Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-03-28
Geographic News
ABRAHAM AND TUTANKHAMEN
Bulletins by the
National Geographic Society

ABRAHAM AND TUTANKHAMEN
with the civilized world still
amazed at the tangible evidence of
$500 years ago found in Tutankha
| mems tombts come dispatches telling
how the time line of recorded his
tory even now is being pushed far
ther back in Mesopotamia,' says a
bulletin from the Washington, ID. c.,
headquarters of the National Geo-l
graphic Society.
Digging into the ruins at El-Mu-
kaiyar really means probing the re-
mains of 'Ur of the Chaldeans,' home
city of Abraham and later capital
of Nebuchadnezzar, Napoleon oil
Babylon.
Back to Genesis Nj
News reports tell of d house, just
uncovered, thought to be 5000 years
old. The pick and shovel already
have carried secular history to the
period of the eleventh chapter of
Genesis, have found evidence to re-
construct the daily life of the times
Of Abraham and have revealed the
essential differences of customs in
the Tigris- Euphrates delta from
those of Tutankhamen's time along
the Nile.
1.-THE familiar story of the tower
of Babel gives the clue to one such
difference. You will recall how the
children of Noah, in the Bible mar
rative, said to one another, Let US
build us a city, and a tower.
THE tenn pies of Egypt had a sue
cession OF chambers OH the ground
level; a chara cterstic Of O. Babyio-
nian temple were its chambers AR
ranged vertically. each successive
story being little smaller than the
one beneath. In modern parlance,
Egyptians tended toward bungalow
architecture; the Babylonians had
the first skyscrapers.
zone, then, may picture Babyio-
MIA Of Abral1a1n's time as land dot
ted with busy towns, each walled
around with brick, and having a
tower as pretentious as it could af-
ford.
Rooms Like Pullman Cars
1.-THE writer of Genesis makes an
other significant statement when he
records that these early Semitic peo-
Piles had brick for stone, and slime
they had for mortar There being
no stone in this region the use o.
brick was universal, and this alb
sence of both stone and wood had a
marked influence upon the dwell
ings. Roof-bean1s were scarce,
hence the rooms were long and mar
row, even in the palace of the city's
priest-king, which usually adjoined
the tower.
Politically, Babylon was not a
nation. Ur, Umma and Lagash were
city states comparable in their pride
and prowess to Florence, Venice and
Milan Of medieval Europe.
How they came to clash is easily
understood by noting their plan. In
the center were tower and palace,
around these were dwellings, and
this cluster of buildings was trimmed
with cultivated land. Beyond this
cultivated belt was the pasture land, |
netted with irrigation canals, always
held in common. AS the towns grew
and more grazing land was needed
trouble arose. And there was u
strife between the herdrnen of Alb
raham's cattle and the herdmen of
Lots CATTLE
Contrast to Egyptian Life
1.-THE contrast between this town
life period of Babyionia and the
Empire of Egypt was as great as that
between our own New England COM
Inunities Of the mid eighteenth CEN
tury and the regal splendor of
AdliGS uIuSI 5LO0iS -AINs
This small town period Of Baby
lonia disap ppeared, however, with the
conquests of Sargon, King of Akkad
(not the Assyrian) who ruled nearly
$500 years before Tutankhamen was
inferred.
Further explorations among the
remains of the city of Abraham will
be secondary to the greatest single
find III this region--the code of
Hammurabi. This scholarly king
ruled in Babylon about 2,300 3. c.,
and the laws he codified are proof of
a high civilization built up through
many centuries before his time.
Wine Merchants Supervised
'fRaids on gay road.house parties
were common in those days. Wine |
selling was regulated and the en-
forcement was put squarely UP tol
the vender. One section of the pen |
al code provided, If wine fner- |
chant has allowed riotous characters |
to assemble in her house, and those |
riotous characters (she) has not
seized and driven to the palace, that |
wine merchant shall be put tc |
death
"a maid might sue for breach of |
promise, landholder had to pay q |
heavier tax if he did not cultivate |
his allotment, guardians were pro-
vided for estates of widows and Or
phsns.
Mounds and occasional masses
Of brick work laid bare by winter |
rains, and bitches which hint at the |
canals of an elaborate irrigation |
system, are the only surface traces
left in lower Mesopotania today |
of fhfS sntendid civilization
Zone puts to himself many ques-
tions as he gazes at these slight Vis- |
ible Vestiges of people of whom
James Baikie wrote, IN Babylonia
life in Abrahanl's time was practi |
callr, as thnrnush1Y nrRarized and