Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/296

 244 Outlines of European History and the East on the later Romans, whose military camp exactly reproduced the plan of the Po valley pile settlement (Fig. 105). Prehistoric 'e do not know the race of these people of the pile villages, bei^een^toiy ^^^ in the Po Valley they entered the area of more direct influ- ence from the eastern Mediterranean. Articles wrought by the craftsmen of Eg^'pt (see cut, p. 16) and of Cnos- sus were then find- ing their way into these regions, and the westerners who received them were beginning to ap- pear in the east- em Mediterranean. Some of these early westerners, the descendants of Stone Age Europe, who lived on the island of Sardinia, took service as hired soldiers in the army of the declining Egyptian Empire (p. 53), and we find them pictured on the Eg}^ptian monu- ments, bearing huge bronze swords and heavy round shields (Fig. 106). They mark the earliest appearance of the men of the West in the arena of history yet to be dominated by them. At the same time, the northern coast of Italy opposite Corsica was occupied by a powerful group of sea rovers like the Fig. 107. Etruscan Chariot of Bronze This magnificent work illustrates the ability of the Etruscans in the art of bronze-working (p. 246). The chariot was found in an Etruscan tomb ; it is of full size and now belongs to the Metropolitan Museum of New York City The Etruscans