The true solution of the problem will be reached when it is recognized that the basin of the Yenisei and China represent the two termini of a stream of culture which passed N. from the southern end of the Caspian Sea and divided at the Tian Shan range into two branches, one of which passed more immediately to the Yenisei and the other via Khotan and Kashgar ultimately to China. Sir Hercules Read hints at the possibility of this ex- planation without, however, definitely committing himself to it :
" The similarities existing between the Far Eastern and Hunga- rian groups will not be fully explained until the Bronze Age of south- ern Asia as a whole is far better known than it is at present (1904). According to a view which has found some acceptance, the common elements may have been derived from some centre in southern or south-western Asia, from which issued two streams of influence, one passing to the N. of the Caucasus, the other to China by a southerly route " (p. 109).
Further, in his account of the Siberian implements, Sir Hercules Read adds:
" The most characteristic ornament represents animals of local species, bears, reindeers, wild goats, etc., the monsters characteristic of the later Iron Age tombs being absent. Sometimes the heads of animals are placed back to back so as to form the guards of daggers, a disposition which has some resemblance to those of daggers rep- resented upon Assyrian monuments " (p. no).
Correlating all the facts and suggestions brought together by de Morgan, Pumpelly, Laufer, Read, Hawes and Minns, and interpreting them in the light of Perry's illuminating demonstration of the vital part played by the search for gold, copper, pearls and precious stones, we find the general explana- tion seeming to emerge quite definitely, even if the details still remain to be worked out.
From the third millennium the mines on the S.E. of the Caspian were being exploited and contact was established between Babylonians, Elamites and the population of Turkestan. The northerly extension of Mesopotamian cultural influence established further contact with the Mediterranean in the West, and both directly and indirectly with the strip of rich metal- liferous country stretching along the Caucasus from the eastern coast of the Black Sea to the Caspian. At the same time, from the eastern and south-eastern shores of the Caspian there was a further extension of mining activities E. and N.E. to the Oxus, to Samarkand and Ferghana, and to the S.E. of Lake Balkash. From the great southern Caspian centre of the Bronze industry there were drifts of cultural influence to the Aegean and the Black Sea, to Turkestan and China itself.
The invention of the alloy bronze was an event of most momentous importance in the history of civilization; the deter- mination of the exact place whence the knowledge of this pro- cedure was diffused to the ends of the earth is therefore a point of exceptional significance: hence the facts and arguments which point to the neighbourhood of the Caspian early in the third millennium as the place and time of this event have been set forth here in some detail.
Social Organization and Totemism. One of the most potent factors in shaping the beliefs and customs of the world at large was the result of an ingenious device on the part of the priest- hood of Heliopolis to attain their own selfish aims, namely, of increasing their political power and influence and enhancing their social status. Until the period of the Fourth Dynasty in Egypt the royal family controlled the whole of the priestly and administrative functions of the State. The king was the high priest and his eldest son the grand vizier. Each of the admin- istrative districts of the State the nomes was governed by a member of the royal family. Hence the whole government of the State was concentrated in the hands of one family. But from the earliest times the priesthood of Heliopolis had played an important part in Egypt. They were responsible for the as- tronomical calculations necessary for the prediction of the annual flood of the Nile, on which the welfare of the whole country depended. At Heliopolis the first nilometer was set up, and in all probability the first solar calendar was devised there. In course of time it became the centre of the solar cult which superseded (or rather adopted and profoundly modified) the Osirian belief in the river as the source of all life. Having built
up the solar theology at the end of the Fourth Dynasty the priesthood of Heliopolis made a bold bid for power by putting forward the prophecy that Re, the sun god, would be the father of the first king of the P'if th Dynasty by the wife of the high priest of Heliopolis. Hence arose the custom of regarding the chosen people as " children of the sun " and believing in the virgin birth of kings and gods arbitrary elements of culture the widespread distribution of which throughout the world is a striking token of Egyptian influence in the upbuilding of civilization. The ingenious device of the Heliopolitan priest- hood to seize control of the State was not wholly successful, but resulted in a dual organization of the Government, the Helio- politan family controlling the priestly duties and the Memphite (the old royal) family the civil administration. This splitting of responsibility and control led to a rapid disintegration of the governing power and at the end of the Sixth Dynasty the State was reduced to a condition of anarchy. But the effect of this remarkable experiment in government became widely diffused beyond the boundaries of Egypt; and the dual organiza- tion of the community and the use of such phrases as " son of the Sun " were carried far afield, even to Oceania and America. In the whole extent of the regions from Egypt to America we find traces of two well-marked phases of civilization. The earlier represents a form of social organization essentially identical with that of Egypt of the Fifth Dynasty: sun-cult; a dual kingship, one ruling family being concerned with secular and another with priestly functions; and a dual division of the State, which even extends to individual villages. It seems probable that the priesthood which originally devised this dual organization realized the danger of the cleavage and the risk of disintegration inherent in it, and introduced the principle of exogamy to maintain the coherence of the community that was split into two conflicting moieties by compelling the members of the divisions to intermarry.
In many places this phase of culture gave place to another derived directly from it by a process of inevitable disintegration following on the splitting off of daughter settlements. In this secondary process the sun-god became known as a war-god: the kingship ceased to be dual, and the dual organization of the State and the village tended to disappear with greater or less rapidity according to local circumstances.
In the early phase of dualism the two rulers were assisted in the administration by a council, the members of which were the representatives of local groups (the Egyptian nomes), usually clans associated with some animal from which they claimed descent. (The reason for this remarkable belief, known as totemism, is probably to be found in the fact that the earliest Egyptians regarded the milk-giving cow not merely as a foster- mother but as the actual Great Mother of mankind. When the nomes adopted as badges a series of distinctive animals, these maternal functions were attributed to all of them.) Like the kingship this totemic council was also dual, one section being concerned with peace and the other with war. It often happened that the ruling power disappeared and then we find that the people deliberately maintained the council as the proper m^ans of preserving the constitution with which they are familiar. Thus is produced a state of affairs commonly called the dual organiza- tion in which the country is divided into two parts with different characteristics. Just as in Egypt one kingdom was known as the white crown and the other as the red, so in many parts of the world one moiety is connected with the colour white (or a light colour) and the other with red (or a dark colour). One is associated with the sky and with peace and is regarded as superior, the other with the earth, the underworld, and war and is regarded as inferior.
A feature .of the dual organization is the council of old men the gerontocracy which is regarded as of the utmost im- portance. The various groups of the dual organization in its pure form appear to be what are called totemic clans. The basis of this system is to be found in the doctrine of theogamy, which as we have seen was invented by the priests of Heliopolis to serve their own personal ends.
