PRIMITIVE MAN.
[Illustration: A Family of the Stone Age (Frontispiece).]
PRIMITIVE MAN.
By LOUIS FIGUIER.
Revised Translation.
ILLUSTRATED WITH THIRTY SCENES OF PRIMITIVE LIFE, AND
TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY-THREE FIGURES OF OBJECTS
BELONGING TO PRE-HISTORIC AGES.
"Arma antiqua manus, ungues, dentesque fuerunt.
Et lapides, et item silvarum fragmina rami.
Et flamma atque ignes, postquam sunt cognita primum.
Posterius ferri vis est ærisque reperta;
Et prior æris erat quam ferri cognitus usus."
_Lucretius, De Rerum Natura, lib. V., v. 1281-5._
LONDON:
CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY.
1870.
PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION.
[Illustration]
The Editor of the English translation of 'L'Homme Primitif,' has not
deemed it necessary to reproduce the original Preface, in which M.
Figuier states his purpose in offering a new work on pre-historic
archæology to the French public, already acquainted in translation with
the works on the subject by Sir Charles Lyell and Sir John Lubbock. Now
that the book has taken its position in France, it is only needful to
point out its claims to the attention of English readers.
The important art of placing scientific knowledge, and especially new
discoveries and topics of present controversy, within easy reach of
educated readers not versed in their strictly technical details, is one
which has for years been carried to remarkable perfection in France, in
no small measure through the labours and example of M. Figuier himself.
The present volume, one of his series, takes up the subject of
Pre-historic Man, beginning with the remotely ancient stages of human
life belonging to the Drift-Beds, Bone-Caves, and Shell-Heaps, passing
on through the higher levels of the Stone Age, through the succeeding
Bronze Age, and into those lower ranges of the Iron Age in which
civilisation, raised to a comparatively high development, passes from
the hands of the antiquary into those of the historian. The Author's
object has been to give within the limits of a volume, and dispensing
with the fatiguing enumeration of details required in special memoirs,
an outline sufficient to afford a reasonable working acquaintance with
the facts and arguments of the science to such as cannot pursue it
further, and to serve as a starting-ground for those who will follow it
up in the more minute researches of Nilsson, Keller, Lartet, Christy,
Lubbock, Mortillet, Desor, Troyon, Gastaldi, and others.
The value of the work to English archæologists, however, is not merely
that of a clear popular manual; pre-historic archæology, worked as it
has been in several countries, takes in each its proper local colour,
and brings forward its proper local evidence. It is true that much of
its material is used as common property by scientific men at large. But,
for instance, where an English writer in describing the ancient cave-men
would dwell especially on the relics from the caves of Devon and
Somerset as worked by Falconer and Pengelly, a French writer would take
his data more amply from the explorations of caves of the south of
France by De Vibraye, Garrigou, and Filhol--where the English teacher
would select his specimens from the Christy or the Blackmore Museum, the
French teacher would have recourse to the Musée de Saint-Germain. Thus
far, the English student has in Figuier's 'Primitive Man' not a work
simply incorporated from familiar materials, but to a great extent
bringing forward evidence not readily accessible, or quite new to him.
Some corrections and alterations have been made in the English edition.
The illustrations are those of the original work; the facsimiles of
pre-historic objects have been in great part drawn expressly for it, and
contribute to its strictly scientific value; the page illustrations
representing scenes of primitive life, which are by another hand, may
seem somewhat fanciful, yet, setting aside the Raffaelesque idealism of
their style, it will be found on examination that they are in the main
justified by that soundest evidence, the actual discovery of the objects
of which they represent the use.
The solid distinctness of this evidence from actual relics of
pre-historic life is one of the reasons which have contributed to the
extraordinary interest which pre-historic archæology has excited in an
age averse to vague speculation, but singularly appreciative of
arguments conducted by strict reasoning on facts. The study of this
modern science has supplied a fundamental element to the general theory
of civilisation, while, as has been the case with geology, its bearing
on various points of theological criticism has at once conduced to its
active investigation, and drawn to it the most eager popular attention.
Thus, in bringing forward a new work on 'Primitive Man,' there is
happily no need of insisting on the importance of its subject-matter, or
of attempting to force unappreciated knowledge on an unwilling public.
It is only necessary to attest its filling an open place in the
literature of pre-historic archæology.
E. B. T.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
INTRODUCTION 1
THE STONE AGE.
I.
THE EPOCH OF EXTINCT SPECIES OF ANIMALS; OR, OF THE GREAT BEAR AND
MAMMOTH.
CHAPTER I.
The earliest Men--The Type of Man in the Epoch of Animals of
extinct Species--Origin of Man--Refutation of the Theory which
derives the Human Species from the Ape 25
CHAPTER II.
Man in the Condition of Savage Life during the Quaternary
Epoch--The Glacial Period, and its Ravages on the Primitive
Inhabitants of the Globe--Man in Conflict with the Animals of the
Quaternary Epoch--The Discovery of Fire--The Weapons of Primitive
Man--Varieties of Flint Hatchets--Manufacture of the earliest
Pottery--Ornamental objects at the Epoch of the Great Bear and
the Mammoth 39
CHAPTER III.
The Man of the Great Bear and Mammoth Epoch lived in Caverns--
Bone Caverns in the Quaternary Rock during the Great Bear and
Mammoth Epoch--Mode of Formation of these Caverns--Their
Division into several Classes--Implements of Flint, Bone, and
Reindeer-horn, found in these Caverns--The Burial Place at
Aurignac--Its probable Age--Customs which it reveals--Funeral
Banquets during the Great Bear and Mammoth Epoch 56
CHAPTER IV.
Other Caves of the Epoch of the Great Bear and Mammoth--Type
of the Human Race during the Epochs of the Great Bear and the
Reindeer--The Skulls from the Caves of Engis and Neanderthal 72
II.
EPOCH OF THE REINDEER; OR, OF MIGRATED ANIMALS.
CHAPTER I.
Mankind during the Epoch of the Reindeer--Their Manners and
Customs--Food--Garments--Weapons, Utensils, and Implements--
Pottery--Ornaments--Primitive Arts--The principal Caverns--
Type of the Human Race during the Epoch of the Reindeer 85
III.
THE POLISHED-STONE EPOCH; OR, THE EPOCH OF TAMED ANIMALS.
CHAPTER I.
The European Deluge--The Dwelling-Place of Man during the
Polished-stone Epoch--The Caves and Rock-Shelters still used as
Dwelling-Places--Principal Caves belonging to the Polished-stone
Epoch which have been explored up to the present time--The Food
of Man during this Period 125
CHAPTER II.
The _Kjoekken-Moeddings_ or "_Kitchen-middens_" of Denmark--Mode
of Life of the Men living in Denmark during the Polished-stone
Epoch--The Domestication of the Dog--The Art of Fishing during
the Polished-stone Epoch--Fishing Nets--Weapons and Instruments
of War--Type of the Human Race; the Borreby Skull 129
CHAPTER III.
Tombs and Mode of Interment during the Polished-stone Epoch--
_Tumuli_ and other Sepulchral Monuments formerly called
_Celtic_--Labours of MM. Alexander Bertrand and Bonstetten--
Funeral Customs 184
THE AGE OF METALS.
I.
THE BRONZE EPOCH.
CHAPTER I.
The Discovery of Metals--Various Reasons suggested for explaining
the origin of Bronze in the West--The Invention of Bronze--A
Foundry during the Bronze Epoch--Permanent and Itinerant
Foundries existing during the Bronze Epoch--Did the Knowledge
of Metals take its Rise in Europe owing to the Progress of
Civilisation, or was it a Foreign Importation? 205
CHAPTER II.
The Sources of Information at our Disposal for reconstructing
the History of the Bronze Epoch--The Lacustrine Settlements of
Switzerland--Enumeration and Classification of them--Their Mode
of Construction--Workmanship and Position of the Piles--Shape
and Size of the Huts--Population--Instruments of Stone, Bone,
and Stag's Horn--Pottery--Clothing--Food--_Fauna_--Domestic
Animals 215
CHAPTER III.
Lacustrine Habitations of Upper Italy, Bavaria, Carinthia and
Carniola, Pomerania, France, and England--The _Crannoges_ of
Ireland 227
CHAPTER IV.
Palustrine Habitations or Marsh-Villages--Surveys made by
MM. Strobel and Pigorini of the _Terramares_ of Tuscany--The
_Terramares_ of Brazil 232
CHAPTER V.
Weapons, Instruments, and Utensils contained in the various
Lacustrine Settlements in Europe, enabling us to become
acquainted with the Manners and Customs of Man during the
Bronze Epoch 240
CHAPTER VI.
Industrial Skill and Agriculture during the Bronze Epoch--The
Invention of Glass--Invention of Weaving 258
CHAPTER VII.
The Art of War during the Bronze Epoch--Swords, Spears and
Daggers--The Bronze Epoch in Scandinavia, in the British Isles,
France, Switzerland and Italy--Did the Man of the Bronze Epoch
entertain any religious or superstitious Belief? 271
CHAPTER VIII.
Mode of Interment and Burial-places of the Bronze Epoch--
Characteristics of the Human Race during the same Period 284
II.
THE IRON EPOCH.
CHAPTER I.
Essential Characteristics of the Iron Epoch--Preparation of Iron
in Pre-historic Times--Discovery of Silver and Lead--Earthenware
made on the Potter's Wheel--Invention of Coined Money 297
CHAPTER II.
Weapons--Tools, Instruments, Utensils, and Pottery--The Tombs
of Hallstadt and the Plateau of La Somma--The Lake-Settlements
of Switzerland--Human Sacrifices--Type of Man during the Iron
Epoch--Commencement of the Historic Era 312
PRIMITIVE MAN IN AMERICA 333
CONCLUSION 343
LIST OF PLATES.
FIG. PAGE
A Family of the Stone Age (Frontispiece).
1. Human Jaw-bone found at Moulin-Quignon, near Abbeville,
in 1863 18
2. Skull of a Man belonging to the Stone Age (The _Borreby
Skull_) 27
3. Skull of the Gorilla 28
4. Skull of the Orang-Outang _ib._
5. Skull of the Cynocephalus Ape 29
6. Skull of the _Macacus_ Baboon _ib._
7. The Production of Fire (whole page engraving).
8. _Dendrites_ or Crystallisations found on the Surface of
wrought Flints 46
9. Section of a Gravel Quarry at Saint-Acheul, which contained
the wrought Flints found by Boucher de Perthes 47
10. Hatchet of the _Almond-shaped_ type from the Valley of the
Somme 48
11. Flint Hatchet from Saint-Acheul of the so-called
_Almond-shaped_ type 49
12. Wrought Flint (_Moustier_ type) _ib._
13. Flint Scraper 50
14. Flint Knife, found at Menchecourt, near Abbeville _ib._
15. Flint Core or Nucleus 51
16. Man in the Great Bear and Mammoth Epoch (whole page
engraving).
17. The First Potter (whole page engraving).
18. Fossil Shells used as Ornaments, and found in the Gravel at
Amiens 54
19. Theoretical Section of a Vein of Clay in the Carboniferous
Limestone, _before_ the hollowing out of Valleys by
Diluvial Waters 56
20. Theoretical Section of the same Vein of Clay converted
into a Cavern, _after_ the hollowing out of Valleys by
Diluvial Waters 57
21. The Cave of Galeinreuth, in Bavaria 59
22. Section of the Sepulchral Cave at Aurignac 62
23. Flint Knife, found in the Sepulchral Cave at Aurignac 63
24. Implement made of Reindeer's or Stag's Horn, found in the
Sepulchral Cave at Aurignac _ib._
25. Series of Perforated Discs of the _Cardium_ Shell, found
in the Sepulchral Cave at Aurignac 64
26. Fragment of the Lower Jaw of a Cave-Bear found in the
Sepulchral Cave at Aurignac _ib._
27. Upper Molar of a Bison found in the Ashes of the Fire-Hearth
of the Sepulchral Cave at Aurignac 65
28. Arrow-head made of Reindeer's Horn, found in the Sepulchral
Cave of Aurignac 66
29. Bodkin made of Roebuck's Horn, found in the Sepulchral Cave
of Aurignac _ib._
30. Truncated Blade in Reindeer's Horn bearing two Series
of transversal Lines and Notches, probably used for
numeration 67
31. Funeral Feast during the Great Bear and Mammoth Epoch (whole
page engraving).
32. Carved and perforated Canine Tooth of a young Cave-Bear 69
33. Head of a Cave-Bear found in the Cave of Aurignac 70
34. Head of the _Rhinoceros tichorhinus_, found in the Cave of
Aurignac _ib._
35. Head of a great Stag (_Megaceros hibernicus_), found in the
Cave of Aurignac 71
36. Sketch of the Great Bear on a Stone, found in the Cave of
Massat 75
37. Portion of the Skull of an Individual belonging to the Epoch
of the Great Bear and the Mammoth, found in the Cave
of Engis 80
38. Portion of the so-called Neanderthal Skull _ib._
39. Man of the Reindeer Epoch (whole page engraving).
40. Rock-Shelter at Bruniquel, a supposed Habitation of Man
during the Reindeer Epoch (whole page engraving).
41. A Feast during the Reindeer Epoch (whole page engraving).
42. Flint Bodkin or Stiletto for sewing Reindeer Skins, found
in the Cave of Les Eyzies (Périgord) 92
43. Bone Needle for Sewing _ib._
44. The Canine Tooth of a Wolf, bored so as to be used as an
Ornament 93
45. Ornament made of the bony part of a Horse's Ear _ib._
46. Spear-head, found in the Cave of Laugerie-Basse (Périgord) 95
47. Worked Flint from Périgord (Knife) 96
48. Worked Flint from Périgord (Hatchet) _ib._
49. Chipped Flint from Périgord (Knife) 97
50. Chipped Flint from Périgord (Scraper) _ib._
51. Small Flint Saw, found in the Rock-Shelter at Bruniquel 98
52. The Chase during the Reindeer Epoch (whole page engraving).
53. Barbed Arrow of Reindeer Horn 99
54. Arrow of Reindeer Horn with Double Barbs _ib._
55. Animal Bone, pierced by an Arrow of Reindeer Horn 100
56. Tool made of Reindeer Horn, found in the Cave of
Laugerie-Basse (Stiletto?) _ib._
57. Tool made of Reindeer Horn, found in the Cave of
Laugerie-Basse (Needle?) _ib._
58. Spoon of Reindeer Horn 101
59. Knuckle-bone of a Reindeer's Foot, bored with a hole and
used as a Whistle 102
60. Staff of authority, in Reindeer's Horn, found in the Cave
of Périgord _ib._
61. Another Staff of authority in Reindeer's Horn _ib._
62. A Geode, used as a Cooking Vessel(?), found in the Cave
of La Madelaine (Périgord) 103
63. Earthen Vase, found in the Cave of Furfooz (Belgium) 104
64. Sketch of a Mammoth graven on a Slab of Ivory 106
65. Hilt of a Dagger carved in the Shape of a Reindeer 107
66. Representation of a Stag drawn on a Stag's Horn 108
67. Representation of some large Herbivorous Animal on a
Fragment of Reindeer's Horn _ib._
68. Arts of Drawing and Sculpture during the Reindeer Epoch
(whole page engraving).
69. Representation of an Animal sketched on a Fragment of
Reindeer's Horn 109
70. Fragment of a Slab of Schist bearing the representation of
some Animal, and found in the Cave of Les Eyzies _ib._
71. A kind of Harpoon of Reindeer's Horn carved in the Shape of
an Animal's Head 110
72. Staff of Authority, on which are graven Representations of
a Man, two Horses, and a Fish 111
73. Skull, found at Furfooz by M. Édouard Dupont 114
74. Skull of an Old Man, found in a _Rock-shelter_ at Bruniquel 115
75. A Funeral Ceremony during the Reindeer Epoch (whole page
engraving).
76. Man of the Polished-stone Epoch (whole page engraving).
77. Bone Skewers used as Fish-hooks 134
78. Fishing-net with wide Meshes 136
79. Stone Weight used for sinking the Fishing-nets _ib._
80. Fishing during the Polished-stone Epoch (whole page
engraving).
81. Flint Knife from one of the Danish Beds 138
82. Nucleus off which Knives are flaked _ib._
83. Flint Hatchet from one of the Danish Beds _ib._
84. Flint Scraper from one of the Danish Beds _ib._
85. Refuse from the Manufacture of wrought Flints 139
86. Weight to sink Fishing-nets _ib._
87. Danish Axe of the Polished-stone Epoch 140
88. Double-edged Axe _ib._
89. Danish Axe-hammer drilled for handle 141
90. Ditto _ib._
91. Spear-head from Denmark 142
92. Ditto _ib._
93. Toothed Spear-head of Flint 143
94. Flint Poniard from Denmark _ib._
95. Type of the Danish Arrow-head _ib._
96. Another Type of Arrow-head _ib._
97. Arrow-head 144
98. Arrow-head from Denmark _ib._
99. Flint Chisel from Denmark _ib._
100. Small Stone Saw from the Danish Deposits 145
101. Another Stone Saw from Denmark _ib._
102. Bone Harpoon of the Stone Age, from Denmark _ib._
103. Bone Comb from Denmark 146
104. Necklace and various Ornaments of Amber _ib._
105. Nucleus in the Museum of Saint-Germain, from the Workshop
of Grand-Pressigny 148
106. Polisher from Grand-Pressigny, both faces being shown 150
107. The earliest Manufacture and Polishing of Flints (whole
page engraving).
108. Polisher found by M. Leguay 154
109. Spear-head from Spiennes 158
110. Polished Jade Hatchet in the Museum of Saint-Germain 159
111. Polished Flint Hatchet with a Sheath of Stag's Horn fitted
for a Handle 161
112. Flint Hatchet fitted into a Stag's-horn Sheath having an
Oak Handle, from Boucher de Perthes' Illustration 162
113. Hatchet Handle made of Oak 163
114. Stag's-horn Sheath open at each end, so as to receive two
Hatchets _ib._
115. Polished Flint Hatchet, from Belgium, fitted into a
Stag's-horn Sheath _ib._
116. Gardening Tool made of Stag's Horn (after Boucher de
Perthes) 164
117. Ditto _ib._
118. Ditto 165
119. Flint Tool in a Bone Handle 166
120. Flint Tool with Bone Handle _ib._
121. Ornamented Bone Handle _ib._
122. Necklace made of Boars' Tusks longitudinally divided 167
123. Flint Knife from the Peat Bogs near Antwerp 168
124. Primitive Corn-mill 170
125. The Art of Bread Making in the Stone Age (whole page
engraving).
126. The Earliest Navigators (whole page engraving).
127. The Earliest regular Conflicts between Men of the Stone Age;
or, The Entrenched Camp of Furfooz (whole page engraving).
128. Flint Arrow-head from Civita-Nova (Italy) 180
129. The Borreby Skull 182
130. Danish _Dolmen_ 185
131. _Dolmen_ at Assies (department of Lot) _ib._
132. _Dolmen_ at Connéré (Marne) 186
133. Vertical Section of the _Dolmen_ of Lockmariaker, in
Brittany. In the Museum of Saint-Germain _ib._
134. _Tumulus-Dolmen_ at Gavr'inis (Morbihan) 187
135. A Portion of the _Dolmen_ of Gavr'inis _ib._
136. General Form of a covered Passage-Tomb 188
137. Passage-Tomb at Bagneux, near Saumur _ib._
138. Passage-Tomb at Plauharmel (Morbihan) 189
139. Passage-Tomb, the so-called _Table de César_, at
Lockmariaker (Morbihan) _ib._
140. A Danish _Tumulus_ or chambered Sepulchre 190
141. Usual Shape of a _Menhir_ 191
142. The Rows of _Menhirs_ at Carnac _ib._
143. _Dolmen_ with a Circuit of Stones (_Cromlech_), in the
Province of Constantine 192
144. Group of Danish _Cromlechs_ _ib._
145. Position of Skeletons in a Swedish Tomb of the Stone Age 194
146. A _Tumulus_ of the Polished Stone Epoch (whole page
engraving).
147. A Founder's Workshop during the Bronze Epoch (whole page
engraving).
148. Section of the _Ténevière_ of Hauterive 220
149. A Swiss Lake Village of the Bronze Epoch (whole page
engraving).
150. Vertical Section of a _Crannoge_ in the Ardakillin Lake 230
151. Vertical Section of the _Marniera_ of Castione 233
152. Floor of the _Marniera_ of Castione 234
153. Plan of the Piles and Cross-beams in the _Marniera_ of
Castione _ib._
154. The Chase during the Bronze Epoch (whole page engraving).
155. Stone Hatchet from the Lacustrine Habitations of
Switzerland 241
156. Stone Chisel with Stag's-horn Handle, from the Lacustrine
Habitations of Switzerland 241
157. Flint Hammer fitted with a Stag's-horn Handle 242
158. Stone Hatchet with Double Handle of Wood and Stag's Horn _ib._
159, 160. Serpentine Hatchet-Hammers from the Lacustrine
Habitations of Switzerland 243
161. Another Hatchet-hammer from the Lacustrine Habitations of
Switzerland _ib._
162. Flint Saw fitted into a Piece of Stag's Horn 244
163. Flint Spear-head from the Lacustrine Settlements of
Switzerland _ib._
164. Various Shapes of Flint Arrow-heads from the Lacustrine
Settlements of Switzerland _ib._
165. Arrow-head of Bone fixed on the Shaft by means of Bitumen 245
166. Stone Arrow-head fixed on the Shaft by means of Bitumen _ib._
167. Arrow-head fixed on the Shaft by a Ligature of String _ib._
168. Bone Bodkin, from the Lacustrine Habitations of Switzerland 246
169. Ditto _ib._
170. Carpenter's Chisel, from the Lacustrine Habitations of
Switzerland _ib._
171. Bone Needle _ib._
172. Pick-axe of Stag's Horn 247
173. Harpoon made of Stag's Horn, from the Lacustrine
Habitations of Switzerland _ib._
174. Ditto _ib._
175. Vessel made of Stag's Horn _ib._
176. Bronze Winged Hatchet, from the Lacustrine Habitations of
Switzerland 249
177. Winged Hatchet (front and side view), from the Lacustrine
Habitations of Switzerland _ib._
178. Socketed Hatchet, from the Lacustrine Habitations _ib._
179. Knife Hatchet (front and side view) from the Lacustrine
Habitations _ib._
180. Carpenter's Chisel, in Bronze 250
181. Hexagonal Hammer _ib._
182. Knife with a Tang to fit into a Handle, from the Lacustrine
Settlements of Switzerland _ib._
183. Socketed Knife, from the Lacustrine Settlements of
Switzerland 251
184. Bronze Sickle, found by M. Desor at Chevroux _ib._
185. Bronze Fish-hook, from the Lacustrine Settlements of
Switzerland 252
186. Double Fish-hook, from the Lacustrine Settlements of
Switzerland _ib._
187. Hair-pin, found by M. Desor in one of the Swiss Lakes 253
188. Ditto _ib._
189. Hair-pin with Cylindrical Head _ib._
190. Hair-pin with Curled Head _ib._
191. Bronze Bracelet, found in one of the Swiss Lakes 254
192. Another Bronze Bracelet 255
193. Bronze Ring _ib._
194. Bronze Pendant, from the Lacustrine Habitations of
Switzerland 256
195. Another Bronze Pendant, from the Lacustrine Habitations
of Switzerland _ib._
196. Bronze Ring, from the Lacustrine Habitations of Switzerland _ib._
197. Another Ornamental Ring _ib._
198. Earthenware Vessel with Conical Bottom, from the Lacustrine
Habitations of Switzerland 259
199. Earthen Vessel placed on its Support _ib._
200. Fragment of an Earthen Vessel with a Handle 259
201. Vessel of Baked Clay, from the Lacustrine Settlements of
Switzerland 260
202. Ditto _ib._
203. Cloth of the Bronze Age, found in the Lacustrine Settlements
of Switzerland 262
204. The First Weaver (whole page engraving).
205. Spindle-whorls, made of Baked Clay, found in the Lacustrine
Settlements of Switzerland 263
206. Principal Designs for the Ornamentation of Pottery during
the Bronze Epoch 264
207. The Cultivation of Gardens during the Bronze Epoch (whole
page engraving).
208. A Feast during the Bronze Epoch (whole page engraving).
209. Bronze Sword in the Museum of Neuchâtel 272
210. Bronze Dagger, found in one of the Swiss Lakes _ib._
211. Bronze Spear-head, found in one of the Swiss Lakes 273
212. Bronze Arrow-head, found in a Lacustrine Settlement of
Switzerland _ib._
213. Scandinavian Sword 274
214. Hilt of a Scandinavian Sword _ib._
215. Mode of fixing the Handle to a Scandinavian Hatchet _ib._
216. Another Mode of fixing the Handle to a Scandinavian Hatchet _ib._
217. Danish Bronze Knife of the Bronze Epoch 275
218. Ditto _ib._
219. Blade of a Danish Razor of the Bronze Epoch 276
220. Woollen Cloak of the Bronze Epoch, found in 1861, in a Tomb
in Denmark 277
221. Woollen Shawl, found in the same Tomb _ib._
222. Woollen Shirt, taken from the same Tomb 278
223. First Woollen Cap, found in the same Tomb _ib._
224. Second Woollen Cap, found in the same Tomb _ib._
225. Bronze Comb, found in the same Tomb _ib._
226. Warriors during the Bronze Epoch (whole page engraving).
227. Bronze Hatchet Mould, found in Ireland 279
228. Stone Crescent, found in one of the Swiss Lakes 280
229. Skull found at Meilen, Front View 289
230. Skull found at Meilen, Profile View _ib._
231. Primitive Furnace for Smelting Iron (whole page engraving).
232. Bronze Coin, from the Lake of Neuchâtel 310
233. Sword, from the Tombs of Hallstadt (with a Bronze Hilt and
Iron Blade) 313
234. Ditto _ib._
235. Dagger, from the Tombs of Hallstadt (Bronze Handle and Iron
Blade) 314
236. Ditto _ib._
237. Funeral Ceremonies during the Iron Epoch (whole page
engraving).
238. A Skeleton, portions of which have been burnt, from the
Tombs of Hallstadt 315
239. A Necklace with Pendants, from the Tombs of Hallstadt 316
240. Bracelet, from the Tombs of Hallstadt 317
241. Ditto _ib._
242. Bronze Vase, from the Tombs of Hallstadt _ib._
243. Bronze Vase, from the Tombs of Hallstadt 317
244. Warriors of the Iron Epoch (whole page engraving).
245, 246. Fore-arm encircled with Bracelets, found in the Tombs
of Belleville (Savoy) 319
247. Iron Sword, found in one of the Swiss Lakes 321
248. Sword with Damascened Blade, found in one of the Swiss
Lakes _ib._
249. Sheath of a Sword, found in one of the Swiss Lakes 322
250. Lance-head, found in one of the Swiss Lakes 323
251. Head of a Javelin, found in the Lacustrine Settlement of La
Tène (Neuchâtel) 324
252. The Chase during the Iron Epoch (whole page engraving).
253. Square-socketed Iron Hatchet, found in one of the Lakes of
Switzerland 325
254. Sickle _ib._
255. Scythe, from the Lacustrine Settlements of Switzerland 326
256. Iron Point of Boat-hook, used by the Swiss Boatmen during
the Iron Epoch _ib._
257. Horse's Bit, found in the Lake of Neuchâtel _ib._
258. _Fibula_, or Iron Brooch, found in the Lake of Neuchâtel 327
259. Iron Buckle for a Sword-belt, found in the Lake of Neuchâtel 328
260. Iron Pincers, found in the Lake of Neuchâtel _ib._
261. Iron Spring-scissors, found in the Lake of Neuchâtel _ib._
262. Razor 329
263. Agriculture during the Iron Epoch (whole page engraving).
PRIMITIVE MAN.
INTRODUCTION.
Forty years have scarcely elapsed since scientific men first began to
attribute to the human race an antiquity more remote than that which is
assigned to them by history and tradition. Down to a comparatively
recent time, the appearance of primitive man was not dated back beyond a
period of 6000 to 7000 years. This historical chronology was a little
unsettled by the researches made among various eastern nations--the
Chinese, the Egyptians, and the Indians. The _savants_ who studied these
ancient systems of civilisation found themselves unable to limit them to
the 6000 years of the standard chronology, and extended back for some
thousands of years the antiquity of the eastern races.
This idea, however, never made its way beyond the narrow circle of
oriental scholars, and did nothing towards any alteration in the general
opinion, which allowed only 6000 years since the creation of the human
species.
This opinion was confirmed, and, to some extent, rendered sacred by an
erroneous interpretation of Holy Writ. It was thought that the Old
Testament stated that man was created 6000 years ago. Now, the fact is,
nothing of the kind can be found in the Book of Genesis. It is only the
commentators and the compilers of chronological systems who have put
forward this date as that of the first appearance of the human race. M.
Édouard Lartet, who was called, in 1869, to the chair of palæontology in
the Museum of Natural History of Paris, reminds us, in the following
passage taken from one of his elegant dissertations, that it is the
chronologists alone who have propounded this idea, and that they have,
in this respect, very wrongly interpreted the statements of the Bible:
"In _Genesis_," says M. Lartet, "no date can be found which sets a limit
to the time at which primitive mankind may have made its first
appearance. Chronologists, however, for fifteen centuries have been
endeavouring to make Biblical facts fall in with the preconcerted
arrangements of their systems. Thus, we find that more than 140 opinions
have been brought forward as to the date of the creation alone, and
that, between the varying extremes, there is a difference of 3194
years--a difference which only applies to the period between the
commencement of the world and the birth of Jesus Christ. This
disagreement turns chiefly on those portions of the interval which are
in closest proximity to the creation.
"From the moment when it becomes a recognised fact that the origin of
mankind is a question independent of all subordination to dogma, this
question will assume its proper position as a scientific thesis, and
will be accessible to any kind of discussion, and capable, in every
point of view, of receiving the solution which best harmonises with the
known facts and experimental demonstrations."[1]
Thus, we must not assume that the authority of Holy Writ is in any way
questioned by those labours which aim at seeking the real epoch of man's
first appearance on the earth.
In corroboration of M. Lartet's statement, we must call to mind that the
Catholic church, which has raised to the rank of dogma so many
unimportant facts, has never desired to treat in this way the idea that
man was created only 6000 years ago.
There is, therefore, no need for surprise when we learn that certain
members of the Catholic clergy have devoted themselves with energy
to the study of pre-historic man. Mgr. Meignan, Bishop of
Châlons-sur-Marne, is one of the best-informed men in France as respects
this new science; he cultivates it with the utmost zeal, and his
personal researches have added much to the sum of our knowledge of this
question. Under the title of 'Le Monde et l'Homme Primitif selon la
Bible,'[2] the learned Bishop of Châlons-sur-Marne published, in 1869, a
voluminous work, in which, taking up the subjects discussed by Marcel de
Serres in his "Cosmogonie de Moïse, comparée aux Faits Géologiques,"[3]
and enlarging upon the facts which science has recently acquired as to
the subject of primitive man, he seeks to establish the coincidence of
all these data with the records of Revelation.
M. l'Abbé Lambert has recently published a work on 'L'Homme Primitif et
la Bible,'[4] in which he proves that the discoveries of modern science
concerning the antiquity of man are in no way opposed to the records of
Revelation in the Book of Moses.
Lastly, it is a member of the clerical body, M. l'Abbé Bourgeois, who,
more a royalist than the king--that is, more advanced in his views than
most contemporary geologists--is in favour of tracing back to the
tertiary epoch the earliest date of the existence of man. We shall have
to impugn this somewhat exaggerated opinion, which, indeed, we only
quote here for the sake of proving that the theological scruples which
so long arrested the progress of inquiry with regard to primitive man,
have now disappeared, in consequence of the perfect independence of this
question in relation to catholic dogma being evidently shown.
Thanks to the mutual support which has been afforded by the three
sister-sciences--geology, palæontology, and archæology,--thanks to the
happy combinations which these sciences have presented to the efforts of
men animated with an ardent zeal for the investigation of the
truth;--and thanks, lastly, to the unbounded interest which attaches to
this subject, the result has been that the limits which had been so long
attributed to the existence of the human species have been
extraordinarily extended, and the date of the first appearance of man
has been carried back to the night of the darkest ages. The mind, it may
well be said, recoils dismayed when it undertakes the computation of the
thousands of years which have elapsed since the creation of man.
But, it will naturally be asked, on what grounds do you base this
assertion? What evidence do you bring forward, and what are the elements
of your proof?
In the following paragraphs we give some of the principal means of
examination and study which have directed the efforts of _savants_ in
this class of investigation, and have enabled them to create a science
of the antiquity of the human species.
If man existed at any very remote epoch, he must have left traces of his
presence in the spots which he inhabited and on the soil which he trod
under his feet. However savage his state may be assumed to have been,
primitive man must have possessed some implements of fishing and
hunting--some weapons wherewith to strike down any prey which was
stronger or more agile than himself. All human beings have been in
possession of some scrap of clothing; and they have had at their command
certain implements more or less rough in their character, be they only a
shell in which to draw water or a tool for cleaving wood and
constructing some place of shelter, a knife to cut their food, and a
lump of stone to break the bones of the animals which served for their
nutriment. Never has man existed who was not in possession of some kind
of defensive weapon. These implements and these weapons have been
patiently sought for, and they have also been found. They have been
found in certain strata of the earth, the age of which is known by
geologists; some of these strata precede and others are subsequent to
the cataclysm of the European deluge of the quaternary epoch.
The fact has thus been proved that a race of men lived upon the earth at
the epoch settled by the geological age of these strata--that is, during
the quaternary epoch.
When this class of evidence of man's presence--that is, the vestiges of
his primitive industry--fails us, a state of things, however, which
comparatively seldom occurs, his existence is sometimes revealed by the
presence of human bones buried in the earth and preserved through long
ages by means of the deposits of calcareous salts which have petrified
or rather _fossilised_ them. Sometimes, in fact, the remains of human
bones have been found in quaternary rocks, which are, consequently,
considerably anterior to those of the present geological epoch.
This means of proof is, however, more difficult to bring forward than
the preceding class of evidence; because human bones are very liable to
decay when they are buried at shallow depths, and require for any length
of preservation a concurrence of circumstances which is but rarely met
with; because also the tribes of primitive man often burnt their dead
bodies; and, lastly, because the human race then formed but a very
scanty population.
Another excellent proof, which demonstrates the existence of man at a
geological epoch anterior to the present era, is to be deduced from the
intermixture of human bones with those of antediluvian animals. It is
evident that if we meet with the bones of the mammoth, the cave-bear,
the cave-tiger, &c.,--animals which lived only in the quaternary epoch
and are now extinct--in conjunction with the bones of man or the relics
of his industry, such as weapons, implements, utensils, &c., we can
assert with some degree of certainty that our species was
contemporaneous with the above-named animals. Now this intermixture has
often been met with under the ground in caves, or deeply buried in the
earth.
These form the various kinds of proof which have been made use of to
establish the fact of man's presence upon the earth during the
quaternary epoch. We will now give a brief recital of the principal
investigations which have contributed to the knowledge on which is based
the newly-formed science which treats of the practical starting-point of
mankind.
Palæontology, as a science, does not count more than half a century of
existence. We scarcely seem, indeed, to have raised more than one corner
of the veil which covers the relics of an extinct world; as yet, for
instance, we know absolutely nothing of all that sleeps buried in the
depths of the earth lying under the basin of the sea. It need not,
therefore, afford any great ground for surprise that so long a time
elapsed before human bones or the vestiges of the primitive industry of
man were discovered in the quaternary rocks. This negative result,
however, always constituted the chief objection against the very early
origin of our species.
The errors and deceptions which were at first encountered tended perhaps
to cool down the zeal of the earlier naturalists, and thus retarded the
solution of the problem. It is a well-known story about the fossil
salamander of the Oeningen quarries, which, on the testimony of
Scheuchzer, was styled in 1726, the "human witness of the deluge" (_homo
diluvii testis_). In 1787, Peter Camper recognised the fact that this
pretended _pre-Adamite_ was nothing but a reptile; this discomfiture,
which was a source of amusement to the whole of scientific Europe, was
a real injury to the cause of antediluvian man. By the sovereign
ascendancy of ridicule, his existence was henceforth relegated to the
domain of fable.
The first step in advance was, however, taken in 1774. Some human bones,
mingled with remains of the great bear and other species then unknown,
were discovered by J. F. Esper, in the celebrated cavern of Gailenreuth,
in Bavaria.
Even before this date, in the early part of the eighteenth century,
Kemp, an Englishman, had found in London, by the side of elephants'
teeth, a stone hatchet, similar to those which have been subsequently
found in great numbers in various parts of the world. This hatchet was
roughly sketched, and the design published in 1715. The original still
exists in the collection at the British Museum.
In 1797, John Frere, an English archæologist, discovered at Hoxne, in
Suffolk, under strata of quaternary rocks, some flint weapons,
intermingled with bones of animals belonging to extinct species. Esper
concluded that these weapons and the men who made them were anterior to
the formation of the beds in which they were found.
According to M. Lartet, the honour of having been the first to proclaim
the high antiquity of the human species must be attributed to Aimé Boué,
a French geologist residing in Germany. In 1823, he found in the
quaternary loam (loess) of the Valley of the Rhine some human bones
which he presented to Cuvier and Brongniart as those of men who lived in
the quaternary epoch.
In 1823, Dr. Buckland, the English geologist, published his 'Reliquiæ
Diluvianæ,' a work which was principally devoted to a description of the
Kirkdale Cave, in which the author combined all the facts then known
which tended in favour of the co-existence of man and the antediluvian
animals.
Cuvier, too, was not so indisposed as he is generally said to have been,
to admit the existence of man in the quaternary epoch. In his work on
'Ossements Fossiles,' and his 'Discours sur les Révolutions du Globe,'
the immortal naturalist discusses the pros and cons with regard to this
question, and, notwithstanding the insufficiency of the data which were
then forthcoming, he felt warranted in saying:--
"I am not inclined to conclude that man had no existence at all before
the epoch of the great revolutions of the earth.... He might have
inhabited certain districts of no great extent, whence, after these
terrible events, he repeopled the world; perhaps, also, the spots where
he abode were swallowed up, and his bones lie buried under the beds of
the present seas."
The confident appeals which have been made to Cuvier's authority against
the high antiquity of man are, therefore, not justified by the facts.
A second and more decisive step in advance was taken by the discovery of
shaped flints and other implements belonging to primitive man, existing
in diluvial beds.
In 1826, M. Tournal, of Narbonne, a French archæologist and geologist,
published an account of the discoveries which he had made in a cave in
the department of Aude, in which he found bones of the bison and
reindeer fashioned by the hand of man, accompanied by the remains of
edible shell-fish, which must have been brought there by men who had
made their residence in this cave.
Three years afterwards, M. de Christol, of Montpellier, subsequently
Professor in the University of Science of Grenoble, found human bones
intimately mixed up with remains of the great bear, hyæna, rhinoceros,
&c., in the caverns of Pondres and Souvignargues (Hérault). In the last
of these caverns fragments of pottery formed a part of the relics.
All these striking facts were put together and discussed by Marcel de
Serres, Professor in the University of Science at Montpellier, in his
'Essai sur les Cavernes.'
The two bone-caverns of Engis and Enghihoul (Belgium) have furnished
proofs of the same kind. In 1833, Schmerling, a learned Belgian
geologist, discovered in these caverns two human skulls, mixed with the
teeth of the rhinoceros, elephant, bear, hyæna, &c. The human bones were
rubbed and worn away like those of the animals. The bones of the latter
presented, besides, traces of human workmanship. Lastly, as if no
evidence should be wanting, flints chipped to form knives and
arrow-heads were found in the same spot.
In connection with his laborious investigations, Schmerling published a
work which is now much esteemed, and proves that the Belgian geologist
well merited the title of being the founder of the science of the
antiquity of man. In this work Schmerling describes and represents a
vast quantity of objects which had been discovered in the caverns of
Belgium, and introduced to notice the human skull which has since become
so famous under the name of the _Engis skull_. But at that time
scientific men of all countries were opposed to this class of ideas, and
thus the discoveries of the Belgian geologist attracted no more
attention than those of his French brethren who had brought forward
facts of a similar nature.
In 1835, M. Joly, at that time Professor at the Lyceum of
Montpellier--where I (the author) attended on his course of Natural
History--now Professor in the Faculty of Sciences at Toulouse, found in
the cave of Nabrigas (Lozère) the skull of a cave-bear, on which an
arrow had left its evident traces. Close by was a fragment of pottery
bearing the imprints of the fingers of the man who moulded it.
We may well be surprised that, in the face of all these previous
discoveries, Boucher de Perthes, the ardent apostle in proclaiming the
high antiquity of our species, should have met with so much opposition
and incredulity; or that he should have had to strive against so much
indifference, when, beginning with the year 1836, he began to maintain
this idea in a series of communications addressed to the Société
d'Emulation of Abbeville.
The horizontal strata of the quarternary beds, known under the name of
_diluvial_, form banks of different shades and material, which place
before our eyes in indelible characters the ancient history of our
globe. The organic remains which are found in them are those of beings
who were witnesses to the diluvial cataclysm, and perhaps preceded it by
many ages.
"Therefore," says the prophet of Abbeville, "it is in these ruins of the
old world, and in the deposits which have become his sole archives, that
we must seek out the traditions of primitive man; and in default of
coins and inscriptions we must rely on the rough stones which, in all
their imperfection, prove the existence of man no less surely than all
the glory of a Louvre."
Strong in this conviction, M. Boucher de Perthes devoted himself
ardently to the search in the diluvial beds, either for the bony relics
of man, or, at all events, for the material indications of his primitive
industry. In the year 1838 he had the honour of submitting to the
Société d'Emulation, at Abbeville, his first specimens of the
antediluvian hatchet.
In the course of the year 1839, Boucher de Perthes took these hatchets
to Paris and showed them to several members of the Institute. MM.
Alexandre Brongniart, Flourens, Elie de Beaumont, Cordier, and Jomard,
gave at first some encouragement to researches which promised to be so
fruitful in results; but this favourable feeling was not destined to
last long.
These rough specimens of wrought flint, in which Boucher de Perthes
already recognised a kind of hatchet, presented very indistinct traces
of chipping, and the angles were blunted; their flattened shape, too,
differed from that of the polished hatchets, the only kind that were
then known. It was certainly necessary to see with the eyes of faith in
order to discern the traces of man's work. "I," says the Abbeville
archæologist, "had these 'eyes of faith,' but no one shared them with
me." He then made up his mind to seek for help in his labour, and
trained workmen to dig in the diluvial beds. Before long he was able to
collect, in the quarternary beds at Abbeville, twenty specimens of flint
evidently wrought by the hand of man.
In 1842, the Geological Society of London received a communication from
Mr. Godwin Austen, who had found in Kent's Hole various wrought objects,
accompanied by animal remains, which must have remained there since the
deluge.
In 1844, appeared Lund's observations on the caverns of Brazil.
Lund explored as many as 800 caves. In one of them, situated not far
from the lake of Semidouro, he found the bones of no less than thirty
individuals of the human species, showing a similar state of
decomposition to that of the bones of animals which were along with
them. Among these animals were an ape, various carnivora, rodents,
pachyderms, sloths, &c. From these facts, Lund inferred that man must
have been contemporaneous with the megatherium, the mylodon, &c.,
animals which characterised the quarternary epoch.
Nevertheless, M. Desnoyers, librarian of the Museum of Natural History
at Paris, in a very learned article on 'Grottos and Caverns,' published
in 1845 in the 'Dictionnaire Universel d'Histoire Naturelle,' still
energetically expressed himself in opposition to the hypothesis of the
high antiquity of man. But the discoveries continued to go on; and, at
the present time, M. Desnoyers himself figures among the partisans of
the antediluvian man. He has even gone beyond their opinions, as he
forms one among those who would carry back to the tertiary epoch the
earliest date of the appearance of our species.
In 1847, M'Enery found in Kent's Hole, a cavern in England, under a
layer of stalagmite, the remains of men and antediluvian animals mingled
together.
The year 1847 was also marked by the appearance of the first volume of
the 'Antiquités Celtiques et Antédiluviennes,' by Boucher de Perthes;
this contained about 1600 plates of the objects which had been
discovered in the excavations which the author had caused to be made
since the year 1836.
The strata at Abbeville, where Boucher de Perthes carried out his
researches, belong to the quaternary epoch.
Dr. Rigollot, who had been for ten years one of the most decided
opponents of the opinions of Boucher de Perthes, actually himself
discovered in 1854 some wrought flints in the quaternary deposits at
Saint Acheul, near Amiens, and it was not long before he took his stand
under the banner of the Abbeville archæologist.
The _fauna_ of the Amiens deposits is similar to that of the Abbeville
beds. The lower deposits of gravel, in which the wrought flints are met
with, have been formed by fresh water, and have not undergone either
alteration or disturbance. The flints wrought by the hand of man which
have been found in them, have in all probability lain there since the
epoch of the formation of these deposits--an epoch a little later than
the diluvial period. The number of wrought flints which have been taken
out of the Abbeville beds is really immense. At Menchecourt, in twenty
years, about 100 well-characterised hatchets have been collected; at
Saint Gilles twenty very rough, and as many well-made ones; at
Moulin-Quignon 150 to 200 well-formed hatchets.
Similar relics of primitive industry have been found also in other
localities. In 1853, M. Noulet discovered some in the Infernat Valley
(Haute-Garonne); in 1858, the English geologists, Messrs. Prestwich,
Falconer, Pengelly, &c., also found some in the lower strata of the
Baumann cavern in the Hartz.
To the English geologists whose names we have just mentioned must be
attributed the merit of having been the first to bring before the
scientific world the due value of the labours of Boucher de Perthes, who
had as yet been unsuccessful in obtaining any acceptation of his ideas
in France. Dr. Falconer, Vice-president of the Geological Society in
London, visited the department of the Somme, in order to study the beds
and the objects found in them. After him, Messrs. Prestwich and Evans
came three times to Abbeville in the year 1859. They all brought back to
England a full conviction of the antiquity and intact state of the beds
explored, and also of the existence of man before the deluge of the
quaternary epoch.
In another journey, made in company with Messrs. Flower, Mylne, and
Godwin Austen, Messrs. Prestwich, Falconer, and Evans were present at
the digging out of human bones and flint hatchets from the quarries of
St. Acheul. Lastly, Sir C. Lyell visited the spot, and the English
geologist, who, up to that time, had opposed the idea of the existence
of antediluvian man, was able to say, _Veni, vidi, victus fui!_ At the
meeting of the British Association, at Aberdeen, September the 15th,
1855, Sir C. Lyell declared himself to be in favour of the existence of
quaternary man; and this declaration, made by the President of the
Geological Society of London, added considerable weight to the new
ideas.
M. Hébert, Professor of Geology at the Sorbonne, next took his stand
under the same banner.
M. Albert Gaudry, another French geologist, made a statement to the
Academy of Sciences, that he, too, had found flint hatchets, together
with the teeth of horses and fossil oxen, in the beds of the Parisian
_diluvium_.
During the same year, M. Gosse, the younger, explored the sand-pits of
Grenelle and the avenue of La Mothe-Piquet in Paris, and obtained from
them various flint implements, mingled with the bones of the mammoth,
fossil ox, &c.
Facts of a similar character were established at Précy-sur-Oise, and in
the diluvial deposits at Givry.
The Marquis de Vibraye, also, found in the cave of Arcy, various human
bones, especially a piece of a jaw-bone, mixed with the bones of animals
of extinct species.
In 1859, M. A. Fontan found in the cave of Massat (department of
Ariége), not only utensils testifying to the former presence of man, but
also human teeth mixed up with the remains of the great bear (_Ursus
spelæus_), the fossil hyæna (_Hyæna spelæa_), and the cave-lion (_Felis
spelæa_).
In 1861, M. A. Milne Edwards found in the cave of Lourdes (Tarn),
certain relics of human industry by the side of the bones of fossil
animals.
The valleys of the Oise and the Seine have also added their contingent
to the supply of antediluvian remains. In the sand-pits in the environs
of Paris, at Grenelle, Levallois-Perret, and Neuilly, several
naturalists, including MM. Gosse, Martin, and Reboux, found numerous
flint implements, associated, in certain cases, with the bones of the
elephant and hippopotamus. In the valley of the Oise, at Précy, near
Creil, MM. Peigné Delacour and Robert likewise collected a few hatchets.
Lastly, a considerable number of French departments, especially those of
the north and centre, have been successfully explored. We may mention
the departments of Pas-de-Calais, Aisne, Loire-et-Cher, Indre-et-Loire,
Vienne, Allier, Yonne, Saône-et-Loire, Hérault, Tarn-et-Garonne, &c.
In England, too, discoveries were made of an equally valuable character.
The movement which was commenced in France by Boucher de Perthes, spread
in England with remarkable rapidity. In many directions excavations were
made which produced excellent results.
In the gravel beds which lie near Bedford, Mr. Wyatt met with flints
resembling the principal types of those of Amiens and Abbeville; they
were found in company with the remains of the mammoth, rhinoceros,
hippopotamus, ox, horse, and deer. Similar discoveries were made in
Suffolk, Kent, Hertfordshire, Hampshire, Wiltshire, &c.
Some time after his return from Abbeville, Mr. Evans, going round the
museum of the Society of Antiquaries in London, found in their rooms
some specimens exactly similar to those in the collection of Boucher de
Perthes. On making inquiries as to their origin, he found that they had
been obtained from the gravel at Hoxne by Mr. Frere, who had collected
them there, together with the bones of extinct animals, all of which he
had presented to the museum, after having given a description of them in
the 'Archæologia' of 1800, with this remark: ... "Fabricated and used by
a people who had not the use of metals.... The situation in which these
weapons were found may tempt us to refer them to a very remote period
indeed, even beyond that of the present world."
Thus, even at the commencement of the present century, they were in
possession, in England, of proofs of the co-existence of man with the
great extinct pachyderms; but, owing to neglect of the subject, scarcely
any attention had been paid to them.
We now come to the most remarkable and most characteristic discoveries
of this class which have ever been made. We allude to the explorations
made by M. Édouard Lartet, during the year 1860, in the curious
pre-historic human burial-place at Aurignac (Haute-Garonne).
Going down the hill on the road leading from Aurignac, after proceeding
about a mile, we come to the point where, on the other side of the dale,
the ridge of the hill called _Fajoles_ rises, not more than 65 feet
above a rivulet. We then may notice, on the northern slope of this
eminence, an escarpment of the rock, by the side of which there is a
kind of niche about six feet deep, the arched opening of it facing
towards the north-west. This little cave is situated forty-two feet
above the rivulet. Below, the calcareous soil slopes down towards the
stream.
The discovery of this hollow, which is now cleared out, was made
entirely by chance. It was hidden by a mass of _débris_ of rock and
vegetable-earth which had crumbled down; it had, in fact, only been
known as a rabbits' hole. In 1842, an excavating labourer, named
Bonnemaison, took it into his head one day to thrust his arm into this
hole, and out of it he drew forth a large bone. Being rather curious to
search into the mystery, he made an excavation in the slope below the
hole, and, after some hours' labour, came upon a slab of sandstone which
closed up an arched opening. Behind the slab of stone, he discovered a
hollow in which a quantity of human bones were stored up.
It was not long before the news of this discovery was spread far and
wide. Crowds of curious visitors flocked to the spot, and many
endeavoured to explain the origin of these human remains, the immense
antiquity of which was attested by their excessive fragility. The old
inhabitants of the locality took it into their heads to recall to
recollection a band of coiners and robbers who, half a century before,
had infested the country. This decidedly popular inquest and decision
was judged perfectly satisfactory, and everyone agreed in declaring that
the cavern which had just been brought to light was nothing but the
retreat of these malefactors, who concealed all the traces of their
crimes by hiding the bodies of their victims in this cave, which was
known to these criminals only.
Doctor Amiel, Mayor of Aurignac, caused all these bones to be collected
together, and they were buried in the parish cemetery. Nevertheless,
before the re-inhumation was proceeded with, he recorded the fact that
the skeletons were those of seventeen individuals of both sexes. In
addition to these skeletons, there were also found in the cave a number
of little discs, or flat rings, formed of the shell of a species of
cockle (_cardium_). Flat rings altogether similar to these are not at
all unfrequent in the necklaces and other ornanments of Assyrian
antiquity found in Nineveh.
Eighteen years after this event, that is in 1860, M. Édouard Lartet paid
a visit to Aurignac. All the details of the above-named discovery were
related to him. After the long interval which had elapsed, no one, not
even the grave-digger himself, could recollect the precise spot where
these human remains had been buried in the village cemetery. These
precious relics were therefore lost to science.
M. Lartet resolved, however, to set on foot some excavations in the cave
from which they had been taken, and he soon found himself in possession
of unhoped-for treasures. The floor of the cavern itself had remained
intact, and was covered with a layer of "made ground" mixed with
fragments of stone. Outside this same cave M. Lartet discovered a bed of
ashes and charcoal, which, however, did not extend to the interior. This
bed was covered with "made ground" of an ossiferous and vegetable
character. Inside the cave, the ground contained bones of the bear, the
fox, the reindeer, the bison, the horse, &c., all intermingled with
numerous relics of human industry, such as implements made of stag or
reindeer's-horn, carefully pointed at one end and bevelled off at the
other--a pierced handle of reindeer's-horn--flint knives and weapons of
different kinds; lastly, a canine-tooth of a bear, roughly carved in the
shape of a bird's head and pierced with a hole, &c.
The excavations, having been carried to a lower level, brought to light
the remains of the bear, the wild-cat, the cave-hyæna, the wolf, the
mammoth, the horse, the stag, the reindeer, the ox, the rhinoceros, &c.,
&c. It was, in fact, a complete Noah's ark. These bones were all broken
lengthwise, and some of them were carbonised. _Striæ_ and notches were
found on them, which could only have been made by cutting instruments.
M. Lartet, after long and patient investigations, came to the conclusion
that the cave of Aurignac was a human burial-place, contemporary with
the mammoth, the _Rhinocerus tichorhinus_, and other great mammals of
the quarternary epoch.
The mode in which the long bones were broken shows that they had been
cracked with a view of extracting the marrow; and the notches on them
prove that the flesh had been cut off them with sharp instruments. The
ashes point to the existence of a fire, in which some of these bones had
been burnt. Men must have resorted to this cavern in order to fulfil
certain funereal rites. The weapons and animals' bones must have been
deposited there in virtue of some funereal dedication, of which numerous
instances are found in Druidical or Celtic monuments and in Gallic
tombs.
Such are the valuable discoveries, and such the new facts which were the
result of the investigations made by M. Édouard Lartet in the cave of
Aurignac. In point of fact, they left no doubt whatever as to the
co-existence of man with the great antediluvian animals.
In 1862, Doctor Felix Garrigou, of Tarrascon, a distinguished geologist,
published the results of the researches which he, in conjunction with
MM. Rames and Filhol, had made in the caverns of Ariége. These explorers
found the lower jaw-bones of the great bear, which, with their sharp and
projecting canine-tooth, had been employed by man as an offensive
weapon, almost in the same way as Samson used the jaw-bone of an ass in
fighting with the Philistines.
"It was principally," says M. Garrigou, "in the caves of Lombrives,
Lherm, Bouicheta, and Maz-d'Azil that we found the jaw-bones of the
great bear and the cave-lion, which were acknowledged to have been
wrought by the hand of man, not only by us, but also by the numerous
French and English _savants_ who examined them and asked for some of
them to place in their collections. The number of these jaw-bones now
reaches to more than a hundred. Furnished, as they are, with an immense
canine-tooth, and carved so as to give greater facility for grasping
them, they must have formed, when in a fresh state, formidable weapons
in the hands of primitive man....
"These animals belong to species which are now extinct, and if their
bones while still in a fresh state (since they were gnawed by hyænas)
were used as weapons, man must have been contemporary with them."
In the cave of Bruniquel (Tarn-et-Garonne), which was visited in 1862 by
MM. Garrigou and Filhol, and other _savants_, there were found, under a
very hard osseous _breccia_, an ancient fire-hearth with ashes and
charcoal, the broken and calcined bones of ruminants of various extinct
species, flint flakes used as knives, facetted nuclei, and both
triangular and quadrangular arrow-heads of great distinctness, utensils
in stags' horn and bone--in short, everything which could prove the
former presence of primitive man.
About three-quarters of a mile below the cave there was subsequently
found, at a depth of about twenty feet, an osseous _breccia_ similar to
the first, and likewise containing broken bones and a series of ancient
fire-hearths filled with ashes and objects of antediluvian industry.
Bones, teeth, and flints were to be collected in bushels.
At the commencement of 1863, M. Garrigou presented to the Geological
Society of France the objects which had been found in the caves of Lherm
and Bouicheta, and the Abbé Bourgeois published some remarks on the
wrought flints from the _diluvium_ of Pont-levoy.
This, therefore, was the position of the question in respect to fossil
man, when in 1863, the scientific world were made acquainted with the
fact of the discovery of a human jaw-bone in the diluvial beds of
Moulin-Quignon, near Abbeville. We will relate the circumstances
attending this memorable discovery.
On the 23rd of March, 1863, an excavator who was working in the
sand-quarries at Moulin-Quignon brought to Boucher de Perthes at
Abbeville, a flint hatchet and a small fragment of bone which he had
just picked up. Having cleaned off the earthy coat which covered it,
Boucher de Perthes recognised this bone to be a human molar. He
immediately visited the spot, and assured himself that the locality
where these objects had been found was an argilo-ferruginous vein,
impregnated with some colouring matter which appeared to contain
organic remains. This layer formed a portion of a _virgin_ bed, as it is
called by geologists, that is, without any infiltration or secondary
introduction.
On the 28th of March another excavator brought to Boucher de Perthes a
second human tooth, remarking at the same time, "that something
resembling a bone was just then to be seen in the sand." Boucher de
Perthes immediately repaired to the spot, and in the presence of MM.
Dimpré the elder and younger, and several members of the Abbeville
_Société d'Emulation_, he personally extracted from the soil the half of
a human lower jaw-bone, covered with an earthy crust. A few inches from
this, a flint hatchet was discovered, covered with the same black patina
as the jaw-bone. The level where it was found was about fifteen feet
below the surface of the ground.
After this event was duly announced, a considerable number of geologists
flocked to Abbeville, about the middle of the month of April. The Abbé
Bourgeois, MM. Brady-Buteux, Carpenter, Falconer, &c., came one after
the other, to verify the locality from which the human jaw-bone had been
extracted. All were fully convinced of the intact state of the bed and
the high antiquity of the bone which had been found.
Boucher de Perthes also discovered in the same bed of gravel two
mammoth's teeth, and a certain number of wrought hatchets. Finally, he
found among the bones which had been taken from the Menchecourt quarries
in the early part of April, a fragment of another jaw-bone and six
separate teeth, which were recognised by Dr. Falconer to be also human.
The jaw-bone found at Moulin-Quignon is very well preserved. It is
rather small in size, and appears to have belonged to an aged individual
of small stature. It does not possess that ferocious aspect which is
noticed in the jaw-bones of certain of the existing human races. The
obliquity of the molar-tooth may be explained by supposing some
accident, for the molar which stood next had fallen out during the
lifetime of the individual, leaving a gap which favoured the obliquity
of the tooth which remained in the jaw. This peculiarity is found also
in several of the human heads in the collection of the Museum of Natural
History in Paris.
[Illustration: Fig. 1.--Human Jaw-bone found at Moulin-Quignon, near
Abbeville, in 1863.]
The jaw-bone of the man of Moulin-Quignon, which is represented here
(fig. 1) in its natural size, and drawn from the object itself, which is
preserved in the Anthropological Gallery of the Museum of Natural
History of Paris, does not show any decided points of difference when
compared with those of individuals of existing races.
The same conclusion was arrived at as the result of the comparative
examination which was made of the jaw-bones found by MM. Lartet and De
Vibraye in the caves of Aurignac and Arcy; the latter remains were
studied by M. Quatrefages in conjunction with Pruner-Bey, formerly
physician to the Viceroy of Egypt, and one of the most distinguished
French anthropologists.
On the 20th of April, 1863, M. de Quatrefages announced to the institute
the discovery which had been made by Boucher de Perthes, and he
presented to the above-named learned body the interesting object itself,
which had been sent from Abbeville.
When the news of this discovery arrived in England it produced no slight
sensation.
Some of the English _savants_ who had more specially devoted their
attention to the study of this question, such as Messrs. Christy,
Falconer, Carpenter, and Busk, went over to France, and in conjunction
with Boucher de Perthes and several members of the Académie des Sciences
of Paris, examined the exact locality in which the hatchets and the
human jaw-bone had been found; they unanimously agreed in recognising
the correctness of the conclusions arrived at by the indefatigable
geologist of Abbeville.[5]
This discovery of the hatchets and the human jaw-bone in the quaternary
beds of Moulin-Quignon completed the demonstration of an idea already
supported by an important mass of evidence. Setting aside its own
special value, this discovery, added to so many others, could not fail
to carry conviction into most minds. From this time forth the doctrine
of the high antiquity of the human race became an acknowledged idea in
the scientific world.
Before closing our historical sketch, we shall have to ask, what was the
precise geological epoch to which we shall have to carry back the date
of man's first appearance on this our earth.
The beds which are anterior to the present period, the series of which
forms the solid crust of our globe, have been divided, as is well known,
into five groups, corresponding to the same number of periods of the
physical development of the earth. These are in their order of age: the
_primitive rocks_, the _transition rocks_, the _secondary rocks_, the
_tertiary_ and _quaternary rocks_. Each of these epochs must have
embraced an immense lapse of time, since it has radically exhausted the
generation both of animals and plants which was peculiar to it. Some
idea may be formed of the extreme slowness with which organic creatures
modify their character, when we take into consideration that our
contemporary _fauna_, that is to say, the collection of animals of every
country which belong to the geological period in which we exist, has
undergone little, if any, alteration during the thousands of years that
it has been in being.
Is it possible for us to date the appearance of the human race in those
prodigiously-remote epochs which correspond with the primitive, the
transition, or the secondary rocks? Evidently no! Is it possible,
indeed, to fix this date in the epoch of the tertiary rocks? Some
geologists have fancied that they could find traces of the presence of
man in these tertiary rocks (the miocene and pliocene). But this is an
opinion in which we, at least, cannot make up our minds to agree.
In 1863, M. Desnoyers found in the upper strata of the tertiary beds
(pliocene) at Saint-Prest, in the department of Eure, certain bones
belonging to various extinct animal species; among others those of an
elephant (_Elephas meridionalis_), an animal which did not form a part
of the quaternary _fauna_. On most of these bones he ascertained the
existence of cuts, or notches, which, in his opinion, must have been
produced by flint implements. These indications, according to M.
Desnoyers, are signs of the existence of man in the tertiary epoch.
This opinion, however, Sir Charles Lyell hesitates to accept. Moreover,
we could hardly depend upon an accident so insignificant as that of a
few cuts or notches made upon a bone, in order to establish a fact so
important as that of the high antiquity of man. We must also state that
it is a matter of question whether the beds which contained these
notched bones really belong to the tertiary group.
The beds which correspond to the quaternary epoch are, therefore, those
in which we find unexceptionable evidence of the existence of man.
Consequently, in the quaternary epoch which preceded the existing
geological period, we must place the date of the first appearance of
mankind upon the earth.
If the purpose is entertained of discussing, with any degree of
certainty, the history of the earliest days of the human race--a subject
which as yet is a difficult one--it is requisite that the long interval
should be divided into a certain number of periods. The science of
primitive man is one so recently entered upon, that those authors who
have written upon the point can hardly be said to have properly
discussed and agreed upon a rational scheme of classification. We shall,
in this work, adopt the classification proposed by M. Édouard Lartet,
which, too, has been adopted in that portion of the museum of
Saint-Germain which is devoted to pre-historic antiquities. Following
this course, we shall divide the history of primitive mankind into two
great periods:
1st. The Stone Age;
2nd. The Metal Age.
These two principal periods must also be subdivided in the following
mode. The "Stone Age" will embrace three epochs:
1st. The epoch of extinct animals (or of the great cave-bear and the
mammoth).
2nd. The epoch of migrated existing animals (or the reindeer epoch).
3rd. The epoch of domesticated existing animals (or the polished-stone
epoch).
The "Metal Age" may also be divided into two periods:
1st. The Bronze Epoch;
2nd. The Iron Epoch.
The following synoptical table will perhaps bring more clearly before
the eyes of our readers this mode of classification, which has, at
least, the merit of enabling us to make a clear and simple statement of
the very incongruous facts which make up the history of primitive man:
{ 1st. Epoch of extinct animals (or of the great bear
{ and mammoth).
THE STONE AGE. { 2nd. Epoch of migrated existing animals (or the
{ reindeer epoch).
{ 3rd. Epoch of domesticated existing animals (or the
{ polished-stone epoch).
THE METAL AGE. { 1st. The Bronze Epoch.
{ 2nd. The Iron Epoch.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] 'Nouvelles Recherches sur la Coexistence de l'Homme et des grands
Mammifères Fossiles réputés charactéristiques de la dernière période
Géologique,' by Éd. Lartet, 'Annales des Sciences Naturelles,' 4th ser.
vol. xv. p. 256.
[2] 1 vol. 8vo., Paris, 1869; V. Palme.
[3] 2 vols. 12mo., 3rd edit., Paris, 1859; Lagny frères.
[4] Pamphlet, 8vo., Paris, 1869; Savy.
[5] It should rather have been said, that the ultimate and
well-considered judgment of the English geologists was against the
authenticity of the Moulin-Quignon jaw.--See Dr. Falconer's
'Palæontological Memoirs,' vol. ii. p. 610; and Sir C. Lyell's
'Antiquity of Man,' 3rd ed. p. 515. (Note to Eng. Trans.)
THE STONE AGE.
I.
THE EPOCH OF EXTINCT SPECIES OF ANIMALS; OR, OF
THE GREAT BEAR AND MAMMOTH.
CHAPTER I.
The earliest Men--The type of Man in the Epoch of Animals of
extinct Species--Origin of Man--Refutation of the Theory which
derives the Human Species from the Ape.
Man must have lived during the time in which the last representatives of
the ancient animal creation--the mammoth, the great bear, the
cave-hyæna, the _Rhinoceros tichorinus_, &c.--were still in existence.
It is this earliest period of man's history which we are now about to
enter upon.
We have no knowledge of a precise nature with regard to man at the
period of his first appearance on the globe. How did he appear upon the
earth, and in what spot can we mark out the earliest traces of him? Did
he first come into being in that part of the world which we now call
Europe, or is it the fact that he made his way to this quarter of our
hemisphere, having first seen the light on the great plateaux of Central
Asia?
This latter opinion is the one generally accepted. In the work which
will follow the present volume we shall see, when speaking of the
various races of man, that the majority of naturalists admit nowadays
one common centre of creation for all mankind. Man, no doubt, first came
into being on the great plateaux of Central Asia, and thence was
distributed over all the various habitable portions of our globe. The
action of climate and the influences of the locality which he inhabited
have, therefore, determined the formation of the different races--white,
black, yellow, and red--which now exist with all their infinite
subdivisions.
But there is another question which arises, to which it is necessary to
give an immediate answer, for it has been and is incessantly agitated
with a degree of vehemence which may be explained by the nature of the
discussion being of so profoundly personal a character as regards all of
us: Was man created by God complete in all parts, and is the human type
independent of the type of the animals which existed before him? Or, on
the contrary, are we compelled to admit that man, by insensible
transformations, and gradual improvements and developments, is derived
from some other animal species, and particularly that of the ape?
This latter opinion was maintained at the commencement of the present
century by the French naturalist, de Lamarck, who laid down his views
very plainly in his work entitled 'Philosophie Zoologique.' The same
theory has again been taken up in our own time, and has been developed,
with no small supply of facts on which it might appear to be based, by a
number of scientific men, among whom we may mention Professor Carl Vogt
in Switzerland, and Professor Huxley in England.
We strongly repudiate any doctrine of this kind. In endeavouring to
establish the fact that man is nothing more than a developed and
improved ape, an orang-outang or a gorilla, somewhat elevated in
dignity, the arguments are confined to an appeal to anatomical
considerations. The skull of the ape is compared with that of primitive
man, and certain characteristics of analogy, more or less real, being
found to exist between the two bony cases, the conclusion has been
arrived at that there has been a gradual blending between the type of
the ape and that of man.
We may observe, in the first place, that these analogies have been very
much exaggerated, and that they fail to stand their ground in the face
of a thorough examination of the facts. Only look at the skulls which
have been found in the tombs belonging to the stone age, the so-called
_Borreby skull_ for instance--examine the human jaw-bone from
Moulin-Quignon, the Meilen skull, &c., and you will be surprised to see
that they differ very little in appearance from the skulls of existing
man. One would really imagine, from what is said by the partisans of
Lamarck's theory, that primitive man possessed the projecting jaw of the
ape, or at least that of the negro. We are astonished, therefore, when
we ascertain that, on the contrary, the skull of the man of the stone
age is almost entirely similar in appearance to those of the existing
Caucasian species. Special study is, indeed, required in order to
distinguish one from the other.
If we place side by side the skull of a man belonging to the Stone Age,
and the skulls of the principal apes of large size, these
dissimilarities cannot fail to be obvious. No other elements of
comparison, beyond merely looking at them, seem to be requisite to
enable us to refute the doctrine of this debased origin of mankind.
The figure annexed represents the skull of a man belonging to the stone
age, found in Denmark; to this skull, which is known by the name of the
Borreby skull, we shall have to allude again in the course of the
present work; fig. 3 represents the skull of a gorilla; fig. 4 that of
an orang-outang; fig. 5 that of the _Cynocephalus_ ape; fig. 6 that of
the _Macacus_. Place the representation of the skull found in Denmark in
juxtaposition with these ill-favoured animal masks, and then let the
reader draw his own inference, without pre-occupying his mind with the
allegations of certain anatomists imbued with contrary ideas.
[Illustration: Fig. 2.--Skull of a Man belonging to the Stone Age (the
_Borreby Skull_).]
[Illustration: Fig. 3.--Skull of the Gorilla.]
[Illustration: Fig. 4.--Skull of the Orang-Outang.]
[Illustration: Fig. 5.--Skull of the Cynocephalus Ape.]
[Illustration: Fig. 6.--Skull of the _Macacus_ Baboon.]
Finding themselves beaten as regards the skulls, the advocates of
transmutation next appeal to the bones. With this aim, they exhibit to
us certain similarities of arrangement existing between the skeleton of
the ape and that of primitive man. Such, for instance, is the
longitudinal ridge which exists on the thigh-bone, which is as prominent
in primitive man as in the ape. Such, also, is the fibula, which is very
stout in primitive man, just as in the ape, but is rather slender in the
man of the present period.
When we are fully aware how the form of the skeleton is modified by the
kind of life which is led, in men just as in animals, we cannot be
astonished at finding that certain organs assume a much higher
development in those individuals who put them to frequent and violent
use, than in others who leave these same organs in a state of
comparative repose.
If it be a fact that the man of the epoch of the great bear and the
mammoth had a more robust leg, and a more largely developed thigh-bone
than most of the races of existing man, the reason simply is, that his
savage life, which was spent in the midst of the wild beasts of the
forest, compelled him to make violent exertions, which increased the
size of these portions of his body.
Thus it is found that great walkers have a bulky calf, and persons
leading a sedentary life have slender legs. These variations in the
structure of the skeleton are owing, therefore, to nothing but a
difference in the mode of life.
Why is it, however, that the skeleton is the only point taken into
consideration when analogies are sought for between man and any species
of animal? If equal investigation were given to other organs, we should
arrive at a conclusion which would prove how unreasonable comparisons of
this kind are. In fact, if man possesses the osseous structure of the
ape, he has also the anatomical structure of many other animals, as far
as regards several organs. Are not the viscera of the digestive system
the same, and are they not organised on the same plan in man as in the
carnivorous animals? As the result of this, would you say that man is
derived from the tiger, that he is nothing but an improved and developed
lion, a cat transmuted into a man? We may, however, just as plausibly
draw this inference, unless we content ourselves with devoting our
attention to the skeleton alone, which seems, indeed, to be the only
part of the individual in which we are to interest ourselves, for what
reason we know not.
But, in point of fact, this kind of anatomy is pitiable. Is there
nothing in man but bones? Do the skeleton and the viscera make up the
entire sum of the human being? What will you say, then, ye blind
rhetoricians, about the faculty of intelligence as manifested in the
gift of speech? Intelligence and speech, these are really the attributes
which constitute man; these are the qualities which make him the most
complete being in creation, and the most privileged of God's creatures.
Show me an ape who can speak, and then I will agree with you in
recognising it as a fact that man is nothing but an improved ape! Show
me an ape who can make flint hatchets and arrow-heads, who can light a
fire and cook his food, who, in short, can act like an intelligent
creature--then, and then only, I am ready to confess that I am nothing
more than an orang-outang revised and corrected.
It is not, however, our desire to speak of a question which has been the
subject of so much controversy as that of the anatomical resemblance
between the ape and the man without thoroughly entering into it; we
have, indeed, no wish to shun the discussion of the point. On the
present occasion, we shall appeal to the opinion of a _savant_ perfectly
qualified in such matters; we allude to M. de Quatrefages, Professor of
Anthropology in the Museum of Natural History at Paris.
M. de Quatrefages, in his work entitled 'Rapport sur le Progrès de
l'Anthropologie,' published in 1868, has entered rather fully into the
question whether man is descended from the ape or not. He has summed up
the contents of a multitude of contemporary works on this subject, and
has laid down his opinion--the perfect impossibility, in an anatomical
point of view, of this strange and repugnant genealogy.
The following extract from his work will be sufficient to make our
readers acquainted with the ideas of the learned Professor of
Anthropology with regard to the question which we are now considering:
"Man and apes in general," says M. de Quatrefages, "present a most
striking contrast--a contrast on which Vicq-d'Azyr, Lawrence, and M.
Serres have dwelt in detail for some considerable time past. The former
is a _walking animal_, who walks upon his hind legs; all apes are
_climbing animals_. The whole of the locomotive system in the two groups
bears the stamp of these two very different intentions; the two types,
in fact, are perfectly distinct.
"The very remarkable works of Duvernoy on the 'Gorilla,' and of MM.
Gratiolet and Alix on the 'Chimpanzee,' have fully confirmed this result
as regards the anthropomorphous apes--a result very important, from
whatever point of view it is looked at, but of still greater value to
any one who wishes to apply _logically_ Darwin's idea. These recent
investigations prove, in fact, that the ape type, however highly it may
be developed, loses nothing of its fundamental character, and remains
always perfectly distinct from the type of man; the latter, therefore,
cannot have taken its rise from the former.
"Darwin's doctrine, when rationally adapted to the fact of the
appearance of man, would lead us to the following results:
"We are acquainted with a large number of terms in the Simian series. We
see it branching out into secondary series all leading up to
anthropomorphous apes, which are not members of one and the same family,
but corresponding superior _terms_ of three distinct families
(Gratiolet). In spite of the secondary modifications involved by the
developments of the same natural qualities, the orang, the gorilla, and
the chimpanzee remain none the less fundamentally mere _apes_ and
_climbers_ (Duvernoy, Gratiolet, and Alix). Man, consequently, in whom
everything shows that he is a _walker_, cannot belong to any one of
these series; he can only be the higher term of a distinct series, the
other representatives of which have disappeared, or, up to the present
time, have evaded our search. Man and the anthropomorphous apes are the
final terms of two series, which commence to diverge at the very latest
as soon as the lowest of the apes appear upon the earth.
"This is really the way in which a true disciple of Darwin must reason,
even if he solely took into account the _external morphological
characteristics_ and the _anatomical characteristics_ which are the
expression of the former in the adult animal.
"Will it be said that when the degree of organisation manifested in the
anthropomorphous apes had been once arrived at, the organism underwent a
new impulse and became adapted for walking? This would be, in fact,
adding a fresh hypothesis, and its promoters would not be in a position
to appeal to the organised gradation presented by the quadrumanous order
as a whole on which stress is laid as leading to the conclusion against
which I am contending: they would be completely outside _Darwin's
theory_, on which these opinions claim to be based.
"Without going beyond these purely morphological considerations, we may
place, side by side, for the sake of comparison, as was done by M.
Pruner-Bey, the most striking general characteristics in man and in the
anthropomorphous apes. As the result, we ascertain this general
fact--that there exists 'an _inverse order_ of the final term of
development in the sensitive and vegetative apparatus, in the systems of
locomotion and reproduction' (Pruner-Bey).
"In addition to this, this _inverse order_ is equally exhibited in the
series of phenomena of individual development.
"M. Pruner-Bey has shown that this is the case with a portion of the
permanent teeth. M. Welker, in his curious studies of the sphenoïdal
angle of Virchow, arrived at a similar result. He demonstrated that the
modifications of the base of the skull, that is, of a portion of the
skeleton which stands in the most intimate relation to the brain, take
place inversely in the man and ape. This angle diminishes from his birth
in man, but, on the contrary, in the ape it becomes more and more
obtuse, so as sometimes to become entirely extinct.
"But there is also another fact which is of a still more important
character: it is that this inverse course of development has been
ascertained to exist even in the brain itself. This fact, which was
pointed out by Gratiolet, and dwelt upon by him on various occasions,
has never been contested either at the _Société d'Anthropologie_ or
elsewhere, and possesses an importance and significance which may be
readily comprehended.
"In man and the anthropomorphous ape, _when in an adult state_, there
exists in the mode of arrangement of the cerebral folds a certain
similarity on which much stress has been laid; but this resemblance has
been, to some extent, a source of error, for the result is attained by
an _inverse course of action_. In the ape, the temporo-sphenoïdal
convolutions, which form the middle lobe, make their appearance, and are
completed, before the anterior convolutions which form the frontal lobe.
In man, on the contrary, the frontal convolutions are the first to
appear, and those of the middle lobe are subsequently developed.
"It is evident that when two organised beings follow an inverse course
in their growth, the more highly developed of the two cannot have
descended from the other by means of evolution.
"Embryology next adds its evidence to that of anatomy and morphology, to
show how much in error they are who have fancied that Darwin's ideas
would afford them the means of maintaining the simial origin of man.
"In the face of all these facts, it may be easily understood that
anthropologists, however little in harmony they may sometimes be on
other points, are agreed on this, and have equally been led to the
conclusion that there is nothing that permits us to look at the brain of
the ape as the brain of man smitten with an arrest of development, or,
on the other hand, the brain of man as a development of that of the ape
(Gratiolet); that the study of animal organism in general, and that of
the extremities in particular, reveals, in addition to a general plan,
certain differences in shape and arrangement which specify two
altogether special and distinct adaptations, and are incompatible with
the idea of any filiation (Gratiolet and Alix); that in their course of
improvement and development, apes do not tend to become allied to man,
and conversely the human type, when in a course of degradation, does not
tend to become allied to the ape (Bert); finally, that no possible point
of transition can exist between man and the ape, unless under the
condition of inverting the laws of development (Pruner-Bey), &c.
"What, we may ask, is brought forward by the partisans of the simial
origin of man in opposition to these general facts, which here I must
confine myself to merely pointing out, and to the multitude of details
of which these are only the abstract?
"I have done my best to seek out the proofs alleged, but I everywhere
meet with nothing but the same kind of argument--exaggerations of
morphological similarities which no one denies; inferences drawn from a
few exceptional facts which are then generalised upon, or from a few
coincidences in which the relations of cause and effect are a matter of
supposition; lastly, an appeal to _possibilities_ from which conclusions
of a more or less affirmative character are drawn.
"We will quote a few instances of this mode of reasoning.
"1st. The bony portion of the hand of man and of that of certain
anthropomorphous apes present marked similarities. Would it not
therefore have been possible for an almost imperceptible modification to
have ultimately led to identity?
"MM. Gratiolet and Alix reply to this in the negative; for the muscular
system of the thumb establishes a profound difference, and testifies to
an _adaptation_ to very different uses.
"2nd. It is only in man and the anthropomorphous apes that the
articulation of the shoulder is so arranged as to allow of rotatory
movements. Have we not here an unmistakable resemblance?
"The above-named anatomists again reply in the negative; for even if we
only take the bones into account, we at once see that the movements
could not be the same; but when we come to the muscular system, we find
decisive differences again testifying to certain special _adaptations_.
"These rejoinders are correct, for when _locomotion_ is the matter in
question, it is evident that due consideration must be paid to the
muscles, which are the active agents in that function at least as much
as the bones, which only serve as points of attachment and are only
passive.
"3rd. In some of the races of man, the arch of the skull, instead of
presenting a uniform curve in the transverse direction, bends a little
towards the top of the two sides, and rises towards the median line (New
Caledonians, Australians, &c.). It is asked if this is not a preliminary
step towards the bony crests which rise in this region in some of the
anthropomorphous apes?
"Again we reply in the negative; for, in the latter, the bony crests
arise from the walls of the skull, and do not form any part of the arch.
"4th. Is it not very remarkable that we find the orang to be
brachycephalous, just like the Malay, whose country it inhabits, and
that the gorilla and chimpanzee are dolichocephalous like the negro? Is
not this fact a reason for our regarding the former animal as the
ancestor of the Malays, and the latter of the African nations?
"Even if the facts brought forward were correct, the inference which is
drawn from them would be far from satisfactory. But the coincidence
which is appealed to does not exist. In point of fact, the orang, which
is essentially a native of Borneo, lives among the Dyaks and not among
the Malays; now the Dyaks are rather dolichocephalous than
brachycephalous. With respect to gorillas being dolichocephalous, they
cannot at least be so generally; as out of _three_ female specimens of
this ape which were examined, two were brachycephalous (Pruner-Bey).
"5th. The brains of microcephalous individuals present a mixture of
human and simial characteristics, and point to some intermediate
conformation, which was normal at some anterior epoch, but at the
present time is only realised by an arrest of development and a fact of
atavism.
"Gratiolet's investigations of the brain of the ape, normal man and
small-brained individuals, have shown that the similarities pointed out
are purely fallacious. People have thought that they could detect them,
simply because they have not examined closely enough. In the last named,
the human brain is simplified; but this causes no alteration in the
_initial plan_, and this plan is not that which is ascertained to exist
in the ape. Thus Gratiolet has expressed an opinion which no one has
attempted to controvert: 'The human brain differs the more from that of
the ape the less the former is developed, and an arrest of development
could only exaggerate this natural difference.... The brains of
microcephalous individuals, although often less voluminous and less
convoluted than those of the anthropomorphous apes, do not on this
account become like the latter.... The idiot, however low he may be
reduced, is not a beast; he is nothing but a deteriorated man.'
"The laws of the development of the brain in the two types, laws which I
mentioned before, explain and justify this language; and the laws of
which it is the summary are a formal refutation of the comparison which
some have attempted to make between the _contracted human brain_, and
the _animal brain, however developed_.
"6th. The excavations which have been made in intact ancient beds have
brought to light skulls of ancient races of man, and these skulls
present characteristics which approximate them to the skull of the ape.
Does not this pithecoïd stamp, which is very striking on the Neanderthal
skull in particular, argue a transition from one type to another, and
consequently _filiation_?
"This argument is perhaps the only one which has been brought forward
with any degree of precision, and it is often recurred to. Is it, on
this account, more demonstrative? Let the reader judge for himself.
"We may, in the first place, remark that Sir C. Lyell does not venture
to pronounce affirmatively as to the high antiquity of the human remains
discovered by Dr. Fuhlrott, and that he looked upon them, at the most,
as contemporary with the Engis skull, in which the Caucasian type of
head was reproduced.
"Let us, however, admit that the Neanderthal skull belongs to the remote
antiquity to which it has been assigned; what, then, is in reality the
significance of this skull? Is it actually a link between the head of
the man and that of the ape? And does it not find some analogy in
comparatively modern races?
"Many writings have been published on these questions, and, as it
appears to me, some light has gradually been thrown upon the subject.
There is no doubt that this skull is really remarkable for the enormous
size of its superciliary ridges, the length and narrowness of the bony
case, the slight elevation of the top of the skull. But these features
are found to be much less exceptional than was at first supposed, in
default of any means of instituting a just comparison; very far, indeed,
from justifying the approximation which some have endeavoured to make,
this skull is, in all its characteristics, essentially human. Mr. Busk,
in England, has pointed out the great affinity which is established, by
the prominence of the superciliary ridges and the depression of the
upper region, between certain Danish skulls from Borreby and the
Neanderthal skull. Dr. Barnard Davis has described the still greater
similarities existing between this very _fossil_ and a skull in his
collection. Gratiolet forwarded to the Museum the skull of an idiot of
the present time, which was almost identical with it in everything,
although in slighter proportions, &c.
"The following appears to me to be decisive:
"In spite of its curious characteristics, the Neanderthal skull none the
less belonged to an individual, who, to judge by other bones which have
been found, diverged but little from the average type of the present
Germanic races, and by no means approximated to that of the ape.
"Is it probable, proceeding even on the class of ideas which I am
opposing, that in a being in a state of transition between man and the
anthropomorphous apes, the body would have become entirely human in its
character, whilst the head presented its simial peculiarities? If a fact
like this is admitted, does it not render the hypothesis absolutely
worthless?
"Notwithstanding all the discussion to which these curious remains have
given rise, it appears to me impossible to look upon them in any other
light than as the remains of an individuality, exceptional, no doubt,
but clearly belonging to the human species, and, in addition to this, to
the Celtic race, one of the branches of our Aryan stock. M. Pruner-Bey
appears to me to have placed this fact beyond all question by the whole
mass of investigations which he has published on this subject. The most
convincing proofs are based on the very great similarity which may be
noticed in a Celtic skull taken from a tumulus in Poitou to the skull
which has become so well known and, indeed, so celebrated owing to the
writings of Doctor Schaaffhausen. This similarity is not merely
external. An internal cast taken from one skull fits perfectly into the
interior of the other. It was, therefore, the _brains_ and not merely
the _skulls_ which bore a resemblance to one another. The proof appears
to me to be complete, and, with the learned author of this work, I feel
no hesitation in concluding that the Neanderthal skull is one of Celtic
origin.
"After all, neither experience nor observation have as yet furnished us
with the slightest data with regard to man at his earliest origin.
Science, therefore, which pretends to solidity of character, must put
this problem on one side till fresh information is obtained. We really
approach nearer to the truth when we confess our ignorance than when we
attempt to disguise it either to ourselves or others.
"With regard to the simial origin of man, it is nothing but pure
hypothesis, or rather nothing but a mere _jeu d'esprit_ which everything
proves utterly baseless, and in favour of which no solid fact has as yet
been appealed to."
In dealing with this question in a more general point of view, we must
add that the most enlightened science declares to us in unmistakable
accents, that species is immutable, and that no animal species can be
derived from another; they may change, but all bear witness to an
independent creation. This truth, which has been developed at length by
M. de Quatrefages in his numerous works, is a definitive and scientific
judgment which must decide this question as far as regards any
unprejudiced minds.
CHAPTER II.
Man in the condition of Savage Life during the Quaternary
Epoch--The Glacial Period, and its Ravages on the Primitive
Inhabitants of the Globe--Man in Conflict with the Animals of the
Quaternary Epoch--The Discovery of Fire--The Weapons of Primitive
Man--Varieties of Flint-hatchets--Manufacture of the earliest
Pottery--Ornamental objects at the Epoch of the Great Bear and the
Mammoth.
After this dissertation, which was necessary to confute the theory which
gives such a degrading explanation of our origin, we must contemplate
man at the period when he was first placed upon the earth, weak and
helpless, in the midst of the inclement and wild nature which surrounded
him.
However much our pride may suffer by the idea, we must confess that, at
the earliest period of his existence, man could have been but little
distinguished from the brute. Care for his natural wants must have
absorbed his whole being; all his efforts must have tended to one sole
aim--that of insuring his daily subsistence.
At first, his only food must have been fruits and roots; for he had not
as yet invented any weapon wherewith to destroy wild animals. If he
succeeded in killing any creatures of small size he devoured them in a
raw state, and made a covering of their skins to shelter himself against
the inclemency of the weather. His pillow was a stone, his roof was the
shadow of a wide-spreading tree, or some dark cavern which also served
as a refuge against wild beasts.
For how many ages did this miserable state last? No one can tell. Man is
an improvable being, and indefinite progress is the law of his
existence. Improvement is his supreme attribute; and this it is which
gives him the pre-eminence over all the creatures which surround him.
But how wavering must have been his first steps in advance, and how many
efforts must have been given to the earliest creation of his mind and
to the first work of his hands--doubtless some shapeless attempt in
which we nowadays, perhaps, should have some difficulty in recognising
the work of any intelligent being!
Towards the commencement of the quaternary epoch, a great natural
phenomenon took place in Europe. Under the influence of numerous and
varied causes, which up to the present time have not been fully
recognised, a great portion of Europe became covered with ice, on the
one hand, making its way from the poles down to the most southern
latitudes, and, on the other, descending into the plains from the
summits of the highest mountain chains. Ice and ice-fields assumed a
most considerable extension. As all the lower parts of the continent
were covered by the sea, there were only a few plateaux which could
afford a refuge to man and animals flying from this deadly cold. Such
was the _Glacial Period_, which produced the annihilation of so many
generations of animals, and must have equally affected man himself, so
ill-defended against this universal and sudden winter.
Man, however, was enabled to resist the attacks of revolted nature.
Without doubt, in this unhappy period, he must have made but little
progress, even if his intellectual development were not completely
stopped. At all events, the human species did not perish. The glacial
period came to an end, the ice-fields shrank back to their original
limits, and Nature reassumed its primitive aspect.
When the ice had gradually retired into the more northern latitudes, and
had become confined to the higher summits, a new generation of
animals--another _fauna_, as naturalists call it--made its appearance on
the globe. This group of animals, which had newly come into being,
differed much from those that had disappeared in the glacial cataclysm.
Let us cast an inquiring glance on these strange and now extinct
creatures.
First we have the mammoth (_Elephas primigenius_), or the woolly-haired
and maned elephant, carcases of which were found, entire and in good
preservation, in the ice on the coasts of Siberia. Next comes the
rhinoceros with a complete nasal septum (_Rhinoceros tichorhinus_),
likewise clad in a warm and soft fur, the nose of which is surmounted
with a remarkable pair of horns. Then follow several species of the
hippopotamus, which come as far north as the rivers of England and
Russia; a bear of great size inhabiting caverns (_Ursus spelæus_), and
presenting a projecting forehead and a large-sized skull; the cave lion
or tiger (_Felis spelæa_), which much surpassed in strength the same
animals of the existing species; various kinds of hyænas (_Hyæna
spelæa_), much stronger than those of our epoch; the bison or aurochs
(_Biso europæus_), which still exists in Poland; the great ox, the Urus
of the ancients (_Bos primigenius_); the gigantic Irish elk (_Megaceros
hibernicus_), the horns of which attained to surprising dimensions.
Other animals made their appearance at the same epoch, but they are too
numerous to mention; among them were some of the Rodent family. Almost
all these species are now extinct, but man certainly existed in the
midst of them.
The mammoth, elephant, rhinoceros, stag, and hippopotamus were then in
the habit of roaming over Europe in immense herds, just as some of these
animals still do in the interior of Africa. These animals must have had
their favourite haunts--spots where they assembled together in
thousands; or else it would be difficult to account for the countless
numbers of bones which are found accumulated at the same spot.
Before these formidable bands, man could dream of nothing but flight. It
was only with some isolated animal that he could dare to engage in a
more or less unequal conflict. Farther on in our work, we shall see how
he began to fabricate some rough weapons, with a view of attacking his
mighty enemies.
The first important step which man made in the path of progress was the
acquisition of fire. In all probability, man came to the knowledge of it
by accident, either by meeting with some substance which had been set on
fire by lightning or volcanic heat, or by the friction of pieces of wood
setting a light to some very inflammable matter.
[Illustration: Fig. 7.--The Production of Fire.]
In order to obtain fire, man of the quaternary epoch may have employed
the same means as those made use of by the American aborigines, at the
time when Christopher Columbus first fell in with them on the shores of
the New World--means which savage nations existing at the present day
still put in practice. He rubbed two pieces of dry wood one against the
other, or turned round and round with great rapidity a stick sharpened
to a point, having placed the end of it in a hole made in the trunk of a
very dry tree (fig. 7).
As among the savages of the present day we find certain elementary
mechanisms adapted to facilitate the production of fire, it is not
impossible that these same means were practised at an early period of
the human race. It would take a considerable time to set light to two
pieces of dry wood by merely rubbing them against one another; but if a
bow be made use of, that is, the chord of an arc fixed firmly on a
handle, so as to give a rapid revolution to a cylindrical rod of wood
ending in a point which entered into a small hole made in a board, the
board may be set on fire in a few minutes. Such a mode of obtaining fire
may have been made use of by the men who lived in the same epoch with
the mammoth and other animals, the species of which are now extinct.
The first rudiments of combustion having been obtained, so as to serve,
during the daytime, for the purposes of warmth and cooking food, and
during the night, for giving light, how was the fire to be kept up? Wood
from the trees that grew in the district, or from those which were cast
up by the currents of the rivers or sea; inflammable mineral oils; resin
obtained from coniferous trees; the fat and grease of wild animals; oil
extracted from the great cetaceans;--all these substances must have
assisted in maintaining combustion, for the purposes both of warmth and
light. The only fuel which the Esquimaux of the present day have either
to warm their huts or light them during the long nights of their gloomy
climate, is the oil of the whale and seal, which, burnt in a lamp with a
short wick, serves both to cook their food and also to warm and illumine
their huts.
Even, nowadays, in the Black Forest (Duchy of Baden), instead of
candles, long splinters of very dry beech are sometimes made use of,
which are fixed in a horizontal position at one end and lighted at the
other. This forms an economical lamp, which is really not to be
despised.
We have also heard of the very original method which is resorted to by
the inhabitants of the Faroe Isles in the northern seas of Europe, in
order to warm and light up their huts. This method consists in taking
advantage of the fat and greasy condition of the young Stormy Petrel
(Mother Carey's Chicken), so as to convert its body into a regular
lamp. All that is necessary is to draw a wick through its body,
projecting at the beak, which when lighted causes this really animal
candle to throw out an excellent light until the last greasy morsel of
the bird is consumed.
This bird is also used by the natives of the Isles as a natural fuel to
keep up their fires and cook other birds.
Whatever may have been the means which were made use of by primitive man
in order to procure fire, either the simple friction of two pieces of
wood one against the other, continued for a long time, the _bow_, or
merely a stick turning round rapidly by the action of the hand, without
any kind of mechanism--it is certain that the acquisition of fire must
be classed amongst the most beautiful and valuable discoveries which
mankind has made. Fire must have put an end to the weariness of the long
nights. In the presence of fire, the darkness of the holes and caverns
in which man made his first retreat, must have vanished away. With the
aid of fire, the most rigorous climates became habitable, and the damp
which impregnated the body of man or his rough garments, made of the
skin of the bear or some long-haired ruminant, could be evaporated. With
fire near them, the danger arising from ferocious beasts must have much
diminished; for a general instinct leads wild animals to dread the light
and the heat of a fire. Buried, as they were, in the midst of forests
infested with wild beasts, primitive men might, by means of a fire kept
alight during the night, sleep in peace without being disturbed by the
attacks of the huge wild beasts which prowled about all round them.
Fire, too, gave the first starting-point to man's industry. It afforded
means to the earliest inhabitants of the earth for felling trees, for
procuring charcoal, for hardening wood for the manufacture of their
rudimentary implements, and for baking their primitive pottery.
Thus, as soon as man had at his disposal the means for producing
artificial heat, his position began to improve, and the kindly flame of
the hearth became the first centre round which the family circle was
constituted.
Ere long man felt the need of strengthening his natural powers against
the attacks of wild beasts. At the same time he desired to be able to
make his prey some of the more peaceable animals, such as the stag, the
smaller kinds of ruminants, and the horse. Then it was that he began to
manufacture weapons.
He had remarked, spread about the surface of the ground, certain flints,
with sharp corners and cutting edges. These he gathered up, and by the
means of other stones of a rather tougher nature, he broke off from them
pieces, which he fashioned roughly in the shape of a hatchet or hammer.
He fixed these splinters into split sticks, by way of a handle, and
firmly bound them in their places with the tendons of an animal or the
strong stalks of some dried plant. With this weapon, he could, if he
pleased, strike his prey at a distance.
When man had invented the bow and chipped out flint arrow-heads, he was
enabled to arrest the progress of the swiftest animal in the midst of
his flight.
Since the time when the investigations with regard to primitive man have
been set on foot in all countries, and have been energetically
prosecuted, enormous quantities have been found of these chipped flints,
arrow-heads, and various stone implements, which archæologists designate
by the common denomination of _hatchets_, in default of being able, in
some cases, to distinguish the special use for which they had been
employed. Before going any further, it will be necessary to enter into
some details with regard to these flint implements--objects which are
altogether characteristic of the earliest ages of civilisation.
For a long time past chipped stones of a somewhat similar character have
been met with here and there in several countries, sometimes on the
surface of, and sometimes buried deeply in, the ground; but no one
understood what their significance was. If the common people ever
distinguished them from ordinary stones, they attached to them some
superstitious belief. Sometimes they called them "thunder-stones,"
because they attributed to them the power of preserving from lightning
those who were in possession of them. It was not until the middle of the
present century that naturalists and archæologists began to comprehend
the full advantage which might be derived from the examination of these
chipped stones, in reconstructing the lineaments of the earliest of the
human race and in penetrating, up to a certain point, into their
manners, customs, and industry. These stone-hatchets and arrow-heads
are, therefore, very plentiful in the present day in collections of
antiquities and cabinets of natural history.
Most of these objects which are found in Europe are made of flint, and
this circumstance may be easily explained. Flint must have been
preferred as a material, on account both of its hardness and its mode of
cleavage, which may be so readily adapted to the will of the workman.
One hard blow, skilfully applied, is sufficient to break off, by the
mere shock, a sharp-edged flake of a blade-like shape. These sharp-edged
blades of silex might serve as knives. Certainly they would not last
long in use, for they are very easily notched; but primitive men must
have been singularly skilful in making them.
Although the shapes of these stone implements are very varied, they may
all be classed under a certain number of prevailing types; and these
types are to be found in very different countries. The flint hatchets
are at first very simple although irregular in their shape; but they
gradually manifest a much larger amount of talent exhibited in their
manufacture, and a better judgment is shown in adapting them to the
special uses for which they were intended. The progress of the human
intellect is written in ineffaceable characters on these tablets of
stone, which, defended as they were, by a thick layer of earth, bid
defiance to the injuries of time.
Let us not despise these first and feeble efforts of our primitive
forefathers, for they mark the date of the starting-point of
manufactures and the arts. If the men of the stone age had not
persevered in their efforts, we, their descendants, should never have
possessed either our palaces or our masterpieces of painting and
sculpture. As Boucher de Perthes says, "The first man who struck one
pebble against another to make some requisite alteration in its form,
gave the first blow of the chisel which has resulted in producing the
Minerva and all the sculpture of the Parthenon."
Archæologists who have devoted their energies to investigating the
earliest monuments of human industry, have found it necessary to be on
their guard against certain errors, or rather wilful deceptions, which
might readily pervert their judgment and deprive their discoveries of
all character of authenticity. There is, in fact, a certain class of
persons engaged in a deceptive manufacture who have taken a delight in
misleading archæologists by fabricating apocryphal flint and stone
implements, in which they drive a rather lucrative trade. They assert,
without the least scruple, the high antiquity of their productions,
which they sell either to inexperienced amateurs, who are pleased to put
them in their collections duly labelled and ticketed, or--which is a
more serious matter--to workmen who are engaged in making excavations in
fossiliferous beds. These workmen hide the fictitious specimens in the
soil they are digging, using every requisite precaution so as to have
the opportunity of subsequently extracting them and fingering a reward
for them from some too trusting naturalist. These imitations are,
moreover, so cleverly made, that it sometimes requires well-practised
eyes to recognise them; but they may be recognised with some degree of
facility by the following characteristics:--
[Illustration: Fig. 8.--_Dendrites_ or Crystallisations found on the
surface of wrought Flints.]
The ancient flints present a glassy surface which singularly contrasts
with the dull appearance of the fresh cleavages. They are also for the
most part covered with a whitish coating or _patina_, which is nothing
but a thin layer of carbonate of lime darkened in colour by the action
of time. Lastly, many of these flints are ornamented with branching
crystallisations, called _dendrites_, which form on their surface very
delicate designs of a dark brown; these are owing to the combined action
of the oxides of iron and manganese (fig. 8).
We must add that these flint implements often assume the colour of the
soil in which they have been buried for so many centuries; and as Mr.
Prestwich, a learned English geologist, well remarks, this agreement in
colour indicates that they have remained a very considerable time in the
stratum which contains them.
Among the stone implements of primitive ages, some are found in a state
of perfect preservation, which clearly bears witness to their almost
unused state; others, on the contrary, are worn, rounded, and blunted,
sometimes because they have done good service in bygone days, and
sometimes because they have been many times rolled over and rubbed by
diluvial waters, the action of which has produced this result. Some,
too, are met with which are broken, and nothing of them remains but mere
vestiges. In a general way, they are completely covered with a very
thick coating which it is necessary to break off before they can be laid
open to view.
They are especially found under the soil in grottos and caves, on which
we shall remark further in some detail, and they are almost always mixed
up with the bones of extinct mammalian species.
Certain districts which are entirely devoid of caves contain, however,
considerable deposits of these stone implements. We may mention in this
category the alluvial quarternary beds of the valley of the Somme, known
under the name of drift beds, which were worked by Boucher de Perthes
with an equal amount of perseverance and success.
[Illustration: Fig. 9.--Section of a Gravel Quarry at Saint-Acheul,
which contained the wrought Flints found by Boucher de Perthes.]
This alluvium was composed of a gravelly deposit, which geologists refer
to the great inundations which, during the epoch of the great bear and
the mammoth, gave to Europe, by hollowing out its valleys, its present
vertical outline. The excavations in the sand and gravel near Amiens and
Abbeville, which were directed with so much intelligence by Boucher de
Perthes, have been the means of exhuming thousands of worked flints,
affording unquestionable testimony of the existence of man during the
quaternary epoch.
All these worked flints may be classed under some of the principal
types, from which their intended use may be approximately conjectured.
One of the types which is most extensively distributed, especially in
the drift beds of the valley of the Somme, where scarcely any other kind
is found, is the _almond-shaped_ type (fig. 10).
[Illustration: Fig. 10.--Hatchet of the _Almond-shaped_ type, from the
Valley of the Somme.]
The instruments of this kind are hatchets of an oval shape, more or less
elongated, generally flattened on both sides, but sometimes only on one,
carefully chipped all over their surface so as to present a cutting
edge. The workmen of the Somme give them the graphic name of _cats'
tongues_.
They vary much in size, but are generally about six inches long by three
wide, although some are met with which are much larger. The Pre-historic
Gallery in the Universal Exposition of 1867, contained one found at
Saint-Acheul, and exhibited by M. Robert, which measured eleven inches
in length by five in width. This remarkable specimen is represented in
fig. 11.
[Illustration: Fig. 11.--Flint Hatchet from Saint-Acheul of the
so-called _Almond-shaped type_.]
Another very characteristic form is that which is called the _Moustier
type_ (fig. 12), because they have been found in abundance in the beds
in the locality of Moustier, which forms a portion of the department of
Dordogne. This name is applied to the pointed flints which are only
wrought on one side, the other face being completely plain.
[Illustration: Fig. 12.--Wrought Flint (_Moustier type_).]
To the same deposit also belongs the flint _scraper_, the sharp edge of
which forms the arc of a circle, the opposite side being of some
considerable thickness so as to afford a grasp to the hand of the
operator.
[Illustration: Fig. 13.--Flint Scraper.]
Some of these instruments (fig. 13) are finely toothed all along their
sharp edge; they were evidently used for the same purposes as our saws.
[Illustration: Fig. 14.--Flint Knife, found at Menchecourt, near
Abbeville.]
The third type (fig. 14) is that of _knives_. They are thin and narrow
tongue-shaped flakes, cleft off from the lump of flint at one blow. When
one of the ends is chipped to a point, these knives become scratchers.
Sometimes these flints are found to be wrought so as to do service as
augers.
The question is often asked, how these primitive men were able to
manufacture their weapons, implements, and utensils, on uniform models,
without the help of metallic hammers. This idea has, indeed, been
brought forward as an argument against those who contend for the
existence of quaternary man. Mr. Evans, an English geologist, replied
most successfully to this objection by a very simple experiment. He took
a pebble and fixed it in a wooden handle; having thus manufactured a
stone hammer, he made use of it to chip a flint little by little, until
he had succeeded in producing an oval hatchet similar to the ancient one
which he had before him.
The flint-workers who, up to the middle of the present century, prepared
gun-flints for the army, were in the habit of splitting the stone into
splinters. But they made use of steel hammers to cleave the flint,
whilst primitive man had nothing better at his disposal than another and
rather harder stone.
Primitive man must have gone to work in somewhat the following way: They
first selected flints, which they brought to the shape of those cores or
_nuclei_ which are found in many places in company with finished
implements; then, by means of another and harder stone of elongated
shape, they cleft flakes off the flint. These flakes were used for
making knives, scratchers, spear or arrow-heads, hatchets, tomahawks,
scrapers, &c. Some amount of skill must have been required to obtain the
particular shape that was required; but constant practice in this work
exclusively must have rendered this task comparatively easy.
[Illustration: Fig. 15.--Flint Core or Nucleus.]
How, in the next place, were these clipped flints fitted with handles,
so as to make hatchets, poniards and knives?
Some of them were fixed at right angles between the two split ends of a
stick: this kind of weapon must have somewhat resembled our present
hatchets. Others, of an oval shape and circular edge, might have been
fastened transversely into a handle, so as to imitate a carpenter's
adze. In case of need, merely a forked branch or a piece of split wood
might serve as sheath or handle to the flint blade. Flints might also
have been fixed as double-edged blades by means of holes cut in pieces
of wood, to which a handle was afterwards added.
These flint flakes might, lastly, be fitted into a handle at one end.
The wide-backed knives, which were only sharp on one side, afforded a
grasp for the hand without further trouble, and might dispense with a
handle. The small flints might also be darted as projectiles by the help
of a branch of a tree forming a kind of spring, such as we may see used
as a toy by children.
The mere description of these stone hatchets, fitted on to pieces of
wood, recall to our mind the natural weapons used by some of the
American savages, and the tribes which still exist in a state of freedom
in the Isles of Oceania. We allude to the tomahawk, a name which we so
often meet with in the accounts of voyages round the world. Among those
savage nations who have not as yet bent their necks beneath the yoke of
civilisation, we might expect to find--and, in fact, we do find--the
weapons and utensils which were peculiar to man in primitive ages. A
knowledge of the manners and customs of the present Australian
aborigines has much conduced to the success of the endeavours to
reconstruct a similar system of manners and customs in respect to man of
the quaternary age.
It was with the weapons and implements that we have just described that
man, at the epoch of the great bear and mammoth, was able to repulse the
attacks of the ferocious animals which prowled round his retreat and
often assailed him (fig. 16).
[Illustration: Fig. 16.--Man in the Great Bear and Mammoth Epoch.]
But the whole life of primitive man was not summed up in defending
himself against ferocious beasts, and in attacking them in the chase.
Beyond the needs which were imposed upon him by conflict and hunting, he
felt, besides, the constant necessity of quenching his thirst. Water is
a thing in constant use by man, whether he be civilised or savage. The
fluid nature of water renders it difficult to convey it except by
enclosing it in bladders, leathern bottles, hollowed-out stumps of
trees, plaited bowls, &c. Receptacles of this kind were certain
ultimately to become dirty and unfit for the preservation of water;
added to this they could not endure the action of fire. It was certainly
possible to hollow out stone, so as to serve as a receptacle for water;
but any kind of stone which was soft enough to be scooped out, and would
retain its tenacity after this operation, is very rarely met with.
Shells, too, might be used to hold a liquid; but then shells are not to
be found in every place. It was, therefore, necessary to resolve the
problem--how far it might be possible to make vessels which would be
strong, capable of holding water, and able to stand the heat of the fire
without breaking or warping. What was required was, in fact, the
manufacture of pottery.
The potter's art may, perhaps, be traced back to the most remote epochs
of man. We have already seen, in the introduction to this work, that, in
1835, M. Joly found in the cave of Nabrigas (Lozère), a skull of the
great bear pierced with a stone arrow-head, and that by the side of this
skull were also discovered fragments of pottery, on which might still be
seen the imprint of the fingers which moulded it. Thus, the potter's art
may have already been exercised in the earliest period which we can
assign to the development of mankind.
Other causes also might lead us to believe that man, at a very early
period of his existence, succeeded in the manufacture of rough pottery.
The clay which is used in making all kinds of pottery, from the very
lowest kitchen utensil up to the most precious specimens of porcelain,
may be said to exist almost everywhere. By softening it and kneading it
with water, it may be moulded into vessels of all shapes. By mere
exposure to the heat of the sun, these vessels will assume a certain
amount of cohesion; for, as tradition tells us, the towers and palaces
of ancient Nineveh were built entirely with bricks which had been baked
in the sun.
Yet the idea of hardening any clayey paste by means of the action of
fire is so very simple, that we are not of opinion that pottery which
had merely been baked in the sun was ever made use of to any great
extent, even among primitive man. Mere chance, or the most casual
observation, might have taught our earliest forefathers that a morsel of
clay placed near a fire-hearth became hardened and altogether
impenetrable to water, that is, that it formed a perfect specimen of
pottery. Yet the art, though ancient, has not been universally found
among mankind.
Ere long, experience must have taught men certain improvements in the
manufacture of pottery. Sand was added to the clay, so as to render it
less subject to "flying" on its first meeting the heat of the fire;
next, dried straw was mixed with the clay in order to give it more
coherence.
In this way those rough vessels were produced, which were, of course,
moulded with the hand, and still bear the imprints of the workman's
fingers. They were only half-baked, on account of the slight intensity
of heat in the furnace which they were then obliged to make use of,
which was nothing more than a wood fire, burning in the open air, on a
stone hearth.
From these data we give a representation (fig. 17) of the _workshop of
the earliest potter_.
[Illustration: Fig. 17.--The First Potter.]
In the gravel pits in the neighbourhood of Amiens we meet with small
globular bodies with a hole through the middle, which are, indeed,
nothing but fossil shells found in the white chalk (fig. 18). It is
probable that these stony beads were used to adorn the men contemporary
with the diluvial period. The natural holes which existed in them
enabled them to be threaded as bracelets or necklaces. This, at least,
was the opinion of Dr. Rigollot; and it was founded on the fact that he
had often found small heaps of these delicate little balls collected
together in the same spot, as if an inundation had drifted them into the
bed of the river without breaking the bond which held them together.
[Illustration: Fig. 18.--Fossil Shells used as Ornaments, and found in
the Gravel at Amiens.]
The necklaces, which men and women had already begun to wear during the
epoch of the great bear and the mammoth, were the first outbreak of
the sentiment of adornment, a feeling so natural to the human species.
The way in which these necklaces were put together is, however, exactly
similar to that which we meet with during the present day among savage
tribes--a thread on which a few shells were strung, which was passed
round the neck.
It has been supposed, from another series of wrought flints, found at
Saint-Acheul by Boucher de Perthes, that the men of the epoch of the
great bear and mammoth may have executed certain rough sketches of
art-workmanship, representing either figures or symbols. Boucher de
Perthes has, in fact, found flints which he considered to show
representations, with varying degrees of resemblance, of the human head,
in profile, three-quarter view, and full face; also of animals, such as
the rhinoceros and the mammoth.
There are many other flints, evidently wrought by the hand of man, which
were found by Boucher de Perthes in the same quaternary deposits; but it
would be a difficult matter to decide their intention or significance.
Some, perhaps, were religious symbols, emblems of authority, &c. The
features which enable us to recognise the work of man in these works of
antediluvian art, are the symmetry of shape and the repetition of
successive strokes by which the projecting portions are removed, the
cutting edges sharpened, or the holes bored out.
The natural colour of all the wrought flints we have just been
considering, which bring under our notice the weapons and utensils of
man in the earliest epoch of his existence, is a grey which assumes
every tint, from the brightest to the darkest; but, generally speaking,
they are stained and coloured according to the nature of the soil from
which they are dug out. Argillaceous soils colour them white; ochreous
gravels give them a yellowish brown hue. Some are white on one side and
brown on the other, probably from having lain between two different
beds.
This _patina_ (to use the established term) is the proof of their
long-continued repose in the beds, and is, so to speak, the stamp of
their antiquity.
CHAPTER III.
The Man of the Great Bear and Mammoth Epoch lived in Caverns--Bone
Caverns in the Quaternary Rock during the Great Bear and Mammoth
Epoch--Mode of Formation of these Caverns--Their Division into
several Classes--Implements of Flint, Bone, and Reindeer-horn found
in these Caverns--The Burial-place at Aurignac--Its probable
Age--Customs which it reveals--Funeral Banquets during the Great
Bear and Mammoth Epoch.
Having given a description of the weapons and working implements of the
men belonging to the great bear and mammoth epoch, we must now proceed
to speak of the habitations.
Caverns hollowed out in the depth of the rocks formed the first
dwellings of man. We must, therefore, devote some degree of attention to
the simple and wild retreats of our forefathers. As the objects which
have been found in these caverns are both numerous and varied in their
character, they not only throw a vivid light on the manners and customs
of primitive man, but also decisively prove the fact of his being
contemporary with mammals of species now extinct, such as the mammoth,
the great bear, and the _Rhinoceros tichorhinus_.
But before proceeding any further, it is necessary to inquire in what
way these caverns could have been formed, in which we find accumulated
so many relics of the existence of primitive man.
M. Desnoyers, Librarian of the Museum of Natural History at Paris, is of
opinion that these caverns are crevices of the same class as
metalliferous _lodes_, only instead of containing metallic ores they
must have been originally filled by the deposits of certain thermal
springs.
[Illustration: Fig. 19.--Theoretical Section of a Vein of Clay in the
Carboniferous Limestone, _before_ the hollowing out of Valleys by
diluvial Waters.]
Fig. 19 represents, according to M. Desnoyers' treatise on _caverns_,
one of these primordial veins in the carboniferous limestone. At the
time of the diluvial inundation, these veins were opened by the
impetuous action of the water. When thus cleared out and brought to the
light of day, they assumed the aspect of caves, as represented in fig.
20.
[Illustration: Fig. 20.--Theoretical section of the same Vein of Clay
converted into a Cavern, _after_ the hollowing out of Valleys by
diluvial Waters.]
The European diluvial inundation was, as we know, posterior to the
glacial epoch.
It is also likely that caverns were sometimes produced by the falling in
of portions of some of the interior strata, or that they were formerly
the natural and subterranean channels of certain watercourses; many
instances of this kind being now known in different countries.
We must also add that it is not probable that all caverns originated in
the same way; but that one or other of the several causes just
enumerated must have contributed to their formation.
Under the general denomination of _caverns_, all kinds of subterranean
cavities are comprehended; but it will be as well to introduce several
distinctions in this respect. There are, in the first place, simple
clefts or crevices, which are only narrow pits deviating but slightly
from the vertical. Next we have grottos (or _baumes_ as they are called
in the south of France), which generally have a widely opening inlet,
and are but of small extent. Lastly, we must draw a distinction between
these and the real bone caverns, which consist of a series of chambers,
separated by extremely narrow passages, and are often of very
considerable dimensions. Some of these caverns occupy an extent of
several leagues underground, with variations of level which render their
exploration very difficult. They are generally very inaccessible, and it
is almost always necessary to ply the pick-axe in order to clear a way
from one chamber to another.
In most of these grottos and caverns the ground and sides are covered
with calcareous deposits, known by the name of _stalactite_ and
_stalagmite_, which sometimes meet one another, forming columns and
pillars which confer on some of these subterranean halls an elegance
replete with a kind of mysterious charm.
These deposits are caused by the infiltrated water charged with
carbonate of lime, which, oozing drop by drop through the interstices of
the rock, slowly discharge the carbonic acid which held the carbonate of
lime in solution, and the salts gradually precipitating form the
crystalline or amorphous deposits which constitute these natural
columns.
The calcareous deposits which spread over the ground of the caverns are
called _stalagmite_, and the name of _stalactite_ is given to those
which hang down from the roof, forming pendants, natural decorations,
and ornaments as of alabaster or marble, producing sometimes the most
magnificent effects.
Under the stalagmite the largest number of animal bones have been found.
This crust, which has been to them a preservatory grave, is so thick and
hard that a pick-axe is required in order to break it. Thanks to the
protecting cover, the bones have been sheltered from all the various
causes of decomposition and destruction. The limestone formed a kind of
cement which, uniting clay, mud, sand, flints, bones of men and animals,
weapons and utensils into a compact mass, has preserved them for the
study and consideration of scientific men in our own days.
The soil called _bone-earth_ is, in fact, found under the crystalline
bed which covers the ground of the caverns.
Fig. 21, which represents a section of the cave of Galeinreuth, in
Bavaria, will enable us clearly to understand the position occupied by
the bones in most of these caverns.
[Illustration: Fig. 21.--The Cave of Galeinreuth, in Bavaria.]
Bone-earth consists of a reddish or yellowish clay, often mixed with
pebbles, which seem to have come from some distant beds, for they cannot
be attributed to the adjacent rocks. This stratum varies considerably in
depth; in some spots it is very thin, in others it rises almost to the
top of the cavern, to a height of forty or fifty feet. But in this case
it is, in reality, composed of several strata belonging to different
ages, and explorers ought to note with much attention the exact depth of
any of the organic remains found in their mass.
There are, however, in several bone-caverns certain peculiarities which
demand a special explanation. Caves often contain large heaps of bones,
situated at heights which it would have been absolutely inaccessible to
the animals which lived in these places. How, then, was it possible that
these bones could have found their way to such an elevated position? It
is also a very strange fact, that no cavern has ever produced an entire
skeleton or even a whole limb of the skeleton of a man, and scarcely of
any animal whatever. The bones, in fact, not only lie in confusion and
utter disorder, but, up to the present time, it has been impossible to
find all the bones which in times past formed an individual. It must,
therefore, be admitted, that the accumulation of bones and human remains
in most of the caves are owing to other causes than the residence of man
and wild animals in these dark retreats.
It is supposed, therefore, that the bones in question were deposited in
these hollows by the rushing in of the currents of diluvial water, which
had drifted them along in their course. A fact which renders this
hypothesis likely is that drift-pebbles are constantly found in close
proximity to these bones. Now these pebbles come from localities at
considerable distances from the cavern; often, indeed, terrestrial and
fluviatile shells accompany these bones. It may sometimes be remarked
that the femurs and tibias of large mammals have their points rubbed
off, and the smallest bones are reduced to rounded fragments. These are
all evident indications that these bones had been carried along by rapid
currents of water, which swept away everything in their course; or, in
other words, by the current of the waters of the deluge which signalised
the quaternary epoch.
During this period of the existence of primitive man, all these caverns
were not applied to the same purpose. Some were the dens of wild beasts,
others formed the habitations of man, and others again were used as
burial-places.
There is no difficulty in the idea that dens of wild beasts might very
readily be occupied by man, after he had killed or driven out the fierce
inhabitants; no discovery, however, has as yet confirmed this
supposition. It can hardly be doubted that primitive man seldom dared to
take up his abode in dens which had been, for some time, the refuge of
any of the formidable carnivora; if he did, it was only after having
assured himself that these retreats had been altogether abandoned by
their terrible inhabitants.
We shall now proceed to consider these three classes of caverns.
Caves which, during the quaternary epoch, have served as dens for wild
animals, are very numerous. Experienced _savants_ are enabled to
recognise them by various indications. The bones they contain are never
fractured; but it may be seen that they have been gnawed by carnivorous
animals, as they still bear the marks of their teeth. Into these
retreats the cave-lion (_Felis spelæa_) and the hyæna (_Hyæna spelæa_)
were accustomed to drag their prey, in order there to tear it to pieces
and devour it, or divide it into portions for their young ones. In fact,
in these caverns, excrements of the hyæna mixed with small and
undigested bones are often found. The cave bear retired into the same
retreats, but he probably only came there to pass the period of his
hibernal sleep. Lastly, the same dens no doubt offered a refuge to sick
or dying animals, who resorted thither in order to expire in peace. We
have a proof of this in the traces of wounds and caries on some of the
bones of animals found by Schmerling in the caverns of the Meuse; also
in the skull of a hyæna, the median ridge of which had been bitten and
appeared to be half healed.
Those caverns which formed a shelter for primitive man are, like the
preceding ones, to be recognised by a mere inspection of the bones
contained in them. The long bones of the ox, horse, stag, rhinoceros,
and other quadrupeds which formed the food of man during the quaternary
epoch, are always split; and they are all broken in the same way, that
is, lengthwise. The only cause for their having been split in this
manner must have been the desire of extracting the marrow for the
purpose of eating. Such a mode of breaking them would never have been
practised by any animal.
This apparently trivial circumstance is, however, of the highest
importance. In fact, it leads to the following conclusion: "That man,
having eaten large mammals of species now extinct, must have been
contemporary with these species."
We shall now proceed to examine the caverns which were used as
burial-places for man.
To M. Édouard Lartet, the celebrated palæontologist, the honour must be
ascribed of having been the first to collect any important data bearing
on the fact that caverns were used for burial-places by the primitive
man of the great bear and mammoth epoch. We have thus been led to
discover the traces of a funeral custom belonging to the man of these
remote ages; we allude to the _funeral banquet_. The source of this
information was the discovery of a pre-historic burial-place at Aurignac
(Haute-Garonne), of which we have given an account in the Introduction
to this work, which, however, we must again here refer to.
Near the town of Aurignac rises the hill of Fajoles, which the
inhabitants of the country, in their _patois_, call "_mountagno de las
Hajoles_" (beech-tree mountain), a circumstance showing that it was
formerly covered with beech-trees. As we have already stated, in the
Introduction to this work, it was on one of the slopes of this hill
that, in the year 1842, an excavator, named Bonnemaison, discovered a
great slab of limestone placed in a vertical position and closing up an
arched opening. In the cave closed up by this slab the excavator
discovered the remains of seventeen human skeletons!
We have already told how these skeletons were removed to the village
cemetery, and thus, unfortunately, for ever lost to the researches of
science.
Eighteen years after, in 1860, M. Lartet, having heard of the event,
repaired to the spot, accompanied by Bonnemaison; he quite understood
how it had happened that, during a long course of centuries, the cave
had escaped the notice of the inhabitants of the country. The entrance
to it was concealed by masses of earth which, having been brought down
from the top of the hill by the action of the water, had accumulated in
front of the entrance, hiding a flat terrace, on which many vestiges of
pre-historic times were found. As no disturbance of the ground had taken
place in this spot subsequent to the date of the burial, this _talus_
had been sufficient to protect the traces of the men who were
contemporary with the mammoth, and to shield their relics from all
exterior injury.
[Illustration: Fig. 22.--Section of the Sepulchral Cave at Aurignac.]
Fig. 22, taken from M. Lartet's article, represents a vertical section
of the sepulchral cave at Aurignac.
After a rapid inspection of the cave and its surroundings, M. Lartet
resolved to make complete and methodical excavations, aided by
intelligent workmen labouring under his superintendence; the following
are the results he obtained.
A bed of "made ground" two feet thick covered the ground of the cave. In
this were found some human remains which had escaped the first
investigations; also bones of mammals in good preservation, and
exhibiting no fractures or teeth-marks, wrought flints, mostly of the
_knife_ type (fig. 23), and carved reindeer horns, among which there was
an instrument carefully tapered off and rounded, but deprived of its
point (fig. 24), the other end being bevelled off, probably to receive a
handle.
[Illustration: Fig. 23.--Flint Knife found in the Sepulchral Cave at
Aurignac.]
[Illustration: Fig. 24.--Implement made of Reindeer's or Stag's Horn,
found in the Sepulchral Cave at Aurignac.]
We must here add, that at the time of his discovery Bonnemaison
collected, from the midst of the bones, eighteen small discs which were
pierced in the centre, and doubtless intended to be strung together in a
necklace or bracelet. These discs, which were formed of a white compact
substance were recognised as sea-shells of a _Cardium_ species.
[Illustration: Fig. 25.--Series of perforated Discs of the _Cardium_
Shell found in the Sepulchral Cave at Aurignac.]
The cavern of Aurignac was a burial-place of the quaternary epoch, for
M. Lartet found in it a quantity of the bones of the cave-bear, the
bison, the reindeer, the horse, &c.
In fig. 26, we give a representation of a fragment of the lower jaw of a
great bear as an example of the state of the bones found in this cavern.
[Illustration: Fig. 26.--Fragment of the Lower Jaw of a Cave-Bear, found
in the Sepulchral Cave at Aurignac.]
The perfect state of preservation of these bones shows that they were
neither broken to furnish food for man nor torn by carnivorous animals,
particularly by hyænas, as is seen in a great many caverns. We must
therefore conclude from this peculiarity, that the stone which closed
the entrance to the cave was moved away for every interment and
carefully put back into its place immediately afterwards.
In order to explain the presence of so many foreign objects by the side
of the human skeletons--such as animals' bones--implements of flint and
reindeers' horn--necklaces or bracelets--we must admit as probable that
a funeral custom existed among the men of the great bear and mammoth
epoch, which has been preserved in subsequent ages. They used to place
in the tomb, close to the body, the weapons, hunting trophies, and
ornaments of all sorts, belonging to the defunct. This custom still
exists among many tribes in a more or less savage state.
In front of the cave, there was, as we have already said, a kind of flat
spot which had afterwards become covered with earth which had fallen
down from the top of the hill. When the earth which covered this flat
spot was cleared away, they met with another deposit containing bones.
This deposit was situated on a prolongation of the ground on which the
skeletons were placed in the interior of the cavern. Under this deposit,
was a bed of ashes and charcoal, 5 to 7 inches thick. This was,
therefore, the site of an ancient fire-hearth.
In other words, in front of the sepulchral cave there was a kind of
terrace upon which, after the interment of the body in the cavern, a
feast called the _funeral banquet_ was held.
[Illustration: Fig. 27.--Upper Molar of a Bison, found in the Ashes of
the Fire-hearth of the Sepulchral Cave at Aurignac.]
In this bed, situated in front of the cavern an immense number of the
most interesting relics were discovered--a large number of the teeth and
broken bones of herbivorous animals (fig. 27); a hundred flint knives;
two chipped flints, which archæologists believe to be sling projectiles;
a rounded pebble with a depression in the middle, which, according to
Mr. Steinhauer, keeper of the Ethnographical Museum at Copenhagen, was
used to flake off flint-knives; lastly, a large quantity of implements
made of reindeers' horn, which exhibit the most varied shapes. We may
mention, for instance, the arrow-heads fashioned very simply, without
wings or barbs (fig. 28); some of these heads appear to have been
subjected to the action of fire, as if they had been left in the body of
the animal during the process of cooking; a bodkin made of roebuck's
horn (fig. 29) very carefully pointed, and in such a good state of
preservation that it might still be used, says M. Lartet, to perforate
the skins of animals before sewing them; and this must, in fact, have
been its use; a second instrument, similar to the preceding, but less
finely pointed, which M. Lartet is inclined to consider as an instrument
for tatooing; some thin blades of various sizes, which, according to
Steinhauer, much resemble the reindeer-horn polishers still used by the
Laplanders to flatten down the seams of their coarse skin-garments;
another blade, accidentally broken at both ends, one of the sides of
which is perfectly polished and shows two series of transversal lines at
equal distances apart; the lateral edges of this blade are marked with
deeper notches at almost regular intervals (fig. 30). M. Lartet
considers that these lines and notches are signs of numeration, and Mr.
Steinhauer has propounded the idea that they are hunting-marks. Both
hypotheses are possible, and the more so as they do not contradict each
other.
[Illustration: Fig. 28.--Arrow-head made of Reindeer's Horn, found in
the Sepulchral Cave of Aurignac.]
[Illustration: Fig. 29.--Bodkin made of Roebuck's Horn, found in the
Sepulchral Cave of Aurignac].
[Illustration: Fig. 30.--Truncated Blade in Reindeer's Horn, bearing two
Series of transversal Lines and Notches, probably used for numeration.]
Among the bones, some were partly carbonised, others, only scorched, but
the greater number had not been subjected at all to the action of fire.
All the bones having medullary hollows, and commonly called
marrow-bones, were broken lengthwise, a certain indication that this
operation had been effected to extract the marrow, and that these bones
had been used at a feast carried on according to the manners and customs
of that epoch, when the marrow out of animal bones was regarded as the
most delicious viand--many men of our own days being also of this
opinion.
A certain number of these bones exhibited shallow cuts, showing that a
sharp instrument had been used to detach the flesh from them. Nearly all
those which had not been subjected to the action of fire bore the mark
of the teeth of some carnivorous animal. This animal, doubtless, came to
gnaw them after man had taken his departure from the spot. This
carnivorous animal could have been none other than the hyæna, as is
shown by the excrements left in the place.
The ossiferous mound situated immediately above the fire-hearth
contained, like the subjacent ashes, a large number of the bones of
certain herbivorous animals.
The discovery of the fire-hearth situated in front of the cave of
Aurignac, and the various remains which were found intermingled
underneath it, enable us to form some idea of the way in which funeral
ceremonies took place among the men of the great bear epoch. The parents
and friends of the defunct accompanied him to his last resting-place;
after which, they assembled together to partake of a feast in front of
the tomb soon to be closed on his remains. Then everyone took his
departure, leaving the scene of their banquet free to the hyænas, which
came to devour the remains of the meal.
This custom of funeral-feasts is, doubtless, very natural, as it has
been handed down to our days; though it now chiefly exists among the
poorer classes.
In accordance with the preceding data we here represent (fig. 31) a
_funeral feast during the great bear and mammoth epoch_.
[Illustration: Fig. 31.--Funeral Feast during the Great Bear and Mammoth
Epoch.]
On a flat space situated in front of the cave destined to receive the
body of the defunct, some men covered merely with bears' skins with the
hair on them are seated round a fire, taking their part in the
funeral-feast. The flesh of the great bear and mammoth forms the _menu_
of these primitive love-feasts. In the distance may be seen the colossal
form of the mammoth, which forms the chief dish of the banquet. The
manner of eating is that which distinguishes the men of that epoch; they
suck the marrow from the long bones which have previously been split
lengthwise, and eat the flesh of the animals cooked on the hearth. The
dead body is left at the entrance of the cavern; the primitive
grave-stone will soon close on it for ever.
The relics found in the interior of the sepulchral cave of Aurignac have
led to a very remarkable inference, which shows how interesting and
fertile are the studies which have been made by naturalists on the
subject of the antiquity of man. The weapons, the trophies, the
ornaments, and the joints of meat, placed by the side of the
defunct--does not all this seem to establish the fact that a belief in a
future life existed at an extraordinarily remote epoch? What could have
been the use of these provisions for travelling, and these instruments
of war, if the man who had disappeared from this world was not to live
again in another? The great and supreme truth--that the whole being
of man does not die with his material body is, therefore, innate in the
human heart; since it is met with in the most remote ages, and even
existed in the mental consciousness of the man of the stone age.
An instinct of art also appears to have manifested itself in the human
race at this extremely ancient date. Thus, one of the articles picked up
in the sepulchral cave of Aurignac consisted of a canine tooth of a
young cave-bear, perforated so as to allow of its being suspended in
some way or other. Now this tooth is so carved that no one can help
recognising in it a rough outline of some animal shape, the precise
nature of which is difficult to determine, although it may, perhaps, be
the head of a bird. It was, doubtless, an amulet or jewel belonging to
one of the men interred in the cave, and was buried with him because he
probably attached a great value to it. This object, therefore, shows us
that some instincts of art existed in the men who hunted the great bear
and mammoth.
[Illustration: Fig. 32.--Carved and perforated Canine Tooth of a young
Cave-Bear.]
We shall close this account of the valuable discoveries which were made
in the sepulchral cave of Aurignac, by giving a list of the species of
mammals the bones of which were found either in the interior or at the
exterior of this cavern. The first six species are extinct; the others
are still living:--
The great cave-bear (_Ursus spelæus_); the mammoth (_Elephas
primigenius_); the rhinoceros (_Rhinoceros tichorhinus_); the great
cave-lion (_Felis spelæa_); the cave-hyæna (_Hyæna spelæa_); the
gigantic stag (_Megaceros hibernicus_); the bison, the reindeer, the
stag, the horse, the ass, the roe, the wild boar, the fox, the wolf,
the wild-cat, the badger, and the polecat.
We think it as well to place before the eyes of our readers the exact
forms of the heads of the three great fossil animals found in the cave
of Aurignac, which geologically characterise the great bear and mammoth
epoch, and evidently prove that man was contemporary with these extinct
species. Figs. 33, 34, and 35 represent the heads of the cave-bear, the
_Rhinoceros tichorhinus_, and the _megaceros_ or gigantic stag; they are
taken from the casts which adorn the great hall of the Archæological and
Pre-historic Museum at Saint-Germain, and are among the most curious
ornaments of this remarkable museum.
[Illustration: Fig. 33.--Head of a Cave-Bear found in the Cave of
Aurignac.]
[Illustration: Fig. 34.--Head of the _Rhinoceros Tichorhinus_ found in
the Cave of Aurignac.]
[Illustration: Fig. 35.--Head of a great Stag (_Megaceros hibernicus_)
found in the Cave of Aurignac.]
Of all these species, the fox has left behind him the largest number of
remains. This carnivorous animal was represented by about eighteen to
twenty individual specimens. Neither the mammoth, great cave-lion, nor
wild boar appear to have been conveyed into the cave in an entire state;
for two or three molar or incisive teeth are the only remains of their
carcases which have been found.
But still it is a certain fact that the men who fed on the _Rhinoceros
tichorinus_ buried their dead in this cavern. In fact, M. Lartet asserts
that the bones of the rhinoceros had been split by man in order to
extract the marrow. They had also been gnawed by hyænas, which would not
have been the case if these bones had not been thrown away, and left on
the ground in a fresh state.
The burial-place of Aurignac dates back to the earliest antiquity, that
is to say, it was anterior to the European diluvial period. Thus,
according to M. Lartet, the great cave-bear was the first of the extinct
species to disappear; then the mammoth and _Rhinoceros tichorhinus_ were
lost sight of; still later, the reindeer first, and then the bison,
migrated to the northern and eastern regions of Europe. Now, the
_diluvium_, that is to say, the beds formed by drifted pebbles and
originating in the great derangement caused by the inundation of the
quaternary epoch, does not contain any traces of the bones of the
cave-bear. It, therefore, belongs to an epoch of the stone age more
recent than the cave of Aurignac.[6] All this goes to prove that this
sepulchral cave, which has furnished the science of the antiquity of man
with so much valuable information, belonged to the great bear and
mammoth epoch, which preceded the diluvial cataclysm.
FOOTNOTE:
[6] 'Nouvelles Recherches sur la Coexistence de l'Homme et des grands
Mammifères fossiles.' ('Annales de Sciences naturelles, Zoologie,' vol.
xv.)
CHAPTER IV.
Other Caves of the Epoch of the Great Bear and Mammoth--Type
of the Human Race during the Epochs of the Great Bear and the
Reindeer--The Skulls from the Caves of Engis and Neanderthal.
With regard to the bone-caves, which have furnished us with such
valuable information as to the men who lived in the epoch of the great
bear and the mammoth, we have laid down a necessary distinction,
dividing them into caves which served as dens for wild beasts, those
which have afforded a refuge for man, and those which were used as his
burial-places. In order to complete this subject and set forth the whole
of the discoveries which have been made by science on this interesting
point, we will say a few words as to the principal bone-caves belonging
to the same epoch which have been studied in France, England and
Belgium.
We will, in the first place, call attention to the fact that these
caverns, taken together, embrace a very long period of time, perhaps an
enormous number of centuries, and that hence a considerable difference
must result in the nature of the remains of human industry which they
contain. Some certainly manifest a perceptible superiority over others
in an industrial point of view; but the reason is that they belong to a
period somewhat nearer our own, although still forming a part of the
epoch of the great bear and mammoth.
We shall divide the caves in France into three groups--those of the
east, those of the west and centre, and those of the south.
In the first group, we shall mention the _Trou de la Fontaine_ and the
_Cave of Sainte-Reine_, both situated in the environs of Toul (Meurthe).
These two caves have furnished bones of bears, hyænas, and the
rhinoceros, along with the products of human industry. That of
Sainte-Reine has been explored by M. Guérin, and especially by M.
Husson, who has searched it with much care.
The second group includes the grottos _des Fées_, of Vergisson,
Vallières, and La Chaise.
The Grotte des Fées, at Arcy (Yonne), has been searched and described by
M. de Vibraye, who ascertained the existence of two distinct beds, the
upper one belonging to the reindeer epoch, the lower one to the great
bear epoch. These two beds were divided from each other by matter which
had formed a part of the roof of the cave, and had fallen down on the
earlier deposit. In the more ancient bed of the two, M. de Vibraye
collected fractured bones of the bear and cave-hyæna, the mammoth, and
the _Rhinoceros tichorhinus_, all intermingled with flints wrought by
the hand of man, amongst which were chips of hyaline quartz
(rock-crystal.) His fellow-labourer, M. Franchet, extracted from it a
human _atlas_ (the upper part of the vertebral column).
The cave of Vergisson (Saône-et-Loire), explored by M. de Ferry,
furnished the same kind of bones as the preceding cave, and also bones
of the bison, the reindeer, the horse, the wolf, and the fox, all
intermixed with wrought flints and fragments of rough pottery. The
presence of this pottery indicated that the cave of Vergisson belonged
to the latter period of the great bear epoch.
The cave of Vallières (Loir-et-Cher), was worked, first by M. de
Vibraye, and subsequently by the Abbé Bourgeois. There was nothing
particular to be remarked.
The cave of La Chaise, near Vouthon (Charente), explored by MM.
Bourgeois and Delaunay, furnished bones of the cave-bear, the
rhinoceros, and the reindeer, flint blades and scrapers, a bodkin and a
kind of hook made of bone, an arrow-head in the shape of a willow-leaf
likewise of bone, a bone perforated so as to hang on a string, and, what
is more remarkable, two long rods of reindeer's horn, tapering at one
end and bevelled off at the other, on which figures of animals were
graven. These relics betray an artistic feeling of a decided character
as existing in the men, the traces of whom are found in this cave.
Among the caves in the south of France, we must specify those of
Périgord, those of Bas-Languedoc, and of the district of Foix
(department of Ariége).
The caves of Périgord have all been explored by MM. Lartet and Christy,
who have also given learned descriptions of them. We will mention the
caves of the _Gorge d'Enfer_ and _Moustier_, in the valley of the
Vézère, and that of _Pey de l'Azé_, all three situate in the department
of Dordogne (arrondissement of Sarlat).
The two caves of the _Gorge d'Enfer_ were, unfortunately, cleared out in
1793, in order to utilise the deposits of saltpetre which they contained
in the manufacture of gunpowder. They have, however, furnished flints
chipped into the shapes of scrapers, daggers, &c., a small pebble of
white quartz, hollowed out on one side, which had probably been used as
a mortar, and instruments of bone or reindeer's horn, three of which
showed numerous notches. Bones of the great bear clearly indicated the
age of these settlements.
The cave of Moustier, situated about 80 feet above the Vézère, is
celebrated for the great number and characteristic shapes of its stone
implements, which we have before spoken of. Hatchets of the
almond-shaped type, like those of the _diluvium_ of Abbeville and
Saint-Acheul, were very plentiful. Bi-convex spear-heads were also
found, of very careful workmanship, and instruments which might be held
in the hand, some of them of considerable dimensions; but no pieces of
bone or of reindeer's horn were discovered which had been adapted to any
purpose whatever. The bones were those of the great bear and cave-hyæna,
accompanied by separate _laminæ_ of molars of the mammoth, the use of
which it is impossible to explain. Similar fragments were met with in
some of the other Périgord settlements, and M. Lartet also found some at
Aurignac.
Next to the cave of Pey de l'Azé, on which we shall not dwell, come the
caverns of Bas-Languedoc, which we shall only enumerate. They consist of
the caves of Pondres and Souvignargues (Hérault), which were studied in
1829 by M. de Christol, who recognised, from the data he derived from
them, the co-existence of man and the great extinct mammals; also those
of Pontil and La Roque, the first explored by M. Paul Gervais, the
second by M. Boutin.
We shall now consider the caves of the department of Ariége, some of
which furnish objects of very considerable interest. They consist of the
caves of _Massat_, _Lherm_, and _Bouicheta_.
Two caves, very remarkable on account of their extent, have been
explored by M. Fontan; they are situate in the valley of Massat, which
contains others of less importance. One is placed at the foot of a
limestone mountain, about 60 feet above the bottom of the valley; the
opening of the other is much higher up; only the latter belongs to the
great bear epoch.
From the results of his explorations, M. Fontan is of opinion that the
ground in them has been greatly altered by some violent inundation which
has intermingled the remains of various geological epochs. This _savant_
found in the cave of Massat the bones of the bear, the hyæna and the
great cave-lion, the fox, the badger, the wild boar, the roe, &c., two
human teeth, and a bone arrow-head. Two beds of ashes and charcoal were
also remarked at different depths.
In the upper cave of Massat was found the curious stone on which is
designed with tolerable correctness a sketch of the great cave-bear
(fig. 36). This singular record marks out for us the earliest trace of
the art of design, which we shall find developing itself in a more
decisive way during the pre-historic period which follows the one we are
now considering.
[Illustration: Fig. 36.--Sketch of the Great Bear on a Stone found in
the Cave of Massat.]
The caves of Lherm and Bouicheta were inspected by MM. Garrigou and
Filhol, who found in them bones of most of the great mammals belonging
to extinct species, and particularly those of the great bear, many of
which are broken, and still show the marks of the instruments which were
used for cutting the flesh off them. Some have been gnawed by hyænas, as
proved by the deep grooves with which they are marked. Lower jaw-bones
of the great bear, and of the great cave-lion, have been found
fashioned, according to a uniform plan, in the shape of hoes. MM.
Garrigou and Filhol were of opinion that these jaw-bones, when thus
modified, might have been used as offensive weapons.
The cave of Lherm contained also human bones; namely, three teeth, a
fragment of a _scapula_, a broken _ulna_ and _radius_, and the last
joint of the great toe; all these remains presented exactly the same
appearance and condition as those of the _Ursus spelæus_, and must,
therefore, have belonged to the same epoch.
We have stated that numerous caves have been explored in England,
Belgium, and several other countries. We shall not undertake to give
with regard to each details which would only be a reproduction of those
which precede. We therefore confine ourselves to mentioning the most
celebrated of the caverns belonging to the epoch of the great bear and
the mammoth.
In England we have the Kent's Hole and Brixham caverns, near Torquay in
Devonshire, the latter of which is many hundred yards in extent; the
caves of the Gower peninsula, in Glamorganshire (South Wales), which
have been carefully studied within the last few years by Messrs.
Falconer and Wood; in these were found flint instruments along with
bones of the _Elephas antiquus_ and the _Rhinoceros hemitæchus_, species
which were still more ancient than the mammoth and the _Rhinoceros
tichorhinus_; those of Kirkdale, in Yorkshire, explored by Dr. Buckland,
the geologist; those near Wells in Somersetshire, Wokey Hole, Minchin
Hole, &c.
We must mention, in the north of Italy, the caves of Chiampo and Laglio,
on the edge of the Lake of Como, in which, just as at Vergisson,
fragments of rough pottery have been discovered, indicating some degree
of progress in the manufacture; also the caves in the neighbourhood of
Palermo, and especially those of San Ciro and Macagnone.
In the last-mentioned cave, in the midst of an osseous _breccia_ which
rose to the roof, Dr. Falconer collected flint instruments, splinters of
bone, pieces of baked clay and wood charcoal mixed up with large
land-shells (_Helix vermiculata_), in a perfect state of preservation,
horses' teeth, and the excrements of the hyæna, all cemented together in
a deposit of carbonate of lime. In a lower bed were found the bones of
various species of the hippopotamus, the _Elephas antiquus_, and other
great mammals.
Lastly, Spain, Algeria, Egypt, and Syria also present to our notice
caves belonging to the Stone Age.
In the New World various bone-caverns have been explored. We must
especially mention Brazil, in which country Lund searched no less than
eight hundred caves of different epochs, exhuming in them a great number
of unknown animal species. In one of these caves, situated near the Lake
of Sumidouro, Lund found some human bones which had formed a part of
thirty individuals of different ages, and were "in a similar state of
decomposition, and in similar circumstances to the bones of various
extinct species of animals."
Thus far we have designedly omitted to mention the Belgian caves. They
have, in fact, furnished us with such remarkable relics of former ages
that, in dealing with them, we could not confine ourselves to a mere
notice. The caves in the neighbourhood of Liége, which were explored in
1833 by Schmerling, deserve to be described in some detail.
Schmerling examined more than forty caves in the Valley of the Meuse and
its tributaries. The access to some of these caves was so difficult that
in order to reach them it was necessary for the explorer to let himself
down by a cord, and then to crawl flat on his face through narrow
galleries, so as to make his way into the great chambers; there he was
obliged to remain for hours, and sometimes whole days, standing up to
his knees in mud, with water dripping from the walls upon his head,
while overlooking the workmen breaking up with their pick-axes the layer
of stalagmite, so as to bring to light the bone earth--the records on
which are inscribed the palpable evidences of the high antiquity of man.
Schmerling was compelled to accomplish a perilous expedition of this
kind in his visit to the cave of Engis, which has become celebrated by
the two human skulls found there by him.
Nearly all the caves in the province of Liége contain scattered bones of
the great bear, the cave-hyæna, the mammoth, and the rhinoceros,
intermixed with those of species which are still living, such as the
wolf, the wild boar, the roe, the beaver, the porcupine, &c. Several of
them contained human bones, likewise much scattered and rubbed; they
were found in all positions, and at every elevation, sometimes above and
sometimes below the above-mentioned animal remains; from this it may be
concluded that these caves had been filled with running water, which
drifted in all kinds of _débris_. None of them, however, contained any
gnawed bones, or the fossil excrement of any animal species, which puts
an end to the hypothesis that these caves had been used as dens by wild
beasts. Here and there bones were found belonging to the same skeleton,
which were in perfect preservation, and lying in their natural
juxtaposition; they were probably drifted into the cave by gently
flowing water, while still covered with their flesh, and no movement of
the ground had since separated them. But no complete skeleton has as yet
been discovered, even among the smaller species of mammiferous animals,
the disjunction of which is generally less complete.
In almost all the caves Schmerling met with flint implements chipped
into the form of hatchets and knives, and he calls attention to the fact
"that none of them could have been introduced into the caves at a
posterior epoch, as they were found in the same position as the animal
remains which accompanied them." In the cave of Clokier, about two and a
half miles from Liége, he picked up a polished bone in the shape of a
needle, having an eye pierced at the base; in the cave of Engis he
likewise found a carved bone, and also some worked flints.
We here close our enumeration of the various sources of the
archæological records which have served to reconstruct the history of
primitive man during that period of the stone age which we have
designated under the name of the epoch of the great bear and the
mammoth. Before concluding our remarks as to this period, there is one
question which we must enter upon, although there is a great deficiency
in any positive records by which it might be solved. What was the
organic type of man during this epoch? Could we, for instance, determine
what amount of intellect man possessed in this earliest and ancient date
of his history?
The answer to this question--although a very uncertain answer--has been
supposed to have been found in the caves of Engis and Engihoul, of which
we have just spoken as having been explored by Schmerling with such
valuable results.
The cave of Engis contained the remains of three human beings, among
which were two skulls, one that of a youth, the other that of an adult.
The latter only was preserved, the former having fallen into dust while
it was being extracted from the ground. Two small fragments of a human
skull were likewise found at Engihoul; also a great many of the bones of
the hands and feet of three individuals.
The Engis skull has been a subject of protracted argument to the
palæontologists and anatomists of the present day. Floods of ink have
been spilt upon the question; discussions without end have taken place
with respect to this piece of bone, in order to fix accurately the
amount of intellect possessed by the inhabitants of Belgium during the
epoch of the great bear and the mammoth. Up to a certain point the
development of the brain may, in fact, be ascertained from the shape of
the cranial envelope, and it is well known that a remarkable similarity
exists between the cerebral capacity and the intellectual development of
all mammiferous animals. But in a question of this kind we must
carefully avoid a quicksand on which anthropologists too often make
shipwreck; this danger consists in basing a theory on a too limited
number of elements, and of generalising conclusions which are perhaps
drawn from one special case. Because we find a portion of a skull--not
even a whole skull--belonging to a human being contemporary with the
great bear, we assume that we can determine the amount of intellect
possessed by man during this epoch. But what proof have we that this
skull is not that of an idiot, or, on the contrary, the skull of an
individual possessing a superior degree of intelligence? What deduction
can be logically drawn from the examination of one single skull? None
whatever! "_Testis unus testis nullus_;" and what is said by
jurisprudence, which is nothing but good sense in legal
matters--science, which is nothing but good sense in learned questions,
ought likewise to repeat. If we found ten or twelve skulls, each
presenting the same characteristics, we should be justified in thinking
that we had before our eyes the human type corresponding to the epoch we
are considering; but, we again ask, what arguments could be based on a
few fragments of one single skull?
These reservations having been laid down, let us see what some of our
great anatomical reasoners have thought about the Engis skull.
The representation which we here give (fig. 37) of the Engis skull was
taken from the cast in the Museum of Saint-Germain, and we may perceive
from it that the skull is not complete; the entire base of the skull is
wanting, and all the bones of the face have disappeared. Consequently it
is impossible either to measure the facial angle or to take account of
the development of the lower jaw.
[Illustration: Fig. 37.--Portion of a Skull of an Individual belonging
to the Epoch of the Great Bear and the Mammoth, found in the Cave of
Engis.]
We shall not, therefore, surprise any of our readers when we state that
the opinions on this subject differ in the most extraordinary degree.
In the eyes of Professor Huxley, the English anatomist, this skull
offers no indication of degradation; it presents "a good average," and
it might just as well be the head of a philosopher as the head of an
uncivilised savage. To others--for instance, to Carl Vogt--it indicates
an altogether rudimentary degree of intellect.
Thus Hippocrates-Huxley says _yes_, Galen-Vogt says _no_, and
Celsus-Lyell says neither _yes_ nor _no_. This causes us but little
surprise, but it induces us not to waste more time in discussing a
question altogether in the dark, that is, upon altogether incomplete
data.
[Illustration: Fig. 38.--Portion of the so-called Neanderthal Skull.]
We will now turn our attention to another skull, equally celebrated,
which was found in 1857 by Dr. Fuhlrott, near Dusseldorf, in a deep
ravine known by the name of Neanderthal. This skull (fig. 38) was
discovered in the midst of a small cave under a layer of mud about 5
feet in thickness. The entire skeleton was doubtless buried on the same
spot, but the workmen engaged in clearing out the cave must have
inadvertently scattered a great portion of the bones, for the largest
only could be collected.
It is well to call attention to the fact that no animal remains were
found near these bones; there is, therefore, no certain proof that the
latter can be assigned to the epoch of the great bear: they might, in
fact, be either more recent or more modern. Most geologists are,
however, of opinion that they ought to be referred to the above-named
early date.
The Neanderthal skull, of which we possess even a smaller portion than
of the preceding, differs from the Engis skull. It is characterised by
an extraordinary development of the frontal sinuses; that is, by an
enormous projection of the superciliary ridges, behind which the frontal
bone presents a considerable depression. The cranium is very thick, and
of an elongated elliptical shape; the forehead is narrow and low.
These remarks were made by Professor Schaaffhausen, who also established
the fact of the identity in length of the femur, the humerus, the
radius, and the ulna, with the same bones of a modern European of equal
size. But the Prussian _savant_ was surprised at the really remarkable
thickness of these bones, and also at the large development of the
projections and depressions which served for the insertion of the
muscles.
Fig. 38 represents this skull, which is drawn from the cast in the
Museum of St. Germain.
Professor Schaaffhausen's opinion with regard to this skull is, that it
manifests a degree of intelligence more limited than that of the races
of negroes who are least favoured by nature, in other words, it
approaches the nature of the beast more nearly than any other known
human skull. But, on the other hand, Mr. Busk and Dr. Barnard Davis look
upon this skull as very closely allied to the present race of men; and
Professor Gratiolet produced before the Anthropological Society of Paris
an idiot's head of the present day, which showed all the osteological
characteristics peculiar to the Neanderthal skull. Lastly, an
anthropologist of great authority, Dr. Pruner-Bey, has brought forward
all requisite evidence to prove that the Neanderthal skull is identical,
in all its parts, with the cranium of the Celt.
We see, therefore, that the opinion propounded by Dr. Schaaffhausen at
the commencement of his studies was not able to stand its ground before
the opposition resulting from subsequent labours on the point; and that
this head of a man belonging to the epoch of the great bear and mammoth,
which he regarded as manifesting the most limited amount of
intelligence, differed in no way from the heads belonging to Celts of
historic times, whose moral qualities and manly courage make Frenchmen
proud to call themselves their descendants.
We need scarcely add that the examination of this latter skull, which
dated back to the first origin of mankind, is sufficient to set at
naught all that has been written as to the pretended analogy of
structure existing between primitive man and the ape, and to wipe out
for ever from scientific phraseology the improper and unhappy term
_fossil man_, which has not only been the cause of so many lamentable
misunderstandings, but has also too long arrested the formation and the
progress of the science of the first starting-point of man.
Other remains of human skulls, appearing to date back to a very ancient
epoch, have been found in various countries, since the discovery of
those above-named. We will mention, a jaw-bone found by M. Édouard
Dupont in the cave of Naulette, near Dinant, in Belgium--a frontal and
parietal bone, extracted from the _Lehm_ in the valley of the Rhine, at
Eggisheim near Colmar, by Dr. Faudel--a skull found by Professor Bocchi,
of Florence, in the Olmo pass, near Arezzo--lastly, the celebrated
jaw-bone from Moulin-Quignon, near Abbeville, found in 1863 by Boucher
de Perthes, in the _diluvium_, of which bone we have given an
illustration in the introduction to this volume. It is acknowledged by
all anthropologists that this portion of the skull of the man of
Moulin-Quignon bears a perfect resemblance to that of a man of small
size of the present age.
From the small number of skulls which we possess, it is impossible for
us to estimate what was the precise degree of intelligence to be
ascribed to man at the epoch of the great bear and mammoth. No one,
assuredly, will be surprised at the fact, that the human skull in these
prodigiously remote ages did not present any external signs of great
intellectual development. The nature of man is eminently improvable; it
is, therefore, easily to be understood, that in the earliest ages of his
appearance on the earth his intelligence should have been of a limited
character. Time and progress were destined both to improve and extend
it; the flame of the first-lighted torch was to be expanded with the
lapse of centuries!
II.
EPOCH OF THE REINDEER, OR OF MIGRATED ANIMALS.
CHAPTER I.
Mankind during the Epoch of the Reindeer--Their Manners and
Customs--Food--Garments--Weapons, Utensils, and Implements--
Pottery--Ornaments--Primitive Arts--The principal Caverns--
Type of the Human Race during the Epoch of the Reindeer.
We have now arrived at that subdivision of the stone age which we
designate by the name of the _Reindeer Epoch_, or the _Epoch of migrated
animals_. Many ages have elapsed since the commencement of the
quaternary geological epoch. The mighty animals which characterised the
commencement of this period have disappeared, or are on the point of
becoming extinct. The great bear (_Ursus spelæus_) and the cave-hyæna
(_Hyæna spelæa_) will soon cease to tread the soil of our earth. It will
not be long before the final term will be completed of the existence of
the cave-lion (_Felis spelæa_), the mammoth, and the _Rhinoceros
tichorhinus_. Created beings diminish in size as they improve in type.
To make up for these losses, numerous herds of reindeer now inhabit the
forests of western Europe. In that part of the continent which was one
day to be called France, these animals make their way as far as the
Pyrenees. The horse (_Equus caballus_), in no way different from the
present species, is the companion of the above-named valuable ruminant;
also the bison (_Biso europæus_), the urus (_Bos primigenius_), the
musk-ox (_Ovibos moschatus_), the elk, the deer, the chamois, the ibex,
and various species of rodents, amongst others, the beaver, the
hamster-rat, the lemming, the spermophilus, &c.
After the intense cold of the glacial period the temperature has become
sensibly milder, but it is still much lower than at the present day in
the same countries; as the reindeer, an animal belonging to a
hyperborean climate, can both enjoy life and multiply in the
comparatively southern part of Europe.
The general composition of the _fauna_ which we have just described is a
striking proof of the rigorous cold which still characterised the
climate of central Europe. Animals which then inhabited those countries
are now only met with in the high northern latitudes of the old and new
worlds, in close proximity to the ice and snow, or on the lofty summits
of great mountain-chains. To localities of this kind have now retired
the reindeer, the musk-ox, the elk, the chamois, the wild-goat, the
hamster-rat, the lemming and the spermophilus. The beaver, too, is at
the present day confined almost entirely to Canada.
Mr. Christy, an English naturalist, has remarked with much acuteness
that the accumulations of bones and other organic remains in caves
actually imply the existence of a rigorous climate. Under the influence
of even a merely moderate temperature, these accumulations of bones and
animal remains would, in fact, have given forth putrid exhalations which
would have prevented any human being from living in close contiguity to
these infectious heaps. The Esquimaux of the present day live, in this
respect, very much like the people of primitive ages, that is, close by
the side of the most fetid _débris_; but, except in the cold regions of
the north, they would be quite unable to do this.
[Illustration: Fig. 39.--Man of the Reindeer Epoch.]
What progress was made by the man of the reindeer epoch (fig. 39) beyond
that attained by his ancestors? This is the question we are about to
consider. But we must confine the sphere of our study to the only two
countries in which a sufficient number of investigations have been made
in respect to the epoch of the reindeer. We allude to that part of
Europe which nowadays forms France and Belgium.
During the reindeer epoch, man wrought the flint to better effect than
in the preceding period. He also manufactured somewhat remarkable
implements in bone, ivory, and reindeers' horn. In the preceding period,
human bones were found in caves, mixed up indiscriminately with those of
animals; in the epoch we are now considering, this promiscuous
intermingling is no longer met with.
We shall first pass in review man as existing in this epoch, in respect
to his habitation and food. We shall then proceed to speak of the
productions of his industry, and also of the earliest essays of his
artistic genius. Lastly, we shall briefly consider his physical
organisation.
With respect to his habitation, man, during the reindeer epoch, still
took up his abode in caves. According to their depth and the light
penetrating them, he either occupied the whole extent of them or
established himself in the outlet only. About the centre of the cavern
some slabs of stone, selected from the hardest rocks, such as sandstone
or slate, were bedded down in the ground, and formed the hearth for
cooking his food. During the long nights of winter the whole family must
have assembled round this hearth.
Sometimes, in order the better to defend himself against the various
surprises to which he was exposed, the man of the reindeer epoch
selected a cavern with a very narrow inlet which could only be entered
by climbing.
A cave formed naturally in the deepest clefts and hollows of some rock
constituted, in every climate, the earliest habitation of man. In cold
climates it was necessary for him to find some retreat in which to pass
the night, and in warmer latitudes he had to ward off the heat of the
day. But these natural dwellings could only be met with in districts
where rocks existed which offered facilities for cover in the way of
clefts and holes. When man took up his abode in a level country, he was
compelled to construct for himself some place of shelter. By collecting
together stones, brought from various directions, he then managed to
build an artificial cavern. Choosing a spot where some natural
projection overhung the ground, he enlarged, as far as he was able, this
natural roof, and, bringing art to the assistance of nature, he
ultimately found himself in possession of a convenient retreat.
We must not omit to add that the spot in which he established his
dwelling was always in the vicinity of some running stream.
In this way, therefore, the inhabitants of the plains formed their
habitations during the epoch which we are considering.
We have, also, certain proofs that primitive tribes, during this period,
did not take up their abode in natural caverns exclusively, but that
they were able to make for themselves more convenient sheltering-places
under the cover of some great overhanging rock. In various regions of
France, especially in Périgord, numerous ancient open-air human
settlements have been discovered. They must have been mere sheds or
places of shelter, leaning against the base of some high cliff, and
protected against the inclemency of the weather by projections of the
rock which, more or less, hung over them, forming a kind of roof. The
name of _rock-shelters_ has been given to these dwellings of primitive
man.
These wild retreats are generally met with in the lower part of some
valley in close proximity to a running stream. They, like the caverns,
contain very rich deposits of the bones of mammals, birds and fishes,
and also specimens of hatchets and utensils made of flint, bone, and
horn. Traces of hearths are also discovered.
One of the most remarkable of these natural shelters belonging to the
reindeer epoch has been discovered at Bruniquel, in the department of
Tarn-et-Garonne, not far from Montauban.
[Illustration: Fig. 40.--Rock-shelter at Bruniquel, a supposed
Habitation of Man during the Reindeer Epoch.]
On the left bank of the river Aveyron, under the overhanging shelter of
one of the highest rocks of Bruniquel and in close proximity to a
_château_, the picturesque ruins of which still stand on the brow of the
cliff above, there was discovered, in 1866, a fire-hearth of the
pre-historic period; this hearth and its surroundings have afforded us
the most complete idea of one of the rock-shelters of man during the
reindeer epoch.
This rock, known by the name of Montastruc, is about 98 feet high, and
it overhangs the ground below for an extent of 46 to 49 feet. It covers
an area of 298 square yards. In this spot, M. V. Brun, the Director of
the Museum of Natural History at Montauban, found a host of objects of
various descriptions, the study of which has furnished many useful ideas
for the history of this epoch of primitive humanity.
By taking advantage of the photographic views of the pre-historic
settlement of Bruniquel, which M. V. Brun has been kind enough to
forward to us, we have been enabled to compose the sketch which is
presented in fig. 40 of a rock-shelter, or an open-air settlement of man
in the reindeer epoch.
Men during the reindeer epoch did not possess any notion of agriculture.
They had not as yet subdued and domesticated any animal so as to profit
by its strength, or to ensure by its means a constant supply of food.
They were, therefore, like their forefathers, essentially hunters; and
pursued wild animals, killing them with their spears or arrows. The
reindeer was the animal which they chiefly attacked. This mammal, which
then existed all over Europe, in the centre as well as in the south
(although it has now retired or migrated into the regions of the extreme
north), was for the man of this period all that it nowadays is to the
Laplander--the most precious gift of nature. They fed upon its flesh and
made their garments of its skin, utilising its tendons as thread in the
preparation of their dress; its bones and its antlers they converted
into all kinds of weapons and implements. Reindeer's horn was the
earliest raw material in the manufactures of these remote ages, and to
the man of this epoch was all that iron is to us.
The horse, the ox, the urus, the elk, the ibex, and the chamois, all
formed a considerable part of the food of men during this epoch. They
were in the habit of breaking the long bones and the skulls of the
recently-killed animals, in order to extract the marrow and the brain,
which they ate all steaming with the natural animal heat, as is done in
the present day by certain tribes in the Arctic regions. The meat of
this animal was cooked on their rough hearths; for they did not eat it
raw as some naturalists have asserted. The animal bones which have been
found, intermingled with human remains, in the caverns of this epoch
bear evident traces of the action of fire.
To this animal prey they occasionally added certain birds, such as the
great heath-cock, willow-grouse, owl, &c. When this kind of game fell
short, they fell back upon the rat. Round the hearthstone, in the cave
of Chaleux, M. Dupont found more than twenty pounds weight of the bones
of water-rats, half roasted.
Fish is an article of food which has always been much sought after by
man. By mere inference we might, therefore, readily imagine that man
during the reindeer epoch fed on fish as well as the flesh of animals,
even if the fact were not attested by positive evidence. This evidence
is afforded by the remains of fish-bones which are met with in the caves
of this epoch, intermingled with the bones of mammals, and also by
sketches representing parts of fishes, which are found roughly traced on
a great number of fragments of bone and horn implements.
The art of fishing, therefore, must certainly have been in existence
during the reindeer epoch. We cannot assert that it was practised during
that of the great bear and the mammoth; but, as regards the period we
are now considering, no doubt can be entertained on the point. In an
article on the 'Origine de la Navigation et de la Pêche,' M. G. de
Mortillet expresses himself as follows:
"The epoch of the reindeer presents to our notice several specimens of
fishing-tackle. The most simple is a little splinter of bone, generally
about one to two inches long, straight, slender, and pointed at both
ends. This is the primitive and elementary fish-hook. This small
fragment of bone or reindeer horn was fastened by the middle and covered
with a bait; when swallowed by a fish, or even by an aquatic bird, it
became fixed in the interior of the body by one of the pointed ends, and
the voracious creature found itself caught by the cord attached to the
primitive hook. At the museum of Saint-Germain, there are several of
these hooks which came from the rich deposits of Bruniquel, near
Montauban (Tarn-et-Garonne).
"Hooks belonging to the reindeer epoch have also been found in the caves
and retreats of Dordogne, so well explored by MM. Lartet and Christy.
Along with those of the simple form which we have just described, others
were met with of a much more perfect shape. These are likewise small
fragments of bone or reindeer's horn, with deep and wide notches on one
side, forming a more or less developed series of projecting and sharp
teeth, or barbs. Two of them are depicted in Plate B, VI. of the
'Reliquiæ Aquitanicæ.' M. Lartet is in possession of several of them;
but the most remarkable specimen forms a part of the beautiful
collection of M. Peccadeau de l'Isle, of Paris."[7]
There are strong reasons for believing that man during this epoch did
not confine himself to a diet of an exclusively carnivorous character,
for vegetable food is in perfect harmony with the organisation of our
species. By means of wild fruits, acorns, and chestnuts, he must have
introduced some little variety into his ordinary system of sustenance.
From the data which we have been considering, we furnish, in fig. 41, a
representation of _a feast during the reindeer epoch_. Men are engaged
in cleaving the head of a urus, in order to extract and devour the
smoking brains. Others, sitting round the fire in which the flesh of the
same animal is being cooked, are sucking out the marrow from the long
bones of the reindeer, which they have broken by blows with a hatchet.
[Illustration: Fig. 41.--A Feast during the Reindeer Epoch.]
It becomes a very interesting question to know whether the men of these
remote periods practised cannibalism or not. On this point we have as
yet no certain information. We will, however, state some facts which
seem to make in favour of this idea.
Human skulls have been found in Scotland mixed up promiscuously with
sculptured flints, remains of pottery, and children's bones; on the
latter, Professor Owen thinks that he can recognise the trace of human
teeth.
At Solutré, in Mâconnais, M. de Ferry has discovered human finger-joints
among the remains of cooking of the epoch of the great bear and mammoth,
and of that of the reindeer.
The appearance of certain bones from the caves of Ariége, dug up by MM.
Garrigou and Filhol, has led both these _savants_ to the opinion "that
pre-historic man may have been anthropophagous."
The same conclusion would be arrived at from the explorations which have
been undertaken in the grottos and caves of Northern Italy by M. Costa
de Beauregard. This latter _savant_ found in the caves the small
shin-bone of a child which had been carefully emptied and cleansed,
leading to the idea that the marrow had been eaten.
At a point near Finale, on the road from Genoa to Nice, in a vast cave
which was for a long period employed as a habitation for our race, M.
Issel discovered some human bones which had evidently been calcined.
Their whitish colour, their lightness, and their friability left no room
for doubt on the point. Added to this, the incrustations on their
surface still contained small fragments of carbon. Moreover, many of the
bones showed notches which could not have been made without the help of
some sharp instrument.
It is, therefore, probable that men in the stone age practised
anthropophagy; we have, really, no cause to be surprised at this; since,
in our own days, various savage tribes are addicted to cannibalism,
under a considerable diversity of circumstances.
Not the least trace has been discovered of animals' bones being gnawed
by dogs in any of the human settlements during the reindeer epoch. Man,
therefore, had not as yet reduced the dog to a state of domesticity.
How did primitive man dress himself during this epoch? He must have made
garments out of the skins of the quadrupeds which he killed in hunting,
and especially of the reindeer's hide. There can be no doubt on this
point. A large number of reindeers' antlers found in Périgord have at
their base certain cuts which evidently could only have been produced in
flaying the animal.
It is no less certainly proved that these men knew how to prepare
animals' skins by clearing them of their hair, and that they were no
longer compelled, like their ancestors, to cover themselves with rough
bear-skins still covered with their fur. To what purpose could they have
applied the flint scrapers which are met with everywhere in such
abundance, except for scraping the hair off the skins of wild beasts?
Having thus taken off the hair, they rendered them supple by rubbing
them in with brains and the marrow extracted from the long bones of the
reindeer. Then they cut them out into some very simple patterns, which
are, of course, absolutely unknown to us; and, finally, they joined
together the different pieces by rough sewing.
The fact that man at this epoch knew how to sew together reindeer skins
so as to convert them into garments, is proved by the discovery of
numerous specimens of instruments which must have been used for this
work; these are--and this is most remarkable--exactly the same as those
employed nowadays by the Laplanders, for the same purpose. They consist
of bodkins or stilettoes made of flint and bone (fig. 42), by means of
which the holes were pierced in the skin; also very carefully fashioned
needles, mostly of bone or horn (fig. 43).
[Illustration: Fig. 42.--Flint Bodkin or Stiletto for sewing Reindeer
Skins, found in the Cave of Les Eyzies (Périgord).]
[Illustration: Fig. 43.--Bone Needle for sewing.]
The inspection of certain reindeer bones has likewise enabled us to
recognise the fact that the men of this age used for thread the sinewy
fibres of this animal. On these bones transverse cuts may be noticed,
just in those very spots where the section of the tendon must have taken
place.
No metal was as yet known; consequently, man continued to make use of
stone instruments, both for the implements of labour, and also for
offensive and defensive weapons. The hatchet was but little employed as
a weapon of war, and the flint-knife was the arm most extensively used.
We must add to this, another potent although natural weapon; this was
the lower jaw-bone of the great bear, still retaining its sharp and
pointed canine tooth. The elongated and solid bone furnished the handle,
and the sharp tooth the formidable point; and with this instrument man
could in the chase attack and pierce any animal with which he entered
into a hand-to-hand conflict.
It may be noticed that this weapon is placed in the hand of the man in
fig. 39, which represents him during the reindeer epoch.
It must certainly be the case that the human race possesses to a very
high degree the taste for personal ornament, since objects used for
adornment are found in the most remote ages of mankind and in every
country. There can be no doubt that the men and women who lived in the
reindeer epoch sacrificed to the graces. In the midst of their
precarious mode of life, the idea entered into their minds of
manufacturing necklaces, bracelets, and pendants, either with shells
which they bored through the middle so as to be able to string them as
beads, or with the teeth of various animals which they pierced with
holes with the same intention, as represented in fig. 44.
[Illustration: Fig. 44.--The Canine Tooth of a Wolf, bored so as to be
used as an ornament.]
The horny portion of the ear of the horse or ox (fig. 45), was likewise
used for the same purpose, that is, as an object of adornment.
[Illustration: Fig. 45.--Ornament made of the bony part of a Horse's
Ear.]
It becomes a question whether man at this epoch had any belief in a
future life, and practised anything which bore a resemblance to
religious worship. The existence, round the fire-hearths of the
burial-caverns in Belgium, of large fossil elephant (mammoth's) bones--a
fact which has been pointed out by M. Édouard Dupont--gives us some
reason for answering this question in the affirmative. According to M.
Morlot, the practice of placing bones round caverns still survives, as a
religious idea, among the Indians. We may, therefore, appeal to this
discovery as a hint in favour of the existence of some religious feeling
among the men who lived during the reindeer epoch.
In the tombs of this epoch are found the weapons and knives which men
carried during their lifetime, and sometimes even a supply of the flesh
of animals used for food. This custom of placing near the body of the
dead provisions for the journey to be taken _post mortem_ is, as
remarked in reference to the preceding period, the proof of a belief in
another life.
Certain religious, or rather superstitious, ideas may have been attached
to some glittering stones and bright fragments of ore which have been
picked up in several settlements of these primitive tribes. M. de
Vibraye found at Bourdeilles (Charente), two nodules of hydrated oxide
of iron mixed with _débris_ of all kinds; and at the settlement of
Laugerie-Basse (Dordogne), in the middle of the hearth, a small mass of
copper covered with a layer of green carbonate. In other spots there
have been met with pieces of jet, violet fluor, &c., pierced through the
middle, doubtless to enable them to be suspended to the neck and ears.
The greater part of these objects may possibly be looked upon as
amulets, that is, symbols of some religious beliefs entertained by man
during the reindeer epoch.
The social instinct of man, the feeling which compels him to form an
alliance with his fellow-man, had already manifested itself at this
early period. Communication was established between localities at some
considerable distance from one another. Thus it was that the inhabitants
of the banks of the Lesse in Belgium travelled as far as that part of
France which is now called Champagne, in order to seek the flints which
they could not find in their own districts, although they were
indispensable to them in order to manufacture their weapons and
implements. They likewise brought back fossil shells, of which they made
fantastical necklaces. This distant intercourse cannot be called in
question, for certain evidences of it can be adduced. M. Édouard Dupont
found in the cave of Chaleux, near Dinant (Belgium), fifty-four of these
shells, which are not found naturally anywhere else than in Champagne.
Here, therefore, we have the rudiments of commerce, that is, of the
importation and exchange of commodities which form its earliest
manifestations in all nations of the world.
Again, it may be stated that there existed at this epoch real
manufactories of weapons and utensils, the productions of which were
distributed around the neighbouring country according to the particular
requirements of each family. The cave of Chaleux, which was mentioned
above, seems to have been one of these places of manufacture; for from
the 8th to the 30th of May, during twenty-two days only, there were
collected at this spot nearly 20,000 flints chipped into hatchets,
daggers, knives, scrapers, scratchers, &c.
Workshops of this kind were established in the settlements of
Laugerie-Basse and Laugerie-Haute in Périgord. The first was to all
appearance a special manufactory for spear-heads, some specimens of
which have been found by MM. Lartet and Christy of an extremely
remarkable nature; exact representations of them are delineated in fig.
46. In the second were fabricated weapons and implements of reindeers'
horn, if we may judge by the large quantity of remains of the antlers of
those animals, which were met with by these _savants_, almost all of
which bear the marks of sawing.
[Illustration: Fig. 46.--Spear-head found in the Cave of Laugerie-Basse
(Périgord).]
It is not, however, probable that the objects thus manufactured were
exported to any great distance, as was subsequently the case, that is,
in the polished stone epoch. How would it be possible to cross great
rivers, and to pass through wide tracts overgrown with thick forests, in
order to convey far and wide these industrial products; at a time, too,
when no means of communication existed between one country and another?
But it is none the less curious to be able to verify the existence of a
rudimentary commerce exercised at so remote an epoch.
The weapons, utensils and implements which were used by man during the
reindeer epoch testify to a decided progress having been made beyond
those of the preceding period. The implements are made of flint, bone,
or horn; but the latter kind are much the most numerous, chiefly in the
primitive settlements in the centre and south of France. Those of
Périgord are especially remarkable for the abundance of instruments made
of reindeers' bones.
The great diversity of type in the wrought flints furnishes a very
evident proof of the long duration of the historical epoch we are
considering. In the series of these instruments we can trace all the
phases of improvement in workmanship, beginning with the rough shape of
the hatchets found in the _diluvium_ at Abbeville, and culminating in
those elegant spear-heads which are but little inferior to any
production of later times.
We here give representations (fig. 47, 48, 49, 50), of the most curious
specimens of the stone and flint weapons of the reindeer epoch. Knives
and other small instruments, such as scrapers, piercers, borers, &c.,
form the great majority; hatchets are comparatively rare. Instruments
are also met with which might be used for a double purpose, for
instance, borers and also piercers. There are also round stones which
must have been used as hammers; it may, at least, be noticed that they
have received repeated blows.
[Illustration: Fig. 47.--Worked Flint from Périgord (Knife).]
[Illustration: Fig. 48.--Worked Flint from Périgord (Hatchet).]
[Illustration: Fig. 49.--Chipped Flint from Périgord (Knife).]
[Illustration: Fig. 50.--Chipped Flint from Périgord (Scraper).]
Sir J. Lubbock is of opinion that some of these stones were employed in
heating water, after they had been made red-hot in the fire. According
to the above-named author, this plan of procuring hot water is still
adopted among certain savage tribes who are still ignorant of the art of
pottery, and possess nothing but wooden vessels, which cannot be placed
over a fire.[8]
We must also mention the polishers formed of sandstone or some other
material with a rough surface. They could only be used for polishing
bone and horn, as the reindeer epoch does not admit of instruments of
polished stone.
There have also been collected here and there pebbles of granite or
quartzite hollowed out at the centre, and more or less perfectly rounded
on the edges. It has been conjectured that these were mortars, although
their small dimensions scarcely countenance this hypothesis. Neither is
it probable that they were used for pounding seed, as fancied by M. de
Vibraye. Nor does the idea which has been entertained of their being
used for producing fire seem to have any sufficient ground.
Among the most interesting specimens in the vast collection of flints
belonging to the reindeer epoch which have been found in the countries
of France and Belgium, we must mention the delicate and very
finely-toothed double-edged saws. The one we here represent (fig. 51) is
in the Archæological Museum of Saint-Germain. It does not measure more
than three-quarters of an inch in length, and about one-tenth of an inch
in width. It was found by M. V. Brun in one of the _rock-shelters_ at
Bruniquel.
[Illustration: Fig. 51.--Small Flint Saw, found in the Rock-shelter at
Bruniquel.]
Saws of this kind were, no doubt, employed for fashioning the antlers of
the reindeer, and other ruminants that shed their horns. The antler was
cut into on each side, and the fracture was finished by hand.
The objects of bone and reindeer-horn found in the caves of Périgord
show a still greater variety, and a no less remarkable skilfulness in
workmanship.
We may mention, for instance, the arrow and javelin-heads. Some are
slender and tapering off at both ends; in others, the base terminates in
a single or double bevel. Among the latter, the greater part seem made
to fix in a cleft stick; some are ornamented with lines and hatching
over their surface. Others have notches in them, somewhat similar to an
attempt at barbing.
[Illustration: Fig. 52.--The Chase during the Reindeer Epoch.]
We now come to the barbed dart-heads, designated by the name of
_harpoons_. They taper-off considerably towards the top, and are
characterised by very decided barbs, shaped like hooks, and distributed
sometimes on one side only, and sometimes on both (figs. 53, 54). In the
latter case the barbs are arranged in pairs, and are provided with a
small furrow or middle groove, which, according to some naturalists, was
intended to hold some subtle poison. Like the present race of Indians
of the American forests, primitive man may possibly have poisoned his
arrows; and the longitudinal groove, which is noticed in so many
reindeer arrow-heads, may have served to contain the poison.
[Illustration: Fig. 53.--Barbed Arrow of Reindeer Horn.]
[Illustration: Fig. 54--Arrow of Reindeer Horn with double Barbs.]
We must not, however, fail to state that this opinion has been abandoned
since it has been ascertained that the North American Indians used in
former times to hunt the bison with wooden arrows furnished with grooves
or channels of a similar character. These channels are said to have been
intended to give a freer vent to the flow of the animal's blood, which
was thus, so to speak, sucked out of the wound. This may, therefore,
have been the intention of the grooves which are noticed on the
dart-heads of the reindeer epoch, and the idea of their having been
poisoned must be dismissed.
These barbed darts or harpoons are still used by the Esquimaux of the
present day, in pursuing the seal. Such arrows, like those of the
primitive hordes of the reindeer epoch which are represented above
(figs. 53, 54), are sharply pointed and provided with barbs; they are
fastened to a string and shot from a bow. The Esquimaux sometimes attach
an inflated bladder to the extremity of the arrow, so that the hunter
may be apprized whether he has hit his mark, or in order to show in what
direction he should aim again.
We give here (fig. 55) a drawing of a fragment of bone found in the cave
of Les Eyzies (Périgord); a portion of one of these harpoons remains
fixed in the bone.
[Illustration: Fig. 55.--Animal Bone, pierced by an Arrow of Reindeer
Horn.]
We must assign to the class of implements the bone bodkins or stilettoes
of different sizes, either with or without a handle (figs. 56, 57), and
also a numerous series of needles found in the caves of Périgord, some
of which are very slender and elegant, and made of bone, horn, and even
ivory. In some of the human settlements of the reindeer epoch, bones
have been found, from which long splinters had been detached, fitted for
the fabrication of needles. The delicate points of flint have also been
found which were used to bore the eyes of the needles, and, lastly, the
lumps of sandstone on which the latter were polished.
[Illustration: Fig. 56.--Tool made of Reindeer Horn, found in the Cave
of Laugerie-Basse (Stiletto?).]
[Illustration: Fig. 57.--Tool made of Reindeer Horn, found in the Cave
of Laugerie-Basse (Needle?).]
We must, likewise, point out the _smoothers_, intended to flatten down
the seams in the skins used for garments.
One of the most important instruments of this epoch is a perfect drill
with a sharpened point and cutting edge. With this flint point rapidly
twirled round, holes could be bored in any kind of material--bone,
teeth, horn, or shells. This stone drill worked as well as our tool made
of steel, according to the statement of certain naturalists who have
tried the effect of them.
The primitive human settlement at Laugerie-Basse has furnished several
specimens of an instrument, the exact use of which has not been
ascertained. They are rods, tapering off at one end, and hollowed out at
the other in the shape of a spoon. M. Édouard Lartet has propounded the
opinion that they were used by the tribes of this epoch as spoons, in
order to extract the marrow from the long bones of the animals which
were used for their food. M. Lartet would not, however, venture to
assert this, and adds: "It is, perhaps, probable that our primitive
forefathers would not have taken so much trouble." Be this as it may,
one of these instruments is very remarkable for the lines and ornaments
in relief with which it is decorated, testifying to the existence in the
workman of some feeling of symmetry (fig. 58).
[Illustration: Fig. 58.--Spoon of Reindeer Horn.]
In various caves--at Les Eyzies, Laugerie-Basse, and Chaffant, _commune_
of Savigné (Vienne)--whistles of a peculiar kind have been found (fig.
59). They are made from the first joint of the foot of the reindeer or
some other ruminant of the stag genus. A hole has been bored in the base
of the bone, a little in front of the metatarsal joint. If one blows
into this hole, placing the lower lip in the hollow answering to the
above-named joint, a shrill sound is produced, similar to that made by
blowing into a piped key. We ourselves have had the pleasure of
verifying the fact, at the Museum of Saint-Germain, that these primitive
whistles act very well.
[Illustration: Fig. 59.--Knuckle-Bone of a Reindeer's Foot, bored with a
hole and used as a Whistle.]
The settlements at Périgord have also furnished a certain number of
staves made of reindeer horn (figs. 60, 61), the proper functions of
which no one has succeeded in properly explaining. They are invariably
bored with one or more holes at the base, and are covered with designs
to which we shall hereafter refer. M. Lartet has thought that they were
perhaps symbols or staves of authority.
[Illustration: Fig. 60.--Staff of authority in Reindeer's Horn, found in
the Cave of Périgord.]
[Illustration: Fig. 61.--Another Staff of authority in Reindeer's Horn.]
This explanation appears the correct one when we consider the care with
which these bâtons were fashioned. If the hypothesis of their being
symbols of authority be adopted, the varying number of the holes would
not be without intention; it might point to some kind of hierarchy, the
highest grade of which corresponded to the bâton with the most holes.
Thus, in the Chinese empire, the degree of a mandarin's authority is
estimated by the number of buttons on his silk cap. And just as in the
Mussulman hierarchy there were pachas of from one to three tails, so it
may be fancied that among primitive man of the reindeer epoch there were
chiefs of from one to three holes!
We have already stated that in the epoch of the great bear and the
mammoth the art of manufacturing a rough description of pottery was,
perhaps, known in Europe. The men of the reindeer epoch made, however,
but little progress in this respect. Nevertheless, if certain relics
really belong to this period, they may have known how to make rough
vessels, formed of clay, mixed with sand, and hardened by the action of
fire. This primitive art was, as yet, anything but generally adopted:
for we very rarely find _débris_ of pottery in close contiguity with
other remains of the reindeer epoch.
The Archæological Museum of Saint Germain is in possession of a hollow
vessel, a natural geode, very large and very thick (fig. 62). It was
found in the cave of La Madelaine (department of Dordogne); on one side
it has evidently been subjected to the action of fire, and may therefore
be presumed to have been used as a large vessel for culinary purposes.
[Illustration: Fig. 62.--A Geode, used as a cooking Vessel (?), found in
the Cave of La Madelaine (Périgord).]
In a cave at Furfooz, near Dinant in Belgium, to which we shall
subsequently refer, M. Édouard Dupont found, intermingled with human
bones, an urn, or specimen of rough pottery, which is perhaps one of the
most ancient monuments of the ceramic art as practised by our primitive
ancestors. This urn (fig. 63) was partly broken; by the care of M.
Hauzeur it has been put together again, as we represent it from the work
of M. Le Hon.[9]
[Illustration: Fig. 63.--Earthen Vase found in the Cave of Furfooz
(Belgium).]
It is in the reindeer epoch that we find the earliest traces of any
artistic feeling manifested in man.
It is a circumstance well worthy of remark, that this feeling appears to
have been the peculiar attribute of the tribes which inhabited the
south-west of the present France; the departments of Dordogne, Vienne,
Charente, Tarn-et-Garonne, and Ariége, are, in fact, the only localities
where designs and carvings representing organised beings have been
discovered. The departments in the east have not furnished anything of a
similar character, any more than Belgium, which has been so thoroughly
explored by M. Édouard Dupont, or Wurtemburg, where M. Fraas has lately
described various settlements of this primitive epoch.
It is not sufficient to allege, in order to explain this singular
circumstance, that the caves in the south of France belong to a later
period of the reindeer epoch, and that the others go back to the
earliest commencement of the same age. Apart from the fact that this
assertion is in no way proved, a complete and ready answer is involved
in the well verified circumstance, that even in later ages--in the
polished stone, and even in the bronze epoch--no representation of an
animal or plant is found to have been executed in these localities. No
specimen of the kind has, in fact, been found in the _kitchen-middens_
of Denmark, or in the lacustrine settlements of the stone age, or even
of the bronze age.
It must, then, be admitted that the tribes which were scattered over
those portions of the European continent which now correspond to the
south-west of France, possessed a special talent in the art of design.
There is, moreover, nothing unreasonable in such a supposition. An
artistic feeling is not always the offspring of civilisation, it is
rather a gift of nature. It may manifest its existence in the most
barbarous ages, and may make its influence more deeply felt in nations
which are behindhand in respect to general progress than in others which
are much further advanced in civilisation.
There can be no doubt that the rudiments of engraving and sculpture of
which we are about to take a view, testify to faculties of an
essentially artistic character. Shapes are so well imitated, movements
are so thoroughly caught, as it were, in the sudden fact of action, that
it is almost always possible to recognise the object which the ancient
workman desired to represent, although he had at his disposal nothing
but the rudest instruments for executing his work. A splinter of flint
was his sole graving-tool, a piece of reindeer horn, or a flake of slate
or ivory, was the only plate on which primitive man could stamp his
reproductions of animated nature.
Perhaps they drew on stone or horn with lumps of red-chalk or ochre, for
both these substances have been found in the caves of primitive man.
Perhaps, too, as is the case with modern savages, the ochre and
red-chalk were used besides for painting or tatooing his body. When the
design was thus executed on stone or horn, it was afterwards engraved
with the point of some flint instrument.
Those persons who have attentively examined the interesting gallery of
the _Histoire du Travail_ in the International Exposition of 1867, must
have remarked a magnificent collection of these artistic productions of
primeval ages. There were no less than fifty-one specimens, which were
exhibited by several collectors, and were for the most part extremely
curious. In his interesting work, 'Promenades Préhistoriques à
l'Exposition Universelle,' M. Gabriel de Mortillet has carefully
described these objects. In endeavouring to obtain some knowledge of
them, we shall take as our guide the learned curator of the
Archæological Museum of Saint-Germain.
We have, in the first place, various representations of the mammoth,
which was still in existence at the commencement of the reindeer epoch.
The first (fig. 64) is an outline sketch, drawn on a slab of ivory, from
the cave of La Madelaine. When MM. Lartet and Christy found it, it was
broken into five pieces, which they managed to put together very
accurately. The small eye and the curved tusks of the animal may be
perfectly distinguished, as well as its huge trunk, and even its
abundant mane, the latter proving that it is really the mammoth--that is
the fossil--and not the present species of elephant.
[Illustration: Fig. 64.--Sketch of a Mammoth, graven on a Slab of
Ivory.]
The second figure is an entire mammoth, graven on a fragment of reindeer
horn, from the rock-shelters of Bruniquel, and belongs to M. Peccadeau
de l'Isle. This figure forms the hilt of a poniard, the blade of which
springs from the front part of the animal. It may be recognised to be
the mammoth by its trunk, its wide flat feet, and especially by its
erect tail, ending in a bunch of hair. In point of fact, the present
species of elephant never sets up the tail, and has no bunch of hair at
the end of it.
A third object brought from the pre-historic station of Laugerie-Basse
(M. de Vibraye's collection) is the lower end of a staff of authority
carved in the form of a mammoth's head. The prominent forehead, and the
body of the animal stretching along the base of the staff, may both be
very distinctly seen.
On another fragment of a staff of authority, found at Bruniquel by M. V.
Brun, the cave-lion (_Felis spelæa_) is carved with great clearness. The
head, in particular, is perfectly represented.
Representations of reindeer, either carved or scratched on stone or
horn, are very common; we mention the following:--
In the first place the hilt of a dagger in reindeer's horn (fig. 65) of
the same type as that shaped in the form of a mammoth. This specimen is
remarkable, because the artist has most skilfully adapted the shape of
the animal to the purpose for which the instrument was intended. The
hilt represents a reindeer, which is carved out as if lying in a very
peculiar position; the hind legs are stretched along the blade, and the
front legs are doubled back under the belly, so as not to hurt the hand
of anyone holding the dagger; lastly, the head is thrown back, the
muzzle turned upwards, and the horns flattened down so as not to
interfere with the grasp.
[Illustration: Fig. 65.--Hilt of a Dagger, carved in the shape of a
Reindeer.]
This is, at all events, nothing but a rough sketch. The same remark,
however, does not apply to two ivory daggers found at Bruniquel by M.
Peccadeau de l'Isle. These objects are very artistically executed, and
are the most finished specimens that have been found up to the present
time. Both of them represent a reindeer with the head thrown back as in
the preceding plate; but whilst in one dagger the blade springs from the
hinder part of the body, in the same way as in the rough-hewn horn, in
the other it proceeds from the front of the body, between the head and
the forelegs. The hind legs are stretched out and meet again at the
feet, thus forming a hole between them, which was probably used as a
ring on which to suspend the dagger.
We must not omit to mention a slab of slate, on which is drawn in
outline a reindeer fight. It was found at Laugerie-Basse by M. de
Vibraye. The artist has endeavoured to portray one of those furious
contests in which the male reindeer engages during the rutting season,
in order to obtain possession of the females; he has executed his
design in a spirited manner, marked by a certain _naïveté_.
There are a good many other fragments on which reindeer are either drawn
or carved; we shall not dwell upon them, but add a few remarks as to
several specimens on which are representations of the stag, the horse,
the bison, the ibex, &c.
A representation of a stag (fig. 66) is drawn on a fragment of stag's
horn found in the cave of La Madelaine by MM. Lartet and Christy. The
shape of the antlers, which are very different to those of the reindeer,
leave no doubt as to the identity of the animal.
[Illustration: Fig. 66.--Representation of a Stag, drawn on a Stag's
Horn.]
The ox and the bison are represented in various fashions. We will
mention here a carved head which was found in the cave of Laugerie-Basse
by M. de Vibraye. It forms the base of a staff of authority.
[Illustration: Fig. 67.--Representation of some large herbivorous Animal
on a Fragment of Reindeer's Horn.]
We must, doubtless, class under the same category a fragment of
reindeer's horn, found at Laugerie-Basse, on which the hind-quarters of
some large herbivorous animal are sketched out with a bold and practised
touch (fig. 67). Various indications have led M. Lartet to think that
the artist has not endeavoured to represent a horse, as was at first
imagined, but a bison of rather a slender shape. Unfortunately the
fragment is broken at the exact spot where the bushy mane should begin,
which characterises the species of the bison sub-genus.
[Illustration: Fig. 68.--Arts of Drawing and Sculpture during the
Reindeer Epoch.]
In the same locality another fragment of reindeer's horn was found, on
which some horned animal is depicted (fig. 69), which appears to be an
ibex, if we may judge by the lines under the chin which seem to indicate
a beard.
[Illustration: Fig. 69.--Representation of an Animal, sketched on a
Fragment of Reindeer's Horn.]
In the cave of Les Eyzies, in the department of Dordogne, MM. Lartet and
Christy came upon two slabs of quartziferous schist, on both of which
are scratched animal forms which are deficient in any special
characteristics. In one (fig. 70), some have fancied they could
recognise the elk; but, as the front part only of the other has been
preserved, it is almost impossible to determine what mammiferous animal
it is intended to represent. An indistinct trace of horns seems to
indicate a herbivorous animal.
[Illustration: Fig. 70.--Fragment of a Slab of Schist, bearing the
representation of some Animal, and found in the Cave of Les Eyzies.]
On each side of a staff of authority made of reindeer's horn, found by
MM. Lartet and Christy in the cave of the Madelaine, may be noticed
three horses in demi-relief, which are very easily recognisable.
On a carved bone, found at Bruniquel by M. de Lastic, the head of a
reindeer and that of a horse are drawn in outline side by side; the
characteristics of both animals are well maintained.
Lastly, we may name a round shaft formed of reindeer's horn (fig. 71),
found at Laugerie-Basse by MM. Lartet and Christy, on which is carved an
animal's head, with ears of a considerable length laid back upon the
head. It is not easy to determine for what purpose this shaft was
intended; one end being pointed and provided with a lateral hook. It was
perhaps used as a harpoon.
[Illustration: Fig. 71.--A kind of Harpoon of Reindeer's Horn, carved in
the shape of an Animal's Head.]
Representations of birds are more uncommon than those of mammals.
There are, on the other hand, a good many rough delineations of fish,
principally on the so-called wands of authority, on which numbers may
often be noticed following one another in a series. We have one
delineation of a fish, skilfully drawn on a fragment of the lower
jaw-bone of a reindeer, which was found at Laugerie-Basse.
Also in the cave of La Vache (Ariége), M. Garrigou found a fragment of
bone, on which there is a clever design of a fish.
Very few representations of reptiles have come to light, and those found
are in general badly executed. We must, however, make an exception in
favour of the figure of a tadpole, scratched out on an arrow-head, found
in the cave of the Madelaine.
Designs representing flowers are very rare; in the _Galerie du Travail_,
at the Exposition, only three specimens are exhibited; they came from La
Madelaine and Laugerie-Basse, and were all three graven on spear-heads.
But did the men of the reindeer epoch make no attempts to portray their
own personal appearance? Have not the excavations dug in the settlements
of primitive man, found in Périgord, ever brought to light any imitation
of the human form? Nothing could exceed the interest of such a
discovery. Research has not been entirely fruitless in this respect, and
it is hoped that the first attempt in the art of statuary of this
primitive people may yet be discovered. In the cave of Laugerie-Basse,
M. de Vibraye found a little ivory statuette, which he takes to be a
kind of idol of an indecent character. The head and legs, as well as the
arms, are broken off.
Another human figure (fig. 72), which, like the preceding one, is long
and lean, is graven on a staff of authority, a fragment of which was
found in the cave of La Madelaine by MM. Lartet and Christy. The man is
represented standing between two horses' heads, and by the side of a
long serpent or fish, having the appearance of an eel. On the reverse
side of the same bâton, which is not given in the figure, the heads of
two bisons are represented.
[Illustration: Fig. 72.--Staff of Authority, on which are graven
representations of a Man, two Horses, and a Fish.]
On a fragment of a spear-head, found in the same settlement of
Laugerie-Basse, there is a series of human hands, provided with four
fingers only, represented in demi-relief. M. Lartet has called attention
to the fact, that certain savage tribes still depict the hand without
noticing the thumb.
In fig. 39, which represents man during the reindeer epoch, such as we
must suppose him to have been from the sum total of our present stock of
information on the point, we see a man clothed in garments sewn with a
needle, carrying as his chief weapon the jaw-bone of a bear armed with
its sharp fang, and also provided with his flint hatchet or knife. Close
to him a woman is seated, arrayed in all the personal ornaments which
are known to have been peculiar to this epoch.
The question now arises, what were the characteristics of man during the
reindeer epoch, with regard to his physical organisation?
We know a little of some of the broader features of his physiognomy from
studying the objects found in the Belgian bone-caves, of which we have
spoken in the introduction to this work. These caves were explored by M.
Édouard Dupont, assisted by M. Van Beneden, a Belgian palæontologist and
anatomist. The excavations in question were ordered by King Leopold's
Government, which supplied the funds necessary for extending them as far
as possible. The three caves, all situated in the valley of the Lesse,
are the _Trou des Nutons_, the _Trou du Frontal_, at Furfooz, near
Dinant, and the _Caverne de Chaleux_, in the neighbourhood of the town
from which its name is derived.
The _Trou des Nutons_ and the _Trou du Frontal_ have been completely
thrown into confusion by a violent inroad of water; for the _débris_
that they contained were intermingled in an almost incredible confusion
with a quantity of earthy matter and calcareous rocks, which had been
drifted in by the inundation.
In the _Trou des Nutons_, which is situated about 164 feet above the
level of the Lesse, M. Van Beneden recognised a great many bones of the
reindeer, the urus, and many other species which are not yet extinct.
These bones were indiscriminately mixed up with bones and horns of the
reindeer carved into different shapes, knuckle-bones of the goat
polished on both sides, a whistle made from the tibia of a goat, from
which sounds could still be produced, fragments of very coarse pottery,
some remains of fire-hearths, &c.
The _Trou du Frontal_ was thus named by M. Édouard Dupont, from the fact
of a human frontal-bone having been found there on the day that the
excavations commenced. This was not the only discovery of the kind that
was to be made. Ere long they fell in with a great quantity of human
bones, intermixed with a considerable number of the bones of reindeer
and other animals, as well as implements of all kinds. M. Van Beneden
ascertained that the bones must have belonged to thirteen persons of
various ages; some of them are the bones of infants scarcely a year old.
Among them were found two perfect skulls which are in good preservation;
these remains are also very valuable, because they afford data from
which deductions may be drawn as to the cranial conformation of the
primitive inhabitants of the banks of the Lesse.
M. Édouard Dupont is of opinion that this cave was used as a
burial-place. It is, in fact, very probable that such was the purpose
for which it was intended; for a large flag-stone was found in it, which
was probably used to close up the mouth of the cave, and to shield the
dead bodies from profanation. If this be the case, the animal bones
which were scattered around are the remains of the funeral banquets
which it was the custom to provide during the epoch of the great bear
and the mammoth.
It is interesting to establish the existence of such a similarity
between the customs of men who were separated by vast tracts of land and
an interval of many thousands of years.
Immediately above the _Trou du Frontal_ there is a cave called _Trou
Rosette_, in which the bones of three persons of various ages were found
intermingled with the bones of reindeer and beavers; fragments of a
blackish kind of pottery were also found there, which were hollowed out
in rough grooves by way of ornamentation, and merely hardened in the
fire. M. Dupont is of opinion that the three men whose remains were
discovered were crushed to death by masses of rock at the time of the
great inundation, traces of which may still be seen in the valley of the
Lesse.
By the falling in of its roof, which buried under a mass of rubbish all
the objects which were contained in it at the time of the catastrophe
and thus kept them in their places, the cave of Chaleux escaped the
complete disturbance with which the above-mentioned caverns were
visited. The bones of mammals, of birds, and of fish were found there;
also some carved bones and horns of the reindeer, some fossil shells,
which, as we have before observed, came from Champagne, and were used as
ornaments; lastly, and chiefly, wrought flints numbering at least
30,000. In the hearth, which was placed in the middle of the cave, a
stone was discovered with certain signs on it, which, up to the present
time, have remained unexplained. M. Dupont, as we have previously
stated, collected in the immediate vicinity about twenty-two pounds'
weight of the bones of the water-rat either scorched or roasted; this
proves that when a more noble and substantial food failed them, the
primitive inhabitants of this country were able to content themselves
with these small and unsavoury rodents.
The two skulls which were found at Furfooz have been carefully examined
by MM. Van Beneden and Pruner-Bey, who are both great authorities on
the subject of anthropology. These skulls present considerable
discrepancies, but Pruner-Bey is of opinion that they are heads of a
male and female of the same race. In order to justify his hypothesis the
learned anthropologist says, that there is often more difference between
the skulls of the two sexes of the same race, than between the skulls of
the same sex belonging to two distinct races.
[Illustration: Fig. 73.--Skull found at Furfooz, by M. Édouard Dupont.]
One of these skulls is distinguished by a projecting jaw; the other,
which is represented in fig. 73, has jaws even with the facial outline.
The prominent jaw of the first, which is the indication of a degraded
race (like that of the negro), does not prevent its having a higher
forehead and a more capacious cranium than the other skull. We find here
an actual intermingling of the characteristics which belong to the
inferior races with those peculiar to the Caucasian race, which is
considered to be the most exalted type of the human species.
According to Pruner-Bey, the Belgian people during the reindeer epoch
were a race of small stature but very sturdy; the face was
lozenge-shaped, and the whole skull had the appearance of a pyramid.
This race of a Turanian or Mongolian origin was the same as the Ligurian
or Iberian race, which still exists in the north of Italy (Gulf of
Genoa), and in the Pyrenees (Basque districts).
These conclusions must be accepted with the highest degree of caution,
for they do not agree with the opinions of all anthropologists. M. Broca
is of opinion that the Basques have sprung from a North African race,
which spread over Europe at a time when an isthmus existed where the
Straits of Gibraltar are now situated. This idea is only reasonable;
for certain facts prove that Europe and Africa were formerly connected
by a neck of land; this was afterwards submerged, at the spot where the
Straits of Gibraltar now exist, bringing about the disjunction of Europe
and Africa. It will be sufficient proof, if we point to the analogy
subsisting between the _fauna_ of the two countries, which is
established by the existence of a number of wild monkeys which, even in
the present day, inhabit this arid rock, and are also to be met with on
the opposite African shore.
[Illustration: Fig. 74.--Skull of an old Man, found in a _Rock-shelter_
at Bruniquel.]
In the interesting excavations which were made in the _rock-shelters_ at
Bruniquel, M. V. Brun found a quantity of human bones, and particularly
two skulls--one that of an old man, the other that of an adult. We here
(fig. 74) give a representation of the old man's skull taken from a
photograph which M. V. Brun has been kind enough to send us.
If we measure the facial angle of this skull, we shall find that it does
not differ from the skulls of the men who at the present time inhabit
the same climates. From this fact, it may be gathered how mistaken the
idea may be which looks upon primitive man, or the man of the stone
epoch as a being essentially different from the men of the present day.
The phrase _fossil man_, we must again repeat, should be expunged from
the vocabulary of science; we should thus harmonise better with
established facts, and should also do away with a misunderstanding which
is highly detrimental to the investigations into the origin of man.
In concluding this account of the manners and customs of man during the
reindeer epoch, we must say a few words as to the funeral rites of this
time, or rather, the mode of burial peculiar to this period of primitive
man's history.
Those who lived in caves buried their dead in caves. It is, also, a fact
to be remarked, that man often uses the same type for both his
burial-places and dwelling-places.
The burial-places of the Tartars of Kasan, says M. Nilsson, are exact
likenesses, on a small scale, of their dwelling-places, and like them,
are constructed of beams placed close to one another. A Circassian
burial-place is perfectly similar to a Circassian dwelling. The tombs of
the Karaite Jews, in the valley of Jehoshaphat, resemble their houses
and places of worship, and the Neo-Grecian tombs, in the Crimea, are
likewise imitations of their churches.[10]
We shall not, therefore, be surprised to learn that man during the
reindeer epoch buried his dead in caves, just in the same way as was
done by his ancestors during the epoch of the great bear and the
mammoth, that is to say, the dead were interred in the same kind of
caves as those which were then generally used as places of abode.
Fig. 75 represents a funeral ceremonial during the reindeer epoch.
[Illustration: Fig. 75.--A Funeral Ceremony during the Reindeer Epoch.]
The corpse is borne on a litter of boughs, a practice which is still in
use among some modern savages. Men provided with torches, that is
branches of resinous trees, preceded the funeral procession, in order to
light the interior of the cavern. The cave is open, ready to receive the
corpse, and it will be closed again after it is deposited there. The
weapons, ornaments, and utensils which he had prized during his
lifetime, are brought in to be laid by the side of the dead.
We will sum up the principal facts which we have laid before our readers
in this account of the condition of mankind during the reindeer epoch,
by quoting an eloquent passage from a report addressed by M. Édouard
Dupont to the Belgian Minister of the Interior, on the excavations
carried on by this eminent Belgian geologist in the caves in the
neighbourhood of Furfooz.
"The data obtained from the fossils of Chaleux, together with those
which have been met with in the caves of Furfooz, present us," says M.
Dupont, "with a striking picture of the primitive ages of mankind in
Belgium.
"These ancient tribes and all their customs, after having been buried
in oblivion for thousands and thousands of years, are again vividly
brought before our eyes; and, like the wondrous bird, which, in its
ashes, found a new source of life, antiquity lives again in the relics
of its former existence.
"We may almost fancy that we can see them in their dark and subterranean
retreats, crouching round their hearths, and skilfully and patiently
chipping out their flint instruments and shaping their reindeer-horn
tools, in the midst of all the pestilential emanations arising from the
various animal remains which their carelessness has allowed to remain in
their dwellings. Skins of wild beasts are stripped of their hair, and,
by the aid of flint needles, are converted into garments. In our mind's
eye, we may see them engaged in the chase, and hunting wild
animals--their only weapons being darts and spears, the fatal points of
which are formed of nothing but a splinter of flint.
"Again, we are present at their feasts, in which, during the period when
their hunting has been fortunate, a horse, a bear, or a reindeer becomes
the more noble substitute for the tainted flesh of the rat, their sole
resource in the time of famine.
"Now, we see them trafficking with the tribes inhabiting the region now
called France, and procuring the jet and fossil shells with which they
love to adorn themselves, and the flint which is to them so precious a
material. On one side they are picking up the fluor spar, the colour of
which is pleasing to their eyes; on the other, they are digging out the
great slabs of sandstone which are to be placed as hearthstones round
their fire.
"But, alas! inauspicious days arrive, and certainly misfortune does not
seem to spare them. A falling in of the roof of their cave drives them
out of their chief dwelling-place. The objects of their worship, their
weapons, and their utensils--all are buried there, and they are forced
to fly and take up their abode in another spot.
"The ravages of death break in upon them; how great are the cares which
are now lavished upon those whom they have lost! They bear the corpse
into its cavernous sepulchre; some weapons, an amulet, and perhaps an
urn, form the whole of the funeral furniture. A slab of stone prevents
the inroad of wild beasts. Then begins the funeral banquet, celebrated
close by the abode of the dead; a fire is lighted, great animals are cut
up, and portions of their smoking flesh are distributed to each. How
strange the ceremonies that must then have taken place! ceremonies like
those told us of the savages of the Indian and African solitudes.
Imagination may easily depict the songs, the dances and the invocations,
but science is powerless to call them into life.
"The sepulchre is often reopened; little children and adults came in
turn to take their places in the gloomy cave. Thirteen times the same
ceremonial occurs, and thirteen times the slab is moved to admit the
corpses.
"But the end of this primitive age is at last come. Torrents of water
break in upon the country. Its inhabitants, driven from their abodes, in
vain take refuge on the lofty mountain summits. Death at last overtakes
them, and a dark cavern is the tomb of the wretched beings, who, at
Furfooz, were witnesses of this immense catastrophe.
"Nothing is respected by the terrible element. The sepulchre, the object
of such care on the part of the artless tribe, is burst open before the
torrent, and the bones of the dead bodies, disjointed by the water, are
dispersed into the midst of the crumbling earth and stones. Their former
habitation alone is exempt from this common destruction, for it has been
protected by a previous catastrophe--the sinking in of its roof on to
the ground of the cave."
Having now given a sketch of the chief features presented by man and his
surroundings during the reindeer epoch; having described the most
important objects of his skill, and dwelt upon the products of his
artistic faculties; it now remains for us to complete, in a scientific
point of view, the study of this question, by notifying the sources from
which we have been able to gather our data, and to bring home to our
minds these interesting ideas. Under this head, we may state that almost
all the information which has been obtained has been derived from caves;
and it will, therefore, be best to make a few brief remarks on the
caverns which have been the scene of these various discoveries.
Honour to whom honour is due. In mentioning these localities, we must
place in the first class the settlements of Périgord, which have
contributed to so great an extent towards the knowledge which we possess
of primitive man. The four principal ones are, the cave of Les Eyzies
and the rock-shelters or caverns of La Madelaine, Laugerie-Haute, and
Laugerie-Basse. All of them have been explored by MM. Lartet and
Christy, who, after having directed the excavations with the greatest
ability, have set forth the results of their researches in a manner no
less remarkable.[11]
The settlement of Laugerie-Basse has also been explored by M. de
Vibraye, who collected there some very interesting specimens.
We have no intention of reverting to what we have before stated when
describing the objects found in these various localities. We will
content ourselves with mentioning the lumbar vertebral bone of a
reindeer found in the cave of Eyzies, of which we have given a
representation in fig. 55; it was pierced through by an arrow-head,
which may still be seen fixed in it. If any doubts could still exist of
the co-existence, in France, of man and the reindeer, this object should
suffice to put an end to them for ever.
We will mention, as next in importance, the cave and rock-shelters at
Bruniquel (Tarn-et-Garonne). They have been carefully examined by a
great many explorers, among whom we must specify M. Garrigou, M. de
Lastic (the proprietor of the cavern), M. V. Brun, the learned Director
of the Museum of Natural History at Montauban, and M. Peccadeau de
l'Isle.
It is to be regretted that M. de Lastic sold about fifteen hundred
specimens of every description of the relics which had been found on his
property, to Professor Owen, for the British Museum. In this large
quantity of relics, there were, of course, specimens which will never be
met with elsewhere; which, therefore, it would have been better in every
respect to have retained in France.
The cave of Bruniquel has also furnished us with human bones, amongst
which are two almost perfect skulls, one of which we have previously
represented; also two half jaw-bones which resemble those found at
Moulin-Quignon. M. V. Brun has given, in his interesting work, a
representation of these human remains.[12]
We will now mention the _Cave of Bize_ near Narbonne (Aude); the _Cave
of La Vache_ in the valley of Tarascon (Ariége), in which M. Garrigou
collected an immense quantity of bones, on one of which some peculiar
characters are graven, constituting, perhaps, a first attempt in the art
of writing; the _Cavern of Massat_ in the same department, which has
been described by M. Fontan, and is thought by M. Lartet to have been a
summer dwelling-place, the occupiers of which lived on raw flesh and
snails, for no traces of a hearth are to be seen, although it must have
been used for a considerable time as a shelter by primitive man; the
_Cave of Lourdes_, near Tarbes (Hautes-Pyrénées), in which M.
Milne-Edwards met with a fragment of a human skull, belonging to an
adult individual; the _Cave of Espalungue_, also called the _Grotto of
Izeste_ (Basses-Pyrénées), where MM. Garrigou and Martin found a human
bone, the fifth left metatarsal; the _Cave of Savigné_ (Vienne),
situated on the banks of the Charente, and discovered by M.
Joly-Leterme, an architect of Saumur, who there found a fragment of a
stag's bone, on which the bodies of two animals are graven with
hatchings to indicate shadows; the _Grottos of La Balme and Bethenas_,
in Dauphiné, explored by M. Chantre; lastly, the settlement of Solutré,
in the neighbourhood of Mâcon, from which MM. Ferry and Arcelin have
exhumed two human skulls, together with some very fine flint instruments
of the Laugerie-Haute type.
These settlements do not all belong to the same epoch, although most of
them correspond to the long period known as the reindeer epoch. It is
not always possible to determine their comparative chronology. From the
state of their _débris_ it can, however, be ascertained, that the caves
of Lourdes and Espalungue date back to the most ancient period of the
reindeer epoch; whilst the settlements of Périgord, of Tarn-et-Garonne,
and of Mâconnais are of a later date. The cave of Massat seems as if it
ought to be dated at the beginning of the wrought stone epoch, for no
bones have been found there, either of the reindeer or the horse; the
remains of the bison are the sole representatives of the extinct animal
species.
In concluding this list of the French bone-caves which have served to
throw a light upon the peculiar features of man's existence during the
reindeer epoch, we must not omit to mention the Belgian caves, which
have been so zealously explored by M. Édouard Dupont. From the preceding
pages, we may perceive how especially important the latter have been in
the elucidation of the characteristics of man's physical organisation
during this epoch.
France and Belgium are not the only countries which have furnished
monuments relating to man's history during the reindeer epoch. We must
not omit to mention that settlements of this epoch have been discovered
both in Germany and also in Switzerland.
In 1866 a great quantity of bones and broken instruments were found at
the bottom of an ancient glacier-moraine in the neighbourhood of
Rabensburg, not far from the lake of Constance. The bones of the
reindeer formed about ninety-eight hundredths of these remains. The
other _débris_ were the bones of the horse, the wolf, the brown bear,
the white fox, the glutton and the ox.
In 1858, on a mountain near Geneva, a cave was discovered about 12 feet
deep and 6 feet wide, which contained, under a layer of carbonate of
lime, a great quantity of flints and bones. The bones of the reindeer
formed the great majority of them, for eighteen skeletons of this animal
were found. The residue of the remains were composed of four horses, six
ibex, intermingled with the bones of the marmot, the chamois, and the
hazel-hen; in short, the bones of the whole animal population which, at
the present time, has abandoned the valleys of Switzerland, and is now
only to be met with on the high mountains of the Alps.
FOOTNOTES:
[7] 'Origine de la Navigation et de la Pêche.' Paris, 1867, p. 25.
[8] 'Pre-Historic Times,' 2d ed. p. 319.
[9] 'L'Homme Fossile.' Brussels, 1868 (page 71).
[10] 'The Primitive Inhabitants of Scandinavia,' by Sven Nilsson, p.
155. London, 1868.
[11] 'Reliquiæ Aquitanicæ,' by Éd. Lartet and H. Christy. London, 1865,
&c.
[12] 'Notice sur les Fouilles Paléontologiques de l'Age de la Pierre
exécutées à Bruniquel et Saint-Antonin,' by V. Brun. Montauban, 1867.
III.
THE POLISHED-STONE EPOCH; OR, THE EPOCH OF TAMED ANIMALS.
CHAPTER I.
The European Deluge--The Dwelling-place of Man during the
Polished-stone Epoch--The Caves and Rock-shelters still used as
Dwelling-places--Principal Caves belonging to the Polished-stone
Epoch which have been explored up to the present Time--The Food of
Man during this period.
Aided by records drawn from the bowels of the earth, we have now
traversed the series of antediluvian ages since the era when man first
made his appearance on the earth, and have been enabled, though but very
imperfectly, to reconstruct the history of our primitive forefathers. We
will now leave this epoch, through the dark night of which science seeks
almost in vain to penetrate, and turn our attention to a period the
traces of which are more numerous and more easily grasped by our
intelligence--a period, therefore, which we are able to characterise
with a much greater degree of precision.
A great catastrophe, the tradition of which is preserved in the memory
of all nations, marked in Europe the end of the quaternary epoch. It is
not easy to assign the exact causes for this great event in the earth's
history; but whatever may be the explanation given, it is certain that a
cataclysm, caused by the violent flowing of rushing water, took place
during the quaternary geological epoch; for the traces of it are
everywhere visible. These traces consist of a reddish clayey deposit,
mixed with sand and pebbles. This deposit is called in some countries
_red diluvium_, and in others _grey diluvium_. In the valley of the
Rhone and the Rhine it is covered with a layer of loamy deposit, which
is known to geologists by the name of _loess_ or _lehm_, and as to the
origin of which they are not all agreed. Sir Charles Lyell is of opinion
that this mud was produced by the crushing of the rocks by early Alpine
glaciers, and that it was afterwards carried down by the streams of
water which descended from these mountains. This mud covers a great
portion of Belgium, where it is from 10 to 30 feet in thickness, and
supplies with material a large number of brickfields.
This deposit, that is the _diluvial beds_, constitutes nearly the most
recent of all those which form the earth's crust; in many European
countries, it is, in fact the ground trodden under the feet of the
present population.
The inundation to which the _diluvium_ is referred closes the series of
the quaternary ages. After this era, the present geological period
commences, which is characterised by the almost entire permanency of the
vertical outline of the earth, and by the formation of peat-bogs.
The earliest documents afforded us by history are very far from going
back to the starting-point of this period. The history of the ages which
we call historical is very far from having attained to the beginning of
the present geological epoch.
In order to continue our account of the progressive development of
primitive man, we must now turn our attention to the _Polished-stone
Epoch_, or the _Epoch of Tamed Animals_, which precedes the Metal Age.
As the facts which we shall have to review are very numerous, we will,
in the first place, consider this epoch as it affects those parts of our
continent which form the present France and Belgium; next, with
reference to Denmark and Switzerland, in which countries we shall have
to point out certain manners and customs of man of an altogether special
character.
We shall consider in turn:--
1st. The habitation of man during the polished-stone epoch.
2nd. His system of food.
3rd. His arts and manufactures.
4th. The weapons manufactured by him, and their use in war.
5th. His attainments in agriculture, fishing, and navigation.
6th. His funeral ceremonies.
7th. Lastly, the characteristics of mankind during this epoch.
_Habitation._--In that part of the European continent which now forms
the country called France, man, during that period we designate under
the name of the polished-stone epoch, continued for a considerable time
to inhabit rock-shelters and caves which afforded him the best retreat
from the attacks of wild beasts.
This fact has been specially proved to have been the case in the extreme
south of the above-mentioned country. Among the investigations which
have contributed towards its verification, we must give particular
notice to those made by MM. Garrigou and Filhol in the caves of the
Pyrenees (Ariége). These two _savants_ have also explored the caves of
Pradières, Bedeilhac, Labart, Niaux, Ussat, and Fontanel.[13]
In one of these caves, which we have already mentioned in the preceding
chapter, but to which we must again call attention--for they belong both
to the polished stone, and also to the reindeer epoch--MM. Garrigou and
Filhol found the bones of a huge ox, the urus or _Bos primigenius_, a
smaller kind of ox, the stag, the sheep, the goat, the antelope, the
chamois, the wild boar, the wolf, the dog, the fox, the badger, the
hare, and possibly those of the horse. Neither the bones of the reindeer
nor the bison are included in this list of names; on account of the
mildness of the climate, these two species had already migrated towards
the north and east in search of a colder atmosphere.
The remains of hearths, bones split lengthwise, and broken skulls,
indicate that the inhabitants of these caves lived on much the same food
as their ancestors. It is probable that they also ate raw snails, for a
large quantity of their shells were found in this cave, and also in the
cavern of Massat,[14] the presence of which can only be accounted for in
this way.
These remains were found intermingled with piercers, spear-heads, and
arrow-heads, all made of bone; also hatchets, knives, and scratchers,
made of flint, and also of various other substances, which were more
plentiful than flint in that country, such as siliceous schist,
quartzite, leptinite and serpentine stones. These instruments were
carefully wrought, and a few had been polished at one end on a slab of
flag-stone.
In the cave of Lourdes (Hautes-Pyrénées), which has been explored by M.
Alphonse Milne-Edwards, two layers were observed; one belonging to the
reindeer epoch, and the other to the polished-stone epoch.[15] The cave
of Pontil (Hérault), which has been carefully examined by Professor
Gervais,[16] has furnished remains of every epoch including the bronze
age; we must, however, except the reindeer epoch, which is not
represented in this cave.
Lastly, we will mention the cave of Saint-Jean-d'Alcas (Aveyron), which
has been explored, at different times, by M. Cazalis de Fondouce. This
is a sepulchral cave, like that of Aurignac. When it was first explored,
about twenty years ago, five human skulls, in good preservation, were
found in it--a discovery, the importance of which was then unheeded, and
the skulls were, in consequence, totally lost to science. Flint, jade,
and serpentine instruments, carved bones, remains of rough pottery,
stone amulets, and the shells of shell-fish, which had formed necklaces
and bracelets, were intermingled with human bones.
At Saint-Jean-d'Alcas, M. Cazalis de Fondouce did not meet with any
remains of funeral banquets such as were found at Aurignac and Furfooz;
he only noticed two large flag-stones lying across one another at the
mouth of the cave, so as to make the inlet considerably narrower.
This cave, according to a recent publication of M. Cazalis, must be
referred to a more recent epoch than was at first supposed, for some
fragments of metallic substances were found in it. It must, therefore,
have belonged to a late period of the polished-stone epoch.[17]
_Man's System of Feeding during the Polished-stone Epoch._--In order to
obtain full information on the subject of man's food in the north and
centre of Europe during the polished-stone epoch, we must appeal to the
interesting researches of which Denmark has been the scene during the
last few years; but these researches, on account of their importance,
require a detailed account.
[Illustration: Fig. 76.--Man of the Polished-stone Epoch.]
FOOTNOTES:
[13] 'L'Homme Fossile des Cavernes de Lombrive et de Lherm.' Toulouse,
1862. Illustrated. 'L'Age de Pierre dans les Vallées de Tarascon'
(Ariége). Tarascon, 1863.
[14] 'Sur deux Cavernes découvertes dans la Montagne de Kaer à Massat'
(Ariége). Quoted by Lyell, Appendix to 'The Antiquity of Man,' p. 247.
[15] 'De l'Existence de l'Homme pendant la Période quaternaire dans la
grotte de Lourdes' (Hautes-Pyrénées). ('Annales des Sciences
Naturelles,' 4th series, vol. xvii.)
[16] 'Mémoires de l'Académie de Montpellier' ('Section des Sciences'),
1857, vol. iii, p. 509.
[17] 'Sur une Caverne de l'Age de la Pierre, située près de
Saint-Jean-d'Alcas' (Aveyron), 1864. 'Derniers Temps de l'Age de la
Pierre Polie dans l'Aveyron', Montpellier, 1867. Illustrated.
CHAPTER II.
The _Kjoekken-Moeddings_ or "Kitchen-middens" of Denmark--Mode of
Life of the Men living in Denmark during the Polished-stone
Epoch--The Domestication of the Dog--The Art of Fishing during the
Polished-stone Epoch--Fishing-nets--Weapons and Instruments of
War--Type of the Human Race; the Borreby Skull.
Although classed in the lowest rank on account of the small extent of
its territory and the number of its inhabitants, the Danish nation is,
nevertheless, one of the most important in Europe, in virtue of the
eminence to which it has attained in science and arts. This valiant,
although numerically speaking, inconsiderable people, can boast of a
great number of distinguished men who are an honour to science. The
unwearied researches of their archæologists and antiquarians have
ransacked the dust of bygone ages, in order to call into new life the
features of a vanished world. Their labours, guided by the observations
of naturalists, have brought out into the clear light of day some of the
earliest stages in man's existence and progress.
There is no part of the world more adapted than Denmark to this kind of
investigation. Antiquities may be met with at every step; the real point
in question is to know how to examine them properly, so as to obtain
from them important revelations concerning the manners, customs, and
manufactures of the pre-historic inhabitants. The Museum of Copenhagen,
which contains antiquities from various Scandinavian states, is, in this
respect, without a rival in the world.
Among the objects arranged in this well-stocked Museum a great many
specimens may be observed which have come from the so-called
_kitchen-middens_.
In the first place, what are these _kjoekken-moeddings_, or
kitchen-middens, with their uncouth Scandinavian name?
Immense accumulations of shells have been observed on different points
of the Danish coast, chiefly in the north, where the sea enters those
narrow deep creeks, known by the name of _fiords_. These deposits are
not generally raised more than about 3 feet above the level of the sea;
but in some steep places their altitude is greater. They are about 3 to
10 feet in thickness, and from 100 to 200 feet in width; their length is
sometimes as much as 1000 feet, with a width of from 150 to 250 feet. On
some of the more level shores they form perfect hills, on which, as at
Havelse, windmills are sometimes built.
What do we meet with in these heaps? An immense quantity of sea-shells,
especially those of the oyster, broken bones of mammiferous animals,
remains of birds and fish; and, lastly, some roughly-wrought flints.
The first idea formed with regard to these kitchen-middens was that they
were nothing but banks of fossil shells, beds which had formerly been
submerged, and subsequently brought to light by an upheaval of the earth
caused by some volcanic cause. But M. Steenstrup, a Danish _savant_,
opposed this opinion, basing his contradiction on the fact that these
shells belong to four different species which are never found together,
and consequently they must have been brought together by man. M.
Steenstrup also called attention to the fact that almost all these
shells must have belonged to full-grown animals, and that there were
hardly any young ones to be found amongst them. A peculiarity of this
kind is an evident indication of the exercise of some rational purpose,
in fact, of an act of the human will.
When all the _débris_ and relics which we have enumerated were
discovered in these kitchen-middens, when the remains of hearths--small
spots which still retained traces of fire--were found in them, the
origin of these heaps were readily conjectured. Tribes once existed
there who subsisted on the products of fishing and hunting, and threw
out round their cabins the remains of their meals, consisting especially
of the _débris_ of shell-fish. These remains gradually accumulated, and
constituted the considerable heaps which we are discussing; hence the
name of _kjoekken-moedding_, composed of two words--_kjoekken_, kitchen;
and _moedding_, heap of refuse. These "kitchen-middens," as they are
called, are, therefore, the refuse from the meals of the primitive
population of Denmark.
If we consider the heaps of oyster-shells and other _débris_ which
accumulate in the neighbourhood of eating-houses in certain districts,
we may readily understand, comparing great things with small, how these
Danish kitchen-middens were produced. I myself well recollect having
noticed in the environs of Montpellier small hillocks of a similar
character, formed by the accumulation of oyster-shells, mussels, and
clams.
When the conviction was once arrived at that these kitchen-middens were
the refuse of the meals of the primitive inhabitants, the careful
excavation of all these heaps scattered along the Danish coast became an
extremely interesting operation. It might be justly expected that some
data would be collected as to the customs and manufactures of the
ancient dwellers in these countries. A commission was, in consequence,
appointed by the Danish Government to examine these deposits, and to
publish the results of its labours.
This commission was composed of three _savants_, each of whom were
eminent in their respective line--Steenstrup, the naturalist,
Forchhammer, a geologist, and the archæologist, Worsaae--and performed
its task with as much talent as zeal. The observations which were made
are recorded in three reports presented to the Academy of Sciences at
Copenhagen. From these documents are borrowed most of the details which
follow.
Before proceeding to acquaint our readers with the facts brought to
light by the Danish commission, it will be well to remark that Denmark
does not stand alone in possessing these kitchen-middens. They have been
discovered in England--in Cornwall and Devonshire--in Scotland, and even
in France, near Hyères (Bouches-du-Rhône).[18]
MM. Sauvage and Hamy have pointed out to M. de Mortillet the existence
of deposits of this kind in the Pas-de-Calais. They may be noticed, say
these naturalists, at La Salle (Commune of Outreau) at certain parts of
the coast of Portel, and especially a very large heap at Cronquelets
(Commune of Etaples.) They chiefly consist of the _cardium edule_, which
appear to abound in the kitchen-middens of the Pas-de-Calais.
Messrs. Evans, Prestwich, and Lubbock observed one of these deposits at
Saint-Valery, near the mouth of the Somme. Added to this, they have been
described by various travellers as existing in different parts of the
world. Dampier studied them in Australia, and Darwin in Tierra del
Fuego, where deposits of the same character are now in the course of
formation. M. Pereira da Costa found one on the coast of Portugal; Sir
C. Lyell has testified to the existence of others on the coasts of
Massachusetts and Georgia, in the United States; M. Strobel, on the
coasts of Brazil. But those in Denmark are the only deposits of this
kind which have been the subject of investigations of a deliberate and
serious character.
Almost all these kitchen-middens are found on the coast, along the
_fiords_, where the action of the waves is not much felt. Some have,
however, been found several miles inland; but this must be owing to the
fact that the sea once occupied these localities, from which it has
subsequently retired. They are not to be met with on some of the Danish
coasts, as those of the western side; this, on the one hand, may be
caused by their having been washed away by the sea, which has there
encroached on the land, or, on the other hand, by the fact that the
western coast was much less sheltered than the other parts of the Danish
peninsula. They are not unfrequently to be found in the adjacent
islands.
These kitchen-middens form, in a general way, undulating mounds, which
sink in a gentle incline from the centre to the circumference. The spot
where they are thickest indicates the site of the habitations of man.
Sometimes, we may notice one principal hillock, surrounded by smaller
mounds; or else, in the middle of the heaps, there is a spot which must
have been the site of the encampment.
These refuse deposits are almost entirely made up of shells of various
kinds of molluscs; the principal species are the oyster, the cockle, the
mussel, and the periwinkle. Others, such as whelks, _helices_ (edible
snails), _nassa_, and _trigonella_, are also found; but they are
comparatively few in number.
Fishes' bones are discovered in great abundance in the kitchen-middens.
They belong to the cod, herring, dab, and eel. From this we may infer
that the primitive inhabitants of Denmark were not afraid of venturing
out to brave the waves of the sea in their frail skiffs; for the herring
and the cod cannot, in fact, be caught except at some little distance
from the shore.
Mammalian bones are also plentifully distributed in the Danish
kitchen-middens. Those most commonly met with are the remains of the
stag, the roe, and the boar, which, according to M. Steenstrup's
statement, make up ninety-seven hundredths of the whole mass. Others are
the relics of the urus, the wolf, the dog, the fox, the wild-cat, the
lynx, the marten, the otter, the porpoise, the seal, the water-rat, the
beaver and the hedgehog.
The bison, the reindeer, the elk, the horse, and the domestic ox have
not left behind them any trace which will permit us to assume that they
existed in Denmark at the period when these deposits were formed.
Amongst other animals, we have mentioned the dog. By various
indications, we are led to the belief that this intelligent creature had
been at this time reduced to a state of domesticity. It has been
remarked that a large number of the bones dispersed in these
kitchen-middens are incomplete; exactly the same parts are almost always
missing, and certain bones are entirely wanting. M. Steenstrup is of
opinion that these deficiencies may be owing to the agency of dogs,
which have made it their business to ransack the heaps of bones and
other matters which were thrown aside by their masters. This hypothesis
was confirmed, in his idea, when he became convinced, by experience,
that the bones which were deficient in these deposits were precisely
those which dogs are in the habit of devouring, and that the remaining
portions of those which were found were not likely to have been subject
to their attacks on account of their hardness and the small quantity of
assimilable matter which was on or in them.
Although primitive man may have elevated the dog to the dignity of being
his companion and friend, he was, nevertheless, sometimes in the habit
of eating him. No doubt he did not fall back upon this last resort
except in cases when all other means of subsistence failed him. Bones of
the dog, broken by the hand of man, and still bearing the marks of
having been cut with a knife, are amongst the remains found, and place
the fact beyond any question.
We find, besides, the same taste existing here which we have seen
manifested in other ages and different countries. All the long bones
have been split in order to extract their marrow--the dainty so highly
appreciated by man during the epochs of the reindeer and the mammoth.
Some remains of birds have been found in the kitchen-middens; but most
of the species are aquatic--a fact which may be readily explained by the
seaboard position of the men who formed these deposits.
As the result of this review of the various substances which were made
use of for food by the men of the polished-stone epoch, we may infer
that they were both hunters and fishermen.
Animals of rapid pace were hunted down by means of the dart or arrow,
and any more formidable prey was struck down at close quarters by some
sharp stone weapon.
Fishing was practised, as at the present day, by means of the line and
net.
We have already seen that men, during the reindeer epoch, probably used
hooks fastened at the end of lines. These hooks, as we have before
remarked, were made with splinters of bone or reindeer horn. During the
polished-stone epoch this fishing instrument was much improved, and they
now possessed the real hook with a recurvate and pointed end. This kind
of hook was found by Dr. Uhlmann in one of the most ancient lacustrine
stations of Switzerland. But a curved hook was both difficult to make
and also not very durable; instead of it was used another and more
simple sort--the straight skewer fixed to serve as a hook. This is a
simple fragment of bone, about an inch long, very slender and pointed at
the two ends (fig. 77). Sometimes it is a little flattened in the
middle, or bored with a hole, into which the line was fastened.
[Illustration: Fig. 77.--Bone Skewers used as Fish-hooks.]
This little splinter of bone, when hidden by the bait and fastened to a
line, was swallowed by the fish and could not be disgorged, one of the
pointed ends being certain to bury itself in the entrails of the
creature.
Some of our readers will perhaps be surprised to learn that men of the
polished-stone epoch were in the habit of fishing with nets; but it is a
fact that cannot be called into question, for the very conclusive
reason, that the remains of these nets have been found.
How could it possibly come to pass that fishing-nets of the
polished-stone epoch should have been preserved to so late a period as
our times? This is exactly the question we are about to answer.
On the lakes of Switzerland and of other countries, there used to exist
certain habitations of man. These are the so-called _lacustrine
dwellings_ which we shall have hereafter to consider in some
considerable detail, when we come to the Bronze Age. The men who lived
on these lakes were necessarily fishers; and some traces of their
fishing-nets have been discovered by a circumstance which chemistry
finds no difficulty in explaining. Some of these lake-dwellings were
destroyed by fire; as, for instance, the lacustrine settlements of
Robenhausen and Wangen in Switzerland. The outsides of these cabins,
which were almost entirely constructed of wood, burnt, of course, very
readily; but the objects inside, chiefly consisting of nets--the sole
wealth of these tribes--could not burn freely for want of oxygen, but
were only charred with the heat. They became covered with a slight
coating of some empyreumatic or tarry matter--an excellent medium for
insuring the preservation of any organic substance. These nets having
been scorched by the fire, fell into the water with the _débris_ of the
hut, and, in consequence of their precipitate fall, never having come in
actual contact with the flame, have been preserved almost intact at the
bottom of the lakes. When, after a long lapse of centuries, they have
been again recovered, these _débris_ have been the means of affording
information as to the manufacture both of the fishing-nets, and also as
to the basket-work, vegetable provisions, &c., of these remote ages.
In one of Dr. Keller's papers on these _lacustrine dwellings_, of which
we shall have more to say further on, we find a description and
delineation of certain fishing-nets which were recovered from the lake
of Robenhausen. In the Museum of Saint-Germain we inspected with
curiosity several specimens of these very nets, and we here give a
representation of one of them. There were nets with wide meshes like
that shown in fig. 78, and also some more closely netted. The mesh is a
square one, and appears to have been made on a frame by knotting the
string at each point of intersection. All these nets are made of flax,
for hemp had not yet been cultivated.
[Illustration: Fig. 78.--Fishing-net with wide Meshes.]
These nets were held suspended in the water by means of floats, made,
not of cork, but of the thick bark of the pine-tree, and were held down
to the bottom of the water by stone weights. We give a representation
here (fig. 79), of one of these stone weights taken from a specimen
exhibited in the Museum of Saint-Germain.
[Illustration: Fig. 79.--Stone Weight used for sinking the
Fishing-nets.]
These stone weights, large quantities of which are to be seen in
museums, and especially in that of Saint-Germain, are, in almost every
case, nothing but pebbles bored through the centre. Sometimes, however,
they were round pieces of soft stone, having a hole made in the middle.
Through this hole the cord was passed and fastened by a knot on the
other side. By means of the floats and weights the nets were made to
assume any position in the water which was wished.
The large size of the meshes in the nets belonging to the polished-stone
epoch proves, that in the lakes and rivers of this period the fish that
were used for food were of considerable dimensions. Added to this,
however, the monstrous hooks belonging to this epoch which have been
found in the Seine tend to corroborate this hypothesis.
Thus, then, the art of fishing had arrived in the polished-stone epoch
to a very advanced stage of improvement.
In plate 80 we give a representation of fishing as carried on during the
polished-stone epoch.
[Illustration: Fig. 80.--Fishing during the Polished-stone Epoch.]
Returning to the subject of the ancient Danes, we must add, that these
men, who lived on the sea-coasts, clad themselves in skins of beasts,
rendered supple by the fat of the seal and marrow extracted from the
bones of some of the large mammals. For dwelling-places they used tents
likewise made of skins prepared in the same way.
_Arts and Manufactures._--What degree of skill in this respect was
attained by the men who lived during the polished-stone epoch? To give
an answer to this question, we must again ransack those same
kitchen-middens which have been the means of furnishing us with such
accurate information as to the system of food of the man of that period.
We shall also have to turn our attention to the remains found in the
principal caves of this epoch.
An examination of the instruments found in the kitchen-middens shows us
that the flints are in general of a very imperfect type, with the
exception, however, of the long splinters or knives, the workmanship of
which indicates a considerable amount of skill.
Fig. 81 represents a flint knife from one of the Danish deposits,
delineated in the Museum of Saint-Germain; and fig. 82 a _nucleus_, that
is, a piece of flint from which splinters have been taken off, which
were intended to be used as knives.
[Illustration: Fig. 81.--Flint Knife, from one of the Danish Beds.]
[Illustration: Fig. 82.--Nucleus off which Knives are flaked.]
We also give a representation of a hatchet (fig. 83) and a scraper (fig.
84), which came from the same source.
[Illustration: Fig. 83.--Flint Hatchet, from one of the Danish Beds.]
[Illustration: Fig. 84.--Flint Scraper, from one of the Danish Beds.]
Besides these instruments, bodkins, spear-heads, and stones for slings
have also been found in the kitchen-middens, without taking into account
a quantity of fragments of flint which do not appear to have been
wrought with any special purpose in view, and were probably nothing but
rough attempts, or the mere refuse of the manufacture.
[Illustration: Fig. 85.--Refuse from the Manufacture of wrought Flints.]
In the same deposits there are also found a good many pebbles, which,
according to the general opinion, must have been used as weights to sink
the fishing-nets to the bottom of the water. Some are hollowed out with
a groove all round them, like that depicted in fig. 86, which is
designed from a specimen in the Museum of Saint-Germain. Others have a
hole bored through the middle. This groove or hole was, doubtless,
intended to hold the cord which fastened the stone weight to the net.
[Illustration: Fig. 86.--Weight to sink Fishing-nets.]
_Weapons and Tools._--We shall now pass on to the weapons and tools
which were in use among the people in the north of Europe during the
period we are considering.
During the latter period of the polished-stone epoch working in stone
attained to a really surprising degree of perfection among the people of
the North. It is, in fact, difficult to understand how, without making
use of any metallic tools, men could possibly impart to flint, when
fashioned into weapons and implements of all kinds, those regular and
elegant shapes which the numerous excavations that have been set on foot
are constantly bringing to light. The Danish flint may, it is true, be
wrought with great facility; but nevertheless, an extraordinary amount
of skill would be none the less necessary in order to produce that
rectitude of outline and richness of contour which are presented by the
Danish specimens of this epoch--specimens which will not be surpassed
even in the Bronze Age.
The hatchets found in the north of Europe, belonging to the
polished-stone epoch, differ very considerably from the hatchets of
France and Belgium. The latter are rounded and bulging at the edges; but
the hatchets made use of by the people of the North (fig. 87) were
flatter and cut squarely at the edge. They were nearly in the shape of a
rectangle or elongated trapezium, with the four angles cut off. Their
dimensions are sometimes considerable; some have been found which
measured nearly 16 inches in length.
[Illustration: Fig. 87.--Danish Axe of the Polished-stone Epoch.]
Independently of this type, which is the most plentiful, the northern
tribes used also to manufacture the drilled hatchet, which is combined
in various ways with the hammer. In these instruments, the best
workmanship and the most pleasing shapes are to be noticed. The figs.
88, 89 and 90, designed in the Museum of Saint-Germain, from authentic
specimens sent by the Museum of Copenhagen, represent double-edged axes
and axe-hammers. They are all pierced with a round hole in which the
handle was fixed. The cutting edge describes an arc of a circle, and
the other end is wrought into sharp angular edges.
[Illustration: Fig. 88.--Double-edged Axe]
[Illustration: Fig. 89.--Danish Axe-hammer, drilled for handle.]
[Illustration: Fig. 90.--Danish Axe-hammer, drilled for handle.]
These hatchets are distinguished from those of the reindeer epoch by a
characteristic which enables us to refer them without hesitation to
their real date, even in cases in which they have not yet been subject
to the operation of polishing. The hatchets of the reindeer epoch have
their cutting edge at the narrowest end, whilst those of the
polished-stone epoch are sharp at their widest end. This observation
does not apply specially to the Danish hatchets; it refers equally to
those of other European countries.
The spear-heads are masterpieces of good taste, patience, and skill.
There are two sorts of them. The most beautiful (figs. 91, 92) assume
the shape of a laurel-leaf; they are quite flat, and chipped all over
with an infinite amount of art. Their length is as much as 15 inches.
Others are shorter and thicker in shape, and terminate at the base in an
almost cylindrical handle. Sometimes they are toothed at the edge (fig.
93). These spear-heads were evidently fixed at the end of a staff, like
the halberds of the middle ages and the modern lance.
[Illustration: Fig. 91.--Spear-head from Denmark.]
[Illustration: Fig. 92.--Spear-head from Denmark.]
The poniards (fig. 94) are no less admirable in their workmanship than
the spear-heads, from which they do not perceptibly differ, except in
having a handle, which is flat, wide, solid, and made a little thicker
at the end. This handle is always more or less ornamented, and is
sometimes covered with delicate carving. To chip a flint in this way
must have required a skilful and well-practised hand.
[Illustration: Fig. 93.--Toothed Spear-head of Flint.]
[Illustration: Fig. 94.--Flint Poniard, from Denmark.]
After these somewhat extraordinary instruments, we must mention the
arrow-heads, the shapes of which are rather varied in their character.
The arrow-heads most frequently found are formed in the shape of a
triangular prism, terminating at the lower end in a stem intended to be
inserted into a stick (fig. 95); others are deeply indented at the base
and quite flat. Many are finely serrated on the edges, and occasionally
even on the inside edge of the indentation.
Figs. 95, 96, 97, and 98 represent the various types of Danish
arrow-heads, all of which are in the Museum of Saint-Germain, and from
which these designs were made.
[Illustration: Fig. 95.--Type of the Danish Arrow-head.]
[Illustration: Fig. 96.--Another Type of Arrow-head.]
[Illustration: Fig. 97.--Arrow-head.]
[Illustration: Fig. 98.--Arrow-head from Denmark.]
The chisels and gouges equally merit a special mention.
The chisel (fig. 99) is a kind of quadrangular prism, chipped in a bevel
down to the base.
[Illustration: Fig. 99.--Flint Chisel from Denmark.]
The gouges are hollowed out on one of their faces, so as to act as the
tool the name of which has been applied to them.
We next come to some curious instruments, of which we have given designs
taken from the specimens in the Museum of Saint-Germain; the purpose
they were applied to is still problematical. They are small flakes, or
blades, in the shape of a crescent (figs. 100, 101). The inner edge,
which was either straight or concave, is usually serrated like a saw;
the convex side must have been fixed into a handle; for the traces of
the handle may still be detected upon many of them. These instruments
were probably made use of as scrapers in the preparation of skins for
garments; perhaps, also, they were used as knives or as saws.
[Illustration: Fig. 100.--Small Stone Saw from the Danish Deposits.]
[Illustration: Fig. 101.--Another Stone Saw from Denmark.]
We must now turn our attention to instruments made of bone or stag's
horn. They are much less numerous than those of stone, and have nothing
about them of a very remarkable character. The only implement that is
worthy of notice is the harpoon (fig. 102). It is a carved bone, and
furnished with teeth all along one side, the other edge being completely
smooth. The harpoon of the reindeer epoch was decidedly superior to it.
[Illustration: Fig. 102.--Bone Harpoon of the Stone Age from Denmark.]
On account of its singularity, we must not omit to mention an object
made of bone, composed of a wide flat plate, from which spring seven or
eight teeth of considerable length, and placed very close together;
there is a kind of handle, much narrower, and terminating in a knob,
like the top of a walking-stick. This is probably one of the first combs
which ever unravelled the thickly-grown heads of hair of primitive man.
[Illustration: Fig. 103.--Bone Comb from Denmark.]
It is a well-known fact that amber is very plentiful on the coasts of
the Baltic. Even in the Stone Age, it was already much appreciated by
the northern tribes, who used to make necklaces of it, either by merely
perforating the rough morsels of amber and stringing them in a row, or
by cutting them into spherical or elliptical beads, as is the case
nowadays.
Fig. 104 represents a necklace and also various other ornaments made of
yellow amber, which have been drawn from specimens in the Museum of
Saint-Germain.
[Illustration: Fig. 104.--Necklace and various Ornaments of Amber.]
Although these northern tribes of the polished-stone epoch were such
skilful workmen in flint, they were, nevertheless, but poor hands at
pottery. The _débris_ of vessels collected from the Danish
_kitchen-middens_, and also from the peat-bogs and tombs, are in every
way rough, and testify to a very imperfect knowledge of the art of
moulding clay. They may be said to mark the first efforts of a
manufacturing art which is just springing into existence, which is
seeking for the right path, although not, as yet, able to find it. The
art of pottery (if certain relics be relied on) was more advanced at a
more ancient period, that is, during the reindeer epoch.
We have already stated that during the reindeer epoch there existed
certain manufactories of weapons and tools, the productions of which
were distributed all round the adjacent districts, although over a
somewhat restricted circle. In the epoch at which we have now arrived,
certain _workshops_--for really this is the proper name to give
them--acquired a remarkable importance, and their relations became of a
much more extensive character. In several of the Belgian caves, flints
have been found which must have come from the celebrated workshop of
Grand-Pressigny, situated in that part of the present France which forms
the department of Indre-et-Loire, and, from their very peculiar
character, are easily recognisable. Commerce and manufacture had then
emerged from their merely rudimentary state, and were entering into a
period of activity implying a certain amount of civilisation.
The great principle of division of labour had already been put into
practice, for there were special workshops both for the shaping and
polishing of flints.
The most important of all the workshops which have been noticed in
France is, unquestionably, that of Grand-Pressigny, which we have
already mentioned. It was discovered by Dr. Léveillé, the medical man of
the place; but, to tell the truth, it is not so much in itself a centre
of manufacture as a series of workshops distributed in the whole
neighbourhood round Pressigny.
At the time of this discovery, that is in 1864, flints were found in
thousands imbedded in the vegetable mould on the surface of the soil,
over a superficies of 12 to 14 acres. The Abbé Chevalier, giving an
account of this curious discovery to the _Académie des Sciences_ at
Paris, wrote: "It is impossible to walk a single step without treading
on some of these objects."
The workshops of Grand-Pressigny furnish us with a considerable variety
of instruments. We find hatchets in all stages of manufacture, from the
roughest attempt up to a perfectly polished weapon. We find, also, long
flakes or flint-knives cleft off with a single blow with astonishing
skill.
All these objects, even the most beautiful among them, are nevertheless
defective in some respect or other; hence it may be concluded that they
were the refuse thrown aside in the process of manufacture. In this way
may be explained the accumulation of so many of these objects in the
same spot.
There were likewise narrow and elongated points forming a kind of
piercer, perfectly wrought; also scrapers, and saws of a particular type
which seem to have been made in a special workshop. They are short and
wide, and have at each end a medial slot intended to receive a handle.
[Illustration: Fig. 105.--Nucleus in the Museum of Saint-Germain, from
the Workshop of Grand-Pressigny.]
But the objects which are the most numerous of all, and those which
obviate any doubt that Pressigny was once an important centre of the
manufacture of flint, are the _nuclei_ (fig. 105), or the remnants of
the lump of flint, from which the large blades known under the name of
knives were cleft off. Some of these lumps which we have seen in the
Museum of St. Germain were as much as 11 and 13 inches in length; but
the greater part did not exceed 7 inches. The labourers of Touraine, who
often turn up these flints with their plough-shares, call them _pounds
of butter_, looking at the similarity of shape. At the present day these
_nuclei_ are plentiful in all the collections of natural history and
geology.
A strange objection has been raised against the antiquity of the
hatchets, knives, and weapons found at Pressigny. M. Eugène Robert has
asserted that these flints were nothing else but the refuse of the
siliceous masses which, at the end of the last century and especially at
the beginning of the present, were used in the manufacture of
gun-flints!
The Abbé Bourgeois, M. Penguilly l'Haridon, and Mr. John Evans did not
find much difficulty in proving the slight foundation there was for this
criticism. In the department of Loire-et-Cher, in which the gun-flint
manufacture still exists, the residue from the process bears no
resemblance whatever to the _nuclei_ of Pressigny; the fragments are
much less in bulk, and do not present the same constantly-occurring and
regular shapes. Added to this, they are never chipped at the edges, like
a great number of the flakes coming from the workshops of Touraine.
But another and altogether peremptory argument is that the flints of
Pressigny-le-Grand are unfitted, on account of the texture, for the
manufacture of gun-flints. Moreover, the records of the Artillery Depôt,
as remarked by M. Penguilly l'Haridon, librarian of the Artillery
Museum, do not make mention of the locality of Pressigny having ever
been worked for this purpose. Lastly, the oldest inhabitants of the
commune have testified that they never either saw or heard of any body
of workmen coming into the district to work flints. M. Eugène Robert's
hypothesis, which MM. Decaisne and Elie de Beaumont thought right to
patronise, is, therefore, as much opposed to facts as to probability.
Very few polished flints are found in the workshops of
Pressigny-le-Grand; it is, therefore, imagined that their existence
commenced before the polished-stone epoch. According to this idea, the
_nuclei_ would belong to a transitional epoch between the period of
chipped stone, properly so called, and that of polished stone. The first
was just coming to an end, but the second had not actually commenced. In
other words, most of the Pressigny flints have the typical shapes and
style of cutting peculiar to the polished-stone age, but the polishing
is wanting.
This operation was not practised in the workshops of Pressigny until
some considerable period after they were founded, and were already in
full operation. In the neighbourhood of this locality a number of
polishers have been found of a very remarkable character. They are large
blocks of sandstone (fig. 106), furrowed all over, or only on a portion
of their surface, with grooves of various depths, in which objects might
be polished by an energetic friction.
[Illustration: Fig. 106.--Polisher from Grand-Pressigny, both faces
being shown.]
Some polishers of the same kind, which have been found in various
departments, are rather different from the one we have just named. Thus,
one specimen which was found by M. Leguay in the environs of Paris, in
the burial-places of Varenne-Saint-Hilaire, of which we give a
representation further on, is provided not only with grooves but also
hollows of a basin-like shape, and of some little depth.
The polishing of the flints was carried into effect by rubbing them
against the bottom of these hollows, which were moistened by water, and
no doubt contained siliceous dust of a harder nature than the stone
which had to be polished.
We must here pause for a moment to remark that all these operations
which were carried out by our ancestors in fashioning the flint could
not fail to have presented certain difficulties, and must have required
a remarkable development of intelligence and skill.
Working flints into shape, which appears at first sight a very simple
matter, is, however, a rather complicated operation, on account of the
properties of this mineral substance and the beds in which it lies.
In its natural state the flint presents itself in the shape of nearly
round lumps, which are brittle, but nevertheless very hard, and which,
like glass, can be split in any direction by a blow, so as to furnish
scales with sharp edges. In consequence of this circumstance, all that
would be requisite in order to produce sharp objects is to cleave off
flakes in the shape of a knife or poniard, by striking a flint, held in
the left hand, with another and harder flint or hammer. Instead of
holding in the left hand the flint which was to be wrought, it might
also be placed on a rest and, being held fast with the left hand,
suitable blows might be applied to the stone.
We must not, however, omit to mention, that to enable the flint to be
cut up into sharp splinters and to be broken in any desired direction,
it is necessary for it to have been very recently extracted from the
bosom of the earth; it must possess the humidity which is peculiar to
it, with which it is impregnated when in its natural bed. If pieces of
flint are exposed to the open air they cannot afterwards be readily
broken with any degree of regularity; they then afford nothing but
shapeless and irregular chips, of an entirely different character from
that which would be required in fashioning them. This moisture was well
known to the workmen who used to manufacture the gun-flints, and was
called the _quarry damp_.
The necessity that the flint should be wrought when newly extracted from
the earth, and that the stones should only be dug just in proportion as
they were wanted, brought about as a proximate result the creation and
working of mines and quarries, which are thus almost as ancient as
humanity itself. Being unable to make use of flints which had been dried
in the air, and consequently rendered unfit for being wrought, the
workmen were compelled to make excavations, and to construct galleries,
either covered or exposed to the open air, to employ wooden battening,
shores, supports; in short, to put in use the whole plant which is
required for working a stone-quarry. As, in order not to endanger the
lives of the labourers, it was found necessary to prevent any downfalls,
they were induced to follow out a certain methodical system in their
excavations, by giving a sufficient thickness to the roofs of the
galleries, by sinking shafts, by building breast-walls, and by adopting
the best plan for getting out the useless _detritus_. When, as was often
the case, water came in so as to hinder the miners, it was necessary to
get rid of it in order that the workmen should not be drowned. It was
also sometimes requisite that the galleries and the whole system of
underground ways should be supplied with air.
Thus their labour in fashioning the flint must have led our ancestors to
create the art of working quarries and mines.
It has been made a subject of inquiry, how the tribes of the Stone Age
could produce, without the aid of any iron tool, the holes which are
found in the flints; and how they could perforate these same flints so
as to be able to fit in handles for the hatchets, poniards, and knives;
in fact, lapidaries of the present day cannot bore through gun-flints
without making use of diamond dust. We are of opinion that the _bow_,
which was employed by primitive man in producing fire by rubbing wood
against wood, was also resorted to in the workshops for manufacturing
stone implements and weapons for giving a rapid revolving motion to a
flint drill which was sufficient to perforate the stone. Certain
experiments which have been made in our own day with very sharp
arrow-heads which belonged to primitive man have proved that it is thus
very possible to pierce fresh flints, if the action of the drill is
assisted by the addition of some very hard dust which is capable of
increasing the bite of the instrument. This dust or powder, consisting
of corundum or zircon, might have been found without any great
difficulty by the men of the Stone Age. These substances are, in fact,
to be met with on the banks of rivers, their presence being betrayed by
the golden spangles which glitter in the sand.
Thus the flint-drill, assisted by one of these powders, was quite
adequate for perforating siliceous stones. When it is brought to our
knowledge that the workmen of the Black Forest thus bore into Bohemian
granite in less than a minute, we shall not feel inclined to call this
explanation in question.[19]
Fig. 107 attempts to give a representation of the workshop at
Pressigny for shaping and polishing flints--in other words, a
manufacturing workshop of the polished-stone epoch.
[Illustration: Fig. 107.--The earliest Manufacture and Polishing of
Flints.]
In this sketch we have depicted the polisher found by M. Leguay, of
which we give a representation in fig. 108. In this picture it was
indispensable for us to show the operation of polishing, for the latter
is a characteristic of the epoch of mankind which we are now describing,
that is, the polished-stone period. It must, in fact, be remarked that
during the epoch of the great bear and the mammoth, and the reindeer
epoch, stone instruments were not polished, they were purely and simply
flakes or fragments of stone. During the epoch at which we have now
arrived, a great improvement took place in this kind of work, and stone
instruments were polished. It is therefore essential to call attention
to the latter operation.
[Illustration: Fig. 108.--Polisher found by M. Leguay.]
We think we ought to quote here the brief account M. Leguay has given of
the polisher represented in our figure. In his 'Note sur une Pierre à
polir les Silex trouvée en Septembre, 1860, à la Varenne-Saint-Hilaire
(Seine),' M. Leguay thus writes:--
"Amongst the many monuments of the Stone Age which I have collected at
Varenne-Saint-Hilaire, on the site of the ancient settlement which once
existed there, there is one which has always struck me, not only by its
good state of preservation, but also by the revelations which it affords
us as to one of the principal manufactures of these tribes--the
fabrication of flint weapons and utensils.
"This object is a stone for polishing and fashioning the finest kind of
hatchets. I discovered it in September, 1860, at a spot called _La
Pierre au Prêtre_, along with several other monuments of primitive art
which I intend before long to make public. This stone is a rough
sandstone of cubical shape, showing no trace whatever of having been
hewn. It is 13 inches in its greatest thickness, and measures 37 inches
long by 21 wide, and, just as in many boulders, one of its faces is well
adapted to the use for which it was employed.
"This is the face which was used for many long years for rubbing and
polishing the weapons made in the place, the remains of which are still
found in small quantities in the neighbourhood, and abound in the
burial-places, where they have been deposited as votive offerings.
"Almost the whole of its surface is occupied. In the centre is a basin
presenting an oval surface 25 inches the long way, and 12 inches the
narrow way. The stone, which has been considerably worn away in
consequence of long use, has been rubbed off to a central depth of about
1 inch; this portion must have been used for rubbing the larger objects
after they had been roughly shaped by chipping. The length of the basin
allowed a motion of considerable length to be given to the stone which
was being worked, at the same time giving facilities to the workman for
the exercise of all his strength. Added to this, this cavity enabled the
almond-like shape to be given to the objects--a form which they nearly
all present.
"Either in front or to the right, according to the position in which the
observer stands, and almost touching the edge of this basin, there is a
hole deeply hollowed in the stone, being 30 inches long; it extends
along almost the whole length of the sandstone, with the maximum breadth
of about 1 inch, and presents the shape of a very elongated spindle
hollowed out to a depth of something less than half an inch in the
centre, which tapers off to nothing at the two ends.
"The wear of the stone and the shape of this groove point out its
intention. It must have been used to reduce the edges or the sides of
the hatchet, which after the chipping and flat polishing were left
either too thick or too sharp for a handle to be easily fitted to them.
Added to this, it smoothed down the roughnesses caused by chipping,
which it replaced by a round form of no great thickness, which was again
and again rubbed flatly on the stone to give it a square and sharp-edged
level. This last operation took place in a basin, and it gave to the
hatchet a curve in a lengthwise direction which is by no means
ungraceful.
"The thinning off of the edges of the groove was not an immaterial
matter. It not only assisted in forming the above-named curve, but also
prevented the cutting edge being distorted, and avoided the need of
subsequent repolishing, which spoiled the object by rubbing it away too
much.
"It must not be for a moment imagined that the edge of the hatchet was
made in this groove. Examination proves the contrary, and that it was
done flatwise while polishing the rest of the object; and if sometimes
its thickness did not allow this, it was preliminarily done, and then
finished in the general polishing.
"But although this basin, and its accompanying groove, on account of
their dimensions, acted very well for polishing the large hatchets, the
case was different with the smaller ones. This is the reason why two
other smaller basins, and also a small groove, were made on the flat
part of the stone by the side of the others.
"These two basins were placed at two corners of the face of the stone,
but still parallel to the larger basin and also to the larger groove, so
as to be convenient for the requirements of the workman engaged in
polishing without compelling him to shift his position; one is 10
inches, and the other 13 inches in length, with a mean breadth of about
2-1/2 inches. They are both in the shape of a rather narrow almond, and
end almost in a point, which seems to show that they also were used in
polishing somewhat narrow objects--perhaps to set right the edges of
hatchets, in which the rubbing in the larger basin had produced cavities
prejudicial to the perfection of the faces.
"The small groove, placed very near the larger one, is 9 inches long. It
is the same shape as the other, but is not so deep, and scarcely half an
inch wide.
"Not far from the end of this latter groove, at the point where it
approaches the larger one, there are traces of a groove scarcely
commenced.
"Lastly, the flat portions of the stone which are not occupied by the
basins and grooves, were sometimes used for touching up the polish, or
even for smoothing various objects.
"Thus, as we see, this polishing-stone, which is one of the most
complete in existence, has on it three basins of different sizes, two
well-defined grooves, and one only just sketched out. It would serve for
finishing off all the instruments that could be required; but,
nevertheless, two other sandstones of moderate size were found near it;
one round, and the other of a spindle-like shape; these, which were worn
and rubbed all over their surfaces, must also have been used in
polishing objects.
"Finding these stones was, however, a thing of frequent occurrence in
several spots of this locality, where I often met with them; they were
of all sizes and all shapes, and perfectly adapted for polishing small
flints, needles, and the cutting edges of knives, deposited with them in
the sepulchres.
"This polishing-stone, which is thickly covered with _dendrites_ or
incrustations, must have been in use at the time it was abandoned. I
found it about 2 feet below the surface of the soil, in which it was
turned upside down; that is, the basin lay next the earth. The few
monuments that were with it--one among which I looked upon as an idol
roughly carved in a block of sandstone--were all likewise turned upside
down. There had been sepulchres in the neighbourhood, but they had been
violated; and the displaced stones, as well as the bones themselves,
only served to point out the presence of the former burial-place."
The polishing of stone instruments was effected by rubbing the object
operated upon in a cavity hollowed out in the centre of the polisher, in
which cavity a little water was poured, mixed with zircon or corundum
powder, or, perhaps, merely with oxide of iron, which is used by
jewellers in carrying out the same operation.
It is really surprising to learn what an enormous quantity of flints
could be prepared by a single workman, provided with the proper
utensils. For information on this point, it is requisite to know what
could be done by our former flint-workers in the departments of Indre
and Loire-et-Cher, who are, in fact, the descendants of the workmen of
the Stone Age. Dolomieu, a French naturalist, desired at the beginning
of the century to acquaint himself with the quantity which these
workmen could produce, and at the same time to thoroughly understand the
process which they employed in manufacturing gun-flints.
By visiting the workshops of the flint-workers, M. Dolomieu ascertained
that the first shape which the workmen gave to the flint was that of a
many-sided prism. In the next place, five or six blows with the hammer,
which were applied in a minute, were sufficient to cleave off from the
mass certain fragments as exact in shape, with faces as smooth, outlines
as straight, and angles as sharp, as if the stone had been wrought by a
lapidary's wheel--an operation which, in the latter case, would have
required an hour's handiwork. All that was requisite, says Dolomieu, is
that the stones should be fresh, and devoid of flaws or heterogeneous
matter. When operating upon a good kind of flint, freshly extracted from
the ground, a workman could prepare 1000 proper flakes of flint in a
day, turning out 500 gun-flints, so that in three days he would
perfectly finish 1000 ready for sale. In 1789, the Russian army was
furnished with gun-flints from Poland. The manufactory was established
at Kisniew. At this period, according to Dolomieu, 90,000 of these
gun-flints were made in two months.
Besides those at Grand-Pressigny, some other pre-historic workshops have
been pointed out in France. We may mention those of Charente, discovered
by M. de Rochebrune; also those of Poitou, and lastly, the field of
Diorières, at Chauvigny (Loire-et-Cher), which appears to have been a
special workshop for polishing flint instruments. There is, in fact, not
far from Chauvigny, in the same department, a rock on which twenty-five
furrows, similar to those in the polishing-stones, are still visible; on
which account the inhabitants of the district have given it the name of
the "Scored Rock." It is probable that this rock was used for polishing
the instruments which were sculptured at Diorières.
The same kind of open-air workshops for the working of flints have also
been discovered in Belgium.
The environs of Mons are specially remarkable in this respect. At
Spiennes, particularly, there can be no doubt that an important
manufactory of wrought flints existed during the polished-stone epoch. A
considerable number of hatchets and other implements have been found
there; all of them being either unfinished, defective, or scarcely
commenced. We here give a representation (fig. 109) of a spear-head
which came from this settlement.
[Illustration: Fig. 109.--Spear-head from Spiennes.]
Sometimes these workshops were established in caverns, and not in the
open air. We are told this by M. J. Fournet, a naturalist of Lyons, in
his work entitled, 'Influence du Mineur sur la Civilisation.'
"For a very long time past," says M. Fournet, "the caves of Mentone had
been known to the inhabitants of the district, on account of the
accumulation of _débris_ contained in them, a boxful of which were sent
to Paris, before 1848, by the Prince of Monaco; the contents of it,
however, were never subjected to any proper explanation. Since this
date, M. Grand, of Lyons, to whom I am indebted for a collection of
specimens from these caves, carefully made several excavations, by which
he was enabled to ascertain that the most remarkable objects are only to
be met with at a certain depth in the clayey deposit with which the soil
of these caves is covered. All the instruments are rough and rudimentary
in their character, and must, consequently, be assigned to the first
commencement of the art. Nevertheless, among the flints some agates were
found, which, in my opinion, certainly came from the neighbourhood of
Frejus; and with them also some pieces of hyaline quartz in the shape of
prisms terminated by their two ordinary pyramids. We have a right to
suppose that these crystals, which resembled the _Meylan diamonds_ found
near Grenoble, did not come there by chance, and that their sharp
points, when fixed in a handle and acting as drills, were used for
boring holes in stone."
Flint was not, however, the only substance used during this epoch in the
manufacture of stone-hatchets, instruments and tools. In the caves of
France, Belgium and Denmark a considerable number of hatchets have been
found, made of gneiss, diorite, ophite, fibrolite, jade, and various
other very hard mineral substances, which were well adapted to the
purpose required and the use to which they were put.
Among the most remarkable we may mention several jade hatchets which
were found in the department of Gers, and ornamented with small hooks on
each side of the edge. One of these beautiful jade hatchets (fig. 110),
the delineation of which is taken from the specimen in the Museum of
Saint-Germain, was found in the department of Seine-et-Oise; it has a
sculptured ridge in the middle of each face.
[Illustration: Fig. 110.--Polished Jade Hatchet in the Museum of
Saint-Germain.]
But neither flint, gneiss, nor diorite exist in every country. For these
stones some less hard substance was then substituted. In Switzerland the
instruments and tools were generally made of pebbles which had been
drifted down by the streams. They were fashioned by breaking them with
other stones, by rubbing them on sandstone, or by sawing them with
toothed blades of flint according to their cohesive nature.
In some localities also objects of large size were made of serpentine,
basalts, lavas, jades, and other rocks chosen on account of their
extreme cohesiveness.
Manual skill had, however, attained such a pitch of perfection among the
workmen of this period, in consequence of their being habituated to one
exclusive kind of labour, that the nature of the stone became a matter
of indifference to them. The hammer, with the proper use of which our
workmen are almost unacquainted, was a marvellous instrument in the
hands of our ancestors; with it they executed prodigies of workmanship,
which seem as if they ought to have been reserved for the file and
grindstone of the lapidary of the present day.
We shall not, perhaps, surprise our readers if we add that as certain
volcanic lavas, especially obsidian, fracture with the same regularity
and the same facility as the flint, obsidian was employed by the natives
of America as a material for making sharp instruments. The ancient
quarries whence the Indians procured this rock for the manufacture of
instruments and tools, were situate at the _Cerro de Navajas_--that is,
the _Mountain of Knives_--in Mexico. M. H. de Saussure, the descendant
of the great geologist, was fortunate enough to meet with, at this spot,
pieces of mineral which had merely been begun upon, and allowed a series
of double-edged blades to be subsequently cut off them; these were
always to be obtained by a simple blow skilfully applied. According to
M. H. de Saussure, the first fashioning of these implements was confined
to producing a large six-sided prism, the vertical corners of which were
regularly and successively hewn off, until the piece left, or _nucleus_,
became too small for the operation to be further continued.
Hernandez, the Spanish historian, states that he has seen 100 blades an
hour manufactured in this way. Added to this, the ancient aborigines of
Peru, and the Guanches of Teneriffe, likewise carved out of obsidian
both darts and poniards. And, lastly, we must not omit to mention that
M. Place, one of the explorers of Nineveh, found on the site of this
ancient city, knives of obsidian, supposed to be used for the purpose of
circumcision.
Having considered the flint instruments peculiar to the polished-stone
epoch, we must now turn our attention to those made of stag's horn.
The valley of the Somme, which has furnished such convincing proof of
the co-existence of man with the great mammals of extinct species, is a
no less precious repository for instruments of stag's horn belonging to
the polished-stone epoch. The vast peat-bogs of this region are the
localities where these relics have been chiefly found. Boucher de
Perthes collected a considerable number of them in the neighbourhood of
Abbeville.
These peat-bogs are, as is well known, former marshes which have been
gradually filled up by the growth of peat-moss (sphagnum), which, mixed
with fallen leaves, wood, &c., and being slowly rotted by the
surrounding water, became converted after a certain time into that kind
of combustible matter which is called peat. The bogs in the valley of
the Somme in some places attain to the depth of 34 feet. In the lower
beds of this peat are found the weapons, the tools, and the ornaments of
the polished-stone epoch.
Among these ancient relics we must mention one very interesting class;
it is that formed by the association of two distinct component parts,
such as stone and stag's horn, or stone and bone.
The hatchets of this type are particularly remarkable; they consist of a
piece of polished flint half buried in a kind of sheath of stag's horn,
either polished or rough as the case may be (fig. 111).
[Illustration: Fig. 111.--Polished Flint Hatchet, with a Sheath of
Stag's Horn fitted for a Handle.]
The middle of this sheath is generally perforated with a round or oval
hole intended to receive a handle of oak, birch, or some other kind of
wood adapted for such a use.
Fig. 112, taken from the illustration in Boucher de Perthes' work
('Antiquités Celtiques et Antédiluviennes'), represents this hatchet
fitted into a handle made of oak.
[Illustration: Fig. 112.--Flint Hatchet fitted into a Stag's-horn
Sheath, having an Oak Handle, from Boucher de Perthes' illustration.]
It is difficult to understand how it was that a hatchet of this kind did
not fall out of its sheath in consequence of any moderately violent
blow; for it seems as if there was nothing to hold it in its place. This
observation especially applies to hatchets, the whole length of
which--even the portion covered by the sheath--was polished; for the
latter would certainly slide out of their casing with ease. The fact is,
that complete specimens are seldom found, and, generally speaking, the
flints are separated from their sheaths.
With regard to the handles, the nature of the material they were made
from was unfavourable to their preservation through a long course of
centuries; it is, therefore, only exceptionally that we meet with them,
and even then they are always defaced.
Fig. 113 is given by Boucher de Perthes, in his 'Antiquités Celtiques,'
as the representation of an oaken handle found by him.
A number of these sheaths have been found, which were provided at the
end opposite to the stone hatchet with strong and pointed teeth. These
are boar's tusks, firmly buried in the stag's horn. These instruments
therefore fulfilled a double purpose; they cut or crushed with one end
and pierced with the other.
Sheaths are also found which are not only provided with the boar's
tusks, but are hollowed out at each end so as to hold two flint hatchets
at once. This is represented in fig. 114 from one of Boucher de Perthes'
illustrations.
[Illustration: Fig. 113.--Hatchet-handle made of Oak.]
[Illustration: Fig. 114.--Stag's-horn Sheath, open at each end so as to
receive two Hatchets.]
The hatchet fitted into a sheath of stag's horn which we here delineate
(fig. 115), was picked up in the environs of Aerschot, and is an object
well worthy of note; it is now in the Museum of Antiquities at Brussels.
Its workmanship is perfect, and superior to that of similar instruments
found in the peat-bogs of the valley of the Somme.
[Illustration: Fig. 115.--Polished Flint Hatchet from Belgium, fitted
into a Stag's-horn Sheath.]
Stag's horn was often used alone as a material for the manufacture of
tools which were not intended to endure any very hard work; among these
were instruments of husbandry and gardening.
We here give representations (figs. 116, 117, 118) from Boucher de
Perthes' illustrations, of certain implements made of stag's horn which
appear to have had this purpose in view. It is remarked that they are
not all perforated for holding a handle; in some cases, a portion of the
stag's antler formed the handle.
[Illustration: Fig. 116.--Gardening Tool made of Stag's Horn (after
Boucher de Perthes).]
[Illustration: Fig. 117.--Gardening Tool made of Stag's Horn (after
Boucher de Perthes).]
[Illustration: Fig. 118.--Gardening Tool made of Stag's Horn (after
Boucher de Perthes).]
In the course of his explorations in the peat-bogs of Abbeville, M.
Boucher de Perthes found numerous flakes of flint of irregular shapes,
the use of which he was unable to explain. But there have also been
discovered in the same deposits some long bones belonging to
mammals--tibia, femur, radius, ulna--all cut in a uniform way, either
in the middle or at the ends; he was led to imagine that these bones
might have been the handles intended to hold the flints. In order to
assure himself that this idea was well founded, he took one of the bones
and a stone which came out of the peat, and, having put them together,
he found he had made a kind of chisel, well-adapted for cutting,
scooping-out, scratching and polishing horn or wood. He tried this
experiment again several times, and always with full success. If the
stone did not fit firmly into the bone, one or two wooden wedges were
sufficient to steady it.
After this, Boucher de Perthes entertained no doubt whatever that these
bones had been formerly employed as handles for flint implements. The
same handle would serve for several stones, owing to the ease with which
the artisan could take one flint out and replace it with another, by the
aid of nothing but these wooden wedges. This is the reason why, in the
peat-bogs, flints of this sort are always much more plentiful than the
bone handles. We must also state that it seems as if they took little or
no trouble in repairing the flints when they were blunted, knowing how
easy it would be to replace them. They were thrown away, without further
care; hence their profusion.
These handles are made of extremely hard bone, from which we may
conclude that they were applied to operations requiring solid tools.
Most of them held the flint at one end only; but some were open at both
ends, and would serve as handles for two tools at once.
Figs. 119 and 120 represent some of these flint tools in bone
handles--the plates are taken from those in Boucher de Perthes' work.
[Illustration: Fig. 119.--Flint Tool in a Bone Handle.]
[Illustration: Fig. 120.--Flint Tool with Bone Handle.]
Generally speaking, these handles gave but little trouble to those who
made them. They were content with merely breaking the bone across,
without even smoothing down the fracture, and then enlarging the
medullary hollow which naturally existed; next they roughly squared or
rounded the end which was intended to be grasped by the hand.
In fig. 121, we delineate one of these bone handles which is much more
carefully fashioned; it has been cut off smooth at the open end, and the
opposite extremity has been rounded off into a knob, which is ornamented
with a design.
[Illustration: Fig. 121.--Ornamented Bone Handle.]
During the polished-stone epoch, as during that which preceded it, the
teeth of certain mammals were used in the way of ornament. But they were
not content, as heretofore, with merely perforating them with holes and
hanging them in a string round their necks; they were now wrought with
considerable care. The teeth of the wild boar were those chiefly
selected for this purpose. They were split lengthwise, so as to render
them only half their original thickness, and were then polished and
perforated with holes in order to string them.
In the peat-mosses of the valley of the Somme a number of boars' tusks
have been found thus fashioned. The most curious discovery of this kind
which has been made, was that of the object of which we give a sketch in
fig. 122. It was found in 1834, near Pecquigny (Somme), and is composed
of nineteen boars' tusks split into two halves, as we before mentioned,
perfectly polished, and perforated at each end with a round hole.
Through these holes was passed a string of some tendinous substance, the
remains of which were, it is stated, actually to be seen at the time of
the discovery. A necklace of this kind must have been of considerable
value, as it would have necessitated a large amount of very tedious and
delicate work.
[Illustration: Fig. 122.--Necklace made of Boars' Tusks, longitudinally
divided.]
In the peat-bogs near Brussels polished flints have likewise been found,
associated with animal bones, and two specimens of the human _humerus_,
belonging to two individuals.
The peat-bogs of Antwerp, in which were found a human frontal bone,
characterised by its great thickness, and its small surface, have also
furnished fine specimens of flint knives (fig. 123), which are in no way
inferior to the best of those discovered at Grand-Pressigny.
[Illustration: Fig. 123.--Flint Knife, from the Peat-bogs near Antwerp.]
On none of the instruments of bone or horn, of which we have been
speaking, are to be found the designs which we have described as being
the work of man during the reindeer epoch. The artistic instinct seems
to have entirely vanished. Perhaps the diluvial catastrophe, which
destroyed so many victims, had, as one of its results, the effect of
effacing the feeling of art, by forcing men to concentrate their ideas
on one sole point--the care of providing for their subsistence and
defence.
A quantity of remains, gathered here and there, bear witness to the fact
that in the polished-stone epoch the use of pottery was pretty widely
spread. Most of the specimens are, as we have said, nothing but
attempts of a very rough character, but still they testify to a certain
amount of progress. The ornamentation is more delicate and more
complicated. We notice the appearance of open-work handles, and
projections perforated for the purpose of suspension. In short, there is
a perceptible, though but preliminary step made towards the real
creations of art.
In the caves of Ariége, MM. Garrigou and Filhol found some remains of
ancient pottery of clay provided with handles, although of a shape
altogether primitive. Among the fragments of pottery found by these
_savants_, there was one which measured 11 inches in height, and must
have formed a portion of a vase 20 inches high. This vessel, which was
necessarily very heavy, had been hung to cords; this was proved by
finding on another portion of the same specimen three holes which had
been perforated in it.
_Agriculture._--We have certain evidence that man, during the
polished-stone epoch, was acquainted with husbandry, or, in other words,
that he cultivated cereals. MM. Garrigou and Filhol found in the caves
of Ariége more than twenty mill-stones, which could only have been used
in grinding corn. These stones are from 8 to 24 inches in diameter.
The tribes, therefore, which, during the polished-stone epoch, inhabited
the district now called Ariége, were acquainted with the cultivation of
corn.
In 1869, Dr. Foulon-Menard published an article intended to describe a
stone found at Penchasteau, near Nantes, in a tomb belonging to the
Stone Age.[20] This stone is 24 inches wide, and hollowed out on its
upper face. It was evidently used for crushing grain with the help of a
stone roller, or merely a round pebble, which was rolled up and down in
the cavity. The meal obtained by this pressure and friction made its way
down the slope in the hollowing out of the stone, and was caught in a
piece of matting, or something of the kind.
To enable our readers to understand the fact that an excavation made in
a circular stone formed the earliest corn-mill in these primitive ages,
we may mention that, even in our own time, this is the mode of
procedure practised among certain savage tribes in order to crush
various seeds and corn.
[Illustration: Fig. 124.--Primitive Corn-mill.]
In the 'Voyage du Mississippi à l'Océan,' by M. Molhausen, we read:--
"The principal food of the Indians consisted of roasted cakes of maize
and wheat, the grains of which had been pulverised _between two
stones_."[21]
In Livingstone's Expedition to the Zambesi (Central Africa), it is
stated that "the corn-mills of the Mangajas, Makalolos, Landines and
other tribes are composed of a block of granite or syenite, sometimes
even of mica-schist, 15 to 18 inches square by 5 or 6 inches thick, and
a piece of quartz, or some other rock of equal hardness about the size
of a half-brick; one of the sides of this substitute for a millstone is
convex, so as to fit into a hollow of a trough-like shape made in the
large block, which remains motionless. When the woman wants to grind any
corn, she kneels down, and, taking in both hands the convex stone, she
rubs it up and down in the hollow of the lower stone with a motion
similar to that of a baker pressing down his dough and rolling it in
front of him. Whilst rubbing it to and fro, the housewife leans all her
weight on the smaller stone, and every now and then places a little more
corn in the trough. The latter is made sloping, so that the meal as soon
as it is made falls down into a cloth fixed to catch it."
[Illustration: Fig. 125.--The Art of Bread-making in the Stone Age.]
Such, therefore, was the earliest corn-mill. We shall soon see it
reappear in another form; two mill-stones placed one over the other, one
being set in motion above the other by means of a wooden handle. This is
the corn-mill of the bronze epoch. This type maintained its place
down to historic times, as it constituted the earliest kind of mill
employed by the Roman agriculturist.
In order to represent the existence of agriculture during the
polished-stone epoch, we have annexed a delineation of a woman grinding
corn into meal in the primitive mill (fig. 125).
In the same figure may be noticed the way of preparing the meal coming
from the mill for making a rough kind of cake. The children are heating
in the fire some flat circular stones. When these stones are
sufficiently heated, they rapidly withdraw them from the fire, using for
the purpose two damp sticks; they then place on the stones a little of
the meal mixed with water. The heat of the stones sufficed to bake the
meal and form a sort of cake or biscuit.
We may here state, in order to show that we are not dealing with a mere
hypothesis, that it is just in this way that, in the poor districts of
Tuscany, the _polenta_ is prepared even in the present day. The dough
made of chestnut-meal, moistened with water, is cooked between flat
stones that are placed one over the other in small piles as portrayed in
the annexed plate.
In the background of the same sketch we see animals, reduced to the
state of domestic cattle, being driven towards the group at work. By
this particular feature we have wished to point out that the
polished-stone epoch was also that of the domestication of animals, and
that even at this early period the sheep, the dog and the horse had been
tamed by man, and served him either as auxiliaries or companions.
The traces of agriculture which we have remarked on as existing in the
caves of Ariége, are also found in other parts of France. Round the
hearths in the department of Puy-de-Dôme, M. Pommerol discovered
carbonised wheat intermingled with pottery and flint instruments. The
men of the period we are now considering no longer devoted themselves
exclusively to the pursuits of hunting and fishing. They now began to
exercise the noble profession of agriculture, which was destined to be
subsequently the chief source of national wealth.
_Navigation._--The first origin of the art of navigation must be
ascribed to the polished-stone epoch. With regard to this subject, let
us pay attention to what is said on the point by M. G. de Mortillet,
curator at the Archæological and Pre-historic Museum of
Saint-Germain--one of the best-informed men we have in all questions
relating to the antiquity of man.
In M. de Mortillet's opinion, navigation, both marine and inland, was in
actual existence during the polished-stone epoch.
[Illustration: Fig. 126.--The earliest Navigators.]
The earliest boats that were made by man consisted simply of great
trunks of trees, shaped on the outside, and hollowed out in the
interior. They were not provided with any rests or rowlocks for the oars
or paddles, which were wielded by both hands. In hollowing out the tree
they used both their stone implements and also the action of fire.
In the earliest boats, the trunk of the tree, cut through at the two
ends as well as their imperfect tools allowed, preserved its original
outward form. The boat, in fact, was nothing but the trunk of a tree
first burnt out and then chipped on the inside by some cutting
instrument, that is, by the stone-hatchet.
Some improvement subsequently took place in making them. The outside of
the tree was also chipped, and its two ends, instead of being cut
straight through, were made to terminate in a point. In order to give it
more stability in the water and to prevent it from capsizing, it was
dressed equally all over, and the bottom of the canoe was scooped out.
Cross-stays were left in the interior to give the boat more solidity,
and perhaps, also, to serve as a support to the back, or, more probably,
to the feet of the rowers, who sat in the bottom of the canoe.
Sails must soon have been added to these means of nautical progression.
But it would be a difficult matter to fix any precise date for this
important discovery, which was the point of transition between
elementary and primitive navigation, and more important voyages. This
progress could not have been made without the help of metals.
In an article entitled 'Origine de la Navigation et de la Pêche,' M. de
Mortillet passes in review all the discoveries, which have been made in
different countries, of the earliest boats belonging to pre-historic
man.
After stating that the Museum of Copenhagen contains drawings of three
ancient canoes, he goes on to say:--
"The first canoe is the half-trunk of a tree 17 inches wide, cut
straight at the two ends, about 7 feet in length, and hollowed out in a
trough-like shape. This canoe much resembles that of Switzerland.
"The second was about 10 feet in length, one end terminating in a point,
the other more rounded. It was formed of the trunk of a tree hollowed
out into two compartments, a kind of cross-stay or seat being left at a
point about one-third of the length from the widest end.
"The third canoe, No. 295, likewise made of the trunk of a tree, was
much longer, having a length of at least 13 feet, and was terminated by
a point at both ends. At the sharpest end, the hollow is finished off
squarely, and there is also a small triangular seat at the extremity.
Two cross-stays were left in the interior.
"These three canoes are classed in the bronze series; a note of
interrogation or doubt is, however, affixed to the two latter.
"Ireland, like Scandinavia, has a history which does not go back very
far into the remote past; like Scandinavia, too, Ireland has been one of
the first to collect with care not only the monuments, but even the
slightest relics of remote antiquity and of pre-historic times. The
Royal Irish Academy has collected at Dublin a magnificent Museum, and
the praiseworthy idea has also been put in practice of publishing a
catalogue illustrated with 626 plates.
"In these collections there are three ancient canoes. The first is about
23 feet long, 31 inches wide, and 12 inches deep, and is hollowed out of
the trunk of an oak, which must have been at least 4-1/2 feet in
diameter. This boat, which came from the bogs of Cahore on the coast of
Wexford, is roughly squared underneath. One of the ends is rounded and
is slightly raised; the other is cut across at right angles, and closed
with a piece let in and fitted into grooves which were caulked with
bark. In the interior there are three cross-stays cut out of the solid
oak.
"The interior, at the time the canoe was discovered, contained a wooden
vessel, intended to bale out the boat, and two rollers, probably meant
to assist in conveying it down to the sea.
"The second is a canoe made of one piece of oak, rather more than 23
feet long, about 12 inches wide, and 8 inches deep. It terminates in a
point at both ends, and contains three cross-stays cut out of the solid
wood, and a small terminal triangular seat.
"The third, likewise made of one piece, is rather more than 20 feet long
and about 21 inches wide. On each side the wood is cut out so as to
receive a seat. This boat appears less ancient than the others, although
these may not have belonged to any very remote antiquity. In fact, Ware
states that in his time there were still to be seen on some of the Irish
rivers canoes hollowed out of a single trunk of oak.
"It is also well known that the lacustrine habitations constructed on
the artificial islands called _Crannoges_, existed to a late period in
Ireland. All the boats found round these island-dwellings are canoes
made all in one piece and hollowed out of the trunks of large trees.
"The trough-shaped canoe, consisting merely of the trunk of a tree cut
straight through at the two ends, and in no way squared on the outside,
also exists in Ireland. A very singular variety has been found in the
county of Monaghan;[22] at the two ends are two projections or handles,
which were probably used for carrying the boat from one place to
another, or to draw it up upon the beach after a voyage.
"According to Mr. John Buchanan, quoted by Sir C. Lyell,[23] at least
seventeen canoes have been found in the low ground along the margin of
the Clyde at Glasgow. Mr. Buchanan examined several of them before they
were dug out. Five of them were found buried in the silt under the
streets of Glasgow. One canoe was discovered in a vertical position,
with the prow upwards, as if it had foundered in a tempest; it contained
no small quantity of sea-shells. Twelve other canoes were found about
100 yards from the river, at the average depth of about 19 feet below
the surface of the ground, or about 7 feet below high-water mark. A few
only of them were found at a depth of no more than 4 or 5 feet, and
consequently more than 20 feet above the present level of the sea. One
was stuck into the sand at an angle of 45°; another had been turned over
and lay keel upwards; the others were in a horizontal position, as if
they had sunk in still water.
"Almost every one of these ancient boats had been formed of a single
trunk of oak, and hollowed out with some blunt instrument, probably
stone hatchets, assisted also by the action of fire. A few of them
presented clean-made cuts, evidently produced by a metallic tool. Two of
them were constructed of planks. The most elaborate of the number
bore the traces of square metal nails, which, however, had entirely
disappeared. In one canoe was found a diorite hatchet, and at the bottom
of another, a cork bung, which certainly implies relations with southern
France, Spain, or Italy.
"The Swiss lakes, with their lacustrine habitations, have furnished
numerous specimens of canoes. Dr. Keller, in his fifth Report on
Lake-Dwellings (plate X. fig. 23), represents a canoe from Robenhausen;
it is the half trunk of a tree 12 feet long and 29 inches wide, hollowed
out to a depth of from 6 to 7 inches only. Taking the centre as the
widest part, this trunk has been chipped off so as to taper towards the
two points which are rounded. It is, however, very probable that the
whole of this work was executed with stone implements; for the primitive
settlement of Robenhausen, situated in a peat-bog near the small lake
Pfæffikon in the canton of Zurich, although very rich in many kinds of
objects, has not, up to the present time, furnished us with any metal
instruments.
"In his first report (plate IV. fig. 21), Dr. Keller had given the
sketch of another canoe which came from the Lake of Bienne. Like the
first, mentioned by M. Worsaae, it is the half of the trunk of a tree
cut almost straight through, its two ends hollowed out inside in the
shape of a trough, the exterior being left entirely unwrought.
"Professor Desor mentions several canoes found in the Lake of Bienne.
One of them, near the island Saint-Pierre, was still full of stones.
According to M. Desor the builders of the lacustrine habitations during
the polished-stone epoch, in order to consolidate the piles which were
intended to support their dwellings, were accustomed to bank them up
with stones which they fetched in boats from the shore; the bottom of
the lake being completely devoid of them. The canoe found at the isle of
Saint-Pierre had therefore sunk to the bottom with its cargo, and thus
may be dated back to the polished-stone epoch. M. Troyon[24] gives some
still more circumstantial details as to this canoe. It is partly buried
in the mud at the northern angle of the isle, and is made of a single
piece of the trunk of an oak of large dimensions; it is not much less
than 49 feet long with a breadth of from 3-1/2 feet to 4 feet.
"M. Desor, in his _Palafittes_, informs us that the Museum of Neuchâtel
has lately been enriched by the addition of a canoe which was
discovered in the lake; unfortunately, it was dreadfully warped in
drying.
"Also M. Troyon, in his 'Habitations Lacustres,' speaks of several
canoes at Estavayer and Morges.
"Estavayer is situated on the Lake of Neuchâtel. There are two
settlements near it, one of the Stone Age, and one of the bronze age.
One canoe is still lying at the bottom of the lake, near these
settlements. Another was brought out of the water by the fishermen some
years ago; it was about 10 feet in length, and 2 feet in width. The end
which had been preserved was cut to a point and slightly turned upwards.
"Morges is on the Lake of Geneva, in the Canton of Vaud. M. Forel
discovered there two interesting settlements of the bronze age. Two
canoes were found. According to M. Troyon, one of them which had been
carried up on to the bank was not long before it was destroyed. It was
formed of the trunk of an oak, hollowed out like a basin. The other
still lay near some piles in 13 to 15 feet of water. One portion of it
is buried in the sand, the other part, which is not covered, measures
about 10 feet in length by 2 feet in width. It terminates in a point and
has been cut out so as to provide a kind of seat, taken out of the
thickness of the wood at the end, just as in the third canoe represented
in the catalogue of the Copenhagen Museum.
"In France, too, several canoes have been found which date back to
pre-historic times.
"On the 6th of January, 1860, the labourers who were working at the
fortifications which the engineers were making at Abbeville found a
canoe in the place called Saint-Jean-des-Prés, on the left bank of the
canal; it was discovered in the peat, 36 feet below the road and about
220 yards from the railway station. It was made out of a single stick of
oak and was about 22 feet in length; its ends were square and cut in a
slope, so that its upper surface was 8 feet longer than its bottom,
which was flattened off to a width of about 14 inches. The greatest
width of its upper surface, the widest part being placed at about
one-third of its length, measured nearly 3 feet; from this point the
canoe contracted in width, and was not more than 18 inches in width at
the furthest end. Now, as no tree exists which diminishes to this extent
in diameter on so short a length, we must conclude that the trunk which
formed the canoe must have been shaped outside.
"Two projections about 4 inches in thickness, placed 6-1/2 feet from the
narrowest end, and forming one piece with the sides and the bottom,
which in this part are very thick, left between them an empty space
which was probably intended to fit against the two sides of a piece of
wood cut square at the bottom and meant to serve as a mast. The deepest
internal hollow had not more than 10 inches in rise, and the side, which
at the upper part was not more than an inch in thickness, followed the
natural curve of the trunk, and united with the much thicker portion at
the bottom. This canoe, although it was completely uncovered and still
remained in a very good state of preservation, has not been got out from
the place in which it lay.
"In 1834, another canoe was discovered at Estreboeuf, 33 feet long,
about 21 inches wide, and 18 inches deep. The bottom was flat, the sides
cut vertically both within and without, which gave it nearly the shape
of a squared trough. In its widest part it bore some signs of having
carried a mast. It was conveyed to the Museum at Abbeville and became
completely rotten; nothing now is left but shapeless remains.
"The Abbé Cochet relates that between 1788 and 1800, during the
excavation of the basin of _La Barre_, at Havre, at 11 feet in depth, a
canoe was discovered, more than 44 feet in length, and hollowed out of
one trunk of a tree. The two ends were pointed and solid, and the
interior was strengthened with curved stays formed out of the solid
wood. This canoe was found to be made of elm and was hollowed out to a
depth of nearly 4 feet. It was in so good a state of preservation that
it bore being carried to a spot behind the engineer's house on the south
jetty; but when it was deposited there, it gradually wasted away by the
successive action of the rain and sun.
"The same archæologist also mentions another canoe, with a keel of from
16 to 20 feet long, which was discovered in the year 1680, at
Montéviliers, in the filled-up ditches known under the name of La
Bergue.
"The Archæological Museum of Dijon also contains a canoe found in the
gravel in the bed of the Loue, on the boundaries of the department of
Jura, between Dôle and Salins. It is made of a single colossal trunk of
oak, shaped, in M. Baudot's opinion, by means of fire. Its present
length is 17 feet, and its width, 2 feet 4 inches; but it has become
much less in the process of drying. Some iron braces which were fixed to
keep the wood in position plainly showed that the width had diminished
at least 6 inches. In the interior, the traces of two seats or supports,
which had been left in the solid wood in order to give strength to the
canoe, might be very distinctly seen. The first was about a yard from
one end, the other 5-1/2 feet from the other. Both extremities terminate
in a point, one end being much sharper and longer than the other.
"At the Museum of Lyons there is a canoe which was found in the gravel
of the Rhone, near the bridge of Cordon, in the department of Ain. It is
41 feet in length, and hollowed out of a single trunk of oak tapering
off at the two ends. The middle of it is squared, and the interior is
strengthened by two braces left in the solid wood.
"Lastly, we must mention the canoe that was dug out of the bed of the
Seine in Paris, and presented by M. Forgeais to the Emperor. It is now
in the Museum of Saint-Germain. It was made of a single trunk of oak and
had been skilfully wrought on the outside, terminating in a point at
both ends. This canoe was bedded in the mud and gravel at the extremity
of the _Cité_, on the Notre-Dame side. Close by a worked flint was met
with, and various bronze weapons; among others, a helmet and several
swords were also found. In the beds of rivers objects belonging to
different epochs readily get mixed up. This flint appears to have
accidentally come thither; the bronze arms, on the contrary, seem to
mark the date of the canoe."[25]
We have previously spoken of the _primitive workshop of human industry_,
of which, indeed, we gave a design. In contrast to this peaceful
picture, we may also give a representation of the evidences which have
been preserved even to our own days of the earliest means of attack and
defence constituting regular war among nations. War and battles must
have doubtless taken their rise almost simultaneously with the origin of
humanity itself. The hatred and rivalry which first sprung up between
individuals and families--hatred and rivalry which must have existed
from all time--gradually extended to tribes, and then to whole
nations, and were outwardly expressed in armed invasions, pillage and
slaughter. These acts of violence were, in very early days, reduced to a
system in the art of war--that terrible expedient from which even modern
nations have not been able to escape.
In order to find the still existing evidence of the wars which took
place among men in the Stone Age, we must repair to that portion of
Europe which is now called Belgium. Yes, even in the Stone Age, at a
date far beyond all written record, the people of this district already
were in the habit of making war, either among themselves or against
other tribes invading them from other lands. This fact is proved by the
fortified enclosures, or _entrenched camps_, which have been discovered
by MM. Hannour and Himelette. These camps are those of Furfooz,
Pont-de-Bonn, Simon, Jemelle, Hastedon, and Poilvache.
All these different camps possess certain characteristics in common.
They are generally established on points overhanging valleys, on a mass
of rock forming a kind of headland, which is united to the rest of the
country by a narrow neck of land. A wide ditch was dug across this
narrow tongue of land, and the whole camp was surrounded by a thick wall
of stones, simply piled one upon another, without either mortar or
cement. At the camp of Hastedon, near Namur, this wall, which was still
in a good state of preservation at the time it was described, measured
10 feet in width, and about the same in height. When an attack was made,
the defenders, assembled within the enclosure, rained down on their
assailants stones torn away from their wall, which thus became at the
same time both a defensive and offensive work (fig. 127).
[Illustration: Fig. 127.--The earliest regular Conflicts between Men of
the Stone Age; or, the Entrenched Camp of Furfooz.]
These entrenched positions were so well chosen that most of them
continued to be occupied during the age which followed. We may mention,
as an instance, the camp of Poilvache. After having been a Roman citadel
it was converted in the middle ages into a strongly fortified castle,
which was not destroyed until the fifteenth century.
The camps of Hastedon and Furfooz were likewise utilised by the Romans.
Over the whole inclosure of these ancient camps worked flints and
remains of pottery have been found--objects which are sufficient to
testify to the former presence of primitive man. The enormous ramparts
of these camps also tend to show that pre-historic man must have
existed in comparatively numerous associations at the various spots
where these works are found.
If we were to enter into a detailed study of the vestiges of the
polished-stone epoch existing in the other countries of Europe, we
should be led into a repetition of much that we have already stated with
regard to the districts now forming France and Belgium. Over a great
portion of Europe we should find the same mode of life, the same manners
and customs, and the same degree of nascent civilisation. From the
scope, therefore, of our present work, we shall not make it our task to
take each country into special consideration.
We will content ourselves with stating that the caves of Old Castille in
Spain, which were explored by M. Ed. Lartet, have furnished various
relics of the reindeer and polished-stone epochs. Also in the provinces
of Seville and Badajos, polished hatchets have been found, made for the
most part of dioritic rocks.
Numerous vestiges of the same epoch have, too, been discovered in
various provinces of Italy.
We give in fig. 128 the sketch of a very remarkable arrow-head found in
the province of Civita-Nova (the former kingdom of Naples). It is
provided with a short stem with lateral grooves, so as to facilitate the
point being fitted into a wooden shaft.
[Illustration: Fig. 128.--Flint Arrow-head, from Civita-Nova (Italy).]
Elba, too, was surveyed by M. Raffaello Foresi, who found in this
Mediterranean isle a large quantity of arrows, knives, saws, scrapers,
&c., formed of flint, jasper, obsidian, and even rock crystal. There
were also found in the Isle of Elba workshops for shaping flints. Great
Britain, Wurtemburg, Hungary, Poland, and Russia all furnish us with
specimens of polished stone instruments; but, for the reason which we
stated above, it would be superfluous to dwell upon them.
We shall now pass on to an examination of the type of the human race
which existed among the northern nations of Europe during the
polished-stone age.
There is a cavern of Ariége which belongs to the polished-stone epoch,
and has been explored by MM. Garrigou and Filhol--this is the cavern of
_Lombrive_, or _des Echelles_; the latter name being given it because it
is divided into two portions placed at such very different levels that
the help of five long ladders is required in order to pass from one to
the other. This cave has become interesting from the fact that it has
furnished a large quantity of human bones, belonging to individuals of
both sexes and every age; also two entire skulls, which M. Garrigou has
presented to the Anthropological Society of Paris.
These two skulls, which appear to have belonged, one to a child of eight
to ten years of age, the other to a female, present a somewhat peculiar
shape. The forehead, which is high in the centre, is low at the sides;
and the orbits of the eyes and also the hollows of the cheeks are deep.
We shall not enter into the diverse and contrary hypotheses which have
been advanced by MM. Vogt, Broca, Pruner-Bey, Garrigou and Filhol, in
order to connect the skulls found in the cave of Ariége with the present
races of the human species. This ethnological question is very far from
having been decided in any uniform way; and so it will always be, as
long as scientific men are compelled to base their opinions on a limited
number of skulls, which are, moreover, always incomplete; each _savant_
being free to interpret their features according to his own system.
Neither in the Danish kitchen-middens nor in the lower beds of the
peat-bogs have any human bones been discovered; but the tombs in
Denmark belonging to the polished-stone epoch have furnished a few human
skulls which, up to a certain point, enable us to estimate the
intellectual condition and affinities of the race of men who lived in
these climates. We may particularly mention the skull found in the
_tumulus_ at Borreby in Denmark, which has been studied with extreme
care by Mr. Busk.
This skull (fig. 129) presents a somewhat remarkable similarity to that
of Neanderthal, of which we have spoken in a previous chapter. The
superciliary ridges are very prominent, the forehead is retiring, the
occiput is short and sloped forward. It might, therefore, find its
origin among the races of which the skulls of Neanderthal and Borreby
are the representatives and the relics, and the latter might well be the
descendants of the former.
[Illustration: Fig. 129.--The Borreby Skull.]
Anthropologists have had much discussion about the question, to what
particular human race of the present time may the skulls found in the
_tumulus_ at Borreby be considered to be allied? But all these
discussions are deficient in those elements on which any serious and
definite argument might be founded. It would, therefore, be going
beyond our purpose should we reproduce them here. If, in the sketch of
the Borreby skull, we place, before the eyes of our readers the type of
the human cranium which existed during the period of the Stone Age, our
only object is to prove that the primitive Northerner resembles the
present race of man, both in the beauty and in the regularity of the
shape of his skull; also, in order once more to recall to mind how false
and trivial must the judgment be of those short-sighted _savants_ who
would establish a genealogical filiation between man and the ape.
As we stated in the Introduction to this volume, a mere glance cast upon
this skull is sufficient to bring to naught all that has been written
and propounded touching the organic consanguinity which is asserted to
exist between man and the ape, to say nothing of the objects produced by
primitive man--objects which, in this work, we are studying in all
necessary detail. An examination of the labours of primitive man is the
best means of proving--every other consideration being set aside--that a
great abyss exists between him and the animal; this is the best argument
against our pretended _simial_ origin, as it is called by those who seek
to veil their absurd ideas under grand scientific phrases.
FOOTNOTES:
[18] 'Note sur un Amas de. Coquilles mélées à des Silex taillés, signalé
sur les Côtes de Provence,' by M. A. Gory ('Revue Archéologique').
Quoted in the 'Matériaux de l'histoire positive de l'Homme,' by M. de
Mortillet, vol. i. p. 535.
[19] See J. Evans, 'On the Manufacture of Stone Implements in
Pre-historic Times,' in Trans. of the International Congress of
Pre-historic Archæology (Norwich, 1868), p. 191; and C. Rau, 'Drilling
in Stone without Metal,' in Report of Smithsonian Institution, 1868.
[20] 'Les Moulins Primitifs,' Nantes, 1869. Extract from the 'Bulletin
de la Société Archéologique de Nantes.'
[21] 'Tour du Monde,' p. 374, 1860.
[22] Shirley's 'Account of the Territory of Farney.'
[23] J. Buchanan, 'British Association Reports,' 1855; p. 80. Sir C.
Lyell, 'Antiquity of Man,' p. 48.
[24] 'Habitations Lacustres des Temps anciens et modernes,' pp. 119,
159, 166.
[25] 'Origine de la Navigation et de la Pêche,' pp. 11-21. Paris, 1867.
CHAPTER III.
Tombs and Mode of Interment during the Polished-stone Epoch--
_Tumuli_ and other sepulchral Monuments formerly called
_Celtic_--Labours of MM. Alexandre Bertrand and Bonstetten--
Funeral Customs.
Having in our previous chapters described and delineated both the
weapons and instruments produced by the rudimentary manufacturing skill
of man during the polished-stone epoch; having also introduced to notice
the types of the human race during this period; we now have to speak of
their tombs, their mode of interment, and all the facts connected with
their funeral customs.
A fortunate and rather strange circumstance has both facilitated and
given a degree of certainty to the information and ideas we are about to
lay before our readers. The tombs of the men of the polished-stone
epoch--their funeral monuments--have been thoroughly studied, described,
and ransacked by archæologists and antiquarians, who for many years past
have made them the subject of a multitude of publications and learned
dissertations. In fact, these tombs are nothing but the _dolmens_, or
the so-called _Celtic_ and _Druidical_ monuments; but they by no means
belong, as has always been thought, to any historical period, that is,
to the times of the Celts, for they go back to a much more remote
antiquity--the pre-historic period of the polished-stone age.
This explanatory _datum_ having been taken into account, we shall now
study the _dolmens_ and other so-called _megalithic_ monuments--the
grand relics of an epoch buried in the night of time; those colossal
enigmas which impose upon our reason and excite to the very highest
pitch the curiosity of men of science.
_Dolmens_ are monuments composed of a great block or slab of rock, more
or less flat in their shape according to the country in which they are
situate, placed horizontally on a certain number of stones which are
reared up perpendicularly to serve as its supports.
[Illustration: Fig. 130.--Danish _Dolmen_.]
This kind of sepulchral chamber was usually covered by earth, which
formed a hillock over it. But in the course of time this earth often
disappeared, leaving nothing but the naked stones of the sepulchral
monument.
[Illustration: Fig. 131.--_Dolmen_ at Assier.]
These are the bare stones which have been taken for _stone altars_,
being referred to the religious worship of the Gauls. The supposed
Druidical altars are, in fact, nothing but ruined _dolmens_. The
purpose, therefore, for which they were elevated was not, as has always
been stated, to serve as the scene of the sacrifices of a cruel
religion; for, at the present day, it is completely proved that the
_dolmens_ were the tombs of a pre-historic epoch.
These tombs were intended to receive several dead bodies. The corpses
were placed in the chamber which was formed by the upper slab and the
supports. Some of these chambers had two stages or stories, and then
furnished a larger number of sepulchres.
Figs. 132 and 133 represent different _dolmens_ which still exist in
France.
[Illustration: Fig. 132.--_Dolmen_ at Connéré (Marne).]
[Illustration: Fig. 133.--Vertical Section of the _Dolmen_ of
Locmariaker, in Brittany. In the Museum of Saint-Germain.]
Some _dolmens_ are completely open to view, like that represented in
fig. 132, nothing impeding a perfect sight of them; others, on the
contrary, are covered with a hillock of earth, the dimensions of which
vary according to the size of the monument itself.
This latter kind of _dolmen_ more specially assumes the nature of a
_tumulus_; a designation which conveys the idea of some mound raised
above the tomb.
Figs. 134 and 135 represent the _tumulus-dolmen_ existing at Gavr'inis
(Oak Island), in Brittany, or, more exactly, in the department of
Morbihan. It is the diminished sketch of an enormous model exhibited in
the Museum of Saint-Germain. This model in relief has a portion cut off
it which, by means of a cord and pulley, can be elevated or lowered at
will, thus affording a view of the interior of the _dolmen_. It is
composed of a single chamber, leading to which there is a long passage.
[Illustration: Fig. 134.--_Tumulus-Dolmen_ at Gavr'inis (Morbihan).]
[Illustration: Fig. 135.--A portion of the _Dolmen_ of Gavr'inis.]
Were all these _dolmens_ originally covered by earth? This is a question
which still remains unsolved. M. Alexandre Bertrand, Director of the
Archæological Museum of Saint-Germain, to whom we owe some very
remarkable works on the primitive monuments of ancient Gaul, decides it
in the affirmative; whilst M. de Bonstetten, a Swiss archæologist of
great merit, is of the contrary opinion. The matter, however, is of no
very great importance in itself. It is, at all events, an unquestionable
fact that certain _dolmens_ which are now uncovered were once buried;
for they are noticed to stand in the centre of slightly raised mounds in
which the supports are deeply buried. As we before stated, the action of
time has destroyed the covering which the pre-historic peoples placed
over their sepulchres in order to defend them from the injuries of time
and the profanation of man. Thus, all that we now see is the bare stones
of the sepulchral chambers--for so long a time supposed to be altars,
and ascribed to the religious worship of the Gauls.
[Illustration: Fig. 136.--General Form of a covered Passage-Tomb.]
In considering, therefore, the _dolmens_ of Brittany, which have been so
many times described by antiquarians and made to figure among the number
of our historical monuments, we must renounce the idea of looking upon
them as symbols of the religion of our ancestors. They can now only be
regarded as sepulchral chambers.
[Illustration: Fig. 137.--Passage-Tomb at Bagneux, near Saumur.]
_Dolmens_ are very numerous in France; much more numerous, indeed, than
is generally thought. It used to be the common idea that they existed
only in Brittany, and those curious in such matters wondered at the
supposed Druidical altars which were so plentifully distributed in this
ancient province of France. But Brittany is far from possessing the
exclusive privilege of these megalithic constructions. They are found in
fifty-eight of the French departments, belonging, for the most part, to
the regions of the south and south-west. The department of Finisterre
contains 500 of them; Lot, 500; Morbihan, 250; Ardèche, 155; Aveyron,
125; Dordogne, 100; &c.[26]
[Illustration: Fig. 138.--Passage-Tomb at Plouharnel (Morbihan).]
The authors who have written on the question we are now considering,
especially Sir J. Lubbock in his work on 'Pre-historic Times,' and
Nilsson, the Swedish archæologist, have given a much too complicated
aspect to their descriptions of the tombs of pre-historic ages, owing to
their having multiplied the distinctions in this kind of monument. We
should only perplex our readers by following these authors into all
their divisions. We must, however, give some few details about them.
[Illustration: Fig. 139.--Passage-Tomb; the so-called _Table de César_,
at Locmariaker (Morbihan).]
Sir J. Lubbock gives the name of _passage grave_, to that which the
northern archæologists call _Ganggraben_ (tomb with passages); of these
we have given four representations (figs. 136, 137, 138, 139), all
selected from specimens in France. This name is applied to a passage
leading to a more spacious chamber, round which the bodies are ranged.
The gallery, formed of enormous slabs of stone placed in succession one
after the other, almost always points towards the same point of the
compass; in the Scandinavian states, it generally has its opening facing
the south or east, never the north.
The same author gives the name of _chambered tumuli_ (fig. 140) to tombs
which are composed either of a single chamber or of a collection of
large chambers, the roofs and walls of which are constructed with stones
of immense size, which are again covered up by considerable masses of
earth. This kind of tomb is found most frequently in the countries of
the north.
Fig. 140 represents, according to Sir J. Lubbock's work, a Danish
_chambered tumulus_.
[Illustration: Fig. 140.--A Danish _Tumulus_, or chambered Sepulchre.]
Before bringing to a close this description of megalithic monuments, we
must say a few words as to _menhirs_ and _cromlechs_.
_Menhirs_ (fig. 141) are enormous blocks of rough stone which were set
up in the ground in the vicinity of tombs. They were set up either
separately, as represented in fig. 141, or in rows, that is, in a circle
or in an avenue.
[Illustration: Fig. 141.--Usual shape of a _Menhir_.]
There is in Brittany an extremely curious array of stones of this kind;
this is the range of _menhirs_ of Carnac (fig. 142). The stones are here
distributed in eleven parallel lines, over a distance of 1100 yards,
and, running along the sea-shore of Brittany, present a very strange
appearance.
[Illustration: Fig. 142.--The rows of _Menhirs_ at Carnac.]
When _menhirs_ are arranged in circles, either single or several
together, they are called _cromlechs_. They are vast circuits of stones,
generally arranged round a _dolmen_. The respect which was considered
due to the dead appears to have converted these enclosures into places
of pilgrimage, where, on certain days, public assemblies were held.
These enclosures are sometimes circular, as in England, sometimes
rectangular, as in Germany, and embrace one or more ranks.
[Illustration: Fig. 143.--_Dolmen_ with a Circuit of Stones
(_Cromlech_), in the Province of Constantine.]
Fig. 143 represents a _dolmen_ with a circuit of stones, that is, a
_cromlech_, which has been discovered in the province of Constantine; in
fig. 144 we have a group of Danish _cromlechs_.
[Illustration: Fig. 144.--Group of Danish _Cromlechs_.]
Among all these various monuments the "passage-tombs" and the _tumuli_
are the only ones which will come within the scope of this work; for
these only have furnished us with any relics of pre-historic times, and
have given us any information with respect to the peoples who occupied a
great part of Europe at a date far anterior to any traditionary record.
These stone monuments, as we have already stated, are neither Celtic nor
Druidical. The Celts--a nation which occupied a portion of Gaul at a
period long before the Christian era--were altogether innocent of any
megalithic construction. They found these monuments already in existence
at the time of their immigration, and, doubtless, looked upon them with
as much astonishment as is shown by observers of the present day.
Whenever there appeared any advantage in utilising them, the Celts did
not fail to avail themselves of them. The priests of this ancient
people, the Druids, who plucked from off the oak the sacred mistletoe,
performed their religious ceremonies in the depths of some obscure
forest. Now, no _dolmen_ was ever built in the midst of a forest; all
the stone monuments which now exist stand in comparatively unwooded
parts of the country. We must, therefore, renounce the ancient and
poetical idea which recognised in these _dolmens_ the sacrificial altars
of the religion of our ancestors.
Some _tumuli_ attain proportions which are really colossal. Among these
is Silbury Hill, the largest in Great Britain, which is nearly 200 feet
high. The enormous amount of labour which would be involved in
constructions of this kind has led to the idea that they were not raised
except in honour of chiefs and other great personages.
On consulting those records of history which extend back to the most
remote antiquity, we arrive at the fact that the custom of raising
colossal tombs to the illustrious dead was one that was much in vogue in
the ancient Eastern world. Traces of these monuments are found among the
Hebrews, the Assyrians, the Greeks, the Egyptians, &c.
Thus Semiramis, Queen of Nineveh, raised a mound over the tomb of Ninus,
her husband. Stones were likewise piled up over the remains of Laïus,
father of Oedipus. In the 'Iliad,' Homer speaks of the mounds that were
raised to the memory of Hector and Patroclus. That dedicated to
Patroclus--the pious work of Achilles--was more than 100 feet in
diameter. Homer speaks of the _tumuli_ existing in Greece, which, even
in his time, were considered very ancient, and calls them the tombs of
the heroes. A _tumulus_ was raised by Alexander the Great over the ashes
of his friend Hephæstio, and so great were the dimensions of this
monument that it is said to have cost 1200 talents, that is about
£240,000 of our money. In Roman history, too, we find instances of the
same kind. Lastly, the pyramids of Egypt, those costly and colossal
funeral monuments, are the still visible representations of the highest
expression of posthumous homage which was rendered by the generations of
antiquity to their most illustrious and mighty men.
This, however, could not have been in every case the prevailing idea in
the men of the Stone Age, in causing the construction of these _tumuli_.
The large number of bodies which have been found in some of these
monuments completely does away with the notion that they were raised in
honour of a single personage, or even of a single family. They were
often sepulchres or burial-places common to the use of all. Among this
class we must rank the _tumuli_ of Axevalla and of Luttra, situated not
far from one another in Sweden. The first, which was opened in 1805,
contained twenty tombs of an almost cubical form, each containing a
skeleton in a crouching or contracted attitude. When the second was
opened, the explorers found themselves in the presence of hundreds of
skeletons placed in four rows one upon another, all in a contracted
position like those at Axevalla; along with these human remains various
relics of the Stone Age were also discovered.
[Illustration: Fig. 145.--Position of Skeletons in a Swedish Tomb of the
Stone Age.]
Fig. 145 represents the position in which the skeletons were found. M.
Nilsson has propounded the opinion that the "passage-graves" are nothing
but former habitations, which had been converted into tombs after the
death of those who had previously occupied them. When the master of the
house had breathed his last--especially in the case of some illustrious
individual--his surviving friends used to place near him various
articles of food to provide for his long journey; and also his weapons
and other objects which were most precious to him when in life; then the
dwelling was closed up, and was only reopened for the purpose of bearing
in the remains of his spouse and of his children.
Sir J. Lubbock shares in this opinion, and brings forward facts in its
favour. He recites the accounts of various travellers, according to
which, the winter-dwellings of certain people in the extreme north bear
a very marked resemblance to the "passage-tombs" of the Stone Age. Of
this kind are the habitations of the Siberians and the Esquimaux, which
are composed of an oval or circular chamber placed a little under the
surface of the ground, and completely covered with earth. Sir J. Lubbock
thinks, therefore, that in many cases habitations of this kind may have
been taken for _tumuli_--a mistake, he adds, all the more likely to be
made because some of these mounds, although containing ashes, remains of
pottery, and various implements, have not furnished any relics of human
bones.
In his work on the 'Sépultures de l'Age de la Pierre chez les Parisii,'
M. Leguay, a learned architect and member of the Archælogical Society,
has called attention to the fact that the construction of these
_dolmens_ betrays, as existing in the men of this epoch, a somewhat
advanced degree of knowledge of the elements of architecture:--
"The interment of the dead," says M. Leguay, "took place, during the
polished-stone epoch, in vaults, or a kind of tomb constructed on the
spot, of stones of various thicknesses, generally flat in shape, and not
elevated to any very great height, being laid without any kind of cement
or mortar. These vaults, which were at first undivided, were
subsequently separated into compartments by stones of a similar
character, in which compartments bodies were placed in various
positions. They were covered with earth or with flat stones, and
sometimes we meet with a circular eminence raised over them, formed of a
considerable heap of stones which had been subsequently brought
thither; this fact was verified by M. Brouillet in 1862 at the _Tombelle
de Brioux_ (Vienne).
"This kind of interment bears evidence of some real progress. Polished
flint instruments are met with intermingled with worked stones which
have been brought from a distance. Pottery of a very significant
character approaches that of the epoch at which ornamentation commenced;
and the _Tombelle de Brioux_ has furnished two vessels with projecting
and perforated handles formed in the clay itself. I met with specimens
similar to these both in shape and workmanship in the cremation-tombs at
Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, which, as I have previously stated, appeared
to me to be later in date than the simple interment situated below them.
"The first element in the art of construction, that is, stability, is
manifested in these latter monuments. They do not come up to the fine
_dolmens_, or to the monuments which followed them, but the principle on
which stones should be laid together is already arrived at. The slab
forming the covering is the first attempt at the lintel, the primitive
base of architectural science. By insensible degrees the dimensions of
the monument increased, the nature of the materials were modified, and,
from the small elementary monument to the grand sepulchral _dolmen_, but
one step remained to be made--a giant step, certainly, but not beyond
the reach of human intelligence.
"This step, however, was not accomplished suddenly and without
transitional stages. We find a proof of this in the beautiful ossuary
discovered in 1863, at Chamant near Senlis (Oise), on the property of
the Comte de Lavaulx. This monument does not yet come up to the most
beautiful of the class; but it possesses all the inspirations which
suggested the form of its successors, of which, indeed, it is the type.
"Almost flat slabs of stone, of a greater height than those forming the
vaults, and of rather considerable dimensions, are placed on edge so as
to form a square chamber. A partition, formed of stones of a similar
character, leaving a space or passage between them, separates the
chamber into two unequal portions. Some arrangement of this kind has
been observed in most of the finest _dolmens_; it is found at a spot not
far from Chamant, in a covered way known under the name of the _Pierres
Turquoises_, in the forest of Carnelle, near Beaumont-sur-Oise
(Seine-et-Oise).
"At Chamant, however, the chamber was not more than 3 to 4 feet in
height under the roof, which was formed of large flat stones, and was
large enough to allow of a considerable number of bodies to be deposited
within it, either in a recumbent or contracted position. Near them there
were placed delicately-wrought flints, and also some fine-polished
hatchets, one of which was of serpentine; another of large dimensions,
sculptured after the fashion of the diluvial hatchets, appeared to me to
have been prepared for polishing.
"The researches which have been made have brought to light but slight
traces of pottery, and the small fragments that I have examined do not
point out any very remote age for this monument. Nevertheless, the
investigation of this sepulchre, in which I was guided by a somewhat
different idea from that of merely studying the monument itself, was not
carried out with the exact care that would be necessary for collecting
all the indications which it might have furnished.
"Between the sepulchre of Chamant and the finest _dolmens_, the
distinction is nothing more than a question of dimensions rather than
any chronological point. The latter are formed of colossal stones, and
when one examines them and seeks to realise the process which must have
been employed for raising them, the mind is utterly perplexed, and the
imagination finds a difficulty in conceiving how it was possible to move
these immense masses, and, especially, to place them in the positions
they now occupy; for at the present day, in order to arrive at similar
results, it would be necessary to employ all the means which science has
at command."[27]
The megalithic constructions do not all date back to the same epoch.
Some were raised during the Stone Age, others during the Bronze Age.
There is nothing in their mode of architecture which will enable us to
recognise their degree of antiquity; but the relics which they contain
afford us complete information in this respect. Thus, in France,
according to M. Alexandre Bertrand, the _dolmens_ and the
_tumuli-dolmens_ contain, in a general way, nothing but stone and bone
articles; those of bronze and gold are very rare, and iron is never met
with. In the _true tumuli_, on the contrary, bronze objects predominate,
and iron is very abundant; this is an evident proof that these monuments
are of less ancient origin than the _dolmens_. In the same way we
ascertain that the Danish _dolmens_ and the great sepulchral chambers
of Scandinavia, all belong to the polished-stone epoch. When, therefore,
we class the _dolmens_ in this last-named epoch of man's history, we are
deciding in full harmony with the great body of _data_ which bear upon
the point.
In order to fix the period with still greater accuracy, we might add
that the _dolmens_ belong to the latter portion of the polished-stone
epoch and the commencement of the bronze age. But, as we before said, we
do not attach any importance to these distinctions, which would only
uselessly embarrass the mind of the reader.
An examination of the Danish _dolmens_ has led the author of the
'Catalogue of Pre-historic Objects sent by Denmark to the Universal
Exposition of 1867,' to sum up in the following words the details
concerning these sepulchral monuments:--
"As regards the Danish _dolmens_, the number of skeletons contained in
them varies much; in the largest, there are as many as twenty, and in
the smallest there are not more than five or six; sometimes they are
placed in stages one above the other.
"The bones are never found in natural order; the head lies close to the
knees, and no limb is in its natural place. It follows from this, that
in the course of interment the body was contracted into a crouching
position.
"The bottom of the sepulchral chamber of a _dolmen_ is generally covered
with a layer of flints which have been subjected to fire; this is the
floor on which the body was deposited; it was then covered with a thin
coating of earth, and the tomb was closed. Yet, as we have just
observed, it was but very rarely that _dolmens_ contained only one
skeleton. They must, therefore, have been opened afresh in order to
deposit other bodies. It must have been on these occasions, in order to
contend with the miasma of putrefaction, that they lighted the fires, of
which numerous and evident traces are seen inside the _dolmens_. This
course of action continued, as it appears, until the time when the
_dolmen_ was entirely filled up: but even then, the tomb does not, in
every case, seem to have been abandoned. Sometimes the most ancient
skeletons have been displaced to make room for fresh bodies. This had
taken place in a _dolmen_ near Copenhagen, which was opened and searched
in the presence of the late King Frederick VII.
"A _dolmen_ situated near the village of Hammer, opened a few years ago
by M. Boye, presented some very curious peculiarities. In addition to
flint instruments, human bones were discovered, which had also been
subjected to the action of fire. We are, therefore, led to suppose, that
a funeral banquet had taken place in the vicinity of the tomb, and that
some joints of human flesh had formed an addition to the roasted stag.
This is, however, the only discovery of the kind which has been made up
to the present time, and we should by no means be justified in drawing
the inference that the inhabitants of Denmark at this epoch were
addicted to cannibalism.
"The dead bodies were deposited along with their weapons and implements,
and also with certain vessels which must have contained the food which
perhaps some religious usage induced them to leave close to the body.
For a long time it was supposed that it was the custom to place these
weapons by the side of _men_ only. But in a _dolmen_ at Gieruen, a
hatchet was found near a skeleton which was evidently that of a woman.
"We now give the inventory of a 'find' made in a Danish _dolmen_, that
of Hielm, in the Isle of Moen, which was opened in 1853. The sepulchral
chamber was 16-1/2 feet in length, 11-1/2 feet in width, and 4-1/2 feet
in height.
"In it were discovered twenty-two spear-heads, the largest of which was
11 inches in length, and the smallest 5-1/2 inches; more than forty
flint flakes or knives from 2 to 5 inches in length; three flat
hatchets, and one rather thicker; three carpenter's chisels, the longest
of which measured 8 inches; a finely-made hammer 5 inches long; three
flint nuclei exactly similar to those found in the kitchen-middens; and
lastly, in addition to all these flint articles, some amber beads and
forty earthen vessels moulded by the hand."[28]
What were the funeral customs in use among men during the polished-stone
epoch? and what were the ceremonies which took place at that period when
they buried their dead? These are questions which it will not be
difficult to answer after a due investigation of the _dolmens_ and
_tumuli_.
In a great number of _tumuli_, animal bones have been found either
broken or notched by sharp instruments. This is an indication that the
funeral rites were accompanied by feasts just as in the preceding
epochs.
The body which was about to be enclosed in the _tumulus_ was borne upon
boughs of trees, as is the case among some savage tribes of the present
day. The men and women attending wore their best attire; necklaces of
amber and shells adorned their necks. Men carrying torches walked in
front of the procession, in order to guide the bearers into the dark
recesses of the sepulchral chambers.
From these data fig. 146 has been designed, which gives a representation
of _a funeral ceremony during the polished-stone epoch_.
[Illustration: Fig. 146.--A _Tumulus_ of the Polished-stone Epoch.]
If we may judge by the calcined human bones which are rather frequently
met with in tombs, there is reason to believe that sometimes victims
were sacrificed over the body of the defunct, perhaps slaves, perhaps
even his widow--the custom of sacrificing the widow still being in
practice in certain parts of India.
Sir J. Lubbock is, besides, of opinion that when a woman died in giving
birth to a child, or even whilst she was still suckling it, the child
was interred alive with her. This hypothesis appears a natural one, when
we take into account the great number of cases in which the skeletons of
a woman and child have been found together.
M. Leguay in his 'Mémoire sur les Sépultures des Parisii,' which we
quoted above, expresses the opinion that after each interment, in
addition to the funeral banquet, a fire was lighted on the mound above
the _tumulus_, and that each attendant threw certain precious objects
into the flames.
The objects which were most precious during the polished-stone epoch
were flints wrought into hatchets, poniards, or knives.
"On to this burning hearth," says M. Leguay, "as numerous instances
prove, those who were present were in the habit of casting stones, or
more generally wrought flints, utensils and instruments, all made either
of some kind of stone or of bone; also fragments of pottery, and,
doubtless, other objects which the fire has destroyed.
"There are many of these objects which have not suffered any injury from
the fire; some of the flints, indeed, seem so freshly cut and are so
little altered by the lapse of time, that it might be readily imagined
that they had been but recently wrought; these were not placed in the
sepulchre, but are met with intermingled with the earth which covers or
surrounds the hearth, and appear in many cases to have been cast in
after the extinction of the fire as the earth was being filled in.
"Sometimes, indeed, when the archæologist devotes especial care to his
digging, he comes across a kind of layer of wrought flints which are, in
fact, to be looked upon as refuse rather than wrought articles. Their
position appears to indicate the surface of the soil during that epoch,
a surface which has been covered up by the successive deposits of
subsequent ages; and although some of these flakes may have been due to
some of the objects which had been placed in the sepulchre having been
chipped on the spot, there are many others which have not originated in
this way, and have come from objects which have been deposited in other
places.
"All these stones, which are common to three kinds of burial-places,
have fulfilled, in my opinion, a votive function; that is to say, that
they represent, as regards this epoch, the wreaths and coronals of
_immortelles_, or the other objects which we in the present day place
upon the tombs of our relations or friends; thus following out a custom
the origin of which is lost in the night of time.
"And let not the reader treat with ridicule these ideas, which I hold to
be not far from the truth. Men, as individuals, may pass away, and
generations may disappear; but they always hand down to their progeny
and those that succeed them the customs of their epoch; which customs
will undergo little or no change until the causes which have produced
them also disappear. Thus it is with all that concerns the ceremonies
observed in bearing man to his last resting-place--a duty which can
never change, and always brings with it its train of sorrow and regret.
Nowadays, a small sum of money is sufficient to give outward expression
to our grief; but at these remote epochs each individual fashioned his
own offering, chipped his own flint, and bore it himself to the grave of
his friend.
"This idea will explain the diversity of shape in the flints placed
round and in the sepulchres, and especially the uncouthness of many of
the articles which, although all manufactured of the same material,
betray a style of workmanship exercised by numerous hands more or less
practised in the work.
"It may, however, be readily conceived that during an epoch when stones
were the chief material for all useful implements, every wrought flint
represented a certain value. To deprive themselves of these objects of
value in order to offer them to the manes of the dead was considered a
laudable action, just as was the case subsequently as regards still
more precious objects; and this custom, which was observed during many
long ages, although sometimes and perhaps often practised with the
declining energy inherent in every religious custom, was the origin of a
practice adopted by many of the nations of antiquity, that, namely, of
casting a stone upon the tomb of the dead. Thus were formed those
sepulchral heaps of stones called _gal-gals_, some of which still exist.
"It is, without doubt, to this votive idea that we must attribute the
fact that so many beautiful objects which ornament our museums have been
found deposited in these sepulchres; but we must remark that the large
and roughly-hewn hatchets, and also the knives of the second epoch, are
replaced, in the third epoch, by polished hatchets often even fitted
with handles, and also by knives of much larger size and finer
workmanship.
"As an additional corroboration of my ideas, I will mention a curious
fact which I ascertained to exist in two sepulchres of this kind which I
searched; the significance of this fact can only be explained by a
hypothesis which any one may readily develop.
"Each of them contained one long polished hatchet, broken in two in the
middle; the other portion of which was not found in the sepulchre.
"One is now in the Museum at Cluny, where I deposited it; the other is
still in my own possession. It is beyond all dispute that they were thus
broken at the time of the interment.
"Numerous hatchets broken in a similar way have been found by M. A.
Forgeais in the bed of the Seine at Paris, and also in various other
spots; all of them were broken in the middle, and I have always been of
opinion that they proceeded from sepulchres of a like kind, which,
having been placed on the edge of the river, had been washed away by the
flow of water which during long ages had eaten away the banks."
At a subsequent period, that is, during the bronze epoch, dead bodies
were often, as we shall see, reduced to ashes either wholly or in part,
and the ashes were enclosed in urns.
FOOTNOTES:
[26] Alexandre Bertrand's 'Les Monuments Primitifs de la Gaule.'
[27] 'Des Sépultures à l'Age de la Pierre,' pp. 15, 16. 1865.
[28] 'Le Danemark à l'Exposition Universelle de 1867.' Paris. 1868.
THE AGE OF METALS.
I.
THE BRONZE EPOCH.
CHAPTER I.
The Discovery of Metals--Various Reasons suggested for explaining
the Origin of Bronze in the West--The Invention of Bronze--A
Foundry during the Bronze Epoch--Permanent and Itinerant Foundries
existing during the Bronze Epoch--Did the knowledge of Metals take
its rise in Europe owing to the Progress of Civilisation, or was it
a Foreign Importation?
The acquisition and employment of metals is one of the greatest facts in
our social history. Thenard, the chemist, has asserted that we may judge
of the state of civilisation of any nation by the degree of perfection
at which it has arrived in the workmanship of iron. Looking at the
matter in a more general point of view, we may safely say that if man
had never become acquainted with metals he would have remained for ever
in his originally savage state.
There can be no doubt that the free use of, or privation from, metals is
a question of life and death for any nation. When we take into account
the important part that is played by metals in all modern communities,
we cannot fail to be convinced that, without metals civilisation would
have been impossible. That astonishing scientific and industrial
movement which this nineteenth century presents to us in its most
remarkable form--the material comfort which existing generations are
enjoying--all our mechanical appliances, manufactures of such diverse
kinds, books and arts--not one of all these benefits for man, in the
absence of metals, could ever have come into existence. Without the help
of metal, man would have been condemned to live in great discomfort;
but, aided by this irresistible lever, his powers have been increased a
hundredfold, and man's empire has been gradually extended over the whole
of nature.
In all probability, gold, among all the metals, is the first with which
man became acquainted. Gold, in a metallic state, is drifted down by the
waters of many a river, and its glittering brightness would naturally
point it out to primitive peoples. Savages are like children; they love
everything that shines brightly. Gold, therefore, must, in very early
days, have found its way into the possession of the primitive
inhabitants of our globe.
Gold is still often met with in the Ural mountains; and thence, perhaps,
it originally spread all over the north of Europe. The streams and the
rivers of some of the central countries of Europe, such as Switzerland,
France, and Germany, might also have furnished a small quantity.
After gold, copper must have been the next metal which attracted the
attention of men; in the first place, because this metal is sometimes
found in a native state, and also because cupriferous ores, and
especially copper pyrites, are very widely distributed. Nevertheless,
the extraction of copper from the ores is an operation of such a
delicate character, that it must have been beyond the reach of the
metallurgic appliances at the disposal of men during the early
pre-historic period.
The knowledge of tin also dates back to a very high antiquity. Still,
although men might become acquainted with tin ores, a long interval must
have elapsed before they could have succeeded in extracting the pure
metal.
Silver did not become known to men until a much later date; for this
metal is very seldom met with in the _tumuli_ of the bronze epoch. The
fact is, that silver is seldom found in a pure state, and scarcely ever
except in combination with lead ores; lead, however, was not known until
after iron.
Bronze, as every one knows, is an alloy of copper and tin (nine parts of
copper and one of tin). Now it is precisely this alloy, namely bronze,
which was the first metallic substance used in Europe; indeed the sole
substance used, to the exclusion of copper. We have, therefore, to
explain the somewhat singular circumstance that an alloy and not a pure
metal was the metallic substance that was earliest used in Europe; and
we must also inquire how it was that bronze could have been composed by
the nations which succeeded those of the polished-stone epoch.
At first sight, it might appear strange that an alloy like bronze should
have been the first metallic substance used by man, thus setting aside
iron, deposits of which are very plentiful in Europe. But it is to be
remarked, in the first place, that iron ores do not attract the
attention so much as those of tin and copper. Added to this, the
extraction of iron from its ores is one of the most difficult operations
of the kind. When dealing with ferruginous ores, the first operation
produces nothing more than rough cast iron--a very impure substance,
which is so short and brittle that it possesses scarcely any metallic
qualities, and differs but little from stone as regards any use it could
be applied to. It requires re-heating and hammering to bring it into the
condition of malleable iron. On the other hand, by simply smelting
together copper and tin ores and adding a little charcoal, bronze might
be at once produced, without any necessity for previously extracting and
obtaining pure copper and tin in a separate state. This will explain how
it came to pass that the earliest metal-workers produced bronze at one
operation, without even being acquainted with the separate metals which
enter into its composition.
We are left entirely to hypothesis in endeavouring to realise to
ourselves how men were led to mix together copper and tin ores, and thus
to produce bronze--a hard, durable and fusible alloy, and consequently
well adapted, without much trouble, for the fabrication, by melting in
moulds, of hatchets, poniards, and swords, as well as agricultural and
mechanical instruments.
Bronze was endowed with all the most admirable qualities for aiding the
nascent industrial skill of mankind. It is more fusible than copper and
is also harder than this metal; indeed, in the latter respect, it may
compete with iron. It is a curious fact that bronze has the peculiarity
of hardening when cooled gradually. If it is made red-hot in the fire
and is then suddenly cooled by plunging it into water, the metal becomes
more ductile and may be easily hammered; but it regains its original
hardness if it is again heated red-hot and then allowed to cool slowly.
This, as we see, is just the contrary to the properties of steel.
By taking advantage of this quality of bronze they were enabled to
hammer it, and, after the necessary work with the hammer was finished,
they could, by means of gradual cooling, restore the metal to its
original hardness. At the present day, cymbals and tom-toms are made
exactly in this way.
All these considerations will perhaps sufficiently explain to the
reader why the use of bronze preceded that of iron among all the
European and Asiatic peoples.
On this quasi-absence of manufactured copper in the pre-historic
monuments of Europe, certain archæologists have relied when propounding
the opinion that bronze was brought into Europe by a people coming from
the East, a more advanced and civilised people, who had already passed
through their _copper age_, that is, had known and made use of pure
copper. This people, it is said, violently invaded Europe, and in almost
every district took the place of the primitive population; so that, in
every country, bronze suddenly succeeded stone for the manufacture of
instruments, weapons and implements.
By the side of these _savants_, who represent to some extent, in
ethnological questions, the partisans of the great geological cataclysms
or revolutions of the globe, there are others who would refer the
appearance of bronze in Europe to a great extension of commercial
relations. They utterly reject the idea of any conquest, of any great
invasion having brought with it a complete change in manners, customs,
and processes of industrial skill. In their opinion, it was commerce
which first brought bronze from the East and introduced it to the men of
the West. This is the view of Sir Cornewall Lewis, the archæologist and
statesman, and also of Prof. Nilsson, who attributes to the Phoenicians
the importation of bronze into Europe.
Without attaining any great result, Nilsson has taken much trouble in
supporting this idea by acceptable proofs. We are called upon to agree
with the Danish archæologist in admitting that the Phoenicians, that is,
the inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon went _with their ships_ to procure tin
from Great Britain, in order to make an alloy with it in their own
country, which alloy they subsequently imported into Europe.
This is nothing but historic fancy. To this romance of archæology we
shall oppose the simple explanation which chemistry suggests to us. Our
belief is that the bronze was fabricated on the spot by the very people
who made use of it. All that was requisite in order to obtain bronze,
was to mix and smelt together the ores of oxidised copper or copper
pyrites, and tin ore, adding a small quantity of charcoal. Now, copper
ore abounds in Europe; that of tin is certainly rare; and it is this
rarity of tin ore which is appealed to in support of the conjecture
against which we are contending. But, although tin ores are nowadays
rare in Europe, except in England and Saxony, they are, nevertheless, to
be met with in the centre and south of the Continent; and, doubtless, in
the early ages of mankind the quantities were quite sufficient to supply
the slender requirements of the dawning efforts of industrial skill. We
may, perhaps, be permitted to allege that the cause of the supplies of
tin ores being so poor in the centre and south of Europe, may be the
fact that they were exhausted by the workings of our ancestors. Thus, at
least, many of the deposits of copper, silver, and lead, have been
exhausted by the Romans, and we now find nothing more than the mere
remains of mines which were once very productive.
We may easily see that, in order to account for the presence of bronze
in Europe during the primitive epochs of mankind, it was not necessary
to build up such a framework of hypothesis as Prof. Nilsson has so
elaborately raised.
To sum up the whole matter, we may say that the use of bronze preceded
that of iron in the primitive industry of Europe and Asia; and that the
people of our hemisphere were acquainted with bronze before they came to
the knowledge of pure copper and tin; this is all that we can safely
assert on the point.
It might of course have been the case that copper and tin were first
used alone, and that the idea was subsequently entertained of combining
the two metals so as to improve both. But the facts evidently show that,
so far as regards Europe, things did not take place in this way, and
that bronze was employed in the works of primitive industry before
copper and tin were known as existing in a separate state.[29]
We must, however, state that in the New World the matter was different.
The Indians of North America, long before they knew anything about
bronze, were in the habit of hammering the copper which was procured
from the mines of Lake Superior, and of making of it weapons, ornaments
and implements.
After considering these general and theoretical points, we shall now
pass on to the history of the employment of bronze among men of
pre-historic ages, and shall endeavour to give some description of their
works for the manufacture of metals.
Facts handed down by tradition evidently show that, among the peoples
both of Europe and Asia, the use of bronze preceded that of iron.
Homer tells us that the soldiers of the Greek and Trojan armies were
provided with iron weapons, yet he reserves for the heroes weapons made
of bronze. It seems that bronze being the most ancient, was therefore
looked upon as the more noble metal; hence, its use is reserved for
chiefs or great warriors. Among all nations, that which is the most
ancient is ever the most honourable and the most sacred. Thus, to
mention one instance only, the Jews of our own times still perform the
ceremony of circumcision with a knife made of stone. In this case, the
stone-knife is an object consecrated by religion, because the antiquity
of this instrument is actually lost in the night of time.
Bronze (or brass) is often mentioned in the Book of Genesis. Tubal-cain,
the first metal-worker of the Scriptures, who forged iron for all kinds
of purposes, also wrought in bronze (or brass). This alloy was devoted
to the production of objects of ornament.
We read in the First Book of Kings (vii. 13, 14), "And King Solomon sent
and fetched Hiram out of Tyre. He was a widow's son of the tribe of
Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass: and he
was filled with wisdom, and understanding, and cunning to work all works
in _brass_."
The word _brass_ must be here understood as being synonymous with
bronze, and certainly the Hebrew term had this signification.
As a specially remarkable object of bronze work, we may mention the "sea
of brass" of the Hebrews, which contained 3000 measures of water.
Herodotus[30] speaks of another colossal basin made of bronze, which was
sixty times the size of that which Pausanias, son of Cleobrontos,
presented to the temple of Jupiter Orios, a temple which had been built
near the Euxine, on the borders of Scythia. Its capacity was six hundred
_amphoræ_, and it was six "fingers" in thickness. The Greeks used to
employ these enormous basins in their religious ceremonies.
In Sweden and Norway, large receptacles of a similar kind were in
primitive ages employed in sacrificial ceremonies; they used to receive
the blood which flowed from the slaughtered animals.
In order to produce objects of this magnitude it was of course necessary
to have at disposal large foundries of bronze. These foundries, which
existed during historic periods, were preceded by others of less
importance used during the pre-historic epochs which we are considering,
that is, during the bronze epoch.
Vestiges of these ancient foundries have been discovered in Switzerland,
at Devaine, near Thonon, and at Walflinger, near Wintherthur; especially
also at Echallens, where objects have been found which evidently
originated from the working of some pre-historic foundry.
At Morges, in Switzerland, a stone mould has been discovered, intended
for casting hatchets. By running bronze into this ancient mould, a
hatchet has been made exactly similar to some of those in our
collections.
The casting was also effected in moulds of sand, which is the more usual
and more easy plan.
From these _data_, it is possible to imagine what sort of place a
foundry must have been during the bronze epoch.
In the production of bronze, they used to mix oxydated tin ore, in the
proportions which experience had taught them, with oxydated copper ore
or copper pyrites; to this mixture was added a small quantity of
charcoal. The whole was placed in an earthen vessel in the midst of a
burning furnace. The two oxides were reduced to a metallic state by
means of the charcoal; the copper and tin being set free, blended and
formed bronze.
When the alloy was obtained, all that was necessary was to dip it out
and pour it into sand or stone moulds which had been previously arranged
for the purpose.
The art of casting in bronze must have played a very essential part
among primitive peoples. There was no instrument that they used which
could not be made by casting it in bronze. The sword-blades were thus
made; and, in order to harden the edge of the weapon, it was first
heated and then cooled suddenly, being afterwards hammered with a stone
hammer.
In fig. 147, we represent the workshop of a caster in bronze during the
epoch we are considering. The alloy, having been previously mixed, has
been smelted in a furnace, and a workman is pouring it into a
sand-mould. Another man is examining a sword-blade which has just been
cast.
[Illustration: Fig. 147.--A Founder's Workshop during the Bronze Epoch.]
Bronze being precious, it is probable that in these ancient communities
bronze weapons and implements were reserved for rich and powerful
personages, and that stone weapons remained the attribute of the common
people. The use of bronze could only become general after the lapse of
time.
The high value of bronze would lead to its being economised as much as
possible. The Pre-historic Museum at Copenhagen contains unquestionable
proofs of this scarcity of the metal, and the means which were used for
obviating it. Among the bronze hatchets in the Museum of Copenhagen,
there are some which could only have served as ornaments, for they
contained a nucleus of clay, and the metal of which they were composed
was not thicker than a sheet of paper.
We must also add that worn-out instruments of bronze and utensils which
were out of use were carefully preserved in order to be re-cast; the
same material re-appearing in various forms and shapes.
We have just given a representation of the _workshop of a founder of
bronze_; but we must also state that in addition to these fixed
establishments there must have existed, at the epoch of which we are
speaking, certain itinerant founders who travelled about, carrying all
their necessary utensils on their backs, and offered their services
wherever they were required.
Every one is acquainted with the travelling-tinkers who, at the present
day, make their way down from the mountains of Auvergne, the Black
Forest, the Alps, or the Cévennes, and are called _péirerous_ and
_estama-brazaïres_ in the south of France, and _épingliers_ in other
districts. These men are in the habit of working at separate jobs in the
villages and even in the public places of the towns. Of course they
travel with no more of the utensils of their craft than strict necessity
requires; but, nevertheless, what they carry is sufficient for every
purpose. A hollow made in the ground is the furnace in which they place
the nozzle of their portable bellows, and they hammer the iron on a
small anvil fixed in the earth.
Aided by these merely rudimentary means they execute pieces of
metal-work, the dimensions of which are really surprising. They make
nails and tacks, and even worm screws, repair locks, clean clocks, make
knives, mend skimmers, and restore umbrella-frames. They make bronze
rings out of republican _décimes_, and sell these popular trinkets to
the village beauties.
Incomparable in their line of business, these men are unequalled in
patching or re-tinning vessels made of tin and wrought or sheet-iron.
The mending of crockeryware also forms one of their numerous vocations;
and the repairing of a broken plate by means of an iron rivet is mere
play-work for their dexterous fingers. But melting down and
re-casting--these are the real triumphs of their art. The village
housewife brings to them her worn-out pewter vessel, and soon sees it
reappear as a new, brilliant, and polished utensil. Lamps, cans, covers,
and tin-plates and dishes are thus made to reappear in all their
primitive brightness.
The fusion and casting of bronze does not perplex them any more than
working in tin. They are in the habit of casting various utensils in
brass or bronze, such as candlesticks, bells, brackets, &c. The crucible
which they use in melting brass is nothing but a hole dug in the earth
and filled up with burning charcoal, the fire being kept up with the
help of their bellows, the nozzle of which is lengthened so as to open
into the middle of the charcoal. On this furnace they place their
portable crucible, which is a kind of earthen ladle provided with a
handle.
Their system of casting is simple in the extreme. The pressed sand,
which serves them for a mould, is procured from the ditch at the side of
the road. Into this mould they pour the alloy out of the very crucible
in which it has been melted.
These itinerant metallurgists, these _estama-brazaïres_, who may be
noticed working in the villages of Lower Languedoc, whose ways we have
just depicted (not without some degree of pleasant reminiscence), are
nothing but the descendants of the travelling metal-workers of the
pre-historic bronze epoch. In addition to the permanent establishment of
this kind--the foundries, the remains of which have been found in
Switzerland, the French Jura, Germany and Denmark, there certainly
existed at that time certain workmen who travelled about singly, from
place to place, exercising their trade. Their stock of tools, like the
objects which they had to make or repair, was of a very simple
character; the sand from the wayside formed their moulds, and their fuel
was the dry wood of the forest.
The existence, at this remote epoch in the history of mankind, of the
itinerant workers in metal is proved by the fact, that practitioners of
this kind were known in the earliest _historic_ periods who had already
to some extent become proficients in the art. Moses, the Hebrew
lawgiver, was able in the wilderness to make a brazen serpent, the sight
of which healed the Israelites who had been bitten by venomous snakes;
and, during the retirement of the prophet to Mount Sinai, Aaron seemed
to find no difficulty in casting the golden calf, which was required of
him by the murmurs of the people. Itinerant founders must therefore have
accompanied the Jewish army.
We have been compelled to dwell to some extent on the general
considerations which bear upon the introduction of bronze among the
ancient inhabitants of Europe who succeeded the men of the Stone Age. In
the chapters which follow we intend as far as possible to trace out the
picture of that period of man's history, which is called _the Bronze
Epoch_, and constitutes the first division of _the Age of Metals_.
FOOTNOTES:
[29] It must, however, be observed that the author's theory does not
agree with the opinion of metallurgists, who do not consider the
reduction of mixed copper and tin ore a practically effective process,
and would favour the more usual view that the metals were smelted
separately, and afterwards fused together to form bronze.--(_Note to
Eng. Trans._)
[30] Book iv. p. 81.