The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-09-02
FIRST A~PPEARANCE or
THE SEMITES IN HISTORY
Disclosures of Recent Excavations In Babylonia.
M EpoAR JAAEs BANxs.

k,.ld INJECTOR OF the Recent Babylonian Expedition
Of the University Of Chicago.
Tbere ia n Hebrew tradition, generally
Located by the various branches Of the
Semitic race and by conservative Chris
I,ans and Moslems, that the entire Semitic
Eace sprang from Shem. one Of the three
Lons If Noah, and that from the other two
I,rs Ham and Japhet, came the remainder
Er Inc worlds population. A second
ktalrew tradition says that at q stiu earlier
hate the sons Of Adam amt 70 the PLAIN 0.
hbinar or Babylonia and there they burned
| krieks and built the Tower OF Babel.
II has long been the impression tnar
kabvlonia was the original home OF the
EemItio race and that from the valley OF
lbs Ticris and Euphrates M Semitic tribe
latter another, the Assyrians, the Fnoeni-
Eians. the Arameans. the Hebrews and the
Isyrans. abandoned their birthplace. while
lba Arabs, still their largest branch, have
bsyer ceased to occupy IL. However.
brchaolocists nave recently advanced the
Ibeorv that the Mesopotamian Valley was
10, tho first home OF the Semites, but that
Iike the countless hordes which from tin
- time have left their obscure homes In
| central Asia and have conquered the
ciyilized countries into which they hap
Oorad IN wander, 80 at one time b Semitee
beft their original home in Central Arabia
Lr in the more remote parts OF Asia and
core comrarativefy late jewellers In the
buphrates Valley.
During nv recent excavations in the
hahvlonisn ruin Of Bismya for the UNI
korsitv of Chicago these theories have not
h,lv been verified hut the approximate
Hate and many Of the details OF the nrst
h,nearance " the Semites In the WORLDS
hlsrorv have been determined. .
The Tigris and E~Iphrates valley was, As
lar as we now know, first peopled by a race
which the archaic gist, for want OF a better
name calls Sumeriau. The earliest Meso-
potsmian ruins, far beneath cities whtch
| Aorrisbad six thousand years age, indi-
rare that thousands OF years before that
remote age the Sumerians began to slowly
evolve a civilization which has never been
surpassed or hardly eoualled by any other
Oriental nation,
They invented the potter's wheel and the
lathe. they we're the first to mould ana burn
bricks. TO form implements OF bronze, to
enRrave beautiful designs upon the hardest
Of stones aud to make complicated tnlaid
work. Thev built temples with q OF
which was constructed a huge tower, and
the tower seems to ave been the prototype
Of our modern spire
|, was in their temples that sacrifices were
burned. a custom which the Hebrews later
adopted. In the temple worship they en-
ployed hymns and responsive psalms 90
like those Of the synagogue and OF the
modern ritualistic church that they must
be- regarded as their ancestors.
The Sumerians also invented the peculiar
wedge shaped or cuneiform writing, de-
~veloping it from the crude pictures which
they drew Upon stone to the complicated
combinations by which they could express
the most abstract ideas. The Semites
employed this system Of writing for more
than 1000 years.
The Sumerians were q short, stout ACC
The men shaved their heads n faces,
went hatless and barefooted, and their
only garment was a short skirt reaching
from the waist to the knees.
The women, half clad in a similar gar
ment, wore their long hair in a knot upon
the head and they decorated themselves
with jevelry as finely wrought ~ any in
the modern Orient. They were a peaOs
VNlnk ldNrs piGACllluk w OOAA oNN ~ NAA
the soil rather than to make war upon
their neighbors. yet they possessed rs
weapons the long handled spear and a
large shield
Such is the picture which the several
sumerian statues uneartbed at Bismya,
and others in the Louvre and the British
Museum, the thousands Of clay tablets
covered with their wedge shaped in
symptoms. and the ruins Of their cities and
homes give Of the Sumerisns Of about
$50 B. c.
While excavating at Bismya W found in
the greater part Of the city only a
OF these early Sumerians, but along ths
northwestern edge OF the city where We
discovered a thick wall constructed OF
email planoconvex bricks, which are
peculiar TO the Sumerians Of that age, there
appeared at the outer base, just whore
there was a city gate, thousands Of clay
halls burned 30 lard that they still re-
sembled stone. some Of the balls were
round, others we're nearly square, whilo
Others were Of shapes varying between
these two. and of a size which indicated
Fhat they must have beer hurled by mean
pf sings.
These sling balls had been employed
against the people upon the city wall,
put striking short Of the mark had fallen
pnto the mont. The city wa taken in that or
pa some other battle, and the old Sumerian
State, which during the several thousand
years II had existed had grown from
I9ayagery, passed into the hands Of the
Ibeslegers.
Who we're the besiegers2 Just within
Fhe city wall we eXcavated a residential
portion Of the city. As the dirt was cleared
away the foundations Of the houses and the
marrow streets resembled those Of q modern
Arab village, yet in them were numerous
inscriptions Of the most archaic character,
dating from about 1000 b. G..
In other parts Of the ruins inscriptions
only in the Sumerian language had Ap-
peared, but in this city quarter the greater
part OF the tablets were in a Semitic Ian
guage, which. although written BY means
Pi groups Of wedges, closely resembled
me Hebrew. We had discovered the ruins
OF a Semitic settlement, and undoubtedly
~ was the Semites who besieged the city,
and breaking through the walls and
PNerpoWering the Sumerian inhabitants,
adopted the civilization and religion Of the
conquered people as their own.
I AGGAENNnH 80 -