=The Semitic Invasions From the Desert.= Situated, as was Canaan, on the borders of the desert, it was practically inevitable that in time great waves of nomadic invaders would sweep in through the broad valleys and down the coast plains. In the light of the excavations at Gezer and the testimony of the Egyptian inscriptions, this was precisely what occurred somewhere between 2500 and 2000 B.C. Undoubtedly the Semites had begun to find their way to Palestine before this period, but it is clear in the light of recent discoveries that this great movement from the desert toward the eastern shores of the Mediterranean antedated by several centuries another similar movement eastward, which carried from Syria or northern Arabia to Babylon the founders of its first dynasty. In the light of the latest discoveries, the rule of this dynasty must be dated between 2100 and 1700 B.C. The excavations at Gezer reveal the presence there at this period of a Semitic race from five feet seven inches to five feet eleven inches in height, sturdier than the preceding aborigines and possessed of relatively high civilization. The city was surrounded by a wall about ten feet thick, made of large hammer-trimmed stones, and guarded by towers at intervals of ninety feet. The approach on the south was through a huge gateway nine feet wide, forty-two feet long, and flanked by two towers, which were faced by sunburnt bricks. Bronze and copper implements are found and there are abundant evidences of an advanced culture. =Influence of the Early Amorite Civilization Upon Babylon.= The recent work entitled _Amurru_, by Professor Clay of Yale, has raised anew the question of what was the centre of the oldest Semitic civilization. The attempt made by certain scholars to prove the Babylonian origin of all that is distinctive in the civilization, traditions, and religion of the early Semitic nations including Israel is extreme. The evidence adduced by Professor Clay to prove that in the earliest period Syria influenced Babylonia more than the Tigris-Euphrates valley influenced the westland is cumulative. Many of the familiar Babylonian traditions bear marks that suggest a western origin. Over one-tenth of the names in the large literature that comes from the reign of Hammurabi, the great king of the First Babylonian dynasty, are Amorite or western Semitic. The names and attributes of most of the Babylonian gods are best explained on the basis of a western origin. The Babylonian custom of rearing ziggurats or high places for their deities, even on the level plains of Babylonia, seems to reflect the western custom of worshipping the gods on the high places. Furthermore, Syria is pre-eminently the home of the sun worship that was especially prominent in the Babylonian cults.