We look in vain for the beginnings of civilised life.

Even the pictures out of which the written systems of the ancient East were developed belong to a past of which we have but glimpses.

Of savagery or barbarism on the banks of the lower Euphrates there is not a trace.

So far as our materials enable us to judge, civilised man existed from the beginning in "the land of Shinar." The great temples of Babylonia were already erected, the overflow of the rivers controlled, and written characters imprinted on tablets of clay.

Civilisation seems to spring up suddenly out of a night of darkness, like Athena from the head of Zeus.
This is one of the chief lessons that have been taught us by Oriental archaeology.