312 THE AEYAN QUESTION VI 



possibility that a knowledge of the technical value 

 of copper may have travelled from Siberia west- 

 ward must not be overlooked. If the idea of 

 turning metals to account must needs be Asiatic, 

 it may be north Asiatic just as well as south 

 Asiatic. In the total absence of trustworthy 

 chronological and anthropological data, speculation 

 may run wild. 



The oldest civilisations for which we have an, 

 even approximately, accurate chronology are those 

 of the valleys of the Nile and of the Euphrates. 

 Here, culture seems to have attained a degree of 

 perfection, at least as high as that of the bronze 

 stage, six thousand years ago. But before the 

 intermediation of Etruscan, Phoenician, and Greek 

 traders, there is no evidence that they exerted 

 any serious influence upon Europe or northern 

 Asia. As to the old civilisation of Mesopotamia, 

 what is to be said until something definite is 

 known about the racial characters of its origin- 

 ators, the Accadians ? As matters stand, they are 

 just as likely to have been a group of the same 

 race as the Egyptians, or the Dravidians, as any- 

 thing else. And considering that their culture 

 developed in the extreme south of the Euphrates 

 valley, it is difficult to imagine that its influence 

 could have spread to northern Eurasia except by 

 the Phoenician (and Carian ?) intermediation which 

 was undoubtedly operative in comparatively late 

 times. 



