SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 2-, 



Ancient Egyptians for decrees and other public acts, contracts 

 and private transactions. 



The third in the Greelv language, which gave a key to the 

 others. 



The inscriptions are to the same purport in each, and were in- 

 scribed more than two thousand years ago. 



One of the latest discoveries of importance shows that a high 

 state of art, and an advanced degree of civilization existed in 

 the Tigro-Euphrates Valley nearly six thousand years ago. 

 Another was the engraved code of laws of Hammurabi, king of 

 Babylon 2250 B. C, and discoveries and inscriptions shoAving 

 that a civilized, city-building people built a city on the site of 

 Nippur, the principal city of Babylon, between six and seven 

 thousand B. C. 



By the labor and research carried on by the Babylonian Expe- 

 dition of the University of Pennsylvania, thousands of in- 

 scribed tablets have been found, which when fully deciphered, 

 will afford us a first accurate estimate of the remarkable 

 height of Babylonian civilization. 



The excavations of this expedition revealed not only the old- 

 est known sanctuary, library and school, but also the most 

 ancient Archaeological Museum. 



The earliest inscription found in this ancient museum, 

 though somewhat fragmentary, contains the titles of Sargon I, 

 3800 B. C, a portion of history written nearly six thousand 

 years ago. 



THE EVOLUTION OF MAN, AND HIS MIND 



In this age of research and invention, when explorations are 

 being made by individuals, scientific societies, and state and 

 general governments, for the purpose of becoming better ac- 

 quainted with the world of today ; other explorations are being 

 carried on, and a large number of thinking people are turning 

 their attention to the study of the Ancient, or Prehistoric 

 World, and its inhabitants, and the simplest objects unearthed 

 by excavation and explorations made on the sites of ancient, 

 unknown or long-forgotten cities and dwelling places and 

 graves of mankind, are utilized and compared by systematic 

 study in the efforts to gain information relative to prehistoric 

 man, and his advancement from savagery and barbarism to civ- 

 ilization. 



It seems but yesterday that aside from the few reliable inci- 

 dents brought down to us by written history, and the fabulous 

 traditions passed down to us by our ancestors — comparatively 

 nothing was kno^m of nations and races of men Avho inhabited 

 the earth thousands of years before our written history began. 



Man had rvot discovered nor opened up the Great Book of 



