464 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1930 



basis the theories of those Avho stand for a much higher age of man- 

 kind. However, it seems impossible that the figure of 30,000 years 

 will ever turn out to be too high as a reasonable estimate of the 

 minimum age of the human race. In any case, the present essay 

 clearly points out that it is impossible to reconcile the well-known 

 facts of human antiquity Avith such figures as 6,000 to 8,000 years. 

 No theological problem is involved, it may be added in conclusion. 

 Theologians, even the more conservative, acknowledge full liberty 

 to deviate from the figures of the older exegesis and declare that the 

 problem of the age of mankind is, like that of the age of the earth 

 and of the universe, one wdiich has to be solved by secular science. 



