Science progress* 



No. 29. July, 1896. Vol. V. 



PREHISTORIC MAN IN THE EASTERN 

 MEDITERRANEAN. 



THE purpose of these notes is to summarise the results 

 of recent research among the prehistoric peoples and 

 civilisation of the Eastern Mediterranean ; especially in so 

 far as these prepare the environment for the first great 

 civilisation of Europe, namely, that of Greece, and fill the 

 chronological gap, and explain such communication as 

 existed, between this and the equally " historic " but far 

 earlier civilisations of the Euphrates and Nile Valleys. 



A strictly " Historic " Age on the shores of the ^gean 

 Sea, or in fact in the Eastern Mediterranean at all, cannot 

 be said to begin before the seventh or at earliest the end of 

 the eighth century B.C. ; and everything before this point 

 would certainly have been classed as " Prehistoric," but for 

 the fact that, until quite lately, the preceding centuries have 

 been interpreted wholly in the light of a voluminous Greek 

 tradition, which is still accepted in many quarters as 

 fundamentally historical ; though now with wide reserva- 

 tions everywhere. Consequently prehistoric archaeology 

 and ethnology have here come into existence as accessory 

 and supplementary studies, and the data of the literary 

 tradition have been used, as was inevitable, as a working 

 hypothesis ; which, it is only fair to say, has served its purpose 

 fully as well as there was every reason to expect. Con- 

 sequently again, any account of the more recent and more 



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