A history of Babylon from the foundation of the monarchy to the Persian conquest . the south. The Amurru, or Western Semites, to whose incursioninto Babylonia the rise of Babylon itself was directlydue, had long abandoned a nomadic existence, and inaddition to the higher standards of the agriculturist hadacquired a civilization which had been largely influencedby that of Babylonia. Thanks to the active policy ofexcavation, carried out during the last twenty-five yearsin Palestine, we are enabled to reconstruct the con-ditions of life which prevailed in that country from a 124 HISTORY OF BABYLO
A history of Babylon from the foundation of the monarchy to the Persian conquest . the south. The Amurru, or Western Semites, to whose incursioninto Babylonia the rise of Babylon itself was directlydue, had long abandoned a nomadic existence, and inaddition to the higher standards of the agriculturist hadacquired a civilization which had been largely influencedby that of Babylonia. Thanks to the active policy ofexcavation, carried out during the last twenty-five yearsin Palestine, we are enabled to reconstruct the con-ditions of life which prevailed in that country from a 124 HISTORY OF BABYLON \ery early period. It is, in fact, now possible to tracethe successive stages of Canaanite civilization back toneolithic times. Rude flint implements of the palaeo-lithic or Older Stone Age have also been found on thesurface of the plains of Palestine, where they had lainsince the close of the glacial epoch. But at that timethe climate and character of the Mediterranean landswere very different to their present condition; and agreat break of unknown length then occurs in the. Fig. op the seventh century From a sculpture of the reign of Ashur-bani-pal in the Nineveh Gallery of theBritish Museum. cultural sequence, which separates that prim£eval periodfrom the neolithic or Later Stone Age. It is to thissecond era that we may trace the real beginnings ofCanaanite civilization. For, from that time onwards,there is no break in the continuity of culture, and eachage was the direct heir of that which preceded it. The neolithic inhabitants of Canaan, whose imple-ments of worked and polished stone mark a great THE WESTERN SEMITES 125 advance upon the rough flints of their remote prede-cessors, belonged to the short, dark-skinned race whichspread itself over the shores of the in rude huts, they employed for householduse rough vessels of kneaded clay which they fashionedby hand and baked in the fire. They lived chiefly bythe cattle and flocks they h
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