NEOLITHIC EPOCH.
The Neolithic, or Epoch of Tamed Animals, is characterized by stone
implements, polished or made smooth by a process of grinding and
cutting, the greater development attained in the art of pottery, and by
the presence of the bones of the domesticated animals. This age, in
which no remains of the reindeer occur, immediately follows the reindeer
epoch, and to it are referred in general all discoveries made in the so
called _alluvial_ soil, the most ancient remains of the so called Celts,
the shell-heaps of Denmark, the tumuli or grave-mounds, the dolmens, the
earlier Swiss pile-buildings, the Irish lake-dwellings, and some of the
caves of France.
_Caverns._--The caves belonging to this period, and explored by MM.
Garrigou and Filhol, are those of the Pyrenees and the caves of
Pradiers, Bedeilhac, Labart, Niaux, Ussat, and Fontanel. Some of these
caverns have been used in earlier ages, as is shown by the remains of
extinct mammals. The upper crust of the floors of the caves belong to
this period, and in them are found the bones of the ox, stag, sheep,
goat, antelope, chamois, wild boar, wolf, dog, fox, badger, hare, and
horse, intermingled with the remains of hearths, also piercers,
spear-heads, and arrow-heads, made of bone; hatchets, knives, scrapers
made of flints, and various other substances, such as silicious schist,
quartzite, leptinite, and serpentine stone. These implements were
carefully wrought, and mostly polished.
The cave of Saint Jean d'Alcas (Aveyron), explored at different times
by M. Cazalis de Fondace, was used as a place of sepulture. It was first
examined about twenty-five years ago, and at that time five human
skulls, in a good state of preservation, were found, but have been lost,
as their importance was not then known. Intermingled with these bones
were flint, jade, and serpentine implements, carved bones, remains of
rough pottery, stone amulets, and the shells of shell-fish, but no
remains of funeral banquets. At the mouth of the cave were two large
flag-stones lying across one another. The most recent discoveries in the
cave have furnished metallic substances, which would place it, as a
habitation, to the last of the neolithic.
_Danish Kjoekken-Moeddings, or Shell-Mounds, or kitchen-refuse
heaps._--The refuse heaps of Denmark were carefully examined by
Professors Steenstrup, the naturalist, Forchammer, a geologist, and
Worsaae, the archaeologist, commissioned by the Danish government, their
reports being presented to the Academy of Sciences at Copenhagen.
They are found chiefly on the north coast of Denmark, and consist of the
shells of edible mollusks, such as the oyster, cockle, mussel, and
periwinkle. These deposits are from three to ten feet in thickness, from
one hundred to two hundred and fifty feet in width, and sometimes as
much as one thousand feet in length. In them are found weapons and other
instruments of stone, horn, and bone; fragments of rough pottery,
stone-wedges, knives, etc., in great abundance, accompanied with
charcoal and ashes; no traces of coin, bronze, or iron, or domestic
animals, except the dog. The bones of animals are very numerous, but no
human bones have ever been discovered. Professor Steenstrup estimates
that ninety-seven per cent. of the bones belong to the stag, the
roe-deer, and the wild boar. The other remains are those of the urus
(_Bos primigenius_), dog, fox, wolf, marten, wild-cat, hedgehog, bear
(_Ursus arctos_), and the mouse, and the bones of birds and fishes. The
auroch, musk ox, domestic ox, elk, hare, sheep, and domestic hog are
absent.
The mollusca of these shell-mounds are of a size which are never
obtained by the representatives of the same species now living on the
Baltic. They are not more than one-half or even one-third the size. At
the time of the formation of these mounds, the Baltic was a true sea, or
an arm of the ocean, and these mollusks were taken from it. Now the
Baltic has not the character of a true sea, but is merely brackish, and
the oyster does not occur in the Baltic except at its entrance into the
ocean.
These deposits have been found several miles inland, which would
indicate that the sea had once covered the intervening space. On the
western coast they have not been found, in consequence of their having
possibly been swept away by the encroachments of the sea. They are also
found on the adjacent islands.
These mounds are not peculiar alone to Denmark; for they are found in
England, Scotland, France, and America.
_Danish Peat Bogs._--The peat bogs of Denmark, so faithfully
investigated by Professor Steenstrup, mark three periods of deposition.
The most ancient is called the _Scotch-Fir_; the second, immediately
above, the _Oak_, and the uppermost, the _Beech_. The peat is from ten
to forty feet in thickness, and to form a layer from ten to twenty feet
thick would require, according to Steenstrup, _at least_ four thousand
years, and perhaps even from three to four times that period.[68] These
three epochs denote three periods of time. The lowest belongs to the
neolithic, the middle to the bronze, and the last to the iron epoch. In
the lowest, or _Fir_ period, have been found worked flints and bones.
Human bones have been found, which correspond with the bones taken from
the tumuli of this epoch.
_The Lake-Dwellings of Switzerland._--Dr. Ferdinand Keller and his
associates have made known to the world the wonderful remains of
villages situated in the lakes of Switzerland and other countries. The
villages of Switzerland do not all belong to the same period, and they
represent the neolithic, bronze, and iron epochs; but there was no hard
line of demarcation between these three periods. These habitations are
so numerous that more than two hundred settlements hare been discovered
in Switzerland alone. Among the lakes furnishing these remains may be
counted the Lake of Neuchatel (forty-six settlements); Lake Constance
(thirty-two settlements); Lake of Geneva (twenty-four settlements); Lake
of Bienne (twenty-one settlements); Lake of Morat (sixteen settlements);
Lake of Zurich (three settlements); Lake of Pfaeffikon (six settlements);
Lake of Sempach (six settlements); Lake of Moosseedorf (two
settlements); Lake of Inkwyl (one settlement); Lake of Nussbaumen (one
settlement); Lake Greiffensee (one settlement); Lake of Zug (six
settlements); Lake of Baldegg (five settlements), and others.
The habitations belonging to the neolithic are Lake Constance thirty,
Neuchatel twelve, Geneva two settlements; one each at Morat, Bienne,
Zurick, Pfaeffikon, Inkwyl, Moosseedorf, Nussbaumen, the settlement of
Concise, the bridge Thiele, the peat-bog of Wauwyl, and others.
These dwellings were built near the shore, on piles of various kinds of
wood, sharpened by tools and fire, and driven into the mud at the
shallow bottom of the lake. In some of the settlements the piles were
fastened by heaping stones around them. The piles were sometimes placed
together, at others apart. The heads were brought to a level and then
the platform beams were fastened upon them. This basis served for the
foundation of the rude rectangular huts they erected. These piles are
not now seen above the water, yet they are visible above the bottom of
the lake. The number of piles in some of these settlements is as high as
one hundred thousand, and the area occupied, not less than seventy
thousand square yards. It has been estimated that the population of the
Lake-villages during the neolithic was over thirty thousand.
The object of these dwellings was to protect the inhabitants from wild
animals, the attacks of enemies, and for the ready obtaining of food by
fishing. They were not only occupied by the inhabitants, but also by
their herds and the stores of fodder.[69]
_Robenhausen._--It is not necessary to go into an account of a number of
these settlements to represent the neolithic epoch, for the settlement
at Robenhausen (Lake Pfaeffikon) takes the first rank in giving the
domestic arrangements of the ancient inhabitants. This settlement
covered a space of nearly three acres, and one hundred thousand piles
were used in the whole structure. Its form was an irregular quadrangle.
It was about two thousand paces from the ancient western shore of the
lake, and about three thousand from the shore in the opposite direction.
With the last-named side there was a communication by means of a bridge,
the piles of which are still visible. On this side were the gardens and
pastures. The dwellers of this settlement were unfortunate, as their
habitation was twice burned up, and each time, they rallied and rebuilt
their huts. They remained a long time as would seem from the depth of
the peat and the vast amount of relics found.
At a depth of eleven feet were found the earliest or most ancient
relics; at ten and one-half feet, the remains of the first
conflagration--charcoal, stone and bone implements, pottery, woven
cloth, corn, apples, etc.; at seven and one-half feet, flooring, relics
of the second settlement, and excrement of cows, sheep, and goats; at
six and one half feet, remains of second conflagration--charcoal, stone
and bone implements, pottery, woven cloth, corn, apples, etc.; at three
and one-half feet, broken stones, flooring, and relics of the third
settlement; at two and one half feet, stone celts, pottery, but no
traces of fire. Above this was two feet of peat and one-half foot of
mould.
Without going into detail, the objects found in these various beds are
as follows: Made out of wood, are knives, ladles, plates, clubs of ash,
in which is fixed a socket of stag's horn containing a stone celt, a
boat made of a single trunk, twelve feet long, two and one-half feet
wide, and five inches deep, flails for threshing out grain, bows notched
at both ends, fishing implements, floats for the support of nets,
suspension hooks, tubs, chisels, sandals, yokes made for carrying
vessels, and a peculiar ornament. These implements were all made out of
yew, maple, ash, fir, and the root of the hazel bush. Out of stag's
horn--arrow-heads, daggers, piercing and scraping tools, implements for
knitting and for agriculture. The implements of stone were polished, and
of the usual form. The objects of clay were fragments of pottery, in the
shape of urns, plates, and cups, in great abundance. There were also
found spoons, and a perforated cone, supposed to have been used as a
weight for the loom. Several crucibles or melting pots have been found,
which were used for melting copper. The third building of this village
was on the borderland between the stone and bronze ages.
The remains of animals found here and at Moosseedorf and Wauwyl, all of
the neolithic, belong to the brown bear, badger, marten, pine-marten,
polecat, wolf, fox, wild-cat, beaver, elk, urus, bison, stag, roe-deer,
wild-boar, marsh-boar; the domestic animals were the boar, horse, ox,
goat, sheep, and dog. The remains of the domestic hog are absent from
all the pile works of this period, save the one at Wauwyl.
Among cereals (Robenhausen) were found several varieties of wheat and
barley; fruits and berries--service-tree, dog-rose, elder, bilberry, and
wayfaring tree; the nuts--hazel, beech, and water-chestnut; the
oil-producing plants--opium, or garden poppy, and dogwood; the fibrous
plants--flax; plants used for dying--weld; forest trees and
shrubs--silver fir, juniper, yew, ash, and oak; water and marsh
plants--lake scirpus, pondweeds, common hornwort, marsh bedstraw,
buckbean, yellow waterlily, ivy-leaved crowfoot, and marsh pennywort.
Besides these there have been found many specimens of plaited and woven
cloth; also ropes, cords, and a portion of a linseed cake.[70]
In the different settlements the same axes and knives abound, and are of
small size. The arrow-heads and saws are an improvement on those of the
preceding epoch. Among domestic implements, spindle-whorls of rude
earthenware were abundant in some of the villages, and corn-crushers are
occasionally met with from two to three inches in diameter. About five
hundred implements of stone have been found at Wauwyl, consisting of
axes, small flint arrow-heads, flint-flakes, corn-crushers, rude stones
used as hammers, whetstones, and sling-stones.
As these Lake-Dwellings not only belong to the last of the neolithic,
but extend beyond, they naturally have a place in the close of this
period. M. Troyon says the dwellings of this period came suddenly to an
"end by the irruption of a people provided with bronze implements. The
lake-dwellings were burned by these new-comers, and the primitive
inhabitants were slaughtered or driven back into remote places. This
catastrophe affects chiefly the settlements of East Switzerland, which
entirely disappeared, and also a number of those on the shore of the
western lakes. Some few settlements, however--namely, those of the
so-called transition period--are said not to have been destroyed by the
new people till after the inhabitants had begun to make use of bronze
implements."[71]
Dr. Keller takes exception to these views. He says there is no sudden
leap from one class of civilization to another, and that the metals came
gradually into use. The lake-dwellings were not burned down by the
irruption of a foreign people; for at Niederwyl, and several settlements
of the Unter-See, no traces of fire have been observed. The fact that
but a very few human skeletons have been found in the whole settlements,
contradicts the supposition of a battle having taken place between the
aborigines and the supposed conquerors, and of the destruction of the
former by the latter.[72]
Lake-dwellings belonging to this age and the bronze, have been found in
Bavaria, Northern Italy, Mecklenburg, Pomerania, France, England,
Scotland, and Ireland. Herodotus says that the Paeonians lived this way
in Lake Prasias (Thrace), and Lubbock says that the fishermen of Lake
Prasias still inhabit wooden huts built over the water. The town of
Tcherkask in Russia, is constructed over the river Don, and Venice
itself is but a lacustrine city.[73]
Several attempts have been made to estimate the time which has elapsed
since the neolithic period. The estimates of M. Morlot are based on the
discoveries made in a hillock formed by the river Tiniere at its
entrance into the lake of Geneva. This cone contained three distinct
layers of vegetable earth placed at different depths between the
deposits of alluvium. The first was at a depth of three and one-half
feet from the top, and was from four to six inches thick, and in it were
found relics of the Roman period; the second was five and one-fourth
feet lower, and six inches thick, in which were fragments of bronze; the
third was at a depth of eighteen feet from the top, and varied in
thickness from six to seven inches, and contained fragments of the stone
age. History proves that the layer containing the Roman relics is from
thirteen to eighteen centuries old. Since that epoch the cone has
increased three and one-half feet, and if the increase was the same in
previous ages, then the bed containing the bronze is from twenty-nine
hundred to forty-two hundred years old, and the lowest layer, belonging
to the stone age, is from four thousand seven hundred to ten thousand
years old.
The calculation by M. Gillieron was made from the discoveries near the
bridge of Thiele. About one thousand two hundred and thirty feet from
the present shore is the old abbey of Saint Jean, built in the year
1100. There is a document which seems to show that the abbey was built
on the edge of the lake. Then, in seven hundred and fifty years the lake
retired one thousand two hundred and thirty feet. The distance of the
present shore from the settlement of the bridge of Thiele is eleven
thousand and seventy-two feet, and consequently the settlement is not
less than six thousand seven hundred and fifty years old.
M. Figuier assigns to the lake-dwellings an antiquity of from six to
seven thousand years before the Christian era.[74]