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Title: A Manual of the Antiquity of Man
Author: MacLean, J. P. (John Patterson), 1848-1939
Language: English
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[Illustration: IDEAL RESTORATION OF THE NEANDERTHAL MAN.]
A MANUAL
OF THE
ANTIQUITY OF MAN.
BY
J. P. MACLEAN.
"In order to know what Man is, we ought to know what Man has been."
--PROF. MAX MÜLLER.
_REVISED EDITION._
BOSTON:
UNIVERSALIST PUBLISHING HOUSE,
37 _Cornhill_,
1877.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by
J. P. MACLEAN,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
PREFACE.
In lecturing upon the Antiquity of Man I have found the minds of the
people prepared to receive the evidences, and ready to believe the
conclusions of the geologists. I have felt the need of a popular work to
place in the hands of the public, that would be both instructive and
welcome. The works of Lyell and Lubbock are too elaborate and too
expensive to meet the popular need. My object has been to give an
outline of the subject sufficient to afford a reasonable acquaintance
with the facts connected with the new science, to such as desire the
information but cannot pursue it further, and to serve as a manual for
those who intend to become more proficient.
As the Unity of Language and the Unity of the Race are so closely
connected with the subject, I have added the two chapters on these
questions, hoping they will be acceptable to the reader. It was my
intention to have written a more extended chapter on the relation of the
Holy Scriptures to this subject, but was forced to condense, as I had
done in other chapters, in order not to transcend the proposed limits of
the book.
In the preparation of this work I have freely used Lyell's "Antiquity of
Man" and "Principles of Geology," Lubbock's "Pre-Historic Times,"
Buchner's "Man in the Past, Present, and Future," Figuier's "Primitive
Man," Wilson's "Pre-Historic Man," Keller's "Lake-Dwellings," the works
of Charles Darwin, Dana's "Manual of Geology," Huxley's "Man's Place in
Nature," Prichard's "Natural History of Man," Pouchet's "Plurality of
the Human Race," and others, referred to in the margins.
I am indebted to my friend, Mr. Frank Cushing, for the ideal restoration
of the Neanderthal Man. The engraving was made especially for this work.
The references to Buchner are from his work entitled, "Man in the Past,
Present and Future."
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
PAGE
Interest in the subject--Influence of Lyell--Usher's
Chronology--Aimé Boué first to proclaim the high antiquity
of man--Dr. Schmerling the founder--Boucher de Perthes the
apostle--Classifications by Lubbock, Lartet, Renevier, and
Westropp--Plan of the work--No Universal Age of Stone,
Bronze, or Iron--Epochs not sharply defined--Outlines of
History--Superstitious Notions--Skull from Constatt--Stone
hatchet from London--Cavern of Gailenreuth--Axes from
Hoxne--Human jaw from Maestricht--Skeleton from Lahr--
"Reliquiæ Diluvianæ"--Discoveries by Tournal and Christol--
Engis and Enghihoul Caverns--Schmerling's labors--Lyell's
opinions--Arrow mark on skull of Cave-Bear--Boucher de
Perthes and the Valley of the Somme--Jaw of Moulin-Quignon--
Kent's Hole--Fossil Man of Denise--Remains from the
Manzanares--Cave of Aurignac--Lyell declares his belief--
Lake-Dwellings of Switzerland Neanderthal Skull--Caverns
near Torquay--Cave of Massat--Cave of Lourdes--Caverns of
Ariége--Tertiary at St. Prest--Implements near Gosport--
Bones from Colmar--Implements near Bournemouth--Trou de
la Naulette--Bones near Savonia--Reindeer Station--Foreland
Cliff--Fossil Man of Mentone--Other Discoveries near Mentone. 11
CHAPTER II.
GLACIAL EPOCH.
Starting point for the investigation--Advance of the ice--
Fauna of Europe--Geological Period--Probable Date--Probable
Duration--Evidences of the Existence of Man--Implements from
Hampshire--Flint tools at Bournemouth--Oval flint from
Foreland Cliff--Implements from the Valley of the Somme--
Jaw of Moulin-Quignon--Implements from the Seine--Axes
near Madrid--Kent's Hole--Brixham Cave--Human jaw from
Maestricht--Skeleton from Lahr--Cave of La Naulette--
Implements from Hoxne--Bones from Colmar. 25
CHAPTER III.
GLACIAL--CONTINUED.
Belgian Caverns--Caverns of Liége--Engis Skull--Remarks of
Prof. Huxley--Views of Busk, Schmerling, Buchner, and Vogt--
Neanderthal Skull--Prof. Huxley, Dr. Buchner, and Dr.
Fuhlrott on Geological time of Neanderthal Skull--Opinions
of Huxley, Buchner, Schaaffhausen, and Busk--Skull from the
Loess of the Rhine, Constatt, Cochrane's Cave, Island of
Moën, Minsk, and Plau--Borreby Skulls--Human skulls of Arno. 44
CHAPTER IV.
PRE-GLACIAL EPOCHS.
North America during the Tertiary--Europe--Climate--Fauna of
Eocene--Of Miocene--Of Pliocene--Traces of Man--Opinions of
Lyell, Lubbock, and A. R. Wallace--Man in the Pliocene--
Hearth under Osars--Human bones from Savonia--Discoveries at
St. Prest--Skull from Altaville--Prof. Denton's Statement--
Man in the Miocene--Flints from Pontlevoy--Flint-flake from
Aurillac--Marks on bones near Pouance--Implements from
Colorado and Wyoming--Eocene--Glacial Periods during the
Miocene. 58
CHAPTER V.
CONDITION OF MAN IN THE EARLIEST TIMES.
No knowledge of the first appearance of Man--Fauna of India
during the Miocene--Intellect of Man--Contests with the
Beasts--A weapon invented--Earliest type--Advancement slow--
Climate changes--Sufferings of Man--Known by the Remains--
Structure of the Neanderthal Man--Engis Man--Men both large
and small--Animal structure of jaws from La Naulette and
Moulin-Quignon. 63
CHAPTER VI.
INTER-GLACIAL EPOCH.
Condition of the earth--Numerous traces of Man--Cave of
Aurignac--Conclusions of Lartet and Cartailhac--Caverns of
Maccagnone--Wokey Hole--Fossil Man of Denise--Reindeer
Station on the Schusse--Dr. Buchner's Conclusions. 68
CHAPTER VII.
CONDITION OF MAN IN THE INTER-GLACIAL.
Length of the Inter-Glacial--Man an improvable being--
Implements improved--Art of engraving begun--Religious
nature--Denton's description of primeval man--Language
improved. 76
CHAPTER VIII.
REINDEER EPOCH.
Advance of the Glaciers--Fauna---Reindeer epoch a distinct
one--Evidences of the existence of Man--Caves of Central and
Southern France--Implements from Les Eyzies--Relics from La
Madeleine--Workshops of Laugerie-Haute and Laugerie-Basse--
Cave and rock shelters of Bruniquel--Cave of Gourdan--Fossil
Man of Mentone--Other remains near Mentone--Other bone caves
of France--Belgian Caverns--Trou de Frontal--Trou Rosette--
Trou des Nutons--Cave of Chaleux--Cave at Furfooz--Cave of
Thayngen--Cave near Cracow. 79
CHAPTER IX.
MAN OF THE REINDEER EPOCH.
Man under a more favorable aspect--Type of--Dwellings--
Clothing--Food--Cannibalism--The Arts--Traffic--Burial--
Dupont's Report. 89
CHAPTER X.
NEOLITHIC EPOCH.
How characterized--Caves of this period--Contents of--Cave
of Saint Jean d'Alcas--Danish Shell-Mounds--Danish Peat
Bogs--Lake-Dwellings of Switzerland--Enumeration of--
Robenhausen--Fauna and Flora of--Troyon and Keller on--
Other Lake-Dwellings--Chronology. 94
CHAPTER XI.
MAN OF THE NEOLITHIC.
Type of--Advancement--Habitations--Clothing--Food--Arts and
Manufactures--Vast number of implements discovered--War--
Agriculture--Burial--Dolmens, Tumuli, Cromlechs, and Menhirs--
Victims, or Cannibalism. 103
CHAPTER XII.
BRONZE EPOCH.
No direct relation to Antiquity of Man--How characterized--
Type--Habitation and Food--Clothing--Implements--Arts--
Agriculture--Fishing and Navigation--Burial--Religious
Belief--Stone crescents. 108
CHAPTER XIII.
IRON EPOCH.
Civilization established--Swiss Lake-Dwellings--Dr. Keller's
Observations. 112
CHAPTER XIV.
TRACES OF MAN IN AMERICA.
Great opportunities for the Archæologist--Aim of the chapter--
Skull from Osage Mission--Comstock lode--Charcoal at Toronto--
Knife from Kansas--Pelvic bone from Natchez--Skeleton from New
Orleans--Remains from the reefs of Florida--Caverns of Brazil--
Shell Heaps--Mound-Builders--Extent of Mounds--Implements of--
Sacrificial--Sephulchral--Temple--Symbolical--Antiquity of--
Fort Shelby--How long the Mound-Builders remained. 114
CHAPTER XV.
WRITTEN HISTORY.
Mystery of Ancient Empires--Rollin's difficulties--Egypt--
Manetho's list--Statement of Herodotus--Mariette's
explorations--Borings in the mud deposits of the Nile--
Dr. Schliemann's discoveries at Troy--History of Chaldea
by Berosus--Astronomical calculations--Chinese history--
Mexican History. 123
CHAPTER XVI.
LANGUAGE.
A field for study--Three divisions of language--Rhematic
period--Origin of--Various theories--Change of--Views of
Ancients--Number of--Comparative permancy of written
language. 132
CHAPTER XVII.
UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE.
Objections to the Unity of the Race--Anatomical--
Geographical--Disparity of--Non-existence of medium types--
Phenomena caused by two united types--Objections answered--
Both man and animals affected by climate, food, and
condition--Examples--Argument from language--Ocean navigated
by frail crafts--Examples--Captain Tyson and party--The two
extremes exist in all nations, and even in families--People
who have retrograded--Races will amalgamate and perpetuate
their kind--Griquas--Papuas--Pitcairn Islanders--Law of
hybridity--Close affinity of the races--Slow change of. 136
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE BIBLE.
Controversy--Perversion of meaning--Men of science branded--
Design of the chapter--Creation--"Bara"--Day--Man's
appearance--Two accounts--Case of Cain--Sons of God--Remarks
of Dr. Livingstone--Doctrine of unity of the race--
Chronology--The Deluge--Septuagint--Monarchies--The
Dispersion--Opinion of Dr. Hedge--No supernatural aid in the
formation of Language--What God may do does not imply what
he has done--Dean Stanley on the Biblical account of Creation. 143
A MANUAL OF THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
No subject, of late years, has so much engrossed the attention of
geologists as the antiquity of the human race. The interest was greatly
increased by the publication of Sir Charles Lyell's "Antiquity of Man."
This work called the attention of the public to the subject, and so
great became the interest that many volumes and memoirs have been added
to the list, discussing the question in various ways, and, for the most
part, in such a manner as to add fresh interest and throw more light on
the subject. The scientific men were slow to take advantage of the
discoveries continually being made of the bones and works of man found
in caves and associated with the remains' of extinct animals. It is
probable, even at this late day, there would not have been so much
discussion of this subject had not Sir Charles Lyell lent the weight of
his great name to it. Educated men, everywhere, began to doubt the
correctness of Archbishop Usher's chronology, and so complete has been
the revolution of opinion that it is almost impossible to find an
intelligent man who would limit the period of man's existence to 6,000
years.
To Aimé Boué, a French geologist, must be attributed the honor of having
been the first to proclaim the high antiquity of the human race; to Dr.
Schmerling, the learned Belgian osteologist, on account of his
laborious investigations, untiring zeal, and great work on the subject,
the merited title of being the founder of the new science; to M. Boucher
de Perthes, its great apostle; while to Sir Charles Lyell and Sir John
Lubbock must be ascribed the honor of having made the new theory
popular.
The new science soon became permanently established, and the geologists
at once set about classifying the facts before them, in order to assign
to them their respective places in the geological epochs. All are agreed
in respect to the chronological orders, but all have not used the same
nomenclature, in consequence of which more or less confusion has been
the result. Sir J. Lubbock has divided pre-historic archæology into four
great epochs, as follows:
"I. That of the Drift; when man shared the possession of Europe with the
mammoth, the cave-bear, the woolly-haired rhinoceros, and other extinct
animals. This we may call the 'Palæolithic' period.
"II. The later or polished Stone Age; a period characterized by
beautiful stone weapons and instruments made of flint and other kinds of
stone; in which, however, we find no trace of the knowledge of any
metal, excepting gold, which seems to have been sometimes used for
ornaments. This we may call the 'Neolithic' period.
"III. The Bronze Age, in which bronze was used for arms and cutting
instruments of all kinds.
"IV. The Iron Age, in which that metal had superseded bronze for arms,
axes, knives, etc."[1]
These divisions are recognized by Lyell and Tylor.
Edward Lartet has proposed the following classification:
I. THE STONE AGE.
1st. Epoch of extinct animals (or of the great bear and mammoth).
2d. Epoch of migrated existing animals (or the reindeer epoch).
3d. Epoch of domesticated existing animals (or the polished stone
epoch).
II. THE METAL AGE.
1st. The Bronze Epoch.
2d. The Iron Epoch.
This mode of division is adopted by M. Figuier, in his "Primitive Man,"
by the Museum of Saint-Germain in that portion devoted to pre-historic
antiquities, and adhered to in essential points by Troyon and d'Archiac.
Professor Renevier, of Lausanne, has proposed a somewhat different
scheme, founded upon the epochs of Swiss glaciation. It is as follows:
"I. _Pre-glacial Epoch_, in which man lived cotemporaneously with the
elephant (_Elephas antiquus_), rhinoceros (_R. hemitæchus_), and the
cave-bear (_Ursus spelæus_).
"II. _Glacial Epoch_, in which man lived cotemporaneously with the
mammoth (_Elephas primigenius_), rhinoceros (_R. tichorrhinus_),
cave-bear, etc.
"III. _Post-glacial Epoch_, in which man lived cotemporaneously with the
mammoth and reindeer (_Cervus tarandus_).
"IV. _Last Epoch_, or epoch of the _Pile-buildings_, in which man lived
cotemporaneously with the Irish elk (_Megaceros hibernicus_), aurochs
(_Bison Europæus_)," etc.[2]
Westropp divides the periods of man, in respect to his stages of
civilization, as follows: _Savagery_, _hunters_, _herdsmen_, and
_agriculturists_.
In the following pages a somewhat different classification has been
adopted, and may be thus explained:
I. _Pre-glacial Epoch_; that period antedating the glaciers of the
post-tertiary, in which man lived cotemporaneously with the animals of
the tertiary, southern elephant (_E. meridionalis_), etc.
II. _Glacial Epoch_; that period of the post-tertiary when man was
forced to contend with the great ice-fields and the floods immediately
succeeding them, when the mammoth (_E. primigenius_), rhinoceros (_R.
tichorrhinus_), cave-bear, etc., began to flourish.
III. _Interglacial Epoch_; that period between the glacial and the
second advance of the ice, in which man lived cotemporaneously with the
animals of the preceding epoch, and the cave bear became extinct.
IV. _Reindeer Epoch_; that period when the glaciers again advanced; in
which man's chief food consisted of the flesh of the reindeer (_C.
tarandus_), that animal having made its way in numerous herds as far
south as the Pyrenees.
V. _Neolithic Epoch_; that period in which man polished his weapons of
stone, and sought to domesticate certain animals, the dog, etc.
VI. _Bronze Epoch_; that period characterized by weapons and implements
being made chiefly of bronze.
VII. _Iron Epoch_; that period in which bronze was generally superseded
by iron.
This classification, on the whole, seems to be the best that could be
devised, for the reason it attempts to place the evidences of the
existence of man in their relative geological positions.
Other methods have misled the student. There was no universal Stone,
Bronze, or Iron Age. The classification given by Lubbock applies to
Europe, but is too general. I have adopted the word "Neolithic" for want
of a better term, although the signification of the word is appropriate
to the period it is intended to represent.
These various epochs are not sharply defined, the one from the other;
but one merges into the other by gradual progression covering a period
of thousands of years. The growth of the various plants and animals, and
their retreat or final extinction, have also been very slow.
An outline of the history of the discoveries which led to a careful
investigation of the question, and which resolved the question into a
science, is not only one of interest but also of importance to the
careful thinker seeking information on the subject.
Prior to the study of the ancient implements the "people had so little
notion of the nature and signification of the stone axes and weapons of
earlier and later times that they were regarded with superstitious fear
and hope, and as productions of lightning and thunder. Hence for a long
time they were called thunderbolts even by the learned.... As late as
the year 1734 when Mahndel explained in the Academy of Paris that these
stones were human implements, he was laughed at, because he had not
proved that they could not have been formed in the clouds."[3]
As early as the year 1700, a human skull was dug out of the calcareous
tuff of Constatt, in company with the bones of the mammoth. It is
preserved in the Natural History Museum at Stuttgart.
In the year 1715, an Englishman named Kemp found in London, by the side
of elephants' teeth, a stone hatchet, similar to those which have been
subsequently found in great numbers in different parts of the world.
This hatchet is still preserved in the British Museum.
In 1774, in the cavern of Gailenreuth, Bavaria, J. F. Esper discovered
some human bones mingled with the remains of extinct animals.
In 1797, unpolished flint axes were dug out in great numbers from a
brick-field near Hoxne, county of Suffolk, where they occurred at a
depth of twelve feet, mingled with the bones of extinct species of
animals. They were gathered up and thrown by basketsful upon the
neighboring road. In the year 1801, before the Society of Antiquaries,
John Frere read a paper upon them, in which he stated that they pointed
to a very remote period. This communication, short as it was, contained
the essence of all subsequent discoveries and speculations as to the
antiquity of man. But the society regarded the subject as of no
importance.
During the construction of a canal (1815-1823) in Hollerd, there was
found, near Maestricht, in the _loess_, a human jaw in company with the
bones of extinct animals. This bone is preserved in the museum at
Leyden.
In 1823, Aimé Boué disinterred portions of a human skeleton from ancient
undisturbed loess near Lahr, a small village nearly opposite Strasbourg.
These bones were placed in the care of Cuvier, but, having been
neglected, are now lost.
In the same year, Dr. Buckland, an English geologist, published his
"Reliquiæ Diluvianæ," a work principally devoted to a description of the
Kirkdale Cave. The author combined all the known facts which favored the
coexistence of man, with the extinct animals.
In 1828, M. Tournal and M. Christol explored numerous caverns in the
south of France. In the cavern of Bize, Tournal found human bones and
teeth, and fragments of rude pottery, together with the bones of both
living and extinct species of animals, imbedded in the same mud and
breccia, cemented by stalagmite. The human bones were in the same
chemical condition as those of the extinct species.
M. Christol found in the cavern of Pondres, near Nimes, some human bones
in the same mud with the bones of an extinct hyena and rhinoceros.
In 1833, Dr. Schmerling explored the two bone-caverns of Engis and
Enghihoul (Belgium). In the former he found the Engis skull (now in the
museum of the University of Liége), at a depth of nearly five feet,
under an osseous breccia. The earth also contained the teeth of
rhinoceros, horse, hyena, and bear, and exhibited no marks of
disturbance. He also found the skull of a young person imbedded by the
side of a mammoth's tooth. It was entire, but so fragile, that it fell
to pieces before it was extracted. In the cave of Enghihoul he found
numerous bones belonging to three human individuals, mingled with the
bones of extinct animals. In these caves he noted rude flint
instruments, but did not collect many of them. In the care of Chokier,
he discovered a polished and jointed needle-shaped bone, with a hole
pierced through it, at its base. The caves of Engis and Chokier have
been annihilated, while only a part of Enghihoul remains.
Soon after these discoveries Dr. Schmerling published a work which
described and represented a vast quantity of objects which had been
discovered in the Belgian caverns. The scientific men were not yet
prepared to receive the new discoveries, and it attracted but little
attention at that time.
Too much praise cannot be bestowed upon Dr. Schmerling for his
unremitting labors. Of these labors Sir Charles Lyell has said: "To have
undertaken, in 1832, with a view of testing its truth (antiquity of
fossil human bones) to follow the Belgian philosopher through every
stage of his observations and proofs, would have been no easy task even
for one well-skilled in geology and osteology. To be let down, as
Schmerling was, day after day, by a rope tied to a tree, so as to slide
to the foot of the first opening of the Engis cave, where the
best-preserved human skulls were found; and, after thus gaining access
to the first subterranean gallery, to creep on all fours through a
contracted passage leading to larger chambers, there to superintend by
torchlight, week after week and year after year, the workmen who were
breaking through the stalagmitic crust as hard as marble, in order to
remove piece by piece the underlying bone-breccia nearly as hard; to
stand for hours with one's feet in the mud, and with water dripping from
the roof on one's head, in order to mark the position and guard against
the loss of each single bone of a skeleton; and at length, after finding
leisure, strength, and courage for all these operations, to look
forward, as the fruits of one's labor, to the publication of unwelcome
intelligence, opposed to the prepossessions of the scientific as well as
the unscientific public;--when these circumstances are taken into
account, we need scarcely wonder.... that a quarter of a century should
have elapsed before even the neighboring professors of the University
of Liége came forth to vindicate the truthfulness of their indefatigable
and clear-sighted countryman."[4]
In 1835, M. Joly, then professor at the Lyceum of Montpellier, found in
the cave of Nabrigas (Lozére) the skull of a cave-bear, on which an
arrow had left its mark. Close by, was a fragment of pottery marked by
the finger of the moulder.
It was in the valley of the Somme (a river in the north of France) that
M. Boucher de Perthes found those famous flint-axes of the rudest form.
His explorations had been going on for a long time. He did all he could
to bring these discoveries before the public. In the year 1836 he began
to proclaim the high antiquity of man, in a series of communications
addressed to the Société d'Emulation of Abbeville. To the same society,
in the year 1838, he exhibited the flint-axes he had found, but without
result. In 1839, he took these hatchets to Paris, and showed them to
some of the members of the Institute. At first they gave some
encouragement toward these researches; but this favorable feeling did
not last long. In 1841 he began to form his collection, which has since
become so justly celebrated. He engaged trained workmen to dig in the
diluvial beds, and in a short time he had collected twenty specimens of
flint wrought by the hand of man, though in a very rude state. In 1846,
he published his first work on the subject, entitled "De l'Industrie
Primitive, ou les Arts et leur Origine." In the following year he
published his "Antiquités Celtiques et Antédiluviennes," in which he
gave illustrations of these stone implements. This work attracted no
attention until the year 1854, when a French _savant_, named Rigollot,
made a personal examination and was successful in his search for these
relicts in the neighborhood of Amiens. He was soon followed by Sir C.
Lyell, Sir John Lubbock, Dr. Falconer, Sir Roderick I. Murchison, and
other eminent scientists.
Boucher de Perthes, continuing his researches, was rewarded, in the year
1863, by finding the lower half of a human jaw bone, covered with an
earthy crust, which he extracted with his own hands from a gravel-pit at
Abbeville. A few inches from it a flint hatchet was discovered. They
were at a depth of fifteen feet below the surface. This bone has been
called the jaw of Moulin-Quignon, and is preserved in the Museum of
Natural History at Paris.
The discovery of this bone produced a great sensation among English
geologists. Christy, Falconer, Carpenter, and Busk went to France and
examined the locality where the bone was found. They went away satisfied
with both its authenticity and antiquity. Some geologists, however,
doubted its authenticity; but at the present time all, or nearly all,
recognize the truth of the conclusions of Boucher de Perthes.
Not far from the same locality, he was again successful, in 1869, in
finding a number of human bones presenting the same character as the jaw
of Moulin-Quignon.
In 1840, Rev. J. MacEnery, of Devonshire, England, found in a cave,
called Kent's Hole, human bones and flint knives among the remains of
the mammoth, cave-bear, hyena, and two-horned rhinoceros, all from under
a crust of stalagmite. Mr. MacEnery began the explorations of this cave
as early as 1825. He did not publish his notes on his discoveries but
they remained in manuscript until 1859, when they were obtained by Mr.
Vivian.
Mr. Godwin-Austen, in his communication to the Geological Society in the
year 1840, states, in his description of Kent's Hole, he found works of
art in all parts of the cave.
The fossil Man of Denise was discovered by a peasant, in an old volcanic
tuff, near the town of Le Puy-en-Velay, Central France, an account of
which was first published by Dr. Aymard, in 1844. Able naturalists, who
have examined these bones, especially those familiar with the volcanic
regions of Central France, declared that they believed them to have
been enveloped by natural causes in the tufaceous matrix in which they
are now seen.
In the years 1845-1850, Casiano de Prado made discoveries on the banks
of the Manzanares, near Madrid. They consisted of portions of the
skeletons of the rhinoceros, and a nearly perfect skeleton of an
elephant in the diluvial sand. Lying beneath this ossiferous sand, were
several flint axes of human workmanship.
[Illustration: FIG. 1. SIR CHARLES LYELL.]
Near the town of Aurignac, France, a workman named Bonnemaison, in the
year 1852, accidently discovered a cave containing the remains of
seventeen human skeletons. These bones were taken by Dr. Amiel, the
mayor of Aurignac, who was ignorant of their value, and consigned to the
parish cemetery. The spot of their re-inhumation has been forgotten, and
this treasure is now lost to science. In 1860, the cave was explored by
Edward Lartet. After a long and patient examination, he came to the
conclusion that the cave was a human burial place, cotemporary with the
mammoth and other great animals of the quaternary epoch.
It was at the meeting of the British Association, in 1855, that Sir
Charles Lyell declared his belief in the great antiquity of the human
race. He had before opposed the idea, but was convinced of the truth by
personal examination of human bones and flint hatchets, from the
quarries of St. Acheul. He became enthusiastic in his investigations,
and, in order to present the discussion clearly to the scientific
public, he published his "Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man,"
in 1863. In the last edition of his "Principles of Geology," he bestows
considerable space to the discussion of the subject. He was closely
followed, in the same view, by other eminent geologists.
The remains of the ancient Lake Dwellings of Switzerland were discovered
in the winter of 1853-1854. That winter was so dry and cold that the
water of the lakes fell far below its ordinary level. On account of
this, a large tract of ground of Lake Zurich was gained by the people
throwing up embankments. In the process of the work, the piles on which
stood the dwellings, fragments of pottery, bone and stone implements,
and various other relics, were discovered.[5] Dr. Keller, of Zurich,
examined the objects, and at once came to a right understanding as to
their signification. He carefully examined the remains, and described
these lake habitations in six memoirs presented to the Antiquarian
Society of Zurich, in 1854, 1858, 1860, 1863, and 1866. In 1866 these
memoirs were translated into English by J. E. Lee, together with
articles from other antiquaries, under the title of "The Lake Dwellings
of Switzerland, and other parts of Europe." This work contains
ninety-seven plates, besides many wood-cuts.
Memoirs of the Dwellers of different lakes have, from time to time, been
published, but they are included in the translated work of Dr. Keller.
The far-famed Neanderthal skull was discovered by Dr. Fuhlrott, in the
year 1857, in a limestone cavern, near Düsseldorf, in a deep ravine
known by the name of Neanderthal. This skull, with parts of the skeleton
to which it belonged, was found under a layer of mud, about five feet in
thickness. It is now in the cabinet of Dr. Fuhlrott, Elberfeld, Rhenish
Prussia.
In 1858, a bone-cavern was found near Torquay, not far from Kent's Hole.
This cave was examined by a scientific commission. At first it was
undertaken by the Royal Society, but when its grants had failed, Miss
Burdett-Coutts paid the expenses of completing the work. In this cave,
under a layer of stalagmite, were found many flint knives, associated
with the bones of extinct mammals.
M. A. Fontan found in the cave of Massat (Department of Ariége), in
1859, human teeth and utensils associated with the remains of the
cave-bear, the fossil hyena, and the cave-lion (_Felis speloea_).
In 1861, M. A. Milne Edwards found certain relics of human industry
mingled with the fossil bones of animals, in the cave of Lourdes,
France.
In 1862, Dr. Garrigou published the result of the researches which he,
in conjunction with Rames and Filhol, had made in the caverns of Ariége.
These explorers found the jaw-bones of the cave-bear and cave-lion,
which had been wrought by the hands of man.
In the upper strata of the tertiary beds (pliocene) at St. Prest
(Department of Eure), in the year 1863, M. Desnoyers found the bones of
extinct animals which were cut or notched by flint instruments. In the
same strata Abbé Bourgeois discovered implements of stone. He
communicated his discoveries to the International Congress held at Paris
in 1867.
In 1864, James Brown found flint implements midway between Gosport and
Southampton, included in gravel from eight to twelve feet thick, capping
a cliff which at its greatest height is thirty-five feet above
high-water mark. These flint tools exactly resemble those found at
Abbeville and Amiens. Some of them are preserved in the Blackmore Museum
at Salisbury.
In 1865, there was found in the loess of the Rhine, near Colmar, Alsace,
human bones in the same bed with bones of the mammoth, horse, stag,
auroch, and other animals.
In 1866, Alfred Stevens first dug out a hatchet from the gravel at the
top of the sea-cliff east of the Bournemouth opening, Southampton river.
Soon after, Dr. Blackmore, to the west of the valley, obtained two other
flint implements. The spot was examined by Lyell in 1867.
Dr. Edward Dupont, an eminent Belgian cave explorer, in the year 1866,
found a fragment of a human jaw in the Trou de la Naulette, a bone cave
situated on the bank of the river Lesse not far from Chaleux.
At the International Congress of 1867, M. A. Issel reported he had found
several human bones in beds of Pliocene age, near Savonia, in Liguria.
The Reindeer Station on the Schusse, in Swabia, was discovered in 1867,
during the operations undertaken for the improvement of a mill-pond. The
Schusse is a little river which flows into the lake of Constance, and
its source is upon the high plateau of Upper Swabia between the lake of
Constance and the upper course of the Danube.
In 1868, Thomas Codrington discovered an oval flint implement in gravel
at the top of the Foreland Cliff, Isle of Wight, five miles southeast of
Ryde.
The fossil Man of Mentone was discovered, in 1873, by M. Riviére, in a
cave near Nice, France. The skeleton was almost entire, and imbedded
twenty feet below the surface of the deposit.
In 1873, M. Riviére discovered another human skeleton, by the side of
which lay a few unpolished stone implements, in one of the caves in the
same neighborhood.
In 1873 and 1874, M. Riviére was again so fortunate as to discover, in
neighboring caves, the remains of three persons, two of them those of
children. The skeletons were in the same condition, and decked with
similar ornaments, as those he had previously discovered.
CHAPTER II.
GLACIAL EPOCH.
Happily for the Archæo-geologist, there is given him a point from which
to start in his researches into the antiquity of his race. Without it
his calculations would be very indefinite and his efforts would be shorn
of much of their interest. The Glacial Epoch, that has puzzled the mind
of both the geologist and the astronomer, is a guide-post where he may
not only look both ways, but also estimate the length of ages and number
the years of man. Nothing, then, is of more importance, in this
investigation, than an understanding of the condition of the earth prior
to the glacial, and the knowledge of the date and length of this epoch.
For untold ages the earth, to all appearance, had been preparing itself
for the reception of man. There was an abundance of game, the forests
were beautiful, the domestic animals had made their appearance, the
climate was warm, the soil rich, and the coal had been formed.
Everything seemed to point to a bright and glorious future for man, who
had already entered upon the scene. It is true there were fierce and
savage beasts to contend with. These seemed but a motive power to stir
man to action and develop the resources of his mind. Should he fail for
a time to overcome the wild beasts a retreat was provided in the hollow
recesses of the earth. But nature felt her work was still unfinished.
The earth had passed through the ordeal of fire, and withstood the
devastations of water, and now her long summer must come to an end. The
arctic regions had been growing colder and colder, and the change was
felt in the countries to the south. The northern animals were being
clothed with a hairy or woolly garment for their protection. The aspect
began to be forbidding. The future prospect of man was not only gloomy,
but foreboded he should perish along with the many species of animals
that were gradually succumbing to the cold. Great fields of ice were
slowly accumulating at both the poles, and at last, by the power of
their great weight, assisted by some geographical changes, began to move
toward the equator, crushing and grinding the great rocks, and either
driving before them, or else destroying, every living thing in their
relentless march. Slowly but surely they moved on. The mountains groaned
under the enormous weight of ice. Their heads were scarred, their sides
bruised, torn and cut. The icy monsters listened not to the pleadings of
earth, the lowing of cattle, or the cries of man. Centuries elapsed
before the sun re-asserted his power. The rays of the sun, the internal
heat of the earth, and other causes, produced a change. The northern ice
was broken up by the time it reached latitude 39° North America, leaving
its indelible traces in the bowlders, gravel, beds of sand and clay
which mark its course. In Europe this sheet of ice extended as far south
as Spain and Corsica. The glaciers of the Antarctic regions extended as
far as latitude 41° south.
_Fauna of Europe._--Among the Fauna may be mentioned the gigantic
elephants, of nearly twice the bulk of the largest individuals that now
exist, which roamed in herds over England, and extended across the
Siberian plains and from Behring Strait to South Carolina. Two-horned
rhinoceroses wallowed in the swamps of the ancient forests.
Hippopotamuses inhabited the lakes and rivers. The great cave-bear,
which sometimes attained the size of a horse, and the cave-tiger, twice
as large as the living tiger, preyed upon the animals of less strength
than themselves. Troops of hyenas, larger than those of South America,
disputed with other beasts of prey. A species of wild-cat, lynx, and
leopard found retreats in the same forests. Then there was a remarkable
carnivorous animal called _Machairodus_, about the size of a tiger, and
from the shape and size of the sword-like teeth, must have been a very
destructive creature. The lemming and the musk ox found a home, and the
wild horse pranced about unrestrained by the hand of man. The great
Irish elks swiftly moved over the ground, and must have been very
numerous, as their remains occur in abundance in peat-bogs and
marl-pits. Nor should it be unmentioned that there was also a species of
gigantic ox nearly as large as an elephant, that subsisted on the
plains. All these animals followed the retreat of the glaciers and some
of them were in close proximity to the ice.
_Geological Period._--The glacial epoch occurred during the geological
period known as the post-tertiary. The tertiary had gradually passed
away and its time had been recorded on the pages of geological history.
A new epoch began to dawn. This was the epoch of ice, the birth and
almost the childhood of the post-tertiary.
_Probable Date._--In discussing the probable date of the glacial epoch,
Sir Charles Lyell says, "The attempt to assign a chronological value to
any of our geological periods except the latest, must, in the present
state of science, be hopeless. Nevertheless, independently of all
astronomical considerations, it must, I think, be conceded that the
period required for the coming on of the greatest cold, and for its
duration when most intense, and the oscillations to which it was
subject, as well as the retreat of the glaciers and the 'great thaw' or
disappearance of snow from many mountain-chains where the snow was once
perpetual, required not tens but hundreds of thousands of years. Less
time would not suffice for the changes in physical geography and organic
life of which we have evidence. To a geologist, therefore, it would not
appear startling that the greatest cold should be supposed to have been
two hundred thousand years ago, although this date must be considered
as very conjectural, and one which may be as likely to err in deficiency
of time as in excess."[6]
Sir John Lubbock, in his dissent from some calculations made by Mr.
Geikie on the general effect produced by rivers in excavating valleys
and lowering the general level of the country, says, "As regards the
higher districts, however, his data are perhaps not far wrong, and if we
apply them to the valley of the Somme, where the excavation is about two
hundred feet in depth, they would indicate an antiquity for the
palæolithic epoch of from one hundred thousand to two hundred and forty
thousand years."[7]
Dana, in his chapter on the length of geological time, says, in speaking
of the time required to excavate the gorge of Niagara River, that "on
both sides of the gorge near the whirlpool, and also at Goat Island,
there are beds of recent lake shells ... the same kinds that live in
still water near the entrance to the lake, and which are not found in
the rapids. The lake, therefore, spread its still waters, when these
beds were formed, over the gorge above the whirlpool. A tooth of a
mastodon (_M. giganteus_) has been found in the same beds. This locates
the time in the Champlain epoch.... Six miles of the gorge have been
excavated since that mastodon was alive....
"There is a lateral valley leading from the whirlpool through the
Queenstown precipice at a point a few miles west of Lewiston. This
valley is filled with drift of the glacial epoch, and this blocking up
of the channel may have compelled it to open a new passage.
"If, then, the falls have been receding six miles, and we can ascertain
the probable rate of progress, we may approximate to the length of time
it required. Hall and Lyell estimated the average rate at one foot a
year,--which is certainly large. Mr. Desor concluded, after his study of
the falls, that it was 'more nearly three feet a century than three feet
a year.' Taking the rate at one foot a year, the six miles will have
required over thirty-one thousand years; if at one inch a year--which is
eight and one third feet a century--three hundred and eighty thousand
years."[8]
The calculation made by Dana is for the Champlain epoch. As this epoch
was subsequent to the glacial, the time must be either thrown still
farther back, or else allow the calculations to begin with the end of
the glacial.
_Probable Duration._--Lyell has attempted to form an estimate of the
duration of the glacial epoch by considering "the most simple series of
changes in physical geography which can possibly account for the
phenomena of the glacial period," and enumerates as follows:
"First, a continental period, toward the close of which the forest of
Cromer flourished; when the land was at least five hundred feet above
its present level, perhaps much higher, and its extent probably greater
than that given in the map, Fig. 41." (In this map the whole of the
British Isles are connected with one another, and with the
continent--the German Ocean and the English Channel constituting dry
land).
"Secondly, a period of submergence, by which the land north of the
Thames and Bristol Channel, and that of Ireland, was gradually reduced
to an archipelago; and finally to such a general prevalence of sea as is
seen in map, Fig. 39." (This map is intended to represent the British
Isles as they appeared above water when Scotland was submerged to two
thousand feet and other parts of the isles to one thousand three hundred
feet.) "This was the period of submergence and of floating ice, when the
Scandinavian flora, which occupied the lower grounds during the first
continental period, may have obtained exclusive possession of the only
lands not covered with perpetual snow.
"Thirdly, a second continental period, when the bed of the glacial sea,
with its marine shells and erratic blocks, was laid dry, and when the
quantity of land equalled that of the first period.... During this
period there were glaciers in the higher mountains of Scotland and
Wales....
"The submergence of Wales to the extent of one thousand four hundred
feet, as proved by glacial shells, would require fifty-six thousand
years, at the rate of two and a half feet per century; but taking
Professor Ramsay's estimate of eight hundred feet more, that depression
being required for the deposition of some of the stratified drift, we
must demand an additional period of thirty-two thousand years, amounting
in all to eighty-eight thousand; and the same time would be required for
the reëlevation of the tract to its present height. But if the land rose
in the second continental period no more than six hundred above the
present level ... this ... would have taken another twenty-six thousand
years; the whole of the grand oscillation, comprising the submergence
and reëmergence, having taken, in round numbers, two hundred and
twenty-four thousand years for its completion; and this, even if there
were no pause or stationary period, when the downward movement ceased,
and before it was converted into an upward one."[9]
Lyell admits that the average rate of two and a half feet per century is
a purely arbitrary and conjectural one, and there are cases where the
change is even six feet a century, yet the average rate of motion, he
thinks, will not exceed that above proposed. With this opinion, Lubbock
believes most geologists will agree.[10]
By the estimates already given a basis is formed upon which a
calculation can be made as to the time when this epoch began. At the
time of the most intense cold the eccentricity of the earth's orbit
was .0575; the difference in millions of miles between the greatest and
least distances of the earth from the sun 10-1/2; the number of days by
which winter, occurring in aphelion was longer than the summer in
perihelion 27.8; the mean temperature of the hottest summer month in
the latitude of London when the summer occurs in perihelion, 113°; the
mean temperature of the coldest winter month in the latitude of London
when the winter occurs in aphelion, 0° 7'. Sixty thousand years later
the eccentricity of the earth's orbit was but .0332; the difference of
distance in millions of miles was 6; number of winter days in
excess, 16.1; mean of hottest month in latitude of London, 95°, and mean
of coldest month 12°. It is evident then at this time (one hundred and
fifty thousand years ago) a "great thaw" had taken place and the
glaciers driven back, although fifty thousand years later less intense
cold set in again. If thirty thousand years be allowed for the "great
thaw" from the extreme point of cold, and that extreme point to have
been two hundred and ten thousand years ago, then one hundred and eighty
thousand years ago the glaciers had become so broken up as to allow
vegetation to spring up in many localities, and the wild beasts to
partially reassert their dominion. If to this be added the time required
for the duration of the glacial epoch (two hundred and twenty-four
thousand years) then the time when the ice began to accumulate was four
hundred and four thousand years ago. But if the tables of Mr. Croll be
correct, their beginning could not have been earlier than three hundred
and fifty thousand years ago, as the eccentricity of the earth's orbit
varied but little from the present, and five hundred and fifty thousand
years ago it was almost identical with that of the present.[11]
During the last stages of this ocean of ice it must have melted very
rapidly,[12] for great rivers were formed, and the water pouring down
its icy bed sought other streams, and on the bosom of the earth swept
away loose sediment, depositing it along the course of rivers and in
caves of the earth, covering the remains of man along with those of
animals that perished during the long winter of ice.
[Illustration: FIG. 2. STREAM ISSUING FROM A GLACIER.]
_Evidences of the Existence of Man._--The traces of man in the deposits
made during the glacial epoch are numerous. Out of the many, the most
noted will be given, with a view to their chronological order.
In all probability the very oldest implements of the post-tertiary, and
consequently the beginning of the glacial epoch, if not of the pliocene,
are those found in the south of Hampshire, between Gosport and
Southampton. They came from a tabular mass of drift which caps the
tertiary strata. "The great bed of gravel resting on eocene tertiary
strata, in which these implements have been found, consists in most
places of half-rolled or semi-angular chalk flints, mixed with rounded
pebbles washed out of the tertiary strata.... Many of them exhibit the
same colors and ochreous stain as do the flints in the gravel in which
they lay."
West of the Southampton estuary, "on both sides of the opening at
Bournemouth, flint tools of the ancient type have been met with in the
gravel capping the cliffs. The gravel from which the flint tool was
taken at Bournemouth is about one hundred feet above the level of the
sea.... The gravel consists in great part of pebbles derived from
tertiary strata."
The oval flint implement discovered in gravel at the top of the Foreland
cliff "is of the true palæolithic type, and the gravel in which it is
imbedded at the height of about eighty feet above the level of the sea,
may have once extended to the cliffs near Gosport; in which case we
should have to infer that the channel called the Solent had not yet
been scooped out when this region was inhabited by palæolithic man."[13]
It may be safely inferred that the implements in the above three
enumerations were imbedded at about the same time.
The flint implements from the valley of the Somme, which have been of so
much interest, and convinced so many sceptical geologists, belong to the
early part of this epoch. This valley may be represented by Fig. 3.
[Illustration: FIG. 3. SECTION ACROSS THE SOMME IN PICARDY.
1. Peat, twenty to thirty feet thick, resting on gravel, _a_.
2. Lower level gravel, with elephants' bones and flint tools
covered with fluviatile loam, twenty to forty feet thick.
3. Upper level gravel, with similar fossils, and overlying loam.
In all thirty feet thick.
4. Upland loam without shells, five or six feet thick.
5. Eocene tertiary strata, resting on the chalk in patches.]
In explanation of the above it may be well to remark that No. 2
indicates the lower level gravels, and No. 3 the higher ones, which are
from eighty to one hundred feet above the river. Of a later date than
these is the peat, No. 1, which is from ten to thirty feet in thickness.
Underneath the peat is a bed of gravel, _a_, from three to fourteen feet
thick, resting on undisturbed chalk. But between the gravel and the peat
is a thin layer of impervious clay. This section of the valley of the
Somme is a pretty fair representation of the arrangements of the
different beds at Abbeville, Amiens, and and St. Acheul.
In these beds are the records of two drift periods, marked by 2 and 3.
The two are separated by a layer of fresh-water deposits, which contains
river shells and is sometimes as much as sixteen feet thick. The lower,
or gray diluvium, (No. 2), marks the glacial epoch, as distinct from the
glaciers of the reindeer epoch. In the lower gravel, lying immediately
upon the tertiary formation, were found the flint hatchets, together
with the bones of the mammoth and fossil rhinoceros.
In order to understand the deposits still more clearly, the following
figure is given.
[Illustration: FIG. 4. SECTION OF A GRAVEL-PIT AT ST. ACHEUL.
1. Vegetable and made soil from two to three feet thick.
2. Brown loam from four to five feet thick, containing a few
angular flints.
3. Bed of sandy marl from five to six feet thick, with land and
fresh-water shells, covered with a thin layer of angular gravel
from one to two feet thick.
4. A bed of partially rounded gravel containing well-rolled
tertiary pebbles. In this bed the flint implements are chiefly
found--ten to fourteen feet thick.
5. Formation of chalk.
_a._ Part of elephant's molar, eleven feet from surface.
_b._ Entire molar of mammoth (_E primigenius_), seventeen feet
from surface.
_c._ Position of flint hatchet, eighteen feet from surface.
_d._ Gravel projecting five feet.]
At St. Acheul, in bed No. 4, were found large numbers of flint
implements. Some of them have the shape of a spear-head, and are over
seven inches in length. The oval-shaped hatchets are so rude in some
instances as to require a practised eye to decide their human origin. In
the same bed are found small round bodies having a tubular cavity in the
centre. Dr. Rigollot has suggested that these perforated stones or
gravel were used as ornaments, possibly strung together as beads.
In this bed, No. 4, seventeen feet from the surface, was found a
mammoth's tooth. About one foot below the tooth, in densely compressed
gravel, was found a stone hatchet of an oval form.
[Illustration: FIG. 5. FLINT IMPLEMENT FROM ST. ACHEUL.
Half the size of the original, which is seven and a half inches
long.
_a._ Side view.
_b._ Same seen edgewise.
"These spear-headed implements have been found in greater number,
proportionally to the oval ones, in the upper level gravel at St.
Acheul, than in any of the lower gravels in the valley of the
Somme. In these last, the oval form predominates, especially at
Abbeville."--_Antiquity of Man_, p. 114.]
That this bed was formed by action of glaciers is shown, not only from
the well-rounded tertiary pebbles, but also from the great blocks of
hard sandstone, some of which are over four feet in diameter. These
large fragments not only abound at St. Acheul in both the higher and
lower level gravels at Amiens, and at the higher level at Abbeville, but
they are also traced far up the valley wherever the old diluvium occurs.
All of these sandstones have been derived from the tertiary strata which
once covered the chalk.
[Illustration: FIG. 6. FLINT IMPLEMENT FROM ABBEVILLE.
_a._ Oval-shaped flint hatchet from Mautort near Abbeville, half
size of original, which is five and a half inches long, from
a bed of gravel underlying the fluvio-marine stratum.
_b._ Same seen edgewise.
_c._ Shows a recent fracture of the edge of the same at the point
_a_, or near the top. This portion of the tool, _c_, is drawn
of the natural size, the black central part being the unaltered
flint, the white outer coating, the layer which has been formed
by discoloration or bleaching since the tool was first made.
The entire surface of Figure 6 must have been black when first
shaped, and the bleaching to such a depth must have been the
work of time, whether produced by exposure to the sun and air
before it was imbedded, or afterward when it lay deep in the
soil.--_Antiquity of Man._]
As the flint implements of Abbeville and Amiens are the same as those of
St. Acheul, and from the same beds, what has already been said will
apply to them. These implements have been found in these localities in
great numbers, as several thousand of them already taken from the beds
will amply testify.
From the gravel-pit in which were found the flint axes, at Abbeville,
and close to the ancient chalk, was taken the celebrated human bone
known as the _jaw_ of Moulin-Quignon. It was cotemporary with the axes,
and undoubtedly some of the flint implements there found were fashioned
by the man of whom that jaw formed so necessary a part.
This jaw-bone belonged to an old man, and is described as displaying "a
tendency toward the animal structure in the shortness and breadth of the
ascending ramus (the perpendicular portion of the lower jaw), the equal
height of the two apophyses (a process or regular prominence forming a
continuous part of the body of the bone), the indication of prognathism
(projecting jaw) furnished by the very obtuse angle at which the ramus
joins the body of the bone.[14]
Near the same locality other human bones were discovered Which presented
the same characteristics.
Boucher de Perthes having pointed out that flint implements could be
found in the valley of the Seine, in beds similar to those of Abbeville,
the antiquaries were soon rewarded and Boucher de Perthes' prediction
was fulfilled. M. Gosse, of Geneva, found the Abbeville type of
implements in the lowest diluvial deposits associated with the remains
of animals of that period.
The discovery made by Casiano de Prado, near Madrid, is very similar to
those of Abbeville. "First, vegetable soil; then about twenty-five feet
of sand and pebbles, under which was a layer of sandy loam, in which,
during the year 1850, a complete skeleton of the mammoth was discovered.
Underneath this stratum was about ten feet of coarse gravel, in which
some flint axes, very closely resembling those of Amiens, have been
discovered."[15]
The remains of man are also preserved in caverns associated with the
fossil bones of the mammoth, the woolly-haired rhinoceros, cave-bear,
and other extinct quadrupeds. Among these should be noticed Kent's Hole,
which has furnished a mine of wealth. Of his discoveries Godwin-Austen
says: "Human remains and works of art, such as arrow-heads and knives of
flint, occur in all parts of the cave, and throughout the entire
thickness of the clay; and no distinction founded on condition,
distribution, or relative position can be observed, whereby the human
can be separated from the other reliquiæ," which included bones of the
mammoth (_E. primigenius_), rhinoceros (_R. tichorrhinus_), cave-bear
(_Ursus spelæus_), cave-hyena (_H. spelæus_), and other mammalia. These
researches were conducted in parts of the cave which had never been
disturbed, and the works of man, in every instance, were procured from
undisturbed loam or clay, beneath a thick covering of stalagmite; and
all these must have been introduced before the stalagmite flooring had
been formed.[16] These specimens of man's handicraft were found far
below the stalagmite floor.[17] Closely allied to Kent's Hole is Brixham
Cave. The following gives the general succession of deposits forming the
contents of the cavern:
1. A layer of stalagmite varying from one to fifteen inches in
thickness.
2. Next below, ochreous cave-earth, from one foot to fifteen feet in
thickness.
3. Rounded gravel, in some places more than twenty feet in depth.
In the second layer there were found the remains of the mammoth,
rhinoceros, cave-bear, cave-hyena, cave-lion, reindeer, and seven other
species. Indiscriminately mixed with these bones were found many flint
knives, but chiefly from the lowest part of the ochreous cave-earth,
varying in depth from ten inches to thirteen feet. The antiquity of
these cannot be doubted, from the simple fact, even if there was no
other, that in close proximity to a very perfect flint tool was
discovered the entire left hind leg of a cave-bear, and every bone in
its natural position. From the bone earth there were taken fifteen
knives, recognized, by the experienced antiquaries, as having been
artificially formed. In the lowest gravel, underlying all, there were
found imperfect specimens of flint knives. The fine layer of mud was
deposited by the slow but regular action of water. Since these layers
were formed the stream has cut its channel seventy-eight feet below its
former level.[18]
On both banks of the Meuse, at Maestricht (Hollerd) are terraces of
gravel covered with loess. Below the city, on the left bank, one of
these terraces projects into the alluvial plain of the Meuse. During the
construction of the canal the terrace was opened to a depth of sixty
feet. The upper twenty feet consisted of loess and the lower forty feet
of stratified gravel. Great numbers of molars, tusks, and bones of
elephants, together with those of other mammalia, and a human lower jaw
with teeth, were found in or near this gravel. The human jaw was at a
depth of nineteen feet from the surface, in a stratum of sandy loam,
beneath a stratum of pebbly and sandy beds, and immediately above the
gravel. The stratum from which the jaw was taken was intact and had
never been disturbed. But the jaw was somewhat isolated, and the nearest
fossil object was the tusk of an elephant six yards distant, though on a
horizontal plane. This fossil is probably older than that discovered at
Lahr. It was probably covered just before the gush of the water when it
first began to flow from the gorges and had washed the ground at some
distance from the ice.[19]
The human skeleton from the undisturbed loess of the Rhine, near Lahr,
was found in nearly a horizontal position, but in such a manner as to
forbid the idea of sepulchre. These bones were exhumed from a
perpendicular cliff of solid loess, about five feet high. The town of
Lahr is situated four miles from, and about one hundred feet above, the
Rhine, and not far from the tributary valley drained by the Schutter,
flowing from the Black Forest.
In the alluvial plain into which the Schutter flows the the loess is two
hundred feet thick. The loess rises eighty feet above the Schutter. At
Lahr it has been denuded so as to form a succession of terraces on the
right bank. It was in the lowest of these from which the skeleton was
taken. Immediately below this bed there were found pebbles, and still
lower down was a bed of gravel containing rounded stones of sandstone
and gneiss from the Black Forest.
There are several interesting facts connected with this discovery. M.
Boué considers that the loess of the Lahr is continuous with that of the
Rhine, and before the loess had been denuded there was not less than
eighty feet of loamy deposit above the human skeleton. The glaciers had
deposited their great gravel beds, and had began to melt. The melting of
them had formed a mixture of loam and gravel. Then when the torrents
poured forth from the glaciers the loam was formed without the pebbles.
The unfortunate man, whose remains were found, was buried far beneath
the surface, during the very first part of the course of the violent
streams pouring forth from the field of ice. The glaciers were then on
the retreat, and the incautious man probably fell a victim while on the
chase.[20]
The cave of La Naulette, Belgium, afforded a jaw-bone similar to the
Moulin-Quignon. The bone came from a river deposit of loam covered with
a layer of stalagmite, and at a depth of thirteen feet from the surface.
Associated with it were the remains of the mammoth, woolly-haired
rhinoceros, and flint implements. These implements present the same type
as those of St. Acheul. With this jaw were also found a human ulna, two
human teeth, and a fragment of a worked reindeer born. This jaw-bone is
very thick, round in form, and the projection of the chin is almost
entirely absent. The chin is said to hold an intermediate position
between that of the animals and those of the present race of men. The
cavities for the reception of the canine teeth are very wide, and one of
the most remarkable things is that the three molars are reversed, that
is the first true molar is the smallest, and the last the largest. The
inner surface of the jaw at the point of the suture or symphysis, forms
a line obliquely directed upwards. Taking the jaw all in all, it is the
most ape-like human jaw ever discovered.[21]
The flint implements from Hoxne were found under three different layers
or beds. The first, vegetable, a foot and a half in depth. The second
was clay, seven and a half feet thick. The third, a bed of sand, with
shells one foot in thickness. The fourth layer, containing the
implements was a bed of gravel two feet in depth. The number of these
flints was so great that they were carried out by the baskets-full, and
thrown into the ruts of the adjoining road. On account of the great
number, this spot might have been the place where they were
manufactured. Their date is not coeval with the bowlder clay, but
undoubtedly belong, to the last of this epoch.
The human bones found in the loess of the Rhine, near Colmar, were two
fossilized fragments of the skull. They were found in undisturbed soil
along with the fossil bones of the extinct species of mammoth, horse,
gigantic deer, aurochs, and other mammalia. The fragment of the skull
"showed a depressed forehead, strongly projecting superciliary arches,
and a type, on the whole, approaching the so-called _dolichocephalic_,
or long-headed form."[22] These remains date so near the end of the
glacial as to almost enter the inter-glacial.
CHAPTER III.
GLACIAL EPOCH--CONTINUED.
_Belgian Caverns._--The relics discovered by Dr. Schmerling, in the
caves of Belgium, must be referred to the time of the retreat of the
glaciers. The glaciers were still in existence, but their receding had
freed immense tracts of land, and the space they now covered was small
in proportion to their former extent. Whether it be considered or not,
that vegetation greatly nourished and the great wild beasts were rapidly
increasing, one thing must be noticed, and that is, floods must have
succeeded or followed closely upon the retreat of the ice. Many remains,
referred to the glacial epoch, may in reality, have occupied the time of
the floods occurring just previous to the commencement of the
inter-glacial.
The Belgian Caverns, near Liége, either belong exactly to the ice, or
else to a period not far removed. Lyell considers the older monuments of
the palæolithic period to be the rude implements found in ancient river
gravel and in the mud and stalagmite caves.[23] Caves of this
description are those reported on by Dr. Schmerling.
The caverns of the province of Liége were not the dens of wild beasts,
but their contents had been swept in by the action of water. The bones
of man "were of the same color, and in the same condition as to the
amount of animal matter contained in them, as those of the accompanying
animals, some of which, like the cave-bear, hyena, elephant, and
rhinoceros, were extinct; others, like the wild-cat, beaver, wild boar,
roe-deer, wolf, and hedgehog, still extant. The fossils were lighter
than fresh bones, except such as had their pores filled with carbonate
of lime, in which case they were often much heavier. The human remains
of most frequent occurrence were teeth detached from the jaw, and the
carpal, metacarpal, tarsal, metatarsal, and phalangial bones separated
from the rest of the skeleton. The corresponding bones of the cave-bear,
the most abundant of the accompanying mammalia, were also found in the
Liége caverns more commonly than any others, and in the same scattered
condition."[24] In some of these caves, rude flint implements, of a
triangular form, were found dispersed through the cave mud. Dr.
Schmerling did not pay much attention to these, as he was engrossed in
his osteological inquiries. The human bones were met with at all depths,
in the cave mud and gravel, both above and below those of the extinct
mammalia.
The floors of these caverns were incrusted with stalagmite.[25] In the
cavern at Chokier there occur "three distinct beds of stalagmite, and
between each of them a mass of breccia, and mud mixed with quartz
pebbles, and in the three deposits the bones of extinct quadrupeds."[26]
FOSSIL SKULL OF THE ENGIS CAVE NEAR LIEGE.
The fossil skull from the cavern of Engis was deposited at a depth of
about five feet, under an osseous breccia containing a tusk of the
rhinoceros, the teeth of the horse, and the remains of small animals.
The breccia was about three and one-fourth feet wide, and rose to the
height of about five feet above the floor of the cavern. In the earth
which contained the skull there was found, surrounding it on all sides,
the teeth of the rhinoceros, horse, hyena, and bear, and with no marks
of the earth having been disturbed.
There was also found the cranium of a young person, in the floor of the
cavern, besides an elephant's tooth. When first observed, the skull was
entire, but fell to pieces when removed from its position. Besides these
there were found a fragment of a superior maxillary bone, with the molar
teeth worn down to the roots, indicating that of an old man; two
vertebræ, a first and last dorsal; a clavicle of the left side,
belonging to a young individual of great stature; two fragments of the
radius, indicating a man of ordinary height; a fragment of an ulna: some
metacarpal bones; six metatarsal, three phalanges of the hand and one of
the foot.
Dr. Schmerling found in this cave a pointed bone implement incrusted
with stalagmite and joined to a stone.
Of the Engis skull Professor Huxley has remarked, "As Professor
Schmerling observes, the base of the skull is destroyed, and the facial
bones are entirely absent; but the roof of the cranium, consisting of
the frontal, parietal, and the greater part of the occipital bones, as
far as the middle of the occipital foramen, is entire, or nearly so. The
left temporal bone is wanting. Of the right temporal, the parts in the
immediate neighborhood of the auditory foramen, the mastoid process, and
a considerable portion of the squamous element of the temporal, are well
preserved."
A piece of the occipital bone, which Schmerling seems to have missed,
has since been fitted on to the rest of the cranium by Dr. Spring, the
accomplished anatomist of Liége.
"The skull is that of an adult, if not middle-aged man. The extreme
length of the skull is 7.7 inches. Its extreme breadth, which
corresponds very nearly with the interval between the parietal
protuberances, is not more than 5.4 inches. The proportion of the length
to the breadth is therefore very nearly as 100 to 70. If a line be drawn
from the point at which the brow curves in towards the root of the nose,
and which is called the 'glabella' (_a_, Fig. 8), to the occipital
protuberance (_d_), and the distance to the highest point of the arch of
the skull be measured perpendicularly from this line, it will be
found to be 4.75 inches. Viewed from above, the forehead presents an
evenly rounded curve, and passes into the contour of the sides and back
of the skull, which describes a tolerably regular elliptical curve.
[Illustration: FIG. 7. PROFESSOR T. H. HUXLEY.]
[Illustration: FIG. 8. SIDE VIEW OF THE HUMAN SKULL FOUND IN THE CAVE
OF ENGIS.
_a._ Superciliary ridge and glabella.
_b._ Coronal suture.
_d._ The occipital protuberance.]
"The front view shows that the roof of the skull was very regularly and
elegantly arched in the transverse direction, and that the transverse
diameter was a little less below the parietal protuberances, than above
them. The forehead cannot be called narrow in relation to the rest of
the skull, nor can it be called a retreating forehead; on the contrary,
the antero-posterior contour of the skull is well arched, so that the
distance along that contour, from the nasal depression to the occipital
protuberance, measures about 13.75 inches. The transverse arc of the
skull, measured from one auditory foramen to the other, across the
middle of the sagittal suture, is about 13 inches. The sagittal suture
itself is 5.5 inches long. The superciliary prominences or brow-ridges
(_a_) are well, but not excessively, developed, and are separated by a
median depression. Their principal elevation is disposed so obliquely
that I judge them to be due to large frontal sinuses. If a line joining
the glabella and the occipital protuberance (_a_, _d_, Fig. 8) be made
horizontal, no part of the occipital region projects more than one-tenth
of an inch behind the posterior extremity of that line, and the upper
edge of the auditory foramen is almost in contact with a line drawn
parallel with this upon the outer surface of the skull."[27]
Some of the views expressed by Professor Huxley are at variance with
those of other eminent scientists. Lubbock reports him as saying, "There
is no mark of degradation about any part of its structure. It is, in
fact, a fair average human skull, which might have belonged to a
philosopher, or might have contained the thoughtless brains of a
savage."[28] Mr. Busk agrees and partially disagrees with Professor
Huxley, for he remarked to Lyell, "Although the forehead was somewhat
narrow, it might nevertheless be matched by the skulls of individuals of
European race."[29]
Dr. Schmerling, Buchner, and Vogt are arrayed against Huxley. The first
says, "I hold it to be demonstrated that this cranium has belonged to a
person of limited intellectual faculties, and we conclude thence that it
belonged to a man of a low degree of civilization."[30] "From the
narrowness of the frontal portion it belonged to an individual of small
intellectual development."[31] Buchner says, "In its length and
narrowness, the slight elevation of its forehead, the form of the widely
separated orbits and the well developed supra-orbital arches, it
resembles, especially when viewed from above, the celebrated Neanderthal
skull, but in general is far superior to this in its structure."[32]
Carl Vogt "regards it, with reference to the proportion of length to
breadth, as one of the most ill-favored, animal-like and simian of
skulls."[33]
The cause of this wide difference of opinion may arise from the failure
to observe the fact that the older the formation in which a skull is
found, the lower is the type. The ordinary observer, judging by the cast
of the skull, would see nothing ape-like about it, and certainly would
fail to see any indications of a philosopher.
NEANDERTHAL SKULL.
The Neanderthal skull was taken from a small cave or grotto in-the
valley of the Düssel, near Düsseldorf, situated about seventy miles
north-east of the region of the Liége caverns. The grotto is in a deep
ravine sixty feet above the river, one hundred feet below the surface of
the country, and at a distance of about ten feet from the Düssel River.
It is fifteen feet deep from the entrance (_f_), which is seven or eight
feet wide. Before the cavern had been injured, it opened upon a narrow
plateau lying in front. The floor of the cave was covered four or five
feet in thickness with a deposit of mud or loam, and containing some
rounded fragments of chert. Two laborers, in removing this deposit,
first noticed the skull, placed near the entrance, and further in met
with the other bones. As the bones were not regarded as of any
importance, at the time of their discovery, only the larger ones have
been preserved.
[Illustration: FIG. 9. SECTION OF THE NEANDERTHAL CAVE.
_a._ Cavern sixty feet above the Düssel, and one hundred feet
below the surface of the country at _c_.
_b._ Loam covering the floor of the cave near the bottom of which
the human skeleton was found.
_c_, _a_. Rent connecting the cave with the upper surface of the
country.
_d._ Superficial sandy loam.
_e._ Devonian limestone.
_f._ Terrace, or ledge of rock.]
Some discussion has arisen in respect to the geological time of these
bones. There was no stalagmite overlying the mud or loam in which the
skeleton was found, and no other bones met with save the tusk of a bear.
There is no certain data given whereby its position may be known.
Professor Huxley declares that the bones "indicate a very high
antiquity."[34] Buchner is very positive in his statement, and declares
that "the loam-deposit which partly fills the caves of the Neanderthal
and the clefts and fissures of its limestone mountains, and in which
both the Neanderthal bones and the fossil bones and teeth of animals
were imbedded, is exactly the same that, in the caverns of the
Neanderthal, covers the whole limestone mountain with a deposit from ten
to twelve feet in thickness, and the diluvial origin of which is
unmistakable."[35] Dr. Fuhlrott says, "The position and general
arrangement of the locality in which they were found, place it, in my
judgment, beyond doubt that the bones belong to the diluvium, and
therefore to primitive times, _i. e._ they come down to us from a period
of the past when our native country was still inhabited by various kinds
of animals, especially mammoths and cave-bears, which have long since
disappeared out of the series of living creatures."[36]
The diluvial or glacial origin of the Neanderthal skull is still further
confirmed by the discoveries made, in the summer of 1865, in the
Teufelskammer. This cavern is situated one hundred and thirty paces from
the one in which the human bones were found, and on the same side of the
river.. In the loam-deposit of this cave were found numerous fossil
bones and teeth of the rhinoceros, cave-bear, cave-hyena, and other
extinct animals. "A great part of these bones, especially those of the
cave-bears, agree in color, weight, density, and the preservation of
their microscopic structure, with the human bones found in the
Feldhofner Cave (in which the Neanderthal man was found), and both are
covered with the same _dendrites_, or tree-like markings."[37]
Before entering into a description and discussion of this remarkable
skull, an enumeration of the other bones will be given. All the bones
are characterized by their unusual thickness, and the great development
of all the elevations and depressions for the attachment of muscles. The
two thigh bones were in a perfect state, also the right humerus and
radius; the upper third of the right ulna; the left ulna complete,
though pathologically deformed, the coronoid process being so much
enlarged by bony growth that flexure of the elbow beyond a right angle
was impossible; the left humerus is much slenderer than the right, and
the upper third is wanting. Its anterior fossa for the reception of the
coronoid process is filled up with a bony growth, and, at the same time,
the olecranon process is curved strongly downwards. The indications are
that an injury sustained during life was the cause of this defect. There
was an ilium, almost perfect; a fragment of the right scapula; the
anterior extremity of a rib of the right side, and two hinder portions
and one middle portion of ribs resembling more the ribs of a carnivorous
animal than those of man. This abnormal condition has arisen from the
powerful development of the thoracic muscles.
[Illustration: FIG. 10. SIDE VIEW OF THE HUMAN SKULL FROM FELDHOFNER
CAVE, IN THE NEANDERTHAL, NEAR DÜSSELDORF.
_a._ The superciliary ridge and glabella.
_c._ The apex of the lambdoidal suture.
_b._ The coronal suture.
_d._ The occipital protuberance.]
The cranium is thus described by Professor Huxley. "It has an extreme
length of 8 inches, while its breadth is only 5-3/4 inches, or in other
words, its length is to its breadth as 100 is to 72. It is exceedingly
depressed, measuring only about 3.4 inches from the glabello-occipital
line to the vertex. The longitudinal arc, measured in the same way as in
the Engis skull, is 12 inches; the transverse arc cannot be exactly
ascertained, in consequence of the absence of the temporal bones, but
was probably about the same, and certainly exceeded 10-1/4 inches. The
horizontal circumference is 23 inches. But this great circumference
arises largely from the vast development of the superciliary ridges,
though the perimeter of the brain case itself is not small. The large
superciliary ridges give the forehead a far more retreating appearance
than its internal contour would bear out. To an anatomical eye the
posterior part of the skull is even more striking than the anterior. The
occipital protuberance occupies the extreme posterior end of the skull,
when the glabello-occipital line is made horizontal, and so far from any
part of the occipital region extending beyond it, this region of the
skull slopes obliquely upward and forward, so that the lambdoidal suture
is situated well upon the upper surface of the cranium. At the same
time, notwithstanding the great length of the skull, the sagittal suture
is remarkably short (4-1/2 inches) and the squamosal suture is very
straight."[38] ... "The cranium, in its present condition, contains
about sixty-three English cubic inches of water. As the entire skull
could hardly have held less than twelve cubic inches more, its minimum
capacity may be estimated at seventy-five cubic inches.... It has
certainly not undergone compression, and, in reply to the suggestion
that the skull is that of an idiot, it may be urged that the _onus
probandi_ lies with those who adopt the hypothesis. Idiocy is compatible
with very various forms and capacities of the cranium, but I know of
none which present the least resemblance to the Neanderthal skull."[39]
Professor Huxley describes this skull to be the most ape-like of all the
human skulls he has ever seen, and in its examination ape-like
characters are met with in all its parts.[40] Buchner says that the face
of the Neanderthal man must have presented a frightfully bestial and
savage, or ape-like expression (see frontispiece).[41] Professor
Schaaffhausen and Mr. Busk have stated that "this skull is the most
brutal of all known human skulls, resembling those of the apes not only
in the prodigious development of the superciliary prominences and the
forward extension of the orbits, but still more in the depressed form
of the brain-case, in the straightness of the squamosal suture, and in
the complete retreat of the occiput forward and upward, from the
superior occipital ridges."[42]
Professor Schaaffhausen and Dr. Buchner regarded this skull as a
race-type, and Professor Huxley has said "that it truly forms only the
extreme member of a series leading by slow degrees to the highest and
best developed forms of human skulls."[43]
That this skull is a race-type is evident from the fact that it is not
an isolated case. The fragment of the skull from the loess of the Rhine
(Alsace), by its depressed forehead and strongly projecting superciliary
arches, greatly resembles the Neanderthal skull. The skull from the
calcareous tuff of Constatt, in its low, narrow forehead and strong
superciliary arches, resembles the Neanderthal.[44] The cranium found in
bone breccia, in Cochrane's Cave (Gibraltar), "resembles, in all
essential particulars, including its great thickness, the far-famed
Neanderthal skull. Its discovery adds immensely to the scientific value
of the Neanderthal specimen, if only as showing that the latter does not
represent, as many have hitherto supposed, a mere individual
peculiarity, but that it may have been characteristic of a race
extending from the Rhine to the Pillars of Hercules."[45] In speaking of
the Neanderthal skull, Professor Schaaffhausen says, "It is worthy of
notice that a similar, although smaller projection of the superciliary
arches has generally been found in the skulls of savage races.... The
remarkably small skull from the graves on the island of Moën, examined
by Professor Eschricht; the two human skulls, described by Dr. Kutorga,
from the government of Minsk (Russia), one of which, especially, shows a
great resemblance to the Neanderthal skull; the human skeleton found
near Plau, in Mecklenburg, in a very ancient grave, in a squatting
position, ... the skull of which indicates a very distant period, when
man stood on a very low grade of development;" and other similar
discoveries near Mecklenburg, their skulls likewise presenting short,
retreating foreheads and projecting eyebrows.[46]
Professor Huxley considers that the Borreby skulls, belonging to the
stone age of Denmark, "show a great resemblance to the Neanderthal
skull, a resemblance which is manifested in the depression of the
cranium, the receding forehead, the contracted occiput and the prominent
superciliary ridges."[47]
_Human Skull of Arno._--The human skull, found by Professor Cocchi in
the valley of the Arno, near Florence, in diluvial clay, together with
various bones of extinct species of animals, is considered by Carl Vogt
to be of like antiquity with the Engis and Neanderthal skulls.[48]
CHAPTER IV.
PRE-GLACIAL EPOCHS.
The age immediately preceding the glacial, and consequently the
post-tertiary, is known as the pliocene epoch, the last of the tertiary.
The tertiary period began with the close of the cretaceous. A map of the
early tertiary period would represent parts of Maryland, Virginia, the
Carolinas, Georgia, the whole of Florida, the lower parts of Alabama,
Mississippi, Texas, the whole of Louisiana, and the adjoining territory
on both sides of the Mississippi, as far as Cairo, as covered with
water. Also a great sea extending through Nebraska and the western part
of Dacotah, and taking a north-westerly course until it emptied into the
Pacific. In Europe, the great basin of Paris (excepting a zone of
chalk), the greater part of Spain and Italy, the whole of Belgium,
Holland, Prussia, Switzerland, Hungary, Wallachia, and northern Russia,
as one vast sheet of water. England and France were connected by a band
of rocks.
About the middle of the tertiary, a tropical climate and tropical fauna
and flora spread over the whole of Europe. Palms, cedars, laurels, and
cinnamon trees flourished in the valleys of Switzerland, and more than
thirty different species of oak adorned the forests of that time.
In Europe, in the eocene, there have been found thirty species of
crocodiles; many species of snakes, one twenty feet long; a dozen
species of birds; tapirs (_Palæothere_ and _Lophiodon_), two species of
hogs, some ruminants and rodents.
In the miocene, among _Pachyderms_ may be mentioned the mastodon,
elephant, dinothere (an elephantine animal), rhinoceros, hog, horse,
tapir, and hippopotamus; among _Carnivores_, the machairodus, hyena,
lion, and dog; among _Ruminants_, the camel, deer, and antelope. There
were monkeys, and many other animals.
In the pliocene, besides those enumerated, are found the bear, hare, and
other animals.
In the tertiary beds of America have been found mastodons, elephants,
rhinoceroses, deer, camels, foxes, wolves, horses, whales, and other
mammalia.
Owing to the great lapse of time it cannot be expected that many traces
of man will be discovered in this early period.
Upon theoretical grounds Lyell thought it very probable that man lived
in the pliocene; but in relation to miocene time, he says, "Had some
other rational being, representing man, then flourished, some signs of
his existence could hardly have escaped unnoticed, in the shape of
implements of stone or metal, more frequent and more durable than the
osseous remains of any of the mammalia."[49] Sir J. Lubbock, while
admitting the existence of man in the pliocene, goes farther and says,
"If man constitutes a separate family of mammalia, as he does in the
opinion of the highest authorities, then, according to all
palæontological analogies, he must have had representatives in miocene
times. We need not, however, expect to find the proofs in Europe; our
nearest relatives in the animal kingdom are confined to hot, almost to
tropical climates, and it is in such countries that we are most likely
to find the earliest traces of the human race."[50] Alfred R. Wallace
out-distances any of his cotemporaries, for he says, "We are enabled to
place the origin of man at a much more remote geological epoch than has
yet been thought possible. He may even have lived in the miocene or
eocene period, when not a single mammal was identical in form with any
existing species."[51]
Some of the older and some of the recent discoveries of geologists have
settled the question of tertiary man; and the "signs of his existence,"
in the "shape of implements of stone," as demanded by Lyell, have been
furnished.
_Man in the Pliocene._--It has already been intimated that the evidences
of man are but few in this early epoch. The first example, in the
following list, borders closely on the glacial, but far enough removed
as to be referred to the pliocene.
In the construction of a canal between Stockholm and Gothenburg it was
necessary to cut through one of those hills called _osars_, or erratic
blocks, which were deposited by the drift-ice during the glacial epoch.
Beneath an immense accumulation of osars, with shells and sand, there
was discovered in the deepest layer of subsoil, at a depth of about
sixty feet, a circular mass of stones, forming a hearth, in the middle
of which there were wood-coals. No other hand than that of man could
have performed the work.[52]
In the pliocene beds in the neighborhood of the town of Savonia in
Liguria, M. A. Issel found several bones which presented all the
physical signs of very high antiquity. Dr. Buchner is of the opinion
that before these bones can be employed as satisfactory evidence they
must have a more accurate test by scientific authorities.[53]
In the upper pliocene beds at St. Prest (France), M. Desnoyers found
traces of human action on the bones of animals belonging to the
tertiary. These fractures are analogous to those of human action
observed on bones from the glacial period, and identical with those made
by northern tribes of the present day, on the skulls of ruminants. The
marked bones found were those of the Southern elephant (_E.
meridionalis_), rhinoceros (_R. leptorinus_), hippopotamus major,
several species of deer, and two of the ox. Carl Vogt states that this
discovery is not only genuine, but also, the formation in which the
bones were found is decidedly tertiary. It is further characterized by
the presence of the southern elephant (_E. meridionalis_). As this
elephant became extinct before the glacial age, the bones consequently
precede the glacial, and the age of the cave-bear, the mammoth, and
tichorrhine rhinoceros. The eminent French naturalist, Quatrefages,
confirms the testimony of Desnoyers.[54]
The conclusions of Desnoyers are confirmed beyond a doubt by the more
recent discoveries of Abbé Bourgeois. In the same tertiary strata of St.
Prest, in which were found the marked or fractured bones, Bourgeois
discovered worked flints, including flakes, awls, and scrapers.[55]
A human skull, belonging to the pliocene, was found by James Matson, at
Altaville, in Calaveras county, California, at a depth of one hundred
and thirty feet, under five beds of gravel separated by five layers of
lava, associated with the bones of an extinct rhinoceros, camel, and
horse. The base of the skull is imbedded in a mass of bone-breccia and
small pebbles of volcanic rock. The shape of the skull resembles that of
the Digger Indians, and is of remarkable thickness.[56]
_Man in the Miocene._[57]--M. Bourgeois has found, in a stratum of
miocene near Pontlevoy, numerous worked flints, and other flints which
have been subjected to the action of heat. These works of man were
associated with the remains of the acerotherium (an extinct species
allied to the rhinoceros), and beneath five distinct beds, one of which
contained the rolled bones of rhinoceros, mastodon, and dinotherium.[58]
M. Tardy found a flint-flake of undoubted workmanship in the miocene
beds of Aurillac (Auvergne), together with the remains of _dinotherium
giganteum_, and _machaerodus latidens_.[59]
M. Bourgeois reports that Abbé Delaunay had found near Pouance
(Maine-et-Loire), fossil bones of a _halitherium_ (an herbivorous
cetacean of the miocene), with evident signs of having been operated
upon by cutting instruments.[60]
In the miocene gravel beds of Colorado and Wyoming territories,
chert-flakes, hammers, chisels, knives, and wrought shells have been
found.[61]
_Eocene._--As yet geologists have failed to discover any traces of man
in the Eocene epoch.
CHAPTER V.
CONDITION OF MAN IN THE EARLIEST TIMES.
Of the first appearance of man on the globe there is no precise
knowledge. His origin is a mystery. The place of his birth is generally
supposed to be in Central Asia. There the geologist looks with a longing
eye, and hopes ultimately to unravel, not only the hidden mystery of the
birth-place of his race, but also, how or through what natural process
he sprang into existence.
If the miocene be the earliest point in his history, and Central Asia
the place of his nativity, then he was ushered upon the scene of life
during the period of, and surrounded by, the numerous fauna of India, At
this time her mammalia included, besides the quadrumana, elephant (seven
species), mastodon (three species), rhinoceros (five species), horse
(three species), hippopotamus (four to seven species), hog (three
species), camel, giraffe, sivatherium (an elephantine stag, having four
horns and supposed to have had the bulk of an elephant and greater
height), antelope, musk-deer, sheep, ox (several species), dinotherium,
porcupine, species of hyena, lion, and many others.
It cannot be presumed that man's intellectual faculties were ordinarily
developed, as it would not be natural to suppose he was superior to that
of later times. Judging from the remains of later times, man could have
been but very little removed from the brute. It is natural to suppose
that at first he had no fire, no weapons of offence or defence. His food
must have been the herbs, roots, and the fruits of the tree, possibly
with an occasional morsel of raw meat. His pillow was a stone, his
retreat a cave or the boughs of a wide-spreading tree, and his clothing
a natural coat of hair.
In the presence of the fierce beasts, man's domain might seem to be of
short duration. Providence has ordered all things wisely. Placed low in
the scale of life--brutal, selfish, prowling, yet cautious--man, by the
very force of circumstances, was to develop gradually the powers of his
mind. With the elephant and the mastodon he could not cope nor would
they molest him. To the fierce carnivora he might fall a prey. From
these he could flee, and find a shelter in the tops of the trees or some
secure fastness of the earth. Learning his own strength by experience,
he would venture forth on excursions, and meet face to face his deadly
foe. For self-defence he discovered, probably by accident, that a club
was a powerful weapon with which to beat back his fierce opponent.
Gradually he came to learn that a sharp flint driven into the end of a
club was a safer and more deadly weapon. With this he could withstand an
unequal contest.
The mode of life, together with the trials of his strength, developed
his muscular system. His muscles became large and tough, and his bones
thick and heavy. The earliest type of man is generally supposed to be
_dolichocephalic_, or long-headed. The walls of the skull were thick,
and the crown low. He was of ordinary stature, but built for action, and
of great power. His make-up was the result of his surroundings.
His advancement was very slow. Throughout the entire length of the
miocene and pliocene epochs it is not traceable. There was no revolution
in his mind; one step in advance would have been a mighty leap. Nor
could it be expected that there should be rapid progress. The mind was
brutal; and all the instincts sensual. But there was pending a mighty
change. The tropical climate should change into a winter of snow and
ice. Man should feel it, and be benefited by the new danger. His
sluggish mind should be quickened, and the inventive genius should be
called into action. The sun no longer could give its heat. The forests
grew cold, the chilling winds swept over the plains, and the retreat in
the cave was damp and forbidding. The wild beasts were either dying of
cold, or else becoming clothed with thick, long hair, and retreating
before the accumulating snow. Man earnestly looked about him. He
suffered greatly, and his numbers grew less. Fire had been produced.
How, no one can tell; possibly by accident. He now became more careful
of the fire, and with brand in hand he went from place to place kindling
the fires at the various resting-places. Nor was this sufficient. His
ingenuity was taxed to its greatest extent. Colder and colder grew the
winds. The snow, coming in great flakes, was soon consolidated, and
became as ice. The body could not be kept warm. Clothing must be had,
and this must be furnished by the wild beasts. Their hides must assist
in protecting the life of man. The stiffened, frozen animals would not
alone furnish sufficient covering. Knives must be invented. From the
flint rude knives were fashioned, by means of which the skins were
removed and transferred to the bodies of men. But the long winter
continuing, the lives of the living animals must be forfeited, both for
the flesh and and the skins. Rude, almost shapeless arrow-heads were
produced. Wood must be had with which to warm and cook, and rude rafts
formed, by means of which the swelling rivers might be crossed. Then
those stone hatchets of the Somme were shaped, and answered the purpose.
Man was at last prepared to face the rigors of winter, the perils of
ice, and secure himself against starvation. Not content with his
conflicts with nature, his brutal passion is aroused against his
fellows. Death-dealing blows fall rapidly upon each other, the blood
flows freely, the bones give way, and the weaker one has succumbed.
There are fierce contentions over the common prey, and the strong impose
upon the weak. True to his instinct, he is gregarious. He lives in
communities; and the more daring--the hunters--having their common
places of meeting, fashion their weapons, and vie with each other in
feats of prowess.
During the glacial epoch the condition of man must have remained
unchanged, after he had supplied himself with rude stone weapons. His
time was spent, for the most part, in self-preservation. He was
retreating before, yet bounding over, the frozen flood in pursuit of
game. This experience must ultimately tell for good. When the glaciers
began to recede, man followed closely, and forgot not the value of those
stone weapons which had secured food for himself. They served against
the cave-bear, cave-hyena, cave-lion, and would be of great service in
the ages yet to come. By a little remodelling they could be used to
greater advantage; and this change of shape was accomplished, and other
uses of flint were made known.
Man's form, aspect, and true position are comprehended by the relics of
the glacial age. The human bones tell a tale which any anatomist may
read, and even one not well skilled in the art. The primitive type is no
mystery, and those fossil bones tell of the terrific strifes of by-gone
times.
The Neanderthal man has already been described. Its structure is animal.
Its history agrees with the generally received idea of primitive man as
conceived by the geologist. The illustration (frontispiece) presents him
bestial and ape-like. A powerful organization, and well adapted to those
times. His bones tell of fearful conflicts. He lived to an old age, as
the traces of every suture are effaced. His skull was very thick. The
strong, prominent superciliary arches denote large perceptives, making
him watchful and always on the alert. Those bones tell of a terrible
conflict. The left arm was broken; who knows but in a contest with the
great cave-bear. He survived the contest and lived to see that arm
dwindle and become almost useless. Over the right eye he received a
blow, from some source, so great as to carry away a portion of the bone.
The claw of a cave-bear, or a flint weapon in the hand of one of his
race, may have produced that fracture. Still he lived, and the wound
healed. All this tells of his strength and hardihood. It gives an inside
view of the wonderful hardships and vicissitudes of primeval man.
The Engis skull belongs to the same type, though less bestial. Possibly
this individual did not enter upon the chase, and engage in the manly
pursuits of those times. He may have been an adviser or a dandy; or, his
ingenuity may have led him to the vocation of fashioning weapons and
implements from the flint.
In the time of the Engis man there were large as well as short,
heavy-set men. In the same cavern there was found a clavicle belonging
to a young person who must have been of great stature.
The jaws of La Naulette and Moulin-Quignon display a great tendency to
animal structure, and confirm the impressions as given of the primitive
condition of man during the glacial and pre-glacial ages.
CHAPTER VI.
INTER-GLACIAL EPOCH.
The glaciers have departed. Summer comes again. The forests bloom and
the wild beast roams about. Many species withstood the long siege of
cold; others perished; still others followed the ice as it retreated,
preferring the cold to the coming heat. The floods had abated and man
spread himself over the different tracts blooming with flowers and
radiant with earthly splendors.
The evidences of man's existence during this period are numerous,
consisting in works of art and fossil remains. Only a few examples are
given, as not many will be required to present the evidence and show
man's condition.
The hyena-den at Wokey Hole, explored by Mr. Dawkins, affords specimens
of the works of man. When discovered this den was filled to the roof
with _débris_. Under this rubbish was found several layers of the
excrement of the cave-hyena (_H. spelæa_), each of which indicates an
old floor and a separate period of occupation.
The implements were under these layers of excrement, showing that the
cave had been occupied by the hyenas after the time of the savages.
These implements had not been disturbed by the action of water. In the
bone earth along with the remains of the cave-hyena were found those of
the mammoth, Siberian rhinoceros, (_R. tichorrhinus_), gigantic ox (_Bos
primigenius_), gigantic Irish deer (_Megaceros Hibernicus_), reindeer,
cave-bear, cave-lion (_Felis spelæa_), wolf (_Canis lupus_), fox (_Canis
vulpes_), and the teeth and bones of the horse in great numbers.
Intermixed with these bones were chipped flints, a bleached flint
weapon of the spear-head Amiens type, and arrow-heads made of bone.
[Illustration: FIG. 11. IDEAL SCENE IN THE POST-TERTIARY.
On the right is shown the megatherium. This animal belonged to the
sloth tribe, and was a native of South America. It exceeded in
size the largest rhinocerous, and the length of its skeleton
sometimes attained eighteen feet. In front, near the centre, is
the glyptodon another South American animal of the armadillo
tribe. The length of its shell, along the curve, was five feet,
and the total length of the animal, nine feet. Just back of the
glypodon, and holding on to a tree, is the mylodon, belonging to
both North and South America, one species of which was much larger
than the western buffalo. On the left, and in the rear, is the
mastodon, the remains of which are found in both North and South
America, though of different species. While this scene does not
represent the animals with which we are dealing, yet the general
features give an idea of those with which we are interested.]
[Illustration: FIG. 12. SECTION OF THE SEPULCHRAL GROTTO, IN THE HILL
OF FAJOLES, AURIGNAC.
_a._ Vault in which the seventeen human skeletons were found.
_b._ Layer of made ground, two feet thick, inside the grotto in
which a few human bones, with entire bones of extinct and
living species of animals, and many works of art, were
imbedded.
_c._ Layers of ashes and charcoal eight inches thick, containing
broken, burned, and gnawed bones of extinct and living
mammalia, also hearth-stones and works of art; no human
bones.
_d._ Deposit with similar contents; also a few scattered cinders.
_e._ Talus of rubbish washed down from the hill above.
_f_, _g._ Slab of rock which closed the vault.
_i_, _f._ Rabbit-burrow.
_h_, _k._ Original terrace.
_N._ Nummulitic limestone.]
In the cavern of Maccagnone, in Sicily, there were found ashes and rude
flint implements in a breccia containing the bones of the elephant (_E.
antiquus_), hyena, a large bear, lion, (probably _F. spelæa_), and large
numbers of bones belonging to the hippopotamus. The concrete of ashes
had once filled the cavern, and a large piece of bone breccia was still
cemented to the roof.
The vast number of hippopotamuses implies that the physical condition of
the country was different from what it is at present. The bone breccia
cemented to the roof, and coated with stalagmite, testifies that the
cave, at some time since the formation of the breccia, has been washed
out. The exact time of the formation of this breccia cannot be given,
but, in all probability, not long after the extinction of the cave-bear,
if not before.
The cave or grotto of Aurignac, in which the seventeen human skeletons
were found, was carefully examined by Lartet eight years after its
discovery. The recess was formed in nummulitic limestone. In front of
the grotto, and next to the limestone (_c_, Fig. 12) was a layer of
ashes and charcoal, eight inches thick, containing hearth-stones, works
of art, and broken, burned, and gnawed bones of extinct and recent
mammalia. Immediately above this layer (_d_) was another, of made
ground, two feet thick, extending into the grotto; and its contents
similar to the other, save that within the grotto were found a few human
bones. The grotto was closed by a slab, and the made earth without was
covered by a talus of rubbish (_e_), washed down from the hill above.
In these layers were found not less than one hundred flint instruments,
consisting of knives, projectiles, sling-stones, chips, and a stone made
for the purpose of modelling the flints. The bone implements were
barbless arrows, a well-shaped and sharply pointed bodkin made of the
horn of the roe-deer, and other tools made of reindeer horn. Besides
these there were found eighteen small round and flat plates, of a white
shelly substance, made of some species of cockle (_cardium_), pierced
through the middle; also the tusk of a young cave-bear, the crown of
which had been carved in imitation of the head of a bird.
The following is a list of the different species found in the layers,
together with the approximate number of individuals belonging to each:
I.--CARNIVORA.
Number of Individuals.
1. Cave Bear (_U. Spelæus_) 5-6
2. Brown Bear (_U. arctos_) 1
3. Badger (_Meles taxus_) 1-2
4. Polecat (_Putorius vulgaris_) 1
5. Cave Lion (_Felis spelæa_) 1
6. Wild Cat (_Felis Catus ferus_) 1
7. Hyena (_H. spelæa_) 5-6
8. Wolf (_Canis lupus_) 3
9. Fox (_C. vulpes_) 18-20
II.--HERBIVORA.
1. Mammoth (_E. primigenius_) Two molars and an astragalus.
2. Rhinoceros (_R. tichorrhinus_) 1
3. Horse (_Equus caballus_) 12-15
4. Ass (_E. asinus_) 1
5. Boar (_Sus scrofa_) Two incisors.
6. Stag (_Cervus elephas_) 1
7. Gigantic Irish Deer (_Megaceros Hibernicus_) 1
8. Roebuck (_C. capreolus_) 3-4
9. Reindeer (_C. tarandus_) 10-12
10. Aurochs (_Bison Europæus_) 12-15
The bones on the outside of the grotto were found to be split open, as
if for the extraction of the marrow, and many of them burned. The spongy
parts were wanting, having been gnawed off by the hyenas.
M. Lartet came to the conclusion that this grotto was a place of
sepulchre, and the broken or split bones were the remnants of the
funeral feasts. This he argued from the fact that the bones within the
grotto were not split, broken or gnawed, save the astragalus of the
mammoth. This meat was placed in the grotto, probably as an offering to
the dead. The bones without the cave were scraped, and while the men
were yet engaged in the funeral feast, the hyenas prowled about the
spot, and at the close of the banquet, devoured the flesh that
remained. The slab in front of the cave debarred their entrance, and
consequently the bones and human remains within were left untouched.
The observations made by M. Cartailhac, in 1870, lead to different
conclusions. On close inspection, he discovered a difference in the
color of the walls of the cave, indicating that the lower deposit was of
a yellow color, and the next above of a much lighter tint. In the
crevices of the lower he found a tooth of the rhinoceros, one of the
reindeer, and some fractured bones of the cave-bear. In the higher
deposit occurred some small bones of living animals and of man, and a
fragment of pottery. From these evidences, M. Cartailhac inferred that
the lower deposits of the grotto corresponded with that outside of it,
and the layer containing human bones was formed at a subsequent time.
That this grotto was a place of resort at a very early period is proven
from the numerous remains of the cave-bear. This animal was one of the
first of those great post-tertiary mammalia to become extinct. The exact
position of the remains of the reindeer is not given. If its bones were
intermixed with the others and found in the lowest as well as the other
layers, it would indicate that the climate was not very warm during the
deposit of the layers, but to have been similar to that of Switzerland
of the present day. The probability is, the reindeer bones did not occur
in the lowest layer, and hence that layer was formed during the tropical
climate, and the reindeer bones and human skeletons were consigned to
the grotto about the close of the inter-glacial, or beginning of the
reindeer epoch.
The fossil man of Denise, taken from an old volcanic tuff, must be
assigned to this period, since there have been found, in similar blocks
of tuff in the same region, the remains of the cave-hyena and
hippopotamus major. This fossil man consists of a frontal part of the
skull, the upper jaw, with teeth, belonging to both an adult and young
individual; a radius, some lumbar vertebræ, and some metatarsal bones.
The tuff is light and porous, and none of the bones penetrate into the
more compact rock.
In the rubbish heap, or reindeer station, at the source of the Schusse,
there were discovered more than six hundred split flints, with a
quantity of partly worked antlers and bones of the reindeer. The bones
were so numerous that Mr. Oscar Fraas was enabled to put together a
complete skeleton of the reindeer which is now preserved in the museum
of Stuttgart. Most of the bones were split open for the purpose of
extracting the marrow. There were numerous remains of fishes, and a
fish-hook manufactured from reindeer horn. There were also the bones of
other animals, such as the glutton, arctic fox, and other animals now
living in high northern latitudes.
Speaking of this station, Dr. Buchner says, "Not only the careful
investigations of the geognostic conditions of the place, but also the
flora of the time (for remains of mosses were found which now live only
in the extreme north), leave no doubt that the reindeer station on the
Schusse belongs to the glacial epoch, or that it probably belongs
exactly to the interval between the two glacial epochs which in all
probability Switzerland has experienced. Mr. E. Desor declared this
deposit to be _the terminal moraine of the Rhine-glacier_, which was
formerly very large. Moreover, according to him, this discovery is
particularly remarkable, because it is the first example of a station of
the reindeer-men in a free and open deposit, their remains having
hitherto been found only in caves."[62]
From the remarks of Dr. Buchner, the great number of bones of the
reindeer, and some show of advancement in the arts, it may be safe to
conclude that this station belongs to the close of the inter-glacial.
CHAPTER VII.
CONDITION OF MAN IN THE INTER-GLACIAL.
The Inter-Glacial period continued a great length of time, covering many
thousands of years.
Man is an improvable being, and some advancement may be expected in his
condition. His mode of life, and continued conflicts with the fierce
wild beasts, would tax his every device. Necessity compelled him to be
inventive. The limited, bestial mind which he possessed, could not
grapple with the higher problems of existence. United efforts and
fortified places were beyond his thoughts. Those old axes of flint were
great objects to his mind, and one step beyond them was a great stride
in progress. That they developed but little cannot be wondered at, not
only from their low type, but also from the knowledge that even in the
era of history there are nations whose civilization has become fixed and
stereotyped for ages; others, who, instead of advancing, have been
retrograding.
The impulse given by the rigors of glacial times acted beneficially
throughout this period. The rude axes and flints were retained, but
improvements were made in utilizing the bones and horns of animals. Out
of these, bodkins, fish-hooks, and arrow-heads were made. The teeth of
wild animals were perforated, and, along with corals and shells, were
used for ornaments. The caverns, used as dwelling-places, being
destitute of water, this necessary of life was supplied and carried
thither in rude vessels made of clay and dried in the sun. The arrows,
flint knives, and axes were used for killing and skinning the animals,
splitting the bones containing the marrow, shaping the bone implements,
felling trees, and stripping the bark, which was used at times for
clothing, after having been softened by beating. He commenced the art of
engraving, as is witnessed by a sketch of the great cave-bear wrought on
a curious stone found in the cave of Massat (Ariége), the bird's head
formed from the bone of a cave-bear, at Aurignac, and other examples.
The lower jaw-bones of the cave-bear and cave-lion, in the shape of
hoes, used for digging roots, were found in the caves of Lherm and in
Bouicheta. He made hearth-stones, and on them cooked his food. That he
paid honors to the dead, and sheltered them from the ravages of beasts
of prey, at present, must remain an open question. If he did, it might
seem to imply that he had a religious nature. But when it is considered
that he was very low in the scale of existence, it may be inferred that
this was done, if done at all, to propitiate an evil genius. Or it may
be a faint idea of a ghost state and that these feasts were made to
dissuade the ghost from molesting him. That they had a conception of a
Supreme Ruler, or a number of gods who ruled for the good of man, would
be too preposterous to believe.
Professor Denton has given a description of primeval time which, by a
little change, would represent inter-glacial times: "The seasons are
fairly established; and spring follows winter, and fall summer, as now;
though the summer is longer and warmer than we are accustomed to see in
those countries at the present time, and the winters colder. The country
is covered with dense forests, through which ramble mighty elephants in
herds, with immense curved tusks, coats of long, shaggy hair, and
flowing manes.... Shuffling along comes the great cave-bear from his
rocky den--as large as a horse: fierce, shaggy, conscious of his
strength, he fears no adversary. Crouched by a bubbling spring lies the
cave-tiger (_Felis spelæa_); and, as the wild cattle come down to drink,
he leaps upon the back of one, and a terrible combat ensues. It is as
large as an elephant, and its horns of enormous size; and even
cave-tigers could not always master such cattle as they.
"Are these the highest forms of life that the country contains? What
being is that sitting on yon fallen tree? His long arms are in front of
his hairy body, and his hands between his knees; while his long legs are
dangling down. His complexion is darker than an Indian's; his beard
short, and like the hair of his body; the unkempt hair of his head is
bushy and thick; his eyebrows are short and crisp; and with his sloping
forehead and brutal countenance, he seems like the caricature of a man,
rather than an actual human being.
"Beneath the shade of a spreading chestnut we may behold a group--one
old man ... and women and children, lounging and lying upon the ground.
How dirty! What forbidding countenances!--more like furies than women.
One young man, with a stone axe, is separating the bark from a
neighboring tree. Others, agile as monkeys, are climbing the trees, and
passing from branch to branch, as they gather the wild fruit that
abounds on every side. Some are catching fish in the shallows of the
river, and yell with triumph as they hold their captives by the gills,
dragging them to the shore."[63]
They have improved their language, and instead of the rude signs and
undistinguishable sounds of the glacial, may now be heard short, but
occasional sentences, which were the forerunners of the polished tongues
of modern Europe.
CHAPTER VIII.
REINDEER EPOCH.
The glaciers, to a limited extent, have again advanced. The gigantic
animals of the past age have either disappeared or are fast becoming
extinct. The great cave-bear, cave-lion, cave-hyena, mammoth, and
woolly-haired rhinoceros have almost become extinct. They have given way
to a less fierce and less gigantic fauna. The advance of the glaciers is
announced by the numerous herds of reindeer which are overrunning the
forests of Western Europe, and extending as far south as the Pyrenees.
In the forests there now existed the horse, bison, wild bull (_Bos
primigenius_), musk-ox, elk, deer, chamois, ibex, beaver, hamster-rat,
lemming, and many others. These animals were capable of withstanding and
flourishing in a rigorous climate. When the glaciers were again broken
up and the climate became warmer, the reindeer, musk-ox, elk, chamois,
wild-goat, hamster-rat, and lemming retired to the high northern
latitudes in close proximity to the snow, or else to the lofty summits
of great mountain-chains.
The evidences of the antiquity of the reindeer epoch, and that it
immediately followed the inter-glacial, are numerous. The vast number of
the reindeer bones and horns attest to a distinct epoch, and by the
remains of arctic animals, as well as the traces of glaciers, the
climate must have been unlike that of the present time. The remains of
the mammoth, cave-bear, and cave-lion, would not only connect this
period with the inter-glacial, but also prove that a few stragglers
continued to exist, at least for a short period, after the reindeer
epoch had begun. That this epoch was earlier than the Swiss
lake-villages, or Danish shell mounds, may be shown by the weapons or
implements which point to a more primitive people, the absence of the
remains of the dog, and, also, by the absence of the remains of the
reindeer in the shell-mounds.
There are no means, yet discovered, by which it can be told how long
this epoch lasted. It lasted a sufficient length of time to permit the
reindeer to increase greatly its species.
_Evidences of the Existence of Man._--M. Christy and M. Lartet examined
in conjunction the caves of Central and Southern France. Those which
have been most carefully examined are ten in number, and belong to the
Department of Dordogne. At Perigord there seems to have been quite a
settlement, judging by the number of caves and stations, the principal
ones being Les Eyzies, La Madeleine, Laugerie-Haute, and Laugerie-Basse.
At Les Eyzies there were found a flint bodkin and a bone needle used for
sewing, a barbed arrow made of reindeer horn and still fixed in a bone,
a flint whistle made from the first joint of the foot of the reindeer,
and two slabs of schist, on both of which were scratched animal forms,
but deficient in any special characteristic.
At La Madeleine there were found a geode very large and very thick,
which, it is supposed, was used for a cooking vessel, as one side of it
had been subjected to fire; an engraving of a reindeer on the horn of
that animal; on another horn the carved outlines of two fishes, one on
either side; a representation of an ibex on the palm of a horn; on
another, a very curious group, consisting of an eel, a human figure, and
two horses' heads. A slab of ivory, broken into five pieces, had an
outline sketch of the mammoth (Fig. 13). This was so accurately drawn
that the small eye, curved tusks, huge trunk, and the abundant mane,
could readily be distinguished. There was also found, on an arrow-head,
the figure of a tadpole.
There were workshops at Laugerie-Haute and Laugerie-Basse, where
weapons and utensils were manufactured; and they are noted for the
abundance of instruments made of reindeer horn. Among the works of art
found at the latter station may be mentioned, the stiletto, needle,
spoon made in the shape of rods tapering off at one end and hollow in
the middle, staff of authority, whistle, and harpoon, all from the horn
of the reindeer. On the head of a staff of authority is carved a
mammoth's head; there is a representation of the hind-quarters of some
herbivorous animal, sketched out with a bold and practiced touch; an
animal's head, with ears laid back, and of considerable length, is
carved on a round shaft of reindeer horn. It cannot be determined for
what purpose this shaft was intended, but as the other end was pointed,
and provided with a lateral hook, it may have been the harpoon of some
chief. On a slab of slate was drawn, in outline, a reindeer fight. On a
fragment of a spear-head there is a series of human hands, provided with
four fingers only, and represented in demi-relief. The delineations of
fish are principally on wands of authority--on one of which is a series
following one another.
[Illustration: FIG. 13. SKETCH OF A MAMMOTH, GRAVEN ON A SLAB OF IVORY
FROM LA MADELEINE.]
The cave and _rock shelters_ of Bruniquel (Tarn-et-Garonne) have been
carefully examined by competent explorers. These relics are so numerous
that M. de Lastic, the proprietor of the cavern, sold to the agent of
the British Museum fifteen hundred specimens, of every description,
which had been found on his property. In the cave there were found,
engraved on a bone, a perfectly recognizable horse's head and the head
of a reindeer, and daggers made of ivory and bone, on which were
representations of the above-mentioned animals. The engravings are
mostly on the horn of the reindeer. The cave has also furnished two
almost perfect human skulls, and two half-jaw bones which resemble the
Moulin-Quignon.
The _rock-shelters_ are overhanging rocks, under the projections of
which man found a shelter and built his rude dwellings of boughs and
sticks. In these shelters have been found fire-hearths, fish-hooks made
of splinters of bone, saws made of flint, a complete sketch of the
mammoth engraved on reindeer horn, the hilt of a dagger carved in the
shape of a reindeer, the cave-lion, engraved with great clearness, on a
fragment of a staff of authority, and two daggers made of ivory.
In the excavations which were made in the rock-shelters, was found a
quantity of human bones, including two skulls--one of an old man, the
other that of an adult.
The cave of Gourdan (Haute-Garonne) contained the largest collection of
implements of bone and horn ever discovered. The stones and reindeer
horns are carved with great care, and indicate a high degree of artistic
taste. There are sketches made of the reindeer, stag, chamois, goat,
bison, horse, wolf, boar, monkey, badger, antelope, fishes, and birds,
and also the representations of some plants. In the lowest layer of the
soil the most perfect works occur, and they grow less as the surface is
approached. Several of those implements called "batons of command"
occurred, ornamented with animals' heads. On the rib of a horse was
carved an antelope, and on the bone of a bird various figures--plants,
reindeer, and a fish. This cave was made the subject of a report by M.
Piette before the Paris Anthropological Society.
[Illustration: FIG. 14. THE FOSSIL MAN OF MENTONE.]
The fossil man of Mentone, found in a grotto of Mentone, a village near
Nice, for some time past has produced much comment among scientists. The
skeleton was discovered in undisturbed earth; at a depth of twenty-one
feet. The cause of the discussion is that the skeleton is accompanied by
a multiplicity of bone-tools, needles, chisels, a baton of command, a
necklace, various species of the deer, indicating the reindeer epoch,
but surrounded also by the remains of the cave-bear, cave-hyena, and
woolly-haired rhinoceros. Dr. Garrigou arrives at the conclusion that
this cave was first inhabited by men of the preceding epoch, or
inter-glacial, and during the reindeer epoch was used as a place of
burial.[64] The attitude of the skeleton was that of repose (see Fig.
14). It was stained by oxide of iron. The tibiæ, or shin-bones, present
a noticeable feature by being more flattened than in the European of the
present time.
In the same neighborhood there have more recently been discovered, in
different caves, four other human skeletons. They were all stained with
oxide of iron, and two of them surrounded with pierced sea-shells, teeth
of the stag, constituting the remains of necklaces and bracelets. With
one skeleton, which belonged to a large individual, were discovered
implements of stone and bone, tooth of a cave-bear, bones of other
animals, and shells of edible marine mollusks. The other two skeletons
were those of children, and not accompanied by either implements or
ornaments.
The other bone caves of France, which have afforded much valuable
information, and belonging to this epoch, are: La Gorge d'Enfer,
Liveyre, Pey de l'Aze, Combe-Granal, Le Moustier and Badegoule
(Dordogne), cave of Bize (Aude), cave of La Vache (Ariége), cave of
Savigné (Vienne), grottos of La Balme and Bethenas, in Dauphiné, the
settlement of Solutré, the cave of Lourdes (Hautes-Pyrénées), and the
cave of Espalungue (Basses-Pyrénées)--the last two date back to the most
ancient period of the reindeer epoch.
The principal objects found in these caves, and the rock-shelters are
worked flakes, scrapers, cores, awls, lance-heads, cutters, hammers, and
mortar-stones. These works, though unpolished, are but little ruder than
those of the Esquimaux or the North American Indian.
_Belgian Caverns._--Under the auspices of the Belgian government M.
Edward Dupont examined more than twenty caves on the banks of the Lesse,
in the province of Namur. Among these were four, in which occurred
numerous traces of the reindeer-man, namely, Trou du Frontal, Trou
Rosette, Trou des Nutons, and Trou de Chaleux.
The cavern Trou de Frontal was a place of burial, and similar to the
cave of Aurignac. The mouth of the cave was closed by a slab of
sandstone, and within were the remains of fourteen human beings
belonging to persons of various ages, and some of them to infants
scarcely a year old. In front of the cave was an esplanade, where were
celebrated the funeral feasts, and which was marked by hearth-stone,
traces of fire, flint-knives, bones of animals, shells, etc. The human
bones were intermixed with a considerable number of the bones of the
reindeer and other animals, as well as the different kinds of
implements. Among the remains were two perfect human skulls, in a good
state of preservation. The bones were discovered in a state of great
confusion, which M. Dupont thinks was caused by the disturbance of
water. Sir John Lubbock regards the disturbance of the bones as due to
foxes and badgers.[65]
Immediately above this cave is the Trou Rosette, in which the bones of
three persons were found, mingled with those of the reindeer and beaver.
It also contained fragments of a blackish kind of pottery, which were
hollowed out in rough grooves and hardened by fire. Dupont is of opinion
that the three men were crushed to death by masses of rock at the time
of the inundation of the valley of the Lesse.
In the Trou des Nutons, situated one hundred and sixty-four feet above
the Lesse, were found a great many bones of the reindeer, wild bull, and
many other species. In the cave, indiscriminately mixed up with these
bones, were one hundred and fifty worked reindeer horns, knuckle-bones
of the goat, polished on both sides, a whistle made from the tibia of a
goat, fragments of very coarse pottery, and fire-hearths.
[Illustration: FIG. 15. EARTHEN VASE, FOUND IN THE CAVE OF FURFOOZ,
BELGIUM.]
The cave of Chaleux was buried by a mass of rubbish caused by the
falling in of the roof, consequently preserving all its implements.
There were found the split bones of mammals and the bones of birds and
fishes. There was an immense number of objects, chiefly manufactured
from reindeer horn, such as needles, arrow-heads, daggers, and hooks.
Besides these, there were ornaments made of shells, pieces of slate with
engraved figure, mathematical lines, remains of very coarse pottery,
hearth-stones, ashes, charcoal, and last but not least, thirty thousand
worked flints mingled with the broken bones. In the hearth, placed in
the centre of the cave, was discovered a stone, with certain but
unintelligible signs engraved upon it. M. Dupont also found about twenty
pounds of the bones of the water-rat, either scorched or roasted.
In a cave at Furfooz, Dupont found an urn, or specimen of rough pottery
(Fig. 15) intermingled with human bones. It was partly broken; by the
care of M. Hauzeur it has been put together again.
France and Belgium are not alone in their monuments of the reindeer
epoch, for settlements of this epoch have been discovered in Germany,
Switzerland, and Poland.
In the cave of Thayngen, near Schaffhausen, Switzerland, have been
discovered a few remains of the mammoth, rhinoceros, and cave-lion; the
remains of two hundred and fifty reindeer, four hundred and thirty
Alpine hares; also the remains of the brown bear, stag, elk, auroch,
glutton, wolf, and several kinds of fox. The large bones invariably
appeared in fragments, and the pebbles used for breaking them were found
in the refuse. Among birds, the bones of the swan, grouse, and duck
predominate. The implements consisted chiefly of needles, piercers, and
arrow-heads made of the antlers of the reindeer. The art of engraving
and carving was carried to quite a degree of perfection. The most
notable of these objects is the delineation of a reindeer in the act of
browsing, drawn on a piece of the horn of that animal.
Not far from Cracow (Poland), a cavern has been recently discovered and
examined by Count Zawisza. In the upper part of the floor (four feet in
depth), consisting of vegetable earth, mould, and _débris_, occurred
ashes, flint implements, and the split bones of the cave-bear, reindeer,
horse, elk, and other animals. Beneath this layer appeared the broken
bones of the mammoth, an ornament of ivory, and the perforated teeth of
the cave-bear, stag, elk, wolf, and fox. Two thousand flint implements
were obtained; and from the frequent occurrence of flint the cave was
used by the troglodytes, or cave-men, as a dwelling; and by the remains
of the fauna, it must have been occupied during the inter-glacial, and
at the beginning of the reindeer epoch.
CHAPTER IX.
MAN OF THE REINDEER EPOCH.
The Reindeer Epoch, approaching nearer the present age than those
already enumerated, presents man under a more favorable aspect, and
affords a better view of his traits of character and manner of living.
Not only the sturdy climate spurs him to action, but a higher type is
supplanting the original savages. The brachycephalic, or round-headed,
has penetrated the recesses of that wild country and brought with him
the art of making more perfect implements. This new type was of short
stature, having small hands and feet. If Asia be the home of man, then
from that country, advanced in civilization, came the vanguard who were
destined to supplant their predecessors, tame the wild beasts, and
conquer the forests. Representatives of this type are found in the Lapps
and Fins. Between the two existing races--dolichocephalic and
brachycephalic--there may have been a long and bitter strife. The former
was large, stout, fearless, and cruel; the latter, small, hardy, and
more intelligent. It was a conflict between brute force and
intelligence. The more perfect weapons must have told fearfully against
the rude axes and arrows of the dolichocephalic. It could not have been
a war of extermination, for finally an intermixture took place,
producing a medium, as may be judged from the exhumed skulls.
_Dwellings._--As in the past ages, man continued to dwell, for the most
part, in caves. If the cave was small, he occupied every portion; but if
large, only that part near the opening was used. In the centre of this
dwelling he made a hearth, out of stones sunk in the floor, and with
the fire placed upon it, he cooked his meals and warmed his body. This
mode of life did not always satisfy him, for he ventured out, and under
the projection of an overhanging rock he built him a booth, or rude hut,
out of boughs, and the poles of fallen timber. These dwellings, whether
in caves or under the rocks, were near some stream.
_Clothing._--The climate being cold, he probably ceased to use the inner
bark of trees, and depended solely on the skins of animals. The skins
were prepared by the flint scrapers, and then rendered supple by rubbing
into them the brains and the marrow extracted from the skulls and long
bones of the reindeer. These garments may have been artistically shaped,
for they understood the art of sewing. With the bodkin they pierced the
skin, and with the needle, end was held to end and side to side, and the
same made permanent by the sinew of some animal.
_Food._--These people were essentially hunters, and lived principally
upon the reindeer, which they attacked with their spears and arrows. The
horse, elk, ox, ibex, and the chamois, formed a considerable part of
their food. The meat was cooked on the rough hearths, and the skull and
the long bones were split open in order to extract the brains and
marrow, which formed a delicious dish. To this they also added fish and,
occasionally, certain birds, such as the heath-cock, swan, and owl. The
chase did not always afford them sufficient food, and at times they were
forced to subsist on the water-rat.
Enough evidence has been produced to show that these people were
cannibals. Human finger-joints were discovered among the remains of
cooking at Solutré in Mâconnais. M. Issel found, at a point on the road
from Genoa to Nice, some human bones which had been calcined, and were
of a whitish color, light, and friable. The incrustations on their
surface still contained small fragments of carbon, and some of them
showed notches made by some sharp instrument. In one of the grottos of
Northern Italy M. Costa de Beauregard found the small shin-bone of a
child, which had been carefully emptied and cleansed. Professor Owen
thinks he can recognize the trace of human teeth on some human skulls
and children's bones found in Scotland, and promiscuously mixed with
sculptured flints and the remains of pottery.
_The Arts._--Man had not yet discovered the value of metal, but formed
his instruments out of flint, bone, and the horn of the reindeer. The
hatchet was but little used, and the principal weapons were the
flint-knife, arrow-heads, and occasionally the lower jaw-bone of the
cave-bear, with its pointed canine tooth. The articles of domestic use
were rough pottery, knives, scrapers, saws, bodkins, needles, and other
wrought implements. He had articles for ornamenting his person and
pleasing his fancy, such as shells for beads, and the whistle for
delighting his ear. The art of engraving was practised to a great
extent, and so admirably did he execute his designs that, after the
lapse of thousands of years, the figures are easily recognized.
The staff of authority would imply that there were certain individuals
who were recognized as chiefs or leaders. Some system must have
prevailed, for without it the manufactories at Laugerie-Basse and
Laugerie-Haute could not have been carried on. In the first of these
workshops the fabrications were almost wholly spear-heads, and in the
second reindeer horn was used for the weapons and implements.
_Traffic._--Commerce was begun. The inhabitants of Belgium sought their
flints in that part of France now called Champagne. From the same
locality they also brought back fossil shells, which were strung
together and used for necklaces. There can be no doubt of this, as
already fifty-four of these shells have been found at Chaleux, and they
are not found naturally anywhere else than in Champagne.
_Burial._--As in the previous epoch, the dead were consigned to the same
kind of caves as were used for habitations, and the entombment was
celebrated by the funeral-feast. These banquets afford no evidence of
worship. Some have thought they not only saw signs of worship in the
banquets, but also in some of the carvings. No idols have been found.
That they should have no notion of a future state is not surprising, for
Sir J. Lubbock has shown that there are tribes at the present time
without this belief.[66]
M. Edward Dupont, in his report to the Belgian minister of the Interior,
on the excavations carried on in the caves, has concisely but eloquently
given a synopsis of man of the reindeer epoch, in the following
language:
"The data obtained from the fossils of Chaleux, together with those
which have been met with in the caves of Furfooz, present us with a
striking picture of the primitive ages of mankind in Belgium. These
ancient tribes, and all their customs, after having been buried in
oblivion for thousands and thousands of years, are again vividly brought
before our eyes; and, ... antiquity lives again in the relics of its
former existence.
"We may almost fancy that we can see them in their dark and subterranean
retreats, crouching round their hearths, and skilfully and patiently
chipping out their flint instruments and shaping their reindeer-horn
tools, in the midst of all the pestilential emanations arising from the
various animal remains which their carelessness has allowed to remain in
their dwellings. Skins of wild beasts are stripped of their hair, and,
by the aid of flint needles, are converted into garments. In our mind's
eye, we may see them engaged in the chase, and hunting wild
animals--their only weapons being darts and spears, the fatal points of
which are formed of nothing but a splinter of flint. Again, we are
present at their feasts, in which, during the period when their hunting
has been fortunate, a horse, a bear, or a reindeer, becomes the more
noble substitute for the tainted flesh of the rat, their sole resource
in the time of famine.
"Now, we see them trafficking with the tribes inhabiting the region now
called France, and procuring the jet and fossil shells with which they
love to adorn themselves, and the flint which is to them so precious a
material. On one side they are picking up the fluor spar, the color of
which is pleasing to their eyes; on the other, they are digging out the
great slabs of sandstone which are to be placed as hearth-stones round
their fire.
"But, alas! inauspicious days arrive." The roof of their principal cave
falls in, burying their weapons and utensils, and forcing them "to fly
and take up their abode in another spot. The ravages of death break in
upon them.... They bear the corpse into its cavernous sepulchre; some
weapons, an amulet, and perhaps an urn, form the whole of the funeral
furniture. A slab of stone prevents the inroad of wild beasts. Then
begins the funeral banquet, celebrated close by the abode of the dead; a
fire is lighted, great animals are cut up, and portions of their smoking
flesh are distributed to each. How strange the ceremonies that must then
have taken place! ceremonies like those told us of the savages of the
Indian and African solitudes. Imagination may easily depict the songs,
the dances, and the invocations, but science is powerless to call them
into life....
"But the end of this primitive age is at last come. Torrents of water
break in upon the country. Its inhabitants, driven from their abodes, in
vain take refuge on the lofty mountain summits. Death at last overtakes
them, and a dark cavern is the tomb of the wretched beings, who, at
Furfooz, were witnesses of this immense catastrophe."[67]
CHAPTER X.
NEOLITHIC EPOCH.
The Neolithic, or Epoch of Tamed Animals, is characterized by stone
implements, polished or made smooth by a process of grinding and
cutting, the greater development attained in the art of pottery, and by
the presence of the bones of the domesticated animals. This age, in
which no remains of the reindeer occur, immediately follows the reindeer
epoch, and to it are referred in general all discoveries made in the so
called _alluvial_ soil, the most ancient remains of the so called Celts,
the shell-heaps of Denmark, the tumuli or grave-mounds, the dolmens, the
earlier Swiss pile-buildings, the Irish lake-dwellings, and some of the
caves of France.
_Caverns._--The caves belonging to this period, and explored by MM.
Garrigou and Filhol, are those of the Pyrenees and the caves of
Pradiérs, Bedeilhac, Labart, Niaux, Ussat, and Fontanel. Some of these
caverns have been used in earlier ages, as is shown by the remains of
extinct mammals. The upper crust of the floors of the caves belong to
this period, and in them are found the bones of the ox, stag, sheep,
goat, antelope, chamois, wild boar, wolf, dog, fox, badger, hare, and
horse, intermingled with the remains of hearths, also piercers,
spear-heads, and arrow-heads, made of bone; hatchets, knives, scrapers
made of flints, and various other substances, such as silicious schist,
quartzite, leptinite, and serpentine stone. These implements were
carefully wrought, and mostly polished.
The cave of Saint Jean d'Alcas (Aveyron), explored at different times
by M. Cazalis de Fondace, was used as a place of sepulture. It was first
examined about twenty-five years ago, and at that time five human
skulls, in a good state of preservation, were found, but have been lost,
as their importance was not then known. Intermingled with these bones
were flint, jade, and serpentine implements, carved bones, remains of
rough pottery, stone amulets, and the shells of shell-fish, but no
remains of funeral banquets. At the mouth of the cave were two large
flag-stones lying across one another. The most recent discoveries in the
cave have furnished metallic substances, which would place it, as a
habitation, to the last of the neolithic.
_Danish Kjökken-Möddings, or Shell-Mounds, or kitchen-refuse
heaps._--The refuse heaps of Denmark were carefully examined by
Professors Steenstrup, the naturalist, Forchammer, a geologist, and
Worsaae, the archæologist, commissioned by the Danish government, their
reports being presented to the Academy of Sciences at Copenhagen.
They are found chiefly on the north coast of Denmark, and consist of the
shells of edible mollusks, such as the oyster, cockle, mussel, and
periwinkle. These deposits are from three to ten feet in thickness, from
one hundred to two hundred and fifty feet in width, and sometimes as
much as one thousand feet in length. In them are found weapons and other
instruments of stone, horn, and bone; fragments of rough pottery,
stone-wedges, knives, etc., in great abundance, accompanied with
charcoal and ashes; no traces of coin, bronze, or iron, or domestic
animals, except the dog. The bones of animals are very numerous, but no
human bones have ever been discovered. Professor Steenstrup estimates
that ninety-seven per cent. of the bones belong to the stag, the
roe-deer, and the wild boar. The other remains are those of the urus
(_Bos primigenius_), dog, fox, wolf, marten, wild-cat, hedgehog, bear
(_Ursus arctos_), and the mouse, and the bones of birds and fishes. The
auroch, musk ox, domestic ox, elk, hare, sheep, and domestic hog are
absent.
The mollusca of these shell-mounds are of a size which are never
obtained by the representatives of the same species now living on the
Baltic. They are not more than one-half or even one-third the size. At
the time of the formation of these mounds, the Baltic was a true sea, or
an arm of the ocean, and these mollusks were taken from it. Now the
Baltic has not the character of a true sea, but is merely brackish, and
the oyster does not occur in the Baltic except at its entrance into the
ocean.
These deposits have been found several miles inland, which would
indicate that the sea had once covered the intervening space. On the
western coast they have not been found, in consequence of their having
possibly been swept away by the encroachments of the sea. They are also
found on the adjacent islands.
These mounds are not peculiar alone to Denmark; for they are found in
England, Scotland, France, and America.
_Danish Peat Bogs._--The peat bogs of Denmark, so faithfully
investigated by Professor Steenstrup, mark three periods of deposition.
The most ancient is called the _Scotch-Fir_; the second, immediately
above, the _Oak_, and the uppermost, the _Beech_. The peat is from ten
to forty feet in thickness, and to form a layer from ten to twenty feet
thick would require, according to Steenstrup, _at least_ four thousand
years, and perhaps even from three to four times that period.[68] These
three epochs denote three periods of time. The lowest belongs to the
neolithic, the middle to the bronze, and the last to the iron epoch. In
the lowest, or _Fir_ period, have been found worked flints and bones.
Human bones have been found, which correspond with the bones taken from
the tumuli of this epoch.
_The Lake-Dwellings of Switzerland._--Dr. Ferdinand Keller and his
associates have made known to the world the wonderful remains of
villages situated in the lakes of Switzerland and other countries. The
villages of Switzerland do not all belong to the same period, and they
represent the neolithic, bronze, and iron epochs; but there was no hard
line of demarcation between these three periods. These habitations are
so numerous that more than two hundred settlements hare been discovered
in Switzerland alone. Among the lakes furnishing these remains may be
counted the Lake of Neuchâtel (forty-six settlements); Lake Constance
(thirty-two settlements); Lake of Geneva (twenty-four settlements); Lake
of Bienne (twenty-one settlements); Lake of Morat (sixteen settlements);
Lake of Zurich (three settlements); Lake of Pfæffikon (six settlements);
Lake of Sempach (six settlements); Lake of Moosseedorf (two
settlements); Lake of Inkwyl (one settlement); Lake of Nussbaumen (one
settlement); Lake Greiffensee (one settlement); Lake of Zug (six
settlements); Lake of Baldegg (five settlements), and others.
The habitations belonging to the neolithic are Lake Constance thirty,
Neuchatel twelve, Geneva two settlements; one each at Morat, Bienne,
Zurick, Pfæffikon, Inkwyl, Moosseedorf, Nussbaumen, the settlement of
Concise, the bridge Thiéle, the peat-bog of Wauwyl, and others.
These dwellings were built near the shore, on piles of various kinds of
wood, sharpened by tools and fire, and driven into the mud at the
shallow bottom of the lake. In some of the settlements the piles were
fastened by heaping stones around them. The piles were sometimes placed
together, at others apart. The heads were brought to a level and then
the platform beams were fastened upon them. This basis served for the
foundation of the rude rectangular huts they erected. These piles are
not now seen above the water, yet they are visible above the bottom of
the lake. The number of piles in some of these settlements is as high as
one hundred thousand, and the area occupied, not less than seventy
thousand square yards. It has been estimated that the population of the
Lake-villages during the neolithic was over thirty thousand.
The object of these dwellings was to protect the inhabitants from wild
animals, the attacks of enemies, and for the ready obtaining of food by
fishing. They were not only occupied by the inhabitants, but also by
their herds and the stores of fodder.[69]
_Robenhausen._--It is not necessary to go into an account of a number of
these settlements to represent the neolithic epoch, for the settlement
at Robenhausen (Lake Pfæffikon) takes the first rank in giving the
domestic arrangements of the ancient inhabitants. This settlement
covered a space of nearly three acres, and one hundred thousand piles
were used in the whole structure. Its form was an irregular quadrangle.
It was about two thousand paces from the ancient western shore of the
lake, and about three thousand from the shore in the opposite direction.
With the last-named side there was a communication by means of a bridge,
the piles of which are still visible. On this side were the gardens and
pastures. The dwellers of this settlement were unfortunate, as their
habitation was twice burned up, and each time, they rallied and rebuilt
their huts. They remained a long time as would seem from the depth of
the peat and the vast amount of relics found.
At a depth of eleven feet were found the earliest or most ancient
relics; at ten and one-half feet, the remains of the first
conflagration--charcoal, stone and bone implements, pottery, woven
cloth, corn, apples, etc.; at seven and one-half feet, flooring, relics
of the second settlement, and excrement of cows, sheep, and goats; at
six and one half feet, remains of second conflagration--charcoal, stone
and bone implements, pottery, woven cloth, corn, apples, etc.; at three
and one-half feet, broken stones, flooring, and relics of the third
settlement; at two and one half feet, stone celts, pottery, but no
traces of fire. Above this was two feet of peat and one-half foot of
mould.
Without going into detail, the objects found in these various beds are
as follows: Made out of wood, are knives, ladles, plates, clubs of ash,
in which is fixed a socket of stag's horn containing a stone celt, a
boat made of a single trunk, twelve feet long, two and one-half feet
wide, and five inches deep, flails for threshing out grain, bows notched
at both ends, fishing implements, floats for the support of nets,
suspension hooks, tubs, chisels, sandals, yokes made for carrying
vessels, and a peculiar ornament. These implements were all made out of
yew, maple, ash, fir, and the root of the hazel bush. Out of stag's
horn--arrow-heads, daggers, piercing and scraping tools, implements for
knitting and for agriculture. The implements of stone were polished, and
of the usual form. The objects of clay were fragments of pottery, in the
shape of urns, plates, and cups, in great abundance. There were also
found spoons, and a perforated cone, supposed to have been used as a
weight for the loom. Several crucibles or melting pots have been found,
which were used for melting copper. The third building of this village
was on the borderland between the stone and bronze ages.
The remains of animals found here and at Moosseedorf and Wauwyl, all of
the neolithic, belong to the brown bear, badger, marten, pine-marten,
polecat, wolf, fox, wild-cat, beaver, elk, urus, bison, stag, roe-deer,
wild-boar, marsh-boar; the domestic animals were the boar, horse, ox,
goat, sheep, and dog. The remains of the domestic hog are absent from
all the pile works of this period, save the one at Wauwyl.
Among cereals (Robenhausen) were found several varieties of wheat and
barley; fruits and berries--service-tree, dog-rose, elder, bilberry, and
wayfaring tree; the nuts--hazel, beech, and water-chestnut; the
oil-producing plants--opium, or garden poppy, and dogwood; the fibrous
plants--flax; plants used for dying--weld; forest trees and
shrubs--silver fir, juniper, yew, ash, and oak; water and marsh
plants--lake scirpus, pondweeds, common hornwort, marsh bedstraw,
buckbean, yellow waterlily, ivy-leaved crowfoot, and marsh pennywort.
Besides these there have been found many specimens of plaited and woven
cloth; also ropes, cords, and a portion of a linseed cake.[70]
In the different settlements the same axes and knives abound, and are of
small size. The arrow-heads and saws are an improvement on those of the
preceding epoch. Among domestic implements, spindle-whorls of rude
earthenware were abundant in some of the villages, and corn-crushers are
occasionally met with from two to three inches in diameter. About five
hundred implements of stone have been found at Wauwyl, consisting of
axes, small flint arrow-heads, flint-flakes, corn-crushers, rude stones
used as hammers, whetstones, and sling-stones.
As these Lake-Dwellings not only belong to the last of the neolithic,
but extend beyond, they naturally have a place in the close of this
period. M. Troyon says the dwellings of this period came suddenly to an
"end by the irruption of a people provided with bronze implements. The
lake-dwellings were burned by these new-comers, and the primitive
inhabitants were slaughtered or driven back into remote places. This
catastrophe affects chiefly the settlements of East Switzerland, which
entirely disappeared, and also a number of those on the shore of the
western lakes. Some few settlements, however--namely, those of the
so-called transition period--are said not to have been destroyed by the
new people till after the inhabitants had begun to make use of bronze
implements."[71]
Dr. Keller takes exception to these views. He says there is no sudden
leap from one class of civilization to another, and that the metals came
gradually into use. The lake-dwellings were not burned down by the
irruption of a foreign people; for at Niederwyl, and several settlements
of the Unter-See, no traces of fire have been observed. The fact that
but a very few human skeletons have been found in the whole settlements,
contradicts the supposition of a battle having taken place between the
aborigines and the supposed conquerors, and of the destruction of the
former by the latter.[72]
Lake-dwellings belonging to this age and the bronze, have been found in
Bavaria, Northern Italy, Mecklenburg, Pomerania, France, England,
Scotland, and Ireland. Herodotus says that the Pæonians lived this way
in Lake Prasias (Thrace), and Lubbock says that the fishermen of Lake
Prasias still inhabit wooden huts built over the water. The town of
Tcherkask in Russia, is constructed over the river Don, and Venice
itself is but a lacustrine city.[73]
Several attempts have been made to estimate the time which has elapsed
since the neolithic period. The estimates of M. Morlot are based on the
discoveries made in a hillock formed by the river Tinière at its
entrance into the lake of Geneva. This cone contained three distinct
layers of vegetable earth placed at different depths between the
deposits of alluvium. The first was at a depth of three and one-half
feet from the top, and was from four to six inches thick, and in it were
found relics of the Roman period; the second was five and one-fourth
feet lower, and six inches thick, in which were fragments of bronze; the
third was at a depth of eighteen feet from the top, and varied in
thickness from six to seven inches, and contained fragments of the stone
age. History proves that the layer containing the Roman relics is from
thirteen to eighteen centuries old. Since that epoch the cone has
increased three and one-half feet, and if the increase was the same in
previous ages, then the bed containing the bronze is from twenty-nine
hundred to forty-two hundred years old, and the lowest layer, belonging
to the stone age, is from four thousand seven hundred to ten thousand
years old.
The calculation by M. Gillieron was made from the discoveries near the
bridge of Thièle. About one thousand two hundred and thirty feet from
the present shore is the old abbey of Saint Jean, built in the year
1100. There is a document which seems to show that the abbey was built
on the edge of the lake. Then, in seven hundred and fifty years the lake
retired one thousand two hundred and thirty feet. The distance of the
present shore from the settlement of the bridge of Thièle is eleven
thousand and seventy-two feet, and consequently the settlement is not
less than six thousand seven hundred and fifty years old.
M. Figuier assigns to the lake-dwellings an antiquity of from six to
seven thousand years before the Christian era.[74]
CHAPTER XI.
MAN OF THE NEOLITHIC.
From the human bones found in peat-bogs and tumuli, man is represented
as having a narrow but round skull, with a projecting ridge above the
eyebrows, showing he was round-headed, his eyebrows overhanging, small
of stature though stout, and having a great resemblance to the
Laplanders. In many respects the race was much superior to that of the
preceding epoch. Man advanced rapidly in the arts, and made great
progress in civilization. He had passed out of the barbarous, and might
be called a semi-barbarian.
_Habitations._--Man's habitation varied according to the locality. In
the extreme south of France he continued for a considerable length of
time to occupy the caves and rock-shelters; in Switzerland, the
pile-buildings, and in Denmark he undoubtedly had rude huts placed close
together and in proximity to the shell-heaps.
_Clothing._--Clothing also varied according to locality. Where the wild
animals were numerous their skins were used--there being no incentive to
substitute other material. Coarse material made of fibrous plants had
come into use. The lake-dwellers clothed themselves with this material,
and completely protected their bodies. They also used sandals for their
feet, as these have been found with the usual indications of usage.
_Food._--Where wild animals could be obtained they were used, and the
marrow of the long bones extracted. To this, fish and birds were added.
In Denmark the principal food was the different species of the edible
mollusk. In Switzerland a higher order and greater variety of food was
used. The meat of the wild animals, birds, and fish was varied with
bread made of barley and wheat, and fruit and berries. The meat was not
only obtained from the wild animal, but they provided against the
uncertainty of the chase by domesticating the boar, ox, sheep, and goat.
The horse and dog were domesticated to assist in the chase, but
sometimes served for food, probably during a famine.
If these people were cannibals, the evidence must rest solely on the
human bones discovered at a dolmen near the village of Hammer, Denmark,
which had been subjected to the action of fire. They were found together
with some flint implements. But this evidence is not sufficient to lead
to the conclusion that at the funeral banquets human flesh was used
along with the roasted stag.
_Arts and Manufactures._--The flint hatchets of the refuse-heaps are
generally of an imperfect type; the long knives indicate a considerable
amount of skill; the bodkins, spear-heads, and scrapers are but little
improved. In the latter part of this epoch, the various kinds of
implements, especially in Switzerland, attained to a surprising degree
of perfection, in so much so, it is difficult to understand how this was
achieved without the use of metal. They were made into various shapes,
and with the design of pleasing the eye.
Besides the various types of implements common to the different
countries, the tribes of Denmark manufactured a drilled hatchet, which
is combined in various ways with the hammer. A specimen of this type is
represented in Fig. 16, now in the Museum of Copenhagen. It is pierced
with a round hole, in which the handle was fixed. The cutting edge
describes an arc of a circle, and the other end is wrought into sharp
angular edges.
New inventions were brought into use. Among them was a comb which,
according to shape, might be compared to the dung-fork of the American
stables. Ornaments for the body, made of various materials were
fashioned. Pottery was still in a rough state, though gradually
improving. The loom was invented, and various kinds of cloth were
manufactured. Also out of the fibrous plants cordage was made, which
again was fashioned into nets for fishing. Many canoes at various places
have been found, showing that they were not only used for fishing but
also for carrying cargoes. Workshops were established, and there the
stone implements were made and polished; one of these shops was at
Pressigny.
[Illustration: FIG. 16. DANISH AXE-HAMMER, DRILLED FOR HANDLE.]
Some idea may be had of the vast number of stone implements which occur,
when it is considered that in the Museum of Copenhagen there are about
twelve thousand, consisting of flint axes, wedges, broad, narrow, and
hollow chisels; poniards, lance-heads, arrow-heads, flint flakes, and
half-moon-shaped implements. In other collections in Denmark there are
twenty thousand implements. The museum at Stockholm contains about
sixteen thousand, and the Royal Irish Academy owns seven hundred
flint-flakes, five hundred and twelve celts, more than four hundred
arrow-heads, fifty spear-heads, seventy-five scrapers, and numerous
other objects of stone, such as sling-stones, hammers, whetstones,
grain-crushers, etc.[75] Some of these implements, however, may belong
to other epochs.
War must have been carried on to a considerable extent, as fortified
camps have been discovered in Belgium, at Furfooz, and other places.
Their weapons were the axe, the arrow, the spear, and possibly the
knife. These were wrought with great care.
_Agriculture._--Man commenced to till the ground in this age, and thus
laid the true foundation of civilization. He probably was forced to do
it. The beasts of the forest were gradually decreasing. They had
nourished him in the infancy of his mind, and now he should begin to
look to the soil, and by the cultivation of its products he must sustain
his life. His principal implement of agriculture must have been the
sharpened stick, pointed with deer-horn. He cultivated the cereals, made
his corn-mill, and stored the grain for winter use.
_Burial._--How the colonists of the lake-dwellings disposed of their
dead is unknown. In Denmark, and many other places, the dead were buried
in dolmens or tumuli. A dolmen is a monument consisting of several
perpendicular stones covered with a great block or slab. When it is
surrounded by circles of stone it takes the name _cromlech_. The dolmens
occur also in Scandinavia, France, and Brittany. They were formerly
considered to have been Druidical sacrificial altars. They were usually
covered over with earth, and in them were buried from one to twenty
persons, accompanied with their implements. When a person died, the tomb
was reopened to receive the new occupant. At such a time fire was used
for the purpose of purifying the atmosphere of the tomb. In Brittany, in
the vicinity of the tombs, there were set up in the ground enormous
blocks of stone, that have received the name of _menhirs_, the most
noted of which is that at Carnac. When these dolmens remain in the state
in which they were left, still covered with earth, they take the name of
_tumuli_. Comparatively few of the tumuli belong to the neolithic. In
these, large numbers of bodies have been found, and none of them in a
natural position, but cramped up and their heads resting between the
knees.
Judging from the calcined bones, which are frequently met with at the
tomb, it may be inferred that victims were offered during the funeral
ceremonies, perchance a slave, or the widow. Lubbock is of opinion that
when a woman died in giving birth to a child, or even while still
suckling it, the child was interred alive with her.[76]
This hypothesis is substantiated by the great number of cases in which
the skeleton of a woman and child have been found together. In the
ceremonies at the tomb, some read the belief in a future state of
existence. The evidence, however, is no clearer than that in the
previous epochs. Man undoubtedly had such a belief, but science does not
reveal it.
CHAPTER XII.
BRONZE EPOCH.
The Age of Bronze bears no direct relation to the antiquity of man, for
it is largely embraced in written history. Although history does not
record the events of the age of bronze in Western Europe, yet history
covers the time which embraces the use of bronze. This epoch has more to
do with the archæologist than the geologist. It is marked by the
abundance of swords, spears, fish-hooks, sickles, knives, ornaments, and
other articles made of bronze. The bronze implements are principally
found in England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Denmark, Norway, Italy, and
Switzerland. The lake-settlements of Switzerland known to belong to this
epoch are: Geneva, ten settlements; Neuchatel, twenty-five settlements;
Bienne, ten settlements; Morat, three settlements; and Sempach, two
settlements. To these may be added some of the crannoges of Ireland;
also many tumuli and mounds.
_Type._--The man of this epoch was not unlike that of the preceding. His
head was rather broad than long, he was small, energetic, and muscular;
his hands were small, as is proven by the remarkably small handles of
their swords, which are too small for a hand of the present day. This
type of man has maintained itself in the north of Switzerland to the
present time.
_Habitations and Food._--The caves and rock-shelters gave way entirely
to the rude huts which now protected man. If they were resorted to, it
was only from some peculiar cause or danger. The food was the same as in
the neolithic, with additions to the cereals.
_Clothing._--The skins of animals were used less than formerly for
clothing. Garments made of other material have been found, and even the
whole dress of a chief. In a tumulus of Jutland there were found a thick
woollen cap, a coarse woollen cloak (Fig. 17), semicircular in form,
scalloped out round the neck, shaggy in the inside, three feet four
inches long, and wide in proportion; two woollen shawls, a woollen
shirt, woollen leggings, and the remains of a pair of leather boots.
Fibrous plants also contributed to the comfort of man, and were possibly
used for summer wear, and under garments in winter.
[Illustration: FIG. 17. WOOLLEN CLOAK OF THE BRONZE EPOCH, FOUND IN
1861, IN A TUMULUS IN JUTLAND.]
_Implements._--The people of this age made great improvements in their
weapons, tools, and ornaments. They consist of bronze celts, swords,
hammers, knives, hair-pins, small rings, ear-rings, bracelets,
fish-hooks, awls, spiral-wires, lance-heads, arrow-heads, buttons,
needles, various ornaments, saws, daggers, sickles, and double-pointed
pins. There were also ornaments of gold. Only one implement, a winged
celt, has been found, which bore an inscription.
_Arts._--Progress was made in the art of weaving. Soldering and the
moulding of metal were practised; foundries were established, the
remains of which have been discovered at Devaine and Walflinger in
Switzerland; stone moulds were used, one of which, on trial, produced a
hatchet exactly similar to those which have been collected. The moulds
were usually made out of sand. The crucible used for the melting of the
metal was made out of pottery which was placed over a hole in the earth
filled with burning charcoal; when the metal was melted, it was poured
into the mould. Pottery took new shapes and was adorned with various
patterns. Glass, which has so long been ascribed to Phoenician origin,
was invented in the bronze age, for glass beads, of a blue or green
color, have been found in the tombs of this epoch.
_Agriculture._--The cereals attest to the tilling of the soil. The
ground was prepared by the projecting branch of a stem of the tree, used
as a plough. The grain was stored for winter use, and when required was
crushed by being rubbed between two stones serving as a mortar.
_Fishing and Navigation._--There are no distinct traces of improvement
beyond the past epoch, in fishing and navigation, unless it be in the
improved hooks made of bronze.
_Burial._--The custom of burning the dead was almost universal in
Denmark, and was more or less practised in other countries. The ashes
and fragments of the bone were collected and placed either in or under
an urn. When buried, the corpse was usually placed in a contracted
position, but occasionally extended. With the dead were buried their
implements and clothing. The body of the chief discovered in a tumulus
in Jutland, where the clothing was found, was buried in a coffin nine
and two-third feet long, over two feet in breadth, and covered by a
movable lid. The body was in a good state of preservation, owing to the
action on it of water strongly impregnated with iron. It was wrapped in
the woollen cloak, and again wrapped in an ox's hide. Buried with it
were the shawls, leggings, shirt, boots, and caps, two small boxes, a
bronze razor, comb, a bronze sword in a wooden sheath, and a long
woollen band. In other coffins have been found swords, knives, brooches,
awls, tweezers, and buttons, all of bronze. In a baby's coffin was found
an amber bead, and a small bronze bracelet.
_Religious Belief._--Many crescents, made of stone and earthenware, have
been found which are regarded, by some archæologists, as religious
emblems. Dr. Keller calls them "moon images," and has devoted a short
chapter to their consideration.[77] On the other hand, Lubbock and Carl
Vogt regard them as resting-places for the head at night.[78] They
carefully arranged their long hair, and evidently sacrificed comfort for
vanity. They carried a long pin with which to scratch the head. This
kind of a pillow is still used by the Fuegeans and Abyssinians, who have
their hair elaborately decorated; and in some cases this is never
disturbed. If the people were worshippers the crescent is the only
evidence from archæology. No idols have ever been discovered. That the
people were already worshippers may be learned from the traditions
recorded in history.
CHAPTER XIII.
IRON EPOCH.
As the _Iron Epoch_ fairly establishes civilization, and belongs almost
wholly to the historical epoch, it will be here briefly noticed, and
then dismissed after giving a quotation from Dr. Keller. The bronze had
not only prepared the way for the iron epoch, but also gave a great
impulse to succeeding ages. The art of metallurgy assumed a new
importance and gave new life to every movement that tended to the
assistance of man. The works of bronze gave way to those of iron. A
knife made of iron is represented in Fig. 18. Knives of this pattern
were, however, made of bronze, and served for the same purpose. The
workshops of this age were so numerous that four hundred of them have
been discovered in one province. The potter's wheel was invented; money
was introduced, and agriculture greatly nourished.
[Illustration: FIG. 18. A KNIFE OF THE IRON EPOCH.]
Some of the Swiss lake-dwellings of Neuchatel and Bienne belong to this
epoch. Dr. Keller, in summing up some of his observations, has made use
of the following language: "The phenomenon of the lake-dwellings, so
important in the history of civilization, the time of their first
establishment, their original design, their development, and their final
extinction, in spite of many accumulated facts, is in many respects
clouded in doubt.... It is certain from the very beginning of this
peculiar mode of living to the latest period of its existence, while
outward circumstances remained the same, a quiet advance to a better
development of the conditions of life may be observed, in which there
was neither retrogression nor any sudden advance by the intervention of
foreign elements. The general diffusion of metals in a country which had
none, is explained simply by the barter which existed throughout Europe
in the very earliest ages. The question why the inhabitants of a
lake-dwelling of the stone age abandoned their settlements, while those
of another, not many hours' or many minutes' walk distant, remained
quietly living on their platforms, is of no greater importance than the
inquiry why, during the middle ages, so many localities have
disappeared, the names and situations of which are known to us. The
presence of objects of industry on the area of the lake-dwellings has
nothing in it very surprising, if we consider what misfortunes villages
of straw-covered huts were exposed to, in which not only the houses
themselves, but even the platforms on which they stood, were formed of
very combustible materials. It is possible, if we are to take Cæsar's
account literally, that when the Helvetii, whose arrival in the country
is neither mentioned in history nor shown by archæology, withdrew, the
lake-dwellings then existing were, as a whole, burned down; but there
can also be no doubt that some remained standing, or were rebuilt after
the return of the population. Their continuing down to the Roman time is
only astonishing to any one who imagines that at this time the whole
population had gone over to the Roman manner of life, while the proof
lies before him that the lower class adhered to their own manners and
customs till the entrance of the German races."[79]
CHAPTER XIV.
TRACES OF MAN IN AMERICA.
America furnishes a better field for the antiquary than the old world.
Her ancient remains are not so much injured by the decay of empires and
the rude hand of war. Succeeding ages have not so much effaced these
marks, and many of the remains still stand as left by the original
occupants, save only the change and decay which time itself produces.
America will yet be discovered. It is true the landmarks are known; but
these have not been investigated so diligently as the remains of man in
Europe. The Boucher de Perthes and the Dr. Schmerling are yet to come.
Until they do, the history of primitive man in America must be
surrounded with great uncertainty. Much labor has been given to the
investigation of this subject, and many works written, all looking
toward an early development which must sooner or later come.
In this chapter the aim will only be to point out some of these traces.
_Enumeration._--The implements from the gravel beds of Colorado and the
skull from Calaveras county, California, have already been referred to
(pp. 61, 62).
Near Osage Mission, Kansas, there was found a human skull imbedded in a
solid rock, which was broken open by blasting. It was examined by Dr.
Weirley, who compared it with a modern skull, and found it resembled the
latter in general shape, yet it was an inch and a quarter longer. Of
this relic he says: "It belonged to a man of a large size, and was
imbedded in conglomerate rock of the tertiary class, and found several
feet beneath the surface. Parts of the frontal, parietal, and occipital
bones were carried away by the explosion. The piece of rock holding the
remains weighs some forty or fifty pounds, with many impressions of
marine shells, and through it runs a vein of quartz, or within the
cranium crystallized organic matter, and by the aid of a microscope
presents a beautiful appearance." In shape the Neanderthal man comes
nearest to it.[80]
In the Comstock lode (Nevada), at a depth of five hundred feet, Judge A.
W. Baldwin found a human skull of unusual and peculiar shape. It is very
short from base to summit, and exceedingly broad between the ears. The
skull is entire, with the exception of the facial bones. This skull has
never been examined by a competent person.[81]
In the drift-clay, in the city of Toronto, at a depth of two feet from
the surface, were discovered the bones and horn of a deer, amidst an
accumulation of charcoal and ashes, and with them a rude stone chisel or
hatchet.[82]
In the gravel of the gold-bearing quartz of the Grinell leads (Kansas),
was found an imperfect flint knife at a depth of fourteen feet. Above
the implement the gravel, composed of quartz and reddish clay, was ten
feet thick, and above this was four feet of rich black soil. This
implement was given to Dr. Daniel Wilson by Mr. P. A. Scott.[83]
Dr. Dickeson found, in the yellow loam of the Mississippi at Natchez, a
human pelvic bone along with the bones of the mastodon and megalonyx.
They were found at a depth of thirty feet from the surface, and the
human bone had the same black color which characterized the others. Sir
Charles Lyell calculated that it required sixty-seven thousand years to
form the delta of the Mississippi, but admits, if the conclusions
arrived at by the United States engineers be correct, in respect to the
annual amount of sediment discharged at the delta, the growth would be
reduced to thirty-three thousand five hundred years. Taking either of
these estimates, the same would give the number of years which have
elapsed since these bones were deposited.[84]
In an excavation made near New Orleans, at a depth of sixteen feet from
the surface, beneath four cypress forests superimposed one upon the
other, the workmen found a complete human skeleton, and some charcoal.
The cranium is similar to the aboriginal type of the Indian race. This
discovery furnished the data from which Dr. Bennet Dowler assigned to
the human race an antiquity, in the delta of the Mississippi, of
fifty-seven thousand years.[85]
Count Pourtalis found some fossil human remains, consisting of jaws,
teeth, and some bones of the foot, in a calcareous conglomerate forming
a part of the series of reefs of Florida. The whole series of reefs is
of post-tertiary origin, and, according to Professor Agassiz, has been
one hundred and thirty-five thousand years in forming. If this
calculation be correct, then these bones must have an antiquity of ten
thousand years.[86]
Dr. Lund, a Danish naturalist, explored eight hundred caverns in Brazil,
belonging to different epochs, and exhumed in them a great number of
unknown animal species. In a calcareous cave, near the lake of
Semidouro, he found the bones of not less than thirty persons of
different ages, and showing a similar state of decomposition to that of
the bones of animals with which they were associated. From the
discoveries there made, Lund was forced to the conclusion that man was
cotemporaneous with the megatherium and the mylodon--animals belonging
to the post-tertiary.[87]
The shell-heaps of America are coeval with those of Denmark. Those at
Damariscotta, Maine, have been examined by Professor W. D. Gunning. He
estimates that within, an area of one hundred rods in length, eighty in
width there are piled one hundred million bushels of oyster shells. One
dome-shaped hillock is nearly one hundred feet in height. The only human
relics found among the shells are stone gouges, arrow-heads, bone
needles, pottery, and copper knives. These shells were probably
deposited by but a few individuals at a time. When formed, the oyster
was a native of that coast, but within the memory of man the oyster has
not lived there.
_The Mound-Builders._--An ancient and unknown people of a certain degree
of civilization have left remains of their greatness in the
fortifications and mounds in the valleys of the Mississippi and its
tributaries. These works extend over a great extent of territory. They
are found in Western New York, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee,
Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri,
Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Texas, and
along the Kansas, Platte, and other western rivers.
The people appear to have originated in Ohio. On the southern extremity
the works gradually lose their distinctive character, and pass into the
higher developed architecture of Mexico; and at the north, north-east,
and north-west, the population seem to have been more limited and their
works less perfectly developed. The people were preëminently given to
agriculture; were not warlike, and only navigated the rivers along their
settlements. The fertile valleys of the Scioto, two Miamis, Kanawaha,
White, Wabash, Kentucky, Cumberland, and Tennessee rivers were densely
populated, as indicated by the numerous works which diversify their
surfaces.
The stone and bone implements from the mounds, in their shape differ but
little from those of Europe. The hatchets and knives are not only made
of flint but also of obsidian, and other hard stones. Copper was the
chief metallic substance. Out of this they made various implements, and
swords. It was obtained from the shores of Lake Superior, where they
carried on extensive mining. In these mines have been found their
implements, some of which are very large diorite hatchets, used as
sledges for breaking off lumps of copper, and so heavy that it would
require more than one man to wield them. The copper was not subjected to
heat, but it was hammered cold into such a shape as was desired.
Some idea of the number of the mounds and fortresses may be given from
the statement that in the State of Ohio alone there are from eleven
thousand to twelve thousand of these works. The fortresses were used for
the protection of the people against the predatory warfare of the
hostile tribes, or even, it may be, against the incursions made by other
Mound-Builders. In regard to the mounds, there has been much
speculation, and some archæologists divide them into sacrificial,
sepulchral, temple, and symbolical.
_Sacrificial._--The sacrificial mounds are characterized by "their
almost invariable occurrence within enclosures; their regular
construction in uniform layers of gravel, earth, and sand, disposed
alternately in strata conformable to the shape of the mound; and their
covering a symmetrical altar of burned clay or stone, on which are
deposited numerous relics, in all instances exhibiting traces, more or
less abundant, of their having been exposed to the action of fire."[88]
Among the most remarkable are those found on the Scioto, at the place
called Mound City situated on the western bank. The mounds are enclosed
by a simple embankment, between three and four feet high. The area
occupied is about thirteen acres, and includes twenty-four mounds. One
of these is one hundred and forty feet in length, and the greatest
breadth is sixty feet. In this mound occurred four successive altars, a
bushel of fragments of spear-heads, over fifty quartz arrow-heads, and
copper and other relics. The sacrificial deposits do not disclose a
miscellaneous assemblage of relics, for on one altar hundreds of
sculptured pipes chiefly occur; on another, pottery, copper ornaments,
stone implements; on others, calcined shells, burned bones; and on
others, no deposit has been noticed. The sacrificial mounds are found at
Marietta and other localities.
All the investigations which have been made prove that the altars were
not only used for a long period, but also had been repeatedly renewed.
_Sepulchral._--The sepulchral mounds are numbered by the thousands. They
are simple earth-pyramids, sometimes elliptical or pear-shaped, and vary
in height from six to eighty feet. Usually they contain but one
skeleton, reduced almost to ashes, but occasionally in its ordinary
condition and in a crouching position. By the side of them occur
trinkets, and, in a few cases, weapons. These mounds were probably only
raised over the body of a chief or some distinguished person.
_Temple._--The temple mounds are truncated pyramids, with paths or steps
leading to the summit, and sometimes with terraces at different heights.
Among the most noted of these is that of Cahokia in Illinois. It is
seven hundred feet long at its base, five hundred feet wide, and ninety
feet high. Its level summit is several acres in extent.
_Symbolical._--The symbolical mounds consist of gigantic bas-reliefs
formed on the surface of the ground, representing men, animals, and
inanimate objects. In Wisconsin they exist in thousands, and among the
devices are man, the lizard, turtle, elk, buffalo, bear, fox, otter,
raccoon, frog, bird, fish, cross, crescent, angle, straight-line,
war-club, tobacco-pipe, and other familiar implements or weapons.
In Dane county there is a remarkable group, consisting of six
quadrupeds, six parallelograms, one circular tumulus, one human figure,
and a small circle. The quadrupeds are from one hundred to one hundred
and twenty feet long, and the figure of the man measured one hundred and
twenty-five feet in length and nearly one hundred and forty feet from
the end of one arm to the other. Near the village of Pewaukee, when
first discovered there were two lizards and seven tortoises. One of the
latter measured four hundred and seventy feet.
In Adams county, Ohio, is the figure of a vast serpent; its head
occupies the summit of a hill and in its distended jaws is a part of an
oval-shaped mass of earth one hundred and sixty feet long, eighty wide,
and four feet high. The body of the serpent extends round the hill for
about eight hundred feet, forming graceful coils and undulations. Near
Granville, Licking county, Ohio, on the summit of a hill two hundred
feet high, is the representation of an alligator. Its extreme length is
two hundred and fifty feet, average height four feet; the head,
shoulders, and rump are elevated in parts to a height of six feet; the
paws are forty feet long, the ends being broader than the links, as if
the spread of the toes were originally indicated. Upon the inner side of
the effigy is a raised space covered with stones which have been exposed
to the action of fire; and from this leading to the top is a graded way
ten feet in breadth. On examination it was discovered that the outline
of the figure was composed of stones of considerable size, upon which
the superstructure had been modelled in fine clay.
_Antiquity._--There are methods of determining the antiquity of these
mounds. Mr. E. G. Squier has pointed out three facts which go to prove
that they belong to a distant period. 1. None of these ancient works
occur on the lowest formed of the river terraces, which mark the
subsidence of the streams. As these works are raised on all the others,
it follows that the lowest terrace has been formed since the works were
erected. The streams generally form four terraces, and the period marked
by the lowest must be the longest because the excavating power of such
streams grows less as the channels grow deeper. 2. The skeletons of the
Mound-Builders are found in a condition of extreme decay. Only one or
two skeletons have been recovered in a condition suitable for
intelligent examination. The circumstances attending their burial were
unusually favorable for preserving them. The earth around them has
invariably been found wonderfully compact and dry; and yet, when
exhumed, they have been in a decomposed and crumbling condition. 3.
Their great age is shown by their relation to the primeval forests. As
the Mound-Builders were a settled agricultural people, their enclosures
and fields were cleared of trees, and remained so until deserted. When
discovered by the Europeans these enclosures were covered by gigantic
trees, some of them eight hundred years old. The trees which first made
their appearance were not the regular forest trees. When the first trees
that got possession of the soil had died away, they were supplanted, in
many cases, by other kinds, till at last, after a great number of
centuries, that remarkable diversity of species characteristic of North
America would be established.[89]
Dr. Buchner assigns to them an antiquity of from seven thousand to ten
thousand years.[90]
Fort Shelby, in Orleans county, New York, was carefully examined by
Frank H. Cushing, the archæologist. The fort was found to be composed of
two parallel circular walls, with a gateway in each. The gateway in the
outer wall fronted a peat-bog, the shore of which was some ten feet
distant. Within the enclosure he found small, flat, notched stones, used
for sinking fishing-nets. Into the bog he sank a shaft to the depth of
seven feet, not far from the shore. At the bottom of the shaft he found
the shells of living species of shell-fish. The natural surroundings
show that this fort was built when the peat-bog was a lake. This is
further confirmed by the fact that all ancient works are erected near a
permanent supply of water. The nearest permanent supply of water is Oak
Orchard Creek, one and one-half mile distant. The formation of this
peat would require not less than four thousand years, and more probably
twice that number.
The Mound-Builders must have remained a very long time. These works were
formed gradually, and the population extended slowly toward the North.
Their corn-fields, by their raised condition, show many successive years
of usage.
NOTE A.--In reference to the fossil human bones from Florida Count
L. F. Pourtales says: "The human jaw and other bones, found in
Florida by myself in 1848, were not in a coral formation, but in
a fresh-water sandstone on the shore of Lake Monroe, associated
with fresh-water shells of species still living in the lake,
(_Paludina, Ampullaria, etc._) No date can be assigned to
the formation of that deposit, at least from present
observation."--_American Naturalist_, vol. II., p. 443.
NOTE B.--Besides the evidences already enumerated, Col. Charles
Whittlesey gives the following: 1. Three skeletons of Indians in
a shelter cave near Elyria, O., were found four feet below the
surface, resting upon the original floor of the cave, upon which
were also charcoal, ashes, and the remains of existing animals;
estimated age, two thousand years. 2. Several human skeletons were
found in a cave near Louisville, Ky., cemented into a breccia.
They were discovered in constructing the reservoir in 1853. 3. A
log, worn by the feet of man, was found in the muck bed at High
Rock Spring, Saratoga, N. Y., at a depth of nine feet beneath the
cave, and estimated by Dr. Henry McGuire to be 5,470 years old. It
was discovered in 1866. 4. Mr. Koch claims to have found an arrow
head fifteen feet below the skeleton of the _Mastodon Ohioensis_
from the recent alluvium of the Pomme de Terre River, Mo., and now
in the British Museum. His statement was, however, contradicted by
one of the men who assisted him in exhuming the skeleton. 5. Dr.
Holmes, of Charleston, S. C., found pottery at the base of a peat
bog, on the banks of the Ashley River, in close connection with
the remains of the Mastodon and Megatherium. 6. Col. Whittlesey,
in 1838, found fire-hearths in the ancient alluvium of the Ohio,
at Portsmouth, O., at a depth of twenty feet, and beneath the
works of the Mound-Builders.--_Col. Whittlesey before the American
Association, in 1868._
CHAPTER XV.
WRITTEN HISTORY.
It is not generally known that written history extends so far back as to
make worthless the present system of chronology. The mighty empires of
antiquity must have been a mystery to many a thoughtful mind. As far
back as history will carry us we not only behold the world teeming with
her millions of people, but also nations rising and empires crumbling.
Rollin felt the difficulties of the chronology which hampered him. He
says the Assyrian empire was founded by Nimrod eighteen hundred years
after the creation of man, or two hundred and twenty-four years after
the Deluge, or one hundred and twenty-six years before the death of
Noah. Nimrod was succeeded by his son Ninus, who received powerful
succor from the Arabians, and extended his conquests from Egypt as far
as India and Bactriana. Ninus enlarged his capital to sixty miles in
circumference, built the walls to the height of one hundred feet, and so
broad that three chariots could go abreast upon them with ease, and
fortified and adorned them with one thousand five hundred towers two
hundred feet high. After he had finished this prodigious work he led
against the Bactrians one million seven hundred thousand foot, two
hundred thousand horse, besides four hundred vessels well equipped and
provided. After his death, Semiramis, his wife, ascended the throne. She
enlarged her dominions by the conquest of a great part of Ethiopia. Then
she led her army of three million foot and five hundred thousand horse,
besides the camels and chariots of war, into India, where she suffered a
severe defeat. After making these statements, Rollin says, "I must own
I am somewhat puzzled with a difficulty which may be raised against the
extraordinary things related of Ninus and Semiramis, as they do not seem
to agree with the times so near the Deluge: I mean, such vast armies,
such a numerous cavalry, so many chariots armed with scythes, and such
immense treasures of gold and silver; ... and the magnificence of the
buildings, ascribed to them."[91] The difficulties presented to the
modern historian never would have occurred if discredit had not been
thrown on the writings of the ancients.
_Egypt._--The only history of Egypt, written in Greek, was that of
Manetho, a high-priest of Heliopolis, who lived three hundred years
before Christ. Only fragments of this work have been preserved. This
history is taken from the ancient Egyptian chronicles, and records a
list of thirty dynasties reigning in one city. His "thirty-one lists
contain the names of one hundred and thirteen kings, who, according to
them, reigned in Egypt during the space of four thousand four hundred
and sixty-five years."[92] Dr. Buchner says Manetho "calculates for
three hundred and seventy-five Pharaohs a reigning period of six
thousand one hundred and seventeen years, which together with the
present era, makes about eight thousand three hundred and thirty
years."[93] Bayard Taylor makes Manetho assign the first dynasty to
about the year 5000 B. C.[94]
Herodotus says the Egyptians "declare that from their first king (Menes)
to this last mentioned monarch (Sethos), the priest of Vulcan, was a
period of three hundred and forty-one generations; such, at least, they
say, was the number both of their kings and of their high-priests,
during this interval. Now three hundred generations of men make ten
thousand years, three generations filling up the century; and the
remaining forty-one generations make thirteen hundred and forty years.
Thus the whole number of years is eleven thousand three hundred and
forty." The priests "led me into the inner sanctuary, which is a
spacious chamber, and showed me a multitude of colossal statues, in
wood, which they counted up, and found to amount to the exact number
they had said; the custom being for every high-priest during his
life-time to set up his statue in the temple. As they showed me the
figures and reckoned them up, they assured me that each was the son of
the one preceding him; and this they repeated throughout the whole line,
beginning with the representation of the priest last deceased, and
continuing till they had completed the series."[95] From the time of
Sethos, the priest of Vulcan, to the burning of the temple of Delphi,
was one hundred and twenty-two years. The temple was burned B. C. 548.
The period which, then, has elapsed from Sethos to the present (1875) is
two thousand five hundred and forty-five years. Adding this to the time
of Menes we have the whole period covering thirteen thousand eight
hundred and eighty-five years. But if the generation be reduced to
twenty years then the period from Menes to the present is nine thousand
three hundred and sixty-five years.
The recent explorations made by Mariette among the archives of Egypt
have confirmed the testimony of Manetho. The names of the kings, their
order of succession, and the length of their reigns correspond with
Manetho's table. These discoveries not only testify to the great
antiquity of the empire, but also throw light on the nation, its
manners, and customs. There were found stools, cane-bottomed chairs,
work-boxes, nets, knives, needles, toilet ornaments, earthenware, seeds,
eggs, bread, straw baskets, a child's plaything, paint boxes, with
colors and brushes, etc., from three thousand to six thousand years old.
There were also found the jewels of Queen Aah-hotep, who lived 1700 B.
C., consisting of exquisite chains, diadems, ear-rings, and bracelets,
which no modern queen would hesitate to wear.
These statements are still further confirmed by the testimony of
geology. In the year 1850 borings were commenced in the mud deposit of
the Nile. The most important results were obtained from an excavation
and boring made near the base of the pedestal of the statue of Rameses
at Memphis, the middle of whose reign, according to Lepsius, was 1361 B.
C. Assuming with Mr. Horner that the lower part of the platform or
foundation was fourteen and three-fourths inches below the surface of
the ground, or alluvial flat, at the time it was laid, there had been
formed between that period and the year A. D. 1850, or during the space
of three thousand two hundred and eleven years, a deposit of nine feet
four inches round the pedestal, which gives a mean increase of three and
one-half inches in a hundred years. It was further ascertained, by
sinking a shaft near the pedestal, and by boring in the same place, that
below the level of the old plain the thickness of old Nile mud resting
on desert sand amounted to thirty-two feet; and it was therefore
inferred by Mr. Horner that the lowest layer (in which a fragment of
burned brick was found) was more than thirteen thousand years old, or
was deposited thirteen thousand four hundred and ninety-six years before
the year 1850."[96] Other excavations were made on a large scale. In the
first sixteen or twenty-four feet there were dug up jars, vases, pots, a
small human figure in burnt clay, a copper knife, and other articles
entire. When the water soaking through from the Nile hindered the
progress of the workmen, boring was resorted to, and almost everywhere,
and from all depths, even where they sank sixty feet below the surface,
pieces of burned brick and pottery were extracted.[97]
_Troy._--Troy, made immortal by the poem of Homer, has recently been
uncovered to the eye of man, and fresh lustre has been thrown over the
ancient bard. The descriptions of Troy given by Homer, thought to have
been a mere work of imagination, are now shown to be accurate, and also
that he must have been there. For the re-discovery and unearthing of
Troy the world is indebted to Dr. Schlieman. Four buried cities
superimposed one above the other were discovered. The third city, below
the surface, is ancient Troy. The house of Priam, the Scæan gate, the
massive walls and pavements, still remained. In the house of Priam Dr.
Schlieman found a great mass of human bones, among them two entire
skeletons wearing copper helmets, a silver vase, two diadems of golden
scales, a golden coronet, fifty-six golden ear-rings, eight thousand
seven hundred and fifty gold rings, buttons, etc. Immediately beside the
house of Priam, closely packed in a quadrangular space, surrounded with
ashes, and near by a copper key, were a large oval shield of copper, a
copper pot, a copper tray, a golden flagon, weighing nearly a pound,
several silver vases, a silver bowl, fourteen copper lance-heads,
fourteen copper battle-axes, two large two-edged daggers, a part of a
sword, and some smaller articles. The value, by weight alone, of all the
gold and silver found in or near the house of Priam, has been estimated
at twenty thousand dollars. During the excavations, over one hundred
thousand articles were found. Every mark showed that Troy had been
suddenly destroyed. Conflagration, ruin, the implements and the effects
of war were visible. Even the brave warriors who fell while defending
the palace of their king have not yet wholly crumbled into dust.
The four cities may be thus summed up: The topmost stratum is six and
one-half feet in depth and covers the Grecian settlement which was
established about the year 700 B. C. Beneath the Greek masonry are found
the walls of another city, built of earth and small stones, but the
abundance of wood-ashes shows that the city--or the successive
cities--was chiefly built of wood.
The ruins of Troy, next in succession, are from twenty-three and
one-half to thirty-three and one-half feet from the surface, and form a
stratum averaging ten feet in thickness. Troy is supposed to have been
founded about 1400 B. C., and its fall and destruction by fire to have
occurred about 1100 B. C.
Under Troy there is a fourth stratum of ruins, varying from thirteen to
twenty feet in depth. The most remarkable feature of these oldest ruins
is the superiority of the terracotta articles. These vases are of a
shining black, red, or brown color, with ornamental patterns, first cut
into the pottery, and then filled with a white substance. The age of
these ruins "is a matter of pure conjecture, since the vicissitudes of
the city's history--frequent destruction and rebuilding--would have the
same practical effect, or very nearly so, as a long interval of time. We
have anywhere from two to five thousand years before Christ as the date
of the foundation of the _first_ Troy."[98]
_Chaldea._--Berosus, a Chaldean priest of Belus, nearly three hundred
years before Christ, wrote in Greek a regular history of Chaldea, in
nine books. The materials for this work were supplied by the archives
then existing in the Temple of Belus at Babylon. The work was
particularly devoted to a history of the kingdom prior to the beginning
of the Assyrian empire. Fragments of this work have been preserved by
Josephus and Eusebius. After describing the cyclical ages of ten
fabulous kings, he then comes to what he considers true history, and
enumerates one hundred and sixty-three kings of Chaldea, who reigned
successively from the time when the list begins to the rise of the
Assyrian empire, about the year 1237 B. C. Berosus begins with a dynasty
of eighty-six kings, and gives their names, which are now lost. He had
no chronology of their time, but subjected it to a cyclical
calculation. His list, which has so far escaped the lapse of time and
the change of hands, is thus preserved:
First, eighty-six Chaldean kings; history and time mythical.
Second, eight Median kings; during two hundred and twenty-four years.
Third, eleven kings.
Fourth, forty-nine Chaldean kings.
Fifth, nine Arabian kings; during two hundred and forty-five years.
The rulers of the Assyrian empire were next added, as a sixth dynasty.
The blank spaces in the list are doubtless the result of careless
copying, or caused by imperfections in the manuscripts. In order to make
the old kingdom of Chaldea begin about the year 2234 B. C. the first
eighty-six kings of Berosus have been struck out as fabulous, and the
Median dynasty regarded as spurious, and this without any show of
reason, save that it does not agree with the chronology which the
mutilators of history accept.
Investigations which have been made among the ruined cities of Chaldea
have given great weight to the authority of Berosus, and are tending to
the confirmation of his history. In Susiana there was found a Cushite
inscription, mentioned by Rawlinson, in which there is a date that goes
back nearly to the year 3200 B. C. The testimony of the records
disentombed from the ruins, as well as Berosus, contradicts the
prevalent hypothesis that the Magian or Aryan race occupied the country
before the Cushites. These ruins also "confirm Berosus by showing that
Chaldea was a cultivated and flourishing nation, governed by kings, long
previous to the time when the city known to us as Babylon rose to
eminence and became the seat of empire. During that long time there were
several great political epochs in the history of the country,
representing important dynastic changes, and several transfers of the
seat of government from one city to another. Such epochs in Chaldean
history are indicated by the list of Berosus."[99]
By this people, the science of astronomy was well understood.
"Callisthenes, who accompanied Alexander to Babylon, sent to Aristotle
from that capital a series of astronomical observations which he had
found preserved there, extending back to a period of one thousand nine
hundred and three years from Alexander's conquest of the city.... These
observations were recorded in tablets of baked clay.... They must have
extended, according to Simplicius, as far back as 2234 B. C., and would
seem to have been commenced and carried on for many centuries by the
primitive Chaldean people." A lens of considerable power, used for
either magnifying or condensing the rays of the sun, was found at
Babylon, in a chamber of the ruin called Nimroud.[100]
_China._--Litse, an eminent Chinese historian, relates that there were
long periods of time when the Chinese kingdom flourished, the chronology
of which is not preserved, although there is recorded some knowledge of
the rulers. One of these rulers promoted the study of astronomy. Next
come the historical epochs. During the first, astronomy, religion, and
the art of writing were cultivated. This was a great epoch, and ruled by
fifteen successive kings. In the second epoch, agriculture and medical
science were promoted. In the third, the magnetic needle was discovered,
the written characters improved, civilized life advanced, and a great
revolt suppressed. In the fourth and fifth epochs, the descendants of
the previous ruler reigned. Next came the period of Yao and Shin. After
this the period of the "Imperial Dynasties," which began with the
Emperor Yu, who lived two thousand two hundred years B. C. The
historical work of Sse-ma-thi-an narrates events chronologically from
the year 2637 B. C. to 122 B. C.[101]
_Mexico._--It is known that books or manuscripts were abundant among
the ancient Mexicans. There were persons duly appointed to keep a
chronicle of the passing events. Las Casas, who saw the books, says they
gave the origin of the kingdom as well as the founders of the different
cities, and every different thing which transpired that was worthy of
note: such as the history of kings, their modes of election and
succession; their labors, actions, wars, memorable deeds, good or bad;
the heroes of other days, their triumphs and defeats. These chroniclers
calculated the days, months, and years. Nearly all these books were
destroyed at the instigation of the monks, and by the more ignorant and
fanatical Spanish priests. A vast collection of these old writings were
burned in one conflagration by order of Bishop Zumarraga. A few of the
works, however, escaped, but none of the great books of annals described
by Las Casas.[102] Thus Mexico must be left to the archæologist
unassisted by written history.
CHAPTER XVI.
LANGUAGE.
The origin and growth of language evidently afford a great field for
study, in not only tracing the development of civilization, but also in
confirming the testimony of the ancients and the conclusions of the
geologists. If the unity of language could not be established, there
would still be left a field so great as would not lessen the interest or
the importance of the subject. But a new language cannot be formed. For
the sake of convenience the many varieties of language have been grouped
into three great divisions, _i. e._, the Aryan, the Semitic, and the
Turanian. "The English, together with all the Teutonic languages of the
Continent, Celtic, Slavonic, Greek, Latin with its modern offshoots,
such as French and Italian, Persian, and Sanskrit, are so many varieties
of one common type of speech: that Sanskrit, the ancient language of the
Veda, is no more distinct from the Greek of Homer, ... or from the
Anglo-Saxon of Alfred, than French is from Italian. All these languages
together form one family, one whole, in which every member shares
certain features in common with all the rest, and is at the same time
distinguished from the rest by certain features peculiarly its own. The
same applies to the Semitic family which comprises, as its most
important members, the Hebrew of the Old Testament, the Arabic of the
Koran, and the ancient languages on the monuments of Phoenicia and
Carthage, of Babylon and Assyria. These languages, again, form a compact
family, and differ entirely from the other family, which we called Aryan
or Indo-European. The third group of languages, for we can hardly call
it a family, comprises most of the remaining languages of Asia, and
counts among its principal members the Tungusic, Mongolic, Turkic,
Samoyedic, and Finnic, together with the languages of Siam, the Malay
Islands, Thibet, and Southern India. Lastly, the Chinese language stands
by itself as monosyllabic, the only remnant of the earliest formation of
human speech."[103]
Anterior to these three families there was still another from which
these were derived. It contained the germs of all the Turanian, as well
as the Aryan and Semitic forms of speech. It belongs to that period in
the history of man when ideas were first clothed in language, and has
been called the Rhematic Period.[104]
As regards the origin of language, three theories have been proposed:
the Interjectional, the Imitation, and the Root. The first supposes that
the beginnings of human speech were the cries and sounds which are
uttered when a human being is affected by fear, pain, or joy. The second
supposes "that man, being as yet mute, heard the voices of birds, and
dogs, and cows, the thunder of the clouds, the roaring of the sea, the
rustling of the forest, the murmurs of the brook, and the whisper of the
breeze. He tried to imitate these sounds, and finding his mimicking
cries useful as signs of the objects from which they proceeded, he
followed up the idea and elaborated language." The third theory,
advanced by Max Müller, is that language followed as the outward sign
and realization of that inward faculty which is called the faculty of
abstraction, and the roots, to which language may be reduced, express a
general, not an individual idea.[105]
There is more or less truth in all these theories. At the very earliest
period man must have possessed some method of communicating his wants or
ideas. The casual observer has noticed that animals have methods of
communicating with one another. It is not improbable that at the very
earliest period man's only mode was that of cries and signs. This may
have lasted for a very long time. Then the mimicking commenced. Next,
comparison was resorted to when he had so far advanced as to describe
his thoughts and, finally, from these various beginnings, from necessary
or forced improvement, his ideas were expressed in root words.[106]
Instead of new languages originating, old languages change. They are
mutable, and from them new dialects are produced. In the history of man
there never has been a new language, and the languages now spoken are
but the modifications of old ones. The words now used by all people,
however broken up, crushed, or put together, are the same materials as
were used in the beginnings of speech. New words are but old words; old
in their material elements, though they may be renewed and dressed in
various forms. "The modifiability of the language and its tendency to
vary never cease, so that it would readily run into new dialects and
modes of pronunciation if there were no communication with the mother
country direct or indirect. In this respect its mutability will resemble
that of species, and it can no more spring up independently in separate
districts than species can, assuming that these last are all of
derivative origin."[107]
There are from four thousand to six thousand living languages. The
number of unspoken languages is not known. Their growth has required
ages, and during their development many a parent stalk has ceased to
exist. The changes in a language are slowly produced. It requires
centuries to so far leave a language as to need an interpreter in order
to understand it. Some idea of this slow change may be gained by
comparing the writings in the English language of different periods. In
the year 1362 appeared a poem called "Piers Ploughman's Creed," which
begins as follows:
"In a summer season,
When soft was the sun,
I shoop me into shrowds[108]
As I a sheep[109] were;
In habit as an hermit
Unholy of werkes,
Went wide in this world
Wonders to hear;
Ac[110] on a May morwening
On Malvern hills
Me befel a ferly,[111]
Of fairy me thought." Etc.
Written language is more permanent than spoken, but the process of
either is necessarily slow. When it is remembered that a language has
been derived successively through numerous others, no special limit or
time can be given, although a very long period would be required. The
usually accepted chronology would not allow sufficient time for the
diversity in the Semitic family, to say nothing of the time required for
the development of the three general classes.
CHAPTER XVII.
UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE.
The theory of the unity of the human race has caused a clash of opinions
among men of science. It has been the great battle field among
anthropologists, ethnologists, geologists, philologists, and
theologists. Men of acknowledged ability have been arrayed on either
side. Among the foremost in favor of a diversity of origin have been
Agassiz, Sir Roderick I. Murchison, Georges Pouchet, A. R. Wallace, and
Schleicher. But the weight of evidence and authority is most in favor of
the unity of the human race.
The advocates of the theory of the diversity of the origin of the human
race have advanced many objections against the unity, and produced
arguments in favor of their opinions. These may be summed up under five
heads. 1. The anatomical differences between the different races, and
especially those which distinguish the black and white. 2. The
separation of the races from each other for unknown ages by great
oceans, and by formidable and almost impassable continental barriers. 3.
The disparity in intelligence, and the grades in civilization. 4. A
medium type cannot exist by itself, except on the condition of being
supported by the two creating types. 5. When two types become united,
two phenomena may arise: _a_, Either one of them will absorb the other;
or _b_, They may subsist simultaneously in the midst of a greater or
less number of hybrids.
The following answers may be given to these objections, or arguments: 1.
It is just as reasonable to suppose that man is affected, as well as the
animals, by climate, food, or peculiar condition. It is well known that
animals have undergone more or less change by their situation or
position. Elephants and rhinoceroses are almost hairless. As certain
extinct species, which formerly lived under an arctic climate, were
covered with hair or long wool, it would appear that the present species
of both genera had lost their hairy covering by exposure to heat. This
is confirmed by the fact that the elephants of the elevated and cool
districts of India are more hairy than those on the lowlands.[112] A
wonderful change is wrought by the influence of climate on turkeys. In
India "it is much degenerated in size, utterly incapable of rising on
the wing, of a black color, and with long pendulous appendages over the
beak, enormously developed." "In the English climate an individual Porto
Santo rabbit recovered the proper color of its fur in less than four
years."[113] Observers are convinced that a damp climate affects the
growth of the hair of cattle. The mountain-breeds always differ from the
lowland breeds; in a mountainous country the hind limbs would be
affected from exercising them more, which would also affect the pelvis,
and, then, from the law of homologous variation, the front limbs and
head would probably be affected.[114] One of the most marked
distinctions in the races of man is that the skull in some is elongated
or dolichocephalic, and in others rounded or brachycephalic. Mr. Darwin
has observed that a change takes place in the skulls of domestic
rabbits; they become elongated, while those of the wild rabbit are
rounded. He took two skulls of nearly equal breadth, the one from a wild
and the other from a large domestic rabbit, the former was only 3.15,
and the latter 4.3 inches in length. Welcker has observed "that short
men incline more to brachycephaly and tall men to dolichocephaly; and
tall men may be compared with the larger and longer-bodied rabbits, all
of which have elongated skulls."[115] The argument from language is of
great weight, especially in considering the differences in color.
Professor Max Müller has stated this clearly: "There was a time when the
ancestors of the Celts, the Germans, the Slavonians, the Greeks and
Italians, the Persians and Hindus, were living together beneath the same
roof." "The evidence of language is irrefragable, and it is the only
evidence worth listening to with regard to ante-historical periods. It
would have been next to impossible to discover any traces of
relationship between the swarthy natives of India and their conquerors,
whether Alexander or Clive, but for the testimony borne by
language."[116] When the great lapse of ages is taken into
consideration, since man originated, it will be seen that sufficient
time is given to produce the white, black, yellow, red, and brown
varieties of man.
2. The argument from geographical distribution would hardly seem valid,
as it is known that the ocean can be and has been navigated by frail
crafts. Lieutenant Bligh, of the ship Bounty, in a small boat,
twenty-three feet long from stem to stern, deep laden with nineteen men
and one hundred and fifty pounds of bread, twenty-eight gallons of
water, twenty pounds of pork, etc., started from the island of Tofoa
(South Pacific) for the island of Timor, a distance of three thousand
six hundred miles. In this voyage he encountered a boisterous sea, and
great perils, but finally reached his destination.[117] When men began
to dwell on the sea-coast they made their small vessels and carried on a
limited navigation. Many a frail craft has been driven out to sea with
its human freight, some of which landed on uninhabited islands. This has
often happened among the South Sea islanders.[118] If it had been
asserted, a few years ago, that man's distribution might have been
partly caused by the agency of ice, it would have received no attention.
And yet, Captain Tyson and his party, consisting of twelve men, two
women, and five children, being a portion of the crew of the ill-fated
Polaris, drifted about from the 15th of October, 1872, to the 30th of
April, 1873, on an ice-floe, and in the midst of an arctic winter.
Besides the provisions saved from the Polaris they subsisted on the
flesh of seals, birds, and bears that they were able to kill. Every
member of this party was rescued off the coast of Labrador. It must be
further noticed that the surface of the earth was not always the same.
The continents have changed more or less, and during these changes man
must have become more or less separated.
3. In respect to the disparity it may be replied that the two extreme
points are observable in all the nations of the earth. Even in single
families there have been those who were highly cultured and refined,
while other members have been very low in organization, habits, and
tastes. In these days it is manifest that all the races are capable of a
very high degree of improvement. On the other hand, nations have
retrograded. The ignorant, wretched nomads who pitch their tents amid
the ruins of Babylon, are the descendants of the ancient mixed races who
successively occupied Mesopotamia: the Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes,
and Persians, who were ruled by such renowned monarchs as Shalmaneser,
Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, and others. The wild marauding Arabs are the
descendants of a people who invented algebra and introduced the
numerals. So the list might be extended.
4 and 5. The fourth and fifth amount to the assumption that no race will
amalgamate with another. The statements embraced under these two heads
are not warranted by facts. Dr. Prichard says, "Mankind of all races and
varieties are equally capable of propagating their offspring by
intermarriages, and that such connections are equally prolific whether
contracted between individuals of the same or of the most dissimilar
varieties. If there is any difference, it is probably in favor of the
latter."[119] He then gives a short account of several examples of new
or intermediate stocks which have been produced and multiplied. They are
Griquas, descended from the Dutch and Hottentots, who occupy the banks
of the Orange River, and number five thousand souls; the Cafusos of
Brazil, a mixture of native Americans and African Negroes; the Papuas of
the island of New Guinea, a mixture between the Malays and Negroes. One
of the best examples yet furnished is that of the Pitcairn Islanders.
This colony originated in this way: The British government had sent a
vessel, called the Bounty, commanded by Lieutenant Bligh, to gather
bread-fruit trees at Otaheite and introduce them into the West Indies.
Bligh was an overbearing, tyrannical, and cruel officer. Driven to fury,
and out of patience with the superior officer, Mr. Fletcher Christian
and others mutinied, and turned Bligh and his eighteen companions
adrift. The mutineers proceeded to Tahiti; here they took on board
provisions and live stock, nine Tahitian men, twelve women, and eight
boys who had secreted themselves, and then proceeded to Toubouai, where
they founded a settlement. Owing to dissensions the colony broke up and
removed to Tahiti. But Mr. Christian, with eight other of the mutineers,
three Toubouaians, three Tahitian men with their wives, and one child,
and nine other women, left in the Bounty and landed at Pitcairn's
Island, and there burned the Bounty on the 23d of January, 1790. In less
than nine years afterward, owing to strifes, the men were reduced to two
in number, both whites, and one of them died the succeeding year. In the
year 1808 the American ship Topaz touched at the island. The colonists
then numbered thirty-five. In 1856 they had increased to the number of
one hundred and ninety, and as the produce of the island was barely
sufficient to support them they were removed by the British government
to Norfolk Island. There are only eight surnames among them--five of the
Bounty stock and three new-comers. They are a fine, healthy race of
people; the men of a bright copper color, but the women are scarcely
distinguishable from English women. If reports be true concerning them,
they are the most remarkable people on earth. They never allow the sun
to go down on their wrath, and are noted for their honesty, truth,
chastity, industry, benevolence, reverence, simplicity, and all the
virtues which combine to form true religion.
The law of hybridity, which has been so strongly urged against the unity
of the race, has proved an argument in favor. The offspring of birds as
much alike as the domestic goose and the large Muscovy duck will not
propagate their species. Mules cannot perpetuate their kind. The
different varieties of the horse, such as the little black Shetland pony
and the tall white Arabian, will not only breed together but these
hybrids will continue to perpetuate their kind, thereby proving their
identity of species. The same may be said of the cross between the most
perfect and the lowest type of mankind. If some of these mixtures die
out in a few generations, it is not owing to their hybridity, but to the
plain violation of natural laws. When the contracting parties to a
marriage are of the same constitution, there will be no issue; if the
constitutions, or rather, temperaments, are in substance too nearly the
same, the issue, if any, will be either still-born, or die very soon
after birth; if the contracting parties shall have an adjunctive
element, the issue will be short-lived, although they may arrive at the
years of maturity.[120] These laws apply to both the mixed and the
unmixed types of mankind.
The close affinity of all the races, their subjection to the same
general laws, their capacity for mental and moral improvement, and the
virtual unity of their languages lead to the conclusion that one
birth-place was common to all. If that place be Central Asia, or any
other locality, it must have been long before traditional times, when
the one tribe was broken up and nations formed.
Races change so slow that they seem to be stationary. On the ancient
Egyptian monuments are representations of the Negro, having exactly the
same features which characterize that race at the present time; and some
of these paintings date as far back as 2000 B. C.
Then from the unity of the race and the persistency in type, an almost
incredible length of time must be assigned to permit of the great
disparity as exhibited by the different types of mankind.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE.
No book has caused so much controversy as the Bible. It has been made to
answer for the folly of both its friends and foes. The fierce assaults
made by the sceptic have been the legitimate result of the preposterous
claims made by its ignorant but too zealous friends. The Bible makes no
such claims for itself as have often been made for it. Its meaning has
been perverted, sentences distorted, and words changed in order to suit
the caprice of its advocates. If it were a living, speaking existence,
it would certainly beg to be delivered from its friends. It has been
made to conflict with the investigations of science, and those engaged
in interpreting the laws of nature have been branded as infidels,
although they may have devout and reverent spirits. The Bible is not and
makes no pretensions of being a book of science. It is designed to be a
book of religion, and a history of the ancient Jews, and its references
to scientific questions are only incidental. If the references to
science, or the account of Creation be radically wrong, its teachings on
questions of morals and religion would not be thereby invalidated. The
Christian, or the Jew, has nothing to fear from the results of
scientific investigation. But there is a duty devolving on him, and that
is to leave his fanciful interpretations and come to the true meaning of
the Scriptures, and there learn how the words were understood by those
to whom they were originally addressed. The meaning of words, as used in
the nineteenth century, is not to be connected with their signification
as used in the past. There is a great distance that divides the present
from the times of the Hebrews, and their language and thoughts from the
English language and modern thought. The ancient Hebrews were not given
to scientific pursuits, and could have been but comparatively little
advanced in civilization.
It is not the design here to enter upon an investigation of the points
raised between the Scriptures and science, but to confine the inquiry to
such questions as the previous chapters have demanded.
_Creation._--The first and second chapters of Genesis not only teach
that God is the Creator of heaven and earth, but also the order of
succession is given. It is not stated that the world was created out of
nothing. The word "bara," translated "created," has a variety of
meanings. According to Gesenius it means _to cut_, _to cut out_, _to
carve_, _to form_, _to create_, _to produce_, _to beget_, _to bring
forth_, _to feed_, _to eat_, _to grow fat_, _to fashion_, _to
make_.[121] The idea presented seems to be this: The author asserts that
heaven and earth owe their origin to God. Then he goes back and explains
the successive stages of creation. At the commencement of the work the
earth was formless and void, or in a nebulous condition, and from this
preëxisting mass the worlds were evolved. When this mass was created, if
ever, the author of Genesis does not state.
Six periods, or "days," are given for the formation of the earth. The
use of the words "evening and morning" naturally leads to the conclusion
that the _days_ were each twenty-four hours in length. But doubt is
thrown over this conclusion by the use of the word _day_ in the second
chapter and fourth verse, where the whole creative week is called a
_day_. The word translated "day" also means _time_, but it is to be
generally taken in the sense of the civil day--from sun up to sun down.
Hugh Miller held to the opinion that the creation was represented to
Moses in a vision. The periods passed before his mind in succession and
had the appearance of days. The evening was the closing of one and the
morning was the beginning of another period of time.[122] If a
description of the different orders of life had been given, it would
have been beyond the comprehension of that primitive people. It was not
the design to teach geology. The people were not prepared for such
scientific knowledge. But the simple statement that God is the author of
all things, could be and was understood by the Israelites.
On the sixth day man appears; but there are two records, and in them he
is presented in different ways and for different purposes. In the first
account man is made in the image of God, and to him is given dominion
over the living things, and he is commanded to subdue the earth. The
second account states that there was no man to till the ground, and the
Lord formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. The second
account cannot be, as has been assumed, a repetition of the first. The
two accounts are radically different. One account makes man to have
dominion over the beasts, birds, and fishes; the other, to till or
cultivate the soil. This agrees with archæo-geology. Men were hunters
many ages before they were agriculturists. The one account has man made
in the image of God, the other, a _living soul_. The "image of God" and
"living soul" may be the same, but why the change? There may be a cause
for it. If the theory of the vision be the true one, then Moses saw man
in two capacities, differing one from the other. Man may be in the
"image of God," and yet in a low, savage condition--subsisting on the
chase. Man may be awakened from that condition, the "image of God" may
assert its majesty, and make man a religious, worshipful being.[123]
That there were two classes the record implies. Cain goes out into the
Land of Nod, where his wife conceives, and he builds a city. Where did
Cain get his wife, and why did he build a city? No account is given of
the birth of his wife, but the natural inference is he obtained her in
the Land of Nod.[124] It has been contended that Cain married his
sister. If this be true it would certainly have been mentioned. It is
too important a matter to have escaped notice. If he married his sister
he was guilty of a heinous crime. If it was right then, it is right now.
The city he built must have been more than an _encampment_, or a _small
fortification_. (The word translated "city" bears this meaning also.) It
would have been of no moment. It must have been a place of some
consequence, and designed for more persons than Cain, his wife, and son.
Taking all the circumstances together, including Cain's dread "of every
one that findeth me shall slay me," it would seem that the object of
this city was to provide for individuals of the pre-Adamic family
dwelling on the east of Eden, and possibly to ingratiate himself into
their favor.
Then, again, in the sixth chapter, "The sons of God saw the daughters of
men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they
chose." This was followed by great wickedness, in consequence of which
the world was destroyed by a flood. Who were the "sons of God," and who
the "daughters of men"? Why not the daughters of God? The "sons of God"
must have been the lineal descendants of Adam, and the "daughters of
men" the offspring of the pre-Adamic race. The mongrel race produced
were monsters,[125] and their minds were bent continually on doing evil.
These sons of Adam must have retrograded, or else they would not have
sought wives from among a lower people. By the laws of nature their
offspring was lower than either of the races, from the fact that to the
brutish natures of the pre-Adamic type would be added the natural wisdom
of the Adamic, thus producing cunning and craft in their
wickedness.[126] If stringent moral laws had been enforced upon them the
result would have been reversed.
_Chronology._--The chronology given in the margins of the Bible is a
mere invention, and has worked much mischief. There is nothing to
warrant it, and no excuse can be made for it. The Bible gives no
definite chronology for those early times. That no dependence can be
placed in these chronologies is shown from the discrepancies between the
Septuagint and the Hebrew texts.[127] The Septuagint dates the Flood
eight hundred years farther back than the common Bible. "A margin of
variation amounting to eight centuries between two versions of the same
document, is a variation so enormous that it seems to cast complete
doubt on the whole system of interpretation on which such computations
of time are based."[128]
_The Deluge._--Allowing the date of the Deluge to have been 3149 B. C.
instead of 2349 B. C., still there is not sufficient time to repopulate
the earth, and form those mighty empires recorded in ancient history.
The Duke of Argyle has very justly remarked that, "The founding of a
monarchy is not the beginning of a race. The people among whom such
monarchies arose must have grown and gathered during many generations."
The peopling of Egypt is not the only difficulty. "The existence, in the
days of Abraham, of such an organized government as that of Chedorlaomer
shows that two thousand years B. C. there nourished in Elam, beyond
Mesopotamia, a nation which even now would be ranked among 'the Great
Powers.'"[129] Then the characteristic features of the Negro, one of the
most strongly marked among the varieties of man, were as greatly marked
2000 B. C. as at present.
These statements lead to the conclusion that the Flood was not
universal. Most nations have a tradition of a flood, but "the monuments
of the two most ancient civilizations of which we have any
knowledge--the Egyptian and Chinese--contain no account of, or allusion
to, Noah's Deluge."[130] Many of these traditions doubtless refer to
some local flood. The passages of Scripture seem to teach the
universality of the Deluge, but the same expressions which convey the
idea of universality, are sometimes used in a limited sense, and refer
only to the Holy Land, and to bordering regions. The question is one of
doubt whether or not the sacred historian means the Noachian Deluge to
have been universal, or only a local cataclysm.
_Monarchies._--The Scriptures do not state that Nimrod was the first
monarch, but "the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and
Accad, and Calneh." Nor is the statement made that he founded these
cities. He was a mighty hunter, and these cities were the _beginning of
his kingdom_.
_The Dispersion._--The building of the tower of Babel is no myth, but a
veritable reality. A portion of the mighty fabric still stands, a
mountain of ruins, attesting to the vast amount of work it required in
its construction. The story is told in few words, and those words cover
centuries. The people engaged in its construction spoke one language,
but when this language was confounded the empire was rent asunder. The
narrative seems to teach the use of but one language on the whole face
of the earth. Dr. F. H. Hedge, in his sermon on "the Great Dispersion,"
says, "Moreover, the phrase 'the whole earth,' as commonly used in the
Bible, is not to be taken in an absolute or scientific sense. It is not
intended to include the entire globe, or even the greater part thereof,
but is loosely employed to designate the whole of that particular
portion which the writer or speaker has in his mind at the time. In the
present case it denotes the country bordering on the Tigris and the
Euphrates."[131] If the views of this eminent theologian be correct,
then, by the same principle of interpretation the unity of language
spoken of, is limited to the country bordering on the Tigris and the
Euphrates.
There is no necessity of a supernatural aid for the origination of
language. Under the view already advanced, when the animals were brought
to Adam, he readily gave them names, for he had received language from
his predecessors, and now, being an especially chosen person, his
endowments would lead him to a more vigorous application of its use.
It is not incredible that God could have fashioned the world and peopled
it with myriads of beings in a period of six days of twenty-four hours
each. It is not incredible that a cataclysm could destroy every living
creature, save an appointed few, and cover the remotest boundaries of
the earth. It is possible for God to do anything save that which is
inconsistent with his character. What is possible for God to do, and
what He does, are two very different things. What He has done can only
be told from the evidences which He has left. What He might have done is
only speculation. Man can only judge from the facts presented to him. He
observes the course of nature, and from these observations his
conclusions are drawn.
The world of nature and the spirit of revelation, when properly
understood, are seen to be in harmony. Man is not to close his eyes and
refuse to be guided by science, and with blind credulity accept the
tales and prejudices of his grandfathers.
NOTE.--Dean Stanley, an eminent divine of the Church of England,
in his discourse at the funeral of Sir Charles Lyell, takes
unusual grounds for a theologist. He is reported as saying that
there were and are two modes of reconciling the letter of
Scripture with geology, but each has totally and deservedly
failed. One of these attempts to wrest the words of the Bible from
their real meaning, and force them to speak the language of
science; the other attempts to falsify science to meet the
supposed requirements of the Bible. But there is another
reconciliation of a higher kind, or rather an acknowledgment of
the affinity and identity which exist between the spirit of
science and the spirit of the Bible. First, there is a likeness of
the general spirit of the Bible truths; and, secondly, there is a
likeness in the methods. The frame of this earth was gradually
brought into its present condition by the slow and silent action
of the same causes which we see now operating through a long
succession of ages beyond the memory and imagination of man. We do
not expect this doctrine to agree with the letter of the Bible.
The early biblical records could not be literal, prosaic,
matter-of-fact descriptions of the beginning of the world. It is
now clear that the first and second chapters of Genesis contain
two narratives of the Creation side by side, differing from each
other in almost every particular of time and place and order. It
is now known that the vast epochs demanded by scientific
observation are incompatible both with the six thousand years of
the Mosaic chronology and the six days of the Mosaic Creation. The
discoveries of geology are found to fill up the old religious
truths with a new life, and to derive from them in turn a
hallowing glory.
GLOSSARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND DIFFICULT TERMS USED IN THIS VOLUME.
Adjunctive, having the quality of joining.
Alluvial, pertaining to the deposits of sand, clay, or gravel, made by
river action.
Amalgamate, to mix or blend different things or races.
Antero-posterior, in a direction from behind forward.
Aphelion, that point of a planet's or comet's orbit which is most
distant from the sun.
Archæo-geologist, one versed in pre-historic remains, or familiar with
both archæology and geology.
Archives, public records and papers preserved as evidence of fact.
Aryan, a term applied to all the nations who speak languages derived
mainly from the Sanskrit, or ancient Hindoo.
Atomic, a system of philosophy which accounted for the origin and
formation of all things by assuming that atoms are endowed with
gravity and motion.
Auditory, having the power of hearing.
Baton, a staff used as an emblem of authority.
Brachycephalic, a skull whose transverse diameter exceeds the
antero-posterior diameter.
Breccia, a rock made up of angular fragments cemented together.
Bronze, an alloy of copper, with from ten to thirty per cent. of tin,
to which other metals are sometimes added.
Calcareous, consisting of, or containing, carbonate of lime.
Calcined, reduced to a powder, or friable state, by the action of
heat.
Carbonate, a salt formed by the union of carbonic acid with a base.
Carnivora, an order of animals which subsist on flesh.
Carpal, that portion of the skeleton pertaining to the wrist.
Cataclysm, a deluge.
Celt, one of an ancient race of people who formerly inhabited a great
part of Central and Western Europe; an implement made of stone or
metal, found in the ancient tumuli of Europe.
Cereal, edible grain.
Champlain Epoch, a name derived from the beds on the borders of Lake
Champlain. The beds are subsequent in origin to the glacial epoch.
Chert, an impure variety of flint.
Clavicle, the collar-bone.
Conglomerate, rock made of pebbles cemented together.
Coronoid, the process of the ulna and lower jaw.
Cosmogony, the science of the origin of the world or universe.
Cranium, the skull.
Crannoges, small islets in the lakes of Ireland and Scotland, used by
the ancients as places of habitation.
Crucible, a vessel capable of enduring great heat, and used for
melting ores, metals, etc.
Cyclical, pertaining to a periodical space of time marked by the
recurrence of something peculiar.
Data (pl. of datum), a ground of inference or deduction.
Debris (d[=a]-breé), fragments detached from rocks, and piled up in
masses.
Demi-relief, the projection of one half the figure beyond the plane
from which it rises.
Dendrites, a stone on which are tree-like markings.
Devonian, the geological age between the Silurian and Carboniferous.
Diluvium, the time when the glacial beds were deposited.
Diorite, a tough rock, in color whitish, speckled with black, or
greenish black.
Dolichocephalic, a skull whose diameter from the frontal to the
occipital bone exceeds the transverse diameter.
Dorsal, the name given to the second division of the vertebræ.
Drift, a collection of loose earth and bowlders, distributed during
the glacial epoch over large portions of the earth's surface.
Druidical, pertaining to the religious ceremonies of the ancient
Celtic nations in France, Britain, and Germany.
Dynasty, a succession of kings of the same line or family.
Eccentricity, the distance of the centre of the orbit of a heavenly
body from the centre of the body round which it revolves.
Edible, eatable.
Elliptical, having an oval or oblong figure.
Eocene, the oldest of the three epochs of the tertiary.
Epoch, any period of time marked by some particular cause or event.
Esplanade, a clear space, or grass plat.
Fauna, the animals of any given area or epoch.
Flora, the complete system of vegetable species native in a given
locality, or period.
Fluor-spar, a mineral of beautiful colors, composed by fluorine and
calcium.
Fluvio-marine, the deposits formed by the joint action of a river and
the sea.
Foramen, a little opening.
Fossa, a depression in a bone.
Fossil, the form of a plant or animal in the strata composing the
surface of the earth.
Genus (pl. genera), an assemblage of species possessing certain
characters in common, by which they are distinguished from all others.
Geode, an irregular shaped stone, containing a small cavity.
Geognostic, pertaining to a knowledge of the structure of the earth.
Glabella, the middle or frontal protuberance of the superciliary arch.
Glaciation, the process of becoming covered with glaciers.
Glacier, an immense mass of ice, or snow and ice, formed in the region
of perpetual snow, and moving slowly down mountain slopes or valleys.
Gneiss, a crystalline rock, consisting of quartz, feldspar, and mica.
Herbivora, that order of animals which subsists upon herbs or
vegetables.
Homologous, having the same typical structure.
Humerus, the bone of the arm nearest the shoulder.
Hybrid, that which is produced from the mixture of two species.
Ilium, the upper part of the hip bone.
Jade, a hard and compact stone, of a dark green color, and capable of
a fine polish.
Lambdoidal, the suture which connects the occipital with the parietal
bones.
Leptinite, a fine-grained granitic rock.
Loam, a soil composed of siliceous sand, clay, carbonate of lime,
oxide of iron, magnesia, and various salts, and also decayed vegetable
and animal matter.
Loess, a term usually applied to a tertiary deposit on the banks of
the Rhine.
Lumbar, the vertebræ near the loins.
Mammalia, that class of animals characterized by the female suckling
its young.
Marl, a mixed earthy substance, consisting of carbonate of lime, clay,
and siliceous sand.
Mastoid, a process situated at the posterior part of the temporal
bone.
Matrix, a mould; the cavity in which a thing is held.
Maxillary, the upper jaw bone.
Metacarpal, the part of the hand between the wrist and the fingers.
Metallurgy, the art of working metals.
Metatarsal, the middle part of the foot.
Miocene, the middle or second epoch of the Tertiary.
Molar, a grinding tooth.
Mold, or mould, a prepared cavity used in casting; to form or shape;
fine soft earth.
Mollusca, an order of invertebrate animals having a soft, fleshy body,
which is inarticulate, and not radiate internally.
Moraine, a line of blocks and gravel extending along the sides of
separate glaciers, and along the middle part of glaciers formed by the
union of one or more separate ones.
Nebulous, having a faint, misty appearance; applied to uncondensed
gaseous matter.
Neolithic, new stone age; a term applied to the more modern age of
stone.
Nummulitic, composed of, or containing a fossil of a flattened form,
resembling a small coin, and common in the early tertiary period.
Obsidian, a kind of glass produced by volcanoes.
Occipital, pertaining to the back part of the head.
Ochreous, consisting of fine clay, containing iron.
Olecranon, the large process at the extremity of the larger bone of
the fore-arm.
Onusprobandi, the burden of proof.
Orbit, the cavity in which the eye is located; the path described by a
heavenly body in its periodical revolution.
Osar, a low ridge of stone or gravel formed by glaciers.
Oscillation, the act of moving backward and forward.
Osseous, composed of bone.
Osteologist, one versed in the nature, arrangement, and uses of the
bones.
Oxide, a compound of oxygen, and a base destitute of acid and saltish
properties.
Pachyderm, a non-ruminant animal, characterized by the thickness of
its skin.
Palæolithic, the ancient stone age; a term applied to the earliest
traces of man when he was cotemporary with many extinct mammalia.
Palæontological, belonging to the science of the ancient life of the
earth.
Parallelogram, a figure having four sides, the opposite sides of which
are parallel, and consequently equal.
Parietal, pertaining to the bones which form the sides and upper part
of the skull.
Pathological, pertaining to the knowledge of disease.
Pelvic, pertaining to the open, bony structure at the lower extremity
of the body.
Perihelion, that point in the orbit of a planet, or comet, in which it
is nearest to the sun.
Perimeter, the outer boundary of a body.
Phalanges, the small bones of the fingers and toes.
Philologist, one versed in the laws of human speech.
Pliocene, a term applied to the most recent tertiary deposits.
Post-Tertiary, the second period of the age of mammals.
Prototype, a model after which anything is to be copied.
Quadrangular, having four angles, and consequently four sides.
Quadrumana, an order of animals whose fore feet correspond to the
hands of man.
Quartz, a stone of great hardness, with a glassy lustre, and varying
in color from white, or colorless, to black.
Quartzite, granular quartz.
Quaternary, same as Post-Tertiary.
Radius, the smaller and exterior bone of the fore-arm.
Reliquiæ, remains of the dead.
Rhematic, that period when men first began to coin expressions for the
most necessary ideas.
Rodent, an animal that gnaws.
Ruminant, an animal that chews the cud.
Sagittal, the suture which connects the parietal bones of the skull.
Savant (sä-v[)o]ng), a person eminent for acquirements.
Scapula, the shoulder-blade.
Schist, a rock having a slaty structure.
Scientist, a person noted for his profound knowledge.
Sediment, the matter which subsides to the bottom.
Semitic, pertaining to one of the families of nations, or languages,
and so named from its members being ranked as the descendants of Shem.
Serpentine, a soft, massive stone, in color dark to light green.
Siliceous, containing silica, or flinty matter.
Simian, a name given to the various tribes of monkeys.
Squamous, the anterior and upper part of the temporal bone, scale-like
in form.
Stalagmite, a deposit of earthy matter, made by calcareous water
dropping on the floors of caverns.
Stratified, formed or deposited in layers.
Stratum (pl. strata), a bed or layer.
Subsidence, the act of sinking or gradually descending.
Superciliary, the bony superior arch above the eye-brow.
Suture, the seam which unites the bones of the skull.
Symphysis, a connection of bones without a movable joint.
Talus, a sloping heap of fragments of rocks lying at the foot of a
hill.
Tarsal, relating to the ankle.
Temporal, pertaining to that portion of the head located to the front
and a little above the ear.
Terra-cotta, a kind of pottery made from fine clay, hardened by heat.
Tertiary, the first period of the age of mammals.
Thoracic, pertaining to the breast or chest.
Troglodyte, an inhabitant of a cave.
Truncated, cut off.
Tufaceous, consisting of, of resembling, tuff.
Tuff, a sand rock formed by agglutinated volcanic rock.
Turanian, that order of languages known as monosyllabic.
Ulna, the larger of the two bones of the fore-arm.
Veda, the ancient sacred literature of the Hindoos.
Vertebra, a joint of the back bone.
INDEX.
Agassiz, 136.
Agriculture, 106, 110.
Amalgamation, 140.
Amiel, Dr., 20.
Archiac, Vic. d', 13.
Arts, 77, 91, 104, 109.
Aymard, Dr., 19.
Baldwin, A. W., 115.
Bara, 144.
Belgian Caverns, 44, 86.
Berosus, 128.
Blackmore, Dr., 23.
Bligh, Lieut., 138, 140.
Bonnemaison, 20.
Boucher de Perthes, 12, 18, 19, 38.
Boué, Aimé, 11, 16, 41.
Bourgeois, Abbé, 22, 61, 62.
Brown, James, 22.
Buchner, Dr., 50, 52, 55, 56, 60, 75, 121, 124.
Buckland. Dr., 16.
Burdett-Coutts, Miss, 22.
Burial, 91, 106, 110.
Busk, 19, 50, 55.
Cain, Case of, 146.
Cannibalism, 90.
Carpenter, 19.
Cartailhac, 74.
Casiano de Prado, 20, 38.
Cave of Aurignac, 20, 72-74.
Cave of Brixham, 39.
Cave of Chokier, 17, 45.
Cave of Feldhofner, 53.
Cave of Furfooz, 88.
Cave of Gourdan, 82.
Cave of Kirkdale, 16.
Cave of La Madeleine, 80.
Cave of La Naulette, 42.
Cave of Les Eyzies, 80.
Cave of Massat, 22.
Cave of Mentone, 23, 24.
Cave of Saint Jean d'Alcas, 94.
Cave of Thayngen, 88.
Cave of Tron de Chaleux, 86, 87.
Cave of Trou des Nutons, 86.
Cave of Trou Rosette, 86.
Cave of Trou du Frontal, 86.
Cavern of Ariége, 22.
Cavern of Bize, 16.
Cavern of Cracow, 88.
Cavern of Enghihoul, 16, 17.
Cavern of Engis, 16, 17.
Cavern of Gailenruth, 15.
Cavern of Maccagnone, 71.
Cavern of Pondres, 16.
Cavern of Torquay, 22.
Caverns of Brazil, 116.
Caverns of Liége, 44.
Cazalis de Fondace, 95.
Chaldea, 128-130.
China, 130.
Christian, Fletcher, 140.
Christol, 16.
Christy, 19, 80.
Chronology, 101, 148.
Chronology, Usher's, 11.
Clothing, 77, 90, 103, 109.
Codrington, Thos., 23.
Creation, 144.
Croll, 31.
Cromlech, 106.
Cushing, F. H. 121.
Dana, J. D., 28.
Danish Shell-Mounds, 95.
Danish Peat Bogs, 96.
Darwin, Charles, 137.
Dawkins, 68.
Delaunay, Abbé, 62.
Deluge, 148.
Denton, W., 61, 77.
Desnoyers, 22, 60, 61.
Desor, 28, 75.
Dickeson, Dr. 115.
Dolmen, 106.
Dowler, Dr. Bennet, 116.
Dupont, Edward, 23, 86, 87, 92.
Dwellings, 89, 103, 108.
Edwards, M. A. Milne, 22.
Egypt, 124-126.
Epoch, Eocene, 62.
Epoch, Eocene, Fauna of, 58.
Epoch, Eocene, Glaciers in, 62.
Epoch, Miocene, Fauna of, 59.
Epoch, Miocene, Flint flake from Aurillac, 62.
Epoch, Miocene, Flints from Pontlevoy, 62.
Epoch, Miocene, Glaciers in, 62.
Epoch, Miocene, Man in, 62.
Epoch, Pliocene, 58.
Epoch, Pliocene, Man in, 60, 61.
Epochs, not sharply defined, 14.
Eschricht, Prof., 56.
Esper, J. F. 15.
Falconer, Dr., 18, 19.
Fauna of Reindeer Epoch, 79.
Figuier, 13, 102.
Filhol, 22, 94.
Fishing and Navigation, 110.
Fontan, M. A., 22.
Food, 90, 103, 108.
Forchammer, 95.
Ft. Shelby, 121.
Fossil Man of Denise, 19, 74.
Fossil Man of Mentone, 23, 85.
Fossil Remains from Florida, 116.
Fraas, Oscar, 75.
Frere, John, 15.
Fuhlrott, Dr., 22, 52.
Garrigou, Dr., 22, 85, 94
Geikie, 28.
Gillieron, 102.
Glacial Epoch, 52.
Glacial Epoch, Date of, 27.
Glacial Epoch, Duration of, 28.
Glacial Epoch, Fauna of, 26.
Glacial Epoch, Geological Period of, 27.
Godwin-Austen, 19, 39.
Gosse, 38.
Gunning, W. D., 117.
Half-castes, 147.
Hall, Dr., 28.
Hauzeur, 88.
Herodotus, 101, 124.
History, Outline of, 14.
Horner, 126.
Human bones from Colmar, 23, 42.
Human bones from Savonia, 23, 60.
Huxley, Prof., 46, 50, 52, 54-57.
Hybridity, law of, 141.
Implements, 104, 109.
Implements, from Toronto, 115.
Implements, superstitious regard for, 15.
India, Fauna of, in Miocene, 63.
Issel, M. A., 60, 90.
Jaw from Maestricht, 16, 40.
Jaw from Moulin-Quignon, 19, 38, 67.
Jaw from La Naulette, 23, 42, 67.
Joly, 18.
Keller, Dr., 21, 96, 100, 112.
Kemp, 15.
Kent's Hole, 19, 39.
Kutorga, Dr., 56.
Land of Nod, 146.
Language, 78.
Language, Change of, 134.
Language, Divisions of, 132.
Language, Number of, 135.
Language, Origin of, 134.
Language, Written, 135.
Lake-Dwellings of Switzerland, 21, 96-101.
Lartet, Edward, 12, 21, 72, 73, 80.
Las Casas, 131.
Lastic, M. de, 81.
Lee, J. E. 21.
Lepsius, 126.
Litse, 130.
Lubbock, Sir John, 12, 14, 28, 30, 50, 59, 86, 92, 106.
Lund, Dr., 116.
Lyell, Sir Charles, 11, 12, 17, 21, 27, 29, 50, 59.
MacEnery, Rev. J., 19.
Mahndel before the Academy of Paris, 15.
Man, Contentions, 64.
Man, Description of, 77, 92.
Man, Development of, 63, 76, 89.
Man, Dispersion of, 149.
Man, During Glaciers, 65.
Man, Inventive, 65, 76.
Man, Mode of living, 65, 66.
Man, Origin of, 63, 145.
Man, Type, 64, 66, 89, 103, 108.
Manetho, 124.
Marks on fossil bones, 18, 62.
Mariette, 125.
Matson, James, 61.
Max Müller, Prof., 133, 138.
Menhirs, 106.
Mexico, 130.
Miller, Hugh, 145.
Morlot, 101.
Mound Builders, 117-122.
Mounds, Antiquity of, 120.
Mounds, Extent of, 117.
Mounds, Sacrificial, 118.
Mounds, Sepulchral, 119.
Mounds, Symbolical, 119.
Mounds, Temple, 119.
Murchison, Sir Roderick I., 18, 136.
Neolithic, 14.
Osars, hearth and wood coal beneath, 60.
Owen, Prof., 91.
Pelvic bone from Natchez, 115.
Piers Ploughman's Creed, 135.
Piette, 82.
Pliocene beds at St. Prest, 23, 60, 61.
Pouchet, Georges, 136.
Pourtalis, Count, 116.
Pre-historic Archæology, Divisions of, 12, 13.
Prichard, Dr., 140.
Quatrefages, 61.
Rames, 22.
Rawlinson, 129.
Reindeer Station on the Schusse, 23, 75.
Religious Belief, 111.
Renevier, 13.
Rigollot, Dr., 35.
Riviére, 23, 24.
Robenhausen, 98, 99.
Rock-Shelters of Bruniquel, 81.
Rollin, 123.
Schaaffhausen, Prof., 55, 56.
Schleicher, 136.
Schlieman, Dr., 127.
Schmerling, Dr., 11, 16, 17, 44-46, 50.
Scott, P. A., 115.
Septuagint, 148.
Shell-Heaps of America, 117.
Skeleton from Lahr, 16, 41.
Skeleton from New Orleans, 116.
Skeleton from Plau, 56.
Skull, Engis, 45-51, 67.
Skull, Neanderthal, 22, 51-56, 66.
Skull, Neanderthal, Race Type, 56.
Skull from Altaville, 61.
Skull from Cochrane's Cave, 56.
Skull from Comstock Lode, 115.
Skull from Constatt, 15.
Skull from Osage Mission, 114.
Skull from Rhine, 56.
Skull of Arno, 57.
Skulls from Borreby, 57.
Skulls from Minsk, 56.
Skulls from Moën, 56.
Somme, Valley of, 18, 34.
Somme, Valley of, Implements from, 35-37.
Sons of God, 146.
Spring, Dr., 46.
Stanley, Dean, on the Mosaic Record, 151.
Steenstrup, Prof. 95, 96.
Stevens, Alfred, 23.
Stone Implements from Bournemonth, 23.
Stone Implements from Colorado and Wyoming, 62, 114.
Stone Implements from Foreland Cliff, 23, 33.
Stone Implements from Gosport, 22, 33.
Stone Implements from Grinell Leads, 115.
Stone Implements from London, 15.
Stone Implements from Madrid, 20, 38.
Stone Implements from Seine, 38.
Stone Implements near Hoxne, 15.
Stone Implements, number, 105.
Tardy, 62.
Taylor, Bayard, 124.
Tertiary beds at St. Prest, 23.
Tertiary, Climate of, 58.
Tertiary, Fauna of, in America, 59.
Tertiary, Geography of, 58.
Tournal, 16.
Troy, 127, 128.
Troyon, 13, 100.
Traffic, 91.
Tylor, 12.
Tyson, Capt., 139.
Unity of Race, 136-142, 147.
Unity of Race, Objections to, 136.
Vivian, 19.
Vogt, Carl, 50, 51, 57, 61.
Wallace, A. R., 59, 136.
War, 105.
Weirley, Dr., 114.
Welcker, 137.
Westropp, 13.
Whitney, Prof., 61.
Wilson, Dr. Daniel, 115.
Wokey Hole, 68.
Workshops of Laugerie-Basse, 80, 91.
Workshops of Laugerie-Haute, 80, 91.
Worsaae, 95.
Zawisza, Count, 88.
Zumarraga, Bishop, 131.
FOOTNOTES
[1] "Pre-Historic Times," p. 2.
[2] Buchner, p. 269.
[3] "Man in the Past, Present, and Future," p. 238.
[4] "Antiquity of Man," p. 68.
[5] Discoveries of this kind were made in 1829.--Keller's
"Lake-Dwellings," p. 11.
[6] "Principles of Geology," vol. i. p. 286.
[7] "Pre-Historic Times," p. 418.
[8] "Manual of Geology," p. 590.
[9] "Antiquity of Man," pp. 282, 285.
[10] "Pre-Historic Times," p. 417.
[11] Principles of Geology, vol. i. p. 285; "Pre-Historic Times," p.
411.
Mr. Croll believes that, owing to variations in the eccentricity of the
earth's orbit "cold periods regularly recur every ten or fifteen
thousand years; but that at much longer intervals the cold, owing to
certain contingencies, is extremely severe, and lasts for a great length
of time; and the last great glacial period occurred about two hundred
and forty thousand years ago, and endured with slight alterations of
climate for about one hundred and sixty thousand years."--Darwin's
_Origin of Species_, p. 343.
[12] It would be plausible to assume that the ice melted much more
rapidly than is generally supposed. Charles Darwin, in his "Naturalist's
Voyage around the World," p. 245, states that "during one very dry and
long summer, all the snow disappeared from Aconcagua, although it
attains the prodigious height of twenty-three thousand feet. It is
probable that much of the snow at these great heights is evaporated,
rather than thawed."
[13] "Principles of Geology," vol. ii, pp. 567-569.
[14] Buchner, p. 118
[15] "Pre-Historic Times," p. 362.
[16] "Antiquity of Man," p. 97; "Pre-Historic Times," p. 315.
[17] The "Science Record" for 1874, p. 501, in speaking of these
implements says, "At the very lowest estimate, the flint weapons were
made half a million years ago."
[18] "Antiquity of Man," p. 98. "Pre-Historic Times," p. 317.
[19] "Antiquity of Man," p. 338; Buchner, 27.
[20] "Antiquity of Man," p. 510; Buchner, p. 27.
[21] Buchner, pp. 118, 306.
[22] Buchner, p. 239.
[23] "Principles," vol. ii, p. 566.
[24] "Antiquity of Man," p. 63.
[25] It has been estimated by the British Association that it requires
twenty thousand years to produce a foot of stalagmite.--_Science
Record._ 1874, p. 601.
[26] "Principles," vol. ii, p. 527.
[27] "Man's Place in Nature," p. 146.
[28] "Pre-Historic Times," p. 337.
[29] "Antiquity of Man," p. 80.
[30] "Man's Place in Nature," p. 143.
[31] "Antiquity of Man," p. 80.
[32] Buchner, p. 263.
[33] _Ibid._ p. 262.
[34] "Man's Place in Nature," p. 158.
[35] Buchner, p. 241.
[36] Buchner, p. 240.
[37] _Ibid._ p. 241.
[38] "Man's Place in Nature," p. 164.
[39] Buchner, p. 116.
[40] "Antiquity of Man," p. 84.
[41] _Ibid._, p. 53.
[42] "Antiquity of Man," p. 84.
[43] Buchner, p. 54.
[44] Buchner, p. 242.
[45] Denton's "Our Planet," p. 270.
[46] Buchner, p. 265.
[47] _Ibid._, p. 54.
[48] _Ibid._, p. 242.
[49] "Pre-Historic Times," p. 422.
[50] _Ibid._, p. 423.
[51] Wallace's "Natural Selection, p. 322."
[52] Buchner, pp. 34, 252.
[53] Buchner, p. 242.
[54] Buchner, p. 31; "Pre-Historic Times," p. 420.
[55] Buchner, p. 33; "Pre-Historic Times," p. 421.
[56] Denton's "Our Planet," p. 270; "American Phrenological Journal,
Feb." 1874.
Having seen the statement in one of the newspapers that this skull was
not genuine, but a joke played on Professor Whitney, I wrote to
Professor W. Denton of Wellesley, Masschussetts, on 19th March 1875,
inquiring about it. A few days later I received from him the statement
that he had visited the place where the skull was found; that certain
persons assured him that Professor Whitney had been the victim of a
joke. Yet these persons had never seen the skull, and were prejudiced
against Professor Whitney. The persons who were best informed had every
reason to believe the statements made by Professor Whitney were true.
The skull is a very remarkable one, and stands alone for the enormous
size of the orbits, and I have good reasons to believe it to have been
found as stated.
[57] "Several geologists are convinced, from direct evidence, that
glacial periods occurred during the miocene and eocene formations, not
to mention still more ancient formations."--Darwin's _Origin of
Species_, p. 343.
[58] "Pre-Historic Times," p. 421; Buchner, 32.
[59] "Pre-Historic Times," p. 422.
[60] Buchner, p. 32.
[61] "American Phrenological Journal," Feb. 1874.
[62] Buchner, p. 274.
[63] "Our Planet," p. 266.
[64] "Science Record," 1874, p. 499.
[65] "Pre-Historic Times," p. 315.
[66] "Origin of Civilization," p. 121.
[67] Figuier's "Primitive Man," p. 116.
[68] Buchner, p. 248.
[69] Buchner, p. 247; "Keller's Lake-Dwellings."
[70] "Lake-Dwellings," pp. 37, 334, 350, 360.
[71] "Lake-Dwellings," p. 394.
[72] "Lake-Dwellings," p. 396.
[73] "Primitive Man," p. 219.
[74] "Primitive Man," p. 293.
[75] "Pre-Historic Times," p. 76.
[76] "Primitive Man," p. 200.
[77] "Lake Dwellings," p. 319.
[78] "Pre-Historic Times," p. 218; "Primitive Man," p. 281.
[79] "Lake-Dwellings," p. 400.
[80] "Science Record," p. 564. 1875.
[81] "American Phrenological Journal," February, 1874.
[82] Wilson's "Pre-Historic Man," p. 40.
[83] "Pre-Historic Man," p. 46.
[84] "Antiquity of Man," p. 200; "Principles of Geology," vol. i. p.
454.
[85] "Antiquity of Man," p. 43; "Pre-Historic Man," p. 47.
[86] "Antiquity of Man," p. 44.
[87] "Primitive Man," pp. 9, 77.
[88] "Pre-Historic Man," p. 236.
[89] "Ancient Monuments," p. 304.
[90] Buchner, p. 35.
[91] Rollin, vol. i. p. 138.
[92] Anthon's Classical Dictionary, p. 788.
[93] Buchner, 254.
[94] "New York Tribune", June 6, 1874.
[95] Rawlinson's Herodotus, vol. ii. p. 189.
[96] "Principles of Geology," vol. i. p. 432.
[97] "Antiquity of Man," p. 36.
[98] Bayard Taylor in "New York Tribune, Extra," No. 15.
[99] "Pre-Historic Nations," p. 190.
[100] _Ibid._ pp. 178, 175.
[101] "Pre-Historic Nations," p. 37.
[102] "Ancient America," p. 187.
[103] "Chips from a German Workshop," vol. i. p. 21.
[104] _Ibid._ vol. ii. p. 8.
[105] Wake's "Chapters on Man," p. 33.
[106] "Diodorus Siculus, Lucretius, Horace, and many other Greek and
Roman writers, consider language as one of the arts invented by man. The
first men, say they, lived for some time in woods and caves, after the
manner of beasts, uttering only confused and indistinct noises, till,
associating for mutual assistance, they came by degrees to use
articulate sounds mutually agreed upon, for the arbitrary signs or marks
of those ideas in the mind of the speaker which he wanted to communicate
to the hearer. This opinion sprung from the atomic cosmogony which was
framed by Mochus, the Phoenician, and afterward improved by Democritus
and Epicurus."--Pouchet's _Plurality of the Human Race_, p. 142.
[107] "Principles of Geology," vol. ii. p. 475. "It is generally
acknowledged that all organic beings have been formed on two great
laws--Unity of Type, and the Conditions of Existence. By unity of type
is meant that fundamental agreement in structure which we see in organic
beings of the same class, and which is quite independent of their habits
of life. On my theory, unity of type is explained by unity of
descent."--Darwin's _Origin of Species_, p. 200.
[108] I put myself into clothes.
[109] Shepherd.
[110] And.
[111] Wonder.
[112] "Descent of Man," vol. i. p. 143.
[113] Mivart's "Genesis of Species," p. 114.
[114] "Origin of Species," p. 193.
[115] "Descent of Man," vol. i. p. 142.
[116] "Chips," vol. i. pp. 63, 62.
[117] Lady Belcher's "Mutineers of the Bounty," p. 61.
[118] "Captain Cook found on the island of Wateoo, three inhabitants of
Otaheite, who had been drifted thither in a canoe, although the distance
between the two isles is five hundred and fifty miles. In 1696, two
canoes, containing thirty persons, who had left Ancorso, were thrown by
contrary winds and storms on the Island of Samar, one of the
Philippines, at a distance of eight hundred miles. In 1721, two canoes,
one of which contained twenty-four, and the other six persons, men,
women, and children, were drifted from an island called Farroilep to the
island of Guaham, one of the Marians, a distance of two hundred miles."
Kadu, a native of Ulea, and three of his countrymen, while sailing in a
boat, were driven out to sea by a violent storm, and drifted about the
sea for eight months, subsisting entirely on the produce of the sea, and
finally were picked up in an insensible condition by the inhabitants of
Aur (Caroline Isles) one thousand five hundred miles distant from his
native isle.--_Principles of Geology_, vol. ii. p. 472.
[119] "Natural History of Man," vol. i. p. 16.
[120] Powell's "Human Temperaments," p. 180.
[121] The idea that "bara" meant to create out of nothing is a modern
invention, and most likely called forth by the contact between Jews and
Greeks at Alexandria. The Greeks believed that matter was co-eternal
with the Creator, and it was probably in contradistinction to this
notion that the Jews first asserted that God made all things out of
nothing. The word, however, only calls forth the simple conception of
_fashioning_ or _arranging_.--_Chips_, vol. i. p. 132.
[122] "Testimony of the Rocks," Fifth Lecture.
[123] Rev. Dr. J. P. Thompson represents Adam as a typical man (Man in
Genesis and Geology, p. 105); Lubbock regards him as a typical savage
(Origin Civilization, p. 361). Why not call him the first great
prototype of the human race?
[124] The word _Nod_ means _to wander_, _to be driven about_, etc. It
appears to have been a familiar name at the time of the fratricide. It
was then the name of a land or tract of country. May there not have been
roving tribes there, and from them the place was designated "Wandering
Land"?
[125] Dr. Livingstone, after speaking of a half-caste man on the
Zambesi, described by the Portuguese as a rare monster of humanity,
"remarks, 'It is unaccountable why half-castes, such as he, are so much
more cruel than the Portuguese, but such is undoubtedly the case.' An
inhabitant remarked to Livingstone, 'God made white men, and God made
black men, but the devil made half castes.' When two races, both low in
the scale, are crossed, the progeny seem to be eminently bad. Thus the
noble-hearted Humboldt speaks in strong terms of the bad and savage
disposition of Zambos, or half-castes between Indians and Negroes; and
this conclusion has been arrived at by various observers. From these
facts we may perhaps infer that the degraded state of so many
half-castes is in part due to reversion to a primitive and savage
condition, as well as to the unfavorable moral conditions under which
they generally exist."--_Animals and Plants under Domestication_, vol.
ii. p. 63.
[126] This view does not conflict with the doctrine of the unity of the
race. The great difficulty in interpreting the Scriptures is its
briefness. A long period of time is comprehended in a very few words,
and much is left to inference. The tenor of the Scriptures favors the
idea of the unity of the race, still it is not specifically declared.
The strongest passage is Acts chapter 17 and verse 26: "Hath made of one
blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth."
This does not conflict with the idea of there being more than one pair,
but their _blood_ is the same. It is not declared that Adam had no
ancestors. When it is declared that Adam was the son of God, it is only
to trace man's origin to the Supreme Being. If Adam had ancestors, the
leaving of them out has no signification, as it was not uncommon to drop
the name of unimportant persons. An instance of this kind is given in
the genealogy of David. From the birth of Obed to the birth of his
grandson David (common chronology) is a period of two hundred and
twenty-three years. Evidently one or more members have been dropped. If
Adam was a prototype it was not necessary to trace the line any farther
back. The forming him of the dust of the ground would give his
relationship to the rest of mankind. He was chosen, endowed for the
purpose of elevating the race--of becoming the head of a new type of
humanity.
[127] The Septuagint version is a translation of the Hebrew Bible into
Greek, made about three hundred years B. C. The oldest existing MS. of
the Old Testament in Hebrew dates back no farther than about the tenth
century after the Christian era--_Chips._ vol. i. p. 11.
[128] "Primeval Man," p. 86.
[129] "Primeval Man," p. 87.
[130] "Primeval World of Hebrew Tradition," p. 195.
[131] "Primeval World of Hebrew Tradition," p. 222.
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