462 



NATURE 



[August 29, 1907 



Hi'sides these papers, reports were presented by various 

 committees nominated by the section. Owing to the 

 pirthora of papers, these, as a rule, were talien as read, 

 printed copies being distributed to members present. 



The committees presenting reports were those denoted 

 by their welI-l<no\vn abbreviated names of " electrical 

 standards," "kites," "Ben Nevis," " Bessel functions," 

 " teaching of elementary mechanics," " Falmouth," 

 and " seismology." An account was given of the last by 

 Prof. Milne. 



ANTHROPOLOGY AT THE BRITISH 

 ASSOCIATION. 

 'T'HE most noticeable feature about the proceedings of 

 the Anthropological Section was the great predomin- 

 ance of papers of an archaeological character, those on 

 physical anthropology and general ethnography being far 

 fewer in number than usual. The general level of the 

 papers was, however, quite up to the usual standard, and 

 several of the communications were of the first importance. 



."^s the archaeological papers were so much the more 

 numerous, it may be advisable to deal with them first. 

 On the Monday morning an important discussion on the 

 Iron age was initiated by Prof. Ridgeway in a paper 

 on the beginnings of iron. He argued that Central 

 Europe was the true centre of the use of iron as a metal, 

 and that it was first diffused from Noricum. He con- 

 sidered that the general opinion as to the early know- 

 ledge and use of iron in Egypt is explained by the fact 

 that haematite was known and used, but that it was not 

 treated as a metal, but as a stone. That iron was 

 worked from a remote period in Central Africa he con- 

 sidered unlikely, as it only became known for the first 

 time in Uganda some five hundred years ago, and there 

 was no reason to suppose that it was worked much 

 earlier in the more central part of the continent. As it 

 was also certain that the peoples beyond the Caspian and 

 along the shores of the Indian Ocean did not use iron 

 until a late date, it seemed clear that its use as a 

 metal was due to Central Europe. 



In the discussion which followed Prof. Edouard Naville 

 drew a distinction between the knowledge of iron and 

 its general use. Referring to the two or three cases of 

 iron being found of the time of the Old Empire, he 

 pointed out that, in spite of this, it did not seem to be 

 in common use under the New Empire, and that no iron 

 tools were discovered in the Deir el-Behari excavations. 

 His own feeling was that the general use of iron in Egypt 

 was not anterior to Greek times. 



Prof. Petrie emphasised the necessity of keeping clearly 

 in view the distinction between the general and sporadic 

 use of iron. Iron was known for 4000 years before its 

 use became general, and this sporadic use strongly sup- 

 ported Prof. Ridgeway 's views of the use of iron in its 

 native state, as. had processes of reduction been known, it 

 was unlikely that it would have taken 4000 years for its 

 adoption to have become general. 



Prof. J. L. Myres argued that there was no logical 

 connection between Prof. Ridgeway 's view that the 

 knowledge of iron, as a useful metal, spread from a 

 centre in Noricum and his assumption that the question 

 of the early Iron age in Europe was that of the first 

 use of iron at all. He pointed out that materials, for 

 e,^kample tobacco and gunpowder, were not infrequently 

 looked upon as mere curiosities in one area, and that 

 their real utility was not discovered until they were trans- 

 ferred to another district. He also dwelt on the effect 

 which the introduction of the blast furnace from the north 

 must have had upon the output. 



Mr. Arthur Evans considered that the great objection to 

 Prof. Ridgeway's theory was the comparatively late date 

 of the Iron-age civilisation of Hallstatt. Earlier phases 

 are seen in southern Bosnia, and still earlier in the geo- 

 metrical and sub-Minoan tombs of Greece and Crete. 

 He considered that the general adoption of iron in the 

 countries of (he /Egean corresponded with the break-up 

 of the earlier Minoan and Mycenaean type of culture. 



Prof. Hosanquet felt that a great djfficultv in the way 

 of accepting the views of Prof. Ridgeway was the impossi- 



NO. 1974, VOL. 76] 



bility of testing the theory that the general use of iron 

 had made its way into Greece from the north, owing to 

 the very little available evidence as to Bronze-age culture 

 in Macedonia and Epirus. 



Mr. Crooke considered that India may have been the 

 seat of an independent discovery of the metal. 



As usual, Egypt took a prominent place in the proceed- 

 ings, and the section had the advantage of numbering 

 Prof. Naville among those who read papers. Besides 

 giving a descriptive account of the e.xcavations at Deir 

 el-Bahari, which have now been brought to a satisfactory 

 conclusion. Dr. Naville read an important paper on the 

 beginnings of Egyptian civilisation. The conclusion at 

 which he arrived was that the Egyptians were a nation 

 formed of a mixture of Haniitic conquerors from .Arabia 

 settling among an indigenous stock of Hamitic-.African 

 origin, an amalgamation made the easier as both races 

 were of the same stock and had no religious differences. 

 Prof. Petrie also gave a paper to the section describing 

 the excavations carried out by the British School of 

 Archaeology, under his direction, at Gizch and Rifeh. In 

 this communication he described the interesting series of 

 pottery soul-houses, found on the latter site, which arc 

 of great importance apart from their religious significance 

 as showing the design and evolution of the ordinary 

 Egyptian house, about which little had previously been 

 known. 



Greek arch.-Eology was dealt with in papers by Prof. 

 Bosanquet and Mr. R. M. Dawkins. Both of these papers 

 dealt with the work now in progress at Sparta, but while 

 Mr. Dawkins gave a general description of the excava- 

 tions, Mr. Bosanquet dealt especially with the scourging 

 of the Spartan boys before the altar of Artemis Orthia, 

 which was shown by the excavations to have occupied the 

 same position for more than a thousand years. Prof. 

 Bosanquet traced the history of the scourging festival, 

 and showed that the cruel whippings described by Roman 

 writers are an artificial revival of an old discipline which 

 apparently originated in a rough game played by the 

 Spartan youths, in which at first there was no element 

 of passive endurance so characteristic of the later ordeal. 

 This game itself seems possibly to have originated in a 

 still earlier custom, in which the lads hit each other, for 

 luck, with boughs cut from the sacred tree, the .4^niis 

 castus. 



The recent expedition undertaken by the University of 

 Liverpool to northern Syria and Asia Minor was described 

 by • Prof . Garslang. The work done was of very great 

 interest, the most important find being what is appar- 

 ently an altar of dedication, similar to those discovered 

 in Crete. Man}' inscriptions were also found, as well as 

 a large sculpture of an eagle standing on three lions. 



In English archeology Dr. .-^uden described a series 

 of objects, referable to the Viking age, recently discovered 

 at York. Several of the objects have not previously been 

 reported as occurring in England, and amongst these the 

 brass chape of a sword scabbard, with an interlacing 

 zoomorphic design, is of peculiar interest. The general 

 consensus of opinion is that the finds inay be referred to 

 the first half of the tenth century, at which time 

 Scandinavian influence in York was at its height. 



The progress of the excavations at Caerwent, including 

 the discovery of the Forum and Basilica, was described 

 by Dr. Ashby, who also, in a paper on Sardinia, directed 

 attention to the nurhagi or stone towers and their re- 

 semblance to the brochs of Caithness. 



Another important archa;ological paper, dealing, how- 

 ever, with a vcrv different area, was one in which Dr. 

 Seligmann and Mr. Joyce described a series of prehistoric 

 objects from New Guinea. The objects described consisted 

 of stone weapons, engraved shells, and pottery, and arc 

 truly prehistoric, inasmuch as the present natives do not 

 know who made them, and in some cases cannot even 

 .say for what purpose they were made. It is interesting 

 to note that some of this prehistoric pottery is superior 

 both in make and ornament to that now in use among 

 the natives. " 



The most important papers on physical anthropologv 

 were those by Mr. Gray and Dr. Shrubsall, which opened 

 the discussion on anthropometrics in schools. This dis- 

 cussion was held conjointly with Section L (Educational 



