HOW OLD IS MAN? 



127 



Europe; did not give rise to a single 

 species of man 



Mr. Osborn's conclusions are stated 

 tentatively — that is, scientifically — as 

 strong probabilities, not certainties. They 

 are as follows, and they represent the 

 conclusions which are in accord with our 

 present knowledge. 



From the earliest Paleolithic to Neo- 

 lithic times western Europe was never a 

 center of human evolution. It did not 

 give rise to a single species of man, nor 

 did there occur therein any marked evo- 

 lution or transformation of human types. 

 The main racial evolution took place to 

 the eastward, whence at first primitive 

 and afterward modern types of men 

 found their way westward. 



Of all the races of Paleolithic man 



which appeared in Europe, no one was 

 ancestral to any other ; they all succes- 

 sively arrived fully formed. Therefore 

 the family trees or lines of descent of the 

 races of the Old Stone Age consist of a 

 number of entirely separate branches, 

 which had been completely developed in 

 the eastern mass of the great Eurasiatic 

 continent. 



The sudden appearance in Europe, 

 some 25,000 years ago, of a human race 

 with a high order of brain was not a local 

 leap forward, but the result of a long 

 process of evolution elsewhere. Through- 

 out the whole period there was a long, 

 slow process of checkered progress, 

 marked by the rise and fall of races, of 

 cultures, and of industries. It is a fasci- 

 nating subject, and no one has dealt with 

 it as ablv as Mr. Osborn. 



THE CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION 



The Historic Lands Along the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers 

 Where Briton Is Fighting Turk 



By James Baikie 



Author op "Sea Kings of Crete" and "The Resurrection oe Ancient Egypt" 

 in the National Geographic Magazine 



IN THE southwestern corner of the 

 great continent of Asia, between the 

 Persian Gulf and the border of that 

 great elbow known as Asia Minor, which 

 the continent thrusts out westward, there 

 lies a land whose influence upon the his- 

 tory of the human race it would scarcely 

 be possible to overestimate. ' 



This is the place which is generally 

 recognized to have been the original home 

 of the human race, where, in dim and 

 misty ages before history began, men first 

 attempted to form themselves into organ- 

 ized communities, where the Hebrew race 

 found its origin, and whence their first 

 leader, Abraham, went out in search of 

 the land which he should afterward re- 

 ceive for an inheritance. 



It is a long and comparatively narrow 

 stretch of country, running up from the 

 Persian Gulf toward the Taurus Moun- 

 tains and that lofty tableland which we 

 now know as Armenia. On its northern 



and northeastern side it is bordered by a 

 fringe of mountains, gradually sloping 

 up toward the great northern ranges. On 

 the southern and southwestern side it 

 fades away into the great Arabian desert 

 (see map, page 216). 



source oe Mesopotamia's fertility 



Par up in the tableland of Armenia, 

 about 800 miles in a straight line from. 

 the gulf, rise two great rivers — the Ti- 

 gris and the Euphrates. The former 

 breaks through the mountain wall of the 

 tableland on its eastern flank and flows 

 in a southeasterly direction throughout 

 almost its entire course. 



The latter breaks through on the west- 

 ern flank and flows at first westward, as 

 though making for the Mediterranean. 

 It then turns south and flows directly 

 southward for awhile : then sweeps 

 around in a great bend to the southeast 



