LAN A MILLION YEARS AGO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2368, 20 July 1899, Page 61

LAN A MILLION YEARS AGO.

(^A paper ren-J before the Temuka Debating Huw.ij by Mr John Sim.)' T Of a'i ifio discoveries that AA r ill render the ■oinet<_cnth consury memorable to future ages gnd j kndm?rk to succeeding generations cffjl' ljkiitf,. Tione is of more importance or J,ikr;h to L.iv a moie permanent and farrea'Jrng m;' nance on the, history of our l-^ce than tbe modern discovery of the v^isbt antiquity of man. It has completely revolutionised the tenor of human thought, and no one .con claim to be in touch Avith the times or to be looked upon as a " wellinformed '" individual avlio has not made hitu or herself acquainted Avith the results of modern re-earch on this matter: Various circumstances had conspired to imp.re&s upon Western civilisation the Asiatic conception that mankind entered into possession or occupation of our planet under six thousand years ago in a high state of culttfre and skill, and that the present races aie but degenerated and inferior specimens compared Avith our early progenitors. Facts' recently discoA'ered show that man's historyhas been a painfully sloav progressive ma/eh . froni ignorance, savagery, barbarism, and menial darkness towards such measure of knoAvledge, civilisation, and intellectuality as AYe have now attained. The initial steps) of our upward progress were hardest to conquer, each advance giving firmer foot- | ing f6r the next onward movement. This gives "'man the strongest possible incentiA r e ! to strive to attain perfection, and impresses upon us the impossibility of marking any limit to his progress. Facts show that at the period that Avas generally assigned as the date for man's advent into oui Avorld, he had 'already been in existence for a vast period ok time, that must be measured by hundreds of thousands of years. He had already multiplied and progressed so far os to found empires, to build cities, tombs, and monuments, and to Avrite his thoughts ; and the different races and tongues Avere alr-j'dy practically as much differentiated as friey me at the present day. But lit us trace backwards the story of our kind*, and our first step avIU be' to exa- i miro Avhsat is called the "historical" period, o\ that riortion for which we have authentic written v ords. This Extends backwards for 7000 years — that is. , some 5000 years 8.C., according to otur present method of reckoning time. You Avill observe that I used the word "authentic." It is self-evident that it is onl}^ Avhen a nation has reached a high state 'of art and civilisation that it . i°. possibles for it to leave a Avritten jcecord of its history. A savage ignorant tribe could no iriore write the history of its origin than .could an infant detail the circumstances of ;U birth and early childhood. As the litor.il.vire of many nations in regard I to their early liistory is largely composed of the mythical and Avonderful and the impossible, it is absolutely necessary . to reject all o nuient history that is not authenticated' by contemporary monuments or other contemporary rcuoi - ds. Foi a long time the inscriptions on the Egyptian tombs and monuments A\ei'e a sealed book to modern peoples. The' A~ery word " hieroglyphics " became to mean unfathomable characters. All man's ingeniiity failed to find the key to get at the ineaning of these unknoAvn signs. But Avbai is known as the " Kosetta etone " furnished' the clue. This stone was dug up by tiie French, captured by the British, and lodyev.l in the British Museum. It bear.* tluee inscriptions — the first hieroglyphics-, the SsCi-oikl Egyptian characters, the thiid Greeks The Greek, of course, could bo read, and it Avas in commemoration of the coronation of Ptolomey Epiphanes and his Qneen, 196 B.C. The conjecture that the other tAro Avere to the same effect gave Dr Yoiuig the first clue, and a Frenchman named (Jhanipollum with grent difficulty, and Avith t?jc aid of otliei inscriptions, managed to produce a complete alphabet enabling us to make every sign into its corresponding Jiouncl or word. Noav these hieroglyphics can be read like Gieek or Hebrew. Manetho, an Egyptian historian. Aiho ■wrote in th-i reign of Pioloraoy IMiibtdelphe'"oil's, gave l'sts of 370 king.- awio successively reigned for about 5500 year->. itow Mene- to Alexander the Great, 332 15. C Manetho's works Aveii, unfortunately, loM in ihe bum ing of tl'e Alexandria Libnuy, but iia^meiits preserved by other writeis the • above computation, which, although long discredited, has been practically confirmed by modern research. Menes avos the nVat historical King avlio united Upper and LoAver Egypt ;. and Mariette. the bc-t authority, concludes that 5004 B.C. if-, the most probable date of his accession to the throne. This date is generally accepted, al- ; though some make it ?, little longer- or j shorter, but since the later discoA'eries no competent scholar assigns a loAver dale than 4500 B.C. For 1500 years following this the history of Egypt is clear and explicit, shoAving a time of peace and progress, Avith a very high standard of culture and civilisation. Then folloAv ups and doAvns, with changes of dynasties, seats of government, modes of writing, and with a degraded standard of civilisation Avhich Aye cannot stop to consider further than, to remark that for the space of 4000 years between Menes and the Christian Era there is full and complete monumental corroboration, and Manetho's list of Kings and breaks in the continuity of monumental evidence giA r e a result of ten or fifteen hundred years more. Chaldea tells exactly the came tale as Egypt. There clay cylinders Avith Avedgeshaped characters stamped on them supply the place of the stone monument? of Egypt. They are the " books "of Chaldea. Nc feAver than 10.000 of these burnt clay cylinders are noAV in European Museums from the ruins of one single city — Nineveh. The writing on these has also been mastered, and the information thus received places the nislorical period 6000 years backAvards for certain, and probably 7000, as. further discoveries always tend tc lengthen the knoAvn period. Thus, w? have certain knowledge that 6000 years ag-- man had already progressed so far as U have a knoAvledge of art and sciences, such as causes modem man much

.surprise. Menes. already referred to, durduring his. reign carried out a. groat Avork !of hydriiiili;: . engineering, diverting the course of the River Nile. This embankment still remains, and proves conclusively an advanced state of scientific knoAvledge. And the knoAvledge of astronomy evinced at this remote period regarding eclipses and the phases of Venus implies a long, careful, and accurate course of observation. Thus, at the dawn of the historical period, we can find no trace of a beginning for man or for civilisation. The tAvo styles of writing independently developed "in Egypt and Chaldea, their populous cities, their arithetic. geometry, astronomy, their advanced architecture md agriculture definitely tell us of a long antecedent ciA^ilisation, and, to quote Laing, " Aye can say with certainty that during the Avhole of this historical period of 6000 or 7000 years there has been no change in the established order of nature. The earth lias revolved round her axis and round the sun, the moon and planets have pursued their courses, and the duration of human life has not varied! . . . Six thousand years have not been enough tc alter in any perceptible degree the existing physical types of the different races of men and animals. The NegroT the Turalnon, the Semite, and the Aryan all stand out as clearly distinguished in the paintings on Egyptian monuments as they do at the present day."

(To be concluded next week.)