Men who lived in Caves and Pits
Man is a very ancient creature. It is a curious fact that we have
learned most of what we know about the earliest men from the
rubbish which they have left behind them. Even nowadays, in this
twentieth century, without knowing much about a boy personally, we
can tell a good deal about his habits from the treasures he turns
out of his pockets. Hard-hearted mothers and teachers call these
treasures rubbish, but the contents of a lad's pockets are a pretty
sure indication of the boy's tastes, and in what things he is
interested.
The earliest traces of the existence of man in our part of the
world are found in some places which are now many feet above the
level of the sea. There, in the gravel, are the roughly-chipped
stone tools and weapons which those early men used, tools which
they lost or threw away. Almost every other trace has quite
disappeared. Remains belonging to the same period have been noticed
in caves in various parts of the world.
The illustration on p. 5 shows two of these very early stone
weapons. You will find collections of these, and also of later
weapons, in any good museum. These earliest sorts are usually
labelled "Palæolithic Stone Implements". The curator of such a
museum, we may almost certainly say, would be willing to help you
to see the specimens which he has under his care, and you would
learn more about them in that way than by just glancing at a
picture.
Here, in Britain, caves have been found where these early men have
left their stone implements and remains of their rubbish. Some of
the best known of such cave-dwellings in Britain are near Denbigh
and St. Asaph in North Wales, at Uphill in Somersetshire, at
King's Car and Victoria Cave near Settle, at Robin Hood's Cave and
Pinhole in Derbyshire, in Pembrokeshire, in King Arthur's Cave in
Monmouthshire, at Durdham Down near Bristol, near Oban, and in the
gravels in the valleys of the Rivers Trent, Nore, and Dove, in the
Irish River Blackwater, near Caithness, and in a good many other
places.
So, you see, the remains of these early men cover a pretty wide
area. In thinking of the life of those early days we must remember
that the aspect of Britain was very different then from what it is
now, for in that far-back time these islands were a part of the
Continent of Europe, and the North Sea and English Channel were
just valleys, with rivers flowing through them, tributaries of the
Rhine. There were no insurmountable obstacles to cross between the
Continent and these regions, and animals and early man gradually
roamed into this part of the world. Geology teaches us a good deal
concerning the changes the surface of the ground has undergone. The
land was very much higher than it is now--Snowdon, for instance,
was at least six hundred feet higher then--and the climate was very
much colder. That race of men, apparently, has quite died out. In
the course of ages rivers and seas have flowed over the places
where these stone tools had been dropped, and, year after year
throughout the ages, the drift brought down by the rivers covered
them inch by inch and foot by foot. Great changes have taken place
in the surface of the land, some suddenly, but most of them very,
very slowly. The land has risen, and sunk again, and long, long
ages of sunshine and storm, of ice and snow, of stormy wind and
tempest, have altered the surface of the country.
Those very ancient men, who lived in the Early Stone Age, are
called Cave-dwellers, because they lived apparently in caves, and
River-drift Men and Lake-dwellers, because the roughly chipped
tools are found in the _drift_ of various rivers and lakes.
The Cave-man's weapons and tools were made of chipped flint, which
he found broken on the surface of the ground, and these he chipped
into shape. They are usually more or less oval, sometimes roughly
in the form of a spear-head. Others are borers, or awls, for
piercing holes in skins. For rougher work he had hammer-stones,
with flat edges, and sharp bits of stone for scrapers. Amongst many
other places where these relics have been found in considerable
numbers is the Thames valley. They are met with in the higher
gravels, on levels now many feet higher than they were in the
Cave-man's day, for the surface has risen considerably; and we
conclude that there must have been a good many of these people in
that neighbourhood.
[Illustration: _Chipped Flint Weapons_]