e credit of the Caucasian race. Homer was
scanned with a patience unknown to college students and the classic
myths were refined in the alembics of master minds. Yet there were
some who cared for truth more than for racial glory and among them was
Dr. Schlieman. Armed with a spade he went to the classic lands and
brought to light a real Troy; at Tiryns and Mycenae he laid to view the
palaces and tombs and treasures of Homeric kings. His message back to
scholars who waited tensely for his verdict was, "It looks to me like
the civilization of an African people." A new world opened to
archeologists and the AEgean became the Mecca of the world. Traces of
this prehistoric civilization began to make their appearance far
beyond the limits of Greece itself. From Cyprus and Palestine to
Sicily and Southern Italy, and even to the coasts of Spain, the
colonial and industrial enterprise of the Myceneans has left its mark
throughout the Mediterranean basin. The heretics were vindicated.
"Whether they like it or not," declared Sir Arthur Evans before the
London Hellenic Society a short time ago, "classical students must
consider origins. The Grecians whom we discern in the new dawn were
not the pale-skinned northerners, but essentially the dark-haired,
brown-complexioned race." Perhaps Sir Arthur's words will carry weight
with you when I remark that his wonderful discoveries in classical
lands have brought him the honor of election last year as president of
the British Association, the most notable assemblage of scholars in
the world. I might further mention that Professor Sergi, of the
University of Rome, has founded a new study of the origin of European
civilization upon the remarkable archeological finds, entitled "The
Mediterranean Race." From this masterly work I choose the following:
"Until recent years the Greeks and Romans were regarded as Aryans, and
then as Aryanized peoples; the great discoveries in the Mediterranean
have overturned all these views. To-day, although a few belated
supporters of Aryanism still remain, it is becoming clear that the
most ancient civilization of the Mediterranean is not of Aryan
origin. The Aryans were savages when they invaded Europe; they
destroyed in part the superior civilization of the Neolithic
populations, and could not have created the Graeco-Latin civilization.
The primitive populations of Europe originated in Africa and the basin
of the Mediterranean was the chief center of movement wh