Die Vorgeschichtliche Kunst Deutschlands by Herbert KühnReview by: Ludwig BachhoferThe Art Bulletin, Vol. 19, No. 3 (Sep., 1937), pp. 497-498Published by: College Art AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3045696 .

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NOTES AND REVIEWS NOTES AND REVIEWS

DIE VORGESCHICHTLICHE KUNST DEUTSCHLANDS. By Herbert

Kiihn. 305 pp., 279 pp. of illustrations, s6 pls., 5 color-

plates. Berlin, Propylden-Verlag, 1935. This excellently written, well documented, and splendidly

illustrated work is based on a thorough study of the vast material involved, for everywhere and at every epoch the objects found in German soil point far beyond the political frontiers. The book starts with the palaeolithic age, enu- merating each place of discovery-a very useful procedure strictly adhered to from beginning to end. Three of the sections belong to the Aurignacian, eleven to the Mag- dalenien, subdivisions of this culture of hunters who roamed all over Europe from west to east, from Spain into Russia, even deep into Siberia. Wherever these hunters went, they left traces of their art, astounding for its mature representa- tion of animals, and its boldly modelled figures of nude, steatopygic women, evidently in the state of pregnancy. This art stood in the service of hunting-magic and fertility rites.

Little is known about the mesolithic age following, when palaeolithic ideas and customs seem to have survived, al- though there came from Spain, ultimately perhaps even from northern Africa, an influx of Southern culture. It is this very epoch, beginning according to the author, at about 8ooo B.C., which saw the rise of the glorious civilizations in the valleys of the Euphrates and Tigris, the Nile and the Indus, compared with whose achievements the life led by the in- habitants of Europe was one of dull savagery.

After the lapse of several millennia, a new spirit entered this inert mass: pottery appeared and new implements, and several very definite cultural groups were to be discerned. The neolithic age, as it is called, was a time of unrest, of migrations over wide areas. As this period has been usually thought to begin at c. 3000 B.C., it is therefore a great surprise to see Dr. Kiihn advocating a reduction of one thousand years. The reasons for this revolutionary revision deserve, however, full attention: the bell-beaker culture, one of the six groups of that time on German territory, came from Spain, and from there came its connection with Sicily and Crete, thereby dating it at c. 2000-1700 B.C. The more or less close relations of the bell-beaker group with almost all the other groups dates these, too. The bell-beaker folk- in English literature on prehistory mostly called the Pros- pectors-were armed traders, presumably of Hamitic stock. They ascended the Rhone valley and spread over Central Europe in search of precious ores; they possessed a metal dagger, very likely derived from an Egyptian prototype.

One has to be familiar with the part assigned by German and Scandinavian scholars to the "corded ware" (Schnur- keramik) as the characteristic pottery of the parent Indo- Germanic people, to realize how startling is Dr. Kiihn's hypothesis linking the corded ware intimately with the bell- beaker group, and deriving it also from Spain. Of course, he does not deny that a powerful center of corded ware existed in Thuringia and spread its influence widely, but he thinks it an originally foreign ware, exposed to Northern influences.

Pottery is believed the best and most reliable means of determining various cultural groups. But other phenomena must not be neglected: settlements, construction of houses, burial customs, and weapons are of high value in defining groups, in tracing their origin, expansion and interdepend- ence. Thus the area which includes Denmark, southern Sweden, and the adjacent countries and the shores of the North Sea and the Baltic, stands out amongst the neolithic groups through the megalithic tombs. The author calls this area pre-Germanic, because later on, during the bronze age, it was undoubtedly inhabited by Germanic tribes. Yet, one must not forget that these Northern tombs constitute only a part of a very widespread culture covering the south and east of the Iberian peninsula, the whole of France, the south and east of England and the shores of Ireland. The mega- lithic builders were bold navigators who buried their dead in collective tombs. The problem of their origin and fate is extraordinarily complex, and is far from being solved.

DIE VORGESCHICHTLICHE KUNST DEUTSCHLANDS. By Herbert

Kiihn. 305 pp., 279 pp. of illustrations, s6 pls., 5 color-

plates. Berlin, Propylden-Verlag, 1935. This excellently written, well documented, and splendidly

illustrated work is based on a thorough study of the vast material involved, for everywhere and at every epoch the objects found in German soil point far beyond the political frontiers. The book starts with the palaeolithic age, enu- merating each place of discovery-a very useful procedure strictly adhered to from beginning to end. Three of the sections belong to the Aurignacian, eleven to the Mag- dalenien, subdivisions of this culture of hunters who roamed all over Europe from west to east, from Spain into Russia, even deep into Siberia. Wherever these hunters went, they left traces of their art, astounding for its mature representa- tion of animals, and its boldly modelled figures of nude, steatopygic women, evidently in the state of pregnancy. This art stood in the service of hunting-magic and fertility rites.

Little is known about the mesolithic age following, when palaeolithic ideas and customs seem to have survived, al- though there came from Spain, ultimately perhaps even from northern Africa, an influx of Southern culture. It is this very epoch, beginning according to the author, at about 8ooo B.C., which saw the rise of the glorious civilizations in the valleys of the Euphrates and Tigris, the Nile and the Indus, compared with whose achievements the life led by the in- habitants of Europe was one of dull savagery.

After the lapse of several millennia, a new spirit entered this inert mass: pottery appeared and new implements, and several very definite cultural groups were to be discerned. The neolithic age, as it is called, was a time of unrest, of migrations over wide areas. As this period has been usually thought to begin at c. 3000 B.C., it is therefore a great surprise to see Dr. Kiihn advocating a reduction of one thousand years. The reasons for this revolutionary revision deserve, however, full attention: the bell-beaker culture, one of the six groups of that time on German territory, came from Spain, and from there came its connection with Sicily and Crete, thereby dating it at c. 2000-1700 B.C. The more or less close relations of the bell-beaker group with almost all the other groups dates these, too. The bell-beaker folk- in English literature on prehistory mostly called the Pros- pectors-were armed traders, presumably of Hamitic stock. They ascended the Rhone valley and spread over Central Europe in search of precious ores; they possessed a metal dagger, very likely derived from an Egyptian prototype.

One has to be familiar with the part assigned by German and Scandinavian scholars to the "corded ware" (Schnur- keramik) as the characteristic pottery of the parent Indo- Germanic people, to realize how startling is Dr. Kiihn's hypothesis linking the corded ware intimately with the bell- beaker group, and deriving it also from Spain. Of course, he does not deny that a powerful center of corded ware existed in Thuringia and spread its influence widely, but he thinks it an originally foreign ware, exposed to Northern influences.

Pottery is believed the best and most reliable means of determining various cultural groups. But other phenomena must not be neglected: settlements, construction of houses, burial customs, and weapons are of high value in defining groups, in tracing their origin, expansion and interdepend- ence. Thus the area which includes Denmark, southern Sweden, and the adjacent countries and the shores of the North Sea and the Baltic, stands out amongst the neolithic groups through the megalithic tombs. The author calls this area pre-Germanic, because later on, during the bronze age, it was undoubtedly inhabited by Germanic tribes. Yet, one must not forget that these Northern tombs constitute only a part of a very widespread culture covering the south and east of the Iberian peninsula, the whole of France, the south and east of England and the shores of Ireland. The mega- lithic builders were bold navigators who buried their dead in collective tombs. The problem of their origin and fate is extraordinarily complex, and is far from being solved.

One thing, however, is certain: the Western affinities of the megalithic graves in the North cannot be doubted. The highly instructive maps in the book under review show the distribution of megalithic tombs (p. 53) and of the bell- beaker folk (p. 64). And the bodies, long-headed, but short of stature, interred in the early dolmens, seem to belong to the people who erected the dolmens of western Europe and the long barrows of Great Britain, i.e., to a Eurafrican race.

It is undeniably this very area whence, later, emerged the most important and powerful Germanic tribes. They appear, however, not to be descendants of the builders of dolmens and passage-graves, but of warlike men occupying the inte- rior of Jutland, burying their dead in separate graves, pos- sessing the perforated battle axe, using corded ware, and liv- ing very likely on tribute exacted from the megalithic builders of the shores. Their origin is still shrouded in darkness; they certainly did not come from the West, nor from the old, indigenous population. But without doubt they were closely related to the corded-ware folk of Central Germany. The

group of the Bandkeramik, better known to the English- speaking public (through the works of G. V. Childe) as the Danubians, is long known to have penetrated into the North from the Danube valley, moving thence to the Rhine, and via Moravia and Bohemia into northern Germany. These peaceful peasants were superseded by wandering warlike tribes, coming from the North, using corded ware, and wielding the perforated stone battle axe. The Danubians produced art, figures of the Mother Goddess and of domestic animals. Worship of the Mother Goddess, and a few leading types of vessels connect this culture with the Near East.

The fifth group, the Michelsberg culture of the pile- dwellers, has long been held by most scholars to show strong Western affinities. The last group, of the combed ware (Kammkeramik), hails from the East. It is a culture of hunters, extending from Norway deep into Siberia; into German territory it reaches as far west as the Oder. Its characteristics are small figures of animals: this culture is, probably, the source of the famous animal ornament of Asia.

The neolithic was in Europe a period of restlessness and strife, its main result the formation of the Indo-Germans. In comparison to it, the bronze age was a period of relative quiet. The cultures of the great Indo-Germanic peoples, the Teutons, the Kelts (this spelling avoids confusion with the celt, a tool of the time) and the Illyrians can easily be dis- criminated.

Here the author pleads also for a reduction in date, and, as throughout this book, supports and proves his thesis by elaborate and convincing links with the well-established chronology of Egypt. Since 19I7 when Montelius first pro- posed his system of periods for the bronze age, his dates have been generally accepted; Dr. Kiihn proposes a new scheme:

Montelius Kiihn Period I I800-I550 I600-I400 Period II 1550-I300 1400-1200 Period III 1300-1100 1200-1000

Period IV 1100-950 I000-900 Period V 950-750 900-750 Period VI 750-650 (Iron age) 750-400

a specimen of the socketed celt (Tiillenbeil), an invention, as Childe has shown, of the Lausitz folk, has been excavated at An-yang, the capital of the Shang dynasty, in China, and therefore cannot be later than the eleventh century B.C. The square section of its socket and the two loops point to Kras- noyarsk, in Siberia, as the last important station on its way from Central Europe to the Far East.

Later on influence went from east to west, and Eastern ideas and forms became almost dominant during the Hall- stadt culture of Southern Germany, divided and aligned by Dr. Kiihn thus: Period III 1200-1000

Period IV 1000-950 Hallstadt A(-B) 1050-800 Period V 950-750 Hallstadt C 850-600 Period VI 750-400 Hallstadt D 600-400

One thing, however, is certain: the Western affinities of the megalithic graves in the North cannot be doubted. The highly instructive maps in the book under review show the distribution of megalithic tombs (p. 53) and of the bell- beaker folk (p. 64). And the bodies, long-headed, but short of stature, interred in the early dolmens, seem to belong to the people who erected the dolmens of western Europe and the long barrows of Great Britain, i.e., to a Eurafrican race.

It is undeniably this very area whence, later, emerged the most important and powerful Germanic tribes. They appear, however, not to be descendants of the builders of dolmens and passage-graves, but of warlike men occupying the inte- rior of Jutland, burying their dead in separate graves, pos- sessing the perforated battle axe, using corded ware, and liv- ing very likely on tribute exacted from the megalithic builders of the shores. Their origin is still shrouded in darkness; they certainly did not come from the West, nor from the old, indigenous population. But without doubt they were closely related to the corded-ware folk of Central Germany. The

group of the Bandkeramik, better known to the English- speaking public (through the works of G. V. Childe) as the Danubians, is long known to have penetrated into the North from the Danube valley, moving thence to the Rhine, and via Moravia and Bohemia into northern Germany. These peaceful peasants were superseded by wandering warlike tribes, coming from the North, using corded ware, and wielding the perforated stone battle axe. The Danubians produced art, figures of the Mother Goddess and of domestic animals. Worship of the Mother Goddess, and a few leading types of vessels connect this culture with the Near East.

The fifth group, the Michelsberg culture of the pile- dwellers, has long been held by most scholars to show strong Western affinities. The last group, of the combed ware (Kammkeramik), hails from the East. It is a culture of hunters, extending from Norway deep into Siberia; into German territory it reaches as far west as the Oder. Its characteristics are small figures of animals: this culture is, probably, the source of the famous animal ornament of Asia.

The neolithic was in Europe a period of restlessness and strife, its main result the formation of the Indo-Germans. In comparison to it, the bronze age was a period of relative quiet. The cultures of the great Indo-Germanic peoples, the Teutons, the Kelts (this spelling avoids confusion with the celt, a tool of the time) and the Illyrians can easily be dis- criminated.

Here the author pleads also for a reduction in date, and, as throughout this book, supports and proves his thesis by elaborate and convincing links with the well-established chronology of Egypt. Since 19I7 when Montelius first pro- posed his system of periods for the bronze age, his dates have been generally accepted; Dr. Kiihn proposes a new scheme:

Montelius Kiihn Period I I800-I550 I600-I400 Period II 1550-I300 1400-1200 Period III 1300-1100 1200-1000

Period IV 1100-950 I000-900 Period V 950-750 900-750 Period VI 750-650 (Iron age) 750-400

a specimen of the socketed celt (Tiillenbeil), an invention, as Childe has shown, of the Lausitz folk, has been excavated at An-yang, the capital of the Shang dynasty, in China, and therefore cannot be later than the eleventh century B.C. The square section of its socket and the two loops point to Kras- noyarsk, in Siberia, as the last important station on its way from Central Europe to the Far East.

Later on influence went from east to west, and Eastern ideas and forms became almost dominant during the Hall- stadt culture of Southern Germany, divided and aligned by Dr. Kiihn thus: Period III 1200-1000

Period IV 1000-950 Hallstadt A(-B) 1050-800 Period V 950-750 Hallstadt C 850-600 Period VI 750-400 Hallstadt D 600-400

497 497

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THE ART BULLETIN THE ART BULLETIN

The author deserves high praise for drawing attention to the striking similarities between eastern and western ma- terial; although long known to scholars dealing with the Siberian and Chinese finds, these things were mostly passed by in silence by archaeologists dealing with prehistoric Eu- rope. "Die Wirkung des Skythischen auf das Einheimische, zuerst auf das Illyrische und weiter auf das Germanische in der Bronze- und Hallstadtzeit ist besonders gross: die Tier- und Menschendarstellungen haben hier ihre Wurzel; und gross ist auch der Einfluss auf das Keltische in der Latene- zeit, sichtbar wieder in der Tierdarstellung und in der neuen Technik des Emails." Such a passage appears for the first time in a work devoted to prehistoric Europe, written from a Western point of view, and describes the situation admirably.

The chapter on the Keltic area is especially fascinating, even if one finds it difficult to accept the conjecture that the urn-field folk were Keltic. Dr. Kiihn assumes a first exodus of Keltic tribes to France and Spain as early as IIoo B.C., though he, too, is of the opinion that the flourishing period of Keltic culture fell in the second half of the first millen- nium. In fact, he makes La Tene I begin one century later than usually:

La Tene I (A-B) 400-300 La Tene II (C) 300-100 La Tene III (D) i00 B.C.-5so A.D.

He distinguishes four areas of La Tene art, each with an evolution and a history of its own:

i. The central group, in Southern and Western Germany, with the climax in Early La Tene, extinguished in Late La Tene; originated through exposure to Italian and Scythian elements.

2. The eastern, Irano-Keltic group; begins in Middle La Tene, under the influence of the Sarmatians.

3. The Spanish group "cultura posthallstatica," expiring in Middle La Tene.

4. The English-Irish group, the only one continuing La Tene traditions after the Roman invasion, with a sec- ond flourishing period at 00ooo A.D.

The Romans forced Southern Mediterranean ideas and forms upon the peoples they had subjugated. Their in- fluence varied according to the resistance of their adver- saries: it was deep and long-lasting in the West, but scarcely penetrated beneath the surface in the North. And the moment the Roman Empire began to crumble, the Teutons opened their arms again to eastern influence. The result was the art of the Migrations, the second Golden Age of Teutonic art which, after the first flush in the bronze age, had waned during La Tene.

The great merit of Dr. Kiihn's handling of the art of the Migrations lies in the extensive and thorough documenta- tion, not least by means of well-chosen illustrations, of the intimate connection of this art with, and its dependence from, Iranian art. It was high time that a German pre- historian took notice of this Eastern component, known for many years to Russian, Hungarian and English scholars, but usually ignored, or passed over with a few vague and hazy remarks in German books.

The carriers of Iranian art were the Sarmatians, a collec- tive name for innumerable tribes of horsemen who had first invaded Southeastern Europe and became known to the Greeks under that name.

At c. 50 A.D. one tribe of them, the Yaziges, had oc- cupied the plains of Hungary. In the war of the Mar- comanni (169-181 A.D.) the Sarmatians fought with the Teutons against the Romans. In I67 A.D. they had, with the Vandalian Lakringi, attacked Transylvania. In Rou- mania and South Russia the Sarmatians, and the Eastern Teutons, Vandals and Goths, lived as good friends. The Goths and Sarmatians attacked Constantine the Great in 323 A.D. And when, in 334 A.D., the ruling class of the Hungarian Sarmatians was expelled, their members found refuge with the Vandals of the Banat. In 337 A.D. began

The author deserves high praise for drawing attention to the striking similarities between eastern and western ma- terial; although long known to scholars dealing with the Siberian and Chinese finds, these things were mostly passed by in silence by archaeologists dealing with prehistoric Eu- rope. "Die Wirkung des Skythischen auf das Einheimische, zuerst auf das Illyrische und weiter auf das Germanische in der Bronze- und Hallstadtzeit ist besonders gross: die Tier- und Menschendarstellungen haben hier ihre Wurzel; und gross ist auch der Einfluss auf das Keltische in der Latene- zeit, sichtbar wieder in der Tierdarstellung und in der neuen Technik des Emails." Such a passage appears for the first time in a work devoted to prehistoric Europe, written from a Western point of view, and describes the situation admirably.

The chapter on the Keltic area is especially fascinating, even if one finds it difficult to accept the conjecture that the urn-field folk were Keltic. Dr. Kiihn assumes a first exodus of Keltic tribes to France and Spain as early as IIoo B.C., though he, too, is of the opinion that the flourishing period of Keltic culture fell in the second half of the first millen- nium. In fact, he makes La Tene I begin one century later than usually:

La Tene I (A-B) 400-300 La Tene II (C) 300-100 La Tene III (D) i00 B.C.-5so A.D.

He distinguishes four areas of La Tene art, each with an evolution and a history of its own:

i. The central group, in Southern and Western Germany, with the climax in Early La Tene, extinguished in Late La Tene; originated through exposure to Italian and Scythian elements.

2. The eastern, Irano-Keltic group; begins in Middle La Tene, under the influence of the Sarmatians.

3. The Spanish group "cultura posthallstatica," expiring in Middle La Tene.

4. The English-Irish group, the only one continuing La Tene traditions after the Roman invasion, with a sec- ond flourishing period at 00ooo A.D.

The Romans forced Southern Mediterranean ideas and forms upon the peoples they had subjugated. Their in- fluence varied according to the resistance of their adver- saries: it was deep and long-lasting in the West, but scarcely penetrated beneath the surface in the North. And the moment the Roman Empire began to crumble, the Teutons opened their arms again to eastern influence. The result was the art of the Migrations, the second Golden Age of Teutonic art which, after the first flush in the bronze age, had waned during La Tene.

The great merit of Dr. Kiihn's handling of the art of the Migrations lies in the extensive and thorough documenta- tion, not least by means of well-chosen illustrations, of the intimate connection of this art with, and its dependence from, Iranian art. It was high time that a German pre- historian took notice of this Eastern component, known for many years to Russian, Hungarian and English scholars, but usually ignored, or passed over with a few vague and hazy remarks in German books.

The carriers of Iranian art were the Sarmatians, a collec- tive name for innumerable tribes of horsemen who had first invaded Southeastern Europe and became known to the Greeks under that name.

At c. 50 A.D. one tribe of them, the Yaziges, had oc- cupied the plains of Hungary. In the war of the Mar- comanni (169-181 A.D.) the Sarmatians fought with the Teutons against the Romans. In I67 A.D. they had, with the Vandalian Lakringi, attacked Transylvania. In Rou- mania and South Russia the Sarmatians, and the Eastern Teutons, Vandals and Goths, lived as good friends. The Goths and Sarmatians attacked Constantine the Great in 323 A.D. And when, in 334 A.D., the ruling class of the Hungarian Sarmatians was expelled, their members found refuge with the Vandals of the Banat. In 337 A.D. began

the great migration of the Vandals; after an unhappy war against the Goths, the Vandals and Sarmatians-now mostly called Alans, afterwards a very powerful tribe-wandered to Western Hungary, but left again in 4oI A.D. They made their way through Austria and Bavaria, and on New Year's eve, 406/7, crossed the Rhine near Mayence, together with the Suabian Quadi. They lived some time in France, in the Orleanais; then moved, in 409 A.D., over the Pyrenees into Spain and in 439 A.D. over the Straits of Gibraltar into northern Africa. As late as 483 Hunerich, ruler of this Germanic empire on African soil, called himself "rex Van- dalorum et Alanorum." If anything deserves to be cited as evidence that there exists after all such a thing as a heroic friendship between peoples, it is this unbroken and un- wavering alliance between the Teutons and the Sarmatians who fought their way from one end of Europe to the other, to die at last together in Africa. It is the more strange when we think of their provenience: the one hailing from the shores of the Baltic, the other from the interior of Asia.

The Yiieh-chih, better known as the Kushanas, were not the Sarmatians of Chinese sources, but only one of the tribes, called so collectively. It was very likely the last one to leave its grazing grounds in Central Asia, near Kansu, in 179 B.C. Their path to Ferghana, Soghdia, Afghanistan into northern India is traced in my paper: Die Ara Kanishkas, in Ostasiatische Zeitschrift, Neue Folge IV, pp. 22 fif.

Dr. Kiihn divides the art of the Migrations as follows: I. 300-450 Pontic-Germanic art. Almandine, granu-

lation, filigrane. II. 450-550 Fusion with antique art. Tendrils, notch-

cutting (Kerbschnitt), meander. III. 550-650 Independent Germanic art. Plaited ribbon

(Flechtband), animal ornament. IV. 650o-8oo Later animal ornament. Predominance of

round plaques and silver-inlaid buckles. The presentation of this extraordinarily complex material

is excellent. Dr. Kuihn succeeds in disentangling the inter- twined threads of heterogeneous provenience, and in giving a clear picture of the evolution. In his treatment of the Siberian objects which display truly amazing similarities to Western objects, the author relies on a few discoveries as fixed points, all of them datable in the last century B.C. and the first century A.D. Yet on Chinese bronzes appear such characteristic features as the plaited ribbon and granulation -or at least a crude attempt to imitate granulation-as early as towards the middle of the first millennium B.C. These motifs are something totally strange amongst the indigenous Chinese ornaments: there is little doubt that the horsemen of the steppes started exercising influence on the Far East about one thousand years earlier than the West.

A few of Kiihn's references to Chinese history and Chinese sources are a little confusing. General Li Kuang-Li never reached the shores of Lake Caspi; the country he invaded farthest west was Ferghana, in 102 B.C. But in the years following this conquest, the Chinese claim to have sent more than ten embassies to the countries west of Ferghana. The "To-schi-Tschuang" and the "Tso-schi tschao-kung" of p. I65 are the same work, the well-known Tso ch'uan, or according to the spelling used, the Tso tschuan, also called Tso shih ch 'un-ts'iu. The "tschao-kung" is the part of it dealing with the events during the reign of Duke (kung) Ch'ao. There was no Tsin emperor at that time, and Hien-kung is the duke of that name. Sen oku seish6 is the Sino-Japanese title of the catalogue of bronzes in the collection of Baron Sumitomo.

These remarks do not in the slightest degree impair the immense value of this work. In fact, I cannot imagine how anyone interested in the history of European art, and not solely in the prehistoric art of Germany, could do without this book, for occasional sentences make it clear enough that many phenomena of our mediaeval part are not properly understood except as descended from those remote times.

LUDWIG BACHHOFER

the great migration of the Vandals; after an unhappy war against the Goths, the Vandals and Sarmatians-now mostly called Alans, afterwards a very powerful tribe-wandered to Western Hungary, but left again in 4oI A.D. They made their way through Austria and Bavaria, and on New Year's eve, 406/7, crossed the Rhine near Mayence, together with the Suabian Quadi. They lived some time in France, in the Orleanais; then moved, in 409 A.D., over the Pyrenees into Spain and in 439 A.D. over the Straits of Gibraltar into northern Africa. As late as 483 Hunerich, ruler of this Germanic empire on African soil, called himself "rex Van- dalorum et Alanorum." If anything deserves to be cited as evidence that there exists after all such a thing as a heroic friendship between peoples, it is this unbroken and un- wavering alliance between the Teutons and the Sarmatians who fought their way from one end of Europe to the other, to die at last together in Africa. It is the more strange when we think of their provenience: the one hailing from the shores of the Baltic, the other from the interior of Asia.

The Yiieh-chih, better known as the Kushanas, were not the Sarmatians of Chinese sources, but only one of the tribes, called so collectively. It was very likely the last one to leave its grazing grounds in Central Asia, near Kansu, in 179 B.C. Their path to Ferghana, Soghdia, Afghanistan into northern India is traced in my paper: Die Ara Kanishkas, in Ostasiatische Zeitschrift, Neue Folge IV, pp. 22 fif.

Dr. Kiihn divides the art of the Migrations as follows: I. 300-450 Pontic-Germanic art. Almandine, granu-

lation, filigrane. II. 450-550 Fusion with antique art. Tendrils, notch-

cutting (Kerbschnitt), meander. III. 550-650 Independent Germanic art. Plaited ribbon

(Flechtband), animal ornament. IV. 650o-8oo Later animal ornament. Predominance of

round plaques and silver-inlaid buckles. The presentation of this extraordinarily complex material

is excellent. Dr. Kuihn succeeds in disentangling the inter- twined threads of heterogeneous provenience, and in giving a clear picture of the evolution. In his treatment of the Siberian objects which display truly amazing similarities to Western objects, the author relies on a few discoveries as fixed points, all of them datable in the last century B.C. and the first century A.D. Yet on Chinese bronzes appear such characteristic features as the plaited ribbon and granulation -or at least a crude attempt to imitate granulation-as early as towards the middle of the first millennium B.C. These motifs are something totally strange amongst the indigenous Chinese ornaments: there is little doubt that the horsemen of the steppes started exercising influence on the Far East about one thousand years earlier than the West.

A few of Kiihn's references to Chinese history and Chinese sources are a little confusing. General Li Kuang-Li never reached the shores of Lake Caspi; the country he invaded farthest west was Ferghana, in 102 B.C. But in the years following this conquest, the Chinese claim to have sent more than ten embassies to the countries west of Ferghana. The "To-schi-Tschuang" and the "Tso-schi tschao-kung" of p. I65 are the same work, the well-known Tso ch'uan, or according to the spelling used, the Tso tschuan, also called Tso shih ch 'un-ts'iu. The "tschao-kung" is the part of it dealing with the events during the reign of Duke (kung) Ch'ao. There was no Tsin emperor at that time, and Hien-kung is the duke of that name. Sen oku seish6 is the Sino-Japanese title of the catalogue of bronzes in the collection of Baron Sumitomo.

These remarks do not in the slightest degree impair the immense value of this work. In fact, I cannot imagine how anyone interested in the history of European art, and not solely in the prehistoric art of Germany, could do without this book, for occasional sentences make it clear enough that many phenomena of our mediaeval part are not properly understood except as descended from those remote times.

LUDWIG BACHHOFER

498 498

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