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was divided into two halves, the Sumir (Sungir, or Shinar)
in the north-west, and the Accad in the south-east, corre¬
sponding most remarkably to the Suomi and Akkara-k, into
which the Finnic race believed itself to have been separated
in its first mountain home. Like Suomi, Sumir signified
“ (the people) of the rivers,” and just as Finnic tradition
makes Kemi a district of the Suomi, so Came was another
name of the Babylonian Sumir. The Accadai, or Accad, were
“the highlanders” who had descended from the moun¬
tainous region of Elam on the east, and it was to them
that the Assyrians ascribed the origin of Chaldean civilisa¬
tion and writing. They were, at all events, the dominant
people in Babylonia at the time to which our earliest
contemporaneous records reach back, although the Sumir,
or “ people of the home language,” as they are sometimes
termed, were named first in the royal titles out of respect
to their prior settlement in the country. A survey of the
syllabary has led to the conclusion that the first attempts
at writing were made before the Accad had descended into
the plains and exchanged papyrus as a writing material
for clay; other considerations, however, go to show that
although the system of writing may have been invented
before they had entered Babylonia, it was not completed
until after they had done so. In harmony with this, we
find Berosus ascribing the culture of “ the mixed population
of Chaldea ” to Cannes and other similar creatures from
the Persian Gulf. So far as we can judge, the civilisation
of Elam is at least coeval with that of Babylonia, and the
capture of Babylon by the Medes, with whom the historical
dynasties of Berosus are commonly supposed to begin,
must be explained by an Elamite conquest. Media was
the Accadian Mada, “the land” par excellence; and Acca-
dian tradition looked back upon the mountainous district
to the south-west of the Caspian as the cradle of their race.
Among these “ mountains of the east,” and in the land of
Nisir (the furthermost division of Gutium beyond the
Lesser Zab), rose “ the mountain of the world,” the Turanian
Olympus, on which the ark of the Chaldean Noah was
believed to have rested. From this centre Turanian tribes
spread in all directions, meeting Alarodians on the north,
and Semites on the south-west. The Aryans had not yet
penetrated across the great Sagartian desert. The numerous
tribes of Susiana, both civilised and uncivilised, spoke
languages more closely Ugrian than even that of the
Accadians ; the oldest towns of Northern Syria, where the
Semite afterwards reigned supreme, bore Accadian names,
and, as in the case of Haran, were mythologically connected
with Babylon; while the chief cities of Assyria were
founded by Accadians, were denoted by Accadian symbols,
and were ruled by Accadian princes, in strict accordance
with the statement of Genesis that out of Babylonia
“ went forth Asshur.” An Elamite conqueror of Chaldea,
like Chedorlaomer (Gen. xiv. 1), imposed his authority
not only over Shinar, but over Assyria and Gutium as well.
The earliest geographical lists know only of Nuvva, or
Elam, on the east, the Khani on the west, Martu, the land
of “ the path of the setting sun,” Subarti, or Syria, with its
four races, and Gutium, v/hich stretched across Mesopotamia
from the Euphrates on the one side to the mountains of
Media on the other. To these must be added Anzan, or
southern Elam, with its capital Susa, Dilvun, or Nituk,
on the Persian Gulf, and, at a considerably later date, the
Hittites, with their chief city Carchemish.
The first monarchs whose monumental records we possess
had their seat at Ur, on the right bank of the Euphrates.
Ur, in Accadian, signified “ the city ” par excellence, and
so bore testimony to the supremacy claimed by its rulers
over the rest of Babylonia. The great temple of the
Moon-god there was one of the oldest buildings in the
country, and its erection was due to a prince who claimed
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sovereignty over the whole of Babylonia, and adorned
Erech, Nipur, Larsa, and other cities with temples of vast
size, dedicated to the sun, to Istar, and to Bel. He seems
to have been the first great Babylonian builder; and this
would imply that it was under him that Ur rose to its
prominent position, and united the numerous principalities
of Chaldea under one head. The enormous brick struc¬
tures were cemented with bitumen in the place of lime
mortar; but the use of the buttress, of drains, and of
external ornamentation, shows that architectural knowledge
was already advanced. The cuneiform system of writing
had attained its full development, signet stones were carved
with artistic skill, and the amount of human force at the
disposal of the monarch may be estimated from the fact
that the Bowariyeh mound at Warka, on the site of the
temple of the Sun-god, is 200 feet square and 100 feet
high, so that above 30,000,000 bricks must have been
employed upon its construction. The vicinity of Ur to the
Semitic tribes of Arabia implies that the Accadian sove¬
reigns had been turning their attention in that direction,
and we find nothing surprising therefore in the Scriptural
account of Abraham's migration from this place, or the
Phoenician tradition of the original home of the Canaanitish
race on the shores of the Persian Gulf (Strab., i. 2, 35,
xvi. 3, 4, 27; Justin, xviii. 3, 2; Pliny, N. II., iv. 36).
Indeed, we have clear evidence that Semitic was spoken in
Ur itself at this remote epoch. Although the ruling caste
were Accadian, and generally wrote their inscriptions in
that language, Dungi, one of their earliest monarchs, in
spite of his Turanian name, has left us a short legend in
Semitic ; and it is more than probable that the imperial
title of “Sumir and Accad ” was soon to be assumed to mark
a linguistic as well as a geographical distinction. The brick
legends of the various viceroys who governed the cities of
Chaldea under this dynasty are all, however, in Accadian.
The supremacy of Ur had been disputed by its more ancient
rival Erech, but had finally to give way before the rise of
Nisin or Karrak, a city whose site is uncertain, and Karrak
in its turn was succeeded by Larsa. Elamite conquest
seems to have had something to do with these transferences
of the seat of power. In 2280 b.c.—the date is fixed by
an inscription of Assur-bani-paPs—Cudur-nankhundi, the
Elamite, conquered Chaldea at a time when princes with
Semitic names appear to have been already reigning there,
and Cudur-mabug not only overran “ the west,” or Pales¬
tine, but established a line of monarchs in Babylonia. His
son and successor took an Accadian name, and extended
his sway over the whole country. Twice did the Elamite
tribe of Cassi or Kossaeans furnish Chaldea with a succession
of kings. At a very early period we find one of these
Kosssean dynasties claiming homage from Syria, Gutium,
and Northern Arabia, and rededicating the images of native
Babylonian gods, which had been carried away in war, with
great splendour and expense. The other Cassite dynasty
was founded by Khammuragas, who established his capital
at Babylon, which henceforward continued to be the seat
of empire in the south. The dynasty is probably to be
identified with that called Arabian by Berosus,1 and it
was during its domination that Semitic came gradually to
supersede Accadian as the language of the country. Kham¬
muragas himself assumed a Semitic name, and a Semitic
inscription of his is now in the Louvre. A large number
of canals were constructed during his reign, more especially
the famous Nahr-Malcha, and an embankment built along
the banks of the Tigris. The king’s attention seems to
have been turned to the subject of irrigation by a flood
which overwhelmed the important city of Mullias. His
1 If so, the number of reigns to be assigned to it, as -well as its
duration, will have to be corrected, as we know of at least nineteen
kings belonging to this Cassite dynasty.
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