[Footnote 186: It maybe noted that this fully corroborates the statement of Herodotus (I., 180) that the streets of Babylon were straight, particularly those that ran at right angles and led to the river. As little more than the foundations of the houses are preserved, it is not possible to control his further statement that the houses were three or four stories high.] CHAPTER III THE DYNASTIES OF BABYLON: THE CHRONOLOGICAL SCHEME IN THE LIGHT OF RECENT DISCOVERIES It has often been said that chronology is the skeleton of history; and it will be obvious that any flaw in the chronological scheme must react upon our conception of the sequence and inter-relation of events. Perhaps the most serious defect from which Babylonian chronology has suffered hitherto has been the complete absence of any established point of contact between the Babylonian dynasties and those earlier lines of rulers who exercised authority in cities other than Babylon. On the one hand, with the help of the Babylonian List of Kings, we could build up from below a scheme of the rulers of Babylon itself. On the other hand, after the discovery of the Nippur Kings' List, it was possible to establish the succession of the earlier dynasties of Ur and Nîsin, and to conjecture their relation to the still more remote rulers of Akkad and other cities in the north and south. The two halves of the skeleton were each articulated satisfactorily enough, but the few bones were wanting which should enable us to fit them together. It is scarcely necessary to say that there was no lack of theories for filling in the gap. But every one of the schemes suggested introduced fresh difficulties of its own; and to writers of a more cautious temperament it seemed preferable to avoid a detailed chronology for those earlier ages. Approximate dates only were suggested, for, in spite of the obvious temptations presented by the Nippur List, it was realized that any attempt to work out the earlier dates in detail was bound to be misleading. Such writers were content to await the recovery of new material and meanwhile to think in periods.[1]