[1192] The rude Semitic dialect still current in this island appears to be fundamentally Phoenician (Carthaginian), later affected by Arabic and Italian influences. (M. Mizzi, A Voice from Malta, 1896, passim.)
[1193] M. Jastrow, Hebrew and Babylonian Traditions, 1910.
CHAPTER XV
THE CAUCASIC PEOPLES (continued)
The Peoples of Aryan Speech—European Trade Routes—"Aryan" Migrations—Indo-European Cradle—Indo-European Type—Date of Indo-European Expansion—Origin of Nordic Peoples—The Cimbri and Teutoni—The Bastarnae—The Moeso-Goths—Scandinavia—Modification of the Nordic Type—The Celto-Slavs: Their Ethnical Position defined—Aberrant Tyrolese Type—Rhaetians and Etruscans—Etruscan Origins—The Celts—Definitions—Celts in Britain—The Picts—Brachycephals in Britain—Round Barrow Type—Alpine Type—Ethnic Relations—Formation of the English Nation—Ethnic Relations in Ireland—Scotland—and in Wales—Present Constitution of the British Peoples—The English Language—The French Nation—Constituent Elements—Mental Traits—The Spaniards and Portuguese—Ethnic Relations in Italy—Ligurian, Illyrian, and Aryan Elements—The Present Italians—Art and Ethics—The Rumanians—Ethnic Relations in Greece—The Hellenes—Origins and Migrations—The Lithuanian Factor—Aeolians; Dorians; Ionians—The Hellenic Legend—The Greek Language—The Slavs—Origins and Migrations—Sarmatians and Budini—Wends, Chekhs, and Poles—The Southern Slavs—Migrations—Serbs, Croats, Bosnians—The Albanians—The Russians—Panslavism—Russian Origins—Alans and Ossets—Aborigines of the Caucasus—The Iranians—Ethnic and Linguistic Relations—Persians, Tajiks and Galcha—Afghans—Lowland and Hill Tajiks—The Galchic Linguistic Family—Galcha and Tajik Types—Homo Europaeus and H. Alpinus in Central Asia—The Hindus—Ethnic Relations in India—Classification of Types—The Kóls—The Dravidians—Dravidian and Aryan Languages—The Hindu Castes—Oceania—Indonesians—Micronesians—Eastern Polynesians—Origins, Types, and Divisions—Migrations—Polynesian Culture.
As the result of recent researches there is an end of the theory that bronze came in with the "Aryans," and it is from this standpoint that the revelation of an independent Aegean culture in touch with Babylonia and Egypt some four millenniums before the new era is of such momentous import in determining the ethnical relations of the historical, i.e. the present European populations.
European Trade Routes.
Some idea of cultured relations in prehistoric times may be obtained from a review of the trade communications as indicated by archaeology during the Bronze Age which lasted through the whole of the third millennium down to the middle of the second. As we have seen, in the Nile valley, in Mesopotamia and in the Aegean area, remains characteristic of Bronze Age culture rest on a neolithic substratum, and a transitional stage, when gold and copper were the only metals known, often connects the two. From the time of this dawning of the Age of Metals, the inhabitants of the Nile Valley, of Crete, of Cyprus and of the mainland of Greece freely exchanged their products. Navigation was already flourishing, and the sea united rather than divided the insular and coastal populations. Gradually Egeo-Mykenaean civilisation extended from Crete and the Greek lands to the west, influencing Sicily directly, and leaving distinct traces in Southern Italy, Sardinia and the Iberian peninsula, while Iberia in its turn contributed to the development of Western Gaul and the British Isles. The knowledge of copper, and, soon after, that of bronze, spread by the Atlantic route to Ireland, while Central Europe was reached directly from the south. Thanks to the trade in amber, always in demand by the Mediterranean populations, there was a continuous trade route to Scandinavia, which thus had direct communication with Southern Europe. As civilisation developed, the lands of the north and west became exporters as well as importers, each developing a distinct industry not always inferior to the more precocious culture of the south[1194].