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diff --git a/41649-0.txt b/41649-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5bd7c80 --- /dev/null +++ b/41649-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7763 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41649 *** + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 41649-h.htm or 41649-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/41649/41649-h/41649-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/41649/41649-h.zip) + + + Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive. See + http://archive.org/details/newstoneageinnor00tyleuoft + + + + + +[Illustration: RECONSTRUCTED LAKE-DWELLINGS] + + +THE NEW STONE AGE IN NORTHERN EUROPE + +by + +JOHN M. TYLER + +Professor Emeritus of Biology, Amherst College + + + + + + + +New York +Charles Scribner's Sons +1922 + +Copyright, 1921, by +Charles Scribner's Sons + +Printed in the United States of America + +Published March, 1921 + + + + + TO + + JOSEPH DÉCHELETTE + + PATRIOT AND ARCHÆOLOGIST + + KILLED IN BATTLE AT VINGRÉ (AISNE) + OCTOBER 3, 1914 + + + + +PREFACE + + +The dawn of history came late in Northern Europe and the morning was +stormy. We see the Roman Empire struggling in vain to hold back +successive swarms of barbarians, pouring from a dim, misty, mysterious +northland. Centuries of destruction and confusion follow; then gradually +states and institutions emerge, and finally our own civilization, which, +though still crude and semibarbarous, has its glories as well as its +obvious defects. + +The growth, development, and training of these remarkable destroyers and +rebuilders was slowly going on through the ages of prehistoric time. +Most of the germs, and many of the determinants, of our modern +institutions and civilization can be recognized in the habits, customs, +and life of the Neolithic period. Hence the importance of its study to +the historian and sociologist. It has left us an abundance of records, +if we can decipher and interpret them. It opens with savages living on +shell-heaps along the Baltic. Later we find the stone monuments of the +dead rising in France, England, Scandinavia, and parts of Germany. They +begin as small rude shelters and end as temples, like that at +Stonehenge. People were thinking and cooperating, and there must have +been no mean social organization. + +We find agriculture highly developed in the valleys of the Danube and +its tributaries. We see villages erected on piles along the shores of +the Swiss lakes--probably a later development. We find implements, +pottery, and bones of animals; charred grains of wheat and barley and +loaves of bread; cloth and ornaments--almost a complete inventory of the +food and furnishings of the people of this period. We should call them +highly civilized, had they been able to write their own history. What +was their past and whence had they come? + +Implements and pottery tell us of exchange of patterns and ideas, or may +suggest migrations of peoples, and finally map out long trade-routes. +Some day the study of the pottery will give us a definite chronology, +but not yet. + +We can reconstruct, to some extent, these phases of prehistoric life. +Our greatest difficulties begin when we attempt to combine these +separate parts in one pattern or picture, to trace their chronological +succession or the extent of their overlappings and their mutual +influence and relations in custom and thought. Here, we admit, our +knowledge is still very vague and inadequate. Twenty years ago the +problem seemed insoluble; perhaps it still remains so. But during that +time explorations, investigations, and study have given us many most +important facts and suggestions. Some inferences we can accept with a +fair degree of confidence, others have varying degrees of probability, +sometimes we can only guess. But guesses do no harm, if acknowledged and +recognized as such. + +I venture to hope that historian and sociologist may find valuable facts +and suggestions in this book. But, while writing it, I have thought more +often of the eager young student who may glance over its pages, feel the +allurement of some topic and resolve to know more about it. The +bibliography is prepared especially for him. It is anything but +complete. The literature of the period is almost endless. I have +referred to only a few of the best and most suggestive works. They will +introduce him to a chain of others. If he studies their facts and +arguments he will probably reject some of my opinions or theories, +modify others, and form his own. If I can do any young student this +service, my work will have been amply repaid. America has sent few +laborers into this rich harvest field. + +I wish that this little book might play the part of a good host, and +introduce many intelligent, thoughtful, and puzzled readers to the +company and view-point of the prehistorian. + +In prehistory we find man entering upon course after course of hard and +rigid discipline and training, usually under the spur of necessity, the +best of all teachers. Every course lasts through millennia. Their chief +end is to socialize and humanize individual men. Environment, natural or +artificial, is a means to this end. It compels men to struggle, each +with himself; only as men improve is any marked change of conditions +possible or desirable. Men must "pass" in the lower course before they +can be promoted to the next higher, to find here a similar field of +struggle on a somewhat higher plane. Human evolution, as a process of +humanizing and socializing man, is and must be chiefly ethical; for +ethics is nothing more nor less than the science and art of living +rightly with one's neighbor. And man is incurably religious, always +feeling after the power or powers in or behind nature, whose essential +character she is compelling him to express, as her inadequate but only +mouthpiece. He will gradually become like what he is feeling after, +dimly recognizing, and rudely worshipping. These are the most important +departments of the school of prehistoric man. + +The story told us by the evolutionist and prehistorian is full of +surprises. It tells us of the failure of dominant species of animals and +of promising races of men. It shows men plodding wearily through +hardship and discouragement, and finding therein the road to success. +The apparently dormant peoples and periods often prove in the end to +have been those of most rapid advance. "The race is not to the swift nor +the battle to the strong." But it enables us to plot the line of human +progress by points far enough apart to allow us to distinguish between +minor and temporary oscillations and fluctuations and the law of the +curve. The torch is passed from people to people and from continent to +continent, but never falls or goes out. There is always a "saving +remnant." We have grounds for a reasonable hope, not of a millennium, +but of success in struggle. The economist, sociologist, and even the +historian, are lookouts on the ship; evolution and prehistory must +furnish chart and compass, and tell us our port of destination. + +Many or most of the best thoughts in this book are borrowed. Some of +these borrowings are credited to their owners in the bibliography. Of +many others I can no longer remember the source. The recollection of +successive classes of students in Amherst College, with whom I have +discussed these topics, will always be a source of inspiration and +gratitude. I owe many valuable suggestions to my colleagues in the +faculty, especially to Professor F. B. Loomis. To the unfailing kindness +and ability of Mr. and Miss Erb, of the Library of Columbia University; +to Professor H. F. Osborn for his generous hospitality; to the staff of +the Boston Public Library; to Doctor L. N. Wilson, of the Library of +Clark University; most of all, to Mr. R. L. Fletcher and his assistants, +of the Library of Amherst College, my debt is greater than can be +expressed in any word of thanks. + + + + +CONTENTS + Page + + PREFACE vii + + CHAPTER + + I. THE COMING OF MAN 3 + + THE ANCESTORS OF MAN. THE PRIMATES AND ARBOREAL + LIFE. THE DESCENT FROM THE TREES. + PITHECANTHROPUS. THE ORIGINAL HOMELAND. + HUMAN RACES AND EARLIEST MIGRATIONS. THE + ARRIVAL IN EUROPE. THE GREAT ICE AGE. HEIDELBERG + MAN. NEANDERTHAL AND CRO-MAGNON + RACES. + + + II. THE PERIOD OF TRANSITION. SHELL-HEAPS 36 + + THE RETREAT OF THE GLACIERS. DANISH SHELL-HEAPS. + MUGEM. MAGELMOSE. RINNEKALNS. + AZILIAN-TARDENOISIAN EPOCH OF TRANSITION. + CAMPIGNY. THE FIRST IMMIGRANTS. + + + III. LAND HABITATIONS 53 + + NEOLITHIC CAVE-DWELLERS. PIT-DWELLINGS AND + HUTS. GROSGARTACH. FORTIFIED VILLAGES, + FOREST, AND STEPPE. LOESS. + + + IV. LAKE-DWELLINGS 69 + + PLATFORMS AND HOUSES. DOG, CATTLE, PIGS, + SHEEP. CULTIVATED PLANTS. FRUITS, SPINNING + AND WEAVING-EPOCHS. + + + V. A GLANCE EASTWARD 91 + + CRADLE OF NEOLITHIC CULTURE. BABYLONIA. + ANAU, SUSA. THE BEGINNINGS OF AGRICULTURE. + PLATEAUS AND PIEDMONT ZONES. HOE-TILLAGE. + THE PLOUGH. SUMMARY. + + + VI. MEGALITHS 114 + + DOLMENS. "GALLERY CHAMBERS." MENHIRS. + DISPOSAL OF THE DEAD. INCINERATION. + + + VII. NEOLITHIC INDUSTRIES 131 + + DRESS. FLINT AND BONE IMPLEMENTS. AXES. + MATTOCKS. FLINT MINES. SALT. GOLD. COPPER. + TRADE. WARES. AMBER. TRADE-ROUTES. POTTERY, + BANDED, CORDED AND CALCYCIFORM, INCRUSTED + POTTERY. + + + VIII. NEOLITHIC CHRONOLOGY 160 + + FINAL RETREAT OF GLACIERS. YOLDIA EPOCH. + ANCYLUS EPOCH--LITTORINA DEPRESSION. DATE + OF BEGINNING AND OF END OF NEOLITHIC PERIOD. + FOREST SUCCESSIONS. MAGELMOSE AND SHELL-HEAPS. + SUCCESSIVE TYPES OF AXE. CHARTS. + + + IX. NEOLITHIC PEOPLES AND THEIR MIGRATIONS 179 + + PALÆOLITHIC RACES AND MIGRATIONS. MEDITERRANEAN + RACE. ROUTES OF MIGRATION. AFRICAN, + MEDITERRANEAN, SOUTH RUSSIAN STEPPE ROUTE. + NEOLITHIC PEOPLES AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION. + NORDIC PEOPLES. THE DANUBE VALLEY. THE + "MELTING-POT" OF CENTRAL EUROPE. PIONEER + LIFE. + + + X. NEOLITHIC RELIGION 206 + + PALEOLITHIC RELIGION, THE AGE OF WONDER: + NEOLITHIC RELIGION AND EXPERIENCE. RITUAL. + TABOO AND TRIBAL RESPONSIBILITY. GREEK MYSTERIES. + THE COMING OF THE OLYMPIANS, AND + THE RETURN OF THE ANCIENT CULTS, SOURCES + OF THEIR VITALITY. CULT OF THE GODDESS AND + MOTHER-RIGHT. RELATION TO AGRICULTURE. + SOCIAL POSITION OF WOMEN. + + + XI. PROGRESS 228 + + THE MEDITERRANEAN AND THE BALTIC. SOURCE + OF PROGRESS NOT IN WAR. AGRICULTURE. HOME + TRAINING. THE NEIGHBORHOOD. RELIGION. PHILOSOPHY. + MINGLING OF CULTURES AND PEOPLES. + + + XII. THE COMING OF THE INDO-EUROPEANS 246 + + ARYAN AND EUROPEAN LANGUAGES. ORIGINAL + LANGUAGE; SPREAD AND MODIFICATIONS. EARLIEST + MIGRATIONS. THE ACHÆANS. THE AGE OF + HEROES. CITY-STATES IN GREECE. ABSORPTION + OF INVADERS. HOMELAND. INDO-EUROPEAN RELIGION. + PERSISTENCE OF NEOLITHIC SURVIVALS. + FOLK-LORE AND FAIRY-TALE. COMMON PEOPLE. + LEGISLATION. THE CHURCH. LIFE CURRENTS. + + + BIBLIOGRAPHY 293 + + INDEX 309 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + Reconstructed Lake-Dwellings _Frontispiece_ + FACING PAGE + + Human Figures, Spain--Early Neolithic 32 + + Drawings of Animals (Cro-Magnon) from Altamira 32 + + Shell-Heap 40 + + Shell-Heap Axe 40 + + Shell-Heap Jar 40 + + Weaving and Plaiting from Lake-Dwellings 84 + + "Crouching Burial" (Hockerbestattung), Adlerborg, + near Worms 116 + + Menhir, Carnac, Brittany 116 + + Dolmen, Haga, Island of Borust 116 + + Alignment, Carnac, Brittany 124 + + Modern Albanian Peasants in Neolithic Garments 132 + + Axes from Lake-Dwellings Showing Attachment to + Handles 136 + + Boats from Rock Carvings in Bohuslan, Sweden. + (Early Bronze Age) 146 + + Pottery from Neolithic Graves 154 + + Pottery 158 + + Successive Stages and Forms of Baltic Sea 162 + + Forms of Prehistoric Axe 174 + + Female Idols, Thrace 218 + + Female Idol, Anau 218 + + Ancient Fishermen 232 + + Early Agriculture 236 + + +MAP + + Migrations of Peoples 184 + + + + + THE NEW STONE AGE + IN NORTHERN EUROPE + + The first of the two numbers and the letter in the footnotes + designate the position in the Bibliography at the end of the + volume of the title referred to; the second refers to the page of + the book or article. + + +THE NEW STONE AGE IN NORTHERN EUROPE + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE COMING OF MAN + + +Man has been described as a "walking museum of paleontology." He is like +a mountain whose foundations were laid in a time so ancient that even +the paleontologist hardly finds a record to decipher; whose strata +testify to the progress of life through all the succeeding ages; whose +surface, deeply ploughed by the glaciers, is clothed with grass and +forest, flower and fruit, the harvest of the life of to-day. + +Some of his organs are exceedingly old, while others are but of +yesterday; yet all are highly developed in due proportion, knit and +harmonized in a marvellously tough, vigorous, adaptable body, the +instrument of a thinking and willing mind. Most surviving animals have +outlived their day of progress; they have "exhausted their lead," to +borrow a miner's expression, and have settled down in equilibrium with +their surroundings. But discontented man is wisely convinced that his +golden age lies in the future, and that his best possessions are his +hopes and dreams, his castles in Spain. He is chiefly a bundle of vast +possibilities, of great expectations, compared with which his +achievements and realizations are scarcely larger than the central point +of a circle compared with its area. + +Physically he belongs to the great branch or phylum of vertebrate +animals having a backbone--sometimes only a rod of cartilage--an internal +locomotive skeleton, giving the possibility of great strength and +swiftness, and of large size. Large size, with its greater +heat-producing mass relative to its radiating surface, implies the +possibility of warm blood, or constant high temperature, resulting in +greater activity of all the organs, especially of the glands and the +nervous system. Large size, as a rule, is accompanied by long +life--giving opportunities for continuous and wide experience, and hence +for intelligence. Yet most vertebrates have remained cold-blooded, and +only a "saving remnant" even of men is really intelligent. Man belongs +to the highest class of vertebrates, the Mammals, which produce living +young and suckle them. Among the highest mammals, the Primates, or apes, +the length of the periods of gestation, of suckling the young, and of +childhood, with its dependence upon the mother, have become so long that +she absolutely requires some sort of help and protection from the male +parent. From this necessity have sprung various grades and forms of what +we may venture to call family life, with all its advantages. How many +mammals have attained genuine family life and how many men have realized +its possibilities?[1] + +The upward march of our ancestors was neither easy nor rapid. They were +anything but precocious. They were always ready to balk at progress, +stiff-necked creatures who had to be driven and sternly held in the line +of progress by stronger competitors. The ancestors of vertebrates +maintained the swimming habit, which resulted in the development of the +internal skeleton and finally of a backbone, not because it was easiest +or most desirable, but because any who went to the rich feeding-grounds +of the sea-bottom were eaten up by the mollusks and crabs. Our earliest +air-breathing ancestors were crowded toward, and finally to the land, +and into air-breathing by the pressure of stronger marine forms like +sharks, or by climatic changes.[2] Reptiles, not mammals, dominated the +earth throughout the Mesozoic era, and harried our ancestors into +agility and wariness; at a later period the apes remained in the school +of arboreal life mainly because the ground was forbidden and policed by +the Carnivora. They and their forebears were compelled to forego some +present ease and comfort, but always kept open the door to the future. + +In spite of all this vigorous policing, malingerers and deserters turned +aside from the upward line of march at every unguarded point or fork in +the road, escaped from the struggle, and settled down in ease and +stagnation or degeneration, like our very distant cousins, the monkeys +and lower apes. Long-continued progress is a marked exception, not the +rule, in the animal world, and is maintained only by the "saving +remnant." And these continue to progress mainly because Nature is +"always a-chivying of them and a-telling them to move on," as Poor Joe +said of Detective Bucket, and her guiding wand is the spur of necessity. + +The Primates, or apes, are, as we have seen, the highest order of the +great class of mammals. Most of them, like other comparatively +defenseless vertebrates, are gregarious or even social.[3] They have a +feeling of kind, if not of kindness, toward one another. This +sociability, together with the family as a unit of social structure, has +contributed incalculably to human intellectual and moral development. +Man is a Primate, a distant cousin of the highest apes, though no one of +these represents our "furry arboreal ancestor with pointed ears." +Arboreal life was an excellent preparatory training toward human +development. Our primate ancestor was probably of fair size. In climbing +he set his feet on one branch and grasped with his hands the branch +above his head. Foot and leg were used to support the body, hand and arm +for pulling. Thus the hand became a true hand and the foot a genuine +foot, opening up the possibility of the erect posture on the ground and +the adaptation of the hand to higher uses. Meanwhile the climbing and +leaping from branch to branch, the measuring with the eye of distances +and strength of branches, the power of grasping the right point at the +right instant, and all the complicated series of movements combined in +this form of locomotion furnished a marvellous set of exercises not only +for the muscles but for the higher centres in the cortex of the brain. +Very probably gregarious life and rude play, so common among apes, was +an extension course along somewhat similar lines. + +Our ancestors became at home in and well adapted to arboreal life, but +the adaptation was never extreme. It was rather what Jones[4] has called +a "successful minimal adaptation." They used arboreal life without +abusing it by over-adaptation, which would have enslaved them, and made +life on the ground an impossibility when the time came for their +promotion to this new and more advanced stage. + +At the close of his arboreal life the ape had inherited or acquired the +following assets: His vertebrate and mammalian structure had given him a +large, vigorous, compact, athletic, adaptable body. The mammalian care +of the young had insured their survival, but only at the expense of +great strain and risk of the mother. Something at least approaching +family life was already attained. Arboreal life with its gymnastic +training had moulded the body, differentiated hand and foot, given the +possibility of erect posture, emancipating the hand from the work of +locomotion and setting it free to become a tool-fashioning and +tool-using organ. The ape has keen sense-organs, an eye for distances, +and other conditions; and the use of these powers has given him a brain +far superior to that of any of his humbler fellows. These are full of +great possibilities and opportunities, if he will only use them. + +But why did our ancestor descend from his place of safety in the trees +and live on the ground, exposed to the attacks of fierce, swift, and +well-armed enemies? Very few of the Primates, except the rock and +cliff-inhabiting baboons, ever made this great venture. There must have +been some quite compelling argument to induce him to take so great a +risk. The change took place probably at some time during the latter half +of the Cenozoic or Tertiary period, the last great division of +geological time, the Age of mammals.[5] The earliest Tertiary Epoch, the +Eocene, was a time of warm and equable climate, when apes lived far +north in Europe, and doubtless in Asia also. Some of these apes were of +fair or large size, showing that conditions were favorable and food +abundant. The next epoch, the Oligocene, was similar but somewhat +cooler. The third, the Miocene, was cooler still and dryer. Palms now +forsook northern Europe, being gradually driven farther and farther +south. Life became more difficult, food scarcer. Apes could not longer +survive in northern Europe, but had to seek a warmer, more favorable, +environment farther south, for many of the fruit and food trees had +been crowded out and famine threatened.[6] But insects and other small +and toothsome animals remained on the ground, and were abundant along +the shores of rivers and lakes. There, too, were fruits and berries, +roots and tubers. There the food supply was still more than sufficient. + +Thus far we have glanced at Europe only. But the same changes are taking +place in Asia, the cradle and home of most placental mammals, the main +area of a huge zoological province of which Europe was but a westward +projection, and with which America had direct connection from time to +time in the region of Behring's Straits. Here, during late Miocene and +early Pliocene times, in the latter part of the Cenozoic era, a dryer +and somewhat harsher climate had been accompanied by the appearance of +wide plains fitted for grazing animals, as well as stretches of forest, +with all varieties of landscape favoring great diversity as well as +abundance of mammalian life. It was, perhaps, the golden age for most +mammals, when food was plenty, climate not too severe, and every +prospect pleased. This slow and gradual, but fairly steady, lowering of +temperature was to culminate in the Great Ice Age of the Pleistocene +Epoch, so destructive to mammalian life in the northern hemisphere. + +A second climatic change, perhaps even more important than the lowering +temperature, was the increase of aridity. Even during the Oligocene +Epoch "the flora indicates a lessening humidity and a clearer +differentiation of the seasons,"[7] The great trough of the inland sea +which had stretched from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean began to +rise, the first uplift taking place along the Pyrenees and western Alps. +The Miocene was marked by a series of great movements. The old inland +sea was displaced, subsidence gave place to uplift, and the greatest +mountain system of the globe, including the Alps and the Himalayas, +began to grow through vast repeated uplifts in the crust.[8] The +continents were elevated and widened. The forest-dwelling types became +restricted and largely exterminated, and animals of the plains, in the +form of horses, rhinoceroses, and the cloven-hoofed ruminants, expanded +in numbers and in species. This profound faunal change implies dryer +climate. There was now a lesser area of tropic seas to give moisture to +the atmosphere. The mountains were now effective barriers, shutting off +the moisture-bearing winds from the interior of the continents. + +These changes would have been noticeable in Europe north of the Alps, +but were far more so in central Asia along the northern face of the +great plateau of Thibet, with its eastern and western buttresses, and +its towering rampart of the Himalayas on the south, cutting off the warm +moisture of the Indian Ocean. Northward of this vast plateau and +westward over the far less elevated Iranian plateau and Afghanistan, +forest was fast being replaced by parklands of mingled groves and +glades, or by grassy plains, or even by dry steppes. Dessication, +aridity of climate, was fast compelling forest and arboreal mammals to +migrate or radically change their habits of life.[9] + +Almost all the apes found their old environment and continued their +arboreal life by migrating far southward through India or into Africa. +But at the rear of the retreating host were forms from the cooler +northern regions. They were hardy and vigorous, and probably larger than +most of their fellows. Possibly some of them were caught in isolated +decreasing areas of forest surrounded by steppe or plain. Some of them, +at least, began to descend from the trees, to seek the new food +supplies of riversides, glades, and thickets, and thus gradually to +become accustomed to life on the ground. It was a very hazardous +experiment; only the most hardy and wary and the quickest in perception, +wit, and movement survived. Among these were our ancestors, driven like +all their forebears by the spur of necessity into a new mode of life +under trying conditions. + +They were still only apes, with long arms and short legs, and probably +scrambled mostly on all fours. They had heavy brows, retreating +foreheads, projecting jaws, and a brutal physiognomy. Of the mental life +of the man who was to be descended from them there were few signs. They +were bundles of very slight possibilities. + +But let us not "despise the day of small things." They were still far +from the invisible line between apedom and manhood. Physically they +resembled man quite closely. They had hand and foot, and a fair-sized +brain, though they had scarcely begun to realize the possibilities of +these structures. + +Arboreal life could teach them little more; continuance in that school +would have meant a very comfortable stagnation. They were now promoted +to a new school of vastly more difficult problems, greater risks and +dangers, and more severe and trying discipline. They had had an +excellent course of manual and sensory training; now they must continue +this and add to it the use of whatever wits they had, under peril of +death. Nature was still compelling them to "move on." + +This descent to the ground probably was accomplished either in India or +on the Iranian plateau, or somewhat farther to the northeast, somewhere +in the great horseshoe of parkland which curved around the western +buttress of the great central Asiatic plateau of Thibet. Can we locate +it somewhat more definitely?[10] + +At this time, during the Pliocene Epoch, there were being deposited in +India the so-called Siwalik strata--vast, ancient flood-plains, +stretching for a distance of 1,500 miles along the southern foot-hills +of the Himalayas. They are composed of materials washed down from the +mountains by a system of rivers, persisting with little change into the +present. Says Osborn of the mammals found here: "It is altogether the +grandest assemblage of mammals the world has ever seen, distributed +through southern and eastern Asia, and probably, if our vision could be +extended, ranging westward toward Persia and Arabia into northern +Africa. It is the most truly cosmopolitan aggregation because in its +Upper Pliocene stage it represents a congress of mammals from four great +continents.... The only continents which do not contribute to this +assemblage are South America and Australia."[11] The older, Miocene, +portions of this fauna are chiefly browsing forest forms, emphasized by +the absence of both horses and Hipparion, as well as of grazing types of +cattle and antelopes. Grazing forms, showing the decline of the forest +and the spread of open parkland and grassy areas, become abundant during +the Pliocene Epoch. "Among the Primates we find the Orang, an ape now +confined to Borneo and Sumatra; also the Chimpanzee, another ape, now +confined to Africa, the Siwalik species displaying a more human type of +dentition than that of the existing African form." + +In the older, Miocene, portion we find Sivapithecus, an ape which +Pilgrim considers as more nearly resembling man than any other genus of +anthropoids, while Gregory speaks of it as belonging to the anthropoid +line.[12] Somewhat later, in late Pliocene or early Pleistocene, there +was living not far away, in Java, a far more renowned form, +_Pithecanthropus erectus_, _Du Bois_, which seems to stand almost +exactly midway between higher apes and man. The remains consisted of two +molar teeth, a thigh-bone, and the top of a skull. The cranium is low, +the forehead exceedingly retreating, giving but very small space for the +frontal lobes of the brain. But the brain-cast, made from the cranial +cavity, shows, according to Du Bois, that the speech area is about twice +as large as in certain apes, though only one-half as large as in man. In +size the brain stands somewhat above midway between the highest recent +apes and the lowest existing men. The thigh-bone shows that +Pithecanthropus could have stood and walked erect quite comfortably. +There has been and still is much difference of opinion regarding the +position of this most interesting being. Opinion was long divided nearly +equally between those who considered it as the highest ape and others +who held it to be the very lowest man. + +It is worthy of notice that, when Pithecanthropus was alive, "Java was 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 the same time the Orang may have entered the forests of +Borneo, which are at present its home."[13] Where man's distant cousins, +the anthropoid apes, and his still nearer relation, Pithecanthropus, +were all living and some, at least, apparently progressing, could hardly +have been far from his original home. But the climatic conditions of +that time lead us to seek his original cradle somewhat farther northward +than India, or even Beluchistan, and nearer to, if not in, the great +steppe zone of central Asia. We lose sight of our ape-man as he is +advancing toward the threshold of manhood, not far away. Whether we +think that Pithecanthropus was approaching or had already passed it +depends much upon where we draw the line between ape and man, a line +largely artificial and as difficult to fix as the day and hour when the +youth becomes of age, and what human characteristics we select to mark +it. In his erect posture and some other physical traits he seems already +to have attained manhood; mentally he was probably far inferior to even +the lowest savage races of to-day. We are not sure whether he was our +ancestor or merely a cousin of our ancestor, once or twice removed; we +still lack foundations for any hypotheses as to exactly when, where, or +how the erect ancestral ape-man emerged into real manhood. + + +Millennia passed between the days of Pithecanthropus and the first human +migrations, and we may imagine primitive man as having become fairly +well accustomed to life on the ground, and as having mastered his first +lessons in meeting its dangers and difficulties. He had probably taken +possession of a much wider area than the home of the ape-man, perhaps of +the whole of the parkland zone curving around the western buttresses of +the plateau of Thibet. From this region routes of migration radiated in +all directions, all the more open because of the elevation of land which +lasted through Upper Pliocene and early Pleistocene times.[14] Sumatra +and Java then formed an extension of the Malay Peninsula, reaching more +than 1,000 miles into the Indian Ocean; while the Orang seems to have +been able to reach Borneo somewhat earlier. The way was equally clear +westward into Europe, the Dardanelles being then replaced by a land +bridge, while a second bridge spanned the Mediterranean over Sicily into +Italy, and a third existed at Gibraltar.[15] These routes were evidently +followed by herds of great herbivora, and probably by the earliest +human emigrants into Europe. + +Following Keane,[16] we shall divide mankind into four great groups or +races, and then glance at their radiation from southwestern Asia toward +all parts of the globe. These great primitive divisions are: + +I. _Negroids._ Color yellowish brown to black, stature large or very +small. Hair short, black or reddish brown, frizzly, flattened-elliptical +in cross-section. Nose broad and flattened. Cheek-bones small, somewhat +retreating. Examples: Negritoes, Negroes. + +II. _Mongoloids._ Color yellowish. Stature below average. Hair coarse, +lank, round in cross-section. Nose very small. Cheek-bones prominent. +Examples: Malays, Chinese, Japanese, Thibetans, Siberian "Hyperboreans." + +III. _Americans._ Color reddish or coppery. Stature large. Hair long, +lank, coarse, black, round in cross-section. Nose large, bridged, or +aquiline. Cheek-bones moderately prominent. (Probably a branch of II.) +Examples: Indians of North and South America. + +IV. _Caucasians._ Color pale or florid. Hair long, wavy or straight, +elliptical in cross-section. Nose large, straight or arched. Cheek-bones +small, unmarked. Examples: Hamitic, Semitic, and European peoples. + +We may now imagine quite primitive human beings starting from their +early home and seeking their fortunes widely apart. They came under +quite different climatic and other physical conditions. Their +environment, problems, stimuli, and opportunities were unlike. Thus, +having become more or less unlike in the homeland, they gradually became +differentiated into the present great groups or races already mentioned. +Some started earlier or marched more rapidly than others. Many proved +unequal to the dangers and difficulties of the journey or new place of +settlement, and disappeared. Many stagnated or degenerated. Only the +comparatively successful or fortunate have survived. Hence, our scheme +is hardly an adequate expression of prehistoric racial groups and their +characteristics, except in very general outline. + +We have seen that the apes, retreating before the approach of harsh and +dry climatic conditions and diminished forest areas and food supply, +migrated southward into India and Africa. The Orang settled in Borneo, +Pithecanthropus in Java, the Chimpanzee and Gorilla went into Africa. +These routes presented the fewest difficulties and demanded the least +readaptation or change of habit. The climate was mild and food +generally abundant and easily obtained. Their environment was neither +stimulating, trying, nor exacting. Progress was hardly to be expected, +but survival was far easier than in more northerly regions. + +The Negritos followed almost exactly the same routes. We find them +purest and perhaps least modified in the "Pygmies" of the African +forests; but also in the Malay Peninsula, the Andaman Islands, and the +Philippines. De Morgan believes that he has found proofs of their +presence on the Iranian plateau at a comparatively late date. + +Behind them Negroid peoples poured into Africa, apparently in successive +waves. Some of them went into the Malay Peninsula, probably generally +submerging the Negritos, and reached New Guinea and Australia. +Inhabiting a series of islands and other more or less isolated areas, +mingling often with Negritos, probably later also more or less with the +Malays, they became much modified, and their relations to the African +Negroes and to one another are still anything but clear. + +The Mongoloids pushed eastward. The earliest migrations seem to be those +of the Malays, a great, very interesting, and little-known though +much-studied group of peoples. They followed the oceanic Negritos along +the Malay Peninsula and occupied the great chains of islands stretching +through the Indian Ocean and far into the Pacific, through more than +ninety degrees of longitude along the equator. But much of this spread +is probably of quite recent date. + +The Mongoloid peoples seem to have passed along the northern front of +the Central Asiatic plateau into Siberia, China, and Japan, and to have +sent off the great American branch. Even before the Mongols had started +on their eastward journey the Caucasians may have turned westward, +following the old Negroid route. There was probably also more or less of +an eastern dispersal, but we cannot consider the problem of these +Oriental Caucasic remnants and traces. The great body went westward. The +Hamitic peoples distributed themselves along the southern shore of the +Mediterranean, and many may well have occupied a large part of the +Sahara region, then a land of watercourses capable of supporting a +large population. Behind them came the Semitic folk. Judging from their +languages the Hamitic and Semitic peoples seem to have been in contact +over a wide area, and for a long space of time. The Semites found a new +and permanent home in Arabia, on whose plateaus and surrounding +grasslands they increased and multiplied, and sent off fresh waves of +migration and conquest in all directions. + +We have already noticed that our classification of races is based upon a +study of recent and still surviving peoples. The very earliest +inhabitants of Europe would find no place in it. Probably they long +antedated the Hamites. African Negroids and Caucasians came from a +common home, and journeyed for a time over a common road, though +probably at far different times. It would be strange if the earliest +inhabitants of Europe showed no traces of this common home and ancestry. +Since the remote period which we are considering Negroes and Caucasians +have become widely different, and their racial characters have become +clear and sharp. This may not have been altogether the case with the +first peoples to arrive in Europe. But attempts to relate the +Neanderthal crania with those of modern Australians or Tasmanians, or +any existing race, have met with no great success. In regard to these +questions we are still in the dark. + +Beside the African routes into Europe, along the south shore of the +Mediterranean and over the Sicilian and Gibraltar land bridges, while +they lasted, two others must be noticed. One of these extended through +Asia Minor and across the land bridge at the Dardanelles, while the +second led westward along the northern border of the Caspian and Black +Seas and the Caucasus Mountains. The most southerly of these four routes +through Africa were probably the first to be travelled, the most +northerly last of all. We shall have to study these routes more closely +in a later chapter. + + +It was at some time during the Glacial period, the Great Ice Age, when a +vast ice-cap covered northern Europe with glaciers extending far +southward and advancing or retreating according to climatic conditions, +that man arrived in Europe. During the first Glacial Epoch the advance +of the ice covered the most northern part of Great Britain and the Rhine +valley almost as far south as Cologne; Scandinavia was completely +buried, like central Greenland to-day, and North Germany probably to the +Harz Mountains. Eastward the southern edge of the ice sheet ran nearly +along the line of 50° N. lat. across Russia. In Siberia the effects were +less marked and the limits were much farther northward. Between the +parallel of 50° and the northern edge of the Alpine glaciers a zone was +left ice-free, but three-fifths of Germany was overwhelmed. Southern +England and France, not yet separated by the English Channel, formed one +great habitable province, and but a small part of France was glaciated. +The climate was tempered by proximity to the sea.[17] The average yearly +temperature of northern Europe was probably not more than 4°-6° Cent. +(39°-43° Fahr.), which is colder than at present. But the formation of +these enormous masses of ice demanded heavy snowfall and a moist or very +damp climate. Hence the edge of the great ice sheet advanced or +retreated according to climatic conditions. + +There were four periods of advance before the final retreat of the ice, +not counting minor oscillations.[18] These are known as the Gunz, +Mindel, Riss, and Wurm Glacial Epochs. Alternating with these were the +interglacial epochs of ice retreat--the Gunz-Mindel, Mindel-Riss, and +Riss-Wurm; while the final retreat is usually termed Post-glacial. +During the first and second interglacial epochs the climate appears to +have been warmer than at present. But at times dryness may have +contributed to the retreat of the ice even more than warmth, and then +the climate would have been continental, harsh, and extreme. + +Even during epochs of glacial advance conditions in France and in the +German zone must have been better than we should expect. Some kind of +grazing or browsing pasturage must have been rich and abundant to +support large animals like the reindeer or even the woolly mammoths +characteristic of the second and third glacial epochs, which furnished +abundant food for prehistoric hunters. Farther south the glacial epochs +may well have been times of heavy rainfall, transforming the Sahara +desert and the dryer steppes and plateaus of Asia into veritable +gardens. + +The retreating ice left behind it a land covered with rocks, clays, +gravels, and sands brought by the glaciers and their streams. Here and +there basins had been gouged out where lakes or ponds long remained--as +in Maine and Minnesota to-day--to be later drained, or, if shallow, to be +overgrown with sphagnum and changed into great bogs. Scattered thickets +of shrubs and stunted hardy trees, poplars, willows, and others +occurred. In sheltered and well-drained valleys and mountainsides the +trees grew larger and even forests began to appear. This tundra +landscape still characterizes wide areas of northern Canada and +Siberia.[19] + +The tundra was followed by steppe conditions, where elevation of land to +the north and northwest had cut off the tempering oceanic winds. The +climate was harsh, dry, continental, with cold winters and hot summers. +The winds carried great storms of dust and piled it up in drifts in +valleys and on suitably situated mountainsides in the form of loess, so +important to the future agricultural development of Europe, though its +most massive accumulation is seen in China, which received and held the +driftings from the great elevated plains of central Asia. As the climate +became moister, if the temperature did not fall too low, steppe finally +gave way to the meadow and forest of modern Europe. Tundra, steppe, and +forest had each its special types of animal as well as plant life. The +characteristic tundra animal is the reindeer, though musk-ox, woolly +mammoth, and others were wide-spread at this time. The peculiar steppe +animal is the horse. The characteristic forest and meadow animals are +the deer and their allies; the wolf and bear; the wild boar and cattle +seem to be at home in forest and glade and along the streams. + +In France, where there was far less glaciation, the succession of +tundra, steppe, and forest is less apparent. Here we find a mingling of +varied forms which have come in from very different regions, driven from +their original homes by change of climate or drawn by favorable +conditions. + +The first unmistakable relic of man in Europe is a human lower jaw found +in the Mauer sands near Heidelberg, some seventy-nine feet below the +surface of the bluff.[20] It seems to belong to the second or +Mindel-Riss interglacial epoch, and its age is estimated by Osborn at +about 250,000 years. Remains characteristic of the oldest Paleolithic +epochs occur between thirty and forty-five feet below the surface. If we +are to find an archæological name for this epoch, there seems to be no +better one than Eolithic, the dawn of the Stone Age, when European man +had hardly more than begun to chip a stone implement, although we must +recognize the unreadiness of many or most archæologists to find a place +for such rude products.[21] + +The third interglacial period (Riss-Wurm) and the fourth period of +advance (Wurm) cover what is known as Lower Paleolithic time, which is +the earlier four-fifths or more of the Old Stone Age or Paleolithic +period, extending approximately from 125,000 B. C., to 25,000 B. C. +During the greater part of this period Europe was occupied by the +Neanderthaloid people. Neanderthal man had a very large head with heavy, +overhanging eyebrows meeting above the nose, and a markedly retreating +forehead. The face was high and the large nasal opening indicates a +broad, flat nose. The lower jaw was heavy and the chin retreating. The +trunk was short, thick, and robust, the shoulders broad; the limbs short +and heavy, the arms and lower legs relatively short, and the hands very +large. Although the much-discussed Piltdown skull may quite probably be +regarded as belonging to the earliest part of this period, the finer +form of cranium seems to testify to a higher race of better mental +development than the Neanderthaloids, huddling in their caves and +shelters. It may easily represent a far more progressive ancestral race, +of which they are somewhat degenerate descendants, though Osborn +dissents from this view.[22] + +Their remains are found in caves and rock-shelters all over Europe. Here +we find their hearths; the bones of the animals which they had hunted +for their food; their almond-shaped flint axes, "hand-stones" +(_Coups-de-Poing_), the scrapers for dressing skins and shaving wooden +tools, and a variety of other forms. Here they buried their dead. During +the third warm interglacial epoch they lived in the open, as at the +station of Chelles, which has given its name to the earliest Paleolithic +epoch.[23] Their origin and route of migration is quite uncertain, but +it seems probable that they entered Europe from the southern shore of +the Mediterranean. + + +The post-glacial period is characterized by the final retreat of the +ice. The change of climate was not steady but marked by a series of +oscillations, repeating on a much smaller scale the glacial and +interglacial epochs of the long past. The climatic change is accompanied +by the appearance of tundra and steppe, followed by meadows and the +forest conditions of modern times. Game was abundant and general +conditions severe but healthy and fairly favorable. + +A new race has appeared on the scene which replaced the Neanderthal +folk, and had practically none of their primitive or degenerate, +ape-like characteristics.[24] The Cro-Magnon people have excited the +wonder and admiration of all anthropologists. They were of tall stature, +had long legs, especially below the knee, giving swiftness in running. +The forehead is broad and of good height, the features are rugged but +attractive, and the brain is very large. They seem to represent a new +race and new immigration, probably from Asia, which spread over Europe. + +The Cro-Magnon brain was anything but dull. In this remote time, more +than 20,000 years ago, there sprang up an art never since surpassed in +its own field except, perhaps, by that of the Greeks. Their bone +implements are adorned with the most lifelike carvings or sculptures. On +the walls of caves we find paintings as realistic and alive, and often +as finely executed in detail and coloring, as the best animal painters +of our day could produce. These people must have had a high and keen +appreciation of the beauty of form and proportion. All this artistic +movement must have had its source in new ideas and conditions, springing +from a thinking as well as a feeling and observing mind. They also +frequently buried their dead, decorated with strings of perforated +shells, and surrounded by flints or sometimes by a layer of red earth or +ore. With them were the bones of food animals and the flint weapons +needed for the journey into or use in the life beyond. + +The life of the Cro-Magnon hunters on their arrival in Europe was +anything but unendurable, especially along the Riviera. There were +open-air encampments where men passed at least the summer months in +tents or huts. The race seems to have culminated during the cold middle +Magdalenian epoch, which indicates that they were well adapted to its +conditions. Game was abundant and relatively easily captured. They had +food and raiment, fair shelter, excellent art, alert brains, and +probably a fair degree of social life. They may well have been content, +courageous, and full of hope for themselves and their descendants. + +[Illustration: HUMAN FIGURES, SPAIN--EARLY NEOLITHIC] + +[Illustration: DRAWINGS OF ANIMALS (CRO-MAGNON) FROM ALTAMIRA] + +Upper Paleolithic time, beginning with the arrival of the Cro-Magnons, +about 25,000 years ago, is divided into four epochs, or, better, +four culture-stages: Aurignacian, Solutrean, Magdalenian, and +Azilian-Tardenoisian. Even in late Magdalenian days, after a cold and +dry interval accompanied by steppe conditions and a new formation of +loess, the air became moister and the temperature gradually moderated +until it became much like that of to-day. Tundra and steppe animals +became more rare; a forest and meadow fauna took possession of Europe. +Instead of the reindeer we find stag and roe-deer, cattle, wild boar, +bears and wolves, beaver and otter. These were less easily hunted and +probably less abundant than the reindeer and horse had been. As +hunting became less profitable, fishing grew more attractive. The +streams probably swarmed with fish, and the salmon was probably as +abundant throughout northern Europe as in Scandinavia to-day. A change +of life is suggested by the implements. The harpoons became ruder. The +beautifully flaked lance-heads and the smoothed bone daggers give place +to small flints, "microliths," less fitted for attacking large and +dangerous animals. The country seems to have supported a smaller and +decreasing population. Cro-Magnon man had always been a reindeer hunter, +accustomed and well adapted to the life and conditions of tundra or +steppe. The changes were not in his favor or to his liking. Many +probably left France and Germany. Those who remained deserted the +rock-shelters and cave-mouths, where every spring the water seeping down +and dripping through the roof dislodged masses of stone.[25] The shelter +was less needed. Men dwelt more in the open, and fewer records of their +presence were preserved. + +But Europe was not deserted. There was no "hiatus." Other peoples were +coming in, perhaps better suited to the new conditions, probably mostly +of Asiatic origin. Broad-heads, as well as new long-heads, appear, less +attractive physically and mentally, but apparently of tougher fibre and +greater staying power than our more striking and charming +Cro-Magnons.[26] A new grand mingling of peoples had already begun or +was in its last stages of preparation already advancing from afar in +successive waves. In Italy genuine Neolithic culture may already have +been introduced. It steals very slowly into northern Europe and +overspreads it. The Cro-Magnon race generally migrated or died out, but +left its traces in the physical characters of the people of Dordogne and +elsewhere. + +The Azilian-Tardenoisian epoch leads over to the Neolithic, our chief +object of study. Its relative position in prehistoric time is shown in +the following scheme: + +_A._ _Eolithic Period._ Stone implements exceedingly rude, hardly +recognizable as artificially chipped; otherwise like _B_. + +_B._ _Paleolithic Period._ Stone implements chipped or flaked, never +polished. No domesticated plants or animals. No pottery. Man a collector +or hunter, more rarely a fisherman. + +_C._ _Transition Period_, resembling _B_ in most respects. + +[_A_, _B_, and _C_ make up the Old Stone Age, before the use of metals.] + +_D._ _Neolithic Period._ Some stone implements polished. No metal except +that copper is introduced toward the end of the period. Agriculture with +domestic plants and animals. Pottery but no potter's wheel. Dawn of +Civilization. + +_E._ _Bronze Period._ Bronze implements or utensils. Dawn of History. +Begins about 2500 B. C. in northern Europe. + +_F._ _Iron Period._ Iron introduced. Historic Times. Begins about 1000 +B. C. in northern Europe. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE PERIOD OF TRANSITION. SHELL-HEAPS + + +During the last great advance of the ice in the earlier Magdalenian +epoch the Scandinavian peninsula had been buried beneath a great mass of +ice, and resembled the central portion of Greenland to-day. A great +glacier extended southward, obliterating the Baltic Sea and crowding +into northern Germany. As the glaciers withdrew, North Germany became a +vast tundra, across which we may imagine the reindeer and other Arctic +and subarctic mammals retreating northeastward before the milder forest +and meadow conditions already prevailing in France and Russia.[27] The +low temperature of the water of the emerging Baltic is shown by the +presence of an arctic bivalve, _Yoldia arctica_, which has given its +name to the epoch. A few scattered bone implements show the presence of +reindeer hunters in Germany at this time. + +Before the close of the Yoldia period Germany began to pass from tundra +to forest--a transformation which was also now progressing in Denmark. +The temperature moderated slowly. The land rose in such a way that it +separated the Baltic from the North Sea and the Arctic Ocean, with which +it had been connected, and made of it a great fresh-water lake. The +characteristic animal of this lake was a small pond animal, _ancylus_, +which has given its name to both lake and epoch. + +The next epoch--the Litorina (or Tapes) depression--was characterized by a +sinking of the land in which the barrier between the Baltic and the +North Seas gave place to a wide communication. The Baltic became more +salt than at present, and the oyster-banks became abundant. It was +during this epoch that the shell-heaps were accumulated. + +The following chart gives a condensed view of the succession of events +(in reverse order):[28] + + +------------------------------+---------------------------+-------+ + | WESTERN AND MIDDLE | | DATE | + | EUROPE | NORTHERN EUROPE | B. C. | + +------------------------------+---------------------------+-------+ + | 4. Typical Neolithic. | Typical Neolithic. | 6000- | + | | Beech and fir forests. | 2500 | + | 3. Daun Stage. | Litorina Epoch. | | + | | Oak forests. | | + | | Northern climatic | | + | | optimum. | 8000 | + | Campignian | Shell-heaps. | | + | 2. Gschnitz Stage. | Ancylus Epoch. Birch and | | + | | pine forests. | 10,000| + | Azilian-Tardenoisian. | Magelmose. | | + | 1. Bühl Stage. | Yoldia Epoch. | | + | | Swedish-Finnish Moraines | 16,000| + | Magdalenian (later) | Tundra. Dryas Flora. | | + +------------------------------+---------------------------+-------+ + +The growth and succession of the forests of Denmark, accompanying +changes in conditions of soil and climate, have been clearly traced by +Steenstrup.[29] The scene of his investigations was a moraine country +broken by low ranges of hills in the island of Zealand, north of +Copenhagen. The hills are often strewn with erratic blocks of rock +brought by glaciers, with here and there small lakes, ponds, or +peat-bogs often giving place to meadow or forest. + +Some of these depressions are filled with a poor variety of peat, dug +for fuel, and the sides are often abrupt, steep, and deep. These sides +furnish a calendar by showing the different layers which have been +formed by successive generations of tree-growth falling into the bog. +Thus, in the upper layers we find remains of trees which still flourish +in Denmark, while the deepest strata contain the remains of reindeer. +The thickness of these layers is between five and seven metres. Their +formation, according to Steenstrup, occupied 10,000 to 12,000 years.(1) + +The following layers are found in these "calendars," beginning at the +surface: + +1. Surface layer. Remains of the beech, which furnishes the chief beauty +of the forests of Denmark to-day. + +2. Oak. The beginning of this layer was contemporary with the Litorina +depression. + +3. Scotch pine (_pinus sylvestris_). The earliest pines were dwarfed, +the trunks showing as many as seventy rings to the inch. In upper strata +their trunks were a metre or so in diameter. In the Lillemose moor, near +Rudesdal, the whole eastern side, twenty metres deep, was filled with +pines. While no human remains have been found in these moors, a stone +axe embedded in a pine trunk, and a stone arrow-head in a bone of the +_bos primigenius_ (which, like the auerhahn or pine partridge lived on +the young pine shoots) have been discovered. The soil best adapted to +the pine is a damp soil, poor in humus, whereas the present rich, +fertile soil of Denmark is best suited to the beech. This explains the +fact that pine forests no longer grow there. + +4. At the bottom, poplars and aspens. The clay underlying the pines and +poplars contains leaves of arctic willows and saxifrages. + +Through these types of strata we may trace the epochs described +at the beginning of the chapter. The pine characterizes the +Azilian-Tardenoisian-Ancylus Epoch; at the time of the Litorina +depression it was fast giving place to the oak, which remains +characteristic of the Neolithic and Bronze periods, yielding to the +beech during the Iron Age. But this advance must have been gradual and +the boundary of advance irregular. + +Blytt has traced a very similar succession of changes in flora and +climate in southern Norway, and Geikie in Scotland.[30] These changes +are very important in our study of the traces of man's first appearance +in Denmark as furnishing not only their setting but also their +chronology. + +Shell-heaps are found all over the world in favorable sheltered +localities where sea food is abundant, especially near clam flats. Hence +they are not characteristic of any one race or time. Some are very +ancient, some comparatively or very modern. They merely show the remains +of the camping-grounds of people in a low stage of culture. Every one +has its own history and its own slight or marked peculiarities. + +The Danish shell-heaps or kitchen-middens are mounds generally about +fifty metres wide and one hundred metres long, and perhaps one metre in +thickness. But, as we should naturally expect, the size varies greatly +according to the advantages of the situation, the number of inhabitants, +and the length of time that it was inhabited. + +[Illustration: SHELL-HEAP] + +[Illustration: SHELL-HEAP AXE] + +[Illustration: SHELL-HEAP JAR] + +The age of these shell-heaps is shown approximately by the presence of +the auerhahn, proving the neighborhood of pine forests. The charcoal in +the fireplaces came from oak wood, showing that oak forests are +overspreading the country. The Baltic was more salt than at present, and +the shore line was depressed. These facts indicate a period of +transition from the Ancylus to the Litorina Epoch. The stone implements +resemble those of western Europe during the late transition epoch, and +do not occur in the oldest graves. There are no domestic animals except +the dog, and no cultivated plants except some wheat in the later +remains. All this seems to prove that genuine Neolithic culture had not +yet reached the shores of the Baltic. They are composed mostly of oyster +shells with a mingling of those of scallops, mussels, and periwinkles. +The oyster has now disappeared from large parts of the coast and in +others has decreased in size. Land elevation has narrowed the connection +of the Baltic with the North Sea, and the water contains less salt. + +Remains of cod and herring show that the fishermen who lived on or near +these harbors ventured out to sea in dugouts or on rafts, and that they +must have made lines for fishing in fairly deep water. Remains of other +fish occur. Bones of birds are often very abundant, especially swamp, +shore, and swimming species; wild geese and ducks, swans and gulls, the +_Alca impennis_ or wingless auk, now extinct. The blackcock, or "spruce +(pine) partridge," was then common, but has now disappeared from Denmark +with the pine whose buds formed a large part of its food. + +Bones of stag, deer, and wild boar form, according to Steenstrup, 97 per +cent of all those of mammals found at Havelse.[31] Bones of seal, otter, +wolf, fox, bear, beaver, and wildcat also occur. There are no traces of +reindeer or musk-ox. These animals had already migrated or died out. +Steenstrup noticed that the long bones of birds are about twenty times +as numerous as others of their skeletons, and that the heads or ends of +the long bones of mammals are generally missing. These were exactly the +parts which are gnawed by dogs, whose remains also occur. Hence he drew +the inference, now universally accepted, that the dog was domesticated +in Denmark at this time. It was a small species, apparently akin to the +jackal and of southeastern origin. No remains of other domesticated +animals have been found, nor of cultivated plants, except a few casts of +grains of wheat in the pottery of the upper layers of some of the +heaps. + +Daggers, awls, and needles were made of bone; also combs apparently used +for stretching sinews into long threads. The flint implements are rudely +chipped, never polished. We find long flakes used as knives, and +numerous scrapers and borers.[32] The axe, if we may call it so, was of +peculiar form, approaching the triangular and looking as if made out of +a circular disk of flint by breaking away two sides of the periphery, +leaving a somewhat flaring cutting edge. The middle was thick, the edge +tapered somewhat rapidly, making a rough but quite durable instrument. +Longer implements in the form of chisels or picks were also roughly +flaked with skilfully retouched edges, often with one end narrowed or +bluntly pointed. In all cases the work is very rude compared with the +best specimens of Paleolithic time. Arrow-heads are common, usually with +a broad edge instead of a point, well suited to killing birds and small +mammals. The bone harpoon seems to have gone out of use. + +The pottery is thick, heavy, crude, with practically no ornament, except +finger-prints around the upper edge. The jars are sometimes of large +size; often the base is pointed instead of flat or rounded. Hearths of +calcined stones are abundant. Sometimes these are surrounded by circular +depressions in the heaps, which may mark the form and position of huts +or shelters; or these may have been placed under the lee of the near-by +forests. No graves or human remains of this period have been found. + +Shell-heaps quite similar to those of Denmark were discovered at Mugem, +in Portugal, in the valley of the Tagus, twenty-five to thirty metres +above sea-level, and thirty to forty miles from the mouth of the river. +The shells are of marine origin, and indicate a considerable elevation +of land since their accumulation. The stone implements are very +primitive and of Azilian-Tardenoisian type. Large flat stones, perhaps +for grinding, perhaps for dressing skins, occur. Pottery occurs only in +the upper layers, where the bones of mammals increase in number. There +are no polished implements, no traces of domesticated animals, not even +of the tame dog. Graves were found here and there; and while the skulls +were badly contorted, they seemed to show that the inhabitants were +partly long-headed, partly broad-heads. Remains, apparently of the same +age, have been found in Great Britain. + +Even the Danish shell-heaps are not all of the same age. According to +Forrer, Havno is ancient; Ertebolle is also old, but was long inhabited, +and some of its uppermost layers may be full Neolithic; Aalborg and +others are younger. Mugem strikes us as more ancient than the similar +Danish remains. Other remains near the Baltic suggest very strongly +quite marked differences in age or in the culture of their inhabitants, +or in both these respects. We can notice only two of these. + +Maglemose lies on the west coast of Zealand near the harbor of Mullerup. +Here a peat-bog has encroached upon a fresh-water lake and has covered a +mud bottom strewn with shells of pond-snails and mussels. Pines had +grown in the swamp, and their stumps still protrude into or above the +moss. The implements were found a little above the old lake bottom +between seventy centimetres and one metre below the surface of the peat. +The remains of the settlement were distributed over an area about one +hundred feet long and broad. The charred or burned wood was very largely +(eighty per cent) pine, ten per cent hazel, a little elm and poplar. No +oak was found here, but oak-pollen grains were found in the same level +as the settlement, or slightly higher and later. Flint cracked by heat +and charred fragments of wood were found, but no definite hearths. Bones +of fresh-water fish and of swamp turtles occur. The shore could not have +been very distant even if it stood considerably higher, but no bones of +marine fish have been found. Many birds were hunted. The mammals include +boar, deer, stag, and urus. The dog is the only domesticated animal. + +Flint chips are abundant at Maglemose; long knife-flakes and axes are +rare. Scrapers and nuclei are numerous. The arrow-heads are long and +pointed instead of broad and edged, as in the usual Danish shell-heap. +Many of these so-called arrow-heads may have been nothing more than +microliths used for a great variety of purposes. No flint implements or +fragments show any trace of polishing. Bone implements are numerous. We +find rude harpoons of a very late Magdalenian type. Also, some of the +bone implements are ornamented with various patterns of incised lines, +and even one or two rude drawings of animals occur. The culture +evidently differs quite markedly from that of the ordinary shell-heaps. +It is worthy of notice that the mud of the lake bottom and the overlying +peat were continuous over and around the whole area of the settlement; +there is no sign of any island at this point and the settlement was +some 350 metres from the original shore of the lake. There are abundant +traces of fire but no hearths. No traces of piles have been discovered. +All this seems to corroborate Sarauw's view that the people lived on a +raft all the year round. Sarauw considers the remains as of the same age +as the oldest shell-heaps. But there is a wide-spread tendency to +consider Maglemose as considerably older, belonging probably to the +close of the Ancylus Epoch. + +Virchow has described a heap composed of mussel-shells on the outlet of +Burtnecker Lake, east of Riga, called Rinnekalns.[33] Its most +interesting feature is its pottery made of clay mixed with powdered +mussel-shells, giving it a peculiar glitter. It is ornamented with lines +arranged in an angular geometrical pattern encircling the vessel. +Similar pottery can be followed far southward into Russia and westward +as far as East Prussia, but not farther into Germany. Bored teeth used +for ornaments occur. Bone implements are numerous, often ornamented with +fine lines in zigzag or network. We find harpoons also. The flint +industry was poorly and sparingly developed. Graves were discovered, but +their contents proved that they belonged to a much later period. + +The culture is peculiar, paralleled to a certain extent but not repeated +in western Europe. We still seem to detect the influence of a decadent, +late Magdalenian style of ornament. Virchow considered them as very late +Paleolithic or very early Neolithic. + +The shell-heaps of different regions resemble one another in general +features, but differ and show their individuality in details of culture. +These peculiarities may be due to difference of age or of culture or +population, or to both. We must first attempt to find some place for +them in the chronological succession discovered in France. They cannot +be much older than the French period of transition, when Scandinavia +first became habitable. But good cave-series covering the transition +epoch are rare, and usually very incomplete. In 1887 Piette found a +remarkable series in a cave or natural tunnel at Mas d'Azil, near +Toulouse.[34] The most important strata were the following: + +1. A dark layer evidently Magdalenian. + +2. A yellow layer deposited by river floods. + +3. Dark Magdalenian layer, with reindeer harpoons, engravings, and +sculptures. Reindeer becoming rare; stag increasing. + +4. Barren yellow layer, like 2. + +5. Reddish layer (Azilian). No reindeer. Stag abundant. Flints nearly +all of Magdalenian types. Flattened stag-horn harpoons perforated at +base. Bone points and smoothers. Pointed flat pebbles. Bones of stag, +bear, boar, wildcat, beaver. + +6. Bones of wild boar, stag, horse. Flints similar to those in 5. +Beginnings of pottery and of polishing; but not of polished axes. +Piette's Arisian. Beginning of Neolithic. + +7. Neolithic and Bronze remains. + +Layer 5 evidently represents a period posterior to the Magdalenian and +anterior to the real Neolithic. Hence Piette considered it as marking a +distinct Azilian Epoch, resembling the Magdalenian in most of its flint +implements, in the absence of pottery and of polished axes. But the +reindeer has here given place to the stag, and the harpoon has changed +correspondingly and is less skilfully made. Bone implements are +decadent. + +Another culture, the Tardenoisian, was of exceedingly wide range. It +took its name from Fère-en-Tardenois, Department of Aisne, northeast of +Paris, and was characterized by its very small "pygmy" flints of +various, usually geometric forms.[35] This microlithic industry was +found in France, Belgium, England, Germany, Russia, and along the +southern shore of the Mediterranean. The culture was well represented +along rivers and inlets, and seemed to characterize a fishing rather +than hunting folk. + +In 1909 Breuil and Obermaier found in the grotto of Valle, in northern +Spain, a classic Azilian deposit, forming the lower levels of a series +rich in these microliths or pygmy flints. The Azilian was more nearly a +continuation of the Magdalenian culture, while the Tardenoisian, in +France, seemed to be an importation from the Mediterranean region. Since +the two were so closely related in point of time it seemed safe and wise +to combine the two names and call the epoch the Azilian-Tardenoisian, +the Azilian representing the older portion. + +The station of Campigny, on the lower Seine, seems to be somewhat later +than the Azilian-Tardenoisian.[36] Here, in a pit oval in outline, with +a long diameter of 4.30 metres, evidently an ancient dwelling, there +were found bits of pottery, utensils of older stone epochs, no polished +implements, but the tranchet or axe and the pick (pic) characteristic of +the Danish shell-heaps. These Campignian remains are hardly widely +enough diffused or sufficiently definite to give name to a distinct +epoch. They may well be nearly contemporaneous with the (older?) +shell-heaps. + +The whole transition epoch, which we have hastily surveyed, shows us a +series or mixture of disconnected cultures, yet with curious and +striking interrelations. This may be partly due to the fact that the +population of Europe was diminished and scattered. Little groups of +people formed more or less isolated communities, and developed their own +special peculiarities according to situation, needs, and opportunities. +Connecting links, or intermediate cultures, which may once have existed, +have been completely lost or still remain to be discovered. The general +desertion of the caves destroyed one of our best sources of continuous +records. + +But the cause of this diversity lies deeper. New cultures and new waves +of migration of peoples were pouring into Europe, especially into the +Baltic region now left free of ice, enjoying a mild climate, and +offering an abundance of food along the shores of its rivers, lakes, and +seas. The Tardenoisian culture had spread northward from the +Mediterranean. The broad-headed people of Furfooz, Grenelle, and Ofret +had apparently crossed Europe from the east and had settled in a long +zone extending northward and southward through Belgium and France and +probably southward into Spain, for we remember the broad-heads found at +Mugem, in Portugal. But their distribution was far wider than this strip +of territory. New Neolithic types of culture had already entered Italy, +perhaps as early as Magdalenian times. Series of waves appear to have +passed into Poland, Russia, and Siberia, and to have moved northward +until they reached the coast in Scandinavia and to the eastward. In all +these cases we may probably imagine a gradual and perhaps slow +infiltration or "seeping" in of the new population rather than an +invasion in crowds or masses, such as we are likely to imagine. Vast +stretches of habitable land had been newly opened, and there was plenty +of room for all comers. In many regions the old population may have +remained comparatively undisturbed until a much later date. But even +they slowly came under the influence of the new and improved technique +and mode of life. All this collision of culture and conflict of peoples +meant stimuli, awakening, the jogging of dull minds, a veritable spur of +necessity. A new day was beginning to break. The dawn was dim and +cloudy, but there was the possibility and prospect of clear shining. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +LAND HABITATIONS + + +Our history of Paleolithic times is drawn very largely from the +successive strata of remains found in rock-shelters and near the mouths +of caves, where the succession of epochs is clear and indubitable. We +naturally look for similar reliable testimony concerning the +chronological succession of Neolithic utensils, pottery and other +remains. Here, however, we have been disappointed to a large degree. +Paleolithic layers were generally or frequently overlaid by beds of +stalagmite or fallen rocks, which have saved them from disturbance. But +the Neolithic and Bronze layers are superficial, usually of no great +thickness; they have been less solidified and protected, and far more +exposed to the disturbing work of burrowing mammals and of men digging +for buried treasures. These circumstances, combined with far less +continuity of occupation, have greatly diminished the chronological +value of their study. + +Neolithic cave remains occur in somewhat limited areas scattered all +over Europe.[37] They have been studied in England, France, Spain, +Austria, and Germany in at least fairly large numbers. In Austria the +cave province extends through Galicia, Moravia, and Bohemia. Here we +find primitive pottery; rude stone and numerous bone implements; +domesticated cattle, goats, and pigs. Game was evidently very abundant. +The cave-dwellers, apparently, were pioneers in the less habitable +regions, living mostly by hunting and fishing, from the increase and +products of their herds, and from agriculture to a far less degree. The +pottery and implements remind us somewhat of those of the earliest +lake-dwellings. But we often find bits of copper and bronze, suggesting +a later date or a series of inhabitants whose relics have become much +mixed. It would not be at all surprising if primitive manufactures had +remained here longer in use than in less isolated regions. A deposit of +quite similar general character has been found at Duino, near +Monfalcone, at the head of the Gulf of Trieste. + +A second province lies in Bavaria, between Bamberg and Baireuth. Hoernes +considers its remains as also of the same age as the oldest +lake-dwellings, but with peculiarities due to the different geographical +conditions. The cave provinces of other countries are equally +interesting. Every one has its own features and problems. We would +naturally expect that these cave-dwellers would represent the least +progressive and prosperous members of the population of any country. In +our general survey we can afford to give them only a hasty glance. We +can easily understand that where chalk or other soft rock occurred +artificial grottos were often excavated.[38] + +Remains of dwellings are common all over Europe, and are likely to be +uncovered wherever excavations are made in grading or for the +foundations of buildings. They are of two forms: the rectangular house +and the round hut. The rectangular form is the rule in the +lake-dwellings, though with exceptions; on the land the reverse is true. +The pit-dwelling at Campigny was elliptical in form with a longest +diameter of 4.30 metres. We remember that the settlement at Campigny is +probably little, if at all, younger than the shell-heaps. But by far the +commoner form of pit-dwelling is circular, with a diameter rarely +exceeding two metres. Such small circular pits are exceedingly common. +At the bottom we find ashes, bones of animals, implements, and fragments +of clay once forming a part of the superstructure, baked hard when the +hut was burned, and still having marks of the twigs and branches over +which the clay had been plastered. We picture to ourselves the hut as +mostly underground, with a diameter usually not exceeding one and +one-half to two metres, excavated to a depth of one or two metres, the +pit often surrounded by a rude wall of field stones. In the centre was +the hearth. The superstructure was merely a cone composed of a framework +of poles interlaced with branches and twigs plastered with clay. In the +primitive hut there was no perpendicular side wall above ground, though +in some the roof may have been raised somewhat on the earth thrown out +from the pit. Such differences of detail are of slight importance. The +huts are of all ages. They were probably erected far back in Paleolithic +time. They seem to be figured in Magdalenian cave-frescoes.[39] Even the +Chellean hunters could hardly have erected more primitive shelters. But +equally rude huts are still inhabited in the Balkan Peninsula,[40] and +are described by classical writers as inhabited by the Germans. + +Says Tacitus (_Germania_, XLVI) of the Finns of his day: "They lead a +vagrant life: their food the common herbage; the skins of beasts their +only clothing; and the bare earth their resting-place.... To protect +their infants from the fury of wild beasts and the inclemency of the +weather, they make a kind of cradle amidst the branches of trees +interwoven together, and they know no other expedient. The youth of the +country have the same habitation, and amidst the trees old age is rocked +to rest. Savage as this way of life may seem, they prefer it to the +drudgery of the field, the labor of building, and the painful +vicissitudes of hope and fear, which always attend the defense and the +acquisition of property. Secure against the passions of men, and fearing +nothing from the anger of the gods, they have attained that uncommon +state of felicity, in which there is no craving left to form a single +wish. The rest of what I have been able to collect is too much involved +in fable...." + +Let us hope that the reports which Tacitus had been able to collect +concerning the dwellings, as well as the ferocity, filth, and poverty of +the Finns, were somewhat exaggerated. Evidently conical, largely +subterranean huts have been common in Europe down to far later than +Neolithic times. The age of any pit-dwelling can be determined only by +its contents. + +In addition to these circular pits, long or short trenches occur. Forrer +found at Stutzheim one cellar more than ten metres long, and varying +from one to three metres in width, with several lateral enlargements as +pantries and storehouses.[41] Forrer considers this as the home of the +chief man, the "manor-house" of the settlement. Around it he found +remains of huts such as we have already described. Frequently space for +storage as well as dwelling was gained by clustering small huts. This +plan would have had the advantage of protection against loss of +everything by fires, which must have been frequent. Such cramped +dwellings, with the garbage scattered over the bottom of the hut, or in +the huts of the most highly cultured deposited in a special hole in one +corner, could hardly have been attractive, clean, or sanitary. But they +were cool in summer and warm in winter, and afforded protection against +wind and weather. People asked and expected no more. Housekeeping was +simple, if not easy. But we can imagine that the return of spring, +allowing them to emerge from their burrows, must have been hailed with +delight. + +We have still much to learn concerning these Neolithic dwellings. They +have been discovered by chance, and usually studied only hastily and +superficially. A pit discovered and examined may have been only one of a +large cluster or village, of which the rest remained undiscovered. +Wooden houses of logs, or with a strong frame of poles seem to have +existed in Bronze, or even late Neolithic times. Sophus Müller[42] +describes settlements in Denmark where the abundance of ashes and +utensils prove long-continued habitation, and yet no pits seem to have +been found--this may be due to insufficient investigation--strongly +suggesting, at least, houses entirely above ground built of perishable +materials. It is very hard to believe that even a Neolithic family could +have lived through the winter in one, mainly subterranean, dwelling only +two metres in diameter, with a fireplace in the middle. They would have +been compelled to sleep sitting or standing! Probably Stutzheim and +other similar settlements which have been discovered, represent the real +general average of pit-dwellings, while besides these there were many of +far superior style and comfort. The development of the Greek house is +still a problem, much more that of a North German dwelling. + +As an example of late Neolithic settlement of the better or best class, +we may take Grosgartach, near Heilbronn, in the Neckar valley.[43] Here, +where now are low meadows, was once a lake connected with the Neckar. +The Neolithic village was carefully and skilfully explored by Hofrath +Schliz, whose report is a model of careful observation and clear +description. + +The situation was very favorable, with loess-clad hills sloping to rich +meadows, and the lake furnishing fish and a line of communication. The +areas occupied by the houses and stalls were clearly marked by the dark +"culture-earth" contrasting sharply with the yellow loess. The principal +house was rectangular. The outer wall was composed of posts with a +wattling of twigs. This was plastered with clay, mixed with chaff and +straw. The inner face of the wall was smoothly finished, and then +"kalsomined" reddish yellow, and still further decorated with fresco in +geometrical designs. The house--5.80 metres by 5.35 metres--was divided +into two rooms. The larger part of the house was occupied by the +kitchen, with its floor about one metre below the surface of the ground, +and entered by an inclined plane or ramp. The other chamber, the +sleeping-room, was nearly a metre above the kitchen and separated from +it by a partition. Benches cut out of the loess were found in both +kitchen and sleeping-room. Stalls for cattle and barns or granaries were +also found. Virchow, in his review of Schliz's monograph, emphasizes +the fact that apparently Grosgartach was deserted by its inhabitants and +fell into decay without leaving any signs of destruction by fire or +violence. + +The villages of Butmir, Lengyel, Jablanica, and others in southeastern +Europe show us a condition of advanced culture here also.[44] +Déchelette, speaking of the culture of this region, notices "the +striking analogies between these old walled villages of the Balkans and +the Danube valley, and those of the Ægean villages of the Troad and +Phrygia." Primitive idols, painted pottery, frequent use of the spiral +in decorative art, all these reappear here and there in the Neolithic +stations of southeastern Europe, and in the eastern basin of the +Mediterranean in pre-Mycenæan and Mycenæan days. Evidently houses, +settlements, modes of life, and stages of culture differ greatly during +the same epoch of the Neolithic period in different parts of Europe. +Italy was always far in advance of Europe north of the Alps. But even in +northern Europe there was great diversity. Shell-heap dwellers still +remained long after a much higher culture prevailed throughout most of +Denmark. The life and thought of the pioneer hunters of northern +Germany, and still more of northern Russia, were very different from +those of the agriculturists along the valley of the Danube and in the +Balkan Peninsula. In Greece little city-states began to arise early. +Even in northern Europe density of population and size of settlements +varied greatly. One illustration of these differences can be seen in the +occurrence of fortified villages and refuges.[45] The age of these +fortifications is as great a problem as that of the remains found in a +pit-dwelling. The village may be, probably usually is, much older than +the surrounding wall, and an earthen wall may contain Neolithic or even +perhaps Paleolithic implements. The custom of fortifying villages +evidently spread rapidly during the Bronze and Iron periods. Sophus +Müller tells us that all walled settlements north of the Alps are far +younger than the Neolithic period.[46] This statement, often disputed or +neglected, is probably an exaggeration, but may well be true of the +region surrounding the Baltic. The sparse and scattered hunting and +pioneer population of Scandinavia and Germany had no need of building +permanent walls around their single houses or small villages. They had +very little wealth to protect. + +But an agricultural population inhabiting a fertile region open to +attack might well surround their villages with a wall, or provide a +burg, or fortified place or "refuge," whither they might drive their +cattle or transport their grain. Examples of this are Stutzheim and +Urmitz, in the Rhine valley, always a great thoroughfare, and in +Switzerland and along the maritime Alps villages of this sort seem to +have been fairly frequent. Apparently they were still more numerous in +the valley of the Danube and in the Balkan Peninsula. It is not at all +surprising to find them in Thessaly, so near to the advanced +civilization of Greece. + +Another class of settlements usually well protected were the workshops +(ateliers) and manufacturing villages, especially those where flint +was mined, or where flint implements were made in large quantities and +distributed by trade over wide areas.[47] During the Neolithic period +these settlements would have held much the same place and importance +as our centres of coal, iron, manufacturing, and business have with us +to-day. Grand Pressigny and Camp de Chassey, in France, and Cissbury, +in England, are single examples of a great number of such fortified +mining and manufacturing villages. For a further study of these very +interesting remains the reader is referred to the manuals of +Déchelette and Hoernes. + +Even before the close of the Paleolithic period tundra and steppe were +giving place to forests, which were advancing even into Scandinavia. The +forest looms large and terrible in the works of classical writers and +German antiquarians. Says Tacitus: "Who would leave the softer climes of +Asia, Africa, or Italy to fix his abode in Germany, where Nature offers +nothing but scenes of ugliness, where the inclemency of the seasons +never relents?... The face of the country, though in some parts varied, +presents a cheerless scene, covered with the gloom of forests, or +deformed with wide-extended marshes." He says that the soil produces +grain and is well stocked with cattle, though of small size. But grain +does not grow in primeval forests, and herds of cattle need at least +open glades for pasturage. It is an extreme picture tinged by the +homesickness of a citizen of sunny Italy. Northern Europe was generally +heavily forested until long after Tacitus's time. The Romans began in +earnest the work of deforesting France, and the work was carried on all +over Europe in mediæval times. The Neolithic immigrants probably made +small clearings with the aid of fire, especially where the trees were +low and not too thick, as on many light-soiled areas. They could make +but little impression on the heavy forest growth, though they could +limit its spread. They probably did not need to make wide clearings of +dense forest. There were many open stretches of country of greater or +less extent awaiting occupants and culture. This was true especially of +districts occupied by the loess, whose origin from dust drifted by +Paleolithic wind-storms we have already noticed. + +Geikie describes loess as typically a "fine-grained, yellowish, +calcareous, sandy loam, consisting very largely of minute grains of +quartz with some admixture of argillaceous and calcareous matter."[48] +It is for the most part a wind-blown deposit. It is widely developed +over low-lying regions, but sweeps up to heights of 200 to 300 feet and +more above the bottoms of the great river valleys. Again, in many places +we find it heaped up under the lee of hills, the exposed windward slopes +of which bear no trace of it. Wherever there is loess we are likely to +find the remains of steppe plants and animals. The ancient steppe area +which generally covers, and probably extends considerably beyond, the +loess district, is the region occupied by most of the primitive +settlements. Even to-day it is less wooded than the rest of northern +Europe. Such steppe regions in the North German plain are the great +diluvial river terraces, especially the terraces of the Saale and Elbe +and the eastern edge of the Harz Mountains; in South Germany the lower +Alpine "Vorland" from Switzerland to lower Austria, the uplands of +Suabia and Franconia, the valleys of the Main and Neckar, and much of +northern Bohemia. These steppe regions of Germany, northern Austria, and +Switzerland extended southeastward in a zone following the Danube, +widening out in the great Hungarian plain into the vast steppe region +extending eastward from the Black Sea or Pontus. From this Pontic steppe +a band of more or less open country extended northward along the +Carpathians until it almost or quite joined the open regions of the Elbe +and along the Harz. A farther extension of this same band seems to have +opened the way from the Harz region through northwest Germany into +Belgium and northern France, and very probably into Brittany. We see at +once the importance of these long lines of open or thinly forested +country to the immigrations and settlement of Neolithic peoples. +Periodical floods or other conditions kept open many river valleys, +whose importance we shall estimate in a later chapter. All this land, +except the uplands of Suabia and Franconia, and some similar areas, was +comparatively fertile, the loess areas particularly so, and suited to a +primitive agriculture. + +In England the valleys of the Thames and other rivers were heavily +wooded and not populated until much later. But the long lines of +chalk-downs and oolitic uplands were far less favorable to forest +growth. In Norfolk and Suffolk there were apparently open spaces. +Yorkshire and Derbyshire had very similar landscapes. The forest was +held back wherever the porous chalk formation made a large outcrop. In +these places man could settle and find pasturage for his flocks and +attempt a poor sort of agriculture, even in Neolithic days. Hence we +find these regions dotted with Neolithic settlements. The immigrants who +came in during the Bronze period settled in the same regions. Here again +clearing of the forest on any large scale was apparently not attempted +until Roman times, but along its boundaries, where the forest growth was +not too heavy, these primitive agriculturists may well have cut off the +lighter growth for fuel and buildings, and thus have gradually +appreciably extended the arable area. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +LAKE-DWELLINGS + + +The winter of 1853-1854 was exceedingly cold and dry. The surface of the +Swiss lakes sank lower than at any time during many preceding centuries. +The lowering of the water tempted the inhabitants along the shore to +erect dikes and thus fill in the newly gained flats. During this process +the workmen along the edge of the retreating water came upon the tops of +piles, and between those great quantities of horn and stone implements +and fragments of pottery. Aeppli, a teacher in Obermeilen, called the +attention of the Antiquarian Society in Zurich to these discoveries. The +society recognized at once their importance, and under the leadership of +its president, Ferdinand Keller, began a series of most careful +investigations which have contributed more to our knowledge of life +during the Neolithic period than any discoveries before or since. + +The number of these lake-dwellings is very large. Lake Neuchatel has +furnished over 50; Lake Leman (Geneva) 40; Lake Constance over 40; Lake +Zurich 10. The shores of the smaller lakes have also contributed their +full quota.[49] In some of the lakes where the shore was favorable, +remains of a lake-dwelling have been found before almost every modern +village. Sometimes we find the remains of two villages, one somewhat +farther out than the other. In these cases the one nearer the shore is +the older, usually Neolithic, while the one farther out belongs to the +Bronze period. + +These settlements are by no means limited to Switzerland. They stretch +in a long zone along the Alps from Savoy and southern Germany through +Switzerland into Austria.[50] Herodotus mentions them in the Balkan +Peninsula. The amount of bronze seems to increase as we pass from east +to west. They are found frequently in the Italian lakes, mostly +containing relics of the Bronze Age, though here the western settlements +contain little or no metal. A second series has been discovered in +Britain and northern Germany, and extending into Russia. These are +considerably younger. The scheme of the lake-dwelling was used in +historic times in Ravenna and Venice. Large numbers are still inhabited +in the far east. + +A sunny, sheltered shore, protected by hills from storms and action of +waves, was always an attractive site.[51] The character of the land, if +open and suitable for pasturage and cultivation, was doubtless +important. Much depended on the character of the bottom. Where the shore +shelved off gradually and was composed of marl or sand, the piles could +be easily driven, and could hold their place firmly. Even if the shore +was somewhat too hard and the piles could be driven only a little +distance, they were strengthened by piles of stones, often brought from +a considerable distance. When a suitable location had been discovered +and selected the trees were felled partly by the use of stone axes, and +partly by fire, and one end of the log was pointed by the same means, +according to Avebury. Their diameter was from three to nine inches, and +their length from fifteen to thirty feet. During the Bronze period +larger trees were felled and split, and larger piles had to be used in +the deeper water farther from the shore.[52] + +These rudely sharpened piles were driven into the bottom by the use of +heavy stone mallets. This must have involved an immense amount of hard +labor, for at the settlement of Wangen 50,000 piles were used, though +not all probably at the same time. Messikommer calculated that at +Robenhausen over 100,000 were used. We find sometimes a different +foundation. It consists of a solid mass of mud and stones, with erect +and also horizontal logs binding the whole structure firmly together. +This is evidently a ruder, simpler, and perhaps more primitive, mode of +building. It was less suited to an open situation, exposed to heavy +waves, and seems to occur more often in smaller lakes now often filled +with peat.[53] Wauwyl and Nieberwyl are good illustrations of such a +"_Packwerkbau_." Some have considered them as originally floating rafts. + +When the piles had been firmly driven, cross-pieces were laid over the +top, and on this a "flooring" of smaller poles, or of halved logs or +even split boards, whose interstices were probably filled with moss and +clay, forming a solid and fairly even surface, on which the dwellings +could be erected. The framework of the houses was of small piles, some +of which have been found projecting considerably above the +platforms.[54] "The size of the house is further marked out by boards +forced in between the piles and resting edgeways on the platform, thus +forming what at the present day we should call the skirting boards +(mop-boards) of the hut or rooms. The walls or sides were made of a +wattle or hurdle work of small branches, woven in between the upright +piles, and covered with a considerable thickness of loam or clay." This +is proved by numbers of pieces of clay half-burnt, or hardened in the +fire, with the impressions of the wattle-work still remaining. These +singularly illustrative specimens are found in nearly every settlement +which has been destroyed by fire. The houses were rectangular except in +a few cases. They were apparently thatched with straw or reeds. The +hearths consisted of three or four stone slabs. + +These houses were calculated by Messikommer at Robenhausen to have been +about 27 by 22 feet, a very respectable size. One was excavated at +Schussenried, whose side-walls and floor were fairly well preserved. +This was a rectangle about 33 by 23 feet (10 by 7 metres), and was +divided into two chambers. The front room, 6-1/2 by 4 metres, opened by +a door facing south, and with remains of a hearth in one corner. The +rear room, 6-1/2 by 5 metres, was without outer door, and was apparently +a bedroom.[55] Beside these houses, or forming a part of them, were +stalls for the cattle, granaries, and probably workshops. (The +distribution of different remains is well shown in Keller's _Lake +Dwellings_, I, p. 45.) The stone and bone implements, and the pottery of +the lake-dwellers can be more conveniently considered in connection with +those of other regions. + +We pass now to the remains of animals and plants found here, especially +in their relations to the food supply of the people.[56] Altogether +about 70 species of animals have been discovered. Of these 10 are fish, +4 reptiles, 26 birds, and 30 mammals, of which 6 were probably +domesticated. The largest of these were the great _Cervus alces_ or +moose--sometimes called elk--the wild cattle, and the stag (_Cervus +elaphus_). Bones of the stag and ox are very numerous and equal those of +all others together. Of the horse very few remains are found until the +Bronze period. Wild horses seem to have lived on in certain parts of +Europe until a late date, but apparently they had emigrated almost +altogether from this region. The horse of the Bronze Age was +domesticated. The lion had left this region, but lingered on in the +Balkans down to historic times. The brown bear and the wolf still roamed +in the forest. In the oldest lake-dwellings the bones of wild animals +make up a far larger proportion of the remains than in the latest ones. + +We find a somewhat small dog (_Canis familiaris palustris_) closely +resembling that of the Danish shell-heaps. It was apparently of the +jackal type, and much like the modern Spitz. This would have been an +excellent watch-dog to give warning of the approach of enemies. But at +the close of the Neolithic, with the increase of flocks of sheep, a +larger dog more closely related to the wolf seems to have spread widely +through the country (_Canis familiaris matris optimæ Juit_). This form +was much like, and probably the ancestor of, our present sheep-dogs. A +third form (_Canis intermedius_) also occurs. The origin and +relationships of the various forms of this oldest domesticated animal +are still anything but clear. That they all go back to the jackal and +the wolf rather than to a form like the Australian dingo, still seems to +be most generally accepted. (But see Schenk.[57]) + +Man gained the dog by domesticating the jackal and different species of +wolves in different parts of the world and then by crossing, or, by a +more or less unconscious selection, bred different varieties, until we +have at present a chaos of intermingled forms. Something similar but on +a smaller scale was true of the domestic cattle. One kind of domestic +cattle appears fully domesticated in the oldest lake-dwellings. It is +unlike any wild European form. This is the _Bos brachyceros_. It was +almost certainly imported. Mingled with its forms we find those of the +_Bos primigenius_, a native of Europe and North Asia, but apparently not +domesticated. This is the urus, which was common in Europe in Cæsar's +day, and lasted in central Europe until 1000 A. D. and still lingers in +Poland.[58] This was a very large and powerful form with long spreading +horns, whose domestication appears to have commenced toward the close of +the Neolithic period. It is not improbable that it was domesticated, or +at least tamed, independently in different countries at quite different +times. Raising of cattle was at its height during the Bronze Age; +afterward the results seem to decline and the cattle to degenerate. + +One of the Vaphio vases of about 1500 B. C. represents the capture of +large, long-horned cattle in a net, while the second shows similar +animals tamed. Apparently the smaller and lighter brachyceros was first +tamed, and this success led to a series of experiments with the larger +and more difficult form.[59] + +If we draw a line from northwestern Russia diagonally across Europe +southwestward to the mouth of the Rhone, it will divide fairly well the +distribution of the descendants of those two forms. To the eastward in +Russia and Austria, also generally through Germany, and extending also +along the shores of the Baltic, we find the large, heavy, usually +long-horned descendants of the primigenius stock. The cattle of Spain, +and southward into Africa, of France and England, are more of the +short-horned, light-built, smaller brachyceros type. Holstein and Jersey +are good representatives of the two types, though the Holsteins are, +perhaps, a somewhat marked variety. Some regard the cattle of the Scotch +highlands as the best representatives of the _primigenius_ type, though +reduced in size. This same type, on account of its size and endurance of +harsh climate, has furnished the range cattle of our Western plains. + +Two fairly distinct forms of swine occur in the lake-dwellings. The +first is the so-called turbary pig (_Sus scrofa palustris_). This is a +small form with comparatively long legs. It differs markedly from the +wild boar, and was probably imported already domesticated. Being more or +less left to feed and shift for itself, it may well have declined in +size from its primitive oriental ancestors. Remains of the larger +European wild boar (_Sus scrofa ferus L._) also occur from the beginning +as products of the hunt. But during the Bronze period domesticated +descendants of this variety grow numerous, and are crossed with the +smaller turbary pig. + +"The domestic sheep," says Brehm, "is a quiet, gentle, patient, simple, +will-less, cowardly, wearisome animal. It has no character. It +understands and learns nothing; is incapable of helping itself."[60] It +is certainly absolutely dependent upon man for guidance and protection. +This lies partly in its inherited nature and original surroundings, but +suggests long domestication. Like the goat, it is originally a mountain +form, but adapts itself readily to the dry herbage of the steppe. It is +not a native of central Europe but introduced. It is much rarer than the +goat in the oldest lake-dwellings, but gradually becomes more abundant, +especially in the Bronze period. + +The turbary sheep (_Ovis aries palustris_) is very small, with slender +legs, long narrow skull, and bones somewhat like those of the goat. It +was certainly not developed in Switzerland, and before it arrived there +it had apparently been much modified by conditions of life or by +crossing. Its anatomical characteristics are made up of at least three +wild forms. The first of these is the goat-like maned sheep (_Ovis +tragelaphus_) ranging over the mountains of northern Africa, extending +across into Abyssinia. This form seems to have been domesticated in +Egypt before the middle of the fourth millennium. At a much later date, +in Homeric times, herds of sheep of a similar form were kept in Greece. +It was much larger than the turbary form. + +The arkal (_Ovis arkal_) is the steppe sheep of central and western +Asia. It is the ancestor of the oriental and African fat-tailed sheep. +The western Asiatic forms seem to have developed the fine wool at the +expense of the coarse hair, like that of the goat and of many other +forms. + +A third form is the Moufflon, of the mountains around the Mediterranean +and of its larger islands--here probably introduced. Similar forms appear +in Europe during the Bronze period. + +Other species are found in different parts of Asia. The balance of +probabilities seems to incline toward the view that the turbary sheep +came into Europe from western and central Asia with other "turbary" +forms, that it had been long domesticated, and either here or on its +westward migration may have more or less crossed with the descendants of +other varieties. The oldest domesticated goats seem to be descended from +the Bezoar goat (_Capra ægagrus_), from the mountains of southwestern +Asia. + +The presence of oxen, sheep, and goats is enough to prove that the +people must have practised agriculture to some extent to have kept these +animals alive through the winter. That they were kept on the platform is +shown by the presence of manure in the remains underneath. Whether this +was used for fertilizer we do not know, nor their method of cultivating +the ground. No agricultural implements have come down to us. + +"The small-grained, six-rowed barley (_Hordeum hexastichum sanctum_) and +the small lake-dwelling wheat (_Triticum vulgare antiquorum_) were the +most ancient, most important, and most generally cultivated farinaceous +seeds of our country. Next to them come the beardless compact wheat (_T. +vulg. compactum muticum_) and the larger six-rowed barley (_Hordeum +hexastichum densum_), with the two kinds of millet, the common millet +(_Panicum miliaceum_) and the Italian millet (_Setaria italica_). The +Egyptian wheat (_Triticum turgidum L._), the two-rowed wheat (emmer, +_Triticum dicoccum Schr._), and the one-grained wheat (_Trit. +monococcum_) were probably, like the two-rowed barley, only cultivated +as experiments in a few places; and the spelt (_Triticum spelta L._), +which at present is one of the most important cereals, and the oat +(_Avena sativa L._) appeared later, not till the Bronze Age, while rye +was entirely unknown among the lake-dwellings of Switzerland."[61] + +Oats occur in the Bronze period in western, middle, and northern Europe, +in the Alpine lake-dwellings, and in the Danish islands. The ancient +Egyptians and Hebrews, Indians and Chinese, did not cultivate them; they +were raised in Asia Minor and America only since historic times. We +remember that wheat and barley are mentioned in the oldest records of +the Old Testament--as in Gideon's barley loaf--but rye and oats not at +all. + +The grains seem to show a gradual improvement in productiveness from the +very oldest settlements to those of the Bronze period. They are found +charred and perfectly preserved wherever the houses were destroyed by +fire. Even the ears and stalks have been saved for us in the same +manner. Charred loaves of bread, and cake made of poppy-seeds, were also +found. "Bread was made only of wheat and millet, the latter with the +addition of some grains of wheat, and, for the sake of flavoring it, +with linseed also. Bread made of barley has not yet been found, and it +is probable that barley was chiefly eaten boiled, or more probably +parched or roasted."[62] Flint sickles made of a long flake set at a +right angle with the wooden handle have been found in Denmark, and +others whose blade is formed by a row of small, sharp flints set in the +edge of a wooden block occur in Egypt. The hand-mills or mealing-stones +are very abundant, as might be expected. + +The occurrence of the seeds of the Cretan catchfly (_Silene cretica L._) +is interesting, as it is not found wild in Germany or in southeastern +Europe, but over all the countries of the Mediterranean. Similarly, the +corn-bluebottle (_Centaura cyanus L._) is found wild in Sicily. This +seems to show that these plants came in with the wheat from Italy. But +it is still possible that both Switzerland and Italy received them from +a source somewhat or considerably farther east or south. + +Apples and pears, split and dried, occur abundantly. Some of the apples +are so large that they suggest a certain amount of care and cultivation. +Sour crabapples, and the stones of cherries, plums, and sloes are found +accompanied by the seeds of the wild grape; of elderberries, +raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries. Acorns, beechnuts, and +hazelnuts were stored up. Besides the seeds of the poppy, already +mentioned, those of caraway were used apparently to flavor the bread. +Altogether some 170 plants have been discovered and determined from +these localities.[63] + +Basket-making and the weaving of mats from bast-fibres had led up to a +highly developed weaver's art. Few or no remains of wool have come down +to us from Neolithic time, though it occurs in graves of the Bronze Age +farther north. It would not preserve by charring, as all other +lake-dwelling organic remains have been saved for us, and our failure to +discover it is not surprising. We can hardly believe that these people +did not use the wool of their flocks of sheep, or failed to felt the +hair of their goats. But flax has been found in all stages of +preparation and manufacture in great quantities. Says Messikommer of +Robenhausen: "Every house had its loom." We find not only threads, +cords, and ropes, twine and nets, but cloth of varying pattern and +design. Some pieces were so finely woven and well preserved that their +discoverers could hardly believe that they were not of modern make. +Fringes and embroidery occur.[64] + +Linen alone could hardly have furnished sufficient protection against +the cold and dampness of the Swiss winter climate. The more primitive +inhabitants had an abundance of furs. Garments of sheepskin were +doubtless in use. And probably wool and goat's-hair were woven or felted +into outer garments. Dye-stuffs of black, yellow, red, and blue coloring +furnished a variety of tints and shades. + +Very few human bones have been found among those lake-dwelling remains; +and only a few burial-places, or rather tombs, in the neighboring +mainland. The discussion of their mode of burial and racial +characteristics may well be deferred to a later chapter. + +Of their religious cult we know almost nothing.[65] No idols or fetiches +have been recognized. Certain "crescents" of clay, supported with the +horns turned upward, have been considered by some as head-rests, for +which purpose they are still used by certain African tribes. Others have +considered them as representatives of the crescent moon; still others as +conventionalized ox heads and horns. It seems highly probable that +they had some religious significance, but its exact nature is still +uncertain. We shall return to them later. + +[Illustration: WEAVING AND PLAITING FROM LAKE-DWELLINGS] + +A lake-dwelling of any size is inconceivable without a well-advanced +social development. It could hardly be founded, builded, or maintained +without close co-operation. Families had to live closely crowded +together, almost as in our modern cities. Neighbors had learned to get +on with one another and live together in peace, and to submit to a close +regulation or discipline by law or custom. They seem to have been a +peaceful folk and exposed to no great dangers from outside attack, at +least in Neolithic time. When the ice fringed the shores or covered the +small lakes, they must have been easily open to attack. A few brands +thrown into the thatched roof would have brought sure destruction. +Traces of conflagration occur, as at Robenhausen, which was twice +destroyed by fire.[66] But these occurrences are rare. Neolithic +settlements seem to have been more frequently abandoned because of the +growth of peat than by any sudden or violent destruction. Conditions +probably changed in this respect during the Bronze period. + +Their food was varied and more than fairly abundant. They had their +domestic animals to furnish flesh, milk, probably butter and cheese. +Agriculture was primitive, but in some cases we find large stores, we +might say granaries, of wheat; and wild fruits and vegetable foods were +abundant. The forests offered game, and the lakes were well-stocked with +fish. There may have been times of hardship and dearth, but famine could +hardly have ravaged a people with these three sources of supply. + +The lake offered a thoroughfare for their canoes, and communication was +easy for long distances. To cite only one illustration: flint was +brought from Grand Pressigny, in France, and manufactured in certain +Swiss localities. There was much variety and division of labor between +different villages. One manufactured flint very largely--so at and around +Moosseedorf; while Robenhausen and Wangen have furnished great +quantities of cloth. Others were rather centres for the manufacture of +pottery. Even in the same village one area is richer in one product, a +second in another. There was much variety as well as freedom of +intercommunication. The whole region lay a little back from the great +Danube thoroughfare, but near enough to it to retain connection with the +larger world. Life was not altogether monotonous. + +The lake-dwellings have been divided according to their age into three +groups or stages, representing three epochs more or less marked.[67] + +_Stage I._ _Archaic Epoch._--Axes small and made out of indigenous +material. "Hammer-axes" and utensils of horn and bone rude. No +decorations on weapons, utensils, nor on the crude pottery. Plaiting and +weaving practised. Population in Switzerland at this time seems to have +been sparse. Food obtained from hunt more than from domestic animals. +Examples: Chavannes (Schafis) Moosseedorf, Wauwyl. People +brachycephalic. + +_Stage II._ _Middle Neolithic Epoch._--Weapons and utensils more perfect. +Stone axes finely polished, often with hole for handle, sometimes very +large. Beside the commoner minerals five to eight per cent of implements +made of nephritoids (nephrite, jadeite, and chloromelanite). These are +almost absent in Epochs I and III. Pottery of far better material and +manufacture, with traces of ornament. Remains of domestic and wild +animals nearly equal. Domestic animals are turbary pig, goat, sheep, +turbary cattle, but _primigenius_ form present though less common. +Brachycephalic and dolichocephalic people nearly equal in number. +Examples: Robenhausen and Concise. + +_Stage III._ _Copper Epoch._--Hammer-axes, beautifully finished. Bone and +horn implements. Nephritoid minerals less used. Pottery more artistic. +Cord-decoration appears. Certain ornaments, weapons, and implements are +made of copper. Domesticated animals improve and form a larger part of +the food than game. Cattle especially increase in numbers, and a new +race of sheep has arisen. Long-heads more numerous than broad-heads. +Examples: Roseax, at Morges. Locraz, Ferril (Vinelz).[68] + +It is interesting to notice that remains of domestic cattle are abundant +in all ages, that goats are more abundant than sheep in the earliest +lake-dwelling, but that the sheep became equally numerous in the second +epoch, while they decidedly outnumbered the goats during the Bronze +period. This is what we should expect from the advance of culture. + +Says Keller:[69] "The shores of the western portion of Lake Constance +are probably more thickly studded with settlements than those of any +other Swiss lake. In fact, here are found happily united all the +requirements necessary for the erection of dwellings of this nature. A +deposit of marl stretches along nearly the whole of its shores and of +tolerable breadth. A rich tract of country between the shore and the +hills which rise quietly behind; forests of pine and oak; pleasant bays +with a gravelly bottom; a great abundance of fish in the lake, and a +superfluity of game in the surrounding forests, were circumstances +highly favorable to the colonization of these shores." + +Could we have sat on one of these village platforms of a summer +afternoon and looked out to the wheat-fields on the shore, and seen the +canoes come in with fish or game, and the cattle returning from the +mainland pasture; could we have watched the men fashioning implements +and all manner of woodwork, and the women grinding the grain or moulding +pottery, or spinning and weaving; we should have found a great deal to +please and interest us. The fruits and berries, the smell of roasting +fish and baking bread, of cakes well flavored with the oil from beechnut +or flax, or perhaps sifted over with the seeds of poppy or caraway, +would have been far from disagreeable. We should have felt that it was a +goodly land, and that life was well worth living. We should not have +been disturbed by shrieking steamboats, puffing and groaning +locomotives, or honking automobiles, or by telegraphs or telephones, by +letters which must be answered or books which must be read. There were +no stocks and bonds, bills or notes, strikes or lockouts. There was no +labor question; all simply had to work. No one went to school, except to +nature, and there were no lectures. "The name of that chamber was +peace." + +We ought not to forget in our comfort that everybody could not live in a +lake-dwelling, that all over Europe there were other settlements or +dwellings, more lonely or isolated, where food was never abundant and +sometimes very scarce, where labor was unremitting and the reward +scanty. But even in those less civilized regions there was probably +usually much rude comfort; and if there were times of scarcity and want, +there were also times of feasting and abundance. All over Europe there +were, even in Neolithic time, children, boys and girls playing around +the houses; and young men and women looking out on life with the same +inexperience and illusions, courage and hopes, which lure us onward +to-day. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +A GLANCE EASTWARD + + +The culture of the oldest lake-dwellings appears suddenly in Europe, and +its beginnings are exotic in all their essentials. The turbary cattle +were quite different from the wild _primigenius_ race of the surrounding +regions; and we find no remains of the intermediate forms which should +occur if domestication had taken place here. The same is true of the +turbary pig. Wild sheep are unknown in northern Europe, and the moufflon +of the Mediterranean islands can hardly have been the ancestor of our +Swiss flocks, and is very possibly descended from domesticated ancestors +which reverted to wild life. Something very similar may be said of our +oldest cereals, wheat and barley. + +We must evidently turn eastward or southward to find the cradle of the +whole culture. Even if it came partly from Italy, it could hardly have +developed there. Egypt may have made contributions, but mostly at a +later date. We naturally turn first to Asia, the great centre of +mammalian evolution, probably the oldest seat of cattle-raising and +agriculture, cradle of man and centre of his earliest development. The +true Neolithic cultures in northern Europe can hardly be older than +about 6000 B. C.; the lake-dwellings are probably far younger. We must +first inquire into the location, age, and character of the oldest +agriculture in nearer Asia, where great discoveries have been made +during the last twenty years. + +We naturally turn first to Babylonia. Under the temple of Bel, at +Nippur, was an immense platform constructed of sun-dried bricks, most of +them stamped with the name of Sargon or of Naram Sin. The date of Sargon +seems still uncertain; many historians place it at 2800 B. C.; others, +and apparently most archæologists, like Obermaier, still hold to the old +date, 3750 B. C.[70] Without any attempt to decide this question, we +will hold in this chapter to the older date; and believers in the latter +date can subtract 1,000 from our figures for earlier times, though this +does not apply to Pumpelly's estimates. + +Says Delitzsch[71] of this mound: "In the deepest layers of these +remains, or what amounts to the same, back many centuries beyond the +fifth millennium, everywhere interesting and valuable remains of human +civilization come to light, fragments of vessels of copper, bronze, and +clay, a quantity of earthenware so beautifully lacquered in red and +black that we might consider them of Greek origin, or at least +influenced by Greek art, had they not been found eight metres deep under +Naram Sin's pavement." Here we find the Bronze period, or possibly late +Copper, before 5000 B. C. A city with a high and complex culture had +already arisen. No one believes that the culture could have originated +in the rank, almost untamable, primitive jungle of Mesopotamia. Its +beginnings must be sought elsewhere and earlier. But the age and +character of Babylonian civilization encourage one to seek further in +western Asia. + +In 1904 Pumpelly[72] made most thorough and careful investigations at +Anau, near Askabad in Turkestan, about 300 miles east of the southeast +corner of the Caspian Sea, and 200 miles west of Merv. The remarkable +results of his work are described in two large volumes, and have not +received the attention which they deserve. He excavated in two large +Kurgans or mounds. The north Kurgan is the older and chiefly concerns +us. The Neolithic remains occur in thin compact strata aggregating some +forty-five feet in thickness. The earliest settlement was a town +covering at least five acres, possibly nearly ten. + +At the time of the beginning of the settlement, which Pumpelly estimated +as somewhat before 8000 B. C., the inhabitants lived in rectangular +houses built of uniform sun-dried bricks. They were skilful potters, +though unacquainted with the potter's wheel, making different grades of +coarse and fine vessels. These were unglazed, but often painted with a +definite series of geometrical patterns. They had the art of spinning, +for whorls are found in all strata from the lowest up. They cultivated +cereals, for the casts of the chaff of wheat and barley are found in the +clay of the thicker pots. At first they had no domestic animals, only +the bones of wild forms being found. When ten feet of culture strata had +been accumulated the remains of a tame _Bos namadicus_, the Asiatic +variety of the _Bos primigenius_, or urus, occurred. That this animal +had already been domesticated is inferred from the less compact +microscopic structure of the bones modified by artificial conditions. At +this time the change of structure, if not complete, was evident. It had +been for some time under the new conditions. The turbary pig appears +about 7500 B. C.,[73] the turbary sheep about 1500 years later, but +preceded by varieties of the great horned mountain sheep. The turbary +cattle appear to have been a small variety of the _Bos namadicus_, +somewhat dwarfed by drought and hardship. + +The camel appears at Anau somewhat after 6000 B. C., and seems to be a +means of intercourse and transport far antedating the horse, in a region +already showing signs of dessication. + +Spherical mace-heads occur reminding us of those used in Egypt. But no +lance-head or arrow-point or other stone weapon was found in the lower +levels. We do not know how they killed or captured the larger animals; +they may have used the sling or bolero. In the lowest strata we find the +bones of young children, but not of adults, buried in a contracted +position under the floors of the dwellings. The first objects of copper +and lead appear about 6000 B. C., and, open the Æneolithic period. +Pumpelly distinguishes a Copper period, here longer and more distinctly +marked than in Europe. The turquoise bead found in one of the graves +came, in all probability, from the Iranian plateau, as did probably the +copper and lead also. + +He has shown us that even on the steppe the cultivation of cereals +precedes the domestication of sheep and cattle. The nomadic life +follows instead of preceding agriculture. The pioneers in this region +cultivated the zone of steppe, into which rivers poured from the +mountains. When cattle and sheep and goats had multiplied, the herdsmen +drove them farther and farther on the rich pasturage of the boundless +steppe. Thus nomads gradually appear. There are also different varieties +of nomadism. Nomadic tribes were far less active and dangerous neighbors +even after the domestication of the camel than when, about 2000 B. C., +they had domesticated the horse. The first herdsman may have differed +from the latter nomad almost as much as the most pacific sheep-herder of +our Western plains differs from the liveliest cowboy. + +Pumpelly's time-estimates have been criticised by Doctor H. Schmidt, of +Berlin.[74] He makes the rate of growth far more rapid than Pumpelly +thought and shortens the periods. In determining length of periods he +relies far more on artifacts and less on probable rate of accumulation. +The criticisms seem hardly well founded. Pumpelly's estimate of rate of +increase was based upon a careful and broad comparison of accumulations +in the deserted city, Anau, in Merv, and other localities. They seem +conservative, but we must recognize that such estimates are always only +approximate. His estimates result in a series of dates generally in +close agreement with those of most students of oriental archæology. + +In the Third Culture Epoch there was found "copper, with sporadic +appearance of low percentage of tin." This describes well the close of +the Copper period or the beginning of the Bronze Age, the rest of which +is not represented at Anau, the settlement being deserted, probably +because of aridity. Pumpelly thinks that the last strata deposited +before the desertion comes down to the Bronze Age, and, assuming the +latest possible date for the beginning of this period, places it about +2200 B. C. This is almost surely much too late. Obermaier dates the +beginning of the Bronze period at 4000 B. C.[75] (If we substitute the +later date, 2750 B. C., for Sargon's region, the Bronze period would +begin about 3000 B. C., the date accepted by Montelius.[76]) Pumpelly +places the beginning of the Copper Epoch at 5000 B. C., again agreeing +with Montelius. His estimates seem generally somewhat too conservative, +as he doubtless intended they should be; the earliest remains may be +considerably older than he thought. Investigations made during the last +twenty years seem generally to lead us to believe that the beginnings +of Neolithic culture are far older in western Asia than we had supposed, +while in middle and northern Europe they are probably somewhat younger +than we had thought. In this connection we may well remember that Evans +found eight metres of Neolithic remains under the palace at Cnossus, in +Crete, and estimated their age at about 14,000 years. + +The culture at Anau is very similar in all its essentials to that of the +European lake-dwellers, and is much older. The same cereals and the same +kinds of domesticated animals appear in both. The brick houses are +better and the very fine painted pottery is new and peculiar. These and +the art of spinning and the cultivation of cereals were brought hither +by the first settlers; their development to this stage must have taken +place elsewhere and occupied a long period of time. Sheep could not have +been domesticated here, for they and the goats are natives of the +mountains, and could not survive wild on the steppe. Neither is the pig +a steppe animal, but lives naturally in forest glades and along +watercourses. Pumpelly has evidently discovered a very old and +interesting station in the spread of this ancient culture, but not its +cradle. This was apparently in some mountainous region. The nearest and +most likely place to search for it is somewhere on the Iranian plateau, +to which the turquoise bead and the later-introduced copper and lead +found at Anau also point. + +Here at Susa (Shushan), about one hundred miles from the apex of the +Persian Gulf, de Morgan excavated in a mound rising about thirty-four +metres above the level of the plain and continuing some six metres below +the surface, which has been raised that amount since the first +settlement was made.[77] The total thickness of the remains is therefore +about forty metres. The lowest strata as yet have been only slightly +studied. The uppermost ten to fifteen metres cover a period of about +6,000 years. If the lower strata were accumulated at the same rate, the +first settlement was begun about 18,000 years ago at a conservative +estimate. Montelius, the best authority on European prehistoric +chronology, basing his conclusions on de Morgan's discoveries, places +the date of the beginning of Neolithic culture in this part of Asia at +about 18,000 B. C., or somewhat earlier.[78] + +Over twenty metres of these remains are purely Neolithic. There was the +usual abundance of flint nuclei, flakes, and utensils. There was +obsidian, evidently brought from a distance--de Morgan thinks from +Armenia, a thousand miles away. This is not impossible; we shall find +that trade or barter was far more extensive at this time than has +usually been supposed. + +Here again we find abundant pottery in the lowest strata. It is of a +"dark brown pattern painted on a pale ground, partly imitating basketry +and textiles, partly rendering plants and animals with childish +simplicity.... It resembles in a striking way a few widely scattered +series which are all that have been secured hitherto from a very +ill-explored area: from a Neolithic site underlying the Hittite castle +at Sakye-Giezi, in North Syria, from the surface of early mounds in +Cappadocia, and from low levels of the Hittite capital, at Boghaz-Keui; +and, more surprising still, from an important site, also Neolithic, at +Anau, on the northern edge of the Persian plateau looking over into +Turkestan; and at a number of points scattered over the flat lowland on +the north side of the Black Sea, and thence into the Balkan Peninsula as +far south as Macedonia and Thessaly. These resemblances are general and +their value may be overestimated; there are differences in detail, but +the general similarity seems to link the peoples over this wide area at +the same time in one region of kindred art and culture, if not of +blood."[79] + +The discoveries at Susa and elsewhere in this region seem to prove that +compact settlements of fair size had arisen in western Asia long before +the founding of Anau.[80] Such settlements could have been formed only +by sedentary peoples practising agriculture, not by mere wandering +hunters. Our definite knowledge of the domestic animals of Susa is very +small. But, as we have just seen, the peculiar, fine, decorated pottery +found in the oldest strata of Susa, Anau, and many other localities +scattered over a wide area, is certainly a strong argument for believing +that an agriculture in general very similar to that of the oldest strata +at Anau was wide-spread over the Iranian plateau, Asia Minor, and +elsewhere. Where or when it began we do not know. We can only conjecture +as to the place and mode of its beginning. It may not be out of place to +mention a very general hypothesis of this sort, and this we will now +attempt to frame. + +The Bühl moraines, in Lake Lucerne, are estimated as having been +deposited between 16,000 and 24,000 B. C., during the Early Magdalenian +stage of post-glacial time, which would, therefore, be contemporaneous +with the earliest settlement at Susa.[81] The climate of Europe was then +somewhat colder and much moister than at present. The ice-cap extended +much farther south in middle Europe than in Russia or Siberia. Under +these circumstances central Asia probably enjoyed a much moister climate +than at present, without extreme cold. The Caspian and Aral Seas +occupied a much larger area than at present, and were very likely +connected. The Tarim basin may well have been a great lake surrounded by +a zone of garden instead of the sandy waste which it is to-day. +Conditions of increased moisture would have made the now parched regions +of the Iranian plateau an exceedingly rich and favored region. Toward +the close of the Post-glacial Epoch the mountains were probably well +forested, but alternating dryer times would have brought open glades, +with lakes interspersed. + +When Europe changed from tundra to forest man became largely a +fisherman, more or less settled at some favorable spot, and collecting +his vegetable food in all directions. The same may well have been true +of life at this early date in Persia. The man hunted or fished, the +woman and the children gathered all kinds of animals and plant food, +berries and other fruits, acorns and other nuts. One of the richest +sources of food must have been the roots, tubers, and other underground +stems. If there were any patches of richly seeded grasses or grains on +the near-by glade or hill, we may be sure that the woman did not fail to +beat off the ripe seed with a stick, and carry it home with her. The +primitive family was not dainty or particular in its appetite. The women +were the first botanists, the first to notice the nutritive, medicinal, +or poisonous qualities of plants, and the first physicians.[82] + +When she turned homeward with her load of spoil, some berries, seeds, +and small bulbs doubtless fell to the ground and escaped her notice. +These grew and flourished in the richer soil around the hut or shelter, +for all the garbage could not have accumulated in the hut. Some +unusually observing woman noticed this, and protected the plants, or +even cultivated them a little with her digging-stick, and pulled out +some of the largest smothering weeds. She began to plant a few others, +and gradually started a garden. The garden is older than the farm, and +hoe and digging-stick vastly older than the plough. This woman had +discovered, and almost created, a new world of science and culture +which was to revolutionize life. + +Rice growing wild in large fields under suitable conditions is still +gathered by all savages. This grain needed no preparation except +boiling, while wheat and barley must be crushed or ground between +stones, probably used at first for grinding dry nuts. Peas and beans, +many vetches, and other members of this family so characteristic of the +dryer uplands, were gathered very early, and may have been cultivated +before wheat. Melons and many of the gourds always must have been eaten. +We shall notice later that the zone of Persia and Asia Minor lay on the +boundary line between two great botanical provinces, a northern and a +southern, and furnished a very wide range of plants for this earliest +experiment station.[83] A great variety of plants were tested sooner or +later, and only a few of the very best and most capable of improvement +have been retained to our day. On the steppe at a later date wheat and +barley were most profitable, and most widely cultivated. But even here +hoe-culture was for a long time the only mode. It still exists in +Africa, Asia, and Japan; and was the only mode of culture known in +America at the time of its discovery. Hoe-culture was at first, and has +generally remained, woman's work; ploughing with cattle was a man's +job. This had far-reaching results to which we must return in a later +chapter. + +But we must not think that the Iranian plateau, with its great zone of +piedmont steppe stretching eastward and westward along its northern +border across the continent of Asia, was the only place where +agriculture could start and reach a high degree of development in +ancient times. Its possibility lay in the habit of the woman of +collecting the vegetable food and smaller animals, while the men hunted +and fished. Useful food plants furnishing large amounts of food are to +be found in all continents, and differ markedly in different soils and +climatic zones. Hence even the beginnings of agriculture were probably +not confined to any one region, but were wide-spread, manifold, and +independent. The Chinese migrating eastward and southeastward down the +great river valleys from eastern Turkestan may have carried with them +the cultivation of wheat, or adopted it independently. The rice culture +of China may have been borrowed from India or independently evolved. +India and the Malay Archipelago and Africa have every one its own +agriculture, of whose origin and early development we know nothing. + +But western Asia, or more precisely the Iranian plateau, had another +piedmont region beside the zone stretching along its northern border. +This second piedmont zone of grass-land, or oasis, as Breasted has +pointed out, bends in the form of a horseshoe along the western slope of +the Iranian plateau, then northward and westward around the headwaters +of the Tigris and the Euphrates, and southward through Syria.[84] Here +it dries out in the great Syrian and Arabian deserts. But these also, as +well as the Arabian plateau stretching along the Red Sea, may have been +well watered and inhabitable in early post-glacial time. The Arabian +plateau and its piedmont zone in those days may well have been an +independent centre of agricultural development, which gave place to the +nomadism so characteristic of the Semitic peoples only at a later date. +Of the early history of Arabia we are still completely ignorant. But in +the twilight of history we see those Semites coming into the +Mesopotamian valley from the west while the Sumerians entered from the +east. Those two streams of migration, mingling, founded the great +Babylonian Empire, to which all oriental peoples looked up with an awe +and reverence, as well as fear, which we can scarcely appreciate. +Evidently, and this is the fact of chief importance to us, parts of the +nearer east were highly civilized before anything better than savagery +had developed in northern Europe. + +But far older than these cities of the Mesopotamian river valleys is the +culture of the forests, glades, lakes, and riversides of the plateaus. +Evidence seems steadily to accumulate that here we are to seek for the +beginnings of agriculture and the domestication of animals which were +slowly to change the face of the earth and the life and character of +man. + +Hoe-tillage of the ground is evidently far older than cattle-raising or +nomadic life. It had been brought to Anau before 8000 B. C., and had +probably already been practised at Susa and elsewhere thousands of years +earlier. But we cannot help asking whether other plants may not have +been cultivated long before cereals. Roots and tubers are much more +conspicuous than the smaller grains. These underground storehouses of +nutriment adapted to give the plant a quick and sure start, during a +short spring period of growth and flowering, are abundant everywhere. +They still form the staple crop in many parts of the world. We remember +the potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, the cassava, and a host of others. +In our northern regions we still cultivate beets, turnips, and carrots, +though now becoming more and more food for cattle. These plants also are +less closely limited to the steppes and plateaus. They occur all through +the mountain or shore regions, and for this reason would have been +likely to attract the attention of "collectors." + +Primitive woman had no plough, only the digging-stick, the agricultural +implement of the Australians. Later they learned to make a hoe, +sometimes out of a tine of deer's horn, sometimes of stone or other +material, something half-way between a hoe and a pick. With such an +implement a fair amount of soil could be broken up and well stirred. +When domestic animals were introduced into Africa the plough followed +only in the eastern regions; all through the rest of Africa the old +hoe-culture held its own. Europeans introduced the plough into America. +As a means of breaking up the ground the plough is infinitely superior; +for tillage and cultivation the hoe is far more useful. When wheat has +once been sown it cares for itself; further cultivation is +unnecessary--it is the lazy man's crop. Perhaps that, with a touch of the +spur of necessity, persuaded the male to undertake ploughing. When the +plough was invented many vegetables formerly cultivated probably became +less profitable or attractive, and were given up. A revolution took +place in agriculture. Probably the plough was at first dragged by women. +It is impossible to say just when it was invented. It was used during +the Bronze period, for it is represented in rock-carvings of that age. +Some stone ploughshares may be Neolithic. + +Studying European Neolithic agriculture in the light of the methods of +savage and barbarous peoples, or even of our pioneer ancestors, we +imagine them living on the border of the forests which furnished food +and wood for buildings and implements. The first step was to burn and +clear a place where the undergrowth was not too heavy, and to break up +the soil with pick or hoe. Here the patch of grain was sowed. The soil +fertilized by the ashes gave him a fair crop, but became exhausted after +a few years of cultivation, and he was compelled to break up a new +field. Some investigators have thought that the lake-dwellers used the +manure from their cattle on their fields, but in most parts of Europe +cultivation of the soil was probably crude and superficial. On the chalk +downs of England, chief places of settlement by Neolithic peoples in +this region, we find terraces and narrow strips which may have been +prepared at this time, though their age is very uncertain. They often +are of a size and form not well adapted to plough-culture. They have a +look of permanent occupation. These may well have been fertilized. The +evidence is very uncertain. When the loess soil was of fair depth +cultivation may have gone on for many years without fertilizers of any +sort. + +The primitive plough was hardly more than a pointed stout branch or stub +of a tree, whose longer fork was fastened to the yoke. It made a furrow +triangular in cross-section, broad at the top and narrowing to an edge +at the bottom. It did not "turn" a strip, and between two furrows a long +ridge was left unbroken. Even in Roman times cross-ploughing was common +or usual. Even this rude culture needed the strength of cattle to draw +the plough. The plough is associated in our minds with oxen, and the +first man who made his cow, instead of his wife, draw the plough was a +great benefactor. + +Even the domestication of cattle was less easy than it seems at first +sight. Wild animals rarely reproduce in captivity. Pumpelly thinks that +the way toward the domestication of our larger cattle may have been +paved by a long period of drought driving them from the steppe into the +better-watered oases, and thus into association with man. But this +could hardly have been true of the mountain sheep and goats, on which +man may well have experimented before he attempted the more difficult +task of domesticating the larger, more powerful, and less manageable +_Bos namadicus_. How did man hit upon the plan of castrating the bull +and thus changing this intractable, ugly beast into the docile and +patient ox? There seems to be a good amount of plausibility in Hehn's +brilliant suggestion that this may have come about in connection with +some ancient systems of religious rites and beliefs.[85] There is +nothing impossible or very improbable in this view. But the very +brilliancy of the conjecture and the clearness with which it is +expressed, and the wealth of learning used to support it, warns us +against too ready acceptance. We can only confess our complete ignorance +and wait for future discoveries as patiently as we can. + +At present nearly all our knowledge of what was going on in this dim and +remote past must be gained by a study of savages still holding the +customs of the past in a somewhat or greatly modified form and spirit. +Certain very general inferences may be made without great danger. But to +frame clear and exact conceptions of life in these remote ages from +these sources would demand a union of the boldest genius with the most +wary caution. All these peoples have changed greatly during past +millennia both for better and worse, usually probably in the latter +direction. Customs have all been modified by changed conditions, +surroundings, and inferences. It is exceedingly difficult to distinguish +between what is really primitive and what is degenerate, perhaps of +comparatively recent origin. The problem bristles with tantalizing +questions, which tempt us to spin fascinating hypotheses all the more +dangerous because of their attractiveness and apparent simplicity. Our +great need is new facts and discoveries, and a clearer knowledge and +understanding of old ones. + +We may well connect and condense the chief results of our study in this +chapter. It seems to be clear that a culture essentially similar to that +of the European lake dwellers existed at Anau, in the piedmont zone, a +little north or northeast of the Iranian plateau, with which it had +trade relations. The oldest turbary forms of domesticated animals appear +here at least 1,500 years before the founding of the Swiss lake +dwellings. They were mostly introduced from some mountain region, the +nearest probable source being the Iranian plateau, but their first +domestication may have taken place equally well elsewhere in western or +central Asia, or even in Arabia. Susa shows similar remains extending +back into a far more remote past; and the similarity or kinship of the +pottery in the oldest strata at Susa and Anau and elsewhere leads us to +believe that a culture similar in other respects also was widely +distributed at this time. We can hardly doubt that agriculture was +practised by the founders of all these settlements. + +We can only frame conjectures as to the origin of agriculture. It seems +to have been introduced by the women of hunting and fishing tribes. The +first agricultural implement was probably the digging-stick, which was +followed by the hoe. Hoe-culture is still common in Asia and Africa. +Finally, during the first part of the Bronze period, or perhaps somewhat +earlier, the plough drawn by cattle and guided by a man superseded the +hoe as a means of breaking up the soil for the culture of grain. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +MEGALITHS + + +Megaliths, those great stone monuments of prehistoric time, have always +excited the wonder and interest of all observers.[86] Under the name of +dolmens or stone chambers, cromlechs or stone circles, tumuli or mounds, +they form a striking contrast to the insignificant and ephemeral +thatched huts of wood and clay which formed the homes of the living. +These chambers, especially those of later date, are often accompanied by +circles or radiating lines of rude pillars, the Menhirs or standing +stones. In the more fertile and densely populated regions the great +blocks have been removed and used in the foundations of buildings. They +must once have been far more numerous. But Déchelette reports nearly +4,500 as still existing in France;[87] England contains almost or quite +as many; and they are very numerous in Denmark and Sweden. We will +mainly follow Sophus Müller in his study of these monuments in +Denmark.[88] + +The simplest, and apparently the oldest, dolmens are the small +rectangular chambers consisting of four stones set up on edge with one +large one forming the roof. These are usually between 5 and 7 feet in +length, 2 to 3-1/2 feet wide, and 3 to 5 feet in height. One of the end +stones is shorter, leaving an opening under the roof through which one +may reach or even crawl into the chamber. Somewhat larger chambers of +the same type and having five or six wall stones are not uncommon. + +Even these small chambers were intended for long use, and to contain +more than one body; some contain the remains of a dozen. The bones lie +in layers covered with flint chips, or in little heaps where they have +been collected to give room for new interments. Many of the smaller +chambers were too short to allow the body to lie fully extended; in some +it was evidently placed in a sitting posture leaning against the wall. + +These smaller dolmens were surrounded by a heap of earth reaching nearly +to the top of the side stones, but not covering the roof, and hardly +deserving to be called a tumulus. The roof was usually composed of one +great stone, flat below but arching above and forming a sort of +monument. In one chamber this roof-stone is eleven feet long and three +feet thick. On each side of the doorway a stone is often set upright to +keep back the earth of the tumulus, and a covering stone may be laid +across them. Here we have a form intermediate between the small dolmen +without entrance-stones and the large chambers, which we shall consider +later. + +The earthern tumulus may be round in outline or elliptical, forming the +long grave--the _Hunnenbett_ of popular German speech. The round tumuli +rarely exceed 40 feet in diameter. They were as a rule surrounded by a +circle of upright stones, now generally removed. The long tumuli are +rarely more than 5 or 6 feet high, and 20 to 30 feet wide. The length +varies greatly: usually between 50 and 100 feet, but infrequently from +100 to 200 feet; one is 500 feet long with over 100 of the marginal +stones still standing. + +The chambers in the round and long tumuli in Denmark are very similar, +but in the long tumuli there are usually two or more dolmens, often +symmetrically located. In other cases it looks as if a tumulus had been +lengthened to cover chambers added later. A large amount of variety in +such details is not surprising. More rarely we find two or more small +tumuli side by side, each with one or two chambers. That those smaller +dolmens or chambers are the oldest is suggested not only by their +simplicity but even more by the pottery and implements contained in +them, though this is not invariably true, as the small dolmens continued +in use throughout the Neolithic period, in some regions far later. The +gifts which they contain are usually not numerous and often very scanty. + +[Illustration: "CROUCHING BURIAL" (HOCKER-BESTATTUNG) ADLERBORG, NEAR +WORMS] + +[Illustration: MENHIR, CARNAC, BRITTANY] + +[Illustration: DOLMEN, HAGA, ISLAND OF BORUST] + +The wide distribution of these simplest stone monuments is exceedingly +interesting. They occur in Denmark and Sweden, in North Germany and +Holland, in Great Britain and France, Portugal and Spain, in North +Africa, in the Ægean Islands, in Palestine and farther eastward, in +Thrace and Crimea, along the eastern shore of the Black Sea. They are +very numerous in India.[89] Throughout this wide extent they agree not +only in general form and structure, but also in certain interesting +details. For instance, the oriental and southern dolmens frequently have +a round opening in the upper part of the slab closing the entrance, +corresponding to the wide opening above the door of the Scandinavian +dolmens. The difference in the form of the opening may be explained by +the difficulty of cutting a circular opening in the hard granite rocks +of the northern area. There was a general unity of thought in +essentials, especially in those oldest forms. There was much diversity +in execution or expression in later structures. Some of them took the +form of pyramids in Egypt. In Mycenæ we find the "Tomb of Atreus," a +magnificent building in the form of a beehive. The large chambers, +"Giant Chambers" or _Riesenstuben_ of northern Europe, especially of +France, are connected with the older small dolmens by many intermediate +forms. For example, if another pair of stones is added to the sides of a +fair-sized dolmen, we have a chamber six to eight feet in length. Such +dolmens always have a covered entrance to the doorway of at least two +pairs of upright stones extending out through the tumulus. Then the +number of stones in the sides of the chamber is increased to seven, +eight, or nine; and the entrance passage is at right angles to the main +axis of the chamber, giving a rude T-shaped form to the whole structure. +The number of stones in the roof of the chamber increases with its +length. Chambers fifteen to twenty feet long are not uncommon, a length +of twenty to thirty feet is rare, a very few attain forty feet. The +height was between five and seven feet. + +The inner surface of the great stones forming the sides of the chamber +is fairly flat. It could have been no easy matter to find in any region +a sufficient number of suitable great blocks of the right form. They +evidently had some method of splitting large boulders. In some chambers +both halves of the same block have been found. These blocks could have +been split by heat or by freezing water in a groove or by wooden wedges. +But we do not know the exact method. Near the top the blocks often +failed to meet exactly. Large holes were filled with bits of wall of +small stones and small chinks were stuffed with clay and moss. + +It is surprising to find that these smaller and larger chambers were +erected without any deep foundation for the upright stones. Many of them +have fallen from the heaving of the frost. The monuments were generally +adequately protected against this by the thick tumulus. + +The tumulus was enlarged proportionately and usually completely covered +the chamber. Its height averages ten to fifteen feet, and its diameter +over ninety. The culvert-like entrance had to be lengthened accordingly. + +But one large chamber did not suffice for successive generations. It was +often extended or additions were made so that quite complicated forms +occur. In England we find frequently a row or cluster of small chambers. +Here the roof is sometimes made of successive layers of stone +approaching as they ascended until one slab covered the "false arch." In +Brittany we find great diversity as well as complexity of form. In some +parts of France the entrance continues the main line of the chamber +instead of being at right angles to it. The French have well +characterized these as "_Allées couvertes_." + +Some of these "gallery chambers" were very large and contained a large +number of bodies; sometimes from 40 to 60, in one case 100. The tumulus +at Mont St. Michel measures 115 by 58 metres, and forms a veritable +hill. Thirty-five thousand cubic metres of stone were employed in the +construction of the chamber. Other chambers are from 30 to 50 feet in +length. The celebrated chamber at Bagneux, 25 feet long, is composed of +fourteen great blocks, of which three form the roof. The great tumulus +at _Fontenay-le-Marmion_ in Normandy covered eleven chambers in two +parallel rows. All the material for these great structures could hardly +have been found in the same vicinity. In one case it appears to have +been brought from a quarry two miles away. Some large stones, weighing +thousands of tons, seem to have been transported many miles. + +Some of the latest structures show a certain amount of degeneration. +Certain galleries were apparently roofed with timber. We find "dry" +masonry, of smaller stones laid in courses but without mortar, +alternating with or replacing the great blocks, especially in structures +of Æneolithic or Bronze Age. The custom was declining and soon after +this disappeared.[90] + +The age of these stone monuments can generally be fairly closely +determined by the contents, unless these have been removed or destroyed +by treasure-hunters, as is often the case. In many cases the objects +originally deposited seem to have been few and insignificant. Later, +secondary interments were often made in tumuli, but these usually betray +their later date by their position above the original chamber or near +the side of the mound. We must keep in mind that chambers in the north +containing only stone implements may be often of the same age as those +farther south containing copper or even bronze, for metal made its way +northward only gradually. The custom of building dolmens seems to have +persisted later in England than in France. The English round tumuli or +barrows belong to the Bronze period. It is not surprising that one +country should be more conservative than another, especially if it is +somewhat remote. + +In Brittany we find the Menhirs or "standing stones," unhewn pillars, +regularly accompanying the dolmens. They are by far most abundant in +northwestern Europe, but occur elsewhere also. The largest known is the +Menhir of Locmariaquer in Morbihan, now fallen and broken. It was almost +21 metres long, and weighed nearly 300,000 kilograms. But specimens are +usually much smaller. They seem to characterize the Æneolithic Epoch and +the early Bronze Age. + +Their meaning is often uncertain. Some of them standing singly were +probably erected much later, serving merely to mark boundaries. When +associated with dolmens they are probably objects of a religious cult +associated with the burial, rather than mere monuments to the dead. They +may well be examples of the world-wide pillar-cult. They remained +objects or centres of worship until late in historic time. The church +had a long and hard battle with their cult. Some of them appear to have +been thrown down and churches to have been erected over them. On some of +them Christian symbols have been carved. Among the people they are still +held in reverence or awe. Whatever may have been their origin, they must +have had some religious significance or association. + +These pillars may be grouped in circles, cromlechs, or in long radiating +rows, alignments. Stone circles occur in the Mediterranean region, in +Syria, Upper Egypt, and in India. But circles and alignments belong +especially to Brittany, Great Britain, and Scandinavia. The most +noteworthy are the three adjacent or connected at Carnac, in Morbihan, +extending nearly 4,000 metres, and composed of nearly 3,000 Menhirs. +Stonehenge and Avebury in England are almost equally celebrated. They +represent the culmination of megalithic development, but are essentially +places of worship and assembly rather than of burial, though tumuli may +be clustered around them like graves in a churchyard. + +The changes in the mode of disposal of the dead are evidently the +results of changed views concerning the future life. In early +Paleolithic times man buried his dead with the best flint axe in his +hand, with his ornaments and a supply of food, and often a quantity of +shells brought from a distance and evidently objects of value. The dead +man took with him his weapons and all his wealth. For the living to keep +back a portion of what belonged to the departed was robbery, which might +be avenged by all sorts of evils and plagues; for all this material +wealth and ornament was as much needed and as useful there as here. +Apparently, though this is anything but certain, the dead were buried at +first in Europe, extended at full length, and in the caves not far from +the abode of the living. + +Soon we find them buried in a crouching position, with knees and hands +brought close to the chin. Sometimes we find rows of shells, which may +have been attached to cords or bands used to hold the body in this +forced position. This mode of burial in a contracted or crouching +position (_Hockerbestattung_) was usual in Europe in Neolithic time, but +has been discovered in all continents, even in America and Australia. +Very different explanations of this peculiar custom have been offered by +different observers, _e. g._, that it saved the labor of digging a +larger grave, an excellent economic argument; that the dead was laid in +its Mother Earth in the same position which as a foetus it had +maintained in the maternal body, etc., etc. But the predominant thought +appears to have been that the spirit remained in, with, or near the +body, and that binding the body prevented the spirit from walking and +returning to see the survivors. To the same end the most valuable +possessions of the dead had been buried with him. This does not +necessarily argue that there was no affection of the living for the +departed, or no belief in their possible helpfulness. But the community +generally felt that it was a wise precaution, and generally well to be +on the safe side. This belief in the possible return of the dead in +their bodily form and presence is still deeply imbedded in our modern +minds, ready to spring up as a conscious belief; and the departed are +still rarely expected to bring good tidings or benefits. + +[Illustration: ALIGNMENT, CARNAC, BRITTANY] + +This mode of burial continued common through upper Paleolithic time; was +very common, if not the rule during the Neolithic period in various +parts of Europe. Pumpelly found at Anau children, and only children, +buried under the floors of the houses, and notices that this custom was +general throughout the life of the Kurgan.[91] He gives instances of +this custom reported elsewhere. Whether this custom was as wide-spread +as the pottery of Anau and Susa seems doubtful. I can find no reports of +it. But conditions at Anau seem to have been unusually favorable to the +preservation of these perishable remains. It is not impossible that we +have here one of the ways in which the fear of the dead may have been +gradually dispelled. May we not imagine that one of the first steps was +the refusal of the mother to allow her dead child to be banished from +the house? The evidence is too slight to allow of more than a guess. + +As time went on and communities became more closely united leaders must +have arisen for whom the people had only affection, in whose wisdom and +willingness to help they had full confidence, and who were gratefully +remembered as fathers, elders, and wise in counsel, and whose return +would have been gladly welcomed. This thought seems to be the foundation +of the wide-spread and ancient cult or worship of ancestors. Such cases +were certainly common at a somewhat later date, as in the Greek cities, +where the bones of the dead leader or hero were guarded as the chief +protection of the state. This feeling seems to find expression in the +dolmen or house of the dead, with a carefully prepared opening in the +door as if inviting the spirit to free egress. Anniversary feasts in +honor of the departed were certainly common in ancient days. Close +friendship and social relations were cultivated with the departed as +knowledge and culture increased. + +The Egyptian pyramids and mummies, the graves and older dolmens, seem to +testify to a very close and dependent relation between spirit and body. +The spirit hovered around the body and returned to it, and where the +mouldering bones lay there was the spirit's home. Its life was a very +direct continuance of the life in the body. Hence also the food and +libations and the rich burial gifts. But toward the close of the +Neolithic period we find the great stone chamber giving place to a small +cyst or vault, hardly more than a stone coffin, and entirely +underground. At the same time the great stone circles seem at least to +be changing from burial places to temples or centres of worship. A new +method of disposal of the dead has appeared in different parts of +Europe, in Brittany, for example. Up to this time the body has been of +great importance; it has been scrupulously preserved, and provision made +in the grave for the supply of all bodily needs, though the burial gifts +have steadily diminished in number and value. Now the body is burned +immediately after death, as if its preservation were no longer of any +importance but a clog and hindrance from which the spirit was to be set +free as soon as possible. The custom of incineration gains ground in +Europe until in the Bronze Age it is the rule and inhumation the +exception. The old crass materialistic view has evidently given place to +a far higher and more spiritual conception of life after death, and +probably also before it. We here catch a fascinating glimpse of the +steady bold working and tendency of the mind of Neolithic man. It is +only a glimpse of one aspect of his thought and tendency. We lack the +facts to enable us to widen or deepen it. But it is enough to promise a +broad field of future discoveries. + +But one fact leads us to hazard a question. Not very far in the Bronze +Age the first great wave of Celtic migration seems to have broken into +northern Europe, as the Achæans had already found their way toward or +into Greece. The Celts seem to have had their Vale of Avalon and Islands +of the Blessed, whither the spirits of the departed migrated. We +remember that when Ulysses went in search of the spirit of Achilles, and +of other comrades in the war before Troy, he sought him in no +underground world, but sailed far across the seas into the west. Such +beliefs, and customs like incineration, are a slow growth, probably far +older in origin than the Indo-European or Aryan migrations, of which +some have thought them characteristic. May not this old and wide-spread +belief be merely a continuance of views and conceptions already held by +our Neolithic folk? + +We have already noticed the wide distribution of these megalithic +structures.[92] They stretch along the shore of the Baltic, North Sea, +and Atlantic Ocean down to the Mediterranean. Here they form a band +along the south shore. We find them also in Soudan. In Egypt and Greece +a far more precocious culture made it possible to replace them by +pyramids and "treasure-houses." We find them in Palestine and farther +eastward, along the Black Sea, and in India. In Europe they follow the +coast lines, and do not seem to have been erected by the dwellers in the +valley of the Danube. Their distribution is very similar to that of the +great Mediterranean race and its extensions, but they extend far beyond +the boundaries of any one tribe or people. They are the expression of a +certain thought or conception which spread widely. It might be more +correct to say that the general underlying conception was practically +universal, but found expression in this form in one area, while in other +regions it could not find this expression because conditions were +unfavorable. + +It is exceedingly difficult to say just where the first dolmens were +built. Opinions differ widely. They could have been built only in an +area which had a fairly large and settled population who could unite in +a large and difficult work, and had the means of carrying it out. The +people were agriculturists who possessed no low grade of natural +material or mental culture. Many such general considerations lead us to +look for their first appearance somewhere in the region east of the +Mediterranean, which was evidently the home of many other very ancient +forms of culture.[93] + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +NEOLITHIC INDUSTRIES + + +Our very hasty glance at different aspects of Neolithic culture has +shown its marked diversity in different regions. Its essential and +fundamental characteristic was the introduction of tillage and +cattle-raising, gradually replacing the mere collecting stage of hunting +life, and accompanying a steady growth of independence or control of +nature's bounty or stinginess of food supply. This change increased +rather than diminished the diversity of culture in different regions. In +the rich soil of the loess country and the Danube valley there were +genuine farms; in the north cattle and hog-raising probably prevailed, +gradually shading over into hunting as one neared the forests. Along the +Baltic and the great lakes of Sweden and on all the European rivers +fishing was an important source of food. Differences in size, form, and +comfort of dwellings tell the same story. In the north we find +half-underground huts, probably with shelters of logs or skins in or +along the forests. At Grosgartach and in the lake-dwellings and +elsewhere we find rectangular houses, veritable homes rather than mere +shelters. Primitive man bound the body of his dead with thongs and +buried it away in the earth. Then he deposited it in a small stone hut +much like his shelter. He enlarged and improved it. Finally the great +monument with its circle and alignments seems to have become a temple, +and the body, placed in a small cyst or vault, is completely buried, or +is burned. These marked changes in burial customs and rites in western +and northern, not in eastern or central, Europe, must have been +accompanied by changes in the conception of the after life, whether we +can trace and interpret them or not. + +The same must be said of all industrial products. Every one of them +tells a story, if we can understand and interpret it. We are not +surprised to find in the late Paleolithic (or early Neolithic) paintings +at Cogul women dressed in waist and short skirt not unlike those worn +to-day. The dress represented in the idols of southeastern Europe has +persisted in the peasant dress of certain isolated regions, especially +in Albania, almost or quite into the present.[94] We have noticed the +spinning, weaving, and dyeing of the lake-dwellers, and a similar +industry was spread all over Europe. The costume of the Bronze period +has been preserved in the oak coffins of Scandinavia.[95] We do not know +how much it had changed and improved since Neolithic times. The use of +wool had doubtless increased greatly. Our northern Neolithic hunters +were probably clad largely in skins and furs. + +[Illustration: MODERN ALBANIAN PEASANTS IN NEOLITHIC GARMENTS] + +Two manufactured articles are of especial interest to the archæologist: +the stone axes and the pottery. They occur in every settlement. Stone is +imperishable, and clay well fired lasts almost as well. They vary +according to age, place, fashion, and conditions, and form the +foundation for all comparative, "typological" study.[96] Their remains +play the same part in archæology as the characteristic fossils, +"_Leit-fossilien_," in paleontology, not only determining age but +throwing light on the migrations, relations, life, and thought of their +makers. + +The Neolithic period gained its name from the polished stone implements +which then appeared. Paleolithic man had learned by long experience the +value of flint as the best material for his tools. He had learned to +chip and flake it; first by blows, then by pressure, until the +Solutrean lance-heads or "points" showed a beauty of form and finish +unsurpassed by the best craftsmen of any later date. He had learned to +give it a fair cutting edge by small "retouches." It seems never to have +occurred to him to grind or whet the edge of his tools. If the axe +thickened rapidly from the edge and was somewhat like a wedge, it was a +good remedy against the brittleness of the flint, its great defect; and +he put the more strength into the blow. The extreme hardness of flint +made polishing very difficult. Most utensils of daily use were not +polished at all. Many of the beautiful daggers, genuine works of art, +were finished by a uniform, fine flaking down to the close of the +period. Flint implements were not polished in Italy, Greece, Spain, and +large parts of eastern Europe;[97] they increase in abundance in +Scandinavia and England. Other kinds of less brittle but somewhat softer +rock were generally used for polished axes. + +During the upper Paleolithic period, especially in the Magdalenian +Epoch, daggers, lance-heads, awls, and needles were made of bone. For +pointed implements, flint, while sometimes used, was far less suitable, +except when the point was very short, as in engraving and carving tools. +These bone implements were scraped into shape and often well smoothed. +It seems but a step from smoothing a bone to polishing the edge of an +axe, if not of too hard rock. But the chipped flint axe was very good, +and they were accustomed to it. Forrer thinks that the change must have +been made where flint was scarce and pebbles abundant.[98] + +In Scandinavia the kitchen-midden period was followed by an "arctic" +culture, so called because of its distribution in the far north. Here we +find implements of slate or schist polished only along the edges. This +seems like a very natural intermediate stage. We do not know just where +those attempts were first made. They may have been made at different +points in Asia and Europe and at different times, and thus there may +have been several independent centres of discovery and of radiation. + +The lake-dwellers used a variety of material; indeed, they seem to have +been quite expert practical mineralogists. Characteristic is their use +of certain rocks which combined great toughness and hardness, and were +thus superior to flint; so chloromelanite, saussurite, nephrite, and +jadeite. These minerals are rare, and the implements made of them were +small chisel-like blades, rarely exceeding an inch in length. They were +usually mounted in a socket of horn fastened into a wooden handle. We +shall see that the source of these minerals is still anything but clear. + +The axe of the kitchen-midden[99] is hardly more than a disk struck off +from a flint nucleus, with two sides broken off and the top of the +triangular remnant removed. The axe of later Neolithic time was at first +nearly of the shape of a flattened almond, but gradually changed and +took more of the form of a chisel. The stages in this process of change +are of value in determining the chronology of the period, and will be +discussed in the next chapter. These axes were rudely shaped by flaking +and then ground and polished on large flat stones, which still show the +grooves left by the implement as it was rubbed back and forth. The +different steps in shaping and finishing such axes are well shown by +Hoernes in specimens selected from the rich collections made at Butmir, +Bosnia. + +[Illustration: AXES FROM LAKE-DWELLINGS SHOWING ATTACHMENT TO HANDLES] + +The lake-dwellers followed a different and improved method. They +selected from the bed of a stream a smooth pebble of somewhat flattened +and elongated egg shape. With a flint flake or saw[100] and sand they +cut a groove in the edge, and split the stone by a sharp blow, +somewhat as a peanut or almond falls apart. The rounded surface of each +half was nearly of the desired form, and only the flat surface required +much shaping. A skilful workman now can finish an axe of this kind in +half a day.[101] + +We cannot trace the variety of axes characteristic of different times, +places, and uses. One, which from its resemblance to a shoemaker's last +has been called by the Germans the "_Schuhleistenbeil_," demands +mention.[102] This is a heavy, thick, clumsy implement, with one end +edged or pointed. The lower surface is flat or slightly concave, the +upper nearly semi-circular in cross-section. It reminds us somewhat of +the grub-hoe or mattock, and probably served a similar purpose--to break +up the ground. It is very common in the loess regions of southeastern +Europe, but in the more stony soils of the uplands was generally +replaced by a pick made of a stout tine of deer's horn. Broader and +flatter hoes are found, and stone ploughshares. We must clearly +recognize the distinction between the mattock and a somewhat similar but +lighter polished concave axe, with sharp transverse cutting edge, used +along the Baltic and elsewhere for hollowing out boats. Adze and +mattock are similar in general form, but the carpenter's tool is a much +finer instrument than the agricultural implement, and serves a very +different purpose. + +Bone was still used for pointed tools and weapons. A bundle of sharp +pointed ribs found at Robenhausen had probably been used for hackling +flax, Horn was used for sockets for the smaller chisels, and for a +variety of other purposes. Wooden bowls, scoops, and other articles +occur among the remains of the lake-dwellings. + +Flint held much the same place in Neolithic industry as iron or steel +with us. Its quality varied greatly in different localities. Our +Neolithic ancestors had discovered that it worked better when freshly +mined than when long exposed and weathered. Hence a mine of flint of the +best quality was as valuable as a field of iron ore or a gold mine +to-day. The most celebrated source of flint in France was Grand +Pressigny, near Tours, Department of Indre-et-Loire.[103] The color and +texture of this flint enables us to recognize it wherever found. It was +exported as far as Brittany, Normandy, Belgium, and western Switzerland. + +At Spiennes, in Belgium, they sunk shafts sometimes to a depth of forty +feet. Here horizontal galleries extended out into the layers of chalk +containing the best quality of flint. Similar mines were located at +Grimes Graves and at Cissbury, in England.[104] The flint was exported +sometimes in blocks, sometimes as half or completely finished +implements. Around Grand Pressigny workshops are numerous. But they are +by no means limited to the immediate vicinity of the mines. In some +localities the manufacture was almost limited to one particular article. +Here the product was exported in finished form. + +During the Bronze period Halle was a seat of wealth, and the large +amount of copper found here suggests that the production of salt had +begun here before the close of Neolithic times. Hoernes says that the +production of salt at Hallstadt, a source of great wealth and luxury +during the earliest Iron Epoch, and of no small extent during the Bronze +period, had its beginnings in Neolithic days. The value of salt in trade +or barter can hardly be overestimated. + +A very small amount of gold, mostly in the form of beads, has been found +in the Neolithic monuments of France erected at the very close of this +period. Occurring native in small nuggets in the beds of streams and +rivers of many parts of Europe, its color and malleability must have +attracted the notice of the searchers after new material for implements. +Large nuggets were found in Spain at a much later date with callais, a +mineral resembling turquoise, which occurs from Portugal to +Brittany.[105] + +Objects of copper were found by Pumpelly at Anau contemporary with the +appearance of turbary sheep, about 6000 B. C.[106] It appears in Egypt +perhaps 1,000 years later. We find traces of it in the oldest city of +Troy (Hissarlik). It may well have entered southeastern Europe by way of +Troy, or northward from Greece through the Balkan Peninsula to the +Danube valley. A more westerly route lay open through Italy, or the +islands west of it, into Spain. Native metallic copper seems to fail in +Europe proper, but mines for ore were opened in Tyrol, and probably +elsewhere, before the end of the period. + +Copper was very useful for ornaments, especially rings, armlets, and +bracelets; for pointed objects like needles, pins, awls, and even +daggers; to a certain extent for knives and razors. Copper axes were +modelled at first after old stone patterns. This metal had one fatal +defect, however; it would not hold an edge. Copper utensils were +beautiful, but generally less useful than similar ones made of stone. +They were largely for display and luxury, though this may hardly be true +of its use in Egypt and the Orient. In Europe it could not shake the +hold of the old, established flint. When the copper ore contained +impurities of antimony or zinc, the alloy was harder. Then we find a +very small percentage of tin, which slowly increases. There must have +been long searching and experimenting before the classical recipe for +bronze, ninety per cent copper and ten per cent tin, was established. We +cannot well speak of a new copper culture or period. This began with the +introduction of the harder and more beautiful, but always rare and +expensive bronze. Still the great characteristic of the Bronze Age lay +not so much in the introduction of a new metal as in the wider +relations, communications, exchange of goods, and knowledge, and freer +movements of individuals and peoples, which had brought it about. The +discovery of metals, of salt, of minerals, and other materials useful +for ornament and of the Baltic amber, was gradually furnishing +considerable material which could be readily exchanged for the products +of other sometimes distant and more advanced provinces and lands. The +centres of distribution were often at some or considerable distance +from the sources of the raw material, so especially in the case of flint +implements. The location of the seat of manufacture and distribution +depends largely on freedom and ease of communication. This leads us to +glance at trade and trade-routes during this period. + +We must bear in mind that the means of transportation were few and +inadequate. The wheeled cart appeared during the Bronze period, but we +have no proof of its use earlier. The horse was not yet domesticated +in Europe, and did not come into use in the Orient much before 2000 B. +C.[107] Cattle may have been used as beasts of burden at an early +period, but of this we know nothing. Roads of a certain kind, often +probably hardly more than mere trails, almost certainly existed, +especially in the neighborhood of the great stone monuments and larger +villages. The great bar to free communication was the forest. To avoid +this almost impassable barrier the roads and trails seem usually to +have kept to the uplands, especially those where the chalk prevented a +heavy forest growth. Certain river valleys, like that of the Thames, +were heavily forested almost or quite to the shore, and hardly +inhabited at this time. But when the forest drew back somewhat from +the water's edge there was a most attractive place for human +settlement. The river bottoms were fertile and easy of cultivation. +There was grass for herds, wood for buildings and fuel. The rivers +swarmed with fish down to recent times, and there was a great variety +and abundance of smaller animal life. Such valleys formed natural +routes of trade and migration.[108] We are not surprised to find that +the earliest settlers of Sweden made their way from shore to interior +along the rivers and lakes, whose shores are dotted with settlements +of this age.[109] Déchelette tells us that this was true of the +grouping of the Neolithic stations of France in three great provinces +in the basins of the Seine, the Garonne, the Rhone, the Saone and the +Loire. We remember the lake-dwellers. The valley of the Danube has +been the great thoroughfare since the arrival of man in Europe. The +great ancient civilizations of Egypt and Chaldea arose in the valleys +of the Nile and the Euphrates. + +We know that the people of the shell-heaps must have ventured some +distance from shore, fishing for cod. The transition from Paleolithic to +Neolithic might almost be characterized as a time of change from a +hunting life to one very largely of fishing. Long before this emigrants, +probably from Asia Minor, had sailed out into the Mediterranean and +settled Crete. Here, before 3000 B. C., a veritable sea-power had arisen +carrying on trade with Egypt and the shores of the Ægean. The voyage of +the Argonauts, a "much-sung" story and saga in Homer's time, may well +have had a historical foundation in expeditions for trade and plunder +along the shores of the Black Sea, up its rivers, and extending as far +as distant Colchis. Hence the importance of Troy in ancient times and of +Constantinople to-day. + +Returning to the Baltic region,[110] we find that a cave on the island +of Stora Karlso, close to the west shore of Gothland, contained +Neolithic deposits nearly three metres thick. In the upper layers there +were remains of domestic animals, in the lower only wild forms. This +island lies some thirty miles from Oland, just off the east coast of +Sweden. Montelius tells us that before the end of the Neolithic period +there was communication between Sweden and Finland, as well as with +Denmark and Germany; that trade between these regions was active, and +that there is reason for thinking that there was communication between +the west coast of Sweden and England. It seems highly probable that +boats were creeping along the coast of Spain and France from harbor to +harbor, although the evidence is here less clear and compelling. + +Our knowledge of Neolithic boats is still very incomplete.[111] Those of +the lake-dwellers seem to have been usually hardly more than dugouts +hollowed by fire. One, however, from Lake Châlain (Jura) was about +thirty feet long and two and one-half wide, made out of an oak-trunk. +Such boats served well for river navigation, but were too shallow and +clumsy for the open sea. It would have been a comparatively easy matter +to add one or two planks along each side of such a dugout and thus +build up a fairly seaworthy craft. The rock-sculptures of Bohuslan, +Sweden, which probably date from early in the Bronze Age, represent +boats of fair size carrying as many as thirty men.[112] + +The wares exchanged in this trade were limited in material and value. +Metals and metallic objects were still unknown, except as copper and +gold came in before the end of the period. Still, there were many +objects which met a fairly wide demand. We have already seen that +different lake-dwellings differed markedly in their products. Some were +almost purely agricultural. In others we find remains of pottery +evidently manufactured on the spot in larger quantities than the village +could use. Much of this must have been exported along the lake, perhaps +farther. Schliz distinguished at Grosgartach a rude home-made pottery +from a finer ware apparently brought from some centre of finer and more +artistic work. The Neolithic housewife was probably very proud of this +"china." The finer grades of cloth manufactured at Robenhausen and +elsewhere were probably carried far and wide, but it is impossible to +trace it. The flint mined at Grand Pressigny was transported to greater +or less distances, as well as manufactured at the mouth of the mine. At +the various workshops the implements were made in great numbers and +still more widely disseminated. This was equally true of flint regions +in other parts of Europe. Stone arm-rings, mace-heads and other fine +articles found sparsely in northern Europe may well have been copies of +a few articles brought from Italy or even farther.[113] + +The nephrite and jadeite of the lake-dwellings were long supposed to be +imports from eastern Asia--until it was discovered that the material of +many of those implements differed in microscopic structure from the +Asiatic, and then were supposed to be of indigenous material. Probably +both extreme views are untenable. A certain amount of communication with +the Orient is shown by the occurrence of rings made of recent shells of +Tridacna or Spondylus in Egypt, throughout the Mediterranean region, in +France, and occasionally in middle Europe. The material apparently came +from the Red Sea or the Indian Ocean. The same is true of a shell of +Meleagrinia found in a hut-foundation in Rivatella, Italy.[114] +Ornaments in the form of Mediterranean shells strung as necklaces are +not uncommon in France, and occur elsewhere. The Mediterranean lands +were in close communication with Egypt and Asia Minor; Spain with +Africa, which furnished ivory and carved ostrich egg-shells carried +farther north in rare instances. Stone palettes similar to those found +in Egyptian graves occur in southern France and elsewhere. More careful +search and study will doubtless greatly increase the number of similar +illustrations. + +Scandinavia was already showing its appreciation of beauty of form and +finish, which made its products unsurpassed during the Bronze period. +Its marvellous flint daggers and hammer-axes were widely distributed and +excite our admiration to-day. But the product which it was later to +export to Greece and Italy in payment for the metal and art-treasures of +the south was amber, an admirable material for jewelry, easily cut, +transparent, of various hues, and taking a brilliant polish. So Homer +speaks of a royal necklace, "golden, adorned with amber, like a blazing +sun." Far back in Neolithic times we find jars containing large +quantities of amber in the form of rude beads. One such hoard contained +4,000 articles, and weighed 17 pounds. The amber was evidently used for +necklaces, and was common in the graves of the earlier epochs. It seems +to have made its way slowly over North Germany. Amber beads occur very +sparingly in the lake-dwellings. During the Bronze period it disappears +largely in Scandinavian graves and is here less used for ornaments, but +appears in Greece and Italy, where its beauty and possibilities could be +properly appreciated. The value of amber in Scandinavia as an article of +export rose to such an extent that the inhabitants largely gave up the +use of it and exchanged it wholesale for the more attractive and useful +metal. During this period there was a regular trade-route between the +Baltic and the Mediterranean. + +[Illustration: BOATS FROM ROCK CARVINGS IN BOHUSLAN, SWEDEN. (EARLY +BRONZE AGE)] + +As Hoernes[115] says, it was this new trade which brought with it the +close of the Neolithic period in northern Europe. But the change from +the age of stone to that of bronze was anything but abrupt or sudden; in +fact, it extended over more than 1,000 years. It was apparently not +brought about by the invasion of a conquering race, though it was +accompanied and followed by marked change and shifting of the population +of central Europe. First we find a few copper ornaments and implements +stealing into France and southern Europe. Then the metal becomes more +abundant as people increase in wealth and can afford luxuries. Then +bronze comes in from southeast and south, and very slowly north of the +Alps. It meets the current of amber from the north. + +Thus the two most beautiful, precious, and desirable materials of the +time have come together. Both are easy of transport. A trade which has +long been preparing or proceeding on a small scale expands rapidly, +perhaps suddenly, and ushers in a new period, which, after all, chiefly +carries on or brings into prominence that which had begun or advanced +during the preceding age. + +More interesting and, perhaps, more important than exchange of flint +axes and amber is the spread of patterns, methods, influences; of new +ideas and stimuli from mind to mind and people to people. A new +implement, like the mace-heads and arm-rings, of which we have spoken; a +new form of axe or dagger; the form and ornament of pottery; the +building of dolmens or the spread of immigration with the accompanying +change of cult and thought--all these brought not only economic +improvement but growth of mind. Sophus Müller, and Montelius in a less +degree, may have been somewhat extreme in their emphasis on the +importance of oriental and Mediterranean influences and leadership, but +their main thesis was correct.[116] Civilization and culture were far +older in the Orient than in Europe, and far more advanced south than +north of the Alps. These were the centres of radiation of ideas and +stimuli as well as patterns, inventions, and discoveries. + +This does not mean that northern Europe was a passive recipient. It +accepted and adopted whatever and only what it would, and probably +refused many a valuable suggestion. In many cases it improved on the +patterns or example of its teacher and inspirer. The art of polishing +stone implements and the use of bronze may not have been indigenous in +Scandinavia; but here, as time went on, genuine works of art were +produced superior to any in the world, far more artistic than the +beautiful technique of the Egyptians. Prehistoric domestic animals were +almost certainly introduced from the East. But the lake-dwellers usually +improved the breed by intercrossing with forms derived from their own +fauna. They increased the list of cultivated plants. The idea or +conception passed from tribe to tribe, but the new stimulus did its +fermenting work differently, according to the mind or medium into which +it fell. There was always readaptation and more or less change. To be a +wide borrower and at the same time to usually improve on one's teacher +requires something very close to genius, though the originality may be +less obtrusive. We have no reason to be ashamed of our Neolithic +ancestors. + +The result of this exchange of products and ideas will be more apparent +during the next period. Trade-routes and lines of communication will +then become far more clear and fixed. But it is important to notice that +these routes are already opening in all directions, perhaps more +numerous because still experimental, tentative, and somewhat vague. The +routes of transportation during prehistoric times, as usually in pioneer +periods, were mainly along river valleys. Where basins almost or quite +touch one another centres of contact and distribution naturally arise. +Hence the prosperity of the Department of Saone-et-Loire, in France. A +study of any good relief-map of Europe will show the chief routes of +trade almost at a glance. The great east-and-west artery is the valley +of the Danube, with its tributaries extending far northward, almost +touching the headwaters of rivers flowing into the North Sea or Baltic. +The westernmost north-and-south route is by sea along the Atlantic coast +from Spain to England or Denmark. A second was formed by the Rhone and +Rhine, eastward and parallel to the French highlands extending from the +Mediterranean to Belgium, broken by the pass of Belfort. A third ran up +the valley of the Elbe and down the Moldau to the Danube. This was the +most important route in Europe, especially for amber. A fourth, from the +Baltic to the Black Sea, followed the Vistula and the Dniester. From +ancient times the Black Sea and its tributaries have been the great +route of communication between the Ægean and southern Russia as well as +parts of the Balkan Peninsula. During the greater part of the Neolithic +period it was probably only a sluggish and irregular current of trade +which trickled along most of these routes, put it was the beginning and +promise of larger and better things, and must not be despised or +neglected. + +In any study of the industries of this period the manufacture of pottery +is of the greatest interest and most fundamental importance. Pottery is +to the archæologist what characteristic fossils are to the +paleontologist. It is almost indestructible. In its texture, form, and +ornament it affords wide scope for individual or tribal skill and +invention, and yet over wide areas the general type shows a remarkable +unity and persistency. A single sherd may often tell a long and reliable +story. The pottery of the Mediterranean basin and of many oriental +localities is a fairly sure guide to the age of a long-buried settlement +and to the relations of its people with other, often distant regions. +The chronology and much of the history of Egypt, Troy, and Crete, and +many ancient settlements of Greece and Italy, are based largely on the +study of their pottery. It is far more expressive and informing than the +average stone or bone implement. + +The time is not yet ripe, however, for such deductions from the study of +the pottery of northern and middle Europe. A good foundation has been +laid, much material gathered which is being built up into a firm system. +But in this pioneer work many rash generalizations have been based upon +a foundation of facts drawn from a very narrow area, often incompletely +understood. Here we must proceed cautiously and can give only a very +brief and inadequate outline sketch of the most important results in +which we may have a fair degree of confidence and which are needed in +our further study. + +Pottery appears first in the transition epoch from Paleolithic to +Neolithic, at Campigny and in the kitchen-middens. Long before this time +there must have been containers for fluids. A concavity in the rock may +have been the first reservoir and a mussel-shell the first drinking-cup. +Wherever gourds occurred they were doubtless hollowed out and made most +convenient jars and dishes. Vessels of bark and wood probably came into +use early in the north. Skins of animals tightly sewn with sinew and +with well-greased seams formed excellent bottles, still used in the +Orient. Where the art of plaiting twigs, splints, or reeds into mats and +baskets had been discovered, it was not a long step to coat the inside +with clay and dry or finally burn it before the fire. The potter's +wheel did not come into use until the Bronze period. Pottery had been +used in the Orient long before this time. It is found well made and +beautifully decorated in the oldest strata at Susa. The art may have +been introduced from Asia or lost during the long migration and then +reacquired. Here we are still in the dark. + +[Illustration: POTTERY FROM NEOLITHIC GRAVES] + +The pottery of northern Europe can be distributed into a few groups or +general types, every one of which is wide-spread and fairly distinct, +though mixture or combination of types is not uncommon, especially along +the boundaries of distribution where two types meet. There is much +difference of opinion and discussion concerning details, but general +agreement as to fundamentals and essentials.[117] + +Intermediate or "hybrid" forms also occur. The classification is hardly +natural and is responsible for much confusion and dispute. It can have +only temporary and provisional value. These three groups are: + +1. Banded pottery, _Céramique rubanée_, _Bandkeramik_. + +2. Corded pottery, _Céramique cordée_, _Schnurkeramik_. + +3. Calyciform pottery, _Vases caliciforms_, _Zonenbecher._ + +They differ mostly in ornamentation, but often also as distinctly in +form. + +1. _Banded pottery_ occurs all over Europe except northeast of the Oder, +perhaps also in Great Britain. Its shape is usually that of a spheroidal +gourd with the upper fourth removed; and its system of ornament may have +been derived from the system of cords by which the jar was once +suspended. Sometimes we find a low neck, rim, or collar around the large +mouth. The ornament in what seems to be its most primitive form consists +of lines marked in the clay, arranged parallel to one another in bands +covering most of the body of the jar. These bands, either broad or +narrow, run in a zigzag or saw-tooth pattern horizontally around the +base. By doubling each saw-tooth we get a diamond-shaped area. Even this +simple ornament admits of a large variety of patterns. But the bands may +be curved instead of angular, forming scrolls, meanders, or spirals. +Logically, these should represent the latest development of the type. +But the spiral may yet prove to be actually older than the angle. The +bands may be raised and projecting (Bosnia) or be merely painted on a +flat, sometimes burnished, surface. The incised lines may be plain or +filled with a white material (encrusted). The briefest consideration +shows that we have here a very generalized type or group of types which +made its first appearance in Europe on the lower Danube and then +underwent development by simplification or sometimes, perhaps, by +increased complexity, as it radiated from this centre, becoming more and +more modified as it went westward or northward. + +The banded pottery of southwest Germany and the Rhine region is found in +dwellings as well as graves, usually accompanied by the mattock or the +deer-horn pick, but lance-heads fail. The rectangular houses belonged to +people of a settled and quite advanced agriculture. We find cellars, and +barns or granaries. The dwellings are single or in groups, sometimes, as +at Grosgartach, forming quite a village or town. They are situated by +preference on the loess terraces of the streams and rivers, near enough +to the water for boat communication. The pottery varies in fineness and +beauty according to the size of the dwelling and therefore the wealth of +its owner. Social differences, rank, and fashion are appearing in truly +modern form. + +2. _Corded Pottery._ The most characteristic and, perhaps, culminating +form is the Amphora or flasklike vase with wide neck, which starts +abruptly from a globose portion with flat base. Its prototype may have +been the leathern flask or bottle. Here the ornament consists of +parallel lines arranged in a band or in bands around the neck, but often +extending somewhat on to the upper surface of the bulb. The lines look +as if made by winding a cord around the neck while the clay was still +soft; hence the name of the group. It seems to have been originally a +purely northern product, which toward the close of the Neolithic period +was carried southward by a distinct movement of population. It is found +almost entirely in graves, often accompanied by calyciform cups. Schliz +says that it is never found in remains of dwellings. The household +pottery was apparently crude and coarse, with no distinctive type of +ornament. The carriers of the culture were apparently herdsmen rather +than tillers of the soil, and always more or less hunters. Their finest +implements were their weapons. + +3. _Calyciform Pottery, Zonen-or Glocken-becher_, has been by some +united with Corded Pottery. It has the shape of a goblet or inverted +bell with flaring rim and flat base. + +[Illustration: POTTERY + + _A._ Banded pottery. + + _B._ 1. Origin of banded ornament from cords suspending a more + or less hemispherical vessel derived from the hollow gourd. + + 2. Corded ornament derived from suspension of flask (Amphora). + + _C._ Cups and Kugelamphore (globular flask) from Groszgartach.] + +The ornament is in circular zones separated by bands of well-polished +surface covering the whole outside. It is found in Asia Minor, Egypt, +Italy, and in western Europe along the whole zone of megalithic +monuments, whence it spread northward and eastward into middle Europe. + +The incrusted pottery characterized by incised lines filled with a white +material may have had a distinct origin and development, though its +technique has often been borrowed and applied to other types. The +pottery of the oldest lake-dwellers is crude, coarse, with little or no +ornament. Hence it is difficult to connect it with any other type. + +Form and shape of pottery are often quite or very persistent. We cannot +understand why the base of so many jars was left rounded, or in some old +lake-dwellings pointed, when it might easily have been flattened, +apparently to good advantage. But even the form, and still more the +ornament, changes according to time, place, and fashion; hence these are +very useful in tracing periods and cultures and their relations. Where +different types meet there is usually more or less change or +modification, often difficult to interpret. Our knowledge of European +pottery is still small and unsatisfactory, but it has already been of +much use in tracing migrations of culture and relations between +provinces often widely separated. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +NEOLITHIC CHRONOLOGY + + +"We must imagine Europe in upper Paleolithic times again as a terminal +region, a great peninsula toward which the human emigrants from the east +and from the south came to mingle and to superpose their cultures. These +races took the grand migration routes which had been followed by other +waves of animal life before them; they were pressed upon from behind by +the increasing populations from the east; they were attracted to western +Europe as a fresh and wonderful game country, where food in the forests, +in the meadows, and in the streams abounded in unparalleled +profusion.... Between the retreating Alpine and Scandinavian glaciers +Europe was freely open toward the eastern plains of the Danube, +extending to central and southern Asia; on the north, however, along the +Baltic, the climate was still too inclement for a wave of human +migration, and there is no trace of man along these northern shores +until the close of the Upper Paleolithic, nor of any residence of man in +the Scandinavian peninsula until the great wave of Neolithic migration +established itself in that region."[118] + +We must now attempt to determine the succession of these great changes +in the climate and face of Europe, and then see if we can fix any dates +for some of the changes and for the introduction of new cultures. + +In the oscillations of the ice-front marking the final retreat of the +Alpine glaciers there were three epochs of advance. Two of these, the +Bühl and Gschnitz advances, with the interval of retreat between them, +were occupied by the Magdalenian or last epoch of Upper Paleolithic +time. The third advance, the Daun Epoch, or perhaps the latter part of +the Gschnitz and the first part of the Daun, is represented by the +Azilian-Tardenoisian Epoch, a period of transition from Paleolithic to +Neolithic time. These changes have been clearly traced by Osborn.[119] + +We are most closely concerned with the changes which took place around +the Baltic in Denmark and Scandinavia during this post-glacial retreat +of the ice. Here also we find the same disappearance of the tundra and +"barren-ground" fauna already noticed in France, and the appearance of a +park-flora of forests interspersed with open glades or meadows. But we +need not be surprised if we find that the retreat of the great Baltic +or Scandinavian ice-sheet does not keep step exactly with that of the +Alpine.[120] + +1. The last ice-sheet had covered most of Scandinavia except the western +half of Denmark and, perhaps, the most southern portion of Sweden. But a +broad mass of ice covered most of Schleswig, at least the eastern half +of Holstein, and a fairly wide zone of land south of and more or less +parallel to the south shore of the Baltic. To the eastward and northward +a great sea extended to the Arctic Ocean. This earliest stage marked the +farthest advance of the ice just before the final retreat. + +2. Slowly and gradually the ice retreated until finally it occupied only +the mountains of the backbone of Scandinavia. The region of the Baltic +Sea and the Gulf of Bothnia, a large part of Sweden and a good portion +of Finland were covered by a great sheet of water, the Yoldia Sea, +connected by a broad sound at the present Skager Rack with the North Sea +and Atlantic, and still opening widely into the Arctic Ocean +northeastward. The submerged regions had been greatly depressed, +especially in the north. The clays deposited along the shores of the sea +are now raised often to a height of one hundred metres above +tide-level. But to the southward the depression was only slightly +marked. + +[Illustration: SUCCESSIVE STAGES AND FORMS OF BALTIC SEA + + 1. Culmination of last advance of ice. + 2. Yoldia Sea during retreat of ice. + 3. Yoldia Sea at greatest size. + 4. Scandinavia during Ancylus Epoch. + +(The white represents the ice; dark gray represents the land; light gray +the Baltic Sea.)] + +It is important to our later study to notice that these clays, which are +thick and fine-grained, are composed of thin layers of alternating dark +material deposited in fall or winter, and lighter, more sandy, brought +down by the spring freshets. The temperature of the sea could hardly +have been much above freezing-point, as is shown by the presence of +arctic forms of mollusks, like _Yoldia arctica_ and _Astarte borealis_. +The land-plants of this epoch, the so-called Dryas flora, are dwarf cold +tundra forms, now occurring in Spitzbergen, Lapland, and Arctic Russia +and Siberia. But certain plants, especially in Sweden, lead us to infer +that while the winters were long and severe, the short summers were warm +or even hot. This does not surprise us in northern tundra regions. +Reindeer still lived in the region. This Yoldia Epoch is our second +great post-glacial stage. Man had apparently not yet reached Denmark, +though some reindeer hunters probably roamed over Germany. + +3. Toward the end of the Yoldia Epoch the land rose in southwest Sweden, +connecting this country with Denmark and cutting the connection of the +remains of the Yoldia Sea with the North Sea. A similar emergence in +Finland completed the change of this sea into a great landlocked body +of water called the Ancylus Lake, from the most common and +characteristic mollusk, _Ancylus fluviatilis_. The glaciers had shrunken +to a narrow band covering the mountains between Norway and Sweden. The +climate, while moderating, was still cold. The Arctic flora retreated +northward and was followed in Denmark by woods and even forests of +willows, aspens, and poplars, entering from the south and southeast. +These were followed by pines, especially in the dryer districts, later +by alders, coming from the east across Finland, according to Hoops.[121] +The Ancylus Epoch forms our third stage. The settlement at Maglemose +probably took place toward its close. + +4. The elevation and emergence of land so characteristic of the Ancylus +Epoch was followed by a depression of this region, especially in its +southern portions. That part of the Ancylus Lake corresponding to the +Baltic regained broader and deeper connections with the North Sea than +it has at present. Hence the waters of the Baltic contained a larger +percentage of salt than now. The marine life, _Littorina littorea_, +_Tapes_, and others, testifies to a rise in temperature since the +Ancylus Epoch. Oaks had already begun to crowd out the pines, and will +be followed after a time by the beeches loving a soil rich in humus, +rather than the sandy barrens occupied by the pines. A similar evidence +is furnished by other plants, some of which reached a higher latitude +than now. The summer temperature was perhaps 2-1/2° Cent. higher than at +present, an "optimum temperature" for the plant life of this region. +This improvement of climate is most marked in northeastern Europe and +seems far less noticeable even in Germany. Our fourth stage is marked by +a greatly improved climate and the spread of the shell-heaps. + +5. A fifth stage ushers in the full Neolithic period. Between the +Littorina stage and the genuine Neolithic culture of lake-dwellings and +megaliths there is a considerable gap in our knowledge, a period during +which agriculture and domestic animals were brought in and utensils and +pottery and general conditions were greatly improved. + +We may now venture to attempt to gain an absolute chronology of more or +less definite dates for the appearance of the cultures which we have +noticed. We must clearly recognize that our best results can be only +tentative and provisional. A careful study and comparison of the pottery +of northern Europe will some day furnish data for a reliable system. +For the sake of convenience we will begin by attempting to set a date +for the close, rather than the beginning, of the whole Neolithic period. +We have seen that this was brought about by the introduction of the +metal bronze. Copper had come into use somewhat or considerably earlier, +but it seems hardly worth while to consider it as characterizing a +distinct period. It is rather the last phase of the Stone Age, when +wider communications and trade were making the transition to the use of +metals like bronze and iron. + +According to Montelius,[122] who is our best authority on chronology, +the use of bronze in sufficient quantities to mark the beginning of a +new period took place in different countries at the dates given in the +second column of the following table, the first column showing the date +of the first use of copper:[123] + + +-------------------------------+-----------------+ + | REGION | YEAR B. C. | + +-------------------------------+--------+--------+ + | | COPPER | BRONZE | + | +--------+--------+ + | Egypt and Chaldæa | 5000 | 3000 | + | Troy, Greece, and Sicily | 3000 | 2500 | + | Hungary and Spain | 3000 | 2000 | + | Middle Europe and France | 2500 | 2000 | + | North Germany and Scandinavia | 2500 | 1900 | + +-------------------------------+--------+--------+ + +These dates mark the beginning of the more or less general use of +metals, not the first appearance of a few imported articles. Some +authorities would place the beginning of the Bronze period a few +centuries earlier, and that of the introduction of copper some 500 years +earlier.[124] Forrer dates the beginning of both epochs a little later +than Montelius. The date 2000 B. C. would seem to mark the end of the +Neolithic period in middle Europe with approximate accuracy. + +In attempting to determine the date of the beginning of the Neolithic +period we may begin with a remote point of departure for comparison and +select the Bühl stage and the beginning of the Magdalenian Epoch. Nuesch +made a careful estimate from the deposits at Schweizersbild near +Schaffhausen, Switzerland. His method of estimating is described fully +by Obermaier.[125] He places the beginning of the Neolithic deposits +here at 6000 B. C., and considers 20,000 years as a fair estimate for the +time elapsed since the first occupation of this locality by Magdalenian +hunters at some time during the Bühl Epoch. Obermaier, summing up the +evidence, concludes that the beginning of the Magdalenian Epoch could +not have been later than 16,000-18,000 B. C., and that it ended not far +from 12,000 B. C. Osborn says: "Bühl moraines in Lake Lucerne are +estimated as having been deposited between 16,000 and 24,000 years B. C." +He also appears to place the Maglemose culture at about 7000 B. C.[126] + +We may now turn to the great Scandinavian ice-sheet, whose retreat may +have begun somewhat later and proceeded more slowly on account of its +more northerly position. Here De Geer has made a report based on a very +careful study of the annual layers of deposition formed during the +glacial retreat. We have already seen that the material brought down by +the spring freshets differs in color and texture from that of late +summer and autumn. Hence these annual layers are almost as distinct and +as easily counted as the rings in the trunk of a tree. This method +promises great accuracy of results, and the thickness and character of +the layers and their included organic remains throw much light on the +climatic and other conditions under which they were laid down. But even +here the length of certain periods of halt in the glacial retreat can be +only very roughly approximated. The number of annual layers of deposit +in the Swedish Lake Ragunda lately drained shows the number of years +since the lake was uncovered almost at the end of the retreat of the +Scandinavian ice. + +Says Sollas: "The Ancylus Lake was in existence at a time when the ice +had very nearly, though not quite, accomplished its full retreat, _i. +e._, a little more than 7,000 years ago (the length of post-glacial +time); and Baron de Geer, although he has not yet been able to bring the +beach of the lake into connection with his system of measurements, +thinks, as he has kindly informed me, that its probable date may be +7,500 years counting from the present."[127] + +Menzel, in a chart embodying the results of his study of De Geer's work, +places the beginning of the retreat of the ice in Germany at 21,000 B. +C., the maximum of the Littorina depression and epoch of kitchen-middens +at 6000 B. C., full Neolithic at 4500 B. C., beginning of Bronze period +1700 B. C.[128] + +Keilhack, basing his study on the silting and dune-formation at +Swinepforte, estimates that the time elapsed since the maximum of the +Littorina depression down to the present has been about 7,000 years, +making the date of the depression about 5000 B. C. He considers his +estimate as somewhat more probable than De Geer's. + +Anderson has called attention to the change of position of the earth's +axis at different times. When the position of the earth's axis was such +as to give most sunlight in Sweden, the midnight sun was above the +horizon at Karesuanda, the most northern astronomical station, 62 days. +During the time of most unfavorable position it was above the horizon +only 38 days, a difference of 24 days. This change should influence +climate and vegetation. The period of maximum sunshine, according to +this view, was 9,000 years ago, about 7000 B. C., somewhat earlier than +the maximum of the Littorina depression. It would tend to give a +climatic optimum at nearly the same time as estimated by Menzel. + +Steenstrup[129] discovered the succession of forest growths in the +peat-bogs or moors of Zealand, north of Copenhagen. In the layers of +some of the depressions he found what seemed to be almost a complete +record of forest life from the time of the retreat of the glaciers. The +upper layers of peat contained remains of trees still flourishing in the +surrounding country: alders, birches, and beeches. Then came oaks, and +still deeper the pines. Beneath these were aspens, arctic willows, and +other plants of the far north. Remains of the reindeer occur in their +lowest layer. The pines hardly, if at all, reached Denmark before the +Ancylus Epoch, preceding periods showing only the Dryas flora. + +The pines had a hard struggle for life at first. They are dwarfed and +their rings of annual growth are very thin, sometimes as many as seventy +to the inch of thickness. Still some of these dwarfs attain the very +respectable age of 300 to 400 years. Gradually they prospered, and in +the upper layers there are trunks more than a metre in diameter. All +these facts point to early and long occupation. Steenstrup reckoned the +age of the oldest layers of these accumulations at 10,000 to 12,000 +years, dating their beginnings therefore at 8000 to 10,000 B. C. Pine +was still growing in the neighborhood of the shell-heaps, or the +capercailzie or pine partridge would probably not have occurred. + +But in the shell-heaps we find only oak charcoal, not pine. This was at +least beginning to retreat and give place to the oak. At Maglemose we +find pine charcoal but oak pollen grains in layers apparently of the +same age as the settlement. Placing the shell-heaps in the early part of +the pine epoch would date them as early as 7000 B. C., or even earlier, +according to this chronometer. Hence the older writers, who placed the +shell-heaps in the pine epoch, dated them considerably farther back +than we do now. + +Steenstrup's study, a work of genius, is entirely compatible with and +probably implies a considerably later date than we used to accept. + +The following table shows the dates assigned by different students to +Maglemose and the shell-heaps: + + +---------------+-------------------+------------------------+ + | | B. C. | B. C. | + | Obermaier | Maglemose, 10,000 | Shell-heaps, 8000 | + | Forrer | | Shell-heaps, 8000-6000 | + | Sollas | Maglemose, 7,500 | | + | Osborn | Maglemose, 7,000 | | + | Menzel (Chart)| | Shell-heaps, 6000 | + | Keilhack | | Shell-heaps, 5000 | + +---------------+-------------------+------------------------+ + +The shell-heaps and Maglemose hardly seem to differ in age as much as +Obermaier thinks; De Geer's study was very careful and certainly demands +respectful attention. The tendency toward later dates for these cultures +seems to be strong and increasing. If we place Maglemose at 7000 to 7500 +B. C., and the shell-heaps 6500 to 6000 we have probably made them as +ancient as the facts can well allow. It is better to hold judgment still +somewhat in suspense. Even if Obermaier should yet prove to be correct +in his apparently extreme dates, it is still evident that the Neolithic +period began late and was of short duration compared with the millennia +in which Paleolithic time was reckoned. + +Our records are scanty for the earlier portions of the more or less than +5,000 years which we have allowed for the Neolithic period.[130] We find +the shell-heap culture spreading from Denmark into Sweden and Norway. +Following closely, or overlapping it, crossing Norway from the region of +Christiania, we find the Nostvet and Arctic cultures, perhaps nearly +related, perhaps distinct, but leading over to the genuine Neolithic +Scandinavian culture. Here we find forms intermediate between the axe +and "pick" of the shell-heap and the axes of later epochs. + +We have already described the rude, somewhat triangular axe of the +shell-heaps. The axe of Paleolithic time had had nearly the shape of an +almond. We will compare the pointed end to the back, and the cutting +edge to the edge of our axe or carpenter's hatchet. The earliest +polished axes of Denmark still retained nearly the shape of a somewhat +long and thin almond.[131] Their cross-section might be compared to an +ellipse with pointed instead of rounded ends. This is the +"_spitznackiges Beil_" of Müller and Montelius. It occurs all over +Europe and still farther, while the two following forms have a +continually more restricted distribution. It is not found in the +village settlements or stone graves, and evidently characterizes a +period between these and the shell-heaps. + +The second form, the _dunn_--or _schmalnackiges Beil_--may be compared to +a long and flattened almond with a small part at the pointed end removed +and a narrow strip cut off from each side. The flatter surfaces nearly +meet at the end opposite the cutting edge, leaving this end thin. The +surfaces have become much more nearly flat, and the cross-section a +rectangle with somewhat short ends and slightly curved sides. These +belong to the period of the earliest stone graves or still earlier. They +could be easily fastened in a wooden handle. This form is very common in +Scandinavia. + +The third form, the _breit_--or _dick_--_nackiges Beil_, has almost +exactly the shape of a thick chisel-blade with broad and thick back +opposite the edge, and is rectangular in cross-section. It appears in +the later megalithic tombs and the underground stone vaults or cists. + +[Illustration: FORMS OF PREHISTORIC AXE + +Hammer axes--Late Neolithic. + +Thin-backed axe. Dunn-nackiges Beil--Early and Mid-Neolithic. + +Palæolithic hand-stones--"Coups-de-Poing."] + +Late in the Neolithic period, usually after the introduction of +copper, we find an axe--or "hammer-axe"--shorter and much thicker, +somewhat in the shape of a very light stonemason's hammer, and with a +hole for the handle. These axes sometimes had two cutting edges, +sometimes one edged and the other blunt for hammering. Many of them +were exceedingly beautiful in form, design, and finish. But this +method of fastening the head to the handle greatly weakened the +brittle stone. Many of them were probably merely articles of luxury or +adornment. The hole was made by twirling a stick or bone, with plenty +of sand, water, and patience. + +We have thus in the axes and the megaliths a well-established sequence +of forms, but no means of fixing dates except at the beginning and end +of the whole period. Apparently there was a long time between the +Scandinavian shell-heaps and the fully established Neolithic culture, of +which we have practically no records. + +Peculiar types of axes (except the mattock), and the megaliths do not +occur in the province of the banded pottery, which itself will probably +some day give us the clew to a system of chronology. The pottery of +Thessaly, Thrace, and certain parts of the Balkan Peninsula is being +gradually synchronized with that of Mycenæan and pre-Mycenæan Greece. +Important discoveries seem reasonably certain in a not distant future. +We can only wait for them with what patience we can assume. + +Our real and definite knowledge of the age of the lake-dwellings is +hardly better. Hoops tells us that they belong to the Beech period of +the Swiss flora. But this period may be much older in Switzerland than +in Scandinavia; how much older we do not know. The underground stone +burial-cysts of Switzerland look late. The small number of the villages +containing no trace of copper and the high grade of household arts and +technique in even the oldest of them suggest the same conclusion. Here +again it seems dangerous to even conjecture a date. + +Montelius, whose opinion on these subjects is certainly of great value, +says: "All things considered, I am convinced that the first stone graves +were erected here in the north more than 3,000 years before +Christ."[132] (It may be safe, therefore, to date them provisionally +between 3000 and 4000 B. C.) "The epoch of the dolmens with covered +entrance (_Gangräber_) begins about the middle of the third millennium +B. C., and the epoch of the stone vaults or cysts (_Steinkisten_) +corresponds to the centuries about 2000 B. C." + +CHART I. POSTGLACIAL STAGES + +RETREAT OF ICE AND CHANGES + + +----------------+---------------------+-------------------+----------------+ + | | | PARALLELS IN | | + | SCANDINAVIA | WESTERN AND | ASIA AND | DATE | + | | MIDDLE EUROPE | ELSEWHERE[133] | | + +----------------+---------------------+-------------------+----------------+ + | | 1. Aachen Stage. | | 24,000 (to | + | | | | 40,000) B. C. | + | Ice-retreats in| Solutrean. Dry | | [134] | + | northern | and Cold. | | | + | Germany. | Steppe and | | | + | | Tundra Fauna. | | | + | | | | | + | Swedish-Finnish| 2. Bühl Stage. | | 16,000 (to | + | Moraines. | Early | | 24,000) B. C. | + | | Magdalenian. | | [135] | + | | Moist and cold. | | | + | | Tundra. | | | + | | | | | + | Yoldia Period. | Middle Magd. | | | + | Dryas Flora. | Steppe | | | + | | Loess formed. | Susa founded. | | + | | | | | + | Glaciers in | 3. Gschnitz Stage. | Anau founded.[136]| 10,000 B. C.? | + | Mountains. | Late Magdalenian.| Neolithic | [137] | + | | | Settlements in | | + | Ancylus | | Crete. | | + | Dryas, Birch, | | | | + | Pine | | | | + | Maglemose. | | | | + | | | | | + | Littorina | 4. Daun Stage. | | 6,000 B. C.? | + | Depression. | | | | + | Optimum | Azilian-Tard. | | (7,000) B. C.? | + | Climate. | | | | + | Oak. | Campignian. | Sumerians in | | + | Shell-heaps. | | Babylonia. | | + | | | | | + | Full Neolithic.| Full Neolithic. | Predynastic | 4,000 | + | Beech. | | Egyptians. | (-6,000) B. C.?| + | | | Copper Period. | | + | | | | | + | Bronze Period. | Bronze Period. | XI-XIII Egyptian | 1,900- | + | | | Dynasties. | 2,500 B. C. | + +----------------+---------------------+-------------------+----------------+ + + +CHART II. CHANGES OF CLIMATE IN DENMARK[138] + + 1. Arctic climate. Temperature about 8° Cent. Younger Yoldia + layers, Older Dryas period. Flora: _Dryas octopetala_, _Salix + polaris_. + + 2. Subarctic climate. Temp. 8°-12° Cent. Older Dryas. Flora as + in 1. + + 3. Climate becomes moderate, continental. First maximum temp. + 12°-15° Cent. Birches, poplars, junipers. + + 4. Climate subarctic. Temp. 8°-12° Cent. Birches. + + 5. Climate arctic. Temp. 8° Cent. _Salix polaris._ + + 6. Climate subarctic. Temp. 8°-12°. Younger Dryas period. + + 7. Temperature moderates. Dry continental climate. _a._ Aspen + Epoch; _b._ Pine period with oaks beginning to appear=Ancylus + period. + + 8. Moderate insular climate. Temp. 15°-17° Cent. Climatic + optimum. Older Tapes layers, Maximum of Littorina depression. + Shell-heaps. + + 9. Temp. 15°-17° Cent. Probably slightly cooler than 8. Oak + Epoch. Beech begins to appear but is still rare. Younger Tapes + (Dosinia) layers. + + 10. Moderate insular climate about 16.1° Cent. Beech Epoch. + Mya layers. + +These climatic changes seem to argue for a comparatively recent date for +the Littorina depression and the shell-heaps. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +NEOLITHIC PEOPLES AND THEIR MIGRATIONS + + +The study of history without a thorough knowledge of geography is almost +as futile as the hope of interpreting the structure of the ape without +thinking of his arboreal life.[139] Contour lines are of vast, often +dominant, importance in the life of every nation. John Bull has been +moulded, if not made, by his island. Italy could never be safe until its +boundary followed the crest of the Alps. Great mountain chains mark +limits, and river valleys are thoroughfares. Whoever holds +Constantinople controls the trade of a boundless area. If this is true +to-day, it must have been far more important in prehistoric times, when +man had only begun to gain a certain degree of independence or mastery +of nature. Culture was then very largely determined by position and +routes of communication. The Alps and Pyrenees formed a long, impassable +barrier between northern and southern Europe, broken only by the Rhone +valley; and northern Europe was split into an eastern or middle and a +western province by the Juras, the Vosges, and the forested Ardennes. +Then, as now, the Pass of Belfort was the narrow opening, and Belgium, +always the battle-ground of nations, the great thoroughfare between +middle Europe and France. From the south, and to a certain degree from +the west, middle Europe was not easy of access. But to the eastward +there are few or no natural boundaries as it goes over into the great +Russian plain, of which North Germany is practically a westward +projection. We might possibly go farther and accept literally the +somewhat exaggerated statement that all Europe is only a peninsula of +Asia. + +Osborn has called attention to the fact that from Paleolithic to +Neolithic time Europe gave rise to no new races.[140] The immigrants +entered their new home with all their physical and mental characters +already fixed or determined. The routes of migration of the successive +waves of lower Paleolithic immigrants are still unknown. Remains of +Chellean and Acheulean cultures are rich and widely distributed +everywhere around the Mediterranean, especially in northern Africa, at +this time well watered. The entrance of Neanderthal man into Europe may +well have been from this direction. + +The Cro-Magnon race very probably came along the northern or southern +shores of the Mediterranean, and then pushed northward into France; +though the evidence is far from compelling. The race is evidently +Asiatic in its physical characters, reminding us of tribes still living +along the Himalayas, most strikingly of the Sikhs. If they entered from +the south, northern Africa was a station on their march, not their +original home. The Solutrean culture may have been brought by the Brünn +people, who probably came through Hungary and up the Danube, but its +origin and route of migration is still very obscure. Breuil's arguments +for the migration of Magdalenian culture from Poland across Europe are +very strong, and his view seems to accord well with the facts, though +Osborn seems to lean toward a somewhat different interpretation.[141] +The broad-headed people of Furfooz and Grenelle apparently came by the +central European route. The only race showing any Negroid characters is +that of Grimaldi, apparently accompanying the Cro-Magnons, few in number +and having little or no influence on the population of Europe. Evidently +the Mediterranean region was far more precocious than northern Europe, +and the genuine Mediterranean race may have arrived here bringing the +Neolithic culture almost or quite as early as the beginning of the Upper +Paleolithic Epoch in France. + +Sergi is of the opinion, though he does not press it, that the +Mediterranean race originated in Africa, perhaps in the region of the +great lakes, and that its most primitive representatives of to-day are +the Hamitic peoples along the southern shore of the Mediterranean.[142] +His definition of the race is based less upon mere breadth and length of +skull than upon contours and form and development of regions. It was a +work of observation, insight, and genius, and was a landmark in the +progress of the science of anthropology. + +The area of distribution of the race takes the form of a Y, the arms +following the north and south shores of the Mediterranean while the stem +or lower portion extends through Asia Minor. It includes the Hamitic +peoples, also the Pelasgi and the Hittites, but leaves out the Semites. + +Huxley had described the distribution of his Melanochrooi, or dark +Europeans, very similarly, except that in his group the stem of the Y +lay farther south and extended into Arabia. In locating the origin of +the Mediterranean race in Africa, Sergi was doubtless influenced by the +opinion of Darwin and others that man's birthplace was in Africa. Nearly +all paleontologists to-day favor the Asiatic origin; and the stem of the +Y stretching eastward toward Asia Minor or Arabia points to a possible +or probable primitive route of migration. The Asiatic cradle is really +in better accord with Sergi's theory, and meets some objections or +difficulties better, than the African. + +We vaguely located this Asiatic cradle somewhere westward or +northwestward of the great plateau of Thibet. We may call it the Iranian +plateau, using the term in the broadest possible sense, including +Afghanistan and perhaps western Turkestan: a great area extending more +than 1000 miles from northwest to southeast, where it sinks into the +valley of the Euphrates. We found a branch of the great Negroid race +starting very early from this region and migrating westward past Arabia +into Africa. This was an easy line of least resistance through regions +where the moist, cooler climate of the glacial period brought only +blessing instead of calamity and curse. The Hamitic and Semitic peoples +naturally followed the same route, travelling as one people or nearly +together, if the relations between the languages are as fundamental and +close as some good authorities think. The Semites settled in Arabia, +while the Hamites went on westward and found a home along the southern +shore of the Mediterranean. We do not know when this migration took +place. + +This route was easy and wide, and led into a broad, favored continent. +It would not be surprising if for a very long time most of the travel +went this way. We may venture to guess that Neanderthal man may have +followed it long before the beginning of the Hamitic-Semitic migrations, +but this is only a guess. While rich, well-watered, and probably +park-like in its flora during the moist climate of the glacial epochs, +it was sure to degenerate into desert as the climate became warmer and +dryer; as the Sahara Desert is dotted with the remains of Paleolithic +settlements where the explorer to-day is in danger of perishing from +thirst. Any traveller by this southern route must pass through Italy or +Spain before reaching northern Europe. + +[Illustration: _F. B. Loomis, del._ + +MIGRATIONS OF PEOPLES + + 1. The southernmost route to the Mediterranean and Africa. The + middle part of this route follows roughly Breasted's "Fertile + Crescent," as shown in his History of the Ancient World, + around the headwaters of the Euphrates and Tigris. 2. Middle + route through Asia Minor. 3. Northern route around Caspian Sea + to Carpathians. _A._ Grass-lands and steppe. _B._ Iranian + Plateau (central portion). _C._ Valley of Mesopotamia.] + +A second great western route must have begun very early to compete with +the African. This led along the curve of the mountain ranges of Persia +and Armenia, with Breasted's fertile crescent at their base, up the +valley of the Euphrates and elsewhere into Asia Minor. This route +continued in use as a great thoroughfare for migrating peoples and +invading armies through historic times. Xenophon and his 10,000 explored +it. It is surrounded on three sides by water, although mountain chains +cut off the influence of the sea to some extent. It is a plateau of +glade and forest, though the forests have now largely disappeared. It +has the features of a semitropical climate; here the flora of northern +and southern provinces meet and overlap. One great characteristic of the +region is the abundance and variety of its fruit-trees. It was +apparently the original home of apricot, peach, fig, and orange, as well +as of other fruits introduced into Italy from this region by the Romans. +The vine is luxurious. Somewhere along the line of this great +thoroughfare the wild olive was domesticated, improved, and transformed. +Oaks, walnuts, chestnuts, and many smaller growths furnish a variety of +nuts. The open glades tempted to agriculture and furnished no small +contributions of grain to Rome. Though suffering from dessication, it +may yet again become the garden of the world. + +When once a wave of westward migration had entered Asia Minor it was +walled in on the north and south by mountain and sea. There were no +by-roads. Crowded and pressed from behind, it could not stop until they +reached the shores of the Ægean Sea. + +Here there were two possible outlets. One was by sea, using as stations +the islands with which the sea is dotted and leading to Crete and to +Greece. Crete, according to Evans, was settled some 14,000 years ago, +and is on the whole less easily reached by short voyages than Attica. A +second outlet led across the Hellespont and around the Ægean Sea into +Greece, or still farther northward and westward around the Adriatic and +down into Italy. We might add still a third fork of this great highway +running northward to the Danube. When we remember how Neolithic +settlements in northern Europe clustered around the lakes and dotted the +river valleys, the primitive minor routes of communication, how early +islands like Crete in the south and Gothland in the Baltic were settled, +we can imagine the importance of a city--or even a village--like Troy even +in prehistoric times. Here a sea route running east and west crossed a +great land route running north and south. Here was a point of exchange, +trade, and transshipment--if we may use the word. We do not wonder that +before the close of the Neolithic period, and perhaps far earlier, +patterns and influences were radiating through the Balkan region, far up +the Danube, and we know not how far into Russia. + +It is hardly an exaggeration to say that Greece, and Italy to a less +extent, were in climate and many other features bits of Asia Minor, +almost shut off from northern Europe by the great Alpine barrier. The +two regions were entered by different routes, each of which had left its +mark on its travellers. Immigrants seeped into Italy and Greece through +broken and rough mountain regions. Great invasions were difficult or +impossible. They were sunny, smiling lands compared with the grim and +dreary north. Men living in this milder climate did not need to be gross +eaters. They lived from the fruits of their orchards to a far larger +extent. Nuts were in early times almost a surrogate for grain. The olive +furnished a delicious oil, and the grapes wine. The butter and cheese of +northern Europe were neither needed nor desired.[143] Most of these +habits, tastes, and desires had become fixed during the march through +Asia Minor. + +The peoples which gradually went westward from the Iranian plateau +through Asia Minor, across or around the Ægean Sea into Greece and Italy +and Spain, generally found a very similar environment from beginning to +end of their long journey. There was little in food, climate, or +conditions to compel or stimulate change. Everything tended to more +firmly fix in their structure the already long-inherited characters of +their Iranian ancestors. These characteristics thus fixed have become +stable and persistent, and have remained so in modern times in spite of +repeated invasions and infusions of northern blood. We are perhaps +justified in speaking of a Mediterranean race. + +It seems strange that Sergi should find traces of his Mediterranean race +in Russia. Did these find their way so far northward directly from the +Mediterranean area or are they merely sporadic groups more resistant to +modifying influences; or are they perhaps groups which have separated +from the westward migration at the Hellespont and turned northward? The +Nordic peoples of Europe are perhaps after all not so far from their +Mediterranean cousins. The Mediterranean race still holds its own around +the Mediterranean. In France its blood is much mixed and greatly diluted +with later infusions. In England it has generally been almost completely +swamped by Aryan invasions. + +Neither of the two routes already sketched leads directly into middle or +northern Europe. The trend in both is toward the Mediterranean. We must +now consider the third and last route, which is of chief interest to us. +We have already seen that the Black Sea prevented all migrations +northward from Asia Minor except at the Hellespont. Eastward from the +Black Sea lies the Caspian, probably much larger in glacial times. The +two seas are separated by the forbidding, almost unbroken, mountain +barrier of the Caucasus; but a narrow passage at each end is left. East +of the Caspian Sea must lie the point where a more northerly westward +route diverges from the road through Asia Minor. Our third route starts, +therefore, from the northern edge of the Iranian plateau, perhaps mostly +from Turkestan, and runs westward north of the great barrier of seas and +mountains just described. It follows the great steppe or prairie which +stretches through southern Siberia and Russia into Hungary. Its western +portion lies along the valley of the lower Danube, the great east and +west artery of communication and migration through Europe. It lies +farther north than any other great route, and leads over steppe instead +of through forest. As the Arabia-Africa route was the first to be +traversed, this may well have been the last. Furthermore, the route +through Asia Minor, ending in a sort of _cul de sac_, may easily have +become well inhabited and hence less open before the Neolithic period +had begun in northern Europe. + +It was by no means the most attractive route. It offered far less to +people in the collecting stage than the well-watered parklands of Asia +Minor. The steppe offers to the hunter few means of concealment or +approach to the game. The animals are swift and wary. In any migration +of peoples toward the frontier, the hunters lead the advance and spread +out like an army of scouts. Every river which crossed the steppe would +offer to them a tempting by-road leading off into the forests of Siberia +or Russia. How deeply they would penetrate into the primeval forest or +away from the river valleys is still a question. Very likely they would +find their best hunting-grounds not very far from the northern edge of +the steppe, where the forest is less dense. This question we cannot yet +answer. But most of European Russia is well watered, and here these +hunters would find themselves at home. The main route of the steppe +would be left for a very different population. The piedmont zone of +grasslands in Turkestan was an ideal land for primitive agriculturists +practising a hoe-culture, as at Anau. The northern edge of this steppe +zone, where it joined the forest, may have been equally favorable. + +But the piedmont zone and the river banks of the steppe must have been +occupied by agriculturists before 10,000 B. C., probably much earlier. +Pumpelly's explorations seem to warrant this view. Alongside of +agriculture, but at a somewhat later date, sheep-herding and +cattle-raising were practised. But the nomad of these days was a less +dangerous neighbor than at later times because the horse had not yet +been domesticated. During these post-glacial times he would be less +dangerous here than farther south around Arabia, when the dryness which +finally produced the Arabian desert was making itself felt, burning up +the pastures and leaving only the choice between starvation and +migration in mass. Again comparing this migration with the pioneer +movements of peoples in historic times, we have good reason to believe +that the sheep-herders and cattle men--and they were probably both at the +same time--advanced faster than the agriculturists, who were more bound +to the soil. Between herdsmen and farmers there were almost certainly +many intermediate grades. We may be fairly confident, therefore, that +the movement or tide along this route did not take the form of a +procession marching in lock-step, but of a series of waves, generally +with hunters in front and along the forest flank, herdsmen in the +middle, and farmers bringing up the rear and making permanent +settlements at favored spots. + +Hunters had been spreading northward at least as early as the beginning +of Upper Paleolithic times. Farming on the lowest grades of agriculture +is essentially Neolithic. A town or village had risen at Susa 20,000 +years ago. Neolithic civilization probably reached Crete nearly or quite +15,000 years ago. Small Sumerian cities were being founded in southern +Babylonia at or before 5000 B. C. Population was increasing in density in +the Iranian plateau, as almost every mountain region with its healthy +atmosphere and low death-rate quickly becomes overpopulated. Our pioneer +column was continually pressed forward by new recruits from the rear as +well as by its natural increase. We have practically no records of the +march. But our sketch is no mere invention of fancy. It applies to every +great migration of peoples extending over centuries or millennia. The +last illustration was the great westward movement in America beginning a +century or two ago, and still far from completed. + +The Hungarian plain is the last extension of the great south Russian +steppe far into Europe. West of this anything like nomadic life was +practically impossible. Here our pioneers scattered and followed the +river valleys, settling more or less permanently the loess deposits as +farmers, but on less favorable soils devoting themselves more largely to +cattle-raising. The latter form of life seems to have been more common +on the great North German plain, though accompanied by much hunting, a +genuine pioneer life. + + +We may now turn to Europe and consider the distribution of its races and +peoples. + +Of the route of migration of the Neanderthal race we have no sure +knowledge. The wide and rich distribution of ancient Paleolithic +implements in Egypt and northern Africa tempts us to guess that it +represents a very early migration along the Arabian route after the +negroids and before the Hamites and Semites. We have glanced at the +origin of the Cro-Magnon people, and have discovered our uncertainty. +The Tardenoisian culture, with its pygmy flints, is exceedingly +wide-spread,[144] and seems to have started in Europe in the +Mediterranean region, arriving from still farther east. We are tempted +to guess that the great bulk of westward migrations in Paleolithic +times followed the southern, Arabian, route, but there were probably +exceptions. + +Coming down to Neolithic times we find the Hamitic peoples in Africa, +apparently representing the first wave in the migration of the +Mediterranean race. It may well have arrived at its present home long +before the beginning of the Neolithic period. It had followed the +southern route. Peoples physically and racially closely akin to the +Hamites followed, probably in successive waves. The Tardenoisian people, +if their culture was carried by a distinct people, may represent an +early wave. The bulk of the population of Greece, Italy, and Spain +followed, but migration seems to shift gradually from the Arabian route +to that through Asia Minor, as the zone of most favorable climatic +conditions moved slowly northward. Before the close of the Neolithic +period the relations between Greece, Crete, and western Asia Minor have +become so marked and close that they almost represent one culture and +people. + +The Mediterranean race, thus established in Europe, spread northward. It +could not cross the Alpine barrier. It followed the Rhone valley and the +Atlantic coast, and furnished the basic population in France and Great +Britain, though here frequently crowded back into corners or submerged +by later invasions, peaceful or otherwise. It furnished the great link +or means of communication between the Mediterranean basin and the far +north of Europe. Schliz has some reason for calling these megalith +people largely traders. + +In a cave near Furfooz, Belgium, there were found crania, probably of +Azilian-Tardenoisian time, noticeably distinct from those of the +long-headed or dolichocephalic Paleolithic peoples in being short--and +broad-headed, brachycephalic.[145] Brachycephalic crania, perhaps early +Neolithic, were also found at Grenelle near Paris. We remember their +occurrence in the shell-heaps at Mugem, Portugal. Similar crania were +found of about the same age at Ofnet, Bavaria, on a tributary of the +Danube. + +Somewhat later we find broad-headed people occupying the higher lands of +southeastern France, the _Massif_, Juras and Vosges, forming thus a +north-and-south zone separating France from middle Europe. They seem +later to have gradually spread westward, somewhat irregularly, and to +have mingled with the Mediterranean peoples of France. + +The relation of these "Protobrachycephals" to the great Alpine race, +most of which arrived later, is still a matter of discussion, and the +whole problem of the brachycephalic peoples bristles with interesting +questions. They seem to have originated in the mountain regions of +western Asia, possibly in or near the Armenian highlands, though this +has been disputed.[146] It looks as if they came originally from a +region bordering on or overhanging the steppe route and came into Europe +by way of the valley of the Danube. There were certainly several if not +many waves of brachycephalic migrations into Europe, of which this was +the first. Other waves may have come from different parts of a great +area, and hence show modifications of type. Everywhere the Neolithic +brachycephals seem to inhabit mountainous or rough country, perhaps +because of preference, perhaps because as they gradually made their way +they found these regions unoccupied. They seem to be an unassuming, +unpretentious, peaceable, exceedingly persistent and enduring stock, +which has held on its way with remarkable pertinacity. Some still +maintain that brachycephaly is everywhere largely an adaptation to +conditions and habits of life.[147] The rough country, generally heavily +forested, and well populated with this quiet but firm and solid people, +greatly hindered free communication between France and central Europe. + +No human remains have been found in the Danish kitchen-middens, which +may well have been heaped up by broad-heads from Belgium but apparently +mingled with eastern immigrants who brought with them the domesticated +dog not found at Mugem. They left their axes and picks in Sweden and +across into Norway. Behind them came people bearing the Nostvet +culture.[148] Our knowledge of Russian prehistory is still very scanty. +But we find here a variety of cultures, such as we should expect from a +confusion of hunting tribes far from their original home much broken up +and remingled during the long migration. We find in Poland the remains +of a culture akin in its carvings to the Magdalenian culture of western +Europe. + +It would hardly have crossed Europe from the west. Breuil[149] seems to +consider it as the station from whence it was carried to France. The +question is exceedingly interesting and important, but is one to which +we can give no sure answer. The carved bone implements are certainly to +be found in Poland and to the northward. + +Behind these bits and wrecks of tribes and cultures, for they were +hardly more, came the first great recognizable body of Nordic peoples, +probably also in successive waves mingling on this northern coast toward +which they had been drawn by the climatic optimum. Kossina,[150] who has +given an excellent account of these early northern migrations, speaks of +them as _Urfinnen_ and _Urgermanen_, primitive Finns and Germans. +_Urskandinavier_, primitive Scandinavians, would seem to be a more +appropriate name. For the centre of the least mixed blood of this group +is to be found in the Scandinavian peninsula. + +These Scandinavian representatives of the so-called Nordic race or stock +are characterized by tall stature, blond complexion, light hair, blue +eyes, and long head and face. Their origin is still a matter of much +discussion. Kossina and others derive them from Cro-Magnon people, +following the reindeer in its migration northeastward from France at or +toward the end of the Magdalenian epoch. Some suggest that the +Cro-Magnon people were also blonds. If this were so they formed a marked +exception to the color of Paleolithic stocks coming from and through +southern regions. The possibility cannot be denied. But, if the +Cro-Magnons were light-colored, they have left no traces of this in +their descendants at Perigeux and elsewhere. The face of the Cro-Magnon +was short and broad, that of the Scandinavian long and narrow. It might +have changed but has not done so at Perigeux. The Cro-Magnon race was +already declining in physique and numbers during the Magdalenian. Even +if all migrated, could they have furnished enough descendants to give +rise to the Scandinavian population? It seems to me far more probable +that the Scandinavians were hunters or partially herdsmen, who had +wandered by the steppe route through the forests or along their edge, +and had lost the dark pigmentation in the northern climate. This has +been noticed, perhaps to a less extent among Asiatic steppe-dwellers. + +The study of prehistoric anthropology in Russia, a vast territory, is +still in its infancy. We have touched upon only one or two of the +questions concerning this so-called Nordic race, which is probably +hardly more than a name for a mixture of peoples.[151] We must not +forget that even in Scandinavia we find traces of a very early +immigration of short-headed people.[152] We still know little concerning +life in North Germany during the Neolithic period. It was probably what +we should call pioneer life, where hunting and cattle-raising and a rude +tillage combined to furnish support. + +We must now turn to the valley of the Danube. Here we find a population +characterized by similar ground form of skull, although according to +Schliz[153] showing two fairly distinct varieties, a longer and a +shorter cranium. Probably this population arrived in several successive +waves. Its culture is evidently homogeneous. They are agriculturists +forming fixed and permanent settlements, practising farming of a high +grade. The characteristic implement is the mattock. Daggers and +lance-heads are rare, or fail. They were a peaceful folk settling by +preference, though not exclusively, in the loess districts, as at +Grosgartach. We find, as we had every reason to expect, that northern +Germany and Scandinavia were peopled by a pioneer folk not yet +completely agricultural. The Danube people represent the farmers of the +steppe whose migration probably went on more slowly and gradually, and +who always remained more homogeneous physically and culturally. They +may, or may not, have reached the Danube valley as early as the Germans +and Scandinavians arrived at the Baltic, for they had far less distance +to march. They spread out westward and northward. Here we trace them by +their pottery. Starting from Hungary and the surrounding regions we find +them in Moravia, Bohemia, Silesia, across south and middle Germany as +far as the Rhine. We have already noticed that the banded pottery +covered all this region, while the home of the corded pottery was North +Germany. + +But, while the form of the banded pottery is quite constant, the +ornament varies greatly. We find the plain, often rude, saw-tooth +pattern, the meander and scroll, the spiral-painted pottery--sometimes in +the southeast plant patterns, perhaps introduced. I regret that I cannot +find any clear or definite theory as to the exact relations of any of +this pottery to that of Anau or Susa. The greatest variety, as well as +the most complex patterns, seem to occur in most southeasterly regions, +which, at least in later Neolithic times, were much under the influence +of the Ægean culture, just as western Europe borrowed from Italy and +Spain. + +Here there was evidently a great and very complex mixture of cultures, +and probably of peoples all of one great primitive stock, shown least +modified in the Mediterranean race, here more influenced, changed, and +varied by steppe climate and conditions, and more or less admixture. + +Along the Swiss lakes we find the lake-dwellers. The few human remains +from the earliest lake-dwellings are all brachycephalic--short-heads. +Then in the period when copper was beginning to come in we find +long-heads arriving in greater numbers, but the short-heads regain their +superiority during the Bronze period. The weight of evidence seems to +favor the view that these settlers did not come from the zone of +"proto-brachycephals" inhabiting eastern France, but represent a new +immigration from the east, and, according to Schliz, founded fortified +settlements on the heights of Baden, Wurtemberg, and along the valley of +the Rhine as far as Cologne.[154] We have seen that the pottery of these +earliest immigrants was crude and almost or quite without definite +ornament. + +Northern and central Europe seem to have been settled mainly or almost +entirely directly from the east, along western Russia and the Danube +valley. But, especially toward the close of the period, people from the +megalithic zone seem to have penetrated much farther southward into +Germany than their monuments would prove. Schliz thinks that he has +recognized their skulls as well as calyciform pottery over a wide +region. Their presence seems fairly clear, but whether they were +comparatively very few in number, or fairly numerous, is still +uncertain. + +There seems to be good reason for believing that in late Paleolithic +time the population of middle Europe north of the Alps was very sparse +and the Baltic region hardly inhabited. A hunting population without +domestic animals except the dog pressed northward through Russia in +waves and fragments, and along the Baltic mingled with a strain coming +from the west, probably broad-heads from Belgium. The great Scandinavian +and North German peoples followed with a frontier culture, a combination +of hunting, fishing, cattle-raising, and agriculture mingled in +proportions varying according to time and place. Their exact route of +migration from the region of the steppes must yet be traced. But the +weight of evidence favors an eastern origin. At a time probably not so +very far from their arrival in the north, agriculturists--we might safely +speak of them as farmers--were coming into the Danube valley and +spreading along its tributaries. Apparently somewhat or considerably +later the lake-dwellers appear along the northern piedmont zone of the +Alps as broad-heads, marking the arrival of the advance guard of the +great Alpine race of to-day. But here again our certainty is not as firm +as we could wish. They extend northward toward and along the Rhine +valley. The close of the period is marked by the southward spread of +peoples from northern Germany crowding back the farmers characterized by +the banded pottery. This movement is augmented somewhat, perhaps very +little, by recruits from the megalithic zone of northwestern Europe and +Denmark. All these people are closing in on central or middle western +Europe. In the Rhine valley along the middle of the course of the river +we find a region of mingling or overlapping cultures which have not yet +been satisfactorily disentangled. + +We have spoken of them as pioneers. It was a time and place of pioneer, +frontier life. And frontier men and life have their peculiar physical, +cultural, mental, and temperamental characteristics, almost apart from +time and place. The people have something, at least, in common with the +great American westward migrations and frontiersmen of a far later date. +We have the successive waves of hunters, herdsmen, and farmers often +overlapping or mingling. We have a grand mixing of peoples and cultures, +if not of races. Many a fine art or technique is left behind. Life is +rude, hard, vigorous, vital, joyous. It was so yesterday, it was +probably so millennia ago. For the stratum of frontiersman and +barbarian--not to say savage--lies just below the surface in us all, and a +scratch exposes it. This was a period of vitality, hope, and promise. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +NEOLITHIC RELIGION + + +Man's ancestors, as we have seen, owed their progress to their training, +policing, and harassing by stronger and better-armed competitors. The +earliest vertebrates developed a notochordal rod of cartilage, and then +a backbone, by the habit of swimming forced upon them by the mollusks +and crustacea which held the rich feeding-grounds of the ocean bottom +along the shores. In early Paleozoic time the sharks crowded the ganoids +in successive waves toward and into fresh water, until finally some +crawled out on the shore as amphibia. + +Land life and air-breathing gave the possibility of warm blood and high +development of brain, and a strong tendency toward viviparous and +finally intrauterine development of the embryo. Reptiles harassed +mammals into the attainment of a certain amount of wariness and +intelligence. The comparatively weak Primates were kept in the trees and +forced to develop hand and brain by the fierce and well-armed +Carnivora. Only a "saving remnant" has progressed, and these mostly +under stern and strenuous pressure. The "aspiring" ape exists only in +our imagination. + +The apes had become accustomed to life in the trees, and found it safe +and comfortable. A change of climate compelled those dwelling farthest +north to seek their living on the ground. Most of them fled southward, +many became extinct, a few came down and adapted themselves to the new +mode of life. Nature was in no sense a "fairy god-mother" to them, but a +stern, harsh disciplinarian whose method of education was "not a word +and a blow and the blow first, but the blow without the word, leaving +the pupil to find out why his ears had been boxed"[155]; and nature's +cuffs were frequently fatal. The pupil had to learn by others' +experience. Paleolithic man lived in France poorly armed and +ill-protected against a threatening climate steadily changing for the +worse. Food may have been abundant, but enemies hunting for him were +also numerous. He was compelled to be keen, watchful, prying, wary; to +discover distant danger, and to notice every trace of its approach. He +learned the habits and behavior of animals, and the ways of things--an +excellent course of study. He had to rely on his wits, and they were +none too keen or many. + +Some things he could understand: he learned to avoid or to ward off many +dangers. Others seemed altogether beyond his understanding or control. +Here he could only wonder; but the wise old Greeks knew that wonder was +the mother of wisdom. He wondered at storm, lightning, hail, and flood; +at disease and death, and a hundred other things. He sat in the mouth of +his cave and watched that strange creature fire devouring the wood and +sending smoke and sparks skyward. He thought a very little in a dull, +stupid way, dozed and dreamed and awaked to wonder again. Or he saw fire +raging through the forest and fled for his life. But it was warming and +fascinating, and somehow akin to himself. Did it not devour wood and lap +up water on the hearth? + +He seems to have come to feel rather than recognize that he was +surrounded by invisible powers, in some respects like himself but vastly +more powerful, who knew what he was doing, and who would hurt him if he +did certain things and might help him if he did others. Certain places +were to be strictly avoided, certain objects must not be touched, +certain things must never be done, or could be permitted only at +certain times. They were taboo. He has started on a long journey of +exploration, experiment, and discovery. + +How had he come to believe this? Largely through hard experience of +nature's buffets, whenever he acted contrary to this hypothesis or +feeling. His religion was largely one of fear fitted for a savage mind, +though not without a mingling of hope. + +Of course in us cultured folk perfect love, sentimentality, softness of +fibre, heedlessness, forgetfulness, and general superficiality of +life--to make a very inadequate list--have combined to cast out fear, "for +fear hath torment"; and we thank God loudly that we are so much wiser +than our benighted ancestors. Even our New England fathers feared God, +though they feared nothing else, but we fear only everything else except +God and law. But the unlucky scientific wight living and working in the +shadow of adamantine law remains in hopeless bondage to fear. + + "Nach ewigen ehernen, grossen Gesetzen + Mussen wir alle unseres Daseins Kreise vollenden."[156] + +These great powers might not necessarily be hopelessly hostile. They +might be appeased or won over, possibly controlled. What could he do to +please them? For something must be done. Here ritual arises.[157] +Possibly he offers to one or more of them a share in the feast which he +so much enjoys after a successful hunt. In time this may become a +sacrifice, sent up and out on the wings of fire.[158] Or he practises a +wind or rain dance as the outlet and expression of his intense desire; +and to awaken, encourage, and help the powers of these elements. He +holds a hunting-dance to rehearse and gain power for the killing of the +bear. Call it objectification of his heart's desire, or magic if you +prefer. Magic and religion grow up side by side, and probably from the +same root in these early stages: as alchemy and chemistry, astrology and +astronomy will spring up later. + +The pictures on the cave-walls of France probably had a magical or +religious purpose. Here we find very few representations of human +beings. But in a rock-painting at Cogul, possibly Neolithic though +probably older, we see a group of women apparently engaged in some rite +of magic or religion. The occurrence of amulets also does not surprise +us. + +We cannot make a study of primitive ritual magic and religion, their +origin, form, and content. But even our hasty glance shows us that man +had been wondering and thinking about this subject during millennia +before our Neolithic time, had been forced to accept many profound +convictions, containing germs of sublime truth overlaid, like our own, +with many errors; he had elaborated a system of ritual, and had +travelled far along the road of religious experience and discoveries +long before this comparatively recent epoch. + +The conspicuous features of the religion of this ancient period of +primeval stupidity, or _Urdummheit_, to borrow the German word, were the +host of invisible powers or dæmons, and the law of taboo, the forbidden +thing. Breach of taboo rendered not only the individual lawbreaker but +the whole tribe, however innocent, liable to punishment. The whole +community was responsible for every deed of any and every one of its +members, and suffered or prospered accordingly. When Agamemnon had +wronged the priest of Apollo, the god shot his arrows not at Agamemnon +but throughout the innocent Greek host. The children of Israel were +routed at Ai, because Achan had taken the devoted or forbidden thing. +This stage of tribal responsibility seems to be practically universal. +It gave the law an iron grip on the people, tamed them, and made them +march in lock-step, a necessary stage of terrible discipline. But only +under the protection and stimulus of this tribal feeling of common +responsibility and resulting tribal conscience could the individual +conscience be gradually awakened and developed, and finally break +through the cake or crust of custom into freedom and light. + +All these forces and influences were acting throughout the Neolithic +and later periods, and are still with us. Perhaps we can gain a +tolerably distinct and correct view of Neolithic religion among the +Mediterranean peoples by a glance at the ancient Greek mysteries. +Students of Greek art and literature quite naturally have been very +slow to take interest in these crude, often ugly and indecent, +rituals. But for this very reason the primitive stands out all the +more sharply defined against the brilliant, beautiful, artistic +Olympian religion of Greek art and literature, and particularly of +Homer. Students like Professor Murray could hardly be expected to +explore these lower strata with great sympathy. For this very reason, +as somewhat unwilling witnesses to whatever is good or great in +primitive Greek ritual, their testimony is all the more valuable, +though probably hardly as just as that of Miss Harrison.[159] We shall +follow mainly Professor Murray's vivid portrayal.[160] In his +_Saturnia Regna_ he pictures the ritual and belief of the ancient +Greeks before the arrival of Achæans or Hellenes in any strict sense +of the word. Strictly speaking, it is a description of the religion of +the Bronze Age during the earlier part of the second millennium B. C. +It has been growing, developing, and undergoing modifications since +Neolithic time, but in all its essential features it is ancient. + +We find here very few traces of the chief Olympian divinities, which +belong to a later age than the objects of worship or cult of these +ancient peoples whom we venture to call Pelasgi. They worshipped powers +or dæmons in indefinite numbers, but with no individual names: +represented, if at all, by emblems or symbols, very rarely in bodily +human form. Of these spirits of death, disease, madness, and calamity +there were "thousands upon thousands, from whom man can never escape or +hide." So much is mainly a heritage from Paleolithic times. But the +conception of spirit has grown more clear, distinct, and elevated, as we +saw in our study of burial rites. + +But Neolithic men lived in communities and devoted themselves largely to +tillage of the ground and to raising sheep, goats, swine, and cattle. +Their life was still precarious. "Their food depended on the crops of +one tiny plot of ground. All the while they knew almost nothing of the +real causes that made crops succeed or fail. They only felt sure it was +a matter of pollution, of unexpiated defilement. It is this state of +things that explains the curious cruelty of agricultural works, which +like most cruelty had its roots in terror, terror of the breach of +taboo--the 'Forbidden Thing.'" + +Neolithic man, with his new discoveries and industries, had given new +hostages to fortune, and a new and wider scope of application to the old +doctrine of taboo and of tribal responsibility. This strengthened the +hold of the priest or magician on the hopes, fears, and faith of his +people. The law is going deeper as well as wider. There arises an +individual feeling of pollution and of the need of expiation which will +blaze out in the oldest Greek tragedies as almost a veritable sense of +sin. We might almost say that a sense of morality toward the spirit +world is now appearing in a religion previously almost or quite unmoral. +We may easily overestimate the extent and power of the change, but we +can hardly be mistaken in recognizing its dawn and the vast germinal +possibilities of this dim feeling or conception. + +In agriculture and throughout nature seed-time was followed by harvest, +fall, and winter's gloom and death. Then in the next spring there was a +return, a rebirth or a resurrection. If the seed failed to come up, if +the blade withered or was blighted, it was because the vegetation spirit +or dæmon had failed to reappear or had been reborn weak or sickly, and +all this because some one had broken taboo, had touched the forbidden +thing. This must be prevented at all cost, they must help the spirit. +Hence there must be every year a time of purification, of renovation, +when the old garments and utensils and everything which could carry the +pollution of death were cast off or cleansed. + +All these conclusions, and some others of equal importance to which we +will return later, are expressed or symbolized in the great Dromena, +festivals, mysteries, or whatever you may call these rites of +pre-Homeric Greece. Then, for a time, they are partially, though never +totally, eclipsed, by the brilliant beauty of the Olympian religion with +its glorious temples, statues, and other works of art. + +The Olympian gods had conquered the world. They practise neither +agriculture nor industry, nor any honest work. They fight and feast and +drink and play. They are conquering chieftains, royal buccaneers. The +Olympian religion had its time and place, and did its work. It swept +out many indecent features of the older cults, many superstitions and +abuses. It suited the Achæans and their civilization exactly, and we can +never forget its "sheer beauty," But it went bankrupt, lost its hold on +men's minds and hearts, failed and faded out. Professor Murray compares +its end to that of a garden of rare exotic flowers overrun by the rank +weeds which it had temporarily displaced. Miss Harrison more justly +compares it to a flower withering because cut off from its roots. + +There was vastly more vitality in the ancient crude symbols and chaos of +conceptions than in the ordered and artistic Olympian hierarchy with its +marvellous representations of the gods in human or superhuman form and +beauty. Even its art and literature could not save it. It had lost its +mysticism. The old Neolithic religion, handed down by peasants and +artisans reoccupied the field, transformed sometimes almost beyond +recognition, like the Ugly Duckling of the fairy tale. It returned +triumphant through sheer power of unlimited vitality and adaptability. +Plato draws his finest illustrations from its mysteries, out of which, +also, the Greek drama arose. Paul quotes from them or from a similar +stratum of belief. + +Some of the many sources of its vitality are obvious. It was rooted in +the firm conviction of the existence of a spiritual world toward and +into which its every rootlet was forcing its way and from which it drew +nourishment and power. We might better change the illustration and say +that it was slowly developing a spiritual eye which peered into a higher +world and developed in keenness and clearness of vision in response to +the higher pulsations. By patient experiment and experience, which +produced a hope that could not make ashamed and a faith in which hope +and experiment combined, it was feeling its way into spiritual +knowledge. It knew nothing of practical science or of material cause and +effect. But its world pulsated with the universal life. It recognized +the law of forbidden things and the sure penalty of law-breaking. It had +a tribal conscience and recognized the need of purification. It had the +promise, at least, of individual conscience and consciousness of sin. + +Its symbol was the mystery which lifted only a corner of the veil and +left an abundant opportunity for wonder, imagination, thought, and +mysticism, which was entirely lacking in the perfect statue and the +finished creed. It made man, through its sympathetic magic, a coworker +with his divinities or dæmons in gaining the answer to an intensive +desire or prayer acted by all the members of the community with all +their united might, instead of expressed merely in words, the utterance +of his whole being and life. Such a system or chaos overflows with +sublime possibilities. + +The introduction of agriculture had produced another most important +change in religious views and ritual. In tillage the earth brought forth +and gave birth to the crops which furnished their chief food supply, and +probably, in their view, to animals and men also; just as the human +mother gives birth to the child. Hence there was a wide-spread belief +in, and cult of, an earth divinity, of course female, or in a goddess or +dæmon of fertility. She is sometimes or usually accompanied by a male +partner, companion or son, but he occupies a lower place. + +[Illustration: FEMALE IDOLS, THRACE] + +[Illustration: FEMALE IDOL, ANAU + +Reproduced from "Explorations in Turkestan." Carnegie Institute of +Washington, Publishers.] + +This cult of the goddess seems to have been a marked feature of +Neolithic religion.[161] We find it in the remains of the Minoan periods +in Crete; Isis and her companion god Osiris were very prominent in +Egypt. The cult was wide-spread throughout Asia Minor: Diana, or better +Artemis, of the Ephesians, Ma in Anatolia, the great goddess of the +Hittites are a few examples. Farther eastward we find Astarte. Pumpelly +found a female idol (Astarte?) at Anau. The cult dots, if it does not +cover, the old middle migration route. We remember the wide-spread +distribution of the painted pottery from Susa to Anau and over to +Boghaz-keui in the land of the Hittites. Art and religion are closely +related during the early times and a wide-spread type of art suggests, +though it does not prove, an accompanying form of religion similar +throughout the same wide area. In Greece we find Demeter, and in +"Pelasgic Athens" the goddess Athena always held the highest place. Hera +may well have been another great goddess of the Pelasgi. When the +conquering Achæans came in and their chieftains wedded the princesses of +the land, they married their god Zeus to the goddess of the land. Hence +this cult has been displaced and its records blotted out by later +changes. That so many traces of it outlasted the Bronze Age is a proof +of its firm hold and great vitality. + +We have studied these ancient cults in Greece and the Mediterranean +basin because here they are easily discovered and can be restored. They +are covered by only a thin layer of later cults which could not destroy +their vitality. When we attempt to explore northern Europe the +situation is quite different. Christianity blotted out all traces of the +worship of Odin and Thor; what it could not blot out it took over into +its own service in a modified form. Behind Thor and Odin we see the +shadowy form of Dyaus (Ziu?), perhaps a sky-god akin to the Hellenic +Zeus, whose name has come down to us in our weekday, Tuesday. Behind all +these we must search for traces of the deeply buried and almost +obliterated genuine Neolithic cults. These traces could persist only as +superstitions of peasants. + +We notice first of all that we find one race extending northward along +the coast of France into England and Denmark, the zone of the megalithic +monuments. In this zone we find figurines and carvings of divinities. +Here Déchelette tells us that the female divinity was undoubtedly +preferred as the guardian of the tombs.[162] This zone was so closely +connected with the Mediterranean region that we should expect nothing +else. + +In southeastern Europe, around the valley of the Danube, at Cucuteni, +Jablanica, and elsewhere, we find figurines, and here again the female +divinity is at least the more prominent, if not decidedly +dominant.[163] Déchelette tells us as to its source: "From the earliest +times striking analogies have been proven between the old villages of +the Danube and the Balkans and the Ægean settlements of the Troad and +Phrygia. Primitive idols, painted pottery, frequent employment of the +spiral in decorative art: all these occur scattered through the stations +of southeastern Europe in Neolithic times and in the eastern +Mediterranean basin in pre-Mycenæan and Mycenæan days. Between Butmir +(near Sarajevo, Bosnia) and Hissarlik (Troy) these discoveries mark the +routes which without doubt were already opening communication between +the pre-Hellenic peoples and the pre-Celtic tribes." Reinach adds: +"Eastern Europe, part of Asia Minor and of Egypt, have been revealed as +very intense centres of Neolithic civilization."[164] They may be traced +in rare examples still farther northward into Bohemia and even in +Thuringia. But their distribution outside of southeastern Europe is very +sparse. Traces of the worship of an earth mother,[165] though vague and +few, can still be discovered in the superstitions of the peasant folk of +northern Germany. A primitive belief in spirits of the earth, of +vegetation, of fertility--of dæmons who preside over the crops, who die +in the autumn or winter and reappear in the spring--is common in the +folk-lore and customs of the peasants in many parts of Europe. Our +Maypole has an interesting history and is probably the last survival of +an ancient cult. Still other more interesting illustrations might easily +be cited.[166] + +The Balder-myth is familiar to us all. He is a "rare exotic," entirely +out of place in that circle of berserker gods and brutal giants who +lived in or over against the Norse Valhalla, but would have found +himself at home in the land and times of Dionysus. Have we possibly here +an intrusion of a far more ancient religious element which even the rude +dwellers in a harsh Northland could not forget, and would not allow to +die? + +Usually accompanying the cult of the goddess we find frequent and +wide-spread traces of a related trend of thought, mother-right +(Mutterrecht), maternal kinship, matriarchy: under which were generally +included the reckoning of descent in the female line, rights of +inheritance by the daughter, hence female rights of property and general +high social and economic position of woman. These features need not be +united--they may appear separately, one here and another there. We are +probably not studying a system of thought or law, but a general tendency +of life.[167] + +Mother-right, to use the most general term, survived, partially at +least, down to historic time in Egypt. It persisted in Asia Minor. +Perhaps it crops out in the story of the Amazons. We find traces of it +in ancient law and custom in northern Europe. Says Hoernes: "Among the +Greeks, Romans, Celts, Germans, and Slavs, remains of mother-right occur +even in historic times."[168] Wundt thinks that maternal kinship was +once universal.[169] We have no time or room to discuss the origin of +mother-kinship. We may yet find that it and mother-right represent +distinct forms of a deep-seated universal tendency, often of independent +origin, occurring usually together but sometimes separate. + +Something akin to mother-right, and to a high position and dominating +influence of woman in the family and in society, is only what we should +expect at this time. We have seen that women were the first great +discoverers and inventors; discoverers and founders of all our household +arts and crafts as well as of most of our science. Women were the first +spinners and weavers, the first potters. They were the first herbalists +and botanists and the first household physicians. In the care of the +children they were compelled to be alert, quick-minded, ready for all +sorts of emergencies. Paleolithic man was a mere hunter; the rest of the +time he ate and loafed. The woman provided the vegetable food, as well +as much of the animal, and became the first gardener or farmer. She +introduced tillage of the ground, and thus became economically by far +the more important member of the partnership, and she probably had by +far the more alert, quick-witted brain. + +The establishment of agriculture was followed by the cult of the +earth-mother, who gave birth to all the fruits of the ground and +probably to all life. The goddess, with or without a male companion, was +the head of the hierarchy. This again could not have been without its +influence. Says Miss Harrison: "Woman to primitive man is a thing at +once weak and magical, to be oppressed, yet feared. She is charged with +powers of child-bearing denied to man, powers only half understood, +sources of attraction but also of danger and repulsion, forces that all +over the world seem to fill him with dim terror. The attitude of man to +woman and, though perhaps to a less degree, of woman to man is still +essentially magical. Man cannot escape being born of woman: but he can, +and if he is wise he will, as soon as he comes to manhood, perform +ceremonies of riddance and purgation."[170] + +One other fact deserves notice. In times of dearth the savage man always +eats up all the grain reserved as seed for the next year, and there is +none to sow. This is the rock on which attempts to introduce agriculture +among savages or nomads have usually been shipwrecked. Here the priest, +or perhaps priestess, of the goddess came to her aid, armed with the +weapon of taboo. Against this alliance the poor, stupid, clumsy, and +slow-witted Neolithic man struggled in vain. He could vent his fury by +pulling his wife about by the hair, but this availed little or naught. +He had to submit and be resigned. + +Female magic increases in power as we approach the frontier and frontier +life. At the fall of the Roman Empire northern tribes swept away the old +civilization. Grass grew in the ruined cities, only villages remained +inhabited. The priests, by a liberal preaching of hell and other dire +torments, attempted to subdue these barbarians to law and to introduce +order. Agriculture and industry rearose or returned slowly. Finally +after the "dark ages" great cathedrals sprang up, dedicated not to +apostles or martyrs but to the Virgin, Queen of Heaven. Mr. Adams tells +us that at this time the women of France were the real leaders. Is this +apparent parallelism mere chance, or is it due to a certain amount of +similarity in conditions? + +Some one has said that our Neolithic ancestors, especially the +megalith-builders, were priest-ridden. If he had added that they were +tamed and led, and very possibly diligently hen-pecked, by a veritable +matriarchate, I suspect that he would have discovered and correctly +estimated the two great sources of their marvellous progress. For at +this stage, as at some others, the priests and the women were the élite, +and the government was, therefore, ideal for its day. + +But the tendency was based upon something far broader and deeper than +changing social and economic conditions and religious feeling. Even the +"mere man" must admit that it was biological and natural. "Nature," says +Humboldt, "has taken woman under her special protection." She has always +been partial to the female. Throughout the long period of mammalian +evolution she has showed very little regard for the males. The more they +fight and kill one another off, the fewer useless individuals to feed. +The same tendency reaches its logical conclusion in the parthenogenesis +of insects. Havelock Ellis says of woman: "She bears the special +characteristics of humanity in a higher degree than man, and represents +more nearly than man the human type which man is approximating." He +boldly asserts that man seems to be the "weaker vessel," and brings +strong arguments for his assertion.[171] + + "Das Ewig-weibliche + Zieht uns hinan." + +The buried Pelasgic religion regained its rightful place. It had more +vital reality than the Olympian. Has the great Roman Catholic Church, in +its worship of the Virgin, retained at least the symbol of an element of +vital reality which we Protestants, in our recoil from so-called +"Mariolatry," have neglected to our cost in favor of a purely paternal +conception of God? We leave this question to the theologians. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +PROGRESS + + +It is a far cry and long and weary road from the ape descending from the +trees and the ape-man shuffling over the ground, keeping close to his +arboreal refuge, to the lake-dweller and builder of stone monuments. +There was very little in the appearance or structure of the ape-man to +encourage great hopes for the future. The sleek, graceful, wiry, +well-armed cats were far more attractive, promising, and thrilling +actors on the world's stage. Why did not they progress, win the future, +and insure that all the future meetings of art and learning should be +held on the back fence? They certainly did not progress--that is a +stubborn fact. + +They had largely or completely exhausted the possibilities of their +special line of development; as cats they were perfect and could +dominate the portion of the world in which as cats they were solely +interested. This was an impassable bar to progress. Why should they +change? They were so thoroughly conformed to the environment of their +time and conditions that any marked change would have been a +disadvantage. But when conditions did change, and the fashion of the +world which had produced them passed away, they became out of fashion, +"back numbers," incapable of meeting new emergencies and crises--like +men, parties, and governments in all ages of human history. They +suffered from over-adaptation and the resulting limitations. + +Man did not make this mistake. Isolated tribes and even races might +settle down in contentment, become completely adapted to easy conditions +of life, and stagnate or degenerate. But a saving remnant was always +marching out into new physical or social surroundings, exposed to new +needs, fears, and opportunities, and readapting itself to meet and +profit by them. Man was not, and could not be, precocious. He was always +a bundle of possibilities and great expectations, which he has even now +only begun to realize. + +Overpopulation, or other pressure in his primeval home, resulted in +great racial migrations, sending him all over the world to seek his +fortune. He became one of the very few physically cosmopolitan animals, +living everywhere from the equator to the Arctic zone. He became +toughened and hardened and adaptable, able to live under the most trying +circumstances. Everywhere he had to be a close observer, watchful and +wary. He was weak and defenseless, and his life depended upon his quick +recognition of "nature's signs of displeasure," upon the full exercise +of his few small wits. He learned to be faithful in a few things. We +need not repeat or review this weary chapter of his history. + + "There were years that no one talked of. There were times + of horrid doubt. + There was faith and hope and whacking and despair." + +Man was experimenting with all kinds of climates and conditions. It was +in the hard and cold northern regions that he developed farthest, though +less rapidly at first. We have already glanced at the educational +results of language, of family life in the rock-shelter around the fire, +of the fashioning and use of tools, of his love of ornaments and +display, of his dawning and clearing self-consciousness, of the +beginnings of ownership. We have noticed his burial rites and their +suggestions. All these may have been rude and crude, but they contained +the germs of vast possibilities, though painfully slow of development. +His "castles in Spain" were his richest possessions, though he probably +never knew or suspected them. One hundred thousand years of human life +in Europe produced nothing higher than Neanderthal man. + +Suddenly, at the beginning of Upper Paleolithic time Cro-Magnon man +appeared. His splendid physique and large brain, his production and +appreciation of art, and many other qualities, have led some one to +speak of him as the "prehistoric Greek." In our enthusiasm we may easily +overestimate his powers; but, as we study him and his work, we feel that +here was a great race, and that now some great human possibilities are +to be fully attained and made permanent. Apparently he had come from the +plateau region of western Asia. Near his birthplace there must have been +other peoples capable of great things. We remember that Susa was +probably founded not much later than the beginning of the Magdalenian +epoch in Europe. But the Cro-Magnon folk decreased in numbers, in +stature, apparently also in ability and vitality. During the period of +transition to Neolithic time Europe was occupied only by a sparse +population of fishermen along the rivers, while barbarous hunting tribes +were working their way northward toward the Baltic. The shell-heaps of +Denmark are the monuments of the attainments of this epoch. + +A higher civilization had already entered the Mediterranean basin. It +was building houses, villages, possibly forerunners of the Greek +city-states. Especially in Greece they were sufficiently separated to +allow independence of development and great variety, and yet near enough +to one another to prevent the ill effects of complete isolation. Here +there was rapid interchange and improvement of physical and mental +attainments, mental stimulation and rivalry, change and progress. +Implements, weapons, pottery; new discoveries, inventions, ideas, arts, +and habits of life and thought spread slowly and gradually from these +centres of progressing culture far to the northward. This was +undoubtedly one important source of stimuli. But we must not +overestimate its influence.[172] + +It spread through France into England and Denmark. As time went on this +northward current increased and strengthened until, during the Bronze +period, the Baltic region, especially Denmark, became almost a second +Mediterranean centre of culture and art; just as at a far later time +Flemish cities became the Venices of the north. But the north was never +a beggarly dependent and imitator of the south. It selected and accepted +only what it would, almost always modified and frequently improved what +it had selected. + +[Illustration: ANCIENT FISHERMEN + +From the mural painting by Fernand Cormon in the Muséum d'Histoire +Naturelle, Paris.] + +The larger part of central and northern Europe lay outside of this +great current and was reached by it only slightly and very indirectly. +These regions or provinces were largely working out their own +civilization and culture. + +What then was the real source of Neolithic progress?[173] It is not to +be sought in great wars and revolutions. Genuine wars are carried on by +nations with a national government, and as yet there were no nations, +and even tribal government--outside of religion, the great bond of tribal +unity at this stage--was probably weak, loose, and inefficient. There +were no such strong towns or city-states as sprang up later in Greece. +There were here no nomadic hordes to be driven by drought from their +withering pastures to migrate _en masse_ and force their way into less +thirsty and starving regions. There was, as yet, no great overpopulation +of mountainous areas compelling raids or forays into piedmont zones. The +nearest approach to this condition is the slow, evidently peaceful +penetration of parts of France by broad-heads from its eastern uplands +filtering in and mixing with the long-headed older population, and +betraying their arrival mainly by a change in form of head and rise of +cephalic index. + +There was little wealth to tempt invasion. There were no cities or +large towns to plunder. There were wide stretches of land thinly or not +at all populated and open to any newcomer. All that we know of Neolithic +religion, far more dominant in tribal life and action than the very +feebly developed political or social organization, the cult of the +goddess, and the accompanying mother-right, suggest peace. The great +invasions of the Bronze and Iron periods introduced or stimulated the +cult of war gods and patriarchal family life and kinship. But these were +still in the future. The picture of Europe at this time as a great arena +of roving savages, thirsting for blood and always at war, seems to be a +caricature. + +The people of the banded pottery were evidently peaceful. They left no +weapons except mattocks and hammers. No one, I believe, has ever accused +the broad-heads of blood-thirst. The graves of northern hunters with +corded pottery are all about Grosgartach. The little village was +deserted and decayed. It showed no signs of having been burned. The +lake-dwellings were open to attack at all times, especially after the +ice had formed during the winter. Robenhausen during its long history +burned several times; hardly as often as most of our New England +villages. Here a single brand or fire-tipped arrow in a thatched roof +would have destroyed the whole settlement. + +Only in northern Europe, in the country of the corded pottery, do we +find great attention paid to the making of fine weapons like the flint +daggers and axes. Here we have chiefly herdsmen and hunters. Here there +were probably village incompatibilities--Donnybrook fairs, +cattle-lifting, and forays. But these should hardly be dignified with +the name of wars. We find then some North German peoples at the very end +of the Neolithic period pushing southward, often by peaceable +infiltration, sometimes perhaps by violent incursions, when the +resistance was great.[174] + +Says Wundt:[175] "So long as he is not obliged to protect himself +against peoples that crowd in upon him, primitive man is familiar with +the weapon only as an implement of the chase. The old picture of a war +of all with all, as Thomas Hobbes once sketched the natural state of +man, is the very reverse of what obtained. The natural condition is one +of peace, unless this is disturbed by external circumstances, one of the +most important of which is contact with a higher culture." + +We remember, also, the fewness of fortified villages in northern Europe +until toward the end of the Neolithic period, and then mainly along +great routes of migration; and around mines and workshops. They seem to +fail altogether in Scandinavia at this time. Even the wars, battles, or +quarrels which occurred probably hindered progress far more than they +aided it. Haeckel in his younger days was fierce in his denunciations of +the stupidity of war. + +Political or economic revolutions could hardly occur when there was +probably little organized government and even less wealth and class +difference. + +Conditions in France may have been somewhat different. Here the great +stone monuments suggest a denser population under a more advanced +organization, religious or political, or both, reminding us of +conditions in the Mediterranean region, with whose culture it was +closely connected. Here fortifications seem to have been quite +numerous.[176] But our knowledge is too slight to allow even a +conjecture. + +[Illustration: EARLY AGRICULTURE + +From the mural painting by Fernand Cormon in the Muséum d'Histoire +Naturelle, Paris.] + +In the southeastern part of Europe we find the people of the banded +pottery who practised an advanced form of agriculture. Here apparently +the men as well as the women worked in the fields. We find their stone +mattocks and ploughshares. Hoe-culture was giving place to ploughing. +Here men were receiving a very different education and training from the +hunters, fishermen, and herdsmen of the north, though there also a +gradual increase of tillage was doubtless taking place. They were +tilling the ground laboriously, monotonously, doing what was wearisome +and disagreeable for a reward sometimes large, sometimes scanty. The +peasant farmer learns forethought, thrift, economy, industry, and a host +of homely virtues, far less known to hunter or herdsman. He is no more a +collector taking what he finds: he has gone into partnership with +nature. He is studying her ways, moods, and whims. He amasses a steadily +increasing store of most valuable lore concerning climate, weather, +soil, plants, animals, and things. He is rooted in a little patch of +ground. His outlook is narrow and he is slow to change. But he learns +his lessons thoroughly. He may enter the school unwillingly but he stays +in it. + +He has a permanent home even if it is hardly more than a hut, which is +the centre of his life and thought. It is a hard, healthy life, and +population increases rapidly under such conditions. He probably has a +large family of children, and they educate and socialize him and one +another. He is trained and moulded by "home surroundings." Is not this +the history of the frontiersman or homesteader everywhere at all times? +The home and family attachments and instincts are deeply rooted because +very ancient and entirely natural. + +He lives in a village or neighborhood, which is hardly more than a great +patriarchal family, closely united by intermarriage, and by the pressure +of common work to satisfy common needs, common ownership of the soil, +mutual aid in hard times. The religious rites and ceremonies, the feasts +and mysteries, the prayers or magic, are all community affairs. Many of +the divinities are local. These religious bonds are all the firmer and +more compelling because, in the lack of any developed and permanent +political organization, religion is the great tribal bond. We easily +forget the civilizing, refining, and improving unremitting pressure and +power of these simple, uninteresting peasant influences. He is learning +to get on with the members of the family and neighborhood. He is +experimenting upon his neighbors: his experiments and experiences may +often be very trying to himself and them; the results may sometimes be +discouraging. But he is not only practising the essentials and +fundamentals of morality, very incomplete and without code; but a sort +of preparatory course in government. It may easily be self-government in +these small villages. The town-meeting originated here or somewhat +farther north. + +We have already seen that his religion had grown out of the experiences +of his daily life. May we not claim that science and a sort of +philosophy may have sprung from the same source? He knew nothing of +cause and effect in the material world. But he was seeking diligently +the invisible bond of relations of things and events. The relation, +according to his views, was mainly of a spiritual character through the +agency of dæmons. His ritual, call it magic if you will, was the +expression of his conviction that results in the material world might be +modified by his lending a helping hand to all the beneficent spirits. He +indulged freely in hypotheses, but these were the outgrowth of millennia +of experience and life, a very healthy form of pragmatism. He who has +never laughed at a modern scientific theory, useful and fruitful in its +time but now outgrown and replaced by a somewhat better one, may cast +the first stone at his "benighted" Neolithic ancestor. + +We might even venture to suspect that in his own crude way he was a +philosopher. He must have had something like a philosophy of life, even +if it was hardly more than a dumb instinct. + +Says Miss Harrison: "Dike" (usually translated justice), "in common +Greek parlance is the way of life, normal habit. Dike is the way of the +world, the way things happen, and Themis is that specialized way for +human beings which is sanctioned by the collective conscience, by herd +instinct. A lonely beast in the valley, a fish in the sea, has his Dike, +but it is not till man congregates together that he has his Themis. +Greeks and Indians alike seem to have discovered that the divine way was +also the truth and the life. This notion of the way, which was also the +truth and the life, seems to have existed before the separation of +Indian from Iranian. Closely allied to Dike and to Vedic Rta is the +Chinese Tao, only it seems less moralized and more magical. Deep-rooted +in man's heart is the pathetic conviction that moral goodness and +material prosperity go together, that if man keep the Rta, he can +magically affect for good nature's ordered going."[177] + +Thus primitive man, long before the dawn of anything like civilization, +was seeking, finding, clearing, and treading out the "way" to an +ordered, right, and healthy individual and social life--not through, but +to, codes of morals and systems of philosophy. His thought was more or +less chaotic, perhaps; it was crudely, often indecently, expressed in +ugly form or action; but it was always acted upon, kept close to life. +We might possibly call him an "Ur-pragmatist," if you will pardon the +barbarism. He had neither the language nor the "conveniences for +thinking" and other things, to write out a cool, logical abstract system +in long words. In this we have outrun him until we have left him out of +sight. His philosophy was not a guidebook or map, but a rough and often +miry trail. + +We have tried to express briefly the results of a glance at the +agriculturists of southeastern Europe. Before the close of the Neolithic +period they were in fairly close communication with Ægean culture and +owed considerable or much progress to stimuli from this source. In the +great essentials of human training and development something quite +similar might be said of the lake-dwellers and the broad-heads of +eastern France. North Germany had a different culture and probably +somewhat different religious cults and general views and conceptions. +France and England, too, represented a quite distinct province whose +peoples were always under Mediterranean influence. Denmark was already +a meeting-place for a variety of cultures, thoughts, and influences. + +Peoples were gradually closing in from all directions on the central +provinces of northern Europe, and here apparently they met. We find here +a mixture of head-forms, of culture; mixture or modifications of styles +of ceramic ornament, of burial customs--all suggesting a mingling of +peoples of a variety of cultures. Here at or toward the end of the +Neolithic period was the "melting-pot" for the fusion of these peoples +and their cultures. There was conflict of customs and ideas, of _ways_ +of life. There was probably much incompatibility, many broken heads. The +pacific people of the banded pottery seem largely to have withdrawn, or +been driven out, before the infiltration or invasions of northern folk. +It was hardly a comfortable place for conservative pacificists. There +were doubtless battles in many regions--perhaps now and here we might +speak of wars. In some places there may have been extermination of the +fighting men. But in most parts there was large fusion, and out of this +mixture of cultures, ideas, thoughts, and habits of life came the +culture of the beginning of the Bronze Age. + +The great characteristic of Neolithic culture seems to be a rude, often +barbarous, sometimes ugly but generally healthy, always hardy and +vigorous growth--it grew "like a weed"--the manifestation of an intense +vitality. Because it was healthy it was essentially and generally fairly +sane, matter-of-fact, whole, and balanced. The Neoliths were certainly +no "reversed cripples," in whom one or two of the less essential powers +had outgrown and dwarfed the man. It was an adaptable stock giving rise +to many marked and vigorous varieties, from whose intercrossing +something great and good could hardly fail to arise. + +Green refuses to write a "trumpet-and-drum history of England." "Happy +the people--here we cannot say nation--that has no annals." Here is surely +a certain amount of truth which we may be in danger of forgetting. In +plants, and often in men, a long period of silent unnoticeable growth +usually precedes the brief season of flowers and fruit. Is this the rule +in racial, or internal, development? + +Is it true, as some historians tell us, that a dormant period of +national history best repays investigation, and that dormant peoples +will bear watching? Is the dormant nation often storing up nutriment, +strength, vitality, just as the plant is doing in its ugly underground +roots and stem? Are fallow periods necessary to its fertility and +apparently dormant times essential to its life and growth? Must periods +of energetic action and effort be followed by times of exhaustion and +rest, as in the history of the strong athlete rejoicing to run a race? + +Is China awakening from just such a dormant period? What of India, still +the home of philosophy? Because a nation, after bearing a marvellous +harvest of culture, thought, art, or religion, seems barren and +exhausted, does this discourage or arouse the hope that it will some day +produce an equal or greater fruitage? + +How about "darkest Africa"? Here surely we have a case of degeneration +beyond all hope of recovery, not to mention a great future. But is this +quite as certain as some of us seem to think? Is not much of our +so-called Occidental progress really an orgy of wasted energy, neurotic +excitement, half-camouflaged decadence, which will end in degeneration? +We do not know yet. May there some day be a family rather than league of +nations to which every one will contribute according to its special +ability? If this be granted, will Huxley's statement concerning the +individual be applicable to races and peoples: "Its aim will be not so +much the survival of the fittest as the fitting of as many as possible +to survive"? These are sphinx questions demanding an answer from +statesmen. Unfortunately most of our statesmen are only waiting to be +gathered to their fathers in the graveyard of dead politicians. We will +turn homeward after our excursion, gladly leaving our little bundle of +facts and questions at the door of the philosopher of history. + +But one question confronts us directly. Is our whole estimate and +valuation of Neolithic life, work, and progress extreme and practically +worthless? Were they, in spite of all our arguments, a mob of crude, +worthless barbarians, undeserving of any gratitude or sympathy, much +less of respect? Do we really owe anything to them? + +One historic event of great importance had its growth and rise during +the Neolithic period out of Neolithic life, conditions, and culture. +This was the Aryan culture of Persia and India, of Greece and Rome, and +of our northern ancestors. No one seems to deny its importance and +value. We must glance at its origin and growth, and see if it supports +at all the tentative and often conjectural conclusions at which we have +arrived. This will be the object of our work and study in the next and +closing chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE COMING OF THE INDO-EUROPEANS + + +Said Max Müller in his _Biographies of Words_: "I have declared again +and again that, if I say Aryan, I mean neither blood nor bones, nor hair +nor skull; I mean simply those who speak an Aryan language. The same +applies to Hindus, Greeks, Romans, Germans, Celts, and Slavs. When I +speak of them I commit myself to no anatomical characteristics. The +blue-eyed and fair-haired Scandinavians may have been conquerors or +conquered, they may have adopted the language of their darker lords or +their subjects, or vice versa. I assert nothing beyond their +language.... To me an ethnologist who speaks of Aryan race, Aryan blood, +Aryan eyes and hair, is as great a sinner as a linguist who speaks of a +dolichocephalic dictionary or a brachycephalic grammar." + +We may well take this warning to heart, and remember that the first and +most noticeable, if not the one essential, characteristic of the Aryans +was their language. For the sake of convenience and clearness, and of +avoiding misunderstanding or prejudice, we will use the word +Indo-European for the whole group of languages to which Müller applied +the word Aryan. These languages fall into two great divisions or +branches: (1) the Indian and Iranian (Persian), which we will call +Aryan; and (2) the European branch, including Greek, Latin, German, +Slavic, and others. Our first question is: what inferences can we safely +draw from a study and comparison of these different European and Asiatic +languages? Evidently they have all sprung from a parent language no +longer adequately represented by any one of them. They have all been +considerably or greatly modified during the lapse of time. They, and +others whose names we have omitted, are all sister languages descended +or developed from a parent language which must once have been spoken by +a people, very probably representing a mixture of races, having a +definite local habitation, cradle, or home. Here the language originated +as the expression of a certain culture or civilization, and from this +region, large or small, it spread into Persia and India and throughout +Europe. The wide spread of the language testifies to the superiority in +some important respects of either language, culture, people, or all +three. We may well recognize two homes, the first, original cradle of +the language and culture, and the second homeland, far more extensive, +over which the original language, probably with well-marked dialects, +was used just before the final separation and dispersal. + +In its distribution from India to western Europe it must often have +wandered far from its original home. Its introducers must often have +been few compared with the large and dense populations among which they +came. The Aryans could have been hardly more than a handful among the +peoples of India. Something similar may be said of its introduction into +Europe about the close of the Neolithic period. Middle Europe was at +this time fairly well populated, at least in its more fertile regions. +The bearers of the new language must have represented a ruling, +conquering, or otherwise very influential class, else it would never +have been accepted by the mass of the people. + +When the original or modified Indo-European language, perhaps in several +distinct dialects, was introduced into Europe, it was carried to peoples +of several or many stocks and languages. These had to learn and acquire +it as we acquire a foreign language, but only as a spoken, unwritten +language. Probably no one of them acquired it exactly in its original +form. It was almost impossible for them to pronounce all its consonants +or combinations, its "shibboleths." They retained much of the stress and +accent and more of the cadence of their own tongue. Similarly at a far +later date Latin developed into the various Romance Languages of modern +Europe. + +Under the new conditions content and meanings changed as well as forms +of language. Words little used in the new home, especially names of +objects, might easily be lost, while others would be replaced by +favorite apt words from the aboriginal language. A name might be applied +to a new object and thus change its meaning. To cite a familiar modern +instance, the robin redbreast of America is quite a different bird from +that of England. For a long time it was supposed that the occurrence of +the root of the word "beech" in the European languages proved beyond +doubt that the language must have originated in a region where the +beech-tree was common. But the Greek word derived from the same root +means oak; a similar, perhaps not the same, root word in Kurdish means +elm. Our knowledge of the original meaning of the word is very +uncertain. Through all the languages there runs a single word for +weaving or plaiting, but whether the original word referred to the +weaving of cloth or to the plaiting of mats or baskets we do not know. + +The work of discovering and restoring the original language is difficult +and far from finished. But the comparative philologists or "linguistic +paleontologists" have established certain facts, or at least theories, +on which we may rely with a fair degree of confidence. We find names for +all the most important domestic animals, including the horse. There are +words for the wagon, its wheels, and various other parts. Words for +tillage and land cultivation agree in the Western branch, but are far +less noticeable in the Aryan languages. Here the vocabulary is rather +that of the herdsman. This seems to allow us to conclude that, when +Eastern and Western branches separated, and probably long before that +time, the Eastern people were herdsmen paying slight attention to +agriculture: the Western predominantly tillers of the ground. + +The linguist, as we have already seen, is frequently or usually unable +to discover the exact meaning of the word in the original language, and +hence is uncertain as to the degree of development of any art or +technique. But the culture, as far as discovered, seems to be that of +the average of Neolithic peoples, perhaps fairly well represented by +that of the Swiss lake-dwellers. It may have varied in different areas +or provinces. The language seems to represent most clearly features of +the undivided life and settlement of the people or peoples when it had +spread over a wide territory and become the property of a large +population, otherwise it would be impossible to explain the successive +great waves of Indo-European migration. The cradle where the language +originated and took form must have been far more limited and the culture +simpler. + +The original language contains words for summer and winter, ice and +snow; it tells of a fairly cold climate. They had a common word for +metal, probably copper, hence they were living together after the +introduction of this metal. They lived in villages apparently surrounded +by a hedge or wall, or some sort of fortification. + +The family was decidedly patriarchal. Of the older mother-right scarcely +more than traces remain, survivals from an older alien culture. The +goddess is no longer supreme. A new divinity, a sky-god, or sun-god, or +manifestation of light or brightness had already appeared--the Greek +Zeus, Latin Ju-piter, with the same root appearing in all the languages. +The earth-goddess is not banished, but remains as consort of the male +divinity. The supreme divinity of the religious cult is no longer local. +There is in it an element or germ of universality overleaping all +provincial boundaries, in many respects a vast improvement over the old +Neolithic religions. It generally held its own, but only by adopting +much from the older native religions on which it was superimposed, as +was the case in Greece. + +Indo-Europeanism must have had something to recommend it and make it +highly attractive to enable it to spread so fast and far. The language +itself, while apparently somewhat clumsy, was certainly rich in +conceptions and shades of expression. The clearness and beauty of the +religious cult may have attracted some, though this seems doubtful. All +these features are inadequate to explain the rapidity and extent of its +spread. We must leave this problem for the present. + +Even the original language frequently describes the same object or even +action by words having very different roots. It shows great variety in +synonyms and inflections. Feist compares it with English and considers +it a "mixed language" almost from the start, and many facts seem to +favor this view. This does not surprise us when we remember that its +growth and development were late, during the latter half of Neolithic +time, when great movements and minglings of people were taking place and +long routes of trade and communication had opened. + +The date of the earliest migrations of Indo-European peoples is roughly +indicated by the presence of a word for metal, probably copper, in the +original undivided language. Aryan names appear in western Asia about +1400 or 1500 B. C. Meyer says that the Achæans had arrived in the +southern Balkans as early as 2000 B. C. and reached Greece about 1200 or +1300 B. C.; the Dorians followed about 1100 B. C. We can hardly be far +from the truth if we consider that they were in their original home +until about 2000 B. C., and that the separation began very soon after. +Their development was a product of the Neolithic period, their spread +was the striking event of earliest historic times. + +Inasmuch as their migrations are so recent, especially when compared +with those of the Semites, it ought to be possible for us to discover +certain traits which they brought with them from the homeland. The +Achæans had apparently marched southward from Hungary or thereabouts +through the Balkans into Greece, arriving there not far from 1200 B. C. +They did not come in one invading horde but in successive waves, each +crowding the other before it. Behind the Achæans came the Dorians, +behind them were the Thracians and other wayfarers. Their unit of +organization was the band, brotherhood, or clan, each with its own +leader, reminding us of the Scotch clans of a century or two ago. They +came with their horses and carts, perhaps with war-chariots. They were +the "horse-taming" Achæans. They were youthful, red-blooded, +irresponsible and irresistible, careless, untamed barbarians, swaggering +in from hard battles and long campaigns, having seen the manners and +tested the might of many peoples. They came in contact with ancient, +settled, staid, conservative Pelasgic wealth and culture. They were the +rough riders of their day. They were hard drinkers and fighters; loud, +boastful talkers, good-natured if not opposed; good "mixers." + +Their chieftains married the princesses of the old régime, who seem to +have held the right of succession in the kingdom or city-state. The +wooing was rough and more or less forceful; but I suspect that the +princesses yielded not altogether unwillingly, even if the course of +true love did not always continue to run smooth in after years. They +married their gods to the goddesses of the land, and made little +further interference with the old Ægean religion or popular life. + +In comparison with the native peoples who had builded Tiryns and Mycenæ +the Achæans were probably few, scattered over Greece. They probably +robbed the subject peoples with one hand, but with the other they +defended them against the forays of sea-pirates and other enemies. They +were no worse than former native rulers, far better watch-dogs of the +city, attractive leaders of an admiring crowd, the best possible +missionaries of a new culture and language. They turned the old +Neolithic world upside down. Evolution had brought revolution: old +things passed away and, for a time, all things became new. We cannot +easily overestimate the extent and importance of the change. + +The leaders, and naturally their followers to a less degree, show +clearly the characteristics of the new era, which Wundt has called the +Age of Heroes in distinction from the Age of Totemism and the iron +supremacy of tribal custom. The chief feature was the rise, development, +and dominance of individual personality in the leaders and the +enthusiastic, individual loyalty of the members of the brotherhood or +clan. Up to this time the individual has been entirely submerged in the +customs and culture of the tribe, whose control has been mostly in the +hands of the old men and the priests; now the young warrior and champion +has grasped the reins. In all Homer's pictures the ranks of the common +people, however firm, count for little. The battle is won in single, +hand-to-hand combat by the leader--a dour giant of an Ajax, a dashing +Menelaus, "good at the rescue," a crafty Ulysses, a heroic Hector. The +wisdom of old Nestor is endured with kindly tolerance, hardly with +enthusiasm. It is an age of young men with all their virtues and vices. +But every leader is a distinctly marked individual; no two are alike. + +City-states are beginning to appear, but their success depends very +largely on the wisdom and power of the ruler, who seems at first to be +largely irresponsible, a despot in the ancient sense of the word. It is +anything but a true democracy, but it is government by the élite of +their day and world. The new era or _Zeitgeist_ is putting its stamp on +all its peoples. Homer's description of the Achæans would apply almost +equally well to the Celts when they first appear in history; and kindred +spirits are marching and fighting in India and Persia. All seem to +represent a new type which all brought from the common homeland. + +The chieftains, with this clan or brotherhood of warlike followers, came +into a country occupied by agriculturists or peasants unused and +untrained to war, such as we have found in the Mediterranean region and +in most of northern Europe. Conquest was usually easy and left little +bitterness. There was no national consciousness or pride to arouse +resistance. It was a totally different kind of invasion from that of +nomadic Semites in Asia, or of Mongols into Europe. It came almost as a +new movement, a renaissance for which the people were ready. Celt and +Greek alike were usually absorbed and lost in the masses of the people +to whom they came. Physically they produced little permanent change in +the people with whom they mingled. They seem to have accepted fully as +much as they contributed, and may often have received credit for many +improvements which they really had little share in bringing about. + +We have already seen that Greek philosophy and religion, while retaining +much of the Olympian or Indo-European form, sprang essentially from the +old Pelasgic cults with their greater vitality. How far were Achæans and +Dorians responsible for the glory of Greek art, especially in "Pelasgic +Athens"? The answer can hardly be as obvious and sure as it has appeared +to some. + +How far was Roman government and law due to Indo-European influence? +Neither Greeks nor Celts seem to have been very successful in founding +great or permanent states. Italy was far less easy of access from the +north than from Greece, and Rome lay well southward beyond the +Apennines. Some of its most important political features seem to have +sprung from uprisings of the _Plebs_, the common people, probably mostly +of native stock; others, perhaps, from the Etruscans. I cannot attempt +to answer this question or any one of many similar ones. The +Indo-Europeans brought in a new era and started a new world; but just +what was their definite and permanent contribution to European culture? + +Europe had been long enough in the school of Neolithic discipline. +Agriculture and settled home life had trained peasants to do many things +which they disliked to do, to observe taboo and to obey ancient custom, +to march in rank and file, and even in lock-step. It was a hard school +in which savage man had been tamed, home-broken, and socialized, and he +had learned its lessons thoroughly. It was high time that men should be +promoted to a higher grade of education the aim of whose training should +be the development of free and vigorous personality. The crust or cake +of custom must yield or be broken and allow the individual to enter upon +the possession of his rights. + +It was a critical and revolutionary change. It had been rendered easier +by the accumulation of wealth, and of a certain amount of personal +property in cattle and other goods. In centres of trade the individual +was thrown more and more on his own resources and initiative. With +exchange of goods came exchange of knowledge, ideas, and methods +undermining the ancient customs and traditions. Movements or migrations +of peoples or smaller bands called for leadership by the most capable. +And those became more and more numerous about the close of the Neolithic +period. Neolithic culture had been largely the product of peace and +isolation; it was inadequate to the new conditions. Matriarchy and the +cult of the goddess were unsuited to times of struggle and migration; +with the rise of the chieftain comes the worship of the war-god. + +Where did this change or revolution and the rise of this new language +and culture and remarkable people take place? All agree that the cradle +or original homeland must have been somewhere on our third route of +migration, the great zone of steppe and parkland stretching from western +Turkestan westward along the Caspian and Black Seas into the valley of +the Danube, and from the Hungarian extension of the Asiatic steppe +northward to the great plain of North Germany and to Scandinavia. In our +study of racial migrations we found that the great Mongoloid branch went +eastward from the neighborhood of the Iranian plateau, while successive +waves of migration turned westward into Europe, both following a zone of +steppe and parkland enjoying unusually favorable climatic conditions in +early Post-glacial times. + +The discovery of Sanskrit and the belief that it represented the parent +of the Indo-European languages led students to place the original centre +of their dispersal far toward the eastern end of this zone. When it +became evident that this view of Sanskrit was untenable, they began to +locate the centre in Europe. Finally some or many students have sought +it in the extreme west and north in Germany or also in Scandinavia. When +careful and thorough scholars have arrived at so many and so different +conclusions, we may well be cautious and remember that new discoveries +may necessitate a change in our own views. + +The chief argument in favor of the North German homeland is +anthropological. The earliest Indo-Europeans both in Europe and Asia +were apparently blonds, with light hair and eyes; and such people have +lived along the shore of the Baltic since early Neolithic times. + +The claim that the ancient Celts and Achæans were physically more like +Germans and Scandinavians than any other European people is certainly +not without foundation. It has been urged that the Indo-Europeans were +acquainted with the sea and with the eel, which is said to be unknown in +the tributaries of the Black and Caspian Seas, as also their +acquaintance with the beech. Other arguments can be found in special +articles. We have seen that arguments based on the meaning of words like +beech, eel, and sea, rest on a very insecure foundation. The Finns are +almost as blond as the Germans, and Kossina[178] places them with the +Germans as ancestors of the Indo-Europeans. There are in Europe also +blond brachycephals, generally acknowledged to have been of western +Asiatic origin. The arguments for a Germanic origin are attractive, but +hardly convincing, and anything but conclusive. + +The objections to this view are weighty. One marked feature of +Indo-European culture was the use of the horse, which held the highest +rank among their domestic animals. But the domestic horse seems to have +been introduced into Europe from the East. The few traces of its +presence in northern Europe during Neolithic times are usually explained +as remains of wild animals killed in the hunt. If they played so large a +part in Indo-European culture, it is strange that they have left so few +remains. + +Kossina, in one of his studies, places the cradle of Indo-European +culture in "Scandinavia, Denmark, and northwest Germany, wherever +megalithic monuments with their characteristic pottery occur." Wherever +such monuments occur we find incineration coming in late in Neolithic +time, or more exactly with the Bronze period, except in Brittany and +England, of which later. But incineration seems to accompany the +progress of the European branch, and must have come into use among these +peoples well back in their history to explain its wide occurrence. + +The word town, in the original language, seems to signify a settlement +surrounded by a hedge or wall, or some sort of defense. But fortified +towns are hardly known in North Germany at this time. All these cultural +features seem to appear somewhat or considerably too late in North +Germany to suit Kossina's theory. + +A second feature of Indo-European culture is the rise of the chieftain. +But the Germans seem to have borrowed the name for king and other +expressions for military organizations, as well as many culture-words, +from the Celts. This fact has led some good authorities to declare that +the Germans received their Indo-European language from the Celts. + +The homeland of the Indo-Europeans must have supported a large +population to send out all the tribes which went out from it. Only such +a region can satisfy our requirements, and such was Germany, an +_Officina gentium_, some 2,000 years later. But we notice that the +migrations of peoples have always set westward into Europe, not in the +reverse direction. Similarly the new discovery or idea has come westward +or northward from western Asia or from the Mediterranean region. The +north has almost never been a centre of origination of new ideas and +movements. It has borrowed from the richer south. We would not expect +that the Indo-European movement would form an exception to this rule. +Moreover, the peoples of the banded pottery who had filled southeastern +Europe, coming in, as is generally acknowledged, from the East, had +brought with them a good knowledge of agriculture which could support a +large population. + +Now Kossina finds evidence of the spread of the corded pottery southward +at the close of the Neolithic period, and infers that it was carried by +a migration from the north. I am inclined to think that his conclusion +is correct, though it may be doubtful whether the invasion went so far +into the province of the banded pottery as he thinks. He sees in this +the first stage of the Indo-European movement which was to sweep +eastward as far as India. The people of the banded pottery apparently +retreated eastward before this movement, and thus tended still further +to increase the density and power of resistance in these regions. +Furthermore, had this southeastward movement continued, it would have +met the first of a series of waves of invasion which would surely have +turned it backward. + +We have seen that all through the Neolithic period brachycephals of the +Furfooz or Grenelle race have been spreading from Belgium and the rough +eastern part of France. At the end of the Neolithic period they are +being crowded by the long-heads. During the Bronze Age the cephalic +index rises all over middle and western Europe. At its very beginning we +find a new people in England--tall, rugged, heavy-faced round-heads, who +burned their dead and deposited the ashes in round barrows. They seem to +have come from the Rhine valley, and may well have introduced +incineration into Brittany, where it appears early. They differ markedly +in stature and features from the Furfooz people. They have quite +certainly come from the east, perhaps from the region of the Armenian +highlands. They have crossed Europe in sufficient numbers and +compactness to retain their anthropological characters until they strike +England and crowd back the old Iberian or Mediterranean peoples. The +movement looks like an invasion in mass, not like a quiet, slow +infiltration. They were the forerunners of a general advance and spread +of the broad-heads. + +Were these people Celts or at least partially celticized? To express an +opinion on a Celtic question is to accept an invitation to a Donnybrook +fair. Anthropologically they differ markedly from the later Celtic +invaders. But their custom of incineration is certainly suggestive, and +it is not at all impossible that they spoke a Celtic dialect. They +certainly seem to prove that the westward migration from the region of +the Black Sea or from farther eastward had not ceased or been turned +backward at this time. The spread of North German people southward at +this time would have brought them where they would mingle with Celts +coming westward and receive their first lesson in Indo-European language +and culture, if it came from the east. + +There is at present a strong tendency to seek the original Indo-European +homeland neither in the extreme east or extreme west or north, but +somewhere in the open country of southern Russia lying to the north of +the Black Sea or farther eastward toward the Caspian. Here they locate +them mainly in a long zone of parkland extending along the southern edge +of the forest zone and in the valleys of the great rivers. Here at a +much later date Scythians were settled who raised large quantities of +wheat, while others were nomadic. We remember that Neolithic +trade-routes followed mainly rivers and seashore. The islands of the +Mediterranean were occupied early and sea commerce found a centre in +Crete. A great centre of trade arose very early at Troy (Hissarlik), on +the highway between the Ægean and the settlements along the shores of +the Black Sea and in the valleys of the rivers descending from the +interior. + +Déchellette has called attention to the striking analogies in form of +settlement, in primitive idols, in pottery with painting and spiral +ornament between the villages of the Balkans, Troy (Hissarlik) and of +the Troad and Phrygia, and of the pre-Mycenæan culture of Crete and +Greece. "Between Butmir and Hissarlik these discoveries mark the routes +which already undoubtedly connected pre-Hellenic peoples and pre-Celtic +tribes." + +Meyer tells us that the banded pottery shows the same motives in +ornament in Butmir and Tordos as in Troy and the Ægean, and spreads +thence northward and westward; and that painted pottery in Europe starts +at the end of the Neolithic (2500-2000 B. C.) in the great plain east of +the Carpathians in the region of the Dniester and Dnieper, a region of +high culture in other respects. "Here the connection with the Ægean +world is evident (_augenfällig_)." This people was agricultural. They +burned their dead, and Meyer thinks that incineration spread northward +and westward from this centre. They show no use of metal. Their culture +breaks off suddenly at the end of the Neolithic period. + +Here is a region which stands in free communication with the +agricultural population of the parkland zone, open to influences from +the steppe, accepting the higher civilization of Phrygia and the Ægean. +It is a people of advanced agriculture, hence probably of rapidly +increasing population, open to trade and commerce. Here wide and free +communications would be likely to prevent the formation of an unyielding +cake or crust of custom. People meeting from all lands and cultures +might well make and use a language capable of expressing a great variety +of shades of thought peculiar to a variety of peoples and cultures; we +might safely call it a mixed language springing from a mixture of +peoples. Here, as in the Ægean region, the more or less fortified town +or village would be a necessity. Here the horse and wagon would be early +introduced from the east. Here the patriarchate, so characteristic of +nomadic tribes, would be early imported from the steppe, or may have +been developed independently. + +There is a universality in the Indo-European religion, a sanity and +proportion in their whole mode of thought, a broad sympathy, a +willingness to accept new ideas and conditions--in general, a breadth of +mind which could hardly be the product of isolation but rather of men +who had "seen the customs of many men and many cities," and could look +with tolerance and charity on alien cultures and fully appreciate their +worth and advantages. Our Teutonic ancestors carried their mental and +cultural environment with them wherever they went. They were apostles of +purity of blood and hence of isolation. They were never good mixers, as +were Celt and Achæan. All three migrated and conquered far and wide, and +both usually disappeared in the alien population. But the Teuton left +little impression on the alien culture, while Achæan and Celt leavened +the whole mass. Here, as in other respects, Celt and Teuton show an +incompatibility and oppositeness which strongly suggest difference of +origin. + +But we must carefully avoid too great certainty and definiteness of +assertion. The weight of probability seems to be against any theory +which locates the first, original homeland in the far east or in the far +northwest. But we deal only with probabilities, and may well "carry our +theories on our finger-tips." If the cradle was somewhere in southern +Russia north of the Black Sea, or somewhat farther east or west, its +second homeland just before the great dispersal was vastly larger. Myres +thinks that it extended far to the eastward of the Volga, which perhaps +was the boundary between the eastern and western branches, and whose +upper waters drained a very early home of the Finns. + +The Indo-Europeans were settled in a goodly land capable with their +improved agriculture of supporting a very large population. Why did they +migrate in all directions? Here, again, we are left much in the dark. +But Pumpelly, in his explorations at Anau, found the settlement deserted +during the Bronze period about the same time when we find the +Indo-Europeans leaving the homeland. At Anau there are signs that the +desertion was due primarily to aridity or to disturbances accompanying +such a change. It seems highly probable that climatic changes may have +played a most important part in this movement, as they seem to have done +in the later historical migrations from this region or from farther +eastward. + +We may close this chapter of uncertainties with one deduction which +seems fairly evident. If the Germans were the first and original +Indo-Europeans, the movement developed here directly out of preceding +Neolithic conditions. If, as seems more probable, it originated farther +to the southeast, and was introduced by the Celts, or in connection with +the amber trade, it made little marked interruption in the development +of the Germans. They and the Scandinavians continued to take from the +south whatever they would, but their development was largely +independent. A complete conquest of Germany and Scandinavia by the Celts +seems very improbable. + +The Teutonic and Scandinavian peoples were not precocious, and appear in +history very late. But here apart, in the misty northland, a people was +very slowly developing who, after the decadence and fall of Rome, could +come forward and slowly and wearily rebuild a civilization better than +that which had fallen, and a government of, by, and for the people, +guaranteeing to the individual the right of free action and development, +the grandest feature of Indo-European culture. This, rather than any +precocity, is the glory of the northern peoples. Once again we find +history in the making in an inconspicuous people during an apparently +dormant period. + +He that believeth will not despise the day of small things, neither will +he make haste. If the vision tarries long, he will wait for it. "It +shall come and shall not tarry." It will probably come by the way which +he least suspects. + + +There seems to be a wide-spread opinion that the rise of the +Indo-Europeans was the first dawn of day in a benighted world. Their +migrations were a missionary movement on a grand scale. They dispelled +darkness, ignorance, and superstitions, broke the crust of a stagnant +conservatism, overthrew outworn customs, brought an entirely new +culture, and revolutionized life and the world. We might call attention +to the fact that Indo-European culture and life were a product of +Neolithic experience, that it was the blossoming of Neolithic growth, +that it represented only one part or phase of Neolithic attainment. "The +best traditions make the best rebels."[179] The question remains: Was +Neolithic thought and feeling destroyed by their coming, or did it still +persist, like a river flowing underground, and is most of our deepest +life to-day a fairly direct continuation of the older current only +somewhat modified by the revolution? + +We notice first of all the commonness or community of Neolithic feeling +and life, its almost monotonous uniformity, over Europe, eastern Asia, +and probably even far wider areas. We may easily exaggerate this. The +cultures of the Mediterranean basin, of Spain and France, of the Danube +valley, of northern Germany and Scandinavia, not to mention smaller, +more isolated provinces, showed well-marked differences. There was +probably more diversity in the people of every one of these provinces, +especially at centres of trade, even in every larger village, than our +hasty study would lead us to suspect. But in fundamental characters +there was wide-spread and marked similarity; and this, like the wide +range of dominant genera and species of animals, is a sign of vitality +and fitness. + +The Neolithic period coincides roughly with the latter part of Wundt's +Totem Age: the Bronze period ushered in his Age of Heroes.?[180] +During the first period the individual counted for very little, +everything was tribal. In the second period the great leaders of +popular migrations emerge, young, vigorous, hot-blooded. With the +appearance of these "kings of men" comes the rise of nations. Tribal +control wanes, and the slow development of individual, personal +judgment and conscience, self-control, and responsibility replaces it +to a great extent. + +We read in the history of Israel that the long Egyptian bondage of a +stiff-necked nomad people, being broken to the rudiments of order and +civilization, was followed by an exodus and a period of judges or +popular leaders, when "there was no king in Israel, but every man did +that which was right in his own eyes." It was a period of lawlessness +and anarchy; recovery was slow and painful, and finally only partially +attained by the appointment of a king. A similar education, on a vastly +larger scale both of area and time, was going on all over Europe. + +Prehistoric man was guided and controlled by feelings usually expressing +the dictates of a long experience out of which instincts had +crystallized. His feelings were his instinctive responses to new +emergencies. He could not analyze them, reason or argue about them; he +was spared the "malady of thought." He had little or no logic or +science; his philosophy, as we have seen, was a _way_ smoothed by the +feet of his ancestors. He was a man of taste in the literal sense of the +word. He knew what he liked and what he disliked; probably he could not +have explained the reason for either feeling. He was wise in following +these instinctive feelings and tastes; they represented the accumulated +and assimilated experience of millennia. + +Of course the experience had been that of individuals. Neolithic man's +school and laboratory of education was mostly the family and the +neighborhood. Here he had to learn to get on with other individuals, to +live and let live, to practise co-operation and mutual aid. Here he +learned the first and grandest lessons in morals; that he would be done +by as he did, and hence that it was best to do as he would be done by. +He has never lost or forgotten the lessons learned in this excellent +"dame's school." + +Most of his higher education--and hence of his feeling, conscience, +religion, and life--was tribal. Laws, or rather customs, were propounded +by the elders of the tribe or priests, an exceedingly conservative +court. The chief aim was not rapidity of progress, but confirming and +practising that which long experience had proved to be good. Slowly but +surely the fund of wisdom increased. "It is the three-per-cent man who +gets all the money in the end." + +Responsibility was tribal. The man who tried experiments or "fooled" +with the forbidden thing was a common nuisance summarily and thoroughly +abated by the tribe. + +Land was common property, though the individual had probably gained some +rights of use. It is doubtful whether he could use the whole or any +part of it entirely as he would. Even at a much later date his use was +largely limited and controlled by ancient custom. + +The ritual which still made up most of his religion was also +tribal.[181] Dance and song were practised by the whole community. His +creed, so far as he had one, was a belief in spiritual beings, dæmons, +of great power and marvellous efficiency. Some or many were beneficent; +more were probably maleficent; but those might be appeased, mollified, +bribed, won over, or controlled, if rightly approached through magical +rites or ceremonies. + +These dæmons seem to have been supposed to be almost innumerable. No one +was supreme, but some were more important than others. Here then was +room for variety of opinion, of ritual, of the spirit occupying the most +important place; hence also of change and development. The gods in one +country were those of the hills; in another, those of the plains; in a +third, of the forest. Fishing and agricultural tribes had different +dæmons. The wandering trader, passing from tribe to tribe, in his own +heart respected or neglected all alike. Every land had its own gods or +goddesses. When a man migrated to another country he usually left his +old gods at home. If he was adopted into the brotherhood of another +tribe, he changed his religious allegiance also. + +A religious hierarchy seems to have grown up during the Neolithic period +headed by the goddess-mother of life. Her rise seems to have accompanied +the introduction of agriculture, which must have brought great changes +in religious ritual and belief. Dæmons who had heretofore held a high +place in the fear or affection of hunting tribes gradually lost their +supremacy or were neglected. + +The dethronement of gods or dæmons was usually not sudden or +revolutionary. The new mode of life and its accompanying cult gained +ground slowly. Probably it was at first an extension or modification of +some older one. The dethroned divinity long retained his hold on the +fears or affections of many of the tribe. Finally he was remembered only +by certain old wives in remote or isolated settlements. With the rest of +the people he, or she, was fast becoming an imp, kobold, or fairy--the +subject of fascinating stories, still tinged with mystery, joy, or fear, +but not to be taken too seriously. + +Here, apparently, is one, by no means the only, source of folk-lore and +fairy-tale. Folk-lore is an exceedingly wide field and our path leads +through only a little corner of it. It was the growth of millennia. It +preserves for us remnants of ancient beliefs and practices, whose +original meaning had been forgotten long before the birth of the +story-teller. Fossil beliefs of the most widely separated ages may be +found jumbled together in the same story. + +It was always intended to be told to a group of sympathetic listeners or +to the whole community. It is genuine literature, but when reduced to +writing or cold print it chills and dies. The story-teller must feel at +once the sympathy or coldness of his listeners. The substance may remain +unchanged, but the shading and emphasis must vary with the feeling and +temper of the audience. Thus in a very true sense it was moulded by the +people. If a story survived with certain forms and content, it was +because it was essentially common and human, appealing to that which is +not individual but at least tribal or racial. + +Says Mr. Chesterton: "Our modern novels, which deal with men as they +are, are chiefly produced by a small and educated section of the +society. But this other literature (the kind now called folk-lore, the +literature of the people) deals with men greater than they are--with +demigods and heroes--and that is far too important a matter to be +trusted to the educated classes. The fashioning of these portents is a +popular trade, like ploughing or bricklaying; the men who made bridges, +the men who made ditches, were the men who made deities. Men could not +elect their kings, but they could elect their gods. So we find ourselves +faced with a fundamental contrast between what is called fiction and +what is called folk-lore. The one exhibits an abnormal degree of +dexterity, operating within our daily limitations; the other exhibits +quite normal desires extended beyond those limitations. Fiction means +the common things as seen by the uncommon people. Fairy-tales mean the +uncommon things as seen by the common people. + +"As our world advances through history toward its present epoch, its +becomes more specialist, less democratic, and folk-lore turns gradually +into fiction. But it is only slowly that the old elfin fire fades into +the light of common realism. For ages after our characters have dressed +up in the clothes of mortals they betray the blood of the gods."[182] + +The charm and wisdom of folk-lore and fairy-tale are mostly due to the +commonness, in the best sense, of their subject, thought, and feeling. +They suit all times and places, and are immortal and timeless like +their heroes. When we attempt to reclothe them in modern form or +language to suit "private interpretation" their strength is departed +from them. + +Neolithic feeling, belief, ritual, religion; its music, art, and +literature; its customs, institutions, morals, ways, and life--all these +sprang from the life and experience of the tribe or community. They were +essentially growths in and from the mass of the people, usually owing +comparatively little to the genius of any individual inventor or +discoverer. We have called them Neolithic, but some or many of them were +old far back in Paleolithic time. Like the tree Ygdrasil their roots lay +hold on the foundations of the world. + +So deeply rooted a growth or culture is almost ineradicable, though it +has a marvellous adaptability and possibilities of growth and +modification. It could never have been destroyed by its own +Indo-European children, however rebellious. It must survive somewhere +though probably changed for the better. We have found reasons to doubt +whether Roman capacity for discipline and government, Roman laws and +institutions, were predominantly of Indo-European origin. We were still +more doubtful whether the glory of Teutonic or Scandinavian history is +due to its being Indo-European, or whether it was the result of a +continuous, unbroken development from Neolithic times. If ever any +culture seems largely native and indigenous, responsive to outside +influences but always retaining its independent self-determination and +power of selection and choice as to what and how far it will assimilate, +that culture is to be found in northern Germany and Scandinavia. + +We have seen the fate of Olympian religion and Achæan thought in Greece. +The Achæans were a small minority completely outnumbered by an +exceedingly conservative native population. They were absorbed and +became a part of the Greek people, and their contribution must not be +underestimated. We have noted the marvellous vitality of the old +Neolithic thought, its re-emergence, its influence on Greek philosophy. +We remember that the great seat of progress was not in Dorian Sparta but +in "Pelasgic Athens," almost unknown to Homer. + +The Celt was, if anything, a better "mixer" and more adaptable than even +the Achæan. His prejudices and zeal in regard to morals and religion +seem not to have been deep or strong. The Celts were finally absorbed, +affecting the temper of the people far more than their daily life. + +Through all these revolutions, as well as those which were to follow, +family and neighborhood retained their compact unity, perhaps with all +its mutual attractions strengthened by the pressure of the conquerors. +They were still the controlling influence in the life and education of +the individual, as they probably remain to this day. The power of these +smaller communities may have waxed, as tribal control waned. What they +had lost in the mutual support within the tribe they made good by +leaning more closely on their neighbors. + +This solidarity makes the common people very stiff-necked, in an +excellent sense of the word. Like the Neolithic folk of Scandinavia, +they select and accept from their more cultured neighbors only that +which they can assimilate to the stores of experience and instincts +which they already possess. The fickleness, of which they are often +accused, is characteristic of a very different class or stratum of the +population, and of far later origin and development. Their own +development is naturally slow, gradual, and continuous. + +We have ventured the opinion that the essentials of Neolithic culture +survived the conquests of the Indo-Europeans in a but slightly modified +form. If this is granted, we have every reason to think that the effects +of all succeeding invasions and conquests, changes of dynasties and +governments, international or national policies, internal legislation +and reforms, have been even more temporary, slight, and superficial. +Modern revolutions have been more and more uprisings of the people +asserting the inalienable rights and privileges of their dignity as men. +The trend of popular life and feeling has resembled the flow of a river +or the incoming of the tide. It turns or winds as it meets obstacles in +its path, but keeps in the main to a fairly clear course and direction. +The people may not be against the government, they merely go their way +regardless of it. But we must not trespass on the field of the +historian. + +During the Neolithic period everybody, except perhaps certain priests +and elders, belonged to the common people. But accumulation of wealth, +the rise of leaders, the conquest of new lands developed a distinct +aristocracy of birth, wealth, prowess, leadership, and genius. The +common people of to-day, whom, as Mr. Lincoln said, "God must have loved +or he never would have made so many of them," seem to be the whole +population minus the uncommon aristocracy. It is not easy to see just +where we ought to draw the line between mass and class. + +All the virtues, brains, and possibilities of progress can hardly be +confined to this upper stratum. Can we define or describe our common +people? They are a very mixed multitude. There is probably more +individual variety than among the conventional refined and cultured, and +this makes them more original and interesting. Hence any composite +picture is usually a blur; a definite picture of any group or part would +be partial and one-sided, very possibly a caricature of the whole. We +dare not try to offer one. + +Men and women like Mr. Robert Woods, of Boston, and Miss Jane Addams, of +Chicago, have set themselves patiently, persistently, sympathetically, +respectfully, and wisely to study and help these people. They can and +will describe them, if we will listen. Their faith in the people seems +to be deep and strong. + +We all recognize that in times of trial and emergency, when great +testing moral issues are at stake, the people are practically unanimous +in recognizing and supporting the cause of justice and right, unless +befogged, divided, or misled by statesmen. Their taste for right ends +is keen and reliable. Their feelings ring true, and they act +accordingly, whatever the cost. + +They are not inarticulate, though their speech is often interjectory. +They are only beginning to produce a large number of spokesmen. Now and +then their demands are voiced by a prophet, asserting that what Jehovah +demands is "to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy +God"; or the prophecy is sung by a poet, like Burns. They may sometimes +or often be misled; but if their heart and feeling is not healthy we may +well despair of the republic. + +But the true prophet is very rarely a statesman. His feeling and taste +for ends is marvellously good. Here his word, like the feeling of the +people from whom he sprang, is almost infallible. But the choice of +means and policy, the selection of the next step toward the attainment +of the end, is the real business of the statesman. + +The _élite_ of wealth, learning, and culture to-day have generally given +up the search for ends in life. The old question: "What is man's chief +end?" sounds archaic. We are doubtful as to the existence or +desirability of such a thing. We are, in the language of the broker, +very "long" on means, but terribly "short" on ends, for which there is +no market. Some day we shall again find a place for end and purpose in +our philosophy and science, as in the systems of Paul, Plato, and +especially of Aristotle, with his "passion for the obvious," but at +present these thinkers are back numbers. Yet we must have ends of life +beyond mere survival, comfort, or luxury, and getting a living. Some +scale of values, not solely and purely mercantile, would also be useful. + +If the aristocracy of wealth, learning, and culture can provide us no +adequate system of ends and values in life, would it not be well for us +to borrow temporarily a few from the people? Might we not to good +advantage even go into partnership with them, cordially accepting their +ends, and loyally and honestly attempting to find the means of attaining +them? The result might be a solidarity of thought, feeling, action, and +final attainment superior even to those of our Neolithic ancestors. + +You may possibly say: "We in America are already living under a +democratic form of government--'of the people, by the people, and for the +people.'" Is this the statement of an accomplished fact or the +definition of a dim, far-off event toward which we hope we are moving? + +How far did the framers of our Constitution desire or intend that the +will of the people should govern? Was the method of choosing and +electing the President of the United States, as originally devised, +intended to make that election popular or not? We have changed that. Did +they intend that the Senate of the United States should be a means of +carrying out the will of the people, or rather that it should defer or +check its becoming the law of the land? Does our governmental action +to-day represent the will of the people? Is it truly representative? + +Perhaps our ancestors were wise in their caution. Perhaps a change has +become advisable. We are asking how far government changes or modifies +the people; how far governmental action, change of President or +controlling party, their legislation and policies, affect the deeper +currents of character and life. The people seem to me to be still +continuing to go their own way and to follow quietly but firmly their +own line of development, largely regardless of the votes of national +Congress or State legislature, perhaps sometimes with a slight sigh of +relief at their adjournment. It may be best that it is so. The +independence and continuity of popular development is still maintained +to-day as throughout prehistoric times. + +How far do our vast accumulations of learning and discovery, our deep +or superficial systems of philosophy, our splendid or decadent _fin de +siècle_ art and literature reach and affect these people? Their chief +characteristic is an attempt at distinction, an artificial uncommonness, +a self-consciousness entirely foreign to the thinker of the common mind. + +The institution which has the widest and deepest influence on their +feeling, thought, and life is the church. They generally love it, for +they are "incurably religious." It is conservative in the best sense of +the word. It represents, of course imperfectly, the feelings, +aspirations, and hopes of all men everywhere in all ages--in one word, of +humanity. It stands for the worth, dignity, and brotherhood of man, and +the fatherhood of God. It is almost alone to-day in recognizing that +there are ends in life. It offers a way of progress and a reasonable +ground of hope in a somewhat weary age inclined to indulge in criticism, +fault-finding, and pessimism. The fact that it is generally roundly +abused for its defects, mistakes, and sins of omission, for its +inability to accomplish the impossible, is a sign of the great hope and +confidence which we have rightly reposed in it. + +The discordant chorus of mutually destructive criticisms arising from +the cultured and intellectual classes seems to show that it is +following fairly well a straight, right, and wise course, as Mr. Lincoln +is said to have suggested concerning his own experience, plans, and +leadership in a similar situation. "Wisdom is justified of her +children," but the families of the elect are small. That the church does +not conform to all the theories--not to say vagaries and fads--of to-day +is no discredit. Most of them will be very unfashionable to-morrow. "The +fashion of this age passeth away." + +The existence of our nation evidently depends far more upon the +fundamental and essential, nay obvious, old and common human virtues of +very common people than upon our art and learning, the shrewdness of our +politicians and profiteers, the amount of our wealth and exports, our +inventions or luxuries, the winning of an election, or the defeat of any +party. In one word, which we have already repeated _ad nauseam_, our +chief business to-day is to continue the line of development clearly +marked out by our benighted ancestors of prehistoric days--to exercise, +develop, and strengthen the best instincts and feelings crystallized out +of millennia of experience; to see to it that they are expressed in the +law and practices of the land and commonwealth; and that they are not +smothered under a mass of inventions of yesterday and of conventions of +to-day. The fact that all this is entirely obvious should not conceal +its importance. + +The old message comes to us: "If thou altogether holdest thy peace at +this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise from +another place; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed; and +who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as +this?" + +In the northern ocean we see icebergs moving slowly southward. They are +not driven by the winds which to-day are blowing against their broad +fronts. The most conspicuous feature of our field of vision is the white +foam capping the waves. To-morrow it will be blown away, evaporate, and +disappear in the shifting winds which have tossed it into view. The berg +is carried by the great polar current, silent, inconspicuous, +irresistible, unchanging in its course, guided by still deeper and more +ancient and permanent cosmic forces. + +We know something about oceanic currents. Of the current of the +evolution of life we know almost nothing; but hope that our theories are +no more inadequate than the feelings of our Neolithic ancestors. +Certainly the current has not yet been charted. We catch glimpses of the +direction of its sweep. Over what stormy and dangerous seas and to what +undiscovered island or continent it is carrying us we do not know. It +seems to set toward fairer climes beyond our vision. We set sail +millions of years ago; we shall not arrive to-morrow. + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + + +A FEW SUGGESTIONS + +The first series of books referred to in the following lists (A-O) are +general, and every one covers a large field. The works of Déchelette and +Hoernes (A and B) contain a very rich bibliography down to 1907 or 1908. +They should be carefully studied first of all; afterward the remainder +of the list. I have omitted from the following list many excellent +articles to which they refer. This list will satisfy the needs of the +ordinary reader. + +The second list (1-378) contains references to articles or books on +special subjects which I have been obliged to treat very briefly in this +small book. These will introduce the reader to other writers on the same +subject. He is urged to make his own bibliography, and will find that he +has started on an endless chain of most fascinating research, for which +I hope he may form an insatiable appetite. + +The following list of abbreviations and corresponding complete titles +may save the reader some inconvenience. In this connection he may well +consult the Introduction to Déchelette's _Manuel_ (A) I, pp. xv-xix. + + + _Amer. Nat._ _American Naturalist._ + _Amer. Anth._ _American Anthropologist._ + _Sci. Mo._ _Science Monthly._ (Continuation of + _Popular Science Monthly_.) + _A. f. A. (Arch. f. Anth.)_ _Archiv für Anthropologie._ + _Zts. f. Eth._ _Zeitschrift für Ethnologie._ + _L'Anth._ _L'Anthropologie._ + _R. E. A._ _Revue d'école d'Anthropologie_, Paris. + _Rev. Arch._ _Revue Archéologique._ + _Korr.-bl. d. d. Ges._ _Korrespondenz-blatt der deutschen_ + _Gesellschaft für Anthropologie._ + _Cong. Int._ _Congrès international d'Anthropologie_ + _et d'Archéologie._ + + +GENERAL + + A. Déchelette, J. _Manuel d'Archéologie Préhistorique._ Paris, + 1908. 3 vols. Vol. I. _Archéologie Préhistorique._ + + B. Hoernes, M. _Natur-und Urgeschichte des Menschen._ Vienna, + 1909. 2 vols. + + C. ---- _Urgeschichte des Menschen_, Vienna, 1892. + + D. Obermaier, H. _Der Mensch aller Zeiten._ Berlin, 1911-12. + Vol. I. _Der Mensch der Vorzeit._ + + E. Forrer, R. _Urgeschichte des Europäers._ Stuttgart, 1908. + + F. ---- _Reallexikon der prähistorischen, klassichen und + frühchristlichen Alterthümer._ Stuttgart, 1907-08. + + G. Müller, S. _Nordische Älterthumskunde_ (trans. Jiriczek). + Strassburg, 1897. Vol. I. Steinzeit-Bronzezeit. + + H. ---- _Urgeschichte Europas_ (trans. Jiriczek). Strassburg, + 1905. + + I. ---- _L'Europe préhistorique_ (trans. Philipot). Paris, 1907. + + J. Montelius, O. _Kulturgeschichte Schwedens._ Leipsic, 1906. + + K. ---- _Les Temps préhistoriques en Suède_ (trans. Reinach). + Paris, 1895. + + L. Avebury, Lord (Sir John Lubbock). _Prehistoric Times._ New + York, 1913. + + M. Elliot, G. F. S. _Prehistoric Man and His Story._ London, + 1915. + + N. Schwantes, G. _Aus Deutschland's Urzeit._ Leipsic, 1913. + + O. Wundt, W. _Elements of Folk Psychology_ (trans. Schaub, + E. L.). London, 1915. + + +CHAPTER I--THE COMING OF MAN + + 1. Lull, R. S. _Organic Evolution._ New York, 1917. + + 2. Wilder, H. H. _History of the Human Body._ New York, 1909. + + 3. Cope, E. D. _Primary Factors of Evolution._ Chicago, 1895, + p. 150. + + 5. Osborn, H. F. _Age of Mammals._ New York, 1910. + + 6. Loomis, F. B. "Adaptation of Primates," _Amer. Nat._, XLV, + 1911, 479. + + 7. Gregory, W. K. "Studies in the Evolution of Primates," + _Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist._, XXV, 1916, Art. XIX, 239. + + 8. Barrell, J. "Probable Relations of Climatic Changes to + Origin of Tertiary Ape-Man," _Sci. Mo._, N. S., IV, 1917, 16. + + 9. Matthew, W. D. "Climate and Evolution," _Ann. N. Y. Acad. + Sci._, XXIV, 1915, 170. + + 10. Pilgrim, G. E. "New Siwalik Primates," _Records of Geol. + Survey of India_, XLIII, 1913, Part IV, 264. + + 11. Chamberlain, T. C., and Salisbury, R. D. _Geology._ New + York, 1904, Vol. III, 534. + + 12. Lydekker, L. K. _Geographical History of Mammals._ + Cambridge, 1896, 201, 265, 288, 334. + + 13. Pirsson, L. V., and Schuchert, C. _Text-Book of Geology._ + New York, 1915, Part II, 925, 948, 964, 976. + + 14. Smith, G. E. _Presidential Address_, Brit. Assoc. Adv. + Sci. Dundee, 1912, 575. + + 15. Heinemann, T. W. _Physical Basis of Civilization._ + Chicago, 1908. + + 16. Fiske, J. _Destiny of Man._ Boston, 1884. + + 17. Drummond, H. _Ascent of Man._ New York, 1894. + + 18. Kropotkin, P. A. _Mutual Aid a Factor in Evolution._ New + York, 1903. + + 19. Jones, F. W. _Arboreal Man._ New York and London, 1916. + + PITHECANTHROPUS + + See A, I, 273; B, I, 181; D, I, 370; 40, 73. + + 24. Du Bois, E. _Smithson. Report_, 1897-98, 445. + + 25. Berry, E. W. "Environment of Ape-Man," _Sci. Mo._, N. S., + III, 1906, 161. + + 26. Keith, A. _Ancient Types of Man._ New York, 1911. + + PRIMITIVE HUMAN MIGRATIONS + + 30. Keane, A. H. _Ethnology._ Cambridge, 1901. + + 31. Deniker, J. _Races of Man._ London, 1900. + + 32. Haddon, A. C. _The Wanderings of Peoples._ Cambridge, + 1911. + + 33. ---- _Races of Man and Their Distribution._ New York, 1910. + + MAN'S ARRIVAL IN EUROPE + + 40. Osborn, H. F. _Men of the Old Stone Age._ New York, 1915. + + 41. Ranke, J. _Der Mensch._ Leipsic, 1900. + + 42. Geikie, J. _Antiquity of Man in Europe._ Edinburgh, 1914. + + 43. ---- _The Great Ice Age._ 3d ed. London, 1894. + + 44. Reinhardt, L. _Der Mensch zur Eiszeit in Europa._ Munich, + 1906. + + 45. Geikie, J. "Tundras and Steppes of Prehistoric Europe," + _Smithson. Report_, 1897-98, 321. + + 46. Nehring, A. _Tundren u. Steppen der Jetzt-und Vor-zeit._ + Berlin, 1890. + + 47. Schöetensack, O. _Der Unterkiefer des "Homo + Heidelbergensis."_ Leipsic, 1908. + + 48. MacCurdy, G. G. "The Eolith Problem," _Amer. Anth._, N. + S., VII, 1905, 425. + + 49. Sollas, W. J. _Ancient Hunters._ 2d ed. London, 1915. + + 60. Hoops, J. _Waldbäume und Kulturpflanzen, im german. + Alterthum._ Strassburg, 1905. + + Danish Shell-heaps. See D, 465-476; G, I, 4; L, 226. + + 61. Steenstrup, J. _Arch. f. Anth._, XIX, 1891, 361. + + 62. Sarauw, F. C. "Maglemose," _Prähist. Zeits._, III, 1911, + 52; VI, 1914, 1. + + 63. Virchow, R. "Rinnekalns," _Korresp.-blatt. der deutschen + Ges. f. Anthrop._, XXVIII, 1897, 147. + + 64. Ebert, M. "Die baltischen Provinzen," _Prähist. Zeits._, + V, 1913, 498; Mugem, C, 232. + + 65. Cartailhac, E. _Ages préhistoriques de l'Espagne et du + Portugal_, p. 48. + + 66. Munro, R. _Palæolithic Man and Terramara Settlements in + Europe._ New York, 1912. + + 67. Morlot, A. _Société Vandoise des Sci. Nat._, VI, No. 46. + "Etudes géologico-archéologiques." (Shell-heaps and + Lake-dwellings.) Lausanne, 1860. + + + CHAPTER III--LAND HABITATIONS + + CAVE-DWELLINGS + + B, 31; C, 258; E, 120, 139. + + 75. Dawkins, W. B. _Cave Hunting._ London, 1874. + + 76. Fraipont, J. _Les Cavernes et leurs Habitants._ Paris, + 1896. + + HUTS AND VILLAGES + + B, 51, 65, 84. + + 80. Montelius, O. "Zur ältesten Geschichte des Wohnhauses in + Europa," _Arch. f. Anth._, XXIII, 1895, 451. Cf. H, 25, 68; J, + 15. + + 81. Schliz, A. "Der Bau vorgeschichtlicher Wohnanlagen," + _Mitt. d. Anth. Ges. Wien_, 1903, 301. + + 82. Castelfranco, P. "Les Fonds des Cabanes," _Rev. d'Anth._, + XVI, 1887, 182. Cf. A, 347, 350; E, 139. + + 83. Schliz, A. _Das steinzeitliche Dorf Grosgartach._ + Stuttgart, 1901. Rev. Virchow, R., _Arch. f. Anth._, XXVII, + 1892, 435. Rev. Reinach, S., _L'Anth._, XII, 1901, 704. + + 84. Possler, W. "Die Abarten des Altsächsischen Bauernhauses," + _Arch. f. Anth._, XXXVI, 1909, 157. + + 85. Mielke, R. "Entwickelungsgeschichte der sächsischen + Hausform," _Zts. f. Eth._, XXXV, 1903, 509. + + + CHAPTER IV--LAKE-DWELLINGS + + 90. Munro, R. _Lake Dwellings of Europe._ London, 1890. Full + Bibliography until 1890. See also L, 180; A, 363; E, 158; B, + 98; C, 234; D, 515. + + 91. Keller, F. _Lake Dwellings of Switzerland._ 2d ed. London, + 1878. + + 92. Troyon, F. _Habitations lacustres du Lac de Neuchâtel._ + Paris, 1865. + + 93. Gross, V. _Les Protohelvéites._ Paris, 1883. + + 94. Schuhmacher. _Arch. f. Anth._, N. F., VII, 1903, 254. + + 95. Heierlei, J. _Urgeschichte der Schweiz._ Zurich, 1901. + + 96. Schenk, A. _La Suisse Préhistorique._ Lausanne, 1912. + + 97. Bölsche, W. _Mensch der Pfahlbauzeit._ 8th ed. Stuttgart, + 1911. + + 98. Heer, O. _Die Pflanzen der Pfahlbauten_, 1886. See 91, I, + 518. Cf. 60. + + + CHAPTER V--A GLANCE EASTWARD + + 110. Pumpelly, R. _Explorations in Turkestan_, Carnegie Inst. + Pub., Washington, No. 73, 1904, 2 vols., vol. I, p. 50, chaps. + I, III, V. + + 111. Rev. by Schmidt, H. _Prähist. Zeits._, I, 1909-10, 413. + + 112. Capitan, L. "L'Histoire d'Élam," _Rev. d'éc. d'Anth._, + XII, 1902, 187. + + 113. Düssaud, R. "Anciennes Civilisations orientales," _Rev. + d'éc. d'Anth._, XVII, 1907, 97. + + 114. Schrader, Fr. "Questions d'Orient," _Rev. d'éc. d'Anth._, + XVIII, 1908, 267; XX, 1910, 73. + + 115. Delitzsch, F. _Rep. Smithson. Inst._, 1900, 535. + + 116. Morgan, J. de. _Premières Civilisations._ Paris, 1909. + + 117. _Mémoires de la Delegation en Perse, I_, 1900, 181-190 + (Susa). + + 118. _Mémoires de la Delegation en Perse I_ (Tepeh Moussian), + VIII, 1906. Cf. B, II, 168. + + 119. Morgan, J. de. "Les Ages de la Pierre dans l'Asie + mineure," _Bull. Soc. d'Anth._ Paris, Ser. V, III, 1902, 708. + + 121. King, L. W. _History of Babylonia and Assyria_, Part I. + New York, 1910. + + 122. Sayce, A. H. _Archæology of Cuneiform Inscriptions._ + London, 1907, 67-100. + + 123. Hall, H. R. "Discoveries in Crete, and Their Relations to + Palestine and Egypt," _Proc. Soc. Bib. Arch._, XXXI, 1909, + 311. + + 124. Myres, J. L. _Dawn of History._ New York, 1911, 121, 202. + + 125. Breasted, J. H. _Ancient Times._ New York, 1914, 100. + + ORIGIN OF AGRICULTURE AND CATTLE-RAISING + + See B, I, 535-591; M, chaps. XII, XIII. + + 135. Reinhardt, L. _Die Erde und die Kultur._ Munich, 1912(?). + a. Vol. I, _Die Erde und ihr Wirthschaftsleben._ + b. Vol. II, _Kulturgeschichte des Menschen._ + c. Vol. III, _Kulturgeschichte der Nutzthiere._ + d. Vol. IV, _Kulturgeschichte der Pflanzen._ + + 136. _La Grande Encycl._, Art. "Agriculture." + + 137. Hehn, V. _Kulturpflanzen und Hausthiere._ Berlin, 1911. + + 138. Mason, O. T. _Woman's Share in Primitive Culture._ New + York, 1907, 146, chap. II. + + 139. Buschan, G. "Heimat und Alter der europäischen + Kulturpflanzen," _Korr.-bl. d. d. Ges._, XVIII, 1889, 128. + + 140. Roth. "Origin of Agriculture," _Journ. Anth. Inst._, XVI, + 102. + + 141. Zaborowski, M. S. "Le Blé en Asie et en Europe," _Rev. + d'éc. d'Anth._, XVI, 1906, 359. + + 142. Much, M. "Vorgeschichtliche Nähr-und Nutz-Pflanzen in + Europa," _Mitt. Anth. Ges. Wien_, XXXVIII, 1908, 195 ff. + Favors European origins. + + + CHAPTER VI--MEGALITHS + + See A, I, chap. III; B, II, 440; D, 500; G, chap. V; J, 43; L, + chap. V. + + 150. Peet, T. E. _Rude Stone Monuments and Their Builders._ + New York, 1912. + + 151. Windle, B. C. A. _Remains of Prehistoric Age in England._ + London, 1904. + + 152. Krause, E., und Schötensack, O. "Die megalithischen + Gräber Deutschlands," _Zts. f. Eth._, XXV, 1893, 105. + + 153. Lienau, M. M. "Megalithgräber u. sonstige Grabformen der + Lüneburger Gegend," _Mannusbib._, XIII, 1914. + + 154. Montelius, O. _Orient und Europa._ Stockholm, 1899. + + 155. Wilke, G. "Sudwesteurop. Megalithkultur," _Mannusbib._ + VII. + + 156. Hermet (Abbé), "Statues-Menhirs," _L'Anth._, XII, 1901, + 595. + + 157. Cartailhac, E. _La France Préhistorique._ Paris, 1889. + + DISPOSAL OF DEAD + + 164. Helm, K. _Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte_. + Heidelberg, 1913, 132, Bib. + + 165. Schliz, A. "Steinzeitliche Bestattungsformen in + Südwestdeutschland," _Korr.-bl. d. d. Ges._, XXXII, 1901, 60. + + 166. Andrée, R. "Hockerbestattung und Ethnologie," _A. f. A._, + XXXIV, 1907, 282, 303. + + 167. Schötensack, O. "Bedeutung der Hockerbestattung," _Zts. + f. Eth._, XXXII, 1901, 522. + + 168. Götze, A. "Ueber Hockergräber," _Korr.-bl. d. d. Ges._, + 1899, 321. + + 169. Olshausen, O. "Leichenverbrennung," _Zts. f. Eth._, 1892, + 129. + + 170. Seger, H. "Entstehung der Leichenverbrennung," _Korr.-bl. + d. d. Ges._, XLI, 1910, 115. + + + CHAPTER VII--NEOLITHIC INDUSTRIES + + 179. Veblen, T. _The Instinct of Workmanship._ New York, 1914. + Clothing. G, I, 268; J, 19; 90, F. + Ornaments. B, II, 328; A, II, 570. + Implements. A, 513; B, II, 168; D, 472, 478; E, 178; F, Art. + "Axt"; G, 22; 46, 133; J, 24. + Salt. B, II, 23, 89; F, Art. "Salz"; N, 114. + Gold. A, 627; B, II, 207; C, 320. + Copper. A, II; B, II, 546; D, 494, 499, 545; E, 278. + + 180. Much, _M. Die Kupferzeit in Europa._ 2 Auf. Jena, 1893. + + 181. Hampel, J. "Neue Studien über die Kupferzeit," _Zts. f. + Eth._, XXVIII, 1896, 57. + + 182. Montelius, O. "Die Chronologie der ältesten Bronzezeit," + _Arch. f. Anth._, XXV, 443; XXVI. + Ships, rock-carvings of. J, 126; C, 389; G, 466; E, 347. + Nephrite and Jadeite. A, I, 519, 573; B, II, 504; D, 510; 95, + 116; 96, Index. + + 185. Mehlis, C. "Exotische Steinbeile der neol. Zeit," _Arch. + f. Anth._, XXVII, 1902, 519. + + 186. Peet, T. E. _Stone and Bronze Ages of Italy._ Oxford, + 1909. + Amber. A, 623; B, I, 513; II, 345, 353; D, 556; G, I, 52. + Trade. B, II, 466-529; A, I, 619; 228; 154. + Pottery. A, 547; D, 481; 116, 195-207; F, Art. "Gefässe," 95, + 184. + + 190. Hoernes, M. "Die neol. Keramik in Oestreich," _Zts. f. + Eth._, 1903, 438. + + 191. Smith, R. A. "Development of Neolithic Pottery," + _Archæologia_, LXII, 340. + + 192. Meyer, E. _Geschichte des Alterthums_, II, 824. 2d ed. + Stuttgart, 1909. + + 193. Schuchhardt, C. "Das technische Element in den Anfängen + der Kunst," _Prähist. Zeits._, I, 37. + + 194. Verworn, M. _Kulturkreis der Bandkeramik._ II, 145. + + 195. Reche, O. "Zur Anthropologie der jüngeren Steinzeit in + Böhmen," _Arch. f. Anth._, XXXV, 1908, 220. + + 196. Seger, H. "Steinzeit in Schlesien," _Arch. f. Anth._, N. + F. V., 1906. + + 197. Götze, A. "Neolithische Kugelamphoren," _Zts. f. Eth._, + XXXII, 154, 1900. + + 198. ---- "Eintheilung der neol. Periode in Mitteleuropa," + _Korr.-bl. d. d. Ges._, XXXI, 1900, 133. + + 199. Schuchhardt, C. "Neol. Häuser bei Lissdorf," _Zts. f. + Eth._, XLIII, 1911, 998. + + 200. Wosinsky, M. _Die inkrustierte Keramik._ Berlin, 1904. + + 201. Closmadeuc, G. de. "La Céramique dans les Dolmens de + Morbihan," _Rev. Arch._, I, 257. + + 202. Schmidt, H. "Vorgeschichte Spaniens," _Zts. f. Eth._, + XLV, 238, 1913. + + 203. Volkow, Th. "L'Industrie prémycénienne des Stations + néolithiques de l'Ukraine," _L'Anth._, XIII, 1902, 57. + + 204. Zaborowski, M. S. "Industrie Égéenne sur le Dnieper et le + Dniester," _Bull. Soc. Anth._, Paris, 1900, 481. + + + CHAPTER VIII--NEOLITHIC CHRONOLOGY + + 214. Menzel, H. "Geologische Entwickelungsgeschichte der + älteren Postglacialzeit," _Zts. f. Eth._, XLVI, 1914, 206-240. + + 215. Montelius, O. "Chronologie der jüngeren Steinzeit in + Skandinavien," _Korr.-bl. d. d. Ges._, XXII, 1891, 99-105. + + 216. ---- "Chronologie der ältesten Bronzezeit," _Arch. f. Anth._, + XXVI, 1899, 905. + + 217. ---- "Preclassical Chronology of Greece and Italy," _Journ. + Anth. Inst._, 1897. + + 218. ---- "Chronologie préhistorique," _Cong. Int. d'Anth. et + d'Arch._, XII, 339. Cf. Müller, S. Ibid., X. Paris, 228. + + 219. Scheitelig, H. "Vorgeschichte Norwegens," _Mannus._, III, + 1911, 29. + + 220. Kossina, G. "Urfinnen und Urgermanen," _Mannus._, I, 17. + + 221. Worsaae, J. J. A. "Arctic Cultures," _Cong. Int. d'Anth. + et d'Arch._ Stockholm, VII, 1874, 208. Also, J, 63; M, 317 and + _Bib._, 323. + + 222. Types of Axe, G, I, 48; B, II, 184; A, I, 334; F, Art + "Aexte." Cf. also "Zeitalter." + + 223. Montelius, O. "Les differents Types des Haches," _Cong. + Int. d'Anth. et d'Arch._ Stockholm, VII, I, 238. + + 226. Schmidt, R. R. "Die Grundlagen für die Diluviale + Chronologie u. Paläethnologie Westeuropas," _Zts. f. Eth._, + XLIII, 1911, 945. Cf. _Korr.-bl. d. d. Ges._, XLI, 1910. + + 227. Holst. "Commencement et Fin de la Période Glacieuse," + _L'Anth._, XXIV, 1913, 353. + + 228. Wilke, G. "Kulturbeziehungen zwischen Indien, Orient und + Europa," _Mannusbibliothek_, X, 1913. + + 229. Schmidt, H. "Troja, Mykene, Ungarn," _Zts. f. Eth._, + XXXVI, 1904, 608, 645. + + 230. Anthes, E. "Alte und neue steinzeitliche Funde aus + Hessen," _Prähist. Zeits._, II, 1910, 60. + + + CHAPTER IX--NEOLITHIC PEOPLES AND THEIR MIGRATIONS + + ATLASES + + 240. Bartholemew, J. G. _Advanced Atlas of Physical and + Political Geography._ London, 1917. + + 241. ---- _International Student's Atlas_. London,----? + + 242. See 40, 489; 457 and 278, 261, 300, 500; B, I, 241, + 268-360; _Bib._ E, 256; J, 57; M, chaps. X-XIV, 211; _Bib._ + 49, 435. + + 243. Breuil, L'Abbé, H. "Les Subdivisions du Paléolithique + supérieur et leur Signification," _Cong. Int. d'Anth. et + d'Arch_. Session XIV, Genève, 1912, 165. + + 244. Sergi, G. _The Mediterranean Race_, London, 1901, chaps. + II, X, 40. + + 245. Myres, J. L. Essay II, 51-54, in Marvin, F. S. _The Unity + of Western Civilization._ + + 246. Ripley, W. L. _The Races of Europe._ New York, 1899. + + 247. Deniker, J. "Les Races Européennes," _Journ. Anth. + Inst._, XXIV. + + 248. ---- "Les six Races composant la Population de l'Europe," + _ibid._ + + 250. Schliz, A. "Vorgeschichtliche Schädeltypen deutschen + Länder," _Arch. f. Anth._, XXXVI (N. F. IX), 1910, 239. Cf. B, + II, 101. + + 251. ---- "Beiträge zur prähistorischen Ethnologie," _Prähist. + Zeits._, IV, 1912, 36. + + 252. ---- "Bedeutung der somatischen Anthropologie," _Korr.-bl. d. + d. Ges._, XL, 1909, 66. + + 253. ---- "Vorstufen der Nordisch-europäischen Schädelbildung," + _Arch. f. Anth._, XLI, 1914, 169. + + 254. ---- "Der schnurkeramische Kulturkreis," _Zts. f. Eth._, + XXXVIII, 1906, 312. + + 260. Reche, O. "Zur Anthropologie der jüngeren Steinzeit in + Schlesien und Böhmen," _Arch. f. Anth._, 1908. + + 261. See 351. + + 262. Klassen, K. _Die Völker, Europas zur jüngeren Steinzeit._ + Stuttgart, 1912, Bib. + + 263. Fleure, H. J. _Human Geography in Western Europe._ + London, 1918. + + 264. Montelius, O. "Die Einwanderung unserer Vorfahrer im + Norden," _Arch. f. Anth._, XVII, 151. + + 265. ---- "Sur les Tombeaux et la Topographie de la Suède pendant + l'âge de pierre," _Cong. Int. d'Anth. et d'Arch._, Session + VII, Stockholm, I, 74. + + 266. Virchow, R. "Altnordische Schädel zu Kopenhagen," _Arch. + f. Anth._, 1870. + + ---- "Die ältesten Einwohner von Nordeuropa," _Arch. f. Anth._, + XXV, 1898, 88. + + 267. Arbo, C. O. E. "Anthropo-ethnologie des + Südwestnorwegens," _Arch. f. Anth._, XXXI, 1905, 313. + + 268. Hervé, G. "L'Ethnographie des populations françaises," + _R. E. A._, VI, 1896, 97. + + 269. ---- "Les brachycephales néolithiques," _Rev. Ec. An._, IV, + 1894, 393; V, 1895, 18. + + 270. Hamy, E. T. "L'Anthropologie de Nord-France," _L'Anth._, + XIX, 1908, 46. + + 271. Bloch, A. "Origines des brachycephales en France," + _L'Anth._, XII, 1901, 541. + + 272. Luschan, F. von. "Beziehung zwischen der Alpinen + Bevölkerung und den Vorderasiaten," _Korr.-bl. d. d. Ges._, + XLIV, 1915, 118. + + 272a. A, 482; B, 298-303; 246. + + 273. 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Murray, G. _Religio Grammatici._ Boston, 1918. + + + CHAPTER XII--THE COMING OF THE INDO-EUROPEANS + + 340. Müller, F. Max. _Biographies of Words and Home of + Aryans._ London, 1888. + + 341. Meillet, A. _Les Langues dans l'Europe nouvelle._ Paris, + 1918. + + 342. ---- _Les Dialectes Indo-européens._ Paris, 1908. + + 343. ---- _Introduction à l'Étude comparative des Langues + Indo-européennes._ 4th ed. Paris, 1915. + + 346. Meyer, E. _Geschichte des Alterthums._ 2d ed. Stuttgart, + 1909. Vol. I, Pt. 2, p. 722. + + 347. Schrader, O. _Reallexikon der indogermanischen + Alter-thumskunde._ Strassburg, 1902. + + 348. ---- _Sprachvergleichung und Urgeschichte._ 3d ed. Jena, + 1906. + + 349. ---- _Die Indogermanen._ Leipsic, 1911, 165 pp. + + ---- (Trans. Jevons, F. B.) _Prehistoric Antiquities of the + Aryan Peoples._ London, 1890. + + 350. Feist, S. Kultur. _Ausbreitung und Herkunft der + Indogermanen._ Berlin, 1913. + + 351. ---- _Europa im Lichte der Vorgeschichte._ Berlin, 1910. + + 352. Hirt, H. _Die Indogermanen_. 2 vols. Strassburg, 1905-07. + + 353. Kossina, G. "Die indogermanische Frage archäologisch + beantwortet," _Zts. f. Eth._, XXXIV (1902), 161, N. B. Cf. + 220. + + 354. Much, M. _Heimat der Indogermanen._ 2d ed. Berlin, 1904. + + 355. Reinach, S. _Origine des Aryens._ Paris, 1892. + + 356. Wilser, L. _Die Germanen_. Leipsic, 1903. + + 357. ---- _Herkunft und Urgeschichte der Arier._ Heidelberg, 1899. + + 358. Zaborowski, Moindron S. "La Patrie originaire des Aryens," + _R. E. A._ Paris, XIII (1903), 253. + + 359. ---- _Les Peuples aryens d'Asie et d'Europe._ Paris, 1908. + + 360. Brunnhofer, G. H. _Arische Urzeit._ Bern, 1909. + + 361. Laponge, G. V. de. _L'Aryen, Son Rôle social._ Paris, 1899. + + 362. Hehn, V. _Kulturpflanzen und Hausthiere._ 5th ed. Berlin, 1887. + + 363. Holmes, T. R. _Ancient Britain._ Oxford, 1907. Chap. III and + pp. 424-455. + + 364. Veblen, T. _Imperial Germany and the Industrial Revolution._ + New York, 1915. + + 365. Huntington, E. _The Pulse of Asia._ Boston, 1911. + + 366. ---- _Palestine and Its Transformations_. Boston, 1907. + + 367. ---- _World Power and Evolution._ New Haven, 1919. + + 375. Murray, G. _Euripides and His Age._ New York, 1913. + + 376. Chesterton, G. K. _Charles Dickens._ London, 1917. + + 377. Lang, A. _Custom and Myth._ New York, 1885. + + 378. Gummere, F. B. _The Beginnings of Poetry_. New York, 1901. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] 16, 17. + +[2] 1: 477; 671, chap. XXIX. + +[3] 18. + +[4] 19. + +[5] 5. + +[6] 6. + +[7] 8: 20 + +[8] 5: 58-60 + +[9] M: chap. V. + +[10] 1: 671. + +[11] 5: 321, 327, 275. + +[12] 7, 10. + +[13] 24-26. + +[14] 5: 373. + +[15] 40: 35. + +[16] 30: 228. + +[17] 40: chap, II. D: I, 17-110. + +[18] For maps showing extent of ice at different glacial epochs, see 41: +vol. II, p. 419. 42: end of volume. + +[19] See Charts, 40: 41-48. 5. Also 40: 45, 46; 412-427; 386. + +[20] 40: 95. 47. + +[21] D: I, 380-412. 48. + +[22] 40: 130, 244. + +[23] D: I, 113. + +[24] 40: 290, 316. + +[25] E: 110-117. + +[26] 40: 475-500. + +[27] D: 466, 476; 40: 281. + +[28] D: 466, 476; 40: 281. + +[29] C:225; 60. + +[30] 42: 270. + +[31] L: 235. + +[32] A: 329. + +[33] 63. + +[34] 40: 459; A: I, 314; D: 213. + +[35] 40: 465. + +[36] A: I, 326. + +[37] C: 258. + +[38] 76. + +[39] 40: 283. + +[40] B: 53. + +[41] E: 139. + +[42] G: 198; J: 15. + +[43] 83. + +[44] B. See Bibliography. + +[45] I: 368. + +[46] H: 68. + +[47] A: I, 351. + +[48] 42: 122; 60; 110: I, 6-13. + +[49] 97: 11, 19. + +[50] 95: 102. + +[51] 91: 475. + +[52] L: 190. + +[53] B: 251. + +[54] 91: 8. + +[55] 96: 366. + +[56] L: 199; 96: 265; D: 452; 97: 45-60. + +[57] 97: 47; 96: 289. + +[58] 135; C: 65 and 116. + +[59] 97. + +[60] Quoted in 135: chap. III, 116. + +[61] 91: 519; 141. + +[62] 91: 521. + +[63] 96: 295. + +[64] 95: 175. + +[65] L: 222; 91: 175-178, 338. + +[66] 91: 47. + +[67] 95: 135; 96: 189, 219, 191. + +[68] For a study of examples grouped according to epoch, see 96: p. +220-264. + +[69] 91: II, 432. + +[70] D: 527, 549. + +[71] 115: 535. + +[72] 110. + +[73] 110: Plate 5, opposite pp. 50, 67. + +[74] 111. Cf. 110: I, 48. + +[75] D: I, 545. + +[76] B: II, 242; D: 527. + +[77] 116-120. + +[78] B: II, 168. + +[79] 124: 121; 123; D: 526. + +[80] 116: 195 _ff._, 197 _Bib._ + +[81] 40: 281. + +[82] 139: chap. II, 146. + +[83] M: 217. + +[84] 125: 100, map. + +[85] O: 291. + +[86] L: chap. V. + +[87] A: I, 386. + +[88] G: cf. J: 43. + +[89] A: 421. + +[90] D: 503. + +[91] 110: I, 40. + +[92] B: II, 102. + +[93] A: I, 423. + +[94] B: 310. + +[95] G: I, 268; J: 90. + +[96] B: I, 398. + +[97] H: 20. + +[98] F: Article "Axt." + +[99] G: 30; E: 129. + +[100] E: Plate 60; A: 506; 96: 330. + +[101] B: 177. + +[102] Figs. 107a, 108. + +[103] A: 355, 629. + +[104] M: 347. + +[105] A: 627; B: 207. + +[106] 110: 50 (chart). + +[107] 124: 105. + +[108] B: II, 468; D: 511. + +[109] G: 60. + +[110] G: 16, 24. + +[111] B: II, 483. + +[112] G: 127. + +[113] H: 27. + +[114] 186: 168. + +[115] B: I, 513. + +[116] H: 49. + +[117] A: 547; D: 482. + +[118] 40: 279. + +[119] 40: 281. + +[120] D: 465; 49: 540. + +[121] 60. + +[122] 215-218. + +[123] B: II, 242. + +[124] E: 563. + +[125] D: I, 335. + +[126] 40: 281. + +[127] 49: 565. + +[128] 214. + +[129] C: 225. + +[130] 219-221. + +[131] 222, 223. + +[132] J: 65. + +[133] See D: 545. + +[134] 40: 281, 333, 361; D: 476, 41. + +[135] 40: 350, 361. + +[136] 110: I, 50. + +[137] 40: 281, 449. + +[138] See 214. Chart 219., cf. 210. + +[139] 240, 241. + +[140] 242. + +[141] 243. + +[142] 244: 39-43. + +[143] 245. + +[144] 40: 465. + +[145] 268-272 _a._ + +[146] 272. + +[147] B: I, 302. + +[148] 220. + +[149] 220. + +[150] 220. + +[151] B: I, 334-337, 307. + +[152] 246. + +[153] 250: 202, 206. + +[154] 250: 205. + +[155] 290: 85. + +[156] 292. + +[157] 293. + +[158] 294. + +[159] 309. + +[160] 307. + +[161] 315-319. + +[162] A: 594-603, 362. + +[163] B: II, 563. + +[164] 320. + +[165] 316. + +[166] 322. + +[167] 318, 321. + +[168] B: II, 585. + +[169] O: 173. + +[170] 308: 36. + +[171] 330. + +[172] H: 20. + +[173] 179: 122 _n._ + +[174] 260. + +[175] O: 111, 33. + +[176] A: 368. + +[177] 308. + +[178] I have selected for examination Professor Kossina's article, and +that not his latest, because it seems to furnish the strongest and +clearest brief statement of the theory of the Germanic origin of the +Indo-Europeans. Hirt's work and his references should also be consulted. +It is to be regretted that the judgment and work of some of the North +German prehistorians on this question are tinged by national prejudice. +We must make allowance for their omissions and remember that we have our +own pet prejudices. + +The dogma of the superiority of the dolichocephalic blond has been made +a cult by Mr. J. H. Chamberlin and other far less brilliant writers. It +has received little support in Scandinavia. The works of this school +should not be taken too seriously. + +[179] 375: 14. + +[180] O. + +[181] 293. + +[182] 376: 67; 377: 177; cf. 378. + + +INDEX + + Achæans, 253, 281. + + Adaptation, extreme, 228. + + Agriculture, origin of, 101, 108; + and religion, 218. + + Amber, 148. + + Anau, 93, 100, 125. + + Ancylus Epoch, 37, 164, 169. + + Apes, 4, 12. + + Arboreal life, 7, 13. + + Aryans, 246. + + Asia, 10, 91. + + Axe, 43, 136, 173. + + Azilian-Tardenoisian, 39, 48, 193. + + + Babylonia, 92. + + Balder, myth of, 222. + + Balkans, 61, 100, 267. + + Baltic culture, 131, 144, 203, 232, 271. + + Baltic Sea, changes of, 36, 41, 161. + + Barley, 80, 94. + + Boats, 145. + + Brachycephals, 44, 51, 181, 195, 262; + in lake-dwellings, 87. + + Bread, 82. + + Bronze, 141; + age of, 166. + + Burial of dead, 31, 123. + + + Campigny, 50. + + Cattle, domestic, 76, 91, 110. + + Cave frescoes, 31; + remains, 53. + + Celts, 128, 263. + + Chronology, 37, 94, 101, 160, 166, 192, 253. + + Climatic changes, 4, 26, 32, 102. + + Copper, 140; age of, 166. + + Crescents of clay, 84. + + Crete, 144, 186. + + Cro-Magnon race, 29, 181, 231. + + + Dæmons, 213, 276. + + Danube, 200. + + Dead, disposal of, 31, 123, 127. + + Dog, 42, 75. + + Dolichocephals, 44, 87, 198. + + Dolmens, 114. + + Domestic animals, 91, 110, 112. + + Dormant periods and nations, 243. + + Dress, 132. + + + Education, Neolithic 237, 275. + + + Family, Aryan, 251. + + Flax, 83. + + Flint, 86, 134, 138. + + Folk-lore and fairy-tales, 277. + + Forests, 32, 64; + succession of, in Denmark, 38. + + Fortifications, 62, 236, 263. + + + Glacial period, 24. + + Goddess, cult of, 220. + + Gold, 139. + + Greek mysteries, 212. + + Grosgartach, 59, 157, 234. + + + Hamites, 19, 22, 182. + + Heidelberg man, 28. + + Hoe-culture, 104. + + Horse, 74. + + Houses and huts, 55, 72. + + + Incineration, 127. + + Indo-Europeans, 247; + homeland, 259; + language, 246; + religion, 251, 268. + + Industries, 131. + + Iranian plateau, 12. + + + Lake-dwellings, 69, 202. + + Littorina Epoch, 37, 165. + + Loess, 27, 65. + + + Magelmose, 45, 172. + + Mattock, 137. + + Mediterranean race, 182, 187, 194; culture, 231. + + Megaliths, 114. + + Menhirs, 122. + + Microliths, 49. + + Migrations, Indo-European, 253; routes, 18, 20, 52, 183. + + Millet, 80. + + Mother-right, 223. + + Mugem, 44. + + + Neanderthal race, 29. + + Neolithic culture, persistence of, 272, 280. + + Nephrite and Jadeite, 146. + + + Oaks in Denmark, 37, 171. + + Oats, 81. + + + Paleolithic Age, Lower, 29; Upper, 32. + + Peace, 85, 235. + + Pelasgi, 257. + + Piedmont zones, 105. + + Pig, 77. + + Piltdown skull, 29. + + Pines in Denmark, 37, 171. + + Pioneer life, 191, 204, 237. + + Pithecanthropus, 15. + + Plough, 108. + + Pottery, 43, 88, 100, 153, 201. + + Primates, 6, 20. + + Progress, 228. + + + Races, human, 19; Paleolithic 180; Neolithic 193. + + Religion, Paleolithic, 208; Neolithic, 206, 276; of + lake-dwellings, 84; of Indo-Europeans, 268, 276. + + Rinnekalns, 47. + + Ritual, 210. + + River-valleys as trade-routes, 143, 190. + + Roman law, 258. + + + Sahara, once well-watered, 22. + + Salt, 139. + + "_Schuhleistenbeil_" (mattock), 137. + + Semites, 19, 22, 106. + + Sheep, 78, 91. + + Shell-heaps, 40, 172, 197. + + Siwalik strata, 14. + + Social development, 85. + + Steppe, 27, 32, 65, 189. + + Stutzheim, 57, 59. + + Susa, 99. + + + Taboo, 211. + + Tertiary period, 9. + + Trade, 144; routes, 152. + + Tribal education, 275. + + Tridachna shells in Europe, 147. + + Tumuli, 116. + + Tundra, 26, 36. + + + Weaving, 83. + + Wheat, 80, 94. + + Women, position in Neolithic time, 224, 249. + + + Yoldia Epoch, 37, 162. + + + + + * * * * * + + + + +Transcriber's Note: + +In the Bibliography, p. 294, under "CHAPTER I", there was no number 4 +in the original. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41649 *** |