This kingdom commanded two of the great commercial routes between the East and West, the caravan route between Tyre and Babylon, viâ Damascus and Tadmor, and the route from Tyre to the terminus at Ezion-Gebir, of the sea-routes to Arabia, Africa, and India. Solomon entered into close commercial relations with Tyre, and during his long and splendid reign, Jerusalem blossomed rapidly into a wealthy and a cultured city, and the surrounding cities and districts shared in the general prosperity. The greatness of the kingdom did not last long, for the revolt of the ten tribes and the growth of other powers soon reduced Judæa and Samaria to political insignificance; but Jerusalem, down to the time of its final destruction by Nebuchadnezzar, i.e. for a period of some 400 years after Solomon, never seems to have lost its character of a considerable and civilized city. It is evident from the later prophets that it was the seat of a good deal of wealth and luxury, for their invectives are, to a great extent, what we should call at the present day, Socialist denunciations of the oppression of the poor by the rich, land-grabbing by the powerful, and extravagance of dress by the ladies of fashion. There were hereditary nobles, organized colleges of priests and scribes, and no doubt there was a certain amount of intellectual life and literary activity. But of a sacred book there is no trace until the discovery of one in the Temple in the reign of Josiah; and the peculiar tenets of modern Judaism had no real hold on the mass of the people until after the return from Exile and the reforms of Ezra and Nehemiah.
The history, therefore, contained in the Old Testament is comparatively modern. There is nothing which can be relied on as authentic in regard to events and dates prior to the establishment of the Monarchy, and even the wildest myths and the most impossible legends do not carry us back within 2000 years of the time when we have genuine historical annals attested by monuments both in Egypt and Chaldæa.
[PART II.
EVIDENCE FROM SCIENCE.]
[CHAPTER VIII.
GEOLOGY AND PALÆONTOLOGY.]
Proved by Contemporary Monuments—As in History—Summary of Historical Evidence—Geological Evidence of Human Periods—Neolithic Period—Palæolithic or Quaternary—Tertiary—Secondary and Older Periods—The Recent or Post-Glacial Period—Lake-Villages—Bronze Age—Kitchen-Middens—Scandinavian Peat-mosses—Neolithic Remains comparatively Modern—Definition of Post-Glacial Period—Its Duration—Mellard Read's Estimate—Submerged Forests—Changes in Physical Geography—Huxley—Objections from America—Niagara—Quaternary Period—Immense Antiquity—Presence of Man throughout—First Glacial Period—Scandinavian and Laurentian Ice-caps—Immense Extent—Mass of Débris—Elevation and Depression—In Britain—Inter-Glacial and Second Glacial Periods—Antiquity measured by Changes of Land—Lyell's Estimate—Glacial Débris and Loess—Recent Erosion—Bournemouth—Evans—Prestwich—Wealden Ridge and Southern Drift—Contain Human Implements—Evidence from New World—California.
We have now to take leave of historical records and fall back on the exact sciences for further traces of human origins. Our guides are still contemporary records, but these are no longer stately tombs and temples, massive pyramids and written inscriptions. Instead of these we have flint implements, incised bones, and a few rare specimens of human skulls and skeletons, the meaning of which has to be deciphered by skilled experts in their respective departments of science.
Still these records tell their tale as conclusively as any hieroglyphic or cuneiform writings in Egyptian manuscripts or on Babylonian cylinders. The celt, the knife, the lance and arrow-heads, and other weapons and implements, can be traced in an uninterrupted progressive series from the oldest and rudest palæolithic specimens, up to the highly-finished ones of polished stone, and through these into the age of metals, and into historic times and the actual implements of existing savage races. It is impossible to doubt that one of the palæolithic celts from St. Acheul or St. Prest is as truly a work of the human hand, guided by human intelligence, as a modern axe; and that an arrow-head from Moustier or Kent's Cavern is no more an elf-bolt, or a lusus naturæ, than is a Winchester rifle.
Before entering on this new line of investigation, it may be well to sum up briefly the evidence as to the starting-point from history and tradition. The commencement of the strictly historical period takes us back certainly for 6000 and in all probability for 7000 years in Egypt, and certainly for 5000 and probably for 6000 or 7000 years in Chaldæa. In each case we find populous cities, important temples and public works, writing and other advanced arts and industries, and all the signs of an old civilization already existing. Other nations also evidently then existed with whom these ancient empires had relations of war and of commerce, though the annals of even the oldest of them, such as China, do not carry us back further than from 4000 to 5000 years.
Traditions do not add much to our information from monuments, and fade rapidly away into myths and legends. The oldest and most authentic, those of Egypt, simply confirm the inference of great antiquity for its civilization prior to Menes, but give no clue as to its origin. They neither trace it up to the stone age, which we know existed in the valley of the Nile, nor refer it to any foreign source. The Egyptian people thought themselves autochthonous, and attributed their arts, industries, and sciences to the inventions of native gods, or demi-gods, who reigned like mortal kings, in a remote and fabulous antiquity. We can gather nothing therefore from tradition that would enable us to add even 1000 years with certainty to the date of Menes; while from the high state of civilization which had been evolved prior to his accession, from the primitive conditions of the stone period whose remains are found at Cairo and Thebes, we might fairly add 10,000 or 20,000 years to his date of 5004 years b.c., as a matter of probable conjecture for the first dawn of historical civilization. In any case we shall be well within the mark if we take 10,000 years as our first unit, or standard of chronological measurement, with which to start in our further researches, as we do with terrestrial standards in gauging the distances of suns and stars.