540 HRDLICKA— THE PEOPLING OF ASIA. 



and southeastern Asia. The existence there of the Pithecanthropus 

 is undeniable evidence that whatever may have happened subsequently 

 or elsewhere, far-reaching steps in the direction of man once were 

 taking place in these parts of the world and reached, to at least half 

 of the way. 



But after Pithecanthropus there is a great void, and the next 

 beings in the line of man's ascent are found far ofif, in western 

 and southwestern Europe. The Heidelberg Alan, judging from 

 the great massive jaw, was still an exceedingly primitive human 

 being — perhaps hardly yet deserving the term human ; yet he lived 

 already in western Europe or over 7,000 miles away from Java, the 

 home of the Pithecanthropus. It is true that according to our cal- 

 culations there must have elapsed between the period in which 

 lived the Pithecanthropus and that in which lived the Alan of 

 Heidelberg at least 150,000 years and possibly a good deal over; 

 but the task remains of bringing such primitive beings over such a 

 distance and in that particular direction. Still such a feat cannot 

 be said to have been impossible. There is no lack of examples of 

 a similarly great and even greater spread of various animals. It 

 is essentially a question of numbers, food and time. But why 

 the direction? 



It would seem that under conditions propitious enough to evolve 

 man in southeastern or southern Asia he would have found these 

 regions suitable for considerable local multiplication, and for the 

 peopling of the whole of southern Asia if not the entire continent. 

 But so far there is a complete lack of evidence of any such multi- 

 plication, and there is a substantial certainty that early man was not 

 able to people the rest of Asia. 



It is plain that there is a great gap in our knowledge at this 

 very important stage in man's history, over which we are still 

 obliged to pass by mere speculation. Such speculation involves in 

 the main two alternatives. The first is that man originated in 

 southeastern Asia ; that for some reason — doubtless environmental — 

 he was prevented from spreading northward; but that he spread 

 relatively rapidly westward, until he reached the western limits of 

 the then habitable parts of Europe. His route may have led over 

 the then connected Asia Alinor and the Balkans, or along the 



