The Project Gutenberg eBook ofPrimitive ManThis ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.Title: Primitive ManAuthor: Louis FiguierRelease date: March 20, 2013 [eBook #42380]Most recently updated: October 23, 2024Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Chris Curnow, Christian Boissonnas and theOnline Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net(This file was produced from images generously madeavailable by The Internet Archive)*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRIMITIVE MAN ***
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.
Title: Primitive ManAuthor: Louis FiguierRelease date: March 20, 2013 [eBook #42380]Most recently updated: October 23, 2024Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Chris Curnow, Christian Boissonnas and theOnline Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net(This file was produced from images generously madeavailable by The Internet Archive)
Title: Primitive Man
Author: Louis Figuier
Author: Louis Figuier
Release date: March 20, 2013 [eBook #42380]Most recently updated: October 23, 2024
Language: English
Credits: Produced by Chris Curnow, Christian Boissonnas and theOnline Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net(This file was produced from images generously madeavailable by The Internet Archive)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRIMITIVE MAN ***
PRIMITIVE MAN.
Family of the Stone AgeA Family of the Stone Age (Frontispiece).
A Family of the Stone Age (Frontispiece).
By LOUIS FIGUIER.
Revised translation
ILLUSTRATED WITH THIRTY SCENES OF PRIMITIVE LIFE, ANDTWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY-THREE FIGURES OF OBJECTSBELONGING 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.
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TheEditor 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 ofa 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-historiclife 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.
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PAGE
THE STONE AGE.
I.
The Epoch of Extinct Species of Animals; or, of the Great Bear and Mammoth.
II.
Epoch of the Reindeer; or, of Migrated Animals.
III.
The Polished-stone Epoch; or, the Epoch of Tamed Animals.
THE AGE OF METALS.
I.
The Bronze Epoch.
II.
The Iron Epoch.
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