THE PATRIARCHAL PERIOD
in the region. While it does not appear that Isaac lived at any time either in Syria or in Egypt, yet during most of his life all the members of his nearest family; father, mother, wife, son, and son's wives had had from one to three score years' life in the mother country, and he and his wife held themselves aloof from the natives, associating themselves in thought with that land. Moreover it appears that they owned land both at Shechem and Hebron - held from generation to generation and implying (under the circumstances) probably tablet records.
Whether there were public records in this region at this time is another matter, but it would seem that the whole region during the whole period was under the influence of the Babylonian civilization. It was freely traversed by trading caravans, and the Hittite and Mesopotamian records extend a least a little back into
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