The Outline of History (II)

Study of the races

- Northern European: blond and dolichocephalic (long skull)
- Mediterranean, Iberian (Spain, Portugal): Dark-haired and dolichocephalic (larger skull)
- Alpine (central Europe): brachycephalic (relative short, broad skull)

Development of the Neolithic culture, also called the 'heliolithic culture' (sun worship) included: 1) circumcision 2) couvade 3) massage 4) mummification 5) monuments 6) artificial deformation of the heads of the young 7) tattoos 8) religious association of the sun and the serpent 9) use of the swastika as a symbol of good luck

Language groups marked by differences in root words, ideas of relationships, grammar

1. Indo-European / Aryan (Germanic, Danube, South Russia)
2. Semitic (Hebrew, Arabic)
3. Hamitic (ancient Egyptian, Berber languages of North Africa, Ethiopic group in East Africa e.g. Gallas, Somalis)
4. Turanian / Ural-altaic group (Siberia, Finland, Turkey, Mongolia)
5. Chinese
6. American-Indian
7. Dravidian (South India)
8. Malay-Polynesia
9. Basque (Pyrenees / Northen Iberian)

Spreading of Aryan Speakers:

-to the West and South, it encountered the Basque language and various Hamitic languages
-to the East, Aryan-speaking tribes used a distinctive dialect Slavonian, leading to Russian, Serbian, Polish, Bulgarian
-other variations over Asia Minor and Persia came to be Armenian and Indo-Iranian (Sanskrit and Persian)

Early Aryan Writings

-earliest written record of the Greek Iliad 700/600BC - later attributed to Homer, the bard (sliepac = blind man)
-Greek Epics reveal that early Greeks had no knowledge of iron, without writings, and they conquerers of a land that had been held by a darker people, a 'Mediterranean' people allied to Iberians

-Primitive neolithic life developed along 2 directions (4000 B.C):

1. Nomadism: Central Europe and Central Asia
2. Civilization: Mesopotamia and Egypt
-- consider Civilization as 'the settlement of men upon an area continuously cultivated and possessed, who live in buildings continuously inhabited with a common rule and a common city'

Sumerians 

- one of the earliest civilizations in southern Mesopotamia (Southern Iraq)
- conquered by nomadic Semitic tribes called Akkadians -- but Sumerian writing and language prevailed
- conquered by Semitic Amorites that set up Babylon
- conquered by Semitic Assyrians, who captured the capital Ninevah, and Babylon
- conquered by Semitic Arameans, whose chief city was Damascus (capital of Syria)

Egypt

- divided into a succession of Dynasties
- internal conflicts between competing capitals, religions, before ultimately being conquered by the Persians, and Alexandra the Great 332 B.C


*Cephalic: related to the head
*Bering Strait: strait between Alaska and Russia