The eastern nations and Greece

Front matter

cP-

^ '^-, ■ / . ^0 <

-53 -\ o I.

Preface To The Second Revised Edition

This little book is the first half of the second revised edition of the writer's Ancient History. Several of the original chapters have received important additions, and an entirely new chapter on the pre-Hellenic ^i^gean Civilization has been added.

College Hill, Cincinnati

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. General Introduction : Prehistoric Times .... i II. Races and Groups of Peoples 17

Part I. The Eastern Peoples

III. Ancient Egypt. (From earliest times to 30 b.c.) .... 23

II. The Civilization 34

IV. The Early City-kingdoms of Babylonia and the Old

Babylonian Empire. (From earliest times to 728 b.c.) . 48

II. Arts and General Culture 53

V. The Assyrian Empire. (From an unknown date to 606 b.c.) 64

II. The Civilization 69

VI. The Chaldean Empire. (625-538 b.c.) 75

VII. The Hebrews 79

VIII. Phcenicians, Hittites, and Lydians 87

I. The Phoenicians 87

II. The Hittites 91

III. The Lydians 93

IX. The Persian Empire. (558-330 b.c.) 95

II. Government, Religion, and Arts lOO

X. The East Asian Peoples 106

I. India 106

II. China no vi CONTENTS

Part II. Greece Chapter Page

XI. The Land and the People 114

XII. Prehistoric Times according to Greek Accounts . i2t

XIII. The y^GEAN Civilization 128

XIV. The Heritage of the HisTORfc Greeks 140

I. Political Institutions 1 40

II. Religious Ideas and Institutions 143

III. Language, Mythology, Literature, and Art 151

XV. Early Sparta and the Peloponnesian League . . 154

XVL The Age of Colonization and of Tyrannies . . 162

I. The Age of Colonization. (About 750-600 B.C.) . . . 162

II. The Tyrannies. (About 650-500 B.C.) 171

XVII. The History of Athens up to the Persian Wars 177 XVIII. Hellas Overshadowed by the Rise of Persia :

Prelude to the Persian Wars 187

XIX. The Persian Wars. (500-479 b.c.) 191

XX. The Making of the Athenian Empire. (479-445 b. c.) 207

XXI. The Age of Pericles. (445-431 b.c.) 212

XXII. The Peloponnesian War; the Spartan and the

Theban Supremacy 226

I. The Peloponnesian War. (431-404 B.C.) 226

II. The Spartan and the Theban Supremacy 240

XXIII. The Greeks of Western Hellas. (413-336 b.c.) . . 248

XXIV. The Rise of Macedonia: Reign of Philip II. (359-

XXV. Alexander the Great. (336-323 b.c.) 256

XXVI. The GRiECO-ORiENTAL World from the Death of Alexander to the Conquest of Greece by the

I. Hellenistic Culture 266

II. Macedonia • 268

III. Continental Greece 269

IV. Rhodes 273

V. Pergamum 274

VI. The Syrian Kingdom 276

VII. The Kingdom of the Ptolemies in Egypt 278

CONTENTS vii

CHAPTER HAGK

XXVIl. Greek Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting . 283

I. Architecture 284

II. Sculpture 290

III. Painting 298

XXVIII. Greek Literature 302

I. Introductory 302

II. The Period before 475 B.c 303

III. The Attic or Golden Age. {475-300 b. c.) . . . . 305

IV. The Alexandrian Age. (300-146 B.C.) 314

XXIX. Greek Philosophy and Science 317

XXX. Social Life of the Greeks 329

INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY 343

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

(After photographs, and from cuts taken from Baumeister's Denkmaeler des klassischen Alieiiiints, Oscar Jaeger's Weltgeschichie, Schreiber's Atlas of Classical Antiquities, and other reliable sources.)

FIGURE PAGE

1. Implements of the Old Stone Age 2

2. Engraving of a Mammoth on the Fragment of a Tusk 3

3. Engraving on a Reindeer Antler 3

4. Wall Painting from the Cavern of Font-de-Gaume, France .... 4

5. Implements of the New Stone Age 5

6. A Prehistoric Egyptian Tomb 6

7. Typical Megalithic or Huge Stone Monuments 7

8. A Restoration of Swiss Lake Dwellings of the Later Stone Age . . S

9. Primitive Methods of making Fire 9

10. Indian Picture Writing 13

11. Stonehenge 15

12. Negro Captives 18

13. Ploughing and Sowing 24

14. Reaping the Grain 24

15. Ivory Statuette of a King of the First Dynasty 26

16. Khufu, Builder of the Great Pyramid 27

17. The "Sheikh-el-beled" 28

18. The Scribe 29

19. Amenhotep IV and Family Bestowing Gifts 30

20. Detail of Relief Portraying Victory of Rameses II over the Kheta

at Kadesh, on the Orontes 31

21. Phalanx of the Hittites 32

22. Brick-Making in Ancient Egypt 33

23. Forms of Egyptian Writing 35

24. The Rosetta Stone 36

25. Two Royal Names in Hieroglyphics 37

26. Mummy of a Sacred Bull 38

27. Profile of Rameses II 40

28. Mummy Case with Mummy 41

29. Servant for the Underworld 42

30. The Judgment of the Dead 43

31. An Egyptian Obelisk 44

32. Tubular Drill Hole 45

33. A Scarab Amulet 45

X LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FIGURE PAGE

34. Ancient Babylonian Canal 49

35. Impression of a Seal of Sargon I 51

36. Door Socket of Sargon I 52

37. Excavation showing Pavements in a Court of the Temple of Bel

at Nippur 54

38. Cuneiform Writing 55

39. Table showing the Development of the Cuneiform Writing .... 55

40. Babylonian Tablet 56

41. Contract Tablet 56

42. Diorite Seated Statue of Gudea, Ruler of Lagash (Shirpurla) ... 59

43. Writing-exercise Tablets of a Child 60

44. Hammurabi Receiving the Code from the Sun-god 61

45. Restoration of Sargon's Palace at Khorsabad 66

46. Transport of a Winged Bull 1 67

47. An Assyrian Kelek 68

48. An Assyrian King and his Captives 69

49. Excavating an Assyrian Palace 70

50. Emblem of Ashur, the Supreme Deity of Assyria 71

51. Restoration of a Court in Sargon's Palace at Khorsabad 72

52. Assyrians Flaying Prisoners Alive -j^

53. Lion Hunt 73

54. Restoration of the Southern Citadel of Babylon 76

55. Babylonian Lion 77

56. The Place of 'Wailing 83

57. The Later Temple at Jerusalem as Enlarged and Beautified by Herod 85

58. Species of the Murex . . ; 87

59. Phoenician Galley 88

60. Table showing the Development of English Letters from the

Phoenician 90

61. The Hittite God of the Sky 91

62. Caravan Crossing the Taurus 92

63. Hittite Hieroglyphic Writing 92

64. Croesus on the Pyre 96

65. The Tomb of Cyrus at Pasargadae 97

66. Insurgent Captives brought before Darius 98

67. Traces of the Royal Road of Darius 99

68. The Behistun Rock 99

69. Rock-cut Tomb of Darius I, near Persepolis ico

70. Ancient Persian Fire-altars 102

71. The King in Combat with a Monster Symbolizing Ahriman .... 103

72. The Ruins of Persepolis 104

73. Showing the Derivation of Modern Chinese Characters from

Earher Pictorial W^riting 1 1 1

74. Gallery in the South Wall at Tiryns 115

75. The Plain of Olympia 116

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xi

FIGURE 1>A<;E

76. The Labyrinth 122

77. Theseus and the Minotaur . , 123

78. The Lions' Gate at Mycenae 125

79. Battle at the Ships between the Greeks and Trojans 126

80. Hissarhk, the Probable Site of Ancient Troy 128

81. Grave Circle at Mycenae 129

82. Inlaid Sword Blades Found at Mycena; 130

83. Great Magazines, or Storerooms, of the Palace at Cnossus . . . . 131

84. Fresco of a Young Cup-bearer 132

85. A Cnossian Seal Impression 133

86. Theater and " Dancing-place " (?) Excavated at Cnossus by

Dr. Evans 134

87. Cretan Linear Tablet with Chariot and Horse 134

88. The So-called " Throne of Minos " 135

89. Group of Gods and Goddesses 144

90. The Carrying off of Persephone by Hades to the Underworld; her

Leave-taking of her Mother Demeter 145

91. Apollo 146

92. Greek Runners 147

93. Racing with Four-horse Chariots 148

94. Battle between Greeks and Amazons 152

95. Sparta, with the Ranges of the Taygetus in the Background ■ . • 15S

96. Ruined Temples at Paestum 168

97. Coin of Cyrene 170

98. Coin of Corinth 170

99. The Bema, or Orator's Stand, on the Pnyx Hill, Athens .... 178 100. The Athenian Tyrannicides, Harmodius and Aristogiton .... 183 loi. Ostrakon with Name of Themistocles 197

102. Hoplite, or Heavy-armed Greek Warrior 205

103. A Memorial of the Battle of Plataea 206

104. Pericles 213

105. The So-called Theseum at Athens 218

106. The Caryatid Porch of the Erechtheum 220

107. Alcibiades 233

108. Coin of Syracuse 249

109. Demosthenes 253

no. Alexander the Great 257

111. The So-called Sarcophagus of Alexander 264

112. The Dying Gaul 274

113. A Restoration of the Great Altar of Zeus Soter at Pergamum . . 275

114. Showing the Influence of the Master-form of the Pharos on the

Evolution of the Moslem Minaret and the Christian Church

Tower 280

115. Orders of Greek Architecture 284

116. The Parthenon 287 xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FIGURE PAGE

117. The Theater of Dionysus at Athens 289

118. Stadium at Athens 290

119. The Wrestlers 291

120. Stele of Aristion 291

121. The Charioteer 292

122. Throwing the Discus, or Quoit 293

123. Athenian Youth in Procession 294

124. Athena Parthenos 295

125. Head of the Olympian Zeus by Phidias 295

126. Nike, or Victory, of Pasonius 296

127. Hermes with the Infant Dionysus 297

128. The Nike, or Victory, of Samothrace 298

129. Aphrodite of Milos 298

130. The Laocoon Group 299

131. Portrait in Wax Paint 300

133. Hoeing and Ploughing 304

134. Bacchic Procession 306

135. Sophocles 308

136. Euripides 309

137. Herodotus 311

138. Thucydides 312

139. Socrates 321

141. Aristotle 323

142. Pedagogue and Children 330

143. A Greek School 331

144. A Banquet Scene 333

LIST OF PLATES

PLATE PAGE

I. The Parthenon. (A restoration ; in colors) Frontispiece

II. Paintings on the Walls of Caverns, by the Hunter-Artists of the

Old Stone Age. (After Breuil; in colors) 6

III. The Great Sphinx and the Pyramids of Gizeh. (From a photo-

graph) 26

IV. Ruins of the Great Hall of Columns at Karnak. (From a photo-

graph) 30

V. Fa9ade of Rock Temple at Ipsambul. (From a photograph) . . 34 VI. A Restoration of the Hall of Columns at Karnak. (From Liibke,

History of Art \ in colors) 42

VII. "The Frieze of the Archers," from the Palace of Darius at Susa.

{^h.iX.^xyi.Yy\t.\x\3.ioy,L''AcropoledeSuse; in colors) 102

VIII. The Vaphio Cups and their Scrolls. (From photographs and

drawings) 138

IX. The Acropolis of Athens. (From a photograph) 178

X. The Piraeus and the Long Walls of Athens. (A restoration) . . 210

XI. A Restoration of the Acropolis of Athens 218

XII. The Mourning Athena. (From a photograph) 228

XIII. General View of Olympia. (A restoration) 286

LIST OF MAPS

Colored Maps

(After Kiepert, Schrader, Droysen, Spruner-Sieglin, and Freeman. The Freeman

charts have been so modified by omissions and additions that most of them as they here appear are virtually new maps.) '

PAGE

The Ancient World, showing Areas occupied by Hamites, Semites, and

Indo-Europeans i8

Assyrian Empire, about 660 B.c 66

Median and Babylonian Empires, about 600 B.c 78

The Division of Solomon's Kingdom, about 953 B.c 82

The Persian Empire at its Greatest Extent, about 500 B.c 98

General Reference Map of Ancient Greece 114

Greece and the Greek Colonies 162

The Greek World at the Beginning of the Peloponnesian War, 431 B.C. 226

Empire of Alexander the Great, about 323 b.c 258

Sketch Maps

The Tigris-Euphrates Valley . . . , 50

The World according to Homer 143

Magna Grascia and Sicily 167

Plan of the Battle of Marathon 194

Map Illustrating the Invasion of Greece by Xerxes 200

Athens and Salamis 204

Athens and her Long WalLs 210

March of the Ten Thousand Greeks 241

Plan of the Battle of Leuctra, 371 b.c 244

THE EASTERN NATIONS AND GREECE

Chapter I General Introduction: Prehistoric Times

1. The Prehistoric and the Historic Age. The immensely long periods of human life which lie back of the time when man began to keep written or graven records of events form what is called the Prehistoric Age. The comparatively few centuries of human experience made known to us through such records comprise the Historic Age. In Egypt we find records which date from the fifth or fourth millennium B. c. ; so for that land the historic period begins six or seven thousand years ago. For Babylonia it begins several centuries later than for 'Egypt For the Mediterranean regions of Europe it opens about looo B.C.; for the countries of central and northern Europe, speaking broadly, not until about the beginning of our era ; and for the New World only a little over four hundred years ago.

2. How we Learn about Prehistoric Man. A knowledge of what manner of man prehistoric man was and what he did is indispensable to the historical student ; for the dim prehistoric ages of human life form the childhood of the race — and the man cannot be understood without at least some knowledge of the child.

But how, in the absence of written records, are we to find out anything about prehistoric man .-• In many ways we are able to learn much about him. First, by studying the life of present-day backward races ; for what they now are, the great races of history, we have reason to believe, were in their prehistoric age.

Again, the men who lived before the dawn of history left behind them many things which witness as to what manner of men they were. In ancient gravel beds along the streams where they fished or hunted, in the caves which afforded them shelter, in the refuse heaps

[§3

(kitchen middens) on the sites of their villages or camping places, or in the graves where they laid away their dead, we find great quantities of tools and weapons and other articles shaped by their hands.-^ From these various things we learn what skill these early men had acquired as tool makers, what degree of culture they had attained, and something of their conception of the life in the hereafter.

Fig. I. Implements of the Old Stone Age

No. I, the core of a flint nodule, was the earliest and the characteristic tool and weapon of Paleolithic man. It served a variety of purposes, and was used without a handle, being clutched with the hand (No. 9), and hence is called the hand-ax or fist-ax. No. a is a flint flake struck from a nodule. No. 5 (a harpoon-point) tells us that the man of this age was a fisher as well as a hunter. From No. 6 (a bone needle) we may infer that he made clothing of skins, for since he had not yet learned the art of weaving (the spindle-whorl does not appear till the next epoch ; see Fig. 5 and explanatory note), the material of which he made clothing could hardly have been anything else than the skins of animals killed in the chase. That skins were carefully prepared is evidenced by the scraper (Nos. 4, //), an implement used in dressing hides. No. 7 (an engraving-tool) tells us that art had its beginnings in Paleolithic times

3. Divisions of Prehistoric Times. The long period of prehistoric times is divided into different ages, or stages of culture, which are named frojn the material which man used in the manufacture of his weapons and tools. The earliest epoch is known as the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age ; the following one as the Neolithic or New Stone

1 Besides these material things that can be seen and handled, there are many immaterial things — as, for instance, language, which is as full of human memories as the rocks are of fossils — that light up for us the dim ages before history (see sect. 10).

§4]

THE PALEOLITHIC OR OLD STONE AGE

Age ; and the later period as the Age of Metals. The division lines between these ages are not sharply drawn. In most countries the epochs run into and overlap one another, just as in modern times the Age of Steam runs into and overlaps the Age of Electricity.

4. The Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. In the Old Stone Age man's chief implements were usually made of stone, and especially

of chipped flints, though bones, horns, tusks, and other material were also used in their manufacture.

These rude implements and weapons of Paleolithic man, found mostly in river gravel beds and in caves, are the very oldest things in existence which we know positively to have been shaped by human hands.

The man of the Old Stone Age in Europe saw the retreating glaciers of the great Ice Age, of which geology tells us. Among the animals which lived with him on that continent (we know most of early man there) were the woolly-haired mammoth, the bison, the wild ox, the cave bear, the rhinoceros, the wild horse, and the reindeer — species which are no longer ^_____^_ ^.^.^_^. , . ,

Fig. 2. Engraving of a Mammoth on

THE Fragment of a Tusk^

(Old Stone Age)

Fig. 3. Engraving on a Reindeer Antler.i (Old Stone Age)

found in the regions where primitive man hunted them.

As the climate and the vegetation changed, some of these animals became extinct, while others of the cold-loving species retreated up the mountains or migrated towards the north. What we know of Paleolithic man may be summed up as follows : he was a hunter and fisher ; his habitation was often merely a cave or a rock shelter ; his implements were in the main roughly shaped flints ;

1 These interesting art objects are from France. They represent the earliest artistic efforts of man of which we have knowledge. In comparison with them the pictures on the oldest Egyptian monuments are modem.

he had no domestic animals save possibly the dog ; he was ignorant of the arts of spinning and weaving, and practically also of the art of making pottery.^

The length of the Old Stone Age no one knows ; we do not attempt to reckon its duration by centuries or by millenniums even, but only by geologic epochs. But we do know that the long slow epochs did not pass away without some progress having been made by primeval man, which assures us that though so lowly a creature, he was endowed with the capacity for growth and improvement. Before

the end of the age he had acquired wonderful skill in the chipping of flint points and blades ; he had learned the use of fire, as we know from the traces of fire found in the places where he made

his abode ; and he had prob- FiG. 4. Wall Painting from the

Cavern OF Font-de-Gaume, France ably invented the bow and (After Breuil) arrow, as we find this weapon

in very general use at the opening of the following epoch. This important invention gave man what was to be one of his chief weapons in the chase and in war for thousands of years — down to and even after the invention of firearms late in the historic period.

But most prophetic of the great future of this savage or semisavage cave man of the Old Stone Age was the fine artistic talent that some tribes or races of the period possessed ; for, strange as it may seem, among the men of this epoch there were some amazingly good artists. Besides numerous specimens of his drawings and carvings of animals, chiefly on bone and ivory, which have been found from time to time during the last half century and more, there have recently been discovered many large drawings and paintings on the walls of various grottoes in southern France and northern Spain. ^ These wonderful

1 The Australians and New Zealanders when first discovered were in the Paleolithic stage of culture ; the Tasmanians had not yet reached it.

2 Xhe first of these wall paintings were discovered in 1879, but that they really were of the immense age claimed for them was not established beyond all doubt until

§4]

THE PALEOLITHIC OR OLD STONE AGE pictures are in the main representations of animals. The species most often represented are the bison, the horse, — one species being like the Celtic pony of to-day, — the wild ox, the reindeer, and the mammoth. This astonishing art of the European cave men shows that primitive man, probably because he is a hunter and lives so close to the wild life around him, often has a keener eye for animal forms and movements than the artists of more advanced races ; for as a

Fig. 5. Implements of the New Stone Age

These tools and weapons mark a great advance over the chipped flints of the Old Stone Age (Fig. 1). They embody the results of thousands (perhaps tens of thousands) of years of human experience and invention, and mark the first steps in human progress. Nos. i-s and y-io show how after unmeasured ages man had learned to increase the effectiveness of his tools and weapons by grinding them smooth and sharp, and by fitting handles to them. No. j records the incoming of the art of making pottery — one of the most important industrial arts prior to the Age of Iron. No. 6 (a spindle-whorl of stone or of hardened clay used as a weight in twisting thread) informs us that man had learned the civilizing arts of spinning and weaving

high authority asserts, " in some respects the art of these hunter painters has never been surpassed or even equaled." The history of art (sculpture, engraving, and painting) must hereafter begin with the works of these artist hunters of the Paleolithic time.^

1902 (see Cartailhac et Breuil, La Cavcrnc (f Altmmra, 1906 ; and Perony, La Cavcrnc dc Font-dc-Gaumc , 1910). The pictures are generally found in the depths of caverns where not a ray of the light of day ever enters. They were made by the light of lamps fed with the fat of animals. It is almost certain that they had a magical purpose, that is, were made in the belief that by a species of magic they would cause an increase of the game animals represented, or would render them a sure prey in the chase.

1 See Reinach, Apollo (1900), chap, i; also Art. " Painting," Encyc. Brit., nth ed.

5. The Neolithic or New Stone Age. The Old Stone Age was followed by the New.^ Chipped or hammered stone implements still continued to be used, but what characterizes this period was the use of ground or polished implements. Man had learned the art of grinding his tools and weapons to a sharp edge with sand on a grinding stone.^ To his ax he had also learned to attach a handle, which made it a vastly more effective implement

Besides these improvements in his tools and weapons, the man of the New Stone Age had made other great advances beyond the man of the Old Stone Age. He had learned to till the soil ; he had learned to make fine pottery, to spin, and to weave ; he had domesticated various wild animals ; though like Paleolithic man he sometimes lived in caves, he built houses, often on piles on the margins of lakes and morasses (Fig. 8) ; and he buried his dead in such a manner — with accompanying gifts (Fig. 6) — as to show that he had a firm belief in a future life.^

The later period of this New Stone Age was marked by the beginnings of architecture. In many regions, particularly in western Europe, the men of this age began to construct rude tombs and other monuments of huge undressed stones — often of blocks so immense that it must have required the

Fig. 6. A Prehistoric

Egyptian Tomb

(After/, de MoTgan)

Primitive man's belief in a future life led him to place in the grave of the deceased weapons, implements, food, and articles of personal adornment for use in the other world (cf. sects. 37-40). Outfits of this kind found in prehistoric graves are an important source of our knowledge of man before recorded history begins

1 Some archaeologists put a period, which they name the Middle Stone Age, between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic Age. Most, however, consider this period merely a subdivision of the Old Stone Age.

2 The North American Indians were in this stage of culture at the time of the discovery of the New World. The Egyptians and Babylonians were just emerging from it when they first appeared in history.

3 Recent discoveries have revealed traces of this belief even before the close of the Paleolithic period. Several cases of burial have been found with rich grave outfits of flint implements and weapons, which point unmistakably to a belief in a life after death.

i

Plate II. Ri:mark.\1!I.k Paintings on the Walls ok Caverns, i;v the Hunter-Artists of the Old Stone Age. (After Breuil ; see p. 4, n. 2)

§6]

THE AGE OF METALS united strength of a thousand or more men to haul them and to set them up. The most common forms of these monuments are shown in the accompanying cut (F4g. 7).

The Neolithic stage of culture lasted several thousand years — the length of the period varying of course in the different lands — and was widespread. The relics of Neolithic man are found on all the continents. In Egypt, in Babylonia, in Greece, in Italy, and in other

Fig. 7. Typical Megalithic or Huge Stone Monuments

A single stone (No. /) is called a menhir, and a large stone resting on smaller ones (No. 2) a dolmen. Prehistoric stone monuments of these and other types are found in almost all parts of the world, but in especially great numbers in western Europe and North Africa. The oldest of these monuments date from the later Stone Age. They doubtless served various purposes. Some were the tombs of great persons, some were man's first temples, others marked sacred spots, and still others were probably erected to preserve the memory of great events lands the historic development grew directly out of this Stone Age culture. It thus formed the basis of the civilizations of all the great peoples of the ancient world.

6. The Age of Metals. Finally the long ages of stone passed into the Age of Metals. This age falls into three subdivisions — the Age of Copper, the Age of Bronze, and the Age of Iron. Some peoples, like the African negroes, passed directly from the use of stone to the use of iron ; but in most of the countries of the Orient and of Europe the three metals came into use one after the other and in the order named. Speaking broadly, we may say that the Age of Metals began for the more advanced peoples of the ancient world between 3000 and 4000 B.c.^

The history of metals has been declared to be the history of civilization. Indeed, it would be almost impossible to overestimate their importance to man. Man could do very little with stone implements

Fig. 8. A Restor.4.tion of Swiss Lake Dwellings of the Later Stone Age. (From Keller, Lake Dwellings)

This mode of building on piles in the shallow water of lakes, begun (as a means of

protection against enemies) by the men of Neolithic times, was continued far into

the Bronze Age, as proved by the bronze objects found in the mud on the sites of

ancient pile-villages in Switzerland and elsewhere

compared with what he could do with metal implements. It was a great labor for primitive man, even with the aid of fire, to fell a tree with a stone ax and to hollow out the trunk for a boat. He was hampered

1 The limited use of copper seems to have begun among the peoples of the Orient some centuries before this date — in Egypt about 3500 B.C. But copper is a soft metal, and tools and weapons made of it were not so greatly superior to the stone ones then in use as to put them out of service. But either by accident or through experiment it was discovered that by mixing about nine parts of copper with one part of tin a new metal, called bronze, much harder than either tin or copper, could be made. So greatly superior were bronze implements to stone that their introduction caused the use of stone for tools and weapons to be practically discontinued, and consequently the Age of Bronze constitutes a well-defined and important epoch in the history of culture.

§7] THE DOMESTICATION OF FIRE 9

in all his tasks by the rudeness of his tools. It was only as the bearer of metal implements and weapons that he began really to subdue the earth and to get dominion over nature. All the higher cultures of the ancient world with which history begins were based on the knowledge and use of metals.

7. The Domestication of Fire. In this and the immediately following sections we shall dwell briefly upon some of the special discoveries and achievements, several of which have already been mentioned, marking important steps in man's progress during the prehistoric ages.

Fig. 9. Primitive Methods ok making Fire. (After Tylor)

Doubtless the discovery that fire could be produced by friction came about through the operation of the primitive toohnaker. The processes of smoothing, polishing, and grooving softwood implements, and of boring holes in them with pieces of harder wood, could hardly fail of revealing the secret. The character of the fire-making devices of present-day savages point the way of the discovery

Prominent among the achievements of early man was the domestication of fire. The origin of the use of fire is hidden in the obscurity of primeval times. That fire was known to Paleolithic man we learn, as already noted, from the traces of it discovered in the caves and rock shelters which were his abode. No people has ever been found so low in the scale of culture as to be without it.

As to the way in which early man came into possession of fire, we have no knowledge. Possibly he kindled his first fire from a glowing lava stream or from some burning tree trunk set aflame by the lightning.^ However this may be, he had in the earliest times learned to produce the vital spark by means of friction. The fire borer, according to Tylor, is among the oldest of human inventions. Since the