Page:Early Man in Britain and His Place in the Tertiary Period.djvu/474

 

CHAPTER XIII.

THE OVERLAP OF HISTORY.

The Egyptians and their Influence.—The Assyrians and their Influence. The Phœnicians and their Influence.—The Phœnicians possessed no Art of their own.—The Position of the Phœnicians in the West.—The spread of Phœnician Commerce to Britain.—The Etruskans and their Influence.—The Etruskan Trade—Routes to the Amber Coasts.—Traces of Etruskan Influence north of the Alps.—The Downfall of the Etruskan Trade.—The Greeks and their Influence.—The Trade-route from Olbia.—The Trade-route from Massilia.—The Voyage of Pytheas.—General Conclusions.

 

THE OVERLAP OF HISTORY.

The Historic period constitutes the last phase of the series of changes which have been reviewed in our inquiry into early man and his place in the Tertiary period. It embraces the events recorded in history which are not only arranged in a linear series, but also possess a definite chronology in terms of years. It differs in this last respect from all the preceding geological periods, of which we know only that they followed one another in a definite order, but to which we cannot assign a date, because there is no standard of comparison to show the contemporaneity in different regions. We have seen in the last four chapters that there is reason for believing that one part of Europe