Chaldaea

Turanian, in Ancient Chaldaea.

Turanian, in Ancient Chaldaea.

Another ancient civilization that fascinates us, much like Peru, is the one that rose in the region later known as Babylonia or Chaldaea.

Chaldaea:

Chaldaea: Religion dominated life, with no undertaking begun without religious reference.

Chaldaea was eventually conquered by less advanced peoples who adopted and modified its customs.

The study of ancient civilizations like Chaldaea and Peru widens our understanding of human progress.

ANOTHER ancient civilisation which has interested us, in its way, almost as much as that of Peru, was one that arose in the part of Asia which was afterwards called Babylonia or Chaldaea.

In Chaldaea, on the other hand, the system of government was in no way exceptional; the chief factor of life there was emphatically religion, for no undertaking of any sort was ever begun without special reference to it.

In Chaldaea the faith was sterner and more mystical, and the ritual far more complicated.

In Chaldaea it was held that, in the gradual condensation of the original glowing nebula from which the system was formed, the location of the physical planets was determined by the formation of vortices at certain points of intersection of these spheres with one another and with a given plane.

From Theodoros descended the royal line of ancient Chaldaea — a line differing widely in appearance from their subjects, strong-faced, with bronzed complexion and deep-set gleaming eyes.

After a long period of splendour and prosperity this mighty Empire of Chaldaea slowly waned and decayed, until at last it was utterly destroyed by the incursion of hordes of fanatical barbarians, who holding some ruder faith and hating with true puritanical fervour all evidence of a religious feeling nobler and more beautiful than their own, destroyed every trace of the glorious temples which had been erected with such loving care for that worship of the Star-Angels which we have tried to describe.