128 HUMAN HISTORY 



— some of them belonging to very early times. The finding of 

 these pieces of iron presents a rather difficult problem, of which 

 the solution seems to be that iron was very occasionally used, 

 and probably only for ornamental purposes, long before 1200 u.c. 

 in Egypt ; it was not, however, brought into general use at this 

 early date. 



It is not necessary to carry this sketch of cultural e\olution 

 any farther. The Bronze Age marks a turning-point in history. 

 The outline at least of the subsequent course of events is suffi- 

 ciently familiar. One point may be noticed. We have found 

 reason to place the centre of progress somewhere in the Orient. 

 After metal has been taken into use the centre of progress begins 

 to shift westwards. Once metals had been introduced into Crete, 

 for instance, Minoan civihzation was in any case largely an 

 autochthonous growth. Speaking of Crete, Hall says : * We have 

 nothing to show any intrusion of any other culture system which 

 in any way suddenly modifies or alters the course of this develop- 

 ment, which is that of the civilization of a single people raising 

 itself on its own lines from Neolithic barbarism. Its first develop- 

 ment from the static condition in which it had existed for many 

 centuries in the Neolithic stage was sudden, and the dynamic 

 influence which was given by the acquisition of metal speedily 

 carried it to the great height of cultivation which we have seen.' ^ 

 Hitherto — before, that is to say, the taking into use of metal — 

 the centre of progress has been looked for in Central Asia.^ There 

 had been progress in Europe within the culture periods, but the 

 great steps in progress were made in the East. 



12, Let us now review what has so far been said in this chapter. 

 Such indications as the evidence provides point to the origin of 

 man in the eastern portion of the Old World, and probably in 

 a warm climate. The principal facts in favour of this view are 

 the distribution of the anthropoids, the occurrence of Pithecan- 

 thropus in Java, and the failure to find any evidence of the antiquity 

 of man in the New World.^ Unless Pithecanthropus is to be 



' Hall, Ancient History of the Near East, p. 254. 



- See on this point Breuil, ' Les Subdivisions du Paleolithique Superieur, C.I. A., 

 1912. With regard to the Neolithic period Dechelette says : ' II est permis de 

 placer en Orient le principal centre de diffusion des accroissements successifs de la 

 civilisation occidentale ' (loc. cit., vol. i. p. 313). 



3 See Hrdlicka, 'Early Man in South America' (S.I.B.E., No. 52, 1912), 

 'Skeletal Remains suggesting or attributed to Early Man in North America' 

 (ibid., No. 33, 1907), and ' Recent Discoveries attributed to Earlv Man in America' 

 (ibid., No. 66, 1917). 



