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.