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Rh and the later Lycians and Lydians; possibly also by the Etruscans in Italy. Such analogues as may be found between Elamite and any of these other languages naturally point only to linguistic affinities and not to a linguistic unity; with due caution, however, they may indicate ethnic relationships.

For a modern anthropologist it is difficult, if not impossible, to imagine that the present-day inhabitants of Iran could make up a single ethnological family. From time immemorial the plateau has been subjected to invasion and counter-invasion, for, in spite of the difficulties its borders present, it must be remembered that Iran is as much a bridge between the Far East and the Land of the Two Rivers as is Palestine between Asia and Africa. Consequently, peoples of highly diverse origin have sheltered themselves under a single linguistic roof in Iran; and the