IN the period upon which we are about to enter, the peoples of south-west Asia, Egypt and south-east Europe were brought Into very close contact one with another. Peaceful trading-journeys, ambitious wars by land and by sea, and some sweeping ethnical movements, which had the profoundest consequences for history, made the area virtually one interconnected whole. The history of no portion of this whole can properly be viewed quite apart from the rest, although naturally it will be necessary to treat each part by itself, and with reference to its own peculiar development and problem. The available sources, moreover, although by no means inconsiderable in quantity, vary greatly as regards quality; both the archaeological and the written materials are often difficult to interpret, or are susceptible of different interpretations, and may be treated from different points of view. Further, the far-reaching political and other changes which mark this period can be best understood only by taking a wider survey of the interrelations between Asia, Africa and Europe which illumine the particular vicissitudes now to be described. To a certain extent this has already been done in volume I; accordingly, the chapters in this volume are drawn up so as to assist the reader to grasp the period and the area as a whole, and also in their various parts and aspects, though at the unavoidable cost of some repetition and overlapping.
Once more the history of Egypt holds the premier position, owing mainly to its relations with south-west Asia and the peoples of the East Mediterranean. But Asia Minor now assumes a unique significance, partly because, as the bridge between Europe and Asia, it was the center of the most intricate developments of the period, and partly also because the rich store of cuneiform tablets discovered at Boghaz Keui, and the problems of the Hittites, and all their ramifications are proving to be of more fundamental importance than could ever have been suspected. Accordingly, chapters on the peoples of Asia Minor and of Europe form an appropriate introduction, and deal with linguistic problems, and with certain important migrations...