Chapter XII: Part 12

The graves of the Neolithic Period not only indicate that mankind generally was endowed with the same gifts as regards the first principles of the art of building, but they also afford us a glimpse of the mental life of that period of civilisation which at a more or less distant period was spread over the whole earth. What is so characteristic is the affectionate care for the corpse, for whose protection no amount of labour and trouble appeared too great. We can have no doubt that this reverence was based on a belief in the immortality of the soul--a belief which we find also at the present day among the most backward and abandoned “savages.” That the prehistoric men of the Stone Age held this belief is proved by the ornaments, weapons, implements, and food placed with the dead for use in the next world. Their burial customs certainly express a kind of worship of departed souls which has played and still plays so important a part in the religious ideas of all primitive peoples, and is one of the oldest fundamental notions common to mankind.

G. Nordenskiöld

HOW STONE AGE MAN WAS BURIED

Photograph of an actual skeleton, in position of burial, taken from
a prehistoric mound grave in North America.
]

A vivid illustration, from an old print, of the purposes of the
mysterious stone circles common in Celtic countries
]

Professor JOHANNES RANKE]

WHEN HISTORY WAS DAWNING

The discovery of Drift Man, his distinction from man of the later Stone Age, the investigation of the Palæolithic and Neolithic strata of culture of Europe and of the whole earth, and the scientific reconstruction of the earliest forms of civilisation based on these, are due solely to the natural-science method of research.

It was only when the exact methods of palæontology and geology had been brought to bear with all their rigour on the study of ancient man by savants schooled in natural science that solid results were obtained. On this sure foundation the science of history now continues building, and uses, even for the later periods, so far as recorded information is not available, and to supplement it, the same methods of palæontology and natural science which were applied so successfully to the earliest stages of the evolution of mankind.

[Sidenote: Time-Table of Prehistoric Periods]

The first point is to collect the relics of the periods of the evolution of culture which follow on the later Stone Age, and to separate them according to geological strata, uninfluenced by those older pseudo-historic fancies by which the deepening of our historical knowledge has so long been hindered. By carefully separating and tracing the earth’s strata till we come to those that furnish remains of times recorded in history, it has been possible to establish first a relative chronology of the so-called later prehistoric periods of Central Europe, whose offshoots pass immediately into recorded history.

By digging, after the same method of palæontological science, through stratum after stratum in the oldest centres of culture, especially in the Mediterranean countries, and by arranging the products by strata--uninfluenced by historical hypotheses--after the same natural-science method of research which has produced such remarkable results in Central Europe, the most surprising conformity in the evolution of culture in widely remote regions has been shown. It was found that in the Mediterranean countries, and also in Egypt and Babylonia, forms of culture already belong to the time of real history which were first recognised in Central Europe as preliminary prehistoric stages of historical strata; so that it was possible also to establish an absolute historical chronology for those instead of the relative prehistoric one.

[Sidenote: Europe’s Prehistoric Night]

Thus times which, as regards Central Europe, were hitherto wrapped in prehistoric night are enlightened by history. Although, as regards Central and Northern Europe, we cannot name the peoples who were the bearers of those forms of culture, and although we disdain to give them a premature nomenclature of hypothetical names, yet their conditions of life and culture and the progressive development of these, in manifold contact and intercourse with neighbouring and even far remote historic peoples and periods, have risen from the darkness of thousands of years; and their relation in time to the latter has been recognised.

Thus prehistoric times have themselves become history. The historical account of every single region has henceforth to begin with the description of the oldest antiquities of the soil that tell of man’s habitation, in order thereby to obtain the chronological connection with the evolution of the history of mankind generally. That is the palæontological method of historical research.

[Sidenote: Landmarks of Early Culture]

The palæontology of man has proved the Stone Age to be a general primary stage of culture for the whole human race. All further general progress in culture was affected by the discovery of the art of metal-working--the extraction of the metals from their ores and the casting and forging of them. The later and latest eras of culture are the Metal Ages, as opposed to the Stone Ages. It is not the use of metal in itself, but the above-mentioned metallurgical arts, that form the criterion of the advance of culture beyond the bounds of the Stone Age. Where, as in some parts of America, native copper was found in abundance, this red malleable mineral could probably be worked in the same way as stone, without any further progress necessarily developing therefrom. The same may apply to meteor-iron, which is said to have been used for arrows, together with stone points, by American tribes who were otherwise in the age of stone and but poorly civilised.

Growth of the stop-ridge

Growth of the wings

THE TRANSITION FROM STONE TO IRON

This series of diagrams, reproduced from specimens in the British
Museum, by permission of the Trustees, shows how the stone axehead
was used as the model for the metal axe or celt, and how that in
turn was modified as workers gained experience in the use of the
metal
]

In civilised lands it is chiefly metal casting and the forging of the heated metal which have made it possible to produce better weapons and tools and more valuable ornaments. The worked metals are first copper, then the alloy of copper and tin that bears the name of classical bronze, and to these are soon added gold and--especially in districts rich in the metal, as in Spain--silver. Later on the extraction of iron from its ores and the forging of that metal are discovered.

According to this course of metallurgical progress the first metal period is distinguished as the Bronze Period, which is begun by a Copper Period lasting more or less long in different places. The second or later metal period is the Iron Period, in which we are living at the present day. In the course of time, by gradually displacing bronze and copper from the rank of metals worked for weapons and tools, this Iron Age has developed to its present stage.

In Central Europe the pile-dwellings in the lakes of Western Switzerland again present us with specially clear and uninterrupted series of illustrations of the progress of culture from the Stone Age to the Iron Age. Ending the Stone Age, we find first a period of transition, in which, while stone continued to be principally employed, a few ornaments, weapons, and tools of metal began to be used. This metal is at first almost exclusively copper, with only very little bronze; iron is quite absent. Copper objects have been found in Western Switzerland by Victor Gross, most extensively in Fenel’s lake-dwelling station, which otherwise still belongs to the Stone Age. The majority of these are small daggers, formed after the pattern of the flint daggers; some already possess rivetings for fastening the blade to a handle. There are also chisels and small awls in bone handles, beads, and small ornamental leaves, and hatchets of the form of the simplest stone hatchets, with the edge hammered out and broadened. Much has proved the existence of a Copper Period corresponding to this description in the lake-dwelling in the Mond See in Austria, and in Hungary the remains of a Copper Period are particularly frequent. Parallel cases also occur in many other parts of Europe, particularly, as Virchow has proved, in the Spanish Peninsula, and in the Stone Age graves of Cujavia in Prussian Poland. These are the more important as they are most closely related to the conditions of culture discovered in the ancient strata of Hissarlik-Troy. Further unmistakable analogies occur with very ancient finds in Cyprus, and probably even with the oldest remains of Babylonian culture hitherto known. Here, too, we may include the finds of copper in the Stone Age of America.

[Sidenote: The Passing of the Stone Age]

So that in the normal and complete evolution of culture there seems to be first a stratum of copper as the connecting link between the Stone and Metal Ages; and this must be missing in those regions in which progress from the stone to the metal culture was only brought about at a relatively later period by external influences. This applies not only to all modern races in an age of stone, who obtained metal in recent times only through contact with European nations who had been living in the Iron Period for thousands of years, but, curiously enough, also to the greater part of Africa, where the use of iron was prevalent at a prehistoric period.

Just as the modern Stone races passed straight from the Stone Age into the most highly-developed Iron Age of the most advanced culture, so also the stone stratum of Central and South Africa is immediately overlaid by a stratum of iron culture, which was brought there in ancient times, probably direct from Egypt. As there is in Egypt and throughout North Africa a regular development from the Copper-bronze Period to the complete iron culture, corresponding to the progress of the metal cultures of Europe and Asia, the point of time is thus chronologically fixed at which this important element of culture was transmitted from Europe to the blacks of Central and South Africa.

Reproduced chiefly from specimens in the British Museum.
]

[Sidenote: Advancing Civilisation in Bronze Age]

In Western Switzerland the transition period of copper is followed without a gap in the development by the Bronze Period proper. With the introduction of bronze all the conditions of life were more highly developed in the sense of increased culture. With better tools the stations of the Bronze Age could be erected at a greater distance from the bank, often two hundred to three hundred yards; the space they take up is also much greater. The piles are not only better preserved, according as the time of their being driven in more nearly approaches our own, but they are also better worked, are often square, and the points that are rammed into the lake-bottom are better cut. The settlements of the Bronze Age often cover an area of several hundred square yards, and are no longer comparatively mean villages, as in the Stone Age; the pile settlements of the Bronze Age are well-organised market towns and even flourishing small cities, where a certain luxury already prevails. The products of their industry are graced by that beauty and elegance of form that only an advanced civilisation can create. As in the Stone Age, so also in the Bronze Age of Central and Northern Europe, the most important working-implement, which was, however, also used as a weapon, was the axe, or celt. The most primitive forms of axes, like the above-mentioned copper axes, still resemble the simple stone axes: like these, they have no special contrivance for fastening the handle. In more developed forms of axes such contrivances for fastening the handle appear first in the form of slight flanges, which become wider and wider; finally they develop into regular wings, which, by curving towards one another, develop into two almost closed lateral semi-canals on the upper side of the celt. In the hollow celts a simple socket for the handle was cast in the making; an additional means of fastening the handle was provided in a loop, which also occurs on winged celts. Besides the celt, or axe-blade, broad and narrow chisels of bronze occur in various forms for working wood. A second chief type of instrument is the one-edged bronze knife with elegantly curved back and a handle tongue.

Seven towns of Troy were built upon this hill, one above the ruins
of the other, the earliest dating from 3000 B.C.; and the brilliant
excavations of Dr. Henry Schliemann, which have won him immortal
fame, have contributed more to our knowledge of the history of
mankind than any other excavations in our time, as on this site is
concentrated a continuous record of man’s progress from the late
Stone Age to the height of Greek civilisation.
]

The manner in which iron was found in the lake-dwellings, as mentioned above, shows the gradual development of a period of transition between a Bronze and an Iron Age. In spite of the difference in the material which the lake-dwellers used for making their weapons and tools in the periods of transition, they still imitate the old forms received from their forefathers. Just as the first metal axes of copper are copies of the stone axes, so also, when iron first became known, were weapons made of this metal which corresponded in form to the bronze weapons that had hitherto been used.

The Bronze Period was first proved to have been a complete form of culture in the North of Europe--in North Germany and Scandinavia. We have now succeeded in establishing the fact that it was a preliminary stage of the Iron Age, in locally original development, in all ancient centres of culture. It is very remarkable that the civilised states of the New World also employed only copper and bronze as working metals. Thus the Peruvians did not know iron any more than the other American peoples until they came in contact with European influences. Besides copper and bronze they had tin and lead, gold and silver. The Peruvian bronzes contain silver to the extent of five to ten per cent. There are axes or celts of bronze similar to the rudest of the first European beginnings in metal corresponding in form to the simple stone axe. Many of the other forms of weapons and implements familiar in the Bronze Age of the Old World were also made of bronze or copper in America; semi-lunar knives with a handle in the middle, lance-heads and arrow-heads, swords, war-clubs like morning stars, etc. At the same time weapons and implements of stone still remained in use.

In the Old World progress beyond bronze is everywhere due to iron.

Dr. Schliemann’s discoveries in the ruins of this temple and the
ruins of older buildings beneath it were among the richest in the
entire annals of archæological research.
]

One place has been found and most completely investigated after the method of palæontological research, with all the help afforded by archæological and historical science, where, in overlying geological strata, the evidences have been found of a progressive development of culture from the end of the Stone Age down to the brilliant days of Græco-Roman history. There the chronological connection has been obtained, not only for the metal periods, but also for the end of the Neolithic Period. This most important place is Troy, the citadel-hill of Hissarlik, by the excavation of which Henry Schliemann has won immortal fame. Schliemann’s excavations, supplemented and completed in decisive manner by Dörpfeld, have brought about the most important advancement of the history of mankind that our age can show.

Nine colossal earthen jars were discovered by Dr. Schliemann in the
depths of the Temple of Athena. They had evidently belonged to some
wine merchant’s cellar in the pre-Hellenic period.
]

Virchow’s name is inseparably associated with Schliemann’s. Furtwängler, in his account, based on personal observation, of the results of the excavations at Troy, has accomplished the great service of exactly determining the chronological connections of the prehistoric with the historic eras, and thereby linking the former to history.

On the spot on which tradition placed Homeric Troy (says Furtwängler) there really has stood a stately citadel, which was contemporaneous with the golden age of Mycenæ, the epoch of the Agamemnon of legend, was intimately related to Mycenæan culture, and at the same time corresponds most exactly to the idea of Troy underlying the old epic.

[Sidenote: Seven Towns on One Hill]

The citadel-hill of Troy terminates a ridge of heights stretching westward from Mount Ida, almost parallel to the Hellespont, and slopes steeply into the Trojan plain or the valley of the Scamander. The natural hill itself is not very high, but it was overlaid by enormous layers of ruins of buildings and walls, whereby it has been considerably increased not only in height, but also in breadth. Stratum after stratum lies one upon the other like the leaves of a bud, so that the history of the habitation of this venerable place from the most ancient times can be read from these strata which have been opened up by Schliemann and Dörpfeld, as from the leaves of a book. The original ground of the hill-plateau now lies some sixty feet above the plain, but the latter may have been raised something like sixteen to twenty feet by alluvial deposits since the Trojan War. The whole stratum of ruins lying on the original ground of the hill, which Schliemann opened up, amounts to about fifty-two and a half feet. Schliemann distinguished seven or eight different layers or strata, corresponding to as many towns which were successively built on this hill, one on the ruins of the other.

The lowest stratum, lying immediately on the original ground, belongs accordingly to the oldest, or first town, on the citadel-hill of Troy. Furtwängler says:

[Sidenote: The First Town of Troy]

By moderate computation this settlement must belong to the first
half of the third millennium before Christ, but it may very well
date back even to the fourth millennium. The inhabitants already
used copper implements in addition to stone ones. Their whole
culture is most closely connected with that which prevailed in
Central Europe during the Copper Period. Clay vessels of the Copper
Period from Lake Mond, in Austria, agree completely with those of
the first Trojan town. Troy represents only an offshoot of Central
European culture, and its inhabitants were in all probability of
European origin.

We have already learned that the Copper Period is the end of the Neolithic Period and the beginning of the Metal Age. In the first Trojan town there is still extraordinarily little metal used, the axes, hatchets, knives, and saws still being of stone, of the familiar Central European types, and of the same materials, among which nephrite is particularly frequent. Other materials are serpentine, diorite, porphyry, hematite, flint, etc.

[Sidenote: The First Period of Troy’s Glory]

The forms of these implements correspond entirely to those of the later Stone Age of Europe. The character of the ceramics also conforms in many respects, according to Virchow, to that of the European Stone Age; and the Stone Age finds at Butmir, in Bosnia, and similar ones in Transylvania seem especially to offer close analogies. It would be a highly important step toward connecting history with the Neolithic Period if the first town could be even more closely investigated, and perhaps more sharply divided from that second stratum which lies between it and the stratum described by Schliemann as the second or burnt city, and which Schliemann afterward separated into two strata, corresponding to two towns. Perhaps the metal comes only from the second or higher stratum under the burnt city. In that case the oldest would belong purely to the Stone Age. The ceramics would seem to contradict this. Furtwängler continues:

High above the first town, a deep layer of débris, is the level
surface of the second town, which must at least be dated back to
the second half of the third millennium before Christ. It was the
first period of Troy’s glory. Mighty walls protected the citadel.
Three different building periods may be distinguished. The walls
were brought out a long way and strengthened, and magnificent new
gates were built. During the third period of this second city a
prince, fond of splendour, had the old narrow gateway replaced by
magnificent propylæa and a large hall-erection with a vestibule.
A great conflagration destroyed his citadel. A treasure was found
by Schliemann--he called it Priam’s treasure--in the upper part of
the citadel wall, which was made of straw bricks. The tools of the
second city are still partly of stone, but also partly of bronze,
so that they already belong to the Bronze Age.

A view of the great substruction wall of the acropolis of the
second city of Troy, on the west side, close to the south-west
gate: (a) is the paved road, which leads from the S.W. gate down
to the plain; (b) is the continuation of the great acropolis-wall
of the second city on the west side of the S.W. gate; (c) is
the foundation of the paved road and the quadrangular pier to
strengthen it; (d) marks the masonry added by the third settlers.
]

[Sidenote: The Early Culture of Troy]

The general character of culture is, according to Furtwängler, still essentially Central European. And yet many an individuality has developed, and the influence of Babylonian culture is everywhere apparent, although it does not go very deep. To this influence our authority chiefly attributes the occurrence of a few pots turned on the wheel, especially flat dishes; for the potter’s wheel was still quite unknown at that time in Europe, and even at a post so far advanced toward the East as Cyprus, while in Egypt and Babylonia it had been in use from the earliest times. In this period also Troy inclines more to Central Europe as its centre of gravity, but remains far behind the peculiar development that bronze work attained there; in the metal tools no advance is made on the forms of the Copper Period. Into any close relation with Cyprus it does not come; only the basis of their culture is common to both. But this basis had a wide range, relics from German districts being often more closely related to the Trojan ones than are those from Cyprus.

The top of the tower is 26 ft. below the surface of the hill. The
foundation is on the rock 46 ft. deep; the height of the tower is
20 ft.
]

The brilliant period of the second city is followed by a long
period of decline for Troy. Ruins are piled upon ruins, walls
rise upon walls, but each poorer than the others; no new citadel
walls, no gates, no palaces belong to this period, in which three
strata--the third, fourth, and fifth towns--are distinguished. The
first half of the second millennium before Christ must at least be
regarded as the time of this deposit. The inhabitants evidently
remained the same, and their culture is that of the second city.
But no progress was made; nothing but stagnation; the same forms of
vessels continue to be made, the same decorated whorls. Naturally,
no active intercourse with abroad could develop in this period.
And yet this was the time when an active civilised life began to
develop on the islands of the Ægean Sea and on the east coast of
Greece, which was to bloom in all its splendour in the following
period. To this time the finds at Thera belong, where the pottery,
all turned on the wheel, is already painted with a so-called
varnish colour which shines like metal, and in which plants,
flowers, and animals are treated in quite a new and promising
naturalistic style hitherto unheard of in Europe. In Cyprus, too,
the decoration of pottery developed exceedingly in wealth and
variety in this period of the Bronze Age. Troy, on the other hand,
is poor and degenerate.

But a new period of prosperity arrived for Troy, too; this is the
sixth town. Rich and powerful princes again ruled in this citadel.
They enlarged it far beyond its former compass. They built strong
new walls--the old ones had long since sunk in ruins--not of small
stones and straw bricks as before, but of large, smooth blocks, and
gates and turrets. They did not have the sloping mound of ruins
levelled, as the lords of the second city had done; they let the
new buildings rise in terraces, on the ruins of the old; stately
mansions with wide, deep halls, covered the acropolis. Constant
intercourse existed with the princes of Greece, who at that
time--the second half of the second millennium before Christ--built
their citadels with cyclopean walls. The Trojans employed the same
peculiar, constantly-recurring small projections in their walls
that we find in a Mycenæan town on Lake Copaïs in Bœotia.

And, above all, the Trojans now provided themselves with those
beautiful vessels painted with shining colour that characterise
Mycenæan culture in Greece, and whose natural style had so
wonderfully developed there on the basis of the attempts that
we found at Thera. In Troy these things caused some imitation,
but the results remained far behind the originals. The living,
imaginative conception of the natural was closed to the Trojan; the
home-made pottery kept, on the whole, to its unpainted vessels,
although these were now almost entirely made on the wheel.

This remarkable collection of regal treasure comprises the key of
the treasure-house (at top of picture in centre); and, under and
about the key, a number of golden diadems, fillets, earrings, and
smaller jewels. On the shelf below there are a number of silver
talents and vessels of silver and gold; while below them is a
series of silver vases and a curious plate of copper. A variety
of weapons and helmet crests of copper and bronze are displayed
beneath, and on the floor are a vessel, a cauldron and a shield,
all made of copper.
]

Yet what chiefly interests us is the historical. The sixth town,
too, was suddenly given up, destroyed, and burnt. What follows it
are again only poor settlements. Its destruction must have taken
place about the end of the Mycenæan epoch of culture. The seventh
town, which is built immediately on the ruins of the sixth, shows,
already, other and later culture. It had long been suspected that
a historical kernel was concealed in the legend of Troy--now we
have the monumental confirmation. There really was a Troy, which
was strong and great at the same time as the rulers of Mycenæ,
rich in gold and treasure, held way in Greece. And that Troy was
destroyed--we may now safely affirm, from this agreement between
relics and legend--by Greek princes of the Mycenæan epoch, whom the
legend calls Agamemnon and his men.

The seventh and eighth towns, built soon after the destruction of the sixth, show an interruption in the intercourse with Greece. There the Mycenæan period was broken by the displacement of peoples known as the Doric migration, and that rich civilised life was replaced by a relapse into the semi-barbaric conditions of the North. In Troy, too, we perceive a period of decline, “a relapse into a stage long since past; black hand-made vessels, which in their form and decoration are strikingly like the home-made pots usual in Italy, especially Etruria and Latium, in the first part of the first millennium before Christ.” Finally, the seventh town also furnishes inferior imported Greek vases with painting, though coming not from Greece itself, but from the coast of Asia Minor, where Greeks had settled in connection with the Doric migration. “The Æolic colonisation of Troas brought Ilium no fresh prosperity. Other places rose, Troy remained a miserable village. In the Hellenistic period the sky clears over Troy. What Alexander intended, Lysimachus carried out; he restores Ilium to the place of a real city with new walls, and erects a magnificent temple to Athene on the top of the acropolis.... Yet artistic creation came to no real perfection. It was only when the great men of Rome, mindful of their Trojan ancestors, began to interest themselves in the place, that new life bloomed on Troy’s ruins.”

* * * * *

Thus the geological-archæological method relates history, merely relying upon the monuments of the soil, without requiring written evidences. Pre-history has here attained its end; it has become history.

JOHANNES RANKE

Some idea of the enormous work involved in unearthing ancient Troy
will be gathered from the fact, made clear in this view, that
the ground-level before excavating was above the height of these
buildings. A deep trench was cut, as shown in the illustration,
through the whole hill of Hissarlik, the citadel town.
]

THE GREAT STEPS IN MAN’S DEVELOPMENT

BY PROFESSOR JOSEPH KOHLER

THE MATERIAL PROGRESS OF MANKIND

The opinion that our own circumstances and affairs are the only standard for judging universal history has long been obsolete. Our day, with its conceptions, beliefs, hopes, and endeavours, is but a tiny portion of the past; for thousands of years peoples have existed who have lived in other intellectual spheres than ours, who have pursued other ideals.

The study of history does not consist in an examination of the past projected, as it were, into the present; it is the study of the past considered as a part of the constant coming and going of men. And in order to become qualified as historians we must first of all attain a point of view from which we may, independently of time, behold history with all its great events file by; as though we were men who had ascended to some elevation in the universe from which they could look down upon the whole earth lying as a unity before them. This is rendered possible through the power of abstraction gained from a study of history; it enables us, on the one hand, to adapt ourselves to strange times and beliefs, and, on the other, to look upon our own day--all time to its contemporary men--objectively, as a mere hour of the ages of human development. We must learn to escape from the present, to withdraw ourselves from that which we may call the tyranny of our own time.

The art of weaving arose from plaiting, and soon developed to
perfection, the American Indians and most primitive peoples of our
own day being skilled weavers.
]

From universal history we obtain a picture of the development of humanity--that is, the development of the various active germs or principles inherent in man. By these are meant the active principles innate in mankind in the aggregate, in contradistinction to those which may exist in single individuals or in single races.

The result of development is called “civilisation”--the state of intellectual being, and of outward, material life, attained by a people through evolution. Although spiritual and material culture flow into each other, they may be separated to this extent: as a physical being endowed with senses, man endeavours to obtain satisfaction of his needs, and strives for a position in relation to his environment corresponding with the efforts he has made to obtain welfare; as a feeling, inquiring, spiritual being he contains within him an ever-present desire to fuse the multitude of separate impressions he receives into unity, and to struggle forward until he arrives at a conception of the world and of life.

B.C. 5000 -| EGYPTO-BABYLONIAN |-
-| OR |-
-| ANCIENT ERA |-
-| |- Building of the Pyramids.
-| |- Earliest monuments to kings
B.C. 4500 -| |- in Babylonia.
-| |-
-| |-
-| |-
-| |-
B.C. 4000 -| |- Rise of Semitic Babylonian
-| |- kingdoms.
-| |-
-| |-
-| |-
B.C. 3500 -| |- Chaldæan Astronomy.
-| |-
-| |-
-| |-
-| |-
B.C. 3000 -| |-
-| |-
-| |-
-| |-
-| |-
B.C. 2500 -| |-
-| |-
-| |-
-| |- Khammurabai.
-| |- Assyrian records.
B.C. 2000 -| |-
-| |-
-| |-
-| |-
-| |-
B.C. 1500 -| |- Hebraic Monotheism.
-| |-
-| |- Zoroaster.
-| |- Ægean Culture.
-| GRECO-ROMAN OR |-
B.C. 1000 -| CLASSICAL ERA |- Hellenic Culture.
-| |-
-| |-
-| |-
-| |- Thales.
B.C. 500 -| |- Buddha. Confucius.
-| |- Socrates.
-| |- Plato. Aristotle.
-| |- Stoics and Epicureans.
-| |-
A.D. 1 -| |-
-| |- Christianity.
-| |-
-| |- Neo-platonists.
-| |-
A.D. 500 -| |- St. Augustine.
-| DARK |-
-| AGES |- Mohammed.
-| |-
-| |- Johannes Scotus.
A.D. 1000 -| |- Avicenna.
-| |- Scholasticism.
-| MEDIÆVAL OR |- Anselm. Abelard.
-| SCHOLASTIC ERA |- Aquinas. R. Bacon.
-| |- Wiclif.
A.D. 1500 -| MODERN |- Copernicus. Luther.
-| SCIENTIFIC |- Francis Bacon. Newton.
-| ERA |-
-| |- Kant. Steam.
A.D. 1900 -| |- Darwin. Electricity.

OUR OWN DAY COMPARED WITH THE HISTORIC PAST

Our day, with its conceptions, beliefs, hopes, and endeavours, is
but a tiny portion of the past; for thousands of years peoples have
existed who have lived in other intellectual spheres than ours, who
have pursued other ideals.
]

“Material civilisation” is the mode of life through which the obstacles opposed to humanity may be overcome. By the surmounting of obstacles is meant the conquering of enemies, particularly of hostile animals, the obtaining of means for the preservation of existence, and the employing of these means for the increase of bodily welfare. In respect of material civilisation man passes through stages that differ widely from one another, that vary according to the manner in which the necessities for existence are obtained, and according to the way in which enemies are withstood for the safeguarding of life, welfare, and acquisitions already gained. Races are spoken of as supporting themselves by the chase and fishing, or by cattle-breeding and farming, according to whether they are accustomed to derive subsistence directly from “nature unadorned,” or by means of the cultivation and utilisation of natural products.

No sharp line of distinction, however, may be drawn. It is inadmissible to speak of races as supporting themselves solely by hunting and fishing, for the very same peoples feed on products of the soil wherever they are found and recognised as means of subsistence. They live, it is true, upon flesh and fish, but also upon roots and the fruit of wild trees. While in this state of civilisation, man avails himself only of that which Nature places before him; he neither adapts Nature to his desire, to his needs, or to his manner of living, nor understands how to do it. He can make no further use of Nature than to acquire a knowledge of the sources of supply, of how to seize time and opportunity, and to overcome the obstacles of life in his own territory. He ascertains the haunts of game, discovers how to obtain fish, explores for wild honey or edible roots, learns to climb the tallest trees and to let himself down into the deepest caves; but he lacks the ability to cultivate Nature, to cause her to produce according to his will.

Gradually the one phase amalgamates with the other. It is not seldom that hunting tribes have small tracts of land on which they raise a few edible plants. Observation of Nature teaches them that germs develop from fallen seeds, and leads of itself to the idea that it is not best to allow plants to grow up wild, and that it would be expedient to clear the surrounding ground for their better growth. And when this stage is reached, the next step--not to allow seeds to spring up by chance, but to place them in the soil one’s self--is not very far off; and thus the mere acquisition of Nature’s raw vegetable products gives place to agriculture. Often enough we observe instances of the men of a group carrying on hunting operations, while the women are not only occupied with their domestic employments, but also till the soil; thus the men are hunters and fishers, and the women are agriculturists. Domestic work led the latter to take up the cultivation of plants, even as it led them to the other light feminine handicrafts; while the repairing of weapons and of contrivances used for the capture of animals lay within the province of the men.

This series of typical pictures is intended roughly to illustrate
the upward progress of man from the almost nude savage to
the neatly and conveniently dressed gentleman of to-day. The
Elizabethan dandy is, of course, as fully dressed as man can be,
and is introduced only as indicating the great change of sartorial
ideas in modern times.
]

The discovery of how to produce fire by artificial means, independently effected in all parts of the world--as was also the discovery of the art of navigation--was of the greatest importance for the entire future. Fire was first a result of chance.

When lightning set a portion of the forest in flames, and caused a multitude of animals or fruits to be roasted, men put it to practical use. They recognised the advantage that fire gave them and sought to preserve it. The retention of the fire which had been sent down from heaven became one of the most weighty and significant of functions. Man learned how to keep wood-fibres smouldering, and how to blow them into flame at will; he also learned that it was possible to convey fire, or the potentiality of fire, along with him in his wanderings. But even then success was uncertain until a lucky chance led him to discover how to produce flames at will, by rubbing two sticks together or by twirling one against the other. These actions were originally performed for other purposes--to bore holes in a piece of wood, or to rub it into fibres; finally, one or the other was carried out with such vigour that a filament began to burn, and the discovery was made. Sparks from flint must have suggested a second method of kindling a fire; certainly the art of igniting soft filaments of wood by means of a spark--thus enabling the very smallest source of combustion to be used for human purposes--was known to man in the earliest times. The obvious results of the use of fire are means of obtaining warmth and of cooking food.

Self-defence had already led to the use of weapons, and, at the same time, the contrivances for hunting and fishing must have become more and more perfect. A very low degree of civilisation is that of races unacquainted with the bow and arrow, and familiar with club or boomerang only--who know how to make use merely of the weight of a substance, or, as in the case of the boomerang, of a peculiar means of imparting motion.

The time previous to the discovery of the art of working in metal was the Age of Stone. It was a natural transition period during which men began to learn to make use of the malleable metals, which could be hammered and beaten into various shapes, and finally discovered how to work in iron. Iron, by being placed in the fire, brought to a white heat, and smelted, was rendered capable of being put to such uses as were impossible in the case of brittle materials--bone or stone, for example. Many races never acquired the art of working even in the softer metals, and procured metallic implements from other peoples. The great importance of metal-working is borne out by the fact that the position of the smith, even in legendary times, has been of the utmost significance. The Ages of Stone and of Metal belong to the most important stages of civilisation.

Having made himself weapons, man did not employ them in fights with animals only; he also used them on his fellow-men, and at the same time arose the necessity for protective coverings--that is, the need for a means of neutralising the effect of weapons on the body. Thus followed the invention of the shield as a portable shelter, of the coat of mail and of the helmet, and of armour in general in all its different forms and varieties.

Together with weapons, utensils are characteristic of material culture. Utensils are implements used in the arts of peace, domestic and industrial; they are instruments which enable us to increase power over Nature. Some utensils have undergone the same transformations as have weapons; others have their own independent history. Just as the edges of shells served as patterns for knife-blades, so did hollow stones, the shells of crustaceans or of tortoises, become models for dishes and basins. From the discovery of the imperviousness of dried earth, the potter’s art developed; it became possible to mould clay into desired shapes while moist, and then, when dry, to employ it in its new form as a vessel for holding liquids; for that which has always been of the greatest importance in the making of utensils has been the taking advantage of two opposite characteristics displayed by a material during the different stages of its manufacture--plasticity, which admits of its first being moulded into various forms, and another quality, which causes it afterward to stiffen into solidity and strength.

Mansell

THE MAN WITH THE HOE

From the painting by Millet
]

Underwood & Underwood

THE WONDERFUL ADVANCE IN AGRICULTURE

These pictures present a striking contrast: the sullen clod with
his primitive hoe, and the great Canadian reaper drawn by thirty
horses, both in use to-day.
]

[Sidenote: Growth of the Textile Arts]

A further acquisition was the art of braiding and plaiting, the joining together of flexible materials in such a way that they held together by force of friction alone. Thus coherent, durable fabrics may be produced, and by joining together small parts into an aggregate it is also possible to give a definite form to the whole and to adapt it to various uses. The quality of adaptability is especially developed in the products of plaiting, but the quality of imperviousness is lacking. Wickerwork was used not only in the form of baskets, but also in other shapes, as means for protection and shelter, as material for sails, as well as for tying and binding. The art of weaving arises from plaiting, and along with it come methods for spinning thread. It thus becomes possible to make an immense number of different useful articles out of shapeless vegetable material. Fibres are rendered more durable by being bound together, and textures formed from threads are adapted to the most various uses of life. This has an influence on the development of weapons also: bow-strings, slings, and lassos presuppose a rudimentary knowledge, at least, of the textile arts; and as knowledge increases, so are the products improved in turn.

The way in which man has protected himself against his foes in
battle, and the gradual progress and decline of such methods,
is shown in these pictures. The first is from the monuments of
Nineveh, and shows the earliest form of chain mail. In the second
we see the armour of the Roman legionary, while the third shows
the heavy accoutrement of a mediæval warrior. A helmet of the same
period is also shown.
]

Means for conveyance are also invented, that difficulties arising from distance may be overcome. At first men carry burdens upon their backs, heads, or shoulders, or in the hand, placing whatever they wish to transport in a utensil--a basket or a piece of cloth--thus producing a coherent whole; later, in order to render conveyance still more convenient, handles are invented. Objects are dragged along the ground, and from an effort to save them from injury the idea of sledges develops. Things that are round enough are rolled to their destinations; this leads to the invention of rollers and wheels, materials of required form being brought into combination with rudimentary agents of circular motion, and thus, through a rotary, a horizontal movement is obtained; and so the force of gravity is made use of, consistency of motion procured, and the hindering effect of friction overcome to the greatest possible degree.

Means for carrying inanimate objects once invented, it is not long before they are put to use for the conveyance of man himself; thus methods for the transportation of human beings are discovered in the same manner as the means for the carriage of goods.

[Sidenote: Man’s First Boats]

In primitive times transportation by water is employed to a far greater extent than by land. Man learns how to swim in the same way as other animals do, by discovering how to repress his struggles, transforming them into definite, regular movements. The sight of objects afloat must, through unconscious analysis--experience--have taught men to make light, water-tight structures for the conveyance of goods upon water, and, later, for the use of man himself. The pole by which the first raft was pushed along developed into the rudder. Kayaks and canoes were built of wood, of bark, and of hides. In this connection, moreover, an epoch-marking invention was that of cloths in which to catch the wind--sails; and this, too, was a result of observation and experience. Man had known the effect of the wind upon fluttering cloth, to his loss, long enough before he hit upon the idea of employing it to his advantage. Finally he learned that by adjusting the sails he might make use of winds blowing from any direction.

The invention of gunpowder and firearms rendered the protection of
armour useless, and by the sixteenth century it had been greatly
modified. The first of these pictures shows the slight armour worn
by James II. The second is a suit of Japanese armour, discarded
in our own time; while the last is a portrait of a present day
Life-guardsman, whose cuirass is more ornamental than useful.
]

[Sidenote: Man’s First Houses]

Habitations are structures built in order to facilitate and assure the existence of man and the preservation of his goods. Indeed, the presence of caverns caused men to recognise the protective virtue of roof and wall, and the knowledge thus acquired gave rise in turn to the making of artificial caves. Holes beneath overhanging banks and precipices led to the building of houses with roofs extending beyond the rambling walls. Perhaps the protection afforded by leafy roofs, and the walls formed by the trunks of trees in primeval forests, may also have turned men’s thoughts to the construction of dwellings. Houses of various forms were built, circular and rectangular; some with store-rooms and hearths. The use of dwellings presupposes a certain amount of consistency in the mode of living, the presence of local ties, and a general spirit favouring fixed and permanent residence. Nomadic races use movable or temporary shelters only--waggons, tents, or huts.

[Sidenote: Home and Dress]

The houses of stationary peoples become more and more firm and stable. At first they are built of earth and wickerwork, later of stone, and finally of bricks, as among the Babylonians. Foundations are invented, dwellings are accurately designed as to line and angle; the curved line is introduced, bringing with it arches both round and pointed, as may be seen in the remains of Roman and Etruscan buildings. The structure is adorned, and it becomes a work of art.

But man also dwelt over the water, sometimes erecting his habitations upon rafts and floats, often upon structures that rose from beneath the surface. Thus was he, dwelling in communities of various sizes, secure from the attacks of land enemies. Even to-day there are uncivilised peoples who live over water, constructing their homes upon piles.

[Sidenote: Taming of the Wild]

Clothing, however, was invented partly that in cold climates men might survive the winter, partly for the sake of ornament. In tropical regions man originally had no knowledge of the necessity for clothing: garments are masks, disguises; they bear with them a charm; they are the peculiar property of the medicine-men or of those who in the religious dance invoke the higher powers. Modesty is a derived feeling; it cannot exist until a high state of individualisation has been attained, until each man desires exclusive possession of his wife, and therefore wishes to shield her from the covetousness of other men. With the knowledge of dress, a desire for adornment, the effort to assist Nature in producing certain definite æsthetic effects, arises. Less uniformity in the appearance of the body is wanted, and this brings tattooing and the use of ornament into vogue. Later there is a fusing of these several aims; clothing becomes protection, veil, and ornament in one, fulfilling all three functions at the same time.

Another epoch-marking discovery, often arrived at while races are still in the state of subsistence by hunting, is the domestication of animals. This may have originated in the practice of provoking one beast to attack another in order to vanquish them both the more easily. Further development, bringing with it the idea of totemism and the notion that the soul of an animal dwells in man, drew him nearer to his animal neighbours; and he sought them out as comrades and attendants. The taming of wild creatures arose from two sources--human egoism, and the innate feeling of unity and identification with Nature common to all savages; hence on the one hand, the subjugation of animals, and, on the other, their domestication. Neither employment rendered it by any means less possible for men to hold animals in reverence, or to attribute to them virtue as ancestral spirits.

Such acquisitions of external culture accompany man during the transition from his subsistence by the pure products of Nature to the cultivation of natural resources, cattle-breeding and agriculture--occupations necessitating the greatest unrest and mobility. The simple life in Nature incites men to wander forth that they may discover land adapted for their support; they rove about in search of roots as well as of living prey. The breeding of domestic animals also causes them to travel in the hope of finding ground for pasture; nor does agriculture in its primitive form tend to establish permanence of residence, although it contains within itself latent possibilities of developing a settled life, one of the most important factors in the progress of mankind.

[Sidenote: Mankind “Settling Down”]

Not only are there lake-dwellers to-day, as we have seen, but even
large communities, as at Canton, in China, live in boats.
]

Only fixed, domestic peoples are able to create great and lasting institutions, to store up the results of civilisation for distant later races, and to establish a developed, well-organised commercial and civil life. The transition from nomadism to life in permanent residences has, therefore, been one of the greatest steps in the development of humanity. At the time of the beginnings of agriculture, however, man was still a periodic wanderer. According to the field-grass system of cultivation, seed is sown in hastily-cleared ground, which soon becomes exhausted and is then abandoned. A migration follows and new land is cleared. This system continues until men learn to cultivate part of the land in a district, allowing the remainder to lie fallow for a time in order that the soil may recover; thus they remain fixed in their chosen district. Various circumstances--for example, the danger of enemies from without, and the difficulties attending migration--must have led to this change, the transition to the system of alternation of crops. The wanderings are confined to less extensive regions, the same fields are returned to after a few years, until finally the relation of patches under cultivation to fallow land is reduced to a system, and the time of wandering is past.

[Sidenote: The coming of the Craftsman]

With fixed residence the forms of communities alter. The group settles in a certain district, homes are built close to one another, and the patriarchal organisation gives place to the village, which, with its definite boundaries, is thenceforth the nucleus of the social aggregate. Often several village communities have fields and forests in common, and a common ownership of dams and canals; Nature takes care that they do not become isolated, but unite together in close contact for common defence and protection. With agriculture is associated the working up of raw products. These are fashioned into materials for the support of life and for enjoyment; furniture for dwellings, clothing, tools, utensils, and weapons are made. For, however much agriculture favours a life of peace, so rarely does man live in friendship with his fellows that agricultural peoples also find it necessary to arm themselves for war.