Men of the Old Stone Age: Their Environment, Life and Art
CHAPTER VI
CLOSE OF THE OLD STONE AGE 456
INVASION OF NEW RACES 457
MAS D'AZIL 459
FÈRE-EN-TARDENOIS 465
AZILIAN-TARDENOISIAN CULTURE 466
MAMMALIAN LIFE 468
AZILIAN-TARDENOISIAN INDUSTRY 470
THE BURIALS AT OFNET 475
THE NEW RACES 479
ANCESTRY OF EUROPEAN RACES 489
TRANSITION TO THE NEOLITHIC 493
NEOLITHIC CULTURE 496
NEOLITHIC FAUNA 498
PREHISTORIC AND HISTORIC RACES OF EUROPE 499
CONCLUSIONS 501
APPENDIX
NOTE
I. LUCRETIUS AND BOSSUET ON THE EARLY EVOLUTION OF MAN 503
II. HORACE ON THE EARLY EVOLUTION OF MAN 504
III. ÆSCHYLUS ON THE EARLY EVOLUTION OF MAN 505
IV. 'UROCHS' OR 'AUEROCHS' AND 'WISENT' 505
V. THE CRÔ-MAGNONS OF THE CANARY ISLANDS 506
VI. THE LENGTH OF POSTGLACIAL TIME AND THE ANTIQUITY OF THE AURIGNACIAN CULTURE 510
VII. THE MOST RECENT DISCOVERIES OF ANTHROPOID APES AND SUPPOSED ANCESTORS OF MAN IN INDIA 511
VIII. ANTHROPOID APES DISCOVERED BY CARTHAGINIAN NAVIGATORS 511
BIBLIOGRAPHY 513
INDEX 533
ILLUSTRATIONS
Plate I. Neanderthal man at the grotto of Le Moustier (_in tint_) _Frontispiece_
PAGE
Plate II. Discovery sites of the type specimens of human and prehuman races (_in color_) _facing_ 19
Plate III _Pithecanthropus_, the ape-man of Java 87
Plate IV. The Piltdown man 145
Plate V. The Neanderthal man of La Chapelle-aux-Saints 203
Plate VI. The 'Old Man of Crô-Magnon' 273
Plate VII. Crô-Magnon artists in the cavern of Font-de-Gaume (_in tint_) 358
Plate VIII. Bison painted by Palæolithic artists in the cavern of Altamira (_in color_) 414
FIG.
1. Modern, Palæolithic, and chimpanzee skulls compared 8
2. Skull and brain of _Pithecanthropus_, the ape-man of Java 9
3. Three great types of flint implements 11
4. Evolution of the lance-point 15
5. Map--Type stations of Palæolithic cultures 16
6. Section--Terraces of the River Inn near Scharding 25
7. Section--Terraces of the River Rhine above Basle 26
8. Section--Terraces of the River Thames near London 28
9. Magdalenian loess station of Aggsbach in Lower Austria 29
10. Section of the site of the Neanderthal cave 31
11. Sections showing the formation of the typical limestone cavern 32
12. Map--Europe in the period of maximum continental elevation 35
13. Section showing snow-lines and sea-levels of the Glacial Epoch 37
14. Chronological chart--Great events of the Glacial Epoch 41
15. Zoogeographic map 45
16. The gibbon 50
17. The orang 51
18. The chimpanzee, walking 52
19. The chimpanzee, sitting 53
20. The gorilla 55
21. Median sections of the heads of a young gorilla and of a man 56
22. Side view of a human brain of high type 57
23. Outlines of typical human and prehuman brains (side view) 58
24. Outlines of typical human and prehuman brains (top view) 59
25. Map--Europe during the Second Glacial Stage 65
26. The musk-ox 66
27. The giant deer (_Megaceros_) 68
28. The sabre-tooth tiger (_Machærodus_) 70
29. Restoration of _Pithecanthropus_, the Java ape-man 73
30. Discovery site of _Pithecanthropus_ 74
31. Section of the volcano of Lawoe and the valley of the Solo River 75
32. Map--Solo River and discovery site of _Pithecanthropus_ 75
33. Section of the _Pithecanthropus_ discovery site 76
34. Skull-top of _Pithecanthropus_, top and side views 77
35. Head of chimpanzee, front and side views 78
36. Restoration of _Pithecanthropus_ skull, side view 79
37. Restoration of _Pithecanthropus_ skull, three views 80
38. _Pithecanthropus_, the Java ape-man, side view 81
39. _Pithecanthropus_, the Java ape-man, front view 82
40. Side view of a human brain of high type 83
41. Outlines of human and prehuman brains, side and top views 84
42. The hippopotamus and the southern mammoth 92
43. Merck's rhinoceros and the straight-tusked elephant 93
44. Map--Geographic distribution of Merck's rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, and the straight-tusked elephant 94
45. Section of the Heidelberg discovery site 96
46. The sand-pit at Mauer, discovery site of the Heidelberg man 97
47. The Heidelberg jaw 98
48. Jaws of an Eskimo, of an orang, and of Heidelberg (side view) 99
49. Jaws of an Eskimo, of an orang, and of Heidelberg (top view) 100
50. Restoration of Heidelberg man 101
51. Map--Europe during the Third Glacial Stage 105
52. Chronological chart of the last third of the Glacial Epoch 108
53. Map--Pre-Chellean and Chellean stations 109
54. Map--Europe during the Third Glacial Stage 110
55. Excavation at Chelles-sur-Marne 111
56. Map--Western Europe during the Third Interglacial Stage 116
57. Three terraces on the Connecticut River 120
58. Four forms of the Chellean coup de poing 121
59. Section--Terraces on the Somme at St. Acheul 122
60. Very primitive palæoliths from Piltdown 127
61. Pre-Chellean coups de poing from St. Acheul 128
62. Pre-Chellean _grattoir_ or planing tool from St. Acheul 129
63. Discovery site of the Piltdown skull 131
64. Section of the Piltdown discovery site 133
65. Primitive worked flint found near the Piltdown skull 134
66. Eoliths found in or near the Piltdown site 135
67. Piltdown skull and skull of South African Bushman 136
68. Restoration of the Piltdown skull, three views 137
69. Section of the Piltdown skull, showing the brain 140
70. Brain outlines of the Piltdown man, of a chimpanzee, and of modern man, compared 140
71. The Piltdown man, side view 142
72. The Piltdown man, front view 143
73. Map--Pre-Chellean and Chellean stations 149
74. Section--Middle and high terraces on the Somme at St. Acheul 150
75. Excavation on the high terrace at St. Acheul 151
76. Small Chellean implements 153
77. Map--Palæolithic stations of Germany 160
78. Entrance to the grotto of Castillo 163
79. Section--archæologic layers of the grotto of Castillo 164
80. Map--Acheulean stations 167
81. Late Acheulean station of La Micoque in Dordogne 168
82. Method of 'flaking' flint 169
83. Method of 'chipping' flint 170
84. The fracture of flint 171
85. Large Acheulean implements 173
86. Map--Valleys of the Dordogne and the Garonne 175
87. The valley of the Vézère 176
88. Acheulean implements, large and small 178
89. A Levallois flake 179
90. The grotto of Krapina 181
91. Section Valley of the Krapinica River and grotto of Krapina 182
92. Section--The grotto of Krapina 183
93. Skull from Krapina, side view 184
94. Map--Europe during the Fourth Glacial Stage 189
95. The woolly rhinoceros and the woolly mammoth 190
96. Typical tundra fauna 193
97. Map--Palæolithic stations of Germany 195
98. The type station of Le Moustier 197
99. Excavations at Le Moustier 198
100. The Mousterian cavern of Wildkirchli 200
101. Entrance to the grotto of Sirgenstein 201
102. The woolly mammoth and his hunters 208
103. The woolly rhinoceros 210
104. Map--Distribution of Pre-Neanderthaloids and Neanderthaloids 214
105. The Gibraltar skull, front view 215
106. Section of the Neanderthal discovery site 216
107. The Neanderthal skull, side view 217
108. The skull known as Spy I, side view 220
109. Discovery site of La Chapelle-aux-Saints 222
110. Entrance to the grotto of La Chapelle-aux-Saints 223
111. The skull from La Chapelle-aux-Saints, three views 224
112. Human teeth of Neanderthaloid type from La Cotte de St. Brelade 225
113. Skulls of a chimpanzee, of La Chapelle-aux-Saints, and of a modern Frenchman, side view 227
114. Outlines of the Gibraltar skull and of a modern Australian skull 228
115. Skull of La Chapelle-aux-Saints compared with one of high modern type, side view 230
116. Skulls of a chimpanzee, of La Chapelle-aux-Saints, and of a modern Frenchman, top view 231
117. Diagram comparing eleven races of fossil and living men 233
118. Section of the skull of La Chapelle-aux-Saints, showing the brain 235
119. Brain outlines of La Chapelle-aux-Saints, of a chimpanzee, and of modern man, compared 235
120. Brains of Lower and Upper Palæolithic races, top and side views 236
121. Skeleton of La Chapelle-aux-Saints 238
122. Thigh-bones of the Trinil, Neanderthal, Crô-Magnon, and modern races 240
123. The Neanderthal man of La Chapelle-aux-Saints, side view 242
124. The Neanderthal man of La Chapelle-aux-Saints, front view 243
125. Map--Mousterian stations 245
126. The Mousterian cave of Hornos de la Peña 246
127. Outlook from the cave of Hornos de la Peña 247
128. Typical Mousterian 'points' from Le Moustier 250
129. Mousterian 'points' and scrapers 251
130. Late Mousterian implements 255
131. Entrance to the Grotte du Prince near Mentone 262
132. Section of the Grotte des Enfants 265
133. The Grimaldi skeletons 267
134. Skull of the Grimaldi youth, front and side views 268
135. Map--Distribution of Upper Palæolithic human fossils 279
136. Chronological chart of the last third of the Glacial Epoch 280
137. 'Tectiforms' from Font-de-Gaume 283
138. Map--Distribution of the reindeer, mammoth, and woolly rhinoceros 285
139. Section of the grotto of Aurignac 290
140. Section of the grotto of Crô-Magnon 291
141. Skull of Crô-Magnon type from the Grotte des Enfants 292
142. Head showing the method of restoration used by J. H. McGregor 293
143. The rock shelter of Laugerie Haute, Dordogne 296
144. Skeleton of La Chapelle-aux-Saints and skeleton of Crô-Magnon type from the Grotte des Enfants, compared 297
145. Sections of normal and platycnæmic tibias 298
146. The 'Old Man of Crô-Magnon,' side view 300
147. The 'Old Man of Crô-Magnon,' front view 301
148. Brain outlines of Combe-Capelle, of a chimpanzee, and of modern man, compared 303
149. Evolution of the _burin_, early Aurignacian to late Solutrean 307
150. Typical Aurignacian _grattoirs_, or scrapers 309
151. Evolution of the Aurignacian 'point' 311
152. Prototypes of the Solutrean 'laurel-leaf point' 312
153. Map--Aurignacian stations 314
154. Outlook from the cavern of Pindal 315
155. Mammoth painted in the cavern of Pindal 316
156. Primitive paintings of animals from Font-de-Gaume 318
157. Woolly rhinoceros painted in the cavern of Font-de-Gaume 319
158. Carved female figurine from the Grottes de Grimaldi 321
159. Female figurine in limestone from Willendorf 322
160. Female figurine in soapstone from the Grottes de Grimaldi 323
161. Superposed engravings of rhinoceros and mammoth from Le Trilobite 324
162. Silhouettes of hands from Gargas 325
163. The rock shelter of Laussel on the Beune 326
164. Section of the industrial layers at Laussel 327
165. Bas-relief of a woman from Laussel 328
166. Bas-relief of a man from Laussel 329
167. Map--Solutrean stations 331
168. The skull known as Brünn I, discovered at Brünn, Moravia 335
169. Solutrean 'laurel-leaf points' 339
170. The type station of Solutré 342
171. Excavations at Solutré 343
172. Typical Solutrean implements 346
173. Mammoth sculptured on ivory, from Předmost, Moravia 349
174. Engraved and painted bison from Niaux 353
175. Decorated _sagaies_ or javelin points of bone 354
176. Horse's head engraved on a fragment of bone, from Brassempouy 355
177. Painting of a wolf, from Font-de-Gaume 356
178. Crude sculpture of the ibex, from Mas d'Azil 357
179. Decorated _bâtons de commandement_ 359
180. Chronological chart of the last third of the Glacial epoch 362
181. Engraved and painted reindeer from Font-de-Gaume 365
182. Four types of horse frequent in Upper Palæolithic times 367
183. Horse of Celtic type, painted on the ceiling of Altamira 368
184. Four chamois heads engraved on reindeer horn, from Gourdan 369
185. Typical alpine fauna 371
186. Typical steppe fauna 374
187. Ptarmigan or grouse carved in bone, from Mas d'Azil 375
188. The rock shelter of Laugerie Basse, Dordogne 377
189. Human skull-tops cut into bowls, from Placard 379
190. Male and female skulls of Crô-Magnon type, from Obercassel 381
191. The type station of La Madeleine 383
192. Magdalenian flint implements 386
193. Magdalenian bone harpoons 387
194. Magdalenian flint blades with denticulated edge 390
195. Bone needles from Lacave 391
196. Map--Palæolithic art stations of Dordogne, the Pyrenees, and the Cantabrian Mountains 394
197. Primitive engravings of the mammoth from Combarelles 397
198. Preliminary engraving of painted mammoth from Font-de-Gaume 397
199. Charging mammoth engraved on ivory, from La Madeleine 398
200. Human grotesques from Marsoulas, Altamira, and Combarelles 399
201. Entrance to the cavern of Combarelles, Dordogne 400
202. Engraved cave-bear, from Combarelles 401
203. Magdalenian stone lamp, from La Mouthe 401
204. Entrance to the cavern of La Pasiega 402
205. Engraved bison from Marsoulas 403
206. Herd of horses engraved on a slab of stone, from Chaffaud 404
207. Herd of reindeer engraved on an eagle radius, from La Mairie 405
208. Reindeer and salmon engraved on an antler, from Lorthet 406
209. Engraved lioness and horses, from Font-de-Gaume 407
210. Painted horse of Celtic type, from Castillo 408
211. Galloping horse of steppe type, from Font-de-Gaume 408
212. Entrance to the cavern of Niaux 409
213. Engraved horse with heavy winter coat, from Niaux 410
214. Professor Emile Cartailhac at the entrance of Le Portel 411
215. Engraved horse and reindeer, from La Mairie 412
216. Engraved reindeer, cave-bear, and two horses, from La Mairie 413
217. Engraved wild cattle, from La Mairie 413
218. Preliminary etched outline of bison from Font-de-Gaume 414
219. Entrance to the cavern of Font-de-Gaume 415
220. Map of the cavern of Font-de-Gaume 416
221. Narrow passage known as the 'Rubicon,' Font-de-Gaume 417
222. Plan showing reindeer and procession of bison, Font-de-Gaume 419
223. Plan showing preliminary engraving and painting of the procession of mammoths, superposed on drawings of bison, reindeer, and horses 420
224. Example of superposition of paintings, from Font-de-Gaume 421
225. Entrance to the cavern of Altamira 422
226. Plan of paintings on the ceiling of Altamira 423
227. The ceiling of Altamira 424
228. Painting of female bison lying down, from Altamira 425
229. Royal stag engraved on the ceiling of Altamira 426
230. Statuette of a mammoth carved in reindeer horn, from Bruniquel 427
231. Entrance to the cavern of Tuc d'Audoubert 428
232. Engraved head of a reindeer from Tuc d'Audoubert 429
233. Two bison, male and female, modelled in clay, from Tuc d'Audoubert 430
234. Horse carved in high relief, from Cap Blanc 431
235. Horse head carved on a reindeer antler, from Mas d'Azil 432
236. Statuette of horse carved in ivory, from Les Espelugues 432
237. Woman's head carved in ivory, from Brassempouy 433
238. Map--Magdalenian stations 435
239. Necklace of marine shells, from Crô-Magnon 437
240. Map--Palæolithic stations of Germany 439
241. Reindeer engraved around a piece of reindeer antler, from Kesslerloch 441
242. Entrance to the grotto of Kesslerloch 444
243. The rock shelter of Schweizersbild 445
244. The open loess station of Aggsbach 448
245. Saiga antelope carved on a bone dart-thrower, from Mas d'Azil 449
246. Western entrance to the cavern of Mas d'Azil 460
247. Azilian harpoons of stag horn 462
248. Azilian _galets coloriés_, or painted pebbles 464
249. Tardenoisian flints 467
250. Map--Azilian-Tardenoisian stations 471
251. Azilian stone implements 473
252. Double-rowed Azilian harpoons of stag horn, from Oban 474
253. Section--Archæologic layers in the grotto of Ofnet 476
254. Burial nest of six skulls, from the grotto of Ofnet 477
255. Brachycephalic and dolichocephalic skulls from Ofnet 478
256. Broad-headed skull of Grenelle 482
257. Entrance to the grotto of Furfooz on the Lesse 482
258. Section of the grotto of Furfooz 483
259. One of the type skulls of the Furfooz race 483
260. Restoration of the man of Grenelle 484
261. Implements and decorations from Maglemose 487
262. Ancestry of the Pre-Neolithic races 491
263. Stages in the manufacture of the Neolithic stone ax 493
264. Stone hatchet from Campigny 494
265. Stone pick from Campigny 494
266. Restoration of the Neolithic man of Spiennes 495
267. Stag hunt, painting from the rock shelter of Alpera 497
268. Map--Distribution of the types of recent man in western Europe 499
Map of Palæolithic Tour _folded at the end of the volume_
MEN OF THE OLD STONE AGE
INTRODUCTION
GREEK CONCEPTIONS OF MAN'S ORIGIN--RISE OF ANTHROPOLOGY, OF ARCHÆOLOGY, OF THE GEOLOGIC HISTORY OF MAN--TIME DIVISIONS OF THE GLACIAL EPOCH--GEOGRAPHIC, CLIMATIC, AND LIFE PERIODS OF THE OLD STONE AGE
The anticipation of nature by Lucretius[B] in his philosophical poem, _De Rerum Natura_, accords in a broad and remarkable way with our present knowledge of the prehistory of man:
"Things throughout proceed In firm, undevious order, and maintain, To nature true, their fixt generic stamp. Yet man's first sons, as o'er the fields they trod, Reared from the hardy earth, were hardier far; Strong built with ampler bones, with muscles nerved Broad and substantial; to the power of heat, Of cold, of varying viands, and disease, Each hour superior; the wild lives of beasts Leading, while many a lustre o'er them rolled. Nor crooked plough-share knew they, nor to drive, Deep through the soil, the rich-returning spade; Nor how the tender seedling to re-plant, Nor from the fruit-tree prune the withered branch.
* * * * *
"Nor knew they yet the crackling blaze t'excite, Or clothe their limbs with furs, or savage hides. But groves concealed them, woods, and hollow hills; And, when rude rains, or bitter blasts o'erpowered, Low bushy shrubs their squalid members wrapped.
* * * * *
"And in their keen rapidity of hand And foot confiding, oft the savage train With missile stones they hunted, or the force Of clubs enormous; many a tribe they felled, Yet some in caves shunned, cautious; where, at night, Thronged they, like bristly swine; their naked limbs With herbs and leaves entwining. Nought of fear Urged them to quit the darkness, and recall, With clamorous cries, the sunshine and the day: But sound they sunk in deep, oblivious sleep, Till o'er the mountains blushed the roseate dawn.
* * * * *
"This ne'er distressed them, but the fear alone Some ruthless monster might their dreams molest, The foamy boar, or lion, from their caves Drive them aghast beneath the midnight shade, And seize their leaf-wrought couches for themselves.
* * * * *
"Yet then scarce more of mortal race than now Left the sweet lustre of the liquid day. Some doubtless, oft the prowling monsters gaunt Grasped in their jaws, abrupt; whence, through the groves, The woods, the mountains, they vociferous groaned, Destined thus living to a living tomb.
* * * * *
"Yet when, at length, rude huts they first devised, And fires, and garments; and, in union sweet, Man wedded woman, the pure joys indulged Of chaste connubial love, and children rose, The rough barbarians softened. The warm hearth Their frames so melted they no more could bear, As erst, th' uncovered skies; the nuptial bed Broke their wild vigor, and the fond caress Of prattling children from the bosom chased Their stern ferocious manners."[C]
This is a picture of many phases in the life of primitive man: his powerful frame, his ignorance of agriculture, his dependence on the fruits and animal products of the earth, his discovery of fire and of clothing, his chase of wild beasts with clubs and missile stones, his repair to caverns, his contests with the lion and the boar, his invention of rude huts and dwellings, the softening of his nature through the sweet influence of family life and of children, all these are veritable stages in our prehistoric development. The influence of Greek thought is also reflected in the Satires of Horace,[D] and the Greek conception of the natural history of man, voiced by Æschylus[E] as early as the fifth century B. C., prevailed widely before the Christian era, when it gradually gave way to the Mosaic conception of special creation, which spread all over western Europe.
RISE OF MODERN ANTHROPOLOGY
As the idea of the natural history of man again arose, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, it came not so much from previous sources as from the dawning science of comparative anatomy. From the year 1597, when a Portuguese sailor's account of an animal resembling the chimpanzee was embodied in Filippo Pigafetta's _Description of the Kingdom of the Congo_, the many points of likeness between the anthropoid apes and man were treated both in satire and caricature and in serious anatomical comparison as evidence of kinship.
The first French evolutionist, Buffon,[F] observed in 1749: "The first truth that makes itself apparent on serious study of nature is one that man may perhaps find humiliating; it is this--that he, too, must take his place in the ranks of animals, being, as he is, an animal in every material point." Buffon's convictions were held in check by clerical and official influences, yet from his study of the orang in 1766 we can entertain no doubt of his belief that men and apes are descended from common ancestors.
The second French evolutionist, Lamarck,[G] in 1809 boldly proclaimed the descent of man from the anthropoid apes, pointing out their close anatomical resemblances combined with inferiority both in bodily and mental capacity. In the evolution of man Lamarck perceived the great importance of the erect position, which is only occasionally assumed by the apes; also that children pass gradually from the quadrumanous to the upright position, and thus repeat the history of their ancestors. Man's origin is traced as follows: A race of quadrumanous apes gradually acquires the upright position in walking, with a corresponding modification of the limbs, and of the relation of the head and face to the back-bone. Such a race, having mastered all the other animals, spreads out over the world. It checks the increase of the races nearest itself and, spreading in all directions, begins to lead a social life, develops the power of speech and the communication of ideas. It develops also new requirements, one after another, which lead to industrial pursuits and to the gradual perfection of its powers. Eventually this pre-eminent race, having acquired absolute supremacy, comes to be widely different from even the most perfect of the lower animals.
The period following the latest publication of Lamarck's(1)[H] remarkable speculations in the year 1822, was distinguished by the earliest discoveries of the industry of the caveman in southern France in 1828, and in Belgium, near Liége, in 1833; discoveries which afforded the first scientific proof of the geologic antiquity of man and laid the foundations of the science of archæology.
The earliest recognition of an entirely extinct race of men was that which was called the 'Neanderthal,' found, in 1856, near Düsseldorf, and immediately recognized by Schaaffhausen(2) as a primitive race of low cerebral development and of uncommon bodily strength.
Darwin in the _Origin of Species_,(3) which appeared in 1858, did not discuss the question of human descent, but indicated the belief that light would be thrown by his theory on the origin of man and his history.
It appears that Lamarck's doctrine in the _Philosophie Zoologique_ (1809)(4) made a profound impression on the mind of Lyell, who was the first to treat the descent of man in a broad way from the standpoint of comparative anatomy and of geologic age. In his great work of 1863, _The Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man_, Lyell cited Huxley's estimate of the Neanderthal skull as more primitive than that of the Australian but of surprisingly large cranial capacity. He concludes with the notable statement: "The direct bearing of the ape-like character of the Neanderthal skull on Lamarck's doctrine of progressive development and transmutation ... consists in this, that the newly observed deviation from a normal standard of human structure is not in a casual or random direction, but just what might have been anticipated if the laws of variation were such as the transmutationists require. For if we conceive the cranium to be very ancient, it exemplifies a less advanced stage of progressive development and improvement."(5)
Lyell followed this by an exhaustive review of all the then existing evidence in favor of the great geological age of man, considering the 'river-drift,' the 'loess,' and the loam deposits, and the relations of man to the divisions of the Glacial Epoch. Referring to what is now known as the Lower Palæolithic of St. Acheul and the Upper Palæolithic of Aurignac, he says that they were doubtless separated by a vast interval of time, when we consider that the flint implements of St. Acheul belong either to the Post-Pliocene or early Pleistocene time, or the 'older drift.'
It is singular that in the _Descent of Man_, published in 1871,(6) eight years after the appearance of Lyell's great work, Charles Darwin made only passing mention of the Neanderthal race, as follows: "Nevertheless, it must be admitted that some skulls of very high antiquity, such as the famous one at Neanderthal, are well-developed and capacious." It was the relatively large brain capacity which turned Darwin's attention away from a type which has furnished most powerful support to his theory of human descent. In the two hundred pages which Darwin devotes to the descent of man, he treats especially the evidences presented in comparative anatomy and comparative psychology, as well as the evidence afforded by the comparison of the lower and higher races of man. As regards the "birthplace and antiquity of man,"(7) he observes:
"... In each great region of the world the living mammals are closely related to the extinct species of the same region. It is therefore probable that Africa was formerly inhabited by extinct apes closely allied to the gorilla and chimpanzee; and as these two species are now man's nearest allies, it is somewhat more probable that our early progenitors lived on the African continent than elsewhere. But it is useless to speculate on this subject; for two or three anthropomorphous apes, one the _Dryopithecus_ of Lartet, nearly as large as a man, and closely allied to _Hylobates_, existed in Europe during the Miocene Age; and since so remote a period the earth has certainly undergone many great revolutions, and there has been ample time for migration on the largest scale.
"At the period and place, whenever and wherever it was, when man first lost his hairy covering, he probably inhabited a hot country; a circumstance favorable for the frugivorous diet on which, judging from analogy, he subsisted. We are far from knowing how long ago it was when man first diverged from the catarrhine stock; but it may have occurred at an epoch as remote as the Eocene Period; for that the higher apes had diverged from the lower apes as early as the Upper Miocene Period is shown by the existence of the _Dryopithecus_."
With this speculation of Darwin the reader should compare the state of our knowledge to-day regarding the descent of man, as presented in the first and last chapters of this volume.
The most telling argument against the Lamarck-Lyell-Darwin theory was the absence of those missing links which, theoretically, should be found connecting Man with the anthropoid apes, for at that time the Neanderthal race was not recognized as such. Between 1848 and 1914 successive discoveries have been made of a series of human fossils belonging to intermediate races: some of these are now recognized as missing links between the existing human species, _Homo sapiens_, and the anthropoid apes; and others as the earliest known forms of _Homo sapiens_:
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+ |Year| Locality | Character of Remains | Race | |----|---------------------|----------------------|-------------------| |1848|Gibraltar. |Well-preserved skull. |Neanderthal. | |1856|Neanderthal, near |Skullcap, etc. |Type of Neanderthal| | | Düsseldorf. | | race. | |1866|La Naulette, Belgium.|Fragment of lower jaw.|Neanderthal race | |1867|Furfooz, Belgium. |Two skulls. |Type of Furfooz | | | | | race. | |1868|Crô-Magnon, Dordogne.|Three skeletons and |Type of Crô-Magnon | | | | fragments of two | race. | | | | others. | | |1887|Spy, Belgium. |Two crania and |Spy type of | | | | skeletons. | Neanderthal | | | | | race. | |1891|Trinil River, Java. |Skullcap and femur. |Type of | | | | | Pithecanthropus | | | | | race. | |1899|Krapina, |Fragments of at least |Krapina type of | | | Austria-Hungary. | ten individuals. | Neanderthal race.| |1901|Grimaldi grotto, |Two skeletons. |Type of Grimaldi | | | Mentone. | | race. | |1907|Heidelberg. |Lower jaw with teeth. |Type of _Homo | | | | | heidelbergensis_.| |1908|La Chapelle, Corrèze.|Skeleton. |Mousterian type of | | | | | Neanderthal race.| |1908|Le Moustier, |Almost complete |Neanderthal. | | | Dordogne. | skeleton, greater | | | | | part of which was | | | | | in bad state of | | | | | preservation. | | |1909|La Ferrassie I, |Fragments of skeleton.|Neanderthal. | | | Dordogne. | | | |1910|La Ferrassie II, |Fragments of skeleton,|Neanderthal. | | | Dordogne. | female. | | |1911|La Quina II, |Fragments of skeleton,|Neanderthal. | | | Charente. | supposed female. | | |1911|Piltdown, Sussex. |Portions of skull and |Type of | | | | jaw. | _Eoanthropus_, | | | | | the 'dawn man.' | |1914|Obercassel, near |Two skeletons, male |Crô-Magnon. | | | Bonn, Germany. | and female. | | +---------------------------------------------------------------------+
In his classic lecture of 1844, _On the Form of the Head in Different Peoples_, Anders Retzius laid the foundation of the modern study of the skull.(8) Referring to his original publication, he says: "In the system of classification which I devised, I have distinguished just two forms, namely, the _short_ (round or four-cornered) which I named _brachycephalic_, and the _long_, oval, or _dolichocephalic_. In the former there is little or no difference between the length and breadth of the skull; in the latter there is a notable difference." The expression of this primary distinction between races is called the _cephalic index_, and it is determined as follows:
Breadth of skull × 100 ÷ length of skull.
In this sense the primitive men of the Old Stone Age were mostly 'dolichocephalic,' that is, the breadth of the skull was in general less than 75 per cent of the length, as in the existing Australians, Kaffirs, Zulus, Eskimos, and Fijians. But some of the Palæolithic races were 'mesaticephalic'; that is, the breadth was between 75 per cent and 80 per cent of the length, as in the existing Chinese and Polynesians. The third or 'brachycephalic' type is the exception among Palæolithic skulls, in which the breadth is over 80 per cent of the length, as in the Malays, Burmese, American Indians, and Andamanese.
The cephalic index, however, tells us little of the position of the skull as a _brain-case_ in the ascending or descending scale, and following the elaborate systems of skull measurements which were built up by Retzius(9) and Broca,(10) and based chiefly on the _outside_ characters of the skull, came the modern system of Schwalbe, which has been devised especially to measure the skull with reference to the all-important criterion of the size of the different portions of the brain, and of approximately estimating the cubic capacity of the brain from the more or less complete measurements of the skull.
Among these measurements are the slope of the forehead, the height of the median portion of the skullcap, and the ratio between the upper portion of the cranial chamber and the lower portion. In brief, the seven principal measures which Schwalbe now employs are chiefly expressions of diameters which correspond with the number of cubic centimetres occupied by the brain as a whole.
In this manner Schwalbe(11) confirms Boule's estimates of the variations in the cubic capacity of the brain in different members of the Neanderthal race as follows:
Neanderthal race--La Chapelle 1620 c.cm. " " --Neanderthal 1408 " " " --La Quina 1367 " " " --Gibraltar 1296 "
Thus the variations between the largest known brain in one member of the Neanderthal race, the male skull of La Chapelle, and the smallest brain of the same race, the supposed female skull of Gibraltar, is 324 c.cm., a range similar to that which we find in the existing species of man (_Homo sapiens_).
As another test for the classification of primitive skulls, we may select the well-known _frontal angle_ of Broca, as modified by Schwalbe, for measuring the retreating forehead. The angle is measured by drawing a line along the forehead upward from the bony ridge between the eyebrows, with a horizontal line carried from the _glabella_ to the _inion_ at the back of the skull. The various primitive races are arranged as follows:
PER CENT
_Homo sapiens_, with an average forehead frontal angle 90 _Homo sapiens_, with extreme retreating forehead " " 72.3 _Homo neanderthalensis_, with the least retreating forehead " " 70 _Homo neanderthalensis_, with the most retreating forehead " " 57.5 _Pithecanthropus erectus_ (Trinil race) " " 52.5 Highest anthropoid apes " " 56
For instance, this illustrates the fact that in the Trinil race the forehead is actually lower than in some of the highest anthropoid apes; that in the Neanderthal race the forehead is more retreating than in any of the existing human races of _Homo sapiens_.
ARCHÆOLOGY OF THE OLD STONE AGE[I]
The proofs of the prehistory of man arose afresh, and from an entirely new source, in the beginning of the eighteenth century through discoveries in Germany, by which the Greek anticipations of a stone age were verified. For a century and a half the great animal life of the diluvial world had aroused the wonder and speculation of the early naturalists. In 1750 Eccardus(17) of Braunschweig advanced the first steps toward prehistoric chronology, in expressing the opinion that the human race first lived in a period in which stone served as the only weapon and tool, and that this was followed by a bronze and then by an iron period of human culture. As early as 1700 a human skull was discovered at Cannstatt and was believed to be of a period as ancient as the mammoth and the cave-bear.[J]
France, favored beyond all other countries by the men of the Old Stone Age, was destined to become the classic centre of prehistoric archæology. As early as 1740 Mahudel(18) published a treatise upon stone implements and laid the foundations both of Neolithic and Palæolithic research. By the beginning of the nineteenth century the problem of fossil man had awakened wide-spread interest and research. In Buckland's(19) _Reliquiæ diluvianæ_, published in 1824, the great mammals of the Old Stone Age are treated as relics of the flood. In 1825 MacEnery explored the cavern of Kent's Hole, near Torquay, finding human bones and flint flakes associated with the remains of the cave-bear and cave-hyæna, but the notes of this discovery were not published until 1840, when Godwin-Austen(20) gave the first description of Kent's Hole. In 1828 Tournal and Christol(21) announced the first discoveries in France (Languedoc) of the association of human bones with the remains of extinct animals. In 1833-4 Schmerling(22) described his explorations in the caverns near Liége, in Belgium, in which he found human bones and rude flint implements intermingled with the remains of the mammoth, the woolly rhinoceros, the cave-hyæna, and the cave-bear. This is the first published evidence of the life of the Cave Period of Europe, and was soon followed by the recognition of similar cavern deposits along the south coast of Great Britain, in France, Belgium and Italy.
The work of the caveman, gradually revealed between 1828 and 1840, is now known to belong to the closing period of the Old Stone Age, and it is very remarkable that the next discovery related to the very dawn of the Old Stone Age, namely, to the life of the 'river-drift' man of the Lower Palæolithic.
This discovery of what is now known as Chellean and Acheulean industry came through the explorations of Boucher de Perthes, between 1839 and 1846, in the valley of the River Somme, which flows through Amiens and Abbeville and empties into the English Channel half-way between Dieppe and Boulogne. In 1841 this founder of modern archæology unearthed near Abbeville a single flint, rudely fashioned into a cutting instrument, buried in river sand and associated with mammalian remains. This was followed by the collection of many other ancient weapons and implements, and in the year 1846 Boucher de Perthes published his first work, entitled _De l'Industrie primitive, ou des Arts à leur Origine_,(23) in which he announced that he had found human implements in beds unmistakably belonging to the age of the 'river-drift.' This work and the succeeding (1857), _Antiquités celtiques et antédiluviennes_,(24) were received with great scepticism until confirmed in 1853 by Rigollot's(25) discovery of the now famous 'river-drift' beds of St. Acheul, near Amiens. In the succeeding years the epoch-making work of Boucher de Perthes was welcomed and confirmed by leading British geologists and archæologists, Falconer, Prestwich, Evans, and others who visited the Somme. Lubbock's(26) article of 1862, on the _Evidence of the Antiquity of Man Afforded by the Physical Structure of the Somme Valley_, pointing out the great geologic age of the river sands and gravels and of the mammals which they contained, was followed by the discovery of similar flints in the 'river-drifts' of Suffolk and Kent, England, in the valley of the Thames near Dartford. Thus came the first positive proofs that certain types of stone implements were wide-spread geographically, and thus was afforded the means of comparing the age of one deposit with another.
This led Sir John Lubbock(27) to divide the prehistoric period into four great epochs, in descending order as follows:
The _Iron Age_, in which iron had superseded bronze for arms, axes, knives, etc., while bronze remained in common use for ornaments.
The _Bronze Age_, in which bronze was used for arms and cutting instruments of all kinds.
The later or polished Stone Age, termed by Lubbock the _Neolithic Period_, characterized by weapons and instruments made of flint and other kinds of stone, with no knowledge of any metal excepting gold.
Age of the Drift, termed by Lubbock the _Palæolithic Period_, characterized by chipped or flaked implements of flint and other kinds of stone, and by the presence of the mammoth, the cave-bear, the woolly rhinoceros, and other extinct animals.
Edouard Lartet, in 1860, began exploring the caverns of the Pyrenees and of Périgord, first examining the remarkable cavern of Aurignac with its burial vault, its hearths, its reindeer and mammoth fauna, its spear points of bone and engravings on bone mingled with a new and distinctive flint culture. This discovery, published in 1861,(28) led to the full revelation of the hitherto unknown Reindeer and Art Period of the Old Stone Age, now known as the Upper Palæolithic. As a palæontologist, it was natural for Lartet to propose a fourfold classification of the 'Reindeer Period,' based upon the supposed succession of the dominant forms of mammalian life, namely:
(_d_) Age of the Aurochs or Bison.
(_c_) Age of the Woolly Mammoth and Rhinoceros.
(_b_) Age of the Reindeer.
(_a_) Age of the Cave-Bear.
Lartet, in association with the British archæologist, Christy, explored the now famous rock shelters and caverns of Dordogne--Laugerie, La Madeleine, Les Eyzies, and Le Moustier--which one by one yielded a variety of flint and bone implements, engravings and sculpture on bone and ivory, and a rich extinct fauna, in which the reindeer and mammoth predominated. The results of this decade of exploration are recorded in their classic work, _Reliquiæ Aquitanicæ_.(29) Lartet, observes Breuil,(30) clearly perceived the level of Aurignac, where the fauna of the great cave-bear and of the mammoth appears to yield to that of the reindeer. Above he perceived the stone culture of the Solutrean type in Laugerie Haute, and of the Magdalenian type in Laugerie Basse. Lartet also distinguished between the archæological period of St. Acheul (= Lower Palæolithic) and that of Aurignac (= Upper Palæolithic).
It remained, however, for Gabriel de Mortillet, the first French archæologist to survey and systematize the development of the flint industry throughout the entire Palæolithic Period, to recognize that the Magdalenian followed the Solutrean, and that during the latter stage industry in stone reached its height, while during the Magdalenian the industry in bone and in wood developed in a marvelous manner. Mortillet failed to recognize the position of the Aurignacian and omitted it from his archæological chronology, which was first published in 1869, _Essai de classification des cavernes et des stations sous abri, fondée sur les produits de l'industrie humaine_:(31)
(5) _Magdalénien_,[K] characterized by a number and variety of bone implements;
(4) _Solutréen_, leaf-like lance-heads beautifully worked;
(3) _Moustérien_, flints worked mostly on one side only;
(2) _Acheuléen_, the 'langues de chat' hand-axes of St. Acheul;
(1) _Chelléen_, bold, primitive, partly worked hand-axes.
Shortly after the Franco-Prussian War, Edouard Piette (b. 1827, d. 1906), who had held the office of magistrate in various towns in the departments of Ardennes and Aisne, France, and who was already distinguished for his general scientific attainments, began to devote himself especially to the evolution of art in Upper Palæolithic times, and assembled the great collections which are described and illustrated in his classic work, _L'Art pendant l'Age du Renne_ (1907).(32) He first established several phases of artistic evolution in the Magdalenian stage, and only recognized in his later years the station of Brassempouy, not comprehending that the Aurignacian art which he found there underlay the Solutrean culture and was separated by a long interval of time from the most ancient Magdalenian. His distinct contribution to Palæolithic history is his discovery of the _Étage azilien_ overlying the Magdalenian in the cavern of Mas d'Azil.
Henri Breuil, a pupil of Piette and of Cartailhac, exploring during the decade, 1902-12, chiefly under the influence of Cartailhac, formed a clear conception of the whole Upper Palæolithic and its subdivisions, and placed the Aurignacian definitely at the base of the series.
Thus step by step the culture stages of archæological evolution have been established and may be summarized with the type stations as follows:
ÉTAGE STATION
Tardenoisien, Fère-en-Tardenois, Aisne. Azilien, Mas d'Azil, Ariège. Magdalenien, La Madeleine, près Tursac, Dordogne. Solutréen, Solutré près Mâcon, Saône-et-Loire. Aurignacien, Aurignac, Haute-Garonne. Moustérien, Le Moustier, commune de Peyzac, Dordogne. Acheuléen, St. Acheul, près Amiens, Somme. Chelléen, Chelles-sur-Marne, Seine-et-Marne. Pre-Chelléen (= Mesvinien, Rutot), Mesvin, Mons, Belgique.
These stages, at first regarded as single, have each been subdivided into three or more substages, as a result of the more refined appreciation of the subtle advances in Palæolithic invention and technique.
A new impulse to the study of Palæolithic culture was given in 1895, when E. Rivière discovered examples of Palæolithic mural art in the cavern of La Mouthe,(33) thus confirming the original discovery, in 1880, by Marcelino de Sautuola of the wonderful ceiling frescoes of the cave of Altamira, northern Spain.(34) This created the opportunity for the establishment by the Prince of Monaco of the _Institut de Paléontologie humaine_ in 1910, supporting the combined researches of the Upper Palæolithic culture and art of France and Spain, by Cartailhac, Capitan, Rivière, Boule, Breuil, and Obermaier, and marking a new epoch in the brilliant history of the archæology of France.
It remained for the prehistory of the borders of the Danube, Rhine, and Neckar to be brought into harmony with that of France, and this has been accomplished with extraordinary precision and fulness through the labors of R. R. Schmidt, begun in 1906, and brought together in his invaluable work, _Die diluviale Vorzeit Deutschlands_.(35)
To an earlier and longer epoch belongs the Prepalæolithic or Eolithic stage. Beginning in 1867 with the supposed discovery by l'Abbé Bourgeois(36) of a primordial or Prepalæolithic stone culture, much observation and speculation has been devoted to the Eolithic(37) era and the Eolithic industry, culminating in the complete chronological system of Rutot, as follows:
LOWER QUATERNARY, OR PLEISTOCENE
Strépyian (= Pre-Chellean, in part).
Mesvinian, culture of Mesvin, near Mons, Belgium (= Pre-Chellean).
Mafflean, culture of Maffle, near Ath, Hennegau.
Reutelian, culture of Reutel, Ypres, West Flanders.
TERTIARY
Prestian, culture of St. Prest, Eure-et-Loire, Upper Pliocene.
Kentian, culture of the plateau of Kent, Middle Pliocene.
Cantalian, culture of Aurillac, Cantal, Upper Miocene or Lower Pliocene.
Fagnian, culture of Boncelles, Ardennes, Middle Oligocene.
Only the Mesvinian stage is generally accepted by archæologists, and this embraces the prototypes of the Lower Palæolithic culture, which among most French authors are termed Pre-Chellean or Proto-Chellean. The Eolithic problem has aroused the most animated controversy, in which opinion is divided. A critical consideration of this era, however, falls without the province of the present work.
SUCCESSION OF HUMAN INDUSTRIES AND CULTURES[L]
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | V. _LATER IRON AGE_ EUROPE 500 B. C. to | | (LA TÈNE CULTURE) ROMAN TIMES.| | | | IV. _EARLIER IRON AGE_ EUROPE 1000-500 B. C.| | (HALLSTATT CULTURE) ORIENT 1800-1000 | | | |III. _BRONZE AGE_ EUROPE about 2000-1000 | | ORIENT " 4000-1800 | | | | II. _NEW STONE AGE_, _NEOLITHIC_ | | 3. _LATE NEOLITHIC_ and | | _COPPER AGE_ | | (TRANSITION PERIOD) EUROPE " 3000-2000. | | | | 2. _TYPICAL NEOLITHIC AGE_ | | (ROBENHAUSIAN, SWISS | | LAKE-DWELLERS) EUROPE " 7000. | | | | 1. _EARLY NEOLITHIC STAGES_ | | (CAMPIGNIAN CULTURE) EUROPE | | | | I. _OLD STONE AGE_, _PALÆOLITHIC_ | | | | _UPPER PALÆOLITHIC_ EUROPE | | 8. AZILIAN-TARDENOISIAN. } " 12,000. | | } | | 7. MAGDALENIAN. (Close of } " 16,000. | | Postglacial time.) } | | } | | 6. SOLUTREAN. } REINDEER, | | } SHELTER, | | 5. AURIGNACIAN. (Beginning } AND CAVE | | of Post-Glacial Time.) } PERIOD. | | } | | _LOWER PALÆOLITHIC_ } | | 4. MOUSTERIAN. (Fourth } " 40,000. | | Glacial time.) } | | | | 3. ACHEULEAN. (Transition } | | to shelters.) } RIVER- | | } DRIFT | | 2. CHELLEAN. } AND " 100,000. | | } TERRACE | | 1. PRE-CHELLEAN (MESVINIAN.) } PERIOD. | | } | | _EOLITHIC._ | +----------------------------------------------------------------------+
GEOLOGIC HISTORY OF MAN
Man emerges from the vast geologic history of the earth in the period known as the Pleistocene, or Glacial, and Postglacial, the 'Diluvium' of the older geologists. The men of the Old Stone Age in western Europe are now known through the latter half of Glacial times to the very end of Postglacial times, when the Old Stone Age, with its wonderful environment of mammalian and human life, comes to a gradual close, and the New Stone Age begins with the climate and natural beauties of the forests, meadows, and Alps of Europe as they were before the destroying hand of economic civilization fell upon them.
It is our difficult but fascinating task to project in our imagination the extraordinary series of prehistoric natural events which were witnessed by the successive races of Palæolithic men in Europe; such a combination and sequence never occurred before in the world's history and will never occur again. They centred around three distinct and yet closely related groups of causes. First, the formation of the two great ice-fields centring over the Scandinavian peninsula and over the Alps; second, the arrival or assemblage in western Europe of mammals from five entirely different life-zones or natural habitats; third, the arrival in Europe of seven or eight successive races of men by migration, chiefly from the great Eurasiatic continent of the East.
Throughout this long epoch western Europe is to be viewed as a peninsula, surrounded on all sides by the sea and stretching westward from the great land mass of eastern Europe and of Asia, which was the chief theatre of evolution both of animal and human life. It was the 'far west' of all migrations of animals and men. Nor may we disregard the vast African land mass, the northern coasts of which afforded a great southern migration route from Asia, and may have supplied Europe with certain of its human races such as the 'Grimaldi.'
These three principal phenomena of the ice-fields, the mammals, and the human life and industry, together establish the chronology of the Age of Man. In other words, there are four ways of keeping _prehistoric time_: that of geology, that of palæontology, that of anatomy, and that of human industry. Geologic events mark the grander divisions of time; palæontologic and anatomic events mark the lesser divisions; while the successive phases of human industry mark the least divisions. The geologic chronology deals with such immense periods of time that its ratio to the animal and to the human chronology is like that of years to hours and to minutes of our own solar time.
The Glacial Epoch when first revealed by Charpentier(39) and Agassiz,(40) between 1837 and 1840, was supposed to correspond to a single great advance and retreat of the ice-fields from various centres. The vague problem of the antiquity of Pliocene man and Diluvial man soon merged into the far more definite chronology of _glacial_ and _interglacial man_. As early as 1854, Morlot discovered near Dürnten, on the borders of the lake of Zürich, a bed of fossil plants indicating a period of south temperate climate intervening between two great deposits of glacial origin. This led to the new conception of cold glacial stages and warm interglacial stages, and Morlot(41) himself advanced the theory that there had been three glacial stages separated by two interglacial stages. Other discoveries followed both of fossil plants and mammals adapted to warmer periods intervening between the colder periods. Moreover, successive glacial moraines and 'drifts,' and successive river 'terraces' were found to confirm the theory of multiple glacial stages. The British geologist, James Geikie (1871-94) marshalled all the evidence for the extreme hypothesis of a succession of six glacial and five interglacial stages, each with its corresponding cold and warm climates. Strong confirmation of a theory of four great glaciations came through the American geologists, Chamberlin,(42) Salisbury,(43) and others, in the discovery of evidence of four chief glacial and three interglacial stages in northern portions of our own continent. Finally, a firm foundation of the quadruple glacial theory in Europe was laid by the classic researches of Penck and Brückner(44) in the Alps, which were published in 1909. Thus the exhaustive research of Geikie, of Chamberlin and Salisbury, of Penck and Brückner, and finally of Leverett(45) has firmly established eight subdivisions or stages of Pleistocene time, namely, four glacial, three interglacial, and one postglacial. These not only mark the great eras of European time but also make possible the synchrony of America with Europe.
PLACE OF THE OLD STONE AGE IN THE EARTH'S HISTORY
(Indicated in =heavy-face letter=.)
Compare Schuchert's Table, 1914.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Major | Periods and Epochs | Advances in Life |Dominant Life| | Divisions | | | | |-----------|--------------------------|------------------|-------------| | |_HOLOCENE._ |Recent |Rise of world | Age of Man. | | | | alluvial. | civilization. | | | | | | | | | | . . . . . . | . . . . . .|Industry in iron, |Iron, Bronze,| | | | | copper, and | and New | |QUATERNARY.| | | polished stone. | Stone Ages. | | | | | | | | |_PLEISTOCENE,|=Postglacial|=Extinction of | | | | | stage.= | great mammals.= | =Men | | | or | | | of the | | | ICE AGE._ |=Glacial |=Dawn of mind, | Old Stone | | | | stages.= | art, and | Age.= | | | | | industry.= | | |-----------|-------------|------------|------------------|-------------| | |_PLIOCENE._ | |Transformation of | | | | | | man-ape into man.| | | |-------------|Late |------------------| | | |_MIOCENE._ | Tertiary. |Culmination of | | | | | | mammals | AGE OF | | |-------------|------------|------------------| | | |_OLIGOCENE._ | |Beginnings of | MAMMALS | | | | | anthropoid ape | | |TERTIARY. |-------------| | life. | AND | | | | |Appearance of | | | |_EOCENE._ |Early | higher types of | MODERN | | | | Tertiary. | mammals, and | | | | | | vanishing of | PLANT LIFE. | | | | | archaic forms. | | | |-------------| |------------------| | | |_PALÆOCENE._ | |Rise of archaic | | | | | | mammals. | | |-----------|-------------|------------|------------------|-------------| | | | |Extinction of | | | | | | great reptiles. | | | |Cretaceous. |------------|------------------| | |LATE | | |Extreme | | | MESOZOIC.| | | specialization | AGE | | | | | of reptiles. | | | |-------------|------------|------------------| | | | | |Rise of flowering | OF | | |Comanchian. | | plants. | | |-----------|-------------|------------|------------------| REPTILES. | | | | |Rise of birds and | | | |Jurassic. | | flying reptiles.| | |EARLY |-------------|------------|------------------| | | MESOZOIC.| | | | | | |Triassic. | |Rise of dinosaurs.| | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
Since most of the skeletal and cultural remains of man can now be definitely attributed to certain glacial, interglacial, or postglacial stages, vast interest attaches to the very difficult problem of the duration of the whole Ice Age and the relative duration of its various glacial and interglacial stages. The following figures set forth the wide variations in opinion on this subject and the two opposite tendencies of speculation which lead to greatly expanded or greatly abbreviated estimates of Pleistocene time:
DURATION OF THE ICE AGE
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+ |1863. Charles Lyell,(46) _Principles of Geology_ 800,000 years. | |1874. James D. Dana,(47) _Manual of Geology_ 720,000 " | |1893. Charles D. Walcott,(48) _Geologic Time as | | Indicated by the Sedimentary Rocks of | | North America_ 400,000 " | |1893. W. Upham,(49) _Estimates of Geologic Times, | | Amer. Jour. Sci._, vol. XLV 100,000 " | |1894. A. Heim,(50) _Ueber das absolute Alter der | | Eiszeit_ 100,000 " | |1900. W. J. Sollas,(51) _Evolutional Geology_ 400,000 " | |1909. Albrecht Penck,(52) _Die Alpen im | | Eiszeitalter_ 520,000-840,000| |1914. James Geikie,(53) _The Antiquity of Man in | | Europe_ 620,000 (min.) | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+
We may adopt for the present work the more conservative estimate of Penck, that since the first great ice-fields developed in Scandinavia, in the Alps, and in North America west of Hudson Bay a period of time of not less than 520,000 years has elapsed. The relative duration of the subdivisions of the Glacial Epoch is also studied by Penck in his _Chronologie des Eiszeitalters in den Alpen_.(52) These stages are not in any degree rhythmic, or of equal length either in western Europe or in North America.
The unit of glacial measurement chosen by Penck is the time which has elapsed since the close of the fourth and last great glaciation; this is known as the _Würm_ in the Alpine region and as the _Wisconsin_ in America. While more limited than the ice-caps of the second glaciation, those of the fourth glaciation were still of vast extent in Europe and in this country, so that an estimate of 20,000 to 34,000 years for the unit of the entire _Postglacial_ stage is not extreme. Estimating this unit at 25,000 years and accepting Reeds's(54) estimate of the relative length of time occupied by each of the preceding glacial and interglacial stages, we reach the following results (compare Fig. 14, p, 41):
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | |Relative| Grand | Descent | | | |Duration| Totals|of Alpine| | | | | |Snow-Line| |--------------------------------------|-----|--------|-------|---------| | POSTGLACIAL TIME. |Units| Years | Years | Meters | | (Period of Upper Palæolithic | | | | | | culture, Crô-Magnon and | | | | | | Brünn races) | 1 | 25,000| 25,000| | | | | | | | | IV. GLACIAL STAGE (= Würm, Wisconsin)| | | | | | (Close of Lower Palæolithic | | | | | | culture, Neanderthal race) | 1 | 25,000| 50,000| 1,200 | | 3d. _Interglacial Stage._ | | | | | | (Opening period of Lower | | | | | | Palæolithic culture, | | | | | | Piltdown and | | | | | | pre-Neanderthaloid races) | 4 | 100,000|150,000| | | | | | | | |III. GLACIAL STAGE (= Riss, | | | | | | Illinoian). | 1 | 25,000|175,000| 1,250 | | 2d. _Interglacial Stage_ | | | | | | (= Mindel-Riss, Yarmouth) | 8 | 200,000|375,000| | | (Period of Heidelberg race.) | | | | | | | | | | | | II. GLACIAL STAGE (= Mindel, Kansan) | 1 | 25,000|400,000| 1,300 | | 1st. _Interglacial Stage_ | | | | | | (= Günz-Mindel, Aftonian) | 3 | 75,000|475,000| | | (Period of _Pithecanthropus_ | | | | | | or Trinil race.) | | | | | | | | | | | | I. GLACIAL STAGE (= Günz, Nebraskan)| 1 | 25,000|500,000| 1,200 | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
The Postglacial time divisions are dated by three successive advances of the ice-caps, which broadly correspond with Geikie's fifth and sixth glaciations; they are known in the Alpine region as the _Bühl_, _Gschnitz_, and _Daun_. These three waves of cold and humid climate, each accompanied by glacial advances, finally terminated with the retreat of the snow and ice in the Alpine region, the same conditions prevailing as with the present climate. The minimum time estimates of these Postglacial stages and the corresponding periods of human culture, as calculated by Heim,(50) Nüesch,(55) Penck,(52) and many others, are summarized in the Upper Palæolithic (p. 281).
GEOLOGIC AND HUMAN CHRONOLOGY
There are four ways in which the lesser divisions and sequence of human chronology may be dated through geologic or earth-forming events. First, through the age of the culture stations or human remains, as indicated by the 'river-drifts' and 'river terraces' in or upon which they occur; second, through the age of the open 'loess' stations which are found both on the 'older terraces' and on the plateaus between the river valleys; third, through the age of the shelters and caverns in which skeletal and cultural remains occur; fourth, through the age of the 'loam' deposits, which have drifted down on the 'terraces' from the surrounding meadows and hills. The men of the Old Stone Age were attracted to these natural camps and dwelling-places both by the abundance of the raw flint materials from which the palæoliths were fashioned and by the presence of game.
In more than ninety years of exploration only three skeletal relics of man have been found in the ancient 'river-drifts'; these are the 'Trinil,' the 'Heidelberg,' and the 'Piltdown'; in each instance the human remains were buried accidentally with those of extinct animals, after drifting for some distance in the river or stream beds. It is only in late Acheulean times that human burial rites or interments begin and that skeletal remains are found. Owing to the less perishable nature of flint, relics of the quarries and stations are infinitely more common; they are found both in the river sands and gravels, in the 'river terraces,' and in the 'loess' stations of the plateaus and uplands. Thus prehistoric chronology is based on observations of the geologist, who in turn is greatly aided by the archæologist, because the evolution stages of each type of implement are practically the same all over western Europe, with the exception of unimportant local inventions and variations. In brief, the large divisions of time are determined by the amount of work done by geologic agencies; the comparative age of the various camp sites is determined by their geologic succession, by the mammals and plants which occur in them, and finally by the cultural type of any industrial remains that may be found.
TIMES OF THE 'HIGH' AND 'LOW' RIVER 'TERRACES'
The so-called 'terrace' chronology is to be used by the prehistorian with caution, for it is obvious that the 'terraces' in the different river-valleys of western Europe were not all formed at the same time; thus the testimony of the 'terraces' is always to be checked off by other evidence.
As to the origin of the sands and gravels which compose the 'terraces' we know that the glacial stages were periods of the wearing away of vast materials from the summits and sides of the mountains, which were transported by the rivers to the valleys and plains. These vast deposits of glacial times spread out over the very broad surfaces of the pristine river-bottoms, which in many valleys it is important to note were from 100 to 150 feet above the present levels. The diminished and contracted streams of interglacial times cut into these ancient river beds, forming narrower channels into which they transported their own materials. Thus, as the successive 'river terraces' were formed, a descending series of steps was created along the sides of the valleys. In many valleys there are four of these 'terraces,' which may correspond with several glacial stages; in other valleys there are only three; in others, again, like the valley of the River Inn which flows past Innsbruck in the Tyrol (Fig. 6), there are five 'terraces,' while in the valley of the Rhine above Basle there are six, corresponding, it is believed, with the materials brought down by the four great glaciations and with the river levels of Postglacial times. In general, therefore, the 'high terraces' are the oldest ones, that is, they are composed of materials brought down during the pluvial periods of the First, Second, and Third Glacial Stages, while the 'lower terraces' and the 'lowest terraces' in the alpine regions are composed of materials borne by the great rivers of the Fourth Glacial and Postglacial Stages. In the region around the Alps the 'higher terraces' are products chiefly of the third glaciation; in the valley of the Rhine they are visible near Basle. On the upper Rhine the 'low terraces' are products of the fourth glaciation; they cover vast surfaces and contain remains of the woolly mammoth (_E. primigenius_), an animal distinctive of Fourth Glacial and Postglacial times.
More remote from the glacial regions, but equally subject to the inundations of glacial times are the 'high terraces' along the River Seine, which are ninety feet above the present level of the river and contain the remains of mammals characteristic of the First Interglacial Stage, such as the southern elephant (_E. meridionalis_), while the 'low terraces' along the Seine are only fifteen feet above the present level of the river and contain mammals belonging to the Third Interglacial Stage. Similarly, the 'high terraces' of the River Eure contain mammals of First Interglacial times, such as the southern elephant (_E. meridionalis_) and Steno's horse (_E. stenonis_); these fossils occur in coarse river sands and gravels which were deposited by a broad stream that flowed at least ninety feet above the present waters of the Eure.
The human interest which attaches to these dry facts of geology appears especially in the valleys of the Somme and the Marne in northern France; here again we find 'high terraces,' 'middle terraces,' and 'low terraces'; the latter are still subject to flooding. In the deep gravels upon each of these terraces we find the first proofs of human residence, for here occur the earliest Pre-Chellean and Chellean implements associated with the remains of the hippopotamus, of Merck's rhinoceros, and of the straight-tusked elephant (_E. antiquus_), together with mammals which are characteristic both of Second and Third Interglacial times.
This raises a very important distinction, which is often misunderstood; namely, between the materials _composing_ the original terraces and those subsequently _deposited upon_ the terraces. It appears to be in the latter that human artifacts are chiefly, if not exclusively, found.
TIMES OF THE LOAM STATIONS
The 'loam' which washes down over the original sand and gravel 'terraces' from the surrounding hills and meadows is of much later date than the 'terraces' themselves, and the archæologist in the valley of the Somme as well as in that of the Thames may well be deceived unless he clearly distinguishes between the newer deposits of gravels and of loams and the far older gravels and river sands which compose the original 'terraces.' This is well illustrated by the observations of Commont on the section of St. Acheul.(56) The loams and brick-earth are of much more recent age than the original gravels and sands of the 'terraces' which they overlap and conceal; the lowest and oldest 'loam' (_limon fendillé_) contains Acheulean flints, while the overlying 'loam' contains Mousterian flints. Although occurring on the 'higher terraces,' these flints are of somewhat later date than the primitive Chellean flints which occur in the coarse gravels and sands that have collected upon the very _lowest levels_ (Fig. 59).
A similar prehistoric inversion doubtless occurs in the 'terraces' of the Thames, for materials on the 'highest terrace' (Fig. 8) contain Acheulean flints, while materials on the 'lowest terrace' belong to a much more recent age.
We have no record of a single Palæolithic station found in the true original sands and gravels of the 'higher terraces' in any part of Europe; only eoliths are found on the 'high terrace' levels, as at St. Prest.
The earliest palæoliths occur in the gravels on both the 'middle' and 'upper terraces' of the Somme and the Marne, proving that the gravels were deposited long subsequent to the cutting of the original terraces. Geikie,(57) moreover, is of the opinion that the valley of the Somme has remained as it is since early Pleistocene times, and that even the 'lowest terrace' here was completed at that period; this is contrary to the view of Commont, who considers that this 'lowest terrace' belongs to Third Interglacial times; a restudy of the stations along the Thames may throw light upon this very important difference of opinion.
TIMES OF THE 'LOESS' STATIONS
The glacial stages were generally times of relatively great humidity, of heavy rain and snow fall, of full rivers charged with gravels and sands, and with loam the finest product of the erosive action of ice upon the rocks. This loam on the barren wastes left bare by the glaciers or on the river borders and overflow basins was retransported by the winds and laid down afresh in layers of varying thickness known as 'loess.' There was no 'loess' formation either in Europe or America during the humid climate of First Interglacial times, but during the latter part of the Second Interglacial Stage, again toward the close of the Third Interglacial Stage, and finally during Postglacial times there were periods of arid climate when the 'loess' was lifted and transported by the prevailing winds over the 'terraces' and plateaus and even to great heights among the mountain valleys. As observed by Huntington(58) in his interesting book _The Pulse of Asia_, even at the present time there are districts where we find 'loess' dust filling the entire atmosphere either during the heated months of summer or during the cold months of winter.
In Pleistocene Europe there were at least three warm or cold arid periods, accompanied in some phases by prevailing westerly winds,(59) in which 'loess' was widely distributed over northern Germany, covering the 'river terraces,' plateaus, and uplands bordering the Rhine and the Neckar. These 'loess' periods can be dated by the fossil remains of mammals which they contain, also by the stations of the flint quarries in different culture stages. Thus we find late Acheulean implements in drifts of 'loess' at Villejuif, south of Paris. Among the most famous stations of late Acheulean times is that of Achenheim, west of Strasburg, and not far distant is the 'loess' station of Mommenheim, of Mousterian times; both belong to the period of the fourth glaciation. An Aurignacian 'loess' station is that of Willendorf, Austria.
TIMES OF THE LIMESTONE SHELTERS AND CAVERNS
Beginning in the late or cold Acheulean period, the Palæolithic hunters commenced to seek the warm or sheltered side of deepened river-valleys, also the shelter afforded by overhanging cliffs and the entrances of caverns. It is quite probable that during the warm season of the year they still repaired to their open flint quarries along the rivers and on the uplands; in fact, the river Somme was a favorite resort through Acheulean into Mousterian times.
In general, however, the open rivers and plateaus were abandoned, and all the regions of limestone rock favorable to the formation of shelter cliffs, grottos, and caverns were sought out by the early Palæolithic men from Mousterian times on; and thus from the beginning of the Mousterian to the close of the Upper Palæolithic their lines of migration and of residence followed the exposures of the limestones which had been laid down by the sea in bygone geologic ages from Carboniferous to Cretaceous times. The upper valleys of the Rhine and Danube traversed the white Jurassic limestones which are again exposed in a broad band along the foot-hills of the Pyrenees, extending far west to the Cantabrian Alps of modern Spain. In Dordogne the great horizontal plateau of Cretaceous limestone had been dissected by branching rivers, such as the Vézère, to a depth of two hundred feet. Under overhanging cliffs long rock shelters were formed, such as that of the Magdalenian station at La Madeleine.
Many caverns were formed, some of them in early Pleistocene times, by water percolating from above and (Fig. 11) resulting in subterranean streams which issued at the entrance; this formed the expanded grotto, sometimes a chamber of vast dimensions, such as the _Grotte de Gargas_. Outside of this, again, may be an _abri_ or shelter of overhanging rock. In other cases the rock shelter is found quite independent of any cave.
Where the glaciers or ice-caps passed over the summits of the hills the subglacial streams penetrated the limestone of the mountain and formed vast caverns, such as that of Niaux, near the river Ariège. Here a nearly horizontal cavern was formed, extending half a mile into the heart of the mountain. The material with which the floors of the caverns are covered is either a fine cave loam or the insoluble remainder of the limestone forming a brown or gray clayey substance. The Magdalenian artists produced drawings on these soft clays and, in rare instances, used them for modelling purposes, as in the Tuc d'Audoubert. The sands and gravels were also swept in from the streams above and carried by strong currents along the wall surfaces, smoothing and polishing the limestone in preparation for the higher forms of Upper Palæolithic draughtsmanship and painting.
It would appear that the majority of the caverns were formed in pluvial periods of early glacial times; the formation had been completed, the subterranean streams had ceased to flow, and the interiors were relatively dry and free from moisture in Fourth Glacial and Postglacial times, when man first entered them. There is no evidence, however, that the cavern depths were generally inhabited, for the obvious reason that there was no exit for the smoke; the old hearths are invariably found close to or outside of the entrance, the only exception being in the entrance to the great cavern of Gargas, where there is a natural chimney for the exit of smoke. There was no cave life, strictly speaking--it was grotto life; the deep caves and caverns were probably penetrated only by artists and possibly also by magicians or priests. It is in the _abris_ or shelters in front of the grottos and in the floors of the caverns that remarkable prehistoric records are found from late Acheulean times to the very close of the Palæolithic, as in the wonderful grotto in front of the cave at Castillo, near Santander. Thus, as Obermaier(60) observes: "In Chellean times primitive man was a care-free hunter wandering as he chose in the mild and pleasant weather, and even the colder climate of the arid 'loess' period of the late Acheulean was not sufficient to overcome his love of the open; he still made his camp on the plains at the edge of the forest, or in the shelter of some overhanging cliff." Only in rare instances, as at Castillo, were the Acheulean hearths brought within the entrance line of the grotto.
DIFFERENCES OF OPINION AS TO THE GEOLOGIC AGE OF THE PALÆOLITHIC CULTURE STAGES
The right-hand column represents the theory adopted in this volume.
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+ | |Penck, 1910 | | Boule, Breuil, | | Geologic Time |Geikie, 1914| Wiegers, 1913 | Obermaier, 1912 | | | | | Schmidt, 1912 | |----------------------|------------|---------------|-----------------| | | |Bronze. |Magdalenian. | |_Postglacial._ |Magdalenian.|Neolithic. |Solutrean. | | | |Azilian. |Aurignacian. | |----------------------|------------|---------------|-----------------| | | |Magdalenian. | | | | |Solutrean. |Mousterian. | |IV. GLACIAL. |Solutrean. |Aurignacian. | | | | |Mousterian. | | |----------------------|------------|---------------|-----------------| | | | |Early Mousterian.| | | | |Cold Acheulean. | |_Third Interglacial._ |Mousterian. |Mousterian. |Warm " | | | | |Chellean. | | | | |Pre-Chellean. | |----------------------|------------|---------------|-----------------| |III. GLACIAL. |Mousterian. |Cold Acheulean.| | |----------------------|------------|---------------|-----------------| |_Second Interglacial._|Acheulean. |Warm Acheulean.| | | |Chellean. |Chellean. | | |----------------------|------------|---------------|-----------------| |II. GLACIAL. | | | | |----------------------|------------|Pre-Chellean |-----------------| |_First Interglacial._ | | | | +---------------------------------------------------------------------+
Interpretation of these four kinds of evidence as to the antiquity of human culture in western Europe still leads to widely diverse opinions. On the one hand, we have the high authority of Penck(61) and Geikie(62) that the Chellean and Acheulean cultures are as ancient as the second long warm interglacial period. An extreme exponent of the same theory is Wiegers,(63) who would carry the Pre-Chellean back even into First Interglacial times. On the other side, Boule,(64) Schuchardt,(65) Obermaier,(66) Schmidt,(67) and the majority of the French archæologists place the beginning of the Pre-Chellean culture in Third Interglacial times.
In favor of the latter theory is the strikingly close succession of the Lower Palæolithic cultures in the valley of the Somme, followed by an equally close succession from Acheulean to Magdalenian times, as, for example, in the station of Castillo. It does not appear possible that a vast interval of time, such as that of the third glaciation, separated the Chellean from the Mousterian culture.
On the other hand, in favor of the greater antiquity of the Pre-Chellean and Chellean cultures may be urged their alleged association in several localities with very primitive mammals of early Pleistocene type, namely, the Etruscan rhinoceros, Steno's horse, and the saber-tooth tiger, as witnessed in Spain and in the deposits of the Champs de Mars, at Abbeville.
It is true, moreover, that at points distant from the great ice-fields, like the valley of the Somme and that of the Marne, we have no other means of separating glacial from interglacial times than that afforded by the deposition and erosion of the 'terraces'; in fact, the interpretation of the age of the cultures may be similar to that applied to the age of the mammalian fauna. There are no proofs of periods of severe cold in western Europe in any country remote from the glaciers until the very cold steppe-tundra climate immediately preceding the fourth glaciation swept the entire land and drove out the last of the African-Asiatic mammals.
GEOGRAPHIC CHANGES
The migrations of mammals and of races of men into western Europe from the Eurasiatic continent on the east and from Africa on the south were favored or interrupted by the periods of elevation or of subsidence of the coastal borders of the Ægean, Mediterranean, and North Seas, and also of the Iberian and British coast-lines. The maximum period of elevation of the coastal borders, as represented in the accompanying map (Fig. 12), never occurred in all portions of the continent of Europe at the same time, because there were oscillations both on the northern and southern coasts of Europe and Africa. The early Pleistocene, especially the period of the First Interglacial Stage, was one of elevation remarkable for the broad land bridges which brought the animal life of Europe, Africa, and Asia together. The Mediterranean coast rose 300 feet. Land bridges from Africa were formed at Gibraltar and over to the island of Sicily, so that for the time there was a free migration of mammalian life north and south. It is to this that western Europe owes the majestic mammals of Asiatic and African life which dominated the native fauna.
In general, the _elevation_ of the continent took place during interglacial, the _subsidence_ during glacial times, but Great Britain appears to have been almost continuously elevated and a part of the continent, and was certainly so during the Third Interglacial, Fourth Glacial, and Postglacial Stages, because there was a free migration of animal life and of human culture. The Lower Palæolithic peoples of Pre-Chellean and Chellean times wandered at will from the valley of the Somme to the not far distant valley of the Thames, interchanging their weapons and inventions. The close proximity of these stations is well illustrated in the admirable map (Fig. 56) prepared under the direction of Lord Avebury (Sir John Lubbock). The relation which _elevation_ and _subsidence_ respectively bear to the glacial and interglacial stages is believed to be as follows:
ELEVATION, emergence of the coast-lines from the sea, broad land connections facilitating migration, retreat of the glaciers, deepening of the river-valleys, and cutting of terraces. Arid continental climate and deposition of 'loess.'
SUBSIDENCE, submergence of the coast-lines and advance of the sea, interruption of land connections and of migration routes, advance of the glaciers, filling of the river-valleys with the products of glacial erosion, the sand and gravel materials of which the 'terraces' are composed, and subglacial erosion of the loam, from which in arid periods the 'loess' is derived.
Subsidence was the great feature of closing glacial times both in Europe and America. During the Fourth Glacial and Postglacial Stages the Black and Caspian Seas and the eastern portion of the Mediterranean were deeply depressed, while the British Isles were still connected with France, but by a narrower isthmus than that of early interglacial times. The scattered stations of Upper Palæolithic culture found in the British Isles include one Aurignacian, one Solutrean, two Magdalenian, and two Azilian; this shows that travel communication with the continent continued throughout that period, in all probability by means of a land connection. In late Neolithic times the English Channel was formed, Great Britain became isolated from Europe, and Ireland lost its land connection first with Wales and then with Scotland.
CHANGES OF CLIMATE
Penck(68) estimates the intensity of the cold and of the humidity which prevailed during the glacial stages by the _descent_ of the snow-line in the Alps, which in the two periods of greatest glaciation reached from 1,200 m. (3,937 ft.) to 1,500 m. (4,921 ft.) below the present snow-level, with the consequent formation of vast ice-caps hung with glaciers which flowed great distances down the valleys of the Rhône and of the Rhine and left their moraines at very distant points. The moraines and drifts of the lesser glaciations, such as the first and fourth, stand considerably within the boundaries of these outer moraines and drift fields. On the contrary, the warmer climates of interglacial times are indicated by the sun-loving plants found at Hötting, along the valley of the Inn, in the Tyrol, which are proofs of a temperature higher than the present and of the _ascent_ of the snow-line 300 m. (984 ft.) above the existing snow-level of the Alps.
The alternation of the cold climates of the glacial stages with the warm temperate climates of the interglacial stages formed great oscillations of temperature (Figs. 13, 14). The fossil plant life indicates that during the periods of the First, Second, and Third Interglacial Stages the climate of western Europe was cooler than it had been during the preceding Pliocene Epoch and somewhat warmer than it is at the present time in the same localities. During the First, Second, and Third Glacial Stages there was certainly a marked lowering of temperature in the regions bordering the great glacial fields. This is indicated by the arrival in the northern glacial border regions of animals and plants adapted to arctic and subarctic climates.
It has been generally believed that the whole of western Europe was extremely cold during these glacial stages, and that the heat-loving animals, the southern elephants, rhinoceroses, and hippopotami, were driven to the south, to return only with the renewed warmth of the next interglacial stage.
There is, however, no proof of the departure of these supposedly less hardy mammals nor of the spread over Europe of the more hardy arctic and steppe types until the advent of the Fourth Glacial Stage. Then, for the first time, all western Europe north of the Pyrenees experienced a general fall of temperature, and conditions of climate prevailed such as are now found in the arctic tundra regions of the north and in the high steppes of central Asia, which are swept by dry and cold winter winds. Fluctuations of temperature, of moisture, and of aridity in Pleistocene time, are evidenced not only by the rise and fall of the snow-line and the advance and retreat of the ice-caps but also by the appearance of plant and animal life in the periods of the 'loess' deposition, indicating the following cycles of climatic change as witnessed from beginning to end of the Third Interglacial Stage:
IV. Glacial maximum, cold and moist climate, arctic and cold steppe fauna and flora.
Cool and dry steppe climate, wide-spread deposition of 'loess.'
Interglacial maximum, a long period of warm temperate forest and meadow conditions.
Glacial retreat, cool and moist climate bordering the glacial regions.
III. Glacial maximum, cold and humid climate bordering the glaciers, favorable to arctic and subarctic plant and animal life.
That great fields of ice and advancing glaciers alone do not constitute proof of very low temperatures is shown at the present time in southeastern Alaska, where very heavy snowfall or precipitation causes the accumulation of vast glaciers, although the mean annual temperature is only 10° Fahr. (5.56° C.) lower than that of southern Germany. Neumayr(69) estimated that during the Ice Age there was a general lowering of temperature in Europe of not more than 6° C. (10.8° Fahr.), and held that even during the glacial advances a comparatively mild climate prevailed in Great Britain. Martins(70) estimated that a lowering of the temperature to the extent of 4° C. (7.2° Fahr.) would bring the glaciers of Chamonix down to the level of the plain of Geneva. Penck estimates that, all the atmospheric conditions remaining the same as at present, a fall of temperature to the extent of 4° to 5° C. would be sufficient to bring back the Glacial Epoch in Europe. These moderate estimates entirely agree with our theory that animals of African and Asiatic habit flourished in western Europe to the very close of the Third Interglacial Stage, and that then for the first time the warm fauna, or _faune chaude_, gradually disappeared.
Similarly the hypothesis of extremely warm or subtropical conditions prevailing in interglacial times as far north as Britain, which originated with the discovery of the northerly distribution of the hippopotami and rhinoceroses, animals which we now associate with the torrid climate of Africa, is not supported by the study either of the plant life of interglacial stages or by the history of the animals themselves. It is quite probable that both the hippopotami and the rhinoceroses of the 'warm fauna' were protected by hairy covering, although not by the thick undercoating of wool which protected the woolly rhinoceros and woolly mammoth, animals favoring the borders of glaciers and flourishing during the last very cold glacial and Postglacial periods.
The combined evidence from all these great events in western Europe leads us to conclusions somewhat different from those reached by Penck as to the chronology of human culture. In the chart (Fig. 14) on the opposite page, prepared by Dr. C. A. Reeds in collaboration with the author, a new correlation of geologic, climatic, human, industrial, and faunal events is presented. The great waves of glacial advance and retreat (oblique shading) are based upon Penck's estimates of the rise and fall of the snow-line (vertical dotted lines) in the Swiss Alps. (Compare Fig. 13.) The length of these waves corresponds with the relative duration of the glacial and interglacial stages as estimated by the varying amounts of erosion and deposition of materials. The entire Palæolithic or Old Stone Age is thus seen to occupy not more than 125,000 years, or only the last quarter of the Glacial Epoch, which is estimated as extending over a period of 525,000 years. The present opinion of the leading archæologists of France and Germany, which is shared by the author, is that the Pre-Chellean industry is not older than the Third Interglacial Stage. As the Piltdown man was found in deposits containing Pre-Chellean implements, he probably lived in the last quarter of the Glacial Epoch, and not in early Pleistocene times as estimated by some British geologists. This causes us to regard the Piltdown remains as more recent than the jaw of Heidelberg, which all authorities agree is probably of Second Interglacial Age. According to our estimates the Heidelberg man is nearly twice as ancient as the Piltdown man, while _Pithecanthropus_ (Trinil Race) is four times as ancient. Yet the Piltdown man must still be regarded as of very great antiquity, for he is four times as ancient as the final type of Neanderthal man belonging to the Mousterian industrial stage. The various archæologic and palæontologic evidences for this general correlation theory of the Glacial Epoch are fully discussed in the succeeding chapters of this volume.
MAMMALS OF FIVE DISTINCT GEOGRAPHIC REGIONS
(Compare Color Map, Pl. II, and Fig. 15)
As we have already observed, during the whole history of mammalian life in various parts of the world never did there prevail conditions so unusual and so complex as those which surrounded the men of the Old Stone Age in Europe. The successive races of Palæolithic men in Europe were all flesh eaters, depending upon the chase. The mammals, first pursued only for food, utensils, and clothing, finally became subjects of artistic appreciation and endeavor which resulted in a remarkable æsthetic development.
From the beginning to the end of Palæolithic times the various races of man witnessed the assemblage in Europe of animals indigenous to every continent on the globe except South America and Australia and adapted to every climatic life-zone, from the warm and dry plains of southern Asia and northern Africa to the temperate forests and meadows of Eurasia; from the heights of the Alps, Himalayas, Pyrenees, and Altai Mountains to the high, arid, dry steppes of central Asia with their alternating heat of summer and cold of winter; from the tundras or barren grounds of Scandinavia, northern Europe, and Siberia to the mild forests and plains of southern Europe.(71) Members of all these highly varied groups of animals had been evolving in various parts of the northern hemisphere from the Eocene Epoch onward. In Pliocene times they had become thoroughly adapted to their various habitats. Throughout early Pleistocene times, with the increasing cold extending southward from the arctic circle, such mammals as the elephant, rhinoceros, musk-ox, and reindeer had become thoroughly adapted to the climate of the extreme north. There is every reason to believe that when these tundra quadrupeds first arrived in Europe, during early mid-glacial stages, they had already acquired the heavy coat of hair and undercoating of wool, such as now characterizes the musk-ox, one of the living representatives of this northern fauna.
MIGRATIONS AND EXTINCTIONS OF MAMMALIAN LIFE DURING THE FOUR GLACIAL, THREE INTERGLACIAL, AND POSTGLACIAL STAGES
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+ |RECENT Return of the Alpine Mammals to the } PERIOD OF | | PREHISTORIC. Mountains. } RECENT | | Wide dispersal of Forest and Meadow } ANIMALS. | | Mammals over the Northern } | | Hemisphere. | |-------------------------------------------------------- | | |Retreat of the Tundra and Steppe } | | | Mammals to the North and East. } | | | } | |POSTGLACIAL. |Mingling in the lowlands of France } REINDEER | | Severe | and Germany of the Reindeer-Mammoth } PERIOD | | climate. | fauna, the Alpine fauna, the Steppe } IN | | | Mammals, and the hardy Eurasiatic } WESTERN | | | Forest and Meadow Mammals. } EUROPE. | | | } | |IV. GLACIAL. |Arrival of the Tundra Mammals from } | | Cold Steppe | the North. } | | climate. | } | | |Arrival of the Steppe Mammals from } | | | Western Asia. } | | | | | |Southward migration and extinction of } | | | all the African-Asiatic Mammals } | | | except the lions and hyænas. } | | | } | |3d INTERGLACIAL.|Mingled African-Asiatic and Eurasiatic} | | Warm climate. | Mammals in different parts of the } | | | non-glaciated regions, the } PERIOD | | | hippopotamus, southern mammoth, } OF THE | | | straight-tusked elephant, Merck's } HIPPOPOTAMUS,| | | broad-nosed rhinoceros, lion, hyæna,} RHINOCEROS, | | | jackal, sabre-tooth tiger. } AND | |--------------------------- } ELEPHANT. | | Reindeer and } ALSO | | Woolly Mammoth } OF THE | |III. GLACIAL. in North } STAG | | Germany and } AND | | the Alps. } BISON | |---------------------------- } IN | |2d INTERGLACIAL. Also the stag, giant deer,} WESTERN | |---------------------------- bison, wild cattle, } EUROPE. | | Reindeer and forest horse, boar, } | |II. GLACIAL. Woolly Mammoth wolf, fox, lynx, } | | in Northern wildcat, several species} | | Germany. of bear. } | |---------------------------- } | | 1st INTERGLACIAL. Survival of many Pliocene } | |---------------------------- African-Asiatic Mammals,} | | Musk-ox in mingled with Pliocene } | |I. GLACIAL. Sussex, and recent Eurasiatic } | | England. Forest and Meadow } | | Mammals. } | |======================================================================| | |Early | 'Warm' More hardy | | |GEOLOGIC |Migrations of| African-Asiatic Eurasiatic | | |AND |Scandinavian | Mammals. Mammals. | | |CLIMATIC |and North | | | |STAGES. |Siberian | Temperate and Cool | | | |Mammals near | sheltered parts temperate | THREE | | |the parts of | of Western forests and| CHIEF | | |Ice-fields. | Europe. meadows. | LIFE | | ______ _____ ______________ _____________| PERIODS. | | \ / \ / | | | REGIONS NEAR MORE SHELTERED | | | THE ICE-FIELDS NON-GLACIATED REGIONS | | | AND GLACIAL REMOTE FROM THE GLACIAL | | | BORDERS. BORDERS AND ICE-FIELDS. | | +----------------------------------------------------------------------+
The five great sources of mammalian migration into western Europe in Pleistocene times were accordingly as follows:
1. WARM PLAINS of northern Africa and of southern Asia. "African-Asiatic" fauna--hippopotamus, rhinoceros, elephant.
2. TEMPERATE MEADOWS AND FORESTS of Europe and Asia. "Eurasiatic" fauna--deer, bison, horse.
3. HIGH, COOL MOUNTAIN RANGES--Alps, Pyrenees, Caucasus, Urals. Fauna--chamois, ibex, ptarmigan. (See Fig. 185.)
4. STEPPES AND DESERTS. Dry, elevated plateaus and steppes of eastern Europe and central Asia. Fauna--desert ass and horse, saiga antelope, jerboa. (See Fig. 186.)
5. TUNDRAS AND BARREN GROUNDS within or near the arctic circle. Fauna--reindeer, musk-ox, arctic fox. (See Figs. 95 and 96.)
(Compare Figs. 14 and 15.)
In the warm plains, forests, and rivers of southern Asia and northern Africa there developed the elephants, rhinoceroses, hippopotami, lions, hyænas, and jackals, which, taken together, may be known as the _African-Asiatic_ fauna. It contains altogether fourteen species of mammals. The great geographic area from the far east to the far west over which ranged similar or identical species of these pachyderms and carnivores is indicated by the oblique lines in the geographic chart (Fig. 15).
The north temperate belt of Asia and Europe, with its hardy forests and genial meadows, was the home of the even more highly varied _Eurasiatic Forest and Meadow_ fauna. This includes twenty-six or more species. Of these the red deer, or stag, was most characteristic of the forests and the bison and wild cattle[M] of the meadows. Even at the very beginning of Pleistocene times there appear the stag, the wild boar, and the roe-deer with their natural pursuers, the wolf and the brown bear. From the northern woods came the moose and the wolverene. Most of these mammals were so similar to existing forms that the older naturalists placed them in existing species, but the tendency now is to separate them or place them in distinct subspecies. Mingled with these forest and meadow mammals were a few others which have since become extinct, such as the giant deer (_Megaceros_), the giant beaver (_Trogontherium_), and the primitive forest and meadow horses. From this region also there developed the cave-bear (_Ursus spelæus_). Certainly it is astonishing to find the remains of these mammals mingled with those from southern Asia and Africa, as is frequently the case. In early glacial times the bison and wild cattle mingled freely with the hippopotami and rhinoceroses, but in late glacial and Postglacial times they occurred as companions of the mammoth and the woolly rhinoceros. In prehistoric times they survived with the mammals brought from the Orient by the Neolithic agriculturists.
During a great glaciation, but especially during the severe climate of late Pleistocene times, the _Alpine_ mammals were driven down from the heights into the plains and among the lower mountains and foot-hills. Thus the ibex, chamois, and argali sheep from the Altai Mountains are represented both in drawing and in sculpture by the men of the Reindeer Period.
Still more remarkable is the arrival in Europe of the _Steppe Fauna_ of Russia and of western Siberia, mammals which now survive in the vast Kirghiz steppes, east of the Caspian Sea and the Ural Mountains, where the climate is one of hot, dry summers and prolonged cold winters, with sweeping dust and snow storms. These animals are very hardy, alert, and swift of foot, such as the jerboa, the saiga antelope, the wild asses, and the wild horses, including the Przewalski type, which still survives in the desert of Gobi. From this region also came the Elasmothere (_E. sibiricum_), with its single giant horn above the eyes. Very distinctive of the fauna frequenting the caverns are the small rodents, including the dwarf pikas, the steppe hamsters, and the lemmings. These animals were attracted into Europe during the 'steppe' and 'loess' periods of cold, dry climate.
The advance of the great Scandinavian glaciers from the north crowded to the south the _Tundra or Barren Ground_ fauna of the arctic circle. The herald of this fauna during the First Glacial Stage was the musk-ox, which appears in Sussex, and then came the reindeer of the existing Scandinavian type. These animals are followed by the woolly mammoth (_E. primigenius_) and the woolly rhinoceros (_D. antiquitatis_) with their panoply of hair and wool which had long been developing in the north. Finally in the Fourth Glacial Stage arrived the lemming of the river Obi, also the more northern banded lemming, the arctic fox, the wolverene, and the ermine, as well as the arctic hare. These tundra mammals for a short period mingled in places with survivors of the _African-Asiatic_ fauna, such as Merck's rhinoceros and the straight-tusked elephant (_E. antiquus_). In general, they swept southward as far as the Pyrenees over country which had long been enjoyed by the African-Asiatic mammals, while the hippopotami and the southern elephants retreated still farther south and became extinct.
The only survivors of the great _African-Asiatic_ fauna in Fourth Glacial and Postglacial times were the hyænas (_H. crocuta spelæa_) and the lions (_Felis leo spelæa_). The lion frequently appears in the drawings of the cavemen.
The various species belonging to these five great faunæ apparently succeed each other, and wherever their remains are mingled with the palæoliths, as along the rivers Somme, Marne, and Thames, or in the hearths of the shelters and caverns, they become of extreme interest both in their bearing on the chronology of man and on the development of human culture, art, and industry. They also tell the story of the sequence of climatic conditions both in the regions bordering the glaciers and in the more temperate regions remote from the ice-caps. Thus they guide the anthropologist over the difficult gaps where the geologic record is limited or undecipherable. The general succession of these great faunæ is illustrated in Fig. 14 and also in the above table.
(=1=) Lamarck, 1815.1.
(=2=) Schaaffhausen, 1858.1.
(=3=) Darwin, C., 1909.2.
(=4=) Lamarck, 1809.1.
(=5=) Lyell, 1863.1, pp. 84-89.
(=6=) Darwin, C., 1871.1, p. 146.
(=7=) Darwin, C., 1909.1, p. 158.
(=8=) Retzius, A., 1864.1, p. 27.
(=9=) _Op. cit._, p. 166.
(=10=) Broca, 1875.1.
(=11=) Schwalbe, G., 1914.1, p. 592.
(=12=) Cartailhac, 1903.1.
(=13=) Déchelette, 1908.1, vol. I.
(=14=) Reinach, S., 1889.1.
(=15=) Schmidt, 1912.1.
(=16=) Avebury, 1913.1.
(=17=) Eccardus, 1750.1.
(=18=) Mahudel, 1740.1.
(=19=) Buckland, 1824.1.
(=20=) Godwin-Austen, 1840.1.
(=21=) Christol, 1820.1.
(=22=) Schmerling, 1833.1.
(=23=) Boucher de Perthes, 1846.1.
(=24=) _Op. cit._
(=25=) Rigollot, 1854.1.
(=26=) Lubbock, 1862.1.
(=27=) Avebury, 1913.1, pp. 2, 3.
(=28=) Lartet, 1861.1.
(=29=) Lartet, 1875.1.
(=30=) Breuil, 1912.7, p. 165.
(=31=) de Mortillet, 1869.1.
(=32=) Piette, E., 1907.1.
(=33=) Rivière 1897.1.
(=34=) de Sautuola, 1880.1.
(=35=) Schmidt, 1912.1.
(=36=) Bourgeois, 1867.1.
(=37=) Schmidt, _op. cit._, p. 5.
(=38=) Obermaier, 1912.1, pp. 170-174; 316-320; 332, 545.
(=39=) Charpentier, 1841.1.
(=40=) Agassiz, 1837.1; 1840.1; 1840.2.
(=41=) Morlot, 1854.1.
(=42=) Chamberlin, 1895.1; 1905.1, vol. III, chap. XIX, pp. 327-516.
(=43=) Salisbury, 1905.1.
(=44=) Penck, 1909.1.
(=45=) Leverett, 1910.1.
(=46=) Lyell, 1867.1, vol. I, pp. 293-301; 1877.1, vol. I, p. 287.
(=47=) Dana, 1875.1, p. 591.
(=48=) Walcott, 1893.1.
(=49=) Upham, 1893.1, p. 217.
(=50=) Heim, 1894.1.
(=51=) Sollas, 1900.1.
(=52=) Penck, 1909.1, vol. III, pp. 1153-1176.
(=53=) Geikie, 1914.1, p. 302.
(=54=) Reeds, 1915.1.
(=55=) Nüesch, 1902.1.
(=56=) Geikie, _op. cit._, pp. 111-114.
(=57=) _Op. cit._, p. 108.
(=58=) Huntington, 1907.1.
(=59=) Leverett, 1910.1.
(=60=) Obermaier, 1912.1, p. 132.
(=61=) Penck, 1908.1; 1909.1.
(=62=) Geikie, 1914.1, p. 312.
(=63=) Wiegers, 1913.1.
(=64=) Boule, 1888.1.
(=65=) Schuchardt, 1913.1, p. 144.
(=66=) Obermaier, 1909.2; 1912.1.
(=67=) Schmidt, 1912.1, p. 266.
(=68=) Penck, 1909.1, vol. III, p. 1168, Fig. 136.
(=69=) Neumayr, 1890.1, vol. II, p. 621.
(=70=) Martins, 1847.1, pp. 941, 942.
(=71=) Osborn, 1910.1, pp. 386-427.