South African Archaeological Society

Chars de guerre et routes antiques du Sahara by Henri LhoteThe South African Archaeological Bulletin, Vol. 8, No. 30 (Jun., 1953), p. 56Published by: South African Archaeological SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3887477 .

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REVIEWS

Arberry, A. J. (Ed.). The Legacy of Persia, Oxford, 1953. 21s.

The 'Legacy' series issued by the Clarendon Press is one of the finest introductions to the story of Western European culture that it is possible to obtain. Greece, Rome, Egypt, Israel, Islam, India and the Middle Ages have all been apportioned their 'Legacies'.

To those of us who have been saturated in the Classical Tradition it is always a pleasant reminder to be shown that much of our civilization came from Israel, the Arabs, India and Persia. Words such as pear and the Afrikaans perske remind us vaguely that many of our fruits come from Persia; while the rose, which became traditional to England with the wars of the Roses, had a long and honourable history in Persia-so near to the legendary Garden of Eden. Much of this has been merged in the text but Eden finds no place in the index, where the story of the Fall is mentioned in the poetry of Sa'adi, though the Sufis seem to have lost this 'anchor' of religious philosophy.

It should constantly be remembered that linguisti- cally most European languages are 'Aryan' (Persian or Iranian), and a chart of page 197 gives the general relationship of the Indo-European group of languages to ancient Iranian.

Persia seems to have acted as the middleman between the ancient East and West, chapters covering such subjects as Persia and the Ancient World, Persia and Byzantium, Persia and the Arabs, Persia and India after the conquest of Mahmud. Next we follow the spiritual life of Persia, the Islamic art, Persian religion, literature, carpets, gardens, science and so on; then the stories of Persia as seen by the West, and finally an amusing chapter on 'The Royame of Perse'. This last is a survey of a legendary Persia as seen by the romanticists over a thousand years of literature.

Quite apart from the cult of the carpet, the cult of the garden seems to have emanated from Persia, and the Hon. V. Sackville-West gives a pleasantly readable garden-talk covering the variety of roses, the origin of the word paradise from two Persian words meaning 'around-constructed' (much the same as 'the en- virons'), the curious tabus of the caste of gardeners, Sir Thomas Browne's views on the Hanging Gardens, all in a devious meander which reminds one pleasantly of Tristram Shandy.

It is pleasant too to realize that 'Umar Khaiyam, recreated as a romantic poet by Fitzgerald, was once known as 'the greatest scientist of his time, and astronomer without peer', and was one of the founders of Algebra, the basis of modern mathematics. Not content with that he built a new observatory under the patronage of Malik Shah in A.D. 1074, where he worked out a new Era which began on 15 March 1079 (the Jalali Era). So accurate was his mathema- tical work that there was an error of only one day in 5,000 years, while the Gregorian calendar has an

error of one day in 3,300 years. Unhappily 'Umar's calendar was used for less than 200 years. Elgood's chapter on Persian science also discusses a number of other interesting aspects-ophthalmology, surgery, astrology and so on.

The illustrations are up to the cold standards of excellence usual in this series: particularly lovely are the intricate patterns of Persian carpets. This volume deserves to take its allotted place beside others in this series on the shelves of thinking men and women.

A.J.H.G. Lhote, Henri. Chars de guerre et routes antiques du

Sahara. Bull. de Liaison Saharienne, 12 Apr. 1953, pp. 53-8.

After briefly covering the evidence already accumu- lated on war chariots and routes across the old Sahara, Lhote gives a few important remarks on the penetration of the Sahara by the Romans. He is at present preparing a text by Pliny on the 'triumph' of Cornelius Balbus in 19 B.C., and has made some interesting observations. The text seems to identify Ilezy (Alasi) in the western Hoggar and Abalessa (Balsa) clearly as having been reached, and it is perfectly possible that the Niger was also approached as the Songhay name for this river, Isaberi (Dasaberi flumen), appears to be given. The Latin textual names are given in brackets here.

We already knew that the following places had been recorded, Ghadames (Cydamus), Tabonie (Tabu- dium), Zuila (Cillaba), Ghat (Rapsa) and Jerma (Garama) which was the capital of the Garamantes, a people with whom Frobenius has made much play in his reconstruction of the culture-history of the Sudan.

Although Cornelius Balbus was from Gades he was accorded a 'triumph' by Rome, the only foreigner to be so honoured.

Zeuner, Frederick E. Dating the Past: an Introduction to Geochronology. London: Methuen, 1952.

The third and revised edition of this well-known work adds considerably to earlier editions, bringing certain research up to date, and adding evidence from new fields. It is to be hoped that eventually this tome (which covers the entire field of geological evidence) will be divided into two, the second based more directly on Zeuner's Pleistocene Period and perhaps expanded to meet the needs of the intelligent pre- historian who is not expert in the particular fields covered. At present this amazingly comprehensive work caters too much to the geological student.

Frankel, J. J. 'Silcrete near Albertinia, Cape Province.' S. Af. Journ. Sci., Vol. XLIX, 1952, pp. 173-82.

Although not primarily archaeological, this paper on the origins of two types of silcrete (a nodular type simulating conglomerate, and layers of fine-grained silcrete) is of value to prehistorians as so many imple- ments of the Later Stone Age are made in these materials.

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