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V.7 SMITHSONIANSCIENTIFIC SERIES
Editor-in-chiefCHARLES GREELEY ABBOT, D.Sc.Secretary of theSmithsonian Institution
Published bySMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION SERIES. Inc.NEWYORHL



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MAN FROMTHE FARTHEST PAST
ByCarl Whiting BishopAssociate Curator, Freer Gallery of Artwith the collaboration ofCharles Greeley AbbotSecretary of the Smithsonian InstitutionANDAles HrdlickaCurator, Division of Phvsical AnthropologvUnited States National Museum
VOLUME SEVENOF THESMITHSONIAN SCIENTIFIC SERIES1930
Copyright 1930, bySMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION SERIES, Inc.[Printed in the United States of America]All rights reserved
Copyright Under the Articles of the Copyriglit Conventionof the Pan-American Republics and theUnited States, August 11, 1910
CONTENTS
Preface i
I. Man's Theater of Action .... i11. The Chorus of Man's Stage ... 12III. The Development of the IndividualHuman Being 23IV. The Study of Human Prehistory . . 37V. The Ice Age 56VI. Man the Cave Dweller 71VII. Neanderthal Man 83VIII. Neanderthal Man {Continued) . . noIX. The Most Ancient Remains of Man 134X. The Unfolding of Man's Intelligence 166XI. The Old Stone Age 182XII. The Middle Stone Age 234XIII. The New Stone Age 246XIV, The Age of Bronze 266XV. Ancient Egypt, Asia Minor, and Crete 294XVI. Other Centers of Civilization . . . 313XVII. Prehistoric Man in the New World 326Bibliography 352Appendix: Neanderthal Remains . . 359Index 365

ILLUSTRATIONS
171820
LIST OF PLATESA conception of prehistoric man FrontispieceI. The Ptolemaic and the Copernican theories of the universe 21. The appearance of our universe 33. Pika Peak, an example of erosion 84. CrtWrtra.frt?n/.f, a giant reptile of the Jurassic .... 145. Woolly rhinoceros in combat with bison 166. What breeding will do 2?7. Human embryo and pig embryo 288. Human embryo of four to six weeks 299. Human embryo of six to eight weeks 3^10. The Age of Steel 4<^11. The Age of Iron 4^12. The Bronze Age 4313. The New Stone Age 4414. The Old Stone Age 4515. Skulls of man and gorilla 4^16. Hand silhouettes in prehistoric caves 49The Victor Glacier, Alberta, Canada 56Glacial striation 57Loess country, northwestern China 64A raised beach 6521. A mammoth hunt in the Old Stone Age 6822. Varves in glacial clay 7?23. Restoration of Cro-Magnon man 7424. Caves at Grimaldi, near Mentone, France 8025. The Grimaldi skeletons ?^26. The Gorge of Neanderthal 8427. The Neanderthal cave ?528. Restoration of Neanderthal man 8629. Side view of Neanderthal cranium 8830. The Gibraltar skull ? ?931. Rock-Gun, Gibraltar 9^
32. Restoration of Neanderthal boy 9322- Rock and cave of Spy, Belgium 9634. Spy skull No. I 9735. Rock-shelter of Krapina 10436. Restoration of Neanderthal woman and child .... 10537. Kaempfer's Quarry, Ehringsdorf 11238. Skulls of La Chapelle and modern man 11839. Skulls of La Ferrassie man and Le Moustier youth . . 11940. Le Moustier, on the Vezere, France 12641. The Galilee skull 12842. Restoration of Neanderthal man 12943. Restoration of Piltdown man 13644. The Mauer Quarry, Heidelberg, Germany 14445. The Mauer or Heidelberg jaw 14546. hocaWty of Pit/iecant/iropus find 14847. Pithecanthropus skullcap and reconstructed skull . . . 14948. Thigh bones of /'/Mf(r<3?Mro/)?.f and of white man . . . 15249. Broken Hill cave, Rhodesia, South Africa i '^650. The Rhodesian skull 16051. Discoverer of the Rhodesian skull 16152. Fire-making by rotating a stick 17253. An Arab still 17654. Restoration of Neanderthal man 19655. Restoration of Neanderthal woman 19756. Bisons modeled in clay by Cro-Magnon artists . . . 20457. Solutrean carving of a mammoth 20858. Musk ox 21659. Magdalenian bone needles, awls, and fishhooks . . . 21760. Superimposed mural frescoes 22061. Magdalenian painting of a bison 22262. Life in the Stone Age 23263. Thatched hut, New Hebrides islands 24064. Primitive bark canoe of Australian aborigines .... .24165. Neolithic warrior 24866. Chinese carts 25667. Loom used by certain American Indians 26468 American Indians beating out copper 26569. Igorot group, Philippine Islands 26870. Hopi Indian woman potter 27271. Outrigger sailing canoe 27672. Chinese deep-sea fishing junk 27773. Mosaic standard from Ur of the Chaldees 28474. Assyrian king in his chariot, hunting lions 28575. Ancient Egyptian chairs 296
76. Egyptian portrait statues 29877. Portrait statue of scribe of an Egyptian king .... 29978. Temple of Karnak, Egypt 30079. Example of Egyptian mummification 3018c. Assyrian troops besieging a city 30481. Assyrian winged lion 30582. Assyrian troops in battle 30683. Persian frieze of archers 30784. Ancient Cretan vases 3088 if. Cretan bath of terra cotta 30986. Ceremonial procession of Cretan women 31087. Gold cups from Vapheio 31188. Primitive scenes in India 31489. Primitive scenes in India 31590. Stone hoe and knives, Neolithic China 320gi. Bronze sacrificial vessel 32192. Asiatic archer and slingers 32493. Chinese bronze helmet 32594. American Indians hunting moose . 32895. The quetzal, or resplendent trogon 33096. Ruins of a Maya temple 33297. Maya pyramid 23398. Old Spanish map of Tenochtitlan 33899. The sack of Cholula ^39100. Atahualpa, the last of the Incas 348LIST OF TEXT FIGURES1. Woolly rhinoceros 192. Cell multiplication by division 263. Fetal membranes of a pig embryo 294. Typical cross-section of cave strata 405. Skulls of chimpanzee, Neanderthaler, and modern man . 426. Skulls and brains of modern man and chimpanzee . . 447. Skulls of chimpanzee, Neanderthaler, and modern man,seen from below .? . . 458. Lower jaws showing chin development 469. Skull, spinal column, and pelvis of man and gorilla . 4710. Thigh bone of modern man, Neanderthaler, and gorilla . 4811. Fragments of skull of ancient Egyptian woman ... 5012. Reconstructed skull of ancient Egyptian woman ... 5013. Cave painting of a bison 521 4. Map of western Europe showing former land elevation . 6415. Skull of Grimaldi woman 7916. Aurignacian and modern Bushman comparisons ... 80
17- Diagram of human skull 8618. Lower jaw of a Neanderthal child 9519. Profiles of Neanderthal and Spy crania 10220. Skeletons of La Chapelle man and modern Australian . 11521. Skulls of Neanderthaler, Pithecanthropus, and modernArab 12322. Skulls of European, Australian, Neanderthaler, and chim-panzee 13023. Comparison of modern and Neanderthal head forms . . 13124. Bone implement from Piltdown 1352^. Reconstructions of Piltdown skull 13726. Piltdown, La Chapelle, and modern skulls 13827. Development of lower jaw 14428. Brain-cases of Pithecanthropus y Neanderthal man, chim-panzee, and gibbon i<;i29. Brains of chimpanzee, /'/Mffrt?/Aro/)?j', and modern man . 16330. Eoliths of the Tertiary Period 17131. Primitive method of fire-making 17232. Primitive clothing of Tierra del Fuego natives . . . . 17422- Necklace of later Old Stone Age 17'?34. Central Australian sacred object 17635. African witch doctor 17836. African chief on bow of war canoe 18037. Pointed types of eoliths 18338. Pre-Chellean type of stone implement 18539. Tasmanian stone implements 18540. Chellean flint tools 18641. Acheulian fist-axes 18942. Mousterian implements 19143. Flint core and flakes ?. ... 19344. Aurignacian implements 20045. Baton de commandement 20146. Engraving of grazing reindeer 2o<;47. Solutrean laurel-leaf flints 20848. Geometric design of a woman 21049. Prehistoric engraving of a horse, and the Mongolian wildhorse . 21350. Magdalenian flint implements 21451. Magdalenian bone and ivory points 21552. Magdalenian spear-thrower 21653. Tectiform designs from caves of southern France and Spain 21754. Conventionalized designs carved on fragments of bone . 21855. Hunters' feast engraved on bone pendant 21956. Stone lamp from cave of La Mouthe 220
57- Design of herd of reindeer 22158. Mammoth engraved on ivory 221i;g. Red deer and sahiion, engraved on reindeer antler 22360. "The Sorcerer" of Trois Freres 22461. Ceremonial bowls made from human skulls ... 22662. A stag hunt 23063. Wounded warrior .... 23164. Flat harpoons of red-deer antler 23565. Stone hatchet and iron hammer 23566. Negrito using bow and arrow 23767. Wooden fire-drill 23868. Tasmanian canoe 24069. Chinese dragon-boat 24170. Aztec human sacrifice 24771. Staghorn pickaxes 24872. Prehistoric stone hatchet 24973. Dog travois used by American Plains Indians .... 25574. Primitive Mexican cart 25775. South African Bushman woman's digging-stick . 25876. Ancient Egyptian wooden hoe 25877. Caschrom, or foot-plough 25978. Korean three-man spade 26079. Ancient Egyptian man-drawn plough 26180. Rock engraving of plough and oxen 26181. Necklace of leopard's teeth 26382. Wooden ladle 26383. Swiss lake dwellings 26484. Pick made of deerhorn 26785. Flint-bladed dagger 26886. Late Bronze Age sword 26887. Bronze axes 27088. Bronze ax with wooden helve 27189. Copper axes and ax-adz 27190. Stone copies of bronze battle-axes 27291. Male costume of early Bronze Age 27492. Female costume of Bronze Age 27593. Bull-boat of American Plains Indians 27694. Roman coin of bronze, about 300 B. c 27895. Early Chinese knife-money 27996. Early Chinese hoe-money 28097. Bronze vase of late Bronze Age 28298. Egyptian infantry, Eighteenth Dynasty 28599. Four-wheeled wagon 287100. Sacrifice of a slave 292
loi. Primitive Egyptian hoe 297102. Dagger or short sword of early Iron Age 312103. Rock engraving of mounted warrior 323104. Maya design of Feathered Serpent 329105. Maya wall painting of human sacrifice 330106. Diagrammatic cross-section of Maya building .... 332107. Maya wall painting 233108. Design from Aztec sacrificial stone 340109. Section from design of Peruvian painted vase .... 343no. Portion of a Peruvian quipu 345111. Peruvian mythological design 347112. Peruvian concept of the God of the Air 348
PREFACE
The past history of our race is far too vast and complex asubject to be surveyed adequately by any one individual.Hence this book is the result ot cooperative effort on thepart of workers in several different fields, all, however,with a direct bearing on the subject.Dr. Charles G. Abbot, Secretary of the SmithsonianInstitution and Editor-in-Chief of the present Series, hasassumed the task of writing the first three chapters. Inthe first two of these he has described the setting of thecosmic stage upon which the human race is playing itspart; while in the third he has told of the prenatal life ofthe individual, which so strikingly recapitulates the de-velopment of the species in many ways.The portions of the book dealing with the physicalcharacteristics of prehistoric man have been based verylargely upon the work of Dr. Ales Hrdlicka, of the Na-tional Museum, Chapters VII and VIII in particular hav-ing been taken almost verbatim from a technical mono-graph specially prepared by him for the SmithsonianInstitution.For the remaining chapters and especially for thosedealing with man's cultural progress, the writer is re-sponsible.In order to avoid confusing the reader, the distinctionbetween man's physical development and his progress incivilization has been carefully maintained. In discussingthe former, the plan has been followed of working backfrom the recent to the more remote past?from familiartypes to those less well known. This method enables us[i]
PREFACE
to see more clearly how the human race grows ever moreprimitive, increasingly less like that of today and definitelyinferior to it in many ways, the farther back we go in pointof time.The account of man's conquest of material things, how-ever, from his primeval condition ' to the beginnings ofmodern civilization, contained in the last nine chapters,has called for the opposite method of treatment. Insteadof tracing them backward through the ages, the variousdiscoveries and inventions of major importance have beendealt with in their probable order of occurrence, and theirapplication to an ever-growing range of uses has beendescribed.Where so many have been drawn on for information, itwould be impossible to give due credit by name in eachindividual instance. Special acknowledgment must bemade, however, to Dr. H. N. Russell, Sir James Jeans, andDr. A. S. Eddington, among astronomers; to Dr. T. C.Chamberlin, Dr. R. D. Salisbury, Dr. Ernst Antevs, Dr.C. W. Gilmore, Dr. R. S. Bassler, the late Dr. C. D.Walcott, and the late Dr. G. P. Merrill, among geologistsand paleontologists; to Dr. E. W. MacBride, Dr. C. W.Prentiss, Dr. L. B. xArey, and Dr. Edwin G. Conklin,among cytologists and embryologists; and to Sir ArthurKeith, M. Marcellin Boule, the Abbe H. Breuil, Dr. G. G.MacCurdy, Dr. Hugo Obermaier, and Dr. H. F. Osborn,among prehistorians.For the various illustrations, due acknowledgment ismade in the captions accompanying each. Hearty thanksmust be paid to Mr. William H. Gill, of Washington, forthe artistic excellence of the drawings, which are almostentirely the result of his painstaking work.The writer also wishes to express his personal apprecia-tion to Miss Daisy Furscott, of the Freer Gallery Expedi-tion Library, for her aid in reference work and her helpfulcriticism; and to Miss Christabel E Hill for her unremit-ting care in the preparation of the manuscript.
PREFACE
Lastly and in a very special sense are the joint authorsunder deep obligation to Mr. John R. Ellingston and MissRose A. Palmer, of the Editorial Staff, for their cordialand unwearying cooperation, without which this bookcould not have been completed. C. W. Bishop.Free)- Gallery of Art^ Smithsonian Institution,Washington, November /, igsg.
in

MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTCHAPTER IMAN'S THEATER OF ACTION^Man has his residence upon a world 8,000 miles in diam-eter. It is fifth in size and third in solar distance of thesun's family of eight principal planets. The sun is anaverage star, situated about twenty-five trillions of milesfrom the nearest neighboring star. Alpha Centauri, in thesouthern heavens. As it would be almost meaningless toname in miles the distances of the other stars, astronomershave devised another expression which is very striking.This is the light-year, the distance which light, moving186,000 miles each second, covers in a full year. It equalssome six trillions of miles. In these terms Alpha Centauriis at about four light-years' distance from our sun and hisfamily of planets. Though expressed in hundreds ofmillions of miles, the separations of the planets from eachother and from the sun become, by comparison to the dis-tance of the nearest star, almost as nothing. Light travelsfrom sun to earth in eight minutes.Only a few stars are known to lie within 100 light-yearsof our solar system. The vast majority of them exceed1,000 and even 10,000 light-years in distance. The starsare not scattered uniformly outwards to infinity. If wecould stand armed with a great telescope at a million light-years' distance from the sun, we should see all of our ownfamiliar starry system isolated like a little wheel whose rim,
' These introductory chapters on man's setting are by Dr. Charles G. Abbot.[I]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
extended along the plane of the Milky Way, would appearabout five times as wide as its hub. Within this lens-shaped star cluster, which we call our galaxy, the stars, ifwe could count them all, would probably number somethirty billions.As we gazed about us from our supposed observing point,a million light-years distant, we should see still other clus-ters of stars not belonging to our system, for our galaxyis not the only one in space. There are, indeed, hundredsof thousands of other island universes, each of multitudesof stars, besides that one which contains the well-knownconstellations, the solar system, and the world of man. Doother stars within our own galaxy have planets revolvingabout them? If so, are these planets inhabited by con-scious beings? Do other island universes far outside ourgalaxy contain still other inhabited worlds? In short, is itreasonable to believe that among the hundreds of thou-sands of galaxies, each containing its millions or billionsof stars, only one world supports creatures equal to man?So much for the world's setting in regard to space. Whatof its extension in the domain of time? "The days of ouryears are threescore years and ten; and if by reason ofstrength they be fourscore years, yet is their strengthlabour and sorrow; for it is soon cut oflF, and we fly away."So writes the Psalmist of the individual. As the history ofthe ancient world is recovered in written inscriptions onwalls and tablets, we are carried back to a time six thou-sand years ago when men already built great works, mar-shaled armies, and carried on industries. Dating frommany thousands of years before this earliest recorded his-tory, evidences of human skill and fossil human remains incave dwellings are still preserved. These indications growless and less evidential of high intelligence in man with in-creasing antiquity, until at last, at a time estimated atmuch less than a million years ago, man fades from thescene. Back of that period, animal and vegetable king-doms persisted for periods estimated at several hundreds[2]
PLATE 1
When man believed earth to he the center of the universe andhimself the supreme achievement. From a seventeenth-centuryedition of the Ptolemaic Almagest^ depicting victory of the Ptolemaicover the Copernican theory
PLATE 2
What our universe would look like observed from a point a millionlight-veal's distant. Earth's position would be about a half inch offcenter. Photograph of Spiral Nebula Messier 23 from Mt. WilsonObservatory
MAN'S THEATER OF ACTION
of millions of years. Back farther still the most ancienttraces of life itself fade out.Was this the dawn of time for our earth? We believenot. Nature furnishes a calendar in the minerals whichbear the radioactive elements, radium, thorium, uranium,and their degenerated products, lead and helium. Radium,for example, constantly decomposes, yielding helium and atemporary element called radium emanation. The emana-tion itself decomposes into more helium and a secondtemporary element. After five similar transformations theend product, besides the gas helium, is the familiar metallead.Such are the works of nature's time clock. The timeelement consists in this, that radium loses half of its weightin 1,700 years, producing helium and lead at rates whichare now well known, and which no known agency caneither hasten or retard. Basing their estimates on thequantities of helium and of lead in certain of the very old-est rocks which contain such chemical elements as uraniumand radium, and on other similar data, students have nowcome to a general agreement that the primeval earth'scrust can not be less than a billion years of age.Was this, then, the beginning of time.^ Evidently not,for the chemicals in the stars are all so hot as to be gaseous,whereas the crust of the earth is so cool as to be solid.Immense periods of time must have elapsed before thematerial which combined to form the solid earth was de-veloped from the gases of which once it formed a part.This brings us to the newest view relating to the length oftime, which grows out of the consideration of solar andstellar energy. Our sun and the other stars constitute im-mense bodies hundreds of thousands of times more massivethan the earth. Owing to their tremendous temperaturesthey constantly give off visible and invisible rays havingenormous energy. Even at the earth's immense distancethe sun rays contain over a horsepower of energy per squareyard. Equally intense are the sun rays in all directions, so[31
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTthat the flow of solar energy is to be estimated in horse-power in terms of the number of square yards on the sur-face of a sphere ninety-three million miles in radius.What supplies this copious flood of energy? Probablythe annihilation of atoms. This, indeed, so eminent anastronomer as Professor Jeans of England states to be notonly a reasonable but a necessary article of scientific belief.Writing on "Astronomy" in the thirteenth edition of theEncyclopaedia Britannica, Professor Eddington declaresthe energy equivalent of the destruction of the entire sub-stance of our sun to be sufficient to sustain its output ofradiation through fifteen trillions of years. This is theorder of time which the universe is now supposed torepresent.Thus, in brief summary, man's home is in a universe con-taining some hundreds of thousands of galaxies each com-posed of millions or billions of stars. Among these theremay be many systems of planets such as that which ourstar, the sun, holds in his train, and among them may bemany inhabited worlds. The starry hosts are scatteredthrough a space measured in millions of times the sixtrillions of miles that light traverses in a year. They seemlikely to have been existing through time enduring trillionsof years, and likely to continue quite as long in time tocome. From the prodigious stores of energy, partly gravi-tational, partly radiant, which our star, the sun, supplies,man collects the fragment that he needs to carry on hiscomparatively small concerns. In short, a man, one ofnearly two billion living human individuals enduringbut for threescore years, does not loom large comparedto the universe in which he dwells, to its duration or itsenergies.Man's existence on his little earth depends on extraor-dinary circumstances. As to how life began here, scienceofi^ers no guess, but how slight are the changes whichmight destroy life has recently become plain. Water inliquid form is indispensable. It is the only natural liquidI4I
MAN'S THEATER OF ACTIONindependent of life processes^ which exists in free state andconsiderable quantity at the earth's usual temperature. Asmall change of temperature would congeal or vaporizethis indispensable liquid. A fall of only ten per cent in thetemperature of the globe would drive the higher forms oflife to the tropics. Again, miles high above the earth ex-ists that form of oxygen which is called ozone. There is solittle of it that if brought to the earth's surface it wouldmake a gaseous layer only a little thicker than the cover ofthis book. Yet if this trifling constituent of our atmos-phere should be destroyed, probably blindness and deathto humanity would ensue, owing to the burning chemicalaction of extreme ultra-violet rays of the sun which ozonecuts off.The materials of which the universe is composed seemto be common to all parts of it. In the sun and all thestars are found, by observation, only those chemicalelements, such as iron, hydrogen, oxygen, and others, whichare familiar on our earth, and some of which go to make upman himself. These elements,wherever found, are composedof two constituents, and two only?the protons and theelectrons, equal and opposite elementary charges of elec-tricity. On the other hand, harmonious to this unity, thereare many examples of progressive gradation. These beginamong the very atoms of the chemical elements.The keen discoverer who laid the groundwork of thisknowledge of the atomic gradation was Henry Gwyn-Jeffreys Moseley. Born in 1887, he graduated at OxfordUniversity and became lecturer in physics at the Uni-versity of Manchester, where he was associated with theeminent British Nobel prize winner, Sir Ernest Ruther-ford. By a brilliant series of highly delicate and originalexperiments, Moseley demonstrated the step-by-step re-lation in the X-ray spectra of the elements, now known asMoseley's law. So epoch-making was this discovery thathe was specially invited to lecture upon it in Australia at
* Gasoline, the oils, the alcohols, etc., are in nature all products of life processes.[5I
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTthe meeting of the British Association for the Advance-ment of Science in the year 1914. A volunteer officer inthe "Territorials," Moseley hurried from the British As-sociation scientific assembly on the outbreak of the GreatWar, to be instantly killed by a Turkish bullet at Gallipoli,August 10, 191 5. He lived only twenty-eight years, buthis name will be remembered forever.Moseley's law finds its interpretation in the structure ofthe atoms of the chemical elements. Hydrogen has oneorbital electron, helium two, lithium three, beryllium four,and so on, advancing by unit steps, to uranium, the last ofthe known chemical elements, with ninety-two electronsarranged in a multitude of orbits all focusing about thecentral nucleus.Not only in the infinitesimal domain of the atoms, but inthe vast spaces of the starry systems, an orderly gradationof qualities prevails. In size, in brightness, in spectrum,in density, in temperature, the nebulae and the stars pre-sent an orderly series of great impressiveness. Invisible tothe eye, because of tremendous distance, but readily photo-graphed by great telescopes, the heavens contain hun-dreds of thousands of such objects as are shown in Plate 2.We see there a series of forms ranging from irregularthrough spherical hazy masses, thence, through gradualelongation, to pronounced spindle shape, and finally to thebranched spirals. It is believed that here we see the evolu-tion of a starry galaxy such as our own. At first unformed,gravitation settles the gaseous mass into a sphere; rota-tion elongates it; still greater motion tends to produce thespindle shapes; which, with increased velocities and tidalforces, produce the two-branched spirals; from which, atlength, separate the stars. All of this observedly probabletrain of events conforms to known laws of fluids.But the stars also show progression after their birth, ofwhich a striking evidence is given by the group of stellarspectra shown in Plate 78 in Volume 2 of this Series. Bymany years of observation along many lines of attack,[6]
MAN'S THEATER OF ACTIONknowledge has advanced so far that we may now summa-rize the evolution of a star. Separating from the parentnebula as an enormously extended gaseous ball, hundredsof millions of miles in diameter and rare as the residual ofgas in what we are apt to call a high vacuum, the newly-born star is of low temperature, glows but feebly red, andshows in its spectrum the bands of molecular compounds.Condensing and rising in temperature by the fall inwardsof its gaseous matter under its own gravitation, the starglows yellowish red, its spectrum loses its compound bands,because heat dissociates the compounds which producethem, and substitutes for these bands the lines of moder-ately heated metals. Still enhancing its temperature byinternal gravitation, the density of the star becomes yetgreater, and its light glows yellowish. Its spectrum linesbegin to show the effects of the high temperature involvedin the shattering of the atoms from which are stripped offone or more electrons by the violent agitation of the power-ful heat within.This process goes on through the white to the blue stage,when the atoms become so far dissociated as to render thespectrum unfamiliar, for it corresponds to temperaturestoo exalted to be commanded for any considerable time inour laboratories. If this be the exterior condition, muchmore is the interior of the star in tremendous exalta-tions of heat and pressure. It is believed that under theseconditions matter is gradually annihilated by the collapseof the atoms, and that the enormous output of radiation ismade possible only by the actual passing out of existenceof interior matter, with a diminution of the mass of thestar. Thus the star grows smaller both by condensationand by annihilation.With great density the star material, though gaseous, be-comes so little transparent that the inner heat is no longerable to force to the exterior a sufficient supply to maintainthe radiation outward. The star then visibly cools, andpasses in reverse order through the series of colors and of[7l
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
spectrum appearances which we have named. But now,from the rarity of a red star newly born, it grows old andends as a red star, indeed, but with a density approach-ing or even exceeding that of the solid metals such as iron.Finally failing altogether to supply glowing heat, the starbecomes dark, as indeed many great celestial bodies areknown to be. These reveal their presence not by theirlight but by their gravitation or by cutting off the light ofcompanion stars.Such, it appears, is the evolution of a galaxy and a star.A solar system presents another operation. Among themultitudes of stars, all of which are in rapid motion invarious directions, there will be some pairs, in the course ofbillions or trillions of years, which will approach so closelytogether as nearly to collide. Though not actually pre-senting the tremendous catastrophe of collision, whichbetween two bodies so enormous would indeed be beyonddescription, a pair of stars passing near each other wouldraise such great mutual tides that their material would notmerely swell out like our ocean tides, but for a time wouldactually flow away in ropelike streams into space byreason of the adventure. Such material, after the passageof the disturbing star, would collect into planets; and such,we may imagine, is the origin of our solar system.We are to suppose, then, that our earth was formed bythe gathering together of matter which had been caused toflow out from the sun by reason of the close approach, agesago, of some other star. As the stars often exceed twenty-five miles a second in their mutual approach or recession,and as we have noted that the nearest star. Alpha Cen-tauri, is only some 25,000,000,000,000 miles away, it isconceivable that the near catastrophe which gave birth toour earth might have happened no more than 1,000,000,-000,000 seconds, or 30,000 years ago. But as our radiumclock has told us that the earth's crust is fully a billionyears old, we must conclude that it was not the nearest ofthe stars but some unknown one, now very distant, which[8]


MAN'S THEATER OF ACTIONby its close approach to the sun founded the solar system.It used to be supposed, when another hypothesis of itsorigin prevailed, that the earth cooled from the conditionof a glowing hot ball until its crust formed, and that soonafter that event it became fit for life. We are now moreapt to believe, following Chamberlin and Moulton, whofirst advocated this view in the early years of the presentcentury, that the earth is the product of gradual accretionof the train of finely divided solid meteoric matter whichthe supposed close approach of a star to our sun threw outas gases from the sun into space, but which soon cooled tosolidification there before combining to form the earth.Some meteoric matter in individual masses of pounds ortons, and some thousands of minor planets, which aremineral masses of some miles in diameter, still are metwith in the solar system. But nearly the whole of thematter which it is supposed escaped from the sun owingto the near approach of another star, is now collected toform the eight great planets and their moons.In the progress of accretion it is not to be supposed thatthe earth was at first of regular shape or complete solidity.But as more and more matter accumulated, its growingpressure gradually squeezed out the lighter parts, includ-ing the present earth's crust and the water and air. Thewater settled into depressed regions and, adding to theirweight, tended the more to depress them. Also, then asnow, the action of the atmosphere in producing decompo-sition and disintegration, and of the rains and streams inwearing off the elevated parts, tended to remove theheavier portions of the rocks, which on the whole are moresoluble. This detritus, finding its way to the incipientoceans, tended the more to emphasize the oceanic depres-sions and to tilt still higher the land elevations.Under the enormous weight of the outer part of theearth, its inner portion flows slowly as if it were a viscousfluid. Experiments have shown that the crust to a depthof about sixty miles behaves like a floating island, tiltingI9I
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
about and bending under the loads of detritus which therivers bring down to the plains and the sea, as the windsand waters plane the mountains down. Again and again,as geology teaches us, portions of the continents have beenuplifted, planed down, sunk beneath the oceans, coveredwith mud layers, newly uplifted into mountains, newlyplaned down, and so on through vicissitude after vicissi-tude in the great age of the earth. Similar changes are stillgoing on, slowly, but probably no more slowly than theyalways have done. During many of these changes lifeexisted, the remains of which were sometimes buried bysands and mud that became rock and so have preservedfor us the fossil records of the past.It is impossible to determine accurately in years thelength of the periods of geologic time. Moreover, therecords are fragmentary, imperfect, depending on thevicissitudes of elevation and depression, aridity, tempera-ture, and other factors. Nowhere is the whole gamut ofstrata from earliest to latest time exposed. The layingdown of strata demands locations such as the shores of asea or lake, the sea bottom, river basins, or desert valleys.Obviously, these could not in all ages prevail at any oneplace. Yet the earth's surface yields so many examples ofthe burial of multitudes of forms of life at successive depthsthat what is lost in one locality may be supplied from an-other. Thus it has become possible for paleontologists toestimate the approximate order of succession of life re-corded in the fossil remains, and the approximate relativelength of time involved in the several periods which thesefossil remains suggest. These data are confirmed by manysamples from many parts of the earth's surface. Localcontradictory evidences, explainable on grounds of earth-folding, noncontemporaneousness of life forms, and other-wise, become no more than the exceptions which provethe rule. The broad features remain surely known.In this brief survey of present hypotheses and observa-tions relating to the place of man and his abode in time[lo]
MAN'S THEATER OF ACTION
and space, our attention has been drawn to the orderly-march of forms, both as regards the infinitesimal atoms andthe enormous heavenly bodies. In such developments wefind a forecast of the progress of life forms from the sim-plest to the most complex, not only of every individualbeing from his conception to his death, but of the animaland vegetable kingdoms themselves. In the next twochapters we shall trace the progressive steps of life de-velopment which lead us at length to the considerationof adult man and his achievements.
[II]
CHAPTER IITHE CHORUS OF MAN'S STAGE
In most plays the principal actors are assisted by a largegroup of minor characters and attendants, whose parts,though less conspicuous, are vital to the drama. It is soin nature. Though man dominates creation, his happi-ness and even his very existence depend on humblercreatures. Nor are they all his friends or the friends ofhis friends. Powerful as he is, man requires the full use ofall his mental superiority to hold his own against thecompetition of the insects and microscopic enemies whichthreaten his life.Man has not always held the stage. Long before hisentrance, race after race of creatures developed, came tothe zenith of their power, and gave way in turn to others.Perhaps it will be so with man.The almost interminable march of life as read in theimperfect record of the rocks has presented six especiallyinteresting eras, which may be designated as, first, the eraof the simplest life forms; second, the reign of the inver-tebrates; third, the period in which vertebrates, exempli-fied by the fishes, made their appearance; fourth, theheroic age of vegetation; fifth, the age of reptiles; andsixth, the age of mammals, culminating in man.The first era embraces the dawn of life. Its durationprobably is to be reckoned in hundreds of millions ofyears and is at least equal in length to all succeedingtime. Partly by reason of the vicissitudes of the ageswhich lie between that period and ours, partly becauseits strata have not been thoroughly explored, and more[12]
THE CHORUS OF MAN'S STAGE
especially because in its strata the complete records havenot been preserved, we have little evidence of the kinds ofcreatures which then developed.It is in the rocks of the second great life period, that ofthe early Paleozoic time, divided in geological nomencla-ture into the "Cambrian" and "Ordovician," that numer-ous fossil specimens first become available, abundant, andbeautifully preserved. These were the ages solely of theinvertebrates, among them many creatures so differentfrom present forms that they can not be said to have de-scendant representatives in the modern world. Therewas, for instance, the great family of the trilobites, whichresembled superficially the lobster and the crab. Thetrilobites long ago became totally extinct, but they domi-nated the earlier part of the periods of which we are nowspeaking. Some of them, indeed, grew to large size, ex-ceeding eighteen inches in length. The name comes fromthe shape of the body, which presents a right, a left, and amiddle prominent portion. Very beautiful in outline,with numerous delicate side organs almost fernlike in theirdetail, and provided with eyes and other sense organs, thetrilobites seem to have been as complexly organized asmany of the foremost of the invertebrates of the presentday. They are not by any means primitive creatures.If we accept the theory of the gradual evolution of lifeforms, they must have had a very long ancestry.The trilobites counted among their contemporariesmany kinds of shell-protected creatures, including severalwhose shells resemble greatly some of those of today.Thus we may regard the family of the present-day oysterand those of certain other bivalve mollusks as extremelyancient, though the species have changed from the ancientforms.Toward the close of the Ordovician period, the class ofthe cephalopods, now represented by the chamberednautilus, the octopus, squid, and their like, usurped thepreeminence so long held by the trilobites, and continued[13]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTprominently during the Silurian period which followed.Some of these chambered shells were of straight, taperingform, and no less than twelve to fifteen feet in length andone foot in maximum diameter. It is interesting tospeculate on their means of locomotion and nutrition.The great period called the Silurian, which followed theOrdovician, is the last one dominated by invertebrateanimal life. During the Silurian the trilobites declined,but the cephalopods continued very notable. Theyshared their prominence, however, with certain remark-able crustaceans, of somewhat scorpionlike appearance,called Eurypterus and Pterygotus. Among these latter,giants of one and a half to six feet in length appeared.These creatures have never been surpassed among crusta-ceans of all ages. Many of the other orders and classesof invertebrates flourished notably during the Silurian,as they had done previously, but towards the end of theage the third great life era, that of the vertebrates repre-sented by fishes, began to dawn.Here we find forms called the ostracoderms, which seemto constitute a connecting link between the crustaceans, asrepresented by the trilobites, and the true vertebratefishes that were to come. Their heads and trunks ex-ternally bear resemblance to the trilobites, while present-ing fishlike fins and tails. They opened their jaws later-ally like the crabs, not vertically like the fishes, yet so fish-like were their bodies and tails that till recently studentshave always classed them with the fishes.With the Devonian period comes the reign of the truefishes, though the forms differed extensively from most ofthose in the present seas. Sharks lived in the Devonianboth in the open sea and in brackish waters of the shores.Lampreys, lungfishes, and ganoids were also developed.But as yet paleontologists have found no trace of the nowdominant bony fishes.Our fourth era of special interest is the heroic age ofvegetation, the Carboniferous. As vegetation is indis-[Hi
-T3 b
TiZ;_

THE CHORUS OF MAN'S STAGEpensable to support animal life, it must have coexistedplentifully with the earliest terrestrial animals, thoughinconspicuous in the fossil record. Fossil evidences ofbacteria and marine algae have been found in the rogkslaid down in the era of dawning life; but vegetation, thoughpresent through all preceding ages, first becomes plentiful,as indicated by the fossil record, in the Devonian. It isrepresented then, not only by mosses and ferns, but bytrees of fernlike form and by some palmlike species. Inthe Carboniferous period, however, though in forms verystrange to our eyes, vegetation became so luxuriant as toform the main source of the coal and to some extent of theoil on which modern industry depends for power. Layersof coal which in some sections reach a thickness of 250feet are supposed to represent several million years ofluxuriant vegetation during the Carboniferous period.Many kinds of trees abounded, but they were very unlikethose of the present.This same period brought forth in the animal kingdomthe amphibians, those vertebrate creatures adapted toboth land and water. They are thought by some to havedeveloped from certain Devonian types of fishes. Surelythis development is a most interesting one. It marks anew era in which for the first time the earth held verte-brate animals able to live on land. Some Carboniferousamphibians, recalling the structure of the crocodile,reached lengths of eight to ten feet. Others resembledsnakes, lizards, and salamanders.Following the Carboniferous period, there ensued an age,evidently of great stress and hardship, called the Permian.It used to be supposed that life was then altogether ex-tinguished ^nd that all subsequent life arose from a newcreation. This is an exaggeration. Great diminution inlife certainly occurred, and many species were extermi-nated. It was estimated from such knowledge as wasavailable about the beginning of this century that, with10,000 known animal species of the Carboniferous period,[151
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
only 300 remained to represent the Permian. The ratio atpresent would be more favorable to the Permian, but thedecline is startling. Simpler, hardier forms of vegetationtook the place of the rich Carboniferous flora. Amongvertebrate animals arose a new order, the reptiles. Strangeforms they took. There was, for instance, the fin-back lizard,Dimetrodon^ found six to seven feet in length. Highly in-teresting is the discovery of reptilian forms which, in theshape of head and skeleton, begin to suggest the mammals.But before the age of mammals, the earth had yet to seethe long ascendency of the gigantic reptiles which ruled atlength air, land, and sea. The Triassic period witnessed therise of the reptilian land dinosaurs, which, although theydid not rival the monstrous forms of the two followingperiods, yet attained a length of fifteen feet. Reptiles ofmarine habit became lords of the sea, preying upon itsprevious rulers, the fishes. But the shell-armored inverte-brates also attained a new prominence with the rise of thecephalopod ammonites, somewhat similar to the modernnautilus. Their beautifully sculptured spiral shells presenthundreds of varieties.From the Triassic we pass to the Jurassic period, inwhich the ammonites attained their maximum of luxuri-ance and beauty. Among the fishes, which during theirearlier dominance in the Devonian had been limited to thefamilies related to the lampreys and sharks, the modernbony types now first made their appearance. However,the Jurassic stands for the grand period of the reptiles, bothon sea and land. Ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs reachedtheir highest development. The former took on somethingof the lines of a fish, though crocodilian of snout, with pad-dles, fins, and sharklike tails suitable to rapid marine loco-motion. The plesiosaurs were ungainly reptiles describedby some one as having "the body of a turtle strung on asnake." Like the ichthyosaurs, they were covered bysmooth skins unprotected by scales. They ranged fromeight to forty feet or more in length.[16]
r- C
i. ^

THE CHORUS OF MAN'S STAGEOn land the dinosaurs attained enormous stature. Herewe find Brontosaurus^ an herb-eating creature balancing itshuge horizontal carcass of sixty feet, in combined length ofneck and tail, on four stocky legs. Equally grotesque wasthe great armored Stegosaurus with its row of verticalplates over the backbone from head to tip of tail.Finally, the reptiles, as represented by the pterodactylsand others, invaded even the air. They did not occupyit alone, however, for in the same period the first birdlikeanimals appear, in the form of the Archaeopteryx.Still antedating the age of mammals, we pass on into theCretaceous period, in the vegetation of which appear forthe first time the angiosperms which form the dominantdynasty of modern plants. The plants had hitherto beenrepresented by the gymnosperms, whose seeds are naked.The angiosperms have true seed vessels. To this class agreat variety of trees, shrubs, and herbs of the present daybelong.Among land reptiles, the dinosaurs now attained theirmost formidable features for attack and defense in Tricera-tops^ with his shieldlike crest, sharp beak, and great,pointed horns. Yet Marsh remarks that he had the larg-est head with the smallest brain of the reptile race. Turtles,lizards, snakes, and crocodiles were among other reptilefauna of the period. The flying reptiles attained greatspread of wings, possibly twenty-five feet, and doubtlessflew with great power.At sea, also, the reptiles still ruled. A species of seaturtle reached the enormous size of twelve feet in diameter,with a skull larger than that of a horse. The plesiosaursand other marine reptiles still continued in giant forms.True sea-diving birds of large size are found, as well assmaller flying species. Among the fishes, a transition hadtaken place to the prevailing dominance of the modernbony types.And now, after the long ages of invertebrates, fishes,amphibians, and reptiles, and finally of birds, we arrive at[17]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTlast at the eve of the rapid rise of the mammals, and withthem, of the rise of the mind. We find in the Eocene pe-riod herbivorous, carnivorous, and insectivorous mammals,among them the ancestors of the cats, dogs, squirrels, rab-bits, monkeys, and lemurs, the horse, and the rhinoceros.Ancestral forms of the elephant and mastodon arose inAfrica and migrated through Eurasia and America. Somemammals of Eocene time were of elephantine size, thoughsoon extinct. Also, the mammals went down to the sea asthe reptiles had done previously, and were represented bywhales, dolphins, manatees, seals, and sea lions. Indeed,the name Eocene is given because in this period, for thefirst time in all the long history of life, the world's fauna andflora contained an appreciable percentage of orders thatstill exist. Thus the Eocene is the dawn of modern life.In the Miocene period, which succeeded the Oligocene,the approach toward the present fauna was marked by theadvance of the cat and dog families, of the horse, therhinoceros, the rodents, and by the development of thepigs and the camels, which as yet were confined to America.The deer and ox families migrated extensively. Most in-teresting, however, is the rise of the primates, nearest ofall creatures in their form to man.The Miocene gave place to the Pliocene period, in whichafter an intermigration of New and Old World types, simi-lar to that which had taken place in the Eocene and otherperiods, pointing to the existence of ancient bridges acrossthe ocean depths, there begins the divergence which separa-tion by the oceans has caused. The elephant family werethe giants of this period. Mastodons occupied all conti-nents. Among the cats occurred the ferocious saber-toothed tiger, now extinct. The apes developed in south-ern Europe and other parts of the Old World. Dubois, in1 891, found in Java portions of a skeleton of Pliocene age,about which paleontologists are in doubt as to whether itis more akin to the apes or to man, and so have called itPithecanthropus erectus?the erect apelike man.[18]
THE CHORUS OF MAN'S STAGETo whichever species the Java fossil remains may be as-signed, the next period, the Pleistocene, indubitably bringsin the dawn of the day of man. His advent is demon-strated by skeletons, tools, drawings, and many other evi-dences. That he was contemporaneous with extinct
Fig. I. Woolly rhinoceros of the Pleistocene in Europe. A mural drawing inred in the cavern of Font-de-Gaume, Dordogne, France. After Capitan, Breuil,and PeyronyPleistocene animals is proved by his drawings of spiritedlikenesses of some of these creatures in the caves of south-ern Europe, as well as by the association in Europeanfossil beds of primitive human skeletons and artifacts withbones of the mammoth, the woolly rhinoceros, and otheranimals now extinct. The Pleistocene, or Glacial period,was remarkable for the several advances and retreats ofarctic and antarctic glaciation. In North America the icesheets pushed as far south as the junction of the Ohio andMississippi rivers, while in Europe ice sheets invaded theplains of France. Thus in the infancy of the race, manstruggled against odds.Beginning with the dawn of life, we have surveyedanimal and vegetable development through the earlyPaleozoic, the age of the invertebrates; the Devonian, theage of fishes and of the rise of vertebrates; the Carbonifer-ous, or heroic age of vegetation; the Triassic, Jurassic, andCretaceous, embracing the long dominance of the giant[19I
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
reptiles of air, land, and sea, and the rise of birds; throughthe Eocene,01igocene, Miocene, and Pliocene, which saw thedawn of the age of mammals, and their development tocover and rule the earth; till finally, after the lapse of hun-dreds of millions of years, man came upon the scene.Within the comparatively brief epoch of a few hundredthousand years at most, he has become master of the world.Other creatures hold their lives at his pleasure; the earthyields her stores of fruits, fuel, and minerals to his machin-ery; he collects power from the rivers and the sun; he com-municates his thoughts around the world almost instan-taneously; he explores the universe with his telescope andspectroscope; and he rides on air, land, and water atspeeds exceeding that of the swiftest of the birds.There are at present in the world approximately 600,000known species of insects, several hundred thousand otherinvertebrates and nonmammalian vertebrates, and 15,000mammals. Until comparatively recent times, these werenonexisting, and other species, now extinct, prevailed.Their numbers can not now be estimated, because of theimperfect record which paleontology has thus far disclosed.Nor is the present number complete. Every year addsthousands of newly discovered species to the alreadyhugely swollen list of creatures of the present and the past.It has even been estimated that the unknown insectspecies are really ten times as numerous as those hithertodescribed.The immense numbers of species and the changes there-in from epoch to epoch which have marked the past historyof the earth, and the tremendous time scale indicated bythe study of the slow alterations and great thickness ofstratified rocks no less than by the discovery of the trans-mutation of radium, combine both to accentuate and toanswer the question: What is the origin of species? With-out other evidences than those just mentioned, the mindwould tend to conclude that the species have been formedby gradual divergences of forms exposed to different en-[20]


THE CHORUS OF MAN'S STAGE
vironments over ages of time. Such indeed is the almostuniversally accepted conclusion of scientific men. It iscalled the theory of organic evolution. As to the relativeimportance of the parts played by different agencies in pro-moting the evolutionary process there is as yet no generalagreement; but as regarding the general proposition thereis nearly unanimous consent.If the proposition of organic evolution requires furthersupport, it may be found in the experiments of the presentday. For example, the little plant, St.-John's-wort, whichin America and Europe seldom exceeds a foot in height,was transplanted to New Zealand about eighty years ago.There it has become a tree reaching forty feet in the air.Pigeons which came originally from the wild blue rockpigeon have been developed, under the care of breeders,into the astonishing variety of forms familiar to fanciers.Dogs and horses, too, under the selection of breeders,range through forms almost as various. In laboratory ex-periments of the past half century, hundreds of what maybe accepted as new species of invertebrates and vertebrateshave been originated. Man himself is proved to vary.Thus the races of Europe, which have furnished overtwenty million emigrants to America within the past cen-tury, betray, according to Hrdlicka, definite changes of theshape of the skull and other of the most deep-seated skele-tal characters in their descendants of only a few genera-tions.Still more remarkable is the evidence of change whichwe shall take up in the next chapter, where we follow thehuman development from conception to old age. It isthought by some to be derogatory to the dignity of manthat he should be considered to have ascended from sub-ordinate creatures during the progress of ages. Yet it cannot be denied that every human individual goes through anextensive evolution in his own individual development andpasses through forms equally repulsive to the squeamisheye. A fact which is often overlooked in this connection[21]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
is that if the theory of organic evolution is admitted, weare to consider man as ascending from some mammal ofthe Eocene period, not from any existing form of primate.The date of the parent stem, from which man and theother primates separated as branches, must be set backin time quite a million years.
22 ]
CHAPTER IIITHE DEVELOPMENT OF THE INDIVIDUALHUMAN BEINGAlthough in adult life a man is about thirty times asheavy as a fowl, the human egg weighs less than a mil-lionth as much as that of the hen, and is less than ahundredth of an inch in diameter. This great disparityis" appropriate to the great difference in the method ofnourishing the unborn progeny. The essential nucleus ofthe living germ-cell in either case makes up but a triflingportion of the total weight of the egg. A great portion ofthe egg substance in the fowl consists of the. yolk whichgives nourishment to the forming creature. This eggnourishment must entirely suflice to sustain growththroughout the three-weeks' period of gestation precedingthe birth of the chick. The human embryo, on the con-trary, almost immediately attaches itself to the wall ofthe uterus and begins to be nourished at the expense of itsmother's circulation.The nucleus of the human germ-cell within the egg ismicroscopic in its size and, though it is considerablylarger than the male nucleus which unites with it to in-itiate the new individual, the two contain essentially thesame number of chromosomes which constitute the in-heritance material. With this in mind, and reflectingthat the subsequent office of the mother is mainly tonourish the growing embryo, it will not appear so strangethat on the average the influences of father and mother onthe character of their offspring are substantially equal.[23]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTWhat at first sight is even more extraordinary is thatfamily resemblances, traits of character, even minutesimilarities in ways of acting, legion in their number, areclearly transmitted from parents to progeny through thechannel of the microscopic germ-cells. One might wellmarvel that so small an organism could possibly carry thepotential impression of so many and such complicatedtraits. To illustrate this point: A certain gentleman, whensigning his name to the roll of members of the Handel andHaydn Society in Boston was accosted by the secretarywith the remark, "I should have known to what family youbelong had you written only the little letter bT Not onlydo deportment, degree of deliberation of movement, stat-ure, facial and bodily appearance, and quality of voice, buta host of other little peculiarities proving family connec-tion, thus pass from ancestor to descendant.On the other hand, no two human individuals are alike.In the act of fertilization many thousands of spermatozoacompete for the impregnation of a single ovum, of whichbut a single spermatozoon is successful. The prefermentis in the highest degree accidental, and had any other ofthe many possible combinations occurred, the child wouldhave differed from him who is born. Also the ova,though far less numerous than the spermatozoa, differeach from each and impart differences to their progeny.Hence by the marriage of two individuals arises almostcountless possibilities of varied characters in their off-spring. The germ-cells, in short, carry not only the com-plex imprint of family inheritance, but also the imprintof individuality which stamps each child apart from allothers who ever lived. Yet considering the race as awhole, every germ-cell is only one of an almost infinitenumber, each of which represents still other individuali-ties. Notwithstanding that its potential capacities arethus certainly so highly complex, the tiny organism is,as we have said, so small as to be beyond the unaidedvision of the human eye. [24]
DEVELOPMENT OF THE HUMAN BEINGWe may carry this remarkable consideration still fur-ther. It is difficult, though not always impossible, todetect differences microscopically between the germ-cellsof man and those of many other creatures of the millionsof species representing vertebrate and invertebrate life.These others also have each one their millions of ancestral,living, or potential individuals. By so much the moreextraordinary, therefore, is the certainty of determinationwhich stamps uniquely the order, species, race, family,sex, and individuality upon a microscopic human germ-cell.How is this possible? It is because of the astonishingdivisibility of matter. Though so minute, the germ-cellsare nevertheless large enough to contain at least billions,perhaps even trillions, of molecules apiece. In a structurecontaining such an unthinkable number of molecules, thepossibilities of dissimilar combinations of chemical differ-ences and of varieties of arrangement are sufficient even tocarry all the complexities of inheritance which are wrappedup within a germ-cell.Let us look more closely upon this mystery. The wholesubstance of every living creature, plant and animal, ismade up of minute cells. In the adult human body, thecells are estimated to number twenty-six quadrillions.Each of them contains a microscopic portion called thenucleus. This latter is the part in which inheritance fac-tors reside. Differences exist in the cells which determineif a fragment of substance is perchance part of a plant, aninvertebrate, a mammal, a male or female, a brain, anerve, a muscle, or skin. Living cells have four properties:
I. Movement.1. Metabolism, nutrition, etc.3. Sensitivity.4. Reproduction.Movement, by expansion and contraction; metabolism,including the building up of definite substances and the[25]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
excretion of worn-out or waste substances ; sensitivity, com-prising the reception and transmission of stimuli, so thatwhat is done to one cell produces some sort of effect inothers; and reproduction by cleavage, so that one cellbecomes two. Although reproduction by cleavage is theproperty of all living cells and is necessary for the growthand repair of tissues, certain cells in the higher forms oflife are reproductive cells par excellence, since they have thefunction of producing new individuals.Cells contain, besides the microscopic nucleus, the nour-ishing and specialized material called cytoplasm, con-tained within a sur-rounding membrane.Imbedded in the cyto-plasm, the nucleusitself is also inclosedmost of the timewithin an inner mem-brane, which containsa fluid called nuclearsap and also the all-important chromo-somes of the nucleuswherein is the seat ofinheritance units. Thecell goes through twophases, which may becompared to sleepingand waking. In thedormant state of the
^ cell the chromosomal\ structure of the nu-cleus is practically in-visible, though un-doubtedly this is onlyan apparent absence,not a real one. In the
vn.y
Fig. 2. Phases of mitosis or cell multiplica-tion by division. After Schafer, from Prentissand Arey 26]
DEVELOPMENT OF THE HUMAN BEING
active state occur the extraordinary processes of the divi-sion of the nucleus and of the cell (Fig. 2). Within thenucleus at this time the microscope reveals the chromo-somes as a certain number of aggregations of granularmaterial. These take various forms, such as loops orchains or single lumps. The number of chromosomes in acell is characteristic and is constant for each species, butwithin each species it may differ between the two sexes.In man the count is difficult, but the number is usuallyregarded as forty-eight.Preparatory to cell division, a pair of centers migrateapart to opposite poles of the nucleus (Fig. 2). The chro-mosomes range themselves as if upon a central plane withrespect to these centers, while from each center rays orfibers go out and fasten upon the chromosomes, thus givinga spindle-shaped appearance to these radiating threads.Thus the whole structure at this time resembles a doublecone, with the company of chromosomes at the junction ofits bases. Meanwhile the membrane which inclosed thenucleus has dissolved, so that the fluid of the nucleusmerges into the cytoplasm of the remainder of the cell.And now all of the chromosomes are dragged into halves,as though drawn toward the two centers by opposing pullsof the connected fibers. These half-chromosomes cometogether near each of the centers and about them new in-closing membranes are formed. The outer membrane ofthe cell itself then shows a furrow which deepens into amiddle septum, and then the cell divides into two cells,each inclosing one of the daughter nuclei.Such, in brief, is the general story of all kinds of cells andof their multiplication. But in the formation of the specialmale and female germ-cells which unite to produce theembryo, each rejects one-half the number of its chromo-somes at a certain stage. The act of impregnation com-pletes the structure and unites in a single normal cell thechromosomes of two cells, which were distinctively maleand female before impregnation. In every division of
[ 27 ]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
cells which occurs thereafter throughout the body of thechild, and even in adult life, the daughter cells, beingalways composed of halves of all chromosomes in the pre-existing parent cells, contain equal shares of male andfemale elements. Every part of the human body, there-fore, is composed of cells which owe half of their chromo-somes to each parent.There is a reservation to be made. In the human speciesthe male germ-cells, or spermatozoa, consist of aboutequal numbers of two kinds. Each of these germ-cells hasone chromosome possessing one or the other of two dis-similar properties. Depending on which of these dissimilarchromosomes is included in the male germ-cell whichfortuitously unites with the female, the resulting embryois male or female. In some animals, as among the birds,for instance, the female holds the pair of unequal chromo-somes and is the governing influence which controls the sexof the offspring. In certain animals the disparity betweenthe pair of unequal chromosomes is so great that onechromosome is entirely absent in half the male germ-cellsand all cells of the bodies of females contain one morechromosome than those of males.After the union of the male and female germ-cells theresulting new cell of compound nature soon divides in themanner described above, making two cells, and these inturn divide again, and so on, until soon the ovum containsnot one but many cells, each of which includes the maleand female chromosomes. Up to this point, so far asmicroscopic observation shows, the cells have been nearlyalike, merely minute sparks of living matter. Yet it is notquite so, for the descendants of certain of them have, itis now proved, capacity for only one sort of further de-velopment, although, on the other hand, other cells cansubsequently give rise to any organs indiscriminately.But now, as in colonies of bees or of ants, the cells beginto be definitely assigned to different functions, and theirdescendent cells develop differences from this time for-[28 1
PLATE 7
A ntttion
Branchial grooves i-j -<:r7^ Maxillary process
Body stalk
Yolk-sacMaxillary process Mandibular processCephalic flexure hial arch 2ranchial arch 3Ccrvic al sinus
Olfactory pi IYolk sat
Cut edgeof amnionLowerlimb bud
[Irium of heart
Liver
> ?^\-Upper limbbud,
-r4- Mesodermal? ft segmentfp^'~^Mesonephros
Upper: Human embryo of 2.6 mm., showing yolk sac. Enlarged manytimes. After His, NormeutafelLower: Pig embryo of 6 mm. Compare with Plates 8 and 9. AfterPrentiss and Arey
PLATE 8
Human embryo of four to six weeks (2.1 to II mm.). After His,I^ormentajel
DEVELOPMENT OF THE HUMAN BEING
ward. They resolve themselves into three categories,called in the language of embryology, the ectoderm, theentoderm, and the mesoderm (Fig. 3).Of course, the new creature has not yet given anyrecognizable visible signs of the wise head, the strong
Entoderm of primitive gut
Hind-gut
Amnion Ectoderm
Fore-gut
Somatic mesodermSplanchnic mesoderm
Yolk sac
Entoderm
Chorionic ectodermUterine epitheliumTunica propria of uterusFig. 3. Diagram of the fetal membranes and allantoic placenta of a pig embryo,showing the three primary germ layers, ectoderm, entoderm, and mesoderm,from which all tissues and organs of the body are derived. After Prentiss andAreybody, the nimble legs, which later will appear. The threeprimitive divisions which we now speak of are muchsimpler; for the ectoderm is merely the original source ofthat which develops the outer skin, with hair and nails, thelining of the mouth and nose, the nervous system, and the29
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTlens of the eye; the entoderm, of the lining of the longcanal which is finally to make up the digestive as well asthe speaking and breathing organs; and the mesoderm, ofthe bones, the muscles, the blood and lymph, lining of thebody cavity, and the reproductive organs.In the initial stage, as we have seen, it is difficult if notimpossible to recognize microscopically the differencesbetween the nuclei of the germ-cells of different species oreven of different orders of animals. But the eggs differgreatly in the quantity of the yolk in which the nuclei areimmersed. With birds and reptiles, as we well know, theeggs contain much yolk, whereas with mammals, includ-ing man, the yolk is scanty. The development of theembryos associated with much yolk occurs outside themother's body and they derive all nourishment up to thetime of birth from the egg. There naturally develops, asthe means of nourishing the growing embryo, a channel ofcommunication leading to the reservoir of food which theegg contains. This channel and reservoir are called theyolk-stalk and the yolk-sac. In the mammals we mightwell expect the absence of these appendages, for they areuseless because the yolk is so scanty and the embryo almostimmediately is attached to the parent's circulation. Yetthey exist, and persist for a long period, notwithstanding.(Plate 7 A.)Other curious features in young mammalian embryosare the so-called gill slits. (See Fig. 8 in Plate 8.) Theseoccur in the place corresponding to the gills of fishes. Theyare most marked in human embryos at the fourth or fifthweek, and gradually are closed and modified into theorgans of the face, so that they usually disappear beforethe end of the second month.Again, the human embryo has a tail or coccyx, very plainlypresent as an exterior appendage during the second month.(See Plates 8 and 9.) Though the infant generally retains noexternal vestige thereof at birth, sometimes (though rarely)the tail visibly persists throughout adult life.[30]
DEVELOPMENT OF THE HUMAN BEINGWe might mention also the soft woolly hair calledlanugo which covers the human fetus at a certain age, butis shed prior to or soon after birth. Numerous other tran-sient similarities to other forms of life have been detectedin the human embryo. Some of them even persist throughadult life. So many and curious are they that they havegiven rise to what is called the "doctrine of recapitula-tion." This is the idea that in the development of eachhuman individual from the germ-cell to adult life we seerecapitulated in a fragmentary way the organic evolutionof man's entire ancestry. Organs which it is suggestedwere functional in man's remote animal ancestors, butunder present conditions are useless, briefly show them-selves, and by disuse atrophy and are lost. Some, indeed,like the hair and vermiform appendix, are in process ofbeing lost, although in earlier ancestral forms of life theywere valuable functionally.It is, of course, perfectly obvious that, in the skeleton ; theskin; the lungs and their accessories; the heart and theblood circulation; the digestive and reproductive organs;and in many other particulars, man bears a strong re-semblance to many of the mammals, and more particu-larly to the great apes. It is stated by Sir Arthur Keith^that only thirty per cent of man's structural details arepeculiar to himself and not shared with any others of theprimates. Among the remaining seventy per cent thereare said to be twenty-six per cent of characters which manshares with the gorilla or the chimpanzee but with no otheranimal. Going back to other genera of the primates, thereare found eight per cent of characters shared by man and thegreat apes with the gibbons, and indeed a small residue ofcharacters shared with the little monkeys of South America.Such facts and considerations as these, added to thoseoutlined in Chapter II, have led most anthropologists toadmit great probability in the hypothesis that man is notan independent creation but a gradually developed animal
'See Encyclopaedia Britannica, Ed. 13, vol. ii, p. 779.[31]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTform, whose ancestry and the ancestry of the great apesseparated from a common stock at some distant epochwhich anthropologists incline to put as far back as theMiocene period. Still further back, in Oligocene orEocene time, this stock separated, as it is supposed, fromthose of the gibbons and other Old World monkeys andfrom the small monkeys of South America. This hypothe-sis does not imply at all that man's ancestors were likethe present great apes. For the line of descent both ofman and of the great apes has been subject to great evolu-tionary changes in these hundreds of thousands of years.We must therefore conceive that the supposed commonancestral stock was quite as different from the great apesof the present as from man.Speculating still further as to man's descent, it mayhave come with that of other mammals through the am-phibians, and these by way of the fishes from the arthro-pods, where we lose all paleontological evidence in the longtwilight of pre-Cambrian time. But the evidence fromanalogy found in the development of the human embryoleads us by the doctrine of recapitulation to assign simplerand simpler structures to this prepaleontological humanancestry, until in the beginning of life it originated fromthe cell itself. There scientific speculation commits theproblem to religious faith.It is of surpassing interest to know what are the in-fluences which change the forms of life. From our knowl-edge of the structure of the cell, it seems clear that thealmost infinitesimal chromosomes are the all-importantelements which determine inheritance. Whatever of in-fluence the environment may exert upon a living creaturecan have no permanent effect on succeeding generationsunless it modifies the chromosomes.Hence students of cytology have made many experi-ments to endeavor to change in some way the fundamentalcharacters of the chromosomes. Without going far asideto note their work extensively, it will show something of
I
11
PLATE 9
Human embryo of six to eight weeks (12.5 to 23 mm.)- Stage W (22)marks the transition from embryo to fetus. After His, Kormentajel

DEVELOPMENT OF THE HUMAN BEINGthe means employed and the results reached to speak ofthe X-ray treatment of the sex cells of certain plants, asreported by Goodspeed and Olson. With a Coolidge X-raytube operated at 50,000 volts, the flower buds of the plantNicotiana tabacum;^2ir\^typurpurea^^^xo. treated inJanuaryfor ten- and twenty-minute intervals. Of over 1,000 plantsraised from these seeds more than twenty per cent werevariant from the normal. In one lot of 168 plants, 136 werevariant. A majority of the variants were decidedly abnor-mal in such characters as stature, leaf shape, and flowerstructure. Many of the new forms were completely fertile.In some variants the chromosomes themselves were foundby microscopic examinations to be visibly altered.The development of the individual human being entersa new phase with birth. Ceasing to depend upon the moth-er's circulation for nourishment and excretion of wastematter, the infant begins to employ its lungs to vitalize theblood with oxygen, and its digestive organs to assimilatefood taken for the first time through the mouth. \t thisepoch of radical change in habit, let us pause to comparethe status of the infant with that which has preceded andthat which is to follow. As regards age, length, and weight,the average prenatal growth has been summarized as follows
:
AGE
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTCompared to the adult, the length of a newly-born in-fant may be taken as thirty per cent, and the weight asfive per cent. But if the total weight is thus to increasetwentyfold between infancy and adult life, the differentorgans of the body show great differences in this respect.Thus, in average terms, if we take the infant weights ineach case as unity, the adult weights of correspondingorgans are as follows:
Eye
DEVELOPMENT OF THE HUMAN BEINGBreathing, too, is quicker in the infant life, ranging fromthirty-five per minute at birth to twenty-eight in the secondyear, twenty-six in the fifth, and so onwards. In theearly years there is a continual storing up of reserves inthe form of complex chemical compounds. Energy is beinglaid up against the exigencies of life in the form of rapidlyincreasing masses of flesh. The infant and growing childrequire pound for pound, over and above the needs ofadult man, a larger income of energy corresponding to theimperious demands of growth.Let us embrace in a single view the long panorama oflife and survey the mysterious march of progressive evolu-tion from its marvelous beginning in the individual cell,through the complex organizations of cells making up themany orders and species which have occupied the earth inthe past or occupy it now, looking forward towards theundisclosed unfolding of the life of the future. In thisfar-ranging view, reproduction, not present activity, is byfar the most important of all functions. Without itthe glory of life is indeed but evanescent. With itthe potentialities of the life of the future are beyondestimate.From this point of view it is wholly fitting that theperiod of life which is marked by the most outstandingchanges in form, activity of growth, behavior, mental out-look, and assertion of individuality should be the period ofpuberty, when the organs of reproduction become func-tional. In savage life, the significance of this period isfrankly recognized and has led to rites and ceremonies,fasts, vigils, self-torturings, and other curious practicesemblematic of the mysterious importance associated withthis vital epoch.It would be superfluous to describe changes of bodilyform and habits of thought which accompany the onset ofthe reproductive period of life, for no one can avoid know-ing them. The literature of romance, of motherhood, andof chivalry, which makes up so preponderating a part of[35]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTthe written heritage of the world, expresses the finerinfluences of this transcendent experience.We have traced the outline of the history of the formsof life culminating in man, as revealed in the geologicalrecord, and the development of the human individual fromconception to adult life, as discovered by the sciences ofcytology, embryology, and anatomy. We may properlyturn now to the story of the upward march of the raceof mankind, which begins with primitive man and hisimplements. These till recently lay buried under theaccumulations of ages, but now reveal to us humankindcontending for a place in the sun against the brutes andnature.
36]
CHAPTER IVTHE STUDY OF HUMAN PREHISTORY
It was formerly supposed that the great sequences in lifeforms, like the Age of Fishes, the Age of Reptiles, the Ageof Mammals, and so on, came as the result of "cata-clysms." There is no evidence, however, that universalcatastrophes, of flood, glaciation;, or what not, have everreally wiped out all life on the globe so that nature hadto start out all over again. The nearest approach to itappears to have come in Permian time, but even then, asnoted in Chapter II, many species survived. On thecontrary, the same natural forces?rain, wind, frost, ice,earthquake, and volcanic eruptions?which we see aboutus today, have operated with only moderate fluctuationsof eff"ect from the beginning. We shall study the pre-historic past of man as a part of this orderly continuousworking of nature.The decipherment of the records of man's physical typeand of the achievements of his intelligence in the far-distant past by the archeologist has required the coopera-tion of specialists in many diff^erent fields?of the geologist,the climatologist, the paleontologist, the zoologist, thebotanist, the ethnologist, among others. Thanks to theircooperative work we now know far more than would haveseemed possible even a generation ago. Yet the taskhas been but fairly begun, except perhaps in westernEurope and especially France.In spite of the vast age of human remains in Europe, itis probable that man did not originate on that continent,but came there from other lands, partly over "land-[37]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTbridges" long since sunk beneath the sea. When Asia andAfrica have given up more of the secrets which recentdiscoveries show are concealed in their soil, we shall knowmuch more about man's origin and earliest history thanwe do now.The records of man's prehistoric past fall into severalclasses, of which two are of leading importance?first, hisown actual bodily remains in the shape of his bones; andsecond, the objects of his handiwork, such as tools andweapons and evidences drawn frorri the traces of his oldcampsites, his burial customs, and his dawning artistic sense.In addition, the animal life and the vegetation associ-ated with early man can contribute much information.Certain types of plants and animals flourish in tropicalclimates, while others can exist only under temperate andeven cold conditions. Their remains give a clue to climateand other conditions under which early man lived. Wecan also learn something of prehistoric man from the morebackward races of the present day.But before we describe these methods and their ap-plication, let us see how the trained archeologist works.Once he has chosen his site, he digs methodically and withclosest attention, sometimes even straining every spadefulof earth through a sieve. He makes exhaustive notes ofevery bit of evidence that he finds, records each fragmentof pottery or bone or worked stone as to its position andcondition when found. He takes photographs not onlyof the objects themselves but also of their surroundings,in some cases even from aeroplanes; draws detailed plans;makes maps; notes fully the geology and climate, thehuman and animal life and vegetation of the region,both past and present?everything, in short, which mightthrow light in any way on the mode of lite of the men ofthat time and place. The final study of the finds them-selves can be done properly only at some great institu-tion, a museum or university, with the aid of all theresources that modern science can bring to bear.[38]
THE STUDY OF HUMAN PREHISTORY
If it be asked how we can tell the relative age of dif-ferent kinds of remains found in the soil, how we knowthat one type of human culture, for instance, is older thananother, a simple illustration may answer. Most of uscherish early memories of the "old swimming hole" andits sometimes forbidden delights. Very often, we recall,the creek curved around, with a high bank on the outeredge of the bed, where the water was deep and safe fordiving, and with a low, shelving beach on the inner side.The steep outer bank tended always to be undercut bythe current, so that portions of it occasionally slippeddown into the water, leaving exposed a fresh surface ofclay. Near the top of this we should perhaps find stickingout of the earth objects that had been left there in recenttimes since white people inhabited the country: a rustypiece of iron, some baked bricks, a few fragments of brokenchinaware, or a decaying log bearing marks of the pioneer'ssteel ax. There might, too, be bones of horses or oxen,pigs or sheep?animals which we know the early settlersbrought with them from Europe. Lower down in thefreshly exposed face of the bank we might find stonearrowheads, fragments of coarse, unglazed pottery, orbones and antlers of deer?animals which shared thecountry with the Indians.Sometimes, of course, we should find things mixed up
?
jumbled together by the plow of the farmer, by burrow-ing animals, spring freshets, or the caving in of the banks.In general, however, we should see that traces of the latercomers in the country lie above those of the earlier in-habitants. In a brick wall, the lowest course is boundto be the earliest, while the top one is laid down last.That, in essence, is the principle on which archeologydepends (Fig. 4).As our knowledge accumulates, the easier it is to applyit. If an archeologist from Mars were to come upon achipped Indian arrowhead of stone sticking out of ourclay bank above a rusty old iron hoe instead of below it,139I
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASThe might be pardoned for thinking that the Stone Agecame later than that of Iron. We know, however, thanksto our better information, that it was really the otherway around.It is always easier to work from the known to the un-known. That is the way all riddles are solved. Man'sprehistoric past is really a riddle to be solved from certain
Fig. 4. Cross-section of deposits in cave of Drachenloch, Switzerland, showinghow consecutive occupation through the ages is recorded in distinct strata.After Bachler
clues, a skein to be unraveled from the end in hand, whichin this case is the present. Let us treat it so, startingfrom the things we know, and when we reach the thingswe have not known they will be much less unfamiliar tous. As we go backwards we shall see man's great dis-coveries?metal working, weaving, pottery making, housebuilding, the domestication of plants and animals, andimplement making?fall away from him one by one, untilat last we come to a time when he lived among the wildcreatures, naked as one of them.The age we live in is an age of steel. This does notmean, of course, that we never employ other substances[40]
,/ii'J ;Iii .Y v/ j/ ,yniijliij9 liO btiibneiS adl "^o guidaio tu; rnofllbfifia4 riqago] yd
li '!()>{ rlisclfisil.'! bnB riqyao]^ arlj to v^j-tiwo }
^^?ji^n')") 'l<^ '"""'?,! aril nf noil-jttllo'J)
:'^%
PLATE 10The Age of SteelFrom an etching of the Standard Oil Building, New York City,by Joseph PennellCourtesy of the Joseph and Elizabeth Robins PennellCollection in the Library ot Congress


THE STUDY OF HUMAN PREHISTORY
where they prove more suitable or economical. We usecopper in many more ways than were ever dreamed ofin the Copper x'^ge itself, as we also use stone and wood.But steel is the material most characteristic of our times.Man has known and employed steel, mainly for makingweapons and edged tools, for over 2,000 years; but thetrue Age of Steel only began something like half a centuryago, with its general application to structural uses. Be-fore that, civilized man had long been living in the IronAge, which began in the real sense about 3,000 years ago,almost certainly in western Asia. Man had known ironearlier still, but only so slightly as to consider it a preciousmetal. He forged rings and other ornaments from it,and, with the intense superstition which enveloped him,he regarded it as something mysterious and uncanny.We must not think that the general use of iron sprangup in every part of the globe anything like 3,000 yearsago. The entire Western Hemisphere, which long re-mained to all intents and purposes in the late Stone Age,learned of it only four centuries ago, as did also portionsof Asia and Africa and the whole of Australia and thegreat Pacific area. Even yet remote and isolated tribes,like the New Guinea Papuans, who use stone, bone, horn,or shell for their tools and weapons, are actually livingin the Stone Age today. This helps us realize as nothingelse can that widely different culture stages may exist atone and the same time in various parts of the world.As we delve still deeper into the past, we find that be-fore the Iron Age there was a time when, in certain regionsof the Old World, people depended on bronze (an alloy ofcopper mixed, generally, with about ten per cent of tin)as their chief metal. We know this period, therefore,as the Bronze Age, and its earliest traces are to be soughtsomewhere around 4000 b. c.But people did not find out all at once how to combinecopper and tin to make bronze. Before that they em-ployed copper alone, perhaps as far back as 5000 or[41]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST6000 B. c. Along with its use, we meet with many tracessurviving from the preceding epoch, that in which weaponsand implements were made of stone. In fact, for a very-long period men seemed to have looked on the lumps ofnative copper and the nuggets of gold which they foundhere and there merely as varieties of tough, malleablestone, and cut, pounded, and polished them into shapelong before some prehistoric Edison found out how tomelt and cast them.Hence we often speak,not of an Age of Copper,but of a Chalcolithic Pe-riod, from two Greekwords meaning, respec-tively, "copper" andstone.Then, as we push onstill further backwardinto the past, we reacha time when men knewnothing of metals, butdepended instead onstone, chipped, ground, and polished, for their mostserviceable tools and weapons. This cultural stage iscalled the Neolithic Period, or New Stone Age. In its longcourse, man made very many of the basic discoveries uponwhich all his later progress has depended. The furtherback we penetrate into bygone ages, the less certain be-comes our chronology, because we have less and less to goby. But perhaps we shall be reasonably close to the truthin estimating that in the more advanced parts of the worldof that day the New Stone Age was beginning somethinglike 10,000 to 15,000 years ago.As our knowledge of the past steadily increases, werealize more and more that there are few breaks in prog-ress. Successive stages always grow quite naturally outof those that have gone just before. Thus instead of a[42]
Fig. 5. Outlines of the skulls of a chim-panzee (dotted line), of a Neanderthalman (solid line), and of a modern European(broken line); showing stages in cranialdevelopment. After Boule
PLATE 11
The Aiie (if Irdii. Scnic at a postluiuse (Hi one c.f the yixat Romanroads. In the foreground a cavalryman. After Forestier, TheRoman Soldier
PLATE 12
The Bronze Age. Right, a Greek like those who fought at Troy;left, a western European chieftain; center, one from the Danuberegion. After Forestier, The Roman Soldier
THE STUDY OF HUMAN PREHISTORY
complete gap or hiatus between the New and the OldStone Ages in Europe, such as students once thoughtexisted, there was an intermediate period when men wereslowly, and no doubt often with great difficulty, adjustingthemselves to changed conditions and new discoveries.This stage has been given a name of its own, viz., theMesolithic or Middle Stone Age. It was clearly an age oftransition. Some of the peoples and cultures which thenappeared in Europe undoubtedly arrived there from otherlands; but there also existed some survivors from earliertimes in that continent itself.But we have not yet reached the earliest evidences ofman's presence in Europe. Before the Middle StoneAge, as we might infer from the name itself, there wasan Old Stone Age?the Paleolithic Period, as it is calledby prehistorians, who have subjected it, especially inFrance, to intensive study. They have discovered in itnumerous subdivisions which they have named afterplaces in France where typical sites have been found.At the very close of the Old Stone Age?merging, infact, with the Mesolithic that followed? is the Azilian,named for the cave of Mas d'Azil in the northern spursof the Pyrenees; before that comes the Magdalenian, socalled after the rock shelter of La Madeleine, in the sameregion; then the Solutrean, from the great open camp ofprehistoric man found at Solutre, farther east; the Aurig-nacian, from the sepulchral grotto of Aurignac, and theMousterian, from the cave of Le Moustier, both in thesame region as Mas d'Azil; the Acheulian, from St.Acheul, and the Chellean, from Chelles, two places innorthern France; and lastly, the Pre-Chellean, oldestof all.These successive stages overlap the entire vast spanof the Old Stone Age. They comprise certain periodswhen the climate was warmer than it is now, and otherswhen it was far colder and a sheet of ice buried muchof Europe, as Greenland today. Throughout this epoch,[43I
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
as we travel further and further back into the past, wefind on the whole an increasing rudeness of culture asso-ciated with older and older types of animals, many of
CHIMPAh4ZEE
Fig. 6. Side view of the skulls and brains of modern man andchimpanzee. Note the difference in the manner of carrying the head.After Boulethem extinct ages ago. This is no mere guesswork, but isclearly proved by the actual remains themselves.The bones of men and animals, unlike the rest of thebody, may, under favorable circumstances, be preservedalmost indefinitely. Careful study of them can tell usmuch about the looks and habits and the relationships ofthe creatures, human or animal, to which they once[44]
,^,
^'W JH^S^V ,:.A"^ D--5

THE STUDY OF HUMAN PREHISTORYbelonged. Fortunately, also, the very part of the skeletonmost apt to be preserved is the one which reveals to usmore about the living creature than any other, namely,the skull, which in life contains the brain, the seat ofman's intelligence?precisely what we are studying. Thesize of this organ, as shown by that of the brain-case
Fig. 7. The lower surfaces of the skulls of a chimpanzee, a Neanderthal man,and a modern European; showing progressive shifting of the opening for the spinalcord toward the center of the skull. After Bouleitself, provides us with many clues of the highest im-portance. Among normal white male adults the size ofthe brain averages around 1,550 cubic centimeters, al-though in different individuals this figure may vary asmuch as 200 cubic centimeters either way. The skulls ofcertain less cultured modern peoples, however, as wellas those of some prehistoric races, fall decidedly belowthis capacity. In the three higher apes, the gorilla, thechimpanzee, and the orang-utan, the average sizes ofthe brain rarely if ever exceed 600, 400, and 400 cubiccentimeters, respectively.Hence, speaking very generally, the lower we go inthe scale of intelligence the smaller and lighter in weightdo we find the brain. More than that, it is simpler andless convoluted, so that in creatures like some of theSouth American monkeys, for example, the surface of the45
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
/ FRENCH
NEGRO
brain presents a very smooth structure showing com-paratively few of those folds which seem so closely linkedwith intelligence. Again, by good fortune, the numberand shape of these convolutions is indicated on the innersurface of the skull, which naturemolds to fit them exactly (Plate15). Hence, in a well-preservedprehistoric skull we can tell by theimpressions on its inner surfacewhether the individual to whichit once belonged had a brain ofhigher or of lower grade. Andwhere, as in the case of Neanderthalman, we have found several skullsbelonging to the same type, we canbegin to draw conclusions regard-ing that race as a whole.Scarcely less significant are thebase of the skull and the mannerof its attachment to the neck.These help to reveal the posturehabitually assumed by man and bythe most manlike animals, the greatapes. As none of the latter everhabitually go about erect, theirheads are set on their necks verydifferently from ours. The face ispushed forward (Fig. 6), and themuscles of the neck are attached tothe skull in a way calculated to sup-port the latter in this position.Moreover, the opening throughwhich the spinal cord passes intothe brain is situated much nearerthe back of the head (Fig. 7). Fromthese data we could deduce, if wehad never seen a live gorilla, thatFio. 8. A series of Ibwerjaws showing progressivedevelopment of chin. AfterBoule [46I
THE STUDY OF HUMAN PREHISTORYhe normally assumes a stooping posture, with the headand especially the jaws carried far forward, more nearlyapproaching that of four-legged creatures on the onehand and of very early man on the other.The characters of the lower jaw or mandible, thoughtoo numerous and often too technical for us to describein detail, contain much information for the anthro-pologist. The hinge, or articulation, by which the lowerjaw is attached to theskull differs widelyboth in individualsand in races, so thatthis single charactercan tell us a greatdeal regarding theshape of the head ofwhich it once formeda part. The presenceor absence of a chinalso means verymuch. All modernand recent races ofmen have a chin,while the apes havenone, their lower jawssloping right back-ward from the frontteeth. Here again, thefurther back we gointo man's remotepast, the less do wefind his chin developed, until in some of the most ancienthuman skulls it is practically absent (Fig. 8),Just inside the point of the human chin, back of andbelow the roots of the front teeth, occurs a small projectionbearing two points to which the main muscles controllingthe tongue are attached. Instead of a projection, the
\\^] MAN GORILLAFig. 9. The skull, spinal column, and pelvisof man and gorilla compared. After Boule
47
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTlower jaws of apes actually have a small depression atthis point; and in the older prehistoric human skulls, wefind a condition intermediate between modern man andthe ape.The teeth, in their size and shape, including that of theirroots, in the way they are set in the jaw, and in manyother features, likewise contain evidence of great sig-nificance to theanatomist andthe prehis-torian.As our far-distant ances-tors graduallyattained a moreupright pos-ture, their fossilskeletons revealthat furtheranatomical andstructuralchanges tookplace in theirbodies. Thehead began tobe balancedon the spinalcolumn , in-stead of beingthrust farforward (Fig. 9). To accomplish this balancing, the backof the head, or occiput, grew out backward, the jaws weredrawn in and became less massive, the forehead becamehigher, and the whole face more nearly vertical. At thesame time equal or even greater changes went on in therest of the skeleton, notably in the pelvic bones. In acreature going on all fours, the weight of the internal[48]
Fig. 10. Thigh bone of modern man (left), of Neander-thal man (center), and of gorilla (right). After Keith
PLATE 15
Upper: Progressive series of skulls?gorilla, Rhodesian man. Neander-thal man, and modern Kafir. In the National MuseumLower: Fragment of the Piltdown skull. Note its great thicknessand the impression left by the brain on its inner surface. AfterSmith Woodward
PLATE 16
t<t^
f\f?^,o
Silhouettes of hands, mostly mutilated, made hy prehistoric man onthe walls of the cave of Gargas, in the Pyrenees. After Breuil
THE STUDY OF HUMAN PREHISTORY
organs, chest, and head is partly supported by the fore-legs; in man, on the contrary, this duty is thrown on thepelvis. Alterations took place also in the curvature of thebackbone and in the structure of the individual vertebrae.Finally, the bones and joints of the legs and feet like-wise bear witness to many facts about primitive man.For example, a fairly constant relation exists between thelength of the thigh bone, or femur, and the total heightof the individual in different races; and the femur is pre-cisely one of the parts of fossil skeletons most apt to bepreserved (Fig. lo). The shape of the knee joint, again,shows whether the leg could be straightened, which is tosay, whether its owner walked upright or stooping over.A striking recent instance will suffice to show how thetrained modern specialist works with the often very frag-mentary evidence that keeps coming to light. About ascore of years ago some pieces of a skull found at Piltdown,in southern England, were recognized at once as one of thevery earliest specimens yet discovered. It was in thehighest degree desirable to restore it as nearly as possibleto its original shape. As some question existed as towhether the fragments found were sufficient to allow ofthis being done, the eminent anatomist. Sir Arthur Keith,submitted to the following test. With his permission wehere quote part of his narrative in his own words:
. . . The question is often asked: Are four fragments of a skull, suchas those found at Piltdown, sufficient to give us a definite clue to theoriginal form of skull? . . . To test the matter. Professor F. G. Par-sons of St. Thomas's Hospital Medical School, London, made a pro-posal to me, namely, that he and some of his fellow-anatomists shouldselect a skull, cut fragments from it corresponding to those found atPiltdown, and that I should attempt to reconstruct the entire skullfrom these fragments. I gladly accepted the proposal, and resolved,however the result should turn out, to make the experiment the sub-ject of an address I had promised to the fellows of the Royal Anthro-pological Institute.On the i6th January, 1914, a fortnight before this lecture was due,the four pieces of a skull shown in [Fig. 1 1 ] came to me from Dr. DouglasDerry, of University College, London. They were representatives[49]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
of the Piltdown fragments, and the task of reconstruction offered thesame difficulties. Only on one piece?the occipital fragment?couldany certain sign of the middle line of the skull be detected.How near a true reconstruction of the original form can be obtainedby the use of such a meth-od is apparent in [Fig. 12].xAs regards the width andheight, the reconstructionwas in close agreementwith theoriginal skull fromwhich the fragments givento me had been cut. Thegeneral form was rightlyreproduced. There werecertain minor errors whichcould have been elimi-nated had there been suf-ficient time at my disposal.It is obvious in [Fig. 12]that the right parietalfragment is placed too low,and that the occipital bone is too high. But as regards general outlineand chief diameters the result of this experiment was reassuring.
Fig. II. Fragments of skull used in .SirArthur Keith's test; cut from the cranium ofan ancient Egyptian woman. .After Keith
The actual reconstruction of the experimental skull occupied me
RECONSTRUCTION CAST OF ORIGINAL
Fit;. Skull of ancient Egyptian woman as reconstructetiArthur Keith, and cast of the original50
THE STUDY OF HUMAN PREHISTORY
the better part of two days. Having made exact drawings of it, Ihanded the skull and drawings to Dr. Derry at University College.He then showed me the cast of the original?the skull of an ancientEgyptian?a woman, with a peculiar form of head and a brain capacityof 1,395 ^- ^- The estimate I returned of the brain capacity, namely1,415 c. c, was not very wide of the truth, and as regards general formand actual dimensions I was relieved to find the method I had followedhad given
?
except in one respect?a fairly accurate reproduction ofthe original.Nothing could be more conclusive regarding the pains-taking methods employed by modern anatomists in thestudy of ancient skeletal remains. And only rarely, wemay add, do prehistoric skulls present so many difficultiesas that of Piltdown.The comparison of ancient man's customs and practices,so far as we know them, with parallel traits among modernsavages has its dangers, for often the ethnologist finds thatclosely similar practices among modern tribes may arisein totally different ways and be governed by entirelydifferent ideas. Yet this method in the hands of expertscan be made very useful, even if rarely in itself decisive.A concrete example will show how it helps to throw lighton the far-distant past.There have been found painted on the walls of caves inFrance and Spain many silhouettes of human hands, withone, two, three, or even four fingers showing only asstumps (Plate 16). An experience with American Indiansreported by George Bird Grinnell suggests the key to thismystery. Once when he was present at Camp Lewis,Montana, the body of a Crow Indian chief killed in battlewas brought in, whereupon the mother and a male rela-tive each cut off the little finger of the left hand in signof their grief. And a Cheyenne Indian once explained toGrinnell how he had sacrificed three of his fingers to theHigher Powers, to induce them to aid him in taking ven-geance on an enemy.Again we find in the reasoning of certain primitivepeoples of our day who depict animals and enemies on[pi
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
their weapons and elsewhere, for the purpose of exertingover them magical influences, an explanation of why someof the prehistoric peoples of Europe executed wonderfullylifelike paintings and engravings of animals on the almostinaccessible and ordinarily invisible walls of caves. They
Fig. 13. Cave painting of a bison, with darts (or possiblyarrows) piercing its sides; undoubtedly of magical significance.From the cavern of Niaux, southwestern France. AfterBreuildid this not to give expression to their artistic impulsesbut for magical motives.It may help to make clear the manner in which thescience of archeology reveals the story of man's ancientpast if we consider three typical prehistoric sites wherelived generations of men far apart in time.There is a cavern near the village of Mas d'Azil, insouthwestern France, forming a natural tunnel some 500yards long through which flows the Arize, a tributary ofthe Garonne. Repairs in the road along the stream inthe year 1887 brought to the notice of M. Edouard Piettea section of the earth with which the cavern had becomefilled through the ages. A surface layer of black clay fivefeet thick contained many traces of the latest occupants.These dated from Roman times back to the NeolothicPeriod, which in this part of France merged into the[52]
THE STUDY OF HUMAN PREHISTORY
subsequent Bronze Age somewhere around 2500 b, c. Justbeneath this, and therefore next older, was a stratum oneand one-half feet in thickness, of various colored clays,containing objects of early Neolithic date. Lower stillcame the x^zilian layer, also about one and one-half feetthick, with implements of that transitional period whichin fact has received its name from this very site. Belowthe Azilian again, a succession of strata, amounting in allto seventeen feet, contained various hearths with remainsof Magdalenian type, including a thick barren layer whichshowed that there had been a long interval when the cavewas unoccupied by man. Bones of reindeer and otherarctic animals, some of the latter belonging to extinctspecies, were found in the lower deposits, but not in thex'\zilian.Passing over now to Solutre, where M. Arcelin carriedon excavations from 1866 until his death in 1904, we finda site of another kind. It is two and one-half acres inextent, sloping upward from the river Saone toward arocky bluff 300 feet high, and consisting largely of thedebris left behind by the ancient occupants. In someplaces this great mass of material was found to reach adepth of thirty-three feet. Its upper portions containedbones of various wild animals, including the mammoth,the cave bear, the wild bull, the horse, and especially thereindeer; also quantities of tools and weapons of reindeerhorn, bone, and stone; minerals for colors; carved figures;and perforated animal teeth. The weapons included manyof the so-called "laurel-leaf" points of flint, so character-istic of the Solutrean culture phase named for this very site.Beneath the Solutrean remains and belonging appar-ently to the preceding x-^urignacian epoch, at a depth ofabout ten feet, occurred a uniform layer of horse bones,charred, cut, and broken; mingled with these were flintimplements. This huge deposit covered an area of wellover 4,200 square yards, or more than seven-eighths ofan acre, and represented the remains of at least 100,000I531
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASThorses that had been killed and eaten by the prehistorichunters during their long occupancy of this site. Belowthe horse bones, again, the excavators came upon one andin some places two layers of Aurignacian debris; whilefinally, in the deepest portions of their trench, they un-covered the Mousterian culture with its characteristiccoarser artifacts. These were buried under nearly fortyfeet of accumulations. In 1923, the son of the elder M.Arcelin, in company with MM. Deperet and Mayet, dis-covered in the Aurignacian stratum, under all those ofSolutrean and Neolithic and more recent times and wellbelow that of the horse bones, the skeletons of two menand one woman. Near the latter lay the remains of twobabies. The bodies of the adults had evidently beenregularly buried, for their graves were marked by slabsof limestone which, though destined in the course of agesto be so deeply covered, probably had projected above theground when the prehistoric mourners placed them inposition.The last of our three typical sites is that of Chelles, onthe river Marne, eight miles east of Paris. Here the an-cient sands and river gravels form a terrace about twenty-six feet thick between the present bed of the stream andthe surrounding level. First comes a Mousterian stratum;just below that, an Acheulian one; then, earliest of all,about thirteen feet above the river, the Chellean, to whichthis site has given its name. Characteristic types of stoneimplements and bones of different species of animals markeach of these layers. For the Chellean and earlier Acheu-lian epochs were associated with creatures belonging to awarm climate, like the straight-tusked elephant, the hip-popotamus, and Merck's rhinoceros. On the other hand,the upper or later Acheulian and the Mousterian, laterstill, show, by the presence of animals like the mammoth,the reindeer, and the woolly rhinoceros, the existence ofarctic conditions.These three typical sites?Mas d'Azil, Solutre, and[54I
THE STUDY OF HUMAN PREHISTORYChelles?show how successive culture layers have come toHght one after the other, from the NeoHthic, at the top,clear back to the Chellean, far below. They reveal, too,that the further back we go into the past the cruder arethe implements which we find man using and the moreprimitive his manner of life.
55
CHAPTER VTHE ICE AGEGeological research has revealed traces of more than oneice age, or glacial period, in both the Northern and South-ern Hemispheres, far back in the earth's remote past,countless ages before the appearance of man. However,the one which we generally have in mind when we speakof the Ice Age, and with which we are here concerned, oc-curred but yesterday, geologically speaking, and pro-foundly influenced the development of man. There is nodoubt whatever that man existed long before it began, butthe vicissitudes and hardships to which he was then ex-posed had a great deal to do with the shaping of his laterdestinies and therefore the Glacial Period deserves ourattention here.Many explanations have been suggested of the causesthat produce an ice age or lead to its disappearance. Onesurmise pictures the solar system, in its journey throughspace, as having passed through a "cold region" whichlowered the temperature of our earth enough to causeenormous expansion of the polar ice caps. But this theorylacks the support of any real evidence.Again, the English astronomer, Croll, argued for varia-tions in the shape of the earth's orbit as the cause of anice age. We all know that the path of our planet aroundthe sun does not form a true circle but an ellipse. Thischanges its shape through the ages at a rate that can becalculated astronomically. Croll suggested that the IceAge corresponded to the last period of great eccentricityof the orbit of the earth, when the latter attained its[56]


THE ICE AGEmaximum distance from the sun and therefore receivedcorrespondingly less of its heat. This would have madethe Glacial Period begin 240,000 years ago and last for160,000 years, thus coming to an end 80,000 years ago.This theory at one time found wide acceptance. Butgrowth of knowledge has developed serious objections toit, and prehistorians have corrie to feel convinced thatthe maximum severity of the Ice Age occurred much lessthan 80,000 years ago.Still others have tried to explain the great expansion ofthe ice caps as due to causes arising on our earth itself,such as changes in the shape of the continents, producedby the elevation or sinking of the land. It has also beenclaimed that an ice age has followed every great period ofmountain upheaval. Such earth movements have nodoubt played a part, perhaps an important one, but theydo not explain everything.Another hypothesis, in some ways more promising thanany of those outlined above, ascribes the advance andretreat of the great ice fields to fluctuations in solar radia-tion; for our sun appears to be what astronomers call avariable star, giving out less heat at certain times thanat others.But whatever the cause or causes, they led to a loweringof the temperature, although not necessarily a great one.In fact, meteorologists believe that even under presentatmospheric conditions a fall in the average yearly tem-perature of only seven to nine degrees Fahrenheit wouldbring on another glacial period in Europe.The formation of glaciers requires that two conditionsbe met: First, an annual heavy fall of snow, so that it liesin great drifts; and second, surrimers either too cool or tooshort to melt all the snow that falls. The snow thus keepson growing deeper and deeper, until the lower and olderlayers, subjected to great pressure by the superstructures,gradually turn into solid ice. When this takes place onlevel ground, immense ice sheets form in time, to remain[57]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
for ages until another slow change in climate causes themgradually to melt. In rugged country, however, thesevast accumulations of ice tend to move downhill, seekingever lower levels (Plate 17). In this way the valleys areoccupied by slowly moving rivers of ice, partly carriedalong by their own weight and partly pushed on by thatof the ever-growing masses behind them. Usually glaciersmove down the valleys very slowly, although in the polarregions they may advance as much as fifty feet per day.The rate depends on the temperature, the slope of theground, and the volume of ice involved. It is a littlegreater by day than by night and in summer than inwinter.Now the passage of millions of tons of ice over the sur-face of the earth produces many interesting effects. Forone thing, it naturally exerts a tremendous grinding andscouring force which steadily wears away the sides andbottoms of the glacier-filled valleys. Their cross-sectionsthus become changed in time from the typical V shape,produced by ordinary stream erosion, into one resemblinga capital letter U. Where valleys of this type occur, wemay be sure that glaciers have once passed.Much as the current of a river often undermines itsbanks and causes them to cave in, so a glacier, in spiteof its vastly slower movement, produces in the same wayfalls of rock, gravel, and earth. These lie on its surfaceand gradually form long lines of debris, known as lateralmoraines, which, sinking slowly to the bottom of theglacier, become frozen solidly in the ice; being thus draggedalong irresistibly over the underlying rock surface, theyscore parallel grooves running in the same direction as thatof the moving glacier (Plate 18). After the latter has dis-appeared with the return of a warmer climate, these marksremain to afford unmistakable proof that the region wasonce ice covered.In time the bowlders carried along at the bottom of theglacier are worn by their contact with the ground into[58]
THE ICE AGE
characteristic rounded or prismatic shapes. Ultimatelymany of them are reduced to dust. All this material, bothcoarse and fine, together with the earth that falls fromthe sides of the glacial valleys, combines to form what isknown as "till," or "bowlder clay." The occurrence ofthis substance is another evidence of the former presenceof a glacier.Often, too, after the ice has melted away, it leaves be-hind it bowlders of all sizes, usually with rounded contours,called "erratic blocks." When these are composed of rockunlike that of the country around them, they can oftenbe traced back, sometimes for vast distances, to the regionwhence they originally came.The glacier, as it slowly travels downhill, eventuallyreaches a level where it melts and forms a "glacial stream,"which carries along with it bowlders, gravel, and sand,automatically sorting them out, as it goes, according tosize. This material forms heaps called terminal moraines,often of crescent shape, with the hollow side toward theglacier. Wherever, owing to stability of climate, the melt-ing end of a glacier has remained stationary for centuries,these appear as huge mounds quite unmistakable to thetrained eye.Through the careful study of these and other traces offormer glaciation, particularly in western Europe, geolo-gists have been able to learn a great deal about the natureand history of the last great Ice Age. They have foundthat the latter, far from being confined to western Europe,extended over the world, with glaciers forming in boththe Southern and Northern Hemispheres apparently aboutthe same time, and through their gradual extension en-veloping large portions of the globe. In this way muchof North America, of northern Europe, and of southern-most South America was buried under enormous fieldsof ice during untold thousands of years. Asia, owing toa drier climate, seems largely to have escaped such visita-tions. For we must remember that to bring on an ice age[59I
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
an increase of cold alone is not enough; there has to beat the same time a fairly heavy annual fall of snow.Northern Siberia, at least in part, lay under a vast station-ary field of ice; and some of the great Asiatic mountainmasses formed important centers of glaciation. But, speak-ing generally, in x^sia the Glacial Period appears to havebeen far more local in character than it was either inEurope or in North America. The same, too, may besaid of South Africa, of Australia, and of New Zealand.Geologists have found further that the Glacial Periodconsisted not of a single intensely cold epoch, but ofseveral, alternating with epochs of mild or even decidedlywarm climate. In most of western Europe the great icesheets underwent no less than three or four successiveepochs of expansion and retreat, known as glacial andinterglacial stages respectively, even the shortest of whichlasted for many thousands of years. There is, moreover,reason to believe that the interglacial epochs were muchlonger than the glacial ones.As a glacial stage approached, the winters must havegrown imperceptibly more and more severe, through notmerely hundreds but many thousands of years. Theglaciers far in the north crept further south, those in highmountain masses further down the valleys, until they over-spread the northern portions of Europe and North Americawith enormous ice sheets, in some places thousands of feetthick. Conditions then must have resembled those oftoday in Greenland and in the Antarctic Continent.Further, the glaciers transformed the covering of theneighboring ice-free regions from forest and meadow-land and swamp into tundras?treeless plains of blackmucky soil, with a permanently frozen subsoil overgrownwith moss, lichens, and dwarf shrubs, as in northernAlaska and Siberia today. The animals living on themwere quite typical, and included forms like the hairymammoth, the woolly rhinoceros, and the reindeer. Theterrible storms of winter often killed multitudes of thesel6ol
THE ICE AGE
and other wild creatures, whose skeletons, buried in theearth, still remain and reveal many facts concerning theclimatic and other conditions which prevailed in thosedays.Again, while the glacial stages were drawing on or dis-appearing, the nearness of the ice fields set up atmosphericeffects of the most far-reaching sort, such as the windsknown as anticyclones. These blew over the adjoiningice-free areas, carrying vast clouds of dust composedlargely of the finer material from the moraines. The factthat this dust settled equally on the tops of the hills aswell as down in the valleys shows that it was carried thereby the wind and not by the action of water. As theprocess went on, the dust accumulated in thick beds of aspecial kind of soil known as loess, which occurs in manyparts of the world, in both the Eastern and the WesternHemispheres. Loess is no longer being formed in Europe,but it is in northern China, where it covers vast areaswith a mantle many feet in thickness (Plate 19). Therethe people hollow their dwellings out of it, and the roadsin time become worn down so deep that not only theybut even the vehicles passing along them are often quiteinvisible from the surface.Along with the formation of the loess, the aspect ofthe country gradually assumed a steppe condition, likethe seemingly limitless plains of southern Russia andcentral Asia. These have an extreme range of temper-ature, with short hot summers, when they are coveredwith grass and shrubs, and long bitterly cold winters,when the snow lies deep, blizzards rage, and animalsperish by the thousands.To the latter peculiarity of a "steppe" phase of climatewe owe much of our knowledge about the animal life ofthe time, including such plains-loving forms as the bisonand the horse. For the blizzards killed many creatureswhose bones, left after the snow melted away in spring,were buried by the dust storms of the following summer.[61I
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTThe same is true of human remains, though in far lessdegree; for man even then was able to afford himself andhis kind protection from the frightful snowstorms.Other phenomena attending the Glacial Period werethe recurrent elevation and sinking of the land. We donot know definitely just what occasioned this, but thevery weight of the enormous ice sheets seems to havecaused the ground beneath them to sink slowly, whilethe regions where they were absent were pressed asgradually upward, in a sort of slow seesawing motion.Still another contributory cause seems to have beenthe actual lowering of sea level during the glacial stages.In order to form the enormous ice fields, water had tocome from some source. Normally that drawn up outof the ocean by evaporation is returned to it, either di-rectly as rain and snow falling on its surface, or indirectlythrough rivers, streams, and melting icebergs. But dur-ing the recurring glacial epochs this balance was upset.Then the snow which fell over vast areas, instead ofmelting the following summer to flow eventually backinto the ocean, slowly, year after year, turned into ice.While the glaciers were thus growing in size during tensof thousands of years, more water was being withdrawnfrom the ocean than was going back into it. Dr. ErnstAntevs, of the University of Stockholm, a very highauthority, has made some interesting calculations basedupon this fact. He says:The volume of ice during the climax of the last glaciation in excess ofthe existing quantity, according to the estimates made in the foregoingchapter, was as follows: ^ ,.^ CubtcKilometersof IceNorth American ice sheet 27,050,000European ice sheet 5,000,000Other Pleistocene glaciers in Eurasia 350,000Greenlandic ice sheet 400,000Northern Hemisphere 32,800,000I62I
THE ICE AGE
This total volume of ice corresponds to 30,800,000 cubic km. ofwater. Taking the area of the ocean as 361,000,000 square km., thiswater quantity represents a layer over that area 83 m. (272 feet) thick.The ice sheets and glaciers on the Northern Hemisphere are thoughtto have reached their greatest extent at practically the same time. Onthe other hand the climaxes of the glaciations were perhaps not en-tirely synchronous on the different hemispheres, though alternationis out of question. The volume of the ice on the Southern Hemispherein excess of the present quantity is estimated to have been some4,100,000 cubic km., which corresponds to 3,760,000 cubic km. ofwater and represents a layer over the area of the oceans 10 m. (22 feet)thick. Therefore, if the glaciations reached their climax simultane-ously on both sides of the equator the sea level was lowered by some93 m. (30? feet). If the contemporaneity was only partial the sea levelmay at most have been lowered 88 m. (290 feet).This process steadily, although very slowly, caused alowering of the sea level and exposed to the air thousandsof square miles of the earth's surface that had hithertoformed part of the bed of the sea.There is scarcely a part ot the globe where the effects ofthis rising and sinking of the land are not manifest. Thusin many regions we find one or more "raised beaches," oldstrands on which the sea once broke for long periods, butwhich are now raised far above the reach of the highestwaves (Plate 20).The opposite sort of earth movement, that of slowsubsidence, left traces in "sunken rivers." The taking ofaccurate soundings has traced the former courses ofmany of the present-day rivers sometimes for long dis-tances along the sea bottom. The latter, that is to say,was once elevated above sea level, so that existing riversfiowed across it far beyond their present mouths.Thus both England and Ireland have in the past beenjoined to the mainland, as was the case even after theclose of the Ice Age, not so very many thousand yearsago. And Europe was connected with Africa both acrossthe Strait of Gibraltar and by way of Italy and the pres-ent islands of Sicily and Malta, thus dividing the Medi-terranean Sea into two landlocked basins. The "land-[63]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTbridge" at Gibraltar probably sank beneath the wavessomewhat before that of which Sicily still forms a remnant.But traces of the invasion of Spain by cultures from
Fig. 14. Map of western Europe, to illustrate the former greater elevation ofthe land. The dotted lines indicate the ancient coast lines and the courses of"sunken rivers." Note the land connections between Europe and North Africaacross the Strait of Gibraltar and by way of Sicily[64]
>> 4-.
O CO
13 W5
"-C -^,
en
PLATE 20
The terrace along the hillside in the distance is a raised beach repre-senting the shore line of old Lake Bonneville, Utah. Photographby Gilbert. Courtesy of the Geological Survey
THE ICE AGE
Africa seem to show that during at least part of the Pleisto-cene or Glacial Period the two regions were connected.It is unlikely that man during the Old Stone Age hadlearned how to build canoes or rafts, so wherever he spread,he probably did so by walking.On the other hand, during a portion of the Ice Age,great gulfs stretched down across what is now dry landfrom the Arctic Ocean to the Caspian and Aral seas (thenprobably united) and to Lake Baikal in eastern Siberia.One proof of this is that in all three of these now quitelandlocked bodies of water occur seals, which could onlyhave reached them when they were connected by sea withthe waters of the Arctic regions.A final characteristic result of the Ice Age to be men-tioned is the "river terraces" it formed. As the climategrew warmer with the approach of an interglacial stage,the melting of the ice sheets set free vast quantities ofwater, which caused great floods and freshets. Thesecarried with them much of the debris brought down bythe glaciers from the uplands, and spread it over theriver bottoms as sand or gravel. With the disappearanceof the ice, the rivers, deprived of most of their supply ofwater, of course shrank in size, and began to cut for them-selves channels in the great beds of sand and gravel thatthey had brought down in the preceding glacial stage.Thus terraces formed, and sometimes we find more thanone, the highest in each case being the most ancient.In the gravel and sand of certain of these river terraces,we find some of the earliest remains of man's handiwork,in the form of rough stone implements. These includethe Pre-Chellean, the Chellean, and the Acheulian cul-ture stages, when man had not yet been forced to becomea cave dweller, but lived in open camps or at most onthe sunny side of overhanging bluffs.The sequence of the warm and cold epochs which to-gether composed the Glacial Period has been well workedout in the region of the Alps by Penck and Bruckner.I65I
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTThey found in those mountains and their surroundingfoothills evidence of four glacial stages, which they calledthe Giinz, Mindel, Riss, and Wiirm.Of these the first or Giinz stage, although it lasted formany thousands of years, seems to have been the leastextensive. Its traces, for example, appear to be lackingin parts of Germany and perhaps in England. At allevents, no evidence exists of any very severe or wide-spread refrigeration, although the snow line in the Alpsdropped 4,000 feet lower than the present 8,800 feetabove sea level.After the Gunz glaciation had reached its maximum,the climate of Europe grew slowly milder again. Thefirst interglacial stage was relatively short and its tem-perature seems to have been slightly warmer than thatof the present, as indicated, for example, by the fossilremains of the hippopotamus.The second or Mindel stage ushered in the first reallygreat period of glaciation, at least in Europe. Great icesheets, spreading out from the Alps, from Scandinavia,and from Scotland, gradually overflowed those regions,in addition to the greater part of England and Holland,nearly the whole of northern Germany, and two-thirds ofRussia. Ice packs covered the northern seas the yearround, and glaciers, forming in the mountains of Scotlandand Scandinavia, united in a solid mass of ice clear acrossthe North Sea.There followed in turn another interglacial stage, whichappears to have been the longest of all. Penck, indeed,believes that its duration was greater than all the timethat has elapsed since. The remains of the vegetationindicate a climate not so very much warmer then thannow.The third or Riss glaciation seems to have been moresevere than the first, but less so than the second, and wasfollowed by a warm interval of particular interest to usbecause in it many authorities place the beginning of[661
THE ICE AGEthe Old Stone Age?the Pre-Chellean, the Chellean, andthe Acheulian epochs of human culture, mentioned in theprevious chapter.Up to the end of this third interglacial stage the animallife of Europe had been one suited to a tropical or sub-tropical climate. It included various forms of the elephantand the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, the monkeys, thelion, the hyena, and the saber-toothed tiger. Thesecreatures probably came from southern Asia and northernAfrica, in part at least by the "land-bridges" which thenspanned the Mediterranean. More northern forms, likethe musk ox, do occur during the colder stages, but not inthe south of Europe.After the close of this interglacial stage, however, asthe fourth or Wiirm glacial stage drew near, this warm-temperate animal life of Europe died out entirely, to bereplaced by species belonging to northern regions with acold environment. A like change also occurred in thevegetation.During this fourth glacial stage the climate seems tohave been colder than at any previous period, thoughthe areas actually covered by ice sheets did not, at leastin Europe, equal those covered in the second stage, sothat man managed to exist in spite of the cold dampclimate.The type of human culture in Europe and the ad-joining portions of Asia and Africa during most, if notall, of this glacial stage was the Mousterian, which isalways associated with remains of the Neanderthal race,a species of mankind differing from that of the presentday. For the Neanderthalers life in the fourth glacia-tion must have been hard and rough to a degree beyondanything that we can conceive of now. In its appallingdanger and discomfort it has been likened by one recentauthor to a winter in the trenches under the conditionsof modern warfare. Although man had progressed some-what in his- mastery over nature, he was still pitifully[67]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
ill equipped for his struggle with ferocious beasts and abitter climate (Plate 21).After the maximum of the fourth glacial stage theclimate did not at once turn warmer. Instead, therefollowed a period of oscillation, with at least three minorreturns of the ice, during which the mammoth, the woolly-rhinoceros, the reindeer, and other cold-weather animalscontinued to live in Europe, although many other crea-tures found there during the earlier periods had died out.Gradually the slow changes of temperature character-izing the Postglacial Period became less and less marked,and toward the beginning of the Neolithic or New StoneAge, the climate became pretty much what it is today.It is interesting to note, in this connection, that theIce Age still exists in the north and south polar regions.These, however, were not always covered with ice, as theyare today. The fossil remains of plants found there provethat they have in times past enjoyed a mild and genialclimate. Perhaps some day they will do so again. On theother hand the present may be simply an interglacialstage, with another return of the ice sheet awaiting usin the far distant future.Various attempts have been made to determine howlong the Ice Age lasted, and definite light has recentlybeen thrown on the length of time since the last or Wiirmglacial stage attained its maximum. So far, however,we do not know how long it had taken to reach thatpoint; nor how long the preceding periods lasted. Somehave put the beginning of the Pleistocene period, or IceAge, as far back as 1,000,000 years ago; others at halfthat figure; Penck estimated it at 525,000 years, andSir Arthur Keith at 200,000 years ago.Geologists practically agree, however, that the Ice Ageclosed both in North America and in Europe some-thing like 10,000 years ago, a little more in the southernportions of those continents and a little less furthernorth. Thus Scandinavia, lying considerably nearer the[68]
o

THE ICE AGENorth Pole, remained in the grip of the ice sheet for overtwo thousand years longer than France.Baron Gerard de Geer of Sweden has made the mostpromising attempt at measuring the time that has elapsedsince the height of the last great glacial stage. In hisarticle in Antiquity of September, 1928, he says:In 1 891 I had noticed, in several places [in America] laminated clays,similar to the late glacial melting sediments in Sweden; these I hadfound, by long continued investigations, to represent the annual de-posit from the melting water on the border of the retreating ice edge.
... I had succeeded in identifying such varves from one point toanother, and ultimately worked out a systematic plan for the elabora-tion of a continuous time scale.These varves, or annual bands, as Baron de Geer satis-fied himself, corresponded to the yearly fluctuation of theglaciers, due to the oncoming heat of summer (Plate 22),If carefully measured over some section of country whichrepresents the whole retreat of the ice since the end ofthe last glaciation, they will indicate pretty closely thenumber of years that have elapsed since that retreatbegan. They will also tell us, by their inequalities, whichwere the warmer and which the cooler periods of years.If we find that such warmer and cooler periods occurredat the same time in different parts of the earth, we shallknow that the major cause of all these successive glacia-tions must have been of cosmic character. Such a dis-covery would also probably throw much new light onthe variability of the sun's radiation, to which these world-wide, contemporaneous glacial changes would in allprobability be due.Aided by a band of enthusiastic university students,Baron de Geer actually carried through the laboriousundertaking of counting and measuring the varves inSweden. He found that in that country approximately8,700 years have elapsed since the latest glacial stagefinally closed. His pupil. Doctor Antevs, made extensivecounts and measurements in the United States and[69]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTCanada and found nearly corresponding results. Goingstill further back, these investigators have shown thatcertain well-defined pulsations of ice advance and retreatoccurred both in America and in Europe. Summing upall the evidence, Doctor Antevs concludes as follows:Thus there was correspondence between the ice retreat in NorthAmerica and in Europe in several of the larger features, but topographicand climatic differences seem to have limited the agreement. Sincethe correspondence was not perfect even in the larger features, agree-ment in the smaller features in details, such as relative summer tem-perature and varve graphs, cannot be expected.Our present knowledge of the geologic history of the two areas doesnot permit any other correlation. If the one outlined is correct andthe estimates of the time represented by zones in which the ice retreatis not chronologically determined are fair, the last ice sheets had theirgreatest extent and began to wane about 40,000 years ago. This figuremay be less than 10,000 years too large or too small?a fact of impor-tance because of the interest that has recently sprung up in the absoluteQuaternary chronology.Thus for the first time we have before us, in resultsattained since 1920, an actual chronology in years cover-ing the period since the peak of the last glaciation, andwe can say with some confidence that it reached itsgreatest intensity about 40,000 years ago and, after along and fluctuating period of retreat, finally ended, inwestern Europe at least, about 8000 or loooo b. c. Thismuch is fairly definite.
[70
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'j?,f-
+
w

CHAPTER VIMAN THE CAVE DWELLERNot until the final great glacial stage, that of the Wurm,did man, in Europe at least, begin definitely to live incaves, forced thereto no doubt by the increasing cold. Weoften speak of "cave men" as though they were, fromfirst to last, of one and the same species. But we err indoing so, for it was precisely during this cave-dwellingperiod that there occurred the most fundamental changein mankind so far known in human history.At first, as we move backward in time, through theAges of Iron, of Bronze, and of Polished Stone, we meetwith men of essentially modern type, differing in no verymarked way from the races found today in all parts of theglobe. The same thing applies in almost equal degree tothe Mesolithic, or Middle Stone Age, and to the last ofthe three subdivisions of the Old Stone Age proper, thatusually called the Upper Paleolithic. For even then, dur-ing and just after the close of the last glacial stage, wefind living in Europe men of large brains, well developedforeheads and chins, and sometimes almost giganticheight. It is just here that the change occurs. Before thelast-mentioned peoples, and differing from them far morethan does any one modern race from another, lived thelowly Neanderthal man, short of stature and slightlystooping of posture, with a large head, thick neck, enor-mous projecting brows, retreating forehead and chin, andpowerful frame.Back to this point, the beginning of the Middle Paleo-lithic or Mousterian epoch, our knowledge of the different[71] .
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTphysical types of the Old Stone Age is fairly extensive,because while people lived and died in caves their bonesstood a much better chance of being preserved than whenleft lying in the open. Moreover we have definite proofthat even the lowly Neanderthal race had come to rever-ence its dead enough to lay their bodies away in graves,where they would be covered with earth at once and thusprotected from destructive agencies.But earlier still, during the Lower Paleolithic, that ex-tremely long period embracing the Acheulian, the Chel-lean, and the Pre-Chellean epochs, there were men whomade from stone roughly chipped implements of ever-increasing crudeness the further we penetrate back intothe past. Finally we reach the Eolithic or "DawnStone" Age, characterized by implements so rough asto be barely, if at all, recognizable as the work of humanhands and brains. Throughout these long earlier agesmen seem to have lived mainly in the open, often onthe "glacial terraces" described in the last chapter.Hence when they died their skeletons stood but lit-tle chance of preservation, especially as they appear notto have done much, if anything, in the way of buryingtheir dead.An account of the human types of the later periods,when man had already become much what he is today,forms no part of the plan of the present volume. In thepresent chapter we shall confine ourselves to a discussionof the cave-dwelling races of the Old Stone Age, and moreparticularly to some of the finds of human skeletal re-mains from the three epochs of the Upper Paleolithic,viz., the Magdalenian, nearest our own times; the Solu-trean, next earlier; and the Aurignacian, earliest of thethree. A description of the various industries and aboveall the remarkable art of this time belongs more properlyin the last section of this book, devoted to man's culturaldevelopment.
MAN THE CAVE DWELLERThe Magdalenian EpochExcellent authorities are inclined to put the beginningof the Magdalenian epoch at from 15,000 to 18,000 yearsago, and it appears to have lasted at least 3,000 or 4,000years. Researches indicate that it occurred during thefirst two of the three minor advances of the ice fields whichtook place in Postglacial time, together with the drierinterval between. During the greater part of this longperiod one race of men dominated western Europe, almostthough not quite to the exclusion of all others. This raceis named after the little hamlet of Cro-Magnon in south-western France, where, in 1868, five typical skeletonscame to light in a grotto.The men of the Cro-Magnon race, when it first appears,were of almost gigantic height, although its women weremuch shorter, a disproportion which seems to have beena special characteristic of the race. But by the Magdale-nian epoch, with which we are now dealing, it had for somereason degenerated considerably in this respect, althoughstill of high mental type and strong bodily development.In fact, with this one exception of stature, it presentsmuch the same traits during the entire Upper Paleolithic,from the beginning of the /\urignacian down to the veryend of the Magdalenian. Some of its characteristics seemto have survived into much later times and perhaps evento the present day.The shape of the Cro-Magnon skull is quite unmistak-able, and in itself serves to identify skeletons of thisrace wherever found. Anthropologists call it "dishar-monic," because the shape of the face does not harmonizewith that of the brain-case, as it normally does in mostraces. When looked at from above, the Cro-Magnonskull is seen to be long and narrow; but the face, insteadof having a somewhat similar outline, is short and broad.Even the women of the Cro-Magnon race actually hadlarger brains than the average modern American or[73
1
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
western European, a condition due perhaps in part to thefact that with bigger bodies go larger brains. But an-other explanation suggests itself. The intensely hardconditions of life during the Old Stone Age must con-stantly have weeded out the less intelligent individuals,particularly during their younger years. Probably onlythe very fittest, both in mind and in body, survived tobecome the fathers and mothers of the next generation.The human remains assigned to the Magdalenian epochinclude the parts of two skeletons found near La Madeleine(Dordogne), the site which gave the culture its name, anda single skeleton, that of an adult male, found at Laugerie-Basse, a great rock-shelter on the Vezere, by Massenat in1872, under nearly ten feet of deposits containing Paleo-lithic hearths.In the rock-shelter of Raymonden, in the commune ofChancelade (Dordogne), MM. Hardy and Feaux, in 1888,found a nearly complete skeleton of a man between fiftyand sixty years of age, and about five feet in height. Itlay doubled tightly up, and had probably been buried inthat position, perhaps swathed about with bandages.This Magdalenian man of Chancelade had a large brainquite of modern size, a high and rather narrow skull, along straight nose, broad face, powerful jaw, and strongchin. Except for his short stature we should find him awell-built man with strong features. Both this and thepreceding example, that from Laugerie-Basse, differ fromthe typical Cro-Magnon in displaying greater height offace. In this trait, they have been thought to resemblesome of the eastern Eskimo of today.Again, two well-preserved skeletons of a man and awoman were found in 1914 by workmen at Obercassel,near Bonn, on the Rhine. They lay at a depth of abouttwenty-five feet, protected by large, flat stones. Here,as elsewhere, the bones were stained with red ocher andwere associated with bone implements bearing the inciseddecorations characteristic of Magdalenian art. This has[74]
PLATE 23
Restoration ot Cro-Magnon man; represented clad in furs and carvinga piece of bone. Modeled by Mascre under the direction of Rutot

MAN THE CAVE DWELLERdefinitely proved the Cro-Magnon race to be responsiblefor the remarkable artistic development of the UpperPaleolithic Period. The man's height was estimated atfive feet three inches, the woman's at two inches less.The Solutrean EpochThe Solutrean epoch was shorter by probably i,oooyears than the Magdalenian, which it immediately pre-ceded in parts of western and central Europe. The geo-graphical distribution of its peculiar culture suggests thatthe latter came from the east, perhaps from the plains ofRussia and western Siberia. The forms of its art and itsimplements, rather than the skeletal remains of manhimself, distinguish the period. Among the very fewskeletons which may be attributed with some certaintyto the Solutrean epoch are the following:At Crot-du-Charnier, in the commune of Solutre itself,Ducrost found, at a depth of some five feet, an oval hearthmeasuring about fifteen by ten feet, bounded by flag-stones. Within this inclosure he discerned the skeletonof a male, under the bones of whose right hand were twofine "laurel-leaf" points, the special flint implements whichcharacterize the Solutrean. Near by lay several carvingsand outside the flagstones great quantities of cold-periodanimal bones. Numerous other sepultures have beenfound near this site, but many of them seem to belong tolater times.At Klause, near Neu-Essing, in Bavaria, Obermaierfound many Solutrean artifacts and, amid a mass ofbreccia composed of fragments of mammoth tusks, ahuman skeleton of a male about thirty years old, attrib-uted to that stage. A mass of powdered ocher completelysurrounded it.Among other skeletal remains usually attributed to theSolutrean epoch are those from Briix, in Bohemia, andfrom Briinn, in Moravia. These indicate the existencein central Europe of a narrow-headed race which, how-[751
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
ever, differed from the very broad-faced Cro-Magnonsin having a harmonic form of head; that is, the face wasnarrow, like the brain-case.Thus it would seem that during this period two dis-tinct races occupied Europe, the Cro-Magnon in the westand that of Briinn more to the east, particularly in thevalley of the Danube. This would harmonize with thebelief that the Solutrean culture came originally fromthat direction. It has been suggested, moreover, thatin the Briinn race we have the remote ancestors of thetype of northern European, tall, fair, and narrow skulled,which we know as the Nordic race; but whether this betrue or not only time and further research can tell.The Aurignacian EpochThe x'^urignacian epoch, the earliest of the three in-cluded within the Upper Paleolithic, endured for perhaps7,000 or 8,000 years. Its culture appears to have reachedEurope toward the close of the fourth great glacial stage,that known as the Wiirm, somewhere around 25,000 or30,000 years ago, finding a climate much colder than thatof the present and quite severe enough to compel man toseek refuge in rock-shelters and the mouths of caves.The splendid Cro-Magnon race first appears in Europeat the beginning of the Aurignacian. At this time, inaddition to its other fine attributes, it enjoyed that ofexceptionally great stature, which it later lost. The menseem actually to have averaged over six feet in height,and individuals have been found who stood over six feetfour inches. In addition to this splendid height, themen had deep chests and broad shoulders, and the pro-portions of their leg bones show that they were capableof great speed and physical activity. The Cro-Magnonrace stands, in fact, among the finest that has ever ex-isted anywhere in the world.It has been suggested that the race originated some-where in Asia and moved slowly westward, along theI76]
MAN THE CAVE DWELLER
northern shores of Africa, until it reached the ancientland-bridge extending across the Mediterranean Sea byway of Sicily to Italy, which it crossed to enter Europe.In connection with the skeletal remains of Aurignacianman, the name of Lartet will ever be remembered.Edouard Lartet, in early life a lawyer, when almostsixty years of age became keenly interested in the ex-ploration of caves. These are numerous in the depart-ments of Haute Garonne and Ariege, in southern France.Near the village of Aurignac there existed a small cave,now wholly quarried away, which New Stone Age manhad used as a sepulcher and then walled up with a slabof stone. Falls of debris from the hill above had hiddenits mouth, but it was accidentally discovered in 1852.Within were found the remains of seventeen persons,which by order of the mayor received Christian burial.In i860, Lartet visited this cave and explored the un-disturbed strata, two or three feet thick, which still cov-ered its floor. These abounded in charred and brokenbones of extinct animals?the cave bear, cave lion, cavehyena, woolly rhinoceros, giant deer, mammoth, andothers?broken for their marrow by the men who formerlylived there. In the terrace in front of the cave he foundcharcoal and other traces of ancient hearths, in which wereembedded objects of the type we now call Aurignacian,including flint implements, carvings in ivory, shell neck-laces, pendants of perforated teeth, and weapons of boneand reindeer horn.Eight years later, Louis Lartet, the son of Edouard,while excavating a grotto or rock-shelter at Cro-Magnon,near Les Eyzies (Dordogne), made the discovery of fiveskeletons lying amid hearths and implements similarto those found at Aurignac. The skeletons belonged tomen averaging nearly six feet in height and were, on thewhole, hardly to be distinguished from those of tall menof the present day. This site gave the race the namewhich it bears among prehistorians today.[77]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTIn the Crot-du-Charnier at Solutre, MM. Mayet,Deperet, and Arcelin found in 1923 three Aurignacianburials beneath the celebrated deposit of horse bonesalready mentioned. These included the remains of twotall males and one short female, the former resemblingthe tall old man found at Cro-Magnon.We can mention but one more of the many discoveriesof Aurignacian remains, that made by the late PrinceAlbert of Monaco. In the year 1895, the Prince under-took the investigation of the caves of Grimaldi, sixty orseventy feet above sea level in the red rocks which risefrom the sea a little east of Mentone. For his researchesPrince Albert secured the help of the best talent of France,including such eminent men as Boule, Cartailhac, Ver-neau, and Villeneuve. They investigated no less thanseven caves, one of which, the famous Grotte des Enfants,proved a veritable treasure house of Aurignacian remains.In excavating thirty-three feet of deposits, they revealedten ancient floors of habitation. From the top down tothe ninth level all were Aurignacian, yet evidently sep-arated from one another by long intervals of nonoccu-pancy, which suggests the long duration of the Aurigna-cian epoch.The upper strata disclosed the reindeer, but no mammothor woolly rhinoceros, such as were found at more north-erly sites of the same period. Various extinct formscommon in those ancient times, like the cave bear, cavelion, and cave hyena, were discovered. Toward the bot-tom, tropical animals?Merck's rhinoceros, the hippopota-mus and the straight-tusked or "ancient" elephant
?
proved the existence in the early Aurignacian of an inter-lude of warm climate. In the lowest layer of all, someimplements gave evidence of the Mousterian culture ofNeanderthal man.The investigators found human remains in the second,third, eighth, and ninth levels, all probably interred inshallow graves under the floors of their dwelling sites,[78]
MAN THE CAVE DWELLER
according to the custom of the time. Ornaments andartifacts, evidently intended by their friends as provisionfor the future life, accompanied the skeletons, and someof the bones found were stained with red ocher.At the base of the Aurignacian deposits of Grimaldi,and dating apparently from the very beginning of that
Fig. 15. Profile and full-face views of the skull of the Grimaldi woman. AfterKeithepoch, were found two skeletons which have arousedgreat interest among prehistorians. For they have beenheld to indicate the existence at that time in this part ofEurope of representatives of a race which was neitherthat of Neanderthal nor that of Cro-Magnon. Theskeletons belonged to a youth and a woman, both of rathershort stature (Plate 25), and they present traits whichhave been interpreted as Negroid in character. Tt will beremembered that the Cro-Magnon race, with its Aurigna-cian culture, is supposed to have entered Europe fromAsia by way of northern Africa and the old land-bridgesacross to Italy. Now in recent years there are comingto light all over Africa remains of a type of art, consistingmainly of engravings and paintings of animals, which inmany ways recall the remarkable cave art of the UpperPaleolithic in Europe. [79]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTIn South Africa works of this character are attributedin part to those dwarfish, yellow-skinned, woolly-hairedlittle hunters, the Bushmen, themselves undoubtedly avery ancient race, now nearly extinct. Moreover, cer-tain of the physical peculiarities of the latter people are
A B DFig. i6. Aurignacian and modern Bushman comparisons. A, Bushman woman;B, Bushman drawing of same; C and D, statuettes in steatite from the Grimaldi
shown clearly in the figures of very stout nude women,carved from ivory or soft stone, which have been foundhere and there in the Upper Paleolithic of Europe (Fig.i6).These facts, taken in conjunction with the Negroid traitsascribed to the two Grimaldi skeletons just mentioned,seem to hint at some African influence on Aurignacianart. Any more definite conclusion than this, however,we should hardly be justified in drawing as yet.At all events we have now reached the point, in ourbackward journey through time, when Aurignacian manfirst appears in Europe and takes the place till then occu-pied by the low-grade race of Neanderthal. As far as
I 80]
JO
Uh
c o9. CQ
o .^
O
H
PLATE 25
The Grimaldi skeletons of a woman and a youth with negroidcharacteristics. After V'erneau
MAN THE CAVE DWELLER
western Europe is concerned, Neanderthal man disap-pears completely from the scene never to return. Whetherhe was in part absorbed and in part exterminated by thefar superior Cro-Magnon race, or whether he died outfrom other causes, we can not as yet say with certainty.^Beyond doubt contact, with intermarriage between thetwo races, did occur. The spread of civilized man over somuch of the globe at the expense of less advanced racesduring the past few centuries shows us what usually hap-pens in such cases. The lower culture, even thoughdestined in the long run to be entirely destroyed by thehigher, yet borrows from the latter many of its features,particularly in the domain of warfare.In like manner the unmistakable Aurignacian influencevisible in certain classes of Mousterian artifacts may veryprobably be traced to the time when the Cro-Magnonrace was spreading over western Europe, absorbing, driv-ing out, or killing off Neanderthal man as it advanced.Perhaps, too, the undoubted resemblance in the burialcustoms of the two races is due, in part at least, to thiscause. In central Europe the Mousterian epoch is im-mediately followed, not by the xAurignacian, but by theSolutrean, which would indicate that the Cro-Magnonsfor some reason did not penetrate that far. But evenhere the Neanderthal race finally disappears and is suc-ceeded by the bearers of the Solutrean culture, who ap-pear to have been the race of Briinn or Predmost. Thatthe latter, notwithstanding their high skulls and theirfaces of modern type, should display certain traits recall-ing the Neanderthalers may perhaps be due to contactsat this time.It is possible that Neanderthal man may have survivedfor a while longer in a few other regions. At one time oranother he inhabited not only Europe but also parts of
^ On this subject the author accepts the views of many eminent prehistorians, not-withstanding that Dr. Hrdlicka, as will appear in the following chapter, inclines to thinkthe Cro-Magnon the lineal descendant of Neanderthal man.[8i]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTAsia and Africa. But until the prehistory of the twolatter continents is much better known than it is today,we shall not be able to say where he originated or wherehe made his last hopeless stand against men of the modernspecies.This much seems agreed upon by most prehistorians
?
that the Mousterian culture appears in Europe at theclose of the third interglacial period; that it was in part,though by no means entirely, a development from theprevious Acheulian; and that it extended over much of thelast great glacial stage, that known as the Wiirm. Sometime after the first and more important climax of thelatter, the career of Neanderthal man came to an end,and that of the Cro-Magnon race began.
[82]
CHAPTER VIINEANDERTHAL MAN^Neanderthal Gorge and the valley north of it consti-tute one of the most interesting natural formations inwestern Germany. Here one comes unexpectedly upon apiece of romantic scenery lying beneath the level of thecultivated plain surrounding it. Eroded by the smallstream, Diissel, and its branches, out of the limestoneformations that underlie the surface, for generations thegorge and valley have been favorite resorts. The formeris named for Joachim Neander, a poet and song composerof the German Reformed Church, who lived in the seven-teenth century, and for whom the gorge was a favoriteretreat. Doubtless he sometimes entered the cave inwhich two centuries later was found the famous skeletonwhich has become the type of a special race of men.The gorge is bounded by high, rugged cliffs of Devonianlimestone which have been extensively quarried since themiddle of the nineteenth century. In the year 1856 theexcavations had reached the so-called Feldhofen Grotto,a somewhat extensive cave located in the right-hand cliffnot far from Ravenstein, a high, isolated rock still standing.The mouth of the cave lay about 1 10 feet from the rightbank of the stream and 60 feet above its level.According to local accounts the cave had two parts. InAugust, 1856, two laborers, clearing out the loam fromthe smaller section, uncovered a human skeleton. Not
* This and the following chapter are quoted with slight alterations from, andChapter IX is based on, a monograph by Doctor Hrdlicka, now being published bythe Smithsonian Institution, entitled "The Skeletal Remains of Early Man."[83]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
recognizing its importance they threw it out with theearth; but the owner of the quarry on being told of thefind urged the workmen to collect the fragments of theskeleton. Fourteen pieces were gathered and these weregiven soon after into the hands of Doctor Fuhlrott, ofElberfeld.They comprised the skullcap, the femora, humeri,ulnae, right radius, a portion of the left pelvic bone, partof the right scapula, a piece of the right clavicle, and fivepieces of ribs.At the general meeting of the Natural History Societyof the Prussian Rhineland and Westphalia, at Bonn, onJune 2, 1857, Doctor Fuhlrott gave a full account of thelocality of the find and of the circumstances under whichthe discovery was made. The principal details of his re-port were as follows:A small cave or grotto, high enough to admit a man and about 15feet deep from the entrance, which is 7 or 8 feet wide, exists in thesouthern wall of the gorge of the Neanderthal, as it is termed, at adistance of about 100 feet from the Diissel and about 60 feet abovethe bottom of the valley. In its earlier and uninjured condition thiscavern opened upon a narrow plateau lying in front of it and fromwhich the rocky wall descended almost perpendicularly to the river.It could be reached, though with difficulty, from above. The unevenfloor was covered to a thickness of 4 or 5 feet with a deposit of mud,sparingly intermixed with rounded fragments of chert. In movingthis deposit the bones were discovered. The skull was first noticed,placed nearest to the entrance of the cavern; and further in werethe other bones lying in the same horizontal plane. Of this I wasassured in the most positive terms by the two laborers who were em-ployed to clear out the grotto and who were questioned by me onthe spot. At first no idea was entertained of the bones being human;and it was not till several weeks after their discovery that they wererecognized as such by me and placed in security. But, as the impor-tance of the discovery was not at the time perceived, the laborers werevery careless in the collecting and secured chiefly only the largerbones; and to this circumstance it may be attributed that fragmentsmerely of the probably perfect skeleton came into my possession.Soon afterwards, in i860, Sir Charles Lyell, the cele-brated English geologist and paleontologist, visited the[84I
PLATE 26
The Ciorge uf Neanderthal as it was about 1840, before therocks were blasted away. From an old woodcut

NEANDERTHAL MANlocality, in company with Doctor Fuhlrott, and made asketch thereof.Following the early notices concerning the Neanderthalcranium and before other specimens of similar nature,such as those of Spy and Gibraltar, became known, anextensive controversy arose as to the real significance ofthe find. Virchow, and after him others, were at firstinclined to look upon the skull as pathological; to BarnardDavis its sutures appeared to show premature synostosis;while Blake and his followers regarded the specimen asprobably proceeding from an idiot. But there were alsothose, such as Schaaffhausen, Broca, and others, whofrom the beginning saw in the cranium (the other bonesreceived at first but little attention) not a pathological oraccidental monstrosity, but a peculiar, theretofore un-known type of ancient humanity. From time to time newexamples of this same early type appeared in differentparts of Europe, under circumstances which steadilystrengthened the claim of the whole class to geologicalantiquity. Finally, after a thorough comparative studyof the Neanderthal remains had been carried out bymodern methods and in the light of new knowledge, thecranium and bones were definitely recognized as repre-senting in a normal and characteristic way a most inter-esting earlier phase or variety of mankind, our Mid-Quater-nary predecessor or close relative. Homo neanderthalensis
.
The credit for deserving work in this field is due especiallyto Prof. G. Schwalbe, of Strassburg, whose numerouspublications on the early forms of human remains inEurope are well known to every anthropologist.The remains of the Neanderthal skeleton are preservedin the Provincial Museum at Bonn, where, through thecourtesy of the director. Prof. Hans Lehner, DoctorHrdlicka was enabled to examine the originals and laterhave them photographed. For the explanation of the termsused in the description of this and other skulls, the reader isreferred to the diagram of the human skull (Fig. 17).[85I
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
19 20 21 ?4 25f\/ 26
__28
Fig. 17. Diagram of skull showing pri1. Mental foramen2. Body of lower jaw3. Superior maxilla4. Ramus of lower jaw5. Zygomatic arch6. Styloid process7. External auditory meatus8. Mastoid process9. Asterion10. Superior curved line of occipitalbone11. External occipital protuberance12. Lambdoid suture13. Occipital bone14. Lambda15. Obelion placed between the twoparietal foramina
ncipal characters referred to in the text16. Parietal bone17. Lower temporal ridge18. Upper temporal ridge19. Squamous part of temporal bone20. Bregma21. Coronal suture22. Stephanion23. Frontal bone24. Pterion25. Temporal fossa26. Great wing of sphenoid27. Nasal bone28. Lachrymal bone29. Malar canal30. Infraorbital canal31. Malar bone32. Anterior nasal aperture86]
PLATE 2<S
Restoration ot Neanuerthal man. Courtesy ot the i'lelci Museum oi NaturalHistory

NEANDERTHAL MANThe skull (Plate 29) is gray in color, with large mud-brownish or gray-sepia patches, on the outside, andwhitish gray to whitish brown on the inside. It is de-cidedly heavy and much mineralized. It is plainly non-pathological. The sagittal suture has evidently closedearlier than it ordinarily does in civilized modern man,but this must have taken place after the brain ceased toinfluence the cranial vault, for it resulted in no perceptibledeformation. The coronal suture is obHterated up to thetemporal ridges, while the lambdoid is still patent. Simi-lar conditions to these are sometimes met with in theskulls of persons beyond the fiftieth year of life, and if notattended by scaphocephaly or other consequent deforma-tion can not be regarded as abnormal. The serration ofthe lambdoid suture is decidedly simpler than in modernhuman skulls.The facial and basal parts are lacking. The vaultshows very good dimensions in length and breadth, butis strikingly low, and the bones are considerably thickerthan in the white man of today, so that the brain cavitywas only moderate.Besides its lowness the vault is characterized by a verydecided protrusion of the whole supraorbital region. Thesupraorbital torus, or arch, formed through this pro-trusion is heavier than in any other known example ofHomo neanderthalensis. The line from the glabella to thenaso-frontal articulation is relatively extensive andpasses considerably backward and downward, indicatinga very marked depression at the root of the nose, notunlike that which is present in the adult gorilla. Like-wise owing to the forward extension of the supraorbitalarch, the upper parts of the planes of the orbits face veryperceptibly downward, while in modern man they facesomewhat upward or approach the vertical.The forehead is low and slopes markedly backward;nevertheless it presents a moderately well-defined con-vexity. The sagittal region is oval from side to side, much[87I
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTlike that in man of today; the occiput, however, is markedby a relatively high situation of the crest and otherpeculiarities. The outline of the vault, as looked at fromabove, is a long ovoid. The thickness of the frontal boneat the eminences is 8.5 mm.; of the left parietal, along aline I cm. above the squamous suture, 6 to 8 mm. Thesemeasurements are about one-third greater than those ofthe skull of an average modern European.The lowness of the skull vault is very marked. Inmodern crania the vault is almost invariably much higher.Neanderthal skull measurements gave a height, accord-ing to Schwalbe, of 8.05 cm. with "calotte-index" of 40.4.In contrast thereto, 107 recent adult human skulls, ofvarious derivation, gave heights of from 8.40 to 1 1.70 cm.and indices from 52 to 68. The cephalic index is 78.5,almost exactly medium between long and short heads ofmodern times.The internal capacity of the skull has been estimatedby Schaaffhausen at 1,033 ^-^-y ^Y Huxley at 1,230 c.c,and by Schwalbe at 1,234 c.c.The brain which filled the skull was lower and narrowerand slightly more pointed than the human brain of today,approaching in these features more nearly the anthropoidform. The right frontal lobe was slightly larger andlonger than the left, and the whole right hemisphere wasslightly longer than that of the opposite side. In modernman it is generally the left hemisphere which is the longer,but this exception in the Neanderthal man is not neces-sarily of any special significance.The long bones and others of the skeleton, so far aspreserved, show many features of anthropological in-feriority, demonstrating plainly that not merely the skull,but the whole body of Neanderthal man occupied asomewhat lower evolutionary stage than that of anynormal human being of historic times. Yet there ismuch, also, that connects the type closely with laterand present-day man. [88]


NEANDERTHAL MANThe bones of the arm, the pelvis, and the femur, or longbone of the leg, differ markedly from those of the averagepresent-day man. Certain distinctive features of thefemur, indeed, could not be duplicated today collectively;in some instances, not even individually. Thus, amongother differences: The head is larger and more globularthan in modern man; the neck is stout and rather short,and the angle it forms with the shaft is less oblique thanin most recent femora; the connecting bridge of bonebetween the great trochanter and the neck is stouterthan in most recent bones; and the trochanteric fossais larger than in modern man. These are but a few ofthe many differences too technical for this discussion.Some of these may be observed in Figure lo, in which theNeanderthaloid femur is compared with those of a mod-ern Frenchman and of a gorilla.The bones of the Neanderthal skeleton in general in-dicate a powerful musculature and a broad and strongchest, combined with a somewhat submedium stature.As years have gone by since the discovery of the skele-ton at Neanderthal, many other remains of similar men,with retreating chins, low, beetling brows, and powerfulframes, have been found in various parts of Europe andAsia. Almost a score of important recoveries of thisnature have already (1929) come to light. The prin-cipal ones found thus far are dealt with by Hrdlicka inthe order which follows.The Gibraltar SkullThe celebrated Gibraltar skull was discovered as earlyas 1848, therefore eight years before the Neanderthalcranium made its appearance, in the Forbes Quarrysituated on the north front of the Rock of Gibraltar. Itwas dug out of a terrace on the north face of the rockfrom a formation of solidified breccia consisting of weath-ering of the limestone cliff and fine wind-blown sand.The part of the terrace where the cranium lay was[89]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTpossibly in former times the floor of a cave. A sectionof a cave still exists behind the site of the discovery andwas explored in 191 1 by Duckworth, but without results.It is certain that the skull showed, and to some extentpresents to this day, a hard stony matrix adhering toits surface and filling its cavities. Broca, to whom weowe the first descriptive account of the specimen, saysthat it was taken out from a "very compact and adherentgangue" from which it was disengaged with much diffi-culty. The photographs published with Broca's accountshow very noticeable remnants of the stony matrix.The skull was presented to the Gibraltar ScientificSociety by the then secretary. Lieutenant Flint, but formany years received no scientific attention. In 1862it came to England, with the collections from the Gi-braltar caves, and was studied to some extent by Buskand Falconer. The latter, perceiving how much it differedfrom recent human skulls, proposed to refer it to a dis-tinct variety of man, the Homo calpicus, after Calpe,the Roman name of Gibraltar. Finally, in 1868, Buskpresented the cranium to the Museum of the BritishRoyal College of Surgeons, where it is still preserved.The first descriptive account of the specimen was pub-lished, as mentioned above, by Broca, but the adheringstony matrix prevented at that time any attempt ataccurate measurement. Subsequently it received atten-tion from Huxley, de Quatrefages, and Hamy, and laterfrom Macnamara, Klaatsch, Schwalbe, Sollas, Sera, andKeith, as well as Hrdlicka. It is a very remarkablespecimen, which, even though the geological and paleon-tological evidence relating to its antiquity is imperfect,does not allow for one moment any doubt as to its repre-senting an early form of human being; and its character-istics are such that it is now universally regarded as arepresentative, possibly a very early one, oi Homo neander-thalensis.The cranium is gray-whitish to yellowish in color. It is[90]
NEANDERTHAL MAN
considerably mineralized and heavier than normal. .Thestony matrix has been so far removed that such importantdeterminations and measurements as the defective stateof the bones permit may now be made. Fortunately thefacial region, the frontal bone, and most of the right sideof the skull, including the back, are relatively well pre-served; the top of the vault, on the other hand, shows alarge defect, and the left parietal, temporal, and sphenoidparts, together with much of the base, are lost. With allthese defects, a sufficient number of parts remain to per-mit of valuable determinations on the skull and infer-ences as to the brain, and also a fairly correct recon-struction.The aspect of the face is semihuman, apish. The mid-portion, from the glabella downward, protrudes morethan in normal skulls, as a result of which the planes ofthe orbits, as well as the planes of the malars, slope moreoutward and backward than they do in modern crania.Other very striking features of the face are: The relatively(for a female) huge supraorbital arch; the very large orbits;the stoutness of the medial process of the frontal bone;the complete absence of the supraorbital (canine) fossae;the broad nose; and the dental arch with long teeth. Thesupraorbital arch does not greatly protrude as it does inthe male Neanderthal skulls; nevertheless it represents atrue and rather huge torus, such as is wholly unknown inrecent crania. A remarkable feature which gives the faceits characteristic appearance is the fullness, to mildconvexity, of the suborbital (canine) fossae and of thenasal processes of the maxilla. All these parts look as ifinflated from behind.The teeth, though considerably worn off, appear verylong. A very interesting condition is the absence of thetwo median incisors. As there is no sign of decay, andas the alveolar process shows a characteristic absorptionnotch at this place, it would seem that the two teethmust have been lost long before the death of the indi-[91]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
vidual, and that presumably through some violence. Thewhole recalls forcibly the ceremonial knocking out ofthese incisors (and sometimes also other teeth) in theNegro, Australian, and other primitive peoples.Another facial peculiarity of the skull is its low andsloping forehead, the ensemble presenting a picture ofphylogenetic inferiority which, taking into considerationthat this is unquestionably the skull of a female, is notquite equaled by any other specimens of Neanderthalorigin thus far discovered, though it is true that the facialfeatures are preserved in only a few of the specimens be-longing to this great period.The vault of the skull is especially noteworthy on ac-count of its lowness and a peculiar formation of the occi-put that gives the impression of breadth with submediumheight. Much the same characteristic is found also inother Neanderthal skulls.Endocranially, the skull shows a number of interestingfeatures. There is throughout a marked paucity of im-pressions of brain convolutions and also of those of theblood vessels. Even the sinuses have left but shallowgrooves. The brain itself was not particularly small fora female skull; and it was of an already rather advancedhuman type.There are other details and dimensions about the speci-men which are of more or less interest to the anthropolo-gist, but which need not be dealt with in this account.It will suffice to say that both the visual and the instru-mental examination of the specimen lead to the conclu-sion that the Gibraltar skull represents highly valuableremains of an early human being and that its principalcharacteristics justify its classification with Homo neander-thalensis.The cephalic index is approximately 77 as measuredby Hrdlicka, 80 according to Sollas; the cranial capacity1,200 c.c. according to the estimate of Keith, 1,250 to1,260 c.c. according to Sollas.[92]
PLATE 31
A view of Rock-Gun, Gibraltar, with the Devil's Tower cave markedby a black cross. After Miss Garrod
PLATE 32
Restoration ut a NcamJerthal hoy. Courtesy of the Field Museuiof Natural History
NEANDERTHAL MANLater Work at GibraltarIn 1910 and again in 191 1, W. L. H. Duckworth, ofCambridge University, visited Gibraltar for the purposeof obtaining, if possible, additional information about theold skulls and of making further exploration.He found that the Forbes Quarry still existed, though,having been worked at intervals since 1848, its boundarieswere now larger. The quarry, as originally noted, isunder- the north front of the Rock of Gibraltar. The rockat this point still contains a remnant of a cave, which isnot more than about thirty feet above sea level and "isprobably the result of marine erosion at a remote epoch;and at a remote epoch also, the mouth of this cave musthave been closed, until it was reopened by the quarry-men." It was in all probability in this cave that theskull was discovered. A partial exploration of the caveand the neighboring talus was barren of results so far asremains of man were concerned.A second cave in the rock explored by Doctor Duck-worth gave remains of the Neolithic Period. Anothercavern (Sewell's Cave) yielded, with others, some Mous-terian, Aurignacian, Solutrean, and even Magdalenianstone implements.In 1917, parts of the Rock of Gibraltar and its neigh-borhood were investigated by the xAbbe Breuil. Duringthis work the Abbe discovered near the "Devil's Tower"a rough rock-shelter which gave indications of Paleolithicman. This site, in 1926, was explored in detail by Dr.Dorothy A. E. Garrod; and it was here that in June, 1926,Miss Garrod found, inclosed in rock, the skull of a child,proceeding evidently from the Mousterian period.The specimen was found in some Mousterian depositsfronting a small cave opposite the ruin of Devil's Tower,in the eastern face of the north front of the Rock, notvery far from the Forbes Quarry, in which in 1848 wasdiscovered the adult Neanderthaloid skull of Gibraltar.[93]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTThe details of the find are given by Miss Garrod; themain points are as follows:The Mousterian site at Devil's Tower was discovered in 191 7 bythe Abbe Breuil, then acting as diplomatic courier between Gibraltarand the French Naval Bureau at Madrid. In the course of a visit tothe North Front of the Rock he noticed fragments of fossil bone inthe talus of a small cave or rock-shelter at the foot of the immensevertical peak of Rock-Gun, immediately opposite a ruin known as theDevil's Tower. M. Breuil was unable to follow up this discovery atthe time, but in 191 9 he returned to Gibraltar and with the help ofthe late Colonel Willoughby Verner dug a trial trench a little waydown the talus of the shelter, unearthing a number of animal bonesand four stone implements of definite Mousterian type. My ownwork on the shelter, undertaken at M. Breuil's suggestion, occupiedseven months, between November, 1925, and January, 1927, and wascarried out by means of a grant from the Percy Sladen Memorial Fund.The Devil's Tower cave is a narrow fissure running obliquely intothe Rock of Gibraltar at the eastern end of the North Front, 350 m.from Forbes Quarry. It has a maximum height of 12 m. and amaxim"Um width of 1.20 m., and 4 m. from the entrance it narrows toa mere crack. The rocky floor at the cave mouth lies 9 m. above sealevel, and 5 m. above the average level.The work carried out consisted in emptying the cave down to therock floor and removing the talus or terrace deposits over an areaextending from the rock wall which bounded them on the west to aline 4.50 m. to the east of the cave mouth. Seven layers of depositwere revealed in this way, the succession from above downwards beingas follows:
1. Fine sand, filling the fissure to the roof.2. Calcareous tufa, 1-4 m.3. Fine sand, 20 cm.? i m.4. Travertine, 10-80 cm.5. Fine sand, 40 cm.?1.40 m.6. Travertine, 50-75 cm.7. Raised beach, with its surface at 8.50-9 m. above sea level.Layers 1-5 contained archeological material, the industry from topto bottom being Mousterian.The total number of implements and flakes recoveredwas small?less than 500?the majority in quartzite, therest in flint, chert, and jasper. There were also two frag-ments of bone compressors. The industry of layers i[94]
NEANDERTHAL MAN
?De\^iCs Tower
--European ChildYoung Chimpanzee
and 2, and the implements found in the "wash" have awell-marked Upper Mousterian character.The fauna found by Miss Garrod was much the sameat all levels and represented about twenty-five species,many of them now extinct. They include the wolf, bear,hyena, lynx, deer, horse, and elephant, and indicate acold-temperate climate as then prevailing in southernSpain.In June, 1926, after firing a heavy blast of explosivegelatin in the hard rock, Miss Garrod uncovered withdifficulty part of a human skull embedded in layer 4 andfilled in with travertine. It had been cracked by theblast into severalfragments.In October, otherparts of the skullwere foundin layer 4, abouteighteen feet dis-tant and nearerthe mouth of thecave.Miss Garrodremarks:It seems clear fromthe position of thebones that the skulloriginally lay in themouth of the cave,but as it belonged to a very young individual it fell apart along thesutures, and the frontal and left parietal, together with those partswhich are missing, were washed forward on to the terrace by the watersof the spring which converted the original sandy layer into travertine.The missing parts were probably carried further forward than theothers, and so rolled down the slope and were lost.It is probable that the skull was already separated from the bodywhen it lay in the cave, for if the whole skeleton had been present,some at least, of the bones must have been found. On the other hand,the fact that the lower jaw (Fig. 18) lay quite close to the temporal[95I
Fig. 18. Lower jaw of the Neanderthal child fromthe Devil's Tower, Gibraltar, compared with those ofa modern European child and a young chimpanzee.After Buxton
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
and maxilla suggests either that decomposition was not complete atthe time of deposition or that the jaw was fastened to the skull bya thong or string. In either case it seems impossible to avoid theconclusion that the skull was intentionally preserved, either as atrophy or in fulfilment of a pious rite.The human skull is described most carefully and withmuch detail by Professor Buxton. The main results ofhis study are:The Devil's Tower bones are the remains of a single individual skullbelonging to a child of five years old, probably of the male sex. . . .The form of the face and jaws is essentially that which we associatewith Neanderthal man. Many of these features can be shown, how-ever, to owe their characteristic appearance partly to the great sizeof the teeth and partly to functional activities, but the general mas-siveness, not only of the jaws but also of such features as the tympanicplate, is remarkable.
. . . The dimensions and form of the brain-case, especially theexpansion of the frontal area, are beyond the range of Neanderthalman, as hitherto discovered, if we make the same allowance for agethat we should do in the case of a modern child. These conditionssuggest a brain-case built more after the fashion of modern than ofNeanderthal man. . . . The teeth of our specimen closely resemblein size and shape those usually associated with Neanderthal man.The face and jaws must therefore necessarily be close to the typicalNeanderthal form. The brain-case is, however, different from thetype form, because the underlying structure, the brain, was larger.The Spy SkeletonsIn the province of Namur, in Belgium, there is a steepwooded mountainside in the district of Spy, which isskirted by the little river Orneau. A great rock standingsentinel-like has at its base, sixty feet above the stream,a cave now called the cave of Spy, which opens towardthe south. Several times during the last century theaccumulations within the cave were searched by anti-quarians and yielded worked flints and bones dating fromLate Stone Age cultures.In 1885 MM. Marcel de Puydt and Maximin Lohest,archeologist and geologist, respectively, examined theregion of the cave more systematically. A terrace at its[96]
PLATE 33
"f^.
^^^^'"f^-
1 he rock (,upper) and cave (lower) of Spy, in Belgium, where in 1886were found two Neanderthal skeletons displaying certain featuresapproaching those of modern man. Photograph by Hrdlicka
ta
5 .s
O
NEANDERTHAL MANfront showed no signs of having been disturbed, and herethey concentrated their efforts. Sinking a trench in athick layer of brown earth mixed with numerous fragmentsof limestone, they came at a depth of four feet to a layersome twelve to sixteen inches thick containing fragmentsof bones and flints, debris of pottery, and several thou-sand implements of wood and stone, ornaments, and thelike. The stone implements, of rather high-class work-manship, seemed of the Mousterian cultural type.Returning to their excavations in 1886, de Puydt andLohest found in June two human skeletons, besides largequantities of bones of animals and flints and other arti-facts of the Mousterian type. Professor Fraipont, of theUniversity of Liege, joined in the examination of thediscovery and in its announcement in Bulletins of theRoyal Academy of Belgium. According to this an-nouncement the human bones were found at a depth ofthirteen feet below the surface, which here rose con-siderably higher than the floor of the cave. There was noevidence of previous disturbance of the superincumbentlayers. The accumulation contained fallen rocks, earth,many traces of man's early occupation, and numerousremains of fossil animals.The skeletons, called Spy No. i and Spy No. 2, lay,respectively, twenty-eight and twenty feet to the southof the cave entrance. They were inclosed by an undis-turbed layer of argillaceous tufa, from which they wereremoved only with great difficulty and some damage.More in detail, a section of the deposits showed themto consist of:A. Brown earth and fallen rocks; thickness approxi-mately 2.90 m. (over 9 ft.). No paleontological or humanremains.B. Yellow argillaceous tufa, inclosing limestone blocks,0.80 m. {i}4 ft.) in thickness. This layer could be brokenonly with difficulty by the pick. It gave some bones ofthe mammoth and deer, and also some worked flints.[97I
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTC. A stratum 15 cm. (6 in.) thick, strongly colored redand containing many flint implements, rejects of stoneindustry, angular fragments of limestone, bits of charcoal,and debris of mammoth tusks. This layer formed a hardcrust resistant to the hammer and covered the humanskeletons.The animal remains found in the hard layer C thatoverlay the two human skeletons were:Woolly rhinoceros MammothHorse HareWild boar Cave bearStag BadgerWapiti (?) " Marten (Weasel?)Giant deer FoxReindeer Wolf (Dog)Sheep Cave hyenaWild bull Cave lionExtinct bison Wild catD. Yellow calcareous clay and rubbish, passing to atufa of the same nature as that in layer B. Thickness15 cm. (6 in.), uneven. At base a streak of charcoal.E. The human skeletons and the worked flints.F. Brown clay, in places black, inclosing angular pebblesof limestone, numerous animal bones, and worked flints.The animal remains encountered at the level of theskeletons, or lower than these, comprised the tollowing:Woolly rhinoceros (abundant) Wild bull (rather abundant)Horse (very abundant) Mammoth (common)Stag (rare) Cave bear (rare)Reindeer (very rare) Badger (rare)Cave hyena (abundant)There were, therefore, distinguishable, aside from thesurface material, three distinct fossil-bearing layers,namely:B. This contained bones of the mammoth and deer;also some Mousterianlike flint implements of refined andrather peculiar type. [98]
NEANDERTHAL MANC. This stratum, with the underlying few inches ofearth, covered the human skeletons. Contents: Bones ofmany Quaternary animals; abundance of flint blades,Mousterian points, and other flint implements, in generalof less refined make than those of layer B; also implementsof bone and ivory. Among the bones were needles, awls,beads, and pendants, and a number of bones were deco-rated with linear designs. Some of the bone pendantsevidently had once been colored red.D-F. The stratum of the two human skeletons. Thisgave also some bones of Quaternary animals, and somestone implements of Mousterian type but inferior in work-manship to those from the layers above.The human remains, the authors thought, were notburials but incidental inclusions. As the middle, hard-ened stratum was found undisturbed, the skeletons couldnot have been more recent than this stratum.Considering the animal and archeological remains as-sociated with the human skeletons, together with theabsence of disturbance in the superimposed and morerecent layers, Lohest believed himself justified in referringSpy remains to the Mousterian period. The deductionsof Fraipont, based on the study of the skeletal remainsthemselves, were that they belonged to Neanderthal man.Since then the Spy remains have received more or lesscareful consideration by every student of early man, andthe above classification was found to need no radicalrevision.What remained of the Spy skeletons was preserved, upto the German invasion in 1914, in the collections of theUniversity of Liege, where thanks to the courtesy ofMM. M. Lohest, Charles Fraipont, and J. Servais, DoctorHrdlicka was enabled to examine the originals for thefirst time (1912). During the invasion, the remains,the property of M. Lohest, were secreted by the latter inhis home, at the bottom of an old chest, and, thoughsearched for, remained safe. Here, in the presence of the[99]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
regretted owner, Hrdlicka studied the remains the secondtime (1923); and finally in 1927, thanks to the courtesyof the sons of Lohest, he was enabled to examine theoriginals, still in their house, for the third time. At thetime of his second visit, in 1923, Prof. A. Rutot and hisassistant made it possible for him also to visit the cave.The skeletons are currently known as No. i and No. 2.To No. I (Plate 34) Fraipont and Lohest attributed:The vault of a skullTwo portions of an upper jaw,with the three right molars,the two right premolars, theleft canine and left lateral in-cisorsA nearly complete lower jaw,with all (16) teethThe left clavicleThe right humerus, which haslost its upper epiphysis, andthe shaft of the left humerus
The left radius, without thelower epiphysisThe proximal extremities of thetwo ulnaeThe nearly entire right femurThe complete left tibiaThe right calcaneum
The parts attributed by the two authors to the secondsubject are:The vault of a skullTwo portions of the upper jawwith twelve teethTwo fragments of the lower jawwith the molar teethLoose teeth belonging to thelower jawFragments of the scapulae oftwo humeri without upperextremities
The shaft of the right radiusThe proximal two-thirds of theleft femurThe left calcaneumThe left astragalus
Besides these parts, there are seven vertebrae, a rightpatella, twenty-four fragments of ribs, and eleven bones
[ 100]
NEANDERTHAL MAN
of hands and feet, with some pieces of which it wasimpossible to say to which skeleton they belonged.Repeated critical examination of the specimens left aserious doubt in Doctor Hrdlicka's mind as to the ac-curacy of the above distribution. No photographs orsketches were made on the spot; the bones were notmarked and have evidently become mixed up, their dis-tribution being decided upon later. The specimens indi-cate very strongly different relations. The right femur,the tibia, and the two stronger ulnae do not harmonizewith the relatively weak arm bones and clavicle of No. i.They harmonize perfectly, on the other hand, with thebones of the male skeleton No. 2 and must, Hrdlicka feels,be attributed to this skeleton. The true identificationof the parts appears to him as follows:Skeleton I
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTThis identification removes many difficulties, makingthe material much more inteUigible and the deductionsfrom it of more value. All the skeletal parts show anadvanced state of mineralization. In color they rangefrom brownish to grayish, skull No. i representing the
Fig. ig. Profiles of the Neanderthal cranium (unbroken line) and of Spy No. i(dotted line) and Spy No. 2 (broken line). Note that although the two Spyskeletons are of the same period, the forehead and vault of No. 2 are much higherthan those of No. i. After Fraipont and Lohestformer and No. 2 the latter shading. The teeth, however,are white, with yellowish roots, much as in crania fromlate burials.The two skulls are plainly normal specimens, free fromdisease or deformation. In age. No. i was an adult ofabout thirty-five years. No. 2 had just reached the adultstage. As to sex, were it not for the heavy supraorbitalarch, No. i would be identifiable as a female. Suchidentification would conform with the characteristics ofall the bones that, may definitely be attributed to thissubject, except the skull, and even this is rather feminineexcept in the lower frontal region.Morphologically the two skeletons, more particularlythe two crania, show features of such interest and im-
[ 102 ]
NEANDERTHAL MANportance to anthropology that they deserve all possibleattention. The vault of skull No. i and the skeletalparts of both individuals are thoroughly Neanderthal incharacter; but the jaws, teeth, and the vault of skull No. 2represent nothing less than a bridge from the Neanderthaltype of man to the recent.The Spy find is without question the most importantever made in relation to the problem of transition fromthe Neanderthal to the more modern forms of man. Herein practically one grave, certainly at the same level andunder the same associations, are found two skeletons, oneof which in many respects is still typically Neanderthal;but the jaws and the teeth of this skeleton, and the skullof the second subject are far in advance of the Neander-thal stage and correspondingly nearer to modern man.No better demonstration could have been furnished, orcould reasonably be wished for, of the transitional poten-tialities among the later Neanderthal representatives, towhich the skeletons evidently belong, toward the modernhuman type.^In Spy skull No. i, the characteristic Neanderthaloidfeatures?retreating forehead, heavy brows, large eyesockets, protruding jaws, retreating chin, and pronouncedbackward elongation of the cranium?are very plain inthe profile (Plate 34).The Diluvial Man of KrapinaOne of the most important finds of the skeletal remainsof Quaternary man is unquestionably that of the Krapinashelter, near Zagreb, in northern Croatia. The discoverycomprises a whole series of human bones of well-deter-mined geological age, and the remains were not recovered
' There exists a difference of opinion among anthropologists on the relationshipbetween Neanderthal and modern man. While Doctor Hrdlicka is convinced thatHomo sapiens developed gradually from Neanderthal man, other authorities believethat the Neanderthalers were a distinct species who died out leaving no descendants,while modern man sprang from some other rootstock outside of Europe and eventuallyspread there to take the place of Neanderthal man.
[ 103 1
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
accidentally or by laborers ignorant of their importance,but through prolonged, painstaking exploration.The bones themselves are for the most part fragmen-tary, which is much to be regretted; but they represent,as now estimated, over twenty individuals, and they showon the one hand such similarity and on the other suchvariation of structure that they are of great value to thestudent of ancient humanity.The Krapina rock-shelter is an ancient, not very deephollow, worn in the basic sandstone by the Krapinica,now a small stream, and subsequently filled with water-worn stones, some alluvia, and much detritus resultingfrom the decomposing rock of the hollow. Since theformation of the latter, the Krapinica has cut its channelso that it now flows eighty-two feet, or twenty-five meters,below its floor level.Before and while the shelter was being filled it was uti-lized by the early men of the region, at first occasionally,later, for some time perhaps, continuously; and the ac-cumulations in the cave were augmented by the remainsof fireplaces and by refuse, including many primitive stoneimplements and rejects as well as animal bones. Theseaccumulations were found to contain numerous humanbones in more or less fragmentary condition.The locality became known in 1895, after two Croatianteachers discovered in the superficial deposits of the cavesome teeth of a rhinoceros and fragments of other fossilbones. These finds were brought to the attention of thescientific men at Zagreb (the capital of Croatia, formerly"Agram"), but no thorough examination of the site wasundertaken until 1899. In that year the place was visitedby K. Gorjanovic-Kramberger, professor of geology andpaleontology of the University of Zagreb and Director ofthe Geological Division of the Narodni Muzej of the samecity.The deposits in the shelter and their stratification werefound well exposed. They were over twenty-six feet in[104]
>^H
>
c O
U S
H
PLATE 36
Restoration of Neanderthal woman and child. Courtesyof the Field Museum ot Natural History
NEANDERTHAL MANthickness from top to base. The initial work showed ashes,charcoal, burnt sand, and rejects of stone industry, stoneimplements, and a human molar.The excavations proper, after a determination of ninedistinct cultural layers, were begun from the top and carriedvery carefully downward. They proved from the startvery fruitful, giving many bones of Quaternary animals,many rejects of stone industry with some implements, aportion of a human maxilla, eighty loose teeth, and manypieces of skulls, lower jaws, and other parts of skeletons.From 1900 to 1905 the painstaking exploration of theshelter was carried on, partly by Gorjanovic-Kramberger,partly by S. Osterman and D. Galijan, his assistants,until the deposits were exhausted.Notwithstanding the presence of numerous culturallayers and the evidently long-continued use and occupa-tion of the shelter, the whole represented apparently butone extended cultural period, and this during a fairlywarm interglacial time. The fauna is not that of a coldclimate. It consists, aside from a few snails, birds, and aturtle, of the following:Merck's rhinoceros (frequent)
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTKrapina shelter amounts to approximately i,ooo, butmost of these are waste and rejects. They are mainlyof flint but occasionally also of quartz, chalcedony, andjasper. The better-characterized specimens are "typi-cally Mousterian" (Obermaier), and this applies to alllayers.The collective human skeletal remains recovered fromthe Krapina shelter, though very fragmentary, are morenumerous than those found in any other locality of similarage. They comprise many parts of the skull, numerousportions of the jaws ranging from fragments to nearlycomplete mandibles, many teeth, and numerous pieces ofother parts of the skeleton.The bones represent, as already mentioned, the remainsof at least twenty individuals of both sexes, ranging fromchildhood to ripe adult age. The fragmentation of theskulls, lower jaws, and some of the long bones is excessiveand of such a nature as strongly to suggest that it wascaused otherwise than by accidental breaking or crushing.A number of the fragments show also the effects of burn-ing, and one specimen, a portion of the supraorbital partof a frontal, presents some cuts. These different condi-tions, together with the absence of many parts of the skullsand bones, the total lack of association of the fragments,and the commingling of the human with the animal bones,led Gorjanovic-Kramberger to the opinion, now generallyshared, that the remains represent the leavings of occa-sional cannibalistic feasts and are not burials.The Krapina bones are whitish, yellowish, or lightbrownish in color. They are not of great weight, but achemical examination has shown that they are muchaltered in constitution, particularly in the fluorine-phos-phates proportions.The long bones and others of the skeleton show theKrapina man to have been, as compared with the centralEuropean white man of today, of moderate stature and,except for the powerful jaws, of strong though not exces-[106I
NEANDERTHAL MAN
sive muscular development. Some individuals were veryperceptibly weaker than others. As to form, particularlyin the upper extremities, the bones in general are per-ceptibly more modern in type than those of the Neander-thal or Spy man; nevertheless they present, as is wellshown by Gorjanovic-Kramberger, numerous and im-portant primitive features.The fragments of the skulls show that the bones of thevault were somewhat thicker than they are in the whiteman of today. The crania were of good size externally,but the brain cavities were probably below the presentaverage. The vault of the skull was of good length andat the same time fairly broad, so that the cephalic index,at least in some of the individuals, was more elevated thanusual in the crania of early man. They were also char-acterized, like the Neanderthal and other crania of theMousterian epoch, by relative lowness of the vault, andin every instance among the adults by a pronounced, com-plete supraorbital arch. The last-named feature, thoughless marked, is plainly distinguishable even in the children.Its invariable presence is a definite proof of the fact, notquite well established before, that this arch was, up to acertain stage ot the Quaternary period, a regular char-acteristic of the early men of a large part of Europe.The lower jaws in particular are very interesting. Thesymphysis or fore part of these bones, while in somepossessing already a faint trace of the future chin emi-nence, slopes invariably more or less downward and back-ward, thus approaching the form of the mandible in apes.The mandibles are massive and in males high. Exceptin this height, they are akin to the lower jaws of the LaQuina and La Chapelle skulls, and represent decidedlymore primitive forms than the mandibles of any manof historic times, though they are rather nearer to themodern type than is the jaw of Mauer.The teeth of the Krapina man offer numerous peculi-arities, most of which point to a lower stage of differentia-
[ 107 ]
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tion. They are in general very perceptibly larger thanthose of the modern white man; their roots, especially,are longer; and there are some details of form, particu-larly in the crowns of the incisors and molars, which arerelated to anthropoid features. Notwithstanding thesefacts, the Krapina teeth, and particularly the canines,are on the whole fairly near those of present-day man.In spite of their defective condition, the numerous frag-ments of the Krapina skulls show clearly that the craniathey represent belong in general to the Neanderthal raceof early man. Many of the distinguishing characteristicsof the latter are here repeated?the supraorbital torus,the sloping forehead, the peculiar occipital, the planes ofthe orbits, the stout nasal and malar processes (the effectsof powerful masticatory apparatus), a relatively lower posi-tion of the zygomatic arches, small mastoids, etc.All these features show, however, considerable variationand that of a rather progressive tendency. Thus some ofthe foreheads approach closely those of some recent men;even the vaults of these skulls differ individually, inheight, breadth, and other characters; and there is muchsignificance, in this connection, in the jaws and the teeth.Of particular interest is the evident tendency of theKrapina crania toward brachycephaly, which thus farhas not been known in early skulls. There have beensome objections to the restoration of these specimens, butthese appear unjustified. Thus the pieces that composeskull C appear clearly to belong to that skull, and thoseof D fit too well to involve any serious errors. An inde-pendent examination of the Krapina remains leaves nodoubt but that they represent skulls both broader andshorter than those of the western Neanderthalers.Gorjanovic-Kramberger's opinion that more than onerace of men is represented at Krapina can not, however,be sustained; the low jaws and weak bones are plainlythose of females.If we add to the variations and peculiarities of the[108I
NEANDERTHAL MANKrapina skulls, jaws, and teeth those of the skeletons,and then contrast the whole with what is known of thecorresponding parts in the western Neanderthalers, it isplain that the Krapina man, while of the same generalfamily, differs sufficiently to be regarded as a subtype,and that, too, a subtype which on the whole was morpho-logically somewhat more advanced toward later man.This is difficult to harmonize with the supposed greaterage of the Krapina remains. Possibly this individuallived later than we have supposed; or he may have be-longed to a more progressive group.
109]
CHAPTER VIIINEANDERTHAL MAN{Continued)Remains of Early Man Near WeimarThe little village of Ehringsdorf, in the Ilm valley, threekilometers from Weimar and about the same distancefrom Taubach, has become quite famous within the lasttwo decades, on the one hand for its quarries, which yielda very. pure limestone (travertine), and on the other handfor the highly interesting animal and especially for thehuman remains that are constantly being found there.The travertine deposits, of diluvial origin, extend fromWeimar to beyond Ehringsdorf. At the latter they arefound in a low broad hill on the slope of which is thevillage. For many years past a portion of the hill over-looking the valley of the river Ilm has been exploited forthe limestone, the works being known as Kaempfer'sQuarry. Herr Kaempfer was in fact still the owner of theplace during Doctor Hrdlicka's visits (1921, 1923) and islargely to be credited for the intelligent preservation ofthe paleontological as well as the human remains fromhis extensive workings.By 1914, the exposed rocky wall approximated fortyfeet in height. It showed gross horizontal stratification.A little below the middle could be seen a belt, about threefeet thick, known as the "Pariser," a largely consolidatedloess formation; and beneath this in the left part of thequarry were the remains of a flat pocket of more or less con-solidated looser material in whichstone implementshad beendiscovered with numerous evidences of human occupation.[no]
NEANDERTHAL MAN
It was in this layer or pocket, which lay about ten feetbelow the "Pariser," that workmen began to discover inApril, 19I4, various fossil animal bones and some workedflints; and it was here that on May 8, 1914, after a blast,there appeared, besides some animal bones, fragments ofan adult human lower jaw which had been freed andpartly shattered by the blast. Nearby were bones ofvarious Quaternary animals identified later as a Merck'srhinoceros, a cave bear, an ox, a horse, and a deer; alsosome bones that had been partly burned, some charcoal,and numerous flints showing human work.Fortunately the value of the find was promptly recog-nized, and the pieces of the jaw were most carefully gath-ered by Herr Haubold, the overseer, with the aid of HerrLindig, the able curator of the Weimar City Museum.The specimen was then most painstakingly repaired byHerr Lindig and not long after turned over to GustavSchwalbe for study. Basing his opinion on its form andassociation, Schwalbe considered the specimen to be avery valuable one and referred it to the earlier period ofNeanderthal man.After Schwalbe's death a more complete study of thejaw was undertaken by Hans Virchow, and its descrip-tion forms the main part of his masterly memoir on thehuman skeletal remains of Ehringsdorf. While Virchowwas engaged in this study, however, there came to light,on November 2, 1916, under similar circumstances andfrom about the same horizon but about eighty feet tothe right and inclosed in rock, portions of the skeletonof a child about ten years old. The specimen was badlydamaged through the blast, but thanks once more to themost careful efforts of the quarrymen and Herr Lindig,all that could possibly be saved was secured and takento the Weimar Museum. The parts consisted of six rightand five left ribs, two vertebrae, the epistropheus, theright pelvic bone, half of the right humerus, part of thelower jaw, and five teeth from the maxilla. The thoracic[III]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTparts lay in a block of the stone and were found, with therest of the defective parts of the skeleton, to be of butsecondary scientific importance; but the lower jaw withits nine well-preserved teeth was a document of valueand as such was submitted also to Hans Virchow and isdescribed with the adult mandible in his memoir.In addition to the preceding, several other finds ofhuman remains were made in Fischer's Quarry, lying im-mediately behind Kaempfer's workings. They included anumber of fine stone implements and two pieces of ahuman parietal, and were, like the child's skeleton, in-closed in the solid rock. About 1922, in the right-handsection of Kaempfer's Quarry, a blast in the travertineabove its middle revealed, as Doctor Hrdlicka was told, aportion of a human femur. Fossil animal bones and workedflints were found on numerous other occasions. Finally,on September 21, 1925, a blast in the lower travertine ofFischer's Quarry, in a block 55 feet (16.7 m.) from thesurface, brought to light pieces of a young adult humanskull. Of these additional human skeletal remains, theskull, after being most carefully disengaged from therock and reconstructed, has been thoroughly studied andthe results published by Weidenreich.The origin of the travertine units at and near Weimarhas been attributed to precipitation of lime from watersfurnished by mineral springs. The formation of the de-posits was evidently very gradual, leaving an ample op-portunity for human habitation about the pools. As totheir dates, German geologists ascribe the lower layers ofthe travertine to the last (Riss-Wiirm) interglacial; theupper limestone layers are doubtless more recent.The 1925 skull specimen presents some of the distinctlyNeanderthaloid characteristics, such as a complete andstill rather heavy torus and the somewhat protrudingbroad occiput, flattened from above and hollowed outbelow, typical of the Neanderthal crania. But with theseinferior features there is a higher and well-arched forehead,[112]


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a higher vault, a better developed mastoid, a less heavyzygoma, and a parietal with a central rather than posteriorthough still low-placed eminence.Doctor Hrdlicka's examination of the Ehringsdorforiginals, coupled with the study of the most recent skulland implements of which there are able descriptions, ledhim to the following views:The originals in Weimar and the many fine illustrationsof the artifacts in Schuster's report (1928) show plainly,especially in the knives and scrapers, Mousterian affini-ties. But the long and the fine points, including the re-markable double-point, the drills, and other objects, sug-gest further developments. There is certainly nothingvery primitive about the culture, though a few of theworked stones are rather crude or simple.Similarly with the human skeletal remains?they arecertainly not more primitive than those of the Neander-thalers. They are on the whole less primitive, in fact,than the Neanderthal remains proper, or those fromLa Chapelle or Le Moustier, or the adult from Gibraltar.The quarry work at Ehringsdorf proceeds, and with theintelligent interest of the owners, the overseers, and eventhe workmen, in the finds, and with the aid of Herr Lindig,it seems reasonable to hope that new discoveries willthrow additional light on the highly interesting problemsof the ancient Ilmstal population.The Fossil Man of La Chapelle-aux-SaintsOne of the most interesting, best authenticated, and,thanks to Marcellin Boule, now best-known skeletonsof early man, is that of "the fossil man of La Chapelle-aux-Saints."La Chapelle-aux-Saints is a small village in the De-partment of Correze, near the railroad station of Vayrac,south of the town of Brive, in southern France. Some200 yards from the village and beyond the left bank ofthe small stream, the Sourdoire, in the side of a moderate[113I
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
elevation, is a cave, now known as that of La Chapelle-aux-Saints. In 1905, archeological exploration of thiscave was undertaken by three Correze priests, the AbbesA. and J. Bouyssonie and L. Bardon. These explorations,which from the beginning were successful, resulting inthe recovery of numerous industrial and other vestiges ofPaleolithic man, progressed gradually until the uniformarcheological stratum was nearly exhausted, when, onAugust 3, 1908, in the floor of the cave, the excavatorscame across a shallow artificial fossa in which lay rem-nants of the bones of a remarkable human skeleton.The human bones were carefully gathered and sent toProfessor Boule, at the Museum of Natural History, Paris,where they were cleaned and as far as possible restored.The following December Professor Boule demonstratedthe skull, giving at the same time the first account of thefind, before the Paris Academy of Sciences. One weeklater, MM. Bouyssonie and Bardon presented beforethe Academy their own observations, and these reportswere followed at short intervals by several others beforethe same scientific body.Subsequently the skull and other parts of the skeletonwere subjected by Professor Boule to a thorough studyand comparison (Fig. 20). The results of his work werepublished in a series of communications extending throughthe sixth, seventh, and eighth volumes of the Annales dePaleontologies and in 19 13 they were issued in a largeindividual volume.These various reports show that the cave of La Chapelle-aux-Saints is a moderate-sized and rather low cavity,about 6 m. (19 ft.) long, 2 to 4 m. (6 to 13 ft.) broad, andI to 1.50 m. (3 to 4.5 ft.) high. When first approachedit was seen to be nearly filled with old accumulations,which later disclosed numerous traces of man, and withdebris of the rock from the roof and sides.The stratigraphy of the cave was found to be quitesimple. There was but one fossiliferous layer, of Pleisto-[114]
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cene age, laid down apparently after the excavation ofthe fossa that contained the skeleton.The worked flints and quartz gathered from this layer
Fig. 20. Skeletons of Neanderthal man (from La Chapelle-aux-Saints) andof a modern Australian native, drawn to same scale. After Boulereached over 1,000 in number. They showed careful andable work. They comprised especially the two classicalMousterian types, points and scrapers, and their deriva-[115I
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
tives. There were also a few instruments of Acheuliantype, and a number of well-chipped blades as well as otherforms that presaged the Aurignacian. There was notrace, however, of any worked bone.The animal bones show generally signs of intentionalbreaking, for the marrow; some show also traces of fireor marks of implements. The following species havebeen identified:Woolly rhinoceros FoxSpotted hyena BadgerReindeer HorseIbex Wild boarExtinct bison MarmotWolfThis is a cold fauna, referable to the last glaciation.Under the accumulations the floor of the cavern wasfound to be a whitish, hard, calcareous deposit. In thishard base, at a distance of a little over four meters fromthe entrance of the cave, was found a nearly rectangular,moderate-sized cavity, 1.45 m. long, i m. broad, and 30cm. deep, which lodged a fossil human skeleton. The de-pression, in the opinion of the explorers, had clearly beenmade for the body by the primitive inhabitants or visi-tors of the cave, and the whole represents a regular burial,the most ancient intentional burial thus far discovered.The body lay apparently on its back, with the headto the westward. The head reposed against the wall ofthe fossa in one corner and was surrounded by stones.The left arm was extended, the right bent probably sothat the hand was applied to or lay near the head. Thelower limbs were flexed. Above the head were foundthree or four large flat fragments of long bones of animals,and somewhat higher there lay, still in their natural rela-tion, the foot bones of a large ox or bison, suggesting thatthe whole foot of the animal may have been placed in thatposition, perhaps as an ofi^ering to the dead. About thebody in the fossa were numerous flakes of quartz and[116]
NEANDERTHAL MAN
flint, some fragments of ocher, broken animal bones, etc.,much as in the rest of the archeological stratum abovethe skeleton. To the right of the fossa containing theskeleton were many large fragments of various animalbones, jaws, and vertebrae of the reindeer, and verte-brae of a large ox or bison, with some very well-madeimplements of flint. The last-named vertebrae and theflint implements were covered by two large blocks of stone;above these stones, at the side wall of the cave, the earthshowed the efl^ects of fire, but it was not possible to de-termine whether this was of the same date as the depositsor the human burial beneath. There was no indicationthat the deposits in the cave had been moved in any waysince the burial of the human body.On taking out the human bones, it was found thatthrough decay or other causes many were defective andthat some parts of the skeleton were lost. What remainedcomprised the skull, almost complete, with the lower jaw;twenty-one vertebrae or pieces of them; twenty ribs ortheir fragments; an incomplete left clavicle; the twohumeri, almost complete; the two radii and the two ulnae,all more or less defective; a few bones of the hands andfeet; portions of the pelvic bones; fragments of the rightfemur (from which it is possible to reconstruct the bone)and the lower half of the left femur; the two patellae; andparts of the tibiae.The state of preservation of the specimens is exactlylike that of the animal bones recovered from the depositsabout the burial fossa. They are ferruginous in color,heavier than any corresponding recent human bones, andvery perceptibly mineralized.The skull, except for the sexual difl^erences, comes closein many respects to that of Gibraltar; it is also closelyrelated to that of Neanderthal; but, except for the vaultof No. I, it is distinctly more primitive than the Spy crania,particularly in its facial portions and the lower jaw.The characteristics that strike one most forcibly at[117I
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
first sight about the La Chapelle cranium are the lownessand the large size, especially the length, of the vault; thehuge supraorbital arch; primitive features of the face;and the large and primitive lower jaw.The La Chapelle skull, as a whole, is plainly one ofthe more typical representatives of Neanderthal man.Its closest relations, particularly in the facial portion, arewith the skull of Gibraltar. It approaches in many es-sentials the human skull of today; yet it carries still manyremnants of the prehuman past. It belonged to a maleof short stature but very muscular, massive frame, whichdoubtless accounts in great measure for the large brain(Plate 38).For the nontechnical reader, the most vivid impres-sions of the similarity of the La Chapelle skeleton toothers of Neanderthal man, and of its differences, on theother hand, from skeletons of modern Europeans, willbe gathered from the accompanying illustrations wherethese comparisons are displayed.The Remains of La Ferrassie
"La Ferrassie" is the name of a rock-shelter close to ahamlet of that name, near Le Bugue, Dordogne, France.The locality belongs to the general region of the Vezereand Les Eyzies.In this rather exposed rock-shelter M. Peyrony withsome associates discovered in September, 1909, a humanskeleton of Neanderthal affinities. The discovery wasannounced by the Academy of Inscriptions on November10, 1909, and was shortly afterward published in theRevue de VEcole d'Anthropologie.M. Peyrony had been exploring the rock-shelter andits prehistoric deposits for ten years. The excavationsshowed that the spacious shelter had been inhabited fora very long time by successive prehistoric populationsand that each group of these left behind a layer of itskitchen refuse with its special stone industry.[118]
PLATE 38
Above, side view of skull of the Neanderthal man of La Chapelle-aux-Saints. Note the loss of most of the teeth during life, due principallyto old age. Below, modern skull (left), compared with that of LaChapelle; brain-cases shaded to bring out the contrast. After Boule
PLATE 39
Almvc, skull of male sktrletcm tduntl at La Ferrassie. Note the ap-proach of the lower jaw and chin to the modern type. Below, skullof the youth of Le Moustier. After Boule
NEANDERTHAL MANFrom its top to the base it was possible to identify thefollowing horizons: 1. Upper Aurignacian2. Middle Aurignacian3. Lower Aurignacian4. Mousterian5. AcheulianAfter the Middle Aurignacian the roof of the shelterfell down, and on the rocks and between them accumu-lated the debris of the Upper Aurignacian. Above this,reaching to the surface, was a layer of over twelve feetof humus and gravel.The first skeleton was discovered by M. Peyrony inthe lower part of the Mousterian deposits. The explorer,with Professor Capitan and another companion, removedjust enough of the bones to satisfy themselves that theywere human and then notified Professors Boule, Car-tailhac, and Breuil, besides several local prehistorians,of the find; and it was in the presence of these, on Sep-tember 27, that the skeleton was carefully uncovered anddisengaged from its deposits (Plate 39 A).The several cultural layers of the shelter were easilydistinguished at sight, owing to their different coloration,and definitely so by their fauna and industry. TheMousterian layer, besides its characteristic stone indus-try, yielded an abundance of the bones of the bison, thestag, and the horse, with occasional parts of other laterQuaternary animals.As the explorers removed the upper layers and most ofthe Mousterian deposit, they found three flat stones,placed one above the skull and the two others over theshoulders or chest of the skeleton. Over the whole spaceinclosing the skeleton the deposits contained a consid-erably greater number of large fragments of animalbones than were found elsewhere. A piece of a bonelying just above the skeleton shows a series of fine inten-[119]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
tional gravings reminiscent of the graved bones of theAurignacian layers.The accumulations about the skeleton contained alsoa large number of very well-worked flints of the Mous-terian type. Such flints were found above, about, andeven beneath the skeleton, those beneath being mixedup with flints showing Acheulian industry.The work uncovered a whole skeleton in position,though numerous parts, particularly of the thorax andthe spine, had been destroyed or damaged by the pressureof the superimposed deposits. The skeleton lay on itsback, slightly inclined to the left and in a contractedposition, with the legs bent against the thighs and thethighs half flexed upon the body, the left arm extendedby the side, the right flexed. The skull lay on its leftside, and the lower jaw was considerably separated infront from the upper, as if the mouth had been wide open.All the bones of the skeleton, though damaged, " werestill in their proper anatomical positions; only the smallerbones of the feet and the right hand had been displaced,probably by small animals. The bones were removedwith all possible precautions, in some cases with blocksof the deposits, and were thus transferred to ProfessorBoule's laboratory in the Paris Museum of Natural His-tory, where eventually they were cleaned and studiedand where they are now preserved.The consensus of opinion of those present was that theremains represented a regular intentional human burial.The three flat stones and the broken animal bones hadprobably been placed designedly over the skeleton. Itwas believed, however, that there had been no burialfossa, the body having been placed on the old (Acheulian)surface and covered with broken bones, debris, and per-haps skins and branches, to become in the course of timeburied by kitchen refuse and newer accumulations.The explorations in the La Ferrassie rock-shelter con-tinuing, the work of M. Peyrony and his associates re-[120]
NEANDERTHAL MAN
suited within the next year in additional discoveries ofhuman remains. These consisted of another skeleton ofan adult, in poorer condition; and of several burials ofinfants, in which, however, the bones have mostly dis-appeared.This second skeleton was discovered in September,1910. It lay in the middle of the same Mousterian layer,five feet from the rocky wall of the shelter, and with thehead only twenty inches from that of the first skeleton.It lay at the same level and in the same axis as the latter,but in an inverse position, the heads approaching eachother and the bodies extending in opposite directions.The second body had also been flexed and lay on its rightside, the hands resting on the knees.The bones of the lower members were fairly well pre-served; those of the upper limbs, partially; but of thethorax there were but few remnants.The skull of No. i, relatively well preserved, is plainlythat of a male; the skull of No. 2, defective, is that of afemale. The male was about middle-aged, the femalean adult of uncertain age. The brain portion of the maleskull is striking because of its size, for it appears to be atleast as large as that of La Chapelle. It belonged to amale taller but somewhat less muscular than the latterspecimen. The second skull was evidently of but moder-ate proportions and belonged to a short female.In form the skull of La Ferrassie No. i resembles inmany respects that of La Chapelle, but it also diflf"ersfrom the latter in some points, including a somewhat lessprimitive face. The vault is large and spacious, and inall important respects much like that of the La Chapellecranium. The supraorbital arch, the forehead, the lowvault, the occiput, the far-back position of the parietalfossae, all are close to those of La Chapelle.The face presents, below the heavy arches, similarlyinclined orbits as in that of La Chapelle, similar relativelysmall and sloping malars with broad frontal processes[121]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
and stout zygomata, and similar fullness of the suborbital(canine) surface. The nose is broad. The facial prog-nathism is not excessive. The dental arch is large, thepalate approaches U shape. The teeth, all present, arestout; the crowns are worn, especially anteriorly, wherethe pulp cavities are exposed. The lower jaw, althoughlarge, is distinctly nearer to the modern type than arethe other Neanderthal jaws with the exception of SpyNo. I. It shows clearly the beginning of a chin.The intracranial cast of the male skull from La Fer-rassie is reported by M. Boule to be "at least as large asthat of the specimen of La Chapelle-aux-Saints."The two skeletons show marked sexual differences.No. I being that of a fairly tall male (for a Neanderthaler),while No. 2 is that of a low-statured woman. Many partsof both skeletons are absent or more or less imperfect.The bones that remain resemble in essentials those of theLa Chapelle, Neanderthal, and Spy skeletons; thoughthere are also some differences in which some of theparts, such as the scapulae, are even a trace more primi-tive than the corresponding bones of other Neanderthalers,while others show more similarity to recent types.The La Quina RemainsTwo important skeletons and fragments of severalothers have been found by Dr. Henri Martin and hisfamily at La Quina, Department of Charente, France.The first, discovered September 18, 191 1, was foundin clayey sand near the ancient bed of the small riverVoultron, among Mousterian deposits. The clayey sandcontained worked stones and bones showing humantouch, but none of the handsome pieces characteristic ofthe later Mousterian. Various bones of prehistoric ani-mals were found near by. The human remains appearto be those of a woman of Neanderthal type.While Doctor Martin was serving as surgeon in theFrench army, Mme. Martin and a young son supervised
[ 122]
NEANDERTHAL MANfurther investigation of the deposits and discovered onAugust 23, 1915, a unique skull of a Neanderthal childabout eight years of age. It belongs to the later Mous-terian period, and, though approaching the Neanderthalfeatures with relatively low skullcap and with supra-
La Qujna -^??
?
Neanderthal ^Py {?LaChape/h ?^Py '^ --7Pilhecanthrope ..?.... Arabe mod '+-?? +Fig. 21. Outline of five Neanderthal skulls compared with Pithecanthropus, orJava man, and a modern Arab. Note close grouping in intermediate positionof Neanderthalers. After Henri Martin
orbital ridges already well marked in spite of the owner'syouth, there is a good cranial capacity. The lower jawis missing.Doctor Martin is one of the most persevering as wellas able workers in French prehistory. His summerchateau is near La Quina; and for over twenty years,except during the war, he has spent most of his sparetime in the exploration of the deposits and in the cleaning,repair, and study of both the cultural and the skeletalremains recovered. Of the cultural and faunal remains
[ 123]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTthere were vast quantities, reaching into the hundredsof thousands; yet every flint and every fragment haspassed through Doctor Martin's hands and been examinedby him, the only assistance he has had outside of laborbeing that furnished by members of his own family. Andall this work at his personal expense. As Doctor Hrdlickasays, may prehistory have more Henri Martins!The excavations at La Quina have been visited by prob-ably more prehistorians than has any other site of primi-tive man, aside from those in the Vezere valley. The
"station" is easily accessible and relatively easily worked,though all the work must be done in the open and is madedifficult by the great quantities of fallen rock and debrisfrom what were probably in olden times more or less over-hanging rock-shelters.The quantity of archeological material and of animalbones recovered from La Quina is such that it has sup-plied many European and even some American museums.The archeological material is clearly Mousterian, andin general shows much differentiation as well as improve-ment from below upwards; but the determination ofdefinite strata, except in the case of the very lowest one,seems difficult. There was evidently a very long-con-tinued occupation attended with local developments.The fauna of the Mousterian layers of La Quina, asdetermined by Doctor Martin, consists essentially of thefollowing forms:Mammoth (scarce) Cave bearHorse WolfWild boar HyenaReindeer A large felineDeer (large) Blue foxMarmot Small rodentsBirds (including vulture)It is throughout a cold fauna; there are no traces, evenin or beneath the lowest cultural layer, of animals of awarm period.
[ 124]
NEANDERTHAL MANThe Moustier ManIt is appropriate that the site which lends its name tothe culture of Neanderthal times should at length haveyielded a specimen of human remains, the so-called ''Homomousteriensisy The skeleton is preserved in the addi-tion to the Ethnological Museum at Berlin, where DoctorHrdHcka saw it in 1923 and again in 1927. It was dis-covered in March, 1908, by O. Hauser, during archeo-logical excavations in what is known as "the lowerMoustier cave," or "Paleolithic station No. 44," at LeMoustier, in the valley of the Vezere, Department ofDordogne, France, and was purchased from Herr Hauserfor the Berlin Museum.The cave, or more properly rock-shelter, when exca-vated, gave numerous evidences of man's occupation butno human bones. The skeleton was discovered in theterrace in front of the cave, almost vertically below itsentrance. It lay about three feet deep, and no disturbancein the superimposed deposits was noticeable.The human bones were uncovered with great care inthe presence of responsible witnesses, then covered againwith earth and left in situ for several months, thoughshown during this time to a number of visitors. OnAugust 8 they were exposed for Virchow, von der Steinen,Klaatsch, and other scientific men, and finally, two daysafterwards, in the presence of Professor Klaatsch, theywere taken with the utmost precautions from the deposits.The skeleton, it appears, lay on its side in a naturalextended position, with the right hand under the occiput,the left extended along the body. About the body andamong the bones were found seventy-four worked flints,ten of which were of a well-defined form. On the skullrested a charred bone of a wild bull and in the neighbor-hood of the thorax lay a tooth of the same animal. Besidesthis, forty-five other fragments of animal bones weregathered in close vicinity to the human remains.[125]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTThe examination of the human bones was begun onthe spot by Klaatsch and continued after the removal ofthe remains to Germany, resulting in the following con-clusions by this author:The skeleton belongs to an adolescent of perhaps six-teen years of age and probably of the male sex. Theheight of the boy, as estimated from the long bones, wasprobably 1,45 to 1,50 meters (4 feet 9 inches to 4 feetII inches).The skull, notwithstanding the youth of the subject,shows a number of characteristics which are peculiar tothe Neanderthal group. While of good size, with thebones of the vault only moderately thick and of fairheight, it shows nevertheless a rather low and slopingforehead; a well-marked complete supraorbital arch, ortorus, which later in life would doubtless have becomemuch more prominent; relatively large dental arches,with decidedly large and somewhat primitive teeth; amassive lower jaw with no chin eminence; and otherinteresting features (Plate 39 B).The long bones and others, as far as preserved, possessnumerous primitive characteristics. Especially notice-able among these are the relatively large extremities,particularly the head of the femur; a strong developmentof the external condyle of the femur; the peculiar archingof the femur; and the very marked curvature of theradius. Klaatsch reached the conclusion that the skeletonbelongs undoubtedly to the Homo neanderthalensis varietyof early European man.The Galilee SkullIn 1925 the British School of Archeology in Jerusalemdecided upon the exploration of certain caves in Galilee,and the work was intrusted to Mr. F. Turville-Petre,who during a previous season had made a preliminarysurvey of the area. The main site explored by Mr. Petreduring the year was what is now often referred to as the[126]


NEANDERTHAL MAN
"Galilee Cave," and in this cave at a depth of 6>^ feettoward the lower limit of a Paleolithic horizon, were foundparts of a Neanderthaloid human skull. The main detailsof the discovery, since published, are as follows:Entering the ravine of the Wadi el 'Amud and walking some 150 m.up stream, a cave known as the Mugharet-el-Zuttiyeh is to be seenhigh up in the cliffs to the north of the stream. The stream at thispoint is not more than 3 m. wide, and the width of the ravine frombase to base of the cliffs might be estimated at about 15 m. Thecave, a natural limestone formation, is situated at the base of a pre-cipitous wall of rock, facing south-west; the cliff, which rises to aheight of some 20 m. above the entrance, renders it inaccessible fromthe plateau above; while from below, the cave, the modern floor ofwhich lies some 40 m. above the level of the stream, is approachedby a steep, rocky slope. . . .No flint implements, or other evidences of habitation, were to beseen either on the floor of the cave or on the slope which led up to it,but its size and convenience as a place of habitation, together withthe impregnability of its situation, seemed to merit the digging of atrial trench through the debris which had accumulated during gen-erations of use as a stabling for goats.A preliminary trench was dug from the mouth of the cave inwardsto the back wall, running some 2.5 m. north-west of the medial lineof the cave. For the first 120 cm. the deposits were of comparativelyrecent origin, yielding fragments of bone and potsherds, among whichLate Roman and Byzantine types predominated, but at a depth of120 cm., towards the front of the cave, a layer was reached composedof large blocks of rock apparently fallen from the roof, and frombelow these blocks some fragments of bone in a highly mineralizedstate were obtained; also a small coup-de-poing of Middle Paleolithictype and a few chert flakes of indeterminable form.The deposits of the cave showed eventually a numberof distinguishable layers. The layers of approximatelythe upper four feet showed that the cave had served latestof all as a sheep stable; below this and up to about 3>2feet in depth were signs of human occupation extendingto the Early Bronze or Neolithic Period. At a depth ofabout 3>^ feet a layer of fallen rock was found over thecentral area of the cave.
[ 127]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTBelow this layer of rock there was a marked change in the characterof the deposits. They were here composed of a fine reddish, clayeyearth, which was comparatively dry; the bone fragments which theycontained were hard and heavy, reddish in colour, and gave out asharp metallic sound when tapped. This layer averaged 90 cm. inthickness, and rested on another consisting of yellowish sand, con-taining water-rolled pebbles. Throughout the layer were blocks offallen rock, but they never formed a continuous layer, as they haddone at a depth of about 120 cm. . . . Fortunately only a small partof the deposits had thus become hardened, and throughout the layernumerous fragments of bone and many worked flints in good condi-tion were found. . . . No implements were found anywhere abovethe dividing layer of rock, showing conclusively that the deposits hadundergone no serious disturbance since their deposition.Towards the bottom of this layer of Paleolithic occupation, at adepth of 2 m. below the modern floor level, were four fragments of ahuman skull. . . . They were lying in a shallow depression formedby irregularities in the cave floor, and were covered by two blocks ofrock apparently fallen from the roof. The frontal bone has beenseparated from the skull to which it originally belonged along the lineof suture, and there is nothing to indicate that the separation wasproduced by force, or least of all to suggest that the individual mayhave been killed by the fall of the rocks beneath which the fragmentslay. Nor was there anything in the position of the bones and ar-rangements of the blocks of rock to suggest an intentional burial. Itis difficult to surmise what may have become of the rest of the skull.Careful sieving of all the earth taken from the surrounding area andfrom numerous other parts of the layer failed to disclose any furtherhuman remains. The fact that the four fragments, namely, thefrontal bone, part of the right zygomatic bone, and two fragments ofthe sphenoid, were all found together, indicating that they have be-come separated since reaching their final resting-place, seems to pre-clude the probability of their having been washed into the cave fromoutside, for in such a process the projecting sphenoid portions wouldalmost inevitably have become detached; nor is it possible that theycould have fallen through from a higher level, for if so, how did theycome to lie beneath two large blocks of rock, themselves entirelycovered by Paleolithic deposits? The bone itself is in a hard, highlymineralized state, extremely heavy and reddish in colour, in fact inevery way similar to the other bone fragments found in the layer;it diflfers absolutely from the soft light pieces of a yellowish colourfound in the superior layers.In 1926 the work in the cave was finished, without fur-ther discoveries of note. Sections through the water-laid[128]
PLATE 41
,*^%J
%?
The Galilee skull. This fragment shows that Mousterian man wasnot confined to the continent of Europe. After Keith
PLATE 42
Restoration of Neanderthal man, showing especially the shape andcarriage of the head. Courtesy of the Field Museum of NaturalHistory
NEANDERTHAL MANdeposits below the Paleolithic layer showed no earliertraces of occupation, human or animal.The fauna recovered from the Paleolithic layer, as de-termined by Miss Bate, was in the main as follows:Hippopotamus Leopard (?)Bison or ox Wild Cat (?)Horse LynxBrown bear (?) PorcupineStriped hyena (?) DeerSpotted hyena Fallow deerPig Gazelle (2 kinds)Fox Extinct goat (2 kinds)The stone implements, of flint and chert, show essen-tially Mousterian affinities. There are also, however,some short and some long blades and a few other imple-ments that resemble somewhat later types.One of the most interesting facts disclosed by the study of theanimal remains from the Emireh and Zuttiyeh Caves is the definiteassociation of Hippopotamus with a Middle Palaeolithic culture, andthe probable association of Rhinoceros hemitoechus with a slightly laterculture. This seems to point to the fact that there has not been anygreat faunal change in this region between the Mousterian and thefollowing period. The fact that this rhinoceros is R. hemitoechus andthat this species also occurs in Syria is highly important, emphasizingthe absence of evidence of a so-called cold fauna.Below the Middle Palaeolithic occupation layers of the ZuttiyehCave "African" types are represented by the spotted hyaena {H.crocuta} and perhaps by a river hog {Potamochoerus)\ these were as-sociated with a large form of brown bear (Ursus arctos), a typicallyPalaearctic animal.There can be no doubt that the Galilee skull belongs tothe Neanderthal group; but many points, including theaccompanying industry as well as fauna, indicate that itbelongs probably well forward in this group. Morpho-logically, the shape of the forehead, the height of the vault,the size and form of the orbits, and other characteristics,as well as the general features of the brain, point towardlater man, while there is still enough to connect the speci-men with the far past (Plate 41).
[ 129]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTExplorations In Palestine, thus auspiciously initiated,will continue; some new undertakings are in fact now(early in 1929) under way; and Palestine, with other partsof Asia Minor, may give much that will complement,
cxx:sf^
Fio. 22. Profile views of the skulls of a modern European, a modern Australian,a Neanderthaler (the man of La Chapelle-aux-Saints), and a chimpanzee. AfterBouleand perhaps improve, our understanding of conditions inwestern Europe.Such are some of the most important discoveries ofhuman remains of Neanderthal type associated with theMousterian culture. They have been found over a widerange in Europe and Asia. Animals of cold or arctic habitaccompany them.Though displaying certain variations of anatomy, theNeanderthal remains present on the whole so well-markeda type as fully to deserve assignment to the species Homoneanderthalensis rather than to the modern Homo sapiens.Indeed it has been remarked by several zoologists that,if characters so different occurred in animals other thanman, they would warrant assignment to a different genus.
[ 130]
NEANDERTHAL MAN
Prof. Marcellin Boule has concisely summed up theanatomical peculiarities of Neanderthal man as follows(Plate 42):Body of short stature, but very massive. Head very large, withfacial region much developed in comparison with cerebral region.Cephalic index medium. Skull much flattened; orbital arches enor-
Fic. 23. Modern (left) and Neanderthaler (right) head forms compared. TheGibraltar skull was used as a basis for the drawing of the Neanderthal type, alower jaw being modeled from one of those found at Spy. Modified from Keithmous, forming a continuous ridge; forehead very receding; occiputprotuberant and compressed in a vertical direction.Face long and projecting, with flat and receding malar bones, upperjaw lacking canine fossae and forming a kind of muzzle. Orbits verylarge and round. Nose prominent and very large. Subnasal spaceextensive.Lower jaw strong and chinless, with large ascending rami, andtruncated in the region of the angle. Dentition massive, structureof back molars retaining certain primitive characters.Vertebral column and limb bones showing numerous simian char-acters and indicating a less perfect bipedal or upright carriage thanin modern man. Legs very short.Brain capacity averaging about 1,450 cubic centimeters. Brainformation presenting numerous primitive or simian characters, espe-cially in the relatively great reduction of the frontal lobes and thegeneral pattern of the convolutions.[131]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTA comparative study of the morphology of various livinghuman groups confirms the idea that we are here con-cerned with an altogether special type, very different notonly from the so-called superior races but also from theEskimo, the Fuegians, the Bushmen, the Pygmies, Africanor Asiatic, the Veddas, the Polynesians, the Melanesians,and even from the Australians, with whom attempts atcomparison have often been made.The skeleton of the last-mentioned racial type is as dis-similar as possible to that of Neanderthal man. It can nolonger be asserted that the Australians are descended fromour Mousterians; indeed, the idea of this relationshipwould probably not have occurred to the mind of theearly observers, if in place of having only a skullcap theyhad had the opportunity of examining a complete skullwith its facial portion. All that can be admitted in thisrespect is that the x'\ustralian group of men, certainly oneof the least developed groups of modern mankind, is lessfar removed than other races from the primitive forms,and that in consequence, it ought to have certain char-acteristics in common with the Neanderthal type. Per-chance our Mousterians led the same wandering life asthe modern Australians.ConclusionIn this and the preceding chapter we have described atsome length various discoveries of remains of Neanderthalman. We have been more particular regarding theseskeletal remains because, in contrast to earlier periods,numerous Neanderthal specimens have already been dis-covered and exhaustively studied, so that the Neander-thalers represent the earliest race of men to disclose forus in any degree of thoroughness the anatomical charac-teristics of man.Neanderthal man, as we have intimated, was closely,if not indeed exclusively, associated with the Mousteriantype of human culture. This seems to have spread over
[ 13^]
NEANDERTHAL MANEurope and certain other portions of the Old World,probably toward the close of the third interglacial epoch,when the climate was growing colder and more moist.With the advent of the last great glacial stage, that ofthe Wiirm, Neanderthal man was compelled to take upthe life of a cave dweller.Of the Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal cave dwellers,we have a number of more or less complete skeletons, butfor still earlier culture stages, the Acheulian and others,human skeletal remains almost fail us, for the reasonsgiven in Chapter VI, Even so, intensively studied as theyhave been, they throw no little light on the remoter pastof our race and deserve our attention.
^33
CHAPTER IXTHE MOST ANCIENT REMAINS OF MANThe Piltdown RemainsWe have already mentioned the Piltdown race in connec-tion with Sir x'^rthur Keith's interesting experiment. Therace to which this individual belonged has been namedEoanthropus dawsoni^ or "Dawson's dawn man," in honorof its discoverer, Charles Dawson. Between 1908 and19 1 2, laborers, digging in the ancient gravels of the riverOuse, at Piltdown, in southeastern England, found thefossil remains of a human skull of most unusual character.Not realizing the importance of their find at first, how-ever, they permitted the fragments to be scattered about.At length it was brought to the attention of Mr. Dawson,and his careful and painstaking researches brought to lightat various times several fragments. These consisted ofcertain portions of the skull itself, a pair of nasal bones, aportion of a lower jaw, and a canine tooth. Mr. Dawsonkept up his search for additional remains. Early in 1915he discovered, some two miles from the first site, twofragments of a skull of similar type and a lower left molartooth.With the earlier remains were found worn fossils ofmastodon, rhinoceros, and Stegodon, evidently washed outof Pliocene formations, as well as others probably of earlyPleistocene age, among them hippopotamus, beaver, andelk. From the same gravels came also water-worn[134I
THE MOST ANCIENT REMAINS OF MAN
"eoliths," which may likewise have been washed out froman older formation; and rare flints with "obvious signs ofhuman workmanship," representing a very old type ofPaleolithic implements. There was also found a largecrude tool made of thefemur of an extinct ele-phant?by far the earli-est bone implement thusfar known (Fig. 24).The discoverers, as wellas English anthropolo-gists in general, regardthe first group of finds asthose of a single indi-vidual and all of themtogether as belonging toone very early form ofman, the Eoanthropus^ or"dawn man."Taking all the circum-stances of the find intoconsideration. Sir A.Smith Woodward, of theBritish Museum, who hadbeen associated with thediscovery almost fromthe very first, decidedthat the skull and mandi-ble could not safely be
"described as being ofearlier date than the firsthalf of the Pleistocene Epoch. The individual probablylived during a warm cycle in that age." In 1922, in hisGuide to the Fossil Remains of Man, the same authoritystates: "So far as can be judged from present evidence, it istherefore reasonable to suppose that Piltdown man datesback to the beginning of the Pleistocene period." It is[1351
Fig. 24. Bone implement from Piltdown,England, made from the thigh bone of anelephant. A is the inner surface; B, therounded outer surface; and C, the edge; b,an accidentally broken hollow; c, a naturalbreak due to pressure in the gravel; p, theinner wall of a perforation from which theouter wall has been broken away; and x,the beginning of another perforation nevercompleted. After Smith Woodward
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
only fair to say, however, that there has been muchdivergence of opinion among EngHsh, French, and Amer-ican scientists as to the period to which the Piltdown re-mains are to be assigned. But all are agreed that theyare extremely ancient and date from a very early period inthe Ice Age, or Pleistocene period, if not indeed from thestill earlier Pliocene.The Piltdown skull is plainly that of an adult, probablya female, of over thirty years of age. One of the moststriking things about it is its extraordinary thickness; itswalls measure from eight to twelve millimeters, or roughlytwice the thickness of an average modern Europeanskull.From the fragments of the cranium, together with theportion of the lower jaw and the loose canine, a number ofprominent authorities have attempted with infinite painsto reconstruct the whole skull. The principal efforts ofthis sort are those of Sir A. Smith Woodward, of Dr. ElliotSmith, of Sir Arthur Keith, and of J. H. McGregor ofNew York. These reconstructions differ somewhat in sizeand in details, but all agree in regard to certain char-acteristics.In the opinion of Smith Woodward, a detailed examina-tion of the bones of the skull as far as preserved "provesthe typically human character of nearly all the featuresthey exhibit." Keith believes that "except for the thick-ness of the skull bones, the head was shaped and balancedas in us." It is a skull that "in its general conformationdoes not differ materially from human skulls of the moderntype" (Fig. 25).The capacity of the skull has been estimated by thedifferent authors who attempted its reconstruction asfollows: RECONSTRUCTION APPROXIMATELYSecond Smith Woodward 1.300 c.c.Elliot Smith 1,200 c.c.Keith 1 ,400 c.c.[136]
PLATE 43
Restoration of Piltdown man (the "Dawn Man"); shown usingan eolith. Modeled by Mascre under the direction of Rutot

THE MOST ANCIENT REMAINS OF MANThe variousdeterminationsshow that:1. The skull,taken as female,was in size aboverather than belowthe present aver-age of fern alecrania.2. T h e skullcavity, and hencethe size of thebrain, were aboutthe average of theordinary white fe-males of today.3. The vault ofthe skull was notlow as in all theother known earlyforms of man.In addition itis certain thatthe foreheadwas well archedand filled out;the parietal,temporal, andoccipital re-gions were fash-ioned practi-cally as theyare in modernskulls; thesupraorbitalridges werevery moderateand did notform a con- Fig. 25. Two reconstructions of the Piltdown skull.Upper, by Sir Arthur Keith; lower, by John I. Hunter.After Elliot Smith[137I
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
Fig. 26. Piltdown (A), La Chapelle-aux-Saints (B), and modern (C) skulls con-trasted. In some ways Piltdown manseems nearer the modern type than Nean-derthal man (B). After Smith Woodward
nected arch; there wereno occipital or othercrests; the glenoid fossaand the mastoids werewell developed.In short this skull,though it may have shownsome secondary inferiori-ties, if it were not forthe exceedingly primitivelower jaw and caninetooth found near it, wouldinevitably have had to beclassed with those ofmodern man.It is the lower jaw, to-gether with the subse-quently found canine,that has become the great"bone of contention" inthe case. The reason isthat, as tersely stated bySmith Woodward, "whilethe Piltdown skull is thuscompletely human, thehalf of the lower jaw, sofar as preserved, is almostprecisely that of an ape."And in another place thesame authority expressesthe uncertainty thuscaused:It may next be questionedwhether this apelike mandiblebelongs to the skull. We canonly state that its molar teethare typically human, its mus-[138]
THE MOST ANCIENT REMAINS OF MAN
cle-markings are such as might be expected, and it was found in thegravel near the skull. The probabilities are therefore in favor of itsnatural association. If so, it is reasonable to suppose that the skullwill prove to be that of a very primitive type, not that of a highlycivilized man.No other such jaw or anything even approaching it hasever been found with such a skull. The two at first sightdo not belong to the same being or even the same species.In other early remains, especially one of the Spy skulls,in the La Quina and La Ferrassie specimens, it was thejaw rather than the skull that showed a form advancingtoward the modern. While the probabilities of thediscovery itself seem overwhelmingly in favor of anorganic association of the skull with the jaw, themorphological features of the specimen, on the other hand,are all against it.Doctor Hrdlicka sums up his own views on the primi-tive mandible in the following words:The first strong impression which the specimen conveysis that of normality, shapeliness, and relative gracility ofbuild rather than massiveness. When, after studying thespecimen for a good part of two days, the observer tookin hand the thick Piltdown skull, there was a strong feelingof incongruity and lack of relationship, and this feelingonly grew on further study. As a rule there exists amarked correlation between the massivity of the skull
?
particularly if as in this case the upper facial parts wereinvolved in the same?and the lower jaw. A finelychiseled mandible of medium or submedium strengthbelongs as a rule to a skull that is characterized in thesame way, and vice versa. To connect the shapely,wholly normal Piltdown jaw with the gross, heavy Pilt-down skull in the same individual, seems very difficult.After prolonged handling of both the jaw and the skullthere remained in the writer a strong impression that thetwo may not belong together, or that if they do the caseis totally exceptional.
[ ^39 ]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTThe next important question in connection with the jawwas whether or not it was human. All possible painswere taken to determine this point, regardless both of theskull and of previously expressed opinions. It may aswell be said at once that all the results of the study pointto the specimen being a very early man or an advancedhuman precursor, and not an anthropoid ape.
The jaw is more primitive than any other known jawrelating to early man. It still had a marked submentonealshelf, in all probability a large canine, and teeth of ances-tral prehuman form. It resembles more or less in a num-ber of points the jaws of the chimpanzee, but it differsfrom these in a whole series of points of importance, suchas the form of the notch; type of coronoid process; sub-dued musculature; markedly reduced internal massive-ness of body, especially near symphysis; and the mostimportant characteristics of the teeth, namely, height ofcrown, height of enamel, nature of "cingulum" and stout-ness of cusps?in all of which features it is more nearly ifnot actually human.Thus most authorities feel, in view of all this, that it isno longer possible to regard the jaw as belonging to achimpanzee or any other anthropoid ape; but that it isreally the jaw either of man's precursor or of very earlyman himself. Hence Smith Woodward's designation ofthis form as Eoanthropus?a being from the dawn of thehuman period?seems entirely appropriate.Portions of at least one other skull of similar type werefound, it will be recalled, two miles away. These includeda fragment of the frontal bone and another of the occipital,both probably belonging to the same cranium.This second specimen makes it certain that in the Pilt-down gravels, within a few feet of the surface, there occurfossilized skulls nearly if not wholly of modern form,
[ 140]
THE MOST ANCIENT REMAINS OF MANthough some, at least, are markedly thicker; and thatwith them are associated very primitive human imple-ments, as well as animal fossils of early Pleistocene andPliocene age. The problem is this: Are the skulls, theimplements, and the animal fossils contemporaneous; or,in other words, may the skulls not be intrusive?The probabilities all seem to point to the specimensbeing of the same age; but in view of the history of thedeposition of the gravels, together with some of the un-certainties of the find and the apparent incongruity ofthe parts, there is room for no little disagreement.The original main problem, the genetic and chronologi-cal association of the jaw and the teeth with the twoskulls, remains much as it was soon after their discovery,and no amount of thought, discussion, or even reexamina-tion of the specimens can promise, it seems, for the pres-ent, definite conclusions. The only hope, as in so manyother cases of this sort, lies in new and sufficient dis-coveries.Doctor Hrdlicka concludes:In view of all this it must be plain that any far-fetcheddeductions from the Piltdown materials are not justified.This applies particularly to the superficially attractiveconclusion that the Piltdown remains demonstrate theexistence in the early Pleistocene, and long before theNeanderthal and even the Heidelberg forms, of men withpractically modern-sized and modern-formed skulls andbrains and directly ancestral to Homo sapiens, or recentman. This hypothesis is a proposition that would changethe whole face and trend of human prehistory, and thatagainst all other better substantiated evidence in thisline. Such a theory, all science will agree, could onlybe established as a fact by the most ample and satisfac-tory material demonstration, which is quite impossiblein the present case. [141]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTThe Heidelberg ManIf so many apparent contradictions and uncertaintiessurround the Piltdown discoveries, nothing of the sortattaches to that other extremely ancient specimen, thelower jaw of Heidelberg man.The Heidelberg, or more properly, Mauer jaw is oneof the oldest relics of early man. For its preservation andthorough description we are indebted to Dr. Otto Schoe-tensack, at the time of the discovery professor of anthro-pology at Heidelberg University, who for years had beenwatching for human remains in the sand pits near Mauerwhich eventually yielded the specimen. Much credit isdue also to Herr Joseph Rosch, of Mauer, the owner ofthe sand pits, who saved the jaw from destruction, im-mediately brought it to Professor Schoetensack's atten-tion, and eventually donated it unselfishly to science.The specimen, the lower jaw of an adult male, was dis-covered accidentally on October 21, 1907. On the dateof the find, two of the laborers were working in undis-turbed material at the base of the exposure, over eightyfeet below the surface, when one of them suddenly broughtout on his shovel part of a massive lower jaw which theimplement had struck and cut in two. As the men realizedthe importance of carefully preserving all fossils, thespecimen was handled with some care. The missing halfwas dug out, but the crowns of four of the teeth brokenby the shovel were not recovered. The men were struckat once with the remarkable resemblance of the bones toa human lower jaw; but it seemed to them too thick andlarge to be that of man. They called Herr Rosch and healso was puzzled; but he saw at once that the specimenmight be of considerable interest to Professor Schoeten-sack, and so took charge of it. Returning to the village hetelegraphed to the professor, who came the next day;and "once he got hold of the specimen, he would no morelet it out of his possession." He took it to Heidelberg,[142]
THE MOST ANCIENT REMAINS OF MAN
cleaned it, repaired it, and in 1908 published its descrip-tion in an exemplary fashion (Plate 45).Shortly following the discovery of the jaw a most care-ful examination and study were made of the Mauer de-posits. They were found to range from recent accumu-lations on the surface to Tertiary deposits in the lowestlayers. The jaw lay a little less than three feet (0.87meter) above the floor of the excavation and seventy-ninefeet (24.1 meters) from the surface. The same level, aswell as some of the higher layers, yielded fossil bones of thestraight-tusked elephant, Etruscan rhinoceros, an extinctlion, and various other animals. The age of the humanjaw has been determined by these and later explorationsto be of the early Quaternary, or Glacial Period, thoughthere is still some uncertainty as to the exact subdivisionof that period to which it should be attributed.The original specimen, when seen, impresses one atonce and strongly with its remarkable character. So com-pletely mineralized is it that it resembles limestone ratherthan bone. It is an enormous lower jaw, which presentsat one and the same time both human and apelike char-acteristics (Fig. 27).There is no indication of abnormality or any diseasedcondition which might have altered it in shape; on thecontrary it may be regarded as a perfectly normal repre-sentative of its type. The bone is dull yellowish-whiteto reddish in color, with numerous small and large black-ish spots. The crowns of the teeth are dirty creamywhite, with blackish discolorations on the somewhatworn-off chewing surfaces of the canines and incisors,and a few similar spots over the molars; while all the partsof the teeth beneath the enamel are dull red, as if espe-cially colored.The jaw is considerably larger and stouter than anyother known human mandible. The ascending rami areexceedingly broad, and the coronoid processes, thin andsharp in modern man, are thick, dull, broad, and markedly[143]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
Fig. 27. Development of the lower jaw.Chimpanzee (A), Piltdown man (B), Heidel-berg or Mauer man (C), and modern man (D),compared. Note especially the canine teethand the region of the chin. After SmithWoodward
everted. The chinslopes backward as inno human being nowknown or thus far dis-covered, and there areother primitive fea-tures. The total effectof the characteristics ofthe bone is such that,had the teeth beenlost, it would surelyhave been regarded asthe mandible of somelarge ape rather thanthat of any humanbeing.The teeth of theMauer jaw, however,are perfectly preserved,and though large andprovided with greatroots, and in variousother ways primitive,they are unquestion-ably human teeth.They show no crowd-ing, nor diastemata.The labial cusp of theanterior premolar wasdecidedly pointed, thelingual cusp moderate.The teeth force theconclusion that theirpossessor, while ofheavy protruding face,huge muscles of masti-cation, wide and thick '144]


THE MOST ANCIENT REMAINS OF MAN
zygomatic arches, thick, skull, probably heavy brows, andpossibly not yet quite erect posture, had neverthelessalready crossed the line dividing man from the ape. Hisfood and probably his mode of life were related to those ofprimitive man, and he was already far removed from hisprimate ancestors with huge canine teeth resembling tusks,like those of the gorilla.PithecanthropusThis celebrated discovery was made by Dr. EugeneDubois, distinguished as anatomist, paleontologist, andprehistorian. x'\t his own request Doctor Dubois wasappointed to the Dutch military service in Java, in orderthat he might find some opportunity to search for pre-historic human remains in the East Indies. He arrivedin Java in April, 1889, and carried on his researches, bypermission of the Colonial Government, until 1895. Pale-ontological work was not new in Java and had alreadyled to the discovery of Pliocene and Pleistocene strata richin fossil plant and animal remains along the Solo orBengawan River and its tributaries.In his report of 1898, Doctor Dubois describes the cir-cumstances of his discovery in part as follows:By order of the Netherlands Indian Government I conducted inJava, from 1890 to 1895, explorations for a fossil vertebrate fauna,of which already some remains had been discovered, many years ago,by Junghuhn and others, and later extensively described by ProfessorK. Martin, of Leiden. I found a very large quantity of remains ofmammals and reptiles, for the most part derived from extinct species,which show, as might be expected, an unmistakable relation to thelater Tertiary and Pleistocene faunae of India.The chief localities of these finds are in the southern slope of a rangeof low hills, the Kendengs, which extend between the residencies ofKediri, Madiun, and Surakarta on one side, and of Rembang andSamarang on the other, over a distance of about sixty miles. Thearea in which these vertebrate remains are abundantly found, in manyplaces, may have on an average a breadth of from one to three miles.
... It can be said, in accordance with geological circumstances,and the relations which this fauna has with the Post-Tertiary and[145]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
Pleistocene vertebrate faunae of India, that most probably it is youngPliocene; in no case, however, can it be younger than the oldest Pleisto-cene. For, whilst on the one hand the species surely belong almostexclusively to living genera?only the genus Leptobos and the sub-genera Stegodon and Hexaprotodon are extinct?and it must thereforebe younger than the principal part of the Upper Miocene or LowerPliocene Siwalik fauna, including not a few extinct genera; on theother hand, the number of the extinct species seems to be in propor-tion somewhat greater than that of the Narbada fauna, which is putin the early Pleistocene. Further, the inclination which the strata showdoes not well agree with a Pleistocene age. . . .From Trinil to Ngawi the steep banks of the Bengawan or Soloriver, for an extent of seven and a half miles, consist exclusively ofvolcanic sands and lapilli, cemented into soft rocks, very much likethe rocks which I saw in the Siwalik hills. The strata have in this areaa general dip S. of about 5?, and are only concealed by a thin coveringof vegetable soil. In these strata the Solo river has cut its channel,12 to 15 metres deep, near Trinil. North and west of Trinil the Plio-cene marl and limestone appear under them.It was near Trinil, in the left bank of the river, at the foot of theKendengs, that I came, in August, 1891, upon a place particularlyrich in fossil bones, and found there, in that and the following year,among a great number of remains of other vertebrates, bones andteeth of a great manlike mammal, which I have named Pithecanthropuserectus, considering it as a link connecting together Apes and Man.Among hundreds of other skeletal remains, in the lapilli bed on theleft bank of the river, the third molar tooth was first found in Sep-tember; then, the hole having been enlarged, the cranium a monthlater, at about one metre distant from the former, but in the verysame level of that bed. The species of mammals, of which remainswere found in the same bed, are, for the greater part at least, extinctones, and almost certainly none of them are at present living in Java.Among these remains we find a great number of the . . . small speciesof Cervus, which certainly is not extant in the Malayan isles. Alsomany bones of Stegodon were found. One or two Bubalus speciesseem to be identical with Siwalik species; a Boselaphus undoubtedlydiffers from the known species, living and fossil; further on there werefound the extinct genus Leptobos^ the genera Rhinoceros, Sus, Felis,Hyaena, and others; a Garial and a Crocodile, differing little from theexisting species in India, but which cannot be classed among them.Of the animals found in the same strata in other places, the mostinteresting species are a gigantic Pangolin (Manis), three times aslarge as the existing Javanese species, and a Hippopotamus belongingto an extinct Siwalik subgenus. Further a Tapir and an Elephas.[146]
THE MOST ANCIENT REMAINS OF MANThe work having been brought to an end that year on account ofthe setting in of the rainy season, it was taken up again at the begin-ning of the dry season in May, 1892. A new cutting was now madein the left rocky bank, which comprised the still unfinished part ofthe old excavation. Thereby bones were again found in great num-bers, especially in the deeper beds; and among these, again in thesame level of the lapilli bed, which had contained the skull-cap andthe molar tooth, the left femur was found in August, at a distance ofabout 15 metres from the former; and at last, in October a secondmolar, at a distance of 3 metres at the most from the place where theskull-cap was discovered, and in the direction of the place where thefemur had been dug out. This tooth I did not describe, because Ionly found it later among a collection of teeth derived from the placestated above.Thus altogether Doctor Dubois's finds, eventually at-tributed by him to Pithecanthropus, comprise a lower jaw,two molar teeth, a skullcap, and a femur. With these isassociated another tooth, a premolar, discovered in theTrinil deposits several years later.Toward the end of the year 1895, Doctor Dubois re-turned to Europe. His discovery was universally ac-knowledged as one of great importance; but his views weresoon combated. The case presented two main problems.The first was the question whether the several parts, i.e.,the skull, the two teeth, and the femur, belonged to thesame individual or at least to the same form; the other,that of the identification of this form.Dubois believed, as has been seen, that all four speci-mens, namely the skull, the two teeth, and the femur, be-longed to one stratum, one age, and one individual, afemale Pithecanthropus erectus. To this there were soonmany objections, and for several years the question wasdebated, not wholly without bitterness. Of some of itslater aspects Doctor Hrdlicka speaks as follows:In the summer of 1923, the writer visited Europe inthe temporary role of Director of the American Schoolfor Prehistoric Studies in Europe. The first visit was toProfessor Smith Woodward at the British Museum of[147]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTNatural History. Before meeting we had had some cor-respondence in which I had expressed my great desire tosee once the Pithecanthropus originals. These wisheshad most kindly been communicated to Professor Duboisat Amsterdam. Upon my arrival, to my great astonish-ment and joy, Sir A. Smith Woodward handed me a tele-gram from Professor Dubois inviting me most courteouslyto the Teyler Museum in Haarlem, his home town, wherehe would show me all the originals in his possession. Thisgreat privilege was taken full advantage of by me and myclass on July 15. It was the first time the precious speci-mens were shown to a scientific man after their longseclusion. We found Professor Dubois a big-bodied andbig-hearted man, who received us with a cordial simplicity.He had all the specimens in his possession brought outfrom the strong boxes in which they are kept, demon-strated them to us personally, and then permitted me tohandle them to my satisfaction. Besides the four speci-mens attributed originally to the Pithecanthropus therewas the additional tooth (a premolar), the fragment of acurious fossilized lower jaw, and two interesting, Austra-loid-like mineralized skeletons from Wadjak. The in-terior of the skullcap of the Pithecanthropus had nowbeen completely freed from the consolidated tufa thatfilled it before; a cast of it was made, and this revealed avery remarkable brain of an unexpectedly humanlikeconformation.The examination of the originals made a deep im-pression. It was seen that none of the casts of the skullthat have been seen in different institutions were whollyfaithful, and the same was felt to be true of the hithertopublished illustrations. The originals were seen to beeven more important than they had seemed hitherto.Professor Dubois told us he had about finished a finalstudy of the specimens, which was soon to be published;and we left, truer and profounder prehistorians than wehad been before. [148]

PLATE 47
Above, the Pitheccvithropus skullcap, side view. Alter Dubois, 1924.Below, reconstruction of the Pithecanthropus skull. The darker shad-ing indicates those portions of the skull (the brain-case and some teeth)which were actually found. After Weinert
THE MOST ANCIENT REMAINS OF MANLater during the same summer the specimens wereshown also to Professor McGregor, of Columbia University.Since then they have been demonstrated on a number ofoccasions, including that of the Twenty-first InternationalCongress of Americanists at the Hague, 1924.Finally, during this same year (1924), there appearedin the Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences, Amsterdam,three new important publications on the Pithecanthropusremains by Professor Dubois: The first, on the skull andbrain, with which the author now definitely associates thefossil mandible, all three teeth, and the thigh bone; thesecond showing eleven excellent plates of the specimens;and the third dealing with the femur; with a final exhaus-tive work on the whole of the remains promised for a not-far-distant future.In these latest and ripest communications on the Javaremains are found the following statements of specialinterest:The bones are in a state of perfect mineralization. Their specificgravity, Hke that of the bones of other mammals dug up at Trinil, hasrisen to about 2.7. They contain only traces of organic matter in theform of human substances, which give them a chocolate-brown color.The skull-cap has been greatly corroded on the outer surface bysulphuric acid, formed from pyrites in the volcanic tufa; the femurappears to be free of such corrosions.The physical and chemical characters of the bones aresuch, in Dubois's opinion, that they "stamp the remains ofPithecanthropus as Pliocene"; which possibility is furtherstrengthened by the somatological characteristics of thespecimens. Dubois, therefore, is still inclined to regardthe Pithecanthropus remains as late Pliocene rather thanPleistocene.Ventrally, the skullcap, particularly in the frontalregion, shows strong impressions of the cerebral convolu-tions. In details of its conformation it agrees partlywith man, partly with the gibbon. "The form of the[149]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
skull of the Pithecanthropus is on the whole not human;nor is it a transition of any type of manlike apes to thehuman type. The agreement with the anthropoid cranialtype, particularly that of the small gibbon species of thegenus Hylobates^ may on the other hand be called perfect."It extends to many features such as the arching of thevault, the receding forehead, the precerebral part of thefrontal bone, the constriction behind the orbits, etc.
"In all these points Pithecanthropus is distinguished no lessstrongly than the Anthropoid Apes from the NeanderthalMan." The detailed characteristics of the skull indicatenow to Dubois that the erect posture of the body of thePithecanthropus^ "which clearly appears from the shapeof the femur, was not such a perfect one as in Man; thecorrelation, at least, did not extend to the skull."Nor can the skull, however, have belonged to an Anthropoid Ape,because the relatively very large skull as regards shape presents aclose, nay striking resemblance with the skull of a small Hylobatesspecies, the smallest of the Anthropoid Apes, whereas judging not onlyfrom the femur and the molar teeth, but also from the skull itself.Pithecanthropus must have surpassed the size of a large chimpanzee,and was very much that of a middle-sized man.As to the size of the brain, "it may be assumed that withequal body weight Pithecanthropus possessed double thebrain quantity of the Anthropoid Apes." The endo-cranial cast in its side view "presents a striking resem-blance with the endocranial cast of a small Hylobatesspecies reproduced at the same size. There is on the otherhand a great difference?and a difference of great im-portance between the profile of the endocranial cast andthat of the Neanderthal Man of La Chapelle-aux-Saints."(Fig. 28.)To which Dubois adds:It seems to me that it is evident, at least, from all this that Man andPithecanthropus both descend from a common primitive Simian an-cestor. From this, among the living species, the Hylobatidae, thoughgreatly differentiated by their long arms and sabre-shaped canines,depart least, several fossil Simiidae still less. Also through his mandi-[150]
THE MOST ANCIENT REMAINS OF MAN
ble and teeth Pithecanthropus deviated less from this common stocktype than the three living Gigantanthropoidea and the Hylobatidae.
. . . The approach of the mandible and the teeth, as also of the femur,to the human type, and the large cranial capacity, added to consider-
FiG. 28. Profile view of the Pithecanthropus brain-case (heavy black line) com-pared with those of Neanderthal man, the chimpanzee, and the gibbon; all drawnto the same scale
ations on the brain-quantities in nearly allied mammalian genera, allthis leads me to the conclusion that Pithecanthropus should be con-sidered as a member, but a distinct genus, of the family of the Ho-minidae.The resemblance of the fossil femur to that of man, incontrast to the apes, is very marked in the knee joint,which was adapted for perfect extension of the leg.A discussion of the characters of the femur leads DoctorDubois to remark:
. . . Pithecanthropus cannot have possessed a human-shaped pelvis,but as the femur could to all appearance be extended to a humandegree, the pelvis may have been comparatively more human thanthat of //y/oi^fl/^j and chimpanzee. . . With such an unhuman pelvisthe locomotion of Pithecanthropus cannot have been exclusively, per-[151]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASThaps not even chiefly, on the ground. The erect type was not per-fectly developed.The characteristics of the hip joint and also the kneejoint "render it probable that Pithecanthropus was lessground-walker than tree-climber, but did not climb witha prehensile foot, in the way of Apes. . . . The femur ofPithecanthropus was, therefore, also fit for locomotion onthe ground, but by no means adapted so exclusively forit as in Homo sapiens and Homo yieanderthalensis''(Plate 48.)Doctor Hrdlicka finally concludes:But all this is not the pivotal essential of the find, anddiminishes in no wise its high interest and value, both ofwhich are universally acknowledged, particularly since theendocranial cast has become available. Neither shouldthe student allow himself to be confused by the seemingflood of discrepancies of opinion on the remains. Thedifferences are often more apparent than real, and evenwhere real they by no means discredit the find, but areonly so many trials, under all the great limitations of ourpresent collections and knowledge, to reach a true con-clusion.The Trinil skull alone is sufficient to establish the pres-ence in what is now Java, somewhere during the earlyQuaternary and possibly earlier, of a class of beings thatso resembled the anthropoid apes, on the one hand, andcame so far in the direction of man, on the other, that if itwas to be named today we could hardly find a more ap-propriate name for it than Pithecanthropus
.
It really is of little moment whether one student callsthese beings giant gibbons, another, human precursors orintermediary forms, and a x\(\rdi^ proto-homo or even a verylow man; unless one is led astray from the truth by a lackof sufficient contact with the remains, they all mean aform somewhere between the status of all the known apesand of all except perhaps the earliest man. Who can say[152]
Thigh bune of ritheainthropus (left) and of a white American, on thesame scale; both show abnormal growth of bone near the upper end.The straightness of the bone shows that Pithecanthropus had alreadyacquired an erect posture. Photograph by Hrdlicka

THE MOST ANCIENT REMAINS OF MANjust where we could class a being with such an apelikeskullcap but within it such a near-human brain, if he ap-peared in life today? Witness the able discoverer alone,who moreover has had the originals at hand now for thirty-six years. First they represent for him a great chimpanzee;then a human precursor and direct ancestor; and thenthey are of an intermediary but not human ancestral form.The brain form of Pithecanthropus^ which, due to thefilling of the skull cavity with a hard mass, did not becomeavailable until three years ago, is exceedingly important.Its size and form and gyration appear to remove it atonce from the brains of all known apes and bring it cor-respondingly close to that of man. It is inconsistent withand morphologically superior to its own skull. The femalebrain cavity measured in capacity at least 900 c.c. Acorresponding male brain cavity would measure some-where about 1,100 c.c. These dimensions connect alreadywith the human (see Fig. 29). In my collections in theUnited States National Museum, I have thirty-twoAmerican Indian skulls, of small-statured but otherwiseapparently normal individuals, ranging in capacity from910 to 1,020 c.c. In the largest gorilla this capacity doesnot exceed, so far as known, and mostly is well below,600 c.c; and in the chimpanzee or orang-utan it neverreaches even this proportion. The frontal lobes of theJava specimen, while still low, approach in their form thehuman, lacking the pointed keel-shaped appearance theyhave in all the apes; and the rest of the brain is of ahigher type than that of the apes. Had this form advancedin size and shape of brain by as much again as it alreadystood above those of the known apes, it would be whollyimpossible to exclude it from the human category, unlessit was done by the establishment of a separate genus ofcreatures equivalent in brain mass and brain differentia-tion to Homo.With all this it would not be legitimate to assert thatthe Pithecanthropus was either a form of early man or one
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTthat eventually evolved into man. Either of these con-clusions would demand decisive supporting material,which does not exist. The most that appears justifiableuntil further and conclusive evidence appears, is to con-sider the Pithecanthropus^ as represented by the skullcap,to have been a high primate of as yet uncertain ancestryand no known progeny, far advanced in what may betermed a humanoid direction.Taking everything into consideration the indications arethat the Pithecanthropus erectus was a being that well de-served the name of "a human transitional form from Java"which, not in single specimens but as a type, can show usthe way followed in human evolution from the lowerforms. Rhodesian ManAnother extremely important discovery of recent yearsis that of the fossil man of Rhodesia, in South Africa.This is discussed here, not because it is earlier than thoseof Piltdown, of Heidelberg, and of Java, but because thereis even less certainty regarding the period to which itbelongs than is the case with these others. Of Rhodesianman Doctor Hrdlicka writes as follows:On June seventeenth, 1921, a very remarkable humanskull was discovered in the Broken Hill Mine, northernRhodesia (Plate 49). It was the skull of a man whosefeatures were in many ways so primitive that nothingquite like it had been seen before; and coming from a partof the world which hitherto had given nothing similar andin which nothing of that nature was ever suspected, itaroused much scientific attention.Fortunately the specimen was saved, with but a minordamage, and later in the same year was brought by themanager of the mine to the British Museum of NaturalHistory, where, safely preserved, it constitutes one of thescientific treasures of that institution.[154]
THE MOST ANCIENT REMAINS OF MANThe sparse data about the Rhodesian find left a desirefor more details about the position of the skull, about itssurroundings, about the cave itself and its fillings, aboutthe nature of the animal bones in the cave, about thegeneral region in which the "broken hill" with its caveexisted, and about other possible remains, as well as thenative types of the territory. The skull was so remarkablethat every view of it and every further word publishedupon it served only to intensify the feeling of need formore complete answers to the above questions. It wasthis motive, together with the recent discovery of the skullof a highly interesting anthropoid ape near Taungs,Bechuanaland, that induced the writer to extend his latejourney to South x-^frica.Upon arrival at Broken Hill the writer was ratherastonished to find the whole region for many miles inevery direction to be a great, level, loosely forested plateau,barren of hills with one slight exception. This exceptionis a small "kopje" situated near the railway tracks as onenears the Broken Hill mine and settlement. This littlehill, only about ninety feet high, is said to resemble closelythe former "broken" hill which gave us the Rhodesianman and which has now, through mining, been removed.The plateau of the town of Broken Hill is 3,874 feetabove sea level. Up to the time of the commencement ofmining operations it was a part of a vast, featureless, moreor less openly forested region. But the minerals in thetwo "kopjes"?lead and zinc?may have been known tothe natives in earlier times. At all events, in diggingditches and in other surface excavations about the minesand in the town, there are being found, buried up to eightfeet in depth from the present surface, old primitive nativesmelters, with here and there some Negro pottery, indi-cating probably former burials.The "broken" kopje consisted of hard dolomitic lime-stone impregnated with lead, zinc salts, and vanadium.It was originally full of crevices and holes, and as shown
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTin the course of mining, at least two large caves led deeplyinto the interior.The cave of special interest became known as the bonecave. This cave in the course of time had become filledwith sand, soil, bones of animals, and detritus of variouskinds, which in turn were impregnated by seepage carry-ing in solution mineral matter. This matter formedincrustations on the walls, here and there formed new oredeposits, and in general consolidated most of the con-tents, bones included, into a "paying ore."The kopje that yielded the "Rhodesian skull" was situ-ated approximately northwest to west of the presentrailroad station and measured about 50 feet in heightby 250 feet in its longer diameter. This entire elevationhas now disappeared, and where there was a hill there isnow a deep hole, in and about which mining operationsare still energetically proceeding.Before mining began in this craggy "broken" kopjethere was nothing to indicate the presence of any humanhabitations about the hill, or at least nothing sufficientlyconspicuous to be noticed. Mining was carried on from theside, but due to the condition of the mineral depositswork was later commenced also from the top proceedingdownward. During the earlier operations from the side,a good-sized cave or fissure was reached and found tocontain dirt, ore, and numerous bones. The bones werethose of animals; if any others were present they were notnoticed. They were for the most part so mineralized thatthey were smelted with the rest of the ore and, after thefirst flurry occasioned by their discovery, received littlefurther attention.When the excavations from the top reached in the cen-ter to approximately ninety feet below the surface of theground surrounding the kopje, a large inclined plane wasopened to the central funnel from near the side at whichthe original work began. At some distance this planeonce more encountered the large bone crevice that had[156]
44
>.~^
O
Cci
X
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THE MOST ANCIENT REMAINS OF MANbeen discovered before. The crevice passed here obliquelyacross part of the incline and, as in the portion seen earlier,was filled with detritus, bones of bats or rodents, ore, andmore or less mineralized bones of larger animals. Theextent and contents of this cave or crevice were only-learned gradually in the course of the prolonged workof mining.After the inclined plane reached the bottom of the cen-tral excavation, some of the workmen were directed toturn back and work on the ore and stone exposed by theplane; and it was in these parts, not long after, at a level ofapproximately sixty feet below the surface, that a Swissminer, Mr. T. Zwigelaar, working with his black "boy" insome softer fillings, was confronted, after a stroke of theboy's pick, with the Rhodesian skull (Plate 50).As good fortune would have it, before the writer's de-parture from Broken Hill he was able to locate and inter-view five of the men concerned from the beginning in thediscovery, including Mr. Zwigelaar, who actually found theskull; and a sixth one was reached later by a letter. Eachof these men was most willing to tell all he knew, but theirmemories regrettably were no longer clear as to the par-ticulars. However, what was obtained is not withoutimportance. At the British Museum the writer was verykindly furnished with copies of all the official entriesrelating to the find and to an earlier collection from thesame cave.As the collective sifted result of the information ob-tained from all quarters, as the result of the personal in-spection of the mine and of what remains of the bonecave, and with the impressions left by the different menassociated with the finds, the conclusion is that the realconditions had probably been somewhat as follows:The "bone cave" was an extensive irregular crevicerunning for 120-150 feet inward and downward from nearthe base of the hill and reaching the maximum depthbelow the surface of about 70 feet.[157]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTThere is no recollection of the mouth of the "cave" andthis may have been covered or obstructed. Inside, thecrevice enlarged to a cavern which at its maximum meas-ured probably over thirty feet in breadth and twice asmuch in height.For some distance from the mouth of the cavern thefloor of the latter was nearly level or but moderatelyinclined, then there was a steeper descending slope, andafter that the crevice ran irregularly downward andinward.The outer part of the cavern was largely filled withmore or less mineralized and consolidated bones ofanimals, cave detritus, large quantities of bones of batsor small rodents, and nondescript earthy material, thewalls being covered with crystals of the ores of zinc andvanadium. The larger bones were distributed unequallythrough the filling of the cave, in some places there beinglarge quantities of them, in others few or none. Theyextended to and beyond the descent in the floor.The lowest and innermost part of the cavern was filledby detritus, some bones, and by a considerable layer, orrather layers, of very pure and more or less crumbly leadore. The ore contained no bones or foreign substance;but it is not absolutely known whether the contents of thefarther part of the cavern had a direct connection with thematerials in the large outer portion through or under-neath this lead ore.The skull was found at some distance beneath a layer
?
according to Mr. Zwigelaar's recollection, about ten feetthick?of this ore. It was not itself embedded in the orebut in a detrital material not mineralized to any extentand containing a quantity of "bat" bones.The skull was an isolated object. It lay upright. Therewas no lower jaw, nor any other bone in apposition. Be-neath it was something which looked like a large, flattenedskin bundle, thoroughly mineralized. This may or maynot have been merely a natural laminar formation of[158]
THE MOST ANCIENT REMAINS OF MANthe lead ore. Barring a few fragments, it was smelted.Somewhere in the vicinity of the lower portion of this
"bundle" was found a remarkably straight but otherwisenot peculiar, full-sized human male tibia, and lower, atsome distance, were portions of a mineralized lion's skull.In the vicinity there may have been found also one or twoother human fragments, but here much is uncertain.The larger part of the bony cont-ents of the main partof the cave was so mineralized that it passed for a goodgrade of zinc ore and was smelted as such. Various por-tions of the cave fillings, however, were poorer and werebrought out and thrown on a dump where, covered bypoor rock and debris thrown out subsequently, they stillrepose. The ground and the debris in the dump are stillfull of fragments and pieces of bone, teeth, chips ofquartz, etc.Only traces of the great cave now remain in the mine,and as the work progresses they will disappear. Theopposite wall of the mine shows an even larger old cavern,completely filled with less consolidated and somewhatdarker materials than the surrounding rock. This cavehas yielded no bones.The main part of the bone cavern was for a long time ahabitat or a feasting place of the ordinary Africans, Bush-men or Negroes. The larger bones were none of thembrought in by animals, but were the remains of the repastsof the black men. A very large majority were broken forthe marrow. Similarly broken human bones suggestcannibalism. There were apparently no human burialsin the cave. How the strange Rhodesian skull got in isunexplainable.The skull was found alone in the lowest and most re-mote part of the cave, some distance beneath consider-able accumulations of soft, pure lead ore. There was nolower jaw. There was no skeleton. One human bone, thetibia, and parts of a lion's skull, it is well established, laywithin ten feet of the skull, but at a lower level.[159I
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTAs to the other human bones deposited at the BritishMuseum with the slcull and those now added, all that maybe said is that they proceed from several skeletons ofmodern size and form; that some of them, at least, prob-ably came from other parts of the cave; and that there isno proof, and but a remote possibility, of any of thembelonging to the skull.The skull itself is positively not the skull of any of thenow known African types of man or their normal variants.Neither is it a pathological monstrosity, such as mightbe due to gigantism or leontiasis. It is a most remark-able specimen of which the age, provenience, history, andnature are still anthropological puzzles.Morphologically the skull is frequently associated nowwith the Neanderthal type of Europe. This may befundamentally correct, but only to that extent. In itsdetailed characteristics the specimen in some respects isinferior, in others superior to anything known as yet ofthe Neanderthal man.The skull is monstrous, its frontal and most of the facialparts exceeding in primitiveness every other known speci-men of early man. The skullcap, on the other hand, frombehind the frontal ridges is of a decidedly higher grade,equaling in many respects, and in some even exceeding,those of the more typical Neanderthal crania.The subject was plainly a very powerful male, of prob-ably over forty years of age. The skull is in no waypathological, though showing some diseased conditions;and it can not be conceived as a near-reversion. Itrepresents a distinct, crude variety of man, which strange-ly combines many ancient, even pre-Neanderthal condi-tions, with others that are relatively modern. It couldrepresent conceivably a very brutish individual develop-ment of the upper Neanderthal or the post-Neanderthalperiod.The most striking features of the skull are its hugesupraorbital ridges. They are not far from twice as stoutI160I
PLATE 50
The Rhodcsian skull, front and side. Notice the enormousilevelop-nient of the bony ridges over the eyes. After Pycraft
PLATE 51
Mr. Zwigelaar, the discoverer of the Rhodesian skull, shortlyafter the find was made. Photograph presented to DoctorHrdlicka by Mr. Zwigelaar
THE MOST ANCIENT REMAINS OF MAN
as in the Neanderthalers. No such immense welts haveever been seen in any other human specimen, nor even, iftheir thickness alone is considered, in the anthropoidapes. They constitute a huge exaggeration of this ancientcharacteristic of male primates. Yet these ridges arealready human rather than anthropoid in character.The slope of the forehead is as great as it is in some ofthe apes. In this quality, in its marked metopic ridges,its narrowness, and also in its anterior flare and relativesmallness as a whole, posteriorly the Rhodesian frontalapproaches closer to the frontal of the Pithecanthropus;though the ridges of the Rhodesian skull are much theheavier.The study of the specimen leaves an impression ofanamorphism. It is a combination of pre-Neanderthaloid,Neanderthaloid, and recent characters. It is not aNeanderthaler; it represents a different race or at leastvariety.The specimen does not seem to belong in its surround-ings. It does not fit with any of the other human remains,skeletal or cultural, saved from the cave. It does not fitwith anything, the Negro in particular, found thus farin Africa.It seems impossible to conceive of the specimen as areversion. Reversions tend as a rule to manifest them-selves in a single character or in a small group of asso-ciated characters. The primitive conditions of theRhodesian skull are more comprehensive.It seems equally impossible to regard the strain of manrepresented by the skull as a survival to recent time.There is nothing in anthropological knowledge thatwould support such an assumption. Yet the diminishingthird molars, the shape and size of the other teeth,the extensive caries, and other points, speak against hoaryantiquity.The Rhodesian skull is a tantalizing specimen to thestudent, who is wholly at a loss as to just where it be-[i6i]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTlongs taxonomically or chronologically. It is a cometof man's prehistory.Professor Elliot Smith shows the volume of the brainof the Rhodesian skull to have been but 1,280 c. c, whichis markedly smaller than in any of the Neanderthalerswith the probable exception of the Gibraltar female.The cast, very successful, shows the brain to have beenin general very definitely human, related to that of theNeanderthalers, and superior to both that of the Pithecan-thropus and Eoanthropus.Mr. Hopwood has identified the mammals of the BrokenHill cave, of which he has the following to say:The study of the mammalian bones found at Broken Hill was under-taken in the hope that they might afford some evidence as to the ageof the human remains found in the cave. It seemed reasonable tosuppose that, if the contents of the cavern were of any degree ofantiquity, there might be found portions of animals which are ex-tinct, or, at any rate, of species which are not at present representedin the fauna of Rhodesia. This hope has been realized only in part.The cave fauna is composed of living forms with the exception ofRhinoceros whitei Chubb and a new species of Serval cat.
It is also well to remember that the African continental plateauis of extraordinary stability, and that it has been a land area from veryearly times. Furthermore, the climate has always been tropical, orsub-tropical, at least to the south of Egypt. Hence, apart from possi-ble change in the rainfall, conditions of life have been comparativelyfixed and the fauna is not likely to have altered in character so rapidlyas in- other regions, Europe and North America for instance, wheregreat changes in the climate and geography have taken place in com-paratively recent times. For these reasons it is practically impossibleat present to estimate the age of African cave deposits by means ofthe fossil mammals. The fact that two extinct forms are knownproves nothing. It is becoming ever more apparent that the mammal-bearing horizons of Central Africa are not comparable in age with thoseof Europe, and that in dealing with them it is useless to apply Euro-pean standards. On the evidence of the associated mammalian faunathere is no reason to suppose that the human remains are of anythingbut recent date.
f 162I
THE MOST ANCIENT REMAINS OF MANConclusionAccounts given in the last four chapters by no meanscover all the finds of ancient human remains made thusfar in various parts ofthe globe. But theycover briefly the moreimportant discoveriesand will perhaps suf-fice to make clear thenature of the steadilygrowing evidenceupon which is basedour knowledge of theremote past of man-kind.We have now dis-cussed the physicalside of man's develop-ment including boththe world in which hefound himself andalso his own bodilystructure. In doingthis, we have pro-ceeded step by stepfrom the known tothe unknown, fromthe comparatively re-cent past back intoan antiquity almostinconceivably remote(Fig. 29), reaching apoint at last whereman or manlike creatures are indistinguishable from theanthropoids. The table on page 165 summarizes thispanorama of man's physical history.[163]
Fig. 29. Diagrams showing the top and sideviews of the outlines of the brains of chim-panzee, Pithecanthropus, Piitdown, Neander-thal, and modern man, to illustrate the pro-gressive increase in size. After Osborn
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTIn the remainder of this book we shall deal with theachievements of man's brain as distinguished from the de-velopment of his body. Beginning with the earliest knowntraces of his handiwork, we shall follow his rise stage bystage, from the first dawnings of his intelligence to thetime when, in both the Old and the New World, he hadlaid the foundations of the civilization of today.
164
THE MOST ANCIENT REMAINS OF MANQoo
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CHAPTER XTHE UNFOLDING OF MAN'SINTELLIGENCEWe can say with a fair degree of assurance that Cro-Magnon man appeared in Europe something like 25,000or 30,000 years ago. With not quite so much certainty wecan assign the beginning of the Mousterian culture, soclosely associated with Neanderthal man, to a period some-where around 50,000 years ago, more or less. But beforethat, we recall, there stretched away behind us, ever fur-ther back in the mists of the past, the Acheulian, theChellean, the Pre-Chellean, and, earliest of all, the Eolithicor "Dawn Stone" Age. The last seems to have begunvery far back in the Ice x^ge, or Pleistocene period, if notindeed earlier still, in the geological period known as thePliocene.Dr. Albrecht Penck estimated that the Ice Age begansomewhat more than half a million years ago. There isreason for believing that, long before that, man had de-veloped enough intelligence to employ sticks and stones invarious ways, though without doing anything towardshaping them into more convenient forms.How long ago he began to do this, we can not say. Butlet us assume, for the sake of illustration, that it was amillion years ago. At this figure, at least seventy oreighty per cent of man's total existence as a tool-usingcreature had already gone by before he reached even thebeginning of the Old Stone Age?the Pre-Chellean epoch.By the opening of the cave-dwelling epoch, when he tookto living in grottoes, at the approach of the Wiirm glacia-[166]
UNFOLDING OF MAN'S INTELLIGENCE
tion, ninety-five per cent of his culture history thus farhad been completed. When Cro-Magnon man appearedin Europe, ninety-seven and one-half per cent or more of ithad elapsed. By the time the Ice Age had at last come toan end in Europe, ninety-nine per cent was already athing of the past. The beginning of the Age of Metals andof the knowledge of writing in the most advanced por-tions of the globe occurred only something like 5,000 or6,000 years ago. Hence the entire historical portion ofman's existence, the only part which we know throughwritten records, amounts to but one-half of one per centof his whole career up till now. It is this fraction of oneper cent that has witnessed the blossoming of civilizationin Babylonia, in Egypt, in India, in China, and elsewhere.It represents the time between the building of the Pyra-mids and the invention of the aeroplane and the radio.Of course, the precise figure of 1,000,000 years for the totallength of man's existence as a tool user is an arbitrary one.It may have to be cut in two on the one hand or doubledon the other, in the light of future discoveries. But forthe time being it will serve its purpose of helping us torealize what a very brief space of time is allotted to thehistorical epoch by contrast with the long prehistoricperiod that went before.Recent discoveries have shown that during the earlierand by far the greater part of the life history of our race,more than one kind of man existed. The human species oftoday, in all its various races and subraces, represented atfirst but one among several different forms of which re-mains are already known. Moreover, there were almostcertainly others not yet discovered, or which died outwithout leaving any traces of themselves in the form offossils. How long any of these now extinct forms sur-vived we do not yet know. Some may have lingered on inout-of-the-way regions until comparatively recent times,as that strange monster, Rhodesian man, may possiblyhave done in South Africa. The existing type has achieved[167]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTthe mastery of the globe, slowly and patiently and underconditions of hardship and danger such as we now canscarcely imagine, only because it was on the whole the formbest adapted to win in the struggle for existence.Perhaps we can picture to ourselves something of theappearance of primeval man. From the earliest humanremains found thus far, we know that very far back manalready stood nearly if not quite upright. He was prob-ably covered fairly thickly with hair, of which indeed westill find traces on our own bodies. No doubt it tended togrow longer and thicker on the head and jaws, and it musthave been shaggy and matted. In texture we may bepretty sure that it was neither coarse and straight, likethat of the Mongol or the American Indian, nor kinkylike that of the Negro, but something in between. Prob-ably, too, it was not black but brownish in color. Howman came to lose his body hair to such an extent remainsan unanswered question. One of the most plausible ex-planations suggests that some connection exists betweenthis loss of hair and the wearing of clothing. But even thistheory has a weak spot, for it seems to imply that allexisting races, even those which go about naked today,must have worn clothes at some period of their develop-ment.Regarding the skin color of primitive man, we havereason to believe that it was neither the pale white of theNorth European nor the sooty black of the darkest Negro,but again something in between?some shade of brown.We have few clues to the features of man earlier than theNeanderthaler, about whose facial structure we know agood deal, but who comes on the stage rather late in thelong drama of human progress. It is clear that true chinshad not yet developed, for the more primitive lower jawsalready found are in this respect quite apelike. The teeth,on the other hand, seem early to have acquired definitelyhuman form, indicating that primeval man was dependingmore and more on his hands and less and less on his jaws[i68]
UNFOLDING OF MAN'S INTELLIGENCEfor self-defense and the performance of various tasks.Some of the early races had brows that projected farover the eyes, especially among the old males, to whomthey must have imparted a scowling and malignant ex-pression; others, however, almost if not entirely lackedthis feature. Noses at first probably resembled those ofbabies today in flatness and shapelessness, while full andprominent lips such as characterize most modern racescan hardly have developed very early. Among apes, truelips are almost wholly lacking, so that the mouth consistsof little more than a straight slit across the lower part ofthe face. In this respect, the white man of today differswidely from the gorilla, and the Negro even more so. Inprimitive man resemblance to the anthropoid apes musthave been considerably greater than in any existing race.In the last chapter we saw that man, or perhaps hisforerunner, had begun to develop a comparatively bigbrain very far back in his career. The famous Trinilskullcap, for example, indicates that the brain it oncecovered stood almost exactly halfway in size betweenthat of the highest ape and the lowest human form oftoday. Piltdown man's brain was larger still, followingwell within the human limit. Scientists long debatedwhether man acquired a nearly erect posture and conse-quent freer use of his hands before he developed a bigbrain, or whether increase in brain capacity preceded theseother anatomical changes. But now there seems to bepretty general agreement that growth of intelligence camefirst, that the brain led the way in man's development.The determining factor in man's success was, of course,this growth of his brain. Physically he was less well fittedfor the battle of existence than many other creatures. Thewild bull far surpassed him in strength, as did the wildhorse and various other animals which he in time domesti-cated and made his obedient servants. The lion, the tiger,and many other species which he has either exterminatedor driven to take refuge in the depths of the wilderness,[169]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
exceeded him in ferocity. But thanks to his superiorintellect, he asserted his supremacy first over the animalworld and then over inanimate nature. The struggle goeson, though the tiger and the mammoth as man's mostdangerous enemies have given place to insects like thefruit fly and the boll weevil and to small mammals likethe rat. His conquest of inanimate nature has gone onmuch more slowly; in fact even today it has only barelybegun.This increase in brain power and the consequent growthof ideas would, however, have profited early men as agroup but little if they had not had some means of com-municating with one another. Language in the broadestsense, including gesture as well as sound, began long beforeman himself first appeared; but only he, of all living crea-tures, was able to develop it and be developed by it. Itconstitutes the earliest as well as the greatest of theachievements of his genius, none the less important be-cause achieved unconsciously.For untold ages, however, man had to depend whollyon word of mouth and on signs for the communication ofideas, and on the unaided memory alone for their preser-vation, limitations which account, in part, for the ex-tremely slow progress made by mankind in early ages.Only within the last few thousand years has mankindslowly been learning to preserve the results of past ex-perience by putting them down in writing. The keeping ofrecords is even yet far from universal, or even general.The greater portion of mankind, outside of America andwestern Europe, remains illiterate, although nearly every-where it has come more and more under the control anddirection of ruling elements, native or alien, familiar withthe art of writing. In fact, largely by this very knowledgehave these classes gained the ability to control and exploittheir fellow men.The mechanical problems involved in the struggle forexistence, of course, far antedate the human race. At first[170]
UNFOLDING OF MAN'S INTELLIGENCEman had no better means of solving them than had thelower animals. For ages he prowled about, naked andshaggy, depending for his food and his safety solely uponhis own hands and teeth and muscles. But there came atime when his dawning intelligence suggested to him thathe might make use of tools other than those with whichnature had equipped him. The discovery that he couldstrike his enemy a heavier blow with a broken bough thanwith his unaided fist, or crack nuts and shellfish moreeasily with a pebble than with his own back teeth, or hurl
Fig. 30. Eoliths from Cantal, France, of the Tertiary Period (preceding the IceAge) showing how marginal chipping was done on one face only. At left, twoviews of a scraper: at right, two views of a spokeshave. After Verworna stone and thus bring down small animals out of the reachof his arm, marked a great step in advance in his age-longstruggle to master his environment. He had at last be-come a tool user.At first, of course, after learning this lesson, primitiveman merely used such sticks and stones as came handy,throwing them away when the momentary need was over.But through long experience he discovered that certainforms were so much more useful than others as to be worthkeeping and carrying about. Then he found that theycould be still further improved by a little shaping andtrimming. A club was easier to wield if twigs and irregu-lar projections were broken off; a straight, slender branchscraped down to a point made a fairly effective dart; a fewchips knocked off the sides of a flint pebble gave it arough edge with which raw meat could be cut up instead ofbeing torn with hands and teeth. But how infinitely slow[171I
' MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
this process of self-education was, the very long durationof the earlier stages of man's existence shows. When itwas completed, however, man had at last attained to theEolithic or Dawn Stone Age. He had become not merelya tool user, but actually a tool maker as well, even thoughon the humblest imaginable scale.Sometime during this same early period that otherepoch-making discovery, the use of fire, took place. Howlong ago this happened we do not exactly know as yet.In the Acheulian epoch, during the third interglacialstage, fire was certainly already known and used, as weknow from layers of burnt wood and charred bones un-covered on AcheuHan sites. But the practice appears togo very much further back still. At Foxhall, near Ipswich,in the east of England, burnt flints, along with bones,flint implements, etc., havecome to light, which may be-long to the Eolithic Period. Ifso, it carries us back, not merelyinto but actually before the IceAge itself.All authorities seem agreedthat man knew fire and under-stood how to utilize it and keepit going long before he learnedhow to kindle it. Many natu-ral phenomena may start a fire,lightning, for example, or vol-canic eruptions with their ac-companiment of white-hot lava.Sometimes, during long dryspells, two interlocking branchesrubbed together by the wind may burst into flame. Buthow man found that fire, hitherto only a source of dangerand superstitious awe, could be made useful, we can butguess. In any case he knew this ages before he learned tomake it. In fact, a quick and easy way of starting a fire[172]
Fic. 31. Primitive method ofstarting a fire by twirling astick between the palms of thehands. Northeast Australia.After Frobeniiis


UNFOLDING OF MAN'S INTELLIGENCE
is a very recent discovery, the invention of the first reallypractical matches dating only from 1827.The discovery of the usefulness of fire is one of man'sgreatest achievements, without which progress would havebeen utterly impossible. But at first he must have put itto a very limited number of uses, probably to give warmthand protection against wild animals, and later to preparefood. The primitive camp fire was the first gathering pointaround which men could meet, so that it wielded enormousinfluence in encouraging social activities and the inter-play of ideas. For long man looked upon it as somethingmysterious and uncanny, as a living being with an in-satiable appetite. Even today we are voicing ideas handeddown from our remote prehistoric ancestors when wespeak of "feeding" the fire to "keep it alive." Nowadayssuch expressions are regarded only as figures of speech;but there was a time when they were meant literally.Because fire had to be tended constantly, while the menwere often away hunting or on the warpath, its care fellnaturally to the women. Out of this practice arose inlater ages the institution of vestal virgins, keepers of theundying fire, found not only among the Romans butamong many other peoples both ancient and modern.We have, then, the three basic inventions?speech,tools, and fire?by which man first raised himself definitelyabove the animals about him and which in time led tofurther advance.Along with these three basic inventions, although com-ing much later and possessing nothing like equal impor-tance, we may consider the origin of clothing. Funda-mentally this had for its motive the desire for protection,mainly from cold but partly, too, from injuries, whetherreal or imaginary, that is, of a magical sort. Thus its de-velopment has tended to vary with climatic conditions.In cold countries, the use of animal skins for warmthmust date back pretty far. The natives of Tierra delFuego, at the extreme lower tip of South America, appar-
[ 173]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
ently represent a very primitive branch of the AmericanIndian stock. Although they occupy an extremely coldand wet region, until recently they wore only a piece ofsealskin slung about their necks, which they shifted aboutso as to keepit on the sidefrom whichthe wind,sleet, andsnow came.This repre-sents only aslight im-provementupon primi-ti ve totalnudity (Fig.32). Cuttingand fittingskins and sew-ing them to-gether toform fur gar-ments, such asthe Eskimowear, repre-sents a muchgreater ad-vance. Thisstage musthave been reached in some countries before the close of theOld Stone Age, for well-finished bone needles have beenfound in deposits of that period. Skins remained thematerial for clothing until the invention of weaving; thebuckskin garments of our own North American Indiansfurnish an example. Such clothing belongs more especiallyto cold regions, or at least to those having cold winters.
Fic. J2. Native of Tierra de! Fuego wearing only a piece ofsealskin slung around his neck as a protection from the coldand rain. After Deniker
174
UNFOLDING OF MAN'S INTELLIGENCESkins have, it is true, been worn in warm countries; butthe original motive there seems to have been mainly magi-cal. They were thought to confer upon the wearer thequalities of the animals to which they once belonged, justas did necklaces and bracelets of teeth and claws (Fig. 23)-It seems to have been for this reason that a leopard skincame to be an emblem of rank and power among theEgyptian Pharaohs. The lion's skin, which distinguished
Fig. ;i2- Necklace of the later Old Stone Age, from the Grimaldi caves, com-posed of deer teeth, fish vertebrae, and shells. It was found with the skeletonof a young man. After VerneauHercules, doubtless originated in a similar idea, when lionsstill existed in the lands about the eastern Mediterranean.Another great idea which must have dawned upon prim-itive man pretty far back in his career was that of fasten-ing things together by tying them. The invention ofstring enabled man to do countless things he otherwisecould not have done, though, no doubt, he realized onlyvery gradually the full extent of its usefulness. The earli-est and for a very long time the only string must have beenthat provided by nature, in the form of tough vines andtendrils of various sorts. With these, tools and weaponsand objects of magic could be more conveniently carriedabout; for they might now be slung from the waist or overthe shoulder or about the neck. With them, too, bundlescould be made of firewood, edible roots, and the like, forconvenience in transporting or keeping.[175]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTLater, man came to employ strips of fibrous bark, thesinews of animals, and thongs cut from skins. These madeit possible to lash stone axes and spearheads to their han-dles, and to sew together fitted garments. In time somegenius also found that lines of almost any length andstrength might be made by twisting fibers together, thusproviding cords for fishhooks of shell or bone and har-
FiG. 34. Central Australian churinga or sacred object, decorated with totemicdevices. It is unlawful for women and uninitiated males even to look on these.After Spencer and Gillenpoons of deer antler, as well as ropes for towing canoes up-stream against currents too swift for the pole or paddle.Without the knowledge of string, too, the invention of thatmost important appliance, the bow and arrow, would havebeen impossible. The varied uses of cords, ropes, cables,and hawsers in the rigging of ships, or of thread, yarn, andtwine in connection with the weaving of cloth, will occurto everyone. Consideration of these things will, perhaps,indicate the vast though often hardly recognized impor-tance of string in the history of human progress.On these bases man's later achievements rest; what weresome of the obstacles which he had to overcome? Amongthese, perhaps, disease and the fears, beliefs, and prac-tices to which disease gave rise stand first. We make agreat mistake if we suppose that perfect health blessed theprimeval savage. His fossil remains show that in manycases he suffered severely from pyorrhea and other ail-ments that affect the bone. He was a prey to bacterialand zymotic diseases. Epidemics doubtless occurred; andchanges for the worse in diet, caused by alterations inclimate, perhaps helped to bring about the extinction ofsome of the early species of man.[176]


UNFOLDING OF MAN'S INTELLIGENCEThe modern man finds it difficult to realize how com-pletely early man was a slave to magic. No matter whathappened to him, he immediately laid it to some supernatural influence, usually evil. Injuries, whether due toaccident, to attacks by wild beasts, or to struggles withhis fellows, were the result of his being bewitched. Failurein hunting meant that some enemy's "medicine" wasmore powerful than his own and was working against him.Nowhere was this belief stronger than in the case of dis-ease, which mankind has ascribed during by far the greaterpart of its existence to the action of mysterious and malig-nant forces, at first vague, formless, and invisible, butlater personified as spirits which might at times appearin bodily shape. The belief in witchcraft by no means firstacquired importance during the Middle Ages.The dominance of magic over the life of early man cannot be overestimated. It represented his first attemptsto inquire into the secret workings of nature and to con-trol and exploit them for his own benefit. It played thepart with him that religion, philosophy, and science oc-cupy with us. It shaped and influenced all his thoughts,and it lies at the root of all his various slow, blundering,and halting steps upward?his gropings toward the light.The primitive medicine man, because of the mysteriousknowledge and consequent power attributed to him, wasthe first ruler and director of mankind. He could, andoften did, terrorize whole communities; but woe to himif his magic failed or if he was suspected of imposture,for then nothing could save him from the fury of his dupes.This way of thinking still persists among many peoples,and did until recently among many more. In the strugglesof that remarkable Indian, Tecumseh, against the en-croachments of the whites, his followers drew their in-spiration not only from his genius as a leader, but fully asmuch from the claims to magical powers put forth by hisbrother, "the Prophet." When these were discreditedby the loss of the battle of Tippecanoe, all Tecumseh's
[ 177]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
efforts to unite the Indian race against the whites proveduseless.And so with disease; only the most enlightened peoplesdeal with its prevention and cure along scientific lines.Everywhere else, even to-
'^v?-H.
?
day, it is the medicineman and the witch doc-tor, with their drums andtheir charms and theirincantations, who arecalled upon in case ofsickness.From bad habits, as weunderstand them, earlyman seems to have beencomparatively free. Thesehave come largely with ahigher civilization, withincreasing knowledge ofthe various processes bywhich nature may be con-trolled. Alcoholic drinksof any sort, for example,were discovered only com-paratively late in man's history, toward the close of theprehistoric period. And even then, at first, man knewnone but comparatively mild fermented beverages. Hemade these from various substances, such as honey, grain,and the juice of different fruits, especially grapes. Theywere thus analogous to the "light wines and beer" of whichso much has been heard in recent years in connection withthe prohibition controversy.Moreover their use was for long almost wholly confinedto ceremonial and sacramental occasions. Primitive manthought that they were imbued with a mysterious divineinfluence which they could impart to the worshiper. Theexpression "to drink to one's health" contains a last linger-[178]
Fic. 35. African witch doctor or medicineman, wearing mask and other parapher-nalia of his profession. After Frobenius
UNFOLDING OF MAN'S INTELLIGENCEing trace of this once general belief. Owing both to theirlow alcoholic content and to their limited use, they didrelatively slight, if any, harm.But when, during the past thousand years or so, manlearned to subject various fermented fluids to distillationand thereby first produced spirituous or "hard" liquor,containing a high percentage of alcohol, the question be-came vastly more serious. By a strange irony of fate, itseems to have been the Muhammadan Arabs, themselves atemperate people, who spread the knowledge of thisprocess through the Old World during the Middle Ages,from Europe on the one hand to China on the other.At first distilled drinks were regarded and used asmedicines. We still see a trace of this in our word "cor-dial" as applied to certain alcoholic beverages. Readers ofRobinson Crusoe will recall that hero's satisfaction uponfinding a "case of cordials." Later, particularly in Europe,as distilled liquors became common and cheap, they beganto be consumed in enormous quantities. The frightfulravages wrought by the unrestricted drinking of ginamong the poorer classes in England during the eighteenthcentury are an example. Then for the first time the
"liquor problem" really became a serious menace to thewelfare of mankind. It was distinctly a product ofcivilization.Certain practices which we now regard with abhorrence,such as infanticide or the putting to death of the old anddecrepit, were usually based on economic causes. So longas man remained ignorant of any means of growing hisfood, and so had to depend entirely for his living uponwhat he could gather or capture, famine remained anever-present danger. Just as savages try, almost in-stinctively, to kill or chase away intruders upon theirspecial hunting grounds, so they have also felt obliged torestrict their own numbers by doing away with an excessof newborn infants and those whom age or infirmity haverendered useless as food providers. In this respect[179I
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
savage man, constrained by his environment, has beenmercilessly logical.Regarding the effects of war upon man's progress inprimitive just as inlater times, it is impos-sible to make anysweeping statement.Some wars have ush-ered in striking ad-vances in civilizationon the part of one oreven both combatants;for example, the con-quest of the PersianEmpire by Alexanderthe Great, and thespread of the Arabpower from Spain toTurkestan. Othershave resulted in deso-lation, the blasting ofcultures, and the re-tarding of progress forgenerations, as did theMongol onslaught uponwestern Asia and east-ern Europe. War hasalso been a valuable,if stern, school of socialdiscipline, teachingloyalty, self-sacrifice,and cooperative efforton a large scale. Aslong as it consisted of hand-to-hand contests involvingactively the entire adult male population of any com-munity, it resulted in the survival of those best fitted toperpetuate themselves in their offspring. The weak and[i8o]
Fig. 36. African chief armed with shield andjavelins and wearing plumes, necklaces, skinabout the waist, and leg-rings; he stands onthe bow of his war canoe. After Frobenius
UNFOLDING OF MAN'S INTELLIGENCE
stupid perished, while the strong and inteUigent survivedto transmit their qualities to their descendants. Thisweeding out of the unfit, going on without ceasing for tensof thousands of generations, could only have a beneficialeffect on the quality of the race as a whole.Only in very much later times did war become a strugglebetween organized armies whose success depended mainlyon the possession of means of wholesale destruction.Since then it has been the brave, the patriotic, and thephysically fit who have perished, usually before they havehad time to found families, while the weak and timidhave stayed at home to carry on the race. No intelligentstock breeder would dream of trying to improve his herdin any such way. Yet that is exactly what modern wardoes. As in so many things, here, too, civilization haschecked and even reversed natural tendencies.
[i8i]
CHAPTER XITHE OLD STONE AGEMuch uncertainty still exists regarding the Eolithic orDawn Stone phase of man's cultural development, al-though such a stage must have preceded the Old StoneAge. This long and important period is usually con-sidered to have begun with the Pre-Chellean, already men-tioned more than once. Regarding the steps by whichthat culture period gradually developed out of the pre-ceding Eolithic, or the region where it did so, we as yetknow little, though it probably took place elsewhere thanin Europe.Nor have scholars reached full agreement regarding therelation of the earlier culture stages to the different phasesof the Ice Age. That the Pre-Chellean falls early in thethird interglacial stage is Osborn's view. He pointedout, for example, that Pre-Chellean implements are neverfound in the sands and gravels of the higher river terraces,which, as we saw, were laid down earlier in the course ofthe Ice Age. Other authorities, however, date the Pre-Chellean as early as the second interglacial, while a feweven ascribe it to the first.The Pre-Chellean EpochThe Pre-Chellean culture seems to have reached Europefrom Africa, although this, of course, by no means impliesthat it was the work of Negroes. In fact at that time, andfor ages after, the various human races had not yet ac-quired their present-day distinguishing characteristics.Whoever he was, whether of Piltdown or Heidelberg or[182]
THE OLD STONE AGE
still another stock, Pre-Chellean man appears to havewandered from northern Africa by way of the ancientland-bridges into western Europe. But traces of his pres-ence, in the shape of flint implements in the river gravels,occur so rarely that the population of the time must havebeen extremely sparse. Into central Europe the Pre-
FiG. 37. Pointed types of eoliths, from southeastern England, made by manor his ancestor who hved 500,000 to 1,000,000 years ago, and probably usedfor boring or punching holes. After HarrisonChellean culture seems not to have penetrated at all, itsplace there being taken by a form known as pre-Mousterian.This may indicate that different races or even species ofmen inhabited the two regions; but of this there is so farno positive proof.The climate of Europe then, in marked contrast to thatof the glacial stages, was in the main a genial one, eventhe winters being very mild. Hence both the vegetationand the animal life were rich and varied. In the forestsand meadows and along the river banks ranged at leastone form of now extinct elephant, if not two; the hippo-potamus; two species of ancient rhinoceros; a primitivehorse; deer; wild cattle; hyenas; and apparently the saber-[183]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTtoothed tiger, Man then found food, both animal andvegetable, plentiful, and he had little need for protectionfrom cold. He may have known and used fire, although wehave little actual evidence thereof. Probably he wore noclothing, and it is extremely unlikely that Pre-Chelleanman had learned to erect even the simplest sort of shelteragainst inclement weather. His chief if not only need ofdefense, indeed, must have been against the dangerous wildanimals of the time. The wandering life of the primitivehunter and food gatherer of those far distant days, unlikethat of later Mousterian man, was surely on the whole aneasy one, entailing little in the way of real hardship,privation, or peril.The stone implements of the Pre-Chellean epoch arevery roughly chipped; and the number of different types isextremely limited, their forms, indeed, being apparentlydetermined mainly by accident. Pre-Chellean man madethem almost exclusively from the cores of pebbles or nod-ules and not from the flakes chipped off from the latter.This distinction between a core and a flake industry is animportant one. The Pre-Chellean flint worker clumsilyleft much of the crust or original surface of the pebble onhis implements?something that the more expert toolmakers of later periods rarely if ever did. The true coup-de-poing^ or "fist-ax," so characteristic of the Chellean andAcheulian epochs which were to follow, was not yet fullydeveloped (Fig. 38), and it is most unlikely that the idea ofproviding an implement with any sort of handle or hafthad yet occurred to man. In fact this device, which seemsperfectly obvious to us, appears to have been beyond theinventive powers of so recent a people as the now extinctTasmanians, who when they first became known to Euro-peans, less than 300 years ago, were still actually living inthe lower Old Stone Age.The Pre-Chelleans probably used wood for clubs andperhaps spears, although of such objects we have no actualremains. However, at Piltdown, in the same deposit in[184]
THE OLD STONE x^GE
which the famous skull came to light, there was also dis-covered a strange implement (see Fig. 24), made of a greatslab of bone, sixteen inches long, taken from the leg of anextinct elephant. This had been shaved down to an irregu-lar point at one end and also had a holebored through it. Men who could do allthis with bone must have been familiarwith the idea of working in wood.The Chellean EpochDirectly out of the Pre-Chellean arosethe true Chellean. This advance alsoseems to have taken place mainly inAfrica, whence it spread both into Europeand into Asia. The climate continuedgenial, as indeed it seems to have beenduring all three earlier cultural periods.Hence Chellean man, like his predecessors,lived in the open. Vegetation flourished,and animal life continued with but fewchanges of species, though the lion hadnow largely if not entirely replaced the saber-toothed tigerand one form of rhinoceros seems to have died out. Firewas probably known, but there is little reason to supposethat Chellean man, any more than his forerunners, erectedshelters or wore any sort of clothing. In fact even the
Fig. 38. Pre-Chel-lean type of stoneimplement. FromSt. Acheul, north-eastern France.Note clumsy andincomplete chip-ping. After Com-mont
Fic. 39. Tasmanian stone implements, typical of the lower Old Stone -Age.Tasmanian culture was by far the most primitive that has survived down torecent times. .After Ling Roth185
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTlowest of existing or recent savages have probably knownfar more of the arts of primitive life than he.A considerable improvement in the making and a muchgreater variety in the forms of its flint implements markedthe period. In all there have been distinguished seven oreight types, each apparently adapted primarily to someone particular purpose, though not a few seem to have been
"combination tools." The uses to which they were putincluded cutting, scraping, piercing, and boring (Fig. 40).The Chellean continued in the main a core and not a flakeindustry, although occasionally the flakes knocked ofi^from the cores of pebbles were themselves shaped into
Fic. 40. Chellean flint tools for cutting, scraping, piercing, and boring. AfterCommont and Obermaiertools or weapons. The uniformity displayed by these im-plements over large areas shows that as various improve-ments developed they gradually spread far and wide, fromone nomadic hunting group to another. Possibly, too,even then race and culture were not coextensive, any morethan they are today. That is, two or more races may haveused the same types of flint implements; or, on the otherhand, branches of one and the same race may have haddifferent "industries." Thus it is not impossible thatboth the Piltdown race and that of Heidelberg possessedthe Chellean form of culture, though it may be thatHeidelberg man was pre-Mousterian. More than one in-vestigator has come to look upon the Neanderthal race,with its Mousterian type of culture, as descended fromhim, and he seems to have lived in central Europe wherethe pre-Mousterian culture has been found.[186I
THE OLD STONE AGEOf the various types of stone implements made duringthe Chellean, that known as the coup-de-poing.or "fist-ax"(because it was almost certainly held in the hand and nothafted), now appears in a much more highly developedform than that which it had in the Pre-Chellean. It oc-curs in several shapes, probably denoting a variety of uses.Perhaps the most typical is a rough, heavy, almond-shaped utensil which must have been used for hackingwith the edge and striking with the pointed end. It issometimes of large size, indicating that it was wielded by amuscular and vigorous race.Chellean implements are found in the river gravels, fortheir makers and users had no reason to resort to caves forshelter but lived in the open. They may have erectedsimple windbreaks of hides or bark, but this is purelymatter for conjecture. The utmost that can be said isthat Chellean man employed some of the tools known as
"scrapers" in dressing down the skins of animals pre-paratory to tanning them; on the other hand he may havedesigned them for fashioning various objects out of wood.It can not be emphasized too often in this connectionthat what we have today in the way of remains of earlycultures necessarily represents but a small fraction of theiroriginal total content. Only those objects composed of themost durable substances have survived; and this means,for the earlier periods at least, almost exclusively stone.Yet ancient man must have made even greater use ofwood, bone, skins, sinews, vegetable fibers, and manyother materials, which have decayed without leaving atrace and whose existence we can therefore only infer.The Acheulian EpochFollowing the Chellean, at any rate in western Europe,came the culture stage known, from its type station of St.Acheul, in northern France, as the Acheulian. This ap-pears to be a direct development from the Chellean, a factwhich implies that there was no break of continuity, such[187I
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as might have been caused by the intervention of a glacialstage or the intrusion of a different race. It seems prettyclearly to have occurred during the third interglacialstage, and has been divided by archeologists into twophases, an earlier and a later.During the Early Acheulian, the climate of Europe re-sembled that of the Chellean, the chief differences being,apparently, that it was rather cooler, drier, and perhapsmore dusty. The animal life of the preceding periods con-tinued with but little change. It included the southernmammoth, the straight-tusked or "ancient" elephant,Merck's rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, lion, hyena, deer,wild bull and horse, bison, wolf, beaver, and many otherforms.Man still continued to live in the open; and it is nowthat we come upon the first absolute proof of his use of fire,in the layers of charred wood and bones found on hisancient camp sites. Little direct evidence bears on hisphysical characteristics and indeed there may have beenmore races than one occupying western Europe then. Forsome have regarded the Piltdown race as belonging to theAcheulian, while there may have been also a Neanderthalelement, or at all events one ancestral to the latter.It seems to have been during the Late Acheulian that thechill of the approaching Wiirm glaciation began seriouslyto be felt. Conditions in western Europe now slowlyunderwent radical changes. Forms of animal life that hadsurvived all the vicissitudes of the three earlier glacialstages now commenced to disappear, replaced by speciesbetter adapted to withstand severe cold, including thehairy northern form of mammoth, the woolly rhinoceros,and the reindeer. But even yet the roving bands of huntersand food gatherers still preferred to pitch their camps inthe open and only occasionally sought the protection ofoverhanging cliffs and the mouths of caves.Despite these changes in the physical environment, agreat improvement in the forms of its stone implements[i88]
THE OLD STONE AGE
Fig. 41. Acheulian coups de poing or "fistaxes." After de Mortillet
characterized the Acheulian type of culture. These werenow much more skillfully made and far more symmetricalin shape than those of the Chellean. They had also cometo be smaller and lighter and included a far greatervariety of types.Acheulian man stillused mainly the coresof the nodules, but healso occasionally em-ployed flakes. Dur-ing this period thecoup-de-poi?jg or fist-ax reached the acmeof its development,being care fullychipped over its en-tire surface as well asalong all its edges;perhaps man had even learned to attach a handle of somekind to it (Fig. 41). Nevertheless even the finest Acheu-lian artifacts, far in advance as they are of anything thathad gone before, appear coarse and clumsy by contrastwith those of later periods.Certain of the stone implements of Acheulian timeswould have been well adapted for scraping and dressinghides, and this has led some observers to infer that thepeople of that day used skins in various ways. Therecan hardly as yet have been any question of regularclothing, but the increasing cold of the Late Acheulianmay have forced upon man the idea of using furs forsimple wraps.It is not impossible that during this same Late Acheulianphase burial of the dead began to be practiced. How thiscustom might have arisen, we have, of course, no means ofknowing; but it may have been connected in some waywith the growing concentration of the population in cer-tain sheltered localities, owing to the increase of cold.[189]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTThe Mousterian EpochToward the close of the Acheulian epoch the climategrew increasingly severe, as the Wiirm glacial stage drewon. The changes in animal forms to which this led havealready been noted. A similar alteration manifests itselfclearly in the human life of the time. To whatever raceAcheulian man may have belonged, the type of culturewhich he had steadily been developing during the latterportion of the third interglacial now gave way to an-other, that known as the Mousterian. This change, ofcourse, did not take place all at once throughout the wholeof western Europe. It may very well have requiredhundreds if not thousands of years for completion, andno doubt it occurred earlier in some places than in others.Thus in certain regions, like the valley of the Garonne, insouthwestern France, the Mousterian culture seems tohave appeared even before the advent of the full Wiirmglaciation.Some students have thought that this developed directlythough gradually from the Acheulian, in western Europeitself. But fundamentally there seems to have been in thelong run an actual replacement of one type of culture byanother which had grown up in some different part of theworld; for pretty clear evidence exists that the Mousterianculture appeared in western Europe as an intruder fromcentral Europe, out of which the advent of the Great Coldhad probably driven it. In other words, while the Acheuli-ans were dwelling in what is now France and the neighbor-ing regions, the Mousterians had been living in Germanyand thereabouts. However, men of Neanderthal type mayhave existed in western Europe also during the Acheulianand even earlier periods. We have as yet far too fewactual skeletal remains from the latter to enable us to saydefinitely to what type, or types, of men the cultures pre-ceding the Mousterian are to be ascribed.Some investigators have thought that there is evi-[190]
THE OLD STONE AGEdence of a "warm" as well as a "cold" Mousterian; thatthat particular culture existed in Europe during a milder aswell as a more severe climatic phase. But Obermaier,perhaps our leading authority on this point, emphaticallydenies this. He says:We must strongly insist that in western and central Europe thereis no true Mousterian with warm fauna. Such a fauna is found onlyin the Pre-Chellean, the Chellean, and the Early Acheulian, for, fromthe Late Acheulian on, we find a cold fauna which lasts through thefinal Magdalenian. Indubitable Mousterian with warm fauna is foundonly in southern Europe?as in Italy (Mentone) and Spain?wherethen and ever since the climate and fauna naturally would be diflFerent.To state the length of the Mousterian epoch in terms ofyears with anything like accuracy is still impossible; but,thanks mainly to the Swedish investigations of the lastglaciation, we can make a far better guess than we can for
Fig. 42. Mousterian implements from the north of France. At left, a scraper;center, a flint carefully dressed on both faces; right, a long, narrow point. AfterCommentthe still earlier periods. Thus it seems fairly safe to saythat in western Europe the Mousterian epoch began some-where between 40,000 and 60,000 years ago, and con-tinued down to something like 25,000 or 30,000 years ago.191
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTWe have now arrived at the cave-dwelling period inhuman history. No doubt man had in earlier times re-sorted to caves occasionally for shelter from the weatheror protection from enemies, human or animal; but the firstreal cave man was the Neanderthaler, whom we find soclosely associated with the Mousterian type of culture.Unlike his predecessors of the Acheulian and still earlierperiods, he camped in the open very rarely, and then per-haps only during the summer months. But it is a mistaketo suppose that he ever permanently occupied the depthsof caverns. He lived, on the contrary, only in the portionsnear their mouths?in their "vestibules," so to speak; forit is invariably in or just outside the latter that remains ofhis old camp fires are found.Fire, as we have seen, man had known and used for ages,and it seems likely that even before the Mousterian epochhe had learned to kindle it himself. In fact, withoutthis knowledge it is hard to see how the Neanderthalerscould ever have survived the terrible damp cold whichwe know oppressed and desolated Europe during the lastgreat glacial stage.The shapes of certain types of implements of the Mous-terian epoch suggest that they were used for scraping andpreparing skins for curing (Fig. 42). It appears certainthat man employed pelts and furs in some way as protec-tive coverings during the bitterly cold weather of the time.Probably he did not cut them out or fit them to the bodyin any way, but wore them merely as loose wraps. It isnot impossible that Mousterian man regularly wore a skinaround his waist; but if he did we may be sure that it wasnot from motives of what we nowadays call "modesty";for the latter feeling is one that has appeared in the worldonly very late in man's history, and far from universally atthat. It arises only from teaching and habit, and not outof any deep-seated or fundamental instinct.Mousterian man, unlike his forerunners, manufacturedhis stone implements mainly out of flakes struck off from
[ 192]
THE OLD STONE AGE
Core
the pebbles he selected for working, and not out of theircores (Fig. 43). This practice, as already stated, formsone of the fundamental points of difference between theMousterian "industry" and those which preceded it. Atfirst, it is true, the fist-ax, or coup-de-poingy a
"core" implement, con-tinued to be made, butonly in degenerate form;and it gradually disap-peared altogether. Theinstruments especiallytypical of the Mousterianculture were formed fromlarge flakes of flint struckoff from a nodule. Theinner surface of a flakethus detached from theparent core is of glassysmoothness and slightlybulging form, and re-quires no further treat-ment to render it fit foruse. Only its outer sideneeds to be chipped or
"retouched" until theflake assumes the desiredshape. These flake im-plements, therefore, com-bined greater ease ofmanufacture with un-doubtedly much greater effectiveness. They took differentforms, designed for chopping, hacking, scraping, boring,drilling, piercing, cutting, and sawing, so that Mousterianman had a tool kit of no mean proportions.During this period, also, we find the first indications ofthe regular use of implements made of bone. The latter
KcversePoint of percussionBulb of percussionScarConcentric waves
Flakes
Fig. 43. The core of a flint nodule (above),and flakes detached from it (below) bymeans of sharp blows at the point of per-cussion indicated. After Schmidt
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substance seems to have been occasionally employed be-fore, although the only example known thus far is theartificially shaped fragment of an elephant's leg bonefrom Piltdown, already mentioned. Now, however, amongthe instruments employed by Neanderthal man we findbone "anvils," or chopping blocks, and leg bones of thecave bear worked down at one end, apparently for use inhelping to remove the hides from large animals.Undoubtedly the Neanderthalers also utilized wood inmany ways, among others in the manufacture of spears,clubs, and perhaps throwing-sticks. They seem to haveused a certain type of notched scraper of flint, somewhatafter the manner of a modern spokeshave, for dressingdown cylindrical wooden objects such as spear shafts. AtClaxton-on-Sea, in the east of England, there has actuallybeen found the point of a wooden spear which almostsurely belongs to the Mousterian epoch.Quite possibly, too, by this time man had learned thesecret of arming spears, and perhaps clubs also, with flintpoints, to secure greater power of penetration. To usnowadays, the working parts of any tool?the head of anax, the point of a spear, or the tines of a pitchfork?seemthe essential and primary ones. But that was not at allthe way in which primitive man looked at it. With himthe spear, for example, made entirely of one straight andpointed shaft of wood, came first. Only very long after-ward did the idea dawn on him that if he fastened one ofhis piercing implements of flint to the end of his spear hecould increase its effectiveness. Similarly with implementsdesigned for striking, the plain wooden club must have beenused for ages before anybody thought of improving it byfastening to it such things as flint flakes, sharks' teeth, orfragments of volcanic glass, as various peoples have done.The shapes of some of the flint implements of the Mous-terian epoch make it hard to see how they could havebeen used with any effect unless fitted with handles ofsome sort. [194I
THE OLD STONE AGEBut even so, it still remains something of a puzzle howNeanderthal man, with such primitive weapons, couldhave hunted large and dangerous animals like the mam-moth, the woolly rhinoceros, the cave bear, the wild bull,and numerous others whose bones we find among therefuse of his ancient "garbage piles." It must have beenthrough recourse to superior intelligence and cunning thathe was able to overcome them at all. For he did not knowthe bow and arrow, that most effective of early huntingdevices; and the structure of his skeleton shows that he wasa slow and clumsy runner, supporting his weight mainlyon the outer edges of his feet, and incapable of straighten-ing his knee joints fully. He may have stampeded his preyinto running over cliffs (see Plate 21) or into boggy groundor deep snow; or he may have lurked in the underbrush andbehind rocks at water holes, so as to take it by surprise.He may have used pitfalls, fire, and possibly poison.Round stone balls have been found which seem to havebeen used for throwing, perhaps at the end of a thong oreven from a sling. x'\s these balls sometimes occur in setsof threes, they may have been attached to one another byskin cords and hurled so as to entangle the legs of runninganimals, like the well-known belas used by the Gauchosof South America. But whatever the hunting methodsused by the Mousterians, they must certainly have beenaccompanied by a considerable degree of social organiza-tion and discipline, with well-directed cooperation andloyal, intelligent teamwork.Possibly during the summer months, when freer to wan-der about in pursuit of game or to visit localities whereespecially fine qualities of workable flint occurred, theNeanderthalers erected temporary shelters, of bark orleafy boughs or even skins, against wind and rain; but wehave no proof. For the rest of the year we know that theylived in the vestibules of caverns, under the most crowded,unsanitary, and comfortless conditions imaginable. Thecaves were in general excessively damp and draughty, and,
[ 195
1
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
of course, there was no such thing as "keeping out thecold," which was often bitter. Doubtless the Neander-thalers accepted as a matter of course hardships which weshould regard as unbearable; and the inexorable weedingout of the weak and unfit, particularly in infancy, musthave kept the racial capacity for endurance at a very highpitch. Nevertheless, some of the known Mousterianskeletons show unmistakable signs of very severe arthritis,pyorrhea, and other ailments. There are also instancesin which bones have sloughed away as the result of injuryor disease.Naturally we can infer little regarding the social organ-ization of Neanderthal man. He must have had some-thing of the sort, however, in order not only to hunt thelarger animals but even to survive at all under the con-ditions of hardship, discomfort, and danger which werehis daily portion. Nor can we expect to know very muchregarding the nature of his religious beliefs, although it issafe to say that he, like so many present-day savages,made no distinction between the "natural" and the
"supernatural." For everything must have seemed to himperfectly natural and at the same time imbued in varyingdegrees with magical potentialities. Strong or ferociousanimals in particular were undoubtedly thought, in thelanguage of our own Great Plains, to be "big medicine."In the Drachenloch cavern in Switzerland and at Peters-hole in Franconia there have come to light specially ar-ranged skulls and other bones of the cave bear, indicatingthe existence of some sort of bear cult.Man of the late Acheulian may have practiced burial,occasionally at least, but its indications become unmis-takable early in the Mousterian. Already we find redmineral pigment which may, as in later times, have beenused in connection with burials. Vestiges of the customexist even today in China. Judging from analogies amongmore modern peoples, the Neanderthalers may havereasoned that life was closely associated, if not actually[196I
PLATE 54
Restoration of Neanderthal man. Note carriage ofhead; his skeleton shows that he could not quitestraighten his knee joints. Courtesy of the FieldMuseum of Natural History
PLATE 55
Restoration of a Neanderthal woman scraping a hide. The largenumber of flint scrapers found indicates that the skins of animalswere cured in Mousterian times. Courtesy of the Field Museumof Natural History
THE OLD STONE AGEidentical, with the blood, and that any substances resem-bling the latter in color possessed, therefore, life-giving,strengthening, and auspicious power. The Neander-thalers also buried with their dead an abundance of finelyworked flint implements, shells, and joints of meat fromsuch animals as they most depended on for food.The original motive inspiring these grave-offerings, rep-resenting Neanderthal man's richest treasures, was prob-ably the desire to keep the dead man or his ghost fromsuffering the pangs of want and so returning in an angryframe of mind to terrorize his survivors. The same wishto prevent the return of the ghost led in some cases todoubling up the body, with its knees close under its chin,and then tying it securely in that position before con-signing it to the grave. For thus it would be impossiblefor the dead to walk.We have mentioned (see Chapter VII) the finding in acave in Croatia of deposits of Mousterian age, includingthe charred and broken bones of about a score of individ-uals, both adults and children, of a local type of theNeanderthal race. One theory of some plausibility explainsthese as the remains of a cannibal feast of perhaps areligious nature. But unless further discoveries of a simi-lar sort are made elsewhere, it would hardly be fair tostigmatize the Neanderthalers as habitual cannibals.Signs of any sort of artistic feeling in Mousterian timesare almost wholly wanting. The Neanderthalers seem tohave worn certain shells, and possibly they smeared them-selves with the red pigment already mentioned in connec-tion with their burial customs. But if so, they can scarce-ly have had any idea of enhancing their own personalcharms. Rather they, like more recent savages, regardedsuch practices simply as "good medicine," sure to placethem in a more favorable relation to their environment.From time to time scientists have attempted to recon-struct the bodily appearance of Neanderthal man from hisskeletal remains (see Plates 28, 42, and 54), often with[197]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTgreat care and with close attention to measurements of theoriginals. Hence, so far as the restoration of the fleshy-covering of the bones is concerned, they may be acceptedas fairly accurate portrayals. But when it comes toquestions of skin color, of the amount of hair- covering thebody, and other ?xternal features, to say nothing of suchpurely artificial ones as the mode of hairdressing and thewearing of amulets or skins, we can be guided only byinference, analogy, and probability drawn from modernsavage life. The Aurignacian EpochNeanderthal man and his Mousterian culture, as alreadystated, gave way, in western Europe at least, to the splendidCro-Magnon race, with its vastly superior culture knownas the Aurignacian. This seems to have developed inAfrica from another and earlier "industry" known as theCapsian. The early Cro-Magnon invaders of Europe ap-pear to have advanced from northern Africa toward theirnew homes by way of the land-bridge which then ex-tended across the Mediterranean Sea from Tunisia to Italy.Their movements apparently began while the Wiirm orlast great glaciation still held much of Europe in its grip.But it is unlikely that they made any great mass migra-tions across wide stretches of country. That was not theway in which primitive man gradually occupied the earth.Rather, the Cro-Magnons and others advanced slowly,season by season, in whatever direction they found thehunting good and general living conditions favorable.The direction in this particular case happened to be onewhich eventually carried them up through Italy and so intosouthern France; but the movement undoubtedly occu-pied many hundreds if not thousands of years before theAurignacians began to spread out over western Europe.For they do not seem to have done so until well on in thefinal periods of the Wiirm glacial stage.The climate at this time was becoming drier and more[198]
THE OLD STONE AGEbracing. Great glaciers still covered what are now Norwayand Sweden, as well as the Alps; but the plains in timebecame ice-free, and though the winters continued verysevere, the summers had become mild, if not actually warm.The animal life changed little from that of Mousteriantimes, retaining its northern or arctic character, and in-cluding such forms as the hairy mammoth, the woollyrhinoceros, the reindeer, and the arctic fox. Among otherspecies, more adapted for life on the open steppes, were thehorse, the wild ass, and a gigantic form of rhinoceros withan enormous single horn situated, unlike that of any exist-ing type, on the forehead above the eyes. Forest- andmeadow-loving animals included the brown bear, the wolf,the bison, the wild bull, the stag and the giant deer, some-times miscalled the "Irish elk." The cave lion and thecave hyena were also present, as well as many other forms,some now extinct, while others still survive, in Europe orelsewhere. In time there also appeared the mountainsheep and the musk ox.The Aurignacians were cave dwellers, but cave dwellersof a type in every way superior to the lowly Mousterianswhom they replaced. It is clear, however, that, as we sawin Chapter VI, the two races influenced each other to someextent. Very recent finds in East Africa have made thiseven more evident, for here, too, the Mousterian and theAurignacian cultures have lately appeared; but instead ofthe former preceding the latter, as it does in Europe, bothforms prove to have existed together during a very longperiod. In one case, indeed, a Mousterian deposit overlayan Aurignacian one and therefore actually came after it.Eventually the two cultures become fused into one. Sofar, lack of skeletal material prevents us from sayingwhether or not the African Mousterian and Aurignacianwere the handiwork of different types of man, as they werein Europe. But the existing evidence points that way.These very recent African discoveries thus render itpractically out of the question that the Aurignacian cul-[199]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
ture, connected in Europe with the advent of Cro-Magnonman, could have been developed out of the Mousterian,associated closely as it is with the Neanderthal race. Onthe contrary, the Aurignacians, on their arrival in Europe,appear to have exchanged a few cultural elements with theMousterians, and even, perhaps, to have mingled withthem racially to an extremely limited degree, but finally tohave replaced them entirely.The situation may very well have paralleled the case of-the American Indian and the European settler, althoughwith far less diflFerence in degree of culture. When twopeoples come into close and prolonged contact, it is not theless civilized which does all the borrowing of ideas; themore advanced one also almost invariably adopts someculture elements from itshumbler rival. Thus to theAmerican Indians, for ex-ample, we owe not only vari-ous food plants, such as\^^//rWM potatoes and maize, but alsosuch things as tobacco pipes,
^gjjijjgjj^ hammocks snowshoes, can-vas canoes (modeled after thebirch-bark craft of the abo-rigines), and the game of la-crosse.Authorities have dividedthe xAurignacian epoch into aLower, a Middle, and anUpper phase, during all ofwhich it underwent a steadydevelopment. Like the Mous-terian but unlike the earlierPre-Chellean, Chellean, and Acheulian industries, theAurignacian based its flint-working mainly on the utiliza-tion of flakes and not of cores. Indeed it used far fewercore implements than did even the Mousterian, while the[200]
Fig. 44. Aurignacian implements.No. I is a flint point; 2, a scraperseen from the side and end; J, abone point with a cleft base; 4, aborer. After de Morgan
THE OLD STONE AGEflake tools and weapons were longer, narrower, thinner, andmore delicately worked. Cro-Magnon man made flintknife blades, points, borers, scrapers, and planing tools.He used stones both as hammers and anvils and also forthrowing, while from horn and bone he made javelin points,drills, and polishers (Fig. 44). He undoubtedly utilizedwood to a great extent; indeed many of the flint imple-ments found evidently were meant to be used in workingup that material into various objects.Yet the Aurignacians, far ahead as they were of any oftheir predecessors of the Old Stone Age, still dependedwholly for their livelihood upon hunting, fishing, and the
Fic. 45. Baton lie iommandement of reindeer antler, with engravings ofwild horses. After Lartet and Christygathering of such vegetable foods as they found growingwild. They had no domestic animals, not even the dog;nor had they grasped the idea of making pottery, even thecrudest. Nothing exists to show that they had canoes, andthey seem not to have known the bov/ and arrow. Yetthey probably built huts or wigwams of saplings coveredwith sheets of bark or with skins, at least for their summercamps.During the Late Aurignacian we begin to find a curiousobject consisting of a section of reindeer antler with arounded hole bored through it, generally at the point wherethe main shaft, or "beam," and the brow-tine join. At firstthey ornamented this with rude engravings, but in latertimes with elaborate carvings. It is commonly called a[201]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTbaton de commandement^ or staff of office, but this is merelyguesswork (Fig. 45). Was it a sort of war-club, ceremonialor otherwise, or the badge of a medicine man? Was it atoggle used to hold the edges of a fur cloak together? Wasit a shaft straightener, or was its purpose that of takingthe kinks out of a length of rawhide rope ? As yet we cannot tell.In the Late Aurignacian also there begin to appear boneneedles, at first without eyes; these indicate a considerableadvance in the working up and stitching together of skins,probably for clothing.But perhaps the outstanding technical achievement ofthe Aurignacian epoch was the invention of the burin, orengraving tool, a flint with a sharp angulate point used forincising figures of various sorts on the walls of caves. Theirremarkable artistic genius constitutes the most notablething about the Cro-Magnon race, although, like all art inits beginnings, theirs was inextricably bound up withmagical ideas and practices.The Cro-Magnon hunter, like many savage races since,believed unshakably that, if he drew a representation of ananimal and then performed over it magical ceremonies ofthe right sort, he could cause animals of that species tobecome more numerous or easier to capture, as the casemight be. So far as we know now, this represents man'searliest scheme to increase his own food supply by assist-ing or coercing nature to be more liberal. To us the notionof producing food through the growing of crops or therearing of animals seems perfectly obvious. It was not so,however, to the primitive hunter and food gatherer, andhe must have endured long and painful experiences ofscarcity before he finally grasped the idea that he himselfcould do anything at all to make food more plentiful.When this idea first dawned on him, however, Auri-gnacian man did not set to work right away planting andtending various wild seeds and tubers or catching anddomesticating certain wild animals. Such a line of conduct
[ 202 ]
THE OLD STONE AGE
would have been entirely beyond his reasoning powers,based as these were upon a very limited fund of accumu-lated experience. He first attempted to control his foodsupply by resort to magic, the only means that he knew.That it was a mistaken method does not lessen the funda-mental importance of the step for the future of mankind,for once he had grasped the idea that he himself could in-crease the food available, it was only a question of timeuntil he hit upon the right way of realizing it.In their efforts for the benefit of the larder the Cro-Magnon medicine men performed ceremonies in the deep-est recesses of the caves whose entrances they inhabited.The kinds of animals which they wished to render moreplentiful they represented by drawings, images, or masks,with the aid of which they performed rites and incanta-tions. Some of the more backward races of the earth, likethe Australian natives for instance, have never progressedbeyond this stage, while traces of its former existence sur-vive among many more advanced peoples.The wonderful representations of animals, which theCro-Magnon artists incised and painted on the walls ofcaves and molded in the damp clay of their floors (Plate 56)during the latter part of the Old Stone Age, have attractedattention and admiration the world over. Until a genera-tion or two ago modern man did not even suspect their ex-istence, and their discovery and study form one of the mostfascinating and romantic chapters in the story of man'srecent inquiries into his own past.Many of these sketches are crude and roughly executed;but in others both drawing and workmanship are of a won-derfully high quality. The animals portrayed include themammoth, wild bull, bison, cave bear, reindeer, stag, and atleast two species of wild horse, as well as many others.Many reasons force us to believe that these works of art
?for such they are?were executed mainly for magicalpurposes and not merely to satisfy a budding esthetic senseor to record incidents in the life of early man. In the first
[ 203 ]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTplace a great number, including some of the finest of them,occur in the innermost recesses of caves, almost inaccessi-ble even today and quite invisible without the aid ofartificial light. Evidently the artists did not intend themprimarily to be seen and admired by their fellow tribes-men. Again, the animals represented include almost ex-clusively those upon which men placed their chief reliancefor food; others, whose flesh was too tough or too unpal-atable even for the strong teeth and stronger stomachs ofthe cave people, are very rarely seen. Occasionally theartist represented the subject of his drawing or paintingwith a dart sticking in it (see Figs. 13 and 62). The motivehere was undoubtedly the same which, handed downthrough the ages, caused the medieval witch to thrust pinsinto a wax image of the person whose death she desired tobring about.But although the cave artist had as his primary and per-haps only conscious purpose the insuring of a plentifulsupply of food animals, his work is often so fine, so sure ofitself, so full of energy and life and the close observation ofnature, that in many cases genuine artistic feeling evi-dently inspired it (Fig. 46). The cave art foreshadowed inthe development of this quality the great art of Greecemany thousand years later; in the latter, too, the primarymotive was magico-religious, yet it embodied the finestexpressions of sheer beauty that the world has ever seen.The Aurignacian artists depicted other classes of objectson the walls of caves, such as representations of humanhands, either in silhouette or in outline. The noteworthything about these is the frequency with which they revealmutilation through the cutting off of one or more fingers(see Plate 16). As we have seen, the same practice has beenfound to occur among certain uncivilized peoples of moremodern days, the motive being to express grief or to securethe favor of the Unseen Powers. It may be that similarideas induced the ancient Aurignacians thus to mutilatethemselves.
[ 204 ]


THE OLD STONE AGEHand in hand with this great art of the caverns wentthat of engraving and carving, in Hmestone, soapstone,ivory, bone, reindeer antler, and doubtless in wood.Among the works thus executed occur those statuettes of
- 'JLi'Ii.
Fig. 46. Gracing reindeer engraved on a baton de commandement. Thelines in the foreground have been doubtfully interpreted as signifying a poolwith vegetation. After Merckvery corpulent naked women, already mentioned mChapter VI, which, in some of the physical peculiaritiesrepresented, recall the very ancient Bushman race of SouthAfrica. These statuettes seem certainly to have had areligious significance. Perhaps they represent the firstfaint beginnings of the belief in a Great Mother Goddess offertility and life and death which we find so widespread inmuch later times.Generally speaking, in his attempts at delineating thehuman form the Aurignacian artist fell far short of thebrilliant success which he achieved in the realm of animalportrayal. [205]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTThough we find a certain similarity between the burialcustoms of the Cro-Magnons and those of the Neander-thalers whom they replaced, the former made far greateruse of red pigment, which they appear to have deemed ab-solutely essential to a properly arranged interment. Theylikewise buried with the dead circlets, necklaces, gorgets,and coronets of perforated shells; tools and weapons offinely worked flint; and supplies of food. Such funeralfurnishings would appear to imply a lively faith in the sur-vival of the ghost of the dead man, for a time at least.Sometimes, it would seem, the Aurignacians painted thecorpse itself red with mineral pigments which, as tne bodydecayed, eventually worked through to the bones. Atother times, like so many later peoples, they laid the deadaway temporarily until the fleshy parts of the body de-cayed, after which they carefully cleansed, painted red,and once more buried the bones, this time for good.This custom of painting the dead or their bones suggeststhat the living Aurignacians also probably painted them-selves. If so, the practice undoubtedly had a magical basis,as did the war paint of the American Indians, for example.The Solutrean EpochWhat finally became of the culture of the Aurignacianhunters and artists which we have briefly sketched in theforegoing paragraphs ? In certain areas, especially in Italy,sheltered as it is against invasion from the north by thegreat rampart of the Alps, it seems to have survived with-out radical change for a long period. There it shows nosign of having been influenced by the Solutrean andMagdalenian cultures, and was ultimately replaced onlyby the Azilian type of human industry. The valleys of thePyrenees and of northeastern Spain also probably served asrefuges for some of the Aurignacian bands who fled thither,apparently before the Solutrean intruders slowly drifting infrom the east.The climate during the Solutrean epoch was in the main[206]
THE OLD STONE AGE
cold and dry, and much of the surface of Europe then con-sisted of treeless grassland over which swept in summerthick dust storms obscuring the sun, and in winter terriblecold winds and blizzards. Nevertheless, the Solutreansseem to have lived mainly in the open. Possibly they haddeveloped some sort of habitation of skins stretched onpoles, akin in principle to the tepee of the Plains Indiansor the yurt of the Mongols. Of this, however, we can ex-pect to find no direct evidence.During the Solutrean epoch the animal life differedcomparatively little, at least in the generality of its forms,from that of the Aurignacian.In eastern Europe, especially in Poland and Hun-gary, remains of the Mousterian epoch, as already stated,are followed directly by those of the Solutrean. Thisrather indicates that the latter type of culture appeared inthose regions before the Aurignacians had had time towork their way that far east. There seems, at least, to beno doubt that the Solutrean culture originated in the eastand gradually extended westward, improving its techniqueof flint-working as it went. Its impetus, from whatevercause it arose, spent itself before reaching the lands border-ing upon the Mediterranean Sea; for in these it does notoccur.At the beginning of the Solutrean epoch the new methodof shaping implements which forms its special character-istic, that known as "pressure flaking," was rare and un-important. Later on, however, it developed to a pitchnever excelled during the Old Stone Age.The flint implements of this period fall into two distinctclasses. The first occurs in one form or another throughoutthe entire Upper Paleolithic and consists of single anddouble scrapers, drills, burins, retouched flakes, and thelike. The second consists of the "leaf" types of flintblades, which characterize the Solutrean epoch alone anddisappear entirely at its close. These, from their shapes,have been aptly called by the French archeologists the[207]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
^v
"willow-leaf" (narrow) and "laurel-leaf" (broad) forms(Fig. 47). The latter especially occur in great perfectionduring the Middle Solutrean, when they attain a marvel-ous perfection both of form and of technique?perfectlysymmetrical, some-times a foot or morein length, andworked down onboth sides until insome instances theyare actually trans-lucent. The processby which the Solu-treans achieved thisresult was thatknown as pressureor ripple flaking,whereby long, thin,parallel flakes weretaken off right acrossboth faces of theblade. As weapons,nothing else thatman of the OldStone Age achievedapproached theseleaf points, andthey may well haveplayed a large if notdecisive part in thespread of Solutrean culture across Europe from east to west.In its more eastern and presumably earlier aspects, theSolutrean culture displays no implements of bone; butfarther to the west, perhaps as a result of Aurignaciancontacts, objects of that material, such as awls and smooth-ers, and others of reindeer antler, like the baton de com-mandement^ become numerous.
Fig. 47. Solutrean flint implements andweapons of fine laurel-leaf type. Above, twoforms of shouldered point, perhaps earliesttvpe of barbed weapon. After de Mortillet
208
PLATE 57
Above, a mammotli carved from ivory from a Solutrean layer at Pfed-most, Moravia. After Maska. Below, a reconstruction drawingdesigned to bring out the details. From the Illustrated London News

THE OLD STONE AGEDuring the Late Solutrean there appeared, more es-pecially in southwestern France, a new type of flint im-plement known as a "shouldered point," which was madewith a projection on one side. This is the first sign thatman had come to realize the efficacy of a barb in holdinga weapon in the flesh of a hunted animal. In the LateSolutrean we find, too, bone javelin points, and also boneneedles pierced at one end, exactly like our own save inthe material of which they are made. These show prettyconclusively that the art of fitting and sewing skin cloth-ing had made still further progress by this time. In factit is quite likely that during the greater portion of theLater Paleolithic, including the Solutrean epoch, manwore fur garments not unlike those of the modern Eskimo.While the Solutreans far surpassed the Aurignacians inflint working, in art they fell far behind, so much so thatsome have doubted whether the Solutrean culture itselfhad any art at all. They suggest that the examples ofartistic achievement belonging to this epoch representrather the work of surviving Aurignacians who hadmingled with the Solutrean intruders.But whoever the artists were, the Solutrean epoch wit-nessed a considerable development of animal sculpture.A noteworthy example is a figure of a mammoth carvedout of a fragment of ivory, found at Pfedmost, in Moravia,several feet beneath the surface of the loess soil, in anundoubtedly Solutrean layer (Plate 57). The carving ofanimal figures on the batons de commandement also under-went a great advance during this period. It is just possi-ble that statuettes of naked fat women, usually regardedas peculiar to the Late Aurignacian, may also have beenexecuted during the beginning of the Solutrean, If so,they, too, may well have been the work of x-^urignaciansurvivors rather than of the Solutreans themselves. Thelatter may possibly have been primarily responsible forat least one class of decorative designs, namely, thoseof geometric and highly conventionalized type (Fig. 48).[209]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTOrnamentation of this va-riety, as opposed to the morepurely naturalistic designs ofAurignacian times, is dis-tinctly east European. Butwhether they were Solutreanor not, undoubtedly these de-signs also possessed a magicalsignificance.As we have seen, the Solu-trean culture appears to havereached western Europe fromthe east, perhaps as a resultof actual invasion by a new,more warlike, and more ef-ficiently armed people fromthe steppes of southernRussia or southwestern Si-beria. The possessors of thisculture seem throughout theirhistory to have sought thelowlands rather than moun-tainous regions; also they de-pended for food chiefly uponplains-loving species of ani-mals, notably the steppe typeof wild horse.Yet abundant signs indi-cate that the respec.tive cul-tures of the Aurignacians andthe Solutreans reacted uponeach other in many ways. Maybe wherever the Solutreanspenetrated, they constituted themselves a sort of rulingclass or tribe exacting tribute from their predecessors, theAurignacians, as the Iroquois Indians did from the Algon-kins in America. Or they may simply have driven theAurignacians into hilly or densely forested regions where[210I
Fig. 48. Geometrical design rep-reserkting a woman, engraved inivory. The triangular head, thebreasts, hips, and legs are indi-cated. From Predmost, Moravia.After Kriz
THE OLD STONE AGEthey themselves, accustomed to life on the open treelessplains, did not care to penetrate. Numerous illustrationsof a closely similar state of affairs might be drawn from thecontacts between the Plains Indians and their mountain-dwelling neighbors.In Solutrean times, also, men evidently revered, or atleast feared, the spirits of their dead, for among the fewinterments of that period which have thus far come tolight we find instances of stone coverings protecting bodies,which in some cases are specially prepared for burial andaccompanied by numerous grave-offerings. One of theBriinn skeletons, for example, was colored with red pig-ment, as were many of the objects buried with it. Theseincluded perforated stone disks, ornaments of shell andbone and mammoth teeth, and a fragmentary ivorystatuette, apparently of a man.The Solutrean culture is usually considered to have per-sisted in Europe for perhaps a couple of thousand years,after which it came to an end, somewhat abruptly. Thetotal disappearance of the Solutrean technique of flint-working suggests the withdrawal of a race rather than thedecline of a culture. It seems probable that this disap-pearance resulted, in the main at least, from a change inclimate. For there appears to have been an increase inhumidity toward the close of Solutrean times which in-duced the growth of forests. These spread gradually overmuch of the steppe, rendering it impossible for the Solu-treans any longer to continue their accustomed methodsof hunting in western Europe, even had the troops of wildhorses and other plains-loving animals been able to remain.But as the forests slowly crowded out the latter, thebands of hunters who depended on them for a livelihoodseem to have accompanied them farther and farther east-ward, back toward the regions whence they had originallycome. Probably the change in any one man's lifetime washardly great enough to be noticed; and we must rememberthat in those days man possessed no means of recording[211]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTpast events save by oral tradition?literally through
"grandfathers' tales."Here we may recall the theory, already touched upon inChapter VI, that the Solutrean hunters were the remoteancestors of the tall, narrow-skulled, fair people whom weknow as Nordics and who in far later times overran, devas-tated, and conquered great portions of Europe and westernAsia. Much further work needs to be done, however,before this hypothesis can be shown to be either true orfalse. The Magdalenian EpochThe Solutrean epoch, all investigators are agreed,formed only an interlude, although a fairly lengthy one asman looks on time. Immediately on its heels came theMagdalenian culture, whose rise seems fundamentally tohave been connected with the re-emergence from obscurityof the Cro-Magnon race. It represents, however, by nomeans merely a revival of Aurignacian culture, but had avery distinctive character of its own. It has left tracesfrom Spain to central Siberia, but does not occur, at leastin its typical form, in Africa, in Italy, or in southern Spain.For these reasons some have thought that it originated inAsia. Others, however, like Obermaier, regard it, perhapswith better reason, as having arisen in the French Pyre-nees, mainly out of the Aurignacian, but modified andstimulated by other cultural influences, including easternones.Of two things at any rate we may be sure. One, thatthe Magdalenian did not develop out of the Solutrean,which it closely followed; the other, that it is associatedprincipally with the Cro-Magnon race. The latter nolonger attained the splendid physical proportions of earlyAurignacian times. Osborn very plausibly suggests as acause of this decrease in bodily size the severe climaticconditions which prevailed during Magdalenian times.The Magdalenian culture appears to have arisen during[212]
THE OLD STONE AGE%.
V V' t^"^^--- i^^ ill
Fig. 49. Upper: Painted engraving of a horse from the cavern of Niaux, insouthwestern France. Wedge-shaped mark behind right shoulder may indicatea spear or an arrow by which horse was "killed" as part of the magical ceremony.After Cartailhac and Breuil. Lower: The Mongolian wild horse, closely akin tothose of the Old Stone Age, now in the National Zoological Park[213]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTthe first of those three minor advances of the ice whichoccurred at intervals after the close of the last or Wiirmglacial stage. Osborn regards it as beginning about18,000 years ago, although others have put it rather later.All agree, however, in regarding it as a comparatively long
Fig. 50. Magdalenian flint implements, including a graving tool. After deMorgan
epoch, considerably longer than the Solutrean, and lastingaltogether not less than 3,000 or 4,000 years. Most pains-taking study, mainly by French investigators, has led toits division into three phases; the Lower or oldest, theMiddle, and the Upper. Of these the first seems to havebeen at least as long as the other two combined.With the gradual increase of both cold and humidity atthe end of the Solutrean, the glaciers of the Alps, ofScandinavia, and of Great Britain once more advanced,although not by any means as far as they had done duringthe Wiirm or last really great glaciation. Nevertheless thecold and the heavy falls of wet snow compelled mankindto seek shelter in the mouths of caves or at least underoverhanging cliffs. Forests gradually overgrew the low-lands of western Europe, interspersed with meadows andswamps, and around the borders of the greatly expandedice fields bleak tundra conditions prevailed. This phaseof the Magdalenian epoch is that of the Biihl postglacial[214]
THE OLD STONE AGE
stage in the Alps. During Middle Magdalenian times, atemporary retreat of the ice fields followed, and somewhatmore genial climatic conditions returned. Finally, thesecond postglacial advance, known as the Gschnitz stagein the Alpine region, -seems to have coincided fairly closelywith the closing period of Mag-dalenian culture, bringing withit a cold, wet climate, althoughthe snow line did not descendas far down the mountain-sides as during the Biihl ad-vance.These climatic fluctuationsnaturally affected the animallife, although not in any radi-cal way. Both tundra andsteppe forms existed, includingthe reindeer and the horse,upon which the Magdaleniansdepended largely for food;although, of course, they onlyhunted them and did not bringthem under domestication.The Magdalenians also knewthe saiga antelope, distinctlya steppe animal; the musk ox,now a denizen of arctic North/\merica; the bison and themoose, both closely related toexisting forms; the ibex, thebeaver, the wolverine, the lion,the wolf, the fox, and manyothers. The mammoth andthe woolly rhinoceros still occurred in western Europe atthe beginning of the epoch, although they disappearedbefore it was over. Thus the fauna was of a typical cold-loving type; for even the lion, which we think of today as[215]
Fig. 51. Magdalenian bone andivory points and harpoons. Afterde Morgan
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
a native of Africa and southern Asia, can become habitu-ated to very cold weather, just as the tiger is nowhere solarge and fine as in Manchuria and Siberia.During the Magdalenian that loss of skill in stone-work-ing, which seems to have begun with the increased utiliza-tion of other materials during the Aurignacian, furthermanifested itself. The period had none of the beautifulpressure or ripple flaking which characterized the Solu-trean; but an extraordinary development of skill andartistic taste took place in the manufacture of all kinds ofimplements from bone, mam-moth ivory, reindeer antler, andprobably also from more perish-able materials, such as wood andthe horns of bison and wild cat-tle. The simple bone harpoonwith ridges and notches, of theEarly Magdalenian, evolved intime into a most effective weaponwith rows of recurving barbsalong both edges. Sharp javelinsof reindeer antler bore deepgrooves, whether to hold poisonor merely to let the blood flowmore freely we do not know.Scrapers for dressing skins, aswell as awls, hammers, chisels,and stone and horn polishers,were made in profusion. TheMagdalenians also produced theso-called baton de commandement,often richly carved, no doubt inorder to increase its magicalefiicacy.Late in the Magdalenian epoch appeared the spear-thrower, exactly similar in principle to those still used bysavage peoples in many parts of the world (Fig. 52). This[216]
Fig. 52. Magdalenian spear-thrower of reindeer antlerpartly restored. Believed torepresent a grouse or ptarmi-gan. After Piette and Breuil
it
-2 o"? OZ Na:z
o
IS o
rt
-^o
PLATE 59
Magdalenian bone needles, awls, and fishhooks, with material andtools used in their manufacture. Double-ended points like Nos. 205and 206 seem to have been used in fishing. After de Mortillet
THE OLD STONE AGE
marked a decided advance in armament. It is possible,too, that the bow and arrow were known, although theevidence for this is necessarily indirect, since materials solittle durable as those from which these weapons are madecould scarcely be expected to survive. Very significant ofthe clothing habits of the Magdalenians is the abundanceof finely made bone or ivory needles (Plate 59), piercedwith eyes, which occur in deposits of this period.Up to this point in our study of early man we have beenable at the most only to infer the existence of artificialhabitations of any kind. We know that during certain
F'lG. 53. Tectiform or hiitlike designs from the caves of southern France andSpain, of uncertain interpretation; perhaps wild animal traps. After Breuilcold periods he lived in the mouths of caves; and we canguess that under milder climatic conditions he may even-tually have erected windbreaks, or even huts of some sort,in the open. But during the Magdalenian the evidencefor the existence of such constructions becomes muchstronger.Thus the type station of La Madeleine, from which theMagdalenian epoch takes its name, is merely a long, shal-low rock-shelter which of itself could hardly have affordedprotection from the elements to such large populationsas evidently camped there then. The inference is well-nigh irresistible that they must have built, along the shel-tered area at the foot of the cliff, long lines of habitationsof some kind. Moreover on the walls of certain caves,like those of Font-de-Gaume, in southwestern France, andof Castillo and Pasiega, in the extreme north of Spain, wefind depicted designs which many investigators regard asrepresentations of huts or cabins (Fig. ^2)-> though othershave interpreted them as pictures of traps for capturing[217]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
wild animals.. But in either case they afford pretty clearevidence that so advanced a people as the Magdalenianswere quite intelligent enough to erect buildings of somesort. For that matter, they very likely knew how to con-struct both huts and animal traps.The great artistic ability of the Cro-Magnon race whichachieved such remarkable results during the Aurignacianepoch underwent a partial eclipse during the Solutrean.But in the Magdalenian it again shone forth more bril-liantly than<^ever and reached a degree of excellence un-equaled before, although sometimes foreshadowed duringthe Late Aurignacian. It culminated in the MiddleMagdalenian. After that there came a sudden decline andeventual disappearance, for which various explanationshave been offered.Like the Aurigna-cian, the Magdalenianart falls into two dis-tinct but nearly re-lated divisions. Themore impressive of thetwo is that found onthe walls, ceilings, andfloors of caverns. Theother appears often aselaborate decorationson various objects,such as tools and weap-ons, particularly ofbone and antler (Fig.54). Nor can we doubt that carving in wood must alsohave been highly developed. It is quite possible, too,that the Magdalenians painted designs on animal skins,just as the Plains Indians did on buffalo robes.The beginning of this great artistic development co-incided, as we have seen, with a climatic phase in whichlife conditions were again very severe, driving people tof2i8 1
Fig. 54. Conventionalized designs carved onfragments of bone. From the cave of Espe-lugues, southwestern France. After Piette
THE OLD STONE AGE
rock-shelters and the vestibules of caves for protectionfrom the increased cold and dampness. Thus, during thewinters at least, there must have been much crowdingtogether, and this invariably leads to active exchange ofideas and consequent rapidity of progress. This hasalways been so. Cities are invariably progressive, some-
Fio. 55. A hunters' feast engraved on a bone pendant. The dead bison isshown partly dismembered, exposing the spinal column. From the cave ofRaymonden, southwestern France. After Breuiltimes even radical; while rural regions, where people aremore scattered, are conservative and slow to change.Thus the words "pagan" and "heathen" meant originallynothing more than "villager" {paganus in Latin) and
"dweller on the heath," for belief in the old gods stillsurvived in the country districts long after the greatcenters of population had become Christian; hence, also,
"rustic" or "countryman" became equivalent to "non-Christian."Similarly in Magdalenian days, when people livedcrowded together, and blizzards and deep, wet snow en-forced long periods of physical inactivity, minds as giftedas those of the Cro-Magnons must have been stimulatedto an exceptional degree. This would lead, as indeed weknow it did, to progress in many directions, one of whichwas in the field of art.This is not at all to imply that the Magdalenians wereever "artists" in the present-day sense. Like the Auri-[219]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
Fig. 56. Stone lamp from cave of La Mouthe,in southwestern France; perhaps it providedHght for the cave artists. After de Mortillet
gnacians, they usually executed their engravings and paint-ings in the remotest depths of caverns, in places almostincredibly difficult of access and in darkness hardly to bedispelled by the smoking torches and crude stone lampsof the ancient artists (Fig. 56). Such inaccessible recesseswere never picture gal-leries or show places,but rather Cro-Mag-non man's cathedralsand temples, where,far from the abodes ofhis fellows, he carriedon his most sacred andawesome rites.Great differences exist in the artistic merits of the vari-ous pictures, showing that some individuals had far greatertalent than others. Nevertheless, the changes of style inthis cave art follow exactly the same course wherever itoccurs, even in the most widely separated regions. Thiscan only mean that active communication and inter-change of ideas was going on at this time throughout muchof western Europe, at least among the medicine men.One of the striking things about this cave art is the ap-parently purposeless way in which one picture is drawnover another, exactly as though the latter had not existed(Plate 60). Here we have one of the surest proofs that themotive underlying it all was magical and not merelyesthetic, for it shows that after a given design had servedits purpose in helping "make magic" it lost its interest.Earlier drawings meant nothing to later artists. EvidentlyCro-Magnon man, like most savages to whom the ceaselessquest for food is the great problem of life, was a strictutilitarian. And like them, too, he doubtless hunted dif-ferent animals at different seasons.The cave artists employed several of the graphic arts
?
engraving, carving in low relief, painting in one or morecolors, and modeling or sculpture. Not infrequently they
[ 220 ]
PLATE 60
Superposed mural frescoes representing horse, reindeer, bison, andmammoth. The designs were first engraved as above and then panned;the lower picture gives the final effect. After Capitan, Breuil, andPeyrony

THE OLD STONE AGE
combined two or more methods. They showed great abil-ity in modeling figures in clay, like the two bisons in thecavern of Tuc d'Audoubert or the clay bear with a realbear's skull in the cave of Montespan. In fact they prob-
A 1 <^
Fig. 57. Design of a herd of reindeer, engraved on the wing bone of an eagle.From the cave of La Mairie, southwestern France. After Capitan and Breuilably employed this method a good deal more commonlythan its few surviving examples would indicate; for Cro-Magnon man had not learned to bake his clay figures,which therefore must usually have soon gone to pieces.Of these various arts, engraving and painting especiallycharacterized the Middle Magdalenian, when the latter
Fk;. 58. A mammoth engraved on ivory, from the station of La Madeleine. Oneof the earliest and most spirited specimens of the later Old Stone Age art found.After Lartetmethod in particular reached its height. The artist usedocher and oxide of manganese for pigments, grinding themfine in stone mortars and mixing them with some suchI221 1
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTmedium as animal fat. They kept these paints in shells orin tubes made of the hollow leg bones of animals. Whatthey used for brushes we have no means of knowing, butperhaps some sort of fibrous wood frayed out at the end.They painted mainly in red or black, or in both, but alsooccasionally used other colors.Sculpture, which began in the Aurignacian, developedcontinuously to the Middle Magdalenian. That ofanimals, which seems to have had its rise in the Solutrean,reached its height in the Early Magdalenian. Nudehuman figurines were also executed, although these nowtended to be naturalistic and comparatively free from thegross exaggeration of the Aurignacian sculptors. Butrepresentations of the human form during the Magda-lenian epoch are rather rare and never rival the excellenceof contemporaneous portrayals of animal life.Of the different animals depicted, the mammoth, whileit lasted, furnished a favorite subject, as did the reindeer,the horse, and the bison. Of the last-named creature ithas been estimated that fifty representations occur for oneof the wild bull. Birds are rarely shown, but fish are notinfrequent (Fig. 59).Representations of masked or otherwise disguised hu-man figures point inevitably to the existence of some sortof ritual. They recall in particular the "hunting dances"of certain latter-day savages, in which the performers puton skins of animals of the kind about to be hunted andimitate their characteristic movements. Perhaps themost noteworthy design of this class so far found is oneknown as "The Sorcerer," or, as our frontiersmen wouldhave said, "The Medicine Man." This was discovered afew years ago, deep in the cavern of the Trois Freres, insouthwestern France (Fig. 60). It is placed high on theend wall in a most inaccessible position, from which itdominates the entire chamber, and is engraved, certain ofits features being emphasized by the application of blackpaint. The figure, about two and a half feet long, is that
[ 222 ]
Oh
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THE OLD STONE AGE
of a man leaning forward and apparently dancing. Longhairy ears and the horns of a stag adorn his head, and apointed beard seems to be indicated, while he also wearsa horse's tail. We have here, no doubt, a representationof a witch doctor, or shaman, tricked out in all his savage
Fig. 59. Red deer and salmon, engraved on a piece of rein-deer antler; scene may represent a herd crossing a stream asindicated by the fish. Marks in the upper right-hand cornermay be the artist's signature. After Piette
regalia and stamping and shuffling about in some huntingdance. Since even back in the Aurignacian epoch manseems already to have conceived of supernatural beings aspossessing human form, possibly we have here somethingof the same sort. The figure may not be the representationof any earthly medicine man but of some mythologicalconcept?some "Divine Huntsman," invoked for aid inthe chase. At all events it indicates that Magdalenianman had reached a point in the development of his re-ligious beliefs quite equal to that of many modern peoplesand in advance of some.The care which he bestowed upon the burial of his deadfurther indicates this. Again we see the persistence ofcustoms originating in Aurignacian times, if not indeedearlier still. Bodies were provided with necklaces, girdles,
f ^23 ]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTand pendants of pierced shells or the perforated and en-graved teeth of various animals, among them the lion andthe bear. Evidence of the custom of "secondary inter-ment" already described is to be seen in the manner of
Fig. 6o. The famous figure known as "The Sorcerer,"partly engraved and partly painted in black, from thecavern of the Trois Freres in southwestern France. Fromphotograph by Count Begouenputting the disarticulated bones of the dead togetheragain before this final burial. Thus the skeleton found in1894 in the grotto of Les Hoteaux, in eastern France, hadits thigh bones reversed, perhaps so that its ghost could not
"walk." Often the remains are found covered with red[224]
THE OLD STONE AGE
ocher and accompanied by various implements. Some-times the head is entirely separated from the body andburied by itself. In not a few cases, the leg bones havebeen found doubled up so tightly that they must havebeen held in this position by bandages of some kind,doubtless of skin thongs or strips. In the great cave ofLa Placard, in southwestern France, there came to lightin a Lower Magdalenian layer several human skull-topswhich had been cut off with some sharp implement. Asthese when found were carefully arranged in order, withthe concavities turned upward, the inference is that theyhad been fashioned from the heads either of enemies or ofloved ones, to serve as ceremonial cups or bowls (Fig. 6i).Evidently the Magdalenians had a well-established cultof the dead, perhaps even an actual ancestor worship,which undoubtedly exerted a profound influence on thelife and thought of the time. Some modern investigators,indeed, believe that all religion may be traced back ulti-mately to beliefs and practices connected with the dead.What caused the rapid decline of culture in the LateMagdalenian has not yet been fully explained. Perhaps,as Osborn suggests, the Cro-Magnon race had reached theend of a long cycle of psychic development?had, in otherwords, arrived at a point beyond which it could progressno further, and decline was therefore inevitable. Some-thing of this sort has occurred repeatedly in the history ofvarious civilized races, for no reason as yet apparent.On the other hand, we know that, coincident with theclose of Magdalenian times, great changes came overEurope. The ice fields once more retreated far up thesides of the mountains. Tundra conditions gradually dis-appeared, save in the far north. Although the climate wasstill somewhat colder and damper than now, forests onceagain won back the tundra land. Cold-loving species ofanimals, on which the Magdalenians had depended solargely for a living, withdrew as the conditions favoringtheir existence slowly changed. And the forms which did[225]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
remain became more difficult to hunt successfully as theforests kept on increasing in density.Indications, indeed, exist that at this time fishing slowlyreplaced hunting as the principal means of gaining a liveli-hood. From being an active, courageous hunter of largeand often highlydangerous wildanimals, Cro-Magnon manseems to have be-come a fishermanand a gatherer ofshellfish.It is likely, too,that about thistime the ances-tors of the wide-spread "Mediter-ranean" race oftoday began toinvade southernand westernEurope, comingfrom northernAfrica. These people appear to have brought with them atype of culture more advanced in some ways than that ofthe Magdalenians. Perhaps they had a more closely knitsocial organization that enabled them to use their armedstrength to greater advantage. Or, on the other hand,they may merely have appeared in larger numbers andsimply swamped their predecessors. Their undoubted useof bows and arrows, perhaps with poison, may have hadsomething to do with their superiority.The Cro-Magnon race, however, did not die out entirely.Here and there, as skeletal peculiarities clearly show, itstill survives, in a more or less mixed form, as an elementof the populations of the present day.I226I
Fig. 61. Human skul!-tops made into cups or bowls,probably for ceremonial use. From the cave of LePlacard, in southwestern France. After Rreuil andObermaier
THE OLD STONE AGEThe Capstan Culture of SpainWe must not close this brief account of the Old StoneAge without making some reference to human activitiesin Spain during that period. Enough has already cometo light in that country to show that it played a part in thestory of early man no less important than that of Franceitself. Nor is this at all surprising, for the Spanish penin-sula has always served as a highway for the migrationsback and forth between Africa and Europe of both racesand cultures. This has been true throughout historicaltimes, and now research is showing that it was also thecase in the prehistoric period.During the Ice Age the lowlands of Spain, owing to theirmore southern position, escaped burial under great icefields like those which spread over so much of the North-ern Hemisphere. Glaciers were formed in the mountains,but they did not flow very far down the valleys before theyreached their melting point. Obermaier, our leading au-thority in this field, believes that the interglacial stages inSpain included phases when the climate was more humidand others when it was drier than that of the present. Hethinks, too, that the vast accumulations of sand and claywhich cover the lower slopes of many of the Spanish moun-tain chains were not laid down during the glacial stagesbut during the more humid interglacial periods.Owing to its milder climate the older "warm" types ofanimal life, like the southern and the straight-tusked ele-phants, the Etruscan and Merck's rhinoceros, the hippo-potamus, and the striped hyena, were able to survive farlonger in Spain than in most parts of Europe. For thesame reason the northern or "cold" fauna, including formslike the hairy mammoth, the woolly rhinoceros, the rein-deer, and the musk ox, succeeded in getting no fartherdown than the extreme north of the peninsula.So far Spain has revealed no traces of the Pre-Chelleanculture, but Chellean and Acheulian remains occur in all[227]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTparts of the peninsula, being traceable probably to anultimate African origin. Mousterian implements, as-sociated in Spain, too, with Neanderthal man, are alsowidespread. It will only be necessary in this connectionto recall the various finds at Gibraltar already described(see Chapter VII).In Spain, as elsewhere in western Europe, the Aurigna-cian followed the Mousterian. In northern Africa a cul-ture already mentioned as very closely resembling, if notactually identical with, the Aurignacian, viz., that knownas the Early or Lower Capsian, followed. The lack as yetof actual skeletal evidence leaves us uncertain whether toascribe the latter culture to the Cro-Magnon race, butseveral reasons suggest that it should be so ascribed. Inthe first place, the Capsians developed a style of art verydistinctive in character, but unquestionably derivedoriginally from the same source as that of the Aurignaciansand Magdalenians; and the latter, as we know, has beenfound closely associated with the bones of Cro-Magnonman. Further, it has been stated that the Cro-Magnontype still appears among the Tuareg, an ancient "white"race now inhabiting the western and central SaharaDesert. It is also thought to have occurred among theLate Stone x-^ge people known as the Guanches, whomEuropeans found occupying the Canary Islands, off thenorthwestern coast of Africa, when they conquered thatgroup some four or five hundred years ago. If these obser-vations should prove well founded, they would establisha presumption that there was a Cro-Magnon strain, atleast, in the blood of the Capsian invaders of Spain.But the latter seem also to have included in their racialcomposition a very large element ancestral to the Medi-terrean race already mentioned in connection with theMagdalenian decline. This stock was destined to form thebasis of the population of western and southern Europe,during the Middle and New Stone Ages; and indeed, itstill predominates in many regions of that area. A round-
f 228 1
THE OLD STONE AGEheaded or broad-skulled element, coming apparently fromAsia, was just beginning to appear here and there in west-ern Europe at the very end of the Old Stone Age.After the Aurignacian culture in most of Europe, as weknow, came first the Solutrean and then the Magdalenian.In Spain, however, the two latter cultures appear only inthe extreme north. In the rest of the peninsula matterstook a different course. Somewhere about the close ofthe Aurignacian epoch in Europe, the Lower Capsian ofnorthern Africa developed into the Upper Capsian, dis-tinguished by its very small stone implements of geometri-cal shapes, its large bone needles, and its curved bladesmade from the shells of ostrich eggs. This Upper or LateCapsian spread over into southern and eastern Spain,where it succeeded the Spanish Aurignacian and flour-ished during the same period as did the Solutrean and theMagdalenian farther north.The Upper Capsian seems to have brought with it arealistic and very animated style of art, in many respectsstrikingly like some of that which has been found in vari-ous parts of Africa in very recent vears. It differed fromthe Upper Paleolithic art of the rest of western Europe inattaching great prominence to representations of humanbeings, and from these we can learn a good deal aboutthe dress and weapons and the customs of the time. Themen went about practically naked, although occasionallythey are shown with what appear to be short breeches ortrunks. They also sometimes wear fringed bands justbelow the knee and around the arms, as well as tall head-dresses, apparently of feathers. Figures of women occurvery rarely, and are almost invariably clad in rather longskirts, no doubt of buckskin.The male figures frequently carry bows and arrows(Fig. 62), giving us the first indisputable evidence of theexistence of that weapon, which was destined to playsuch an important part in the future history of mankind.Certain jackal-like animals portrayed in the rock-shelter
[ 229 ]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
of Alpera, in southwestern Spain, may possibly representhalf-domesticated dogs; but this is exceedingly doubtful.Despite certain dissimilarities, this Upper Capsian artof southern and eastern Spain seems to have been de-veloped from the same sources which produced the Auri-
FiG. 62. A stag hunt. Capsian or Spanish art of the Late Paieohthic. Notebows and arrows and apparent feathering of latter. Painted in dark red in the"Cave ot the Horses." After Obermaier230
THE OLD STONE AGEgnacian and Magdalenian art, and in response to the samepsychological stimuli. That is, the animal figures wereundoubtedly designed to obtain aid in the hunt or tobring about an increase in the number of food animals.Scenes in which human figures occur appear to have hadas their motive the imparting of strength, swiftness, and
Fig. 6^. Wounded warrior running away at top speed, probably drawn to bringabout an enemy's defeat; painted in light red. From the rock-shelter of LaSaltadora, eastern Spain. After Obermaier
courage to the warriors of the artist-magician's own tribe,or the weakening through spells and incantations of theirenemies. The latter were accordingly depicted as runningaway, sometimes riddled with darts (Fig. 6^), in the beliefthat when the actual combat took place the same resultswould be obtained through the power of magic.This eastern Spanish art, as it is sometimes called, isusually found in shallow and relatively open rock-shelters;for deep caverns, like those in which so much of theAurignacian and Magdalenian art has been found, very[231 ]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
rarely occur in this region. It came to an end with theclose of the Old Stone Age itself, when the Capsian culturegradually developed into what is known as the Tardenoi-sian, belonging to that phase of human progress called theMesolithic or Middle Stone Age, to be discussed in the nextchapter.With the end of the Old Stone Age, climatic conditionsin Europe became more nearly what they have been eversince. Once again, after the close of the Magdalenianepoch, a minor advance of the glaciers took place, knownin the Alpine region as the Daun, but it was far less severethan that of the Gschnitz, and still less so than the Buhl.Since then the changes seem to have been not so much inrespect of temperature as in that of humidity; certainperiods have been less moist and rainy than others.But on the whole, conditions in western Europe onceagain became favorable to the growth of trees, which,undisturbed by man through long ages, often attained avery great size. From the end of the Old Stone Age downto comparatively recent times, much of Europe was cov-ered with dense, impenetrable forest, the dark and awe-some Urwald, or "Ancient Wood," of Germanic myth andstory.With the comparative amelioration of the climate, manyof the animals familiar to the men of the Old Stone Agedisappeared from western Europe. Some, like the mam-moth and the woolly rhinoceros, had perhaps alreadyfound a temporary haven in northern Siberia, only in theend to die out altogether. Others, such as the reindeer,the musk ox, and the wolverine, still survive in far north-ern regions, where the climate today resembles that ofEurope during the Ice Age. Doubtless these migrationsof the accustomed food animals played a great, perhaps adecisive, part in the movements and modifications of thehuman populations of the time. For food habits of longstanding are particularly stubborn things, and rapid andcompulsory adjustments to changed conditions are ex-[232]


THE OLD STONE AGE
ceedingly difficult to make. Witness the swift degeneracyand partial extinction of our Plains Indian tribes, due inno small measure to the extermination of the vast herdsof bisons or "buffaloes," upon which they had been wontto depend.We have come now to the end of the Old Stone Age inEurope. Its story outside of Europe is still a very dis-connected one, rendered more difficult of interpretation,perhaps, by the absence in the warmer portions of theglobe of the great time-scale of the Ice Age, with its alter-nating colder and warmer periods.In discussing epochs subsequent to the Old Stone Agethe mass of material forces us to lay greater stress ontopical than on regional or racial studies, a course per-missible in an attempt to describe the processes by whichcivilization has been attained.
^33
CHAPTER XIITHE MIDDLE STONE AGEFor many years archeologists believed that when the OldStone Age came to an end, not long after the close of theGlacial Period, there followed an interval during whichmankind disappeared entirely from Europe. Only withthe arrival of new races, bringing with them domesticanimals, agriculture, pottery, and polished stone imple-ments, was the Neolithic Period, or New Stone Age,thought to have begun. We know better now, thanks tolater discoveries. In various regions of Europe, bothnorth and south, the remains of cultures have come tolight, proving that Europe throughout this intermediateperiod was occupied by human beings, in most cases thedirect descendants of the later Old Stone Age races.Moreover, the culture of this time forms in many respectsa true connecting link between those of the Old and NewStone x'\ges.This transitional period is sometimes called Mesolithic
?
Greek for "Middle Stone." At its beginning, man seemsyet to have lacked any implement capable of cutting downa tree. He still lived mainly by hunting and fishing andgathering wild berries and fruits. x'\t first sight it mightappear that he had actually retrograded in culture; forhis life seems to have been a wretched one, not unlike thatled by the savages of Tierra del Fuego, for example, orothers among the least advanced of present-day races.Nevertheless he was making progress, and that in severalimportant directions.It appears, for example, that during this period he[234]
THE MIDDLE STONE AGEinvented the stone ax, or rather hatchet, his first meansof coping with the jungle (Fig. 65). We can in a measurereaHze the far-reaching importance of this invention if wepause to think what the axmeant to our own pioneer fore-bears in the settlement of thiscountry. Man had not yetlearned to grind and polish hisstone implements but stillchipped them out, although hegradually gave them betterand more effective shapes.He accomplished the haftingoften by splitting or boringthe end of a stout stick orclub and then inserting thestone blade in the cavity,where a binding of animalsinew or rawhide, by its nat-ural shrinkage, held it in placewith a grip almost as strong as iron. The familiar Indiantomahawk was an implement of this description.To primitive man the addedpower which the ax gave himin his struggles with his en-vironment seemed absolutelysupernatural. The stone axwas "big medicine" and, likeeverything else which earlyman thought much about, wasregarded as having a life ofits own. The owner must becareful not to offend or mis-use it in any way. He madeofferings to it, talked to it,and handled it carefully andreverently.235]
Fig. 64. Flat harpoons of red-deerantler, from the cave of Masd'Azil. After Piette
Fic. 65. Left, stone hatchet fromeastern Australia, with polishedcutting edge only. Right, ironhammer from the upper CongoRiver, retaining ancient haftingmethod. After Frobenius
<*"
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTThe superstitious beliefs inspired by the early stonehatchet persisted far down into later times, and the axremained a symbol of power and authority among certainpeoples, even into the historical period. Thus beautifullypolished examples in jade were symbols of kingly authorityin Bronze Age China, while the ax, especially in its doubleor two-edged form, retained great ceremonial significancein ancient religious observances in parts of the Mediter-ranean area.Throughout the long earlier periods, before and duringthe Old Stone Age, man sought refuge from the rain underoverhanging cliffs, and from the cold inside the mouths ofcaves. Probably, too, he learned in time to erect simplewindbreaks or lean-tos of bark or leafy boughs. And, aswe have seen, certain designs of the later Old Stone Agein western European caves may represent huts or cabins;but with the advent of the stone ax it became a muchsimpler matter to cut down saplings and make huts roofedwith leaves, bark, or skins, like those of so many savagetribes the world over, even today (Plate 63). Primitiveman seems sometimes to have erected these for safety'ssake among the branches of trees, on piles over water, oreven on rafts moored a short distance from the shore. Butfurther than this man hardly got during this middle periodof transition.While Middle Stone Age man can not claim the in-vention of the bow and arrow, which, as we saw, firstappeared with certainty in the Upper Capsian, its useprobably became general during the Mesolithic Period.As with so many other discoveries of primary impor-tance, we do not know when or where or how the bow andarrow originated. Probably some accident suggested them.It has been held that the idea came from the instrumentknown as the bow-drill, an implement used even today fordrilling holes, kindling fires (Fig. 67), and the like. Theinvention may also have been made more than once,though this seems unlikely.
THE MIDDLE STONE AGEThe use of the bow and arrow resulted in a vast exten-sion of man's power over his environment. He could nowbring down his game or his enemy at much greater dis-tances and with far more precision than ever before. The
Fig. 66. Negrito using bow and arrow, Philippine Islands.Afrer Frobeniuscrude new weapon was one susceptible of vast improve-ment in many ways. As the long bow, the weapon of theEnglish yeomanry during the later Middle Ages, it provedscarcely less effective than gunpowder in bringing low thepretensions of the haughty feudal aristocracy. As thecompound bow, the terribly efficient weapon of the hordesof central Asiatic light-horsemen, who for two thousandyears threatened civilization in almost every part of theOld World, it has wielded power no less great and decisive.[237]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTIn the Mesolithic we begin to find the earliest crude ex-amples of pottery. Men, or perhaps women, apparentlyalready knew how to weave baskets, and it has been sug-gested that the coating of these with clay, to render themwater-tight, may have led to the molding of the first rough
Fig. 67. Wooden fire-drill, Madagascar. A step in advance of thiswas to attach the ends of the cord to a bow. .After Frobeniuspot. A stubborn, unreasoning conservatism, deeply im-bued with superstition, formed one of early man's leadingcharacteristics. Thus we find on fragments of ancientpottery, in many parts of the world, the marks of mattingor basketry, made while the clay was still soft. To theprimitive potter, a pot must bear basketry marks, or itwould be unlucky. Later, these marks came to be re-garded simply as decorations, and in time dispensed withentirely.During this same transitional period man seems to havetaken the first steps toward the domestication of the animalswhich have contributed so much to his progress. For itis then that the dog, by far the earliest of all domesticanimals, first clearly appears associated with man.We must not suppose, however, that early man caughtand tamed the dog because he had reasoned out beforehand[238]
THE MIDDLE STONE AGEthat that animal would be of any particular use to him.In order to take any conscious step in advance, man, bothancient and modern, must have the light of some previousexperience to guide him. And hitherto he had known ofanimals only as something dangerous, to be avoided or elsehunted and killed for their flesh and skins.So the likelihood that dogs might be of use to mancould not by any possibility suggest itself to the lowlysavages of the Middle Stone Age. In fact, to this day,among a great part of mankind, the dog is nothing morethan an ownerless scavenger and hanger-on about refuseheaps, otherwise only useful for raising an alarm at theapproach of strangers. And that is what he appears tohave been at the beginning of his long association withman. Some have said, indeed, that it was not man whoadopted the dog, but the dog which adopted man. Insome region inhabited by man during this middle period, aspecies of wild dog seems to have found the pickings betterabout the haunts of men than elsewhere. In turn itshuman hosts doubtless ate the dog when they could catchit. Then litters of its young would be brought into camp,where, if not wanted at once for food, their presence wouldbe tolerated for a time. Given this opportunity, thenatural play instinct of both puppies and young boyswould inevitably assert itself just as it does today.These habits of association once formed, in time groupsof wandering hunters would naturally come to have theirpacks of half-domesticated dogs following them aboutfrom camp to camp. Valued at first merely as a source offood and for their usefulness in detecting the presence oflurking enemies, in time their aid in following game wouldbe utilized. Thus man at length acquired a domesticanimal.Little if any evidence exists to indicate that the men ofthe later Old Stone Age had any means of traveling overthe surface of the water. Their culture, in some respectsso like that of the modern Eskimo, gives no hint that they[239]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASThad invented any form of canoe. It is true that they haveleft us drawings of various water-dwelling creatures, likethe seal, the salmon, and the eel; but these are all such ascould readily be speared from dry land or perhaps in somecases through the ice.But in this Middle Stone Age, again, we find clear proofsthat man was learning how to support himself and controlhis movements on the water. No doubt he could always
Fig. 68. Tasmanian "canoe" made of rolls of bark lashed together. AfterLing Rothswim; but hitherto he had been essentially a land dweller.Thus his conquest of the water was a step as momentousin its way as the conquest of the air is to us nowadays.As with all the basic discoveries, we can only surmisethe course of this one. Flood waters must often havecarried off the camps of hunters and fishermen. The samefloods undermined and floated away trees. His instinctiveclutching of these would soon show early man that theycould keep him from drowning, and even carry him withthem for long distances. By pushing with a stick or spearin shallow water or by striking out with his hands andfeet where it was deeper, he would learn that he could, ina measure, control their movements. Thus the idea offloats must have arisen. In time man learned to con-struct these for himself out of bundles of buoyant reeds,rolls of bark, and even tree trunks laid side by side andlashed together. Examples of the former have occurredin recent times among some of the more backward races,such as the now extinct Tasmanians; while the shores of theBaltic Sea have yielded traces of a raft big enough to sup-port a floating village and implying a long previous periodof development. [240]
I'yj (u
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THE MIDDLE STONE AGEThe canoe proper, made by hollowing out a log, largelywith the aid of fire, developed early, perhaps suggested bythe accidental use of a hollow tree trunk. Such a dis-covery might conceivably be made more than once, wher-ever trees grew near water; at least the well-nigh world-wide distribution of the dugout canoe suggests this. From
Fic. 69. Chinese dragon-boat today used only for ceremonial purposes, butemployed in actual warfare in China, Burma, Siam, and neighboring regionsuntil middle of 19th centurythis improvement we can trace, step by step, the evolu-tion of larger and larger craft, until we reach such tri-umphs of the shipbuilder's art as the ocean steamer andthe battleship of the present day.We still have an intuitive feeling that boats and shipsare living things with characters and personalities of theirown. That is why we give them individual names. Toearly man this idea was very real. He felt that by carvingthe likenesses of a water monster's head and tail at the bowand stern of his war canoe, he could impart to it magicallythe swiftness and ferocity of such creatures in a very realsense. The dragon's head and tail that ornamented theextremities of the old Viking ships and of modern Chinese
"dragon boats" have had this for their motive.To primitive folk in general, unfamiliar with the idea oftraveling over the water, the sudden appearance of strangepeople, traders or enemies, skimming over the water in a[241]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
fleet of canoes, must have brought the same feehngs ofsuperstitious awe as did the ships of early European explor-ers to the uncivilized islanders among whom they came.As we have seen, man appears already in the Old StoneAge to have grasped the idea that he might increase hissupply of food by his own efforts, although, so far as weknow, he never got beyond the point of using magicalmeans. The beginnings of true agriculture are most prob-ably to be sought in this transitional period to which wemust ascribe so many inventions of primary importance inman's further development. Of course, no abrupt changein the practice took place, and but little, consciously atleast, in theory. We have learned today that the bestway to succeed is by assisting nature. Primitive mantried to control her, for he had not yet reached the con-cept of fixed and invariable natural laws. For a longtime, in consequence, he placed much more dependence onmagical rites than on actual planting and cultivation.Not so many years have passed since our own immediateancestors fully believed that, in order to grow best, seedsmust be planted while the moon was waxing and notwaning. The student of ancient man must never forget thatman has had only experience to teach him; and he has oftenbeen very, very slow in drawing the right conclusions.At first the primitive husbandman probably did littlemore than protect certain edible plants by clearing awayweeds and keeping birds and animals from destroyingthem. Since man derived strength from eating them,they were thought to be imbued with "medicine" andtherefore deserving of respect.Some edible plants are even today only half domesti-cated; water cress and various berries, nuts, and fruits, forexample, are still often gathered wild. Progress in agri-culture, just as in everything else, has been so slow anduneven in different parts of the globe that we can stillsee today almost every one of its various stages in actualexistence among this or that people.[242]
THE MIDDLE STONE AGEFrom the very first, agriculture seems to have beenespecially women's work, due perhaps to two causes, onepractical, the other theoretical. The men of any givengroup long remained hunters, fishermen, and fighters,activities which often took them away from home, so thatthey had no time to look after the rude clearings wherethe earliest simple crops were grown. The same soundreasoning led early women everywhere to become theburden bearers and drudges of the group, in order that themen might be ready on the instant, weapon in hand, torepel an attack by human or animal foes. Among savagepeoples to this day the women insist upon bearing theloads and doing the drudgery in order that their men-folk may have their hands free at all times to defend them.The other, theoretical motive which left the tending ofthe crops to women was that they, in some mysterious way,seemed to control all the vital processes. Just as they hadthe power of perpetuating the race, so, early man reasonedor rather felt, they must have power over all growingthings. Not until long ages after, with the advent of theplow and of plow animals, whose management required aman's strength, did women really become emancipatedfrom doing the bulk if not all of the field work.We can not tell as yet what plants early man first beganto assist in growing and in time to domesticate. On thewhole, it seems likely that they were those which hadedible leaves and roots. The distant ancestors of ourradishes, turnips, cabbages, lettuce, and spinach wouldcome within this category. Root and leaf crops have oneserious defect?they do not keep well; but the variouscereals contain as much or more nourishment, while at thesame time they can be kept for long periods. Nothing ap-proaching a real civilization could arise until man beganto grow cereals, for only then could he lay up reservestores of provisions and thus free himself from his ceaselessquest for daily food.At the beginning of the Mesolithic Period man had[243]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
not yet learned to shape his stone implements by grindingand polishing. Just when and how the change from roughto polished stone took place, we do not yet know. Somehave suggested that the origin of planting had somethingto do with it. Rough and heavy stone hoes are known tohave come into existence in more than one part of theworld. Examples from North x^merica are almost identicalin form with others found in China. But wherever theyoccur they have one invariable trait in common?alongtheir edges, where they have repeatedly come in contactwith the ground, they have become highly polished. Manmay have caught the idea of polishing and grinding stonetools from this, for some of the earlier stone hatchets havethe edges polished, while the rest of the surface remainsrough and merely chipped out.Thus we find ourselves on the brink of the period usuallycalled the Neolithic?the Age of Polished Stone. But themanner of making stone tools is not that which alone, oreven mainly, distinguishes this stage of man's progressabove those vastly longer periods which had gone before.The accumulated experience of the race, gatheredhaltingly, painfully, and with almost infinite slowness,was beginning to bear its well-earned fruit in a thousandadvances.How far, then, have we come? We began with man anaked, hairy savage, unarmed save for the teeth and nailswith which nature had provided him and a certain cun-ning and slyness which enabled him to think just a step ortwo ahead of his most intelligent animal foes. In thiscondition he remained, with only the faintest trace ofprogress, for hundreds of thousands of years. But slowlyhis brain was developing. He was becoming more andmore human, less hairy, less bestial of appearance, able tostand more nearly erect. Unconsciously and through theworking of natural laws, he acquired the power of speech
?
of exchanging ideas with his fellow men and handingdown by word of mouth, as well as by example, the results[244]
THE MIDDLE STONE AGE
of his own experience to his children and grandchildren.Then he learned to use tools?sticks and stones?and, stilllater, to shape them into more efficient forms. Then camethe use of fire, of string, and of skins for clothing.These fundamentals comprised the sum of man'sachievements up to the beginning of the Old Stone Age.During that period he made more noticeable progress, thetempo of advance increasing slightly toward its end, sothat we see great improvements in the shape and varietyof his tools and implements. During the Aurignacian andMagdalenian phases of his Old Stone Age life his artisticpowers developed remarkably, though from differentmotives from those we understand.With the gradual close of the Old Stone Age, we losesight of some of the advances in culture which took place,although probably most if not all of them survived inparts of the world as yet unexplored by the archeologist.For it is important to remember the very uneven rate ofprogress in civilization in different regions of the globeand among various peoples.Finally the Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age witnessedthe development of many inventions of primary impor-tance. Then, apparently, mankind first discovered effec-tive means of making clearings and building huts andcanoes. Crude pottery, a rudimentary agriculture, andprobably the domestication of the dog also then firstappear. Man still remained in great part a hunter and afisherman, such as he had been for hundreds of thousandsof years. But he had at last escaped from total de-pendence upon natural products. Henceforth he was ablein ever-increasing measure to produce food for himself,both animal and vegetable.
[245
;%
CHAPTER XIIITHE NEW STONE AGETo New Stone Age man we owe the development of trueagriculture and especially of the growing of cereaU, thebasis of all later civilization. Where this first occurred wedo not know as yet. Doubtless many peoples, once theyhad reached a certain stage of culture, took to protectingand cultivating and finally to sowing certain wild plantsabout them which experience had shown to be especiallyvaluable for food. The American Indians, for example,almost certainly entered the Western Hemisphere as merefood gatherers, hunters, and fishermen. Yet by the timethey became known to Europeans they had domesticated agreat number of plants, embracing such important formsas maize, sweet and "Irish" potatoes, pumpkins, squashes,Lima and kidney beans, tomatoes, and tobacco, to men-tion only a few.We have emphasized the great part which magic playedin the life of early man and how its influence spread intothe vast field of food production. We no longer think itnecessary to fertilize our fields with the life-blood ofhuman beings, but primitive man did so through manythousands of years. Only in the nineteenth century wasthis cruel practice stamped out in British India, and itstill persists in certain backward regions not yet undereffective civilized control. The custom seems to havearisen through that false association of ideas so commonto the emergent human mind. Primitive man observedvery far back in his history that life in some mysteriousway depended upon the blood. The idea persisted even[246]
^ "X/V.
THE NEW STONE AGE
u ^
g E
247]
?^'?'"^'iiJ''-''
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTamong a people so comparatively high in the culture scaleas the ancient Hebrews.Especially when the spirits of cultivated plants, andparticularly of certain cereals, came to be thought of ashaving human form, did the ceremonial shedding of humanblood, often in very cruel ways, seem essential to primitiveman. Sometimes the victim was regarded as the in-carnation of the god himself. Many peoples had the ideaof a dying god who gives his life for his people, and tracesof it still persist in the folk tales and beliefs and customsof the peasant population of Europe and Asia. The Aztecsof Mexico carried it to an exceptionally high pitch ofdramatic intensity, characterized by the most brilliantpageantry.The offering of human sacrifices in connection withagricultural operations belongs essentially to the Neolithicstage of man's development. One of the causes whichled to its abandon-ment in more ad-vanced regions wasthe domestication ofanimals which couldbe substituted forhuman beings in thesebloody rites. We seea reflection of this inthe familiar accountofAbraham and Isaacand the "ram caughtin a thicket by hishorns." The persist-ence of the customin certain regions, likeMexico, probably resulted in no small part from the lackof suitable domestic animals.Among many of the more advanced planting peoples ofthe New Stone Age grew up the idea of a divinity called
[ 248 ]
Fig. 71. Staghorn pickaxes used for miningflint in Neolithic times; that on the right wasused with both hands. After Rutot
PLATE 65
Neolithic warrior, with tomahawk and dagger of stone, flint-tippedarrows, necklace, and plaited cap. Modeled by Mascre under thedirection of Rutot

THE NEW STONE AGEin later times the Great Mother Goddess, patroness of fer-tility and growth and bounteous harvests. Primitive manthought of her as having the power both to give life and totake it. Usually he associated with her in his worship herDivine Son, the latter very often one of those "dyinggods" just mentioned. The Mother Goddess in thoseearly times was commonly represented by crude images inwhich, to judge from later analogy, she was induced todwell through the action of spells or prayers. It is of one ofher more developed manifestations that the prophet Jere-miah speaks when he rebukes the people for burning in-cense and pouring out drink offerings to the "queen ofheaven."We used to think that mankind everywhere had passedthrough the same successive stages of development, firstthe hunting, then the pastoral, and finally the agricultural.We now know that this was not the case. Man began asa hunter and food gatherer, certainly, and in that condi-tion he remained for much the greater part of his exist-ence, until, in fact, a very recent era in his history. Buthe did not develop next into a herdsman or a shepherd. Onthe contrary, he be-came a primitivefarmer or gardener, orrather his women did,while he himself re-mained a hunter, afisherman, a toolmaker, and a fighter.The development ofplanting resulted, ofcourse, in attaching man to the soil, to definite localities,and finally to specific plots of ground to an extent neverfound among savages in the pure hunting stage. Stillclinging closely to the edges of the forest?for cutting downor even girdling trees with a stone hatchet was by nomeans an easy task (Fig. 72)?the primitive farmer finally
Fio. 72. Prehistoric stone hatchet from aSwiss lake village. The stone blade insertedin a sleeve of staghorn greatly reduced theliability of the wood to split. After Keller
249
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
acquired domestic animals in addition to the dog he hadalready had so long.We do not know what animals other than the dog manfirst tamed, or how he did it, but we can make severalpertinent deductions. First a set of conditions must havearisen which brought man and certain species of animalssusceptible of domestication into especially close contactwith each other. The plausible suggestion has been madethat, as the west-central portions of Asia slowly dried outafter the close of the Ice Age, both men and animalstended to be crowded more and more closely together inthose areas which still remained well watered. Finallyeven these shrank until they became mere oases?islandsof vegetation surrounded by vast expanses of desert andsemidesert. Not only does drought tend to crowd allliving creatures together about the water holes; it also robsanimals of much of their wildness and instinctive timiditytoward man. Thus, among the rest, those wild animalsupon which man had largely preyed became less wild.Some such state of affairs may have led to the beginningsof domestication.The process implies first a sufficient degree of intelligenceto enable man to appreciate the advantages of havingdomestic animals at all. Then there must exist animalsof species which can be domesticated. The lack of theseover a great part of the New World supplies us with afundamental explanation for the backwardness of theAmerican Indian as compared to the European four hun-dred years ago. Finally, conditions must be such thatthe animals, after being half tamed and in a measureaccustomed to the presence of man, can not easily escapefrom under his control and become once more truly wild.The more we study early man, the oftener do we findinstances in which he was governed by reasons totallydifferent from those which cause us to do some of the verysame things that he did. If asked why man domesticatedcattle, we should doubtless reply without hesitation, "For[250]
THE NEW STONE AGE
their meat and milk and hides and for their labor as packand draught animals." We should probably say also thatchickens were domesticated for the sake of their flesh andespecially their eggs.But can we imagine primitive man, on seeing a herd ofwild cattle crashing through the underbrush, at oncegrasping the possibility of using their milk for human foodor their strength in helping his womenfolk to till the littlegarden plots in the forest? Or can we conceive of him asable to foresee the development of the wild jungle fowl, inthe course of hundreds or perhaps even thousands ofyears, into the egg-laying strains that exist today? Suchpossibilities were not in the faintest degree apparent toany one on this earth in the days before the domesticationof animals began or for long centuries later. Many ofthe most important qualities for which we now valueanimals did not exist at all when they were first domesti-cated and have been developed only by long-continuedselective breeding.Superstition, the great driving force in the shaping ofman's actions in early times, played a very large andprobably the leading part in the domestication of animals.Its influence in this direction had already begun to appearat least as far back as the later portions of the Old StoneAge. Those animals which played the most importantroles as sources of food came in time to be the objects ofmany ceremonial observances and eventually to be re-garded as themselves sacred and especially fitted forsacrifice. From time to time man would capture in-dividuals of these species and keep them in confinementto be slain at certain festivals, just as the ancient Mexicansused to keep prisoners of war, or as some of the peoples ofnortheast Siberia keep captive bears, for the same purpose.Moreover, our distant predecessors felt that the pos-session of sacred animals brought good fortune to thegroup, and on this theory sacred bulls were kept in thetemples of ancient Egypt, sacred horses in those of modern[251]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTJapan, and sacred white elephants in Siam. Sometimesearly man regarded such an animal both as divinity and asvictim?as a god dying for the benefit of his people-?theidea that we found so widespread in connection with earlyagriculture. Such animals were eaten at the sacrificialfeasts that their qualities might be communicated to theworshipers. To omit such sacrifices was regarded as anunspeakable calamity, portending terrible things.And yet, as cultivation extended and the originallyplentiful supply of wild animals decreased, it happenedagain and again that the capture of victims as they wereneeded became more and more uncertain, and sacrificessometimes failed. To guard against this danger, manprobably began to set aside the necessary animals, perhapseven in actual inclosures where he could protect themand prevent them from wandering, until in time theybecame half domesticated. As their numbers increasedunder these sheltered conditions, their sacred charactercame to have less importance and was finally confined onlyto particular individuals or to certain occasions. By thattime we might regard the species as to all intents and pur-poses fully domesticated, although even then the chiefuses to which they were put might differ widely from thoseof later times.We can see this process of domestication at work amongthe stock-raising peoples of antiquity; and we can alsodetect its various stages actively going on today amongcertain peoples. Thus every one of the great peoples ofancient times?the Babylonians, Egyptians, Cretans,Greeks, and Romans, to mention but a few?regardedcattle as sacred. They are still held holy in India andto a less extent in China. Very many superstitiousbeliefs center about the herds of the great cattle-raisingtribes of East and South Africa. Even the bull fight, nowthe national sport of Spain and her daughter countries,clearly had its origin in association with religion andespecially with rites to insure plentiful harvests.[252]
THE NEW STONE AGEThe Naga tribes northeast of the head of the Bay ofBengal furnish an excellent example of the steps in domes-tication. These still somewhat wild people have ananimal of the ox kind, known as the gayal, or mithan,which they permit to roam and feed by day in the forestsbut which returns at night to the villages. They neveremploy it for labor, nor do they use its milk. But at re-ligious feasts at which it is sacrificed ceremonially they eatits flesh. Thus we find the gayal now in a stage throughwhich the ox proper passed thousands of years earlier onits road to complete domestication by the peoples of theNew Stone Age, probably in western Asia.The peoples dwelling about the great grasslands of theOld World, not unlike our own western prairies, huntedherds of wild horses for the sake of their flesh and prob-ably their skins, just as the Indians used to hunt thebison. The finding at Solutre, in southeastern France, ofthe bones of something like 100,000 horses leaves nodoubt of this use of the horse. To some of the nomadicgrassland horse eaters, especially the ancestors of theprimitive Aryan or Indo-European speaking peoples, thehorse quite naturally became the one animal sacred aboveall others. It grew in time to be associated with the sunand with running water, and was sacrificed to these. Quitepossibly, also, the custom of keeping individuals in cap-tivity arose from the desire to insure a steady supply ofhorses for such sacrifices. Later the practice of milkingthe mares sprang up, probably suggested by the use ofmilk among neighboring agricultural peoples who alreadyhad cattle or goats.At first, of course, man used the herds of half-domesti-cated horses only for food and ritual practices, just as hehad used their wholly wild ancestors during the Old StoneAge. Their utilization in other ways, such as carrying orhauling loads and, much later, for riding, still lay veryfar in the future. We find traces of this earlier use of thehorse as food animal, as tribal mascot or luck bringer, and
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
as sacrificial victim, among nearly all the original horse-using peoples of antiquity, as well as among many of moremodern times.The feeling of repugnance to eating horse-meat thatmany people feel arose in a very curious way out of suchearly associations. So far as its natural qualities go, horse-meat is little if at all inferior to beef, and various raceshave habitually eaten it. It formed the principal food ofsome of the peoples of the Old Stone Age, and the laterHuns, Mongols, and Tartars also ate it. Before Europe'sconversion to Christianity, horse-meat was much eatenat religious festivals held in honor of the old pagan gods.Because of these associations with heathenism the earlyChristian missionaries forbade its use, as "meat offered toidols." Hence people gradually came to feel that theremust be something repulsive in horse-meat itself, and manystill have this feeling without in the least knowing why.With all our machinery we moderns are in danger ofunderestimating the importance of domestic animals inearlier days. We think of them today mainly as sourcesof food, leather, and wool; and in large measure certainforms, such as the pig, the sheep, and the goat, havealways been so. But others, especially the ox, the horse,and the camel, became chiefly important to man as ani-mated machines, capable of doing his work for him farmore effectively than he himself could do it unassisted.Man's treatment of animals finds several rather inter-esting parallels in his treatment of man, whom perhaps it isnot altogether incorrect to call also a domestic animal.All but the more backward races have passed through theinstitution of slavery. Before its development prisonersof war were killed, often with frightful tortures. Then itoccurred to the more advanced peoples that they mightdo better to spare some and make them do the hard anddisagreeable work. Thus slavery in its origin marked agreat step in advance in the direction of humanity andbelongs probably to the New Stone Age.[254]
THE NEW STONE AGEBut man has also sacrificed human beings and eveneaten them in connection with magical or religious cere-monies, just as he has done with animals. Mankind hasrarely practiced cannibalism solely for food, however, butalmost always has had the idea of deriving strength and
' *' ' .?." -11; >l'<'/iiMm:Fig. 73. Dog rravois used by the American Plains Indians before they acquiredthe horse from the whites. After Wisslercourage from the flesh of the victim, or of propitiating cruelgods by offering human sacrifices and then partaking oftheir bodies in a communal feast.Man's first step in the use of animals for other than foodor sacrificial purposes probably took place when he slunga burden over the back of an ox or a horse while shiftingcamp. It may indeed have been that some tired youngsterlaid his burden across his dog's back and thus first demon-strated that animals could be used for this purpose. Thedog, in fact, was regularly used as a pack animal by certainAmerican Indian tribes before they obtained horses fromthe Spaniards.From early times man utilized various animals for car-rying loads, among them, especially, donkeys, cattle, and12551
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
camels, in the Old World, and llamas, distant cousins of thecamel, in the New, Then some inventive genius, perhapsinspired by his own tendency to drag things he could notpick up, found that an animal could haul a great deal morebehind him than he could carry on his back. This greatdiscovery led step by step to the utilization of animals fordrawing plows and carts.Out of this idea grew that of the wheeled cart, the originof which, however, fades out in prehistoric darkness. Prob-ably some sort of sledge came first, some contrivance likethe travois of the North American Indians?two poleslashed to the animal's sides, with the load placed on thepart that trailed along the ground. From something ofthis sort must have developed a sledge on the order of the
"stone boat" used by farmers for hauling loads of stones.The inventive powers of Neolithic man in most portionsof the world seem to have been unequal to producing thewheel in even its simplest form. The most advancedpeoples of the New World, like the Incas, the Mayas, andthe Aztecs, remained wholly ignorant of it before the whiteman came. Even the ancient Egyptians appear to haveacquired it late?long after they knew the plow; andit did not reach southern Africa, northern Asia, and thePacific area till late historic times.In all probability the wheel was invented only once,most likely in southeastern Asia, and from that region ithas gradually spread over the whole earth as we see it to-day. We may surmise that it developed out of the logroller which we still see placed under heavy burdens toease them over the ground. To save himself the troubleof having to pick up rollers after the load had passed overthem and then run around and place them on the groundin front of it again, some prehistoric inventor hit on thescheme of driving pegs into the under surface of his sledgeto keep the roller dragging along between them as itturned. Next, to lessen the friction against the ground,the middle section of the log was cut away all around,[256]


THE NEW STONE AGEforming an axle, and the primitive cart appeared in all itsessentials?body, axle, and wheels. Even today we see invarious parts ot the world carts of this type, where a roundaxle, held in place between pairs of wooden pins, turnswith the wheels (Plate 66).In time man cut away part of the solid wheels to lightenthe weight, and from this he advanced to the step of as-sembling them from separate pieces, although they still
Fig. 74. Primitive Mexican cart, introduced from Spain. From specimen inthe National Museumremained attached firmly to the axle so that the latterrevolved with them (Fig. 74). Long generations passedbefore true spokes, all radiating outward from the hub,were invented. In many parts of China today, for ex-ample, one sees a type of wheel in which the axle passesthrough a massive wooden construction something in theshape of a capital H, instead of true spokes as in Plate 66.From the beginning man seems to have associated thewheel, and along with it the cart, with religious beliefs andpractices. One of the earliest uses to which he put wheeledvehicles was to carry symbols or representations of thegods, on the march or into battle. We see proof of thispractice in prehistoric rock drawings, ancient models ofsacred cars, in the folklore and mythology of manypeoples, and in the historical records of some ancient races.Probably the use of chariots in war began in this way.[257I
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTFor the early rulers were priests and medicine men, that is,powerful magicians, as well as kings. We find them some-times even regarded as gods, or sons of a god, and so tooholy to set foot on the ground. Before carts were knownattendants carried such rulers about inlitters, both in the Old World and theNew. Their presence was necessary atbattles in order to insure good fortuneto their own side. Their subjects did notexpect them to take active part in thefighting, but to devote themselves tobeating a drum or otherwise "makingmedicine," just as Tecumseh's brother,the Prophet, did at the battle of Tippe-canoe already mentioned. The moderndescendant of the primitive witch doc-tor's drum still remains part of theparaphernalia of war and until veryrecently was actually carried into battle.Man of the NewStone Age took agreat step forwardwhen he yoked hisanimals to a plow.F.c 75- South African j^^ carrying on theBushman woman s . ^ "digging stick, weighted rudimentary agri-with a perforated ^ulture of the catlystone. After Katzel xt r i ? ?Neolithic Period,he used the digging-stick, a pointedimplement sometimes weighted withstone, for turning up the soil (Fig.75), and a crude hoe, at first merelya forked branch, but later equippedwith a blade of stone, shell, or bone.Because of the superficial resemblances in shape be-tween the hoes (Fig. 76) and the plows shown on theEgyptian monuments, people have deduced that the plow[258]
Fig. 76. Ancient Egyp-tian wooden hoe. AfterPerrie
THE NEW STONE AGEdeveloped from the hoe. This, however, seems not to havebeen the case, for the working of the two implementsdiffers fundamentally in principle. The hoe is draggedtoward the operator, while the plow is thrust a,way from
Fig. 77. Caschrom, or foot-plough, used in the Isle of Skye, off the west coastof Scotland. Reproduced from a photograph by courtesy of Mr. E. Cecil Curwanhim. In its use, therefore, the latter recalls the primitivedigging-stick, and the existence of several intermediatelinks seems to prove it the true ancestor of the plow.An implement, called a caschrom^ for turning up theground (Fig. 77), is used in the islands of Skye and the
[ 259 ]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTHebrides, off the west coast of Scotland. This somewhatresembles a primitive plow in shape but is operated byone man, who uses it in much the same way as a spade.Closely similar implements have been reported fromvarious other regions, both in ancient and modern times.These clearly constitute developments of the primitive
Fig. 78. Korean three-man spade, still occasionally used in remote parts of thepeninsuladigging-Stick on the one hand and forerunners of the plowon the other. They need, in fact, to make them plows, onlythe addition of a beam.Apparently a still further step in the evolution of theplow is the so-called "three-man spade," still used in re-mote districts in Korea (Fig. 78). This consists simply ofa heavy spade of crude form, with ropes attached by meansof which two extra men add their strength to that of thewielder in thrusting it into the ground. What must havebeen a closely similar instrument, but worked by half a[260]
THE NEW STONE AGE
Fig. 79. Ancient Egyptian man-drawn plough.After Moret and Davy
dozen men and probably coming nearer to making a con-tinuous furrow, is shown on the Egyptian monuments(Fig- 79)-Apparently, then, certain peoples, still in the Neolithicphase of culture, had developed a crude sort of plow,drawn or jerkedalong by men orwomen. Perhapstheir close asso-ciation with theideas of fertilityand growth ledman to use sa-cred animals, es-pecially cattle,to help dragthese early implements through the ground. In somesuch way the true ox-drawn plow of the earliest historicaltimes must have developed.Man had probably learned to make string, includingthread and yarn of various degrees of fineness, well backin the Old Stone Age. Possibly then, and certainly duringthe following Mesolithic,he had learned to weavefibers of various sortsinto matting and basket-work. From this it wasbut a step to the weavingof textiles. He had longsince grasped the idea ofcutting and fitting animalskins for garments, sowhen the superiority ofcloth for this purpose became apparent, he could make thechange without difficulty.Different parts of the world used different fibers forweaving: Europe, western Asia, and ancient Egypt usedf26ll
Fig. 80. Prehistoric Swedish rock en-graving of plough and oxen. After deMorgan
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTlinen and wool; India, cotton; and southeastern Asia, hempand silk. Some reason exists for the supposition that thecocoons of the silkworm were at first torn up and shreddedand then twisted into thread before it was found thatmuch longer and stronger fibers could be had by simplyunwinding them. In most parts of the New World whereclothing was necessary at all, skins continued to be used;but even there, in certain regions, weaving became knownand reached finally a high degree of excellence.Art had its beginning far back in the Old Stone Age.The earlier of the paintings and carved work found in thecaves of southwestern Europe, authorities agree, date atleast from 20,000 to 25,000 years ago. And doubtless evenbefore that men and women adorned their bodies withstrings of shells and teeth and bright berries, with variouspainted designs and possibly tattoo marks as well, to saynothing of bright feathers and the skins and even hornsof various animals. But primitive man designed none ofthese primarily for decoration. He meant them forcharms, to ward off evil or bring good luck. Every manthroughout those long, dark ages doubtless had his "medi-cine bag" containing odds and ends of all sorts?bits ofcrystal, curiously shaped stones and knots of wood, driedportions of the bodies of animals and men?anything, inshort, that drew his attention for any reason and seemedto him endowed with mysterious power. The virtue stillattached by some people to a rabbit's foot or to the"hand of glory"?the dried hand of a man who has beenhanged?is a last lingering trace of this very primitiveconception.Man made an advance upon this when he began to shapehis charms artificially. At first, probably for long ages,he confined himself to selecting objects that bore a chanceor fancied resemblance to a bird, an animal, or a humanface, eventually increasing the likeness by a little peckingand chipping here and there. But during the Aurignacianand Magdalenian epochs of the Old Stone Age artists did12621
THE NEW STONE x^GE
real carving, much of it of a very high order, in stone,bone, mammoth ivory, and reindeer antler, and probably,too, in wood.During the New Stone x'\ge, also, men undoubtedly didmuch carving inwood, at least incertain regions.The Maoris, thePolynesian na-tives of NewZealand, whendiscovered byEuropean navi-gators, were in aphase of the NewStone Age; andin the carvingson their canoes,the beams oftheir houses, andmany of theirwooden weaponsand utensils,they had attained extremely high artistic merit. Doubt-less New Stone Age man of prehistoric times likewisecarved in wood.We must not forget that many?probably the greatbulk? of the materials used as a base for decoration in
Fig. 8i. Necklace of leopard's teeth, Congo region,Africa. After Frobenius
Fig. 82. Wooden ladle, from a Swiss lake village. After Keller
all ages have been of a perishable nature. How many, forexample, of the wonderful Hawaiian feather cloaks, or thepainted buffalo robes of the Plains Indians, or the carved[263]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTtotem poles of the Northwest Coast, will be left after thelapse of a few centuries? Hence, concerning the art of theNew Stone Age in such regions as Europe, western Asia,and China, which left that stage of civilization behind
Fig. 83. Reconstruction of ^roup of Swiss lake dwellings built out over thewater on piles. After Schmidt
several thousand years ago, we can know only the com-paratively little executed in such exceptionally durablematerials as stone, ivory, or baked clay.Real architecture first appeared during this same Neo-lithic phase of man's development. Men then learned tobuild not mere windbreaks or even huts, but groups ofsubstantial timber houses with walls of bark or wattle-work daubed with clay. For defense, they built theirvillages over the water (Fig. S^) or surrounded them withstrong stockades made of logs set on end, side by side, inthe earth. They also began to erect earthworks ot varioussorts?foundation platforms for temples and other im-[264]
platt: 6"
Simple type of loom used by certain American Indians
y^
'J
2"3
THE NEW STONE AGEportant public buildings, earthen ramparts, and moundsin the shape of various living or mythological creatures,like the famous serpent mound of Ohio?these last, ofcourse, connected with religious ceremonials. Then theycommenced to make use of stone also for architecturalpurposes, first probably in the form of sacred emblems andsymbolic pillars often connected with the worship of an-cestors and with fertility cults; then for platforms, ter-races, and tombs; and finally for actual buildings, oftenelaborately carved and decorated.In the New Stone Age we must seek also for man's firstemployment of metals, destined later to play such a tre-mendously important part in human development. Atfirst, he merely picked up nuggets of "native" gold andperhaps copper, and hammered and worked them intoshape cold, treating them exactly like lumps of some sortof tough, soft stone. True metal-working, with all that itimplies, came much later.At the beginning of the New Stone Age man had ad-vanced but little beyond pure savagery?the life of thefood gatherer, hunter, and fisherman. Before its close hehad learned, in the more advanced regions, to grow largeand regular crops; to rear herds of domestic animals; toemploy human labor, both free and slave, on a large andwell-organized scale; to make excellent pottery; to weavefine fabrics; to erect stone palaces and temples; and,finally, to make the first tentative attempts in the workingof metals. After remaining almost wholly at the mercyof its environment for many hundreds of thousands ofyears, man's genius was at last coming into its own.
265
CHAPTER XIVTHE AGE OF BRONZEWe divide the story of man's progress into successive
"ages" for convenience only. In reality no sharp breaksseparated one period from another. What actually hap-pened was that somewhere, among some particular groupof people, a new discovery, a new invention, would occurand then slowly spread until it became a permanent fea-ture of man's heritage. Thus, during the New Stone Age,men began to notice and work with such metals as theyfound occurring naturally?nuggets of gold and lumps ofcopper.Gold proved too soft and too scarce to serve as a suitablematerial for implements of everyday use. From the be-ginning man held it too precious ever to use for anythingbut ornaments, and, later on, as a medium of exchange.But copper, though not so widely distributed as gold,occurs in far larger deposits and is harder, two reasonswhich better adapt it for shaping into tools and weapons.Copper occurs "native," that is, in the metallic form, indifferent places both in the Eastern and the WesternHemispheres; for example, in the Lake Superior region ofNorth America. We find accordingly that various tribesof Indians already made copper objects, including orna-ments, axes, and spearheads, hammered out cold, beforethe white man came. Some areas, like Mexico, CentralAmerica, and Peru, had made still further progress, andthere we find the ancient peoples practicing a true, albeitsimple, metallurgy, including melting and casting.In the Old World, a similar process seems to have begun[266]
THE AGE OF BRONZE
earlier and developed much faster. This transitionalperiod from the use of stone to that of bronze is some-times called the Chalcolithic, from the Greek words for
"copper" and "stone." Only very slowly did conserva-tive man give up stone tools and weapons in favor of thosemade of metal, and for a long time he used both together,just as today we see the horse and wagon still employedside by side with the motor truck.Mining began long before the use of metals. Even backin the Old Stone Age man dug for suitable lumps of flintout of which to shape his various tools and implements.During the New Stone Age he went much further, andlearned to sink regular shafts and tunnels in the chalkdeposits where flint occurs, using as his chief tool a pickmade of a deer's antler with one tine or prong left on.Examples ofthese primitiveancestors of themodern pickaxare not uncom-mon in ancientworkings (Fig.84). The devel-opment of min-ing for metals,once man hadrealized thatthey, too, could be obtained from the ground, presentedtherefore no difficulties, and we find ancient mines andheaps of slag in various parts of the world, to bear witnessto the activities of the primitive miner and metal worker.
x-^t first man classed the new material as a kind of stone,as the earliest implements of copper, especially the axesand daggers, clearly show; for long after they had comenot merely to be hammered out cold, but actually cast insimple molds, they still kept the shapes of their stonepredecessors.
[ 267 ]
Fig. 84. Pick made of deerhorn, used by flint miners inthe New Stone Age. From Grime's Graves, Norfolk,England
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTProbably some accident led to the great discovery thatheat would turn these curious stones soft and even makethem run. A piece of gold fell into the fire and wasmelted; or a lump of copper ore was used along with otherstones to make a fireplace, and turned soft in the heat.Nor should we ignore the probability that man, once hehad reached a certain stage o\ intelligence, would deliber-ately make all sorts of experiments, just to "see whatwould happen."Pure copper is much more difficult to melt and castsuccessfully than when alloyed with certain other sub-
FiG. 85. Flint-bladed dagger from the Neolithic village of Vinelz, Switzerland.From MacCurdy, after Tschumistances. It happens that copper ores sometimes containsmall quantities of arsenic, antimony, or tin, which whenreduced will form natural alloys; so that chance no doubtled man to the discovery of how to make bronze. As oneof the earliest alloys, man employed lead. Then he foundthat tin made a better one, and finally that the most satis-factory proportions were ninety per cent of copper and
Fig. 86. Late Bronze Age sword, Switzerland. After Kellerten per cent of tin. This discovery ushered in the trueBronze Age, and it led to more far-reaching developmentsthan the making of superior weapons and tools. For tinoccurs in quantity in only a few places, and the demandfor it perceptibly furthered the great extension of tradeand migration and war, both by land and by sea, which wenow know took place during the Bronze Age.[268]


THE AGE OF BRONZEThe first metal workers used shallow open stone moldsfor the reception of the molten metal; but, with improve-ment in the technic of casting and the development ofbetter alloys, they employed molds of earthenware andeven of bronze itself, the forms and designs at the sametime becoming much more elaborate. The "lost wax"process represents one of the later improvements in cast-ing. z'\n exact model of the desired object was made inwax, and coated thickly with clay. After the latter haddried and hardened, it was heated until the wax meltedand ran out. Molten bronze was then poured in, andnaturally took the shape of the wax, down to the smallestdetail. This method obtained some very beautiful andstriking effects.Simple triangular daggers and axes and the halberdcharacterized the earlier part of the Bronze Age. Thehalberd consisted of a dagger blade mounted crosswiseat the end of a wooden handle, and was essentially a sortof tomahawk with a pointed blade. In certain regions itcame to be made of bronze throughout, handle and all,and sometimes with elaborate decorations. But moreefficient weapons, the bronze battle-ax and sword andspear, eventually replaced it.Out of the primitive flint-bladed dagger (Fig. 85), aboutas ugly and ineffective a weapon in a fight as the neck of abroken bottle, there evolved, first, the simple and short-bladed triangular copper dagger. With the invention ofbronze this was lengthened and in time became a short,straight, double-edged thrusting and stabbing sword,ornamented in various ways characteristic of differentlocalities. Also, the method of hafting?of joining bladeand hilt?improved, until finally the ancient armorers castthe entire sword, including the hilt, in one piece. Theearlier bronze swords were used only for thrusting and notfor chopping, a stroke reserved for the ax. In time, how-ever, the blade was widened toward its point to make a
"leaf-shaped" sword, which could be used for slashing as[269]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
well as thrusting (Fig. 86). By the time man had devisedall these improvements he had learned the use of iron,which gradually crowded out bronze for the manufactureof weapons.In hafting his spears at the opening of the Bronze Age,the armorer naturally copied the method in use with flintspears; that is, hesplit the end of thespearshaft and in-serted and lashedfast the spearhead.Later on he fas-tened it with rivets.Eventually thebronze heads wereprovided with sock-ets into which wasthrust the end of theshaft. We still re-tain both these an-cient methods ofhafting in some ofour modern tools;for example, we usechisels with tangs and others with sockets, the latter es-pecially for types of work where hammering on the end ofthe handle would be apt to cause it to split.Bronze axes served both as tools and weapons; withthem one might split either firewood or the heads of one'senemies. In the beginning they were hafted much asstone axes had been. Later in certain regions a sort ofsocket back of the blade was gradually developed (Figs.87 and 88). Finally the plan of passing the helve throughthe ax head, just as we still do, was devised, apparently insouthwestern Asia pretty early in the Bronze Age.The men of some regions of scarce metal copied bronzebattle-axes in stone?shape, perforation, and all. Some-[270]
Fig. 87. Bronze axes cast with loops for lash-ing to the helve. After Keller
THE AGE OF BRONZE
Fig. 88. Bronze ax with wooden helve; to illus-trate the manner of hafting. From SwitzerlandAfter Keller
times, no doubt, it was just a case of the poor man copyingthe rich man's bronze battle-ax in a cheaper and moreeasily obtainable material. But from the beginning man-kind regarded axes as mysterious weapons imbued withmagical virtues, sothey might easilyhave attributed thesuperior power andefficacy of thebronze battle-ax asa weapon to itsshape rather thanto the material ofwhich it was made.Thus they wouldtry to copy theformer when theycould not obtainthe latter.During the NewStone Age men had to content themselves with armormade of leather, wickerwork, slats of wood or bone, andthe like. But the introduction of bronze weapons broughtwith it both the need and the material for better shields,helmets, andbreastplates.At first defen-sive armor con-sisted of littlemore than ashield, just aswith manymodern tribesof savages.Sometimes
? o ? , , J c this was roundI'lG. 89. Copper axes and combination ax-adz. brom ,Hungary. After Keller and made of[271]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTboards covered with leather, with a ls:nob or spilce ofbronze in the center, a type of shield especially charac-teristic of the British Isles and Scandinavia.Then the leather or basketwork cap gave place to a hel-met of bronze, often ornamented in various ways with^horns, wings, or crests of horsehair. Bronze breastplatesor cuirasses also were devised, first merely as overlappingbands or scales of metal sewed onto the leather jerkin,but later as complete suits of armor. Probably the de-mand for protection against the improved slashing swordsintroduced toward the end of the Bronze Age producedthese. Greaves, or "shin-guards," of bronze completedthe armor of the typical Bronze Age man-at-arms.Goliath of Gath, whom David overcame, was such awarrior; the Bible story describes him as wearing a helmet,a coat of mail, greaves, and a "target," or shield, of brass,or as we should say today,bronze. His spearhead, how-ever, seems to have been ofiron. His boastful challenge tohis opponent, "Come to me,and I will give thy flesh untothe fowls of the air, and to thebeasts of the field," was charac-teristic of the way in whichthe champions of opposingarmies used to defy and insulteach other before starting tofight. The practice is not un-known between combatants to-day.In some regions of cool cli-mate, people wore woolen gar-ments, consisting essentially of a tunic for both sexes,with trousers for the men and skirts for the women, whilea long cloak served the purpose of the modern overcoat(Figs. 91 and 92). These articles were held in place by[272]
Fig. 90. Stone copies of bronzebattle-axes, central t^urope. FromChilde


THE AGE OF BRONZE
girdles, belts, and fibulae, or "fasteners," usually of bronze,working on the same principle as our modern safety-pins.The types of fibulae differ in various regions and at dif-ferent periods and so help materially in identifying theage and source of Bronze Age deposits.The art ot making pottery began, as we have seen, soonafter the close ot the Old Stone Age, perhaps as an out-growth of basketry. It underwent steady improvementduring the Neolithic stage of culture, which probablywitnessed the first crude beginnings ot that most usefulimplement, the potter's wheel. In making a clay pot byhand, the great difficulty was to turn it so that the potter
?almost always in early times a woman?could shape itevenly all around. So someone had the clever idea ofputting the ball of wet clay into a shallow basket or thehollow of a large piece of broken pottery, and then turningthe latter around gradually as the vessel took shape.Later a disk of wood or stone, mounted on a vertical axis,replaced the shallow basket. The potter turned this withone hand while he molded the clay with the other, untilit occurred to him to use his foot through the agency of atreadle. This lett both hands free to shape the bowl, en-abling him to produce truer and much more artistic forms.It is possible, indeed, that man invented the potter'swheel before the cart. At all events, it appears in ancientEgypt far earlier than the cart.With the change from making pottery by hand tomaking it on the wheel, men came to replace women aspotters, a substitution which seems roughly to have co-incided with the beginning of the Bronze Age.Few classes of objects are of more importance to thearcheologist than fragments of broken pottery. For clay,once baked, is almost indestructible, while different periodsand countries and peoples all have their own distinctivestyles of shaping and decorating earthenware vessels. Theearlier pots and bowls often bore simply the impressionsof mats, basketry, string, or even the finger-nail, stamped[273]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTin while the clay was still soft. Later on greatly elabo-rated shapes appeared, sometimes with ornamental designsin clay, incised, molded, or stuck on the outside, some-times with smoothed or burnished surfaces. In certainareas, both of the Old and the New World, various de-signs, usually if not always of magical meaning, werepainted on. Then vessels, in afew countries, were coated withglaze. The glazed earthenwaredug out of old Chinese tombs,dating back to about the begin-ning of the Christian Era, oftenproves to have acquired wonder-ful iridescent hues much ad-mired by collectors. True porce-lain, the highest development ofthe potter's art, originated inChina, where it was broughtto perfection only during the pastthousand years or so.The use of bronze gave such lifeto trade as it had never knownbefore. It increased commerceand the intermingling of peoplesdirectly and indirectly. By itscontribution to the rise in thestandards of living it helped in-spire the demand for new luxuries,which led enterprising and ener-getic peoples to branch out in alldirections, trading, conquering, plundering, destroying.Homer tells us, for example, how the Bronze Age Greeksoverthrew and burned the city of Troy. The demand fortin, essential to the manufacture of bronze, led to theestablishment of peaceful trade relations with distantpeoples. Amber, the fossil resin found especially aroundthe Baltic Sea, held a prominent place in the luxury trade.
Fig. 91. Male costume ofthe early Bronze Age.Note the bronze ax lashedto its helve. From Mac-Curdy, after Muller
274
THE AGE OF BRONZEThe peoples of more southern countries regarded it as amagic talisman possessing wonderful virtues and soughtafter it eagerly, as they did after gold, ivory, turquoise,pearls, fragrant herbs, and incense. The demand for suchthings, if it did not actually originate in the Bronze Age,at least greatly increased then, andin time resulted in drawing a largepart of the ancient world into asingle economic unit, linked to-gether by caravan trails and searoutes extending in all directions.The wheeled vehicle, though wellknown by this time, was used main-ly in ceremonials, for war, and infarm work, and to some extent inlocal transport. In many regionsthe almost total absence of roadsrendered impossible its employmentfor long journeys. The "throughfreights" used pack animals?don-keys, horses, mules, and oxen. Theymade their way often in long trains,over mountain ranges and acrossplains, by means of the footpathswhich had come to seam them inall directions from far back in theStone Age,The camel, destined later on tobecome the most important caravananimal of all, was hardly knownduring the Bronze Age. Its use didnot become general, and then only in certain countries,until the true historic period?about the beginning of theIron Age proper.Commerce by water became during the Bronze Agealmost as important as that by land. Beginning ap-parently in the transitional period between the Old and[275]
Fig. 92. Female costumeof the Bronze Age foundin an oak coffin in a grave-mound in Denmark. FromMacCurdy, after Montelius
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTthe New Stone Age, man had developed different craftto support himself on the water. The simple dugout canoeoccurred almost the world over. In the far north and intreeless regions, men learned to make canoes by buildingframes of wood and then stretching over them skins pfanimals or birch bark. The inflated skins of oxen andgoats have also been used in various ways as floats.Whatever the process of construction, however, thestandard method of propulsion remained for a long time
Fig. 93. So-called "bull-boat" of the American Plains Indians, used forcrossing streams; a similar type of craft occurs in Tibet. From specimen inthe National Museumthe same?a paddle wielded by a paddler sitting or stand-ing with his face to the front. In this way considerablespeed might be attained, especially for short spurts; butit wasted energy, for the paddler could not apply hisstrength to the best advantage.[276]
PLATE 71
Outrigger sailing canoe; Caroline Islands, western Pacific. Model inNational Museum
PLATE 72
s?Chinese deep-sea fishing junk. The "eye" on each bow is avestige of the time when a ship was regarded as a hvingthing. From a painting by I. A. Donnelly
THE AGE OF BRONZEOf course, canoes were also poled and towed, or"tracked"; but paddling represented the best means ofpropulsion that man could devise for many thousands ofyears. At length, however, some bright mind hit upon thescheme of using the boat itself as a fulcrum, and the oarwas born. A very primitive form of rowing, in some waysintermediate between paddling and true rowing as weunderstand it, still survives in parts of China. Here theoarsman stands up, facing forward, just as in paddling,and wields an oar slung to an upright peg on the edge orgunwale of the boat. He therefore pushes instead of pull-ing his oar, and so fails to exert his strength to the fullestadvantage. Another method, very common in Far East-ern waters and also used by the gondoliers of Venice, isthat of sculling. Here the oar, instead of being held moreor less at right angles to the side of the boat, is nearlyparallel to it, and is moved to and fro through the watersomewhat as a hsh moves its tail in swimming. But,where the oarsman, facing backward, pulled at the oarinstead of pushing it, he could "put his back" into hisstroke, utilizing all his strength and weight to the bestadvantage.Before man reached this stage of propulsion, however,he had taken another epoch-making step forward whichgreatly increased his mastery over his environment. Hehad invented the sail. So long as he could progress overthe water only by means of his own strength, sea travellabored under a serious handicap. A large canoe or boathad to carry a numerous crew of paddlers in order tosecure enough man-power. This meant more mouths tofeed and at the same time less room for provisions andcargo.But when some genius found that by raising a mat orpiece of cloth on a pole he could sit at ease in his boat,guiding it by a stroke of the steering paddle now and then,while the breeze did all the work for him, the whole com-plexion of affairs changed. Then the crew could be greatly[277]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
reduced, with a corresponding increase in the cruisingradius and the space for goods of all sorts. Also men woreout, but the wind never did; the size of the sea alone limitedthe distance potentially traversable with the aid of the sail.To the Bronze Age we owe, then, the type of craft, pro-pelled by oar and sail, which remained in use until the ap-plication of steam to navigation, little more than a cen-
FiG. 94. Roman coin of bronze about 300 b.c. In still earlier times oxen werethemselves a medium of exchange. After Hilltury ago. Development in detail there was, of course,but the fundamental principle remained the same.With commerce came money, another great step for-ward made in the Bronze Age. Trade in its literal sensehad existed, of course, from the earliest times, ever sincemen learned that exchanging articles sometimes afforded abetter way of acquiring desired objects than hitting theirowner over the head and taking them away from him.Barter remained long in vogue and exists even today incertain backward regions of the globe. Nevertheless, theneed of a standard of values came in time to be recognized.This function was fulfilled commonly by the ox. Thus aslave or a wife might be said to be worth so many oxen or[278]
THE AGE OF BRONZE
cows. We find a trace of this ancient practice in our word"pecuniary," which comes from the Latin pecus, meaning aherd or flock. Later, in early historic times, the Romansused as a crude sort of money a rough ingot of bronze,stamped with the figure of an ox, sheep, or pig, recallingthe time when these animals were themselves the mediumof exchange (Fig. 94).A fixed quantity of grain ofone sort or another also servedas a standard of values in someregions till recent times. TheJapanese, down to the middle ofthe nineteenth century, com-puted incomes in bags of rice,each holding about five bushels.But the development of atrue coinage resulted from theintroduction of metal. Mansoon realized that bronze ob-jects?rings, tools, and weap-ons?provided him convenientobjects to trade with; they weremuch in demand and in theirvery nature they came to bemore or less standardized in sizeand weight and quality. Theiruse, which extended whereverthe knowledge of bronze ex-tended in late prehistoric times,represented, of course, only aspecial form of barter. You"swapped" a bronze ax or hoeor knife for so many furs or somuch amber. But in time the weight of full-sized bronzetools and weapons presented difficulties, especially on along trading expedition ; so small models of the objects werecast to take their place. Thus token money was devised.[279]
Fig. 95. Early Chinese knife-money of copper; about 650-250 B.C. After Lockhart
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTThe ancient Chinese cast coins of this sort?models ofknives and spades (Figs. 95 and 96)? in extremely thinbronze and continued their use until well into the historicperiod. And in parts of Africa hoes made of iron are stillemployed as a medium of exchange.Likewise, expanding trade gradually developed systemsof weights and measures whereby goods might be valuedmore exactly than by the rough-and-ready methods invogue in earlier times. Often the unit of measurementwas based upon the dimensions of some part of the humanbody; such were the foot, the span, the cubit, and thefathom. The feet or hands or arms of no two personsmight be exactly alike, but this did not matter very muchin those davs. Precision in measuring did not come untilmuch later, and even yet has not been tully adopted, evenin civilized lands, so that we still continue to sell eggs bythe dozen and not by weight, the only exact method.But even with these improved means of buying and sell-ing, commerce in the Bronze Age remained in what weshould today considera very undev^elopedstate. Owing to theprimitive means oftransport?the backsof slaves and animalson land and canoes orsmall ships on thewater?only objects ofhigh value and dura-bility in proportion totheir weight and bulkcould be carried far ormade to cover the costof transportation. Such were gold, tin, ivory, amber,furs, and the like. Bulkier and heavier freight, like lum-ber, stone, grain, oil, or wine, could be moved only insmall quantity and for short distances, on barges or rafts.
Fig. 96. Early Chinese hoe-money of copper;about 650-250 B.C. After Lockhart
THE AGE OF BRONZEThus we know that the ancient Egyptians, for example,pretty early brought cedar logs for building purposes fromLebanon across the southeast corner of the MediterraneanSea to their own treeless land. And rafts floated blocks ofstone for statues or columns down the Nile and theEuphrates from the quarries to the places where theywere to be used.Man of the Bronze Age made remarkable progress alsoin art and architecture. He did not, apparently, accom-plish much with sculpture in stone except in a few favoredregions, notably that along the lower Nile; but at castingin bronze and decorating bronze weapons he displayedgreat gilts both in Europe and in Asia. Certain regionsfavored "geometric" designs?the spiral, frets, triangles,and rows oi dots and circles. Others represented variousanimal and vegetable forms in certain characteristicways. Sometimes the bronze was plated with gold orthe objects themselves made of solid gold. The art ofstudding metal with precious stones was practiced andled in time to the development ot enameling on metaland finally to the wonderful cloisonne work broughtto an especially high degree of excellence in medievalChina.Of the so-called minor arts of the Bronze Age, thejewelry merits particular attention. This consisted largelyof rings of various sorts? for the neck, arms, wrists, fingers,ankles, and ears?made not only of bronze, but of gold,silver, and even iron, at first very rare and regarded as aprecious metal. People wore, too, necklaces of variousmaterials, such as amber, ivory, and gold, as well as beltclasps, sometimes highly ornamented and studded withturquoise. For their hair they used combs of bronze,horn, ivory, bone, and wood. Also they lavished deco-rations on horse trappings.The more advanced groups of mankind had by nowprogressed very far indeed beyond the cave, the windbreak,or even the thatched hut of earlier days. Man had learned,[281]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
for one thing, that earth and stone made far more durablebuilding material than wood. The stockaded village, likethose once built by many of the American Indians andstill in active use in various backward parts of the world,now gave place in certain regions to the walled town.Doubtless this development was gradual. No one in-dividual, however gifted, could have conceived the idea,all at once, of making even adobe bricks and of piling them,
Fic. 97. Bronze vase with geometrical ornamentation and withrims perforated for suspension; Denmark, late Bronze Age.After Neergaardone on top of another, to form a wall. We may surmise theprobable course of events, beginning with the piling upof a little earth about the bases of the upright stakes form-ing the palisade, to give them a firmer support. Then itwas found that by increasing the amount of earth, so as toform a mound with a stockade running along its top, aneven better defensive work might be formed. Regions ofscarce trees dispensed with the wooden fence and built theearthen mound high enough and steep enough on its outersurface to form an effective obstacle to marauders. Insome cases, as at present in the villages of northern China,[2821
THE AGE OF BRONZEtangled masses of savage thorns surmounted the wall tomake it still more difficult to scale.As a further step men found that, by ramming downsuccessive layers of earth between retaining frames ofplanks, they could make the mound much stronger andmore durable. Sometimes they embedded logs andbundles of sticks in the clay to give it additional rein-forcement. The original Great Wall of China, builtabout 2IO B.C., but now almost entirely destroyed, wasconstructed in this way.Finally someone hit on the expedient of making the clayinto separate bricks and drying them in the sun, like theadobe bricks still so much used in our own Southwest.It seems curious, in view of the fact that the baking ofpottery had long been known, that the hardening of bricksby baking them in kilns instead of by merely drying themin the sun should have remained so long undiscovered.People undoubtedly used unshaped stones for variouspurposes, including that of building, even before the in-vention of bricks. Already in the New Stone Age, in someregions, huge rough stones had come to be used in variousways, especially in connection with the worship of thedead. Circles, avenues, and monuments, composed ofsingle standing stones, sometimes of gigantic size, occurin various parts of the world, along with dolmens?tombsconstructed of three or more upright stones supportinganother which formed the ceiling of the funeral chamber.A great mound of earth usually if not always covered thedolmens, though this in some cases has since disappeared.The most famous of all these stone constructions is the
"circle" of Stonehenge in England, which seems to havebeen connected in some way with the worship of the sunand to date from the Bronze Age. Here some of thestones, weighing many tons, had been transported longdistances and shaped, dressed down, and provided withsockets and tenons for securing the capstones, involvingan enormous amount of work. But we know that even in
[ 283 ]
MAN FROM THE Fx^RTHEST PASTthe New Stone Age man had learned to organize his laborand make the best possible use of the mechanical forcesknown to him. With endless patience and a large force ofworkers intelligently employed, he was capable of accom-plishing tasks that excite amazement even today.It seems to have been the development of brick construc-tion-work that led eventually, in certain regions, to the useof regularly squared stones for the erection of walls andbuildings. Stone columns were developed from the inspi-ration of wooden supporting pillars; and sometimes raftersand other architectural features, originally of wood, werelater imitated in stone.Wall decoration of various kinds began early, as farback, in all probability, as the New Stone Age, when mencovered the "wattle-and-daub" walls of huts, plasteredsmooth, with designs of various sorts, mostly of a symbolicor magical nature, intended to bring good luck or to wardoff evil.The Bronze Age carried this much further, developingwall painting into a regular art. When stone walls cameinto use, as in early Egypt, they were covered with carveddesigns, known as reliefs, which almost invariably hadsome connection with religion. Sometimes they repre-sented the triumphs of the kings, regarded as themselvesactually gods, over their enemies. On the walls of thetombs of important people, they showed scenes of every-day life, intended through magical means to insure to thedead man the enjoyment in the next world of the samekind of existence he had known in this. Thus we find por-trayed on the walls of Egyptian tombs scenes of worship,of war, of labor, and of sport. The designers did not atall intend these for the eyes of the survivors or of poster-ity; unquestionably not, for they sealed them up in thedarkness of the tomb, as they supposed, forever.The great number of new inventions which appeared inthe Bronze Age found their application to war just as doours today and with comparable results in the develop-[284]
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THE AGE OF BRONZE
ment of warfare. Thanks to bronze weapons and tools,the desultory sort of skirmishing between relatively smallbodies of warriors which characterized the New Stone /^geboth in the Old World and in the New, gave place to regu-lar armies, equipped and drilled in something approachinguniform fashion (Fig. 98). New means of waging war
Fig. 98. Egyptian infantry, Eighteenth Dynasty (15-80-1350 B.C.)- The BronzeAge persisted in Egypt considerably longer than it did in southwestern Asia.After Moret and Davycame into being, methods of conducting sieges of walledtowns, ways of raising, feeding, and maneuvering bodiesof men.The most characteristic engine of war during the BronzeAge was the war chariot. We have already seen how thecart developed, and also how during the New Stone Agethe peoples living about the wide-spreading grasslands ofcentral xAsia and eastern Europe had begun to domesticatethe horse.Now between these tribes, only a little more advancedthan the Plains Indians of America, and the much morehighly civilized peoples inhabiting the fertile river plainsof southwestern Asia and Asia Minor, stood great barriersof mountains and forests and marshes, deserts and lakesand seas, such as man in the New Stone x'\ge could scarcelytraverse, at least in any large numbers. A time came,[285]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASThowever, when the slowly drying climate little by littlethinned out the forests and dried up the swamps and lakesleft behind at the close of the Age of Ice; and then, withimprovements in transportation and organization, con-tacts between the two great cultural regions becameeasier and more frequent.Up to this time only the peoples of southwestern Asiaand perhaps Asia Minor seem to have known wheeledvehicles. They do not appear in Egypt until much later,and they remained unknown in northern Asia, in Africasouth of the Sahara, and throughout the Western Hemis-phere, until a few centuries ago.In the few regions where they were used carts and chariotslong continued to be drawn by oxen?animals incapable ofany great speed?so that the employment of these vehicleswas restricted almost entirely to farm work and religiousprocessions. Their only use in war was to carry to thefield of battle images or symbols of the gods and the per-sons of the kings?themselves gods, priests, and medicinemen combined. Unfortunately, the people who had in-vented the chariot did not as yet have the horse, theanimal above all others fitted to draw it at high speed;and the people who had domesticated the horse remainedignorant of the chariot.But why did not the energetic and warlike people of thegreat grassy plains ride their horses in plundering raids onthe more civilized peoples to the south, just as the Scyth-ians, Huns, Mongols, and Turks did far later.? Strangeas it may seem, though they had known the horse for tensof thousands of years, they had not yet learned to ridehim. Hence, until they learned to yoke their horses inpairs to the chariots they acquired from their more civi-lized neighbors, they had no means of utilizing theseanimals for anything practical except their flesh, theirhides, and perhaps their milk. The utilization of thehorse for hauling and riding changed the whole course ofhistory. Many of the problems connected with it have not[286]
THE AGE OF BRONZEyet been solved; but at least we know in a general waywhat happened.Recent discoveries have shown that this use of the horseis connected very closely with the spread of the earlyIndo-European peoples, and that wherever they first ap-pear in history they are found employing the horse andchariot as their principal instrument of war. Just as theearly Spaniards in Mexico and Peru owed some of their
Fig. 99. Four-wheeled wagon. The two draft animals have beencalled horses but are more probably intended for oxen. Designincised on a clay vessel; Hungary, early Iron Age (900-500 b.c).After de Morgangreatest victories to their use of horses and the terror whichthe latter inspired among the Indians, so the early Indo-European peoples undoubtedly could ascribe much oftheir success to the speed with which they could maneuveron the battlefield in their war chariots, and perhaps evenmore to the panic which the latter inspired in their oppo-nents. To people who had never had to stand up beforeone, a charge of war chariots, with the galloping horses andthe rumbling wheels, the yelling men and the flashingbronze weapons, must have seemed a terrible thing. Thoseof us who have seen automobiles or street-cars bearingswiftly down on us can appreciate something of theirfeelings.The grassland horse breeders, whom we can safely callIndo-Europeans?our own ancestors in speech and partly,too, in blood?must, through contact with their morecivilized neighbors to the south, have gradually become[287]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTfamiliar with the idea of using animals to draw carts ofvarious sorts. Their long association with horses would intime suggest that these animals could pull a chariot farbetter and faster than the oxen or donkeys used until then.For lack of evidence we can not say as yet when thisgreat idea was born, but we may be sure that to work itout fully took a long time. At length, however, armedwith this new instrument of war, more effective in its waythan the tank in modern times, the Indo-Europeans spreadin all directions, conquering, organizing, and ruling as theywent.Thus the spread of the war chariot, drawn by horsesattached to it with a yoke, neckband, and girth, affordsan important clue to the movements of peoples in lateprehistoric times. It appears in southwestern Asia shortlyafter 2000 b. c. and in Egypt a few centuries later. It wasalready in common use in Greece and central Europeabout 1200 B. c, so it must have arrived there at least acentury or two earlier. Gradually it spread westwarduntil it occupied almost the entire continent. Thepeoples of northern Italy and France still employed it inthe third century b. c, but abandoned it soon after.Caesar found the Britons using it in the first centuryB, c, while in Ireland it survived still longer.In the Orient the history of the war chariot is much thesame. The Aryans, who invaded India sometime in thesecond millenium b. c, had it. So had the Bronze Agepopulation of southern Siberia. In China the war chariotand the knowledge of bronze had appeared sometimebefore 1000 b. c.During the second millenium b. c, the use of the chariotfor fighting seems to have spread outward in all direc-tions from the grasslands of southeastern Russia andsouthwestern Siberia, until it had penetrated almost thewhole of the North Temperate regions of the Old World.Then it gradually went out of use, unable to compete suc-cessfully with the later practice of fighting on horseback,[288]
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a development which belongs mainly to the opening cen-turies of the Iron Age.Effective history begins with writing, to the discovery,or perhaps better development of which we have nowcome. To understand how fundamental was this achieve-ment we have only to imagine the situation today if read-ing and writing had never been invented.For one thing, we should be utterly unable to set downand work out any mathematical problems, but would haveto do them all "in our heads," no matter how long or howcomplicated they might be. The record of all discoveries inphysics, chemistry, astronomy, medicine, or any ot theother sciences, would have to be intrusted to our uncertainmemories. If you were ill, the doctor would have to tellyou by word of mouth what sort of prescription to getfilled. Then you would have to tell the druggist what thedoctor had told you, and the druggist would have to mixhis medicines according to what he remembered of whatyou had told him.Again, suppose we had to depend entirely for ourknowledge of the past upon what our fathers told us theyhad heard from their fathers and grandfathers. It iseasy to see how the memory of even the most importantevents would become distorted, run together, and con-fused. Instead of being able to say that George Wash-ington, for example, lived in the eighteenth century andplayed a leading part in the founding of the United States,people, after a few thousands or even hundreds of years,would be wondering whether he lived in the eighteenthcentury or in the eighth. Was he a contemporary ofNapoleon or of Charlemagne? And what was it that hedid anyway? In time he would become a mythical figure,perhaps of supernatural power. Old bards and reciters ofhero tales might even say that he caused the waters of theDelaware to divide and led his Continental troops acrossdry-shod. Finally he would be forgotten altogether.All this may sound extravagant. But it is exactly the[289]
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sort of thing that went on, century after century andmillenium after millenium, through the whole long courseof man's existence on the globe, down to a relatively veryshort time ago. If events and discoveries and facts of allkinds are better remembered today than ever before, it isentirely due to the art of writing.To this day many peoples look upon writing as some-thing uncanny or magical. We may smile at the story ofthe native sent by a missionary to a friend, with a note anda basket of fruit, who sat on the former while he ate thelatter, so that the mysterious "writing" could not see whathe did and tell on him. But that is just how early manlooked at it.Pictographs, or actual pictures of concrete objects, likemen, animals, or plants, seem to have been the first stepin the infinitely slow development of writing. Next camesymbolic representation. A star, for example, might standfor a god; a battle-ax, for a king; three wavy lines, forwater; and so on. Then the earlier pictures, graduallysimplified out of all likeness to the things they originallystood for, became themselves symbols. Thus, to indicatean ox, people would no longer draw a picture of the wholeanimal but merely a sketch of its head?a triangle withtwo lines projecting from the upper corners for the horns.If a wild bull was intended, in the triangle would be drawnthree sharp peaks, the symbol for a mountain, and itwould then mean "a mountain bull," We call charactersof this sort not pictographs but ideographs, because theyare no longer pictorial, but represent ideas.The next great step was to make these symbols standnot only for ideas but also in some cases for sounds. Thisseems to have been accomplished through a method likethat used in the rebuses which we used to solve as children.The sentence, "I see you," to take a very simple example,might be indicated by a picture of a human eye followedby one of the sea and then the letter U. In other words, asymbol which originally stood for one thing would be used[290]
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to mean something else having a similar sound but anentirely different meaning. Some forms of writing nevergot much beyond this, but remained an inconsistent eventhough systematized combination of pictographs, ideo-graphs, and sound symbols. Chinese script is essentiallyan instance of this kind.In other forms the principle of indicating sounds insteadof ideas or objects gained ground, until there resulted a setof signs, each standing tor a definite syllable?a vowelalone or a consonant and vowel. We call such a systema syllabary. The ancient Assyrians used it in part, as doalso the modern Japanese.The best system, because the simplest and most flexible,is the alphabet. Here the symbols stand for sounds andsounds alone, every consonant and finally every vowelhaving its own separate sign. But this development cameonly comparatively late in man's history, after he hadpassed through an extended period of experimenting withpicture-writing, with ideographs, and then with haltingattempts at representing sounds alone.But long before the invention of the alphabet, man hadbegun to keep records. Although he had already longused a few very simple systems of writing, the dawn ofhistory may be said to have occurred during the Age ofBronze.The Mother Goddess of fertility and growth, the divin-ity characteristic of certain regions in the New Stone Age,gradually gave place during the masculine and warlikeBronze Age to the Sun or Sky God. The latter seems atfirst to have been represented only rarely if at all by im-ages in human form, but rather by symbols, particularlythe wheel and the swastika, and also by forms of the crossand representations of ships and of chariots, sometimesthemselves bearing the sacred symbol of the wheel.Human sacrifice, although still quite generally practiced,appears to have become less a magical rite to insure aplentiful harvest than an act of propitiation to turn away[291]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTthreatening calamity. Certain peoples during the BronzeAge seem to have substituted animals for human beingson such occasions; but there remained a sort of latentfeeling that in so doing they were cheating the gods outof their just dues. Even in the early centuries of the his-torical period, in times of great national danger or dis-
Fig. ioo. Sacrifice of a slave, Congo region, Africa. After Frobenius
aster, terrified tribes sometimes sacrificed their children,their most precious possessions.Thus we are told in the Old Testament that theKing of Moab, as a last resort, "took his eldest son thatshould have reigned in his stead, and offered him fora burnt offering upon the wall." Again, when theGreek fleet destined for the siege of Troy was, accordingto the legend, wind-bound at Aulis, King Agamemnonsacrificed his daughter Iphigenia in order to secure afavoring wind.The custom of burying or cremating with the importantdead their wives and slaves and close companions alsobegan to assume prominence, it seems, in the early BronzeAge. The victims sometimes freely offered themselvesto accompany their beloved lord beyond the grave, tolead with him in the next world the life to which they hadbeen accustomed in this. More often, in all probability,they had little choice, but followed their master to the[292I
THE AGE OF BRONZEtomb as a matter of course, like his chariot and horses, hisweapons, and his other treasures.Mankind as a whole has never passed through an Age ofBronze. Over by far the greater part of the globe menhave either remained in the Stone Age, which, unlike theBronze Age, extended over the whole world, or else theyhave gone directly from the Stone to the Iron x'^ge. Thisstatement applies to nearly all the peoples of Africa, ofnorthern Europe and Asia, of the New World, and of theislands of the Pacific. The true Bronze Age, in fact, waspractically confined to the North Temperate zone of theEastern Hemisphere, where it occurred over a continuousarea extending from Spain to China and from Egypt andnorthern India to Scandinavia and central Siberia. Itbegan, apparently, in southwestern Asia, some six orseven thousand years ago; and in some regions, as for ex-ample in China, it lasted almost to the opening of theChristian Era.
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CHAPTER XVANCIENT EGYPT, ASIA MINOR,AND CRETEWe have now reached that point in our story where thekeeping of written records begins. Heretofore, the lackof these has made it impossible to speak of definite coun-tries or peoples, but at the most only of races and regionsand general developments of culture.The effects of the Ice Age did not stop at those regionsactually encroached upon by the vastly expanded glaciersand ice fields. The influence of the latter upon climaticconditions extended far beyond their borders. Because ofthem the "storm belt" of rain-bearing winds now blowingoff the Atlantic over Europe was then deflected tar to thesouth, so that it blew across what is now the rainlessDesert of Sahara. Future research will doubtless disclosethe connection which must have existed between the glacialor interglacial stages ot the European Ice Age and the
"pluvial periods" which seem to have occurred during thesame epoch in Africa. Be that as it may, we know that theSahara, now largely a burning waste of gravel and sand,once formed a pleasant, well-watered region, with abun-dant rain, streams, grass, and trees. Teeming with wildbeasts of all sorts, it presented a hunters' paradise to themen of the Old Stone Age, who have left their tools andweapons scattered about over its surface. But as theclimate grew slowly drier, this abundant human and animallife died out or moved away in quest of water. They mi-grated, among other places, to the valley of the Nile, des-tined in far later times to be the home of a wonderfulcivilization. [294]
ANCIENT EGYPT, ASIA MINOR, AND CRETEPrehistoric EgyptMany students believe that civilization began in Egypt.Recent discoveries, however, appear to indicate that south-western /\sia had on the whole the priority, although incertain respects the predynastic Egyptians were prob-ably further advanced than any other people of their day.The truth is that human progress is a thing of such com-plexity that it advances very unevenly at various periodsand in different localities. Furthermore, scarcely any-thing is so rare as a truly original idea or invention.People progress by borrowing, and isolated regions arepractically certain to be backward. Egypt, while greatlyfavored by nature in many respects, was undeniably some-what isolated. For she had come, in the course of ages,to be hemmed in by deserts on both the east and the west;moreover, she lay a little to one side of the great culturalareas of the late prehistoric period, so far as we know them.The current impression of the precocity of early Egyptiancivilization rests perhaps on the fact that we know farmore about it than we do about the civilization of othercountries because the wonderfully dry climate of Egypthas preserved early remains of all sorts far better thanthey have been preserved elsewhere. Also the Egyptiansresorted largely to stone for building, for inscriptions, andfor pictures of everyday life; and stone, of course, lastsalmost indefinitely.The Nile, rising in equatorial Africa, flows in a generalnortherly direction through a narrow valley varying fromten to thirty miles in width, until at last it enters theMediterranean Sea at the Delta. This, far back in theprehistoric period, formed a bay, a deep notch in theotherwise regular and almost featureless coast line. Longbefore the dawn of history, however, mud brought downby the Nile from the heart of Africa had filled it up. Thegreat river at one time reached the sea through sevenmouths; but these have gradually decreased in number as[295I
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
the filling-up process has continued, until now there arebut two. The rest have dwindled into mere canals, notalways navigable.Long after the Ice Age, when the country on both sidesof the valley had assumed nearly the same desert charac-ter that it bears now, we find the banks of the Nile occu-pied by people physically pretty much like those livingthere today. They resembled the race inhabiting most ofthe countries around the Mediterranean at the presenttime?a race of medium stature, with oval faces, black ordark-brown hair and eyes, and complexions varying frombrown to a rather light olive.These early Nile dwellers lived in scattered villagesplaced above the reach of the yearly inundations. Theysupported themselves partly by hunting the animals in themarshes along the river and in the jungles covering thehigher ground, among others the elephant, hippopotamus,giraffe, okapi, wild bull, and various kinds of antelopes.But they carried on some planting, and in time began tomake experiments in domesticating certain wild creaturesabout them, such as the cat, the greyhound, and the wildass. The latter seems to occur only in northwesternAfrica; the animals called "wild asses" which are found inother parts of the Old World are not really such at all.In time the donkey, or ass, became the common beast ofburden.At first the Nile dwellers seem to have been almost in-distinguishable from most of the other North Africanpeoples?not Negroes in any sense, but "dark whites,"like their descendants, the modern Moors?who occupiedthe lands stretching indefinitely to the westward, towardthe Atlantic. But at some uncertain date in prehistorictimes they came strongly under the influence of peoplesfrom the eastern side of the Red Sea. Invasions of theNile Valley from Palestine or perhaps Arabia may easilyhave occurred more than once in prehistoric times, as theyhave since the dawn of the historical period.
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O

ANCIENT EGYPT, ASIA MINOR, AND CRETEProbably through these contacts, the prehistoric peopleof the Nile Valley became possessed of certain other domes-tic animals, the ox, the goat, and the sheep. After theirintroduction into x-^frica, however, these animals quicklyspread over almost the whole continent, profoundly alter-ing the lives of its people.These prehistoric or predynastic Egyptians grew barley,millet, wheat, and a wide variety of vegetables. Theyknew, too, thecrafts of the pot-ter and the car-penter, as well ashow to makestone weaponsand tools of beau-tiful workman-ship. Vessels hol-lowed out of thehardest stone arecharacteristic ofearly Egyptiancraftsmanship.No other country,in fact, developedstone working tosuch a wonderfuldegree. Thestrong conservative spirit which dominated the Egyptiansmay have contributed to their preference for stone, butwe find the main cause in the scarcity or total lack ofmost of the useful metals in Egypt itself. The countryhas no native copper, tin, iron, gold, or silver. And with-out at least copper and tin a native Bronze Age civiliza-tion could hardly spring .up.In time some copper was obtained from Sinai and morefrom the island of Cyprus, along with quantities of goldfrom the upper Nile. But copper displaced stone and bone
Fig. ioi. Primitive Egyptian hoe, made from aforked branch. After Petrie
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very slowly in Egypt, which thus remained largely in theStone Age long after Babylonia had begun to use bronze.It seems likely that a true agricultural civilization inEgypt first arose in the Delta, where intercourse withother countries was easiest and where new ideas as well asnew materials could be most easily introduced. TheDelta, for example, first adopted that important aid toagriculture, a regular calendar, in the year 424I b. c, whichhas therefore been called "the first fixed date in history."This calendar consisted of a year of twelve months, eachcontaining thirty days, with five holy days added at theend, an arrangement in some ways even more convenientthan our own. But the year actually exceeds 365 days bynearly six hours, so Egyptian dates revolved through acycle of 1,460 years (6 X 1,460 = 8,760 hours = 1 year)before returning to their original astronomical position.During the Neolithic Period the scattered settlements ofthe dwellers along the Nile had gradually coalesced intosmall city states, of which there were roughly twenty inthe Delta and as many others in the Valley. Later yet, al-though still in prehistoric times, these two regions cameto form two kingdoms, known throughout history asLower Egypt and Upper Egypt. Finally a king of UpperEgypt attacked and annexed Lower Egypt and unitedthe two crowns, founding the First Dynasty. With thisevent history begins, although Egyptologists are not yetfully agreed as to the precise time when it occurred.The Nile dwellers, of course, had long had boats andcanoes, and they seem to have been using regular sails evenbefore the close of the predynastic period. Some believethat the sail as it has existed in historic time was anEgyptian invention and that it spread thence to surround-ing regions. Certainly the Egyptians very early had traderelations with countries across the Mediterranean and alsofar down the Red Sea.Stone seems to have come into use as a building materialfor temples toward the end of the Second Dynasty. But[298]
PLATE 76
Egyptian portrait statues. In the Cairo Museum. Photograph in theLibrary of Congress
PLATE 77
Portrait statue of the scribe of an Egyptian king, indicative of theimportance attached to education in ancient Egypt. Photograph inthe Library of Congress from original in the Louvre
ANCIENT EGYPT, ASIA MINOR, AND CRETE
stone implements did not definitely give way to copperones until the Fourth Dynasty. This was the great pyra-mid age. The ancient Egyptians had come to believetheir kings, originally glorified medicine men, to be gods
?
controllers of the weather, givers of harvests, and pro-tectors of the people?whose welfare, therefore, they con-sidered of first importance, both in life and after death.We miss the point entirely if we think of the pyramidsmerely as monuments to the pride and power of tyrannicalrulers. They were meant to be eternal dwelling placesprovided for the spirits of the mighty dead, who in turnwere expected to see to it that the security and prosperityof Egypt were assured. They were built, at enormous costof time and effort, because the united feeling of the peopledemanded them as necessary to the common good.The same sort of thinking led to the development ofearly Egyptian sculpture. People believed that the spiritof the dead needed a body of some kind to live in, just asit had animated a body of flesh during life. Hence theytook particular care to make the face of the stone image anaccurate portrait, that the spirit might recognize it.At first the ancient Egyptians considered that only thespirits of the kings really mattered much, and they builtfor them alone such mighty works as the pyramids. Butgradually the notion spread that the souls of other peoplemight enjoy an after-life if properly cared for by theirsurvivors. We can see this idea springing up first amongthe nobles, the landowners, and court officials; later on itbecomes general.This steady widening of spiritual horizons led to theabandonment of such stupendous works as the pyramidsand the gradual development of temples instead. Buthere, too, the genius of the Egyptians for the vast and thecolossal asserted itself. In the ruins of Karnak and Luxor
?the ancient Thebes?we have the greatest developmentof colonnaded architecture that the world has ever seen(Plate 78). [299]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTMummification, also, developed as a result of this sameinterest in the welfare of the dead, thought to be linkedvery vitally with that of the living. The dry sands of thedesert, without other preservative agencies, have keptfor us the bodies of many of the old predynastic Egyptiansof Neolithic times. Later on, corpses were intentionallyembalmed, but not until long after Egypt had passed herzenith as a great power do we find the highest develop-ment of mummifying?in the Twenty-First Dynasty,about I lOO B. c.The use of true bronze and of the horse and chariotseems to have been introduced into Egypt from Syriaabout 1500 B. c, probably by the conquering Hyksos, or"Shepherd Kings." In fact it seems likely that the abilityof the latter to subdue the Egyptians and dominate themfor a century or more sprang from their possession of thesemore effective means of waging war. The Egyptians veryearly knew iron, perhaps of meteoric origin like that used bycertain of the Eskimo, but they did not make much use ofit until later times, when Egypt, after falling a prey to theEthiopians, Assyrians, Persians, and others, came to beruled by the Macedonians, after x'\lexander the Great.Thus we see that, for all her mighty achievements inarchitecture, art, and in certain other fields of human en-deavor, Egypt lagged behind western Asia in many im-portant respects. She had hardly yet begun to emergefrom the New Stone Age when the two crowns, of Upperand Lower Egypt, were united. She had but just reachedthe Copper Age when the pyramids were built. She owedto western Asiatics the introduction of bronze and horsesand chariots, about the sixteenth century b. c. Thecamel, now so widely employed in Egypt, appears to havebeen brought into general use there by the Assyrians or thePersians. Iron, too, was a late adoption in Egypt, paral-leling its history in China, where, as already noted, theBronze Age lasted almost down to the Christian Era.This, however, is no reflection on the ancient Egyptians.[300]

PLATE 79
Example of Egyptian mummification. In the National Museum
ANCIENT EGYPT, ASIA MINOR, AND CRETEOn the contrary, the greater is the honor due them fortheir ability to accompHsh so much with such compara-tively poor means.Southwestern Asia in Prehistoric TimesThe only other region which, so far as we now know, cancompete with Egypt in priority of civilization is south-western Asia. Here, too, the Ice Age made its influencestrongly felt, although the ice sheet itself seems not tohave covered the extreme southern portions of the conti-nent. We are only just beginning to find out a little aboutthe men who lived there then. But that they did existis certain; for they have left behind them records of theirpresence in the shape of stone implements. And lately,as we have seen, there has been found in Galilee part ofthe skull of a member of the lowly Neanderthal race.When we come down to the period following the closeof the Ice Age, our knowledge becomes slightly moredefinite. It now seems probable that the whole of southernAsia then contained a sparse population of hunting andfood-gathering peoples belonging to the black-skinnedraces which we find today, in various forms, in Africa,India, and some of the islands stretching out to the south-east of Asia. Among them were in all likelihood bothpeoples of ordinary size and pygmies, or dwarf races, likethose which today survive only in parts of Africa on theone hand and in the Malay Peninsula and the East Indieson the other. They seem never to have had to undergothe stern discipline of the Ice Age, and therefore retainedmany primitive traits, remaining essentially in the OldStone Age. They were too few in number and too lowlyin culture to influence later races very deeply.The great changes which took place both in the climateand in the character of the earth's surface as the Ice Agepassed gradually away occurred in southwestern x-^sia justas they did in northern Africa. A great deal of the landthat had been either actually covered deep with ice, or[301 ]
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else too cold and desolate for human habitation, becamepleasant, fruitful, and inviting. Not only the Desert ofSahara, but also the deserts of Arabia and Persia werethen fertile and able to support considerable populations.The country later known as Babylonia at that time laylargely under water, the Persian Gulf running much far-ther up into the land than it does now. xAs the climategrew warmer, the two great rivers, the Euphrates and theTigris, began to carry down mud from the slopes of themountain masses to the north and northeast, and to de-posit it as silt or sediment at their mouths, graduallybuilding up the great alluvial plains later occupied by somany important peoples. This process has continuedsteadily down to the present, and the sites of several citieswhich we know were once on or near the water have beenleft far inland within historical times.So far, in addition to the primitive Negroid hunters, ofwhom we can conjecture little more than the mere ex-istence, we can distinguish three main groups among thepeoples who in turn occupied ancient Babylonia. Thefirst is that known, through one very characteristic type ofremains found on their ancient sites, as the Painted PotteryPeople. They probably had some domestic animals, andthey did a certain amount of planting; but they seem tohave depended for their food chiefly upon hunting and tohave made large use of the bow and arrow. They knewcopper, at least, and so had already left the New StoneAge behind, though probably not very long before. Itis thought that these Painted Pottery People enteredBabylonia from the northeast, probably from the Persianuplands. What became of them we can not as yet saywith any assurance; but they were most likely, in part atleast absorbed by the Sumerians, the people who nextappear on the scene.Some have thought that the Sumerians reached theirhistoric home by migration from central Asia. In the pastfew years, however, there has come to light in northwestern
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ANCIENT EGYPT, ASIA MINOR, AND CRETEIndia a hitherto entirely unknown civilization with someclose resemblances to that of the Sumerians. Again, theymay have come from southern Arabia, where kingdomsnow forgotten existed in ancient days.At all events, when they first become known to us, wefind the Sumerians already in possession of domestic cattle,asses, sheep, and goats, but without horses. They hada well-developed agriculture, carried on with the aid of theplow, and they used carts, both with four and with twowheels, drawn by oxen and asses.Unlike their predecessors, the Painted Pottery People,the Sumerians seem to have made little or no use of thebow and arrow at first. They did wage wars, but on thewhole they were a peaceful folk, engaged mainly in agri-culture, cultivating especially the date palm, which sup-plied them with many of their simple wants in addition tofood. This most useful tree made possible, in the opinionof some, their rise to comparative civilization. They livedin mud villages scattered about over the wide alluvialplains, often built on artificial mounds to be out of thereach of floods; partly, too, perhaps, to escape the swarmsof insect pests that the marshes harbored. In time thesevillages with their surrounding lands united, as in Egypt,to form a number of small city states, ruled over by priest-kings who were often themselves regarded as in some sensegods or descended from gods. Objects of adoration in life,at their funerals large numbers of their guards and servantswere slain and buried with them.Owing to the total lack of stone in the alluvial plains ofBabylonia, mud formed the great building material andcame to be made into bricks, simply dried in the sun at firstand only in later times baked in the fire. Sometimes inplace of mortar, bitumen was used; a reference to this oc-curs in Genesis, xi, 3, where we are told that the builders ofthe Tower of Babel "had brick for stone, and slime hadthey for mortar." The Sumerians also wrote upon tabletsof soft clay and then baked them hard.
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTLike the Painted Pottery People, the Sumerians learnedto employ copper, and gold as well, very early, perhapseven before they arrived in Babylonia. Much of theirwork in these metals is of a high order and shows a well-developed knowledge of metallurgy. They made a sortof bronze by mixing the molten copper with lead; and theyseem to have been the first to develop the socketed spear-head and the battle-ax with the helve passing through theax-head. The Sumerians also early used regular troops,drawn up in ranks and equipped with huge shields andlong spears, something like the famous Macedonianphalanx of much later times. The kings were carried tobattle, probably as medicine men rather than fighters, incarts drawn by donkeys?the forerunners of the laterhorse-drawn war chariots.The development of agriculture naturally led to a greatincrease in population, which in turn gave rise to a needfor more and more organization and joint action, directedby the priest-king rulers, in the defense of their fields andherds and in the making of canals, dykes, town walls,foundation mounds, and temples. Navigation, too, wasdeveloped; for water transport has always been easierand cheaper than that by land. For ages the peoplesalong the lower courses of the Euphrates and Tigris doubt-less used simple floats made of bundles of reeds, together,probably, with dugout canoes. But later they constructedcraft of a larger size, with oars and sails. There was atradition, indeed, that the Phoenicians, that great sea-faring people of antiquity who lived in historical times onthe eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea, came origi-nally from the Persian Gulf.In time the Sumerians were absorbed by the Semites,peoples speaking tongues belonging to the same family ofspeech as ancient Hebrew and modern Arabic. There wasmuch give and take in this process, and each peopleadopted many elements of civilization from the other. TheSumerian language, however, which belonged to a totally[304]
PLATE 80
Assyrian troops besieging a city. An attendant lioljs a shield before eacharcher; a siege engine is battering against the walls; lower left, thecasualties; above, three men impaled to terrify the besieged. Inscriptionbelow is in cuneiform writing. Photograph in the Library of Congressfrom original in the British Museum

ANCIENT EGYPT, ASIA MINOR, AND CRETEdifferent family, gradually died out of everyday use, beingemployed in later times mainly for religious purposes,somewhat as the Church in medieval Europe employedLatin.The amalgamated peoples continued their progress inthe civilized arts, and in time certain of their kings con-quered the first "world empires" of which history tells.But these were rather small affairs, although their found-ers gave themselves such lofty titles as "King of the FourQuarters of the World." x'\t the most they only occupiedthe valleys of the Two Rivers, occasionally extendingfrom the Persian Gulf as far as the Mediterranean, Andrarely did these early empires display any permanence,almost always falling to pieces soon after the death of theirfounders.Man had not yet found out how to organize wide terri-tories occupied by different peoples into a harmoniouswhole on a basis of common interest. Usually ancientpeoples very naturally met this need of something incommon to weld subject races together by extendingamong them the worship of the conquering king, whomhis own subjects had all along adored as divine. This wasdone not out of pride or vainglory, but for the very prac-tical purpose of making the head of the state a symbol ofimperial unity. The various conquered peoples naturallyhad their own gods, to whom they continued to pay honoras of yore, but to the worship of these was added that ofthe ruler, as something in which all the peoples of theempire could unite.At some unknown epoch in the prehistoric past anotherimportant domestic animal, the donkey, was introducedinto Babylonia, apparently from the valley of the Nile.But not until much later, about the year 2000 b, c, do wefirst find mentioned that other even more useful animal,the horse. It seems to have reached Babylonia fromthe mountainous regions to the east. In the course of twoor three centuries it revolutionized the whole conduct of
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warfare no less than did the introduction of gunpowder inthe Middle Ages.Of the origin of the horse-drawn war chariot we havealready spoken. That it came originally from the greatgrasslands far to the north and northeast and that it wasconnected in some way with the rise of the Indo-Europeanspeaking peoples, to whom we ourselves belong, thereseems no doubt. Perhaps some of its users came throughthe passes of the Caucasus Mountains so often traversedby invading armies; for it first appears, and at aboutthe same time, both in eastern Asia Minor and in Baby-lonia, where it quickly sprang into favor. Its wonderfulefficiency as a new engine of war insured that; for war oftenserves as a great promoter of progress. We should not benearly as far along as we are in the mastery of aviation,for example, had it not been for the stern incentive pro-vided by the World War. A couple of centuries or soafter its introduction into southwestern Asia the use of thewar chariot spread to Egypt, where, as we have seen, itthenceforth played a no less important part.Iron, although known earlier, seems to have begun tocome into general use toward the year looo b, c. At firstonly domestic tools were made of it, while weapons con-tinued to be made of bronze; for bronze, as material forsword, dagger, or ax, is superior to untempered iron, whichis too soft. Possibly the introduction or invention ofeffective iron weapons may have had something to do withthe rise, about this time, of the kingdom of Assyria; forthat country lay near some of the early great iron-workingregions of what is now Asia Minor.For several centuries the kings of Assyria, among whomwere some very able men, dominated a great part of theNear East, even for a few years establishing their swayover Egypt, then in its decadence. They introduced manyimprovements in warfare, especially for the capture ofwalled towns. The battering-ram was perhaps one of these.The Assyrians, although great organizers for their time,[306]
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were characterized by ruthless cruelty to the conquered,and they ruled almost entirely by terror. The atrocitiesdescribed in their records, or portrayed in their art, aresavage beyond words. Neither men nor women nor evenchildren were spared from torture; dismembering, blind-ing, burning, impaling, and flaying alive were the regularaccompaniments of their warfare.Yet in spite of their barbarity in war, in art their achieve-ments were far from primitive. The reliefs sculptured instone or hammered in bronze on the walls and gates oftheir palaces throw a brilliant light on the life of the timeand do not lack merit in drawing or even in composition.Probably the most widely known examples of the art ofthe Assyrians are the enormous and majestic winged bullsand lions of stone with which they flanked the approachesto the thrones of their kings. These, like the grotesquelions seen guarding Chinese gateways today, were notprimarily decorative but were designed for the very prac-tical purpose of scaring away evil spirits (Plate 8i).About the time that most civilized races had left theBronze Age far behind and iron had come into general use,the two great Semitic kingdoms, Assyria and Babylonia,were overthrown by Aryan-speaking peoples, the Medesand the Persians. A combination of causes explains thesuperiority in war of the newcomers over their older andmuch more civilized foes: Abler leadership; a better mili-tary organization; more homogeneous national armies,united in passionate devotion to their kings by ties ofblood, language, and faith, all contributed. Considerablecredit, however, should also be given to their more ex-tensive and efi^ective use of a new method of fighting
?
by companies of horse-archers.The Assyrians had such units, but they seem never tohave developed them, depending rather on their infantryand the old and cumbrous war chariots. x'\bout suchtroops swarms of light and mobile mounted bowmen couldhover, shooting them down from a distance until the sur-
[ 307 ]
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vivors became so disorganized that a final charge couldeasily break and scatter them. Here again the Indo-Europeans, for such were the Medes and Persians, showedthemselves preeminently horsemen. Herodotus tells usthat they were taught, from their youth up, three things:to ride, to shoot, and to speak the truth.The Aryans still walled their cities mainly with sun-dried mud; but they learned to use glazed and coloredburnt brick, with which they formed fagades depictingprocessions, warriors, and the like (Plate 83). FromEgypt, which they also conquered, they seem to haveborrowed the use of the column. From Asia Minor theylearned the use of regular coined money, which the Baby-lonians and Assyrians had not known. Last, but veryfar from least, it appears to have been the Persians whopopularized through the western world the humble butexceedingly valuable hen, originally a native of the EastIndies.The Persians not only enormously extended the limitsof the older empires which they had won; but they devisedgreatly improved systems of organization, communica-tion, and administration. Much of the older civilizationthey necessarily adopted; but there was little that they didnot improve upon, and the debt which the modern worldowes to the Persian Empire is incalculable, although oftenunrecognized. Ancient CreteThe civilization that thrived so in the fertile valley ofthe Nile and the no less fertile river plains of Mesopotamiafound an equally propitious soil on an island in the Medi-terranean, and it is to Crete that we must turn next. Heresprang up from simple Neolithic beginnings a civilizationin many ways of a very high order, the first of those thatcan be called distinctively European, the forerunner ofGrecian culture.Crete possessed an especially fortunate situation for such[308]

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a development. Blessed with a climate on the whole de-lightful, and lying in the midst of the most beautiful ofseas, it was within easy reach of the great civilized regionsboth of western Asia and of Egypt. In general moun-tainous, its highest peaks approach or even exceed 8,000feet above the Mediterranean. There are deep ravines,in some of whose clefts snow remains the year around; andcaves, where religious ceremonies were once held. Inancient times there extended over the island forests ofcypress and chestnut and oak, in which roamed wildcattle, goats, and other animals.Crete has thus far yielded no traces of the men of theOld Stone Age, nor of the transitional period which fol-lowed. The island seems to have been discovered andsettled only during the New Stone Age, perhaps 7,000 or8,000 years ago, by men of the same physical type as thebulk of the Mediterranean races which we have alreadydescribed.Neolithic man in Crete seems to have subsisted mainlyon his herds and flocks, and only in a minor degree on agri-culture. However, he knew from the first how to makecoarse pottery, and he used knives not of flint but ofobsidian, or "volcanic glass," brought from the neighbor-ing island of Melos.Even during their New Stone Age the Cretans were incontact with Egypt, and it may have been from the latterthat they learned the use of copper. Thanks to their posi-tion, they could rather easily procure tin from centralEurope, and they were not long in developing a most re-markable Bronze Age civilization, based essentially upontheir maritime trade with other lands. Hence they builtup the earliest distinctively naval power known to us. Theinfluence of the sea was strikingly reflected in their livesand particularly in their art.For the most outstanding characteristic of the Cretanswas their artistic sense. Here they seem to have been farless rigidly bound by their religious ideas than were the[309I
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTEgyptians and others, and in consequence gave freerplay to their feeling for the beautiful. This is clearlyshown by the pottery, the bronze objects, the jewelry,the carved ivory, and especially the painted wall frag-ments that have been dug up on the sites of their buriedtowns and palaces and temples. On all these we see nat-uralistic representations of men and women, of bulls andgoats, of dolphins, flying-fish, and tentacled octopuses,of the lily and crocus, the tulip and the rose (Plate 84).There are also graceful spirals, which seem to have cometo the Cretans from the north or perhaps from the east.In architecture they betrayed an almost equal genius.They learned in time to build houses of adobe brick severalstories in height, with windows and doors, the latterequipped with regular locks. To their palace-temples,for they were both, monumental stairways and rows ofstately columns gave dignity and even grandeur. Theirsystems of drainage remained unequaled in any land untilwithin the past century.The chief divinity of the Cretans was the Great Mother,who ruled over birth and love and death. The serpentand the dove were among her emblems, and in her worshippriestesses and women in general played a predominantpart. Scarcely second to the cult of the Mother Goddesswere those of the Bull and the Double Ax. In connectionwith these, huge bulls were baited by unarmed youths andmaidens, and legends told among the Greeks long after-ward seem to hint darkly of human sacrifice?of enforcedtribute from conquered peoples of boys and girls to begored to death by the savage sacred bull.Among the Cretans we find strong contrasts in thematter of dress. The women's costumes curiously re-sembled those of medieval Europe, with long skirtspleated and flounced, richly embroidered and gaily dyed(Plate 86). The men, on the other hand, wore only a kilt,as in the neighboring parts of Africa. Both sexes in coldor rainy weather wrapped themselves in long cloaks, and
PLATE 86
Ceremonial procession of Cretan women; from a decorated sarcophagus.Photograph in the Library of Congress
PLATE 87
Pair of gold cups from Vaphio, in southern Greece; among the mostsplendid of surviving remains of very early Greek art. Photographin the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
ANCIENT EGYPT, ASIA MINOR, AND CRETEthey were alike fond of jewelry, bracelets, and rings.Priestesses and priests wore skins, undoubtedly a survivalfrom earlier days.The warriors protected their heads with conical helmetstopped with plumes and sheltered themselves behindenormous leather shields which took the place of bodvarmor. The latter, together with the small round buckler,was imported from Asia by way of Cyprus in the four-teenth century b. c, not very long after the introductionof the horse and chariot, apparently from the same quarter.For weapons the Cretan fighting man had the bronzesword and spear and the bow. The army, though small,was apparently well organized; but they placed their mainreliance on the navy, which suppressed pirates and heldinvaders at bay. How secure the Cretans felt as long astheir navy was kept up is shown by the fact that theystopped building substantial fortifications after the six-teenth century b. c.Although the Cretans seem to have traced their descentthrough their mothers and not their fathers, they came intime to be ruled over by priest-kings, who every nine yearshad to renew their "medicine" through secret and awfulceremonies. Earlier, perhaps, as among so many peoples,after ruling for a fixed period of years, possibly nine, theywere put to death and replaced by a younger man whosemagical force was as yet unexhausted. These priest-kingsand their temple-palaces seem to have given rise to thelegend of the famous labyrinth and its grizzly occupant,the Minotaur, part man and part bull, who devoured ayearly tribute of youths and maidens.As yet we are almost wholly dependent on archeologicalevidence for what we know about the wonderful Cretancivilization, whose very existence was almost unsuspecteduntil a few years ago. Yet it has left an abundance ofwritten records, mainly on clay tablets, if these could onlybe read. The way in which the old Babylonian, Egyptian,and Hittite records have been forced to yield up their[311]
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secrets encourages us to hope that sooner or later theCretan writing also will be deciphered.The Cretan civilization in time spread to the north?toGreece and the islands of the Aegean Sea. It representedthe highest development, in most ways, to which the
Fig. I02. Dagger or short sword with both blade and hilt of iron; early IronAge (900-500 B.C.), from Hallstatt, Austria. After von SackenBronze Age ever attained in any land and was at its bestabout 1400 or 1500 b. c. But its downfall was already athand. The Indo-European peoples were on their way.One branch of these, the Achaean Greeks, had alreadysettled in Greece and adopted elements of Bronze Agecivilization coming originally from Crete. But after themcame another branch of the Greeks, known as the Dorians,also from unknown regions to the north. These, althoughapparently wielding stout iron swords (Fig. 102), wereotherwise far ruder and more barbarous than their prede-cessors. They swept over the island, devastating it fromend to end, destroying the capital of the Cretan sea-kings,Knossos, apparently by a surprise attack, toward the endof the second millenium b. c. The brilliant Bronze Agecivilization of the Cretans disappeared, although portionsof the people escaped to other lands. A related group, thePelesati, probably from Asia Minor, known to us as thePhilistines, found refuge in Palestine and gave that coun-try their name.But though the Cretan civilization was dead, its influ-ence still survived. Crete was in a very real sense the fore-runner of Greece, and through her of modern Westerncivilization. [312
CHAPTER XVIOTHER CENTERS OF CIVILIZATIONEarly developments of civilized life did not take placeonly in the lands around the eastern end of the Medi-terranean Sea. Certain fertile river valleys of India andChina also played a part in the same great movement.These areas shared with the former the fundamental ele-ments upon which their progress was based, includingdomestic animals, cereals, wheeled vehicles, the plow, andbronze. Ancient IndiaSeas and the loftiest mountain ranges on earth markIndia sharply off from the rest of Asia and the world ingeneral. The northwestern corner has proved most oftenthe contact point with the outside world. Here, in theregions on both sides of the Indus River, as recent excava-tions have shown, there had grown up, apparently before3000 B. c, a settled agricultural civilization closely re-sembling that of ancient Babylonia, with which, indeed,we know that it had at least trade relations. The men ofthis area used both stone and copper implements, the lattermostly hammered into shape but occasionally cast. Theyknew bronze though it was scarce, perhaps because the tinnecessary to make it was hard to get. xAlso, they usedsilver, gold, and lead. That they were peaceful is sug-gested by the fact that few weapons have been found.They made both sun-dried and baked bricks and builtregular towns, with houses, temples, and palaces. Theymanufactured pottery, plain, painted, and even blue-glazed, and they engraved seals on hard stone.[313]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTThis ancient Indus Valley people knew the elephant, therhinoceros, the lion, and the tiger, although we do not yetknow whether the first-named animal was tamed. Amongdomestic animals they had the ox, the water buffalo, thesheep, the pig, and, of course, the dog. They did nothave the horse, which seems to have been brought in muchlater by the Aryans. The cart, apparently drawn by oxen,was in use, and almost certainly, too, some form of crudeplow. Moreover, these people employed a form of writingon the whole not unlike that of earliest Babylonia.The discoverv during the past few years of this hithertowholly unknown culture constitutes a triumph of archeo-logical research only second, perhaps, to that of the dis-covery of the Cretan civilization. We do not know itsultimate fate as yet, although the excellent ArcheologicalSurvev of India is yearly extending our knowledge of theancient past of that wonderful land. It seems certain,however, that manv of the advances made five thousandyears ago in the Indus Valley, especially those in agri-culture, still survive in the life of the present day.The next great factor known to have played a part in thedevelopment of civilization in India was the Aryan in-vasion, as to the date of which scholars are not yet fullyagreed; but it probably took place at some time during thesecond millenium b. c.The Aryan-speaking people who pushed through themountain valleys from central Asia into northwesternIndia were closely akin to the ancient Persians. Likeall the Indo-European peoples wherever we first find them,they were warlike, energetic, and aggressive, and soonestablished themselves firmly in that part of the IndusValley known as the Punjab, the "Land of the FiveRivers." When they arrived there, they already had cometo use copper or perhaps even bronze, which they may haveacquired from Alesopotamia before they invaded India.Again like all the early Aryan peoples, they were greathorsemen, though they had not yet learned to fight onI314]
PLATE 8!
life W' m
Upper: Putter ut niodtrn India molding his wares. Note the primitiveform of the potter's wheelLower: Poorer-class habitation of modern India, built of rough stoneagainst a huge bowlder. Photographs in the Library of Congress
PLATE
Upper: Elephant piling logs in Rangoon, BurmaLower: Inflated ox hides used as floats, northwestern India. SomeAssyrian monuments show same use of skins. Photographs in theLibrary of Congress
OTHER CENTERS OF CIVILIZATIONhorseback, but used chariots. They also offered horses attheir most solemn sacrifices.The original Aryan-speaking races who settled in north-western India in time became modified, partly throughclimatic selection and partly through mixture with thedarker-skinned peoples they conquered. Yet there, as else-where, they succeeded in imposing their language upontheir subjects. As a result, over nearly the whole vastregion of northern India today, in sharp contrast to mostof the south, Aryan languages are spoken, although thepeople remain almost wholly of pre-Aryan blood.Thus sprang up, in the valleys of the Indus and theGanges, the type of civilization which grew in time to bedistinctively Indian. Great cities arose, built for the mostpart of wood and defended by massive wooden stockades.Tame elephants came to be employed largely in war. Thechariot, just as in other lands, went gradually out of usewith the development of cavalry. Iron appears to havebeen introduced about the eighth or ninth century b. c.and to have spread rapidly.What became of the earlier type of writing in use in theancient Indus Valley culture remains unknown, but an-other form seems to have been brought in from westernAsia by traders somewhere around 500 or 600 b. c, and tohave been gradually adapted to the writing of Sanskritand other Aryan tongues.Meanwhile an active development of civilized life hadbeen going on in western Asia. Great monarchies hadarisen, accompanied by an intense activity of war andtrade, some of whose influences we can trace in regions farremoved from their source. Finally on the ruins of theearlier kingdoms, embracing all their former territoriesand much more besides, arose the mighty Persian Empire,extending from southeastern Europe and Egypt on theone hand to the confines of India and central Asia onthe other. The organizer of this vast power, Darius theGreat, invaded and annexed the Punjab region of north-[3^5]
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western India toward the end of the sixth century b. c.The new province quickly became known as the richestin the Persian Empire. Herodotus tells us that it paid ayearly tribute of three hundred and sixty talents of gold-dust, equivalent to between five and six million dollars?an enormous sum for those days.The Persian Empire exerted a very great influence uponIndia. It inspired the Indians to use stone as well aswood in architecture and sculpture. The Indian courtsborrowed much from the stately ceremonial and elaborateetiquette surrounding the Great King, as the Persian rulerwas called. Trade was extended and the machinery ofgovernment developed. In a word, India underwent atthis time a great advance in all that goes to make up whatwe call civilization. Persia lost political control overnorthwestern India in less than two centuries; but her in-fluence as a civilizing agent went on spreading.About two hundred years after Darius's time, north-western India again fell victim to invasion and conquest,this time by Alexander the Great (326 b. c). This event,however, although it had some little political effect, in-fluenced the civilization of the country but slightly. Inthe realm of sculpture, perhaps, it made the deepest im-pression. The Indians before that time undoubtedly hadsomething in the way of carving, especially in wood, butnot much exists to show that they had begun to representtheir gods in realistic form, human or otherwise. Theyseem rather to have used symbols, like the wheel and theswastika. After Alexander's time, however, sculptorscame from western Asia, trained according to Greek ideas,and they left a lasting impress on the later religious artnot only of India, but of China, Japan, and various otherEastern lands as well.A few years after Alexander's death, a certain militaryadventurer named Chandragupta Maurya established inthe valleys of the Ganges and the Indus the first greatIndian Empire. Although undoubtedly influenced by the
OTHER CENTERS OF CIVILIZATION
career of Alexander, the new ruler seems to have taken forhis model the great Persian Empire which had been affect-ing Indian civilization so strongly for more than two hun-dred years.From various sources we learn a good deal regarding theorganization of this realm, which from the surname of itsfounder is known as the Maurya Empire. It lasted forover a century, and its third ruler, Asoka, is rememberedto this day as the great patron and supporter of Buddhism.His connection with the latter faith has often been com-pared to that of the Roman emperor Constantine withChristianity. Of the two men, however, Asoka seems tohave possessed by far the finer character. For uprightness,sincerity, tolerance, and humanity, this Indian emperorwho reigned twenty-two hundred years ago seems worthyto stand beside the noblest rulers of history. Buddhism,founded over two centuries before his time, had acquireda certain following among the peoples of northern India;but it was Asoka who enabled it to become a great worldfaith, penetrating far beyond the limits of the Indianpeninsula. Under him India became a source of enlighten-ment and progress for a large part of Asia.Apparently the great extension of trade under theMaurya Dynasty first brought those countries comprisingwhat we know as Indo-China into direct relations withthe world civilization of antiquity. These contacts wereno doubt mainly by land, but there exists some reason tobelieve that the use of sea-going ships, already long knownin the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the waters to thewest of India, spread to the eastern shores of the Bay ofBengal and possibly to the islands of the East IndianArchipelago about this time.Ancient ChinaThere still remains to be described one other great civi-lizing center in the Old World, the region which we nowcall China. [317]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTVery little archeological research has as yet been under-taken in that country, particularly in connection with itsearly periods. We know enough, however, to justify usin trying to reconstruct the main outlines of its story,which parallels closely the course of events in the othergreat river valleys we have been studying?those of theEuphrates and Tigris, the Nile, and the Indus.China proper falls naturally into two main divisions,a northern and a southern. The latter is rugged, in partseven mountainous, and covered with a network of per-ennial streams, while the former, on the other hand, con-sists of a great alluvial plain bordered by hilly regions.Here there extended, in recent geological ages, a shallowsea, which gradually filled up with the earth brought downby various streams, particularly the Yellow River, known,on account of its terrible floods, as "China's Sorrow."Over all of China, north and south alike, there oncestretched a vast expanse of forest, interspersed, where therivers had not yet completed their work of filling in, withwide marshes, swamps, and lakes. Remnants of thesestill exist.There is some reason to believe that southern China, intimes much more recent than the Old Stone Age inEurope, was occupied by a race of Negritos?curly-hairedpygmies like those still existing in out-of-the-way regionsin the Philippines, New Guinea, and elsewhere. In timethis race was exterminated or absorbed by successivewaves of brown or yellow-skinned peoples coming fromregions farther north?the ancestors of the present-daypopulation?who brought with them a simple, undevel-oped form of New Stone Age culture akin in its mainfeatures to that which once overspread a large part of theglobe. The invaders built huts, used implements of pol-ished stone, and made a coarse gray pottery marked withimpressions of matting or basketry. They also practiced asort of rudimentary agriculture, supplemented by huntingthe game with which China at that time swarmed, and[318]
OTHER CENTERS OF CIVILIZATIONfishing in the streams well-filled with fish, turtles, and othercreatures. These Neolithic Chinese seem to have beenorganized in clans tracing descent through mothers in-stead of fathers and to have practiced a sort of natureworship accompanied, as so often elsewhere, by humansacrifice.Near the very end of the New Stone Age there appearedin northern China a type of painted pottery quite differ-ent from the coarse kind already known. This type ofware occurs also in various other parts of the world. Insome regions, as in the southwestern United States andin Peru, there can be no doubt of its independent develop-ment. In the Old World, however, painted pottery hasbeen found, together with a whole group of other cultureelements, along a belt extending from China on the east toEurope on the west. In this case an ultimate commonorigin seems possible. As one recent investigator has putit, the idea, at least, of painted pottery was in the air, al-though in each locality it underwent a largely independentdevelopment. Ancient man in China did not adopt itvery widely and in time its use died out, while the olderand much more widespread coarse gray ware continuedto be made down into historic times.The agricultural peoples inhabiting central Asia be-tween 3,000 and 4,000 years ago had a well-developedBronze Age culture, and it seems most likely that fromthem the ancient Chinese learned the use of that metal.The archeology of southern Siberia and Turkestan is onlybeginning to be investigated, mainly by Russian scholarsand explorers; but these have already discovered enoughto suggest, at least, how the ancient Chinese came to pos-sess a civilization so strikingly similar in its fundamentalsto those which once flourished in western Asia.It seems clear that the Chinese, after independently de-veloping a high type of New Stone Age culture with asocial organization composed of chiefs, nobles, and com-mon people, acquired from their neighbors to the northwest[319]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
numerous elements of a still higher civilization. In many-cases, doubtless, they did not import the inventions them-selves (peacefully or otherwise) so much as the conceptsunderlying them. These, finding in the Chinese mind afertile soil, took root easily and developed along inde-pendent lines.Thus we find many inventions, processes, and ideas,which we know underwent a long evolution in the West,appearing quite suddenly on Chinese soil, fully developed.An instance will illustrate this point. In the West wefind a regular series of weapons, beginning with the Neo-lithic flint dagger and passing step by step, through vari-ous copper forms, into the fully developed Late BronzeAge sword. China contains no trace of this evolution.There we find appearing all at once highly finished swordscast in one piece with the hilt, as they were cast in the Westonly toward the very close of the Bronze Age. We mustinfer that the ancient Chinese did not invent bronzeswords for themselves, but got the idea already fully de-veloped from their neighbors.The knowledge of bronze reached China as one elementof a whole culture complex?a well-developed civilization.Far down into historical times, however, this type of cul-ture, although of extraordinary brilliance, remained almostexclusively the possession of the upper classes, who usedbronze weapons and war chariots in fighting. A very rigidtype of family organization headed by the father, throughwhom descent was traced, characterized their social sys-tem. Northern China came to be occupied by a multitudeof little city-states not unlike those of earliest Babylonia,each of which was ruled over by a princely family, as itsreligious as well as its political head, whose ancestors wereamong the chief divinities worshiped. The land belongedto the princes and nobles, much as it did in medievalEurope.The masses, on the other hand, long remained in muchthe same condition in which they had existed during the[320]
PLATE 90
4.K
iifct/ ^''^
^
Stone hue and knives, neolithic China. Note how the pohshing of thehoe is confined to the lower portion of the blade. Photograph bycourtesy of Mr. Peter J. Bahr
PLATE 91
Bronze sacrificial vessel of the Chinese Bronze Age, for use in theworship of ancestors among the feudal nobility. In the FreerGallery of Art, Washington
OTHER CENTERS OF CIVILIZATIONNew Stone Age. They went on living in their own clanvillages and tilling the soil, a large portion of the producebeing turned over to their masters and landlords. AncientChinese writings state specifically that the common peoplehad no part in the ancestor worship of the aristocracy.They undoubtedly kept up, however, the practice of theirold nature worship, with its belief in magic, and we knowthat the far more civilized ruling classes put down humansacrifice only with difficulty.Again, just as in Babylonia, the numerous small city-states tended to coalesce into larger units which came intime to form in northern China a sort of loose confederacy,with a priest-king at the head regarded as in some wayrelated to the Sky God. In fact, down to the very end ofthe Empire, in 191 1, the real title of the Chinese Emperorwas "The Son of Heaven."The historical period in China only begins about1000 B. c, and records continue very scanty and full ofgaps for some hundreds of years longer. Legendary ac-counts exist of early emperors and dynasties reachingback even before 2000 b. c, but the researches of modernscholars, largely Chinese themselves, have stamped theseas unworthy of credit. Our first actual written accounts,of a very fragmentary nature, relate to certain kings of theShang Dynasty who ruled about the end of the secondmillenium b. c.An invasion from the west overthrew this dynastyshortly afterward. Some of the new rulers seem to havebeen great conquerors who extended their authority be-yond the valley of the Yellow River. But the power of theroyal house soon dwindled, and by the eighth centuryB. c, the country had come to be divided into a numberof practically independent states. These states, held to-gether only loosely by a common culture and a vagueallegiance, more religious than political, to the "Son ofHeaven," waged incessant wars among themselves andagainst the surrounding barbarians. That part of China[321]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
south of the Yangtse River remained uncivilized and al-most unknown.Most of the art of Bronze Age China is typified by geo-metric forms of a symbolic nature, which undoubtedlywere based on designs already in existence in that coun-try during its New Stone Age. These seem to have beenoriginally carved on wood or molded on pottery. Theirsacred and magical character led to their retention for thedecoration of weapons, ornaments, horse trappings, andthe great bronze sacrificial vessels used in connection withthe ancestor worship of the feudal aristocracy (Plate 91).During the earlier part of the Chinese Bronze Age, theownership of land formed the basis of wealth. Trade wascarried on by barter, eked out with the use of cowries asa medium of exchange. But in time true money, in theshape of copper models of hoes, spades, and knives, cameinto being. This helped, as elsewhere, to undermine theold social system through the possibilities which it offeredfor the accumulation of wealth other than that in land.Thus the nobles could no longer monopolize riches.A radical alteration in the method of fighting, whichtook place shortly after the middle of the first milleniumB. c, contributed immensely to the overthrow of the oldfeudal organization. This change corresponds preciselyto that which had already occurred in the West a few cen-turies earlier.The ancient Chinese records show us that the warchariot was the mark of a nobleman. Only despised peas-ants fought on foot. The story has come down to us of abattle of the Chinese against the barbarians to the north
?
the ancestors of the Tartars?which illustrates this clearly.The barbarians had not yet learned to fight on horse-back. In fact their tactics of guerilla warfare seem to havepretty much resembled those of the Indians of easternAmerica? the Iroquois and others. The Chinese com-mander saw the impossibility of contending successfullyfrom chariots against such nimble foes, so ordered his[322]
OTHER CENTERS OF CIVILIZATION
nobles to dismount and fight on foot. This they refused todo as beneath the dignity of their class. The commanderthen had one of them beheaded, whereupon the restobeyed and gained the victory.As we have seen, men probably learned to fight on horse-back, sometime before looo b. c, in the open grasslands ofsoutheastern Russia and western Asia. At first mounted
Fig. 103. Ancient rock engraving of a mounted warrior, Siberian Iron Age.From Lauferwarriors appear to have been armed with spear and sword,like the footmen; and in the west this type of fighter de-veloped into the heavy-armored knight of the MiddleAges. But in northern Asia fighting on horseback wastaken up by peoples who used the deadly composite bowmade of strips of wood, horn, and sinew, glued tightly to-gether and often neatly covered with birch bark (Plate 92).This weapon, while it had to be kept dry, shot far harder andfarther than the simple bow made of a stave of elasticwood alone. The difference between the two types of bow[3^3]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASThas been aptly compared to that between the old smooth-bore musket and the modern high-powered rifle.Companies of swift horsemen thus armed began early inthe first millenium b. c. to make their influence felt inwestern Asia, where they terribly devastated wide regions.Gradually this method of fighting spread eastward acrossAsia, until sometime about 400 or 500 b. c, it appearedon the northern borders of China, and the Chinese had toadopt it in self-defense.Their doing so contributed in more ways than one to theoverthrow of the whole feudal system. Not merely couldbodies of light horse-archers ride rings around an old-fashioned army, composed only of infantry and chariots,and riddle it with arrows as they pleased. The socialchange involved was far more significant than this.Chariots had always been necessarily a mark of wealth,which under the feudal system meant high birth, but nowalmost everybody could get hold of a horse to ride and abow to shoot. Very much in the same way did the intro-duction of gunpowder help to bring about the overthrow ofthe feudal nobility in medieval Europe.About this time, too, iron, already long used in northernChina for domestic utensils and implements, began tobe fashioned into weapons?especially long, straightswords, often with bronze or jade mountings. Theseproved far more effective in battle than the old bronzeswords. Bronze continued, however, for a time to be usedfor armor; but here, too, iron eventually replaced it.Besides these material changes in Chinese civilization,ideas developed which proved scarcely less influential inundermining and eventually destroying the ancient feudalsystem. The period between 500 and 250 b. c. saw therise of several great thinkers and teachers who foundeddifl^erent schools of philosophy. Their maxims exerted apowerful influence upon Chinese life in all its aspects.New ideas took possession of the minds of men. The timewas ripe for changes of the most far-reaching nature.[324]
PLATE 92
?l
PLATE 93
Chinese bronze helmet. Used after the introduction of the long ironslashing sword. Photograph by courtesy of Mr. Peter J. Bahr
OTHER CENTERS OF CIVILIZATIONThe opportunity brought the man. In the latter halfof the third century b.c, there arose in northwestern Chinaa great conqueror. By a series of masterly campaigns heannexed first the Yangtse Valley, then the ancient Chinesestates in the basin of the Yellow River, and finally thehitherto independent and barbarian south. He abolishedthe ancient line of priest-kings and swept away the oldfeudal aristocracy. In their place he appointed officials,with himself as "First Emperor" supreme over all. Thuswas established the Chinese Empire, destined to last forover two thousand years (from 221 b.c. to a.d. 191 1). Theman who founded it was Ch'in Shih Huang-ti.
3^5
CHAPTER XVIIPREHISTORIC MAN IN THE NEW WORLDThat North America has been joined to Asia at varioustimes in the geologic past we know. A most striking proofof this is the very close resemblance between certain formsof animals living in the two hemispheres. Thus we findtrue alligators?not crocodiles?in the rivers both of Chinaand of North xAmerica; while that curious animal, the tapir,occurs both in southern Asia and in tropical America, andthe American bison, popularly miscalled the "buffalo," ismuch like his cousin of the Old World. The same is trueof the moose, or true elk, which occurs in various closelysimilar forms from Scandinavia right across Siberia andCanada to Maine. The animal we call "elk" is not reallythe elk at all, but was mistakenly so named by the earlysettlers. This list of resemblances might be extendedalmost indefinitely.The same is true of humanity itself. The type of manliving in the New World when it was discovered by Euro-peans is of the same species as that found everywhere else.It is especially close of kin to races still found in variousparts of central and northeastern Asia. There, just as inthe Americas, we find people with brown or copper-coloredskin, dark eyes, and coarse, straight, black hair. If dressedalike, in many cases they could not be told apart.Just when man first entered the Western Hemispherewe can not yet say with any assurance. One thing, how-ever, is certain, that he originated in the Old World andonly arrived much later in the New. It is possible, ofcourse, that some of the earlier races of man may have[326]
PREHISTORIC MAN IN THE NEW WORLD
wandered across into North x'\merica; but if so, they per-ished without leaving any traces that have so far beendefinitely identified. The American Indians, the only raceknown certainly ever to have lived in the Western Hemi-sphere before the white man came, seem not to have arrivedthere until toward, or perhaps even after, the close of theIce Age.We must not suppose, however, that they invaded theNew World all at once, in a large body. On the contrary,the process must have been a very gradual one, going onthrough several thousands of years. It was only afternortheastern Siberia itself had been occupied by man thatlittle groups began drifting over into North America.Whether the land connection between the latter and Asiawas still in existence when this first occurred, or whetherit had already sunk beneath the sea, we do not know. Buthowever the first man in America arrived, whether on footor by canoe, it seems quite certain that he reached hisnew home as a mere savage?a hunter and food-gatherer.He had learned how to make various forms of stone tools,but we can not say whether he yet had the bow and arrow.The dog also no doubt accompanied him to his new home.Once settled in the New World, the ancestors of theAmerican Indians gradually multiplied and spread outover more and more territory. In this way the whole ofthe Western Hemisphere was slowly peopled.It was not, however, until long afterward that the firstbeginnings of settled agricultural life began to appear invarious favorable localities. Several reasons render itpractically certain that the ancestors of the AmericanIndians did not bring with them any cultivated plantsfrom the Old World. Those which we find grown later areof distinctively American species.Hunting and food-gathering first began to give place tofood-growing and a more settled life probably in the highplateau areas of the western portions of both continents.In these regions, elevation and a somewhat dry climate[327]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTprevented the dense growths of forest and bush which ren-der farming operations so difficult in many places even to-day. In parts of this plateau region, indeed, irrigation wasfound necessary in order to induce crops to grow at all.The ingenuity developed in meeting this need led in turnto still further advances in civilization.This Archaic culture, as it is called, included not merelyfood-planting but also the making of pottery and theweaving of baskets. The New World remained whollyignorant of the plow until Europeans brought it in. Thehoe, of stone, bone, or shell, and the planting-stick con-stituted the farming implements, and the women did mostof the field work for the reasons given in Chapter XII.Great reliance was placed on magic and religious cere-monies in trying to assure an abundant harvest. Out ofthis developed in some regions the practice of human sacri-fice on a scale rarely if ever equaled.Doubtless much experimenting, conscious or otherwise,with different wild plants took place before these prehis-toric Americans determined the most useful ones. Theplant destined to prove of the greatest value was maize,or Indian corn. ("Corn" properly means what we inAmerica call "grain.") This seems most probably to havebeen developed very early by cultivation from a wild grasson the highlands of Mexico. It spread steadily bothnorth and south, as more and more people came to recog-nize its value. This happened the more easily because inwar, while the men prisoners were usually killed, thewomen were more apt to be carried off into captivity; andit was precisely they who knew and could teach their cap-tors the processes of primitive agriculture. In time maizethus spread over a great part of the Western Hemisphere,where, like wheat and rice in the Old World, it became thebasis of civilization.Beans and squashes probably ranked next in importanceamong- American food plants. "Irish" potatoes weregrown to some extent in Peru, and sweet potatoes seem to[328]
CQ
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soc c?n o
30

PREHISTORIC MAN IN THE NEW WORLDhave come from the Amazon Valley, as did manioc, orcassava, from which tapioca is made.This xArchaic culture?we can hardly speak of it as acivilization?eventually spread over a somewhat wide area.At length, probably sometime after looo b.c, it began todevelop certain well-marked local varieties which gradu-ally assumed higher forms.The Civilization of the MayasIt is still too early to say where the first marked localvariation took place. We find, for example, rough stonebuildings of extremely early date on the Peruvian plateau,and there are other very ancient remains elsewhere;but we may safely say that the civilization developedby the Maya Indians of south-ern Mexico and Guatemala wasamong the first. They, like allother native American peoples,lacked several things withoutwhich we could hardly imaginea true civilization getting alongat all. They had, for example,no work animals, no metal tools,and no wheeled vehicles of anysort. Yet even without theseaids, the Mayas made remark-able progress.It would be a mistake to thinkof them, however, as a whollycivilized people. The masses,who did most of the hard work,lived pretty much as their ances-tors had lived, with very few ofthe luxuries or even comforts of life. Only a small upperclass, composed of priests and war leaders, supported inleisure by the toil of the common people, had time to evolvea higher civilization. The Spaniards found it easy to[329]
Fig. 104. Maya sacred designof the Feathered Serpent.Note the human head in thedistended jaws. After Spinden
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
conquer them mainly for this reason. They had only todestroy the civilized ruling class, comparatively few innumber, and the old culture was gone forever.It seems probable that the Mayas first developed inwood the remarkable art and architecture which they later
Fig. 105. Maya wall painting of a human sacrifice(partially restored). Note that the scene is dominatedby the Feathered Serpent. The original is strikinglycolored. Courtesy of the Carnegie Institution ofWashington
carried out in stone. Their art was extremely elaborate,symbolic, and, to us, grotesque, and its meaning is oftendifficult to interpret, though it undoubtedly had a magicalor religious significance, as among other primitive peoples.A very frequent design was that of the Feathered Serpent(Fig. 104), depicted in all sorts of forms. The jaguar, theturtle, and the sacred bird known as the quetzal, or re-[33^]
PLATE 95
The quetzal, or resplendent trogon, prominent in the religious andesthetic life of the Central American peoples of antiquity. AfterKnowlton

PREHISTORIC MAN IN THE NEW WORLD
splendent trogon, also occur often. Sometimes there ap-pear monstrous half-human figures with exaggerated nosessuggesting the long, flexible snout of the tapir. Priests,chieftains, and warriors are shown decked out in the mostelaborate costumes and feathered decorations imaginable.Again we see wretched captives, bound and kneeling, orbeing sacrificed to some god.The Mayas developed architecture to a point no lessadvanced. The dwellings of the common people, probablyquite similar to the palm-leaf huts used by their moderndescendants, have long since disappeared. The greatstructures of dressed stone and concrete that stand, ruinedand deserted, in the depths of the tropical forests, weremainly religious in character, as their nature clearly shows.Among them we find huge pyramids, formed of solid massesof rubble and earth faced with cut stone or a sort ofcement. A kind of limestone which can be split rathereasily into rectangular blocks occurs over much of theMaya area, so that the labor involved in quarrying andshaping these with nothing better than stone tools wasnot so enormous as it seems at first sight. As the pyra-mids were not tombs like those of Egypt, but foundationsfor sanctuaries, they rarely contain passages or rooms.Sometimes they are "stepped," or built in successive ter-races, and on at least one side there always appears agreat ceremonial staircase, often flanked by colossal stoneserpents.On the flat summits of the pyramids stood temples,occasionally rising three stories in height, and toppedsometimes with "roof-combs," or lofty ridges, to makethem seem more imposing still. There were, too, longgalleries in which the officiating priests probably had theirhabitations.The builders knew the corbeled or "false" arch, but didnot often use it, the vaults being more commonly of solidconcrete. Owing to the limitations imposed by the methodof construction, rooms rarely measured more than twelve[33^]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
feet in width, and often much less. A sort of stucco,sometimes adorned with paintings of processions andother ceremonials, usually coated the walls; or wide spaceswould be covered with dressed stone sculptured in relief
Fig. io6. Diagrammatic cross-section of a Maya building, to show that thestones forming the facing of the vaults are not held in place by their ownweight, as in the true corbeled arch, but by the concrete in which they areembedded. After Spinden
with similar scenes. Both reliefs and paintings were tintedin vivid hues, among which green, orange, and red pre-dominated.Often the Mayas arranged their pyramids and buildingsaround the sides of a plaza paved with slabs of stone. Wefind also what have been called "ball courts," where agame somewhat like our basketball was played as a partof the religious ceremonial. Here and there about thesanctuaries stood tall stone slabs, known as stelae^ coveredwith elaborate carvings including brief inscriptions.For, as one of their great achievements, the Mayas de-veloped a system of writing very distinctive in character.This doubtless grew up out of primitive pictographs toZZ^
; ; - ^^e\ -. ^*;% \
-TZ!
PREHISTORIC MAN IN THE NEW WORLD
m SC.EO JCE S3
'^^:^ [333I
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
which definite meanings came to be attached, and hadapparently even reached the point where sounds as wellas ideas had begun to be represented. So thoroughly,however, did the early Spanish conquerors do their workof destruction that the key to this writing has been lost.Many efforts have been made to regain it, but so far wecan do little more than read the dates which the inscrip-tions often give./\mong their other inventions, the Mayas included thatof a calendar based in part on the changes of the moon.Although complicated and showing signs of gradual de-velopment, this was accurate and serviceable to an ex-ceptional degree. It says much for the astronomical andmathematical knowledge of its inventors.Of their social, political, and religious systems we knowfar less than we could wish. It is evident, however, that,as with all early cultures, no clear distinction was drawnbetween things sacred and things secular. Their wholecivilization was closely interwoven with the religion whichhad inspired and shaped it. There were helpful gods andhurtful ones, and the essence of worship was to gain thegood will of the former and keep in check the latter. Tohelp achieve these ends, they threw into the cenotes^ orhuge sink-holes in the limestone, which often held a poolof water at the bottom, precious offerings of gold andcarved jade and living men and women.The Mayas were beginning to acquire some knowledgeof metals, including both gold and copper, which were,however, rather rare and served almost or quite exclusive-ly for the manufacture of ornaments, probably all in-vested with a religious symbolism. Apparently they hadbegun to make no really useful tools or weapons of copper,but only ceremonial forms based on stone originals.The Mayas had also become expert potters and haddeveloped weaving and basket-making to a high point.They cut jade and other semiprecious stones into gro-tesque and fantastic but often beautiful forms. Their[334]
PREHISTORIC MAN IN THE NEW WORLD
sculptures and wall paintings show that they made greatuse, for decorative purposes, of the plumes of variousbrightly hued tropical birds. The gorgeous headdressesand other ornaments of feathers must have helped givetheir stately religious ceremonies an aspect of the utmostmagnificence.Thanks to the dates on the Maya monuments, we canreconstruct, if only in meager outline, the history of thismost interesting people. According to tradition, theycame from the north. Their civilization is now believedto have had its beginnings pretty far back in the firstmillenium b. c. It first reached its full bloom during theearly centuries of the Christian Era, in what is known asthe Old Empire, centering mainly in Honduras, Guatemala,and southern Mexico. Among ruins belonging to thisearly period are those of Copan, in western Honduras;Quirigua, Piedras Negras, and Tikal, in Guatemala; andPalenque, in the Mexican state of Chiapas.Between a.d. 600 and 960, a shift of the Maya center ofcivilization took place, for some unknown reason, from thecomparatively hilly south to the wide, level, jungle-cov-ered plain of northern Yucatan. Here, between a. d. 960and 1 195 flourished the New Empire. Among the ruinsfound in this region, along with many others, are thoseof Uxmal, Chichen-Itza, Labna, and Tuloom.Then followed a period of decline, hastened if not indeedcaused by civil war. The appearance of Toltec or Mexicaninfluence, clearly visible in the architecture and sculptureof the time, characterizes this epoch. As we have pointedout, the civilization of the Mayas was never the possessionof the whole people, but only of a very small upper class.Hence adverse conditions of any sort easily affected it, andit was already far gone in decay when the Spaniards ar-rived. A remnant, however, survived in the remote inte-rior of Guatemala, about Lake Peten, until the beginningof the eighteenth century, when it, too, was destroyed.It must be emphasized that the surviving Maya ruins[335]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
are in reality only religious or, to use a modern expression,civic centers. The cities themselves, the homes of thecommon people, built of highly perishable materials, musthave stretched for considerable distances about thesegroups of pyramids, sanctuaries, and so-called "palaces"of cut stone and concrete and stucco. Traces of thesehumbler dwellings, in the shape of vast numbers of lowmounds, still occur in the depths of the tropical forests,which have long since resumed their primeval sway. Thereare also remains of boundary walls and even paved roads,suggesting a former numerous population and a livelycommercial and social life.It is noteworthy that with few exceptions, as at Tuloom,on the eastern coast of Yucatan, no evidence exists tosuggest that the Mayas ever fortified their cities. Nor dothey bear any sign of having been destroyed by violence.They were not primarily commercial or military or evenpolitical communities in our sense, but were first andforemost religious centers, and their sacred characterdoubtless helped protect them from molestation. Further-more, during the greater part of their history there seemto have been no foreign foes capable of threatening themseriously.The civilization that produced them was essentially re-ligious, artistic, and intellectual in nature, rather than war-like. Nevertheless, as the Spaniards found to their cost,the Mayas could fight, and fight well, and it may be thatin the days of their prime they felt their armies affordedthem the protection which some people might seek infortifications.Be that as it may, their civilization perished, but itsinfluence spread far and wide over the surrounding regionsin somewhat the same way as did that of the Greeks in theOld World. And the Mayan people themselves remain,an industrious, cleanly, hospitable, and often highlytalented race, forming a valuable element in the present-day population of Central x'\merica.[33^]
PREHISTORIC MAN IN THE NEW WORLDThe Toltec CivilizatiONThe Mexican plateau advanced in civilization moreslowly than the Maya region, although in Mexico maize(and through it the possibility of progress) seems to havedeveloped. But in time a somewhat different althoughrelated civilization grew up there?that of the Toltecs.Among other structures, these people erected greatpyramids, in some instances even larger than those of theMayas, but in general of poorer construction and there-fore less well preserved. In their architecture the Toltecsmade no use of the principle of the vault, so conspicuousin Maya buildings; and they differed in other respects aswell. But although not quite so advanced, they seem tohave been more aggressive and warlike than the Mayas.While the latter, early in the second millenium a. d., hadbegun to decline, at the same period the Toltec culturewas thriving and expanding. It is accordingly at thistime that we find traces of its influence in the Mayacivilization.About the twelfth and thirteenth centuries a. d., theculture of the Toltecs, for reasons not yet fully under-stood, also began to decay, though it was very far fromdisappearing entirely. When the Spaniards arrived, underCortes, in 15 19, certain of their cities and centers of wor-ship were still flourishing. Much of southern Mexico, infact, was- then occupied by civilizations differing from oneanother to some extent in outward aspect, but essentiallyakin in their fundamentals.The Aztec CivilizationWe have come, however, to associate the history of theMexican plateau especially with the people called theAztecs. The latter, according to their own accounts,began as a barbarous and uncivilized tribe in a region tothe north of that in which the Spaniards found them.Thence they moved gradually southward. About six
[ 337 ]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASThundred years ago, finding themselves at war with theirmore civilized neighbors, they took refuge in certainswampy islands in the shallow lakes of the valley ofMexico. Here they lived a sort of amphibious life, partlyon land and partly on the water, and steadily absorbedmore and more of the higher culture of their neighbors.In their island refuge, approximately in a. d. 1325,they founded their capital city of Tenochtitlan, latercalled Mexico. In time they filled in and built over moreand more ground, erecting palaces, temples, and pyramids,as well as great communal houses. Long causeways con-nected this island stronghold with the mainland, the soleother means of approach being by water. Here the Aztecsdwelt secure from attack and by degrees extended theirpower. About a. d. I430 they formed with the nearbycities of Tezcuco and Tlacopan a league in which theleading place was held by Tenochtitlan. The war-chiefof the latter, who also possessed many priestly attributes,was its supreme head. The Spaniards called Montezumaan "emperor." He was in reality a priest-king of a veryancient type, such as the more advanced peoples of theOld World had outgrown thousands of years before.Aztec society, however, was far removed from simplesavagery. It had a highly organized priesthood and whatwas tending to become a real hereditary aristocracy; ithad warriors, craftsmen, laborers, peasants, and slaves.The upper classes kept the masses of the people under asevere social discipline, through which they learned habitsof obedience and of submissiveness to superiors.The Aztecs had made great advances in farming, ormore properly gardening. Most of the land belonged notto individuals but to the local village communities. Theyconstructed floating islands, called chinampas, made ofrafts covered with earth, where they grew not only vege-tables but also flowers, for which they showed muchfondness. They possessed no domestic animals other thanthe dog, as no wild species suited for domestication then[338]
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PREHISTORIC MAN IN THE NEW WORLD
existed in that part of the New World. They did, how-ever, domesticate the turkey, later introduced by theSpaniards into Europe.Pottery was, of course, early known on the Mexicanplateau. In time it came to be of high quality. Muchinteresting work was also done in the carving of jade andother hard stones, in the manufacture of mosaics, in weav-ing, and in the making of baskets.The Aztecs worked gold, silver, and copper to someextent, but the principal material for tools remained stone.For those requiring a cutting edge, such as the knives usedby the priests in killing their victims, they employedobsidian, or volcanic glass. They armed heavy hardwoodclubs with a double row of obsidian blades, making weap-ons capable of striking a frightful blow, and they usedspears and bows and arrows. The warriors, brilliant withwar paint, carried round shields adorned with feathers,while officers further protected themselves with helmetsin the form of birds and beasts of prey, with tunics ofquilted cotton which could stop a stone-tipped arrow, andwith wooden greaves for the legs. Montezuma himself, onaccount of his sacred character, was carried into battleon a litter.There were many divinities, the chief being the war god,Huitzilopochtli. Worship consisted of pageants, dances,processions, and various ceremonies, in which flowerswere lavishly used, incense was burned, and music wasmade on flutes and drums.In the Aztec religion human sacrifice played an almostincredibly great part. The worshipers and often the vic-tims were decked out in brilliant costumes, feather orna-ments, and headdresses. In some instances they regardedthe victim as the earthly personification of the god towhom he was destined to be sacrificed, and treated himaccordingly with every honor up to the very day of hisdoom. When, about a generation before the coming of theSpaniards, the Aztecs completed the great central group[339]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
of temple-pyramids at Tenochtitlan, they accompanied itsdedication with a perfect orgy of human sacrifice. Accord-ing to the old chroniclers, tens of thousands of victims ofboth sexes had their hearts torn out and offered to thebloodthirsty gods. One of the principal aims in Aztecwarfare, in fact, was the cap-ture of victims for the in-satiable altars.Like the Mayas, the Aztecshad a sort of writing, andthey had also invented a kindof paper, whereon they re-corded events, made officialreports, and even attained tothe beginnings of true liter-ature. The predominant toneof their writings, especiallyof their poetry, was one ofsadness and the inevitableapproach of death.Fierce fighters as they were,the Aztecs offered the Span-iards a brave and determinedresistance. It is doubtful if Cortes, with all his ability andenergy, could have reduced their stronghold in the lake ifsmallpox had not broken out among them. Even so, hehad to storm their great communal houses one by onebefore their resistance was finally crushed. History hasrarely recorded a more savage struggle. When the Span-iards at last conquered, little remained of the once proudaboriginal city of Tenochtitlan but a smoking heap ofruins. The Civilization of the IncasCivilization, so far as we now know, began almost if notquite as early in South America as it did on the Mexicanplateau. Just as everywhere else in the more advanced[340I
Fig. 108. Design from Aztec sac-rificial stone; the war god, Huitzil-opochtli, on left, in the costumeof an Aztec warrior of high rank,seizes a captive, symbolizing thecapture of the town of Tuxpan,"The Place of Rabbits," as indi-cated by the sign in the upperright-hand corner. After Spinden
PREHISTORIC MAN IN THE NEW WORLD
regions of the New World, it gradually developed out of anearlier "Archaic" culture and depended primarily on thegrowing of maize. High up in the Andes, a kind of buck-wheat known as quinoa came to be raised; and it was inPeru, as we have seen, that the "Irish" potato was domesti-cated. Other plants cultivated included beans, manioc,gourds, and the maguey. The Peruvians terraced thesides of the mountains to form fields, and built aqueductsand reservoirs for irrigation.Western South x4.merica has another claim to fame, also,in that it alone of all the regions of the New World ac-complished the domestication of animals other than thedog in aboriginal times. It possessed, fortunately, a wildanimal, the guanaco, or huanaco, a distant relative of thecamels of the Old World, which could be utilized in thisway. From it in time two domestic forms developed?thellama, used mainly for carrying loads, and the alpaca,valued for its fleece. Another wild species, the vicuna,yielded an exceptionally fine wool, reserved in later timesfor the use of the Inca ruler alone. Such progress towardcivilization implies many centuries of settled life, andundoubtedly had already been achieved long before theIncas appeared on the scene.For the Incas came into prominence comparativelylate and founded their empire only a few hundred yearsbefore the discovery of America. They claimed to be
"Children of the Sun" and formed a ruling nobility heldin superstitious reverence by their subjects. The Incaruler was a divine king-god, a good deal like the earlierEgyptian Pharaohs. In order to keep the sacred blood ofthe royal line absolutely pure, he was required by customto make his full sister his chief wife.The Inca Empire, when the Spaniards arrived, had cometo include not only what is now Peru but also Ecuador,Bolivia, northern Chile, and northwestern Argentina. Itwas organized in great detail on a basis of state socialism.The common people had almost every act of life from birth[341]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
to death closely regulated. Practically no such thing asprivate property existed for them. The state was every-thing, the individual nothing. On the other hand the stateguarded the people against foreign invasion, protectedthem from injustice, and looked after them in sicknessand in health. It relieved them of all personal responsi-bility and freed them from worry about their care in oldage. Under such conditions obedience became a habitand the common people little more than animated ma-chines, constantly directed and supervised by the officersof the state. Often whole groups of people were shiftedabout and settled wherever needed, even in regions fardistant from their original homes. In this way, the Incasspread their civilization and rendered it more homo-geneous throughout the empire.They established this in the first place, of course, byforce. They raised armies, organizing and handling themwith the same attention to detail which marked the con-duct of affairs in peace. The warriors carried the bow,the javelin, the sling, the ax, and the club?practically allof them made of stone, copper weapons being mainly cere-monial and not for use in actual warfare.They had developed mining and metal-working to a cer-tain extent and knew gold, silver, and copper. Some oftheir recovered implements made of the last-named metalcontain tin, and hence are in reality of bronze. It seemsalmost certain, however, that they did not add this alloyintentionally, but that it resulted from the accidental pres-ence of tin in the copper ore. At all events, Peruviancivilization fell far short of developing a true Bronze Age.At most it was only Chalcolithic?that is, using both stoneand copper implements.The Peruvians had developed pottery to an extraordi-nary degree, even though they knew nothing of that usefulcontrivance, the potter's wheel. It consisted of plain,engraved, painted, and varnished ware (Fig. 109). Weav-ing was another art carried by the Peruvians to a very[342]
PREHISTORIC MAN IN THE NEW WORLDhigh pitch of excellence. They utilized both cotton andthe wool of the alpaca and vicuna, designs being eitherwoven into the fabric, embroidered, painted on, or dyed.Featherwork was also highly developed, as were wood-carving, inlaying, and the manufacture of jewelry studded
Fig. 109. Section from design of a painted vase; ancient Peru.Interpreted as portraying a victorious war chief saluting his sov-ereign. After Squier
with emeralds. The people regularly wore clothing, some-times of an elaborate character, along with caps, sandals,and necklaces.In architecture the Peruvians carried building in stoneto a point in some respects scarcely ever equaled in anyland. The Incas understood thoroughly how to handleand transport vast building blocks, with which they con-
[ 343 ]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
structed not only temples but mighty fortresses, like thatof Sacsahuaman protecting the ancient capital of Cuzcoon the north. In building these, they cut enormous stonesof irregular shape to fit one another so closely that thejoints can scarcely be penetrated by a knife blade. Some-times they dispensed with mortar and occasionally fas-tened blocks together with T-shaped clamps of copper.Yet in all this only stone tools seem to have been em-ployed, for the Incas had no suitable metal ones.They knew the corbeled or "false" arch, but more oftenthey covered buildings with extremely thick and elaborateroofs of thatch. Like the Mayas, they sometimes coatedthe walls with stucco; but those of the more importantbuildings, such as palaces and temples, they lined withplates of gold studded with jewels.The engineering feats of the Incas have aroused theadmiration of later times. Some of them?the construc-tion of aqueducts, the terracing of fields, and the moving ofblocks of stone weighing many tons?have already beenmentioned. They also built bridges, sometimes of greatstone slabs on masonry abutments, or suspended on cablesof twisted osier. In certain cases mountain streams werecrossed by means of a traveling basket slung from a singlecable. The Incas also constructed a remarkable system ofroads, even at the dizziest heights. These were not, in-deed, meant for wheeled vehicles, of which none existed;but they were perfectly well adapted to the passage ofswift-marching companies of footmen or strings of ladenllamas. Without them the Incas could hardly have kepttheir vast empire together.In transportation by water, on the other hand, theyhad remained in the canoe and raft stage. The principaltype of craft was the balsa, made of bundles of reedslashed together, and propelled by means of paddles orpoles. The early Spanish narratives speak of a sort ofrudimentary sail as occasionally used, but these state-ments all refer to a portion of the coast only a few hundred[344]
PREHISTORIC MAN IN THE NEW WORLD
miles south of Panama, where the Spaniards had been for ageneration before they seriously undertook the conquestof Peru. Hence it seems just possible that the Peruviansgot the idea of a sail from the Spaniards. Thirty yearswould seem time enough for it to have spread along afew hundred miles of coast. They may, however, havedeveloped it quite independently.Yet with all this high state of civilization, the Incaslagged behind the Mayas and the Aztecs in one importantrespect. They lacked a system of writing. There is asingle assertion by anearly Spanish chroniclerthat in ancient times theyhad had one which waslater forgotten; but thisstatement lacks the sup-port of evidence of anykind, and may almost cer-tainly be disregarded.The place of writing wastaken by the use ofknotted cords with whichrecords of all sorts werekept. These, however, hadthe disadvantage, like thewampum belts of theNorth American Indians,of being legible to- spe-cially trained men only. Inother words the knottedstrings, or quipus, wereonly exceptionally elaborate aids to memory. We some-times use a knotted handkerchief for the same purpose(Fig. no).That a people without writing should have a literaturemay seem strange. Yet the Incas had made great ad-vances in this direction. They composed elaborate his-
FlG. no. Portion of a Peruvian quipu ofknotted strings, by means of which recordswere kept, as writing was unknown.After Radin
345
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
tories, dramas, poems, and other works, though thesecould only be memorized and were not written down untilafter the Spanish conquest.As might be expected among a people so devoted to theworship of the heavenly bodies, the Incas had made con-siderable progress in astronomy. A fairly accurate calen-dar had been worked out, based originally on the phasesof the moon, but later corrected and modified by observa-tions of the sun. For the Incas, like other early agricul-tural peoples the world over, attached great importanceto periodical ceremonies performed to insure an abundantharvest. And these must be held at the right time everyyear if they were to do the most good. The accuratedating of historical events, which seems so important tous, was only an afterthought with the peoples whooriginated calendars.Thus the civilization of the ancient Peruvians wasbound up with acts of worship to an extent hard for usto realize. They drew no line between things secularand things religious. Everything centered about theadoration of the sun and of his earthly representative, theInca sovereign. Temples existed in various places, theprincipal one, naturally, at Cuzco, the Inca capital, in itsvalley in the Andes over ii,ooo feet above the sea. Heresolid gold and jewels covered the walls, and at one endshone a huge circular plate of the same metal, representingthe sun. This disappeared at the time of the Spanishconquest and has never since been found.The Incas also worshiped the moon, the planets, therainbow, the earth, and, along the coast, the sea, in addi-tion to many minor divinities. They held gorgeous festi-vals and occasionally offered human sacrifices, althoughto nothing like the extent that prevailed among theAztecs.Attached to the temples were convents in which dwelt
"virgins of the sun"?girls chosen for their beauty fromall over the empire, some destined for the Inca ruler's[346]
PREHISTORIC MAN IN THE NEW WORLDharem, and others devoted permanently to a religious life,in which they spent much of their time weaving fine cloth,especially of vicuna wool, for the Inca's use. For nobleyouths, there were schools and a sort of order of knight-
FiG. Ill Peruvian mythological design showing a combat between the "Manof the Earth," wearing a helmet of animal form with plumes, and the "Manof the Sea," symbolized as a crab. After Squierhood, the latter to be won only by passing successfullythrough severe ordeals.In theory, if not actually in practice, all gold and silverbelonged to the great Inca. His wealth was almostfabulous. His palace utensils were made of preciousmetals, and some of his gardens contained full-sizedmodels of plants and animals in gold, silver, and jewels.He himself was thought too holy to set foot to the ground,[347]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST
and hence was carried about on a litter covered with goldand precious stones (Plate loo).At the death of each Inca ruler, his whole palace, withall its contents, was left intact, an entire new equipmentbeing provided for his successor. Thus there accumulateda stock of treasure of well-nigh inestimable value. Thelast of the Incas, Atahualpa, in his effort to ransom him-self from his Spanish captors, collected in a few days a
Fig. 112. Peruvian concept of the God of the Air. .AfterSquiermass of gold objects amounting to between fifteen andtwenty million dollars. The total loot gained from theconquest of Peru must have been vastly more than this.The Spanish monarch is said to have received, as his
"royal fifth," fifty million dollars. If these figures arecorrect the sum total of the plunder gained by Pizarro andhis handful of Spaniards must have equaled a quarter of abillion dollars in actual bullion. Whatever the amount, itwas enormous, and its dumping all at once on Europe,until then rather poor in the precious metals, was un-doubtedly in part responsible tor the disturbances of allkinds which occurred there for a long time afterwards.
[ 348 ]
PLATE 100
Atahualpa, called the last of the Incas, though he was a usurper.Below he is seen carried on his sacred litter, while at the top andsides are shown Peruvians engaged in mining operations. Froman old print

PREHISTORIC MAN IN THE NEW WORLDConclusionIn marked contrast to the Old World, nowhere in theAmericas at the time of their discovery had civilizationdeveloped to any extent in the great river valleys. Thatit would eventually have done so is hardly to be doubted,although the absence of domestic animals would have beena great handicap. The interesting and highly organizedtribe known as the Natchez, for example, found on thelower Mississippi, might in time have developed a civiliza-tion in some ways comparable to those of prehistoricBabylonia and Egypt. So, too, might the mound-buildingIndians of the Ohio and elsewhere. And many othertribes had advanced far beyond primitive savagery. Allthese experiments, however, were doomed to failure; noneof the tribes had reached the point where they could offereffective resistance to the white man.Before closing this sketch of the higher aboriginal cul-tures of America, we must consider the question of pos-sible borrowings from the Old World. Certain students,mainly Europeans, have thought that they could detecttraces thereof. Most American specialists, on the otherhand, are convinced that what civilization we find is theresult of entirely independent progress under somewhatsimilar natural conditionsAside from all other considerations, it must be said thatthe supporters of the theory of Old World origins for thegreat American civilizations almost entirely ignore thehistorical problems involved. Of the latter, one of themost important is the development of sailing craft. Thedistance from southeastern Asia to the western coast ofCentral and South America is nearly half that around thewhole world. A globe shows this even more strikingly thana map. For canoes driven by paddles alone, voyages ofsuch enormous length, even allowing for stops at islandsalong the route, would be simply out of the question.Only by sailing craft, before the days of steam, could they[349]
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASThave been performed. But no evidence whatever existsto indicate the presence of vessels using sails in the regionsof southeastern Asia until about the beginning of theChristian Era. The evidence against it, on the otherhand, is plentiful and, it would seem, decisive.The great Polynesian migration, from the East IndianArchipelago to the islands of the Pacific, is now thoughtto have begun sometime about a. d. ioo. It did not reachthe eastern Pacific until some six centuries later. Thismovement depended wholly upon the use of sailing-canoes, and probably commenced not long after the latterhad become known.Again, the Chinese began rather early to keep copiousrecords of all sorts, yet these say nothing whatever ofsailing craft until as late as the third century a. d.The Japanese, who have also been mentioned as possi-ble importers of the Old World culture to America, learnedthe use of the sail from the Chinese, but employed it verylittle until about the year a, d, iooo.The great American civilizations were founded agesbefore this. The Mayas and Peruvians had alreadyreached a high degree of development long before thecommencement of the Christian Era.It is true that Asiatic junks have been blown across therelatively narrow North Pacific more than once duringthe past two or three hundred years. Yet there is no signthat their crews ever succeeded in the slightest degree inspreading their civilization among the American Indians.There have been preserved a few traditions of invasionsby sea along the northwestern coast of South America,just where, as we have seen, the early Spaniards found thesail in use. It is quite needless, however, to suppose thatthese were anything more than raids by canoe from otherregions farther up or down the same coast.Statements in Polynesian legends, again, have beeninterpreted as referring to visits to the American continent.Also certain food-plants in the Pacific islands have been[350]
PREHISTORIC MAN IN THE NEW WORLDthought to be of American origin. But if the Polynesiancanoe-men, expert and daring as we know they were, everreally reached America, it must have been long aftercivilization there had attained a high stage of develop-ment. The civilized portions of America, moreover, werenot on the coast, where such voyagers would have had toland. On the contrary, their centers were far inland, inregions separated from the Pacific by long stretches ofdeserts and mountains and tropical forests. The civiliza-tion of the Incas, the Mayas, and the Aztecs was whollyof native American origin, and it is both needless anduseless to look for its inspiration anywhere in the OldWorld.Most aboriginal American cultures are dead. Yet theystill live in many elements of our own civilization of thepresent day. They have contributed to it many extremelyvaluable cultivated plants, among them such staples asIndian corn and the potato. To them we owe the domesti-cation of certain creatures like the llama, still used fortransport over the lofty Andean passes; the guinea pig,invaluable for purposes of experiment in biological labo-ratories; and the turkey, in a far more intimate sense thanthe white-headed eagle the national bird of the UnitedStates. Without the gifts we have received from theancient American peoples, our own civilization wouldlack much of value.
3S^
BIBLIOGRAPHYThe following list of books, arranged alphabetically bythe authors' names under the various headings, makes nopretensions to completeness. It has, however, been select-ed with much care, and will serve as a guide to the readerwho wishes to learn more about the subjects discussed inthe present volume. GENERALBoas, Franz. Anthropology and modern life. NewYork, 1928.Dawson, Christopher. The age of the gods. London,1928.Dixon, R. B. The building of cultures. New' York,1928.Goldenweiser, a. a. Early civilization. New York,1922.Hough, Walter. Fire as an agent in human culture.Washington, 1926.Kroeber, a. L. Anthropology. New York, 1923.Levy-Bruhl, L. Primitive mentality. New York, 1923.Ling Roth, H. The aborigines of Tasmania. Halifax(England), 1899.LowiE, R. H. Primitive religion. New York, 1924.Primitive society. New York, 1925.The origin of the state. New York, 1927.MacCurdy, G. G. Human origins. New York, 1924.Perrier, Edmond. The earth before history. NewYork, 1925.Wilder, H. H. Man's prehistoric past. New York,1923.Wissler, Clark. Man and culture. New York, 1923.[35^]
BIBLIOGRAPHYASTRONOMYAbbot, C. G. The sun. New York, 1929.Jeans, Sir James. Astronomy and cosmogony. Cam-bridge, 1928.Russell, Dugan, and Stewart. Astronomy. Boston,1926. GEOLOGY AND CLIMATEBrooks, C. E. P. Evolution of climate. Edinburgh,1925.Chamberlin and Salisbury. Geology. New York,1906.Huntington, Ellsworth. The pulse of Asia. NewYork, 1907.JoLY, J. The surface history of the earth. Oxford,1925.Wegener, A. The origin of continents and oceans.1924.Wright, W. B. The Quaternary Ice Age. 19 14.PHYSICAL MANBoule, M. Fossil man. Edinburgh, 1923.Fleure, H. J. The peoples of Europe. London, 1922.Foster and Shore. Physiology for beginners. NewYork, 1924.Haddon, a. C. The races of man and their distribution.Cambridge, 1924.Hrdlicka, a. The most ancient skeletal remains ofman. Smithsonian Inst. Ann. Rep. 1913, pp. 49i-55^-Keane, a. H. Man past and present. Cambridge,1920.Keith, Sir Arthur. Antiquity of man. London, 1928.MacBride, E. W. Invertebrata; a text-book of embry-ology, vol. i. New York, 1924.[353] .
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTPeake and Fleure. Apes and men. New Haven,1927.Prentiss and Arey. Laboratory manual and text-book of embryology, Philadelphia, 1920.Ripley, W. Z. The races of Europe. London, 1900.THE OLD STONE AGEBuRKiTT, M. C. Our forerunners. London, 1924.Prehistory. Cambridge, 1925.Obermaier, Hugo. Fossil man in Spain. New Haven,1925OsBORN, H. F. Men of the Old Stone Age. New York,1922.Peake and Fleure. Hunters and artists. New Haven,1927.SoLLAS, W. J. Ancient hunters and their modernrepresentatives. London, 1924.FOLKLORE AND MAGICFrazer, Sir James George. Folklore in the Old Testa-ment. (Abridged edition.) London, 1923.The golden bough. (Abridged edition.) New York,1925.Mackenzie, D. A. The migration of symbols. NewYork, 1926.Marett, R. R. Psychology and folklore. New York,1920.Murray, Miss M. A. The witch cult in central Europe,Oxford, 1 92 1.Read, Carveth. Man and his superstitions. Cam-bridge, 1925.the domestication of animalsLydekker, R. The horse and its relatives. London,1912.The ox and its kindred. London, 191 2.TozER, Basil. The horse in history.[354]
BIBLIOGRAPHYECONOMIC PROGRESSBurns, A. R. Money and monetary policy in earlytimes. New York, 1927.Buxton, L. H. Dudley. Primitive labour, London,1924.HoYT, E. E. Primitive trade. London, 1926.RiDGEWAY, W. The origin of metallic currency andweight standards. Cambridge, 1892.THE DEVELOPMENT OF WATER CRAFTAnderson, Romola and R. C. The sailing ship: Sixthousand years of history. London, 1927.Smyth, H. Warington. Mast and sail in Europe andx'\sia. London, 1906.ToRR, Cecil. Ancient ships. Cambridge, 1894.THE near east IN ANCIENT TIMESBreasted, J. H. A history of Egypt. New York, 191 2.Budge, E. A. Wallis. Babylonian life and history.London, 1925.Childe, V. Gordon. The most ancient East. London,1928.Delaporte, L. Mesopotamia. New York, 1925.Erman, Adolf. Life in ancient Egypt. London, 1894.Hall, H. R. The ancient history of the Near East.New York, 19 13.HuART, Clement. Ancient Persia and Iranian civiliza-tion. New York, 1927.Jastrow, Morris. The civilization of Babylonia andAssyria. Philadelphia, 1915.King, L. W. A history of Sumer and Akkad. London,1910.
?? A history of Babylon. London, 1915.Moret, a. From tribe to empire. New York, 1926.The Nile and Egyptian civilization. New York, 1927.Peake and Fleure. Priests and kings. New Haven,1927. [355 1
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTPetri E, Sir W. M. Flinders. A history of Egypt.London, 1923.Social life in ancient Egypt. London, 1923.Smith, G. Elliot. The ancient Egyptians. London,1911.WooLLEY, C. Leonard. The Sumerians. Oxford, 1928.ancient EUROPEBurkitt, M. C. Our early ancestors. Cambridge, 1926.Childe, V. Gordon. The dawn of European civilization.London, 1925.The Aryans. London, 1926.Glotz, G. The Aegean civilization. London, 1925.Hall, H. R. The civilization of Greece in the BronzeAge. London, 1928.Leaf, W. Homer and history. London, 1915.Macalister, R. a. S. The Philistines. London, 1913.Mosso, A. The dawn of Mediterranean civilization.New York [no date].MuNRO, R. The lake dwellings of Europe. London,1890.Paleolithic man and the Terramara settlements inEurope. Edinburgh, 19 12.Peake, H. The Bronze Age and the Celtic world.London, 1922.Rose, H. J. Primitive culture in Greece. London,1925.Tyler, J. M. The New Stone Age in Europe. New York,1921.Ure, p. N. The origin of tyranny. Cambridge, 1922.Wace and Thompson. Prehistoric Thessaly. Cambridge,1912. THE grassland PEOPLESBorovka, G. L Scythian art. New York, 1928.Minns, E H. Scythians and Greeks. Cambridge, 1913.[356]
BIBLIOGRAPHYParker, E. H. A thousand years of the Tartars.London, 1924.Peake and Fleure. The steppe and the sown. NewHaven, 1928.Rostovtzeff, M. Iranians and Greeks in South Russia.Oxford, 1922.THE FARTHER EAST IN ANCIENT TIMESLaufer, Berthold. Chinese pottery in the Han Dy-nasty. Leiden, 1909.Mitra, P. Prehistoric India. Calcutta, 1927.Parker, E. H. Ancient China simplified. London,1908.Ragozin, Zenaide a. Vedic India. New York, 1902.Smith, V. A. The early history of India. Oxford, 1914.Asoka, the Buddhist Emperor of India. Oxford, 1920.primitive AFRICABuRKiTT, M. C. South Africa's past in stone and paint.Cambridge, 1928.Stow, G. W. The native races of South Africa. London,1905. THE NEW WORLDGuTHE, C. E. Pueblo pottery making. New Haven,1925.Joyce, T. A. Mexican archeology. New York, 1914.Markham, Sir Clements R. The Incas of Peru.London, 191 1.Spence, Lewis. The gods of Mexico. London, 1922.Spinden, H. J. The ancient civilizations of Mexico andCentral America. New York, 1917.Squier, E. G. Peru: Incidents of travel and explorationin the land of the Incas. New York, 1877.WissLER, Clark. The American Indian. New York,1922. [357I
MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PASTMETHODS IN ARCHEOLOGYBritish Museum. How to observe in archeology.London, 1920.Lucas, Alfred. Antiques, their restoration and preser-vation. London, 1924.Petri e. Sir W. M. Flinders. Methods and aims inarcheology. London, 1904.Rathgen, Friedrich. The preservation of antiquities.Cambridge, 1905.
358
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INDEX
Acheulian epoch, 43, 54, 65, 67,72, 187-189Age of Polished Stone see NewStone AgeAgriculture, beginnings of, 243Egyptian, 297, 298New Stone Age, 246-249, 327Peruvian, 341Alcohol, use of, 178, 179Algae, fossil, 1
5
Alligators, Old and New World,326Alpaca, fleece of, 341Alphabet, invention of, 291Alpha Centauri, nearest star, i, 8Amber, use of, 274, 275American Indians, 327, 328Ammonites, 16Amphibians, rise of, 15Angiosperms, rise of, 17Animals, domestication of, 238,239, 250-254, 297, 314, 341draught, 256pack, 255, 341related, in Old and New World,326sacred, 251, 252Antevs, E., on geologic time, 70on Ice Age, 62Apes, brain of, 45Arch, corbeled, 331Architecture, beginnings of, 264Bronze Age, 281Cretan, 310Egyptian, 298, 299
Architecture, Mayan, 331, 332New Stone Age, 264, 265Peruvian, 343Toltec, 337Aztec, 339Armor, Bronze Age, 271, 272iron, 324Stone Age, 271Art, Assyrian, 307Aurignacian, 77, 203-205beginnings of, 262Bronze Age, 281Capsian, 228-232cave, 51, 52, 203-205, 217-223Chinese, 322Cretan, 309, 310Cro-Magnon, 75, 203-205, 218-223eastern Spanish, 231Egyptian, 299Magdalenian, 74, 218-223Mayan, 330-335New Stone Age, 263Paleolithic, 75, 229Peruvian, 343Solutrean, 209Aryans, 307, 308, 314, 315Asia, prehistoric southwestern,301-308Asoka, 317Assyria, 306, 307Atahualpa, 347Atomic gradation, law of, 5Atoms, annihilation of, 4, 7Aurignac, grotto of, 43human remains at, 77[365
INDEX
Aurignacian epoch, 43, ^2j 54)'7^>76-82, 198-206, 228Aurignacians see Cro-MagnonAx, cult of the Double, 310invention of stone, 235symbol of authority, 236Azilian epoch, 43, 52Aztecs, 337-340 BBabylonia, ancient, 302-306Bacteria, fossil, 15Balsa rafts of Incas, 344Bate, Miss, on fauna associatedwith Galilee skull, 129Baton de commandement, 201, 202,208, 209-, 216Birds, age of, 17Boule, M., on Neanderthal man,131Bow and arrow, 217, 229, 236, 237composite, 323simple, 323Brain, evolution of, 45of apes, 45Pithecanthropus, 153Rhodesian man, 162table of capacities, 165Brick making, development of,282-284Bronze Age, 41 , 266-293, 309-3 1 2,3i9?32oBronze, effect on civilization, 274invention of, 268Briinn, human remains at, 75Briix, human remains at, 75Buckwheat, cultivation of, 341Buddhism fostered by Asoka, 317Bull, cult of the, in Crete, 310Burial, 189Bronze Age, 292Cro-Magnon, 206Magdalenian, 223Mousterian, 196
Burial, Neanderthal, 197Burin, 202Bushmen, 80Buxton on Neanderthal man, 96
Calendar, of Egyptians, 298of Incas, 346of Mayas, 334Cambrian period, 13Camels, ancient, 18Camel, use of, 275Cannibalism, of Neanderthalers,197sacrificial, 255Canoe, invention of, 241Capsian culture, 227-232Carboniferous period, 14Carving, art of, 205Carvings of Magdalenians, 218Caschrom, 259, 260Casting, development of, 269Cat, domestication of, 296Cats, ancient, 18Cave art, 51, 52, 203-205, 217-223dwellers, 192, 195, 196, 199, 214,217, 219Cells, living, 25-28Cenotes, 334Cephalopods, ancient, 13, 14, 16Cereals, importance of, 243Chalcolithic Period, 42, 267, 342Chamberlin and Moulton onorigin of earth, 9Chancelade, man of, 74Chellean epoch, 43, 54, 65, 67, 72,185-187Chelles, prehistoric site, 43, 54"Children of the Sun" see IncasChina, ancient, 317-325Great Wall of, 283Chinampas, 338Chinese Empire, 325Ch'in Shih Huang-ti, 325366
INDEXChromosomes, 26-28, 32Circles of upright stones, 283City-states of China, 320Civilization, Aztec, 337-339beginning of, 295Chinese, 319-324Crete first European, 308Egyptian, 298-301of ancient India, 313-317of Incas, 340-348spread of, 312, 317Toltec, 337Climate, of Acheulian, 188of ancient Spain, 227Aurignacian, 198, 199Chellean, 185Magdalenian, 212, 214, 215,219, 225Mousterian, 191Old Stone Age, 232Pre-Chellean, 184Solutrean, 206, 2iiClothing, absence of, in Chellean,185Clothing, in Acheulian, 189in Bronze Age, 272Capsian, 229Paleolithic, 209of Cretans, 310, 311Magdalenians, 217Peruvians, 343Solutreans, 209origin of, 173Coins, early Chinese, 280Continents, shifting of, lo, 63Copper Age, 42Copper, use of, 266Core industry, 184, 186, 189, 193Corn, Indian, see MaizeCoup-de-poing, see Fist-axCretaceous period, 17Crete, ancient, 308-312Crocodiles, ancient, 17
Croll on Ice Age, 56Cro-Magnon, human remains at,77race, 73-82, 178-226, 228Crot-du-Charnier, human remainsat, 75. 78Crustaceans, ancient, 14Cults, 225, 310Culture, Acheulian, 188, 189Archaic, 328, 329, 341Assyrian, 306, 307Aurignacian, 198-206Aztec, 338-340central Asian, 319Chinese, 318-320Cretan, 309-312Cro-Magnon, 198-226Egyptian, 297-301Magdalenian, 212-226Mayan, 330-336Middle Stone Age, 234-245Mousterian, 190-197Neanderthal, 192-197New Stone Age, 246-265north African, 228of ancient India, 313-315Heidelberg race, 186Incas, 341-348Piltdown race, 186, 188Old Stone Age, 184-232, 239-240Persian, 308Peruvian, 341-348pre-Mousterian, 183Solutrean, 207Sumerian, 303, 304Tardenoisian, 232Tasmanian, 184Spanish, 227-232Cultures, of America, 338, 349-351of East Africa, 199remains of, 187Cuzco, 344[367
INDEXDDawn Stone Period, 72Dawson, Charles, 134Dead, cult of the, 225Deer, ancient, 18Designs, conventionalized, 209Devil's Tower, human remains at,93. 94Devonian period, 14, 15Diluvial man of Krapina, 103-109Dinosaurs, 16, 17Diseases, of Neanderthalers, 196of primitive man, 176Divine Son, 249Dog, of Aztecs, 338the first domestic animal, 238,239Dogs, ancient, 18Dolmens, 283Dolphins, ancient, 18Domestication of animals, 238,239, 250-254, 297, 314, 341of plants, 242, 243, 328Double Ax, cult of the, 310Drachenloch cavern, prehistoricsite, 196Dubois, Eugene, 18on ancestry of man, 150on Pithecanthropus, 1 45-1 47Dwellings, Aurignacian, 201Bronze Age, 282Magdalenian, 217Middle Stone Age, 236Neanderthal, 195Solutrean, 207
Earth, age of the, 2, 3, 8as building material, 264, 282,
crust of the, 9distance from sun of the, iinterior of the, 9origin of the, 8, 9
Earth, size of the, iEddington on solar energy, 4Education among Incas, 347Egypt, prehistoric, 295-301Ehringsdorf, human remains at,
I lo-i 13Elephant, ancient, 18domesticated, 315Embryo, development of, 30, 31Eoanthropus dawsoni, 134, 135,140Eocene period, 18Eolithic see Dawn Stone PeriodEoliths, 135Eras, geologic, 12Evolution, recapitulated in indi-vidual, 31,32theory of, 21
Fauna, Acheulian, 188associated with Galilee skull,129Aurignacian, 199Chellean, 185Magdalenian, 215, 225Mousterian, 95, 98, 105, 124,191of Spain, 227Old Stone Age, 232Pleistocene, 134Pliocene, 134Pre-Chellean, 183Quaternary, 1 1
1
Rhodesian, 162Feldhofen Grotto, human re-mains in, 83Femur see Thigh boneFighting on horseback, 288, 322Fire, first use of, 172
"First Emperor" of China seeCh'in Shih Huang-tiFischer's Quarry, human remainsat, 112368
INDEX
Fishes, age of, i 2, 14rise of bony, 17Fist-ax, 184, 187, 189, 192Flake industry, 184, 189, 192, 200,207Floating islands see: ChiuampasForbes Quarry, 89Fortifications of Incas, 344Fossils, 2, 10Fuhlrott on Neanderthal man, 84Furs as clothing, 189, 192, 2091
Galaxies of stars, 2, 4, 6Galilee skull, 126-129Ganoids, ancient, 14Garrod, D. A. E., on Devil'sTower site, 94on Neanderthal man, 95Gayal, domestication of, 253Geer, G. de, on geologic time, 69Gilbraltar skull, 89-92Glacial Period see Ice Agestages, 66terraces, 72Glaciation see Glacial stagesGlaciers, 57-61Gold, use ot, 266Goliath a Bronze Age Warrior, 272Goodspeed and Olson on effect ofX-rays on plant development,23Gorjanovic-Kramberger on Kra-pina remains, 108Grain as standard of value, 279Great Mother Goddess, 249Great Wall of China, 283Greek art, influence of, on East,316Greeks, 312Grimaldi, caves of, 78human remains at, 79Grinnell, G. B., on mutilation, 51
Grotte des Enfants, human re-mains in, 78Guanaco domesticated, 341Guanches, 228Gijnz glacial stage, 66Gymnosperms, ancient, 17HHabitations see DwellingsHatting, methods of, 270Handles, origin of, 194Hatchet see AxHeidelberg, human remains near,Hen, domestication of, 308Heredity, mechanism of, 24History, beginning of, in Egypt,298, 320Hoe, invention of stone, 244Homo^ 153calpicus^ see Gibraltar skullmousteriensis, 125neanderthalensis, 152see also Neanderthal mansapiens, 152Hopwood on Rhodesian fauna, 162Horse, ancient, 18archers, 324as sacred animal, 253bones, deposit of, 53bred by Indo-Europeans, 287importance of, in Babylonia, 305introduced into India, 314meat, use of, 254milk, use of, 253used, for clothing, 253for food, 253for riding, 286in New Stone Age, 253Hrdlicka, A., on Ehringsdorf re-mains, 1 13on human variation, 21Piltdown skull, 139-140, 141Pithecanthropus, 147, 152-154369
INDEXHrdlicka,Rhodesian man, 154-162Spy skeletons, loiHuanaco see GuanacoHuitzilopochtli, war god of Aztecs,339Hunting, primitive, 195
IIce Age, 56-70Ichthyosaurs, 16Ideographs, 290Implement, earliest bone, 135, 185,194Implements, Acheulian, 188, 189Aurignacian, 201, 202Aztec, 339bone, 135, 185, 193, 194, 201,202, 208, 216, 217, 328bronze, 269, 270, 304, 320, 342Bronze Age, 269Chellean, 186copper, 269, 304, 339, 342, 344farming, 328horn, 201, 216iron, 306, 324ivory, 216, 217Magdalenian, 216, 217Middle Stone Age, 244Mousterian, 192-194Neolithic, 258, 259, 261obsidian, 194, 339Paleolithic, 135, 207-209Pre-Chellean, 184, 185reindeer antler, 201, 202, 208,216shell, 328wooden, 184, 187, 194, 201, 216Solutrean, 207-209stone, 135, 180, 184, 186-189,192, 193, 201, 207-209, 216,235, 244, 269-271, 297, 328,339, 342Inca civilization, 340-348Empire, 341
Inca, ruler, 341,347Incas, armies of, 342as engineers, 344astronomy of, 346state socialism of, 34 1, 342India, ancient, 313-317Indians see American IndiansIndo-Europeans, 287, 308Industry of Acheulian, 189of Aurignacian, 200, 201Bronze Age, 269-286Chellean, 186, 187Egypt, 297Magdalenian, 216Middle Stone Age, 235-238,244Mousterian, 94, 97, 99, 115,124, 129, 192-195Indus Valley civilization, 313Infanticide, origin of, 179Inhabited worlds, possibility of, 2Interglacial stages, 66Invertebrates, reign of, 12-14Iron Age, 41Iron, introduction of, 306useof, 315, 324Irrigation in New World, 328, 341JJava, Pithecanthropus found in,146Jaw, human lower, 47, 107, 138Jeans on solar energy, 4Jewelry of Bronze Age, 281KKaempfer's Quarry, human re-mains at, 112Keith, A., on Ice Age, 68on man's ancestry, 31on Piltdown skull, 49, 136Klause, human remains at, 75Knossos, destruction of, 312370
INDEXKramberger, see Gorjanovic-KrambergerKrapina, human remains at, 103-109 LLa Chapelle-aux-Saints, humanremains at, 1 13-1 18La Ferrassie, human remains at,118La Madeleine, human remains at,74rock-shelter, 43Lampreys, ancient, 14Land-bridges, 63, 64Language, development of, 170Languages of India, 315of Sumerians, 304, 305La Quina, human remains at, 122Laugerie-Basse, human remainsat, 74"Laurel-leaf" implements, 208
"Laurel-leaf" points, 75Le Moustier, cave of, 43human remains at, 125, 126Lemurs, ancient, 18Les Evzies see Cro-MagnonLife, dawn of, 15geologic record of, 3, 10, 12of Permian period, 15Light, speed of, iLight-year, iLiterature of Aztecs, 340oral, of Incas, 345, 346Lizards, ancient, 17Llama used for carrying loads, 341Loess, 61Lungfishes, ancient, 14Luxuries of Bronze Age, 275MMagdalenian epoch, 43, 72, 73-75,212-226man, 74Magic, belief in, 177, 242
Maize, in New World, 328, 341Mammals, age of, 12rise of, 18Man, ancestry of, 32, 150brain of, 45. 73 .conditions essential for life of,4'
5
development of individual,dominance of, 20first evidences of, 2in universe, 4modern, one species, 326origin of, 22, 326rise of, 12, 19primeval, 168variation in, 21Manatees, ancient, 18Mandible see JawMas d' Azil, cave of, 43, 52Mastodon, 18Mauer jaw, 142-144Maurya, Chandragupta, 316Empire, 316, 317Maya ruins, 335, 23^Mayas, civilization of, 329, 336history of, 335present-day, 336Medes, rise of, 307, 308Medicine bags, 262men, 177Mediterranean race, ancestors of,226, 228race, in Crete, 309Mesolithic Period see MiddleStone AgeMetallurgy, development of,266-269, 281Metals, use of, 265, 279Middle Stone Age, 43, 67, 234-245Migrations of primitive man, 198Milky Way, 2Mindel glacial stage, (>6Mining, primitive, 26737^
INDEX
Minotaur, origin of legend of, 311Miocene Period, 18Mithan see GayalModesty, origin of, 192Mollusks, antiquity of, 13Money, early Roman, 279in China, 322inventi(3n of, 278Monkeys, ancient, 18Montezuma, 338Moseley, Henry Gwyn-Jeffreys,5,6Mother Goddess see Great MotherGoddessMountains, evolution of, 10Mousterian epoch, 43, 54, 67, 71,190-199Mummification in Egypt, 300NNaga tribes, 253Naval power, Crete first, 309, 311Neanderthal Gorge, 83man, 46, 67, 71, 72, 83-133, 197,198,352Nebulae, spiral, 6Needles, 202, 217Negritos in southern China, 318Negroid races of southwesternAsia, 301Neolithic Period see New StoneAgeNew Stone Age, 42, 68, 244,246-265,309,318,319Nile Valley civilization, 298-301Nordics, origin of, 212North America joined to Asia, 326oOar, evolution of the, 277Obercassel, human remains at, 74Obermaier on Mousterian fauna,
on Spanish prehistory, 227
Oceans, changes in, 10Old Stone Age, 43, 54, 65, 67, 72,75, 182-233Oligocene period, 20Ordovician period, 13Ostracoderms, ancient, 14Ox, ancient, 18as standard of value, 278Ozone, 5 PPainted Pottery People, 302Painting of body, 206Paleolithic Period see Old StoneAgePaleozoic Era, 13Pelesati see Philistines, 312Penck and Bruckner on Ice Age,65Penck on Ice Age, 68Permian period, 15, 16Persian Empire, 308, 315, 316Persians, rise of the, 307, 308Peruvians see IncasPetershole, prehistoric site, 196Philistines, 312Philosophy in China, 324Pictographs, 290Pigment, use of, 196, 206Pigs, ancient, 18Piltdown, human remains at,134-141Pithecanthropus erectus, 18, 145-153Planets, i, 2Plants cultivated by AmericanIndians, 328, 341Pleistocene period, 19, 65, 134, 135Plesiosaurs, 16, 17Pliocene period, 18, 134Plow, origin of, 258, 259Porcelain, 274Postglacial Period, 68, 73Posture, human, 46, 48Potato domesticated in Peru, 341[372
INDEX
Potter's wheel, invention of, 273Pottery, archeological importanceof, 273beginnings of, 238development of, 274of Aztecs, 339Bronze Age, 273Mayas, 334Mesolithic, 238Peruvians, 342painted, 319Pre-Chellean epoch, 43, 65, 67,72, 182-185Predmost, human remains at, 81Pressure flaking, 207Priest-kings of Cretans, 311Primates, ancient, 18Pfoto-homo, 152Pterodactyls, 17Punjab region conquered byPersia, 316Pygmies of southwestern Asia, 301Pyramids, Egyptian, 299Mayan, 331,332Toltec, 337 Q%iWoa, see Buckwheat^uipus, 345 RRabbits, ancient, 18Radium in relation to earth'sage, 3Raised beaches, 63Raymonden, human remains at, 74Religion, of Aztecs, 339of Chinese, 319Cretans, 310Cro-Magnon race, 202Egyptians, 299Incas, 346Mayas, 334Neanderthalers, 196New Stone Age, 248, 249
Religion, of Solutreans, 211origin of, 225Reptiles, age of, 12, 16, 17Rhinoceros, ancient, 18Rhodesian man, 154-162Riss glacial stage, 66River terraces, 65Rock engravings, 52Rodents, ancient, 18
Sacrifice, human, 246-248, 291,292, 3io> 3^9, 328, 339, 340>346of animals, 248, 292Sail, invention of the, 277, 298used by Incas, 344, 345St. Acheul, France, 43Schwalbe on Ehringsdorf re-mains, 1 1
1
Sculpture, early Egyptian, 299Magdalenian, 222Solutrean, 209Sea lions, ancient, 18Seals, ancient, 18Semites, rise of, 304Sex, determination of, 28Shang Dynasty, 321Sharks, ancient, 14
"Shouldered-point" implements,209Silhouettes of hands, 204Silk, early use of, 262Silurian period, 14Skeleton, human, 48Les Hoteaux, 224Neanderthal, 83-89Skeletons, Spy, 101Skull, Cro-Magnon, 73, 74Galilee, 126Gibraltar, 89-92La Chapelle, 117, 118Neanderthal, 86, 87373
INDEX
Skull, Piltdown, 49-51, 136-141Rhodesian, 160-162Skulls, as drinking cups, 225Krapina, 108prehistoric, 46Slavery, origin of, 254Snakes, ancient, 17Social system of ancient China,320of Aztecs, 338of Neanderthalers, 196Solar system, origin of, 8Solutrean epoch, 43, 52, 72, 75,76, 206-212Solutre, France, 43prehistoric site, 53"Son of Heaven," 321
"Sorcerer, The," of Trois Freres,222, 223Sound symbols, 290, 291South America, ancient civiliza-tion of, 340-349Space, extent of, 4Spain, ancient, 227-232Spear-thrower, 216Species, origin of, 20number of, 20Spectrum of star, 7Spy, prehistoric site, 96skeletons, loiSquirrels, ancient, 18Star, nearest, i, 8Stars, I, 2, 4, 6-8State socialism of Incas, 341, 342Statuettes of women, 205, 209Steel Age, 41Steppes, 61Stone as building material, 283,284, 295, 298, 331, 332, 343,344Stonehenge, circle at, 283Stones, groups of upright, 283String, uses of, 175, 345Sumerians, 302-305
Sun, the, I, 3, 4Sunken rivers, 63Syllabary, 291
Tardenoisian culture, 232Tasmanians, culture of, 184Teeth of man, 48Temple-pyramids of Aztecs, 340Temples of Crete, 311of Egypt, 299Incas, 346India, 313Mayas, 331,332Tenochtitlan, 338, 340Thigh bone of man, 49, 89"Three-man spade" of Korea, 260Time, calculation of geologic, 3,10, 69, 70Tin, in Bronze Age, 268Toltec civilization, 337Tools, first use of, 171Transportation, methods of, 275-278, 344-345Trees, fossil, 15Triassic period, 16Trilobites, 13, I4Trinil, Pithecanthropus, found at,146Tuareg race, 228Tundras, 60Turkey, domestication of, 339Turtles, ancient, 17UUltra-violet rays, 5Universe, chemical compositionof, 5structure of, 4Universes, number of island, 2VVariation, mechanism of, 24Varves, 69Vegetation, heroic age of, 12, 14374
1
INDEX
Vertebrates, rise of, 12, 14Vicuna, wool of, 341
"Virgins of the Sun," 346, 347Virgins, vestal, 173WWall decorations, 284War chariot, 285, 287, 288, 306,322War, effects of, 1 80Warfare in Bronze Age, 284-288of Assyrians, 306, 307Cretans, 311Indo-Europeans, 287primitive, 180War god of Aztecs see Huitzilo-pochtliWater craft in Middle Stone Age,240, 241, 276-278,344Water, indispensable to life, 4Wealth of the Incas, 347Weapons, bronze, 324.Bronze Age, 269-271iron, 324of Aztecs, 339of Incas, 342
Weaving, invention of, 261of Mayas, 334of Peruvians, 342, 343materials for, 261, 262Weights and measures, 280Whales, ancient, 18Wheel, invention of, 256, 257Wheeled vehicles in Bronze Age,
.275"Willow-leaf" implements, 207Wood as building material, 264,282, 283, 330used by Mayas, 330, 331Wooden spear, 194Woodward, A. S., on Piltdownman, 135, 136, 138Women as farmers, 243, 328Writing, development of, 290importance of, 289in ancient India, 314, 315of Aztecs, 340of Mayas, ZZ'^-2>2>AWiirm glacial stage, (>(), 67, 71
Zwigelaar, T., 157
375