The Origins of Civilization

Author(s): James Henry Breasted

Reviewed work(s):
Source: The Scientific Monthly, Vol. 9, No. 6 (Dec., 1919), pp. 561-577
Published by: American Association for the Advancement of Science
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/6850 .
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 THE ORIGINS OF CIVILIZATION 561

THE ORIGINS OF CIVILIZATION'

By ProfessorJAMES HENRY BREASTED
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

S
FROM THE OLD STONE AGE TO THE DAWN OF CIVILIZATION. III
T
UCH forcesgraduallybrought
abouttheunionoftwostates
on the Nile: in the northa kingdomof the delta commonly
known as Lower Egypt; and in the south a kingdomof the
valleyabove the delta,whichwe usuallycall Upper Egypt. The
kingdomof Upper Egyptwas evidentlythe older. Side by side
the two existed for centuries,each gaining its own traditions,
symbolsand insigniawhichsurvivedin historictimesfor thou-
sands of years. In early dynasticreliefslike Fig. 41, we see

FIG. 41. TTITUIPH OFS A PHARAOH AT TIlE BEGLINS IG TIlE

OF DYI.PSTIC AGE. On
the right, the king wears the white crown of Upper Egypt; on the left (top scene,
left end) he wears the spiral-crowned diadem of Lower Egypt. Relief scenes on
a
magnificent ceremonial palette of sidte. (From Quibell,
"HieraNkonpolis."

the tall white crown worn by the prehistorickings of Upper

Egypt, and also the curious spiral-crownedred diadem which
regularlydistinguishedthe King of Lower Egypt. In a pre-
historicstrugglewhichmusthave gone on for generations,the
king of Upper Egypt,he of the tall whitecrown,conqueredhis
VOL VII. --36.
562 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

northernrival of Lower Egypt,him of the curious red crown,

and united Egypt under one sovereignty. Thus probablynot
morethan a centuryafterthe middleof the fourthmillennium
B.C., emergedthe firstgreat state in history. In commemora-
tion of his double sovereigntyover the two prehistoricking-
doms,the Pharaoh, as we may begin to call him,assumed and
wore the crownsof both states,as we see this king here doing
on two differentoccasions. It is interestingto findhim still
wearingthe symbolof his huntingancestry-the tail of a wild
animal appendedto his girdlebehind.
Such monumentsas theseshow us howthe prehistoricEgyp-
tian systemof picturesigns was developinginto phoneticwrit-
ing. The victoryof this king over the enemysymbolizedby
this single adversarywhomhe is shown dispatching(Fig. 41,
right-handrelief), is commemorated in an archaic pictographic
group over the head of the captive. The falcon (here with a
human arm) is an enormouslyold symbolof the prehistoric
rulerof upperEgypt. Knowingthis,we easily read the group;
for it will be noticedthat the falcongrasps a rope by whichhe
leads a captive suggestedby a humanhead with the rope fast-
ened to the mouth. This head rises out of a stretchof level
groundout of whichare growingsix lotus leaves on tall stems
each the symbolfor 1000. Justbelo'wis a single barbed har-
poon, and a small rectanglefilledwith wavy lines of water,
meaning a pool or lake. The meaning of the whole is clear:
" The Falcon King has led captive 6,000 men of the Land of the
Harpoon Lake." The furtherprocess by which these purely
picture signs became phonetic,furnishingthe earliest known
systemof phoneticwriting,is now fairlyclear to us, but space
will not permitits discussion here. It should be mentioned,
however,that before3000 B.C. this systemof Egyptianwriting
developeda completeseries of consonantalalphabeticsigns,and
there is now no reason to doubt that the Phoenicianalphabet,
and hence likewise our own, have descendedfromthe picture
writingof Egypt whichwe have just read. This questionwill
be taken up more fullyin discussingthe Phoenicians.
It is of importanceat this point to rememberthat the ex-
clusivelyNilotic origin of Egyptian writingis easily demon-
strable. In view of this fact it is quite inexplicablethat there
should have been a wide-spread impressionthat it was of
Asiatic origin. In the firstplace our oldestexamplesof Egyp-
tian writingare olderthan the earliestknownwritingof Asia.
FurthermoreEgyptian writing is a veritable zoological and
botanical garden of fauna and flora unmistakablyNilotic,
while it includesalso an extensivemuseumof implements,ap-
 THE ORIGINS OF CIVILIZATION 563
pliances, weapons, clothing,adornments,buildings,etc., pecu-
liar to the Nile valley. Only lack of acquaintance with the
material backgroundof Egyptian life, and a failure to study
carefullythe contentof the Egyptiansign lists,can accountfor
the totallygroundlesassertionof the Asiatic originof Egyptian
writingby Hommeland de Morgan, which has unfortunately
foundits way intomany currentbooks. As his writingdevel-
oped,the Egyptianat the same timedevisedthe earliestknown
paper, which he succeeded in making fromthe papyrus reed

FIG. 42. SPECIAIEN OF E(X 'PTIAN PAPYRIS PAPER, CONTAINING PART OF A TALE
WRITTEN NEARLY 2000 B.C. Now in the Berlin Museum.

(Cyperuspapyrus), a plant whichgrew veryplentifullyin the

Nile marshes (Fig. 42). It has especial interestfor us, be-
cause it was the firstpaper used by Europe, and as we shall see,
this paper broughtto Europe an alphabet whichhad grownup
out of the systemof Egyptian hieroglyphicof which we have
just been speaking.
Thus emergedthe firstgreat organizationof men, efficient
in the possessionof a systemof writtenrecordsand communi-
cation,and stablyfoundedon a basis of agricultureand cattle
breeding,preparedto exploitto the fullthe possessionof metal
tools. It was now that the kingshipprovedinvaluable in fur-
nishingthe powerfulorganizationfor miningon a large scale
whichprivateinitiativecould not have furnished. The source
of copperwas in the Peninsula of Sinai.
Berthelothas remarked?2how interestingit is, that prob-
ably at the beginningof the exploitationof these mines of
Sur les mines de cuivre du Sinai," Comptesrendus de
20

des Sciences, 19 Aug., 1896. l'Acad6mie

564 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

OF TIIE EARLY COPPER MINES IN SINAI WORKED BY THE ANCIENT

FIG. 44. ONE
EGYPTIANS. (Plhotograph by Petrie.)

Sinai, that is over six thousandyears ago, by an empiricismthe

originof whichis easy to conceive,man had alreadygained the
processes for smeltingmetal, which have been followedever
since even down into our own day. Only recentlyhave the
metallurgicalchemists succeeded in devising processes more
successfuland efficient than those which were firstdevised in
Sinai over six thousandyears ago.
This remarkof Berthelot'sjustifiesus in picturingthe ex-
perienceof some wanderingEgyptian back in the fifthmillen-
niumB.C. as he bankedhis firewithpieces of copperore which
happened to be lying about his camp-part of the talus and
detrituswhich encumbersthe base of the cliffsin the lonely
valleys of Sinai. As these natural fragmentswere exposed to
the fire,the charcoal of the wood blaze, togetherwiththe heat,
reduced a portionof the ore, and we can easilv imagine how
the attentionof the wandererwouldbe attractedby a glittering
globuleof the liberatedmetal as it rolledout among the ashes.
The new age of mankindborn on that memorableday was
beginningto enter on its birthright,when centurieslater the
Egyptianmonarchyemergedin themiddleof the fourthmillen-
nium B.C. The metal,whichthe firstEgyptian who possessed
it had gained by accident,was now to be won systematically
and on a relativelylarge scale, as onlythe sovereigncould do
in that distantage, when individualinitiativewas unequal to
 THE ORIGINS OF CIVILIZATION 565

the task. In Fig. 44 we see one of the ancientEgyptianmines

in Sinai visible high up on the right. Though this particular
example is not one of the earliest, these mines of Sinaitic
Maghara are the oldestknownmines in the world. Below the
mine on a slightelevationat the foot of the slope we see the
stone huts of the miners. A protectivewall extends trans-
verselyacross the valley. Here lived a littlecolonyof miners.
Plentifulevidencesof their work are still scatteredabout the
place. Under the floorof the hut they concealed the pottery
canteen with which they carried on their rough-and-ready
housekeeping,and therePetrie foundit in his investigationof
the place (Fig. 45). Their copper tools have likewise been
found covered by rubbish (Fig. 46). The heavy stone picks
whichtheystill employedin gettingout the ore, have likewise
been foundon the spot (Fig. 47).
The interiorsof the mines themselvesare very instructive.
The action of the coppertools on the wall of the driftcan still
be closelyfollowedand exhaustivelyexamined,even to deter-

FIG. 45. POTTERY CANTEEN OF ANCIENT EGYPTIAN MINERS Found buried under the
floor of their hut in Sinai. (Mlaghara ; photograph by Petrie.
FIG. 46. COPPER CHISELS EM3PLOYED BY ANCIENT EGYPTIAN MINERS IN SINAI.
(Serabt; photograph by Petrie.
566 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

FIG. 47. HEAv'Y STO.NE PICKS A-ND STO-NE DRILL-READ FOUND ATr A-NCIEN.T EGYPTIA-N
COPPER MINES I-N SINAI. (Photograph by Petrie.)

width of the chisel

mining thel~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.
~.. edge (Fig. 48).
.;-- .;;
Though the ... .... .

mines are not usually large, and do not commonlyexceed five

feetin height,Fig. 49 shows a chamberof spacious dimensions.
Space does not permitdiscussingthe methodsof freeingand
taking out the ore; but we may glance at the evidenceswhich
disclose the smeltingprocess. It is clear that smeltingwas
oftendone directlyat the mine. Petrie foundthe heavy stone
poundersby means5of which the ore was crushed (Fig. 50).
Masses of slag have also been uncovered, and in Fig. 51 we see

FIG. 48. AALL SHOWING 'STROKEIS 01 COPPIAI CIIIE. IFNAI AN(IENCITE IYPT1AN COPPER
MINE I-NEIN SIN(MaghaIa; photogrlaph by Petiie. )
 THE ORIGINS OF CIVILIZATION 567

a potterycrucible with large nozzle for pouring the molten

metal into forms.I1
The copper-bearingminerals which these earliest miners
smeltedwere chieflyof threekinds: turquoise,containingonly
about threeand a thirdper cent. of oxide of copper; a hydro-
silicate of copper; and finallycertain granites impregnated
with carbonate and hydrosilicateof copper. These granites
are also poor ore, but the hydrosilicateis sometimesvery rich
in copper.22

-
sr SN.w -~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~....
..

4~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FIG. 49. INTERIOR OF A LARGE COPPER VllNE WJIRKED BY THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS IN
SINAI. (Serabit; photograph by Petrie.)

The decisive importanceof these mines in Sinai is evident

when we understandthat theyare definitely dated. For over
two thousand years the Pharaohs exploited the Sinai copper
regions and have left their records on the rocks around the
minesto testifyto the fact. These recordsbegin in the thirty-
fourth century and continue until the latter part of the twelfth
centurYB.C. It is not a littleimpressiveat the presentday to
see appearing on the rocks before us the figure of the first ruler
of men who has put himself on record as having organized and
sent forthhis people to bring out of the earth the metallicre-
21 The above discussionof the ancient mines of Sinai is much indebted

to the text and photographsof Petrie, " Sinai."

22 See Berthelot,ibid.
568 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

s~~~~~~~~~~.

FIG. 50. STONE POUNDERS FOR CRUSH-ING COPPE,R ORE USED BY THE ANCGERNT 14EGYPT-
IANS IN SINAI. (Photograph by Petrie.)
FIG. 51. POTTERY~CRUCIBLE WITIh _NOZZLE FORP POURING. MAOLTE-N COPPER INTO
FoRh.is. Found at the ancient copper mines in Smini. (Seraibit; photograph by
Petrie.)

sources withoutwhich man could no longer carry on a great

state (Fig. 52).
As we approach we are standing in the prese-nceof the
earliestknownhistoricalmonument. -Carvedwith ruggedand
archaic simplicity,the figureof this earliest royal miner rises
beforeus in heroicproportions. Here is the earliest sovereign
to follow economicdictates and to march into a neighboring
continentto seize by sole right of might the mineral wealth
which his people needed. Depicted in the symbolicceremony
of crushingthe Bedwi chiefof the district,to signifythe Egyp-
tian Pharaoh's possession of the region,this king Semerkhet
 THE ORIGINS OF CIVILIZATION 569

thus publishedto the natives of westernAsia his sovereignty

overthe world'searliestcoppermines. He wears here the offi-
cial crowns,the whiteand the red,whichsignifyhis supremacy
over the Two Egypts,a supremacywhichhe had thus extended
over neighboringAsia in the 34th century B.C. Thus the
earliest knownautocracy,seizing the mineral-bearingregions
of Asia whichit needed,some 5,300 years ago, began that long
career of aggression based on economicgrounds,which con-
tinuing ever since culminatedin the seizure of the mineral
wealthof northernFrance in August,1914.
This record of Egyptian conquest in metallurgy,let it be
noted,consistsof in!scriptional
as well as sculpturedelements.
The name of the kingin Egyptianhieroglyphics of unmistakable
Niloticorigin,accompanieshis figure,and it is well to remem-
ber that this miningrecord,made after Egypt had known of
copper for over half a millenium,is neverthelessseveral cen-
turiesolderthanthe oldestdated piece of copperknownin Asia.
This earliest familyof sovereignsruling over a people of
several millionswas founded about 3400 B.C. by Menes, the
firstof the Pharaohs. His home was at Thinis, near Abydos
in Upper Egypt, below the great bend where the river ap-
proaches most nearly to the Red Sea. We call the whole
groupthe First Dynasty,and togetherwith the second group,
or second Dynasty,these early dynastickings of Egypt were

FIG. 52 RETL1FF CAJLtED oN. Rot KS AT THE A.\ cE-NT E4AYPTIA. COPPER MINES
IN SINAI (MAGIHATIA), IN THE THIRTY FOURITII CENTURY B.C. It shows the flgure of
tihe earliest known mining promoter, ling Semer-khet of Egypt. At the left he
smites a Bedwi chief of the region, while his other two portraits display him once
with the crown of Upper and again with the crow~n of Low~er Egypt. This is the
oldest historical monument known, and the earliest such record of ai foreign conquest
on alien soil (Photogi iph by Petrie
570 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

:1~~-:

#
g"
c4~SSe
; ......,
i _...
:; ... -..-w4.
~~~~~~~~.. 1
.. . .
X s .l ';it_;m

: ..... .:..:i. ...._.$..

:- s
.;. ..::,,

oL,"
'etF:;'- T\,~~~... ... ...,

nie fthei tm s still surivs (Fig. 54. Afe A

>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~. t ' ; E . ...^ .. ..S..
t .., ... ...K$.. '.._^..'i
i

neau s unsuccessfuland destructiveattemptto excavate these

FIG. 55. FouR BRACELETS oF GOLD AND PRECIOUS STONES STILL ON THE ARm
OF A ROYAL LADY. Found by Petrie in one of the early dynastic tombs of Abydos.
(Photograph by Petrie.)
 THE ORIGINS OF CIVILIZATION 571

tombs,we owe the rescue of what was left,to Petrie's efforts.

He was able to save enoughof the palace furnitureand other
royal equipmentplaced in these tombsfor the use of the royal
dead in the hereafter,to disclose to us the remarkableprog-
ress of this earlieststate in materiallife,especiallyin arts, in-
dustriesand craftsmanship,during the last four centuriesof
the fourthmillenniumB.C., that is about 3400 to 3000 B.C.

gggg0 ...E
.
l~~~~~...
q
g
II-g ON X =,.01g .1E
|i . _ *s If

FIG. 56. EGYPTIAN CRANK DiLL INVENTED IN TIlE =RLY DYNASTIC PE.IOD
(ABiOUT 8400 3000
To B.C.), THE EARLIES'T KNOWN N MACDI1N-E. (DrRawf by Borchairuit
from a hieroglyph.)

The advance in industrialappliances of which the jewelry

in Fig. 55 gives evidence,is illustratedby a very important
device for drilling out stone vessels which was invented in the
early dynasticperiod (Fig. 56). It is elaboratelydrawn for
us in hieroglyphic,in whichit becamethe sign for" craftsman."
Ificonsistsof a verticalshaftwith a crank attachedat the top,
and forkedat the base to receivea cuttingedge in the formof
a sharp stone. Just below the crank are attached two stone
572 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY
_ .. ... .

..^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

W#B~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I

i:8s<+
F wME ..r.- . s..................
--.- .... .. ...-..:::-<-- x

FIG. 57. EGYPTIAN CRAFTSMEN ENGAGED IN DRILLING OUT 'STOANE VESSELS WITH
THE CRANK DRILL SEEN IN FIG. 56. The scene is taken from a tomb relief. The
hieroglyphs between the two workmen record their conversation. One says: "This
is a very beautiful vase." The other responds: " It is indeed." (From de MAorgan,
" Recherches sur les origines de l'I?gypte," I.)

weights, like the two balls of a steam governor. These of

course serve as a flywheel to keep the shaft revolving. Here is
the earliest machine which can fairly be called such. It dis-
plays the earliest known crank or crank-driven shaft. The
result was superb stone vessels and the development of a new
and highly refinedcraft (Fig. 57).
Stimulated perhaps by his rival who was producing such
beautiful stone vases, the potter at this time also made a great
advance in his ancient art. For ages, since his ancestors of the
lower alluvium, who already lay buried many feet below the
potter's yard, he had laboriously built up his vessels by hand.
But now he perfected what was perhaps at first merely a re-
volving bench, till it emerged as the familiar potter's wheel, the
ancestor of the lathe, upon which his clay vessels were now
turned.
Thus before 3000 B.C. Egyptian craftsmen devised two re-
volving machines, involving the essential principle of the wheel,
with a vertical axis; but the wheel as a burden-bearing device
with a horizontal axis (unless as employed in the pulley block?)
did not arise in Egypt. It was firstused in Asia. On the basis
of these devices, and a long list of metal tools highly specialized,
there arose a large group of sharply differentiatedcrafts, among
which was the important art of glaze-making, the forerunner
of the firstproduction of glass. All these crafts were carried
on by the first great body of industrial population known in
history. They were in existence before 3000 B.C.
The great African game preserve at the southeast corner of
 THE ORIGINS OF CIVILIZATION 573

the Mediterranean,whichonce supportedonlydetachedgroups

of hunterswanderingthroughthe jungle, had become a huge
social laboratory,where these Stone Age hunters had been
transformedfirstinto plowmenand shepherdsand then into
handicraftsmen.In the courseof this processcivilizationarose
and gaineda stablepoliticalbasis in the thousandyearsbetween
4000 and 3000 B.C.
Thus supporteduponan economicfoundationof agriculture,
animal husbandryand manufacturing industries,arose the first
great state on the Mediterranean,indeed the firstgreat state
in the world,at a time when all the rest of mankindwas still
livingin Stone Age barbarism. Such a stable fabricof organi-
zation,under the power of the old falcon chieftain,once ruler
only of Upper Egypt, but now sole head of all the Egyptian
people,had shiftedman froma strugglewithexclusivelynatural
forces,into a new arena where he must thenceforthcontend
with social forces,and out of his crucible of social struggle
were to issue new values of a differentorder,like social justice,
the value of rightconduct,and hopes of happiness beyondthe
grave based upon worthycharacter-conceptionsin whichthe
Nile dwellerswere as far in advance of the world about them
as theywere in theirconquestof the material world.
This extraordinaryforwardmovementof man before3000
B.C. in the vicinityof the junctionbetweenthe two continents,
Africa and Eurasia, could not go on withoutimportanteffects
on the advance of man in WesternAsia. It is evidentthathere
too man had been pushingforwardsince Paleolithictimes,and
his ultimateprogress in the whole region around the eastern
end of the Mediterraneanand downthe Tigris-Euphratesvalley
was to have a profoundinfluenceon the career of man in the
Mediterraneanand thus upon the course of general human
history.
The chronologicalrelationsof the cultureson the Nile and
the Euphrates have not yet been definitelydetermined. Just
as in the case of Egypt, so with regard to Babylonia,the ex-
cessivelyremotedates once currenthave been shownto be un-
tenable. They have been given wide currencyby de Morgan
and others. De Morgan bases his conclusionsupon two bodies
of evidence. First the chronologyonce drawn fromthe written
documents;and second his own excavationsat Susa, the lead-
ing town in the old Elamite countryon the east of Babylonia.
Dr. King of the British Museum long ago discoveredevidence
which showed that the chronologydrawn from the written
documentswhich dated King Sargon of Akkad in the thirty-
eighthcenturyB.C. was impossible. De Morgan's distinguished
 574 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

:.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> ]ii
1 ! ' t . . ....: ...

Io

FIo. 60.
THE RIVER TERRACES OF THF EUPIRATES LOOKING EASTWARD ACROSS
THE About two huind-red and flfty miles northiwest of Babylon.
RIVER. (Copyright
by Underwood & Underwood.)

countryman, Thureau-Dangin,has onlyin the last few months

published a conclusive reconstruction, leaving nothingto be
desired in its finality-a reconstructionwhich places Sargon
well this side of 2800 and our earliest writtendocumentsof
Babylonia hardlyearlier than the thirty-first centurYB.C.
As to de Morgan's earliest periods at Susa, he dates them
by their relativedepth,that is by the amountof accumulated
rubbishoverthem. Such rubbishproducedby the detritionor
violentdestructionof sun-driedbrickbuildings,will of course
accumulateat a rate variable fromsite to site and countryto
country,dependingon a wide range of heightof the buildings,
widelydiffering thicknessof the walls, the varyingrapidityof
detritioncaused by the differingamount of rainfall and the
uncertainnumberof the successiveviolentdestructions. Fol-
lowing de Morgan,R. Pumpellyhas made similar calculations-
forthe age of the lowerstrata in his excavationsof the ancient
city of Anau in Turkestan. Among otherdata as a basis, he
took the very slow accumulationof such rubbish in Egypt,
without taking into considerationthe differencein rainfall
(Egypt having practicallynone), the differencein height of
buildingsand thicknessof walls, and the politicallysheltered
situationof Upper Egyptian cities whichexposed themto less
 THE ORIGINS OF CIVILIZATION 575

frequentdestructionthan the cities of Asia.23 Such calcula-

tions have no value.
The developmentof civilized man on the lower Euphrates
had undoubtedlybeen going on for ages beforethe date of his
earliestsurvivingwrittendocuments(thirty-first centuryB.C.),
but the age of that developmenthas yet to be established; for
unfortunately the prehistoricstages of Babylonianculturehave
not yet been recovered.
The riverterracesof the Euphrates,such as we see in Fig.
60 overlookinga beautifulisland, have not been investigated
geologically,paleontologicallyor archeologicallyat all. It is
evidentthatman dweltbetweenthe Euphratesand the Mediter-
ranean in Paleolithictimes. His remainsand his stone imple-
mentsmay thereforelie under and along these Euphrates ter-
races as theydo along the Nile. They have indeedbeen found
in Palestine and along the Phoeniciancoast, in caves, so strati-
fiedas to leave no doubtof theirPaleolithicorigin. From these
early stages untilthe earliest writtendocumentson the Baby-
lonian alluvium (about thirty-first centuryB.C.), we have no
evidenceforthe courseof the development in westernAsia.
It is, however,already perfectlyclear that while the Nile
valley made the earlier advance, and was the earliest home of
civilization,there was reciprocal influencebetween the two
early cultureson the Nile and the Euphrates. Thus the mace

FIG.61 EGXPTIXN A~D BABXLONn-~ MXwA I . 0 ' E....

E. l.. ....:

F1G. 61. E?GYPTIA-N AND BABY-LONIAN -MAICE-11EAXDS OF TrEE SAX3IE FO1R31.

23 It may be added that Dr. Hubert Schmidt, the able archeologist

attached to the Anau excavations,dated the oldest remains found there at

about 2000 B.C.
5576 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

.... .---:'.
.... -....... -.-1..'
.-:---'--'........
....
.......................

eve ew 9 ,. : .. ~~......
'_ ...
........................................
.';;.:
'':

:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~..
.............. .l !.!_.I..

gF___~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
!i! ..........
.......
FIG 6IEYTA NDBBLNA CLNE EL OFTH1AM1FR

head
i'''.'.'''.'.'''''X~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
which we
...
find
............. in Egypt ... ...

.;
1X:fft;ft0Xt, . il~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~f
. ,J,. .ff;u
,,s; X 0

B.C.iS also found along the Euphrates many centuries later

(Fig. 61). Similarly the cylinderseal employedfor sealing
clay is found on the Nile centuriesearlier than our earliest
Babylonianexample of it (Fig. 62). The decorativearrange-
ment of balanced animal figures (Fig. 63), especially with a

human figurein the middle, is found on the Nile well back

FIG. 68. EGYPTIAN AND BABYLONIAN DECORATI\TE DESIGNS. Made up of animal

figures balanced antithetically on either side of a human figure.
 THE ORIGINS OF CIVILIZATION 577

toward4000 B.C., and our earliestexamplesin Babyloniacannot

be dated earlier than the thirty-second centuryB.C. In such
matters it should be remembered,however,that an inferior
civilizationoftenmakescontributions to a superiorculture. We
have only to rememberthe source of tobacco,maize, potatoes
and the like to illustratethis fact. There will,therefore,have
been mutualexchangebetweenthe Nile and the Euphrates at a
veryremotedate,and someoftheseparallelshereexhibitedmay
be examplesof such mutualinterchange.
This process created a great Egypto-Babylonianculture
nucleuson bothsides of the inter-continental bridgeconnecting
Africa and Eurasia. It broughtforththe earliest civilization
in the thousandyears between4000 and 3000 B.C., while all the
restofthe worldcontinuedin Stone Age barbarismor savagery.
Then after3000 B.C. began the diffusion of civilizationfromthe
Egypto-Babylonianculture center. The best illustrationof
what thentook place is furnishedby our own New World. In
onlytwo places on the globe have men advanced unaided from
Stone Age barbarismto the possessionof agriculture,metaland
writing. One ofthesecentersis thatwhichwe have been study-
ing herein the Old World; the otheris here in the New World.24
Just as the Egypto-Babylonianculturecentergrew up at the
junctionbetweenthetwo continents, Africaand Eurasia, as the
oldest and the originalcenterof civilizationin the Old World,
so here in the New World the oldest and original center of
civilizationlikewise developed along and on each side of the
inter-continental bridge. The far-reachinglabors of a great
group Americanistshave shown clearlythat fromthis cul-
of
turecenterin the inter-continental regionof the WesternHemi-
sphere a process of diffusionof civilizationwent on northward
and southwardinto the two continentsof the New World,and
that processwas stillgoingon whenthe periodof discoveryand
colonizationbegan. That whichwe acceptas a matterofcourse
as we studythe New Worldcenter,was obviouslygoing on for
thousands of years around the Old World center,althougha
provinciallyminded classicism has blinded the world to the
facts. It remainsforus in the next lecture,therefore,to follow
the lines of culturediffusion,divergingfromthe Egypto-Baby-
lonian group and stimulatingEurope and inner Asia to rise
fromStone Age barbarismto civilization.
24 See the present writer's article, " The Place of the Near Orient in
the Career of Man, and the Task of the American Orientalist" (presiden-
tial address before the American Oriental Society, in Journ. of the Am.
Or. Soc., June,1919).
VOL. vii.-37