The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-08-11


Obviously there> in all the difference in
the world between such views AZ these and
the old Carian and. Phenician theories that
looked upon Mycenean or Minoan ~civiliza-
ton AZ imposed from the outside by foreign
ers. IL In one Of the conclusions most
firmly asserted in the book before lis hat
Caria played no such leading role in the
early culture Of west Asia a. to justify us
in considering it as the origin or centre
point Of q specific civilization. The ex-
cavations that have been conducted there
al Assarlik near Myndos by Mr.. Patton and
Mr.. Myres are here held to have demon
strated that Caria's chief contact with
Minoan culture was at the end Of the Bronze
Age in the last days Of the period defined
~ Late Minoan III. In our authors opinion
IL may well have been TO Caria among a
kindred people that many Of the Minoans
fed before a triumphant Northerp invader.
In the Dark Ages, namely. the Ave or six
centuries Immediately preceding the classi-
cal period OF Greece, when the Minoan sea-
power had been destroyed and the North
erners had not yet sufficiently assimilated
the remains OF the old population TO create
q new sea power Of their owp, men who
lived in Cara did in fact rule the Il gean
Sea. 1t il to this period that Mr.. Myres
would refer those passages about a
Carian thalassocracy, or sea dominion. that
we meet with in Herodotus and T~hucydides.
SO far, then, from Carian being . good
word for Proto-M inoan. Late Minoan would
he a better one for Carian. A~rcheologists
have been led astray by not remembering
the vast length Of time that elapsed between
the great days OF Knossos and Myoene
and the beginnings OF the sea power OF
Egina and Athens.
II, however. IL is geographically and his
torically unsound TO call the Minoan cul-
ture Carian, IL IL racially unsound as we'll
to ascribe il to the Phpnicians OF Sidon and
Tyre. The author OF this book In con-
WINGED that the influence OF Ph9nicia in
the Egean was foreign, late. sporadic; It
developed in the days OF gradual decadenoe
that followed the sack OF Knossos. II
reached its height in the Dark Ages that
swept away before the iron swords OF the
Northern invaders all but the memories OF
art and beauty. II was only then, when the
hand OF Egypt was weary and relaxed
and the chaos Of conquest and migration
had leSI the Egean without a master. that
the grave Tyrian trader" saw that his
day had come 10 leave the Syrian coast
land and expand north and west. IL was
only in virtue Of the few centuries which
followed the twelfth century B. c. that the
PhRnician could call the "Eeean Isles"
his ancient home" and view the merry
Grecian coaster" as an intruder"
To our authors mind a deeper problem
is ~propounded in the we'll known stanzas
Of Matthew Arnoldis poem. The Scholar
Gypsy" These merry Grecian coasters"
from Chios or Miletus. these young. light
hearted masters Of the wave"-were they in
any real sense entering upon their rightful
inheritance? We're they the descendants
in race. language. belief of the people who
created the early art of the Egean? Have
we any right TO call that early art Greek?
Prof. Burrows admits that 10 these ques-
tons no full and conclusive answer can
yet he given. He merely suggests some of
the lines of argument which one day may
with the help of further discoveries, like
those lately made in Crete. succeed in
answering them. The first point to which
he would direct attention il that the ques-
ton is largely one of degree. No schools
assert that the Minoans were Hellenic in
the full sense Of the word. The Greek
race of the classical period is confessedly
a blend of northern and southern elements.
Some of these elements came into the
Egean world comparatively late in history
and cannot be responsible for the develop
ment OF Minoan culture from its Neolithic
beginnings to its zenith in the great srtis-
tic period. Was the Greek language one of
these late intrusive elements? Assuming
this TO have been 10, we must next inquire
whether the case is one where the coming
OF a new language means only TO a slight
extent the coming of a new race. Was
some kind Of European spoken in the
Egean before Greek, and did the men who
introduced Greek And there when they
arrived men who were partially akin to them
racially? Or was Greek itself already in
the Egean before the last wave OF invasion
came. and did the last Northerners. as Prof.
Ridgeway maintains. contribute not the
Greek language but other Indo-European
elements? Was the coming Of Greek a
simple thing. like the imposition OF Arabic
. on Egypt, where a small body OF conquerors
brought about a complete change Of Ian
guage but hardly any change OF stock?
Or are we to look for analogies to the COM
plicated making of England. where four
successive waves OF fndo-E European con-
quests-Celtic. Roman. Saxon and Norman
have evolved q composite language,
which in different degrees bears the mark
Of them all and yet have failed to destroy
the original pre-Indo-European race that
has all the ime-survived almos, wnmixed
in a part of Wales and in western Ireland
and is slowly reasserting itself elsewhere.
Manifestly the problem that we have to
face ia one OF intrusive elements-when and
whence they came and what particular
contribution they made to the general
stock. Suppose We grant, with most eth
biologists. that practically the whole basin
Of the Mediterranean was inhabited in
Neolithic times by a dark skinned, long
headed race. hat this race Possesses ex-
t~raordinary persistence. and in spite Of
repeated invasions and conquests re-
mains the basis OF the present population
in Spain. Italy. Greece and Egypt; that.
moreover. il is the most gifted race in the
world, and that the artistic impulse. wher-
ever we find Il. in the area which il inhab-
its has always been due to it. Even though
we should grant all this. we should still
be but little nearer answering what is the
really interesting part OF the question.