Photograph from Frederick Simpich 

 A GONDOLA POLED THROUGH THE SHALLOW CANALS THAT WATER THE GREAT DATE 



GARDENS: BAGDAD 



cipherer have thrown a flood of light upon 

 the situation ; ruin-hills of the past have 

 been opened up to the light of day, out 

 of which emerge marvelous revelations 

 in the form of written records and other 

 remains. 



ASTOUNDING REVELATIONS 



These, although written in languages 

 and scripts the very existence of which 

 was unknown to man for two thousand 

 years and more, are now forced to reveal 

 their story of the religion, politics, sci- 

 ence, and life of not a few of the ancient 

 and forgotten peoples. 



These researches have resulted in as- 

 tounding revelations. Israel, instead of 

 being one of the foremost nations of an- 

 tiquity, is now found to have been a 

 small power which had thrived in the late 

 pre-Christian centuries, and had occu- 

 pied a comparatively insignificant posi- 

 tion among the great nations of its age. 

 Instead of the patriarch Abraham be- 

 longing to the beginning of time, it is now 

 found that he occupies a middle chapter 

 in the history of mankind. 



But, above all else, one of the greatest 



surprises is that the earliest peoples, in- 

 stead of being barbarous or uncultured, 

 were civilized and possessed a culture of 

 a high order. In fact, the greatest crea- 

 tions of the Babylonians in literature 

 and art belong to the third and fourth, 

 and perhaps earlier, millenniums before 

 Christ. 



Political and religious institutions were 

 already ancient in the days of the patri- 

 archs. What may be regarded as primi- 

 tive is found, but it points to a still 

 greater antiquity than the earliest periods 

 now known. 



IMPERISHABLE RECORDS 



Xot only did the builders use brick in- 

 stead of stone at Babel, but they also 

 used clay for their writing material. An- 

 nual inundations deposited sand and clay 

 of a fine quality in the valley, which was 

 used for this purpose. The well-kneaded, 

 but unbaked, inscription, lying perchance 

 beneath the disintegrated abodes of the 

 ruined building, though yearly and for 

 millenniums saturated thoroughly by the 

 winter rains or inundations, when care- 

 fully extracted from its resting place of 



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