(_a_) _Post-Glacial_, or Second Continental Period, in which
the land was again very extensive, and palæocosmic man was
contemporary with some great mammals--as the mammoth, now
extinct--and the area of land in the northern hemisphere was
greater than at present. (This represents the Late
Pleistocene of Dawkins.) It was terminated by a great and
very general subsidence, accompanied by the disappearance of
palæocosmic man and some large Mammalia, and which may be
identical with the historical deluge.[11]
(_b_) _Recent_, when the continents attained their present
levels, existing races of men colonized Europe, and living
species of mammals. This includes both the Prehistoric and
the Historic Period.
The palæocosmic men of the above table are the oldest certainly known
to us, and it has been truly said of them that they are so closely
related to modern races that, on any hypothesis of gradual evolution,
we must look for the transition from apes to men not merely in the
Eocene Tertiary, but even in the Mesozoic--that is, in formations
vastly older than any containing any remains so far as known either of
man or of apes. That these most ancient men were in truth most truly
human, and that they presented no transition to lower animals, will
appear from the following notices, which I condense from a work of my
own in which these subjects are more fully treated:
The beautiful work of Lartet and Christy has vividly portrayed to us
the antiquities of the limestone plateau of the Dordogne--the ancient
Aquitania--remains which recall to us a population of Horites, or
cave-dwellers, of a time anterior to the dawn of history in France,
living much like the modern hunter-tribes of America, and, as already
stated, possibly contemporary--in their early history, at least--with
the mammoth and its extinct companions of the later Post-Pliocene
forests. We have already noticed the arts and implements of these
people, but what manner of people were they in themselves? The answer
is given to us by the skeletons found in the cave of Cro-magnon. This
cavern is a shelter or hollow under an overhanging ledge of limestone,
and excavated originally by the action of the weather on a softer bed.
It fronts the south-west and the little river Vezère; and, having
originally been about eight feet high and nearly twenty deep, must
have formed a cosey shelter from rain or cold or summer sun, and with
a pleasant outlook from its front. All rude races have much sagacity
in making selections of this sort. Being nearly fifty feet wide, it
was capacious enough to accommodate several families, and when in use
it no doubt had trees or shrubs in front, and may have been further
completed by stones, poles, or bark placed across the opening. It
seems, however, in the first instance to have been used only at
intervals, and to have been left vacant for considerable portions of
time. Perhaps it was visited only by hunting-or war-parties. But
subsequently it was permanently occupied, and this for so long a time
that in some places ashes and carbonaceous matter a foot and a half
deep, with bones, implements, etc., were accumulated. By this time the
height of the cavern had been much diminished, and, instead of
clearing it out for future use, it was made a place of burial, in
which four or five individuals were interred. Of these, two were men,
one of great age, the other probably in the prime of life. A third was
a woman of about thirty or forty years of age. The other remains were
too fragmentary to give very certain results.
These bones, with others to be mentioned in connection with them,
unquestionably belong to the oldest human inhabitants known in Western
Europe. They have been most carefully examined by several competent
anatomists and archæologists, and the results have been published
with excellent figures in the _Reliquiæ Aquitanicæ_. They are,
therefore, of the utmost interest for our present purpose, and I shall
try so to divest the descriptions of anatomical details as to give a
clear notion of their character. The 'Old Man of Cro-magnon' was of
great stature, being nearly six feet high. More than this, his bones
show that he was of the strongest and most athletic muscular
development--a Samson in strength; and the bones of the limbs have the
peculiar form which is characteristic of athletic men habituated to
rough walking, climbing, and running, for this is, I believe, the real
meaning of the enormous strength of the thigh-bone and the flattened
condition of the leg in this and other old skeletons. It occurs to
some extent, though much less than in this old man, in American
skeletons. His skull presents all the characters of advanced age,
though the teeth had been worn down to the sockets without being lost;
which, again, is the character of some, though not of all, aged Indian
skulls. The skull proper, or brain-case, is very long--more so than in
ordinary modern skulls--and this length is accompanied with a great
breadth; so that the brain was of greater size than in average modern
men, and the frontal region was largely and well developed. In this
respect this most ancient skull fails utterly to vindicate the
expectations of those who would regard prehistoric men as approaching
to the apes. It is at the opposite extreme. The face, however,
presented very peculiar characters. It was extremely broad, with
projecting cheek-bones and heavy jaw, in this resembling the coarse
types of the American face, and the eye-orbits were square and
elongated laterally. The nose was large and prominent, and the jaws
projected somewhat forward. This man, therefore, had, as to his
features, some resemblance to the harsher type of American
physiognomy, with overhanging brows, small and transverse eyes, high
cheek-bones, and coarse mouth. He had not lived to so great an age
without some rubs, for his thigh-bone showed a depression which must
have resulted from a severe wound--perhaps from the horn of some wild
animal or the spear of an enemy.
The woman presented similar characters of stature and cranial form
modified by her sex, and must in form and visage have been a veritable
squaw, who, if her hair and complexion were suitable, would have
passed at once for an American Indian woman, of unusual size and
development. Her head bears sad testimony to the violence of her age
and people. She died from the effects of a blow from a stone-headed
pogamogan or spear, which has penetrated the right side of the
forehead with so clean a fracture as to indicate the extreme rapidity
and force of its blow. It is inferred from the condition of the edges
of this wound that she may have survived its infliction for two weeks
or more. If, as is most likely, the wound was received in some sudden
attack by a hostile tribe, they must have been driven off or have
retired, leaving the wounded woman in the hands of her friends to be
tended for a time, and then buried, either with other members of her
family or with others who had perished in the same skirmish. Unless
the wound was inflicted in sleep, during a night-attack, she must have
fallen, not in flight, but with her face to the foe, perhaps aiding
the resistance of her friends or shielding her little ones from
destruction. With the people of Cro-magnon, as with the American
Indians, the care of the wounded was probably a sacred duty, not to be
neglected without incurring the greatest disgrace and the vengeance of
the guardian spirits of the sufferers.
The skulls of these people have been compared to those of the modern
Esthonians or Lithuanians; but on the authority of M. Quatrefages it
is stated that, while this applies to the probably later race of small
men found in some of the Belgian caves, it does not apply so well to
the people of Cro-magnon. Are, then, these people the types of any
ancient, or of the most ancient, European race? One answer is given by
the remarkable skeleton of Mentone, in the South of France, found
under circumstances equally suggestive of great antiquity (Figure 8).
Dr. Rivière, in a memoir on this skeleton illustrated by two beautiful
photographs, shows that the characters of the skull and of the bones
of the limbs are precisely similar to those of the Cro-magnon
skeleton, indicating a perfect identity of race, while the objects
found with the skeleton are similar in character.
The ornaments of Cro-magnon were perforated shells from the Atlantic
and pieces of ivory. Those at Mentone were perforated Neritinæ from
the Mediterranean and canine-teeth of the deer. In both cases there
was evidence that these ancient people painted themselves with red
oxide of iron; and, as if to complete the similarity, the Mentone man
had an old healed-up fracture of the radius of the left arm, the
effect of a violent blow or of a fall. Skulls found at Clichy and
Grenelle in 1868 and 1869 are described by Professor Broca and Mr.
Fleurens as of the same general type, and the remains found at
Gibraltar and in the cave of Paviland, in England, seem also to have
belonged to the same race. The celebrated Engis skull, believed to
have belonged to a contemporary of the mammoth, is also precisely of
the same type, though less massive than that of Cro-magnon; and,
lastly, even the somewhat degraded Neanderthal skull, found in a cave
near Dusseldorf, though, like that of Clichy, inferior in frontal
development, is referable to the same peculiar long-headed style of
man, in so far as can be judged from the portion that remains.
[Illustration: FIG. 8.
Portion of the skeleton of the fossil man of Mentone. This
skeleton was discovered by Dr. Rivière under about twenty feet
of accumulated débris. It belongs to the palæocosmic age, and
illustrates the high type, physically, of the man of that
period. The skeleton, like others of that age, indicates a man
of great stature and muscular vigor, and with brain above the
average size. (_After Rivière._)]
Let it be observed, then, that these skulls are probably the oldest
known in the world, and they are all referable to one race of men; and
let us ask what they tell as to the position and character of
palæolithic man. The testimony is here fortunately wellnigh unanimous.
Huxley, who well compares some of the peculiar features of these
ancient skulls and skeletons to those of Australians and other rude
tribes, and of the ancient Danes of Borroby--a people not improbably
allied to the Esthonians and Fins--remarks that the manner in which
the individual heads of the most homogeneous rude races differ from
each other "in the same characters, though perhaps not to the same
extent with the Engis and Neanderthal skulls, seems to prohibit any
cautious reasoner from affirming the latter to have necessarily been
of distinct races." My own experience in American skulls, and the
still larger experience of Dr. Wilson, fully confirm the wisdom of
this caution.... He adds: "Finally, the comparatively large cranial
capacity of the Neanderthal skull, overlaid though it may be by
pithecoid, bony walls, and the completely human proportions of the
accompanying limb-bones, together with the very fair development of
the Engis skull, clearly indicate that the first traces of the
primordial stock whence man has been derived need no longer be sought
by those who entertain any form of the doctrine of progressive
development in the newest Tertiaries, but that they may be looked for
in an epoch more distant from that of the _Elephas primigenius_ than
that is from us." If he had possessed the Cro-magnon and Mentone
skulls at the time when this was written, he might well have said
immeasurably distant from the time of the _Elephas primigenius_.
Professor Broca, who seems by no means disinclined to favor a simian
origin for men, has the following general conclusions, which refer to
the Cro-magnon skulls: "The great volume of the brain, the development
of the frontal region, the fine elliptical profile of the anterior
portion of the skull, and the orthognathous form of the upper facial
region, are incontestably evidence of superiority which are met with
usually only in the civilized races. On the other hand, the great
breadth of face, the alveolar prognathism, the enormous development of
the ascending ramus of the lower jaw, the extent and roughness of the
muscular insertions, especially of the masticatory muscles, give rise
to the idea of a violent and brutal race."
[Illustration: FIG. 9.
Three bone harpoons. The upper is from Kent's Cavern, Torquay,
and perhaps the oldest known, being of the mammoth age. The
second is from Denmark, and is neocosmic, though prehistoric.
The third is modern, from Tierra del Fuego. They show the
similarity of bone implements in all ages of the world. The
earliest had already attained as much perfection as the
material permitted with reference to the use intended.]
He adds that this apparent antithesis, seen also in the limbs as well
as in the skull, accords with the evidence furnished by the associated
weapons and implements of a rude hunter-life, and at the same time of
no mean degree of taste and skill in carving and other arts (see Fig.
9). He might have added that this is precisely the antithesis seen in
the American tribes, among whom art and taste of various kinds, and
much that is high and spiritual even in thought, coexisted with
barbarous modes of life and intense ferocity and cruelty. The god and
the devil were combined in these races, but there was nothing of the
mere brute.
Rivière remarks, with expressions of surprise, the same contradictory
points in the Mentone skeleton. Its grand development of brain-case
and high facial angle--even higher, apparently, than in most of these
ancient skulls--combined with other characters which indicate a low
type and barbarous modes of life.
Another point which strikes us in reading the descriptions, and which
deserves the attention of those who have access to the skeletons, is
the indication which they seem to present of an extreme longevity. The
massive proportions of the body, the great development of the muscular
processes, the extreme wearing of the teeth among a people who
predominantly lived on flesh and not on grain, the obliteration of the
sutures of the skull, along with indications of slow ossification of
the ends of the long bones, point in this direction, and seem to
indicate a slow maturity and great length of life in this most
primitive race.
The picture would be incomplete did we not add that in France and
Belgium, in the immediately succeeding or reindeer age, these gigantic
and magnificent men seem to have been superseded by a feebler race of
smaller stature and with shorter heads; so that we have, even in these
oldest days, the same contrasts so plainly perceptible in the races of
the North of Europe and the North of America in historical times
(Figure 10).
[Illustration: FIG. 10.
Section of the cave of Frontal, in Belgium. (_After Dupont._)
_a_, limestone; _b_, deposit of mud of the mammoth age, on
which rests a bed of gravel, _c_, and above this there was, in
modern times, a mass of fallen débris, _d_, up to the dotted
line. On removing this, a hearth was found at _e_, on which
were numerous bones of modern animals, the remains of funeral
feasts. The cave was closed with a flat stone, and within were
skeletons, stone implements, ornaments, and pottery of the
"neolithic" age. Under these was undisturbed earth of the
palæolithic, or mammoth age. The facts show the succession, in
Belgium, of palæocosmic or antediluvian men and of neocosmic
men allied to the Basques or to the Laps, and all this
previous to the advent of the modern races.]
It is further significant that there are some indications to show that
the larger and nobler race was that which inhabited Europe at the time
of its greatest elevation above the sea and greatest horizontal
extent, and when its fauna included many large quadrupeds now extinct.
This race of giants was thus in the possession of a greater
continental area than that now existing, and had to contend with
gigantic brute rivals for the possession of the world. It is also not
improbable that this early race became extinct in Europe in
consequence of the physical changes which occurred in connection with
the subsidence which reduced the land to its present limits, and
that the dwarfish race which succeeded came in as the appropriate
accompaniment of a diminished land-surface and a less genial climate
in the early modern period. Both of these races are properly
palæolithic, and are supposed to antedate the period of polished
stone; but this may, to a great extent, be a prejudice of collectors,
who have arrived at a foregone conclusion as to the distinctness of
these periods (Figure 11). Judging from the great cranial capacity of
the older race and the small number of their skeletons found, it would
be fair to suppose that they represent rude outlying tribes belonging
to races which elsewhere had attained to greater culture.
[Illustration: FIG. 11.
Flint arrow-heads found together in a modern Indian deposit in
Canada, and showing the coincidence in time of rude and
finished flint weapons, or that among all savages using
chipped flint, the palæolithic and neolithic ages are
contemporaneous.]
Lastly, both of these old European races were Turanian, Mongolian, or
American in their head-forms and features, as well as in their habits,
implements, and arts. To illustrate this, in so far as the older of
the two races is concerned, I have carefully compared collections of
American Indian skulls with casts and figures representing the form
and dimensions of some of the oldest European crania above referred
to. Some of the American skulls may fairly be compared in their
characters with the Mentone skull, and others with those of
Cro-magnon, Engis, and Neanderthal; and so like are some of the Huron,
Iroquois, and other northern American skulls to these ancient European
relics and others of their type, that it would be difficult to affirm
that they might not have belonged to near relatives. On the other
hand, the smaller and shorter heads of the race of the reindeer age in
Europe may be compared with the Laps, and with some of the more
delicately formed Algonquin and Chippewayan skulls in America. If,
therefore, the reader desires to realize the probable aspect of the
men of Cro-magnon, of Mentone, or of Engis, I may refer him to modern
American heads. So permanent is this great Turanian race, out of which
all the other races now extant seem to have been developed, in the
milder and more hospitable regions of the Old World, while in northern
Asia and in America it has retained to this day its primitive
characters.
The reader, reflecting on what he has learned from history, may be
disposed here to ask, Must we suppose Adam to have been one of these
Turanian men, like old men of Cro-magnon? In answer, I would say that
there is no good reason to regard the first man as having resembled a
Greek Apollo or an Adonis. He was probably of sterner and more
muscular mould. But the gigantic palæolithic men of the European caves
are more probably representatives of that fearful and powerful race
who filled the antediluvian world with violence, and who reappear in
postdiluvian times as the Anakim and traditional giants, who
constitute a feature in the early history of so many countries.
Perhaps nothing is more curious in the revelations as to the most
ancient cave-men than that they confirm the old belief that there were
'giants in those days.'
And now let us pause for a moment to picture these so-called
palæolithic men. What could the old man of Cro-magnon have told us had
we been able to sit by his hearth and listen understandingly to his
speech?--which, if we may judge from the form of his palate-bones,
must have resembled more that of the Americans or Mongolians than of
any modern European people. He had, no doubt, travelled far, for to
his stalwart limbs a long journey through forests and over plains and
mountains would be a mere pastime. He may have bestridden the wild
horse, which seems to have abounded at the time in France, and he may
have launched his canoe on the waters of the Atlantic. His experience
and memory might extend back a century or more, and his traditional
lore might go back to the times of the first mother of our race. Did
he live in that wide Post-Pliocene continent which extended westward
through Ireland? Did he know and had he visited the nations that lived
in the valley of the great Gihon, that ran down the Mediterranean
Valley, or on that nameless river which flowed through the Dover
Straits? Had he visited or seen from afar the great island Atlantis,
whose inhabitants could almost see in the sunset sky the islands of
the blest? Or did he live at a later time, after the Post-Pliocene
subsidence, and when the land had assumed its present form? In that
case he could have told us of the great deluge, of the huge animals of
the antediluvian World--known to him only by tradition--and of the
diminished strength and longevity of men in his comparatively modern
days. We can but conjecture all this. But, mute though they may be as
to the details of their lives, the man of Cro-magnon and his
contemporaries are eloquent of one great truth, in which they coincide
with the Americans and with the primitive men of all the early ages.
They tell us that primitive man had the same high cerebral
organization which he possesses now, and, we may infer, the same high
intellectual and moral nature, fitting him for communion with God and
headship over the lower world. They indicate, also, like the
Mound-builders, who preceded the North American Indian, that man's
earlier state was the best--that he had been a high and noble creature
before he became a savage. It is not conceivable that their high
development of brain and mind could have spontaneously engrafted
itself on a mere brutal and savage life. These gifts must be remnants
of a noble organization degraded by moral evil. They thus justify the
tradition of a Golden and Edenic Age, and mutely protest against the
philosophy of progressive development as applied to man, while they
bear witness to the identity in all important characters of the oldest
prehistoric men with that variety of our species which is at the
present day at once the most widely extended and the most primitive in
its manners and usages.
Thus it would appear that these earliest known men are not
specifically distinct from ourselves, but are a distinct race, most
nearly allied to that great Turanian stock which is at the present
day, and has apparently from the earliest historic times been, the
most widely spread of all. Though rude and uncultured, they were not
either physically or mentally inferior to the average men of to-day,
and were indeed in several respects men of high type, whose great
cranial capacity might lead us to suppose that their ancestors had
recently been in a higher state of civilization than themselves. It
is, however, possible that this characteristic was rather connected
with great energy and physical development than with high mental
activity.
To the hypothesis of evolution, as applied to man, these facts
evidently oppose great difficulties. They show that such modern
degraded races as the Fuegians or the Tasmanians cannot present to us
the types of our earlier ancestors, since the latter were men of a
different and higher style. Nor do these oldest known men present any
approximation in physical characters to the lower animals. Further, we
may infer from their works, and from what we know of their beliefs
and habits, that they were not creatures of instinct, but of thought
like ourselves, and that materialistic doctrines of automatism and
brain-force without mind would be quite as absurd in their application
to them as to their modern representatives.
It is not too much to say that, in presence of these facts, the
spontaneous origin of man from inferior animals cannot be held as a
scientific conclusion. It may be an article of faith in authority, or
a superstition or an hypothesis, but is in no respect a result of
scientific investigation into the fossil remains of man. But if man is
not such a product of spontaneous evolution, he must have been created
by a Being having a higher reason and a greater power than his own;
and the ancestry of the agnostic, and the rational powers which he
exercises, constitute the best refutation of his own doctrine.