New-York tribune., 1911-04-02

was begun in the last quarter OF the
nineteenth century and sprang more or
less directly from DR.. Schliemanns dis
coveries. In his earlier book, THE Pal
aces Of Crete and Their Builders" the
author confined himself exclusively to
the results of his excavations there. In
the present volume he takes up the far
wider subject of the civilization OF the
stone copper and bronze ages in Egypt
and in the countries bordering on the
Mediterranean, with emphasis upon his
conviction of its local origin, as opposed
to the theory Of dts importation from the
East by migration.
The Minoan civilization, which was
the mother of the Mycen@an and Greek
civilizations, so he sums up the evidence
presented at the end of his book, must
have arisen many thousand years before
the separation of the Aryans. and COM
plete and perfect culture is found in
Crete before the IndoGermans could
have occupied the countries where our
civilization originated. THE continuity,
as it appears in the island Of Crete. from
the neolithc age TO that Of copper and
Of bronze, is so complete that we cannot
admit the entrance of a foreign element
from the North. still less from Asia
Minor" And he continues:
The men who occupied the hill of knossos
brought with them good but undecorated
pottery; the vases were smooth, and by de-
grees a design in incised lines was applied
with white substance, to give more relief
TO the design. and finally the vases were
decorated, with color. Now appear the first
objects Of copper. then those of bronze-all
this by insensible gradations, without any
sudden interruption in the development of
the pottery to Indicate The is, arrival Of "a CON
ion. the most important point of the Cretan
excavations; they are fun of instruction.
because they act as brake in judging Of
the theory of invasions and teach us TO
attach greater importance than we do 10
the evolution of the peoples and the infu-
ence OF commerce. We cannot, of course,
deny the fact that there were migrations,
but the modern tendency Of prehistorv is
TO reduce their number as far as possible.
In following the development and
spread of this prehistoric civilization
Professor Mosso gives an important
place to Italy, which, as he expresses il,
had a far stronger action of inspiration
and expiration" than the Balkan and
Iberian peninsulas. Egypt is his point
Of departure He finds there the prehis-
toric custom Of burying the dead in a
contracted position, which has been
found in neolithic tombs in different
parts of Europe; he finds there, also, the
potters' marks. distinct from the HERO
glyphics, script whose origin is lost in
the darkness of the ages. Neolithic
vases thus stamped have been found In
Hungary, in Spain and elsewhere, which.
according 10 Professor Mosso. proves
that pots were not always made at home
but that. as was also the case with
weapons, there were special factories
whose goods were thus distinguished
From other drawings on vases he con-
cludes that
from the time Of the neOithic age certain
signs were used by seamen TO enable their
vessels 10 be recognized from q distance
Tb~y consist OF horns grouped in various
ways and liked upon shaft, or Of figures
Of animals or branches of a tree
one regrets that the marine fgurehead
is disappearing, dItcr naNlng come down
TO rs from prehistoric times through
ages as yet unnumbered Elsewhere
Professor Mosso shows us i'm illustrations
the first known woman's fashion in
dress, as indicated on neolithic idols and
yotve figures.
There is chapter Of other than sci
entiic interest on the beginnings Of art.
other animals in the caves OF the Dor
doene, Spain and other parts Of Central
Europe The author refuses to ascrbe
them to the paleolthic period. but OBJ
serves that the diversity Of climate in
prehistoric times between Italy and the
countries beyond the Alps renders a