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HISTORY OF
ANCIENT CIVILIZATION
BY
CHARLES SEIGNOBOS
DOCTOR OF LETTERS OF THE UNIVERSITY
OF PARIS
LONDON
T. FISHER UNWIN
ADELPHI TERRACE
MCMVII
(_All rights reserved_)
EDITOR'S NOTE
In preparing this volume, the Editor has used both the three-volume
edition and the two-volume edition of the "Histoire de la
Civilisation." He has usually preferred the order of topics of the
two-volume edition, but has supplemented the material therein with
other matter drawn from the three-volume edition.
A few corrections to the text have been given in foot-notes. These
notes are always clearly distinguished from the elucidations of the
author.
A.H.W.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PREHISTORIC TIMES. Prehistoric archaeology--Prehistoric remains; their
antiquity--Prehistoric science--The four ages.
THE ROUGH STONE AGE. Remains found in the gravels--The cave-men.
THE POLISHED STONE AGE. Lake-villages--Megalithic monuments.
THE BRONZE AGE. Bronze--Bronze objects.
THE IRON AGE. Iron--Iron weapons--Epochs of the Iron Age.
Conclusions: How the four ages are to be conceived; uncertainties;
solved questions.
CHAPTER II
HISTORY AND THE DOCUMENTS. History--Legends--History in general--Great
divisions of history--Ancient history--Modern history--The Middle
Ages.
SOURCES FOR THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS.
Books--Monuments--Inscriptions--Languages--Lacunae.
RACES AND PEOPLES. Anthropology--The races--Civilized peoples--Aryans
and Semites.
CHAPTER III
THE EGYPTIANS. Egypt--The country--The Nile--Fertility of the soil--The
accounts of Herodotus--Champollion--Egyptologists--Discoveries.
THE EGYPTIAN EMPIRE. Antiquity of the Egyptian people--Memphis and the
pyramids--Egyptian civilization--Thebes--The Pharaoh--The
subjects--Despotism--Isolation of the Egyptians.
RELIGION OF THE EGYPTIANS. The gods--Osiris--Ammon-ra--Gods with animal
heads--Sacred animals--The bull Apis--Worship of the dead--Judgment
of the soul--Mummies--Book of the Dead--The arts--Industry--
Architecture--Tombs--Temples--Sculpture--Painting--Literature--
Destinies of the Egyptian civilization.
CHAPTER IV
THE ASSYRIANS AND BABYLONIANS. Chaldea--The land--The people--The
cities.
THE ASSYRIANS--Assyria--Origins--Ancient accounts--Modern discoveries--
Inscriptions on bricks--Cuneiform writing--The Assyrian people--The
king--Fall of the Assyrian Empire.
THE BABYLONIANS. The second Chaldean empire--Babylon--The Tower of
Babylon.
CUSTOMS AND RELIGION. Customs--Religion--The gods--Astrology--
Sorcery--The sciences.
THE ARTS. Architecture--Palaces--Sculpture.
CHAPTER V
THE ARYANS OF INDIA. The Aryans--Aryan languages--The Aryan people.
PRIMITIVE RELIGION OF THE HINDOOS. The Aryans on the Indus--The
Vedas--The gods--Indra--Agni--The cult--Worship of ancestors.
BRAHMANIC SOCIETY. The Hindoos on the Ganges--Castes--The Impure--The
Brahmans--The new religion of Brahma--Transmigration of souls--
Character of this religion--The rites--Purity--Penances--The monks.
BUDDHISM. Buddha--Nirvana--Charity--Fraternity--Tolerance--Later
history of Buddhism--Changes in Buddhism--Buddha transformed into a
god--Mechanical prayer--Amelioration of manners.
CHAPTER VI
THE PERSIANS. The religion of Zoroaster--Iran--The Iranians--
Zoroaster--The Zend-Avesta--Ormuzd and Ahriman--Angels and demons--
Creatures of Ormuzd and Ahriman--The cult--Morality--Funerals--
Destiny of the soul--Character of Mazdeism.
THE PERSIAN EMPIRE. The Medes--The Persians--Cyrus--The inscription of
Behistun--The Persian empire--The satrapies--Revenues of the
empire--The Great King--Services rendered by the Persians--Susa and
Persepolis--Persian architecture.
CHAPTER VII
THE PHOENICIANS. The Phoenician people--The land--The cities--Phoenician
ruins--Organization of the Phoenician--Tyre--Carthage--Carthaginian
army--The Carthaginians--The Phoenician religion.
PHOENICIAN COMMERCE. Occupations of the Phoenicians--Caravans--Marine
commerce--Commodities--Secret kept by the Phoenicians--Colonies--
Influence of the Phoenicians--The alphabet.
CHAPTER VIII
THE HEBREWS. Origin of the Hebrew people--The Bible--The Hebrews--The
patriarchs--The Israelites--The call of Moses--Israel in the
desert--The Promised Land.
THE RELIGION OF ISRAEL. One God--The people of God--The covenant--The
Ten Commandments--The Law--Religion constituted the Jewish people.
THE EMPIRE OF ISRAEL. The Judges--The Hangs--Jerusalem--The
tabernacle--The temple.
THE PROPHETS. Disasters of Israel--Sentiments of the Israelites--The
prophets--The new teaching--The Messiah.
THE JEWISH PEOPLE. Return to Jerusalem--The Jews--The synagogues--
Destruction of the temple--The Jews after the dispersion.
CHAPTER IX
GREECE AND THE GREEKS. The country--The sea--The climate--Simplicity of
Greek life--The people--Origin of the Greeks--Legends--The Trojan
War--The Homeric Poems--The Greeks at the time of Homer--The
Dorians--The Ionians--The Hellenes--The cities.
THE HELLENES BEYOND THE SEA. Colonization--Character of the colonies--
Traditions touching the colonies--Importance of the Greek colonies.
CHAPTER X
GREEK RELIGION. The
gods--Polytheism--Anthropomorphism--Mythology--Local gods--The
great gods--Attributes of the gods--Olympus and Zeus--Morality of
the Greek mythology.
THE HEROES. Various sorts of heroes--Presence of the heroes--
Intervention of the heroes.
WORSHIP. Principle of the cult of the gods--The great Feasts--the sacred
games--Omens--Oracles--Amphictyonies.
CHAPTER XI
SPARTA. The People--Laconia--The Helots--The Perioeci--Condition of the
Spartiates.
EDUCATION. The children--The girls--The discipline--Laconism--Music--
The dance--Heroism of the women.
INSTITUTIONS. The kings and the council--The ephors--The army--The
hoplites--The phalanx--Gymnastics--Athletes--Role of the Spartiates.
CHAPTER XII
ATHENS. Origins of the Athenian people--Attica--Athens--The revolutions
in Athens--Reforms of Cleisthenes.
THE ATHENIAN PEOPLE. The slaves--The foreigners--The citizens.
THE GOVERNMENT. The assembly--The courts--The magistrates--Character of
the government--The demagogues.
PRIVATE LIFE. Children--Marriage--Women.
CHAPTER XIII
WARS. The Persian wars--Origin of these wars--Comparison of the two
adversaries--First Persian war--Second Persian war--Reasons for the
victory of the Greeks--Results of the wars.
WARS OF THE GREEKS AMONG THEMSELVES. The Peloponnesian war--War with
Sparta--Savage character of the wars--Effects of these wars.
CHAPTER XIV
THE ARTS IN GREECE. Athens in the time of Pericles--Pericles--Athens
and her monuments--Importance of Athens.
LETTERS. Orators--Sages--Sophists--Socrates and the philosophers--The
chorus--Tragedy and comedy--Theatre.
ARTS. The Grecian temples--Characteristics of Grecian
architecture--Sculpture--Pottery--Painting.
CHAPTER XV
THE GREEKS IN THE ORIENT. Asia before Alexander--Decadence of the
Persian empire--Expedition of the Ten Thousand--Agesilaus.
CONQUEST OF ASIA BY ALEXANDER. Macedon--Philip--Demosthenes--The
Macedonian supremacy--Alexander--The phalanx--Departure of
Alexander--Victories of Granicus, Issus, and Arbela--Death of
Alexander--Projects of Alexander.
THE HELLENES IN THE ORIENT. Dismemberment of the empire of Alexander--
The Hellenistic kingdoms--Alexandria--Museum--Pergamum.
CHAPTER XVI
LATER PERIOD OF GREEK HISTORY. Decadence of the cities--Rich and
poor--Strife between rich and poor--Democracy and oligarchy--The
tyrants--Exhaustion of Greece.
THE ROMAN CONQUEST. The leagues--The allies of the Romans--The last
struggles.
THE HELLENES IN THE OCCIDENT. Influence of Greece on Rome--
Architecture--Sculpture--Literature--Epicureans and Stoics.
CHAPTER XVII
ANCIENT PEOPLES OF ITALY. The Etruscans--Etruria--The Etruscan people--
The Etruscan tombs--Industry and commerce--Religion--The augurs--
Influence of the Etruscans.
THE ITALIAN PEOPLE. Umbrians and Oscans--The Sacred Spring--The
Samnites--The Greeks of Italy.
LATINS AND ROMANS. The Latins--Rome--Roma Quadrata and the Capitol.
CHAPTER XVIII
RELIGION AND THE FAMILY. Religion--The Roman gods--Form of the
gods--Principle of the Roman religion--Worship--Formalism--
Prayer--Omens--The priests.
WORSHIP OF ANCESTORS. The dead--Worship of the dead--Cult of the hearth.
THE FAMILY. Religion of the family--Marriage--Women--Children--Father of
the family.
CHAPTER XIX
THE ROMAN CITY. Formation of the Roman people--The kings--The Roman
people--The plebeians--Strife between patricians and plebeians--
The tribunes of the plebs--Triumph of the plebs.
THE ROMAN PEOPLE. Right of citizenship--The nobles--The knights--The
plebs--Freedmen.
THE GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC. The comitia--Magistrates--Censors--
Senate--The course of offices.
CHAPTER XX
ROMAN CONQUEST. The Roman army--Military service--The levy--Legions and
allies--Military exercises--Camp--Order of battle--Discipline--
Colonies &ad military roads.
CHARACTER OF THE CONQUESTS. War--Conquest of Italy--Punic
wars--Hannibal--Conquest of the Orient--Conquest of barbarian
lands--The triumph--Booty--Allies of Rome--Motives of conquest.
RESULTS OF THE CONQUESTS. Empire of the Roman people--The public
domain--Agrarian laws.
CHAPTER XXI
THE CONQUERED PEOPLES. The provincials--Provinces--The proconsuls--
Tyranny and oppression of the proconsuls--The publicans--Bankers--
Defencelessness of the provincials.
SLAVERY. Sale of slaves--Condition of slaves--Number of slaves--Urban
slaves--Rural slaves--Treatment of slaves--Ergastulum and mill--
Character of the slaves--Revolts--Admission to citizenship.
CHAPTER XXII
TRANSFORMATION OF LIFE IN ROME. Influence of Greece and the Orient.
CHANGES IN RELIGION. Greek gods--The Bacchanals--Superstitions of the
Orient--Sceptics.
CHANGES IN MANNERS. The old customs--Cato the Elder--The new manners--
Oriental luxury--Greek humanity--Lucullus--The new education--New
status of women--Divorce.
CHAPTER XXIII
FALL OF THE REPUBLIC. Causes of the decadence--Destruction of the
peasant class--The city plebs--Electoral corruption--Corruption of
the Senate--Corruption of the army.
THE REVOLUTION. Necessity of the revolution--Civil wars--The Gracchi--
Marius and Sulla--Pompey and Caesar--End of the Republic--Need of
peace--Power of the individual.
CHAPTER XXIV
THE EMPIRE AT ITS HEIGHT. The twelve Caesars--The emperor--Apotheosis--
Senate and people--The praetorians--Freedmen of the emperors--
Despotism and disorder.
THE CENTURY OF THE ANTONINES. Marcus Aurelius--Conquests of the
Antonines.
IMPERIAL INSTITUTIONS. Extent of the empire in the second century--
Permanent army--Deputies and agents of the emperor--Municipal
life--Imperial regime.
SOCIAL LIFE UNDER THE EMPIRE. The continued decadence at Rome--The
shows--Theatre--Circus--Amphitheatre--Gladiators--The Roman
peace--Fusion of the peoples--Superstitions.
CHAPTER XXV
ARTS AND SCIENCES IN ROME. Letters--Imitation of the Greeks--The
Augustan Age--Orators and rhetoricians--Importance of the Latin
literature and language--Arts--Sculpture and painting--
Architecture--Characteristics of Roman architecture--Rome and its
monuments.
ROMAN LAW. The Twelve Tables--Symbolic process--Formalism--
Jurisprudence--The praetor's edict--Civil law and the law of
nations--Written reason.
CHAPTER XXVI
THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. Origin of Christianity--Christ--Charity--
Equality--Poverty and humility--The kingdom of God.
FIRST CENTURIES OF THE CHURCH. Disciples and apostles--The church--
Sacred books--Persecutions--Martyrs--Catacombs.
THE MONKS OF THE THIRD CENTURY. Solitaries--Asceticism--Cenobites.
CHAPTER XXVII
THE LATER EMPIRE. The revolutions of the third century--Military
anarchy--Worship of Mithra--Taurobolia--Confusion of religions.
REGIME OF THE LATER EMPIRE. Reforms of Diocletian and Constantine--
Constantinople--The palace--The officials--Society of the later
empire.
CHURCH AND STATE. Triumph of Christianity--Organization of the
church--Councils--Heretics--Paganism--Theodosius.
CHAPTER I
THE ORIGINS OF CIVILIZATION
PREHISTORIC ARCHAEOLOGY
=Prehistoric Remains.=--One often finds buried in the earth, weapons,
implements, human skeletons, debris of every kind left by men of whom
we have no direct knowledge. These are dug up by the thousand in all
the provinces of France, in Switzerland, in England, in all Europe;
they are found even in Asia and Africa. It is probable that they exist
in all parts of the world.
These remains are called prehistoric because they are more ancient
than written history. For about fifty years men have been engaged in
recovering and studying them. Today most museums have a hall, or at
least, some cases filled with these relics. A museum at
Saint-German-en-Laye, near Paris, is entirely given up to prehistoric
remains. In Denmark is a collection of more than 30,000 objects. Every
day adds to the discoveries as excavations are made, houses built, and
cuts made for railroads.
These objects are not found on the surface of the ground, but
ordinarily buried deeply where the earth has not been disturbed. They
are recovered from a stratum of gravel or clay which has been
deposited gradually and has fixed them in place safe from the air, a
sure proof that they have been there for a long time.
=Prehistoric Science.=--Scholars have examined the debris and have
asked themselves what men have left them. From their skeletons, they
have tried to construct their physical appearance; from their tools,
the kind of life they led. They have determined that these instruments
resemble those used by certain savages today. The study of all these
objects constitutes a new science, Prehistoric Archaeology.[1]
=The Four Ages.=--Prehistoric remains come down to us from very
diverse races of men; they have been deposited in the soil at widely
different epochs since the time when the mammoth lived in western
Europe, a sort of gigantic elephant with woolly hide and curved tusks.
This long lapse of time may be divided into four periods, called Ages:
1. The Rough Stone Age.
2. The Polished Stone Age.
3. The Bronze Age.
4. The Iron Age.
The periods take their names from the materials used in the
manufacture of the tools,--stone, bronze, iron. These epochs, however,
are of very unequal length. It may be that the Rough Stone Age was ten
times as long as the Age of Iron.
THE ROUGH STONE AGE
=Gravel Debris.=--The oldest remains of the Stone Age have been found
in the gravels. A French scholar found between 1841 and 1853, in the
valley of the Somme, certain sharp instruments made of flint. They
were buried to a depth of six metres in gravel under three layers of
clay, gravel, and marl which had never been broken up. In the same
place they discovered bones of cattle, deer, and elephants. For a long
time people made light of this discovery. They said that the chipping
of the flints was due to chance. At last, in 1860, several scholars
came to study the remains in the valley of the Somme and recognized
that the flints had certainly been cut by men. Since then there have
been found more than 5,000 similar flints in strata of the same order
either in the valley of the Seine or in England, and some of them by
the side of human bones. There is no longer any doubt that men were
living at the epoch when the gravel strata were in process of
formation. If the strata that cover these remains have always been
deposited as slowly as they are today, these men whose bones and tools
we unearth must have lived more than 200,000 years ago.
=The Cave Men.=--Remains are also found in caverns cut in rock, often
above a river. The most noted are those on the banks of the Vezere,
but they exist in many other places. Sometimes they have been used as
habitations and even as graves for men. Skeletons, weapons, and tools
are found here together. There are axes, knives, scrapers,
lance-points of flint; arrows, harpoon-points, needles of bone like
those used by certain savages to this day. The soil is strewn with the
bones of animals which these men, untidy like all savages, threw into
a corner after they had eaten the meat; they even split the bones to
extract the marrow just as savages do now. Among the animals are found
not only the hare, the deer, the ox, the horse, the salmon, but also
the rhinoceros, the cave-bear, the mammoth, the elk, the bison, the
reindeer, which are all extinct or have long disappeared from France.
Some designs have been discovered engraved on the bone of a reindeer
or on the tusk of a mammoth. One of these represents a combat of
reindeer; another a mammoth with woolly hide and curved tusks.
Doubtless these men were the contemporaries of the mammoth and the
reindeer. They were, like the Esquimaux of our day, a race of hunters
and fishermen, knowing how to work in flint and to kindle fires.
POLISHED STONE AGE
=Lake Dwellings.=--In 1854, Lake Zurich being very low on account of
the unusual dryness of the summer, dwellers on the shore of the lake
found, in the mud, wooden piles which had been much eaten away, also
some rude utensils. These were the remains of an ancient village built
over the water. Since this time more than 200 similar villages have
been found in the lakes of Switzerland. They have been called Lake
Villages. The piles on which they rest are trunks of trees, pointed
and driven into the lake-bottom to a depth of several yards. Every
village required 30,000 to 40,000 of these.
A wooden platform was supported by the pile work and on this were
built wooden houses covered with turf. Objects found by the hundred
among the piles reveal the character of the life of the former
inhabitants. They ate animals killed in the chase--the deer, the boar,
and the elk. But they were already acquainted with such domestic
animals as the ox, the goat, the sheep, and the dog. They knew how to
till the ground, to reap, and to grind their grain; for in the ruins
of their villages are to be found grains of wheat and even fragments
of bread, or rather unleavend cakes. They wore coarse cloths of hemp
and sewed them into garments with needles of bone. They made pottery
but were very awkward in its manufacture. Their vases were poorly
burned, turned by hand, and adorned with but few lines. Like the
cave-men, they used knives and arrows of flint; but they made their
axes of a very hard stone which they had learned to polish. This is
why we call their epoch the Polished Stone Age. They are much later
than the cave-men, for they know neither the mammoth nor the
rhinoceros, but still are acquainted with the elk and the reindeer.[2]
=Megalithic Monuments.=--Megalith is the name given to a monument
formed of enormous blocks of rough stone. Sometimes the rock is bare,
sometimes covered with a mass of earth. The buried monument is called
a _Tumulus_ on account of its resemblance to a hill. When it is
opened, one finds within a chamber of rock, sometimes paved with
flag-stones. The monuments whose stone is above ground are of various
sorts. The _Dolmen_, or table of rock, is formed of a long stone laid
flat over other stones set in the ground. The _Cromlech_, or
stone-circle, consists of massive rocks arranged in a circle. The
_Menhir_ is a block of stone standing on its end. Frequently several
menhirs are ranged in line. At Carnac in Brittany four thousand
menhirs in eleven rows are still standing. Probably there were once
ten thousand of these in this locality. Megalithic monuments appear by
hundreds in western France, especially in Brittany; almost every hill
in England has them; the Orkney Islands alone contain more than two
thousand. Denmark and North Germany are studded with them; the people
of the country call the tumuli the tombs of the giants.
Megalithic monuments are encountered outside of Europe--in India, and
on the African coast. No one knows what people possessed the power to
quarry such masses and then transport and erect them. For a long time
it was believed that the people were the ancient Gauls, or Celts,
whence the name Celtic Monuments. But why are like remains found in
Africa and in India?
When one of these tumuli still intact is opened, one always sees a
skeleton, often several, either sitting or reclining; these monuments,
therefore, were used as tombs. Arms, vases, and ornaments are placed
at the side of the dead. In the oldest of these tombs the weapons are
axes of polished stone; the ornaments are shells, pearls, necklaces of
bone or ivory; the vases are very simple, without handle or neck,
decorated only with lines or with points. Calcined bones of animals
lie about on the ground, the relics of a funeral repast laid in the
tomb by the friends of the dead. Amidst these bones we no longer find
those of the reindeer, a fact which proves that these monuments were
constructed after the disappearance of this animal from western
Europe, and therefore at a time subsequent to that of the lake
villages.
THE AGE OF BRONZE
=Bronze Age.=--As soon as men learned to smelt metals, they preferred
these to stone in the manufacture of weapons. The metal first to be
used was copper, easier to extract because found free, and easier to
manipulate since it is malleable without the application of heat. Pure
copper, however, was not employed, as weapons made of it were too
fragile; but a little tin was mixed with it to give it more
resistance. It is this alloy of copper and tin that we call bronze.
=Bronze Utensils.=--Bronze was used in the manufacture of ordinary
tools--knives, hammers, saws, needles, fish-hooks; in the fabrication
of ornaments--bracelets, brooches, ear-rings; and especially in the
making of arms--daggers, lance-points, axes, and swords. These objects
are found by thousands throughout Europe in the mounds, under the more
recent dolmens, in the turf-pits of Denmark, and in rock-tombs. Near
these objects of bronze, ornaments of gold are often seen and, now and
then, the remains of a woollen garment. It cannot be due to chance
that all implements of bronze are similar and all are made according
to the same alloy. Doubtless they revert to the same period of time
and are anterior to the coming of the Romans into Gaul, for they are
never discovered in the midst of debris of the Roman period. But what
men used them? What people invented bronze? Nobody knows.
THE IRON AGE
=Iron.=--As iron was harder to smelt and work than bronze, it was
later that men learned how to use it. As soon as it was appreciated
that iron was harder and cut better than bronze, men preferred it in
the manufacture of arms. In Homer's time iron is still a precious
metal reserved for swords, bronze being retained for other purposes.
It is for this reason that many tombs contain confused remains of
utensils of bronze and weapons of iron.
=Iron Weapons.=--These arms are axes, swords, daggers, and bucklers.
They are ordinarily found by the side of a skeleton in a coffin of
stone or wood, for warriors had their arms buried with them. But they
are found also scattered on ancient battle-fields or lost at the
bottom of a marsh which later became a turf-pit. There were found in a
turf-pit in Schleswig in one day 100 swords, 500 lances, 30 axes, 460
daggers, 80 knives, 40 stilettos--and all of iron. Not far from there
in the bed of an ancient lake was discovered a great boat 66 feet
long, fully equipped with axes, swords, lances, and knives.
It is impossible to enumerate the iron implements thus found. They
have not been so well preserved as the bronze, as iron is rapidly
eaten away by rust. At the first glance, therefore, they appear the
older, but in reality are more recent.
=Epoch of the Iron Age.=--The inhabitants of northern Europe knew iron
before the coming of the Romans, the first century before Christ. In
an old cemetery near the salt mines of Hallstadt in Austria they have
opened 980 tombs filled with instruments of iron and bronze without
finding a single piece of Roman money. But the Iron Age continued
under the Romans. Almost always iron objects are found accompanied by
ornaments of gold and silver, by Roman pottery, funeral urns,
inscriptions, and Roman coins bearing the effigy of the emperor. The
warriors whom we find lying near their sword and their buckler lived
for the most part in a period quite close to ours, many under the
Merovingians, some even at the time of Charlemagne. The Iron Age is no
longer a prehistoric age.
CONCLUSIONS
=How the Four Ages are to be Conceived.=--The inhabitants of one and
the same country have successively made use of rough stone, polished
stone, bronze, and iron. But all countries have not lived in the same
age at the same time. Iron was employed by the Egyptians while yet the
Greeks were in their bronze age and the barbarians of Denmark were
using stone. The conclusion of the polished stone age in America came
only with the arrival of Europeans. In our own time the savages of
Australia are still in the rough stone age. In their settlements may
be found only implements of bone and stone similar to those used by
the cave-men. The four ages, therefore, do not mark periods in the
life of humanity, but only epochs in the civilization of each country.
=Uncertainties.=--Prehistoric archaeology is yet a very young science.
We have learned something of primitive men through certain remains
preserved and discovered by chance. A recent accident, a trench, a
landslip, a drought may effect a new discovery any day. Who knows what
is still under ground? The finds are already innumerable. But these
rarely tell us what we wish to know. How long was each of the four
ages? When did each begin and end in the various parts of the world?
Who planned the caverns, the lake villages, the mounds, the dolmens?
When a country passes from polished stone to bronze, is it the same
people changing implements, or is it a new people come on the scene?
When one thinks one has found the solution, a new discovery often
confounds the archaeologists. It was thought that the Celts originated
the dolmens, but these have been found in sections which could never
have been traversed by Celts.
=What has been determined.=--Three conclusions, however, seem certain:
1.--Man has lived long on the earth, familiar as he was with the
mammoth and the cave-bear; he lived at least as early as the
geological period known as the Quaternary.
2.--Man has emerged from the savage state to civilized life; he
has gradually perfected his tools and his ornaments from the
awkward axe of flint and the necklace of bears' teeth to iron
swords and jewels of gold. The roughest instruments are the
oldest.
3.--Man has made more and more rapid progress. Each age has been
shorter than its predecessor.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] It originated especially with French, Swiss, and scholars.
[2] According to Lubbock (Prehistoric Times, N.Y., 1890, p. 212) the
reindeer was not known to the Second Stone Age.--ED.