November 14, 1901] 



NA TURE 



39 



Observatory, Prof. Perrine has found four principal condensa- 

 tions of the faint nebula surrounding Nova Persei, and that these 

 have been displaced one minute of arc to the south-east in a 

 period of six weeks. 



Mean Parallax of Stars. — No. 8 oi \\i^ Publications oi 

 the Astronomical Laboratory at Groningen contains an investi- 

 gation, by Prof. J. C. Kapteyn, of the mean parallax of stars 

 considered with reference to their determined proper motions, 

 magnitude and spectral type. 



Planetary I.nfluence on Sun-stot Period. — In the 

 Paris Comptes rendus (vol. cxxxiii. pp. 726-729), Prof. Birke- 

 land gives the discussion of a further attempt to trace any 

 possible connection between the i i-yearly sun-spot period and 

 the gravitational disturbance of the planets Mercury, Venus and 

 Jupiter, using observations made from 1S92-1S96. He comes 

 to the same conclusion as formerly, that the variations cannot 

 be traced to planetary influence. 



Dlstribction of Cosmic Velocities. — Profs. J. C. Kap- 

 teyn and W. Kapteyn have recently completed the elaborate 

 treatment of two preliminary communications made by the 

 former to the Academy of Sciences at Amsterdam, and the 

 first part of the treatise is published as No. 5 of the Publica- 

 tions of the Astrouoniical Laboratory of G^'oningeu. 



In this an attempt is made to deduce, from the available 

 observations of proper motion, the law defining the relation 

 between the number of stars having linear velocities of deter- 

 mined values, or shorter, the law by which the frequency of a 

 linear velocity is given as a function of its magnitude. The 

 main assumption on which the derivation is based is " the real 

 motions of the stars are equally frequent in all directions." 



In the papers mentioned above it had been stated that 

 certain inequalities existed in the distribution of velocities with 

 respect to the apex of the solar motion, and that these had been 

 traced to the influence of a systematic error of the proper 

 motions in declination. It is now thought that fnany of the 

 former difficulties will be removed by the introduction of a 

 correction for this anomaly. 



The formula; given are developed to such terms as are likely 

 to provide for any great future extension of the accuracy attain- 

 able in proper motion determinations, and although the time 

 may come when spectroscopic investigations of velocity (the 

 accuracy of which does not depend on the distances) will super- 

 sede the present observations, at present the possibility of having 

 two independent determinations from different components of 

 the real motion is a valuable and important consideration. 



The second part of the work, dealing with the application of 

 these formulae to the observations, will be presented in a later 

 publication. 



THE INFLUENCE OF THE MEDITERRANEAN 



PEOPLES IN PREHISTORIC BRITAIN} 

 ""PHE progress of archaeological discovery during the last 

 twenty years has thrown a flood of light on the relation 

 of the prehistoric period in Europe north of the Alps to the 

 civilisation of the Mediterranean in the period embraced by 

 history. We are now in a position to recognise the source 

 from which the inhabitants of middle and northern Europe, 

 and of the British Isles, obtained the art manifested in their 

 articles of daily use, and we are able to trace them back to that 

 wonderful Mediterranean civilisation, proved by the labours of 

 Schliemann to be older than the Greeks and shown recently by 

 Mr. Arthur Evans to have occupied a commanding position in 

 the island of Crete. Schliemann discovered its range over the 

 eastern Mediterranean from Troy to the Peloponnese, Evans 

 extends it to almost within sight of Italy, where the Etruscan 

 civilisation is the dominant factor at the dawn of history. 



The picture presented to us of the Mediterranean region during 

 the period extending from the establishment of the Greeks in the 

 east and the Romans in the west, backwards to at least 2300 

 years B.C., as proved by the discoveries at Knossos, may be 

 outlined as follows. A civilisation of the very highest order 

 existed in the region extending from Italy eastwards through the 

 /Egean Sea to Asia Minor, equal in splendour to that of Egypt 

 and Assyria. Although it borrowed many things from both, it 

 was a development independent of both, and, so far as the 



1 Presidential Address by Prof. Boyd D.iwkins, D.Sc, F.R.S., to the 

 Vesey Club, on October 15, illustrated with slides. 



NO. 1672, VOL. 65] 



evidence goes, it appears to have been indigenous in the Mediter- 

 ranean region and Asia Minor. Whether or no it is as ancient 

 as that of Egypt and Assyria is an open question.^ It was 

 common to the ancient Trojans and Mycenoeans overthrown by 

 the Greeks, to the Cretans, and to the Etruscans overthrown by 

 the Romans. It is worthy of remark that in the eastern Medi- 

 terranean it formed the foundation of Greek art, while it sur- 

 vived in the west under the name of Roman, its possessors in 

 each case being absorbed into the Greek and Roman peoples. 



The establishment of the Phoenicians in the Eastern Medi- 

 terranean, at least as far back as the seventeenth century B.C., 

 as proved in the records of Egypt, has also to be considered. 

 They were the great merchants and carriers, distributing 

 the wares of Egypt, and later of Assyria, to the various 

 Mediterranean peoples, founding colonies here and there, among 

 the greatest of which was Gades (Cadiz), about iioo B.C., and 

 Carthage, 814 B.C. Their fleets in penetrating westward had 

 to contend with the Etruscan maritime power, dominant in the 

 western Mediterranean. They and the Etruscans were the 

 great distributors of metal, more particularly bronze, and their 

 ships penetrated in later times far northwards along the Atlantic 

 shore. It is not at all improbable that Phoenician ships coasted 

 along the Atlantic as far north as the British Isles, bringing with 

 them the wares of the Mediterranean and returning with tin 

 from Cornwall and gold froin Ireland. There is, however, no 

 absolute proof of their presence in Britain, because, like the 

 English of to-day, they had no art of their own and merely 

 imitated the art of other peoples. 



During the period under consideration, the various peoples 

 inhabiting the Mediterranean weresufficiently organised to allow 

 of a confederacy for the attack of Egypt. The first mention ot 

 a European people in the Egyptian annals is the attack of the 

 Sardones and the Tyrrhenes (Etruscans) and their defeat by 

 Ramses II. in the seventeenth century B.C. This was followed 

 about seventy years afterwards by a more formidable combination, 

 in which the two above-mentioned peoples were joined by the 

 Sicels, Lycians, Achreans and Lybians. The allies advanced by 

 sea and land, conquered part of the Delta, and were defeated 

 after a desperate struggle by Meneptah I. 



It remains now to trace the influence of the Mediterranean 

 civilisation through middle and northern Europe. The two oldest 

 routes of traffic are those starting from the head of the Adriatic, 

 from the ancient Etruscan city of Ilatria. The first runs by 

 Trieste, Laibach, Gratz and Bruck, to Presburg, and thence past 

 Breslau and along the Lower Vistula to the amber coast of Sam- 

 land. The second, or western route, takes the line of the Adige, 

 past Verona and Trient, over the Brenner Pass into the valley of 

 the Inn, crossing the Danube either at Linz or Passau. Thence it 

 ran through the Bohemian passes into the valley of the Elbe, and 

 made for the amber coast of Schleswig and Holstein. These 

 were the two principal routes taken by the caravans, which 

 brought to the inhabitants of middle and northern Europe in the 

 Bronze Age bronze swords, axes, daggers, bracelets, brooches 

 and other articles from the south, carrying back, ainong other 

 things, the amber so highly valued by the Mediterranean peoples. 

 There were probably similar routes to these northwards and west- 

 wards over the plains of France, starting from the Alpine passes, 

 and along the river valleys, along the lines afterwards followed by 

 the Greeks of Marseilles (Massilia). It was probably by one or 

 other of these routes that brooches, swords and other implements 

 of southern derivation, arrived at the sea-board of the North 

 Sea and Atlantic, and were brought by ship into Britain and 

 Ireland. Ireland, it must be noted, at this lime was the El Dorado 

 of the west, attracting adventurers from the south both by sea 

 and land. 



These routes were also used in the prehistoric Iron Age north 

 of the Alps, and along them metal work of most beautiful 

 design, brooches and bracelets, mirrors and other articles, 

 belonging to the so-called " late Celtic " art, were intro- 

 duced into Britain — such, for example, as the mirror, brooch, 

 and bronze bowl found at Glastonbury. In Ireland this art 

 is amply represented in the numerous golden and bronze 

 ornaments. 



• The Greeks, too, after their establishment at Massilia in the 

 sixth century H.c, took up this trade, making clearly- defined 

 routes through France, to the Atlantic shore and to the Rhine 

 valley, along which the tin of Cornwall was carried overland to 



1 I feel unable to accept Prof. Flinders Petrie'.s conclusion, that some of 

 the pottery found in the tombs of the first dynasty in Egypt belongs to the 

 Mycenaean or .^!gean pottery, and therefore goes back as far as 4750 B.C. 



