424 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 3 3 



must give way in turn to yet another group. The displacement is 

 merely symptomatic of the general run of events at the end of the 

 Chalcolithic era. For this is a period of migrations on a hitherto 

 unprecedented scale, which reflect a spirit of all-pervading restless- 

 ness. Long-established civilizations are uprooted overnight, and a 

 thick layer of ashes is all that has remained to mark the latest irrup- 

 tion. The upheaval is in a sense universal, and Gawra VIII is no 

 exception. Paradoxically enough, the very swiftness with which 

 the stratum was destroyed contributed to its ultimate preservation. 

 As the buildings were swept by the conflagration the fallen bricks 

 formed a protective layer of fused clay which subsequent builders 

 found too troublesome to cut through. 



Wlien the smoke has blown away a new race is found intrenched 

 on our site, now Gawra VII. This occupation is destined to be of 

 comparatively brief duration. The destroyers of Gawra VIII were 

 no more than pawns in the hands of greater powers; they attacked 

 and destroyed because they had been attacked and rendered home- 

 less by others. They had barely enough time to get settled in their 

 new homes before the pursuers had caught up with them. Gawra 

 VII is thus an ephemeral station, a period of transition between the 

 old and the new. Archeologically the stratum is characterized by 

 a new pottery which includes beautifully painted chalice types (pi. 

 4, fig. 1) . But in terms of the cultural cycles of mankind the passage 

 from Gawra VIII to VI signifies infinitely more than the crossing 

 of a layer filled with frail ceramic fabrics. The few feet of inter- 

 posed debris mark in this particular case the boundary between 

 Chalcolithic and Early Bronze or, in other words, the transition 

 from prehistory to history. 



With this insight into the marginal character of Gawra VII we 

 have obtained also a clue to the forces behind the contemporary 

 migrations and upheavals. The underlying cause of all this restless- 

 ness was man's decisive conquest of copper. The discovery of certain 

 fundamental principles of metallurgy had precipitated an industrial 

 and social revolution of awesome proportions. Mere stone users were 

 no match for the men who had stumbled somehow upon means of 

 casting the metal and making it pliable. But the number of copper 

 bearing ores being limited, access to such deposits became a matter of 

 vital importance. Violent ethnic shifts and transpositions were thus 

 the inevitable corollary of the new order of things. 



In this manner was ushered in what we now call the historical age. 

 " Not without heat and dust " we may repeat with the poet, nor, we 

 may add, without sacrifice of much charm and beauty. Progress 

 always seems to exact a heavy toll. 



