172 THE EFFECTS OF GEOGRAPHIC ENVIRONMENT 



or bitumen was placed, until a solid roof was formed. Thus the 

 architecture of the people here as elsewhere was the result of 

 geographic environment. 



As the population in Mesopotamia became dense, the people 

 were forced into communities. These grew into towns and great 

 cities. The patriarchal system still continued, though with 

 greatly changed conditions. All related by blood or adoption 

 were regarded as members of the tribe and all on an equality. 

 The patriarch retained the ownership of the property, with power 

 of life and death. With the increase of wealth, luxury, and 

 power the people deteriorated. They lost the personal liberty 

 and freedom of hunters and fishermen, and later of shepherds. 

 The patriarch became a despot, the nomad a slave. 



From the ruins of cities scattered all over this valley, we learn 

 much of the history of this people, their character, habits, and 

 manner of life. In Nipper, the city most recently excavated, 

 by gentlemen connected with the University of Pennsylvania, 

 ths debris over one of its temples is 37 feet in thickness, the 

 accumulation of about 4,000 years. Thirty feet below the ruins 

 is the temple built by Mullil about 6,000 j'^ears before Christ, 

 and here have been found monuments, pottery, and other evi- 

 dences of civilization. The inscriptions even then had ceased 

 to be pictures and were cuneiform ; but the beginning of Baby- 

 lonian writing lies far behind the foundations of the temple of 

 Nipper. Recent writers tell us that " the flower of Babylonian 

 art is found at the beginning of Babylonian history." 



The inscription upon the temple tells us that " Millel, king of 

 the universe, invested Lugal with the kingdom of the world. 

 He filled all lands with his renown and subdued them from the 

 rising of the sun to the setting of the sun — from the Persian gulf 

 to the Upper Sea, where the sun sinks to rest, and granted him 

 dominion over all things and caused all countries to dwell in 

 peace." His capital was at Erech, which was called " The Cit3^" 

 His empire extended fi-om the Persian gulf to the Mediterranean, 

 "the sea of the setting sun," and out into the Mediterranean to 

 the island of Cyprus. Here lived Nimrod, " the might}^ hunter 

 before the Lord," and Ashur, " who builded Nineveh." Eight- 

 een hundred years after Sargon, Abraham went forth from Ur 

 of the Chaldees, near the mouth of the Euphrates, into the land 

 of Canaan, and subsequently when Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, 

 and Tidal, king of nations, took Lot, his nephew, and made him 

 prisoner, Abraham armed his servants, attacked Chedorlaomer 

 and Tidal by night, smote them, and liberated Lot. 



