The Great Race Passes 



35 



versy, his guidance is as trustworthy as 

 that of anyone. 



He starts as far back as possible. 



"Man's place of origin was, un- 

 doubtedly, Asia. Europe is only a 

 I)eninsula of the Eurasiatic continent, 

 and although the extent of its land 

 area dviring the Pleistocene was much 

 greater than at present, it is certain, 

 from the distribution of the various 

 species of man, that the main races 

 evolved in Asia long before the center 

 of that continent was reduced to deserts 

 by progressive dessication. 



"Evidence of the location of the early 

 evolution of man in Asia and the geolog- 

 ically recent submerged area toward the 

 southeast is afforded by the fossil 

 deposits in the Siwalik hills of northern 

 India, where have been found the 

 remains of primates which were either 

 ancestral or closely related to the four 

 living genera of anthropoids ; and by the 

 discovery in Java, which in Pliocene 

 times was connected with the mainland 

 over what is now the South China sea, 

 of the earliest known form of erect 

 primate, the Pithecanthropus. This 

 apelike man is practically the 'missing 

 link,' being intermediate between man 

 and the anthropoids. Pithecanthropus 

 is generally believed to have been 

 contemporary with the Glinz glaciation 

 of some 500,000 years ago, the first of 

 the four great glacial advances in 

 Europe." 



"Man existed in Europe during the 

 second and third interglacial periods, 

 if not earlier. We have his artifacts in 

 the form of eoliths, at least as early as 

 the second interglacial stage, the Mindel- 

 Riss, of some 300,000 years ago. A 

 single jaw found near Heidelberg is 

 referred to this period and is the 

 earliest skeletal evidence of man in 

 Europe." 



A GREAT PREHISTORIC RACE 



These early residents disappeared 

 suddenly from Europe about 25,000 

 B. C, when they were apparently 

 exterminated by a new and far higher 

 race, the famous Cro-Magnons, who 

 were "of very modern aspect," taller 

 than modern Europeans, and with a 



greater brain capacity. "The Cro- 

 Magnon culture is found all around the 

 basin of the Mediterranean, and this 

 fact, together with the conspicuous 

 absence in eastern Europe of its earliest 

 phases . . . indicates that it entered 

 Europe by way of North Africa. . . . 

 There is little doubt that the Cro- 

 Magnons originally developed in Asia 

 and were in their highest stage of 

 physical development at the time of 

 their first appearance in Europe." 

 They persisted for about 15,000 years, 

 led the life of huntsmen, had no agricul- 

 ture or domestic animals, and disap- 

 peared from view as the climate became 

 warmer. A number of other races of 

 inferior ability appeared toward the 

 end of this Paleolithic or Old Stone age. 

 "About 700 J B. C. we enter an entirely 

 new period in the history of man, the 

 Neolithic or New Stone age, when the 

 flint implements were polished and not 

 merely chipped. Early as is this date 

 in European cidture, we are not far 

 from the beginnings of an elaborate 

 civilization in parts of Asia. The 

 earliest organized states, so far as our 

 present knowledge goes, were the Meso- 

 potamian empires of Accad and Sumer — 

 though they may have been preceded 

 by the Chinese civilization, whose 

 origin remains a mystery, nor can we 

 trace any connection between it and 

 western Asia." Agriculture now makes 

 its appearance in Europe and, about 

 4000 B. C, a great advance in the 

 world's civilization was made when 

 some unknown genius discovered that 

 an amalgam of nine parts of copper 

 and one part of tin would make the 

 metal we now call bronze, which was 

 not only easil}' worked but particularl}- 

 suitable for tools and weapons. This 

 introduced the Bronze Age in Egypt, 

 where the discovery was made. The 

 people of western Asia acquired superior 

 weapons and soon swept into and 

 conquered Europe, into which territory 

 small numbers of them had apparently 

 been filtering for many centuries. 



AN INVASION FROM ASIA 



These invaders are nowadays known 

 as the Alpine race. "The western 



