DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5625#0028
Survey of the Ancient World
17. A world
of Late Stone
Age barba-
rism all
around the
Mediter-
18. This
Late Stone
Age world
still lacking
civilization in
4000 E.c.
19. Rise of
civilization
with writing,
metal, and
government
in Egypt
(4000—
-JOOO B.C.)
20. Discov-
ery of
Europe by
Egyptian
civilization
about
3000 B.C.
Such had been man's progress in the. fifty thousand years
since he had begun to make stone weapons and tools. Thus
far we have followed this advance only in Europe. Similar
progress had also been made by Stone Age men all around the
Mediterranean; that is, not only in Europe on the north of
the Mediterranean but in Asia on the east of it, and especially
in northern Africa on the south of the Mediterranean. The
lands all around the Mediterranean therefore formed a world
of Late Stone Age barbarism, all of which had reached about
the same stage of advancement.
By 4000 b. c. this barbarism had gone a long way toward civili-
zation, but still fell far short of it. For civilization demands at
least three things: the use of metals, the possession of writing,
and the control of men by an organized government. Nowhere
around the entire Mediterranean did the world of Late Stone
Age barbarism as yet possess these things, nor did Europe ever
gain them for itself unaided. Europe borrowed them. Hence
we must now turn elsewhere to see where these and many
other things that help to make up civilization first appeared.
In the southeast corner of the Mediterranean (see map,
p. 232) the valley of the river Nile formed a home for men so
well supplied with everything needful for human life, and so
favorably situated, that the Late Stone Age men of Egypt, as
the lower Nile valley is called, began to make more rapid prog-
ress than the Late Stone Age men of Europe. There the Egyp-
tians, emerging from the Late Stone Age, invented a system
of writing, discovered metal, and learned to use it. Thus in
the thousand years between 4000 and 3000 b.c. the Egyptians
of the Late Stone Age advanced to a great and wonderful
civilization, while the Europeans still remained in barbarism.
In the sailing ships which the Egyptians learned to build,
the things like metal and writing, which help to make up civili-
zation, began to pass from the dwellers along the Nile to the Late
Stone Age Europeans about 3000 b.c. Barbarian Europe was
thus discovered by civilized people crossing the Mediterranean
17. A world
of Late Stone
Age barba-
rism all
around the
Mediter-
18. This
Late Stone
Age world
still lacking
civilization in
4000 E.c.
19. Rise of
civilization
with writing,
metal, and
government
in Egypt
(4000—
-JOOO B.C.)
20. Discov-
ery of
Europe by
Egyptian
civilization
about
3000 B.C.
Such had been man's progress in the. fifty thousand years
since he had begun to make stone weapons and tools. Thus
far we have followed this advance only in Europe. Similar
progress had also been made by Stone Age men all around the
Mediterranean; that is, not only in Europe on the north of
the Mediterranean but in Asia on the east of it, and especially
in northern Africa on the south of the Mediterranean. The
lands all around the Mediterranean therefore formed a world
of Late Stone Age barbarism, all of which had reached about
the same stage of advancement.
By 4000 b. c. this barbarism had gone a long way toward civili-
zation, but still fell far short of it. For civilization demands at
least three things: the use of metals, the possession of writing,
and the control of men by an organized government. Nowhere
around the entire Mediterranean did the world of Late Stone
Age barbarism as yet possess these things, nor did Europe ever
gain them for itself unaided. Europe borrowed them. Hence
we must now turn elsewhere to see where these and many
other things that help to make up civilization first appeared.
In the southeast corner of the Mediterranean (see map,
p. 232) the valley of the river Nile formed a home for men so
well supplied with everything needful for human life, and so
favorably situated, that the Late Stone Age men of Egypt, as
the lower Nile valley is called, began to make more rapid prog-
ress than the Late Stone Age men of Europe. There the Egyp-
tians, emerging from the Late Stone Age, invented a system
of writing, discovered metal, and learned to use it. Thus in
the thousand years between 4000 and 3000 b.c. the Egyptians
of the Late Stone Age advanced to a great and wonderful
civilization, while the Europeans still remained in barbarism.
In the sailing ships which the Egyptians learned to build,
the things like metal and writing, which help to make up civili-
zation, began to pass from the dwellers along the Nile to the Late
Stone Age Europeans about 3000 b.c. Barbarian Europe was
thus discovered by civilized people crossing the Mediterranean