DISCOVERY 



61 



material, without a word of evidence in wTiting to help 

 it. The material evidence is proof enough for writing 

 history, whether of our own day or of past ages. That 

 the material may be incomplete, and not conclusive in 

 every detail, is equally true of nearly all documentary 

 history. In Egypt, what is usually called the pre- 

 historic age, before written documents, has been 

 reduced to historic order nore closely than in other 

 lands. The means for doing this are more complete in 

 detail and quantity than what is recorded elsewhere. 

 A thousand graves, each containing five, or more, 

 varieties of pottery . provided the requisite basis. When 

 all this material was reviewed, it was seen that there was 

 one kind of pot which changed greatly, and the forms of 

 which could be placed in relative order, from a globular 

 pot with wavy handles at the sides, to a plain cylinder 

 slightly enlarging above and below, which was Hnked 

 to the earliest age of writing. Here was a first step 

 to historic order, but it was only related to about half 

 of the material, and there was evidently a long age 

 outside of this series. The rest of the graves were 

 therefore put in the order of their resemblance of types 

 to those found with the above series ; those with 4 

 types like those with the series, then 3, ne.xt 2, or i, 

 or none. It was then noticed that another kind of 

 pottery, with white painting, had exactly the inverse 

 relation ; the fewer types like the series, the more 

 frequent types like the painted pottery. This placed 

 the age of the painted pottery as the earliest, then 

 a period with less and less resemblances to that 

 age, and increasing resemblances to the globular 

 pottery, leading to the series of changes from 

 globular to cylindrical forms. Thus the whole of 

 the pottery before written history was put roughly 

 into order. 



Each form being numbered, the next step was to 

 write on a slip of card the numbers found in one grave ; 

 on putting these slips in the probable order of the 

 pottery, the extent of range of each number was looked 

 for, and the earliest and latest examples were brought 

 nearer together, if they did not spread other types 

 farther apart. In short, the aim was to find the order 

 which should give the most compact extent for each 

 type, as this was the more probable condition. The 

 thousand graves, as thus restored to probable order, were 

 divided into fifty equal sections, which were numbered, 

 and the range of each pot-type was stated, such as 

 35-38, or 44-46. These numbers only show the order of 

 age, and not an equal scale of time ; hence they are 

 called sequence dates, and aU the products of the ages 

 before writing are dated now as s.D. 40, or whatever 

 may be the number in the scale. This is as definite as 

 dates B.C. or a.d., but the unit is much longer, perhaps 

 a generation rather than a year. History, as meaning 

 a definite order of events, can now be carried back in 



the unwritten ages through two whole cvcles of civilisa- 

 tion, covering probably two or three thousand years. 

 The first cycle was derived from Algeria, or the West, 

 it rose to widespread unity over the whole land, and 

 showed more artistic work than the second age, but less 

 use of fine and hard stones. All through it there was 

 a slight infiltration of an entirely different pottery ; 

 this suddenly came into full use in the second civilisa- 

 tion which entered from the East, and excelled in 

 mechanical work. To this second age belongs the 

 series of pots from globular to cylindrical named above ; 

 traces of a new people were gradually appearing, and 

 after the decadence of this age there burst in the full 

 civilisation of a short and vigorous people, which seems 

 to have come from Elam, bringing entirely new ideas, 

 and starting the course of wTitten history. 



A similar study of other lands would lead to more 

 definite and historical relations in the age before 

 writing. For instance, in Britain a sequence of develop- 

 ment in the bronze age pottery points to the earlier 

 immigrants arriving in Yorkshire and Dorset rather 

 than at the narrows of the Channel. This implies 

 that they were a seafaring people, and that the Con- 

 tinental culture was stronger in Kent, and could resist 

 invasion ; also that the invaders were not in occupation 

 of the Calais-Boulogne coast. 



In many minds the question will arise, " What is the 

 use of tracing these remote changes, how can they have 

 any bearing on our present ideas in a vastly different 

 state of society ? " Let us look at the matter from its 

 purely material side, ignoring the question of the higher 

 values of mental training and outlook. The material 

 aim of history is to know the biology of civilisation, 

 and to distinguish cause and effect. We have to 

 separate and realise what are the social, political, 

 economic, and ideal elements in the rise and in the fall 

 of civilisations. Where we had only one cycle before 

 us in history, it was almost impossible to settle between 

 cause and effect. Wlien we have eight or nine cycles 

 before us, and can compare the details in several of 

 them, it becomes clearer how various movements are 

 connected. Was Diocletian's ^ edict of prices the 

 cause, or the concomitant, or the result, of the decay 

 of the Empire ? To judge of this, we must observe 

 what there is in common in the times of Khammurabi,^ 



1 Diocletian shared with Maximian the emperorship of the 

 Roman Empire from a.d. 284-305. An edict issued by him, 

 regulating the wages of all grades of labour and the prices of 

 goods and commodities throughout the Empire, was discovered 

 at Stratoniceia in Asia Minor by Colonel Leake in the middle 

 of the nineteenth century. — Ed. 



2 Khammurabi, a Babylonian king, who reigned about 

 2000 B.C. A black marble pillar inscribed with the code of 

 laws drawn up by him and regulating every detail of civilised 

 life was discovered at Susa {Khuzistan, Persia) in 1902 by 

 Monsieur de Morgan. — Ed. 



