CHAPTER XVI

REGION OF THE GREAT RIVERS

THE district between the Black and Caspian Seas on the north and the desert of Arabia on the south has been the scene of countless changes of government and ceaseless migration, to and fro, of the tribes of Asia and the conquering heroes of Europe. Every new influence that has swept over this stretch. of country has materially marked its art, and never more absolutely than now was knowledge of the treasures of the past obtainable. Excavations and explorations are confirming the speculations of men of science. and are indisputably establishing facts. The geographical boundaries of this region are so distinct that with them we may easily frame each successive picture in the great world panorama that has there been unrolled. South of Lakes Van and Urumiah, and between them and the river Euphrates, the most important of western Asian civilizations lie buried. The great monarchies of Assyria, Mesopotamia, and Babylonia were parents of the numberless and intricate designs which we find handed down from the earliest. times to the present, and from this centre art-motifs spread in every direction. One might study the region of the great rivers, and through each change in the world of events locate the Powers as they rose and

fell for within the boundaries of the Euphrates and Tigris and Lake Van and Urumiah the past lies awaiting recognition. As the Turkish empire includes this section of country at the present time, we must claim the district as Turkish in our classification. Both ancient and modern names are used in present-day nomenclature, and often, to prevent confusion in our study, these main geographical boundaries should in turn be filled in on the map with the names given during successive periods. It holds to reason that the geometric art of the weavers of the Caucasus must have been the result of great thought and not of haphazard design. To the ancient Chaldeans and magicians who sought to account for the past and prophecy regarding the future, we owe a vast number of signs and forms which we now term "geometric," but which originally were probably symbolic, and these claims of past civilization should be recognized and established as pre-Mohammedan.

The primitive peoples who occupied the fertile valleys of the great rivers were worshippers of the heavenly bodies, and their skill in astronomy and astrology is too well known to admit of dispute. Their cuneiform characters, cut into signets and pressed into bricks, may be examined to-day, and to their symbolic characters many modern patterns are traced. Eastward, westward, and northward the evidences of the thought-life of these ancient peoples were scattered, even before the advance of Mohammedism, which, under penalty of the sword, gave the choice between submission and death. In the early weavings the most significant designs were wrought,