PREHISTORIC PETTICOATS
After the last great extension of glaciers in Europe, during which
nearly all of Great Britain and the North of France and Germany were
buried with Scandinavia under one great ice-sheet--and when this
ice-sheet had receded, and the climate was like that of the Russian
"steppes," cold and dry--there were men inhabiting the caverns on both
sides of the Pyrenees. The tract of land which we call "Great Britain"
was a part of the Continent of Europe. There was no "English Channel."
The Thames and the Rhine opened by a common mouth into the North Sea.
The mammoth and the hairy rhinoceros still lingered on in France and
the more central regions of Europe. Wild horses, the great ox
(Aurochs), the bison, ibex, chamois, were abundant, and the
thick-nosed Saiga antelope, now confined to the Russian and Asiatic
steppes, was present. The most abundant and important animal
immediately north of the Pyrenees was the reindeer. The cave-men of
France and Central Europe were a fine race--living by the chase, and
fabricating flint knives and scrapers, fine bone spearheads and
harpoons, as well as occupying themselves in carving ivory and
reindeer antlers, so as to produce highly artistic representations of
the animals around them.
They rarely attempted the human face or figure, and when they did were
not so successful as in their animal work. They also painted on the
walls of some of their caverns, with red and yellow ochre, carbon, and
white chalk representations--usually about one-third the size of
nature--of some of the most important animals of the chase. They must
have used lamps, fed with animal fat, to illuminate the walls, both
when they were at work on the pictures and also afterwards, when they
exhibited the finished pictures to the less gifted members of the
tribe, as wonderful, even magical appearances. It is uncertain to what
extent races of men succeeded one another or were cotemporaries in
this period in Europe, but there is good reason for attributing the
cave pictures to an early occupation of the caves by men who also
carved, in ivory and stone, small figures of women resembling the
Hottentot Venus--whilst the later occupants made no such statuettes,
but carved in relief on bone or engraved it.
This was probably not less than 50,000 years ago, and may well have
been much more. Earlier than the date of these Reindeer men (the
Magdalenians, Solutrians and the Aurignacians[9]), in the preceding
cold, humid period of the glacial extension (probably from 80,000 to
150,000 years ago) these and other caves were occupied by an inferior
race--the Neandermen. They could not carve beasts on ivory nor paint,
but could make very good and well "dressed" flint weapons, and could
make large fires in and about the caves, both to cook their meat and
to keep off the wild beasts (lions, bears, and hyenas), who contended
with the strange, low-browed Neandermen for the use of the caves as
habitations.
On this side of the Pyrenees the Reindeer men have left some
wall-pictures, and new discoveries of great importance in the form of
rock carvings of human figures as well as pictures and huge figures of
horses, etc., are being made in France as I write these lines. But the
best preserved and most numerous wall pictures are those of the cave
of Altamira near Santander. These comprise some partially preserved
representations in yellow, red, white, and black of the great bison,
the wild boar, the horse, and other animals. A group representing some
twenty-five or more animals (each about one third the size of nature),
irregularly arranged, exists on a part of the roof, and others are
found in other parts of the cavern. Among the wall-pictures made by
ancient cave-men are numerous drawings of human beings in masks
representing animals' heads--probably indicating the "dressing-up" in
animal masks of priests or medicine men in the way in which we know
to-day is the custom among many savage tribes. Twenty-seven of these
"decorated" caverns were known in 1910--eleven in Spain, one in Italy,
and fifteen in South and Central France--and others are continually
being discovered. The most careful and critical examination by
scientific men leaves no doubt as to the vast antiquity of these
paintings, and as to their dating from a time when the animals painted
(including in some cases mammoth and rhinoceros, as well as bison,
reindeer, wild boar, ibex, red deer, bear, and felines) were existing
in the locality. The covering up of some of the drawings (which are
partly engraved and partly painted) by earthy deposits and by
encrustations of lime, and the presence in the cave deposits of the
worked flints and bones characteristic of the Reindeer men, leave no
doubt that these pictures are of that immense antiquity which we
express by the words "Quaternary period," "Upper Pleistocene" or
"Reindeer epoch."
It is, of course, only in accordance with what one would expect that
these pictures are of very varying degrees of artistic merit. But some
(a considerable number) are quite remarkable for their true artistic
quality. In this respect they differ from the rock paintings of modern
savage races--the Bushmen of South Africa, the Australians, and the
Californian Indians--with which, however, it is instructive to compare
them. Many of them agree in their essential artistic character with
the carving and engraving of animals on bone and ivory so abundantly
produced by the later Reindeer men. It is also the fact that these
Franco-Spanish wall paintings were executed at different periods in
the Reindeer epoch. Some are more primitive than others; some are very
badly preserved, mere scratched outlines with all the paint washed
away by the moisture of ages; but others are bright and sharp in their
colouring to a degree which is surprising when their age and long
exposure are considered. The French prehistorians, M.M. Cartailac and
the Abbe Breuil, have produced a sumptuous volume containing an
account, with large coloured plates, of the best preserved of the
Altamira paintings--a copy of which I owe to the kindness of H.S.H.
the Prince of Monaco, who has ordered the publication of the work at
his own charges. This has been followed by an equally fine work under
the same auspices, illustrating the wall-pictures of the Cavern of the
Font-de-Gaume in the Dordogne, for which we have to thank the Abbe
Breuil. A further volume on Spanish Caves has also appeared from the
same source in the present year. It is not surprising that the country
folk, who, in some of the Spanish localities, have known the existence
of these paintings from time immemorial, should regard them as the
work of the ancient Moors, all ancient work in Spain being popularly
attributed to the Moors, as a sort of starting-point in history. It
is, however, very remarkable that little damage appears to have been
done by the population to the paintings, even when they exist in
shallow caves or on overhanging rocks. No doubt weathering, and the
oozing of moisture, and the flaking caused by it, has destroyed most
of the Pleistocene paintings which once existed, and it is an
ascertained fact that some--for instance, those of Altamira--are
breaking to pieces owing to the opening-up and frequentation of the
caverns.
It has been remarked that, although these paintings belong to what is
called the "reindeer epoch," yet in the cave of Altamira there are no
representations of reindeer, but chiefly of bison and wild boar. It is
also remarkable that in the case of the painted rock shelters of
Calapata (Lower Aragon) and of Cogul (near Lerida, in Catalonia), no
reindeer are represented; but on the former there are very admirable
drawings of the red deer, and on the latter silhouettes of the bull,
of the red deer, and the ibex. In fact, no representations of reindeer
have been observed on cave walls or rock-shelters south of the
Pyrenees. It is possible that this may be due to the date of the
Spanish paintings being a good deal later than that of those French
cave-paintings which show reindeer, mammoth, and rhinoceros. And we
have to bear in mind that in the North of Africa (Oran) engraved
drawings on exposed rocks are known, which are for good reasons
attributed to the Neolithic period; that is to say, they are later
than the Reindeer epoch of the Palaeolithic period, whilst some are
even much later.
In any case we have to remember that there are two very different and
possible explanations of the presence or absence either of certain
animals' bones or of representations of certain animals in one
"decorated" cave and not in another. The one explanation is that
animals have succeeded one another in time in Western Europe--changing
as the climatic conditions have changed--and that when, in two
cave-decorations or cave-deposits compared, the animals are different,
the cause may be that the one deposit or cave-decoration is more
recent than the other. The other explanation is that (as we well know)
at one and the same moment very different animals occupy tracts of
land which are only a hundred miles or so apart, but differ in climate
and general conditions. At this moment there are wild bears and also
wolves in France, but none in England; the elk occurs in Sweden and
Russia, but not in the West of Europe; the porcupine in Italy and in
Spain, but not in France. As late as the historic period the African
elephant flourished on the African shore of the Mediterranean, but not
in Spain; now it is not found north of the Sahara at all. So we have
various possibilities to consider in comparing the animal pictures on
the cave walls of Spain with those found in France, and may well
suspend judgment till we have knowledge of a greatly extended area.
* * * * *
I am anxious to draw attention in this chapter to the painted group of
ten human figures lately discovered on a rock shelter at Cogul, near
Lerida, in Catalonia, and figured and described in the admirable
French journal called "L'Anthropologie." These figures are those of
young women dressed in short skirts and curious sleeves, the hair done
up in a conical mass rising from the sides to the top of the head.
Each figure is about ten inches high. The great interest about these
drawings is that they are probably tens of thousands of years old,
and present to us the women of the reindeer or late Pleistocene epoch.
No other such painting of the women of this period is known, and the
astonishing thing is that, though these are by no means fine specimens
of prehistoric art, yet there is a definitely modern look about the
figures and a freedom of touch about the drawing which makes one think
at first that the picture is some modern, hasty but clever sketch in
silhouette of a number of short skirted school girls at play. The
waist is extremely small and elongated, the skirt, or petticoat, bell
shaped, and the whole figure "sinuous." One of the figures appears to
have a cloak or jacket, but the breasts and legs are bare.
[Illustration: Fig. 24.--Reproduction of drawings from a rock shelter
near Lerida, in Catalonia, representing a group of women clothed in
jacket and skirt with "wasp-like" waists. The original figures are ten
inches high, and the drawing probably dates from the late Palaeolithic
period.]
[Illustration: Fig. 25.--A further portion of the same group as that
shown in Fig. 24. In front is a small deer-like animal.]
Some three years ago Sir Arthur Evans discovered in the palace of the
ancient Kings of Crete coloured frescoes some 3,500 years old
representing in great detail elegant young women with greatly
compressed waists, strongly-pronounced bustles, and elaborately
ornamented skirts. These Cretan paintings of prehistoric young women,
both in costume and pose, are like nothing so much as the portraits of
distinguished ladies of the fashionable world of Paris exhibited by
the painter, Boldini, in the "Salon." It is remarkable that explorers
should have found contemporary paintings of young ladies who lived
nearly as long before Cleopatra as she lived before us. And it is
still more remarkable that those young ladies were "got up" in the
same style, and apparently aimed at much the same effects of line and
movement, as those which have become the latest fashion in Paris, and
may be described as sinuous and serpentine. Not only is that the case,
but it is evident that the painter of Knossos, the Minotaur city, and
M. Boldini have experienced the same artistic impression, and have
presented in their pictures the same significance of pose and the same
form, from the tip of the nose to the ends of the fingers and the
points of the toes--thus revealing a sympathy reaching across many
ages. It seems to me that the same artistic impression is to be
detected in the still earlier paintings of the wasp-waisted little
ladies of the Cogul rock-shelter in Catalonia. We find here the same
sinuous figure with exaggeratedly compressed waist, prominent bosom,
and emphasised haunches. But it is many, perhaps forty, thousands
years earlier! One is led to wonder whether this type of human
female--to-day expressed with such masterly skill by Boldini--may not
be at the back of the mind of a portion of the human race--that which
populated what are now the shores of the Mediterranean, and probably
came there travelling northwards from the centre of Africa. Possibly
they brought with them that tendency to, and admiration for,
megalopygy which is evidenced by the makers of the earliest known
palaeolithic cave sculptures (the Aurignacians), and has persisted in
some degree ever since in Europe--a tendency and a taste which are on
the one hand totally absent in the East and Far East (Japan), and on
the other hand have a strong development in the modern Bushmen (and
the related Hottentots), an African race, and like the Spanish
cave-men, rock painters.
[Illustration: Plate VIII.--Votary or priestess of the goddess to whom
snakes were sacred. The original is a statuette in faience, ten inches
high, and was discovered by Sir Arthur Evans in the palace at Knossos
in Crete. It dates from 1600 B.C.]
I am able to reproduce here (Plates VIII and IX), through the kindness
of Sir Arthur Evans and Dr. Hogarth, the keeper of the Ashmolean
Museum at Oxford, two very interesting drawings--showing certain
features in the dress of women in the prehistoric race which inhabited
the island of Crete for some three thousand years previous to the date
of these representations, which is about 1600 B.C. They are
interesting to compare both with the much more ancient figures from
the Spanish cave and with modern female costume. The first (Plate
VIII) is a figure in coloured pottery (faience), representing either a
votary or priestess of a goddess to whom snakes were sacred. The
petticoat of this lady is very modern, being long, decorated with
flounces (a series of five) and bell-shaped. The dress is further
remarkable for a tight ring-like girdle which greatly compresses the
waist and emphasises the broad hips. The little statue is about ten
inches high, and was found by Sir Arthur Evans at Knossos, the ancient
buried city the capital of Crete, in the Later Palace. Its date is
that of the close of the Minoan period, namely 1600 B.C. The two
figures in Plate IX are copied from frescoes representing acrobatic
women from the bull-ring, also from the Later Palace at Knossos, and
are a couple of centuries later in date. Religious ceremonies in
connection with the worship of the bull (whence the fable of the
minotaur) were practised in Knossos, and possibly there was a kind of
baiting of bulls and jumping over and away from the infuriated animals
such as may be seen at this day in the South of France and in
Portugal. Possibly the employment of girls in this sport gave rise to
the story of the maiden tribute from Athens to be sacrificed to the
Cretan minotaur. The drawings are remarkable for the pose--that of the
left-hand resembling an attitude assumed in boxing, whilst the
dress--a kind of maillot or "tights"--is gripped round the waist by a
firm ring (like a table-napkin ring), the compression of which is no
doubt exaggerated. This fresco and many others of extraordinary
interest, as well as much beautiful pottery and the whole of the plan
of the city, its public buildings, granaries, library and sewers at
several successive ages (the remains lying in layers one over the
other), were discovered and described by Sir Arthur Evans, who is
still at work on the wonderful history and art of these prehistoric
Cretans, from whom the Mycenaeans of the mainland of Greece were an
offshoot.
The point to which I chiefly desire to call attention is that this
Cretan people practised compression of the waist, and so have a
certain point of agreement with the prehistoric race of Lerida
represented in Figs. 24 and 25 and with Boldini's modern ladies. We
know from carvings and pottery that the men as well as the women of
the Mycenaean people wore a tightly-compressing girdle. The form of
figure thus produced--viz. relatively small, flexible waist, and large
hips with protruding buttocks--seems to be a less pronounced variety
of that of the small ivory figures of Aurignacian age (late
Palaeolithic) found in cave deposits of France and of that of the
Bushmen women. It seems as though the "ideal" female figure or that
admired and pictured by these races and by the modern Latin races is
the same in its main features, and differs altogether from that
admired in the Far East. Such deeply seated tastes may possibly
(indeed, not improbably) be due to a common origin of the
Mediterranean and African peoples distinct from that of the Mongoloid
Asiatic races.
[Illustration: Plate IX.--Fresco drawing of two female acrobats from
the palace of Knossos, date about 1400 B.C. The originals were
discovered by Sir Arthur Evans.]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 9: A brief account of the skulls and implements of primitive
man, with illustrations, is given in the first series of "Science from
an Easy Chair," published in 1910 by Methuen & Co.]