Apeil 23, 1909] 



/SCIENCE 



663 



Copper was employed first in the Orient. 

 It was known in Egypt as early as the first 

 dynasty, about 5000 B.o. But its use was re- 

 stricted and stone implements, particularly as 

 cutting tools, were very generally employed 

 untU 3000 B.C. The Egyptian influence on 

 the pre-Mycensean civilization is noted and the 

 characteristic stone burial cists of that epoch 

 are described. 



The beginning of the proto-Mycensean 

 epoch is placed at about 2000 B.C. With it 

 appeared pottery of a new and much-im- 

 proved order. The paste was fine, the model- 

 ing excellent and the ornaments in color. 

 This epoch is known in Sicily, southern Italy 

 and Sardinia by the sepulture a forno, so 

 named because of its resemblance to an oven. 

 Tombs of this type were communal and placed 

 by preference in the flank of an escarpment. 

 There also existed in these regions the dolmen 

 proper. The two types of communal tomb are 

 genetically related to the pre-Mycensean stone 

 cist. Strange to say, the dolmens spread to 

 western Europe, Great Britain and Scandi- 

 navia, but did not replace in central Europe 

 the ancient custom of individual burials. 



The epoch of transition from the neolithic 

 to the bronze age is called the " eneolithic " 

 and corresponds to the Mycenaean. It was 

 preeminently the age of the poniard, the spear 

 and the lance coming later. Properly speak- 

 ing, there was no eneolithic epoch in Scandi- 

 navia, although this epoch had a profound in- 

 fluence on northern civilization. For ex- 

 ample, the flat-poled flint ax so characteristic 

 of the north, and which is more recent than 

 the flint ax with pointed pole, seems to have 

 been copied after the copper axes of southern 

 Europe at a time when metal was rare in the 

 north and flint was plentiful. The dolmen 

 also that characterized the eneolithic of the 

 Mediterranean countries was introduced into 

 Scandinavia during the flrst part of the neo- 

 lithic period. The flint mines of Sicily and of 

 Belgium are of the same type; but the former 

 were worked by an eneolithic people and the 

 process was borrowed by the races of Belgium 

 before they emerged from a purely neolithic 

 age. Not only flint, but also obsidian re- 

 mained an article of merchandise well into the 



bronze age. Obsidian is easily traceable to 

 its original sources in Italy, Sicily and cer- 

 tain islands of the ^gean sea. The finest 

 example of the diffusion of flint from a single 

 source is that of the Grand-Pressigny (Indre- 

 et-Loire) which is recognized by its color and 

 has been traced not only all over France, but 

 also into neighboring countries. 



Miiller enumerates the fundamental prin- 

 ciples that should guide one in studying the 

 relations of the central to peripheral civiliza- 

 tions as follows : 



1. Southern Europe represented the active 

 productive civilizing force, while the coun- 

 tries to the north, being peripheral, played a 

 receptive role. 



2. The civilization of the south was trans- 

 mitted only in abridged and modified form; 

 subject in the more remote regions to a further 

 development along entirely new and original 

 lines. 



3. Types of tools, weapons, apparel and 

 ornaments may persist with but little change 

 for a considerable lapse of time. 



4. Elements which along the Mediterranean 

 belonged to successive periods may become 

 contemporaneous in the peripheral regions. 



These principles were understood by the 

 men who founded the science of prehistoric 

 archeology during the last century. MiiUer 

 believes that Montelius would make the pre- 

 historic epochs of the peripheral region follow 

 too closely those of the center. He abo does 

 not agree with Penka that Scandinavia itself 

 was a center, a source of civilization ; nor with 

 Eeinach, who regards Europe as independent 

 of the Orient. 



A chapter is devoted to the closing epoch 

 of the neolithic period in the north, where 

 stone art reached its apogee. The finest ex- 

 amples are the flint poniards that are so com- 

 mon in the dolmens of this epoch and that 

 have their prototype in the bronze age — 

 poniards of southern Europe. No such de- 

 velopment of the later neolithic is to be found 

 in the countries bordering on the English 

 Channel, because the development in stone art 

 was cut short by the introduction of metal 

 at an earlier period. 



Considerable space is given to the My- 



