HUMAN HISTOKY 127 



and including the greater partof the Second Empire, the Su- 

 merian kingdom, the earher periods of Babylonia and Assyria, all 

 fall within the Bronze Age. 



Though it is clear that a great advance took place in the Bronze 

 Age, it is not evident how far this advance is attributable to the 

 taking of metals into use and how far to other discoveries which 

 were made about the same time. The first use of the wheel and 

 of the plough, for instance, dates from this period, and very con- 

 siderable importance without question is attributable to the 

 plough. Still greater importance is in all probabiHty to be 

 attributed to writing, which again was first used about this time. 

 At a far earlier period various methods of marking sticks had 

 doubtless been employed as aids to memory, as they are still 

 employed by the Australians, and some progress may have been 

 made towards such a system as that of the use of knotted cords 

 in Peru. But the invention of writing properly speaking came 

 much later. By the time of the fourth dynasty Egyptian writing 

 had reached its final form, and the Sumerians, when we first 

 meet them, were using cuneiform wiiting. This invention of such 

 great import, whether it arose independently or not in Egypt, 

 Mesopotamia, and China, was evidently 'roughly coincident with 

 the first use of metals. 



Estimates as to the date of the first use of iron in the Meso- 

 potamian region vary considerably; 1500 b.c. to 1300 b.c. is 

 the date most usually given. In Egypt the earliest known iron 

 weapon dates from 1200 b.c. By 900 b.c. the use of iron had 

 spread over most of Europe. It reached Scandinavia about 

 500 B.C. It was introduced into Greece by the Thresprotian 

 invasion, which put an end to the Mycenean period, and inaugu- 

 rated the Homeric Age. It is possible that the Etruscans brought 

 the knowledge of iron to Italy where they arrived during the 

 eleventh century b. c. Upon the whole, opinion inclines to the 

 view that the use of iron originated in Western Asia. Claims 

 have also been made for Europe (neighbourhood of Hallstatt) as 

 the place of origin,^ for Egypt, and for Africa south of Egypt. ^ 

 With regard to Egyptian claims it may be noticed that iron does 

 not become common until after 1200 b.c. But four examples of 

 iron have been found in Egypt from periods before this date 



' Ridgeway, Beginnings of Iron, p. 644. ^ Von Luschan supports this riew 



(Zeit. fur Eth., vol. xli, 1909, p. 52). 



