The foundations of ancient Chaldea, were laid as early as those of Egypt. In fact they were the sister colonies of a parent state. The earliest civilized inhabitants were Sumerians. 5000 B. C. the land was full of city-states. The Sanskrit books of India, called Chaldea one of the divisions of Cusha-Dwipa, the first organized government of the world. These Sumerians were the inventors of the cuneiform system of writing, which was later adopted by their Semitic conquerors. In the later days their language was still cultivated in the ritualistic services until the time. of Alexander the Great. It is thought that this civilization originated from southern Susiana. The pictorial hieroglyphics which made the cuneiform characters were probably invented in Elam. In Babylonia however this culture underwent a rapid development. The northern division of Babylon was called Accad, comprehending Babylon, the southern Sumer, including Erech and Ur. North of Accad were the Semitic tribes which so largely made up the blood of Assyria in later days. The Babylonians were further mixed by Elamite and Cassite conquests. What was the original race of these Sumerians, Cassites and Elamites? Recent explorations upon genealogy of antiquity shows that these heroes, Bel, Gilgamesh, Melcarth, Hercules, belonged to a common race. Belus (Nimrod), king of Chaldea serves to unite the Chaldeans with the Old Race of the Upper Nile, as does their building the temple of Anu, archaeological and philological research prove those records true. Rawlinson mentions a Cushite inscription found in Susiana, in which there is a date going back nearly to the year 3200 B. C. The language of later Babylon was Semitic but that of the earlier Chaldean monarchy was different, as can be proved by the inscriptions upon the ruins. They are distinctly Hamitic and like the Himyaritic of Southern Arabia. All the earliest traditions of Chaldea center about Belus or Nimrod. We know that Nimrod was the son of Cush. Babylon had two elements in her population in the beginning. The northern Accadians and the southern Sumerians were both Cushites. The finds of recent explorations in the Mesopotamian valley reveal that these ancient inhabitants were black, with the cranial formation of Ethiopians. On linguistic grounds a relationship with Turanians proves untenable. The Turanian is one of the oldest races of the world. Some historians attempt to suggest that Noah might have had other sons after the deluge. We do not have to introduce other races to understand the Turanian family. They were an important branch of the Japhetic race just as Cush became Indisputable proofs of the extreme antiquity of Chaldea have been unearthed. These evidences show that under the oldest cities lie the successive foundations of still older cities, seemingly stretching back into the antediluvian world. This receding forehead, broad thick nose and crisp hair of Africa. These were the native inhabitants of Susiana as well as Babylon. These were the lineaments of the inhabitants of the Upper Nile--the Old Race of Egypt. Berosus, the Manetho of Babylon, who flourished at the time of Alexander's conquests, a priest of Bel, translated the records and astronomy of his nation into Greek. His works have unfortunately perished; but we have quotations of his in other authentic writings. His history of the deluge is almost identical with the one of the cuneiform tablets. Berosus wrote a history of the Chaldeans in nine books. He gave the oldest traditions of The human race. We do not possess his works, only fragments remain in the writings of the Greek, Hebrew and Roman fathers. Chaldea could not have been Semitic for there was difference in race between Assyria and Babylonia. The northern country in later times must have been overrun and conquered by the restless tribes of Semitic Arabians that in still later days formed the Saracenic conquest. By the time of the latter Babylonian empire, Assyria had become predominantly Semitic. Diodorus Siculus spoke of Chaldea and Assyria as two separate and hostile nations distinct in every way in early times. Pliny draws a clear line between them. Classical traditions connect the primitive inhabitants of Assyria, Chaldea and Susiana, with Ethiopia. Æschylus and Herodotus regarded the Ethiopian king Memnon as the founder of Susa. At the same time he was claimed by the Ethiopians of the Upper Nile as their sovereign. Egypt claimed Pharaoh under the name of him as her ruling Pharaoh under the name of Amenhotep III, the Amenophis of the Greeks. His statute was known in Egypt as the Vocal Memnon. He perished at the Siege of Troy, after greatly distinguishing himself. Sometimes the expedition, that he led to the defense of the Trojan city is thought to have proceeded by way of Egypt from Ethiopia in Africa. There were palaces called Memnon at Susa and in Egypt. There were tribes called Memnon at Meroe. This common name thus unites me eastern and western existence and perhaps the longest. As early as 4500 B. C. kings reigned there. Sargon of Agade flourished about 3800 B. C. He was the head of one of the Cushite-Arabian waves of conquest. He was one of the greatest in the long line of Babylonian monarchs. More than once he attacked Elam successfully. His empire extended from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean. He founded the city of Babylon. His kingdom was but a portion of the ancient realm of the Cushites, now broken into segments of which the Ægean, Egyptian, Ethiopian, Babylonian and Hindu nations were the parts of what in earlier ages had been a common empire. The legends about Sargon told of his winning the favor of Isthar (Isis) common to the worship of all these nations. The next great name in the line of monarchs is Hammurabi, who reigned about 2500 B. C. and was contemporary with Abraham. He expelled the Elamites from Babylonian soil and in reward was acknowledged king of all Babylonia. Gibbon calls him more than conqueror. He was a consummate statesman as well. He organized his kingdom upon so sure a foundation that his work endured for nearly two thousand years. Hammurabi showed all the traits of Cushite genius. He cleaned out and cut out new canals and brought the system of irrigation to a high degree of efficiency. He built great embankments besieged Jerusalem it was the army of the Let us look at the country directly north of Babylonia. Assyria until late ages was simply a province of Babylonia, and another proof that all these possessions were Cushite lay in the fact that all these northern towns had Accadian names. Accad was one of the primitive divisions under Nimrod. Many authorities translate Genesis X, 2, to read, "Out of that land, he (Nimrod) went forth into Assur or Assyria, and builded Nineveh." This is the proper translation of the passage and not that "Asher went forth and builded Ninevah," the connection is broken and destroyed by the latter mode of rendering. Asher a son of Shem being inserted among the descendants of Ham, and an event of his history narrated before his birth, first mentioned in verse 22. Mic. V, 6, calls Assyria, the land of Nimrod. Diod. Sic. II, 1., calls the founder of the kingdom Ninus.
engines of war and in the organizing, equipping and training of armies. About 1300 B. C. we find Tig-lath-Adar signing himself as the conqueror of Babylon. Another king was Bel-Kudur, his line was unbroken until 1070.B. C. He carried on destructive wars against Babylon. 1000 B. C, they had extended themselves into Syria, this was in the time of David and Solomon. The armies of Tiglath Pileser I, 1130 B. C. had swept eastward and westward. He conquered many nations just emerging from barbarism. We find him restoring the temple of Anu out of the spoils of conquest. His relations with Babylon were at first friendly. Finally the southern country was invaded. He met feeble resistance but returning they were pursued by Merodach Iddin, the gods of Ashur were captured and carried to Babylon where they remained for four hundred years. Up to the year 889 B. C. there was a break in the records. 883 there was a renewal besieging his town, in leading him captive from the battle, or in warding off his thrusts and blows, were produced in inexhaustible stores. In their architectural skill and mechanical genius we see the old Cushite race, it was not from the Arab in these early ages of Semitic strain to whom we can look for any development. The Saracen of a thousand years later was still a rude wanderer, saving as here in the Mesopotamian lands he had intermingled with the original inhabitants of Assyria; and when the Saracen made his sweeping conquests westward it was only to carry the precious seeds of the civilization of India, Babylonia and Egypt. Their leaders and teachers were the Cushite Arabians of the Hamitic race. India has not perished, she has the records proving these things to be true. We must decide that Semitic infusion helped Assyria to be a race of military pursuits. The pursuits. The men of the north were hook-nosed, larger framed, and delighted in blood and gore. Like the later Saracens they were perfect fighting machines. The ancient historian tells us that they transported and dispersed conquered nations with unimaginable sufferings. Frightful tortures were their deliberate policy. They exulted in transcribing the details of their fiendish deeds of cruelty. In the Chaldean we see the statute of the Ægean races and their genius. The southern race was shrewd, earnest. industrious, creative and humane. The Assyrian and Babylonian empires at their zenith represented all the difference of distinctive races. The rule of Assyria though extended, was very short compared to the length of the Cushite empire. Her strength was wasted by constant wars. She had waged most of them to crush her commercial rivals. After twenty years of subjection Egypt broke away. Twenty more and Babylon followed. Assyrian conquests were but an orgy of frightfulness, where they flayed alive, buried alive in living pyramids, others they impaled on stakes. They utterly destroyed rich cities, depopulated vast districts, in contrast to the Babylonians who spread the arts of civilization to prosperous and widely extended colonies.THE STRANGE RACES OF CHALDEA.
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