564 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1907. 
The dawn of Egyptian civilization, which we have to place at a 
very early period, is certainly a distinct proof of the important part 
played by Africa in the history of human culture. Whether the whole 
region of the Mediterranean was first peopled by Hamites, as is now 
asserted by various authors, I do not feel competent to decide. But 
it seems to me unquestionable that the Hamitic civilization has been 
the first in date, and that it has largely influenced the islands and the 
neighboring nations. When we look at the startling results of the 
excavations in Crete, when we remember that this island is the 
natural bridge between Egypt and the Hellenic peninsula, we can 
not help concluding, with one of the excavators of the “house of 
Minos,” Doctor MacKenzie, that the races who were the bearers of 
the Agean civilization came from the south. 
