CHAPTER VIII. THE PORTRAIT OF QUATERNARY MAN. WE share the opinion of MM. de Quatrefages, Ed. Lartet, &c., that man of the diluvium, of the valleys, or of the ossiferous caves is prehistoric, but not primitive man. In spite of the numerous fancy sketches which have been made of him, primitive man, in the true sense of the words, remains hitherto absolutely unknown to us. As to the carver of the axes of Saint Acheul and the knives of Aurignac, the records concerning him are still unfortunately very incomplete. A few skulls more or less broken and crushed, a few bones more or less perfect, are the only data upon which, in the present state of science, we can found a description worthy of any confidence whatever. Physical Type.-We are a little better informed with regard to the anatomical character of man of the reindeer and neolithic ages; but many important data are still wanting, and many errors have been committed, even by those who are best informed. Thus it was at first asserted that the dwellers in caves were of short, or, at most, of medium stature; that they were brachycephalous, and that their low and retreating foreheads were furnished with prominent overhanging brows; that their face was markedly prognathous and almost deprived of chin, &c. But it is quite possible that all these characters were individual, mere varieties of an unknown specific type. It appears to be now proved, as we have mentioned before, that the dolichocephalous type preceded the brachycephalous, or at least predominated at first-if, however, it is allowable or prudent to draw conclusions from such insufficient ANATOMY OF QUATERNARY MAN. 6 353 data. For the rest, the skull of the Olmo may be advantageously compared with those of Eguisheim and Neanderthal, with which it is nearly contemporary. It is a fine skull,' says Vogt himself. Still finer were the skulls of the reindeer hunters of Périgord (fig. 148), who were of great height, athletic, with a strongly-built skeleton, with pillared femurs, platycnemic tibias, channelled fibulas (fig. 145, 146, 147) and humerus, of which the olecranian cavity is often perforated; anatomical peculiarities E D C FIGS. 145, 146, 147.-c. Flattened tibia of an old man of Cro-Magnon. which recur both before and after the reindeer age, until towards the end of the neolithic period, and even in our own days. With regard to the colour of the hair, while Haeckel says it was black and woolly, M. de Quatrefages believes he has good reason for thinking it was red, and that the skin, instead of being black or brown, as the German author supposes, was very similar in colour to that of the present Mongol races. But how is it possible, in the absence of the hair and skin, to judge of the shade of complexion, so variable, moreover, in one and the same race? The Hindu women, who undoubtedly belong to the so-called white race, are brown-skinned. How can we tell, having never seen them, that the transverse section of the hairs of socalled primitive man was round or elliptical, their colour red or black? Manners and Customs.-The above details prove that European man formerly, and for a considerable period, dwelt in caves, or even in mere sheltered places among the rocks, such as la Madelaine, Bruniquel, and Cro-Magnon. This was his miserable home; here he took his meals, and allowed the remains of his food, uninviting to our fastidious palates, to collect. The flesh of the mammoth, of the great cave bear, of the amphibious rhinoceros, of the horse, the aurochs, the reindeer, the fox, and, doubtless, also wild fruits and roots, formed his staple diet. Usually the flesh of the animals was eaten raw; but fire had long been known, and even pottery had been invented, and was MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 355 used for culinary purposes. Hunting was his principal occupation. Armed with the stone axe, or mace, with the flint-headed lance, javelin, or arrow, he boldly attacked the animals, often of colossal size, which then peopled our lands, and of which many have long since disappeared. He clothed himself in their skins, which he had early learnt to smooth with the scraper, to soften and prepare with fat or marrow, and later by means of a stone polisher. During the reindeer age the booty obtained by fishing with a barbed harpoon (for the net was not then invented) added its contingent to his daily food. The shooting of birds was likewise no longer neglected. The bones and teeth of the reindeer and of contemporary animals were used in the manufacture of weapons and tools of every kind, and even articles of luxury and ornament. The arts of design were born; and the reindeer hunters of Périgord and the bear hunters of the Pyrenees employed their leisure hours, now become less rare, in carving their weapons, and in drawing or engraving on wood, bone, and ivory the figures of the animals they had before their eyes, and even their own image. However, the horrors of war already raged among them; might oppressed right and crushed the weak. We see the proof in the serious wounds observed upon the weapons of the Danish warriors of the age of stone, and, perhaps, even upon the skulls of defenceless women. (Skull of Cro-Magnon.) We gather from several indications that in certain cases, at least, they practised cannibalism. Some authors maintain that this custom, and that of human sacrifice, were widely spread among the troglodytes of the stone age. Others, on the contrary, endeavour to absolve our ancestors from the crime of which the proofs appear to us in many cases overwhelming. The bone needle was invented, and the curious specimens found in the caves of Dordogne, of England, and of Belgium, prove that, from this remote epoch, the women, and probably the men also, knew how to sew the clothing they wore. Tendons split into fine filaments, bark fibre, and later textile plants furnished the sewing thread. All these customs, cannibalism and human sacrifice excepted, resemble those of the Eskimos, of the Greenlanders, and especially of the Siberian Tshouktschis, who, hardly a century ago, still dwelt in caves, whose entrance they closed with reindeer skins, ignoring the use of metals, and employing sharp stones, bone fish-hooks, pikes armed with pointed bones, and utensils of wood or leather.1 The women used the split tendons of quadrupeds and needles of fish-bone to sew their clothing of skins. We have seen that the troglodytes of Périgord employed delicate perforated bone needles for the same purpose. The family and the society were also organised among the latter, even in the reindeer age. If we accept the explanation given by Edward Lartet, of the ornamented and perforated instruments which he calls wands of office, and if we consider with him that the number of holes indicates the various degrees of authority, there were already chiefs and subjects. After having sheltered the living, the caves became the last resting-place of the dead. With them were buried the weapons, the ornaments, the articles of every kind which they had used during their life on earth, and which they were to employ in that other life of which even the dweller in the caves seems to have had a vague presentiment. For the rest, he had a barely rudimentary notion of the divinity, a rude fetichism, some absurd superstitions; but no religion worthy of the name, no idiom, of which any remains, however mutilated, have come down to us. With regard to the troglodytes who, during the age of polished stone, dwelt in the Pyrenean caves of Ariège, they undoubtedly had attained to a degree of civilisation far more advanced than that at which the inhabitants of the caves, of the age of the mammoth and reindeer, came to a stand. See the interesting details upon this subject given by M. L. Lartet in his paper upon Une Sépulture des Animaux Troglodytes des Pyrénées. |