South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1920-02-15
WOMAN SUFFRAGE In
OLD BABYLONIA
Latest Arch ology Discoveries Re-
veal Surprising State of Cultural
Development.
By. PROF. A. III. sAYCE.

BY PROF A H sAYCE
The old Oriental world wonderfully like our
own. 1t was not acquainted with the mechanical con
trivances the twentieth century with trains and
steamers telegraphs and telephones, but on the cu-
tura side It a level with ourselves in some
respects even in advance OF US.
Culture. as opposed to mechanical civilization.
always confined TO the few and what is stH the high
water mark of the few already attained 1000
years ago.
We already knew that such the case with the
Greece and Rome Of the age. Then came the
revelation Of ancient Egyptian culture followed by
that culture early Crete, and Il is
the OF Babylona The strong points OF Baby
lonian culture, however not artistic the
in Egypt and Crete but literary and commercial
The latest discovery OF Babylonian archaeology has
astonishngly modern ring. Some centuries before
Abraham born in Ur OF the ChaIdees a dynasey OF
kings reigning which had its capital IN that city
It's rule supremacy acknowledged from Susa 10
the Mediterranean gulf to the Taurus
mountains
In eastern Asia Minor three miles from the present
Kaisariyeh. there Babylonan colony partly mill
tary, partly commercial, which held the high
the northwest and the OF the metal trade
Babyonian firms worked the silver copper lead
mines OF Asia Minor and supplied Asia with
their products.
A REPUBLIC 1900 YEARS AGO.
They left their inscribed cunei-
form characters tablets OF clay Hundreds them
have been recently discovered, all belonging the
same period about 240O B. c.
OF the tablets letters on business
matters; others of them relate TO commercial legal
affairs. They abruptly end: 5 probable
that when internal decay prevented the Babylonian
government defending any longer their distant
possessions the Babyonan settlements In Asia Minor
destroyed by the wild tribes OF the north At all
events excavation has shown that the particular city
the tablets found suddenly overthrow
and never inhabited again
The larger number of colonists came Assyria.
which at that time Babylonian province. They
a republican ard a monarchical form OF gov
eminent, though acknowledging in a OF shadowy
way the nominal supremacy OF the Babylonian kings
But they actually governed by their officers
a province district being under the Of
prince and city under that Of g. "prefect"
Besides these officers there also judges well
certain officials. who gave their names 20 the
weeks" Of five days each into which the year was
divided, and by means OF which time was counted
THE wONnEN's UNIVERSITY.
But by the side OF the prince" and the "prefect"
there also princess" and a "prefeotess" and
curious fact that energies from the tablets is that the
princess" and "prefectess' had equal powers and
rights with the prince" "prefeet" "wornens
rights" had already triumphed Burus. city
called; the could trade there ike the
could bequeath their property like the and pos
sessed. it would seem. the official authority
the It would appear that. after all. there
truth in the story of the Aagons whose
home in the part Of the world
Along with "women's rights naturally went
education and the discovery is the
touch Of all A tablet has turned which refers
a woman's college" university" in the neigh
borhood Of Burus, where it gave the Of The
woman's Town" the suburb in which it stood This
university divided into the faculties OF 'litera-
ture" and ARTS" each Of which under 'pr1nci-
pal" who. however not woman. but male pro-
lessor Surely there nothing the
THE BABYLONIAN POSTNIAN.
But the tablets have brought 70 light many other
things which have their parallel in the modern world
We learn from the letters that there were roads
throughout country along which the postman
regularly though the letters envelopes he carried
OF clay. like the stamps. which had the form Of
discs In Of the letters the writer expresses the
hope that the postman will have a bright
clear sky light him his way a night
Truly the near east a long past OF civilization
behind IT,
build the houses or which they would require