Primitive Man
by Louis Figuier · English · Gutenberg #42380 · 683,413 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: Primitive Man
Author: Louis Figuier
Release date: March 20, 2013 [eBook #42380]
Most recently updated: October 23, 2024
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRIMITIVE MAN ***
PRIMITIVE MAN.
[Illustration: A Family of the Stone Age (Frontispiece).]
PRIMITIVE MAN.
By LOUIS FIGUIER.
Revised Translation.
ILLUSTRATED WITH THIRTY SCENES OF PRIMITIVE LIFE, AND
TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY-THREE FIGURES OF OBJECTS
BELONGING TO PRE-HISTORIC AGES.
"Arma antiqua manus, ungues, dentesque fuerunt.
Et lapides, et item silvarum fragmina rami.
Et flamma atque ignes, postquam sunt cognita primum.
Posterius ferri vis est ærisque reperta;
Et prior æris erat quam ferri cognitus usus."
_Lucretius, De Rerum Natura, lib. V., v. 1281-5._
LONDON:
CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY.
1870.
PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION.
[Illustration]
The Editor of the English translation of 'L'Homme Primitif,' has not
deemed it necessary to reproduce the original Preface, in which M.
Figuier states his purpose in offering a new work on pre-historic
archæology to the French public, already acquainted in translation with
the works on the subject by Sir Charles Lyell and Sir John Lubbock. Now
that the book has taken its position in France, it is only needful to
point out its claims to the attention of English readers.
The important art of placing scientific knowledge, and especially new
discoveries and topics of present controversy, within easy reach of
educated readers not versed in their strictly technical details, is one
which has for years been carried to remarkable perfection in France, in
no small measure through the labours and example of M. Figuier himself.
The present volume, one of his series, takes up the subject of
Pre-historic Man, beginning with the remotely ancient stages of human
life belonging to the Drift-Beds, Bone-Caves, and Shell-Heaps, passing
on through the higher levels of the Stone Age, through the succeeding
Bronze Age, and into those lower ranges of the Iron Age in which
civilisation, raised to a comparatively high development, passes from
the hands of the antiquary into those of the historian. The Author's
object has been to give within the limits of a volume, and dispensing
with the fatiguing enumeration of details required in special memoirs,
an outline sufficient to afford a reasonable working acquaintance with
the facts and arguments of the science to such as cannot pursue it
further, and to serve as a starting-ground for those who will follow it
up in the more minute researches of Nilsson, Keller, Lartet, Christy,
Lubbock, Mortillet, Desor, Troyon, Gastaldi, and others.
The value of the work to English archæologists, however, is not merely
that of a clear popular manual; pre-historic archæology, worked as it
has been in several countries, takes in each its proper local colour,
and brings forward its proper local evidence. It is true that much of
its material is used as common property by scientific men at large. But,
for instance, where an English writer in describing the ancient cave-men
would dwell especially on the relics from the caves of Devon and
Somerset as worked by Falconer and Pengelly, a French writer would take
his data more amply from the explorations of caves of the south of
France by De Vibraye, Garrigou, and Filhol--where the English teacher
would select his specimens from the Christy or the Blackmore Museum, the
French teacher would have recourse to the Musée de Saint-Germain. Thus
far, the English student has in Figuier's 'Primitive Man' not a work
simply incorporated from familiar materials, but to a great extent
bringing forward evidence not readily accessible, or quite new to him.
Some corrections and alterations have been made in the English edition.
The illustrations are those of the original work; the facsimiles of
pre-historic objects have been in great part drawn expressly for it, and
contribute to its strictly scientific value; the page illustrations
representing scenes of primitive life, which are by another hand, may
seem somewhat fanciful, yet, setting aside the Raffaelesque idealism of
their style, it will be found on examination that they are in the main
justified by that soundest evidence, the actual discovery of the objects
of which they represent the use.
The solid distinctness of this evidence from actual relics of
pre-historic life is one of the reasons which have contributed to the
extraordinary interest which pre-historic archæology has excited in an
age averse to vague speculation, but singularly appreciative of
arguments conducted by strict reasoning on facts. The study of this
modern science has supplied a fundamental element to the general theory
of civilisation, while, as has been the case with geology, its bearing
on various points of theological criticism has at once conduced to its
active investigation, and drawn to it the most eager popular attention.
Thus, in bringing forward a new work on 'Primitive Man,' there is
happily no need of insisting on the importance of its subject-matter, or
of attempting to force unappreciated knowledge on an unwilling public.
It is only necessary to attest its filling an open place in the
literature of pre-historic archæology.
E. B. T.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
INTRODUCTION 1
THE STONE AGE.
I.
THE EPOCH OF EXTINCT SPECIES OF ANIMALS; OR, OF THE GREAT BEAR AND
MAMMOTH.
CHAPTER I.
The earliest Men--The Type of Man in the Epoch of Animals of
extinct Species--Origin of Man--Refutation of the Theory which
derives the Human Species from the Ape 25
CHAPTER II.
Man in the Condition of Savage Life during the Quaternary
Epoch--The Glacial Period, and its Ravages on the Primitive
Inhabitants of the Globe--Man in Conflict with the Animals of the
Quaternary Epoch--The Discovery of Fire--The Weapons of Primitive
Man--Varieties of Flint Hatchets--Manufacture of the earliest
Pottery--Ornamental objects at the Epoch of the Great Bear and
the Mammoth 39
CHAPTER III.
The Man of the Great Bear and Mammoth Epoch lived in Caverns--
Bone Caverns in the Quaternary Rock during the Great Bear and
Mammoth Epoch--Mode of Formation of these Caverns--Their
Division into several Classes--Implements of Flint, Bone, and
Reindeer-horn, found in these Caverns--The Burial Place at
Aurignac--Its probable Age--Customs which it reveals--Funeral
Banquets during the Great Bear and Mammoth Epoch 56
CHAPTER IV.
Other Caves of the Epoch of the Great Bear and Mammoth--Type
of the Human Race during the Epochs of the Great Bear and the
Reindeer--The Skulls from the Caves of Engis and Neanderthal 72
II.
EPOCH OF THE REINDEER; OR, OF MIGRATED ANIMALS.
CHAPTER I.
Mankind during the Epoch of the Reindeer--Their Manners and
Customs--Food--Garments--Weapons, Utensils, and Implements--
Pottery--Ornaments--Primitive Arts--The principal Caverns--
Type of the Human Race during the Epoch of the Reindeer 85
III.
THE POLISHED-STONE EPOCH; OR, THE EPOCH OF TAMED ANIMALS.
CHAPTER I.
The European Deluge--The Dwelling-Place of Man during the
Polished-stone Epoch--The Caves and Rock-Shelters still used as
Dwelling-Places--Principal Caves belonging to the Polished-stone
Epoch which have been explored up to the present time--The Food
of Man during this Period 125
CHAPTER II.
The _Kjoekken-Moeddings_ or "_Kitchen-middens_" of Denmark--Mode
of Life of the Men living in Denmark during the Polished-stone
Epoch--The Domestication of the Dog--The Art of Fishing during
the Polished-stone Epoch--Fishing Nets--Weapons and Instruments
of War--Type of the Human Race; the Borreby Skull 129
CHAPTER III.
Tombs and Mode of Interment during the Polished-stone Epoch--
_Tumuli_ and other Sepulchral Monuments formerly called
_Celtic_--Labours of MM. Alexander Bertrand and Bonstetten--
Funeral Customs 184
THE AGE OF METALS.
I.
THE BRONZE EPOCH.
CHAPTER I.
The Discovery of Metals--Various Reasons suggested for explaining
the origin of Bronze in the West--The Invention of Bronze--A
Foundry during the Bronze Epoch--Permanent and Itinerant
Foundries existing during the Bronze Epoch--Did the Knowledge
of Metals take its Rise in Europe owing to the Progress of
Civilisation, or was it a Foreign Importation? 205
CHAPTER II.
The Sources of Information at our Disposal for reconstructing
the History of the Bronze Epoch--The Lacustrine Settlements of
Switzerland--Enumeration and Classification of them--Their Mode
of Construction--Workmanship and Position of the Piles--Shape
and Size of the Huts--Population--Instruments of Stone, Bone,
and Stag's Horn--Pottery--Clothing--Food--_Fauna_--Domestic
Animals 215
CHAPTER III.
Lacustrine Habitations of Upper Italy, Bavaria, Carinthia and
Carniola, Pomerania, France, and England--The _Crannoges_ of
Ireland 227
CHAPTER IV.
Palustrine Habitations or Marsh-Villages--Surveys made by
MM. Strobel and Pigorini of the _Terramares_ of Tuscany--The
_Terramares_ of Brazil 232
CHAPTER V.
Weapons, Instruments, and Utensils contained in the various
Lacustrine Settlements in Europe, enabling us to become
acquainted with the Manners and Customs of Man during the
Bronze Epoch 240
CHAPTER VI.
Industrial Skill and Agriculture during the Bronze Epoch--The
Invention of Glass--Invention of Weaving 258
CHAPTER VII.
The Art of War during the Bronze Epoch--Swords, Spears and
Daggers--The Bronze Epoch in Scandinavia, in the British Isles,
France, Switzerland and Italy--Did the Man of the Bronze Epoch
entertain any religious or superstitious Belief? 271
CHAPTER VIII.
Mode of Interment and Burial-places of the Bronze Epoch--
Characteristics of the Human Race during the same Period 284
II.
THE IRON EPOCH.
CHAPTER I.
Essential Characteristics of the Iron Epoch--Preparation of Iron
in Pre-historic Times--Discovery of Silver and Lead--Earthenware
made on the Potter's Wheel--Invention of Coined Money 297
CHAPTER II.
Weapons--Tools, Instruments, Utensils, and Pottery--The Tombs
of Hallstadt and the Plateau of La Somma--The Lake-Settlements
of Switzerland--Human Sacrifices--Type of Man during the Iron
Epoch--Commencement of the Historic Era 312
PRIMITIVE MAN IN AMERICA 333
CONCLUSION 343
LIST OF PLATES.
FIG. PAGE
A Family of the Stone Age (Frontispiece).
1. Human Jaw-bone found at Moulin-Quignon, near Abbeville,
in 1863 18
2. Skull of a Man belonging to the Stone Age (The _Borreby
Skull_) 27
3. Skull of the Gorilla 28
4. Skull of the Orang-Outang _ib._
5. Skull of the Cynocephalus Ape 29
6. Skull of the _Macacus_ Baboon _ib._
7. The Production of Fire (whole page engraving).
8. _Dendrites_ or Crystallisations found on the Surface of
wrought Flints 46
9. Section of a Gravel Quarry at Saint-Acheul, which contained
the wrought Flints found by Boucher de Perthes 47
10. Hatchet of the _Almond-shaped_ type from the Valley of the
Somme 48
11. Flint Hatchet from Saint-Acheul of the so-called
_Almond-shaped_ type 49
12. Wrought Flint (_Moustier_ type) _ib._
13. Flint Scraper 50
14. Flint Knife, found at Menchecourt, near Abbeville _ib._
15. Flint Core or Nucleus 51
16. Man in the Great Bear and Mammoth Epoch (whole page
engraving).
17. The First Potter (whole page engraving).
18. Fossil Shells used as Ornaments, and found in the Gravel at
Amiens 54
19. Theoretical Section of a Vein of Clay in the Carboniferous
Limestone, _before_ the hollowing out of Valleys by
Diluvial Waters 56
20. Theoretical Section of the same Vein of Clay converted
into a Cavern, _after_ the hollowing out of Valleys by
Diluvial Waters 57
21. The Cave of Galeinreuth, in Bavaria 59
22. Section of the Sepulchral Cave at Aurignac 62
23. Flint Knife, found in the Sepulchral Cave at Aurignac 63
24. Implement made of Reindeer's or Stag's Horn, found in the
Sepulchral Cave at Aurignac _ib._
25. Series of Perforated Discs of the _Cardium_ Shell, found
in the Sepulchral Cave at Aurignac 64
26. Fragment of the Lower Jaw of a Cave-Bear found in the
Sepulchral Cave at Aurignac _ib._
27. Upper Molar of a Bison found in the Ashes of the Fire-Hearth
of the Sepulchral Cave at Aurignac 65
28. Arrow-head made of Reindeer's Horn, found in the Sepulchral
Cave of Aurignac 66
29. Bodkin made of Roebuck's Horn, found in the Sepulchral Cave
of Aurignac _ib._
30. Truncated Blade in Reindeer's Horn bearing two Series
of transversal Lines and Notches, probably used for
numeration 67
31. Funeral Feast during the Great Bear and Mammoth Epoch (whole
page engraving).
32. Carved and perforated Canine Tooth of a young Cave-Bear 69
33. Head of a Cave-Bear found in the Cave of Aurignac 70
34. Head of the _Rhinoceros tichorhinus_, found in the Cave of
Aurignac _ib._
35. Head of a great Stag (_Megaceros hibernicus_), found in the
Cave of Aurignac 71
36. Sketch of the Great Bear on a Stone, found in the Cave of
Massat 75
37. Portion of the Skull of an Individual belonging to the Epoch
of the Great Bear and the Mammoth, found in the Cave
of Engis 80
38. Portion of the so-called Neanderthal Skull _ib._
39. Man of the Reindeer Epoch (whole page engraving).
40. Rock-Shelter at Bruniquel, a supposed Habitation of Man
during the Reindeer Epoch (whole page engraving).
41. A Feast during the Reindeer Epoch (whole page engraving).
42. Flint Bodkin or Stiletto for sewing Reindeer Skins, found
in the Cave of Les Eyzies (Périgord) 92
43. Bone Needle for Sewing _ib._
44. The Canine Tooth of a Wolf, bored so as to be used as an
Ornament 93
45. Ornament made of the bony part of a Horse's Ear _ib._
46. Spear-head, found in the Cave of Laugerie-Basse (Périgord) 95
47. Worked Flint from Périgord (Knife) 96
48. Worked Flint from Périgord (Hatchet) _ib._
49. Chipped Flint from Périgord (Knife) 97
50. Chipped Flint from Périgord (Scraper) _ib._
51. Small Flint Saw, found in the Rock-Shelter at Bruniquel 98
52. The Chase during the Reindeer Epoch (whole page engraving).
53. Barbed Arrow of Reindeer Horn 99
54. Arrow of Reindeer Horn with Double Barbs _ib._
55. Animal Bone, pierced by an Arrow of Reindeer Horn 100
56. Tool made of Reindeer Horn, found in the Cave of
Laugerie-Basse (Stiletto?) _ib._
57. Tool made of Reindeer Horn, found in the Cave of
Laugerie-Basse (Needle?) _ib._
58. Spoon of Reindeer Horn 101
59. Knuckle-bone of a Reindeer's Foot, bored with a hole and
used as a Whistle 102
60. Staff of authority, in Reindeer's Horn, found in the Cave
of Périgord _ib._
61. Another Staff of authority in Reindeer's Horn _ib._
62. A Geode, used as a Cooking Vessel(?), found in the Cave
of La Madelaine (Périgord) 103
63. Earthen Vase, found in the Cave of Furfooz (Belgium) 104
64. Sketch of a Mammoth graven on a Slab of Ivory 106
65. Hilt of a Dagger carved in the Shape of a Reindeer 107
66. Representation of a Stag drawn on a Stag's Horn 108
67. Representation of some large Herbivorous Animal on a
Fragment of Reindeer's Horn _ib._
68. Arts of Drawing and Sculpture during the Reindeer Epoch
(whole page engraving).
69. Representation of an Animal sketched on a Fragment of
Reindeer's Horn 109
70. Fragment of a Slab of Schist bearing the representation of
some Animal, and found in the Cave of Les Eyzies _ib._
71. A kind of Harpoon of Reindeer's Horn carved in the Shape of
an Animal's Head 110
72. Staff of Authority, on which are graven Representations of
a Man, two Horses, and a Fish 111
73. Skull, found at Furfooz by M. Édouard Dupont 114
74. Skull of an Old Man, found in a _Rock-shelter_ at Bruniquel 115
75. A Funeral Ceremony during the Reindeer Epoch (whole page
engraving).
76. Man of the Polished-stone Epoch (whole page engraving).
77. Bone Skewers used as Fish-hooks 134
78. Fishing-net with wide Meshes 136
79. Stone Weight used for sinking the Fishing-nets _ib._
80. Fishing during the Polished-stone Epoch (whole page
engraving).
81. Flint Knife from one of the Danish Beds 138
82. Nucleus off which Knives are flaked _ib._
83. Flint Hatchet from one of the Danish Beds _ib._
84. Flint Scraper from one of the Danish Beds _ib._
85. Refuse from the Manufacture of wrought Flints 139
86. Weight to sink Fishing-nets _ib._
87. Danish Axe of the Polished-stone Epoch 140
88. Double-edged Axe _ib._
89. Danish Axe-hammer drilled for handle 141
90. Ditto _ib._
91. Spear-head from Denmark 142
92. Ditto _ib._
93. Toothed Spear-head of Flint 143
94. Flint Poniard from Denmark _ib._
95. Type of the Danish Arrow-head _ib._
96. Another Type of Arrow-head _ib._
97. Arrow-head 144
98. Arrow-head from Denmark _ib._
99. Flint Chisel from Denmark _ib._
100. Small Stone Saw from the Danish Deposits 145
101. Another Stone Saw from Denmark _ib._
102. Bone Harpoon of the Stone Age, from Denmark _ib._
103. Bone Comb from Denmark 146
104. Necklace and various Ornaments of Amber _ib._
105. Nucleus in the Museum of Saint-Germain, from the Workshop
of Grand-Pressigny 148
106. Polisher from Grand-Pressigny, both faces being shown 150
107. The earliest Manufacture and Polishing of Flints (whole
page engraving).
108. Polisher found by M. Leguay 154
109. Spear-head from Spiennes 158
110. Polished Jade Hatchet in the Museum of Saint-Germain 159
111. Polished Flint Hatchet with a Sheath of Stag's Horn fitted
for a Handle 161
112. Flint Hatchet fitted into a Stag's-horn Sheath having an
Oak Handle, from Boucher de Perthes' Illustration 162
113. Hatchet Handle made of Oak 163
114. Stag's-horn Sheath open at each end, so as to receive two
Hatchets _ib._
115. Polished Flint Hatchet, from Belgium, fitted into a
Stag's-horn Sheath _ib._
116. Gardening Tool made of Stag's Horn (after Boucher de
Perthes) 164
117. Ditto _ib._
118. Ditto 165
119. Flint Tool in a Bone Handle 166
120. Flint Tool with Bone Handle _ib._
121. Ornamented Bone Handle _ib._
122. Necklace made of Boars' Tusks longitudinally divided 167
123. Flint Knife from the Peat Bogs near Antwerp 168
124. Primitive Corn-mill 170
125. The Art of Bread Making in the Stone Age (whole page
engraving).
126. The Earliest Navigators (whole page engraving).
127. The Earliest regular Conflicts between Men of the Stone Age;
or, The Entrenched Camp of Furfooz (whole page engraving).
128. Flint Arrow-head from Civita-Nova (Italy) 180
129. The Borreby Skull 182
130. Danish _Dolmen_ 185
131. _Dolmen_ at Assies (department of Lot) _ib._
132. _Dolmen_ at Connéré (Marne) 186
133. Vertical Section of the _Dolmen_ of Lockmariaker, in
Brittany. In the Museum of Saint-Germain _ib._
134. _Tumulus-Dolmen_ at Gavr'inis (Morbihan) 187
135. A Portion of the _Dolmen_ of Gavr'inis _ib._
136. General Form of a covered Passage-Tomb 188
137. Passage-Tomb at Bagneux, near Saumur _ib._
138. Passage-Tomb at Plauharmel (Morbihan) 189
139. Passage-Tomb, the so-called _Table de César_, at
Lockmariaker (Morbihan) _ib._
140. A Danish _Tumulus_ or chambered Sepulchre 190
141. Usual Shape of a _Menhir_ 191
142. The Rows of _Menhirs_ at Carnac _ib._
143. _Dolmen_ with a Circuit of Stones (_Cromlech_), in the
Province of Constantine 192
144. Group of Danish _Cromlechs_ _ib._
145. Position of Skeletons in a Swedish Tomb of the Stone Age 194
146. A _Tumulus_ of the Polished Stone Epoch (whole page
engraving).
147. A Founder's Workshop during the Bronze Epoch (whole page
engraving).
148. Section of the _Ténevière_ of Hauterive 220
149. A Swiss Lake Village of the Bronze Epoch (whole page
engraving).
150. Vertical Section of a _Crannoge_ in the Ardakillin Lake 230
151. Vertical Section of the _Marniera_ of Castione 233
152. Floor of the _Marniera_ of Castione 234
153. Plan of the Piles and Cross-beams in the _Marniera_ of
Castione _ib._
154. The Chase during the Bronze Epoch (whole page engraving).
155. Stone Hatchet from the Lacustrine Habitations of
Switzerland 241
156. Stone Chisel with Stag's-horn Handle, from the Lacustrine
Habitations of Switzerland 241
157. Flint Hammer fitted with a Stag's-horn Handle 242
158. Stone Hatchet with Double Handle of Wood and Stag's Horn _ib._
159, 160. Serpentine Hatchet-Hammers from the Lacustrine
Habitations of Switzerland 243
161. Another Hatchet-hammer from the Lacustrine Habitations of
Switzerland _ib._
162. Flint Saw fitted into a Piece of Stag's Horn 244
163. Flint Spear-head from the Lacustrine Settlements of
Switzerland _ib._
164. Various Shapes of Flint Arrow-heads from the Lacustrine
Settlements of Switzerland _ib._
165. Arrow-head of Bone fixed on the Shaft by means of Bitumen 245
166. Stone Arrow-head fixed on the Shaft by means of Bitumen _ib._
167. Arrow-head fixed on the Shaft by a Ligature of String _ib._
168. Bone Bodkin, from the Lacustrine Habitations of Switzerland 246
169. Ditto _ib._
170. Carpenter's Chisel, from the Lacustrine Habitations of
Switzerland _ib._
171. Bone Needle _ib._
172. Pick-axe of Stag's Horn 247
173. Harpoon made of Stag's Horn, from the Lacustrine
Habitations of Switzerland _ib._
174. Ditto _ib._
175. Vessel made of Stag's Horn _ib._
176. Bronze Winged Hatchet, from the Lacustrine Habitations of
Switzerland 249
177. Winged Hatchet (front and side view), from the Lacustrine
Habitations of Switzerland _ib._
178. Socketed Hatchet, from the Lacustrine Habitations _ib._
179. Knife Hatchet (front and side view) from the Lacustrine
Habitations _ib._
180. Carpenter's Chisel, in Bronze 250
181. Hexagonal Hammer _ib._
182. Knife with a Tang to fit into a Handle, from the Lacustrine
Settlements of Switzerland _ib._
183. Socketed Knife, from the Lacustrine Settlements of
Switzerland 251
184. Bronze Sickle, found by M. Desor at Chevroux _ib._
185. Bronze Fish-hook, from the Lacustrine Settlements of
Switzerland 252
186. Double Fish-hook, from the Lacustrine Settlements of
Switzerland _ib._
187. Hair-pin, found by M. Desor in one of the Swiss Lakes 253
188. Ditto _ib._
189. Hair-pin with Cylindrical Head _ib._
190. Hair-pin with Curled Head _ib._
191. Bronze Bracelet, found in one of the Swiss Lakes 254
192. Another Bronze Bracelet 255
193. Bronze Ring _ib._
194. Bronze Pendant, from the Lacustrine Habitations of
Switzerland 256
195. Another Bronze Pendant, from the Lacustrine Habitations
of Switzerland _ib._
196. Bronze Ring, from the Lacustrine Habitations of Switzerland _ib._
197. Another Ornamental Ring _ib._
198. Earthenware Vessel with Conical Bottom, from the Lacustrine
Habitations of Switzerland 259
199. Earthen Vessel placed on its Support _ib._
200. Fragment of an Earthen Vessel with a Handle 259
201. Vessel of Baked Clay, from the Lacustrine Settlements of
Switzerland 260
202. Ditto _ib._
203. Cloth of the Bronze Age, found in the Lacustrine Settlements
of Switzerland 262
204. The First Weaver (whole page engraving).
205. Spindle-whorls, made of Baked Clay, found in the Lacustrine
Settlements of Switzerland 263
206. Principal Designs for the Ornamentation of Pottery during
the Bronze Epoch 264
207. The Cultivation of Gardens during the Bronze Epoch (whole
page engraving).
208. A Feast during the Bronze Epoch (whole page engraving).
209. Bronze Sword in the Museum of Neuchâtel 272
210. Bronze Dagger, found in one of the Swiss Lakes _ib._
211. Bronze Spear-head, found in one of the Swiss Lakes 273
212. Bronze Arrow-head, found in a Lacustrine Settlement of
Switzerland _ib._
213. Scandinavian Sword 274
214. Hilt of a Scandinavian Sword _ib._
215. Mode of fixing the Handle to a Scandinavian Hatchet _ib._
216. Another Mode of fixing the Handle to a Scandinavian Hatchet _ib._
217. Danish Bronze Knife of the Bronze Epoch 275
218. Ditto _ib._
219. Blade of a Danish Razor of the Bronze Epoch 276
220. Woollen Cloak of the Bronze Epoch, found in 1861, in a Tomb
in Denmark 277
221. Woollen Shawl, found in the same Tomb _ib._
222. Woollen Shirt, taken from the same Tomb 278
223. First Woollen Cap, found in the same Tomb _ib._
224. Second Woollen Cap, found in the same Tomb _ib._
225. Bronze Comb, found in the same Tomb _ib._
226. Warriors during the Bronze Epoch (whole page engraving).
227. Bronze Hatchet Mould, found in Ireland 279
228. Stone Crescent, found in one of the Swiss Lakes 280
229. Skull found at Meilen, Front View 289
230. Skull found at Meilen, Profile View _ib._
231. Primitive Furnace for Smelting Iron (whole page engraving).
232. Bronze Coin, from the Lake of Neuchâtel 310
233. Sword, from the Tombs of Hallstadt (with a Bronze Hilt and
Iron Blade) 313
234. Ditto _ib._
235. Dagger, from the Tombs of Hallstadt (Bronze Handle and Iron
Blade) 314
236. Ditto _ib._
237. Funeral Ceremonies during the Iron Epoch (whole page
engraving).
238. A Skeleton, portions of which have been burnt, from the
Tombs of Hallstadt 315
239. A Necklace with Pendants, from the Tombs of Hallstadt 316
240. Bracelet, from the Tombs of Hallstadt 317
241. Ditto _ib._
242. Bronze Vase, from the Tombs of Hallstadt _ib._
243. Bronze Vase, from the Tombs of Hallstadt 317
244. Warriors of the Iron Epoch (whole page engraving).
245, 246. Fore-arm encircled with Bracelets, found in the Tombs
of Belleville (Savoy) 319
247. Iron Sword, found in one of the Swiss Lakes 321
248. Sword with Damascened Blade, found in one of the Swiss
Lakes _ib._
249. Sheath of a Sword, found in one of the Swiss Lakes 322
250. Lance-head, found in one of the Swiss Lakes 323
251. Head of a Javelin, found in the Lacustrine Settlement of La
Tène (Neuchâtel) 324
252. The Chase during the Iron Epoch (whole page engraving).
253. Square-socketed Iron Hatchet, found in one of the Lakes of
Switzerland 325
254. Sickle _ib._
255. Scythe, from the Lacustrine Settlements of Switzerland 326
256. Iron Point of Boat-hook, used by the Swiss Boatmen during
the Iron Epoch _ib._
257. Horse's Bit, found in the Lake of Neuchâtel _ib._
258. _Fibula_, or Iron Brooch, found in the Lake of Neuchâtel 327
259. Iron Buckle for a Sword-belt, found in the Lake of Neuchâtel 328
260. Iron Pincers, found in the Lake of Neuchâtel _ib._
261. Iron Spring-scissors, found in the Lake of Neuchâtel _ib._
262. Razor 329
263. Agriculture during the Iron Epoch (whole page engraving).
PRIMITIVE MAN.
INTRODUCTION.
Forty years have scarcely elapsed since scientific men first began to
attribute to the human race an antiquity more remote than that which is
assigned to them by history and tradition. Down to a comparatively
recent time, the appearance of primitive man was not dated back beyond a
period of 6000 to 7000 years. This historical chronology was a little
unsettled by the researches made among various eastern nations--the
Chinese, the Egyptians, and the Indians. The _savants_ who studied these
ancient systems of civilisation found themselves unable to limit them to
the 6000 years of the standard chronology, and extended back for some
thousands of years the antiquity of the eastern races.
This idea, however, never made its way beyond the narrow circle of
oriental scholars, and did nothing towards any alteration in the general
opinion, which allowed only 6000 years since the creation of the human
species.
This opinion was confirmed, and, to some extent, rendered sacred by an
erroneous interpretation of Holy Writ. It was thought that the Old
Testament stated that man was created 6000 years ago. Now, the fact is,
nothing of the kind can be found in the Book of Genesis. It is only the
commentators and the compilers of chronological systems who have put
forward this date as that of the first appearance of the human race. M.
Édouard Lartet, who was called, in 1869, to the chair of palæontology in
the Museum of Natural History of Paris, reminds us, in the following
passage taken from one of his elegant dissertations, that it is the
chronologists alone who have propounded this idea, and that they have,
in this respect, very wrongly interpreted the statements of the Bible:
"In _Genesis_," says M. Lartet, "no date can be found which sets a limit
to the time at which primitive mankind may have made its first
appearance. Chronologists, however, for fifteen centuries have been
endeavouring to make Biblical facts fall in with the preconcerted
arrangements of their systems. Thus, we find that more than 140 opinions
have been brought forward as to the date of the creation alone, and
that, between the varying extremes, there is a difference of 3194
years--a difference which only applies to the period between the
commencement of the world and the birth of Jesus Christ. This
disagreement turns chiefly on those portions of the interval which are
in closest proximity to the creation.
"From the moment when it becomes a recognised fact that the origin of
mankind is a question independent of all subordination to dogma, this
question will assume its proper position as a scientific thesis, and
will be accessible to any kind of discussion, and capable, in every
point of view, of receiving the solution which best harmonises with the
known facts and experimental demonstrations."[1]
Thus, we must not assume that the authority of Holy Writ is in any way
questioned by those labours which aim at seeking the real epoch of man's
first appearance on the earth.
In corroboration of M. Lartet's statement, we must call to mind that the
Catholic church, which has raised to the rank of dogma so many
unimportant facts, has never desired to treat in this way the idea that
man was created only 6000 years ago.
There is, therefore, no need for surprise when we learn that certain
members of the Catholic clergy have devoted themselves with energy
to the study of pre-historic man. Mgr. Meignan, Bishop of
Châlons-sur-Marne, is one of the best-informed men in France as respects
this new science; he cultivates it with the utmost zeal, and his
personal researches have added much to the sum of our knowledge of this
question. Under the title of 'Le Monde et l'Homme Primitif selon la
Bible,'[2] the learned Bishop of Châlons-sur-Marne published, in 1869, a
voluminous work, in which, taking up the subjects discussed by Marcel de
Serres in his "Cosmogonie de Moïse, comparée aux Faits Géologiques,"[3]
and enlarging upon the facts which science has recently acquired as to
the subject of primitive man, he seeks to establish the coincidence of
all these data with the records of Revelation.
M. l'Abbé Lambert has recently published a work on 'L'Homme Primitif et
la Bible,'[4] in which he proves that the discoveries of modern science
concerning the antiquity of man are in no way opposed to the records of
Revelation in the Book of Moses.
Lastly, it is a member of the clerical body, M. l'Abbé Bourgeois, who,
more a royalist than the king--that is, more advanced in his views than
most contemporary geologists--is in favour of tracing back to the
tertiary epoch the earliest date of the existence of man. We shall have
to impugn this somewhat exaggerated opinion, which, indeed, we only
quote here for the sake of proving that the theological scruples which
so long arrested the progress of inquiry with regard to primitive man,
have now disappeared, in consequence of the perfect independence of this
question in relation to catholic dogma being evidently shown.
Thanks to the mutual support which has been afforded by the three
sister-sciences--geology, palæontology, and archæology,--thanks to the
happy combinations which these sciences have presented to the efforts of
men animated with an ardent zeal for the investigation of the
truth;--and thanks, lastly, to the unbounded interest which attaches to
this subject, the result has been that the limits which had been so long
attributed to the existence of the human species have been
extraordinarily extended, and the date of the first appearance of man
has been carried back to the night of the darkest ages. The mind, it may
well be said, recoils dismayed when it undertakes the computation of the
thousands of years which have elapsed since the creation of man.
But, it will naturally be asked, on what grounds do you base this
assertion? What evidence do you bring forward, and what are the elements
of your proof?
In the following paragraphs we give some of the principal means of
examination and study which have directed the efforts of _savants_ in
this class of investigation, and have enabled them to create a science
of the antiquity of the human species.
If man existed at any very remote epoch, he must have left traces of his
presence in the spots which he inhabited and on the soil which he trod
under his feet. However savage his state may be assumed to have been,
primitive man must have possessed some implements of fishing and
hunting--some weapons wherewith to strike down any prey which was
stronger or more agile than himself. All human beings have been in
possession of some scrap of clothing; and they have had at their command
certain implements more or less rough in their character, be they only a
shell in which to draw water or a tool for cleaving wood and
constructing some place of shelter, a knife to cut their food, and a
lump of stone to break the bones of the animals which served for their
nutriment. Never has man existed who was not in possession of some kind
of defensive weapon. These implements and these weapons have been
patiently sought for, and they have also been found. They have been
found in certain strata of the earth, the age of which is known by
geologists; some of these strata precede and others are subsequent to
the cataclysm of the European deluge of the quaternary epoch.
The fact has thus been proved that a race of men lived upon the earth at
the epoch settled by the geological age of these strata--that is, during
the quaternary epoch.
When this class of evidence of man's presence--that is, the vestiges of
his primitive industry--fails us, a state of things, however, which
comparatively seldom occurs, his existence is sometimes revealed by the
presence of human bones buried in the earth and preserved through long
ages by means of the deposits of calcareous salts which have petrified
or rather _fossilised_ them. Sometimes, in fact, the remains of human
bones have been found in quaternary rocks, which are, consequently,
considerably anterior to those of the present geological epoch.
This means of proof is, however, more difficult to bring forward than
the preceding class of evidence; because human bones are very liable to
decay when they are buried at shallow depths, and require for any length
of preservation a concurrence of circumstances which is but rarely met
with; because also the tribes of primitive man often burnt their dead
bodies; and, lastly, because the human race then formed but a very
scanty population.
Another excellent proof, which demonstrates the existence of man at a
geological epoch anterior to the present era, is to be deduced from the
intermixture of human bones with those of antediluvian animals. It is
evident that if we meet with the bones of the mammoth, the cave-bear,
the cave-tiger, &c.,--animals which lived only in the quaternary epoch
and are now extinct--in conjunction with the bones of man or the relics
of his industry, such as weapons, implements, utensils, &c., we can
assert with some degree of certainty that our species was
contemporaneous with the above-named animals. Now this intermixture has
often been met with under the ground in caves, or deeply buried in the
earth.
These form the various kinds of proof which have been made use of to
establish the fact of man's presence upon the earth during the
quaternary epoch. We will now give a brief recital of the principal
investigations which have contributed to the knowledge on which is based
the newly-formed science which treats of the practical starting-point of
mankind.
Palæontology, as a science, does not count more than half a century of
existence. We scarcely seem, indeed, to have raised more than one corner
of the veil which covers the relics of an extinct world; as yet, for
instance, we know absolutely nothing of all that sleeps buried in the
depths of the earth lying under the basin of the sea. It need not,
therefore, afford any great ground for surprise that so long a time
elapsed before human bones or the vestiges of the primitive industry of
man were discovered in the quaternary rocks. This negative result,
however, always constituted the chief objection against the very early
origin of our species.
The errors and deceptions which were at first encountered tended perhaps
to cool down the zeal of the earlier naturalists, and thus retarded the
solution of the problem. It is a well-known story about the fossil
salamander of the Oeningen quarries, which, on the testimony of
Scheuchzer, was styled in 1726, the "human witness of the deluge" (_homo
diluvii testis_). In 1787, Peter Camper recognised the fact that this
pretended _pre-Adamite_ was nothing but a reptile; this discomfiture,
which was a source of amusement to the whole of scientific Europe, was
a real injury to the cause of antediluvian man. By the sovereign
ascendancy of ridicule, his existence was henceforth relegated to the
domain of fable.
The first step in advance was, however, taken in 1774. Some human bones,
mingled with remains of the great bear and other species then unknown,
were discovered by J. F. Esper, in the celebrated cavern of Gailenreuth,
in Bavaria.
Even before this date, in the early part of the eighteenth century,
Kemp, an Englishman, had found in London, by the side of elephants'
teeth, a stone hatchet, similar to those which have been subsequently
found in great numbers in various parts of the world. This hatchet was
roughly sketched, and the design published in 1715. The original still
exists in the collection at the British Museum.
In 1797, John Frere, an English archæologist, discovered at Hoxne, in
Suffolk, under strata of quaternary rocks, some flint weapons,
intermingled with bones of animals belonging to extinct species. Esper
concluded that these weapons and the men who made them were anterior to
the formation of the beds in which they were found.
According to M. Lartet, the honour of having been the first to proclaim
the high antiquity of the human species must be attributed to Aimé Boué,
a French geologist residing in Germany. In 1823, he found in the
quaternary loam (loess) of the Valley of the Rhine some human bones
which he presented to Cuvier and Brongniart as those of men who lived in
the quaternary epoch.
In 1823, Dr. Buckland, the English geologist, published his 'Reliquiæ
Diluvianæ,' a work which was principally devoted to a description of the
Kirkdale Cave, in which the author combined all the facts then known
which tended in favour of the co-existence of man and the antediluvian
animals.
Cuvier, too, was not so indisposed as he is generally said to have been,
to admit the existence of man in the quaternary epoch. In his work on
'Ossements Fossiles,' and his 'Discours sur les Révolutions du Globe,'
the immortal naturalist discusses the pros and cons with regard to this
question, and, notwithstanding the insufficiency of the data which were
then forthcoming, he felt warranted in saying:--
"I am not inclined to conclude that man had no existence at all before
the epoch of the great revolutions of the earth.... He might have
inhabited certain districts of no great extent, whence, after these
terrible events, he repeopled the world; perhaps, also, the spots where
he abode were swallowed up, and his bones lie buried under the beds of
the present seas."
The confident appeals which have been made to Cuvier's authority against
the high antiquity of man are, therefore, not justified by the facts.
A second and more decisive step in advance was taken by the discovery of
shaped flints and other implements belonging to primitive man, existing
in diluvial beds.
In 1826, M. Tournal, of Narbonne, a French archæologist and geologist,
published an account of the discoveries which he had made in a cave in
the department of Aude, in which he found bones of the bison and
reindeer fashioned by the hand of man, accompanied by the remains of
edible shell-fish, which must have been brought there by men who had
made their residence in this cave.
Three years afterwards, M. de Christol, of Montpellier, subsequently
Professor in the University of Science of Grenoble, found human bones
intimately mixed up with remains of the great bear, hyæna, rhinoceros,
&c., in the caverns of Pondres and Souvignargues (Hérault). In the last
of these caverns fragments of pottery formed a part of the relics.
All these striking facts were put together and discussed by Marcel de
Serres, Professor in the University of Science at Montpellier, in his
'Essai sur les Cavernes.'
The two bone-caverns of Engis and Enghihoul (Belgium) have furnished
proofs of the same kind. In 1833, Schmerling, a learned Belgian
geologist, discovered in these caverns two human skulls, mixed with the
teeth of the rhinoceros, elephant, bear, hyæna, &c. The human bones were
rubbed and worn away like those of the animals. The bones of the latter
presented, besides, traces of human workmanship. Lastly, as if no
evidence should be wanting, flints chipped to form knives and
arrow-heads were found in the same spot.
In connection with his laborious investigations, Schmerling published a
work which is now much esteemed, and proves that the Belgian geologist
well merited the title of being the founder of the science of the
antiquity of man. In this work Schmerling describes and represents a
vast quantity of objects which had been discovered in the caverns of
Belgium, and introduced to notice the human skull which has since become
so famous under the name of the _Engis skull_. But at that time
scientific men of all countries were opposed to this class of ideas, and
thus the discoveries of the Belgian geologist attracted no more
attention than those of his French brethren who had brought forward
facts of a similar nature.
In 1835, M. Joly, at that time Professor at the Lyceum of
Montpellier--where I (the author) attended on his course of Natural
History--now Professor in the Faculty of Sciences at Toulouse, found in
the cave of Nabrigas (Lozère) the skull of a cave-bear, on which an
arrow had left its evident traces. Close by was a fragment of pottery
bearing the imprints of the fingers of the man who moulded it.
We may well be surprised that, in the face of all these previous
discoveries, Boucher de Perthes, the ardent apostle in proclaiming the
high antiquity of our species, should have met with so much opposition
and incredulity; or that he should have had to strive against so much
indifference, when, beginning with the year 1836, he began to maintain
this idea in a series of communications addressed to the Société
d'Emulation of Abbeville.
The horizontal strata of the quarternary beds, known under the name of
_diluvial_, form banks of different shades and material, which place
before our eyes in indelible characters the ancient history of our
globe. The organic remains which are found in them are those of beings
who were witnesses to the diluvial cataclysm, and perhaps preceded it by
many ages.
"Therefore," says the prophet of Abbeville, "it is in these ruins of the
old world, and in the deposits which have become his sole archives, that
we must seek out the traditions of primitive man; and in default of
coins and inscriptions we must rely on the rough stones which, in all
their imperfection, prove the existence of man no less surely than all
the glory of a Louvre."
Strong in this conviction, M. Boucher de Perthes devoted himself
ardently to the search in the diluvial beds, either for the bony relics
of man, or, at all events, for the material indications of his primitive
industry. In the year 1838 he had the honour of submitting to the
Société d'Emulation, at Abbeville, his first specimens of the
antediluvian hatchet.
In the course of the year 1839, Boucher de Perthes took these hatchets
to Paris and showed them to several members of the Institute. MM.
Alexandre Brongniart, Flourens, Elie de Beaumont, Cordier, and Jomard,
gave at first some encouragement to researches which promised to be so
fruitful in results; but this favourable feeling was not destined to
last long.
These rough specimens of wrought flint, in which Boucher de Perthes
already recognised a kind of hatchet, presented very indistinct traces
of chipping, and the angles were blunted; their flattened shape, too,
differed from that of the polished hatchets, the only kind that were
then known. It was certainly necessary to see with the eyes of faith in
order to discern the traces of man's work. "I," says the Abbeville
archæologist, "had these 'eyes of faith,' but no one shared them with
me." He then made up his mind to seek for help in his labour, and
trained workmen to dig in the diluvial beds. Before long he was able to
collect, in the quarternary beds at Abbeville, twenty specimens of flint
evidently wrought by the hand of man.
In 1842, the Geological Society of London received a communication from
Mr. Godwin Austen, who had found in Kent's Hole various wrought objects,
accompanied by animal remains, which must have remained there since the
deluge.
In 1844, appeared Lund's observations on the caverns of Brazil.
Lund explored as many as 800 caves. In one of them, situated not far
from the lake of Semidouro, he found the bones of no less than thirty
individuals of the human species, showing a similar state of
decomposition to that of the bones of animals which were along with
them. Among these animals were an ape, various carnivora, rodents,
pachyderms, sloths, &c. From these facts, Lund inferred that man must
have been contemporaneous with the megatherium, the mylodon, &c.,
animals which characterised the quarternary epoch.
Nevertheless, M. Desnoyers, librarian of the Museum of Natural History
at Paris, in a very learned article on 'Grottos and Caverns,' published
in 1845 in the 'Dictionnaire Universel d'Histoire Naturelle,' still
energetically expressed himself in opposition to the hypothesis of the
high antiquity of man. But the discoveries continued to go on; and, at
the present time, M. Desnoyers himself figures among the partisans of
the antediluvian man. He has even gone beyond their opinions, as he
forms one among those who would carry back to the tertiary epoch the
earliest date of the appearance of our species.
In 1847, M'Enery found in Kent's Hole, a cavern in England, under a
layer of stalagmite, the remains of men and antediluvian animals mingled
together.
The year 1847 was also marked by the appearance of the first volume of
the 'Antiquités Celtiques et Antédiluviennes,' by Boucher de Perthes;
this contained about 1600 plates of the objects which had been
discovered in the excavations which the author had caused to be made
since the year 1836.
The strata at Abbeville, where Boucher de Perthes carried out his
researches, belong to the quaternary epoch.
Dr. Rigollot, who had been for ten years one of the most decided
opponents of the opinions of Boucher de Perthes, actually himself
discovered in 1854 some wrought flints in the quaternary deposits at
Saint Acheul, near Amiens, and it was not long before he took his stand
under the banner of the Abbeville archæologist.
The _fauna_ of the Amiens deposits is similar to that of the Abbeville
beds. The lower deposits of gravel, in which the wrought flints are met
with, have been formed by fresh water, and have not undergone either
alteration or disturbance. The flints wrought by the hand of man which
have been found in them, have in all probability lain there since the
epoch of the formation of these deposits--an epoch a little later than
the diluvial period. The number of wrought flints which have been taken
out of the Abbeville beds is really immense. At Menchecourt, in twenty
years, about 100 well-characterised hatchets have been collected; at
Saint Gilles twenty very rough, and as many well-made ones; at
Moulin-Quignon 150 to 200 well-formed hatchets.
Similar relics of primitive industry have been found also in other
localities. In 1853, M. Noulet discovered some in the Infernat Valley
(Haute-Garonne); in 1858, the English geologists, Messrs. Prestwich,
Falconer, Pengelly, &c., also found some in the lower strata of the
Baumann cavern in the Hartz.
To the English geologists whose names we have just mentioned must be
attributed the merit of having been the first to bring before the
scientific world the due value of the labours of Boucher de Perthes, who
had as yet been unsuccessful in obtaining any acceptation of his ideas
in France. Dr. Falconer, Vice-president of the Geological Society in
London, visited the department of the Somme, in order to study the beds
and the objects found in them. After him, Messrs. Prestwich and Evans
came three times to Abbeville in the year 1859. They all brought back to
England a full conviction of the antiquity and intact state of the beds
explored, and also of the existence of man before the deluge of the
quaternary epoch.
In another journey, made in company with Messrs. Flower, Mylne, and
Godwin Austen, Messrs. Prestwich, Falconer, and Evans were present at
the digging out of human bones and flint hatchets from the quarries of
St. Acheul. Lastly, Sir C. Lyell visited the spot, and the English
geologist, who, up to that time, had opposed the idea of the existence
of antediluvian man, was able to say, _Veni, vidi, victus fui!_ At the
meeting of the British Association, at Aberdeen, September the 15th,
1855, Sir C. Lyell declared himself to be in favour of the existence of
quaternary man; and this declaration, made by the President of the
Geological Society of London, added considerable weight to the new
ideas.
M. Hébert, Professor of Geology at the Sorbonne, next took his stand
under the same banner.
M. Albert Gaudry, another French geologist, made a statement to the
Academy of Sciences, that he, too, had found flint hatchets, together
with the teeth of horses and fossil oxen, in the beds of the Parisian
_diluvium_.
During the same year, M. Gosse, the younger, explored the sand-pits of
Grenelle and the avenue of La Mothe-Piquet in Paris, and obtained from
them various flint implements, mingled with the bones of the mammoth,
fossil ox, &c.
Facts of a similar character were established at Précy-sur-Oise, and in
the diluvial deposits at Givry.
The Marquis de Vibraye, also, found in the cave of Arcy, various human
bones, especially a piece of a jaw-bone, mixed with the bones of animals
of extinct species.
In 1859, M. A. Fontan found in the cave of Massat (department of
Ariége), not only utensils testifying to the former presence of man, but
also human teeth mixed up with the remains of the great bear (_Ursus
spelæus_), the fossil hyæna (_Hyæna spelæa_), and the cave-lion (_Felis
spelæa_).
In 1861, M. A. Milne Edwards found in the cave of Lourdes (Tarn),
certain relics of human industry by the side of the bones of fossil
animals.
The valleys of the Oise and the Seine have also added their contingent
to the supply of antediluvian remains. In the sand-pits in the environs
of Paris, at Grenelle, Levallois-Perret, and Neuilly, several
naturalists, including MM. Gosse, Martin, and Reboux, found numerous
flint implements, associated, in certain cases, with the bones of the
elephant and hippopotamus. In the valley of the Oise, at Précy, near
Creil, MM. Peigné Delacour and Robert likewise collected a few hatchets.
Lastly, a considerable number of French departments, especially those of
the north and centre, have been successfully explored. We may mention
the departments of Pas-de-Calais, Aisne, Loire-et-Cher, Indre-et-Loire,
Vienne, Allier, Yonne, Saône-et-Loire, Hérault, Tarn-et-Garonne, &c.
In England, too, discoveries were made of an equally valuable character.
The movement which was commenced in France by Boucher de Perthes, spread
in England with remarkable rapidity. In many directions excavations were
made which produced excellent results.
In the gravel beds which lie near Bedford, Mr. Wyatt met with flints
resembling the principal types of those of Amiens and Abbeville; they
were found in company with the remains of the mammoth, rhinoceros,
hippopotamus, ox, horse, and deer. Similar discoveries were made in
Suffolk, Kent, Hertfordshire, Hampshire, Wiltshire, &c.
Some time after his return from Abbeville, Mr. Evans, going round the
museum of the Society of Antiquaries in London, found in their rooms
some specimens exactly similar to those in the collection of Boucher de
Perthes. On making inquiries as to their origin, he found that they had
been obtained from the gravel at Hoxne by Mr. Frere, who had collected
them there, together with the bones of extinct animals, all of which he
had presented to the museum, after having given a description of them in
the 'Archæologia' of 1800, with this remark: ... "Fabricated and used by
a people who had not the use of metals.... The situation in which these
weapons were found may tempt us to refer them to a very remote period
indeed, even beyond that of the present world."
Thus, even at the commencement of the present century, they were in
possession, in England, of proofs of the co-existence of man with the
great extinct pachyderms; but, owing to neglect of the subject, scarcely
any attention had been paid to them.
We now come to the most remarkable and most characteristic discoveries
of this class which have ever been made. We allude to the explorations
made by M. Édouard Lartet, during the year 1860, in the curious
pre-historic human burial-place at Aurignac (Haute-Garonne).
Going down the hill on the road leading from Aurignac, after proceeding
about a mile, we come to the point where, on the other side of the dale,
the ridge of the hill called _Fajoles_ rises, not more than 65 feet
above a rivulet. We then may notice, on the northern slope of this
eminence, an escarpment of the rock, by the side of which there is a
kind of niche about six feet deep, the arched opening of it facing
towards the north-west. This little cave is situated forty-two feet
above the rivulet. Below, the calcareous soil slopes down towards the
stream.
The discovery of this hollow, which is now cleared out, was made
entirely by chance. It was hidden by a mass of _débris_ of rock and
vegetable-earth which had crumbled down; it had, in fact, only been
known as a rabbits' hole. In 1842, an excavating labourer, named
Bonnemaison, took it into his head one day to thrust his arm into this
hole, and out of it he drew forth a large bone. Being rather curious to
search into the mystery, he made an excavation in the slope below the
hole, and, after some hours' labour, came upon a slab of sandstone which
closed up an arched opening. Behind the slab of stone, he discovered a
hollow in which a quantity of human bones were stored up.
It was not long before the news of this discovery was spread far and
wide. Crowds of curious visitors flocked to the spot, and many
endeavoured to explain the origin of these human remains, the immense
antiquity of which was attested by their excessive fragility. The old
inhabitants of the locality took it into their heads to recall to
recollection a band of coiners and robbers who, half a century before,
had infested the country. This decidedly popular inquest and decision
was judged perfectly satisfactory, and everyone agreed in declaring that
the cavern which had just been brought to light was nothing but the
retreat of these malefactors, who concealed all the traces of their
crimes by hiding the bodies of their victims in this cave, which was
known to these criminals only.
Doctor Amiel, Mayor of Aurignac, caused all these bones to be collected
together, and they were buried in the parish cemetery. Nevertheless,
before the re-inhumation was proceeded with, he recorded the fact that
the skeletons were those of seventeen individuals of both sexes. In
addition to these skeletons, there were also found in the cave a number
of little discs, or flat rings, formed of the shell of a species of
cockle (_cardium_). Flat rings altogether similar to these are not at
all unfrequent in the necklaces and other ornanments of Assyrian
antiquity found in Nineveh.
Eighteen years after this event, that is in 1860, M. Édouard Lartet paid
a visit to Aurignac. All the details of the above-named discovery were
related to him. After the long interval which had elapsed, no one, not
even the grave-digger himself, could recollect the precise spot where
these human remains had been buried in the village cemetery. These
precious relics were therefore lost to science.
M. Lartet resolved, however, to set on foot some excavations in the cave
from which they had been taken, and he soon found himself in possession
of unhoped-for treasures. The floor of the cavern itself had remained
intact, and was covered with a layer of "made ground" mixed with
fragments of stone. Outside this same cave M. Lartet discovered a bed of
ashes and charcoal, which, however, did not extend to the interior. This
bed was covered with "made ground" of an ossiferous and vegetable
character. Inside the cave, the ground contained bones of the bear, the
fox, the reindeer, the bison, the horse, &c., all intermingled with
numerous relics of human industry, such as implements made of stag or
reindeer's-horn, carefully pointed at one end and bevelled off at the
other--a pierced handle of reindeer's-horn--flint knives and weapons of
different kinds; lastly, a canine-tooth of a bear, roughly carved in the
shape of a bird's head and pierced with a hole, &c.
The excavations, having been carried to a lower level, brought to light
the remains of the bear, the wild-cat, the cave-hyæna, the wolf, the
mammoth, the horse, the stag, the reindeer, the ox, the rhinoceros, &c.,
&c. It was, in fact, a complete Noah's ark. These bones were all broken
lengthwise, and some of them were carbonised. _Striæ_ and notches were
found on them, which could only have been made by cutting instruments.
M. Lartet, after long and patient investigations, came to the conclusion
that the cave of Aurignac was a human burial-place, contemporary with
the mammoth, the _Rhinocerus tichorhinus_, and other great mammals of
the quarternary epoch.
The mode in which the long bones were broken shows that they had been
cracked with a view of extracting the marrow; and the notches on them
prove that the flesh had been cut off them with sharp instruments. The
ashes point to the existence of a fire, in which some of these bones had
been burnt. Men must have resorted to this cavern in order to fulfil
certain funereal rites. The weapons and animals' bones must have been
deposited there in virtue of some funereal dedication, of which numerous
instances are found in Druidical or Celtic monuments and in Gallic
tombs.
Such are the valuable discoveries, and such the new facts which were the
result of the investigations made by M. Édouard Lartet in the cave of
Aurignac. In point of fact, they left no doubt whatever as to the
co-existence of man with the great antediluvian animals.
In 1862, Doctor Felix Garrigou, of Tarrascon, a distinguished geologist,
published the results of the researches which he, in conjunction with
MM. Rames and Filhol, had made in the caverns of Ariége. These explorers
found the lower jaw-bones of the great bear, which, with their sharp and
projecting canine-tooth, had been employed by man as an offensive
weapon, almost in the same way as Samson used the jaw-bone of an ass in
fighting with the Philistines.
"It was principally," says M. Garrigou, "in the caves of Lombrives,
Lherm, Bouicheta, and Maz-d'Azil that we found the jaw-bones of the
great bear and the cave-lion, which were acknowledged to have been
wrought by the hand of man, not only by us, but also by the numerous
French and English _savants_ who examined them and asked for some of
them to place in their collections. The number of these jaw-bones now
reaches to more than a hundred. Furnished, as they are, with an immense
canine-tooth, and carved so as to give greater facility for grasping
them, they must have formed, when in a fresh state, formidable weapons
in the hands of primitive man....
"These animals belong to species which are now extinct, and if their
bones while still in a fresh state (since they were gnawed by hyænas)
were used as weapons, man must have been contemporary with them."
In the cave of Bruniquel (Tarn-et-Garonne), which was visited in 1862 by
MM. Garrigou and Filhol, and other _savants_, there were found, under a
very hard osseous _breccia_, an ancient fire-hearth with ashes and
charcoal, the broken and calcined bones of ruminants of various extinct
species, flint flakes used as knives, facetted nuclei, and both
triangular and quadrangular arrow-heads of great distinctness, utensils
in stags' horn and bone--in short, everything which could prove the
former presence of primitive man.
About three-quarters of a mile below the cave there was subsequently
found, at a depth of about twenty feet, an osseous _breccia_ similar to
the first, and likewise containing broken bones and a series of ancient
fire-hearths filled with ashes and objects of antediluvian industry.
Bones, teeth, and flints were to be collected in bushels.
At the commencement of 1863, M. Garrigou presented to the Geological
Society of France the objects which had been found in the caves of Lherm
and Bouicheta, and the Abbé Bourgeois published some remarks on the
wrought flints from the _diluvium_ of Pont-levoy.
This, therefore, was the position of the question in respect to fossil
man, when in 1863, the scientific world were made acquainted with the
fact of the discovery of a human jaw-bone in the diluvial beds of
Moulin-Quignon, near Abbeville. We will relate the circumstances
attending this memorable discovery.
On the 23rd of March, 1863, an excavator who was working in the
sand-quarries at Moulin-Quignon brought to Boucher de Perthes at
Abbeville, a flint hatchet and a small fragment of bone which he had
just picked up. Having cleaned off the earthy coat which covered it,
Boucher de Perthes recognised this bone to be a human molar. He
immediately visited the spot, and assured himself that the locality
where these objects had been found was an argilo-ferruginous vein,
impregnated with some colouring matter which appeared to contain
organic remains. This layer formed a portion of a _virgin_ bed, as it is
called by geologists, that is, without any infiltration or secondary
introduction.
On the 28th of March another excavator brought to Boucher de Perthes a
second human tooth, remarking at the same time, "that something
resembling a bone was just then to be seen in the sand." Boucher de
Perthes immediately repaired to the spot, and in the presence of MM.
Dimpré the elder and younger, and several members of the Abbeville
_Société d'Emulation_, he personally extracted from the soil the half of
a human lower jaw-bone, covered with an earthy crust. A few inches from
this, a flint hatchet was discovered, covered with the same black patina
as the jaw-bone. The level where it was found was about fifteen feet
below the surface of the ground.
After this event was duly announced, a considerable number of geologists
flocked to Abbeville, about the middle of the month of April. The Abbé
Bourgeois, MM. Brady-Buteux, Carpenter, Falconer, &c., came one after
the other, to verify the locality from which the human jaw-bone had been
extracted. All were fully convinced of the intact state of the bed and
the high antiquity of the bone which had been found.
Boucher de Perthes also discovered in the same bed of gravel two
mammoth's teeth, and a certain number of wrought hatchets. Finally, he
found among the bones which had been taken from the Menchecourt quarries
in the early part of April, a fragment of another jaw-bone and six
separate teeth, which were recognised by Dr. Falconer to be also human.
The jaw-bone found at Moulin-Quignon is very well preserved. It is
rather small in size, and appears to have belonged to an aged individual
of small stature. It does not possess that ferocious aspect which is
noticed in the jaw-bones of certain of the existing human races. The
obliquity of the molar-tooth may be explained by supposing some
accident, for the molar which stood next had fallen out during the
lifetime of the individual, leaving a gap which favoured the obliquity
of the tooth which remained in the jaw. This peculiarity is found also
in several of the human heads in the collection of the Museum of Natural
History in Paris.
[Illustration: Fig. 1.--Human Jaw-bone found at Moulin-Quignon, near
Abbeville, in 1863.]
The jaw-bone of the man of Moulin-Quignon, which is represented here
(fig. 1) in its natural size, and drawn from the object itself, which is
preserved in the Anthropological Gallery of the Museum of Natural
History of Paris, does not show any decided points of difference when
compared with those of individuals of existing races.
The same conclusion was arrived at as the result of the comparative
examination which was made of the jaw-bones found by MM. Lartet and De
Vibraye in the caves of Aurignac and Arcy; the latter remains were
studied by M. Quatrefages in conjunction with Pruner-Bey, formerly
physician to the Viceroy of Egypt, and one of the most distinguished
French anthropologists.
On the 20th of April, 1863, M. de Quatrefages announced to the institute
the discovery which had been made by Boucher de Perthes, and he
presented to the above-named learned body the interesting object itself,
which had been sent from Abbeville.
When the news of this discovery arrived in England it produced no slight
sensation.
Some of the English _savants_ who had more specially devoted their
attention to the study of this question, such as Messrs. Christy,
Falconer, Carpenter, and Busk, went over to France, and in conjunction
with Boucher de Perthes and several members of the Académie des Sciences
of Paris, examined the exact locality in which the hatchets and the
human jaw-bone had been found; they unanimously agreed in recognising
the correctness of the conclusions arrived at by the indefatigable
geologist of Abbeville.[5]
This discovery of the hatchets and the human jaw-bone in the quaternary
beds of Moulin-Quignon completed the demonstration of an idea already
supported by an important mass of evidence. Setting aside its own
special value, this discovery, added to so many others, could not fail
to carry conviction into most minds. From this time forth the doctrine
of the high antiquity of the human race became an acknowledged idea in
the scientific world.
Before closing our historical sketch, we shall have to ask, what was the
precise geological epoch to which we shall have to carry back the date
of man's first appearance on this our earth.
The beds which are anterior to the present period, the series of which
forms the solid crust of our globe, have been divided, as is well known,
into five groups, corresponding to the same number of periods of the
physical development of the earth. These are in their order of age: the
_primitive rocks_, the _transition rocks_, the _secondary rocks_, the
_tertiary_ and _quaternary rocks_. Each of these epochs must have
embraced an immense lapse of time, since it has radically exhausted the
generation both of animals and plants which was peculiar to it. Some
idea may be formed of the extreme slowness with which organic creatures
modify their character, when we take into consideration that our
contemporary _fauna_, that is to say, the collection of animals of every
country which belong to the geological period in which we exist, has
undergone little, if any, alteration during the thousands of years that
it has been in being.
Is it possible for us to date the appearance of the human race in those
prodigiously-remote epochs which correspond with the primitive, the
transition, or the secondary rocks? Evidently no! Is it possible,
indeed, to fix this date in the epoch of the tertiary rocks? Some
geologists have fancied that they could find traces of the presence of
man in these tertiary rocks (the miocene and pliocene). But this is an
opinion in which we, at least, cannot make up our minds to agree.
In 1863, M. Desnoyers found in the upper strata of the tertiary beds
(pliocene) at Saint-Prest, in the department of Eure, certain bones
belonging to various extinct animal species; among others those of an
elephant (_Elephas meridionalis_), an animal which did not form a part
of the quaternary _fauna_. On most of these bones he ascertained the
existence of cuts, or notches, which, in his opinion, must have been
produced by flint implements. These indications, according to M.
Desnoyers, are signs of the existence of man in the tertiary epoch.
This opinion, however, Sir Charles Lyell hesitates to accept. Moreover,
we could hardly depend upon an accident so insignificant as that of a
few cuts or notches made upon a bone, in order to establish a fact so
important as that of the high antiquity of man. We must also state that
it is a matter of question whether the beds which contained these
notched bones really belong to the tertiary group.
The beds which correspond to the quaternary epoch are, therefore, those
in which we find unexceptionable evidence of the existence of man.
Consequently, in the quaternary epoch which preceded the existing
geological period, we must place the date of the first appearance of
mankind upon the earth.
If the purpose is entertained of discussing, with any degree of
certainty, the history of the earliest days of the human race--a subject
which as yet is a difficult one--it is requisite that the long interval
should be divided into a certain number of periods. The science of
primitive man is one so recently entered upon, that those authors who
have written upon the point can hardly be said to have properly
discussed and agreed upon a rational scheme of classification. We shall,
in this work, adopt the classification proposed by M. Édouard Lartet,
which, too, has been adopted in that portion of the museum of
Saint-Germain which is devoted to pre-historic antiquities. Following
this course, we shall divide the history of primitive mankind into two
great periods:
1st. The Stone Age;
2nd. The Metal Age.
These two principal periods must also be subdivided in the following
mode. The "Stone Age" will embrace three epochs:
1st. The epoch of extinct animals (or of the great cave-bear and the
mammoth).
2nd. The epoch of migrated existing animals (or the reindeer epoch).
3rd. The epoch of domesticated existing animals (or the polished-stone
epoch).
The "Metal Age" may also be divided into two periods:
1st. The Bronze Epoch;
2nd. The Iron Epoch.
The following synoptical table will perhaps bring more clearly before
the eyes of our readers this mode of classification, which has, at
least, the merit of enabling us to make a clear and simple statement of
the very incongruous facts which make up the history of primitive man:
{ 1st. Epoch of extinct animals (or of the great bear
{ and mammoth).
THE STONE AGE. { 2nd. Epoch of migrated existing animals (or the
{ reindeer epoch).
{ 3rd. Epoch of domesticated existing animals (or the
{ polished-stone epoch).
THE METAL AGE. { 1st. The Bronze Epoch.
{ 2nd. The Iron Epoch.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] 'Nouvelles Recherches sur la Coexistence de l'Homme et des grands
Mammifères Fossiles réputés charactéristiques de la dernière période
Géologique,' by Éd. Lartet, 'Annales des Sciences Naturelles,' 4th ser.
vol. xv. p. 256.
[2] 1 vol. 8vo., Paris, 1869; V. Palme.
[3] 2 vols. 12mo., 3rd edit., Paris, 1859; Lagny frères.
[4] Pamphlet, 8vo., Paris, 1869; Savy.
[5] It should rather have been said, that the ultimate and
well-considered judgment of the English geologists was against the
authenticity of the Moulin-Quignon jaw.--See Dr. Falconer's
'Palæontological Memoirs,' vol. ii. p. 610; and Sir C. Lyell's
'Antiquity of Man,' 3rd ed. p. 515. (Note to Eng. Trans.)
THE STONE AGE.
I.
THE EPOCH OF EXTINCT SPECIES OF ANIMALS; OR, OF
THE GREAT BEAR AND MAMMOTH.
CHAPTER I.
The earliest Men--The type of Man in the Epoch of Animals of
extinct Species--Origin of Man--Refutation of the Theory which
derives the Human Species from the Ape.
Man must have lived during the time in which the last representatives of
the ancient animal creation--the mammoth, the great bear, the
cave-hyæna, the _Rhinoceros tichorinus_, &c.--were still in existence.
It is this earliest period of man's history which we are now about to
enter upon.
We have no knowledge of a precise nature with regard to man at the
period of his first appearance on the globe. How did he appear upon the
earth, and in what spot can we mark out the earliest traces of him? Did
he first come into being in that part of the world which we now call
Europe, or is it the fact that he made his way to this quarter of our
hemisphere, having first seen the light on the great plateaux of Central
Asia?
This latter opinion is the one generally accepted. In the work which
will follow the present volume we shall see, when speaking of the
various races of man, that the majority of naturalists admit nowadays
one common centre of creation for all mankind. Man, no doubt, first came
into being on the great plateaux of Central Asia, and thence was
distributed over all the various habitable portions of our globe. The
action of climate and the influences of the locality which he inhabited
have, therefore, determined the formation of the different races--white,
black, yellow, and red--which now exist with all their infinite
subdivisions.
But there is another question which arises, to which it is necessary to
give an immediate answer, for it has been and is incessantly agitated
with a degree of vehemence which may be explained by the nature of the
discussion being of so profoundly personal a character as regards all of
us: Was man created by God complete in all parts, and is the human type
independent of the type of the animals which existed before him? Or, on
the contrary, are we compelled to admit that man, by insensible
transformations, and gradual improvements and developments, is derived
from some other animal species, and particularly that of the ape?
This latter opinion was maintained at the commencement of the present
century by the French naturalist, de Lamarck, who laid down his views
very plainly in his work entitled 'Philosophie Zoologique.' The same
theory has again been taken up in our own time, and has been developed,
with no small supply of facts on which it might appear to be based, by a
number of scientific men, among whom we may mention Professor Carl Vogt
in Switzerland, and Professor Huxley in England.
We strongly repudiate any doctrine of this kind. In endeavouring to
establish the fact that man is nothing more than a developed and
improved ape, an orang-outang or a gorilla, somewhat elevated in
dignity, the arguments are confined to an appeal to anatomical
considerations. The skull of the ape is compared with that of primitive
man, and certain characteristics of analogy, more or less real, being
found to exist between the two bony cases, the conclusion has been
arrived at that there has been a gradual blending between the type of
the ape and that of man.
We may observe, in the first place, that these analogies have been very
much exaggerated, and that they fail to stand their ground in the face
of a thorough examination of the facts. Only look at the skulls which
have been found in the tombs belonging to the stone age, the so-called
_Borreby skull_ for instance--examine the human jaw-bone from
Moulin-Quignon, the Meilen skull, &c., and you will be surprised to see
that they differ very little in appearance from the skulls of existing
man. One would really imagine, from what is said by the partisans of
Lamarck's theory, that primitive man possessed the projecting jaw of the
ape, or at least that of the negro. We are astonished, therefore, when
we ascertain that, on the contrary, the skull of the man of the stone
age is almost entirely similar in appearance to those of the existing
Caucasian species. Special study is, indeed, required in order to
distinguish one from the other.
If we place side by side the skull of a man belonging to the Stone Age,
and the skulls of the principal apes of large size, these
dissimilarities cannot fail to be obvious. No other elements of
comparison, beyond merely looking at them, seem to be requisite to
enable us to refute the doctrine of this debased origin of mankind.
The figure annexed represents the skull of a man belonging to the stone
age, found in Denmark; to this skull, which is known by the name of the
Borreby skull, we shall have to allude again in the course of the
present work; fig. 3 represents the skull of a gorilla; fig. 4 that of
an orang-outang; fig. 5 that of the _Cynocephalus_ ape; fig. 6 that of
the _Macacus_. Place the representation of the skull found in Denmark in
juxtaposition with these ill-favoured animal masks, and then let the
reader draw his own inference, without pre-occupying his mind with the
allegations of certain anatomists imbued with contrary ideas.
[Illustration: Fig. 2.--Skull of a Man belonging to the Stone Age (the
_Borreby Skull_).]
[Illustration: Fig. 3.--Skull of the Gorilla.]
[Illustration: Fig. 4.--Skull of the Orang-Outang.]
[Illustration: Fig. 5.--Skull of the Cynocephalus Ape.]
[Illustration: Fig. 6.--Skull of the _Macacus_ Baboon.]
Finding themselves beaten as regards the skulls, the advocates of
transmutation next appeal to the bones. With this aim, they exhibit to
us certain similarities of arrangement existing between the skeleton of
the ape and that of primitive man. Such, for instance, is the
longitudinal ridge which exists on the thigh-bone, which is as prominent
in primitive man as in the ape. Such, also, is the fibula, which is very
stout in primitive man, just as in the ape, but is rather slender in the
man of the present period.
When we are fully aware how the form of the skeleton is modified by the
kind of life which is led, in men just as in animals, we cannot be
astonished at finding that certain organs assume a much higher
development in those individuals who put them to frequent and violent
use, than in others who leave these same organs in a state of
comparative repose.
If it be a fact that the man of the epoch of the great bear and the
mammoth had a more robust leg, and a more largely developed thigh-bone
than most of the races of existing man, the reason simply is, that his
savage life, which was spent in the midst of the wild beasts of the
forest, compelled him to make violent exertions, which increased the
size of these portions of his body.
Thus it is found that great walkers have a bulky calf, and persons
leading a sedentary life have slender legs. These variations in the
structure of the skeleton are owing, therefore, to nothing but a
difference in the mode of life.
Why is it, however, that the skeleton is the only point taken into
consideration when analogies are sought for between man and any species
of animal? If equal investigation were given to other organs, we should
arrive at a conclusion which would prove how unreasonable comparisons of
this kind are. In fact, if man possesses the osseous structure of the
ape, he has also the anatomical structure of many other animals, as far
as regards several organs. Are not the viscera of the digestive system
the same, and are they not organised on the same plan in man as in the
carnivorous animals? As the result of this, would you say that man is
derived from the tiger, that he is nothing but an improved and developed
lion, a cat transmuted into a man? We may, however, just as plausibly
draw this inference, unless we content ourselves with devoting our
attention to the skeleton alone, which seems, indeed, to be the only
part of the individual in which we are to interest ourselves, for what
reason we know not.
But, in point of fact, this kind of anatomy is pitiable. Is there
nothing in man but bones? Do the skeleton and the viscera make up the
entire sum of the human being? What will you say, then, ye blind
rhetoricians, about the faculty of intelligence as manifested in the
gift of speech? Intelligence and speech, these are really the attributes
which constitute man; these are the qualities which make him the most
complete being in creation, and the most privileged of God's creatures.
Show me an ape who can speak, and then I will agree with you in
recognising it as a fact that man is nothing but an improved ape! Show
me an ape who can make flint hatchets and arrow-heads, who can light a
fire and cook his food, who, in short, can act like an intelligent
creature--then, and then only, I am ready to confess that I am nothing
more than an orang-outang revised and corrected.
It is not, however, our desire to speak of a question which has been the
subject of so much controversy as that of the anatomical resemblance
between the ape and the man without thoroughly entering into it; we
have, indeed, no wish to shun the discussion of the point. On the
present occasion, we shall appeal to the opinion of a _savant_ perfectly
qualified in such matters; we allude to M. de Quatrefages, Professor of
Anthropology in the Museum of Natural History at Paris.
M. de Quatrefages, in his work entitled 'Rapport sur le Progrès de
l'Anthropologie,' published in 1868, has entered rather fully into the
question whether man is descended from the ape or not. He has summed up
the contents of a multitude of contemporary works on this subject, and
has laid down his opinion--the perfect impossibility, in an anatomical
point of view, of this strange and repugnant genealogy.
The following extract from his work will be sufficient to make our
readers acquainted with the ideas of the learned Professor of
Anthropology with regard to the question which we are now considering:
"Man and apes in general," says M. de Quatrefages, "present a most
striking contrast--a contrast on which Vicq-d'Azyr, Lawrence, and M.
Serres have dwelt in detail for some considerable time past. The former
is a _walking animal_, who walks upon his hind legs; all apes are
_climbing animals_. The whole of the locomotive system in the two groups
bears the stamp of these two very different intentions; the two types,
in fact, are perfectly distinct.
"The very remarkable works of Duvernoy on the 'Gorilla,' and of MM.
Gratiolet and Alix on the 'Chimpanzee,' have fully confirmed this result
as regards the anthropomorphous apes--a result very important, from
whatever point of view it is looked at, but of still greater value to
any one who wishes to apply _logically_ Darwin's idea. These recent
investigations prove, in fact, that the ape type, however highly it may
be developed, loses nothing of its fundamental character, and remains
always perfectly distinct from the type of man; the latter, therefore,
cannot have taken its rise from the former.
"Darwin's doctrine, when rationally adapted to the fact of the
appearance of man, would lead us to the following results:
"We are acquainted with a large number of terms in the Simian series. We
see it branching out into secondary series all leading up to
anthropomorphous apes, which are not members of one and the same family,
but corresponding superior _terms_ of three distinct families
(Gratiolet). In spite of the secondary modifications involved by the
developments of the same natural qualities, the orang, the gorilla, and
the chimpanzee remain none the less fundamentally mere _apes_ and
_climbers_ (Duvernoy, Gratiolet, and Alix). Man, consequently, in whom
everything shows that he is a _walker_, cannot belong to any one of
these series; he can only be the higher term of a distinct series, the
other representatives of which have disappeared, or, up to the present
time, have evaded our search. Man and the anthropomorphous apes are the
final terms of two series, which commence to diverge at the very latest
as soon as the lowest of the apes appear upon the earth.
"This is really the way in which a true disciple of Darwin must reason,
even if he solely took into account the _external morphological
characteristics_ and the _anatomical characteristics_ which are the
expression of the former in the adult animal.
"Will it be said that when the degree of organisation manifested in the
anthropomorphous apes had been once arrived at, the organism underwent a
new impulse and became adapted for walking? This would be, in fact,
adding a fresh hypothesis, and its promoters would not be in a position
to appeal to the organised gradation presented by the quadrumanous order
as a whole on which stress is laid as leading to the conclusion against
which I am contending: they would be completely outside _Darwin's
theory_, on which these opinions claim to be based.
"Without going beyond these purely morphological considerations, we may
place, side by side, for the sake of comparison, as was done by M.
Pruner-Bey, the most striking general characteristics in man and in the
anthropomorphous apes. As the result, we ascertain this general
fact--that there exists 'an _inverse order_ of the final term of
development in the sensitive and vegetative apparatus, in the systems of
locomotion and reproduction' (Pruner-Bey).
"In addition to this, this _inverse order_ is equally exhibited in the
series of phenomena of individual development.
"M. Pruner-Bey has shown that this is the case with a portion of the
permanent teeth. M. Welker, in his curious studies of the sphenoïdal
angle of Virchow, arrived at a similar result. He demonstrated that the
modifications of the base of the skull, that is, of a portion of the
skeleton which stands in the most intimate relation to the brain, take
place inversely in the man and ape. This angle diminishes from his birth
in man, but, on the contrary, in the ape it becomes more and more
obtuse, so as sometimes to become entirely extinct.
"But there is also another fact which is of a still more important
character: it is that this inverse course of development has been
ascertained to exist even in the brain itself. This fact, which was
pointed out by Gratiolet, and dwelt upon by him on various occasions,
has never been contested either at the _Société d'Anthropologie_ or
elsewhere, and possesses an importance and significance which may be
readily comprehended.
"In man and the anthropomorphous ape, _when in an adult state_, there
exists in the mode of arrangement of the cerebral folds a certain
similarity on which much stress has been laid; but this resemblance has
been, to some extent, a source of error, for the result is attained by
an _inverse course of action_. In the ape, the temporo-sphenoïdal
convolutions, which form the middle lobe, make their appearance, and are
completed, before the anterior convolutions which form the frontal lobe.
In man, on the contrary, the frontal convolutions are the first to
appear, and those of the middle lobe are subsequently developed.
"It is evident that when two organised beings follow an inverse course
in their growth, the more highly developed of the two cannot have
descended from the other by means of evolution.
"Embryology next adds its evidence to that of anatomy and morphology, to
show how much in error they are who have fancied that Darwin's ideas
would afford them the means of maintaining the simial origin of man.
"In the face of all these facts, it may be easily understood that
anthropologists, however little in harmony they may sometimes be on
other points, are agreed on this, and have equally been led to the
conclusion that there is nothing that permits us to look at the brain of
the ape as the brain of man smitten with an arrest of development, or,
on the other hand, the brain of man as a development of that of the ape
(Gratiolet); that the study of animal organism in general, and that of
the extremities in particular, reveals, in addition to a general plan,
certain differences in shape and arrangement which specify two
altogether special and distinct adaptations, and are incompatible with
the idea of any filiation (Gratiolet and Alix); that in their course of
improvement and development, apes do not tend to become allied to man,
and conversely the human type, when in a course of degradation, does not
tend to become allied to the ape (Bert); finally, that no possible point
of transition can exist between man and the ape, unless under the
condition of inverting the laws of development (Pruner-Bey), &c.
"What, we may ask, is brought forward by the partisans of the simial
origin of man in opposition to these general facts, which here I must
confine myself to merely pointing out, and to the multitude of details
of which these are only the abstract?
"I have done my best to seek out the proofs alleged, but I everywhere
meet with nothing but the same kind of argument--exaggerations of
morphological similarities which no one denies; inferences drawn from a
few exceptional facts which are then generalised upon, or from a few
coincidences in which the relations of cause and effect are a matter of
supposition; lastly, an appeal to _possibilities_ from which conclusions
of a more or less affirmative character are drawn.
"We will quote a few instances of this mode of reasoning.
"1st. The bony portion of the hand of man and of that of certain
anthropomorphous apes present marked similarities. Would it not
therefore have been possible for an almost imperceptible modification to
have ultimately led to identity?
"MM. Gratiolet and Alix reply to this in the negative; for the muscular
system of the thumb establishes a profound difference, and testifies to
an _adaptation_ to very different uses.
"2nd. It is only in man and the anthropomorphous apes that the
articulation of the shoulder is so arranged as to allow of rotatory
movements. Have we not here an unmistakable resemblance?
"The above-named anatomists again reply in the negative; for even if we
only take the bones into account, we at once see that the movements
could not be the same; but when we come to the muscular system, we find
decisive differences again testifying to certain special _adaptations_.
"These rejoinders are correct, for when _locomotion_ is the matter in
question, it is evident that due consideration must be paid to the
muscles, which are the active agents in that function at least as much
as the bones, which only serve as points of attachment and are only
passive.
"3rd. In some of the races of man, the arch of the skull, instead of
presenting a uniform curve in the transverse direction, bends a little
towards the top of the two sides, and rises towards the median line (New
Caledonians, Australians, &c.). It is asked if this is not a preliminary
step towards the bony crests which rise in this region in some of the
anthropomorphous apes?
"Again we reply in the negative; for, in the latter, the bony crests
arise from the walls of the skull, and do not form any part of the arch.
"4th. Is it not very remarkable that we find the orang to be
brachycephalous, just like the Malay, whose country it inhabits, and
that the gorilla and chimpanzee are dolichocephalous like the negro? Is
not this fact a reason for our regarding the former animal as the
ancestor of the Malays, and the latter of the African nations?
"Even if the facts brought forward were correct, the inference which is
drawn from them would be far from satisfactory. But the coincidence
which is appealed to does not exist. In point of fact, the orang, which
is essentially a native of Borneo, lives among the Dyaks and not among
the Malays; now the Dyaks are rather dolichocephalous than
brachycephalous. With respect to gorillas being dolichocephalous, they
cannot at least be so generally; as out of _three_ female specimens of
this ape which were examined, two were brachycephalous (Pruner-Bey).
"5th. The brains of microcephalous individuals present a mixture of
human and simial characteristics, and point to some intermediate
conformation, which was normal at some anterior epoch, but at the
present time is only realised by an arrest of development and a fact of
atavism.
"Gratiolet's investigations of the brain of the ape, normal man and
small-brained individuals, have shown that the similarities pointed out
are purely fallacious. People have thought that they could detect them,
simply because they have not examined closely enough. In the last named,
the human brain is simplified; but this causes no alteration in the
_initial plan_, and this plan is not that which is ascertained to exist
in the ape. Thus Gratiolet has expressed an opinion which no one has
attempted to controvert: 'The human brain differs the more from that of
the ape the less the former is developed, and an arrest of development
could only exaggerate this natural difference.... The brains of
microcephalous individuals, although often less voluminous and less
convoluted than those of the anthropomorphous apes, do not on this
account become like the latter.... The idiot, however low he may be
reduced, is not a beast; he is nothing but a deteriorated man.'
"The laws of the development of the brain in the two types, laws which I
mentioned before, explain and justify this language; and the laws of
which it is the summary are a formal refutation of the comparison which
some have attempted to make between the _contracted human brain_, and
the _animal brain, however developed_.
"6th. The excavations which have been made in intact ancient beds have
brought to light skulls of ancient races of man, and these skulls
present characteristics which approximate them to the skull of the ape.
Does not this pithecoïd stamp, which is very striking on the Neanderthal
skull in particular, argue a transition from one type to another, and
consequently _filiation_?
"This argument is perhaps the only one which has been brought forward
with any degree of precision, and it is often recurred to. Is it, on
this account, more demonstrative? Let the reader judge for himself.
"We may, in the first place, remark that Sir C. Lyell does not venture
to pronounce affirmatively as to the high antiquity of the human remains
discovered by Dr. Fuhlrott, and that he looked upon them, at the most,
as contemporary with the Engis skull, in which the Caucasian type of
head was reproduced.
"Let us, however, admit that the Neanderthal skull belongs to the remote
antiquity to which it has been assigned; what, then, is in reality the
significance of this skull? Is it actually a link between the head of
the man and that of the ape? And does it not find some analogy in
comparatively modern races?
"Many writings have been published on these questions, and, as it
appears to me, some light has gradually been thrown upon the subject.
There is no doubt that this skull is really remarkable for the enormous
size of its superciliary ridges, the length and narrowness of the bony
case, the slight elevation of the top of the skull. But these features
are found to be much less exceptional than was at first supposed, in
default of any means of instituting a just comparison; very far, indeed,
from justifying the approximation which some have endeavoured to make,
this skull is, in all its characteristics, essentially human. Mr. Busk,
in England, has pointed out the great affinity which is established, by
the prominence of the superciliary ridges and the depression of the
upper region, between certain Danish skulls from Borreby and the
Neanderthal skull. Dr. Barnard Davis has described the still greater
similarities existing between this very _fossil_ and a skull in his
collection. Gratiolet forwarded to the Museum the skull of an idiot of
the present time, which was almost identical with it in everything,
although in slighter proportions, &c.
"The following appears to me to be decisive:
"In spite of its curious characteristics, the Neanderthal skull none the
less belonged to an individual, who, to judge by other bones which have
been found, diverged but little from the average type of the present
Germanic races, and by no means approximated to that of the ape.
"Is it probable, proceeding even on the class of ideas which I am
opposing, that in a being in a state of transition between man and the
anthropomorphous apes, the body would have become entirely human in its
character, whilst the head presented its simial peculiarities? If a fact
like this is admitted, does it not render the hypothesis absolutely
worthless?
"Notwithstanding all the discussion to which these curious remains have
given rise, it appears to me impossible to look upon them in any other
light than as the remains of an individuality, exceptional, no doubt,
but clearly belonging to the human species, and, in addition to this, to
the Celtic race, one of the branches of our Aryan stock. M. Pruner-Bey
appears to me to have placed this fact beyond all question by the whole
mass of investigations which he has published on this subject. The most
convincing proofs are based on the very great similarity which may be
noticed in a Celtic skull taken from a tumulus in Poitou to the skull
which has become so well known and, indeed, so celebrated owing to the
writings of Doctor Schaaffhausen. This similarity is not merely
external. An internal cast taken from one skull fits perfectly into the
interior of the other. It was, therefore, the _brains_ and not merely
the _skulls_ which bore a resemblance to one another. The proof appears
to me to be complete, and, with the learned author of this work, I feel
no hesitation in concluding that the Neanderthal skull is one of Celtic
origin.
"After all, neither experience nor observation have as yet furnished us
with the slightest data with regard to man at his earliest origin.
Science, therefore, which pretends to solidity of character, must put
this problem on one side till fresh information is obtained. We really
approach nearer to the truth when we confess our ignorance than when we
attempt to disguise it either to ourselves or others.
"With regard to the simial origin of man, it is nothing but pure
hypothesis, or rather nothing but a mere _jeu d'esprit_ which everything
proves utterly baseless, and in favour of which no solid fact has as yet
been appealed to."
In dealing with this question in a more general point of view, we must
add that the most enlightened science declares to us in unmistakable
accents, that species is immutable, and that no animal species can be
derived from another; they may change, but all bear witness to an
independent creation. This truth, which has been developed at length by
M. de Quatrefages in his numerous works, is a definitive and scientific
judgment which must decide this question as far as regards any
unprejudiced minds.
CHAPTER II.
Man in the condition of Savage Life during the Quaternary
Epoch--The Glacial Period, and its Ravages on the Primitive
Inhabitants of the Globe--Man in Conflict with the Animals of the
Quaternary Epoch--The Discovery of Fire--The Weapons of Primitive
Man--Varieties of Flint-hatchets--Manufacture of the earliest
Pottery--Ornamental objects at the Epoch of the Great Bear and the
Mammoth.
After this dissertation, which was necessary to confute the theory which
gives such a degrading explanation of our origin, we must contemplate
man at the period when he was first placed upon the earth, weak and
helpless, in the midst of the inclement and wild nature which surrounded
him.
However much our pride may suffer by the idea, we must confess that, at
the earliest period of his existence, man could have been but little
distinguished from the brute. Care for his natural wants must have
absorbed his whole being; all his efforts must have tended to one sole
aim--that of insuring his daily subsistence.
At first, his only food must have been fruits and roots; for he had not
as yet invented any weapon wherewith to destroy wild animals. If he
succeeded in killing any creatures of small size he devoured them in a
raw state, and made a covering of their skins to shelter himself against
the inclemency of the weather. His pillow was a stone, his roof was the
shadow of a wide-spreading tree, or some dark cavern which also served
as a refuge against wild beasts.
For how many ages did this miserable state last? No one can tell. Man is
an improvable being, and indefinite progress is the law of his
existence. Improvement is his supreme attribute; and this it is which
gives him the pre-eminence over all the creatures which surround him.
But how wavering must have been his first steps in advance, and how many
efforts must have been given to the earliest creation of his mind and
to the first work of his hands--doubtless some shapeless attempt in
which we nowadays, perhaps, should have some difficulty in recognising
the work of any intelligent being!
Towards the commencement of the quaternary epoch, a great natural
phenomenon took place in Europe. Under the influence of numerous and
varied causes, which up to the present time have not been fully
recognised, a great portion of Europe became covered with ice, on the
one hand, making its way from the poles down to the most southern
latitudes, and, on the other, descending into the plains from the
summits of the highest mountain chains. Ice and ice-fields assumed a
most considerable extension. As all the lower parts of the continent
were covered by the sea, there were only a few plateaux which could
afford a refuge to man and animals flying from this deadly cold. Such
was the _Glacial Period_, which produced the annihilation of so many
generations of animals, and must have equally affected man himself, so
ill-defended against this universal and sudden winter.
Man, however, was enabled to resist the attacks of revolted nature.
Without doubt, in this unhappy period, he must have made but little
progress, even if his intellectual development were not completely
stopped. At all events, the human species did not perish. The glacial
period came to an end, the ice-fields shrank back to their original
limits, and Nature reassumed its primitive aspect.
When the ice had gradually retired into the more northern latitudes, and
had become confined to the higher summits, a new generation of
animals--another _fauna_, as naturalists call it--made its appearance on
the globe. This group of animals, which had newly come into being,
differed much from those that had disappeared in the glacial cataclysm.
Let us cast an inquiring glance on these strange and now extinct
creatures.
First we have the mammoth (_Elephas primigenius_), or the woolly-haired
and maned elephant, carcases of which were found, entire and in good
preservation, in the ice on the coasts of Siberia. Next comes the
rhinoceros with a complete nasal septum (_Rhinoceros tichorhinus_),
likewise clad in a warm and soft fur, the nose of which is surmounted
with a remarkable pair of horns. Then follow several species of the
hippopotamus, which come as far north as the rivers of England and
Russia; a bear of great size inhabiting caverns (_Ursus spelæus_), and
presenting a projecting forehead and a large-sized skull; the cave lion
or tiger (_Felis spelæa_), which much surpassed in strength the same
animals of the existing species; various kinds of hyænas (_Hyæna
spelæa_), much stronger than those of our epoch; the bison or aurochs
(_Biso europæus_), which still exists in Poland; the great ox, the Urus
of the ancients (_Bos primigenius_); the gigantic Irish elk (_Megaceros
hibernicus_), the horns of which attained to surprising dimensions.
Other animals made their appearance at the same epoch, but they are too
numerous to mention; among them were some of the Rodent family. Almost
all these species are now extinct, but man certainly existed in the
midst of them.
The mammoth, elephant, rhinoceros, stag, and hippopotamus were then in
the habit of roaming over Europe in immense herds, just as some of these
animals still do in the interior of Africa. These animals must have had
their favourite haunts--spots where they assembled together in
thousands; or else it would be difficult to account for the countless
numbers of bones which are found accumulated at the same spot.
Before these formidable bands, man could dream of nothing but flight. It
was only with some isolated animal that he could dare to engage in a
more or less unequal conflict. Farther on in our work, we shall see how
he began to fabricate some rough weapons, with a view of attacking his
mighty enemies.
The first important step which man made in the path of progress was the
acquisition of fire. In all probability, man came to the knowledge of it
by accident, either by meeting with some substance which had been set on
fire by lightning or volcanic heat, or by the friction of pieces of wood
setting a light to some very inflammable matter.
[Illustration: Fig. 7.--The Production of Fire.]
In order to obtain fire, man of the quaternary epoch may have employed
the same means as those made use of by the American aborigines, at the
time when Christopher Columbus first fell in with them on the shores of
the New World--means which savage nations existing at the present day
still put in practice. He rubbed two pieces of dry wood one against the
other, or turned round and round with great rapidity a stick sharpened
to a point, having placed the end of it in a hole made in the trunk of a
very dry tree (fig. 7).
As among the savages of the present day we find certain elementary
mechanisms adapted to facilitate the production of fire, it is not
impossible that these same means were practised at an early period of
the human race. It would take a considerable time to set light to two
pieces of dry wood by merely rubbing them against one another; but if a
bow be made use of, that is, the chord of an arc fixed firmly on a
handle, so as to give a rapid revolution to a cylindrical rod of wood
ending in a point which entered into a small hole made in a board, the
board may be set on fire in a few minutes. Such a mode of obtaining fire
may have been made use of by the men who lived in the same epoch with
the mammoth and other animals, the species of which are now extinct.
The first rudiments of combustion having been obtained, so as to serve,
during the daytime, for the purposes of warmth and cooking food, and
during the night, for giving light, how was the fire to be kept up? Wood
from the trees that grew in the district, or from those which were cast
up by the currents of the rivers or sea; inflammable mineral oils; resin
obtained from coniferous trees; the fat and grease of wild animals; oil
extracted from the great cetaceans;--all these substances must have
assisted in maintaining combustion, for the purposes both of warmth and
light. The only fuel which the Esquimaux of the present day have either
to warm their huts or light them during the long nights of their gloomy
climate, is the oil of the whale and seal, which, burnt in a lamp with a
short wick, serves both to cook their food and also to warm and illumine
their huts.
Even, nowadays, in the Black Forest (Duchy of Baden), instead of
candles, long splinters of very dry beech are sometimes made use of,
which are fixed in a horizontal position at one end and lighted at the
other. This forms an economical lamp, which is really not to be
despised.
We have also heard of the very original method which is resorted to by
the inhabitants of the Faroe Isles in the northern seas of Europe, in
order to warm and light up their huts. This method consists in taking
advantage of the fat and greasy condition of the young Stormy Petrel
(Mother Carey's Chicken), so as to convert its body into a regular
lamp. All that is necessary is to draw a wick through its body,
projecting at the beak, which when lighted causes this really animal
candle to throw out an excellent light until the last greasy morsel of
the bird is consumed.
This bird is also used by the natives of the Isles as a natural fuel to
keep up their fires and cook other birds.
Whatever may have been the means which were made use of by primitive man
in order to procure fire, either the simple friction of two pieces of
wood one against the other, continued for a long time, the _bow_, or
merely a stick turning round rapidly by the action of the hand, without
any kind of mechanism--it is certain that the acquisition of fire must
be classed amongst the most beautiful and valuable discoveries which
mankind has made. Fire must have put an end to the weariness of the long
nights. In the presence of fire, the darkness of the holes and caverns
in which man made his first retreat, must have vanished away. With the
aid of fire, the most rigorous climates became habitable, and the damp
which impregnated the body of man or his rough garments, made of the
skin of the bear or some long-haired ruminant, could be evaporated. With
fire near them, the danger arising from ferocious beasts must have much
diminished; for a general instinct leads wild animals to dread the light
and the heat of a fire. Buried, as they were, in the midst of forests
infested with wild beasts, primitive men might, by means of a fire kept
alight during the night, sleep in peace without being disturbed by the
attacks of the huge wild beasts which prowled about all round them.
Fire, too, gave the first starting-point to man's industry. It afforded
means to the earliest inhabitants of the earth for felling trees, for
procuring charcoal, for hardening wood for the manufacture of their
rudimentary implements, and for baking their primitive pottery.
Thus, as soon as man had at his disposal the means for producing
artificial heat, his position began to improve, and the kindly flame of
the hearth became the first centre round which the family circle was
constituted.
Ere long man felt the need of strengthening his natural powers against
the attacks of wild beasts. At the same time he desired to be able to
make his prey some of the more peaceable animals, such as the stag, the
smaller kinds of ruminants, and the horse. Then it was that he began to
manufacture weapons.
He had remarked, spread about the surface of the ground, certain flints,
with sharp corners and cutting edges. These he gathered up, and by the
means of other stones of a rather tougher nature, he broke off from them
pieces, which he fashioned roughly in the shape of a hatchet or hammer.
He fixed these splinters into split sticks, by way of a handle, and
firmly bound them in their places with the tendons of an animal or the
strong stalks of some dried plant. With this weapon, he could, if he
pleased, strike his prey at a distance.
When man had invented the bow and chipped out flint arrow-heads, he was
enabled to arrest the progress of the swiftest animal in the midst of
his flight.
Since the time when the investigations with regard to primitive man have
been set on foot in all countries, and have been energetically
prosecuted, enormous quantities have been found of these chipped flints,
arrow-heads, and various stone implements, which archæologists designate
by the common denomination of _hatchets_, in default of being able, in
some cases, to distinguish the special use for which they had been
employed. Before going any further, it will be necessary to enter into
some details with regard to these flint implements--objects which are
altogether characteristic of the earliest ages of civilisation.
For a long time past chipped stones of a somewhat similar character have
been met with here and there in several countries, sometimes on the
surface of, and sometimes buried deeply in, the ground; but no one
understood what their significance was. If the common people ever
distinguished them from ordinary stones, they attached to them some
superstitious belief. Sometimes they called them "thunder-stones,"
because they attributed to them the power of preserving from lightning
those who were in possession of them. It was not until the middle of the
present century that naturalists and archæologists began to comprehend
the full advantage which might be derived from the examination of these
chipped stones, in reconstructing the lineaments of the earliest of the
human race and in penetrating, up to a certain point, into their
manners, customs, and industry. These stone-hatchets and arrow-heads
are, therefore, very plentiful in the present day in collections of
antiquities and cabinets of natural history.
Most of these objects which are found in Europe are made of flint, and
this circumstance may be easily explained. Flint must have been
preferred as a material, on account both of its hardness and its mode of
cleavage, which may be so readily adapted to the will of the workman.
One hard blow, skilfully applied, is sufficient to break off, by the
mere shock, a sharp-edged flake of a blade-like shape. These sharp-edged
blades of silex might serve as knives. Certainly they would not last
long in use, for they are very easily notched; but primitive men must
have been singularly skilful in making them.
Although the shapes of these stone implements are very varied, they may
all be classed under a certain number of prevailing types; and these
types are to be found in very different countries. The flint hatchets
are at first very simple although irregular in their shape; but they
gradually manifest a much larger amount of talent exhibited in their
manufacture, and a better judgment is shown in adapting them to the
special uses for which they were intended. The progress of the human
intellect is written in ineffaceable characters on these tablets of
stone, which, defended as they were, by a thick layer of earth, bid
defiance to the injuries of time.
Let us not despise these first and feeble efforts of our primitive
forefathers, for they mark the date of the starting-point of
manufactures and the arts. If the men of the stone age had not
persevered in their efforts, we, their descendants, should never have
possessed either our palaces or our masterpieces of painting and
sculpture. As Boucher de Perthes says, "The first man who struck one
pebble against another to make some requisite alteration in its form,
gave the first blow of the chisel which has resulted in producing the
Minerva and all the sculpture of the Parthenon."
Archæologists who have devoted their energies to investigating the
earliest monuments of human industry, have found it necessary to be on
their guard against certain errors, or rather wilful deceptions, which
might readily pervert their judgment and deprive their discoveries of
all character of authenticity. There is, in fact, a certain class of
persons engaged in a deceptive manufacture who have taken a delight in
misleading archæologists by fabricating apocryphal flint and stone
implements, in which they drive a rather lucrative trade. They assert,
without the least scruple, the high antiquity of their productions,
which they sell either to inexperienced amateurs, who are pleased to put
them in their collections duly labelled and ticketed, or--which is a
more serious matter--to workmen who are engaged in making excavations in
fossiliferous beds. These workmen hide the fictitious specimens in the
soil they are digging, using every requisite precaution so as to have
the opportunity of subsequently extracting them and fingering a reward
for them from some too trusting naturalist. These imitations are,
moreover, so cleverly made, that it sometimes requires well-practised
eyes to recognise them; but they may be recognised with some degree of
facility by the following characteristics:--
[Illustration: Fig. 8.--_Dendrites_ or Crystallisations found on the
surface of wrought Flints.]
The ancient flints present a glassy surface which singularly contrasts
with the dull appearance of the fresh cleavages. They are also for the
most part covered with a whitish coating or _patina_, which is nothing
but a thin layer of carbonate of lime darkened in colour by the action
of time. Lastly, many of these flints are ornamented with branching
crystallisations, called _dendrites_, which form on their surface very
delicate designs of a dark brown; these are owing to the combined action
of the oxides of iron and manganese (fig. 8).
We must add that these flint implements often assume the colour of the
soil in which they have been buried for so many centuries; and as Mr.
Prestwich, a learned English geologist, well remarks, this agreement in
colour indicates that they have remained a very considerable time in the
stratum which contains them.
Among the stone implements of primitive ages, some are found in a state
of perfect preservation, which clearly bears witness to their almost
unused state; others, on the contrary, are worn, rounded, and blunted,
sometimes because they have done good service in bygone days, and
sometimes because they have been many times rolled over and rubbed by
diluvial waters, the action of which has produced this result. Some,
too, are met with which are broken, and nothing of them remains but mere
vestiges. In a general way, they are completely covered with a very
thick coating which it is necessary to break off before they can be laid
open to view.
They are especially found under the soil in grottos and caves, on which
we shall remark further in some detail, and they are almost always mixed
up with the bones of extinct mammalian species.
Certain districts which are entirely devoid of caves contain, however,
considerable deposits of these stone implements. We may mention in this
category the alluvial quarternary beds of the valley of the Somme, known
under the name of drift beds, which were worked by Boucher de Perthes
with an equal amount of perseverance and success.
[Illustration: Fig. 9.--Section of a Gravel Quarry at Saint-Acheul,
which contained the wrought Flints found by Boucher de Perthes.]
This alluvium was composed of a gravelly deposit, which geologists refer
to the great inundations which, during the epoch of the great bear and
the mammoth, gave to Europe, by hollowing out its valleys, its present
vertical outline. The excavations in the sand and gravel near Amiens and
Abbeville, which were directed with so much intelligence by Boucher de
Perthes, have been the means of exhuming thousands of worked flints,
affording unquestionable testimony of the existence of man during the
quaternary epoch.
All these worked flints may be classed under some of the principal
types, from which their intended use may be approximately conjectured.
One of the types which is most extensively distributed, especially in
the drift beds of the valley of the Somme, where scarcely any other kind
is found, is the _almond-shaped_ type (fig. 10).
[Illustration: Fig. 10.--Hatchet of the _Almond-shaped_ type, from the
Valley of the Somme.]
The instruments of this kind are hatchets of an oval shape, more or less
elongated, generally flattened on both sides, but sometimes only on one,
carefully chipped all over their surface so as to present a cutting
edge. The workmen of the Somme give them the graphic name of _cats'
tongues_.
They vary much in size, but are generally about six inches long by three
wide, although some are met with which are much larger. The Pre-historic
Gallery in the Universal Exposition of 1867, contained one found at
Saint-Acheul, and exhibited by M. Robert, which measured eleven inches
in length by five in width. This remarkable specimen is represented in
fig. 11.
[Illustration: Fig. 11.--Flint Hatchet from Saint-Acheul of the
so-called _Almond-shaped type_.]
Another very characteristic form is that which is called the _Moustier
type_ (fig. 12), because they have been found in abundance in the beds
in the locality of Moustier, which forms a portion of the department of
Dordogne. This name is applied to the pointed flints which are only
wrought on one side, the other face being completely plain.
[Illustration: Fig. 12.--Wrought Flint (_Moustier type_).]
To the same deposit also belongs the flint _scraper_, the sharp edge of
which forms the arc of a circle, the opposite side being of some
considerable thickness so as to afford a grasp to the hand of the
operator.
[Illustration: Fig. 13.--Flint Scraper.]
Some of these instruments (fig. 13) are finely toothed all along their
sharp edge; they were evidently used for the same purposes as our saws.
[Illustration: Fig. 14.--Flint Knife, found at Menchecourt, near
Abbeville.]
The third type (fig. 14) is that of _knives_. They are thin and narrow
tongue-shaped flakes, cleft off from the lump of flint at one blow. When
one of the ends is chipped to a point, these knives become scratchers.
Sometimes these flints are found to be wrought so as to do service as
augers.
The question is often asked, how these primitive men were able to
manufacture their weapons, implements, and utensils, on uniform models,
without the help of metallic hammers. This idea has, indeed, been
brought forward as an argument against those who contend for the
existence of quaternary man. Mr. Evans, an English geologist, replied
most successfully to this objection by a very simple experiment. He took
a pebble and fixed it in a wooden handle; having thus manufactured a
stone hammer, he made use of it to chip a flint little by little, until
he had succeeded in producing an oval hatchet similar to the ancient one
which he had before him.
The flint-workers who, up to the middle of the present century, prepared
gun-flints for the army, were in the habit of splitting the stone into
splinters. But they made use of steel hammers to cleave the flint,
whilst primitive man had nothing better at his disposal than another and
rather harder stone.
Primitive man must have gone to work in somewhat the following way: They
first selected flints, which they brought to the shape of those cores or
_nuclei_ which are found in many places in company with finished
implements; then, by means of another and harder stone of elongated
shape, they cleft flakes off the flint. These flakes were used for
making knives, scratchers, spear or arrow-heads, hatchets, tomahawks,
scrapers, &c. Some amount of skill must have been required to obtain the
particular shape that was required; but constant practice in this work
exclusively must have rendered this task comparatively easy.
[Illustration: Fig. 15.--Flint Core or Nucleus.]
How, in the next place, were these clipped flints fitted with handles,
so as to make hatchets, poniards and knives?
Some of them were fixed at right angles between the two split ends of a
stick: this kind of weapon must have somewhat resembled our present
hatchets. Others, of an oval shape and circular edge, might have been
fastened transversely into a handle, so as to imitate a carpenter's
adze. In case of need, merely a forked branch or a piece of split wood
might serve as sheath or handle to the flint blade. Flints might also
have been fixed as double-edged blades by means of holes cut in pieces
of wood, to which a handle was afterwards added.
These flint flakes might, lastly, be fitted into a handle at one end.
The wide-backed knives, which were only sharp on one side, afforded a
grasp for the hand without further trouble, and might dispense with a
handle. The small flints might also be darted as projectiles by the help
of a branch of a tree forming a kind of spring, such as we may see used
as a toy by children.
The mere description of these stone hatchets, fitted on to pieces of
wood, recall to our mind the natural weapons used by some of the
American savages, and the tribes which still exist in a state of freedom
in the Isles of Oceania. We allude to the tomahawk, a name which we so
often meet with in the accounts of voyages round the world. Among those
savage nations who have not as yet bent their necks beneath the yoke of
civilisation, we might expect to find--and, in fact, we do find--the
weapons and utensils which were peculiar to man in primitive ages. A
knowledge of the manners and customs of the present Australian
aborigines has much conduced to the success of the endeavours to
reconstruct a similar system of manners and customs in respect to man of
the quaternary age.
It was with the weapons and implements that we have just described that
man, at the epoch of the great bear and mammoth, was able to repulse the
attacks of the ferocious animals which prowled round his retreat and
often assailed him (fig. 16).
[Illustration: Fig. 16.--Man in the Great Bear and Mammoth Epoch.]
But the whole life of primitive man was not summed up in defending
himself against ferocious beasts, and in attacking them in the chase.
Beyond the needs which were imposed upon him by conflict and hunting, he
felt, besides, the constant necessity of quenching his thirst. Water is
a thing in constant use by man, whether he be civilised or savage. The
fluid nature of water renders it difficult to convey it except by
enclosing it in bladders, leathern bottles, hollowed-out stumps of
trees, plaited bowls, &c. Receptacles of this kind were certain
ultimately to become dirty and unfit for the preservation of water;
added to this they could not endure the action of fire. It was certainly
possible to hollow out stone, so as to serve as a receptacle for water;
but any kind of stone which was soft enough to be scooped out, and would
retain its tenacity after this operation, is very rarely met with.
Shells, too, might be used to hold a liquid; but then shells are not to
be found in every place. It was, therefore, necessary to resolve the
problem--how far it might be possible to make vessels which would be
strong, capable of holding water, and able to stand the heat of the fire
without breaking or warping. What was required was, in fact, the
manufacture of pottery.
The potter's art may, perhaps, be traced back to the most remote epochs
of man. We have already seen, in the introduction to this work, that, in
1835, M. Joly found in the cave of Nabrigas (Lozère), a skull of the
great bear pierced with a stone arrow-head, and that by the side of this
skull were also discovered fragments of pottery, on which might still be
seen the imprint of the fingers which moulded it. Thus, the potter's art
may have already been exercised in the earliest period which we can
assign to the development of mankind.
Other causes also might lead us to believe that man, at a very early
period of his existence, succeeded in the manufacture of rough pottery.
The clay which is used in making all kinds of pottery, from the very
lowest kitchen utensil up to the most precious specimens of porcelain,
may be said to exist almost everywhere. By softening it and kneading it
with water, it may be moulded into vessels of all shapes. By mere
exposure to the heat of the sun, these vessels will assume a certain
amount of cohesion; for, as tradition tells us, the towers and palaces
of ancient Nineveh were built entirely with bricks which had been baked
in the sun.
Yet the idea of hardening any clayey paste by means of the action of
fire is so very simple, that we are not of opinion that pottery which
had merely been baked in the sun was ever made use of to any great
extent, even among primitive man. Mere chance, or the most casual
observation, might have taught our earliest forefathers that a morsel of
clay placed near a fire-hearth became hardened and altogether
impenetrable to water, that is, that it formed a perfect specimen of
pottery. Yet the art, though ancient, has not been universally found
among mankind.
Ere long, experience must have taught men certain improvements in the
manufacture of pottery. Sand was added to the clay, so as to render it
less subject to "flying" on its first meeting the heat of the fire;
next, dried straw was mixed with the clay in order to give it more
coherence.
In this way those rough vessels were produced, which were, of course,
moulded with the hand, and still bear the imprints of the workman's
fingers. They were only half-baked, on account of the slight intensity
of heat in the furnace which they were then obliged to make use of,
which was nothing more than a wood fire, burning in the open air, on a
stone hearth.
From these data we give a representation (fig. 17) of the _workshop of
the earliest potter_.
[Illustration: Fig. 17.--The First Potter.]
In the gravel pits in the neighbourhood of Amiens we meet with small
globular bodies with a hole through the middle, which are, indeed,
nothing but fossil shells found in the white chalk (fig. 18). It is
probable that these stony beads were used to adorn the men contemporary
with the diluvial period. The natural holes which existed in them
enabled them to be threaded as bracelets or necklaces. This, at least,
was the opinion of Dr. Rigollot; and it was founded on the fact that he
had often found small heaps of these delicate little balls collected
together in the same spot, as if an inundation had drifted them into the
bed of the river without breaking the bond which held them together.
[Illustration: Fig. 18.--Fossil Shells used as Ornaments, and found in
the Gravel at Amiens.]
The necklaces, which men and women had already begun to wear during the
epoch of the great bear and the mammoth, were the first outbreak of
the sentiment of adornment, a feeling so natural to the human species.
The way in which these necklaces were put together is, however, exactly
similar to that which we meet with during the present day among savage
tribes--a thread on which a few shells were strung, which was passed
round the neck.
It has been supposed, from another series of wrought flints, found at
Saint-Acheul by Boucher de Perthes, that the men of the epoch of the
great bear and mammoth may have executed certain rough sketches of
art-workmanship, representing either figures or symbols. Boucher de
Perthes has, in fact, found flints which he considered to show
representations, with varying degrees of resemblance, of the human head,
in profile, three-quarter view, and full face; also of animals, such as
the rhinoceros and the mammoth.
There are many other flints, evidently wrought by the hand of man, which
were found by Boucher de Perthes in the same quaternary deposits; but it
would be a difficult matter to decide their intention or significance.
Some, perhaps, were religious symbols, emblems of authority, &c. The
features which enable us to recognise the work of man in these works of
antediluvian art, are the symmetry of shape and the repetition of
successive strokes by which the projecting portions are removed, the
cutting edges sharpened, or the holes bored out.
The natural colour of all the wrought flints we have just been
considering, which bring under our notice the weapons and utensils of
man in the earliest epoch of his existence, is a grey which assumes
every tint, from the brightest to the darkest; but, generally speaking,
they are stained and coloured according to the nature of the soil from
which they are dug out. Argillaceous soils colour them white; ochreous
gravels give them a yellowish brown hue. Some are white on one side and
brown on the other, probably from having lain between two different
beds.
This _patina_ (to use the established term) is the proof of their
long-continued repose in the beds, and is, so to speak, the stamp of
their antiquity.
CHAPTER III.
The Man of the Great Bear and Mammoth Epoch lived in Caverns--Bone
Caverns in the Quaternary Rock during the Great Bear and Mammoth
Epoch--Mode of Formation of these Caverns--Their Division into
several Classes--Implements of Flint, Bone, and Reindeer-horn found
in these Caverns--The Burial-place at Aurignac--Its probable
Age--Customs which it reveals--Funeral Banquets during the Great
Bear and Mammoth Epoch.
Having given a description of the weapons and working implements of the
men belonging to the great bear and mammoth epoch, we must now proceed
to speak of the habitations.
Caverns hollowed out in the depth of the rocks formed the first
dwellings of man. We must, therefore, devote some degree of attention to
the simple and wild retreats of our forefathers. As the objects which
have been found in these caverns are both numerous and varied in their
character, they not only throw a vivid light on the manners and customs
of primitive man, but also decisively prove the fact of his being
contemporary with mammals of species now extinct, such as the mammoth,
the great bear, and the _Rhinoceros tichorhinus_.
But before proceeding any further, it is necessary to inquire in what
way these caverns could have been formed, in which we find accumulated
so many relics of the existence of primitive man.
M. Desnoyers, Librarian of the Museum of Natural History at Paris, is of
opinion that these caverns are crevices of the same class as
metalliferous _lodes_, only instead of containing metallic ores they
must have been originally filled by the deposits of certain thermal
springs.
[Illustration: Fig. 19.--Theoretical Section of a Vein of Clay in the
Carboniferous Limestone, _before_ the hollowing out of Valleys by
diluvial Waters.]
Fig. 19 represents, according to M. Desnoyers' treatise on _caverns_,
one of these primordial veins in the carboniferous limestone. At the
time of the diluvial inundation, these veins were opened by the
impetuous action of the water. When thus cleared out and brought to the
light of day, they assumed the aspect of caves, as represented in fig.
20.
[Illustration: Fig. 20.--Theoretical section of the same Vein of Clay
converted into a Cavern, _after_ the hollowing out of Valleys by
diluvial Waters.]
The European diluvial inundation was, as we know, posterior to the
glacial epoch.
It is also likely that caverns were sometimes produced by the falling in
of portions of some of the interior strata, or that they were formerly
the natural and subterranean channels of certain watercourses; many
instances of this kind being now known in different countries.
We must also add that it is not probable that all caverns originated in
the same way; but that one or other of the several causes just
enumerated must have contributed to their formation.
Under the general denomination of _caverns_, all kinds of subterranean
cavities are comprehended; but it will be as well to introduce several
distinctions in this respect. There are, in the first place, simple
clefts or crevices, which are only narrow pits deviating but slightly
from the vertical. Next we have grottos (or _baumes_ as they are called
in the south of France), which generally have a widely opening inlet,
and are but of small extent. Lastly, we must draw a distinction between
these and the real bone caverns, which consist of a series of chambers,
separated by extremely narrow passages, and are often of very
considerable dimensions. Some of these caverns occupy an extent of
several leagues underground, with variations of level which render their
exploration very difficult. They are generally very inaccessible, and it
is almost always necessary to ply the pick-axe in order to clear a way
from one chamber to another.
In most of these grottos and caverns the ground and sides are covered
with calcareous deposits, known by the name of _stalactite_ and
_stalagmite_, which sometimes meet one another, forming columns and
pillars which confer on some of these subterranean halls an elegance
replete with a kind of mysterious charm.
These deposits are caused by the infiltrated water charged with
carbonate of lime, which, oozing drop by drop through the interstices of
the rock, slowly discharge the carbonic acid which held the carbonate of
lime in solution, and the salts gradually precipitating form the
crystalline or amorphous deposits which constitute these natural
columns.
The calcareous deposits which spread over the ground of the caverns are
called _stalagmite_, and the name of _stalactite_ is given to those
which hang down from the roof, forming pendants, natural decorations,
and ornaments as of alabaster or marble, producing sometimes the most
magnificent effects.
Under the stalagmite the largest number of animal bones have been found.
This crust, which has been to them a preservatory grave, is so thick and
hard that a pick-axe is required in order to break it. Thanks to the
protecting cover, the bones have been sheltered from all the various
causes of decomposition and destruction. The limestone formed a kind of
cement which, uniting clay, mud, sand, flints, bones of men and animals,
weapons and utensils into a compact mass, has preserved them for the
study and consideration of scientific men in our own days.
The soil called _bone-earth_ is, in fact, found under the crystalline
bed which covers the ground of the caverns.
Fig. 21, which represents a section of the cave of Galeinreuth, in
Bavaria, will enable us clearly to understand the position occupied by
the bones in most of these caverns.
[Illustration: Fig. 21.--The Cave of Galeinreuth, in Bavaria.]
Bone-earth consists of a reddish or yellowish clay, often mixed with
pebbles, which seem to have come from some distant beds, for they cannot
be attributed to the adjacent rocks. This stratum varies considerably in
depth; in some spots it is very thin, in others it rises almost to the
top of the cavern, to a height of forty or fifty feet. But in this case
it is, in reality, composed of several strata belonging to different
ages, and explorers ought to note with much attention the exact depth of
any of the organic remains found in their mass.
There are, however, in several bone-caverns certain peculiarities which
demand a special explanation. Caves often contain large heaps of bones,
situated at heights which it would have been absolutely inaccessible to
the animals which lived in these places. How, then, was it possible that
these bones could have found their way to such an elevated position? It
is also a very strange fact, that no cavern has ever produced an entire
skeleton or even a whole limb of the skeleton of a man, and scarcely of
any animal whatever. The bones, in fact, not only lie in confusion and
utter disorder, but, up to the present time, it has been impossible to
find all the bones which in times past formed an individual. It must,
therefore, be admitted, that the accumulation of bones and human remains
in most of the caves are owing to other causes than the residence of man
and wild animals in these dark retreats.
It is supposed, therefore, that the bones in question were deposited in
these hollows by the rushing in of the currents of diluvial water, which
had drifted them along in their course. A fact which renders this
hypothesis likely is that drift-pebbles are constantly found in close
proximity to these bones. Now these pebbles come from localities at
considerable distances from the cavern; often, indeed, terrestrial and
fluviatile shells accompany these bones. It may sometimes be remarked
that the femurs and tibias of large mammals have their points rubbed
off, and the smallest bones are reduced to rounded fragments. These are
all evident indications that these bones had been carried along by rapid
currents of water, which swept away everything in their course; or, in
other words, by the current of the waters of the deluge which signalised
the quaternary epoch.
During this period of the existence of primitive man, all these caverns
were not applied to the same purpose. Some were the dens of wild beasts,
others formed the habitations of man, and others again were used as
burial-places.
There is no difficulty in the idea that dens of wild beasts might very
readily be occupied by man, after he had killed or driven out the fierce
inhabitants; no discovery, however, has as yet confirmed this
supposition. It can hardly be doubted that primitive man seldom dared to
take up his abode in dens which had been, for some time, the refuge of
any of the formidable carnivora; if he did, it was only after having
assured himself that these retreats had been altogether abandoned by
their terrible inhabitants.
We shall now proceed to consider these three classes of caverns.
Caves which, during the quaternary epoch, have served as dens for wild
animals, are very numerous. Experienced _savants_ are enabled to
recognise them by various indications. The bones they contain are never
fractured; but it may be seen that they have been gnawed by carnivorous
animals, as they still bear the marks of their teeth. Into these
retreats the cave-lion (_Felis spelæa_) and the hyæna (_Hyæna spelæa_)
were accustomed to drag their prey, in order there to tear it to pieces
and devour it, or divide it into portions for their young ones. In fact,
in these caverns, excrements of the hyæna mixed with small and
undigested bones are often found. The cave bear retired into the same
retreats, but he probably only came there to pass the period of his
hibernal sleep. Lastly, the same dens no doubt offered a refuge to sick
or dying animals, who resorted thither in order to expire in peace. We
have a proof of this in the traces of wounds and caries on some of the
bones of animals found by Schmerling in the caverns of the Meuse; also
in the skull of a hyæna, the median ridge of which had been bitten and
appeared to be half healed.
Those caverns which formed a shelter for primitive man are, like the
preceding ones, to be recognised by a mere inspection of the bones
contained in them. The long bones of the ox, horse, stag, rhinoceros,
and other quadrupeds which formed the food of man during the quaternary
epoch, are always split; and they are all broken in the same way, that
is, lengthwise. The only cause for their having been split in this
manner must have been the desire of extracting the marrow for the
purpose of eating. Such a mode of breaking them would never have been
practised by any animal.
This apparently trivial circumstance is, however, of the highest
importance. In fact, it leads to the following conclusion: "That man,
having eaten large mammals of species now extinct, must have been
contemporary with these species."
We shall now proceed to examine the caverns which were used as
burial-places for man.
To M. Édouard Lartet, the celebrated palæontologist, the honour must be
ascribed of having been the first to collect any important data bearing
on the fact that caverns were used for burial-places by the primitive
man of the great bear and mammoth epoch. We have thus been led to
discover the traces of a funeral custom belonging to the man of these
remote ages; we allude to the _funeral banquet_. The source of this
information was the discovery of a pre-historic burial-place at Aurignac
(Haute-Garonne), of which we have given an account in the Introduction
to this work, which, however, we must again here refer to.
Near the town of Aurignac rises the hill of Fajoles, which the
inhabitants of the country, in their _patois_, call "_mountagno de las
Hajoles_" (beech-tree mountain), a circumstance showing that it was
formerly covered with beech-trees. As we have already stated, in the
Introduction to this work, it was on one of the slopes of this hill
that, in the year 1842, an excavator, named Bonnemaison, discovered a
great slab of limestone placed in a vertical position and closing up an
arched opening. In the cave closed up by this slab the excavator
discovered the remains of seventeen human skeletons!
We have already told how these skeletons were removed to the village
cemetery, and thus, unfortunately, for ever lost to the researches of
science.
Eighteen years after, in 1860, M. Lartet, having heard of the event,
repaired to the spot, accompanied by Bonnemaison; he quite understood
how it had happened that, during a long course of centuries, the cave
had escaped the notice of the inhabitants of the country. The entrance
to it was concealed by masses of earth which, having been brought down
from the top of the hill by the action of the water, had accumulated in
front of the entrance, hiding a flat terrace, on which many vestiges of
pre-historic times were found. As no disturbance of the ground had taken
place in this spot subsequent to the date of the burial, this _talus_
had been sufficient to protect the traces of the men who were
contemporary with the mammoth, and to shield their relics from all
exterior injury.
[Illustration: Fig. 22.--Section of the Sepulchral Cave at Aurignac.]
Fig. 22, taken from M. Lartet's article, represents a vertical section
of the sepulchral cave at Aurignac.
After a rapid inspection of the cave and its surroundings, M. Lartet
resolved to make complete and methodical excavations, aided by
intelligent workmen labouring under his superintendence; the following
are the results he obtained.
A bed of "made ground" two feet thick covered the ground of the cave. In
this were found some human remains which had escaped the first
investigations; also bones of mammals in good preservation, and
exhibiting no fractures or teeth-marks, wrought flints, mostly of the
_knife_ type (fig. 23), and carved reindeer horns, among which there was
an instrument carefully tapered off and rounded, but deprived of its
point (fig. 24), the other end being bevelled off, probably to receive a
handle.
[Illustration: Fig. 23.--Flint Knife found in the Sepulchral Cave at
Aurignac.]
[Illustration: Fig. 24.--Implement made of Reindeer's or Stag's Horn,
found in the Sepulchral Cave at Aurignac.]
We must here add, that at the time of his discovery Bonnemaison
collected, from the midst of the bones, eighteen small discs which were
pierced in the centre, and doubtless intended to be strung together in a
necklace or bracelet. These discs, which were formed of a white compact
substance were recognised as sea-shells of a _Cardium_ species.
[Illustration: Fig. 25.--Series of perforated Discs of the _Cardium_
Shell found in the Sepulchral Cave at Aurignac.]
The cavern of Aurignac was a burial-place of the quaternary epoch, for
M. Lartet found in it a quantity of the bones of the cave-bear, the
bison, the reindeer, the horse, &c.
In fig. 26, we give a representation of a fragment of the lower jaw of a
great bear as an example of the state of the bones found in this cavern.
[Illustration: Fig. 26.--Fragment of the Lower Jaw of a Cave-Bear, found
in the Sepulchral Cave at Aurignac.]
The perfect state of preservation of these bones shows that they were
neither broken to furnish food for man nor torn by carnivorous animals,
particularly by hyænas, as is seen in a great many caverns. We must
therefore conclude from this peculiarity, that the stone which closed
the entrance to the cave was moved away for every interment and
carefully put back into its place immediately afterwards.
In order to explain the presence of so many foreign objects by the side
of the human skeletons--such as animals' bones--implements of flint and
reindeers' horn--necklaces or bracelets--we must admit as probable that
a funeral custom existed among the men of the great bear and mammoth
epoch, which has been preserved in subsequent ages. They used to place
in the tomb, close to the body, the weapons, hunting trophies, and
ornaments of all sorts, belonging to the defunct. This custom still
exists among many tribes in a more or less savage state.
In front of the cave, there was, as we have already said, a kind of flat
spot which had afterwards become covered with earth which had fallen
down from the top of the hill. When the earth which covered this flat
spot was cleared away, they met with another deposit containing bones.
This deposit was situated on a prolongation of the ground on which the
skeletons were placed in the interior of the cavern. Under this deposit,
was a bed of ashes and charcoal, 5 to 7 inches thick. This was,
therefore, the site of an ancient fire-hearth.
In other words, in front of the sepulchral cave there was a kind of
terrace upon which, after the interment of the body in the cavern, a
feast called the _funeral banquet_ was held.
[Illustration: Fig. 27.--Upper Molar of a Bison, found in the Ashes of
the Fire-hearth of the Sepulchral Cave at Aurignac.]
In this bed, situated in front of the cavern an immense number of the
most interesting relics were discovered--a large number of the teeth and
broken bones of herbivorous animals (fig. 27); a hundred flint knives;
two chipped flints, which archæologists believe to be sling projectiles;
a rounded pebble with a depression in the middle, which, according to
Mr. Steinhauer, keeper of the Ethnographical Museum at Copenhagen, was
used to flake off flint-knives; lastly, a large quantity of implements
made of reindeers' horn, which exhibit the most varied shapes. We may
mention, for instance, the arrow-heads fashioned very simply, without
wings or barbs (fig. 28); some of these heads appear to have been
subjected to the action of fire, as if they had been left in the body of
the animal during the process of cooking; a bodkin made of roebuck's
horn (fig. 29) very carefully pointed, and in such a good state of
preservation that it might still be used, says M. Lartet, to perforate
the skins of animals before sewing them; and this must, in fact, have
been its use; a second instrument, similar to the preceding, but less
finely pointed, which M. Lartet is inclined to consider as an instrument
for tatooing; some thin blades of various sizes, which, according to
Steinhauer, much resemble the reindeer-horn polishers still used by the
Laplanders to flatten down the seams of their coarse skin-garments;
another blade, accidentally broken at both ends, one of the sides of
which is perfectly polished and shows two series of transversal lines at
equal distances apart; the lateral edges of this blade are marked with
deeper notches at almost regular intervals (fig. 30). M. Lartet
considers that these lines and notches are signs of numeration, and Mr.
Steinhauer has propounded the idea that they are hunting-marks. Both
hypotheses are possible, and the more so as they do not contradict each
other.
[Illustration: Fig. 28.--Arrow-head made of Reindeer's Horn, found in
the Sepulchral Cave of Aurignac.]
[Illustration: Fig. 29.--Bodkin made of Roebuck's Horn, found in the
Sepulchral Cave of Aurignac].
[Illustration: Fig. 30.--Truncated Blade in Reindeer's Horn, bearing two
Series of transversal Lines and Notches, probably used for numeration.]
Among the bones, some were partly carbonised, others, only scorched, but
the greater number had not been subjected at all to the action of fire.
All the bones having medullary hollows, and commonly called
marrow-bones, were broken lengthwise, a certain indication that this
operation had been effected to extract the marrow, and that these bones
had been used at a feast carried on according to the manners and customs
of that epoch, when the marrow out of animal bones was regarded as the
most delicious viand--many men of our own days being also of this
opinion.
A certain number of these bones exhibited shallow cuts, showing that a
sharp instrument had been used to detach the flesh from them. Nearly all
those which had not been subjected to the action of fire bore the mark
of the teeth of some carnivorous animal. This animal, doubtless, came to
gnaw them after man had taken his departure from the spot. This
carnivorous animal could have been none other than the hyæna, as is
shown by the excrements left in the place.
The ossiferous mound situated immediately above the fire-hearth
contained, like the subjacent ashes, a large number of the bones of
certain herbivorous animals.
The discovery of the fire-hearth situated in front of the cave of
Aurignac, and the various remains which were found intermingled
underneath it, enable us to form some idea of the way in which funeral
ceremonies took place among the men of the great bear epoch. The parents
and friends of the defunct accompanied him to his last resting-place;
after which, they assembled together to partake of a feast in front of
the tomb soon to be closed on his remains. Then everyone took his
departure, leaving the scene of their banquet free to the hyænas, which
came to devour the remains of the meal.
This custom of funeral-feasts is, doubtless, very natural, as it has
been handed down to our days; though it now chiefly exists among the
poorer classes.
In accordance with the preceding data we here represent (fig. 31) a
_funeral feast during the great bear and mammoth epoch_.
[Illustration: Fig. 31.--Funeral Feast during the Great Bear and Mammoth
Epoch.]
On a flat space situated in front of the cave destined to receive the
body of the defunct, some men covered merely with bears' skins with the
hair on them are seated round a fire, taking their part in the
funeral-feast. The flesh of the great bear and mammoth forms the _menu_
of these primitive love-feasts. In the distance may be seen the colossal
form of the mammoth, which forms the chief dish of the banquet. The
manner of eating is that which distinguishes the men of that epoch; they
suck the marrow from the long bones which have previously been split
lengthwise, and eat the flesh of the animals cooked on the hearth. The
dead body is left at the entrance of the cavern; the primitive
grave-stone will soon close on it for ever.
The relics found in the interior of the sepulchral cave of Aurignac have
led to a very remarkable inference, which shows how interesting and
fertile are the studies which have been made by naturalists on the
subject of the antiquity of man. The weapons, the trophies, the
ornaments, and the joints of meat, placed by the side of the
defunct--does not all this seem to establish the fact that a belief in a
future life existed at an extraordinarily remote epoch? What could have
been the use of these provisions for travelling, and these instruments
of war, if the man who had disappeared from this world was not to live
again in another? The great and supreme truth--that the whole being
of man does not die with his material body is, therefore, innate in the
human heart; since it is met with in the most remote ages, and even
existed in the mental consciousness of the man of the stone age.
An instinct of art also appears to have manifested itself in the human
race at this extremely ancient date. Thus, one of the articles picked up
in the sepulchral cave of Aurignac consisted of a canine tooth of a
young cave-bear, perforated so as to allow of its being suspended in
some way or other. Now this tooth is so carved that no one can help
recognising in it a rough outline of some animal shape, the precise
nature of which is difficult to determine, although it may, perhaps, be
the head of a bird. It was, doubtless, an amulet or jewel belonging to
one of the men interred in the cave, and was buried with him because he
probably attached a great value to it. This object, therefore, shows us
that some instincts of art existed in the men who hunted the great bear
and mammoth.
[Illustration: Fig. 32.--Carved and perforated Canine Tooth of a young
Cave-Bear.]
We shall close this account of the valuable discoveries which were made
in the sepulchral cave of Aurignac, by giving a list of the species of
mammals the bones of which were found either in the interior or at the
exterior of this cavern. The first six species are extinct; the others
are still living:--
The great cave-bear (_Ursus spelæus_); the mammoth (_Elephas
primigenius_); the rhinoceros (_Rhinoceros tichorhinus_); the great
cave-lion (_Felis spelæa_); the cave-hyæna (_Hyæna spelæa_); the
gigantic stag (_Megaceros hibernicus_); the bison, the reindeer, the
stag, the horse, the ass, the roe, the wild boar, the fox, the wolf,
the wild-cat, the badger, and the polecat.
We think it as well to place before the eyes of our readers the exact
forms of the heads of the three great fossil animals found in the cave
of Aurignac, which geologically characterise the great bear and mammoth
epoch, and evidently prove that man was contemporary with these extinct
species. Figs. 33, 34, and 35 represent the heads of the cave-bear, the
_Rhinoceros tichorhinus_, and the _megaceros_ or gigantic stag; they are
taken from the casts which adorn the great hall of the Archæological and
Pre-historic Museum at Saint-Germain, and are among the most curious
ornaments of this remarkable museum.
[Illustration: Fig. 33.--Head of a Cave-Bear found in the Cave of
Aurignac.]
[Illustration: Fig. 34.--Head of the _Rhinoceros Tichorhinus_ found in
the Cave of Aurignac.]
[Illustration: Fig. 35.--Head of a great Stag (_Megaceros hibernicus_)
found in the Cave of Aurignac.]
Of all these species, the fox has left behind him the largest number of
remains. This carnivorous animal was represented by about eighteen to
twenty individual specimens. Neither the mammoth, great cave-lion, nor
wild boar appear to have been conveyed into the cave in an entire state;
for two or three molar or incisive teeth are the only remains of their
carcases which have been found.
But still it is a certain fact that the men who fed on the _Rhinoceros
tichorinus_ buried their dead in this cavern. In fact, M. Lartet asserts
that the bones of the rhinoceros had been split by man in order to
extract the marrow. They had also been gnawed by hyænas, which would not
have been the case if these bones had not been thrown away, and left on
the ground in a fresh state.
The burial-place of Aurignac dates back to the earliest antiquity, that
is to say, it was anterior to the European diluvial period. Thus,
according to M. Lartet, the great cave-bear was the first of the extinct
species to disappear; then the mammoth and _Rhinoceros tichorhinus_ were
lost sight of; still later, the reindeer first, and then the bison,
migrated to the northern and eastern regions of Europe. Now, the
_diluvium_, that is to say, the beds formed by drifted pebbles and
originating in the great derangement caused by the inundation of the
quaternary epoch, does not contain any traces of the bones of the
cave-bear. It, therefore, belongs to an epoch of the stone age more
recent than the cave of Aurignac.[6] All this goes to prove that this
sepulchral cave, which has furnished the science of the antiquity of man
with so much valuable information, belonged to the great bear and
mammoth epoch, which preceded the diluvial cataclysm.
FOOTNOTE:
[6] 'Nouvelles Recherches sur la Coexistence de l'Homme et des grands
Mammifères fossiles.' ('Annales de Sciences naturelles, Zoologie,' vol.
xv.)
CHAPTER IV.
Other Caves of the Epoch of the Great Bear and Mammoth--Type
of the Human Race during the Epochs of the Great Bear and the
Reindeer--The Skulls from the Caves of Engis and Neanderthal.
With regard to the bone-caves, which have furnished us with such
valuable information as to the men who lived in the epoch of the great
bear and the mammoth, we have laid down a necessary distinction,
dividing them into caves which served as dens for wild beasts, those
which have afforded a refuge for man, and those which were used as his
burial-places. In order to complete this subject and set forth the whole
of the discoveries which have been made by science on this interesting
point, we will say a few words as to the principal bone-caves belonging
to the same epoch which have been studied in France, England and
Belgium.
We will, in the first place, call attention to the fact that these
caverns, taken together, embrace a very long period of time, perhaps an
enormous number of centuries, and that hence a considerable difference
must result in the nature of the remains of human industry which they
contain. Some certainly manifest a perceptible superiority over others
in an industrial point of view; but the reason is that they belong to a
period somewhat nearer our own, although still forming a part of the
epoch of the great bear and mammoth.
We shall divide the caves in France into three groups--those of the
east, those of the west and centre, and those of the south.
In the first group, we shall mention the _Trou de la Fontaine_ and the
_Cave of Sainte-Reine_, both situated in the environs of Toul (Meurthe).
These two caves have furnished bones of bears, hyænas, and the
rhinoceros, along with the products of human industry. That of
Sainte-Reine has been explored by M. Guérin, and especially by M.
Husson, who has searched it with much care.
The second group includes the grottos _des Fées_, of Vergisson,
Vallières, and La Chaise.
The Grotte des Fées, at Arcy (Yonne), has been searched and described by
M. de Vibraye, who ascertained the existence of two distinct beds, the
upper one belonging to the reindeer epoch, the lower one to the great
bear epoch. These two beds were divided from each other by matter which
had formed a part of the roof of the cave, and had fallen down on the
earlier deposit. In the more ancient bed of the two, M. de Vibraye
collected fractured bones of the bear and cave-hyæna, the mammoth, and
the _Rhinoceros tichorhinus_, all intermingled with flints wrought by
the hand of man, amongst which were chips of hyaline quartz
(rock-crystal.) His fellow-labourer, M. Franchet, extracted from it a
human _atlas_ (the upper part of the vertebral column).
The cave of Vergisson (Saône-et-Loire), explored by M. de Ferry,
furnished the same kind of bones as the preceding cave, and also bones
of the bison, the reindeer, the horse, the wolf, and the fox, all
intermixed with wrought flints and fragments of rough pottery. The
presence of this pottery indicated that the cave of Vergisson belonged
to the latter period of the great bear epoch.
The cave of Vallières (Loir-et-Cher), was worked, first by M. de
Vibraye, and subsequently by the Abbé Bourgeois. There was nothing
particular to be remarked.
The cave of La Chaise, near Vouthon (Charente), explored by MM.
Bourgeois and Delaunay, furnished bones of the cave-bear, the
rhinoceros, and the reindeer, flint blades and scrapers, a bodkin and a
kind of hook made of bone, an arrow-head in the shape of a willow-leaf
likewise of bone, a bone perforated so as to hang on a string, and, what
is more remarkable, two long rods of reindeer's horn, tapering at one
end and bevelled off at the other, on which figures of animals were
graven. These relics betray an artistic feeling of a decided character
as existing in the men, the traces of whom are found in this cave.
Among the caves in the south of France, we must specify those of
Périgord, those of Bas-Languedoc, and of the district of Foix
(department of Ariége).
The caves of Périgord have all been explored by MM. Lartet and Christy,
who have also given learned descriptions of them. We will mention the
caves of the _Gorge d'Enfer_ and _Moustier_, in the valley of the
Vézère, and that of _Pey de l'Azé_, all three situate in the department
of Dordogne (arrondissement of Sarlat).
The two caves of the _Gorge d'Enfer_ were, unfortunately, cleared out in
1793, in order to utilise the deposits of saltpetre which they contained
in the manufacture of gunpowder. They have, however, furnished flints
chipped into the shapes of scrapers, daggers, &c., a small pebble of
white quartz, hollowed out on one side, which had probably been used as
a mortar, and instruments of bone or reindeer's horn, three of which
showed numerous notches. Bones of the great bear clearly indicated the
age of these settlements.
The cave of Moustier, situated about 80 feet above the Vézère, is
celebrated for the great number and characteristic shapes of its stone
implements, which we have before spoken of. Hatchets of the
almond-shaped type, like those of the _diluvium_ of Abbeville and
Saint-Acheul, were very plentiful. Bi-convex spear-heads were also
found, of very careful workmanship, and instruments which might be held
in the hand, some of them of considerable dimensions; but no pieces of
bone or of reindeer's horn were discovered which had been adapted to any
purpose whatever. The bones were those of the great bear and cave-hyæna,
accompanied by separate _laminæ_ of molars of the mammoth, the use of
which it is impossible to explain. Similar fragments were met with in
some of the other Périgord settlements, and M. Lartet also found some at
Aurignac.
Next to the cave of Pey de l'Azé, on which we shall not dwell, come the
caverns of Bas-Languedoc, which we shall only enumerate. They consist of
the caves of Pondres and Souvignargues (Hérault), which were studied in
1829 by M. de Christol, who recognised, from the data he derived from
them, the co-existence of man and the great extinct mammals; also those
of Pontil and La Roque, the first explored by M. Paul Gervais, the
second by M. Boutin.
We shall now consider the caves of the department of Ariége, some of
which furnish objects of very considerable interest. They consist of the
caves of _Massat_, _Lherm_, and _Bouicheta_.
Two caves, very remarkable on account of their extent, have been
explored by M. Fontan; they are situate in the valley of Massat, which
contains others of less importance. One is placed at the foot of a
limestone mountain, about 60 feet above the bottom of the valley; the
opening of the other is much higher up; only the latter belongs to the
great bear epoch.
From the results of his explorations, M. Fontan is of opinion that the
ground in them has been greatly altered by some violent inundation which
has intermingled the remains of various geological epochs. This _savant_
found in the cave of Massat the bones of the bear, the hyæna and the
great cave-lion, the fox, the badger, the wild boar, the roe, &c., two
human teeth, and a bone arrow-head. Two beds of ashes and charcoal were
also remarked at different depths.
In the upper cave of Massat was found the curious stone on which is
designed with tolerable correctness a sketch of the great cave-bear
(fig. 36). This singular record marks out for us the earliest trace of
the art of design, which we shall find developing itself in a more
decisive way during the pre-historic period which follows the one we are
now considering.
[Illustration: Fig. 36.--Sketch of the Great Bear on a Stone found in
the Cave of Massat.]
The caves of Lherm and Bouicheta were inspected by MM. Garrigou and
Filhol, who found in them bones of most of the great mammals belonging
to extinct species, and particularly those of the great bear, many of
which are broken, and still show the marks of the instruments which were
used for cutting the flesh off them. Some have been gnawed by hyænas, as
proved by the deep grooves with which they are marked. Lower jaw-bones
of the great bear, and of the great cave-lion, have been found
fashioned, according to a uniform plan, in the shape of hoes. MM.
Garrigou and Filhol were of opinion that these jaw-bones, when thus
modified, might have been used as offensive weapons.
The cave of Lherm contained also human bones; namely, three teeth, a
fragment of a _scapula_, a broken _ulna_ and _radius_, and the last
joint of the great toe; all these remains presented exactly the same
appearance and condition as those of the _Ursus spelæus_, and must,
therefore, have belonged to the same epoch.
We have stated that numerous caves have been explored in England,
Belgium, and several other countries. We shall not undertake to give
with regard to each details which would only be a reproduction of those
which precede. We therefore confine ourselves to mentioning the most
celebrated of the caverns belonging to the epoch of the great bear and
the mammoth.
In England we have the Kent's Hole and Brixham caverns, near Torquay in
Devonshire, the latter of which is many hundred yards in extent; the
caves of the Gower peninsula, in Glamorganshire (South Wales), which
have been carefully studied within the last few years by Messrs.
Falconer and Wood; in these were found flint instruments along with
bones of the _Elephas antiquus_ and the _Rhinoceros hemitæchus_, species
which were still more ancient than the mammoth and the _Rhinoceros
tichorhinus_; those of Kirkdale, in Yorkshire, explored by Dr. Buckland,
the geologist; those near Wells in Somersetshire, Wokey Hole, Minchin
Hole, &c.
We must mention, in the north of Italy, the caves of Chiampo and Laglio,
on the edge of the Lake of Como, in which, just as at Vergisson,
fragments of rough pottery have been discovered, indicating some degree
of progress in the manufacture; also the caves in the neighbourhood of
Palermo, and especially those of San Ciro and Macagnone.
In the last-mentioned cave, in the midst of an osseous _breccia_ which
rose to the roof, Dr. Falconer collected flint instruments, splinters of
bone, pieces of baked clay and wood charcoal mixed up with large
land-shells (_Helix vermiculata_), in a perfect state of preservation,
horses' teeth, and the excrements of the hyæna, all cemented together in
a deposit of carbonate of lime. In a lower bed were found the bones of
various species of the hippopotamus, the _Elephas antiquus_, and other
great mammals.
Lastly, Spain, Algeria, Egypt, and Syria also present to our notice
caves belonging to the Stone Age.
In the New World various bone-caverns have been explored. We must
especially mention Brazil, in which country Lund searched no less than
eight hundred caves of different epochs, exhuming in them a great number
of unknown animal species. In one of these caves, situated near the Lake
of Sumidouro, Lund found some human bones which had formed a part of
thirty individuals of different ages, and were "in a similar state of
decomposition, and in similar circumstances to the bones of various
extinct species of animals."
Thus far we have designedly omitted to mention the Belgian caves. They
have, in fact, furnished us with such remarkable relics of former ages
that, in dealing with them, we could not confine ourselves to a mere
notice. The caves in the neighbourhood of Liége, which were explored in
1833 by Schmerling, deserve to be described in some detail.
Schmerling examined more than forty caves in the Valley of the Meuse and
its tributaries. The access to some of these caves was so difficult that
in order to reach them it was necessary for the explorer to let himself
down by a cord, and then to crawl flat on his face through narrow
galleries, so as to make his way into the great chambers; there he was
obliged to remain for hours, and sometimes whole days, standing up to
his knees in mud, with water dripping from the walls upon his head,
while overlooking the workmen breaking up with their pick-axes the layer
of stalagmite, so as to bring to light the bone earth--the records on
which are inscribed the palpable evidences of the high antiquity of man.
Schmerling was compelled to accomplish a perilous expedition of this
kind in his visit to the cave of Engis, which has become celebrated by
the two human skulls found there by him.
Nearly all the caves in the province of Liége contain scattered bones of
the great bear, the cave-hyæna, the mammoth, and the rhinoceros,
intermixed with those of species which are still living, such as the
wolf, the wild boar, the roe, the beaver, the porcupine, &c. Several of
them contained human bones, likewise much scattered and rubbed; they
were found in all positions, and at every elevation, sometimes above and
sometimes below the above-mentioned animal remains; from this it may be
concluded that these caves had been filled with running water, which
drifted in all kinds of _débris_. None of them, however, contained any
gnawed bones, or the fossil excrement of any animal species, which puts
an end to the hypothesis that these caves had been used as dens by wild
beasts. Here and there bones were found belonging to the same skeleton,
which were in perfect preservation, and lying in their natural
juxtaposition; they were probably drifted into the cave by gently
flowing water, while still covered with their flesh, and no movement of
the ground had since separated them. But no complete skeleton has as yet
been discovered, even among the smaller species of mammiferous animals,
the disjunction of which is generally less complete.
In almost all the caves Schmerling met with flint implements chipped
into the form of hatchets and knives, and he calls attention to the fact
"that none of them could have been introduced into the caves at a
posterior epoch, as they were found in the same position as the animal
remains which accompanied them." In the cave of Clokier, about two and a
half miles from Liége, he picked up a polished bone in the shape of a
needle, having an eye pierced at the base; in the cave of Engis he
likewise found a carved bone, and also some worked flints.
We here close our enumeration of the various sources of the
archæological records which have served to reconstruct the history of
primitive man during that period of the stone age which we have
designated under the name of the epoch of the great bear and the
mammoth. Before concluding our remarks as to this period, there is one
question which we must enter upon, although there is a great deficiency
in any positive records by which it might be solved. What was the
organic type of man during this epoch? Could we, for instance, determine
what amount of intellect man possessed in this earliest and ancient date
of his history?
The answer to this question--although a very uncertain answer--has been
supposed to have been found in the caves of Engis and Engihoul, of which
we have just spoken as having been explored by Schmerling with such
valuable results.
The cave of Engis contained the remains of three human beings, among
which were two skulls, one that of a youth, the other that of an adult.
The latter only was preserved, the former having fallen into dust while
it was being extracted from the ground. Two small fragments of a human
skull were likewise found at Engihoul; also a great many of the bones of
the hands and feet of three individuals.
The Engis skull has been a subject of protracted argument to the
palæontologists and anatomists of the present day. Floods of ink have
been spilt upon the question; discussions without end have taken place
with respect to this piece of bone, in order to fix accurately the
amount of intellect possessed by the inhabitants of Belgium during the
epoch of the great bear and the mammoth. Up to a certain point the
development of the brain may, in fact, be ascertained from the shape of
the cranial envelope, and it is well known that a remarkable similarity
exists between the cerebral capacity and the intellectual development of
all mammiferous animals. But in a question of this kind we must
carefully avoid a quicksand on which anthropologists too often make
shipwreck; this danger consists in basing a theory on a too limited
number of elements, and of generalising conclusions which are perhaps
drawn from one special case. Because we find a portion of a skull--not
even a whole skull--belonging to a human being contemporary with the
great bear, we assume that we can determine the amount of intellect
possessed by man during this epoch. But what proof have we that this
skull is not that of an idiot, or, on the contrary, the skull of an
individual possessing a superior degree of intelligence? What deduction
can be logically drawn from the examination of one single skull? None
whatever! "_Testis unus testis nullus_;" and what is said by
jurisprudence, which is nothing but good sense in legal
matters--science, which is nothing but good sense in learned questions,
ought likewise to repeat. If we found ten or twelve skulls, each
presenting the same characteristics, we should be justified in thinking
that we had before our eyes the human type corresponding to the epoch we
are considering; but, we again ask, what arguments could be based on a
few fragments of one single skull?
These reservations having been laid down, let us see what some of our
great anatomical reasoners have thought about the Engis skull.
The representation which we here give (fig. 37) of the Engis skull was
taken from the cast in the Museum of Saint-Germain, and we may perceive
from it that the skull is not complete; the entire base of the skull is
wanting, and all the bones of the face have disappeared. Consequently it
is impossible either to measure the facial angle or to take account of
the development of the lower jaw.
[Illustration: Fig. 37.--Portion of a Skull of an Individual belonging
to the Epoch of the Great Bear and the Mammoth, found in the Cave of
Engis.]
We shall not, therefore, surprise any of our readers when we state that
the opinions on this subject differ in the most extraordinary degree.
In the eyes of Professor Huxley, the English anatomist, this skull
offers no indication of degradation; it presents "a good average," and
it might just as well be the head of a philosopher as the head of an
uncivilised savage. To others--for instance, to Carl Vogt--it indicates
an altogether rudimentary degree of intellect.
Thus Hippocrates-Huxley says _yes_, Galen-Vogt says _no_, and
Celsus-Lyell says neither _yes_ nor _no_. This causes us but little
surprise, but it induces us not to waste more time in discussing a
question altogether in the dark, that is, upon altogether incomplete
data.
[Illustration: Fig. 38.--Portion of the so-called Neanderthal Skull.]
We will now turn our attention to another skull, equally celebrated,
which was found in 1857 by Dr. Fuhlrott, near Dusseldorf, in a deep
ravine known by the name of Neanderthal. This skull (fig. 38) was
discovered in the midst of a small cave under a layer of mud about 5
feet in thickness. The entire skeleton was doubtless buried on the same
spot, but the workmen engaged in clearing out the cave must have
inadvertently scattered a great portion of the bones, for the largest
only could be collected.
It is well to call attention to the fact that no animal remains were
found near these bones; there is, therefore, no certain proof that the
latter can be assigned to the epoch of the great bear: they might, in
fact, be either more recent or more modern. Most geologists are,
however, of opinion that they ought to be referred to the above-named
early date.
The Neanderthal skull, of which we possess even a smaller portion than
of the preceding, differs from the Engis skull. It is characterised by
an extraordinary development of the frontal sinuses; that is, by an
enormous projection of the superciliary ridges, behind which the frontal
bone presents a considerable depression. The cranium is very thick, and
of an elongated elliptical shape; the forehead is narrow and low.
These remarks were made by Professor Schaaffhausen, who also established
the fact of the identity in length of the femur, the humerus, the
radius, and the ulna, with the same bones of a modern European of equal
size. But the Prussian _savant_ was surprised at the really remarkable
thickness of these bones, and also at the large development of the
projections and depressions which served for the insertion of the
muscles.
Fig. 38 represents this skull, which is drawn from the cast in the
Museum of St. Germain.
Professor Schaaffhausen's opinion with regard to this skull is, that it
manifests a degree of intelligence more limited than that of the races
of negroes who are least favoured by nature, in other words, it
approaches the nature of the beast more nearly than any other known
human skull. But, on the other hand, Mr. Busk and Dr. Barnard Davis look
upon this skull as very closely allied to the present race of men; and
Professor Gratiolet produced before the Anthropological Society of Paris
an idiot's head of the present day, which showed all the osteological
characteristics peculiar to the Neanderthal skull. Lastly, an
anthropologist of great authority, Dr. Pruner-Bey, has brought forward
all requisite evidence to prove that the Neanderthal skull is identical,
in all its parts, with the cranium of the Celt.
We see, therefore, that the opinion propounded by Dr. Schaaffhausen at
the commencement of his studies was not able to stand its ground before
the opposition resulting from subsequent labours on the point; and that
this head of a man belonging to the epoch of the great bear and mammoth,
which he regarded as manifesting the most limited amount of
intelligence, differed in no way from the heads belonging to Celts of
historic times, whose moral qualities and manly courage make Frenchmen
proud to call themselves their descendants.
We need scarcely add that the examination of this latter skull, which
dated back to the first origin of mankind, is sufficient to set at
naught all that has been written as to the pretended analogy of
structure existing between primitive man and the ape, and to wipe out
for ever from scientific phraseology the improper and unhappy term
_fossil man_, which has not only been the cause of so many lamentable
misunderstandings, but has also too long arrested the formation and the
progress of the science of the first starting-point of man.
Other remains of human skulls, appearing to date back to a very ancient
epoch, have been found in various countries, since the discovery of
those above-named. We will mention, a jaw-bone found by M. Édouard
Dupont in the cave of Naulette, near Dinant, in Belgium--a frontal and
parietal bone, extracted from the _Lehm_ in the valley of the Rhine, at
Eggisheim near Colmar, by Dr. Faudel--a skull found by Professor Bocchi,
of Florence, in the Olmo pass, near Arezzo--lastly, the celebrated
jaw-bone from Moulin-Quignon, near Abbeville, found in 1863 by Boucher
de Perthes, in the _diluvium_, of which bone we have given an
illustration in the introduction to this volume. It is acknowledged by
all anthropologists that this portion of the skull of the man of
Moulin-Quignon bears a perfect resemblance to that of a man of small
size of the present age.
From the small number of skulls which we possess, it is impossible for
us to estimate what was the precise degree of intelligence to be
ascribed to man at the epoch of the great bear and mammoth. No one,
assuredly, will be surprised at the fact, that the human skull in these
prodigiously remote ages did not present any external signs of great
intellectual development. The nature of man is eminently improvable; it
is, therefore, easily to be understood, that in the earliest ages of his
appearance on the earth his intelligence should have been of a limited
character. Time and progress were destined both to improve and extend
it; the flame of the first-lighted torch was to be expanded with the
lapse of centuries!
II.
EPOCH OF THE REINDEER, OR OF MIGRATED ANIMALS.
CHAPTER I.
Mankind during the Epoch of the Reindeer--Their Manners and
Customs--Food--Garments--Weapons, Utensils, and Implements--
Pottery--Ornaments--Primitive Arts--The principal Caverns--
Type of the Human Race during the Epoch of the Reindeer.
We have now arrived at that subdivision of the stone age which we
designate by the name of the _Reindeer Epoch_, or the _Epoch of migrated
animals_. Many ages have elapsed since the commencement of the
quaternary geological epoch. The mighty animals which characterised the
commencement of this period have disappeared, or are on the point of
becoming extinct. The great bear (_Ursus spelæus_) and the cave-hyæna
(_Hyæna spelæa_) will soon cease to tread the soil of our earth. It will
not be long before the final term will be completed of the existence of
the cave-lion (_Felis spelæa_), the mammoth, and the _Rhinoceros
tichorhinus_. Created beings diminish in size as they improve in type.
To make up for these losses, numerous herds of reindeer now inhabit the
forests of western Europe. In that part of the continent which was one
day to be called France, these animals make their way as far as the
Pyrenees. The horse (_Equus caballus_), in no way different from the
present species, is the companion of the above-named valuable ruminant;
also the bison (_Biso europæus_), the urus (_Bos primigenius_), the
musk-ox (_Ovibos moschatus_), the elk, the deer, the chamois, the ibex,
and various species of rodents, amongst others, the beaver, the
hamster-rat, the lemming, the spermophilus, &c.
After the intense cold of the glacial period the temperature has become
sensibly milder, but it is still much lower than at the present day in
the same countries; as the reindeer, an animal belonging to a
hyperborean climate, can both enjoy life and multiply in the
comparatively southern part of Europe.
The general composition of the _fauna_ which we have just described is a
striking proof of the rigorous cold which still characterised the
climate of central Europe. Animals which then inhabited those countries
are now only met with in the high northern latitudes of the old and new
worlds, in close proximity to the ice and snow, or on the lofty summits
of great mountain-chains. To localities of this kind have now retired
the reindeer, the musk-ox, the elk, the chamois, the wild-goat, the
hamster-rat, the lemming and the spermophilus. The beaver, too, is at
the present day confined almost entirely to Canada.
Mr. Christy, an English naturalist, has remarked with much acuteness
that the accumulations of bones and other organic remains in caves
actually imply the existence of a rigorous climate. Under the influence
of even a merely moderate temperature, these accumulations of bones and
animal remains would, in fact, have given forth putrid exhalations which
would have prevented any human being from living in close contiguity to
these infectious heaps. The Esquimaux of the present day live, in this
respect, very much like the people of primitive ages, that is, close by
the side of the most fetid _débris_; but, except in the cold regions of
the north, they would be quite unable to do this.
[Illustration: Fig. 39.--Man of the Reindeer Epoch.]
What progress was made by the man of the reindeer epoch (fig. 39) beyond
that attained by his ancestors? This is the question we are about to
consider. But we must confine the sphere of our study to the only two
countries in which a sufficient number of investigations have been made
in respect to the epoch of the reindeer. We allude to that part of
Europe which nowadays forms France and Belgium.
During the reindeer epoch, man wrought the flint to better effect than
in the preceding period. He also manufactured somewhat remarkable
implements in bone, ivory, and reindeers' horn. In the preceding period,
human bones were found in caves, mixed up indiscriminately with those of
animals; in the epoch we are now considering, this promiscuous
intermingling is no longer met with.
We shall first pass in review man as existing in this epoch, in respect
to his habitation and food. We shall then proceed to speak of the
productions of his industry, and also of the earliest essays of his
artistic genius. Lastly, we shall briefly consider his physical
organisation.
With respect to his habitation, man, during the reindeer epoch, still
took up his abode in caves. According to their depth and the light
penetrating them, he either occupied the whole extent of them or
established himself in the outlet only. About the centre of the cavern
some slabs of stone, selected from the hardest rocks, such as sandstone
or slate, were bedded down in the ground, and formed the hearth for
cooking his food. During the long nights of winter the whole family must
have assembled round this hearth.
Sometimes, in order the better to defend himself against the various
surprises to which he was exposed, the man of the reindeer epoch
selected a cavern with a very narrow inlet which could only be entered
by climbing.
A cave formed naturally in the deepest clefts and hollows of some rock
constituted, in every climate, the earliest habitation of man. In cold
climates it was necessary for him to find some retreat in which to pass
the night, and in warmer latitudes he had to ward off the heat of the
day. But these natural dwellings could only be met with in districts
where rocks existed which offered facilities for cover in the way of
clefts and holes. When man took up his abode in a level country, he was
compelled to construct for himself some place of shelter. By collecting
together stones, brought from various directions, he then managed to
build an artificial cavern. Choosing a spot where some natural
projection overhung the ground, he enlarged, as far as he was able, this
natural roof, and, bringing art to the assistance of nature, he
ultimately found himself in possession of a convenient retreat.
We must not omit to add that the spot in which he established his
dwelling was always in the vicinity of some running stream.
In this way, therefore, the inhabitants of the plains formed their
habitations during the epoch which we are considering.
We have, also, certain proofs that primitive tribes, during this period,
did not take up their abode in natural caverns exclusively, but that
they were able to make for themselves more convenient sheltering-places
under the cover of some great overhanging rock. In various regions of
France, especially in Périgord, numerous ancient open-air human
settlements have been discovered. They must have been mere sheds or
places of shelter, leaning against the base of some high cliff, and
protected against the inclemency of the weather by projections of the
rock which, more or less, hung over them, forming a kind of roof. The
name of _rock-shelters_ has been given to these dwel
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