Evening star., 1932-04-10
Continued From Third Page.)

tive contemporaries in Java. Germany
and England, yet in other respects were
quite unlike, but fashioned In an equally
thought that the discoveries at Peking
had revealed a stage in human evolu-
ton We had been seeking for-the time
when man had not yet discovered how
to make or how to use fire and had not
yet found out how to shape stone tools
or how to use them. But last year dis
tinct hearths and rude tools shaped
frem quartz were revealed in the Pek-
ing mausoleum. So even at the begin
nings of the Pleistocene period-a mil
lion years ago. on the accepted major
scale of reckoning-man had laid the
basis of our civilization. For does not
a knowledge of fire and of tools lie at
the very basis of our way of living?
Our civilization, then, began at least
a million years ago in world inhabited
by strange, primitive local breeds of
humanity. Under the action Of cir
cumStances-guided, some would claim
by a supernatural Providence-man has
made his exodus through the Pleisto-
Gene age and has come out as now We
find him, differing in color of skin. in
mentality and in ways of living, but an
infinite improvement upon the human
ity revealed at Peking, Java and Pilt-
down.
And what will man be a million wears
Aence? VIII his upward progress con-
tlpue1 Hitherto he has been the un.
conscious f1otsam and jetsam on the
sea Of circumstances; natural currents
have carried him forward. But can he
any longer afford to be mere fiotsan
and jetSam on natures sea? Must he
now direct his course? fear he must.
but will conscious effort bring him the
advancement which came to him when
nature held the helm?
The reader must forgive me for this
lapse into moralizing. 1 shall make
amends by instantly turning to recently
made discoveries relating to the past
which affect our present outlook These
discoveries were made in Palestine. and
relate not to the state of humanity at
the beginning of the Pleistocene period,
but to its condition toward the end of
that per1od-from about $4,000 BIC down
70 about 5000 BIC. Six years ago a young
oxford graduate, Mr.. TurvilIe-Petre'
discovered in cave on the western
shore Of Lake Galilee evidence proving
that some $4,000 years ago Palestine,
llke Europe, was inhabited by Neander-
thai man, that strange race of human
lCy that now has been so long extinct.
During the last three years Miss
Dorotny Garrod, one of the most ac-
complished excavators of modern times.
mas opened series Of caves in the Holy
Land from Mount Carmel in the north
TO the Judean Hills In the south. and
discovered the fossil bones and the i'm
piements fashioned by the Palestinians
VINO Succeeded-and probably extermi-
nated-Neanderthal man.
Flint Tools Found.
The Judeans Of this ancient period
were men Of the European type who
also manifested certain African traits.
Thousands of their flint tools have been
found. Certain tools Of the last race
Of cave dwellers-which may be assigned
TO the eighth millennium B.C.-are of
particular interest to US. They are
sharp flint blades, which apparently
have been used as sickles. for they
snoW kind OF wear seen only In fiints
used for reaping. Apparently the late
cave dwelers gathered the heads of
wild corn. for there is no sign of their
having titled the land The animal
bones found in the caves are not those
OF domesticated breeds. This is the
earliest sign yet discovered of mans use
OF corn as a means Of subsistence.
Palestine has given us our Oldest writ
ten history. 1t is the land Of the Bible.
1t Is destined to give US a still older
history. In its caves are recorded the
doi1gs Of men who lived in Canaan
many thousands of years before the
time CT Abraham. The pre-biblical
history of Palestine is now being de-
ciphered.
No less surprising are the prehistoric
discoveries being made in Africa.
Thanks to the enterprising labors of a
young Englishman, DR.. L. s. B. Leakey,
we are rapidly coming to an exact
knowledge of its inhabitants for many
thousands of years back.
AS write. long message has come
from DR.. Leakey announcing that in