=Babylonian Influence in Palestine.= Even though the origin of the earliest Semitic culture in the Tigris-Euphrates valley may, in the light of future excavations, be traced back to Syria, there is no doubt that from the days of Hammurabi, about 1900 B.C., Babylon exerted a powerful influence upon Syria and Palestine. The frequent references in the literature that comes from the reign of Hammurabi to the Amorite merchants and immigrants show how close were the relations between the westland and the Tigris-Euphrates valley. Hammurabi, in a recently discovered inscription, also calls himself "the king of the Amurru." The Babylonian language and method of writing was used in Palestine as late as the fourteenth century B.C. by the Egyptian governors of Syria and Palestine even in communicating with the kings of Egypt. Practically all of the pre-Hebrew literature thus far discovered in the mounds of Palestine was written in Babylonian characters. These facts are irrefutable evidence of the strength and duration of the influence that the highly developed civilization of Babylon in the five centuries after Hammurabi exerted upon the West Country. =Egyptian Influence in the Cities of the Plain.= Thus far the results of the excavations in Palestine have revealed a preponderating Egyptian influence. At Gezer scarabs from the Twelfth Egyptian dynasty (between 2000 and 1788 B.C.) have been discovered. The method of burial here employed was identical with that of Egypt at the same period. The excavations at ancient Lachish and Taanach also indicate that along the coast plains and inland valleys which led from these plains, Egypt's influence was paramount. This condition is precisely what would be anticipated from the relative position of Egypt and Palestine. Two or three great open highways led around the southeastern end of the Mediterranean, binding these two countries closely together. Egypt, by virtue of its fertility and favorable physical conditions, developed a much higher and earlier civilization than did Palestine. Hence it was inevitable that these western and central cities of Palestine would sooner or later take on the complexion of the earlier civilization.