MAN OF THE REINDEER EPOCH.
The Reindeer Epoch, approaching nearer the present age than those
already enumerated, presents man under a more favorable aspect, and
affords a better view of his traits of character and manner of living.
Not only the sturdy climate spurs him to action, but a higher type is
supplanting the original savages. The brachycephalic, or round-headed,
has penetrated the recesses of that wild country and brought with him
the art of making more perfect implements. This new type was of short
stature, having small hands and feet. If Asia be the home of man, then
from that country, advanced in civilization, came the vanguard who were
destined to supplant their predecessors, tame the wild beasts, and
conquer the forests. Representatives of this type are found in the Lapps
and Fins. Between the two existing races--dolichocephalic and
brachycephalic--there may have been a long and bitter strife. The former
was large, stout, fearless, and cruel; the latter, small, hardy, and
more intelligent. It was a conflict between brute force and
intelligence. The more perfect weapons must have told fearfully against
the rude axes and arrows of the dolichocephalic. It could not have been
a war of extermination, for finally an intermixture took place,
producing a medium, as may be judged from the exhumed skulls.
_Dwellings._--As in the past ages, man continued to dwell, for the most
part, in caves. If the cave was small, he occupied every portion; but if
large, only that part near the opening was used. In the centre of this
dwelling he made a hearth, out of stones sunk in the floor, and with
the fire placed upon it, he cooked his meals and warmed his body. This
mode of life did not always satisfy him, for he ventured out, and under
the projection of an overhanging rock he built him a booth, or rude hut,
out of boughs, and the poles of fallen timber. These dwellings, whether
in caves or under the rocks, were near some stream.
_Clothing._--The climate being cold, he probably ceased to use the inner
bark of trees, and depended solely on the skins of animals. The skins
were prepared by the flint scrapers, and then rendered supple by rubbing
into them the brains and the marrow extracted from the skulls and long
bones of the reindeer. These garments may have been artistically shaped,
for they understood the art of sewing. With the bodkin they pierced the
skin, and with the needle, end was held to end and side to side, and the
same made permanent by the sinew of some animal.
_Food._--These people were essentially hunters, and lived principally
upon the reindeer, which they attacked with their spears and arrows. The
horse, elk, ox, ibex, and the chamois, formed a considerable part of
their food. The meat was cooked on the rough hearths, and the skull and
the long bones were split open in order to extract the brains and
marrow, which formed a delicious dish. To this they also added fish and,
occasionally, certain birds, such as the heath-cock, swan, and owl. The
chase did not always afford them sufficient food, and at times they were
forced to subsist on the water-rat.
Enough evidence has been produced to show that these people were
cannibals. Human finger-joints were discovered among the remains of
cooking at Solutre in Maconnais. M. Issel found, at a point on the road
from Genoa to Nice, some human bones which had been calcined, and were
of a whitish color, light, and friable. The incrustations on their
surface still contained small fragments of carbon, and some of them
showed notches made by some sharp instrument. In one of the grottos of
Northern Italy M. Costa de Beauregard found the small shin-bone of a
child, which had been carefully emptied and cleansed. Professor Owen
thinks he can recognize the trace of human teeth on some human skulls
and children's bones found in Scotland, and promiscuously mixed with
sculptured flints and the remains of pottery.
_The Arts._--Man had not yet discovered the value of metal, but formed
his instruments out of flint, bone, and the horn of the reindeer. The
hatchet was but little used, and the principal weapons were the
flint-knife, arrow-heads, and occasionally the lower jaw-bone of the
cave-bear, with its pointed canine tooth. The articles of domestic use
were rough pottery, knives, scrapers, saws, bodkins, needles, and other
wrought implements. He had articles for ornamenting his person and
pleasing his fancy, such as shells for beads, and the whistle for
delighting his ear. The art of engraving was practised to a great
extent, and so admirably did he execute his designs that, after the
lapse of thousands of years, the figures are easily recognized.
The staff of authority would imply that there were certain individuals
who were recognized as chiefs or leaders. Some system must have
prevailed, for without it the manufactories at Laugerie-Basse and
Laugerie-Haute could not have been carried on. In the first of these
workshops the fabrications were almost wholly spear-heads, and in the
second reindeer horn was used for the weapons and implements.
_Traffic._--Commerce was begun. The inhabitants of Belgium sought their
flints in that part of France now called Champagne. From the same
locality they also brought back fossil shells, which were strung
together and used for necklaces. There can be no doubt of this, as
already fifty-four of these shells have been found at Chaleux, and they
are not found naturally anywhere else than in Champagne.
_Burial._--As in the previous epoch, the dead were consigned to the same
kind of caves as were used for habitations, and the entombment was
celebrated by the funeral-feast. These banquets afford no evidence of
worship. Some have thought they not only saw signs of worship in the
banquets, but also in some of the carvings. No idols have been found.
That they should have no notion of a future state is not surprising, for
Sir J. Lubbock has shown that there are tribes at the present time
without this belief.[66]
M. Edward Dupont, in his report to the Belgian minister of the Interior,
on the excavations carried on in the caves, has concisely but eloquently
given a synopsis of man of the reindeer epoch, in the following
language:
"The data obtained from the fossils of Chaleux, together with those
which have been met with in the caves of Furfooz, present us with a
striking picture of the primitive ages of mankind in Belgium. These
ancient tribes, and all their customs, after having been buried in
oblivion for thousands and thousands of years, are again vividly brought
before our eyes; and, ... antiquity lives again in the relics of its
former existence.
"We may almost fancy that we can see them in their dark and subterranean
retreats, crouching round their hearths, and skilfully and patiently
chipping out their flint instruments and shaping their reindeer-horn
tools, in the midst of all the pestilential emanations arising from the
various animal remains which their carelessness has allowed to remain in
their dwellings. Skins of wild beasts are stripped of their hair, and,
by the aid of flint needles, are converted into garments. In our mind's
eye, we may see them engaged in the chase, and hunting wild
animals--their only weapons being darts and spears, the fatal points of
which are formed of nothing but a splinter of flint. Again, we are
present at their feasts, in which, during the period when their hunting
has been fortunate, a horse, a bear, or a reindeer, becomes the more
noble substitute for the tainted flesh of the rat, their sole resource
in the time of famine.
"Now, we see them trafficking with the tribes inhabiting the region now
called France, and procuring the jet and fossil shells with which they
love to adorn themselves, and the flint which is to them so precious a
material. On one side they are picking up the fluor spar, the color of
which is pleasing to their eyes; on the other, they are digging out the
great slabs of sandstone which are to be placed as hearth-stones round
their fire.
"But, alas! inauspicious days arrive." The roof of their principal cave
falls in, burying their weapons and utensils, and forcing them "to fly
and take up their abode in another spot. The ravages of death break in
upon them.... They bear the corpse into its cavernous sepulchre; some
weapons, an amulet, and perhaps an urn, form the whole of the funeral
furniture. A slab of stone prevents the inroad of wild beasts. Then
begins the funeral banquet, celebrated close by the abode of the dead; a
fire is lighted, great animals are cut up, and portions of their smoking
flesh are distributed to each. How strange the ceremonies that must then
have taken place! ceremonies like those told us of the savages of the
Indian and African solitudes. Imagination may easily depict the songs,
the dances, and the invocations, but science is powerless to call them
into life....
"But the end of this primitive age is at last come. Torrents of water
break in upon the country. Its inhabitants, driven from their abodes, in
vain take refuge on the lofty mountain summits. Death at last overtakes
them, and a dark cavern is the tomb of the wretched beings, who, at
Furfooz, were witnesses of this immense catastrophe."[67]