446 EARLY MAN IN BRITAIN. [CHAP. xni. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



THE OVERLAP OF HISTORY. 



The Egyptians and their Influence. The Assyrians and their Influence. 

 The Phoenicians and their Influence. The Phoenicians possessed no 

 Art of their own. The Position of the Phoenicians in the West. 

 The spread of Phoenician Commerce to Britain. The Etruskans and 

 their Influence. The Etruskan Trade Routes to the Amber Coasts. 

 Traces of Etruskan Influence north of the Alps.- The Downfall of the 

 Etruskan Trade. The Greeks and their Influence. The Trade-route 

 from Olbia. The Trade-route from Massilia. The Voyage of Pytheas. 

 General Conclusions. 



The Overlap of History. 



THE Historic period constitutes the last phase of the 

 series of changes which have been reviewed in our 

 inquiry into early man and his place in the Tertiary 

 period. It embraces the events recorded in history 

 which are not only arranged in a linear series, but 

 also possess a definite chronology in terms of years. It 

 differs in this last respect from all the preceding geo- 

 logical periods, of which we know only that they fol- 

 lowed one another in a definite order, but to which we 

 cannot assign a date, because there is no standard of 

 comparison to show the contemporaneity in different 

 regions. We have seen in the last four chapters that 

 there is reason for believing that one part of Europe 



