which is so valuable a characteristic 

 in the history of the later empires of Assyria and Chaldea. 

 Nevertheless, there are not wanting certain indications of the 

 course of events. 



In the days of Gudea, the viceroy of Sergulla, who ruled in 

 that city under his lord, Dungi, King of Ur, the Chaldeans 

 appear to have had considerable influence on surround- 

 ing lands. In one of his inscriptions, which is upon a 

 statue in the Louvre, he speaks of sending to the land 

 of *^]]] J:^ Magan or Makan, for '' hard stone '' from 

 which to carve his statue. The stone from which this statue 

 is cut is hard green diorite, which could not be obtained from 

 any nearer spot than the Sinaitic peninsula — certainly not in 

 Chaldea. The connexion between the land of Sinai, with its 

 copper and turquoise mines and stone quarries, and the empire 

 of Chaldea was established at an early period. The land of 

 Makan has been identified by both Professor Sayce and M. 

 Lenormant, with the Mafka or turquoise land, the Sinaitic 

 peninsula of the Egyptians, and in the inscriptions it is called 

 the land of copper and the blue stone.* The mines in the 

 Sinaitic peninsula were worked as early as the days of Senoferu 

 of the third dynasty, whose date, according to Brugsch, was 

 B.C. 3766, and the neighbourhood abounds in excavations 

 votive stelaB, and the debris of ancient workings. Naram-Sin, 

 whom we have already spoken of, in his inscription on the 

 vase discovered by M. Fresnel, claims the titles of King of 

 Apirakh and Magan, that is of part of Elam, east of the Tigris 

 and of the land of the Sinaitic peninsula. 



In another inscription on the large statue this King Gudea 



* The stone is called ^^^ '^111^ Tag-sa, " the blue stone," by the 

 Akkadians, and by the Assyrians f^ <^y ^ ]} >^, Aban Sdmn, " the 

 Mue stone," the Qnb'n |55<: of Gen. ii. 12, which our A.V. renders "onyx," 

 and the E.V. gives the strange rendering of "beryl." The meaning of the 

 word is quite clear, as it is applied in Chaldean hymns to the sky and 

 the sea. In the same way we may identify the Akkadian J^^y "-^I I b 

 Tag-gir, that is, the "cutting or piercing stone," Avhicli is rendered by 

 semini,, with the Hebrew "l''?ptt7 " diamond." 



