[59] Cf. Langdon, "Babyloniaca," I., pp. 225 f., 230, 284 ff., II., p. 99 f. The grounds, upon which the suggestion has been put forward, consist of a comparison between the verb "to go" in Sumerian, Greek, and Latin, an apparent resemblance in a few other roots, the existence of compound verbs in Sumerian, and the like; but quite apart from questions of general probability, the "parallelisms" noted are scarcely numerous enough, or sufficiently close, to justify the inference drawn from them. CHAPTER III THE AGE AND PRINCIPAL ACHIEVEMENTS OF SUMERIAN CIVILIZATION Considerable changes have recently taken place in our estimate of the age of Sumerian civilization, and the length of time which elapsed between the earliest remains that have been recovered and the foundation of the Babylonian monarchy. It was formerly the custom to assign very remote dates to the earlier rulers of Sumer and Akkad, and although the chronological systems in vogue necessitated enormous gaps in our knowledge of history, it was confidently assumed that these would be filled as a result of future excavation. Blank periods of a thousand years or more were treated as of little account by many writers. The hoary antiquity ascribed to the earliest rulers had in itself an attraction which outweighed the inconvenience of spreading the historical material to cover so immense a space in time. But excavation, so far from filling the gaps, has tended distinctly to reduce them, and the chronological systems of the later Assyrian and Babylonian scribes, which were formerly regarded as of primary importance, have been brought into discredit by the scribes themselves. From their own discrepancies it has been shown that the native chronologists could make mistakes in their reckoning, and a possible source of error has been disclosed in the fact that some of the early dynasties, which were formerly regarded as consecutive, were, actually, contemporaneous. Recent research on this subject has thus resulted in a considerable reduction of the early dates, and the different epochs in the history of Sumer and Akkad, which were at one time treated as isolated phenomena, have been articulated to form a consistent whole. But the tendency now is to carry the reaction rather too far, and to compress certain periods beyond the limits of the evidence. It will be well to summarize the problems at issue, and to indicate the point at which evidence gives place to conjecture.