The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1916-07-26
Our Ancestors By
the Nile and EuphrGfeS
By Miss Lily Disn.uke.

DR.. James Fl. Breasted, of the University
of Chicago, gave a very interesting Illus
trated lecture at the Ampitheatre recently,
his subject being Our Ancestors by the
Nile and Euphrates." DR.. Breasted's lecture
was in part as follows:
There is nothing old in our immediate
surroundings. Ancient ruins fill the old
countries with charm which only time and
distance can diffuse. We, with our automo-
biles, our trolley cars and our telephones,
seem far removed from the ancient scenes
of Egypt and Assyria, yet modern civiliza-
ton is deeply rooted in the Orient of the
past
In about the year 5000 B. C. the Egyp-
tians learned to use stone for building pur-
poses; and their development within the hum
dred years that followed was so marvellous
that only the nineteenth century can COM
pare with that century. A tiny gold falcon,
perfect in construction, and vase of gold set
with beautiful gems have been found in
ruins of Egypt. These things are so won
derfully made that Tiffany's workmen would
have difficulty in reproducing them. West
ern Europe was at this time in the stone age.
1t is not known just how metal first came
into use, but it was probably something like
this: An Egyptian one night banked his
fire with some blocks of copper ore. The
next morning he found in the ashes little
round beads of shining copper He gave
them to his wife for ornaments. Soon after
wards he found that ne could hammer TINS
metal and cast it into tools.
Evidence is strong that the Egyptians
crossed the Mediterranean and spread their
influence to countries beyond, especially to
Crete Cretan writing shows marked SINH
larity to Egyptian. Daggers found in Crete
and other countries beyond the Mediterra-
mean follow the same general lines and bear
the same patterns as those of Egypt.
The Temple Of the Sphinx had light Sits
cut in the roof, and the Temple of Karnack
had clear story windows, from which the
clear story windows of modern churches and
cathedrals were evolved
very interesting discovery was a round
ed piece of copper, similar to modern bath
tub stopper. Not long after basin was
found with an opening in the bottom into
which the stopper fitted exactly. Connected
with this tub was quarter of a mile of
copper piping. The similarity of the colon
made of the Roman and Greek houses to the
open court temples of ancient Egypt shows
plainly that the Romans and Greeks were
influenced in architecture by the Egyptians
Mesopotamia furnished several early con-
tributions to human progress On a cylin-
drical seal found there is an interesting bit
of lapidary work representing three farm
ers planting field by means of a combina-
ton pillow and planter drawn by oxen.
The Mesopotamians contributed to art the
idea of symmetry. From them the armorial
bearings of the noble houses of Europe have
been developed. For example, the eagle on
the coat of arms of so many royal families
came directly from Mesopotamia, and is the
ancestor of our American eagle.
The bell tower of the modern church is an
evolution from the old Babylonian temple
tower, which consisted of one square build
ing set on top of another, and so on, the
higher being smaller than the one below.
There is no question as to the supremacy
of Greek art and architecture. But the
Greek came into his peninsula as a nomad,
destroyed the earlier civilization and had
to begin over. But he inherited all the tech
nical processes that had been solved by the
Egyptians, so instead of having to spend his
time on these things his sense of beauty
was given full and free play.
Terrell County, Georgia.