Man, Past and Present Part 55

[1127] _The Ancient Egyptians_, 1911, pp. 56, 58, 62.

[1128] _The Ancient Egyptians_, 1911, pp. 104-5.

[1129] G. Elliot Smith, _loc. cit._ pp. 97 and 147.

[1130] E. Meyer, _Geschichte des Altertums_, I. 2, 1909, ---- 229, 232, 253.

[1131] G. Elliot Smith, _The Ancient Egyptians_, 1911, p. 108, but for a different interpretation see J. L. Myres, _The Dawn of History_, 1911 pp. 51 and 65.

[1132] _Loc. cit._ p. 147.

[1133] H. R. Hall (_The Ancient History of the Near East_, 1913, p. 87 _n._ 3) sees "no resemblance whatever between the facial traits of the Memphite grandees of the Old Kingdom and those of Hitt.i.tes, Syrians, or modern Anatolians, Armenians or Kurds. They were much more like South Europeans, like modern Italians or Cretans."

[1134] Cf. H. H. Johnston, "A Survey of the Ethnography of Africa,"

_Journ. Roy. Anthr. Soc._ XLIII. 1913, p. 383, and also E. Naville, "The Origin of Egyptian Civilisation," _Journ. Roy. Anthr. Inst._ x.x.xVII.

1907, p. 210.

[1135] G. A. Reisner, "The Early Dynastic Cemeteries of Naga-ed-Der,"

Part 1. Vol. II. of _University of California Publications_, 1908, summarised by L. W. King, _History of Sumer and Akkad_, 1910, pp. 326, 334.

[1136] _Geschichte des Altertums_, I. 2, 1909, p. 156.

[1137] _Journ. Anthr. Inst._ x.x.xIII. 1903, x.x.xV. 1905, x.x.xVI. 1906, and _Journ. Roy. Anthr. Inst._ x.x.xVIII. 1908.

[1138] Cf. H. H. Johnston, "A Survey of the Ethnography of Africa,"

_Journ. Roy. Anthr. Inst._ XLIII. 1913, p. 382.

[1139] No physical affinity is suggested. The Lesghian tribes "betray an accentuated brachycephaly, equal to that of the pure Mongols about the Caspians." W. Z. Ripley, _The Races of Europe_, p. 440.

[1140] J. Deniker, _The Races of Man_, 1900, p. 439, places the Fulahs in a separate group, the Fulah-Zandeh group. Cf. also A. C. Haddon, _The Wanderings of Peoples_, 1911, p. 59.

[1141] _Loc. cit._ p. 401 _n._

[1142] _Africa_, 1897, _pa.s.sim_.

[1143] "Some Aspects of the Hamitic Problem in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan," _Journ. Roy. Anthr. Inst._ XLIII. 1913, p. 604. See also C.

Crossland, _Desert and Water Gardens of the Red Sea_, 1913.

[1144] _Genealogies of the Somal_, 1896.

[1145] "Reisestudien in den Somalilandern," _Globus_, LXX. p. 33 sq.

[1146] _Ethnographie Nord-Ost-Afrikas: Die geistige Kultur der Danakil, Galla u. Somal_, 1896, 2 vols.

[1147] M. Merker, _Die Masai_, 1904; A. C. Hollis, _The Masai, their Language and Folklore_, 1905. C. Dundas, "The Organization and Laws of some Bantu Tribes in East Africa," _Journ. Roy. Anthr. Inst._ XLV. 1915, pp. 236-7, thinks that the power of the Masai was over-rated, and that the Galla were really a fiercer race. He quotes Krapf, "Give me the Galla and I have Central Africa." The _Nandi_ (an allied tribe) are described by A. C. Hollis, 1909, and _The Suk_ by M. W. H. Beech, 1911.

[1148] A. E. W. Gleichen, _Rennell Rodd's Mission to Menelik_, 1897.

[1149] Among recent works on Abyssinia may be mentioned A. B. Wylde, _Modern Abyssinia_, 1901; H. Weld Blundell, "A Journey through Abyssinia," _Geog. Journ._ XV. 1900, and "Exploration in the Abai Basin," _ib._ XXVII. 1906; the _Anthropological Survey of Abyssinia_ published by the French Government in 1911; and various publications of the Princeton University Expedition to Abyssinia, edited by E. Littmann.

CHAPTER XIV

THE CAUCASIC PEOPLES (_continued_)

THE SEMITES--Cradle, Origins, and Migrations--Divisions: Semitic Migrations--Babylonia, People and Civilisation--a.s.syria, People and Civilisation--Syria and Palestine--_Canaanites_: _Amorites_: _Phoenicians_--_The Jews_--Origins--Early and Later Dispersions-- Diverse Physical Types--Present Range and Population-- THE HITt.i.tES--Conflicting Theories--_The Arabs_--Spread of the Arab Race and Language--Semitic Monotheism--Its Evolution.

The Himyaritic immigrants, who still hold sway in a foreign land, have long ceased to exist as a distinct nationality in their own country, where they had nevertheless ages ago founded flouris.h.i.+ng empires, centres of one of the very oldest civilisations of which there is any record. Should future research confirm the now generally received view that Hamites and Semites are fundamentally of one stock, a view based both on physical and linguistic data[1150], the cradle of the Semitic branch will also probably be traced to South Arabia, and more particularly to that south-western region known to the ancients as Arabia Felix, _i.e._ the Yemen of the Arabs. While Asia and Africa were still partly separated in the north by a broad marine inlet before the formation of the Nile delta, easy communication was afforded between the two continents farther south at the head of the Gulf of Aden, where they are still almost contiguous. By this route the primitive Hamito-Semitic populations may have moved either westwards into Africa, or, as has also been suggested, eastwards into Asia, where in the course of ages the Semitic type became specialised.

On this a.s.sumption South Arabia would necessarily be the first home of the Semites, who in later times spread thence north and east. They appear as _Babylonians_ and _a.s.syrians_ in Mesopotamia; as _Phoenicians_ on the Syrian coast; as _Arabs_ on the Nejd steppe; as _Canaanites_, _Moabites_ and others in and about Palestine; as _Amorites_ (_Aramaeans, Syrians_) in Syria and Asia Minor.

This is the common view of Semitic origins and early migrations, but as practically no systematic excavations have been possible in Arabia, owing to political conditions and the att.i.tude of the inhabitants, definite archaeological or anthropological proofs are still lacking. The hypothesis would, however, seem to harmonise well with all the known conditions. In the first place is to be considered the very narrow area occupied by the Semites, both absolutely and relatively to the domains of the other fundamental ethnical groups. While the Mongols are found in possession of the greater part of Asia, and the Hamites with the Mediterraneans are diffused over the whole of North Africa, South and West Europe since the Stone Ages, the Semites, excluding later expansions--Himyarites to Abyssinia, Phoenicians to the sh.o.r.es of the Mediterranean, Moslem Arabs to Africa, Irania, and Transoxiana--have always been confined to the south-west corner of Asia, comprising very little more than the Arabian Peninsula, Mesopotamia, Syria, and (doubtfully) parts of Asia Minor. Moreover the whole mental outlook of the Semites, their mode of thought, their religion and organisation, indicate their derivation from a desert people; while in Arabia are found at the present time the purest examples not only of Semitic type, but also of Semitic speech[1151]. Their early history, however, as pointed out above, still awaits the spade of the archaeologist, and the earliest migrations that can be definitely traced are in the form of invasions of already established states[1152].

The first great wave of Semitic migration from Arabia is placed in the fourth millennium B.C., 3500 to 2500 or earlier; it affected Babylonia and probably Syria and Palestine, judging from the Palestinian place-names belonging to this "Babylonian-Semitic" period, and the close connection between Palestine and Babylonia in culture and in religious ideas, indicating prehistoric relations.h.i.+p[1153]. A second wave, Winckler's Canaanitic or Amoritic migration, followed in the third millennium, covering Babylonia, laying the foundations of the a.s.syrian Empire, invading Syria and Palestine (Phoenicians, Amorites) and possibly later Egypt (_Hyksos_). A third wave, the Aramaean, which spread over Babylonia, Mesopotamia and Syria in the second millennium, was preceded by the swarming into Syria from the desert of the Khabiri (Habiru) or Hebrews (Edomites, Moabites, Ammonites and Israelites among others). From the same area the Suti pressed into Babylonia about 1100, followed by another branch, the Chaldeans from Eastern Arabia.

These are but a few of the earlier waves of migration from the south of which traces can be detected in Western Asia. Of all invasions from the north, that of the Hitt.i.tes is the most important and the most confusing. The Hitt.i.tes appear to have moved south from Cappadocia about 2000 B.C., and they are found warring against Babylonia in the eighteenth century. A Hitt.i.te dynasty flourished at Mittanni 1420-1411 and in the fourteenth and thirteenth centuries they conquered and largely occupied Syria[1154]. Invasions of Phrygians and Philistines from the west followed the breaking up of the Hitt.i.te Empire. The last great Semitic migration was the most widespread of all. "It issued, like its predecessors, along the whole margin of the desert, and in the course of a century had flooded not only Syria and Egypt, but all North Africa and Spain; it had occupied Sicily, raided Constance, and in France was only checked at Poitiers in 732. Eastward it flooded Persia, founded an empire in India, and carried war and commerce by sea past Singapore[1155]."

"Thus Western Asia has been swept times and again, almost without number, by conquering hordes and the no less severe ethnical disturbances of peaceful infiltrations converging from every point of the compa.s.s in turn.... How, then, is it possible to learn anything today from the contents of this cauldron, filled with such an a.s.sortment of ingredients and still seething from the effects of the disturbance incidental to the harsh mixing of such incompatible elements[1156]?"

Some of the problems must for the present be regarded as insoluble, but with the evidence provided by archaeologists and anthropologists an attempt may be made to read the ethnological history in these obscure regions.

The earliest Semitic wave was traceable in Babylonia, but, as seen above, opinions differ as to its origin and date. "At what period the Semites first invaded Babylonia, when and where they first attained supremacy, are not yet matters of history. We find Semites in the land and in possession of considerable power almost as early as we can go back[1157]." The characteristic Semitic features are clearly marked, and the language is closely connected with Canaanitic and a.s.syrian[1158].

From the monuments we learn that the Babylonian Semites had full beards and wore their hair long, contrasting sharply with the shaven Sumerians, and thus gaining the epithet "the black-headed ones." In nose and lips, as in dress, they are clearly distinct from the Sumerian type[1159].

When history commences, the inhabitants of Babylonia were already highly civilised. They lived in towns, containing great temples, and were organised in distinct cla.s.ses or occupations, and possessed much wealth in sheep and cattle, manufactured goods, gold, silver and copper.

Engraving on metals and precious stones, statuary, architecture, pottery, weaving and embroidery, all show a high level of workmans.h.i.+p.

They possessed an elaborate and efficient system of writing, extensively used and widely understood, consisting of a number of signs, obviously descended from a form of picture writing, but conventionalised to an extent that usually precludes the recognition of the original pictures.

This writing was made by the impression of a stylus on blocks or cakes of fine clay while still quite soft. These "tablets" were sun-dried, but occasionally baked hard. This cuneiform writing was adopted by, or was common to, many neighbouring nations, being freely used in Elam, Armenia and Northern Mesopotamia as far as Cappadocia.

a.s.syrian culture was founded upon that of Babylonia, but the a.s.syrians appear to have differed from the Babylonians in character, though not in physical type[1160], while they were closely related in speech. "The a.s.syrians differed markedly from the Babylonians in national character.

They were more robust, warlike, fierce, than the mild industrial people of the south. It is doubtful if they were much devoted to agriculture or distinguished for manufactures, arts and crafts. They were essentially a military folk. The king was a despot at home, but the general of the army abroad. The whole organisation of the state was for war. The agriculture was left to serfs or slaves. The manufactures, weaving at any rate, were done by women. The guilds of workmen were probably foreigners, as the merchants mostly were. The great temples and palaces, walls and moats, were constructed by captives.... For the greater part of its existence a.s.syria was the scourge of the nations and sucked the blood of other races. It lived on the tribute of subject states, and conquest ever meant added tribute in all necessaries and luxuries of life, beside an annual demand for men and horses, cattle and sheep, grain and wool to supply the needs of the army and the city[1161]."

The early history of Syria and Palestine is by no means clear, although much light has been shed in recent years by the excavations of R. A. S.

Macalister at Gezer[1162], where remains were found of a pre-Semitic race, of Ernst Sellin at Tell Ta'anek and Jericho[1163], and the labours of the _Deutscher Palastina-Verein_ and especially G. Schumacher at Megiddo[1164]. Caves apparently occupied by man in the Neolithic period were discovered at Gezer, and are dated at about 3500 to 3000 B.C. from their position below layers in which Egyptian scarabs appear. Fragments of bones give indications of the physical type. None of the individuals exceeded 5 ft. 7 inches (1.702 m.) in height, and most were under 5 ft.

4 inches (1.626 m.). They were muscular, with elongated crania and thick heavy skull-bones. From their physical characters it could be clearly seen that they did not belong to the Semitic race. They burned their dead, a non-Semitic custom, a cave being fitted up as a crematorium, with a chimney cut up through the solid rock to secure a good draught[1165].

The first great influx of Semitic nomads is conjectured to have reached Babylonia, not from the south, but from the north-west, after traversing the Syrian coast lands. They left colonists behind them in this region, who afterwards as the Amurru (Amorites) pressed on in their turn into Babylonia and established the earliest independent dynasty in Babylon[1166].

The second great wave of Semitic migration appears to have included the Phoenicians[1167], so called by the Greeks, though they called themselves Canaanites and their land Canaan[1168], and are referred to in the Old Testament, as in inscriptions at Tyre, as "Sidonians." They themselves had a tradition that their early home was on the Persian Gulf, a view held by Theodore Bent and others[1169], and recent discoveries emphasise the close cultural (not necessarily racial) connection between Palestine and Babylonia[1170].

The weakening of Egyptian hold upon Palestine about the fourteenth century B.C. encouraged incursions of restless Habiru (Habiri) from the Syrian deserts, commonly identified with the Hebrews, and invasions of Hitt.i.tes from the north. In the thirteenth century Egypt recovered Palestine, leaving the Hitt.i.tes in possession of Syria. About this time the coast was invaded by Levantines, including the Purasati, in whom may perhaps be recognised the Philistines, who gave their name to Palestine[1171].

With the Hebrew or Israelitish inhabitants of south Syria (Canaan, Palestine, "Land of Promise") we are here concerned only in so far as they form a distinct branch of the Semitic family. The term "Jews[1172]," properly indicating the children of Judah, fourth son of Jacob, has long been applied generally to the whole people, who since the disappearance of the ten northern tribes have been mainly represented by the tribe of Judah, a remnant of Benjamin and a few Levites, _i.e._ the section of the nation which to the number of some 50,000 returned to south Palestine (kingdom of Judaea) after the Babylonian captivity. These were doubtless later joined by some of the dispersed northern tribes, who from Jacob's alternative name were commonly called the "ten tribes of Israel." But all such Israelites had lost their separate nationality, and were consequently absorbed in the royal tribe of Judah. Since the suppression of the various revolts under the Empire, the Judaei themselves have been a dispersed nationality, and even before those events numerous settlements had been made in different parts of the Greek and Roman worlds, as far west as Tripolitana, and also in Arabia and Abyssinia.

But most of the present communities probably descend from those of the great dispersion after the fall of Jerusalem (70 A.D.), increased by considerable accessions of converted "Gentiles," for the a.s.sumption that they have made few or no converts is no longer tenable. In exile they have been far more a religious body than a broken nation, and as such they could not fail under favourable conditions to spread their teachings, not only amongst their Christian slaves, but also amongst peoples, such as the Abyssinian Falashas, of lower culture than themselves. In pre-Muhammadan times many Arabs of Yemen and other districts had conformed, and some of their Jewish kings (Asad Abu-Karib, Dhu Nowas, and others) are still remembered. About the seventh century all the Khazars--a renowned Turki people of the Volga, the Crimea, and the Caspian--accepted Judaism, though they later conformed to Russian orthodoxy. The Visigoth persecution of the Spanish Jews (fifth and sixth centuries) was largely due to their proselytising zeal, against which, as well as against Jewish and Christian mixed marriages, numerous papal decrees were issued in medieval times.

To this process of miscegenation is attributed the great variety of physical features observed amongst the Jews of different countries[1173], while the distinctly red type cropping out almost everywhere has been traced by Sayce and others to primordial interminglings with the Amorites ("Red People"). "Uniformity only exists in the books and not in reality. There are Jews with light and with dark eyes, Jews with straight and with curly hair, Jews with high and narrow and Jews with short and broad, noses; their cephalic index oscillates between 65 and 98--as far as this index ever oscillates in the _genus h.o.m.o_[1174]!" Nevertheless certain marked characteristics--large hooked nose, prominent watery eyes, thick pendulous and almost everted under lip, rough frizzly l.u.s.treless hair--are sufficiently general to be regarded as racial traits.