PREHISTORIC MAN
_The Origin of Man Has not Yet Been Determined_.--Man's origin is still
shrouded in mystery, notwithstanding the accumulated knowledge of the
results of scientific investigation in the field and in the laboratory.
The earliest historical records and relics of the seats of ancient
civilization all point backward to an earlier period of human life.
Looking back from the earliest civilizations along the Euphrates and
the Nile that have recorded the deeds of man so that their evidences
could be handed down from generation to generation, the earlier
prehistoric records of man stretch away in the dim past for more than a
hundred thousand years. The time that has elapsed from the earliest
historical records to the present is only a few minutes compared to the
centuries that preceded it.
Wherever we go in the field of knowledge, we shall find evidences of
man's great antiquity. We know at least that he has been on earth a
long, long period. As to the method of his appearance, there is no
absolutely determining evidence. Yet science has run back into the
field of conjecture with such strong lines that we may assume with
practical certainty something of his early life. He stands at the head
of the zoological division of the animal kingdom. The Anthropoid Ape
is the animal that most nearly resembles man. It might be said to
stand next to man in the procession of species. So far as our
knowledge can ascertain, it appears that man was developed in the same
manner as the higher types in the animal and vegetable world, namely,
by the process of evolution, and by evolution we mean continuous
progressive change according to law, from external and internal
stimuli. The process of evolution is not a process of creation, nor
does evolution move in {58} a straight line, but through the process of
differentiation. In no other way can one account for the multitudes of
the types and races of the human being, except by this process of
differentiation which is one of the main factors of evolution.
Accompanying the process of differentiation is that of specialization
and integration. When types become highly specialized they fail to
adapt themselves to new environments, and other types not so highly
specialized prevail. So far as the human race is concerned, it seems
to be evolved according to the law of sympodial development--that is, a
certain specialized part of the human race develops certain traits and
is limited in its adaptability to a specific environment. Closely
allied with this are some individuals or groups possessing human traits
that are less highly specialized, and hence are adaptable to new
conditions. Under new conditions the main stem of development perishes
and the budded branch survives.
We have abundant pictures of this in prehistoric times, and records
show that this also has been the common lot of man. Modern man thus
could not have been developed from any of the living species of the
Anthropoid Apes, but he might have had a common origin in the physical,
chemical, and vital forces that produced the apes. One line of
specialization made the ape, another line made man. Subsequently the
separation of man into the various races and species came about by the
survival of some races for a time, and then to be superseded by a
branch of the same race which differentiated in a period of development
before high specialization had taken place.
_Methods of Recounting Prehistoric Time_.[1]--Present time is measured
in terms of centuries, years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, and
seconds, but the second is the determining power of mechanical
measurement, though it is derived mainly by the movement of the earth
around the sun and the turning of the earth on its axis. Mechanically
we have derived the second as the unit. It is easy for us to think in
hours or days or weeks, though it may be the seconds tick off unnoticed
{59} and the years glide by unnoticed; but it is difficult to think in
centuries--more difficult in millions of years. The little time that
man has been on earth compared with the creation of the earth makes it
difficult for us to estimate the time of creation. The much less time
in the historical period makes it seem but a flash in the movement of
the creation.
======================================================================
TWENTY-FOUR-HOUR DIAL ILLUSTRATING HUMAN CHRONOLOGY[2]
Twenty-five thousand years equals one hour
[Illustration: Twenty-four hour dial]
Age of modern man 10,000 years = less than half an hour.
Age of Cro-Magnon type 25,000 years = one hour.
Age of Neanderthal type 50,000 years = two hours.
Age of Piltdown type 150,000 years = six hours.
Age of Heidelberg type 375,000 years = fifteen hours.
Age of Pithecanthropus 500,000 years = twenty hours.
Beginning of Christian era 2,000 years = 4.8 minutes.
Discovery of America 431 years = about 1 minute.
Declaration of Independence 137 years = about 21 seconds.
======================================================================
There are four main methods of determining prehistoric {60} time.[3]
One is called the (1) _geologic method_, which is based upon the fact
that, in a slowly cooling earth and the action of water and frost, cold
and heat, storm and glacier and volcanic eruption, the rocks on the
earth are of different ages. If they had never been disturbed from
where they were first laid down, it would be very easy to reckon time
by geological processes. If you had a stone column twenty feet high
built by a machine in ten hours' time, and granting that it worked
uniformly, it would be easy to see just at what hour of the period a
layer of stone four feet from the bottom, or ten feet from the top, was
laid. If, however, in the building of the wall, it should have toppled
over several times and had to be rebuilt, it would require considerable
study to see just at what hour a certain stone was put in the wall.
Studying the geology of the earth in a large way, it is easy to
determine what strata of the earth are oldest, and this may be verified
by a consideration of the process in which these rocks were being made.
Chemistry and physics are thus brought to the aid of geology. It is
easy to determine whether a rock has been fused by a fire or whether it
has been constructed by the slow action of water and pressure of other
rocks. If to-day we should find in an old river bed which had been
left high and dry on a little mesa or plateau above the present river
bottom, layers of earth that had been put down by water, and we could
find how much of each layer was made in a single year, it would be easy
to estimate the number of years it took to make the whole deposit.
Also if we could find in the lowest layer certain relics of the human
race, we could know that the race lived at that time. If we should
find relics later on of a different nature, we should be able to
estimate the progress of civilization.
The second method is of (2) _paleontology_, which is developed along
with geology. In this we have both the vertebrate and invertebrate
paleontology, which are divisions of the science which treats of
ancient forms of animal and vegetable life. There are many other
divisions of paleontology, some {61} devoting themselves entirely to
animal life and others to vegetable, as, for instance, paleobotany. As
plants and animals have gradually developed from lower to higher forms
and the earth has been built gradually by formations at different
periods of existence, by a comparison of the former development with
the latter, that is, comparison with the earth, or inorganic,
development to the life, or organic, development, we are enabled to get
a comparative view of duration. Thus, if in a layer of earth,
geological time is established and there should be found bones of an
animal, the bones of a man, and fossilized forms of ancient plants, it
would be easy to determine their relative ages.
The third method is that of (3) _anatomy_, which is a study of the
comparative size and shape of the bones of man and other animals as a
method of showing relative periods of existence. Also, just as the
structure of the bones of a child, as compared with that of a man,
would determine their relative ages, so the bones of the species that
have been preserved through fossilization may show the relative ages of
different types of animals. The study of the skeletons of animals,
including those of man, has led to the science of anthropometry.
The fourth method is to study the procession of man by (4) _cultures_,
or the industrial and ornamental implements that have been preserved in
the river drift, rocks, and caves of the earth from the time that man
used them until they were discovered. Just as we have to-day models of
the improvement of the sewing-machine, the reaper, or the
flying-machine, each one a little more perfect, so we shall find in the
relics of prehistoric times this same gradual development--first a
stone in its natural state used for cutting, then chipped to make it
more perfect, and finally beautified in form and perfected by polishing.
Thus we shall find progress from the natural stone boulder used for
throwing and hammering, the developed product made by chipping and
polishing the natural boulder, making it more useful and more
beautiful, and so for all the {62} multitude of implements used in the
hunt and in domestic affairs. Not only do we have here an illustration
of continuous progress in invention and use, but also an adaptation of
new material, for we pass from the use of stone to that of metals,
probably in the prehistoric period, although the beginnings of the use
of bronze and iron come mainly within the periods of historical records.
It is not possible here to follow the interesting history of the
glacial movement, but a few words of explanation seem necessary. The
Ice Age, or the glacial period, refers to a span of time ranging from
500,000 years ago, at the beginning of the first glaciation, to the
close of the post-glacial period, about 25,000 years ago. During this
period great ice caps, ranging in the valleys and spreading out on the
plains over a broad area, proceeded from the north of Europe to the
south, covering at the extreme stages nearly the entire surface of the
continent. This great movement consists of four distinct forward
movements and their return movements. There is evidence to show that
before the south movement of the first great ice cap, a temperate
climate extended very far toward the pole and gave opportunity for
vegetation now extinct in that region.
But as the river of ice proceeded south, plants and animals retreated
before it, some of them changing their nature to endure the excessive
cold. Then came a climatic change which melted the ice and gradually
drove the margin of the glacier farther north. Immediately under the
influence of the warm winds the vegetation and animals followed slowly
at a distance the movement of the glacier. Then followed a long
inter-glacial period before the southerly movement of the returning ice
cap. This in turn retreated to the north, and thus four separate times
this great movement, one of the greatest geological phenomena of the
earth, occurred, leaving an opportunity to study four different glacial
periods with three warmer interglacial and one warm post-glacial.
This movement gave great opportunity for the study of {63} geology,
paleontology, and the archeology of man. That is, the story of the
relationship of the earth to plant, animal, and man was revealed. The
regularity of these movements and the amount of material evidence found
furnish a great opportunity for measuring geological time movements and
hence the life of plants and animals, including man.
The table on page 64 will contribute to the clearness of this brief
statement about the glacial periods.
======================================================================
{64}
THE ICE AGE IN EUROPE[5]
Geological time-unit 25,000 years
RELA-
TIVE TOTAL
TIME TIME HUMAN ANIMAL AND
GLACIERS UNIT YRS. YRS. LIFE PLANT LIFE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Post-Glacial 1 25,000 25,000 Cro-Magnon Horse, Stag, Rein-
Daum Azilian deer, Musk-Ox,
Geschintz Magdalenian Arctic Fox, Pine,
Buehl Solutrian Birch, Oak
Aurignacian
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
4th Glacial 1 25,000 50,000 Mousterian Reindeer, period of
Wurm Ice Neanderthal Tundra, Alpine,
Steppe, Meadow
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q 3d Inter- 4 100,000 150,000 Pre-Neander- Last warm Asiatic
U glacial thal and African ani-
A Piltdown mals
R ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
T 3d Glacial 1 25,000 175,000 Woolly Mammoth,
E Riss Rhinoceros,
R Reindeer
N ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
A 2d Inter- 8 200,000 375,000 Heidelberg African and Asiatic
R glacial Race Animals, Ele-
Y Mindel-Riss phant, Hippo-
potamus
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2d Glacial 1 25,000 400,000 Cold weather
Mindel animals
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1st Inter- 3 75,000 475,000 Pithecan- Hippopotamus,
glacial thropus Elephant, Afri-
Erectus can and Asiatic
plants
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1st Glacial 1 25,000 500,000
=============================================================================
T
E
R
T
I
A
R
Y
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
======================================================================
_Prehistoric Types of the Human Race_.--The earliest record of human
life yet discovered is the _Pithecanthropus Erectus_ (Trinil), the
apelike man who walked upright, found in Java by Du Bois, about the
year 1892. Enough of the skeletal remains of human beings were found
at this time to indicate a man of rather crude form and low brain
capacity (about 885 c.c.), with possible powers of speech but with no
probably developed language or no assumption of the acquaintance with
the arts of life.[4]
The remains of this man associated with the remains of one other
skeleton, probably a woman, and with the bones of extinct animals, were
found in a geological stratum which indicates his age at about 500,000
years. Professor McGregor, after a careful anatomical study, has
reproduced the head and bust of Pithecanthropus, which helps us to
visualize this primitive species as of rather low cultural type. The
low forehead, massive jaw, and receding chin give us a vision of an
undeveloped species of the human race, in some respects not much above
the anthropoid apes, yet in other characters distinctly human.
There follows a long interval of human development which is only
conjectural until the discovery of the bones of the Heidelberg man,
found at the south of the River Neckar. These are the first records of
the human race found in southern Europe. The type of man is still
apelike in some respects, but far in advance of the Pithecanthropus in
structure and general appearance. The restoration by the Belgian
artist Mascre {65} under the direction of Professor A. Rotot, of
Brussels, is indicative of larger brain capacity than the Trinil race.
It had a massive jaw, distinctive nose, heavy arched brows, and still
the receding chin. Not many cultural remains were found in strata of
the second interglacial period along with the remains of extinct
animals, such as the ancient elephant, Etruscan rhinoceros, primitive
bison, primitive ox, Auvergne bear, and lion. A fauna and a flora as
well as a geological structure were found which would indicate that
this race existed at this place about 375,000 years ago. From these
evidences very little may be determined of the Heidelberg man's
cultural development, but much may be inferred. Undoubtedly, like the
Pithecanthropus, he was a man without the tools of civilization, or at
least had not developed far in this way.
About 150,000 years ago there appeared in Europe races of mankind that
left more relics of their civilization.[6] These were the
Neanderthaloid races. There is no evidence of the connection of these
races with the Java man or the Heidelberg man. Here, as elsewhere in
the evolution of races and species, nature does not work in a straight
line of descent, but by differentiation and variation.
In 1856 the first discovery of a specimen of the Neanderthal man was
found at the entrance of a small ravine on the right bank of the River
Dussel, in Rhenish Prussia. This was the first discovery of the
Paleolithic man to cause serious reflection on the possibility of a
prehistoric race in Europe. Its age is estimated at 50,000 years.
This was followed by other discoveries of the Mid-Pleistocene period,
until there were a number of discoveries of similar specimens of the
Neanderthal race, varying in some respects from each other. The first
had a brain capacity of 1230 c.c., while that of the average European
is about 1500 c.c. Some of the specimens showed a skull capacity
larger than the first specimen, but the average is lower than that of
any living race, unless it be that of the Australians.
{66}
Later were discovered human remains of a somewhat higher type, known as
the Aurignacian, of the Cro-Magnon race. These are probably ancestors
of the living races of Europe existing 25,000 to 50,000 years ago.
They represent the first races to which may be accorded definite
relationship with the recent races.
Thus we have evidences of the great antiquity of man and a series of
remains showing continual advancement over a period of nearly 500,000
years--the Pithecanthropus, Heidelberg, Piltdown, and Neanderthal,
though expressing gradations of development in the order named, appear
to be unrelated in their origin and descent, and are classed as
separate species long since extinct. The Cro-Magnon people seem more
directly related to modern man. Perhaps in the Neolithic Age they may
have been the forebears of present races, either through direct or
indirect lines.
_The Unity of the Human Race_.--Though there are evidences, as shown
above, that there were many branches of the human race, or species,
some of which became extinct without leaving any records of the passing
on of their cultures to others, there is a pretty generally concerted
opinion that all branches of the human race are related and have sprung
from the same ancestors. There have been differences of opinion
regarding this view, some holding that there are several centres of
development in which the precursor of man assumed a human form
(polygenesis), and others holding that according to the law of
differentiation and zoological development there must have been at some
time one origin of the species (monogenesis). So far as the scientific
investigation of mankind is concerned, it is rather immaterial which
theory is accepted. We know that multitudes of tribes and races differ
in minor parts of structure, differ in mental capacity, and hence in
qualities of civilization, and yet in general form, brain structure,
and mental processes, it is the same human being wherever found. So we
may assume that there is a unity of the race.
If we consider the human race to have sprung from a single {67} pair,
or even the development of man from a single species, it must have
taken a long time to have developed the great marks of racial
differences that now exist. The question of unity or plurality of race
origins has been much discussed, and is still somewhat in controversy,
although the predominance of evidence is much in favor of the descent
of man from a single species and from a single place. The elder
Agassiz held that there were several separate species of the race,
which accounts for the wide divergence of characteristics and
conditions. But it is generally admitted from a zoological standpoint
that man originated from a single species, although it does not
necessarily follow that he came from a single pair. It is the
diversity or the unity of the race from a single pair which gives rise
to the greatest controversy.
There is a wide diversity of opinion among ethnologists on this
question. Agassiz was followed by French writers, among whom were
Topinard and Herve, who held firmly to the plurality of centres of
origin and distribution. Agassiz thought there were at least nine
centres in which man appeared, each independent of the others. Morton
thought he could point out twenty-two such centres, and Nott and
Gliddon advanced the idea that there were distinct races of people.
But Darwin, basing his arguments upon the uniformity of physical
structure and similarity of mental characteristics, held that man came
from a single progenitor. This theory is the most acceptable, and it
is easily explained, if we admit time enough for the necessary changes
in the structure and appearance of man. It is the simplest hypothesis
that is given, and explains the facts relative to the existence of man
much more easily than does the theory in reference to diversity of
origins. The majority of ethnologists of America and Europe appear to
favor the idea that man came from a single pair, arose from one place,
and spread thence over the earth's surface.
_The Primitive Home of Man May Be Determined in a General Way_.--The
location of the cradle of the race has not {68} yet been satisfactorily
established. The inference drawn from the Bible story of the creation
places it in or near the valley of the Euphrates River. Others hold
that the place was in Europe, and others still in America. A theory
has also been advanced that a continent or group of large islands
called Lemuria, occupying the place where the Indian Ocean now lies,
and extending from Ceylon to Madagascar, was the locality in which the
human race originated. The advocates of this theory hold to it chiefly
on the ground that it is necessary to account for the peopling of
Australia and other large islands and continents, and that it is the
country best fitted by climate and other physical conditions for the
primitive race. This submerged continent would enable the races to
migrate readily to different parts of the world, still going by dry
land.
There is little more than conjecture upon this subject, and the
continent called Lemuria is as mythical as the Ethiopia of Ptolemy and
the Atlantis of Plato. It is a convenient theory, as it places the
cradle of the race near the five great rivers, the Tigris, Euphrates,
Indus, Ganges, and the Nile. The supposed home also lies in a zone in
which the animals most resembling man are found, which is an important
consideration; as, in the development of the earth, animals appeared
according to the conditions of climate and food supply, so the portion
of the earth best prepared for man's early life is most likely to be
his first home.
Although it is impossible to determine the first home of man, either
from a scientific or an historical standpoint, there are a few
well-acknowledged theories to be observed: First, as the islands of the
ocean were not peopled when first discovered by modern navigators, it
is reasonable to suppose that the primitive home of man was on one of
the continents. As man is the highest and last development of organic
nature, it is advocated, with considerable force of argument, that his
first home was in a region suitable to the life of the anthropoid apes.
As none of these, either living or fossil, are found in Australia or
America, these continents are practically excluded from the probable
list of places for the early home of man.
{69}
In considering the great changes which have taken place in the earth's
surface, southern India and southern Africa were large islands at the
time of man's appearance; hence, there is little probability of either
of these being the primitive home. None of the oldest remains of man
have been found in the high northern latitudes of Europe or America.
We have then left a strip of country on the southern slope of the great
mountain chain which begins in western Europe and extends to the
Himalaya Mountains, in Asia, which appears to be the territory in which
was situated the early home of man. The geological relics and the
distribution of the race both point to the fact that in this belt man's
life began; but it is not determined whether it was in Europe or in
Asia, there being adherents to both theories.
_The Antiquity of Man Is Shown in Racial Differentiation_.--Granted
that the life of the human race has originated from a common biological
origin and from a common geographical centre, it has taken a very long
time for the races to be differentiated into the physical traits they
possess to-day, as it has taken a long time for man to spread over the
earth. The generalized man wandering along the streams and through the
forests in search of food, seeking for shelter under rocks and in caves
and trees, was turned aside by the impassable barriers of mountains, or
the forbidding glacier, the roaring torrent, or the limits of the ocean
itself, and spread over the accessible parts of the earth's surface
until he had covered the selected districts on the main portions of the
globe. Then came race specialization, where a group remained a long
time in the same environment and inbred in the same stock, developing
specialized racial characters. These changes were very slow, and the
wide difference to-day between the Asiatic, the African, and the
European is indicative of the long period of years which brought them
about. Certainly, six thousand years would not suffice to make such
changes.
Of course one must realize that just as, in the period of childhood,
the plastic state of life, changes of structure and appearance are more
rapid than in the mature man, after {70} traits and characters have
become more fixed, so by analogy we may assume that this was the way of
the human race and that in the earlier period changes were more rapid
than they are to-day. Thus in the cross-fertilizations and
amalgamation of races we would expect a slower development than under
these earlier conditions, yet when we realize the persistence of the
types of Irish and German, of Italian and Greek, of Japanese and
Chinese, even though the races become amalgamated, we must infer that
the racial types were very slow in developing.
If we consider the variations in the structure and appearance of the
several tribes and races with which we come in contact in every-day
life, we are impressed with the amount of time necessary to make these
changes. Thus the Anglo-American, whom we sometimes call Caucasian,
taken as one type of the perfection of physical structure and mental
habit, with his brown hair, having a slight tendency to curl, his fair
skin, high, prominent, and broad forehead, his great brain capacity,
his long head and delicately moulded features, contrasts very strongly
with the negro, with his black skin, long head, with flat, narrow
forehead, thick lips, projecting jaw, broad nose, and black and woolly
hair. The Chinese, with his yellow skin, flat nose, black, coarse
hair, and oblique, almond-shaped eyes, and round skull, marks another
distinct racial type. Other great races have different
characteristics, and among our own race we find a further separation
into two great types, the blonds and the brunettes.
What a long period of time must have elapsed to have changed the racial
characteristics! From pictures made three thousand years ago in Egypt
the differences of racial characteristics were very clearly depicted in
the hair, the features of the face, and, indeed, the color of the skin.
If at this period the racial differences were clearly marked, at what
an early date must they have been wanting! So, also, the antiquity of
man is evinced in the fact that the oldest skeletons found show him at
that early period to be in possession of an average {71} brain capacity
and a well-developed frame. If changes in structure have taken place,
they have gradually appeared only during a long period of years. Yet,
when it is considered that man is a migratory creature, who can adapt
himself to any condition of climate or other environment, and it is
realized that in the early stage of his existence his time was occupied
for a long period in hunting and fishing, and that from this practice
he entered the pastoral life to continue, to a certain extent, his
wanderings, it is evident that there is sufficient opportunity for the
development of independent characteristics. Also the effects of sun
and storm, of climate and other environments have a great influence in
the slow changes of the race which have taken place. The change in
racial traits is dependent largely upon biological selection, but
environment and social selection probably had at least indirect
influence in the evolution of racial characters.
_The Evidences of Man's Ancient Life in Different Localities_.--The
sources of the remains of the life of primitive man are (1) Caves, (2)
Shell Mounds, (3) River and Glacial Drift, (4) Burial Mounds, (5)
Battlefields and Village Sites, and (6) Lake Dwellings. It is from
these sources that most of the evidence of man's early life has come.
_Caves_ (1).--It has been customary to allude to the cave man as if he
were a distinct species or group of the human race, when in reality men
at all times through many thousands of years dwelt in caves according
to their convenience. However, there was a period in European life
when groups of the human race used caves for permanent habitations and
thus developed certain racial types and habits. Doubtless these were
established long enough in permanent seats to develop a specialized
type which might be known as the cave man, just as racial types have
been developed in other conditions of habitation and life. What
concerns us most here is that the protection which the cave afforded
this primitive man has been a means of protecting the records of his
life, and thus added to the evidence of human progress. Many of these
{72} caves were of limestone with rough walls and floor, and in most
instances rifts in the roof allowed water to percolate and drop to the
floor.
Frequently the water was impregnated with limestone solution, which
became solidified as each drop left a deposit at the point of
departure. This formed rough stalactites, which might be called stone
icicles, because their formation was similar to the formation of an
icicle of the water dropping from the roof. So likewise on the floor
of the cave where the limestone solution dropped was built up from the
bottom a covering of limestone with inverted stone icicles called
stalagmites. Underneath the latter were found layer after layer of
relics from the habitation of man, encased in stone to be preserved
forever or until broken into by some outside pressure. Of course,
comparatively few of all the relics around these habitations were
preserved, because those outside of the stone encasement perished, as
did undoubtedly large masses of remains around the mouth of the cave.
In these caves of Europe are found the bones of man, flint implements,
ornaments of bone with carvings, and the necklaces of animals' teeth,
along with the bones of extinct animals. In general the evidence shows
the habits of the life of man and also the kind of animals with which
he associated whose period of life was determined by other evidence.
Besides this general evidence, there was a special determination of the
progress of man, because the relics were in layers extending over a
long period of years, giving evidence that from time to time implements
of higher order were used, either showing progress or that different
races may have occupied the cave at different times and left evidences
of their industrial, economic, and social life. In some of the caves
skulls have been discovered showing a brain case of an average
capacity, along with others of inferior size. Probably the greater
part of this cave life was in the upper part of the Paleolithic Stone
Age.
In some of these caves at the time of the Magdalenian {73} culture,
which was a branch of the Cro-Magnon culture, there are to be found
drawings and paintings of the horse, the cave bear, the mammoth, the
bison, and many other animals, showing strong beginnings of
representative art. Also, in these caves were found bones and stone
implements of a more highly finished product than those of the earlier
primitive types of Europe.
_Shell Mounds_ (2).--Shell mounds of Europe and America furnish
definite records of man's life. The shell mounds of greatest historic
importance are found along the shores of the Baltic in Denmark. Here
are remains of a primitive people whose diet seems to be principally
shell-fish obtained from the shores of the sea. Around their kitchens
the shells of mussels, scallops, and oysters were piled in heaps, and
in these shell mounds, or Kitchenmiddens, as they are called
(Kjokkenmoddings), are found implements, the bones of birds and
mammals, as well as the remains of plants. Also, by digging to the
bottom of these mounds specimens of pottery are found, showing that the
civilization belonged largely to the Neolithic period of man.
There are evidences also of the succession of the varieties of trees
corresponding to the evidences found in the peat bogs, the oak
following the fir, which in turn gave way to the beech. These refuse
heaps are usually in ridgelike mounds, sometimes hundreds of yards in
length. The weight of the millions of shells and other refuse
undoubtedly pressed the shells down into the soft earth and still the
mound enlarged, the habitation being changed or raised higher, rather
than to take the trouble to clear away the shells from the habitation.
The variety of implements and the degrees of culture which they exhibit
give evidence that men lived a long time in this particular locality.
Undoubtedly it was the food quest that caused people to assemble here.
The evidences of the coarse, dark pottery, the stone axes, clubs, and
arrow-heads, and the bones of dogs show a state of civilization in
which differentiation of life existed. Shell mounds are also found
along the {74} Pacific coast, showing the life of Indians from the time
when they first began to use shell-fish for food. In these mounds
implements showing the relative stages of development have been found.
_River and Glacial Drift_ (3).--The action of glaciers and glacial
rivers and lakes has through erosion changed the surface of the soil,
tearing out some parts of the earth's surface and depositing the soil
elsewhere. These river floods carried out bones of man and the
implements in use, and deposited them, together with the bones of
animals with which he lived. Many of these relics have been preserved
through thousands of years and frequently are brought to light. The
geological records are thus very important in throwing light upon the
antiquity of man. It is in the different layers or strata of the earth
caused by these changes that we find the relics of ancient life. The
earth thus reveals in its rocks and gravel drift the permanent records
of man's early life. Historical geology shows us that the crust of the
earth has been made by a series of layers, one above the other, and
that the geologist determining the order of their creation has a means
of ascertaining their relative age, and thus can measure approximately
the life of the plants and animals connected with each separate
layer.[7] The relative ages of fishes, reptiles, and mammals,
including man, are thus readily determined.
It is necessary to refer to the method of classification adopted by
geologists, who have divided the time of earth-making into three great
periods, representing the growth of animal life, determined by the
remains found in the strata or drift. These periods mark general
portions of time. Below the first is the period of earliest rock
formation (Archaean), in which there is no life, and which is called
Azoic for that reason. There is a short period above this, usually
reckoned as outside the ancient life, on account of the few forms of
animals found there; but the first great period (Paleozoic) represents
non-vertebrate life, as well as the life of fishes and reptiles, and
includes {75} also the coal measures, which represent a period of heavy
vegetation. The middle period (Mesozoic) includes the more completely
developed lizards and crocodiles, and the appearance of mammals and
birds. The animal life of the third period (Cenozoic) resembles
somewhat the modern species. This period includes the Tertiary and the
Quaternary and the recent sub-periods. Man, the highest being in the
order of creation, appears in the Quaternary period. Of the immense
ages of time represented by the geological periods the life of man
represents but a small portion, just as the existence of man as
recorded in history is but a modern period of his great life. The
changes, then, which have taken place in the animals and plants and the
climate in the different geological periods have been instrumental in
determining the age of man; that is, if in a given stratum human
remains are found, and the relative age of that stratum is known, it is
easy to estimate the relative age of man.
Whether man existed prior to the glacial epoch is still in doubt. Some
anthropologists hold that he appeared at the latter part of the
Tertiary, that is, in the Pliocene. Reasons for assumption exist,
though there is not sufficient evidence to make it conclusive. The
question is still in controversy, and doubtless will be until new
discoveries bring new evidence. If there is doubt about the finding of
human relics in the Tertiary, there is no doubt about the evidence of
man during the Quaternary, including the whole period of the glacial
epoch, extending 500,000 years into the past.
The relics of man which are found in the drift and elsewhere are the
stone implements and the flakes chipped from the flint as he fashioned
it into an axe, knife, or hatchet. The implements commonly found are
arrow-heads, knives, lance-heads, pestles, etc. Human bones have been
found imbedded in the rock or the sand. Articles made of horn, bones
of animals, especially the reindeer, notched or cut pieces of wood have
been found. Also there are evidences of rude drawings on stone, bone,
or ivory; fragments of charcoal, which give {76} evidence of the use of
fire in cooking or creating artificial heat, are found, and long bones
split longitudinally to obtain marrow for food, and, finally, the
remnants of pottery. These represent the principal relics found in the
Stone Age; to these may be added the implements in bronze and iron of
later periods.
A good example of the use of these relics to determine chronology is
shown in the peat bogs of Denmark. At the bottom are found trees of
pine which grew on the edges of the bog and have fallen in. Nearer the
top are found oak and white birch-trees, and in the upper layer are
found beech-trees closely allied to the species now covering the
country. The pines, oaks, and birches are not to be seen in that part
of the country at present. Here, then, is evidence of the successive
replacement of different species of trees. It is evident that it must
have taken a long time for one species thus to replace another, but how
long it is impossible to say. In some of these bogs is found a
gradation of implements, unpolished stone at the bottom, polished stone
above, followed by bronze, and finally iron. These are associated with
the different forms of vegetable remains.
In Europe stone implements occur in association with fossil remains of
the cave lion, the cave hyena, the old elephant and rhinoceros--all
extinct species. Also the bones and horns of the reindeer are
prominent in these remains, for at that time the reindeer came farther
south than at present. In southern France similar implements are
associated with ivory and bones, with rude markings, and the bones of
man--even a complete skeleton being found at one place. These are all
found in connection with the bones of the elk, ibex, aurochs, and
reindeer.
_Burial Mounds_ (4).--It is difficult to determine at just what period
human beings began to bury their dead. Primarily the bodies were
disposed of the same as any other carrion that might occur--namely,
they were left to decay wherever they dropped, or were subject to the
disposal by wild {77} animals. After the development of the idea of
the perpetuation of life in another world, even though it were
temporary or permanent, thoughts of preparing the body for its journey
into the unknown land and for its residence thereafter caused people to
place food and implements and clothing in the grave. This practice
probably occurred about the beginning of the Neolithic period of man's
existence, and has continued on to the present date.
Hence it is that in the graves of primitive man we find deposited the
articles of daily use at the period in which he lived. These have been
preserved many centuries, showing something of the life of the people
whose remains were deposited in the mounds. Also in connection with
this in furtherance of a religious idea were great dolmens and stone
temples, where undoubtedly the ancients met to worship. They give some
evidence at least of the development of the religious and ceremonial
life among these primitive people and to that extent they are of great
importance. It is evidence also, in another way, that the religious
idea took strong hold of man at an early period of his existence.
Evidences of man in Britain from the tumuli, or burial mounds, from
rude stone temples like the famous Stonehenge place his existence on
the island at a very early date. Judging from skulls and skeletons
there were several distinct groups of prehistoric man in Britain,
varying from the extreme broad skulls to those of excessive length.
They carry us back to the period of the Early Stone Age. Relics, too,
of the implements and mounds show something of the primitive conditions
of the inhabitants in Britain of which we have any permanent record.
_Battlefields and Village Sites_ (5).--In the later Neolithic period of
man the tribes had been fully developed over a great part of the
earth's surface, and fought for their existence, principally over
territories having a food supply. Other reasons for tribal conflict,
such as real or imagined race differences and the ambition for race
survival, caused constant warfare. {78} Upon these battlefields were
left the implements of war. Those of stone, and, it may be said
secondarily, of iron and bronze, were preserved. It is not uncommon
now in almost any part of the United States where the rains fall upon a
ploughed field over which a battle had been fought, to find exposed a
large number of arrow-heads and stone axes, all other perishable
implements having long since decayed. Or in some instances the wind
blowing the sand exposes the implements which were long ago deposited
during a battle. Also, wherever the Indian villages were located for a
period of years, the accumulations of utensils and implements occurred
which were buried by the action of wind or water. This represents a
source of evidence of man's early life.
_Lake Dwellings_ (6).--The idea of protection is evidenced everywhere
in the history of primitive man; protection against the physical
elements, protection against wild beasts and wilder men. We find along
the lakes and bays in both Europe and America the tendency to build the
dwelling out in the water and approach it from the land with a narrow
walk which could be taken up when not used, or to approach it by means
of a rude boat. In this way the dwellers could defend themselves
against the onslaughts of tribal enemies. These dwellings have been
most numerous along the Swiss lakes, although some are found in
Scotland, in the northern coast of South America, and elsewhere. Their
importance rests in the fact that, like the shell mounds
(Kitchenmiddens), the refuse from these cabins shows large deposits of
the implements and utensils that were in use during the period of
tribal residence. Here we find not only stone implements, running from
the crude form of the Unpolished Stone Age to the highly polished, but
also records of implements of bronze and small implements for domestic
use of bone and polished stone. Also there are evidences that
different tribes or specialized races occupied these dwellings at
different times, because of the variation of civilization implied by
the implements in use. The British Museum has a very large classified
collection of {79} the implements procured from lake dwellings of
Switzerland. Other museums also have large collections. A part of
them run back into the prehistoric period of man and part extend even
down to the historic.
_Knowledge of Man's Antiquity Influences Reflective Thinking_.--The
importance of studying the antiquity of man is the light which it
throws upon the causes of later civilization. In considering any phase
of man's development it is necessary to realize he has been a long time
on earth and that, while the law of the individual life is development,
that of the human race is slowly evolutionary; hence, while we may look
for immediate and rapid change, we can only be assured of a very slow
progressive movement at all periods of man's existence. The knowledge
of his antiquity will give us a historical view which is of tremendous
importance in considering the purpose and probable result of man's life
on earth. When we realize that we have evidence of the struggle of man
for five hundred thousand years to get started as far as we have in
civilization, and that more changes affecting man's progress may occur
in a single year now than in a former thousand years, we realize
something of the background of struggle before our present civilization
could appear. We realize, also, that his progress in the arts has been
very slow and that, while there are many changes in art formation of
to-day, we still have the evidences of the primitive in every completed
picture, or plastic form, or structural work. But the slow progress of
all this shows, too, that the landmarks of civilization of the past are
few and far between--distant mile-posts appearing at intervals of
thousands of years. Such a contemplation gives us food for thought and
should invite patience when we wish in modern times for social
transformations to become instantaneous, like the flash of the scimitar
or the burst of an electric light.
The evidence that man has been a long time on earth explodes the
long-accepted theory of six thousand years as the age of man. It also
explodes the theory of instantaneous {80} creation which was expressed
by some of the mediaeval philosophers. Indeed, it explodes the theory
of a special creation of man without connection with the creation of
other living beings. No doubt, there was a specialized creation of
man, otherwise he never would have been greater than the anthropoids
nor, indeed, than other mammals, but his specialization came about as
an evolutionary process which gave him a tremendous brain-power whereby
he was enabled to dominate all the rest of the world. So far as
philosophy is concerned as to man's life, purpose, and destiny, the
influence of the study of anthropology would change the philosopher's
vision of life to a certain extent. The recognition that man is "part
and parcel" of the universe, subject to cosmic law, as well as a
specialized type, subject to the laws of evolution, and, indeed, that
he is of a spiritual nature through which he is subjected to spiritual
law, causes the philosopher to pause somewhat before he determines the
purpose, the life, or the destiny of man.
If we are to inquire how man came into the world, when he came, what he
has been doing, how he developed, and whither the human trail leads, we
shall encounter many unsolved theories. Indeed, the facts of his life
are suggestive of the mystery of being. If it be suggested that he is
"part and parcel" of nature and has slowly arisen out of lower forms,
it should not be a humiliating thought, for his daily life is dependent
upon the lower elements of nature. The life of every day is dependent
upon the dust of the earth. The food he eats comes from the earth just
the same as that of the hog, the rabbit, or the fish. If, upon this
foundation, he has by slow evolution built a more perfect form,
developed a brain and a mind which give him the greatest flights of
philosophy, art, and religion, is it not a thing to excite pride of
being? Could there be any greater miracle than evolving nature and
developing life? Indeed, is there any greater than the development of
the individual man from a small germ not visible to the naked eye,
through the egg, the embryo, infant, youth, to full-grown man? Why not
the working of the same law to {81} the development of man from the
beginning. Does it lessen the dignity of creation if this is done
according to law? On the other hand, does it not give credit to the
greatness and power of the Creator if we recognize his wisdom in making
the universe, including man, the most important factor, according to a
universal plan worked out by far-reacting laws?
SUBJECTS FOR FURTHER STUDY
1. Evidences of the great antiquity of man.
2. Physical and mental traits of the anthropoid apes.
3. The life and culture of the Neanderthal Race.
4. What are the evidences in favor of the descent of man from a single
progenitor?
5. Explain the law of differentiation as applied to plants and animals.
6. Compare in general the arts of man in the Old Stone Age with those
of the New Stone Age.
7. What has been the effect of the study of prehistoric man on modern
thought as shown in the interpretation of History? Philosophy?
Religion?
[1] See Diagram, p. 59.
[2] See Haeckel, Schmidt, Ward, Robinson, Osborn, Todd.
[3] See Osborn, _Men of the Old Stone Age_.
[4] See Chapter II.
[5] After Osborn. Read from bottom up.
[6] Estimates of Neanderthal vary from 150,000 to 50,000 years ago.
[7] See p. 64.
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