Fig. 16.Fig. 16.Danish Axe-Hammer, Drilled for Handle.
Some idea may be had of the vast number of stone implements which occur, when it is considered that in the Museum of Copenhagen there are about twelve thousand, consisting of flint axes, wedges, broad, narrow, and hollow chisels; poniards, lance-heads, arrow-heads, flint flakes, and half-moon-shaped implements. In other collections in Denmark there are twenty thousand implements. The museum at Stockholm contains about sixteen thousand, and the Royal Irish Academy owns seven hundred flint-flakes, five hundred and twelve celts, more than four hundred arrow-heads, fifty spear-heads, seventy-five scrapers, and numerous other objects of stone, such as sling-stones, hammers, whetstones, grain-crushers, etc.[75]Some of these implements, however, may belong to other epochs.
War must have been carried on to a considerable extent, as fortified camps have been discovered in Belgium, at Furfooz, and other places. Their weapons were the axe, the arrow, the spear, and possibly the knife. These were wrought with great care.
Agriculture.—Man commenced to till the ground in this age, and thus laid the true foundation of civilization. He probably was forced to do it. The beasts of the forest were gradually decreasing. They had nourished him in the infancy of his mind, and now he should begin to look to the soil, and by the cultivation of its products he must sustain his life. His principal implement of agriculture must have been the sharpened stick, pointed with deer-horn. He cultivated the cereals, made his corn-mill, and stored the grain for winter use.
Burial.—How the colonists of the lake-dwellings disposed of their dead is unknown. In Denmark, and many other places, the dead were buried in dolmens or tumuli. A dolmen is a monument consisting of several perpendicular stones covered with a great block or slab. When it is surrounded by circles of stone it takes the namecromlech. The dolmens occur also in Scandinavia, France, and Brittany. They were formerly considered to have been Druidical sacrificial altars. They were usually covered over with earth, and in them were buried from one to twenty persons, accompanied with their implements. When a person died, the tomb was reopened to receive the new occupant. At such a time fire was used for the purpose of purifying the atmosphere of the tomb. In Brittany, in the vicinity of the tombs, there were set up in the ground enormous blocks of stone, that have received the name ofmenhirs, the most noted of which is that at Carnac. When these dolmens remain in the state in which they were left, still covered with earth, they take the name oftumuli. Comparatively few of the tumuli belong to the neolithic. In these, large numbers of bodies have been found, and none of them in a natural position, but cramped up and their heads resting between the knees.
Judging from the calcined bones, which are frequently met with at the tomb, it may be inferred that victims were offered during the funeral ceremonies, perchance a slave, or the widow. Lubbock is of opinion that when a woman diedin giving birth to a child, or even while still suckling it, the child was interred alive with her.[76]
This hypothesis is substantiated by the great number of cases in which the skeleton of a woman and child have been found together. In the ceremonies at the tomb, some read the belief in a future state of existence. The evidence, however, is no clearer than that in the previous epochs. Man undoubtedly had such a belief, but science does not reveal it.
The Age of Bronze bears no direct relation to the antiquity of man, for it is largely embraced in written history. Although history does not record the events of the age of bronze in Western Europe, yet history covers the time which embraces the use of bronze. This epoch has more to do with the archæologist than the geologist. It is marked by the abundance of swords, spears, fish-hooks, sickles, knives, ornaments, and other articles made of bronze. The bronze implements are principally found in England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Denmark, Norway, Italy, and Switzerland. The lake-settlements of Switzerland known to belong to this epoch are: Geneva, ten settlements; Neuchatel, twenty-five settlements; Bienne, ten settlements; Morat, three settlements; and Sempach, two settlements. To these may be added some of the crannoges of Ireland; also many tumuli and mounds.
Type.—The man of this epoch was not unlike that of the preceding. His head was rather broad than long, he was small, energetic, and muscular; his hands were small, as is proven by the remarkably small handles of their swords, which are too small for a hand of the present day. This type of man has maintained itself in the north of Switzerland to the present time.
Habitations and Food.—The caves and rock-shelters gave way entirely to the rude huts which now protected man. If they were resorted to, it was only from some peculiar cause or danger. The food was the same as in the neolithic, with additions to the cereals.
Clothing.—The skins of animals were used less than formerly for clothing. Garments made of other material have been found, and even the whole dress of a chief. In a tumulus of Jutland there were found a thick woollen cap, a coarse woollen cloak (Fig. 17), semicircular in form, scalloped out round the neck, shaggy in the inside, three feet four inches long, and wide in proportion; two woollen shawls, a woollen shirt, woollen leggings, and the remains of a pair of leather boots. Fibrous plants also contributed to the comfort of man, and were possibly used for summer wear, and under garments in winter.
Fig. 17.Fig. 17.Woollen Cloak of the Bronze Epoch, Found in 1861, in a Tumulus in Jutland.
Implements.—The people of this age made great improvements in their weapons, tools, and ornaments. They consist of bronze celts, swords, hammers, knives, hair-pins, small rings, ear-rings, bracelets, fish-hooks, awls, spiral-wires, lance-heads, arrow-heads, buttons, needles, various ornaments, saws, daggers, sickles, and double-pointed pins. There were also ornaments of gold. Only one implement, a winged celt, has been found, which bore an inscription.
Arts.—Progress was made in the art of weaving. Soldering and the moulding of metal were practised; foundries were established, the remains of which have been discovered at Devaine and Walflinger in Switzerland; stone moulds were used, one of which, on trial, produced a hatchet exactly similar to those which have been collected. The moulds were usually made out of sand. The crucible used for the melting of the metal was made out of pottery which was placed over a hole in the earth filled with burning charcoal; when the metal was melted, it was poured into the mould. Pottery took new shapes and was adorned with various patterns. Glass, which has so long been ascribed to Phœnician origin, was invented in the bronze age, for glass beads, of a blue or green color, have been found in the tombs of this epoch.
Agriculture.—The cereals attest to the tilling of the soil. The ground was prepared by the projecting branch of a stem of the tree, used as a plough. The grain was stored for winter use, and when required was crushed by being rubbed between two stones serving as a mortar.
Fishing and Navigation.—There are no distinct traces of improvement beyond the past epoch, in fishing and navigation, unless it be in the improved hooks made of bronze.
Burial.—The custom of burning the dead was almost universal in Denmark, and was more or less practised in other countries. The ashes and fragments of the bone were collected and placed either in or under an urn. When buried, the corpse was usually placed in a contracted position, but occasionally extended. With the dead were buried their implements and clothing. The body of the chief discovered in a tumulus in Jutland, where the clothing was found, was buried in a coffin nine and two-third feet long, over two feet in breadth, and covered by a movable lid. The body was in a good state of preservation, owing to the action on it of water strongly impregnated with iron. It was wrapped in the woollen cloak, and again wrapped in an ox's hide. Buried with it were the shawls, leggings, shirt, boots, andcaps, two small boxes, a bronze razor, comb, a bronze sword in a wooden sheath, and a long woollen band. In other coffins have been found swords, knives, brooches, awls, tweezers, and buttons, all of bronze. In a baby's coffin was found an amber bead, and a small bronze bracelet.
Religious Belief.—Many crescents, made of stone and earthenware, have been found which are regarded, by some archæologists, as religious emblems. Dr. Keller calls them "moon images," and has devoted a short chapter to their consideration.[77]On the other hand, Lubbock and Carl Vogt regard them as resting-places for the head at night.[78]They carefully arranged their long hair, and evidently sacrificed comfort for vanity. They carried a long pin with which to scratch the head. This kind of a pillow is still used by the Fuegeans and Abyssinians, who have their hair elaborately decorated; and in some cases this is never disturbed. If the people were worshippers the crescent is the only evidence from archæology. No idols have ever been discovered. That the people were already worshippers may be learned from the traditions recorded in history.
As theIron Epochfairly establishes civilization, and belongs almost wholly to the historical epoch, it will be here briefly noticed, and then dismissed after giving a quotation from Dr. Keller. The bronze had not only prepared the way for the iron epoch, but also gave a great impulse to succeeding ages. The art of metallurgy assumed a new importance and gave new life to every movement that tended to the assistance of man. The works of bronze gave way to those of iron. A knife made of iron is represented in Fig. 18. Knives of this pattern were, however, made of bronze, and served for the same purpose. The workshops of this age were so numerous that four hundred of them have been discovered in one province. The potter's wheel was invented; money was introduced, and agriculture greatly nourished.
Fig. 18.Fig. 18.A Knife of the Iron Epoch.
Some of the Swiss lake-dwellings of Neuchatel and Bienne belong to this epoch. Dr. Keller, in summing up some of his observations, has made use of the following language: "The phenomenon of the lake-dwellings, so important in the history of civilization, the time of their first establishment, their original design, their development, and their final extinction,in spite of many accumulated facts, is in many respects clouded in doubt.... It is certain from the very beginning of this peculiar mode of living to the latest period of its existence, while outward circumstances remained the same, a quiet advance to a better development of the conditions of life may be observed, in which there was neither retrogression nor any sudden advance by the intervention of foreign elements. The general diffusion of metals in a country which had none, is explained simply by the barter which existed throughout Europe in the very earliest ages. The question why the inhabitants of a lake-dwelling of the stone age abandoned their settlements, while those of another, not many hours' or many minutes' walk distant, remained quietly living on their platforms, is of no greater importance than the inquiry why, during the middle ages, so many localities have disappeared, the names and situations of which are known to us. The presence of objects of industry on the area of the lake-dwellings has nothing in it very surprising, if we consider what misfortunes villages of straw-covered huts were exposed to, in which not only the houses themselves, but even the platforms on which they stood, were formed of very combustible materials. It is possible, if we are to take Cæsar's account literally, that when the Helvetii, whose arrival in the country is neither mentioned in history nor shown by archæology, withdrew, the lake-dwellings then existing were, as a whole, burned down; but there can also be no doubt that some remained standing, or were rebuilt after the return of the population. Their continuing down to the Roman time is only astonishing to any one who imagines that at this time the whole population had gone over to the Roman manner of life, while the proof lies before him that the lower class adhered to their own manners and customs till the entrance of the German races."[79]
America furnishes a better field for the antiquary than the old world. Her ancient remains are not so much injured by the decay of empires and the rude hand of war. Succeeding ages have not so much effaced these marks, and many of the remains still stand as left by the original occupants, save only the change and decay which time itself produces. America will yet be discovered. It is true the landmarks are known; but these have not been investigated so diligently as the remains of man in Europe. The Boucher de Perthes and the Dr. Schmerling are yet to come. Until they do, the history of primitive man in America must be surrounded with great uncertainty. Much labor has been given to the investigation of this subject, and many works written, all looking toward an early development which must sooner or later come.
In this chapter the aim will only be to point out some of these traces.
Enumeration.—The implements from the gravel beds of Colorado and the skull from Calaveras county, California, have already been referred to (pp. 61, 62).
Near Osage Mission, Kansas, there was found a human skull imbedded in a solid rock, which was broken open by blasting. It was examined by Dr. Weirley, who compared it with a modern skull, and found it resembled the latter in general shape, yet it was an inch and a quarter longer. Of this relic he says: "It belonged to a man of a large size, and was imbedded in conglomerate rock of the tertiary class,and found several feet beneath the surface. Parts of the frontal, parietal, and occipital bones were carried away by the explosion. The piece of rock holding the remains weighs some forty or fifty pounds, with many impressions of marine shells, and through it runs a vein of quartz, or within the cranium crystallized organic matter, and by the aid of a microscope presents a beautiful appearance." In shape the Neanderthal man comes nearest to it.[80]
In the Comstock lode (Nevada), at a depth of five hundred feet, Judge A. W. Baldwin found a human skull of unusual and peculiar shape. It is very short from base to summit, and exceedingly broad between the ears. The skull is entire, with the exception of the facial bones. This skull has never been examined by a competent person.[81]
In the drift-clay, in the city of Toronto, at a depth of two feet from the surface, were discovered the bones and horn of a deer, amidst an accumulation of charcoal and ashes, and with them a rude stone chisel or hatchet.[82]
In the gravel of the gold-bearing quartz of the Grinell leads (Kansas), was found an imperfect flint knife at a depth of fourteen feet. Above the implement the gravel, composed of quartz and reddish clay, was ten feet thick, and above this was four feet of rich black soil. This implement was given to Dr. Daniel Wilson by Mr. P. A. Scott.[83]
Dr. Dickeson found, in the yellow loam of the Mississippi at Natchez, a human pelvic bone along with the bones of the mastodon and megalonyx. They were found at a depth of thirty feet from the surface, and the human bone had the same black color which characterized the others. Sir Charles Lyell calculated that it required sixty-seven thousand years to form the delta of the Mississippi, but admits, if the conclusions arrived at by the United States engineers becorrect, in respect to the annual amount of sediment discharged at the delta, the growth would be reduced to thirty-three thousand five hundred years. Taking either of these estimates, the same would give the number of years which have elapsed since these bones were deposited.[84]
In an excavation made near New Orleans, at a depth of sixteen feet from the surface, beneath four cypress forests superimposed one upon the other, the workmen found a complete human skeleton, and some charcoal. The cranium is similar to the aboriginal type of the Indian race. This discovery furnished the data from which Dr. Bennet Dowler assigned to the human race an antiquity, in the delta of the Mississippi, of fifty-seven thousand years.[85]
Count Pourtalis found some fossil human remains, consisting of jaws, teeth, and some bones of the foot, in a calcareous conglomerate forming a part of the series of reefs of Florida. The whole series of reefs is of post-tertiary origin, and, according to Professor Agassiz, has been one hundred and thirty-five thousand years in forming. If this calculation be correct, then these bones must have an antiquity of ten thousand years.[86]
Dr. Lund, a Danish naturalist, explored eight hundred caverns in Brazil, belonging to different epochs, and exhumed in them a great number of unknown animal species. In a calcareous cave, near the lake of Semidouro, he found the bones of not less than thirty persons of different ages, and showing a similar state of decomposition to that of the bones of animals with which they were associated. From the discoveries there made, Lund was forced to the conclusion that man was cotemporaneous with the megatherium and the mylodon—animals belonging to the post-tertiary.[87]
The shell-heaps of America are coeval with those of Denmark. Those at Damariscotta, Maine, have been examined by Professor W. D. Gunning. He estimates that within, an area of one hundred rods in length, eighty in width there are piled one hundred million bushels of oyster shells. One dome-shaped hillock is nearly one hundred feet in height. The only human relics found among the shells are stone gouges, arrow-heads, bone needles, pottery, and copper knives. These shells were probably deposited by but a few individuals at a time. When formed, the oyster was a native of that coast, but within the memory of man the oyster has not lived there.
The Mound-Builders.—An ancient and unknown people of a certain degree of civilization have left remains of their greatness in the fortifications and mounds in the valleys of the Mississippi and its tributaries. These works extend over a great extent of territory. They are found in Western New York, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Texas, and along the Kansas, Platte, and other western rivers.
The people appear to have originated in Ohio. On the southern extremity the works gradually lose their distinctive character, and pass into the higher developed architecture of Mexico; and at the north, north-east, and north-west, the population seem to have been more limited and their works less perfectly developed. The people were preëminently given to agriculture; were not warlike, and only navigated the rivers along their settlements. The fertile valleys of the Scioto, two Miamis, Kanawaha, White, Wabash, Kentucky, Cumberland, and Tennessee rivers were densely populated, as indicated by the numerous works which diversify their surfaces.
The stone and bone implements from the mounds, in their shape differ but little from those of Europe. The hatchetsand knives are not only made of flint but also of obsidian, and other hard stones. Copper was the chief metallic substance. Out of this they made various implements, and swords. It was obtained from the shores of Lake Superior, where they carried on extensive mining. In these mines have been found their implements, some of which are very large diorite hatchets, used as sledges for breaking off lumps of copper, and so heavy that it would require more than one man to wield them. The copper was not subjected to heat, but it was hammered cold into such a shape as was desired.
Some idea of the number of the mounds and fortresses may be given from the statement that in the State of Ohio alone there are from eleven thousand to twelve thousand of these works. The fortresses were used for the protection of the people against the predatory warfare of the hostile tribes, or even, it may be, against the incursions made by other Mound-Builders. In regard to the mounds, there has been much speculation, and some archæologists divide them into sacrificial, sepulchral, temple, and symbolical.
Sacrificial.—The sacrificial mounds are characterized by "their almost invariable occurrence within enclosures; their regular construction in uniform layers of gravel, earth, and sand, disposed alternately in strata conformable to the shape of the mound; and their covering a symmetrical altar of burned clay or stone, on which are deposited numerous relics, in all instances exhibiting traces, more or less abundant, of their having been exposed to the action of fire."[88]Among the most remarkable are those found on the Scioto, at the place called Mound City situated on the western bank. The mounds are enclosed by a simple embankment, between three and four feet high. The area occupied is about thirteen acres, and includes twenty-four mounds. One of these is one hundred and forty feet in length, and the greatest breadth is sixty feet. In this mound occurred four successive altars, a bushel of fragments of spear-heads, over fifty quartz arrow-heads, and copper and other relics. The sacrificial deposits do not disclose a miscellaneous assemblage of relics, for on one altar hundreds of sculptured pipes chiefly occur; on another, pottery, copper ornaments, stone implements; on others, calcined shells, burned bones; and on others, no deposit has been noticed. The sacrificial mounds are found at Marietta and other localities.
All the investigations which have been made prove that the altars were not only used for a long period, but also had been repeatedly renewed.
Sepulchral.—The sepulchral mounds are numbered by the thousands. They are simple earth-pyramids, sometimes elliptical or pear-shaped, and vary in height from six to eighty feet. Usually they contain but one skeleton, reduced almost to ashes, but occasionally in its ordinary condition and in a crouching position. By the side of them occur trinkets, and, in a few cases, weapons. These mounds were probably only raised over the body of a chief or some distinguished person.
Temple.—The temple mounds are truncated pyramids, with paths or steps leading to the summit, and sometimes with terraces at different heights. Among the most noted of these is that of Cahokia in Illinois. It is seven hundred feet long at its base, five hundred feet wide, and ninety feet high. Its level summit is several acres in extent.
Symbolical.—The symbolical mounds consist of gigantic bas-reliefs formed on the surface of the ground, representing men, animals, and inanimate objects. In Wisconsin they exist in thousands, and among the devices are man, the lizard, turtle, elk, buffalo, bear, fox, otter, raccoon, frog, bird, fish, cross, crescent, angle, straight-line, war-club, tobacco-pipe, and other familiar implements or weapons.
In Dane county there is a remarkable group, consisting of six quadrupeds, six parallelograms, one circular tumulus, one human figure, and a small circle. The quadrupeds are fromone hundred to one hundred and twenty feet long, and the figure of the man measured one hundred and twenty-five feet in length and nearly one hundred and forty feet from the end of one arm to the other. Near the village of Pewaukee, when first discovered there were two lizards and seven tortoises. One of the latter measured four hundred and seventy feet.
In Adams county, Ohio, is the figure of a vast serpent; its head occupies the summit of a hill and in its distended jaws is a part of an oval-shaped mass of earth one hundred and sixty feet long, eighty wide, and four feet high. The body of the serpent extends round the hill for about eight hundred feet, forming graceful coils and undulations. Near Granville, Licking county, Ohio, on the summit of a hill two hundred feet high, is the representation of an alligator. Its extreme length is two hundred and fifty feet, average height four feet; the head, shoulders, and rump are elevated in parts to a height of six feet; the paws are forty feet long, the ends being broader than the links, as if the spread of the toes were originally indicated. Upon the inner side of the effigy is a raised space covered with stones which have been exposed to the action of fire; and from this leading to the top is a graded way ten feet in breadth. On examination it was discovered that the outline of the figure was composed of stones of considerable size, upon which the superstructure had been modelled in fine clay.
Antiquity.—There are methods of determining the antiquity of these mounds. Mr. E. G. Squier has pointed out three facts which go to prove that they belong to a distant period. 1. None of these ancient works occur on the lowest formed of the river terraces, which mark the subsidence of the streams. As these works are raised on all the others, it follows that the lowest terrace has been formed since the works were erected. The streams generally form four terraces, and the period marked by the lowest must be the longest because the excavating power of such streams grows less as the channels grow deeper. 2. The skeletons ofthe Mound-Builders are found in a condition of extreme decay. Only one or two skeletons have been recovered in a condition suitable for intelligent examination. The circumstances attending their burial were unusually favorable for preserving them. The earth around them has invariably been found wonderfully compact and dry; and yet, when exhumed, they have been in a decomposed and crumbling condition. 3. Their great age is shown by their relation to the primeval forests. As the Mound-Builders were a settled agricultural people, their enclosures and fields were cleared of trees, and remained so until deserted. When discovered by the Europeans these enclosures were covered by gigantic trees, some of them eight hundred years old. The trees which first made their appearance were not the regular forest trees. When the first trees that got possession of the soil had died away, they were supplanted, in many cases, by other kinds, till at last, after a great number of centuries, that remarkable diversity of species characteristic of North America would be established.[89]
Dr. Buchner assigns to them an antiquity of from seven thousand to ten thousand years.[90]
Fort Shelby, in Orleans county, New York, was carefully examined by Frank H. Cushing, the archæologist. The fort was found to be composed of two parallel circular walls, with a gateway in each. The gateway in the outer wall fronted a peat-bog, the shore of which was some ten feet distant. Within the enclosure he found small, flat, notched stones, used for sinking fishing-nets. Into the bog he sank a shaft to the depth of seven feet, not far from the shore. At the bottom of the shaft he found the shells of living species of shell-fish. The natural surroundings show that this fort was built when the peat-bog was a lake. This is further confirmed by the fact that all ancient works are erected near a permanent supply of water. The nearest permanent supply of water is Oak Orchard Creek, one and one-half mile distant. Theformation of this peat would require not less than four thousand years, and more probably twice that number.
The Mound-Builders must have remained a very long time. These works were formed gradually, and the population extended slowly toward the North. Their corn-fields, by their raised condition, show many successive years of usage.
Note A.—In reference to the fossil human bones from Florida Count L. F. Pourtales says: "The human jaw and other bones, found in Florida by myself in 1848, were not in a coral formation, but in a fresh-water sandstone on the shore of Lake Monroe, associated with fresh-water shells of species still living in the lake, (Paludina, Ampullaria, etc.) No date can be assigned to the formation of that deposit, at least from present observation."—American Naturalist, vol. II., p. 443.Note B.—Besides the evidences already enumerated, Col. Charles Whittlesey gives the following: 1. Three skeletons of Indians in a shelter cave near Elyria, O., were found four feet below the surface, resting upon the original floor of the cave, upon which were also charcoal, ashes, and the remains of existing animals; estimated age, two thousand years. 2. Several human skeletons were found in a cave near Louisville, Ky., cemented into a breccia. They were discovered in constructing the reservoir in 1853. 3. A log, worn by the feet of man, was found in the muck bed at High Rock Spring, Saratoga, N. Y., at a depth of nine feet beneath the cave, and estimated by Dr. Henry McGuire to be 5,470 years old. It was discovered in 1866. 4. Mr. Koch claims to have found an arrow head fifteen feet below the skeleton of theMastodon Ohioensisfrom the recent alluvium of the Pomme de Terre River, Mo., and now in the British Museum. His statement was, however, contradicted by one of the men who assisted him in exhuming the skeleton. 5. Dr. Holmes, of Charleston, S. C., found pottery at the base of a peat bog, on the banks of the Ashley River, in close connection with the remains of the Mastodon and Megatherium. 6. Col. Whittlesey, in 1838, found fire-hearths in the ancient alluvium of the Ohio, at Portsmouth, O., at a depth of twenty feet, and beneath the works of the Mound-Builders.—Col. Whittlesey before the American Association, in 1868.
Note A.—In reference to the fossil human bones from Florida Count L. F. Pourtales says: "The human jaw and other bones, found in Florida by myself in 1848, were not in a coral formation, but in a fresh-water sandstone on the shore of Lake Monroe, associated with fresh-water shells of species still living in the lake, (Paludina, Ampullaria, etc.) No date can be assigned to the formation of that deposit, at least from present observation."—American Naturalist, vol. II., p. 443.
Note B.—Besides the evidences already enumerated, Col. Charles Whittlesey gives the following: 1. Three skeletons of Indians in a shelter cave near Elyria, O., were found four feet below the surface, resting upon the original floor of the cave, upon which were also charcoal, ashes, and the remains of existing animals; estimated age, two thousand years. 2. Several human skeletons were found in a cave near Louisville, Ky., cemented into a breccia. They were discovered in constructing the reservoir in 1853. 3. A log, worn by the feet of man, was found in the muck bed at High Rock Spring, Saratoga, N. Y., at a depth of nine feet beneath the cave, and estimated by Dr. Henry McGuire to be 5,470 years old. It was discovered in 1866. 4. Mr. Koch claims to have found an arrow head fifteen feet below the skeleton of theMastodon Ohioensisfrom the recent alluvium of the Pomme de Terre River, Mo., and now in the British Museum. His statement was, however, contradicted by one of the men who assisted him in exhuming the skeleton. 5. Dr. Holmes, of Charleston, S. C., found pottery at the base of a peat bog, on the banks of the Ashley River, in close connection with the remains of the Mastodon and Megatherium. 6. Col. Whittlesey, in 1838, found fire-hearths in the ancient alluvium of the Ohio, at Portsmouth, O., at a depth of twenty feet, and beneath the works of the Mound-Builders.—Col. Whittlesey before the American Association, in 1868.
It is not generally known that written history extends so far back as to make worthless the present system of chronology. The mighty empires of antiquity must have been a mystery to many a thoughtful mind. As far back as history will carry us we not only behold the world teeming with her millions of people, but also nations rising and empires crumbling. Rollin felt the difficulties of the chronology which hampered him. He says the Assyrian empire was founded by Nimrod eighteen hundred years after the creation of man, or two hundred and twenty-four years after the Deluge, or one hundred and twenty-six years before the death of Noah. Nimrod was succeeded by his son Ninus, who received powerful succor from the Arabians, and extended his conquests from Egypt as far as India and Bactriana. Ninus enlarged his capital to sixty miles in circumference, built the walls to the height of one hundred feet, and so broad that three chariots could go abreast upon them with ease, and fortified and adorned them with one thousand five hundred towers two hundred feet high. After he had finished this prodigious work he led against the Bactrians one million seven hundred thousand foot, two hundred thousand horse, besides four hundred vessels well equipped and provided. After his death, Semiramis, his wife, ascended the throne. She enlarged her dominions by the conquest of a great part of Ethiopia. Then she led her army of three million foot and five hundred thousand horse, besides the camels and chariots of war, into India, where she suffered a severe defeat. Aftermaking these statements, Rollin says, "I must own I am somewhat puzzled with a difficulty which may be raised against the extraordinary things related of Ninus and Semiramis, as they do not seem to agree with the times so near the Deluge: I mean, such vast armies, such a numerous cavalry, so many chariots armed with scythes, and such immense treasures of gold and silver; ... and the magnificence of the buildings, ascribed to them."[91]The difficulties presented to the modern historian never would have occurred if discredit had not been thrown on the writings of the ancients.
Egypt.—The only history of Egypt, written in Greek, was that of Manetho, a high-priest of Heliopolis, who lived three hundred years before Christ. Only fragments of this work have been preserved. This history is taken from the ancient Egyptian chronicles, and records a list of thirty dynasties reigning in one city. His "thirty-one lists contain the names of one hundred and thirteen kings, who, according to them, reigned in Egypt during the space of four thousand four hundred and sixty-five years."[92]Dr. Buchner says Manetho "calculates for three hundred and seventy-five Pharaohs a reigning period of six thousand one hundred and seventeen years, which together with the present era, makes about eight thousand three hundred and thirty years."[93]Bayard Taylor makes Manetho assign the first dynasty to about the year 5000B. C.[94]
Herodotus says the Egyptians "declare that from their first king (Menes) to this last mentioned monarch (Sethos), the priest of Vulcan, was a period of three hundred and forty-one generations; such, at least, they say, was the number both of their kings and of their high-priests, during this interval. Now three hundred generations of men make ten thousandyears, three generations filling up the century; and the remaining forty-one generations make thirteen hundred and forty years. Thus the whole number of years is eleven thousand three hundred and forty." The priests "led me into the inner sanctuary, which is a spacious chamber, and showed me a multitude of colossal statues, in wood, which they counted up, and found to amount to the exact number they had said; the custom being for every high-priest during his life-time to set up his statue in the temple. As they showed me the figures and reckoned them up, they assured me that each was the son of the one preceding him; and this they repeated throughout the whole line, beginning with the representation of the priest last deceased, and continuing till they had completed the series."[95]From the time of Sethos, the priest of Vulcan, to the burning of the temple of Delphi, was one hundred and twenty-two years. The temple was burnedB. C.548. The period which, then, has elapsed from Sethos to the present (1875) is two thousand five hundred and forty-five years. Adding this to the time of Menes we have the whole period covering thirteen thousand eight hundred and eighty-five years. But if the generation be reduced to twenty years then the period from Menes to the present is nine thousand three hundred and sixty-five years.
The recent explorations made by Mariette among the archives of Egypt have confirmed the testimony of Manetho. The names of the kings, their order of succession, and the length of their reigns correspond with Manetho's table. These discoveries not only testify to the great antiquity of the empire, but also throw light on the nation, its manners, and customs. There were found stools, cane-bottomed chairs, work-boxes, nets, knives, needles, toilet ornaments, earthenware, seeds, eggs, bread, straw baskets, a child's plaything, paint boxes, with colors and brushes, etc., from three thousand to six thousand years old. Therewere also found the jewels of Queen Aah-hotep, who lived 1700B. C., consisting of exquisite chains, diadems, ear-rings, and bracelets, which no modern queen would hesitate to wear.
These statements are still further confirmed by the testimony of geology. In the year 1850 borings were commenced in the mud deposit of the Nile. The most important results were obtained from an excavation and boring made near the base of the pedestal of the statue of Rameses at Memphis, the middle of whose reign, according to Lepsius, was 1361B. C.Assuming with Mr. Horner that the lower part of the platform or foundation was fourteen and three-fourths inches below the surface of the ground, or alluvial flat, at the time it was laid, there had been formed between that period and the yearA. D.1850, or during the space of three thousand two hundred and eleven years, a deposit of nine feet four inches round the pedestal, which gives a mean increase of three and one-half inches in a hundred years. It was further ascertained, by sinking a shaft near the pedestal, and by boring in the same place, that below the level of the old plain the thickness of old Nile mud resting on desert sand amounted to thirty-two feet; and it was therefore inferred by Mr. Horner that the lowest layer (in which a fragment of burned brick was found) was more than thirteen thousand years old, or was deposited thirteen thousand four hundred and ninety-six years before the year 1850."[96]Other excavations were made on a large scale. In the first sixteen or twenty-four feet there were dug up jars, vases, pots, a small human figure in burnt clay, a copper knife, and other articles entire. When the water soaking through from the Nile hindered the progress of the workmen, boring was resorted to, and almost everywhere, and from all depths, even where they sank sixty feet below the surface, pieces of burned brick and pottery were extracted.[97]
Troy.—Troy, made immortal by the poem of Homer, has recently been uncovered to the eye of man, and fresh lustre has been thrown over the ancient bard. The descriptions of Troy given by Homer, thought to have been a mere work of imagination, are now shown to be accurate, and also that he must have been there. For the re-discovery and unearthing of Troy the world is indebted to Dr. Schlieman. Four buried cities superimposed one above the other were discovered. The third city, below the surface, is ancient Troy. The house of Priam, the Scæan gate, the massive walls and pavements, still remained. In the house of Priam Dr. Schlieman found a great mass of human bones, among them two entire skeletons wearing copper helmets, a silver vase, two diadems of golden scales, a golden coronet, fifty-six golden ear-rings, eight thousand seven hundred and fifty gold rings, buttons, etc. Immediately beside the house of Priam, closely packed in a quadrangular space, surrounded with ashes, and near by a copper key, were a large oval shield of copper, a copper pot, a copper tray, a golden flagon, weighing nearly a pound, several silver vases, a silver bowl, fourteen copper lance-heads, fourteen copper battle-axes, two large two-edged daggers, a part of a sword, and some smaller articles. The value, by weight alone, of all the gold and silver found in or near the house of Priam, has been estimated at twenty thousand dollars. During the excavations, over one hundred thousand articles were found. Every mark showed that Troy had been suddenly destroyed. Conflagration, ruin, the implements and the effects of war were visible. Even the brave warriors who fell while defending the palace of their king have not yet wholly crumbled into dust.
The four cities may be thus summed up: The topmost stratum is six and one-half feet in depth and covers the Grecian settlement which was established about the year 700B. C.Beneath the Greek masonry are found the walls of another city, built of earth and small stones, but theabundance of wood-ashes shows that the city—or the successive cities—was chiefly built of wood.
The ruins of Troy, next in succession, are from twenty-three and one-half to thirty-three and one-half feet from the surface, and form a stratum averaging ten feet in thickness. Troy is supposed to have been founded about1400 B. C., and its fall and destruction by fire to have occurred about 1100B. C.
Under Troy there is a fourth stratum of ruins, varying from thirteen to twenty feet in depth. The most remarkable feature of these oldest ruins is the superiority of the terracotta articles. These vases are of a shining black, red, or brown color, with ornamental patterns, first cut into the pottery, and then filled with a white substance. The age of these ruins "is a matter of pure conjecture, since the vicissitudes of the city's history—frequent destruction and rebuilding—would have the same practical effect, or very nearly so, as a long interval of time. We have anywhere from two to five thousand years before Christ as the date of the foundation of thefirstTroy."[98]
Chaldea.—Berosus, a Chaldean priest of Belus, nearly three hundred years before Christ, wrote in Greek a regular history of Chaldea, in nine books. The materials for this work were supplied by the archives then existing in the Temple of Belus at Babylon. The work was particularly devoted to a history of the kingdom prior to the beginning of the Assyrian empire. Fragments of this work have been preserved by Josephus and Eusebius. After describing the cyclical ages of ten fabulous kings, he then comes to what he considers true history, and enumerates one hundred and sixty-three kings of Chaldea, who reigned successively from the time when the list begins to the rise of the Assyrian empire, about the year 1237B. C.Berosus begins with a dynasty of eighty-six kings, and gives their names, which are now lost. He had no chronology of their time, but subjected it to a cyclical calculation. His list, which has so far escaped the lapse of time and the change of hands, is thus preserved:
First, eighty-six Chaldean kings; history and time mythical.
Second, eight Median kings; during two hundred and twenty-four years.
Third, eleven kings.
Fourth, forty-nine Chaldean kings.
Fifth, nine Arabian kings; during two hundred and forty-five years.
The rulers of the Assyrian empire were next added, as a sixth dynasty. The blank spaces in the list are doubtless the result of careless copying, or caused by imperfections in the manuscripts. In order to make the old kingdom of Chaldea begin about the year 2234B. C.the first eighty-six kings of Berosus have been struck out as fabulous, and the Median dynasty regarded as spurious, and this without any show of reason, save that it does not agree with the chronology which the mutilators of history accept.
Investigations which have been made among the ruined cities of Chaldea have given great weight to the authority of Berosus, and are tending to the confirmation of his history. In Susiana there was found a Cushite inscription, mentioned by Rawlinson, in which there is a date that goes back nearly to the year 3200B. C.The testimony of the records disentombed from the ruins, as well as Berosus, contradicts the prevalent hypothesis that the Magian or Aryan race occupied the country before the Cushites. These ruins also "confirm Berosus by showing that Chaldea was a cultivated and flourishing nation, governed by kings, long previous to the time when the city known to us as Babylon rose to eminence and became the seat of empire. During that long time there were several great political epochs in the history of the country, representing important dynastic changes, and several transfers of the seat of government from one city to another.Such epochs in Chaldean history are indicated by the list of Berosus."[99]
By this people, the science of astronomy was well understood. "Callisthenes, who accompanied Alexander to Babylon, sent to Aristotle from that capital a series of astronomical observations which he had found preserved there, extending back to a period of one thousand nine hundred and three years from Alexander's conquest of the city.... These observations were recorded in tablets of baked clay.... They must have extended, according to Simplicius, as far back as 2234B. C., and would seem to have been commenced and carried on for many centuries by the primitive Chaldean people." A lens of considerable power, used for either magnifying or condensing the rays of the sun, was found at Babylon, in a chamber of the ruin called Nimroud.[100]
China.—Litse, an eminent Chinese historian, relates that there were long periods of time when the Chinese kingdom flourished, the chronology of which is not preserved, although there is recorded some knowledge of the rulers. One of these rulers promoted the study of astronomy. Next come the historical epochs. During the first, astronomy, religion, and the art of writing were cultivated. This was a great epoch, and ruled by fifteen successive kings. In the second epoch, agriculture and medical science were promoted. In the third, the magnetic needle was discovered, the written characters improved, civilized life advanced, and a great revolt suppressed. In the fourth and fifth epochs, the descendants of the previous ruler reigned. Next came the period of Yao and Shin. After this the period of the "Imperial Dynasties," which began with the Emperor Yu, who lived two thousand two hundred years B. C. The historical work of Sse-ma-thi-an narrates events chronologically from the year 2637B. C.to 122B. C.[101]
Mexico.—It is known that books or manuscripts wereabundant among the ancient Mexicans. There were persons duly appointed to keep a chronicle of the passing events. Las Casas, who saw the books, says they gave the origin of the kingdom as well as the founders of the different cities, and every different thing which transpired that was worthy of note: such as the history of kings, their modes of election and succession; their labors, actions, wars, memorable deeds, good or bad; the heroes of other days, their triumphs and defeats. These chroniclers calculated the days, months, and years. Nearly all these books were destroyed at the instigation of the monks, and by the more ignorant and fanatical Spanish priests. A vast collection of these old writings were burned in one conflagration by order of Bishop Zumarraga. A few of the works, however, escaped, but none of the great books of annals described by Las Casas.[102]Thus Mexico must be left to the archæologist unassisted by written history.
The origin and growth of language evidently afford a great field for study, in not only tracing the development of civilization, but also in confirming the testimony of the ancients and the conclusions of the geologists. If the unity of language could not be established, there would still be left a field so great as would not lessen the interest or the importance of the subject. But a new language cannot be formed. For the sake of convenience the many varieties of language have been grouped into three great divisions,i. e., the Aryan, the Semitic, and the Turanian. "The English, together with all the Teutonic languages of the Continent, Celtic, Slavonic, Greek, Latin with its modern offshoots, such as French and Italian, Persian, and Sanskrit, are so many varieties of one common type of speech: that Sanskrit, the ancient language of the Veda, is no more distinct from the Greek of Homer, ... or from the Anglo-Saxon of Alfred, than French is from Italian. All these languages together form one family, one whole, in which every member shares certain features in common with all the rest, and is at the same time distinguished from the rest by certain features peculiarly its own. The same applies to the Semitic family which comprises, as its most important members, the Hebrew of the Old Testament, the Arabic of the Koran, and the ancient languages on the monuments of Phœnicia and Carthage, of Babylon and Assyria. These languages, again, form a compact family, and differ entirely from the other family, which we called Aryan or Indo-European. The thirdgroup of languages, for we can hardly call it a family, comprises most of the remaining languages of Asia, and counts among its principal members the Tungusic, Mongolic, Turkic, Samoyedic, and Finnic, together with the languages of Siam, the Malay Islands, Thibet, and Southern India. Lastly, the Chinese language stands by itself as monosyllabic, the only remnant of the earliest formation of human speech."[103]
Anterior to these three families there was still another from which these were derived. It contained the germs of all the Turanian, as well as the Aryan and Semitic forms of speech. It belongs to that period in the history of man when ideas were first clothed in language, and has been called the Rhematic Period.[104]
As regards the origin of language, three theories have been proposed: the Interjectional, the Imitation, and the Root. The first supposes that the beginnings of human speech were the cries and sounds which are uttered when a human being is affected by fear, pain, or joy. The second supposes "that man, being as yet mute, heard the voices of birds, and dogs, and cows, the thunder of the clouds, the roaring of the sea, the rustling of the forest, the murmurs of the brook, and the whisper of the breeze. He tried to imitate these sounds, and finding his mimicking cries useful as signs of the objects from which they proceeded, he followed up the idea and elaborated language." The third theory, advanced by Max Müller, is that language followed as the outward sign and realization of that inward faculty which is called the faculty of abstraction, and the roots, to which language may be reduced, express a general, not an individual idea.[105]
There is more or less truth in all these theories. At the very earliest period man must have possessed some method of communicating his wants or ideas. The casual observer has noticed that animals have methods of communicating with one another. It is not improbable that at the very earliest period man's only mode was that of cries and signs. This may have lasted for a very long time. Then the mimicking commenced. Next, comparison was resorted to when he had so far advanced as to describe his thoughts and, finally, from these various beginnings, from necessary or forced improvement, his ideas were expressed in root words.[106]
Instead of new languages originating, old languages change. They are mutable, and from them new dialects are produced. In the history of man there never has been a new language, and the languages now spoken are but the modifications of old ones. The words now used by all people, however broken up, crushed, or put together, are the same materials as were used in the beginnings of speech. New words are but old words; old in their material elements, though they may be renewed and dressed in various forms. "The modifiability of the language and its tendency to vary never cease, so that it would readily run into new dialects and modes of pronunciation if there were no communication with the mother country direct or indirect. In this respect its mutability will resemble that of species, and it can no more spring up independently in separate districts than species can, assuming that these last are all of derivative origin."[107]
There are from four thousand to six thousand living languages. The number of unspoken languages is not known. Their growth has required ages, and during their development many a parent stalk has ceased to exist. The changes in a language are slowly produced. It requires centuries to so far leave a language as to need an interpreter in order to understand it. Some idea of this slow change may be gained by comparing the writings in the English language of different periods. In the year 1362 appeared a poem called "Piers Ploughman's Creed," which begins as follows: