An Ancient Mongoloid Empire in Mesopotamia

(6) Now the ancient race that we know most of is the Akkadian, whose cuneiform inscriptions were unearthed on the site of Babylon during the latter half of the nineteenth century; their decipherment has thrown a flood of light on prehistoric times. And it is generally agreed that their civilisation was in full bloom in Mesopotamia between five and six thousand years before our era; and their development of writing, literature, science, and art at that early period implies at least a thousand years of preparation for such a climax; whilst in their religion these Akkadians looked to the highlands on the north-east, "the Father of Countries," and "the abode of the gods" as the paradise to which their spirits would return. In these mountains they must have been settled as a people for at least another thousand years and mingled with the Caucasian drift from the Mediterranean; for page 42the paradise of a primitive people is the home of their fore-fathers; and the busts of these Akkadians that have been unearthed show not only the flattened face and high cheek-bones that mark the Mongol, but, long before the Semites from the south mingled with them, the wavy hair and often the full eyes of the Caucasian. They, in fact, illustrate the law of cross-breeding, that it evolves the new competitive types that ever go to produce a new advance in civilisation.