﻿510 
  

  

  ANNUAL 
  REPORT 
  SMITHSONIAN 
  INSTITUTION, 
  194 
  3 
  

  

  has 
  been 
  likened 
  to 
  similar 
  forms 
  of 
  ware 
  found 
  in 
  southeastern 
  

   Europe. 
  Not 
  long 
  afterward, 
  again, 
  probably 
  around 
  2000 
  B. 
  C. 
  

   there 
  arose 
  in 
  the 
  same 
  general 
  region 
  a 
  Chalcolithic 
  period, 
  with 
  the 
  

   first 
  evidence 
  of 
  bronze 
  in 
  China. 
  

  

  A 
  little 
  later 
  still 
  — 
  toward 
  the 
  middle 
  of 
  the 
  second 
  millennium 
  

   B. 
  C, 
  for 
  we 
  have 
  now 
  reached 
  the 
  protohistoric 
  era 
  — 
  we 
  find 
  in 
  the 
  

   Yellow 
  Kiver 
  basin 
  a 
  highly 
  developed 
  civilization 
  of 
  Bronze 
  Age 
  

   type, 
  based 
  on 
  almost 
  the 
  same 
  set 
  of 
  fundamental 
  elements 
  as 
  had 
  

   been 
  the 
  far 
  more 
  ancient 
  river 
  valley 
  civilizations 
  of 
  the 
  Near 
  East. 
  

  

  EASTERN 
  

   TURKESTAN, 
  

  

  Figure 
  21. 
  — 
  Map 
  of 
  China, 
  showing 
  the 
  IS 
  provinces. 
  

  

  This 
  new 
  culture 
  — 
  of 
  its 
  origin 
  we 
  as 
  yet 
  know 
  nothing 
  — 
  slowly 
  dif- 
  

   fused 
  itself 
  until 
  toward 
  the 
  middle 
  of 
  the 
  following 
  millennium 
  it 
  

   overspread 
  most 
  of 
  northern 
  China. 
  

  

  It 
  then 
  went 
  on 
  to 
  penetrate 
  various 
  marginal 
  areas, 
  notably 
  south- 
  

   ern 
  China, 
  Korea, 
  and 
  western 
  Japan. 
  Soon 
  afterward, 
  however, 
  it 
  

   yielded 
  place 
  in 
  turn 
  to 
  an 
  Age 
  of 
  Iron 
  (of 
  rather 
  archaic 
  type, 
  it 
  is 
  

   true, 
  compared 
  with 
  the 
  one 
  that 
  had 
  already 
  come 
  into 
  being 
  in 
  the 
  

   Near 
  East 
  over 
  half 
  a 
  millennium 
  before). 
  

  

  Thus 
  our 
  survey 
  reveals 
  to 
  us 
  one 
  outstanding 
  fact, 
  viz, 
  that 
  as 
  civil- 
  

   ization 
  advanced 
  in 
  the 
  Old 
  World, 
  it 
  developed 
  not 
  one 
  but 
  two 
  great 
  

   centers 
  of 
  culture 
  diffusion 
  — 
  the 
  Near 
  East 
  on 
  the 
  one 
  hand, 
  China 
  on 
  

   the 
  other. 
  The 
  latter 
  country 
  has 
  in 
  fact 
  played 
  a 
  civilizing 
  role 
  in 
  

  

  