Influences in Western Europe
Yet more evidence is there of possible Ægean communication with Central Europe after the introduction of iron, which seems not to have reached Scandinavia till almost the Christian Era. Transylvanian, Russian, and Balkan graves have yielded to recent explorers abundance of both weapons and decorated articles of personal use and adornment, closely resembling fabrics in the later periods of Ægean civilisation. Further into the European continent we have again the various evidence of the early Iron Age graves of the Salzkammergut on the south-eastern fringe of the Bavarian plain. This “Hallstatt” culture, as it is called, from the location of the chief cemetery, presents both in character and development an extraordinarily close parallel to that of the Ægean Geometric Age. About the same period we know also that a civilisation was in progress in the fertile lands round the head of the Adriatic, which is called Veneto-Illyrian, and shows even stronger evidence of Ægean influence than the Hallstatt culture; as, indeed, might be expected, if it be remembered that in Southern and Central Italy, as well as Sicily, forms and decoration, obviously learned from Ægean civilisation, as well as actual imported Ægean objects, had been plentiful ever since the bloom of the Ægean age. A visit to the local collections in Syracuse, Bari, and Ancona, will establish this fact to the satisfaction of any archæologist. These two civilisations, that of the Salzkammergut and that of the North Adriatic lands, have important bearing on the development of all Western Europe; for we know that the Celtic peoples, who penetrated south of the Alps in the sixth and fifth centuries B.C., learned much from both, and especially from the second; and graves, furnished after they had been pressed back again into Switzerland and Gaul, show abundant evidence of what is called “sub-Ægean” influence—that is, of form and ornament probably derived ultimately from Ægean culture, but indirectly, or after undergoing considerable degradation. Through various subsequent intermediaries, notably the Belgic tribes, these derivatives passed ultimately to our own islands, and we find their influence operative on early English art.
Civilisations Help One Another
At the same time it is necessary to add that this derivation of the higher developments of mid-European and Scandinavian culture in the Bronze and Early Iron ages from the influence of Ægean civilisation is far from certain, whatever be the case for the Adriatic lands. Knowledge obtained since Dr. Evans and Dr. Montelius first expressed their views, especially in regard to the so-called Neolithic or “Butmir” pottery, which has a very wide range in South-Eastern Central Europe, has not strengthened their case, but rather tended to suggest that the continental culture developed independently to, though in a parallel direction with, that of the southern peninsulas and isles. If this view ultimately prevail, it will illustrate the opinion, to which we personally incline, that the derivation of civilisations, one from another in early times, is the exception and not the rule, except in respect of minor matters.
The Vigorous Hittite Civilisation
Two other intermediary civilisations of the South-east remain to be considered—the Hittite and the Phœnician. The first is still, unfortunately, very little known to us, and we are hardly in a position to say much about its influence on Europe until more small objects of use and ornament have been discovered on Hittite sites. The general facts so far ascertained, which make such influence probable, are these. This civilisation, characterised and distinguished from all others by a very individual art, and by a system of writing apparently independent of the Mesopotamian and Egyptian systems, but in its later development showing kinship to Mediterranean systems, lay across all the mainland routes from inner Asia and Egypt to South-eastern Europe. Its monuments have been found scattered thickly from the valley of the Syrian Orontes northwards, to within 150 miles of the Black Sea, and westward to the last passes which lead down from the Anatolian plateau to the Ægean littoral. So far as we can judge at present, its place of origin was Cappadocia, but its later focus was possibly in North Syria; while its period of florescence ranges back from about the sixth century B.C. for at least a thousand years.
It was, as we know from many written records, in frequent collision with both Egypt and Assyria, and in its southern home and latest period came under Mesopotamian domination. As is to be expected, therefore, its monuments show very strong Mesopotamian, and less strong Egyptian, influence. At the last, indeed, those of North Syria approximate very closely indeed to the contemporary Assyrian of the Sargonid Age. At the same time, however, they retain sufficient individuality never to be mistaken for other than Hittite; they represent facial types, dress, and fashion of arms which are peculiar; and the inscriptions they bear are always couched in a script having no relation to cuneiform writing.
Europe and Hittite Influence
This vigorous civilisation, occupying the great land bridge from Asia into Europe in the dawn of the historic Hellenic period, and eminently receptive of Mesopotamian influences, cannot but have been a medium through which these reached the Ægean Sea, and so told on Europe. But this did not take place to any appreciable extent in what is known as the prehistoric period. The Cretan products, and those of the other Ægean Isles and mainland Greece, betray very little Mesopotamian influence, and none that we can reasonably trace to the Hittites. So far as we can see, the Ægean culture was much more ancient than the Hittite, and if there was kinship between them we are bound, on the evidence, to derive the latter from the former, and not vice versa. There is a certain relation between late Ægean art and products of inland Asia Minor, but it indicates influence passing eastward rather than westward; and even on the remoter Ægean sites of Asia Minor—Hissarlik, for instance—non-Ægean traces are but slight, and do not suggest the influence of a strong civilisation focused inland.
The Hittite Pathway of Civilisation