Page 87 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

area of cultivation towards the west, and probably towards the
east and south, until the pioneer frontier now stretches along

the Atlantic seaboard of Europe and up to the edge of the pine
forests of the north. We have guessed a little at the extension of
the pioneer farmers into India and China and Africa, and looked

at the puzzle of contemporary cultivators in Peru.
We have seen how the knowledge of husbandry also passed
the Caucasus to the north, and there resulted in the conversion of

the hunters of the Russian steppes into cattle herdsmen and
horsemen. And we have looked at the hunters and fishers and
gatherers of plants, the practicers of the immemorial policy of

collecting what the earth produces, unasked, of food. These
gatherers have not yet entirely perished from the earth, even in
our day. Four thousand years ago they formed the majority of

the earth’s population, and covered the greater part of its sur­
face. But they did not remain unaffected by the new agricultural
way of life; we have seen how they came to terms with it on

the peripheral area of the sown.
Finally we have looked at the sea lanes which bound to­
gether the civilized areas and which, extending out to the sea­

board frontiers of colonization, kept the pioneers in touch with
the centers of civilization. And we have seen how maritime trad­
ing cities and empires, as wealthy and cultured as the old-

established civilizations, existed to carry on this trade, and spread
their religions and cultures far across the world.
Much was to happen to all these peoples during the next

thousand years.