SUMERIANS—BABYLONIANS—ASSYRIANS = 351 
in liturgies, etc.,1 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,” 
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.” # 
The third, the Assyrians 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 
1 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. 
3 Petrie (Egypt and Isvael (London, 1911), p. 15): “ The Turanian race 
akin to the modern Mongols, known as Sumerians, had civilised 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. 
