# Early Man in Britain and His Place in the Tertiary Period/Chapter 13

CHAPTER XIII.
THE OVERLAP OF HISTORY.
THE OVERLAP OF HISTORY.
The Historic period constitutes the last phase of the series of changes which have been reviewed in our inquiry into early man and his place in the Tertiary period. It embraces the events recorded in history which are not only arranged in a linear series, but also possess a definite chronology in terms of years. It differs in this last respect from all the preceding geological periods, of which we know only that they followed one another in a definite order, but to which we cannot assign a date, because there is no standard of comparison to show the contemporaneity in different regions. We have seen in the last four chapters that there is reason for believing that one part of Europe ​was in the Bronze age while another was in the Neolithic age, and that iron gradually penetrated northwards, until it arrived in Denmark at the beginning of the Christian era; and it has been impossible for us to shut our eyes to the traces of civilisation coming in from the Mediterranean area. Egypt, Assyria, Etruria, Greece, and Phœnicia were the seats of a high civilisation for many centuries before Christ, and when the written record began were not in the Bronze but in the Iron age. It is a question equally interesting to the historian and to the archæologist, to ascertain the extent to which the light of their culture penetrated the darkness of central, western, and northern Europe, and to see whether it be possible to picture to ourselves the condition of Europe as a whole at one time; to see whether we can bring the Historic period in the Mediterranean region into relation with the Prehistoric period north of the Alps which has hitherto engaged our attention. This overlap, as it may be termed, of history with Prehistoric archæology may best be studied by treating each of these influences separately.
The Egyptians and their Influence.
In the earliest records which we possess we find a civilisation put prominently before us of a high and complicated kind, not much inferior to any that have succeeded it, and which dates so far back that the history of all the European peoples is in comparison ​almost a thing of yesterday. The history of Egypt, beginning about 4000 years B.C. with the reign of Menes, is the starting-point of the Historic period in the Mediterranean, and is therefore thrice as long as that covered by the records of this country.
Egypt from the very first was the great centre of light in the eastern part of the Mediterranean, on which all eyes were fixed, and it was a mart in which the products of the far east and the far west met together, and into which flowed the merchandise of three continents. As far back as twenty-eight centuries B.C. the Egyptians possessed powerful fleets for purposes of defence and attack; and we read of a naval engagement in the reign of Papi, B.C. 2800. They are said to have taught the Phœnicians how to make glass, and to have instructed the early Greeks in the sciences.
Of their knowledge of the arts every museum is eloquent. It is impossible to walk through the Egyptian courts in the national collections in London, or in the Louvre, or in the Vatican, without carrying away a deep impression of their power and their skill. Yet their high position was achieved without the knowledge of steel. They were acquainted with iron; bronze they used extensively, not merely for ornaments but for daggers and axes of the simple types usually considered characteristic of the early bronze civilisation north of the Alps. Flint knives were sometimes used for religious purposes, beautifully fashioned, and flint daggers such as that in the British Museum with a wooden handle. Pointed splinters of flint also were employed for ​cutting hieroglyphs, a fact which is proved by the discoveries made in their turquoise mines in the Sinaitic promontory by Mr. Bauerman and others. It is very probable that all the hieroglyphs were carved with flint, since neither bronze nor iron will cut the hard rocks on which they are generally engraved. Steel, however, was known in Egypt in a later period of its history.
The influence of such a people as the Egyptians was felt far and wide in the Mediterranean, and their wealth invited invasion at a time when great movements of population were taking place. The first mention of a European people in the Egyptian annals is the attack of the Sardones and the Tyrrhenes (Etruskans) on the Delta of the Nile, and their defeat by Ramses II., in the fifteenth century before Christ. This invasion was again repeated, about seventy years afterwards, by a more formidable confederation, in which the two above- mentioned peoples were joined by the Sikels, Lykians, Achaians, and Lybians. The allies advanced to the attack by sea and land, conquered part of the Delta, and were defeated after a desperate struggle by Meneptah I. Among their spoils it is interesting to remark bronze knives and cuirasses. From this account it is clear that the maritime peoples of the Mediterranean were sufficiently civilised at this early period to organise powerful armies and fleets, and to deliver a combined attack on the mistress of the world; and it places prominently before us the intercourse and commerce which could alone render such a combination possible. The Sardones and Etruskans may not have been then in ​Sardinia and Etruria, which may have derived their names, like England, from their conquerors. It seems, however, more probable that they were already in possession of those regions, since the influence of Egypt is proved to have extended as far to the west as Sardinia, by the scarabæi and other remains found in the tombs. The extent to which the Etruskans are indebted to Egyptian art is only to be realised by an examination of their tombs and of the various Italian museums. The discoveries at Cyprus and Mykene, and elsewhere in Greece, show that the influence of Egypt was directly felt among the ancient inhabitants of the Peloponnese, and the islands of the Archipelago, as was the universal opinion of the early writers of Greece and Rome. It may therefore be said to have pervaded the whole of the Mediterranean area in the fifteenth century B.C., and for how long a time before we have as yet no evidence.
We must now review the position of the great rival, and ultimately the conqueror, of Egypt—Assyria.
The Influence of Assyria.
The great seats of empire on the banks of the Euphrates and Tigris, like Egypt, have their origin concealed in the darkness of the ages; but their first authentic record is the conquest of Chaldæa, in 2280 B.C. From that time forward Babylon and Nineveh extended their dominions, and ultimately became one power, advancing as far north as the Caucasus, taking possession of the copper-mines in the country of the Medes, and probably, also, of the tin mines in Khorasan, and ​penetrating to the Mediterranean, under Tiglath Pileser I. (B.C. 1130 to 1090). In 866 B.C. the Assyrians conquered Phœnicia, including the great merchant cities of Tyre and Sidon, and subdued their great rival, Egypt, in 672 B.C., under Esar-haddon. Cyprus fell under the arms of Sargon in 710-705. The conquest of Phœnicia and of Egypt constitutes a landmark in the arts of the Mediterranean peoples, since from that time articles of Assyrian design penetrated to Greece and Italy, and took the place before occupied by those of Egypt, and they continued to hold their own until they were displaced by the development of Lykian art in Greece and the Etruskan art, and that of Magna Græcia in Italy. Their distribution was mainly due to the great traders of the Eastern Mediterranean, the Phœnicians.
The limit of the Assyrian influence to the north is marked by the discoveries in the sepulchral tumuli in the valley of the Dnieper at Wasilkow, in the government of Kiew, in which twenty-four gryphons, stamped in thin gold, along with glass beads, copper beads, and various other articles in gold and silver, have been met with. These gryphons probably passed northwards through the hands of the Greek traders of Olbia, along a route (Fig. 168, III.), to be examined presently, reaching from the Black Sea to the amber coast.
The Phœnicians and their Influence.
The great Semite merchants of the East, the Phœnicians, dwelling on the seaboard of what became ultimately the battle-ground between Egypt and Assyria, ​played, as we might have expected from their position and commerce, a most important part in the ancient Mediterranean world,—a part not unlike that played by their kinsmen, the Jews, in the Europe of the Middle Ages and of to-day. In the eyes of the early Greeks, the term Phœnician was almost the equivalent of trader. They were famous merchants before the seventeenth century B.C., since they are mentioned in the Egyptian records as importing vases, rings, rhytons, necklaces, perfumes, precious stones, and ivory, as presents to Thothmes III. They not only traded with Egypt, but they built ships for the Egyptians. Their glass, amber, and metal work were famous among the Greeks, and their trade is proved to have extended through Palestine, eastward, as far as the Euphrates and the Tigris, by the metallic bowls with Phœnician inscriptions found in Babylonia and now in the British Museum. Their colonies were scattered far and wide over the Mediterranean, wherever there was a good anchorage for their ships and facilities for developing a traffic with the natives. One of their most important colonies, Gades, Gadeira, or Cadiz, was founded at the mouth of a navigable river, the Guadalquivir, and at a place equally convenient for carrying on a coasting trade along the western shores of Spain and the north-western coast of Africa. It is said to have been founded not later than B.C. 1100.
The greatness of their chief cities. Tyre and Sidon, is most vividly brought before us on the bronze gates set up by Shalmanezar to commemorate his triumphs, and ​discovered by Mr. Rassam in the Mound of Ballawat, in 1877. On these gates is the record of the Tyrian and Sidonian tribute paid in B.C. 859.
"Here we see," writes a contributor to the Standard, "'rock-built' Tyre standing on a rugged island, at a short distance from the shore, and surrounded by a strong wall, with serrated battlements and gates with flanking towers. From the shore or mainland gate there slopes down to the sea a broad incline, down which two persons, male and female, evidently a representative couple, are bearing the objects of tribute to the ships. Between the mainland and the island we see represented the Phœnician vessels plying with the cargoes of offerings. These boats are long and narrow, with high bow and stern, both ends being fashioned alike, and terminated in rams' heads. These boats, propelled by a sailor at either end with a broad-bladed oar, resemble very much the Levantine shore boats, or the Turkish kayik. One boat, retained in its place alongside the Tyrian quay by the boatmen, is just being loaded with bales of cloth, brazen bowls, vessels, etc., and trays containing ingots of precious metals. The freight is stowed in the centre of the boat, the heavier packages at the bottom, space being left for the free action of the rowers. A second vessel, which has received its cargo and is nearing the beach, is being dragged ashore by two sailors, who have tucked up their robes and rushed into the surf to draw the vessel up to the beach. On the main shore the artist has well represented the animated scene which was enacted. Porters and sailors are bringing up the tribute offerings from the ships, and are being arranged in line by the Assyrian soldiery, so ​as to pass before the great king. On the beach are piled the bales of 'rich-dyed garments,' cloth and linen, and precious woods from distant lands. As we pass along the line we see other objects. Borne on small trays are numerous conical ingots of silver and gold, while in delicate baskets are carried gums and precious stones. We also see three men bearing aloft, as objects of precious value, huge brazen caldrons and baths,—objects which were much prized by the Assyrians as spoil or tribute, and which call to mind 'the brazen caldron unscathed by fire,' the prize in the Homeric chariot race. Here we see also the Sidonian bowls and embroidered garments. As we near the head of the procession, we come upon the merchant princes and nobles, who bear the homage and submission of Tyre. Each of them is attended by an Assyrian official, and the deputation is headed by a high military personage, who introduces them to the king. Standing somewhat forward from a brilliant staff of civil and military officials, we see the conqueror Shalmanezar. Clad in his richest robes of state, with a tiara on his head, the king receives the Phœnician deputation. In his hand he holds a bow and a pair of arrows, the emblems of submission tendered by the Tyrian princes, and he appears to be listening to the speech of the officers who head the procession. His head is shaded from the heat of the eastern sun by a rich embroidered umbrella held by an attendant eunuch—his bow, sword, and mace being held by the royal armour-bearer. In the rear of the royal staff of scribes, priests, soldiers, who must have presented a splendid sight in all their rich robes and jewel- encrusted arms, is placed a small detachment of the Royal Assyrian 'Horse Guards,' who ride at ease ​beside the rich chariot from which the monarch has descended. Such was the group of Tyrian and Assyrian personages, and such the scene which, in B.C. 859, was to be seen on the shores of the Mediterranean, near the city of Tyre. How doubly interesting this picture is in giving, as it does, an illustration of the meeting of East and West, and portraying an event of great importance in the history of civilisation."
The subjection of the Phœnician mother cities to the Assyrians is, as Mr. Stuart Poole remarks, of the highest value in fixing the date of ancient works of art in the Mediterranean. Up to that time articles of Egyptian design were among the principal commodities in the Phœnician ships; afterwards they were replaced by articles made from Assyrian models.
The Phœnicians possessed no Art of their own.
The Phœnicians did not possess any art of their own, but borrowed styles from other peoples—Egyptian, As- syrian, Persian, Lykian, or Greek. So much was this the case that the thirteen sarcophagi in the Louvre, which contained Sidonian nobles, are borrowed either from Egypt or Assyria. The king of Sidon, Eshmonezar, is buried in a sarcophagus made of stone from the Egyptian quarries of Syene in the Upper Nile, and he appears on the lid in an Egyptian dress, although the inscription proves that he was born, reigned, and died ​in Phœnicia. We should have expected that this want of originality would have made itself felt least in things connected with commerce, and yet it betrays itself even there. The Phœnicians borrowed from Greek taste and Greek art even in their coins, and on a gold coin from Carthage the head of a Greek god is to be seen with a Phœnician inscription. They first copied the Egyptians, then the Assyrians, and afterwards the successive rulers of the Mediterranean with whom they came in contact. The Phœnician "step" ornament is probably derived from an Assyrian source, and the habit of going to the animal and vegetable worlds for many of their designs is certainly due to the influence of their neighbours. It was indeed impossible, as Wiberg remarks, that in so small a territory as that of Tyre and Sidon any independent style of art could have arisen.
The Phœnicians in the West.
The conquest of Phœnicia by the Assyrians, B.C. 859, was followed by an emigration to Africa of the rich and illustrious Tyrian merchants, who founded Carthage, according to Movers, about 814 B.C. The new emigrants, afterwards joined by another large body of citizens flying from the attack of Nebuchadnezzar, caused the centre of Phœnician life and power to be shifted to the west. The colonies in Sicily, Sardinia, North Africa, and Malta, acknowledged the supremacy of the new Tyre, and Gades and all its dependencies ​passed under its dominion. This dominion was so widely extended in Spain that no less than 200 towns are said to have been founded by them, some of which, such as Malacca, Carteja, Hispalis (Sevilla), still remain. The great mineral riches and natural fertility of the country caused a trade to spring up, and, as in the case of most of our colonies, the trade was rapidly followed by supremacy, which, if the Romans had been conquered, would have turned the Iberian peninsula into a Carthaginian province, and might have resulted in Carthage becoming the mistress of the world. The silver enabled them to make that metal a standard of value, and thus gave enormous facilities for traffic, while the tin and the copper gave them the materials for making bronze, used so largely in the Mediterranean trade.
The Spread of Phœnician Commerce to Britain.
The adventurous Phœnician mariners having established themselves in Spain, pushed their enterprises farther and farther northwards along the shores of the ocean. According to Pliny, Himilco set out from Gades on his voyage of discovery about the same time that the Carthaginians sent Hanno to plant factories on the west coast of Africa, in B.C. 500. He first rounded the Sacred Promontory (Cape St. Vincent), coasted along the shores of Lusitania (Portugal), and made for the harbour of the Artabri (Bay of Corunna), passing ​Cape (Finisterre) Nerium, where a chain of lofty mountains, formerly called Œstrymnis, rises perpendicularly from the sea. Thence he crossed the Bay of Biscay, and arrived at the islands of the Œstrymnides, "rich in tin and lead, and inhabited by a numerous, proud, and industrious population accustomed to commerce, and in the habit of going to sea in poor leathern boats (coracles). Thence he sailed two days farther to grass-green 'Insula Sacra' (Ireland), inhabited by the races of the Hibernians." These seas were visited by the sailors of Carthage and of Gades, who were in the habit of carrying on a trade with the natives. The voyage back from the Œstrymnides is described as follows:—"He who dares to steer from them into the open sea with a north wind lands on the green shore of the Ligurians," which may reasonably be taken to be the lower district of the Loire (Ligeris), or that district from which in later times intercourse was maintained between Cornwall and Massilia. From this place the Œstrymnian Bay reaches as far as Ophiusa, the coast of which has the same extent as that of the Peloponnese, and from which it is a journey of seven days on foot to the Mediterranean or Sardinian Sea.
It is obvious, from this confused account, that we possess merely imperfect fragments of the records of the voyage. But even these prove that the Phœnicians were in the habit of trading with the natives of north- western Europe, as early as B.C. 500, and that they penetrated as far as the British and Irish Seas. The Œstrymnides are probably the same as the Cassiterides, ​or Tin Islands, of the later writers, which from Strabo's account are probably the Scilly Islands, The name, however, may have included Cornwall and the tin districts of Wicklow in the south of Ireland, and it may also have been applied to those of Brittany. It is impossible that the early writers could have had accurate geographical knowledge of the various islands in so remote a sea. What little they knew they obtained from the narratives of sailors, unaccustomed to accurate observation, and unable to fix localities with the precision which is only rendered possible by the use of scientific instruments. Herodotus, writing in the year 450 B.C., with his valuable opportunities of collecting information, confesses his ignorance as to the position of the Cassiterides, whence the Phoœnicians, and afterwards the Greeks, obtained their tin. Aristotle, living B.C. 345, and with equal chances of obtaining accurate information, mentions Albion and Ierne as being the two chief British Isles beyond the Celtæ, and is the first author who uses these names. We may therefore consider that the British coasts were visited by Phœnician traders in the fifth or sixth centuries before Christ; that merchandise from the south was at that time used in barter for the various products of our island, and that afterwards the Greeks had tolerably accurate ideas of the British Isles.
It is very generally supposed that the chief Phœnician supply of tin was derived from Cornwall, principally from the assumed non-existence of other regions in Europe sufficiently rich in tin to have supplied the ​ancient world. We have already pointed out that it is widely distributed in the Iberian peninsula, where it was worked by the Phœnicians and the Romans, and that it was obtained in the Bronze age in Brittany, and worked by the Etruskans in Tuscany. It is very probable that the mines first worked by the Phœnicians were those nearest to Gades, and afterwards those farther away to the north of Lusitania and of Galicia, then those of Brittany, and lastly those of Britain and Ireland, the regions most remote from their influence.
The reader will see from the position held by the Phœnicians in the ancient world that they must have made known the arts and civilisation of the southern peoples among the barbarians living on the borders of the ocean. They must have exchanged the products of the Mediterranean for the metal, furs, and other articles of the natives. But their influence has left little evidence behind, because the metal-work which they brought bore nothing distinctively Phœnician about it. They manufactured articles for the various markets just as the cutlers of Birmingham make creases for the Malays, and peculiar hoes for the plantations in the West Indies, and just as the cotton-spinners of Lancashire suit their wares to the markets, and the calico-printers use one set of designs for Japan and another set for the trade of Asia Minor. They may have introduced into the west, and probably did introduce, vast quantities of swords, daggers, spears, glass beads, and other things; but these cannot be identified as Phœnician, because of the absence of a distinctive style. This view is materially strengthened by the reflection that their fleets navigated the western seas about 200 years before the Homeric times, the date of which is fixed by Mr. ​Stuart Poole, by the prominence of Egypt and the absence of reference to Assyria in the Iliad and Odyssey. In other words, they were on the Atlantic during the legendary time when the use of iron was superseding that of bronze, and when they were supplying the Greeks with both those metals. But they probably did not introduce iron into the west till it became comparatively cheap in later times. Professor Nilsson extends their influence as far as Scandinavia, and believes that they were the introducers of the civilisation of the Bronze age. I am, however, unable to meet with any traces of their presence as far north as Scandinavia.
The Phœnicians were the first of the southern peoples who can be proved to have had direct intercourse with Britain, but that intercourse could not have been very extensive. No tombs or other remains distinctively Phœnician have been discovered in any part of the British Isles. Certain geographical names, however, in Cornwall are considered by Dr. Wiberg to be those given by the Phœnician sailors. The river Tamar, and the town Tamaris (Tamerton), (tamara = an exchange), recalls to mind the river Tamaris in Galicia. Uxella (? Bridgwater) = fort, town, village, is the same word as the Sardinian Usellis, and the Maltese Casale; and the promontory of Herakles (Hartland Point) and the island of Herakleia (Lundy), probably owe their names to the worship of Herakles (Melkarth), which was carried on in most of the Phœnician settlements on the shores of the Mediterranean.
​The Phœnicians carried on commerce also with Gaul from their colonies in the south, such as that of Herakleia at the mouth of the Rhone, and in the Greek city of Massilia they were sufficiently numerous to possess a temple dedicated to Melkarth. Punic coins are found in the south of France, and those of the Punic colonies in Sicily occur in Italy, and have been discovered in the pass of the Great St. Bernard, pointing out unmistakably the direction taken by their commerce.
The Etruskans and their Influence.
The people known to the Latins as the Etruskans are considered by all writers, however much they may differ as to their origin, as "a mixed race composed partly of the earlier occupants, partly of a people of foreign origin who became dominant by right of conquest, and engrafted their peculiar civilisation on that previously existing in the land." Among the earlier inhabitants the Pelasgi are the most important, considered by Mr. A. S. Murray as the common forefathers of the ancient Greeks and the Etruskans. His view is supported by the similarity of works of art found in Mykenæ, Palestrina, and the Regulini tomb at Cære, as well as by the Cyclopean polygonal masonry named after them in Greece and Italy. Their peculiar architecture is found also in the islands of the ​Ægean and on the coasts of Asia Minor. They probably entered Italy by way of the valley of the Danube, and over the Alpine passes. To them Castellani refers the beautiful work in gold and silver as yet unrivalled by the jeweller of modern times.
The second element in the Etruskan population is that known to foreigners as the Tyrrheni, or Tyrrseni, Etruski, Tusci, to themselves as the Rasena, who established themselves in Italy, according to Otfried Müller, about 290 years before the foundation of Rome, or in B.C. 1044. Their date is carried by Niebuhr as far back as B.C. 1188. Long before this, however, they are proved to have been a naval and a military power in the Mediterranean, by their invasion of Egypt in the fifteenth century. They are universally considered to have come from Asia Minor, most probably from Lydia, and their Asiatic origin is proved by their manners and customs, their religion and their art. According to Niebuhr and Mommsen, they arrived in Italy from the direction of Rhætia, according to Dennis they occupied southern Italy first, and gradually pushed their way northwards. The precise relation of the Pelasgi to the Rasena and to the Umbrians is uncertain, and at this distance of time it is impossible to define with accuracy all the ethnical elements in the Etruskan people.
The Etruskan civilisation was largely influenced by the art of Egypt and Assyria. Sphinxes, gryphons, chimæras, scarabæi, four-winged demons, and the like, show its eastern lineage. The tombs cut in the rock, and the habit of depicting various scenes in them, reminds us of the banks of the Nile, and the rock-hewn sepulchres of Lykia; and the Egyptian influence is felt in such minute details as the dressing of the hair in curls, ​and the use of the lotus pattern. At a later time they were intimately associated with the early Greeks, and to such an extent was the intercourse carried on between them that Greek vases and statues abound in their tombs, and the terra cotta sarcophagi, in which rested the ashes of the Etruskan nobles, were copied from Greek designs. After an examination of the principal collections in Italy, it seems to me probable that there were Greek artists in the principal Etruskan cities, who carried on the business of modelling and designing, in the same fashion as the Italians of the present day carry on the manufacture of plaster casts over the whole of Europe. The Greek influence, however, is scarcely perceptible in the metal-work, which was allowed by the early Greeks themselves to be of remarkable excellence. Etruskan candelabra were famous in Athens in the days of Perikles. Pheidias gave his Minerva sandals of Etruskan fashion; and various articles in gold and bronze were imported for the use and ornament of the houses of the Greeks. The metal-work of the Etruskans was as widely distributed in ancient Greece as the Greek vases and statues were distributed throughout the Italian dominions of the Etruskans. The commerce between the two was considerable, and before the invention of coins was carried on by means of barter. Nor did the reputation of the Etruskans for metal-work diminish in much later times after their conquest by the Romans. We read in Pliny that their works of art were to be found throughout the world.
The Etruskans appear before us in the earliest records ​as a nation sufficiently powerful to carry on war against Egypt, then the mistress of the Mediterranean world, and their commerce reached far and wide. They worked the iron mines of Elba, and the copper and tin mines of Tuscany, which were to them a source of wealth like the silver of Laurium to the Athenians, and the gold of Philippi to the Macedonians. They had the staples of their metal industry within their own borders, and in exchange for their manufactured bronze articles they received wealth from far distant regions, from Greece, Assyria, and Egypt, and from north Africa. Sapphires from the remote east found their way to them, as well as amber from the far north.
They were formidable rivals of the Phœnicians on the seas, and proof of their intercourse is given by the articles of Phœnician workmanship found in their tombs, such as the silver dish in the tomb at Palestrina, and the glass bottles in the cemeteries of Bologna.
The Etruskan power in Italy formerly extended from Vesuvius and the Gulf of Salerno as far as the Alps, and from the Tyrrhenian to the Adriatic Seas; and the statement by Livy that they formerly occupied Rhætia is proved by recent discoveries of their remains north of the Alps. Innumerable articles of Etruskan workmanship in the cemeteries of Hallstadt prove also that their ​civilisation extended as far down into the Valley of the Danube as the district of Salzburg. They probably worked the salt-mines of the whole of that region. They are said also to have been masters of Corsica, and to have founded Tarraco near Tarragona in Spain.
The Etruskans were famous not only for their bronze work, but also for their amber, and the chief port in which the amber trade was carried on with the ancient Greeks was the city of Hatria, on the north of the mouth of the Po (Eridanus), which gives its name to the Hadriatic, from the waters of which it is now separated by a barrier of silt upwards of fourteen miles' in width. The routes by which the amber was conveyed to it from the shores of the Baltic have been satisfactorily ascertained by the finds of amber, as well as by the discovery of articles of Etruskan workmanship in various parts of Germany.
The Etruskan Trade-Routes to the Amber Coasts.
The two most important, as well as the oldest, trade-routes leading to the amber coasts are those starting from Hatria, and leading through the Alpine passes into the Valley of the Danube. The first, I, of map (Fig. 168, I.), took the line of the Valley of the Adige past Verona, Roveredo, and Trient, over the Brenner Pass into the Valley of the Inn, and crossed the Danube either at Linz or Passau. Thence it passed over the Bohemian ​Mountains into the Valley of the Elbe, and made for the amber coast of Schleswig and Holstein. It was probably also connected with that passing up the Danube and down the Valley of the Rhine, as well as with that which crossed the Danube lower down at Presburg (Carnuntum).
Fig. 168.—Map showing the principal Trade-routes (I. II. III. IV.) from the Mediterranean, and the Distribution of (T) Tin and (A) Amber.
​The second or eastern route, No. II. of map, runs by Trieste by way of Laibach, Gratz, and Bruck, and across the basin of the Leitha to Presburg, and from thence to the line of the Upper Oder, past Breslau, to the Lower Vistula, to Elbing, and ultimately reaches the amber coast of Samland.
These two lines of traffic were used not merely by the Etruskans, but also subsequently by the Romans, and are marked by the discovery of amber from the north, as well as articles derived from the south in the tombs in their neighbourhood, and by them the Mediterranean markets derived their principal supply of amber at the dawn of history. The ancient Greeks confounded the Hadriatic ports, whence the amber was shipped off to them, with the country where it was found, and Herodotus tells the story current in his time that a river Po flowed into the northern ocean not far from the Amber Isles, with the remark that his information was second hand, and that he had never seen any one who had visited those islands. The story is, however, true in its main points, that the amber of the ancient Greeks was discovered in northern Europe, and that it made its appearance in the civilised world at Hatria, near the mouth of the river Po, without reference to its conveyance through the country separating Italy from the North Sea and the Baltic, of which it was very unlikely that Herodotus could have obtained accurate information from the Greek traders.
The Etruskan trade passed also northwards through Switzerland into the Valley of the Rhine as far as its ​mouth, and found its way also through various Alpine passes, and by the Mediterranean into France. In both these countries the safety-pin brooch, and weapons and ornaments of Etruskan derivation, occur in the late Bronze and early Iron ages.
Traces of Etruskan Influence north of the Alps.
Hallstadt occupied a most important position on the right of Route I.; and from it a trade in salt from the salt mines must have been carried on both with the north and with the south. It was also a centre from which the Etruskan metal-work would be conveyed, on the one hand, up the Danube into the Valley of the Rhine, and, on the other, in the direction of Presburg, and into the Valley of the Elbe. The direction which this commerce took is proved by the numerous discoveries of Etruskan weapons, repoussé work in bronze and gold, and various designs, met with in those regions. The commerce found its way farther and farther north, until ultimately the Etruskan articles and patterns arrived in Britain. The dagger found in the river Witham is of the same design as a sword figured by Ramsauer from the cemetery at Hallstadt; the golden armour found at Mold (Figs. 159, 160) presents the same patterns as the metal-work found at Hallstadt, and in Etruskan tombs at Veii, Corneto, and Præneste. The ​golden cap (Fig. 157) found in Ireland is similar to those found near Poitiers in France, and in the Valley of the Rhine, figured by Lindenschmidt; it is also of the same design as some of the gold cups found in Denmark (Fig. 151) and Scania. In all these the workmanship is identical with that of the Etruskans.
The Etruskan influence is proved by many discoveries, such as the peculiar vase-carriages in Scania, and the cinerary urns of bronze in North Germany, to have extended as far to the north as Sweden, and to the east as the Lower Vistula. The cinerary urns have been found in association with articles of iron, and with amber beads, in tombs of the Iron age.
Etruskan weapons and designs have also been discovered in Denmark; the axes, for example (Fig. 148), are identical in type with those represented on the frescoed wall of the great tomb at Cære. The shields also, such as Fig. 150, are, if not of Etruskan origin, modelled on Etruskan designs. Some of the Danish swords, with hilts à trois cordons, are identical with those found in Italy.
The ancient Etruskans of Bologna and Hallstadt, and in the older tombs of Cære, were in the state of transition between bronze and iron. Bronze swords and axes were most common, and iron was comparatively rare, and so much more valuable than bronze, that one of the bronze celts, discovered in a tomb at Bologna, had ​a thin edge of iron let into it. It may therefore be inferred that they imported articles of bronze long before articles of iron in their traffic with the peoples to their north. What then was their position in relation to the Bronze and Iron ages north of the Alps? It may be concluded from the distribution of their weapons and designs, and copies of their designs, through France and Germany, that they carried on a commerce with those countries during the late Bronze age, while their influence in Britain is only clearly marked in the Iron or the late Celtic age. In Scandinavia their influence was felt during the greater portion of the Bronze age.
The Downfall of the Etruskan Trade.
From the facts recorded in the previous pages it is clear that the Etruskans in remote times were a highly civilised and powerful confederation, sweeping the Mediterranean with their fleets, having free intercourse with all the civilised peoples of the south, and exercising a great influence on the barbarians on their northern frontiers. From their commanding position, it was inevitable that they should be the principal means of spreading the Mediterranean civilisation in Germany, France, and the regions of the north. This position was lost by the attack of the Romans on the one hand, and of the Gauls on the other. The rise of the Roman power corresponds with the decay of Etruria, and is to be looked upon as the natural growth of the one people out of the other. It is clear from the history of the struggles carried on between Rome and the Etruskan cities, that the Etruskan peoples lived on as Romans, and contributed, in no small degree, the qualities which made ​Rome the mistress of the world. Their conquest by the Gauls was altogether different.
In B.C. 396 the Gauls poured through the passes north of Lugano into the Valley of the Ticino, defeated the Etruskans in a pitched battle, burnt Melpum, and, being joined by other bodies of their countrymen, took possession of Lombardy, from that time forward known to the Romans as Gallia. Six years later they defeated the Romans in the battle of the Allia, sacked Rome, and were only kept on the north-eastern side of the Apennines by the ceaseless vigilance of the Romans.
This invasion of Lombardy by the Gauls broke up the trade-routes of the Etruskans. Hatria was destroyed, and a new Hatria established, probably by the survivors, on the shores of Picenum, which afterwards became a Greek city, the modern Atri. The condition of the Etruskans in Rhætia and the surrounding districts, cut off from Etruria by the hostile barrier of Gauls, was probably analogous to that of the Britons cut off by the Gothic invasion from the Roman Empire. Their arts and civilisation declined, although they preserved their speech as late as the days of Livy. The Etruskan influence on the north, which had lasted for many centuries, came to an end in the fourth century B.C., and trade did not find its way again along the old channels until the conquest of Cis-Alpine Gaul by the Romans and the spread of the Roman power to the north.
The interruption of this traffic led to the development of new channels, by which the influence of Greece penetrated into the countries of the north.
The Greeks and their Influence.
The history of Greece began, according to Grote, in B.C. 776; and in the days of Homer, who is stated by Herodotus to have lived B.C. 880, the Greeks possessed no money, were ignorant of the art of writing, and were acquainted only with the western parts of the Mediterranean. In the Homeric times iron was beginning to be used in place of bronze, and both materials were employed for weapons. The influence exerted by the early Greeks on the nations of the north and west was principally from the colonies on the north of the Black Sea, and from that of Massilia.
The Trade-Route from Olbia.
The Greek colonists, who introduced their arts and civilisation into the district north of Pontus, gradually pushed their discoveries farther and farther to the north-east, and ultimately arrived by a new route at Samland. They started from Olbia, at the mouth of the river Bug, passed up the Dnieper, and thence in a north- westerly direction, so as to avoid the huge morasses which bordered most of the rivers traversing these great plains, made for the line of the Lower Vistula, and joined the main line of commerce from the Hadriatic Sea. The rivers also were a means of communication, as well as the roads through the forests, which are marked by the numerous tumuli and many traces of old occupation between Kiew and the Lower Vistula (see Fig. 168, Route III.)
​The relative antiquity of the routes from Olbia and Hatria is ascertained with tolerable precision. Herodotus, in the course of his travels, visited Olbia, and from his silence as to the existence of an amber trade, coupled with the belief to which he alludes of its being obtained from the mouth of the Po, it may be concluded that Greek discovery at that time had not penetrated to the amber coasts of the Baltic by way of Olbia. Coins, however, of that city, as well as other Greek coins, have been discovered at Schubin, near Bromberg, belonging to the fifth century before Christ. These are likely to have passed northwards from Hatria, which, in the days of Herodotus, was a mart frequented by the Greek merchants. It is not until after his time that the trade-routes from Olbia are clearly defined by the Greek helmets, armour, and coins found near the source of the Tasmina, and by other Greek remains, and by amber in various places between the Baltic and the Black Sea. The development of this route was probably hastened by the disturbance of the old one from the Hadriatic by the Gauls, who not only conquered Lombardy at the beginning of the fourth century before Christ, but also ravaged Greece B.C. 279. These movements must have seriously affected all the trade-routes passing across the line of the Danube to the amber coasts.
The Greek influence penetrated into the Valley of the ​Danube through the mountains to the north of Greece, as well as by way of Olbia and Hatria. The coins of Philip of Macedon have been found in Germany, and those of Massilia at Roveredo on Route I. It is very likely that some of the beautiful designs so conspicuous in the arms and ornaments of the Bronze age in Scandinavia, which up to the present time have not been traced farther south than the Valley of the Danube, may have been derived from Greece. It must be borne in mind that just as amber from the north was distributed through Italy and Greece, so in return were bronze articles and glass beads exported to the regions of the north. The influence, however, of Greece and of Greek art seems to me altogether secondary in importance to that of the Etruskans, who carried on trade with the north most likely for many centuries before the Greeks of Pontus found their way to the shores of the Baltic.
The Trade-Route from Massilia.
In the seventh century before Christ the Greek sailors appeared in the western Mediterranean to dispute the supremacy of the seas with the Phœnicians and Etruskans. Kolaios, a native of Samos, was driven by a storm in B.C. 640 out of his course beyond the Pillars of Hercules, and was the first of all the Greeks to reach Gades or Tartessus; and about one hundred years later the Phocæans, fleeing from the tyranny of Cyrus, founded the city of Massilia at the mouth of the Rhone, which rapidly became an important place of commerce, and exerted a great influence on the civilisation of Gaul and of Britain. They introduced the Greek language and ​writing, the Greek cultivation of the vine, Greek manu- factures, and the newly-discovered art of striking coins from metals. This coinage has been traced through Gaul into Britain, in the Iron age (see pp. 436-9), as well as over the whole of the area from Bohemia to the mouth of the Ehine, and it penetrated into northern Italy.
The introduction of stamped money marks an important change in the commerce of the world. It had passed from its first simple condition of being an exchange of goods, to a second and more highly-organised stage—that is to say, an exchange of goods for metal, which, instead of being weighed, was furnished with a stamp marking its true value. The earliest coins are those of Pheidon of Ægina, circa B.C. 660, or of the Lydians in the reign of Gyges, B.C. 700. A coinage of bronze was introduced into Rome in the reign of Numa or Servius Tullius, of silver in B.C. 269, in the First Punic war, and of gold about sixty years afterwards.
The main routes of this commerce are clearly defined by Strabo and Diodorus Siculus. The caravans passed from Massilia up the Rhone (see Route IV. of Map, Fig. 168), down the Valley of the Loire and of the Seine, and up that of the Saone into the Valley of the Rhine. The two first of these, according to Diodorus Siculus, were used for the trade with Britain; and the last was directed towards the amber of Schleswig and Holstein, from which probably the greater portion of the precious commodity was obtained. It may, however, have been partially derived from Samland. It is said to have been collected by the Gutones or Jutes, and to have been sold by them to the Teutones, through whom it passed into the hands of the Massilian traders.
The Voyage of Pytheas.
We have seen that in the year 500 B.C. the exploration of the Northern Seas had advanced as far as Cornwall and Ireland by Himilco and the Phœnicians. The opening up of the English Channel and the North Sea was due to the Greeks of Massilia. About the year B.C. 325 an expedition was fitted out to explore the far north under Pytheas, an eminent astronomer and mathematician. He set sail from Massilia, and passing through the Pillars of Hercules, coasted along the shores of Spain and of western France to Cape Calbium (Point du Raz), and the island of Uxisame (Ushant) off the coast of Brittany. Thence he passed northwards to the British coast, and sailed along the shores of the southern counties until he entered the Straits and arrived at the promontory of Cantium (the North Foreland). He is said to have spent some time in Britain. He then followed the English coast northwards, and leaving it after a voyage of six days discovered Thule (Norway), which he naturally took to be an island, the most northern of all countries, surrounded by a sea frozen into slush, which rendered farther advance impossible. He tells us that in the regions about Thule, at the time of the summer solstice, there is half a year of day; but this probably refers to his own speculations, since he was not six months in the region.
​Pytheas turned back southwards from Thule, and reached the mouth of the Rhine and the nation of the Ostiæans. He then steered north-east for 6000 stadia (150 geographical miles), along the broad gulf Mentonomon, probably the bay between North Holland and Jutland, and discovered the Amber Islands, or Electrides referred to by later Roman writers, among which Abalus, termed afterwards by the Greeks Baltia, is likely to be one of the islands off East Frisia or Schleswig. A large river which he termed the Tanais, probably the Elbe, opened on the shore. After about a year's absence the expedition returned to Massilia.
From this account it may be concluded that Pytheas steered as far into the North Sea as Norway. That he arrived in Jutland is rendered certain by the position assigned to the Amber Isles, and to the Guttones, whom he describes as living on the coast. The discredit which has been thrown upon his narrative by ancient and modern criticism seems to me, as it does to Sir John Lubbock, wholly undeserved. His discoveries are to be viewed not as standing alone, but as the inevitable result of the increased trade and commerce with the north. Himilco's voyage first indicated the position of Britain and Ireland, and to Pytheas is the merit due of opening out the British Channel and the North Sea to the ancients. Each of these explorations forms a link in the chain of geographical discovery by which the shores of northern Europe and Asia have been made known, and which has been so successfully terminated ​in the year 1879 by the expedition under the command of Professor Nordenskiold. Thule was considered an island by Ptolemy and the later Greek and Latin writers, and its true relation to the mainland of Europe was not known before the fifth century after Christ.
It is unnecessary for us to inquire into the Roman influence on the nations of the north, since it was felt in this country only at the beginning of the Historic period. As the Roman power gradually mastered the Phœnician, Etruskan, and Greek, Roman coins and merchandise passed along the old routes to the north, which remain the great highways of commerce to this day. The discoveries of Pytheas were followed by those of the Roman navigators, and in the first century after Christ the British Isles, the Hebrides, and the Orkneys were known to the geographers.
General Conclusions.
The preceding pages offer us the materials for arriving at a just idea of the condition of Europe at the beginning of history. The civilisation of Egypt was being felt in the Mediterranean area before the fifteenth century, and the Assyrian by the tenth century before Christ, but the influence of these, spread principally by the Phœnicians, was not known beyond the Pillars of Hercules before the twelfth century. Then the Phœnicians pushed as far as Gades, and gradually extended their trade along the Atlantic until it arrived in Britain in the fifth century before Christ. The Etruskans became masters of Italy at least one thousand years before Christ, and ​carried on trade as far as the Baltic and the North Sea, and Etruskan articles found their way into France and Switzerland in the Bronze age, and into Britain and Ireland in the Iron age. This continued until the irruption of the Gauls. Then the Greek trade arose, and Greek articles and coins found their way to the Baltic as early as the fifth century before Christ, and to our country in the Iron age, in the second century before Christ.
The Phœnicians may be assumed to have worked the tin mines of Cornwall before the arrival of the Massilian traders, since they knew of their existence in the time of Himilco, and since several names of places are probably of Phœnician origin. They must also have used bronze and glass in their trade, but their wares manufactured for the northern markets do not present any characters by which they can be known. The Etruskan influence appears to me to have been more powerfully felt north of the Alps than any other, and it was proably exercised quite as long, if not longer, than that of the Phœnicians.
When we reflect that the history of Gaul begins in the seventh, and that of Britain in the first century before Christ, and when we consider further that the civilisation of Egypt dates back to more than 4000 B.C., it must appear obvious that the historical overlap is very great. It is very probable that a large portion of northern Europe was in the Neolithic age while the scribes were compiling their records in the great cities on the banks of the Nile, and that the Neolithic civilisation lingered in remote regions while the voice of Perikles was heard in Athens, or the name of Hannibal was a terror in Italy.
* ↑ In the early Chaldaean Empire (Sayce, Contemporary Review, Dec. 1878, p. 71) bronze was more commonly used than iron.
* ↑ Chabas, Etudes sur l'Antiquité Historique d'après les Sources Egyptiennes, 2d ed. 8vo, 1873. Stuart Poole, "Ancient Egypt," Contemporary Review, Jan. to May 1879.
* ↑ Chabas, p. 16. Lepsius fixes the date of Menes at 3892 B.C.; Mariette at 5004 B.C.; Brugsch at 5004 B.C.
* ↑ Chabas, p. 174.
* ↑ Steel is not found in any of the older tombs.
* ↑ Dawkins, Proceed. Manch. Lit. and Phil. Soc., Dec. 14, 1869, p. 43.
* ↑ Chabas, op. cit. pp. 186, 224. Stuart Poole, Contemporary Review, Jan. 1878, 347.
* ↑ Sayce, Enclop. Brit., Art. "Babylonia," p. 185.
* ↑ Kohn and Mehlis, Vorgeschichte des Menschen im östlichen Europa, 1879. Erste Band, pl. xi.
* ↑ Chabas, op. cit. p. 120.
* ↑ See Butler, Public Schools Atlas, Map 3; W. Smith, Atlas of Ancient Geography, No. 9.
* ↑ Compare Fig. 165 with this description.
* ↑ Standard, May 12, 1879. These bronze gates are now in the British Museum.
* ↑ Contemporary Review, Jan. 1878, p. 348 et seq.
* ↑ Renan, La Mission de Phénicie, Paris, 1864. Wiberg, Archiv für Anthrop. iv. 25.
* ↑ Archiv für Anthrop. iv. pl. 1, fig. 24.
* ↑ In B.C. 590. Movers, Die Phönicier, ii. 2, S. 133.
* ↑ In dealing with the Phœnician influence I have followed Wiberg, Der Einfluss der Massischen Völker auf den Norden, Hamhurgh, 1867.
* ↑ Pliny, ii. 67. From Pliny's incidental notice it is obvious that the account of Himilco's voyage was extant in his time.
* ↑ B.C. 475, according to Sir G. C. Lewis, Astronomy of the Ancients, p. 450.
* ↑ Strabo, iii. c. 176; Meineke, vol. i. 239.
* ↑ Rufus Festus Avienus, Poetæ Latinæ Minores, ed. Le Maire, 1. 80, Paris, 1825; Oræ Maritimæ, ed. Wernsdorf, v. 117, 383, 412; Mon. Hist. Brit. xix.
* ↑ Strabo, in Mon. Hist. Brit. vi.
* ↑ Mon. Hist. Brit. v.
* ↑ Aristoteles, De Mundo, c. iii.
* ↑ Ireland is termed Iris by Diodorus Siculus, and Ierne by Strabo.
* ↑ See pp. 402-7.
* ↑ Contemporary Review, Jan. 1878, p. 357.
* ↑ Die Ureinwohner des Scandinavischen Nordens. I. Das Bronzealter.
* ↑ Wiberg, Der Einfluss der klassischen Völker auf den Norden. Hamburg, 1867, p. 13.
* ↑ For lists of discoveries of Punic remains see Wiberg, Der Einfluss der klassischen Völker auf den Norden, pp. 82, 83.
* ↑ Dennis, The Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria, 2d edit., 1878, 2 vols. 8vo. In this paragraph I have mainly followed the views of this author.
* ↑ Encycl. Brit., article Etruria.
* ↑ Cosa, Tarquinii, Agylla, Volterra, Saturnia, Alsium, Pisæ, in Etruria, Mykenæ, and Thessaly, and Epirus in Greece. For an account of the masonry see Dennis, ii. p. 255.
* ↑ Dennis, op. cit. i. p. lxxiv.
* ↑ Athenæus, i. c. 50.
* ↑ Pliny, xxxiv. 7, 16, 1. Signa Tuscanica per terras dispersa quæ in Etruriâ factita non est dubium.
* ↑ The reader may be referred on these points to Dennis, Etruria; to Canina, l'Antica Etruria Maritima; to the Monumenti Inediti dell' Instituto; and Gozzadini, Intorno Agli Scavi Archeologici fatti presso Bologna; and to the museums at Bologna, Florence, and Rome.
* ↑ Phœnician articles with inscriptions have been discovered in Etruskan tombs at Palestrina (Dennis, Etruria, ii. 449), and at Præneste, Mon. Inedit. 1876, x. tav. 33.
* ↑ To be seen in the Museo Civico, Bologna.
* ↑ See Von Sacken, Das Grabfeld von Hallstadt. Ramsauer, Hallstadt der am Salzburge aufgefunden MSS. For the use of this valuable work I am indebted to Mr. John Evans.
* ↑ The principal authorities consulted in dealing with the trade-routes of the Etruskans and Greeks are Wiberg, Der Einfluss der klassischen Völker auf den Norden durch den Handelsverkehr, 8vo, Hamburg, 1867; Pierson, Elektron, Berlin, 8vo, 1869; Genthe, Uber den Etruskischen Tauschhandel nach dem Norden, 8vo, Frankfurt, 1878; Von Sadowski, Die Handelsstrassen der Griechen und Römer, 8vo, Jena, 1877.
* ↑ For lists of Etruskan finds in Bohemia, see Genthe, Ueber die Etruskischen Tauschhandel nach dem Norden, 8vo, 1874, pp. 150-1.
* ↑ Herodotus, iii. 115.
* ↑ Matériaux, 1877, p. 531; 1878, p. 403; 1870, pp. 34, 273, and p. 402.
* ↑ Von Sacken, op. cit. Ramsauer, op. cit. Matériaux, 1877, p. 409, 1878, pl. ix.
* ↑ Kemble and Franks, Horæ Ferales, pl. xvii. fig. 2.
* ↑ Archæologia, xxxvi. p. 350 et seq; xli. p. 216 et seg. Mon. Inedit., 1874, x. tav. 10.
* ↑ Worsaae, Primeval Antiquities, p. 36. Montelius, Congr. Int. Archéol. Prehist., Stockholm, p. 505.
* ↑ See Archæologia, xv. 128; xli. pl. 4; xlii. p. 488. Lindenschmidt, Die Alterthümer unserer heidnischen Vorzeit. Engelhardt, Congr. Int. Archéol. Préhist., Copenhague, p. 403. Mestorf, Congr. Int., Buda-Pesth, p. 686. Virchow, Matériaux, 1877, p. 233, and Archiv für Ethnologie, passim.
* ↑ The ancient inhabitants of Hissarlik and Mykenæ appear from Dr Schliemann's discoveries to have lived in the Bronze age.
* ↑ Von Sadowski, Die Handelsstrassen der Griechen und Römer aus dem Polnischen, von Albin Kohn, Jena, 1877, p. 72, pl. iii. figs. 1-6. Coins of Olbia and Ægina, with the "Quadratum incusum" of Athens and of Cyzicus, found together at Schubin, ranging in date from B.C. 460 to 431.
* ↑ Silver coins of Demetrius Poliorketes (B.C. 294-287), found in a tomb at Peterskapelle, close to the Gulf of Riga. For other cases see Engelhardt, Congr. Int., Buda-Pest vol., p. 251 et seq.
* ↑ Strabo, iv. 150.
* ↑ Lubbock, Nineteenth Century, Nov. 1879, p. 789.
* ↑ Wiberg takes Thule to be Jutland; but from the fact that Solinus (A.D. 80) mentions the Hebrides as being two days' sail from the Caledonian headland "in the direction of Thule," while the Orcades are five days' sail from Thule, it cannot be other than Norway. The "sea- blubber" of Pytheas is the peculiar soft slush which the sea-water becomes at the beginning of winter in the Arctic regions.
* ↑ Wiberg, Einfluss der klassischen Völker, has been my principal guide in the narrative of Pytheas.
* ↑ Polybius, Strabo, and Cornwall Lewis.
* ↑ Prehistoric Times, 4th edition, p. 66.
* ↑ The objection urged by Polybius, that Pytheas' narrative is untrue because he was a scientific man incapable of supporting the expense of an expedition, applies equally to Professor Nordenskiold.