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Title: Men of the Old Stone Age: Their Environment, Life and Art

Author: Henry Fairfield Osborn

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEN OF THE
OLD STONE AGE: THEIR ENVIRONMENT, LIFE AND ART ***

MEN OF THE OLD STONE AGE
THEIR ENVIRONMENT, LIFE AND ART

HITCHCOCK LECTURES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA,
1914

Pl. I. Neanderthal man at the
station of Le Moustier,
overlooking the valley of
the Vézère, Dordogne.
Drawing by Charles R.
Knight, under the
direction of the author.

MEN OF
THE OLD STONE AGE
THEIR ENVIRONMENT, LIFE
AND ART

BY

HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN
SC.D. PRINCETON, HON. LL.D. TRINITY, PRINCETON, COLUMBIA, HON. D.SC.
CAMBRIDGE
HON. PH.D. CHRISTIANIA
RESEARCH PROFESSOR OF ZOOLOGY, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
VERTEBRATE PALÆONTOLOGIST U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, CURATOR EMERITUS OF
VERTEBRATE
PALÆONTOLOGY IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

ILLUSTRATIONS BY
UPPER PALÆOLITHIC ARTISTS
AND

CHARLES R. KNIGHT, ERWIN S. CHRISTMAN
AND OTHERS

NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1915

Copyright, 1915, BY
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
Published November, 1915

DEDICATED
TO
MY DISTINGUISHED GUIDES THROUGH THE UPPER
PALÆOLITHIC CAVERNS OF
THE PYRENEES, DORDOGNE, AND THE CANTABRIAN MOUNTAINS OF SPAIN

ÉMILE CARTAILHAC
HENRI BREUIL
HUGO OBERMAIER

PREFACE
This volume is the outcome of an ever-memorable tour through the country
of the men of the Old Stone Age, guided by three of the distinguished
archæologists of France, to whom the work is gratefully dedicated. This
Palæolithic tour[A] of three weeks, accompanied as it was by a constant
flow of conversation and discussion, made a very profound impression,
namely, of the very early evolution of the spirit of man, of the close relation
between early human environment and industry and the development of
mind, of the remote antiquity of the human powers of observation, of
discovery, and of invention. It appears that men with faculties and powers
like our own, but in the infancy of education and tradition, were living in
this region of Europe at least 25,000 years ago. Back of these intelligent
races were others, also of eastern origin but in earlier stages of mental
development, all pointing to the very remote ancestry of man from earlier
mental and physical stages.
Another great impression from this region is that it is the oldest centre of
human habitation of which we have a complete, unbroken record of
continuous residence from a period as remote as 100,000 years
corresponding with the dawn of human culture, to the hamlets of the
modern peasant of France of A. D. 1915. In contrast, Egyptian, Ægean, and
Mesopotamian civilizations appear as of yesterday.
The history of this region and its people has been developed chiefly through
the genius of French archæologists, beginning with Boucher de Perthes. The
more recent discoveries, which have come in rapid and almost bewildering
succession since the foundation of the Institut de Paléontologie humaine,
have been treated in a number of works recently published by some of the
experienced archæologists of England, France, and Germany. I refer
especially to the Prehistoric Times of Lord Avebury, to the Ancient Hunters
of Professor Sollas, to Der Mensch der Vorzeit of Professor Obermaier, and
to Die diluviale Vorzeit Deutschlands of Doctor R. R. Schmidt. Thus, on
receiving the invitation from President Wheeler to lecture upon this subject
before the University of California, I hesitated from the feeling that it would

be difficult to say anything which had not been already as well or better
said. On further reflection, however, I accepted the invitation with the
purpose of attempting to give this great subject a more strictly historical or
chronological treatment than it had previously received within the limits of
a popular work in our own language, also to connect the environment, the
animal and human life, and the art.
This element of the time in which the various events occurred can only be
drawn from a great variety of sources, from the simultaneous consideration
of the geography, climate, plants and animals, the mental and bodily
development of the various races, and the industries and arts which reflect
the relations between the mind and the environment. In more technical
terms, I have undertaken in these lectures to make a synthesis of the results
of geology, palæontology, anthropology, and archæology, a correlation of
environmental and of human events in the European Ice Age. Such a
synthesis was begun many years ago in the preparation of my Age of
Mammals, but could not be completed until I had gone over the territory
myself.
The attempt to place this long chapter of prehistory on a historical basis has
many dangers, of which I am fully aware. After weighing the evidence
presented by the eminent authorities in these various branches of science, I
have presented my conclusions in very definite and positive form rather
than in vague or general terms, believing that a positive statement has at
least the merit of being positively supported or rebutted by fresh evidence.
For example, I have placed the famous Piltdown man, Eoanthropus, in a
comparatively recent stage of geologic time, an entirely opposite conclusion
to that reached by Doctor A. Smith Woodward, who has taken a leading part
in the discovery of this famous race and has concurred with other British
geologists in placing it in early Pleistocene times. The difference between
early and late Pleistocene times is not a matter of thousands but of hundreds
of thousands of years; if so advanced a stage as the Piltdown man should
definitely occur in the early Pleistocene, we may well expect to discover
man in the Pliocene; on the contrary, in my opinion even in late Pliocene
times man had only reached a stage similar to the Pithecanthropus, or
prehuman Trinil race of Java; in other words, according to my view, man as
such chiefly evolved during the half million years of the Pleistocene Epoch
and not during the Pliocene.

This question is closely related to that of the antiquity of the oldest
implements shaped by the human hand. Here again I have adopted an
opinion opposed by some of the highest authorities, but supported by
others, namely, that the earliest of these undoubted handiworks occur
relatively late in the Pleistocene, namely, about 125,000 years ago. Since
the Piltdown man was found in association with such implements, it is at
once seen that the two questions hang together.
This work represents the co-operation of many specialists on a single, very
complex problem. I am not in any sense an archæologist, and in this
important and highly technical field I have relied chiefly upon the work of
Hugo Obermaier and of Déchelette in the Lower Palæolithic, and of Henri
Breuil in the Upper Palæolithic. Through the courtesy of Doctor Obermaier
I had the privilege of watching the exploration of the wonderful grotto of
Castillo, in northern Spain, which affords a unique and almost complete
sequence of the industries of the entire Old Stone Age. This visit and that to
the cavern of Altamira, with its wonderful frescoed ceiling, were in
themselves a liberal education in the prehistory of man. With the Abbé
Breuil I visited all the old camping stations of Upper Palæolithic times in
Dordogne and noted with wonder and admiration his detection of all the
fine gradations of invention which separate the flint-makers of that period.
With Professor Cartailhac I enjoyed a broad survey of the Lower and Upper
Palæolithic stations and caverns of the Pyrenees region and took note of his
learned and spirited comments. Here also we had the privilege of being with
the party who entered for the first time the cavern of Tuc d'Audoubert, with
the Comte de Bégouen and his sons.
In the American Museum I have been greatly aided by Mr. Nels C. Nelson,
who has reviewed all the archæological notes and greatly assisted me in the
classification of the flint and bone implements which is adopted in this
volume.
In the study of the divisions, duration, and fluctuations of climate during the
Old Stone Age I have been assisted chiefly by Doctor Chester A. Reeds, a
geologist of the American Museum, who devoted two months to bringing
together in a comprehensive and intelligible form the results of the great
researches of Albrecht Penck and Eduard Brückner embraced in the three-
volume work, Die Alpen im Eiszeitalter. The temperatures and snow-levels

of the Glacial Epoch, which is contemporaneous with the Old Stone Age,
together with the successive phases of mammalian life which they
conditioned, afford the firm basis of our chronology; that is, we must
reckon the grand divisions of past time in terms of Glacial and Interglacial
Stages; the subdivisions are recorded in terms of the human invention and
progress of the flint industry. I have also had frequent recourse to The Great
Ice Age and the more recent Antiquity of Man in Europe of James Geikie,
the founder of the modern theory of the multiple Ice Age in Europe.
It is a unique pleasure to express my indebtedness to the Upper Palæolithic
artists of the now extinct Crô-Magnon race, from whose work I have sought
to portray so far as possible the mammalian and human life of the Old
Stone Age. While we owe the discovery and early interpretation of this art
to a generation of archæologists, it has remained for the Abbé Breuil not
only to reproduce the art with remarkable fidelity but to firmly establish a
chronology of the stages of art development. These results are brilliantly set
forth in a superb series of volumes published by the Institut de
Paléontologie humaine on the foundation of the Prince of Monaco; in fact,
the memoirs on the art and industry of Grimaldi, Font-de-Gaume, Altamira,
La Pasiega, and the Cantabrian caves of Spain (Les Cavernes de la Région
Cantabrique), representing the combined labors of Capitan, Cartailhac,
Verneau, Boule, Obermaier, and Breuil, mark a new epoch in the prehistory
of man in Europe. There never has been a more fortunate union of genius,
opportunity, and princely support.
In the collection of materials and illustrations from the vast number of
original papers and memoirs consulted in the preparation of this volume, as
well as in the verification of the text and proofs, I have been constantly
aided by one of my research assistants, Miss Christina D. Matthew, who has
greatly facilitated the work. I am indebted also to Miss Mabel R. Percy for
the preparation and final revision of the manuscript. From the bibliography
prepared by Miss Jannette M. Lucas, the reader may find the original
authority for every statement which does not rest on my own observation or
reflection.
Interest in human evolution centres chiefly in the skull and in the brain. The
slope of the forehead and the other angles, which are so important in
forming an estimate of the brain capacity, may be directly compared

throughout this volume, because the profile or side view of every skull
figured is placed in exactly the same relative position, namely, on the lines
established by the anatomists of the Frankfort Convention to conform to the
natural pose of the head on the living body.
In anatomy I have especially profited by the co-operation of my former
student and present university colleague Professor J. Howard McGregor, of
Columbia, who has shown great anatomical as well as artistic skill in the
restoration of the heads of the four races of Trinil, Piltdown, Neanderthal,
and Crô-Magnon. The new reconstruction of the Piltdown head is with the
aid of casts sent to me by my friend Doctor A. Smith Woodward, of the
British Museum of Natural History. The problem of reconstruction of the
Piltdown skull has, through the differences of interpretation by Smith
Woodward, Elliot Smith, and Arthur Keith, become one of the causes
célèbres of anthropology. On the placing of the fragments of the skull and
jaws, which have few points of contact, depends the all-important question
of the size of the brain and the character of the profile of the face and jaws.
In Professor McGregor's reconstruction different methods have been used
from those employed by the British anatomists, and advantage has been
taken of an observation of Mr. A. E. Anderson that the single canine tooth
belongs in the upper and not in the lower jaw. In these models, and in all the
restorations of men by Charles R. Knight under my direction, the
controlling principle has been to make the restoration as human as the
anatomical evidence will admit. This principle is based upon the theory for
which I believe very strong grounds may be adduced, that all these races
represent stages of advancing and progressive development; it has seemed
to me, therefore, that in our restorations we should indicate as much
alertness, intelligence, and upward tendency as possible. Such progressive
expression may, in fact, be observed in the faces of the higher anthropoid
apes, such as the chimpanzees and orangs, when in process of education.
No doubt, our ancestors of the early Stone Age were brutal in many
respects, but the representations which have been made chiefly by French
and German artists of men with strong gorilla or chimpanzee characteristics
are, I believe, unwarranted by the anatomical remains and are contrary to
the conception which we must form of beings in the scale of rapidly
ascending intelligence.
Henry Fairfield Osborn.

American Museum of Natural History
June 21, 1915.

CONTENTS
PAGE

INTRODUCTION
Greek conceptions of man's origin 1
Rise of anthropology 3
Rise of archæolgy 10
Geoligic history of man 18
Geographic changes 34
Climatic changes 37
Migrations of mammals 42

CHAPTER I
Ancestry of the anthropoid apes 49
Pliocene climate, forests, and life 60
Transition to the Pleistocene 62
The first glaciation 64
The First Interglacial Stage 66
Early Pleistocene fauna 69
The Trinil race 73
Eoliths, or primitive flints 84
The second glaciation 86
The Second Interglacial Stage 90
The Heidelberg race 95
Migrations of the reindeer 102
The third glaciation 104

CHAPTER II
Date of the Pre-Chellean industry 107
Geography and climate 116
The river-drift stations 119
Pre-Chellean industry 126
The Piltdown race 130
Mammalian life 144
Chellean industry 148
Chellean geography 154
Palæolithic stations of Germany 159
Acheulean industry 161
The use of fire 165
Acheulean industry 166
The second period of arid climate 173
Late Acheulean implements 177
The Neanderthal race of Krapina 181

CHAPTER III
Close of the Third Interglacial 186
The Fourth Glacial Stage 188
Arctic tundra life 190
Environment of the Neanderthal race 196
Mammals hunted by the Neanderthals 202
Cave life 211
The Neanderthal race 214
Mousterian industry 244
Disappearance of the Neanderthals 256

CHAPTER IV
Opening of the Upper Palæolithic 260
The Grimaldi race 264
Arrival of the Crô-Magnons 269
Upper Palæolithic cultures 275
Upper Palæolithic races 278
Geography and climate 279
Mammalian life 284
The Crô-Magnon race 289
Burial customs 303
Aurignacian industry 305
The birth of art 315
Origin of the solutrean culture 330
Human fossils 333
The Brünn race 334
Solutrean industry 338
Solutrean art 347

CHAPTER V
Origin of the Magdalenian culture 351
Magdalenian culture 354
Magdalenian climate 360
Mammalian life 364
Human fossils 376
Magdalenian industry 382
Upper Palæolithic art 392
Magdalenian engravings 396
Magdalenian painting 408

Art in the caverns 409
Polychrome painting 414
Magdalenian sculpture 427
Extent of the Magdalenian culture 434
Decline of the Magdalenian culture 449
Crô-Magnon descendants 451

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,

g g ,
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:

Character of
Year Locality Race
Remains
1848 Gibraltar. Well-preserved Neanderthal.
skull.
1856 Neanderthal, near Skullcap, etc. Type of Neanderthal
Düsseldorf. race.
1866 La Naulette, Fragment of lower Neanderthal race.
Belgium. jaw.
1867 Furfooz, Two skulls. Type of Furfooz race.
Belgium.
1868 Crô-Magnon, Three skeletons and Type of Crô-Magnon
Dordogne. 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, Austria- Fragments of at least Krapina type of
Hungary. ten individuals. Neanderthal race.
1901 Grimaldi grotto, Two skeletons. Type of Grimaldi
Mentone. race.
1907 Heidelberg. Lower jaw with Type of Homo
teeth. heidelbergensis.

1908 La Chapelle, Skeleton. Mousterian type of
Corrèze. 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 Neanderthal.
Dordogne. skeleton.
1910 La Ferrassie II, Fragments of Neanderthal.
Dordogne. skeleton, female.
1911 La Quina II, Fragments of Neanderthal.
Charente. skeleton, 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

Fig. 1. Outline of a modern
brachycephalic skull (fine
dots), superposed upon a
dolichocephalic skull
(dashes), superposed upon
a chimpanzee skull (line).
g. glabella or median
prominence between the
eyebrows.
i. inion—external occipital
protuberance.
g-i. glabella-inion line.
Vertical line from g-i to top of
skull indicates the height
of the brain-case.
Modified after Schwalbe.

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).

Fig. 2. The skull and brain-
case, showing the low,
retreating forehead,
prominent supraorbital
ridges, and small brain
capacity, of
Pithecanthropus, the java

ape-man, as restored by J.
H. McGregor.

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
frontal
Homo sapiens, with an average forehead 90
angle
Homo sapiens, with extreme retreating forehead " " 72.3
Homo neanderthalensis, with the least retreating
" " 70
forehead
Homo neanderthalensis, with the most retreating
" " 57.5
forehead
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.

Fig. 3. Three great types of flint implements.
A. An eolith of accidental
shape.
B. A palæolith of Chellean
type, partly fashioned.
C. A Neolithic axe head, partly
polished.
After MacCurdy.

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.

Fig. 4. Evolution of the lance-
point, spear, or dart head.
Note the increasing
symmetry and skill in the
flaking and retouch as the
types pass in ascending
order through the
Chellean, Acheulean,
Mousterian, and
Aurignacian, into the
perfected, symmetrical,
double-pointed 'laurel-leaf'
of the Solutrean; and into
the subsequent decline in
the flint industry of the
Magdalenian and Azilian
stages. After de Mortillet,
Obermaier, and Hoernes.

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.

Larger Image

Fig. 5. The type stations of the successive stages of Palæolithic
culture from the Chellean to the Azilian-Tardenoisian.

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
Roman Times.
(La Tène Culture)
IV. EARLIER IRON AGE 1000-500 B.
Europe
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-
Europe " 7000.
Dwellers)
1. EARLY NEOLITHIC
STAGES
(Campignian Culture) Europe
I. OLD STONE AGE,
PALÆOLITHIC
UPPER PALÆOLITHIC EUROPE
8. Azilian-Tardenoisian. } Reindeer, " 12,000.
7. Magdalenian. (Close of Shelter,
Postglacial time.)
} and " 16,000.

6. Solutrean. } Cave
Period.
5. Aurignacian. (Beginning }
of Post-Glacial Time.) }
LOWER PALÆOLITHIC

4. Mousterian. (Fourth
" 40,000.
Glacial time.)
3. Acheulean. (Transition to River-
shelters.) } Drift
2. Chellean. } and " 100,000.
Terrace
1. Pre-Chellean } Period.
(Mesvinian.)
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.

Larger Image

Pl. II. "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."
1-8. Discovery sites of the
type specimens of human
and prehuman races.

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 Advances in Dominant
Periods and Epochs
Divisions Life Life
HOLOCENE. Recent Rise of world Age of
alluvial. civilization. Man.
...... ...... Industry in Iron,
iron, copper, Bronze,
and and
polished New
stone. Stone
Quaternary.
Ages.
Postglacial Extinction of
Men
stage. great
PLEISTOCENE, of the
mammals.
or Old
Glacial Dawn of
ICE AGE. Stone
stages. mind, art, and
Age.
industry.
Tertiary. Late Transformation Age of
Tertiary. of man-ape Mammals
PLIOCENE.
into and
man. Modern
Plant
Life.

Culmination of
MIOCENE.
mammals
Beginnings of
OLIGOCENE. anthropoid ape
life.
Appearance of
higher types of
Early mammals,
EOCENE. Tertiary. and vanishing
of
archaic
forms.
Rise of archaic
PALÆOCENE.
mammals.
Extinction of
great reptiles.
Cretaceous. Extreme
Late specialization
Mesozoic. of reptiles.
Rise of Age
Comanchian. flowering of
plants. Reptiles.
Rise of birds
Jurassic. and flying
Early
reptiles.
Mesozoic.
Rise of
Triassic.
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 "
Charles D. Walcott,(48) Geologic Time as Indicated
1893. 400,000 "
by the Sedimentary Rocks of North America
W. Upham,(49) Estimates of Geologic Times, Amer.
1893. 100,000 "
Jour. Sci., vol. XLV
1894. A. Heim,(50) Ueber das absolute Alter der Eiszeit 100,000 "
1900. W. J. Sollas,(51) Evolutional Geology 400,000 "
520,000-
1909. Albrecht Penck,(52) Die Alpen im Eiszeitalter
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):

Descent
Relative Grand of Alpine
Duration Totals Snow-
Line
Postglacial Time. Units Years Years Meters
(Period of Upper 1 25,000 25,000
Palæolithic culture,

Crô-Magnon and Brünn
races)
Glacial Stage (= Würm,
IV.
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
Glacial Stage (= Riss,
III.
Illinoian). 1 25,000 175,000 1,250
2d. Interglacial Stage
(= Mindel-Riss, 8 200,000 375,000
Yarmouth)
(Period of Heidelberg
race.)
Glacial Stage (= Mindel,
II.
Kansan) 1 25,000 400,000 1,300
1st. Interglacial Stage
(= Günz-Mindel, 3 75,000 475,000
Aftonian)
(Period of
Pithecanthropus or Trinil
race.)
Glacial Stage (= Günz,
I.
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.

Larger Image

Fig. 6. Terraces on either side
of the valley of the River
Inn, Scharding, Austria,
formed by sand and gravel
deposits partly covered
with loess. After Brückner.
Ib. Very broad river deposits of
First Glaciation, on the
first erosion level, covered
with the 'Upper Loess' of
the Second Interglacial
Stage.
IIb. Somewhat narrower river
deposits of Second
Glaciation on the second
erosion level.
IIIb. Still narrower river
terraces of the Third
Glaciation on the third
erosion level, covered
with the 'Lower Loess' of

the Third Interglacial
Stage.
IVb. Fourth or lowest terrace of
the Fourth Glaciation on
the fourth erosion level.
Va. Erosion terraces, Achen.
VIa. Post-Bühl erosion.
Loess′, 'Upper Loess' of Second
Interglacial. Loess″,
'Lower Loess' of Third
Interglacial.

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.

Larger Image

Fig. 7. Cross-section through
the terraced Pleistocene
formations of the Rhine
valley above Basle,
Switzerland. After Penck.
Ib. Outwash of the First
Glaciation—Günz—
Deposits on the first
erosion level.
IIb. Outwash of the Second
Glaciation—Mindel—
Deposits on the second
erosion level.
IIIb. Outwash of the Third
Glaciation—Riss—
Deposits on the third
erosion level.
IVb. Outwash of the Fourth
Glaciation—Würm—

Deposits on the fourth
erosion level.
Va. Erosion terrace, Achen
oscillation—fifth erosion
level.
VIa. and VIIa. Post-Bühl
erosion—sixth and
seventh erosion levels.
IIIc. Moraine of the Third
Glaciation—Riss.
The section of the Rheinfelder
Hill lies 3 km. west from
the Möliner Field.

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.

Larger Image

Fig. 8. Section—Four terraces
indicated in the valley of
the Thames at Galley Hill,
near London. Site of the
discovery of the 'Galley
Hill Man' in deposits
overlying one of the high
terraces. Site also of
Gray's Thurrock, a deposit
of Third Interglacial times
containing mammals and
flints of Chellean age. A
typical camping station of
'river-drift man.' Drawn by
Dr. C. A. Reeds.

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.

Fig. 9. Magdalenian loess
station of Aggsbach, in
Lower Austria. A quarry
camping station of the
open-plains type. This
typical Postglacial loess
deposit contains flints of
early Magdalenian age.
After Obermaier.

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.

Fig. 10. Ideal section of the
bluff overlying the Düssel
River, near Düsseldorf,
showing the mode of
formation of the famous
Neanderthal Cave, where
the original type of the
Neanderthal race was
discovered in 1856. A
typical resort of the 'cave
man.' After Lyell.
c. Entrance of percolating
waters from above.
f. Exit from the grotto.
a-b. Interior of the cavern.

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.

Fig. 11. Formation of the typical limestone cavern. After Gaudry.
V. Vertical section of limestone
cliff showing (S) waters
percolating from above;
(A-O) interior of the
cavern; and (G) grotto
entrance, original exit of
the cavern waters. H.
Horizontal section of the
same cavern showing the
(G) grotto entrance and

(A, G, O, B) the
ramifications of the
cavern.

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.

Boule, Breuil,
Penck, 1910
Geologic Time Wiegers, 1913 Obermaier, 1912
Geikie, 1914
Schmidt, 1912
Bronze. Magdalenian.
Postglacial. Magdalenian. Neolithic. Solutrean.
Azilian. Aurignacian.

Magdalenian.
Solutrean.
IV. Glacial. Solutrean. Mousterian.
Aurignacian.
Mousterian.
Early
Mousterian.
Cold Acheulean.
Third Interglacial. Mousterian. Mousterian.
Warm "
Chellean.
Pre-Chellean.
III. Glacial. Mousterian. Cold Acheulean.
Warm
Second Acheulean.
Acheulean.
Interglacial. 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.

Larger Image

Fig. 12. Europe in the period of
maximum continental
elevation, in which the
coast-lines are widely
extended, connecting
Africa and Europe—
including Great Britain
and Ireland—in a single
vast peninsula, and
affording free migration
routes for animal and
human races north and
south, as well as east and
west. The ocean
boundaries are more
remote and the interior
seas are greatly reduced in
area. After Obermaier.

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.

Larger Image

Fig. 13. An ideal earth section
from the North Cape
across the Scandinavian
plateau, through the North
Sea, Swiss Alps, Pyrenees,
and Straits of Gibraltar, to
the Atlas Mountains in
northern Africa, along the
line indicated on the map
(Fig. 25, p. 65),
illustrating the sea-level at
the time of the greatest
elevation of the continent
during the Second Glacial
Stage, as compared with

the present sea-level; also
the successive lines of
descent of the region of
perpetual snow during the
four great glacial
advances, as compared
with the present snow-
line. From studies by Dr.
C. A. Reeds.

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.

Larger Image

Fig. 14. Great events of the
Glacial Epoch. To the left
the relation of glacial and
interglacial stages in
Europe and North
America, with the author's
theory regarding the
divisions of time, the
beginning of the Old
Stone Age, and the
successive appearance in
Europe of different
branches of the human
race. To the right the
prolonged warm temperate

period in Europe in the
non-glaciated regions,
followed by the relatively
brief cold period during
the past 70,000 years.
Prepared by Dr. C. A.
Reeds, in co-operation
with the author.

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

Return of the Alpine
Mammals to the Mountains.
Period of
Recent Wide dispersal of Forest and
Recent
Prehistoric. Meadow Mammals
Animals.
over the Northern
Hemisphere.
Retreat of the Tundra and
Steppe Mammals to the
North and East.
Mingling in the lowlands of
France and Germany of Reindeer
the Reindeer-Mammoth Period
Postglacial. fauna, the Alpine fauna, in
Severe climate. the Steppe Mammals, and Western
the hardy Eurasiatic Europe.
Forest and Meadow
Mammals.
Arrival of the Tundra
Mammals from the North.
IV. Glacial.
Arrival of the Steppe
Cold Steppe climate.
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 Period
Warm climate. Eurasiatic Mammals in of the
different parts of the non- Hippopotamus,

glaciated regions, the Rhinoceros,
hippopotamus, southern and
mammoth, straight-tusked Elephant.
elephant, Merck's broad- Also
nosed rhinoceros, lion, of the
hyæna, jackal, sabre-tooth Stag
tiger. and
Reindeer and Woolly Bison
Mammoth in North in
III. Glacial. Western
Germany and the
Alps. Europe.
Also the stag, giant deer,
bison, wild cattle, forest
2d
horse, boar, wolf, fox,
Interglacial.
lynx, wildcat,
several species of bear.
Reindeer and Woolly
II. Glacial. Mammoth in
Northern Germany.
1st Survival of many Pliocene
Interglacial. African-Asiatic Mammals,
mingled with Pliocene
Musk-ox in and recent Eurasiatic
I. Glacial. Sussex, Forest and Meadow
England. Mammals.
'Warm' Three
More hardy
Early African- Chief
Eurasiatic
Migrations Asiatic Life
Mammals.
of Mammals. Periods.
Geologic
Scandinavian Temperate
and
and North and Cool
Climatic
Siberian sheltered temperate
Stages.
Mammals parts forests
near the of and
Ice-fields. Western meadows.
Europe.
Regions near More Sheltered Non-
the Glaciated Regions

Ice-fields Remote from the Glacial
and Borders and
Glacial Ice-fields.
Borders.

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.

Larger Image

Fig. 15. Zoogeographic map.
Range of the large
mammals of Africa and
southern Asia in Pliocene

and Pleistocene times until
nearly the close of the
Lower Palæolithic
(oblique lines). Range of
the forest and meadow
fauna of Europe and Asia
from early Pleistocene to
prehistoric times; stag and
bison fauna (horizontal
lines). Present range of the
tundra or barren-ground
mammals (dots) which
wandered south during the
fourth glaciation,
expelling the large Asiatic
mammals. Present range
of mammals of the deserts
and steppes of eastern
Europe and southern Asia,
which also invaded
western Europe during the
glacial and Postglacial
stages (vertical lines). The
alpine mammals dwelt in
the high mountain regions
and invaded the plains and
lowlands during Fourth
Glacial and Postglacial
times.

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.

CHAPTER I
ANCESTRY OF THE ANTHROPOID APES
—PLIOCENE CLIMATE, FORESTS,
AND LIFE OF WESTERN EUROPE—
TRANSITION TO THE PLEISTOCENE,
OR AGE OF MAN—THE FIRST
GLACIATION, ITS EFFECTS ON
CLIMATE, FORESTS, AND ANIMAL
LIFE—THE PREHUMAN TRINIL
RACE OF JAVA—THE EOLITHS OR
PRIMITIVE FLINTS—THE SECOND
GLACIATION—THE HEIDELBERG,
EARLIEST KNOWN HUMAN RACE—
THE THIRD GLACIATION
The partly known ancestors of the anthropoid apes and the unknown ancestors
of man probably originated among the forests and flood-plains of southern Asia
and early began to migrate westward into northern Africa and western Europe.
As early as Oligocene times a forerunner of the great apes (Propliopithecus),
most nearly resembling the gibbons, appears in the desert bordering the Fayum
in northern Egypt. Early in Miocene times true tree-living gibbons found their
way into Europe and continued throughout the Pliocene in the forms known as
Pliopithecus and Pliohylobates, the latter being a true gibbon in its proportions;
it ranged northward into the present region of Germany. Another ape which
early reached Europe is the Dryopithecus; it is found in Miocene times in
southern France; the grinding-teeth suggest those of the orang, the jaw is deep
and in some ways resembles that of the Piltdown man. A third ape
(Neopithecus) occurs in the Lower Pliocene near Eppelsheim, in Germany, and
is known only from a single lower molar tooth, which recalls the dentition of
Dryopithecus and more remotely that of Homo. In the Pliocene of the Siwalik
hills of Asia is found Palæopithecus, a generalized form which is believed to be
related to the chimpanzee, the gorilla, and the gibbon; the upper premolars
resemble those of man.

None of these fossil anthropoids either of Europe or of Asia can be regarded as
ancestral to man, although both Neopithecus and Dryopithecus have been
placed in or near the line of human ancestry by such high authorities as Branco
and Gaudry. When Dryopithecus was first discovered by Lartet, Gaudry(1)
considered it to be by far the most manlike of all the apes, even attributing to it
sufficient intelligence for the working of flints, but fuller knowledge of this
animal has shown that some of the living anthropoids are more manlike than
Dryopithecus. This animal is closely related to the ancestral stock of the
chimpanzee, gorilla, and orang. The jaw, it is true, resembles that of the
Piltdown man (Eoanthropus), but the grinding-teeth are much more primitive
and there is little reason to think that it is ancestral to any human type.[N]

Fig. 16. The gibbon is primitive
in its skull and dentition,
but extremely specialized
in the adaptation of its
limbs to arboreal life.

Photograph from the New
York Zoological Park.

Among these fossil anthropoids, as well as among the four living forms, we
discover no evidence of direct relationship to man but very strong evidence of
descent from the same ancestral stock. These proofs of common ancestry,
which have already been observed in the existing races of man, become far
more conspicuous in the ancient Palæolithic races; in fact, we cannot interpret
the anatomy of the men of the Old Stone Age without a survey of the principal
characters of the existing anthropoid apes, the gibbon, the orang, the
chimpanzee, and the gorilla.

Fig. 17. The orang has a high rounded skull and long face.
Photograph from the New York Zoological Park.

The gibbon is the most primitive of living apes in its skull and dentition, but the
most specialized in the length of its arms and its other extreme adaptations to
arboreal life. As in the other anthropoids, the face is abbreviated, the narial

region is narrow, i. e., catarrhine, and the brain-case is widened, but the top of
the skull is smooth, and the forehead lacks the prominent ridges above the
orbits; thus the profile of the skull of the gibbon (Fig. 16) is more human than
that of the other anthropoid apes. When on the ground the gibbon walks erect
and is thus afforded the free use of its arms and independent movements of its
fingers. In the brain there is a striking development of the centres of sight,
touch, and hearing. It is these characteristics of the modern gibbon which
preserve with relatively slight changes the type of the original ancestor of man,
as noted by Elliot Smith.(2)

Fig. 18. The chimpanzee. This
figure illustrates the
walking powers of the
chimpanzee, the great
length of the arms, and the
abbreviation of the legs.

Photograph from the New
York Zoological Park.

The limbs of the orang are less elongated and less extremely specialized for
arboreal life than those of the gibbon but more so than those of the chimpanzee
and the gorilla. The skull is rounded and of great vertical height, with broad,
bony ridges above the orbits and a great median crest on top of the skull in old
males. The lower jaw of the orang is stout and deep, and, although used as a
fighting weapon, the canine tusks are much less prominent than in either the
gibbon, chimpanzee, or gorilla. Of all anthropoids this jaw most nearly
resembles that of the Piltdown man.

Fig. 19. The Chimpanzee. This
figure shows certain facial
characteristics which are
preserved in the

Neanderthal race of men.
Note also the shortening
of the thumb and the
enlargement of the big toe.
Photograph from the New
York Zoological Park.

In the chimpanzee we observe the very prominent bony ridges above the eyes,
like those in the Trinil and Neanderthal races of men. The prognathous or
protruding tooth rows and receding chin suggest those in the Heidelberg,
Piltdown, and Neanderthal races. When the chimpanzee is walking (Fig. 18) the
arms reach down below the level of the knees, whereas in the higher races of
man they reach only half-way down the thighs. Thus, the fore limb, although
much shorter than that of the gibbon, is relatively longer than that of any
human race, recent or ancient. We observe also in the walking chimpanzee (Fig.
18) that the upper part of the leg, the thigh-bone, or femur, is relatively long,
while the lower part, the shin-bone, or tibia, is relatively short. Indeed, both in
the arm and in the leg the upper bones are relatively long and the lower bones
are relatively short. These proportions, which are inheritances of arboreal life,
are in very marked contrast to those observed in the arms and legs of the
Neanderthal race of men, in which the limbs are of the terrestrial or walking
type.

ANCESTRAL TREE OF THE ANTHROPOID APES AND OF MAN

Larger Image

From the unknown and
ancestral stock of the
anthropoid apes and man
the gibbon was the first to
branch off in Oligocene
times; the orang then
branched off in a widely
different direction. The
stem of the chimpanzee
and of the gorilla
branched off at a more
recent date and is more
nearly allied to that of
man. Five early human
races have been found in

Europe in Glacial or
Pleistocene times, but no
traces of other primates
except the macaques,
which are related to the
lower division of the
baboons, have been found
in Europe in Pleistocene
times. Modified after
Gregory. (For latest
discovery see Appendix,
Note VII.)

Fig. 20. The Gorilla. An
immature female, about
three years of age,
showing none of the adult

male characteristics.
Photograph from the New
York Zoological Park.

We observe also in the chimpanzee a contrast between the grasping power of
the big toe, which is a kind of thumb, and the lack of that power in the hand, in
which the thumb is nearly useless; in all apes this function is characteristic of
the foot, in man of the hand alone. The opposable thumb, with its power of
bringing the thumb against each of the fingers, is the one character which is
lacking in every one of the anthropoid apes and which was early developed
among the ancestors of man.
The skull of the chimpanzee is longer than that of the orang, the most
prominent feature in the top view being the extreme protuberance of the orbits,
which are surrounded by a supraorbital and circumorbital bony ridge, which is
also strongly developed in the Neanderthal skull as well as in the
Pithecanthropus or Trinil skull but, so far as we know, is entirely lacking in that
of Piltdown. As in the orang and the gorilla, a crest develops along the middle
of the top of the skull for the insertion of the powerful muscles of the jaws, a
crest which is wholly wanting in the gibbon and probably wanting in all the
true ancestors of man.

Fig. 21. Contrast of the
projecting face
(prognathism), retreating
forehead, and small brain-
case of a young gorilla, as
compared with the vertical
face, prominent nose, high
forehead, and large brain-
case of a high race of man.
After Klaatsch.

The gorilla illustrates in the extreme the specializations which are begun in the
chimpanzee, and which are attributable to a life partly arboreal, partly
terrestrial, with the skull and jaws used as powerful fighting organs. The head is
lengthened by the forward growth of the muzzle into an extreme prognathism.
The limbs and body of the gorilla show a departure from the primitive, slender-
limbed, arboreal type of apes and are partly adapted to a bipedal, ground-
dwelling habit.
As regards psychic evolution,(3) Elliot Smith observes that the arboreal mode of
life of the early ancestors of man developed quick, alert, and agile movements
which stimulated the progressive development of the posterior and lateral
portions of the brain. The sense of smell had been well developed in a previous
terrestrial life, but once these creatures left the earth and took to the trees,
guidance by the olfactory sense was less essential, for life amidst the branches
of the trees is most favorable to the high development of the senses of vision,
touch, and hearing. Moreover, it demands an agility and quickness of
movement that necessitate efficient motor centres in the brain to co-ordinate
and control such actions as tree life calls for. The specialization of sight
awakens curiosity to examine objects with greater minuteness and guides the
hands to more precise and skilled movements.

Fig. 22. Side view of a human
brain of high type,
showing the chief areas of
muscular control and of
the sensory impressions of
sight and hearing, also the
prefrontal area in which
the higher mental faculties
are centred. Modified after
M. Allen Starr.

The anatomy of man is full of remote reminders of this original arboreal
existence, which also explains the very large and early development of the
posterior portions of the brain, in which the various senses of sight, touch, and
hearing are located.
The first advance from arboreal to terrestrial life is marked by the power of
walking more or less erect on the hind limbs and thus releasing the arms; this
power is developed to a greater or less degree in all the anthropoid apes; with
practice they become expert walkers. The additional freedom which the erect
attitude gives to the arms and to the movements of the hands and the separate
movements of the fingers is especially noticeable in the gibbon. The cultivation

of the powers of the hand reacts upon the further growth and specialization of
the brain; thus the brain and the erect attitude react upon each other. In the
gibbon there is a marked increase in the size of those portions of the brain
which supply the centres of touch, vision, and hearing.

Fig. 23. The evolution of the
brain. Outlines (side view)
of typical human and
prehuman brains, showing
the early development of
the posterior portions of
the brain and the relatively
late development of the
anterior portions, the seat
of the higher mental
faculties.

Discussion as to how the ancestors of man were fashioned has chiefly dealt
with the rival claims of four lines of structural evolution: first, the assumption

of the erect attitude; second, the development of the opposable thumb; third,
the growth of the brain; and fourth, the acquisition of the power of speech. The
argument for the erect attitude suggested by Lamarck, and ably put by Munro(4)
in 1893, indicates that the cultivation of skill with the hands and fingers lies at
the root of man's mental supremacy. Elliot Smith's argument that the steady
growth and specialization of the brain itself has been the chief factor in leading
the ancestors of man step by step upward indicates that such an advance as the
erect attitude was brought about because the brain had made possible the
skilled movements of the hands.

Fig. 24. The evolution of the
brain. Outlines (top view)
of typical human and
prehuman brains, showing
the narrow forebrain of the
primitive type and the
successive expansion of

the seat of the higher
mental faculties in the
successive races.

The true conception of prehuman evolution, which occurred during Miocene
and Pliocene times, is rather that of the coincident development of these four
distinctively human powers. It appears from the limb proportions in the
Neanderthal race that the partly erect attitude and walking gait were assumed
much earlier in geologic time than we formerly imagined. The intimate relation
between the use of the opposable thumb and the development of the higher
mental faculties of man is sustained to-day by the discovery that one of the best
methods of developing the mind of the child is to insist upon the constant use
of the hands, for the action and reaction between hand and brain is found to
develop the mind. A similar action and reaction between foot and brain
developed the erect gait which released the hand from its locomotive and limb-
grasping function, and by the resultant perfecting of the motion of thumbs and
fingers turned the hand into an organ ready for the increasing specialization
demanded by the manufacture of flint implements.
This is the stage reached, we believe, in late Pliocene times in which the human
ancestor emerges from the age of mammals and enters the age of man, the
period when the prehistory of man properly begins. The attitude is erect, the
hand has a well-developed opposable thumb, the centres of the brain relating to
the higher senses and to the control of all the motions of the limbs, hands, and
fingers are well developed. The power of speech may still be rudimentary. The
anterior centres of the brain for the storing of experience and the development
of ideas are certainly very rudimentary.

Change of Environment in Europe
Considering that the origin and development of any creature are best furthered
by a struggle for existence sufficiently severe to demand the full and frequent
exercise of its powers of mind and body, it is interesting to trace the sequence
of natural events which prepared western Europe for the entrance of the earliest
branches of the human race. The forests and plants portray even more vividly
than the animals the changing conditions of the environment and temperature
which marked the approach and various vicissitudes of the great Ice Age.

The forests of central France in Pliocene times, as well as those of the valley of
the Arno in northern Italy, were very similar to the forests of the middle United
States at the present time, comprising such trees as the sassafras, the locust, the
honey-locust, the sumach, the bald cypress, and the tulip. Thus the regions
which harbored the rich forest and meadow fauna of northern Italy in Upper
Pliocene times abounded in trees familiar to-day in North and South Carolina,
including even such distinctively American forms as the sweet gum
(Liquidambar styraciflua), the sour gum (Nyssa sylvatica), and the bay, beside
those above mentioned. To the south, along the Mediterranean, there also
flourished trees incident to a more tropical climate, the bamboo, the sabal palm,
and the dwarf fan-palm; most interesting is the presence of the sabal, which
now flourishes in the subtropical rain forests of central Florida. The sequoia
also was abundant. Toward the close of the Pliocene the first indications of the
coming Glacial Epoch were a lowering of the temperature, and, in the higher
mountainous areas perhaps, a beginning of the glacial stages.
The ancestors of the modern forests of Europe predominated in central France:
the oak, the beech, the poplar, the willow, and the larch. It is these forests,
which survived the vicissitudes of glacial times, that gave descent to the forests
of Postglacial Europe, while all the purely American types disappeared from
Europe and are now found only in the temperate regions of the United States.(5)
We have seen that anthropoid apes have not been discovered either in the
Middle or Upper Pliocene of Europe; the gibbon-ape line disappears with the
Pliohylobates of the Upper Pliocene. These animals are, however, rarely found
in fossil form, owing to their retreat to the trees in times of flood and danger, so
that we need not necessarily assume that the anthropoids had actually become
extinct in France. The primates which are found in the Upper Pliocene belong
to the lower types of the Old World monkeys, related to the living langur of
India and to the macaque and baboon. The evidence, as far as it goes, indicates
that the ancestors of man were at this time evolving in Asia and not in Europe.
This evidence, nevertheless, would be completely offset if it could be proven
that the eoliths, or primitive flints, found in various parts of Europe from
Oligocene to Pleistocene times are really artifacts of human or prehuman
origin.
The mammals of Europe in Pliocene times were derived by very remote
migrations from North America and, more directly, from southern Asia. The
Oriental element is very strong, including types of rhinoceroses now peculiar to
Sumatra and southern Asia, numerous mastodons very similar to the south

Asiatic types of the times, gazelles and antelopes, including types related to the
existing elands, and primitive types of horses and of tapirs. Among the
carnivores in Europe similar to south Asiatic species were the hyænas, the dog
bears (Hyænarctos), the civets, and the pandas (Ailurus); there were also the
sabre-tooth tigers and numerous other felines. In the trees were found the south
Asiatic and north African monkeys; and in the forests the axis deer, now
restricted to Asia. But the most distinctive African-Asiatic animal of this period
was found in the rivers; namely, the hippopotamus, which arrived in Italy in the
early Pliocene and ranged south by way of the Sicilian land bridge into
northern Africa and east along the southern shores of the Black Sea to the
Siwalik hills of India. Thus, many of the ancestors of what we have termed the
African-Asiatic mammal group of Pleistocene times had already found their
way into Europe early in Pliocene times. In middle and late Pliocene times
there arrived three very important types of mammals which played a great rôle
in the early Pleistocene. These are:
The true horses (Equus stenonis) of remote North American origin.
The first true cattle (Leptobos elatus), originating in southern Asia.
The true elephants, first Elephas planifrons and later E.
meridionalis, better known as the southern mammoth, both
originating in Asia.
The forests and river borders of the valley of the Arno, near Florence, contained
all these African-Asiatic animals in Upper Pliocene times. Here they received
their names which remind us of this region of Italy as it is to-day, such as the
Etruscan rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus etruscus), the Florentine macaque (Macacus
florentinus), Steno's horse (Equus stenonis), the Etruscan cattle (Leptobos
etruscus), which was the earliest ox to reach Europe.
In Italy and France these African-Asiatic mammals were mingled with
ancestors of the more hardy Eurasiatic forest and meadow group. Of these the
most graceful were a variety of deer with very elaborate or many-branched
antlers, hence known as the 'polycladine' deer. In the forests roamed the wild
boars of Auvergne (Sus arvernensis), also the bears of Auvergne (Ursus
arvernensis), lynxes, foxes, and wildcats. In the rivers swam the otter and the
beaver, closely allied to existing forms. Among the rocks of the high hills were
the pikas or tailless hares (Lagomys), also hamsters, moles, and shrews.

Many of the most characteristic animals of the dry modern plateaus of Africa
had disappeared from Europe before the close of Pliocene times, namely,
species of gazelles, antelopes, and the hipparion horses, all of which were
adapted to the dry uplands or deserts of Africa. In the remaining faune Pliocène
récente of French authors we find evidence that the Pliocene in all of western
Europe closed with a moist, warm, temperate climate, with wide-spread forests
and rivers interspersed with meadows favorable to the life of a great variety of
browsing deer as well as of grazing elephants, horses and cattle. The flora of
the Middle Pliocene as found at Meximieux indicates a mean annual
temperature of 62° to 63° Fahr.
One of the proofs of the gradual lowering of temperature toward the close of
Pliocene times in Europe is the southward retreat and disappearance of the apes
and monkeys; the Upper Miocene gibbon is found as far north as Eppelsheim,
near Worms, Germany; in Lower Pliocene times the monkeys and apes are
found only in the forests of the south of France; in Upper Pliocene times they
are recorded only in the forests of northern Italy; the evidence, so far as it goes,
indicates a gradual retreat toward the south.
Finally, at the end of the Pliocene there existed very close geographic relations
eastward with the mammalian life of India by way of what was then the
isthmus of the Dardanelles and southward with the mammalian life of Africa by
way of the Sicilian land bridge. This would indicate that the long lines of
eastward and westward migration were open and favorable to the arrival in
western Europe of new migrants from the far east, including perhaps the most
primitive races of man. There is not the least evidence that Pliocene man or
ancestors of man existed in Europe, excepting such as may be afforded by the
problematic eoliths, or most primitive flints.

The First Glaciation
In Upper Pliocene times cold marine currents(6) from the north began to flow
along the southeastern coast of England, with indications of a gradually
lowering temperature culminating at a time when the sea abounded in the arctic
mollusks, which have been preserved in the 'Weybourn Crags,' a geologic
formation along the coast of Norfolk. This arctic current was the herald of the
First Glacial Stage.

It does not appear that a glacial cap of any considerable extent was formed in
Great Britain at this stage, but about this time the first great ice-cap was formed
in British North America west of Hudson Bay, which sent its ice-sheets as far
south as Iowa and Nebraska. In the latter State forests of spruce and other
coniferous species indicate the appearance of a cool temperate flora in advance
of the glaciation. In the Swiss Alps the snow descended 1,200 meters below the
present snow-line, and in Scandinavia and northern Germany the first great ice-
sheets were formed from which flowed the glaciers and rivers conveying the
'Old Diluvium,' or the 'oldest drift.' Accompanying the cold wave along the
eastern coast of England we note, in the famous fossil deposits known as the
'Forest Bed of Cromer,' which overlie the Weybourn Crags, the arrival from the
north of the fir-tree (Abies). This is most significant, because it had hitherto
been known only in the arctic region of Grinnell Land, and this was its first
appearance in central Europe. Another herald of northern conditions was the
first occurrence of the musk-ox in England, which is attributed(7) to the 'Forest
Bed' deposits.

Larger Image

Fig. 25. The First (Günz)
Glacial Stage was far
less extensive than that
in the above map, which
shows Europe in the
Second Glacial Stage,
during the greatest
extension of the ice-
fields and glaciers (dots),
a period of continental
depression in which the
Mediterranean, Black,
and Caspian Seas were
connected. The line from
Scandinavia to the Atlas
Mountains corresponds
with the section shown
in Fig. 13, p. 37. Drawn

by C. A. Reeds, after
James Geikie and Penck.

While Great Britain was less affected at this time than other regions, there is
no doubt as to the vast extent of the First Glacial Stage in British America,
in Scandinavia, and in the Alps; in the latter region it has been termed 'the
Günz stage' by Penck and Brückner. The 'drift' deposits have a general
thickness of 98½ feet (30 m.), but they are largely covered and buried by
those of the far more extensive Second Glacial Stage. The Scandinavian
ice-sheet(8) not only occupied the basin of the Baltic but overflowed Scania
—the southern part of Sweden—and extended as far south as Hamburg and
Berlin. In the Alps the glaciers passed down all the great mountain valleys
to the low grounds of the foreland, implying a depression of the snow-line
to 4,000 feet below its present level.

Fig. 26. The musk-ox,
belonging to the tundra

region of the arctic
circle, which is reported
to have migrated as far
south as the southern
coast of England during
the First (Günz) Glacial
Stage.

The First Interglacial Stage. Eoliths
Proofs that a prolonged cool wave passed over Britain during the first
glaciation are seen in its after effects, namely, in the modernization of the
forests and in the disappearance both in Britain and France of a very
considerable number of animals which were abundant in Upper Pliocene
times. Yet by far the greater part of the Pliocene mammal life survived, a
fact which tends to show that, while very cold conditions of climate and
great precipitation of moisture may have characterized the regions
immediately surrounding the ice-fields, the remainder of western Europe at
most passed through a prolonged cool period during the climax of the First
Glacial Stage. This was followed during the First Interglacial by the return
of a period somewhat warmer than the present.
This First Interglacial Stage is known as the Norfolkian, from the fact that it
was first recognized in Europe in the deposits known as the 'Forest Bed of
Cromer,' Norfolk, which contain rich records not only of the forests of the
period, but of the noble forms of mammals which roamed over Great
Britain and France in Norfolkian times. The forests of Norfolk, in latitude
52° 40' N. mainly abounded in trees still indigenous to this region, such as
the maple, elm, birch, willow, alder, oak, beech, pine, and spruce, a forest
flora closely corresponding to that of the Norfolk and Suffolk coasts of
England at the present time, although we find in this fossil flora several
exotic species which give it a slightly different character.(9) From this tree
flora Reid concludes that the climate of southeastern England was nearly
the same as at present but slightly warmer.
We note especially that a very great change had taken place in the entire
disappearance in these forests of the trees which in Pliocene times were

common to Europe and America, as described above; in other words, the
flora of Europe was greatly impoverished during the first cold wave.
In southern France, as at the present time, the interglacial climatic
conditions were milder, for we find numerous species of plants, which are
now represented in the Caucasus, Persia, southern Italy, Portugal, and
Japan. Thus the First Interglacial Stage, which was a relatively short one,
enjoyed a temperature now belonging about 4° of latitude farther south.
This First Interglacial Stage is also known as the St.-Prestien, because
among the many localities in France and Italy which preserve the plant and
mammal life of the times that of St. Prest, in the Paris basin, is the most
famous. Here in 1863 Desnoyers(10) first reported the discovery of a number
of mammal bones with incision lines upon them, which he considered to be
the work of man. These deposits were regarded at the time as of Pliocene
age, and this gave rise immediately to a wide-spread theory of the
appearance of man as early as the Pliocene. The human origin of the
incisions discovered by Desnoyers has long been a matter of dispute and is
now regarded as very improbable. Similar lines may be of animal origin,
namely, marks left by claws or teeth, or due to accidental pressure of sharp
cutting surfaces. However, we do not pretend to express an opinion of any
value as to the cause of these incisions. Supposed confirmation of the
evidence of Desnoyers of the existence of Pliocene man was the alleged
finding by Abbott of several worked flints, two in situ, in the 'Forest Bed of
Cromer,' Norfolk. Many years later in similar deposits at St. Prest were
discovered the supposed 'eoliths' which have been referred to the Étage
Prestien by Rutot. The age of the St. Prest deposits is, therefore, a matter of
the very highest interest and importance.

Fig. 27. The giant deer
(Megaceros), which first
appears in western
Europe during the First
Interglacial Stage,
probably as a migrant
from the forested regions
of Eurasia. After a
painting by Charles R.
Knight, in the American
Museum of Natural
History.

St. Prest is not Pliocene; it is rather the most ancient Pleistocene deposit in
the basin of Paris,(11) and these incised mammal bones probably date from
the First Interglacial Stage. The bed which has yielded the incised bones
and the rich series of fossils consists of coarse river sands and gravels,
forming part of a 'high terrace,' 98½ feet (30 m.) above the present level of

the river Eure. This, like other 'high terraces,' contains a characteristic First
Interglacial fauna, including the southern mammoth (E. meridionalis), and
Steno's horse (E. stenonis). We also find here other very characteristic early
Pleistocene mammals, such as the Etruscan rhinoceros (D. etruscus), the
giant hippopotamus of early Pleistocene times (H. major), the giant beaver
of the early Pleistocene (Trogontherium), three forms of the common
beaver (Castor), and one of the bison (Bison antiquus). This mammalian
life of St. Prest is very similar to that of Norfolk, England; to that of
Malbattu in central France, Puy-de-Dôme; of Peyrolles, near the mouth of
the Rhône, in southern France; of Solilhac near Puy; of Durfort, Gard; of
Cajarc, Lot-et-Garonne; and finally to that of the valley of the Arno, in
northern Italy.
One reason why certain authors, such as Boule and Depéret, have placed
this stage in the Upper Pliocene is that the mammals include so many
surviving Pliocene forms, such as the sabre-tooth tigers (Machærodus), the
'polycladine' deer with the elaborate antlers (C. sedgwicki), the Etruscan
rhinoceros, and the primitive Steno's horse. But we have recently
discovered that, with the exception of the 'polycladine' deer, these mammals
certainly survived in Europe as late as the Second Interglacial Stage, and
there is said to be evidence that some even persisted into the Third
Interglacial Stage.
It is, therefore, the extinction or disappearance from Europe of many of the
animals very abundant even in late Pliocene times which marks this fauna
as early Pleistocene. Anthropoid apes are no longer found; indeed, there is
no evidence of the survival of any of the primates, except macaques, which
survive in the Pyrenees to late Pleistocene times; the tapir has entirely
disappeared from the forests of Europe; but the most significant departure is
that of the mastodon, which is believed to have lingered in north Africa and
which certainly survived in America into very late Pleistocene times. The
animal life of western Europe, like the plant life, has lost one part of its
Pliocene aspect while retaining another part, both in its mammalian fauna
and in its forest flora.

Fig. 28. The sabre-tooth tiger
(Machærodus), which
survives from the Upper
Pliocene and is widely
distributed over western
Europe until the Middle
Pleistocene. After a
painting by Charles R.
Knight, in the American
Museum of Natural
History.

The living environment as a whole, moreover, takes on a novel aspect
through the arrival, chiefly from the north, of the more hardy animals and
plants which had been evolving for a very long period of time in the
temperate forests and meadows of Eurasia to the northeast and northwest.
From this Eurasiatic region came the stag, or red deer (Cervus elaphus),
also the giant deer (Megaceros), and from the northerly swamps the broad-
headed moose (Alces latifrons). The presence of members of the deer
family (Cervidæ) in great numbers and representing many different lines of

descent is one of the most distinctive features of First Interglacial times.
Beside the new northerly forms mentioned above, there was the roe-deer
(Capreolus), which still survives in Europe, but there is no longer any
record of the beautiful axis deer (Axis), which has now retreated to southern
Asia. The 'polycladine' deer, first observed in the valley of the Arno, is
represented in First Interglacial times by Sedgwick's deer (C. sedgwicki), in
Norfolk, and by the species C. dicranius of northern Italy, where there also
occurs the 'deer of the Carnutes' (C. carnutorum).
We observe that browsing, forest-living, and river-living types predominate.
Among the forest-frequenting carnivores were the wolverene, the otter, two
kinds of bear, the wolf, the fox, and the marten; another forest dweller was a
wild boar, related to the existing Sus scrofa of Europe.
Thus in the very beginning of Pleistocene times the forests of Europe were
full of a wild life very similar to that of prehistoric times, mingled with
which was the Oriental element, the great elephants, rhinoceroses, and
hippopotami connecting Europe with the far east. Among these eastern
migrants in the early Pleistocene were two new arrivals, the primitive wild
cattle (Bos primigenius), and the first of the bison (Bison priscus).
The theoretical map of western Europe during First Interglacial times (Fig.
12, also Fig. 56) enables us to understand these migrations from the
northeast and from the Orient. As indicated by the sunken river channels
discovered on the old continental shelf, the coast-line extended far to the
west to the borders of the continental plateau which is now sunk deep
beneath the ocean; the British Isles were separated from France not by the
sea but by a broad valley, while the Rhine, with the Thames as a western
tributary flowed northward over an extensive flood-plain, which is the
present floor of the North Sea basin.(12) It is not improbable that the rich
mammalian life deposits in the 'Forest Bed of Cromer,' Norfolk, were
washed down by tributaries of this ancient Rhine River.
In all the great rivers of this enlarged western Europe occurred the
hippopotami, and along the river borders and in the forests browsed the
Etruscan rhinoceros. Among the grazing and meadow-living forms of the
Norfolk country of Britain were species of wild cattle (Bos, Leptobos),
together with two species of horses, including a lighter form resembling

Steno's horse (E. stenonis cocchi) of the Val d'Arno and a heavier type
probably belonging to the forests. The giant elephant of this period is the
southern mammoth (E. meridionalis trogontherii), a somewhat specialized
descendant of the Pliocene southern mammoth of the valley of the Arno;
this animal is best known from a superb specimen discovered at Durfort
(Fig. 42) and preserved in the Paris Museum. It is said to have attained a
height of over 12 feet as compared with 11 feet 3 inches, the height of the
largest existing African elephants. It is probable that all these south Asiatic
migrants into Europe were partially or wholly covered with hair, in
adaptation to the warm, temperate climate of the summers and the cool
winters. To the south, in the still milder climate of Italy, the arrival of
another great species, known as the 'ancient' or 'straight-tusked elephant' (E.
antiquus), is recorded. This animal had not yet reached France or Britain.
Preying upon the defenseless members of this heterogeneous fauna were the
great machærodonts, or sabre-tooth tigers, which ranged over Europe and
northern Africa and into Asia. It does not appear that the true lions (Felis
leo) had as yet entered Europe.
An intercommunication of life over a vast area extending 6,000 miles from
the Thames valley on the west to India on the southeast is indicated by the
presence of six or more similar or related species of elephants and
rhinoceroses. Twenty-five hundred miles southeast of the foot-hills of the
Himalayas similar herds of mammals, but in an earlier stage of evolution,
roamed over the island of Java, which was then a part of the Asiatic
mainland.

The Trinil Race of Java
The human interest in this great life throng lies in the fact that the migration
routes opened by these great races of animals may also have afforded a
pathway for the earliest races of men. Thus the discovery of the Trinil race
in central Java, amidst a fauna closely related to that of the foot-hills of the
Himalayas and more remotely related to that of southern Europe, has a
more direct bearing upon our subject than would at first appear.

Fig. 29. Restoration of
Pithecanthropus, the
Java ape-man, modelled
by the Belgian artist
Mascré, under the
direction of Professor A.
Rutot, of Brussels,
Belgium.

Fig. 30. The Solo or
Bengawan River in
central Java. Scene of the
discovery of the type
specimen of
Pithecanthropus erectus
in 1894. After Selenka
and Blanckenhorn.
Compare map (Fig. 32,
p. 75).

On the Bengawan River in central Java, a Dutch army surgeon, Eugen
Dubois, had been excavating for fossils in the hope of finding prehuman
remains. In the year 1891 he found near Trinil a deposit of numerous
mammal bones, including a single upper molar tooth which he regarded as
that of a new species of ape. On carefully clearing away the rock the top of
a skull appeared at about a meter's distance from the tooth. Further
excavation at the close of the rainy season brought to light a second molar
tooth and a left thigh-bone about 15 meters from the spot where the skull

was found, imbedded and fossilized in the same manner. These scattered
parts were described by Dubois(13) in 1894 as the type of Pithecanthropus
erectus,[O] a term signifying the upright-standing ape-man. The specific
term erectus refers to the thigh-bone, of which the author observes: "We
must therefore conclude that the femur of Pithecanthropus was designed for
the same mechanical functions as that of man. The two articulations and the
mechanical axis correspond so exactly to the same parts in man that the law
of perfect harmony between the form and function of a bone will
necessitate the conclusion that this fossil creature had the same upright
posture as man and likewise walked on two legs.... From this it necessarily
follows that the creature had the free use of the upper extremities—now
superfluous for walking—and that these last were no doubt already far
advanced in that line of differentiation which developed them in mankind
into tools and organs of touch.... From a study of the femur and skull it
follows with certainty that this fossil cannot be classified as simian.... And,
as with the skull, so also with the femur, the differences that separate
Pithecanthropus from man are less than those distinguishing it from the
highest anthropoid.... Although far advanced in the course of differentiation,
this Pleistocene form had not yet attained to the human type.
Pithecanthropus erectus is the transition form between man and the
anthropoids which the laws of evolution teach us must have existed. He is
the ancestor of man."
Thus the author placed Pithecanthropus in a new family, of the order
Primates, which he named the Pithecanthropidæ.

Fig. 31. Geological section of the volcano of Lawoe in the Solo River basin.
Drawn by C. A. Reeds.

Fig. 32. Map of the Solo
River, showing the
Pithecanthropus
discovery site, also two
excavations (Pit No. 1,

Pit No. 2) in the ancient
gravel of the river-
bottom, made by the
Selenka-Blanckenhorn
expedition of 1907. After
Selenka and
Blanckenhorn.

The geologic age of the bones referred to is a matter of first importance.
The remains of Pithecanthropus lay in a deposit about one meter in
thickness, consisting of loose, coarse, tufaceous sandstones, below this a
stratum of hard, blue-gray clay, and under that marine breccia. Above the
Pithecanthropus layer were the 'Kendeng' strata, a many-layered tufaceous
sandstone, about 15 meters in thickness. This geologic series was
considered by Dubois and others to be of late Tertiary or Pliocene age;
Pithecanthropus accordingly became known as the long-awaited 'Pliocene
ape-man.' Subsequent researches by expert geologists have tended to refer
the age to the early Pleistocene.(17) According to Elbert(18) the Kendeng
strata overlying the Pithecanthropus layer correspond to an early pluvial
period of low temperature and, in point of time, to the Ice Age of Europe.
For even in Java one can distinguish three divisions of the Pleistocene
period, including the first period of low temperature to which the
Pithecanthropus layer is referred.

Larger Image

Fig. 33. Section
corresponding to line A-
B in Fig. 32, showing the

river-drift gravels and
sands at the point where
the skull-top of
Pithecanthropus was
found. Drawn by C. A.
Reeds.
Recent 7 River wash, blue-black clay.

{ 6 Light-colored sandstone, like tuff.
{ 5 Gray tuff with balls of clay, fresh-water shells.
4 White streaked sandstone resembling tufa.
Pleistocene {
3 Blue-black clay with plant remains.
{ 2 Bone-bearing stratum. Pithecanthropus.
{ 1 Lahar conglomerate.

The fossil mammals contained in the Pithecanthropus layer have also been
thoroughly studied,(19) and they tend to confirm the original reference to the
uppermost Pliocene. They yield a very rich fauna similar to that of the
Siwalik hills of India, including the porcupine, pangolin, several felines, the
hyæna, and the otter. Among the primates beside Pithecanthropus there is a
macaque. Among the larger ungulates are two species of rhinoceros related
to existing Indian forms, the tapir, the boar, the hippopotamus, the axis and
rusa deer, the Indian buffalo, and wild cattle. It is noteworthy that three
species of late Pliocene elephants, all known as Stegodon, and especially
the species Stegodon ganeza, occur, as well as Elephas hysudricus, a
species related to E. antiquus, or the straight-tusked elephant, which entered
Europe in early Pleistocene times. Fossils of the same animals are found in
the foot-hills of the Himalayas of India, about 2,500 miles distant to the
northwest. The India deposits are considered of uppermost Pliocene age,(20)
for this is the closing life period of the upper Siwaliks of India.
Certainly Java was then a part of the Asiatic continent, and similar herds of
great mammals roamed freely over the plains from the foot-hills of the

Himalaya Mountains to the borders of the ancient Trinil River, while similar
apes inhabited the forests. At this time the orang may have entered the
forests of Borneo, which are at present its home; it is the only ape thus far
found in the uppermost Pliocene of India. We may, therefore, anticipate the
discovery, at any time, in India of a race similar to Pithecanthropus.
The geologic age of the Trinil race is, therefore, to be considered as late
Pliocene or early Pleistocene.

Fig. 34. The top (1) and side
(1a) views of the skull-
top of Pithecanthropus
erectus. After Dubois.
One-third life size.

This great discovery of Dubois aroused wide-spread and heated discussion,
in which the foremost anatomists and palæontologists of the world took
part. Some regarded the skull as that of a giant gibbon, others as prehuman,
and still others as a transition form. We may form our own opinion,
however, from a fuller understanding of the specimens themselves, always
keeping in mind that it is a question whether the femur and the skull belong
to the same individual or even to the same race. First, we are struck by the
marked resemblance which the top of the skull bears, both on viewing it
from the side and from above, to that of the Neanderthal race. This fully
justifies the opinion of the anatomist Schwalbe(21) that the skull of
Pithecanthropus is nearer to that of Neanderthal man than to that of even
the highest of the anthropoid apes. As measured by Schwalbe, the index of
the height of the cranium (Kalottenhöheindex) may be compared with
others as follows:

Lowest human race 52 per cent.
Neanderthal man 40.4 per cent.
Pithecanthropus, or Trinil race 34.2 per cent.

Fig. 35. Head of chimpanzee
—front and side views—
exhibiting a head of

somewhat similar shape
to that of
Pithecanthropus, with
prominent eyebrow
ridges, but much smaller
brain capacity.
Photograph from the
New York Zoological
Park.

This accords with the estimate of the brain capacity[P] of 855 c.cm.
(Dubois) as compared with 1,230 c.cm., the smallest brain capacity found in
a member of the Neanderthal race. Second, as seen from above, we are
struck with the great length of the calvarium as compared with its breadth,
the cephalic index or ratio of breadth to length being 73.4 per cent
(Schwalbe) as compared with 73.9 per cent in the Neanderthal type skull;
this dolichocephaly accords with the fact that all of the earliest human races
thus far found are long-headed, although according to Schwalbe(22) all
anthropoids are broad-headed. This is a very important distinction. The
third feature is the prominence and width of the bony eyebrow ridges above
the orbits, which are almost as great as in the chimpanzee and greatly
exceed those of the Neanderthal race and of the modern Australian. The
profile of the Trinil head restored by McGregor (Fig. 38) exhibits this
prominent bony ridge and the low, retreating forehead. In the latest opinion
of Schwalbe(23) Pithecanthropus may be regarded as one of the direct
ancestors of Neanderthal man and even of the highest human species, Homo
sapiens. He also considers that when the lower jaw of the Trinil race
becomes known, it will be found to be very similar to that of the Heidelberg
man, the final conclusion being that Pithecanthropus and the nearly allied
Heidelberg man may be regarded as the common ancestors of the
Neanderthal race, on the one hand, and of the higher races on the other.
There are, however, reasons for excluding Pithecanthropus from the direct
ancestral line of the higher races of man.

Fig. 36. Profile of the skull of
Pithecanthropus, as
restored by J. H.
McGregor. 1914. One-
third life size.

This prehuman stage has, none the less, a very great significance in the
developmental history of man. In our opinion it is the very stage which,
theoretically, we should anticipate finding in the dawn of the Pleistocene. A
similar view is taken by Büchner,(24) who presents in an admirable diagram
(Fig. 117) the result of his comparison of twelve different characters in the
skulls of Pithecanthropus, the Neanderthals, the Australians, and the
Tasmanians. One of the main objects of Büchner's research was a very
detailed comparison of the Trinil skull with that of the lowly and now
extinct Tasmanian race, which, we observe in the diagram, occupies a
position only a little higher than that of the Spy-Neanderthal race.

Fig. 37. Three views of the
skull of Pithecanthropus,
as restored by J. H.
McGregor, showing the
original (shaded) and
restored (black lines)
portions. About one-
quarter life size.

If the femur belongs with the skull, the Trinils were a tall race, reaching a
height of 5 feet 7 inches as compared with 5 feet 3 inches in the
Neanderthals. The thigh-bone (Fig. 122) has a very slight curvature as
compared with that of any of the apes or lemurs, and in this respect is more
human; it is remarkably elongate (455 mm.), surpassing that of the
Neanderthals; the shin-bone (tibia) was probably correspondingly short.

The two upper grinding-teeth preserved are much more human than those of
the gibbon, but they do not resemble those of man closely enough to
positively confirm the prehuman theory. Dubois observes:(25) "That the
tooth belongs to some hominid form needs no further demonstration. Aside
from its size and the greater roughness of the grinding surface, it differs
from the human grinder in that the less developed cusp of Pithecanthropus
is the posterior cusp next the cheek, while in man it is generally the
posterior cusp next the tongue. The simplification of the crown and the root
of the Trinil grinder is quite as extensive as it usually is in man."

Fig. 38. Profile view of the
head of Pithecanthropus,
the Java ape-man, after a
model by J. H.

McGregor. One-quarter
life size.

Various efforts have been made to supplement the scattered and scanty
materials collected by Dubois. The Selenka expedition of 1907-8 brought
back a human left lower molar as the only result of an express search for
more Pithecanthropus remains. Dubois is also said to possess the fragment
of a primitive-looking lower jaw from the range known as the Kendeng
Hills, at the southern base of which lies the village of Trinil.
It remains for us to consider the stage of psychic evolution attained by the
Trinil race, and this naturally turns upon the erect attitude and what little is
known of the size and proportions of the brain.

Fig. 39. Front view of the
head of Pithecanthropus,
the Java ape-man, after a
model by J. H.
McGregor. One-quarter
life size.

The assumption of the erect attitude is not merely a question of learning to
balance the body on the hinder extremities.(26) It involves changes in the
interior of the body, the loss of the tail, the freeing of the arms, and the
establishment of the diaphragm as the chief muscle of respiration. The
thigh-bone of Pithecanthropus is so much like that of man as to support the
theory that the erect position may have been assumed by the ancestors of
man as early as Oligocene times. It would appear that Pithecanthropus had
free use of the arms and it is possible that the control of the thumb and
fingers had been cultivated, perhaps in the fashioning of primitive
implements of wood and stone. The discovery of the use of wood as an
implement and weapon probably preceded that of the use of stone.
Elliot Smith describes this stage of development as follows:(27) "... The
emancipation of the hands from progression threw the whole responsibility
upon the legs, which became more efficient for their purpose as supports
once they lost their prehensile powers and became elongated and
specialized for rapid progression. Thus the erect attitude became
stereotyped and fixed and the limbs specialized, and these upright simians
emerged from their ancestral forests in societies, armed with sticks and
stones and with the rudiments of all the powers that eventually enabled
them to conquer the world. The greater exposure to danger which these
more adventurous spirits encountered once they emerged in the open, and
the constant struggles these first semihuman creatures must have had in
encounters with definite enemies, no less than with the forces of Nature,
provided the factors which rapidly weeded out those unfitted for the new
conditions and by natural selection made real men of the survivors."

Fig. 40. Side view of brain of
high type, illustrating the
contrast between the
motor, sensory, and
ideational centres in a
high type of modern
brain; and Elliot Smith's
characterization of the
probable centres in the
Pithecanthropus type of
brain. Modified after M.
Allen Starr.

The undeveloped forehead of Pithecanthropus and the diminutive frontal
area of the brain indicate that the Trinil race had a limited faculty of
profiting by experience and accumulated tradition, for in this prefrontal area
of the brain are located the powers of attention and of control of the
activities of all other parts of the brain. In the brain of the ape the sensory
areas of touch, taste, and vision predominate, and these are well developed
in Pithecanthropus. The central area of the brain, which is the storehouse of

the memories of actions and of the feelings associated with them, is also
well developed, but the prefrontal area, which is the seat of the faculty of
profiting by experience or of recalling the consequences of previous
responses to experience, is developed to a very limited degree.(28) Thus,
while the brain of Pithecanthropus is estimated at 855-900 c.cm., as
compared with 600 c.cm. of the largest simian brain, and 930 c.cm. of the
smallest brain recorded in the lower members of the human race, it
indicates a very low stage of intelligence.

Fig. 41. Diagram showing the
side (lower figure) and
top (upper figure) views
of the outline of the
Pithecanthropus brain as
compared with that of

the chimpanzee and the
higher human types of
the Piltdown,
Neanderthal, and modern
races.

Absence of Palæoliths and Presence of Eoliths in Western Europe
Returning to First Interglacial conditions in Europe, we observe that the
river courses flowed through the same valleys as at present but that in early
glacial times the channels were far broader and were elevated from 100 to
150 feet above the present relatively narrow river levels. The vast floods of
the succeeding glaciation filled these valleys, but some of the 'high terraces'
were already formed. It is extremely important to note that Pre-Chellean
flints or true palæoliths have never been found in the sands or gravels of
these 'high terraces.'
Eoliths found on this 'high-terrace' level at St. Prest belong to the Prestien
culture of Rutot,(29) who regards this station as of Upper Pliocene age.
These, like other supposed Eolithic flints, are very rough, but, rude as they
are, they generally exhibit one part shaped as if to be grasped by the hand,
while the other part is edged or pointed as for cutting. It is generally
admitted that these flints are mostly of accidental shapes, and there has been
little or no proof of their being fashioned by human hands. On this point
Boule(30) observes: "As to the eoliths, I have combated the theory not only
because it seems to me improbable but because a long geological
experience has shown me that it is often impossible to distinguish stones
split, cut, or retouched by purely physical agents from certain products of
rudimentary workmanship."
On the other side, it is interesting at this point to quote the words of
MacCurdy:(31) "My opinion, based on personal experience, ... is that the
existence of a primitive industry, antedating what is commonly accepted as
Palæolithic, has been established. This industry occurs as far back as the
Upper Miocene and continues on through the Upper Tertiary into and
including the Lower Quaternary. The distinguishing characters of the
industry remain but little changed throughout the entire period, the

subdivision of the period into epochs being based on stratigraphy [geologic
stages] and not on industrial characters. The requirements in the way of
tools being very simple and the supply of material in the way of natural
flakes and fragments of flint being very plentiful, the inventive powers of
the population remained dormant for ages. Hammer and knife were the
original tools. Both were picked up ready-made. A sharp-edged, natural
flake served for one, and a nodule or fragment served for the other. When
the edge of the flake became dulled by use, the piece was either thrown
away or the edge was retouched for further use. If hammer or flake did not
admit of being held comfortably in the hand, the troublesome points or
edges were removed or reduced by chipping. The stock of tools increased
slowly with the slowly growing needs. As these multiplied and the natural
supply of raw material diminished, the latter was supplemented by the
manufacture of artificial flakes. When the lesson of associating definite
forms of implements with definite uses was learned, special types arose,
notably the amygdaloid implement and the poniard. Then came the
transition from the Eolithic to the Palæolithic, a stage that has been so
thoroughly investigated by Rutot."
It is not improbable that the Trinil race was in a stage of Eolithic culture; it
is highly probable that the prehuman races of this very remote geologic age
used more than one weapon of wood and stone.

The Great Second Glaciation
(Fig. 25, p. 65)
In early Pleistocene times a general elevation of southern Europe united the
islands of the Mediterranean with Europe on the north and with Africa on
the south, forming broad land connections between the two continents
which afforded both northward and southward migration routes. At this
time certain characteristically African mammals, such as the straight-tusked
elephant and the lion, were probably finding their way north; Sicily at this
time gained its large fauna of elephants and hippopotami, and the island of
Malta was connected with the mainland, as well as the easterly islands of
Cyprus and Crete. It appears probable that the connection between the
Italian mainland and Malta was renewed more than once.

The approach of the second glaciation is indicated along the southeast coast
of Great Britain by the subsidence of the land and the rise of the sea,
accompanied by a fresh arctic current, bringing with it an invasion of arctic
mollusks which were deposited in a layer of marine beds directly over those
which contain the rich warm fauna and flora of the 'Forest Bed of Cromer,'
Norfolk.(32) It also appears probable that a cold northern current swept
along the western coasts of Europe, and Geikie estimates that a lowering of
temperature occurred of not less than 20° Fahr., a change as great as is now
experienced in passing from the south of England to the North Cape.

Pl . III. Pithecanthropus
erectus, the ape-man of
Java. Antiquity estimated

at 500,000 years. After
the restoration modelled
by J. H. McGregor. It is
not improbable that the
prehuman races of this
remote geologic age used
more than one natural
weapon of wood or
stone, the latter of the
accidental 'Eolithic' type.

The second glaciation was by far the greatest both in Europe and America.
In the region of the Pyrenees, which at the very much later period of the
Third Interglacial Stage became a favorite country with Palæolithic man,
there were glaciers of vast extent. This is realized by comparison with
present conditions. The largest of the present glaciers of the Pyrenees is
only 2 miles in length and terminates at a height of 7,200 feet above the sea.
During the greatest glaciation the snow appears to have descended 4,265
feet below its present level. From the Pyrenees through the Gallego valley
into Spain there flowed a glacier 38 miles in length, while to the north the
glacier in the valley of the Garonne flowed for a distance of 45 miles to a
point near Montréjeau. Even in its lower reaches this glacier was over half a
mile in thickness. To the east was a glacier 38 miles in length, filling the
valley of the Ariège and covering the sites of such great Palæolithic caverns
as that of Niaux; it is probable that at this time the formation of this cavern
began. That these glaciers were all prior to the period of the Lower
Palæolithic Acheulean culture is proven by the fact that Acheulean
implements are frequently met with lying on the surface of the moraines
laid down by these ancient ice-floes.(33)
To the north was the vast Scandinavian ice-field, which swept over Great
Britain and beyond the valleys of the Rhine, Elbe, and Vistula, reaching
nearly to the Carpathians. Even the lesser mountain chains were capped
with glaciers, including the Atlas Mountains in northern Africa.

In North America from the great centre west of Hudson Bay the ice-cap
extended its drift southward into Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska,
beyond the limits of earlier and subsequent glaciations.
The materials of the chief 'high terraces' of the great river-valleys of
western Europe were deposited at this time.

Life of the Warm Second Interglacial Stage
The long warm period which followed the great glaciation is remarkable in
presenting the first proofs of the presence of man in western Europe. It is
the period of the Heidelberg race of man (Homo heidelbergensis), known
only from a single jaw discovered by Schoetensack in the Mauer sands near
Heidelberg, in 1907. No other proofs of the existence of man have been
found in any of the deposits which took place during this vast interval of
geologic time, unless we accept the theory of Penck and of Geikie that the
Pre-Chellean and Chellean quarries of the River Somme belong in the
Second Interglacial Stage.
The vast duration of this interglacial time is evidenced both in Europe and
America by the deep cutting and wearing away of the 'drifts' brought down
by the second glaciation. Penck believes that this 'long warm stage'
represents a greater period of time than the entire interval between the third
glaciation and the present time. The climate immediately following the
retreat of the glaciers was cool and moist in the glaciated regions, but this
was followed by such a prolonged period of heat and dryness that the
glaciers on the Alps withdrew to a point far above their present limits.
In one of the old 'high terraces' of the River Inn, in the north Tyrol, is a
deposit containing the prevailing forest flora of the period, from which
Penck concludes that the climate of Innsbruck was 2° C. higher than it is at
the present time. Corresponding with this the snow-line stood 1,000 feet
above its present level, and the Alps, save for the higher peaks, were almost
completely denuded of ice and snow. A characteristic plant is the Pontic
alpine rose (Rhododendron ponticum), which flourishes now in an annual
temperature of 57°-65° Fahr.,(34) indicating that the climate of Innsbruck
was as genial as that of the Italian slopes of the Alps to-day. This

rhododendron is now found in the Caucasus. Other southern species of the
time were a buckthorn, related to a species now living in the Canary
Islands, and the box. There were also more hardy plants, including the fir
(Pinus sylvestris), spruce, maple, willow, yew, elm, beech, and mountain-
ash. The forests of the same period in Provence were, for the most part,
similar to those now found in that region; out of thirty-seven species
twenty-nine still occur in this part of southern France. On the whole, the
aspect of southern France at this time was surprisingly modern. The forests
included oaks, elms, poplars, willows, lindens, maples, sumachs, dogwood,
and hawthorn. Among the climbing plants were the vine and the clematis.
Here also were some forms which have since retreated to the south, such as
species of the sweet bay and laurel which are now confined to the Canary
Islands. The great humidity of the time is indicated by the presence of
certain species of conifers which require considerable moisture. As in First
Interglacial times, the presence of the fig indicates mild winters.
It is difficult to imagine forests of this modern character, which farther
northward included a number of still more temperate and hardy species, as
the setting of the great African and Asiatic life that roamed all over western
Europe at this time. It was the presence of hippopotami, elephants, and
rhinoceroses which gave to Lyell, Evans, and other early observers the
impression that a tropical temperature and vegetation were characteristic of
this long life period. These animals were formerly regarded as proofs of an
almost tropical climate, but the more trustworthy evidence of the forests,
strengthened by that of the presence of very numerous hardy types of forest
and meadow animals, has set aside all the early theories as to extremely
warm temperatures during Second Interglacial times.
The remains of what is still conveniently known as the 'faune chaude,' or
warm fauna, are chiefly found in the sands and gravels of the ancient beds
of the Neckar, Garonne, and Thames, and other rivers of the north and
south, also in Essex, England. The most surprising fact is that the mammal
life of western Europe remained entirely unchanged by the vast second
glaciation just described; the few extinctions which occurred as well as a
number of new arrivals may be attributed to new geographical connections
with Africa on the south and to the steady progress of migration from the
far east.

Fig. 42. The hippopotamus
(H. major) and the
southern mammoth (E.
meridionalis
trogontherii), a pair of
mammals which enjoyed
a similar range over
western Europe from the
close of the Pliocene
until the middle of Third
Interglacial times, when
their remains are found
associated with flints of
Pre-Chellean, Chellean,
and early Acheulean age.

One-sixtieth life size.
Drawn by Erwin S.
Christman.

There were four very important and distinctive new arrivals from the
African-Asiatic world, namely, the straight-tusked or ancient elephant (E.
antiquus), the broad-nosed rhinoceros (D. merckii), the African lion (Felis
leo), and the African hyæna (H. striata), which bespeak close geographical
connections with northern Africa. Of these the ancient elephant and the
broad-nosed rhinoceros were close companions; they enjoyed the same
regions and the same temperatures, their remains are very frequently found
together, and they survived to the very end of the great life stage of western
Europe, which closed with the advent of the fourth glaciation. They are in
contrast to the other pair of great mammals which was already present in
Europe in Pliocene and First Interglacial times, namely, the southern
mammoth, at this stage known as Elephas trogontherii, which had a
preference for the companionship of the hippopotamus (H. major); it would
seem that these animals were less hardy because both disappeared from
Europe a little earlier than the ancient elephant and Merck's rhinoceros.

Fig. 43. The other and hardier
pair of large African-
Asiatic mammals,
namely, the broad-nosed
or Merck's rhinoceros (R.
merckii) and the straight-
tusked or ancient
elephant (E. antiquus),
which entered western
Europe in Second
Interglacial times and
survived until Third
Interglacial times, when
their remains are found
intermingled with flints
of the Acheulean and
early Mousterian
cultures. These mammals
were doubtless hunted by

men of the early
Neanderthal races. One-
sixtieth life size. Drawn
by Erwin S. Christman.

The African lion would appear to have been a competitor of the sabre-tooth
tiger, for the latter animal now becomes less abundant, although there is
reason to believe that it survived until the Third Interglacial Stage. With the
ancient Pliocene type of the sabre-tooth were also found the Etruscan
rhinoceros, the primitive bear of Auvergne (Ursus arvernensis), and the
giant beaver (Trogontherium cuvieri).

Larger Image

Fig. 44. Map showing the
wide geographic
distribution (horizontal
lines) of Merck's
rhinoceros and the
straight-tusked elephant,
which first entered
western Europe during
the First Interglacial
Stage and survived until
nearly the close of the
Third Interglacial Stage.
The hippopotamus,
which entered Europe in
Pliocene times, survived
until after the middle of
the Third Interglacial
Stage and had a more
limited distribution.
After Boule.

The northern forests of the time were frequented by the broad-faced moose,
the giant deer, and the roe-deer, as well as by noble specimens of the stag
(Cervus elaphus). In the open forests and meadows the wild cattle (Bos
primigenius) began to be more numerous and the bison (Bison priscus) also
occurred. Among the meadow or forest frequenting forms were horses of
larger size, such as the horses of Mosbach and of Süssenborn. In this
assemblage of northern and southern types it is noteworthy that the
Eurasiatic forest and meadow types of mammals greatly predominate in
numbers and in variety over the African-Asiatic types; this, together with
the flora, is an indication that the climate was of a temperate character; it is
probable, therefore, that all the mammals were well protected with a hairy
covering and adapted to a temperate climate. The fact that the fauna as a
whole remained practically unchanged throughout the second glaciation is a
proof not that it migrated to the south and then returned but that the non-
glaciated regions of western Europe were temperate rather than cold.

The Heidelberg Race
Heidelberg man.
Ancient elephant.
Etruscan rhinoceros.
Mosbach horse.
Wild boar.
Broad-faced moose.
Red deer, or stag.
Roe-deer.
Primitive bison (wisent).
Primitive ox (Aurochs, urus).
Auvergne bear.
Deninger's bear.
Lion.
Wildcat.
Wolf.
Beaver.
To us by far the most interesting mammalian life is that found south of the
mouth of the Neckar along the ancient stream Elsenz, where were deposited
the lower 'sands of Mauer,' containing the lower jaw of the Heidelberg man
and the remains of many animals of the period. The enumeration of this
entire fauna is very important, as indicating the temperate climatic
conditions which surrounded the first true species of man which has thus far
been discovered in Europe. The discoverer, Schoetensack,(35) referred these
mammals and the Heidelberg man to the First Interglacial Stage, and a
similar opinion has recently been expressed by Geikie. The presence of the
Etruscan rhinoceros would appear to point to such great antiquity, but the
evidence afforded by this primitive animal is overborne by that of three
mammals which are highly characteristic of Second Interglacial times; these
are the straight-tusked or ancient elephant (E. antiquus), the lion, and the
Mosbach horse. Excepting only the Etruscan rhinoceros, all these species
frequenting the ancient stream Elsenz and deposited with the 'sands of
Mauer' occurred also in the forests and meadows of the region now known
as Baden, where the fossil mammal deposits of Mosbach near the Neckar

are found. A similar mammalian life of a somewhat more recent time occurs
in the river gravels of Süssenborn, near Weimar. The horses of Mauer, of
Mosbach, and of Süssenborn[Q] were of much larger size and of more
specialized character than Steno's horse of First Interglacial times.

Larger Image

Fig. 45. Section of the valley
of the stream Elsenz,
near Heidelberg,
showing the location of
the Mauer sand-pit in
which the Heidelberg
jaw was discovered. An
ancient layer of river-
drift. Drawn by C. A.
Reeds.

Thus the Heidelbergs, the first human race recorded in western Europe,
appear in northern Germany early in Second Interglacial times, in the midst
of a most imposing mammalian fauna of northern aspect and containing
many forest-living species, such as bear, deer, and moose; in the meadows
and forests browsed the giant, straight-tusked elephant (E. antiquus), which
from the simple structure of its grinding-teeth is regarded as similar in habit

to the African elephant now inhabiting the forests of central Africa; the
presence of this animal indicates a relatively moist climate and well-
forested country. The Etruscan rhinoceros differed from the larger Merck's
form in the possession of relatively short-crowned grinding-teeth, adapted
to browsing habits and a forested country; on the head were borne two
horns; it was a long-limbed, rapidly moving type; the herds of bison and of
wild cattle (urus) which roamed over the plains were now subject to the
attack of the lion.

Fig. 46. Sand-pit at Mauer,
near Heidelberg, discovery
site of the jaw of Heidelberg
man. After Schoetensack.

a-b. 'Newer loess,' either of
Third Interglacial or of
Postglacial times.
b-c. 'Older loess' (sandy loess)
of the close of Second
Interglacial times.
c-f. The 'sands of Mauer.'
d-e. An intermediate layer of
clay.
The white cross (X) indicates
the spot at the base of the
'sands of Mauer' at which
the jaw of Heidelberg
was discovered.

Fig. 47. The Heidelberg jaw, type of Homo heidelbergensis.
About two-thirds life size. After Schoetensack.
The discovery in 1907 of a human lower jaw in the base of the 'Mauer
sands' is one of the most important in the whole history of anthropology.
The find was made at a depth of 79 feet (24.10 m.) from the upper surface

of a high bluff (Fig. 46), in ancient river sands which had long been known
to yield the very old mammalian fauna described above. For years the
workmen had been instructed to keep a sharp lookout for human remains.
The jaw had evidently drifted down with the river sands and had become
separated from the skull, but it remained in perfect preservation. The
author's description may first be quoted.(36) The mandible shows a
combination of features never before found in any fossil or recent man. The
protrusion of the lower jaw just below the front teeth which gives shape to
the human chin is entirely lacking. Had the teeth been absent it would have
been impossible to diagnose it as human. From a fragment of the symphysis
of the jaw it might well have been classed as some gorilla-like anthropoid,
while the ascending ramus resembles that of some large variety of gibbon.
The absolute certainty that these remains are human is based on the form of
the teeth—molars, premolars, canines, and incisors are all essentially
human and, although somewhat primitive in form, show no trace of being
intermediate between man and the anthropoid apes but rather of being
derived from some older common ancestor. The teeth, however, are
somewhat small for the jaw; the size of the border would allow for the
development of much larger teeth; we can only conclude that no great strain
was put on the teeth, and therefore the powerful development of the bones
of the jaw was not designed for their benefit. The conclusion is that the jaw,
regarded as unquestionably human from the nature of the teeth, ranks not
far from the point of separation between man and the anthropoid apes. In
comparison with the jaws of Neanderthal races, as found at Spy, in
Belgium, and at Krapina, in Croatia, we may consider the Heidelberg jaw as
pre-Neanderthaloid; it is, in fact, a generalized type.

Fig. 48. Side view of
Heidelberg jaw (centre)
compared with that of an
orang (right) and of an
Eskimo (left); the latter
an individual of
exceptionally large
proportions.

In a conservative spirit, Schoetensack named the type represented by this
jaw Homo heidelbergensis. Other authors have regarded it as of distinct
generic rank; thus it has been termed Palæoanthropus heidelbergensis by
Bonarelli.(37) The jaw itself is extremely massive; the canine teeth, unlike
those of the anthropoid apes and of the Piltdown race, do not project
beyond the line of the other teeth and were therefore not used as weapons of
offense and defense as in the anthropoids, in which these teeth are
prominently developed as tusks. As noted by Schoetensack, the teeth are not
very massive in proportion to the jaw itself, which is the most powerful
human jaw known, even exceeding the largest Eskimo jaw and indicating a
skull of very massive and primitive character. It resembles that of the ape in
the recession of the chin, hence it has been termed amentalis. There is a
large development of the coronoid process of the mandible for the
attachment of the temporal muscle. This jaw may well have been used as a

tool in the last stages of the preparation of hides, as is the practice of the
Eskimo races. We observe that the powerful bony branches of the jaw, when
regarded from above, close in upon the space left for the tongue; in fact, the
bone closes in to such an extent as to interfere seriously with the free use of
the tongue in articulate speech.

Fig. 49. The jaws shown in
Fig. 48 seen from above.
A massive Eskimo jaw
(above), the Heidelberg
jaw (centre), the jaw of
an orang (below).

It would seem that in the jaw, and probably in all other characters of the
skull, as they become known, the Heidelberg race will be found to be a
Neanderthal in the making, that is, a primitive, more powerful, and more
ape-like ancestral form. In the matter of the retreating chin, the true
Neanderthals of Spy, Malarnaud, Krapina, and La Chapelle rank exactly
half-way between the most inferior races of recent man and the anthropoid
apes.

Fig. 50. Restoration of the
Man of Heidelberg by
the Belgian artist
Mascré, under the
direction of Professor A.
Rutot, of Brussels. This
restoration presents an
advance upon the
Pithecanthropus type. In
our opinion the
Heidelberg man was

more human and less
ape-like in appearance.

Not only among the Eskimos, but generally throughout the savage races of
Australia and of other countries, the jaws are used as tools; among the
Australians the teeth are very much worn down but are in admirable
preservation. When seen from above, we observe that the 'Heidelberg'
grinding-teeth form a perfect arch, or horseshoe-shaped arrangement,
whereas in all the apes the two lines of grinding-teeth are almost parallel
with each other. Thus, while there may be wide differences of opinion as
regards the relationships of the Heidelberg man, all agree that
Schoetensack's discovery affords us one of the great missing links or types
in the chain of human development.
The typical mammalian life of Second Interglacial times as found at
Mosbach and Süssenborn belongs perhaps to a somewhat more recent stage
of Second Interglacial times than that of the 'Mauer sands,' for in these
localities the Etruscan rhinoceros is wanting and the more specialized
broad-nosed rhinoceros is abundant; this animal differs from the Etruscan
form in the possession of relatively long-crowned grinding-teeth, which
were better adapted to grazing habits. On the head were borne two horns. A
variety of the southern mammoth (E. trogontherii) is so highly
characteristic of Second Interglacial times that Pohlig refers to this life
period as the E. trogontherii stage. From the structure of its grinding-teeth it
is regarded as similar in habit to the Asiatic elephant, which now inhabits
the forests of India, but it has the peculiar concave forehead distinctive of
the mammoth and quite unlike the convex forehead of the Indian elephant.
The bears of this period belong to the primitive species U. deningeri and U.
arvernensis, for so far there is no certain record of the presence of the true
brown bear of Europe (U. arctos). The sabre-tooth tiger of this time is
preserved in the caverns of the Pyrenees near Montmaurin, associated with
the remains of the striped hyæna (H. striata), a species which was widely
distributed over western Europe in early Pleistocene times. This species was
contemporary with, and later replaced by, the spotted hyæna (H. crocuta),
from which the very hardy cave-hyæna (H. crocuta spelæa) of the 'Reindeer
Period,' descended. We observe that the 'polycladine' deer of Upper

Pliocene and First Glacial times has disappeared from western Europe; nor
are there any traces of the axis deer. The hippopotamus is still represented
by the giant species, H. major.

Early Northern Migrations of the Reindeer
The animals that we have described belong in the warmer and more
temperate regions of Europe. In the regions near the glaciers the reindeer
was already to be found; in fact, this characteristically northern animal is
recorded in the gravels of Süssenborn, near Weimar.
There is evidence of a succession of climatic changes in the region of
Heidelberg. The Heidelberg jaw with its temperate mammalian fauna
occurred at the very base of the Mauer bluff, but higher up the bluff (Fig.
46) on a corresponding level are found the remains of mammals which
indicate a marked lowering of temperature and which are referred by some
authorities to the period of chilling climate that characterized northern
Europe toward the close of Second Interglacial times. The reindeer also
occurs in the 'high terrace' gravels of the River Murr, near Steinheim; thus,
at Mauer, at Süssenborn, and at Steinheim, we find proof that the reindeer
had begun to spread over the colder regions of Europe, and there is some
ground for belief that it found its way even as far south as the Pyrenees.
The evidence of the first cold, arid period which for the time greatly
affected the climate of western Europe is also found in the layer of so-called
'ancient loess' which lies in the bluff above the 'sands of Mauer.' This loess
covers the warm mammalian deposits of the 'sands of Mosbach' as well as
the 'high terraces' of many of the ancient river-valleys. Both in Europe and
America the climatic sequence of the Second Interglacial Stage from moist
to dry appears to have been the same.
Thus, after the recession of the ice-fields of the second glaciation, the
climate was at first cold and moist; then followed a long warm stage,
favorable to the spread of forests; this was finally succeeded by a period of
aridity in which the most ancient 'loess' deposits occurred. In Russia, also,
the third glaciation was preceded by an arid and steppe-like climate with
high winds favorable to the transportation of 'loess.'

No palæoliths or other proofs of human occupation have been found in this
cold, dry period, for there is no evidence in any part of Europe of camping
stations in this 'ancient loess' such as we find in the 'loess' which was
deposited during the similar arid period toward the close of Third
Interglacial and again during Postglacial times. Nor have we any record of
the mammalian life in this 'ancient loess' of Europe.

The Third Glaciation[R]
This arid period in northern Europe and in North America was followed by
the moist, cool climate of the third glaciation. It is estimated by Penck that
the advance of these new ice-fields began 120,000 years ago and that the
period of advance and retreat of the glaciers was not less than 20,000 years.
In the Alps the snow-line descended 1,250 metres below the present level;
consequently this glaciation was more severe than the first but somewhat
less severe than the second. In northern Europe the Scandinavian ice-field
did not cover so wide an area as during the second glaciation, although
Britain and Scandinavia were again deeply buried by ice; the glacial cap
and glaciers flowed in a westerly and southwesterly direction across
Denmark and the southern portion of the basin of the Baltic into Holland
and northern Germany. In the Alps the third glaciation sent vast ice-floes
along the valley of the Rhine, into eastern France, and into the valley of the
Po, where this glaciation was even more extensive than the second. But the
greatest glacier of this time was that of the Isar, a southern tributary of the
Danube, which rises in the Bavarian Alps.(38)
During the Third Glacial Stage certain of the 'middle terraces' along the
Rhine and other rivers flowing from the Alps were formed. In Britain,(39)
whereas during the second glaciation the ice-fields extended as far south as
the Thames, during the third glaciation they did not extend beyond the
midlands; yet an arctic climate prevailed over southern England, with
tundra conditions and temperature, as indicated by the plant deposits at
Hoxne(40) in Suffolk. Even before the third glaciation began in Europe a
great ice-cap had formed over Labrador, on the eastern coast of North
America, and the ice-sheets flowing to the south and southwest extended as
far as Illinois, depositing the great Illinoian 'drifts.'

Larger Image

Fig. 51. The ice-fields and
glaciers of the Third
Glacial Stage are seen to
be much less extensive
than those of the Second
Glacial Stage, shown in
Fig. 25, p. 65. The
continental depression
and invasion of the sea is
also believed to have
been less extensive. At
this stage there are broad
areas free from ice
between the
Scandinavian, the

Alpine, and the Pyrenean
ice-caps. Drawn by C. A.
Reeds, after James
Geikie. (Compare Fig.
13.)

Along the borders of these great ice-fields in both countries a cold and
moist climate prevailed, for a prime condition of glaciation is the heavy
precipitation of snow. In northern Europe, between the great Alpine and
Scandinavian ice-fields of the third glaciation a cold climate undoubtedly
prevailed; in the region of the Neckar River, near Cannstatt, is found a
deposit known as 'mammoth loam,' which Koken believed to be
contemporaneous with the period of the third glaciation, although the
evidence is certainly not convincing.(41) Here are found fossil remains of
the Scandinavian reindeer, also of two very important new arrivals in
Europe from the tundra regions of the far northeast, animals which had
wandered along the southern borders of the Scandinavian ice-sheet from the
tundras of northern Russia and Siberia. This is the first appearance in
western Europe of the woolly mammoth (E. primigenius) and the woolly
rhinoceros (D. antiquitatis). In this 'mammoth loam' there also occur two
species of horse, the giant deer (Megaceros), the stag, the wisent, and the
Aurochs. If the woolly mammoth and the woolly rhinoceros actually
entered eastern Germany at this time, they certainly retreated to the north
with the approach of the warm temperate climate of the Third Interglacial
Stage, because no trace of these animals has been found again in Europe
until the advent of the fourth glaciation.

(1) Gaudry, 1890.1.
(2) Smith, G. E., 1912.1, p. 582.
(3) Op. cit.
(4) Munro, 1893.1.

(5) Osborn, 1910.1, pp. 306, 307.
(6) Geikie, J., 1894.1, pp. 329-336; 1914.1, p. 227.
(7) Dawkins, 1883.1, pp. 576-579.
(8) Geikie, J., 1914.1, p. 248.
(9) Reid, C., 1908.1.
(10) Desnoyers, 1863.1.
(11) Haug, 1911.1, p. 1807.
(12) Geikie, J., 1894.1, p. 682; 1914.1, p. 250.
(13) Dubois, 1894.1.
(14) Fischer, 1913.1.
(15) Schwalbe, 1899.1; 1914.1.
(16) Büchner, 1914.1.
(17) Volz, 1907.1.
(18) Elbert, 1908.1.
(19) Selenka, 1911.1.
(20) Pilgrim, 1913.1.
(21) Schwalbe, 1899.1, pp. 227, 228.
(22) Op. cit., p. 223.
(23) Schwalbe, 1914.1, pp. 601-606.
(24) Büchner, 1914.1, p. 129.
(25) Dubois, 1894.1, p. 14.
(26) Keith, 1912.1.
(27) Smith, G. E., 1912.1, p. 595.

(28) Op. cit.
(29) Rutot, 1907.1.
(30) Boule, 1913.1, pp. 266, 267.
(31) MacCurdy, 1905.1, pp. 468, 469.
(32) Geikie, J., 1914.1, p. 251.
(33) Op. cit., p. 255.
(34) Op. cit., p. 238.
(35) Schoetensack, 1908.1.
(36) Op. cit., pp. 25-43.
(37) Bonarelli, 1909.1.
(38) Penck, 1909.1.
(39) Geikie, J., 1914.1, p. 258.
(40) Op. cit., pp. 257-262.
(41) Schmidt, 1912.1, p. 181.

CHAPTER II
ARRIVAL OF THE PRE-CHELLEAN
FLINT WORKERS DURING THE
THIRD INTERGLACIAL—
GEOGRAPHY, CLIMATE, AND THE
RIVER DRIFTS—PRE-CHELLEAN
FLINT INDUSTRY—THE
PILTDOWN RACE—MAMMALIAN
LIFE—CHELLEAN AND
ACHEULEAN INDUSTRIES—THE
USE OF FIRE—THE SECOND
PERIOD OF ARID CLIMATE—THE
NEANDERTHAL RACE OF
KRAPINA, CROATIA
The geologic epoch of the arrival of the Pre-Chellean flint workers in
western Europe is by far the most important and interesting one before the
prehistorian. Upon it depends the question of the duration of the Old Stone
Age, the date of appearance of the Piltdown and of the Neanderthal races,
and the whole sequence of climatic and geographic changes surrounding the
early history of man. After weighing all the evidence very carefully, the
balance of opinion seems to sustain the view that this epoch should be
placed after the close of the third glaciation and before the advent of the
fourth, that is, during the Third Interglacial Stage.
Penck estimated that the third warm interglacial stage[S] opened about
100,000 years ago and lasted between 50,000 and 60,000 years. According
to the theory that we have adopted in this work, the Third Interglacial and
Fourth Glacial embraced the entire period of Lower Palæolithic time, a
period of from 70,000 to 100,000 years, much longer than that of Upper
Palæolithic time, which is estimated at 16,000 to 25,000 years.

Geologic Antiquity of the Beginning of the Stone Age

Attention should first be called to the fact that, preceding the epoch we have
now entered, the glacial and interglacial forces operating over the great
peninsula of western Europe had left their impress chiefly on the glaciated
areas and only to a minor degree on the free, non-glaciated areas. Until
toward the close of Third Interglacial times no traces of northern much less
of arctic forests and animals are discovered anywhere, except along the
borders of the ice-fields. It would appear as if the animal and plant life of
Europe were, in the main, but slightly affected by the first three glaciations.
We cannot entertain for a moment the belief that in glacial times all the
warm flora and fauna migrated southward and then returned, because there
is not a shred of evidence for this theory. It is far more in accord with the
known facts to believe that all the southern and eastern forms of life had
become very hardy, for we know how readily animals now living in the
warm earth belts are acclimatized to northern conditions.

Larger Image

Fig. 52. Human types and
culture stages of the last

third of the Glacial
Epoch. Theoretic
estimates of the geologic
and time divisions and
introduction of human
races during the Third
Interglacial, Fourth
Glacial, and Postglacial
Stages (see Fig. 14, p.
41). Prepared by the
author with the aid of C.
A. Reeds.

If, on the other hand, we depend solely on the testimony of the life
conditions, we might conclude that the Pre-Chellean flint workers reached
western Europe either in Second Interglacial times, or during the third
glaciation, or again during Third Interglacial times. Let us consider this
evidence of the fossil mammals more closely.

Larger Image

Fig. 53. Distribution of the
principal Pre-Chellean
and Chellean industrial
stations in western
Europe.

In favor of the theory that the Pre-Chellean culture is as ancient as Second
Interglacial times, we should consider the fact that in several localities
palæoliths of Pre-Chellean if not of Chellean type have been recorded in
association with the remains of a number of the more primitive mammals
which we have described above as characteristic of Second Interglacial
times. For example, at Torralba, Province of Soria, Spain, there has been
discovered(1) an old typical Chellean camp site, containing abundant
remains of the broad-nosed rhinoceros and of the southern mammoth,
mingled with the remains of other mammals of very ancient type, identified

as the Etruscan rhinoceros and as Steno's horse. Again, along the River
Somme, near Abbeville, in the gisement du Champ de Mars,(2) it is said that
Pre-Chellean and Chellean implements have been found in association with
the Etruscan rhinoceros, Steno's horse, and very numerous specimens of the
sabre-tooth tiger and of the striped hyæna. Moreover, in Piltdown, Sussex,
Pre-Chellean flints and the Piltdown skull are said to have occurred in a
layer containing a rhinoceros which may be identified with the Etruscan. If
these very ancient species of animals are rightly recognized and determined,
and if they are truly found as reported in close association in the same
layers with Pre-Chellean and Chellean flints, the evidence may be
considered as quite strong that the beginning of Chellean culture dates from
Second Interglacial times; unless, indeed, it should prove that these
primitive species of mammals survived into Third Interglacial times in
certain favored districts. We should also consider the possibility that these
more ancient animals, the sabre-tooth tiger, Steno's horse, the Etruscan
rhinoceros, and the giant beaver, did not really belong in the same layer
with these old palæoliths but were accidentally washed into this layer from
other more ancient deposits. As a rule, it is the most recent animals which
establish a prehistoric date, because we know that a palæolith cannot be
older than the most recent mammal with which it occurs.

Larger Image

Fig. 54. Western Europe
during the extension of
the ice-fields and
glaciers (dots) of the
Third Glacial Stage—a
period of continental
depression believed to
have been less extensive
than that of the Second
Glacial Stage (see Fig.
25, p. 65). The line from
Scandinavia to northern
Africa corresponds to the
section shown in Fig. 13,
p. 37. Drawn by C. A.
Reeds, after Geikie and
Penck. (Compare Fig.
13.)

Fig. 55. Excavation at
Chelles-sur-Marne, the
Palæolithic station where
Chellean flint
implements were first
discovered. We observe
the very close, regular,
and unbroken succession
of the geological layers
containing the Chellean,
Acheulean, and
Mousterian flints.

The record of the three early glaciations is not fully written in the animal
and plant life, but it appears to be found in the river channels. Both in
England and France these channels attest flooded conditions during the

earlier glaciations, in which large quantities of gravels and sands were
transported, and it is of these materials that the 'high terraces' were built up.
It is chiefly the geologic evidence which establishes the Pre-Chellean date.
Geologic and climatic lines of evidence in France indicate that the Pre-
Chellean culture is first witnessed during the beginning of Third Interglacial
times. This is the opinion of Boule, Haug, Obermaier, Breuil, Schmidt, and
many other geologists and archæologists. That the first Palæolithic flint
workers found their way into western Europe during the early part of Third
Interglacial times is consistent with our observations on the sequence of
climate, on the formation of the 'low river terraces,' where palæoliths of the
earliest type occur, as well as with the general succession of mammalian life
throughout the climatic changes of this interglacial period. It would appear,
in explanation of the facts cited above regarding the fossil mammals, that
when the Pre-Chellean flint workers established their camps along the
valley of the River Somme in northern France a very genial climate
prevailed in this region, favorable even, as we shall see, to the survival of
some of the Pliocene types of mammals, such as the sabre-tooth tiger and
the Etruscan rhinoceros.
During the early part of the Third Interglacial Stage the climate, so far as we
can judge by the unchanged aspect of the animal life, remained of the same
warm temperate character. Two only of the surviving Pliocene forms,
namely, the sabre-tooth tigers and the Etruscan rhinoceroses, became rare or
extinct. From evidence afforded in Kent's Hole, Devonshire, Dawkins is led
to believe that the sabre-tooth tiger survived in Britain until Postglacial
times. All the rest of the animal world, both the African-Asiatic and the
Eurasiatic mammals, continued to flourish throughout western Europe.
Not until the latter part of Acheulean times do we discover proofs of a
decided change of climate; in the approach of arid conditions similar to
those of the steppes of western Asia there was a renewal of the great dust-
storms and depositions of 'loess,' such as had previously occurred toward
the close of Second Interglacial times; this was followed by the still colder
climate of the fourth glaciation, which corresponds with the closing period
of Lower Palæolithic culture.

The evolution of the Pre-Chellean into the Chellean and finally into the
Lower Acheulean palæoliths certainly occupied a very long period of time
if we assign it merely the 50,000 or 60,000 years allotted to the Third
Interglacial; but even this allotment seems far too long when we observe the
relatively limited depth of the river deposits in which these flint cultures
succeed each other. For we cannot fail to be impressed by the regular and
very close and unbroken succession of the geologic layers containing the
Chellean and Acheulean artifacts. (See Fig. 55.)
None the less it follows that a long lapse of time must be allowed for each
culture period, and for the advance in technique.(3) It is this wide
distribution that has enabled the de Mortillets (father and son), Capitan,
Rivière, Reboux, Daleau, Peyrony, Obermaier, Commont, Schmidt, and
others to establish in various parts of Europe the main stages of the
industrial evolution of the Old Stone Age, or Lower Palæolithic.

Subdivisions of the Lower Palæolithic Cultures(4)[T]
Mousterian. Late industry of the Neanderthal races. Extensive
use of the 'flake.'
Late Mousterian. La Quina scrapers, small 'coups de
poing,' and bone anvils, closing with the Abri
Audit culture.
Middle Mousterian. Culmination of the Mousterian
'point' finely flaked and chipped on one side, the
best examples approaching the Solutrean
perfection of technique.
Early Mousterian. Heart-shaped 'coups de poing' and
Mousterian flake 'points' and flake scrapers.
Acheulean. Early industry of the Neanderthal races. Extensive
use of the nodular core.
Late Acheulean. Miniature 'lance points' of La
Micoque type, triangular 'coups de poing,' and

flint flakes of Levallois type.
Middle Acheulean. Pointed oval 'coups de poing,'
much lighter than the Chellean types, and small
implements similar to the Chellean but much
improved in workmanship.
Early Acheulean. Broad oval 'coups de poing' much
more symmetrical than the Chellean but still
rather heavy. Small types.
Chellean.
Late Chellean. Long pointed 'coups de poing,' in most
cases flaked on both sides, with little of the crust
of the nodule adhering and the edges still
unsymmetrical. First appearance of the oval
'coups de poing.'
Early Chellean. First appearance of 'coups de poing' of
almond shape. Small implements, including
scrapers, planes, and borers. All implements
unsymmetrical and with uneven edges.
Pre-Chellean. Probable industry of the Piltdown and of the
(Pre-Neanderthaloid) Heidelberg races. Use of chance and
accidental forms. Forms partly accidental; retouch limited
to the few strokes necessary to give a point or edge to the
tool, or to allow a firm grasp (protective retouch).
Prototypes of 'coup de poing' formed of flint nodules with
crust only partially removed.
If we suppose that the Pre-Chellean flint workers arrived in Europe not
earlier than Third Interglacial times, we can explain all the gradations in the
evolution of their implements in connection with the changes of climate and
of animal life which the geologic and fossil deposits reveal, especially in
the valleys of the Somme and of the Thames.
If, on the other hand, the Pre-Chellean is dated in Second Interglacial times,
[U] it carries this culture back another hundred thousand years and involves

our prehistory in great difficulties. First, there is no proof whatever that the
Pre-Chellean and Chellean flint workers lived during the period of the
formation of the 'high river terraces' of the third glaciation, for no
Palæolithic flints have ever been found buried in the sands or gravels of the
'high terraces.' The occurrence of archaic flints on the 'high terraces' of the
Somme and of the Seine is in superficial gravel beds which were deposited
long after these 'terraces' had been cut by river action; this is best seen in
the Somme, where archaic flints occur alike in the gravels deposited upon
the 'low,' 'middle,' and 'high terraces.' Second, there is no proof that the Pre-
Chellean and Chellean flint workers passed through the cold climatic period
of the third glaciation; nowhere in Europe have any records been found of
their camps or stations in association with the cold fauna or flora of Third
Glacial times. Third, the geographical evidence is equally at variance with
the theory that the Pre-Chellean flint workers entered Europe during the
Second Interglacial Stage, for we know positively that in many of the great
river-valleys of Europe, especially those surrounding the Alps, the rivers
were at much higher levels than at present and that they were transporting
the materials out of which the 'high terraces' were being formed or cutting
these 'terraces' down by erosion.
In other words, the geography of Europe in First and Second Interglacial
times was very different from what it is at present; most of the river-valleys
were broader and less deep; some of them had been eroded to a point below
their present levels and had begun to silt up in alluvial deposits. In Third
Interglacial times the river geography of Europe was substantially as it is to-
day, although the coast-lines were still very different.
When Pre-Chellean man appeared, we shall see that the river-valleys of the
Somme and Marne, in northern France, as well as of the Thames, in
southeastern England, were closely similar to what they are at present in
respect to their water-levels; in other words, the inland geography of Europe
in the north in Chellean times and in central and southern France in the
immediately succeeding Acheulean times was very much like it is at
present. The superficial characters of the valleys were different; the streams
in Chellean times flowed through gravels and sands, partaking of a glacial
aspect; one or more of the 'river terraces' composed of sands and gravels
were still sharply defined, for the soft covering of 'loam' and alluvial soil
from the surrounding uplands and hills had not yet washed down to soften

the outlines of the 'terraces.' Neither were the 'terraces' covered with the
newer deposits of 'loess.'

Larger Image

Fig. 56. Restoration of the
geography of western
Europe during the Third
Interglacial Stage,
showing the ancient land
areas (dots) and the
ancient river channels
now submerged by the
sea. Modified after

Avebury's Prehistoric
Times by permission of
Henry Holt & Co. The
six white crosses (X)
indicate the location of
the principal Pre-
Chellean stations of
Piltdown on the Ouse,
and Gray's Thurrock on
the Thames, in England;
of Abbeville, on the
north bank, and St.
Acheul, on the south
bank of the Somme, and
Chelles on the Marne, in
France; and of Helin in
Belgium. It will be
observed that the English
stations are separated
from the others only by
the ancient broad valley
corresponding with the
present English Channel.

Secular Changes of Climate in Lower Palæolithic Times
We find evidences of four climatic and life phases during the long period of
Lower Palæolithic evolution, as follows:
4. Cold Moist Climate.—Advent of the fourth glaciation. Arrival
of the 'full Mousterian' culture and of the Neanderthal race in
Belgium and France. Repair of men to the warmer shelters,
grottos, and entrances to the caverns. Final disappearance of the
hardy Merck's rhinoceros and the straight-tusked elephant.
Arrival of the tundra fauna, the reindeer, the woolly mammoth,
and the woolly rhinoceros. Refrigeration of western Europe as

far south as northern Spain and Italy. Wide distribution of cold
alpine, tundra, and steppe mammals all over Germany and
France, and into northern Spain. Cold tundra flora in the Thames
valley, and at Hoxne, in Suffolk. Migration of the tundra
mammals, the reindeer, mammoth, and rhinoceros all over
southern Britain, Belgium, France, Germany, and Austria.
3. Arid Climate in Western Europe.—Period of the close of the
Acheulean culture; some of the flint workers seeking the shelter
of cliffs and approaching the entrances to the grottos during the
cold season of the year. A dry steppe climate, prevailing
westerly winds, and deposits of 'loess' all over northern France
and Germany. Appearance of the first Neanderthaloid men in
Krapina, Croatia. Cool forest flora in the region of La Celle-
sous-Moret near Paris, followed by depositions of 'loess' and
increasingly cool and arid climate. Early Mousterian industry.
Disappearance first of the more sensitive pair of Asiatic
mammals, the hippopotamus and the southern mammoth (E.
trogontherii); persistence of the more hardy, straight-tusked
elephant (E. antiquus) and the broad-nosed rhinoceros (D.
merckii).
2. Continued Warm Temperate Period.—Time of the Chellean
culture found at Chelles, St. Acheul, Gray's Thurrock, Ilford,
Essex, and southward in Torralba, Spain. Abundance of
hippopotami, rhinoceroses, southern mammoths, and straight-
tusked elephants in northern Germany at Taubach, Weimar,
Ehringsdorf, and Achenheim. Rare appearance of sabre-tooth
tigers. Temperate forest and alpine flora of Dürnten and
Utznach, Switzerland. Early Acheulean culture widely
distributed over all of western Europe.
1. Early Warm Temperate Period.—The warm climate of the
Pre-Chellean culture period, as seen in the valleys of the
Somme, of the Thames, and of the Seine near Paris, favorable to
the southern mammoth and the hippopotamus. Apparent survival
of the sabre-tooth tiger and the Etruscan rhinoceros in favored
regions. A warm temperate forest flora in La Cellesous-Moret

near Paris and in Lorraine. Arrival of the Pre-Chellean flint
workers and of the Piltdown race in southern England.
It is believed that the climate of Third Interglacial times when it reached its
maximum warmth was again somewhat milder than the present climate in
the same region. In the Alps the glaciers and the snow-line retreated once
more to their present levels. The period opened with humid continental
conditions. The areas left bare by the ice were gradually reforested. A
picture of the climate in this warm period is presented in the region near
Paris in the so-called tuf de La Celle-sous-Moret (Seine-et-Marne). This
tufa, which is a hot-springs deposit, overlies river-gravels of Pleistocene
age.(7) The lower levels of the tufa contain the sycamore-maple (Acer
pseudoplatanus), willows, and the Austrian pine, indicating a temperate
climate. Higher up in the same deposits we find evidences of increasingly
mild temperatures in the presence of the box (Buxus) and not infrequently
of the fig-tree; the Canary laurel (Laurus nobilis) is somewhat rarer and
both it and the fig indicate that the winters were mild, because these plants
have the peculiarity of flowering during the winter season; we infer,
therefore, that the climate was somewhat milder and more damp than it is in
the same region at the present time. The mollusks also indicate greater
equability of climate. These deposits are believed to correspond with the
period of Chellean and early Acheulean industry.
The plants in the highest levels of the same tufa, however, indicate the
advent of a colder climate and also connect this with the Acheulean culture
stage through the presence of Acheulean flints. The deposit of tufa is
covered by a sheet of 'loess' corresponding with the return of an arid period
in late Acheulean times, in the very heart of northern France. Thus we have
a record in the region near the present city of Paris of three climatic phases,
which are also more or less completely indicated in deposits to the north
along the River Somme and in the valley of the ancient Thames.
In western France we again interpret the fossil flora of Lorraine as
belonging to the cooler closing period of Third Interglacial times and to the
advent of the fourth glaciation, for here the most northern varieties of the
larch (Larix) and of the mountain-pine (Pinus lambertiana) predominate.

The clearest view of the contemporary alpine forests is found near Zürich in
the lignitic deposits of Dürnten and of Utznach, which are so characteristic
of the temperate period of the Third Interglacial Stage that Geikie has
proposed to call this stage the Dürntenian.(8) It was, we recall, at Dürnten
that Morlot(9) found the first proofs of a warm or temperate interglacial
flora, between the deposits of a retreating glacier and those of an advancing
glacier; for Dürnten is well within the region which was covered by the vast
ice-fields both of the third and fourth glaciations. The forests which
flourished there in Third Interglacial times were similar to those now found
in the same region, consisting of the spruce, fir, mountain-pine, larch,
beech, yew, and sycamore, with undergrowth of hazel. With this hardy flora
are associated the remains of the straight-tusked elephant, of Merck's
rhinoceros, of wild cattle, and of the stag; another evidence for our opinion
that all these Asiatic mammals had become habituated to the cool temperate
climate of the north.

Life on the River Somme from Pre-Chellean to Neolithic Times
The borders of the River Somme at St. Acheul give us a vista of the whole
story of the succession of geologic events; the great changes of climate, the
procession of animal life, the sequence of human races and cultures. Here
Commont(10) has found the key to the history of this entire country and
enabled us to parallel events here with those occurring far away in Taubach,
on the borders of the Thuringian forest, and at Krems in Lower Austria, as
studied by Obermaier. This is because the 'older' and 'newer' loess periods,
the succession of climates and of mammals, and the development of human
cultures were all not local but continental events. The purely local events
are found in the kinds of gravels and soils which washed down over the
terraces.
It is very important first to clearly picture in our minds and understand the
geography of the Somme at the time of the arrival of the Pre-Chellean flint
workers. It appears certain that all three of the old river terraces composed
of limestone had been cut long before and that the river had already reached
the bottom level of the underlying chalk rock.(11) The higher terrace, then as
now, was 100 feet above the Somme, the middle terrace about 70 feet, and

the lowest terrace extended from a height of about 40 feet down underneath
the present river level (see Fig. 59).

Larger Image

Fig. 57. Three ancient river
terraces (I, II, III), on the
west bank of the
Connecticut River in
Vermont, believed to be
of Postglacial age. The
terraces are respectively
140, 60, and 20 feet
above the river, and thus
show a profile similar to
that of the terraces on the
Somme in Pre-Chellean
times previous to the
accumulation of the
deposits bearing
Palæolithic flints.
Photograph by H. H. H.
Langill.

Since the most primitive Pre-Chellean flints occur in the coarse gravels
which lie on the floors of these terraces immediately above the chalk, they
prove that the entire excavation of the valley had been completed when the
Pre-Chellean workers arrived there. Commont believes that this was the
actual topography of the valley during the Third Interglacial Stage. The
occurrence of Chellean flints in the white sands overlying the coarse gravels
of the middle and upper terraces does not indicate that the flint workers
were encamped here while these terraces were being cut out by the River
Somme but rather that they sought these convenient bluffs for their quarries
during the time that these sands and gravels were washing down from the
sides of the valleys and from the plateaus above.

Fig. 58. Four typical forms of
the Chellean coup de
poing, or 'hand-stone,'
from the ancient quarries
of St. Acheul. About
one-half actual size.
a. Disc-shaped—upper left.
b. Oval—upper right.
c. Poniard-shaped—lower
left.
d. Almond-shaped—lower
right.
In the collection of the
American Museum of Natural
History.

Larger Image

Fig. 59. Section of the ancient
river terraces on the
south bank of the River

Somme at St. Acheul-
Amiens, showing
stations on the low,
middle, and high terraces
where flints were worked
from the very beginning
to the very end of the
Old Stone Age. After
Commont, 1908, 1909—
modified and redrawn.
The section shown runs
northwest and southeast,
in a gentle slope nearly
1½ miles in length, from
the summit, 70 meters
(about 230 feet) above
sea-level, down to the
river 47.3 meters (155
feet) below. Since
Rigollot's excavations in
1851 sixteen flint-
working stations have
been discovered here,
chiefly through building
operations, most of them
being on the middle and
high terraces. This gives
some idea of the vast
extent of these ancient
encampments, which
cover the entire period of
the Old Stone Age—
perhaps 125,000 years.

Prehistory of St. Acheul

NEOLITHIC.
Campignian, recent earth and loam.
UPPER PALÆOLITHIC.
Solutrean.
Upper Aurignacian, loam.
Middle Aurignacian, 'newer loess' and gravel.
LOWER PALÆOLITHIC.
Late Mousterian, gravel and 'newer loess.'
Early Mousterian, base of 'newer loess' (l'ergeron).
Middle Acheulean, 'older loess' and drift.
Early Acheulean, gravels below 'older loess' (E. antiquus).
Late Chellean, fluviatile sands and mollusk fauna.
Early Chellean, first coups de poing; old 'white sands' (E. antiquus).
Pre-Chellean, prototypes of coup de poing; old 'lower gravels' (E.
antiquus).
The history of the climatic changes in the ancient valley of the Somme is
most clearly written in these successive deposits, 15 feet in thickness, above
the 'lower gravels' at St. Acheul. Along with the Pre-Chellean and Chellean
flints in the 'old gravels' and 'white sands' we find records of the moist
warm temperate climate which then prevailed in northern France and which
undoubtedly was most favorable to the hippopotami, rhinoceroses, and
elephants of those times. The river mollusks found with the late Chellean
flints are another indication of the temperate forest climate which continued
through early Acheulean times.
In the middle Acheulean are found the earliest deposits of 'older loess'
which indicate a climate still temperate but arid, belonging to the middle of
the Third Interglacial Stage. In Mousterian times we find heavy deposits of
gravels corresponding to the moist cold climate of the Fourth Glacial Stage,
followed in middle Aurignacian times by fresh layers of 'newer loess,'
indicating the return of a dry climate. Finally, the layers of loam which were
washed down over the sides of the valley, and in which the remains of
Solutrean and Aurignacian camps are found, indicate the renewal of moist
and probably forested conditions.

Thus, two dry loess periods are indicated in this valley, the first or 'older
loess' belonging to Third Interglacial times, and the second or 'newer loess'
to Postglacial times; and we clearly perceive that in the culture layers here
there is no evidence whatever of more than one glacial stage preceded by a
dry climatic period and deposits of loess. If the Pre-Chellean flint workers
had arrived in this river-valley as early as Second Interglacial times, we
should find proofs of three periods of arid climate and loess deposition and
of two glaciations.
Beginning with middle Acheulean times the flints are found in deposits of
gravels, loams, brick-earths, and 'older loess,' which all belong to a
succeeding geologic stage and are of more recent date than the lower
gravels and sands on the terraces which they overlap and conceal. Deposits
of this kind have also been drifted down from the highest levels toward the
bottom of the valley, and Commont distinguishes three different depositions
or layers of 'loess loam,' the lowest or oldest of which contain Acheulean
flints, while the middle loams contain Mousterian implements.
Even toward the close of the Third Interglacial Stage there were periods of
warmth, perhaps during the height of the hot summer season, when animals
of the warm fauna migrated from the south. Thus Commont has recently
discovered in the valley of the Somme a station of Mousterian flint workers,
whose industry is associated with remains of the three animals typical of the
warmer climatic phase; namely, the straight-tusked elephant, the broad-
nosed rhinoceros, and the hippopotamus. He has reaffirmed his belief that
the greater part of this chapter of human prehistory, both as to the surface
topography of the Somme valley and the evolution of the flint cultures from
Pre-Chellean to Mousterian times, occurred during the Third Interglacial
Stage.

The Early Warm Temperate Period of the Pre-Chellean Culture[V]
Pre-Chellean Fauna
Southern mammoth.
Etruscan rhinoceros.
Hippopotamus.

Primitive horse (Equus stenonis)?
Sabre-tooth tiger.
Broad-nosed rhinoceros.
Straight-tusked elephant.
Giant beaver (Trogontherium cuvieri).
Short-faced hyæna.
Typical Eurasiatic forest and meadow fauna, including deer, bison, and
wild cattle.
We have observed that from Torralba in the Province of Soria, Spain, to
Abbeville, near the mouth of the Somme, in the north of France, three types
of animals which entered Europe as early as Upper Pliocene times, namely,
the Etruscan rhinoceros, the horse of Steno, and the sabre-tooth tiger, are
said to occur in connection with early Chellean artifacts. The two former
species may possibly be confused with early forms of Merck's rhinoceros
and the true forest horses of Europe, but there can be no question as to the
identification of the sabre-tooth tiger, numbers of which were found by M.
d'Ault du Mesnil, at Abbeville, on the Somme, with early Chellean flints.
The mammalian life of the Somme at this time, as found in the gisement du
Champ de Mars near Abbeville, is very rich. Among the larger forms there
is certainly the great southern mammoth (E. meridionalis trogontherii), and
possibly also the straight-tusked elephant (E. antiquus). There are
unquestionably two species of rhinoceros, the smaller of which is
recognized by Boule as the Etruscan, and the larger as Merck's rhinoceros.
Steno's horse is said to occur here, and there are abundant remains of the
great hippopotamus (H. major); the sabre-tooth tigers were very numerous
as attested by the discovery of the lower jaws of thirty or more individuals.
The short-faced hyæna (H. brevirostris) is also found, and there are several
species of deer and wild cattle.
This remarkably rich collection of mammals is associated with flints of
primitive Chellean or, possibly, of Pre-Chellean type.(12) In Torralba, Spain,
the same very ancient animals occur, and it appears possible that this was
the prevailing mammalian life of Pre-Chellean times.
We may conclude, therefore, that there is considerable evidence, although
not as yet quite convincing, that the early Chellean flint workers arrived in

western Europe before the disappearance of the Etruscan rhinoceros and the
sabre-tooth tiger.

The Pre-Chellean Stations
(See Figs. 53 and 56.)
The dawn of the Palæolithic Age is indicated in various river-drift stations
by the appearance of crude flint weapons as well as tools or implements, in
addition to the supposed tools of Eolithic times. There is an unmistakable
effort to fashion the flint into a definite shape to serve a definite purpose:
there can no longer be any question of human handiwork. Thus there
gradually arise various types of flints, each of which undergoes its own
evolution into a more perfect form. Naturally, the workers at some stations
were more adept and inventive than at others. Nevertheless, the primitive
stages of invention and of technique were carried from station to station;
and thus for the first time we are enabled to establish the archæological age
of various stations in western Europe.
Only a few stations have been discovered where the Palæolithic men were
first fashioning their flints into prototypes of the Chellean and Acheulean
forms. With relation to the theory that these primitive flint workers may
have entered Europe by way of the northern coast of Africa, we observe that
these stations are confined to Spain, southern and northern France,
Belgium, and Great Britain. Neither Pre-Chellean nor Chellean stations of
unquestioned authenticity have been found in Germany or central Europe,
and, so far as present evidence goes, it would appear that the Pre-Chellean
culture did not enter Europe directly from the east, or even along the
northern coast of the Mediterranean, but rather along the northern coast of
Africa,[W] where Chellean culture is recorded in association with
mammalian remains belonging to the middle Pleistocene Epoch.
The southernmost stations of Chellean culture at present known in Europe
are those of Torralba and San Isidro, in central Spain. In the Department of
the Gironde is the Chellean station of Marignac, and it is not unlikely that
other stations will be discovered in the same region, because the Palæolithic
races strongly favored the valleys of the Dordogne and Garonne, but thus

far this is the only station known in southern France which represents this
period of the dawn of human culture.

Fig. 60. Very primitive
palæoliths from
Piltdown, Sussex,
consisting chiefly of
tools and points of
triangular and oval form,
fashioned out of flint
nodules split in two and
flaked on one side only,
with very coarse
marginal retouch. After
Dawson. Nos. 1 and 2
are nearly one-half actual

size; No. 3 nearly one-
quarter actual size.

The chief Pre-Chellean and Chellean stations were clustered along the
valleys of the Somme and Seine. Of those rare sites presenting a typical
Pre-Chellean culture, we may note the neighboring stations of St. Acheul
and Montières, both in the suburbs of Amiens on the Somme, and the
station of Helin, near Spiennes, in Belgium, explored by Rutot. A very
primitive and possibly Pre-Chellean culture was found on the site of the
Champ de Mars, at Abbeville. This culture also extended westward across
the broad plain which is now the Strait of Dover to the valley of the
Thames, on whose northern bank is the important station of Gray's
Thurrock, while farther to the south is the recently discovered site of
Piltdown, in the valley of the Ouse, Sussex.
The flint tools (Fig. 60) found in the layer immediately overlying the
Piltdown skull are excessively primitive and indicate that the Piltdown flint
workers had not attained the stage of craftsmanship described by Commont
as 'Pre-Chellean' at St. Acheul. "Among the flints," observes Dawson, "we
found several undoubted flint implements besides numerous 'eoliths.' The
workmanship of the former is similar to that of the Chellean or Pre-
Chellean stage; but in the majority of the Piltdown specimens the work
appears chiefly on one face of the implements."

Fig. 61. Primitive coups de
poing or 'hand-stones' of
Pre-Chellean type, found
in the lower gravels of
the middle and high
terraces at St. Acheul.
After Commont. One-
quarter actual size.

In the Helin quarry near Spiennes(13) occur rude prototypes of the
Palæolithic coup de poing associated with numerous flakes which do not
greatly differ from those in the lowest river-gravels of St. Acheul; there is a
close correspondence in the workmanship of the two sites, so that we may
regard the Mesvinian of Rutot[X] as a culture stage equivalent to the Pre-
Chellean. The river-gravels and sands of Helin which contain the
implements also resemble those of St. Acheul in their order of stratification.
Of special interest is the fact that a primitive flint from this Helin quarry,
known as the 'borer,' is strikingly similar to the 'Eolithic' borer found in the

same layer with the Piltdown skull in Sussex. By such indications as this,
when strengthened by further evidence of the same kind, we may be able
eventually to establish the date both of this Pre-Chellean or Mesvinian
culture and of the Piltdown race.
In considering the Pre-Chellean implements found at St. Acheul in 1906, we
note(14) that at this dawning stage of human invention the flint workers were
not deliberately designing the form of their implements but were dealing
rather with the chance shapes of shattered blocks of flint, seeking with a
few well-directed blows to produce a sharp point or a good cutting edge.
This was the beginning of the art of 'retouch,' which was done by means of
light blows with a second stone instead of the hammer-stone with which the
rough flakes were first knocked off. The retouch served a double purpose:
Its first and most important object was further to sharpen the point or edge
of the tool. This was done by chipping off small flakes from the upper side,
so as to give the flint a saw-like edge. Its second object was to protect the
hand of the user by blunting any sharp edges or points which might prevent
a firm grip of the implement. Often the smooth, rounded end of the flint
nodule, with crust intact, is carefully preserved for this purpose (Fig. 61). It
is this grasping of the primitive tool by the hand to which the terms 'coup de
poing,' 'Faustkeil,' and 'hand-axe' refer. 'Hand-stone' is, perhaps, the most
fitting designation in our language, but it appears best to retain the original
French designation, coup de poing.

Fig. 62. Primitive grattoir, or
planing tool (side and
edge views), of Pre-
Chellean type, found in
the lowest gravels of the
terraces at St. Acheul.
After Commont. One-
quarter actual size.

As the shape of the flint is purely due to chance, these Pre-Chellean
implements are interpreted by archæologists chiefly according to the
manner of retouch they have received. Already they are adapted to quite a
variety of purposes, both as weapons of the chase and for trimming and
shaping wooden implements and dressing hides. Thus Obermaier observes
that the concave, serrated edges characteristic of some of these implements
may well have been used for scraping the bark from branches and
smoothing them down into poles; that the rough coups de poing would be
well adapted to dividing flesh and dressing hides; that the sharp-pointed
fragments could be used as borers, and others that are clumsier and heavier
as planes (see Fig. 62).

The inventory of these ancestral Pre-Chellean forms of implements, used in
industrial and domestic life, in the chase, and in war, is as follows:
Grattoir, planing tool.
Racloir, scraper.
Perçoir, drill, borer.
Couteau, knife.
Percuteur, hammer-stone.
Pierre de jet? throwing stone?
Prototypes of coup de poing, hand-stone.
It includes five, possibly six, chief types. The true coup de poing, a
combination tool of Chellean times, is not yet developed in the Pre-
Chellean, and the other implements, although similar in form, are more
primitive. They are all in an experimental stage of development.
Indications that this primitive industry spread over southeastern England as
well, and that a succession of Pre-Chellean into Chellean culture may be
demonstrated, occur in connection with the recent discovery of the very
ancient Piltdown race.

The Piltdown Race(15)
The 'dawn man' is the most ancient human type in which the form of the
head and size of the brain are known. Its anatomy, as well as its geologic
antiquity, is therefore of profound interest and worthy of very full
consideration. We may first review the authors' narrative of this remarkable
discovery and the history of opinion concerning it.
Piltdown, Sussex, lies between two branches of the Ouse, about 35 miles
south and slightly to the east of Gray's Thurrock, the Chellean station of the
Thames. To the east is the plateau of Kent, in which many flints of Eolithic
type have been found.

Fig. 63. Discovery site of the
famous Piltdown skull
near Piltdown, Sussex.
After Dawson. A shallow
pit of dark-brown gravel,
at the bottom of which
were found the
fragments of the skull
and a single primitive
implement of worked
flint (see Fig. 65).

The gravel layer in which the Piltdown skull occurred is situated on a well-
defined plateau of large area and lies about 80 feet above the level of the
main stream of the Ouse. Remnants of the flint-bearing gravels and drifts
occur upon the plateau and the slopes down which they trail toward the

river and streams. This region was undoubtedly favorable to the flint
workers of Pre-Chellean and Chellean times. Kennard(16) believes that the
gravels are of the same age as those of the 'high terrace' of the lower valley
of the Thames; the height above the stream level is practically the same,
namely, about 80 feet. Another geologist, Clement Reid,(17) holds that the
plateau, composed of Wealden chalk, through which flowed the stream
bearing the Piltdown gravels, belongs to a period later than that of the
maximum depression of Great Britain; that the deposits are of Pre-Glacial
or early Pleistocene age; that they belong to the epoch after the cold period
of the first glaciation had passed but occur at the very base of the
succession of implement-bearing deposits in the southeast of England.
On the other hand, Dawson,(18) the discoverer of the Piltdown skull, in his
first description states: "From these facts it appears probable that the skull
and mandible cannot safely be described as being of earlier date than the
first half of the Pleistocene Epoch. The individual probably lived during the
warm cycle in that age."
The section of the gravel bed (Fig. 64) indicates that the remains of the
Piltdown man were washed down with other fossils by a shallow stream
charged with dark-brown gravel and unworked flints; some of these fossils
were of Pliocene times from strata of the upper parts of the stream. In this
channel were found the remains of a number of animals of the same age as
the Piltdown man, a few flints resembling eoliths, and one very primitive
worked flint of Pre-Chellean type, which may also have been washed down
from deposits of earlier age. These precious geologic and archæologic
records furnish the only means we have of determining the age of
Eoanthropus, the 'dawn man,' one of the most important and significant
discoveries in the whole history of anthropology. We are indebted to the
geologist Charles Dawson and the palæontologist Arthur Smith Woodward
for preserving these ancient records and describing them with great fulness
and accuracy as follows (pp. 132 to 139):
Several years ago Dawson discovered a small portion of an unusually thick
human parietal bone, taken from a gravel bed which was being dug for
road-making purposes on a farm close to Piltdown Common. In the autumn
of 1911 he picked up among the rain-washed spoil-heaps of the same
gravel-pit another and larger piece of bone belonging to the forehead region

of the same skull and including a portion of the ridge extending over the left
eyebrow. Immediately impressed with the importance of this discovery,
Dawson enlisted the co-operation of Smith Woodward, and a systematic
search was made in these spoil-heaps and gravels, beginning in the spring
of 1912; all the material was looked over and carefully sifted. It appears
that the whole or greater part of the human skull had been scattered by the
workmen, who had thrown away the pieces unnoticed. Thorough search in
the bottom of the gravel bed itself revealed the right half of a jaw, which
was found in a depression of undisturbed, finely stratified gravel, so far as
could be judged on the spot identical with that from which the first portions
of the cranium were exhumed. A yard from the jaw an important piece of
the occipital bone of the skull was found. Search was renewed in 1913 by
Father P. Teilhard, of Chardin, a French anthropologist, who fortunately
recovered a single canine tooth, and later a pair of nasal bones were found,
all of which fragments are of very great significance in the restoration of the
skull.

Fig. 64. Geologic section of
the Piltdown gravel bed,
showing in restored
outlines at the bottom of
layer 3 the position in
which the fragments of
the skull and jaw were
found. After Dawson.
1. Surface soil, with flints.
Thickness = 1 foot.
2. Pale-yellow sandy loam
with gravel and flints.
One Palæolithic worked

flint was found in the
middle of this bed.
Thickness = 2 feet, 6
inches.
3. Dark-brown gravel, with
flints, Pliocene rolled
fossils and Eoanthropus
skull, beaver tooth,
'eoliths' and one worked
flint. Thickness = 18
inches.
4. Pale-yellow clay and sand.
Thickness = 8 inches.
5. Undisturbed strata of
Wealden age.

The jaw appears to have been broken at the symphysis, and somewhat
abraded, perhaps after being caught in the gravel before it was completely
covered with sand. The fragments of the cranium show little or no signs of
stream rolling or other abrasion save an incision caused by the workman's
pick.
Analysis of the bones showed that the skull was in a condition of
fossilization, no gelatine or organic matter remained, and mingled with a
large proportion of the phosphates, originally present, was a considerable
proportion of iron.[Y]

Fig. 65. The single worked
flint of very primitive
type found in the same
layer (3) with the
fragments of the
Piltdown skull. After
Dawson. One-half actual
size.

The dark gravel bed (Fig. 64, layer 3), 18 inches in thickness, at the bottom
of which the skull and jaw were found, contained a number of fossils which
manifestly were not of the same age as the skull but were certainly from
Pliocene deposits up-stream; these included the water-vole and remains of
the mastodon, the southern mammoth, the hippopotamus, and a fragment of
the grinding-tooth of a primitive elephant, resembling Stegodon. In the
spoil-heaps, from which it is believed the skull of the Piltdown man was
taken, were found an upper tooth of a rhinoceros, either of the Etruscan or
of Merck's type; the tooth of a beaver and of a hippopotamus, and the leg-
bone of a deer, which may have been cut or incised by man. Much more
distinctive was a single flint (Fig. 65), worked only on one side, of the very
primitive or Pre-Chellean type. Implements of this stage, as the author
observes, are difficult to classify with certainty, owing to the rudeness of
their workmanship; they resemble certain rude implements occasionally

found on the surface of the chalk downs near Piltdown. The majority of the
flints found in the gravel were worked only on one face; their form is thick,
and the flaking is broad and sparing; the original surface of the flint is left
in a smooth, natural condition at the point grasped by the hand; the whole
implement thus has a very rude and massive form. These flints appear to be
of even more primitive form than those at St. Acheul described as Pre-
Chellean by Commont.

Fig. 66. Eoliths found in or
near the Piltdown gravel-
pit. After Dawson. One-
half actual size.
a. Borer (above).
b. Curved scraper (below).

The eoliths found in the gravel-pit and in the adjacent fields are of the
'borer' and 'hollow-scraper' forms; also, some are of the 'crescent-shaped-
scraper' type, mostly rolled and water-worn, as if transported from a
distance. This is a stream or river bed, not a Palæolithic quarry.
There can be little doubt, however, that the Piltdown man belonged to a
period when the flint industry was in a very primitive stage, antecedent to
the true Chellean. It has subsequently been observed that the gravel strata(3)
containing the Piltdown man were deeper than the higher stratum
containing flints nearer the Chellean type.
The discovery of this skull aroused as great or greater interest even than that
attending the discovery of the two other 'river-drift' races, the Trinil and the
Heidelberg. In this discussion the most distinguished anatomists of Great
Britain, Arthur Smith Woodward, Elliot Smith, and Arthur Keith, took part,
and finally the original pieces were re-examined by three anatomists of this
country.[Z]

Fig. 67. Skull of South
African Bushman
(upper) exhibiting the
contrast in the structure
of the jaw and forehead.
One-quarter life size.
Original restoration of
the Piltdown skull
(lower) made by Smith
Woodward in 1913. One-
quarter life size.

It is important to present in full the original opinions of Smith Woodward,
who devoted most careful study to the first reconstruction of the skull (Fig.
67), a model which was subsequently modified by the actual discovery of
one of the canine teeth. In his original description it is observed that the
pieces of the skull preserved are noteworthy for the great thickness of the
bone, it being 11 to 12 mm. as compared with 5 to 6 mm., the average
thickness in the modern European skull, or 6 to 8 mm., the thickness in the
skull of the Neanderthal races and in that of the modern Australian; the
cephalic index is estimated at 78 or 79, that is, the skull is believed to have
been proportionately low and wide, almost brachycephalic; there was
apparently no prominent or thickened ridge above the orbits, a feature
which immediately distinguishes this skull from that of the Neanderthal
races; the several bones of the brain-case are typically human and not in the
least like those of the anthropoid apes; the brain capacity was originally
estimated at 1070 c.cm., not equalling that of some of the lowest brain types
in the existing Australian races and decidedly below that of the Neanderthal
man of Spy and La Chapelle-aux-Saints; the nasal bones are typically
human but relatively small and broad, so that the nose was flattened,
resembling that in some of the existing Malay and African races.

Fig. 68. Three views of the
Piltdown skull as
reconstructed by J. H.
McGregor, 1915. This
restoration includes the
nasal bones and canine
tooth, which were not
known at the time of
Smith Woodward's
reconstruction of 1913.
One-quarter life size.

The jaw presents profoundly different characters; the whole of the bone
preserved closely resembles that of a young chimpanzee; thus the slope of
the bony chin as restored is between that of an adult ape and that of the
Heidelberg man, with an extremely receding chin; the ascending portion of
the jaw for the attachment of the temporal muscles is broad and thickened
anteriorly. Associated with the jaw were two elongated molar teeth, worn
down by use to such an extent that the individual could not have been less
than thirty years of age and was probably older. These teeth are relatively
longer and narrower than those in the modern human jaw. The canine tooth,
identified by Smith Woodward as belonging in the lower jaw, strengthened
by the evidence afforded by the jaw itself, proves that the face was elongate
or prognathous and that the canine teeth were very prominent like those of
the anthropoid apes; it affords definite proof that the front teeth of the
Piltdown man resembled those of the ape.
The author's conclusion is that while the skull is essentially human, it
approaches the lower races of man in certain characters of the brain, in the
attachment of the muscles of the neck, in the large extent of the temporal
muscles attached to the jaw, and in the probably large size of the face. The
mandible, on the other hand, appears precisely like that of the ape, with
nothing human except the molar teeth, and even these approach the
dentition of the apes in their elongate shape and well-developed fifth or
posterior intermediate cusp. This type of man, distinguished by the smooth
forehead and supraorbital borders and ape-like jaw, represents a new genus
called Eoanthropus, or 'dawn man,' while the species has been named
dawsoni in honor of the discoverer, Charles Dawson. This very ancient type
of man is defined by the ape-like chin and junction of the two halves of the
jaw, by a series of parallel grinding-teeth, with narrow lower molar teeth,
which do not diminish in size backward, and by the steep forehead and
slight development of the brow ridges. The jaw manifestly differs from that
of the Heidelberg man in its comparative slenderness and relative deepening
toward the symphysis.
The discussion of this very important paper by Smith Woodward and
Dawson centred about two points. First, whether the ape-like jaw really
belonged with the human skull rather than with that of some anthropoid ape
which happened to be drifted down in the same stratum; and second,
whether the extremely low original estimate of the brain capacity of 1070

c.cm., was not due to incorrect adjustment or reconstruction of the separate
pieces of the skull.
Keith,(19) the leader in the criticism of Woodward's reconstruction,
maintained that when the two sides of the skull were properly restored and
made approximately symmetrical, the brain capacity would be found to
equal 1500 c.cm.; the brain cast of the skull even as originally reconstructed
was found to be close to 1200 c.cm. This author agreed that skull, jaw, and
canine tooth belonged to Eoanthropus but that they could not well belong to
the same individual.
In defense of Woodward's reconstruction came the powerful support of
Elliot Smith.(20) He maintained that the evidence afforded by the re-
examination of the bones corroborated in the main Smith Woodward's
identification of the median plane of the skull; further, that the original
reconstruction of the prognathous face was confirmed by the discovery of
the canine tooth, also that there remained no doubt that the association of
the skull, the jaw, and the canine tooth was a correct one. The back portion
of the skull is decidedly asymmetrical, a condition found both in the lower
and higher races of man. A slight rearrangement and widening of the bones
along the median upper line of the skull raise the estimate of the brain
capacity to 1100 c.cm. as the probable maximum.
Elliot Smith continued that he considered the brain to be of a more
primitive kind than any human brain that he had ever seen, yet that it could
be called human and that it already showed a considerable development of
those parts which in modern man we associate with the power of speech;
thus, there was no doubt of the unique importance of this skull as
representing an entirely new type of "man in the making." As regards the
form of the lower jaw, it was observed that in the dawn of human existence
teeth suitable for weapons of offense and defense were retained long after
the brain had attained its human status. Thus the ape-like form of the chin
does not signify inability to speak, for speech must have come when the
jaws were still ape-like in character, and the bony changes that produced the
recession of the tooth line and the form of the chin were mainly due to
sexual selection, to the reduction in the size of the grinding-teeth, and, in a
minor degree, to the growth and specialization of the muscles of the jaw
and tongue employed in speech.

Fig. 69. The Piltdown skull
with the right half
removed to display the
extreme thickness of the
bones and the shape of
the brain. As restored by
J. H. McGregor. One-
quarter life size.

Fig. 70. Outline of the left
side of the Piltdown
brain, compared with
similar brain outlines of
a chimpanzee and of a
high type of modern
man. One-half life size.

At first sight the brain-case resembles that of the Neanderthal skull found at
Gibraltar, which is supposed to be that of a woman; it is relatively long,
narrow, and especially flat, but it is smaller and presents more primitive
features than those of any known human brain. Taking all these features
into consideration, we must regard this as being the most primitive and
most ape-like human brain so far recorded; one such as might reasonably be
associated with a jaw which presented such distinctive ape characters. The
brain, however, is far more human than the jaw, from which we may infer
that the evolution of the brain preceded that of the mandible, as well as the
development of beauty of the face and the human development of the
bodily characters in general.

The latest opinion of Smith Woodward[AA] is that the brain, while the most
primitive which has been discovered, had a bulk of nearly 1300 c.cm.,
equalling that of the smaller human brains of to-day and surpassing that of
the Australians, which rarely exceeds 1250 c.cm.
The original views of Smith Woodward and of Elliot Smith regarding the
relation of the Piltdown race to the Heidelberg and Neanderthal races are
also of very great interest and may be cited. First, the fact that the Piltdown
and Heidelberg races are almost of the same geologic age proves that at the
end of the Pliocene Epoch the representatives of man in western Europe had
already branched into widely divergent groups: the one (Heidelberg-
Neanderthal) characterized by a very low projecting forehead, with a
subhuman head of Neanderthaloid contour; the other with a flattened
forehead and with an ape-like jaw of the Piltdown contour. We should not
forget that in the Piltdown skull the absence of prominent ridges above the
eyes may possibly be due in some degree to the fact that the type skull may
belong to a female, as suggested by certain characters of the jaw; but among
all existing apes the skull in early life has the rounded shape of the Piltdown
skull, with a high forehead and scarcely any brow ridges. It seems
reasonable, therefore, to interpret the Piltdown skull as exhibiting a closer
resemblance to the skulls of our human ancestors in mid-Tertiary times than
any fossil skull hitherto found. If this view be accepted, we may suppose
that the Piltdown type became gradually modified into the Neanderthal type
by a series of changes similar to those passed through by the early apes as
they evolved into typical modern apes, with their low brows and prominent
ridges above the eyes. This would tend to support the theory that the
Neanderthal men were degenerate offshoots of the Tertiary race, of which
the Piltdown skull provides the first discovered evidence—a race with a
simple, flattened forehead and developed eye ridges.

Fig. 71. Restoration of the
head of Piltdown man, in
profile, based upon the
reconstruction shown in
Fig. 68, p. 137. After
model by J. H.
McGregor. One-quarter
life size.

Elliot Smith concluded that members of the Piltdown race might well have
been the direct ancestors of the existing species of man (Homo sapiens),
thus affording a direct link with undiscovered Tertiary apes; whereas, the
more recent fossil men of the Neanderthal type, with prominent brow ridges
resembling those of the existing apes, may have belonged to a degenerate
race which later became extinct. According to this view, Eoanthropus

represents a persistent and very slightly modified descendant of the type of
Tertiary man which was the common ancestor of a branch giving rise to
Homo sapiens, on the one hand, and of another branch giving rise to Homo
neanderthalensis, on the other.

Fig. 72. Restoration of the
head of Piltdown man,
full front, after model by
J. H. McGregor. One-
quarter life size.
(Compare Figs. 68 and
71.)

Another theory as to the relationships of Eoanthropus is that of Marcelin
Boule,(21) who is inclined to regard the jaws of the Piltdown and Heidelberg
races as of similar geologic age, but of dissimilar racial type. He continues:
"If the skull and jaw of Piltdown belong to the same individual, and if the
mandibles of the Heidelberg and Piltdown men are of the same type, this
discovery is most valuable in establishing the cranial structure of the
Heidelberg race. But it appears rather that we have here two types of man
which lived in Chellean times, both distinguished by very low cranial
characters. Of these the Piltdown race seems to us the probable ancestor in
the direct line of the recent species of man, Homo sapiens; while the
Heidelberg race may be considered, until we have further knowledge, as a
possible precursor of Homo neanderthalensis."
The latest opinion of the German anatomist Schwalbe(22) is that the proper
restoration of the region of the chin in the Piltdown man might make it
possible to refer this jaw to Homo sapiens, but this would merely prove that
Homo sapiens already existed in early Pleistocene times. The skull of the
Piltdown man, continues Schwalbe, corresponds with that of a well-
developed, good-sized skull of Homo sapiens; the only unusual feature is
the remarkable thickness of the bone.[AB]
Finally, our own opinion is that the Piltdown race was not related at all
either to the Heidelbergs or to the Neanderthals, nor was it directly ancestral
to any of the other races of the Old Stone Age, or to any of the existing
species of man. As shown in the human family tree in Chapter VI, the
Piltdown race represents a side branch of the human family which has left
no descendants at all.

Mammalian Life of Chellean and Acheulean Times(23)
Southern mammoth.
Hippopotamus.
Straight-tusked elephant.
Broad-nosed rhinoceros.
Spotted hyæna.
Lion.
Bison and wild ox.

Red deer.
Roe-deer.
Giant deer.
Brown bear.
Wolf.
Badger.
Marten.
Otter.
Beaver.
Hamster.
Water-vole.
The mammalian life which we find with the more advanced implements of
Chellean times apparently does not include the old Pliocene mammals, such
as the Etruscan rhinoceros and the sabre-tooth tiger. With this exception it is
so similar to that of Second Interglacial times that it may serve to prove
again that the third glaciation was a local episode and not a wide-spread
climatic influence. This life is everywhere the same, from the valley of the
Thames, as witnessed in the low river-gravels of Gray's Thurrock and
Ilford, to the region of the present Thuringian forests near Weimar, where it
is found in the deposits of Taubach, Ehringsdorf, and Achenheim, in which
the mammals belong to the more recent date of early Acheulean culture.
The life of this great region during Chellean and early Acheulean times was
a mingling of the characteristic forest and meadow fauna of western Europe
with the descendants of the African-Asiatic invaders of late Pliocene and
early Pleistocene times.

Pl. IV. The Piltdown man of
Sussex, England.
Antiquity variously
estimated at 100,000 to
300,000 years. The ape-
like structure of the jaw
does not prevent the
expression of a
considerable degree of
intelligence in the face.
After the restoration
modelled by J. H.
McGregor.

The forests were full of the red deer (Cervus elaphus), of the roe-deer (C.
capreolus), and of the giant deer (Megaceros), also of a primitive species of
wild boar (Sus scrofa ferus) and of wild horses probably representing more
than one variety. The brown bear (Ursus arctos) of Europe is now for the
first time identified; there was also a primitive species of wolf (Canis
suessi).
The small carnivora of the forests and of the streams are all considered as
closely related to existing species, namely, the badger (Meles taxus), the
marten (Mustela martes), the otter (Lutra vulgaris), and the water-vole
(Arvicola amphibius). The prehistoric beaver of Europe (Castor fiber) now
replaces the giant beaver (Trogontherium) of Second Interglacial times.
Among the large carnivora, the lion (Felis leo antiqua) and the spotted
hyæna (H. crocuta) have replaced the sabre-tooth tiger and the striped
hyæna of early Pleistocene times. Four great Asiatic mammals, including
two species of elephants, one species of rhinoceros, and the hippopotamus,
roamed through the forests and meadows of this warm temperate region.
The horse of this period is considered(24) to belong to the Forest or Nordic
type, from which our modern draught-horses have descended. The lions and
hyænas which abounded in Chellean and early Acheulean times are in part
ancestors of the cave types which appear in the succeeding Reindeer or
Cavern Period. In general, this mammalian life of Chellean and early
Acheulean times in Europe frequented the river shores and the neighboring
forests and meadows favored by a warm temperate climate with mild
winters, such as is indicated by the presence of the fig-tree and of the
Canary laurel in the region of north central France near Paris.
Undoubtedly the Chellean and Acheulean hunters had begun the chase both
of the bison, or wisent (B. priscus), and of the wild cattle, or aurochs.[AC]
This warm temperate mammalian life spread very widely over northern
Europe, as shown especially in the distribution (Fig. 44) of the
hippopotamus, the straight-tusked elephant, and Merck's rhinoceros. The
latter pair were constant companions and are seen to have a closely similar
and somewhat more northerly range than the hippopotamus, which is rather
the climatic companion of the southern mammoth and ranges farther south.
These animals in the gravel and sand layers along the river slopes and

'terraces' mingled their remains with the artifacts of the flint workers. For
example, in the gravel 'terraces' of the Somme we find the bones of the
straight-tusked elephant and Merck's rhinoceros in the same sand layers
with the Chellean flints. Thus the men of Chellean times may well have
pursued this giant elephant (E. antiquus) and rhinoceros (D. merckii) as
their tribal successors in the same valley hunted the woolly mammoth and
woolly rhinoceros.

Distribution of the Chellean Implements
All over the world may be found traces of a Stone Age, ancient or modern,
primitive implements of stone and flint analogous to those of the true
Chellean period of western Europe but not really identical when very
closely compared. These represent the early attempts of the human hand,
directed by the primitive mind, to fashion hard materials into forms adapted
to the purposes of war, the chase, and domestic life. The result is a series of
parallels in form which come under the evolution principle of convergence.
Thus, in all the continents except Australia—in Europe, in Asia, and even in
North and South America—primitive races have passed through an
industrial stage similar to the typical Chellean of western Europe. This we
should rather attribute to a similarity in human invention and in human
needs than to the theory that the Chellean industry originated at some
particular centre and travelled in a slowly enlarging wave over the entire
world.

Larger Image

Fig. 73. Distribution of the
principal Pre-Chellean
and Chellean industrial
stations in western
Europe.

In western Europe the Chellean culture certainly had a development all its
own, adapted to a race of bold hunters who lived in the open and whose
entire industry developed around the products of the chase. For them flint
and quartzite took the place of bronze, iron, or steel. This culture marked a
distinct and probably a very long epoch of time in which inventions and
multiplications of form were gradually spread from tribe to tribe, exactly as
modern inventions, usually originating at a single point and often in the
mind of one ingenious individual, gradually spread over the world.

Larger Image

Fig. 74. Section of the middle
and high terraces at St.
Acheul, from southwest
to northeast. After
Commont, 1908, 1909,
modified and redrawn.
The Pre-Chellean
workers first established
themselves here at the
time when the Somme
was visited by the
straight-tusked elephant
and other primitive
mammals of the warm
African-Asiatic fauna.
(Compare Fig. 59, p.
122.)

The clearest examples of the evolution of the seven or eight implements of
the Chellean culture from the five or six rudimentary types of the Pre-
Chellean have been found at St. Acheul by Commont. The abundance and
variety of flint at this great station on the Somme made it a centre of
industry from the dawn of the Old Stone Age to its very close. It was
probably a region favorable to all kinds of large and small game. The
researches of Commont show that with the exception of Castillo in northern
Spain no other station in all Europe was so continuously occupied. From
Pre-Chellean to Neolithic times the men of every culture stage except the
Magdalenian and Azilian-Tardenoisian found their way here, and thus the
site of St. Acheul presents an epitome of the entire prehistoric industry.
Even during the colder periods of climate this region continued to be visited
—possibly during the warm weather of the summer seasons. At Montières,
along the Somme, we find deposits of Mousterian culture which is
generally characteristic of the cold climatic period but is here associated
with a temperate fauna, including the hippopotamus, Merck's rhinoceros,
and the straight-tusked elephant. Great geographic and climatic changes
took place in the valley of the Somme during this long period of human
evolution. The Pre-Chellean workers first established their industry on the
middle and high 'terraces' at the time when the Somme was visited by the
straight-tusked elephant and other much more primitive mammals of the
warm Asiatic fauna. The early Acheulean camps on the same terraces were
pitched in the gravels below layers of 'loess' which betoken an entire
climatic change. The fourth glaciation passed by, and the Upper Palæolithic
flint workers again returned and left the débris of their industry in the layers
of loam which swept down the slopes of the valley from the surrounding
hills. This succession will be studied more in detail in connection with the
industry.

Larger Image

Fig. 75. Excavation on the
'high terrace' at St.
Acheul, known as the
ancienne carrière
Dupont and more
recently as the carrière
Bultel, showing eight
geologic layers from the
Upper Palæolithic
deposits of brick-earth at
the top(9) down to the
sub-Chellean yellow
gravels(2) overlying the
chalk terrace at the
bottom.

As contrasted with the four or more Pre-Chellean stations already known,
namely, St. Acheul, Montières, Helin, Gray's Thurrock, and possibly
Abbeville and Piltdown, there are at least sixteen stations in western Europe
which are characteristically Chellean. In addition to the sites named above,

all of which show deposits of typical Chellean implements above the Pre-
Chellean, we may note the important Chellean stations of San Isidro and
Torralba in central Spain; Tilloux and Marignac in southwestern France;
Créteil, Colombes, Bois Colombes, and Billancourt on the Seine, in the
immediate vicinity of Paris; Cergy on the Oise; the type station of Chelles
on the Marne; Abbeville on the northern bank of the Somme; and the
famous station of Kent's Hole, Devon, on the southwestern coast of
England. Thus far no typical Chellean station has been discovered in
Portugal, Italy, Germany, or Austria, nor, indeed, in any part of central
Europe. This leaves the original habitat of the tribes that brought the
Chellean culture to western Europe still a mystery; but, as already observed,
the location of the stations favors the theory of a migration through northern
Africa rather than through eastern Europe.

Larger Image

Fig. 76. Principal forms of
small, late Chellean
scraping, planing, and
boring tools of flint, after
Commont and
Obermaier. One-half
actual size. 1.
Combination tool—small
flake with a sharp point
(a), cutting edge (b), and
curved-in scraper (c). 2.
Cutting tool with
protective retouch for the

index finger on the upper
edge (a), and a sharp
cutting edge (b). 3.
Primitive knife. 4.
'Point.' 5. Combination
tool—small flake with
scraper edge (b), and two
curved-in scraper edges
(a and a1). 6. Borer. 7.
Pointed scraper. 8. Knife
with coarse boring point
at one end. 9. Thick
scraper or planing tool.
10. Curved scraper.

Compared with the Pre-Chellean flint workers the Chellean artisans
advanced both by the improvement of the older types of implements and by
the invention of new ones.(25) As observed by Obermaier, the flint worker is
still dependent on the chance shape of the shattered fragments of flint which
he has not yet learned to shape symmetrically. In the experimental search
after the most useful form of flint which could be grasped by the hand, the
very characteristic Chellean coup de poing was evolved out of its Pre-
Chellean prototype. This implement was made of an elongate nodule, either
of quartzite or, preferably, of flint, and flaked by the hammer on both sides
to a more or less almond shape; as a rule, the point and its adjacent edges
are sharpened; the other end being rounded and blunted. Like most, if not
all, of the Chellean implements, it was designed to be grasped by the bare
hand and not furnished with a wooden haft or handle. It is not impossible
that some of the pointed forms may have been wedged into a wooden
handle, but there is no proof of it. In size the coup de poing varies from 4 to
8 inches in length, and examples have been found as large as 9½ inches.
That it served a variety of purposes is indicated by the existence of four
well-defined, different forms: first, a primitive, almond-shaped form;
second, an ovaloid form; third, a disk form; and fourth, a pointed form
resembling a lance-head. De Mortillet(26) speaks of it as the only tool of the
Chellean tribes, but in its various forms it served all the purposes of axe,

saw, chisel, and awl, and was in truth a combination tool. Capitan(27) also
holds that the coup de poing is not a single tool but is designed to meet
many various needs. The primitive almond and ovaloid forms were
designed for use along the edges, either for heavy hacking or for sawing;
the disk forms may have been used as axes or as sling-stones; the more
rounded forms would serve as knives and scrapers; while the pointed,
lance-shaped forms might be used as daggers, both in war and in the chase.
The Chellean flint workers also developed especially a number of small,
pointed forms from the accidentally shaped fragments of flint, showing both
short and long points carefully flaked and chipped. Thus, out of the small
types of the Pre-Chellean there evolved a great variety of tools adapted to
domestic purposes, to war, and to the chase.

Chellean Geography in England and France
The type station of the Chellean culture is somewhat east of the present
town of Chelles. Here in Chellean times the broad floods of the ancient
River Marne were transporting great quantities of sand and débris, products
of the early pluvial periods of Third Interglacial times; and here, on the
right bank, embedded in sands and gravels 24 feet thick, are found the
typical Chellean implements mingled with remains of the hippopotamus,
straight-tusked elephant, Merck's rhinoceros, giant beaver, hyæna, and
many members of the Asiatic forest and meadow fauna.
The flint-working stations at St. Acheul were on bluffs from 40 to 80 feet
above the present level of the Somme. The Chellean and the following
Acheulean industry was carried on here on a very extensive scale. In one
year Rigollot collected as many as 800 coups de poing from the ancient
quarries; near by are other quarries equally rich in material, and we may
imagine that the products of the flint industry in this favorable locality were
carried far and wide into other parts of the country.
In the vicinity of Paris, and again at Arcy, in the valley of the Bièvre, the
workers of Chellean, Acheulean, and Mousterian flints sought in succession
the old river-gravels belonging to the lower levels; these 'low terraces' are
only 15 feet above the present height of the river and are still occasionally

flooded by the high waters of the Seine, indicating that the Seine borders
have not altered their levels. The animal life here was identical with that of
the Somme and of the Thames and included the hippopotamus, Merck's
rhinoceros, and the straight-tusked elephant.
Thus it would appear that, in regard to the river courses and the hills
through which they flowed, the topography and landscape of northern
France and of southern Britain were everywhere the same as at the present
time. The forests which clothed the hills were not greatly different from the
present, except for the presence of a few trees of a warmer clime, nor was
there anything strange or unfamiliar in the majority of the animals that
roamed through forest and meadow. The three chief archaic elements
consisted in the presence of two very ancient races of men and their rude
stage of culture, in the great forms of Asiatic and African life which
mingled with the more familiar native types, and in the broad, continuous
land surfaces which swept off unbroken to the west and southwest.
For in those days Europe, though even then little more than a great
peninsula, extended far beyond its present limits. England and Ireland were
still part of the mainland, and great rivers flowed through the broad valleys
that are now the Irish Sea, the North Sea, and the English Channel—rivers
that counted the Seine, the Thames, the Garonne, and even the Rhine, as
mere tributaries. The Strait of Gibraltar was then the Isthmus of Gibraltar—
a narrow land bridge connecting Europe with Africa. The Mediterranean
was then an inland lake, or rather two inland lakes, for Italy and Sicily
stretched out in a broad, irregular mass to join the northern coast of Africa,
while Corsica and Sardinia formed a long peninsula extending from the
Italian mainland and almost, if not quite, reaching to the African coast.

The Thames Valley in Chellean Times
The interpretation of the features of stratification in the valley of the
Somme is especially interesting because it gives us a key to the
understanding of a similar sequence of prehistoric events in the valley of
the Thames.

The station of Gray's Thurrock in this valley is barely 120 miles distant
from the Chellean station of Abbeville, in the valley of the Somme, and it is
apparent that the old flint workers were freely passing across the broad
intervening country and interchanging their ideas and inventions. Thus it
happened that Chellean implements identical with, or closely related to, the
types of the Somme valley were being fashioned all over southern Britain
from the Thames to the Ouse. The ancient River Thames (Lyell,(28)
Geikie(29)) was then flowing over a bed of boulder-clays which had been
deposited during the preceding glaciations. Its broad, swift stream was
bringing down great deposits of ochreous gravels and of sands
interstratified with loams and clays. It is these old true river-gravels which
display their greatest thickness on the lowest levels of the Thames and
which are largely made up of well-bedded and distinctly water-worn
materials. On these low levels the flint workers sought their materials, and
here they left behind them the archaic Chellean implements which are now
found embedded in these older river-gravels, just as they occur in the
gravels washed down over the three terraces of the Somme and the Marne.
In the Thames this old gravel wash seems to have been down-stream,
whereas on the middle and upper terraces of the Somme the gravel wash
came directly down the sides of the valley, except, perhaps, in very high
floods. These deep beds of gravel, sand, and loam lie for the most part
above the present overflow plain of the Thames, although in some places
they descend below it; which proves that the main landscape of the Thames
also, except for the changes of the flora and of animal life, was the same in
Pre-Chellean and Chellean times as it is at present. Thus the Somme, the
Thames, and the Seine had all worn their channels to the present or even to
lower levels when the Pre-Chellean hunters appeared. Since Chellean times
all three rivers have silted up their channels.
The changes along the Thames which have since occurred are in the
superficial layers brought down from the sides of the valley which have
softened the contours of the old terraces and have also entombed the later
phases of the valley's prehistory.
Sections on the south bank at Ilford, Kent, and on the north bank at Gray's
Thurrock, Essex, confirm this view. At the latter station, in low-lying strata
of brick-earth, loam, and gravel, such as would be formed by the silting up
of the bottom of an old river channel, are found the remains of the straight-

tusked elephant, broad-nosed rhinoceros, and hippopotamus. All the
discoveries of recent years lead to the conclusion that the old fluviatile
gravels which contain these ancient mammals and flints are restricted to the
lower levels of the Thames valley, while the high level gravels and loams
are of later date. Old Chellean flints also occur occasionally on the higher
levels, but here it would seem that they have been washed down from the
old land surfaces above, because they are found mingled with flints of the
late Acheulean and early Mousterian industry.

England in Early Palæolithic Times
It is on the higher levels of the Thames, as of the Somme, and in the
superficial deposits covering the sides of the valley that we read the story of
the subsequent Palæolithic cultures and of an early warm temperate climate
being followed by a cold climate with frozen subsoil belonging to the fourth
glaciation and the contemporary Mousterian flint industry. The Palæolithic
history of the Thames(30) has not yet been fully interpreted, but it would
appear that the relics of the old stations of Kent and Norfolk will yield all
the forms of Chellean and Acheulean implements, and probably also those
of the Mousterian which have been discovered in the valley of the Somme,
thus proving that the Lower Palæolithic races of this region pursued the
same culture development as the neighboring tribes of France and Belgium,
as well as those of Spain, up to the close of middle Acheulean times.
A similar sequence of events appears to be indicated at Hoxne, Suffolk,
where archaic palæoliths were discovered as far back as 1797. This
discovery was neglected for upward of sixty years, until in 1859 these flints
were re-examined by Prestwich and Evans after their visit to the stations of
the Somme (Geikie,(31) Avebury(32)). This site was in the hollow of a
surface of boulder-clay, overlain by the deposit of a fresh-water stream; in
the bed of its narrow channel, besides flint implements of early Acheulean
type, abundant plant remains were found which give us an interesting vision
of the flora of the time.
These plants are decidedly characteristic of a temperate climate, including
such trees as the oak, yew, and fir, and mostly of species which are still
found in the forests of the same region. This life gave place, as indicated in

plant deposits of a higher level, to an arctic flora, probably corresponding
with the tundra climate of Mousterian times, the period of the fourth
glaciation. Above these are found again layers of plants and of mollusks
which point to the return of a temperate climate.

Spread of the Acheulean Industry
It is noteworthy that not a single 'river-drift,' Pre-Chellean or Chellean,
station has been found in Germany or Switzerland, or, in fact, in all central
Europe in the region lying between the Alpine and Scandinavian glaciers.
Either this region was unfavorable to human habitation or the remains of
the stations have been buried or washed away.
It is significant that the earliest proof of human migration into this region,
whether from the east or from the west we do not certainly know, is
coincident with the dry climate of Acheulean times. The 'loess' conditions
of climate seem to be coincident with the earliest Acheulean stations in
Germany, such as Sablon. 'Loess' deposition is by no means a proof of a
cold climate but rather of an arid one, especially in regions where areas of
finely eroded soil were liable to be raised by the wind; such areas were
found over the whole recently glaciated country north of the Alps and south
of the Scandinavian peninsula.
The Palæolithic discovery sites of Germany are principally grouped in three
regions(33) as follows:
To the south, along the headwaters of the Rhine and the Danube, among the
limestones of Swabia and the Jura were formed the caverns sought by early
Mousterian man. To the west of these were many older stations in the 'loess'
deposits of the upper Rhine, between the mountain ridges of the Vosges and
the Black Forest, and still nearer the sources of the Rhine, extending over
the border into Switzerland, are a number of famous cave sites in the
valleys cut by the Rhine and its tributaries through the white Jurassic
limestone. To the west is the group of the middle Rhine and of Westphalia,
which includes the open Acheulean camps in the 'loess' deposits above the
river and a number of cavern stations. To the north is the scattered group of
stations, both of Acheulean and Mousterian times, of north Germany. Here

the sites are few and far between. The open-country camps were established
chiefly in the valley of the Ilm and near the caves of the Harz Mountains, in
the neighborhood of Gera. No discoveries of certain date or unquestioned
authenticity are reported from eastern Germany.
Along the upper Rhine the flint workers of Acheulean times established
their ancient camps mostly in the open on the broad sheets of the 'lower
loess,' which, constantly drifted by the wind, covered and preserved the
stations. These stations are widely scattered, but they were frequented from
earliest Acheulean times, and the region was revisited to the very close of
the Upper Palæolithic.

Larger Image

Fig. 77. Flint working stations
of the Men of the Old
Stone Age along the
waters of the Ilm, the
Rhine, and the Danube,
from Acheulean to
Azilian times. After R.
R. Schmidt, modified
and redrawn. These
Palæolithic sites of
Germany lie between the
terminal moraines of the
successive glacial
advances of the Second,
Third, and Fourth (II, III,
IV) Glacial Stages,
extending from the
borders of the
Scandinavian ice-fields
on the north to those of
the Alpine ice-fields on
the south. The dotted
surface represents the
area covered by the drift
of the Fourth Glacial
Stage.

Early in Acheulean times the important 'loess' station of Achenheim was
established. This is a most famous locality and is of especial importance
because it is the only station in Germany which was continuously
frequented from late Acheulean times throughout the Lower Palæolithic and
into the beginning of the Upper Palæolithic; here the 'older loess' of the
Third Interglacial Stage yields a typical Acheulean industry.
Thus far the region of the middle Rhine and of Westphalia has not shown
any evidence of Acheulean culture. The north German stations, however,

were entered in Acheulean times, and the principal open stations of this
region lie along the valley of the Ilm. Here, at Taubach, Ehringsdorf, and
Weimar, we find implements of typical Acheulean form belonging to the
early warm temperate Acheulean period. The stations of the Ilm valley
southwest of Leipsic are also of great importance because of the rich record
which they contain of the warm temperate animal life of early Acheulean
times; the flint culture is typically Acheulean, and the climatic conditions
are read both in the travertines and in the subsequent deposits of the 'lower
loess,' which belong to the cold dry period of late Acheulean times. Here
lingered the straight-tusked elephant and Merck's rhinoceros, contemporary
with the workers of the Acheulean flints.
It will be observed that in Germany the early Acheulean was a warm period
which in certain regions was also arid and subject to great dust-storms. At
this time the camps were for the most part in the open country. In the late
period, also arid and subject to high winds but with a cooler climate, the
flint workers continued to frequent the open Acheulean stations in the
'loess.' If there were shelter and cavern stations in this region, they have not
as yet been discovered. This would appear to indicate that the climate had
not yet become severe.
Similar testimony is found in the great scarcity of cavern and shelter
stations in Acheulean times in every part of western Europe; yet
occasionally the tribes repaired to the vicinity of sheltering cliffs, as along
the Vézère. In some scattered localities they sought the caverns, as at
Krapina, in Croatia, at Spy, on the Meuse in Belgium, and at Castillo, in
northern Spain. These rare exceptions to the open camps would tend to
prove that the caverns were sought rather for protection from enemies and
as rain shelters than as retreats from a bitter-cold climate.
In the valley of the Beune, a small tributary of the Vézère, in Dordogne, we
find a true Acheulean station quite close to the river shore. This proves that
in Acheulean times this valley was already deepened to the same degree as
it is to-day. In the valley of the Somme the Acheulean culture stretches from
the 'highest terrace' down below the present level of the river, which has
made for itself a new high channel. The fact that two Acheulean stations are
found on the upper Garonne, high above the present water-level, is of little
significance, as at that time the water-level was also high.

In general the Acheulean flint workers preferred the open stations
throughout all Acheulean times, and their camps are found on the open
plateaus between the rivers or on the various 'terrace' levels, as on the
higher, middle, and lower 'terraces' of the Somme at St. Acheul, or again
close along the borders of the rivers and streams, as in the Dordogne region.
Even during the early Acheulean stage a dry climate had begun to prevail in
certain parts of Germany. Near Metz is the 'older loess' station of Sablon,
which was occupied in early Acheulean times, indicating a warm period of
arid climate favorable to the transportation of the wind-blown 'loess';
doubtless, this fine dust at times filled the entire atmosphere and obscured
the sun, as is the case to-day on the high steppes and deserts of eastern Asia.
An exception to the open-country life preferred by the Acheulean flint
workers is found in the great grotto[AD] of Castillo, near Puente Viesgo, in
the Province of Santander, northern Spain. The deposits which filled this
grotto to a thickness of 45 feet from the floor to the roof were explored by
Obermaier, who found them divided into thirteen layers, covering eleven
periods of industry and presenting the most wonderful epitome of the
prehistory of western Europe from Acheulean times to the Age of Bronze,
in Spain (Fig. 79).

Fig. 78. Entrance (white
cross) to the great grotto
of Castillo in northern
Spain. This grotto was
frequented by the Men of
the Old Stone Age from
Acheulean to Azilian
times, an archæologic
sequence surpassed only
by that of the open
camps along the terraces
of the Somme.
Photograph from
Obermaier.

As early as 1908, Breuil(34) discovered in the interior of the cave back of
the grotto some quartzites worked into Acheulean types, proving that the

cavern was entered in Acheulean times. Obermaier,(35) in the course of three
years' work, has found that the floor of the grotto was possibly used as a
flint-making station in Acheulean and, possibly, in Chellean times. The
culture section which he has revealed here under the direction of the Institut
de Paléontologie humaine can be compared only with that which Commont
has found on the 'terraces' of the Somme at St. Acheul. The difference is
that in the shelter of the Castillo grotto the climate is recorded only through
the changing forms of animal life which are mingled around the fire-hearths
and with the flints in the ascending levels.

Larger Image

Fig. 79. Stratigraphic section
showing the archæologic

layers of the great grotto
of Castillo. After
Obermaier.
(13) Eneolithic Age. Small,
triangular dagger in
copper.
(12) Azilian. Flint industry—
Age of the Stag.
(11) Upper Magdalenian.
Artistic engravings on
stag-horn.
(10) Lower Magdalenian.
Flints and fine
engravings on bone.
Reindeer bâton.
(9) Archaic Solutrean.
Feuilles de laurier,
retouched on one side
only.
(8, 7, 6) Upper Aurignacian in
three layers. Remains of
the reindeer and burins.
(5) Lower Aurignacian.
Implements of stone and
bone. Remains of an
infant.
(4) Upper Mousterian. Rich in
small implements and
large tools of quartzite.
Merck's rhinoceros very
abundant.

(3) Typical Mousterian flints
and quartzites. Merck's
rhinoceros.
(2) Early Mousterian industry.
Bones of cave-bear and
Merck's rhinoceros.
(1) Acheulean flints.
The entrance to this grotto is on the side of a high hill overlooking the
valley and might easily have been barricaded against attack. In early
Acheulean times, when the flint workers were on the very floor of the
grotto, the lower entrance of the cavern was still open, leading far into the
heart of the mountain. The successive accumulations of débris, cave loam,
fire-stones, bones, and innumerable flints, together with great blocks falling
over the entrance of the cavern, reached a height of 45 feet, so that during
the Upper Palæolithic only the upper entrance to the cavern was used by the
artists of Magdalenian times. The subsequent Azilian and Eneolithic
cultures were crowded under the very roof of the grotto at the sides.
This station, repaired to and then abandoned by tribe after tribe over a
period estimated at present as not less than 50,000 years, is a monumental
volume of prehistory, read and interpreted by the archæologist almost as
clearly as if the whole record were in writing.
The first positive evidences of the use of fire are the layers of charred wood
and bones frequently found in the industrial deposits of early Acheulean
times.

Geographic and Climatic Changes
During the early period of development of the Acheulean industry, the
geography, the climate, and the plant and animal life continued to present
exactly the same aspect as during Chellean times. The mammals which we
find in Thuringia in the lower travertines of the valley of the Ilm, at
Taubach, near Weimar, and at Ehringsdorf, mingled with flints of early
Acheulean industry, are of the same species as those found in the valley of

the Somme mingled with the implements of the Chellean industry. The
southern mammoth occurs at Taubach, and we find the straight-tusked
elephant (E. antiquus), Merck's rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, the lion, and
the hyæna representing the ancient African-Asiatic migrants, while the
north European and Asiatic life is represented by the giant deer, roe-deer,
wild goat, brown bear, wolf, badger, marten, otter, beaver, meadow hamster,
and shrew. Grazing in the meadows were the aurochs, or wild ox, and the
wisent, or bison. There was one variety of horse, probably of the forest
type. Thus, the fauna as a whole contains six Asiatic types, or eight if we
include the bison and wild cattle. Of the forest life there are nine species,
including the wild boar (Sus scrofa ferus) not mentioned above.
The layers of travertine are indicative of very important geographical
changes which were occurring in central and southern Europe in the middle
period of Third Interglacial times. The travertines of the Ilm and of other
parts of central Germany were due to wide-spread volcanic disturbances
and eruptions, accompanied by the deposition of travertines, gypsums, and
tufas. To this volcanic disturbance in central France is attributed the
deposition of the tuf de La Celle-sous-Moret, near Paris, which records the
warm temperate climate of early Acheulean times, as well as the somewhat
cooler succeeding climate of late Acheulean times. This uplift in the centre
of Germany and France apparently left the region between France and Great
Britain undisturbed, because there is evidence of continued free migration
of the tribes and of the Acheulean cultures; but there appears to have been a
wide-spread subsidence of the coasts of southern Europe by which the
islands of the Mediterranean became isolated from the mainland, and the
migrating routes between Europe and Africa across the central
Mediterranean region were cut off. Thus, Italy, Sicily, and Sardinia were
separated from the mainland after having received a large contingent of
mammalian life from the continents both to the north and to the south.
While descendants of the African and Asiatic mammals, as well as of the
northerly European forest and meadow types, survive on these islands, there
is, thus far, no indication that they were invaded by hunters carrying the
implements of the Acheulean culture, although these Acheulean flint
workers ranged over all parts of the Italian peninsula (Fig. 80), as indicated
by the discovery of nine stations.

Distribution of Acheulean Stations
The Acheulean stations are widely distributed along the Seine, Marne, and
Somme in northern France, where flint is abundant and well adapted for
fine workmanship. In central and southern France, where large flints are
scarce, the Acheulean tribes were forced to use quartz, which fashions into
clumsier forms. In the north the Acheulean workers continued on the old
Chellean sites at Chelles, St. Acheul, Abbeville, and Helin. In late
Acheulean times were established the new stations of Wolvercote on the
Thames, near Oxford, and of Levallois on the Seine, near Paris, both
famous for their 'Levallois' flint knives or blades. Near Levallois is the late
Acheulean station of Villejuif, south of Paris, where the flints are buried in
drifts of loess. In Normandy are the important stations of Frileuse, Bléville,
and La Mare-aux-Clercs, which give the whole Acheulean development,
both early and late. On a small tributary valley of the Vézère, in Dordogne,
in late Acheulean times there was established the station of La Micoque,
which gives its name to a number of miniature flints of distinctive form
which were first found there and are known as the 'type of La Micoque.'
Other stations, such as Combe-Capelle, also show examples of this
'miniature' Acheulean workmanship.

Larger Image

Fig. 80. Distribution of the
principal Acheulean
industrial stations in
western Europe.

Altogether, over thirty Acheulean stations have been found in France, two
—Castillo and San Isidro—in northern and central Spain, the single station
of Furninha in Portugal, over eight in Germany, three in Austria, and three
in Russian Poland. Especially remarkable is the wide distribution of this
culture all over Italy, where explorations by no means exhaustive have
resulted in the discovery of at least nine or ten very prolific stations
extending from Goccianello in the north to Capri in the south, but not into
Sicily as far as is at present known. Thus all of western Europe, excepting
the area covered by the Scandinavian ice-fields on the north and by the

Alpine ice-fields on the south, was penetrated by the workers of Acheulean
flints, probably members, for the most part, of the Neanderthal race.

Fig. 81. Late Acheulean
station of La Micoque, in
Dordogne, where
miniature flints of
distinctive late
Acheulean form are
found. Photograph by N.
C. Nelson.

The general uniformity of Acheulean workmanship in all parts of western
Europe is an indication that these Neanderthaloid tribes were more or less

migratory and that the inventions of new and useful implements, such as the
lance-pointed coup de poing of La Micoque and the flint-flakes of
Levallois, which probably originated at an especial centre, or perhaps even
in the inventive mind of a single workman, became widely distributed and
highly distinctive of certain periods. The development of the implements in
different regions is so uniform as to prove that the evolution of the early
Palæolithic cultures extended all over western Europe and that the various
types or stages were essentially contemporary.

Forms of Acheulean Implements
There is a close sequence between the coup de poing of the Chellean
workers and its development into the finer and more symmetrical forms of
the Acheulean. The latter, according to Obermaier,(36) is distinguished by
the flaking of the entire surface, by the far more skilful fashioning, and by
the really symmetrical almond form which is attained by retouching both
the surface and the edges. This more refined retouch becomes the means of
producing symmetrical instruments, with straight, convex, or concave
cutting edges, as well as finer and lighter tools.

Fig. 82. Illustrating the
method of 'flaking' flint
implements by direct or
indirect blow with a
hammer-stone.

The early Acheulean industry belonged to a warm temperate climatic period
and directly succeeds the Chellean, as shown in a most perfect manner in
the quarries of the type station of St. Acheul on the Somme. In these earlier
strata the prevailing forms of coup de poing are the 'pointed oval' and the
'lance-pointed,' the latter showing very simple chipping, a broad point, and
a thick base. The oval coups de poing are smaller than the Chellean tools of
the same kind, carefully fashioned on all sides and round the base, and very
symmetrical; there are four distinct varieties of these: the almond type, oval
almond-shaped, elongate oval, and subtriangular—the latter evolving into
the finely modelled type of late Acheulean times. It may have been from
these oval types that the disc form was finally evolved.

Fig. 83. Illustrating the
method of 'chipping' flint
implements by pressure
with a bone or wooden
implement, to produce
the finer retouch of the
surfaces and edges.

There is wide difference of opinion regarding the use of these thin ovaloid,
triangular, and disc forms. Obermaier considers that they may have been
clamped in wood, or furnished with a shaft, thus forming a spear head.
Another suggestion is that they were used with a leather guard to protect the
hand; and there is no doubt that in either case they would have served as
effective weapons in chase or war. Another view is that of Commont,(37)
who believes that not a single implement down to the very end of
Acheulean times can be regarded as a weapon of war; this author maintains
that many of these implements, including those dressed on both edges, were
still in various ways grasped by the hand, although they do not present the
firm, blunted grip of the ancient coups de poing.

We also note the development of a type of coup de poing, with cutting blade
fashioned straight across the end: this primitive chisel or adze-shaped tool
may have been used as a chopper, or as an axe, in fashioning wooden tools.

Fig. 84. Method of producing
the long flake and the
central core of flint by
sharp blows at the
indicated point of
percussion. After R. R.
Schmidt. In this case a
series of flakes have
been cut off the entire

periphery of the core.
The primitive use of the
flake begins in the Pre-
Chellean.

In the lance-pointed coup de poing of narrow, elongate shape, the flaking is
very simple and the edges are continued into the short base, generally very
thick, and often showing part of the original crust of the flint nodule, which
is well adapted for the grip of the hand. This implement, which serves the
original idea of the coup de poing, develops into the round-pointed and
lance-pointed forms. There is no question that, whether in industrial use, in
war, or in the chase, these implements were held only by the hand.
Industrial.
Coup de poing.
Ovaloid.
Double-edged.
Subtriangular.
Straight cutting blade across the end.
Disc-shaped.
Triangular—very thin and flat.
Hachette, chopper.
Grattoir, planing tool.
Racloir, scraper.
Perçoir, drill, borer.
Couteau, knife.
'Pointe' (Levallois blade).
'Pointe,' point—oval and chisel-shaped.

War and Chase.
Coup de poing.
Of pointed and lance-pointed types.
Pierre de jet, throwing stone.
Couteau, knife.
'Pointe,' dart and spear heads.

The small implements of the early Acheulean included a great variety of
designs developing out of the far more primitive tools of Chellean and Pre-
Chellean times, namely, the planing tool, the scraper, the borer, and the
knife. Each of these types develops its own variety, often fashioned with
great care, primitive blades, straight-edged cutting tools, with the back
rounded or blunted for the grip of the fingers, scrapers with straight or
curved edges, and perçoirs or borers. The scraping and planing tools,
doubtless used for the dressing of hides, are now more carefully fashioned.
We also observe the racloir and the scraper finished to a point which is the
precursor of the graving tool of the Upper Palæolithic.(38)
Characteristic of this stage is the systematic use of large 'flakes' or outlying
pieces of flint struck off from the core, which were used as scrapers or
planes, or developed into small 'haches,' or coups de poing.
The core or centre of the flint nodule still constitutes the material out of
which the large typical implements are fashioned; but the flake begins to
lend itself to a great variety of forms, as witnessed in the evolution of the
Levallois knives of the Upper Acheulean and the highly varied flake
implements of the Mousterian and Aurignacian industries.
The 'pointe,' or point, is a special implement chipped out of a short, sharply
convex flake, taking the form of a blunt dart or spear head, pointed at one
end and oval or flat at the other.

Larger Image

Fig. 85. Large, typical
Acheulean implements,
chiefly described as
coups de poing, after de
Mortillet. One-quarter
actual size. One of these
(41) shows at one end a
part of the crust of the
flint nodule left intact to
afford a smooth, firm
grip to the hand. Another
(43) shows a part of the
crust remaining along the

left side, for the same
purpose. Two of the
coups de poing (47 and 48)
show, the one a double-
curved, the other a
straight, lateral edge.
Another coup de poing
(49), from a submarine
deposit near the shore at
Havre, is partly covered
by acorn shells.

Late Acheulean Climate
The Acheulean industry continued over a very long period, and by the time
the late Acheulean culture stage had been reached a decided change of
climate ensued in western Europe. Along the borders of the Danube and of
the Rhine, in the valley of the Somme, and even in central and southern
France there are indications of a cool dry continental climate, similar to that
which is now found on the southern steppes of Russia, in the Ural
Mountains, and in the vicinity of the Caspian Sea. Indications of this
climate have been mentioned above, as seen in the plant life in the tuf de La
Celle-sous-Moret, near Paris, where there are evidences that trees of a cool
temperate climate took the place of the warm temperate forests of early
Acheulean times.
That the climate should be considered as cool and arid rather than
comparable with the bitter-cold climate of the 'upper loess' period, when a
true steppe fauna entered Europe for the first time, is further indicated by
the fact that late Acheulean implements are more frequently found in the
centre and north of France than in the south.
To the far north, before the close of Acheulean times, the Scandinavian ice-
fields had again begun to advance southward; the region bordering the
glaciers was cold and moist and favored the migration from the tundra
regions of the woolly mammoth and woolly rhinoceros to the locality still
frequented by the Acheulean flint workers, for it is said(39) that Acheulean

flints are occasionally associated even with the remains of these tundra
mammals. At the very same time the Acheulean flint workers along the
Somme may have enjoyed a more genial climate.
It is only through this interpretation of the various climatic and life zones in
western Europe that we can explain the survival on the River Somme, or
return to this river from the south, of a warm temperate fauna, hippopotami,
rhinoceroses, and elephants, in the Mousterian period, which is even
subsequent to the close of Acheulean times.
The valleys of the two great river-systems of southwestern France, the
Dordogne draining the central plateau, and the Garonne draining the eastern
Pyrenees, were now sought by the Acheulean flint workers. The valley of
the Vézère, a northern tributary of the Dordogne, cuts through a broad
plateau of limestone in which the streams have hollowed out deep beds with
vertical sides. Here the landscape of late Acheulean times bore the same
general aspect as at present.(40) Evidences of a change of climate are
observed even in the sheltered valleys where the flint workers were seeking
the warmer and sunnier river-slopes. The river channels were the same as
they are to-day, and the quarries of the early Acheulean flint workers are
found quite close to the streams; but as the period progressed they moved
up nearer to the cliffs and shelters. Here, too, there is evidence that a dry
continental climate prevailed. On the upper levels of the old plateaus of
Dordogne we still find the Quercus ilex occurring quite frequently, a tree
which belongs to relatively dry regions and which in southern Russia is
reckoned with the flora of the steppes. Yet the greater aridity toward the
close of the Acheulean stage was probably not such as to prevent the growth
of forests along the borders of the streams. Thus, in the mammalian life of
the period there was, perhaps, a division between the more hardy forms
which frequented the dry plateaus above and the forest-loving and less
hardy forms which frequented the river-valleys.

Fig. 86. "Valleys of the two
great river-systems of
southwestern France, the
Dordogne draining the
central plateau and the
Garonne draining the
eastern Pyrenees." After
Harlé.

The most convincing proof of an arid climate in the north of France with
prevailing high westerly winds is found in the layers of 'loess' which occur
on the 'terraces' of the Somme, the Seine, the Rhine, and the Danube. These
'lower loess' layers of Third Interglacial times frequently contain
implements of the late Acheulean industry. Thus, at Villejuif, south of Paris,
late Acheulean implements are found embedded in drifts of 'loess.' In the
valley of the Somme, flints of the middle Acheulean stage are also found in
the loess ancien and 'river-drift.' In the tuf de La Celle-sous-Moret the layer

of 'loess' immediately overlies the tufa layer containing late Acheulean
implements and proofs of a cooler climate.

Fig. 87. "The valley of the
Vézère, a northern
tributary of the
Dordogne, cuts through a
broad plateau of
limestone in which the
streams have hollowed
out deep beds with
vertical sides," favorable
to the formation of
caverns, grottos, and
shelters. "Here the

landscape of late
Acheulean times bore the
same general aspect as at
present." Photograph by
N. C. Nelson.

Among the most famous of the 'loess' stations of late Acheulean times is
that of Achenheim on the upper Rhine, west of Strasburg. Here the 'older
loess' contains a typical Acheulean culture.
With this prolonged epoch of cooler temperature the hippopotamus and the
southern mammoth retreated to the warmer portions of southern Europe,
and their remains are no longer found associated with the late Acheulean
flints. The more hardy straight-tusked elephant and Merck's rhinoceros still
continued in the north, apparently well adapted to sustain a very
considerable fall in temperature.

Forms of Late Acheulean Implements
The coups de poing of the late Acheulean exhibit a great advance upon the
Chellean, being fashioned into dagger or lance forms, with all the edges
carefully chipped. The ovaloid implements of late Acheulean times are
often worked into fine and sharp blades, which may have been used like
butcher-knives for dismembering the carcasses of game and for cutting up
the pelts, while the fine almond and disc shapes may have been used as
scrapers to cut off the tissues of the inner surfaces of the hides, which were
finally dressed by the grattoir, or flint planing tool. In brief, the coup de
poing reaches its acme of development in late Acheulean times, both in the
fineness of flaking and retouching and in its symmetry of form. The use of
large flakes of flint and the retouching both of the borders and of the
extremities of these flakes shows a constantly improving technique. It is in
the thin, flat, triangular blades and in the lance-pointed forms that the coup
de poing reaches its culmination; but we still observe the development of
the oval or almond-shaped forms and of the flattened discs. The implements

of this time reach their greatest perfection in the north of France, where flint
is so abundant.

Larger Image

Fig. 88. Varied shapes of the
Acheulean flints
described as coups de
poing, including some
'miniature' forms, after
de Mortillet. The oval,
the pointed, the almond,
the triangular, the disc-
shaped. The late

Acheulean is
distinguished by an
advance in all the finer
and smaller implements,
tools, and weapons; yet
the finest work of
Acheulean times appears
thick and clumsy when
contrasted with the best
Solutrean work of the
Upper Palæolithic. One-
quarter actual size.

The late Acheulean is further distinguished by an advance in all the finer
and smaller implements and tools. The knives are now very fine and
perfect, although they retain the broad, thick form of the original flint
fragment and seldom attain the symmetrical shape which characterizes the
blades of the Upper Palæolithic.(41) The 'points' are also of finer technique,
with their edges converging from a broad base to a well-formed point. It is
generally assumed that these were held in the bare hand, but it is quite as
probable that they were attached to wooden shafts and used as dart or spear
heads. By far the most numerous as well as the most varied of the smaller
tools were the racloirs, or scrapers, which were developed, doubtless, by the
increasing use of skins for clothing as a protection against the somewhat
more rigorous climate of late Acheulean times. Probably the women of the
tribe were employed in dressing hides by means of these scrapers, which
were either flat and broad with crescent-shaped edges, flat and narrow, or
double-edged with rounded ends. The development of other fine tools—
borers, small discs, triangular and ovaloid shapes, miniature coups de
poing, and many varied forms besides—is best witnessed in the station of
La Micoque, close to the junction of the Vézère with the Dordogne. These
miniature implements may well have been used in the final dressing of
skins for clothing, in the chase of smaller kinds of game, or at feasts for
splitting marrow-bones.

Fig. 89. The chef-d'œuvre of
the Acheulean industry is
the Levallois flake,
which may have evolved
from the large flakes of
Chellean times. After
Worthington Smith.

No bone implements whatever have been found even with these late
Acheulean flints, but it is important to observe that the majority of these
stations are open and exposed to the weather and that bone implements
would not be preserved here as they would in the sheltered grottos and
caverns to which the flint workers repaired in the Mousterian and
succeeding times.
As regards the finish of these flint implements, it is important to note that it
is fine only by comparison with the crude work of the early Acheulean or
the still coarser types of Chellean times and that the very finest work of

Acheulean times appears thick and clumsy when contrasted with the finer
work of the Upper Palæolithic.
The chef-d'œuvre of the late Acheulean industry is the Levallois flake, first
found at Levallois-Perret, near Paris, which de Mortillet believed to be
fashioned out of a divided coup de poing with a flat under-side, but which
may have been evolved from the very large primitive flakes of Pre-Chellean
date. These flakes date back earlier than the Chellean coup de poing but
continued in use after its invention and may have been greatly perfected
into the Levallois type. This type of 'couteau' is a large, wide, thin flake of
fairly symmetrical shape, with a flat back formed by the original smooth
surface of the flake. These implements are pointed, oval, or sharply
rectangular in form and present the most characteristic tool of the closing
stage of the Acheulean industry.
It is most interesting at this point to observe the two modes of evolution
which seem to pervade all nature: first, the gradual perfection and
modification in size and proportion of a certain older form; second, the
sudden change or mutation into a new form, which in turn enters the stage
of gradual improvement.
The late Acheulean is seen to present the climax of a gradual and unbroken
development from the early Chellean industries and ideas; and to our mind
this is strongly suggestive of a corresponding evolution of manual skill and
mental development in the workmen themselves, who may have been partly
of Pre-Neanderthaloid race.
The next industrial stage, namely, the Mousterian, which certainly presents
the closing workmanship of the Neanderthal race, shows a marked
retrogression of technique in contrast to the steady progression which we
have observed up to this time. We have, in fact, witnessed a number of
successive stages of progression, which are to be followed in the
Mousterian by a stage of retrogression. Such a retrogression in industrial
development may for certain known or unknown reasons occur in the same
race. It is a noteworthy parallel that in the Upper Palæolithic, where the
Solutrean culture represents the climax and perfection of flint working, the
succeeding Magdalenian shows marked retrogression in the technique of
flint retouch.

The Krapina Neanderthaloids
In northern Croatia, near the small town of Krapina, in the valley of the
Krapinica River, is the now famous cavern of Krapina, where in 1899 was
made the fourth discovery of the remains of men of the Neanderthaloid race
in western Europe, twelve years after the discovery of the men of Spy, in
Belgium, and forty-three years after the discovery of the man of
Neanderthal. Even now opinion is divided as to the age of the human
remains found in this cavern. The discoverer, Professor Gorjanovič-
Kramberger of Agram considered that the stone implements and chips were
of Mousterian age, and Breuil still refers them to the early, or so-called
warm, Mousterian period; this opinion is shared by Déchelette. Schmidt,
however, regards Krapina as a true Acheulean station, lacking in some of
the typical implements, and of the same age as the 'loess' station of
Ehringsdorf.

Fig. 90. The grotto of
Krapina, overlooking the
valley of the Krapinica
River, near Krapina,
Croatia, in Austria-
Hungary. After Kraemer.

The mammals found in the cavern certainly belong to the very late
Acheulean period and include Merck's rhinoceros, the cave-bear, the urus, a
species of horse, the giant deer (Megaceros), the beaver, and the marmot
(Arctomys marmotta).
The cavern was originally washed out by the river, but now it is 82 feet
above the present water-level. When found it was completely filled with
sand and gravel deposits, weathered fragments from the roof and walls, and
loose stones and boulders.(42) Enclosed in this mass, in separate strata

which are perfectly distinguishable, there lay, variously distributed through
the different layers, thousands of animal bones, mingled with hundreds of
human bones, and hundreds of stone implements and chips.

Larger Image

Fig. 91. Cross-section of the
valley traversed by the
Krapinica River showing
the location of the grotto
known as the Krapina
recess on the bank to the
left. Drawn by C. A.
Reeds.

During the years 1899-1905 Gorjanovič-Kramberger made a thorough
exploration of the contents of this cavern, and published a complete account
of his researches in 1906.(43) There were about three hundred pieces of
human bones, among them many small fragments, also many sizable pieces
of skull and several entire limb bones perfectly preserved. The bones are of
a strongly characterized type, and the lower jaws, face bones, bones of the
thigh and arm, the teeth, and the bones of many children establish the
Krapina race as belonging unquestionably in the same group with that of
Neanderthal and of Spy.

Fig. 92. Detail showing the
interior contents of the
Krapina grotto before its
excavation in the years
1899 to 1905. After
Gorjanovič-Kramberger.

The skull of the Krapina man (Fig. 93) is somewhat broader or more
brachycephalic than that of any other members of the Neanderthal race. In
general, the race is somewhat dwarfed, of broader head form and with less
prominent supraorbital processes. The species is unquestionably Homo
neanderthalensis, of which the Krapina men constitute a local race.
Schwalbe and Boule observe that the greater breadth of the Krapina skull is
partly due to the manner in which the bones have been put together,(44) and

they do not consider that the Krapina man represents a different subrace
(Homo neanderthalensis krapinensis) as held by the discoverer. The
cephalic index of one Krapina skull is recorded as 83.7 per cent (?) as
compared with 73.9 per cent, the cephalic index of the true H.
neanderthalensis, a difference which, as above noted, may be partly due to
the restoration. The bones are in such a fragmentary condition that it is
impossible to form a proper estimate of the brain capacity in either the
males or females of this race; nor is it possible to estimate the stature. The
space between the eyes is the same as in the Neanderthal race; the angle of
the retreat of the forehead (52°) is nearly the same as in the Gibraltar female
Neanderthal skull (50°), this high forehead being due to the lesser
development of the supraorbital ridges. That the brain was of a low, flat-
headed Neanderthal type is shown by the close similarity of the index of the
height of skull (42.2) to that of one of the men of Spy (44.3), as compared
with the lowest index among the existing races of men (48.9); yet the
Krapina man presents a considerable advance over Pithecanthropus, in
which the index of the height of skull is only 34.2.

Fig. 93. Profile view, right
side, of one of the skulls

from Krapina. This skull
is much broader than that
of the typical
Neanderthaloid. After
Gorjanovič-Kramberger.
One-quarter life size.

The jaw is more slender than that of the Heidelberg man but is still thick
and massive; the chin is receding, a characteristic of all the Neanderthal
races.
The broken condition of all the human bones in this cavern, and the
abundant indications of fire, have led to the charge that the Neanderthals of
Krapina were cannibals, and that these mingled remains are the bones of
animals and men collected here during cannibalistic feasts. Against this
supposition Breuil observes that none of the human bones are split
lengthwise, as is the usual practice when extracting the marrow, but they are
broken crosswise. This is the only evidence of such practice that has been
found during all Palæolithic times, and we should hesitate to accept it
unless corroborated by other localities.
The various layers indicate that the cavern was successively occupied by
man; in or near the hearths are found stone implements, broken and
incinerated bones, and pieces of charcoal, which may indicate that this
grotto was visited only at intervals, perhaps during the colder seasons of the
year.

(1) Harlé, 1910.1.
(2) d'Ault du Mesnil, 1896.1, pp. 284-296.
(3) Obermaier, 1912.1, p. 146.
(4) Schmidt, 1912.1, pp. 118-126.

(5) Boule, 1888.1.
(6) Obermaier, 1912.1, pp. 327-329.
(7) Haug, 1907.1, vol. II, pp. 327-329.
(8) Geikie, 1914.1, p. 262.
(9) Morlot, 1854.1.
(10) Commont, 1906.1.
(11) Geikie, 1914.1, pp. 107-111.
(12) d'Ault du Mesnil, op. cit.
(13) Schmidt, 1912.1, pp. 124, 125.
(14) Obermaier, 1912.1, p. 118.
(15) Dawson, 1913.1; 1913.2; 1913.3.
(16) Kennard, 1913.1.
(17) Reid, 1913.1.
(18) Dawson, 1913.1, p. 123; 1914.1, pp. 82-86.
(19) Keith, A., 1913.1; 1913.2; 1913.3.
(20) Smith, G. E., 1913.1; 1913.2; 1913.3; 1913.4.
(21) Boule, 1913.1, pp. 245, 246.
(22) Schwalbe, 1914.1, p. 603.
(23) Osborn, 1910.1, pp. 404-409.
(24) Ewart, 1904.1; 1907.1; 1909.1.
(25) Obermaier, 1912.1, p. 120.
(26) de Mortillet, 1869.1.
(27) Obermaier, op. cit., p. 116.

(28) Lyell, 1863.1, p. 164.
(29) Geikie, 1914.1, pp. 119, 263, 264.
(30) Schmidt, 1912.1, pp. 125, 126.
(31) Geikie, op. cit., p. 228.
(32) Avebury, 1913.1, p. 342, Fig. 236.
(33) Schmidt, op. cit., pp. 17-105.
(34) Breuil, 1912.5, p. 14.
(35) Obermaier, 1912.1, p. 164.
(36) Obermaier, op. cit., pp. 124, 125, 127, 130.
(37) Commont, 1908.1.
(38) Déchelette, 1908.1, vol. I, pp. 80-90.
(39) Geikie, 1914.1, p. 255.
(40) Hilzheimer, 1913.1, p. 145.
(41) Obermaier, 1912.1, p. 127.
(42) Fischer, 1913.1.
(43) Gorjanovič-Kramberger, 1901.1; 1903.1; 1906.1.
(44) Schwalbe, 1914.1, p. 597.

CHAPTER III
CLOSE OF THE THIRD INTERGLACIAL,
TEMPERATE, AND ARID CLIMATE,
ACHEULEAN INDUSTRY—
ADVENT OF THE FOURTH
GLACIATION, PROFOUND
CHANGES IN ANIMAL AND PLANT
LIFE—THE ARCTIC TUNDRA
PERIOD OF MAMMALIAN AND
PLANT LIFE—CHARACTERS OF
THE NEANDERTHAL RACE, OF
THEIR MOUSTERIAN FLINT
INDUSTRY—SUPPOSED CAUSES
OF EXTINCTION OR DISPERSAL
We now reach a prolonged and important stage in the prehistory of Europe,
namely, the period of the fourth glaciation, of the final development of the
Neanderthal race of man, of the Mousterian industry, of the beginnings of
cave life, of the chase of the reindeer, and its use for food and clothing.
In all Europe the Acheulean industry appears to have come to a close during
a period of arid climate, warm in some parts of western Europe and cool or
even cold in others. The seasonal variations may well have been extreme, as
on the steppes of southern Russia, where exceedingly hot summers may be
followed by intensely cold winters, with high winds and snow-storms
destructive of life.
It is this seasonal alternation, as well as the recurrence, either seasonal or
secular, of milder climate, which explains the survival or return of the
Asiatic fauna even after the close of the Acheulean industry and when the
Mousterian industry was well advanced.
From deposits found at Grimaldi, in the Grotte des Enfants and in the
Grotte du Prince, it has long been said that men of early Mousterian times
lived contemporary with the hippopotamus, the straight-tusked elephant,

and Merck's rhinoceros in the genial climate of the Mediterranean Riviera.
More recently the same animals have been found as far north as the Somme
valley in the 'river-drifts' of Montières-les-Amiens.(1) Here, again, we find
remains of the hippopotamus, the straight-tusked elephant, and its
companion, Merck's rhinoceros, in Mousterian deposits, a surprising
discovery, because it had always been supposed that a cold climatic period
had set in all over western Europe even before the close of the Acheulean
culture. But there is also evidence of a temperate climate still prevailing in
the Thames valley in the period of the Mousterian 'floors.'(2) Again, along
the Vézère valley, Dordogne, we find that at the station of La Micoque,
where the industry marks the transition between late Acheulean and early
Mousterian times, Merck's rhinoceros is found in the lowest layers
associated with remains of the moose (Alces).
There is evidence that Merck's rhinoceros and the straight-tusked elephant
lingered in western Europe during the whole period of the early
development of the Mousterian industry. As observed above, these animals
were hardier than the southern mammoth, which was the first of the Asiatic
mammals to disappear, soon to be followed by its companion, the
hippopotamus. Even after the advent of the closely associated tundra pair,
the woolly mammoth and the woolly rhinoceros, Merck's rhinoceros
persists, as, for example, in the deposits of Rixdorf, near Berlin, where this
ancient type occurs in the same deposits with the woolly mammoth, the
woolly rhinoceros, the reindeer, and the musk-ox, as well as with the forest
forms, the moose, stag, wolf, and forest horse. The extreme northern
latitude of this deposit explains the absence of the straight-tusked elephant,
which may at the time have been living farther to the south. The same
mingling of south and north Asiatic mammals is found at Steinheim, in the
valley of the Murr, some degrees to the west and south of Rixdorf, not far
from Göttingen, where we find Merck's rhinoceros(3) and the straight-
tusked elephant in association with the woolly mammoth, the woolly
rhinoceros, the giant deer, and the reindeer.
Thus the Neanderthal races were entering the Mousterian stage of culture
during the close of the Third Interglacial Stage and during the early period
of the advance of the ice-fields from the great centres in Scandinavia and
the Alps. As these ice-fields slowly approached each other from the north
and from the south a very great period of time must have elapsed during

which all the south Asiatic mammals abandoned western Europe or became
extinct, with the exception of the lions and hyænas, which became well
fitted to the very severe climate that prevailed over Europe during the
fourth glaciation, and even during the long Postglacial Stage which ensued.
The large carnivora readily become thoroughly adapted to cold climates, as
they subsist on animal life wherever it may be found; tigers of the same
stock as those of India have been found as far north as the river Lena, in
latitude 52° 25', where the climate is colder than that of Petrograd or of
Stockholm, while the lion throve in the cold atmosphere of the upper Atlas
range. Thus the cave-lion (Felis leo spelæa) and the cave-hyæna (H.
crocuta spelæa) doubtless evolved an undercoating of fur as well as an
overcoating of long hair, like the tundra mammals. In size the lion of this
period in France often equalled and sometimes surpassed its existing
relatives, the African and west Asiatic lion; it frequently figures in the art of
the Upper Palæolithic artists and survived in western Europe to the very
close of Upper Palæolithic times.

The Fourth Glaciation
Penck(4) has estimated that the first maximum of the fourth glaciation in the
Alps was reached 40,000 years ago, and that after the recession period the
second maximum ended not less than 20,000 years ago. This would extend
the Mousterian industry over a very long period of time, for there can be no
doubt that the Mousterian culture was practically contemporaneous with the
fourth glaciation, even if a briefer period of time should be allotted to this
great natural event.
The fourth glaciation, like the first, is believed to have been
contemporaneous in Europe and North America,(5) a fact which is of
especial importance to American anthropologists in connection with the
question of the date of arrival of primitive man in America. In both
countries the glaciation reached an early maximum, which was followed by
a period of recession of the ice-fields, a time during which a somewhat
more temperate climate prevailed, but this in turn gave way to a second
advance of as great severity as the first.[AE]

Larger Image

Fig. 94. Europe during the
extension of the ice-
fields and glaciers of the
Fourth Glacial Stage.
This is also supposed to
have been a period of
land depression and of
extension of the inland
seas of southern Europe.
Britain was probably
connected with France.
The ice-covered areas in
western Europe and
Britain were far more
limited than during the
Third Glacial Stage, yet
the climate appears to
have been more severe

than at any previous
period. For the snow-
level compare Fig. 13.
Drawn by C. A. Reeds
after Geikie and De
Geer.
In the north, Scandinavia and Finland were again enshrouded in ice, and a
great mer de glace occupied the basin of the Baltic Sea, sending its terminal
moraines into Denmark and Schleswig-Holstein and over the northern
provinces of Germany, but this great ice-field did not again become
confluent with that of Great Britain.(7) At the commencement of the fourth
glaciation large glaciers descended over the Scottish mountain valleys and
filled many of them even to the sea; the coast subsided at least 130 feet in
this region. In southern Britain along the valley of the Thames there spread
an arctic flora, with the polar willow (Salix polaris) and the dwarf birch
(Betula glandulosa); an arctic plant bed has also been discovered in the
valley of the Lea. Thus the tundra climate extended from the Scottish
lowlands to the south of England, the land being bleak and almost treeless.
(8) This, we believe, was also the period of the arctic flora at Hoxne,
Suffolk, and of the arctic plant bed in the valley of the Thames. At this time
the valley was frequented by the reindeer, the woolly rhinoceros, and the
mammoth, whose remains are entombed in the low-level alluvia swept
down from the sides of the valley, so that the remains of this arctic fauna
may in places actually overlie those of the more deeply buried and far more
ancient warm Asiatic fauna of Chellean times. Like the Somme, the
Thames(9) was then from 10 to 25 feet below its present level, the bottom
having since silted up with alluvial soil.

Fig. 95. The two large tundra
mammals, the woolly
rhinoceros (upper),
drawn from the work of
Upper Palæolithic artists
and from the specimen
discovered at Starunia, in
Galicia, Austria; and the
woolly mammoth
(lower). These hardy
animals gradually
replaced the African-
Asiatic pair, Merck's
rhinoceros and the

straight-tusked elephant.
Drawn by Erwin S.
Christman. One-sixtieth
life size.
This was the period of the deposition of the 'upper drift' over the north
German lowlands, the Alps, and northern England, also of the early and late
Wisconsin, or 'upper drift,' which spreads very widely over the Eastern
States, from Wisconsin southward and eastward to the latitude of New
York. The gravels and sands of some of the 'lowest terraces' were also
deposited.

Mammalian Life of Mousterian Times
The three successive phases of climate and environment surrounding the
Neanderthal men during the period of the development of the Mousterian
industry, were in descending order as follows:
3. Extreme Cold Climate of the Last Great Glacial Advance.
Period of the late Mousterian industry of La Quina. Spread of all
the arctic and tundra mammals over western Europe, including
the musk-ox; migrations of the obi and banded lemming of the
extreme north. Life and industry of the Neanderthal races,
chiefly in the shelters, grottos, and entrances to the caverns.
2. Cold Moist Climate. Period of the middle or 'full Mousterian'
industry of the Neanderthal races. Appearance of the tundra life,
including well-protected mammals and birds from the arctic
region, also descent of the Alpine types to the foot-hills and
river borders. First forerunners of the steppe life; the full
Eurasiatic forest and field life widely spread over Europe. Life
and industry chiefly in the shelters, grottos, and entrances to the
caverns. Reindeer very abundant.
1. Warm or Cool Arid Climate. Transition from the Acheulean to
the early Mousterian culture, as observed in the stations of La
Micoque and of Combe-Capelle. The so-called 'warm
Mousterian' fauna, including the surviving hippopotamus,

Merck's rhinoceros, and the straight-tusked elephant in northern
and southern France; herds of bison, cattle, and wild horses in
southwestern France. Tribal life, with the industry partly in open
stations, partly under sheltering cliffs.
This is the beginning of the 'Reindeer Period,' for this migrant from
Scandinavia, with its companions of the northeastern tundras, the woolly
mammoth and the rhinoceros, wandered slowly southward before the
advancing Scandinavian ice-fields, which were greatly augmented by the
increasingly cold and moist climate. Thus these animals are found in the
north with flints of the Mousterian culture before they appear in the more
genial region of Dordogne. In the somewhat older Acheulean-Mousterian
station of La Micoque, along the Vézère, the fire-hearths contain almost
exclusively the remains of horses and relatively few remains of bison and
wild cattle, but no reindeer. A fireplace near the station of Combe-Capelle
yields numerous remains of the bison, only a few of the horse, and the first
of the reindeer. Before the appearance of the reindeer in the valley of the
Vézère we may picture the meadow-lands as covered with bison and wild
horses, the latter of the type which is now characteristic of the high plateaus
of central Asia, while the bison of the period appears to be more similar to
the American buffalo than to the surviving European form.
Gradually the tundra animals spread toward the south with the cold climate
which for the first time swept all over western Europe. The whole aspect of
the country slowly changed with the approach of the reindeer, and the
northern flora of the spruce, the fir, and the arctic willow clad the more
sheltered river-valleys and hillsides, while the plateaus and fields were
partly or wholly deforested.

Fig. 96. Typical tundra fauna.
"Gradually the tundra
animals pressed toward
the south with the cold
climate which for the
first time swept all over
western Europe." The
wolverene, Gulo luscus
borealis; the barren-
ground reindeer,
Rangifer tarandus
(drawn from the living
type); the arctic fox,
Canis lagopus; the

musk-ox, Ovibos
moschatus; and the
banded lemming,
Myodes torquatus. One-
twenty-fifth life size. The
lemming (A) is also
shown one-seventh life
size. Drawn by Erwin S.
Christman.

Thus the country became adapted chiefly to the tundra types of mammals;
and in the middle Mousterian strata these herds, newly migrated from the
far north and from the northeastern steppes bordering the Obi River, largely
outnumber the steppe forms, which are limited to two or three species. Of
these the principal types are the steppe horse, related to the Przewalski
horse now living in the desert of Gobi, the steppe suslik (Spermophilus
rufescens), and the steppe grouse, or moor-hen. The more characteristic
forms of steppe life, such as the saiga antelope, the jerboa, and the kiang,
were all later arrivals and did not appear until after the close of the
Mousterian industry and the disappearance of the Neanderthal race.
This was due to the fact that the climate surrounding the Neanderthal race
in Mousterian times was cold and moist, with heavy rainfalls in summer
and snow-storms in winter, a climate thoroughly suited to the arctic tundra
mammals with their heavy covering of hair acting as a rain shed and the
undercoating of wool protecting them in the most severe weather.
The mammal life during the fourth glaciation, as it spread into the middle
Rhine and Westphalian region, is fully recorded in the 'loess' deposits of
Achenheim and in the famous grotto of Sirgenstein, on the upper Danube,
lying northwest of Munich, where, together with traces of the most
primitive Mousterian industry, are found remains of the mammoth, the
bison, the reindeer, a species of wild horse, and the cave-bear. Following
these mammals there is a record in the same deposit of the arrival of the Obi
lemming, from northern Russia.

The fact that only seven Mousterian stations are known in all Germany, or
eight if we include the site of the Neanderthal burial, may be accounted for
by the relatively close proximity of the great Scandinavian glacier on the
north, which was only 350 miles distant from the great Alpine glacier on the
south. To the east were the plains of Bohemia and the vast lowland region
stretching northeastward to the tundras and eastward to the steppes, through
which came the great migrations of tundra and steppe life.

Larger Image

Fig. 97. The seven Mousterian
stations of Germany lay
between the

Scandinavian glacier
(IV) on the north and the
Alpine glacier (IV) on
the south (dotted areas).
They include the grottos
of Sirgenstein,
Irpfelhöhle, and
Räuberhöhle, along the
valley of the Danube;
Kartstein and
Buchenloch, near the
middle Rhine, and
Baumannshöhle, south of
Hanover; also the open
loess station of
Mommenheim. The
Mousterian grotto of
Wildkirchli, in
Switzerland, lay within
the limits of the Alpine
ice-fields; and the burial
at Neanderthal, near
Düsseldorf, was
probably of Mousterian
age. After R. R. Schmidt,
modified and redrawn.

Geographic and Climatic Environment of the Neanderthal Race
Let us first glance at Dordogne. Among the stations of the early Mousterian
industry we have seen that the Neanderthals in the valley of the Vézère, at
La Micoque, were in the midst of a fauna chiefly composed of the bison and
of the wild horse, the remains found in the hearths being almost exclusively
of the latter animal.[AF] In the primitive Mousterian station of Combe-
Capelle near by the fire-hearths yield remains of the bison but only a few of
the horse.

Among the earliest caves inhabited by man(10) was that of Le Moustier,
situated on the right bank of the Vézère, and about 90 feet above it. This
shelter and cave were examined as early as 1860-3 by Lartet(11) and Christy
and subsequently by de Vibraye,(12) Massénat,(13) and others. Besides the
deposits in the floor of the grotto there, a deep Mousterian culture layer has
been found under the cliff in front, and this has been selected for our
representation of the life of the men of Mousterian times, and of the flora of
the Vézère in this early period (see frontispiece). Peyrony observes that,
here as elsewhere, the older and lower industrial camps were farther away
from the shelters; indeed, in this very region there are evidences that the
Chellean and Acheulean flint workers occasionally visited the plateaus
above; but as time passed and the weather became more severe the
Neanderthals began to work nearer to the overhanging cliffs and finally
directly beneath them. At this classic station of Le Moustier, one of the
most complete skeletons of Neanderthal man was unearthed by Hauser, in
1908. There was a continuous residence here in middle and upper
Mousterian times, extending into the lower Aurignacian of the Upper
Palæolithic. The contemporary fauna in these deposits included the
mammoth, the reindeer, the giant deer (Megaceros), the horse, the bison, the
woolly rhinoceros, and the cave-bear. During the habitation of this typical
station by man the climate was very cold and damp.
In this region is found the complete record of the course of Mousterian
evolution, both in the implements and in the advent of new forms of life;
the number of reindeer gradually increases in the ascending layers with the
development of the Mousterian industry. There is a constant gradation from
the Acheulean into the Mousterian industrial types; according to Cartailhac,
this industry is all the work of the same people, with no sharp lines of
division.

Fig. 98. The type station of Le
Moustier, on the right
bank of the Vézère,
Dordogne. The culture
layer is on the middle
terrace, overlooking the
hamlet of Le Moustier.
(Compare frontispiece,
Pl. I.) Photograph by
Belvès.

Thus at Combe-Capelle, where the début of the true Mousterian culture
took place, we find a number of large coups de poing, pointing back to the
early Acheulean implements. The gradations which are exhibited here in
these successive layers are quite in contrast to the advance of the industry at
the close of Mousterian times in the very same locality, where there is an
abrupt cultural transition toward the Aurignacian.
Southern Britain tells of a similar sequence, which we may interpret as
follows. Belonging either to the temperate climate of early Mousterian

times, or to the period of the recession of the fourth glaciation, known in the
Alps as the Laufenschwankung, are the Mousterian stations along the Lea
and near the mouth of the Thames at Crayford (Worthington Smith,(14)
Geikie(15)). These Palæolithic 'floors' of Mousterian times are buried
beneath 4 to 5 feet of sand and loam and rest upon the surface of older
river-gravels. Among the later river deposits several old land surfaces have
been discovered; they consist of a few inches of angular gravel, crowded in
places with unabraded implements and flakes which obviously occur just
where they were left by Palæolithic workmen. At one point there is
evidence that the flint maker squatted over his work, with his knees slightly
apart, for the chips are thrown to the right and left in small piles. Here and
there, mixed with these Mousterian implements, are more archaic forms
which may have been drifted down from the older land surfaces above.

Fig. 99. Excavations of the
Mousterian culture layer
under the cliff of Le
Moustier. Photograph by
N. C. Nelson.

One such floor has been traced by Worthington Smith(16) through
Middlesex and on both sides of the Thames. Plant remains occur plentifully
on this old land surface, including impressions of portions of leaves, stems
of grass, rushes, and sedges. The birch, alder, pine, yew, elm, and hazel
have been recognized. The common male fern is of frequent occurrence,
while the royal fern (Osmunda regalis) is found in profusion. Upon the
whole, this assemblage of plants indicates a temperate climate. The flints
described and figured by Worthington Smith are either of the late Acheulean
'Levallois flake' type or else of early Mousterian age. This writer(17) notes
the great number of instruments known as trimmed flakes, which are found
on the Palæolithic 'floor'; these are flakes of large size, trimmed to an
implement-like form on one side, while the other side is left perfectly plain;
the examples are remarkably constant to one form. The type of implement
here described resembles the flakes of Levallois or Combe-Capelle, or even
the typical 'point' from Le Moustier. Such flakes, shaped into the
Mousterian forms of racloir, or scraper, are very common in the gravels of
the Lea and of the Thames.
While the remains of the woolly mammoth are found here, there are also
indications of the presence of a well-marked temperate flora. These high-
level 'river-drifts' along the Thames(18) were certainly deposited when the
climatic conditions were temperate, but they are succeeded by deposits
indicating a renewed cold period, which may represent the cold 'full
Mousterian' times of the Lower Palæolithic habitation of the Thames. Here
we find the remarkable sheets of contorted 'drift' attributable to the
movements of the frozen soil and subsoil when exposed to the heat of the
summer sun. At the same time there may have been deposited along the
Thames the alluvial loams and gravels, occasionally containing stones and
rocks, which were brought down by ice-rafts; these low-level gravels are
not to be confused with the underlying 'old river-gravels' which contain the

warm temperate hippopotamus fauna, for they were accumulated under
very cold conditions; they yield remains of the woolly rhinoceros and of the
mammoth. Thus, on the high levels of the Thames as well as on the low
levels we find evidences of the human culture and of the extinct fauna of
the period of the fourth great glaciation.

Fig. 100. Mousterian cavern
of Wildkirchli. After
Bächler. Entrances
indicated at 1, 2, and 3,
in the side of the
limestone cliff. Here, at a
height of 4,500 feet
above sea-level, Bächler
discovered proofs of
occupation by
Mousterian man in the
very heart of the Alpine
ice-fields of the Fourth
Glacial Stage.

The upper waters of the Rhine and Danube were also frequented by late
Acheulean and early Mousterian flint workers. At a point far distant from
southern England there is the cavern of Wildkirchli on the Santis
Mountains, near Appenzell, in Switzerland; in Mousterian times this was in
the very heart of the north Alpine ice-field. The animal life here may
indicate that this cavern was open during the period of recession between
the two great advances of the fourth glaciation. Here, at a height of 4,500
feet, Bächler(19) between 1903-6, discovered proofs of occupation by
Neanderthal man during Mousterian times; the flints are not well formed;
the presence of crude bone implements may point to late Mousterian times;
but the flints are considered by Bächler to be of the same stage as those of
Le Moustier. It is asserted that when the Neanderthals followed the chase
here the climate was more genial, because the animals found include the
stag, Alpine wolf (Cyon alpinus fossilis), cave-bear, cave-lion, cave-leopard
(Felis pardus spelæa), badger, marten, and otter, together with the typical
Alpine forms, the ibex, chamois, and marmot. But this fauna alone can
hardly be taken as proof of a temperate climate, for at this Alpine height we
should not expect to discover the tundra life of the period; in fact, it is
entirely absent.

Fig. 101. Entrance to the
grotto of Sirgenstein.
After R. R. Schmidt. "Of
all the stations along the
Danube by far the most
important is that of
Sirgenstein ... which was
first occupied by the
Neanderthals in early
Mousterian times and
continued to be visited
by the Lower and Upper
Palæolithic men until the
very close of the Upper
Palæolithic."

Of all the stations along the Danube, by far the most important is that of
Sirgenstein, lying between the modern cities of Nuremberg and Augsburg,
which was first occupied by the Neanderthals in early Mousterian times and
continued to be visited by the Lower and Upper Palæolithic men until the
very close of the Upper Palæolithic. The continuous section of animal life
and of human culture which this remarkable cavern yields afforded
Schmidt,(20) who began his researches here in the spring of 1906, a key to
the prehistory of all the eighteen caverns in the region of the upper Danube
and upper Rhine. In Sirgenstein the primitive Mousterian culture of the
early Neanderthals was found, together with remains of the mammoth,
bison, reindeer, a species of wild horse, and the cave-bear; this Mousterian
industry closed with a record of the arrival in this region of the Obi
lemming from northern Russia. Later on the Crô-Magnon race of
Aurignacian times left on the floor of the cavern remains of their flint
industry and of their feasts, including the bones of the woolly rhinoceros,
mammoth, stag, and reindeer. During Upper Palæolithic Solutrean times the
cavern was not occupied; but early in Magdalenian times it was again
inhabited by man, and coincident with his return is the arrival of a great
migration of the banded lemming (Myodes torquatus) from the arctic
tundras of the north. Finally, toward the end of the Upper Palæolithic, in
late Magdalenian times, another climatic transition is indicated by the
appearance of the pika, or tailless hare (Lagomys pusillus). During the
Bronze Age this favorite grotto was again entered, and it was also inhabited
during a portion of the Iron Age. The débris of these various cultures,
hearths, and deposits of cave loam reach a total thickness of 8½ feet and
mark Sirgenstein as first in rank among the Palæolithic stations of Germany.

Types and Migrations of the Mammals Hunted by the Neanderthals
This is the life of the period of the fourth glaciation, when a very cold and
moist climate prevailed all over western Europe as far south as northern
Spain and northern Italy. While the glacial fields were not so extensive as
during the third or the second glaciation, the climate was very severe, as
indicated by the southward migration not only of the arctic flora but of the

mammals and birds of the tundra region bordering the southern shores of
the Arctic Ocean. Two or three forms from the cold steppes of northern
Russia also found their way into western Europe, but this was distinctly not
a steppe period because of the prevailing moisture of the climate; in place
of the westerly winds and great dust clouds of closing Acheulean times,
cold mists and clouds heavy with moisture swept over the country, which
during the winters was at times buried in snow, and subject to rapid changes
of temperature. These climatic[AG] conditions appear to be demonstrated by
the predominance of the arctic tundra life, mammals which were adapted
only to severe weather and attracted by the northern flora.

Pl. V. The Neanderthal man
of La Chapelle-aux-

Saints, inhabiting the
Dordogne region of
central France in
Mousterian times.
Antiquity estimated as
between 40,000 and
25,000 years. After the
restoration modelled by
J. H. McGregor. For the
bodily proportions of this
hunting race compare the
frontispiece, Pl. I.

The summers were undoubtedly warm like the present Arctic summers, but
very much longer in these southerly latitudes. It is not improbable that there
were seasonal migrations, northward and southward, of the mammoths,
rhinoceroses, and reindeer, and also that the northern flint quarries along the
Somme and the Marne may have been visited chiefly during the warm
summer season. The Asiatic mammals had entirely disappeared from the
regions of France and Germany during the first maximum of the fourth
glaciation, but there are some who maintain that during the amelioration of
climate that followed, an interval in the Alpine region termed the
Laufenschwankung by Penck, the straight-tusked elephant and Merck's
rhinoceros again migrated into northern France. It is true that occasionally
we find the bones of these animals in close association with those of the
woolly mammoth and the woolly rhinoceros. It is possible to explain such
intermingling either as having occurred during the advance of the fourth
glaciation, or as due to the northward and southward migration of the
respective herds of mammals in the summer and winter seasons. As the
period of the fourth glaciation continued it is certain that these Asiatic
mammals entirely disappeared.
At the same time the Neanderthals had passed through the first stage of
development of the Mousterian industry and had reached what is known as
the 'full' or 'high' Mousterian, which, with few exceptions, was carried on
under the shelter of the overhanging cliffs or within the grottos.

The mammalian life of these 'full' Mousterian times, as found along the
headwaters of the Danube, the Rhine, and the branches of the Dordogne and
Vézère, is divided among the various faunal groups as follows:
Life of Middle Mousterian Times
Tundra Life.
Woolly mammoth.
Woolly rhinoceros.
Scandinavian reindeer.
Arctic fox.
Arctic hare.
Banded lemming.
Arctic ptarmigan.
Alpine Life.
Alpine marmot.
Ibex.
Alpine ptarmigan.
Steppe Life.
Steppe horse.
Steppe suslik.
Moor-hen.
Asiatic Life.
Cave-lion.
Cave-hyæna.
Cave-leopard.
Forest Life.
Stag, lynx, wolf, fox, water-vole, brown bear, giant deer.
Cave-bear.
Meadow Life.
Bison.
Wild cattle.
It would appear that the reindeer, the woolly mammoth, and the woolly
rhinoceros were already widely distributed over western Europe,

accompanied by the arctic fox (Canis lagopus), the arctic hare (Lepus
variabilis), and the banded lemming (Myodes torquatus). There is no proof
that the musk-ox had at this time reached its extreme southerly distribution,
and it would appear that the arrival of the second type of northern lemming
from the region of the river Obi (Myodes obensis) did not occur until the
close of Mousterian times,(21) because the great migration of these animals
is recorded by their abundant remains in the so-called 'lower rodent layer' of
all the stations along the Rhine and Danube, such as Sirgenstein,
Wildscheuer, and Ofnet, after the final stage of Mousterian industry. In fact,
this remarkable little rodent appears to mark the second maximum or close
of the fourth glaciation by its migration all over western Europe, and
wherever its remains are found in the grotto deposits they furnish one of the
most important and positive of prehistoric dates, namely, that of the 'lower
rodent layer.' The lemmings surpass all other mammals in the great
distances covered by their migrations, and it would appear that this northern
species swept all over western Europe at the same time, leaving its remains
not only in the caverns along the Danube but in those of Belgium and of
Thiede, near Braunschweig. The latter station, Thiede, was not far from the
southern border of the Scandinavian glacier; it was subjected to a very
severe arctic climate, as the only associates of the Obi lemming were the
banded lemming, the arctic fox, the arctic hare, the reindeer, the mammoth,
and the musk-ox.

Life of Late Mousterian Times
Second Maximum of Fourth Glaciation
Tundra, Steppe, Alpine, Asiatic and Meadow life, as above.
Obi lemming.
Musk-ox.
Ermine.
Arctic ptarmigan.
Eversmann's weasel (Steppe weasel).
The woolly mammoth now reaches the height of its evolution and specialization; as preserved in the frozen tundras
of northern Siberia, and as represented in very numerous drawings and engravings by the Upper Palæolithic artists,
it is the most completely known of all fossil mammalia.(22) Its proportions, as shown in the accompanying figure,
which represents the information gathered from all sources, are entirely different from those of either the Indian or
African elephant. The head is very high and surmounted by a great mass of hair and wool; behind this a sharp
depression separates the back of the head from the great hump on the back; the hinder portion of the back falls
away very rapidly and the tail is short; the overcoat of long hair nearly reaches the ground, and beneath this is a
warm undercoating of wool. It is not improbable that the humps on the head and the back were fat reservoirs. The
color of the hair was a yellowish brown, varying from light brown to pure brown; woolly hair, from an inch to an
inch and a half in length, covered the whole body interspersed with the shorter hairs was a large number of longer
and thicker hairs, which formed mane-like patches on the cheeks, chin, shoulders, flanks, and abdomen. A broad
fringe of this long hair extended along the sides of the body, as depicted in the work of the Upper Palæolithic
artists in the Combarelles Cave. Especially interesting to us is the food found in the stomach and mouth of the
frozen Siberian mammoths, which consists chiefly of a meadow flora such as flourishes during the summer in
northern Siberia at the present day, including grasses and sedges, wild thyme, beans of the wild oxytropis, also the
arctic variety of the upright crowfoot (Ranunculus acer). This was the summer food. The winter food undoubtedly
included the leaves and stems of the willow, the juniper, and other winter plants.

Fig. 102. The woolly mammoth (Elephas
primigenius) and the contemporary
Neanderthal hunters (Homo
neanderthalensis), after the drawings of
Upper Palæolithic artists and the frozen
mammoths found in northern Siberia. By
Charles R. Knight, 1915.

The woolly rhinoceros was the invariable companion of the mammoth, even as Merck's rhinoceros always
associated itself with the straight-tusked elephant. This remarkable animal is related to the northern African group
of white rhinoceroses, from which it branched off at a very remote period. The profile of its very long, narrow
head, of its enormous anterior and lesser posterior horn, and its humped back resembles that of the existing African
form, but its protection against the arctic climate gave it a wholly different outward appearance; the hair of the
face, of a golden-brown color, with an undercovering of wool, is preserved in the Museum of Petrograd. Through a
discovery at Starunia, in eastern Galicia, in 1911, this animal is now completely known to us, except the tail; its
remains were found here at a depth of 30 feet, and included the head, left fore leg, and the skin of the left side of
the body. The Starunia specimen has a broad, truncated upper lip adapted to grazing habits, small oblique eyes,
long, narrow, and pointed ears, a long anterior horn with oval base, and a shorter posterior horn, a short neck, on
the back of which is a small, fleshy hump, quite independent of the skeleton; the legs are comparatively short. It
differs from the living African form in the somewhat narrower muzzle, in its small, pointed ears, and in the
presence of a thick coating of hair. Like the white rhinoceros, the woolly form was a plains dweller, living on grass
and small herbs.(23) This rhinoceros kept more closely to the borders of the great ice-sheets than did the mammoth,
arresting its migration in Germany and France; that is, it did not migrate so far to the south as the mammoth, which
wandered down into Italy as far as Rome.
The reindeer was the herald or forerunner of all the arctic tundra fauna; it reached the valley of the Vézère at the
beginning of the period of the true Mousterian culture and already had penetrated much farther south during the
Third Glacial Stage, probably migrating along the borders of the ice-fields; in fact, it is found in northern Europe
even during the second glaciation. It is the true Scandinavian or barren-ground species, which is now typified by
two forms of the Old World reindeer (R. tarandus, R. spitzbergensis), and by the existing American barren-ground
forms. The antlers are round, slender, and long in proportion to the relatively small size of the animal; the brow
tines are palmated. There is little proof that the Neanderthals made much use of the bones of the reindeer, but there
is every reason to suppose that they used the pelts, for the preparation of which the Mousterian scrapers and
planers were especially well fitted.

Fig. 103. The woolly rhinoceros (Rhinoceros
antiquitatis), after the drawings of
Palæolithic artists and the specimen
from Starunia preserved in the museum
of Lemberg, Galicia. By Charles R.
Knight, 1915.

In the Iberian peninsula the tundra fauna did not penetrate as far south as Portugal, although the Norwegian
lemming (Myodes lemmus) reached the vicinity of Lisbon. The woolly mammoth, accompanied by the woolly
rhinoceros, has been discovered in two localities on the extreme northern coast of Spain, in the province of
Santander, bordering the Bay of Biscay. The reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) is found in the cavern of Seriña, south of
the Pyrenees; as early as Acheulean times it reached the region of Altamira, near Santander. Thus Harlé(24)
concludes it is certain that the tundra fauna spread from France westward into Catalonia, along the northern coast
of Spain, flanking the Pyrenees. It is generally believed that the cave-bear (Ursus spelæus) occupied many of the
caverns before their possession by man, and developed certain peculiarities of structure in these haunts. Thus the
phalanges bearing the claws are feebly developed, indicating that the claws had partly lost their prehensile
function; the anterior grinding-teeth are very much reduced, and the cusps of the posterior grinders are blunted in a
way which is indicative of an omnivorous diet; yet the front paws were of tremendous size, the body was thick-set
and of heavier proportions than that of the larger recent bears (Ursus arctos) of Europe. Hence, it would appear
that the Neanderthals drove out from the caves a type of bear less formidable than the existing species but
nevertheless a serious opponent to men armed with the small weapons of the Mousterian period.

Customs of the Chase and of Cave Life
We have only indirect means of knowing the courage and activity of the Neanderthals in the chase, through the
bones of animals hunted for food which are found intermingled with the flints around their ancient hearths. These
include in the early Mousterian hearths, as we have seen, bones of the bison, the wild cattle, and the horse, which
are followed at Combe-Capelle by the first appearance of the bones of the reindeer. The bones of the bison and of
the wild horse are both utilized in the bone anvils of the closing Mousterian culture at La Quina. What we believe
to be the period of the great mammalian life of the region of the upper Danube is found in the Mousterian levels of
the grotto of Sirgenstein, from which it would appear that the Neanderthals hunted the mammoth, the rhinoceros,
the wild horse, bison, and cattle, and the giant deer as well as the reindeer. We should keep in mind, however, that
when these caves were for a time deserted, the beasts of prey returned, and so it often happens that the succeeding
layers afford proofs of alternate occupation by man and by beasts of prey of sufficient size to bring in the larger
kinds of game, while owls may be responsible for the deposits of the lemming, as in the 'lower rodent layer.'
Obermaier(25) has given careful study to the vicissitudes of cave life in Mousterian times. Long before these caves
were inhabited by man, they served as lairs or refuges for the cave-bear and cave-hyæna, as well as for many birds
of prey. For example, the cave of Echenoz-la-Moline, on the upper waters of the Saône, contained the remains of
over eight hundred skeletons of the cave-bear, and no doubt it cost the Neanderthals many a hard-fought battle
before the beasts were driven out and man possessed himself of the grotto. Fire may have been the means
employed. It has been questioned whether the caves were not unhealthy dwelling-places, but it must be
remembered that, except in certain caverns which had natural openings through the roof for the exit of smoke,
there was no true cave life, but rather a grotto life, which centred around the entrance of the cave. The smallest
cave, this author observes, was considerably larger and better ventilated than the small, smoky cabins of some of
the European peasants, or the snow huts of the Eskimo. The most serious obstacle was the prevailing dampness,
which varied periodically in the caverns, so that dry seasons were succeeded by abundant moisture seeping
through the limestone roof and down the side walls. At such times the caverns were probably uninhabitable, and in
the bones of both men and beasts many instances have been observed of diseased swellings and of inflammation of
the vertebræ, such as are caused by extreme dampness. The compensating advantages were the shelter offered
from the rain and cold, a constant temperature at moderate distances from the entrance, and also the fact that the
caves were very easily defensible, because the entrance was generally small and the approach often steep and
difficult; a high stone wall across the opening would have made the defense still easier, and a flaming firebrand
would have prevented the approach of bears and other beasts of prey. On account of this shelter from the weather
and wild beasts the grottos and the larger openings of the caverns were certainly crowded with the Mousterian flint
workers during the inclement seasons of the year.
Yet the greater part of the life of the Neanderthals was undoubtedly passed in the open and in the chase.
Throughout Mousterian times the commonest game consisted of the wild horse, wild ox, and reindeer. Both flesh
and pelts were utilized, and the marrow was sought by splitting all the larger bones. Thus, frequently we find in the
hearths the remains of the mammoth, the woolly rhinoceros, the giant deer, the cave-bear, and the brown bear.
From these beasts of prey the Neanderthal hunters obtained pelts and perhaps also fat for torches used to light the
caverns; there is no proof of the invention of the lamp at this period.

The work of the women undoubtedly consisted of preparing the meals and making the pelts into covers and
clothing. Whenever possible this would be done in the daylight outside of the grottos, but in chilly, rainy weather,
or the bitter cold of winter, the whole tribe would seek refuge in the grotto, gathering around the fire-hearths fed
with wood; odd corners would serve as storehouses for fuel or dried meat, preserved against the days when
extreme cold and blinding snow forbade the hunters to venture forth.
It appears that the game was dismembered where it fell and the best parts removed. The skull was split open for the
brain; the long bones were preserved for the marrow; thus the bones of the flank and shoulder of game occur
frequently in cave deposits, while the ribs and vertebræ are rare.
The pitfall may have been part of the hunting craft known to the Neanderthals. The chase was pursued with spears
or darts fitted with flint points, also by means of 'throwing stones,' which are found in great numbers in the upper
Mousterian levels of La Quina, in the Wolf Cave of Yonne, Les Cottés, and various places in Spain. If one
imagines, as is quite possible, that the throwing stone was placed in a leather sling or in the cleft end of a stick, or
fastened to a long leather thong, one can readily see it would prove a very effective weapon.
The methods of chase by the Neanderthals are, nevertheless, somewhat of a mystery. There was a very decided
disparity between the size and effectiveness of their weapons and the strength and resistance of the animals which
they pursued. None of the very heavy implements of Acheulean times was preserved; the dart and spear heads are
not greatly improved, certainly they could not penetrate the thick hides of the larger arctic tundra mammals,
heavily protected with hair and wool; the chase even of the horses, wild cattle, and reindeer was apparently
without the aid of the bow and arrow and prior to the invention of the barbed arrow or lance head.

Larger Image

Fig. 104. Geographic distribution of Pre-
Neanderthaloids and Neanderthaloids in
western Europe, showing the localities
where the remains of Pre-
Neanderthaloid races (Heidelberg and
Piltdown) and of true Neanderthaloids
have thus far been discovered. (Compare
table, p. 219.)

Discovery of the Neanderthaloid Races

The open-air or nomadic life of all the tribes of western Europe from Pre-Chellean nearly to the close of Acheulean
times was very unfavorable to the preservation of human remains. It is possible that the bodies of the dead and of
the aged were thrown out to the hyænas which surrounded the stations, as among some of the tribes of Africa to-
day, but it is equally possible that they were interred in some manner. Skeletons buried near the surface in the river
sands or gravels of the 'terraces' would not have been preserved. We have seen that the preservation of the
Heidelberg and Piltdown remains was entirely due to chance, the bones having been washed down and mingled
with those of the animals; nor has any evidence been found in the grotto of Krapina of ceremonial burial or of
respect for the dead, but on the contrary there is some evidence of cannibalistic customs. Even before the close of
early Mousterian times all this was changed. Perhaps the closer association enforced by the more rigorous climate
indirectly produced greater respect for the dead and led to the custom of burial or the orderly laying out of the
remains of the dead in the floors of the partly protected grottos and caverns, to which custom we owe our present
knowledge of the structure of Neanderthal man in Mousterian times.

Fig. 105. Front view of the Neanderthaloid
skull found at Gibraltar in 1848—the
earliest discovery of a member of this
race, now regarded as the skull of a
woman. Photograph by A. Hrdlička from
the original specimen. One-quarter life
size.

The first discovery of a Neanderthaloid was made in 1848, eight years before the type of the Neanderthal race
came to light. This was the Gibraltar skull(26) found by Lieutenant Flint, near Forbes Quarry, on the north face of
the Rock of Gibraltar. It consists of a well-preserved skull, with the parietal bones only missing and the face and
base of the cranium remarkably complete. In 1868 it was presented by Busk to the Museum of the Royal College
of Surgeons, in London, where it lies to-day. The exact site of the discovery can no longer be positively identified;
it was probably found in a still existing cave, and although its archæologic age cannot be determined, yet as its
anatomical features are those of the Neanderthal race, and as all the remains of this race which can be dated with
certainty are of Mousterian age, it probably belongs to the Mousterian period. Of recent years its great importance
in the history of man has been revealed in the studies of Sollas, Keith, and Schwalbe. Thus it has come to be
ranked among the Neanderthaloids and is considered of a particularly primitive form, because of the extremely
small size of the brain. This feature and the slight development of the supraorbital ridges, so characteristic of the
Neanderthaloids, are explained by the theory that the skull belonged to a female.

Fig. 106. Section of that part of the valley of
the Düssel known as the Neanderthal,
showing the location of the limestone
grotto where the Neanderthal skeleton
was discovered. Drawn by C. A. Reeds.

Sera(27) considers the Gibraltar skull to be the most ape-like of all human fossils and thinks it should not be classed
with the Neanderthaloids at all, but should be regarded as Pre-Neanderthaloid; this view is shared by Keith. Boule,
however, believes that this skull is of the same geologic age as that of Spy, La Chapelle, La Ferrassie, and La
Quina; everything leads us to believe,(28) he remarks, that the skull of Gibraltar is a female skull of Neanderthal
type. He elsewhere refers to the skulls of Gibraltar, of La Quina, and of La Ferrassie II as probably those of female
Neanderthals.

Fig. 107. The original type skull of
Neanderthal (left side) discovered in
1856. After Schwalbe. One-quarter life
size.

The type skull of this great extinct race of men is that of Neanderthal—certainly the most famous and the most
disputed of all anthropologic remains—appreciated by Lyell and Huxley, but passed over by Darwin, and finally
established by Schwalbe as the most important missing link between the existing species of man (Homo sapiens)
and the anthropoid apes. In 1856(29) some workmen were engaged in clearing a small loam-covered cave about six
feet in height, the so-called Feldhofner Grotto, in the cretaceous limestone of the valley known as the Neanderthal,
on the small stream Düssel flowing between Elberfeld and Düsseldorf. They discovered some human bones,
probably a complete skeleton representing an interment, which, unfortunately, were allowed to be scattered and

crushed. Doctor Fuhlrott rescued the parts that remained, including the now famous skullcap, both thigh-bones, the
right upper-arm bone, portions of the lower arm, bones of both sides, the right collar-bone, and fragments of the
pelvis, shoulder-blade, and ribs. All the bones were perfectly preserved and are now to be found in the provincial
museum of Bonn.
The discovery made a great sensation, but at first the age of these fossils remained doubtful; some 150 paces from
the grotto, in a similar small cave were found bones of the cave-bear and rhinoceros. In 1858 Schaaffhausen's
memoir(30) appeared, in which he gave the first detailed description of these remains as belonging to a primitive
original race differing in every point from recent man, and he never wavered from this standpoint. In 1863(31)
Busk, Huxley, and Lyell also placed this skeleton in its true intermediate position between man and the anthropoid
apes. The determined opinion of Virchow that this was not a normal type of man exerted so great an influence that
not until the classic work of Schwalbe,(32) between 1899 and 1901, did this skeleton assume its commanding
importance for all time, and even this was subsequent to the discovery of two other Neanderthaloid races.
At first, quite erroneously, this was associated with the so-called race of Cannstatt, but long before Schwalbe's
work it was recognized by King,(33) in 1864, as a distinct species of man (Homo neanderthalensis) 'the man of the
Neander valley.' Not long after the discovery of the Neanderthaloids of Spy, in Belgium, Cope,(34) in 1893,
proposed the same specific name of Homo neanderthalensis. In 1897 Wilser(35) suggested the name of Homo
primigenius, which has been widely adopted in Germany, while among French authors the same species of man is
sometimes known to-day as Homo mousteriensis. This variety of names serves at least to record the unanimous
opinion that this mid-Pleistocene man belongs to a distinct species.
Since the race was very widely distributed, we may speak of these people as the 'Neanderthals,' while races
resembling the Neanderthal species may be characterized as 'Neanderthaloid.' The complete series of discoveries
of members of this race is now very large indeed.
DISTRIBUTION OF THE REMAINS OF THE NEANDERTHALS
(Compare Fig. 104)

1. Of Unknown Lower Palæolithic Times
1848. Gibraltar. Forbes Quarry. Fragmentary skull.
1856. Skullcap and skeletal
Neanderthal. Düsseldorf, Germany.
fragments.
1859. Arcy-sur-Cure. Yonne, France. 1 lower jaw.
1866. La Naulette. Belgium. 1 lower jaw.
1888. Malarnaud. Ariège, France. 1 lower jaw.
? Gourdan. Hautes-Pyrénées. 1 lower jaw.
1906. Ochos. Moravia. 1 lower jaw.

2. With Late Mousterian Industry
1887. Spy I, II. Near Dinant, Belgium. Two skulls and skeletons.
1907. Fragments of upper and
Petit-Puymoyen. Charente, France.
lower jaws.
1909. Pech de l'Azé. Dordogne, France. Skull of a child.
1910. La Ferrassie II. Dordogne, France. 1 skeleton (female).
1911. La Cotte de St. Brelade. Isle of Jersey. 13 human teeth.
1911. Skull and fragments of
La Quina II. Charente, France.
skeleton.

3. With Middle Mousterian Industry
1882. Šipka. Moravia. Jaw of a child.

1908. Almost complete skull
La Chapelle-aux-Saints. Corrèze, France.
and skeleton.
1909. La Ferrassie I. Dordogne, France. Portions of one skeleton.
1910. La Quina I. Charente, France. Foot bones.

4. With Early Mousterian Industry
1908. Vézère Valley,
Le Moustier. Skeleton of a youth.
Dordogne, France.
1914. Ehringsdorf.(37) Near Weimar. Lower jaw.

5. With Mousterian or Acheulean Industry
1899. Portions of many
Croatia,
Krapina. skeletons of adults
Austria-Hungary.
and of children.
1892. Taubach. Near Weimar. 1 milk tooth.

In the year 1887 the Belgian geologists Fraipont and Lohest(36) discovered in a grotto near Spy, not far from
Dinant on the Meuse, the remains of two individuals which are now distinguished as Spy I and Spy II. In the same
stratum with the skeletons, beneath a layer of tufaceous limestone, flint implements of Mousterian age were
embedded, together with remains of the woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, cave-bear, and cave-hyæna. This
discovery is one of the most important in the history of anthropology, because it definitely dated the Spy men as
belonging to the period of Mousterian industry, and also because the authors immediately recognized these men as
belonging to the race of Neanderthal and of Cannstatt, which at the time were supposed to be the same. Here for
the first time the proportions of the cranium and the brain, the very primitive features of the lower jaw and of the
teeth, the low stature, and several ape-like characters of the limb bones became known; here were observed the
prominent supraorbital ridges of the Neanderthal type, the receding forehead, the cranial profile inferior to that of
the lowest existing Australian races, the narrow, dolichocephalic skull. The limbs were found to have retained the
anthropoid disproportion between the thigh-bone and the shin-bone, and the important discovery was made that
this short, massively built, heavy-browed, dull-visaged Neanderthal man was unable to stand absolutely erect, the
structure of the knee-joint being such that the knees were constantly slightly bent. In other words, the Spy man had
not yet fully acquired the erect position of the lower limbs.