1895.] • ^^ [Brinton. 



directions until checked by the North Mediterranean immi- 

 grants.* 



The Arj^ans entered Asia chiefly by the Hellespont and Bos- 

 phorus. They traversed Asia Minor into Iran, where the lofty 

 chain of the Hindu Kush turned one current to the north to 

 Bactriana, another to the south to Afghanistan and India."!" 

 ^ The Caucasic tribes may possibly have compassed the Black 

 Sea, and thus have reached their mountain homes ; but the evi- 

 dence, both linguistic and archa^ologic, is that they preceded the 

 Aryans along the same route into Asia Minor, and originally 

 occupied localities well to the south of their present position. 

 The indications are that they did not reach the Caucasus until 

 late in the neolithic period, or about the beginning of the Age 

 of Iron, and then as refugees, driven from more favored climes 

 to the south and southeast, and bringing with them elements of 

 the characteristic cultures of those regions. | 



We cannot suppose a movement in the reverse direction ; for, 

 as M. Chantre well remarks : " History does not furnish a single 

 example of a nation which has left the Caucasus to spread itself 

 in the plains near it or in remoter regions." The mountain fast- 

 nesses were refuges, not centres of dispersion.§ The most pro- 

 longed researches in the caves of the Caucasus and in the drift 

 of its rivers have brought to light no evidence of a really ancient 

 occupation, no traces of an " old stone " or palaeolithic condition 

 of culture. II 



Antiquity of the Immigratiox. 



While the general movement above outlined has been recog- 

 nized by various writers, its antiquity has been surely underesti- 

 mated. 



* See an article by me, " The Cradle of the Semites," read before the Oriental Club of 

 Philadelphia, and published, with a paper on the same subject by Dr. Morris Jastrovv, Jr., 

 Philadelphia, 1890. 



tSee the suggestive study of M. G. Capus, " Les Migrations Ethniques en Asie Centrale 

 au point de vue Geographique," in L'Anthropologie, 1894, p. 53, sqq. 



X This is the result of a careful comparison of the oldest artefacts from the necropoles 

 of Trans-Caucasia. See F. Heger, in Verhand. Berliner Anthrop. Ges., 1891, p. 424. M. E. 

 Chantre believes the connection was with Assyrian culture, and an equal authority, M. 

 de Morgan, that it was with Iranian (Morgan, Mission Scientifiqueaii Caucase, Paris, 1S89). 



§In the 0}ng. Intcrnat. d' Archeologie Prehistorique, Moscow, 1892, Tome i, p. 173. This 

 illustrates how erroneous was the notion of Blumenbach that the Caucasus was the 

 cradle of his so-called " Caucasian," i. e., European white race. 



11 Chantre, «. s., Tome ii, p. 82, sqq. Compare also the article of F. Bayern, " Ueber die 

 alteslen Graber in Kauliasieu," Sup. to Zeitsclirifl fiir Ethnologie, 1885, and the recent re- 

 searches of Rosier and Belck in the Verhand. Berliner AntJiroi). Ges., 1891, pp. 213, sqq. 



