The bronze age and the Celtic world - Universal History Library

72
THE BRONZE AGE AND THE CELTIC WORLD
This thesis has been severely attacked, especially by Peisker,^ Still, though
Huntington's conclusions may require modification in detail, his main contention seems
to have withstood the attacks made upon it. Mr. Brooks* has recently shown us that
the climate of Europe has passed through considerable changes since the ice age, and
that such changes come down to relatively recent times and may yet be in progress.
He attributes these largely to changes in coast line, and to the relative masses of land
and water. The Pumpelly reports^ show that considerable changes of level have
taken place in Turkestan, and but small changes are needed to connect the
Aralo-Caspian basin, by means of the Obi valley, with the Arctic Ocean. All this
tends to show that we may expect considerable variation in the climate of this region,
while Huntington's evidence of changes in the level of the Caspian Sea seems to prove
that such variations have not been always in the same direction. Mr. Cook is, however,
inclined to see in this the destruction of forests and their conversion into grass-lands
by the primitive process of cultivation which he terms Milpa agriculture.^
It is to periods of Ught rainfall that Huntington attributes the four great irruptions
from the Arabian desert which have been recognised by Semitic scholars,'' the last of
which spread the doctrine of Islam over the Near East ; to the same cause he attributes,
too, the various movements of the Huns and Tartars. One may reasonably add to this
that even one dry year during the period of Ught rainfall may be sufficient to account
for such an exodus.
Now, as I have endeavoured to show on a previous occasion,^ such a period of
light rainfall seems to have occurred between 2400 and 2200 B.C., though it may have
been of somewhat longer duration. I further gave reason for believing that about
2225 B.C., or perhaps a Mttle earlier, an invasion of nomads took place from the Russian
steppes. It would seem that about this time the Tripolje culture came suddenly to an
end, and from the evidence at Khalepje,' Minns was inclined to beHeve that it had been
destroyed by the steppe-folk, who had buried one of their dead on the site formerly
occupied by a Tripolje " area." This destruction has recently been questioned, and
3 Peisker (1911) 325-328. 7 M3^es (1911) 104-119.
1 Brooks (1921). 8 Peake (1916) 1. 172.
5 Pumpelly (1908) i. 32. 9 Minns (1913) 142.
' Cook (1921) 321-323.