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Title: Men of the Old Stone Age - Their Environment, Life and Art
Author: Osborn, Henry Fairfield, 1857-1935
Language: English
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MEN OF THE OLD STONE AGE
THEIR ENVIRONMENT, LIFE AND ART
HITCHCOCK LECTURES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF
CALIFORNIA, 1914
[Illustration: PL. I. Neanderthal man at the station of Le Moustier,
overlooking the valley of the Vézère, Dordogne. Drawing by Charles R.
Knight, under the direction of the author.]
MEN OF THE OLD STONE AGE
THEIR ENVIRONMENT, LIFE AND ART
BY HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN
SC.D. PRINCETON, HON. LL.D. TRINITY, PRINCETON,
COLUMBIA, HON. D.SC. CAMBRIDGE HON. PH.D. CHRISTIANIA
RESEARCH PROFESSOR OF ZOOLOGY, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
VERTEBRATE PALÆONTOLOGIST U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY,
CURATOR EMERITUS OF VERTEBRATE PALÆONTOLOGY IN THE
AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
ILLUSTRATIONS BY
UPPER PALÆOLITHIC ARTISTS
AND
CHARLES R. KNIGHT, ERWIN S. CHRISTMAN
AND OTHERS
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1915
COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
Published November, 1915
DEDICATED TO
MY DISTINGUISHED GUIDES THROUGH THE UPPER
PALÆOLITHIC CAVERNS OF
THE PYRENEES, DORDOGNE, AND THE CANTABRIAN MOUNTAINS OF SPAIN
ÉMILE CARTAILHAC
HENRI BREUIL
HUGO OBERMAIER
PREFACE
This volume is the outcome of an ever-memorable tour through the country
of the men of the Old Stone Age, guided by three of the distinguished
archæologists of France, to whom the work is gratefully dedicated. This
Palæolithic tour[A] of three weeks, accompanied as it was by a constant
flow of conversation and discussion, made a very profound impression,
namely, of the very early evolution of the spirit of man, of the close
relation between early human environment and industry and the development
of mind, of the remote antiquity of the human powers of observation, of
discovery, and of invention. It appears that men with faculties and powers
like our own, but in the infancy of education and tradition, were living
in this region of Europe at least 25,000 years ago. Back of these
intelligent races were others, also of eastern origin but in earlier
stages of mental development, all pointing to the very remote ancestry of
man from earlier mental and physical stages.
Another great impression from this region is that it is the oldest centre
of human habitation of which we have a complete, unbroken record of
continuous residence from a period as remote as 100,000 years
corresponding with the dawn of human culture, to the hamlets of the modern
peasant of France of A. D. 1915. In contrast, Egyptian, Ægean, and
Mesopotamian civilizations appear as of yesterday.
The history of this region and its people has been developed chiefly
through the genius of French archæologists, beginning with Boucher de
Perthes. The more recent discoveries, which have come in rapid and almost
bewildering succession since the foundation of the _Institut de
Paléontologie humaine_, have been treated in a number of works recently
published by some of the experienced archæologists of England, France,
and Germany. I refer especially to the _Prehistoric Times_ of Lord
Avebury, to the _Ancient Hunters_ of Professor Sollas, to _Der Mensch der
Vorzeit_ of Professor Obermaier, and to _Die diluviale Vorzeit
Deutschlands_ of Doctor R. R. Schmidt. Thus, on receiving the invitation
from President Wheeler to lecture upon this subject before the University
of California, I hesitated from the feeling that it would be difficult to
say anything which had not been already as well or better said. On further
reflection, however, I accepted the invitation with the purpose of
attempting to give this great subject a more strictly historical or
chronological treatment than it had previously received within the limits
of a popular work in our own language, also to connect the environment,
the animal and human life, and the art.
This element of the _time_ in which the various events occurred can only
be drawn from a great variety of sources, from the simultaneous
consideration of the geography, climate, plants and animals, the mental
and bodily development of the various races, and the industries and arts
which reflect the relations between the mind and the environment. In more
technical terms, I have undertaken in these lectures to make a synthesis
of the results of geology, palæontology, anthropology, and archæology, a
correlation of environmental and of human events in the European Ice Age.
Such a synthesis was begun many years ago in the preparation of my _Age of
Mammals_, but could not be completed until I had gone over the territory
myself.
The attempt to place this long chapter of prehistory on a historical basis
has many dangers, of which I am fully aware. After weighing the evidence
presented by the eminent authorities in these various branches of science,
I have presented my conclusions in very definite and positive form rather
than in vague or general terms, believing that a positive statement has at
least the merit of being positively supported or rebutted by fresh
evidence. For example, I have placed the famous Piltdown man,
_Eoanthropus_, in a comparatively recent stage of geologic time, an
entirely opposite conclusion to that reached by Doctor A. Smith Woodward,
who has taken a leading part in the discovery of this famous race and has
concurred with other British geologists in placing it in early Pleistocene
times. The difference between early and late Pleistocene times is not a
matter of thousands but of hundreds of thousands of years; if so advanced
a stage as the Piltdown man should definitely occur in the early
Pleistocene, we may well expect to discover man in the Pliocene; on the
contrary, in my opinion even in late Pliocene times man had only reached a
stage similar to the _Pithecanthropus_, or prehuman Trinil race of Java;
in other words, according to my view, man as such chiefly evolved during
the half million years of the Pleistocene Epoch and not during the
Pliocene.
This question is closely related to that of the antiquity of the oldest
implements shaped by the human hand. Here again I have adopted an opinion
opposed by some of the highest authorities, but supported by others,
namely, that the earliest of these undoubted handiworks occur relatively
late in the Pleistocene, namely, about 125,000 years ago. Since the
Piltdown man was found in association with such implements, it is at once
seen that the two questions hang together.
This work represents the co-operation of many specialists on a single,
very complex problem. I am not in any sense an archæologist, and in this
important and highly technical field I have relied chiefly upon the work
of Hugo Obermaier and of Déchelette in the Lower Palæolithic, and of Henri
Breuil in the Upper Palæolithic. Through the courtesy of Doctor Obermaier
I had the privilege of watching the exploration of the wonderful grotto of
Castillo, in northern Spain, which affords a unique and almost complete
sequence of the industries of the entire Old Stone Age. This visit and
that to the cavern of Altamira, with its wonderful frescoed ceiling, were
in themselves a liberal education in the prehistory of man. With the Abbé
Breuil I visited all the old camping stations of Upper Palæolithic times
in Dordogne and noted with wonder and admiration his detection of all the
fine gradations of invention which separate the flint-makers of that
period. With Professor Cartailhac I enjoyed a broad survey of the Lower
and Upper Palæolithic stations and caverns of the Pyrenees region and took
note of his learned and spirited comments. Here also we had the privilege
of being with the party who entered for the first time the cavern of Tuc
d'Audoubert, with the Comte de Bégouen and his sons.
In the American Museum I have been greatly aided by Mr. Nels C. Nelson,
who has reviewed all the archæological notes and greatly assisted me in
the classification of the flint and bone implements which is adopted in
this volume.
In the study of the divisions, duration, and fluctuations of climate
during the Old Stone Age I have been assisted chiefly by Doctor Chester A.
Reeds, a geologist of the American Museum, who devoted two months to
bringing together in a comprehensive and intelligible form the results of
the great researches of Albrecht Penck and Eduard Brückner embraced in the
three-volume work, _Die Alpen im Eiszeitalter_. The temperatures and
snow-levels of the Glacial Epoch, which is contemporaneous with the Old
Stone Age, together with the successive phases of mammalian life which
they conditioned, afford the firm basis of our chronology; that is, we
must reckon the grand divisions of past time in terms of Glacial and
Interglacial Stages; the subdivisions are recorded in terms of the human
invention and progress of the flint industry. I have also had frequent
recourse to _The Great Ice Age_ and the more recent _Antiquity of Man in
Europe_ of James Geikie, the founder of the modern theory of the multiple
Ice Age in Europe.
It is a unique pleasure to express my indebtedness to the Upper
Palæolithic artists of the now extinct Crô-Magnon race, from whose work I
have sought to portray so far as possible the mammalian and human life of
the Old Stone Age. While we owe the discovery and early interpretation of
this art to a generation of archæologists, it has remained for the Abbé
Breuil not only to reproduce the art with remarkable fidelity but to
firmly establish a chronology of the stages of art development. These
results are brilliantly set forth in a superb series of volumes published
by the _Institut de Paléontologie humaine_ on the foundation of the Prince
of Monaco; in fact, the memoirs on the art and industry of _Grimaldi_,
_Font-de-Gaume_, _Altamira_, _La Pasiega_, and the Cantabrian caves of
Spain (_Les Cavernes de la Région Cantabrique_), representing the combined
labors of Capitan, Cartailhac, Verneau, Boule, Obermaier, and Breuil, mark
a new epoch in the prehistory of man in Europe. There never has been a
more fortunate union of genius, opportunity, and princely support.
In the collection of materials and illustrations from the vast number of
original papers and memoirs consulted in the preparation of this volume,
as well as in the verification of the text and proofs, I have been
constantly aided by one of my research assistants, Miss Christina D.
Matthew, who has greatly facilitated the work. I am indebted also to Miss
Mabel R. Percy for the preparation and final revision of the manuscript.
From the bibliography prepared by Miss Jannette M. Lucas, the reader may
find the original authority for every statement which does not rest on my
own observation or reflection.
Interest in human evolution centres chiefly in the skull and in the brain.
The slope of the forehead and the other angles, which are so important in
forming an estimate of the brain capacity, may be directly compared
throughout this volume, because the profile or side view of every skull
figured is placed in exactly the same relative position, namely, on the
lines established by the anatomists of the Frankfort Convention to conform
to the natural pose of the head on the living body.
In anatomy I have especially profited by the co-operation of my former
student and present university colleague Professor J. Howard McGregor, of
Columbia, who has shown great anatomical as well as artistic skill in the
restoration of the heads of the four races of _Trinil_, _Piltdown_,
_Neanderthal_, and _Crô-Magnon_. The new reconstruction of the Piltdown
head is with the aid of casts sent to me by my friend Doctor A. Smith
Woodward, of the British Museum of Natural History. The problem of
reconstruction of the Piltdown skull has, through the differences of
interpretation by Smith Woodward, Elliot Smith, and Arthur Keith, become
one of the _causes célèbres_ of anthropology. On the placing of the
fragments of the skull and jaws, which have few points of contact,
depends the all-important question of the size of the brain and the
character of the profile of the face and jaws. In Professor McGregor's
reconstruction different methods have been used from those employed by the
British anatomists, and advantage has been taken of an observation of Mr.
A. E. Anderson that the single canine tooth belongs in the upper and not
in the lower jaw. In these models, and in all the restorations of men by
Charles R. Knight under my direction, the controlling principle has been
to make the restoration as _human_ as the anatomical evidence will admit.
This principle is based upon the theory for which I believe very strong
grounds may be adduced, that all these races represent stages of advancing
and progressive development; it has seemed to me, therefore, that in our
restorations we should indicate as much alertness, intelligence, and
upward tendency as possible. Such progressive expression may, in fact, be
observed in the faces of the higher anthropoid apes, such as the
chimpanzees and orangs, when in process of education. No doubt, our
ancestors of the early Stone Age were brutal in many respects, but the
representations which have been made chiefly by French and German artists
of men with strong gorilla or chimpanzee characteristics are, I believe,
unwarranted by the anatomical remains and are contrary to the conception
which we must form of beings in the scale of rapidly ascending
intelligence.
HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN.
AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
June 21, 1915.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
PAGE
GREEK CONCEPTIONS OF MAN'S ORIGIN 1
RISE OF ANTHROPOLOGY 3
RISE OF ARCHÆOLGY 10
GEOLIGIC HISTORY OF MAN 18
GEOGRAPHIC CHANGES 34
CLIMATIC CHANGES 37
MIGRATIONS OF MAMMALS 42
CHAPTER I
ANCESTRY OF THE ANTHROPOID APES 49
PLIOCENE CLIMATE, FORESTS, AND LIFE 60
TRANSITION TO THE PLEISTOCENE 62
THE FIRST GLACIATION 64
THE FIRST INTERGLACIAL STAGE 66
EARLY PLEISTOCENE FAUNA 69
THE TRINIL RACE 73
EOLITHS, OR PRIMITIVE FLINTS 84
THE SECOND GLACIATION 86
THE SECOND INTERGLACIAL STAGE 90
THE HEIDELBERG RACE 95
MIGRATIONS OF THE REINDEER 102
THE THIRD GLACIATION 104
CHAPTER II
DATE OF THE PRE-CHELLEAN INDUSTRY 107
GEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE 116
THE RIVER-DRIFT STATIONS 119
PRE-CHELLEAN INDUSTRY 126
THE PILTDOWN RACE 130
MAMMALIAN LIFE 144
CHELLEAN INDUSTRY 148
CHELLEAN GEOGRAPHY 154
PALÆOLITHIC STATIONS OF GERMANY 159
ACHEULEAN INDUSTRY 161
THE USE OF FIRE 165
ACHEULEAN INDUSTRY 166
THE SECOND PERIOD OF ARID CLIMATE 173
LATE ACHEULEAN IMPLEMENTS 177
THE NEANDERTHAL RACE OF KRAPINA 181
CHAPTER III
CLOSE OF THE THIRD INTERGLACIAL 186
THE FOURTH GLACIAL STAGE 188
ARCTIC TUNDRA LIFE 190
ENVIRONMENT OF THE NEANDERTHAL RACE 196
MAMMALS HUNTED BY THE NEANDERTHALS 202
CAVE LIFE 211
THE NEANDERTHAL RACE 214
MOUSTERIAN INDUSTRY 244
DISAPPEARANCE OF THE NEANDERTHALS 256
CHAPTER IV
OPENING OF THE UPPER PALÆOLITHIC 260
THE GRIMALDI RACE 264
ARRIVAL OF THE CRÔ-MAGNONS 269
UPPER PALÆOLITHIC CULTURES 275
UPPER PALÆOLITHIC RACES 278
GEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE 279
MAMMALIAN LIFE 284
THE CRÔ-MAGNON RACE 289
BURIAL CUSTOMS 303
AURIGNACIAN INDUSTRY 305
THE BIRTH OF ART 315
ORIGIN OF THE SOLUTREAN CULTURE 330
HUMAN FOSSILS 333
THE BRÜNN RACE 334
SOLUTREAN INDUSTRY 338
SOLUTREAN ART 347
CHAPTER V
ORIGIN OF THE MAGDALENIAN CULTURE 351
MAGDALENIAN CULTURE 354
MAGDALENIAN CLIMATE 360
MAMMALIAN LIFE 364
HUMAN FOSSILS 376
MAGDALENIAN INDUSTRY 382
UPPER PALÆOLITHIC ART 392
MAGDALENIAN ENGRAVINGS 396
MAGDALENIAN PAINTING 408
ART IN THE CAVERNS 409
POLYCHROME PAINTING 414
MAGDALENIAN SCULPTURE 427
EXTENT OF THE MAGDALENIAN CULTURE 434
DECLINE OF THE MAGDALENIAN CULTURE 449
CRÔ-MAGNON DESCENDANTS 451
CHAPTER VI
CLOSE OF THE OLD STONE AGE 456
INVASION OF NEW RACES 457
MAS D'AZIL 459
FÈRE-EN-TARDENOIS 465
AZILIAN-TARDENOISIAN CULTURE 466
MAMMALIAN LIFE 468
AZILIAN-TARDENOISIAN INDUSTRY 470
THE BURIALS AT OFNET 475
THE NEW RACES 479
ANCESTRY OF EUROPEAN RACES 489
TRANSITION TO THE NEOLITHIC 493
NEOLITHIC CULTURE 496
NEOLITHIC FAUNA 498
PREHISTORIC AND HISTORIC RACES OF EUROPE 499
CONCLUSIONS 501
APPENDIX
NOTE
I. LUCRETIUS AND BOSSUET ON THE EARLY EVOLUTION OF MAN 503
II. HORACE ON THE EARLY EVOLUTION OF MAN 504
III. ÆSCHYLUS ON THE EARLY EVOLUTION OF MAN 505
IV. 'UROCHS' OR 'AUEROCHS' AND 'WISENT' 505
V. THE CRÔ-MAGNONS OF THE CANARY ISLANDS 506
VI. THE LENGTH OF POSTGLACIAL TIME AND THE ANTIQUITY OF
THE AURIGNACIAN CULTURE 510
VII. THE MOST RECENT DISCOVERIES OF ANTHROPOID APES AND
SUPPOSED ANCESTORS OF MAN IN INDIA 511
VIII. ANTHROPOID APES DISCOVERED BY CARTHAGINIAN NAVIGATORS 511
BIBLIOGRAPHY 513
INDEX 533
ILLUSTRATIONS
Plate I. Neanderthal man at the grotto of Le Moustier
(_in tint_) _Frontispiece_
PAGE
Plate II. Discovery sites of the type specimens of human
and prehuman races (_in color_) _facing_ 19
Plate III _Pithecanthropus_, the ape-man of Java 87
Plate IV. The Piltdown man 145
Plate V. The Neanderthal man of La Chapelle-aux-Saints 203
Plate VI. The 'Old Man of Crô-Magnon' 273
Plate VII. Crô-Magnon artists in the cavern of Font-de-Gaume
(_in tint_) 358
Plate VIII. Bison painted by Palæolithic artists in the cavern
of Altamira (_in color_) 414
FIG.
1. Modern, Palæolithic, and chimpanzee skulls compared 8
2. Skull and brain of _Pithecanthropus_, the ape-man of Java 9
3. Three great types of flint implements 11
4. Evolution of the lance-point 15
5. Map--Type stations of Palæolithic cultures 16
6. Section--Terraces of the River Inn near Scharding 25
7. Section--Terraces of the River Rhine above Basle 26
8. Section--Terraces of the River Thames near London 28
9. Magdalenian loess station of Aggsbach in Lower Austria 29
10. Section of the site of the Neanderthal cave 31
11. Sections showing the formation of the typical limestone cavern 32
12. Map--Europe in the period of maximum continental elevation 35
13. Section showing snow-lines and sea-levels of the Glacial Epoch 37
14. Chronological chart--Great events of the Glacial Epoch 41
15. Zoogeographic map 45
16. The gibbon 50
17. The orang 51
18. The chimpanzee, walking 52
19. The chimpanzee, sitting 53
20. The gorilla 55
21. Median sections of the heads of a young gorilla and of a man 56
22. Side view of a human brain of high type 57
23. Outlines of typical human and prehuman brains (side view) 58
24. Outlines of typical human and prehuman brains (top view) 59
25. Map--Europe during the Second Glacial Stage 65
26. The musk-ox 66
27. The giant deer (_Megaceros_) 68
28. The sabre-tooth tiger (_Machærodus_) 70
29. Restoration of _Pithecanthropus_, the Java ape-man 73
30. Discovery site of _Pithecanthropus_ 74
31. Section of the volcano of Lawoe and the valley of the Solo River 75
32. Map--Solo River and discovery site of _Pithecanthropus_ 75
33. Section of the _Pithecanthropus_ discovery site 76
34. Skull-top of _Pithecanthropus_, top and side views 77
35. Head of chimpanzee, front and side views 78
36. Restoration of _Pithecanthropus_ skull, side view 79
37. Restoration of _Pithecanthropus_ skull, three views 80
38. _Pithecanthropus_, the Java ape-man, side view 81
39. _Pithecanthropus_, the Java ape-man, front view 82
40. Side view of a human brain of high type 83
41. Outlines of human and prehuman brains, side and top views 84
42. The hippopotamus and the southern mammoth 92
43. Merck's rhinoceros and the straight-tusked elephant 93
44. Map--Geographic distribution of Merck's rhinoceros, the
hippopotamus, and the straight-tusked elephant 94
45. Section of the Heidelberg discovery site 96
46. The sand-pit at Mauer, discovery site of the Heidelberg man 97
47. The Heidelberg jaw 98
48. Jaws of an Eskimo, of an orang, and of Heidelberg (side view) 99
49. Jaws of an Eskimo, of an orang, and of Heidelberg (top view) 100
50. Restoration of Heidelberg man 101
51. Map--Europe during the Third Glacial Stage 105
52. Chronological chart of the last third of the Glacial Epoch 108
53. Map--Pre-Chellean and Chellean stations 109
54. Map--Europe during the Third Glacial Stage 110
55. Excavation at Chelles-sur-Marne 111
56. Map--Western Europe during the Third Interglacial Stage 116
57. Three terraces on the Connecticut River 120
58. Four forms of the Chellean coup de poing 121
59. Section--Terraces on the Somme at St. Acheul 122
60. Very primitive palæoliths from Piltdown 127
61. Pre-Chellean coups de poing from St. Acheul 128
62. Pre-Chellean _grattoir_ or planing tool from St. Acheul 129
63. Discovery site of the Piltdown skull 131
64. Section of the Piltdown discovery site 133
65. Primitive worked flint found near the Piltdown skull 134
66. Eoliths found in or near the Piltdown site 135
67. Piltdown skull and skull of South African Bushman 136
68. Restoration of the Piltdown skull, three views 137
69. Section of the Piltdown skull, showing the brain 140
70. Brain outlines of the Piltdown man, of a chimpanzee, and of
modern man, compared 140
71. The Piltdown man, side view 142
72. The Piltdown man, front view 143
73. Map--Pre-Chellean and Chellean stations 149
74. Section--Middle and high terraces on the Somme at St. Acheul 150
75. Excavation on the high terrace at St. Acheul 151
76. Small Chellean implements 153
77. Map--Palæolithic stations of Germany 160
78. Entrance to the grotto of Castillo 163
79. Section--archæologic layers of the grotto of Castillo 164
80. Map--Acheulean stations 167
81. Late Acheulean station of La Micoque in Dordogne 168
82. Method of 'flaking' flint 169
83. Method of 'chipping' flint 170
84. The fracture of flint 171
85. Large Acheulean implements 173
86. Map--Valleys of the Dordogne and the Garonne 175
87. The valley of the Vézère 176
88. Acheulean implements, large and small 178
89. A Levallois flake 179
90. The grotto of Krapina 181
91. Section Valley of the Krapinica River and grotto of Krapina 182
92. Section--The grotto of Krapina 183
93. Skull from Krapina, side view 184
94. Map--Europe during the Fourth Glacial Stage 189
95. The woolly rhinoceros and the woolly mammoth 190
96. Typical tundra fauna 193
97. Map--Palæolithic stations of Germany 195
98. The type station of Le Moustier 197
99. Excavations at Le Moustier 198
100. The Mousterian cavern of Wildkirchli 200
101. Entrance to the grotto of Sirgenstein 201
102. The woolly mammoth and his hunters 208
103. The woolly rhinoceros 210
104. Map--Distribution of Pre-Neanderthaloids and Neanderthaloids 214
105. The Gibraltar skull, front view 215
106. Section of the Neanderthal discovery site 216
107. The Neanderthal skull, side view 217
108. The skull known as Spy I, side view 220
109. Discovery site of La Chapelle-aux-Saints 222
110. Entrance to the grotto of La Chapelle-aux-Saints 223
111. The skull from La Chapelle-aux-Saints, three views 224
112. Human teeth of Neanderthaloid type from La Cotte de St.
Brelade 225
113. Skulls of a chimpanzee, of La Chapelle-aux-Saints, and of a
modern Frenchman, side view 227
114. Outlines of the Gibraltar skull and of a modern Australian
skull 228
115. Skull of La Chapelle-aux-Saints compared with one of high
modern type, side view 230
116. Skulls of a chimpanzee, of La Chapelle-aux-Saints, and of a
modern Frenchman, top view 231
117. Diagram comparing eleven races of fossil and living men 233
118. Section of the skull of La Chapelle-aux-Saints, showing the
brain 235
119. Brain outlines of La Chapelle-aux-Saints, of a chimpanzee,
and of modern man, compared 235
120. Brains of Lower and Upper Palæolithic races, top and side
views 236
121. Skeleton of La Chapelle-aux-Saints 238
122. Thigh-bones of the Trinil, Neanderthal, Crô-Magnon, and
modern races 240
123. The Neanderthal man of La Chapelle-aux-Saints, side view 242
124. The Neanderthal man of La Chapelle-aux-Saints, front view 243
125. Map--Mousterian stations 245
126. The Mousterian cave of Hornos de la Peña 246
127. Outlook from the cave of Hornos de la Peña 247
128. Typical Mousterian 'points' from Le Moustier 250
129. Mousterian 'points' and scrapers 251
130. Late Mousterian implements 255
131. Entrance to the Grotte du Prince near Mentone 262
132. Section of the Grotte des Enfants 265
133. The Grimaldi skeletons 267
134. Skull of the Grimaldi youth, front and side views 268
135. Map--Distribution of Upper Palæolithic human fossils 279
136. Chronological chart of the last third of the Glacial Epoch 280
137. 'Tectiforms' from Font-de-Gaume 283
138. Map--Distribution of the reindeer, mammoth, and woolly
rhinoceros 285
139. Section of the grotto of Aurignac 290
140. Section of the grotto of Crô-Magnon 291
141. Skull of Crô-Magnon type from the Grotte des Enfants 292
142. Head showing the method of restoration used by J. H. McGregor 293
143. The rock shelter of Laugerie Haute, Dordogne 296
144. Skeleton of La Chapelle-aux-Saints and skeleton of Crô-Magnon
type from the Grotte des Enfants, compared 297
145. Sections of normal and platycnæmic tibias 298
146. The 'Old Man of Crô-Magnon,' side view 300
147. The 'Old Man of Crô-Magnon,' front view 301
148. Brain outlines of Combe-Capelle, of a chimpanzee, and of
modern man, compared 303
149. Evolution of the _burin_, early Aurignacian to late Solutrean 307
150. Typical Aurignacian _grattoirs_, or scrapers 309
151. Evolution of the Aurignacian 'point' 311
152. Prototypes of the Solutrean 'laurel-leaf point' 312
153. Map--Aurignacian stations 314
154. Outlook from the cavern of Pindal 315
155. Mammoth painted in the cavern of Pindal 316
156. Primitive paintings of animals from Font-de-Gaume 318
157. Woolly rhinoceros painted in the cavern of Font-de-Gaume 319
158. Carved female figurine from the Grottes de Grimaldi 321
159. Female figurine in limestone from Willendorf 322
160. Female figurine in soapstone from the Grottes de Grimaldi 323
161. Superposed engravings of rhinoceros and mammoth from Le
Trilobite 324
162. Silhouettes of hands from Gargas 325
163. The rock shelter of Laussel on the Beune 326
164. Section of the industrial layers at Laussel 327
165. Bas-relief of a woman from Laussel 328
166. Bas-relief of a man from Laussel 329
167. Map--Solutrean stations 331
168. The skull known as Brünn I, discovered at Brünn, Moravia 335
169. Solutrean 'laurel-leaf points' 339
170. The type station of Solutré 342
171. Excavations at Solutré 343
172. Typical Solutrean implements 346
173. Mammoth sculptured on ivory, from Předmost, Moravia 349
174. Engraved and painted bison from Niaux 353
175. Decorated _sagaies_ or javelin points of bone 354
176. Horse's head engraved on a fragment of bone, from Brassempouy 355
177. Painting of a wolf, from Font-de-Gaume 356
178. Crude sculpture of the ibex, from Mas d'Azil 357
179. Decorated _bâtons de commandement_ 359
180. Chronological chart of the last third of the Glacial epoch 362
181. Engraved and painted reindeer from Font-de-Gaume 365
182. Four types of horse frequent in Upper Palæolithic times 367
183. Horse of Celtic type, painted on the ceiling of Altamira 368
184. Four chamois heads engraved on reindeer horn, from Gourdan 369
185. Typical alpine fauna 371
186. Typical steppe fauna 374
187. Ptarmigan or grouse carved in bone, from Mas d'Azil 375
188. The rock shelter of Laugerie Basse, Dordogne 377
189. Human skull-tops cut into bowls, from Placard 379
190. Male and female skulls of Crô-Magnon type, from Obercassel 381
191. The type station of La Madeleine 383
192. Magdalenian flint implements 386
193. Magdalenian bone harpoons 387
194. Magdalenian flint blades with denticulated edge 390
195. Bone needles from Lacave 391
196. Map--Palæolithic art stations of Dordogne, the Pyrenees, and
the Cantabrian Mountains 394
197. Primitive engravings of the mammoth from Combarelles 397
198. Preliminary engraving of painted mammoth from Font-de-Gaume 397
199. Charging mammoth engraved on ivory, from La Madeleine 398
200. Human grotesques from Marsoulas, Altamira, and Combarelles 399
201. Entrance to the cavern of Combarelles, Dordogne 400
202. Engraved cave-bear, from Combarelles 401
203. Magdalenian stone lamp, from La Mouthe 401
204. Entrance to the cavern of La Pasiega 402
205. Engraved bison from Marsoulas 403
206. Herd of horses engraved on a slab of stone, from Chaffaud 404
207. Herd of reindeer engraved on an eagle radius, from La Mairie 405
208. Reindeer and salmon engraved on an antler, from Lorthet 406
209. Engraved lioness and horses, from Font-de-Gaume 407
210. Painted horse of Celtic type, from Castillo 408
211. Galloping horse of steppe type, from Font-de-Gaume 408
212. Entrance to the cavern of Niaux 409
213. Engraved horse with heavy winter coat, from Niaux 410
214. Professor Emile Cartailhac at the entrance of Le Portel 411
215. Engraved horse and reindeer, from La Mairie 412
216. Engraved reindeer, cave-bear, and two horses, from La Mairie 413
217. Engraved wild cattle, from La Mairie 413
218. Preliminary etched outline of bison from Font-de-Gaume 414
219. Entrance to the cavern of Font-de-Gaume 415
220. Map of the cavern of Font-de-Gaume 416
221. Narrow passage known as the 'Rubicon,' Font-de-Gaume 417
222. Plan showing reindeer and procession of bison, Font-de-Gaume 419
223. Plan showing preliminary engraving and painting of the
procession of mammoths, superposed on drawings of bison,
reindeer, and horses 420
224. Example of superposition of paintings, from Font-de-Gaume 421
225. Entrance to the cavern of Altamira 422
226. Plan of paintings on the ceiling of Altamira 423
227. The ceiling of Altamira 424
228. Painting of female bison lying down, from Altamira 425
229. Royal stag engraved on the ceiling of Altamira 426
230. Statuette of a mammoth carved in reindeer horn, from Bruniquel 427
231. Entrance to the cavern of Tuc d'Audoubert 428
232. Engraved head of a reindeer from Tuc d'Audoubert 429
233. Two bison, male and female, modelled in clay, from Tuc
d'Audoubert 430
234. Horse carved in high relief, from Cap Blanc 431
235. Horse head carved on a reindeer antler, from Mas d'Azil 432
236. Statuette of horse carved in ivory, from Les Espelugues 432
237. Woman's head carved in ivory, from Brassempouy 433
238. Map--Magdalenian stations 435
239. Necklace of marine shells, from Crô-Magnon 437
240. Map--Palæolithic stations of Germany 439
241. Reindeer engraved around a piece of reindeer antler, from
Kesslerloch 441
242. Entrance to the grotto of Kesslerloch 444
243. The rock shelter of Schweizersbild 445
244. The open loess station of Aggsbach 448
245. Saiga antelope carved on a bone dart-thrower, from Mas d'Azil 449
246. Western entrance to the cavern of Mas d'Azil 460
247. Azilian harpoons of stag horn 462
248. Azilian _galets coloriés_, or painted pebbles 464
249. Tardenoisian flints 467
250. Map--Azilian-Tardenoisian stations 471
251. Azilian stone implements 473
252. Double-rowed Azilian harpoons of stag horn, from Oban 474
253. Section--Archæologic layers in the grotto of Ofnet 476
254. Burial nest of six skulls, from the grotto of Ofnet 477
255. Brachycephalic and dolichocephalic skulls from Ofnet 478
256. Broad-headed skull of Grenelle 482
257. Entrance to the grotto of Furfooz on the Lesse 482
258. Section of the grotto of Furfooz 483
259. One of the type skulls of the Furfooz race 483
260. Restoration of the man of Grenelle 484
261. Implements and decorations from Maglemose 487
262. Ancestry of the Pre-Neolithic races 491
263. Stages in the manufacture of the Neolithic stone ax 493
264. Stone hatchet from Campigny 494
265. Stone pick from Campigny 494
266. Restoration of the Neolithic man of Spiennes 495
267. Stag hunt, painting from the rock shelter of Alpera 497
268. Map--Distribution of the types of recent man in western Europe 499
Map of Palæolithic Tour _folded at the end of the volume_
MEN OF THE OLD STONE AGE
INTRODUCTION
GREEK CONCEPTIONS OF MAN'S ORIGIN--RISE OF ANTHROPOLOGY, OF
ARCHÆOLOGY, OF THE GEOLOGIC HISTORY OF MAN--TIME DIVISIONS OF THE
GLACIAL EPOCH--GEOGRAPHIC, CLIMATIC, AND LIFE PERIODS OF THE OLD STONE
AGE
The anticipation of nature by Lucretius[B] in his philosophical poem, _De
Rerum Natura_, accords in a broad and remarkable way with our present
knowledge of the prehistory of man:
"Things throughout proceed
In firm, undevious order, and maintain,
To nature true, their fixt generic stamp.
Yet man's first sons, as o'er the fields they trod,
Reared from the hardy earth, were hardier far;
Strong built with ampler bones, with muscles nerved
Broad and substantial; to the power of heat,
Of cold, of varying viands, and disease,
Each hour superior; the wild lives of beasts
Leading, while many a lustre o'er them rolled.
Nor crooked plough-share knew they, nor to drive,
Deep through the soil, the rich-returning spade;
Nor how the tender seedling to re-plant,
Nor from the fruit-tree prune the withered branch.
* * * * *
"Nor knew they yet the crackling blaze t'excite,
Or clothe their limbs with furs, or savage hides.
But groves concealed them, woods, and hollow hills;
And, when rude rains, or bitter blasts o'erpowered,
Low bushy shrubs their squalid members wrapped.
* * * * *
"And in their keen rapidity of hand
And foot confiding, oft the savage train
With missile stones they hunted, or the force
Of clubs enormous; many a tribe they felled,
Yet some in caves shunned, cautious; where, at night,
Thronged they, like bristly swine; their naked limbs
With herbs and leaves entwining. Nought of fear
Urged them to quit the darkness, and recall,
With clamorous cries, the sunshine and the day:
But sound they sunk in deep, oblivious sleep,
Till o'er the mountains blushed the roseate dawn.
* * * * *
"This ne'er distressed them, but the fear alone
Some ruthless monster might their dreams molest,
The foamy boar, or lion, from their caves
Drive them aghast beneath the midnight shade,
And seize their leaf-wrought couches for themselves.
* * * * *
"Yet then scarce more of mortal race than now
Left the sweet lustre of the liquid day.
Some doubtless, oft the prowling monsters gaunt
Grasped in their jaws, abrupt; whence, through the groves,
The woods, the mountains, they vociferous groaned,
Destined thus living to a living tomb.
* * * * *
"Yet when, at length, rude huts they first devised,
And fires, and garments; and, in union sweet,
Man wedded woman, the pure joys indulged
Of chaste connubial love, and children rose,
The rough barbarians softened. The warm hearth
Their frames so melted they no more could bear,
As erst, th' uncovered skies; the nuptial bed
Broke their wild vigor, and the fond caress
Of prattling children from the bosom chased
Their stern ferocious manners."[C]
This is a picture of many phases in the life of primitive man: his
powerful frame, his ignorance of agriculture, his dependence on the fruits
and animal products of the earth, his discovery of fire and of clothing,
his chase of wild beasts with clubs and missile stones, his repair to
caverns, his contests with the lion and the boar, his invention of rude
huts and dwellings, the softening of his nature through the sweet
influence of family life and of children, all these are veritable stages
in our prehistoric development. The influence of Greek thought is also
reflected in the Satires of Horace,[D] and the Greek conception of the
natural history of man, voiced by Æschylus[E] as early as the fifth
century B. C., prevailed widely before the Christian era, when it
gradually gave way to the Mosaic conception of special creation, which
spread all over western Europe.
RISE OF MODERN ANTHROPOLOGY
As the idea of the natural history of man again arose, during the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, it came not so much from previous
sources as from the dawning science of comparative anatomy. From the year
1597, when a Portuguese sailor's account of an animal resembling the
chimpanzee was embodied in Filippo Pigafetta's _Description of the Kingdom
of the Congo_, the many points of likeness between the anthropoid apes and
man were treated both in satire and caricature and in serious anatomical
comparison as evidence of kinship.
The first French evolutionist, Buffon,[F] observed in 1749: "The first
truth that makes itself apparent on serious study of nature is one that
man may perhaps find humiliating; it is this--that he, too, must take his
place in the ranks of animals, being, as he is, an animal in every
material point." Buffon's convictions were held in check by clerical and
official influences, yet from his study of the orang in 1766 we can
entertain no doubt of his belief that men and apes are descended from
common ancestors.
The second French evolutionist, Lamarck,[G] in 1809 boldly proclaimed the
descent of man from the anthropoid apes, pointing out their close
anatomical resemblances combined with inferiority both in bodily and
mental capacity. In the evolution of man Lamarck perceived the great
importance of the erect position, which is only occasionally assumed by
the apes; also that children pass gradually from the quadrumanous to the
upright position, and thus repeat the history of their ancestors. Man's
origin is traced as follows: A race of quadrumanous apes gradually
acquires the upright position in walking, with a corresponding
modification of the limbs, and of the relation of the head and face to the
back-bone. Such a race, having mastered all the other animals, spreads out
over the world. It checks the increase of the races nearest itself and,
spreading in all directions, begins to lead a social life, develops the
power of speech and the communication of ideas. It develops also new
requirements, one after another, which lead to industrial pursuits and to
the gradual perfection of its powers. Eventually this pre-eminent race,
having acquired absolute supremacy, comes to be widely different from even
the most perfect of the lower animals.
The period following the latest publication of Lamarck's(1)[H] remarkable
speculations in the year 1822, was distinguished by the earliest
discoveries of the industry of the caveman in southern France in 1828, and
in Belgium, near Liége, in 1833; discoveries which afforded the first
scientific proof of the geologic antiquity of man and laid the foundations
of the science of archæology.
The earliest recognition of an entirely extinct race of men was that which
was called the 'Neanderthal,' found, in 1856, near Düsseldorf, and
immediately recognized by Schaaffhausen(2) as a primitive race of low
cerebral development and of uncommon bodily strength.
Darwin in the _Origin of Species_,(3) which appeared in 1858, did not
discuss the question of human descent, but indicated the belief that
light would be thrown by his theory on the origin of man and his history.
It appears that Lamarck's doctrine in the _Philosophie Zoologique_
(1809)(4) made a profound impression on the mind of Lyell, who was the
first to treat the descent of man in a broad way from the standpoint of
comparative anatomy and of geologic age. In his great work of 1863, _The
Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man_, Lyell cited Huxley's
estimate of the Neanderthal skull as more primitive than that of the
Australian but of surprisingly large cranial capacity. He concludes with
the notable statement: "The direct bearing of the ape-like character of
the Neanderthal skull on Lamarck's doctrine of progressive development and
transmutation ... consists in this, that the newly observed deviation from
a normal standard of human structure is not in a casual or random
direction, but just what might have been anticipated if the laws of
variation were such as the transmutationists require. For if we conceive
the cranium to be very ancient, it exemplifies a less advanced stage of
progressive development and improvement."(5)
Lyell followed this by an exhaustive review of all the then existing
evidence in favor of the great geological age of man, considering the
'river-drift,' the 'loess,' and the loam deposits, and the relations of
man to the divisions of the Glacial Epoch. Referring to what is now known
as the Lower Palæolithic of St. Acheul and the Upper Palæolithic of
Aurignac, he says that they were doubtless separated by a vast interval of
time, when we consider that the flint implements of St. Acheul belong
either to the Post-Pliocene or early Pleistocene time, or the 'older
drift.'
It is singular that in the _Descent of Man_, published in 1871,(6) eight
years after the appearance of Lyell's great work, Charles Darwin made only
passing mention of the Neanderthal race, as follows: "Nevertheless, it
must be admitted that some skulls of very high antiquity, such as the
famous one at Neanderthal, are well-developed and capacious." It was the
relatively large brain capacity which turned Darwin's attention away from
a type which has furnished most powerful support to his theory of human
descent. In the two hundred pages which Darwin devotes to the descent of
man, he treats especially the evidences presented in comparative anatomy
and comparative psychology, as well as the evidence afforded by the
comparison of the lower and higher races of man. As regards the
"birthplace and antiquity of man,"(7) he observes:
"... In each great region of the world the living mammals are closely
related to the extinct species of the same region. It is therefore
probable that Africa was formerly inhabited by extinct apes closely allied
to the gorilla and chimpanzee; and as these two species are now man's
nearest allies, it is somewhat more probable that our early progenitors
lived on the African continent than elsewhere. But it is useless to
speculate on this subject; for two or three anthropomorphous apes, one the
_Dryopithecus_ of Lartet, nearly as large as a man, and closely allied to
_Hylobates_, existed in Europe during the Miocene Age; and since so remote
a period the earth has certainly undergone many great revolutions, and
there has been ample time for migration on the largest scale.
"At the period and place, whenever and wherever it was, when man first
lost his hairy covering, he probably inhabited a hot country; a
circumstance favorable for the frugivorous diet on which, judging from
analogy, he subsisted. We are far from knowing how long ago it was when
man first diverged from the catarrhine stock; but it may have occurred at
an epoch as remote as the Eocene Period; for that the higher apes had
diverged from the lower apes as early as the Upper Miocene Period is shown
by the existence of the _Dryopithecus_."
With this speculation of Darwin the reader should compare the state of our
knowledge to-day regarding the descent of man, as presented in the first
and last chapters of this volume.
The most telling argument against the Lamarck-Lyell-Darwin theory was the
absence of those missing links which, theoretically, should be found
connecting Man with the anthropoid apes, for at that time the Neanderthal
race was not recognized as such. Between 1848 and 1914 successive
discoveries have been made of a series of human fossils belonging to
intermediate races: some of these are now recognized as missing links
between the existing human species, _Homo sapiens_, and the anthropoid
apes; and others as the earliest known forms of _Homo sapiens_:
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Year| Locality | Character of Remains | Race |
|----|---------------------|----------------------|-------------------|
|1848|Gibraltar. |Well-preserved skull. |Neanderthal. |
|1856|Neanderthal, near |Skullcap, etc. |Type of Neanderthal|
| | Düsseldorf. | | race. |
|1866|La Naulette, Belgium.|Fragment of lower jaw.|Neanderthal race |
|1867|Furfooz, Belgium. |Two skulls. |Type of Furfooz |
| | | | race. |
|1868|Crô-Magnon, Dordogne.|Three skeletons and |Type of Crô-Magnon |
| | | fragments of two | race. |
| | | others. | |
|1887|Spy, Belgium. |Two crania and |Spy type of |
| | | skeletons. | Neanderthal |
| | | | race. |
|1891|Trinil River, Java. |Skullcap and femur. |Type of |
| | | | Pithecanthropus |
| | | | race. |
|1899|Krapina, |Fragments of at least |Krapina type of |
| | Austria-Hungary. | ten individuals. | Neanderthal race.|
|1901|Grimaldi grotto, |Two skeletons. |Type of Grimaldi |
| | Mentone. | | race. |
|1907|Heidelberg. |Lower jaw with teeth. |Type of _Homo |
| | | | heidelbergensis_.|
|1908|La Chapelle, Corrèze.|Skeleton. |Mousterian type of |
| | | | Neanderthal race.|
|1908|Le Moustier, |Almost complete |Neanderthal. |
| | Dordogne. | skeleton, greater | |
| | | part of which was | |
| | | in bad state of | |
| | | preservation. | |
|1909|La Ferrassie I, |Fragments of skeleton.|Neanderthal. |
| | Dordogne. | | |
|1910|La Ferrassie II, |Fragments of skeleton,|Neanderthal. |
| | Dordogne. | female. | |
|1911|La Quina II, |Fragments of skeleton,|Neanderthal. |
| | Charente. | supposed female. | |
|1911|Piltdown, Sussex. |Portions of skull and |Type of |
| | | jaw. | _Eoanthropus_, |
| | | | the 'dawn man.' |
|1914|Obercassel, near |Two skeletons, male |Crô-Magnon. |
| | Bonn, Germany. | and female. | |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
In his classic lecture of 1844, _On the Form of the Head in Different
Peoples_, Anders Retzius laid the foundation of the modern study of the
skull.(8) Referring to his original publication, he says: "In the system
of classification which I devised, I have distinguished just two forms,
namely, the _short_ (round or four-cornered) which I named
_brachycephalic_, and the _long_, oval, or _dolichocephalic_. In the
former there is little or no difference between the length and breadth of
the skull; in the latter there is a notable difference." The expression of
this primary distinction between races is called the _cephalic index_, and
it is determined as follows:
Breadth of skull × 100 ÷ length of skull.
In this sense the primitive men of the Old Stone Age were mostly
'dolichocephalic,' that is, the breadth of the skull was in general less
than 75 per cent of the length, as in the existing Australians, Kaffirs,
Zulus, Eskimos, and Fijians. But some of the Palæolithic races were
'mesaticephalic'; that is, the breadth was between 75 per cent and 80 per
cent of the length, as in the existing Chinese and Polynesians. The third
or 'brachycephalic' type is the exception among Palæolithic skulls, in
which the breadth is over 80 per cent of the length, as in the Malays,
Burmese, American Indians, and Andamanese.
[Illustration: FIG. 1. Outline of a modern brachycephalic skull (fine
dots), superposed upon a dolichocephalic skull (dashes), superposed upon a
chimpanzee skull (line).
_g._ _glabella_ or median prominence between the eyebrows.
_i._ _inion_--external occipital protuberance.
_g-i._ glabella-inion line.
Vertical line from _g-i_ to top of skull indicates the height of the
brain-case. Modified after Schwalbe.]
The cephalic index, however, tells us little of the position of the skull
as a _brain-case_ in the ascending or descending scale, and following the
elaborate systems of skull measurements which were built up by Retzius(9)
and Broca,(10) and based chiefly on the _outside_ characters of the skull,
came the modern system of Schwalbe, which has been devised especially to
measure the skull with reference to the all-important criterion of the
size of the different portions of the brain, and of approximately
estimating the cubic capacity of the brain from the more or less complete
measurements of the skull.
Among these measurements are the slope of the forehead, the height of the
median portion of the skullcap, and the ratio between the upper portion of
the cranial chamber and the lower portion. In brief, the seven principal
measures which Schwalbe now employs are chiefly expressions of diameters
which correspond with the number of cubic centimetres occupied by the
brain as a whole.
In this manner Schwalbe(11) confirms Boule's estimates of the variations
in the cubic capacity of the brain in different members of the Neanderthal
race as follows:
Neanderthal race--La Chapelle 1620 c.cm.
" " --Neanderthal 1408 "
" " --La Quina 1367 "
" " --Gibraltar 1296 "
Thus the variations between the largest known brain in one member of the
Neanderthal race, the male skull of La Chapelle, and the smallest brain of
the same race, the supposed female skull of Gibraltar, is 324 c.cm., a
range similar to that which we find in the existing species of man (_Homo
sapiens_).
[Illustration: FIG. 2. The skull and brain-case, showing the low,
retreating forehead, prominent supraorbital ridges, and small brain
capacity, of _Pithecanthropus_, the java ape-man, as restored by J. H.
McGregor.]
As another test for the classification of primitive skulls, we may select
the well-known _frontal angle_ of Broca, as modified by Schwalbe, for
measuring the retreating forehead. The angle is measured by drawing a line
along the forehead upward from the bony ridge between the eyebrows, with a
horizontal line carried from the _glabella_ to the _inion_ at the back of
the skull. The various primitive races are arranged as follows:
PER CENT
_Homo sapiens_, with an average forehead frontal angle 90
_Homo sapiens_, with extreme retreating forehead " " 72.3
_Homo neanderthalensis_, with the least retreating
forehead " " 70
_Homo neanderthalensis_, with the most retreating
forehead " " 57.5
_Pithecanthropus erectus_ (Trinil race) " " 52.5
Highest anthropoid apes " " 56
For instance, this illustrates the fact that in the Trinil race the
forehead is actually lower than in some of the highest anthropoid apes;
that in the Neanderthal race the forehead is more retreating than in any
of the existing human races of _Homo sapiens_.
ARCHÆOLOGY OF THE OLD STONE AGE[I]
The proofs of the prehistory of man arose afresh, and from an entirely new
source, in the beginning of the eighteenth century through discoveries in
Germany, by which the Greek anticipations of a stone age were verified.
For a century and a half the great animal life of the diluvial world had
aroused the wonder and speculation of the early naturalists. In 1750
Eccardus(17) of Braunschweig advanced the first steps toward prehistoric
chronology, in expressing the opinion that the human race first lived in a
period in which stone served as the only weapon and tool, and that this
was followed by a bronze and then by an iron period of human culture. As
early as 1700 a human skull was discovered at Cannstatt and was believed
to be of a period as ancient as the mammoth and the cave-bear.[J]
France, favored beyond all other countries by the men of the Old Stone
Age, was destined to become the classic centre of prehistoric archæology.
As early as 1740 Mahudel(18) published a treatise upon stone implements
and laid the foundations both of Neolithic and Palæolithic research. By
the beginning of the nineteenth century the problem of fossil man had
awakened wide-spread interest and research. In Buckland's(19) _Reliquiæ
diluvianæ_, published in 1824, the great mammals of the Old Stone Age are
treated as relics of the flood. In 1825 MacEnery explored the cavern of
Kent's Hole, near Torquay, finding human bones and flint flakes associated
with the remains of the cave-bear and cave-hyæna, but the notes of this
discovery were not published until 1840, when Godwin-Austen(20) gave the
first description of Kent's Hole. In 1828 Tournal and Christol(21)
announced the first discoveries in France (Languedoc) of the association
of human bones with the remains of extinct animals. In 1833-4
Schmerling(22) described his explorations in the caverns near Liége, in
Belgium, in which he found human bones and rude flint implements
intermingled with the remains of the mammoth, the woolly rhinoceros, the
cave-hyæna, and the cave-bear. This is the first published evidence of the
life of the Cave Period of Europe, and was soon followed by the
recognition of similar cavern deposits along the south coast of Great
Britain, in France, Belgium and Italy.
[Illustration: FIG. 3. Three great types of flint implements.
_A._ An eolith of accidental shape.
_B._ A palæolith of Chellean type, partly fashioned.
_C._ A Neolithic axe head, partly polished.
After MacCurdy.]
The work of the caveman, gradually revealed between 1828 and 1840, is now
known to belong to the closing period of the Old Stone Age, and it is very
remarkable that the next discovery related to the very dawn of the Old
Stone Age, namely, to the life of the 'river-drift' man of the Lower
Palæolithic.
This discovery of what is now known as Chellean and Acheulean industry
came through the explorations of Boucher de Perthes, between 1839 and
1846, in the valley of the River Somme, which flows through Amiens and
Abbeville and empties into the English Channel half-way between Dieppe and
Boulogne. In 1841 this founder of modern archæology unearthed near
Abbeville a single flint, rudely fashioned into a cutting instrument,
buried in river sand and associated with mammalian remains. This was
followed by the collection of many other ancient weapons and implements,
and in the year 1846 Boucher de Perthes published his first work, entitled
_De l'Industrie primitive, ou des Arts à leur Origine_,(23) in which he
announced that he had found human implements in beds unmistakably
belonging to the age of the 'river-drift.' This work and the succeeding
(1857), _Antiquités celtiques et antédiluviennes_,(24) were received with
great scepticism until confirmed in 1853 by Rigollot's(25) discovery of
the now famous 'river-drift' beds of St. Acheul, near Amiens. In the
succeeding years the epoch-making work of Boucher de Perthes was welcomed
and confirmed by leading British geologists and archæologists, Falconer,
Prestwich, Evans, and others who visited the Somme. Lubbock's(26) article
of 1862, on the _Evidence of the Antiquity of Man Afforded by the Physical
Structure of the Somme Valley_, pointing out the great geologic age of the
river sands and gravels and of the mammals which they contained, was
followed by the discovery of similar flints in the 'river-drifts' of
Suffolk and Kent, England, in the valley of the Thames near Dartford. Thus
came the first positive proofs that certain types of stone implements were
wide-spread geographically, and thus was afforded the means of comparing
the age of one deposit with another.
This led Sir John Lubbock(27) to divide the prehistoric period into four
great epochs, in descending order as follows:
The _Iron Age_, in which iron had superseded bronze for arms, axes,
knives, etc., while bronze remained in common use for ornaments.
The _Bronze Age_, in which bronze was used for arms and cutting
instruments of all kinds.
The later or polished Stone Age, termed by Lubbock the _Neolithic Period_,
characterized by weapons and instruments made of flint and other kinds of
stone, with no knowledge of any metal excepting gold.
Age of the Drift, termed by Lubbock the _Palæolithic Period_,
characterized by chipped or flaked implements of flint and other kinds of
stone, and by the presence of the mammoth, the cave-bear, the woolly
rhinoceros, and other extinct animals.
Edouard Lartet, in 1860, began exploring the caverns of the Pyrenees and
of Périgord, first examining the remarkable cavern of Aurignac with its
burial vault, its hearths, its reindeer and mammoth fauna, its spear
points of bone and engravings on bone mingled with a new and distinctive
flint culture. This discovery, published in 1861,(28) led to the full
revelation of the hitherto unknown Reindeer and Art Period of the Old
Stone Age, now known as the Upper Palæolithic. As a palæontologist, it was
natural for Lartet to propose a fourfold classification of the 'Reindeer
Period,' based upon the supposed succession of the dominant forms of
mammalian life, namely:
(_d_) Age of the Aurochs or Bison.
(_c_) Age of the Woolly Mammoth and Rhinoceros.
(_b_) Age of the Reindeer.
(_a_) Age of the Cave-Bear.
Lartet, in association with the British archæologist, Christy, explored
the now famous rock shelters and caverns of Dordogne--Laugerie, La
Madeleine, Les Eyzies, and Le Moustier--which one by one yielded a variety
of flint and bone implements, engravings and sculpture on bone and ivory,
and a rich extinct fauna, in which the reindeer and mammoth predominated.
The results of this decade of exploration are recorded in their classic
work, _Reliquiæ Aquitanicæ_.(29) Lartet, observes Breuil,(30) clearly
perceived the level of Aurignac, where the fauna of the great cave-bear
and of the mammoth appears to yield to that of the reindeer. Above he
perceived the stone culture of the Solutrean type in Laugerie Haute, and
of the Magdalenian type in Laugerie Basse. Lartet also distinguished
between the archæological period of St. Acheul (= Lower Palæolithic) and
that of Aurignac (= Upper Palæolithic).
It remained, however, for Gabriel de Mortillet, the first French
archæologist to survey and systematize the development of the flint
industry throughout the entire Palæolithic Period, to recognize that the
Magdalenian followed the Solutrean, and that during the latter stage
industry in stone reached its height, while during the Magdalenian the
industry in bone and in wood developed in a marvelous manner. Mortillet
failed to recognize the position of the Aurignacian and omitted it from
his archæological chronology, which was first published in 1869, _Essai de
classification des cavernes et des stations sous abri, fondée sur les
produits de l'industrie humaine_:(31)
(5) _Magdalénien_,[K] characterized by a number and variety of bone
implements;
(4) _Solutréen_, leaf-like lance-heads beautifully worked;
(3) _Moustérien_, flints worked mostly on one side only;
(2) _Acheuléen_, the 'langues de chat' hand-axes of St. Acheul;
(1) _Chelléen_, bold, primitive, partly worked hand-axes.
Shortly after the Franco-Prussian War, Edouard Piette (b. 1827, d. 1906),
who had held the office of magistrate in various towns in the departments
of Ardennes and Aisne, France, and who was already distinguished for his
general scientific attainments, began to devote himself especially to the
evolution of art in Upper Palæolithic times, and assembled the great
collections which are described and illustrated in his classic work,
_L'Art pendant l'Age du Renne_ (1907).(32) He first established several
phases of artistic evolution in the Magdalenian stage, and only recognized
in his later years the station of Brassempouy, not comprehending that the
Aurignacian art which he found there underlay the Solutrean culture and
was separated by a long interval of time from the most ancient
Magdalenian. His distinct contribution to Palæolithic history is his
discovery of the _Étage azilien_ overlying the Magdalenian in the cavern
of Mas d'Azil.
[Illustration: FIG. 4. Evolution of the lance-point, spear, or dart head.
Note the increasing symmetry and skill in the flaking and retouch as the
types pass in ascending order through the Chellean, Acheulean, Mousterian,
and Aurignacian, into the perfected, symmetrical, double-pointed
'laurel-leaf' of the Solutrean; and into the subsequent decline in the
flint industry of the Magdalenian and Azilian stages. After de Mortillet,
Obermaier, and Hoernes.]
Henri Breuil, a pupil of Piette and of Cartailhac, exploring during the
decade, 1902-12, chiefly under the influence of Cartailhac, formed a clear
conception of the whole Upper Palæolithic and its subdivisions, and placed
the Aurignacian definitely at the base of the series.
Thus step by step the culture stages of archæological evolution have been
established and may be summarized with the type stations as follows:
ÉTAGE STATION
Tardenoisien, Fère-en-Tardenois, Aisne.
Azilien, Mas d'Azil, Ariège.
Magdalenien, La Madeleine, près Tursac, Dordogne.
Solutréen, Solutré près Mâcon, Saône-et-Loire.
Aurignacien, Aurignac, Haute-Garonne.
Moustérien, Le Moustier, commune de Peyzac, Dordogne.
Acheuléen, St. Acheul, près Amiens, Somme.
Chelléen, Chelles-sur-Marne, Seine-et-Marne.
Pre-Chelléen
(= Mesvinien, Rutot), Mesvin, Mons, Belgique.
These stages, at first regarded as single, have each been subdivided into
three or more substages, as a result of the more refined appreciation of
the subtle advances in Palæolithic invention and technique.
[Illustration: FIG. 5. The type stations of the successive stages of
Palæolithic culture from the Chellean to the Azilian-Tardenoisian.]
A new impulse to the study of Palæolithic culture was given in 1895, when
E. Rivière discovered examples of Palæolithic mural art in the cavern of
La Mouthe,(33) thus confirming the original discovery, in 1880, by
Marcelino de Sautuola of the wonderful ceiling frescoes of the cave of
Altamira, northern Spain.(34) This created the opportunity for the
establishment by the Prince of Monaco of the _Institut de Paléontologie
humaine_ in 1910, supporting the combined researches of the Upper
Palæolithic culture and art of France and Spain, by Cartailhac, Capitan,
Rivière, Boule, Breuil, and Obermaier, and marking a new epoch in the
brilliant history of the archæology of France.
It remained for the prehistory of the borders of the Danube, Rhine, and
Neckar to be brought into harmony with that of France, and this has been
accomplished with extraordinary precision and fulness through the labors
of R. R. Schmidt, begun in 1906, and brought together in his invaluable
work, _Die diluviale Vorzeit Deutschlands_.(35)
To an earlier and longer epoch belongs the Prepalæolithic or Eolithic
stage. Beginning in 1867 with the supposed discovery by l'Abbé
Bourgeois(36) of a primordial or Prepalæolithic stone culture, much
observation and speculation has been devoted to the Eolithic(37) era and
the Eolithic industry, culminating in the complete chronological system of
Rutot, as follows:
LOWER QUATERNARY, OR PLEISTOCENE
Strépyian (= Pre-Chellean, in part).
Mesvinian, culture of Mesvin, near Mons, Belgium (= Pre-Chellean).
Mafflean, culture of Maffle, near Ath, Hennegau.
Reutelian, culture of Reutel, Ypres, West Flanders.
TERTIARY
Prestian, culture of St. Prest, Eure-et-Loire, Upper Pliocene.
Kentian, culture of the plateau of Kent, Middle Pliocene.
Cantalian, culture of Aurillac, Cantal, Upper Miocene or Lower
Pliocene.
Fagnian, culture of Boncelles, Ardennes, Middle Oligocene.
Only the Mesvinian stage is generally accepted by archæologists, and this
embraces the prototypes of the Lower Palæolithic culture, which among
most French authors are termed Pre-Chellean or Proto-Chellean. The
Eolithic problem has aroused the most animated controversy, in which
opinion is divided. A critical consideration of this era, however, falls
without the province of the present work.
SUCCESSION OF HUMAN INDUSTRIES AND CULTURES[L]
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| V. _LATER IRON AGE_ EUROPE 500 B. C. to |
| (LA TÈNE CULTURE) ROMAN TIMES.|
| |
| IV. _EARLIER IRON AGE_ EUROPE 1000-500 B. C.|
| (HALLSTATT CULTURE) ORIENT 1800-1000 |
| |
|III. _BRONZE AGE_ EUROPE about 2000-1000 |
| ORIENT " 4000-1800 |
| |
| II. _NEW STONE AGE_, _NEOLITHIC_ |
| 3. _LATE NEOLITHIC_ and |
| _COPPER AGE_ |
| (TRANSITION PERIOD) EUROPE " 3000-2000. |
| |
| 2. _TYPICAL NEOLITHIC AGE_ |
| (ROBENHAUSIAN, SWISS |
| LAKE-DWELLERS) EUROPE " 7000. |
| |
| 1. _EARLY NEOLITHIC STAGES_ |
| (CAMPIGNIAN CULTURE) EUROPE |
| |
| I. _OLD STONE AGE_, _PALÆOLITHIC_ |
| |
| _UPPER PALÆOLITHIC_ EUROPE |
| 8. AZILIAN-TARDENOISIAN. } " 12,000. |
| } |
| 7. MAGDALENIAN. (Close of } " 16,000. |
| Postglacial time.) } |
| } |
| 6. SOLUTREAN. } REINDEER, |
| } SHELTER, |
| 5. AURIGNACIAN. (Beginning } AND CAVE |
| of Post-Glacial Time.) } PERIOD. |
| } |
| _LOWER PALÆOLITHIC_ } |
| 4. MOUSTERIAN. (Fourth } " 40,000. |
| Glacial time.) } |
| |
| 3. ACHEULEAN. (Transition } |
| to shelters.) } RIVER- |
| } DRIFT |
| 2. CHELLEAN. } AND " 100,000. |
| } TERRACE |
| 1. PRE-CHELLEAN (MESVINIAN.) } PERIOD. |
| } |
| _EOLITHIC._ |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
GEOLOGIC HISTORY OF MAN
Man emerges from the vast geologic history of the earth in the period
known as the Pleistocene, or Glacial, and Postglacial, the 'Diluvium' of
the older geologists. The men of the Old Stone Age in western Europe are
now known through the latter half of Glacial times to the very end of
Postglacial times, when the Old Stone Age, with its wonderful environment
of mammalian and human life, comes to a gradual close, and the New Stone
Age begins with the climate and natural beauties of the forests, meadows,
and Alps of Europe as they were before the destroying hand of economic
civilization fell upon them.
[Illustration: PL. II. "Throughout this long epoch western Europe is to be
viewed as a peninsula, surrounded on all sides by the sea and stretching
westward from the great land mass of eastern Europe and of Asia, which was
the chief theatre of evolution both of animal and human life." 1-8.
Discovery sites of the type specimens of human and prehuman races.]
It is our difficult but fascinating task to project in our imagination the
extraordinary series of prehistoric natural events which were witnessed by
the successive races of Palæolithic men in Europe; such a combination and
sequence never occurred before in the world's history and will never occur
again. They centred around three distinct and yet closely related groups
of causes. First, the formation of the two great ice-fields centring over
the Scandinavian peninsula and over the Alps; second, the arrival or
assemblage in western Europe of mammals from five entirely different
life-zones or natural habitats; third, the arrival in Europe of seven or
eight successive races of men by migration, chiefly from the great
Eurasiatic continent of the East.
Throughout this long epoch western Europe is to be viewed as a peninsula,
surrounded on all sides by the sea and stretching westward from the great
land mass of eastern Europe and of Asia, which was the chief theatre of
evolution both of animal and human life. It was the 'far west' of all
migrations of animals and men. Nor may we disregard the vast African land
mass, the northern coasts of which afforded a great southern migration
route from Asia, and may have supplied Europe with certain of its human
races such as the 'Grimaldi.'
These three principal phenomena of the ice-fields, the mammals, and the
human life and industry, together establish the chronology of the Age of
Man. In other words, there are four ways of keeping _prehistoric time_:
that of geology, that of palæontology, that of anatomy, and that of human
industry. Geologic events mark the grander divisions of time;
palæontologic and anatomic events mark the lesser divisions; while the
successive phases of human industry mark the least divisions. The geologic
chronology deals with such immense periods of time that its ratio to the
animal and to the human chronology is like that of years to hours and to
minutes of our own solar time.
The Glacial Epoch when first revealed by Charpentier(39) and Agassiz,(40)
between 1837 and 1840, was supposed to correspond to a single great
advance and retreat of the ice-fields from various centres. The vague
problem of the antiquity of Pliocene man and Diluvial man soon merged into
the far more definite chronology of _glacial_ and _interglacial man_. As
early as 1854, Morlot discovered near Dürnten, on the borders of the lake
of Zürich, a bed of fossil plants indicating a period of south temperate
climate intervening between two great deposits of glacial origin. This led
to the new conception of cold glacial stages and warm interglacial stages,
and Morlot(41) himself advanced the theory that there had been three
glacial stages separated by two interglacial stages. Other discoveries
followed both of fossil plants and mammals adapted to warmer periods
intervening between the colder periods. Moreover, successive glacial
moraines and 'drifts,' and successive river 'terraces' were found to
confirm the theory of multiple glacial stages. The British geologist,
James Geikie (1871-94) marshalled all the evidence for the extreme
hypothesis of a succession of six glacial and five interglacial stages,
each with its corresponding cold and warm climates. Strong confirmation of
a theory of four great glaciations came through the American geologists,
Chamberlin,(42) Salisbury,(43) and others, in the discovery of evidence of
four chief glacial and three interglacial stages in northern portions of
our own continent. Finally, a firm foundation of the quadruple glacial
theory in Europe was laid by the classic researches of Penck and
Brückner(44) in the Alps, which were published in 1909. Thus the
exhaustive research of Geikie, of Chamberlin and Salisbury, of Penck and
Brückner, and finally of Leverett(45) has firmly established eight
subdivisions or stages of Pleistocene time, namely, four glacial, three
interglacial, and one postglacial. These not only mark the great eras of
European time but also make possible the synchrony of America with
Europe.
PLACE OF THE OLD STONE AGE IN THE EARTH'S HISTORY
(Indicated in =heavy-face letter=.)
Compare Schuchert's Table, 1914.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Major | Periods and Epochs | Advances in Life |Dominant Life|
| Divisions | | | |
|-----------|--------------------------|------------------|-------------|
| |_HOLOCENE._ |Recent |Rise of world | Age of Man. |
| | | alluvial. | civilization. | |
| | | | | |
| | . . . . . . | . . . . . .|Industry in iron, |Iron, Bronze,|
| | | | copper, and | and New |
|QUATERNARY.| | | polished stone. | Stone Ages. |
| | | | | |
| |_PLEISTOCENE,|=Postglacial|=Extinction of | |
| | | stage.= | great mammals.= | =Men |
| | or | | | of the |
| | ICE AGE._ |=Glacial |=Dawn of mind, | Old Stone |
| | | stages.= | art, and | Age.= |
| | | | industry.= | |
|-----------|-------------|------------|------------------|-------------|
| |_PLIOCENE._ | |Transformation of | |
| | | | man-ape into man.| |
| |-------------|Late |------------------| |
| |_MIOCENE._ | Tertiary. |Culmination of | |
| | | | mammals | AGE OF |
| |-------------|------------|------------------| |
| |_OLIGOCENE._ | |Beginnings of | MAMMALS |
| | | | anthropoid ape | |
|TERTIARY. |-------------| | life. | AND |
| | | |Appearance of | |
| |_EOCENE._ |Early | higher types of | MODERN |
| | | Tertiary. | mammals, and | |
| | | | vanishing of | PLANT LIFE. |
| | | | archaic forms. | |
| |-------------| |------------------| |
| |_PALÆOCENE._ | |Rise of archaic | |
| | | | mammals. | |
|-----------|-------------|------------|------------------|-------------|
| | | |Extinction of | |
| | | | great reptiles. | |
| |Cretaceous. |------------|------------------| |
|LATE | | |Extreme | |
| MESOZOIC.| | | specialization | AGE |
| | | | of reptiles. | |
| |-------------|------------|------------------| |
| | | |Rise of flowering | OF |
| |Comanchian. | | plants. | |
|-----------|-------------|------------|------------------| REPTILES. |
| | | |Rise of birds and | |
| |Jurassic. | | flying reptiles.| |
|EARLY |-------------|------------|------------------| |
| MESOZOIC.| | | | |
| |Triassic. | |Rise of dinosaurs.| |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
Since most of the skeletal and cultural remains of man can now be
definitely attributed to certain glacial, interglacial, or postglacial
stages, vast interest attaches to the very difficult problem of the
duration of the whole Ice Age and the relative duration of its various
glacial and interglacial stages. The following figures set forth the wide
variations in opinion on this subject and the two opposite tendencies of
speculation which lead to greatly expanded or greatly abbreviated
estimates of Pleistocene time:
DURATION OF THE ICE AGE
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
|1863. Charles Lyell,(46) _Principles of Geology_ 800,000 years. |
|1874. James D. Dana,(47) _Manual of Geology_ 720,000 " |
|1893. Charles D. Walcott,(48) _Geologic Time as |
| Indicated by the Sedimentary Rocks of |
| North America_ 400,000 " |
|1893. W. Upham,(49) _Estimates of Geologic Times, |
| Amer. Jour. Sci._, vol. XLV 100,000 " |
|1894. A. Heim,(50) _Ueber das absolute Alter der |
| Eiszeit_ 100,000 " |
|1900. W. J. Sollas,(51) _Evolutional Geology_ 400,000 " |
|1909. Albrecht Penck,(52) _Die Alpen im |
| Eiszeitalter_ 520,000-840,000|
|1914. James Geikie,(53) _The Antiquity of Man in |
| Europe_ 620,000 (min.) |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
We may adopt for the present work the more conservative estimate of Penck,
that since the first great ice-fields developed in Scandinavia, in the
Alps, and in North America west of Hudson Bay a period of time of not less
than 520,000 years has elapsed. The relative duration of the subdivisions
of the Glacial Epoch is also studied by Penck in his _Chronologie des
Eiszeitalters in den Alpen_.(52) These stages are not in any degree
rhythmic, or of equal length either in western Europe or in North America.
The unit of glacial measurement chosen by Penck is the time which has
elapsed since the close of the fourth and last great glaciation; this is
known as the _Würm_ in the Alpine region and as the _Wisconsin_ in
America. While more limited than the ice-caps of the second glaciation,
those of the fourth glaciation were still of vast extent in Europe and in
this country, so that an estimate of 20,000 to 34,000 years for the unit
of the entire _Postglacial_ stage is not extreme. Estimating this unit at
25,000 years and accepting Reeds's(54) estimate of the relative length of
time occupied by each of the preceding glacial and interglacial stages, we
reach the following results (compare Fig. 14, p, 41):
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | |Relative| Grand | Descent |
| | |Duration| Totals|of Alpine|
| | | | |Snow-Line|
|--------------------------------------|-----|--------|-------|---------|
| POSTGLACIAL TIME. |Units| Years | Years | Meters |
| (Period of Upper Palæolithic | | | | |
| culture, Crô-Magnon and | | | | |
| Brünn races) | 1 | 25,000| 25,000| |
| | | | | |
| IV. GLACIAL STAGE (= Würm, Wisconsin)| | | | |
| (Close of Lower Palæolithic | | | | |
| culture, Neanderthal race) | 1 | 25,000| 50,000| 1,200 |
| 3d. _Interglacial Stage._ | | | | |
| (Opening period of Lower | | | | |
| Palæolithic culture, | | | | |
| Piltdown and | | | | |
| pre-Neanderthaloid races) | 4 | 100,000|150,000| |
| | | | | |
|III. GLACIAL STAGE (= Riss, | | | | |
| Illinoian). | 1 | 25,000|175,000| 1,250 |
| 2d. _Interglacial Stage_ | | | | |
| (= Mindel-Riss, Yarmouth) | 8 | 200,000|375,000| |
| (Period of Heidelberg race.) | | | | |
| | | | | |
| II. GLACIAL STAGE (= Mindel, Kansan) | 1 | 25,000|400,000| 1,300 |
| 1st. _Interglacial Stage_ | | | | |
| (= Günz-Mindel, Aftonian) | 3 | 75,000|475,000| |
| (Period of _Pithecanthropus_ | | | | |
| or Trinil race.) | | | | |
| | | | | |
| I. GLACIAL STAGE (= Günz, Nebraskan)| 1 | 25,000|500,000| 1,200 |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
The Postglacial time divisions are dated by three successive advances of
the ice-caps, which broadly correspond with Geikie's fifth and sixth
glaciations; they are known in the Alpine region as the _Bühl_,
_Gschnitz_, and _Daun_. These three waves of cold and humid climate, each
accompanied by glacial advances, finally terminated with the retreat of
the snow and ice in the Alpine region, the same conditions prevailing as
with the present climate. The minimum time estimates of these Postglacial
stages and the corresponding periods of human culture, as calculated by
Heim,(50) Nüesch,(55) Penck,(52) and many others, are summarized in the
Upper Palæolithic (p. 281).
GEOLOGIC AND HUMAN CHRONOLOGY
There are four ways in which the lesser divisions and sequence of human
chronology may be dated through geologic or earth-forming events. First,
through the age of the culture stations or human remains, as indicated by
the 'river-drifts' and 'river terraces' in or upon which they occur;
second, through the age of the open 'loess' stations which are found both
on the 'older terraces' and on the plateaus between the river valleys;
third, through the age of the shelters and caverns in which skeletal and
cultural remains occur; fourth, through the age of the 'loam' deposits,
which have drifted down on the 'terraces' from the surrounding meadows and
hills. The men of the Old Stone Age were attracted to these natural camps
and dwelling-places both by the abundance of the raw flint materials from
which the palæoliths were fashioned and by the presence of game.
In more than ninety years of exploration only three skeletal relics of man
have been found in the ancient 'river-drifts'; these are the 'Trinil,' the
'Heidelberg,' and the 'Piltdown'; in each instance the human remains were
buried accidentally with those of extinct animals, after drifting for some
distance in the river or stream beds. It is only in late Acheulean times
that human burial rites or interments begin and that skeletal remains are
found. Owing to the less perishable nature of flint, relics of the
quarries and stations are infinitely more common; they are found both in
the river sands and gravels, in the 'river terraces,' and in the 'loess'
stations of the plateaus and uplands. Thus prehistoric chronology is based
on observations of the geologist, who in turn is greatly aided by the
archæologist, because the evolution stages of each type of implement are
practically the same all over western Europe, with the exception of
unimportant local inventions and variations. In brief, the large divisions
of time are determined by the amount of work done by geologic agencies;
the comparative age of the various camp sites is determined by their
geologic succession, by the mammals and plants which occur in them, and
finally by the cultural type of any industrial remains that may be found.
TIMES OF THE 'HIGH' AND 'LOW' RIVER 'TERRACES'
The so-called 'terrace' chronology is to be used by the prehistorian with
caution, for it is obvious that the 'terraces' in the different
river-valleys of western Europe were not all formed at the same time; thus
the testimony of the 'terraces' is always to be checked off by other
evidence.
[Illustration: FIG. 6. Terraces on either side of the valley of the River
Inn, Scharding, Austria, formed by sand and gravel deposits partly covered
with loess. After Brückner.
_Ib._ Very broad river deposits of First Glaciation, on the first erosion
level, covered with the 'Upper Loess' of the Second Interglacial Stage.
_IIb._ Somewhat narrower river deposits of Second Glaciation on the second
erosion level.
_IIIb._ Still narrower river terraces of the Third Glaciation on the third
erosion level, covered with the 'Lower Loess' of the Third Interglacial
Stage.
_IVb._ Fourth or lowest terrace of the Fourth Glaciation on the fourth
erosion level.
_Va._ Erosion terraces, Achen.
_VIa._ Post-Bühl erosion.
_Loess′_, 'Upper Loess' of Second Interglacial. _Loess″_, 'Lower Loess' of
Third Interglacial.]
As to the origin of the sands and gravels which compose the 'terraces' we
know that the glacial stages were periods of the wearing away of vast
materials from the summits and sides of the mountains, which were
transported by the rivers to the valleys and plains. These vast deposits
of glacial times spread out over the very broad surfaces of the pristine
river-bottoms, which in many valleys it is important to note were from 100
to 150 feet above the present levels. The diminished and contracted
streams of interglacial times cut into these ancient river beds, forming
narrower channels into which they transported their own materials. Thus,
as the successive 'river terraces' were formed, a descending series of
steps was created along the sides of the valleys. In many valleys there
are four of these 'terraces,' which may correspond with several glacial
stages; in other valleys there are only three; in others, again, like the
valley of the River Inn which flows past Innsbruck in the Tyrol (Fig. 6),
there are five 'terraces,' while in the valley of the Rhine above Basle
there are six, corresponding, it is believed, with the materials brought
down by the four great glaciations and with the river levels of
Postglacial times. In general, therefore, the 'high terraces' are the
oldest ones, that is, they are composed of materials brought down during
the pluvial periods of the First, Second, and Third Glacial Stages, while
the 'lower terraces' and the 'lowest terraces' in the alpine regions are
composed of materials borne by the great rivers of the Fourth Glacial and
Postglacial Stages. In the region around the Alps the 'higher terraces'
are products chiefly of the third glaciation; in the valley of the Rhine
they are visible near Basle. On the upper Rhine the 'low terraces' are
products of the fourth glaciation; they cover vast surfaces and contain
remains of the woolly mammoth (_E. primigenius_), an animal distinctive of
Fourth Glacial and Postglacial times.
[Illustration: FIG. 7. Cross-section through the terraced Pleistocene
formations of the Rhine valley above Basle, Switzerland. After Penck.
_Ib._ Outwash of the First Glaciation--Günz--Deposits on the first erosion
level.
_IIb._ Outwash of the Second Glaciation--Mindel--Deposits on the second
erosion level.
_IIIb._ Outwash of the Third Glaciation--Riss--Deposits on the third
erosion level.
_IVb._ Outwash of the Fourth Glaciation--Würm--Deposits on the fourth
erosion level.
_Va._ Erosion terrace, Achen oscillation--fifth erosion level.
_VIa._ } Post-Bühl erosion--sixth and seventh erosion levels.
_VIIa._ }
_IIIc._ Moraine of the Third Glaciation--Riss.
The section of the Rheinfelder Hill lies 3 km. west from the Möliner
Field.]
More remote from the glacial regions, but equally subject to the
inundations of glacial times are the 'high terraces' along the River
Seine, which are ninety feet above the present level of the river and
contain the remains of mammals characteristic of the First Interglacial
Stage, such as the southern elephant (_E. meridionalis_), while the 'low
terraces' along the Seine are only fifteen feet above the present level of
the river and contain mammals belonging to the Third Interglacial Stage.
Similarly, the 'high terraces' of the River Eure contain mammals of First
Interglacial times, such as the southern elephant (_E. meridionalis_) and
Steno's horse (_E. stenonis_); these fossils occur in coarse river sands
and gravels which were deposited by a broad stream that flowed at least
ninety feet above the present waters of the Eure.
The human interest which attaches to these dry facts of geology appears
especially in the valleys of the Somme and the Marne in northern France;
here again we find 'high terraces,' 'middle terraces,' and 'low terraces';
the latter are still subject to flooding. In the deep gravels upon each of
these terraces we find the first proofs of human residence, for here occur
the earliest Pre-Chellean and Chellean implements associated with the
remains of the hippopotamus, of Merck's rhinoceros, and of the
straight-tusked elephant (_E. antiquus_), together with mammals which are
characteristic both of Second and Third Interglacial times.
This raises a very important distinction, which is often misunderstood;
namely, between the materials _composing_ the original terraces and those
subsequently _deposited upon_ the terraces. It appears to be in the latter
that human artifacts are chiefly, if not exclusively, found.
TIMES OF THE LOAM STATIONS
The 'loam' which washes down over the original sand and gravel 'terraces'
from the surrounding hills and meadows is of much later date than the
'terraces' themselves, and the archæologist in the valley of the Somme as
well as in that of the Thames may well be deceived unless he clearly
distinguishes between the newer deposits of gravels and of loams and the
far older gravels and river sands which compose the original 'terraces.'
This is well illustrated by the observations of Commont on the section of
St. Acheul.(56) The loams and brick-earth are of much more recent age than
the original gravels and sands of the 'terraces' which they overlap and
conceal; the lowest and oldest 'loam' (_limon fendillé_) contains
Acheulean flints, while the overlying 'loam' contains Mousterian flints.
Although occurring on the 'higher terraces,' these flints are of somewhat
later date than the primitive Chellean flints which occur in the coarse
gravels and sands that have collected upon the very _lowest levels_ (Fig.
59).
A similar prehistoric inversion doubtless occurs in the 'terraces' of the
Thames, for materials on the 'highest terrace' (Fig. 8) contain Acheulean
flints, while materials on the 'lowest terrace' belong to a much more
recent age.
[Illustration: FIG. 8. Section--Four terraces indicated in the valley of
the Thames at Galley Hill, near London. Site of the discovery of the
'Galley Hill Man' in deposits overlying one of the high terraces. Site
also of Gray's Thurrock, a deposit of Third Interglacial times containing
mammals and flints of Chellean age. A typical camping station of
'river-drift man.' Drawn by Dr. C. A. Reeds.]
We have no record of a single Palæolithic station found in the true
original sands and gravels of the 'higher terraces' in any part of Europe;
only eoliths are found on the 'high terrace' levels, as at St. Prest.
The earliest palæoliths occur in the gravels on both the 'middle' and
'upper terraces' of the Somme and the Marne, proving that the gravels were
deposited long subsequent to the cutting of the original terraces.
Geikie,(57) moreover, is of the opinion that the valley of the Somme has
remained as it is since early Pleistocene times, and that even the 'lowest
terrace' here was completed at that period; this is contrary to the view
of Commont, who considers that this 'lowest terrace' belongs to Third
Interglacial times; a restudy of the stations along the Thames may throw
light upon this very important difference of opinion.
TIMES OF THE 'LOESS' STATIONS
The glacial stages were generally times of relatively great humidity, of
heavy rain and snow fall, of full rivers charged with gravels and sands,
and with loam the finest product of the erosive action of ice upon the
rocks. This loam on the barren wastes left bare by the glaciers or on the
river borders and overflow basins was retransported by the winds and laid
down afresh in layers of varying thickness known as 'loess.' There was no
'loess' formation either in Europe or America during the humid climate of
First Interglacial times, but during the latter part of the Second
Interglacial Stage, again toward the close of the Third Interglacial
Stage, and finally during Postglacial times there were periods of arid
climate when the 'loess' was lifted and transported by the prevailing
winds over the 'terraces' and plateaus and even to great heights among
the mountain valleys. As observed by Huntington(58) in his interesting
book _The Pulse of Asia_, even at the present time there are districts
where we find 'loess' dust filling the entire atmosphere either during the
heated months of summer or during the cold months of winter.
[Illustration: FIG. 9. Magdalenian loess station of Aggsbach, in Lower
Austria. A quarry camping station of the open-plains type. This typical
Postglacial loess deposit contains flints of early Magdalenian age. After
Obermaier.]
In Pleistocene Europe there were at least three warm or cold arid periods,
accompanied in some phases by prevailing westerly winds,(59) in which
'loess' was widely distributed over northern Germany, covering the 'river
terraces,' plateaus, and uplands bordering the Rhine and the Neckar. These
'loess' periods can be dated by the fossil remains of mammals which they
contain, also by the stations of the flint quarries in different culture
stages. Thus we find late Acheulean implements in drifts of 'loess' at
Villejuif, south of Paris. Among the most famous stations of late
Acheulean times is that of Achenheim, west of Strasburg, and not far
distant is the 'loess' station of Mommenheim, of Mousterian times; both
belong to the period of the fourth glaciation. An Aurignacian 'loess'
station is that of Willendorf, Austria.
TIMES OF THE LIMESTONE SHELTERS AND CAVERNS
Beginning in the late or cold Acheulean period, the Palæolithic hunters
commenced to seek the warm or sheltered side of deepened river-valleys,
also the shelter afforded by overhanging cliffs and the entrances of
caverns. It is quite probable that during the warm season of the year they
still repaired to their open flint quarries along the rivers and on the
uplands; in fact, the river Somme was a favorite resort through Acheulean
into Mousterian times.
In general, however, the open rivers and plateaus were abandoned, and all
the regions of limestone rock favorable to the formation of shelter
cliffs, grottos, and caverns were sought out by the early Palæolithic men
from Mousterian times on; and thus from the beginning of the Mousterian to
the close of the Upper Palæolithic their lines of migration and of
residence followed the exposures of the limestones which had been laid
down by the sea in bygone geologic ages from Carboniferous to Cretaceous
times. The upper valleys of the Rhine and Danube traversed the white
Jurassic limestones which are again exposed in a broad band along the
foot-hills of the Pyrenees, extending far west to the Cantabrian Alps of
modern Spain. In Dordogne the great horizontal plateau of Cretaceous
limestone had been dissected by branching rivers, such as the Vézère, to a
depth of two hundred feet. Under overhanging cliffs long rock shelters
were formed, such as that of the Magdalenian station at La Madeleine.
[Illustration: FIG. 10. Ideal section of the bluff overlying the Düssel
River, near Düsseldorf, showing the mode of formation of the famous
Neanderthal Cave, where the original type of the Neanderthal race was
discovered in 1856. A typical resort of the 'cave man.' After Lyell.
_c._ Entrance of percolating waters from above.
_f._ Exit from the grotto.
_a-b._ Interior of the cavern.]
Many caverns were formed, some of them in early Pleistocene times, by
water percolating from above and (Fig. 11) resulting in subterranean
streams which issued at the entrance; this formed the expanded grotto,
sometimes a chamber of vast dimensions, such as the _Grotte de Gargas_.
Outside of this, again, may be an _abri_ or shelter of overhanging rock.
In other cases the rock shelter is found quite independent of any cave.
Where the glaciers or ice-caps passed over the summits of the hills the
subglacial streams penetrated the limestone of the mountain and formed
vast caverns, such as that of Niaux, near the river Ariège. Here a nearly
horizontal cavern was formed, extending half a mile into the heart of the
mountain. The material with which the floors of the caverns are covered
is either a fine cave loam or the insoluble remainder of the limestone
forming a brown or gray clayey substance. The Magdalenian artists produced
drawings on these soft clays and, in rare instances, used them for
modelling purposes, as in the Tuc d'Audoubert. The sands and gravels were
also swept in from the streams above and carried by strong currents along
the wall surfaces, smoothing and polishing the limestone in preparation
for the higher forms of Upper Palæolithic draughtsmanship and painting.
[Illustration: FIG. 11. Formation of the typical limestone cavern. After
Gaudry.
_V._ Vertical section of limestone cliff showing (_S_) waters percolating
from above; (_A-O_) interior of the cavern; and (_G_) grotto entrance,
original exit of the cavern waters. _H._ Horizontal section of the same
cavern showing the (_G_) grotto entrance and (_A_, _G_, _O_, _B_) the
ramifications of the cavern.]
It would appear that the majority of the caverns were formed in pluvial
periods of early glacial times; the formation had been completed, the
subterranean streams had ceased to flow, and the interiors were relatively
dry and free from moisture in Fourth Glacial and Postglacial times, when
man first entered them. There is no evidence, however, that the cavern
depths were generally inhabited, for the obvious reason that there was no
exit for the smoke; the old hearths are invariably found close to or
outside of the entrance, the only exception being in the entrance to the
great cavern of Gargas, where there is a natural chimney for the exit of
smoke. There was no cave life, strictly speaking--it was grotto life; the
deep caves and caverns were probably penetrated only by artists and
possibly also by magicians or priests. It is in the _abris_ or shelters in
front of the grottos and in the floors of the caverns that remarkable
prehistoric records are found from late Acheulean times to the very close
of the Palæolithic, as in the wonderful grotto in front of the cave at
Castillo, near Santander. Thus, as Obermaier(60) observes: "In Chellean
times primitive man was a care-free hunter wandering as he chose in the
mild and pleasant weather, and even the colder climate of the arid 'loess'
period of the late Acheulean was not sufficient to overcome his love of
the open; he still made his camp on the plains at the edge of the forest,
or in the shelter of some overhanging cliff." Only in rare instances, as
at Castillo, were the Acheulean hearths brought within the entrance line
of the grotto.
DIFFERENCES OF OPINION AS TO THE GEOLOGIC AGE OF THE PALÆOLITHIC CULTURE
STAGES
The right-hand column represents the theory adopted in this volume.
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
| |Penck, 1910 | | Boule, Breuil, |
| Geologic Time |Geikie, 1914| Wiegers, 1913 | Obermaier, 1912 |
| | | | Schmidt, 1912 |
|----------------------|------------|---------------|-----------------|
| | |Bronze. |Magdalenian. |
|_Postglacial._ |Magdalenian.|Neolithic. |Solutrean. |
| | |Azilian. |Aurignacian. |
|----------------------|------------|---------------|-----------------|
| | |Magdalenian. | |
| | |Solutrean. |Mousterian. |
|IV. GLACIAL. |Solutrean. |Aurignacian. | |
| | |Mousterian. | |
|----------------------|------------|---------------|-----------------|
| | | |Early Mousterian.|
| | | |Cold Acheulean. |
|_Third Interglacial._ |Mousterian. |Mousterian. |Warm " |
| | | |Chellean. |
| | | |Pre-Chellean. |
|----------------------|------------|---------------|-----------------|
|III. GLACIAL. |Mousterian. |Cold Acheulean.| |
|----------------------|------------|---------------|-----------------|
|_Second Interglacial._|Acheulean. |Warm Acheulean.| |
| |Chellean. |Chellean. | |
|----------------------|------------|---------------|-----------------|
|II. GLACIAL. | | | |
|----------------------|------------|Pre-Chellean |-----------------|
|_First Interglacial._ | | | |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
Interpretation of these four kinds of evidence as to the antiquity of
human culture in western Europe still leads to widely diverse opinions. On
the one hand, we have the high authority of Penck(61) and Geikie(62) that
the Chellean and Acheulean cultures are as ancient as the second long warm
interglacial period. An extreme exponent of the same theory is
Wiegers,(63) who would carry the Pre-Chellean back even into First
Interglacial times. On the other side, Boule,(64) Schuchardt,(65)
Obermaier,(66) Schmidt,(67) and the majority of the French archæologists
place the beginning of the Pre-Chellean culture in Third Interglacial
times.
In favor of the latter theory is the strikingly close succession of the
Lower Palæolithic cultures in the valley of the Somme, followed by an
equally close succession from Acheulean to Magdalenian times, as, for
example, in the station of Castillo. It does not appear possible that a
vast interval of time, such as that of the third glaciation, separated the
Chellean from the Mousterian culture.
On the other hand, in favor of the greater antiquity of the Pre-Chellean
and Chellean cultures may be urged their alleged association in several
localities with very primitive mammals of early Pleistocene type, namely,
the Etruscan rhinoceros, Steno's horse, and the saber-tooth tiger, as
witnessed in Spain and in the deposits of the Champs de Mars, at
Abbeville.
It is true, moreover, that at points distant from the great ice-fields,
like the valley of the Somme and that of the Marne, we have no other means
of separating glacial from interglacial times than that afforded by the
deposition and erosion of the 'terraces'; in fact, the interpretation of
the age of the cultures may be similar to that applied to the age of the
mammalian fauna. There are no proofs of periods of severe cold in western
Europe in any country remote from the glaciers until the very cold
steppe-tundra climate immediately preceding the fourth glaciation swept
the entire land and drove out the last of the African-Asiatic mammals.
GEOGRAPHIC CHANGES
The migrations of mammals and of races of men into western Europe from the
Eurasiatic continent on the east and from Africa on the south were favored
or interrupted by the periods of elevation or of subsidence of the coastal
borders of the Ægean, Mediterranean, and North Seas, and also of the
Iberian and British coast-lines. The maximum period of elevation of the
coastal borders, as represented in the accompanying map (Fig. 12), never
occurred in all portions of the continent of Europe at the same time,
because there were oscillations both on the northern and southern coasts
of Europe and Africa. The early Pleistocene, especially the period of the
First Interglacial Stage, was one of elevation remarkable for the broad
land bridges which brought the animal life of Europe, Africa, and Asia
together. The Mediterranean coast rose 300 feet. Land bridges from Africa
were formed at Gibraltar and over to the island of Sicily, so that for the
time there was a free migration of mammalian life north and south. It is
to this that western Europe owes the majestic mammals of Asiatic and
African life which dominated the native fauna.
[Illustration: FIG. 12. Europe in the period of maximum continental
elevation, in which the coast-lines are widely extended, connecting Africa
and Europe--including Great Britain and Ireland--in a single vast
peninsula, and affording free migration routes for animal and human races
north and south, as well as east and west. The ocean boundaries are more
remote and the interior seas are greatly reduced in area. After
Obermaier.]
In general, the _elevation_ of the continent took place during
interglacial, the _subsidence_ during glacial times, but Great Britain
appears to have been almost continuously elevated and a part of the
continent, and was certainly so during the Third Interglacial, Fourth
Glacial, and Postglacial Stages, because there was a free migration of
animal life and of human culture. The Lower Palæolithic peoples of
Pre-Chellean and Chellean times wandered at will from the valley of the
Somme to the not far distant valley of the Thames, interchanging their
weapons and inventions. The close proximity of these stations is well
illustrated in the admirable map (Fig. 56) prepared under the direction of
Lord Avebury (Sir John Lubbock). The relation which _elevation_ and
_subsidence_ respectively bear to the glacial and interglacial stages is
believed to be as follows:
ELEVATION, emergence of the coast-lines from the sea, broad land
connections facilitating migration, retreat of the glaciers, deepening of
the river-valleys, and cutting of terraces. Arid continental climate and
deposition of 'loess.'
SUBSIDENCE, submergence of the coast-lines and advance of the sea,
interruption of land connections and of migration routes, advance of the
glaciers, filling of the river-valleys with the products of glacial
erosion, the sand and gravel materials of which the 'terraces' are
composed, and subglacial erosion of the loam, from which in arid periods
the 'loess' is derived.
Subsidence was the great feature of closing glacial times both in Europe
and America. During the Fourth Glacial and Postglacial Stages the Black
and Caspian Seas and the eastern portion of the Mediterranean were deeply
depressed, while the British Isles were still connected with France, but
by a narrower isthmus than that of early interglacial times. The scattered
stations of Upper Palæolithic culture found in the British Isles include
one Aurignacian, one Solutrean, two Magdalenian, and two Azilian; this
shows that travel communication with the continent continued throughout
that period, in all probability by means of a land connection. In late
Neolithic times the English Channel was formed, Great Britain became
isolated from Europe, and Ireland lost its land connection first with
Wales and then with Scotland.
CHANGES OF CLIMATE
Penck(68) estimates the intensity of the cold and of the humidity which
prevailed during the glacial stages by the _descent_ of the snow-line in
the Alps, which in the two periods of greatest glaciation reached from
1,200 m. (3,937 ft.) to 1,500 m. (4,921 ft.) below the present snow-level,
with the consequent formation of vast ice-caps hung with glaciers which
flowed great distances down the valleys of the Rhône and of the Rhine and
left their moraines at very distant points. The moraines and drifts of the
lesser glaciations, such as the first and fourth, stand considerably
within the boundaries of these outer moraines and drift fields. On the
contrary, the warmer climates of interglacial times are indicated by the
sun-loving plants found at Hötting, along the valley of the Inn, in the
Tyrol, which are proofs of a temperature higher than the present and of
the _ascent_ of the snow-line 300 m. (984 ft.) above the existing
snow-level of the Alps.
[Illustration: SNOW LINES OF THE FOUR PRINCIPAL GLACIAL EPOCHS OF THE
PLEISTOCENE PERIOD
A-B Profile across Europe along the line A-B of map
5 Present snow line
4 Snow line of the Fourth (Würm) Glacial Epoch
3 " " " " Third (Riss) " "
2 " " " " Second (Mindel) " "
1 " " " " First (Günz) " "
FIG. 13. An ideal earth section from the North Cape across the
Scandinavian plateau, through the North Sea, Swiss Alps, Pyrenees, and
Straits of Gibraltar, to the Atlas Mountains in northern Africa, along the
line indicated on the map (Fig. 25, p. 65), illustrating the sea-level at
the time of the greatest elevation of the continent during the Second
Glacial Stage, as compared with the present sea-level; also the successive
lines of descent of the region of perpetual snow during the four great
glacial advances, as compared with the present snow-line. From studies by
Dr. C. A. Reeds.]
The alternation of the cold climates of the glacial stages with the warm
temperate climates of the interglacial stages formed great oscillations of
temperature (Figs. 13, 14). The fossil plant life indicates that during
the periods of the First, Second, and Third Interglacial Stages the
climate of western Europe was cooler than it had been during the preceding
Pliocene Epoch and somewhat warmer than it is at the present time in the
same localities. During the First, Second, and Third Glacial Stages there
was certainly a marked lowering of temperature in the regions bordering
the great glacial fields. This is indicated by the arrival in the northern
glacial border regions of animals and plants adapted to arctic and
subarctic climates.
It has been generally believed that the whole of western Europe was
extremely cold during these glacial stages, and that the heat-loving
animals, the southern elephants, rhinoceroses, and hippopotami, were
driven to the south, to return only with the renewed warmth of the next
interglacial stage.
There is, however, no proof of the departure of these supposedly less
hardy mammals nor of the spread over Europe of the more hardy arctic and
steppe types until the advent of the Fourth Glacial Stage. Then, for the
first time, all western Europe north of the Pyrenees experienced a general
fall of temperature, and conditions of climate prevailed such as are now
found in the arctic tundra regions of the north and in the high steppes of
central Asia, which are swept by dry and cold winter winds. Fluctuations
of temperature, of moisture, and of aridity in Pleistocene time, are
evidenced not only by the rise and fall of the snow-line and the advance
and retreat of the ice-caps but also by the appearance of plant and animal
life in the periods of the 'loess' deposition, indicating the following
cycles of climatic change as witnessed from beginning to end of the Third
Interglacial Stage:
IV. Glacial maximum, cold and moist climate, arctic and cold steppe
fauna and flora.
Cool and dry steppe climate, wide-spread deposition of 'loess.'
Interglacial maximum, a long period of warm temperate forest and
meadow conditions.
Glacial retreat, cool and moist climate bordering the glacial regions.
III. Glacial maximum, cold and humid climate bordering the glaciers,
favorable to arctic and subarctic plant and animal life.
That great fields of ice and advancing glaciers alone do not constitute
proof of very low temperatures is shown at the present time in
southeastern Alaska, where very heavy snowfall or precipitation causes the
accumulation of vast glaciers, although the mean annual temperature is
only 10° Fahr. (5.56° C.) lower than that of southern Germany. Neumayr(69)
estimated that during the Ice Age there was a general lowering of
temperature in Europe of not more than 6° C. (10.8° Fahr.), and held that
even during the glacial advances a comparatively mild climate prevailed in
Great Britain. Martins(70) estimated that a lowering of the temperature to
the extent of 4° C. (7.2° Fahr.) would bring the glaciers of Chamonix down
to the level of the plain of Geneva. Penck estimates that, all the
atmospheric conditions remaining the same as at present, a fall of
temperature to the extent of 4° to 5° C. would be sufficient to bring back
the Glacial Epoch in Europe. These moderate estimates entirely agree with
our theory that animals of African and Asiatic habit flourished in western
Europe to the very close of the Third Interglacial Stage, and that then
for the first time the warm fauna, or _faune chaude_, gradually
disappeared.
Similarly the hypothesis of extremely warm or subtropical conditions
prevailing in interglacial times as far north as Britain, which originated
with the discovery of the northerly distribution of the hippopotami and
rhinoceroses, animals which we now associate with the torrid climate of
Africa, is not supported by the study either of the plant life of
interglacial stages or by the history of the animals themselves. It is
quite probable that both the hippopotami and the rhinoceroses of the 'warm
fauna' were protected by hairy covering, although not by the thick
undercoating of wool which protected the woolly rhinoceros and woolly
mammoth, animals favoring the borders of glaciers and flourishing during
the last very cold glacial and Postglacial periods.
The combined evidence from all these great events in western Europe leads
us to conclusions somewhat different from those reached by Penck as to the
chronology of human culture. In the chart (Fig. 14) on the opposite page,
prepared by Dr. C. A. Reeds in collaboration with the author, a new
correlation of geologic, climatic, human, industrial, and faunal events is
presented. The great waves of glacial advance and retreat (oblique
shading) are based upon Penck's estimates of the rise and fall of the
snow-line (vertical dotted lines) in the Swiss Alps. (Compare Fig. 13.)
The length of these waves corresponds with the relative duration of the
glacial and interglacial stages as estimated by the varying amounts of
erosion and deposition of materials. The entire Palæolithic or Old Stone
Age is thus seen to occupy not more than 125,000 years, or only the last
quarter of the Glacial Epoch, which is estimated as extending over a
period of 525,000 years. The present opinion of the leading archæologists
of France and Germany, which is shared by the author, is that the
Pre-Chellean industry is not older than the Third Interglacial Stage. As
the Piltdown man was found in deposits containing Pre-Chellean implements,
he probably lived in the last quarter of the Glacial Epoch, and not in
early Pleistocene times as estimated by some British geologists. This
causes us to regard the Piltdown remains as more recent than the jaw of
Heidelberg, which all authorities agree is probably of Second Interglacial
Age. According to our estimates the Heidelberg man is nearly twice as
ancient as the Piltdown man, while _Pithecanthropus_ (Trinil Race) is four
times as ancient. Yet the Piltdown man must still be regarded as of very
great antiquity, for he is four times as ancient as the final type of
Neanderthal man belonging to the Mousterian industrial stage. The various
archæologic and palæontologic evidences for this general correlation
theory of the Glacial Epoch are fully discussed in the succeeding chapters
of this volume.
[Illustration: FIG. 14. Great events of the Glacial Epoch. To the left the
relation of glacial and interglacial stages in Europe and North America,
with the author's theory regarding the divisions of time, the beginning of
the Old Stone Age, and the successive appearance in Europe of different
branches of the human race. To the right the prolonged warm temperate
period in Europe in the non-glaciated regions, followed by the relatively
brief cold period during the past 70,000 years. Prepared by Dr. C. A.
Reeds, in co-operation with the author.]
MAMMALS OF FIVE DISTINCT GEOGRAPHIC REGIONS
(Compare Color Map, Pl. II, and Fig. 15)
As we have already observed, during the whole history of mammalian life in
various parts of the world never did there prevail conditions so unusual
and so complex as those which surrounded the men of the Old Stone Age in
Europe. The successive races of Palæolithic men in Europe were all flesh
eaters, depending upon the chase. The mammals, first pursued only for
food, utensils, and clothing, finally became subjects of artistic
appreciation and endeavor which resulted in a remarkable æsthetic
development.
From the beginning to the end of Palæolithic times the various races of
man witnessed the assemblage in Europe of animals indigenous to every
continent on the globe except South America and Australia and adapted to
every climatic life-zone, from the warm and dry plains of southern Asia
and northern Africa to the temperate forests and meadows of Eurasia; from
the heights of the Alps, Himalayas, Pyrenees, and Altai Mountains to the
high, arid, dry steppes of central Asia with their alternating heat of
summer and cold of winter; from the tundras or barren grounds of
Scandinavia, northern Europe, and Siberia to the mild forests and plains
of southern Europe.(71) Members of all these highly varied groups of
animals had been evolving in various parts of the northern hemisphere from
the Eocene Epoch onward. In Pliocene times they had become thoroughly
adapted to their various habitats. Throughout early Pleistocene times,
with the increasing cold extending southward from the arctic circle, such
mammals as the elephant, rhinoceros, musk-ox, and reindeer had become
thoroughly adapted to the climate of the extreme north. There is every
reason to believe that when these tundra quadrupeds first arrived in
Europe, during early mid-glacial stages, they had already acquired the
heavy coat of hair and undercoating of wool, such as now characterizes
the musk-ox, one of the living representatives of this northern fauna.
MIGRATIONS AND EXTINCTIONS OF MAMMALIAN LIFE DURING THE FOUR GLACIAL,
THREE INTERGLACIAL, AND POSTGLACIAL STAGES
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
|RECENT Return of the Alpine Mammals to the } PERIOD OF |
| PREHISTORIC. Mountains. } RECENT |
| Wide dispersal of Forest and Meadow } ANIMALS. |
| Mammals over the Northern } |
| Hemisphere. |
|-------------------------------------------------------- |
| |Retreat of the Tundra and Steppe } |
| | Mammals to the North and East. } |
| | } |
|POSTGLACIAL. |Mingling in the lowlands of France } REINDEER |
| Severe | and Germany of the Reindeer-Mammoth } PERIOD |
| climate. | fauna, the Alpine fauna, the Steppe } IN |
| | Mammals, and the hardy Eurasiatic } WESTERN |
| | Forest and Meadow Mammals. } EUROPE. |
| | } |
|IV. GLACIAL. |Arrival of the Tundra Mammals from } |
| Cold Steppe | the North. } |
| climate. | } |
| |Arrival of the Steppe Mammals from } |
| | Western Asia. } |
| | |
| |Southward migration and extinction of } |
| | all the African-Asiatic Mammals } |
| | except the lions and hyænas. } |
| | } |
|3d INTERGLACIAL.|Mingled African-Asiatic and Eurasiatic} |
| Warm climate. | Mammals in different parts of the } |
| | non-glaciated regions, the } PERIOD |
| | hippopotamus, southern mammoth, } OF THE |
| | straight-tusked elephant, Merck's } HIPPOPOTAMUS,|
| | broad-nosed rhinoceros, lion, hyæna,} RHINOCEROS, |
| | jackal, sabre-tooth tiger. } AND |
|--------------------------- } ELEPHANT. |
| Reindeer and } ALSO |
| Woolly Mammoth } OF THE |
|III. GLACIAL. in North } STAG |
| Germany and } AND |
| the Alps. } BISON |
|---------------------------- } IN |
|2d INTERGLACIAL. Also the stag, giant deer,} WESTERN |
|---------------------------- bison, wild cattle, } EUROPE. |
| Reindeer and forest horse, boar, } |
|II. GLACIAL. Woolly Mammoth wolf, fox, lynx, } |
| in Northern wildcat, several species} |
| Germany. of bear. } |
|---------------------------- } |
| 1st INTERGLACIAL. Survival of many Pliocene } |
|---------------------------- African-Asiatic Mammals,} |
| Musk-ox in mingled with Pliocene } |
|I. GLACIAL. Sussex, and recent Eurasiatic } |
| England. Forest and Meadow } |
| Mammals. } |
|======================================================================|
| |Early | 'Warm' More hardy | |
|GEOLOGIC |Migrations of| African-Asiatic Eurasiatic | |
|AND |Scandinavian | Mammals. Mammals. | |
|CLIMATIC |and North | | |
|STAGES. |Siberian | Temperate and Cool | |
| |Mammals near | sheltered parts temperate | THREE |
| |the parts of | of Western forests and| CHIEF |
| |Ice-fields. | Europe. meadows. | LIFE |
| ______ _____ ______________ _____________| PERIODS. |
| \ / \ / | |
| REGIONS NEAR MORE SHELTERED | |
| THE ICE-FIELDS NON-GLACIATED REGIONS | |
| AND GLACIAL REMOTE FROM THE GLACIAL | |
| BORDERS. BORDERS AND ICE-FIELDS. | |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
The five great sources of mammalian migration into western Europe in
Pleistocene times were accordingly as follows:
1. WARM PLAINS of northern Africa and of southern Asia.
"African-Asiatic" fauna--hippopotamus, rhinoceros, elephant.
2. TEMPERATE MEADOWS AND FORESTS of Europe and Asia. "Eurasiatic"
fauna--deer, bison, horse.
3. HIGH, COOL MOUNTAIN RANGES--Alps, Pyrenees, Caucasus, Urals.
Fauna--chamois, ibex, ptarmigan. (See Fig. 185.)
4. STEPPES AND DESERTS. Dry, elevated plateaus and steppes of eastern
Europe and central Asia. Fauna--desert ass and horse, saiga antelope,
jerboa. (See Fig. 186.)
5. TUNDRAS AND BARREN GROUNDS within or near the arctic circle.
Fauna--reindeer, musk-ox, arctic fox. (See Figs. 95 and 96.)
(Compare Figs. 14 and 15.)
In the warm plains, forests, and rivers of southern Asia and northern
Africa there developed the elephants, rhinoceroses, hippopotami, lions,
hyænas, and jackals, which, taken together, may be known as the
_African-Asiatic_ fauna. It contains altogether fourteen species of
mammals. The great geographic area from the far east to the far west over
which ranged similar or identical species of these pachyderms and
carnivores is indicated by the oblique lines in the geographic chart (Fig.
15).
The north temperate belt of Asia and Europe, with its hardy forests and
genial meadows, was the home of the even more highly varied _Eurasiatic
Forest and Meadow_ fauna. This includes twenty-six or more species. Of
these the red deer, or stag, was most characteristic of the forests and
the bison and wild cattle[M] of the meadows. Even at the very beginning of
Pleistocene times there appear the stag, the wild boar, and the roe-deer
with their natural pursuers, the wolf and the brown bear. From the
northern woods came the moose and the wolverene. Most of these mammals
were so similar to existing forms that the older naturalists placed them
in existing species, but the tendency now is to separate them or place
them in distinct subspecies. Mingled with these forest and meadow mammals
were a few others which have since become extinct, such as the giant deer
(_Megaceros_), the giant beaver (_Trogontherium_), and the primitive
forest and meadow horses. From this region also there developed the
cave-bear (_Ursus spelæus_). Certainly it is astonishing to find the
remains of these mammals mingled with those from southern Asia and Africa,
as is frequently the case. In early glacial times the bison and wild
cattle mingled freely with the hippopotami and rhinoceroses, but in late
glacial and Postglacial times they occurred as companions of the mammoth
and the woolly rhinoceros. In prehistoric times they survived with the
mammals brought from the Orient by the Neolithic agriculturists.
[Illustration: FIG. 15. Zoogeographic map. Range of the large mammals of
Africa and southern Asia in Pliocene and Pleistocene times until nearly
the close of the Lower Palæolithic (oblique lines). Range of the forest
and meadow fauna of Europe and Asia from early Pleistocene to prehistoric
times; stag and bison fauna (horizontal lines). Present range of the
tundra or barren-ground mammals (dots) which wandered south during the
fourth glaciation, expelling the large Asiatic mammals. Present range of
mammals of the deserts and steppes of eastern Europe and southern Asia,
which also invaded western Europe during the glacial and Postglacial
stages (vertical lines). The alpine mammals dwelt in the high mountain
regions and invaded the plains and lowlands during Fourth Glacial and
Postglacial times.]
During a great glaciation, but especially during the severe climate of
late Pleistocene times, the _Alpine_ mammals were driven down from the
heights into the plains and among the lower mountains and foot-hills. Thus
the ibex, chamois, and argali sheep from the Altai Mountains are
represented both in drawing and in sculpture by the men of the Reindeer
Period.
Still more remarkable is the arrival in Europe of the _Steppe Fauna_ of
Russia and of western Siberia, mammals which now survive in the vast
Kirghiz steppes, east of the Caspian Sea and the Ural Mountains, where the
climate is one of hot, dry summers and prolonged cold winters, with
sweeping dust and snow storms. These animals are very hardy, alert, and
swift of foot, such as the jerboa, the saiga antelope, the wild asses, and
the wild horses, including the Przewalski type, which still survives in
the desert of Gobi. From this region also came the Elasmothere (_E.
sibiricum_), with its single giant horn above the eyes. Very distinctive
of the fauna frequenting the caverns are the small rodents, including the
dwarf pikas, the steppe hamsters, and the lemmings. These animals were
attracted into Europe during the 'steppe' and 'loess' periods of cold, dry
climate.
The advance of the great Scandinavian glaciers from the north crowded to
the south the _Tundra or Barren Ground_ fauna of the arctic circle. The
herald of this fauna during the First Glacial Stage was the musk-ox, which
appears in Sussex, and then came the reindeer of the existing Scandinavian
type. These animals are followed by the woolly mammoth (_E. primigenius_)
and the woolly rhinoceros (_D. antiquitatis_) with their panoply of hair
and wool which had long been developing in the north. Finally in the
Fourth Glacial Stage arrived the lemming of the river Obi, also the more
northern banded lemming, the arctic fox, the wolverene, and the ermine, as
well as the arctic hare. These tundra mammals for a short period mingled
in places with survivors of the _African-Asiatic_ fauna, such as Merck's
rhinoceros and the straight-tusked elephant (_E. antiquus_). In general,
they swept southward as far as the Pyrenees over country which had long
been enjoyed by the African-Asiatic mammals, while the hippopotami and the
southern elephants retreated still farther south and became extinct.
The only survivors of the great _African-Asiatic_ fauna in Fourth Glacial
and Postglacial times were the hyænas (_H. crocuta spelæa_) and the lions
(_Felis leo spelæa_). The lion frequently appears in the drawings of the
cavemen.
The various species belonging to these five great faunæ apparently succeed
each other, and wherever their remains are mingled with the palæoliths, as
along the rivers Somme, Marne, and Thames, or in the hearths of the
shelters and caverns, they become of extreme interest both in their
bearing on the chronology of man and on the development of human culture,
art, and industry. They also tell the story of the sequence of climatic
conditions both in the regions bordering the glaciers and in the more
temperate regions remote from the ice-caps. Thus they guide the
anthropologist over the difficult gaps where the geologic record is
limited or undecipherable. The general succession of these great faunæ is
illustrated in Fig. 14 and also in the above table.
(=1=) Lamarck, 1815.1.
(=2=) Schaaffhausen, 1858.1.
(=3=) Darwin, C., 1909.2.
(=4=) Lamarck, 1809.1.
(=5=) Lyell, 1863.1, pp. 84-89.
(=6=) Darwin, C., 1871.1, p. 146.
(=7=) Darwin, C., 1909.1, p. 158.
(=8=) Retzius, A., 1864.1, p. 27.
(=9=) _Op. cit._, p. 166.
(=10=) Broca, 1875.1.
(=11=) Schwalbe, G., 1914.1, p. 592.
(=12=) Cartailhac, 1903.1.
(=13=) Déchelette, 1908.1, vol. I.
(=14=) Reinach, S., 1889.1.
(=15=) Schmidt, 1912.1.
(=16=) Avebury, 1913.1.
(=17=) Eccardus, 1750.1.
(=18=) Mahudel, 1740.1.
(=19=) Buckland, 1824.1.
(=20=) Godwin-Austen, 1840.1.
(=21=) Christol, 1820.1.
(=22=) Schmerling, 1833.1.
(=23=) Boucher de Perthes, 1846.1.
(=24=) _Op. cit._
(=25=) Rigollot, 1854.1.
(=26=) Lubbock, 1862.1.
(=27=) Avebury, 1913.1, pp. 2, 3.
(=28=) Lartet, 1861.1.
(=29=) Lartet, 1875.1.
(=30=) Breuil, 1912.7, p. 165.
(=31=) de Mortillet, 1869.1.
(=32=) Piette, E., 1907.1.
(=33=) Rivière 1897.1.
(=34=) de Sautuola, 1880.1.
(=35=) Schmidt, 1912.1.
(=36=) Bourgeois, 1867.1.
(=37=) Schmidt, _op. cit._, p. 5.
(=38=) Obermaier, 1912.1, pp. 170-174; 316-320; 332, 545.
(=39=) Charpentier, 1841.1.
(=40=) Agassiz, 1837.1; 1840.1; 1840.2.
(=41=) Morlot, 1854.1.
(=42=) Chamberlin, 1895.1; 1905.1, vol. III, chap. XIX, pp. 327-516.
(=43=) Salisbury, 1905.1.
(=44=) Penck, 1909.1.
(=45=) Leverett, 1910.1.
(=46=) Lyell, 1867.1, vol. I, pp. 293-301; 1877.1, vol. I, p. 287.
(=47=) Dana, 1875.1, p. 591.
(=48=) Walcott, 1893.1.
(=49=) Upham, 1893.1, p. 217.
(=50=) Heim, 1894.1.
(=51=) Sollas, 1900.1.
(=52=) Penck, 1909.1, vol. III, pp. 1153-1176.
(=53=) Geikie, 1914.1, p. 302.
(=54=) Reeds, 1915.1.
(=55=) Nüesch, 1902.1.
(=56=) Geikie, _op. cit._, pp. 111-114.
(=57=) _Op. cit._, p. 108.
(=58=) Huntington, 1907.1.
(=59=) Leverett, 1910.1.
(=60=) Obermaier, 1912.1, p. 132.
(=61=) Penck, 1908.1; 1909.1.
(=62=) Geikie, 1914.1, p. 312.
(=63=) Wiegers, 1913.1.
(=64=) Boule, 1888.1.
(=65=) Schuchardt, 1913.1, p. 144.
(=66=) Obermaier, 1909.2; 1912.1.
(=67=) Schmidt, 1912.1, p. 266.
(=68=) Penck, 1909.1, vol. III, p. 1168, Fig. 136.
(=69=) Neumayr, 1890.1, vol. II, p. 621.
(=70=) Martins, 1847.1, pp. 941, 942.
(=71=) Osborn, 1910.1, pp. 386-427.
CHAPTER I
ANCESTRY OF THE ANTHROPOID APES--PLIOCENE CLIMATE, FORESTS, AND LIFE
OF WESTERN EUROPE--TRANSITION TO THE PLEISTOCENE, OR AGE OF MAN--THE
FIRST GLACIATION, ITS EFFECTS ON CLIMATE, FORESTS, AND ANIMAL
LIFE--THE PREHUMAN TRINIL RACE OF JAVA--THE EOLITHS OR PRIMITIVE
FLINTS--THE SECOND GLACIATION--THE HEIDELBERG, EARLIEST KNOWN HUMAN
RACE--THE THIRD GLACIATION
The partly known ancestors of the anthropoid apes and the unknown
ancestors of man probably originated among the forests and flood-plains of
southern Asia and early began to migrate westward into northern Africa and
western Europe.
As early as Oligocene times a forerunner of the great apes
(_Propliopithecus_), most nearly resembling the gibbons, appears in the
desert bordering the Fayum in northern Egypt. Early in Miocene times true
tree-living gibbons found their way into Europe and continued throughout
the Pliocene in the forms known as _Pliopithecus_ and _Pliohylobates_, the
latter being a true gibbon in its proportions; it ranged northward into
the present region of Germany. Another ape which early reached Europe is
the _Dryopithecus_; it is found in Miocene times in southern France; the
grinding-teeth suggest those of the orang, the jaw is deep and in some
ways resembles that of the Piltdown man. A third ape (_Neopithecus_)
occurs in the Lower Pliocene near Eppelsheim, in Germany, and is known
only from a single lower molar tooth, which recalls the dentition of
_Dryopithecus_ and more remotely that of _Homo_. In the Pliocene of the
Siwalik hills of Asia is found _Palæopithecus_, a generalized form which
is believed to be related to the chimpanzee, the gorilla, and the gibbon;
the upper premolars resemble those of man.
None of these fossil anthropoids either of Europe or of Asia can be
regarded as ancestral to man, although both _Neopithecus_ and
_Dryopithecus_ have been placed in or near the line of human ancestry by
such high authorities as Branco and Gaudry. When _Dryopithecus_ was first
discovered by Lartet, Gaudry(1) considered it to be by far the most
manlike of all the apes, even attributing to it sufficient intelligence
for the working of flints, but fuller knowledge of this animal has shown
that some of the living anthropoids are more manlike than _Dryopithecus_.
This animal is closely related to the ancestral stock of the chimpanzee,
gorilla, and orang. The jaw, it is true, resembles that of the Piltdown
man (_Eoanthropus_), but the grinding-teeth are much more primitive and
there is little reason to think that it is ancestral to any human type.[N]
[Illustration: FIG. 16. The gibbon is primitive in its skull and
dentition, but extremely specialized in the adaptation of its limbs to
arboreal life. Photograph from the New York Zoological Park.]
Among these fossil anthropoids, as well as among the four living forms, we
discover no evidence of direct relationship to man but very strong
evidence of descent from the same ancestral stock. These proofs of common
ancestry, which have already been observed in the existing races of man,
become far more conspicuous in the ancient Palæolithic races; in fact, we
cannot interpret the anatomy of the men of the Old Stone Age without a
survey of the principal characters of the existing anthropoid apes, the
gibbon, the orang, the chimpanzee, and the gorilla.
[Illustration: FIG. 17. The orang has a high rounded skull and long face.
Photograph from the New York Zoological Park.]
The gibbon is the most primitive of living apes in its skull and
dentition, but the most specialized in the length of its arms and its
other extreme adaptations to arboreal life. As in the other anthropoids,
the face is abbreviated, the narial region is narrow, _i. e._, catarrhine,
and the brain-case is widened, but the top of the skull is smooth, and the
forehead lacks the prominent ridges above the orbits; thus the profile of
the skull of the gibbon (Fig. 16) is more human than that of the other
anthropoid apes. When on the ground the gibbon walks erect and is thus
afforded the free use of its arms and independent movements of its
fingers. In the brain there is a striking development of the centres of
sight, touch, and hearing. It is these characteristics of the modern
gibbon which preserve with relatively slight changes the type of the
original ancestor of man, as noted by Elliot Smith.(2)
[Illustration: FIG. 18. The chimpanzee. This figure illustrates the
walking powers of the chimpanzee, the great length of the arms, and the
abbreviation of the legs. Photograph from the New York Zoological Park.]
The limbs of the orang are less elongated and less extremely specialized
for arboreal life than those of the gibbon but more so than those of the
chimpanzee and the gorilla. The skull is rounded and of great vertical
height, with broad, bony ridges above the orbits and a great median crest
on top of the skull in old males. The lower jaw of the orang is stout and
deep, and, although used as a fighting weapon, the canine tusks are much
less prominent than in either the gibbon, chimpanzee, or gorilla. Of all
anthropoids this jaw most nearly resembles that of the Piltdown man.
[Illustration: FIG. 19. The Chimpanzee. This figure shows certain facial
characteristics which are preserved in the Neanderthal race of men. Note
also the shortening of the thumb and the enlargement of the big toe.
Photograph from the New York Zoological Park.]
In the chimpanzee we observe the very prominent bony ridges above the
eyes, like those in the Trinil and Neanderthal races of men. The
prognathous or protruding tooth rows and receding chin suggest those in
the Heidelberg, Piltdown, and Neanderthal races. When the chimpanzee is
walking (Fig. 18) the arms reach down below the level of the knees,
whereas in the higher races of man they reach only half-way down the
thighs. Thus, the fore limb, although much shorter than that of the
gibbon, is relatively longer than that of any human race, recent or
ancient. We observe also in the walking chimpanzee (Fig. 18) that the
upper part of the leg, the thigh-bone, or femur, is relatively long, while
the lower part, the shin-bone, or tibia, is relatively short. Indeed, both
in the arm and in the leg the upper bones are relatively long and the
lower bones are relatively short. These proportions, which are
inheritances of arboreal life, are in very marked contrast to those
observed in the arms and legs of the Neanderthal race of men, in which the
limbs are of the terrestrial or walking type.
[Illustration: ANCESTRAL TREE OF THE ANTHROPOID APES AND OF MAN
EXISTING GIBBON. MAN CHIMPANZEE. GORILLA. ORANG.
APES AND Asia. (_Homo sapiens_). Africa. Africa. Asia.
MAN. | Asia, Europe. | | |
| | | |
| _Crô-Magnon_ and | / /
| other races | / /
| | / /
| More primitive | / /
| species, human | / /
| and prehuman. | / /
GLACIAL OR | | | / Macaque
PLEISTOCENE | | | | of
AGE. | _Neanderthal race._ | | | Europe.
| | | | |
| _Piltdown race._ | | | |
| | | | |
| _Heidelberg race._ | | | |
| | | | |
PLIOCENE | | | | |
AGE. | _Trinil race_ | | | |
| (_Pithecanthropus_). | | | |
Primitive Ancestral anthro- | Macaques
Gibbon of poids of Asia. | of Asia
Europe | | / and
(_Pliohylobates_). | / / Europe.
| | / / |
| Unknown Pliocene | / / |
| ancestors of man. | / / |
| | | / / |
MIOCENE | | Primitive anthropoids /
AGE. Earliest Gibbons | of Asia and Europe. /
of Europe. | | / /
(_Pliopithecus_). | / / /
| | / / /
+--------------+---------------------- /
| /
OLIGOCENE. Ancestral anthropoids Small monkeys
of Egypt of Egypt.
(_Propliopithecus_). /
| /
+-----------+----------------
|
Unknown ancestral stock
of the Old World primates,
including man.
From the unknown and ancestral stock of the anthropoid apes and man the
GIBBON was the first to branch off in Oligocene times; the ORANG then
branched off in a widely different direction. The stem of the CHIMPANZEE
and of the GORILLA branched off at a more recent date and is more nearly
allied to that of man. Five early human races have been found in Europe in
Glacial or Pleistocene times, but no traces of other primates except the
macaques, which are related to the lower division of the baboons, have
been found in Europe in Pleistocene times. Modified after Gregory. (For
latest discovery see Appendix, Note VII.)]
[Illustration: FIG. 20. The Gorilla. An immature female, about three years
of age, showing none of the adult male characteristics. Photograph from
the New York Zoological Park.]
We observe also in the chimpanzee a contrast between the grasping power of
the big toe, which is a kind of thumb, and the lack of that power in the
hand, in which the thumb is nearly useless; in all apes this function is
characteristic of the foot, in man of the hand alone. The _opposable
thumb_, with its power of bringing the thumb against each of the fingers,
is the one character which is lacking in every one of the anthropoid apes
and which was early developed among the ancestors of man.
The skull of the chimpanzee is longer than that of the orang, the most
prominent feature in the top view being the extreme protuberance of the
orbits, which are surrounded by a supraorbital and circumorbital bony
ridge, which is also strongly developed in the Neanderthal skull as well
as in the _Pithecanthropus_ or Trinil skull but, so far as we know, is
entirely lacking in that of Piltdown. As in the orang and the gorilla, a
crest develops along the middle of the top of the skull for the insertion
of the powerful muscles of the jaws, a crest which is wholly wanting in
the gibbon and probably wanting in all the true ancestors of man.
[Illustration: FIG. 21. Contrast of the projecting face (prognathism),
retreating forehead, and small brain-case of a young gorilla, as compared
with the vertical face, prominent nose, high forehead, and large
brain-case of a high race of man. After Klaatsch.]
The gorilla illustrates in the extreme the specializations which are begun
in the chimpanzee, and which are attributable to a life partly arboreal,
partly terrestrial, with the skull and jaws used as powerful fighting
organs. The head is lengthened by the forward growth of the muzzle into an
extreme prognathism. The limbs and body of the gorilla show a departure
from the primitive, slender-limbed, arboreal type of apes and are partly
adapted to a bipedal, ground-dwelling habit.
As regards psychic evolution,(3) Elliot Smith observes that the arboreal
mode of life of the early ancestors of man developed quick, alert, and
agile movements which stimulated the progressive development of the
posterior and lateral portions of the brain. The sense of smell had been
well developed in a previous terrestrial life, but once these creatures
left the earth and took to the trees, guidance by the olfactory sense was
less essential, for life amidst the branches of the trees is most
favorable to the high development of the senses of vision, touch, and
hearing. Moreover, it demands an agility and quickness of movement that
necessitate efficient motor centres in the brain to co-ordinate and
control such actions as tree life calls for. The specialization of sight
awakens curiosity to examine objects with greater minuteness and guides
the hands to more precise and skilled movements.
[Illustration: FIG. 22. Side view of a human brain of high type, showing
the chief areas of muscular control and of the sensory impressions of
sight and hearing, also the prefrontal area in which the higher mental
faculties are centred. Modified after M. Allen Starr.]
The anatomy of man is full of remote reminders of this original arboreal
existence, which also explains the very large and early development of the
posterior portions of the brain, in which the various senses of sight,
touch, and hearing are located.
The first advance from arboreal to terrestrial life is marked by the power
of walking more or less erect on the hind limbs and thus releasing the
arms; this power is developed to a greater or less degree in all the
anthropoid apes; with practice they become expert walkers. The additional
freedom which the erect attitude gives to the arms and to the movements of
the hands and the separate movements of the fingers is especially
noticeable in the gibbon. The cultivation of the powers of the hand reacts
upon the further growth and specialization of the brain; thus the brain
and the erect attitude react upon each other. In the gibbon there is a
marked increase in the size of those portions of the brain which supply
the centres of touch, vision, and hearing.
[Illustration: FIG. 23. The evolution of the brain. Outlines (side view)
of typical human and prehuman brains, showing the early development of the
posterior portions of the brain and the relatively late development of the
anterior portions, the seat of the higher mental faculties.]
Discussion as to how the ancestors of man were fashioned has chiefly dealt
with the rival claims of four lines of structural evolution: first, the
assumption of the _erect attitude_; second, the development of the
_opposable thumb_; third, the _growth of the brain_; and fourth, the
acquisition of the _power of speech_. The argument for the erect attitude
suggested by Lamarck, and ably put by Munro(4) in 1893, indicates that the
cultivation of skill with the hands and fingers lies at the root of man's
mental supremacy. Elliot Smith's argument that the steady growth and
specialization of the brain itself has been the chief factor in leading
the ancestors of man step by step upward indicates that such an advance as
the erect attitude was brought about because the brain had made possible
the skilled movements of the hands.
[Illustration: FIG. 24. The evolution of the brain. Outlines (top view) of
typical human and prehuman brains, showing the narrow forebrain of the
primitive type and the successive expansion of the seat of the higher
mental faculties in the successive races.]
The true conception of prehuman evolution, which occurred during Miocene
and Pliocene times, is rather that of the coincident development of these
four distinctively human powers. It appears from the limb proportions in
the Neanderthal race that the partly erect attitude and walking gait were
assumed much earlier in geologic time than we formerly imagined. The
intimate relation between the use of the opposable thumb and the
development of the higher mental faculties of man is sustained to-day by
the discovery that one of the best methods of developing the mind of the
child is to insist upon the constant use of the hands, for the action and
reaction between hand and brain is found to develop the mind. A similar
action and reaction between foot and brain developed the erect gait which
released the hand from its locomotive and limb-grasping function, and by
the resultant perfecting of the motion of thumbs and fingers turned the
hand into an organ ready for the increasing specialization demanded by the
manufacture of flint implements.
This is the stage reached, we believe, in late Pliocene times in which the
human ancestor emerges from the age of mammals and enters the age of man,
the period when the prehistory of man properly begins. The attitude is
erect, the hand has a well-developed opposable thumb, the centres of the
brain relating to the higher senses and to the control of all the motions
of the limbs, hands, and fingers are well developed. The power of speech
may still be rudimentary. The anterior centres of the brain for the
storing of experience and the development of ideas are certainly very
rudimentary.
CHANGE OF ENVIRONMENT IN EUROPE
Considering that the origin and development of any creature are best
furthered by a struggle for existence sufficiently severe to demand the
full and frequent exercise of its powers of mind and body, it is
interesting to trace the sequence of natural events which prepared western
Europe for the entrance of the earliest branches of the human race. The
forests and plants portray even more vividly than the animals the changing
conditions of the environment and temperature which marked the approach
and various vicissitudes of the great Ice Age.
The forests of central France in Pliocene times, as well as those of the
valley of the Arno in northern Italy, were very similar to the forests of
the middle United States at the present time, comprising such trees as the
sassafras, the locust, the honey-locust, the sumach, the bald cypress, and
the tulip. Thus the regions which harbored the rich forest and meadow
fauna of northern Italy in Upper Pliocene times abounded in trees familiar
to-day in North and South Carolina, including even such distinctively
American forms as the sweet gum (_Liquidambar styraciflua_), the sour gum
(_Nyssa sylvatica_), and the bay, beside those above mentioned. To the
south, along the Mediterranean, there also flourished trees incident to a
more tropical climate, the bamboo, the sabal palm, and the dwarf fan-palm;
most interesting is the presence of the sabal, which now flourishes in the
subtropical rain forests of central Florida. The sequoia also was
abundant. Toward the close of the Pliocene the first indications of the
coming Glacial Epoch were a lowering of the temperature, and, in the
higher mountainous areas perhaps, a beginning of the glacial stages.
The ancestors of the modern forests of Europe predominated in central
France: the oak, the beech, the poplar, the willow, and the larch. It is
these forests, which survived the vicissitudes of glacial times, that gave
descent to the forests of Postglacial Europe, while all the purely
American types disappeared from Europe and are now found only in the
temperate regions of the United States.(5)
We have seen that anthropoid apes have not been discovered either in the
Middle or Upper Pliocene of Europe; the gibbon-ape line disappears with
the _Pliohylobates_ of the Upper Pliocene. These animals are, however,
rarely found in fossil form, owing to their retreat to the trees in times
of flood and danger, so that we need not necessarily assume that the
anthropoids had actually become extinct in France. The primates which are
found in the Upper Pliocene belong to the lower types of the Old World
monkeys, related to the living langur of India and to the macaque and
baboon. The evidence, as far as it goes, indicates that the ancestors of
man were at this time evolving in Asia and not in Europe. This evidence,
nevertheless, would be completely offset if it could be proven that the
eoliths, or primitive flints, found in various parts of Europe from
Oligocene to Pleistocene times are really artifacts of human or prehuman
origin.
The mammals of Europe in Pliocene times were derived by very remote
migrations from North America and, more directly, from southern Asia. The
Oriental element is very strong, including types of rhinoceroses now
peculiar to Sumatra and southern Asia, numerous mastodons very similar to
the south Asiatic types of the times, gazelles and antelopes, including
types related to the existing elands, and primitive types of horses and of
tapirs. Among the carnivores in Europe similar to south Asiatic species
were the hyænas, the dog bears (_Hyænarctos_), the civets, and the pandas
(_Ailurus_); there were also the sabre-tooth tigers and numerous other
felines. In the trees were found the south Asiatic and north African
monkeys; and in the forests the axis deer, now restricted to Asia. But the
most distinctive African-Asiatic animal of this period was found in the
rivers; namely, the hippopotamus, which arrived in Italy in the early
Pliocene and ranged south by way of the Sicilian land bridge into northern
Africa and east along the southern shores of the Black Sea to the Siwalik
hills of India. Thus, many of the ancestors of what we have termed the
African-Asiatic mammal group of Pleistocene times had already found their
way into Europe early in Pliocene times. In middle and late Pliocene times
there arrived three very important types of mammals which played a great
rôle in the early Pleistocene. These are:
The true horses (_Equus stenonis_) of remote North American origin.
The first true cattle (_Leptobos elatus_), originating in southern
Asia.
The true elephants, first _Elephas planifrons_ and later _E.
meridionalis_, better known as the southern mammoth, both originating
in Asia.
The forests and river borders of the valley of the Arno, near Florence,
contained all these African-Asiatic animals in Upper Pliocene times. Here
they received their names which remind us of this region of Italy as it is
to-day, such as the Etruscan rhinoceros (_Dicerorhinus etruscus_), the
Florentine macaque (_Macacus florentinus_), Steno's horse (_Equus
stenonis_), the Etruscan cattle (_Leptobos etruscus_), which was the
earliest ox to reach Europe.
In Italy and France these African-Asiatic mammals were mingled with
ancestors of the more hardy Eurasiatic forest and meadow group. Of these
the most graceful were a variety of deer with very elaborate or
many-branched antlers, hence known as the 'polycladine' deer. In the
forests roamed the wild boars of Auvergne (_Sus arvernensis_), also the
bears of Auvergne (_Ursus arvernensis_), lynxes, foxes, and wildcats. In
the rivers swam the otter and the beaver, closely allied to existing
forms. Among the rocks of the high hills were the pikas or tailless hares
(_Lagomys_), also hamsters, moles, and shrews.
Many of the most characteristic animals of the dry modern plateaus of
Africa had disappeared from Europe before the close of Pliocene times,
namely, species of gazelles, antelopes, and the hipparion horses, all of
which were adapted to the dry uplands or deserts of Africa. In the
remaining _faune Pliocène récente_ of French authors we find evidence that
the Pliocene in all of western Europe closed with a moist, warm, temperate
climate, with wide-spread forests and rivers interspersed with meadows
favorable to the life of a great variety of browsing deer as well as of
grazing elephants, horses and cattle. The flora of the Middle Pliocene as
found at Meximieux indicates a mean annual temperature of 62° to 63° Fahr.
One of the proofs of the gradual lowering of temperature toward the close
of Pliocene times in Europe is the southward retreat and disappearance of
the apes and monkeys; the Upper Miocene gibbon is found as far north as
Eppelsheim, near Worms, Germany; in Lower Pliocene times the monkeys and
apes are found only in the forests of the south of France; in Upper
Pliocene times they are recorded only in the forests of northern Italy;
the evidence, so far as it goes, indicates a gradual retreat toward the
south.
Finally, at the end of the Pliocene there existed very close geographic
relations eastward with the mammalian life of India by way of what was
then the isthmus of the Dardanelles and southward with the mammalian life
of Africa by way of the Sicilian land bridge. This would indicate that the
long lines of _eastward_ and _westward_ migration were open and favorable
to the arrival in western Europe of new migrants from the far east,
including perhaps the most primitive races of man. _There is not the least
evidence that Pliocene man or ancestors of man existed in Europe_,
excepting such as may be afforded by the problematic eoliths, or most
primitive flints.
THE FIRST GLACIATION
In Upper Pliocene times cold marine currents(6) from the north began to
flow along the southeastern coast of England, with indications of a
gradually lowering temperature culminating at a time when the sea abounded
in the arctic mollusks, which have been preserved in the 'Weybourn Crags,'
a geologic formation along the coast of Norfolk. This arctic current was
the herald of the First Glacial Stage.
It does not appear that a glacial cap of any considerable extent was
formed in Great Britain at this stage, but about this time the first great
ice-cap was formed in British North America west of Hudson Bay, which sent
its ice-sheets as far south as Iowa and Nebraska. In the latter State
forests of spruce and other coniferous species indicate the appearance of
a cool temperate flora in advance of the glaciation. In the Swiss Alps the
snow descended 1,200 meters below the present snow-line, and in
Scandinavia and northern Germany the first great ice-sheets were formed
from which flowed the glaciers and rivers conveying the 'Old Diluvium,' or
the 'oldest drift.' Accompanying the cold wave along the eastern coast of
England we note, in the famous fossil deposits known as the 'Forest Bed of
Cromer,' which overlie the Weybourn Crags, the arrival from the north of
the fir-tree (_Abies_). This is most significant, because it had hitherto
been known only in the arctic region of Grinnell Land, and this was its
first appearance in central Europe. Another herald of northern conditions
was the first occurrence of the musk-ox in England, which is attributed(7)
to the 'Forest Bed' deposits.
[Illustration: FIG. 25. The First (_Günz_) Glacial Stage was far less
extensive than that in the above map, which shows Europe in the Second
Glacial Stage, during the greatest extension of the ice-fields and
glaciers (dots), a period of continental depression in which the
Mediterranean, Black, and Caspian Seas were connected. The line from
Scandinavia to the Atlas Mountains corresponds with the section shown in
Fig. 13, p. 37. Drawn by C. A. Reeds, after James Geikie and Penck.]
While Great Britain was less affected at this time than other regions,
there is no doubt as to the vast extent of the First Glacial Stage in
British America, in Scandinavia, and in the Alps; in the latter region it
has been termed 'the _Günz_ stage' by Penck and Brückner. The 'drift'
deposits have a general thickness of 98-1/2 feet (30 m.), but they are
largely covered and buried by those of the far more extensive Second
Glacial Stage. The Scandinavian ice-sheet(8) not only occupied the basin
of the Baltic but overflowed Scania--the southern part of Sweden--and
extended as far south as Hamburg and Berlin. In the Alps the glaciers
passed down all the great mountain valleys to the low grounds of the
foreland, implying a depression of the snow-line to 4,000 feet below its
present level.
[Illustration: FIG. 26. The musk-ox, belonging to the tundra region of the
arctic circle, which is reported to have migrated as far south as the
southern coast of England during the First (_Günz_) Glacial Stage.]
THE FIRST INTERGLACIAL STAGE. EOLITHS
Proofs that a prolonged cool wave passed over Britain during the first
glaciation are seen in its after effects, namely, in the modernization of
the forests and in the disappearance both in Britain and France of a very
considerable number of animals which were abundant in Upper Pliocene
times. Yet by far the greater part of the Pliocene mammal life survived, a
fact which tends to show that, while very cold conditions of climate and
great precipitation of moisture may have characterized the regions
immediately surrounding the ice-fields, the remainder of western Europe at
most passed through a prolonged cool period during the climax of the
First Glacial Stage. This was followed during the First Interglacial by
the return of a period somewhat warmer than the present.
This First Interglacial Stage is known as the _Norfolkian_, from the fact
that it was first recognized in Europe in the deposits known as the
'Forest Bed of Cromer,' Norfolk, which contain rich records not only of
the forests of the period, but of the noble forms of mammals which roamed
over Great Britain and France in _Norfolkian_ times. The forests of
Norfolk, in latitude 52° 40' N. mainly abounded in trees still indigenous
to this region, such as the maple, elm, birch, willow, alder, oak, beech,
pine, and spruce, a forest flora closely corresponding to that of the
Norfolk and Suffolk coasts of England at the present time, although we
find in this fossil flora several exotic species which give it a slightly
different character.(9) From this tree flora Reid concludes that the
climate of southeastern England was nearly the same as at present but
slightly warmer.
We note especially that a very great change had taken place in the entire
disappearance in these forests of the trees which in Pliocene times were
common to Europe and America, as described above; in other words, the
flora of Europe was greatly impoverished during the first cold wave.
In southern France, as at the present time, the interglacial climatic
conditions were milder, for we find numerous species of plants, which are
now represented in the Caucasus, Persia, southern Italy, Portugal, and
Japan. Thus the First Interglacial Stage, which was a relatively short
one, enjoyed a temperature now belonging about 4° of latitude farther
south.
This First Interglacial Stage is also known as the _St.-Prestien_, because
among the many localities in France and Italy which preserve the plant and
mammal life of the times that of St. Prest, in the Paris basin, is the
most famous. Here in 1863 Desnoyers(10) first reported the discovery of a
number of mammal bones with incision lines upon them, which he considered
to be the work of man. These deposits were regarded at the time as of
Pliocene age, and this gave rise immediately to a wide-spread theory of
the appearance of man as early as the Pliocene. The human origin of the
incisions discovered by Desnoyers has long been a matter of dispute and is
now regarded as very improbable. Similar lines may be of animal origin,
namely, marks left by claws or teeth, or due to accidental pressure of
sharp cutting surfaces. However, we do not pretend to express an opinion
of any value as to the cause of these incisions. Supposed confirmation of
the evidence of Desnoyers of the existence of Pliocene man was the alleged
finding by Abbott of several worked flints, two _in situ_, in the 'Forest
Bed of Cromer,' Norfolk. Many years later in similar deposits at St. Prest
were discovered the supposed 'eoliths' which have been referred to the
_Étage Prestien_ by Rutot. The age of the St. Prest deposits is,
therefore, a matter of the very highest interest and importance.
[Illustration: FIG. 27. The giant deer (_Megaceros_), which first appears
in western Europe during the First Interglacial Stage, probably as a
migrant from the forested regions of Eurasia. After a painting by Charles
R. Knight, in the American Museum of Natural History.]
St. Prest is not Pliocene; it is rather the most ancient Pleistocene
deposit in the basin of Paris,(11) and these incised mammal bones probably
date from the First Interglacial Stage. The bed which has yielded the
incised bones and the rich series of fossils consists of coarse river
sands and gravels, forming part of a 'high terrace,' 98-1/2 feet (30 m.)
above the present level of the river Eure. This, like other 'high
terraces,' contains a characteristic First Interglacial fauna, including
the southern mammoth (_E. meridionalis_), and Steno's horse (_E.
stenonis_). We also find here other very characteristic early Pleistocene
mammals, such as the Etruscan rhinoceros (_D. etruscus_), the giant
hippopotamus of early Pleistocene times (_H. major_), the giant beaver of
the early Pleistocene (_Trogontherium_), three forms of the common beaver
(_Castor_), and one of the bison (_Bison antiquus_). This mammalian life
of St. Prest is very similar to that of Norfolk, England; to that of
Malbattu in central France, Puy-de-Dôme; of Peyrolles, near the mouth of
the Rhône, in southern France; of Solilhac near Puy; of Durfort, Gard; of
Cajarc, Lot-et-Garonne; and finally to that of the valley of the Arno, in
northern Italy.
One reason why certain authors, such as Boule and Depéret, have placed
this stage in the Upper Pliocene is that the mammals include so many
surviving Pliocene forms, such as the sabre-tooth tigers (_Machærodus_),
the 'polycladine' deer with the elaborate antlers (_C. sedgwicki_), the
Etruscan rhinoceros, and the primitive Steno's horse. But we have recently
discovered that, with the exception of the 'polycladine' deer, these
mammals certainly survived in Europe as late as the _Second_ Interglacial
Stage, and there is said to be evidence that some even persisted into the
_Third_ Interglacial Stage.
It is, therefore, the extinction or disappearance from Europe of many of
the animals very abundant even in late Pliocene times which marks this
fauna as early Pleistocene. Anthropoid apes are no longer found; indeed,
there is no evidence of the survival of any of the primates, except
macaques, which survive in the Pyrenees to late Pleistocene times; the
tapir has entirely disappeared from the forests of Europe; but the most
significant departure is that of the mastodon, which is believed to have
lingered in north Africa and which certainly survived in America into very
late Pleistocene times. The animal life of western Europe, like the plant
life, has lost one part of its Pliocene aspect while retaining another
part, both in its mammalian fauna and in its forest flora.
[Illustration: FIG. 28. The sabre-tooth tiger (_Machærodus_), which
survives from the Upper Pliocene and is widely distributed over western
Europe until the Middle Pleistocene. After a painting by Charles R.
Knight, in the American Museum of Natural History.]
The living environment as a whole, moreover, takes on a novel aspect
through the arrival, chiefly from the north, of the more hardy animals and
plants which had been evolving for a very long period of time in the
temperate forests and meadows of Eurasia to the northeast and northwest.
From this Eurasiatic region came the stag, or red deer (_Cervus elaphus_),
also the giant deer (_Megaceros_), and from the northerly swamps the
broad-headed moose (_Alces latifrons_). The presence of members of the
deer family (_Cervidæ_) in great numbers and representing many different
lines of descent is one of the most distinctive features of First
Interglacial times. Beside the new northerly forms mentioned above, there
was the roe-deer (_Capreolus_), which still survives in Europe, but there
is no longer any record of the beautiful axis deer (_Axis_), which has
now retreated to southern Asia. The 'polycladine' deer, first observed in
the valley of the Arno, is represented in First Interglacial times by
Sedgwick's deer (_C. sedgwicki_), in Norfolk, and by the species _C.
dicranius_ of northern Italy, where there also occurs the 'deer of the
Carnutes' (_C. carnutorum_).
We observe that browsing, forest-living, and river-living types
predominate. Among the forest-frequenting carnivores were the wolverene,
the otter, two kinds of bear, the wolf, the fox, and the marten; another
forest dweller was a wild boar, related to the existing _Sus scrofa_ of
Europe.
Thus in the very beginning of Pleistocene times the forests of Europe were
full of a wild life very similar to that of prehistoric times, mingled
with which was the Oriental element, the great elephants, rhinoceroses,
and hippopotami connecting Europe with the far east. Among these eastern
migrants in the early Pleistocene were two new arrivals, the primitive
wild cattle (_Bos primigenius_), and the first of the bison (_Bison
priscus_).
The theoretical map of western Europe during First Interglacial times
(Fig. 12, also Fig. 56) enables us to understand these migrations from the
northeast and from the Orient. As indicated by the sunken river channels
discovered on the old continental shelf, the coast-line extended far to
the west to the borders of the continental plateau which is now sunk deep
beneath the ocean; the British Isles were separated from France not by the
sea but by a broad valley, while the Rhine, with the Thames as a western
tributary flowed northward over an extensive flood-plain, which is the
present floor of the North Sea basin.(12) It is not improbable that the
rich mammalian life deposits in the 'Forest Bed of Cromer,' Norfolk, were
washed down by tributaries of this ancient Rhine River.
In all the great rivers of this enlarged western Europe occurred the
hippopotami, and along the river borders and in the forests browsed the
Etruscan rhinoceros. Among the grazing and meadow-living forms of the
Norfolk country of Britain were species of wild cattle (_Bos_,
_Leptobos_), together with two species of horses, including a lighter
form resembling Steno's horse (_E. stenonis cocchi_) of the Val d'Arno and
a heavier type probably belonging to the forests. The giant elephant of
this period is the southern mammoth (_E. meridionalis trogontherii_), a
somewhat specialized descendant of the Pliocene southern mammoth of the
valley of the Arno; this animal is best known from a superb specimen
discovered at Durfort (Fig. 42) and preserved in the Paris Museum. It is
said to have attained a height of over 12 feet as compared with 11 feet 3
inches, the height of the largest existing African elephants. It is
probable that all these south Asiatic migrants into Europe were partially
or wholly covered with hair, in adaptation to the warm, temperate climate
of the summers and the cool winters. To the south, in the still milder
climate of Italy, the arrival of another great species, known as the
'ancient' or 'straight-tusked elephant' (_E. antiquus_), is recorded. This
animal had not yet reached France or Britain.
Preying upon the defenseless members of this heterogeneous fauna were the
great machærodonts, or sabre-tooth tigers, which ranged over Europe and
northern Africa and into Asia. It does not appear that the true lions
(_Felis leo_) had as yet entered Europe.
An intercommunication of life over a vast area extending 6,000 miles from
the Thames valley on the west to India on the southeast is indicated by
the presence of six or more similar or related species of elephants and
rhinoceroses. Twenty-five hundred miles southeast of the foot-hills of the
Himalayas similar herds of mammals, but in an earlier stage of evolution,
roamed over the island of Java, which was then a part of the Asiatic
mainland.
THE TRINIL RACE OF JAVA
The human interest in this great life throng lies in the fact that the
migration routes opened by these great races of animals may also have
afforded a pathway for the earliest races of men. Thus the discovery of
the Trinil race in central Java, amidst a fauna closely related to that
of the foot-hills of the Himalayas and more remotely related to that of
southern Europe, has a more direct bearing upon our subject than would at
first appear.
[Illustration: FIG. 29. Restoration of _Pithecanthropus_, the Java
ape-man, modelled by the Belgian artist Mascré, under the direction of
Professor A. Rutot, of Brussels, Belgium.]
[Illustration: FIG. 30. The Solo or Bengawan River in central Java. Scene
of the discovery of the type specimen of _Pithecanthropus erectus_ in
1894. After Selenka and Blanckenhorn. Compare map (Fig. 32, p. 75).]
On the Bengawan River in central Java, a Dutch army surgeon, Eugen Dubois,
had been excavating for fossils in the hope of finding prehuman remains.
In the year 1891 he found near Trinil a deposit of numerous mammal bones,
including a single upper molar tooth which he regarded as that of a new
species of ape. On carefully clearing away the rock the top of a skull
appeared at about a meter's distance from the tooth. Further excavation at
the close of the rainy season brought to light a second molar tooth and a
left thigh-bone about 15 meters from the spot where the skull was found,
imbedded and fossilized in the same manner. These scattered parts were
described by Dubois(13) in 1894 as the type of _Pithecanthropus
erectus_,[O] a term signifying the upright-standing ape-man. The specific
term _erectus_ refers to the thigh-bone, of which the author observes: "We
must therefore conclude that the femur of _Pithecanthropus_ was designed
for the same mechanical functions as that of man. The two articulations
and the mechanical axis correspond so exactly to the same parts in man
that the law of perfect harmony between the form and function of a bone
will necessitate the conclusion that this fossil creature had the same
upright posture as man and likewise walked on two legs.... From this it
necessarily follows that the creature had the free use of the upper
extremities--now superfluous for walking--and that these last were no
doubt already far advanced in that line of differentiation which developed
them in mankind into tools and organs of touch.... From a study of the
femur and skull it follows with certainty that this fossil cannot be
classified as simian.... And, as with the skull, so also with the femur,
the differences that separate _Pithecanthropus_ from man are less than
those distinguishing it from the highest anthropoid.... Although far
advanced in the course of differentiation, this Pleistocene form had not
yet attained to the human type. _Pithecanthropus erectus_ is the
transition form between man and the anthropoids which the laws of
evolution teach us must have existed. He is the ancestor of man."
Thus the author placed _Pithecanthropus_ in a new family, of the order
Primates, which he named the Pithecanthropidæ.
[Illustration: FIG. 31. Geological section of the volcano of Lawoe in the
Solo River basin. Drawn by C. A. Reeds.]
[Illustration: FIG. 32. Map of the Solo River, showing the
_Pithecanthropus_ discovery site, also two excavations (Pit No. 1, Pit No.
2) in the ancient gravel of the river-bottom, made by the
Selenka-Blanckenhorn expedition of 1907. After Selenka and Blanckenhorn.]
The geologic age of the bones referred to is a matter of first importance.
The remains of _Pithecanthropus_ lay in a deposit about one meter in
thickness, consisting of loose, coarse, tufaceous sandstones, below this a
stratum of hard, blue-gray clay, and under that marine breccia. Above the
_Pithecanthropus_ layer were the 'Kendeng' strata, a many-layered
tufaceous sandstone, about 15 meters in thickness. This geologic series
was considered by Dubois and others to be of late Tertiary or Pliocene
age; _Pithecanthropus_ accordingly became known as the long-awaited
'Pliocene ape-man.' Subsequent researches by expert geologists have tended
to refer the age to the early Pleistocene.(17) According to Elbert(18) the
Kendeng strata overlying the _Pithecanthropus_ layer correspond to an
early pluvial period of low temperature and, in point of time, to the Ice
Age of Europe. For even in Java one can distinguish three divisions of the
Pleistocene period, including the first period of low temperature to which
the _Pithecanthropus_ layer is referred.
[Illustration: FIG. 33. Section corresponding to line _A-B_ in Fig. 32,
showing the river-drift gravels and sands at the point where the skull-top
of _Pithecanthropus_ was found. Drawn by C. A. Reeds.
Recent 7 River wash, blue-black clay.
{ 6 Light-colored sandstone, like tuff.
{ 5 Gray tuff with balls of clay, fresh-water shells.
{ 4 White streaked sandstone resembling tufa.
Pleistocene { 3 Blue-black clay with plant remains.
{ 2 Bone-bearing stratum. _Pithecanthropus._
{ 1 Lahar conglomerate.]
The fossil mammals contained in the _Pithecanthropus_ layer have also been
thoroughly studied,(19) and they tend to confirm the original reference to
the uppermost Pliocene. They yield a very rich fauna similar to that of
the Siwalik hills of India, including the porcupine, pangolin, several
felines, the hyæna, and the otter. Among the primates beside
_Pithecanthropus_ there is a macaque. Among the larger ungulates are two
species of rhinoceros related to existing Indian forms, the tapir, the
boar, the hippopotamus, the axis and rusa deer, the Indian buffalo, and
wild cattle. It is noteworthy that three species of late Pliocene
elephants, all known as _Stegodon_, and especially the species _Stegodon
ganeza_, occur, as well as _Elephas hysudricus_, a species related to _E.
antiquus_, or the straight-tusked elephant, which entered Europe in early
Pleistocene times. Fossils of the same animals are found in the foot-hills
of the Himalayas of India, about 2,500 miles distant to the northwest. The
India deposits are considered of uppermost Pliocene age,(20) for this is
the closing life period of the upper Siwaliks of India.
Certainly Java was then a part of the Asiatic continent, and similar herds
of great mammals roamed freely over the plains from the foot-hills of the
Himalaya Mountains to the borders of the ancient Trinil River, while
similar apes inhabited the forests. At this time the orang may have
entered the forests of Borneo, which are at present its home; it is the
only ape thus far found in the uppermost Pliocene of India. We may,
therefore, anticipate the discovery, at any time, in India of a race
similar to _Pithecanthropus_.
The geologic age of the Trinil race is, therefore, to be considered as
late Pliocene or early Pleistocene.
[Illustration: FIG. 34. The top (1) and side (1_a_) views of the skull-top
of _Pithecanthropus erectus_. After Dubois. One-third life size.]
This great discovery of Dubois aroused wide-spread and heated discussion,
in which the foremost anatomists and palæontologists of the world took
part. Some regarded the skull as that of a giant gibbon, others as
prehuman, and still others as a transition form. We may form our own
opinion, however, from a fuller understanding of the specimens themselves,
always keeping in mind that it is a question whether the femur and the
skull belong to the same individual or even to the same race. First, we
are struck by the marked resemblance which the top of the skull bears,
both on viewing it from the side and from above, to that of the
Neanderthal race. This fully justifies the opinion of the anatomist
Schwalbe(21) that the skull of _Pithecanthropus_ is nearer to that of
Neanderthal man than to that of even the highest of the anthropoid apes.
As measured by Schwalbe, the index of the height of the cranium
(_Kalottenhöheindex_) may be compared with others as follows:
Lowest human race 52 per cent.
Neanderthal man 40.4 per cent.
_Pithecanthropus_, or Trinil race 34.2 per cent.
[Illustration: FIG. 35. Head of chimpanzee--front and side
views--exhibiting a head of somewhat similar shape to that of
_Pithecanthropus_, with prominent eyebrow ridges, but much smaller brain
capacity. Photograph from the New York Zoological Park.]
This accords with the estimate of the brain capacity[P] of 855 c.cm.
(Dubois) as compared with 1,230 c.cm., the smallest brain capacity found
in a member of the Neanderthal race. Second, as seen from above, we are
struck with the great length of the calvarium as compared with its
breadth, the cephalic index or ratio of breadth to length being 73.4 per
cent (Schwalbe) as compared with 73.9 per cent in the Neanderthal type
skull; this dolichocephaly accords with the fact that all of the earliest
human races thus far found are long-headed, although according to
Schwalbe(22) all anthropoids are broad-headed. This is a very important
distinction. The third feature is the prominence and width of the bony
eyebrow ridges above the orbits, which are almost as great as in the
chimpanzee and greatly exceed those of the Neanderthal race and of the
modern Australian. The profile of the Trinil head restored by McGregor
(Fig. 38) exhibits this prominent bony ridge and the low, retreating
forehead. In the latest opinion of Schwalbe(23) _Pithecanthropus_ may be
regarded as one of the direct ancestors of Neanderthal man and even of the
highest human species, _Homo sapiens_. He also considers that when the
lower jaw of the Trinil race becomes known, it will be found to be very
similar to that of the Heidelberg man, the final conclusion being that
_Pithecanthropus_ and the nearly allied Heidelberg man may be regarded as
the common ancestors of the Neanderthal race, on the one hand, and of the
higher races on the other. There are, however, reasons for excluding
_Pithecanthropus_ from the direct ancestral line of the higher races of
man.
[Illustration: FIG. 36. Profile of the skull of _Pithecanthropus_, as
restored by J. H. McGregor. 1914. One-third life size.]
This prehuman stage has, none the less, a very great significance in the
developmental history of man. In our opinion it is the very stage which,
theoretically, we should anticipate finding in the dawn of the
Pleistocene. A similar view is taken by Büchner,(24) who presents in an
admirable diagram (Fig. 117) the result of his comparison of twelve
different characters in the skulls of _Pithecanthropus_, the Neanderthals,
the Australians, and the Tasmanians. One of the main objects of Büchner's
research was a very detailed comparison of the Trinil skull with that of
the lowly and now extinct Tasmanian race, which, we observe in the
diagram, occupies a position only a little higher than that of the
Spy-Neanderthal race.
[Illustration: FIG. 37. Three views of the skull of _Pithecanthropus_, as
restored by J. H. McGregor, showing the original (shaded) and restored
(black lines) portions. About one-quarter life size.]
If the femur belongs with the skull, the Trinils were a tall race,
reaching a height of 5 feet 7 inches as compared with 5 feet 3 inches in
the Neanderthals. The thigh-bone (Fig. 122) has a very slight curvature as
compared with that of any of the apes or lemurs, and in this respect is
more human; it is remarkably elongate (455 mm.), surpassing that of the
Neanderthals; the shin-bone (tibia) was probably correspondingly short.
The two upper grinding-teeth preserved are much more human than those of
the gibbon, but they do not resemble those of man closely enough to
positively confirm the prehuman theory. Dubois observes:(25) "That the
tooth belongs to some hominid form needs no further demonstration. Aside
from its size and the greater roughness of the grinding surface, it
differs from the human grinder in that the less developed cusp of
_Pithecanthropus_ is the posterior cusp next the cheek, while in man it is
generally the posterior cusp next the tongue. The simplification of the
crown and the root of the Trinil grinder is quite as extensive as it
usually is in man."
[Illustration: FIG. 38. Profile view of the head of _Pithecanthropus_, the
Java ape-man, after a model by J. H. McGregor. One-quarter life size.]
Various efforts have been made to supplement the scattered and scanty
materials collected by Dubois. The Selenka expedition of 1907-8 brought
back a human left lower molar as the only result of an express search for
more _Pithecanthropus_ remains. Dubois is also said to possess the
fragment of a primitive-looking lower jaw from the range known as the
Kendeng Hills, at the southern base of which lies the village of Trinil.
It remains for us to consider the stage of psychic evolution attained by
the Trinil race, and this naturally turns upon the erect attitude and what
little is known of the size and proportions of the brain.
[Illustration: FIG. 39. Front view of the head of _Pithecanthropus_, the
Java ape-man, after a model by J. H. McGregor. One-quarter life size.]
The assumption of the erect attitude is not merely a question of learning
to balance the body on the hinder extremities.(26) It involves changes in
the interior of the body, the loss of the tail, the freeing of the arms,
and the establishment of the diaphragm as the chief muscle of respiration.
The thigh-bone of _Pithecanthropus_ is so much like that of man as to
support the theory that the erect position may have been assumed by the
ancestors of man as early as Oligocene times. It would appear that
_Pithecanthropus_ had free use of the arms and it is possible that the
control of the thumb and fingers had been cultivated, perhaps in the
fashioning of primitive implements of wood and stone. The discovery of the
use of wood as an implement and weapon probably preceded that of the use
of stone.
Elliot Smith describes this stage of development as follows:(27) "... The
emancipation of the hands from progression threw the whole responsibility
upon the legs, which became more efficient for their purpose as supports
once they lost their prehensile powers and became elongated and
specialized for rapid progression. Thus the erect attitude became
stereotyped and fixed and the limbs specialized, and these upright simians
emerged from their ancestral forests in societies, armed with sticks and
stones and with the rudiments of all the powers that eventually enabled
them to conquer the world. The greater exposure to danger which these more
adventurous spirits encountered once they emerged in the open, and the
constant struggles these first semihuman creatures must have had in
encounters with definite enemies, no less than with the forces of Nature,
provided the factors which rapidly weeded out those unfitted for the new
conditions and by natural selection made real men of the survivors."
[Illustration: FIG. 40. Side view of brain of high type, illustrating the
contrast between the motor, sensory, and ideational centres in a high type
of modern brain; and Elliot Smith's characterization of the probable
centres in the _Pithecanthropus_ type of brain. Modified after M. Allen
Starr.]
The undeveloped forehead of _Pithecanthropus_ and the diminutive frontal
area of the brain indicate that the Trinil race had a limited faculty of
profiting by experience and accumulated tradition, for in this prefrontal
area of the brain are located the powers of attention and of control of
the activities of all other parts of the brain. In the brain of the ape
the sensory areas of touch, taste, and vision predominate, and these are
well developed in _Pithecanthropus_. The central area of the brain, which
is the storehouse of the memories of actions and of the feelings
associated with them, is also well developed, but the prefrontal area,
which is the seat of the faculty of profiting by experience or of
recalling the consequences of previous responses to experience, is
developed to a very limited degree.(28) Thus, while the brain of
_Pithecanthropus_ is estimated at 855-900 c.cm., as compared with 600
c.cm. of the largest simian brain, and 930 c.cm. of the smallest brain
recorded in the lower members of the human race, it indicates a very low
stage of intelligence.
[Illustration: FIG. 41. Diagram showing the side (lower figure) and top
(upper figure) views of the outline of the _Pithecanthropus_ brain as
compared with that of the chimpanzee and the higher human types of the
Piltdown, Neanderthal, and modern races.]
ABSENCE OF PALÆOLITHS AND PRESENCE OF EOLITHS IN WESTERN EUROPE
Returning to First Interglacial conditions in Europe, we observe that the
river courses flowed through the same valleys as at present but that in
early glacial times the channels were far broader and were elevated from
100 to 150 feet above the present relatively narrow river levels. The vast
floods of the succeeding glaciation filled these valleys, but some of the
'high terraces' were already formed. It is extremely important to note
that Pre-Chellean flints or true palæoliths have never been found in the
sands or gravels of these 'high terraces.'
Eoliths found on this 'high-terrace' level at St. Prest belong to the
Prestien culture of Rutot,(29) who regards this station as of Upper
Pliocene age. These, like other supposed Eolithic flints, are very rough,
but, rude as they are, they generally exhibit one part shaped as if to be
grasped by the hand, while the other part is edged or pointed as for
cutting. It is generally admitted that these flints are mostly of
accidental shapes, and there has been little or no proof of their being
fashioned by human hands. On this point Boule(30) observes: "As to the
eoliths, I have combated the theory not only because it seems to me
improbable but because a long geological experience has shown me that it
is often impossible to distinguish stones split, cut, or retouched by
purely physical agents from certain products of rudimentary workmanship."
On the other side, it is interesting at this point to quote the words of
MacCurdy:(31) "My opinion, based on personal experience, ... is that the
existence of a primitive industry, antedating what is commonly accepted as
Palæolithic, has been established. This industry occurs as far back as the
Upper Miocene and continues on through the Upper Tertiary into and
including the Lower Quaternary. The distinguishing characters of the
industry remain but little changed throughout the entire period, the
subdivision of the period into epochs being based on stratigraphy
[geologic stages] and not on industrial characters. The requirements in
the way of tools being very simple and the supply of material in the way
of natural flakes and fragments of flint being very plentiful, the
inventive powers of the population remained dormant for ages. Hammer and
knife were the original tools. Both were picked up ready-made. A
sharp-edged, natural flake served for one, and a nodule or fragment served
for the other. When the edge of the flake became dulled by use, the piece
was either thrown away or the edge was retouched for further use. If
hammer or flake did not admit of being held comfortably in the hand, the
troublesome points or edges were removed or reduced by chipping. The stock
of tools increased slowly with the slowly growing needs. As these
multiplied and the natural supply of raw material diminished, the latter
was supplemented by the manufacture of artificial flakes. When the lesson
of associating definite forms of implements with definite uses was
learned, special types arose, notably the amygdaloid implement and the
poniard. Then came the transition from the Eolithic to the Palæolithic, a
stage that has been so thoroughly investigated by Rutot."
It is not improbable that the Trinil race was in a stage of Eolithic
culture; it is highly probable that the prehuman races of this very remote
geologic age used more than one weapon of wood and stone.
THE GREAT SECOND GLACIATION
(Fig. 25, p. 65)
In early Pleistocene times a general _elevation_ of southern Europe united
the islands of the Mediterranean with Europe on the north and with Africa
on the south, forming broad land connections between the two continents
which afforded both northward and southward migration routes. At this time
certain characteristically African mammals, such as the straight-tusked
elephant and the lion, were probably finding their way north; Sicily at
this time gained its large fauna of elephants and hippopotami, and the
island of Malta was connected with the mainland, as well as the easterly
islands of Cyprus and Crete. It appears probable that the connection
between the Italian mainland and Malta was renewed more than once.
The approach of the second glaciation is indicated along the southeast
coast of Great Britain by the _subsidence_ of the land and the rise of the
sea, accompanied by a fresh arctic current, bringing with it an invasion
of arctic mollusks which were deposited in a layer of marine beds directly
over those which contain the rich warm fauna and flora of the 'Forest
Bed of Cromer,' Norfolk.(32) It also appears probable that a cold northern
current swept along the western coasts of Europe, and Geikie estimates
that a lowering of temperature occurred of not less than 20° Fahr., a
change as great as is now experienced in passing from the south of England
to the North Cape.
[Illustration: PL. III. _Pithecanthropus erectus_, the ape-man of Java.
Antiquity estimated at 500,000 years. After the restoration modelled by J.
H. McGregor. It is not improbable that the prehuman races of this remote
geologic age used more than one natural weapon of wood or stone, the
latter of the accidental 'Eolithic' type.]
The second glaciation was by far the greatest both in Europe and America.
In the region of the Pyrenees, which at the very much later period of the
Third Interglacial Stage became a favorite country with Palæolithic man,
there were glaciers of vast extent. This is realized by comparison with
present conditions. The largest of the present glaciers of the Pyrenees is
only 2 miles in length and terminates at a height of 7,200 feet above the
sea. During the greatest glaciation the snow appears to have descended
4,265 feet below its present level. From the Pyrenees through the Gallego
valley into Spain there flowed a glacier 38 miles in length, while to the
north the glacier in the valley of the Garonne flowed for a distance of 45
miles to a point near Montréjeau. Even in its lower reaches this glacier
was over half a mile in thickness. To the east was a glacier 38 miles in
length, filling the valley of the Ariège and covering the sites of such
great Palæolithic caverns as that of Niaux; it is probable that at this
time the formation of this cavern began. That these glaciers were all
prior to the period of the Lower Palæolithic Acheulean culture is proven
by the fact that Acheulean implements are frequently met with lying on the
surface of the moraines laid down by these ancient ice-floes.(33)
To the north was the vast Scandinavian ice-field, which swept over Great
Britain and beyond the valleys of the Rhine, Elbe, and Vistula, reaching
nearly to the Carpathians. Even the lesser mountain chains were capped
with glaciers, including the Atlas Mountains in northern Africa.
In North America from the great centre west of Hudson Bay the ice-cap
extended its drift southward into Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska,
beyond the limits of earlier and subsequent glaciations.
The materials of the chief 'high terraces' of the great river-valleys of
western Europe were deposited at this time.
LIFE OF THE WARM SECOND INTERGLACIAL STAGE
The long warm period which followed the great glaciation is remarkable in
presenting the first proofs of the presence of man in western Europe. It
is the period of the Heidelberg race of man (_Homo heidelbergensis_),
known only from a single jaw discovered by Schoetensack in the Mauer sands
near Heidelberg, in 1907. No other proofs of the existence of man have
been found in any of the deposits which took place during this vast
interval of geologic time, unless we accept the theory of Penck and of
Geikie that the Pre-Chellean and Chellean quarries of the River Somme
belong in the Second Interglacial Stage.
The vast duration of this interglacial time is evidenced both in Europe
and America by the deep cutting and wearing away of the 'drifts' brought
down by the second glaciation. Penck believes that this 'long warm stage'
represents a greater period of time than the entire interval between the
third glaciation and the present time. The climate immediately following
the retreat of the glaciers was cool and moist in the glaciated regions,
but this was followed by such a prolonged period of heat and dryness that
the glaciers on the Alps withdrew to a point far above their present
limits.
In one of the old 'high terraces' of the River Inn, in the north Tyrol, is
a deposit containing the prevailing forest flora of the period, from which
Penck concludes that the climate of Innsbruck was 2° C. higher than it is
at the present time. Corresponding with this the snow-line stood 1,000
feet above its present level, and the Alps, save for the higher peaks,
were almost completely denuded of ice and snow. A characteristic plant is
the Pontic alpine rose (_Rhododendron ponticum_), which flourishes now in
an annual temperature of 57°-65° Fahr.,(34) indicating that the climate of
Innsbruck was as genial as that of the Italian slopes of the Alps to-day.
This rhododendron is now found in the Caucasus. Other southern species of
the time were a buckthorn, related to a species now living in the Canary
Islands, and the box. There were also more hardy plants, including the fir
(_Pinus sylvestris_), spruce, maple, willow, yew, elm, beech, and
mountain-ash. The forests of the same period in Provence were, for the
most part, similar to those now found in that region; out of thirty-seven
species twenty-nine still occur in this part of southern France. On the
whole, the aspect of southern France at this time was surprisingly modern.
The forests included oaks, elms, poplars, willows, lindens, maples,
sumachs, dogwood, and hawthorn. Among the climbing plants were the vine
and the clematis. Here also were some forms which have since retreated to
the south, such as species of the sweet bay and laurel which are now
confined to the Canary Islands. The great humidity of the time is
indicated by the presence of certain species of conifers which require
considerable moisture. As in First Interglacial times, the presence of the
fig indicates mild winters.
It is difficult to imagine forests of this modern character, which farther
northward included a number of still more temperate and hardy species, as
the setting of the great African and Asiatic life that roamed all over
western Europe at this time. It was the presence of hippopotami,
elephants, and rhinoceroses which gave to Lyell, Evans, and other early
observers the impression that a tropical temperature and vegetation were
characteristic of this long life period. These animals were formerly
regarded as proofs of an almost tropical climate, but the more trustworthy
evidence of the forests, strengthened by that of the presence of very
numerous hardy types of forest and meadow animals, has set aside all the
early theories as to extremely warm temperatures during Second
Interglacial times.
The remains of what is still conveniently known as the '_faune chaude_,'
or warm fauna, are chiefly found in the sands and gravels of the ancient
beds of the Neckar, Garonne, and Thames, and other rivers of the north and
south, also in Essex, England. The most surprising fact is that the mammal
life of western Europe remained entirely unchanged by the vast second
glaciation just described; the few extinctions which occurred as well as a
number of new arrivals may be attributed to new geographical connections
with Africa on the south and to the steady progress of migration from the
far east.
[Illustration: FIG. 42. The hippopotamus (_H. major_) and the southern
mammoth (_E. meridionalis trogontherii_), a pair of mammals which enjoyed
a similar range over western Europe from the close of the Pliocene until
the middle of Third Interglacial times, when their remains are found
associated with flints of Pre-Chellean, Chellean, and early Acheulean age.
One-sixtieth life size. Drawn by Erwin S. Christman.]
There were four very important and distinctive new arrivals from the
African-Asiatic world, namely, the straight-tusked or ancient elephant
(_E. antiquus_), the broad-nosed rhinoceros (_D. merckii_), the African
lion (_Felis leo_), and the African hyæna (_H. striata_), which bespeak
close geographical connections with northern Africa. Of these the ancient
elephant and the broad-nosed rhinoceros were close companions; they
enjoyed the same regions and the same temperatures, their remains are very
frequently found together, and they survived to the very end of the great
life stage of western Europe, which closed with the advent of the fourth
glaciation. They are in contrast to the other pair of great mammals which
was already present in Europe in Pliocene and First Interglacial times,
namely, the southern mammoth, at this stage known as _Elephas
trogontherii_, which had a preference for the companionship of the
hippopotamus (_H. major_); it would seem that these animals were less
hardy because both disappeared from Europe a little earlier than the
ancient elephant and Merck's rhinoceros.
[Illustration: FIG. 43. The other and hardier pair of large
African-Asiatic mammals, namely, the broad-nosed or Merck's rhinoceros
(_R. merckii_) and the straight-tusked or ancient elephant (_E.
antiquus_), which entered western Europe in Second Interglacial times and
survived until Third Interglacial times, when their remains are found
intermingled with flints of the Acheulean and early Mousterian cultures.
These mammals were doubtless hunted by men of the early Neanderthal races.
One-sixtieth life size. Drawn by Erwin S. Christman.]
The African lion would appear to have been a competitor of the sabre-tooth
tiger, for the latter animal now becomes less abundant, although there is
reason to believe that it survived until the Third Interglacial Stage.
With the ancient Pliocene type of the sabre-tooth were also found the
Etruscan rhinoceros, the primitive bear of Auvergne (_Ursus arvernensis_),
and the giant beaver (_Trogontherium cuvieri_).
[Illustration: FIG. 44. Map showing the wide geographic distribution
(horizontal lines) of Merck's rhinoceros and the straight-tusked elephant,
which first entered western Europe during the First Interglacial Stage and
survived until nearly the close of the Third Interglacial Stage. The
hippopotamus, which entered Europe in Pliocene times, survived until after
the middle of the Third Interglacial Stage and had a more limited
distribution. After Boule.]
The northern forests of the time were frequented by the broad-faced moose,
the giant deer, and the roe-deer, as well as by noble specimens of the
stag (_Cervus elaphus_). In the open forests and meadows the wild cattle
(_Bos primigenius_) began to be more numerous and the bison (_Bison
priscus_) also occurred. Among the meadow or forest frequenting forms were
horses of larger size, such as the horses of Mosbach and of Süssenborn. In
this assemblage of northern and southern types it is noteworthy that the
Eurasiatic forest and meadow types of mammals greatly predominate in
numbers and in variety over the African-Asiatic types; this, together with
the flora, is an indication that the climate was of a temperate character;
it is probable, therefore, that all the mammals were well protected with a
hairy covering and adapted to a temperate climate. The fact that the fauna
as a whole remained practically unchanged throughout the second glaciation
is a proof not that it migrated to the south and then returned but that
the non-glaciated regions of western Europe were temperate rather than
cold.
THE HEIDELBERG RACE
Heidelberg man.
Ancient elephant.
Etruscan rhinoceros.
Mosbach horse.
Wild boar.
Broad-faced moose.
Red deer, or stag.
Roe-deer.
Primitive bison (wisent).
Primitive ox (Aurochs, urus).
Auvergne bear.
Deninger's bear.
Lion.
Wildcat.
Wolf.
Beaver.
To us by far the most interesting mammalian life is that found south of
the mouth of the Neckar along the ancient stream Elsenz, where were
deposited the lower 'sands of Mauer,' containing the lower jaw of the
Heidelberg man and the remains of many animals of the period. The
enumeration of this entire fauna is very important, as indicating the
temperate climatic conditions which surrounded the first true species of
man which has thus far been discovered in Europe. The discoverer,
Schoetensack,(35) referred these mammals and the Heidelberg man to the
First Interglacial Stage, and a similar opinion has recently been
expressed by Geikie. The presence of the Etruscan rhinoceros would appear
to point to such great antiquity, but the evidence afforded by this
primitive animal is overborne by that of three mammals which are highly
characteristic of Second Interglacial times; these are the straight-tusked
or ancient elephant (_E. antiquus_), the lion, and the Mosbach horse.
Excepting only the Etruscan rhinoceros, all these species frequenting the
ancient stream Elsenz and deposited with the 'sands of Mauer' occurred
also in the forests and meadows of the region now known as Baden, where
the fossil mammal deposits of Mosbach near the Neckar are found. A similar
mammalian life of a somewhat more recent time occurs in the river gravels
of Süssenborn, near Weimar. The horses of Mauer, of Mosbach, and of
Süssenborn[Q] were of much larger size and of more specialized character
than Steno's horse of First Interglacial times.
[Illustration: FIG. 45. Section of the valley of the stream Elsenz, near
Heidelberg, showing the location of the Mauer sand-pit in which the
Heidelberg jaw was discovered. An ancient layer of river-drift. Drawn by
C. A. Reeds.]
Thus the Heidelbergs, the first human race recorded in western Europe,
appear in northern Germany early in Second Interglacial times, in the
midst of a most imposing mammalian fauna of northern aspect and containing
many forest-living species, such as bear, deer, and moose; in the meadows
and forests browsed the giant, straight-tusked elephant (_E. antiquus_),
which from the simple structure of its grinding-teeth is regarded as
similar in habit to the African elephant now inhabiting the forests of
central Africa; the presence of this animal indicates a relatively moist
climate and well-forested country. The Etruscan rhinoceros differed from
the larger Merck's form in the possession of relatively short-crowned
grinding-teeth, adapted to browsing habits and a forested country; on the
head were borne two horns; it was a long-limbed, rapidly moving type; the
herds of bison and of wild cattle (urus) which roamed over the plains
were now subject to the attack of the lion.
[Illustration: FIG. 46. Sand-pit at Mauer, near Heidelberg, discovery site
of the jaw of Heidelberg man. After Schoetensack.
_a-b._ 'Newer loess,' either of Third Interglacial or of Postglacial
times.
_b-c._ 'Older loess' (sandy loess) of the close of Second Interglacial
times.
_c-f._ The 'sands of Mauer.'
_d-e._ An intermediate layer of clay.
The white cross (X) indicates the spot at the base of the 'sands of Mauer'
at which the jaw of Heidelberg was discovered.]
[Illustration: FIG. 47. The Heidelberg jaw, type of _Homo
heidelbergensis_. About two-thirds life size. After Schoetensack.]
The discovery in 1907 of a human lower jaw in the base of the 'Mauer
sands' is one of the most important in the whole history of anthropology.
The find was made at a depth of 79 feet (24.10 m.) from the upper surface
of a high bluff (Fig. 46), in ancient river sands which had long been
known to yield the very old mammalian fauna described above. For years the
workmen had been instructed to keep a sharp lookout for human remains. The
jaw had evidently drifted down with the river sands and had become
separated from the skull, but it remained in perfect preservation. The
author's description may first be quoted.(36) The mandible shows a
combination of features never before found in any fossil or recent man.
The protrusion of the lower jaw just below the front teeth which gives
shape to the human chin is entirely lacking. Had the teeth been absent it
would have been impossible to diagnose it as human. From a fragment of the
symphysis of the jaw it might well have been classed as some gorilla-like
anthropoid, while the ascending ramus resembles that of some large variety
of gibbon. The absolute certainty that these remains are human is based on
the form of the teeth--molars, premolars, canines, and incisors are all
essentially human and, although somewhat primitive in form, show no trace
of being intermediate between man and the anthropoid apes but rather of
being derived from some older common ancestor. The teeth, however, are
somewhat small for the jaw; the size of the border would allow for the
development of much larger teeth; we can only conclude that no great
strain was put on the teeth, and therefore the powerful development of the
bones of the jaw was not designed for their benefit. The conclusion is
that the jaw, regarded as unquestionably human from the nature of the
teeth, ranks not far from the point of separation between man and the
anthropoid apes. In comparison with the jaws of Neanderthal races, as
found at Spy, in Belgium, and at Krapina, in Croatia, we may consider the
Heidelberg jaw as pre-Neanderthaloid; it is, in fact, a generalized type.
[Illustration: FIG. 48. Side view of Heidelberg jaw (centre) compared with
that of an orang (right) and of an Eskimo (left); the latter an individual
of exceptionally large proportions.]
In a conservative spirit, Schoetensack named the type represented by this
jaw _Homo heidelbergensis_. Other authors have regarded it as of distinct
generic rank; thus it has been termed _Palæoanthropus heidelbergensis_ by
Bonarelli.(37) The jaw itself is extremely massive; the canine teeth,
unlike those of the anthropoid apes and of the Piltdown race, do not
project beyond the line of the other teeth and were therefore not used as
weapons of offense and defense as in the anthropoids, in which these
teeth are prominently developed as tusks. As noted by Schoetensack, the
teeth are not very massive in proportion to the jaw itself, which is the
most powerful human jaw known, even exceeding the largest Eskimo jaw and
indicating a skull of very massive and primitive character. It resembles
that of the ape in the recession of the chin, hence it has been termed
_amentalis_. There is a large development of the coronoid process of the
mandible for the attachment of the temporal muscle. This jaw may well have
been used as a tool in the last stages of the preparation of hides, as is
the practice of the Eskimo races. We observe that the powerful bony
branches of the jaw, when regarded from above, close in upon the space
left for the tongue; in fact, the bone closes in to such an extent as to
interfere seriously with the free use of the tongue in articulate speech.
[Illustration: FIG. 49. The jaws shown in Fig. 48 seen from above. A
massive Eskimo jaw (above), the Heidelberg jaw (centre), the jaw of an
orang (below).]
It would seem that in the jaw, and probably in all other characters of the
skull, as they become known, the Heidelberg race will be found to be a
Neanderthal in the making, that is, a primitive, more powerful, and more
ape-like ancestral form. In the matter of the retreating chin, the true
Neanderthals of Spy, Malarnaud, Krapina, and La Chapelle rank exactly
half-way between the most inferior races of recent man and the anthropoid
apes.
[Illustration: FIG. 50. Restoration of the Man of Heidelberg by the
Belgian artist Mascré, under the direction of Professor A. Rutot, of
Brussels. This restoration presents an advance upon the _Pithecanthropus_
type. In our opinion the Heidelberg man was more human and less ape-like
in appearance.]
Not only among the Eskimos, but generally throughout the savage races of
Australia and of other countries, the jaws are used as tools; among the
Australians the teeth are very much worn down but are in admirable
preservation. When seen from above, we observe that the 'Heidelberg'
grinding-teeth form a perfect arch, or horseshoe-shaped arrangement,
whereas in all the apes the two lines of grinding-teeth are almost
parallel with each other. Thus, while there may be wide differences of
opinion as regards the relationships of the Heidelberg man, all agree that
Schoetensack's discovery affords us one of the great missing links or
types in the chain of human development.
The typical mammalian life of Second Interglacial times as found at
Mosbach and Süssenborn belongs perhaps to a somewhat more recent stage of
Second Interglacial times than that of the 'Mauer sands,' for in these
localities the Etruscan rhinoceros is wanting and the more specialized
broad-nosed rhinoceros is abundant; this animal differs from the Etruscan
form in the possession of relatively long-crowned grinding-teeth, which
were better adapted to grazing habits. On the head were borne two horns. A
variety of the southern mammoth (_E. trogontherii_) is so highly
characteristic of Second Interglacial times that Pohlig refers to this
life period as the _E. trogontherii_ stage. From the structure of its
grinding-teeth it is regarded as similar in habit to the Asiatic elephant,
which now inhabits the forests of India, but it has the peculiar concave
forehead distinctive of the mammoth and quite unlike the convex forehead
of the Indian elephant. The bears of this period belong to the primitive
species _U. deningeri_ and _U. arvernensis_, for so far there is no
certain record of the presence of the true brown bear of Europe (_U.
arctos_). The sabre-tooth tiger of this time is preserved in the caverns
of the Pyrenees near Montmaurin, associated with the remains of the
striped hyæna (_H. striata_), a species which was widely distributed over
western Europe in early Pleistocene times. This species was contemporary
with, and later replaced by, the spotted hyæna (_H. crocuta_), from which
the very hardy cave-hyæna (_H. crocuta spelæa_) of the 'Reindeer Period,'
descended. We observe that the 'polycladine' deer of Upper Pliocene and
First Glacial times has disappeared from western Europe; nor are there any
traces of the axis deer. The hippopotamus is still represented by the
giant species, _H. major_.
EARLY NORTHERN MIGRATIONS OF THE REINDEER
The animals that we have described belong in the warmer and more temperate
regions of Europe. In the regions near the glaciers the reindeer was
already to be found; in fact, this characteristically northern animal is
recorded in the gravels of Süssenborn, near Weimar.
There is evidence of a succession of climatic changes in the region of
Heidelberg. The Heidelberg jaw with its temperate mammalian fauna occurred
at the very base of the Mauer bluff, but higher up the bluff (Fig. 46) on
a corresponding level are found the remains of mammals which indicate a
marked lowering of temperature and which are referred by some authorities
to the period of chilling climate that characterized northern Europe
toward the close of Second Interglacial times. The reindeer also occurs in
the 'high terrace' gravels of the River Murr, near Steinheim; thus, at
Mauer, at Süssenborn, and at Steinheim, we find proof that the reindeer
had begun to spread over the colder regions of Europe, and there is some
ground for belief that it found its way even as far south as the Pyrenees.
The evidence of the first cold, arid period which for the time greatly
affected the climate of western Europe is also found in the layer of
so-called 'ancient loess' which lies in the bluff above the 'sands of
Mauer.' This loess covers the warm mammalian deposits of the 'sands of
Mosbach' as well as the 'high terraces' of many of the ancient
river-valleys. Both in Europe and America the climatic sequence of the
Second Interglacial Stage from moist to dry appears to have been the same.
Thus, after the recession of the ice-fields of the second glaciation, the
climate was at first cold and moist; then followed a long warm stage,
favorable to the spread of forests; this was finally succeeded by a period
of aridity in which the most ancient 'loess' deposits occurred. In Russia,
also, the third glaciation was preceded by an arid and steppe-like climate
with high winds favorable to the transportation of 'loess.'
No palæoliths or other proofs of human occupation have been found in this
cold, dry period, for there is no evidence in any part of Europe of
camping stations in this 'ancient loess' such as we find in the 'loess'
which was deposited during the similar arid period toward the close of
Third Interglacial and again during Postglacial times. Nor have we any
record of the mammalian life in this 'ancient loess' of Europe.
THE THIRD GLACIATION[R]
This arid period in northern Europe and in North America was followed by
the moist, cool climate of the third glaciation. It is estimated by Penck
that the advance of these new ice-fields began 120,000 years ago and that
the period of advance and retreat of the glaciers was not less than 20,000
years. In the Alps the snow-line descended 1,250 metres below the present
level; consequently this glaciation was more severe than the first but
somewhat less severe than the second. In northern Europe the Scandinavian
ice-field did not cover so wide an area as during the second glaciation,
although Britain and Scandinavia were again deeply buried by ice; the
glacial cap and glaciers flowed in a westerly and southwesterly direction
across Denmark and the southern portion of the basin of the Baltic into
Holland and northern Germany. In the Alps the third glaciation sent vast
ice-floes along the valley of the Rhine, into eastern France, and into the
valley of the Po, where this glaciation was even more extensive than the
second. But the greatest glacier of this time was that of the Isar, a
southern tributary of the Danube, which rises in the Bavarian Alps.(38)
During the Third Glacial Stage certain of the 'middle terraces' along the
Rhine and other rivers flowing from the Alps were formed. In Britain,(39)
whereas during the second glaciation the ice-fields extended as far south
as the Thames, during the third glaciation they did not extend beyond the
midlands; yet an arctic climate prevailed over southern England, with
tundra conditions and temperature, as indicated by the plant deposits at
Hoxne(40) in Suffolk. Even before the third glaciation began in Europe a
great ice-cap had formed over Labrador, on the eastern coast of North
America, and the ice-sheets flowing to the south and southwest extended as
far as Illinois, depositing the great Illinoian 'drifts.'
[Illustration: _EUROPE DURING THE THIRD GLACIAL EPOCH. (RISS) (AFTER JAMES
GEIKIE) A-B Line of Profile_
FIG. 51. The ice-fields and glaciers of the Third Glacial Stage are seen
to be much less extensive than those of the Second Glacial Stage, shown in
Fig. 25, p. 65. The continental depression and invasion of the sea is also
believed to have been less extensive. At this stage there are broad areas
free from ice between the Scandinavian, the Alpine, and the Pyrenean
ice-caps. Drawn by C. A. Reeds, after James Geikie. (Compare Fig. 13.)]
Along the borders of these great ice-fields in both countries a cold and
moist climate prevailed, for a prime condition of glaciation is the heavy
precipitation of snow. In northern Europe, between the great Alpine and
Scandinavian ice-fields of the third glaciation a cold climate undoubtedly
prevailed; in the region of the Neckar River, near Cannstatt, is found a
deposit known as 'mammoth loam,' which Koken believed to be
contemporaneous with the period of the third glaciation, although the
evidence is certainly not convincing.(41) Here are found fossil remains of
the Scandinavian reindeer, also of two very important new arrivals in
Europe from the tundra regions of the far northeast, animals which had
wandered along the southern borders of the Scandinavian ice-sheet from the
tundras of northern Russia and Siberia. This is the first appearance in
western Europe of the woolly mammoth (_E. primigenius_) and the woolly
rhinoceros (_D. antiquitatis_). In this 'mammoth loam' there also occur
two species of horse, the giant deer (_Megaceros_), the stag, the wisent,
and the Aurochs. If the woolly mammoth and the woolly rhinoceros actually
entered eastern Germany at this time, they certainly retreated to the
north with the approach of the warm temperate climate of the Third
Interglacial Stage, because no trace of these animals has been found again
in Europe until the advent of the fourth glaciation.
(=1=) Gaudry, 1890.1.
(=2=) Smith, G. E., 1912.1, p. 582.
(=3=) _Op. cit._
(=4=) Munro, 1893.1.
(=5=) Osborn, 1910.1, pp. 306, 307.
(=6=) Geikie, J., 1894.1, pp. 329-336; 1914.1, p. 227.
(=7=) Dawkins, 1883.1, pp. 576-579.
(=8=) Geikie, J., 1914.1, p. 248.
(=9=) Reid, C., 1908.1.
(=10=) Desnoyers, 1863.1.
(=11=) Haug, 1911.1, p. 1807.
(=12=) Geikie, J., 1894.1, p. 682; 1914.1, p. 250.
(=13=) Dubois, 1894.1.
(=14=) Fischer, 1913.1.
(=15=) Schwalbe, 1899.1; 1914.1.
(=16=) Büchner, 1914.1.
(=17=) Volz, 1907.1.
(=18=) Elbert, 1908.1.
(=19=) Selenka, 1911.1.
(=20=) Pilgrim, 1913.1.
(=21=) Schwalbe, 1899.1, pp. 227, 228.
(=22=) _Op. cit._, p. 223.
(=23=) Schwalbe, 1914.1, pp. 601-606.
(=24=) Büchner, 1914.1, p. 129.
(=25=) Dubois, 1894.1, p. 14.
(=26=) Keith, 1912.1.
(=27=) Smith, G. E., 1912.1, p. 595.
(=28=) _Op. cit._
(=29=) Rutot, 1907.1.
(=30=) Boule, 1913.1, pp. 266, 267.
(=31=) MacCurdy, 1905.1, pp. 468, 469.
(=32=) Geikie, J., 1914.1, p. 251.
(=33=) _Op. cit._, p. 255.
(=34=) _Op. cit._, p. 238.
(=35=) Schoetensack, 1908.1.
(=36=) _Op. cit._, pp. 25-43.
(=37=) Bonarelli, 1909.1.
(=38=) Penck, 1909.1.
(=39=) Geikie, J., 1914.1, p. 258.
(=40=) _Op. cit._, pp. 257-262.
(=41=) Schmidt, 1912.1, p. 181.
CHAPTER II
ARRIVAL OF THE PRE-CHELLEAN FLINT WORKERS DURING THE THIRD
INTERGLACIAL--GEOGRAPHY, CLIMATE, AND THE RIVER DRIFTS--PRE-CHELLEAN
FLINT INDUSTRY--THE PILTDOWN RACE--MAMMALIAN LIFE--CHELLEAN AND
ACHEULEAN INDUSTRIES--THE USE OF FIRE--THE SECOND PERIOD OF ARID
CLIMATE--THE NEANDERTHAL RACE OF KRAPINA, CROATIA
The geologic epoch of the arrival of the Pre-Chellean flint workers in
western Europe is by far the most important and interesting one before the
prehistorian. Upon it depends the question of the duration of the Old
Stone Age, the date of appearance of the Piltdown and of the Neanderthal
races, and the whole sequence of climatic and geographic changes
surrounding the early history of man. After weighing all the evidence very
carefully, the balance of opinion seems to sustain the view that this
epoch should be placed _after_ the close of the third glaciation and
_before_ the advent of the fourth, that is, during the Third Interglacial
Stage.
Penck estimated that the third warm interglacial stage[S] opened about
100,000 years ago and lasted between 50,000 and 60,000 years. According to
the theory that we have adopted in this work, the Third Interglacial and
Fourth Glacial embraced the entire period of Lower Palæolithic time, a
period of from 70,000 to 100,000 years, much longer than that of Upper
Palæolithic time, which is estimated at 16,000 to 25,000 years.
GEOLOGIC ANTIQUITY OF THE BEGINNING OF THE STONE AGE
Attention should first be called to the fact that, preceding the epoch we
have now entered, the glacial and interglacial forces operating over the
great peninsula of western Europe had left their impress chiefly on the
glaciated areas and only to a minor degree on the free, non-glaciated
areas. Until toward the close of Third Interglacial times no traces of
northern much less of arctic forests and animals are discovered anywhere,
except along the borders of the ice-fields. It would appear as if the
animal and plant life of Europe were, in the main, but slightly affected
by the first three glaciations. We cannot entertain for a moment the
belief that in glacial times all the warm flora and fauna migrated
southward and then returned, because there is not a shred of evidence for
this theory. It is far more in accord with the known facts to believe that
all the southern and eastern forms of life had become very hardy, for we
know how readily animals now living in the warm earth belts are
acclimatized to northern conditions.
[Illustration: FIG. 52. Human types and culture stages of the last third
of the Glacial Epoch. Theoretic estimates of the geologic and time
divisions and introduction of human races during the Third Interglacial,
Fourth Glacial, and Postglacial Stages (see Fig. 14, p. 41). Prepared by
the author with the aid of C. A. Reeds.]
If, on the other hand, we depend solely on the testimony of the life
conditions, we might conclude that the Pre-Chellean flint workers reached
western Europe either in Second Interglacial times, or during the third
glaciation, or again during Third Interglacial times. Let us consider this
evidence of the fossil mammals more closely.
[Illustration: FIG. 53. Distribution of the principal Pre-Chellean and
Chellean industrial stations in western Europe.]
In favor of the theory that the Pre-Chellean culture is as ancient as
Second Interglacial times, we should consider the fact that in several
localities palæoliths of Pre-Chellean if not of Chellean type have been
recorded in association with the remains of a number of the more primitive
mammals which we have described above as characteristic of Second
Interglacial times. For example, at Torralba, Province of Soria, Spain,
there has been discovered(1) an old typical Chellean camp site, containing
abundant remains of the broad-nosed rhinoceros and of the southern
mammoth, mingled with the remains of other mammals of very ancient type,
identified as the Etruscan rhinoceros and as Steno's horse. Again, along
the River Somme, near Abbeville, in the _gisement du Champ de Mars_,(2) it
is said that Pre-Chellean and Chellean implements have been found in
association with the Etruscan rhinoceros, Steno's horse, and very numerous
specimens of the sabre-tooth tiger and of the striped hyæna. Moreover, in
Piltdown, Sussex, Pre-Chellean flints and the Piltdown skull are said to
have occurred in a layer containing a rhinoceros which may be identified
with the Etruscan. If these very ancient species of animals are rightly
recognized and determined, and if they are truly found as reported in
close association in the same layers with Pre-Chellean and Chellean
flints, the evidence may be considered as quite strong that the beginning
of Chellean culture dates from Second Interglacial times; unless, indeed,
it should prove that these primitive species of mammals survived into
Third Interglacial times in certain favored districts. We should also
consider the possibility that these more ancient animals, the sabre-tooth
tiger, Steno's horse, the Etruscan rhinoceros, and the giant beaver, did
not really belong in the same layer with these old palæoliths but were
accidentally washed into this layer from other more ancient deposits. As a
rule, it is the most recent animals which establish a prehistoric date,
because we know that a palæolith cannot be older than the most recent
mammal with which it occurs.
[Illustration: FIG. 54. Western Europe during the extension of the
ice-fields and glaciers (dots) of the Third Glacial Stage--a period of
continental depression believed to have been less extensive than that of
the Second Glacial Stage (see Fig. 25, p. 65). The line from Scandinavia
to northern Africa corresponds to the section shown in Fig. 13, p. 37.
Drawn by C. A. Reeds, after Geikie and Penck. (Compare Fig. 13.)]
[Illustration: FIG. 55. Excavation at Chelles-sur-Marne, the Palæolithic
station where Chellean flint implements were first discovered. We observe
the very close, regular, and unbroken succession of the geological layers
containing the Chellean, Acheulean, and Mousterian flints.]
The record of the three early glaciations is not fully written in the
animal and plant life, but it appears to be found in the river channels.
Both in England and France these channels attest flooded conditions during
the earlier glaciations, in which large quantities of gravels and sands
were transported, and it is of these materials that the 'high terraces'
were built up. It is chiefly the geologic evidence which establishes the
Pre-Chellean date.
Geologic and climatic lines of evidence in France indicate that the
Pre-Chellean culture is first witnessed during the beginning of Third
Interglacial times. This is the opinion of Boule, Haug, Obermaier, Breuil,
Schmidt, and many other geologists and archæologists. That the first
Palæolithic flint workers found their way into western Europe during the
early part of Third Interglacial times is consistent with our observations
on the sequence of climate, on the formation of the 'low river terraces,'
where palæoliths of the earliest type occur, as well as with the general
succession of mammalian life throughout the climatic changes of this
interglacial period. It would appear, in explanation of the facts cited
above regarding the fossil mammals, that when the Pre-Chellean flint
workers established their camps along the valley of the River Somme in
northern France a very genial climate prevailed in this region, favorable
even, as we shall see, to the survival of some of the Pliocene types of
mammals, such as the sabre-tooth tiger and the Etruscan rhinoceros.
During the early part of the Third Interglacial Stage the climate, so far
as we can judge by the unchanged aspect of the animal life, remained of
the same warm temperate character. Two only of the surviving Pliocene
forms, namely, the sabre-tooth tigers and the Etruscan rhinoceroses,
became rare or extinct. From evidence afforded in Kent's Hole, Devonshire,
Dawkins is led to believe that the sabre-tooth tiger survived in Britain
until Postglacial times. All the rest of the animal world, both the
African-Asiatic and the Eurasiatic mammals, continued to flourish
throughout western Europe.
Not until the latter part of Acheulean times do we discover proofs of a
decided change of climate; in the approach of arid conditions similar to
those of the steppes of western Asia there was a renewal of the great
dust-storms and depositions of 'loess,' such as had previously occurred
toward the close of Second Interglacial times; this was followed by the
still colder climate of the fourth glaciation, which corresponds with the
closing period of Lower Palæolithic culture.
The evolution of the Pre-Chellean into the Chellean and finally into the
Lower Acheulean palæoliths certainly occupied a very long period of time
if we assign it merely the 50,000 or 60,000 years allotted to the Third
Interglacial; but even this allotment seems far too long when we observe
the relatively limited depth of the river deposits in which these flint
cultures succeed each other. For we cannot fail to be impressed by the
regular and very close and unbroken succession of the geologic layers
containing the Chellean and Acheulean artifacts. (See Fig. 55.)
None the less it follows that a long lapse of time must be allowed for
each culture period, and for the advance in technique.(3) It is this wide
distribution that has enabled the de Mortillets (father and son), Capitan,
Rivière, Reboux, Daleau, Peyrony, Obermaier, Commont, Schmidt, and others
to establish in various parts of Europe the main stages of the industrial
evolution of the Old Stone Age, or Lower Palæolithic.
SUBDIVISIONS OF THE LOWER PALÆOLITHIC CULTURES(4)[T]
MOUSTERIAN. Late industry of the Neanderthal races. Extensive use of
the 'flake.'
_Late Mousterian._ La Quina scrapers, small 'coups de poing,' and bone
anvils, closing with the Abri Audit culture.
_Middle Mousterian._ Culmination of the Mousterian 'point' finely
flaked and chipped on one side, the best examples approaching the
Solutrean perfection of technique.
_Early Mousterian._ Heart-shaped 'coups de poing' and Mousterian flake
'points' and flake scrapers.
ACHEULEAN. Early industry of the Neanderthal races. Extensive use of
the nodular core.
_Late Acheulean._ Miniature 'lance points' of La Micoque type,
triangular 'coups de poing,' and flint flakes of Levallois type.
_Middle Acheulean._ Pointed oval 'coups de poing,' much lighter than
the Chellean types, and small implements similar to the Chellean but
much improved in workmanship.
_Early Acheulean._ Broad oval 'coups de poing' much more symmetrical
than the Chellean but still rather heavy. Small types.
CHELLEAN.
_Late Chellean._ Long pointed 'coups de poing,' in most cases flaked
on both sides, with little of the crust of the nodule adhering and the
edges still unsymmetrical. First appearance of the oval 'coups de
poing.'
_Early Chellean._ First appearance of 'coups de poing' of almond
shape. Small implements, including scrapers, planes, and borers. All
implements unsymmetrical and with uneven edges.
PRE-CHELLEAN. Probable industry of the Piltdown and of the
(Pre-Neanderthaloid) Heidelberg races. Use of chance and accidental
forms. Forms partly accidental; retouch limited to the few strokes
necessary to give a point or edge to the tool, or to allow a firm
grasp (protective retouch). Prototypes of 'coup de poing' formed of
flint nodules with crust only partially removed.
If we suppose that the Pre-Chellean flint workers arrived in Europe not
earlier than Third Interglacial times, we can explain all the gradations
in the evolution of their implements in connection with the changes of
climate and of animal life which the geologic and fossil deposits reveal,
especially in the valleys of the Somme and of the Thames.
If, on the other hand, the Pre-Chellean is dated in Second Interglacial
times,[U] it carries this culture back another hundred thousand years and
involves our prehistory in great difficulties. First, there is no proof
whatever that the Pre-Chellean and Chellean flint workers lived during the
period of the formation of the 'high river terraces' of the third
glaciation, for no Palæolithic flints have ever been found buried in the
sands or gravels of the 'high terraces.' The occurrence of archaic flints
on the 'high terraces' of the Somme and of the Seine is in superficial
gravel beds which were deposited long after these 'terraces' had been cut
by river action; this is best seen in the Somme, where archaic flints
occur alike in the gravels deposited upon the 'low,' 'middle,' and 'high
terraces.' Second, there is no proof that the Pre-Chellean and Chellean
flint workers passed through the cold climatic period of the third
glaciation; nowhere in Europe have any records been found of their camps
or stations in association with the cold fauna or flora of Third Glacial
times. Third, the geographical evidence is equally at variance with the
theory that the Pre-Chellean flint workers entered Europe during the
Second Interglacial Stage, for we know positively that in many of the
great river-valleys of Europe, especially those surrounding the Alps, the
rivers were at much higher levels than at present and that they were
transporting the materials out of which the 'high terraces' were being
formed or cutting these 'terraces' down by erosion.
In other words, the geography of Europe in First and Second Interglacial
times was very different from what it is at present; most of the
river-valleys were broader and less deep; some of them had been eroded to
a point below their present levels and had begun to silt up in alluvial
deposits. In Third Interglacial times the river geography of Europe was
substantially as it is to-day, although the coast-lines were still very
different.
When Pre-Chellean man appeared, we shall see that the river-valleys of the
Somme and Marne, in northern France, as well as of the Thames, in
southeastern England, were closely similar to what they are at present in
respect to their water-levels; in other words, the inland geography of
Europe in the north in Chellean times and in central and southern France
in the immediately succeeding Acheulean times was very much like it is at
present. The superficial characters of the valleys were different; the
streams in Chellean times flowed through gravels and sands, partaking of a
glacial aspect; one or more of the 'river terraces' composed of sands and
gravels were still sharply defined, for the soft covering of 'loam' and
alluvial soil from the surrounding uplands and hills had not yet washed
down to soften the outlines of the 'terraces.' Neither were the 'terraces'
covered with the newer deposits of 'loess.'
[Illustration: FIG. 56. Restoration of the geography of western Europe
during the Third Interglacial Stage, showing the ancient land areas (dots)
and the ancient river channels now submerged by the sea. Modified after
Avebury's _Prehistoric Times_ by permission of Henry Holt & Co. The six
white crosses (X) indicate the location of the principal Pre-Chellean
stations of Piltdown on the Ouse, and Gray's Thurrock on the Thames, in
England; of Abbeville, on the north bank, and St. Acheul, on the south
bank of the Somme, and Chelles on the Marne, in France; and of Helin in
Belgium. It will be observed that the English stations are separated from
the others only by the ancient broad valley corresponding with the present
English Channel.]
SECULAR CHANGES OF CLIMATE IN LOWER PALÆOLITHIC TIMES
We find evidences of four climatic and life phases during the long period
of Lower Palæolithic evolution, as follows:
4. _Cold Moist Climate._--Advent of the fourth glaciation. Arrival of
the 'full Mousterian' culture and of the Neanderthal race in Belgium
and France. Repair of men to the warmer shelters, grottos, and
entrances to the caverns. Final disappearance of the hardy Merck's
rhinoceros and the straight-tusked elephant. Arrival of the tundra
fauna, the reindeer, the woolly mammoth, and the woolly rhinoceros.
Refrigeration of western Europe as far south as northern Spain and
Italy. Wide distribution of cold alpine, tundra, and steppe mammals
all over Germany and France, and into northern Spain. Cold tundra
flora in the Thames valley, and at Hoxne, in Suffolk. Migration of the
tundra mammals, the reindeer, mammoth, and rhinoceros all over
southern Britain, Belgium, France, Germany, and Austria.
3. _Arid Climate in Western Europe._--Period of the close of the
Acheulean culture; some of the flint workers seeking the shelter of
cliffs and approaching the entrances to the grottos during the cold
season of the year. A dry steppe climate, prevailing westerly winds,
and deposits of 'loess' all over northern France and Germany.
Appearance of the first Neanderthaloid men in Krapina, Croatia. Cool
forest flora in the region of La Celle-sous-Moret near Paris, followed
by depositions of 'loess' and increasingly cool and arid climate.
Early Mousterian industry. Disappearance first of the more sensitive
pair of Asiatic mammals, the hippopotamus and the southern mammoth
(_E. trogontherii_); persistence of the more hardy, straight-tusked
elephant (_E. antiquus_) and the broad-nosed rhinoceros (_D.
merckii_).
2. _Continued Warm Temperate Period._--Time of the Chellean culture
found at Chelles, St. Acheul, Gray's Thurrock, Ilford, Essex, and
southward in Torralba, Spain. Abundance of hippopotami, rhinoceroses,
southern mammoths, and straight-tusked elephants in northern Germany
at Taubach, Weimar, Ehringsdorf, and Achenheim. Rare appearance of
sabre-tooth tigers. Temperate forest and alpine flora of Dürnten and
Utznach, Switzerland. Early Acheulean culture widely distributed over
all of western Europe.
1. _Early Warm Temperate Period._--The warm climate of the
Pre-Chellean culture period, as seen in the valleys of the Somme, of
the Thames, and of the Seine near Paris, favorable to the southern
mammoth and the hippopotamus. Apparent survival of the sabre-tooth
tiger and the Etruscan rhinoceros in favored regions. A warm temperate
forest flora in La Cellesous-Moret near Paris and in Lorraine.
Arrival of the Pre-Chellean flint workers and of the Piltdown race in
southern England.
It is believed that the climate of Third Interglacial times when it
reached its maximum warmth was again somewhat milder than the present
climate in the same region. In the Alps the glaciers and the snow-line
retreated once more to their present levels. The period opened with humid
continental conditions. The areas left bare by the ice were gradually
reforested. A picture of the climate in this warm period is presented in
the region near Paris in the so-called _tuf de La Celle-sous-Moret_
(Seine-et-Marne). This tufa, which is a hot-springs deposit, overlies
river-gravels of Pleistocene age.(7) The lower levels of the tufa contain
the sycamore-maple (_Acer pseudoplatanus_), willows, and the Austrian
pine, indicating a temperate climate. Higher up in the same deposits we
find evidences of increasingly mild temperatures in the presence of the
box (_Buxus_) and not infrequently of the fig-tree; the Canary laurel
(_Laurus nobilis_) is somewhat rarer and both it and the fig indicate that
the winters were mild, because these plants have the peculiarity of
flowering during the winter season; we infer, therefore, that the climate
was somewhat milder and more damp than it is in the same region at the
present time. The mollusks also indicate greater equability of climate.
These deposits are believed to correspond with the period of Chellean and
early Acheulean industry.
The plants in the highest levels of the same tufa, however, indicate the
advent of a colder climate and also connect this with the Acheulean
culture stage through the presence of Acheulean flints. The deposit of
tufa is covered by a sheet of 'loess' corresponding with the return of an
arid period in late Acheulean times, in the very heart of northern France.
Thus we have a record in the region near the present city of Paris of
three climatic phases, which are also more or less completely indicated in
deposits to the north along the River Somme and in the valley of the
ancient Thames.
In western France we again interpret the fossil flora of Lorraine as
belonging to the cooler closing period of Third Interglacial times and to
the advent of the fourth glaciation, for here the most northern varieties
of the larch (_Larix_) and of the mountain-pine (_Pinus lambertiana_)
predominate.
The clearest view of the contemporary alpine forests is found near Zürich
in the lignitic deposits of Dürnten and of Utznach, which are so
characteristic of the temperate period of the Third Interglacial Stage
that Geikie has proposed to call this stage the _Dürntenian_.(8) It was,
we recall, at Dürnten that Morlot(9) found the first proofs of a warm or
temperate interglacial flora, between the deposits of a retreating glacier
and those of an advancing glacier; for Dürnten is well within the region
which was covered by the vast ice-fields both of the third and fourth
glaciations. The forests which flourished there in Third Interglacial
times were similar to those now found in the same region, consisting of
the spruce, fir, mountain-pine, larch, beech, yew, and sycamore, with
undergrowth of hazel. With this hardy flora are associated the remains of
the straight-tusked elephant, of Merck's rhinoceros, of wild cattle, and
of the stag; another evidence for our opinion that all these Asiatic
mammals had become habituated to the cool temperate climate of the north.
LIFE ON THE RIVER SOMME FROM PRE-CHELLEAN TO NEOLITHIC TIMES
The borders of the River Somme at St. Acheul give us a vista of the whole
story of the succession of geologic events; the great changes of climate,
the procession of animal life, the sequence of human races and cultures.
Here Commont(10) has found the key to the history of this entire country
and enabled us to parallel events here with those occurring far away in
Taubach, on the borders of the Thuringian forest, and at Krems in Lower
Austria, as studied by Obermaier. This is because the 'older' and 'newer'
loess periods, the succession of climates and of mammals, and the
development of human cultures were all not local but _continental_ events.
The purely local events are found in the kinds of gravels and soils which
washed down over the terraces.
It is very important first to clearly picture in our minds and understand
the geography of the Somme at the time of the arrival of the Pre-Chellean
flint workers. It appears certain that all three of the old river terraces
composed of limestone had been cut long before and that the river had
already reached the bottom level of the underlying chalk rock.(11) The
higher terrace, then as now, was 100 feet above the Somme, the middle
terrace about 70 feet, and the lowest terrace extended from a height of
about 40 feet down underneath the present river level (see Fig. 59).
[Illustration: FIG. 57. Three ancient river terraces (I, II, III), on the
west bank of the Connecticut River in Vermont, believed to be of
Postglacial age. The terraces are respectively 140, 60, and 20 feet above
the river, and thus show a profile similar to that of the terraces on the
Somme in Pre-Chellean times previous to the accumulation of the deposits
bearing Palæolithic flints. Photograph by H. H. H. Langill.]
Since the most primitive Pre-Chellean flints occur in the coarse gravels
which lie on the floors of these terraces immediately above the chalk,
they prove that the entire excavation of the valley had been completed
when the Pre-Chellean workers arrived there. Commont believes that this
was the actual topography of the valley during the Third Interglacial
Stage. The occurrence of Chellean flints in the white sands overlying the
coarse gravels of the middle and upper terraces does not indicate that the
flint workers were encamped here while these terraces were being cut out
by the River Somme but rather that they sought these convenient bluffs for
their quarries during the time that these sands and gravels were washing
down from the sides of the valleys and from the plateaus above.
[Illustration: FIG. 58. Four typical forms of the Chellean _coup de
poing_, or 'hand-stone,' from the ancient quarries of St. Acheul. About
one-half actual size.
_a._ Disc-shaped--upper left.
_b._ Oval--upper right.
_c._ Poniard-shaped--lower left.
_d._ Almond-shaped--lower right.
In the collection of the American Museum of Natural History.]
[Illustration: FIG. 59. Section of the ancient river terraces on the south
bank of the River Somme at St. Acheul-Amiens, showing stations on the low,
middle, and high terraces where flints were worked from the very beginning
to the very end of the Old Stone Age. After Commont, 1908, 1909--modified
and redrawn. The section shown runs northwest and southeast, in a gentle
slope nearly 1-1/2 miles in length, from the summit, 70 meters (about 230
feet) above sea-level, down to the river 47.3 meters (155 feet) below.
Since Rigollot's excavations in 1851 sixteen flint-working stations have
been discovered here, chiefly through building operations, most of them
being on the middle and high terraces. This gives some idea of the vast
extent of these ancient encampments, which cover the entire period of the
Old Stone Age--perhaps 125,000 years.]
PREHISTORY OF ST. ACHEUL
_NEOLITHIC._
_Campignian_, recent earth and loam.
_UPPER PALÆOLITHIC._
_Solutrean._
_Upper Aurignacian_, loam.
_Middle Aurignacian_, 'newer loess' and gravel.
_LOWER PALÆOLITHIC._
_Late Mousterian_, gravel and 'newer loess.'
_Early Mousterian_, base of 'newer loess' (_l'ergeron_).
_Middle Acheulean_, 'older loess' and drift.
_Early Acheulean_, gravels below 'older loess' (_E. antiquus_).
_Late Chellean_, fluviatile sands and mollusk fauna.
_Early Chellean_, first coups de poing; old 'white sands' (_E.
antiquus_).
_Pre-Chellean_, prototypes of coup de poing; old 'lower gravels' (_E.
antiquus_).
The history of the climatic changes in the ancient valley of the Somme is
most clearly written in these successive deposits, 15 feet in thickness,
above the 'lower gravels' at St. Acheul. Along with the Pre-Chellean and
Chellean flints in the 'old gravels' and 'white sands' we find records of
the moist warm temperate climate which then prevailed in northern France
and which undoubtedly was most favorable to the hippopotami, rhinoceroses,
and elephants of those times. The river mollusks found with the late
Chellean flints are another indication of the temperate forest climate
which continued through early Acheulean times.
In the middle Acheulean are found the earliest deposits of 'older loess'
which indicate a climate still temperate but arid, belonging to the middle
of the Third Interglacial Stage. In Mousterian times we find heavy
deposits of gravels corresponding to the moist cold climate of the Fourth
Glacial Stage, followed in middle Aurignacian times by fresh layers of
'newer loess,' indicating the return of a dry climate. Finally, the layers
of loam which were washed down over the sides of the valley, and in which
the remains of Solutrean and Aurignacian camps are found, indicate the
renewal of moist and probably forested conditions.
Thus, two dry loess periods are indicated in this valley, the first or
'older loess' belonging to Third Interglacial times, and the second or
'newer loess' to Postglacial times; and we clearly perceive that in the
culture layers here there is no evidence whatever of more than one
glacial stage preceded by a dry climatic period and deposits of loess. If
the Pre-Chellean flint workers had arrived in this river-valley as early
as Second Interglacial times, we should find proofs of three periods of
arid climate and loess deposition and of two glaciations.
Beginning with middle Acheulean times the flints are found in deposits of
gravels, loams, brick-earths, and 'older loess,' which all belong to a
succeeding geologic stage and are of more recent date than the lower
gravels and sands on the terraces which they overlap and conceal. Deposits
of this kind have also been drifted down from the highest levels toward
the bottom of the valley, and Commont distinguishes three different
depositions or layers of 'loess loam,' the lowest or oldest of which
contain Acheulean flints, while the middle loams contain Mousterian
implements.
Even toward the close of the Third Interglacial Stage there were periods
of warmth, perhaps during the height of the hot summer season, when
animals of the warm fauna migrated from the south. Thus Commont has
recently discovered in the valley of the Somme a station of Mousterian
flint workers, whose industry is associated with remains of the three
animals typical of the warmer climatic phase; namely, the straight-tusked
elephant, the broad-nosed rhinoceros, and the hippopotamus. He has
reaffirmed his belief that the greater part of this chapter of human
prehistory, both as to the surface topography of the Somme valley and the
evolution of the flint cultures from Pre-Chellean to Mousterian times,
occurred during the Third Interglacial Stage.
THE EARLY WARM TEMPERATE PERIOD OF THE PRE-CHELLEAN CULTURE[V]
We have observed that from Torralba in the Province of Soria, Spain, to
Abbeville, near the mouth of the Somme, in the north of France, three
types of animals which entered Europe as early as Upper Pliocene times,
namely, the Etruscan rhinoceros, the horse of Steno, and the sabre-tooth
tiger, are said to occur in connection with early Chellean artifacts. The
two former species may possibly be confused with early forms of Merck's
rhinoceros and the true forest horses of Europe, but there can be no
question as to the identification of the sabre-tooth tiger, numbers of
which were found by M. d'Ault du Mesnil, at Abbeville, on the Somme, with
early Chellean flints.
PRE-CHELLEAN FAUNA
Southern mammoth.
Etruscan rhinoceros.
Hippopotamus.
Primitive horse (_Equus stenonis_)?
Sabre-tooth tiger.
Broad-nosed rhinoceros.
Straight-tusked elephant.
Giant beaver (_Trogontherium cuvieri_).
Short-faced hyæna.
Typical Eurasiatic forest and meadow fauna, including deer, bison, and
wild cattle.
The mammalian life of the Somme at this time, as found in the _gisement du
Champ de Mars_ near Abbeville, is very rich. Among the larger forms there
is certainly the great southern mammoth (_E. meridionalis trogontherii_),
and possibly also the straight-tusked elephant (_E. antiquus_). There are
unquestionably two species of rhinoceros, the smaller of which is
recognized by Boule as the Etruscan, and the larger as Merck's rhinoceros.
Steno's horse is said to occur here, and there are abundant remains of the
great hippopotamus (_H. major_); the sabre-tooth tigers were very numerous
as attested by the discovery of the lower jaws of thirty or more
individuals. The short-faced hyæna (_H. brevirostris_) is also found, and
there are several species of deer and wild cattle.
This remarkably rich collection of mammals is associated with flints of
primitive Chellean or, possibly, of Pre-Chellean type.(12) In Torralba,
Spain, the same very ancient animals occur, and it appears possible that
this was the prevailing mammalian life of Pre-Chellean times.
We may conclude, therefore, that there is considerable evidence, although
not as yet quite convincing, that the early Chellean flint workers arrived
in western Europe before the disappearance of the Etruscan rhinoceros and
the sabre-tooth tiger.
THE PRE-CHELLEAN STATIONS
(See Figs. 53 and 56.)
The dawn of the Palæolithic Age is indicated in various river-drift
stations by the appearance of crude flint _weapons_ as well as _tools_ or
_implements_, in addition to the supposed tools of Eolithic times. There
is an unmistakable effort to fashion the flint into a definite shape to
serve a definite purpose: there can no longer be any question of human
handiwork. Thus there gradually arise various _types_ of flints, each of
which undergoes its own evolution into a more perfect form. Naturally, the
workers at some stations were more adept and inventive than at others.
Nevertheless, the primitive stages of invention and of technique were
carried from station to station; and thus for the first time we are
enabled to establish the archæological age of various stations in western
Europe.
Only a few stations have been discovered where the Palæolithic men were
first fashioning their flints into prototypes of the Chellean and
Acheulean forms. With relation to the theory that these primitive flint
workers may have entered Europe by way of the northern coast of Africa, we
observe that these stations are confined to Spain, southern and northern
France, Belgium, and Great Britain. Neither Pre-Chellean nor Chellean
stations of unquestioned authenticity have been found in Germany or
central Europe, and, so far as present evidence goes, it would appear that
the Pre-Chellean culture did not enter Europe directly from the east, or
even along the northern coast of the Mediterranean, but rather along the
northern coast of Africa,[W] where Chellean culture is recorded in
association with mammalian remains belonging to the middle Pleistocene
Epoch.
The southernmost stations of Chellean culture at present known in Europe
are those of Torralba and San Isidro, in central Spain. In the Department
of the Gironde is the Chellean station of Marignac, and it is not unlikely
that other stations will be discovered in the same region, because the
Palæolithic races strongly favored the valleys of the Dordogne and
Garonne, but thus far this is the only station known in southern France
which represents this period of the dawn of human culture.
[Illustration: FIG. 60. Very primitive palæoliths from Piltdown, Sussex,
consisting chiefly of tools and points of triangular and oval form,
fashioned out of flint nodules split in two and flaked on one side only,
with very coarse marginal retouch. After Dawson. Nos. 1 and 2 are nearly
one-half actual size; No. 3 nearly one-quarter actual size.]
The chief Pre-Chellean and Chellean stations were clustered along the
valleys of the Somme and Seine. Of those rare sites presenting a typical
Pre-Chellean culture, we may note the neighboring stations of St. Acheul
and Montières, both in the suburbs of Amiens on the Somme, and the station
of Helin, near Spiennes, in Belgium, explored by Rutot. A very primitive
and possibly Pre-Chellean culture was found on the site of the Champ de
Mars, at Abbeville. This culture also extended westward across the broad
plain which is now the Strait of Dover to the valley of the Thames, on
whose northern bank is the important station of Gray's Thurrock, while
farther to the south is the recently discovered site of Piltdown, in the
valley of the Ouse, Sussex.
The flint tools (Fig. 60) found in the layer immediately overlying the
Piltdown skull are excessively primitive and indicate that the Piltdown
flint workers had not attained the stage of craftsmanship described by
Commont as 'Pre-Chellean' at St. Acheul. "Among the flints," observes
Dawson, "we found several undoubted flint implements besides numerous
'eoliths.' The workmanship of the former is similar to that of the
Chellean or Pre-Chellean stage; but in the majority of the Piltdown
specimens the work appears chiefly on one face of the implements."
[Illustration: FIG. 61. Primitive _coups de poing_ or 'hand-stones' of
Pre-Chellean type, found in the lower gravels of the middle and high
terraces at St. Acheul. After Commont. One-quarter actual size.]
In the Helin quarry near Spiennes(13) occur rude prototypes of the
Palæolithic coup de poing associated with numerous flakes which do not
greatly differ from those in the lowest river-gravels of St. Acheul; there
is a close correspondence in the workmanship of the two sites, so that we
may regard the Mesvinian of Rutot[X] as a culture stage equivalent to the
Pre-Chellean. The river-gravels and sands of Helin which contain the
implements also resemble those of St. Acheul in their order of
stratification. Of special interest is the fact that a primitive flint
from this Helin quarry, known as the 'borer,' is strikingly similar to the
'Eolithic' borer found in the same layer with the Piltdown skull in
Sussex. By such indications as this, when strengthened by further evidence
of the same kind, we may be able eventually to establish the date both of
this Pre-Chellean or Mesvinian culture and of the Piltdown race.
In considering the Pre-Chellean implements found at St. Acheul in 1906, we
note(14) that at this dawning stage of human invention the flint workers
were not deliberately designing the form of their implements but were
dealing rather with the chance shapes of shattered blocks of flint,
seeking with a few well-directed blows to produce a sharp point or a good
cutting edge. This was the beginning of the art of 'retouch,' which was
done by means of light blows with a second stone instead of the
hammer-stone with which the rough flakes were first knocked off. The
retouch served a double purpose: Its first and most important object was
further to sharpen the point or edge of the tool. This was done by
chipping off small flakes from the upper side, so as to give the flint a
saw-like edge. Its second object was to protect the hand of the user by
blunting any sharp edges or points which might prevent a firm grip of the
implement. Often the smooth, rounded end of the flint nodule, with crust
intact, is carefully preserved for this purpose (Fig. 61). It is this
grasping of the primitive tool by the hand to which the terms 'coup de
poing,' 'Faustkeil,' and 'hand-axe' refer. 'Hand-stone' is, perhaps, the
most fitting designation in our language, but it appears best to retain
the original French designation, coup de poing.
[Illustration: FIG. 62. Primitive _grattoir_, or planing tool (side and
edge views), of Pre-Chellean type, found in the lowest gravels of the
terraces at St. Acheul. After Commont. One-quarter actual size.]
As the shape of the flint is purely due to chance, these Pre-Chellean
implements are interpreted by archæologists chiefly according to the
manner of retouch they have received. Already they are adapted to quite
a variety of purposes, both as weapons of the chase and for trimming and
shaping wooden implements and dressing hides. Thus Obermaier observes that
the concave, serrated edges characteristic of some of these implements may
well have been used for scraping the bark from branches and smoothing them
down into poles; that the rough coups de poing would be well adapted to
dividing flesh and dressing hides; that the sharp-pointed fragments could
be used as borers, and others that are clumsier and heavier as planes (see
Fig. 62).
The inventory of these ancestral Pre-Chellean forms of implements, used in
industrial and domestic life, in the chase, and in war, is as follows:
Grattoir, planing tool.
Racloir, scraper.
Perçoir, drill, borer.
Couteau, knife.
Percuteur, hammer-stone.
Pierre de jet? throwing stone?
Prototypes of coup de poing, hand-stone.
It includes five, possibly six, chief types. The true coup de poing, a
combination tool of Chellean times, is not yet developed in the
Pre-Chellean, and the other implements, although similar in form, are more
primitive. They are all in an experimental stage of development.
Indications that this primitive industry spread over southeastern England
as well, and that a succession of Pre-Chellean into Chellean culture may
be demonstrated, occur in connection with the recent discovery of the very
ancient Piltdown race.
THE PILTDOWN RACE(15)
The 'dawn man' is the most ancient human type in which the form of the
head and size of the brain are known. Its anatomy, as well as its geologic
antiquity, is therefore of profound interest and worthy of very full
consideration. We may first review the authors' narrative of this
remarkable discovery and the history of opinion concerning it.
Piltdown, Sussex, lies between two branches of the Ouse, about 35 miles
south and slightly to the east of Gray's Thurrock, the Chellean station of
the Thames. To the east is the plateau of Kent, in which many flints of
Eolithic type have been found.
[Illustration: FIG. 63. Discovery site of the famous Piltdown skull near
Piltdown, Sussex. After Dawson. A shallow pit of dark-brown gravel, at the
bottom of which were found the fragments of the skull and a single
primitive implement of worked flint (see Fig. 65).]
The gravel layer in which the Piltdown skull occurred is situated on a
well-defined plateau of large area and lies about 80 feet above the level
of the main stream of the Ouse. Remnants of the flint-bearing gravels and
drifts occur upon the plateau and the slopes down which they trail toward
the river and streams. This region was undoubtedly favorable to the flint
workers of Pre-Chellean and Chellean times. Kennard(16) believes that the
gravels are of the same age as those of the 'high terrace' of the lower
valley of the Thames; the height above the stream level is practically the
same, namely, about 80 feet. Another geologist, Clement Reid,(17) holds
that the plateau, composed of Wealden chalk, through which flowed the
stream bearing the Piltdown gravels, belongs to a period later than that
of the maximum depression of Great Britain; that the deposits are of
Pre-Glacial or early Pleistocene age; that they belong to the epoch after
the cold period of the first glaciation had passed but occur at the very
base of the succession of implement-bearing deposits in the southeast of
England.
On the other hand, Dawson,(18) the discoverer of the Piltdown skull, in
his first description states: "From these facts it appears probable that
the skull and mandible cannot safely be described as being of earlier date
than the first half of the Pleistocene Epoch. The individual probably
lived during the warm cycle in that age."
The section of the gravel bed (Fig. 64) indicates that the remains of the
Piltdown man were washed down with other fossils by a shallow stream
charged with dark-brown gravel and unworked flints; some of these fossils
were of Pliocene times from strata of the upper parts of the stream. In
this channel were found the remains of a number of animals of the same age
as the Piltdown man, a few flints resembling eoliths, and one very
primitive worked flint of Pre-Chellean type, which may also have been
washed down from deposits of earlier age. These precious geologic and
archæologic records furnish the only means we have of determining the age
of _Eoanthropus_, the 'dawn man,' one of the most important and
significant discoveries in the whole history of anthropology. We are
indebted to the geologist Charles Dawson and the palæontologist Arthur
Smith Woodward for preserving these ancient records and describing them
with great fulness and accuracy as follows (pp. 132 to 139):
Several years ago Dawson discovered a small portion of an unusually thick
human parietal bone, taken from a gravel bed which was being dug for
road-making purposes on a farm close to Piltdown Common. In the autumn of
1911 he picked up among the rain-washed spoil-heaps of the same gravel-pit
another and larger piece of bone belonging to the forehead region of the
same skull and including a portion of the ridge extending over the left
eyebrow. Immediately impressed with the importance of this discovery,
Dawson enlisted the co-operation of Smith Woodward, and a systematic
search was made in these spoil-heaps and gravels, beginning in the spring
of 1912; all the material was looked over and carefully sifted. It appears
that the whole or greater part of the human skull had been scattered by
the workmen, who had thrown away the pieces unnoticed. Thorough search in
the bottom of the gravel bed itself revealed the right half of a jaw,
which was found in a depression of undisturbed, finely stratified gravel,
so far as could be judged on the spot identical with that from which the
first portions of the cranium were exhumed. A yard from the jaw an
important piece of the occipital bone of the skull was found. Search was
renewed in 1913 by Father P. Teilhard, of Chardin, a French
anthropologist, who fortunately recovered a single canine tooth, and later
a pair of nasal bones were found, all of which fragments are of very
great significance in the restoration of the skull.
[Illustration: FIG. 64. Geologic section of the Piltdown gravel bed,
showing in restored outlines at the bottom of layer 3 the position in
which the fragments of the skull and jaw were found. After Dawson.
1. Surface soil, with flints. Thickness = 1 foot.
2. Pale-yellow sandy loam with gravel and flints. One Palæolithic worked
flint was found in the middle of this bed. Thickness = 2 feet, 6 inches.
3. Dark-brown gravel, with flints, Pliocene rolled fossils and
_Eoanthropus_ skull, beaver tooth, 'eoliths' and one worked flint.
Thickness = 18 inches.
4. Pale-yellow clay and sand. Thickness = 8 inches.
5. Undisturbed strata of Wealden age.]
The jaw appears to have been broken at the symphysis, and somewhat
abraded, perhaps after being caught in the gravel before it was completely
covered with sand. The fragments of the cranium show little or no signs of
stream rolling or other abrasion save an incision caused by the workman's
pick.
Analysis of the bones showed that the skull was in a condition of
fossilization, no gelatine or organic matter remained, and mingled with a
large proportion of the phosphates, originally present, was a considerable
proportion of iron.[Y]
[Illustration: FIG. 65. The single worked flint of very primitive type
found in the same layer (3) with the fragments of the Piltdown skull.
After Dawson. One-half actual size.]
The dark gravel bed (Fig. 64, layer 3), 18 inches in thickness, at the
bottom of which the skull and jaw were found, contained a number of
fossils which manifestly were not of the same age as the skull but were
certainly from Pliocene deposits up-stream; these included the water-vole
and remains of the mastodon, the southern mammoth, the hippopotamus, and a
fragment of the grinding-tooth of a primitive elephant, resembling
_Stegodon_. In the spoil-heaps, from which it is believed the skull of the
Piltdown man was taken, were found an upper tooth of a rhinoceros, either
of the Etruscan or of Merck's type; the tooth of a beaver and of a
hippopotamus, and the leg-bone of a deer, which may have been cut or
incised by man. Much more distinctive was a single flint (Fig. 65),
worked only on one side, of the very primitive or Pre-Chellean type.
Implements of this stage, as the author observes, are difficult to
classify with certainty, owing to the rudeness of their workmanship; they
resemble certain rude implements occasionally found on the surface of the
chalk downs near Piltdown. The majority of the flints found in the gravel
were worked only on one face; their form is thick, and the flaking is
broad and sparing; the original surface of the flint is left in a smooth,
natural condition at the point grasped by the hand; the whole implement
thus has a very rude and massive form. These flints appear to be of even
more primitive form than those at St. Acheul described as Pre-Chellean by
Commont.
[Illustration: FIG. 66. Eoliths found in or near the Piltdown gravel-pit.
After Dawson. One-half actual size.
_a._ Borer (above).
_b._ Curved scraper (below).]
The eoliths found in the gravel-pit and in the adjacent fields are of the
'borer' and 'hollow-scraper' forms; also, some are of the
'crescent-shaped-scraper' type, mostly rolled and water-worn, as if
transported from a distance. This is a stream or river bed, not a
Palæolithic quarry.
There can be little doubt, however, that the Piltdown man belonged to a
period when the flint industry was in a very primitive stage, antecedent
to the true Chellean. It has subsequently been observed that the gravel
strata(3) containing the Piltdown man were deeper than the higher stratum
containing flints nearer the Chellean type.
The discovery of this skull aroused as great or greater interest even than
that attending the discovery of the two other 'river-drift' races, the
Trinil and the Heidelberg. In this discussion the most distinguished
anatomists of Great Britain, Arthur Smith Woodward, Elliot Smith, and
Arthur Keith, took part, and finally the original pieces were re-examined
by three anatomists of this country.[Z]
[Illustration: FIG. 67. Skull of South African Bushman (upper) exhibiting
the contrast in the structure of the jaw and forehead. One-quarter life
size. Original restoration of the Piltdown skull (lower) made by Smith
Woodward in 1913. One-quarter life size.]
It is important to present in full the original opinions of Smith
Woodward, who devoted most careful study to the first reconstruction of
the skull (Fig. 67), a model which was subsequently modified by the actual
discovery of one of the canine teeth. In his original description it is
observed that the pieces of the skull preserved are noteworthy for the
great thickness of the bone, it being 11 to 12 mm. as compared with 5 to 6
mm., the average thickness in the modern European skull, or 6 to 8 mm.,
the thickness in the skull of the Neanderthal races and in that of the
modern Australian; the cephalic index is estimated at 78 or 79, that is,
the skull is believed to have been proportionately low and wide, almost
brachycephalic; there was apparently no prominent or thickened ridge above
the orbits, a feature which immediately distinguishes this skull from that
of the Neanderthal races; the several bones of the brain-case are
typically human and not in the least like those of the anthropoid apes;
the brain capacity was originally estimated at 1070 c.cm., not equalling
that of some of the lowest brain types in the existing Australian races
and decidedly below that of the Neanderthal man of Spy and La
Chapelle-aux-Saints; the nasal bones are typically human but relatively
small and broad, so that the nose was flattened, resembling that in some
of the existing Malay and African races.
[Illustration: FIG. 68. Three views of the Piltdown skull as reconstructed
by J. H. McGregor, 1915. This restoration includes the nasal bones and
canine tooth, which were not known at the time of Smith Woodward's
reconstruction of 1913. One-quarter life size.]
The jaw presents profoundly different characters; the whole of the bone
preserved closely resembles that of a young chimpanzee; thus the slope of
the bony chin as restored is between that of an adult ape and that of the
Heidelberg man, with an extremely receding chin; the ascending portion of
the jaw for the attachment of the temporal muscles is broad and thickened
anteriorly. Associated with the jaw were two elongated molar teeth, worn
down by use to such an extent that the individual could not have been less
than thirty years of age and was probably older. These teeth are
relatively longer and narrower than those in the modern human jaw. The
canine tooth, identified by Smith Woodward as belonging in the lower jaw,
strengthened by the evidence afforded by the jaw itself, proves that the
face was elongate or prognathous and that the canine teeth were very
prominent like those of the anthropoid apes; it affords definite proof
that the front teeth of the Piltdown man resembled those of the ape.
The author's conclusion is that while the skull is essentially human, it
approaches the lower races of man in certain characters of the brain, in
the attachment of the muscles of the neck, in the large extent of the
temporal muscles attached to the jaw, and in the probably large size of
the face. The mandible, on the other hand, appears precisely like that of
the ape, with nothing human except the molar teeth, and even these
approach the dentition of the apes in their elongate shape and
well-developed fifth or posterior intermediate cusp. This type of man,
distinguished by the smooth forehead and supraorbital borders and ape-like
jaw, represents a new genus called _Eoanthropus_, or 'dawn man,' while the
species has been named _dawsoni_ in honor of the discoverer, Charles
Dawson. This very ancient type of man is defined by the ape-like chin and
junction of the two halves of the jaw, by a series of parallel
grinding-teeth, with narrow lower molar teeth, which do not diminish in
size backward, and by the steep forehead and slight development of the
brow ridges. The jaw manifestly differs from that of the Heidelberg man in
its comparative slenderness and relative deepening toward the symphysis.
The discussion of this very important paper by Smith Woodward and Dawson
centred about two points. First, whether the ape-like jaw really belonged
with the human skull rather than with that of some anthropoid ape which
happened to be drifted down in the same stratum; and second, whether the
extremely low original estimate of the brain capacity of 1070 c.cm., was
not due to incorrect adjustment or reconstruction of the separate pieces
of the skull.
Keith,(19) the leader in the criticism of Woodward's reconstruction,
maintained that when the two sides of the skull were properly restored and
made approximately symmetrical, the brain capacity would be found to equal
1500 c.cm.; the brain cast of the skull even as originally reconstructed
was found to be close to 1200 c.cm. This author agreed that skull, jaw,
and canine tooth belonged to _Eoanthropus_ but that they could not well
belong to the same individual.
In defense of Woodward's reconstruction came the powerful support of
Elliot Smith.(20) He maintained that the evidence afforded by the
re-examination of the bones corroborated in the main Smith Woodward's
identification of the median plane of the skull; further, that the
original reconstruction of the prognathous face was confirmed by the
discovery of the canine tooth, also that there remained no doubt that the
association of the skull, the jaw, and the canine tooth was a correct one.
The back portion of the skull is decidedly asymmetrical, a condition found
both in the lower and higher races of man. A slight rearrangement and
widening of the bones along the median upper line of the skull raise the
estimate of the brain capacity to 1100 c.cm. as the probable maximum.
Elliot Smith continued that he considered the brain to be of a more
primitive kind than any human brain that he had ever seen, yet that it
could be called human and that it already showed a considerable
development of those parts which in modern man we associate with the power
of speech; thus, there was no doubt of the unique importance of this skull
as representing an entirely new type of "man in the making." As regards
the form of the lower jaw, it was observed that in the dawn of human
existence teeth suitable for weapons of offense and defense were retained
long after the brain had attained its human status. Thus the ape-like form
of the chin does not signify inability to speak, for speech must have come
when the jaws were still ape-like in character, and the bony changes that
produced the recession of the tooth line and the form of the chin were
mainly due to sexual selection, to the reduction in the size of the
grinding-teeth, and, in a minor degree, to the growth and specialization
of the muscles of the jaw and tongue employed in speech.
[Illustration: FIG. 69. The Piltdown skull with the right half removed to
display the extreme thickness of the bones and the shape of the brain. As
restored by J. H. McGregor. One-quarter life size.]
[Illustration: FIG. 70. Outline of the left side of the Piltdown brain,
compared with similar brain outlines of a chimpanzee and of a high type of
modern man. One-half life size.]
At first sight the brain-case resembles that of the Neanderthal skull
found at Gibraltar, which is supposed to be that of a woman; it is
relatively long, narrow, and especially flat, but it is smaller and
presents more primitive features than those of any known human brain.
Taking all these features into consideration, we must regard this as being
the most primitive and most ape-like human brain so far recorded; one
such as might reasonably be associated with a jaw which presented such
distinctive ape characters. The brain, however, is far more human than the
jaw, from which we may infer that the evolution of the brain preceded that
of the mandible, as well as the development of beauty of the face and the
human development of the bodily characters in general.
The latest opinion of Smith Woodward[AA] is that the brain, while the most
primitive which has been discovered, had a bulk of nearly 1300 c.cm.,
equalling that of the smaller human brains of to-day and surpassing that
of the Australians, which rarely exceeds 1250 c.cm.
The original views of Smith Woodward and of Elliot Smith regarding the
relation of the Piltdown race to the Heidelberg and Neanderthal races are
also of very great interest and may be cited. First, the fact that the
Piltdown and Heidelberg races are almost of the same geologic age proves
that at the end of the Pliocene Epoch the representatives of man in
western Europe had already branched into widely divergent groups: the one
(Heidelberg-Neanderthal) characterized by a very low projecting forehead,
with a subhuman head of Neanderthaloid contour; the other with a flattened
forehead and with an ape-like jaw of the Piltdown contour. We should not
forget that in the Piltdown skull the absence of prominent ridges above
the eyes may possibly be due in some degree to the fact that the type
skull may belong to a female, as suggested by certain characters of the
jaw; but among all existing apes the skull in early life has the rounded
shape of the Piltdown skull, with a high forehead and scarcely any brow
ridges. It seems reasonable, therefore, to interpret the Piltdown skull as
exhibiting a closer resemblance to the skulls of our human ancestors in
mid-Tertiary times than any fossil skull hitherto found. If this view be
accepted, we may suppose that the Piltdown type became gradually modified
into the Neanderthal type by a series of changes similar to those passed
through by the early apes as they evolved into typical modern apes, with
their low brows and prominent ridges above the eyes. This would tend to
support the theory that the Neanderthal men were degenerate offshoots of
the Tertiary race, of which the Piltdown skull provides the first
discovered evidence--a race with a simple, flattened forehead and
developed eye ridges.
[Illustration: FIG. 71. Restoration of the head of Piltdown man, in
profile, based upon the reconstruction shown in Fig. 68, p. 137. After
model by J. H. McGregor. One-quarter life size.]
Elliot Smith concluded that members of the Piltdown race might well have
been the direct ancestors of the existing species of man (_Homo sapiens_),
thus affording a direct link with undiscovered Tertiary apes; whereas, the
more recent fossil men of the Neanderthal type, with prominent brow ridges
resembling those of the existing apes, may have belonged to a degenerate
race which later became extinct. According to this view, _Eoanthropus_
represents a persistent and very slightly modified descendant of the type
of Tertiary man which was the common ancestor of a branch giving rise to
_Homo sapiens_, on the one hand, and of another branch giving rise to
_Homo neanderthalensis_, on the other.
[Illustration: FIG. 72. Restoration of the head of Piltdown man, full
front, after model by J. H. McGregor. One-quarter life size. (Compare
Figs. 68 and 71.)]
Another theory as to the relationships of _Eoanthropus_ is that of
Marcelin Boule,(21) who is inclined to regard the jaws of the Piltdown and
Heidelberg races as of similar geologic age, but of dissimilar racial
type. He continues: "If the skull and jaw of Piltdown belong to the same
individual, and if the mandibles of the Heidelberg and Piltdown men are of
the same type, this discovery is most valuable in establishing the cranial
structure of the Heidelberg race. But it appears rather that we have here
two types of man which lived in Chellean times, both distinguished by very
low cranial characters. Of these the Piltdown race seems to us the
probable ancestor in the direct line of the recent species of man, _Homo
sapiens_; while the Heidelberg race may be considered, until we have
further knowledge, as a possible precursor of _Homo neanderthalensis_."
The latest opinion of the German anatomist Schwalbe(22) is that the proper
restoration of the region of the chin in the Piltdown man might make it
possible to refer this jaw to _Homo sapiens_, but this would merely prove
that _Homo sapiens_ already existed in early Pleistocene times. The skull
of the Piltdown man, continues Schwalbe, corresponds with that of a
well-developed, good-sized skull of _Homo sapiens_; the only unusual
feature is the remarkable thickness of the bone.[AB]
Finally, our own opinion is that the Piltdown race was not related at all
either to the Heidelbergs or to the Neanderthals, nor was it directly
ancestral to any of the other races of the Old Stone Age, or to any of the
existing species of man. As shown in the human family tree in Chapter VI,
the Piltdown race represents a side branch of the human family which has
left no descendants at all.
MAMMALIAN LIFE OF CHELLEAN AND ACHEULEAN TIMES(23)
The mammalian life which we find with the more advanced implements of
Chellean times apparently does not include the old Pliocene mammals, such
as the Etruscan rhinoceros and the sabre-tooth tiger. With this exception
it is so similar to that of Second Interglacial times that it may serve to
prove again that the third glaciation was a local episode and not a
wide-spread climatic influence. This life is everywhere the same, from
the valley of the Thames, as witnessed in the low river-gravels of
Gray's Thurrock and Ilford, to the region of the present Thuringian
forests near Weimar, where it is found in the deposits of Taubach,
Ehringsdorf, and Achenheim, in which the mammals belong to the more recent
date of early Acheulean culture. The life of this great region during
Chellean and early Acheulean times was a mingling of the characteristic
forest and meadow fauna of western Europe with the descendants of the
African-Asiatic invaders of late Pliocene and early Pleistocene times.
[Illustration: PL. IV. The Piltdown man of Sussex, England. Antiquity
variously estimated at 100,000 to 300,000 years. The ape-like structure of
the jaw does not prevent the expression of a considerable degree of
intelligence in the face. After the restoration modelled by J. H.
McGregor.]
Southern mammoth.
Hippopotamus.
Straight-tusked elephant.
Broad-nosed rhinoceros.
Spotted hyæna.
Lion.
Bison and wild ox.
Red deer.
Roe-deer.
Giant deer.
Brown bear.
Wolf.
Badger.
Marten.
Otter.
Beaver.
Hamster.
Water-vole.
The forests were full of the red deer (_Cervus elaphus_), of the roe-deer
(_C. capreolus_), and of the giant deer (_Megaceros_), also of a primitive
species of wild boar (_Sus scrofa ferus_) and of wild horses probably
representing more than one variety. The brown bear (_Ursus arctos_) of
Europe is now for the first time identified; there was also a primitive
species of wolf (_Canis suessi_).
The small carnivora of the forests and of the streams are all considered
as closely related to existing species, namely, the badger (_Meles
taxus_), the marten (_Mustela martes_), the otter (_Lutra vulgaris_), and
the water-vole (_Arvicola amphibius_). The prehistoric beaver of Europe
(_Castor fiber_) now replaces the giant beaver (_Trogontherium_) of Second
Interglacial times.
Among the large carnivora, the lion (_Felis leo antiqua_) and the spotted
hyæna (_H. crocuta_) have replaced the sabre-tooth tiger and the striped
hyæna of early Pleistocene times. Four great Asiatic mammals, including
two species of elephants, one species of rhinoceros, and the hippopotamus,
roamed through the forests and meadows of this warm temperate region. The
horse of this period is considered(24) to belong to the Forest or Nordic
type, from which our modern draught-horses have descended. The lions and
hyænas which abounded in Chellean and early Acheulean times are in part
ancestors of the cave types which appear in the succeeding Reindeer or
Cavern Period. In general, this mammalian life of Chellean and early
Acheulean times in Europe frequented the river shores and the neighboring
forests and meadows favored by a warm temperate climate with mild winters,
such as is indicated by the presence of the fig-tree and of the Canary
laurel in the region of north central France near Paris.
Undoubtedly the Chellean and Acheulean hunters had begun the chase both of
the bison, or wisent (_B. priscus_), and of the wild cattle, or
aurochs.[AC]
This warm temperate mammalian life spread very widely over northern
Europe, as shown especially in the distribution (Fig. 44) of the
hippopotamus, the straight-tusked elephant, and Merck's rhinoceros. The
latter pair were constant companions and are seen to have a closely
similar and somewhat more northerly range than the hippopotamus, which is
rather the climatic companion of the southern mammoth and ranges farther
south. These animals in the gravel and sand layers along the river slopes
and 'terraces' mingled their remains with the artifacts of the flint
workers. For example, in the gravel 'terraces' of the Somme we find the
bones of the straight-tusked elephant and Merck's rhinoceros in the same
sand layers with the Chellean flints. Thus the men of Chellean times may
well have pursued this giant elephant (_E. antiquus_) and rhinoceros (_D.
merckii_) as their tribal successors in the same valley hunted the woolly
mammoth and woolly rhinoceros.
DISTRIBUTION OF THE CHELLEAN IMPLEMENTS
All over the world may be found traces of a Stone Age, ancient or modern,
primitive implements of stone and flint analogous to those of the true
Chellean period of western Europe but not really identical when very
closely compared. These represent the early attempts of the human hand,
directed by the primitive mind, to fashion hard materials into forms
adapted to the purposes of war, the chase, and domestic life. The result
is a series of parallels in form which come under the evolution principle
of convergence. Thus, in all the continents except Australia--in Europe,
in Asia, and even in North and South America--primitive races have passed
through an industrial stage similar to the typical Chellean of western
Europe. This we should rather attribute to a similarity in human invention
and in human needs than to the theory that the Chellean industry
originated at some particular centre and travelled in a slowly enlarging
wave over the entire world.
[Illustration: FIG. 73. Distribution of the principal Pre-Chellean and
Chellean industrial stations in western Europe.]
In western Europe the Chellean culture certainly had a development all
its own, adapted to a race of bold hunters who lived in the open and whose
entire industry developed around the products of the chase. For them flint
and quartzite took the place of bronze, iron, or steel. This culture
marked a distinct and probably a very long epoch of time in which
inventions and multiplications of form were gradually spread from tribe to
tribe, exactly as modern inventions, usually originating at a single point
and often in the mind of one ingenious individual, gradually spread over
the world.
[Illustration: FIG. 74. Section of the middle and high terraces at St.
Acheul, from southwest to northeast. After Commont, 1908, 1909, modified
and redrawn. The Pre-Chellean workers first established themselves here at
the time when the Somme was visited by the straight-tusked elephant and
other primitive mammals of the warm African-Asiatic fauna. (Compare Fig.
59, p. 122.)]
The clearest examples of the evolution of the seven or eight implements of
the Chellean culture from the five or six rudimentary types of the
Pre-Chellean have been found at St. Acheul by Commont. The abundance and
variety of flint at this great station on the Somme made it a centre of
industry from the dawn of the Old Stone Age to its very close. It was
probably a region favorable to all kinds of large and small game. The
researches of Commont show that with the exception of Castillo in northern
Spain no other station in all Europe was so continuously occupied. From
Pre-Chellean to Neolithic times the men of every culture stage except the
Magdalenian and Azilian-Tardenoisian found their way here, and thus the
site of St. Acheul presents an epitome of the entire prehistoric industry.
Even during the colder periods of climate this region continued to be
visited--possibly during the warm weather of the summer seasons. At
Montières, along the Somme, we find deposits of Mousterian culture which
is generally characteristic of the cold climatic period but is here
associated with a temperate fauna, including the hippopotamus, Merck's
rhinoceros, and the straight-tusked elephant. Great geographic and
climatic changes took place in the valley of the Somme during this long
period of human evolution. The Pre-Chellean workers first established
their industry on the middle and high 'terraces' at the time when the
Somme was visited by the straight-tusked elephant and other much more
primitive mammals of the warm Asiatic fauna. The early Acheulean camps on
the same terraces were pitched in the gravels below layers of 'loess'
which betoken an entire climatic change. The fourth glaciation passed by,
and the Upper Palæolithic flint workers again returned and left the
débris of their industry in the layers of loam which swept down the slopes
of the valley from the surrounding hills. This succession will be studied
more in detail in connection with the industry.
[Illustration: FIG. 75. Excavation on the 'high terrace' at St. Acheul,
known as the _ancienne carrière Dupont_ and more recently as the _carrière
Bultel_, showing eight geologic layers from the Upper Palæolithic deposits
of brick-earth at the top(9) down to the sub-Chellean yellow gravels(2)
overlying the chalk terrace at the bottom.]
As contrasted with the four or more Pre-Chellean stations already known,
namely, St. Acheul, Montières, Helin, Gray's Thurrock, and possibly
Abbeville and Piltdown, there are at least sixteen stations in western
Europe which are characteristically Chellean. In addition to the sites
named above, all of which show deposits of typical Chellean implements
above the Pre-Chellean, we may note the important Chellean stations of San
Isidro and Torralba in central Spain; Tilloux and Marignac in southwestern
France; Créteil, Colombes, Bois Colombes, and Billancourt on the Seine, in
the immediate vicinity of Paris; Cergy on the Oise; the type station of
Chelles on the Marne; Abbeville on the northern bank of the Somme; and the
famous station of Kent's Hole, Devon, on the southwestern coast of
England. Thus far no typical Chellean station has been discovered in
Portugal, Italy, Germany, or Austria, nor, indeed, in any part of central
Europe. This leaves the original habitat of the tribes that brought the
Chellean culture to western Europe still a mystery; but, as already
observed, the location of the stations favors the theory of a migration
through northern Africa rather than through eastern Europe.
[Illustration: FIG. 76. Principal forms of small, late Chellean scraping,
planing, and boring tools of flint, after Commont and Obermaier. One-half
actual size. 1. Combination tool--small flake with a sharp point (_a_),
cutting edge (_b_), and curved-in scraper (_c_). 2. Cutting tool with
protective retouch for the index finger on the upper edge (_a_), and a
sharp cutting edge (_b_). 3. Primitive knife. 4. 'Point.' 5. Combination
tool--small flake with scraper edge (_b_), and two curved-in scraper edges
(_a_ and _a_1). 6. Borer. 7. Pointed scraper. 8. Knife with coarse boring
point at one end. 9. Thick scraper or planing tool. 10. Curved scraper.]
Compared with the Pre-Chellean flint workers the Chellean artisans
advanced both by the improvement of the older types of implements and by
the invention of new ones.(25) As observed by Obermaier, the flint worker
is still dependent on the chance shape of the shattered fragments of flint
which he has not yet learned to shape symmetrically. In the experimental
search after the most useful form of flint which could be grasped by the
hand, the very characteristic Chellean coup de poing was evolved out of
its Pre-Chellean prototype. This implement was made of an elongate nodule,
either of quartzite or, preferably, of flint, and flaked by the hammer on
both sides to a more or less almond shape; as a rule, the point and its
adjacent edges are sharpened; the other end being rounded and blunted.
Like most, if not all, of the Chellean implements, it was designed to be
grasped by the bare hand and not furnished with a wooden haft or handle.
It is not impossible that some of the pointed forms may have been wedged
into a wooden handle, but there is no proof of it. In size the coup de
poing varies from 4 to 8 inches in length, and examples have been found as
large as 9-1/2 inches. That it served a variety of purposes is indicated
by the existence of four well-defined, different forms: first, a
primitive, almond-shaped form; second, an ovaloid form; third, a disk
form; and fourth, a pointed form resembling a lance-head. De Mortillet(26)
speaks of it as the only tool of the Chellean tribes, but in its various
forms it served all the purposes of axe, saw, chisel, and awl, and was in
truth a combination tool. Capitan(27) also holds that the coup de poing is
not a single tool but is designed to meet many various needs. The
primitive almond and ovaloid forms were designed for use along the edges,
either for heavy hacking or for sawing; the disk forms may have been used
as axes or as sling-stones; the more rounded forms would serve as knives
and scrapers; while the pointed, lance-shaped forms might be used as
daggers, both in war and in the chase.
The Chellean flint workers also developed especially a number of small,
pointed forms from the accidentally shaped fragments of flint, showing
both short and long points carefully flaked and chipped. Thus, out of the
small types of the Pre-Chellean there evolved a great variety of tools
adapted to domestic purposes, to war, and to the chase.
CHELLEAN GEOGRAPHY IN ENGLAND AND FRANCE
The type station of the Chellean culture is somewhat east of the present
town of Chelles. Here in Chellean times the broad floods of the ancient
River Marne were transporting great quantities of sand and débris,
products of the early pluvial periods of Third Interglacial times; and
here, on the right bank, embedded in sands and gravels 24 feet thick, are
found the typical Chellean implements mingled with remains of the
hippopotamus, straight-tusked elephant, Merck's rhinoceros, giant beaver,
hyæna, and many members of the Asiatic forest and meadow fauna.
The flint-working stations at St. Acheul were on bluffs from 40 to 80 feet
above the present level of the Somme. The Chellean and the following
Acheulean industry was carried on here on a very extensive scale. In one
year Rigollot collected as many as 800 coups de poing from the ancient
quarries; near by are other quarries equally rich in material, and we may
imagine that the products of the flint industry in this favorable locality
were carried far and wide into other parts of the country.
In the vicinity of Paris, and again at Arcy, in the valley of the Bièvre,
the workers of Chellean, Acheulean, and Mousterian flints sought in
succession the old river-gravels belonging to the lower levels; these 'low
terraces' are only 15 feet above the present height of the river and are
still occasionally flooded by the high waters of the Seine, indicating
that the Seine borders have not altered their levels. The animal life here
was identical with that of the Somme and of the Thames and included the
hippopotamus, Merck's rhinoceros, and the straight-tusked elephant.
Thus it would appear that, in regard to the river courses and the hills
through which they flowed, the topography and landscape of northern France
and of southern Britain were everywhere the same as at the present time.
The forests which clothed the hills were not greatly different from the
present, except for the presence of a few trees of a warmer clime, nor was
there anything strange or unfamiliar in the majority of the animals that
roamed through forest and meadow. The three chief archaic elements
consisted in the presence of two very ancient races of men and their rude
stage of culture, in the great forms of Asiatic and African life which
mingled with the more familiar native types, and in the broad, continuous
land surfaces which swept off unbroken to the west and southwest.
For in those days Europe, though even then little more than a great
peninsula, extended far beyond its present limits. England and Ireland
were still part of the mainland, and great rivers flowed through the
broad valleys that are now the Irish Sea, the North Sea, and the English
Channel--rivers that counted the Seine, the Thames, the Garonne, and even
the Rhine, as mere tributaries. The Strait of Gibraltar was then the
Isthmus of Gibraltar--a narrow land bridge connecting Europe with Africa.
The Mediterranean was then an inland lake, or rather two inland lakes, for
Italy and Sicily stretched out in a broad, irregular mass to join the
northern coast of Africa, while Corsica and Sardinia formed a long
peninsula extending from the Italian mainland and almost, if not quite,
reaching to the African coast.
THE THAMES VALLEY IN CHELLEAN TIMES
The interpretation of the features of stratification in the valley of the
Somme is especially interesting because it gives us a key to the
understanding of a similar sequence of prehistoric events in the valley of
the Thames.
The station of Gray's Thurrock in this valley is barely 120 miles distant
from the Chellean station of Abbeville, in the valley of the Somme, and it
is apparent that the old flint workers were freely passing across the
broad intervening country and interchanging their ideas and inventions.
Thus it happened that Chellean implements identical with, or closely
related to, the types of the Somme valley were being fashioned all over
southern Britain from the Thames to the Ouse. The ancient River Thames
(Lyell,(28) Geikie(29)) was then flowing over a bed of boulder-clays which
had been deposited during the preceding glaciations. Its broad, swift
stream was bringing down great deposits of ochreous gravels and of sands
interstratified with loams and clays. It is these old true river-gravels
which display their greatest thickness on the lowest levels of the Thames
and which are largely made up of well-bedded and distinctly water-worn
materials. On these low levels the flint workers sought their materials,
and here they left behind them the archaic Chellean implements which are
now found embedded in these older river-gravels, just as they occur in the
gravels washed down over the three terraces of the Somme and the Marne. In
the Thames this old gravel wash seems to have been down-stream, whereas
on the middle and upper terraces of the Somme the gravel wash came
directly down the sides of the valley, except, perhaps, in very high
floods. These deep beds of gravel, sand, and loam lie for the most part
above the present overflow plain of the Thames, although in some places
they descend below it; which proves that the main landscape of the Thames
also, except for the changes of the flora and of animal life, was the same
in Pre-Chellean and Chellean times as it is at present. Thus the Somme,
the Thames, and the Seine had all worn their channels to the present or
even to lower levels when the Pre-Chellean hunters appeared. Since
Chellean times all three rivers have silted up their channels.
The changes along the Thames which have since occurred are in the
superficial layers brought down from the sides of the valley which have
softened the contours of the old terraces and have also entombed the later
phases of the valley's prehistory.
Sections on the south bank at Ilford, Kent, and on the north bank at
Gray's Thurrock, Essex, confirm this view. At the latter station, in
low-lying strata of brick-earth, loam, and gravel, such as would be formed
by the silting up of the bottom of an old river channel, are found the
remains of the straight-tusked elephant, broad-nosed rhinoceros, and
hippopotamus. All the discoveries of recent years lead to the conclusion
that the old fluviatile gravels which contain these ancient mammals and
flints are restricted to the lower levels of the Thames valley, while the
high level gravels and loams are of later date. Old Chellean flints also
occur occasionally on the higher levels, but here it would seem that they
have been washed down from the old land surfaces above, because they are
found mingled with flints of the late Acheulean and early Mousterian
industry.
ENGLAND IN EARLY PALÆOLITHIC TIMES
It is on the higher levels of the Thames, as of the Somme, and in the
superficial deposits covering the sides of the valley that we read the
story of the subsequent Palæolithic cultures and of an early warm
temperate climate being followed by a cold climate with frozen subsoil
belonging to the fourth glaciation and the contemporary Mousterian flint
industry. The Palæolithic history of the Thames(30) has not yet been fully
interpreted, but it would appear that the relics of the old stations of
Kent and Norfolk will yield all the forms of Chellean and Acheulean
implements, and probably also those of the Mousterian which have been
discovered in the valley of the Somme, thus proving that the Lower
Palæolithic races of this region pursued the same culture development as
the neighboring tribes of France and Belgium, as well as those of Spain,
up to the close of middle Acheulean times.
A similar sequence of events appears to be indicated at Hoxne, Suffolk,
where archaic palæoliths were discovered as far back as 1797. This
discovery was neglected for upward of sixty years, until in 1859 these
flints were re-examined by Prestwich and Evans after their visit to the
stations of the Somme (Geikie,(31) Avebury(32)). This site was in the
hollow of a surface of boulder-clay, overlain by the deposit of a
fresh-water stream; in the bed of its narrow channel, besides flint
implements of early Acheulean type, abundant plant remains were found
which give us an interesting vision of the flora of the time.
These plants are decidedly characteristic of a temperate climate,
including such trees as the oak, yew, and fir, and mostly of species which
are still found in the forests of the same region. This life gave place,
as indicated in plant deposits of a higher level, to an arctic flora,
probably corresponding with the tundra climate of Mousterian times, the
period of the fourth glaciation. Above these are found again layers of
plants and of mollusks which point to the return of a temperate climate.
SPREAD OF THE ACHEULEAN INDUSTRY
It is noteworthy that not a single 'river-drift,' Pre-Chellean or
Chellean, station has been found in Germany or Switzerland, or, in fact,
in all central Europe in the region lying between the Alpine and
Scandinavian glaciers. Either this region was unfavorable to human
habitation or the remains of the stations have been buried or washed away.
It is significant that the earliest proof of human migration into this
region, whether from the east or from the west we do not certainly know,
is coincident with the dry climate of Acheulean times. The 'loess'
conditions of climate seem to be coincident with the earliest Acheulean
stations in Germany, such as Sablon. 'Loess' deposition is by no means a
proof of a cold climate but rather of an arid one, especially in regions
where areas of finely eroded soil were liable to be raised by the wind;
such areas were found over the whole recently glaciated country north of
the Alps and south of the Scandinavian peninsula.
The Palæolithic discovery sites of Germany are principally grouped in
three regions(33) as follows:
To the south, along the _headwaters of the Rhine and the Danube_, among
the limestones of Swabia and the Jura were formed the caverns sought by
early Mousterian man. To the west of these were many older stations in the
'loess' deposits of the upper Rhine, between the mountain ridges of the
Vosges and the Black Forest, and still nearer the sources of the Rhine,
extending over the border into Switzerland, are a number of famous cave
sites in the valleys cut by the Rhine and its tributaries through the
white Jurassic limestone. To the west is the group of the _middle Rhine
and of Westphalia_, which includes the open Acheulean camps in the 'loess'
deposits above the river and a number of cavern stations. To the north is
the scattered group of stations, both of Acheulean and Mousterian times,
of _north Germany_. Here the sites are few and far between. The
open-country camps were established chiefly in the valley of the Ilm and
near the caves of the Harz Mountains, in the neighborhood of Gera. No
discoveries of certain date or unquestioned authenticity are reported from
_eastern Germany_.
Along the upper Rhine the flint workers of Acheulean times established
their ancient camps mostly in the open on the broad sheets of the 'lower
loess,' which, constantly drifted by the wind, covered and preserved the
stations. These stations are widely scattered, but they were frequented
from earliest Acheulean times, and the region was revisited to the very
close of the Upper Palæolithic.
[Illustration: FIG. 77. Flint working stations of the Men of the Old Stone
Age along the waters of the Ilm, the Rhine, and the Danube, from Acheulean
to Azilian times. After R. R. Schmidt, modified and redrawn. These
Palæolithic sites of Germany lie between the terminal moraines of the
successive glacial advances of the Second, Third, and Fourth (II, III, IV)
Glacial Stages, extending from the borders of the Scandinavian ice-fields
on the north to those of the Alpine ice-fields on the south. The dotted
surface represents the area covered by the drift of the Fourth Glacial
Stage.]
Early in Acheulean times the important 'loess' station of Achenheim was
established. This is a most famous locality and is of especial importance
because it is the only station in Germany which was continuously
frequented from late Acheulean times throughout the Lower Palæolithic and
into the beginning of the Upper Palæolithic; here the 'older loess' of the
Third Interglacial Stage yields a typical Acheulean industry.
Thus far the region of the middle Rhine and of Westphalia has not shown
any evidence of Acheulean culture. The north German stations, however,
were entered in Acheulean times, and the principal open stations of this
region lie along the valley of the Ilm. Here, at Taubach, Ehringsdorf, and
Weimar, we find implements of typical Acheulean form belonging to the
early warm temperate Acheulean period. The stations of the Ilm valley
southwest of Leipsic are also of great importance because of the rich
record which they contain of the warm temperate animal life of early
Acheulean times; the flint culture is typically Acheulean, and the
climatic conditions are read both in the travertines and in the subsequent
deposits of the 'lower loess,' which belong to the cold dry period of late
Acheulean times. Here lingered the straight-tusked elephant and Merck's
rhinoceros, contemporary with the workers of the Acheulean flints.
It will be observed that in Germany the early Acheulean was a warm period
which in certain regions was also arid and subject to great dust-storms.
At this time the camps were for the most part in the open country. In the
late period, also arid and subject to high winds but with a cooler
climate, the flint workers continued to frequent the open Acheulean
stations in the 'loess.' If there were shelter and cavern stations in this
region, they have not as yet been discovered. This would appear to
indicate that the climate had not yet become severe.
Similar testimony is found in the great scarcity of cavern and shelter
stations in Acheulean times in every part of western Europe; yet
occasionally the tribes repaired to the vicinity of sheltering cliffs, as
along the Vézère. In some scattered localities they sought the caverns, as
at Krapina, in Croatia, at Spy, on the Meuse in Belgium, and at Castillo,
in northern Spain. These rare exceptions to the open camps would tend to
prove that the caverns were sought rather for protection from enemies and
as rain shelters than as retreats from a bitter-cold climate.
In the valley of the Beune, a small tributary of the Vézère, in Dordogne,
we find a true Acheulean station quite close to the river shore. This
proves that in Acheulean times this valley was already deepened to the
same degree as it is to-day. In the valley of the Somme the Acheulean
culture stretches from the 'highest terrace' down below the present level
of the river, which has made for itself a new high channel. The fact that
two Acheulean stations are found on the upper Garonne, high above the
present water-level, is of little significance, as at that time the
water-level was also high.
In general the Acheulean flint workers preferred the open stations
throughout all Acheulean times, and their camps are found on the open
plateaus between the rivers or on the various 'terrace' levels, as on the
higher, middle, and lower 'terraces' of the Somme at St. Acheul, or again
close along the borders of the rivers and streams, as in the Dordogne
region.
Even during the early Acheulean stage a dry climate had begun to prevail
in certain parts of Germany. Near Metz is the 'older loess' station of
Sablon, which was occupied in early Acheulean times, indicating a warm
period of arid climate favorable to the transportation of the wind-blown
'loess'; doubtless, this fine dust at times filled the entire atmosphere
and obscured the sun, as is the case to-day on the high steppes and
deserts of eastern Asia.
An exception to the open-country life preferred by the Acheulean flint
workers is found in the great grotto[AD] of Castillo, near Puente Viesgo,
in the Province of Santander, northern Spain. The deposits which filled
this grotto to a thickness of 45 feet from the floor to the roof were
explored by Obermaier, who found them divided into thirteen layers,
covering eleven periods of industry and presenting the most wonderful
epitome of the prehistory of western Europe from Acheulean times to the
Age of Bronze, in Spain (Fig. 79).
[Illustration: FIG. 78. Entrance (white cross) to the great grotto of
Castillo in northern Spain. This grotto was frequented by the Men of the
Old Stone Age from Acheulean to Azilian times, an archæologic sequence
surpassed only by that of the open camps along the terraces of the Somme.
Photograph from Obermaier.]
As early as 1908, Breuil(34) discovered in the interior of the cave back
of the grotto some quartzites worked into Acheulean types, proving that
the cavern was entered in Acheulean times. Obermaier,(35) in the course of
three years' work, has found that the floor of the grotto was possibly
used as a flint-making station in Acheulean and, possibly, in Chellean
times. The culture section which he has revealed here under the direction
of the _Institut de Paléontologie humaine_ can be compared only with that
which Commont has found on the 'terraces' of the Somme at St. Acheul. The
difference is that in the shelter of the Castillo grotto the climate is
recorded only through the changing forms of animal life which are mingled
around the fire-hearths and with the flints in the ascending levels.
(13) Eneolithic Age. Small, triangular dagger in copper.
(12) Azilian. Flint industry--Age of the Stag.
(11) Upper Magdalenian. Artistic engravings on stag-horn.
(10) Lower Magdalenian. Flints and fine engravings on bone. Reindeer
bâton.
(9) Archaic Solutrean. _Feuilles de laurier_, retouched on one side
only.
(8, 7, 6) Upper Aurignacian in three layers. Remains of the reindeer
and _burins_.
(5) Lower Aurignacian. Implements of stone and bone. Remains of an
infant.
(4) Upper Mousterian. Rich in small implements and large tools of
quartzite. Merck's rhinoceros very abundant.
(3) Typical Mousterian flints and quartzites. Merck's rhinoceros.
(2) Early Mousterian industry. Bones of cave-bear and Merck's
rhinoceros.
(1) Acheulean flints.
[Illustration: FIG. 79. Stratigraphic section showing the archæologic
layers of the great grotto of Castillo. After Obermaier.]
The entrance to this grotto is on the side of a high hill overlooking the
valley and might easily have been barricaded against attack. In early
Acheulean times, when the flint workers were on the very floor of the
grotto, the lower entrance of the cavern was still open, leading far into
the heart of the mountain. The successive accumulations of débris, cave
loam, fire-stones, bones, and innumerable flints, together with great
blocks falling over the entrance of the cavern, reached a height of 45
feet, so that during the Upper Palæolithic only the upper entrance to the
cavern was used by the artists of Magdalenian times. The subsequent
Azilian and Eneolithic cultures were crowded under the very roof of the
grotto at the sides.
This station, repaired to and then abandoned by tribe after tribe over a
period estimated at present as not less than 50,000 years, is a monumental
volume of prehistory, read and interpreted by the archæologist almost as
clearly as if the whole record were in writing.
The first positive evidences of the use of fire are the layers of charred
wood and bones frequently found in the industrial deposits of early
Acheulean times.
GEOGRAPHIC AND CLIMATIC CHANGES
During the early period of development of the Acheulean industry, the
geography, the climate, and the plant and animal life continued to present
exactly the same aspect as during Chellean times. The mammals which we
find in Thuringia in the lower travertines of the valley of the Ilm, at
Taubach, near Weimar, and at Ehringsdorf, mingled with flints of early
Acheulean industry, are of the same species as those found in the valley
of the Somme mingled with the implements of the Chellean industry. The
southern mammoth occurs at Taubach, and we find the straight-tusked
elephant (_E. antiquus_), Merck's rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, the lion,
and the hyæna representing the ancient African-Asiatic migrants, while the
north European and Asiatic life is represented by the giant deer,
roe-deer, wild goat, brown bear, wolf, badger, marten, otter, beaver,
meadow hamster, and shrew. Grazing in the meadows were the aurochs, or
wild ox, and the wisent, or bison. There was one variety of horse,
probably of the forest type. Thus, the fauna as a whole contains six
Asiatic types, or eight if we include the bison and wild cattle. Of the
forest life there are nine species, including the wild boar (_Sus scrofa
ferus_) not mentioned above.
The layers of travertine are indicative of very important geographical
changes which were occurring in central and southern Europe in the middle
period of Third Interglacial times. The travertines of the Ilm and of
other parts of central Germany were due to wide-spread volcanic
disturbances and eruptions, accompanied by the deposition of travertines,
gypsums, and tufas. To this volcanic disturbance in central France is
attributed the deposition of the _tuf de La Celle-sous-Moret_, near Paris,
which records the warm temperate climate of early Acheulean times, as well
as the somewhat cooler succeeding climate of late Acheulean times. This
uplift in the centre of Germany and France apparently left the region
between France and Great Britain undisturbed, because there is evidence of
continued free migration of the tribes and of the Acheulean cultures; but
there appears to have been a wide-spread subsidence of the coasts of
southern Europe by which the islands of the Mediterranean became isolated
from the mainland, and the migrating routes between Europe and Africa
across the central Mediterranean region were cut off. Thus, Italy, Sicily,
and Sardinia were separated from the mainland after having received a
large contingent of mammalian life from the continents both to the north
and to the south. While descendants of the African and Asiatic mammals, as
well as of the northerly European forest and meadow types, survive on
these islands, there is, thus far, no indication that they were invaded by
hunters carrying the implements of the Acheulean culture, although these
Acheulean flint workers ranged over all parts of the Italian peninsula
(Fig. 80), as indicated by the discovery of nine stations.
DISTRIBUTION OF ACHEULEAN STATIONS
The Acheulean stations are widely distributed along the Seine, Marne, and
Somme in northern France, where flint is abundant and well adapted for
fine workmanship. In central and southern France, where large flints are
scarce, the Acheulean tribes were forced to use quartz, which fashions
into clumsier forms. In the north the Acheulean workers continued on the
old Chellean sites at Chelles, St. Acheul, Abbeville, and Helin. In late
Acheulean times were established the new stations of Wolvercote on the
Thames, near Oxford, and of Levallois on the Seine, near Paris, both
famous for their 'Levallois' flint knives or blades. Near Levallois is the
late Acheulean station of Villejuif, south of Paris, where the flints are
buried in drifts of loess. In Normandy are the important stations of
Frileuse, Bléville, and La Mare-aux-Clercs, which give the whole Acheulean
development, both early and late. On a small tributary valley of the
Vézère, in Dordogne, in late Acheulean times there was established the
station of La Micoque, which gives its name to a number of miniature
flints of distinctive form which were first found there and are known as
the 'type of La Micoque.' Other stations, such as Combe-Capelle, also show
examples of this 'miniature' Acheulean workmanship.
[Illustration: FIG. 80. Distribution of the principal Acheulean industrial
stations in western Europe.]
Altogether, over thirty Acheulean stations have been found in France,
two--Castillo and San Isidro--in northern and central Spain, the single
station of Furninha in Portugal, over eight in Germany, three in Austria,
and three in Russian Poland. Especially remarkable is the wide
distribution of this culture all over Italy, where explorations by no
means exhaustive have resulted in the discovery of at least nine or ten
very prolific stations extending from Goccianello in the north to Capri in
the south, but not into Sicily as far as is at present known. Thus all of
western Europe, excepting the area covered by the Scandinavian ice-fields
on the north and by the Alpine ice-fields on the south, was penetrated by
the workers of Acheulean flints, probably members, for the most part, of
the Neanderthal race.
[Illustration: FIG. 81. Late Acheulean station of La Micoque, in Dordogne,
where miniature flints of distinctive late Acheulean form are found.
Photograph by N. C. Nelson.]
The general uniformity of Acheulean workmanship in all parts of western
Europe is an indication that these Neanderthaloid tribes were more or less
migratory and that the inventions of new and useful implements, such as
the lance-pointed coup de poing of La Micoque and the flint-flakes of
Levallois, which probably originated at an especial centre, or perhaps
even in the inventive mind of a single workman, became widely distributed
and highly distinctive of certain periods. The development of the
implements in different regions is so uniform as to prove that the
evolution of the early Palæolithic cultures extended all over western
Europe and that the various types or stages were essentially contemporary.
FORMS OF ACHEULEAN IMPLEMENTS
There is a close sequence between the coup de poing of the Chellean
workers and its development into the finer and more symmetrical forms of
the Acheulean. The latter, according to Obermaier,(36) is distinguished by
the flaking of the entire surface, by the far more skilful fashioning, and
by the really symmetrical almond form which is attained by retouching both
the surface and the edges. This more refined retouch becomes the means of
producing symmetrical instruments, with straight, convex, or concave
cutting edges, as well as finer and lighter tools.
[Illustration: FIG. 82. Illustrating the method of 'flaking' flint
implements by direct or indirect blow with a hammer-stone.]
The _early Acheulean_ industry belonged to a warm temperate climatic
period and directly succeeds the Chellean, as shown in a most perfect
manner in the quarries of the type station of St. Acheul on the Somme. In
these earlier strata the prevailing forms of coup de poing are the
'pointed oval' and the 'lance-pointed,' the latter showing very simple
chipping, a broad point, and a thick base. The oval coups de poing are
smaller than the Chellean tools of the same kind, carefully fashioned on
all sides and round the base, and very symmetrical; there are four
distinct varieties of these: the almond type, oval almond-shaped, elongate
oval, and subtriangular--the latter evolving into the finely modelled type
of late Acheulean times. It may have been from these oval types that the
disc form was finally evolved.
[Illustration: FIG. 83. Illustrating the method of 'chipping' flint
implements by pressure with a bone or wooden implement, to produce the
finer retouch of the surfaces and edges.]
There is wide difference of opinion regarding the use of these thin
ovaloid, triangular, and disc forms. Obermaier considers that they may
have been clamped in wood, or furnished with a shaft, thus forming a spear
head. Another suggestion is that they were used with a leather guard to
protect the hand; and there is no doubt that in either case they would
have served as effective weapons in chase or war. Another view is that of
Commont,(37) who believes that not a single implement down to the very end
of Acheulean times can be regarded as a weapon of war; this author
maintains that many of these implements, including those dressed on both
edges, were still in various ways grasped by the hand, although they do
not present the firm, blunted grip of the ancient coups de poing.
We also note the development of a type of coup de poing, with cutting
blade fashioned straight across the end: this primitive chisel or
adze-shaped tool may have been used as a chopper, or as an axe, in
fashioning wooden tools.
[Illustration: FIG. 84. Method of producing the long _flake_ and the
central _core_ of flint by sharp blows at the indicated point of
percussion. After R. R. Schmidt. In this case a series of flakes have been
cut off the entire periphery of the core. The primitive use of the flake
begins in the Pre-Chellean.]
In the lance-pointed coup de poing of narrow, elongate shape, the flaking
is very simple and the edges are continued into the short base, generally
very thick, and often showing part of the original crust of the flint
nodule, which is well adapted for the grip of the hand. This implement,
which serves the original idea of the coup de poing, develops into the
round-pointed and lance-pointed forms. There is no question that, whether
in industrial use, in war, or in the chase, these implements were held
only by the hand.
INDUSTRIAL.
_Coup de poing._
Ovaloid.
Double-edged.
Subtriangular.
Straight cutting blade across the end.
Disc-shaped.
Triangular--very thin and flat.
Hachette, chopper.
Grattoir, planing tool.
Racloir, scraper.
Perçoir, drill, borer.
Couteau, knife.
'Pointe' (Levallois blade).
'Pointe,' point--oval and chisel-shaped.
WAR AND CHASE.
_Coup de poing._
Of pointed and lance-pointed types.
Pierre de jet, throwing stone.
Couteau, knife.
'Pointe,' dart and spear heads.
The small implements of the early Acheulean included a great variety of
designs developing out of the far more primitive tools of Chellean and
Pre-Chellean times, namely, the planing tool, the scraper, the borer, and
the knife. Each of these types develops its own variety, often fashioned
with great care, primitive blades, straight-edged cutting tools, with the
back rounded or blunted for the grip of the fingers, scrapers with
straight or curved edges, and perçoirs or borers. The scraping and planing
tools, doubtless used for the dressing of hides, are now more carefully
fashioned. We also observe the racloir and the scraper finished to a point
which is the precursor of the graving tool of the Upper Palæolithic.(38)
Characteristic of this stage is the systematic use of large 'flakes' or
outlying pieces of flint struck off from the core, which were used as
scrapers or planes, or developed into small 'haches,' or coups de poing.
The _core_ or _centre_ of the flint nodule still constitutes the material
out of which the large typical implements are fashioned; but the _flake_
begins to lend itself to a great variety of forms, as witnessed in the
evolution of the Levallois knives of the Upper Acheulean and the highly
varied flake implements of the Mousterian and Aurignacian industries.
The 'pointe,' or point, is a special implement chipped out of a short,
sharply convex flake, taking the form of a blunt dart or spear head,
pointed at one end and oval or flat at the other.
[Illustration: FIG. 85. Large, typical Acheulean implements, chiefly
described as _coups de poing_, after de Mortillet. One-quarter actual
size. One of these (41) shows at one end a part of the crust of the flint
nodule left intact to afford a smooth, firm grip to the hand. Another (43)
shows a part of the crust remaining along the left side, for the same
purpose. Two of the coups de poing (47 and 48) show, the one a
double-curved, the other a straight, lateral edge. Another coup de poing
(49), from a submarine deposit near the shore at Havre, is partly covered
by acorn shells.]
LATE ACHEULEAN CLIMATE
The Acheulean industry continued over a very long period, and by the time
the late Acheulean culture stage had been reached a decided change of
climate ensued in western Europe. Along the borders of the Danube and of
the Rhine, in the valley of the Somme, and even in central and southern
France there are indications of a cool dry continental climate, similar to
that which is now found on the southern steppes of Russia, in the Ural
Mountains, and in the vicinity of the Caspian Sea. Indications of this
climate have been mentioned above, as seen in the plant life in the _tuf
de La Celle-sous-Moret_, near Paris, where there are evidences that trees
of a cool temperate climate took the place of the warm temperate forests
of early Acheulean times.
That the climate should be considered as cool and arid rather than
comparable with the bitter-cold climate of the 'upper loess' period, when
a true steppe fauna entered Europe for the first time, is further
indicated by the fact that late Acheulean implements are more frequently
found in the centre and north of France than in the south.
To the far north, before the close of Acheulean times, the Scandinavian
ice-fields had again begun to advance southward; the region bordering the
glaciers was cold and moist and favored the migration from the tundra
regions of the woolly mammoth and woolly rhinoceros to the locality still
frequented by the Acheulean flint workers, for it is said(39) that
Acheulean flints are occasionally associated even with the remains of
these tundra mammals. At the very same time the Acheulean flint workers
along the Somme may have enjoyed a more genial climate.
It is only through this interpretation of the various climatic and life
zones in western Europe that we can explain the survival on the River
Somme, or return to this river from the south, of a warm temperate fauna,
hippopotami, rhinoceroses, and elephants, in the Mousterian period, which
is even subsequent to the close of Acheulean times.
The valleys of the two great river-systems of southwestern France, the
Dordogne draining the central plateau, and the Garonne draining the
eastern Pyrenees, were now sought by the Acheulean flint workers. The
valley of the Vézère, a northern tributary of the Dordogne, cuts through a
broad plateau of limestone in which the streams have hollowed out deep
beds with vertical sides. Here the landscape of late Acheulean times bore
the same general aspect as at present.(40) Evidences of a change of
climate are observed even in the sheltered valleys where the flint
workers were seeking the warmer and sunnier river-slopes. The river
channels were the same as they are to-day, and the quarries of the early
Acheulean flint workers are found quite close to the streams; but as the
period progressed they moved up nearer to the cliffs and shelters. Here,
too, there is evidence that a dry continental climate prevailed. On the
upper levels of the old plateaus of Dordogne we still find the _Quercus
ilex_ occurring quite frequently, a tree which belongs to relatively dry
regions and which in southern Russia is reckoned with the flora of the
steppes. Yet the greater aridity toward the close of the Acheulean stage
was probably not such as to prevent the growth of forests along the
borders of the streams. Thus, in the mammalian life of the period there
was, perhaps, a division between the more hardy forms which frequented the
dry plateaus above and the forest-loving and less hardy forms which
frequented the river-valleys.
[Illustration: FIG. 86. "Valleys of the two great river-systems of
southwestern France, the Dordogne draining the central plateau and the
Garonne draining the eastern Pyrenees." After Harlé.]
The most convincing proof of an arid climate in the north of France with
prevailing high westerly winds is found in the layers of 'loess' which
occur on the 'terraces' of the Somme, the Seine, the Rhine, and the
Danube. These 'lower loess' layers of Third Interglacial times frequently
contain implements of the late Acheulean industry. Thus, at Villejuif,
south of Paris, late Acheulean implements are found embedded in drifts of
'loess.' In the valley of the Somme, flints of the middle Acheulean stage
are also found in the _loess ancien_ and 'river-drift.' In the _tuf de La
Celle-sous-Moret_ the layer of 'loess' immediately overlies the tufa layer
containing late Acheulean implements and proofs of a cooler climate.
[Illustration: FIG. 87. "The valley of the Vézère, a northern tributary of
the Dordogne, cuts through a broad plateau of limestone in which the
streams have hollowed out deep beds with vertical sides," favorable to the
formation of caverns, grottos, and shelters. "Here the landscape of late
Acheulean times bore the same general aspect as at present." Photograph by
N. C. Nelson.]
Among the most famous of the 'loess' stations of late Acheulean times is
that of Achenheim on the upper Rhine, west of Strasburg. Here the 'older
loess' contains a typical Acheulean culture.
With this prolonged epoch of cooler temperature the hippopotamus and the
southern mammoth retreated to the warmer portions of southern Europe, and
their remains are no longer found associated with the late Acheulean
flints. The more hardy straight-tusked elephant and Merck's rhinoceros
still continued in the north, apparently well adapted to sustain a very
considerable fall in temperature.
FORMS OF LATE ACHEULEAN IMPLEMENTS
The coups de poing of the _late Acheulean_ exhibit a great advance upon
the Chellean, being fashioned into dagger or lance forms, with all the
edges carefully chipped. The ovaloid implements of late Acheulean times
are often worked into fine and sharp blades, which may have been used like
butcher-knives for dismembering the carcasses of game and for cutting up
the pelts, while the fine almond and disc shapes may have been used as
scrapers to cut off the tissues of the inner surfaces of the hides, which
were finally dressed by the grattoir, or flint planing tool. In brief, the
coup de poing reaches its acme of development in late Acheulean times,
both in the fineness of flaking and retouching and in its symmetry of
form. The use of large flakes of flint and the retouching both of the
borders and of the extremities of these flakes shows a constantly
improving technique. It is in the thin, flat, triangular blades and in the
lance-pointed forms that the coup de poing reaches its culmination; but we
still observe the development of the oval or almond-shaped forms and of
the flattened discs. The implements of this time reach their greatest
perfection in the north of France, where flint is so abundant.
[Illustration: FIG. 88. Varied shapes of the Acheulean flints described as
_coups de poing_, including some 'miniature' forms, after de Mortillet.
The oval, the pointed, the almond, the triangular, the disc-shaped. The
late Acheulean is distinguished by an advance in all the finer and smaller
implements, tools, and weapons; yet the finest work of Acheulean times
appears thick and clumsy when contrasted with the best Solutrean work of
the Upper Palæolithic. One-quarter actual size.]
The late Acheulean is further distinguished by an advance in all the finer
and smaller implements and tools. The knives are now very fine and
perfect, although they retain the broad, thick form of the original flint
fragment and seldom attain the symmetrical shape which characterizes the
blades of the Upper Palæolithic.(41) The 'points' are also of finer
technique, with their edges converging from a broad base to a well-formed
point. It is generally assumed that these were held in the bare hand, but
it is quite as probable that they were attached to wooden shafts and used
as dart or spear heads. By far the most numerous as well as the most
varied of the smaller tools were the racloirs, or scrapers, which were
developed, doubtless, by the increasing use of skins for clothing as a
protection against the somewhat more rigorous climate of late Acheulean
times. Probably the women of the tribe were employed in dressing hides by
means of these scrapers, which were either flat and broad with
crescent-shaped edges, flat and narrow, or double-edged with rounded
ends. The development of other fine tools--borers, small discs, triangular
and ovaloid shapes, miniature coups de poing, and many varied forms
besides--is best witnessed in the station of La Micoque, close to the
junction of the Vézère with the Dordogne. These miniature implements may
well have been used in the final dressing of skins for clothing, in the
chase of smaller kinds of game, or at feasts for splitting marrow-bones.
[Illustration: FIG. 89. The _chef-d'œuvre_ of the Acheulean industry is
the Levallois flake, which may have evolved from the large flakes of
Chellean times. After Worthington Smith.]
No bone implements whatever have been found even with these late Acheulean
flints, but it is important to observe that the majority of these stations
are open and exposed to the weather and that bone implements would not be
preserved here as they would in the sheltered grottos and caverns to which
the flint workers repaired in the Mousterian and succeeding times.
As regards the finish of these flint implements, it is important to note
that it is fine only by comparison with the crude work of the early
Acheulean or the still coarser types of Chellean times and that the very
finest work of Acheulean times appears thick and clumsy when contrasted
with the finer work of the Upper Palæolithic.
The _chef-d'œuvre_ of the late Acheulean industry is the Levallois flake,
first found at Levallois-Perret, near Paris, which de Mortillet believed
to be fashioned out of a divided coup de poing with a flat under-side,
but which may have been evolved from the very large primitive flakes of
Pre-Chellean date. These flakes date back earlier than the Chellean coup
de poing but continued in use after its invention and may have been
greatly perfected into the Levallois type. This type of 'couteau' is a
large, wide, thin flake of fairly symmetrical shape, with a flat back
formed by the original smooth surface of the flake. These implements are
pointed, oval, or sharply rectangular in form and present the most
characteristic tool of the closing stage of the Acheulean industry.
It is most interesting at this point to observe the two modes of evolution
which seem to pervade all nature: first, the gradual perfection and
modification in size and proportion of a certain older form; second, the
sudden change or mutation into a new form, which in turn enters the stage
of gradual improvement.
The late Acheulean is seen to present the climax of a gradual and unbroken
development from the early Chellean industries and ideas; and to our mind
this is strongly suggestive of a corresponding evolution of manual skill
and mental development in the workmen themselves, who may have been partly
of Pre-Neanderthaloid race.
The next industrial stage, namely, the Mousterian, which certainly
presents the closing workmanship of the Neanderthal race, shows a marked
retrogression of technique in contrast to the steady progression which we
have observed up to this time. We have, in fact, witnessed a number of
successive stages of progression, which are to be followed in the
Mousterian by a stage of retrogression. Such a retrogression in industrial
development may for certain known or unknown reasons occur in the same
race. It is a noteworthy parallel that in the Upper Palæolithic, where the
Solutrean culture represents the climax and perfection of flint working,
the succeeding Magdalenian shows marked retrogression in the technique of
flint retouch.
THE KRAPINA NEANDERTHALOIDS
In northern Croatia, near the small town of Krapina, in the valley of the
Krapinica River, is the now famous cavern of Krapina, where in 1899 was
made the fourth discovery of the remains of men of the Neanderthaloid race
in western Europe, twelve years after the discovery of the men of Spy, in
Belgium, and forty-three years after the discovery of the man of
Neanderthal. Even now opinion is divided as to the age of the human
remains found in this cavern. The discoverer, Professor
Gorjanovič-Kramberger of Agram considered that the stone implements and
chips were of Mousterian age, and Breuil still refers them to the early,
or so-called warm, Mousterian period; this opinion is shared by
Déchelette. Schmidt, however, regards Krapina as a true Acheulean station,
lacking in some of the typical implements, and of the same age as the
'loess' station of Ehringsdorf.
[Illustration: FIG. 90. The grotto of Krapina, overlooking the valley of
the Krapinica River, near Krapina, Croatia, in Austria-Hungary. After
Kraemer.]
The mammals found in the cavern certainly belong to the very late
Acheulean period and include Merck's rhinoceros, the cave-bear, the urus,
a species of horse, the giant deer (_Megaceros_), the beaver, and the
marmot (_Arctomys marmotta_).
The cavern was originally washed out by the river, but now it is 82 feet
above the present water-level. When found it was completely filled with
sand and gravel deposits, weathered fragments from the roof and walls, and
loose stones and boulders.(42) Enclosed in this mass, in separate strata
which are perfectly distinguishable, there lay, variously distributed
through the different layers, thousands of animal bones, mingled with
hundreds of human bones, and hundreds of stone implements and chips.
[Illustration: FIG. 91. Cross-section of the valley traversed by the
Krapinica River showing the location of the grotto known as the Krapina
recess on the bank to the left. Drawn by C. A. Reeds.]
During the years 1899-1905 Gorjanovič-Kramberger made a thorough
exploration of the contents of this cavern, and published a complete
account of his researches in 1906.(43) There were about three hundred
pieces of human bones, among them many small fragments, also many sizable
pieces of skull and several entire limb bones perfectly preserved. The
bones are of a strongly characterized type, and the lower jaws, face
bones, bones of the thigh and arm, the teeth, and the bones of many
children establish the Krapina race as belonging unquestionably in the
same group with that of Neanderthal and of Spy.
[Illustration: FIG. 92. Detail showing the interior contents of the
Krapina grotto before its excavation in the years 1899 to 1905. After
Gorjanovič-Kramberger.]
The skull of the Krapina man (Fig. 93) is somewhat broader or more
brachycephalic than that of any other members of the Neanderthal race. In
general, the race is somewhat dwarfed, of broader head form and with less
prominent supraorbital processes. The species is unquestionably _Homo
neanderthalensis_, of which the Krapina men constitute a local race.
Schwalbe and Boule observe that the greater breadth of the Krapina skull
is partly due to the manner in which the bones have been put together,(44)
and they do not consider that the Krapina man represents a different
subrace (_Homo neanderthalensis krapinensis_) as held by the discoverer.
The cephalic index of one Krapina skull is recorded as 83.7 per cent (?)
as compared with 73.9 per cent, the cephalic index of the true _H.
neanderthalensis_, a difference which, as above noted, may be partly due
to the restoration. The bones are in such a fragmentary condition that it
is impossible to form a proper estimate of the brain capacity in either
the males or females of this race; nor is it possible to estimate the
stature. The space between the eyes is the same as in the Neanderthal
race; the angle of the retreat of the forehead (52°) is nearly the same as
in the Gibraltar female Neanderthal skull (50°), this high forehead being
due to the lesser development of the supraorbital ridges. That the brain
was of a low, flat-headed Neanderthal type is shown by the close
similarity of the index of the height of skull (42.2) to that of one of
the men of Spy (44.3), as compared with the lowest index among the
existing races of men (48.9); yet the Krapina man presents a considerable
advance over _Pithecanthropus_, in which the index of the height of skull
is only 34.2.
[Illustration: FIG. 93. Profile view, right side, of one of the skulls
from Krapina. This skull is much broader than that of the typical
Neanderthaloid. After Gorjanovič-Kramberger. One-quarter life size.]
The jaw is more slender than that of the Heidelberg man but is still thick
and massive; the chin is receding, a characteristic of all the Neanderthal
races.
The broken condition of all the human bones in this cavern, and the
abundant indications of fire, have led to the charge that the Neanderthals
of Krapina were cannibals, and that these mingled remains are the bones of
animals and men collected here during cannibalistic feasts. Against this
supposition Breuil observes that none of the human bones are split
lengthwise, as is the usual practice when extracting the marrow, but they
are broken crosswise. This is the only evidence of such practice that has
been found during all Palæolithic times, and we should hesitate to accept
it unless corroborated by other localities.
The various layers indicate that the cavern was successively occupied by
man; in or near the hearths are found stone implements, broken and
incinerated bones, and pieces of charcoal, which may indicate that this
grotto was visited only at intervals, perhaps during the colder seasons of
the year.
(=1=) Harlé, 1910.1.
(=2=) d'Ault du Mesnil, 1896.1, pp. 284-296.
(=3=) Obermaier, 1912.1, p. 146.
(=4=) Schmidt, 1912.1, pp. 118-126.
(=5=) Boule, 1888.1.
(=6=) Obermaier, 1912.1, pp. 327-329.
(=7=) Haug, 1907.1, vol. II, pp. 327-329.
(=8=) Geikie, 1914.1, p. 262.
(=9=) Morlot, 1854.1.
(=10=) Commont, 1906.1.
(=11=) Geikie, 1914.1, pp. 107-111.
(=12=) d'Ault du Mesnil, _op. cit._
(=13=) Schmidt, 1912.1, pp. 124, 125.
(=14=) Obermaier, 1912.1, p. 118.
(=15=) Dawson, 1913.1; 1913.2; 1913.3.
(=16=) Kennard, 1913.1.
(=17=) Reid, 1913.1.
(=18=) Dawson, 1913.1, p. 123; 1914.1, pp. 82-86.
(=19=) Keith, A., 1913.1; 1913.2; 1913.3.
(=20=) Smith, G. E., 1913.1; 1913.2; 1913.3; 1913.4.
(=21=) Boule, 1913.1, pp. 245, 246.
(=22=) Schwalbe, 1914.1, p. 603.
(=23=) Osborn, 1910.1, pp. 404-409.
(=24=) Ewart, 1904.1; 1907.1; 1909.1.
(=25=) Obermaier, 1912.1, p. 120.
(=26=) de Mortillet, 1869.1.
(=27=) Obermaier, _op. cit._, p. 116.
(=28=) Lyell, 1863.1, p. 164.
(=29=) Geikie, 1914.1, pp. 119, 263, 264.
(=30=) Schmidt, 1912.1, pp. 125, 126.
(=31=) Geikie, _op. cit._, p. 228.
(=32=) Avebury, 1913.1, p. 342, Fig. 236.
(=33=) Schmidt, _op. cit._, pp. 17-105.
(=34=) Breuil, 1912.5, p. 14.
(=35=) Obermaier, 1912.1, p. 164.
(=36=) Obermaier, _op. cit._, pp. 124, 125, 127, 130.
(=37=) Commont, 1908.1.
(=38=) Déchelette, 1908.1, vol. I, pp. 80-90.
(=39=) Geikie, 1914.1, p. 255.
(=40=) Hilzheimer, 1913.1, p. 145.
(=41=) Obermaier, 1912.1, p. 127.
(=42=) Fischer, 1913.1.
(=43=) Gorjanovič-Kramberger, 1901.1; 1903.1; 1906.1.
(=44=) Schwalbe, 1914.1, p. 597.
CHAPTER III
CLOSE OF THE THIRD INTERGLACIAL, TEMPERATE, AND ARID CLIMATE,
ACHEULEAN INDUSTRY--ADVENT OF THE FOURTH GLACIATION, PROFOUND CHANGES
IN ANIMAL AND PLANT LIFE--THE ARCTIC TUNDRA PERIOD OF MAMMALIAN AND
PLANT LIFE--CHARACTERS OF THE NEANDERTHAL RACE, OF THEIR MOUSTERIAN
FLINT INDUSTRY--SUPPOSED CAUSES OF EXTINCTION OR DISPERSAL
We now reach a prolonged and important stage in the prehistory of Europe,
namely, the period of the fourth glaciation, of the final development of
the Neanderthal race of man, of the Mousterian industry, of the beginnings
of cave life, of the chase of the reindeer, and its use for food and
clothing.
In all Europe the Acheulean industry appears to have come to a close
during a period of arid climate, warm in some parts of western Europe and
cool or even cold in others. The seasonal variations may well have been
extreme, as on the steppes of southern Russia, where exceedingly hot
summers may be followed by intensely cold winters, with high winds and
snow-storms destructive of life.
It is this seasonal alternation, as well as the recurrence, either
seasonal or secular, of milder climate, which explains the survival or
return of the Asiatic fauna even after the close of the Acheulean industry
and when the Mousterian industry was well advanced.
From deposits found at Grimaldi, in the _Grotte des Enfants_ and in the
_Grotte du Prince_, it has long been said that men of early Mousterian
times lived contemporary with the hippopotamus, the straight-tusked
elephant, and Merck's rhinoceros in the genial climate of the
Mediterranean Riviera. More recently the same animals have been found as
far north as the Somme valley in the 'river-drifts' of
Montières-les-Amiens.(1) Here, again, we find remains of the
hippopotamus, the straight-tusked elephant, and its companion, Merck's
rhinoceros, in Mousterian deposits, a surprising discovery, because it had
always been supposed that a cold climatic period had set in all over
western Europe even before the close of the Acheulean culture. But there
is also evidence of a temperate climate still prevailing in the Thames
valley in the period of the Mousterian 'floors.'(2) Again, along the
Vézère valley, Dordogne, we find that at the station of La Micoque, where
the industry marks the transition between late Acheulean and early
Mousterian times, Merck's rhinoceros is found in the lowest layers
associated with remains of the moose (_Alces_).
There is evidence that Merck's rhinoceros and the straight-tusked elephant
lingered in western Europe during the whole period of the early
development of the Mousterian industry. As observed above, these animals
were hardier than the southern mammoth, which was the first of the Asiatic
mammals to disappear, soon to be followed by its companion, the
hippopotamus. Even after the advent of the closely associated tundra pair,
the woolly mammoth and the woolly rhinoceros, Merck's rhinoceros persists,
as, for example, in the deposits of Rixdorf, near Berlin, where this
ancient type occurs in the same deposits with the woolly mammoth, the
woolly rhinoceros, the reindeer, and the musk-ox, as well as with the
forest forms, the moose, stag, wolf, and forest horse. The extreme
northern latitude of this deposit explains the absence of the
straight-tusked elephant, which may at the time have been living farther
to the south. The same mingling of south and north Asiatic mammals is
found at Steinheim, in the valley of the Murr, some degrees to the west
and south of Rixdorf, not far from Göttingen, where we find Merck's
rhinoceros(3) and the straight-tusked elephant in association with the
woolly mammoth, the woolly rhinoceros, the giant deer, and the reindeer.
Thus the Neanderthal races were entering the Mousterian stage of culture
during the close of the Third Interglacial Stage and during the early
period of the advance of the ice-fields from the great centres in
Scandinavia and the Alps. As these ice-fields slowly approached each
other from the north and from the south a very great period of time must
have elapsed during which all the south Asiatic mammals abandoned western
Europe or became extinct, with the exception of the lions and hyænas,
which became well fitted to the very severe climate that prevailed over
Europe during the fourth glaciation, and even during the long Postglacial
Stage which ensued. The large carnivora readily become thoroughly adapted
to cold climates, as they subsist on animal life wherever it may be found;
tigers of the same stock as those of India have been found as far north as
the river Lena, in latitude 52° 25', where the climate is colder than that
of Petrograd or of Stockholm, while the lion throve in the cold atmosphere
of the upper Atlas range. Thus the cave-lion (_Felis leo spelæa_) and the
cave-hyæna (_H. crocuta spelæa_) doubtless evolved an undercoating of fur
as well as an overcoating of long hair, like the tundra mammals. In size
the lion of this period in France often equalled and sometimes surpassed
its existing relatives, the African and west Asiatic lion; it frequently
figures in the art of the Upper Palæolithic artists and survived in
western Europe to the very close of Upper Palæolithic times.
THE FOURTH GLACIATION
Penck(4) has estimated that the first maximum of the fourth glaciation in
the Alps was reached 40,000 years ago, and that after the recession period
the second maximum ended not less than 20,000 years ago. This would extend
the Mousterian industry over a very long period of time, for there can be
no doubt that the Mousterian culture was practically contemporaneous with
the fourth glaciation, even if a briefer period of time should be allotted
to this great natural event.
The fourth glaciation, like the first, is believed to have been
contemporaneous in Europe and North America,(5) a fact which is of
especial importance to American anthropologists in connection with the
question of the date of arrival of primitive man in America. In both
countries the glaciation reached an early maximum, which was followed by
a period of recession of the ice-fields, a time during which a somewhat
more temperate climate prevailed, but this in turn gave way to a second
advance of as great severity as the first.[AE]
[Illustration: FIG. 94. Europe during the extension of the ice-fields and
glaciers of the Fourth Glacial Stage. This is also supposed to have been a
period of land depression and of extension of the inland seas of southern
Europe. Britain was probably connected with France. The ice-covered areas
in western Europe and Britain were far more limited than during the Third
Glacial Stage, yet the climate appears to have been more severe than at
any previous period. For the snow-level compare Fig. 13. Drawn by C. A.
Reeds after Geikie and De Geer.]
In the north, Scandinavia and Finland were again enshrouded in ice, and a
great _mer de glace_ occupied the basin of the Baltic Sea, sending its
terminal moraines into Denmark and Schleswig-Holstein and over the
northern provinces of Germany, but this great ice-field did not again
become confluent with that of Great Britain.(7) At the commencement of the
fourth glaciation large glaciers descended over the Scottish mountain
valleys and filled many of them even to the sea; the coast subsided at
least 130 feet in this region. In southern Britain along the valley of the
Thames there spread an arctic flora, with the polar willow (_Salix
polaris_) and the dwarf birch (_Betula glandulosa_); an arctic plant bed
has also been discovered in the valley of the Lea. Thus the tundra climate
extended from the Scottish lowlands to the south of England, the land
being bleak and almost treeless.(8) This, we believe, was also the period
of the arctic flora at Hoxne, Suffolk, and of the arctic plant bed in the
valley of the Thames. At this time the valley was frequented by the
reindeer, the woolly rhinoceros, and the mammoth, whose remains are
entombed in the low-level alluvia swept down from the sides of the valley,
so that the remains of this arctic fauna may in places actually overlie
those of the more deeply buried and far more ancient warm Asiatic fauna of
Chellean times. Like the Somme, the Thames(9) was then from 10 to 25 feet
below its present level, the bottom having since silted up with alluvial
soil.
[Illustration: FIG. 95. The two large tundra mammals, the woolly
rhinoceros (upper), drawn from the work of Upper Palæolithic artists and
from the specimen discovered at Starunia, in Galicia, Austria; and the
woolly mammoth (lower). These hardy animals gradually replaced the
African-Asiatic pair, Merck's rhinoceros and the straight-tusked elephant.
Drawn by Erwin S. Christman. One-sixtieth life size.]
This was the period of the deposition of the 'upper drift' over the north
German lowlands, the Alps, and northern England, also of the early and
late _Wisconsin_, or 'upper drift,' which spreads very widely over the
Eastern States, from Wisconsin southward and eastward to the latitude of
New York. The gravels and sands of some of the 'lowest terraces' were also
deposited.
MAMMALIAN LIFE OF MOUSTERIAN TIMES
The three successive phases of climate and environment surrounding the
Neanderthal men during the period of the development of the Mousterian
industry, were in descending order as follows:
3. _Extreme Cold Climate of the Last Great Glacial Advance._ Period of
the late Mousterian industry of La Quina. Spread of all the arctic and
tundra mammals over western Europe, including the musk-ox; migrations
of the obi and banded lemming of the extreme north. Life and industry
of the Neanderthal races, chiefly in the shelters, grottos, and
entrances to the caverns.
2. _Cold Moist Climate._ Period of the middle or 'full Mousterian'
industry of the Neanderthal races. Appearance of the tundra life,
including well-protected mammals and birds from the arctic region,
also descent of the Alpine types to the foot-hills and river borders.
First forerunners of the steppe life; the full Eurasiatic forest and
field life widely spread over Europe. Life and industry chiefly in
the shelters, grottos, and entrances to the caverns. Reindeer very
abundant.
1. _Warm or Cool Arid Climate._ Transition from the Acheulean to the
early Mousterian culture, as observed in the stations of La Micoque
and of Combe-Capelle. The so-called 'warm Mousterian' fauna, including
the surviving hippopotamus, Merck's rhinoceros, and the
straight-tusked elephant in northern and southern France; herds of
bison, cattle, and wild horses in southwestern France. Tribal life,
with the industry partly in open stations, partly under sheltering
cliffs.
This is the beginning of the 'Reindeer Period,' for this migrant from
Scandinavia, with its companions of the northeastern tundras, the woolly
mammoth and the rhinoceros, wandered slowly southward before the advancing
Scandinavian ice-fields, which were greatly augmented by the increasingly
cold and moist climate. Thus these animals are found in the north with
flints of the Mousterian culture before they appear in the more genial
region of Dordogne. In the somewhat older Acheulean-Mousterian station of
La Micoque, along the Vézère, the fire-hearths contain almost exclusively
the remains of horses and relatively few remains of bison and wild cattle,
but no reindeer. A fireplace near the station of Combe-Capelle yields
numerous remains of the bison, only a few of the horse, and the first of
the reindeer. Before the appearance of the reindeer in the valley of the
Vézère we may picture the meadow-lands as covered with bison and wild
horses, the latter of the type which is now characteristic of the high
plateaus of central Asia, while the bison of the period appears to be more
similar to the American buffalo than to the surviving European form.
Gradually the tundra animals spread toward the south with the cold climate
which for the first time swept all over western Europe. The whole aspect
of the country slowly changed with the approach of the reindeer, and the
northern flora of the spruce, the fir, and the arctic willow clad the more
sheltered river-valleys and hillsides, while the plateaus and fields were
partly or wholly deforested.
[Illustration: FIG. 96. Typical tundra fauna. "Gradually the tundra
animals pressed toward the south with the cold climate which for the first
time swept all over western Europe." The wolverene, _Gulo luscus
borealis_; the barren-ground reindeer, _Rangifer tarandus_ (drawn from the
living type); the arctic fox, _Canis lagopus_; the musk-ox, _Ovibos
moschatus_; and the banded lemming, _Myodes torquatus_. One-twenty-fifth
life size. The lemming (A) is also shown one-seventh life size. Drawn by
Erwin S. Christman.]
Thus the country became adapted chiefly to the tundra types of mammals;
and in the middle Mousterian strata these herds, newly migrated from the
far north and from the northeastern steppes bordering the Obi River,
largely outnumber the steppe forms, which are limited to two or three
species. Of these the principal types are the steppe horse, related to the
Przewalski horse now living in the desert of Gobi, the steppe suslik
(_Spermophilus rufescens_), and the steppe grouse, or moor-hen. The more
characteristic forms of steppe life, such as the saiga antelope, the
jerboa, and the kiang, were all later arrivals and did not appear until
after the close of the Mousterian industry and the disappearance of the
Neanderthal race.
This was due to the fact that the climate surrounding the Neanderthal race
in Mousterian times was cold and moist, with heavy rainfalls in summer and
snow-storms in winter, a climate thoroughly suited to the arctic tundra
mammals with their heavy covering of hair acting as a rain shed and the
undercoating of wool protecting them in the most severe weather.
The mammal life during the fourth glaciation, as it spread into the middle
Rhine and Westphalian region, is fully recorded in the 'loess' deposits of
Achenheim and in the famous grotto of Sirgenstein, on the upper Danube,
lying northwest of Munich, where, together with traces of the most
primitive Mousterian industry, are found remains of the mammoth, the
bison, the reindeer, a species of wild horse, and the cave-bear. Following
these mammals there is a record in the same deposit of the arrival of the
Obi lemming, from northern Russia.
The fact that only seven Mousterian stations are known in all Germany, or
eight if we include the site of the Neanderthal burial, may be accounted
for by the relatively close proximity of the great Scandinavian glacier on
the north, which was only 350 miles distant from the great Alpine glacier
on the south. To the east were the plains of Bohemia and the vast lowland
region stretching northeastward to the tundras and eastward to the
steppes, through which came the great migrations of tundra and steppe
life.
[Illustration: FIG. 97. The seven Mousterian stations of Germany lay
between the Scandinavian glacier (IV) on the north and the Alpine glacier
(IV) on the south (dotted areas). They include the grottos of
_Sirgenstein_, _Irpfelhöhle_, and _Räuberhöhle_, along the valley of the
Danube; _Kartstein_ and _Buchenloch_, near the middle Rhine, and
_Baumannshöhle_, south of Hanover; also the open loess station of
_Mommenheim_. The Mousterian grotto of _Wildkirchli_, in Switzerland, lay
within the limits of the Alpine ice-fields; and the burial at
_Neanderthal_, near Düsseldorf, was probably of Mousterian age. After R.
R. Schmidt, modified and redrawn.]
GEOGRAPHIC AND CLIMATIC ENVIRONMENT OF THE NEANDERTHAL RACE
Let us first glance at Dordogne. Among the stations of the early
Mousterian industry we have seen that the Neanderthals in the valley of
the Vézère, at La Micoque, were in the midst of a fauna chiefly composed
of the bison and of the wild horse, the remains found in the hearths being
almost exclusively of the latter animal.[AF] In the primitive Mousterian
station of Combe-Capelle near by the fire-hearths yield remains of the
bison but only a few of the horse.
Among the earliest caves inhabited by man(10) was that of Le Moustier,
situated on the right bank of the Vézère, and about 90 feet above it. This
shelter and cave were examined as early as 1860-3 by Lartet(11) and
Christy and subsequently by de Vibraye,(12) Massénat,(13) and others.
Besides the deposits in the floor of the grotto there, a deep Mousterian
culture layer has been found under the cliff in front, and this has been
selected for our representation of the life of the men of Mousterian
times, and of the flora of the Vézère in this early period (see
frontispiece). Peyrony observes that, here as elsewhere, the older and
lower industrial camps were farther away from the shelters; indeed, in
this very region there are evidences that the Chellean and Acheulean flint
workers occasionally visited the plateaus above; but as time passed and
the weather became more severe the Neanderthals began to work nearer to
the overhanging cliffs and finally directly beneath them. At this classic
station of Le Moustier, one of the most complete skeletons of Neanderthal
man was unearthed by Hauser, in 1908. There was a continuous residence
here in middle and upper Mousterian times, extending into the lower
Aurignacian of the Upper Palæolithic. The contemporary fauna in these
deposits included the mammoth, the reindeer, the giant deer (_Megaceros_),
the horse, the bison, the woolly rhinoceros, and the cave-bear. During
the habitation of this typical station by man the climate was very cold
and damp.
In this region is found the complete record of the course of Mousterian
evolution, both in the implements and in the advent of new forms of life;
the number of reindeer gradually increases in the ascending layers with
the development of the Mousterian industry. There is a constant gradation
from the Acheulean into the Mousterian industrial types; according to
Cartailhac, this industry is all the work of the same people, with no
sharp lines of division.
[Illustration: FIG. 98. The type station of Le Moustier, on the right bank
of the Vézère, Dordogne. The culture layer is on the middle terrace,
overlooking the hamlet of Le Moustier. (Compare frontispiece, Pl. I.)
Photograph by Belvès.]
Thus at Combe-Capelle, where the début of the true Mousterian culture took
place, we find a number of large coups de poing, pointing back to the
early Acheulean implements. The gradations which are exhibited here in
these successive layers are quite in contrast to the advance of the
industry at the close of Mousterian times in the very same locality, where
there is an abrupt cultural transition toward the Aurignacian.
Southern Britain tells of a similar sequence, which we may interpret as
follows. Belonging either to the temperate climate of early Mousterian
times, or to the period of the recession of the fourth glaciation, known
in the Alps as the _Laufenschwankung_, are the Mousterian stations along
the Lea and near the mouth of the Thames at Crayford (Worthington
Smith,(14) Geikie(15)). These Palæolithic 'floors' of Mousterian times are
buried beneath 4 to 5 feet of sand and loam and rest upon the surface of
older river-gravels. Among the later river deposits several old land
surfaces have been discovered; they consist of a few inches of angular
gravel, crowded in places with unabraded implements and flakes which
obviously occur just where they were left by Palæolithic workmen. At one
point there is evidence that the flint maker squatted over his work, with
his knees slightly apart, for the chips are thrown to the right and left
in small piles. Here and there, mixed with these Mousterian implements,
are more archaic forms which may have been drifted down from the older
land surfaces above.
[Illustration: FIG. 99. Excavations of the Mousterian culture layer under
the cliff of Le Moustier. Photograph by N. C. Nelson.]
One such floor has been traced by Worthington Smith(16) through Middlesex
and on both sides of the Thames. Plant remains occur plentifully on this
old land surface, including impressions of portions of leaves, stems of
grass, rushes, and sedges. The birch, alder, pine, yew, elm, and hazel
have been recognized. The common male fern is of frequent occurrence,
while the royal fern (_Osmunda regalis_) is found in profusion. Upon the
whole, this assemblage of plants indicates a temperate climate. The flints
described and figured by Worthington Smith are either of the late
Acheulean 'Levallois flake' type or else of early Mousterian age. This
writer(17) notes the great number of instruments known as trimmed flakes,
which are found on the Palæolithic 'floor'; these are flakes of large
size, trimmed to an implement-like form on one side, while the other side
is left perfectly plain; the examples are remarkably constant to one form.
The type of implement here described resembles the flakes of Levallois or
Combe-Capelle, or even the typical 'point' from Le Moustier. Such flakes,
shaped into the Mousterian forms of racloir, or scraper, are very common
in the gravels of the Lea and of the Thames.
While the remains of the woolly mammoth are found here, there are also
indications of the presence of a well-marked temperate flora. These
high-level 'river-drifts' along the Thames(18) were certainly deposited
when the climatic conditions were temperate, but they are succeeded by
deposits indicating a renewed cold period, which may represent the cold
'full Mousterian' times of the Lower Palæolithic habitation of the Thames.
Here we find the remarkable sheets of contorted 'drift' attributable to
the movements of the frozen soil and subsoil when exposed to the heat of
the summer sun. At the same time there may have been deposited along the
Thames the alluvial loams and gravels, occasionally containing stones and
rocks, which were brought down by ice-rafts; these low-level gravels are
not to be confused with the underlying 'old river-gravels' which contain
the warm temperate hippopotamus fauna, for they were accumulated under
very cold conditions; they yield remains of the woolly rhinoceros and of
the mammoth. Thus, on the high levels of the Thames as well as on the low
levels we find evidences of the human culture and of the extinct fauna of
the period of the fourth great glaciation.
[Illustration: FIG. 100. Mousterian cavern of Wildkirchli. After Bächler.
Entrances indicated at 1, 2, and 3, in the side of the limestone cliff.
Here, at a height of 4,500 feet above sea-level, Bächler discovered proofs
of occupation by Mousterian man in the very heart of the Alpine ice-fields
of the Fourth Glacial Stage.]
The upper waters of the Rhine and Danube were also frequented by late
Acheulean and early Mousterian flint workers. At a point far distant from
southern England there is the cavern of Wildkirchli on the Santis
Mountains, near Appenzell, in Switzerland; in Mousterian times this was in
the very heart of the north Alpine ice-field. The animal life here may
indicate that this cavern was open during the period of recession between
the two great advances of the fourth glaciation. Here, at a height of
4,500 feet, Bächler(19) between 1903-6, discovered proofs of occupation by
Neanderthal man during Mousterian times; the flints are not well formed;
the presence of crude bone implements may point to late Mousterian times;
but the flints are considered by Bächler to be of the same stage as those
of Le Moustier. It is asserted that when the Neanderthals followed the
chase here the climate was more genial, because the animals found include
the stag, Alpine wolf (_Cyon alpinus fossilis_), cave-bear, cave-lion,
cave-leopard (_Felis pardus spelæa_), badger, marten, and otter, together
with the typical Alpine forms, the ibex, chamois, and marmot. But this
fauna alone can hardly be taken as proof of a temperate climate, for at
this Alpine height we should not expect to discover the tundra life of the
period; in fact, it is entirely absent.
[Illustration: FIG. 101. Entrance to the grotto of Sirgenstein. After R.
R. Schmidt. "Of all the stations along the Danube by far the most
important is that of Sirgenstein ... which was first occupied by the
Neanderthals in early Mousterian times and continued to be visited by the
Lower and Upper Palæolithic men until the very close of the Upper
Palæolithic."]
Of all the stations along the Danube, by far the most important is that of
Sirgenstein, lying between the modern cities of Nuremberg and Augsburg,
which was first occupied by the Neanderthals in early Mousterian times and
continued to be visited by the Lower and Upper Palæolithic men until the
very close of the Upper Palæolithic. The continuous section of animal
life and of human culture which this remarkable cavern yields afforded
Schmidt,(20) who began his researches here in the spring of 1906, a key to
the prehistory of all the eighteen caverns in the region of the upper
Danube and upper Rhine. In Sirgenstein the primitive Mousterian culture of
the early Neanderthals was found, together with remains of the mammoth,
bison, reindeer, a species of wild horse, and the cave-bear; this
Mousterian industry closed with a record of the arrival in this region of
the Obi lemming from northern Russia. Later on the Crô-Magnon race of
Aurignacian times left on the floor of the cavern remains of their flint
industry and of their feasts, including the bones of the woolly
rhinoceros, mammoth, stag, and reindeer. During Upper Palæolithic
Solutrean times the cavern was not occupied; but early in Magdalenian
times it was again inhabited by man, and coincident with his return is the
arrival of a great migration of the banded lemming (_Myodes torquatus_)
from the arctic tundras of the north. Finally, toward the end of the Upper
Palæolithic, in late Magdalenian times, another climatic transition is
indicated by the appearance of the pika, or tailless hare (_Lagomys
pusillus_). During the Bronze Age this favorite grotto was again entered,
and it was also inhabited during a portion of the Iron Age. The débris of
these various cultures, hearths, and deposits of cave loam reach a total
thickness of 8-1/2 feet and mark Sirgenstein as first in rank among the
Palæolithic stations of Germany.
TYPES AND MIGRATIONS OF THE MAMMALS HUNTED BY THE NEANDERTHALS
This is the life of the period of the fourth glaciation, when a very cold
and moist climate prevailed all over western Europe as far south as
northern Spain and northern Italy. While the glacial fields were not so
extensive as during the third or the second glaciation, the climate was
very severe, as indicated by the southward migration not only of the
arctic flora but of the mammals and birds of the tundra region bordering
the southern shores of the Arctic Ocean. Two or three forms from the cold
steppes of northern Russia also found their way into western Europe,
but this was distinctly not a steppe period because of the prevailing
moisture of the climate; in place of the westerly winds and great dust
clouds of closing Acheulean times, cold mists and clouds heavy with
moisture swept over the country, which during the winters was at times
buried in snow, and subject to rapid changes of temperature. These
climatic[AG] conditions appear to be demonstrated by the predominance of
the arctic tundra life, mammals which were adapted only to severe weather
and attracted by the northern flora.
[Illustration: PL. V. The Neanderthal man of La Chapelle-aux-Saints,
inhabiting the Dordogne region of central France in Mousterian times.
Antiquity estimated as between 40,000 and 25,000 years. After the
restoration modelled by J. H. McGregor. For the bodily proportions of this
hunting race compare the frontispiece, Pl. I.]
The summers were undoubtedly warm like the present Arctic summers, but
very much longer in these southerly latitudes. It is not improbable that
there were seasonal migrations, northward and southward, of the mammoths,
rhinoceroses, and reindeer, and also that the northern flint quarries
along the Somme and the Marne may have been visited chiefly during the
warm summer season. The Asiatic mammals had entirely disappeared from the
regions of France and Germany during the first maximum of the fourth
glaciation, but there are some who maintain that during the amelioration
of climate that followed, an interval in the Alpine region termed the
_Laufenschwankung_ by Penck, the straight-tusked elephant and Merck's
rhinoceros again migrated into northern France. It is true that
occasionally we find the bones of these animals in close association with
those of the woolly mammoth and the woolly rhinoceros. It is possible to
explain such intermingling either as having occurred during the advance of
the fourth glaciation, or as due to the northward and southward migration
of the respective herds of mammals in the summer and winter seasons. As
the period of the fourth glaciation continued it is certain that these
Asiatic mammals entirely disappeared.
At the same time the Neanderthals had passed through the first stage of
development of the Mousterian industry and had reached what is known as
the 'full' or 'high' Mousterian, which, with few exceptions, was carried
on under the shelter of the overhanging cliffs or within the grottos.
The mammalian life of these 'full' Mousterian times, as found along the
headwaters of the Danube, the Rhine, and the branches of the Dordogne and
Vézère, is divided among the various faunal groups as follows:
LIFE OF MIDDLE MOUSTERIAN TIMES
TUNDRA LIFE.
Woolly mammoth.
Woolly rhinoceros.
Scandinavian reindeer.
Arctic fox.
Arctic hare.
Banded lemming.
Arctic ptarmigan.
ALPINE LIFE.
Alpine marmot.
Ibex.
Alpine ptarmigan.
STEPPE LIFE.
Steppe horse.
Steppe suslik.
Moor-hen.
ASIATIC LIFE.
Cave-lion.
Cave-hyæna.
Cave-leopard.
FOREST LIFE.
Stag, lynx, wolf, fox, water-vole, brown bear, giant deer.
Cave-bear.
MEADOW LIFE.
Bison.
Wild cattle.
It would appear that the reindeer, the woolly mammoth, and the woolly
rhinoceros were already widely distributed over western Europe,
accompanied by the arctic fox (_Canis lagopus_), the arctic hare (_Lepus
variabilis_), and the banded lemming (_Myodes torquatus_). There is no
proof that the musk-ox had at this time reached its extreme southerly
distribution, and it would appear that the arrival of the second type of
northern lemming from the region of the river Obi (_Myodes obensis_) did
not occur until the close of Mousterian times,(21) because the great
migration of these animals is recorded by their abundant remains in the
so-called 'lower rodent layer' of all the stations along the Rhine and
Danube, such as Sirgenstein, Wildscheuer, and Ofnet, after the final stage
of Mousterian industry. In fact, this remarkable little rodent appears to
mark the second maximum or close of the fourth glaciation by its migration
all over western Europe, and wherever its remains are found in the grotto
deposits they furnish one of the most important and positive of
prehistoric dates, namely, that of the 'lower rodent layer.' The lemmings
surpass all other mammals in the great distances covered by their
migrations, and it would appear that this northern species swept all over
western Europe at the same time, leaving its remains not only in the
caverns along the Danube but in those of Belgium and of Thiede, near
Braunschweig. The latter station, Thiede, was not far from the southern
border of the Scandinavian glacier; it was subjected to a very severe
arctic climate, as the only associates of the Obi lemming were the banded
lemming, the arctic fox, the arctic hare, the reindeer, the mammoth, and
the musk-ox.
LIFE OF LATE MOUSTERIAN TIMES
_Second Maximum of Fourth Glaciation_
Tundra, Steppe, Alpine, Asiatic and Meadow life, as above.
Obi lemming.
Musk-ox.
Ermine.
Arctic ptarmigan.
Eversmann's weasel (Steppe weasel).
The woolly mammoth now reaches the height of its evolution and
specialization; as preserved in the frozen tundras of northern Siberia,
and as represented in very numerous drawings and engravings by the Upper
Palæolithic artists, it is the most completely known of all fossil
mammalia.(22) Its proportions, as shown in the accompanying figure, which
represents the information gathered from all sources, are entirely
different from those of either the Indian or African elephant. The head is
very high and surmounted by a great mass of hair and wool; behind this a
sharp depression separates the back of the head from the great hump on the
back; the hinder portion of the back falls away very rapidly and the tail
is short; the overcoat of long hair nearly reaches the ground, and beneath
this is a warm undercoating of wool. It is not improbable that the humps
on the head and the back were fat reservoirs. The color of the hair was a
yellowish brown, varying from light brown to pure brown; woolly hair, from
an inch to an inch and a half in length, covered the whole body
interspersed with the shorter hairs was a large number of longer and
thicker hairs, which formed mane-like patches on the cheeks, chin,
shoulders, flanks, and abdomen. A broad fringe of this long hair extended
along the sides of the body, as depicted in the work of the Upper
Palæolithic artists in the Combarelles Cave. Especially interesting to us
is the food found in the stomach and mouth of the frozen Siberian
mammoths, which consists chiefly of a meadow flora such as flourishes
during the summer in northern Siberia at the present day, including
grasses and sedges, wild thyme, beans of the wild oxytropis, also the
arctic variety of the upright crowfoot (_Ranunculus acer_). This was the
summer food. The winter food undoubtedly included the leaves and stems of
the willow, the juniper, and other winter plants.
[Illustration: FIG. 102. The woolly mammoth (_Elephas primigenius_) and
the contemporary Neanderthal hunters (_Homo neanderthalensis_), after the
drawings of Upper Palæolithic artists and the frozen mammoths found in
northern Siberia. By Charles R. Knight, 1915.]
The woolly rhinoceros was the invariable companion of the mammoth, even as
Merck's rhinoceros always associated itself with the straight-tusked
elephant. This remarkable animal is related to the northern African group
of white rhinoceroses, from which it branched off at a very remote period.
The profile of its very long, narrow head, of its enormous anterior and
lesser posterior horn, and its humped back resembles that of the existing
African form, but its protection against the arctic climate gave it a
wholly different outward appearance; the hair of the face, of a
golden-brown color, with an undercovering of wool, is preserved in the
Museum of Petrograd. Through a discovery at Starunia, in eastern Galicia,
in 1911, this animal is now completely known to us, except the tail; its
remains were found here at a depth of 30 feet, and included the head, left
fore leg, and the skin of the left side of the body. The Starunia specimen
has a broad, truncated upper lip adapted to grazing habits, small oblique
eyes, long, narrow, and pointed ears, a long anterior horn with oval base,
and a shorter posterior horn, a short neck, on the back of which is a
small, fleshy hump, quite independent of the skeleton; the legs are
comparatively short. It differs from the living African form in the
somewhat narrower muzzle, in its small, pointed ears, and in the presence
of a thick coating of hair. Like the white rhinoceros, the woolly form was
a plains dweller, living on grass and small herbs.(23) This rhinoceros
kept more closely to the borders of the great ice-sheets than did the
mammoth, arresting its migration in Germany and France; that is, it did
not migrate so far to the south as the mammoth, which wandered down into
Italy as far as Rome.
The reindeer was the herald or forerunner of all the arctic tundra fauna;
it reached the valley of the Vézère at the beginning of the period of the
true Mousterian culture and already had penetrated much farther south
during the Third Glacial Stage, probably migrating along the borders of
the ice-fields; in fact, it is found in northern Europe even during the
second glaciation. It is the true Scandinavian or barren-ground species,
which is now typified by two forms of the Old World reindeer (_R.
tarandus_, _R. spitzbergensis_), and by the existing American
barren-ground forms. The antlers are round, slender, and long in
proportion to the relatively small size of the animal; the brow tines are
palmated. There is little proof that the Neanderthals made much use of the
bones of the reindeer, but there is every reason to suppose that they used
the pelts, for the preparation of which the Mousterian scrapers and
planers were especially well fitted.
[Illustration: FIG. 103. The woolly rhinoceros (_Rhinoceros
antiquitatis_), after the drawings of Palæolithic artists and the specimen
from Starunia preserved in the museum of Lemberg, Galicia. By Charles R.
Knight, 1915.]
In the Iberian peninsula the tundra fauna did not penetrate as far south
as Portugal, although the Norwegian lemming (_Myodes lemmus_) reached the
vicinity of Lisbon. The woolly mammoth, accompanied by the woolly
rhinoceros, has been discovered in two localities on the extreme northern
coast of Spain, in the province of Santander, bordering the Bay of Biscay.
The reindeer (_Rangifer tarandus_) is found in the cavern of Seriña, south
of the Pyrenees; as early as Acheulean times it reached the region of
Altamira, near Santander. Thus Harlé(24) concludes it is certain that the
tundra fauna spread from France westward into Catalonia, along the
northern coast of Spain, flanking the Pyrenees. It is generally believed
that the cave-bear (_Ursus spelæus_) occupied many of the caverns before
their possession by man, and developed certain peculiarities of structure
in these haunts. Thus the phalanges bearing the claws are feebly
developed, indicating that the claws had partly lost their prehensile
function; the anterior grinding-teeth are very much reduced, and the cusps
of the posterior grinders are blunted in a way which is indicative of an
omnivorous diet; yet the front paws were of tremendous size, the body was
thick-set and of heavier proportions than that of the larger recent bears
(_Ursus arctos_) of Europe. Hence, it would appear that the Neanderthals
drove out from the caves a type of bear less formidable than the existing
species but nevertheless a serious opponent to men armed with the small
weapons of the Mousterian period.
CUSTOMS OF THE CHASE AND OF CAVE LIFE
We have only indirect means of knowing the courage and activity of the
Neanderthals in the chase, through the bones of animals hunted for food
which are found intermingled with the flints around their ancient hearths.
These include in the early Mousterian hearths, as we have seen, bones of
the bison, the wild cattle, and the horse, which are followed at
Combe-Capelle by the first appearance of the bones of the reindeer. The
bones of the bison and of the wild horse are both utilized in the bone
anvils of the closing Mousterian culture at La Quina. What we believe to
be the period of the great mammalian life of the region of the upper
Danube is found in the Mousterian levels of the grotto of Sirgenstein,
from which it would appear that the Neanderthals hunted the mammoth, the
rhinoceros, the wild horse, bison, and cattle, and the giant deer as well
as the reindeer. We should keep in mind, however, that when these caves
were for a time deserted, the beasts of prey returned, and so it often
happens that the succeeding layers afford proofs of alternate occupation
by man and by beasts of prey of sufficient size to bring in the larger
kinds of game, while owls may be responsible for the deposits of the
lemming, as in the 'lower rodent layer.'
Obermaier(25) has given careful study to the vicissitudes of cave life in
Mousterian times. Long before these caves were inhabited by man, they
served as lairs or refuges for the cave-bear and cave-hyæna, as well as
for many birds of prey. For example, the cave of Echenoz-la-Moline, on the
upper waters of the Saône, contained the remains of over eight hundred
skeletons of the cave-bear, and no doubt it cost the Neanderthals many a
hard-fought battle before the beasts were driven out and man possessed
himself of the grotto. Fire may have been the means employed. It has been
questioned whether the caves were not unhealthy dwelling-places, but it
must be remembered that, except in certain caverns which had natural
openings through the roof for the exit of smoke, there was no true cave
life, but rather a grotto life, which centred around the entrance of the
cave. The smallest cave, this author observes, was considerably larger and
better ventilated than the small, smoky cabins of some of the European
peasants, or the snow huts of the Eskimo. The most serious obstacle was
the prevailing dampness, which varied periodically in the caverns, so that
dry seasons were succeeded by abundant moisture seeping through the
limestone roof and down the side walls. At such times the caverns were
probably uninhabitable, and in the bones of both men and beasts many
instances have been observed of diseased swellings and of inflammation of
the vertebræ, such as are caused by extreme dampness. The compensating
advantages were the shelter offered from the rain and cold, a constant
temperature at moderate distances from the entrance, and also the fact
that the caves were very easily defensible, because the entrance was
generally small and the approach often steep and difficult; a high stone
wall across the opening would have made the defense still easier, and a
flaming firebrand would have prevented the approach of bears and other
beasts of prey. On account of this shelter from the weather and wild
beasts the grottos and the larger openings of the caverns were certainly
crowded with the Mousterian flint workers during the inclement seasons of
the year.
Yet the greater part of the life of the Neanderthals was undoubtedly
passed in the open and in the chase. Throughout Mousterian times the
commonest game consisted of the wild horse, wild ox, and reindeer. Both
flesh and pelts were utilized, and the marrow was sought by splitting all
the larger bones. Thus, frequently we find in the hearths the remains of
the mammoth, the woolly rhinoceros, the giant deer, the cave-bear, and the
brown bear. From these beasts of prey the Neanderthal hunters obtained
pelts and perhaps also fat for torches used to light the caverns; there is
no proof of the invention of the lamp at this period.
The work of the women undoubtedly consisted of preparing the meals and
making the pelts into covers and clothing. Whenever possible this would be
done in the daylight outside of the grottos, but in chilly, rainy weather,
or the bitter cold of winter, the whole tribe would seek refuge in the
grotto, gathering around the fire-hearths fed with wood; odd corners would
serve as storehouses for fuel or dried meat, preserved against the days
when extreme cold and blinding snow forbade the hunters to venture forth.
It appears that the game was dismembered where it fell and the best parts
removed. The skull was split open for the brain; the long bones were
preserved for the marrow; thus the bones of the flank and shoulder of game
occur frequently in cave deposits, while the ribs and vertebræ are rare.
The pitfall may have been part of the hunting craft known to the
Neanderthals. The chase was pursued with spears or darts fitted with flint
points, also by means of 'throwing stones,' which are found in great
numbers in the upper Mousterian levels of La Quina, in the Wolf Cave of
Yonne, Les Cottés, and various places in Spain. If one imagines, as is
quite possible, that the throwing stone was placed in a leather sling or
in the cleft end of a stick, or fastened to a long leather thong, one can
readily see it would prove a very effective weapon.
The methods of chase by the Neanderthals are, nevertheless, somewhat of a
mystery. There was a very decided disparity between the size and
effectiveness of their weapons and the strength and resistance of the
animals which they pursued. None of the very heavy implements of Acheulean
times was preserved; the dart and spear heads are not greatly improved,
certainly they could not penetrate the thick hides of the larger arctic
tundra mammals, heavily protected with hair and wool; the chase even of
the horses, wild cattle, and reindeer was apparently without the aid of
the bow and arrow and prior to the invention of the barbed arrow or lance
head.
[Illustration: FIG. 104. Geographic distribution of Pre-Neanderthaloids
and Neanderthaloids in western Europe, showing the localities where the
remains of Pre-Neanderthaloid races (Heidelberg and Piltdown) and of true
Neanderthaloids have thus far been discovered. (Compare table, p. 219.)]
DISCOVERY OF THE NEANDERTHALOID RACES
The open-air or nomadic life of all the tribes of western Europe from
Pre-Chellean nearly to the close of Acheulean times was very unfavorable
to the preservation of human remains. It is possible that the bodies of
the dead and of the aged were thrown out to the hyænas which surrounded
the stations, as among some of the tribes of Africa to-day, but it is
equally possible that they were interred in some manner. Skeletons buried
near the surface in the river sands or gravels of the 'terraces' would not
have been preserved. We have seen that the preservation of the Heidelberg
and Piltdown remains was entirely due to chance, the bones having been
washed down and mingled with those of the animals; nor has any evidence
been found in the grotto of Krapina of ceremonial burial or of respect for
the dead, but on the contrary there is some evidence of cannibalistic
customs. Even before the close of early Mousterian times all this was
changed. Perhaps the closer association enforced by the more rigorous
climate indirectly produced greater respect for the dead and led to the
custom of burial or the orderly laying out of the remains of the dead in
the floors of the partly protected grottos and caverns, to which custom we
owe our present knowledge of the structure of Neanderthal man in
Mousterian times.
[Illustration: FIG. 105. Front view of the Neanderthaloid skull found at
Gibraltar in 1848--the earliest discovery of a member of this race, now
regarded as the skull of a woman. Photograph by A. Hrdlička from the
original specimen. One-quarter life size.]
The first discovery of a Neanderthaloid was made in 1848, eight years
before the type of the Neanderthal race came to light. This was the
Gibraltar skull(26) found by Lieutenant Flint, near Forbes Quarry, on the
north face of the Rock of Gibraltar. It consists of a well-preserved
skull, with the parietal bones only missing and the face and base of the
cranium remarkably complete. In 1868 it was presented by Busk to the
Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, in London, where it lies to-day.
The exact site of the discovery can no longer be positively identified; it
was probably found in a still existing cave, and although its archæologic
age cannot be determined, yet as its anatomical features are those of the
Neanderthal race, and as all the remains of this race which can be dated
with certainty are of Mousterian age, it probably belongs to the
Mousterian period. Of recent years its great importance in the history of
man has been revealed in the studies of Sollas, Keith, and Schwalbe. Thus
it has come to be ranked among the Neanderthaloids and is considered of a
particularly primitive form, because of the extremely small size of the
brain. This feature and the slight development of the supraorbital ridges,
so characteristic of the Neanderthaloids, are explained by the theory that
the skull belonged to a female.
[Illustration: FIG. 106. Section of that part of the valley of the Düssel
known as the Neanderthal, showing the location of the limestone grotto
where the Neanderthal skeleton was discovered. Drawn by C. A. Reeds.]
Sera(27) considers the Gibraltar skull to be the most ape-like of all
human fossils and thinks it should not be classed with the Neanderthaloids
at all, but should be regarded as Pre-Neanderthaloid; this view is shared
by Keith. Boule, however, believes that this skull is of the same geologic
age as that of Spy, La Chapelle, La Ferrassie, and La Quina; everything
leads us to believe,(28) he remarks, that the skull of Gibraltar is a
female skull of Neanderthal type. He elsewhere refers to the skulls of
Gibraltar, of La Quina, and of La Ferrassie II as probably those of
female Neanderthals.
[Illustration: FIG. 107. The original type skull of Neanderthal (left
side) discovered in 1856. After Schwalbe. One-quarter life size.]
The type skull of this great extinct race of men is that of
Neanderthal--certainly the most famous and the most disputed of all
anthropologic remains--appreciated by Lyell and Huxley, but passed over by
Darwin, and finally established by Schwalbe as the most important missing
link between the existing species of man (_Homo sapiens_) and the
anthropoid apes. In 1856(29) some workmen were engaged in clearing a small
loam-covered cave about six feet in height, the so-called Feldhofner
Grotto, in the cretaceous limestone of the valley known as the
Neanderthal, on the small stream Düssel flowing between Elberfeld and
Düsseldorf. They discovered some human bones, probably a complete skeleton
representing an interment, which, unfortunately, were allowed to be
scattered and crushed. Doctor Fuhlrott rescued the parts that remained,
including the now famous skullcap, both thigh-bones, the right upper-arm
bone, portions of the lower arm, bones of both sides, the right
collar-bone, and fragments of the pelvis, shoulder-blade, and ribs. All
the bones were perfectly preserved and are now to be found in the
provincial museum of Bonn.
The discovery made a great sensation, but at first the age of these
fossils remained doubtful; some 150 paces from the grotto, in a similar
small cave were found bones of the cave-bear and rhinoceros. In 1858
Schaaffhausen's memoir(30) appeared, in which he gave the first detailed
description of these remains as belonging to a primitive original race
differing in every point from recent man, and he never wavered from this
standpoint. In 1863(31) Busk, Huxley, and Lyell also placed this skeleton
in its true intermediate position between man and the anthropoid apes. The
determined opinion of Virchow that this was not a normal type of man
exerted so great an influence that not until the classic work of
Schwalbe,(32) between 1899 and 1901, did this skeleton assume its
commanding importance for all time, and even this was subsequent to the
discovery of two other Neanderthaloid races.
At first, quite erroneously, this was associated with the so-called race
of Cannstatt, but long before Schwalbe's work it was recognized by
King,(33) in 1864, as a distinct species of man (_Homo neanderthalensis_)
'the man of the Neander valley.' Not long after the discovery of the
Neanderthaloids of Spy, in Belgium, Cope,(34) in 1893, proposed the same
specific name of _Homo neanderthalensis_. In 1897 Wilser(35) suggested the
name of _Homo primigenius_, which has been widely adopted in Germany,
while among French authors the same species of man is sometimes known
to-day as _Homo mousteriensis_. This variety of names serves at least to
record the unanimous opinion that this mid-Pleistocene man belongs to a
distinct species.
Since the race was very widely distributed, we may speak of these people
as the 'Neanderthals,' while races resembling the Neanderthal species may
be characterized as 'Neanderthaloid.' The complete series of discoveries
of members of this race is now very large indeed.
DISTRIBUTION OF THE REMAINS OF THE NEANDERTHALS
(Compare Fig. 104)
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 1. OF UNKNOWN LOWER PALÆOLITHIC TIMES |
| |
|1848. Gibraltar. Forbes Quarry. Fragmentary skull. |
|1856. Neanderthal. Düsseldorf, Germany. Skullcap and skeletal |
| fragments. |
|1859. Arcy-sur-Cure. Yonne, France. 1 lower jaw. |
|1866. La Naulette. Belgium. 1 lower jaw. |
|1888. Malarnaud. Ariège, France. 1 lower jaw. |
| ? Gourdan. Hautes-Pyrénées. 1 lower jaw. |
|1906. Ochos. Moravia. 1 lower jaw. |
| |
| 2. WITH LATE MOUSTERIAN INDUSTRY |
| |
|1887. Spy I, II. Near Dinant, Belgium. Two skulls and |
| skeletons. |
|1907. Petit-Puymoyen. Charente, France. Fragments of upper and |
| lower jaws. |
|1909. Pech de l'Azé. Dordogne, France. Skull of a child. |
|1910. La Ferrassie II. Dordogne, France. 1 skeleton (female). |
|1911. La Cotte de St. Isle of Jersey. 13 human teeth. |
| Brelade. |
|1911. La Quina II. Charente, France. Skull and fragments of |
| skeleton. |
| |
| 3. WITH MIDDLE MOUSTERIAN INDUSTRY |
| |
|1882. Šipka. Moravia. Jaw of a child. |
|1908. La Chapelle- Corrèze, France. Almost complete skull |
| aux-Saints. and skeleton. |
|1909. La Ferrassie I. Dordogne, France. Portions of one |
| skeleton. |
|1910. La Quina I. Charente, France. Foot bones. |
| |
| 4. WITH EARLY MOUSTERIAN INDUSTRY |
| |
|1908. Le Moustier. Vézère Valley, Skeleton of a youth. |
| Dordogne, France. |
|1914. Ehringsdorf.(37) Near Weimar. Lower jaw. |
| |
| 5. WITH MOUSTERIAN OR ACHEULEAN INDUSTRY |
| |
|1899. Krapina. Croatia, Portions of many |
| Austria-Hungary. skeletons of adults |
| and of children. |
|1892. Taubach. Near Weimar. 1 milk tooth. |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
In the year 1887 the Belgian geologists Fraipont and Lohest(36) discovered
in a grotto near Spy, not far from Dinant on the Meuse, the remains of two
individuals which are now distinguished as Spy I and Spy II. In the same
stratum with the skeletons, beneath a layer of tufaceous limestone, flint
implements of Mousterian age were embedded, together with remains of the
woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, cave-bear, and cave-hyæna. This
discovery is one of the most important in the history of anthropology,
because it definitely dated the Spy men as belonging to the period of
Mousterian industry, and also because the authors immediately recognized
these men as belonging to the race of Neanderthal and of Cannstatt,
which at the time were supposed to be the same. Here for the first time
the proportions of the cranium and the brain, the very primitive features
of the lower jaw and of the teeth, the low stature, and several ape-like
characters of the limb bones became known; here were observed the
prominent supraorbital ridges of the Neanderthal type, the receding
forehead, the cranial profile inferior to that of the lowest existing
Australian races, the narrow, dolichocephalic skull. The limbs were found
to have retained the anthropoid disproportion between the thigh-bone and
the shin-bone, and the important discovery was made that this short,
massively built, heavy-browed, dull-visaged Neanderthal man was unable to
stand absolutely erect, the structure of the knee-joint being such that
the knees were constantly slightly bent. In other words, the Spy man had
not yet fully acquired the erect position of the lower limbs.
[Illustration: FIG. 108. Skull known as Spy I, discovered in 1887, in
front of the grotto of Spy, near Namur, Belgium. After Kraemer.
One-quarter life size.]
This discovery may be said to have established the Neanderthals in all
their characters as a very distinct low race, but twenty-two years elapsed
before this was further confirmed by the finding of another and still
earlier type of Neanderthaloid at Krapina, in northern Croatia,
Austria-Hungary, as described at the close of Chapter II (p. 181 above); a
type which with its local variations was soon determined as
unquestionably belonging in the same group with the man of Neanderthal and
the men of Spy.
Many years before, namely, in 1866, the Belgian anthropologist Dupont(38)
had discovered the remains of another member of this race in a grotto on
the bank of the River Lesse, near La Naulette, not far from Furfooz, in
northern Belgium. This is now known as the La Naulette jaw and is found to
be of Neanderthal type. It was associated with bones of the woolly
mammoth, the rhinoceros, the reindeer, and a few fragments of other human
bones.
Again, in 1882, Mas̆ka(39) found in a cave near Šipka, in Moravia, south
of Sternberg, and six miles east of Neutitschein, fragments of a child's
lower jaw, extraordinarily strong, thick, and large, and showing the
incoming of the permanent teeth. From this very same region is the jaw of
Ochos, Moravia, found by Rzehak(40) about 1906. Only the alveolar part of
the jaw was found, but it served to demonstrate the very wide geographical
distribution of the Neanderthal race.
At this time the Dordogne region, long known to be an intensive centre of
Mousterian industry, from the time of Lartet's discovery of Le Moustier,
in 1863, had not yielded a single skeleton, or any anatomical evidence of
the type of man which in Mousterian times inhabited it. But beginning in
the spring of 1908 there came in succession a whole series of such
discoveries, mostly of ceremonial burials, at La Chapelle-aux-Saints, at
the type station of Le Moustier itself, at La Ferrassie, another station
on the lower Vézère, and at La Quina.
In October, 1910, was discovered the skull known as La Ferrassie II, of
late Mousterian age; it is probably that of a female, and the remains were
arranged in what was presumably a special form of ceremonial burial,
because the bones, instead of being laid out straight in a certain
direction, were in a crouching or flexed position.
The Le Moustier skeleton was found by Hauser in the lower grotto of Le
Moustier, in the Vézère valley, in the spring of 1908, and carefully
removed with the aid of Professor Klaatsch.(41) It belonged to a youth
some sixteen years of age. The most interesting feature of the discovery
was the manner in which the skeleton was laid out.(42) The head rested on
a number of flint fragments carefully piled together--a sort of stone
pillow; the dead lay in a sleeping posture, with the head resting on the
right forearm. An exceptionally fine coup de poing was close by the hand,
and numerous charred and split bones of wild cattle (_Bos primigenius_)
were placed around, indicative of a food offering. The flints were
believed to belong to the Acheulean stage, which underlies the layer of
true Mousterian industry, long known in this locality; but by French
archæologists and by Schmidt these implements are regarded as of the
earliest Mousterian age, in which it is well known that the Acheulean coup
de poing still persisted. Unfortunately, the skeleton was not very well
preserved and, while Klaatsch was entirely justified in classifying it
with the Neanderthaloids, it should be regarded not as a distinct species
(_Homo mousteriensis hauseri_) but rather as a member of the true
Neanderthal race (_Homo neanderthalensis_). It also proves to be a rather
stocky individual, robust and of low stature: the arms and legs are
relatively short, especially the forearm and the shin-bone.
[Illustration: FIG. 109. Grotto of La Chapelle-aux-Saints, Corrèze, a few
miles to the eastward of Le Moustier. After Boule.]
[Illustration: FIG. 110. Entrance to the grotto of La Chapelle-aux-Saints,
where the finest of all the Neanderthaloid fossils was discovered in 1908.
After Boule.]
At the same time that the skeleton of Le Moustier was being disinterred,
the Abbés A. and J. Bouyssonie, and L. Bardon(43) were exploring the
Mousterian culture of the grotto near La Chapelle-aux-Saints, a few miles
to the eastward of Le Moustier, and came upon a skeleton which has proved
to be by far the finest of all the Neanderthaloid fossils, including a
remarkably well-preserved skull, almost the entire back-bone, twenty ribs,
bones of the arm and of the greater part of the leg, and a number of the
bones of the hands and feet. This was also a ceremonial burial of an
individual between fifty and fifty-five years of age, most carefully laid
out in an east-and-west direction in a small, natural depression. With it
were found typical Mousterian flints, also a number of shells and remains
chiefly of the woolly rhinoceros, the horse, the reindeer, and the bison.
The finding of a mature skull with the bones of the face in position, and
in a relatively perfect state of preservation without distortion of the
entire cranium, afforded for the first time the opportunity of finally
determining not only all the skeletal characters and proportions of
Neanderthal man but also the actual size and proportions of the brain.
This superb specimen was sent to the Paris Museum, and Boule's preliminary
descriptions(44) and finally his almost faultless monograph(45) aroused
world-wide interest in the Neanderthal race.
[Illustration: FIG. 111. The Neanderthaloid skull from La
Chapelle-aux-Saints--side, front and top views. After Boule. One-quarter
life size.]
A year later a third Neanderthal skeleton was discovered in the cave of La
Ferrassie not far from Le Bugue, Dordogne, by Peyrony. The bones were
badly shattered, and the proofs of ceremonial burial were not perfectly
clear, but at a glance the skeleton was clearly recognized from the
characters of the skull, and particularly from those of the forehead, as
belonging to the Neanderthal race.
In the succeeding year, 1910, in the cavern of La Quina, Department of
Charente, to the north of the Vézère region(46) were found the foot bones
of a man precisely resembling the La Chapelle type, and again in 1911
several parts of the skeleton of another entirely typical member of the
Neanderthal race were discovered in the earliest Mousterian strata. The
skull bones were somewhat separated at the sutures. This was certainly not
a case of ceremonial burial. Like the Gibraltar skull, this is supposed to
be that of a female.
[Illustration: FIG. 112. Human teeth of Neanderthaloid type, discovered in
a cave on the Isle of Jersey. After Marett and Hrdlička.]
Of especial geographic interest is the discovery by Nicolle and Sinel(47)
of thirteen human teeth in a Mousterian cavern on St. Brelade's Bay, on
the Island of Jersey,(48) which furnishes proof of the extension of the
Neanderthal race to the Channel Islands, when these were, in all
probability, still a part of the mainland. The teeth were associated with
bones of the woolly rhinoceros, of the reindeer, and of two varieties of
the horse, as well as with evidences of Mousterian hearths and flint
implements. The distinctive features of the Neanderthal grinding-teeth are
the stout size, deep implantation, and expanded form of the roots, which,
with the heavy jaw, point to the toughness of the food and to the muscular
strength exerted in mastication. The roots, instead of tapering to a
point below, as in modern man, form a broad, stout column, supporting the
crown, adapted to a sweeping motion of the jaw. This special feature alone
would exclude the Neanderthals from the ancestry of the higher races.
Thus, through a long series of discoveries, beginning in 1848 and rapidly
multiplying during the last few years, we have found the materials for a
complete knowledge of the skeletal structure of the men, women, and
children of the Neanderthal race; we know the relative brain development
as well as the stature of the sexes; we have determined that this race,
and this only, extended over all western Europe during late Acheulean and
the entire period of Mousterian times, and we have also learned that it
was a race imbued with reverence for the dead and therefore probably
animated by the belief in some form of future existence.
CHARACTERS OF THE NEANDERTHAL RACE
The skulls and skeletons(49) of Neanderthal, Spy, Krapina, Le Moustier, La
Chapelle, La Ferrassie, and Gibraltar have so many distinctive features in
common that it is beyond question that they must be classed in a closely
related group. The distinctive features of this group are:
First, features found also in the different existing races of man, but
never in the anthropoid apes, and therefore human; second, features, all
of which have never been found combined in any race of recent man, the
group, therefore, represents a distinct species of man; third, features
outside of the limits of variation in the recent races of man, and
intermediate between them and the variation limits of the anthropoid apes.
Before looking at Neanderthal man as a whole, we may turn our attention
especially to a number of these peculiar features of the race. All the
earliest observers were impressed by the heavy, overhanging brows and
retreating forehead. In recent man there is often a decided prominence
above the eyes, from the glabella or median point above the nose outward
toward each side, but generally the outer third of the margin of these
prominences turns upward beneath the outer line of the eyebrows. In the
Neanderthals, on the contrary, these prominences beneath the eyebrows
surround the whole upper edge of the eye socket, extending outward around
the external borders of the forehead, so that they may be called '_tori
supraorbitales_'; the extent of this prominent ridge above and to the
sides forms a veritable roof over the eye sockets, which appear like two
deep, lateral caverns. Such lateral prominences do occur, though rarely,
in recent man; they are observed, for example, in certain Australians.
[Illustration: FIG. 113. Skulls of a chimpanzee (left), of La
Chapelle-aux-Saints (centre), and of a modern Frenchman (right), showing
the gradual disappearance of the eyebrow ridges and projecting face. After
Boule.]
The front view of the Neanderthal face, as seen in the female Gibraltar
skull, in which these eyebrow ridges are by no means so prominent as in
the male skulls, is no less remarkable for the great height of the face as
compared with the flatness of the forehead. Placing the skull side by side
with that of the Australian,(50) we observe at once the enormous
difference in the proportions of the face and the cranium in these two
types, although the Australian represents one of the lowest existing races
of _Homo sapiens_; we observe in the Gibraltar skull the very wide space
between the eyes and the very large size of the narial opening, which
indicate a broad, flattened nose; there is a correspondingly long space
between the bottom of the narial opening and the line for the insertion of
the incisor teeth, indicating a very long upper lip.
The jaw is less powerful than that of the Heidelberg man. The Heidelberg
jaw we have seen to be distinguished by its general strength and
clumsiness and its lack of chin, or rather a chin without the slightest
indication of a prominence; on the inside of this very thick, rounded chin
plate, the characteristic chin spine (_spina mentalis_) is lacking;
instead, a double groove is present as the point of attachment for the
muscles which connect the chin and tongue with the hyoid bone; the
ascending process for the attachment of the muscles of the jaw is seen to
be unusually broad, 60 mm., in contrast to about 37 mm. in the recent jaw;
finally, the condyle for attachment with the skull is particularly
large.(51)
[Illustration: FIG. 114. Face view of the Gibraltar skull (left) and of a
modern Australian skull (right), displaying the high, large visage of the
former, which suggests that of the anthropoid apes. After Schwalbe.
One-quarter life size. The comparative horizontal lines are across the
(_a_) _nasion_, or root of the nose, the (_b_) lower edges of the orbits,
and the (_c_) lower edge of the nasal aperture.]
Like the Heidelberg jaw, that of the Neanderthals is distinguished by
great thickness and massiveness. In general the contours are similar; in a
few instances the chin process is suggested by a slight prominence, but in
general the chin is strongly receding, and it agrees with that of
Heidelberg in lacking the _spina mentalis_. In other characteristics there
are decided differences in the Heidelberg and Neanderthal jaws. The form
of the latter is now known from the specimens of Krapina, of Spy, of La
Naulette, of Ochos, and of Šipka, and from the perfect examples of Le
Moustier and La Chapelle. The Šipka specimen proves that even in a child
ten years of age the jaw was remarkable for thickness and strength.
Boule(52) entirely agrees with Gorjanovič-Kramberger(53) that the chin in
the Neanderthal jaw was only in process of formation, and throughout life
attained no more than an infantile form, that the Neanderthals may be
ranked, however, as _Homines mentales_, whereas the Heidelbergs, in which
the chin is entirely lacking, may be regarded as _Homines amentales_.
The proportions of the teeth in the Neanderthals are equally distinctive,
especially in the size of the true grinders and cutting teeth. As in the
Heidelberg jaw, they form a closely set row, from which the canine does
not project as in the Piltdown dentition; in fact, the contour of the jaw
and the proportions of the teeth are distinctly human when compared with
the orang-like jaw of the Piltdown man. The grinding surface of the teeth
has many layers of enamel, and the cusps are well developed. Unlike those
of recent man, the incisors display folds of enamel on the inner or
lingual surfaces, a condition rarely observed in the modern cutting teeth.
In the teeth of the Heidelberg jaw, the pulp cavities are exceptionally
large, whereas in the teeth of the Krapina race there is the unique
feature that the molars have no normal roots, the roots having been more
or less absorbed, a very rare occurrence in recent man. The dentition of
La Chapelle is also distinctly human, but extraordinarily massive,
corresponding with the general massiveness of the skull and masticating
apparatus; in detail it is not that of civilized races, but an exaggerated
form of the type called _macrodont_.(54) The elongation of the crown is
also similar to what is termed hypsodont.
The grinding-teeth do not all show this massive size and columnar form,
for about fifty per cent of the Krapina teeth have distinct roots and are
more like normal modern grinders. In the Neanderthaloids of Spy the teeth
are small and the roots are of moderate size.(55)
This study of the forehead and of the eyebrow ridges, of the great depth
of the face, and of the peculiarly high, square form of the eye sockets
prepares us for a profile view of the skull of La Chapelle in contrast
with that of the most highly developed and intellectual European type,
namely, the profile of the distinguished American palæontologist, the late
Professor Edward D. Cope, who bequeathed his skull and skeleton for
purposes of scientific study and comparison. In La Chapelle we at once
notice the platycephaly, or flattening of the skullcap, the retreating
forehead, the great prominence of the eyebrow ridges resembling that of
the anthropoid apes, the lengthening of the face as compared with the
flattening of the cranium, the great prominence or prognathism of the face
as a whole, and the special prominence of the rows of cutting teeth as
compared with the vertical or indrawn line, and the recession of the tooth
row in the Cope profile. This comparison also brings out the striking
contrast between the high chin prominence of _Homo sapiens_ and the deeply
receding chin of the Neanderthals. The contrast is hardly less remarkable
in the superior view of the skull in which the Neanderthal type is seen to
be extremely _dolichocephalic_, the back of the skull being relatively
broad and the front narrowing in the region of the forebrain until it
suddenly expands in the prominent supraorbital processes.
[Illustration: FIG. 115. Skull of La Chapelle-aux-Saints (outline) in
comparison with that of a high modern type (shaded); illustrating the
projecting eyebrows and prognathous, ape-like face of the Neanderthaloids.
After Boule. One-quarter life size.]
As shown in the diagram on page 8, Fig. 1, the greatest length of the
Neanderthal skull is found on the horizontal line directly through the
brain chamber, known as the _glabella-inion line_, a line drawn from a
prominence between the eyebrow ridges to a point at the back of the skull
known as the external occipital protuberance, or inion. This is also the
longest line in the skulls of Spy and of La Chapelle, as well as of the
anthropoid apes,(56) but in the north Australian skull, Fig. 1, owing to
the greater expansion of the upper part of the brain, the greatest length
of the skull is at a point considerably above the _glabella-inion_ line.
The median section of the skull of the chimpanzee, of the Neanderthal, and
of the north Australian displays in a very striking manner the
generalization made by Schwalbe, in 1901, that the Neanderthal skull is
truly an intermediate or half-way form between that of the anthropoid apes
and that of _Homo sapiens_. We observe in this illuminating section the
growth of the dome of the skull, that is, the great brain-bearing cavity
above the _glabella-inion_ line _g-i_, by noting the contrast in the
length of the vertical line of the _cranial height_, as compared with the
space below the _glabella-inion_ line indicated by the letters. This very
important vertical line terminates below at the opening, where the spinal
cord enters the base of the brain (see Fig. 1).
[Illustration: FIG. 116. Top view of three skulls--of a chimpanzee (left),
of the man of La Chapelle-aux-Saints (centre), and of a modern Frenchman
(right)--showing the retreat of the projecting face and prominent eyebrow
ridges. After Boule.]
In many characteristics the Neanderthal skull is shown to be nearer to
that of the anthropoid apes than to that of _Homo sapiens_. This
conclusion arrived at by Schwalbe, in 1901,(57) has been more than
confirmed by Boule's masterly study(58) of the very complete skull of La
Chapelle. After his detailed review, he concludes: As to the unity of the
Neanderthal head form, these features are not peculiar to the skull of La
Chapelle; in every case they are also found in the skulls of Neanderthal,
Gibraltar, Spy, Krapina, La Ferrassie, which witness to the homogeneity of
that human fossil type called Neanderthal. These features show a
structural affinity between the fossil men of the Mousterian period and
the anthropoid apes. It must be noted that many of these features may be
found also in recent human skulls of the inferior races, but that they are
very rare, very scattered, very isolated, and occur only as aberrations.
It is the accumulation of all these features in every skull of a whole
series which constitutes an assemblage entirely new and of great
importance. In the skull, as in other parts of the anatomy of the
Neanderthals, we should not expect to find every character intermediate
between the anthropoids and recent man. The long Neanderthal face is
somewhat similar to that of the Eskimo and is in contrast with the very
short face of the existing Australians and Tasmanians. The depression at
the root of the nose, just below the glabella, is very marked in all
Neanderthals; there is less of the nose bridge than in any recent races,
except those of the male Australians, yet the nose is not flattened but
somewhat arched or aquiline. This feature is not characteristic of all the
anthropoid apes, and in this respect the Neanderthals, Australians, and
Tasmanians are more different from the anthropoid apes than are some of
the white races; thus the Neanderthal nose, far from resembling that of
the anthropoids, differs from it more than does that of some recent human
types.(59) Many anatomists, following Huxley, have described the
Australian and Tasmanian skulls as more or less Neanderthaloid, and some
authors have gone so far as to regard these races as surviving
Neanderthals. It is true that some of the skulls in these existing races
are extraordinarily platycephalic and show a retreating forehead, that
others show supraorbital ridges almost as prominent as in the
Neanderthals, that sometimes the prominence of the occipital inion is very
marked, that certain jaws show a very retreating chin. Thus one or another
of these Neanderthal features has been observed in these lower existing
races, but all of these characteristics have never been combined in one
race as constant features, and invariably associated, as in all the skulls
of the Neanderthals known to us.
[Illustration: FIG. 117. Scale of ascent indicated in the skull form of
eleven races of fossil and living men, based on the result of twelve
different characters of comparison. At the bottom stands the anthropoid
ape, and above this _Pithecanthropus_, the ape-man of Java. A wide range
is observed between the Neanderthaloid skulls of Gibraltar and of
Spy-Neanderthal. Not far above these in the scale of ascent stand the
modern Australians and the recently extinct Tasmanians. Above these low
races are found the fossil Upper Palæolithic races of Galley Hill, Brüx,
Brünn, and Předmost. At the top stand the modern European races, beside
which the Upper Palæolithic Crô-Magnon race takes a high rank. After
Büchner.]
In brief, the Australian type of head has nothing in common with that of
the Neanderthals except in a small number of characteristics in the region
of the forehead and of the nose. The distinguishing traits of the
Neanderthal head and face are platycephaly, a retreating forehead,
flattening of the occiput or lower portion of the skull, prominence of the
supraorbital ridges, chin retreating or lacking, projection of the entire
face owing to the peculiar form of the upper jaw, and the relatively small
size of the frontal lobes of the brain. In fact, concludes Boule: "All
these modern so-called 'Neanderthaloids' are nothing but varieties of
individuals of _Homo sapiens_, remarkable for the accidental exaggeration
of certain anatomical traits which are normally developed in all
specimens of _Homo neanderthalensis_. The simplest explanation of these
accidents in most cases is atavism or reversion. We cannot assert that
there has never been an infusion of Neanderthaloid blood in the groups
belonging to species _Homo sapiens_, but what seems to be quite certain is
that any such infusion can have been only accidental, for there is no
recent type which can be considered even as a modified direct descendant
of the Neanderthals."
This opinion is confirmed by the latest and most exhaustive researches of
Berry and Robertson,(60) who conclude that neither Australians nor
Tasmanians have any direct relationship with _Homo neanderthalensis_; the
superficial points of cranial resemblance are explicable solely on the
grounds of the remoteness of the ancestry. The Australians and Tasmanians
are descendants not of the Neanderthal stock but of a late Pliocene or
early Pleistocene stock, which, following Sergi, may be called _Homo
sapiens tasmanianus_, of which the Tasmanian aboriginal, now extinct, was
the almost unchanged offspring. In respect to 'low' characters, as shown
in the diagram, Fig. 117, the Spy-Neanderthal skulls stand quite close to
the Tasmanians and Australians, and the Gibraltar skull stands midway
between this type and _Pithecanthropus_ with respect to twelve different
characters of comparison.
It is interesting to note[AH] that the Tasmanians were found in a stage of
flint industry very similar to that practised by the Neanderthals in
Mousterian times; their flints were made from artificially produced
flakes, including a few examples(61) that exhibited a neatness of edge
trimming and resultant regularity of outline, whereas the greater part
were characterized by an unskilful trimming and irregular outline; the low
status of the Tasmanian implements can most correctly be described by the
word Pre-Aurignacian, that is, of Mousterian or of an earlier stage, but
not by any means 'Eolithic.'
[Illustration: FIG. 118. The Neanderthaloid skull of La
Chapelle-aux-Saints, with the right half removed to show the shape of the
brain, as restored by J. H. McGregor. One-quarter life size.]
[Illustration: FIG. 119. Outline of the left side of the Neanderthaloid
brain of La Chapelle-aux-Saints, compared with similar brain outlines of a
chimpanzee and of a high type of modern man. One-third life size.]
The brain of Neanderthal man was known to be of large size even when
estimated from the original skullcap of the Neanderthal type. Darwin was
compelled to admit that the famous skull of Neanderthal was well developed
and capacious, and Broca offered an ingenious explanation of the otherwise
inexplicable fact that the mean capacity of the skull of the ancient
cave-dweller is greater than that of many modern Frenchmen, namely, that
the average capacity of the skull in civilized nations must be lowered by
the preservation of a considerable number of individuals, weak in mind and
body, who would have been promptly eliminated in the savage state, whereas
among savages the average includes only the more capable individuals who
have been able to survive under extremely hard conditions of life. The
skulls of La Chapelle and of Spy afforded an opportunity of determining
this very interesting problem, and the results entirely confirm the
earlier estimates of Schaaffhausen and of Broca as to the great cubic
capacity of the Neanderthal brain. The estimates in descending order are
as follows:
Skull of Spy II (Fraipont) ? 1723 c.cm.
" La Chapelle (Boule, Verneau, and Rivet) 1626 "
" Spy I (Fraipont) ? 1562 "
" Neanderthal 1408 "
" La Quina, female (Boule approximation) 1367 "
" Gibraltar, female (Boule estimate) 1296 "
[Illustration: FIG. 120. Brains of Lower and Upper Palæolithic races
compared (top and left side views). Piltdown (left), as restored by J. H.
McGregor; Neanderthal (centre) brain, cast from the type skull;
Combe-Capelle (right) from the base of the Upper Palæolithic, after
Klaatsch. The Combe-Capelle brain, though unnaturally compressed, shows a
relatively broad frontal area. One-quarter life size.]
The size of the brain in the existing races of _Homo sapiens_ varies from
950 c.cm. to 2020 c.cm.(63) Thus in respect to the volume of cerebral
matter the brain of the Neanderthal man is surely human, but in form the
brain lacks the proportions characteristic of the superior organization of
the brain in recent man. In another important respect it is human: in the
larger size of the left hemisphere, indicating the development of the use
of the right hand. In its general form the brain is more like that of the
anthropoid apes in the relatively smaller size of the frontal portion, in
the simplicity and length of the convolutions, and in the position and
direction of the great fissures at the side known as the 'fissures of
Sylvius' and of 'Rolando.' As studied by Boule and Anthony(64) there are
many primitive characteristics in the brain of the Neanderthals. The front
of the forebrain, the so-called prefrontal area, which is the seat of the
higher faculties, is not fully developed but has a protuberance as in the
brain of the anthropoids. The left frontal lobe in particular, which is
associated with the power of speech, is not much developed in the lower
part, so that a limited development of the faculty of speech is inferred.
The lateral fissure of Sylvius is relatively wide and open, and this and
other features suggest the brain of the anthropoid. The brain of the skull
of La Quina, which is believed to be that of a female, also shows many
primitive features.(65) The absolute cubic capacity of the brain is less
significant of intelligence than the relative development of those
portions of the brain which are concerned in the higher processes of the
mind.
The stature of the various examples of the Neanderthal race is estimated
somewhat differently by Boule and by Manouvrier, and also varies with the
sex:
Neanderthal (Boule) 1.55 m. 5 ft. 1 in.
" (Manouvrier) 1.632 m. 5 ft. 4-1/5 in.
La Chapelle (Boule) 1.57 m. 5 ft. 1-4/5 in.
" (Manouvrier) 1.611 m. 5 ft. 3-2/5 in.
Spy (Manouvrier) 1.633 m. 5 ft. 4-3/10 in.
La Ferrassie I (Manouvrier) 1.657 m. 5 ft. 5-1/5 in.
Average of Neanderthals supposed male 1.633 m. 5 ft. 4-3/10 in.
La Ferrassie II (female) 1.482 m. 4 ft. 10-3/10 in.
The Neanderthal head is very large in proportion to the short, thick-set
body, which we observe rarely exceeds 5 feet 5 inches in height in the
male, and 4 feet 10 inches in the female. The proportions of the body and
limbs of the Neanderthals throw a surprising light on their ancestral
history as well as upon their defects as a race dependent upon the chase.
In proportion to the length of the thigh, the lower leg is much shorter
than in any existing human race. The tibia or shin-bone is only 76.6 per
cent of the length of the femur or thigh-bone, whereas in the existing
races with the shortest shin-bone, such as the Eskimos and the majority of
the yellow races, it is never less than 80 per cent of the length of the
thigh-bone. In this respect the Neanderthal man is not like the anthropoid
apes but has a relatively _shorter_ shin-bone, because the gorillas have
an index of 80.6 per cent, the chimpanzees of 82 per cent, the orangs and
gibbons of above 83 per cent; thus all the anthropoid apes and the lower
races of man have a relatively longer leg from the knee down than has the
Neanderthal race.
[Illustration: FIG. 121. Skeleton of the Neanderthaloid man of La
Chapelle-aux-Saints. About one-seventeenth life size. After Boule.]
The shortness of the shin-bone as compared with the length of the
thigh-bone is proof that the Neanderthals were very clumsy and slow of
foot, because this proportion is characteristic of all slow-moving
animals, whereas a long shin-bone and a short thigh-bone indicate that a
race is naturally fleet of foot.
Similarly the Neanderthal man has a very short forearm, only 73.8 per cent
of the upper arm; it approaches the proportions seen in the Eskimos,
Lapps, and Bushmen.(66) Here, again, the Neanderthal man differs from the
anthropoid apes, among which the shortest forearm is that of the gorilla,
having a ratio of 80 per cent.
There are other features which would tend to show that the ancestors of
the Neanderthaloids had been ground dwellers rather than tree dwellers
back into a very remote period of geologic time; the arms are much shorter
than the legs, whereas in tree dwellers they are much longer. Thus, we
have observed in the anthropoid apes that the arm is very long in
proportion to the leg; in the chimpanzee, which has relatively the
shortest arms among the anthropoid apes, the index is 104 per cent, that
is, the arms are slightly longer than the legs. On the contrary, in the
Neanderthals the arm length is only 68 per cent of the leg length; thus it
is very far removed from the anthropoid-ape type and comes nearest to the
Australian and African negro types.
Thus, to sum up the bodily proportions of the Neanderthals:
Arm short in proportion to leg, average index 68 per cent.
Forearm short in proportion to upper arm, average index 73.8 per cent.
Shin-bone short in proportion to thigh-bone, average index 76.6 per
cent.
Stature extremely short in proportion to size of head.
The structure of the shoulder and of the chest is full of interest. All
the ribs are remarkably robust and of large volume, and, whereas in
existing races they exhibit a flattened section, in the Neanderthals the
section is distinctly triangular in form. This implies a very muscular and
robust torso in correlation with the gigantic head and stout limbs. The
collar-bones are correspondingly long, presenting a ratio to the humerus
exceeding 54 per cent, which is much higher than that among the average
existing races; this indicates a very broad shoulder. The shoulder-blade
is also very different in type from that of the higher races of men, and
even from that of the higher Primates; it is extremely short and broad.
While, as noted above, the arm of the Neanderthals is relatively short and
thus non-anthropoid, it presents a mingling of human and ape characters.
The upper arm, or humerus, is truly of the human type, the torsion angle
upon its axis being 148°, whereas in the anthropoid apes the angle of
torsion never passes 141°. Among the bones of the lower arm the most
significant is the radius, with which the turning movement of the hand is
correlated; the structure of the head of the radius has more resemblance
to that of the anthropoid apes than to that of existing species of man.
The structure of the other bone of the forearm, the ulna, is also very
primitive, exhibiting certain monkey characteristics.
[Illustration: FIG. 122. Thigh-bones, or _femora_, of the Trinil,
Neanderthal, and Crô-Magnon races, compared with one of modern type. The
Neanderthal femur seems to be short and stout, whereas that attributed to
_Pithecanthropus_ is relatively long, slender, and straight. Of the
_femora_ illustrated the Neanderthal and Trinil are those of the type
specimens, the Crô-Magnon is from the skeletal fragments of La Madeleine.
After Dubois, Boule, Lartet, and Christy. One-eighth life size.]
The structure of the hand is a matter of the highest interest in
connection with the implement-making powers of the Neanderthals. The hand
is remarkably large and robust, comparable in size with that of men of
very large stature in existing races. With respect to the opposition power
of the thumb against the fingers by means of the opponens muscle, a
distinctively human characteristic, the stage of Neanderthal development
is decidedly lower than that of existing races, because the joint of the
metacarpal bone which supports the thumb is of a peculiar form, convex,
and presenting a veritable convex condyle, whereas in the existing human
races the articular surface of the upper part of the thumb joint is
saddle-shaped, that is, concave from within backward, and convex from
without inward. Thus the highly perfected motions of the thumb in _Homo
sapiens_ were not attained in _Homo neanderthalensis_. Two phalanges which
are preserved in the Chapelle-aux-Saints skeleton show that the fingers
were relatively short and robust.
In the structure of the hip-girdle our fossil man is altogether human;
nevertheless, some of its characters are very primitive and distinctive.
Similarly, the thigh-bone shows several primitive characters which are
only rarely seen in existing races, such as the third trochanter and the
strong, general forward curvature.
The structure of the knee-joint in relation to the shin-bone is very
peculiar, because it shows that the shin was always retroverted or bent
backward. Two other features of the shin-bone are its extreme abbreviation
as compared with the femur, and the absence of flattening, or
platycnemism. Where the shin-bone joins the ankle-bone (astragalus) are
shown two facets, such as are preserved only in those races of existing
men which have retained the habit of squatting or the folded position of
the limbs; these facets are not found in races which have the habit of
sitting. They indicate that the resting position of the Neanderthals while
engaged in industrial work was squatting, as shown in our restoration of
one of the Neanderthals at Le Moustier.
Associated with these powerful and peculiarly shaped limbs is the
particularly short and thick-set vertebral column, each bone of which is
remarkable for its abbreviation. The neck especially is entirely different
in construction from that of existing races of men. It would appear that
the concave curvature of the back in the Neanderthals was carried directly
upward and continued into the concave curvature of the neck, as among the
anthropoid apes, and especially in the chimpanzee. The vertebræ of the
neck, especially the fifth, sixth, and seventh, and the first dorsal,
resemble those of the chimpanzee far more closely than those of the modern
European; the spinous processes are directed backward instead of downward.
This caused the habitual stooping of Neanderthal man at the neck and
shoulders and prevented him from ever holding his head entirely erect.
Whereas in the back-bone of existing races the erect position is
maintained by four graceful curvatures, two toward the front, and two
toward the back, in the Neanderthals, as in the newly-born members of the
higher races, we observe only three curvatures, two concave toward the
front, namely, the back and neck curvature, just described, and a sacral
or pelvic curvature; there is also a convex lumbar curvature in the lower
part of the Neanderthal back-bone, which, however, is less pronounced than
in existing species of man.
[Illustration: FIG. 123. Restoration of the head of the Neanderthal man of
La Chapelle-aux-Saints, in profile, after model by J. H. McGregor.
One-quarter life size.]
Summing up the characters of the back-bone in the Neanderthals, certain of
them are very primitive, such as the structure of the vertebræ of the neck
and the robust development of the spinous processes, the absence of
marked curvature in the lower part of the back-bone and the very gentle
curvature of the bones of the sacrum.
[Illustration: FIG. 124. Restoration of the head of the Neanderthal man of
La Chapelle-aux-Saints, in front view, after model by J. H. McGregor.
One-quarter life size.]
The total aspect of Neanderthal man may be characterized in the following
manner:(67) An enormous head placed upon a short and thick trunk, with
limbs very short and thick-set, and very robust; the shoulders broad and
stooping, with the head and neck habitually bent forward into the same
curvature as the back; the arms relatively short as compared with the
legs; the lower leg, as compared with the upper leg, shorter than in any
of the existing races of men; the knee habitually bent forward without the
power of straightening the joint or of standing fully erect; the hands
extremely large and without the delicate play between the thumb and
fingers characteristic of modern races; the resort to a squatting position
while occupied in flint-making and other industries. Thus the ordinary
attitudes characteristic of _Homo neanderthalensis_ would be quite
different from our own and most ungainly. The heavy head, the enormous
development of the face, and the backward position of the foramen magnum,
through which the spinal cord connects with the brain, would tend to throw
the upper part of the body forward, and this tendency, with the lesser
curvature of the neck, the heavy shoulders, and the flattened form of the
head, would give this portion of the body a more or less anthropoid
aspect.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION OF MOUSTERIAN STATIONS
The Neanderthal race of Mousterian times established stations all over
western Europe, of which upward of fifty have already been discovered, as
compared with the fifty-seven or more Acheulean stations known. At some
points the old open camps of the Acheulean flint workers were still
visited, as along the Thames, the Somme, and the Marne. Thus Abbeville,
St. Acheul, Montières, and Chelles, in northern France, show a succession
of Mousterian industry following the Acheulean, the Chellean, and, at St.
Acheul, even the Pre-Chellean. These may well have been summer stations,
visited at favorable seasons of the year because of their abundant supply
of flint. About 125 miles to the east of St. Acheul, in Belgium, on a
small tributary of the Meuse, is the grotto of Spy, which, together with
Mousterian implements, has yielded two human fossil skeletons of the
Neanderthal race.
In southern Devonshire is the famous cavern of Kent's Hole, near Torquay,
discovered as long ago as 1825 by MacEnery and described in 1840 by
Godwin-Austen.(68) It is interesting to note that teeth of the sabre-tooth
tiger (_Machærodus latidens_) have been found in this cavern, leading Boyd
Dawkins to believe that this animal survived to late geologic times: it
will be recalled as a contemporary of the early Chellean flint workers at
Abbeville. The animal life of Kent's Hole, as originally described by
Godwin-Austen, included remains of "elephant, rhinoceros, ox, deer, horse,
bear, hyæna, and a feline animal of large size"--fauna now known to belong
to the period of the fourth glaciation.[AI]
[Illustration: FIG. 125. Geographic distribution of the principal
Mousterian industrial stations in western Europe, attributed to the
Neanderthal race.]
To the south are three stations, one of which, La Cotte de St. Brelade, on
the present isle of Jersey, then part of the mainland, has yielded
Mousterian flakes and thirteen human teeth of Neanderthal type.
Still farther to the south, in the Dordogne region, is found the type
station described on a previous page, of Le Moustier, the centre of a
group of eight sites crowded along the north and south shores of the
Vézère, which have become famous for the knowledge they yield of the
successive stages in the development of the Mousterian implements,
beginning with the primitive culture station of La Micoque, and including
La Ferrassie, Le Moustier, La Rochette, Pataud, La Mouthe, Laussel, and
finally the Abri Audit, which marks the closing stage in the development
of the Mousterian industry and, in the opinion of many archæologists, its
transition to the Aurignacian. At several of these places important
discoveries have been made, both of human fossils and of noteworthy
transitions in the progress of invention. Circling round this Vézère group
are the stations of Petit-Puymoyen, La Quina, where implements of the
closing stage of Mousterian industry have been found as well as a human
fossil of the Neanderthal type, and La Chapelle-aux-Saints, which has
yielded the only complete skeleton of a Neanderthal man so far discovered.
[Illustration: FIG. 126. The Mousterian cave of Hornos de la Peña, in the
Cantabrian Mountains of northern Spain. Photograph by N. C. Nelson.]
In Spain is the station of San Isidro, near the headwaters of the Tagus,
and the beautifully situated grottos of Castillo and Hornos de la Peña, on
the northern slopes of the Cantabrian Mountains.
As contrasted with the very numerous Acheulean sites of Italy, it is
surprising to note that only two Mousterian grottos have thus far been
discovered in this region: the Grotte delle Fate in the mountains of
Liguria, and the very important group of caves on the Riviera, near
Mentone, known as the Grottes de Grimaldi, close to the seashore and at
the very point where the Italian Alps abut upon the sea. Crossing to the
north, we note the superb Swiss grotto of Wildkirchli, on the headwaters
of the Rhine, 5,000 feet above sea-level.
[Illustration: FIG. 127. Outlook from the cave of Hornos de la Peña.
Photograph by N. C. Nelson.]
In all Germany there are only about seven stations of unquestioned
Mousterian age. Of these six are grottos, and the seventh, Mommenheim, is
a fluvial redeposit of loess along a small stream, where only _one_
implement has been found.(69) It is interesting to observe that in Germany
these Mousterian sites occupy the great wedge of territory between the
Scandinavian ice-fields on the north, and the Alpine on the south, and
that Wildkirchli was actually within the area of glaciation; while the
caves of Räuberhöhle and Šipka were not far from the glaciers which
clothed the Carpathian Mountains, and Baumannshöhle was not so very remote
from the great Scandinavian ice-field. In the region of the headwaters of
the Rhine and Danube the industry of the Neanderthal race has thus far
been traced only at the stations of Irpfelhöhle, Räuberhöhle, and
Sirgenstein. The latter cavern is of especial importance because it
comprises the entire Palæolithic history of this region, presenting a
series of successive culture layers from Mousterian times up to the
arrival of the Neolithic race. Further to the east are the Gudenushöhle,
near Krems, in Lower Austria, and Ochos and Šipka, in Moravia, while over
the Russian border are Wierschovie and Miskolcz. Well to the northwest of
Wildkirchli are the stations of Mommenheim and Kartstein, and to the north
that of Baumannshöhle.
WORKMANSHIP OF THE NEANDERTHALS
The dense communal life of Mousterian times may have favored a social
evolution, the development of the imagination and of tribal lore, and the
beginnings of the religious belief and ceremonial of which apparent
indications are found to be wide-spread among the entirely different races
of Upper Palæolithic times. The life is not, however, marked by industrial
progress or invention.
The successive stages of the Mousterian industry have not as yet been so
clearly defined as those of the Acheulean (Schmidt(70)). In the open
Mousterian stations and caverns of Belgium and England Schmidt has
observed the stages of early, middle, and late Mousterian. Breuil and
Obermaier consider La Micoque as belonging to the close of the Acheulean
but as marking the transition into the Mousterian. Breuil considers the
industry of the Combe-Capelle station as representing the oldest true
Mousterian culture. The researches which have been carried thus far would
appear to justify the following subdivisions of the Mousterian culture in
southwestern France:
6. Abri Audit culture, marking the transition from late Mousterian to
early Aurignacian industry.
5. Late true Mousterian industry. La Quina type of implements with
scrapers and bone anvils.
4. Middle Mousterian industry, with a predominance of handsome, large
Mousterian points carefully 'retouched' on the edge and sometimes on
one side, a 'retouch' at times approaching the superior Solutrean
technique.
3. Primitive early Mousterian industry, with a limited inventory of
implements.
2. Combe-Capelle stage, with heart-shaped coups de poing and typical
Mousterian 'points.' (Arrival of reindeer.)
1. La Micoque culture, transitional from Acheulean to Mousterian
times. (No reindeer.)
The flint industry, although very different in its outward appearance, is
recognizable as a direct evolution from the Acheulean, with the
suppression or decline of certain implements and the improvements of
others. It is the product of the same kind of mind at work with the same
materials, but under different climatic conditions and with new demands,
especially for clothing as protection against the severe weather. We also
cannot avoid the feeling that the abandonment of the free, open life of
Chellean and early Acheulean times and the crowding of the Neanderthal
tribesmen beneath the shelters and in the grottos had a dwarfing effect
both upon the physique and upon the industry itself. The Mousterian
implements, as compared with the Acheulean, impress one as the work of a
less muscular and vigorous race.
In addition to the many fine transitions that one observes(71) between the
Acheulean and Mousterian industries at St. Acheul, strong evidence is also
furnished in favor of a close connection between these cultures by the
discoveries at Laussel, on the Vézère, near Les Eyzies. There, broad and
deep before this shelter of Laussel, lies the Mousterian layer, and
directly beneath it is a true Acheulean layer close to the waters of the
valley of the Beune. This proves that in Acheulean times this valley was
deepened to the same degree as to-day, and a close union of the Acheulean
to the Mousterian is here again evident. In the valley of the Somme near
St. Acheul Commont has also observed proofs of a similar close connection
between these cultures. With such records in northern and southern France,
the Neanderthal race, which is known toward the end of Acheulean times and
especially covers the entire period of Mousterian time, comes much nearer
to us. If we assign the Mousterian industry to the last glacial period,
we give it a duration of some 30,000 years, and this is about the
reckoning which thoughtful anatomists have already assigned for the
Neanderthal man.
SPECIAL MOUSTERIAN IMPLEMENTS
Two instruments are especially typical of the Mousterian industry from
beginning to end; these are the 'pointe' and the 'racloir.' The former,
pointed and spear-shaped, is from 1 to 4 inches in length; the latter is a
broad scraper, from 1 to 2 inches in width; and both have the distinctive
peculiarity of being composed of a large flake of flint struck off from a
larger bulb or nodule and of being retouched only on one side, leaving on
the opposite side the smooth conchoidal surface of the flake.(72) This
point and scraper are highly characteristic not only of the early stages
but of the Mousterian industry throughout its entire course, including
even the late La Quina types, and their manner of making is obviously a
modified usage of the late Acheulean discovery of the flakes of Levallois.
[Illustration: FIG. 128. Typical Mousterian 'points' from the type station
of Le Moustier, made of a large flake of flint struck off from the nodule
and retouched on only one side, leaving on the opposite side a smooth,
conchoidal surface. After Déchelette, by permission of M. A. Picard,
Librairie Alphonse Picard et Fils.]
A matter of the greatest interest in the industrial development of western
Europe at this time is the fact that this discovery of the _utilization
of the flake_, whether in the 'lames de Levallois' or in the Mousterian
point and scraper, led to the decline of the coup de poing. The retouched
flakes of various shapes were easier to make and to repair and served
equally well the purposes of skinning and dismembering game which had been
previously served by the ancient coup de poing.(73)
[Illustration: FIG. 129. Mousterian 'points' and scrapers from various
parts of Europe, as interpreted by de Mortillet. In some cases both sides
of the implement are shown; all are one-quarter actual size except 101,
which is one-half actual size. 100--De Mortillet's theory of the manner of
using the Mousterian 'point,' which was held in the hand and not shafted.
101--Mousterian point from Suffolk, England. 102--Mousterian point from
Umbria, Italy. 103, 104--A single flake point from the Crimea, in southern
Russia. 105, 106--A long, narrow Mousterian point from Oise, France.
107--A curved-in scraper, or _grattoir_, from Dordogne, France; perhaps an
implement for dressing a wooden spear or lance. 108--Bone splinter, broken
for the marrow, but not shaped.]
In consequence, the coup de poing, fashioned from the core of the nodule,
begins to play a very secondary rôle and occurs but rarely in the
Mousterian levels. Even at St. Acheul, the very centre of its former
reign, we begin to find decadent forms and poor workmanship, which make it
difficult to recognize that these are the successors of the finely
retouched Acheulean coups de poing. While the coups de poing at the type
station of Le Moustier continue to retain the old Acheulean patterns--the
oval, the heart-shaped, the sharp-pointed--they are all of smaller size
and rather coarsely retouched. Thus, after thousands of years of
development and employment, the coup de poing falls into a period of
degeneration and of final disuse. The history of this. implement, which we
have traced from its Pre-Chellean prototypes, presents a most interesting
analogy with the course of evolution observed in so many animal and plant
forms. It passes through many stages of improvement and reaches a climax
of perfection and adaptation; it then comes into competition with another
form evolving on a fundamentally different and superior plan and
disappears in the struggle for existence through the greater usefulness of
the replacing type.
SUCCESSIVE STAGES IN THE MOUSTERIAN INDUSTRY
The succession of industrial stages is best shown along the Vézère. The
oldest Mousterian industry is that of Combe-Capelle with its heart-shaped,
roughly fashioned coups de poing, entirely lacking, however, any evidence
of a surface prepared for the grasp of the hand.
In the valley of the Somme Commont(74) has observed the three following
stages in the advance of the Mousterian industry:
3. A late Mousterian culture which lies on the upper layers near the
top of the same gravel deposit and which shows entirely new technical
elements. The old coup-de-poing culture is no longer valued, and all
the implements found here are of flakes worked only on one side and
with an extraordinarily fine retouch.
2. A middle Mousterian horizon which lies in the lower layers of a
gravel deposit, belonging to the 'newer loess,' and which contains
only _one_ small coup de poing.
1. An early Mousterian, with quite numerous lance-shaped coups de
poing, lies at the base of the 'newer loess,' showing that the
coup-de-poing tradition still lingers and the coup-de-poing type is
still preserved. With these are associated the new types of implements
and especially the 'hand-points,' which are so typical of the
Mousterian industry.
The more recent levels (2, 3) contain longer flakes, which already
exhibit a tendency toward the blades, or 'lames,' of the Upper
Palæolithic.
In the shelters and caverns of Dordogne the same industrial sequence may
be observed, although the chronological succession of the strata is not
always clearly defined. At the grotto of Combe-Capelle the heart-shaped
coups de poing retain most strongly the old traditions, but even here
these are outnumbered by the well-fashioned Mousterian 'points,' chipped
only on one side.
The further development of the Mousterian industry may be observed in the
type station of Le Moustier, where the lower levels show a primitive
Mousterian consisting mostly of very fine, irregularly fashioned flakes,
made into small scrapers, triangular points, borers, and disks. The
overlying layer includes very carefully worked Mousterian points which are
frequently retouched on one side over the entire surface; here the
Mousterian technique reaches its highest development, so that Schmidt
designates it as 'high Mousterian.'(75) Above this layer, again, is a
level of typical late Mousterian forms, quite unlike the small primitive
flakes of the lower level and resembling the characteristic forms of La
Quina, the dominant type being the finely shaped La Quina racloir. The few
diminutive coups de poing which occur in this level at Le Moustier furnish
the only distinction between the industry here and that of La Quina, where
no coups de poing are found. At Le Moustier also occur the typical bone
anvils which were first recognized at La Quina.
The Mousterian industry of the Neanderthals was thus devoted mainly to the
development of the smaller forms of implements, for the most part
retouched on one side only, and with a constant improvement of technique.
Yet the chief types of Mousterian implements remain the same as in
Acheulean times, as shown in the accompanying table.
The implement known as the _pointe_, or the 'hand-point,' is a principal
and very characteristic Mousterian form further perfected from its
Acheulean stage. It is spear-headed in shape and chipped on one side only,
and continues into late Mousterian times, being still found in the
Mousterian levels of Spy, in Belgium.
The _pointe double_, a double-pointed, spear-shaped form, at times almost
attains the elongate shape of the Solutrean _pointe de laurier_, though
never its slenderness, symmetry, and perfection of technique.
INDUSTRIAL.
Coup de poing (decadent), hand-stone.
ovoid.
heart-shaped.
sharp-pointed.
Hachette, chopper.
Grattoir, planing tool.
Perçoir, drill, borer.
Couteau, knife.
Racloir, scraper.
knife-edged.
curved-out edge.
saw-edged.
double-edged.
beak-shaped.
many-edged.
Pointe, 'hand-point.'
Percuteur? hammer-stone?
WAR AND CHASE.
Pointe, 'hand-point.'
Pointe double, spear head?
Coup de poing, hand-stone.
Pierre de jet, throwing stone.
Couteau, knife.
There are five or six well-defined varieties of the racloir, or scraper,
carefully fashioned out of flakes. The principal form is crescentic in
shape, with outward-curved edge. Other forms are saw-like with straight
edges or knife-edged. Another form with very neatly and symmetrically
incurved borders has its edges sharply retouched, as if for the smoothing
down of bone or wooden shafts. The borer is also fashioned of an elongate
flake and sometimes finished with a very fine point at one of its
extremities. It is noteworthy that the grattoir, or planing tool, so well
developed in the Upper Palæolithic industries, appears only sporadically
in Mousterian times. For example, at La Quina, in the closing stages of
the Mousterian industry, out of 220 implements collected at hazard, there
were 166 scrapers of six different forms, 45 'hand-points' of five
different forms, and 5 double points, as compared with 5 grattoirs, or
planing tools. There are very few knife-shaped forms. It would appear that
the racloir and the perçoir were the principal implements employed in the
preparation of skins for clothing.
In early Mousterian times the coup de poing may still have been used by
the Neanderthals in the chase, and the fine, spear-headed 'point' and the
rarer 'double point' may have been developed in response to the needs of
hunters, who now ventured the chase of the bison, the urus, the wild
horse, and the reindeer.
The most striking features of all the implements which may have been used
in the chase are: first, the absence of any definite proof of their
attachment to a shaft or handle; and second, the absence of any barbed or
headed type of point. The use of the barb, as we shall see, appears to be
a relatively recent discovery of the later cultures of Upper Palæolithic
times.
[Illustration: FIG. 130. Late Mousterian implements, after de Mortillet,
one-quarter actual size. 109, 110--Point, finely retouched at one end,
from Seine-et-Marne, France. The reverse shows a retouch on the flaked
surface which suggests the double-face Solutrean retouch. 111, 112--A very
large _racloir_, or scraper, from La Quina, Charente, France; part of the
bulb of percussion has been chipped off. 113--Double-ended point from Le
Moustier, retouched on both surfaces. 114, 115--Combination point and
scraper from Le Moustier, Dordogne, France. 116--Double scraper, or
_racloir_, with _grattoir_, or planing end.]
The transition from the Mousterian to the Aurignacian appears in the Abri
Audit, which also lies in the valley of the Vézère. Here we still find
irregularly fashioned coups de poing, decadent followers of the
heart-shaped types of the earliest Mousterian industry; this is nearly the
last phase in the decline of the old coup-de-poing manufacture. While the
lance-shaped coup de poing of the late Acheulean never appears in any true
Mousterian industry, the shorter, more heart-shaped type of Combe-Capelle
traverses the entire Mousterian and, after further stages of degeneration,
passes into the Abri Audit culture and even lingers into the early
Aurignacian. At this latter station the typical Mousterian 'points' are
almost wanting.
The Mousterian, observes Schmidt,(75) which preserves the traditions of
the Lower Palæolithic coup-de-poing culture, is one of the most
interesting phases in the development of Palæolithic industry, in that its
successive stages exhibit the very last phases of the great coup-de-poing
industry, of which only the almond and oval scraper types appear, and that
very rarely, in the early Aurignacian. On the other hand, in the late
Mousterian we observe a trend toward the blade (_lame_) industry of the
Upper Palæolithic. Careful study and observation of the subdivisions of
Mousterian culture have thus far been limited to central and southern
France, and they have not yet been traced in Spain; but in the grottos of
Belgium and England the early, middle, and late Mousterian types are known
to exist.
Bone anvils, fashioned out of the hard surfaces of the foreleg and foot
bones of the bison and horse, were discovered at La Quina in 1906. They
show a flattened surface with cross incisions too regular to be accidental
and too far from the articulation to be the result of an inexpert attempt
to sever the joint.(76) This was not the only use of bone in Mousterian
times, however, for primitive pointed implements of bone are occasionally
found in Dordogne, mingled with Mousterian flints. A variety of rudely
fashioned bone implements also occurs at Wildkirchli, in Switzerland.
DISAPPEARANCE OF THE NEANDERTHAL RACE
We have seen that the Neanderthals dwelt in Europe for a very long time,
many thousands of years, during which they doubtless underwent
considerable evolution from lower to higher types, and into varieties,
under the modifying influences of climate, food, and racial habits.
Consequently the known remains of Neanderthals exhibit a decided variation
in head form, as well as in dentition: some are more primitive and
ape-like; others, such as Spy II, are more like the modern races. The
Krapina variety is more broad-headed than the typical Neanderthal variety.
The Gibraltar variety is in many respects of low type. The individual
known as Spy II is of higher type than the other Neanderthals. The
variations in stature so far as known are slight.
For these and other reasons Hrdlička,(77) who has recently made a broad
comparative study of the chief Neanderthal remains of Europe, is of the
opinion that the Neanderthals partly evolved into the lower races of _Homo
sapiens_; being not only in some measure ancestral to such very primitive
forms as the Brünn or Předmost race of Upper Palæolithic times, but even
contributing to the higher race of the Crô-Magnons. He also holds that
traces of Neanderthal blood and physiognomy are not lacking even among
modern Europeans.
A contrary view is set forth in the present volume; namely, that the
Neanderthals represent a side branch of the human race which became wholly
extinct in western Europe. This view the author shares with Boule and with
Schwalbe. Certainly the evidence afforded by the known Upper Palæolithic
burial sites does not support the theory that the Neanderthals persisted.
It is possible, however, that the Upper Palæolithic skeletons discovered
at Předmost, and now awaiting description by Maška, may modify this
conclusion and demonstrate Hrdlička's theory that the Neanderthals
survived and left descendants or men of mixed Neanderthal and _Homo
sapiens_ race along the valley of the Danube.
Whatever may have been their fate in other regions, certainly the most
sudden racial change which we know of in the whole prehistory of western
Europe is the disappearance of the Neanderthal race at the close of the
Mousterian culture stage, which was the latest industrial period of Lower
Palæolithic times, and their replacement by the Crô-Magnon race. From
geologic evidence the date of this replacement is believed to have been
between 20,000 and 25,000 years before our era. So far as we know at
present, the Neanderthals were entirely eliminated; no trace of the
survival of the pure Neanderthal type has been found in any of the Upper
Palæolithic burial sites; nor have the alleged instances of the survival
of the Neanderthal strain or of people bearing the Neanderthal cranial
characters been substantiated. We incline to agree with Boule and Schwalbe
that the supposed cases among modern races of the transmission of
Neanderthal characters are simply low or reversional types, which, upon
close analysis, are never found to present the highly distinctive and
peculiar combination of Neanderthal characteristics.
There is some reason to believe that the Neanderthals were degenerating
physically and industrially during the very severe conditions of life of
the fourth glaciation, but the consequent inferiority and diminution in
numbers would not account for their total extinction, and we are inclined
to attribute this to the entrance into the whole Neanderthal country of
western Europe toward the close of Lower Palæolithic times of a new and
highly superior race. Archæologists find traces of a new culture and
industry in certain Mousterian stations preceding the disappearance of the
typical Mousterian industry. Such a mingling is found in the valley of the
Somme in northern France.
From this scanty evidence we may infer that the new race competed for a
time with the Neanderthals before they dispossessed them of their
principal stations and drove them out of the country or killed them in
battle. The Neanderthals, no doubt, fought with wooden weapons and with
the stone-headed dart and spear, but there is no evidence that they
possessed the bow and arrow. There is, on the contrary, some possibility
that the newly arriving Crô-Magnon race may have been familiar with the
bow and arrow, for a barbed arrow or spear head appears in drawings of a
later stage of Crô-Magnon history, the so-called Magdalenian. It is thus
possible, though very far from being demonstrated, that when the
Crô-Magnons entered western Europe, at the dawn of the Upper Palæolithic,
they were armed with weapons which, with their superior intelligence and
physique, would have given them a very great advantage in contests with
the Neanderthals.
(=1=) Commont, 1912.1, p. 294.
(=2=) Smith, W., 1894.1, chap. XV.
(=3=) Dietrich, 1910.1, pp. 329, 330.
(=4=) Penck, 1909.1.
(=5=) Leverett, 1910.1, pp. 306-314.
(=6=) Geikie, 1914.1.
(=7=) _Op. cit._, p. 272.
(=8=) _Op. cit._, pp. 265-266.
(=9=) Keith, 1911.1, p. 23, Fig. 5.
(=10=) Munro, 1912.1, pp. 46, 47.
(=11=) Lartet, 1861.1; 1875.1.
(=12=) De Vibraye, 1864.1.
(=13=) Massénat, 1868.1.
(=14=) Smith, W., 1894.1, chap. XIV.
(=15=) Geikie, 1914.1, p. 119.
(=16=) Smith, W., _op. cit._, pp. 196, 197.
(=17=) _Op. cit._, p. 224.
(=18=) Geikie, 1914.1, p. 118.
(=19=) Bächler, 1912.1.
(=20=) Schmidt, 1912.1, pp. 18-32, 165-171.
(=21=) _Op. cit._, Table opposite p. 270.
(=22=) Osborn, 1910.1, pp. 419, 420.
(=23=) Niezabitowski, 1911.1.
(=24=) Harlé, 1908.1, p. 302.
(=25=) Obermaier, 1912.1, p. 135.
(=26=) Keith, 1911.2.
(=27=) Boule, 1913.1, pp. 220, 221.
(=28=) _Op. cit._, p. 64.
(=29=) Fischer, 1913.1, pp. 336, 337.
(=30=) Schaaffhausen, 1875.1; 1858.1.
(=31=) Lyell, 1863.1, pp. 80-92.
(=32=) Schwalbe, 1897.1; 1901.1; 1901.2; 1904.1.
(=33=) King, 1864.1.
(=34=) Cope, 1893.1.
(=35=) Wilser, 1898.1.
(=36=) Fraipont, 1887.1.
(=37=) Schwalbe, 1914.2.
(=38=) Dupont, 1866.1.
(=39=) Maška, 1886.1.
(=40=) Rzehak, 1906.1.
(=41=) Fischer, 1913.1.
(=42=) Klaatsch, 1909.1.
(=43=) Bouyssonie, 1909.1.
(=44=) Boule, 1908.1; 1908.2; 1909.1; 1911.1; 1912.1.
(=45=) Boule, 1913.1.
(=46=) Martin, H., 1911.1.
(=47=) Nicolle, 1910.1.
(=48=) Keith, 1911.1.
(=49=) Fischer, 1913.1, p. 352.
(=50=) Schwalbe, 1914.1, p. 544, Figs. 4 and 5.
(=51=) Fischer, _op. cit._
(=52=) Boule, 1913.1, p. 85.
(=53=) Gorjanovič-Kramberger, 1909.1.
(=54=) Boule, 1913.1, p. 104.
(=55=) Tomes, 1914.1, pp. 588-598.
(=56=) Schwalbe, 1901.2; 1914.1, pp. 534, 535.
(=57=) Schwalbe, 1901.1.
(=58=) Boule, 1913.1.
(=59=) _Op. cit._, pp. 66, 67, 72, 75.
(=60=) Berry, 1914.1.
(=61=) Johnson, 1913.1.
(=62=) Quatrefages, 1884.1, p. 394.
(=63=) Martin, R., 1914.1, p. 645.
(=64=) Boule, 1910.1; 1911.1.
(=65=) Anthony, 1912.1.
(=66=) Boule, 1913.1, p. 119.
(=67=) _Op. cit._, p. 120.
(=68=) Geikie, 1914.1, p. 130; Godwin-Austen, 1840.1.
(=69=) Schmidt, 1912.1, pp. 23, 32, 66, 75, 76, 101, 169.
(=70=) _Op. cit._, p. 128.
(=71=) Schuchhardt, 1913.1, p. 144.
(=72=) Déchelette, 1908.1, vol. I, pp. 98-101.
(=73=) Obermaier, 1912.1, p. 130.
(=74=) Commont, 1909.1.
(=75=) Schmidt, 1912.1, pp. 126-128.
(=76=) Déchelette, 1908.1, vol. I, pp. 104, 105.
(=77=) Hrdlička, 1914.1.
CHAPTER IV
OPENING OF THE UPPER PALÆOLITHIC--THE GRIMALDI RACE--ARRIVAL OF THE
CRÔ-MAGNON RACE AND OF THE AURIGNACIAN INDUSTRY--GEOGRAPHIC AND
CLIMATIC CONDITIONS--MAMMALIAN LIFE--CHARACTERISTICS AND HABITS OF THE
CRÔ-MAGNONS--DISTRIBUTION OF THE AURIGNACIAN INDUSTRY--THE BIRTH OF
ART--ORIGIN AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE SOLUTREAN INDUSTRY--BRÜNN
RACE--SOLUTREAN INDUSTRY AND ART.
In the whole racial history of western Europe there has never occurred so
profound a change as that involving the disappearance of the Neanderthal
race and the appearance of the Crô-Magnon race. It was the replacement of
a race lower than any existing human type by one which ranks high among
the existing types in capacity and intelligence. The Crô-Magnons belonged
to _Homo sapiens_, the same species of man as ourselves, and appear to
have been the chief race of the Upper Palæolithic Period up to the very
close of Magdalenian times, after which they apparently underwent a
decline.
Although there were one or more other races which influenced the
industrial development of western Europe, the Crô-Magnons were certainly
dominant, as shown both by the abundance of their skeletal remains and by
the wide distribution of their industry and art; the Upper Palæolithic may
almost be said to be the period of the Crô-Magnons as the Lower
Palæolithic is that of the Neanderthals and the Pre-Neanderthals. Their
arrival toward the end of Mousterian times effected a social and
industrial change and a race replacement of so profound a nature that it
would certainly be legitimate to separate the Upper Palæolithic from the
Lower by a break equal to that which separates the former from the
Neolithic.(1)
The arrival of the Crô-Magnons and the introduction of the Aurignacian
industry are the first events of the prehistory of Europe to which we can
assign a date with any degree of confidence; they correspond geologically
with the close of the fourth glaciation and the beginning of Postglacial
time, the duration of which has been estimated by geologists from evidence
of many different kinds, but which brings us, nevertheless, to
substantially similar conclusions. It seems that 25,000 years is a
conservative estimate for the duration of the Postglacial Period; this is
supported by the independent observations of Lyell, Taylor, Penck and
Brückner, and Coleman; it is within the estimates made by Chamberlin and
Salisbury, Fairchild, Sardeson, and Spencer; it is somewhat larger than
the estimates of Gilbert and Upham.[AJ] Thus, with considerable confidence
we may record man of the modern type of _Homo sapiens_ as entering western
Europe between 25,000 and 30,000 years ago.
The Lower Palæolithic industrial cycle, comprising the Chellean,
Acheulean, and Mousterian, seems to have been similar in evolution both
around the Mediterranean coasts and in the northern portions of Europe.
From the fact that the Crô-Magnons arrived with the Aurignacian industry
it would appear that they came through Phœnicia and along the southern
coasts of the Mediterranean, through Tunis, into Spain; also perhaps along
the northern coasts of the Mediterranean through Italy. Their evolution
had probably taken place somewhere on the continent of Asia, for their
physical structure is entirely of Asiatic type, and not in the least of
African or Ethiopian type; that is, they exhibit no negroid characters
whatever. The reason that Breuil considers that the Aurignacian did not
come in through central or eastern Europe is that there are no early
Aurignacian stations in either region, whereas the Aurignacian is
abundantly developed along the Mediterranean coasts, both of Europe and
Africa. The passage of the Crô-Magnons along these coasts was, therefore,
like the subsequent wave of the true Mediterranean race, dark-haired,
long-headed, narrow-faced people, which followed this coast in early
Neolithic times, or, again, like the wave of the Arabian or Moslem
advance, which pressed forward along the northern coast of Africa and into
southwestern Europe.
[Illustration: FIG. 131. Entrance to the great _Grotte du Prince_ at the
base of the limestone promontory known as the _Baoussé Roussé_, with a
view of Mentone in the distance. After Davanne.]
Some support of this theory of migration along the north coast of Africa
is given by the presence of the skeletons of two members of an entirely
distinct race, which are commonly known as the 'negroids of Grimaldi'
because of their discovery in the _Grottes de Grimaldi_ near Mentone, and
because they alone among all the Upper Palæolithic races thus far
discovered in Europe display a number of resemblances to the African
negroid race. Anatomically they are related neither to the Neanderthals
nor to the Crô-Magnons. Their archæologic age appears to be early
Aurignacian because they are found immediately above the layer which marks
the close of Mousterian time and the last climate favorable to the warm
fauna of mammals.
This sunny coast where modern France joins Italy has supplied some of the
most valuable records of the racial and industrial transition from the
Lower to the Upper Palæolithic. Of the nine _Grottes de Grimaldi_ three at
least show evidences of occupation in closing Mousterian times, probably
by men of the Neanderthal race, although no skeletal remains of
Neanderthals have been found here. Four of the grottos, namely, the
_Grotte des Enfants_, the _Grotte de Cavillon_, the _Barma Grande_, and
the _Baousso da Torre_, have yielded altogether the skeletal remains of
sixteen individuals, all associated with implements of Aurignacian culture
and evidently representing a number of ceremonial burials. Fourteen of
these skeletons are attributed by Verneau to the Crô-Magnon race; the
other two are the 'negroids of Grimaldi' above referred to. This is,
therefore, a prehistoric record of the greatest significance, which we
shall now examine more in detail.
RACIAL SUCCESSION ALONG THE ANCIENT RIVIERA
Where the southern spurs of the Alps descend into the Mediterranean and
separate France from Italy we find a limestone promontory, known as the
_Baoussé Roussé_, projecting in a long cliff, beneath which the rocky
shore descends abruptly into the sea. Opening toward the south, and at
intervals along the base of this cliff are the nine _Grottes de Grimaldi_.
Doubtless the Neanderthals migrated along these shores at a time when the
hippopotamus, the straight-tusked elephant (_E. antiquus_), and Merck's
rhinoceros (_R. merckii_) still abounded as the last representatives of
the great African-Asiatic fauna. These hunters of Mousterian times entered
the sea-swept floor of the great _Grotte du Prince_[AK] (Fig. 131), with a
ceiling height at that time perhaps of over 80 feet, carrying in their
game to the fire-hearths, and leaving Mousterian implements in the
accumulating deposits. In the succeeding layers of this grotto the
changing forms of animal life demonstrate the effect of the fourth
glaciation and the cooling of the climate toward the close of Mousterian
times.
The smaller _Grotte des Enfants_ (Fig. 132), which lies to the west of the
Prince's Grotto, was apparently occupied at a somewhat more recent period,
because the lowest fire-hearths contain, together with the Mousterian
implements, remains of Merck's rhinoceros only--apparently the last
survivor here, as well as in other parts of western Europe, of the warm
African-Asiatic fauna. The hippopotamus and the straight-tusked elephant
had either become extinct or had been driven farther south by the time the
hunters first occupied this grotto. In the overlying layers of this and
several other grottos the fire-hearths contain remains of a rich forest
fauna which includes the wild boar, stag, roe-deer, wild horse, wolf, and
bear. The first signs of increasing cold in the mountains to the north is
the appearance of remains of the chamois and ibex driven from the Alpine
heights. Then in still higher layers appears the reindeer, harbinger of
the tundra climate.
THE GRIMALDI RACE
Verneau is inclined to regard the Grimaldi as a very ancient race,
antedating the Crô-Magnon.(2) He believes that they belong to a new ethnic
type which played an important rôle in Europe and enjoyed a wide
geographic distribution. There does not, however, seem to be much support
for this opinion, because, unlike some other races, no traces of the
Grimaldis have been found elsewhere, and it would appear more probable
that they were, as their skeletal characters indicate, true negroids which
perhaps found their way from Africa but never became established as a race
in western Europe.
The type consists of two skeletons found in the _Grotte des Enfants_ by
Verneau in 1906. One skeleton is that of a middle-aged woman; the other is
that of a youth of sixteen or seventeen. Both are referred to the existing
species of man, _Homo sapiens_. The layer which contained them is on a
level two feet lower than any which contained Crô-Magnons, and
immediately above the culture layer of Mousterian times.
[Illustration: FIG. 132. Section of the _Grotte des Enfants_, after
Tschirret. In deposits which accumulated to a thickness of over 30 feet
this grotto contains in its ascending strata a complete epitome of the
vicissitudes of climate, together with four burials of members of the
Crô-Magnon Race, and, near the base, the burial of the two Grimaldi
skeletons. The layers in descending order are as follows:
_A._ Burial of two infant skeletons. Remains of forest and alpine
(_Ibex_) mammals.
_B._ Burial of the skeleton of a Crô-Magnon woman. Remains of forest
and alpine mammals.
_C._ Fire-hearths containing forest mammals--the wild boar, also the
reindeer.
_D._ Fire-hearths with flints of Aurignacian type. Remains of forest
fauna--the marten.
_E._ Layer containing a cairn or artificial pile of stone. Remains of
ibex, horse, wolf, cave-lion, and fox.
Intermediate layer. Remains of the wild ass, perhaps of the steppe
type, and of the reindeer; also of the ibex, the wild horse, and
forest fauna--the wild boar.
_F._ Large fragments fallen from the cave roof. No evidence of
habitation.
_G._ Fire-hearths. Remains of the moose, roe-deer, fallow deer, stag,
wild cattle, ibex, fox, leopard, and rabbit.
_H._ Burial of a very tall skeleton of the CRÔ-MAGNON RACE (see Fig.
144, p. 297). Fire-hearths containing remains of the forest fauna,
also the alpine chamois and marmot, the cave-hyæna, and the leopard.
_I._ Burial of two skeletons of the GRIMALDI RACE (see Fig. 133, p.
267). Flints of Aurignacian type and remains of a forest fauna which
includes the deer, also of the wild horse, the alpine ibex, and the
hyæna.
_K._ Traces of charcoal and disturbed fire-hearths.
_K-L._ Remains of Merck's rhinoceros and of the hyæna. Alpine (_Ibex_)
and temperate forest fauna.
_L._ Traces of fire-hearths with Mousterian implements, chiefly of
quartzite, probably left by members of the NEANDERTHAL RACE on the
ancient floor of the grotto, following the recession of the sea.
Evidence of previous occupation by hyænas.]
The Grimaldi characters present a wide contrast to those of the
Crô-Magnon. The two known skeletons, of a woman and a youth, are of
inferior stature, not exceeding 5 feet 3 inches:
Grimaldi female estimated at 1.57 m. 5 ft. 2 in.
" youth " " 1.55 m. 5 ft. 1 in.
These measurements, however, are only slightly inferior to those of the
Crô-Magnon woman and youth, which rise to 5 feet 5 inches. There are many
negroid characters in the skull, in the structure of the hip-girdle, and
in the proportions of the limbs; there are also some characters in common
with the anthropoid apes, namely, the long forearm, the curved thigh-bone,
and the marked prognathism, or projection of the tooth row; the face is
low and broad, and extremely prognathous; the nose is platyrhine, or broad
and flat; the jaw is heavy, with large teeth and without the chin
prominence; the head form, like that of the Crô-Magnons, is
dolichocephalic and somewhat disharmonic; that is, while the head is long,
the face is short and relatively broad. Yet the cranial capacity is
relatively high, being estimated at 1,580 c.cm. Unlike the Crô-Magnons,
the Grimaldis have a relatively long forearm and a negroid type of pelvis.
The proportions of the leg are, however, somewhat similar to those of the
leg of the Crô-Magnon, the thigh-bone being short and the shin-bone long,
the index being 83.8 per cent. In addition to the long forearm, which
approaches in form that of the living anthropoid apes, there is a curved
femur, distinctly of anthropoid-ape character.
"In its body and tooth characters," observes Verneau,(3) "this negroid
race in many respects shows a greater resemblance to the anthropoid apes
than does the Neanderthal race." He continues: "The fact remains that at a
very remote period of the Pleistocene there existed in Europe, beside the
Neanderthal race, a type of man that in many of his cephalic characters,
in the structure of his pelvis, and in his limb proportions showed
striking analogies to the negro of to-day. In their remarkable
proportions they exaggerate some of the peculiarities of the recent
negroes; the teeth resemble those of the Australian types. There is
evidence of the establishment and spread of the Grimaldi race throughout
western Europe, namely, in cases of partial reversion to this type among
the skeletal remains of the Neolithic Age, the Bronze Age, and the early
Iron Age in Brittany, Switzerland, and northern Italy. Extreme
prognathism is the characteristic that most frequently appears, and in
some instances there is the broad nose, with the same osteological
peculiarities that mark the Grimaldi type. In every instance these
individuals show dolichocephaly, nearly always combined with a short,
broad face. Until the discovery of the Grimaldi type we were at a loss to
explain the existence of these individuals among a population from which
they differed so radically."
[Illustration: FIG. 133. The Grimaldi skeletons found in the lower
Aurignacian layer of the _Grotte des Enfants_--the youth to the right and
the woman to the left. After Verneau.]
[Illustration: FIG. 134. Skull of the Grimaldi youth in front and in
profile. After Verneau, one-quarter life size.]
Against this opinion of Verneau we should weigh the entire absence of any
trace of this Grimaldi race in any part of western Europe among all the
burials and other human remains of Upper Palæolithic age known at the
present time. Setting aside any such records which are of doubtful
authenticity or difficult to diagnose on account of their fragmentary
nature, there remains a number of human fossils representing at least
ninety individuals discovered at over fifteen widely distributed
localities. None of these shows any features of the Grimaldi race.
In describing the Grimaldi skeletons, Keith(4) agrees that they are of a
mixed or negroid type; the shallow, projecting incisor part of the upper
jaw and the characters of the chin are features of recent negroid races;
so are the wide opening of the nose, the prominent cheek-bones, the flat
and short face. Yet the bridge of the nose is not flat as in negroes, but
rather prominent as in Europeans, and the capacity of the skull in the
woman (1,375 c.cm.) is ample. In the boy the teeth are large and of the
negro type; he bears a striking resemblance to the woman, and his cranial
capacity (1,580 c.cm.) indicates a distinctly modern brain; the
prominences of the forehead do not meet across the median line as in
certain negroids and in the Neanderthals. Keith concludes that the
Grimaldi people represent an intermediate type in the evolution of the
typical white and black races.
MAIN FEATURES OF THE ENTIRE UPPER PALÆOLITHIC HISTORY
Having now considered the opening of the Upper Palæolithic, also the
single appearance of the Grimaldi race of which no further trace is known,
it is desirable to briefly review the entire Upper Palæolithic history
before we attempt to follow in detail its successive phases beginning with
the appearance of the Aurignacian industry.
There is evidence of various kinds that the Crô-Magnons arrived in western
Europe, bringing in their Aurignacian industry, while the Neanderthals
were still in possession of the country and practising their Mousterian
industry. Thus in the valley of the Somme, Commont believes he has
recognized a level of flints, exhibiting the primitive Aurignacian
'retouch' of Dordogne, but occurring beneath a late Mousterian level.
Additional evidence of a contact between the industries of these two races
is found at the stations of La Ferrassie, of Les Bouffia, and especially
of the Abri Audit, where there is a distinct transition period, in which
the characteristic types of the late Mousterian are found intermixed with
a number of flints suggesting the early Aurignacian;(5) here it would
appear that the development of the Aurignacian is partly a local
evolution, and not an invasion of wholly new types of implements.
Breuil(6) suggests that these mixed layers may perhaps be explained by the
supposition that we have here degenerate or modified Mousterian tools,
more or less influenced by contact with the Aurignacian industry of the
Crô-Magnon race.
THE STONE IMPLEMENTS CHARACTERISTIC OF LOWER AND UPPER PALÆOLITHIC TIMES
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | LOWER PALÆOLITHIC |UPPER |
| | |PALÆOLITHIC |
| |-------------------|------------|
| |PRE-CHELLEAN | |
| | |CHELLEAN | |
| | | |ACHEULEAN | |
| THE TYPICAL STONE IMPLEMENTS | | | |MOUSTERIAN| |
| | | | | |AURIGNACIAN |
| | | | | | |SOLUTREAN |
| | | | | | | |MAGDALENIAN |
| | | | | | | | |AZILIAN |
| | | | | | | | | |TARDE- |
| | | | | | | | | | NOISIAN|
|--------------------------------------|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--------|
|A.--WAR AND CHASE | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
| *1. MICROLITHIQUE? ARROW POINT? ETC.|..|..|..|..|..|..| =| =| + |
| 2. POINTE POINT |..|..| =| +| +| =| =| =|.. |
| 3. POINTE À SOIE LANCE OR KNIFE |..|..|..|..| =| +| =|..|.. |
| 4. POINTE À CRAN LANCE-HEAD |..|..|..|..| =|++| ?|..|.. |
| 5. POINTE DE | | | | | | | | | |
| LAURIER " " |..|..|..|..| ?|++| ?|..|.. |
| *6. COUP DE POING HAND-AXE, | | | | | | | | | |
| PONIARD, ETC. |..| +|++| =|..|..|..|..|.. |
| 7. PIERRE DE JET THROWING STONE | ?| ?| =| =| ?| ?| =|..|.. |
| *8. COUTEAU KNIFE | =| =| =| =| =| =| =| =| = |
| | | | | | | | | | |
|B.--INDUSTRIAL AND DOMESTIC | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
| 9. LAMPE LAMP |..|..|..|..|..|..| =|..|.. |
| 10. LISSOIR POLISHER |..|..|..|..|..| =| =|..|.. |
| 11. MORTIER MORTAR |..|..|..|..|..|..| =|..|.. |
| 12. HACHETTE | | | | | | | | | |
| (TRANCHETTE) CHOPPER |..| ?| =| =|..|..|..|..|.. |
|*13. COUP DE POING HAND-AXE, ETC. |..| +|++| =|..|..|..|..|.. |
| 14. GRATTOIR PLANING TOOL | =| =| =| =| =| =| =| =| = |
| 15. RACLOIR SCRAPER | =| =| =|++| +| =| =| =|.. |
| 16. PERÇOIR DRILL, BORER | =| =| =| =| =| =| =| =|.. |
|*17. COUTEAU KNIFE | =| =| =| =| =| =| =| =| = |
| 18. ENCLUME ANVIL STONE |..|..|..|..| =| ?| =|..|.. |
| 19. PERCUTEUR HAMMER-STONE | =| =| ?| ?| =| =| =| =| = |
| | | | | | | | | | |
|C.--ART, SCULPTURE, ENGRAVING | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
|*20. MICROLITHIQUE DRILL, GRAVER, | | | | | | | | | |
| AND ETCHER |..|..|..|..| =| =| =|++| = |
| 21. CISEAU CHISEL |..|..|..|..| =| =| =|..|.. |
| 22. GRAVETTE ETCHING TOOL |..|..|..|..| +| +| =| =|.. |
| 23. BURIN GRAVER |..|..|..|..|++| =| =| ?|.. |
| (ALSO MORTAR, HAMMER-STONE, | | | | | | | | | |
| AND POLISHER) | | | | | | | | | |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
* = twice mentioned (in different classifications).
+ or ++ denotes an unusual or culminating development.
Again, the burial customs of the Neanderthals were in many respects
followed by the Crô-Magnons; they chose, in fact, the same kind of burial
sites, namely, at the entrances of grottos or in proximity to the
shelters. Some degree of ceremony must have marked these burials, for with
the remains were interred implements of industry and warfare together with
offerings of food. The Neanderthal burials were with the body fully
extended; the two burials of the Grimaldi race were with the limbs in a
flexed position and tightly bound to the body, probably with skin garments
or thongs. The Crô-Magnon burials are either with the body extended, as in
the Grottes de Grimaldi, or with the limbs flexed, as in the Aurignacian
burial of Laugerie Haute.
THE BONE IMPLEMENTS APPEARING AT THE CLOSE OF THE LOWER PALÆOLITHIC AND
HIGHLY CHARACTERISTIC OF THE UPPER PALÆOLITHIC
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | LOWER PALÆOLITHIC |UPPER |
| | |PALÆOLITHIC |
| |-------------------|------------|
| |PRE-CHELLEAN | |
| | |CHELLEAN | |
| | | |ACHEULEAN | |
| THE TYPICAL BONE IMPLEMENTS | | | |MOUSTERIAN| |
| | | | | |AURIGNACIAN |
| | | | | | |SOLUTREAN |
| | | | | | | |MAGDALENIAN |
| | | | | | | | |AZILIAN |
| | | | | | | | | |TARDE- |
| | | | | | | | | | NOISIAN|
|--------------------------------------|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--------|
|A.--WAR, CHASE, FISHING | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
| *1. LAMES BLADES |..|..|..|..| =| ?| =|..|.. |
| 2. POIGNARD DAGGER |..|..|..|..|..| =| =|..|.. |
| 3. HAMEÇON? FISH-HOOK? |..|..|..|..| ?| ?| ?|..|.. |
| 4. PROPULSEUR SPEAR THROWER |..|..|..|..|..|..| =|..|.. |
| 5. HARPON HARPOON |..|..|..|..|..| =|++| =|.. |
| 6. POINTE DE SAGAIE JAVELIN POINT |..|..|..|..| =| =| =|..|.. |
| 7. POINTE DE LANCE SPEAR POINT |..|..|..|..| =| =| =| =|.. |
| | | | | | | | | | |
|B.--INDUSTRIAL AND DOMESTIC | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
| 8. SPATULE SPATULA |..|..|..|..|..| =| =|..|.. |
| 9. NAVETTE SHUTTLE |..|..|..|..|..|..| =|..|.. |
| 10. EPINGLE PIN |..|..|..|..|..|..| =|..|.. |
| 11. AIGUILLE NEEDLE |..|..|..|..| =| +|++|..|.. |
|*12. LAMES BLADES |..|..|..|..| =|..|++|..|.. |
| 13. COMPRESSEUR ANVIL |..|..|..| =|..|..|..|..|.. |
| 14. LISSOIR SMOOTHER |..|..|..|..| =| =| =| =|.. |
| 15. COIN WEDGE |..|..|..|..| =|..| =|..|.. |
| 16. CISEAU CHISEL |..|..|..|..| =|..| =| =|.. |
| 17. POINÇON AWL |..|..|..| =| =| =| =| =|.. |
| | | | | | | | | | |
|C.--CEREMONIAL, SOCIAL | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
| 18. BÂTON DE | | | | | | | | | |
| COMMANDEMENT CEREMONIAL STAFF|..|..|..|..| =| +|++|..|.. |
| 19. BAGUETTE WAND |..|..|..|..|..|..| =|..|.. |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
* = twice mentioned (in different classifications).
+ or ++ denotes an unusual or culminating development.
Whether the Neanderthals were exterminated entirely or whether they were
driven out of the country is not known; the encounter was certainly
between a very superior people, both physically and mentally, who possibly
had the use of the bow and arrow, and a very inferior and somewhat
degenerate people that had been already reduced physically and perhaps
numerically by the severe climatic conditions of the fourth glaciation.
The Neanderthals were dispossessed of all their dwelling-places and
industrial stations by this new and vigorous race, for at no less than
eighteen points the Aurignacian immediately succeeds upon the Mousterian
industry and in a few instances Crô-Magnon burials occur very near the
Neanderthal burial sites.
In the racial replacements of savage as well as of historic peoples the
men are often killed and the women spared and taken into families of the
warriors, but no evidence has thus far been found that even the
Neanderthal women were spared or allowed to remain in the country, because
in none of the burials of Aurignacian times is there any evidence of the
crossing or admixture of the Crô-Magnons and the Neanderthals.
[Illustration: PL. VI. The head of the Crô-Magnon type of _Homo sapiens_,
a race inhabiting southwestern Europe from Aurignacian to Magdalenian
times. Antiquity in western Europe estimated as at least 25,000 years.
After the restoration modelled by J. H. McGregor. For the bodily
proportions of this finely developed race compare Pl. VII.]
The chief source of the change which swept over western Europe lay in the
brain power of the Crô-Magnons, as seen not only in the large size of the
brain as a whole but principally in the almost modern forehead and
forebrain. It was a race which had evolved in Asia and which was in no way
connected by any ancestral links with the Neanderthals; a race with a
brain capable of ideas, of reasoning, of imagination, and more highly
endowed with artistic sense and ability than any uncivilized race which
has ever been discovered. No trace of artistic instinct whatever has been
found among the Neanderthals; we have seen developing among them only a
sense of symmetry and proportion in the fashioning of their implements.
After prolonged study of the works of the Crô-Magnons one cannot avoid the
conclusions that their capacity was nearly if not quite as high as our
own; that they were capable of advanced education; that they had a
strongly developed æsthetic as well as a religious sense; that their
society was quite highly differentiated along the lines of talent for
work of different kinds. One derives this impression especially from the
conditions surrounding the development of their art, which are still
mysterious and an interpretation of which we shall attempt to give in the
following chapter.
CULTURAL, RACIAL, AND CLIMATIC DIVISIONS
The Upper Palæolithic covers the greater part of the 'Reindeer Epoch' as
it was conceived by Lartet and Christy, who began their systematic study
and exploration of the caves of Dordogne in 1863. They were soon joined by
Massénat and the Marquis de Vibraye, while Dupont took up the work in
Belgium and Piette made the artistic development, especially in the
Pyrenees, his chosen field.
Lartet was the first to perceive that the culture of the grotto of
Aurignac was quite distinct from that of the Lower Palæolithic in northern
France; he also recognized in the shelter of Laugerie Haute, in Dordogne,
that there was still another culture, which is now known as the Solutrean;
also that in the shelter of Laugerie Basse, in Dordogne, there was yet
another industry, that which we now know as Magdalenian. M. de Mortillet
was the first to recognize the superiority of the Solutrean industry in
stone, which in this period reached its height, and its succession by the
Magdalenian period, in which the industry in bone and horn reached a
climax; but he failed to recognize the very important preceding position
of the Aurignacian, and it was not until 1906 that the clear presentation
by Breuil of the entire distinctness of the Aurignacian industry led to
the adoption by the Archæological Congress at Geneva of three cultural
divisions of the Upper Palæolithic. In the meantime Piette had discovered
that in the Mas d'Azil there was a distinct cultural phase, the Azilian,
following the Magdalenian, and thus a fourfold division of the Upper
Palæolithic (Breuil,(7) Obermaier(8)) was established, as follows:
_AZILIAN._--Industry of the surviving Crô-Magnon and other resident
races, and of newly arrived brachycephalic and dolichocephalic races
in western Europe; decadent forms of flint and bone workmanship;
entire absence of art. _Daun_ stage of Postglacial retreat; Europe
with a milder climate and forest and meadow fauna like that of early
historic times.
_MAGDALENIAN._--Closing stage of the industry and art of the
Crô-Magnon race; bone implements highly developed; marked decline in
the flint industry. Close of Postglacial Period; climate alternately
cold and moist (corresponding with the _Bühl_ and _Gschnitz_
Postglacial advances of the ice in the Alpine region), or cold and
arid; Europe covered with the tundra and steppe fauna; life chiefly in
the shelters and grottos.
_SOLUTREAN._--Culminating stage of flint industry; apparent invasion
in eastern Europe of the Brünn (Brüx, Předmost, and [?] Galley Hill)
race. The highly developed flint industry of the Solutrean types; art
development of the Crô-Magnon race partly suspended. Dry, cold
climate; life largely in the open.
_AURIGNACIAN._--Appearance of the Crô-Magnon race in southwestern
Europe, succeeding the Mousterian industry; art of engraving and
drawing and sculpture of human and animal forms developing. Animal
life the same as during the fourth glaciation; climate cold and
increasingly dry; life chiefly in the grottos and shelters.
The successive phases of development of Upper Palæolithic industry and art
have been traced with extraordinary precision in Dordogne, in the
Pyrenees, in northern Spain, and along the Danube and upper Rhine by a
host of able workers--Cartailhac, Capitan, Peyrony, Bouyssonnie, Lalanne,
and others. Breuil has made himself master especially of the Aurignacian
and has succeeded Piette as the great historian of Upper Palæolithic art.
Obermaier's chief service has been the comparison of the Upper Palæolithic
of the Danubian region with that of the Dordogne and northern Spain both
in regard to the geologic age and the archæologic and racial succession.
The labors of Schmidt along the upper Rhine and Danube have not only
brought this region into definite prehistoric relation with the Dordogne
and the Pyrenees but have given us by far the clearest evidence of the
relation between the human and the industrial development and the
succession of climatic phases in northern Europe. Finally, the
explorations of Commont along the River Somme have proved that this
region, too, was frequented throughout all Upper Palæolithic times, during
which it exhibits an industrial development hardly less important than
that of the Lower Palæolithic.
There are two very distinct lines of thought among these archæologists:
the first is shown in the tendency to regard the industries as mainly
_autochthonous_, or as following local lines of development; the exponents
of this theory dwell most strongly on the transitions between the
Mousterian, the Aurignacian, and the Solutrean industries. For example,
the chief object of Schuchhardt's tour(9) through the Palæolithic stations
of Dordogne was to observe the transitions from one period to another and
the evidence afforded of successive changes of climate. This writer is
impressed with the transitions; he notes that the typical curved knives of
the Abri Audit furnish a transition from the Mousterian scrapers to the
Aurignacian 'points' of La Gravette and La Font Robert; that the Solutrean
takes up all the fine threads of the Aurignacian culture and spins them
further into Magdalenian times. Thus we get an
Aurignacian-Solutrean-Magdalenian industrial cycle which is comparable to
the Chellean-Acheulean-Mousterian cycle.
Breuil, on the other hand, from the archæologist's standpoint--because he
is not especially interested in the matter of racial development--is a
strong exponent of the idea of _successive invasions_ of cultures, either
from the south or Mediterranean region or from the central region of
Europe, which he calls the 'Atlantic'; and he distinguishes sharply
between these two great areas of Upper Palæolithic evolution, namely, the
_southern_ and the _central_ European, pointing out that it was only after
the establishment of more genial climatic conditions, like those of modern
times, that there was an added element of northern or Baltic invasion.
Certainly the archæologic testimony strongly supports this
culture-invasion hypothesis and it appears to be strengthened in a measure
by the study of the human types, although this study has not progressed
beyond the stage of hypothesis. When the Upper Palæolithic races have been
studied with as close attention as those of the Lower Palæolithic we may
be able to establish positively the relation between these human types and
the advance of certain cultures and industries.
DISTRIBUTION OF UPPER PALÆOLITHIC HUMAN FOSSILS
Our present view, as drawn from a consideration of the facts before us, is
that western Europe in Upper Palæolithic times was entered by four or five
distinct races, all belonging to _Homo sapiens_, only three of which
became established:
5. The _Furfooz_ (Ofnet, and [?] Grenelle) _race_, extremely
broad-headed, entering central Europe possibly from central Asia,
bringing an Azilian culture, without art or developed flint industry.
(Alpine type.)
4. A _dolichocephalic race_ with a narrow face, associated with the
Furfooz race, either connected with the Brünn and Brüx, or an advance
wave of one of the dolichocephalic Neolithic races. (Mediterranean
type.)
3. The _Brünn_ (Brüx, Předmost, and [?] Galley Hill) _race_,
long-headed, with a narrow, short face, probably entering central
Europe directly from Asia through Hungary and along the Danube;
bringing a perfected Solutrean culture; inferior in brain development
to the Crô-Magnons, in industrial contact with them but not displacing
them.
2. The _Crô-Magnon race_, long-headed with a very broad face, entering
Europe in closing Mousterian or early Aurignacian times, probably from
the south along the Mediterranean coast, and bringing in an
Aurignacian flint industry and art spirit characteristic especially of
Aurignacian and Magdalenian times; greatly reduced in number in
closing Magdalenian times, but leaving descendants in various colonies
in western Europe.
1. The _Grimaldi race_, in the transition between the Mousterian and
the Aurignacian; negroid or African in character; apparently never
established as a race of any influence in western Europe.
The presence of these five races, and perhaps of a sixth if the
'Aurignacian man' of Klaatsch proves to be distinct from the Crô-Magnon,
is firmly established by anatomy. It is most important constantly to keep
before our minds certain great principles of racial evolution: (1) that
the development of a racial type, whether long-headed or broad-headed,
narrow-faced or broad-faced, of tall or of short stature, must necessarily
be very slow; (2) that this development of the races which invaded western
Europe took place for the most part to the eastward in the vast continent
of Asia and eastern Europe; (3) that, once established through a long
process of isolation and separate evolution, these racial types are
extremely stable and persistent; their head form, their bodily
characters, and especially their psychic characters and tendencies are not
readily modified or altered; nor are they in any marked degree blended by
crossing. Crosses do not produce merely blends; they chiefly produce a
mosaic of distinct characters derived from one race or the other.
[Illustration: FIG. 135. Geographic distribution of Upper Palæolithic
human fossils in western Europe.]
We must therefore imagine western Europe in Upper Palæolithic times again
as a terminal region; a great peninsula toward which the human migrants
from the east and from the south came to mingle and superpose their
cultures. These races took the great migration routes which had been
followed by other waves of animal life before them; they were pressed upon
from behind by the increasing populations of the east; they were attracted
to western Europe as a fresh and wonderful game country, where food in the
forests, in the meadows, and in the streams abounded in unparalleled
profusion. The Crô-Magnons especially were a nomadic hunting people,
perfectly fitted by their physical structure for the chase and developing
an extraordinary appreciation of the beauty and majesty of the varied
forms of animal life which existed in no other part of the world at the
time. Between the retreating Alpine and Scandinavian glaciers Europe was
freely open toward the eastern plains of the Danube, extending to central
and southern Asia; on the north, however, along the Baltic, the climate
was still too inclement for a wave of human migration, and there is no
trace of man along these northern shores until the close of the Upper
Palæolithic, nor of any residence of man in the Scandinavian peninsula
until the great wave of Neolithic migration established itself in that
region.
[Illustration: FIG. 136. Epitome of human history in western Europe during
the Third Interglacial, Fourth Glacial, and Postglacial Stages; showing
also the three Postglacial advances and retreats which succeeded the close
of the Fourth Glacial Stage in the Alpine region, theoretically
corresponding with the climatic vicissitudes of Postglacial time. From the
data of Penck and Schmidt. Drawn by C. A. Reeds. (Compare Fig. 14.)]
The climatic and cultural relations of Upper Palæolithic times may be
correlated[AL] in descending order as follows:
6. The _Daun_ or final Postglacial advance of the glaciers of the
Alps, estimated at 7,000 B. C. Europe with its modern or prehistoric
forest fauna, the lion lingering in the Pyrenees, the moose in Spain.
AZILIAN-TARDENOISIAN, closing stage of the Upper Palæolithic culture;
western Europe peopled by the broad-headed race of Furfooz and Ofnet,
also by a narrow-headed race. Baltic Migration, MAGLEMOSE culture.
5. The _Gschnitz_ stage in the Alps or second Postglacial advance.
Climate still cold and moist but gradually moderating. Decline of the
Magdalenian. Period of the retreat of the tundra and steppe animals;
mammoth, reindeer, and arctic rodents becoming more rare; Eurasiatic
forest mammals becoming more abundant.
Close of steppe period. Crô-Magnon race still dominant in western
Europe in the LATE MAGDALENIAN stage of culture.
4. Interval between the _Bühl_ and _Gschnitz_ Postglacial advances in
the Alps. A renewed steppe and 'loess' period. Climate cold and dry.
Mammoth and woolly rhinoceros, reindeer, full tundra and steppe fauna
very abundant. Crô-Magnon race in the stage of MIDDLE MAGDALENIAN
culture.
3. The _Bühl_ stage of Postglacial advance in the Alps; renewal of
severe conditions of cold moist climate, and spread all over western
Europe of the arctic banded and Obi lemmings of the _Upper Rodent
Layer_. _Bühl_ moraines in Lake Lucerne estimated as having been
deposited between 16,000 and 24,000 years B. C. Crô-Magnon race
dominant in the EARLY MAGDALENIAN stage of culture.
2. Period of the first Postglacial interval or _Achen_ retreat of the
glaciers in the Alpine region. A dry cold climate. Crô-Magnon and
Brünn races in the stage of SOLUTREAN culture.
1. Close of fourth glaciation, between 24,000 and 40,000 years B. C.
Cold and moist but increasingly dry climate succeeding the fourth
glaciation and deposition of _Lower Rodent Layer_, or first invasion
of the arctic tundra rodents. Crô-Magnon and possibly Aurignacian race
in the stage of AURIGNACIAN culture.
BEGINNING OF THE UPPER PALÆOLITHIC
THE AURIGNACIAN INDUSTRY
We now glance at western Europe as it was between 25,000 and 30,000 years
ago, at the opening of the Upper Palæolithic.
During Aurignacian times France was still broadly connected with Great
Britain.(11) The British Islands were not only united with each other but
with the continent, while the elevation of the Scandinavian peninsula
converted the Baltic Sea into a great fresh-water lake, the old shores of
which are readily traced. Geikie also maintains that the rise of land in
Scotland after the fourth glaciation was accompanied by an amelioration of
climate and the advent of more genial conditions; a strong forest growth
covered the lowlands, hence this is termed the _Lower Forestian_ stage of
the physiographic history of northern Britain; it corresponds to the
temporary period of the retreat of the glaciers in the Alpine region,
which Penck has named the _Achenschwänkung_. The latter author is not
inclined to connect any marked rise of temperature in the Alpine region
with this interval of time; to our knowledge no fossil plant beds have
been preserved which would give us such indications, and the animal life,
as we shall see, certainly affords only a very slight indication of a rise
in temperature in the retreat of certain of the snow-loving tundra and
northern steppe lemmings to the north; the greater number of tundra forms
remained. The continental elevation of the northern coast-line of Europe
would explain the advent of a dry continental climate and the renewal of
high prevailing winds, at least during the warmer and drier summer
seasons, for it is certain that atmospheric conditions such as produced
the great dust-storms and deposition of 'loess' after the second and third
glaciations prevailed again in western Europe after the fourth glaciation.
This gave rise to deposits of what is known among geologists as the 'newer
loess,' and we find these sheets of 'newer loess' spreading immediately
above the Mousterian culture at a number of different points in western
Europe.
When the Crô-Magnon race entered this part of Europe the climate was
becoming more dry and stimulating; the summers were warm or temperate, the
winters very severe. Great ice-caps still spread over the Scandinavian
peninsula and also over the Alps, but the borders of the ice-fields no
longer reached the plains; in a sense, the Glacial Epoch had not yet
closed, for during the whole period of Postglacial time the glaciers of
the Alps, beginning in early Magdalenian times, developed three renewed
advances, each somewhat less vigorous than the preceding one, with
intervening stages of a drier climate.
[Illustration: FIG. 137. 'Tectiforms'--schematic drawings in lines and
dots believed to represent huts and larger shelters built of logs and
covered with hides. From the walls of the cavern of _Font-de-Gaume_,
Dordogne. After Breuil.]
The greater number of the Aurignacian stations, like those of Mousterian
times, were under the shelters or within the entrances of the grottos and
caverns; all the stations in southwestern France are of this character.
There was, however, a great open camp at Solutré, which was a most famous
hunting station for the wild horse in Aurignacian times. In northern
France there are several open stations, such as those of Montières and St.
Acheul, along the River Somme, and to the east, along the middle Rhine,
there are several open 'loess' stations, such as those of Achenheim,
Völklinshofen, Rhens, and Metternich. It may very well be that these open
stations were visited only during the mild summer season. The continued
choice of sites which naturally afforded the greatest protection from the
weather, in France, Britain, Belgium, and all along the Danube, as well as
in the genial region of the Riviera, is a sure indication of a prevailing
severe climate. It is hardly possible, however, that the closed or
protected stations were the only residences of these people; they merely
indicate the points where the flint industry was continuously carried on
and also the vast foyers and gathering places; but there is little doubt
from the evidence afforded by the signs on the walls of the caverns, known
as 'tectiforms,' that huts and large shelters built of logs and covered
with hides were grouped around most of these stations and scattered
through the country at points favorable for hunting and fishing. These
would be the only dwelling-places possible in such vast open camps, for
example, as Solutré.
CLIMATE AND LIFE OF AURIGNACIAN TIMES
3. _First Postglacial Retreat_, _Achenschwänkung_ in the Alpine
region. Period of Solutrean industry. A cold dry climate, with
dust-storms and wide-spread deposition of 'loess' in western Europe.
Flint workers seeking many open stations. Horses and wild asses
numerous on the prairies; reindeer and wild cattle very abundant.
2. _Recession of the Ice-Fields of the Fourth Glaciation._ Period of
Aurignacian industry. Climate cold and increasingly dry; renewal of
the dust-storms and deposits of the 'newer loess.' Flint industry in
the caverns, grottos, shelters, and a few open stations. Opening of
the Upper Palæolithic period. Arrival of the Crô-Magnon race.
1. _Final Stage of Fourth Glaciation._ Close of the Lower Palæolithic
Mousterian culture. Gradual extinction of the Neanderthal race.
The arrival of the Crô-Magnon race and the beginning of the Aurignacian
industry took place during the period of retreat of the ice-fields of the
fourth glaciation. As we pass from the levels of the early Aurignacian
industry into those of the middle and upper Aurignacian, we find that the
mammal life of Mousterian times continued in its prime all over western
Europe, with the addition, one by one, of some new forms from the tundras,
such as the musk-ox, and the successive arrival from the mountains and
steppes of western Asia of such characteristic forms as the argali sheep
and the wild ass, or kiang.
[Illustration: FIG. 138. Geographic distribution (horizontal lines) of the
reindeer, mammoth, and woolly rhinoceros, the three chief mammals of the
tundra fauna, with reference to the retiring ice-fields (dots) of the
Fourth Glacial Stage. After Boule and Geikie. (Compare Figs. 95 and 96.)]
The extremely cold and moist climate of the fourth glaciation had passed,
and a somewhat drier but still extremely cold climatic condition prevailed
throughout western Europe. During the early Aurignacian the two northern
types of lemming, the banded lemming (_Myodes torquatus_) and the Obi
lemming (_Myodes obensis_), were still found along the upper Danube, as in
the grottos of Sirgenstein, Ofnet, and Bockstein. From middle Aurignacian
on through Solutrean times these denizens of the extreme north disappear
from this region of Europe. Further evidence of a dry, cold climate is
found in the recurrence of dust-storms and in the great deposits of 'newer
loess' beginning in certain parts of Europe at the very close of the
Mousterian industry and extending through both middle and late Aurignacian
and Solutrean times in all the region of the upper Rhine, along both
shores of the Danube, and westward in the valley of the Somme, in northern
France. This period is therefore believed to correspond with the _Achen_
retreat of the great glaciers still covering the Alpine region.
Another striking proof of the amelioration of climate is the return of the
flint workers to many of the open stations, old and new, in various parts
of western Europe, the climate being more endurable because less humid. In
Mousterian times the open stations were very rare and were perhaps visited
during the summer season only; in Aurignacian times they were more
abundant, there being twelve open stations out of a total of about sixty
stations thus far discovered; in Aurignacian and Solutrean times the type
station of Solutré was much frequented, and many other open camps are
found in various parts of western Europe.
This is still the Reindeer Period; in fact, it is the typical 'Reindeer
Epoch' of Lartet, and the predominant forms of life are the woolly mammoth
and the woolly rhinoceros; but for a time the reindeer seems to have been
less abundant, and Aurignacian times are marked apparently by a very
greatly increased number of horses. The animal life throughout retains its
northern or arctic character; the tundra species predominate, the hardy
forms of the forests and meadows of Eurasia are next in number, and then
are found a few of the steppe forms, with here and there forms
characteristic of the Alps. The entire fauna of the Aurignacian may be
summed up as follows:
The wild ass, or kiang, of the Asiatic deserts appears in late Aurignacian
times in the region of the upper Rhine and upper Danube, as seen in the
deposits of Wildscheuer, Thaingen, Kesslerloch, and Schweizersbild, and
also there probably arrived in Europe at this time the Elasmothere (_E.
sibericum_), a gigantic rhinoceros, distinguished from all others that we
have been considering by the entire absence of the anterior horn and by
the possession of an enormous single horn situated on the forehead above
the eyes, also by the elaborate foldings of the dental enamel, to which
the name 'Elasmothere' refers; its teeth were especially adapted to a
grassy diet; it apparently wandered into Europe from the arid grassy
plains of central and western Asia, and its appearance is connected with
the extensive deforestation accompanying the tundra and steppe periods of
mammalian life.
TUNDRA LIFE.
Reindeer, woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, musk-ox (rare),
arctic fox, arctic hare, arctic wolverene, arctic ptarmigan.
Banded and Obi lemmings in lower Aurignacian only.
ALPINE LIFE.
Argali sheep, ibex, alpine ptarmigan.
STEPPE LIFE.
Steppe horse, kiang, central Asiatic ass.
FOREST LIFE.
Red deer, roe-deer, giant deer, brown bear, cave-bear, wildcat,
wolf, fox, otter, lynx, weasel.
MEADOW LIFE.
Bison, wild cattle.
ASIATIC LIFE.
Cave-hyæna, cave-lion, ? cave-leopard.
These periodic arrivals from central Asia suggest the existence of
migration routes which may also have been followed by tribes of
Palæolithic hunters.
There is no evidence at this time of the presence of the more
characteristic animals of the steppes, such as the saiga antelope, the
jerboa, and the steppe hamster, which enter Europe during the later period
of Magdalenian culture. As an indication, perhaps, of the dryness of the
climate we observe that the moose (_Alces_) is no longer recorded,
although it reappears in western Europe in later Magdalenian times. The
giant deer (_Megaceros_) appears in southern Germany with the early
Aurignacian culture, but this would seem to be the time of its extinction,
because it does not occur in association with any of the later industries.
For a time the bison in Dordogne, in southern Germany, and in Austria
appears to be far more abundant than the wild cattle; the latter animals
are not recorded either by Schmidt or Déchelette in association with the
Aurignacian culture, but they reappear in the moister period of
Magdalenian times.
The remains of similar late Pleistocene mammals lie scattered over a large
area in Britain, and we must conclude from their presence, observes
Dawkins,(12) that Britain was still broadly connected with the mainland of
Europe. This is proved by the occurrence of the mammoth fauna in various
places now covered by the sea, as in Holyhead Harbor, off the coasts of
Devonshire and of Sussex, and in the North Sea. On the Dogger Bank the
accumulation of bones, teeth, and antlers is so great that the fishermen
of Yarmouth have collected in their nets and dredges more than three
hundred specimens. They belong to the bear, wolf, cave-hyæna, giant deer,
Irish elk, reindeer, stag, bison, urus, horse, woolly rhinoceros, mammoth,
and beaver, and are to be viewed as the remains of animals deposited by
river currents, as in the case of similar accumulations on land. Had they
been deposited by the sea they would have been sifted by the action of the
waves, the smaller being heaped together in one place and the larger in
another. The carcasses had evidently been collected in the eddies of a
river that helped to form the Dogger Bank, which now rises to within eight
fathoms of the sea-level.
One of the animals of the Aurignacian period which is best known is the
'horse of Solutré.' Around the great Aurignacian camp at Solutré there
accumulated the remains of a vast number of horses, which are estimated at
not less than 100,000; the bones are distributed in a wide circle around
the ancient camp, consisting of broken or entire skeletons compacted into
a veritable magma, with which occur also remains of the reindeer, the
urus, and the mammoth interbedded with all the types of Aurignacian
implements. The majority of these horses belong to the stout-headed,
short-limbed forest or northern type, measuring 54 inches (13.2 hands) at
the withers, and about the size of the existing pony.(13) The joints and
hoofs were especially large, and the long teeth and powerful jaws were
adapted to feeding on coarse grasses; the greater part of the remains are
those of horses from five to seven years of age. There is no evidence that
the men of Aurignacian times either bred or reared these animals; they
pursued them only for food. The discovery that the horse might be used as
an animal of transport appears to have been made in the far East, and not
in western Europe.
The animal and plant life of the Aurignacian station near Krems, on the
Danube, above Vienna,(14) includes a strong element of the tundra
forms--the arctic fox, wolverene, mammoth, rhinoceros, musk-ox, reindeer,
hare, and ptarmigan. The steppe fauna, on the other hand, is rare,
including only the suslik, but not the saiga antelope or any of the other
characteristic steppe types. The principal objects of the chase were not
only the mammoth, which was extraordinarily abundant, but also the
reindeer and wild horses; the ibex is rare.
Obermaier observes that the chart of the geographic distribution of the
Aurignacian shows this culture to belong essentially to the provinces
surrounding the entire Mediterranean, from Syria (the grottos of Lebanon)
through north Africa (Algiers) to Spain. It also has a strong development
throughout France, entering middle and southern Germany and passing along
the Danube to Austria, Poland, and southern Russia (Mezine) north of Kiev.
There is no doubt that the mammoth hunters of Krems belonged in this
wide-spread distribution; the shells used for ornaments, which
unmistakably recall those of the Riviera, are only in part local from the
neighborhood of Vienna; the larger part is from the Mediterranean. We may
imagine that these shells passed through several hands among this race of
nomadic hunters, and this is not surprising in view of the girdle which
the Aurignacian stretched around the entire Mediterranean Sea.
DISCOVERY OF THE CRÔ-MAGNON RACE
The earliest discovery of a member of this race was that by Buckland, in
the cave of Paviland, which opens on the face of a steep limestone
cliff, about a mile east of Rhossilly, on the coast of Gower, Wales.(15)
As described by Sollas, a painted skeleton, long known as the 'Red Lady,'
was found in the kitchen midden which forms the floor of this cave; recent
investigation has proved that this skeleton belongs to a man of the
Crô-Magnon race; the associated implements are of Aurignacian type.
Paviland cave is thus the first Aurignacian station discovered in Britain
and marks the most westerly outpost of the Crô-Magnon race.
[Illustration: FIG. 139. Section of the sepulchral grotto of Aurignac, the
type station of Aurignacian culture, as restored by Lartet from the
description of the original condition of the grotto as it was in 1852.
After Lyell.]
In 1852 the sepulchral grotto of Aurignac, on the nearest spur of the
Pyrenees, in Haute-Garonne, was accidentally discovered by a laborer. It
was almost filled with bones, among which were two entire skulls and many
fragments, numbering altogether no less than seventeen skeletons of both
sexes and of all ages. The mayor of Aurignac ordered all the bones to be
taken out and re-interred in the parish cemetery. Thus, in 1860, when
Lartet visited this grotto and determined it as the type station of a
distinct industry, all the human remains had been lost beyond recovery,
and with them all possibility of learning to what race, culture, and
geologic age they belonged. On a sloping terrace in front of the grotto
was the hearth containing one hundred flint implements, mingled with the
remains of a typical reindeer fauna.
[Illustration: FIG. 140. Section of the Grotto of Crô-Magnon, in which the
fossilized skeleton of the 'Old Man of Crô-Magnon,' type of the Crô-Magnon
race, was discovered in 1868, together with the remains of four other
individuals. After Louis Lartet. Scale = 1-125.]
In 1868 Lartet explored a grotto in the little hamlet of Crô-Magnon, near
Les Eyzies, on the Vézère, where he found five skeletons, which have
become the type of the great Crô-Magnon race of Upper Palæolithic times.
The grotto was accidentally discovered by workmen building a road in the
Vézère valley. Here Lartet found the skeleton of an old man, now known as
the 'old man of Crô-Magnon'; then that of a woman, whose forehead bore the
mark of a wound from some heavy blow; close to her lay the fragments of a
child's skeleton and near by those of two young men. Flint implements and
perforated shells were found with these skeletons.
In May, 1868, the material was first described by Broca,(16) his excellent
account being later reprinted and amplified in the _Reliquiæ Aquitanicæ_
of Lartet and Christy.(17) Broca referred to these skeletons as
incontestable proofs of the contemporaneous existence of man and the
mammoth. The associated mammalian life was that of the reindeer and the
industry is now known to be of the Aurignacian stage. In his classic
original description of this type Broca remarks upon the high stature, the
face very broad in relation to its height, with very long and very narrow
orbits; the large and markedly dolichocephalic skull, with an unusually
large brain capacity, noting that the brain capacity of the Crô-Magnon
woman surpasses that of the average male of to-day; the forehead
correspondingly broad, vertical, convex on the median line; the bones of
the limbs robust, and the shin-bones flattened transversely; altogether a
very high racial type of skeleton belonging to the species _Homo sapiens_.
[Illustration: FIG. 141. Head of the very tall skeleton of Crô-Magnon type
discovered in the _Grotte des Enfants_. After Verneau. One-quarter life
size.]
[Illustration: FIG. 142. Head of the 'Old Man of Crô-Magnon,' rejuvenated
by the restoration of the teeth, showing the method of restoration of the
features adopted in all the models by J. H. McGregor. The diameter of the
head across the cheek-bones is seen to be greater than that across the
cranium. (Compare Figs. 146 and 147, also Pl. VI.)]
Verneau,(18) in his description of the Crô-Magnon type, emphasizes the
_disharmonic_ form of the head, for the dolichocephalic form of the skull
is combined with a face very broad for its height, and this, in fact, is
the unique and most distinctive feature of the Crô-Magnon race. The
cheek-bones are both broad and high. It is curious that in this face, so
broad across the cheek-bones and cheek arches, the space between the eyes
is small, the nose is narrow and aquiline, and the upper jaw is noticeably
narrow; it is no less remarkable that this upper jaw projects forward,
while the upper part of the face is almost vertical, as in the highest
types of _Homo sapiens_. The eye sockets, which are remarkably broad, are
rather shallow, and their angles are but slightly rounded off, so that the
form suggests a very long rectangle; the mandible is thick and strong, and
the chin massive, triangular, and very prominent; the marks of muscular
attachment denote great muscular development around the thick, strong
jaws, in which the parts for the attachment of the vertical muscles are
unusually large. I would add, says Verneau, to these essential
characteristics the surprising capacity of the cranium, which Broca
estimated as at least 1,590 c.cm. The majority of these features are found
in almost all of the skulls of the Crô-Magnon race in the Grottes de
Grimaldi. The top view of the skull is unusual on account of the extreme
prominence of the eminences of the parietals, which give the skull a
pentagonal effect when seen from above. The eyebrow ridges show decided
prominences above the orbits but disappear completely in the median line
and at the sides and thus differ totally from those in the Neanderthal
head.
DISCOVERIES CHIEFLY OF THE CRÔ-MAGNON AND GRIMALDI RACES[AM]
REFERRED TO AURIGNACIAN TIMES
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Date of | Locality | Number of |Culture Stage |
|Discovery| | Individuals | |
|---------+---------------------------+------------------+--------------|
| CRÔ-MAGNON AND (?) AURIGNACIAN RACE |
|---------+---------------------------+------------------+--------------|
|1823. |Paviland cave, western |One skeleton. |Aurignacian. |
| | Wales. | Burial. | |
|1852. |Aurignac, Haute-Garonne, |Seventeen |? " |
| | | skeletons. | |
| | Pyrenees, France. | Burial. | |
|1868. |Crô-Magnon, Dordogne, |Three incomplete | " |
| | France. | skeletons and | |
| | | fragments of two| |
| | | others. | |
| | | ? Burial. | |
|1872- |Grottes de Grimaldi, | Burial. | |
| 1884. | Baoussé-Roussé, Italy. | | |
| | 1. Grotte des Enfants |Four skeletons. | " |
| | (Grotte de Grimaldi). | | |
| | 2. Grotte de Cavillon. |One " | " |
| | 3. Barma Grande. |Six " | " |
| | 4. Baousso da Torre. |Three " | " |
|1909. |Combe-Capelle, Dordogne. |Type of _Homo | " |
| | | aurignacensis_, | |
| | | Klaatsch. | |
| | | Burial. | |
|1909. |Laugerie Haute, Dordogne. |One skeleton. |? " |
| | | Burial. | |
| |Solutré. |Fragments. |? " |
| |Camargo (Santander), Spain.|Fragment of skull.| " |
| |Willendorf, Austria. |Fragments. |Late |
| | | | Aurignacian.|
| |Cave of Antelias (Syria). |Scattered bones. |Aurignacian. |
|---------+---------------------------+------------------+--------------|
| GRIMALDI RACE |
|---------+---------------------------+------------------+--------------|
|1906. |Grottes de Grimaldi, | | |
| | Baoussé-Roussé, Italy. | | |
| | 1. Grotte des Enfants |Two skeletons. |Aurignacian or|
| | (Grotte de Grimaldi). | | Late |
| | | | Mousterian. |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
Of the numerous skeletons found in the Grottes de Grimaldi, or
Baoussé-Roussé, near Mentone, the one first discovered is most widely
known as the 'man of Mentone,' which was found in the Grotte de Cavillon,
in 1872, by Rivière; hence this is sometimes spoken of as the Mentone
race; but, as Verneau shows, while the measurements of the skulls of
Baoussé-Roussé show some variety, they do not exceed what might be
expected in individual variation, and we conclude that all the men of tall
stature found in the Grottes de Grimaldi belong to the Crô-Magnon race,
which is not to be confused with the very distinct dwarf _Grimaldi race_
discovered in the Grottes de Grimaldi by Verneau, in 1906, in a lower
level than any of the skeletons of the Crô-Magnon type.
In Aurignacian times, lofty stature seems to have been a general
characteristic of this race, but there appears to have been a gradual
decrease in height, so that in later industrial times the race in general
is somewhat smaller in stature. The heights are as follows:
Crô-Magnon type of Dordogne 1.80 m. 5 ft. 10-3/4 in.
" woman slightly inferior in size.
Baoussé-Roussé, Grottes de Grimaldi.
Adult males of
Cavillon 1.79 m. 5 ft. 10-1/2 in.
Barma Grande II 1.82 m. 5 ft. 11-1/2 in.
Baousso da Torre II 1.85 m. 6 ft. 3/4 in.
Barma Grande I 1.93 m. 6 ft. 4 in.
Grotte des Enfants 1.94 m. 6 ft. 4-1/2 in.
Average 1.87 m. 6 ft. 1-1/2 in.
Woman of Barma Grande estimated at 1.65 m. 5 ft. 5 in.
Youth of 15 years, Barma Grande,
estimated at 1.65 m. 5 ft. 5 in.
The woman had not reached complete development. As there is a variation of
6 inches in the height of the various male skeletons, it is evident that
we cannot reach a trustworthy conclusion from a single subject; but there
would seem to be quite a disparity in height between the sexes.
[Illustration: FIG. 143. The _abri_ or shelter of Laugerie Haute,
Dordogne, France, where the Aurignacian burial of a skeleton referred to
the Crô-Magnon race, was discovered in 1909. Photograph by Belvès.]
The very large skeleton from the _Grotte des Enfants_, measuring 6 feet
4-1/2 inches, was found associated with the remains of the reindeer, 15
feet below the surface, from which it would appear probable that the
skeleton antedates the Aurignacian skeleton of Laugerie Haute, and even of
Crô-Magnon. Thus the so-called man of Mentone may be an ancestor of the
race which was found in Crô-Magnon and other regions of Dordogne. It is
these men of great height, found in Barma Grande and the Grotte des
Enfants, which Verneau selects for his description of the primitive
members of the Crô-Magnon race, which at this time lived along the Riviera
and in the valley of the Vézère and later spread over a vast area in
western Europe. It is probable that in the genial climate of the Riviera
these men obtained their finest development; the country was admirably
protected from the cold winds of the north, refuges were abundant, and
game by no means scarce, to judge from the quantity of animal bones found
in the caves. Under such conditions of life the race enjoyed a fine
physical development and dispersed widely.
[Illustration: FIG. 144. Comparative view of the Neanderthal skeleton
(left) from _La Chapelle-aux Saints_, and of the skeleton of a very tall
member of the Crô-Magnon race (right) discovered in the _Grotte des
Enfants_. After Boule and Verneau. Both figures are approximately
one-seventeenth life size.]
[Illustration: FIG. 145. Sections of the tibia or shin-bone, (1) the
normal triangular type; and (2) the extremely platycnæmic flattened type
characteristic of the Crô-Magnon race. After Broca.]
With an average height of 6 feet 1-1/2 inches, these cave-dwellers may be
said to demonstrate one of the most striking traits of the Crô-Magnon
race. In the proportions of the limbs and in the great size of the upper
part of the chest these men are removed from the modern European type and
approach some of the African negroid types, although there is not the
least resemblance to the negro type in the skull or in the dentition. In
contrast with the Neanderthals are three characters of the limbs: the leg
was very long in comparison with the arm; they show a remarkable
lengthening of the forearm in proportion to the upper arm and a still more
remarkable lengthening of the lower leg or shin-bone in proportion to the
thigh-bone; the tibia has an index of 81-86 per cent as compared with the
femur, which is relatively greater than that of the average modern
European, with a tibiofemoral index of 79.7 per cent. This long shin-bone
indicates that these men were swift of foot, quite in keeping with their
undoubted nomadic habits and wide distribution. The flatness of the tibia,
which is strongly marked in 62 per cent of the skeletons, may well be due
to the habit of squatting while engaged in fashioning flints and in other
industrial occupations. The leg, long in comparison with the arm, and the
thigh-bone, strongly developed, are both characters of a hunting race. The
foot has a very protruding heel, but the sole and the toes are of
moderate length. The hip-girdle is of a type which has nothing negroid
about it, but is as fine as that of the most civilized whites; it is
marked by its strength, the augmentation of all the vertical and
transverse diameters, and the reduction of the anteroposterior diameters.
The shoulders are exceptionally broad. The fact that the arms are
relatively short as compared with the legs is also a high racial
character. The upper arm is very robust, and in some cases the left arm is
more largely developed, in others the right.
In all the skulls from these grottos near Mentone, the face shows the
essential features of the Crô-Magnon race, its breadth being due to the
development of the cheek-bones and the zygomatic arches, for the upper
jaws are narrow, and the nose is thin or leptorhine. At the root the nose
shows a marked depression, but it rises immediately to a considerable
prominence; it thus undoubtedly had an aquiline profile. The orbits always
present the form of a long rectangle, so characteristic of the race along
the Vézère. All these characters leave no doubt of the racial affinity of
the skeletons from the Grottes de Grimaldi with the original Crô-Magnon
type. It must be concluded, therefore, that certain peculiar features
noted in the type of the 'old man of Crô-Magnon' are purely individual,
and that we are not justified in assuming the admixture of a foreign
element to account for the weakness of some characteristics which we
notice in the majority of the Crô-Magnon subjects from the caves of
Grimaldi.
The highly evolved characters of the skeleton in this race are in keeping
with the extraordinarily great cranial capacity. Broca estimated the 'old
man of Crô-Magnon' as having a cranial capacity of 1,590 c.cm., and in the
female the brain is estimated at 1550 c.cm. Verneau estimates the five
large male skulls of Crô-Magnon type at Grimaldi as having an average
capacity of 1,800 c.cm., the lowest being 1,715 c.cm., and the highest
1,880 c.cm. This race, observes Keith,(21) was one of the finest the world
has ever seen. The wide, short face, the extremely prominent cheek-bones,
the spread of the palate and a tendency of the upper cutting teeth and
incisors to project forward, and the narrow, pointed chin recall a facial
type which is best seen to-day in tribes living in Asia to the north and
to the south of the Himalayas. As regards their stature the Crô-Magnon
race recalls the Sikhs living to the south of the Himalayas. In the
disharmonic proportions of the face, that is, the combination of broad
cheek-bones and narrow skull, they resemble the Eskimo. The sum of the
Crô-Magnon characters is certainly Asiatic rather than African, whereas in
the Grimaldis the sum of the characters is decidedly negroid or African.
[Illustration: FIG. 146. Restoration of the head of the 'Old Man of
Crô-Magnon,' in profile, modelled after the type skull of Crô-Magnon,
Dordogne, with the teeth restored and the head given a younger appearance.
After the model by J. H. McGregor. One-quarter life size.]
We shall trace this great race through the Solutrean and Magdalenian
stages of the Upper Palæolithic and consider its disappearance and
possible distribution at the close of Magdalenian times. It will then be
interesting to consider the evidence of the survival of the descendants of
this race in various parts of western Europe and possibly among the
primitive inhabitants of the Canary Islands, known as the Guanches.
[Illustration: FIG. 147. Restoration of the head of the 'Old Man of
Crô-Magnon,' front view. After the model by J. H. McGregor. One-quarter
life size.]
EVIDENCE OF OTHER RACES
It is a mooted question whether the Crô-Magnons were the only people
inhabiting Europe in early Aurignacian time or whether there were also two
other races, the _Grimaldi_ and the _Aurignacian_. As we have seen in the
preceding pages, there is no evidence that the negroid Grimaldi race ever
became established in Europe; the idea of the presence of a negroid race
has taken the fancy of archæologists like Breuil and Rutot, when seeking
an African, Egyptian, or Bushman analogy in certain phases of early
Aurignacian art; but it rests merely on the slender evidence afforded by
the isolated skeletons of a woman and of a boy.
The case of the Aurignacian race is different; this is held by competent
anatomists (Klaatsch,(22) Keith(23)) to be distinct from the Crô-Magnon
race and to bear some resemblance to the Brünn (Brüx, Předmost, [?] Galley
Hill) race which, we know, became established in central Europe certainly
as early as Solutrean times, if not before.
The so-called Aurignacian race (_Homo sapiens aurignacensis_), described
as a subspecies of existing man, is based upon a type found in the shelter
of Combe-Capelle near Montferrand, Périgord, in the summer of 1909 by O.
Hauser.(24) It is commonly known as the 'Combe-Capelle' man from the scene
of its discovery, or as the Aurignacian man (_Homo aurignacensis_); if a
subspecies, it certainly belongs to _Homo sapiens_. The adult male
skeleton was discovered lying undisturbed in the lowest stratum of an
Aurignacian industry and was carefully disinterred by Klaatsch and Hauser.
It was apparently a case of ceremonial burial; a great number of unusually
fine flints of early Aurignacian type was found with it, also a necklace
of perforated shells (_Littorina, Nassa_); the limbs were bent.(25) Water
saturated with lime had dripped upon the burial-place, resulting in the
remarkable preservation of the skeleton. This skeleton is compared by
Klaatsch with that of Brünn, Moravia, and of Galley Hill, near London,
from which he concludes that it represents a distinct type, the
Aurignacian race; the stature is 5 feet 3 inches, as compared with 6 feet
1-1/2, inches, the average in the five Crô-Magnon males of Grimaldi; the
brain case is well arched and falls within the variation limits of _Homo
sapiens_. The skull is very long and narrow, the cephalic index being 65.7
per cent; in some points it shows a striking similarity to that of Brünn,
in others it varies from it in the direction of the recent European form;
the face is not narrow nor is it prognathous; the lower jaw is small with
a well-developed chin. Klaatsch finds many characteristics resembling
those of the Crô-Magnon race, including the Chancelade type which is a
late Crô-Magnon. He suggests that the Crô-Magnon type may be considered a
further development of the Aurignacian. It seems probable that the
Aurignacian man is a member of the true Crô-Magnon race and that
additional evidence is required to establish it as distinct. Schliz(26)
considers that this skull is an intermediate form between that of the
Crô-Magnon and the Brünn race, an indication that these two races were
undergoing a parallel development.
[Illustration: FIG. 148. Brain outline of the man of the so-called
Aurignacian race discovered at Combe-Capelle in 1909 (after Klaatsch), as
compared with the brain outlines of a chimpanzee and of _Homo sapiens_.]
BURIAL CUSTOMS
Similar customs of burial prevailed widely in Aurignacian times, as we
have observed from the use of color in the Paviland interment of western
Wales and in the Brünn interment of Moravia. This is a feature seldom
found in the Neanderthal burials, although the latter are accompanied by
signs of great reverence and by an abundance of ornaments and finely
finished flints. Up to the present time the races of the Upper Palæolithic
have been studied with far less anatomical precision than those of the
Lower, and the attribution of many of the burials to the Crô-Magnon race
awaits verification.
We have little record of the Paviland burial except that the skeleton was
that of a man of the Crô-Magnon race and colored red. Of the burial of
Aurignac we have no record other than that seventeen skeletons were placed
close together; it would appear that this compound burial may have been
the sequel of a battle or, less probably, that of an epidemic. The type
skeletons of the Crô-Magnon race were simply lying on the surface of a
deep shelter; thus there has always been some doubt as to their exact
archæological age; a large number of perforated shells was found among the
bones, as well as pendants of ivory.
The most remarkable Crô-Magnon burials of undoubted Aurignacian age are
those of the Grottes de Grimaldi; the infant skeletons found here are
neither colored nor decorated, but occurred with a vast number of small
perforated shells (_Nassa_), evidently forming a sort of burial mantle.
Similarly, the female skeleton was enveloped in a bed of shells not
perforated; the legs were extended, while the arms were stretched beside
the body; there were a few pierced shells and a few bits of silex. One of
the large male skeletons of the same grotto had the lower limbs extended,
the upper limbs folded, and was decorated with a gorget and crown of
perforated shells; the head rested on a block of red stone. In the 'man of
Mentone,' found in 1872, the body rested on its left side, the limbs were
slightly flexed, and the forearm was folded; heavy stones protected the
body from disturbance; the head was decorated with a circle of perforated
shells colored in red, and implements of various types were carefully
placed on the forehead and chest. Similarly in the burial of Barma Grande
three skeletons were found placed side by side in a layer of red earth
containing a large quantity of peroxide of iron; two of the skeletons
rested on the left side, the limbs extended or slightly flexed; the
forehead and chest and one of the limbs were encircled with shells.
In the burial of the so-called Aurignac man of Combe-Capelle, described
above, the limbs were outstretched and the body was decorated with a
necklace of perforated shells and surrounded with a great number of fine
Aurignacian flints. It appears that in all the numerous burials of these
grottos of Aurignacian age and industry of the Crô-Magnon race we have the
burial standards which prevailed in western Europe at this time.
We must infer that the conception of survival after death was among the
primitive beliefs, attested by the placing with the dead of ornaments and
of weapons and in many instances of objects of food. It is interesting to
note that the grottos and shelters were so frequently sought as places of
burial, also that the flexed limbs or extended position of the body
prevailed throughout western Europe into Neolithic times, as well as the
use of color through the Solutrean into Magdalenian times. It is probable
from their love of color in parietal decorations, and from the appearance
of coloring matter in so many of the burials, that decoration of the
living body with color was widely practised, and that color was freshly
applied, either as pigment or in the form of powder, to the bodies of the
dead in order to prepare them for a renewal of life.
AURIGNACIAN FLINT AND BONE INDUSTRY
As pointed out in the introduction of this chapter, the geographical
distribution of the early Aurignacian industry is especially interesting
in its bearing upon the routes by which the Crô-Magnon race entered
Europe. "We can hardly contemplate an origin directly from the east," says
Breuil,(27) "because these earlier phases of the Aurignacian industry have
not as yet been met with in central or eastern Europe." A southerly origin
seems more probable, because the Aurignacian colonies appear to surround
the entire periphery of the Mediterranean, being found in northern Africa,
Sicily, and the Italian and Iberian peninsulas, from which they extended
over the larger part of southern France. In Tunis we find a very primitive
Aurignacian like that of the Abri Audit of Dordogne, with implements
undoubtedly similar to those of Chatelperron, in France. Even far to the
east, in the cave of Antelias, in Syria, as well as in certain stations of
Phœnicia,(28) culture deposits are found which are characteristically
Aurignacian. Again, in southern Italy implements of typical Aurignacian
form, tending toward the superior stage, are found in the grotto of
Romanelli, Otranto.
On the other hand, in favor of the theory of local or autochthonous
evolution of this culture is the direct succession described below of
Aurignacian prototypes and early Aurignacian implements above the older
Mousterian layers in the various stations of Dordogne. In fact, the
relation of the Aurignacian industry to the preceding Mousterian is one of
the most important in the history of Palæolithic archæology, because of
the change of race which occurred at this time. How far is it derivative
and autochthonous, how far is it new and influenced by invasion and the
handicraft of a new and superior race?
_Art._
Microlithique, microlith.
Burin, graver (first appearance).
_Industrial._
Coup de poing, hand-stone (rare and degenerate).
Pointe, point.
[AN]Chatelperron (curved).
double-pointed.
Racloir, scraper.
convex.
concave.
straight.
double-edged.
triple-edged.
Grattoir, planing tool.
Perçoir, drill, borer.
Couteau, knife, blade.
Enclume, anvil stone.
Percuteur, hammer-stone.
_War and Chase._
Pointe, point.
Pierre de jet, throwing stone.
Couteau, knife, blade.
Pointe de lance, bone lance-heads.
First, as for transition from the older culture, it is important to note
throughout that the 'Aurignacian retouch' is identical with the
Mousterian; this retouch is on one side of the flake only and gives it a
short, abrupt, and blunt edge. As we shall see, it is essentially
different from that discovered by the Solutrean flint workers and employed
in Solutrean times, a superior technique which produced a sharp, thin
edge, many of the implements being dressed on both sides. On the other
hand, Breuil concludes that the early Aurignacian industry can only in
part be derived from the late Mousterian and that it is partly due to the
invasion of a race which ranks much higher in the scale of intelligence
than the Neanderthal.
[Illustration: FIG. 149. Implements designed for engraving and sculpture.
Evolution of the angulate graving-tool or _burin_, from the early
Aurignacian of Chatelperron (left), to the late Solutrean of Placard
(right). After Breuil. About one-third actual size. These small
implements, chiefly made from elongated flakes and distinguished by a
sharp angulate edge at one end suitable for graving on bone or stone, are
especially characteristic of the Aurignacian stage of culture, in which
they first appear. 1, 2. Chatelperron points. 6. Prototype of the
Magdalenian 'parrot-beak.' Some of these _burins_, such as 7, are made
into _grattoirs_ or planing tools at the other end.]
The pure _early Aurignacian_ industry is seen in the regions of Dordogne
and the Pyrenees in the layers of Chatelperron, Germolles, Roche au Loup,
Haurets, and Gargas. The cave of Gudenushöhle, near Krems, in Lower
Austria, exhibits a very primitive phase of the early Aurignacian. Here
numerous small flints were found, resembling those found at Brive by the
Abbés Bardon and Bouyssonie; similar microliths are also found at
Pair-non-Pair, Gironde, at various stations in Dordogne, and at the
Grottes de Grimaldi, on the Riviera, in layers of corresponding age.
The chief invention of this stage is the 'Chatelperron point' (Fig. 149),
a direct development from the curved point of the Abri Audit (Fig. 151)
and a dominant type of the early Aurignacian culture. Small almond-shaped
'coups de poing' are still met with at Chatelperron and a few other
localities, but Breuil suggests that these may not be real examples of
Aurignacian industry but implements carried off from older stations.
The use of elongated flakes is another feature of this early industry, but
the retouch of the edges cannot compare with the fine 'grooved retouch' of
the middle Aurignacian; as yet the flakes are thick and large. Many of the
scrapers are 'keeled' (_grattoirs carénés_).
An entirely new implement appears in addition to the triangular and
elongate flakes of flint shaped into points and scrapers of forms; this is
the primitive graving-tool, or _burin_, which at first is quite rare, but
which we know was designed by the Crô-Magnon artists for their early
engravings on stone (Fig. 149).
_Art Implements._
_Microlithique_, microlith.
[AO]_Burin_, graver.
_Ciseau_, chisel.
[AO]_Gravette_, etching tool (first appearance).
_New Industrial Implements._
_Pointe_, point (leaf-shaped).
[AO]_Grattoir caréné_, keeled scraper.
_Perçoir_, drill, borer.
[AO]curved (first appearance).
_Couteau_, knife, blade.
[AO]curved-in edges.
_Poinçon_, awl (bone).
_New Implements of War and Chase._
_Pointe à cran_, shouldered point (stone).
_Pointe de sagaie_, javelin point (bone).
A fourth highly distinctive feature of the early Aurignacian is the use of
a variety of implements of bone and horn consisting chiefly of javelin
points and drills and of coarse, spatula-like tools.
In the _middle Aurignacian_ the flake industry reaches its perfection of
form and technique; the edges of the flakes are shaped all around with the
'grooved retouch' resulting in symmetrical forms such as the oval,
double-ended 'points,' the leaf-shaped 'points,' and the double scrapers;
this, in fact, is the culmination of the 'Aurignacian retouch,' which
afterward begins to decline. The retouch of the long flakes is fine and
parallel, but as yet the flakes themselves are generally thick and heavy,
so that their ends are, perforce, much broader than those of the Solutrean
and Magdalenian fashion. One of the most distinctive forms of this middle
Aurignacian industry is the 'keeled scraper' (_grattoir caréné_) with an
abruptly grooved retouch (Fig. 150).
[Illustration: FIG. 150. Implements suitable for the dressing of hides and
for sculpture. The keeled scraper or planing tool--_grattoir
caréné_--characteristic of the Aurignacian culture. After Breuil. About
two-fifth actual size. 1, 2, 3. Short and broad types appearing in the
middle Aurignacian. 4, 5. More elongated types of the advanced middle
Aurignacian from Crô-Magnon, Dordogne. 6. Elongated type (_pic_) of the
close of the middle Aurignacian. 7, 8. Small _grattoirs_ with handles,
suitable for sculpture.]
Still more significant in connection with the rapid artistic development
of these people is the remarkable increase in the number and variety of
graving-tools, including numerous curved gravers. Almost all the chief
types of gravers (burins) have now been invented, and tools of bone have
become extremely numerous and varied. To engraving and linear design have
been added the art of sculpture and the primitive use of color
(Breuil,(29) Schmidt(30)).
In the Dordogne region this evolution of the middle Aurignacian is
exemplified at Le Ruth, Le Roc de Combe-Capelle, and the principal layers
of the Abri Audit as well as at the shelter of Laussel. It is well
developed also at Le Trilobite, on the headwaters of the Seine.
In the _late Aurignacian_ (Breuil,(31) Obermaier(32)) there is a notable
departure from the Mousterian fashion of chipping the flakes; even the
distinctive blunt 'Aurignacian retouch' is somewhat weakened; but at the
same time the work on the elongated flakes becomes more facile and
skilful. For delicate, artistic work there appear extremely small
implements or 'microliths' of various shapes.
_Art._
Microlithique, microlith.
Burin, graver.
Ciseau, chisel (of stone and bone).
Gravette, etching tool.
Pic, pick (triangular or quadrangular, for sculpture).
_Ceremonial._
Bâton de commandement, ceremonial staff (first appearance).
_New Industrial Implements._
Grattoir, planing tool [AP]long but not thick.
Aiguille, needle (bone, first appearance).
_New Implements of War and Chase._
Lance and spear head types, of stone:
(a) Pointe à cran, shouldered point.
(b) Pointe à soie, tongued point (Font Robert type).
(c) Pointe de laurier(?), laurel-leaf point(?).
Couteau, knife, blade (bone, first appearance).
The early and middle Aurignacian 'point' and the 'grattoir,' sharpened all
around, as well as the incurved flake become less frequent. The grattoirs,
or planing tools, are somewhat higher and narrower than those of the early
Aurignacian but not very different in form; two forms of grattoir are
recognized, one long and not very thick, the other high and keel-shaped
(_grattoir caréné_).
Among the perçoirs a curved form is very characteristic, and we also note
a variety of small knives, or couteaux.
The inventive genius of this people is displayed in the rapidly increasing
variety of flint implements designed for fishing or for the chase. Toward
the end of the Upper Aurignacian there appears the shouldered spear head
(_pointe à cran_), and also a lance form of which the most perfect types
have been found at Willendorf, in Austria, and at Grimaldi, on the
Riviera. More or less sporadically there appear specimens of the tongued
spear heads (_pointes à soie_), such as are found at Spy, Font Robert, and
Laussel. This type of flint is constantly found associated with rudely
formed prototypes of the Solutrean laurel-leaf point.
[Illustration: FIG. 151. Implements of industrial use, of the chase, and
of fishing; also suitable for fine engraving and etching on stone or bone.
Evolution of the Aurignacian _pointe_ with abrupt retouch along one edge,
from the base to the summit of the Aurignacian. After Breuil. About
one-third actual size. 1-4. Primitive curved points from the _Abri Audit_,
Dordogne. 5. More evolved curved point from Gargas. 6, 7. Points from
Chatelperron, at the base of the middle Aurignacian. 11-28. Microlithic
points from _La Gravette_ and _Font Robert_. The form of 28 suggests that
of the _pointe à cran_ or 'shouldered point' characteristic of the late
Solutrean.]
Decorative art has now become a passion, and graving-tools of great
variety of shape, curved, straight, convex, or concave, diversified both
in size and in style of technique, are very numerous. We may imagine that
the long periods of cold and inclement weather were employed in these
occupations. The use of the reindeer horn is developing, and the
decoration of the bone with very fine lines drawn by the microlithic tools
is at times very remarkable. Here appear the earliest examples of the
so-called _bâton de commandement_, which is supposed to have served as a
ceremonial staff or wand; it is made of the reindeer antler with a great
hole bored at the point where the brow tine unites with the main beam;
some of these _bâtons_ are ornamented with rude engravings, but not as yet
with sculpture.
[Illustration: FIG. 152. Prototypes of the Solutrean laurel-leaf point,
probably an implement of war or the chase. After Breuil. Large symmetrical
flakes chipped over the entire surface. 1, 2. Late Aurignacian types from
_Font Robert_. 3, 4, 5. Points from the Proto-Solutrean layer of the
_Grotte du Trilobite_.]
Strong and very sharp graving-tools were also needed for the sculpture out
of ivory and soapstone of such human figures and figurines as the
statuettes found in the Grottes de Grimaldi and at Willendorf and still
more powerful tools for such work as the large stone bas-reliefs of
Laussel. At this time the Crô-Magnons were also fashioning stronger tools
for the engraving of animals in stone, for shallow forms of bas-relief on
the walls of the caves, and for other animal outlines. The most evolved
animal figures of this period arouse the thought of Magdalenian art in its
beginnings.
As this industrial evolution widens it is apparent that we witness not the
local evolution of a single people but rather the influence and
collaboration of numerous colonies reacting more or less one upon the
other and spreading their inventions and discoveries. These people were
essentially nomadic and no doubt carried the latest types of implements
from point to point or bartered them in trade. Thus there is not only a
definite succession in such places as Dordogne, but in more remote regions
the form of the implements may take on some important differences.(33)
There are also other localities where the industry seems for a while to be
suspended; thus in the Cantabrian Mountains of Spain we find only the
early and the late Aurignacian.
Stations similar in culture to those of Dordogne extend northward into
Germany and Belgium and eastward into Austria and Poland. Thus the
characteristic flint spear heads, known as the _pointe à soie_ and _pointe
à cran_ extend from Laussel along the Vézère to Willendorf, in Austria;
and the female figures of Baoussé-Roussé (Grimaldi) and of Willendorf
represent the same stage of evolution as the large stone bas-relief of
Laussel. Again, we observe some relations between the Aurignacian cultures
of Austria and of the Italian peninsula, such as the _pointe à cran_,
derived from the _gravette_ and found both in various stations of northern
Italy and at Willendorf. In western Russia the Aurignacian station of
Mezine, Chernigov, shows clearly the types of the superior Aurignacian in
the graving of bone and ivory, in the small bâtons recalling those of Spy,
in Belgium, and of Brassempouy, in southwestern France, in the large bone
piercers perforated at the head, suggesting the primitive needles from the
shelter of Blanchard, and in the degenerate statuettes resembling the type
of Brassempouy.
DISTRIBUTION OF THE AURIGNACIAN INDUSTRY
When the general geographic distribution of the Aurignacian (Fig. 153) is
compared with that of the Mousterian (Fig. 125) it is surprising to find
how many of the stations are identical; it would appear as if the
Crô-Magnons had driven the Neanderthals from their principal stations over
all of western Europe for the pursuit of their own industries and of the
chase. We have already spoken of the invasion of the Mousterian stations
along the Riviera, in the Pyrenees, in the Cantabrian Alps, and along the
Dordogne and the Somme; this occupation also extends along the Meuse, the
Rhine, and the Danube; but, whereas there are only six stations in all
Germany of unquestioned Mousterian age, there are more than double that
number in Aurignacian times. The Crô-Magnons entered the grottos of
Sirgenstein and Räuberhöhle, near the headwaters of the Danube; northwest
of Sirgenstein they established the open 'loess' station of Achenheim,
west of Strasburg; in the lower layers of the 'newer loess' was also the
station of Völklinshofen, south of Achenheim; along the middle Rhine were
the 'loess' stations of Rhens and Metternich, and to the far north, close
to the borders of the Scandinavian glacier, was the somewhat doubtful
Aurignacian station of Thiede. The Crô-Magnon men entered the Sirgenstein
grotto and scattered the implements of their culture above the 'lower
rodent layer,' composed of the Obi lemming, and also left remains of the
woolly rhinoceros, the woolly mammoth, the stag, and the reindeer on the
floor of the cavern. The Upper Aurignacian also extends down the Danube
as far as Willendorf, and possibly to Brünn, Moravia, which last, however,
may be of Solutrean age. Altogether between seventeen and twenty
Aurignacian stations have been discovered in the region north of the
Danube and along the Rhine.
[Illustration: FIG. 153. Geographic distribution of the principal
Aurignacian industrial stations in western Europe.]
[Illustration: FIG. 154. Outlook over the Bay of Biscay from the entrance
of the cavern of Pindal, in the province of Asturias, northern Spain.
Photograph by N. C. Nelson.]
AURIGNACIAN ART[AQ]
The strongest proof of the unity of heredity as displayed in the dominant
Crô-Magnon race in Europe from early Aurignacian until the close of
Magdalenian times is the unity of their art impulse. This indicates a
unity of mind and of spirit. It is something which could not pass to them
from another race, like an industrial invention, but was inborn and
creative. These people were the Palæolithic Greeks; artistic observation
and representation and a true sense of proportion and of beauty were
instinct with them from the beginning. Their stone and bone industry may
show vicissitudes and the influence of invasion and of trade and the
bringing in of new inventions, but their art shows a continuous evolution
and development from first to last, animated by a single motive, namely,
the appreciation of the beauty of form and the realistic representation of
it.
[Illustration: FIG. 155. Outline of a mammoth painted in red ochre in the
cavern of Pindal, and attributed by Breuil to the Aurignacian. Only two
limbs are represented. After Breuil.]
This art, as first discovered by Lartet and further made known through the
brilliant studies of Piette and Breuil, is industrial (_l'art mobilier_),
consisting of the decoration of small personal belongings, ornaments, and
implements of stone, bone, and ivory. According to the later researches of
Sautuola, Rivière, Cartailhac, Capitan, and Breuil it is also mural or
parietal (_l'art pariétal_), consisting of drawings, engravings,
paintings, and bas-reliefs on the walls of caverns and grottos. It
remained for Breuil especially to demonstrate that the mobile and the
parietal art are identical, the work of the same artistic race, developing
along closely similar lines, step by step. Thus the art becomes a new
means not only of interpreting the psychology of the race but of
establishing the prehistoric chronology.
DATING OF THE ART
One of the first questions which rises in our mind is this--how is this
art dated; how can these steps be positively determined?
The age of these engraved or painted designs on the walls of the caverns
is determined in a number of ways described by Breuil.(36) The simplest
method is where the wall designs of one period are covered by the
archæological layers of succeeding periods. This has been observed in four
cases, as at Pair-non-Pair, Gironde, where primitive engravings of horses,
caprids, and bovids are buried under flints characteristic of the late
Aurignacian mingled with bones of the mammoth, rhinoceros, lion, hyæna,
bison, and reindeer. Again, the deeply engraved bison on the wall of the
grotto of La Grèze, Dordogne, is found beneath a talus of Solutrean flints
associated with remains of the bison, reindeer, and rhinoceros. In the
Grotte de la Mairie, Dordogne, are found several finely engraved middle
Magdalenian figures of animals buried beneath late Magdalenian implements
associated with the reindeer fauna.
Very important, indeed, is the age of the sculpture and bas-reliefs found
in Laussel. The human sculptures are determined to be of late Aurignacian
age, because they are buried in an early Solutrean talus. The splendid
wall sculptures of the series of horses in the Cap-Blanc shelter, near the
Laussel shelter, are shown to be of middle Magdalenian age, because of the
upper Magdalenian strata which covered and partly concealed them.
[Illustration: FIG. 156. Primitive painted outlines of animals from the
cavern walls of _Font-de-Gaume_, Dordogne, attributed by Breuil to the
early Aurignacian. The outlines represent the horse, ibex, cave-bear, wild
cattle, and reindeer. After Breuil.]
In other instances we can date a drawing in a cavern by the period at
which the opening was closed; for example, the cave of La Mouthe,
Dordogne, was closed in by a Magdalenian layer of flints which touched the
roof and firmly sealed up the entrance until recent times. Again, at
Gargas, Hautes-Pyrénées, we know that the last occupation by the
Crô-Magnons was near the end of Aurignacian times, as indicated by a
hearth filled with late Aurignacian flints and with the remains of the
bear, hyæna, horse, and reindeer; the opening of the grotto was buried
beneath these foyers, which obstructed the entrance until the cave was
rediscovered at a comparatively recent date. Also at Marsoulas,
Haute-Garonne, there are two hearths, one late Aurignacian, the other late
Magdalenian; the grotto was then closed until recent times. The grotto of
Niaux, on the Ariège, which contains fine examples of drawings of middle
Magdalenian times at a distance of 1,800 feet from the entrance, was
protected for a long period by a lake 6 feet deep and several hundred feet
long. At Altamira, near Santander, the superb frescoed ceiling was buried,
long before Neolithic times, by the closing up of the entrance, which was
rediscovered only about thirty years ago.
[Illustration: FIG. 157. The woolly rhinoceros, painted in red ochre with
shading and partial representation of the hair, in the cavern of
_Font-de-Gaume_, Dordogne. Attributed by Breuil to the late Aurignacian.
Possibly Magdalenian. After Breuil.]
A third method of dating the art is still more significant; it is through
a similarity in the engravings on bone, found in the old hearths
associated with flints, to the mural decorations which are found upon the
walls. Thus, at Altamira, engravings on bone associated with Solutrean and
Magdalenian flints enabled Alcalde del Rio and Breuil to date the
engravings on the limestone walls. Hence, in grottos which have never been
closed up and which have been frequented at different times from the
Palæolithic to the present epoch one observes that the mural designs in
the caverns are invariably accompanied by Upper Palæolithic implements
with a similar style of decoration; and this is the case at Font-de-Gaume,
Combarelles, Portel, Mas d'Azil, Castillo, Pasiega, and Hornos de la Peña.
The bone engravings of the female red deer found at Altamira are
identical in their artistic period with those found on the walls of the
same grotto. The excavations at Castillo, where numerous shoulder-blades
of the deer were found engraved in the same style as those of Altamira,
prove that all these engravings and drawings are to be referred to ancient
Magdalenian rather than to upper Solutrean times. The engravings upon the
walls in the grotto of Hornos de la Peña, of Aurignacian times, are dated
through the discovery at the base of the layer of Aurignacian flints of an
engraved equine figure similar to the engravings at Altamira.
A fourth method applies to those not infrequent cases when two or three
designs are superposed one upon the other, from which it necessarily
follows that the underlying designs must antedate those above.
Through the application of these four methods Breuil has succeeded in
dating all the steps in the advance of art from Aurignacian into
Magdalenian times.
ENGRAVING, PAINTING, AND SCULPTURE
In the archaic drawings of the caverns of Pair-non-Pair, La Grèze, and La
Mouthe most of the animal figures are somewhat heavily and deeply
engraved; the proportions are not true; the head is usually too small,
with a large, short body which is often lightly modelled, resting on thin
extremities. Quadrupeds are frequently represented with but two legs, as
in the case of the mammoth. That the powers of observation were only
gradually trained is shown by the fact that details which in later
drawings are well observed are here overlooked; the profile drawings of
animals, with one fore leg and one hind leg represented, are quite like
those of children.
Progress toward a true representation of animal form in drawing begins
very early; even in middle Aurignacian times primitive drawing and
engraving commences to replace sculpture. Both the flint 'burins' and the
engravings on the walls of the grottos show that the beginnings of drawing
may be traced back to early Aurignacian times. While the Palæolithic
artists early in the Aurignacian had obtained a certain facility in
plastic work, their drawings, which are solely contours--somewhat
imperfect and deeply engraved lines--show a gradual development. The
degree of skill attained in late Aurignacian times we know from the
engraving of a horse on a stone fragment from Gargas, and from a sketch of
the hinder quarter of a horse found in the cave of Hornos de la Peña,
which is engraved on the frontal bone of one of the wild horses; the
latter is strikingly similar to one of the engravings found at the
entrance to the same grotto. The engravings on a slab of slate of the
heads of two woolly rhinoceroses(37) (Fig. 161) probably belong to the
late Aurignacian. Similar attempts are found in the Abri Lacoste.
Ornamentation develops in the middle Aurignacian, but retains a simple
geometric character.
[Illustration: FIG. 158. Female figurine carved in crystalline talc,
discovered at the _Grottes de Grimaldi_, near Mentone. This figurine,
possibly modelled after one of the Grimaldi negroids, represents the
_enceinte_ condition common to many of these figures. It is peculiar in
showing that abnormal development behind the hips known as steatopygy.
After Reinach.]
The parietal art on the walls of the caverns, mostly deep engravings,
consists of stiff profiles in single lines and in red or black coloring.
The animals represented are the ibex, the horse, the bison, and rarely the
mammoth. The caves where these are found are Pair-non-Pair, La Grèze, La
Mouthe, Bernifal, Font-de-Gaume, Altamira, and Marsoulas. Crucibles for
grinding the color are found in the grotto of Marsoulas, the color being
made by grinding up the red and yellow oxides of iron.
The development of art during the whole Aurignacian is continuous and is
undoubtedly the work of one race; Breuil considers it the work certainly
either of the tall Crô-Magnons or of the small Grimaldis; there is,
however, no evidence of the survival of the Grimaldi race, and we may
safely attribute this entire art development to the Crô-Magnons.
The creative spirit manifested itself along many different lines. In the
fashioning of bone in early Aurignacian times there begins a new industry
capable of great possibilities; out of combinations of lines there develop
geometric figures; in animal figures there is an attempt at simple
symmetric relations, but a full, free composition is not attained. With
further experience in working with bone and ivory, we find in the middle
Aurignacian the first plastic representations of the human figure in the
round.
[Illustration: FIG. 159. Statuette in limestone from the grotto of
Willendorf, Lower Austria, attributed to the late Aurignacian. This female
figurine, possibly an idol and generally known as the 'Venus of
Willendorf,' is about four and one-half inches in height. After
Szombathi.]
The Crô-Magnon artist undertook this plastic work, choosing chiefly for
his subject the female figure. These small plastic models were probably
designed as idols; the figures are often misshapen; in the face the eyes
frequently are not indicated at all; in some cases the ear is indicated;
they recall the style of the modern cubists. More care is given to the
sculpture of the form of the body than of the face. The ivory statue known
as the Venus of Brassempouy lies at the base of the middle Aurignacian; of
the same epoch are the female statuettes of Sireuil, and the torso from
Pair-non-Pair, whereas the soapstone figurine of Mentone and the ivory
statuettes of Trou Magrite, Belgium, belong to the late Aurignacian. The
spread of these idols, which are altogether characteristic of the earlier
period of the Upper Palæolithic, is traced eastward to Willendorf,
Austria, and to Brünn, Moravia.
Breuil's great contention is a certain similarity to north African art,
which would seem to agree with his theory that the Crô-Magnon people
followed the southern shores of the Mediterranean, bringing with them the
Aurignacian industry and the glyptic art of the female statuettes similar
to those of baked clay which are found along the valley of the Nile.
These figurines have in common the great development of all the parts
connected with maternity, and in some cases a coiffure or head-dress very
much like that found in the most primitive Egyptian work. The extreme
corpulence of all the figurines has been compared with the 'steatopygy,'
or development of what are politely known as the 'posterior curves,' of
the female in many African races. But only one of these Aurignacian
figurines is truly 'steatopygous'; the others are simply corpulent, a
condition due to eating large quantities of fat and marrow, and probably
to a very sedentary life. It is noteworthy that none of the male figures
in drawing and sculpture is corpulent. While the art of the statuettes
appears to come to a close in late Aurignacian times, it may extend into
the Solutrean at Brünn, Moravia, and at Trou Magrite, Belgium. With due
regard for analogies, it would rather appear probable that this archaic
sculpture was autochthonous.
[Illustration: FIG. 160. Female figurine in soapstone, discovered at the
_Grottes de Grimaldi_, near Mentone, and attributed to the late
Aurignacian. After Obermaier. This seems to be a prototype of modern
cubist art.]
The art of engraving and drawing was almost certainly autochthonous,
because we trace it from its most rudimentary beginnings. This northern
art developed from the beginning of Upper Palæolithic times over the whole
of southwestern France and in the northwest of Spain, being
contemporaneous with the descent of the alpine fauna from the Pyrenees and
the Alps and the presence all over western Europe of the tundra fauna. It
was, by preference, an animal art, begun by the Aurignacians but largely
suspended in Solutrean times.
[Illustration: FIG. 161. Superposed engravings of various mammals on a
slab of slate found in the _Grotte du Trilobite_, Yonne, France. In detail
are seen the profiles of two woolly rhinoceroses superposed on the rump of
a mammoth with tail upturned. After Breuil.]
Painting(38) also had its birth in the Aurignacian, in the simple contours
of the hand pressed against a wall surface or outlined with color,
accompanied by primitive attempts at linear drawing in color and painted
groupings; for example, the crude outlines of the bison in the grotto of
Castillo are of Aurignacian age, also the black linear designs of the
deer and of the ibex in the cavern of Font-de-Gaume, Dordogne, the
striking red linear design of the mammoth in the grotto of Pindal, in
northern Spain, representing the animal as with two limbs, and the red
outlines of wild cattle in Castillo. Breuil also attributes to Aurignacian
times the spirited figure of the woolly rhinoceros in red ochre in the
cave of Font-de-Gaume, as well as the outline of the stag in red color.
[Illustration: FIG. 162. Silhouettes of complete and of partly mutilated
hands from the walls of the grotto of Gargas in the Pyrenees. After
Breuil.]
We are impressed throughout with three qualities in this Aurignacian
design: first, the very close observation of the animal form; second, the
attempt at realistic effect produced with very few lines; third, the
element of motion or movement in these animals. For example, the two
heads of the woolly rhinoceros in the slab engravings of the Trilobite
grotto (Fig. 161) are remarkably correct in proportion; there is an
attempt with fine lines to indicate the wool hanging along the lower
surface of the head; behind these two figures is the rump of an elephant
with the tail upturned, an adaptation of the artist to the form of the
slate fragment; the outlines of the feet both of the rhinoceros and the
mammoth are remarkably accurate representations of these pachyderms.
In the more advanced development of draftsmanship in late Aurignacian
times the engravings of these animals not merely approach the truth, but
characteristic features are strikingly represented; and with a few sure
lines the proportions of the body as a whole are better preserved, while
the complicated curves of the hoofs and of the head show very close
observation.
[Illustration: FIG. 163. The long, overhanging cliff of Laussel on the
Beune is a typical rock shelter, first sought in Acheulean times, and also
visited during the Mousterian, Aurignacian, and Solutrean stages.
Photograph by N. C. Nelson.]
[Illustration: FIG. 164. Section of the rock shelter of Laussel, showing
the superposed industrial layers from Acheulean to Solutrean times. After
Lalanne.]
In the grotto of La Grèze overhanging the Beune, a small tributary of the
Vézère, was found an archaic Aurignacian outline of the bison deeply
incised on the limestone walls. The grotto of Gargas,[AR]
Hautes-Pyrénées,(39) is one of the most famous stations; it was entered in
closing Mousterian times and was occupied at intervals during the
Aurignacian stage. Beneath the Mousterian layer is a deep deposit of
entire skeletons of the cave-bear without any traces of human industry.
These layers lie beyond the grotto in the vast foyer which opens above
into a great chimney, so that this is one of the true cavern habitations.
The drawings along the walls of the cave include a large number of figures
in a very unequal style, which belong chiefly to middle and upper
Aurignacian times. Among these are two figures of birds, several mammals,
a few primitive drawings of wild cattle, the bison, the ibex, and numerous
representations of the horse. A long serpentine band of color meanders
among some of these drawings. Most interesting are the silhouettes of the
hand in black and red produced by pressing the hand against the limestone
wall and covering the surrounding surface with color. It would appear that
the fingers were mutilated or cut off at the middle joint, because one,
two, three, and four of the fingers are wanting, but the thumb is never
mutilated. This mutilation of the hand may be compared with similar
practices prevailing among some Australian tribes.
In the cavern of Marsoulas, on the headwaters of the Garonne, the
conditions are altogether different; the parietal art here represents two
cultural stages, the late Aurignacian and the late Magdalenian. There is a
small entrance grotto with two hearths, corresponding to these two
industries. The entrance to the cave is well up on the side of the hill,
and the drawings which belong with the upper Aurignacian culture are
somewhat damaged. Again, we find designs extending along the wall below
the drawings. There are numerous outlines of the bison in black, the
entire side of the body being covered with splashes of red.
[Illustration: FIG. 165. Bas-relief of a woman with a drinking horn,
sculptured on the face of a boulder within the shelter of Laussel, and
attributed to the late Aurignacian. After Lalanne. About one-eighth actual
size.]
The great abri of Laussel, on the Beune, was first visited by the
Neanderthals, for there are two Mousterian layers and above them two
Aurignacian layers, the lower belonging to the middle Aurignacian industry
and the upper to the closing Aurignacian period. This long, overhanging
cliff of Laussel is a typical shelter, first sought in Acheulean times,
revisited in Mousterian times, then again in middle or late Aurignacian,
in Solutrean, and finally in Magdalenian times. As these successive layers
rise they approach the shelter of the cliff, so that the Magdalenian flint
workers were directly beneath the overhanging rock shelter, which opened
outward toward the sun.
[Illustration: FIG. 166. Bas-relief of a spear thrower or hunter,
sculptured on the face of a boulder within the shelter of Laussel. After
Lalanne. About one-sixth actual size.]
In the upper Aurignacian layer Lalanne discovered two bas-reliefs
representing the figures of a man and of a woman. The bas-relief of the
woman represents a nude figure holding the horn of a bison in the right
hand; this is cut from a block of limestone with a relief of about two
centimetres, and it measures forty-six centimetres in height; with the
exception of the head, the entire body is polished, and at certain points
there remain traces of red coloring. A little farther on the artist had
modelled the figure of a man in three-quarter view in the attitude of
casting a spear or of an archer drawing the bow; the top of the head and
the extremities of the limbs have been broken away; the figure measures
forty centimetres in height. These bas-reliefs of Laussel are regarded as
sincere representations, for the artist has presented as accurately as
possible the contemporary human figure; both the man and the woman are
represented in motion. On the technique employed in this primordial
sculpture, Doctor Lalanne observes that we find at Laussel a series of
tools perfectly adapted to attain this result, many of which would have
been inexplicable unless found to occur in connection with the sculpture
itself. It is curious to note how many analogies there are between the
flint utensils of the primitive sculptor and those of the sculptors of our
own day. First, we find tools designed to remove the rock, there are
points, pickaxes, chopping tools for shaping the rock, saws, and coarse
stone planers; all of these are perfectly adapted to the hand, from which
we may conclude that our artist was right-handed. There is a great number
of graving-tools, or burins, all forms being represented--plain, double,
fine, coarse, and combinations of the burin and grattoir. Some of the
burins show the sharp-angled point centred at the extremity of a blade;
these are the ordinary types; but in many the blade ends with a terminal
retouch, which may be transverse, oblique, concave, or convex with the
point to one side. The grattoirs, or planers, are equally numerous, with
examples of all the known forms. Many of these are formed at the end of a
blade; a few are circular, and others are at the opposite end of a pointed
blade; the latter are particularly fine and are retouched around the
entire edge. But the artist did not merely carve his subjects; he also
coated them with a paint made of ochre and manganese; he crushed his
coloring matter on a palette of schist, and we have found one of these
unbroken and still bearing the red and ochre colors. This palette is
10-1/2 inches long and 6 inches wide; it is oblong in form.
DISTRIBUTION OF THE SOLUTREAN INDUSTRY
The period of the Solutrean industry is one of the most difficult to
interpret in the whole prehistory of western Europe. The remains of this
industry in several localities lie directly between those of the
Aurignacian and the Magdalenian; in others, as at Solutré, they directly
follow the Aurignacian. There is no doubt that this represents a very long
and a very important epoch in Upper Palæolithic development. From the
cultural standpoint it represents a climax in the flint industry, but a
period of suspension or of arrested development in art.
A glance at the maps of the Mousterian (Fig. 125), the Aurignacian (Fig.
153), and the Solutrean (Fig. 167) culture stations shows that the
geographic distribution of the Solutrean is entirely unique; whereas the
Aurignacian culture may be said to girdle the Mediterranean, both on its
southern and northern coasts, the Solutrean culture is absent in this
entire region. The interpretation of this strange phenomenon offered by
Breuil, that the Solutrean culture entered Europe directly from the east
and not from the south, may be connected with the theory that toward the
end of Aurignacian times a new race from the central east was working
westward through Hungary and along the Danube--a race of inferior mental
type, but extremely expert in fashioning the flint spears and lances with
what is known as the Solutrean 'retouch.' This may be the race of Brünn,
Brüx, and Předmost, the remains of which are found in two localities
associated with these highly perfected flint spear heads. Either by the
invasion of this race or, more probably, by the invasion of the highly
perfected spear-head industry itself, the type station of Solutré, on the
Saône, was established and the region of Dordogne reached, where this
industry progressed at twelve different stations.
[Illustration: FIG. 167. Geographic distribution of the principal
Solutrean industrial stations in western Europe.]
There is no doubt whatever that the new and entirely distinct Brünn race
penetrated the Danubian region at this time, but there is no evidence
from skeletal remains that it reached France. It is quite possible that
some of the flint workers adept in the Solutrean 'retouch' migrated into
the far western stations of Dordogne, bringing with them their beautiful
technique, but without leaving traces of their skeletal remains through
ceremonial burial. This unsettled problem affords one of the many reasons
why the anatomy of all the Upper Palæolithic men of western Europe should
be most carefully studied and compared.
Another mystery of Solutrean times is the arrest of the artistic impulse
which had animated the Crô-Magnons throughout the entire Aurignacian.
Evidences of artistic work in Solutrean times are very rare, and some
drawings which have been attributed to the Solutrean, as at Altamira, have
now been referred to the Magdalenian. Is it possible that the Crô-Magnon
race for a time suspended its artistic endeavor only to renew it under the
different conditions of environment of Magdalenian times? Unfortunately,
the Solutrean burials afford very little evidence on this point. One
interpretation which may be offered is that the Solutrean was evidently a
period of open-air life, and that the new implements of the chase of
Solutrean type absorbed the industrial energies of these people, for the
weapons were fashioned in enormous numbers. Consistent with this theory of
climatic influence is the fact that the return of the severe climate of
Magdalenian times, which crowded the men again into the shelters and
grottos, was accompanied by a renewal of the artistic development
continuing from the point where it had been interrupted in closing
Aurignacian times. That Aurignacian and Magdalenian art is the work of one
race there can be no question whatever; that this race was the Crô-Magnon
is now absolutely demonstrated.
The climate of Solutrean times is generally believed to have been cold and
dry. In the region of Dordogne throughout this period the reindeer was
still far more numerous than any other animal; so we may safely conclude
that this was the principal object of the chase and of food; in fact, it
would appear that the reindeer were resident forms in the valley of the
Vézère, hunted and consumed throughout the year.(40) Here we also
occasionally find the northern steppe or Obi lemming, an animal which at
the same time extends along the borders of the Volga River toward southern
Russia. It would appear that in Solutrean times in southwestern France
there prevailed a dry, cold continental subarctic climate like that of the
Caspian, Volga, and Ural steppes of the present day. With the mammoth and
the reindeer occur a great variety of northern European forest forms--the
true fox, the hare, the stag, the brown bear, the wolf, the bison, and the
urus. Most interesting is the identification of the jackal belonging to
the ancient species _C. neschersensis_. In the type industrial locality of
Solutré the reindeer is very abundant in the fire-hearths associated with
the lower Solutrean industry, but less abundant in the upper levels; an
antelope, perhaps the saiga antelope, is said to be found among the crude
engravings on bone.
SOLUTREAN RACES
There were certainly two distinct races of men in Europe during Solutrean
times, to the east the race of Brünn and to the west the race of
Crô-Magnon. Remains attributed to the Crô-Magnons have been found in the
Departments of Charente, Gironde, Lot, Haute-Garonne, Tarn, and Dordogne.
But most of these remains are very fragmentary and cannot readily be
determined racially. The fragments of ten skulls and a few other bones
found in the Grotte du Placard, Charente, are attributed to late Solutrean
and to early Magdalenian times and constitute one of the most exceptional
discoveries which have thus far been made in France; the interments
probably date from the early Magdalenian (p. 380), but are probably of a
race surviving from the Solutrean. The section of the cave deposit is from
23 to 26 feet in thickness and is highly instructive; it shows eight
cultural layers, separated by layers of débris and succeeding each other
in the following order:
8. Neolithic layer.
7-4. Magdalenian layers; in the lowest layer is the ceremonial burial
of four skulls.
3. Solutrean layer with shouldered points (_pointes à cran_) and a few
laurel-leaf points (_pointes de laurier_).
2. Solutrean layer with laurel-leaf points but no shouldered points;
knives, grattoirs, scrapers, borers, in great numbers, together with
javelin points and awls in bone and ornamented with notches, and
fragments of red chalk and black lead found embedded with the
Solutrean points.
1. Mousterian layer.
RACE OF BRÜNN, BRÜX, PŘEDMOST, AND (?) GALLEY HILL
In 1871 a skullcap, now in the Royal Museum of Vienna, was discovered in
the course of coal mining at Brüx, Bohemia. In 1891(41) a skeleton,
apparently of the same race, was discovered at Brünn, Moravia, deeply
embedded in loess along with bones of the woolly mammoth and other great
Pleistocene mammals. In 1892 it was described by Makowsky,(42) who a few
years before had excavated from the loess sand in the neighborhood of
Brünn the fragmentary skull now known as Brünn II. Both these skulls are
of a somewhat low racial type, and for a long time they were regarded as
transition forms between the Neanderthals and _Homo sapiens_, but in 1906
Schwalbe(43) showed the affinity between the skulls of Brüx and Brünn and
at the same time their entire distinctness from the Neanderthal skull and
their approach to lower forms of _Homo sapiens_. The chief distinction of
these skulls is their extreme elongation or dolichocephaly, the ratio of
width to length being 69 per cent in the Brüx skull, and 68.2 per cent in
the Brünn skull. The latter ranks lower in racial type than the Australian
negroids. The chief distinction from the Neanderthal skull is in the index
of the height of skull (51.22 per cent) and in the absence of the
prominent ridges extending across the eyebrow region above the nose;[AS]
the forehead, in brief, is more modern, the frontal angle being 74.7-75
per cent. The brain capacity in this race is estimated, according to
Makowsky,(44) at 1,350 c.cm. Both the Brüx and Brünn skulls are
_harmonic_; they do not present the very broad, high cheek-bones
characteristic of the Crô-Magnon race, the face being of a narrow, modern
type, but not very long. There is evidence that the neck and shoulders
were powerful and muscular; the prominence of the chin is pronounced; the
dentition is macrodont, that is, the last lower molar is of exceptionally
large size; there was no prognathism or protrusion of the jaws. The second
Brünn skull (Brünn II) may represent a female type of the Brünn race, the
cephalic index being estimated at 72 per cent.
[Illustration: FIG. 168. The type skull known as Brünn I--supposed
male--discovered at Brünn, Moravia, in 1891. It was found deeply imbedded
in loess along with bones of the woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, giant
deer, reindeer, and other Pleistocene mammals, and is believed to be of
Solutrean age. After Makowsky. One-third life size.]
DISCOVERIES CHIEFLY OF THE CRÔ-MAGNON AND BRÜNN RACES[AT]
REFERRED TO SOLUTREAN TIMES
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Date of | Locality | Number of | Culture Stage |
|Discovery| | Individuals | |
|---------+--------------------+-------------------+---------------|
| CRÔ-MAGNON RACE (?) |
|---------+--------------------+-------------------+---------------|
| |Grotte du Placard, |Fragments of ten |Late Solutrean |
| | Charente, France. | skulls and a few | and early |
| | | other bones. | Magdalenian. |
| | | | |
| |Pair-non-Pair, |Skull fragments. |Solutrean. |
| | Gironde, France. | | |
| | | | |
| |Lacave, | " " | " |
| | Lot, France. | | |
| | | | |
| |Montconfort, | " " | " |
| | Haute-Garonne, | | |
| | France. | | |
| | | | |
| |Roset, | " " |Late Solutrean.|
| | Tarn, France. | | |
| | | | |
| |Badegoule, |Bones. |Solutrean. |
| | Dordogne, France. | | |
|---------+--------------------+-------------------+---------------|
| BRÜNN-BRÜX-PŘEDMOST RACE |
|---------+--------------------+-------------------+---------------|
|1880. |Předmost, |Portions of twenty |Solutrean. |
| | Moravia, Austria. | skeletons. | |
| | | | |
|1891. |Brünn, |Male skeleton | " |
| | Moravia, Austria. | (Brünn I). | |
| | |(?) Female skeleton| |
| | | (Brünn II). | |
| | | | |
| |Ballahöhle, |Skeleton of infant.|(?) " |
| | Miskolcz, Hungary.| | |
| | | | |
| |(?) Galley Hill. |One skeleton. |Unknown. |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
There is a possibility(47) that the Brünn race was ancestral to several
later dolichocephalic groups which are found in the region of the Danube
and of middle and southern Germany. Schliz characterizes the Brünn skull
as distinguished by the retreating forehead, by massive eminences above
the orbits separated by a cleft in the median line, by broad, low orbits,
and prominent chin. These characters are met with again in one of the
dolichocephalic skulls found in the interment at Ofnet, at the very
close of Upper Palæolithic times. It would thus appear that the Brünn race
is distinct from the Crô-Magnon race, that it represents a long-headed
type which became established along the Danube as early as Solutrean
times, and that it may possibly be connected with the introduction of some
of the peculiar features of the Solutrean culture.
One of the skeletons of Brünn, found at a depth of 12 feet below the
surface of the 'loess,' was lavishly adorned with tooth-shells, perforated
stone discs, and bone ornaments made from the ribs of the rhinoceros or
mammoth and from the teeth of the mammoth; associated with these was an
ivory idol, apparently of a male figure, of which only the head, the
torso, and the left arm remain. The skeleton and many of the objects found
with the sepulture were partly tinted in red. An ivory figurine belongs to
the Eburnéen stage of Piette and appears to indicate that the burial was
of Aurignacian rather than of Solutrean age.
The Předmost 'mammoth hunters' also probably belonged to this race. They
are represented by the remains of six individuals excavated since 1880 at
Předmost, Moravia, by Wankel, Kr̆íz̆, and Mas̆ka. The bones were found in
a very much shattered condition. Mas̆ka has since discovered a collective
burial of fourteen human skeletons, with remains of six others; the bodies
were covered with stones, but no flints or objects of art were buried with
them. The dimensions of the limbs indicate a race of large stature. The
skeletons were deeply buried in 'loess,' and above and below the rich
archæological layer were abundant débris of the mammoth, representing
between eight and nine hundred specimens. Along with the numerous flints,
including laurel-leaf spear heads of middle Solutrean type, were found
other objects and even primitive works of art in bone and ivory. There is
no question that the human remains belong to the middle Solutrean
stage.(48)
With this race is also associated by many authors (Schwalbe, Schliz,
Klaatsch, Keith) the Galley Hill skull, which was found in 1888, buried at
a depth of 8 feet in the 'high terrace' gravels 90 feet above the
Thames.(49) Sollas thinks it highly probable that the remains were in a
natural position and of the same age as the high-level gravels and the
Palæolithic flints and remains of extinct animals which they contained,
but Evans and Dawkins regard the Galley Hill man as belonging to a
long-headed Neolithic race interred in a Palæolithic stratum. The gravels
of the 'high terrace' in which the Galley Hill skull was buried are by no
means of the geologic antiquity of 200,000 years assigned to them by
Keith;(50) they are probably of Fourth Glacial or of Postglacial age, and
lie within the estimates of Postglacial time, namely, from 20,000 to
40,000 years.
The antiquity of the Galley Hill cranial type has been maintained with
ability by Keith. The skull is extremely long or hyperdolichocephalic, the
cephalic index being estimated by Keith at 69 per cent;(51) the brain
capacity is estimated at between 1,350 c.cm. and 1,400 c.cm.; the
cheek-bones are not preserved, so that no judgment can be formed as to
this most distinctive character of the Crô-Magnon race. With this Galley
Hill race Keith also compares the Combe-Capelle, or Aurignacian man of
Klaatsch,(52) although he mistakenly considers the Combe-Capelle man of
much less geologic antiquity. He continues: "Thus, while the writer is
inclined to agree in provisionally assigning the Combe-Capelle man to the
Galley Hill race, he believes that further discoveries will show that the
Combe-Capelle man belongs to a branch marked with certain negroid
features."
SOLUTREAN FLINT INDUSTRY
The 'Solutrean retouch' marks one of the most notable advances in the
technique of flint working; it is altogether distinct from the
'Aurignacian retouch,' which is an heritage from the Mousterian.(53) The
flint is chipped off by _pressure_ in _fine, thin flakes_ from the entire
surface of the implement, to which in its perfected form the craftsman can
give a thin, sharp edge and perfect symmetry. This is a great advance on
the abrupt Aurignacian retouch, in which the flint is chipped back at a
rather blunt angle to make a sharp edge. According to de Mortillet, the
Solutrean method of pressure made possible the execution of much more
delicate work.
[Illustration: FIG. 169. Typical Solutrean implements of war and chase.
After de Mortillet. _Pointes en feuille de laurier_, or laurel-leaf
points, artistically retouched on both surfaces, at both ends, and on both
borders; regarded by de Mortillet rather as blades of poniards than as
javelin heads. 120. Lozenge-shaped form from the type station of Solutré,
Saône-et-Loire. 121. Elongate form found at Solutré. 122. The largest
_pointe_ discovered at Solutré. 123. One of the smallest points found at
Solutré. 124. Solutrean point from Laugerie Haute, Dordogne. 127. Point
from Gargas, Vaucluse. 128. Point of exceptionally fine workmanship. 130.
One of eleven very large Solutrean laurel-leaf points found in a _cache_
at Volgu; probably a votive offering, as the flints are too slender to be
of any use and one at least shows traces of coloring. All the flints are
shown one-quarter actual size, except 129, which is one-half actual size.]
The question at once arises, did this industrial advance take place in
France or was it an invention brought from the east? On this point Breuil
observes(54) that in the highest Aurignacian levels in Belgium, in
Dordogne, and at Solutré the Solutrean technique becomes faintly apparent
either in the 'stem' points (_pointes à soie_) of Font Robert, La
Ferrassie, and Spy or in the double-edged points tending toward the
laurel-leaf type of the Solutrean, but that all the other implements
remain purely Aurignacian.
RELATIONS AND SUBDIVISIONS OF SOLUTREAN CULTURE
_Lower (Early) Magdalenian._
Prototypes of bone harpoons.
Beginnings of animal sculpture.
Absence of any trace of the laurel-leaf spear heads of Solutrean
times.
_Upper (Late) Solutrean._
Typical shouldered points (_pointes à cran_)--elongate flakes
worked on one or both sides and notched. Small laurel-leaf spear
heads.
Bone javelin points, awls, and needles, very finely worked. Placard.
Lacave.
_Middle (High) Solutrean._
Large 'laurel-leaf' spear heads worked on both sides. Climax of
Solutrean flint industry. Placard.
_Lower (Proto-) Solutrean._
Primitive 'laurel-leaf' and 'willow-leaf' spear heads, most of them
worked on only one side. Grotte du Trilobite.
_Transition from Aurignacian._
Pedunculate spear heads (_pointes à soie_) of primitive Font
Robert type. Climax of human sculpture.
As to the chief source of Solutrean influence, the same author remarks
that, since this culture is entirely wanting in central and southern
Spain, in Italy, in Sicily, in Algeria, and in Phœnicia, we should
certainly not look to the Mediterranean for its origin but rather to
eastern Europe; for in the grottos of Hungary we find a great development
of the true Solutrean, while so far the Aurignacian has not been found
here, although we do find traces of the earlier transitional stages below
the levels of the true laurel-leaf points. We must admit, therefore, that
in all probability the Solutrean culture reached Europe from the east and
that its source is as mysterious as that of the Aurignacian, which, as we
have seen, was of southern and probably of Mediterranean origin. It is not
impossible that the evolution of the laurel-leaf point took place in
Hungary, for it was certainly not evolved in central or western Europe.
At Předmost, in Moravia, we observe an advanced Aurignacian industry which
had adopted a Solutrean fashion in its spear heads. Here the laurel-leaf
implements are few, while the implements of bone are abundant; but in the
Solutrean stations of Hungary there are no bone implements. As the
Solutrean technique comes to perfection the laurel-leaf spear head, so
characteristic of the full Solutrean industry, is created and is met with
in Poland, in Hungary, in Bavaria, and then in France, where the industry
extends southward to the west and east of the central plateau. In France
it appears quite suddenly in the Grotte du Trilobite (Yonne), and also in
Dordogne and Ardèche, where the Proto-Solutrean types show marked
impoverishment, both in the variety and in the execution of most of the
flint implements, the only exception being the flattened spear heads,
_pointes à face plane_, which show a regular Solutrean retouch, beautiful
but monotonous. Laurel-leaf points discovered at Crouzade, Gourdan, and
Montfort denote the presence of the true Solutrean culture, but this
culture does not approach the stations in the neighborhood of Brassempouy.
Toward the north the grotto of Spy, in Belgium, affords examples of
Proto-Solutrean types, which have also been traced in several British
caverns, but it is not certain that true Solutrean implements are found in
Britain.
In Picard a Proto-Solutrean layer has been found, but no laurel-leaf
points. In the type station of Solutré in southeastern France Breuil
discovered two Solutrean layers, quite different from each other: one rich
in bone implements and graving-tools, with small flint laurel leaves
retouched on only one face; the other poor in bone implements but with
large laurel-leaf spear heads.
The Solutrean culture never penetrated to the south of the great barrier
of the Pyrenees, but, passing through the Vézère valley, in Dordogne, it
spread along the western coast to the northern slopes of the Cantabrian
Mountains into the province of Santander, Spain. Here the laurel-leaf
points of the middle Solutrean are found at Castillo, while the shouldered
points, _pointes à cran_, typical of the later Solutrean, are found at
Altamira, together with bone implements. None the less, it should be
noticed that in the southwest of Europe the earlier phases of the
Solutrean are characterized by a decrease in the use of bone, which,
however, increases again in the upper levels.
[Illustration: FIG. 170. The type station of Solutrean culture, near the
present village of Solutré, in south central France, sheltered on the
north by a steep rocky ridge and with a fine sunny exposure toward the
south.]
The type station of the Solutrean culture is the great open-air camp of
Solutré, near the Saône, sheltered on the north by a steep ridge and with
a fine, sunny exposure toward the south. The traces of this great camp,
which is the largest thus far discovered in western Europe, cover an area
300 feet square and are situated within a short distance of a good spring
of water. As explored, in 1866, by Arcelin,(55) Ferry, and Ducrost, this
station had already been occupied in Aurignacian times; and two sections,
taken at two different points, showed the deposits of the old camp to be
from 22 to 26 feet in thickness, representing superposed Aurignacian and
Solutrean fire-hearths with thick layers of intermediate débris. In the
Aurignacian level is found the vast accumulation of the bones of horses
already described. In the middle Solutrean levels great fireplaces are
found with flint utensils and the remains of abundant feasts among the
charred débris. The fauna includes the wolf, the fox, the hyæna, both the
cave and the brown bear, the badger, the rabbit, the stag, wild cattle,
and two characteristic northern forms--the woolly mammoth and the
reindeer; the remains of the last are the most abundant in the ancient
hearths.
[Illustration: FIG. 171. Centre of the great open camp of Solutré,
covering an area 300 feet square, with the village of Solutré in the
distance. First occupied in Aurignacian times, and a favorite and densely
inhabited camp throughout the Aurignacian and Solutrean stages. In
Aurignacian times the remains of thousands of horses were accumulated
around this station.]
In all the Solutrean stations, beside the bone implements,(56) we find two
distinct classes of flints. The first belongs to the entire 'Reindeer
Epoch' and consists of single and double scrapers, drills, burins,
retouched flakes, and plain ones of small dimensions.
The second is composed of the 'leaf' types, which are solely
characteristic of the Solutrean and which degenerate and entirely
disappear at its close; these latter are the arrow and lance head forms,
many of which are fashioned with a rare degree of perfection and exhibit
the beautiful broad Solutrean retouch across the entire surface of both
sides of the flake, together with perfect symmetry, both lateral and
bilateral; they are commonly known as the willow-leaf (narrow) and the
laurel-leaf (broad) forms. The explorers of the type station of Solutré
have discovered five principal shapes, as follows: (1) irregular lozenge;
(2) oval, pointed at both ends; (3) oval, pointed at one end; (4) regular
lozenge; (5) arrow-head form with peduncle, doubtless for attachment to a
shaft. The perfected Solutrean laurel-leaf spear heads do not reappear in
any other Upper Palæolithic period, but their resemblance to Neolithic
flints is very marked.
The 'willow-leaf' spear heads (_pointes de saule_), chipped on only one
side, characteristic of the _early Solutrean_, may possibly be
contemporary with the closing Aurignacian culture of Font Robert. At
Solutré layers have also been discovered rich in bone implements and in
graving-tools, as well as small 'laurel-leaf' points worked on only one
face. As regards the general tendencies of the early Solutrean culture in
Dordogne, at the Grotte du Trilobite (Yonne), and in Ardèche, there is a
marked decline in the work in bone and in the variety and workmanship of
all the implements, excepting only that of the primitive flattened spear
heads, made of flakes, retouched in Solutrean fashion, but on one side
only. Typical deposits of early Solutrean culture are found at Trou
Magrite, in Belgium, at Font Robert, Corrèze, and in the third level of
the Grotte du Trilobite, Yonne; in the second level we find flints with
the nascent Solutrean retouch.
The distinctive implement of the 'high' or _middle Solutrean_ is the large
'laurel-leaf' point, flaked and chipped on both sides and attaining a
marvellous perfection in technique and symmetry. The finest examples of
these spear heads are the famous _pointes de laurier_, fourteen in number,
discovered at Volgu, Saône-et-Loire, in 1873: they were found together in
a sort of cache and, it would seem probable, were intended as a votive
offering, for one at least was colored red, and all were too fragile and
delicate to be of any use in the chase. They are of unusual size, the
smallest measuring 9 inches, and the largest over 13-1/2. In workmanship
they are equalled only by the marvellous Neolithic specimens of Egypt and
Scandinavia.
At Solutré and other stations implements of bone are also found, although
by no means of such frequent occurrence as in the later divisions of the
Solutrean. While the most easterly Solutrean stations of Hungary exhibit
no bone implements, these are abundant at Předmost, in Moravia, where the
culture altogether is of an advanced Aurignacian type, with the Solutrean
retouch used in the shaping of its flint spear heads. The bone industry
includes a number of awls and smoothers, as well as numerous 'bâtons de
commandement.' On this level at Předmost a few works of art are found
consisting of the representations of four animals sculptured on nodules of
limestone, the subjects apparently being reindeer, and also of one single
engraving on bone.
The chief invention of the _late Solutrean_ is the 'shouldered point'
(_pointe à cran_), a single notched and very slender dart. These notches
are the first indication of the value of the barb in holding a weapon in
the flesh. Here also is a _stem_ for the attachment of the shaft of the
dart. In earlier stages of the Solutrean one finds flints where the
unsymmetrical base of the 'point' shows a small obtuse tongue or stem. The
elongate peduncle at the base of such spear heads (_pointes à soie_) is
developed into the _pointe à cran_, or shouldered point, made of long,
fine flakes, with a short retouch on one or both sides, and found in the
late Solutrean at the grotto of Lacave, at Placard, and at many of the
stations in Dordogne. No example of the _pointe à cran_ has ever been
found at the type station of Solutré, but it is of frequent occurrence at
the stations between the Loire and the Cantabrian Pyrenees, being found
at Altamira, at Laugerie Haute, at Monthaud (Indre), in Chalosse and
Charente, while the great cave of Placard has yielded no less than 5,000
specimens, whole and broken.
[Illustration: FIG. 172. Typical Solutrean implements of the chase, of
fishing, and of industry. After de Mortillet. 131, 132. A laurel-leaf
point retouched on both sides. 133-138. Various forms of the _pointe à
cran_, or 'shouldered point,' a type distinctive of the late Solutrean. It
has an elongated peduncle or stem at one side adapted for the attachment
of a wooden shaft, and was probably an implement of the chase, being
suitable for fishing or for hunting small game. The examples figured show
a great variety of finish and retouch. 137 is from Placard and 138 from
the _Grottes de Grimaldi_. 139. _Poinçon_, or awl, beautifully shaped.
140. _Perçoir_, drill or borer. 141. Flake retouched on one border,
recalling the style of the Aurignacian points. 142, 143. Finely retouched
points, suitable for engraving or etching. All the flints are shown
one-half actual size.]
At Monthaud there are also found bone implements including a number of
_poinçons_ (awls) and a series of _sagaies_ (javelin points). Solutrean
sagaies, however, are very rare and very primitive as compared with the
Magdalenian.
The successive phases of Solutrean industry are all shown in southern
France. As to its stratigraphic relations, the type station of Solutré
exhibits lower and middle Solutrean above Aurignacian hearths and
deposits; that of Placard, Charente, shows the middle and upper Solutrean
overlaid by a Magdalenian layer. In the Grotte du Trilobite the Solutrean
layer lies between one of Aurignacian and one of primitive Magdalenian; it
is here that we find the clearest transition from the Aurignacian culture
in the appearance of prototypes of the laurel and willow-leaf points, made
of flakes, retouched on only one side. At Brassempouy the Solutrean lies
immediately beneath a Magdalenian layer, with engraved bones and
Magdalenian flints. Needles, which are particularly abundant in the
Magdalenian epoch, are also found in a number of the Solutrean stations.
In the grotto of Lacave, Lot, in an upper Solutrean layer, Viré has found
beautiful bone needles, pierced at one end and of fine workmanship, and
engraved utensils of reindeer horn; here also was found the head of an
antelope engraved on a fragment of reindeer horn. The local fauna of this
period included the horse, the ibex, and the reindeer.
SOLUTREAN ENGRAVING AND ANIMAL SCULPTURE
The artistic work of Solutrean times is not so rich as that of the
Aurignacian. This, as we have suggested, may be partly attributable to the
less wide-spread distribution of the Solutrean culture, as well as to the
great importance which was attached to the careful fashioning of the stone
weapons. None the less we can trace indications of the development of both
phases of art, the linear and the plastic, and especially the beginnings
of animal sculpture. From the full, round sculpture of Aurignacian times
there follows in Solutrean times a development of carving in bone of the
_Rundstabfiguren_ (bâton, or ceremonial staff), and of high relief. The
lion(57) and the head of a horse at Isturitz, in the Pyrenees, which
Breuil attributes to a late Solutrean period, are typical examples of this
work.
Relatively rare are the parietal and mobile engravings as well as the
schematic representations, such as are found at Placard and Champs Blancs.
According to Alcalde del Rio, there are found at Altamira, in northern
Spain, very simple, finely engraved figures of the doe on the bone of the
shoulder-blade; the head and neck are covered with lines, and both the eye
and the nostril as well as the form of the ear are very characteristic of
the animal. Breuil, however, considers these as belonging rather to
earlier Magdalenian times.
Decorative art certainly makes some advances over the Aurignacian work,
because the arrangement of the geometric figures is quite clear, and the
execution shows marked progress in the technique of engraving.
At Předmost, near the site of the human burial described above, there has
been discovered a statuette of the mammoth sculptured in the round, in
ivory, which proves that animal sculpture was well advanced in Solutrean
times. The statuette was found six to nine feet beneath the surface of the
'loess,' in an undoubted Solutrean layer. The accompanying fauna is of a
truly arctic character: the mammoth being extraordinarily abundant; the
tundra forms including the mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, musk-ox, reindeer,
arctic fox, arctic hare, glutton, and banded lemming; the Asiatic forms
including the lion and leopard; the forest and meadow fauna embracing the
wolf, fox, beaver, brown bear, bison, and wild cattle, moose, and horse,
also the ibex. Among the remnants of 30,000 flints there are a dozen
points (_feuilles de laurier_) and other pieces with the Solutrean
'retouch.' The industry in ivory, bone, and reindeer horn is also varied,
including numerous poniards, polishers, piercers, dart-throwers, and
bâtons de commandement.
[Illustration: FIG. 173. Mammoth sculptured on a fragment of ivory tusk
from the Solutrean station of Předmost, Moravia. After Maška. This figure
is covered with fine lines representing the long, hairy coating, and
measures about four and one-half inches.]
This ivory sculpture of the mammoth indicates very accurately the
characteristic contours of the top of the head, and of the back; the
striations on the side represent the falling masses of hair. Other
sculptured figures representing the mammoth are believed to be of
Magdalenian age, the best known being the figures found in the grottos of
Bruniquel and Laugerie Basse, a fragment from Raymonden, Dordogne, and a
bas-relief in the grotto of Figuier, Gard. All these sculptures of the
mammoth have in common the indication of a very small ear--similar to that
in the Předmost model--feet shaped like inverted mushrooms, bordered with
short, coarse hairs, the tail terminating in a long tuft of hairs. If the
figure of Předmost is of Solutrean age, it is by far the earliest of all
the sculptured or engraved animal representations in the mobile art, and
is also the most complete of the animal figurines of this group. It is
certainly of more recent date than the engraved designs of Aurignacian age
in the grottos of Gargas and of Chabot or than the red or black tracings
of the mammoth, also of Aurignacian age, at Castillo, Pindal, and
Font-de-Gaume. It is probable that the mammoth figures of Combarelles are
of later date than the Předmost sculpture and belong to the beginning of
Magdalenian times, while those at Font-de-Gaume belong to the end of
Magdalenian times and are the most recent of all the parietal designs.
Despite the differences in age and technique, all the designs of the
mammoth are undoubtedly the work of artists of a single race; they agree
in faithfully portraying the external form of this great proboscidian
which wandered over the steppes and prairies of western Europe from the
beginning of the fourth glaciation until near the close of Postglacial
times.
(=1=) Breuil, 1912.7.
(=2=) Verneau, 1906.1, pp. 202-207.
(=3=) _Op. cit._, p. 204.
(=4=) Keith, 1911.1, p. 60.
(=5=) Obermaier, 1912.1, p. 178.
(=6=) Breuil, 1912.7, p. 174.
(=7=) _Op. cit._, pp. 165-168.
(=8=) Obermaier, 1912.1, pp. 177, 178.
(=9=) Wiegers, 1913.1.
(=10=) Schmidt, 1912.1, p. 266.
(=11=) Geikie, 1914.1, p. 278.
(=12=) Dawkins, 1880.1, pp. 148, 149.
(=13=) Ewart, 1904.1.
(=14=) Obermaier, 1909.2, p. 145.
(=15=) Sollas, 1913.1, p. 325.
(=16=) Broca, 1868.1.
(=17=) Lartet, 1875.1.
(=18=) Verneau, 1886.1; 1906.1, pp. 68, 69.
(=19=) Obermaier, 1912.2.
(=20=) Martin, R., 1914.1, pp. 15, 16.
(=21=) Keith, 1911.1, p. 71.
(=22=) Klaatsch, 1909.1.
(=23=) Keith, _op. cit._, p. 56.
(=24=) Hauser, 1909.1.
(=25=) Fischer, 1913.1.
(=26=) Schliz, 1912.1, p. 554.
(=27=) Breuil, 1912.7, p. 175.
(=28=) _Op. cit._, p. 183.
(=29=) _Op. cit._, pp. 177-180.
(=30=) Schmidt, 1912.1, p. 266.
(=31=) Breuil, _op. cit._, p. 178.
(=32=) Obermaier, 1912.1, p. 181.
(=33=) Breuil, 1912.7, p. 169.
(=34=) Breuil, 1912.1, pp. 194-200.
(=35=) Schmidt, 1912.1.
(=36=) Breuil, _op. cit._
(=37=) Schmidt, 1912.1, p. 142.
(=38=) Breuil, 1912.1, p. 202.
(=39=) Breuil, 1912.6.
(=40=) Hilzheimer, 1913.1, p. 151.
(=41=) Fischer, 1913.1.
(=42=) Makowsky, 1902.1.
(=43=) Schwalbe, 1906.1.
(=44=) Makowsky, _op. cit._
(=45=) Obermaier, 1912.1, pp. 342-355.
(=46=) Martin, R., 1914.1, pp. 15, 16.
(=47=) Schliz, 1912.1.
(=48=) Déchelette, 1908.1, vol. I, p. 28.
(=49=) Keane, 1901.1, p. 147.
(=50=) Keith, 1911.1, p. 30.
(=51=) _Op. cit._, pp. 28-45.
(=52=) _Op. cit._, pp. 51-56.
(=53=) Obermaier, 1912.1, p. 93.
(=54=) Breuil, 1912.7, p. 188.
(=55=) Arcelin, 1869.1.
(=56=) Déchelette, 1908.1, vol. I, pp. 137-141.
(=57=) Schmidt, 1912.1, p. 144, Tafel B.
CHAPTER V
MAGDALENIAN TIMES--CLIMATE AND MAMMALIAN LIFE OF EUROPE--CUSTOMS AND
LIFE OF THE CRÔ-MAGNONS; THEIR INDUSTRY IN FLINT AND BONE; THEIR
DISTRIBUTION--DEVELOPMENT OF THEIR ART, ENGRAVING, PAINTING,
SCULPTURE--ART IN THE CAVERNS--CLIMAX OF THE MAGDALENIAN ART AND
INDUSTRY OF THE CRÔ-MAGNONS--APPARENT DECLINE OF THE RACE.
The art and industrial epoch of Magdalenian times is by far the best known
and most fascinating of the Old Stone Age. This period forms the
culmination of Palæolithic civilization; it marks the highest development
of the Crô-Magnon race preceding their sudden decline and disappearance as
the dominant type of western Europe. The men of this time are commonly
known as the Magdalenians, taking their name from the type station of La
Madeleine, as the Greeks in their highest stage took their name from
Athens and were known as the Athenians.
We would assign the minimum prehistoric date of 16,000 B. C. for the
beginning of the Magdalenian culture, and since we have assigned to the
beginning of the Aurignacian culture the date of 25,000 B. C., we should
allow 9,000 years for the development of the Aurignacian and Solutrean
industries in western Europe.
INTRODUCTION. INDUSTRIAL AND ARTISTIC DEVELOPMENT
Well as this culture is known, its origin is obscured by the fact that it
shows little or no connection with the preceding Solutrean industry,
which, as we have noted (p. 331), seems like a technical invasion in the
history of western Europe and not an inherent part of the main line of
cultural development. Thus Breuil(1) observes that it appears as if the
fundamental elements of the superior Aurignacian culture had contributed
by some unknown route to constitute the kernel of the Magdalenian
civilization while the Solutrean episode was going on elsewhere. Again,
early Magdalenian art bears striking resemblances to the superior
Aurignacian art of the Pyrenees, especially the parietal art, as shown by
comparing the Aurignacian engravings of Gargas with the early Magdalenian
of Combarelles. Moreover, the same author observes that, if there is one
certain prehistoric fact, it is that the first Magdalenian culture was not
evolved from the Solutrean--that these Magdalenians were newcomers in
western France, as unskilful in the art of shaping and retouching flints
as their predecessors were skilled. Ancient Magdalenian hearths are found
in many localities close to the levels of the upper Solutrean industries
with their shouldered spear points (_pointes à cran_) and highly perfected
flint work. Yet the Magdalenians show a radical departure from the
Solutrean type of flint working; both in Dordogne (Laugerie Haute and
Laussel) and in Charente (Placard) the splinters of flint are massive,
heavy, badly selected, often of poor quality, and poorly retouched,
sometimes almost in an Eolithic manner; at the same time, the chance
flints, that is, the piercers and graving-tools made from splinters of any
accidental shape, are abundant. To these people flint implements appear to
be altogether of secondary importance; although the flints are very
numerous, they are not finished with any of the perfection of the
Solutrean technique; the laurel-leaf spear head and shouldered dart head
have disappeared entirely, but a great variety of smaller graving and
chasing forms are employed for fashioning the implements of bone and horn.
What a contrast to the beautiful flints so finely retouched and of such
carefully selected materials, found in the very same stations in middle
and upper Solutrean layers!
Thus Breuil, always predisposed to believe in an invasion of culture
rather than in an autochthonous development, favors the theory of eastern
origin for the Magdalenian industry, because this is not wanting either in
Austria or in Poland; two sites of ancient Magdalenian industry have been
found by Obermaier in the 'loess' stations of Austria, while in Russian
Poland the grotto of Mas̆zycka, near Ojcow, exhibits workings in bone
resembling those found at the grotto of Placard, Charente, in the layers
directly succeeding the base of the Magdalenian. The fact that near the
Ural Mountains there has also been found a peculiar Magdalenian culture,
the origin of which is not western, inclines us to believe that the
Magdalenian culture extended from the east toward the west, and then,
later, toward the Baltic.
[Illustration: FIG. 174. One of the large bison drawings in the cavern of
Niaux, on the Ariège, showing the supposed spear or arrow heads with
shafts on its side. The artist's technique consists of an outline incised
with flint followed by a painted outline in black manganese giving high
relief. After Cartailhac and Breuil. Greatly reduced.]
This theory of the eastern origin of the Magdalenian industry has,
however, to face, first, the very strong counter-evidence of the close
affinity between Aurignacian and Magdalenian art, which Breuil himself has
done the most to demonstrate; second, the physical, mental, and especially
the artistic unity of the Crô-Magnon race in Aurignacian and Magdalenian
times. The recent discovery of two Crô-Magnon skeletons together with two
carved bone implements of Magdalenian type, at Obercassel, on the Rhine,
links the art with this race and with no other, because, as we remarked
above, an artistic instinct and ability cannot be passed from one race to
another like the technique of a handicraft. Breuil(2) himself has
positively stated that the whole Upper Palæolithic art development of
Europe was the work of one race: if so, this race can be no other than the
Crô-Magnon.
We must, therefore, revert to the explanation offered in a preceding
chapter, that the Solutrean technique was an intrusion or an invasion
either brought in by another race or acquired from the craftsmen of some
easterly race, perhaps that of Brünn, Brüx, and Předmost. Why the art of
fashioning these perfect Solutrean spear, dart, and arrow heads was lost
is very difficult to explain, because they appear to be the most effective
implements of war and of the chase which were ever developed by
Palæolithic workmen.
[Illustration: FIG. 175. Decorated _sagaies_, or javelin points, of bone;
pointed at one end and bevelled at the other for the attachment of a
shaft. After Breuil.]
It is possible, although not probable, that the bow was introduced at this
time and that a less perfect flint point, fastened to a shaft like an
arrow-head and projected with great velocity and accuracy, proved to be
far more effective than the spear. The bison in the cavern of Niaux show
several barbed points adhering to the sides, and the symbol of the
_flèche_ appears on the sides of many of the bison, cattle, and other
animals of the chase in Magdalenian drawings. From these drawings and
symbols it would appear that barbed weapons of some kind were used in the
chase, but no _barbed_ flints occur at any time in the Palæolithic, nor
has any trace been found of bone barbed arrow-heads or any direct evidence
of the existence of the bow.
In compensation for the decline of flint is the rapid development of bone
implements, the most distinctive feature of Magdalenian industry. In the
late Solutrean we have noted the occasional appearance of the bone javelin
points (_sagaies_) with their decorative _motifs_; these become much more
frequent in Magdalenian times. They occur in the most ancient Magdalenian
levels of the grotto of Placard, Charente, which are prior even to the
appearance of prototypes of the harpoon, the evolution of which clearly
marks off the early, middle, and late divisions of Magdalenian times.
These primitive javelins, decorated in a characteristic fashion, are found
in Poland, at the grotto of Kesslerloch and other places in Switzerland,
at many stations in Dordogne and the region of the Pyrenees in southern
France, and in the Cantabrian Mountains of northern Spain.
[Illustration: FIG. 176. Head of the forest or of the steppe horse
engraved on a fragment of bone, from the Grotte du Pape, Brassempouy.
After Piette.]
It is only above the levels where early types of these javelin points
occur that the rudimentary harpoons of the typical early Magdalenian are
found. The discovery of the bone harpoon as a means of catching fish marks
an important addition to the food supply, which was apparently followed by
a decline in the chase. Later, to the javelin, lance, and harpoon is added
the dart-thrower (_propulseur_), which gradually spreads all over western
Europe, where also the evolution of these bone implements and of the
decoration with which they are richly adorned enables the trained
archæologist to establish corresponding subdivisions of Magdalenian time.
[Illustration: FIG. 177. Polychrome wall-painting of a wolf from the
cavern of Font-de-Gaume. After Breuil.]
From the uniform character of Palæolithic art in its highest forms of
engraving, painting, and animal sculpture we may infer the probable unity
of the Crô-Magnon race, especially throughout western Europe. During
Magdalenian times various branches of art reached their highest point and
were the culmination of a movement begun in the early Aurignacian. The
artist, whose life brought him into close touch with nature and who
evidently followed the movements both of the individual animals and of the
herds for hours at a time, has rendered his observations in the most
realistic manner. Among the animals represented are the bison, mammoth,
wild horse, reindeer, wild cattle, deer, and rhinoceros; less frequent are
representations of the ibex, wolf, and wild boar, and there are
comparatively few representations of fishes or of any form of plant life;
the nobler beasts of prey, such as the lion and the bear, are often
represented, but there are no figures of the skulking hyæna, which at that
time was a rare if not almost extinct animal. While many figures are of
real artistic worth and reach a high level, others are more or less crude
attempts; the composition of figures or of groups of animals is rarely
undertaken.
[Illustration: FIG. 178. Crude sculpture of the ibex, from the Magdalenian
deposit at Mas d'Azil on the right bank of the Arize. After Piette. A
little less than actual size.]
The artistic sense of these people is also manifest in the decoration of
their household utensils and weapons of the chase. Here the smaller
animals of the chase, the saiga, the ibex, and the chamois, are executed
with a sure hand. Sculpture of animal forms in the large, which begins in
Solutrean times, is continued and reaches its highest point in the early
Magdalenian. At this period the use of sculpture as a means of decoration
arises and extends into the middle and late Magdalenian. These latter
divisions are also distinguished by the reappearance of human figurines,
nude, like the Aurignacian, and occasionally somewhat more slender. Thus
it would appear that the artistic spirit, more or less dormant in
Solutrean times, was revived.
In the variety of industries we find evidences of a race endowed with
closely observant and creative minds, in which the two chief motives of
life seem to have been the chase and the pursuit of art. The Magdalenian
flints are fashioned in a somewhat different manner from the Solutrean:
long, slender flakes or 'blades' with little or no retouch are frequent,
and in other implements the work is apparently carried only to a point
where the flint will serve its purpose. No attempt is made to attain
perfect symmetry. Thus the old technical impulse of the flint industry
seems to be far less than that among the makers of the Solutrean flints,
while a new technical impulse manifests itself in several branches of art:
arms and utensils are carved in ivory, reindeer horn and bone, and
sculpture and engraving on bone and ivory are greatly developed. We find
that these people are beginning to utilize the walls of dark, mysterious
caverns for their drawings and paintings, which show deep appreciation for
the perfection of the animal form, depicted by them in most lifelike
attitudes.
We may infer that there was a tribal organization, and it has been
suggested that certain unexplained implements of reindeer horn, often
beautifully carved and known as 'bâtons de commandement,' were insignia of
authority borne by the chieftains.
There can be little doubt that such diversities of temperament, of talent,
and of predisposition as obtain to-day also prevailed then, and that they
tended to differentiate society into chieftains, priests, and
medicine-men, hunters of large game and fishermen, fashioners of flints
and dressers of hides, makers of clothing and footwear, makers of
ornaments, engravers, sculptors in wood, bone, ivory, and stone, and
artists with color and brush. In their artistic work, at least, these
people were animated with a compelling sense of truth, and we cannot deny
them a strong appreciation of beauty.
[Illustration: PL. VII. Crô-Magnon man in the cavern of Font-de-Gaume,
Dordogne, restored in the act of drawing the outlines of one of the bisons
on the wall of the _Galerie des Fresques_. Drawn under the direction of
the author by Charles R. Knight.]
It is probable that a sense of wonder in the face of the powers of nature
was connected with the development of a religious sentiment. How far their
artistic work in the caverns was an expression of such sentiment and how
far it was the outcome of a purely artistic impulse are matters for
very careful study. Undoubtedly the inquisitive sense which led them into
the deep and dangerous recesses of the caverns was accompanied by an
increased sense of awe and possibly by a sentiment which we may regard as
more or less religious. We may dwell for a moment on this very interesting
problem of the origin of religion during the Old Stone Age, so that the
reader may judge for himself in connection with the ensuing accounts of
Magdalenian art.
[Illustration: FIG. 179. Decorated _bâtons de commandement_ carved from
reindeer horn with a large perforation opposite the brow tine. After
Lartet and Christy.]
"The religious phenomenon," observes James,(3) "has shown itself to
consist everywhere, and in all its stages, in the consciousness which
individuals have of an intercourse between themselves and higher powers
with which they feel themselves to be related. This intercourse is
realized at the time as being both active and mutual.... The gods believed
in--whether by crude savages or by men disciplined intellectually--agree
with each other in recognizing personal calls.... To coerce the spiritual
powers, or to square them and get them on our side, was, during enormous
tracts of time, the one great object in our dealings with the natural
world."
The study of this race, in our opinion, would suggest a still earlier
phase in the development of religious thought than that considered by
James, namely, a phase in which the wonders of nature in their various
manifestations begin to arouse in the primitive mind a desire for an
explanation of these phenomena, and in which it is attempted to seek such
cause in some vague supernatural power underlying these otherwise
unaccountable occurrences, a cause to which the primitive human spirit
commences to make its appeal. According to certain anthropologists,[AU]
this wonder-working force may either be personal, like the gods of Homer,
or impersonal, like the _Mana_ of the Melanesian, or the _Manitou_ of the
North American Indian. It may impress an individual when he is in a proper
frame of mind, and through magic or propitiation may be brought into
relation with his individual ends. Magic and religion jointly belong to
the supernatural as opposed to the every-day world of the savage.
We have already seen evidence from the burials that these people
apparently believed in the preparation of the bodies of the dead for a
future existence. How far these beliefs and the votive sense of
propitiation for protection and success in the chase are indicated by the
art of the caverns is to be judged in connection with their entire life
and productive effort, with their burials associated with offerings of
implements and articles of food, and with their art.
THE THREE CLIMATIC CYCLES OF MAGDALENIAN TIMES
The culture of the Crô-Magnons was doubtless influenced by the changing
climatic conditions of Magdalenian times, which were quite varied, so that
we may trace three parallel lines of development: that of environment, as
indicated by the climate and the forms of animal life, that of industry,
and that of art.
The entire climatic, life, and industrial cycle of which the Magdalenian
marks the conclusion has been presented in Chapter IV (p. 281). After a
very long period of cold and somewhat arid climate following the fourth
glaciation, it would appear that western Europe in early Magdalenian times
again experienced a stage of increasing cold and moisture accompanied by
the renewed advance of the glaciers in the Alpine region, in Scandinavia,
and in Great Britain. This is known as the _Bühl_ stage in the Alps, in
which the snow-line descended 2,700 feet below its present level and the
great glaciers thrust down along the southerly borders of Lake Lucerne a
series of new moraines distinctly overlying those of the fourth
glaciation. Another indication of the lowered temperature and increased
moisture in the same geographic region is found in the return of the
arctic lemmings from the northern tundras; these migrants have left their
remains in several of the large grottos north of the Alps, especially in
Schweizersbild and Kesslerloch, composing what is known as the _Upper
Rodent Layer_, with which are associated the implements and art objects of
the early Magdalenian culture stage.
We have adopted the minimum estimate of 25,000 years since the fourth
glaciation, but Heim(4) has estimated that the much more recent
prehistoric event of the advance of this minor _Bühl_ glaciation began at
least 24,000 years ago, that it extended over a very long period of time,
and that the _Bühl_ moraines in Lake Lucerne are at least 16,000 years of
age.
The three climatic changes of Magdalenian times are therefore as follows:
First, the _Bühl_ Postglacial Stage in the Alps, which corresponds with
what Geikie has named the Fifth Glacial Epoch, or _Lower Turbarian_, in
Scotland; for he believes that a relapse to cold conditions in northern
Britain was accompanied by a partial subsidence of the coast lands, that
snow-fields again appeared, that considerable glaciers descended the
mountain valleys, and even reached the sea. At this time the arctic alpine
flora of Scotland also descended to within 150 feet of the sea-level. The
result of this renewed or fifth glaciation in western Europe was the
advent of the great wave of tundra life and the descent to the plains of
all the forms of Alpine life.
[Illustration: FIG. 180. Correlation of the Postglacial climatic changes
with the four stages of Upper Palæolithic culture: the Aurignacian
coincident with the final retreat of the fourth glaciation; the Solutrean
coincident with the interval preceding the _Bühl_ advance; the Magdalenian
coincident with the _Bühl_ and _Gschnitz_ Postglacial advances; and the
Azilian coincident with the _Daun_ or third Postglacial advance. (Compare
Fig. 14.)]
Second, it would appear that in middle Magdalenian times, after the _Bühl_
advance, there occurred a temporary retreat of the ice-fields, and that
during this period the full tide of life from the steppes of western Asia
and eastern Europe for the first time spread over western Europe,
including especially such animals as the jerboa and the saiga antelope,
the dwarf pika and steppe hamster. Correlation is very hazardous, but this
ice retreat may correspond with the _Upper Forestian_, or Fifth
Interglacial Stage in Scotland, described by Geikie, the stage which he
mentions as marked by the elevation of the Scottish coast with the retreat
of the sea beyond the present coast-lines; geographic changes which were
accompanied by the disappearance of perennial snow and ice, and the return
of more genial conditions. The tundra fauna still prevailed; such a
typical arctic animal as the musk-ox wandered as far south as Dordogne and
the Pyrenees, and became one of the objects of the chase. During what is
known as the middle or 'full Magdalenian' the tundra, steppe, alpine,
forest, and meadow faunæ spread over the plains and valleys throughout
western Europe.
Third, the second Postglacial advance, known as the _Gschnitz_ stage in
the Alpine region, appears to have been contemporaneous with the closing
period of Magdalenian culture. This was the last great effort of the
ice-fields to conquer western Europe, and in the Alpine region the
snow-line descended 1,800 feet below the present levels; it marked the
closing stage of the long cold climatic period that had favored the
presence of the reindeer, the woolly mammoth, and the woolly rhinoceros in
western Europe, as well as the close of the 'Reindeer Epoch' of Lartet.
Again, in the north of Britain Geikie observes an _Upper Turbarian_ or
Sixth Glacial Epoch, accompanied by a partial subsidence of the Scottish
coast, and the return of a cold and wet climate; there is evidence of the
existence of snow glaciers upon the high mountains only. The _Gschnitz_
stage marks the end of glacial conditions in Europe, the retreat of the
tundra and steppe faunæ, and the predominance of the forest and meadow
environment and life.
In the Alps there was, however, still a final effort of the glaciers,
known as the _Daun_ stage, which, it is believed, broadly corresponds with
the period of the Azilian-Tardenoisian industry, and a climatic condition
in Europe favorable to the spread of the Eurasiatic forest and meadow
life.
The key to this great prehistoric chronology is found in palæontology. The
arctic tundra rodents especially are the most invaluable timekeepers;
according to Schmidt(5) there is no doubt whatever that the _Upper Rodent
Layer_, composed of the animals of the second invasion from the arctic
tundras, corresponds, on the one hand, with the beginning of the
Magdalenian industry and, on the other, with the renewed glacial advance
in the Alpine region, known as the _Bühl_ stage, and probably also with
that in the north. The _Upper Rodent Layer_ of Magdalenian times is found
in the remarkably complete succession of deposits at the stations of
Schweizersbild and Kesslerloch, which are more recent in time than the
'low terraces' bordering the neighboring River Rhine. The fossil animals
prove that after the extreme cold of early Magdalenian times the tundra
fauna gradually gave way to a wide-spread steppe fauna. Along the Rhine
and the Danube the banded lemmings become less frequent; the jerboas,
hamsters, and susliks of the steppes become more abundant. Exactly similar
changes are observed in Dordogne. In Longueroche, on the Vézère, there
occur for the first time in western Europe great numbers of rabbits
(_Lepus cuniculus_); numerous hares (_Lepus timidus_) are also observed at
the type station of La Madeleine, especially in the uppermost and
lowermost culture layers. These small rabbits probably came from the
Mediterranean region and denote a slight elevation of temperature. But it
is only in the very highest Magdalenian layers that the animal life of
western Europe begins to approach that of recent times, namely, that of
the prehistoric forest and meadow faunæ.
MAMMALIAN LIFE OF MAGDALENIAN TIMES
Thus it is very important to keep in mind that during Magdalenian times
there were both cold and moist periods favorable to tundra life and cold
and arid periods favorable to steppe life. In the latter were deposited
the sheets of 'upper loess.'
The mammalian life of Magdalenian times is of interest not only in
connection with the climate and environment of the Crô-Magnon race, but
with the development of their industry and especially of their art. It is
noteworthy that the imposing forms of animal life, the mammoth among the
tundra fauna and the bison among the meadow fauna, made a very strong
impression and were the favorite subjects of the draftsmen and colorists;
but the eye was also susceptible to the beauty of the reindeer, the stag,
and the horse and to the grace of the chamois. The artists and sculptors
have preserved the external appearance of more than thirty forms of this
wonderful mammalian assemblage, which accord exactly with the fossil
records preserved in the fire-hearths of the grottos and shelters, and
with the deposits assembled by beasts and birds of prey in the uninhabited
caverns.
[Illustration: FIG. 181. Reindeer with outlines first engraved and then
retraced with heavy lines of black manganese finely finished with a wash
of gray tone, from the _Galerie des Fresques_ at Font-de-Gaume. After
Breuil.]
No artists have ever had before them at the same time and in the same
country such a wonderful panorama of animal life as that observed by the
Crô-Magnons. Their representations in drawing, engraving, painting, and
sculpture afford us a view of a great part of the life of the period,
including its contingent of forms from the tundras, steppes, Alpine
summits, and Eurasiatic forests and meadows, and the one surviving member
of the Asiatic fauna, the lion.
The paintings and drawings of Dordogne chiefly represent the mammoth,
reindeer, rhinoceros, bison, horses, wild cattle, red deer, ibex, lion,
and bear. The caverns of the Pyrenees of southern France present chiefly
bison, horses, deer, wild cattle, ibex, and chamois; the reindeer and
mammoth are relatively rare, and in some cases entirely wanting in the
parietal art; this is singular because in the Pyrenees the reindeer
constituted the principal food of the authors of the drawings and frescos.
In the caves of the Cantabrian Mountains representations of the reindeer
are entirely absent, while the doe and stag of the red deer are frequently
pictured; there are only a few representations of the mammoth and one of
the cave-bear. In the drawings of eastern Spain deer and wild cattle are
abundantly represented, and there is undoubtedly a representation of the
moose at Alpera.
_Favorite Art Subjects_
TUNDRA LIFE.
Mammoth.
Woolly rhinoceros.
Reindeer.
Musk-ox.
STEPPE LIFE.
Steppe horse.
Saiga antelope.
Wild ass, kiang.
ASIATIC LIFE.
Lion.
Desert horse.
ALPINE LIFE.
Ibex.
Chamois.
MEADOW LIFE.
Bison.
Wild cattle.
FOREST LIFE.
Red deer, stag.
Forest horse.
Cave-bear.
Wolf.
Fox.
Wild boar.
Moose.
Fallow deer.
SEA LIFE.
Seal.
REPTILES, BIRDS, FISHES.
(Rarely depicted.)
As regards the sources of this great fauna, we have observed that in late
Aurignacian and Solutrean times, at Předmost, Moravia, and elsewhere, the
steppe fauna was not richly represented in western Europe, for it included
only the steppe horse and the wild Asiatic ass or kiang; that the
contemporary tundra fauna lacked two of the smaller but most
characteristic forms, the banded and the Obi lemmings, although all of the
large tundra forms were still wide-spread and freely intermingled with the
forest and meadow life; and that preying upon these herbivorous mammals
were the surviving Asiatic lions and hyænas.
[Illustration: FIG. 182. Modern descendants of the four principal types of
the horse family which roamed over western Europe in Upper Palæolithic
times: (_A_) the plateau, desert, or Celtic horse, (_B_) the steppe or
Przewalski horse, (_C_) the forest or Nordic horse, and (_D_) the kiang or
wild ass of the Asiatic steppes.]
The successive faunal phases of Magdalenian times, beginning with the
early cold and moist or tundra period, have been determined with wonderful
precision by Schmidt from the animal remains found associated with the
lower, middle, and upper Magdalenian cultures in the grotto and cavern
deposits of northern Switzerland, of the upper Rhine, and of the upper
Danube. This region was lacking in some of the characteristic animals
seen in Dordogne, yet these invaluable records show that throughout the
entire period of Magdalenian times, probably extending over some thousands
of years, the forests, meadows, and river borders of western Europe
maintained the entire existing, or rather prehistoric, forest and meadow
faunæ. The royal stag, or red deer (_Cervus elaphus_), was no longer
accompanied by the giant deer (_Megaceros_), which apparently left this
region of Europe in Aurignacian times, but the maral or Persian deer
(_Cervus maral_) occasionally appears; both the stag and the roe-deer
(_Capreolus_) were especially abundant in southwestern Europe and the
Cantabrian Mountains of northern Spain, where the stag became the favorite
subject of the Magdalenian artists at the same time that the reindeer was
the favorite subject in the region of Dordogne. In the forests were also
the brown bear, the lynx, the badger, the marten, and in the streams the
beaver; tree squirrels (_Sciurus vulgaris_) appear for the first time;
and in Dordogne rabbits and hares become numerous. Among birds we observe
the grouse and the raven. The wild boar (_Sus scrofa ferus_) was
occasionally found in the region of the Danube and the Rhine, but abounded
in southwestern Europe and the Pyrenees. The two dominant forms of meadow
life surviving from the earliest Pleistocene times, and widely distributed
throughout the Magdalenian are the bison (_B. priscus_) and the wild
cattle (_Bos primigenius_); of these animals the bison appears to have
been the more hardy, and seeking a more northerly range, while the urus
was extremely abundant in southwestern France and the Pyrenees.
[Illustration: FIG. 183. The desert or Celtic horse, with delicate head,
long, slender limbs, and short back, from a painting on the ceiling of
Altamira, in northern Spain. The horse is painted in red ochre with black
manganese outlines. The eye, ear, mouth, nostrils, and chin are carefully
engraved. After Breuil.]
In connection with art, the majestic form of the bison seemed to strike
the fancy of the artist more than the less-imposing outlines of the wild
cattle; there are perhaps fifty drawings of the bison to one of the _Bos_.
Among the forest and meadow life, not recognized in the fossil remains,
but clearly distinguished in the work of the artists, are two types of
horses, the forest or Nordic horse, related to the northern or draught
horse, and the diminutive plateau or desert horse (_E. caballus celticus_)
related to the Arab. With the forest life should also be numbered the cave
bear (_Ursus spelæus_) of southwestern Europe and the moose (_Alces_),
indicated by the artists of Aurignacian times as present in the Cantabrian
Pyrenees.
[Illustration: FIG. 184. Heads of four chamois engraved on a fragment of
reindeer horn, from the grotto of Gourdan, Haute-Garonne. After Piette.]
It is the above entire Eurasiatic forest and meadow fauna which survived
all the climatic vicissitudes of Pleistocene time, and which alone
remained in western Europe to the very close of the Upper Palæolithic
culture, and into the period of the arrival of the Neolithic race.
The descent of the European and Asiatic alpine types of mammals to the
lower hills and valleys is one of the most striking episodes of
Magdalenian times. The argali sheep (_Ovis argaloides_) of western Asia
had already appeared in the upper Danubian region during the Aurignacian;
it is replaced in Magdalenian times by the ibex (_Ibex priscus_), and by
the chamois, which descended along the northern slopes of the Alps and of
the Pyrenees, and became numbered among the most highly favored subjects
of the Magdalenian artists, especially in the mobile art of ivory and
bone, and in the decoration of their spear throwers and _bâtons de
commandement_. From the mountains also come the pikas or tailless hares
(_Lagomys pusillus_), the alpine marmot (_Arctomys marmotta_), the alpine
vole (_Arvicola nivalis_), and the alpine ptarmigan (_Lagopus alpinus_).
THE TUNDRA CLIMATE OF EARLY MAGDALENIAN TIMES
In the first cold moist period the full wave of arctic tundra life
appeared in the whole region between the Alpine and Scandinavian glaciers
during the renewed descent of the ice-fields; this was the tundra stage of
early Magdalenian times, accompanying the _Bühl_ advance. At the stations
of Thaingen, Schweizersbild, Kastlhäng, and Niedernau, appears the
musk-ox, together with the woolly mammoth, the woolly rhinoceros, and the
reindeer. The discovery of the grotto of Kastlhäng, a reindeer hunting
station in the Altmühltale of Bavaria(6) fills out what has long been a
gap in the geographic distribution of the early Magdalenian. The principal
objects of the chase here were the reindeer, the wild horse, the arctic
hare, and the ptarmigan; the royal stag is very rare, and the bison is
wanting entirely; a strong arctic character is given to the fauna by the
presence of the banded lemming, the arctic wolverene, and the arctic fox.
From this region the musk-ox migrated far to the southwest, reaching the
northern slopes of the Pyrenees. At the same time the arctic grouse, the
whistling swan, and other northern birds entered the region of the Rhine
and the Danube. But the surest indicators of a cold tundra climate
prevailing during the period of the _Bühl_ advance are the banded lemming
(_Myodes torquatus_) and the Obi lemming (_Myodes obensis_), which are
found in the same deposits with the arctic hare, the reindeer, and the
woolly mammoth mixed with the implements of the early Magdalenian industry
at the stations of Sirgenstein, Wildscheuer, and Ofnet along the upper and
middle Danube. There also appear the ermine and the arctic wolverene; in
fact, almost all the characteristic forms of tundra life except the
polar bear, which only enters the northern tundras in the summer season.
[Illustration: FIG. 185. Characteristic forms of alpine life, which
descended from the mountains or migrated from the highlands of western
Asia in Aurignacian and Magdalenian times: the ibex, the chamois, the
alpine ptarmigan, the argali sheep, and the (_A_) alpine vole, all shown
one-twenty-fifth life size; and the (_A_) alpine vole also one-fifth life
size.]
The regions of the northern Alps bordering the great glaciers of the
_Bühl_ and _Gschnitz_ advances, were barren stretches of rock, and the
valleys and plateaus now free from ice became tundras, where the swamps
alternated with patches of polar willows and stunted fir-trees, while
other areas were covered with low, scrubby birches, or reindeer moss and
lichens. The return of these hard conditions of life undoubtedly exerted a
great influence both upon the physical and mental development of the
Crô-Magnon race; it was at the very period when the life conditions in
western Europe were most severe that the artistic development of these
people began to revive. Forced to return to the shelters and grottos,
which certainly were less frequented in Solutrean times, there was time
for the development of the imagination and for its expression both in the
mobile and parietal arts. There was a less vigorous development of the
flint industry, and apparently a degeneration in physique and stature.
In Germany and northern Switzerland, on the headwaters of the Rhine and
the Danube, the entrance and departure of the northern waves of life are
recorded, especially in the grottos of Sirgenstein, Schussenquelle,
Andernach, Schmiechenfels, and Propstfels. It would appear that the woolly
mammoth and the woolly rhinoceros were not hunted in this region, for
their remains are not preserved in any of the grottos or stations mingled
with the middle or late Magdalenian cultures. On the other hand, we find
the steppe horse, the kiang, the stag, and the reindeer very abundant
indeed. The bison is absent, and wild cattle are very rare; so that this
region is not typical of the mammalian life of Magdalenian times as found
in Dordogne and in the Pyrenees.
The migration of the woolly mammoth and woolly rhinoceros along the
Pyrenees and westward into the Cantabrian Mountains, and the crossing of
the Pyrenees by the reindeer, have already been described. In the mural
frescos of Font-de-Gaume, Dordogne, it is noteworthy that the very latest
engravings are those of the mammoth superposed on the fine polychromes
which belong to the period of middle Magdalenian art.
THE DRY STEPPE CLIMATE OF MIDDLE MAGDALENIAN TIMES
The cold, dry period, when the full tide of steppe life reached western
Europe, is of somewhat uncertain date; it probably began during the stage
of the middle Magdalenian industry and continued into the late or high
Magdalenian. There was certainly an environment attractive to these
peculiar and very highly specialized mammals, which at the present time
are neutral in color, swift of foot, inured to existence on very sparse
vegetation, and adapted to extremes of heat and cold. Among the smaller
steppe forms were the suslik or pouched marmot of the steppes
(_Spermophilus rufescens_) and the steppe hamster (_Cricetus phæus_), also
the Siberian vole (_Arvicola gregalis_); still more characteristic was the
great jerboa (_Alactaga jaculus_), with long, springy hind legs, and the
saiga antelope (_Antilope saiga_). With these mammals appeared the steppe
grouse (_Perdix cinerea_), which is found along the Danube in late
Magdalenian strata; another bird characteristic of the northern steppes
and tundras is the 'woodcock owl' (_Brachyotus palustris_). Accompanying
these mammals was undoubtedly the steppe horse (_Equus przewalski_), now
restricted to the desert of Gobi; it is said to occur in the grottos of
northern Switzerland.
It would appear that the saiga antelope may have reached eastern Europe in
late Solutrean times, for its outline is said to be found in an engraving
at Solutré. Widely spread over Europe was the giant Elasmothere; it would
seem very unlikely that this animal was present in Magdalenian times, for
it certainly would have attracted the attention of the artists. Neither
have we any positive artistic records of the wild ass, or kiang, although
certain of the drawings in the grottos of Niaux and Marsoulas, of the
middle Magdalenian, also of Albarracin, in Spain, may be interpreted as
representing this animal. Thus the Asiatic steppe and desert fauna, which
in the region of the upper Rhine and Danube was restricted to two
species of mammals in Aurignacian and Solutrean times, rises to nine or
ten species in middle Magdalenian times, so that for the first time during
the entire 'Reindeer Epoch' the steppe and tundra faunæ are equally
balanced. There are also six or seven species of birds from the moors and
uplands of central Asia. The bird life depicted in middle Magdalenian art
includes the ptarmigan or grouse, the wild swan, geese, and ducks.
[Illustration: FIG. 186. Steppe mammals from the steppes and deserts of
Asia, which invaded western Europe in Upper Palæolithic times; the first
arrivals appearing during the cold, dry period of late Acheulean times,
becoming more numerous in the dry period of Aurignacian and Solutrean
times, and completely represented in Magdalenian times. The saiga
antelope, the (_A_) steppe hamster, the (_B_) great jerboa, and the kiang,
or Asiatic wild ass, are all shown one-twenty-fifth life size. The (_A_)
steppe hamster is also shown one-fifth life size and the (_B_) great
jerboa one-twelfth life size. Drawn by Erwin S. Christman.]
[Illustration: FIG. 187. Ptarmigan, or grouse, carved in reindeer horn,
from Mas d'Azil. After Piette. The restored portions (head and feet) are
indicated by dotted lines.]
The present flora of the subarctic steppes in southeastern Russia and
southwestern Siberia includes forests of pine, larch, birch, oak, alder,
and willow, extending along the banks of the rivers and streams and
interspersed with broad, low, grassy plains. There are many gradations
between the low and high steppes;(7) the climate in summer is relatively
warm, the temperature rising to 70°, while the average temperature in
mid-winter hardly exceeds 30°; in general there is a strong contrast
between the summer and winter seasons, the steppe lands in summer are
practically rainless, so that the sand and dust rise with every wind.
Thus, both in summer and winter sand and dust storms play an important
rôle. The great snow-storms of the subarctic steppes are as destructive as
those of the more northerly tundras and often result in great loss of
life. Numerous discoveries tend to prove that similar conditions prevailed
in western Europe during Magdalenian times. Thus at
Châteauneuf-sur-Charente, a mingled tundra and steppe fauna is found
containing the bones of many young animals which must have perished during
a blizzard. It will be recalled that in this region is the station of Le
Placard of late Solutrean and Magdalenian age. Near Würzburg, Bavaria,
there is a fauna buried in the 'loess' containing twenty species of
mammals of the tundras and steppes, together with the bison and the
urus.(8)
Perhaps the strongest proof of the extension of cold, dry steppe
conditions of climate is the migration of the saiga antelope (_Saiga
tartarica_) into the Dordogne region, where it is represented both in
carvings and engravings, and into other parts of southwestern France,
where its fossil remains have been found in thirteen localities in
association with a cold steppe fauna. In the same region have been found
the remains of the musk-ox (_Ovibos_), one of the most distinctive members
of the arctic fauna.
HUMAN RACES OF MAGDALENIAN TIMES
It appears that the Crô-Magnon race continued to prevail, yet
anthropologists have long been divided in opinion as to the racial
affinity of the men found in the Magdalenian industrial stage. The most
famous burials are those of Laugerie Basse and Chancelade in Dordogne,
each consisting of skeletons of inferior stature, not improbably belonging
to women. They certainly represent a race somewhat different from the
typical Crô-Magnons of Aurignacian times, as found at Crô-Magnon and in
Grimaldi. The archæologist de Mortillet referred both these skeletons to a
new race, the _race de Laugerie_. Schliz, who has most recently reviewed
this subject, has, however, rightly treated all these people as
Crô-Magnons of a modified type.
The Magdalenian skeleton of Laugerie Basse, found by Massénat in 1872, was
resting on the back, with the limbs flexed, and with it was a necklace of
pierced shells from the Mediterranean: the body apparently had been
covered with a layer of Magdalenian implements. According to the length of
the femur, the individual was 1.65 m., or 5 feet 1 inch in height; the
bones were strong and compact; the skull was well arched, with a straight
forehead and a cephalic index of 73.2 per cent.
[Illustration: FIG. 188. The _abri_ of Laugerie Basse, Dordogne, a famous
Magdalenian station and burial site of the skeleton of Laugerie Basse.
This ancient rock shelter, like that of Crô-Magnon and many others, shows
at the present day a cluster of peasants' dwellings around its base.
Photograph by Belvès.]
The so-called Chancelade skeleton was found in the shelter of Raymonden in
1888, at a depth of 5 feet, and was also in a folded position, resting
directly on the rock and covered with several layers of artifacts of the
later Magdalenian culture; the limbs were so tightly flexed as to prove
that they had been enveloped in bandages. This skeleton shows a
well-arched skull, a high, wide forehead, and a dolichocephalic head form,
but the limbs are comparatively small, the height not exceeding 1.50 m.,
or about 4 feet 7 inches; the upper arm and thigh are short, compact, and
clumsy, and the femur is crooked with comparatively thick ends; this
skeleton is generally classed with the Crô-Magnon race, but Klaatsch
considers that it may belong to a distinct type. We cannot disregard, says
Breuil,(9) the anatomical characters attributed by Testut to the man of
Chancelade and its resemblances to the actual Eskimo type; this indication
is in favor of a new element, arriving perhaps from Asiatic Siberia, but
acquiring in western Europe the artistic culture realized and conserved
in certain districts by the Aurignacian tribes and their derivatives. All
of the Aurignacian, Solutrean, and Magdalenian races, however, recall very
forcibly the race of Crô-Magnon, which tends to prove that these
transformations in culture were not made without a notable element of
human continuity.
DISCOVERIES OF MAGDALENIAN AGE CHIEFLY ATTRIBUTED TO THE CRÔ-MAGNON
RACE[AV]
+===================================================================+
| Date of | | |
|Discovery | Locality | Nature of Remains |
|----------|---------------------------------|----------------------|
|1863. |Bruniquel (Tarn-et-Garonne, |Skeletal fragments. |
| | France). | Burial. |
|1864. |La Madeleine (Dordogne, France). |Skeletal fragments. |
|1869. |Laugerie Basse I (Dordogne, |Skeletal fragments. |
| | France). | |
|1871. |Gourdan (Haute-Garonne, France). |Skeletal fragments. |
|1872. |Laugerie Basse II (Dordogne, |1 skeleton. Burial. |
| | France). | |
|1872-1873.|Sorde (Duruthy) (Landes, France).|1 skeleton. Burial. |
|1874. |Freudenthal (near Schaffhausen, |Fragments of skulls |
| | Switzerland). | and of pelvis. |
|1874. |Kesslerloch (near Thaingen, | |
| | Switzerland). |Collar-bone. |
|1883. |Le Placard (Charente, France). |8 skulls, chiefly |
| | | fragmentary. |
|1888. |Chancelade (Raymonden) (Dordogne,|1 skeleton, almost |
| | France). | complete. Burial. |
|1894. |Les Hôteaux (Ain, France). |1 skeleton, almost |
| | | complete. Burial. |
|1914. |Obercassel (near Bonn, Germany). |2 skeletons, male and |
| | | female, almost |
| | | complete. Burial. |
| | | Early Magdalenian. |
| |Les Eyzies (Dordogne, France). |Skeletal fragments. |
| |La Mouthe (Dordogne, France). |1 tooth, 1 vertebra. |
| |Limeuil (Dordogne, France). |Skull fragments. |
| |Grotte des Hommes (Yonne, |3 skulls and other |
| | France). | skeletal fragments. |
| |Brassempouy (Landes, France). |2 teeth. |
| |Grotte des Fées (Gironde, |Fragments of upper |
| | France). | and lower jaw. |
| |Lussac (Vienne, France). |Fragment of lower jaw.|
| |Mas d'Azil (Ariège, France). |1 skull top. Early |
| | | Magdalenian. |
| |Lourdes (Hautes-Pyrénées, |Skull fragments. |
| | France). | |
| |Castillo (Santander, Spain). |Skull fragment. Early |
| | | Magdalenian. |
| |Gudenushöhle (Austria). |1 infant's tooth. |
| |Andernach (north of Koblenz, |2 child's incisors and|
| | Germany). | 7 rib fragments. |
+===================================================================+
Another Magdalenian burial is that at Sorde, Landes, in the grotto of
Duruthy; this skeleton was discovered in 1872, buried at a depth of 7
feet, the body being ornamented with a necklace and a girdle of the teeth
of the lion and of the bear, pierced and engraved. Seven skulls found in
1883 in the grotto of Placard, Charente, also belong to the Magdalenian.
The skeleton discovered in 1894 in the grotto of Les Hôteaux, Ain, was
buried at a depth of 6 feet beneath Magdalenian implements; the body,
resting on the back, was covered with red ochre; the thigh-bones were
inverted, indicating that the limbs had been dismembered before burial--a
custom observed among certain savages.
[Illustration: FIG. 189. Human skull-tops cut into ceremonial or drinking
bowls, from the Magdalenian layer of Placard, Charente. After Breuil and
Obermaier.]
These are the best preserved Magdalenian remains which have been
discovered in France up to the present time. The matter of chief
significance is the survival of modes of burial characteristic of the
Crô-Magnons in Aurignacian times, with the use of color and of ornaments
and with the body in some instances folded and bandaged.
In the great grotto of Placard, near Rochebertier, Charente, a new feature
in the mode of interment has been discovered--the separation of the head
from the body.[AW] The previous ceremonial burials, which began certainly
among the Neanderthals in Mousterian times, always show the custom of
burying the entire body; in the Upper Palæolithic there commences the new
custom of imbedding the body in ochre or red coloring matter, and this
obtains from the Aurignacian burials of Grimaldi to the Azilian burial of
Mas d'Azil. The flexing of the limbs is probably also an Upper Palæolithic
custom. It would appear as if the new ceremonial of Placard had been
introduced in the earliest Magdalenian times, for in the lowest
Magdalenian layers four skulls were found closely crowded together, with
the top of the cranium turned downward; of other portions of the skeleton
only a humerus and a femur were found. In an upper layer of the same
industrial stage a woman's skull and jaw were found, surrounded by snail
shells, many of them perforated. Still more singular is the occurrence in
Magdalenian strata of this grotto of two separate skull-tops, fashioned by
some sharp flint implement into bowls (Fig. 189).
Again, at Arcy-sur-Cure three skulls have been discovered placed closely
together, and with them a flint knife in a layer superposed upon an
Aurignacian industry. The Placard type of burial of the head only is shown
again in the Azilian stage at Ofnet, Bavaria.
The uncertainty regarding the racial affinity of the men of Magdalenian
culture has now been entirely removed by the discovery, in February, 1914,
of two skeletons at Obercassel, near Bonn, the first instance of complete
human skeletons of Quaternary age being found in Germany.(12) As reported
by Verworn,(13) the skeletons lay little more than a yard apart; they were
covered by great slabs of basalt, and lay in a deposit of loam deeply
tinged with red. This red coloring matter, which extended completely over
the skeletons and surrounding stones, indicates that it was a ceremonial
burial similar to that practised by the Aurignacian Crô-Magnons. Along
with the skeletons were found bones of animals and several specimens of
finely carved bone, but no flint implements of any kind. The bone
implements include a finely polished 'lissoir' of beautiful workmanship,
placed beneath the head of one of the skeletons; the handle is carved into
a small head of some animal resembling a marten; the sides show the
notched decoration so typical of the French Magdalenian. The second
specimen of carved bone is one of the small, flat, narrow horse-heads,
engraved on both sides, such as are found at Laugerie Basse and in the
Pyrenees. One of the skeletons is of a woman about twenty years of age,
and, as is usual in young female skeletons, it exhibits the racial
characters in a much less marked degree than the male skeleton, which
belongs to a man of between forty and fifty years; the cephalic index is
70 per cent; the supraorbital ridges are well developed, and the orbits
are distinctly rectangular; the limb bones indicate a body about 155 cm.,
or 5 feet 1 inch, in height.
[Illustration: FIG. 190. The skulls of two skeletons of the Crô-Magnon
race, one male (right) the other female (left), recently discovered at
Obercassel near Bonn, associated with Magdalenian implements. After
Bonnet.]
In contrast to this more refined skull, the extremely broad and low face
of the man is entirely disproportionate to the moderately broad forehead
and well rounded skullcap; the breadth of the face is 153 mm. and exceeds
the greatest width of the skull, which is only 144 mm. This is a markedly
_disharmonic_ type, the width of the face being due not only to the broad
upper jaw but to the exceptional size and breadth of the cheek-bones. The
skull is decidedly dolichocephalic, the cephalic index being 74 per cent;
the brain capacity is about 1,500 c.cm.; the orbits are rectangular, and
above them extends an unbroken supraorbital ridge, with a slight median
frontal eminence; the nasal opening is relatively small; the lower jaw has
a strongly marked chin; the crowns of the teeth have been worn down until
the enamel has almost disappeared. While the muscular attachments
indicate great bodily strength, the height does not exceed 5 feet 3
inches. As pronounced Crô-Magnon features, both of the Obercassel skulls
show an unusually wide face; in both the profiles are straight and the
root of the nose depressed, the nose is narrow, and the orbits are
rectangular. But, observes Bonnet, the greatest width of these skulls is
not found across the parietals, as in the typical Crô-Magnons, but just
above the ear region, a much lower position; in this respect the
Obercassel skulls resemble the skull of the Chancelade skeleton.
This very important discovery of two undoubted descendants of the
Crô-Magnon race associated with bone implements of lower Magdalenian
workmanship appears to prove conclusively that the Crô-Magnons were the
art-loving race. The Obercassel skeletons confirm the evidence afforded by
the burials in France that these people were of low stature; perhaps
because of the severe climatic conditions of Magdalenian times they had
lost the splendid physical proportions of the Crô-Magnons living along the
Riviera in Aurignacian times. The skull also, while retaining all the
pronounced Crô-Magnon characters, had undergone a modification in the
point of greatest width.
In the reduction of the stature of the woman to 5 feet 1 inch and of the
man to 5 feet 3 inches, and in the reduction of the brain capacity to
1,500 c.cm., we may be witnessing the result of exposure to very severe
climatic conditions in a race which retained its fine physical and mental
characteristics only under the more genial climatic conditions of the
south.
THE FOUR INDUSTRIAL PHASES OF MAGDALENIAN CULTURE
The industrial development belongs throughout to central and western
Europe rather than to the Mediterranean. It is remarkable that it does not
extend along the African coast, or even into Italy or southern Spain. It
has been found to present four great steps or phases as follows:
[Illustration: FIG. 191. The great _abri_, or rock shelter, of La
Madeleine, type station of the Magdalenian industry. Ruins of the abbey
beyond. Photograph by Belvès.]
The earliest types(14) of the incipient Magdalenian culture, or
PROTO-MAGDALENIAN, are nowhere better represented than under the great
shelter of Placard, in Charente, where the deep successive deposits compel
a realization of the long period of time required for the evolution of the
Magdalenian with its wonderful artistic culmination. Even prior to any
discovery of the harpoon or of any example of the art of engraving
comparable to the classic series of higher levels we find three levels of
incipient Magdalenian industry at Placard. Similar local horizons,
recognizable from the type of their javelin points (_sagaies_) and from
their decorative _motifs_, are also found at Kesslerloch, Switzerland, and
as far east as Poland. From Dordogne they extend into the Pyrenees and
into the Cantabrian Mountains of northern Spain, but not farther south.
There is thus a very primitive Magdalenian industry wide-spread over
central and western Europe, either autochthonous or influenced from the
east, but certainly not from the Mediterranean. It is only above these
primitive horizons that layers are discovered with the rudimentary
harpoons, and then with the perfected harpoons with single and double rows
of barbs. It would appear as if the basins drained by the Dordogne and the
Garonne were at once the most densely populated and also the centres from
which industry, culture, and art spread to the east and to the west.
In the heart of the Dordogne region is the great rock shelter of La
Madeleine, the type station of Magdalenian culture, and around it are no
less than fifteen stations. This station, in which the lowest industrial
layer (_niveau inférieur_) is subsequent to the Proto-Magdalenian phase
and belongs to the _early_ Magdalenian, was extensively excavated by
Lartet and Christy(15) during the decade following its discovery, in 1865,
and more recently by Peyrony and others. The industrial deposit is
situated at the base of an overhanging limestone escarpment on the right
bank of the Vézère River; it extends for a distance of 50 feet with an
average thickness of 9 feet, the lowest or early Magdalenian levels
reaching down below the present level of the Vézère. It is a significant
fact that the river floods which from time to time occur here also
occasionally drove out the flint workers in Magdalenian times. It
indicates an unchanged topography and similar conditions of rainfall. We
must picture this cliff fringed with a northern flora, these river banks
as the haunt of bison and reindeer, and the site of a long, narrow camp of
skin-covered shelters.
Among the numerous specimens of typical Magdalenian industry and art which
have been found here may be mentioned a geode of quartzite, apparently
used to contain water, and stone crucibles, usually of rounded form,
adapted to the grinding up of mineral colors for tattooing or artistic
purposes; one of these crucibles, showing traces of color, still remains.
The finest among the art objects is the spirited engraving, on a section
of ivory tusk, of the woolly mammoth charging; this is one of the most
realistic pieces of Palæolithic engraving which has ever been found; there
are indications that the artist used this relatively small piece of ivory
for the representation of three mammoths; but in the reproduction (Fig.
199) all the lines are eliminated except those belonging to the single
charging mammoth; we observe especially the elevation of the head and the
tail, also the remarkably lifelike action of the limbs and body.
Very numerous industrial levels are discovered in eight or ten overlying
hearths, which are, however, divided into three main levels, as follows:
_Niveau supérieur_ (late Magdalenian culture).
Harpoons with a double row of barbs. Indications that the climate was
colder and drier, resembling that of the steppes. Bison, horses, and
reindeer abundant.
_Niveau moyen_ (middle Magdalenian culture).
Harpoons with barbs on one side only; also bâtons de commandement.
Indications that the climate was more moist, with frequent inundations
from the river. Bison, reindeer, and horses less abundant.
_Niveau inférieur_ (early Magdalenian culture).
Harpoons with a single row of barbs. Indications of animal sculpture.
Remains of bison and of reindeer, but those of horses especially
numerous.
In the EARLY MAGDALENIAN we note the invention of the _harpoon_; its first
crude form is that of a short, straight point of bone, deeply grooved on
one face, the ridges and notches along one edge being the only indications
of what later develop into the recurved barbed points of the typical
harpoon. As noted above, this invention was destined to exert a very
strong influence on the habits of these people. Large fish undoubtedly
were very abundant in all the rivers at that time, and this new means of
obtaining an abundant food supply probably diverted the Crô-Magnons in
part from the more ardent and dangerous pursuit of the larger kinds of
game. The discovery soon spread, and among a number of localities where
prototypes of the harpoon are found may be mentioned Placard, in Charente;
Laugerie Basse, in Dordogne; Mas d'Azil, on the Arize; and Altamira, in
northern Spain. In the early Magdalenian also a great variety of flint
drills or borers are developed in connection with the fashioning of bone,
including the 'parrot-beak' type, or recurved flint. The microlithic
flints, exclusively designed for fine and delicate artistic work, are more
abundant than in any previous stage, and were used to shape and finish the
bone implements which chiefly distinguish the Magdalenian culture. Other
implements which enable us to recognize the early Magdalenian culture
layers are javelin points of bone or reindeer-horn with oblique bases,
small staves of reindeer-horn or ivory, oval plates of bone frequently
decorated with engraved designs, and slender, finely finished needles.
[Illustration: FIG. 192. Industrial and art implements of Magdalenian
times, chiefly elongate flakes retouched at one or at both ends for
various uses. After de Mortillet. 160. Long, narrow flint blade from the
type station of La Madeleine. 161. A similar implement from the grotto of
Mursens, Lot. 162. A 'knife' flake from Laugerie Basse, Dordogne. 163. A
flint blade, very characteristic of the period, from La Madeleine. 164. A
minute flake with cutting border and short, curved point. 165. An elongate
flake shaped into a _grattoir_, or planing tool, at one end, from La
Madeleine. 166. An elongate, pointed graving-tool, retouched at the end
and at one side. 167. A pointed tool of chalcedony. 168. A minute pointed
flake. 169. A 'parrot-beak' graving-tool of flint. 170. A straight flint
graver, from Les Eyzies, Dordogne. 171. A similar graver, from Laugerie
Basse. 172. A similar graver, from La Madeleine. 173. Flint graver with
base retouched, from the Gorge d'Enfer. 174. A double-ended implement,
_burin_ and _grattoir_, from Laugerie Basse. 175. Flint _burin_, or
graver, approaching the 'parrot-beak' type of 169, from Les Eyzies. 176.
Double _burin_, or graver, of flint, from the Grotte du Chaffaud, Vienne.
All figures are one-third actual size.]
[Illustration: FIG. 193. Typical forms of Magdalenian bone harpoons. After
Breuil. (_A_) 1 to 9, single-rowed harpoons, characteristic of the early
and middle Magdalenian; 1, 4, 8, from Bruniquel; 2, 5, from Laugerie
Basse; 6, from Mas d'Azil; 7, from La Mairie; 3 and 9, from Valle and
Castillo. About one-quarter actual size. (_B_) 10 to 15, double-rowed
harpoons, characteristic of the late Magdalenian; 10, 12, from Bruniquel;
11, from Massat; 13, from Mouthier; 14, from La Madeleine; 15, from
Kesslerloch, Switzerland. About one-third actual size.]
The MIDDLE MAGDALENIAN implements were more widely distributed than the
early types, the most characteristic weapon being the harpoon with a
well-defined single row of barbs (Breuil,(16) Schmidt(17)). According to
Breuil, this single-rowed harpoon is rare in the lower layers but abundant
in the upper layers of middle Magdalenian times; with it occur examples of
the single-rowed harpoon with swallow-tail base. Other implements of this
stage are the bone javelin points with cleft base, small bone staves
richly decorated, also numerous needles, finer and more slender than those
of the early Magdalenian. It is very interesting to note that there are no
distinctive inventions in the flint industry, which shows no important
advances, although microlithic flints are still more abundant than before.
For industrial purposes scrapers continue to be very abundant, as well as
borers for the perforation of bone implements. The middle Magdalenian
industry is best represented in the deposits of central and southern
France, at Raymonden, Bruniquel, Laugerie Basse, Gourdan, Mas d'Azil, and
Teyjat.
The chief weapon of LATE MAGDALENIAN times is the harpoon with the double
row of barbs, which is found at all the principal discovery sites
extending from stations in southwestern and southern France far to the
east. Besides the double-rowed harpoon, the cylindrical chisel of
reindeer-horn frequently occurs, often pointed at the end and with a small
curve at the side; this, like other bone implements, was richly decorated
with engraving. This late Magdalenian level is distinguished everywhere by
the rich decoration of all the bone implements and weapons, as well as of
the 'bâtons de commandement.' The quantity of bone needles, more numerous
in this stage than ever before, attests the greater refinement of finish
in the preparation of clothing.
This was the culminating point both in Magdalenian industry and art, and
probably also in the morale and modes of living. Characteristic types of
this late Magdalenian culture are found at La Madeleine, Les Eyzies, and
Teyjat, and extend into the northern Pyrenees, at Lourdes, Gourdan, and
Mas d'Azil. Their easterly geographical distribution will be described on
a later page. The microlithic flints now reach their culminating point; to
the small bladed flakes with blunted backs are added little feather-shaped
flint blades, and still others with oblique ends, which begin to suggest
the geometric forms of the succeeding Tardenoisian industry. Among the
flint borers we notice a prevalent type with a stout central point, also
the so-called 'parrot-beak' borer; for the preparation of skins, scrapers
are made, as before, of thin flakes, slightly retouched at both ends to
give a rounded or rectangular form.
Following the late or high Magdalenian stage is a period of decline in
industry. In southern France(18) both flint and bone implements show
unmistakable indications of the approach either of the succeeding
Tardenoisian or Azilian stage. In the Pyrenees both the flints and the
great polishers of deer-horn begin to resemble those which occur in the
post-Magdalenian levels. This industrial stage corresponds broadly with
the period of decline in art, and with the change both in the industrial
habits and in the artistic spirit of the Crô-Magnons.
The divisions of the Magdalenian are, therefore, as follows:
5. Decline of the Magdalenian art and industry.
4. Late Magdalenian typified at La Madeleine, Dordogne.
3. Middle Magdalenian typified at La Madeleine, Dordogne.
2. Early Magdalenian typified at La Madeleine, Dordogne.
1. Proto-Magdalenian typified at Placard, Charente.
FLINT AND BONE INDUSTRY
Through the four successive stages of development which we have already
traced (p. 382) there are perceived certain general tendencies and
characteristics which clearly separate the Magdalenian from the preceding
Solutrean culture.
Compared with Solutrean times, when the art of flint working reached its
high-water mark, the Magdalenian palæoliths show a marked degeneracy in
technique, having neither the symmetry of form nor the finely chipped
surfaces which distinguish the Solutrean types; indeed, they do not even
equal the grooved marginal retouch of the best Aurignacian work. The
Magdalenian retouch shows no influence of the Solutrean; it is even more
blunt and marginal than the late Aurignacian. In compensation for this
decadence in the art of retouch, the Crô-Magnons now show extraordinary
skill in producing long, narrow, thin flakes of flint, struck off the
nucleus with a single blow; these 'blades,' which are very numerous, are
often not retouched at all; occasionally a few hasty touches are used to
attain a rounded or oblique end; in other cases a very limited marginal
chipping along the sides or the development of an elongated pedicle
(_soie_) produces very effective implements for graving and sculptural
work.
For the art of engraving perfect _burins_, _burin-grattoirs_, and _burins
doubles_ were rapidly made from these thin flakes; also _burins_ with
oblique terminal edge and with the 'parrot-beak' end. For industrial
purposes some of the flints were denticulated around the border, doubtless
for the preparation of fibres and of thin strips of leather for the
attachment of clothing to the body and for binding of the flint and bone
lance-heads to wooden shafts. Extremely fine perçoirs have been found
adapted to perforating the bone needles; the _grattoir_, single or double,
was also fashioned out of these flakes, and the nucleus of the flint was
used as a hammer. Hammers of simple rounded stones are also found.
But the notable feature of Magdalenian industry is the extensive and
unprecedented use of bone, horn, and ivory. From the antlers of the
reindeer are early developed the _sagaies_ or javelin points of varying
size, usually ornamented along the sides and with several forms of
attachment to the wooden shaft, either forked, bevelled, or rounded. The
ornamentation consists of engraved elongate lines or beaded lines, and of
deep grooves perhaps intended for the insertion of poisonous fluids or the
outlet of blood.
[Illustration: FIG. 194. Types of the flint blade with denticulated edge,
a characteristic industrial tool of Magdalenian times, from Bruniquel, Les
Eyzies, and Laugerie Basse. After Déchelette, by permission of M. A.
Picard, Librairie Alphonse Picard et Fils.]
Of all the Magdalenian weapons the most characteristic is the harpoon, the
chief fishing implement, which now appears for the first time marked by
the invention of the _barb_ or point retroverted in such a manner as to
hold its place in the flesh. The barb does not suddenly appear like an
inventive mutation, but it very slowly evolves as its usefulness is
demonstrated in practice. The shaft is very rarely perforated at the base
for the attachment of a line; it is cylindrical in form, adapted to the
capture of the large fish of the streams. That a barbed weapon was also
used in the chase seems to be indicated by drawings in the grotto of Niaux
and lines engraved on the teeth of the bear, but these drawings indicate
the form of an arrow rather than of a harpoon. The length varies from two
to fifteen inches. The harpoons may have been projected by means of the
so-called _propulseurs_ or dart-throwers, which resemble implements so
employed by the Eskimo and Australians of to-day. These dart-throwers are
often beautifully carved, as in the case of one found at Mas d'Azil,
ornamented with a fine relief of the ibex.
[Illustration: FIG. 195. Bone needles from the grotto of Lacave, Lot.
After Viré.]
Then there were _bâtons de commandement_, carved with scenes of the chase
and with spirited heads of the horse and other animals, which quite
probably were insignia of office. Reinach has suggested that bâtons were
trophies of the chase, and according to Schoetensack they may have been
used as ornaments to fasten the clothing. The discovery of mural painting
and engraving suggests the possibility that these bâtons were believed to
have some magical influence, and were connected with mysterious rites in
the caverns, for a great variety of such ceremonial staffs is found among
primitive peoples. Geographically, the bâtons spread from the Pyrenees
into Belgium and eastward into Moravia and Russia.
Slender bone needles brought to a fine point on stone polishers indicate
great care in the preparation of clothing. Associated with the borers are
many other bone implements: awls, hammers, chisels, stilettos, pins with
and without a head, spatulas, and polishers; the latter may have been
employed in the preparation of leather. The borers, pins, and polishers
appear from the very beginning of the period of sculpture. The name of
poniard (_poignard_) is given to long points of reindeer-horn; one of
these was found at Laugerie Basse.
HISTORY OF UPPER PALÆOLITHIC ART
Following the pioneer studies of Lartet, the history of the art of the
Reindeer Period, as manifested in bone, ivory, and the engraved and
sculptured horns of the deer, occupied the last thirty-five years of the
life of Edouard Piette,(19) a magistrate of Craonne who pursued this
delightful subject as an avocation. He was a pioneer in the interpretation
of _l'art mobilier_, the mobile art. It must be remembered that in
Piette's time the fourfold divisions of Upper Palæolithic culture so
familiar to us were only partly perceived; his studies, in fact, related
chiefly to the mobile art of Magdalenian times, and he undertook to follow
its modifications in every successive grotto, beginning with his brochure
_La Grotte de Gourdan_, in 1873, in which he first announced the idea
which underlay all his later conclusions, that sculpture preceded line
engraving and etching. He divided the art into a series of phases; that of
the red deer (_Cervus elaphus_) he termed _Elaphienne_, that of the
reindeer _Tarandienne_, that of the horse _Hippiquienne_, and that of the
wild cattle _Bovidienne_. In concluding this early work of 1873, he
remarked: "To write the history of Magdalenian art is to give the history
of primitive art itself." He observed that in sculpturing the horn of the
reindeer the artist was obliged to work in the hard exterior bone and to
avoid the spongy interior; this defect in material suggested the
invention of the bas-relief. The statuette he regarded as the assemblage
of two bas-reliefs, one on either side of the bone. Thus he described the
ivory head of the woman of Brassempouy, the only human face of Upper
Palæolithic times which is even fairly well represented; also the two
imperfect feminine torsos in ivory. In 1897, at the age of seventy, Piette
undertook his last excavations, and the sum of his labors is preserved for
us in the magnificent volume entitled _l'Art pendant l'âge du Renne_,
published in 1907.
The pupil and biographer of Piette, l'Abbé Henri Breuil, observes that his
scheme of art evolution is exact along its main lines.(20) It is true that
human sculpture appears for the first time in the lower Aurignacian, that
it survives the Solutrean, and even extends into middle Magdalenian times,
but this enormous period cannot be placed in one archæological division as
Piette supposed; in truth, he did not suspect the prolonged gestation of
Quaternary art, but contracted into one small division the documents of
numerous phases. At the same time, Piette was right in attributing the
flower of the art of engraving accompanied by contours of animal forms in
relief to the second and third levels of the Magdalenian industry, but he
had no idea that this development had been preceded by a long period in
which engraving had been practised in a timid and more or less sporadic
manner as a parietal art on the walls of the caverns as well as on bone
and stone. It is also true that a considerable facility in sculpture
preceded the art of engraving, but it was arrested in its progress while
engraving slowly developed; in the early choice of subjects the sculptors
of middle and late Aurignacian times showed a preference for the human
form, while later, in Solutrean and early Magdalenian times, they inclined
principally toward animal figures, so that sculpture was not suddenly
eclipsed. The first engravings made with fine points of flint on stone are
hardly less ancient than the first sculptures, and modestly co-exist
beside them up to the moment where engraving, greatly multiplied, largely
supplants sculpture. Finally, observes Breuil, it is one of the glories of
Edouard Piette to have understood that the painted pebbles of Mas d'Azil
represented the last prolongation of the dying Quaternary art.
It is fortunate that the mantle of Piette fell upon a man of the artistic
genius and appreciation of Breuil, to whom chiefly we owe our clear
understanding of the chronological development of Upper Palæolithic art.
In the accompanying table (p. 395) are assembled the results of the
observations of Piette, Sautuola, Rivière, Cartailhac, Capitan, Breuil,
and many others, largely in the order of sequence determined through the
labors of Breuil.
[Illustration: FIG. 196. Geographic distribution of the more important
Palæolithic art stations of Dordogne, the Pyrenees, and the Cantabrian
Mountains. After Breuil and Obermaier.]
We are far from 1880, observes Cartailhac,(21) when the discovery by
Sautuola of the paintings on the roof of the cavern of Altamira was met
with such scepticism and indifference. Knowing the artistic instincts of
the Upper Palæolithic people from their engraving and carving in bone and
ivory, we should have been prepared for the discovery of a parietal art.
The publication of the engravings in the grotto of La Mouthe by
Rivière(22) in April, 1895, was the first warning of our oversight, and
immediately Edouard Piette recalled Altamira to the memory of the workers
on prehistoric art. The discovery of Sautuola ceased to be isolated. Led
by the engravings found in La Mouthe, Daleau discovered the engravings
in the grotto of Pair-non-Pair, Gironde. In 1902 there was the double
discovery of the engravings in the grotto of Combarelles, and of the
paintings in the grotto of Font-de-Gaume, communicated by Capitan and
Breuil. Discoveries at Marsoulas, Mas d'Azil, La Grèze, Bernifal, and
Teyjat soon followed.[AX]
STAGES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF UPPER PALÆOLITHIC ART
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | Sculpture | Incised Figures | Painted Figures |
|--------------|------------------|-----------------|-------------------|
|AZILIAN. | | VI. No animal | VI. Conventional |
| | | drawings. |Azilian decoration.|
| | | |Flat pebbles |
| | | |(galets) colored in|
| | | |red and black. Mas |
| | | |d'Azil, Marsoulas, |
| | | |Pindal. |
|--------------|------------------|-----------------|-------------------|
|LATE | | V. Entirely | V. No animal art. |
| MAGDALENIAN.| | wanting. |Various schematic |
| | | |and conventional |
| | | |figures and signs |
| | | |(bands, branches, |
| | | |lines, punctuated |
| | | |surfaces suggesting|
| | | |the Azilian |
| | | |galets). |
| | | | |
|MIDDLE | Slender human | IV. Graffites | IV. Polychrome |
| MAGDALENIAN.|figurines in ivory|feebly traced; |animal figures with|
| |and bone. |fine lines |the contour in |
| | Animal forms in |indicating hair |black and interior |
| |reindeer and stag |predominate in |modelling obtained |
| |horn on implements|the drawings, as |through a mingling |
| |of the chase and |at Font-de-Gaume |of yellow, red and |
| |ceremonial |and Marsoulas. |black color. |
| |insignia. |Perfected animal |Constant |
| | |outlines and |association of |
| | |details. |_raclage_ and of |
| | | Fine animal |incisions with |
| | |outlines, Grotte |painting. _Mains_ |
| | |de la Mairie, |_stylisées._ Great,|
| | |Marsoulas. |brilliant |
| | | Perfected |polychrome frescoes|
| | |engraving on bone|of Marsoulas, |
| | |and ivory. |Font-de-Gaume, |
| | | |Altamira. |
| | | | Animal outlines in|
| | | |black, Niaux. |
| | | | |
|EARLY | Animal sculpture.| III. Deeply | III. Figures of a |
| MAGDALENIAN.|Bisons of Tuc |incised lines |flat tint and |
| |d'Audoubert; high |followed by light|Chinese shading |
| |reliefs of horses,|graffite contour |without modelling, |
| |Cap-Blanc. |lines. Incised |also dotted animal |
| | |outlines and |figures as at |
| | |hair, _e. g._ |Font-de-Gaume, |
| | |mammoths of |Marsoulas, |
| | |Combarelles. |Altamira, Pasiega. |
| | |Striated | |
| | |drawings, | |
| | |Castillo, | |
| | |Altamira, | |
| | |Pasiega. | |
|--------------|------------------|-----------------|-------------------|
|SOULTREAN. | Bone sculpture in| Engravings. | |
| |high relief; | | |
| |Isturitz, | | |
| |Pyrenees. Animal | | |
| |sculpture in the | | |
| |round, | | |
| |Předmost. | | |
|--------------|------------------|-----------------|-------------------|
|LATE | Heavy human | II. Animal and | II. Filling in |
| AURIGNACIAN.|statuettes (idols)|human figures, at|lines at first |
| |of Mentone, |first very deeply|feeble, then more |
| |Brassempouy, |incised, then |and more strong, |
| |Willendorf, Brünn.|less so; four |finally associated |
| |Human bas-reliefs |limbs generally |with contour |
| |of Laussel. Heavy |figured. Designs |modelling which |
| |human figurines of|vigorous, |ultimately covers |
| |Sireuil, |somewhat awkward,|the entire |
| |Pair-non-Pair. |as at La Mouthe, |silhouette. Incised|
| | |then more |lines associated |
| | |characteristic, |with painting as at|
| | |as at |Combarelles, |
| | |Combarelles. |Font-de-Gaume, La |
| | | |Mouthe, Marsoulas, |
| | | |Altamira. |
| | | | |
|EARLY | Animals in low | I. Figures | I. Linear tracings|
| AURIGNACIAN.|relief. |deeply incised, |in monochrome, |
| | |heavy, in |single black or red|
| | |absolute profile;|lines, indicating |
| | |stiff in form as |only a silhouette. |
| | |at Pair-non-Pair,|Two limbs out of |
| | |La Grèze, La |four are ordinarily|
| | |Mouthe, Gargas, |figured. The most |
| | |Bernifal, Hornos |ancient paintings |
| | |de la Peña, |of Castillo, |
| | |Marsoulas, |Altamira, Pindal, |
| | |Altamira. |Font-de-Gaume, |
| | | Archaic animal |Marsoulas, La |
| | |outlines of |Mouthe, |
| | |Castillo. |Combarelles, |
| | | |Bernifal. |
|--------------|------------------|-----------------|-------------------|
| | Statuary and | Mobile and | Parietal and |
| |bas-relief. |parietal art in |mobile art in |
| | |line. |color. |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
In 1908 Déchelette listed eight caverns in Dordogne, six in the Pyrenees,
and seven along the Cantabrian Pyrenees of northern Spain, but there are
now upward of thirty caverns in which traces of parietal art have been
found, and doubtless the number will be greatly enlarged by future
exploration, because the entrances of many of the grottos have been
closed, and the remote recesses in which drawings are placed, as in the
recent discovery of Tuc d'Audoubert, are very difficult to explore.
The chief divisions of Upper Palæolithic art are as follows:
1. Drawing, engraving, and etching with fine flint points on surfaces
of stone, bone, ivory, and the limestone walls of the caverns.
2. Sculpture in low or high relief, chiefly in stone, bone, and clay.
3. Sculpture in the round in stone, ivory, reindeer and stag horn.
4. Painting in line, in monochrome tone, and in polychromes of three
or four colors, usually accompanied or preceded by line engraving,
with flint points or low contour reliefs.
5. Conventional ornaments drawn from the repetition of animal or plant
forms or the repetition of geometric lines.
DRAWINGS AND ENGRAVINGS OF THE EARLY MAGDALENIAN
We have already traced the art of engraving, as it first appears in late
Aurignacian times, into the Solutrean; in the latter it is but feebly
represented. Its further development in early Magdalenian times is found
in the engravings made with more delicate or more sharply pointed flint
implements, capable of drawing an excessively fine line; these were
doubtless the early Magdalenian _microliths_. The animal outlines, with an
indication of hair, are frequently sketched with such exceedingly fine
lines as to resemble etchings; the figures are often of very small
dimensions and marked by much closer attention to details, such as the
eyes, the ears, the hair both of the head and the mane, and the hoofs; the
proportions are also much more exact, so that these engravings become very
realistic. Breuil ascribes to the early Magdalenian the engraved mammoth
tracings of Combarelles. Engravings of this period are also found in the
grottos of Altamira in Spain, and of Font-de-Gaume in Dordogne, and to
this stage belongs the group of does at Altamira, distinguished by the
peculiar lines of the hair covering the face. The subjects chosen are
chiefly the red deer, reindeer, mammoth, horse, chamois, and bison. The
striated drawings of Castillo and Altamira, which partly represent hair
and are partly indications of shading, belong to this period.
[Illustration: FIG. 197. Primitive outline engravings of woolly mammoths
of Aurignacian or early Magdalenian times, from the walls of the cavern of
Combarelles. After Breuil.]
[Illustration: FIG. 198. Engraved outlines and hair underlying the
painting of one of the mammoths, from the wall of the _Galerie des
Fresques_, Font-de-Gaume. After Breuil.]
[Illustration: FIG. 199. Charging mammoth engraved on a piece of ivory
tusk, from the station of La Madeleine. After E. Lartet. For the sake of
showing this figure clearly, other outlines in this drawing, which were
probably designed to indicate a herd of charging mammoths, are omitted or
represented by dotted lines. This classic engraving, described on pages
384 and 385, is one of the most lifelike Palæolithic representations known
of an animal in action.]
The engravings in the grotto of La Mouthe were discovered by Rivière, in
1895, and were the means of directing attention afresh to the
long-forgotten parietal art found in Altamira by Sautuola in 1880. The
drawings at La Mouthe begin about 270 feet from the entrance and may be
traced for a distance of 100 feet, scattered in various groups; they
manifestly belong to a very primitive stage, probably early Magdalenian,
the point of chief interest being that, while the greater part of the
engravings are in simple incised lines, here and there the contour is
enforced by a line of red or black paint; this is the beginning of a
method pursued throughout the Magdalenian parietal art, in which the
artist carefully sketches his contours with sharp-pointed flints before he
applies any color. This treatment, at first limited to the simple
outlines, led to tracing in many of the details with engraved lines, the
eyes, the ears, the hair; thus Breuil has shown that in its final
development a carefully worked-out engraving underlies the painting. In
the La Mouthe drawings the proportions are very bad; they represent the
reindeer, bison, mammoth, horse, ibex, and urus; spots of red are
sometimes splashed on the sides of the animals; here and there is a bit of
superior work, such as the reindeer in motion.
[Illustration: FIG. 200. Engraved outlines believed to represent human
grotesques or masked figures found on the cavern walls of Marsoulas,
Altamira, and Combarelles. After Obermaier.]
The cavern of Combarelles, discovered in 1901, in Dordogne, near Les
Eyzies, contains by far the most remarkable record of early Magdalenian
art; there are upward of four hundred drawings and engravings representing
almost every animal of early Magdalenian times, among them the horse,
rhinoceros, mammoth, reindeer, bison, stag, ibex, lion, and wolf; there
are also between five and six representations of the men of the time, both
masked and unmasked; the style is more recent than that of the oldest
drawings in Font-de-Gaume, but much more ancient than the period of
polychrome art.[AY] The gallery is 720 feet long, and barely 6 feet broad;
the drawings begin about 350 feet from the entrance, and are scattered at
irregular intervals to the very end. In general the art is very fine and
evidently largely the work of one artist; representations of the woolly
rhinoceros and of the mammoth are very true to life; there is a pair of
splendid lions, male and female; the drawings of the horse are abundant,
and side by side we have a representation of several types of horses, the
pure forest type with the arched forehead, the small, fine-headed Celtic
type, and a larger type reminding us of the kiang, or wild ass. Here the
greater part of the work is engraving, as contrasted with the painted
outlines in the cavern of Niaux and with the etched outlines of the Grotte
de la Mairie.
[Illustration: FIG. 201. Entrance to the cavern of Combarelles near Les
Eyzies, Dordogne, where upward of four hundred wall engravings have been
discovered. Photograph by Belvès.]
[Illustration: FIG. 202. Cave-bear engraved in outline, from the cavern of
Combarelles. After Breuil.]
[Illustration: FIG. 203. Stone lamp of Magdalenian age discovered in the
grotto of La Mouthe by E. Rivière. It is cut in sandstone and ornamented
on the lower surface with the head and horns of the ibex. Such lamps were
doubtless used by the artists to light the deep recesses of the caverns.
After Rivière, redrawn by Erwin S. Christman. One-third actual size.
(Compare Pl. VII.)]
Even a large cavern like Combarelles offers comparatively few surfaces
favorable to these engraved lines; but, small or large, such surfaces were
eagerly sought, sometimes near the floor, sometimes on the walls, and
again on the ceilings; even with the brilliant light of an acetylene lamp
it is now difficult to discover all these outlines, some of which are
drawn in the most unlooked-for places. If the extremely fine incisions,
such as those representing the hair of the mammoth, are so difficult to
detect with a powerful illuminant, one may imagine the task of the
Crô-Magnon artists with their small stone lamps and wick fed by the
melting grease. One such lamp has been found in the grotto of La Mouthe,
about 50 feet from the entrance; the workman's pick broke it into four
pieces, only three of which were recovered. The shallow bowl contained
some carbonized matter, an analysis of which led Berthelot, the chemist,
to conclude that an animal fat was used for lighting purposes. Like most
other implements, this lamp is decorated--in this instance by an
engraving of the head and horns of the ibex. Three of these lamps have
been found in Charente and Lot, and it is noteworthy that lamps similar to
those of the Magdalenian period are used in Dordogne at the present day.
[Illustration: FIG. 204. Entrance to the cavern of La Pasiega, not far
from Castillo. The seated figure with the staff is M. l'Abbé Henri Breuil,
the present leader in the study of Upper Palæolithic art. Photograph by N.
C. Nelson.]
In the great cavern of Castillo,[AZ] at Puente-Viesgo, discovered in 1903
by Alcalde del Rio, which is entered by the majestic grotto already
described on p. 162, the animal drawings are mostly of an archaic
character, belonging to the very beginnings of early Aurignacian parietal
art. The most abundant subjects are horses and deer, which entirely
replace the reindeer drawings so abundant in central France, outlines of
the stag and of the doe being very numerous; on the other hand, the bison
and the ox are rarely drawn. Belonging to the category of most primitive
painting are the simple outlines in black of a horse and of a mammoth, the
two limbs of one side being represented as inverted triangles, terminating
in a sharp point, like the drawings of children. Of more recent style are
the rather crude polychrome bisons, numerous hands outlined in red, and a
vast number of tectiform signs and symbols which represent inferior work
of the middle Magdalenian period.
[Illustration: FIG. 205. Carefully engraved half-figure of a bison, from
the cavern of Marsoulas; an example of the engraver's work preceding the
application of color. After Breuil. One-eighth actual size.]
On the other side of the same mountain is the grotto of Pasiega,
discovered in 1912 by Doctor Hugo Obermaier. This small grotto, about 500
feet above the river, receives its name as a retreat of the shepherds. In
the floor is a very narrow opening through which one rapidly descends by
means of a tube of limestone barely large enough to admit the passage of
the body. The interior is very labyrinthine. After passing through the
_Galerie des Animaux_ and the _Galerie des Inscriptions_, one reaches,
after a most difficult détour, the terminal chamber, which Obermaier has
called the _Salle du Trône_, the throne-room; here there is a natural seat
of limestone, with supports at the sides for the arms, and one can still
see the discoloration of the rock by the soiled hands of the magicians or
of the artists. In this _salle_ there are a few drawings and engravings
on the walls, and a few pieces of flint have been discovered. In no other
cavern, perhaps, is there a greater sense of mystery as to the influence,
whether religious, magical, or artistic, which impelled men to seek out
and enter these dangerous passages, the slippery rocks illumined at best
by a very imperfect light, leading to the deep and dangerous recesses
below, where a misstep would be fatal. The impulse, whatever it may have
been, was doubtless very strong, and in this, as in other caverns, almost
every surface favorably prepared by the processes of nature has received a
drawing. No industrial flints have been found at the entrance to this
cavern, but some have been traced into the interior. The art is considered
partly of late Aurignacian, perhaps of Solutrean, and certainly in part of
early Magdalenian times; in general it is much more recent than that of
Castillo. It consists both of engravings and painted outlines, with
proportions usually excellent and sometimes admirable. The paintings of
deer are in yellow ochre, of the chamois in red. There are altogether 226
paintings and 36 engravings, in which are represented 50 roe-deer, 51
horses, 47 tectiforms, 16 _Bos_, 15 bison, 12 stags, 9 ibexes, 1 chamois,
and 16 other forms, distributed in all parts of the cave. The outlines are
in solid red color or in stripes of red or black, or there is a series of
spots; the subjects are chiefly the stag, the doe, the wild cattle (which
are rather common), the bison (which are less common), the ibex, and the
chamois. Among the numerous representations of the horse there are two
small engravings of a type with erect mane, both the feet and the hair
being indicated with great care, the limbs well designed and of excellent
proportions, clearly in early Magdalenian style. Of the utmost interest is
the discovery here of two horses drawn with rounded forehead and drooping
mane, the only instance in which the drooping mane of the modern type of
horse (_Equus caballus_) has been observed in the cavern drawings.
[Illustration: FIG. 206. Herd of horses engraved on a small slab of stone,
found in the grotto of Chaffaud, Vienne, France. After Cartailhac. This
impressionistic grouping and perspective is very exceptional in
Palæolithic design. About nine-tenths actual size.]
[Illustration: FIG. 207. Impressionistic design of a herd of reindeer
engraved on the radius of an eagle nearly eight inches in length, found in
the upper Magdalenian layers of the Grotte de la Mairie. After Capitan and
Breuil.]
In the advanced development of middle or high Magdalenian art, parietal
engraving with finely pointed flint implements presents a nearer approach
to the truth both of proportion and of detail than do the earlier stages.
In this stage the engravings seem to consist chiefly of independent animal
figures and to furnish a prelude to the application of color. A simple but
striking example of approaching perfection of technique is seen in the
bison (Fig. 205) engraved in the cavern of Marsoulas, where the profile is
outlined and great shaggy masses of hair beneath the neck are admirably
indicated. In these drawings the complicated details of the feet, with
their characteristic tufts of hair, and of the head show far more careful
observation. In the great series of bison at Font-de-Gaume the entire
animal is sketched in with these finely engraved lines, as brought out
through the wonderfully close observation and studies of Breuil. This is
quite similar to the practice of the modern artist who sketches his figure
in crayon or charcoal before applying the color.
[Illustration: FIG. 208. Reindeer and salmon engraved on an antler, from
Lorthet, Hautes-Pyrénées. After Piette. This design is believed to
represent a herd of reindeer crossing a stream, one of the very rare
Palæolithic attempts at composition.]
There are two quite different styles in this engraving, one seen in the
deep incised lines of the reindeer head in the cavern of Tuc d'Audoubert
(Fig. 232), a complete design in itself, another seen in the deep
incisions in the limestone outlining the horses and the bison as observed
in the cavern of Niaux (Fig. 174). Here the engraved line is followed by
the application of a black painted line, the effect being to bring out the
body in the surrounding rock so as to give the silhouette a high relief.
In the drawings in the large on these curved wall surfaces, only part of
which could be seen by the eye at one time, the difficulties of
maintaining the proportions were extreme, and one is ever impressed by the
boldness and confidence with which the long sweeping strokes of the flint
were made, for one rarely if ever sees any evidences of corrected outline.
Only a lifelong observer of the fine points which distinguish the
different prehistoric breeds of the horse could appreciate the
extraordinary skill with which the spirited, aristocratic lines of the
Celtic are executed, on the one hand, and, on the other, the plebeian and
heavy outlines of the steppe horse. In the best examples of Magdalenian
engraving, both parietal and on bone or ivory, one can almost immediately
detect the specific type of horse which the artist had before him or in
mind, also the season of the year, as indicated by the representation of a
summer or winter coat of hair.
[Illustration: FIG. 209. Outlines of a lioness and a small group of horses
of the Celtic or Arab type, a delicate wall engraving in the _Diverticule
final_ of the cavern of Font-de-Gaume. After Breuil.]
The realism of most of the parietal art passes into the impressionism of
the excessively fine engravings on bone or reindeer horn, executed with a
few strokes, of a herd of horses or of reindeer (Fig. 207), or where a
herd of deer is seen (Fig. 208) crossing a stream full of fishes, as in
the well-known engravings on reindeer horn found in the grotto of Lorthet,
in the Pyrenees. This is one of the very rare instances in Palæolithic
art, either engraving or painting, which shows a sense of composition or
the treatment of a subject or incident involving more than one figure.
Others are the herd of passing reindeer found engraved on a bit of schist
in the grotto of Laugerie Basse, the lion facing a group of horses
engraved on a stalagmite at Font-de-Gaume, and the procession of mammoths
engraved upon a procession of bison in the same cavern.
BEGINNINGS OF PAINTING
The beginnings of painting in Aurignacian times, consisting of simple
contours and crude outlines in red or black, with little or no attempt at
shading, pass in early Magdalenian time(24) into a long phase of
monochromes, either in black or red, in which the technique pursues a
number of variations, from simple linear treatment, continuous or dotted,
to half tints or full tints, gradually encroaching on the sides of the
body from the linear contour. Of this order are the figures in flat tints
and shading, resembling those of the Chinese, without modelling; also the
figures entirely covered with dots, such as are seen at Marsoulas,
Font-de-Gaume, and Altamira. The tints, as in the drawing of the galloping
steppe horse, pass inward from the black outline to enhance the effect of
roundness or relief. In the splendid series of paintings in the cavern of
Niaux there is little more than the black outline of the body, but the
covering of the sides with lines, indicating the hair, lends itself to the
rounded presentation of form. A somewhat similar effect is sought in the
lines of the woolly rhinoceros painted in red in the cavern of
Font-de-Gaume, which Breuil attributes to the Aurignacian stage, but which
also suggests the early Magdalenian.
[Illustration: FIG. 210. Early painting. A small horse of the Celtic or
Arab type, with painted outline and body colored in black, from a wall of
the cavern of Castillo, Spain. After Breuil.]
[Illustration: FIG. 211. Early painting. Galloping horse of the Celtic or
of the steppe type painted in black and white, from a wall of the cavern
of Font-de-Gaume. After Breuil.]
[Illustration: FIG. 212. Opening (cross) of the cavern of Niaux, in the
Pyrenees, near Tarascon.]
DRAWINGS IN VARIOUS CAVERNS OF THE EARLY AND MIDDLE MAGDALENIAN
The grandest cavern thus far discovered in France is that of Niaux (1906),
which from a small opening on the side of a limestone mountain and 300
feet above the River Vic de Sos extends almost horizontally 4,200 feet
into the heart of the mountain.(25) Not far from Tarascon on the Ariège it
lay near one of the most accessible routes between France and Spain.
Passing through the long gallery beyond the borders of the subterranean
lake which bars the entrance, at a distance of half a mile we reach a
great chamber where the overhanging walls of limestone have been finely
polished by the sands and gravels transported by the subglacial streams;
on these broad, slightly concave panels of a very light ochre color are
drawings of a large number of bison and of horses, as fresh and brilliant
as if they were the work of yesterday; the outlines drawn with black oxide
of manganese and grease on the smooth stone resemble coarse lithography.
The animals are drawn in splendid, bold contours, with no cross-hatching,
but with solid masses of bright color here and there; the bison, as the
most admired animal of the chase, is drawn majestically with a superb
crest, the muzzle most perfectly outlined, the horns indicated by single
lines only, the eyes with the defiant expression highly distinctive of the
animal when wounded or enraged. Here for the first time are revealed the
early Magdalenian methods of hunting the bison, for upon their flanks are
clearly traced one or more arrow or spear heads with the shafts still
attached; the most positive proof of the use of the arrow is the apparent
termination of the wooden shaft in the feathers which are rudely
represented in three of the drawings. There are also many silhouettes of
horses which strongly resemble the pure Asiatic steppe type now living in
the desert of Gobi, the Przewalski horse, with erect mane and with no
drooping forelock; in contrast to the bison, the eyes are rather dull and
stupid in expression. There are also drawings of other types of horses, a
very fine ibex, a chamois, a few outlines of wild cattle, and a very fine
one of the royal stag; we find no reindeer or mammoth represented. In some
of the narrower passages the rock has been beautifully sculptured by
water, and the artists have been quick to take advantage of any natural
lines to add a bit of color here or there and thus bring out the outline
of a bison.
[Illustration: FIG. 213. Engraved and painted horse, apparently of the
Celtic type and with heavy winter coat, from the cavern of Niaux. There is
a mark behind the right shoulder which has been interpreted as the sign of
an arrow or spear head. After Cartailhac and Breuil. (Compare Fig. 174.)]
[Illustration: FIG. 214. Professor Emile Cartailhac at the entrance of the
cavern of Le Portel, Ariège. Photograph by H. F. Osborn.]
[Illustration: FIG. 215. Finely engraved outlines of the Celtic horse and
of the reindeer, in the Grotte de la Mairie, near Teyjat, Dordogne. After
Capitan and Breuil.]
Presenting the widest possible contrast to Niaux is the cavern of Le
Portel, west of Tarascon, with its contracted entrance and a very rapidly
descending passage hardly broad enough to admit the body. This narrow and
tortuous cave terminates in an extremely small passage, so narrow as
barely to admit the athletic and determined artist explorer, the Abbé
Breuil. Here, as in Font-de-Gaume and other caverns, is one of the
greatest mysteries of the cave art, namely, that these terminal and
dangerous _diverticules finals_ were wrought with some of the most careful
and artistic designs. Le Portel, like Niaux, reveals a single style, but
one altogether different. Very numerous bison are drawn in outline both in
red and black; the sides of the body are often dotted with red or hatched
in close parallel lines. On a long horizontal panel are seen many bison in
red, and one observes here a finely drawn pair of bison feet in the best
Magdalenian style. The horse as represented here is of a quite different
type with thin upper tail and a tail-tuft resembling that of the wild ass,
so that one is almost tempted to believe that the kiang is intended, but
the ears are too short; it has a high rump and a high, splendidly arched
neck, like that of the stallion, and the eye is better drawn; the body is
covered with long vertical or oblique lines which might be mistaken for
stripes, but this hatching is a matter of technique only. Again, the mane
is erect, and there is no forelock; in fact, none of these Magdalenian
artists has represented the horse with the forelock, indicating that this
character of the modern horse was unknown in western Europe and probably
came in during Neolithic times.
[Illustration: FIG. 216. Reindeer, cave-bear, and two horses of the
large-headed forest type with arched forehead, engraved on a panel about
twenty inches in length in the Grotte de la Mairie. After Capitan and
Breuil.]
[Illustration: FIG. 217. Wild cattle, bull and cow (_Bos primigenius_),
engraved in the Grotte de la Mairie, each figure being about twenty inches
in length. After Capitan and Breuil.]
Of an entirely different type are the beautifully engraved miniature
figures of animals discovered in 1903 in the Grotte de la Mairie.(26) The
outlines, from 18 to 20 inches in length, are sharply engraved on the
limestone stalagmites; they are all in the middle Magdalenian style and
include the stag, reindeer, bison, cave-bear, lion, wild cattle, and two
very distinct types of horses: one of these types is large-headed with an
arched forehead; this is probably the forest type and perhaps represents
the horse most abundant at the Solutré encampment (see p. 288); the other
horse is small-headed, with a perfectly flat, straight forehead,
corresponding with the Arab or Celtic pony type.
DRAWINGS AND PAINTINGS OF THE END OF THE MIDDLE MAGDALENIAN
The fourth and final developmental phase of painting flowers out toward
the end of middle Magdalenian times in the grand period of polychromes.
These are first etched with underlying lines engraved with flint, the
surface of the limestone having been previously prepared by the thinning
or scraping of the borders (_raclage_) to heighten the relief of the
drawing; then a very strong contour is laid down in black, and this may be
followed by a further contour line in red (the use of black and red is
very ancient); an ochreous brown color is mixed in, conforming well with
what we know to be the tints of the hairy portions of the bison. Thus
gradually a complete polychrome fresco art develops. The final stage of
this art follows, in which the filling out of various tones of color
requires the use of black, brown, red, and yellowish shades. The
underlying or preliminary engraving now begins to recede, being retained
only for the tracing in of the final details of the hair, the eyes, the
horns, and the hoofs. The early stages of this art are seen in the
cavern of Marsoulas, and its height is reached in the mural frescos of
Font-de-Gaume and in the ceiling of Altamira, the latter still in a
perfect and brilliant state of preservation.
[Illustration: FIG. 218. Outline of one of the bison in the _Galerie des
Fresques_ at Font-de-Gaume, showing the preliminary etching or engraving
preparatory to the polychrome fresco painting. After Breuil.]
[Illustration: PL. VIII. One of the bisons on the ceiling of Altamira,
representing the final stage of polychrome art in which four shades of
color are used. After Breuil.]
[Illustration: FIG. 219. Entrance on the right to the grotto leading to
the great cavern of Font-de-Gaume on the Beune. Photograph by N. C.
Nelson.]
To prepare the colors, ochre and oxide of manganese were ground down to a
fine powder in stone mortars; raw pigment was carried in ornamented cases
made from the lower-limb bones of the reindeer, and such tubes still
containing the ochre have been found in the Magdalenian hearths; the
mingling of the finely ground powder with the animal oils or fats that
were used was probably done on the flat side of the shoulder-blade of the
reindeer or on some other palette. The pigment was quite permanent, and in
the darkness of the Altamira grotto it has been so perfectly preserved
that the colors are still as brilliant as if they had been applied
yesterday.
The art of the grotto of Marsoulas, in the Pyrenees, is both of an
earlier and of a later period; the engraved lines, as of the head and
front of a bison, are beautifully done in advanced Magdalenian style, deep
incisions representing the larger outlines and finer incisions
representing the hair; here the outlines are also traced in color, and
there are several masks or grotesques of the human face; these last are
treated with a total disregard of the truth which characterizes the animal
work. Among the few bison represented here, some are covered with dots or
splashes of color, others show the painted outline which begins to extend
over the surface with gradations of tint, anticipating the color effects
attained in the finished paintings of Altamira and of Font-de-Gaume. All
the details of the early technique are found here: the artist outlines the
form with an engraved line; he traces in black color the contours of the
head and of the body; he begins to apply masses of red over the figure.
This beginning of polychrome art at Marsoulas is a step toward coloring
the entire surface with red ochre and black, as in the finished paintings
of a later period.
[Illustration: FIG. 220. Map of the cavern of Font-de-Gaume, showing the
'Rubicon,' the _Grande Galerie des Fresques_, in which the chief
polychrome paintings are found, and the _Diverticule final_. After
Capitan.]
[Illustration: FIG. 221. Narrow passage in the cavern of Font-de-Gaume,
known as the 'Rubicon.' On the left wall at this point are two painted
bison, and on both walls are marks left by the claws of the cave-bear.
After Lassalle.]
The grand cavern of Font-de-Gaume,(27) on the Beune, not far from Les
Eyzies, contains the most complete record of Upper Palæolithic art,
especially from the close of Aurignacian to the close of Magdalenian
times. There are crude Aurignacian drawings, simple outlines painted in
black, outlines supplemented by the indication of hair (examples of the
early stages in the development of polychrome work as well as of the very
highest stages), compositions like the lion and the group of horses, and
the murals in the _Galerie des Fresques_, which show a general composition
in the processions of animals, as well as some special compositions such
as the reindeer and bison facing each other. The life depicted is largely
that of the tundras, mammoths, rhinoceroses, and reindeer, but it also
includes the steppe or Celtic type of horse, represented galloping (Fig.
211), and a small group of horses of the Arab or Celtic type. Of the
meadow fauna the bison is generally represented in preference to the wild
ox or urus.
[Illustration: FIG. 222. Plan of a portion of the left wall decoration in
the _Galerie des Fresques_ at Font-de-Gaume, showing reindeer and the
procession of bison. After Breuil.]
Throughout the cavern the favorable surfaces of the walls are crowded with
engravings, and in the _Galerie des Fresques_, beyond the narrow passage
known as the 'Rubicon' (Fig. 221), we see altogether the finest examples
of Upper Palæolithic art. On each side of this gallery is a peculiarly
advantageous mural surface, broad, relatively smooth, and gently concave
(Pl. VII), probably the best which any cavern afforded, and here we
observe great processions of mammals superposed upon each other, like the
records of a palimpsest, as if such a surface was so rare that it was
visited again and again. The most imposing series is that of the bison,
done in the finest polychrome style, mostly headed in one direction. The
reindeer form another series and in some instances face each other,
although mainly arranged in a long procession facing to the left. This
superposition of drawing upon drawing ends with the latest superposition
in finely incised lines of a great procession of mammoths upon that of the
polychrome bisons. It is somewhat difficult to reconcile a religious or
votive interpretation with the multiplication of these drawings upon each
other. Moreover, it appears to be inconsistent with the reverent spirit
which pervades the work in this and in all other caverns, for what
impresses one most is the absence of trivial work or meaningless drawings.
[Illustration: FIG. 223. Another portion of the left wall decoration of
the _Galerie des Fresques_, showing the preliminary engraving (above), and
the painting (below) of the great procession of mammoths, superposed upon
drawings of the bison, reindeer, and horse. This section is about fourteen
feet in length. After Breuil.]
It seems as if at every stage in their artistic development these people
were intensely serious about their work, each drawing being executed with
the utmost possible care, according to the degree of artistic development
and appreciation.
In the great gallery of frescos we find not less than eighty figures, in
some cases partly covered by a fine sheen of stalagmitic limestone; these
include 49 bison, 4 reindeer, 4 horses, and 15 mammoths. The bison
polychromes have suffered somewhat in color and are far less brilliant
than those at Altamira. In the polychromes the color is applied either in
long lines of red or black surrounding the contours of the animal or in
flat tints placed side by side, or again the two colors are mingled and
give intermediate tints with striking effect. On one of the finest of
these bison is the underlying drawing of a reindeer, a wild boar, and the
superposition of an excellent engraving of a mammoth, which is represented
on an altogether different scale, so that it falls well within the body
lines of the bison (Fig. 224). In each of these mammoths the grotesque but
truthful contour is preserved in the drapery of hair which almost
completely envelops the limbs; the emphasizing of the sudden depression of
the dorsal line behind the head is everywhere the same and undoubtedly
conforms very closely to nature.
[Illustration: FIG. 224. Detail of the engraving of the central group of
figures on the left wall decoration of the _Galerie des Fresques_ (see
Fig. 223), showing the etching of a mammoth superposed upon that of a
bison, superposed in turn upon those of a reindeer and of a wild boar.
These figures are on different scales, and in the present faded condition
of the frescoes are difficult to detect. After Breuil.]
[Illustration: FIG. 225. Entrance to the cavern of Altamira, showing the
proximity of the roof of the cavern to the present surface of the earth.
Photograph by N. C. Nelson.]
After passing the _Galerie des Fresques_ we penetrate to the final recess
called the _Diverticule final_, through excessively narrow tubular
openings barely admitting the body, and we are again overcome with the
mystery as to what impulse carried this art into the dark, deep portions
of the caverns. If it were due to a feeling partly religious which,
regarded the caverns with special awe, why do we find equally skilful and
conscientious work on all the mobile utensils of daily life and of the
chase, apart from the caverns? The superposition of one drawing upon
another, which is especially characteristic of this cavern, does not seem
to strengthen the religious interpretation.
It would appear that the love of art for art's sake, akin in a very
rudimentary form to that which inspired the early Greeks, together with
the fine spaces which these caverns alone afforded for larger
representations, may be an alternative explanation. There is no evidence
that numbers of people entered these caverns. If this had been the case
there would be many more examples of inartistic work upon the walls. It is
possible that the Crô-Magnon artists constituted a recognized class
especially gifted by nature, quite distinct from the magician class or the
artisan class. The dark recesses of the caverns opening back of the
grottos may have been held in awe as mysterious abodes. In line with this
theory is the suggestion that the artists may have been invited into the
caverns by the priests or medicine-men to decorate the walls with all the
animals of the chase.
[Illustration: FIG. 226. Plan showing the grouping of bison, horses, red
deer, and wild boar, in the polychrome paintings on the ceiling of
Altamira. After Breuil.]
The polychromes of the ceiling of Altamira in northern Spain, which rank
in the crude art of Palæolithic times much as the ceiling of the Sistine
Chapel does in modern art, are somewhat more conventional in technique
than those of Font-de-Gaume, but they are manifestly the work of the same
school, and prove that the technique of art spread like that of engraving,
of sculpture, and of the preparation of flint and bone implements all over
southwestern Europe. One could not have more striking proof of the unity
of race, of a community of life, and of an interchange of ideas among
these nomadic people than the close resemblance which is observed in the
art of Altamira, Spain, and that of Font-de-Gaume, 290 miles distant, in
Dordogne.
[Illustration: FIG. 227. The ceiling of Altamira, showing the round
projecting bosses of limestone on which the recumbent figures of the bison
are painted. After Lassalle.]
[Illustration: FIG. 228. Female bison lying down with the limbs drawn
beneath the body, so that only the horns and tail project beyond the
convex surface of the limestone boss on the ceiling of Altamira. After
Breuil.]
Very picturesque is the account of the discovery of this wonderful
ceiling, made not by the Spanish archæologist Sautuola himself, but by his
little daughter, who, while he was searching for flints on the floor of
the cavern, was the first to perceive the paintings on the ceiling and to
insist upon his raising his lamp aloft. This was in 1879, long before the
discovery of parietal art in France. The ceiling is broad and low, within
easy reach of the hand, and the oval bosses of limestone (Fig. 227), from
4 to 5 feet in length and from 3 to 4 in width, led to the development
here of one of the most striking characteristics of all Palæolithic art,
namely, the artist's adaptation of the subject to his medium and to the
character of the surface upon which he was working. It seems to show a
high order of creative genius that each of these projecting bosses was
chosen for the representation of a bison lying down, with the limbs drawn
up in different positions beneath the body (Fig. 228) and very carefully
designed, and with the tail or the horns alone projecting beyond the
convex surface to the surrounding plane surface. This is the only instance
known where the bison are represented as lying down, in most lifelike
attitudes, showing the soles of the hoof, observed with the greatest care
and represented by a few strong and significant lines. Thus while the
Altamira coloring inclines to conventionality, the pose of these animals
indicates the greatest freedom of style and mastery of perspective
anywhere observed. In this wonderful group there is also a bison
bellowing, with his back arched and his limbs drawn under him as if to
expel the air. One striking feature in all these paintings is the vivid
representation of the eye, which in every case is given a fierce and
defiant character, so distinctive of the bison bull when enraged. We also
observe a wild boar in a running attitude and several spirited
representations of the horse and of the female deer. The cavern of
Altamira, besides this _chef-d'œuvre_, contains work of a very advanced
character, as indicated in the imposing engraving of the royal stag (Fig.
229), which is altogether the finest representation of this animal which
has thus far been discovered in any cavern.
[Illustration: FIG. 229. The royal stag (_Cervus elaphus_) engraved on the
ceiling of the cavern of Altamira. About twenty-six inches in length.
After Breuil. One-eighth actual size.]
Altamira, like Font-de-Gaume, presents many phases of the development of
art in Magdalenian times. There is a Solutrean layer in the foyer of this
great cavern, but Breuil is not inclined to attribute any of the art to
this period. The first entrance of Altamira by the Crô-Magnon artists is
dated by the discovery of engravings on bone of the female red deer, which
are identical with those on the walls and which belong to very ancient
Magdalenian times, the period at which the caverns of Castillo and La
Pasiega were also entered.(28)
SCULPTURE
Animal sculpture in the round, which is indicated by the few statuettes
found with the burial at Brünn, Moravia, and by the ivory mammoth
statuette found at Předmost, continued into early Magdalenian times and
certainly constitutes one of the most distinctive features of the art of
that period, because in the later Magdalenian it took a different trend in
the direction of decorative sculpture. Only two fine examples of early
Magdalenian animal sculpture have been found, but these are of such a
remarkable character as to indicate that modelling in the round was widely
pursued at this time. These are the bisons discovered in 1912 in the
cavern of Tuc d'Audoubert near Montesquieu, in the Pyrenees, and the fine
bas-reliefs of horses at the shelter of Cap-Blanc, on the Beune, in
Dordogne.
[Illustration: FIG. 230. Statuette of a mammoth in reindeer horn from the
Abri de Plantade at Bruniquel. After Piette. "A statuette presenting the
general form of the mammoth with some fantastic features. It formed part
of a pendant of which the shank, terminating with a perforation, has been
broken. The tusks were laid against this shank and strengthened it. The
incisions bordered by notches suggest the nostrils of some imaginary
monster. The trunk seems to grow out of the neck, not the head. The tail
having been broken off in Palæolithic times, the owner made a hole in the
back and inserted one there. The material was too thin to admit of
representing the proper thickness of the animal. It was made to be viewed
from the side."]
[Illustration: FIG. 231. Entrance to the cavern of Tuc d'Audoubert, near
Montesquieu-Avantès in the Pyrenees. This is one of the rare instances in
which the stream that formed the cavern is still flowing from the
entrance. Photograph by N. C. Nelson.]
[Illustration: FIG. 232. Head of a reindeer deeply incised or engraved in
the limestone wall of the cavern of Tuc d'Audoubert. After Bégouen.]
In company with Professor Cartailhac the writer had the good fortune to
enter the cavern of Tuc d'Audoubert a few days after its discovery by the
Comte de Bégouen and his sons; it is still in the making, for out from the
entrance flows a stream of water large enough to float a small boat, by
which the first of a series of superbly crystallized galleries is reached.
After passing through a labyrinth of passageways and chambers a favorable
surface was found where the Bégouen party showed us a whole wall covered
with low-engraving reliefs, very simply done, fine in execution, with sure
and firm outlines of the bison, the favorite subject as in all other
caverns; horses fairly well executed and of the same steppe type as those
in the near-by cavern of Niaux; one superbly engraved contour of the
reindeer, with its long, curved horns; the head of a stag with its horns
still in the velvet; and a mammoth. All this work is engraved; there are
no drawn outlines, but here and there are splashes of red and black color.
Shortly afterward a great discovery was made in this cavern; it is
described as follows by the Comte de Bégouen:[BA] "To-day I am happy to
give you excellent news from the cavern Tuc d'Audoubert. As you were the
first to visit this cavern, you will also be the first to learn that in
an upper gallery, very difficult of access, at the summit of a very narrow
ascending passage, and after having been obliged to break a number of
stalactites which completely closed the entrance, my son and myself have
found two superb statuettes in clay, about 60 cm. in length, absolutely
unbroken, and representing bison. Cartailhac and Breuil, who have come to
see them, were filled with enthusiasm. The ground of these chambers was
covered with imprints of the claws of the bear, skeletons of which were
buried here and there. The Magdalenians have passed through this ossuary
and have drawn out all the canine teeth to make ornaments of them. Their
steps left their fine impressions on the humid and soft clay, and we still
see the outlines of several bare human feet. They had also lost several
flakes of flint and the tooth of an ox pierced at the neck; we have
collected them, and it seems as if they had only dropped yesterday; the
Magdalenians also left an incomplete model of a bison and some lumps of
kneaded clay which still carry the impression of their fingers. We produce
the proof that in this period all branches of art were cultivated." This
model of the male and female bison in clay has been described by
Cartailhac as of perfect workmanship and of ideal art.
[Illustration: FIG. 233. Two bison, male and female, modelled in clay,
discovered in the cavern of Tuc d'Audoubert. The length of each of these
models is about two feet. After Bégouen.]
[Illustration: FIG. 234. One of a series of horses of the high-bred Celtic
type, sculptured in high relief on the wall of the cliff shelter known as
Cap-Blanc. The actual length of each of these sculptures is about seven
feet. After Lalanne and Breuil.]
The procession of six horses cut in limestone under the sheltering cliff
of Cap-Blanc is by far the most imposing work of Magdalenian art that has
been discovered. The sculptures are in high relief and of large size and
are in excellent proportion; they appear to represent the high-bred type
of desert or Celtic horse, related to the Arabian, so far as we can judge
from the long, straight face, the slender nose, the small nostrils, and
the massive angle of the lower jaw; the ears are rather long and pointed,
and the tail is represented as thin and without hair; they were found
partly buried by layers containing implements of middle Magdalenian
industry, and they are therefore assigned to an early Magdalenian date in
which animal sculpture in the round reached its climax.
[Illustration: FIG. 235. Head of a horse sculptured on a reindeer antler,
from the Magdalenian layer of Mas d'Azil on the right bank of the Arize.
After Piette. Actual size.]
[Illustration: FIG. 236. Statuette carved on a fragment of mammoth tusk,
representing a horse of Celtic type with mane erect, from the grotto of
Les Espelugues, Lourdes. After Piette. About one and one-third actual
size.]
From the early to the middle Magdalenian period animal sculpture in bone,
horn, and ivory was followed as decorative art in a bold and highly
naturalistic manner. Adaptation of the animal figure to the surface and to
the material employed is nowhere shown in a more remarkable way than in
the bâtons, the dart-throwers, and the poniards. Of all the work of the
Upper Palæolithic, these decorative heads and bodies are, perhaps, the
most highly artistic creations in the modern sense. The famous horse found
in the late Magdalenian levels of Mas d'Azil (Fig. 235) and the small
horses from the grotto of Espelugues, of the middle Magdalenian, are full
of movement and life and show such certainty and breadth of treatment that
they must be regarded as the masterpieces of Upper Palæolithic glyptic
art. The ibex carved on the dart-thrower from the grotto of Mas d'Azil
(Fig. 178) indicates observation and a striking power of expression; while
all the details are noted, the treatment is very broad.
[Illustration: FIG. 237. Head of a woman with head-dress sculptured in
ivory, from the Magdalenian levels of Brassempouy. After Piette. One and
one-fifth actual size.]
The continuation of animal sculpture in the round is seen in the
well-known horse statuette from the grotto of Lourdes; the partly
decorative striping is a step in the direction of conventional treatment.
The sculptured reindeer discovered by Bégouen in the grotto of Enlène is
treated in a somewhat similar style.
Small human figurines again appear in the form of statuettes in bone or
ivory, representing the renaissance of the spirit of human sculpture. Some
of this work is apparently in search of beauty and with altogether
different motives from the repellent feminine statuettes of middle and
late Aurignacian times, for the subjects are slender and the limbs are
modelled with relative skill. As in the earlier works, there is a partial
failure to portray the features, which is in striking contrast to the
lifelike treatment of animal heads. Very few examples of this work have
been found, and most of them have been broken. To this period belong the
Venus statuette of Laugerie Basse and the head of a girl carved in ivory
found at Brassempouy (Fig. 237) with the features fairly suggested and an
elaborate head-dress.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION OF THE MAGDALENIAN CULTURE
In Magdalenian times the Crô-Magnon race undoubtedly reached its highest
development and its widest geographic distribution, but it would be a
mistake to infer that the boundaries of the Magdalenian culture also mark
the extreme migration points of this nomadic people, because the
industries and inventions may well have spread far beyond the areas
actually inhabited by the race itself.
Absence of Magdalenian influence around the northerly coasts of the
Mediterranean is certainly one of the most surprising facts. Breuil has
suggested that Italy remained in an Aurignacian stage of development
throughout Magdalenian times and indicates that there is much evidence
that Magdalenian culture never penetrated into this peninsula, for in
Italy the Aurignacian industrial stage is succeeded by traces of the
Azilian. This geographic gap, however, may be filled at any time by a
fresh discovery. In Spain, also, the Magdalenian culture is known only in
the Cantabrian Mountains, but never farther south, one of the earliest
sites found in this region being the grotto of Peña la Miel, visited by
Lartet in 1865, and one of the most famous the cavern of Altamira,
discovered by Sautuola in 1875; to the northeast is the station of
Banyolas. So far the eastern provinces of Spain have not yielded any
implements of engraved or sculptured bone.
[Illustration: FIG. 238. Geographic distribution of the principal
Magdalenian industrial stations in western Europe.]
In contrast to this failure to reach southward, the Magdalenian culture is
widely extended through France, Belgium, England, Germany, Switzerland,
Austria, and as far east as Russia. It would appear either that the men of
Magdalenian times wandered far and wide or that there was an extensive
system of barter, because the discovery of shells brought for personal
adornment from the Mediterranean seashores to various Magdalenian sites in
France and in central Europe seems to indicate a wide-spread intercourse
among these nomadic hunters and a system of trade reaching from the coasts
of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic to the valley of the Neckar in
Germany and along the Danube in Lower Austria. Another proof of this
intercourse is the wide distribution not only of similar forms of
implements but of very similar decorations; as an instance, Breuil notes
the likeness of schematic engravings on reindeer horn in the two
primitive Magdalenian layers of Placard, Charente, to those found in the
Polish cavern of Mas̆zycka, near Ojcow, and to others in the corresponding
layers of Castillo, near Santander, of Solutré on the Saône, and of
various sites in Dordogne. A very distinctive geometric decoration on bone
is that of broken zigzag lines with little intercalated transverse lines,
which we notice at Altamira, in northern Spain, and which also occurs here
and there in Dordogne and in Charente and extends to the grottos of
d'Arlay in the Jura. Another style of ornament, with deep pectinate and
punctuate lines, found in the very ancient Magdalenian of Placard, also
occurs in the most ancient layers of Kesslerloch, Switzerland. Spiral
ornaments like those on the bone weapons of Dordogne, of Arudy, and of
Lourdes are found at Hornos de la Peña, in the Cantabrian Mountains. The
spread of analogous decoration is still more striking when we find it
occurring in the details of sculpture or in a certain type of dart-thrower
(_propulseur_), which extended from the Pyrenees eastward to the Lake of
Constance. Inventions like that of the harpoon and fashions like those of
the decorative _motifs_ were carried from point to point.
This influence does not lead to identity. Some of the phases of art and of
decoration are confined to certain localities; for example, the engravings
of deer on the bone shoulder-blades in the caverns near Santander, Spain,
are not duplicated in France; also there are numerous local styles
witnessed in the forms and decorations of the javelin, the lance, and the
harpoon; these variations, however, do not conceal the element of
community of culture and of similar fluctuations of industry and art
between widely distant stations.
Many Magdalenian stations were crowded around the sheltered cliffs of
Dordogne (Fig. 238). Besides these, we observe the Magdalenian sites of
Champs, Ressaulier, and the grotto of Combo-Negro in Corrèze; south of
Dordogne and Corrèze are other stations along the Garonne and the Adour.
Some of the finest examples of Magdalenian art have come from Bruniquel,
on the Aveyron, near the boundary between Tarn-et-Garonne and Tarn, where
no less than four important sites have been excavated.
[Illustration: FIG. 239. Necklace of marine shells, from the cave of
Crô-Magnon, mostly periwinkles, some related to species now living in the
North Sea, _Purpura_, _Turitella_, and _Fusus_. After E. Lartet. The
Crô-Magnon grotto dwellers used shells belonging to existing species,
while in the deposits at La Madeleine and Laugerie Basse fossil shells are
found. The use of seashore shells as ornaments in various parts of the
interior of Europe indicates that they were brought long distances in
trade. The remains of such ornaments were found with the skeleton of
Aurignacian age from Paviland, Wales. Necklaces were also made of small
plates of ivory and the perforated teeth of the cave-bear. One-third
actual size.]
The culture map of France in Magdalenian times is covered from north to
south with these ancient camp sites, either clustered along the river
borders, where erosion has created shelters, or in the great outcrops of
limestone along the northern slopes of the Pyrenees, where the exposure of
the limestone has led to the formation of grottos and caverns, or on the
plateaus where game abounded or flint could be found for the rapidly
declining flint industry. Near the Gulf of Lyons are the stations of Bise,
Tournal, Narbonne, and Crouzade; extending westward toward the headwaters
of the Ariège are La Vache, Massat, and the great tunnel station of Mas
d'Azil, formed by the River Arize; here the Magdalenian levels discovered
by Piette have yielded some of the most notable Magdalenian works of
art, including animal statuettes, bas-reliefs, and engravings with incised
contours.
Farther west, on the headwaters of the Garonne, is Gourdan, where Piette
began his remarkable excavations in 1871 and discovered two of the ancient
Magdalenian phases of sculpture; then comes the more westerly group of
Aurensan, Lorthet, and Lourdes, the latter a grotto which has yielded one
of the finest examples of the horse sculptured in ivory, and which has
since become famous as the site of a miracle and of modern pilgrimage.
Between the Garonne and the Bay of Biscay lie the stations of Duruthy and
the Grotte du Pape of Brassempouy, the latter occupied in Magdalenian
times, but best known as a centre of late Aurignacian sculpture of
statuettes.
To the northeast, in the very heart of the mountainous region of Auvergne,
is the station of Neschers, where a flow of lava from Mount Tartaret
descended over the slopes of Mont-Doré and covered a Mousterian industrial
deposit with its mammoth fauna and then, after a lapse of time, became the
site of a Magdalenian industrial camp, so that Boule has been able to
determine the geologic age of the most recent volcanic eruptions in
France, those of the Monts d'Auvergne, as having occurred between the
periods of Mousterian and Magdalenian industry.
In view of the frequent occurrence of Aurignacian and Solutrean camps as
well as of Neolithic stations in southeastern France, we are surprised at
the extreme rarity there of Magdalenian flint implements. However, Capitan
has recognized a Magdalenian station at Solutré, near the headwaters of
the Saône, and not far from this site is the station of Goulaine, which
has yielded an enormous flint scraper or anvil, the largest Upper
Palæolithic implement ever found; it is carefully chipped around the
entire curved edge and weighs over 4-1/4 pounds. To the north of the
Dordogne is the celebrated grotto of Placard, in Charente, where the dawn
of the Magdalenian industry has been discovered, and again directly north
of this is the grotto of Chaffaud, at Savigné, where the first engraved
bone of the 'Reindeer Age' was discovered in 1834; not far from this is
the shelter of Garenne, near St. Marcel (Indre), which has afforded a
fine figure of a galloping reindeer.
[Illustration: FIG. 240. Geographic distribution of the Magdalenian and
other Palæolithic stations on the upper waters of the Rhine and of the
Danube. The chief Magdalenian stations are: _Andernach_, _Bockstein_,
_Buchenloch_, _Gansersfelsen_, _Höhlefels bei Hütten_, _Höhlefels bei
Schelklingen_, _Hohlestein_, _Kartstein_, _Kastlhänghöhle_, _Kesslerloch_,
_Martinshöhle_, _Munzingen_, _Niedernau_, _Oberlarg_, _Ofnet_,
_Propstfels_, _Schmiechenfels_, _Schussenquelle_, _Schweizersbild_,
_Sirgenstein_, _Strassberg_, _Wildhaus_, _Wildscheuer_, and
_Winterlingen_. After R. R. Schmidt, modified and redrawn.]
These geographic and artistic records are of intense interest as carrying
the Périgord or Dordogne culture northward. Somewhat to the east, on the
headwaters of the Cure, a tributary of the Yonne, there is an important
group including over sixty open shelters formed in the Jurassic limestone,
in which characteristic Magdalenian bone implements have been found. Of
these the most famous are the Grotte des Fées, and the Grotte du
Trilobite, both of which were first entered by the Neanderthals in
Mousterian times and were again sought by the Crô-Magnons in Magdalenian
times. Passing still farther north, the Crô-Magnons visited the borders of
the Somme and sought the historic flint station of St. Acheul, which had
been frequented by races of men for thousands of years previous, back to
Pre-Chellean times.
To the northeast are the stations of Belgium, chiefly made known through
the labors of Dupont, distributed along the valleys of the Lesse and of
the Meuse and yielding characteristic Magdalenian flints as well as a
number of engravings on bone. We may be sure that this region was under
Crô-Magnon rule and that their control extended over into Britain, where,
it will be recalled, a Crô-Magnon skeleton was found at Paviland, in
western Wales. Here, again, in Magdalenian times the Crô-Magnon race was
probably wide-spread over southern Britain. At Bacon's Hole, near Swansea,
Wales, there is a wall decoration consisting of ten red bands, which,
according to Breuil and Sollas, may possibly be of Palæolithic age. More
definite is the Magdalenian industry observed at the Cresswell Crags, in
Derbyshire; while near Torquay, Devonshire, is the famous station of
Kent's Hole, discovered in 1824, in which a bone needle has been found and
several harpoons with double rows of barbs belonging to the late
Magdalenian industry.
[Illustration: FIG. 241. Reindeer engraved around a piece of reindeer
antler, from Kesslerloch, Switzerland. This is a unique instance of the
portrayal of landscape in Palæolithic art. After Heim. Slightly more than
three-quarters actual size.]
In Germany, whereas only three Solutrean stations have been
discovered,(29) there are no less than fourteen Magdalenian stations to
attest the wide spread of that culture. Thus the favorite grotto of
Sirgenstein, near the centre of the Magdalenian stations on the upper
waters of the Danube, although abandoned in Solutrean times, was again
entered by man during the early Magdalenian culture stage. Coincident with
the return of man to this great grotto was the arrival of the banded
lemming (_Myodes torquatus_), the herald of the cold tundra wave of life
in the far north. At the very same time man with the banded lemming
arrived at Schweizersbild, near the Lake of Constance; at a slightly
earlier period, with the dawn of Magdalenian culture, man entered the
sister station of Kesslerloch. It certainly appears that a cold moist
climate accompanying the Bühl advance influenced all the Crô-Magnon
peoples of this region just north of the Alpine glaciers and compelled
them to seek the grottos and shelters. There are, however, some open
stations in this general region, for example, at Schussenried,
Württemberg; the Magdalenian culture layer is not found in a grotto, but
lies under a deposit of peat mingled with the remains of the reindeer,
horse, brown bear, and wolf. Again, among the best-known sites along the
middle Rhine is the open-air station of Andernach. Demonstrating the
eastward distribution of the art of engraving on ivory and bone is the
presence in Andernach and in the grotto of Wildscheuer, near Steeten, on
the Lahn, of engravings of this character. Thus far these are the only
German stations in which such engravings have been found.
Of especial interest also is the open Magdalenian 'loess' station of
Munzingen, on the upper Rhine, because it proves that the highest layers
of the 'upper loess,' corresponding with the dry or steppe period of
climate, were contemporaneous with the advanced or late Magdalenian
industry, also because this final 'upper loess' stage about corresponds
with the period when the last of the arctic tundra mammals began to
abandon central Europe. It was at this critical geologic time that the
late Magdalenian culture began to draw to a close. Kesslerloch,
Switzerland, has yielded a considerable number of engravings on bone,
including one of the finest examples of a browsing reindeer (Fig. 241),
and Schweizersbild also has yielded a considerable number of rather crude
engravings.
Frequented in Magdalenian times was that part of the Swabian Jura lying
between the headwaters of the Neckar and of the Danube; along the course
of the Danube, from Propstfels, near Beuron, in the southwest, to Ofnet,
in the northeast, extend the other stations of Höhlefels bei Hütten,
Schmiechenfels, and Bocksteinhöhle.
West of the Danube the industry was carried into the present region of
Bavaria, as indicated by the recent discovery of Kastlhäng.(30) Here,
beginning with the early Magdalenian (_Gourdanien inférieur_ of the French
school) and extending to the middle or high Magdalenian (_Gourdanien
supérieur_), we find a complete series of Magdalenian stations; the middle
Magdalenian layer is of exactly the same type as that found in the Abri
Mège of Dordogne and in the lower levels of the Grotte de la Mairie; the
same culture stage is again observed in southern Germany in the stations
of Schussenquelle and of Höhlefels, and it extends eastward into Austria
in the station of Gudenushöhle as well as into several Moravian stations,
for example, that of Kostelík.
These facts are of extraordinary interest, for they show that the
civilization, such as it was, of the Upper Palæolithic was very widely
extended. This marks an important social characteristic, namely, the
readiness and willingness to take advantage of every step in human
progress, wherever it may have originated. At this point, therefore, it is
interesting to compare the Magdalenian industry of Germany with that of
France.(31) Germany shows the same technical and stylistic tendencies and
the same evolutionary direction as France. The mammalian life was, of
course, the same in both countries, for in each region the giant types of
mammals still survived, and the banded lemming of the arctic appears in
the sheltered valleys of the Dordogne as well as in Belgium and in
Germany. The vicissitudes of climate were undoubtedly the same; we observe
the alternation of cold moist climate in the early Magdalenian along the
upper Danube as well as in the early Magdalenian of the type station of La
Madeleine, Dordogne. Again, we observe the transition into the dry cold
climate in the steppe character of the fauna both along the upper Rhine,
at Munzingen, and also beneath the shelter station of La Madeleine, as
recorded by Peyrony.
More vital still for this community of industrial culture was the
community of race, for at Obercassel we find the same Crô-Magnon type as
that discovered beneath the sheltering cliffs of Dordogne. It appears
probable that the inventions of the central region of Dordogne travelled
eastward when we note the fact that none of the prototypes of early forms
of the harpoon which were common in southern France occur in any of the
stations of central Europe, but the single-rowed harpoon is characteristic
of the middle Magdalenian all over Germany. Other primitive Magdalenian
bone implements, such as the bone spear point with the cleft base, the
bâtons, and the needles, are also of rare occurrence in the German
stations. In late Magdalenian times, however, a complete community of
culture is established, for the industry of both countries in flint and
bone appears to be very similar: flint microliths appear in increasing
number and variety; beside the small flint flakes with blunted backs,
numerous feather-shaped flakes of Pre-Tardenoisian type are found, as well
as the types of graving flints. Some specialties of French Magdalenian
culture did not find their way into Germany; for example, the graver of
the 'parrot-beak' type has been found in France but has not been traced
far eastward. In both countries, however, are found upper Magdalenian
chisels of reindeer horn and perfected bone needles, bâtons, and harpoons
with double rows of barbs. On the other hand, works of art and decorative
designs in horn and bone are almost entirely wanting in German localities,
with the exception of the stations of Andernach and Wildscheuer previously
mentioned. In late Magdalenian times, both in Germany and France, we find
the Eurasiatic forest fauna becoming more abundant.
[Illustration: FIG. 242. Entrance to the grotto of Kesslerloch, near Lake
Constance. Photograph by N. C. Nelson.]
[Illustration: FIG. 243. The famous shelter station of Schweizersbild,
under a protecting cliff of limestone, near Lake Constance, Switzerland.
On the right stands Dr. Jakob Nüesch, who has devoted three years to the
excavation and study of this site. Photograph by N. C. Nelson.]
The two famous Swiss stations of Kesslerloch and Schweizersbild, near
Lake Constance, appear throughout Magdalenian times to have been in very
close touch with the cultural advances of Dordogne. Kesslerloch(32) has
yielded 12,000 flints of small dimensions, resembling in their succession
those of the type station of La Madeleine; also needles, single and double
harpoons, dart-throwers, bâtons, as well as the fine engravings mentioned
above; bone sculpture is represented here in the unique head of a musk-ox
(_Ovibos moschatus_), in carvings of the reindeer and of other animals on
the batons and weapons of the chase. Kesslerloch lies on the edge of a
moderately wide valley, traversed by a brook; in this sheltered,
well-watered, hilly region, the trees flourished and harbored the forest
animals, while the glaciers, retreating and leaving damp and stony areas,
were closely followed by the tundra fauna; the woolly rhinoceros and
mammoth persisted here longer than in other parts of Europe; the horse of
Kesslerloch is said to show resemblances to the Przewalski horse of the
desert of Gobi, in central Asia, and is consequently referred to the
steppe type. The development of the flints takes place step by step with
that of the sister cavern of Schweizersbild, and in early Magdalenian
times these flints are found associated with the arrival of the great
migration of the arctic tundra rodents, the banded lemmings (_Myodes
torquatus_). A hearth with ashes and coals and many charred bones of old
and young mammals, including the woolly rhinoceros, has been found here;
the animal life altogether includes twenty-five species of mammals, among
them the woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, reindeer, and lion.
Less than four miles distant from Kesslerloch, in a small valley about two
miles north of Schaffhausen, is the other famous Swiss station of
Schweizersbild. The Crô-Magnons were attracted to this spot by the
protecting cliff of isolated limestone rock rising sheer from the
meadow-land, at the base of which is a shelter facing southwest, with an
entrance of about 30 feet in height, commanding a wide view of the distant
valley. In the accumulations at the base of this shelter we find a
complete prehistory of the human, industrial, faunal, and climatic changes
of this region of Switzerland from early Magdalenian into Neolithic times.
It was not until the true early Magdalenian, after both the Aurignacian
and Solutrean stages had closed, that man first found his way here during
the _Bühl_ advance, the period of the deposition of the _Upper Rodent
Layer_ with its cold arctic and steppe fauna;(33) but from this time the
grotto was occupied at intervals until full Neolithic times. The beginning
of these industrial deposits is estimated by Nüesch as having occurred
between 24,000 and 29,000 years ago, but we have adopted a somewhat lower
and more conservative estimate. In descending order the various layers of
this shelter, as studied by Nüesch, are as follows:
SECTION OF THE SCHWEIZERSBILD DEPOSITS
_Neolithic_
6. Layer of humous earth, between 15 and 19 inches in thickness,
containing Neolithic implements.
5. Gray culture layer, about 15 inches in thickness, including many
fire-hearths, ornaments of shell, polished Neolithic flints, and
unglazed pottery. The true forest fauna includes the brown bear,
badger, marten, wolf, fox, beaver, hare, squirrel, short-horned wild
ox (_Bos taurus brachyceros_), and reindeer, also the domesticated
goat and sheep.
_Upper Palæolithic_
4. Thin layer of forest-living rodents, principally squirrels. Split
bones and worked flints; no carvings in bone or horn; industry of late
Magdalenian or close of _Magdalenian_ Upper Palæolithic age; evidences
that climate was changing, steppe conditions passing away, and forests
becoming more dominant; only a few steppe species; the forest species
include the reindeer, hare, pika, squirrel, ermine, and marten.
3. Yellow culture layer, steppe period, rich in fire-hearths and
yielding 14,000 flints of _middle_ [? and late] _Magdalenian_ age;
engravings on reindeer antlers, ornaments of shells and teeth. Mixed
fauna with steppe and forest types predominant; of the few tundra
forms, reindeer very abundant and also arctic fox, but banded lemming
and other tundra types entirely lacking; steppe and desert fauna
includes the kiang, Persian maral deer, Pallas's cat (_Felis manul_),
steppe horse, and steppe suslik; of alpine type, the ibex; numerous
forest species, pine marten, beaver, squirrel, red deer, roe-deer, and
wild boar.
2. Arctic tundra rodent layer, 20 inches in thickness; period of the
_Bühl_ Postglacial advance; the banded lemming (_Myodes torquatus_)
most abundant, mingled with _early Magdalenian_ flint and bone
implements; one fire-hearth; abundant tundra fauna, including all
tundra types except the Obi lemming, and the musk-ox (_Ovibos
moschatus_) which is found in Kesslerloch; indications of a very cold,
moist climate; the banded lemming, arctic fox, arctic hare, reindeer,
wolverene, ermine, also such forest forms as the wolf, fox, bear,
weasel, and a number of northern birds.
1. Gravel bed and old river deposit, recognized by Boule as belonging
to the moraines of the fourth glaciation.
This wonderful deposit of human artifacts and animal remains gives us a
complete registration of the changes of climate in this region
accompanying the changes of culture and the development of the Magdalenian
race.
Turning our survey to the course of the Danube, we note that several
Magdalenian stations extend into the provinces of Lower Austria, chief
among them being both the open 'loess' station of Aggsbach, and that of
Gobelsburg; there is also the Hundssteig near Krems, better known as the
station of Krems, and the cavern known as the Gudenushöhle; in the latter
station the characteristic bâtons, javelins, and bone needles have been
found.[BB]
[Illustration: FIG. 244. The open loess station of Aggsbach, on the
Danube, near Krems. After Obermaier.]
The cavern district of Moravia attracted a relatively large population,
and among the numerous stations are the grottos of Kr̆íz̆, Žitný,
Kostelík, Bycis̆kala, Schoschuwka, Balcarovaskala, Kůlna, and Lautsch.
Near the Russian border bone implements like those of Gudenushöhle on the
Danube have been found at the station of Kůlna, and the industrial
stratification of Šipka is very clear. Not far from Cracow, across the
Russian border, the caverns in the region of Ojcow were entered by men
carrying the Magdalenian culture. Another site in Russia is the grotto of
Mas̆zycka, and characteristic Magdalenian harpoons, needles, and bâtons de
commandement with other implements have also been found to the eastward,
in the neighborhood of Kiev, in the Ukraine.
DECLINE OF THE MAGDALENIAN CULTURE
The highest point touched by the Crô-Magnon race in the middle or high
Magdalenian appears to correspond broadly with the cold arid period of
climate in the interval between the _Bühl_ and _Gschnitz_ advances in the
Alpine region, during which the steppe mammals spread widely over
southwestern Europe. The saiga antelope, for example, a highly
characteristic steppe type, is represented in one of the most skilful bone
carvings found in the late Magdalenian layers of Mas d'Azil; also the
steppe type of horse is frequently represented in the most advanced
engravings of late Magdalenian times. How far this cold, relatively dry
climate influenced the artistic and creative energy of the Crô-Magnons is
largely a matter of conjecture. The entirely independent records of La
Madeleine, of Schweizersbild, and of Kesslerloch concur in associating the
highest stage of Magdalenian history of art with the predominance of the
steppe fauna and evidences of a cold dry climate. That the mammoth still
abounded is seen in the mammoth engravings which are superposed on those
of the bison in Font-de-Gaume.
[Illustration: FIG. 245. Front and side views of a saiga antelope carved
upon a bone dart-thrower from the Magdalenian deposits of Mas d'Azil.
After Piette.]
The succeeding life period is that of the retreat of the tundra and
steppe mammals and of the increasing rarity of the reindeer and of the
mammoth in southwestern Europe; it corresponds broadly with the returning
cold and moist climate of the second Postglacial advance known in the Alps
as the _Gschnitz_ stage. With the spread of the forests and the retreat to
the north of the reindeer, the principal source both of the supply of food
and clothing and of all the bone implements of industry and of the chase,
a new set of life conditions may have gradually become established. If it
is true, as most students of geographical conditions and of the climate
maintain, that Europe at the same time became more densely forested, the
chase may have become more difficult, and the Crô-Magnons may have begun
to depend more and more upon the life of the streams and the art of
fishing. It is generally agreed that the harpoons were chiefly used for
fishing and that many of the microlithic flints, which now begin to appear
more abundantly, may have been attached to a shaft for the same purpose.
We know that similar microliths were used as arrow points in predynastic
Egypt.
Breuil(35) observes very significant industrial changes in closing
Magdalenian times: first, the beginning of small geometric forms of flints
suggesting the Tardenoisian types; second, the occasional use of stag horn
in place of reindeer horn; third, a modification in the form of bone
implements toward the patterns of Azilian times; fourth, the rapid
decline--one may almost say sudden disappearance--of the artistic spirit.
Schematic and conventional designs begin to take the place of the free
realistic art of the middle Magdalenian.
Thus the decline of the Crô-Magnons as a powerful race may have been due
partly to environmental causes and the abandonment of their vigorous
nomadic mode of life, or it may be that they had reached the end of a long
cycle of psychic development, which we have traced from the beginning of
Aurignacian times. We know as a parallel that in the history of many
civilized races a period of great artistic and industrial development may
be followed by a period of stagnation and decline without any apparent
environmental causes.
CRÔ-MAGNON DESCENDANTS IN MODERN EUROPE
We might attribute this great change, which affected all of western
Europe, to the extinction of the Crô-Magnon race were it not for the
existing evidence that the race survived throughout the
Azilian-Tardenoisian or close of the Upper Palæolithic. On the close of
the Palæolithic the race broke up throughout western Europe into many
colonies, which can perhaps be traced into Neolithic and even into recent
times. The anatomical evidence for this survival theory chiefly consists
of the highly characteristic form of the head.
In Europe a very broad face and a long, narrow cranium is such an
infrequent combination that anthropologists maintain that it affords a
means of identifying the descendants of the prehistoric Crô-Magnon race
wherever they persist to-day. Since Dordogne was the geographic centre of
the race in Upper Palæolithic times, is it merely a coincidence that
Dordogne is still the centre of a similar type? Ripley(36) has given us a
valuable résumé of our present knowledge of this subject. The most
significant trait of the long-headed people of Dordogne is that in many
cases the face is almost as broad as in the normal Alpine round-headed
type; in other words, it is strongly disharmonic; in profile the back part
of the head rises and in front view the head is narrowed at the top; the
skull is very low-vaulted; the brow ridges are prominent; the nose is well
formed; the cheek-bones are prominent, and the powerful cheek muscles give
a peculiarly rugged cast to the countenance. The appearance, however, is
not repellent, but more often open and kindly. The men are of medium
height, but very susceptible to environment as regards stature; they are
tall in fertile places, and stunted in less prosperous districts. They are
not degenerate at all, but keen and alert of mind. The present people of
Dordogne agree with but one other type of men known to anthropologists,
namely, the ancient Crô-Magnon race. The geographical evidence that here
in Dordogne we have to do with the survivors of the real Crô-Magnon race
seems to be sustained by a comparison of the characteristics of the
prehistoric skulls found at Crô-Magnon, Laugerie Basse, and elsewhere in
Dordogne, with the heads of the types of to-day. The cranial indices of
the prehistoric skulls, varying from 70 per cent to 73 per cent,
correspond with indices of the living head of 72 per cent to 75 per cent.
None of the people of Dordogne are quite so long-headed as this, the
average index of the living head in an extreme district being 76 per cent;
but within the whole population there are much lower indices.
The probability of direct descent becomes stronger when we consider the
disharmonic low-skulled shape of the Crô-Magnon head and the remarkable
elongation of the skull at the back. In the prehistoric Crô-Magnons the
brows were strongly developed, the eye orbits low, the chin prominent. The
facial type has been characterized by de Quatrefages(37) as follows: "The
eye depressed beneath the orbital vault; the nose straight rather than
arched; the lips somewhat thick, the jaw and the cheek-bones strongly
developed, the complexion very brown, the hair very dark and growing low
on the forehead--a whole which, without being attractive, was in no way
repulsive."
In southern France we observe a continuity not only of the head form but
of the prevalence of black hair and eyes. Why should this Crô-Magnon type
have survived at this point and have disappeared elsewhere? In order to
consider the particular cause of this persistence of a Palæolithic race,
we must, with Ripley, broaden our horizon, and consider the whole
southwest from the Mediterranean to Brittany as a unit.
The survival is partly attributed to favorable geographical environment
and partly to geological and racial barriers. On the north the intrusion
of the Teutonic race was shut off and competition was narrowed down to the
Crô-Magnon and Alpine types.
If the people of Dordogne are veritable survivors of the Crô-Magnons of
the Upper Palæolithic, they certainly represent the oldest living race in
western Europe, and is it not extremely significant that the most
primitive language in Europe, that of the Basques of the northern
Pyrenees, is spoken near by, only 200 miles to the southwest? Is there
possibly a connection between the original language of the Crô-Magnons, a
race which once crowded the region of the Cantabrian Mountains and the
Pyrenees, and the existing agglutinative language of the Basques, which is
totally different from all the European tongues? This hypothesis,
suggested by Ripley,(38) is very well worth considering, for it is not
inconceivable that the ancestors of the Basques conquered the Crô-Magnons
and subsequently acquired their language.
The prehistoric Crô-Magnon men would seem, therefore, to have remained in
or near their early settlements through all the changes of time and the
vicissitudes of history. "It is, perhaps," observes Ripley, "the most
striking instance known of a persistency of population unchanged through
thousands of years."
The geographic extension of this race was once very much wider than it is
to-day. The classical skull of Engis, Belgium, belongs to this type. It
has been traced from Alsace in the east to the Atlantic in the west. Ranke
asserts that it is to be found to-day in the hills of Thuringia, and that
it was a prevalent type there in the past. Verneau considers that it was
the type prevailing among the extinct Guanches of the Canary Islands.
Collignon(39) has identified it in northern Africa, and regards the
Crô-Magnons as a subvariety of the Mediterranean race, an opinion
consistent at least with the archæological evidence that this race came
into Europe with the Aurignacian culture, which was circum-Mediterranean
in distribution. Traces of Crô-Magnon head formation are found among the
living Berbers.
At present, however, this race is believed to survive only in a few
isolated localities, namely, in Dordogne, at a small spot in Landes, near
the Garonne in southern France, and at Lannion in Brittany, where nearly
one-third of the population is of the Crô-Magnon type. It is said to
survive on the island of Oléron off the west coast of France, and there is
evidence of similar descent to be found among the people of the islands
of northern Holland. The people of Trysil, on the Scandinavian peninsula,
are characterized as having disharmonic features, possibly representing an
outcrop of the Crô-Magnon type.
Our interest in the fate of the Crô-Magnons is so great that the Guanche
theory may also be considered; it is known to be favored by many
anthropologists: von Behr, von Luschan, Mehlis, and especially by Verneau.
The Guanches were a race of people who formerly spread all over the Canary
Islands and who preserved their primitive characteristics even after their
conquest by Spain in the fifteenth century. The differences from the
supposed modern Crô-Magnon type may be mentioned first. The skin of the
Guanches is described by the poet Viana as light-colored, and Verneau
considers that the hair was blond or light chestnut and the eyes blue; the
coloring, however, is somewhat conjectural. The features of resemblance to
the ancient Crô-Magnons are numerous. The minimum stature of the men was 5
feet 7 inches, and the maximum 6 feet 7 inches; in one locality the
average male stature was over 6 feet. The women were comparatively small.
The most striking characters of the head were the fine forehead, the
extremely long skull, and the pentagonal form of the cranium, when seen
from above, caused by the prominence of the parietals--a Crô-Magnon
characteristic. Among the insignia of the chiefs was the arm-bone of an
ancestor; the skull also was carefully preserved. The offensive weapons in
warfare consisted of three stones, a club, and several knives of obsidian;
the defensive weapon was a simple lance. The Guanches used wooden swords
with great skill. The habitation of all the people was in large,
well-sheltered caverns, which honeycombed the sides of the mountains; all
the walls of these caverns were decorated; the ceilings were covered with
a uniform coat of red ochre, while the walls were decorated with various
geometric designs in red, black, gray, and white. Hollowed-out stones
served as lamps. We may conclude with Verneau that there is evidence,
although not of a very convincing kind, that the Guanches were related to
the Crô-Magnons.(40) His observations on these supposed Crô-Magnons of
the Canary Islands are cited in the Appendix, Note V. We regret that
Verneau in his memoir(41) does not present his more recent views in regard
to the prehistoric distribution of this great race.
(=1=) Breuil, 1912.7, p. 203.
(=2=) _Op. cit._, p. 205.
(=3=) James, 1902.1.
(=4=) Heim, 1894.1, p. 184.
(=5=) Schmidt, 1912.1, p. 262.
(=6=) Fraunholz, 1911.1.
(=7=) Geikie, 1914.1, pp. 25, 26.
(=8=) Boule, 1899.1.
(=9=) Breuil, 1912.7, pp. 203-205.
(=10=) Obermaier, 1912.1, pp. 341, 342.
(=11=) Martin, R., 1914.1, pp. 15, 16.
(=12=) Verworn, 1914.1.
(=13=) _Op. cit._, p. 646.
(=14=) Breuil, 1912.7, p. 201.
(=15=) Lartet, 1875.1.
(=16=) Breuil, 1912.7, p. 213.
(=17=) Schmidt, 1912.1, p. 136.
(=18=) Breuil, _op. cit._, pp. 216, 217.
(=19=) Breuil, 1909.3.
(=20=) _Op. cit._, p. 410.
(=21=) Cartailhac, 1906.1, pp. 227, 228.
(=22=) Rivière, 1897.1; 1897.2.
(=23=) Reinach, 1913.1.
(=24=) Breuil, 1912.1, p. 202.
(=25=) Cartailhac, 1908.1.
(=26=) Capitan, 1908.1, pp. 501-514.
(=27=) _Ibid._, 1910.1, pp. 59-132.
(=28=) Breuil, 1912.1, pp. 196, 197.
(=29=) Schmidt, 1912.1, p. 116.
(=30=) Fraunholz, 1911.1.
(=31=) Schmidt, 1912.1, p. 154.
(=32=) Déchelette, 1908.1, vol. I, pp. 191-194.
(=33=) Nehring, 1880.1; 1896.1.
(=34=) Bayer, 1912.1, pp. 13-21.
(=35=) Breuil, 1912.7, pp. 212, 216.
(=36=) Ripley, 1899.1, pp. 39, 165, 173, 174-179, 211, 406.
(=37=) _Op. cit._, p. 176.
(=38=) _Op. cit._, p. 181.
(=39=) Collignon, 1890.1.
(=40=) Verneau, 1891.1.
(=41=) _Ibid._, 1906.1.
CHAPTER VI
CLOSE OF THE OLD STONE AGE--INVASION OF NEW RACES--HISTORY OF THE MAS
D'AZIL, OF FÈRE-EN-TARDENOIS--FOREST ENVIRONMENT AND LIFE--ORIGIN OF
THE AZILIAN-TARDENOISIAN CULTURE--CHARACTERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE NEW
RACES--TRANSITION TO THE NEOLITHIC AND RELATIONS OF THE OLD AND NEW
RACES--APPARENT CHIEF LINES OF HUMAN DESCENT AND OF HUMAN MIGRATION
INTO WESTERN EUROPE.
We have now reached the very close of the Old Stone Age, a period which is
believed to extend between 10,000 and 7,000 years before the present era.
The entrance to the final cultures of the Upper Palæolithic, known as the
Azilian-Tardenoisian, marks a transition even more abrupt than that
witnessed in any preceding stage. It is not a development; it is a
revolution. The artistic spirit entirely disappears; there is no trace of
animal engraving or sculpture; painting is found only on flattened pebbles
or in schematic or geometric designs on wall surfaces. Of bone implements
only harpoons and polishers remain, and even these are of inferior
workmanship and without any trace of art. The flint industry continues the
degeneration begun in the Magdalenian and exhibits a new life and impulse
only in the fashioning of the extremely small or microlithic tools and
weapons known as 'Tardenoisian.' Both bone and flint weapons of the chase
disappear, yet the stag is hunted and its horns are used in the
manufacture of harpoons. This is the 'Age of the Stag,' the final stage of
the '_Cave Period_' in western Europe, and is subsequent to the 'Age of
the Reindeer' in the south.
It would appear as if the very same regions formerly occupied by the great
hunting Crô-Magnon race from Aurignacian to Magdalenian times were now
inhabited by a race or races largely employed in fishing. The country is
thickly forested. The climate is still cold and extremely moist, and
human life everywhere is in the grottos or entrances to the caverns.
INVASION OF FOUR NEW RACES IN CLOSING UPPER PALÆOLITHIC TIMES
How far this revolution is due to the decline of the Crô-Magnon race and
how far to the invasion of one or more new races is very difficult to
determine in the absence of the anatomical evidence derived from skeletal
remains. Two new races had certainly found their way along the Danube as
shown in the burials of Ofnet, in eastern Bavaria; one is extremely
broad-headed and perhaps of central Asiatic origin, while the other is
extremely long-headed and perhaps of southerly or Mediterranean origin. It
is possible that these two races correspond respectively with the easterly
and southerly industrial influences which are observed in the
Azilian-Tardenoisian stage. The former is the first brachycephalic race to
enter western Europe, for it will be recalled that all the previous races,
the Crô-Magnons, the Brünns, and the Neanderthals, are dolichocephalic.
The long-headed race found at Ofnet is very clearly distinguished from the
disharmonic long-headed Crô-Magnon race by the narrowness of the face; in
other words, it is an _harmonic_ type of head and face, which may have
been Mediterranean in origin, like the so-called 'Mediterranean race' of
Sergi.
This fresh invasion of western Europe by two races arriving by one or more
of the great migration routes from the vast Eurasiatic mainland to the
east, races with a relatively high brain development, is certainly one of
the most surprising features of the close of the Palæolithic Period, for
we have long been accustomed to think that these fresh easterly and
southerly invasions began only in Neolithic times.
As the Upper Palæolithic draws to an end, there is, according to Breuil,
still another industrial influence making itself felt: it comes from the
northeast along the shores of the Baltic.
Putting together all the fragmentary evidence which we possess, we may
regard western Europe at the close of the Old Stone Age as peopled by
four and possibly by five distinct races, as follows:
5. Arriving late in Palæolithic times, a race along the shores of the
Baltic, known only by its Maglemose industry; possibly a Teutonic
race.
4. A south Mediterranean race, known only by its Tardenoisian
industry, migrating along the northern shores of Africa and spreading
over Spain; with a conventional and schematic art; probably an advance
wave of the true 'Mediterranean' race of Sergi; possibly identical
with race 3 below. (The same as Race 4, p. 278.)
3. A long-headed race found at Ofnet, in eastern Bavaria; possibly a
branch of the true 'Mediterranean' race 4 above, but not related to
the Brünn. (Possibly the same as Race 4.)
2. The newly arriving Furfooz-Grenelle race, broad-headed; known along
the Danube at Ofnet, in eastern Bavaria, and northward in Belgium;
possibly a branch of the 'Alpine' race. (The same as Race 5, p. 278.)
1. The surviving Crô-Magnons, in a stage of industrial decline,
pursuing the Azilian industry, probably inhabiting France and northern
Spain.
The broad-headed Ofnet race mentioned above is apparently the same as the
Furfooz-Grenelle race, and may also correspond with the existing
Alpine-Celtic race of western Europe. The long-headed race of Ofnet may
correspond with the existing 'Mediterranean' race of Sergi.
The presence of the Crô-Magnon race in western Europe during
Azilian-Tardenoisian times is not sustained, so far as we know, by any
anatomical evidence, but is suggested by the mode of burial of two
skeletons found by Piette in the Azilian deposits of the station of Mas
d'Azil. This burial, like that of Ofnet, is typical of Upper Palæolithic
and not of Neolithic times. These skeletons lay in the 'Azilian' layer
(VI) described below. As the smaller bones were missing, Piette concluded
that the remains had been for some time exposed to the weather before
burial, and that the larger bones had been scraped and cleaned with flint
knives, and then colored red with oxide of iron before interment.
According to other authorities, the traces of scraping and cleaning are
doubtful; there can be no question, however, that the separation of the
bones of the skeleton and the use of coloring matter constitute strong
evidence that this Azilian burial was the work of members of the
Crô-Magnon race.
In addition to what we have said as to the survival of the Crô-Magnon race
in the preceding chapter, the opinion of Cartailhac(1) may be cited: "The
race of Crô-Magnon is well determined. There is no doubt about their high
stature, and Topinard is not the only one who believes that they were
blonds. We have traced them through the 'Reindeer Period' into the
Neolithic Epoch, where they were widely distributed and positively related
either to the ancient or actual populations of modern France, being
especially characteristic of our region [France] and of the western
Mediterranean. While the race of Crô-Magnon predominated in the south and
in the west, that of Furfooz predominated in the northeast of France and
in Belgium. These brachycephals were probably brown-haired or of dark
coloring."
But before observing further the characters of these four or five races,
let us examine their industries.
DISCOVERY OF THE AZILIAN TYPE STATION
As remarked above, it is believed that these industries prevailed between
7,000 and 10,000 years before our era, that is, between the close of
Magdalenian times and the beginning of the Neolithic or New Stone Age.
This transition period corresponds with the interval in which the
Azilian-Tardenoisian culture swept all over western Europe and completely
replaced the Magdalenian. From Castillo in the Cantabrian Mountains of
northern Spain to Ofnet on the upper Danube there is a complete
replacement by this new culture. The Magdalenian culture does not linger
anywhere; it is totally eliminated; the suddenness of the change both in
the animal life and in the industry is nowhere more clearly indicated than
at the type station of Mas d'Azil in southern France, which may now be
described.
In 1887 Edouard Piette commenced his exploration of the deposits in the
great cavern of Mas d'Azil. This station takes its name from the little
hamlet of Mas d'Azil in the foot-hills of the Pyrenees about forty miles
southwest from Toulouse. Here the River Arize winds for a quarter of a
mile through a lofty natural tunnel traversed by the highway from St.
Girons to Carcassonne. A rich layer of Magdalenian deposits first
attracted Piette's attention, and he found here some of the finest
examples of late Magdalenian art, but above these deposits he discovered a
hitherto unrecognized industrial stage, to which he gave the name Azilian.
The Azilian layers yielded over one thousand specimens of flattened and
double-barbed harpoons made of the horns of the stag, thus widely
differing from the late Magdalenian harpoons which are rounded and made of
the horns of the reindeer. The entire succession of deposits, as explored
by Piette, is an epitome of the prehistory of Europe from early
Magdalenian times to the Age of Bronze, and should be compared with the
successive deposits of Castillo (p. 164), Sirgenstein (p. 202), Ofnet (p.
476), and Schweizersbild (p. 447).
[Illustration: FIG. 246. Western entrance to the great station of Mas
d'Azil. "Here the River Arize winds for a quarter of a mile through a
lofty natural tunnel traversed by the highway from St. Girons to
Carcassonne." Photograph by N. C. Nelson.]
The Mas d'Azil section is as follows:
PREHISTORIC AND NEOLITHIC
IX. Iron implements, pottery of the Gauls. At the top Gallo-Roman
remains, glass and glazed pottery.
VIII. Middle Neolithic and Age of Bronze; layer of pottery, polished
stone implements, traces of copper and of bronze.
VII. Dawn of the Neolithic. Fauna includes the horse, urus, stag, and
wild boar. Chipped and polished flints, awls and polishers in bone;
harpoons rare. Beginnings of pottery.
UPPER PALÆOLITHIC
VI. AZILIAN, red archæological layer, masses of peroxide of iron.
Extremely moist climate. Broad flat harpoons of stag horn perforated
at the base, numerous flattened and painted pebbles (_galets_), flints
of degenerate Magdalenian form, especially small rounded planers and
knife flakes, awls and polishers in bone. No trace of reindeer in the
fire-hearths; stag abundant, also roe-deer and brown bear; wild boar,
wild cattle, beaver, a variety of birds. No trace of polished stone
implements. Interred in this layer, beneath the deposits of streaked
cinders and quite undisturbed, two human skeletons were found, which
Piette believed had been macerated with flints and then colored red
with peroxide of iron.
V. Sterile finely stratified loam layer, a flood deposit of the River
Arize.
IV. LATE MAGDALENIAN culture layer; twelve double-rowed harpoons made
of reindeer horn, a few fashioned from stag horn; numerous engravings
and sculptures in bone. Remains of the reindeer rare in the hearths;
those of the royal stag (_Cervus elaphus_) abundant.
III. A sterile flood deposit of the River Arize.
II. MIDDLE AND EARLY MAGDALENIAN culture layers, with barbed harpoons
of reindeer horn; flint implements of early Magdalenian type, bone
needles. Bones of the reindeer abundant.
I. Gravel deposits. Interspersed fire-hearths.
The total thickness of these culture deposits is 8.03 m., or 26 feet 4
inches. The AZILIAN type layer (VI) containing flat harpoons of stag horn
and painted pebbles, intercalated between the deposits of the Reindeer Age
and the Neolithic layers, is, on account of its stratigraphic position,
the most interesting and instructive of all the sites representing this
phase of transition; and Piette was fully justified in giving to the
corresponding culture period the name of _Azilian_.(2)
The transformation of art and industry, indicated in the Azilian culture
layer, is as decided as that in the animal life. We observe in this layer
no trace of the animal engravings or sculptures which occur so abundantly
in the late Magdalenian layer below; the use of pigments is confined to
the paintings of schematic or geometric figures on the flattened pebbles.
There is no suggestion of art in any of the bone implements, and the
harpoons of stag horn are rudely fashioned; this type of harpoon appears
to be the chief survivor of the rich variety of implements noted in the
Magdalenian layer below. The stag horn harpoon, moreover, is fashioned
with far less skill than the beautiful Magdalenian harpoons; like them it
has two rows of barbs, but they are not cut with the same delicacy and
exactness. As to the form of the new model, it is explained by the nature
of the new material; the interior of the stag horn being composed of a
spongy tissue, could not be utilized as could the harder and more compact
interior of the reindeer horn; the craftsman, therefore, was obliged to
fashion his harpoon out of the exterior of one side of the stag horn, and
in consequence to make it flat.
[Illustration: FIG. 247. Typical Azilian harpoons of stag horn. After de
Mortillet. 287. A single-rowed harpoon from Mas d'Azil. 288. Harpoon with
perforated base from the shelter of La Tourasse, Haute-Garonne. 289.
Double-rowed harpoon from the same shelter. 290. A similar harpoon with
the barbs alternate instead of opposite, from Mas d'Azil. 291. Harpoon
with triangular base and round perforation from the Grotte de la Vache,
near Tarascon. All one-third actual size, except 291, which is four-ninths
actual size.]
There are no bone needles, no javelins or _sagaies_; nor are there any of
the beautifully carved weapons of bone. There is also a reduction in the
uses to which the split bones are put, such as the large _lissoirs_ or
polishers. The bone implements appear to be derived from an impoverished
late Aurignacian stage; the same is true of the flint implements, for we
observe a return of the keeled scraper (_grattoir caréné_). There is also
a return of certain types of graving tools and of the knife-like form of
the flake; even some of the small geometric types of flints resemble those
of the Aurignacian levels.
The many shells of the moisture-loving snail _Helix nemoralis_, found in
the fire-hearths of Mas d'Azil are proofs of the humidity of the climate,
a fact confirmed by the contemporary flood deposits of the Arize. The
frequent and heavy rains drove the last few representatives of the steppe
fauna away to the north. These climatic conditions favored the formation
of peat-bogs, so frequent to-day in the north of France, and also the
growth of vast forests, inhabited by the stag, which extended over the
whole country.
The pebbles of Mas d'Azil are painted on one side with peroxide of iron, a
deposit of which is found in the neighborhood of the cave. The color,
mixed in shells of _Pecten_, or in hollowed pebbles or on flat stones, was
applied either with the finger or with a brush. The many enigmatic designs
consist chiefly of parallel bands, rows of discs or points, bands with
scalloped edges, cruciform designs, ladder-like patterns (scalariform)
such as are found in the 'Azilian' engravings and paintings of the
caverns, and undulating lines. These graphic combinations resemble certain
syllabic and alphabetic characters of the Ægean, Cypriote, Phœnician, and
Greco-Latin inscriptions. However curious these resemblances may be, they
are not sufficient to warrant any theory connecting the signs on the
painted pebbles of the Azilians with the alphabetic characters of the
oldest known systems of writing.(3) Piette attempted to explain some of
the exceedingly crude designs on these pebbles as a system of notation,
others as pictographs and religious symbols, and some few as genuine
alphabetical signs, and suggested that the cavern of Mas d'Azil was an
Upper Palæolithic school where reading, reckoning, writing, and the
symbols of the sun were learned and taught. The very wide distribution of
these symbolic pebbles and the painting of similar designs on the walls of
the caverns certainly prove that they had some religious or economic
significance, which may be revealed by subsequent research.
[Illustration: FIG. 248. Azilian _galets coloriés_, flat, painted pebbles,
from the type station of Mas d'Azil. After Piette.]
THE TARDENOISIAN TYPE STATION
Turning from the region of the Pyrenees in Azilian times, we observe the
region lying between the Seine and the Meuse in northern France as the
scene of a contemporary industry. At the station of Fère-en-Tardenois, in
the Department of the Aisne, is found an especially large number of the
pygmy flints;(4) these present various geometric forms, including the
primitive triangular, as well as the rhomboidal, trapezoidal, and
semicircular; together, they were designated by de Mortillet as
_Tardenoisian_ flints, and in 1896, in monographing this microlithic flint
industry, he traced them throughout France, Belgium, England, Portugal,
Spain, Italy, Germany, and Russia, also along the southern Mediterranean
through Algiers, Tunis, Egypt, and eastward into Syria and even India.
These geometric flints were at first attributed to a primitive invasion
which was supposed to have occurred at the beginning of Neolithic times;
thus the Tardenoisian industry was considered as contemporaneous with that
of the Campignian, which is early Neolithic. It was further observed that
the topographical location of the stations closely followed the borders of
ocean inlets, or of river courses, and when the food materials found in
the hearths were compared, it appeared that these flints were used
principally by fishermen or tribes subsisting upon fish. From an
examination of the flints, it would appear that a very large number of
them were adapted for insertion in small harpoons, or that those of
grooved form might even have been used as fish-hooks. Thus the picture was
drawn of a population of fishermen. The Tardenoisian, therefore, was for a
long time regarded as contemporaneous with the early Neolithic rather
than with the close of Palæolithic times, but as exploration proceeded it
was found that neither the remains of domestic animals nor any traces of
pottery occur in any of these Tardenoisian deposits, which consequently
have nothing in common with the true Neolithic culture.
The problem was finally solved in 1909, when the grotto of Valle near
Gibaja, Santander, in northern Spain, was discovered by Breuil and
Obermaier.(5) Here was a classic Azilian deposit containing all the
well-known Azilian types of bone implements, such as fine harpoons,
carvings in deer horn, bone javelins, polishers of deer bone, flint flakes
resembling those of the late Magdalenian, also microlithic flints of
typical geometric Tardenoisian form. This discovery established the fact
that the lower levels of the Tardenoisian industry were not really to be
distinguished from the Azilian, for here beneath layers with painted
pebbles and harpoons of Azilian style were harpoons with single and double
rows of barbs of Magdalenian pattern, but cut in stag horn instead of
reindeer horn.
The mammalian life in this true Azilian-Tardenoisian layer includes the
chamois, roe-deer, wild boar, and urus, or wild cattle. In a layer just
below, which represents the close of the Magdalenian industrial period,
there are found, although rarely, remains of the reindeer, an animal
hitherto unknown in this part of Spain, also the wild boar, the bison, the
ibex, and the lynx. After this discovery it could no longer be questioned
that the Azilian and Tardenoisian were contemporary.
As to the relation of these two industries, Breuil remarks(6) that the
prolongation of the Tardenoisian types of flints is observed in Italy and
in Belgium, but neither the term 'Tardenoisian' nor the term 'Azilian' is
sufficiently comprehensive to embrace the totality of these little
industries, which will finally be distinguished clearly from each other.
Of the two the Azilian represents the prolongation of an ancient period of
industry, the progress of which was apparently from south to north, as we
can trace the distribution of the characteristic flat harpoons of deer
horn from the Cantabrian Mountains and the Pyrenees, through southern and
central France, to Belgium, England, and the western coast of Scotland.
The later industrial phase, the Tardenoisian, with its geometric
trapeziform flints, originally appears along the southern Mediterranean in
Tunis and to the eastward in the Crimea, while in France it represents a
final phase of the Palæolithic, closely approaching the period of the
earliest Neolithic or pre-Campignian hearths common along the Danube and
observed in the vicinity of Liége. Thus the most comprehensive term by
which to designate the _ensemble_ of these implements, in Europe at least,
would be Azilian-Tardenoisian.
[Illustration: FIG. 249. Small geometric flints characteristic of the
Tardenoisian industry. After de Mortillet. 295 to 303, 321, 322, 326. From
various sites in northern France. 311. Uchaux, Vaucluse, France. 305, 315,
320. Valley of the Meuse, Belgium. 312, 313. Cabeço da Arruda, Portugal.
304, 314. Italy. 317, 318, 329. Tunis. 325. Egypt. 306, 310, 324, 328.
Kizil-Koba, Crimea. 307 to 309, 316, 319, 323, 327. India. All one-half
actual size.]
ENVIRONMENT AND MAMMALIAN LIFE
It appears that the chief geographic change during this period was a
subsidence of the northern coasts of Europe and an advance of the sea
causing the circulation of warm oceanic currents and a more humid climate
favorable to reforestation.
To the north, in Belgium, the tundra fauna lingered during the extension
of the early Tardenoisian industry, for here we still find remains of the
reindeer, the arctic fox, and the arctic hare mingled in the fire-hearths
with flints of Tardenoisian type. This, observes Obermaier, constitutes
proof that the Tardenoisian, with the Azilian, must be placed at the very
close of Postglacial time and with the final stage of Upper Palæolithic
industry.
To the south, in the region of Dordogne and the Pyrenees, the tundra fauna
had entirely disappeared, as well as that of the steppes and of the alpine
heights; the prevailing animal in the forests is the royal stag, adapted
to forests of temperate type and associated with the Eurasiatic forest and
meadow fauna which now dominated western Europe.
The only survivor of the great African-Asiatic fauna is the lion, which
appears in the late Palæolithic stations in the region of the Pyrenees;
the arctic wolverene also gives the fauna a Postglacial aspect, for, like
the lion, it is never found in central or western Europe after the close
of Upper Palæolithic times. Other enemies of the herbivorous fauna were
the wolf and the brown bear.
Besides the red deer, or stag, the forests at this time were filled with
roe-deer. To the south in the Pyrenees the moose still survived, and to
the north there were still found herds of reindeer which survived in
central Europe as late as the twelfth century. Wild boars were numerous,
and in the streams were found the beaver and the otter. In the forest
borders and in the meadows hares and rabbits were abundant. Through the
forests and meadows of southern France and along the borders of the Danube
ranged the wild cattle (_Bos primigenius_). It would appear from our
limited knowledge of the life of Azilian-Tardenoisian times that bison
were found chiefly in the northern parts of Europe. There is little direct
evidence in regard to the wild horse, the remains of which do not occur in
the hearths of Azilian times.
Our knowledge of the life of the Spanish peninsula at a period closely
succeeding this is indirectly derived from the animal frescos in certain
caverns of northern Spain, which were formerly attributed to the Upper
Palæolithic but are now referred rather to the early Neolithic. Here are
found representations of the ibex, the stag, the fallow deer, the wild
cattle, and also of the wild horses. This would indicate that wild horses
were still roaming all over western Europe at the close of Upper
Palæolithic times. The presence of the moose in late Palæolithic times at
Alpera, on the high plateaus of Spain, has been determined; this animal
has also been found in the Pyrenees during the Azilian stage.(7)
The great contrast between the mammalian life of Magdalenian and that of
Azilian-Tardenoisian times is witnessed in the stations along the upper
Danube, as described by Koken.(8) In Höhlefels, Schmiechenfels, and
Propstfels, associated with implements of the _late_ Magdalenian industry,
are found ten types of animals belonging to the forests and four
characteristic of the forests and meadows, or fourteen species altogether.
With these are mingled two alpine forms, the ibex and the alpine shrew;
also two types of mammals belonging to the steppes, and no less than six
mammals and birds from the tundras, namely, the reindeer, the arctic fox,
the ermine, the arctic hare, the banded lemming, and the arctic ptarmigan.
In wide contrast to this assemblage of late Magdalenian life on the upper
Danube, there appear in Azilian times along the shores of the middle
Danube in the stations of Ofnet and of Istein the following characteristic
forest forms: _Sus scrofa ferus_ (wild boar), _Cervus elaphus_ (stag),
_Capreolus capreolus_ (roe-deer), _Bos_ (?) _primigenius_ (urus), _Lepus_
(rabbit or hare), _Ursus arctos_ (brown bear), _Felis leo_ (lion), _Gulo
luscus_ (common wolverene), _Lynchus lynx_ (lynx), _Vulpes_ (fox),
_Mustela martes_ (marten), _Castor fiber_ (European beaver), _Mus_
(field-mouse), _Turdus_ (thrush). It thus appears that the alpine, the
steppe, and the tundra faunæ had entirely disappeared from this region.
ORIGIN AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE AZILIAN-TARDENOISIAN INDUSTRY
This industry represents the last stage of the Old Stone Age. The decline
in the art of fashioning flints, begun in Magdalenian times, appears to
continue in the Azilian-Tardenoisian. As to the tiny symmetrical flints
which are characteristic of this period, among the microliths of almost
all the late Magdalenian stations pre-Tardenoisian forms are found which
may be regarded as prototypes of the geometric Tardenoisian flints;(9)
this represents a new fashion established in flint-making under influences
coming from the south.
There was also a natural or local Azilian evolution from the Magdalenian
types and technique. In general the flint implements which had so long
prevailed in western Europe become smaller in diameter and more carelessly
retouched, showing marked deterioration even from the late Magdalenian
stages. For the preparation of hides and the fashioning of bone we
discover unsymmetrical planing tools (_grattoirs_), also small,
well-formed oval scrapers (_racloirs_), and microlithic scrapers. Borers
(_perçoirs_) with oblique ends and gravers (_burins_) made of small flakes
are the types of implements which most frequently occur, but the great
variety of borers, so characteristic of the Aurignacian and the
Magdalenian industries, had entirely disappeared in Azilian times.
The marks of industrial degeneration are also conspicuous in the bone
implements, which show a very great deterioration in number and quality as
compared with the Magdalenian, and which are principally confined to three
types--the harpoons, the awls (_poinçons_), and the smoothers
(_lissoirs_), together with very small bone borers (_perçoirs_). The
distinctive feature of the Azilian bone industry is the flat harpoon of
stag horn; it is known that the use of stags' antlers for fashioning
harpoons began in the late Magdalenian, when most of them were still
being fashioned from reindeer horn. These flat Azilian harpoons succeed
the type of the double-rowed, cylindrical harpoons of the late
Magdalenian, and are found mainly where the rivers, lakes, or pools
offered favorable conditions for fishing. Thus the Azilian bone-harpoon
industry, like the Tardenoisian microlithic flint industry, was largely
pursued by fisherfolk.
[Illustration: FIG. 250. Geographic distribution of the principal Azilian
and Tardenoisian industrial stations in western Europe, also Campigny and
Robenhausen.]
We may imagine that the gradual disappearance of the reindeer, an animal
much more easily pursued and killed than the stag, was one of the causes
of the substitution of the various arts of fishing for those of hunting.
It is to the excessively small or microlithic flints that the name
Tardenoisian especially applies, and it is the vast multiplication of
these microliths and their wide distribution over the whole area of the
Mediterranean and of western Europe which constitutes the most distinctive
feature of this industrial stage.(10) The triangular flint (Fig. 249) is
certainly the most ancient Tardenoisian type. It occurs in the Azilian
stations of the Cantabrian Mountains and of the Pyrenees, accompanied by
the painted pebbles and with other flints of Azilian type, but without the
graving-tools; to the east it is found in the stations of Savoy; and along
the Danube it occurs at Ofnet, associated with remains of the lion and the
moose, also with ornamental necklaces composed of the perforated teeth of
the deer, identical with those found in the type station of Mas d'Azil in
the Pyrenees. To the north this typical early Azilian culture extends to
Istein, in Baden, where it includes the microlithic flint flakes, the
gravers, and the little round scrapers associated here also with the stag
and the prehistoric forest and meadow fauna of western Europe. Exactly the
same stage of industrial development occurs in the grotto of Höhlefels,
near Nuremberg, and in the shelter station of Sous Sac, Ain. We invariably
find proofs of the variety of these pygmy flints as well as of their
continuity from one station to another. All these facts compel us to
assign a very long period of time to the spread of these industrial types.
The question which arises as to the sources of this special Tardenoisian
industry again finds archæologists divided. Schmidt inclines to the
autochthonous theory and regards the microlithic flint industry as an
outgrowth of tendencies already well developed in the Magdalenian. Breuil,
on the other hand,(11) dwells strongly on the evidence for
circum-Mediterranean sources. In putting the questions, Who were the
Azilians? Whence did they come? What were their ancestors? he is disposed
to give the answer already quoted, that, whichever industry is examined,
we are always obliged to look toward the south, toward some point along
the Mediterranean, for the origin of these microlithic flints. In Italy,
which he believes to have remained in an Aurignacian industrial stage
throughout all the long period of Magdalenian time, he finds at Mentone a
layer overlying the Aurignacian and containing small flints recalling the
geometric forms of the Azilian, as well as a multitude of the small round
scrapers (_racloirs_) characteristic of Azilian times. The upper layers at
Mentone on the Riviera are paralleled by those observed near Otranto, in
Sicily. It is certain, he continues, that all around the Mediterranean
there was a number of distinct centres where microlithic implements of
geometric form appeared, and where the accompanying industries, in
different stages of development, were related to an Upper Palæolithic
culture consisting of a continuous Aurignacian type.
[Illustration: FIG. 251. Azilian stone implements of types surviving from
the Magdalenian and earlier Palæolithic times. After R. R. Schmidt. 1.
Finely flaked point from the large cave of Ofnet. 2, 3. Small Azilian
_grattoirs_, or planing tools, from Istein, on the upper Danube. 4.
Slender blade from Kleinkems. 5. Borer from Wüste Scheuer. 6. Polyhedral
borer from Wüste Scheuer. 7. Incurved scraper from Istein. 8, 9, 10.
Gravers or borers from Istein. 11. Double graver or borer with points at
the right and left of the upper end. 1 to 4, actual size; 5 to 11,
one-half actual size.]
[Illustration: FIG. 252. Azilian double-rowed harpoons of stag horn, from
Oban, on the west coast of Scotland. After Boule.]
The labors of de Morgan, Capitan, and others have thrown great light on
the Palæolithic of Tunis, where a flint culture was developed only
slightly different from that of the Azilian of Valle, Santander, of the
Mas d'Azil, Ariège, and of Bobache, Drôme. A resemblance is also found in
Portugal; and southern Spain, despite its poverty of typical implements,
shows a similar evolution. Near Salamanca, northwest of Madrid, Spain, the
grottos contain schematic figures and colored pebbles resembling the
Azilian. In Portugal the hearths of Mugem and Cabeço da Arruda are
distinguished by their triangular microliths and are undoubtedly
Pre-Neolithic, because there is neither pottery nor any trace of
domesticated animals, excepting, possibly, the dog.
To the north of Europe the discoveries in Belgium have especial
importance, for typical Azilian implements, including small round
scrapers, lateral gravers, elongated triangular microliths, and knife
flakes are found associated with the remains of the reindeer in the grotto
of Remouchamp and at Zonhoven. It appears in Belgium, as in Italy, that
the use of the Tardenoisian microlithic flint types is prolonged into a
later time than that of the typical Azilian flint implements--the
scrapers, gravers, borers, and knife flakes--which, as we have seen,
appear at the end of the true Magdalenian.
On the other side of the English Channel we again find these flints always
unmingled with pottery and usually distributed along the sea or river
shores. The best-known stations are those of Hastings, directly across
the Channel opposite Boulogne, and of Seven Oaks, near London; in Settle,
Yorkshire, is the Victoria Cave station. To the north, in Scotland, four
Azilian stations have been discovered around Oban, on the western coast
near the head of the Firth of Lorne, while Azilian harpoons have also been
found on the Isle of Oronsay, at its entrance.
Thus the spread of the very small Tardenoisian flint implements in the
final stages of the Palæolithic precedes the southern advent of the
Neolithic.
In Germany only six Azilian-Tardenoisian stations have thus far been
discovered: two to the east of Düsseldorf, one in the neighborhood of
Weimar, two on the headwaters of the Rhine, near Basle, and, by far the
most important, the large and small grottos of Ofnet, on a small tributary
of the Danube northwest of Munich. This last is exceptionally important
because it is the only station where skeletons have been found buried with
Azilian-Tardenoisian flints, thereby enabling us positively to determine
the contemporary human races.
BURIALS IN AZILIAN-TARDENOISIAN TIMES
The strange interment which gives Ofnet its distinction belongs to the
period of Azilian-Tardenoisian industry.(12) This conclusion is not
weakened by the absence of Azilian harpoons or painted pebbles, because at
this time the cave of Ofnet served its frequenters only as a place of
burial; there are no hearths or flint workshops to indicate continued
residence, as during earlier Upper Palæolithic times.
This great ceremonial burial seems to afford the only positive evidence to
be found in all western Europe of the kind of people who were pursuing the
Azilian industry. The larger Ofnet grotto opens toward the southwest and
has a length of 39 feet and a width of 36 feet. It was first entered in
early Aurignacian times and shows successive layers of Aurignacian, early
Solutrean, and late Magdalenian cultures, above which lies a thick deposit
of the Azilian-Tardenoisian, in which is found the most remarkable
interment of all Palæolithic times.
[Illustration: FIG. 253. Section across the entrance of the great grotto
of Ofnet near the Danube, occupied at various times from the beginning of
the Upper Palæolithic to the close of the Bronze Age. After R. R. Schmidt.
_IX._ Deposits of the Middle Ages and of the La Tène and Hallstatt
cultures. _VIII._ Deposits of the Upper Neolithic. _VII._ Azilian layer
containing the great burial of 33 skulls. _VI._ Late Magdalenian layer
containing the banded lemmings of the tundras. _V._ Late Solutrean layer
with typical laurel-leaf spear points. _IV._, _III._ Deposits of late and
early Aurignacian age, _III._ containing arctic rodents. _II._ Dolomite
sand with a few teeth of the mammoth and bones of the woolly rhinoceros
marked by the teeth of hyænas.]
This is a ceremonial burial of thirty-three skulls of people belonging to
two distinct races: respectively, brachycephalic and dolichocephalic, and
certainly not related in any way to the Crô-Magnon race. In one group
twenty-seven skulls were found embedded in ochre and arranged in a sort of
nest, with the faces all looking westward. As the skulls in the centre
were more closely pressed together and crushed than those on the outside,
it seems probable that these skulls were added one by one from time to
time, those on the outside being the most recent additions. About a yard
distant a similar nest was found, containing six more skulls embedded and
arranged in exactly the same manner. The interment probably took place
shortly after death and certainly before the separate bones had been
disintegrated by decomposition, for not only the lower jaw but a number of
the neck vertebra were found with each skull. The heads had been severed
from the necks by a sharp flint, the marks of which are plainly visible on
some of the vertebræ.
[Illustration: FIG. 254. Burial nest of six skulls, all facing westward,
from the large grotto of Ofnet. After R. R. Schmidt.]
It is noteworthy that most of these skulls are those of women and young
children, there being only four adult male skulls. On this account some
advance the theory of cannibalism; others that, being taken captive by a
tribe of enemies, these unfortunate people were offered in sacrifice, in
which case decapitation was the means of death. But, then, how explain the
abundant ornaments of stag teeth and snail shells (_Helix nemoralis_) with
which the skulls of the women and little children were decorated, and the
treasured implements of flint with which all save one of the men and a few
of the women and children were provided?
There are precedents for all these singular features of the Ofnet
interment in other Upper Palæolithic burials, namely, the embedding in
ochre, the offerings of ornaments of teeth and of shells, the separate
interment of the skull--all these were customs more or less characteristic
of the Upper Palæolithic, but never observed in Neolithic times.
[Illustration: FIG. 255. Skulls of the two races of Ofnet. Three views of
a broad-headed or _brachycephalic_ skull (above) from the great burial at
Ofnet. Three views of a narrow-headed or _dolichocephalic_ skull (below)
from the same grotto. After R. R. Schmidt. One-quarter life size.]
It will be recalled that the custom of burying the entire body, as well as
that of embedding the body in ochre, is first observed among the late
Neanderthals and obtained throughout the entire Upper Palæolithic from the
Aurignacian burials of Grimaldi to the Azilian, of Mas d'Azil. No other
case, however, is known of the westward turning of the face: in most of
the Upper Palæolithic burials the face of the departed looks toward the
opening of the grotto; but, although the grotto of Ofnet opens toward the
southwest, the skulls, without exception, were facing exactly to the west
and looking toward the wall rather than toward the entrance of the cavern.
THE NEW BROAD-HEADED AND NARROW-HEADED RACES OF OFNET
The burials at Ofnet are the first observed in western Europe which
present a mingling of races. This in itself is a fact of great interest;
it is a prelude to what characterizes all the populations of western
Europe at the present time, namely, the presence of races widely separated
in origin and in anatomical structure, but closely united by similar
customs, industries, and beliefs.
A second fact of even greater importance is the proof of the arrival in
western Europe toward the close of Palæolithic times of two entirely new
human stocks; one broad-headed, resembling the modern Alpine or Celtic
type; the other narrow-headed, resembling the modern 'Mediterranean' type
of Sergi. Beside these pure types there are several blended forms which
are intermediate or mesaticephalic.
Of the eight brachycephalic heads, six are those of children; the two
adult brachycephalic crania belong to young women and are, therefore, not
quite so characteristic as male skulls would be, for in general racial
type is more strongly marked in men than in women; the remaining skulls
are either of a blended form or purely dolichocephalic.
The relationship of the broad-headed race to other prehistoric and
existing broad-headed races of western Europe is also a matter of very
great interest. The Ofnet brachycephals are regarded by Schliz(13) as
closely similar to the type skull of the so-called Grenelle race, which,
in turn, is closely similar to the Furfooz type. Thus the cephalic index
of one (Fig. 255) of these broad, flattened skulls of Ofnet is 83.33 per
cent; the face is relatively narrow, the zygomatic index being low--76.34
per cent; the brain capacity of the female skulls does not exceed 1,320
c.cm. The skull is further described as small, smooth, and delicately
modelled, with a correspondingly feeble dentition, the teeth being small;
the processes of muscular attachment are slightly developed, all of which
characters indicate that the skull belonged to a woman about twenty-five
years of age. The forehead is low, broad, and prominent. It is altogether
typically parallel to the 'skull of Grenelle,' as well as to the female
'skull of Auvernier' described by Kollmann. The peculiarity of this
broad-headed race, like that of Grenelle and of Furfooz, is that, while
the forehead is of only moderate breadth, the posterior part of the skull
is extremely broad. The broad-headed people of Ofnet are thus definitely
considered by Schliz(14) as members of the Furfooz-Grenelle race.
The narrow-headed race of the Ofnet burials is distinct in every respect
and presents resemblances to the branch of the 'Mediterranean' race found
in the foreground of the Alpine regions to-day, in which the head is of a
pear-shaped type. The best preserved of these dolichocephalic skulls (Fig.
255) presents an index of 70.50 per cent, with a brain capacity in the
male of 1,500 c.cm., while the smallest brain capacity is that found in
one of the female skulls with 1,100 c.cm. Among the five adult purely
dolichocephalic skulls the face is not in the least of the broad or
disharmonic Crô-Magnon type, but is in proportion with the cranium, and is
thus truly _harmonic_. The resemblance of this narrow-headed Ofnet skull
to that of the Brünn race, which we have described as occurring in
Moravia in Solutrean times, is only partial, and Schliz concludes that
among the narrow-headed people of Ofnet we have a form of dolichocephaly
which is not identical with any of the known early dolichocephalic forms
of western Europe, but which pursues an independent line of development
similar to the narrow-headed races in the borders of the Alpine region of
the present day. Thus this head type, of a uniform elliptic contour, seems
to have become a stable racial element of the Alpine population, since we
meet it again in later prehistoric times in the region of the southern and
western foreground of the Alps. Among the children's skulls, two are of
the narrow-headed, pear-shaped type similar to the Alpine dolichocephals
of to-day, that is, with a narrow forehead and very broad posterior
portions of the skull.
CENTRAL ORIGIN OF THE BROAD-HEADED (ALPINE?) RACES
The affinity of the broad-headed Azilian-Tardenoisian tribes of the Danube
to those found in the Upper Palæolithic of northwestern Europe seems to be
clearly established. The latter are sometimes known as the Grenelle race
and sometimes as the Furfooz race. Boule(15) observes in regard to the
skeletal remains of Grenelle which were found in the alluvium near Paris,
in 1870, that it is quite impossible now, forty years after their
discovery, to demonstrate their geologic antiquity. This is not the case
with the Furfooz broad-heads, the age of which we regard as well
established, but since the head type appears to be the same in both cases,
we may speak of this race as the Furfooz-Grenelle.
In a cave near Furfooz, in the valley of the Lesse, Belgium, sixteen
skeletons were discovered by Dupont in 1867. With the bones were found
implements of reindeer horn and remains of the late Pleistocene fauna of
northern Europe.(16) The reindeer and the tundra fauna of Belgium were
contemporaneous with the early Tardenoisian culture and with the stag and
forest fauna of southern France, so that the skeletons of Furfooz may
safely be referred to Azilian-Tardenoisian times.
[Illustration: FIG. 256. Broad-headed skull of uncertain archæologic age,
either Palæolithic or Neolithic, discovered at Grenelle, near Paris, in
1870. After de Quatrefages and Hamy. One-quarter life size.]
[Illustration: FIG. 257. Opening of the grotto of Furfooz on the Lesse, a
tributary of the Meuse, near Namur, Belgium, where the skeletal remains of
16 individuals and the type skulls of the broad-headed Furfooz race were
discovered in 1867. After Dupont.]
Only two of the Furfooz skulls were preserved in good shape; they are of
brachycephalic or sub-brachycephalic form, and, following the suggestion
of de Quatrefages and Hamy, these skulls have been spoken of as belonging
to the 'brachycephalic Furfooz race.' The men of this race may certainly
be regarded as belonging to Upper Palæolithic times, whereas the
brachycephalic race found at Grenelle, near Paris, is probably Neolithic.
This by no means prevents the Furfooz and the Grenelle types belonging to
the same general brachycephalic race; it is altogether probable that they
do, and that with them may be included the Ofnet broad-heads.
[Illustration: FIG. 258. Section of the grotto of Furfooz, showing the
burial of 16 skeletons of the Furfooz race and the entrance of the grotto
blocked by a mass of stone. After Dupont.]
[Illustration: FIG. 259. One of the type skulls of the broad-headed
Furfooz race, from the burial grotto of Furfooz, Belgium. After de
Quatrefages and Hamy. One-quarter life size.]
[Illustration: FIG. 260. Restoration of the broad-headed man of Grenelle,
modelled by Mascré, under the direction of A. Rutot. This type of head is
similar to that of Ofnet.]
There are several opinions regarding the geographic centres from which
these broad-heads entered Europe; it is generally believed that they came
from the high plateaus of central Asia. By Giuffrida-Ruggeri the Furfooz
race is identified with the existing broad-headed Alpine race (_Homo
sapiens alpinus_), and is mistakenly adduced as proof that the Alpine race
originated in Europe and is not in any way related to the Mongolian races
of central Asia. A more conservative view(17) is that the recent European
broad-headed types commonly included under the Alpine race cannot yet be
traced back to the Furfooz-Grenelle ancestors, because their connection is
too problematical. Schliz, on the other hand, considers that the
Furfooz-Grenelle race survived in northwestern Europe and corresponds with
that which became the builders of the megalithic dolmens of Neolithic
times, the latter being but slightly modified descendants of the original
Furfooz race; he believes, moreover, that these broad-headed peoples first
occupied central Europe and then extended to western Europe, where they
correspond to the Alpine race, at least in part; that they also migrated
to the north and were the basis of the broad-headed races now found in
Holland and Denmark.
SOUTHERN ORIGIN OF THE NARROW-HEADED (MEDITERRANEAN?) RACES
While it seems probable that the broad-heads represent a central migration
from Eurasia, evidence of an industrial and cultural character indicates
that the narrow-heads came from the south; this is seen both in the south
Mediterranean origin of the Tardenoisian flint industry and in the new
schematic influences on the decadent art of Upper Palæolithic times.
It seems, observes Breuil, as if the schematic influences in art during
Upper Palæolithic times always extend from the south toward the north;
they predominate entirely in the painted rocks of Andalusia, in the
Pyrenees, and in Dordogne. In the grotto of Marsoulas, Haute-Garonne, the
Azilian _motifs_ are clearly superposed upon the Magdalenian polychromes.
This purely schematic phase, which abruptly follows the figure art of
middle Magdalenian times, first made itself felt in the late Magdalenian.
There was a sudden loss of realism which does not indicate affiliation but
rather the infiltration of strange elements from the south; the precursors
of the destructive invasion of the Azilian-Tardenoisian tribes who were
driven from their Mediterranean homes by the westward advance of the
conquering Neolithic races. We imagine(18) that in southern Spain there
dwelt in Upper Palæolithic times a population differing from the
Magdalenians of France and of the Cantabrian Mountains in their lower
artistic tastes. It would therefore appear that the schematic art had its
home toward the south of the peninsula of Spain about the time of the
invasion of the Azilian culture in France.
NORTHERN ORIGIN OF THE BALTIC (TEUTONIC?) RACES
For the first time the retreat of the Scandinavian ice-fields and the less
severe climate permitted a northern migration route along the shores of
the Baltic. This is the first known migration of any tribes along this
route, which throughout all glacial times had been blocked by the vicinity
of the Scandinavian and Baltic ice-fields, but which was now opened by the
approach of the more genial climate which succeeded the long Postglacial
Stage. Whether this Baltic invasion was the advance wave of a northern
long-headed Teutonic race is wholly a matter of conjecture.
"Other peoples," observes Breuil,(19) "known at present only from their
industries, were advancing toward the close of the Upper Palæolithic along
the northern and southern shores of the Baltic and persisted for an
appreciable time before the arrival of the tribes introducing the early
Neolithic Campignian culture which accumulated in the kitchen-middens
along the same shores. Like the southern races of Azilian-Tardenoisian
times, these northerly tribes were truly Pre-Neolithic, ignorant both of
agriculture and of pottery; they brought with them no domesticated animals
excepting the dog, which is known at Mugem, at Tourasse, and at Oban, in
northwestern Scotland. In the use of bone harpoons of elegant form and in
the taste displayed in fine decorations engraved upon bone, these tribes
suggest the culture of the Magdalenians, but a close examination shows
that it could not have been derived from the Magdalenian type. The
community of style with the painted and engraved figures found in western
Siberia and in the central Ural region and north of the Altai Mountains
denotes rather an Asiatic and Siberian origin.
"The decorative designs of these Baltic peoples were very different from
those of the Crô-Magnons in Magdalenian times, and are not schematic; the
conception of the animal figures, although naturalistic, is as crude as
that of the early Aurignacian figures, and is far inferior to that of the
Magdalenian stage." "It is probable," continues Breuil, "that in these
northerly regions the closing cultures of the Upper Palæolithic developed
along more or less parallel lines with those observed in the south in
giving rise to ethnographic elements which travelled along the littoral
regions of the northern seas."
[Illustration: FIG. 261. Implements and decorations showing the
conventional and crude animal designs of the art of the Baltic, from
Maglemose, Denmark. After Reinecke and Obermaier. The implements include
bone harpoons, fish-hooks, horn chisels, awls, spear points, and
smoothers. About one-fifth actual size.]
This race and culture is described by Obermaier(20) as follows:
When primitive man took possession of Denmark the sea-coast was so remote
that he could also reach southern Scandinavia. The station of Maglemose in
the 'Great Moor,' discovered and described by F. L. Sarauw, of Copenhagen,
in 1900, is near the harbor of Mullerup on the western coast of Zealand
and not far from the shore of an ancient freshwater lake formation. These
people were lake-dwellers, living perhaps on rafts but not on dwellings
supported by piles. From these rafts it is supposed the implements dropped
into the lake. The 881 flint implements found here include scrapers,
borers, cleavers, and knives, as well as microlithic flints. They show no
trace of the Neolithic art of polishing, merely suggesting certain chipped
styles observed in the 'kjöddenmöddings.' (See Figs. 263, 264, and 265.)
The influence of the Palæolithic is much stronger, especially in the case
of the microlithic Tardenoisian types. In the industrial culture of
Maglemose, however, far more important than stone are implements of horn
and bone. These the Maglemose folk obtained from the wild ox, moose, stag,
and roe-deer, fashioning them into tools of various types, some of which
are shown in Fig. 261. Many of these tools are ornamented with
conventional designs or very crude animal outlines on one or both
surfaces.
The forests of this time consisted of the characteristic northern flora
including numerous evergreens, the birch, aspen, hazel, and elm, but
without any trace of the oak. There is absolutely no trace of pottery in
the Maglemose deposits. Of great interest is the fact that skeletal
remains of the domestic dog are found here.
The Maglemose culture of the Baltic region is regarded as contemporary
with the Azilian and Tardenoisian in the south. It contains types, not of
flint but of bone, which are prophetic of the Neolithic. Traces of this
culture have been found throughout northern Germany, in Denmark, and in
southern Sweden, as well as to the east and in the Baltic provinces.
Although no human remains have as yet been discovered, it is highly
probable that these people belonged to the northern Teutonic races.
CONCLUSION AS TO THE RELATIONSHIPS OF THE PALÆOLITHIC RACES
Thus in southern, central, and northern Europe the close of Upper
Palæolithic times is marked by the invasion of new Eurasiatic races, all
in a Pre-Neolithic stage of industry and art. It is not improbable that
these races were advance waves from the same geographic regions as the
Neolithic tribes which followed them.
From the earliest Palæolithic to Neolithic times it does not appear that
western Europe was ever a centre of human evolution in the sense that it
gave rise to a single new species of man. The main racial evolution and
the earlier and later branches of the human family were established in the
east and successively found their way westward; nor is there at present
any ground for believing that any very prolonged evolution or
transformation of human types occurred in western Europe.
We should regard as wholly unproved the notion that either of these
Palæolithic races of western Europe gave rise to others which succeeded
them in geologic time; the only sequence of this sort to which some degree
of probability may be attached is that the Heidelberg race was ancestral
to the Neanderthal race.
In most instances, such races as the Piltdown, the Crô-Magnon, the Brünn,
the Furfooz-Grenelle, and the Mediterranean arrived fully formed, with all
their mental and physical attributes and tendencies very distinctly
developed. There is some evidence, but not of a very conclusive kind, that
the modification of certain of these races in western Europe was partly in
the nature of a decline; this was apparently the case both with the
Neanderthals and with the Crô-Magnons.
We may therefore imagine that the family tree or lines of descent of the
races of the Old Stone Age consisted of a number of entirely separate
branches, which had been completely formed in the great Eurasiatic
continent, a land mass infinitely larger and more capable of producing a
variety of races than the diminutive peninsular area of western Europe.
A review of these races in descending order, in respect to stature, the
cephalic index, and brain capacity, is presented in the following table:
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
| |Frontal| Height|Cephalic| Brain | Height |
| | Angle | of | Index |Capacity | |
| | | Skull | | | |
|---------------------|-------|-------|--------|---------|---------|
|RECENT. | | | | c.cm. |ft. in. |
| (_H. sapiens_). | | | | | |
| European | | | | | |
| (average). | 90 | 59 | ... |1400-1500| 5 7 |
| | | | | | |
|UPPER PALÆOLITHIC. | | | | | |
| Ofnet Race | | | | | |
| (brachycephalic) | ... | ... | 86.21 | 1400 | ... |
| Ofnet Race | | | | | |
| (dolichocephalic)| ... | ... | 70.50 | 1500 | ... |
| Crô-Magnon Race | | | | | |
| (old man of | | | | | |
| Crô-Magnon type) | ... | ... | 73.76 | 1590 | 6 |
| Grimaldi |} | {|?63- |1775-1880|5 10-1/2-|
| (Crô-Magnons) |} ... | ... {|?76.27 | ... | 6 4-1/2|
| Chancelade | ... | ... | 72.02 | 1700 | 4 11 |
| Aurignac | ... | ... | 65.7 | ... | 5 3 |
| Grimaldi Race. | | | | | |
| Grimaldi type | | | | | |
| (negroid) | ... | ... | 69.27 | 1580 | 5 1 |
| Brünn Race. | | | | | |
| Brünn I | 75 | 51.22 | 65.7 or| 1350 | ... |
| | | | 68.2 | | |
|LOWER PALÆOLITHIC. | | | | | |
| Neanderthal Race | | | | | |
| (_H. | | | | | |
| Neanderthalensis_).| | | | | |
| La Chapelle | 65 | 40.5 | 75 | 1626 | 5 3 |
| Spy II | 67 | 44.3 | 75.7 |? 1723 | 5 3 |
| Spy I | 57.5 | 40.9 | 70 |? 1562 | 5 4 |
| La Ferrassie I | ... | ... | ... | ... | 5 5 |
| La Ferrassie II | ... | ... | ... | ... | 4 10-1/2|
| La Quina | ... | ... | ... | 1367 | ... |
| | | | |(approx.)| |
| Krapina D | 66 | 42.2 |?83.7 | ... | ... |
| Neanderthal | 62 | 40.4 | 73.9 | 1408 | 5 4 |
| Gibraltar | 66 or| 40 | 77.9 | 1250 or| ... |
| | 73-74| | | 1296 | |
| Pre-Neanderthaloids| | | | | |
| Piltdown Race. | | | | | |
| Piltdown | ... | ... |?78 or |? 1300 | ... |
| | | |?79 |? 1500 | |
| Trinil Race | | | | | |
| (_Pithecanthropus_)| 52.5 | 34.2 | 73.4 or| 850-1000| 5 7 |
| | | | 70 | 900 | |
|ANTHROPOID APES. | | | | | |
| Apes (maximum) | 56 | 37.7 | ... | 600 | ... |
| | | | | | |
| | | | | | |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
------------+
|Comparative|
| Length of |
|Arm and Leg|
|-----------|
| |
| |
| |
| 69.73% |
| |
| |
| |
| ... |
| |
| ... |
| |
| |
| ... |
|66.05%-69% |
| |
| ... |
| ... |
| |
| |
| 63.12% |
| |
| ... |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| ... |
| ... |
| ... |
|? 68% |
| 68% |
| ... |
| |
| ... |
| ... |
| ... |
| |
| |
| |
| ... |
| |
| |
| ... |
| |
| |
| 104% |
|(chimpanzee|
| minimum.)|
------------+
The chief authorities for these measurements are Schwalbe, Dubois,
Keith, Smith, Woodward, Boule, Sollas, Sera, Klaatsch, Fraipont,
Makowsky, Verneau, Testut, and Broca.
[Illustration: FIG. 262. Tree showing the main theoretic lines of descent
of the chief Pre-Neolithic races discovered in western Europe. (The
Grimaldi race is omitted on account of its aberrant character. The
northern Teutonic long-heads are also omitted.) The Trinil, Heidelberg,
and Neanderthal races are represented as offshoots of one great branch.
The Piltdown race is represented as an independent branch of quite unknown
relations to the other races. It is probable that the five or six branches
of _Homo sapiens_ discovered in the Upper Palæolithic separated from each
other in Lower Palæolithic times in Asia. Of these the Brünn race is by
far the most primitive.]
The migration routes of invasion of the successive Lower Palæolithic
races--the Piltdown, the Heidelberg, and the Neanderthal--are entirely
unknown; we can only infer from the wide distribution of the Chellean and
Acheulean cultures to the south, along the northern African coast, as well
as to the east, that these races may have had a southerly or
circum-Mediterranean origin. This does not mean that either of these Lower
Palæolithic races were of negroid or Ethiopian affinity, because the
Neanderthals show absolutely no negroid characters. In fact, throughout
all Palæolithic time the solitary instance of the two Grimaldi skeletons
furnishes the sole anatomical evidence we possess of the entrance of a
negroid people into Europe, which contrasts widely with the overwhelming
evidence of the dominance in western Europe first of the non-negroid
Neanderthals, and then of the Crô-Magnons who probably belonged to the
Caucasian stock.
The evidence as to the sources and migrations of the Upper Palæolithic
races is also indirect. The theory of the Crô-Magnons entering Europe by
the southerly or Mediterranean route we have seen to rest upon purely
cultural or industrial grounds, namely, the spread of the Aurignacian
industry around the Mediterranean shores. On the other hand, the
succeeding culture, the Solutrean, and the succeeding race to enter
Europe, the Brünn, both appear to be of central or of direct easterly
origin. It is only toward the close of the Upper Palæolithic that another
southerly or Mediterranean invasion occurs, bringing in the microlithic
Tardenoisian culture, which, although anatomical evidence is wanting,
would appear to be an advance wave of the great invasion of the true
'Mediterranean' race. During the Upper Palæolithic Epoch another invasion
apparently occurs from the east along the central migration route, namely,
that of the broad-headed Furfooz-Grenelle races.
Thus in surveying the whole period of the Old Stone Age we find that there
is some evidence for the theory of an alternation of southerly, of
easterly, and finally of northeasterly invasions of races bringing in new
industries and ideas.
TRANSITION TO THE NEOLITHIC. THE CAMPIGNIAN. THE ROBENHAUSIAN
Apart from the special and somewhat debated question of the place of the
Campignian culture in the prehistory of Europe we may close our survey of
the Upper Palæolithic by pointing out some of its contrasts with the
Neolithic.
[Illustration: FIG. 263. Stages in the manufacture of the Neolithic stone
ax, or _hache_. After de Mortillet. 534. _Hache_ of flint, roughly flaked
into shape, from Olendon, Calvados. 535. _Hache_ of flint from Oise, ready
for polishing. It has been finely chipped to a shape of perfect symmetry,
with especial care to smooth out and reduce the large facets made by the
preliminary flaking. 536. _Hache_ of flint after the first polishing, from
Abbeville, on the Somme. The cutting edge has been completely polished,
but along the sides the facets made by flaking are plainly visible. 537.
_Hache_ of flint completely polished, from Le Vesinet, Seine-et-Oise. In
this last stage one scarcely notices the faint traces of facets which show
that this _hache_ has passed through all the preceding stages. Two-ninths
actual size.]
The arrival of the Neolithic cultures and industries in western Europe
marks one of the most profound changes in all prehistory and introduces us
to a new period which must be treated in an entirely different historic
spirit. This new era began between 7,000 to 10,000 years ago, or with the
close of the Daun stage, the last geologic feature of Postglacial times.
There are two theories regarding the close of Upper Palæolithic and the
beginning of Neolithic times. The older theory, which still has some
adherents, is that the Upper Palæolithic races and industries suddenly
gave way before the arrival of new and superior races bringing in the
Neolithic culture. The newer theory is that there are evidences of gradual
transfusions from the Upper Palæolithic into the Neolithic cultures and
that these are found in some of the oldest Neolithic sites.
[Illustration: FIG. 264. Stone hatchet, or _tranchet_, from the type
station of Campigny, after Salmon, d'Ault du Mesnil, and Capitan. One-half
actual size.]
[Illustration: FIG. 265. Stone pick, or _pic_, from the type station of
Campigny, after Salmon, d'Ault du Mesnil, and Capitan. About one-half
actual size.]
In 1898 there appeared an article(21) by Philippe Salmon, d'Ault du
Mesnil, and Capitan, entitled, "Le Campignien," defending the theory of an
early and transitional Neolithic stage, the _Campignian_.(22) The type
station of this early culture was pointed out by Salmon in 1886; it lies a
little more than a mile northwest of the village of Blangy, on the River
Bresle, on a site well placed for natural defense. The remains of the
hut-dwellings of this camp and of various industrial objects appear to
indicate that this station belongs to the earliest phase of the Neolithic
Period. These Campignians owe little to the culture or industry of the
races which previously occupied this region of western Europe; they are
entire strangers, purely Neolithic in type.
While this is the age of polished, as distinguished from chipped, stone,
the axe (_hache_) of polished stone is still very rare in the Campignian.
There prevail flaked flint types common to all the previous stages of the
Stone Age, such as the knives (_couteaux_), planers (_grattoirs_), and
spear or dart heads (_pointes de sagaie_), but we notice the appearance of
two entirely new flint implements: first, the triangular knife or stone
hatchet (_tranchet_), of the type (Fig. 264) common in the Danish
kitchen-middens; this knife has a broad, sharp cutting edge flaked on one
side; second (Fig. 265), there is a sort of elongated axe or pick (_pic_)
with chipped sides and an end more or less conical in shape.(23) These
people also made use of large flakes of flint. If we regard the
Campignian as a prolonged industrial stage in northern Europe, it
certainly precedes the appearance of abundant axe heads of polished flint.
In France it seems to appear occasionally as a local phase of the
Neolithic.
[Illustration: FIG. 266. Restoration of the Neolithic man of Spiennes,
Belgium, modelled by Mascré under the direction of A. Rutot.]
The prevailing opinion at present is that the Campignian distinctly
precedes the typical Neolithic of the Swiss lake-dwellings, a stage known
as the _Robenhausian_. Thus the Neolithic culture becomes fully
established in the period of the Swiss Lake Dwellings, remains of which
are found at Moosseedorf, Wauwyl, Concise on Lake Neufchâtel, and
Robenhausen on Lake Pfaeffikon. The latter is the _Robenhausian_ type
station.
DISTINCTIVE FEATURES OF THE NEOLITHIC EPOCH
The first of these is the presence of implements of polished stone which
find their way gradually into western Europe. The neoliths at first are
greatly outnumbered by chipped and flaked implements, and some of the
latter show a survival of the familiar types of the Old Stone Age, while
others belong to entirely distinct types which had an independent
development in the far East.
The chief economic change is seen in the rudimentary knowledge of
agriculture and in the use of a variety of plants and seeds, accompanied
by the gradual appearance of implements for the preparation of the soil
and for harvesting the crops. This new source of food supply leads to the
establishment of permanent stations and camps and more or less to the
abandonment of nomadic modes of life. Near the ancient camp sites and
villages, therefore, are found implements for the preparation of skins and
hides, because the chase was still maintained for purposes of clothing as
well as for food.
Still more distinctive of the Neolithic is the introduction of pottery,
which is at first used in the preparation of food. In the hearths or
kitchen-middens and in the refuse heaps of the camps we no longer find
evidence of the splitting of the jaws of mammals and of the long and short
bones of the limbs, or even of the larger foot bones, in search of marrow,
which is such a universal feature of the Upper Palæolithic deposits.
The artistic impulse of the north is very crude and naturalistic. In the
Spanish peninsula, accompanying and following the schematic period
described in the early part of this chapter, there was a long stage of
development in which men were painting on rocks, mostly in the form of
silhouettes, naturalistic figures of animals and of people.(24)
The presence of the moose in these drawings concurs with that of the two
bison represented in the cavern of Cogul and would tend to indicate that
these paintings belong to Upper Palæolithic times, although it is now
considered that they are of early Neolithic age. The character of these
animal designs is totally different from that of the Magdalenian period in
the north and is analogous rather to that of the Bushmen of South Africa.
The authors of these frescos represent not only the ibex, stag, and wild
cattle but also the horse, moose, fallow deer, wolf, and occasionally the
birds. There are many features in this art which show its absolute
independence of origin from that of the Magdalenian of the north, among
them the frequent presence of composition and the almost invariable
presence of human figures.
[Illustration: FIG. 267. Fresco from the rock shelter of Alpera, Albacete,
Spain, painted in dark red and representing a stag hunt, the hunters being
armed with bows and arrows. Attributed to the southern races arriving in
Neolithic times. After Breuil and Obermaier.]
The frescos in the Spanish caverns of Alpera and of Cogul recall those of
southern France but are almost always grouped in series of the chase, of
encampment, and perhaps of war. This frequency of human figures, the
representations of the bow and arrow, and the presence of a small animal
which may be recognized as the domesticated dog are indications of an
entirely distinct race coming from the south and bringing in a new spirit
in art which has no relation whatever to that of the Magdalenian.
NEOLITHIC MAMMALIAN LIFE
Even in the oldest Neolithic deposits no trace of the horse as an object
of food appears. The domestication of this animal was introduced from the
east, and thus it ceased to be an object of the chase. The newly arriving
tribes were undoubtedly attracted by the abundance of horses, both of the
forest and Celtic types, which had survived from Upper Palæolithic times.
A very distinctive feature of the modern horses, however, should be
mentioned, that is, the presence of a forelock covering the face, no trace
of which is indicated in any of the Upper Palæolithic carvings or
engravings.
The wild animal life of western Europe at this time is a direct survival
of the great Eurasiatic forest and meadow fauna which we have traced from
the earliest Palæolithic times. It includes the bison, the long-horned
urus, the stag, the roe-deer, the moose, the wild boar, the forest horse,
the Celtic horse, the beaver, the hare, and the squirrel. The fallow deer
(_Cervus dama_) also appears more abundantly. Among the carnivora are the
brown bear, the badger, the marten, the otter, the wolf, the fox, the
wildcat, and the wolverene. The lion has disappeared entirely from western
Europe. The reindeer survives only in the north.
As observed above, two of these wild animals were early chosen by the
invaders for domestication, namely, the plateau or Celtic horse and the
forest horse. The former type is found in the Neolithic deposits of Essex,
England. The wild urus (_Bos primigenius_) was hunted but was not
domesticated.
Two new varieties of domestic cattle appear, neither of which has been
previously observed in western Europe. The first of these is the 'Celtic
shorthorn' (_Bos longifrons_), the probable ancestor of the small breeds
of British short-horned and hornless cattle. The second is the 'longhorn'
(_Bos taurus_), which shows some points of resemblance to the 'urus' (_Bos
primigenius_) but is not directly related to it. Direct wild ancestors of
this latter animal are said to occur in the Pleistocene of Italy. A new
type of pig also appears, the so-called turf pig (_Sus scrofa palustris_).
The Neolithic invaders, or men of the New Stone Age, thus brought with
them, or domesticated from among the animals which they found in the
forests of western Europe, a great variety of the same types of animals as
those domesticated to-day, namely, cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, horses, and
dogs.
[Illustration: FIG. 268. Map showing the geographic distribution of the
three principal cranial types of man inhabiting western Europe at the
present time. Prepared after Ripley's maps in his _Races of Europe_. Also
the restricted area neighboring the Vézère valley, where the supposed
descendants of the disharmonic type of the Crô-Magnons are still to be
found. Other small Crô-Magnon colonies are not represented. The
heavy-faced lines show those districts where the race indicated is most
numerous and found in the greatest perfection of type.]
THE PREHISTORIC AND HISTORIC RACES OF EUROPE
Before the close of Neolithic times all the direct ancestors of the modern
races of Europe had not only established themselves, but had begun to
separate into those larger and smaller colonies which now mark out the
great anthropological divisions of western Europe. It is therefore
interesting to glance at the cranial distinctions of the men who
successively entered western Europe in Upper Palæolithic and Neolithic
times. The upper part of the table corresponds with that of Ripley.(25)
MODERN, NEOLITHIC, AND UPPER PALÆOLITHIC EUROPEAN RACES OF THE EXISTING
SPECIES OF MAN (_HOMO SAPIENS_)
+--------------------------------------------------------------
| | | | | | | |
| | Type | Head | Face | Hair | Eyes |Stature |
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
|----|-------------|-------|-------|---------|-------|--------|
| VI.|TEUTONIC |Long, |High, |Very |Blue. |Tall. |
| |(? Baltic). |narrow.|narrow.|light. | | |
|----|-------------|-------|-------|---------|-------|--------|
| V.|MEDITERRANEAN|Long, |High, |Dark |Dark. |Medium, |
| |(? Ofnet). |narrow.|narrow.|brown or | |slender.|
| | | | |black. | | |
|----|-------------|-------|-------|---------|-------|--------|
| IV.|ALPINE, |Round. |Broad. |Light |Hazel- |Medium, |
| |CELTIC | | |chestnut.|gray. |stocky. |
| |(? Ofnet). | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
|----|-------------|-------|-------|---------|-------|--------|
|III.|FURFOOZ- |Broad. |Medium.| | | |
| |GRENELLE | | | ? | ? | ? |
| |(? Ofnet) | | | | | |
|----|-------------|-------|-------|---------|-------|--------|
| II.|BRÜNN- |Long. |Low, | | | |
| |PŘEDMOST | |medium.| ? | ? | ? |
| |(Moravia). | | | | | |
|----|-------------|-------|-------|---------|-------|--------|
| I.|CRÔ-MAGNON. |Long. |Low and| ? | ? |Tall to |
| | | |broad. | | |medium. |
+--------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------+
| |Cephalic|
| Nose | Index |
| |Average |
| |per cent|
|---------|--------|
|Narrow, | 75 |
|aquiline.| |
|---------|--------|
|Rather | |
|broad. | 75 |
| | |
|---------|--------|
|Variable;| 87 |
|rather | |
|broad; | |
|heavy | |
| | |
|---------|--------|
| | |
| ? | 79-85 |
| | |
|---------|--------|
| | 68.2 or|
| ? | 65.7 |
| | |
|---------|--------|
|Narrow, | ? 63- |
|aquiline.| ? 76.27|
-------------------+
It would appear that five out of these six great racial types had entered
Europe before the close of Upper Palæolithic times, namely, I to V in the
above table.
How about the sixth type; the narrow-headed, light-haired people of the
north, the modern Teutonic type? This question cannot be answered at
present. We have, however, high authority for the invasion of a new
northern race, which may have been of the Teutonic type, as occurring
before the close of Palæolithic times. These were the people described
above, migrating along the shores of the Baltic with a new northern
Maglemose culture and crude naturalistic art.
CONCLUSIONS AS TO THE OLD STONE AGE
The above outline of the beginnings of the Neolithic Age shows that the
Palæolithic represents a complete cycle of human development; we have
traced its rise, its perfection, its decline. During this dawning period
of the long prehistory of Europe the dominant features are the very great
antiquity of the spirit of man and the fundamental similarity between the
great steps of prehistory and of history.
The rise of the spirit of man through the Old Stone Age cannot be traced
continuously in a single race because the races were changing; as at the
present time, one race replaced another, or two races dwelt side by side.
The sudden appearance in Europe at least 25,000 years ago of a human race
with a high order of brain power and ability was not a leap forward but
the effect of a long process of evolution elsewhere. When the prehistoric
archæology of eastern Europe and of Asia has been investigated we may
obtain some light on this antecedent development.
During this age the rudiments of all the modern economic powers of man
were developed: the guidance of the hand by the mind, manifested in his
creative industry; his inventive faculty; the currency or spread of his
inventions; the adaptation of means to ends in utensils, in weapons, and
in clothing. The same is true of the æsthetic powers, of close
observation, of the sense of form, of proportion, of symmetry, the
appreciation of beauty of animal form and the beauty of line, color, and
form in modelling and sculpture. Finally, the schematic representation and
notation of ideas so far as we can perceive was alphabetic rather than
pictographic. Of the musical sense we have at present no evidence. The
religious sense, the appreciation of some power or powers behind the
great phenomena of nature, is evidenced in the reverence for the dead, in
burials apparently related to notions of a future existence of the dead,
and especially in the mysteries of the art of the caverns.
All these steps indicate the possession of certain _generic_ faculties of
mind similar to our own. That this mind of the Upper Palæolithic races was
of a kind capable of a high degree of education we entertain no doubt
whatever because of the very advanced order of brain which is developed in
the higher members of these ancient races; in fact, it may be fairly
assumed from experiences in the education of existing races of much lower
brain capacity, such as the Eskimo or Fuegian. The emergence of such a
mind from the mode of life of the Old Stone Age is one of the greatest
mysteries of psychology and of history.
The rise and fall of cultures and of industries, which is at this very day
the outstanding feature of the history of western Europe, was fully
typified in the very ancient contests with stone weapons which were waged
along the borders of the Somme, the Marne, the Seine, and the Danube. No
doubt, each invasion, each conquest, each substitution of an industry or a
culture had within it the impelling contest of the spirit and will of man,
the intelligence directing various industrial and warlike implements, the
superiority either of force or of mind.
(=1=) Cartailhac, 1903.1, pp. 330, 331.
(=2=) Déchelette, 1908.1, vol. I, pp. 314-320.
(=3=) _Op. cit._, p. 320.
(=4=) _Op. cit._, pp. 505-510.
(=5=) Breuil, 1912.6, pp. 2-6.
(=6=) _Ibid._, 1912.7, pp. 232, 233.
(=7=) _Ibid._, 1912.6, p. 20.
(=8=) Koken, 1912.1, pp. 172, 173, 176-178, 180, 181, 201.
(=9=) Schmidt, 1912.1, p. 40.
(=10=) Breuil, 1912.7, p. 225.
(=11=) _Op. cit._, p. 233.
(=12=) Schmidt, 1912.1, p. 41.
(=13=) Schliz, 1912.1, pp. 242-244.
(=14=) _Op. cit._, p. 252.
(=15=) Boule, 1913.1, p. 210.
(=16=) Dupont, 1871.1.
(=17=) Fischer, 1913.1, p. 356.
(=18=) Breuil, 1912.5.
(=19=) _Ibid._, 1912.7, pp. 235, 236.
(=20=) Obermaier, 1912.1, pp. 467-469.
(=21=) Salmon, 1898.1.
(=22=) Munro, 1912.1, pp. 275-277.
(=23=) Déchelette, 1908.1, vol. I, p. 326.
(=24=) Breuil, 1912.5, p. 560.
(=25=) Ripley, 1899.1, p. 121.
APPENDIX
NOTE I
LUCRETIUS AND BOSSUET ON THE EARLY EVOLUTION OF MAN
Lucretius's conception[BC] of the gradual development of human culture
undoubtedly came from Greek sources beginning with Empedocles. His
indebtedness is beautifully expressed in the opening lines of Book III of
his _De Rerum Natura_:
"O Glory of the Greeks! who first didst chase
The mind's dread darkness with celestial day,
The worth illustrating of human life--
Thee, glad, I follow--with firm foot resolved
To tread the path imprinted by thy steps;
Not urged by competition, but, alone,
Studious thy toils to copy; for, in powers,
How can the swallow with the swan contend?
Or the young kid, all tremulous of limb,
Strive with the strength, the fleetness of the horse;
Thou, sire of science! with paternal truths
Thy sons enrichest: from thy peerless page,
Illustrious chief! as from the flowery field
Th' industrious bee culls honey, we alike
Cull many a golden precept--golden each--
And each most worthy everlasting life.
For as the doctrines of thy godlike mind
Prove into birth how nature first uprose,
All terrors vanish; the blue walls of heaven
Fly instant--and the boundless void throughout
Teems with created things."
The same conception[BD] of the early periods in the development of
humanity is found in the _Histoire universelle_ of Bossuet, in a curious
passage undoubtedly suggested by Lucretius:
"Tout commence: it n'y a point d'histoire ancienne où il ne paraisse, non
seulement dans ces premiers temps, mais encore longtemps après, des
vestiges manifestes de la nouveauté du monde. On voit les lois s'établir,
les mœurs se polir, et les empires se former: le genre humain sort peu à
peu de l'ignorance; l'expérience l'instruit, et les arts sont inventés ou
perfectionnés. A mesure que les hommes se multiplient, la terre se peuple
de proche en proche: on passe les montagnes et les précipices; on traverse
les fleuves et enfin les mers, et on établit de nouvelles habitations. La
terre, qui n'était au commencement qu'une forêt immense, prend une autre
forme; les bois abattus font place aux champs, aux pâturages, aux hameaux,
aux bourgades, et enfin aux villes. On s'instruit à prendre certains
animaux, à apprivoiser les autres, et à les accoutumer au service. On eut
d'abord à combattre les bêtes farouches: les premiers héros se signalèrent
dans ces guerres; elles firent inventer les armes, que les hommes
tournèrent après contre leurs semblables. Nemrod, le premier guerrier et
le premier conquérant, est appelé dans l'écriture un fort chasseur. Avec
les animaux, l'homme sut encore adoucir les fruits et les plantes; il plia
jusqu'aux métaux à son usage, et peu à peu il y fit servir toute la
nature."
NOTE II
HORACE ON THE EARLY EVOLUTION OF MAN
Horace[BE] also adopted the Greek conception of the natural evolution of
human culture:
"Your men of words, who rate all crimes alike,
Collapse and founder, when on fact they strike:
Sense, custom, all, cry out against the thing,
And high expedience, right's perennial spring.
When men first crept from out earth's womb, like worms,
Dumb speechless creatures, with scarce human forms,
With nails or doubled fists they used to fight
For acorns or for sleeping-holes at night;
Clubs followed next; at last to arms they came,
Which growing practice taught them how to frame,
Till words and names were found, wherewith to mould
The sounds they uttered, and their thoughts unfold;
Thenceforth they left off fighting, and began
To build them cities, guarding man from man,
And set up laws as barriers against strife
That threatened person, property, or wife.
'Twas fear of wrong gave birth to right, you'll find,
If you but search the records of mankind.
Nature knows good and evil, joy and grief,
But just and unjust are beyond her brief:
Nor can philosophy, though finely spun,
By stress of logic prove the two things one,
To strip your neighbor's garden of a flower
And rob a shrine at midnight's solemn hour."
NOTE III
ÆSCHYLUS ON THE EARLY EVOLUTION OF MAN
Æschylus, in _Prometheus Bound_,[BF] presents one of the earliest known as
well as one of the noblest conceptions of the natural development of the
human faculties:
"And let me tell you--not as taunting men,
But teaching you the intention of my gifts,
How, first beholding, they beheld in vain,
And hearing, heard not, but, like shapes in dreams,
Mixed all things wildly down the tedious time,
Nor knew to build a house against the sun
With wicketed sides, nor any woodwork knew,
But lived, like silly ants, beneath the ground
In hollow caves unsunned. There came to them
No steadfast sign of winter, nor of spring
Flower-perfumed, nor of summer full of fruit,
But blindly and lawlessly they did all things,
Until I taught them how the stars do rise
And set in mystery, and devised for them
Number, the inducer of philosophies,
The synthesis of Letters, and, beside,
The artificer of all things, Memory
That sweet Muse-mother."
NOTE IV
'UROCHS,' OR 'AUEROCHS,' AND 'WISENT'
Kobelt[BG] discusses the habits of the wild cattle and of the bison as
follows:
"One is inclined to consider the ancient wild cattle of Europe, the
Urochs, or Auerochs, as the inhabitants of boggy forests. The Auerochs
survived to the seventeenth century in the forests of Poland and then
became extinct. It is described as of a black color with a light stripe
along the back.
"The bison, or Wisent, is generally regarded as the inhabitant of the open
steppe, or at least of dryer, opener woods; it differs so little from the
American bison that both can be considered only as races of one species,
the _Bison priscus_ of Pleistocene times, which spread over the temperate
zone of both hemispheres. The American bison has always avoided the woods
and roamed the prairies in countless herds. But all reliable historic
records describe the Wisent as a forest animal, and its few remaining
survivors are entirely limited to the forests. Apparently it was never so
widely and generally distributed as the Auerochs and reached western
Europe later, for it is not found in the north, and never in conjunction
with the mammoth and rhinoceros. Remains of the bison have also been found
in Asia Minor. In Lithuania the bison lives together in herds, resenting
the approach of all strangers. In the Caucasus it lives wild in certain
high valleys and here it is a true mountain animal, its favorite haunts
being the forests of beech, hornbeam, and evergreens from 4,000 to 8,000
feet above sea-level. Only in winter does it descend to lower levels. It
is uncertain whether the Wisent does not also occur in Siberia. Kohn and
Andree assert positively that it is found in large numbers in the wooded
mountains of Sajan, in Siberia (1895)."
According to Kobelt, much confusion in the nomenclature of these animals
has resulted from the fact that, after the extinction of the 'Urochs,' or
'Auerochs,' in the seventeenth century, the term 'Auerochs' was frequently
used by writers as synonymous with 'Wisent,' or bison, an entirely
different animal.
NOTE V
THE CRÔ-MAGNONS OF THE CANARY ISLANDS[BH]
"In the museums of the Grand Canary, Teneriffe, and Palma a considerable
number of prehistoric vessels are preserved. Anthropologists are agreed
that the natives of the archipelago at the time of its conquest, in the
fifteenth century, were a composite people made up of at least three
stocks: a Crô-Magnon type, a Hamitic or Berber type, and a brachycephalic
type. These natives were in a Neolithic stage of civilization. Their arms
were slings, clubs, and spears. Most of the people went naked, except for
a girdle round the loins, and there was no intercommunication between the
islands. Their stone implements were of obsidian or of basalt. Only four
polished axes are known from the Grand Canary and one from Gomera. The
axes are of chloromelanite, and of a type contemporary with megalithic
structures in France. The first colonists probably brought the knowledge
of making pottery with them, but each island developed an individuality of
its own. Even the painted ware of the Grand Canary appears to be of local
origin and not due to external influence. Although undoubted Lybian
inscriptions in the Grand Canary and lava querns of Iron Age type prove
that the archipelago was visited before its conquest by the Spaniards
without affecting the general civilization of its inhabitants."
GUANCHE CHARACTERISTICS RESEMBLING CRÔ-MAGNON[BI]
The following excerpts are quoted from the account given by the
distinguished anthropologist, Dr. René Verneau, of his observations during
a five years' residence in the Canary Islands.
Page 22.
"Without doubt the race that has played the most important rôle in the
Canaries is the Guanche. They were settled in all the islands, and in
Teneriffe they preserved their distinctive characteristics and customs
until the conquest by Spain in the fifteenth century.
"The Guanches, who at that time were described as giants, were of great
stature. The minimum measure of the men was 1.70 m. (5 ft. 7 in.).
"I myself met a number of men in the various islands who measured over
1.80 m. (5 ft. 11 in.). Some attained a height of 2 m. (6 ft. 6-1/2 in.).
At Fortaventure the _average_ height of the men was 1.84 m. (6 ft. 3/10
in.), perhaps the greatest known in any people.
"It is a curious fact that the women who gave birth to such men were
comparatively small--I observed a difference of about 20 cm. (8 in.) in
the heights of the two sexes.
"Their skin was light colored--if we may believe the poet Viana--and
sometimes even absolutely white. Dacil, the daughter of the last Guanche
chief of Teneriffe, the valiant Bencomo, who struggled so heroically for
the independence of his country, had a very white complexion and her face
was quite freckled. The hair of the true Guanche should be blond or light
chestnut, and the eyes blue.
"The most striking characteristic of the Guanche race was the shape of the
head and the features of the face. The long skull gave shape to a
beautiful forehead, well developed in every way. Behind, above the
occipital, one notices a large plane contrasting strongly with the marked
prominence of the occipital itself. In addition, the parietal eminences,
placed very high and very distinct from each other, combined to give the
head a _pentagonal form_."
Page 29.
"The Guanche chiefs were much respected. At Teneriffe the coronation of
the chief took place in an enclosure surrounded with stones (the Togaror),
in the presence of nobles and people. One of his nearest kinsmen brought
him the insignia of power. According to Viera y Clavijo, this was the
humerus of one of his ancestors, carefully preserved in a case of leather;
according to Viana, it was the skull of one of his predecessors.
"The chief (Menceg) placed the relic on his head, pronouncing the
sacramental formula: 'I swear upon the bone of him who has borne this
royal crown, that I will imitate his acts and work for the happiness of
my subjects.' Each noble, in turn, then received the bone from the hands
of the chief, placed it upon his shoulder and swore fidelity to his
sovereign.... These chiefs led a very simple life: their food was like
that of the people, their apparel but little more elaborate, and their
dwellings--like those of their subjects--consisted of _caves_, only theirs
were a little larger than those of the common people. They did not disdain
to inspect their flocks or their harvests in person, and were, indeed, no
richer than the average mortal."
Page 31.
"Above all, the ancient Canarians sought to develop strength and agility
in their children. From an early age the boys devoted themselves to games
of skill in order to fit them to become redoubtable warriors. The men
delighted in all bodily exercises and, above all, in wrestling. At Gran
Canaria (Grande Canarie) they often held veritable tourneys, which were
attended by an immense number of people. These could not take place
without the consent of the nobles and of the high priest.
"Permission obtained, the combatants presented themselves at the place of
meeting. This was a circular or rectangular enclosure, surrounded by a
very low wall, allowing free view of the details of the combat. Each
warrior took his place upon a stone of about 40 cm. diameter (15-1/2 in.).
His offensive weapons consisted of three stones, a club, and several
knives of obsidian: his defensive weapon was a simple lance. The skill of
defense consisted in evading the stones by movements of the body, or
parrying the blows with the lance, without moving from the stone on which
stand had been taken. These combats often resulted fatally for one of the
combatants."
Page 34.
"The Guanche understood the use of the sword, and although it was of wood
(pine), it could cut, they say, as if it were of steel.
"To parry blows, they used a lance, as mentioned above, but they also had
shields made of a round of the dragon-tree (_Dracæna draco_).
"The Guanches were essentially shepherds. While their flocks pastured they
played the flute, singing songs of love or of the prowess of their
ancestors. Those songs which have come down to us show them to have been
by no means devoid of poetic inspiration.
"When the care of their stock permitted, they employed their leisure in
fishing. For this they employed various means--sometimes nets, sometimes
fish-hooks, sometimes a simple stick."
Page 47.
"The Guanches were above all troglodytes--that is to say, they lived in
caves. There is no lack of large, well-sheltered caves in the Canary
Islands. The slopes of the mountains and the walls of their ravines are
honeycombed with them. The islanders may have their choice.
"The caves are almost never further excavated. They are used just as they
are.
"Here is a description of one of these caves, the _Grotto of Goldar_:
"The interior is almost square--5 m. (16 ft. 4 in.) along the left side,
5.50 m. (18 ft.) along the right. The width at the back is 4.80 m. (15 ft.
6 in.). A second cave, much smaller, opens from the right wall. All these
walls are _decorated with paintings_. The ceiling is covered with a
uniform coat of red ochre, while the walls are decorated with various
geometric designs in red, black, gray, or white. High up runs a sort of
cornice painted red, and on this background, in white, are groups of two
concentric circles, whose centre is also indicated by a white spot. On the
rear wall the cornice is interrupted by triangles and stripes of red."
Page 61.
"The Guanches never polished their stone weapons."
Page 168.
"Inhabited caves are very numerous at Fortaventure. The population in
certain parts--Mascona, for example--must be quite numerous to judge by
the number of these caves. At a little distance, in the place known as
Hoya de Corralejo, one may still see the _Togaror_, or tribal meeting
place. It is an almost circular enclosure about 40 m. (131 ft. 2 in.) in
diameter, surrounded by a low wall of stones. Six huts, from 2.50 to 4 m.
(8 ft. 2-1/2 in.--13 ft. 1-1/2 in.) in diameter, designed no doubt for the
sacred animals, stood near the Togaror."
Page 245.
"A great number of Canarians still live in caves. Near Caldera de Bandama
(Gran Canaria) there is a whole village of cave dwellers."
Page 264.
At Teneriffe Dr. Verneau received hospitality in a cabin worthy of the
Palæolithic Age.
"I had no need to make any great effort to imagine myself with a
descendant of those brave shepherds of earlier times. My host was an
example of the type--even though the costume was lacking--and his dwelling
completed the illusion. The walls, which gave free access to the wind,
supported a roof composed of unstripped tree trunks covered with branches.
Stones piled on top prevented the wind from tearing it off.
"Hung up on poles to dry were goatskins, destined to serve as sacks for
the gofio (a kind of millet), bottles for water, and shoes for the family.
A reed partition shut off a small corner where the children lay stretched
out pell mell on skins of animals. For furniture, a chest, a _hollowed-out
stone_ which _served as a lamp_, shells which served the same purpose, a
water jar, three stones forming a hearth in one corner, and that was all."
(And this host was the most important personage in the place.)
Page 289.
Another time, also at Teneriffe, Dr. Verneau had a similar experience.
"An old shepherd invited me to his house and offered me some milk. What
was my surprise on seeing the furnishing of his hut! In one corner was a
bed of fern, near by a Guanche mill and a large jar, in all points similar
to those used by the ancient islanders. A reed flute, a wooden bowl and a
goatskin sack full of gofio completed the appointments of his home. I
could scarcely believe my eyes on examining the jar and the mill. Seeing
my astonishment, the old man explained that he had found them in a cave
where 'the Guanches' lived, and that he had used them for many years. I
could not persuade him to part with these curiosities. To my offers of
money he answered that he needed none for the short time he had still to
live."
NOTE VI
THE LENGTH OF POSTGLACIAL TIME AND THE ANTIQUITY OF THE AURIGNACIAN
CULTURE
The most recent discussion on the length of Postglacial time was that held
at the Twelfth International Congress of Geology, in Ottawa, in 1913
(_Congrès Géologique International, Compte-rendu de la XII Session_,
Canada, 1913, pp. 426-537). The notes abstracted by Dr. Chester A. Reeds
from the various papers are as follows:
"American estimates of Postglacial time have been made chiefly from the
recession of waterfalls since the final retreat of the great ice-fields in
North America. The retreat of the Falls of St. Anthony, Minnesota, has
been estimated by Winchell at 8,000 years and by Sardeson at 30,000 years.
The retreat of the Falls of Niagara has been estimated as requiring from
7,000 to 40,000 years; it has proved a very uncertain chronometer, because
of the great variation in the volume of water at different stages in its
history. The recession of Scarboro Heights and other changes due to wave
action on Lake Ontario have been estimated by Coleman as requiring from
24,000 to 27,000 years. Fairchild has estimated that 30,000 years have
elapsed since the ice left the Lake Ontario region of New York.
"In Europe the most accurate chronology is that of Baron de Geer on the
terminal moraines and related marine clays of northern Sweden. For the
retreat of the ice northward over a distance of 370 miles in Sweden 5,000
years were allowed; for the time since the disappearance of the ice in
Sweden, 7,000 years; for the retreat of the ice from Germany across the
Baltic, 12,000 years; giving a total of 24,000 years as compared with a
total of between 30,000 and 50,000 years allowed by Penck for the retreat
of the ice-fields of the Alps."
NOTE VII
THE MOST RECENT DISCOVERIES OF ANTHROPOID APES AND SUPPOSED ANCESTORS OF
MAN IN INDIA
It is possible that within the next decade one or more of the Tertiary
ancestors of man may be discovered in northern India among the foot-hills
known as the Siwaliks. Such discoveries have been heralded, but none have
thus far been actually made. Yet Asia will probably prove to be the centre
of the human race. We have now discovered in southern Asia primitive
representatives or relatives of the four existing types of anthropoid
apes, namely, the gibbon, the orang, the chimpanzee, and the gorilla, and
since the extinct Indian apes are related to those of Africa and of
Europe, it appears probable that southern Asia is near the centre of the
evolution of the higher primates and that we may look there for the
ancestors not only of prehuman stages like the Trinil race but of the
higher and truly human types.
As early as 1886 several kinds of extinct Old World primates, including
two anthropoid apes related to the orang and to the chimpanzee, were
reported from the Siwalik hills in northern India, and recently Dr.
Pilgrim, of the Geological Survey, has described three new species of
Siwalik apes resembling _Dryopithecus_ of the Upper Miocene of Europe,
also an anthropoid which he has named _Sivapithecus_ and regards as
actually related to the direct ancestors of man, a conclusion which may or
may not prove to be correct. Another extinct Indian ape, _Palæopithecus_,
is of very generalized type and is related to all the anthropoid apes.
NOTE VIII
ANTHROPOID APES DISCOVERED BY CARTHAGINIAN NAVIGATORS[BJ]
The _Periplus of Hanno_ purports to be a Greek translation of a
Carthaginian inscription on a tablet in the "temple of Chronos" (Moloch)
at Carthage, dedicated by Hanno, a Carthaginian navigator, in
commemoration of a voyage which he made southward from the Strait of
Gibraltar along the western coast of Africa as far as the inlet now known
as Sherboro Sound, the next opening beyond Sierra Leone.
Hanno is a very common Carthaginian name, but recent writers think it not
improbable that this Hanno was either the father or the son of that
Hamilcar who led the great Carthaginian expedition to Sicily in 480 B. C.
In the former case the _Periplus_ might be assigned to a date about 520 B.
C.; in the latter, some fifty years later.
The narrative was certainly extant at an early period, for it is cited in
the work on _Marvellous Narratives_ ascribed to Aristotle, which belongs
to the third century B. C., and Pliny also expressly refers to it. The
authenticity of the work is now generally conceded.
According to the narrative the farthest limit of Hanno's voyage, which was
undertaken for purposes of colonization, brought him and his companions to
an island containing a lake with another island in it which was full of
wild men and women with hairy bodies, called by the interpreters gorillas.
The Carthaginians were unable to catch any of the men but they caught
three of the women, whom they killed, and brought their skins back with
them to Carthage. "Pliny, indeed, adds that the skins in question were
dedicated by Hanno in the temple of Juno at Carthage, and continued to be
visible there till the destruction of the city. There can be no difficulty
in supposing these 'wild men and women' to have been really large apes of
the family of the chimpanzee, or pongo, several species of which are in
fact found wild in western Africa, and some of them, as is now well known,
attain a stature fully equal to that of man."
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ancien que les terrains transport quaternaires des vallées de la Somme et
de la Seine. _C. R. Acad. Sci._, Paris, tome 56, 1863, pp. 1073-1083.
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1910.1 Neue fossile Cervidenreste aus Schwaben. _Jahreshefte, Ver. vaterl.
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1894.1 _Pithecanthropus erectus_, eine Menschenaehnliche Uebergangsform
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=Dupont, É.=
1866.1 Etudes sur les fouilles scientifiques exécutées pendant l'hiver de
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1750.1 De Origine et Moribus Germanorum eorumque vetustissimis colonis,
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1908.1 Über das Alter der Kendeng-Schichten mit _Pithecanthropus erectus_
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648-662.
=Ewart, J. C.=
1904.1 The Multiple Origin of Horses and Ponies. _Trans. Highl. Agri. Soc.
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1907.1 On the Skulls of Horses from the Roman Fort at Newstead, near
Melrose, with Observations on the Origin of the Domestic Horses. _Trans.
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1909.1 The Possible Ancestors of the Horses Living under Domestication.
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1869.1 L'Age du Renne en Mâconnais. Mémoire sur le gisement archéologique
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1913.1 Fossile Hominiden. _Sonderabd. Handwörterbuch Naturwiss._, Bd. IV,
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1887.1 La race de Neanderthal ou de Canstadt en Belgique. (With Lohest,
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1911.1 Die Kastlhäng-Höhle, eine Renntierjägerstation im bayerischen
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1876.1 Matériaux pour l'histoire des temps quaternaires. Fasc. I. Paris,
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1890.1 Le Dryopithèque. _Mém. Soc. Géol. de France, Pal. Mém._ no. 1.
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1894.1 The Great Ice Age and Its Relation to the Antiquity of Man. Third
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1914.1 The Antiquity of Man in Europe, being the Munro Lectures, 1913.
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1840.1 On the Geology of the Southeast of Devonshire. _Trans. Geol. Soc._,
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1901.1 Der paläolithische Mensch und seine Zeitgenossen aus dem Diluvium
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1906.1 Der diluviale Mensch von Krapina in Kroatien. Ein Beitrag zur
Paläoanthropologie. Studien über Entwicklungsmechanik des Primatskelettes
mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der Anthropologie und Descendenzlehre....
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1909.1 Der vordere Unterkieferabschnitt des altdiluvialen Menschen in
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1899.1 Notes sur la Garonne. _Bull. Soc. d'Hist. Nat. Toulouse_, année
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1908.1 Faune quaternaire de la province de Santandér (Espagne). _Bull.
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1910.1 Les mammifères et oiseaux quaternaires connus jusqu'ici en
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1907.1 Traité de Géologie. Tome I--Les Phénomènes géologiques (1907). Tome
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=Hauser, O.=
1909.1 _Homo aurignacensis_ Hauseri, etc. See Klaatsch, H., 1909.1.
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1894.1 Ueber das absolut Alter der Eiszeit. _Vierteljahrschrif. naturf.
Gesell. Zurich_, Bd. 39, 1894, pp. 180-186.
=Hilzheimer.=
1913.1 Studienreise zu den paläolithischen Fundstellen der Dordogne. See
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=Hrdlička, Dr. A.=
1914.1 The Most Ancient Skeletal Remains of Man. _Report, Smithsonian
Institution_, etc., 1913, pp. 491-552, Pls. 1-41. Publication 2300.
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1907.1 The Pulse of Asia. New York, 8vo, 1907.
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=James, W.=
1902.1 The Varieties of Religious Experience. A Study in Human Nature.
Being the Gifford Lectures on Natural Religion delivered at Edinburgh in
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=Johnson, J. P.=
1913.1 The Stone Implements of the Tasmanians. _Nature_, vol. 92, no.
2298.
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1901.1 Ethnology. Cambridge Geographical Series. Stereotyped edition.
Cambridge, 8vo. 1901.
=Keith, A.=
1911.1 Ancient Types of Man. Harper's Library of Living Thought. New York,
12mo. 1911.
1911.2 Discovery of the Teeth of Palæolithic Man in Jersey. _Nature_, vol.
86, no. 2169, May 25, 1911, p. 414.
1911.3 The Early History of the Gibraltar Cranium. _Nature_, vol. 87, no.
2184, September 7, 1911, pp. 313, 314.
1912.1 Cranium of the Crô-Magnon Type found by Mr. W. M. Newton in a
Gravel Terrace near Dartford. _Rpt. 82d Meeting, Brit. Assoc. Adv. Sci._,
Dundee, 1912, pp. 516, 517.
1912.2 Hunterian Lecture on Certain Phases in the Evolution of Man.
(Abstract.) _Brit. Med. Journ._, 1912, vol. I, pp. 734-737, 788-790.
1913.1 The Piltdown Skull and Brain Cast. _Nature_, vol. 92, no. 2294,
October 16, 1913, pp. 197-199.
1913.2 The Piltdown Skull and Brain Cast. _Nature_, vol. 92, no. 2297,
November 6, 1913, p. 292.
1913.3 The Piltdown Skull and Brain Cast. _Nature_, vol. 92, no. 2299,
November 20, 1913, pp. 345, 346.
=Kennard, A. S.=
1913.1 [Discussion of] On the Discovery of a Palæolithic Human Skull and
Mandible ... at Piltdown, Fletching (Sussex). See Dawson, C., 1913.1, p.
150.
=King, W.=
1864.1 The Reputed Fossil Man of the Neanderthal. _Quart. Journ. Sci._,
vol. I, pp. 88-97, Pls. I, II.
=Klaatsch, H.=
1909.1 _Homo aurignacensis Hauseri_, ein paläolithischer Skeletfund aus
dem unteren Aurignacien der Station Combe-Capelle bei Montferrand
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=Koken, E.=
1912.1 Die diluviale Vorzeit Deutschlands, von R. R. Schmidt.
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paläolithischen Kulturstätten Deutschlands. See Schmidt, R. R., 1912.1.
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1911.1 L'abri sculpté de Cap-Blanc à Laussel (Dordogne). (With Breuil, H.)
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=Lamarck, J.=
1809.1 Philosophie Zoologique. Paris (Duminil-Leseur), 8vo, 1909.
1815.1 Histoire naturelle des animaux sans vertèbres.... Tomes 1-7
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=Lartet, E.=
1861.1 Nouvelles recherches sur la coexistence de l'homme et des grands
mammifères fossiles réputés caractéristiques de la dernière période
géologique. _Ann. Sci. Nat._, sér. 4, Zoologie, tome XV, 1861, pp.
177-253, Pl. X.
1875.1 Reliquiæ Acquitanicæ. (With Christy.) Being Contributions to the
Archæology and Palæontology of Périgord and the Adjoining Provinces.
Edited by Rupert Jones. London, 4to, 1875.
=Leverett, F.=
1910.1 Comparison of North American and European Glacial Deposits.
_Zeitschr. für Gletscherk._, Bd. IV, 1910, pp. 241-316.
=Lubbock, Sir J. (See Avebury, Lord).=
1862.1 On the Evidences of the Antiquity of Man afforded by the Physical
Structure of the Somme Valley. _Nat. Hist. Rev._, 1862, pp. 244-269.
=Lyell, Sir C.=
1863.1 The Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man with Remarks on
the Theories of the Origin of Species by Variation. Second revised
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1867.1 Principles of Geology or the Modern Changes of the Earth and Its
Inhabitants Considered as Illustrative of Geology. Tenth and entirely
revised edition. Vol. I, 1867. Vol. II, 1868. London (Murray), 8vo,
1867-1868.
1877.1 Principles of Geology or the Modern Changes of the Earth and its
Inhabitants Considered as Illustrative of Geology. Eleventh and entirely
revised edition. Vol. I, 1877. Vol. II, 1872. New York (Appleton), 8vo,
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1905.1 The Eolithic Problem. Evidences of a Rude Industry Antedating the
Paleolithic. _Amer. Anthropol._, n. s., vol. VII, no. 3, 1905, pp.
425-479.
=Mahudel.=
1740.1 Sur les prétendues pierres de foudre. _Hist. Acad. R. Inscript. et
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=Makowsky, A.=
1892.1 Der diluviale Mensch im Löss von Brünn. _Mitt. Anthropol. Gesell.
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=Marett, R. R.=
Anthropology. Home University Library of Modern Knowledge. New York (Henry
Holt & Co.), 12mo, n. d.
=Martin, H.=
1910.1 Astragale humain du Moustérien moyen de La Quina. (_Ext., Bull.
Soc. préhist. de France_, 1910, p. 391.) [Reviewed by M. Boule.]
_L'Anthropol._, tome XXII, 1911, pp. 312, 313.
=Martin, R.=
1914.1 Lehrbuch der Anthropologie in systematischer Darstellung. Mit
besonderer Berücksichtigung der anthropologischen Methoden. Für
studierende Ärzte und Forschungsreisende. Jena, 8vo, 1914.
=Martins, C.=
1847.1 Recherches sur la période glaciaire et l'ancienne extension des
glaciers du Mont-Blanc depuis les Alpes jusqu'au Jura. _Rev. deux mondes_
1847, tome 17, pp. 919-942.
=Maška, K.=
1886.1 Fund des Unterkiefers in der Schipka-Höhle. _Verh. Berliner Gesell.
f. Anthropol., Ethnol. u. Urgesch._, 1886, pp. 341-350.
1912.1 La statuette de mammouth de Předmost. (With Obermaier and Breuil.)
_L'Anthropol._, tome XXIII, 1912, pp. 273-285.
=Massénat, É.=
1869.1 Objets gravés et sculptés de l'Augerie Basse (Dordogne). _Matér.
pour l'hist. de l'homme_, année V, sér. 2, pp. 348-356.
=Morlot, A.=
1854.1 Notice sur le Quaternaire en Suisse. _Bull. Soc. Vaudoise, Sci.
nat._, 1854, pp. 41-45.
=de Mortillet, A.=
1869.1 Essai d'une classification des cavernes et des stations sous abri,
fondée sur les produits de l'industrie humaine. _C. R. Acad. Sci._, Paris,
tome 68, 1869, pp. 553-555.
=de Mortillet, G.=
1872. Classification des âges de la pierre. Classification des diverses
périodes de l'âge de la pierre. _C. R. Congr. Intern. d'Anthropol., d'
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=Munro, R.=
1893.1 [On the Relation between the Erect Posture and the Physical and
Intellectual Development of Man.] _Rpt. 63d Meeting, Brit. Assoc. Adv.
Sci._, Nottingham, 1893, Presidential Address, Section of Anthropology,
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1912.1 Palæeolithic Man and the Terramara Settlements in Europe. Being the
Munro Lectures in Anthropology and Prehistoric Archæology in connection
with the University of Edinburgh. Edinburgh, 8vo, 1912.
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=Nehring, A.=
1880.1 Übersicht über vierundzwanzig mitteleuropäische Quatär-Faunen.
_Zeitschr. deutsch. geolog. Gesell._, 1880, pp. 468-509.
1896.1 Die kleineren Wirbeltiere vom Schweizersbild bei Schaffhausen. _N.
Denkschr. allg. schweiz. Gesell. gesam. Naturwiss._, Bd. XXXV, 1896, pp.
40-77.
=Neumeyer, M.=
1890.1 Erdgeschichte. Band I, 1895. Band II, 1890. Leipzig, R. 8vo,
1890-1895.
=Nicolle, E. T.=
1910.1 Report on the Exploration of the Palæolithic Cave-Dwelling known as
La Cotte, St. Brelade, Jersey. (With Sinel, J.) _Man_, 1910, nos. 101-102,
pp. 185-188.
=Niezabitowski, E.=
1911.1 Die Überreste des in Starunia in einer Erdwachsgrube mit Haut und
Weichteilen gefundenen _Rhinoceros antiquitatis_ Blum. (_tichorhinus_
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1911, sér. B; Sci. nat., pp. 240-266.
=Nüesch, J.=
1902.1 Das Schweizersbild, eine Niederlassung aus palæolithischer und
neolithischer Zeit. Die praehistorische Niederlassung am Schweizersbild
bei Schaffhausen. Die Schichten und ihre Einschlüsse. _N. Denkschr. allg.
schweiz. Gesell. gesam. Naturwiss._, Bd. XXXV, zweite Verbesserung, pp.
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=Obermaier, H.=
1909.1 Crânes paléolithiques façonnés en Coupes. (With Breuil.) See
Breuil, H., 1909.2.
1909.2 Les formations glaciaires des Alpes et l'homme paléolithique.
_L'Anthropol._, tome XX, 1909, pp. 497-522.
1909.3 Die Aurignacienstation von Krems (N.-O.). (With Strobel.) See
Strobel, 1909.1.
1911.1 Die Kastlhäng-Höhle, eine Renntierjägerstation im bayerischen
Altmühltale. (With Fraunholz und Schlosser.) See Fraunholz, J., 1911.1.
1912.1 Der Mensch der Vorzeit. München, R. 8vo, 1912.
1912.2 Les premières travaux de l'Institut de Paléontologie humaine. (With
Breuil.) See Breuil, H., 1912.6.
1912.3 La statuette de mammouth de Předmost. (With Mas̆ka et Breuil.) See
Mas̆ka, 1912.1.
1913.1 La Pasiega à Puente-Viesgo (Santander, Espagne). (With Breuil and
Alcalde del Rio.) See Breuil, H., 1913.2.
=Osborn, H. F.=
1894.1 From the Greeks to Darwin. An Outline of the Development of the
Evolution Idea. New York, 8vo, 1894.
1910.1 The Age of Mammals in Europe, Asia and North America. New York,
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1908.1 Das Alter des Menschengeschlechts. _Zeitschr. für Ethnol._, Jahrg.
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1909.1 Die Alpen im Eiszeitalter. (With Brückner, E.) Band I, II, III.
Leipzig, R. 8vo, 1909.
=Peyrony, M.=
1908.1 La grotte de la Mairie à Teyjat (Dordogne). (With Capitan and
Breuil.) See Capitan, L., 1908.1.
1910.1 La caverne de Font-de-Gaume aux Eyzies (Dordogne). (With Breuil and
Capitan.) See Capitan, 1910.1.
1912.1 Les gravures sur cascade stalagmitique de la grotte de la Mairie à
Teyjat (Dordogne). (With Breuil, Bourrinet, and Capitan.) See Capitan,
1912.2.
=Piette, E.=
1907.1 L'art pendant l'Age du Renne. Album de cent planches dessinées par
J. Pilloy. Paris, small folio, 1907.
=Pilgrim, G.=
1913.1 The Correlation of the Siwaliks with Mammal Horizons of Europe.
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1884.1 Hommes fossiles et hommes sauvages. Etudes d'Anthropologie. Paris,
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=Reeds, C. A.=
1915.1 The Graphic Projection of Pleistocene Climatic Oscillations. _Bull.
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=Reid, C.=
1908.1 The Pre-Glacial Flora of Britain. (With E. M. Reid.) _Journ. Linn.
Soc._ Botany, vol. XXXVIII, 1908, pp. 206-227.
1913.1 [Discussion of] On the Discovery of a Palæolithic Human Skull and
Mandible ... at Piltdown ... Sussex. See Dawson, C., 1913.1.
=Reinach, S.=
1889.1 Antiquités nationales. Déscription raisonnée du Musée de
Saint-Germain-en-Laye. I--Epoque des alluvions et des cavernes. Paris, 8vo
[1889]. 322 pp.
1913.1 Répertoire de l'Art quaternaire. Paris, 12mo, 1913.
=Retzius, A.=
1864.1 Ethnologische Schriften. III--Ueber die Form des Knochengerüstes
des Kopfes bei verschiedenen Völkern. Stockholm, 4to, 1864.
=Rigollot.=
1854.1 Mémoires sur des instruments en silex trouvées à Saint-Acheul.
Amiens, 1854.
=Ripley, W. Z.=
1899.1 The Races of Europe. A Sociological Study. (Lowell Institute
Lectures.) Accompanied by a Supplementary Bibliography of the Anthropology
and Ethnology of Europe, etc. New York, 8vo, 1899.
=Rivière, E.=
1897.1 La grotte de La Mouthe (Dordogne). _Bull. Soc. d'Anthropol._,
Paris, sér. 4, tome VIII, 1897, pp. 302-329; 484-490; 497-501.
1897.2 La grotte de La Mouthe (Dordogne). _C. R. assoc. franç. pour
l'avanc. sci., 26{me} Sess._, Saint-Etienne, 1897, pp. 669-687.
=Robertson, A. W. D.=
1914.1 The Place in Nature of the Tasmanian Aboriginal as Deduced from a
Study of his Calvaria. (With Berry, R. J. A.) See Berry, R. J. A.; 1914.1.
=Rutot, A.=
1902.1 Les industries primitives. Défense des éolithes. Les actions
naturelles possibles sont inaptes à produire des effets semblables à la
retouche intentionelle. _Bull. et Mém. Soc. Anthropol._, Bruxelles, tome
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1907.1 A fin de la question des éolithes. _Bull. Soc. Belge Géol._,
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=Rzehak, Prof. A.=
1906.1 Der Unterkiefer von Ochos. Ein Beitrag zur Kenntnis des
altdiluvialen Menschen. _Verhandl. naturf. Ver._, Brünn, Bd. XLIV (1905),
pp. 91-114. Published in 1906.
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1905.1 Geology. (With Chamberlin, T. C.) See Chamberlin, T., 1905.1.
=Salmon, P.=
1898.1 Age de la pierre: habitations néolithiques. (With d'Ault du Mesnil
and Capitan.) Le Campignien. _Rev. de l'Ecole d'Anthropol._, année VIII,
1898, pp. 365-408.
=de Sautuola, M.=
1880.1 Breves apuntes sobre algunos objetos prehistóricos de la provincia
de Santander. Madrid, 1880, 4 pl.
=Schaaffhausen, D.=
1857.1 Theilen des menschlichen Skelettes im Neanderthale bei Hochdal.
_Sitzungsber. niederrhein. Gesellsch. f. Natur u. Heilkunde_, Bonn, 1857,
pp. xxxviii-xlii.
1858.1 Zur Kenntniss der ältesten Rassenschädel. _Müller's Archiv_, Jahrg.
1858, pp. 453-478.
=Schliz, A.=
1912.1 Die diluviale Vorzeit Deutschlands, von R. R. Schmidt. Teil
III--Anthropologischer Teil. Die diluvialen Menschenreste Deutschlands.
See Schmidt, R. R., 1912.1.
=Schlosser, M.=
1911.1 Die Kastlhäng-Höhle, eine Renntierjägerstation im bayerischen
Altmühltale. (With Fraunholz und Obermaier.) See Fraunholz, 1911.1.
=Schmerling, P.-C.=
1833.1 Recherches sur les Ossemens Fossiles découvertes dans les cavernes
de la province de Liége. Liége, 4to, 1833.
=Schmidt, R. R.=
1912.1 Die diluviale Vorzeit Deutschlands. I--Archäologischer Teil: Die
diluvialen Kulturen Deutschlands, R. R. Schmidt. II--Geologischer Teil:
Die Geologie und Tierwelt der paläolithischen Kulturstätten Deutschlands,
Ernst Koken. III--Anthropologischer Teil: Die diluvialen Menschenreste
Deutschlands, A. Schliz. Stuttgart, 4to, 1912.
=Schoetensack, O.=
1908.1 Der Unterkiefer des _Homo heidelbergensis_ aus den Sanden von Mauer
bei Heidelberg. Ein Beitrag zur Paläontologie des Menschen. Leipzig, 4to,
1908.
=Schuchert, C.=
1913.1 Climates of Geologic Time. _Reprint_, Carnegie Inst. of Washington,
Publication No. 192, pp. 263-298.
=Schuchhardt, C.=
1913.1 Paläolithische Fundstellen der Dordogne. (With Wiegers und
Hilzheimer.) See Wiegers, 1913.1.
=Schwalbe, G.=
1897.1 Ueber die Schädelformen der ältesten Menschenrassen mit besonderer
Berücksichtigung des Schädels von Egisheim. _Mitt. Philomat. Gesell.
Elsass-Lothringen_, Jahrg. 5 (1897), Heft III, pp. 72-85.
1899.1 Studien über _Pithecanthropus erectus_ Dubois. _Zeitschr. f. Morph.
u. Anthropol._, Bd. I, Heft I, pp. 16-22, Pls. I-III.
1901.1 Der Neanderthalschädel. _Bonner Jahrb._, no. 106, Bonn, pp. 1-72.
1901.2 Über die specifischen Merkmale des Neanderthalschädels. _Verh.
Anat. Gesell._, Bonn, 1901, pp. 44-61.
1904.1 Die Vorgeschichte des Menschen. Braunschweig, 8vo, 1904.
1906.1 Das Schädelfragment von Brüx und verwandte Schädelformen.
_Zeitschr. für Morphol. und Anthropol._, Sonderheft, 1906, pp. 81-182,
Pls. I-II.
1914.1 Kritische Besprechung von Boule's Werk: "L'homme fossile de La
Chapelle-aux-Saints" mit eigenen Untersuchungen. _Zeitschr. Morph. u.
Anthropol._, Bd. XVI, Heft 3, pp. 527-610.
1914.2 Über einen bei Ehringsdorf in der Nähe von Weimar gefundenen
Unterkiefer des _Homo primigenius. Anat. Anzeiger_, Band 47, nos. 13-17.
Oktober, 1914, pp. 337-345.
=Selenka, L.=
1911.1 Die Pithecanthropus-Schichten auf Java. (With Blanckenhorn.)
Geologische und paläontologische Ergebnisse der Trinil-Expedition
(1907-1908). Herausgegeben von M. Lenore Selenka und Prof. Max
Blanckenhorn, Leipzig, 4to, 1911.
=Serrano Gomez, P.=
1912.1 Les peintures rupestres d'Espagne. (With Breuil and Cabre Aguilo.)
See Breuil, 1912.5.
=Sierra, R. P. L.=
1912.1 Les cavernes de la région cantabrique (Espagne). (With Alcalde del
Rio and Breuil.) See Alcalde del Rio, 1912.1.
=Smith, G. E.=
1912.1 Presidential Address to the Anthropological Section (B. A. A. S.).
_Rpt. 82d Meeting, Brit. Assoc. Adv. Sci._, Dundee, 1912, pp. 575-598.
1913.1 The Controversies concerning the Interpretation and Meaning of the
Remains of the Dawn-Man Found near Piltdown. [Abstract.] _Meet. Manchester
Lit. and Philosoph. Soc._, November 18, 1913.
1913.2 On the Discovery of a Palæolithic Human Skull and Mandible in a
Flint-Bearing Gravel overlying the Wealden (Hastings Beds) at Piltdown,
Fletching (Sussex). With an Appendix by Prof. Grafton Elliot Smith. See
Dawson, C., 1913.1.
1913.3 The Piltdown Skull. _Nature_, vol. 92, no. 2292, October 2, 1913,
p. 131.
1913.4 The Piltdown Skull and Brain Cast. _Nature_, vol. 92, no. 2296,
October 30, 1913, pp. 267, 268.
1914.1 Supplementary Note on the Discovery of a Palæolithic Human Skull
and Mandible at Piltdown (Sussex). (With Dawson and Woodward.) With an
Appendix by Prof. Grafton Elliot Smith. See Dawson, C., 1914.1.
=Smith, W.=
1894.1 Man the Primeval Savage. His Haunts and Relics from the Hill-Tops
of Bedfordshire to Blackwall. London, 8vo, 1894.
=Sollas, W. J.=
1900.1 Evolutional Geology. Presidential Address to the Geological Section
(B. A. A. S.). _Rpt. 70th Meeting, Brit. Assoc. Adv. Sci._, Bradford,
1900, pp. 711-730.
1911.1 Ancient Hunters and Their Modern Representatives. London, 8vo.
1911.
1913.1 Paviland Cave: An Aurignacian Station in Wales. (The Huxley
Memorial Lecture for 1913.) _Journ. R. Anthropol. Inst. of Gr. Brit. &
Ireland_, vol. XLIII, 1913, pp. 325-373.
=Steinmann, C.=
1914.1 Diluviale Menschenfunde in Obercassel bei Bonn. (With Verworn and
Bonnet.) IV--Über das geologische Alter der Fundstelle. See Verworn, M.,
1914.1.
=Strobel, J.=
1909.1 Die Aurignacienstation von Krems (N.-Ö.). (With Obermaier, H.) Mit
einem Anhang von Oskar von Troll. _Jahrb. Altertumskunde_, Bd. III, 1909,
pp. 129-148, Pls. XI-XXI.
T
=Tomes, C. S.=
1914.1 A Manual of Dental Anatomy, Human and Comparative. Edited by H. W.
Marett Tims and A. Hopewell-Smith. Seventh edition. (J. and A. Churchill.)
London, 8vo, 1914, 616 pp.
=von Troll, O.=
1909.1 Die Aurignacienstation von Krems (N.-Ö.). (With Strobel and
Obermaier.) Mit einem Anhang von Oskar von Troll. See Strobel, J., 1909.1.
U
=Upham, W.=
1893.1 Estimates of Geologic Time. _Amer. Journ. Sci._, vol. XLV, 1893,
pp. 209-220.
V
=Verneau, R.=
1886.1 La race de Crô-Magnon. _Rev. Anthropol._, sér. 3, tome I, 1886, pp.
10-24.
1891.1 Cinq années de séjour aux îles Canaries. Paris, 1891.
1906.1 Les Grottes de Grimaldi (Baoussé-Roussé). Tome II, fasc.
I--Anthropologie. Monaco, 4to, 1906.
=Verworn, M.=
1914.1 Diluviale Menschenfunde in Obercassel bei Bonn. (With Bonnet and
Steinmann.) I--Fundbericht, Verworn. II--Die Kulturstufe des Fundes,
Verworn. III--Die Skelete, Bonnet. IV--Über das geologische Alter der
Fundstelle, Steinmann. _Die Naturwissenschaften_, Heft 27, Jahrg. 2, 3
Juli 1914, pp. 645-650.
=de Vibraye.=
1864.1 Note sur des nouvelles preuves de l'existence de l'homme dans le
centre de la France à une époque où s'y trouvaient aussi divers animaux
qui de nos jours n'habitent pas cette contrée. _C. R. Acad. Sci._, Paris,
tome 58, 1864, pp. 409-416.
=Villeneuve, L.=
1906.1 Les Grottes de Grimaldi (Baoussé-Roussé). Tome I, fasc.
I--Historique et Déscription. Monaco, 4to, 1906.
=Volz, W.=
1907.1 Das geologische Alter der Pithecanthropus-Schichten bei Trinil,
Ost-Java. _N. Jahrb. Miner., Geol. u. Paläontol., Festband_, 1907, pp.
256-271.
W
=Walcott, C. D.=
1893.1 Geologic Time as Indicated by the Sedimentary Rocks of North
America. _Amer. Geol._, vol. XII, no. 6, 1893, pp. 343-368, Pl. XV.
=Wiegers, F.=
1913.1 Eine Studienreise zu den paläolithischen Fundstellen der Dordogne.
(With Schuchhardt and Hilzheimer.) _Zeitschr. f. Ethnol._, Jahrg. 45, Heft
I, 1913, pp. 126-160.
=Wilser, L.=
1898.1 Menschenrassen und Weltgeschichte. _Naturwiss. Wochenschr._, Band
XIII, Heft I, 1898.
=Woodward, A. S.=
1913.1 On the Discovery of a Palæolithic Human Skull and Mandible in a
Flint-Bearing Gravel overlying the Wealden (Hastings Beds) at Piltdown,
Fletching, Sussex. (With Dawson, C.) With an Appendix by Prof. Grafton
Elliot Smith. See Dawson, C., 1913.1.
1914.1 Supplementary Note on the Discovery of a Palæolithic Human Skull
and Mandible at Piltdown (Sussex). (With Charles Dawson.) With an Appendix
by Prof. Grafton Elliot Smith. See Dawson, C., 1914.1.
1914.2 On the Lower Jaw of an Anthropoid Ape (_Dryopithecus_) from the
Upper Miocene of Lérida (Spain). _Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc._, London, vol.
LXX, pp. 316-320, Pl. XLIV.
1915.1 A Guide to the Fossil Remains of Man in the Department of Geology
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trustees of the British Museum. 8vo, 1915, 33 pp.
INDEX
INDEX[BK]
A
Abbeville, 109, =116=, 124, =125=, 127, 149, 152, 156, 166, 167, 244, 331
Abri Audit, 245, 246, 248, =255=, 269, 277, 305, 307, 309, 311, 314
Abri Dufaure, 471
Abri Mège, 435, 442
Abris, see Rock Shelters
Achenheim, 30, 160, =161=, 167, 176, 195, 284, 314
_Achenschwankung_, see Postglacial Stage
Acheulean, 14-16, 18, 30;
chronology, 33, 41, 89;
climate, 112, =117=, =118=, =165=, 166, =173=, =174=, 175-177, 186;
fauna, =144-148=, 165;
geography (physical), 166;
human fossils, 24, =181-185=;
industry, 14, 16, 18, 41, 108, 113, 122-124, =169-173=, 177-180, 270,
280, 362;
stations, 151, 158-162, =166-169=;
see Origin
Æschylus, on the prehistory of man, 3, 505
Aggsbach, 29, 435, 448
Agriculture, 2, 486, 496
_Aiguille_, needle, =271=, 310, 313, 387, 388, =391=, =392=, 440,
443-445, 449, 461, 462
_Alactaga jaculus_, 373, =374=;
see Jerboa
_Alces_, 187, 287, 369;
_latifrons_, 70, see Moose
Alento, 167
Alpera, 469, 497
Alpine fauna, see Fauna
Alpine race, 278, 458, 479, 480, 481, 484, 485, 491, =499=, =500=
Alpine vole, =371=, see _Arvicola nivalis_
Altamira, 17, 319, 321, 331, 332, 346, 368, 385, 394, =395=, 399, 408,
415, 416, =422-427=, 434, 435, Pl. VIII
Ancestry of Man, see Man
Ancona, 167
Andernach, 160, 195, 279, 372, 378, 435
Anthropoid Apes, 3, 21;
ancestry, =49-61=;
brain, =52-60=;
compared with Grimaldi, 266,
with Neanderthal, 9, 217, 230-233, 237-240,
with Piltdown, 140, 141,
with _Pithecanthropus_, 9, 77-79;
known to Carthaginians, 511, 512;
recent discoveries, 511
Anthropology, rise of, 3-10
_Antilope saiga_, see Saiga antelope
Anvils, bone, 211, 253, 256, 271;
see _Compresseur_
Apes, see Anthropoid
Arboreal life, effects of, 56, 57
Archæology, rise of, 10-18
Archer, 329
_Arctomys marmotta_, 182, 370;
see Marmot
Arcy-sur-Cure, 214, 219, 435
Argali sheep, 46, 285, 287, =371=;
see _Ovis argaloides_
Arrow, 214, 258, 270, 272, 344, =353=, =354=, 410, 450, =497=
Art, 13, 14, 17, 21, =315-330=, 332, =347-350=, =392-434=, 449, see
Aurignacian, Magdalenian, Solutrean, Engraving, Painting,
Sculpture, Industry;
implements used in, =270=, 309-312, 321, =329=, =330=, 385, 396, 415,
463;
means of dating, =317-320=
Arudy, 435, 436
_Arvicola_, _amphibius_, 147;
_gregalis_, 373;
_nivalis_, 370, 371
Ascoli Piceno, 167
Ass, wild (kiang), see Horse
Aurensan, 435, 438, 471
Aurignac, 5, 13, 14, 16, 275, 279, =290=, 294, 314
Aurignacian, 14-16, 18, 275, 276;
art, =315-330=, 403, 404, 408;
burial customs, =302-305=;
chronology, 33, 41, 351;
climate, 123, =281-286=;
fauna, =285-289=;
human fossils, =289-305=;
industry, 16, 18, 41, 108, =269-271=, 275-277, 280, =305-313=, 329,
330, 362;
stations, 275, 283, 284, 289, 307, =313-315=;
see Origin
Aurignacian race, see Combe-Capelle man
Aurochs, see _Bos primigenius_ and Cattle
Australian head type, 136, 228, 232, 234
Awl, see _Poinçon_
Axe, 493, 494
Azilian, see Azilian-Tardenoisian
Azilian-Tardenoisian, 16, 275, 451, 456;
art, 456;
burial customs, =475-479=;
chronology, 275, 456, 459;
climate, 463, 468;
fauna, 463, 466, =468-470=, 471, 472, 474;
human fossils, 461, =475-485=;
industry (Azilian), 15, 16, 18, =270=, =271=, 275, 276, 456,
=459-465=, 466, =470-475=,
(Tardenoisian) 16, 18, =270=, =271=, 450, 456, =465-468=, 470-472,
(painted pebbles) 394, 456, 461, =463-465=;
stations, 459, 463, 466, 467, =472-475=;
see Origin
B
Badegoule, 279, 331, 336, 435
Badger, 165, 201, 343, 367, 447, 498;
see _Meles taxus_
Ballahöhle, 279, 331, 336
Baltic race, 458, 486, 500;
see Maglemose
Balverhöhle, 471
Baoussé Roussé, see Grimaldi, Grottes de
Baousso da Torre, see Grimaldi, Grottes de
Barma Grande, see Grimaldi, Grottes de
_Bâton de commandement_, 271, 311, 312, 345, =358=, =359=, 388, 391,
432, 443-445, 449
Baumannshöhle, 160, 195, 245, 247, 248, 439
Bear, 43, 44, 62, 95, 96, 165, 213, 245, 264, 287, 288, 333, 343, 348,
367, 378, 430, 441, 447, 461, 468, 498;
see Cave-bear and _Ursus_
Beaver, 63, 95, 134, 165, 182, 288, 348, 367, 447, 461, 468, 498, see
_Castor_;
giant, III, 155, see _Trogontherium_
Bernifal, 321, 395, 396, 435
Billancourt, 109, 149, 152
Bison, Wisent, 13, 43, 44, 69, 71, 95, 98, 106, 125, 147, 165, 192, 194,
196, 202, 206, 211, 223, 287, 288, 317, 321, 333, 348, =353=,
356, 364, 368, 372, 385, =403=, 405, 406, 410, =414=, 420, 421,
=423-428=, =430=, 431, 449, 466, 469, 496, 498, 505, 506, Pls.
VII and VIII;
see _Bison_
_Bison_, _antiquus_, 69;
_priscus_, 71, 95, 148, 368, see Bison
Blade, see _Couteau_ and _Lame_
Bléville, 167
Boar, wild, 2, 3, 43, 44, 76, 95, 264, 265, 421, 426, 447, 461, 466,
468, 498;
see _Sus_
Bockstein, 285, 314, 435, 442
Bois Colombes, 109, 149, 152
Borer, drill, see _Perçoir_
_Bos_, 71, 369, 405;
_longifrons_, 498;
_primigenius_, 71, 94, 222, 368, 413, 468, 469, 498;
_taurus_, 447, 498;
see Cattle
Bossuet, on the prehistory of man, 503, 504
Brachycephaly, 7, 8, 78, 183, 457, 458, 478-485
Brain, anthropoid, 51, 52, 56, 59;
Brünn, 334, 490;
Combe-Capelle, =236=, 302, 490;
Crô-Magnon, 272, 292, 294, 299, 490;
evolution of, 8, 9, =56-60=;
Grimaldi, 269, 490;
Modern, =56-59=, 83, 84, 140, 235, 303, 490;
Neanderthal, 9, 58, 59, =235-237=, 490;
Ofnet, 480, 490;
Piltdown, 58, 59, =139-141=, 236, 490;
_Pithecanthropus_ 9, 58, 59, =83=, =84=, 490
Brassempouy, 14, 279, 314, 322, 331, 347, 355, 393, =395=, 433-435, 438
Brive, 307, 314
Bronze Age, 12, 18, 21, 202, 267, 460, 461, 476
Bruniquel, 279, 348, 388, 427, 435, 436
Brünn, 279, 315, 322, 331, 334-337, =395=, Pl. II;
race, 23, 257, 276, 278, 302, 331, 333, =334-338=, 480, 489-491, 500;
see Brüx, Galley Hill, Předmost, Human fossils, and Origin
Brüx, 334; see Brünn race
Buchenloch, 245, 314, 435
Buffon, G. L. L., 3
_Bühl_, see Postglacial Stage
Burial customs, 24, 215, 221-223, 270, 271, 302, =303-305=, 337,
=376-380=, =475-479=
_Burin_, graver, =270=, =306-308=, 310, 386, 389, 470
C
Cabeço da Arruda, 467, 471, 474
Camargo, 279, 294, 314, 331, 435
Campignian, 493-495
Campigny, 471;
see Campignian
Camps, open, 29, =30=, 176, 283, 284, 314, 334, 337, 341-343, 442, 448
Canary Islands, 453, 454, =506-510=
_Canis_, _lagopus_, =193=, 206, see Fox, arctic;
_neschersensis_, 333;
_suessi_, 147;
see Dog, Jackal, and Wolf
Cannibalism, 184, 477
Cannstatt, 10, 105, 218, 220, 331
Cap-Blanc, 317, =395=, 428, =431=, 435
_Capreolus_, 70, 147, 367, 469;
see Deer, roe-
Capri, 167, 168
Caramanico, 167
Castillo, 33, 150, =162-165=, 167, 245, 246, 279, 314, 319, 320, 324,
325, 331, 342, 349, =395=, =402=, 408, 435, 436, 459, 460, 471
_Castor_, 69;
_fiber_, 147, 183, 470;
see Beaver
Cattle, wild (Aurochs, Urochs, urus), 43, 44, 62, 66, 76, 95, 98, 106,
119, 125, 148, 165, 182, 192, 206, 211, 214, 245, 265, 284, 288,
325, 333, 348, 356, 368, 372, 392, 405, =413=, 461, 466, 468,
469, 497, 498, 505, 506;
see _Bos_ and _Leptobos_
Cave-bear, =10=, =11=, 13, 182, 194, 197, 201, 202, 206, =210=, =211=,
212, 213, 218, 287, =401=, =413=;
see _Ursus spelæus_
Cave-hyæna, 11, 212, 218, 265, 287, 288;
see _Hyæna crocuta spelæa_
Cave-leopard, 206, 287;
see _Felis pardus spelæa_
Cave-lion, 201, 206, 265, 287;
see _Felis leo spelæa_
Caverns, 24;
formation of, =30-33=, 212;
life in, 2, 30, 32, =211-213=, 457
Cavillon, Grotte de, see Grimaldi, Grottes de
Cazelle, 435
Cephalic index, 8, 480, 490
Ceppagna, 167
Cergy, 109, 149, 152
_Cervus, carnutorum_, 71;
_dama_, 498;
_dicranius_, 71;
_elaphus_, 70, 94, 147, 367, 392, 426, 461, 469;
_maral_, 367, 447;
_sedgwicki_, 69, 71;
see Deer and Stag
Chaffaud, Grotte du, 396, 404, 435, 438
Chaleux, Trou de, 435
Chamois, _Rupicapra_, 44, 46, 201, 264, 265, 357, 365, 366, =369=,
=371=, 466
Champs, 435, 436
Champs Blancs, 331, 348, 435
Chancelade, 279, =376-378=, 382, 435
Chapelle-aux-Saints, La, 7, 9, =203=, 214, =222-224=, =226-232=,
=235-238=, =241-243=, 245, 246
Châtelperron, 305, 307, 314;
see _Pointe_
Chellean, 14-16, 18;
chronology, 33, 34, =113-115=, 120;
climate, =117,= =118=;
fauna, =144-148=;
geography (physical), 115, =116=, =154-157=;
industry, 12, 14, 16, 18, 41, 108, 114, =148-154=, =270=, 280, 362;
stations, =149=, 152, 154-158;
see Origin
Chelles, 16, 109, =111=, 116, 149, 152, =154=, 167, 244
Chimpanzee, 3, 8, 49, =52-56=, 58, 59, 78, 140, 227, 231, 235, 490, 511,
512
Chipping, see Flint
Chisel, see _Ciseau_
Chronology, 10, 12-14, 16, =18-24=, =41=, 510;
tables, 18, 21, 22, 23, 33, 41, 43, 54, 108, 280, 362, 395, 491;
means of estimating, 19, 20, =22-24=, =317-320=
_Ciseau_, chisel, =270=, =271=, 388, 392, 444
Climate, effect on fauna, 46, 47, 192, 194, 205, 284-287;
effect on man, 33, 297, 332, 372, 382;
glacial, 20, 29, 34, 37-43, 64-66, 89, 104, 105, 114, 117, 188-194,
202, 205, 281, 285;
interglacial, 20, 29, 30, 33, 34, 37-41, 43, 67, 90, 91, 95, 103, 112,
117, 118, 186-188;
Pliocene, 63;
Postglacial, 23, 41, 43, 276, 281-284, 361-363
Clothing, 2, 178, 186, 213, 388, 392, 496
Cogul, 394, 497
Colombes, 109, 149, 152
Combarelles, 319, =395-397=, =399-401=, 435
Combe-à-Roland, 331
Combe-Capelle, 167, 192, 196, 197, 199, 211, 245, 248, 249, 252, 253,
255, 279, 314;
man (_Homo aurignacensis_), =302=, =303=, 338
Combo-Negro, 435, 436
_Compresseur_, =271=;
see Anvils
Continental outline, 19, =34-37=, 64, 65, 71, 86, 92, 105, 115, 116,
155, 156, 166, 189, 190, 281, 282, 288, 362
Cotte de St. Brelade, La, 214, =225=, 245
Cottés, Les, 213, 314
_Coup de poing_, =113=, =114=, =121=, 129, 130, =152-154=, 169-173,
177-180, 222, 251-254, 256, =270=
_Couteau_ (knife, blade), 130, 172, 177, 180, =270=, 306, 308, 310, 386,
389, 488, 494
Crayford, 198, 245
Créteil, 109, 149, 152
_Cricetus phæus_, 373, =374=;
see Hamster
Crô-Magnon, 279, =291=, 314, 331, 437, Pl. II;
man, 7, =273=, 279, =291-294=, =300=, =301=;
race, 7, 23, 54, 240, 257, 258, 260, 261, 263, 265-276, =278=, 280-282,
284, =289-305=, 336, 351, 358, 376-382, 434, 440, 443, 449-454,
457-459, 489-492, 499, 500, 506-510, Pl. VII
Cromer, Forest Bed of, 64, 67, 68, 71
Crosle Biscot, 435
Crouzade, 331, 341, 435, =437=
Culture, see Industry
_Cyon alpinus fossilis_, 201
D
Dart-thrower, see _Propulseur_
_Daun_, see Postglacial Stage
Deer, =44=, 125, 134, 245, 265, 356, 426, see _Cervus_;
_Axis_, 62, 71, 76, 102;
fallow, 265, 469, 497, see _Cervus dama_;
giant, 43, 94, 96, 165, 187, 206, 211, 213, 288, 335, see _Megaceros_;
polycladine, 63, 102, see _Cervus dicranius_ and _sedgwicki_;
red, 44, 287, 426, 447, see _Cervus elaphus_ and Stag;
roe-, 44, 94, 95, 165, 264, 265, 287, 404, 447, 466, 468, 488, 498,
see _Capreolus_;
rusa, 76
_Dicerorhinus_ (R.), _antiquitatis_, 46, 106, 285, see Rhinoceros,
woolly;
_etruscus_, 41, 63, 69, see Rhinoceros, Etruscan;
_merckii_, 41, =92-94=, 117, 148, 263, see Rhinoceros, Merck's
Dog, domestic, 474, 486, 488, 497, 499
Dolichocephaly, 7, 8, 78, 220, 230, 231, 266, 268, 334, 336, 338, 457,
478-481
Domestic Animals, 447, 466, 474, 486, 488, 497-499
Drill, see _Perçoir_
_Dryopithecus_, 6, 49, 50, 511
Dürnten, 20, 117, 119
Dürntenian, 107, 119
Duruthy, see Sorde
E
Ehringsdorf, 167, 181, 214
Elasmothere, _E. sibiricum_, 46, 286, 373
Elephant, 38, 43, 44, 47, 72, 76, 86, =91-95=, 102, 117, 119, 123, 124,
147, 148, 155, 157, 161, 174, 177, 186, 187, 192, 205, 245, 264;
see _Elephas_
_Elephas_, _antiquus_, 27, 41, 47, 72, 76, =92-94=, 96, 117, 123, 125,
148, 165, 263;
_hysudricus_, 76;
_meridionalis_, 26, 27, 41, 62, 69, 72, =92=, 125;
_planifrons_, 62;
_primigenius_, 26, 46, 106, 285;
_trogontherii_, 41, 93, 102, 117;
see Elephant and Mammoth
Elevation, see Continental outline
Enfants, Grotte des, see Grimaldi, Grottes de, and Grimaldi race
Engis, 435, 453
Engraving, 317, =319-324=, 326, 348, 349, 353, 355, 356, 358, =392-407=
_Eoanthropus dawsoni_, 138, see Piltdown
Eolith, 11, 68, =84-86=, 135
Eolithic, Era, 17, 18;
industry, 17
_Equus_, _caballus celticus_, =367-369=, 400, 408, 412, 419, 431, 432,
498;
_przewalski_, 194, =367=, 373, 408, 410, 419;
_stenonis_, 27, =62=, 63, 69, 72;
see Horse
Erect attitude, 4, =57-60=, 73, 74, 82, 241-244
Ermine, _Mustela erminia_, 46, 207, 370, 447, 469
Etruscan rhinoceros, see Rhinoceros
Eyzies, Les, 13, 249, 279, 331, =378=, 388, 394, 435
F
Fate, Grotte delle, 245, 247
Fauna, 19-21, =38-47=, 61-64, 66, 69, 108;
Acheulean, =117=, =147=, =148=, 165, 177, 182;
African-Asiatic, 43, 44, 47, 62, 63, 71, 72, 86, 91-94, 205, 206, 287;
alpine, 44, 46, 206, 287;
Aurignacian, 284-289;
Azilian-Tardenoisian, 466, =468-470=, 472;
Chellean, =117=, 125, =144-148=;
forest, 44, 71, 206, 287;
glacial, 105, 106, 117, 190-194, 196, 197, 205-214, 265;
interglacial, 69-72 91-98, 101-103, 108-112, 117, 119, 123-125,
186-188, 265;
Magdalenian, =364-376=, 385, 397-434, 449, 466, 469;
meadow, 44, 71, 206, 287;
Mousterian, =117=, 186-188, =190-194=, 196, 197, =199-214=, 218,
221-223, 225, 263, 264;
Pliocene, 54, =61-64=, 144;
Postglacial, =281=, 364, 468, 469, 498, 499;
Pre-Chellean, 108-112, =117=, =125=;
Siwalik, 76;
Solutrean, =332=, =333=, 343, 348;
steppe, 44, 46, 194, 206, 281, 287, 362-366, =373-376=, 449, 450;
tundra, 44, 46, =190-194=, 206-211, 281, 285, 287, 348, 361, 362-366,
=370-373=;
migrations of, 19, 34-37, 62-64, 71, 72, 202, 205-210, 287;
represented in Palæolithic art (list), 366;
see Climate, for effect of, and Faunal lists
Faunal lists, 95, 125, 147, 206, 207, 287, 366
_Faune chaude_, 39, 91, 192;
see Mousterian fauna
_Faune froide_, see Mousterian fauna
Faustkeil, see _Coup de poing_
Fées, Grotte des, 279, 435
_Felis_, _leo_, 72, 92, 469;
_leo antiqua_, 147;
_leo spelæa_, 47, 188;
_manul_, 447;
_pardus spelæa_, 201;
see Cave-leopard, Cave-lion, Leopard, Lion, and Wildcat
Femur (thigh-bone), 73, 74, 77, 80, =237-241=, 266, 298, 376, 380
Fère-en-Tardenois, 16, 465, 471
Ferrassie, La, 7, 214, 216, =219=, =224=, 232, 237, 245, 246, 269
Fire, use of, 2, 165, 212, 213
First Glacial Stage, see Glacial Epoch
First Interglacial Stage, see Glacial Epoch
Fishing, 355, 385, 390, 450, 465, 471
Flake, see Levallois
Flaking, see Flint
Flint, chipping, 170;
cleavage, 171;
flaking, 169
Floors, Mousterian, 198, 199
Flora, 20;
Acheulean, 117, 118, 174, 175;
Chellean, 117, 118;
glacial, 65, 108, 117-119, 191, 192, 202, 208;
interglacial, 20, 67, 90, 91, 117-119;
Mousterian, 199;
Pliocene, 61, 63;
Postglacial, 361, 372, 375, 463, 488;
Pre-Chellean, 117, 118;
Pre-Neolithic, 488
Font-de-Gaume, 283, 314, 318, 319, 321, 325, 331, 349, 356, 358, 365,
372, 395-397, 399, 406-409, 412, =414-424=, 435, 449
Font Robert, 277, 311, 314, 331, 340, 344
Forestian, Upper, 362;
Lower, 282
Forests, see Flora
Foro, 167
Fourth Glacial Stage, see Glacial Epoch
Fox, 43, 63, 71, 206, 265, 287, 333, 343, 348, 366, 447, 498, see
_Vulpes_;
arctic, 44, 46, =193=, 207, 287, 289, 348, 370, 447, 468, 469, see
_Canis lagopus_.
Freudenthal, 279, 435
Frileuse, 167
Frontal, Trou de, 435
Fuente del Frances, 435
Furfooz, 7, 279, =481-483=, Pl. II;
race, 278, 458, 480, 482-485, 489, 491, 492, 500;
see Grenelle, Ofnet, and Origin
Furninha, 167, 168
G
Galley Hill, 28, 302, 337, 338;
see Brünn race
Gansersfelsen, 435
Garenne, 435, 440
Gargano, 167
Gargas, 31, 307, 314, 317, 325, =327=, 349, =394=, =395=
Germolles, 307, 314
Gibbon, =49-54=, 58, 61, 63, 77, 511;
see _Hylobates_
Gibraltar skull, 7, 9, 140, 214, =215=, =216=, 219, 226, 228, 232, 233,
236
Glacial Epoch, 18-23, 33, 40, 41, 43, 54;
chronology, 18-23, 40, 41, 108, 188, 280, 362;
see Climate, Continental outline, Fauna, Glaciers;
First Glacial Stage (Günz), 23, 25, 26, 37, 38, 41, 43, =64-66=;
Second Glacial Stage (Mindel), 23, 25, 26, 33, 37, 38, 41, 43, 65,
=86-90=;
Third Glacial Stage (Riss), 23, 25, 26, 33, 37-39, 41, 43, 94,
=104-106=, 115;
Fourth Glacial Stage (Würm), 18, 22, 23, 25, 26, 30, 32, 33, 36-38,
41, 43, 107, 108, 117, 160, =188-195=, 205, 206, 280, 281, 284,
285, 362,
_Laufenschwankung_, 41, 108, 280, 362;
First Interglacial Stage (Günz-Mindel or Norfolkian), 23, 26, 29,
33-35, 38, 41, 43, =66-72=, 84, 95, 115;
Second Interglacial Stage (Mindel-Riss), 23, 25, 29, 33, 38, 40, 41,
43, 69, =90-95=, 109-111, 114, 115;
Third Interglacial Stage (Riss-Würm), 23, 25, 29, 33, 34, 36, 38-41,
43, 69, 94, 107, 108, 112, 113, =115-119=, 186-188, 280, 362;
Postglacial Stage, 18-23, 29, 32, 33, 36, 41, 43, 108, =280-284=, 362,
468, 510,
_Bühl_, 23, 25, 26, 41, 108, 276, 280, =281=, =361=, =362=, 370,
372, 446, 447, 449,
_Gschnitz_, 23, 41, 108, 276, 280, =281=, 362, =363=, 372, 449, 450,
_Daun_, 23, 41, 108, 276, 280, =281=, 362, =363=,
_Achenschwankung_, 25, 26, =281=, =282=, 284
Glaciers, 64-66, 89, 90, 94, 104-106, 118, 189, 190, 361-363
Glutton, see _Gulo luscus_ and Wolverene
Gobelsburg, 435, 448
Goccianello, 167, 168
Gorge d'Enfer, 331, 435
Gorilla, 49, 52, =54-56=, 511, 512
Goulaine, 435, 438
Gourdan, 214, 279, 331, 341, 369, 388, 392, 435, 438
Goyet, 435
_Grattoir_, 129, 130, 177, 254, =270=, =306-310=, =386=, 390, 470,
=473=, 494;
_caréné_, 308, =309=, 463
Graver, see _Burin_
_Gravette_, etching tool, 270
Gravette, La, 277, 311, 314
Gray's Thurrock, 28, 109, 116, 128, 149, 152, =156=, =157=
Greek conception of nature and of the prehistory of man, 1-3
Grenelle, 279, 481, 482, 484;
race, see Furfooz
Grèze, La, 314, 317, 327, 331, =395=, 396
Grimaldi, Grottes de (Baoussé Roussé), 245, 247, =262-265=, 279, =294=,
295, 312-314, 321, 323, 380;
Baousso da Torre, 263, 294;
Barma Grande, 263, 294;
Cavillon, Grotte de, 263, 294;
Enfants, Grotte des, =263-265=, 292, 294-297, see Grimaldi race;
Prince, Grotte du, 262, 263
Grimaldi race, 7, 19, 245, 260, 262-269, 278, 279, =294=, 301, 314,
490-492
_Gschnitz_, see Postglacial Stage
Guanches, 453-455, 507-510
Gudenushöhle, 245, 248, 279, 307, 314, 435, 448
_Gulo luscus_, 469;
_borealis_, =193=;
see Wolverene
Günz, see Glacial Epoch
H
_Hachette_ (_tranchette_, chopper, cleaver), =270=, 488, 494
Hammer-stone, see _Percuteur_
Hamster, 46, 63, 147, 165, 287, 362, 364, =374=
Hand-axe, see _Coup de poing_
Hand-stone, see _Coup de poing_
Hare, 289, 333, 368, 447, 468, 498, see _Lepus_ (_timidus_);
arctic, 46, 207, 287, 348, 370, 447, 468, 469, see _Lepus variabilis_;
tailless, see _Lagomys_ and Pika
Harpoons, 355, 383-385, =387=, =388=, 390, 391, 440, 443-445, 449, 450,
456, =460-462=, 465, 466, 470, 474, 486, 487
Hastings, 471, 475
Heidelberg man, Mauer, 7, 23, 24, 40, 41, 53, 54, 90, =95-101=, 114,
138, 143, 144, 214, 228, 229, 489, 491, 492, Pl. II
Heidelberg race, see Heidelberg man and Origin
Helin, 109, =116=, 127, =128=, 149, 152, 166, 167
Helvetian, see Dürntenian
Hermida, La, 435
Hippopotamus, _H. major_, 38, 39, 41, 43, 44, 47, 69, 71, 86, 91,
=92-94=, 102, 117, 123-125, 134, 147, 148, 155, 157, 165, 174,
177, 186, 192, 199, 263, 264
Höhlefels bei Hütten, 435, 442
Höhlefels bei Schelklingen, 435, 442
Hohlestein, 314, 435
Hommes, Grotte des, 279, 435
_Homo_, _aurignacensis_, see Combe-Capelle man;
_heidelbergensis_, see Heidelberg man;
_mousteriensis_, see Neanderthal race;
_neanderthalensis_, see Neanderthal race;
_sapiens_, 7, 9, 10, 54, 230-234, 257, 260, 261, 278, 334, 484, 490,
491, 500
Horace, on the prehistory of man, 3, 504
Hornos de la Peña, =245-247=, 314, 331, =395=, 435, 436
Horse, 45, 165, 182, 192, 225, 284, 355, 385, 392, =404=, 405, 407,
=408=, =410=, =412-414=, =431=, =432=, 469, 498;
Desert, Plateau or Celtic, see _Equus caballus celticus_;
Forest or Nordic, 95, 147, 288, 289, =367=, 369, 400, 498;
Hipparion, 63;
kiang or wild ass, 194, 285-287, 366, =367=, =372-374=, 400, 447;
Solutré, =288=, =289=, 414;
Steno's, 34, 96, 110, 111, 125, see _Equus stenonis_;
Steppe, see _Equus przewalski_
Hôteaux, Les, 279, =378=, =379=, 435
Hoxne, 158
Human figures, 317, =321-323=, =328=, =329=, 337, 357, 393, =395=, 399,
=433=, 434, 497
Human fossils, 4, 11;
distribution of, 214, 279;
tables of, 7, 219, 294, 336, 378, 490;
see Lists
Human races, see Lists and Origin
Hunting, 2, 11, 166, 202, =211-214=, 283, 372, 456, 471, 496, 497
Hyæna, 43, 62, 76, 110, 147, 148, 155, 165, 188, 214, 245, 265, 317,
356, 476;
see Cave-hyæna and _Hyæna_
_Hyæna_, _brevirostris_, 125;
_crocuta_, 102, 147;
_crocuta spelæa_, 47, 102, 188;
_striata_, 92, 102;
see Hyæna
_Hylobates_, 6;
see Gibbon
I
Ibex, _Ibex priscus_, 44, 46, 201, 206, 264, 265, 287, 289, 321, 348,
=357=, 369, =371=, 391, 401, 405, 433, 447, 466, 469, 497
Ice Age, see Glacial Epoch
Ice-fields, 19, 22; see Glaciers
Implements, 11, 27-30, 130, =270=, =271=;
art, =270=, 329, 330;
see Eolith, Flint, Industry, Lists, Neolith, Palæolith
Industry, 4, 11, 12-14, 19, 33, see Acheulean, Aurignacian,
Azilian-Tardenoisian, Chellean, Campignian, Magdalenian,
Mousterian, Neolithic, Pre-Chellean, Solutrean;
see Lists and Implements
Interglacial Stages, see Glacial Epoch
Iron Age, 12, 18, 21, 202, 267
Irpfelhöhle, 245, 248
Istein, 469, 471-473
Isturitz, 347, =395=
J
Jackal, 43, 44;
see _Canis neschersensis_
Javelin point, see _Sagaie_
Jerboa, 46, 194, 287, 364;
see _Alactaga jaculus_
K
Kärlich, 314
Kartstein, 245, 248, 314, 435
Kastlhäng, 370, 435, 442
Kent's Hole, 10, 152, =244=, =245=, 435, 440
Kesslerloch, 279, 286, 355, 361, 364, 378, 383, 435, 436, 441, 442,
=444-446=, 449
Kiang, wild ass, see Horse
Kleinkems, 471
Knife, blade, see _Couteau_ and _Lame_
Knight, Charles R., see Restorations
Kostelìk, 435, 448
Krapina, 7, 162, 167, =181-185=, 214, 219, 220, 228, 229, 256
Krems, 119, 248, 289, 307, 314, 435, 448
L
Lacave, 279, 331, 340, 345, 347, 391
_Lagomys_, 63;
_pusillus_, 202, 370, see Pika
_Lagopus_, see Ptarmigan
Lamarck, on man, 4
_Lame_, blade, 271
_Lampe_, lamp, 270, =401=, =402=
_Laufenschwankung_, see Glacial Epoch
Laugerie Basse, 13, 14, 275, 279, 331, 348,
=376-378=, 385, 388, 392, 407, 434, 435, 471
Laugerie Haute, 13, 14, 279, 294, =296=, 314, 331, 346, 352, 435
Laussel, 245, 246, 249, 275, 313, 314, 317, =326-329=, 331, 352,
=395=, 435
Lauterach, 314
Lemming, 46, 191, =193=, 194, 202, 207, 281, 287, 333, 348, 361,
364, 370, 469, 476;
see _Myodes_
Leopard, 265, 348;
see Cave-leopard and _Felis pardus spelæa_
Leptobos, 71;
_elatus_, 62;
_etruscus_, 63;
see Cattle
_Lepus_, 469;
_cuniculus_, 364, see Rabbit;
_timidus_, 364, see Hare;
_variabilis_, 206, see Hare, arctic
Levallois, 167, 179
Levallois flake, 167, 168, =179=, 180, 199, 250, 251
Limeuil, 279, 435
Lion, 43, 86, 94-96, 98, 148, 165, 188, 281, 317, 348, 356, 365, 378,
400, =407=, 446, 468, 472, 498;
see Cave-lion and _Felis leo_
_Lissoir_, polisher, smoother, =270=, =271=, 380, 388, 392, 456, 463,
466, 470
Lists and Tables, chronology, 18, 21, 22, 23, 33, 41, 54, 108, 280, 362;
climatic changes, 38, 39, 41, 43, 117, 191, 192, 275, 281, 284,
361-364;
fauna, 21, 41, 43, 54, 62, 95, 125, 147, 206, 207, 287;
human fossils, 7, 9, 219, 236, 237, 239, 266, 294, 295, 336, 378, 490;
human races, 41, 54, 108, 278, 280, 362, 458, 490, 491, 499, 500;
industries, divisions of, 18, 113, 114, 248, 249, 252, 340, 389,
succession of, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 33, 41, 108, 280, 362;
implements, 130, 172, 254, 270, 271, 306, 308, 310
Liveyre, 331, 435
Loam, 5, 24, 27, 28
Loess, 5, 23-25, =29=, =30=, 36, 38, 46, 97, 103, 112, 115, 117-119,
122-124, 151, 159, 161, 162, 174, 176, 181, 252, 281, 282, 284,
286, 314, 334, 337, 364, 376, 442, 448;
stations, see Camps, open
Longueroche, 435, 471
Lorthet, 406, 407, 435, 438, 471
Lourdes, 279, 388, 432, 435, 436, 438, 471
Lower Rodent Layer, see Rodent Layers
Lucretius on the prehistory of man, 1, 2, 503
Lussac, 279, 435
_Lutra vulgaris_, 147;
see Otter
_Lynchus lynx_, 469;
see Lynx
Lynx, 43, 63, 206, 287, 367, 466;
see _Lynchus lynx_
M
Macaque, 54, 61, 63, 69, 76
Macerata, 167
_Machærodus_, 41, 69, 244;
see Sabre-tooth tiger
Madeleine, La, 13, 16, 279, 351, =383-389=, 398, 435, 443, 445, 449, 471
Magdalenian, 14-16, 18, 276, 277, 351-360;
art, 351-357, 365, 366, 393, =395-434=;
burial customs, =376-380=;
chronology, 18, 33, 41, 108, 276, 280, 281, 351, 361-364;
climate, 276, =360-364=, =370-376=, 443, 447, 449, 450;
fauna, =361-376=, 443, 445-447, 449, 450;
human fossils, =376-382=;
industry, 14-16, =270=, =271=, 275, 276, 351-356, 358, =382-392=, 436,
440, 443-450;
stations, 351, =434-449=;
see Origin and Rodent Layers
Maglemose, 458, 471, =487=, =488=, 501
Magrite, Trou, 314, 331, 344, 435
Mairie, Grotte de la, 317, =395=, 400, 405, 412, =413=, 435, 442
Malarnaud, 214, 219
Mammoth, 10, 43, 102, 109, 117, 134, 147, 148, 177, 187, 194, 200, 202,
205, 206, 213, 218, 281, 288, 289, 316, 317, 321, 324-326, 333,
337, =348-350=, 356, 364, 372, 385, 401, 403, =420=, =421=,
=427=, 429, 449, 450, 476, see _Elephas_;
woolly, 13, 40, 41, 43, 106, 117, 174, 187, =190-192=, 196, 205,
=207=, =208=, 210, 218, 221, =285-289=, 334, 335, 363, 370, 372,
384, =397=, =398=, 420, 427, 446, see _Elephas primigenius_
Man, ancestry of, 3-7, =49-64=, 491, 511
Mantes-la-Ville, 167
Marcilly-sur-Eure, 214
Mare-au-Clercs, La, 167
Marignac, 109, 126, 149, 152
Markkleeberg, 167
Marmot, _Arctomys marmotta_, 182, 201, 206, 265, 370
Marsoulas, 314, 319, 321, 328, 373, =394=, =395=, 396, 399, 403, 405,
415, 416, 435, 471, 485
Marten, 71, 165, 201, 265, 367, 380, 447, 498;
see _Mustela martes_
Martinshöhle, 435, 471
Mas d'Azil, 15, 16, 279, 319, 357, 375, 380, 385, 388, 391-396, 432,
433, 435, 437, 449, =458-465=, 471, 472, 474
Massat, 437, 471
Mastodon, 62, 70, 134
Maszycka, 435, 436, 449
Mauer, see Heidelberg man
McGregor, J. Howard, see Restorations
Mediterranean race, 261, 278, 457, 458, 479, 480, 485, 489, 491, 492,
499, 500
_Megaceros_, 45, =68=, 70, 106, 147, 182, 196, 287, 367;
see Deer, giant
_Meles taxus_, 147;
see Badger
Mentone, 247, 322, 395, 472, 473;
see Grimaldi, Grottes de
Merck's Rhinoceros, see _Dicerorhinus_ and Rhinoceros
Mesaticephaly, 8, 479
Metternich, 284, 314
Micoque, La, 113, =167=, =168=, 179, 192, 196, 245, 246, 248, 249
Microlith, see _Microlithique_
_Microlithique_, microlith, =270=, 306, 308, 310, 388, 396, 450, 470-472
Migration, of fauna, see Fauna;
of human races and industries, see Origin
Mindel, see Glacial Epoch
Miskolcz, 245, 248, 331
Mommenheim, 245, 247, 248
Monkeys, 54, 61-63
Montconfort, 279, 331, 435
Montfort, 341, 471
Monthaud, 331, 346
Montières, 109, 127, 149, 152, 186, 244, 245, 283, 314, 331
Moose, 44, 94, 96, 265, 281, 348, 366, 468, 469, 472, 488, 496-498;
see Alces
Moulin-de-Laussel, 331
Mousterian, 14-16, 18, 30, =186-188=, 248-250;
burial customs, 222, 223, 271;
chronology, 18, 33, 41, 108, 280, 362;
climate, 117, 123, =188-199=, 202, 205, 207;
fauna, 117, 190-194, 196, =199-214=;
flora, 199;
human fossils, =218-226=;
industry, 14-16, =113=, =248-256=, =270=, =271=;
stations, 194-202, =244-248=;
see Caverns, life in, Floors, and Origin
Moustier, Le, 13, 16, =196-199=, 214, 245, 246, 251, 253, 255;
man, 7, 196, 214, =221-223=, 226, 228, frontispiece
Mouthe, La, 17, 246, 279, 314, 317, 320, 321, 394, =395=, =398=, =399=,
401
Mugem, 471, 474, 486
Munzingen, 160, 195, 435, 439, 442, 443
Murals, see Painting
Musk-ox, 42-44, 46, 65, =66=, 187, 191, =193=, 207, 285, 287, 289, 348,
362, 366, 370;
see _Ovibos moschatus_
_Mustela_, _erminea_, see Ermine;
_martes_, 147, 469, see Marten.
_Myodes_, _lemmus_, 210;
_obensis_, 206, 285, 370;
_torquatus_, =193=, 202, 206, 285, 370, 441, 446, 447;
see Lemming
N
Narbonne, 435, 437
Naulette, La, 7, 214, =221=, 228
Neanderthal, cave, 31, 214, 216, 217, Pl. II;
burial customs, see Mousterian;
man, 5, 7, 9, 56, 181, =216-219=, 490;
race, frontispiece, 5-7, 9, 23, =40=, =41=, 54, 136, 182, 191, 196,
=211-244=, 256, 258, 263, 272, 491, 492,
anatomical features, 53-56, 183, 184, 203, 219-223, =226-244=, 490,
chronology, 41, 108, 257, 262, 280, 491,
compared with Crô-Magnon, 297, 298,
discoveries, 181-185, =215-226=,
distribution of, 214, 219;
see Origin
Necklace, 302, 304, 376, 378, =437=, 472
Needle, see _Aiguille_
Negroid race, 261, 262, =266-269=, 278, 301, 302, 321, 492
Neolith, 11, 496
Neolithic, New Stone Age, 10, 13, 18, 19, 21, 41, 108, 280, 362, 447,
482, 484-486, 488, 493-501
_Neopithecus_, 49
Neschers, 245, 435, =438=
Niaux, 314, 319, 353, 373, 391, =394=, =395=, 400, 406, =409-411=, 412,
429, 435
Niedernau, 370, 435
Norfolkian, see First Interglacial Stage and Forest Bed of Cromer
Nutons, Trou des, 435
O
Oban, 474, 475, 486
Obercassel, man, 7, 279, 353, 378, =380-382=, 435, 443
Oberlarg, 435
Ochos, 214, 219, =221=, 228, 245, 248
Ofnet, 279, 285, 314, 331, 370, 435, 469, 471, 473, =475-481=;
races, 442, 457-460, 480, 481, 490, 491, 500;
see Furfooz race and Origin
Ojcow, 331, 436, 449
Ondratitz, 331
Orang, 3, 49, =52-54=, 56, 77, 511
Origin, of industries, Acheulean, 261, 492,
Aurignacian, 261, 289, 305-307, 322, 492,
Azilian-Tardenoisian, 457, 470-472, 492,
Chellean, 126, 261, 492,
Magdalenian, 351-353, 383,
Mousterian, 261,
Pre-Chellean, 126,
Solutrean, 330, 331, 340, 353, 492;
of human races,
Alpine, 458, 484, 485,
Brünn, 331, 492,
Crô-Magnon, 261, 322, 492,
Furfooz, 492,
Grimaldi, 262,
Heidelberg, 492,
Mediterranean, 492,
Neanderthal, 492,
Ofnet, 457, 484, 485,
Piltdown, 492,
Teutonic, 486
Otter, 63, 71, 76, 165, 201, 287, 468, 498;
see _Lutra vulgaris_
_Ovibos_, 376;
_moschatus_, =193=, 445, 447, see Musk-ox
_Ovis argaloides_, 369;
see Argali sheep
P
Painted Pebbles, see Azilian-Tardenoisian industry
Painting, 305, 316-318, 320, 321, =324=, =325=, 327, 328, 330, 358, 365,
=394-396=, 404-406, 408-429, 464, 465, 474, 496, 497
Pair-non-Pair, 279, 307, 314, 317, 320-322, 331, =336=, =394-396=
Palæolith, 11, 24, 84, 85, 109, 111, 158, 389
Palæolithic, Old Stone Age, 13, 16, 18, 19, 21, 28, 33, 41, 108, 160,
280, 362;
Lower Palæolithic, 14, 41, 108, 113, 114, 214, 280, 362, 490, 491;
Upper Palæolithic, 14, 41, 108, 214, 275, 276, 278, 280, 362, 395,
396, 490, 491, 500;
chronology, 18, 41, 108, 280, 362, 456
_Palæopithecus_, 49, 511
Parietal Art, see Painting
Pasiega, La, 319, =395=, =402-405=
Pataud, 245, 246, 331
Paviland, 279, =289=, =290=, 294, 314, 440
Pech de l'Azé, 214, 219, 245
_Perçoir_, drill, borer, 130, 135, 153, 172, 179, 253, 254, =270=, 306,
308, 310, 311, 344, 346, 385, 386, 388, 390, 392, 470, 473, 488
_Percuteur_, hammer-stone, 130, 254, =270=, 306
Pescara, 167
Petit Puymoyen, 214, 245, 246
_Pic_, pick, 494
_Pierre de jet_, throwing stone, 130, 172, 213, 254, =270=, 306
Pika, 46, 362, 447;
see _Lagomys_ (_pusillus_)
Piltdown, 109, 116, 128, =130-135=, 149, 152, 214, Pl. II;
industry, 127, 128, =133-135=;
man (_Eoanthropus_), 7, 23, 24, 40, 50, 53, 54, 56, =130-145=, 214,
489-491;
race, see Piltdown man and Origin
Pindal, =314-316=, 325, 349, =394=, =395=
_Pithecanthropus_, Trinil race, 7, 23, 24, 40, 53, 54, 86, 491, 511,
Pl. II;
anatomical features, 9, 10, 53, 56, 74, =77-84=, 233, 234, 240, 490;
discovery, =73-77=
Placard, 279, 331, =333=, =334=, 340, 345-348, 352, 353, 355, =378-380=,
383, 385, 389, 435, 436, 438
Planing tool, see _Grattoir_
Pleistocene, see Glacial Epoch
_Pliohylobates_, 49, 54
_Pliopithecus_, 49, 54
_Poignard_, dagger, poniard, =271=, 392, 432
_Poinçon_, awl, 271, 308, 346, 392, 470
_Pointe_, point, knife, lance head, spear head, =15=, 113, 153, 172,
177, 179, =248-255=, =270=, 306, 308, 310, 311, 473;
Châtelperron, 306, 307, 311;
_pointe à cran_, shouldered, =270=, 308, 310, 313, 334, 340, 342,
345, 346, 352;
_pointe à face plane_, 341;
_pointe de lance_, =271=, 306;
_pointe de laurier_, laurel leaf, =15=, =270=, 310-312, 334, 337,
339-341, 344, 345, 347, 348, 352;
_pointe de sagaie_, javelin point, =271=, 308, 340, 346, 354, 355,
361, 364, 370, 383, 387, 390, 442, 449, 462, 494;
_pointe de saute_, willow leaf, 340, 344, 347;
_pointe à soie_, =270=, 310, 311, 313, 340, 345
Polisher, see _Lissoir_
Portel, Le, 319, 394, =411=, =412=
Postglacial Stage, see Glacial Epoch
Pottery, 461, 466, 474, 486, 488, 496
Praule, Trou de, 435
Pre-Chellean, 16, 18, 36, 41;
chronology, 18, 33, 40, 41, 90, =107-115=, 280, 362;
climate, 108, 112, 114, =117=, =118=, 123;
fauna, 108-112, 117, 124, =125=;
industry, 40, 114, =120-130=, =270=;
stations, 109, 116, =122-128=, 149, 150-152, 158, see Continental
outline and Origin
Předmost, 257, 279, 331, 341, 345, 348, 349, 366, =395=, 427;
see Brünn race;
mammoth hunters, 279, =337=
Primates, 3-10, 40, =49-64=, 73-84, 86, 140, 141, 217, 219, 227, 231,
233-235, 237-240, 490, 491
Prince, Grotte du, see Grimaldi, Grottes de
_Propliopithecus_, 49, 54
Propstfels, 372, 435, 442, 469
_Propulseur_, spear thrower, dart thrower, =271=, 355, 391, 432, 433,
436, 445, =449=
Ptarmigan, _Lagopus_, 44, 206, 207, 287, 289, 370, =371=, =375=, 469
Q
Quartz, 166
Quartzite, 163, 164, 265
Quina, La, 9, 113, 211, 213, 214, 245, 246, 248, 253-256;
man, 7, 9, 214, 216, 217, =219=, 221, =225=, 236, 237, 248
R
Rabbit, 265, 343, 368, 468;
see _Lepus cuniculus_
_Racloir_, scraper, 113, 114, 130, 135, 172, =178=, 209, 248, 250, 251,
=253-255=, =270=, 306, 387, 388, 470, 472, 473, 488
_Rangifer tarandus_, =193=, =209=, 210, =285=;
see Reindeer
Räuberhöhle, 245, 247, 248, 314
Raymonden, 349, 376, 388, 435
Reilhac, 331, 471
Reindeer, 13, 41, =43=, =44=, 46, 102, 103, 187, =191-194=, 196, 197,
202, 205, 206, =209=, 210-212, 214, 221, 223, 225, 284, =285=,
286-289, 314, 317, 332, 333, =365=, =366=, 370, 372, 385, 392,
399, =405=, =407=, 411-413, 415, 419-421, =429=, 433, 440,
=441=, 445, 447, 461, 462, 468, 469, 471, 474, 481, 498;
see _Rangifer_
Reindeer Epoch, Period, 13, 14, 102, 192, 275, 286, 363, 375, 392, 438,
456, 459
Religion, 272, 358-360, 463, 465, 501
Remouchamp, 471, 474
Ressaulier, 435, 436
Restorations, Knight, Charles R., frontispiece, 358;
McGregor, J. Howard, 9, 79-82, 87, 137, 140, 142, 143, 145, 203, 242,
243, 273, 293, 300, 301;
Rutot-Mascré, 73, 101, 484, 495
Retouch, =169-172=, 248, 269, 306, 308, 310, 331, 332, 338, 339, 358,
389
Rey, 331
Rhens, 284, 314
Rhinoceros, 38, 39, 43, 44, 62, 76, 123, 221, 245, 289, 337, 356, 365,
see _Dicerorhinus_;
Etruscan, 34, 95-97, 101, 109, 110-112, 117, 125, 134, 144, see _D.
etruscus_;
Merck's (broad-nosed), 27, 43, 47, =93=, =94=, 97, 102, 109, 119, 124,
125, 134, 147, 148, 151, 155, 157, 161, 164, 165, 177, 182, 186,
187, 192, 205, 263-265, see _D. merckii_;
woolly, 11, 13, 40, 41, 117, 148, 174, 187, =190=, 191, 196, 199, 205,
206, =208-210=, 213, 218, 223, 225, 281, =285-288=, 314, =319=,
324-326, 348, 363, 366, 372, 400, 409, see _D. antiquitatis_
Riss, see Glacial Epoch
River-drifts, 5, 11, 12, 23;
formation, =24-27=, 90, 119, 154-157, 186;
stations, 114-116, 119-124, 154-156;
terraces, 20, 23, =24-28=, 34, 85, 90, 104, 154-157, 162
Robenhausen, 471, 495
Roccamorice, 167
Roche au Loup, 307, 314
Rochette, La, 245, 246
Rock Shelters, 32, 33
Rodent Layers, 447;
Lower, 206, 207, 211, 281, 314;
Upper, 281, 361, 363, 446
Romanelli, 306, 314
Rüderbach, 167
Rüdersheim, 167
_Rupicapra_, see Chamois
Ruth, Le, 314, 331, 435
Rutot-Mascré, see Restorations
S
Sablon, 162, 167
Sabre-tooth tiger, 34, 43, 62, 69, =70=, 72, 94, 102, 110-112, 117, 125,
144, 147;
see _Machærodus_
_Sagaie_, javelin point, see _Pointe de sagaie_
Saiga antelope, 44, 46, 194, 287, 289, 333, 357, 362, 366, 373, =374=,
376, =449=
_Saiga tartarica_, see Saiga antelope
Salitre, 435
Saint Acheul, 5, 14, 16, 109, 116, =119-124=, 127-129, =149-152=, 155,
162, 163, 166, 167, 170, 244, 245, 249, 283, 314, 331, 435, 440
Saint Lizier, 435
Saint Martin d'Excideuil, 331
Saint Prest, 17, 67-69
San Isidro, 109, 126, 149, 152, 167, 245, 246
_Sciurus vulgaris_, 367;
see Squirrel
Schmiechenfels, 372, 435, 469
Schussenquelle, 372, 435, 442
Schussenried, 435, 441;
see Schussenquelle
Schweizersbild, 286, 361, 364, 370, 435, 441, 442, =444-447=, 449, 460
Scraper, see _Racloir_
Sculpture, 317, =320-323=, =328=, =329=, =347-349=, 356-358, 392, 393,
=395=, 396, =427-434=
Second Glacial Stage, see Glacial Epoch
Second Interglacial Stage, see Glacial Epoch
Seven Oaks, 471, 475
Shelters, abris, see Rock Shelters
Šipka, 214, 219, =221=, 228, 245, 247, 248, 435, 449
Sireuil, 314, 322, 395
Sirgenstein, =201=, =202=, 245, 248, 285, 314, 331, 370, 372, 435, 441,
460
_Sivapithecus_, 511
Siwalik, see Fauna
Solutré, 16, 279, 283, 286, 288, 294, 314, 330, 331, =341-345=, 373,
435, 436, 438
Solutrean, 14-16, 18, 41, =270=, =271=, 276, 278, 280;
art, =347-350=, 357;
burial customs, 332;
chronology, 18, 33, 41, 108, 280, 362;
climate, 41, 108, 276, 280, 281, =332=, =333=;
fauna, =332-334=, 343, 348, 366;
human fossils, 279, =334-337=;
industry, 275-278, 330-332, 334, =338-348=, 351, 352, 354, 358;
stations, 326-328, =331=, 337, =340-348=, see Origin
Somme River, 12, 110, 112, =114-117=, 119, 120, =122-125=, 127, 162,
252, 276
Sorde, 279, 378, 435, 438
Souzy, 435
_Spermophilus rufescens_, 194, 373;
see Suslik
Spear-point, see _Pointe_
Speech, power of, 4, 58, 60, 139, 140
Spiennes, 127, 128, 495
Spy, 162, 214, 244, 245, 311, 314, 331;
man, 7, 181, 214, =218-220=, 226, 228, 229, 231-233, 235-237, 244,
256, 257, 490
Squirrel, 447, 498; see _Sciurus vulgaris_
Stag, 43, 44, 95, 106, 119, 187, 201, 202, 264, 265, 288, 333, 364,
367, 370, 372, 405, =426=, 429, 456, 461, 463, 468, 469, 481,
488, =497=, 498;
see _Cervus elaphus_ and Deer, red
_Stegodon_, 76, 134
Strassberg, 435
Stratification of Castillo, 164;
Enfants, Grotte des, 265;
Heidelberg, 97;
Madeleine, La, 385;
Mas d'Azil, 461;
Ofnet, 476;
Piltdown, 133;
Placard, 333-334;
Saint Acheul, 122, 123, 150;
Schweizersbild, 447;
Sirgenstein, 202
Subsidence, see Continental outline
Sureau, Trou du, 435
_Sus_, _arvernensis_, 63;
_scrofa_, 71;
_scrofa ferus_, 147, 165, 368, 469;
_scrofa palustris_, 499;
see Boar
Suslik, 206, 289, 447;
see _Spermophilus rufescens_
T
Tables, see Lists
Tardenoisian, see Azilian-Tardenoisian
Tasmanian compared with Neanderthal, 232, 233;
see Neanderthal
Taubach, 119, 167, 214
Tectiforms, =283=, 284, 403, 404
Terraces, see River-drifts
Teutonic race, 458, 486, 488, 499-501
Teyjat, 388, 394, 396, 435;
see Mairie, Grotte de la, and Abri Mège
Thiede, 314
Third Glacial Stage, see Glacial Epoch
Third Interglacial Stage, see Glacial Epoch
Throwing stone, see _Pierre de jet_
Thumb, opposable, 55, 58, 60, 240
Tibia, shin-bone 237-239, 241, 266, 298
Tilloux, 109, 149, 152, 167
Torralba, 109, 126, 149, 152
Tourasse, La, 471, 486
Trilobite, Grotte du, 314, =324=, =326=, 331, 340, 341, =344=, =347=,
440
Trinil race, see _Pithecanthropus_
_Trogontherium_, 45, 69, 94;
see Beaver, giant
Tuc d'Audoubert, 32, 395, 396, 406, =427-431=, 435
Tundra, see Climate, glacial;
see Fauna
Turbarian, Lower, 361;
Upper, 363
U
Upper drift, 191
Upper Rodent Layer, see Rodent Layers
Urochs, Aurochs, see _Bos primigenius_ and
Cattle
_Ursus_, _arctos_, 102, 147, 211, 469;
_arvernensis_, 63, 94, 102;
_deningeri_, 102;
_spelæus_, 45, 183, =210=, =211=, 369;
see Bear and Cave-bear
V
Vache, Grotte de la, 435, 437, 471
Valle, 435, 466, 471, 474
Venosa, 167
Villejuif, 30, 167, 176
Volgu, 331, 339, 345
Völklinshofen, 284, 314
_Vulpes_, 469;
see Fox
W
Warm fauna, see _Faune chaude_
Weimar, 167
Wierschowie, 245, 248, 331
Wildcat, _Felis catus_, 43, 63, 95, 287, 498
Wildhaus, 314, 435
Wildkirchli, =200=, 201, 245, 247, 256
Wildscheuer, 286, 314, 370, 435, 442, 444
Willendorf, 30, 279, 311-315, 322, 395
Winterlingen, 435
Wisent, see Bison
Wolf, 43, 44, 71, 95, 147, 165, 187, 206, 264, 265, 287, 288, 333, 343,
348, =356=, 366, 441, 447, 468, 498;
see _Canis suessi_ and _Cyon alpinus fossilis_
Wolvercote, 167
Wolverene, glutton, 44, 46, 71, =193=, 287, 289, 348, 370, 447, 468, 498;
see _Gulo luscus_
Würm, see Glacial Epoch
Wüste Scheuer, 471
Z
Zonhoven, 471, 474
Zuffenhausen, 314
[Illustration: THE PRINCIPAL CAVERN REGIONS OF SOUTHWESTERN EUROPE
INCLUDING THE CAVERNS THAT CONTAIN PALEOLITHIC MURAL DECORATIONS
Region traversed in the author's motor tour of 1912 through the
Palæolithic caverns of Italy, France, and Spain.]
FOOTNOTES:
[A] The folding map at the end of the volume exhibits the entire extent of
the author's tour.
[B] Lucretius was born 95 B. C. His poem was completed before 53 B. C. In
the opening lines of Book III he attributes all his philosophy and science
to the Greeks. See Appendix, Note I.
[C] Lucretius, _On the Nature of Things_, metrical version by J. M. Good.
Bohn's Classical Library, London, 1890.
[D] Horace was born 65 B. C., and his Satires are attributed to the years
35-29 B. C. See Appendix, Note II.
[E] Æschylus was born 525 B. C. See Appendix, Note III.
[F] Georges Louis Leclerc Buffon (b. 1707, d. 1788). For reviews of
Buffon's opinions and theories see Osborn, 1894.1, pp. 130-9; also Butler,
1911.1, pp. 74-172.
[G] Jean Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, known as the Chevalier de
Lamarck (b. 1744, d. 1829). For a summary of the views of Lamarck see
Osborn, 1894.1, pp. 152-181; also Butler, 1911.1, pp. 235-314, an
excellent presentation of Lamarck's opinions.
[H] References are indicated by numbers only throughout the text. At the
close of each chapter is a list giving the author, date, and reference
number for every citation. A full list of all the works cited, including
those from which illustrations have been taken, together with complete
references, will be found in the bibliography at the end of the book.
[I] The best reference works on the history of French and German
Palæolithic Archæology are: Cartailhac,(12) _La France Préhistorique_;
Déchelette,(13) _Manuel d'Archéologie_, T. 1; Reinach,(14) _Catalogue du
Musée de St.-Germain: Alluvions et Cavernes_; Schmidt,(15) _Die diluviale
Vorzeit Deutschlands_; Avebury,(16) _Prehistoric Times_.
[J] The Cannstatt skull and Cannstatt race are now regarded as Neolithic,
and therefore not contemporary with the mammoth or the cave-bear.
[K] Note that lists and tables of races, cultural stages, faunæ, etc., in
this volume are given not in chronological but in _stratigraphic_ order,
beginning with the _most recent_ at the top and ending with the _oldest_
at the bottom.
[L] This table is a modification of that of Obermaier in his _Mensch der
Vorzeit_.(38) To each period of the chronologic reckoning should be added
the 1900 years of our era.
[M] Bison and wild cattle are grass eaters, and their natural habitats are
the open plain and meadow regions. They also range into open forest lands
where grasses can be found. The prehistoric 'urus' and 'wisent' of Europe
were both found in forests, but this may not have been their natural
habitat in Palæolithic times. See Appendix, Note IV.
[N] A recent article by A. Smith Woodward describes the fourth known
specimen of _Dryopithecus_, lately discovered in northern Spain (see
Woodward, 1914.2).
[O] There is a vast _Pithecanthropus_ literature. That chiefly utilized in
the present description includes Dubois,(13) Fischer,(14) Schwalbe,(15)
Büchner.(16)
[P] In the Trinil skull as restored by McGregor (Fig. 36) the cranial
capacity is 900 c.cm.
[Q] These horses are now identified respectively as _E. mauerensis_, _E.
mosbachensis_, and _E. süssenbornensis_.
[R] This glaciation as it occurs in northern Europe has been termed
_Polandian_ by Geikie; in the Alps Penck has termed it the _Riss_; in
America it is known as the _Illinoian_ from the great drifts it deposited
over the State of Illinois.
[S] This stage is known as the _Helvetian_ or _Dürntenian_ of Geikie; it
is the _Riss-Würm_ of Penck's terminology and the _Sangamon_ of the
American glaciologists.
[T] Modified after Schmidt.
[U] The weakness of Penck's argument for placing the Chellean in the
Second Interglacial was exposed by precise observations of Boule(5) and
Obermaier(6) in the Alps, the Jura, and the Pyrenees.
[V] The writer is indebted to M. Marcelin Boule and to M. l'Abbé Henri
Breuil for their observations on this fauna and culture period.
[W] Industry similar to the Chellean, but not necessarily of the same age,
is distributed all over eastern Africa from Egypt to the Cape.
[X] Schmidt regards the _Strépyan_ implements, which are considered by
Rutot and others to be transitional, between the Mesvinian and the
Chellean, as closely similar to the Pre-Chellean of France and probably of
the same age.
[Y] The original paper describing this remarkable discovery was read
before the Geological Society of London, December, 1912, and published as
a separate pamphlet in March, 1913. A discussion as to the geologic age by
Kennard, Clement Reid, and others was held at the time of the reading of
the original paper.
[Z] By the author of this work, and also by Professor J. Howard McGregor
of Columbia University and Doctor William K. Gregory of Columbia
University and of the American Museum of Natural History.
[AA] _Guide to the Fossil Remains of Man_, 1915.1.
[AB] The reconstruction (Fig. 66) of the Piltdown skull made by Professor
J. H. McGregor has a cranial capacity of about 1300 c.cm. The brain (Fig.
70) is seen to be very narrow and low in the prefrontal area, the seat of
the higher mental faculties. In the reconstruction the cranial region is
in the main very like the second restoration by Doctor Smith Woodward, but
the jaws differ in some respects. The tooth hitherto regarded as a right
lower canine, is now placed as the left upper canine, in accord with the
conclusions of the author of this work and of Doctors Matthew and Gregory
of the American Museum of Natural History. The dental arches are more
curved, thus more human and less ape-like than in the Smith Woodward
restoration, and the chin region is made somewhat deeper, thus giving a
somewhat less prognathous aspect to the face.
[AC] The early Teutonic designation of these animals was as follows:
bison, 'wisent,' wild ox, 'auerochs,' 'urochs' (the 'urus' of Cæsar). The
urus survived in Germany as late as the seventeenth century, while a few
of the bison or 'wisent' survive to the present time. The bison was
distinctively a short-headed animal, while its contemporary, the urus, was
long-headed and less agile. At Dürnten, near Zürich, remains of the urus
are found associated with those of the hardy, straight-tusked elephant and
of Merck's rhinoceros. (See Appendix, Note IV.)
[AD] The author was guided through this station by Doctor Hugo Obermaier
in the summer of 1912.
[AE] The entire fourth glaciation has been termed _Mecklenburgian_ by
Geikie;(6) the recession may correspond with his Fourth Interglacial
Stage, the _Lower Forestian_. It is the _Würm_ of Penck in the Alpine
region, with a first and second maximum separated by the recession known
as the _Laufenschwankung_. In America it is the early _Wisconsin_ with the
_Peorian_ recession interval, followed by the late _Wisconsin_, which is
the final great glaciation of America.
[AF] Obermaier, Breuil and Schmidt assign La Micoque to the transition
between late Acheulean and early Mousterian times.
[AG] The _climate_ of the _tundras_ is extreme, the winter temperature
falling on an average to 27°F. below zero, while in summer the temperature
is about 50°F. In the subarctic steppes the average January temperature
hardly exceeds 30°F., while that of July is 70°F.
[AH] The last of this very primitive race of the great island of Tasmania
became extinct in 1877.(62)
[AI] This cavern, like many of those discovered in the early days of
anthropological research, was not carefully explored in reference to the
all-important horizontal bedding of the layers of flint flakes and of
animal remains.
[AJ] See Appendix, Note VI.
[AK] Named in honor of the reigning Prince of Monaco, whose generous gifts
and personal interest made the adequate exploration of these grottos
possible.
[AL] This correlation agrees in the main with that of Schmidt in his
_Diluviale Vorzeit Deutschlands_.(10)
[AM] Obermaier,(19) R. Martin.(20)
[AN] Denotes very frequent occurrence of a typical form.
[AO] Denotes very frequent occurrence of a typical form.
[AP] Denotes very frequent occurrence of a typical form.
[AQ] Breuil,(34) Schmidt.(35)
[AR] The writer had the privilege of visiting all these caverns in the
company either of Professor Emile Cartailhac, or of the Abbé Breuil.
[AS] Despite Schwalbe's statement, the supraorbital ridges in this skull
appear to form a complete bridge. Doctor Hrdlička regards the related
Předmost skull as distinctly showing Neanderthaloid affinity.
[AT] Obermaier,(45) R. Martin.(46)
[AU] From notes by Doctor Robert H. Lowie (Nov. 16, 1914) of the American
Museum of Natural History on the opinions of Marett (_Anthropology_) and
of James.
[AV] After Obermaier,(10) R. Martin,(11) and others.
[AW] This custom is observed again in Azilian times in the burials at
Ofnet on the Danube (see page 475).
[AX] The whole history of these successive discoveries, beginning with the
finding of an engraved bone, in 1834, in the grotto of Chaffaud, and
concluding with the discoveries of Lalanne, and of Bégouen, in 1912, is
summarized in the admirable little handbook by Salomon Reinach.(23) This
convenient volume also includes outline tracings of the more important
drawings and sculptures found in western Europe up to the present time.
[AY] Only a few drawings from this cavern have as yet been published, such
as the famous mammoth of Combarelles; the entire work is in the hands of
Breuil.
[AZ] The stations of Castillo, of Pasiega, and of Altamira were visited by
the writer, under the guidance of Doctor Hugo Obermaier, in August, 1912.
[BA] Letter of October 23, 1912.
[BB] J. Bayer(34) has lately expressed the opinion that the industry of
the open 'loess' stations of Munzingen, Aggsbach, and Gobelsburg is not
really of Magdalenian age, but represents an atypical Aurignacian.
[BC] Lucretius, _On the Nature of Things_, metrical version by J. M. Good.
Bohn's Classical Library, London, 1890.
[BD] Bossuet, Jacques Bénigne, _Discours sur l'Histoire universelle_
(first published in 1681), pp. 9, 10. Edition conforme à celle de 1700,
troisième et dernière édition revue par l'auteur. Paris, Librairie de
Firmin Didot Frères, 1845.
[BE] _The Satires, Epistles and Ars Poetica of Horace_, the Latin Text
with Conington's Translation, pp. 29, 31. George Bell & Sons, London,
1904.
[BF] Æschylus, _Prometheus Bound_. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, _Poetical
Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning_, pp. 148, 149. Oxford edition, 1906.
Henry Frowde, London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, New York, and Toronto.
[BG] Kobelt, W., _Die Verbreitung der Tierwelt_, pp. 403-7. C. H.
Tauchnitz, Leipsic, 1902.
[BH] Abercromby, Hon. John, _The Prehistoric Pottery of the Canary Islands
and Its Makers_. Royal Anthropological Institute, November 17, 1914.
_Nature_, December 3, 1914, p. 383.
[BI] Verneau, Dr. R., _Cinq années de séjour aux îles Canaries_. (Ouvrage
couronné par l'Académie des sciences, 1891.)
[BJ] Bunbury, E. H. _History of Ancient Geography_, vol. I, pp. 318-333.
John Murray, London, 1879.
[BK] Authors' names are given in the bibliography and in the reference
lists at the end of each chapter.
Transcriber's Notes:
Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.
Passages in bold are indicated by =bold=.
Superscripted characters are indicated by {superscript}.
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