THE WONDERS OP ANCIENT CEETE 21 



into a comparatively small region. The Balkan 

 Peninsula itself and Asia Minor, being mountainous, 

 would be bleak, if not partly glaciated, during the 

 Ice Age. The low-lying land to the south of Greece, 

 of which Crete and the Greek islands are surviving 

 fragments, would be by far the most attractive region 

 within reach of the European refugees. 



As the cold increased, and the region became con- 

 gested, pioneers would push southward and eastward. 

 There was still no agriculture, we must remember, 

 and a large area was required for a population. A 

 region easily became over-populated. And we have 

 only to glance again at our map to see where the 

 pioneers would settle. Asia Minor generally was 

 bleak and mountainous. Palestine was little better ; 

 and from the south of Palestine to Tunis stretched 

 an almost continuous desert. There were only two 

 promising lines of extension, as the pioneers would 

 gradually learn. There was the narrow strip of very 

 fertile valley along the banks of the Nile, and there 

 was the equally fertile region which we now call 

 Mesopotamia. 



Thus we can complete the various discoveries which 

 have been made in recent decades and blend them 

 all in a satisfactory picture of the early evolution of 

 civilization. Several decades ago it was realized that a 

 mysterious " Mediterranean Race " began the story of 

 civilization. We can surely now understand this race 

 as the population of refugees from frozen Europe 

 which packed the eastern end of the Mediterranean 

 and, as it grew larger and the land began to founder, 

 spread round the shores of the sea, from Italy to 

 Egypt, and pushed on into the two available fertile 

 valleys. The main body would remain on that lost 



