PROGRESS OF ANTHROPOLOGY IN 1892. 483 



By passing;" u]) through the scale of culture stajies fioni savai^ery to 

 cnlijihtenmeut, we see that each succeeding period has a larger share 

 of art aud a correspondingly larger share of the lesthetic, each stage 

 being prophetic of the succeeding stage. The last stage, that upon 

 which the nations of the world are now entering — the eidigliteiu'd — 

 is also necessarily prophetic of a still more advanced stagehand by 

 adding to the number of aesthetic groups those yet to be conceived 

 and prolonging the exi)anding lines of each grou[) indetinitely, we are 

 led to comprehend the true relations of the present to the marvellous 

 future, and to form some notion of the magnificent sum total of the 

 iesthetic that future generations will be jtrivileged to enjoy. 



VT. ARCHAEOLOGY. 



In the Frocecdingfi of the Royal Geographical iSocicty (Lond., 1892, 

 XIV, 273-309) and in other journals will be found an account of the 

 marvellous ruins of ]Mashonadand, in the water-shed of South Africa, 

 between 18° and 2(P south, by Theodore Bent, the explorer. There 

 are many ruins on the Limi)opo and elsewhere in this area, but the 

 author confines himself to those on the Great Zimbabwe, situated 20° 

 IG' South, aud 31° 10' East. They cover a vast area and consist of a 

 large circular building with a network of smaller buihlings extending 

 in the valley below, and a labyrinthine fortress on the hill, about 100 

 feet above, naturally protected by huge granite bowlders, and by a 

 precipice running round a considerable portion of it. The lower build- 

 ing is constructed of small blo(;ks of granite broken with the hammer 

 into uniform size and laid up without mortar. The encircling wall is 

 30 feet high in parts and 10 to 17 feet thick. Tiiere is a long narrow 

 passage between walls (;oudncting to what Mr. Bent calls "the sacred 

 inclosure'' in which are standing two towers, one of them 32 feet high, 

 a wonderful structure of perfect symmetry, and with courses of un- 

 varying regidarity. 



The ]>iincipal ]>art of ]VIr. Bent's work and his most interesting dis- 

 coveries took place on the hill fortress, the labyriidliine nature of which 

 is explained in the ])lans. The approach is protected at every turn 

 Avith traverses and and)uscades, and tlieu commences at the bottom of 

 the precipice a fiight of stei)s leading up. In fact, the redundancy of 

 fortification all over this mountain, the useless repetition of walls over 

 a ])recii)ice itself inaccessible, the care with which every hole in the 

 bowlders through whi(;h an arrow could pass is closed, prove that the 

 occupants were in constant dread of attack. I'ottery aud iron objects 

 occurred in abundance, but the most interesting find was connected 

 with the manufacture of gold, crucibles, broken quartz, and furnaces. 



These ruins are in no wdy connected with the African race. They 

 formed a garrison for gold workers in anti(]uity, who (;ame, doubtless 

 from the Arabian peninsula, in the pre-Mohammedaji period. 



One of the results of the Congress of Arclneological Societies, in 



