THE WORLD BEFORE HISTORY—IVThe World Before History--IVProfessor JOHANNES RANKEPRIMITIVE MAN IN THE PAST & THE PRESENT
THE WORLD BEFORE HISTORY—IV
The World Before History--IV
Professor JOHANNES RANKE
T
TO the picture of Drift Man that has been drawn for us by the discoveries of human activity in deposits of uniform character and sharply defined age, the much richer but far less reliable finds in the bone caves add scarcely any entirely new touches. Von Zittel says:
The evidence of the caves is unfortunately shaken by the uncertainty that, as a rule, prevails with regard to the manner in which their contents were washed into them or otherwise introduced, and also with regard to the beginning and duration of their occupation; moreover, later inhabitants have frequently mixed up their relics with the heritage of previous occupants.
The evidence of the caves is unfortunately shaken by the uncertainty that, as a rule, prevails with regard to the manner in which their contents were washed into them or otherwise introduced, and also with regard to the beginning and duration of their occupation; moreover, later inhabitants have frequently mixed up their relics with the heritage of previous occupants.
First Dwellers in Caves
This doubt strikes us particularly forcibly as regards man’s co-existence with the extinct animals of the earlier periods of the Drift, the Preglacial and Interglacial Periods. On the other hand, the habitation of the caves by man during the Reindeer Period appears in many cases to be perfectly established, and, according to Von Zittel, the oldest human dwellings in caves, rock-niches, and river-plains in Europe belong for the most part to the Reindeer Period—that is, the second Glacial and, in particular, the Postglacial Period.
In the caves there is also no domestic animal, and no pottery or trace of potsherds, in the best-defined strata where Drift Man has been found. In the Hohlefels cave, in the Ach valley in Swabia, a new utensil was found in the form of a cup for drinking purposes or for drawing water, made out of the back part of a reindeer’s skull. Also a new tool in the form of a fine sewing-needle with eye, from the long bone of a swan, such as have also been found in the caves of the Périgord. Teeth of the wild horse and lower jaws of the wildcat, which are found in the caves, perforated for suspending either as ornaments or amulets, are also hitherto unknown, it appears, in the stratified Drift. As both animals are at a later period connected with the deity and with witchcraft, one could imagine that similar primitive religious ideas existed among the old cave-dwellers. In the stratum of the Reindeer Period at the Schweizerbild, near Schaffhausen, Nüesch found a musical instrument, “a reindeer whistle,” and shells pierced for use as ornaments.
Drift Man’s Working Materials
The finds in the French cave districts prove that man was able to develop certain higher refinements of life, even during the Drift in the real flint districts—where a very suitable material was at man’s disposal in the flint that lay about everywhere or was easily dug up; which was worked with comparative ease into much more perfect and efficient weapons and implements than those supplied by the wilder stretches of moor and fen of Germany, with their scarcity of flint.
If we compare the small, often tiny, knives and flint flakes from the German places with the powerful axes and lance-heads of those regions, it is self-evident how much more laborious life must have been for the man who used the former. What labour he must have expended in carving weapons and implements out of bone and horn, while flint supplied the others with much better and more lasting ones with less expenditure of time and trouble! In this light a wealth of flint was a civilising factor of that period which is not to be under-estimated. In the flint districts not only are the stone implements better worked, answering in a higher degree the purpose of the weapon and the tool, but delight in ornament and decoration is also more prominent.
The Life in the CavesDrift Man as Artist
Life in the caves and grottos and under the rock shelters in the neighbourhood of rivers was by no means quite wretched. The remains left in the caves by their former inhabitants give almost as clear an idea of the life of man in those primeval times as the buried cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii do of the manners and customs of the Italians in the first century of the Christian era. The floors of these caves in which men formerly lived appear to consist entirely of broken bones of animals killed in the chase, intermixed with rude implementsand weapons of bone and unpolished stone, and also charcoal and large burnt stones, indicating the position of fireplaces. Flints and chips without number, rough masses of stone, awls, lance-heads, hammers, and saws of flint and chert lie in motley confusion beside bone needles, carved reindeer antlers, arrow-heads and harpoons, and pointed pieces of horn and bone; in addition to which are also the broken bones of the animals that served as food, such as reindeer, bison, horse, ibex, saiga antelope, and musk-ox. The reindeer supplied by far the greater part of the food, and must at that time have lived in Central France in large herds and in a wild state, all trace of the dog being absent.
Pictures from the Drift World
Among these abundant remains of culture archæologists were surprised to find real objects of art from the hand of Drift Man, proving that thinking about his surroundings had developed into the ability to reproduce what he saw in drawing and modelling. The first objects of this kind were found in the caves of the Périgord. They are, on the one hand, drawings scratched on stones, reindeer bones, or pieces of horn, mostly very naïve, but sometimes really lifelike, chiefly representing animals, but also men; on the other hand imitations plastically carved out of pieces of reindeer horn, bones, or teeth. Such engravings also occurred on pieces of ivory, and plastic representations in this material have been preserved. On a cylindrical piece of reindeer horn from the cave excavations in the Dordogne is the representation of a fish, and on the shovel-piece of a reindeer’s horn are the head and breast of an animal resembling the ibex. Illustrations of horses give faithful reproductions of the flowing mane, unkempt tail, and disproportionately large head of the large-headed wild horse of the Drift. The most important among these representations are such as endeavour to reproduce an historical event. An illustration of this kind represents a group consisting of two horses’ heads and an apparently naked male figure; the latter bears a long staff or spear in his right hand, and stands beside a tree, which is bent down almost in coils in order to accommodate itself to the limited space, and whose boughs, indicated by parallel lines, show it to be a pine or fir. Connected with the tree is a system of vertical and horizontal lines, apparently representing a kind of hurdlework. On the other side of the same cylindrical piece are two bisons’ heads. Doubtless this picture tells a tale; it is picture-writing in exactly the same sense as that of the North American Indians. Our picture already shows the transition to abbreviated picture-writing, as, instead of the whole animals—horses and bisons—only the heads are given. The message-sticks of the Australians bear certain resemblances; Bastian has rightly described them as the beginnings of writing.
If we have interpreted them aright, the finds that have been made, with the tally from the source of the Schussen and the message-stick from the caves of the Dordogne, place the art of counting, the beginnings of writing, the first artistic impulses, and other elements of primitive culture right back in the Drift period.
The Emerging of the Human Mind
“None of the animals whose remains lie in the Drift strata,” says Oscar Fraas, “were tamed for the service of man.” On the contrary, man stood in hostile relation to all of them and only knew how to kill them, in order to support himself with their flesh and blood and the marrow of their bones. It was not so much his physical strength which helped man in his fight for existence, for with few exceptions the animals he killed were infinitely superior to him in strength; indeed it is not easy, even with the help of powder and lead, to kill the elephant, rhinoceros, grizzly bear, and bison, or to hunt down the swift horse and reindeer. It was a question of finding out, with his mental superiority, the beast’s unguarded moments, and of surprising it or bringing it down in pits and snares. All the more wonderful does the savage of the European Drift Period appear to us, “for we see that he belongs to the first who exercised the human mind in the hard battle of life, and thereby laid the foundation of all later developments in the sense of progress in culture.” And yet, in the midst of this poor life, a sense of the little pleasures and refinements of existence already began to develop, as proved by the elegantly carved and decorated weapons and implements, and there were even growing a sense of the beauty of Nature and the power of copying it. The bone needles with eyes andthe fine awls are evidences of the art of sewing, and the numerous scrapers of flint and bone teach us that Drift Man knew how to dress skins for clothing purposes, and did it according to the method still used among the Esquimaux and most northern Indians at the present day. Spinning does not seem to have been known. On the other hand Drift Man knew how to twist cords, impressions and indentations of which are conspicuous on the bone and horn implements; on which also thread-marks were imitated as a primitive ornament. Pottery was unknown to Drift Man. Indeed, even to-day the production of pottery is not a commonly felt want of mankind. The leather bottle, made of the skin of some small animal stripped off whole without a seam, turned inside out as it were, takes the place of the majority of the larger vessels; on the other hand, liquids can also be kept for some time in a tightly-made wicker basket.
MercierPRIMITIVE NATURE FOLK ENGAGED IN FISHINGFrom the painting by Ferdinand Cormon.
Mercier
PRIMITIVE NATURE FOLK ENGAGED IN FISHING
From the painting by Ferdinand Cormon.
The art of plaiting was known to Drift Man. This is shown by the ornaments on weapons and implements, the plaiting-needle from the find at the source of the Schussen, and the hurdlework represented on the message-stick mentioned above, which may be either a hurdle made of boughs and branches or a summer dwelling house. To these acquirements, based chiefly on an acquaintance with serviceable weapons and implements, is added the art of representing natural objects by drawing and carving. This results in the attempt to retain historicalmomentain the form of abridged illustrations for the purpose of communicating them to others—incipient picture-writing. The tally shows the method of representing numbers—generally only one stroke each, but also two strokes connected by a line to form a higher unit. Of the art of building not a trace is left to us apart from the laying together of rough stones for fireplaces; nor have tombs of that period of ancient times been discovered.
MercierEARLY AGRICULTURISTS, WITH IMPLEMENTS OF BONE, STONE, AND BRONZEFrom the painting by Ferdinand Cormon.
Mercier
EARLY AGRICULTURISTS, WITH IMPLEMENTS OF BONE, STONE, AND BRONZE
From the painting by Ferdinand Cormon.
The civilisation of Drift Man and his whole manner of life do not confront the present human race as something strange, but fit perfectly into the picture exhibited by mankind at the present day. Drift Man nowhere steps out of this frame. Ifa European traveller were nowadays to come upon a body of Drift men on the borders of eternal ice, towards the north or south pole of our globe, nothing would appear extraordinary and without analogy to him; indeed it would be possible for him to come to an understanding with them by means of picture-writing, and to do business with them by means of the tally.
MercierAN EMIGRATION OF THE GAULS IN THE BRONZE AGEFrom the painting by Ferdinand Cormon.
Mercier
AN EMIGRATION OF THE GAULS IN THE BRONZE AGE
From the painting by Ferdinand Cormon.
The manner of life led by man beyond the borders of higher civilisation, especially under extreme climatic conditions, depends almost exclusively on his outward surroundings and the possibility of obtaining food. The Esquimaux, who, like Drift Man of Central Europe in former times, live on the borders of eternal ice with the Drift animals that emigrated thither,—the reindeer, musk-ox, bear, Arctic fox, etc.—are restricted, like him, to hunting and fishing, and to a diet consisting almost entirely of flesh and fat; corn-growing and the keeping of herds of domestic animals being self-prohibitive. Their kitchen refuse exactly resembles that from the Drift. Before their acquaintance with the civilisation of modern Europe they used stone andbone besides driftwood for making their weapons and implements, as they still do to a certain extent at the present day, either from preference or from superstitious ideas. Their binding material consisted of threads twisted from reindeer sinews, with which they sewed their clothes and fastened their harpoons and arrows, the latter resembling in form those of Drift Man. They knew no more than he the arts of spinning and weaving, their clothes being made from the skins of the animals they hunted; pots were unknown and unnecessary to them.
PRIMITIVE ART OF OUR OWN DAYThe picture-writing of the American Indians in our own day offers an interesting parallel to that of the primitive peoples of the remotest past. The Pawnees decorate their buffalo robes with such drawings as these, representing a procession of medicine men, the foremost giving freedom to his favourite horse as a sacrifice to the Great Spirit.
PRIMITIVE ART OF OUR OWN DAY
The picture-writing of the American Indians in our own day offers an interesting parallel to that of the primitive peoples of the remotest past. The Pawnees decorate their buffalo robes with such drawings as these, representing a procession of medicine men, the foremost giving freedom to his favourite horse as a sacrifice to the Great Spirit.
It has often been thought that we should have a definite criterion of the period if it could be proved that fresh mammoth ivory was employed at the particular time for making implements and weapons, or ornaments, carvings, and drawings. There can be no doubt that when Drift Man succeeded in killing a mammoth he used the tusks for his purposes. But on the borders of eternal ice, where alone we could now expect to find a frozen Drift Man, no conclusion could be drawn from objects of mammoth ivory being in the possession of a corpse to determine the great age of the latter. For the many mammoth tusks which have been found and used from time immemorial in North Siberia, on the New Siberian Islands, and in other places, are absolutely fresh, and are even employed in the arts of civilised countries in exactly the same way as fresh ivory. Under the name of “mammoth ivory” the fossil tusks dug up by ivory-seekers, or mammoth-hunters, form an important article of commerce.
The same conditions as many parts of Northern Siberia still exhibit at the present day prevailed over the whole of Central Europe at the end of the Glacial Period and the beginning of the Postglacial Period. Here man lived on frozen ground on the borders of ice-fields with the reindeer and its companions, as he does to-day in Northern Asia, and here, too—as he does there to-day—he must have found the woolly-haired mammoth preserved by the cold in the ice and frozen ground. The Drift reindeer-men of Central Europe presumably searched for mammoth tusks just as much as the present reindeer-men in North Asia. The great field of mammoth carrion at Predmost was, therefore, a very powerful attraction, not only for the beasts of prey—chief among them wolves—but also for man.
THE EARLIEST ART: MANKIND’S FIRST EFFORTS IN PICTURE-MAKINGThese illustrations are of engravings on stone and bone and scratchings on rocks made by prehistoric man, chiefly in France. The figures of the reindeer and those of the mammoth and the bison, the two latter found at Dordogne, are astonishingly good, and indicate genuine power of draughtsmanship at a remote period of human life.LARGER IMAGE
THE EARLIEST ART: MANKIND’S FIRST EFFORTS IN PICTURE-MAKING
These illustrations are of engravings on stone and bone and scratchings on rocks made by prehistoric man, chiefly in France. The figures of the reindeer and those of the mammoth and the bison, the two latter found at Dordogne, are astonishingly good, and indicate genuine power of draughtsmanship at a remote period of human life.
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Drift Man Compared with Modern Man
In France especially many primitive works of art of the “Ivory Epoch” have been found, and even the nude figure of woman is not wanting; but no proof is given that these carvings belong to the time when the mammoth still lived. Much sensation has been caused by an engraving on a piece of mammoth ivory representing a hairy mammoth with its mane and strongly-curved tusks. This illustration has been taken as unexceptionable proof that the artist of the Drift Period who did it saw and portrayed the mammoth alive. But could the mammoth hunter Schumachow—the Tunguse who, in 1799, discovered, in the ice of the peninsula of Tumys Bykow at the mouth of the Lena, the mammoth now erected in the collection at the St. Petersburg Academy [seepage 123]—have pictured the animal otherwise when it was freshly melted out of the ice? And the Madelaine cave in the Périgord, where the piece of ivory with the picture of the mammoth was found, certainly belongs to the Reindeer Period. Had we not independent proofs thatDrift Man lived in Central Europe—for instance, at Taubach—with the great extinct pachydermata, neither the finds in the “loess” near Predmost, nor the articles of ivory, nor the illustration of the mammoth itself, could prove it. They furnish absolute proof of the existence of Drift Man only back to the Reindeer Period. To decide whether a corpse frozen in the stone-ice belonged to a Drift Man, the examination of the corpse itself, its skull, bones, and soft parts, would no more suffice than clothing, implements, and ornament. For at least so much is confidently asserted by many palæontologists, that all the skulls and bones hitherto known to have been ascribed to Drift Man by the most eminent palæontologists, geologists, and anthropologists, cannot be distinguished from those of men of the present day. Von Zittel, the foremost scholar in the field of palæontology in Germany, says:
The only remains of Drift Man of reliable age are a skull from Olmo, near Chiana, in Tuscany; a skull from Egisheim, in Alsace; a lower jaw from the Naulette cave near Furfooz, in Belgium; and a fragment of jaw from the Schipka cave in Moravia. This material is not sufficient for determining race, but all human remains of reliable age from the drift of Europe, and all the skulls found in caves, agree in size, form, and capacity withHomo sapiens, and are well formed throughout. In no way do they fill the gap between man and ape.
The only remains of Drift Man of reliable age are a skull from Olmo, near Chiana, in Tuscany; a skull from Egisheim, in Alsace; a lower jaw from the Naulette cave near Furfooz, in Belgium; and a fragment of jaw from the Schipka cave in Moravia. This material is not sufficient for determining race, but all human remains of reliable age from the drift of Europe, and all the skulls found in caves, agree in size, form, and capacity withHomo sapiens, and are well formed throughout. In no way do they fill the gap between man and ape.
PRIMITIVE PEOPLE OF TO-DAYUntil they came in touch with European travellers the Esquimaux were in precisely the same condition as Drift Man: they were living in the Ice Age. They are but little more advanced now, and the difference between them and prehistoric men is slight. This is a group of young Esquimau women.
PRIMITIVE PEOPLE OF TO-DAY
Until they came in touch with European travellers the Esquimaux were in precisely the same condition as Drift Man: they were living in the Ice Age. They are but little more advanced now, and the difference between them and prehistoric men is slight. This is a group of young Esquimau women.
“On the other hand,” writes Dr. Chalmers Mitchell, “a large majority of modern anatomists and palæontologists accept the antiquity of such skulls as the Neanderthal specimen, and agree that these point to the existence of a human race inferior to any now existing. This race comprised powerfully-built individuals, with low foreheads, prominent, bony ridges above the eyes, and retreating chins. The radius and ulna were unusually divergent, so that the forearms must have been heavy and clumsy. The thigh-bones were bent and the shin-bones short, so that the race must have been bow-legged and clumsy in gait.”
A Type Between Man and Ape?
“The intermediate position of these primitive types has received extraordinary confirmation by the discovery of what may truly be called the link, no longer missing, between man and the apes. In 1894, Dr. Eugene Dubois discovered in the Island of Java in a bed of volcanic ashes containing the remains of Pliocene animals the roof of a small skull, two grinding-teeth, and a diseased femur. These remains indicate an animal which, when erect, stood not less than 5 ft. 6 in. high. The teeth and thigh-bones were very human, and the skull, although very human, had prominent eyebrow ridges like those of the Neanderthal type, and a capacity of about 1,000 cubic centimetres—that is to say, much greater than that of the largest living apes, and falling short by about 100 cubic centimetres of the largest skull capacities of existing normal human beings. This creature, regarded at first by some anatomists as a degenerate man, by others as a high ape, has now been definitely accepted as a new type of being, intermediate between man and the apes and designated asPithecanthropus erectus.” There is no doubt that Asia, Europe, North Africa, and North America, so far as their ice-covering allowed of their being inhabited, form one continuous region for the distribution of Palæolithic Man, in which all discoveries give similar results. In this vast region the lowestand oldest prehistoric stratum that serves as the basis of historical civilisation is the homogeneous Palæolithic stratum. In the Drift Period, Palæolithic Man penetrated into South America, as into a new region, with northern Drift animals. In Central and South Africa and Australia, Palæolithic Man does not yet seem to be known. All the more important is it that in Tasmania Palæolithic conditions of civilisation existed until the middle of the last century.
THE HOMES OF PRIMITIVE PEOPLE OF THE PRESENT DAYThere are people still living in dwelling-places of prehistoric type. This photograph of Esquimau stone and turf huts, in Greenland, shows exactly the kind of dwellings used by prehistoric men in the Ice Age.
THE HOMES OF PRIMITIVE PEOPLE OF THE PRESENT DAY
There are people still living in dwelling-places of prehistoric type. This photograph of Esquimau stone and turf huts, in Greenland, shows exactly the kind of dwellings used by prehistoric men in the Ice Age.
THE GRADUAL EXTINCTION OF PRIMITIVE PEOPLESThe Yukaghirs, natives of Siberia, a division of the Mongolic family, were formerly a wide-spread race, and, according to their national tradition, were so numerous that “the birds flying over their camp fires became blackened with smoke.” The Jesup Expedition found them reduced to 700 in number. Hunger had forced some of them to cannibalism and suicide. They are a primitive people, but considerably superior to the Esquimaux.
THE GRADUAL EXTINCTION OF PRIMITIVE PEOPLES
The Yukaghirs, natives of Siberia, a division of the Mongolic family, were formerly a wide-spread race, and, according to their national tradition, were so numerous that “the birds flying over their camp fires became blackened with smoke.” The Jesup Expedition found them reduced to 700 in number. Hunger had forced some of them to cannibalism and suicide. They are a primitive people, but considerably superior to the Esquimaux.
A CREATURE BETWEEN APE AND MANThe skull of the Fossil Ape-man found in 1894, in the island of Java; restored by Dr. Eugene Dubois.
A CREATURE BETWEEN APE AND MAN
The skull of the Fossil Ape-man found in 1894, in the island of Java; restored by Dr. Eugene Dubois.
Backward Races of Europe
The palæontology of man has hitherto obtained good geological information of the oldest Palæolithic culture-stratum of the Drift in only a few parts of the earth, and only in Tasmania does this oldest stratum appear to have cropped out free, and still uncovered by other culture strata, down to our own times. Otherwise it is everywhere overlaid by a second, later culture-stratum of much greater thickness, which, although opened up in almost innumerable places, is not spread over the whole earth as is the Palæolithic stratum. As opposed to the earliest Stone Age of the Drift, which we have come to know as the Palæolithic Period, this has been called the Later Stone Age or Neolithic Period.
The Neolithic Period is also ignorant of the working of metals; for weapons and implements, stone is the exclusive hard material of which the blades are made. But geologically and palæontologically the two culture-strata are widely and sharply separated.
As regards Europe, and a large part of the other continents, the second stratum of the culture of the human race still lies at prehistoric depth. But in other extensive parts of the earth the stratum of Neolithic culture was not covered by other culture-strata until far into the period of written history. Even a large part of Europe was still inhabited by history-less tribes of the later Stone Age at the time when the old civilised lands of Asia and of Africa, and the coasts of the Mediterranean, had everywhere—on the basis of the same Neolithic elements, with the increasing use of metals—already risen to that higher stage of civilisation which, with the historical written records of Egypt and Babylonia, forms the basis of our present chronology.
When these civilised nations came into direct contact with the more remote nations of the Old World, they found them, as we have said, still, to a certain extent, at the Neolithic stage of civilisation, just as, when Europeans settled in America, the great majority of the aborigines had not yet passed the Neolithic stage, at which, indeed, the lowest primitive tribes of Central Brazil still remain. Australia, and a large part of the island world of the South Sea, had not yet risen above the Neolithic stage (Tasmania, probably, not even above the Palæolithic) when they were discovered. There the Stone Age, to a certain extent, comes down to modern times; likewise in the far north of Asia, in Greenland, in the most northern parts of America, and at the south point of the New Continent among the Fuegians.
The men of the later Stone Age are the ancestors of the civilised men of to-day. Classical antiquity among Greeks and Romans had still a consciousness of this, at least partly; it was not entirely forgotten that the oldest weapons of men did not consist of metal, but of stone, and even inferior material. The worked stones which the people then, as now, designated as weapons of the deity, as lightning-stones or thunderbolts, were recognised by keener-sighted men as weapons of primeval inhabitants of the land.
What the Kitchen Middens Tell Us
The “kitchen middens” on the Danish coasts mark places of more or less permanent settlement, consisting of more or less numerous individual dwellings. From these middens a rich inventory of finds has been made, affording a glimpse of the life and doings of those ancient times. The heaps consist principally of thousands upon thousands of opened shells of oysters, cockles, andother shellfish still eaten at the present day, mingled with the bones of the roe, stag, aurochs, wild boar, beaver, seal, etc. Bones of fishes and birds were also made out, among the latter being the bones of the wild swan and of the now extinct great auk, and, what is specially important in determining the geological age of these remains, large numbers of the bones of the capercailzie. Domestic animals are absent with the exception of the dog, whose bones, however, are broken, burnt, gnawed in the same way as those of the beasts of the chase. Everything proves that on the sites of these middens there formerly lived a race of fishers and hunters, whose chief food consisted of shellfish, the shells of which accumulated in mounds around their dwellings. Proofs of agriculture and cattle-rearing there are none; the dog alone was frequently bred not only as a companion in the chase, but also for its flesh.
The state of civilisation of the old Danish shellfish-eaters was not quite a low one in spite of its primitive colouring, and in essential points was superior to that of Palæolithic Man. Not only had they tamed a really domestic animal, the dog, but they made and used clay vessels for cooking and storing purposes. The cooking was done on fireplaces. They could work deer-horn and bone well. Of the former hammer-axes with round holes were made, and of animal bones arrow-heads, awls, and needles, with the points carefully smoothed. Small bone combs appeared to have served not so much for toilet purposes as for dividing animal sinews for making threads, or for dressing the threads in weaving.
EUROPE IN THE ICE AGEThe map illustrates the extent of the Ice Age in Europe. It will be noticed that in England the ice-cap did not extend south of the position of London though it occurred much further south in the mountain regions of the Pyrenees, the Alps, Tyrol, the Carpathians and the Caucasus. The dark portions of the map represent the extent of the ice.
EUROPE IN THE ICE AGE
The map illustrates the extent of the Ice Age in Europe. It will be noticed that in England the ice-cap did not extend south of the position of London though it occurred much further south in the mountain regions of the Pyrenees, the Alps, Tyrol, the Carpathians and the Caucasus. The dark portions of the map represent the extent of the ice.
Drift Man and His Adversaries
In the way of ornaments there were perforated animal teeth. The fish remains found in the middens belong to the plaice, cod, herring, and eel. To catch thesedeep-sea fish the fishermen must have gone out to sea, which implies the possession of boats of some kind. Nor was only small game hunted, but also large game. Ninety per cent. of the animal bones occurring in the shell-mounds consist of those of large animals, especially the deer, roe, and wild boar. Even such dangerous adversaries as the aurochs, bear, wolf, and lynx were killed, likewise the beaver, wildcat, seal, otter, marten, and fox. The very numerous fragments of clay vessels belong partly to large pot-like vessels without handles and with pointed or flat bottoms, and partly to small oval bowls with round bottoms. All vessels were made with the free hand of coarse clay, into which small fragments of granitic stone were kneaded; as ornament they have in a few cases incisions or impressions, mostly made with the finger itself on the upper edge.
The great importance of the Danish middens in the general history of mankind is due to the fact that their age is geologically established, so that they can serve as a starting-point for chronology. It is to Japetus Steenstrup that the early history of our race owes this chronological fixing of an initial date.
The First Elements of Civilisation
The earliest inhabitants of the North of Europe during the Stone Age, as recorded by these kitchen-middens of the Danish period, were scarcely superior to Palæolithic Man in civilisation, judging from outward appearances. But a closer investigation taught us that, in spite of the poverty of their remains, a higher development of civilisation is unmistakable. And this superiority of the Neolithic over the Palæolithic Epoch becomes far more evident if we take as our standard of comparison, not the poor fisher population, who probably first reached the Danish shores as pioneers, but the Neolithic civilisation that had been fully developed in sunnier lands and followed closely upon these trappers or squatters. Next to hunting and fishing, cattle-breeding and agriculture are noticeable as the first elements of Neolithic civilisation, and in connection with them the preparation of flour and cooking; and as technical arts, chiefly carving and the fine working of stone, of which weapons and the most various kinds of tools were made; with the latter wood, bone, deer-horn, etc., could be worked. The blades are no longer sharpened merely by chipping, but by grinding, and are made in various technically perfect forms. Special importance was attached to providing them with suitable handles, for fixing which the stone implement or weapon was either provided with a hole, or, as in America especially, with notches or grooves.
The Mental Life of Ancient Days
In addition to these, there are the primitive arts of man—the ceramic art, spinning, and weaving. In the former, especially, an appreciation of artistic form and decoration by ornament is developed. The ornament becomes a kind of symbolical written language, the eventual deciphering of which appears possible in view of the latest discoveries concerning the ornamental symbolism of the primitive races of the present day. Discoveries of dwellings prove an advanced knowledge of primitive architecture; entrenchments and tumuli acquaint us with the principles of their earthworks; and the giant chambers, built of colossal blocks of stone piled upon one another, prove that the builders of those times were not far behind the much-admired Egyptian builders in transporting and piling masses of stone. The burials, whose ceremonies are revealed by opened graves, afford a glimpse of the mental life of that period. From the skulls and skeletons that have been taken from the Neolithic graves, science has been able to reconstruct the physical frame of Neolithic Man, which has in no way to fear comparison with that of modern man. Of the ornaments of the Stone Age the most important and characteristic are perforated teeth of dogs, wolves, horses, oxen, bears, boars, and smaller beasts of prey. How much in favour such ornaments were is proved by the fact that even imitations or counterfeits of them were worn. Numerous articles of ornament, carved from bone and deer-horn, were universal: ornamental plates and spherical, basket-shaped, square, shuttle-like, or chisel-shaped beads were made of these materials and formed into chains.
THE ICE AGE IN THE PRESENT DAY: AN ESQUIMAU WATCHING A SEAL HOLELARGER IMAGE
THE ICE AGE IN THE PRESENT DAY: AN ESQUIMAU WATCHING A SEAL HOLE
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In the Swiss lake-dwellings of the Stone Age have been found skilfully carved ear-drops, needles with eyes, neat little combs of boxwood, and hairpins, some with heads and others with pierced side protuberances. Remains of textile fabrics, even finely twilled tissue, and also leather, were yielded by the excavations of thelake-dwellings of that period, so that we have to imagine the inhabitants adorned with clothes of various kinds.
Man’s First and Oldest Animal Friend
What raises man of the later Stone Age so far above Palæolithic Man is the possession of domestic animals and the knowledge of agriculture. As domestic animals of the later Stone Age we have proof of the dog, cow, horse, sheep, goat, and pig. Among the animals that have attached themselves to man as domestic, the first and oldest is undoubtedly the dog. It is found distributed over the whole earth, being absent from only a few small islands. Among many races the dog was, and is still, the only domestic animal in the proper sense of the word. This applies to all Esquimau tribes, to the majority of the Indians of North and South America, and to the continent of Australia.
We have no certain proofs that Palæolithic Man possessed the dog as a domestic animal. In the Somme valley, at Taubach, and at the source of the Schussen, bones of the domestic dog are absent. And yet, among Drift fauna in caves remains of dogs have been repeatedly met with, which have been claimed to be the direct ancestors of the domestic dog. The dog’s attachment to man may have taken place at different times in different parts. Man and dog immigrate to South America with the foreign Northern fauna simultaneously—in a geological sense—during the Drift. In Australia, man and dog (dingo), as the most intimate animal beings, are opposed to an animal world that is otherwise anomalous and, to the Old World, quite antiquated; probably man and dog also came to Australia together. We know of fossil remains of the dingo from the Drift, but no reliable finds have yet proved the presence of man during that period.
The Dog in the Stone Age
In the later Stone Age the dog already occurs as the companion of man wherever it occurs in historic times. In Europe its remains have been found in the Danish kitchen-middens, in the northern Neolithic finds, in the lake-dwellings of Switzerland, in innumerable caves of the Neolithic Period, in the terramare of Upper Italy, etc. It was partly a comparatively small breed, according to Rütimeyer similar to the “wachtelhund” (setter) in size and build. Rütimeyer calls this breed the lake-dwelling dog, after the lake-dwellings, one of the chief places where it has been found. Like all breeds of animals of primitive domestication, the dog at this period, according to Nehring, is small—stunted, as it were. With the progress of civilisation the dog also grows larger.
Great Value of the Dog to Man
In the later prehistoric epochs, beginning with the so-called “Bronze” Period, we find throughout almost the whole of Europe a rather larger and more powerful breed with a more pointed snout—the Bronze dog—whose nearest relative seems to be the sheep-dog. At the present day the domestic dog is mostly employed for guarding settlements and herds and for hunting. In the Arctic regions the Esquimaux also use their dogs, which are like the sheep-dog, for personal protection and hunting; they do particularly good service against the musk-ox, while the wild reindeer is too fast for them. But the Esquimau dog is chiefly used for drawing the sledge, and, where the sledge cannot be used, as a beast of burden, since it is able to carry fairly heavy loads. In China and elsewhere, as formerly in the old civilised countries of South America, the dog is still fattened and killed for meat. So that the domestic dog serves every possible purpose to which domestic animals can be put, except, it seems, for milking, although this would not be out of the question either. The dog was also eaten by man in the later Stone Age, as is proved by the finds in his kitchen refuse. The reindeer is now restricted to the Polar regions of the Northern Hemisphere—Scandinavia, North Asia, and North America, whereas in the Palæolithic Period it was very numerous throughout Russia, Siberia, and temperate Europe down to the Alps and Pyrenees. It does not seem ever to have been definitely proved that the reindeer existed in the Neolithic Period of Central and Northern Europe, although according to Von Zittel it lived in Scotland down to the eleventh century and in the Hercynian forest until the time of Cæsar. The earliest definite information we appear to have of the tamed reindeer, which at the present day is a herd animal with the Lapps in Europe, and with the Samoyedes and Reindeer Tunguses in Asia, is found in Ælian, who speaks of the Scythians having tame deer.
Oxen at present exist nowhere in the wild state, while the tame ox is distributed as a domestic animal over the whole earth, and has formed the most various breeds. In the European Drift a wild ox, the urus, distinguished by its size and the size of its horns, was widely distributed, and it still lived during the later Stone Age with the domestic ox. In the later prehistoric ages, and even in historic times, the urus still occurs as a beast of the forest.
The Taming of the Wild Horse
In the later Stone Age the horse, too, is no longer merely a beast of the chase, but occurs also in the tame state. During the Drift the horse lived in herds all over Europe, North Asia, and North Africa. From this Drift horse comes the domestic horse now found all over the earth. Even the wild horses of the Drift exhibit such considerable differences from one another that, according to Nehring’s studies, these are to be regarded as the beginning of the formation of local breeds. The taming and domestication of the wild horse of the Drift, which began in the Stone Age, led to the domestic horse being split up later into numerous breeds. The old wild horse was comparatively small, with a large head; a similar form is still found here and there on the extensive barren moors of South Germany in the moss-horse, or, as the common people call it, the moss-cat. At the present day the genus of the domestic horse falls, like the ox, into two chief breeds—a smaller and more graceful Oriental breed, and a more powerful and somewhat larger Western breed with the facial bones more strongly developed. The horse of the later Stone Age of Europe exhibits only comparatively slight differences from the wild horse; it is generally a small, half-pony-like form with a large head, evidently also a stunted product of primitive breeding under comparatively unfavourable conditions. Two species extant in the Stone Age still live wild on the steppes of Central Asia at the present day; one of them also occurs as a fossil in the European Drift, although only rarely. That the ass occurred in the European Drift is probable, but not proved. It has not yet been found in the Neolithic Period of Europe.
Did the Horse come from Asia?
A survey of the palæontology of the domestic animals shows that they come from wild Drift species which—at any rate, as regards the ox, horse, and dog—are now extinct, so that these most important domestic animals now exist only in the tame state. Some of the domestic animals came from Asia, and, according to Von Zittel, were imported into Europe from there; this applies to the peat-ox and the domestic goat and pig. The Asiatic origin of the domestic horse and sheep is probable, but not proved; the sheep is found wild in South Europe as well as in Asia. The tarpan, a breed of horse very similar to the wild horse, lives in herds independent of man on the steppes of Central Asia. This has been indicated as being probably the parent breed of the domestic horse, and the origin of the latter has accordingly also been traced to Asia.
One thing is certain: a considerable number of animal forms that co-exist with man in Europe at the present day—for instance, almost all the forms of our poultry and the fine kinds of pigs and sheep—have originally come from Asia. Our investigations show a similar state of things even in the Neolithic Period.
In the North of Europe, which has furnished us with our standard information regarding the Neolithic culture-stratum, the certain proofs that have hitherto been found of agriculture and the cultivation of useful plants having been practised at that time (to which civilisation owes no less than to the breeding of useful tame animals) consist not so much of plant remains themselves as of stone hand-mills and spinning and weaving implements, which indicate the cultivation of corn and flax.
History in the Lake Dwellings
Our chief knowledge of Neolithic agriculture and plant culture has been furnished by the lake-dwellings, especially those of Switzerland, which have preserved the picture of the Neolithic civilisation of Central Europe, sketched for us, as it were, in the North, in its finest lines. So far we can prove the cultivation of the following useful plants in the later Stone Age; their remains were chiefly found, as we have said, well preserved in the Stone Age lake-dwellings of Switzerland, which have been described in classical manner by Oswald Heer. Of cereal grasses Heer determined, in the rich Stone Age lake-dwellings of Wangen, on Lake Constance, and Robenhausen, in Lake Pfäffikon, three sorts of wheat andtwo varieties of barley—the six-rowed and two-rowed. Flax was also grown by Neolithic Man. This was, it seems, a rather different variety from our present flax, being narrow-leaved, and still occurs wild, or probably merely uncultivated, in Macedonia and Thracia. Flax has also been found growing wild in Northern India, on the Altai Mountains, and at the foot of the Caucasus.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE HORSEThe horse which was common in the Stone Age was a wild ancestor of our own domestic horse, but not quite so large or so strong as the average well-bred creature familiar in our modern life. Its remotest ancestor was the Hyracotherium, or Orohippus, while an intermediary stage was that of the Hypparion, or Protohippus, in which, as shown in the diagram, the change from the foot to the hoof had advanced to a very great extent.LARGER IMAGE
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE HORSE
The horse which was common in the Stone Age was a wild ancestor of our own domestic horse, but not quite so large or so strong as the average well-bred creature familiar in our modern life. Its remotest ancestor was the Hyracotherium, or Orohippus, while an intermediary stage was that of the Hypparion, or Protohippus, in which, as shown in the diagram, the change from the foot to the hoof had advanced to a very great extent.
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The common wheat occurring in the lake-dwellings of the Stone Age is a small-grained but mealy variety; but the so-called Egyptian wheat with large grains also occurs.
Gardening in the Stone Age
Traces of regular gardening and vegetable culture are altogether wanting. Some finds, however, seem to indicate primitive arboriculture, apples and pears having been found dried in slices in the lake-dwellings of the Stone Age; there even appears to be an improved kind of apple besides the wild-growing crab. But although they are chiefly wild unimproved fruit-trees of whose fruit remains have been found, we can imagine that these fruit-trees were planted near the settlements, and the great nutritious and health-giving properties of the fruit, as a supplement to a meat fare, must have been all the more appreciated owing to the lack of green vegetables. The various wild cherries, plums, and sloes were eaten, as also raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries. Beechnut and hazelnut appear as wild food-plants.
The original home of the most important cereals—wheat, spelt, and barley—is not known with absolute certainty; probably they came from Central Asia, where they are said to be found wild in the region of the Euphrates. The real millet came from India; peas and the other primeval leguminous plants of Europe, such as lentils and beans, came likewise from the East, partly from India. So that, apart from flax, which probably has a more northern home, the regular cultivated plants of the Stone Age of Central Europe—cereal grasses, millet, and lentils—indicate Asia as their original home. We have therefore a state of things similar to that observed in the case of the domestic animals.