The bronze age and the Celtic world - Universal History Library

MANY INVASIONS 75
for suspecting that some reached Tobolsk,"' and there were at one time fair people dwelhng
in the upper basin of the Yenesei**. It seems probable that it is to this period that we
must attribute this easterly movement. As it seems probable that the Mitanni barons,
who were lording it over eastern Armenia, were of the same stock as the Kassites, we
may attribute their arrival south of the Caspian to the same causes. Geographical
considerations, too, would lead us to suspect that ample pasturage could have been
found also among the hills surrounding Balkh.
The westward movements I have already dealt with elsewhere,*' and I need
do no more than recapitulate them here. As we have seen, the steppe-folk entered the
Tripolje region, and probably occupied this district as far as Breslau. Some of them
passed southwards along the western shore of the Euxine, and crossing the Danube,
settled in Thrace, where numerous kurgans are to be seen.*^ Others seem to have passed
on further south, and eventually reached the Thessalian plain, into which they
introduced Dhimini ware and the cult of the horse. It may be that it was the
appearance of these strange horsemen in this region which gave rise to the stories of
the Centaurs.
Some bands of the latter party seem to have separated from the main body and
advanced down the GaUipoU peninsula. These, as I have endeavoured to show
elsewhere, destroyed Hissarlik II., among the ruins of which two of their skulls were
found.*' It may be that these were responsible for the rude villages of Hissarlik III.,
but it seems more probable that they would have passed on to the grassy steppes in the
interior of the AnatoUan peninsula.
Now the bulk of the people of Asia Minor at this date, as at the present day,
were of that eastern Alpine, Anatohan or Armenoid type, best represented by the
modern Armenians. These people are not by nature warlike, though they will sometimes
fight well to defend their homes ; but in no case are they aggressive, unless under the
command of a more miUtaristic type. A few centuries after the events which we have
been discussing, we find an aggressive, military power growing up in the peninsula,
at first under several chiefs or kings,'" in which, I think, we may see a miUtary
»J Myres (1906) 541. *' Myres (1906) 542.
»« Lapouge (1899) 245-249. »J Schliemann (1880) 507-512 ; Virchow (1882).
«7 Peake (1916) l, 30 Hall (1913^ 337-338.