726 



SCmNGE. 



[N. S. Vol. II. No. 48. 



an organized Bureau of Measures, where 

 astro-photograpliic researches can be carried 

 out for other astronomers who have not the 

 facilities or the means of doing the work 

 themselves. Harold Jacoby. 



CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY (XIII.) 

 ANCIENT METAL INDUSTRY IN THE CAUCASUS. 



A VALUABLE monograph has lately ap- 

 peared, by Professor Eudolph Virchow, in 

 the Proceedings of the Prussian Academy of 

 Sciences under the title, 'The Culture-Histor- 

 ical Position of the Caucasus, with special 

 reference to the ornamented bronze girdles 

 obtained from Trans-Caucasian graves.' 



It appears that from the oldest burial 

 sites in Trans-Caucasia specimens of metal- 

 work are exhumed, remarkably beautiful in 

 design and proving a highly developed 

 technique. Careful studies have shown 

 that this was not an indigenous indus- 

 try. The artists had learned their trade 

 elsewhere, or had immigrated from other 

 lands. They were not in close relation 

 with the contemporary art of Armenia ; 

 nor is the Assyrian or Babjdonian influence 

 especially pronounced, though at limes 

 visible. The art motives are unlike those 

 which prevailed in Europe. Perhaps the 

 connection should be sought with the pre- 

 historic culture of Persia; but of tliis we 

 have at present too few examples to speak 

 of it positively. This much Dr. Virchow 

 makes clear : That the Caucasian art was 

 not developed in situ ; that it was unexpect- 

 edly rich; that it is Oriental in inspiration; 

 and that it points to some older center of 

 culture not yet located. 



ALLEGED WESTERN ORIGIN OF CHINESE CUL- 

 TURE. 



Readers acquainted with the voluminous 

 writings of the late Terrien de La Couperie 

 will recall the zeal with which he expounded 

 and defended the theory that the origin of 

 Chinese culture should be sought in Meso- 



potamia, among the Elamites of Susa. A 

 number of them, he claimed, migrated east- 

 ward, carrying with them an advanced 

 civilization, and appear in Chinese history 

 as the ' Bak ' tribes, those now referred to 

 as the Pe Sing, ' the hundred-named.' He 

 further explained that Pe, Pek, or Bak, was 

 in origin a nomen gentile, non-Chinese in 

 derivation, but assigned a meaning later in 

 that language. These opinions he defended 

 with much vigor. 



They have, however, been completely 

 demolished by M. de Harlez, in the October 

 number of Schlegel's Archives de L'' Orient. 

 His exhaustive discussion of the etj'mology 

 of Pe Sing leaves no doubt of the incorrect- 

 ness of de La Cou^perie's assumption ; and 

 the theory of the extension of the Meso- 

 potamian culture into China, as well as 

 that of the imagined presence of the true 

 Mongolian race in the Euphrates Valley in 

 prehistoric times, are both rudely shaken. 

 In a paper on ' The Proto-historic Ethnog- 

 raphy of Western Asia,' which I published 

 last spring in the Proceedings of the Ameri- 

 can Philosophical Society, I pointed out 

 how frail was the foundation of both as- 

 sumptions. < 



A NEW theory about THE MEDITERRANEAN 

 RACE. 



Prof. Giuseppe Seegi is well known for 

 his extended anthropological studies, and es- 

 pecially for his novel craniological methods. 

 Quite recently he has published a volume 

 of 144 pages with a map and outlines of 

 skull forms, to make known his conclusions 

 on the origin of the Mediterranean race 

 (Origine e Diffusione della Stirpe Mediter- 

 ranea, Roma, 1895). 



After clearing the ground of a number of 

 opinions contrary to his own, he proceeds 

 to demonstrate that the ancestors of the 

 Egj'ptians, Aryans, Libyans, Pelasgians 

 and Etruscans migrated from a ' center of 

 diffusion ' in Africa, near the headwaters 



