and the Egyptological evidence was
all wrong. This line of argument was taken by the distinguished
Swedish archaeologist, Prof. Oscar Montelius, of Upsala, whose previous
experience in dealing with the antiquities of Northern Europe, great as
it was, was hardly sufficient to enable him to pronounce with authority
on a point affecting far-away African Egypt. And when dealing with Greek
prehistoric antiquities Prof. Montelius's views have hardly met with
that ready agreement which all acknowledge to be his due when he is
giving us the results of his ripe knowledge of Northern antiquities. He
has, in fact, forgotten, as most "prehistoric" archaeologists do forget,
that the antiquities of Scandinavia, Greece, Egypt, the Semites,
the bronze-workers of Benin, the miners of Zimbabwe, and the Ohio
mound-builders are not to be treated all together as a whole, and that
hard and fast lines of development cannot be laid down for them, based
on the experience of Scandinavia.
We may perhaps trace this misleading habit of thought to the influence
of the professors of natural science over the students of Stone Age and
Bronze Age antiquities. Because nature moves by steady progression and
develops on even lines--_nihil facit per sal-tum_--it seems to have been
assumed that the works of man's hands have developed in the same way,
in a regular and even scheme all over the world.
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