MAN IN THE MAKING
HUMAN PROGRESS FROM PREHISTORIC TO MODERN TIMES
_Arrival of Man_
Long before man appeared upon the scene the brain had passed through
certain preliminary grades. Its basic patterns had been perfected. Its
most important mechanisms had been improved. All manner of animals
inhabited the earth in those preparatory days--fishes, amphibians,
reptiles, birds, and mammals of many varieties. They were the stepping
stones of progress. When at length the first members of our family
arrived their brains were barely human, and they themselves were crude
human beings. There was a certain triumph in their advent, however, for
at last there were men. The Age of Man which they inaugurated was to
differ from all preceding ages in the products of human achievement.
This great inaugural event, however, made no particular stir in nature.
Its beginnings were insignificant and humble, just as the brain of
these earliest men was a far less imposing organ than that possessed
by modern people. It was still a crude brain, unrefined in many of its
structural details and small in its capacity. Hundreds of thousands
of years were still necessary for such a brain to attain its highest
efficiency.
To most of us who are accustomed to count time as the hours between
breakfast and dinner, or, at the most, as the proverbial threescore
years and ten, these long periods sound fabulous and fantastic. In
contemplating the past our vision usually stops short at the beginning
of history, about five or six thousand years ago. Such a focus is
unfortunately nearsighted. It leaves us insensitive to the much longer
prehistoric period. Through all this unrecorded time man struggled
upward to achieve those successes which at length established the Age
of the Frontal Lobe.
Much evidence of this great prehistoric period is now available.
Examined carefully and without prejudice it reveals what man must have
been when his human journey first started. It tells us much of how he
lived and acted; also by what means he succeeded in lifting himself up
step by step from his lowly beginnings.
_The Duration of Human Existence_
It is natural that our first inquiry should be concerning the length
of time during which the human race has inhabited the earth. The
exact figures, as might be expected, are a matter of much dispute
and difference of opinion. All authorities, however, agree that the
several stages of human progress must have required a remarkably long
period. None of the modern estimations of this period is less than
five hundred thousand years. Many calculations, such as those of Sir
Arthur Keith, far exceed this figure and place the origin of man as far
back as a million years or more. The beginnings of the human species
are usually attributed to the early part of the Pleistocene, or the
late part of the Pliocene. Keith, however, believes this does not
permit of sufficient time for that development which produced all of
the effects evidenced in the known features of modern man, as well as
those of certain extinct varieties that have long since passed from
the human stage. Concluding his famous work, the _Antiquity of Man_,
Keith expresses the opinion that “There is not a single fact known to
me which makes the existence of the human form in the Miocene period
an impossibility.” This view would set the origin of man back to an
astonishingly remote period in the neighbourhood of twelve or fifteen
million years ago.
Professor Osborn has recently revised his original estimations
concerning the beginning of the human race. He now attributes the rise
of man to a time one and a half million years ago.
In all his races, both living and extinct, man constitutes the sixth
family in the primate suborder, _Anthropoidea_ (manlike). This family
is known as the _Hominidæ_ (men of all types). The progenitors of the
human family split off from a common primate stock at some time early
in the Oligocene. At this critical juncture, probably twenty-five
million years ago, two great branches of the suborder parted company.
Thenceforth they developed independently of each other. The first
branch from this common stem gave rise to human races. From the
second branch arose the great modern anthropoid apes, including the
orang-outang, the chimpanzee, and the gorilla. The vast difference
that exists between man and all other living creatures is evident in
the complexity of human affairs. In size and form of body there are
many notable resemblances between man and the apes, particularly the
great apes. But here the similarity ends abruptly. Man has created a
new world, which he strives to control both by laws of his own making
and by subjugating more or less completely all other creatures to his
will. His races to-day throughout the world are collectively known as
the species _Homo sapiens_ (man of wisdom). This species comprises the
African, the Australian, the Mongolian, and the European varieties of
mankind.
_Four Extinct Races of Men_
Study of human fossils and ancient implements has revealed the former
existence of at least four prehistoric races of man. These races took
their parts in the human drama and then, in consequence of factors
not altogether clear, became extinct. It is not surprising that man’s
obscure prehistoric beginnings are all but lost in the great geological
ages which lie behind his recorded history. There can be small wonder
that such insignificant traces of his remains have yet been brought to
light. The search for these remains has been in progress for little
more than a century. Doubtless when this exploration becomes more
extensive, also when more people are engaged in its organization, a
considerable collection of relics revealing man’s primitive stages will
be discovered. Nothing more than a meagre record could be expected
because so little effort was originally made to preserve the remains
of the earliest prehistoric men. In those long-distant days the bodies
of the dead were either disposed of by burning, or merely cast out to
be devoured by beasts and birds of prey.
The principal criteria for estimating the antiquity of human remains
are four in number. First, the age in geological time of the strata
within which the remains are found. Second, the fossil remains of
the animals associated with the fossil remains of man, whether these
be of still living forms, or entirely extinct species. Third, the
human artifacts, that is, implements, ornaments, and other objects
produced by human hands, found with the remains. Fourth, the structural
characteristics as to skull and other parts of the skeleton, which
distinguish these fossil men from living races.
Quite as important as the fossilized bodily remains of prehistoric man
are those ancient works of human hands that have been slowly collected
as a result of untiring search and scientific industry. It is now
possible to classify this great body of evidence. Besides revealing
the actual presence on earth of prehistoric man, this classification
clearly demonstrates the occurrence of certain cultural stages prior to
the historic period. The extinct races of men already brought to light
appear to vary considerably from the modern man; so much so, in fact,
that a question has been raised concerning the wisdom of creating for
each of them a new genus within the human family. One reason for this
distinction is that no one of the extinct races may properly be called
the ancestor of living man. Some arrangement in the chronological order
of man’s appearance on earth is desirable. The exact period of each
extinct race cannot be given. But within certain broad limits we are
able to assign each prehistoric man to his proper time and place.
_Javan Ape Man_
Probably the oldest, most primitive of extinct races is the ape man
of Java (_Pithecanthropus erectus_). This ape man belonged to what is
called the Trinil race, which, according to Keith, originated more than
one million years ago. The ape man, although definitely human in type,
had many simian qualities. He was also so similar to man as to justify
the view that he represents some transitional stage in human evolution.
He possessed a head and a face not unlike those of an ape, but his
brain was nearly twice the size of the brain of any simian including
the largest of the great apes, the gorilla. It was this transcendent
advantage that lifted him above all of the anthropoids and assured him
an unassailable place as a member of the human family.
The fossil remains of the ape man were discovered in 1891 by a Dutch
army surgeon. Dr. Eugen Du Bois made the discovery on the Bengawan
River in central Java where he had been excavating in the hope of
finding pre-human fossils. He actually did find a number of mammalian
bones, including a single upper molar tooth, which he regarded as
those of a new species of ape. On carefully clearing away the rock
and gravel at this site on the bank of the river, the top of a skull
came to view about a yard from the spot where the tooth had been found.
Further excavation brought to light a second molar tooth and a left
thigh bone. Both of these were about fifteen yards from the place where
the skull had been discovered. These scattered parts were carefully
studied by Du Bois, who, in 1894, published a description of a new
animal--_Pithecanthropus erectus_ (_Pithecus_, ape; _Anthropus_, man).
The entire term was meant to signify an upright standing ape man. The
word “_erectus_” refers to the thigh bone concerning which Du Bois
observes:
We must therefore conclude that the femur [thigh bone] of
_pithecanthropus_ was designed for the same mechanical functions as
that of man; the two articulations [upper and lower joint surfaces]
and the mechanical axis correspond so exactly to the same parts in
man that the law of perfect harmony between form and function of a
bone will necessitate the conclusion that this fossil creature had
the same upright posture as man, and likewise walked on two legs....
From this it necessarily follows that the creature had the free use
of the upper extremities--now superfluous for walking--and that
these last [the arms and hands] were no doubt already far advanced
in the line of differentiation, which developed them in mankind
into tools and organs of touch.... From a study of the femur and
the skull, it follows with certainty that this fossil cannot be
classified as a simian ... and as with the skull so with the femur
the differences that separate _pithecanthropus_ from man are less
than those distinguishing it from the highest anthropoid [great
ape].... Although far advanced in the course of differentiation this
Pleistocene [Age of Man] form had not yet attained to the human type.
_Pithecanthropus erectus_ is the transition form between man and the
anthropoids which the laws of evolution teach us must have existed;
he is the ancestor of man.
More extended study of the brain of this ancient fossil creature shows
that he was in reality human. This man did, however, retain so much
that was ape-like in his make-up that it is difficult to agree with Du
Bois in his view that _pithecanthropus_ was a direct human ancestor.
He was, of course, able to walk upon both feet much like his modern
successors. It also seems probable that in stature this primitive man
was not greatly inferior to the human races of the present. It is
likely that he employed his hands in the use of weapons and certain
crude implements. It also seems probable that he depended upon very
primitive means for protecting himself against the numerous enemies
that beset his path and lay in wait about his camping places. His time
doubtless was fully taken up by the arduous task of gaining sustenance
for himself. So busy was he in these obligatory pursuits that he had
little opportunity for developing industries or cultural activities.
This human creature with his ape-like appearance was closely related
to many beast-like contemporaries in the animal kingdom. He managed to
hold his position among them only by a narrow margin of superiority.
His ascendancy was derived from a dawning ingenuity, which enabled
him to equalize the struggle by the cunning of his hand. He took
advantage of primitive shrewdness and contrivance to outwit his natural
antagonists that far excelled him in power and speed.
However manlike _pithecanthropus_ may have been in respect to the
posture of his body and the general character of his locomotion, it is
certain that he was much below any of the known races of man in his
brain power. His face and head each bore a closer resemblance to the
ape than to man. His brain indicates that he had probably acquired some
mode of speech, primitive no doubt, yet sufficient for the purposes
of simple human communication. It is likewise probable that he lived
in tribes and, being gregarious, had learned some of the advantages
accruing from community life. He may have had some crude notion at
least of the division of labour and its compensations in sharing the
results.
_Dawn Man of England_
From certain flints, which seem to have many features indicating their
use as instruments, Professor Osborn believes that there were primitive
men living in England at a time earlier even than that assigned to the
ape man of Java. These prehistoric people are called “Subcrag Dawn
men.” It is his opinion that they made use of certain flint instruments
called “rostro-carinates.” Dr. Osborn, believing that these primitive
people are close to the beginning of the human race, places their
origin in the Pliocene, 1,300,000 years ago. In consequence of the
discovery of certain somewhat different flint instruments, he is of
the opinion also that the Subcrag men were followed at a little later
period by the Foxhall Dawn men (antiquity about 1,200,000 years).
Disputes about these early prehistoric Englishmen arise from the
fact that no actual human remains of them have yet been found. This,
fortunately, is not the case with the now famous English Dawn man of
Piltdown, attributed by Professor Osborn and other authorities to the
last part of the Pliocene (a little over a million years ago). Piltdown
is a town in the weald of Sussex not many miles from the English
Channel, between two branches of the Ouse River. To the east of it is
the plateau of Kent upon which have been found many flints of earliest
prehistoric times. It was at Piltdown that the most famous of English
Dawn men was discovered by Mr. Charles Dawson. The fossilized remnants
consisted of a number of fragments of this extinct man’s skull. Because
of the fragmentary condition of this fossil, it was necessary to give
each piece its proper relation to the head in order to reconstruct
the skull. A reconstruction of the Piltdown skull was first presented
to the Geological Society of London, in December, 1912, by Sir A.
Smith-Woodward of the British Museum, and its discoverer, Mr. Charles
Dawson. The announcement of this remarkable discovery deeply stirred
the interest of scientific circles. An unknown phase of the early
human existence was about to be revealed. The reconstructed skull as
pieced together impressed all who saw it as a strange blend of ape and
man. It seemed that the missing link for which the early followers of
Darwin had ardently searched was at length forthcoming. But whether
this was the long sought-for missing link or not, the Piltdown strata
in Sussex told of a race of human beings who inhabited England long
before history had made its feeblest beginnings. Dr. Smith-Woodward
believed that the Piltdown fossil dated back to the early part of
the Pleistocene period, but Sir Arthur Keith and Professor Osborn
now advocate an antiquity far more remote going back to some portion
of the Pliocene. Although it is impossible to be more exact in these
estimations of prehistoric time, it is clear that a very primitive
race of men lived in England long before Cæsar’s invasions; in fact,
ages before the ancient Britons claimed the land that was to produce
many of the most brilliant lights of history. By some the Piltdown man
is regarded as the direct ancestor of modern races; by others he is
held to be an independent branch of the human family of quite unknown
affiliations.
_Neanderthal Man_
Some time early in the Pleistocene, variously estimated from 800,000 to
900,000 years ago, another race of man made its appearance in Europe.
This was the Heidelberg race (_Homo Heidelbergensis_). These people
manifested many traits distinctly more human than the ape man. It is
believed from the implements found in the neighbourhood of his fossil
remains that the Heidelberg man made use of crude implements both of
wood and stone. This man, although he became extinct before human
progress had made great advances, appears to have been the ancestor
of the Neanderthal race (_Homo Neanderthalensis_). This latter is the
third race of prehistoric men recognized up to the present time. Much
more than all others who had gone before him, Neanderthal man has left
traces of himself. Many of these relics are the stone implements that
he employed. From these implements it is evident that the organization
of his life had made long strides in the direction of his more modern
successors. His advances in industry and in cultural development laid
the foundation for all the stages that progressively evolved as the
human race rose through the Old Stone Age. Yet the fate of Neanderthal
man was not unlike that of other prehistoric men. In time he also
became extinct. His disappearance occurred about fifty thousand years
ago, when a fourth and even greater race of primitive men came into
Europe. These were the Cromagnons. After they had completely replaced
the Neanderthals they flourished for a long time, in the end to be
replaced by the races of Neolithic men which continued dominant up to
the time when man gained mastery over the metals.
It seems clear, then, that the earliest human beings began as simple,
nomadic hunters. After the passage of great intervals of time and
an actual succession of races, men acquired the crude essentials of
manufacture and then gradually, as in the Cromagnon period, developed
the dexterity and æsthetic sense of the artist. Finally, in the New
Stone Age, they learned the practices of agriculture.
The past of prehistoric man has been subdivided into periods
characterized by the presence of implements employed in his several
activities. In general, these periods bear the name of French stations
or towns near which the discoveries of the implements have been made.
French archæologists have so successfully devoted themselves to the
efforts of classifying the flint implements that they have established
a chronological order in the development of human progress during the
long periods of man’s prehistoric existence.
_The Old Stone Age_
Man’s first great epoch on earth was the Old Stone Age (Paleolithic,
900,000 years ago). In this era, which began at some time in the first
interglacial period, the only implements were devised from flint or
stones of other kind, from wood, carved ivory, and bone. The Old Stone
Age was followed by the Neolithic (New Stone Age), which began in
postglacial times and rapidly led up to the thresholds of history,
through the Bronze and Iron ages.
Long before the Old Stone Age it is probable that man was at work in
the slow development of industries that later were to assume great
importance. Hunting was the great incentive out of which all of
his early industries were evolved. Little is known of his cultural
development, although it seems fairly clear that the Subcrag Dawn
men used certain implements called rostro-carinates, while the Dawn
men of Foxhall and Piltdown employed very primitive implements known
as eoliths. These were so crude in appearance that they are looked
upon by many as merely accidental forms. With such simple and limited
instruments, man’s struggle for existence in these earliest days must
have been most severe. Even at the time when the Old Stone Age began,
the primitive flint implements manifested considerable development.
For example, in the Pre-Chellean cultural stage (beginning 700,000
years ago), the chase is represented almost exclusively by a simple
flint knife. This knife, although extremely crude, in conjunction with
other equally crude combinations of stone and stick, gave man a slight
balance of power over other animals inhabiting the field and forest as
his competitors. His simple equipment furnished the means to gain his
daily food, and to establish that footing by which he rose step by step.
War in this period was not among man’s highly organized pastimes.
He appears to have had no implements for warlike pursuits. He had,
however, invented certain instruments for industrial and domestic
purposes, such as a flint scraper, a planing tool, a drill, and a stone
hammer. Nothing among his primitive equipments appears to have answered
the purposes of art or artistic production.
In this early Pre-Chellean period, man was a vagrant hunter. He
lived without the protection of habitation and was thus exposed to
the devastations of the great meat-eating animals that followed his
wanderings. He had not acquired sufficient constructive ingenuity to
protect himself against these dreaded marauders. They stalked him in
his marches by day and lay in wait on the outer edges of his camps
to find him an easy prey when he slept at night. The less fortunate
members of his tribes were within easy reach of these night prowlers
that waited only for darkness to help them in the capture of their
human quarry. Man’s slow imagination required ages to show him that he
held in his own hands the power to subjugate the beasts of prey. For a
long time he struggled on this low level of intelligence. He lived a
hand-to-mouth existence, passing his days like other animals, getting
his food supply as he dared, and protecting himself as best he could.
Doubtless some critical occurrence like the discovery of fire and its
uses may have furnished a new incentive for his advance. Some great
change in climate with increasing cold may have stimulated him to more
vigorous exertion, may have forced him to become a more persistent
hunter of animals, both for their meat and the warmth to be had from
their protecting skins. Long winter seasons when game was scarce may
also have taught the wisdom of storing his supply of provisions and
thus aroused in his imagination some conception of the advantages in
thought for the future. Living along with him was an imposing host
of other mammals. Among them were the lion, the wolf, the cave bear,
the deer, and the wild boar. Over the plains roamed the Etruscan
rhinoceros, the Mosbach horse, and the ancient elephant. Following
this game he wandered from station to station, always living near the
course of the great rivers, but showing little tendency to establish a
permanent abode. A restless migrant, he was moved by the dictates of
the seasons almost as instinctively as the migratory birds and beasts.
He had not learned the secrets which later enabled him to stand
against the severe vicissitudes of climate. The idea which gave him
that self-assurance to stake out his own claim, to assert his right to
his own angle of earth, was still in embryonic state.
_Neanderthal Progress_
The foundations of that possessive sense destined to become the chief
characteristic of the human race and at length the ruling passion of
humanity had as yet been laid down only in their simplest form. It
was Neanderthal man who introduced the first real advances over this
primitive level of life. In the Chellean cultural period (500,000
years ago), even more in the Acheulean period (400,000 years ago),
his race developed rapidly. His progress is shown by a great increase
and considerable refinement in all of the small implements which he
employed.
He now developed a chisel or adze-like tool for shaping his wooden
implements. He made flint points to form darts and spear heads to
aid him in the chase. But for all these advances, it was not until
Neanderthal man passed into his wonderful Mousterian stage of culture,
about 300,000 years ago, that the human race took a most decisive step
forward. This step was in every sense critical and epoch-making. It
may also be looked upon as a highly profitable step. The effects of it
have made themselves felt with increasing force upon all the subsequent
development of the human race. It was a new departure that, taken so
long ago, actually led the Neanderthal man to the threshold of an
idea in many ways quite original. Ultimately the expansion of this
idea was to become one of the keystones of all social organization. It
may indeed be regarded as the fundamental principle in the upbuilding
of human society. This notable step forward gave the Mousterian man
the first real conception of property holding. It implanted in his
mind that germ out of which grew the rights of possession. This was an
idea which was handed down by him as an heirloom to all the remainder
of his race, and to all other races of mankind. The conception of
property holding developed from the fact that the Neanderthal man in
Mousterian times became a cave dweller. He sought shelter from the
elements in these rude dwellings fashioned by nature. Why he had not
availed himself of these shelters long before is not difficult to
understand. The caves which he might have found to his liking were
already inhabited by dangerous tenants, such as the cave lion, the
leopard, the hyena, the wolf, the great cave bear, and perhaps even
the dread Machærodus or sabre-toothed tiger. All of these were his
natural enemies. For the most part they had been successful enemies.
Man had scarcely dared to dispute the right of way with them, far
less the right of possession. Through all his long periods of upward
progress, he had not yet learned the means by which he could contend
with these beasts of prey on anything like an equal footing. They took
from him at will and his retaliation at best was feeble. They, rather
than he, were the real masters of the situation. This state of affairs
was bound to continue until some critical discovery revealed a new
instrument whose deadliness placed in human hands a supremacy over
these creatures. Some strategy, some modification of the old flint
instruments, perhaps some new combination of them with fire, at length
gave Neanderthal man the needed advantage and then he drove the hostile
beasts out of the caves. In time he established there his own dwelling
places, and there proclaimed his inalienable right of possession. Such
a hazardous undertaking undoubtedly required a hardy courage and an
unwavering persistency. Yet a hard-fought contest of this kind could
not fail to have a marked influence on the final outcome. Once man had
gained the right of ownership, all of the struggles incident to it
served to emphasize his final sense of possession. This triumph did
much to stimulate human desire for gain. It seems fairly clear that
from it arose the incentives of conquest. Since Mousterian times man
has expended much of his energy in exploiting this new advantage. He
has made laws to justify and regulate it. The rights of possession
have had a dominating influence over all of his economic and political
organizations. Most of his moral code has been built up around these
rights. States and empires have been founded upon them, while the
governing principle in the life of the individual has been the right to
have and to hold. In a word, this newly expanded sense of possession
started by Neanderthal man has become an essential element in all the
achievements of mankind. It has no less been the cause of much woe and
maladjustment in the race.
_Mousterian Success and Character_
It is difficult to estimate the importance of this contribution to the
development of human progress. We may at least give Mousterian man due
credit for establishing this new assertiveness. He likewise deserves
recognition because this achievement was an outstanding milestone on
the road toward higher humanity. For this reason it is worthy of a
special commemorative date. As chronicled by Professor Osborn, this
memorable occurrence, the beginning of cave dwelling, took place about
300,000 years ago. In more senses than one it was a red-letter day for
humanity. It was especially a red-letter day because of the recurring
bloodshed of innumerable wars destined to arise out of the lust and
greed inspired by this expanded sense of possession. This, however, is
the most unfavourable aspect of the Mousterian’s new idea. He himself
should not be made to appear too black on this score. He was actually a
considerable personage and introduced many other new ways of looking at
life that have been highly advantageous to us all.
Living in dark caves as he did, especially in the long bleak winters,
as the glacial periods crept down upon him, he must have found much
of mystery in those dim recesses to stimulate his imagination. It is
probable that he became a believer in occult forces of nature, and
perhaps even developed a system of magic. These suppositions become
more probable from the fact that he, for the first time in human
experience, established the custom of burying the dead. The men who
lived before him belonged to what may be called the pre-burial period.
This fact unquestionably accounts in part for the scanty human remains
before Mousterian times. The Neanderthal Mousterian not only buried his
dead but he developed an elaborate burial ceremony. The general nature
of this ceremony is shown by the position of the body and of the limbs
as they were found folded and flexed in the fossilized remains of these
men of the Old Stone Age. With certain primitive people this is still
the custom. Even in the case of some of the ancient Egyptian kings
many personal belongings were buried with the dead. Favourite weapons
of the chase, useful implements of one kind or another, ornaments and
other trinkets presumably dear to the departed ones, have been found
with the skeletons in these Neanderthal sepulchres. Special attention
was given to prevent pressure upon or crushing of the head by means
of placing large flat stones upon either side of it. There are some
indications that even as far back as the Old Stone Age man, as part
of his burial service, deposited certain articles of food beside the
body of the departed. All of these facts clearly reveal that as long
ago as 300,000 years man had acquired his first religious ideas. There
is every suggestion about these burial ceremonies that the Mousterian
cave man believed in another life after death. He appears to have had
a strong conviction that the body was but a temporary container of
some intangible spirit that in its time passed on into another world.
It seems probable that he also believed in the return of the departed
spirit to its earthly habitations, else why did he place food in the
sepulchres? In his crude way of thinking he seems to have had certain
well-fixed ideas of the pursuits and occupations in the life hereafter.
For this reason he left a useful collection of weapons and other
implements close at hand, ready for the spirit that had left the body.
The Mousterian idea of immortality may have been simple, but there is
no doubt that it existed. Whether there was a belief in God or not is
difficult to discern. It is probable, however, that the Mousterian,
like all other primitive people, did have some conception of a supreme
being, and that he had thus laid the foundations of religion.
It is for these reasons that the cave-dwelling Mousterian man
especially deserves our attention. The features of his face and the
character of his body as reconstructed by scientists make him appear
to be a particularly formidable human being. Everything about him
indicates that he was powerful and aggressive. In a word, he was
a splendid fighting machine with heavy, protruding lower jaw, low
beetling brow, thick and short neck, long and heavy-muscled arms,
short, powerful legs slightly bent at the knees. He was a fierce
and dangerous antagonist; one, from all we know of his history, as
courageous as he was powerful. It is probable that in consequence
of his cave dwelling he had begun to live in fairly large organized
communities. Such life as this had many influences upon his social
activities. It developed his use of language. It stimulated his
interest in industries other than those of the chase. It caused
expansion in his imagination, leading to the establishment of racial
tradition. It produced the spirit of individual competition as well
as the pursuits of tribal rivalry. War up to this time seems to
have been limited very largely to individual encounters. Now for
the first time differences of opinion and controversies between one
community and another were most likely settled by group combat. Here,
therefore, were laid the foundations of war that was to prove one
of the most irresistible and costly of all human indulgences. The
self-assertiveness, which must have resulted from the cave man’s
realization that he had finally gained the upper hand in many details
over the natural world, caused him to change his attitude. Instead
of being a fugitive, he now became a conqueror. It was this positive
self-feeling that gave rise to most of his more expansive ideas. The
multiplication of these ideas easily led him on into the realm of fancy
and brought him many illusory interpretations concerning the workings
of nature.
During the Mousterian period Neanderthal man did not make many material
changes in the implements used before his time. In some instances
there was a distinct improvement of the old ideas; in others there was
a distinct decline or even suppression of some of the most effective
instruments. The cave man’s aims, however, were considerably modified
by his new mode of life. His sheltered existence lessened his physical
powers to resist disease. The making of clothing from the skins of
animals also grew out of this more sheltered type of life. In the end
it produced a people less accustomed to the elements than those earlier
and hardier races that had lived in the open. The effects of this need
for clothing made themselves felt not only in the industry of producing
garments but quite as much in the production of implements necessary
for such work. Cave dwelling permitted disease and imperfect hygiene to
go their full length in producing inroads upon this great Mousterian
race. The ravages of infection and contagion had better opportunity to
exert their baneful influences. These and other insidious factors were
secretly at work. In course of time the Mousterian culture began to
show signs of a steady deterioration. For some mysterious reason these
men of the Old Stone Age slowly began to lose ground. The prominence
held by the Neanderthal race during lower Palæolithic times was
distinctly on the wane as this period approached its end.
_Cromagnon Ascendancy_
Finally a profound change came over the inhabitants of western
Europe. For some as yet unknown reason the Neanderthal race entirely
disappeared from the earth. Its place, however, was taken by another
and a greater people, the Cromagnons. Without question this was a
replacement of a lower race by one of much higher development. The
Neanderthal was on a distinctly lower plane than any now existing
human type. The Cromagnon ranks high among the races of mankind in
intellectual attainment and in known capacities for production.
He belongs to the species _Homo sapiens_, that same species of man
which has made modern history. He held sway during the last part of
the Old Stone Age, appearing in Europe about fifty thousand years
ago. Like those races which had gone before him, he passed through
many interesting phases of culture and growth. All of these were
characterized by the development of stone implements, thus making him
still a man of the Old Stone Age. He added many new attainments as a
result of new human capacities. He stands out particularly as the first
artist of mankind, and sets a mark as one of the most splendid examples
of humanity both for his superb physical appearance and for his
remarkable mental qualities. But he, too, like all others who preceded
him, was destined to decline and then to disappear.
The Cromagnon is interesting to us because he was the probable
conqueror of the great Neanderthal race. What secret power he had
to achieve this conquest, to subdue and destroy these fierce cave
dwellers, is still unknown. It may have been that he brought with him
some new implements for warfare, such as the bow and arrow, and that
he had many other advantages of this kind. In any event, he showed
no quarter to the Neanderthals, whom he seems to have destroyed
completely. He did not even follow the custom of many conquerors,
of intermarrying with the women of the conquered race. No generally
admitted sign of Neanderthal features or characters persists among the
race of men after the last Mousterian days. Beyond question it was
the increased brain power of the Cromagnons which gave them their real
advantages. This opinion is based on the appearance of the large brain
case of this race and the development of the almost modern forehead
and forebrain. In the main, our admiration for the ancient Cromagnon
people depends upon something entirely different from their powers
of conquest. They may have been great as warriors, but they were far
greater as artists. This is the aspect of their lives that interests
and influences us most.
The Cromagnons were a race that developed somewhere in Asia and
migrated westward into Europe. They came in contact with the
Neanderthals and probably destroyed them. They had no ancestral
connections of any kind with this other race. They possessed a brain
capable of more complex ideas, greater comprehension, more reasoning
powers, a wider, more facile imagination. Still more they were endowed
with a highly artistic sense and were capable of advanced education.
Their society was differentiated along the line of capacity and talent
for work. Their artistic productions as shown in the mural decorations
of their caves were so excellent as to place them among the truly great
achievements of mankind. In the pursuits of industry and domestic life,
the Cromagnons added little in the way of innovation. They adapted and
perfected what the Mousterians had previously used. They did introduce,
however, what no other people had ever employed; namely, tools and
implements for sculpture and engraving. These tools in the main were
small and delicate instruments made of flint. Among these was a fine
drill, an engraver, an etcher, a carving chisel, a mortar, a hammer
stone, and a polisher.
_Cromagnon Cultural Periods_
The Cromagnon, like the Neanderthal, passed through certain cultural
phases. Each of these periods lasted many thousands of years and
each of them was much longer than the Christian Era. The first of
these cultural steps was the Aurignacian period, in which the great
awakening of artistic enthusiasm occurred. The peak of artistic
devotion, however, came in the Solutrean period, which was the acme
of achievement in the flint industry. Decline set in during the next,
the Magdalenian period, which brought the closing stage of Cromagnon
culture. And then in the Azilian period the last survivors of the
greatest race in the Old Stone Age, grown old in their industries and
feeble in their art, saw the setting of the Cromagnon sun and the
passing of their kind into the darkness. Many changes came about in
Cromagnon industries, due to the influences of trade invasions and new
inventions, but in their art these people showed one continuous and
sustained development.
The impressive feature about Cromagnon art, especially in the
Aurignacian period, is the absence of that period of infantilism and
crudity almost always observed in the artistic development of primitive
races. The Cromagnon first reveals his artistic effort in a state of
sturdy youth. His art passed directly into a relatively mature stage.
Its treasures preserved in the art galleries of the ancient caves,
comprising remarkable drawings, sculptures, and paintings, fully
warrant the title of “Palæolithic Greeks” conferred upon the Cromagnon.
Indeed, they resemble the Greek and Egyptian artists in many ways.
Like them, the Cromagnon resorted to painting his reliefs whether they
were of the bison, the horse, the deer, or the great mammoths. The
relative simplicity of his technical skill depended upon the employment
of fewest possible lines and boldest of strokes. To his accuracy of
reproduction and his simplicity of style he imparted a third great
quality. This added artistic element, which has made his art live in
a class well up to the standards of later periods, was a feeling of
motion, particularly of locomotion. With this he vividly endowed the
animals carved upon the walls of his cavern, upon bone or ivory.
_Motives of Cromagnon Art_
It is clear that the Cromagnons were cave dwellers like the
Neanderthals, but they also depended largely upon the chase for their
living. Why, then, did they in the dark recesses of their caverns
resort to these remarkable artistic activities? These efforts could
scarcely be meaningless diversions. They must have been more than
pastimes, for hours not devoted to the hunt or combat. Such arduous
pursuits as these surely had some serious and pertinent object in
their lives. Many explanations have been offered for the remarkable
outburst of artistic enthusiasm in Cromagnon times. The one most
generally accepted is that the art of these people was a part of their
hunting magic. In the history of primitive races it has repeatedly
occurred that drawing and design have a special significance in the
actual maintenance of life. For example, the Australians draw pictures
of animals they use for food. Sitting on the ground about these
pictures, they perform certain ceremonies which they believe will
insure a plentiful supply of the food they need. The American Indians
are in the habit of carving images of animals. They also draw the
signs representing rain. In the presence of these emblems they make
incantations and believe that by this means they will secure abundant
harvest and complete success in their hunting expeditions. Images and
pictures act as a sort of magic talisman by means of which to exercise
an influence over those animals which serve for food.
But we do not need to go back into the pre-history of the Old Stone
Age, or to the superstitions of people still in a primitive stage. Not
so long ago the picture of a man was supposed to represent his spirit,
and the possessor of such a picture could exert a magic power over his
person. Only a few centuries ago learned judges condemned to death men
and women on the evidence that they possessed images or pictures of
people they were accused of bewitching. Until quite recently there were
certain sorcerers and magicians in Sicily who for a price would destroy
a hated enemy by the simple executionary method of sticking pins into a
wax image of this undesirable person.
It seems to require no further explanation to understand the pictorial
efforts of the Australian natives and American Indians. Like them,
the Cromagnons drew for the most part the animals which they employed
for food. This may not in all respects be a satisfactory answer to
the question: Why did man of the Old Stone Age resort to art? It is,
however, a good working theory. It shows a real motive for his efforts
in this direction. To his mind, all of his works of art assured him
some peculiar magical control over the animal life that was necessary
for his living and well-being.
_Men of the New Stone Age_
The fate of the Cromagnon race was no exception to what had gone before
or what would follow many times thereafter. Race after race, nation
after nation, rose and became master, declined and passed into final
extinction. As the day of Cromagnon ascendancy waned a new race invaded
western Europe. The Old Stone Age came to its end approximately ten
thousand years ago with the advent of the more vigorous Neolithic (New
Stone Age) man. He developed a great innovation in manufacturing his
implements, making his instruments better and more useful by polishing
the stone. Neolithic man was far more practical and thoroughly
utilitarian than his predecessors in the Old Stone Age. He introduced
many economic advantages and substituted the benefits of applied
science for the delusions of magic and sorcery. The man of the New
Stone Age, unlike his Cromagnon predecessor, did not alone pray for
his crops. He tilled the soil and planted seed. Perhaps he believed
in a magic ritual for his hunting expeditions, but to make his food
supply as secure as possible, he domesticated many animals that he
liked to eat. He was unwilling to depend solely upon hunting magic and
art sorcery. He had discovered the true magic of agriculture and sought
to control nature by the toil of his hands rather than by mysterious
incantations and pictorial art. As a farmer and a cattle raiser he
required a permanent home, and in consequence the New Stone Age gave a
fresh impulse to the upbuilding of man’s possessive sense. Neolithic
man became a land holder, and this advance was a long, provocative step
in the direction of modern humanity. Because of it man had to learn
new ways and means of defending his claim and of asserting his right.
Very quickly this new assertiveness led to the more sanguinary ages
of Bronze and Iron with their effective equipments for offense and
defense. Its influences finally reached historical times. Ultimately
these more aggressive tendencies created all of the armed camps that we
are pleased to call civilization, ancient, mediæval, and modern.
At the close of the New Stone Age all of the direct ancestors of modern
European races were established in Europe. During the Bronze Age man
rapidly learned those new capacities which enabled him to make a
permanent record of himself, and thus he entered upon his real historic
period. Some authorities set the beginning of this period only so far
back as the beginning of the Egyptian calendar. In round numbers this
is five or six thousand years ago.
The dawn of history was followed by a procession of great events which
began in the early Egyptian dynasties. The development of Pharaonic
art and culture, the regal splendours of Babylonia and Chaldea, the
incomparable achievements of Greece and Rome, followed in rapid
succession. Each of these civilizations in its turn contributed to the
development of the race. Then came the long eclipse of the Dark Ages in
mediæval times, and at length the brilliant light of the Renaissance,
the illuminating influences of which have been carried forward in that
steady progress of material accomplishments characteristic of modern
times.
A brief review of man’s progress in his prehistoric existence shows the
following races in his advancement, known by fossil remains:
1. Ape man of Java (_Pithecanthropus erectus_). Professor Osborn
prefers to consider him the Dawn man of Trinil. Probable antiquity
about one million years. Probably employed crude stone implements and
was a nomadic hunter. Had a poorly developed human brain; nothing
known of his cultural development. Chief contributions to human
progress: human frontal lobe, human speech, and a complete erect
posture.
2. Dawn man of Piltdown, England (_Eoanthropus dawsoni_). Antiquity
over a million years, probably employed crude instruments known
as eoliths and thus belonged to the Dawn Stone Age. Had a fairly
well-developed human brain. Was a migrant hunter. Nothing known
concerning his cultural development. Chief contribution to human
progress: further development of the brain.
3. Heidelberg man of Germany (_Paleoanthropus_). Antiquity about
800,000 years. Fairly well-developed human brain and frontal lobe.
Probably employed crude stone implements. Little known of his
cultural phases. Chief contribution to human progress: first man of
the Old Stone Age and probable progenitor of the Neanderthal race.
4. Neanderthal man (_Homo primogenius_). Probable antiquity 600,000
years. A well-developed human brain and frontal lobe. Made and
improved many flint implements. Hunter and cave dweller. Had definite
cultural periods known as the Chellean, Acheulean, and Mousterian.
Chief contributions to human progress: established idea of permanent
abode, became dominant over other animals of the earth, introduced
human burial, laid the foundations of religion. Founder of human
assertiveness and supremacy.
5. Cromagnon man (_Homo sapiens_). Probable antiquity 50,000 years.
Well-developed human brain and frontal lobe of modern type. Hunter
and artist, employed somewhat refined flint implements of the Old
Stone Age. Had definite cultural periods known as the Aurignacian,
Solutrean, Magdalenian, and Azilian. Chief contribution to human
progress: the conqueror of Neanderthal man; the world’s first great
artist. The founder and introducer of art.
6. Neolithic man (_Homo sapiens_). Probable antiquity 10,000 years.
Human brain and frontal lobe of modern type. Employed polished flint
implements of a highly developed kind. Was a hunter, herdsman,
and farmer. Chief contributions to human progress: introduction
of agriculture, culinary art, domestication of animals; also
establishment of more permanent abode.
7. Bronze and Iron Age men (_Homo sapiens_). Probable antiquity 7,000
years. Human brain and frontal lobe of modern type. Used implements
made of bronze and iron. Chief contribution to human progress:
introduction of the metals for human utility.
In addition to these prehistoric races of men, certain other early
members of our family have been recognized in the latter part of the
Pliocene and early part of the Pleistocene. These races include the
Subcrag and the Foxhall Dawn men who appear to have employed the
rostro-carinate flints. Still another race was the Cromerians, who made
and used the giant flints found embedded in the cliffs of Cromer.
Prehistoric man is thus gradually emerging from his long obscurity.
His skeletal form is known from more than 350 specimens of his fossil
remains. In Java, in central Asia, in Rhodesia, central Africa, in
Gibraltar, in the Island of Jersey, in France, in Germany, in England,
in Austria, and in Galilee, Palestine, these remains have been found.
All phases of man’s early existence are important to our modern thought
and development. As the curtain of the past is lifted to reveal the
long, prehistoric vista of human existence, it is possible to sense the
vast distance that man has come since his journey began. It is also
possible to see how he has made his way and why he has progressed. From
its earliest appearance on earth the race has grown in humanity as the
brain expanded. In man’s first struggles brain power endowed him with a
capacity to develop and to hand down certain cultural activities. The
earliest instruments that he fashioned gave rise to an uninterrupted
stream of human achievements which has passed on as the main current
of culture and knowledge. It was this capacity for progressive and
racial learning that distinguished the human brain. Estimated by his
accomplishments, it seems necessary to assume the existence in man of
some special power different from all other living creatures. This
distinguishing endowment is variously called the soul, the psyche, the
spirit of man, or human genius. Its name may be immaterial, but its
source is the secret of our supremacy. If we acquired this power as the
divine gift of a creative miracle, that is one thing. If we earned it
through a long and tedious process of evolution, that is even a more
promising and an altogether different thing.