I. In the year 1858, in the valley of the Vézère, near to the village of Les Eyzies, which had already been rendered famous by the investigations of the elder M. Lartet and Christy, the workmen brought to light in the rock-shelter of Cro-Magnon the bones of three men, a woman and a child, which have been preserved to science by MM. Berton-Meyron and Delmarès. M. Louis Lartet, to whom the study of the deposit had been entrusted, determined their geological age; MM. Broca and Pruner Bey described them with all the precision which we should expect from their knowledge of the subject, and the discussions which arose between these two eminent anthropologists, brought the essential points still more strongly forward. The Cro-Magnon bones thus became classic almost within a day of their discovery; and M. Hamy and I could not do better than group around them the human remains which resemble them. This has been our reason for choosing the name which we have given to our second dolichocephalic race.
Like the preceding one, this also has its typical individual who exaggerates in certain respects the characters of the race, and thus presents an extreme term of comparison. The contrast is only the more striking. The only character common to both the Neanderthal man and the old man of Cro-Magnon lies in the proportions of the cranium. The cephalic index, here 73·76, differs but very slightly, as we see at once from what we have already stated. It descends, moreover, as low as 70·05 in a cranium of the same race found at Solutré; it is 70·52 in the famous Engiscranium. It was this elongation from the front backwards which led Schmerling to connect the fossil man which he had just discovered with the Ethiopian rather than with the European. This, at least, partly accounts for the theory which makes the Negro the starting point of our race. M. Hamy, in connecting the Engis cranium with the Cro-Magnon type, has added one more fact to those which are at variance with this doctrine.
In every other respect the Cro-Magnon head and that of Canstadt are most dissimilar. Instead of a low and retreating forehead above superciliary ridges which remind us of the ape, instead of a flattened vault like that of the Neanderthal skull and its companions, we here find a large forehead rising above frontal sinuses but slightly marked, and a vault presenting the finest proportions. The frontal bone is remarkably developed from before backward. The fronto-occipital curve is continued with a striking regularity till within a short distance above the lambda. It is there bent so as to form a surface which is prolonged upon the cerebral part of the occipital bone. The cerebral region of the same bone is carried abruptly downward, and presents numerous strong impressions of muscular insertions.
This skull, so remarkable for its fine proportion, is also remarkable for its capacity. According to M. Broca, who could only work under precautions calculated to diminish the amount, it is equal to at least 1590 cubic centimetres (96·99 cubic inches). I have already remarked that this number is far higher than the mean taken from modern Parisians; it is equally so in comparison with the other European races.
Thus, in the savage of quaternary ages, who had to fight against the mammoth with stone weapons for arms, we find all those craniological characters generally considered as the sign of great intellectual development.
The features of the face are not less striking than those of the skull. In the heads which M. Pruner Bey callsharmonic, a face elongated from above downward corresponds toa skull elongated from behind forward. When there is a disagreement between these proportions the head isdysharmonic. This latter character is very strongly marked in the old man of Cro-Magnon. The bizygomatic transverse diameter acquires an extent rare even in harmonic brachycephali. In his case the facial index descends as low as 63.
This exaggeration in breadth is present also in all the upper and medial parts of the face. The orbits, almost rectilinear at their extremities, are remarkable for their slight elevation, being on the other hand very long. The orbital index descends lower than M. Broca has ever known it to be: it is only 61.
But this tendency to breadth does not extend to the medial regions or to the inferior portion of the face. The nose, the bones of which are boldly projected forward and constitute a strongly marked protuberance, is narrow; from its index, 45·09, it places the old man of Cro-Magnon amongst the lepthorhini of M. Broca. The superior maxillary bone is equally narrowed relatively to the face which it terminates, and the alveolar arch is projected outward in such a manner as to produce a very decided prognathism. The inferior maxillary bone is especially remarkable for the breadth of its ascending branches which, according to the investigation of M. Broca, surpass in this respect all other known human jaw-bones. The breadth in question is 49 m.m. (1·93 inch). Far from being obliterated and retreating, as in the Canstadt race, the slightly triangular chin projects forwards.
The cephalic characters of the old man of Cro-Magnon are to be found more or less strongly marked in all the men of the same race. They are generally modified in the women. Thus, even in that specimen, the head of which, unfortunately incomplete, was discovered not far from that of the old man, we see the beautiful lines of the skull preserved, and the forehead even rising a little higher still. But the posterior surface is less pronounced, the dysharmony is less strong between the skull and the face. The latter is relatively longer, the orbits are higher, the nose is broader, and theprognathism is modified. We cannot, however, deny the ethnical relation of the two heads which were found together, and which thus constitute definite terms of comparison for the two sexes.
The Cro-Magnon race was tall. The mean height deduced from the measurements taken by M. Hamy upon a skeleton and the isolated bones of five men is 1·78 m. (5 feet 10 inches). With the old man of Cro-Magnon it was about 1·82 m. (5 feet 11·6 inches), and with the Mentone man, whose skeleton was found by M. Rivière entire andin situ, it was as much as 1·85 m. (6 feet 0·8 inches). The Cro-Magnon woman measured 1·66 m. (5 feet 5·3 inches). These bones and all those which have been connected with them, moreover, give indications of a remarkably strong race. They are thick and solid. In all cases the muscular impressions are very strongly marked. In the old man of Cro-Magnon the femurs are also the broadest and thickest that M. Broca has ever measured, as we have already remarked. The linea aspera is also of an unusual breadth and thickness, and forms a sort of prominent column or buttress.
Finally, in the Cro-Magnon men, a fine open forehead, a large, narrow, and aquiline nose, must have compensated for any strangeness which the face may have acquired from the probable smallness of the eyes, from very strong masseters, and from a slightly lozenge-shaped contour. With these features, the type of which is in no way disagreeable, and allows of real beauty, this magnificent race combined a high stature, powerful muscles, and an athletic constitution. It seems to have been fitted in every way for struggling against the difficulties and perils of savage life.
II. We have already seen that the Cro-Magnon race was discovered immediately above that of Canstadt in the alluvial deposits of Grenelle. It is therefore very old, and was contemporary with the great mammals, now either extinct or emigrated. More sociable, doubtless, and more settled than the preceding race, it inhabited caverns where it left numerous specimens of its handiwork; it buried its deadunder the shelters where they are now found. A great number of eminent investigators have explored thesescientific quarries. I cannot enumerate them all here, but there is one name, the omission of which would be unpardonable, that, namely, of Edouard Lartet. It is well known with what persevering intelligence, sometimes alone, sometimes accompanied by his friend Christy, this man, as modest as he is learned, has explored these caves, what treasures he has obtained from them, and the prudence and sagacity which he showed in the interpretation of his splendid discoveries, and only justice was done to him in awarding him the title offounder of human palæontology.
Thanks to him, and to those who have followed in his steps, we possess the essential elements of a history of the Cro-Magnon race. Almost without leaving this valley of the Vézère, the name of which stands so high in anthropology, we can, as M. Broca has done, follow it step by step. In fact, from the village of Les Eyzies to the rock-shelter of Moustier, within a distance of from seven to eight miles we meet with no less than eight human settlements, all of which have become more or less celebrated from the different records which they have furnished. They are theMoustiercavern, theMoustiershelter, the shelter ofLa Madeleine, theCro-Magnonshelter and burial-place, theLaugerie-Hauteshelter, theLaugerie-Basseshelter, theGorge d’Enfercavern, and theLes Eyziescavern.
The most ancient, that of Moustier, is connected by its fauna with the lower alluvium (bas niveaux) of Grenelle, and dates at least from the close of the age of the bear; that of La Madeleine cannot be placed much before the present epoch. Between these two extremes are ranged the other six, and altogether they mark out, so to speak, the two last periods of the quaternary ages. Yet to obtain a clear idea of the social and intellectual development of the race, to learn how far it complied with the modifications of the climate, and what progress or what decadence these modifications imposed upon it, we must consult the evidences whichit has left in many other localities, and especially in the caves and shelters of Bruniquel, in the burial-places of Solutré, in the caves of Gourdan, Duruty, and of L’Homme-Mort, etc.
The men who frequented the Moustier cavern do not seem to have been much superior to the Canstadt race, with which they were perhaps associated, and whose industries they closely imitated. Their conditions of existence were almost identical with those of the preceding age. They lived among the great mammals which served them for food. The horse and the aurochs were the general objects of their sport. But they fed upon the mammoth, the bear, and even the lion and the cave hyæna. To meet such enemies as these they employed a species of spear-head and small lance, smooth upon one side, cut upon the other, and sharp at the edges, constituting undoubtedly a formidable weapon. This special form characterises theMoustier typeof M. de Mortillet. The hunters of this epoch cut their arrows upon the same model, but rarely made use of them; they seem to have despised birds and small game; the other implements remained almost the same as in the preceding age.
At Cro-Magnon, the progress is evident. Our fine old man and his companions had arms and implements of flint, which were more numerous, more varied and less massive. To judge from the remains of their kitchen, they must have made frequent use of the bow, to obtain birds and small mammals, while they still attacked large animals, and especially the horse, with the lance, spear-head, and perhaps the dagger.
At Laugerie-Haute, on the Vézère, at Solutré, in the Mâconnais, and other contemporary settlements, the cutting of the flints reached a degree of perfection which was truly marvellous. Sometimes undoubtedly old types reappeared side by side with forms modified by intelligent experience, and by perfected workmanship. Still the predominance of the latter is so marked, that it distinctly characterises this epoch. The points of the lances and javelins are tapered offmore or less in the shape of a walnut, laurel, or plantain leaf. They are very pointed, and become perfectly symmetrical. The arrow-heads are the object of most particular care. M. de Ferry has very well shown that the general form, the weight, the angle, etc., were calculated in such a manner as to be adapted to the different distances of flight, to the necessities of the chase. All these tools, finely cut upon both sides, present, moreover, a much more remarkable finish than what we meet with in any of the other implements. They were worthy of being taken for one of the terms of comparison admitted by M. de Mortillet, and constitute hisSolutré type.
Essentially hunters, and certainly warriors, the men of this period bestowed their chief attention upon their arms. They probably felt a certain pride in possessing the finest or the best cut weapons; but the relative indifference which they betrayed in the matter of other objects, shows us that their chief aim in the finish of their work was to make their weapons more terrible by increasing their power of penetration. Several fragments of bone, discovered in places remote from each other, and belonging to several periods, prove that these weapons of flint, handled by strong hands, left nothing to be desired in this respect. I shall only mention the vertebra of a reindeer, which had been pierced through by a lance or a javelin, and a human tibia, through the head of which an arrow has passed near to the kneepan. In both cases the broken flint has remained, testifying to the good quality of the weapon and to the strength with which it was used.
At the time of the deposition of the upper river gravels, and when the predominance of the reindeer was most marked, the industry of the men of Cro-Magnon underwent a sudden change. Till then flint, and, in its absence, other hard stones, had furnished both the implement and the instrument formed by the aid of the former. Doubtless from the earliest times, bones and the antlers of the stag or reindeer, had been used from time to time; but they only played an almost insignificant part in the manufacture of tools or weapons. During the epoch of which we are speaking, theyacquired a growing importance, and soon furnished almost the only material for weapons. Flint was now only used to make the implements, and these, on the other hand, became more numerous, and fitted for the most varied uses. It was with flints that the troglodytes of Les Eyzies, of Laugerie-Basse, of La Madeleine, and a great number of other settlements, sawed and carved their reindeer antlers to make strong harpoons, which were barbed on one side only. It was with flint that they pointed needles not much longer than our own, and pierced the eye. In some specimens the latter is so small that the piercing of it remained a problem, till Lartet reproduced it with his own hand, using one of the implements which he had discovered. But the most characteristic object of theMagdaléniantype is the arrow-head, regularly barbed on both sides, the teeth of which contain little channels, probably intended as the receptacle of some poisonous substance.
The succession of industries which I have just pointed out is, moreover, by no means invariable. As the investigations and discoveries increase in number, we are more and more impressed by the fact that the several colonies of the race under consideration, yielding to local necessities, or carried away by the accidents of their development, do not present an unintelligible uniformity. The last excavations carried out at Solutré by MM. Arcelin and the Abbé Ducrost, show arms and instruments of the Magdalénian type which are anterior to those of the Solutré type. In this epoch, as at the present time, there existed a certain diversity which explains the coincidence, in point of time, of different industrial types among this population of similar origin.
III. The lighter, more trusty, and more varied weapons, announce a change in the life of our troglodytes. They continue, it is true, to hunt large game when it comes in their way; a few rare mammoths, surviving the climatic modifications which were going on, still fell under their hand; the horse also often contributed to their repast. Thereindeer, however, largely predominated in thedébrisof their kitchen. Mixed with them are found the remains of small mammals, such as the hare and the squirrel. Birds also began to be used for food to a considerable extent. From the bones discovered in the single grotto of Gourdan, so admirably explored by M. Piette, M. Alph. Edwards has been able to distinguish twenty distinct species. Lastly, the men of the Magdalénian age fed also upon fish; but fishing again was to them a kind of hunting. They evidently did not use the hook, and only harpooned the larger species, the salmon in Périgord, and the pike in the Pyrenees.
The conveyance of the large animals which fell under their hand to their usual dwelling-place, would have been too much even for such stalwart hunters. They cut them up upon the spot, leaving only the skeleton of the trunk. We rarely find in the caves more than the bones of the head and limbs, which, again, are almost always broken. Like all savages, the troglodytes of the Vézère held the brain and marrow in high estimation. The long bones which enclosed the latter have evidently been split in a methodical manner, with a view to preserving the contents. MM. Lartet and Christy even think that a special implement was employed in eating these delicate morsels. A kind of spatula made from the antler of a reindeer, with a conical, richly carved handle, hollowed and rounded at the extremity, has been regarded by them as amarrow spoon.
The large amount of ashes and burnt wood found in the Vézère deposits, leaves no room for doubt that fire was used in the cooking of food. The manner in which it was used is, however, rather a difficulty. No trace of pottery has been found among these hunters, and there is nothing to show that they were acquainted with theovenof the Polynesians. They must, therefore, have gone to work like the Siberians, who, at the close of the last century, had only vessels of leather or of wood, and nevertheless were able to boil the water which they contained by throwing in highly heated flints.
We have no reason for thinking that the Cro-Magnon man was a cannibal. We find among thedébrisof his kitchen, none of these long bones, broken so as to extract the marrow, which could not but have been mixed with those of the large mammals, had human flesh formed even accidentally part of their repast. Nevertheless M. Piette has found at Gourdan several remains of human skulls, bearing the mark of flint knives, and the trace of blows which seem to have broken them. Axes and atlases in great quantity, jaw-bones broken or whole, accompany these fragments of the cranial vault. These facts may justify the opinion of M. Piette. The Gourdan warriors after having killed an enemy, doubtless brought his head home, scalped it, and perhaps mixed the brain in some kind of pottage, as some of the tribes of the Philippine islands do at the present day. But they did not eat the flesh of the vanquished, whose decapitated corpses were probably left on the field of battle.
IV. Needles, like those which I have mentioned above, would not have been made had there not been something to sew. This fact alone suggests the idea of clothes. The chase furnished the raw material. The art of preparing skins must have been carried by these tribes as far as it has been by the Red-Skins, to judge from the number of scrapers and smoothers which have been found in their stations. The marks left by flint knives at the points where long tendons taken from the limbs of the reindeer were inserted, show how the thread was procured. The clothes, when sewn, must have been ornamented in various ways, as they are by savages of the present day. Upon the skeleton discovered at Laugerie-Basse by M. Massenat, twenty pierced shells were found placed in pairs upon different parts of the body. This was not an instance of either necklace or bracelet, but of ornaments arranged in an almost symmetrical manner upon a garment. The skeleton of Mentone, discovered by M. Rivière, presented a similar appearance.
Thus the taste for adornment, so striking at the present day in the most savage as also in the civilized nationsexisted in the troglodytic tribes of the quaternary epoch. There are, moreover, numerous proofs of this fact. The fragments of necklaces, bracelets, etc., have been found in a great number of stations. In most cases marine shells, sometimes fossil and obtained from the tertiary beds, formed these ornaments. But the Cro-Magnon man combined with these the teeth of the large carnivora; he cut also with the same intention plates of ivory, certain soft or hard stones, and even made beads of clay which were merely dried in the sun. Finally, he tatooed himself, or at least painted his body with the oxides of iron or manganese, small stores of which have on several occasions been found in different stations, and which have left their mark upon the bones of some skeletons, for example, upon that of Mentone.
V. The Cro-Magnon race has up to this point shown scarcely any superiority over the hunting tribes of America, unless perhaps it is in the dexterity which they displayed in flint cutting. But the artistic instincts which they showed almost from their first appearance, and the point to which they carried drawing and sculpture in the Madeleine age, gives them quite an exceptional position amongst those nations whose evolution has been arrested at the lowest stage of social life. The relative alleviation of climatic conditions, the diminution of large and ferocious animals involving the multiplication of useful species and especially that of the reindeer, placed at this epoch the Cro-Magnon man in conditions of welfare unknown to his predecessors. He profited by it in developing in a most unexpected manner his very superior talents.
As a general rule the greater number of sculptures representing animals leave, it is true, much to be desired. We can indeed recognise the reindeer represented in high relief; nor would it be difficult to recognise as a mammoth the little carving made from the antler of the reindeer discovered at Montastruc. Nevertheless, these specimens would give but a poor idea of Magdalénean art. The ivorydagger-handles found by M. Peccadeau de l’Isle by the side of the mammoth fortunately confirm this impression. In both a reindeer is represented crouching, the legs bent, the head stretched out and the antlers lying along the body so as not to inconvenience the hand which should hold it. The attitudes are so natural, and the proportions so exact, that a decorative sculptor of the present day, in treating the same subject, could scarcely do better than copy his antique predecessor.
Drawing or rather engraving was much more commonly practised than sculpture. It offers also more points of interest. Armed with their point of flint, the quaternary artists engraved in turn the bone and the antlers of the reindeer, ivory from the mammoth, and stones of different kinds. Sometimes they endeavoured to reproduce the plants or animals around them; at other times they followed their own fancy, and made designs of ornamentation, in which we meet with almost all the principles reinvented many centuries afterwards. The multiplicity and the variety of this kind of engraving show much imagination and a real faculty of invention.
The faculty of imitation is equally striking in drawings representing real objects, animals in particular. They are often very remarkable for firmness of touch, showing a perfect comprehension of the whole, and reproducing the details with such exactness that we are not only able unerringly to recognise the group but even the species represented by the artist. Thus we have found successively the ox, the aurochs, the horse, the reindeer, the elk, the stag, the steinbock, a cetacean, certain fishes, etc. After these faithful representations, the models of which we know, there is no reason to doubt the exactness with which certain extinct animals have been drawn. This very simple consideration gives great interest to the drawing of the cave bear found by M. Garrigou upon a piece of Massat schist, and to those of the mammoth discovered by M. Lartet in the Périgord caves. Thanks to the latter and towhat we know from the mammoths preserved in ice in Siberia, an artist of the present day might produce in almost exact detail the portrait of this giant of the ancient world, which disappeared so long ago.
VI. Man figures very rarely in these drawings or sculptures, and the representations of our species which have been met with up to the present time, display a relative inferiority which is indeed most strange. The small ivory statue found by M. de Vibraye at Laugerie-Basse scarcely testifies to even the infancy of the art. It is a woman, whose sex we are able to recognise by a detail doubtless exaggerated, but long, stiff and with very strange protuberances at the lower extremity of the loins. The crouching human form found by M. l’Abbé Landesque in the same locality is still more ill-formed. The drawings of men or women are scarcely better, and the contrast sometimes presented upon the same specimen between them and drawings of animals is most strange. M. l’Abbé Landesque’sreindeer womanis grotesque, whilst the hind legs of the animal, which alone have been preserved, present all the qualities which I have noticed above and which may be observed in the splendid horse’s head engraved upon the other side of the bone. In M. Massénat’saurochs man, the animal has much beauty both in form and movement; the man is stiff, without proportion or truth.
This contrast is too great and too constant to be accidental. It must be the result of a cause arising perhaps from some superstitious idea similar to certain modern superstitions. When Catlin had finished his first portrait of the Red-Skin, some of the tribe looked upon him as a dangerous sorcerer, who had robbed the model of part of himself. Perhaps some similar idea may have prevented the artists of the Vézère from studying the human figure, for it always happens that when they attempt to reproduce it their graving tool hesitates, and loses all its good qualities.
These imperfect representations, therefore, tell us nothing of the appearance or proportions of the race. The most we cansay, if we accept the interpretations of MM. l’Abbé Landesque and Piette, is that it was remarkably hairy. But this opinion, which rests chiefly upon the drawing of thereindeer woman, seems to me to be contradicted by that of theaurochs man, whose small pointed beard scarcely extends as far as the angle of the jaw-bone. The horizontal hatching upon the legs and body cannot, it appears to me, be taken for hairs, because it crosses at right angles the direction which would have been taken by the latter. I should much rather consider them as lines of painting, a kind of decoration which we know to have been held in high estimation amongst these tribes.
VII. However bad they may be, the drawings which I have just described furnish us, nevertheless, with some facts respecting the mode of life pursued by these hunters. That of theaurochs maninforms us that they followed the largest game naked, as is often the case with the Red-Skins, their hair raised in a tuft on the top of the head, and armed only with the lance or javelin. Thewhale manis also naked, and the immense arm which he stretches out as far as the fin of the fish, seems to indicate that he has fought and conquered this monster, which had doubtless run aground in some shallow. But, from this fact alone, it follows that the quaternary man of Périgord must sometimes have left his mountains and travelled as far as the sea-shore. His contemporaries in the Pyrenees did the same, as is proved by the drawings of seals discovered in the grottoes of Gourdan and Duruthy.
Again, those deposits which are situated at the greatest distance inland have often furnished objects which can only have been obtained upon the sea-shore. At Cro-Magnon more than three hundred shells ofLittorina littorea, an oceanic species, have been found. On the other hand theCypræa rufaandC. luridafound upon the Laugerie-Basse skeleton, which I have mentioned above, are unquestionably Mediterranean. Sometimes the molluscs peculiar to the two regions have been found in the same place. In the Gourdangrotto, in the middle of the central Pyrenees, M. Piette found five oceanic species, one Mediterranean, and five common to both seas.The fossil shellsof the Périgord deposits were generally brought from thefalunof Touraine, those of Gourdan must have been collected, partly in the Landes and in the neighbourhood of Dax, and partly near Perpignan. In this same grotto M. Piette discovered a pumice-stone, which had been used in polishing needles, and which he considered had come from the volcanic region of Agde.
From these, and some other analogous facts, M. Piette and M. de Mortillet have thought there is sufficient reason to suppose that the tribes of the Vézère had no fixed habitation, but led a nomad life, visiting in turn the shores of the two seas, hunting in the mountains during the summer the game of the season, and passing the winter in a warmer climate. We cannot adopt this hypothesis. The ever-increasing fauna among the cookingdébrisdenotes a population, which, as it multiplied in every way, made more and more use of the resources of the country. These same heaps furnished Lartet with reindeer bones of every age, amongst which were those of young fawns. Our great authority concludes from this fact that the tribe was stationary during the entire year, and we believe him to be right. The man of Cro-Magnon, La Madeleine and Gourdan, must undoubtedly have always been within reach of the reindeer, from which they obtained nourishment, arms and clothing. But the migrations of this animal, under the influence of a but slightly varying maritime climate, could not have been very extensive, and the troglodytes of Périgord or the Pyrenees, if they wished to keep within its range, would not have had such expeditions to undertake, as those of the Red-Skins in pursuit of the bison.
This semi-stationary life did not exclude travels by land or even by sea. Among the fossil shells found at Laugerie-Basse, there are some which could only have come from the Isle of Wight. Now, in the age of the reindeer, there wasno longer land communication between France and England. As M. Fischer has remarked, the presence of these shells in a continental station proves the existence of navigation.
But, can it really have been the man of the Vézère who went to seek these objects of adornment on the other side of the channel? It is difficult to believe that these mountain tribes could have crossed the sea. It is much more likely that this voyage was accomplished by contemporaries, who, by long residence on the sea coast, had developed navigating instincts. They, doubtless, would bring from the English island those shells regarded as precious jewels, which would then pass in exchange from hand to hand, till at length they reached the valleys of Périgord.Trafficof this kind can alone explain this existence of an oyster-shell from the Red Sea in the Thayngen grotto explored by M. C. Mayer, near to Schaaffhausen. We know, moreover, that shells of the Pacific Ocean are in our day brought, by a perfectly similar commerce, as far as the tribes of Red-Skins inhabiting the shores of the Atlantic.
VIII. The history of the Cro-Magnon race, founded upon the industrial remains which it has bequeathed to us, still presents many questions answered in various ways by savants of the most different opinions. I shall only point them out cursorily.
Did the quaternary tribes confine themselves to hunting those animal species which are subject to us, and by which they were then surrounded. Did they never domesticate the horse, or the reindeer?
M. Toussaint has answered the first question in the affirmative, and M. Gervais the second. The accumulation, often prodigious, of the bones of these animals is thus explained by all. At Solutré, a kind of bone hollow, formed almost exclusively of the bones of the horse, surrounds, so to speak, the space occupied by hearths and sepultures. It comprises the remains of at least forty thousand horses, amongst which we only occasionally meet with either foals or old animals. The immense majority were killed at the age of from four toeight years. This strange accumulation of remains furnished by one species, and the choice of animals in their prime, are, in the opinion of M. Toussaint, inexplicable facts, unless we admit the existence of great herds from which man could draw supplies at will. The arguments brought forward in favour of the domestication of the reindeer are almost of the same nature. M. Piette, however, admits that the latter, long hunted in a wild state, was only domesticated towards the close of the quaternary period. His opinion rests upon the proportion of reindeer bones which increase in number almost suddenly in the upper layers of the Gourdan grotto. M. Piette also draws attention to certain drawings in which reindeer are represented, having upon the neck the appearance of a halter.
To these arguments, which are evidently not devoid of value, it has been objected that man may very well have been able to tame some individuals, without necessarily domesticating the species; that the multiplication and utilisation of certain kinds of game under general and better understood conditions, readily account for the preference accorded to them at certain periods; and that a practised hunter would, without difficulty, choose from among the herd the one he wished to kill. All the facts brought forward by MM. Gervais, Toussaint, and Piette with regard to France, are thus explained without much difficulty. As to countries situated more to the north, the facts obtained by M. Fraas from the grottoes of Suabia, and his philological researches seem to support the opinions of these savants. It is evident that the problem of the domestication of the horse and the reindeer by quaternary man demands further study, and may assume an entirely local character.
I should say almost the same with regard to social organisation. We cannot doubt but that the tribes of La Madeleine and of Bruniquel recognised chiefs, and that it was for them those daggers of mammoth ivory were carved, of which I have spoken above. They were evidently state arms. But was this universally the case? Was there, even amongstthese tribes, a true hierarchy, every grade of which was marked by certain insignia? Certain large portions of reindeer antlers, presenting a tolerably uniform appearance, diminished in size by hand, and invariably decorated with special care, have, it has been thought, offered sufficient proof for these facts. In some cases they are whole, in others they are pierced at one extremity with from one to four round holes, which sometimes encroach upon the original drawing. These singular objects are certainly not arms. They have been regarded ascommanders’ bâtons, an interpretation which appears to be plausible. Is it not, however, going rather too far, when the number of holes are regarded as indicating the dignity of the possessor, from which it would follow that these tribes recognised five district grades of chiefs?
Had the quaternary man in question any belief in another life? Had he a religion?
There can be no doubt as to the answer to the first of these questions. The care bestowed upon burial places shows that the hunters of Mentone, as also those of Solutré and Cro-Magnon, believed in the wants of their dead beyond the tomb. Our acquaintance with the customs of so many savage nations of the present epoch forbids any other interpretation of the interment of food, arms, and ornaments with the body.
The difficulty is greater in solving the problem of religion. It is very probable that the man of this age had a belief similar to that which we know to exist among nations leading almost the same kind of life. We can scarcely help regarding a great number of small objects, pierced so as to enable them to be worn round the neck, as amulets, nor doubt that the troglodytes of the Vézère or the Pyrenees attributed to them virtues analogous to those which are even now ascribed to them by many savage tribes. M. Piette discovered one of these amulets consisting of a plate pierced in the centre, from which diverging lines took their rise; he found a similar emblem repeated three times upon acommander’sbâton. He admits that they are so many representations of the sun, and I very willingly accept this interpretation. But does he not exceed the limits of legitimate induction, when he concludes from this fact that the man of Gourdan worshipped this heavenly body, and invented theSun God, afterwards discovered by the Egyptians and Gauls.
IX. Finally the race of Cro-Magnon was not wanting in either beauty or intelligence. Taking its intelligence as a whole, it seems to me to present striking points of resemblance with the Algonquin race, as represented by the earliest travellers, and more especially by missionaries who have spent much time amongst these Red-Skins. It had undoubtedly both its good and bad qualities. Scenes of violence took place upon the banks of the Vézère, as is proved by the hatchet-cut in the skull of the Cro-Magnon woman. On the other hand, the burial places of Solutré, though containing many indented male and female heads, seem to show that old age received particular attention, and was, therefore, honoured among these tribes. This race believed in another life; and the contents of tombs upon the banks of the Vézère and the Somme, seem to prove that a happy prairie-land was looked forward to here, as upon the banks of the Mississippi.
The man of Périgord, like the Algonquin, did not rise above the very lowest stage in the social scale; he remained a hunter, at least till towards the close of that age, during which he appeared among the mountains of France. It is, then, an error to employ the termcivilizationin speaking of this race. Yet he was endowed with an intelligence both pliable and capable of improvement. We have seen that he made progress and changes by himself, a fact, of which no trace is to be observed in his American representative, so that, in this respect, he was undoubtedly his superior. And lastly, his artistic instincts, and the remarkable productions which he has left, gain for him a special place among the savage races of all times.
X. During all the first part of the reindeer age, the Cro-Magnonrace supported itself in the state, of which I have just been pointing out the principal features. But from the commencement of the second half of the same age, during the deposition of the red diluvium and the upper loess, we observe an unmistakable decline, which becomes more and more striking as we proceed. The working of bone and reindeer antlers diminishes and returns to its former rudeness; flint cutting, on the contrary, gains in favour, and in some places, as in the grotto discovered at Saint Martin d’Excideuil by M. Parrot, acquires a most remarkable finish. But this very perfection seems to herald the approach of a new age, and to betray the influence of a strange element.
The fact is, that during this period an amelioration in the general conditions of life was taking place. Europe had at length risen above the waves; a continental climate was succeeding to the maritime climate: the weather was more settled; warm summers followed winters more severe, but less rainy; the glaciers consequently retreated and became confined within their present limits; and consequently again, the fauna became divided. Animals fond of cold, and organised for a mountain life, such as the chamois and bouquetin, were content to emigratein altitude, and followed the glaciers in their retreat to our highest mountain summits. The reindeer, in no way adapted for climbing, was forced to emigratein latitudeand go further north. Its herds became more and more rare, and at length disappeared from our countries, where, even if domesticated, it could not have continued for long. The human population, who had, doubtless, for centuries lived upon this animal, and obtained from it their clothing, arms, and implements, must have felt the change intensely, losing with the reindeer, what we may call their staff of life.
What happened now? According to MM. Cartailhac, Forel, and de Mortillet, man disappeared or emigrated with the animal which had become necessary to him, and the valleys of Périgord, Mâconnais, and the Pyrenees becameuninhabited. They hold that, after the close of the reindeer age, there is an immense space, a great gap, during which the fauna was renewed, and after which a new race of men suddenly made their appearance, who polished stone instead of cutting it, and surrounded themselves with domestic animals.
In spite of the incontestable authority of the savants whom I have just named, their opinion has, I believe, gained but very few partisans, and has been hotly contested. It is indeed possible, and even probable, that a certain number of stations were abandoned during the period in question, and that the inhabitants moved northwards to seek those conditions of climate and facilities for the chase to which they had been accustomed. But other tribes remained where they were, yielding to the new necessities, adopting the arms and customs of the immigrating populations, and becoming amalgamated with them. I cannot here enter into the geological, zoological and archæological considerations by which this view is justified. I shall confine myself to mentioning some facts which belong especially to anthropology.
MM. Louis Lartet and Chapelain Duparc discovered near Sorde, in the department of the Basses-Pyrénées, a shelter in the lower bed of which, after methodical excavations, a human skull and bones were found, together with a necklace of the teeth of the lion and bear. Immediately above, and mixed with the latter, was a thick layer of charcoal from which the explorers obtained barbed arrows of the Magdalénean type, and numerous instruments and implements of the same age. Bones of the horse and ox were mixed with these products of human industry. The reindeer was not wanting among this cookingdébris, but this specieswas more rarethan the others. Lastly, above the charcoal, and partly confounded with its upper portion, they discovered a layer which was, so to speak, composed of human bones. The learned explorers here obtained several cut flints similar to the preceding, but they also found a narrow, thin blade, as well as a triangular dagger, which, from its form and thenature of the work, is closely connected with the finest productions of the art of polished stone.
The upper burial-place contained the remains of more than thirty individuals. These bones have been taken to the museum, and M. Hamy has not hesitated in referring them to the Cro-Magnon race. I had only to confirm this opinion, as there could be no possible ground for doubt. Upon the bones of the limbs as well as upon the skulls, all those characters were observed which have become classic since the great works of MM. Broca and Pruner Bey.
Thus, in this curious grotto at Sorde, we find the superposition of twoarchæological types, thecutstone (Palæolithic), and thepolishedstone (Neolithic); but there is only one human race, that of Cro-Magnon. Is it not evident that this race must have known both the latest times of the reindeer age, and the earliest of the present epoch?
Whilst accommodating itself to the new conditions of existence, and accepting the industries of strangers more advanced than itself, the little tribe of Sorde seems to have preserved intact the purity of its blood. This could not, however, be universally the case, for the invasion must necessarily have occasioned crossing. Here, again, facts fully justify all that is indicated by the theory.
In the cavern of L’Homme-Mort, situated upon a high plateau of the Lozère, and so thoroughly investigated by MM. Broca and Prunières, animal bones of the present epoch alone have been found; there were neither reindeer, nor even horse, ox, or stag. Moreover, the head of a lance or javelin had been worked with a fragment of hatchet in polished stone. We here, then, find ourselves in the presence of a population much posterior to the quaternary period, and very probably contemporary with that which raised numerous dolmens in the neighbourhood.
Now, the remains of this population betray in a high degree traces of the Cro-Magnon type, modified partly, perhaps, by the action of new conditions of life, but also by ethnological changes. The stature is sensibly diminished;having descended to a mean of 1·62 m. (5 ft. 3·7 in.). The breadth of the upper part of the face is less striking, and the whole head has become almost harmonic. But the dolichocephaly remains; the lines of the skull are almost unaltered, the orbits are always elongated, the nasal orifices narrow, the great majority of the bones of the limbs especially have preserved their very characteristic features. The same grooves are observed in the fibula as at Cro-Magnon; the tibia is platycnemic; in the femur may be observed that extraordinary prominence of the linea aspera which constitutes one of the most curious features of the race; finally, the ulna in every case possesses the sigmoid cavity, the curve so often pointed out assimian. But at the same time we observe a feature as yet foreign to the pure race of Cro-Magnon. The olecranon depression of the humerus is perforated in a number of specimens in as great a proportion as 26, or, perhaps, 33 per cent. This feature, which we find in other fossil races, is of itself a sufficient indication of crossing, and confirms the inferences which we might have drawn from the diminution in height, modifications of the face, etc.
Similar facts are proved by the two skulls, and the group of bones from Géménos, near Marseille, which were saved from destruction by M. Marion.
Thus, both upon the Lozère and in the neighbourhood of Marseille, the Cro-Magnon race appears in the midst of the polished stone period, but with a mixture of characters which indicates the influence of a fresh element. We come upon it in the upper Cévennes and on the shores of the Mediterranean just at the time when its tribes were beginning to blend with those who had introduced among them the first elements of modern civilization. We cannot be surprised that these simple hunters should have been more or less absorbed by a denser population, who possessed domesticated animals and raised dolmens.
XI. It may, however, be said with equal, and even with greater truth, of the Cro-Magnon as of the Canstadt race,that it has not disappeared. It may be traced through intermediate ages, and met with again in certain populations of the present day.
In the neolithic tombs placed close beside the quaternary burial places at Solutré, the old hunters of the horse are represented by their descendants, of whom the more or less modified skulls have been discovered. In the sepulchral grottoes of the Marne, so intelligently and successfully explored by M. J. de Baye, the Cro-Magnon type is found associated with those of four other quaternary races, and with one neolithic race. In Germany, near the Taunus; in Belgium, in the caverns of Hamoir and at Nivelles; in the neighbourhood of Paris, in the recent alluvium of Grenelle; in the clays of the harbour of Boulogne, human remains dating from the same epoch, and belonging to the same race, have been found. M. Piette discovered a Cro-Magnon skeleton in the Aisne, whilst excavating a Gaulish cemetery of the iron age. At Paris even, the excavations of the Hôtel Dieu, those of the Boulevard de Port Royal, etc., have brought to light skulls of the same race, of probably as late a date as the fifth century, and there are some more recent still. Modern specimens will most certainly be found. I have myself twice observed in women features which could only accord with the cranial and facial bones of the race under discussion. In one of them, the dysharmony between the face and skull was at least quite as striking as in the old man of Cro-Magnon: the eye depressed beneath the orbital vault had the same heavy appearance; the nose was straight rather than arched, the lips somewhat thick, the maxillary bones strongly developed, the complexion very brown, the hair very dark and growing low on the forehead. A thick-waisted figure, slightly developed breasts, hands and feet relatively small, served to form a whole, which, without being attractive, was in no way repulsive.
The labours of M. Hamy have extended and enlarged this field of research. He has again met with the type in question amongst the Zaraus collection of Basque skulls,collected by MM. Broca and Vélasco; he has followed it even into Africa in the megalithic tombs explored principally by General Faidherbe, and to the Kabyles of the Beni-Masser and the Djurjura. It is, however, chiefly in the Canary Islands, in the collection of the Barranco-Hundo of Teneriffe, that he has met with skulls, the ethnical relation of which with the old man of Cro-Magnon is beyond discussion. On the other hand, some points of comparison, unfortunately very few in number, have led him to regard the Dalecarlians as connected with the same stock.
XII. However strange these results may appear, they are only a repetition in the human race of what has already been proved in the case of animals. It is now a long time since Lartet showed that at the close of the quaternary age, and as the species peculiar to this age were finally disappearing, the survivors were divided into three groups. Some remained where they were, others migrated to the north, and others again to the south. Perhaps the latter were only persistent in Africa, from whence they had despatched their representatives to us, and where we meet with them still, whilst their colonies, which were at one time in a flourishing condition in France, perished under the influence of the winters of the present period. Finally, as an explanation is given of the ancient fauna, and the cause which brought about their separation, we cannot be surprised to find human populations presenting analogous facts.
During the quaternary period, the race of Cro-Magnon had its principal European centre of population in the south-west of France. The little basin of the Vézère was, so to speak, its capital; its colonies spread into Italy, the north of France, the valley of the Meuse, etc., where they encountered other races, to whom our attention will soon be turned. But they themselves were perhaps only a branch of an African population, which had emigrated to France with the hyæna, the lion, the hippopotamus, etc. In this case, there is no difficulty in explaining its existence at the present day in the north-west of Africa, and in islands where it would be protectedfrom crossing. Some of its tribes, carried away in the pursuit of the reindeer, will have preserved, in the Scandinavian Alps, the tall form, black hair, and brown complexion which distinguishes Dalecarlians of the neighbouring populations; others, mixing with all the races by which France has been successively invaded, only betray their ancient existence by the phenomena of atavism, which lays upon some individuals the mark of the old hunters of Périgord.