Pleistocene or Last Glacial Age, or better, the =Epoch of the Mammoth=.
The climate was cold and humid. For the third and last time great
glaciers existed over the whole of Northern Europe, and only bits of the
south of England and the central and southern parts of France were free
from the ice-covering, and carried a rich vegetation. Deeper deposits in
caves are of this age, and also much of the river gravels of the
lower terraces of English and French rivers. By the French it is often
called the Moustierian period, because it is well seen in the rich
deposits of the caves and plateau of Le Moustier, on the river Vezère
(an affluent of the Dordogne), which contain bones of mammoth and
rhinoceros, and flint implements of a special form (Fig. 72), but no
carvings or artistic work. Hyænas made some of the caverns into their
dens, and the cave-lion and the cave-bear were there too. The men of
this period actually contested with these carnivors for the possession
of the caves, and made great fires to keep out wild beasts, as well as
to grill the meat on which they fed. They were of an inferior race to
the Reindeer Men, and had not such command of the situation as their
successors. We find their remains, their flint weapons, and in rare
cases their own bones as well as the bones of the mammoth and hairy
rhinoceros (on which they fed), and the bones of their competitors, the
hyænas, bears, and lions, in the deeper deposits of some caves,
underlying, and separated often by calcareous deposit from, the layers
which belong to the subsequent and prosperous days of the Reindeer Men.
Most striking is the fact that in the layers of deposit of this older
age, there are no works of art nor any implements carved from bone or
ivory. These earlier men, devoid of art and living at a low level of
savagery, were the Neander Men. It is in this layer and under these
conditions that the few broken skulls, agreeing in shape and character
with that of the Neander Valley, have been found.
Lastly we come to division No. 3, the Lower Pleistocene, or =Epoch of the
Hippopotamus=. The later climate of this age was mild. It came between
two glacial periods, owing to the retreat of the glaciers, which had
earlier increased in extent so as to produce the second Great Glacial
period. The hippopotamus swam in the Thames and Severn in those days,
and left its bones and teeth in the older gravels of those and other
European rivers, where we now find them. The big almond-shaped and
leaf-shaped flint implements of the English (Fig. 73) and French gravels
(Fig. 74) belong to this period. We have no knowledge whatever of the
men who made them.[8] The mammoth was not there, but another species of
elephant (_E. antiquus_) and a peculiar rhinoceros (_R. merckii_). The
deepest and oldest deposits in some caves belong to this age, as well as
the high-lying gravels of St. Acheuil, of many English river-valleys,
and of Chelles on the Seine. This period is not represented by much
deposit in caves, though some caves contain very deep-lying layers
enclosing bones or teeth of the animals characterising this period.
Older than the Age of the Hippopotamus are deposits which are reckoned
by geologists as “Pliocene”—no longer Pleistocene—and are called
“Tertiary,” not “Quaternary.” The forest bed of Norfolk (regarded by
Professor Marcelin Boule as of transitional character, as shown in the
tabular view on p. 384 _bis_), the Norwich crag, the Suffolk red and
coralline crag, and very extensive sandy deposits all over Europe belong
to the Pliocene. The earliest or first great extension of glaciers
occurred late in this period. The animals are very different from those
of the Pleistocene; the great mastodon and the tapir are there, and the
sabre-toothed tiger. Implements manufactured by man are found in the
oldest Pleistocene, and there is no reason to doubt that we shall find
his workmanship in the Pliocene, too, though it is not admitted that
this has yet been done. It is a question still eagerly studied and
debated as to whether the roughly chipped flints found in gravels on
high downs in the south of England, and called “eoliths,” are (as I
think many of them are) the work of man, and whether the high-lying
gravels in which they are found are to be regarded as of the oldest
Pleistocene Age or as late Pliocene. It is an exciting and deeply
interesting field of practical exploration and reasoned inference.
[Illustration: FIG. 73.—Flint pick from the Lower Pleistocene of the
Thames Valley. Two-thirds the size of the object.]
It will have been gathered from what I have said that, in seeking for
knowledge of the sequence of events in the period of Palæolithic Man,
everything depends upon extreme care in removing the deposits from a
cave inch by inch, and keeping all objects found distinct from one
another and assigned to their proper layer. The same system is now
applied with great success to the exploration of ancient cities in Egypt
and Central Asia.
[Illustration: FIG. 74.—A rough type of flint implement from the Lower
Pleistocene of the Somme Valley (St. Acheuil). One-half the size of the
object.]
As to the actual bones and skulls of men discovered in these Pleistocene
deposits, they show us that the Reindeer Men were a fine, full-brained
people, as we should expect, with as large a brain cavity on the average
as that of modern Europeans. The skulls of this race, which do not
differ in character from those of highly developed modern races, were
first found at Cromagnon, and hence we may call them “the Cromagnards”
(Fig. 75). The Neander Men are the men of the middle period—the last
glacial period—who were displaced by the splendid and accomplished
Cromagnards. The Neander Men, of which the new French specimen (Fig. 65)
from the cave of the Chapelle-aux-Saints is one, were a very inferior
race, and so different from any living race of men as to justify the
recognition of them as a distinct species of man, the _Homo
Neanderthalensis_. Only a few other imperfect skulls and skeletons of
them are known (Figs. 76 and 77), and show them to have been short
people, with very low, flat heads and retreating foreheads. It is in
accordance with what one would expect, that they should make no works of
art, and should be displaced, as climatic conditions changed for the
better, by the arrival of the fine, full-brained Cromagnards or Reindeer
Men. But where did they, these delightful artists and happy hunters of
the Reindeer Epoch, come from? We cannot say. And what became of them?
We do not know. They did not give rise to the Neolithic race, but were
replaced, turned out by that race. To them, indeed, are appropriate the
words of the Roman poet—_Prolem sine matre creatam, mater sine prole
defuncta_.
[Illustration: FIG. 75.—A profile and a front view of the skull and
lower jaw of a man of the Cromagnard race or Reindeer Men. This is the
type-skull from Cromagnon. The teeth have fallen out of their sockets,
and the articular condyle of the up-turned part of the lower jaw is
broken away. The cranial dome and the forehead are as large as in good
modern European skulls. Compare with Fig. 65, and refer to the
explanation of that figure for the meaning of the letters and dotted
lines.
_N.B._—This drawing, and one or two of the other figures of skulls, are
reversed, giving right side for left, to facilitate the comparison of
one with the other. All are one-third (linear) of the natural size.]
Table showing the Geologic History of Man in Western Europe
(AFTER MARCELIN BOULE, WITH SOME ADDITIONS)
+—-—-—-—-—-+—-—-—-—-—-—-+—-—-—-—-—-—-—--+—-—-—-—-—-—-—-+
| Geological | Geological | Characteristic | Human Industry. |
| Divisions. | Conditions | Animals. | |
| | and Formations. | | |
+—-—-—-—-—-+—-—-—-—-—-—-+—-—-—-—-—-—-—--+—-—-—-—-—-—-—-+
| | | | |
| QUATERNARY. | | | PERIOD OF METALS. |
| { | Recent alluvium, | The present species. | |
| { PRESENT. | peat-bogs. | Domesticated animals.| Age of iron. |
| { | Climate closely | | Age of bronze. |
| { | similar to | | Age of copper. |
| { | the present. | | |
| { | | | NEOLITHIC PERIOD, |
| { | | | or period of |
| { | | | polished stone. |
| { | | | |
| { | Transitional Deposits—Red Deer, Beaver.| Transitional |
| { | | | Industry |
| { | | | (AZILIAN). |
| { PLEISTOCENE | | | |
| { { {| Upper layers of |EPOCH OF THE REINDEER.| PALÆOLITHIC PERIOD, |
| { { {| cavern deposits.| | OR, PERIOD OF |
| { { {| Upper part of | | CHIPPED FLINTS. |
| { { {| the loess of the| | { |
| { { {| Rhine. Climate | Reindeer, Bison, | { |
| { { {| cold and dry; | Horse, Saiga | { MAGDALENIAN. |
| { { {| conditions like | antelope, wolf, | { |
| { { UPPER. {| those of the | fauna of the | { Sculptures, |
| { { {| “steppes” of | steppes. | { engravings, and |
| { { {| Tartary and | | { paintings: small |
| { { {| Russia. | | { and very varied |
| { { {| | | { chipped flints. |
| { { {| | | { CROMAGNARD RACE. |
| { { {| | | { |
| { {—-—-—--+—-—-—-—-—-—-+—-—-—-—-—-—-—--+-{—-—-—-—-—-—--+
| { { {| Deposits formed | EPOCH OF THE MAMMOTH.| { MOUSTIERIAN. |
| { { {| by the filling | | { |
| { { {| of caverns. | Mammoth, Rhinoceros | { Commencement of |
| { { {| Loess of the | with partitioned | { work in bone: |
| { { {| Rhine. Gravels | nostrils (R. | { flints usually |
| { { {| of low-levels | tichorhinus), bear, | { worked only on |
| { { MIDDLE. {| and of the | hyena, and lion of | { one face. |
| { { {|inferior terraces.| the caverns, wolf, | { NEANDER RACE= |
| { { {| | etc. Musk ox. | { _Homo_ |
| { { {|=Moraines of the= | | {_Neanderthalensis_.|
| { { {| =third great= | | { |
| { { {| =glacial period.=| | { |
| { { {| Climate cold and | | { |
| { { {| humid. | | { |
| { {—-—-—--+—-—-—-—-—-—-+—-—-—-—-—-—-—--+ {—-—-—-—-—-—--+
| { { | | | { |
| { { {| Gravels of the | EPOCH OF THE | { CHELLEAN. |
| { { {| middle terraces.| HIPPOPOTAMUS. | { |
| { { {| Calcareous tufa.| | { First indisputable|
| { { {| Climate warm. | Elephas antiquus, | { traces of man in |
| { { LOWER. {| | Rhinoceros merckii, | { Europe: the large|
| { { {|=Moraines of the= | Hippopotamus major, | { flint weapons are|
| { { {| =second great= | Sabre-toothed Tiger,| { chipped on both |
| { { {| =glacial period.=| monkeys, etc. | { faces. |
| { { {| Climate cold and | | { (Heidelberg human |
| { { {| humid. | | { jaw probably of |
| | | | | { Neander race.) |
| | Transitional Deposits of the Norfolk FOREST BEDS, | |
+-+ of St. Prest and of Solilhac. Climate temperate. +—-—-—-—-—-—-—-+
| | | | |
|TERTIARY. | | | |
| { {| Plateau (high | EPOCH OF THE ELEPHAS | |
| { UPPER {| level) gravels. | MERIDIONALIS. | Eoliths of |
| { PLIOCENE. {| | | Prestwich. |
| { {|=Moraines of the= | Rhinoceros etruscus, | |
| { {| =first great= | Equus Stenonis, | |
| { {| =extension of= | Sabre-toothed Tiger,| |
| { {| =glaciers.= | etc. | |
| { {| | | |
+—-—-—-—-—-+—-—-—-—-—-—-+—-—-—-—-—-—-—--+—-—-—-—-—-—-—-+
_N.B._—The horse, the bison (_Bison Europæus_), the great ox or
aurochs (_Bos primigenius_), the ibex, the chamois, the great Irish
deer (_Megaceros_), the large carnivors and others, appear
throughout the middle and upper Pleistocene, but are more abundant
at one period than at another, and in one locality than another.
Thus the bison abounded in the north of Spain in late Magdalenian
times, whilst the reindeer was rare or absent, and its place taken
by the red deer, which later replaced the reindeer in France. The
horse has been found in tens of thousands at Solutré, near Mâcon
(Middle Pliocene), whilst the great Irish deer abounded at a very
late period in Ireland (Azilian?), and is rare at any time
elsewhere. I must clearly state that, whilst this table is
practically that published by my friend Professor Marcelin Boule, he
is not responsible for the recognition of the Eoliths of Prestwich,
nor for the terms “Cromagnard” and “Neander.”
FOOTNOTES
[7] So named after one Neumann, a religious enthusiast, who inhabited
the cave.
[8] See, however, farther on as to the lower jaw found at Heidelberg.
XLII
THE CAVE-MEN’S SKULLS
A certain number of human skulls and a few complete skeletons have been
found in the cave-deposits, and even in open ground (as at Predmost, in
Moravia) associated with the bones of extinct animals, or with carvings
and ornaments like those which occur abundantly in the caverns. The
ancient cave-men of the Cromagnard type—often called “the Reindeer
Men”—buried their dead sometimes in the caves, but more usually in the
open. Sometimes the skeletons are found in a crouching position, as
though tied up when buried; more rarely (as in some examples found in
the caves at Mentone) they are stretched out and decorated with a
necklace or wreath made of shells, or of the teeth or small bones of
animals. In many cases the flesh was removed from the corpse, and red
ochre was smeared on the bones (as by some recent savages). The
“Reindeer” people used red ochre and charcoal to colour the engravings
of animals (Fig. 71) which they made on the walls of their caves, and
probably for painting or tattooing their own faces. The existence of
these wall paintings, wonderful representations of bison, great ox,
deer, and other animals, proves that these men had artificial light
(lamps or torches) to send fitful gleams on to the paintings, and it is
probable that the “wall pictures” had to do with some kind of
witchcraft. Stone lamps have actually been discovered in the caves.
Their ceremonial treatment of the dead shows that already the lines were
laid for that worship of the “spirits of the departed,” which became
general, and is especially familiar to us in the comparatively modern
civilisation of Rome and the Etruscans. There is also evidence that they
made simple musical instruments.
[Illustration: FIG. 76.—Three views of the skull-top from near
Elberfeld on the Rhine, known as the Neanderthal skull—(Middle
Pleistocene, Moustierian, or last Glacial Period: epoch of the Mammoth).
These figures are partly copied by kind permission of Mr. Worthington G.
Smith, F.L.S., from excellent figures published by him in his
interesting book, _Man, the Primitive Savage_ (Stanford, 1899). In all
respects the measurements of this skull-top agree very closely with
those of the skull from the Chapelle-aux-Saints. _A._ A view from in
front. _B._ Side view showing the line _a-b_, and the other lines,
_a-c_, _d_, _e_, and _f_, exactly as in Fig. 65. The shallowness of the
cranial dome and the small projection of the frontal boss _d_, agree
exactly with the measurements of the Chapelle skull shown in Fig. 65.
_C._ View of the skull-top from below. This gives the outline of the
Neander-man’s skull as seen from above, and shows the curious vizor-like
expansion of the ridges over the orbits, the pinching in just behind
them, and the elongate shape of the skull, with its great breadth in the
hinder region. The French skull from the Chapelle agrees exactly in
outline with this, and in both the volume of the cranial cavity given by
this large expanse amounts to 1600 cubic centimetres, in spite of the
flatness of the cranial dome—a greater volume than that of the
Cromagnon skull drawn in Fig. 75, or of the average modern European.]
In the cave-deposits of the Post-Glacial or Reindeer Age, the human
skulls and skeletons which have been found (not indicating more than
thirty or forty individuals altogether from widely separate localities)
show a very well-developed race, with large brain-case (Fig. 75), quite
equal to that of modern Europeans. Some of these men were very tall, one
of the skeletons from the Mentone caves being that of a man 6 ft. 3½
in. in height. The cavity of the skull (which corresponds very closely
in size with that of the brain which it contained) would hold about 1550
units of water (the unit referred to is a cubic centimetre, 1550 of
which are equal to a little less than two and a half English pints). It
is not surprising that these Reindeer Men had fine brains, for their
carvings and pictures show them to have been real artists, not mere
savage scrawlers. This race is called the “Cromagnards,” after the first
skulls discovered at Cromagnon, in Central France. They had big, strong
lower jaws, with prominent chins, like many fine modern races (_e.g._
the New Zealanders), and fine, narrow noses. The face and upper jaws
were somewhat prominent, though not nearly so much so as in modern
negroes. The skull-bones were thick and strong. The brain-case or
cranial part of the skull was oblong rather than round.
[Illustration: FIG. 77.—The Gibraltar skull from a cave in Gibraltar,
now preserved in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, London. It
is of the Neander race. Compare the dotted lines and lettering with
those of Fig. 65, and the explanation there given. The drawing is
one-third (linear) of the natural size.]
The skulls of the older race—that of the Last Glacial or Moustierian
Age—the Neander Men, were long skulls, too, but had a peculiarly
flattened shape and a retreating forehead. The bony ridges over the
eyes, corresponding to the eyebrows, were enormous, and projected
forwards like the vizor of a cap (Figs. 65, 76, and 77). There are but
few specimens to guide our conclusions, but they show that though of
short stature (some not more than 5 ft. 4 in.), these people were very
muscular. The top of a skull from the cave in the Neander Valley, known
as the Neanderthal skull, two imperfect skulls from the cave of Spy, in
Belgium, an imperfect skull from Brunn, in Moravia, and other fragments
from Krapina, in Croatia, and, lastly, one from a cave in Gibraltar, are
the best known. Others, including fragments of several skeletons less
fully described, which have been found at Predmost, in Moravia, probably
belong to this race. But the newly obtained skull and bones from the
centre of France (Chapelle-aux-Saints) are the most important of all
yet discovered. They all date from the middle Pleistocene period, the
age of the last great glaciers, earlier than the age of the Reindeer.
The Gibraltar skull (Fig. 77) we have all known for a long time; it has
been in the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons for forty years, and
two years ago was very carefully examined and figured by Professor
Sollas, of Oxford. It is a specially valuable specimen, because it shows
the bones of the face as well as the brain-case. From other specimens we
know the lower jaw. The lower jaw was deep and powerful, but, like that
of an ape, had a receding chin, or rather, we should say, had no
“chin-prominence” at all (compare Figs. 79, 80, 81, and 82). The new
French specimen (Fig. 65) is strongly prognathous. The orbits are
enormous, and the nose very flat and quite unique in its great breadth.
One of the two Neander-man skulls from the Belgian cave of Spy shows the
face bones, and these agree with what has just been stated as to the
French skull.
Hence it appears that a short race with a very strange and low-browed
type of skull preceded the men of the Reindeer Age. When, thirty years
ago, only the original skull-top from the Neander cave (Fig. 76) was
known, Virchow, of Berlin, considered it to be probably that of an
idiot, whilst Huxley expressed the opinion that it indicates a race of
men with decidedly low development, and in some respects more ape-like
characters than modern Europeans; but he held that it is not to be
considered as “a missing link,” nor as taking us appreciably nearer from
modern man to the apes, since it is most closely approached by the flat
skulls, already well known, of some of the South Australian natives,
both in shape and in the cubical capacity of the brain-cavity. What I
mean by the flatness of the skull may be understood by looking at a side
view of a monkey’s skull (Fig. 81) and of an ordinary European human
skull (take the Cromagnon skull as equivalent, Fig. 75) placed upright,
so that the eyes are looking forward. If in an outline or photograph of
each of these skulls you draw a straight line from a point between the
eyebrows back to a point just below the most projecting ridge of the
hindermost region of the skull, you will find that above that line in
the monkey’s skull is a slightly curved surface—the roof of the
brain-case. But in the human skull above the similarly drawn line the
roof bulges so as to form an almost hemispherical dome, rising sometimes
vertically in the front region to form “the straight, high forehead”
(which Shakespeare commended, even in woman). It swells out in the
hinder region also. Now the Neander skulls, and to a less extent the
skulls of many of the Australian aborigines, are more like the monkey’s
in this matter; the dome of the roof is shallow and flat, and the
forehead does not rise up, but slopes backwards, so that the whole
contents of the brain-case are lessened by the reduction of the frontal
and upper region. And there is reason to consider this frontal region of
the brain as specially connected with some of the higher intellectual
qualities of the mind.
We know a little more about the skull of the Neander race since Huxley
wrote, owing to the further discovery of specimens. The Australian’s
skull has usually a more projecting upper jaw and upper front teeth than
has the Neander Man’s. The Neander skulls stand alone in the great
breadth of the orbits and of the nasal region as compared with all known
skulls. They are also alone (the Gibraltar skull and the new French
specimen are the only ones which show it) in the contour of the upper
jaw. In other human skulls there is a broad depression of the surface—a
nipping-in, as it were—behind the root of the canine tooth on each
side. This is absent in the Neander race; the bone here is flat, and
not in-pushed. This absence of “modelling,” absence of the canine
“fossa” or valley (as it is called), is seen in the larger apes as well
as in the Neander Men. This point does not show in our figures. Some
writers think it probable that the Neander Men of the late Glacial Age
were the ancestors of the Cromagnards of the Reindeer Age, and also that
the artistic Cromagnards were transformed, after many thousand years,
into the comparatively dull and inartistic people of the Neolithic
period. It seems to me, on the contrary, more probable (as is held by
some of the French prehistorians) that the Reindeer Men died out, and
were replaced by the Neolithic herdsmen who migrated into Western Europe
as the climate became milder. The notion that the Esquimaux of to-day
are the Reindeer Men of France who have migrated northwards with their
reindeer, following the receding ice, has been entertained, but is
regarded by the most careful inquirers as untenable. As to the earlier
change of race, I hold that it is not possible to contend that the
Neander Men developed into the Cromagnards of the Reindeer Age actually
in the south of France. If the lower race or species gave rise to the
higher, the enormous transformation did not occur here nor in Europe at
all, nor during the later Pleistocene period. Human skulls of the
Reindeer Age are known which present an approach to the characters of
the Neander race, such as the heavy bony eyebrows. But it seems that
this is accounted for by the survival of some Neander families alongside
of the powerful Cromagnard men and the interbreeding of the two. The
Cromagnards had probably lived with their reindeer in some more southern
area during the late Glacial Age, and arrived in southern France as the
climate improved and became suitable to their accustomed quarry. How and
where they developed from a lower type of men we have at present no
indication.