448 ANNUAL REPOKT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 193 2 



the thirteenth century (as at Bamberg, Strasbiirg, and Salisbury). 

 The difference between archaism and maturity is well brought out 

 by comparing the bronze doors of San Zeno at Verona with those 

 panels of mature and almost overripe perfection on the doors of 

 the baptistry at Florence (pis. 1, 2). The same cyclical evolu- 

 tion may be seen in medieval brasses and sepulchral effigies, the period 

 of decline being clearly marked in the stiff and lifeless character 

 of Elizabethan examples. 



Similar features are observed in painting and the other arts which, 

 it is claimed, reach their maturity in any given period, not simul- 

 taneously but in an orderly succession. Thus sculpture was the first 

 to reach perfection both in the classical and west European phases. 

 Painting reached its zenith in west European art about 1500, litera- 

 ture about 1600, and music about 1800. 



There is a tendency for each of these eight phases to last longer 

 than its predecessor, and for the transition or hiatus between each to 

 become greater and (for the people of the time) less uncomfortable. 



The last phase before the present, the classical phase, is regarded 

 by Petrie as a single phase. We think it possible however that it was 

 a curve, or wave, with a double peak, or crest, represented by Greece 

 and Rome respectively. It seems too that Rome began where Greece 

 left off, perhaps after some recapitulation of the earlier stages. Is it 

 not possible that the present phase of western civilization also has, 

 though to a less degree, a double peak represented by Europe and 

 America? There are many resemblances between modern America 

 and ancient Rome; and Europe now plays in some respects the role 

 of ancient Greece. Europe, like Greece, has been enfeebled by futile 

 internecine strife and competitive armaments; but remains a store- 

 house of dead art to be ransacked by trans-Atlantic connoisseurs. As 

 M. Merlin has pointed out (Antiquity, vol. 4, p. 413) the Romans 

 pillaged Greece in precisely the same manner. 



For the rest the reader must consult the book itself, which is too 

 compact and too full of ideas to be adequately summarized. This 

 article assumes as proven the theory there set forth, and attempts to 

 correlate it with a yet more inclusive generalization. Some dnv, 

 perhaps, we may develop it in full. 



A few words, however, must be said about its causes which Sir 

 Flinders Petrie suggests as responsible for the existence of phases. 

 Whether they wholly explain the cyclical development of culture 

 may perhaps be questioned. It is probable, however, that they are at 

 le^ast contributary causes, as he himself says. He points out that the 

 phase or great year is heralded by invasion. Historically these in- 

 vasions have generally been from colder into warmer lands, from 



