124 : 15. On the Nordics see pp. 167 seq. and 213 seq. On the Scandinavian blonds see the note to p. 20 : 5.
124 : 20. See the notes to pp. 168 seq.
125 : 1. G. Elliot Smith, The Ancient Egyptians, especially pp. 146 and 149 seq.; Breasted, 1, 2 and 3; Keane, Ethnology, pp. 72 seq.; Sophus Müller, L’Europe préhistorique, p. 49; Hall, Ancient History of the Near East, p. 3.
125 : 4. Deniker, 2, pp. 314–315: “The great trade route for amber, and perhaps tin, between Denmark and the Archipelago is well known at the present day; it passes through the valley of the Elbe, the Moldau and the Danube. The commercial relations between the north and the south explain the similarities which archæologists find between Scandinavian bronze objects and those of the Ægean district.”
See also E. H. Minns, Scythians and Greeks, for trade in the East, via the Vistula, Dnieper and Danube, pp. 438–446, 458, 459, 465, 493, etc.; and Déchellette, Manuel d’Archéologie, t. I, p. 626, and II, p. 19. Herodotus IV, 33, gives the trade route from the Hyperboreans to Delos. Félix Sartiaux, Troie, La Guerre de Troie, pp. 162, 181, also discusses the trade routes for amber.
125 : 7. Amber. Tacitus, Germania: “They [the tribes of the Æstii] ransack the sea also and are the only people who gather in the shallows and on the shore itself the amber which they call in their tongue ‘glæsum.’ Nor have they, being barbarians, inquired or learned what substance or process produces it; nay, it lay there long among the rest of the flotsam and jetsam of the sea, until Roman luxury gave it a name. To the natives it is useless; it is gathered crude, it is forwarded to Rome unshaped; they are astonished to be paid for it. Yet you may infer that it is the exudation of trees: certain creeping and even winged creatures are continually found embedded; they have been entangled in its liquid form and as the material hardens, are imprisoned. I should suppose, therefore, that, just as in the secluded places of the East, where frankincense and balsam are exuded, so in the islands and lands of the West, there are groves and glades more than ordinarily luxuriant,” etc.
Amber, if rubbed, has magnetic qualities and develops electricity. Our word “electricity” is derived from its Greek name, “electron.” Tacitus says: “If you try the qualities of amber by setting fire to it, it kindles like a torch and soon dissolves into something like pitch and resin.”
125 : 13. Gowland, Metals in Antiquity, pp. 236, 252 seq.
125 : 15 seq. Copper. Reisner’s opinion that the pre-dynastic Egyptians invented the use of copper (Naga-ed-Dêr, I, p. 134) which is followed by Elliot Smith (Ancient Egyptians, p. 3), is not the view held by all scholars. Hall believes that the knowledge of the use of metal came to the prehistoric southern Egyptians (Ancient History of the Near East, p. 90), toward the end of the pre-dynastic age from the north. But he counts the Mount Sinai and Cyprus deposits as northern centres of origin from which a knowledge of the working of the metal radiated.
The mines of the Sinaitic peninsula were worked for copper at the time of Seneferu, about 3733 B. C., and probably much earlier (Gowland, p. 245, and elsewhere), “but long before the actual mining operations were carried on, how long it is impossible to say, the metal must have been obtained by primitive methods from the surface ore. It is hence not unreasonable to assume that at least as early as about 5000 B. C. the metal copper was known and in use in Egypt.” The same writer believes “that an earlier date than 5000 B. C. should be assigned to the first use of copper in the Chaldean region.” In this he bases himself on the discovery of copper figures associated with bricks and tablets bearing the name of King Ur-Nina (about 4500 B. C.), and the fact that the upper Tigris region is known to contain rich deposits of the mineral. Jastrow, Jr., assigns the date of 3000 B. C. to Ur-Nina, which may be more correct. Gowland dates copper in Cyprus at 2500 B. C., or even 3000, judging by the finds at Crete dated 2500 B. C. In the Troad he thinks it was used not later than in Cyprus. For China the date is unknown, but if we accept 2205, given in the Chinese annals as the time when the nine bronze caldrons were cast, which are often mentioned in the historical records, then copper may have been in use as early as 3000, or even earlier. De Morgan dates copper at 4400 B. C. in Egypt, where it was found in the supposed tomb of Menes.