ost important element of progress, and the period may be
regarded as ending with the invention of the process of smelting iron
ore. According to this principle of division, the inhabitants of the
lake villages of ancient Switzerland, who kept horses and oxen, pigs and
sheep, raised wheat and ground it into flour, and spun and wove linen
garments, but knew nothing of iron, were in the middle status of
barbarism. The same was true of the ancient Britons before they learned
the use of iron from their neighbours in Gaul. In the New World the
representatives of the middle status of barbarism were such peoples as
the Zunis, the Aztecs, the Mayas, and the Peruvians.

[Sidenote: Upper status of barbarism.]

[Sidenote: Beginning of civilization.]

The upper status of barbarism, in so far as it implies a knowledge of
smelting iron, was never reached in aboriginal America. In the Old World
it is the stage which had been reached by the Greeks of the Homeric
poems[29] and the Germans in the time of Caesar. The end of this period
and the beginning of true civilization is marked by the invention of a
phonetic alphabet and the production of written records. This brings
within the pale of civilization such people as the ancient Phoenicians,
the Hebrews after the exodus, the ruling classes at Nineveh and Babylon,
the Aryans of Persia and India, and the Japanese. But clearly it will
not do to insist too narrowly upon the phonetic character of the
alphabet. Where people acquainted with iron have enshrined in
hieroglyphics so much matter of historic record and literary interest as
the Chinese and the ancient Egyptians, they too must be classed as
civilized; and this Mr. Morgan by implication admits.

[Footnote 29: In the interesting architectural remains
unearthed by Dr. Schliemann at Mycenae and Tiryns, there have
been found at the former place a few iron keys and knives, at
the latter one iron lance-head; but the form and workmanship of
these objects mark them as not older than the beginning of the
fifth century B. C., or the time of the Persian wars. With
these exceptions the weapons and tools found in these cities,
as also in Troy, were of bronze and stone. Bronze was in common
use, but obsidian knives and arrow-heads of fine workmanship
abound in the ruins. According to Professor Sayce, these ruins
must date from 2000 to 1700 B. C. The