Little doubt need remain that the Arabians during their sojourn in
Palestine and Syria met with distinctive types, and if not with pure
Armenoids, at any rate with peoples having Armenoid traits. The
consequent multiplication of tribes, and the gradual pressure
exercised by the constant stream of immigrants from Arabia and Asia
Minor, must have kept this part of Western Asia in a constant state of
unrest. Fresh migrations of the surplus stock were evidently propelled
towards Egypt in one direction, and the valleys of the Tigris and
Euphrates in another. The Semites of Akkad were probably the
conquerors of the more highly civilized Sumerians, who must have
previously occupied that area. It is possible that they owed their
success to the possession of superior weapons. Professor Elliot Smith
suggests in this connection that the Arabians had become familiar with
the use of copper as a result of contact with the Egyptians in Sinai.
There is no evidence, however, that the Sumerians were attacked before
they had begun to make metal weapons. It is more probable that the
invading nomads had superior military organization and considerable
experience in waging war against detached tribal units. They may have
also found some of the northern Sumerian city states at war with one
another and taken advantage of their unpreparedness to resist a common
enemy. The rough Dorians who overran Greece and the fierce Goths who
shattered the power of Rome were similarly in a lower state of
civilization than the peoples whom they subdued.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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