Man has been defined in many ways, as the talking animal, the religious animal, and so on, but the most satisfactory definition from the scientific point of view is probably Man the Tool-maker. One might ask, why bother to define man, considering his uniqueness and self-evident characteristics? But from the standpoint of students of evolution, particularly those concerned with the interpretation of fossil remains of early man and his possible ancestors, to define man is of practical importance.

The Athenians of the classical era were deeply conscious of the fact that the history of their city was different from that of the rest of Greece. They were the autochthonous settlers of the land, and their orators and writers kept forever reminding them that Athens and Attica were not subdued when the Dorian invaders gained possession of most of the Peloponnesus at the end of the Bronze Age. Was this an empty boast, the kind of historical error that Thucydides (1, 20) attributes to a people's readiness to accept uncritically the old traditions about their own country or those of others? The historian (1, 2) makes it clear that he himself believed in the tradition that Attica was the original home of the Athenians of his day, and he found an explanation for this phenomenon in the poverty of the soil which made the conquerors pass by Attica for richer sections of the country. Archaeological research has confirmed Thucydides' conclusions.

In A.D. 69 the peace of Tripolitania was broken by war between the neighbouring cities of Oea and Lepcis Magna and the re-emergence of the Garamantes in opposition to Rome. The Garamantes, convinced that if worsted in battle they had only to scuttle back into the desert and fill in the wells behind them to stop pursuit, as they had in the past, and confident in their immunity from attack in Fezzan, had responded to an appeal for aid from the people of Oea and, together with these new allies, they were laying siege to Lepcis. This brought the legate of Numidia, Valerius Festus, hurrying down the coast to restore order. He freed Lepcis, defeated the Garamantes, and pursued them into the desert. In doing so he achieved something remarkable. He found, Plinyl tells us, a new and shorter road across the desert, known as the Praeter Caput Saxi. It was probably the road running due south from Oea through Garian, Mizda and El Gheria el Garbia which later on, in the reign of Caracalla, was marked with milestones. The inference is that Valerius Festus discovered a road unknown to the Garamantes. This is incredible for he was operating in the Garamantes' own country which they must have known far better than the Romans and at least as well as any tribe from whom the latter could have obtained guides.

Our dictionaries tell us that ‘Philistine’ denotes ‘an uncouth or uncultured person’. Archaeologically, this definition is quite unjustified for the Philistines were the main civilizing influence on the Hebrews during the critical period when Israel emerged from rude tribalism to forge a cultured empire. The magnitude of the Philistine impact is reflected in the name of ‘Palestine’ (= Hebrew peléšet ‘Philistia’) which clings to the country after more than three millennia.

During the reorganization of the prehistoric section of the Bern Historical Museum a chance discovery was made by the writer of the present article. While a fragment of a La Téne sword (without inventory number) was being treated, it was suspected that a punch-mark might be concealed beneath the scabbard, which was rusted on to the sword. The rusty remains were removed, so that the blade could be examined in an oblique light. Most surprisingly there was revealed not only what subsequently proved to be a well preserved punch-mark but also, beside it, a Greek inscription! After taking a photograph of it in its original state the remains of the scabbard were removed, and a single letter of the inscription that was covered by rust was cleaned (PLATE VIII, B, C).