ANTHROPOLOGY OF ASIA 29 



B.C., at which epoch the Hittites, arrived in Asia Minor, 1 

 and probably had something to do with the complicated 

 ethnical constitution of the modern Curds and Yesidi, 

 "the last unconscious followers of the cult of Zoroaster." - 

 Close affinities of a cultural nature have been found 

 between the Hittites and the most ancient civilizations 

 of Turkestan. :i The language of the Hittites, which 

 at last scholars have succeeded in reading, has turned 

 out to be Aryan and is related to Tokhari of Turkestan : 

 a most important fact is that it probably forms the 

 bridge* between the Western European idioms and 

 Tokhari. 5 The period of the migration of the Western 

 Aryans being ended, there followed that of the Eastern 

 Aryans, which, for Asia Minor, commences perhaps with 

 the Mitanni (circa 1600 B. C.) and ends with the 

 Iranians (850 B. C.) ; this then explains how the Curds 

 linguistically are Iranians, without prejudice to an 

 anthropological inheritance still more ancient, but 

 not essentially diverse, since anthropology places the 

 origin in the case of the Hittites, as well as of the 

 Iranians, at a northern Asiatic centre, as we shall 

 show later. 



The special position of the Tokhari, we believe, cannot 

 be explained unless one admits a series of successive 



1 This is the date usually given, but on the cuneiform tablets the Hittites are 

 already mentioned in the XXII t century B.C., ef. COXTKXAU (G.), Lea Hittites, 

 V Orient ei la Qrece, " Rev. d'Assyriologie," XVI, 1919, pp. 97-106 ; and also AUXRAX 

 (C.), " Pheniciena." E.s.saj de contribution a Vhistoire antique de la Mediterrantf. 

 Paris, 1920, p. 95. 



- CHAXTRR (E.), Recherche* anthropologiquea duns I' Asie Occidentals t loc. 

 cit., p. 93. 



3 GARBTANG (J-), The Land of the Hittites, London, 1910, p. 320. 



* CUMOXT (Fr.), La Langue des Hittites. " Compt. rend, de 1' Accad. dee 

 Inscript. et Bell. -Lett. " March -April, 1907 



Tokhari is said to be akin to the Western languages particularly to Italo- 

 celtic, according to S. L.evi (" Joqrn. B. Asiatic Society," 1914, p 959), 



