'Handbook of Mesopotamia. Vol. I. 1918' [‎70] (79/568)

70
HISTOEY
Ionian weights, measures, and currency, astronomy, divisions of
time, and banking system profoundly influenced the successors of
Babylonia in culture and civilization.
In Babylonia a vast alluvial plain with a soil of^ astonishing
fertility and an abundant supply of water for irrigation favoured
the creation of a wealthy and populous agricultural and industrial
community. Here too, where main routes of international com
munication crossed each other, commerce flourished, and the Baby
lonian kingdom showed many of the qualities of a commercial state,
for example, a preference for the employment of diplomacy rather
than of force. Assyria on the other hand was and ever remained
a purely military community, relying on violence, and subject to a
sudden and total collapse when violence failed.
The very earliest records show lower Irak in the^ possession of
a non-Semitic people already in a high state of civilization. They
seem to have come from central Asia originally. In their final home
between the Tigris, the Euphrates, and the sea they must have spent
thousands of years before they had reached the point of having
introduced an elaborate system of canalization ; industries had made
much progress; they had invented cuneiform writing and had evolved
an elaborate religious system and ritual; they lived in cities around
which the population was grouped in a series of small city-states
independent of and warring with each other ; complicated laws and
customs, which had been reduced to writing, regulated social and
commercial relations and transactions. It is impossible to be sure
of the origin of this comparatively advanced civilization ; only one
thing is certain, that before 3000 b.c. it was in full vigour and
flourishing. Sumer, as this country was called, and its inhabitants,
the Sumerians, were defended from aggression to the south by the
lagoons and marshes then existing at the head of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. ,
and to the east by the mountains of the Persian plateau, which
formed an effective barrier to the irruption of less civilized races.
These moreover had first to penetrate the territory of Elam, an
ancient and highly civilized power which acted as a buffer on the
eastern flank of Sumer; and, although Elam was rarely friendly to
the Sumerians, it saved them from worse neighbours. On its other
sides Sumer was indeed open to attack; but it must always have
been in contact with the peoples of Arabia—the Semites. The
Arabian Desert has been described as one of the earth's great
reservoirs of men. At various dates, in prehistoric times, its over
flow must have found its way directly into the Euphrates valley,
while other movements, advancing via Palestine and Syria, acquired
some civilization and agricultural habits on the road, and moved