TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 9T1 
Switzerland and Northern Italy through the Danubian basin and the Balkan 
peninsula, and continued through a large part of Anatolia, till it finally reaches 
Cyprus. It should never be left out of sight that, so far as the earliest historical 
tradition and geographical nomenclature reach back, a great tract of Asia Minor 
is found in the occupation of men of European race, of whom the Phrygians and 
their kin—closely allied to the 'Thracians on the other side of the Bosphorus— 
stand forth as the leading representatives. On the other hand, the great antiquity 
of the Armenoid type in Lycia and other easterly parts of Asia Minor, and its 
priority to the Semites in these regions, has been demonstrated by the craniological 
researches of Dr. yon Luschan, This ethnographic connexion with the European 
stock, the antiquity of which is carried back by Egyptian records to the second 
millennium before our era, is fully borne out by the archeological evidence. Very 
similar examples of ceramic manufactures recur over the whole of this vast region. 
The resemblances extend even to minutiz of ornament, as is well shown by the 
examples compared by Dr. Much from the Mondsee, in Upper Austria, from the 
earliest stratum of Hissarlik, and from Cyprus. It is in the same Anatolo-Danubian 
area—as M. Reinach has well pointed out—that we find the original centre of 
diffusion of the ‘Svastika’ motive in the Old World. Copper implements, and 
weapons too, of primitive types, some reproducing Neolithic forms, are also a 
common characteristic, though it must always be remembered that the mere fact 
that an implement is of copper does not of itself necessitate its belonging to the 
earliest metal age, and that the freedom from alloy was often simply due to a tem- 
porary deficiency of tin. Cyprus, the land of copper, played, no doubt, a leading 
part in the dissemination of this early metallurgy, and certain typical pins and other 
objects found in the Alpine and Danubian regions have been traced back by Dr. 
Naue and others to Cypriote prototypes. The same parallelism throughout this 
vast area comes out again in the appearance of a class of primitive ‘idols’ of clay, 
marble, and other materials, extending from Cyprus to the Troad and the Aigean 
islands, and thence to the pile settlements of the Alps and the Danubian basin, 
while kindred forms can be traced beyond the Carpathians to a vast northern 
Neolithic province that stretches to the shores of Lake Ladoga. 
It is from the centre of this old Anatolo-Danubian area of primitive culture, in 
which Asia Minor appears as a part of Europe, that the new A®gean civilisation 
rises from the sea. ‘Life was stirring in the waters” The notion that the 
maritime enterprise of the Eastern Mediterranean began on the exposed and 
comparatively harbourless coast of Syria and Palestine can no longer be main- 
tained. The island world of the 4igean was the natural home of primitive navi- 
gation. The early sea-trade of the inhabitants gave them a start over their 
neighbours, and produced a higher form of culture, which was destined to react on 
that of a vast European zone—nay, even upon that of the older civilisations of 
Egypt and Asia. 
The earlier stage of this Aigean culture culminates in what may conveniently 
be called the Period of Amorgos from the abundant tombs explored by Dr. Diimm- 
ler and others in that island. Here we already see the proofs of a widespread 
commerce, The ivory ornaments point to the South ; the abundance of silver may 
even suggest an intercourse along the Libyan coast with the rich silver-producing 
region of South-eastern Spain, the very ancient exploitation of which has been so 
splendidly illustrated by the researches of the brothers Siret. Additional weight 
is lent to this presumption by the recurrence in these Spanish deposits of pots with 
rude indications of eyes and eyebrows, recalling Schliemann’s owl-faced urns; of 
stone ‘idols,’ practically identical with those of Troy and the Agean islands, here too 
associated with marble cups of the same simple forms; of triangular daggers of 
copper and bronze, and of bronze swords which seem to stand in a filial relation to 
an ‘Amorgan’ type of dagger. In a former communication to this Section I 
ventured to see in the so-called ‘Cabiri’ of Malta—very far removed from any 
Pheenician sculpture—an intermediate link between the Iberian group and that of 
the Aigean, and to trace on the fern-like ornaments of the altar-stone a comparison 
with the naturalistic motives of proto-Mycenzan art, as seen, for instance, on the 
early vases of Thera and Therasia. : 
