370 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1947 



elephants were domesticated by the people of the Indus who seem not 

 to have had swine. Asses were also known in Egypt and Sumeria 

 from a remote period, but horses were introduced from Central Asia 

 much later and were taken up most enthusiastically by the people of 

 the two rivers. In this particular the New World was much behind 

 the Old. Nearly all of its tribes including the Maya had dogs, but 

 they were of very limited utility. The Peruvians with their herds of 

 llama and alpaca were somewhat in advance of the rest. 



Stone masonry was, of course, further developed in Egypt than 

 in any other Old World center except Crete, the Sumerians and Indus 

 people depending on brick. In the New World the Peruvians were by 

 all odds the best masons. Copper seems to have been known to the 

 Egyptians and Sumerians at an early date, but bronze was employed 

 first by the latter and by the people of the Indus. The Indus people 

 also prepared an alloy of copper and arsenic. In the New World 

 copper was widely known and considerably used, but we do not know 

 where it was first employed. The Peruvians had learned to make 

 bronze, and it is believed to have been invented independently by them 

 though it appears also in Central America. 



The plow was independently invented in Egypt, Sumeria, and 

 China, and the foot plow was known to the Peruvians. The potter's 

 wheel seems to have been used earliest in Sumeria and India, and the 

 wheel for vehicles appeared first in these centers or the intervening 

 territory. We apparently owe the true arch and dome to the Sumeri- 

 ans. The invention of glass is attributed to the Egyptians, but the art 

 of glazing goes back to the earliest Sumerian epoch. To China we owe 

 the mariner's compass, block printing, rag paper, paper money, playing 

 cards, procelain, and gunpowder. To medicine Peru has made two 

 notable contributions, quinine and cocaine. Chocolate comes from 

 Central America; tea, from China or India. Tobacco is again an 

 American product, but we do not know at what center it was first 

 taken over by man. A boat used by the Egyptians in predynastic 

 times is regarded by many as the ancestor of all later ships. Sumerians 

 had discovered at a very early date the principle of the modem ax- 

 head perforation to admit the handle. 



The rebus system of writing was evolved independently in all these 

 centers except apparently Peru, where its place was taken by the device 

 of the quipu. Our alphabet comes from Semites, who derived their 

 inspiration, it is generally held, from the Egyptian hieroglyphs. It 

 is also believed at the present time that the Maya hieroglyphs had 

 evolved to the threshold of phonetic representation. 



The Egyptians seem to have been the first geometricians, and they 

 led the Old World in the development of an accurate solar calendar 

 of 365 days. Incidentally they gave us our earliest fixed date, 4241 

 B. C, but the Maya independently, though later, evolved a calendar 



