Читать книгу Men of the Old Stone Age: Their Environment, Life and Art - Henry Fairfield Osborn - Страница 8
ОглавлениеLOWER QUATERNARY, OR PLEISTOCENE
Strépyian (= Pre-Chellean, in part).
Mesvinian, culture of Mesvin, near Mons, Belgium (= Pre-Chellean).
Mafflean, culture of Maffle, near Ath, Hennegau.
Reutelian, culture of Reutel, Ypres, West Flanders.
TERTIARY
Prestian, culture of St. Prest, Eure-et-Loire, Upper Pliocene.
Kentian, culture of the plateau of Kent, Middle Pliocene.
Cantalian, culture of Aurillac, Cantal, Upper Miocene or Lower Pliocene.
Fagnian, culture of Boncelles, Ardennes, Middle Oligocene.
Only the Mesvinian stage is generally accepted by archæologists, and this embraces the prototypes of the Lower Palæolithic culture, which among most French authors are termed Pre-Chellean or Proto-Chellean. The Eolithic problem has aroused the most animated controversy, in which opinion is divided. A critical consideration of this era, however, falls without the province of the present work.
SUCCESSION OF HUMAN INDUSTRIES AND CULTURES[L]
| V. | LATER IRON AGE | Europe | 500 B. C. to Roman Times. | ||
| (La Tène Culture) | |||||
| IV. | EARLIER IRON AGE | Europe | 1000-500 B. C. | ||
| (Hallstatt Culture) | Orient | 1800-1000 | |||
| III. | BRONZE AGE | Europe | about | 2000-1000 | |
| Orient | " | 4000-1800 | |||
| II. | NEW STONE AGE, NEOLITHIC | ||||
| 3. LATE NEOLITHIC and COPPER AGE | |||||
| (Transition Period) | Europe | " | 3000-2000. | ||
| 2. TYPICAL NEOLITHIC AGE | |||||
| (Robenhausian, Swiss Lake-Dwellers) | Europe | " | 7000. | ||
| 1. EARLY NEOLITHIC STAGES | |||||
| (Campignian Culture) | Europe | ||||
| I. | OLD STONE AGE, PALÆOLITHIC | ||||
| UPPER PALÆOLITHIC | EUROPE | ||||
| 8. Azilian-Tardenoisian. | } } } } } | Reindeer, Shelter, and Cave Period. | " | 12,000. | |
| 7. Magdalenian. (Close of Postglacial time.) | " | 16,000. | |||
| 6. Solutrean. | |||||
| 5. Aurignacian. (Beginning of Post-Glacial Time.) | |||||
| LOWER PALÆOLITHIC | |||||
| 4. Mousterian. (Fourth Glacial time.) | " | 40,000. | |||
| 3. Acheulean. (Transition to shelters.) | } } } | River-Drift and Terrace Period. | |||
| 2. Chellean. | " | 100,000. | |||
| 1. Pre-Chellean (Mesvinian.) | |||||
| EOLITHIC. |
Geologic History of Man
Man emerges from the vast geologic history of the earth in the period known as the Pleistocene, or Glacial, and Postglacial, the 'Diluvium' of the older geologists. The men of the Old Stone Age in western Europe are now known through the latter half of Glacial times to the very end of Postglacial times, when the Old Stone Age, with its wonderful environment of mammalian and human life, comes to a gradual close, and the New Stone Age begins with the climate and natural beauties of the forests, meadows, and Alps of Europe as they were before the destroying hand of economic civilization fell upon them.
Larger Image
Pl. II. "Throughout this long epoch western Europe is to be viewed as a peninsula, surrounded on all sides by the sea and stretching westward from the great land mass of eastern Europe and of Asia, which was the chief theatre of evolution both of animal and human life." 1-8. Discovery sites of the type specimens of human and prehuman races.
It is our difficult but fascinating task to project in our imagination the extraordinary series of prehistoric natural events which were witnessed by the successive races of Palæolithic men in Europe; such a combination and sequence never occurred before in the world's history and will never occur again. They centred around three distinct and yet closely related groups of causes. First, the formation of the two great ice-fields centring over the Scandinavian peninsula and over the Alps; second, the arrival or assemblage in western Europe of mammals from five entirely different life-zones or natural habitats; third, the arrival in Europe of seven or eight successive races of men by migration, chiefly from the great Eurasiatic continent of the East.
Throughout this long epoch western Europe is to be viewed as a peninsula, surrounded on all sides by the sea and stretching westward from the great land mass of eastern Europe and of Asia, which was the chief theatre of evolution both of animal and human life. It was the 'far west' of all migrations of animals and men. Nor may we disregard the vast African land mass, the northern coasts of which afforded a great southern migration route from Asia, and may have supplied Europe with certain of its human races such as the 'Grimaldi.'
These three principal phenomena of the ice-fields, the mammals, and the human life and industry, together establish the chronology of the Age of Man. In other words, there are four ways of keeping prehistoric time: that of geology, that of palæontology, that of anatomy, and that of human industry. Geologic events mark the grander divisions of time; palæontologic and anatomic events mark the lesser divisions; while the successive phases of human industry mark the least divisions. The geologic chronology deals with such immense periods of time that its ratio to the animal and to the human chronology is like that of years to hours and to minutes of our own solar time.
The Glacial Epoch when first revealed by Charpentier(39) and Agassiz,(40) between 1837 and 1840, was supposed to correspond to a single great advance and retreat of the ice-fields from various centres. The vague problem of the antiquity of Pliocene man and Diluvial man soon merged into the far more definite chronology of glacial and interglacial man. As early as 1854, Morlot discovered near Dürnten, on the borders of the lake of Zürich, a bed of fossil plants indicating a period of south temperate climate intervening between two great deposits of glacial origin. This led to the new conception of cold glacial stages and warm interglacial stages, and Morlot(41) himself advanced the theory that there had been three glacial stages separated by two interglacial stages. Other discoveries followed both of fossil plants and mammals adapted to warmer periods intervening between the colder periods. Moreover, successive glacial moraines and 'drifts,' and successive river 'terraces' were found to confirm the theory of multiple glacial stages. The British geologist, James Geikie (1871-94) marshalled all the evidence for the extreme hypothesis of a succession of six glacial and five interglacial stages, each with its corresponding cold and warm climates. Strong confirmation of a theory of four great glaciations came through the American geologists, Chamberlin,(42) Salisbury,(43) and others, in the discovery of evidence of four chief glacial and three interglacial stages in northern portions of our own continent. Finally, a firm foundation of the quadruple glacial theory in Europe was laid by the classic researches of Penck and Brückner(44) in the Alps, which were published in 1909. Thus the exhaustive research of Geikie, of Chamberlin and Salisbury, of Penck and Brückner, and finally of Leverett(45) has firmly established eight subdivisions or stages of Pleistocene time, namely, four glacial, three interglacial, and one postglacial. These not only mark the great eras of European time but also make possible the synchrony of America with Europe.
PLACE OF THE OLD STONE AGE IN THE EARTH'S HISTORY
(Indicated in heavy-face letter.)
Compare Schuchert's Table, 1914.
| Major Divisions | Periods and Epochs | Advances in Life | Dominant Life | |
| Quaternary. | HOLOCENE. | Recent alluvial. | Rise of world civilization. | Age of Man. |
| . . . . . . | . . . . . . | Industry in iron, copper, and polished stone. | Iron, Bronze, and New Stone Ages. | |
| PLEISTOCENE, or ICE AGE. | Postglacial stage. | Extinction of great mammals. | Men of the Old Stone Age. | |
| Glacial stages. | Dawn of mind, art, and industry. | |||
| Tertiary. | PLIOCENE. | Late Tertiary. | Transformation of man-ape into man. | Age of Mammals and Modern Plant Life. |
| MIOCENE. | Culmination of mammals | |||
| OLIGOCENE. | Early Tertiary. | Beginnings of anthropoid ape life. | ||
| EOCENE. | Appearance of higher types of mammals, and vanishing of archaic forms. | |||
| PALÆOCENE. | Rise of archaic mammals. | |||
| Late Mesozoic. | Cretaceous. | Extinction of great reptiles. | Age of Reptiles. | |
| Extreme specialization of reptiles. | ||||
| Comanchian. | Rise of flowering plants. | |||
| Early Mesozoic. | Jurassic. | Rise of birds and flying reptiles. | ||
| Triassic. | Rise of dinosaurs. |
Since most of the skeletal and cultural remains of man can now be definitely attributed to certain glacial, interglacial, or postglacial stages, vast interest attaches to the very difficult problem of the duration of the whole Ice Age and the relative duration of its various glacial and interglacial stages. The following figures set forth the wide variations in opinion on this subject and the two opposite tendencies of speculation which lead to greatly expanded or greatly abbreviated estimates of Pleistocene time:
DURATION OF THE ICE AGE
| 1863. | Charles Lyell,(46) Principles of Geology | 800,000 | years. | |
| 1874. | James D. Dana,(47) Manual of Geology | 720,000 | " | |
| 1893. | Charles D. Walcott,(48) Geologic Time as Indicated by the Sedimentary Rocks of North America | 400,000 | " | |
| 1893. | W. Upham,(49) Estimates of Geologic Times, Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. XLV | 100,000 | " | |
| 1894. | A. Heim,(50) Ueber das absolute Alter der Eiszeit | 100,000 | " | |
| 1900. | W. J. Sollas,(51) Evolutional Geology | 400,000 | " | |
| 1909. | Albrecht Penck,(52) Die Alpen im Eiszeitalter | 520,000-840,000 | ||
| 1914. | James Geikie,(53) The Antiquity of Man in Europe | 620,000 (min.) |
We may adopt for the present work the more conservative estimate of Penck, that since the first great ice-fields developed in Scandinavia, in the Alps, and in North America west of Hudson Bay a period of time of not less than 520,000 years has elapsed. The relative duration of the subdivisions of the Glacial Epoch is also studied by Penck in his Chronologie des Eiszeitalters in den Alpen.(52) These stages are not in any degree rhythmic, or of equal length either in western Europe or in North America.
The unit of glacial measurement chosen by Penck is the time which has elapsed since the close of the fourth and last great glaciation; this is known as the Würm in the Alpine region and as the Wisconsin in America. While more limited than the ice-caps of the second glaciation, those of the fourth glaciation were still of vast extent in Europe and in this country, so that an estimate of 20,000 to 34,000 years for the unit of the entire Postglacial stage is not extreme. Estimating this unit at 25,000 years and accepting Reeds's(54) estimate of the relative length of time occupied by each of the preceding glacial and interglacial stages, we reach the following results (compare Fig. 14, p, 41):
| Relative Duration | Grand Totals | Descent of Alpine Snow-Line | |||
| Postglacial Time. | Units | Years | Years | Meters | |
| (Period of Upper Palæolithic culture, Crô-Magnon and Brünn races) | 1 | 25,000 | 25,000 | ||
| IV. | Glacial Stage (= Würm, Wisconsin) | ||||
| (Close of Lower Palæolithic culture, Neanderthal race) | 1 | 25,000 | 50,000 | 1,200 | |
| 3d. Interglacial Stage. | |||||
| (Opening period of Lower Palæolithic culture, Piltdown and pre-Neanderthaloid races) | 4 | 100,000 | 150,000 | ||
| III. | Glacial Stage (= Riss, Illinoian). | 1 | 25,000 | 175,000 | 1,250 |
| 2d. Interglacial Stage | |||||
| (= Mindel-Riss, Yarmouth) (Period of Heidelberg race.) | 8 | 200,000 | 375,000 | ||
| II. | Glacial Stage (= Mindel, Kansan) | 1 | 25,000 | 400,000 | 1,300 |
| 1st. Interglacial Stage | |||||
| (= Günz-Mindel, Aftonian) (Period of Pithecanthropus or Trinil race.) | 3 | 75,000 | 475,000 | ||
| I. | Glacial Stage (= Günz, Nebraskan) | 1 | 25,000 | 500,000 | 1,200 |
The Postglacial time divisions are dated by three successive advances of the ice-caps, which broadly correspond with Geikie's fifth and sixth glaciations; they are known in the Alpine region as the Bühl, Gschnitz, and Daun. These three waves of cold and humid climate, each accompanied by glacial advances, finally terminated with the retreat of the snow and ice in the Alpine region, the same conditions prevailing as with the present climate. The minimum time estimates of these Postglacial stages and the corresponding periods of human culture, as calculated by Heim,(50) Nüesch,(55) Penck,(52) and many others, are summarized in the Upper Palæolithic (p. 281).
Geologic and Human Chronology
There are four ways in which the lesser divisions and sequence of human chronology may be dated through geologic or earth-forming events. First, through the age of the culture stations or human remains, as indicated by the 'river-drifts' and 'river terraces' in or upon which they occur; second, through the age of the open 'loess' stations which are found both on the 'older terraces' and on the plateaus between the river valleys; third, through the age of the shelters and caverns in which skeletal and cultural remains occur; fourth, through the age of the 'loam' deposits, which have drifted down on the 'terraces' from the surrounding meadows and hills. The men of the Old Stone Age were attracted to these natural camps and dwelling-places both by the abundance of the raw flint materials from which the palæoliths were fashioned and by the presence of game.
In more than ninety years of exploration only three skeletal relics of man have been found in the ancient 'river-drifts'; these are the 'Trinil,' the 'Heidelberg,' and the 'Piltdown'; in each instance the human remains were buried accidentally with those of extinct animals, after drifting for some distance in the river or stream beds. It is only in late Acheulean times that human burial rites or interments begin and that skeletal remains are found. Owing to the less perishable nature of flint, relics of the quarries and stations are infinitely more common; they are found both in the river sands and gravels, in the 'river terraces,' and in the 'loess' stations of the plateaus and uplands. Thus prehistoric chronology is based on observations of the geologist, who in turn is greatly aided by the archæologist, because the evolution stages of each type of implement are practically the same all over western Europe, with the exception of unimportant local inventions and variations. In brief, the large divisions of time are determined by the amount of work done by geologic agencies; the comparative age of the various camp sites is determined by their geologic succession, by the mammals and plants which occur in them, and finally by the cultural type of any industrial remains that may be found.
Times of the 'High' and 'Low' River 'Terraces'
The so-called 'terrace' chronology is to be used by the prehistorian with caution, for it is obvious that the 'terraces' in the different river-valleys of western Europe were not all formed at the same time; thus the testimony of the 'terraces' is always to be checked off by other evidence.
Larger Image
Fig. 6. Terraces on either side of the valley of the River Inn, Scharding, Austria, formed by sand and gravel deposits partly covered with loess. After Brückner.
Ib. Very broad river deposits of First Glaciation, on the first erosion level, covered with the 'Upper Loess' of the Second Interglacial Stage.
IIb. Somewhat narrower river deposits of Second Glaciation on the second erosion level.
IIIb. Still narrower river terraces of the Third Glaciation on the third erosion level, covered with the 'Lower Loess' of the Third Interglacial Stage.
IVb. Fourth or lowest terrace of the Fourth Glaciation on the fourth erosion level.
Va. Erosion terraces, Achen.
VIa. Post-Bühl erosion.
Loess′, 'Upper Loess' of Second Interglacial. Loess″, 'Lower Loess' of Third Interglacial.
As to the origin of the sands and gravels which compose the 'terraces' we know that the glacial stages were periods of the wearing away of vast materials from the summits and sides of the mountains, which were transported by the rivers to the valleys and plains. These vast deposits of glacial times spread out over the very broad surfaces of the pristine river-bottoms, which in many valleys it is important to note were from 100 to 150 feet above the present levels. The diminished and contracted streams of interglacial times cut into these ancient river beds, forming narrower channels into which they transported their own materials. Thus, as the successive 'river terraces' were formed, a descending series of steps was created along the sides of the valleys. In many valleys there are four of these 'terraces,' which may correspond with several glacial stages; in other valleys there are only three; in others, again, like the valley of the River Inn which flows past Innsbruck in the Tyrol (Fig. 6), there are five 'terraces,' while in the valley of the Rhine above Basle there are six, corresponding, it is believed, with the materials brought down by the four great glaciations and with the river levels of Postglacial times. In general, therefore, the 'high terraces' are the oldest ones, that is, they are composed of materials brought down during the pluvial periods of the First, Second, and Third Glacial Stages, while the 'lower terraces' and the 'lowest terraces' in the alpine regions are composed of materials borne by the great rivers of the Fourth Glacial and Postglacial Stages. In the region around the Alps the 'higher terraces' are products chiefly of the third glaciation; in the valley of the Rhine they are visible near Basle. On the upper Rhine the 'low terraces' are products of the fourth glaciation; they cover vast surfaces and contain remains of the woolly mammoth (E. primigenius), an animal distinctive of Fourth Glacial and Postglacial times.
Larger Image
Fig. 7. Cross-section through the terraced Pleistocene formations of the Rhine valley above Basle, Switzerland. After Penck.
Ib. Outwash of the First Glaciation—Günz—Deposits on the first erosion level.
IIb. Outwash of the Second Glaciation—Mindel—Deposits on the second erosion level.
IIIb. Outwash of the Third Glaciation—Riss—Deposits on the third erosion level.
IVb. Outwash of the Fourth Glaciation—Würm—Deposits on the fourth erosion level.
Va. Erosion terrace, Achen oscillation—fifth erosion level.
VIa. and VIIa. Post-Bühl erosion—sixth and seventh erosion levels.
IIIc. Moraine of the Third Glaciation—Riss.
The section of the Rheinfelder Hill lies 3 km. west from the Möliner Field.
More remote from the glacial regions, but equally subject to the inundations of glacial times are the 'high terraces' along the River Seine, which are ninety feet above the present level of the river and contain the remains of mammals characteristic of the First Interglacial Stage, such as the southern elephant (E. meridionalis), while the 'low terraces' along the Seine are only fifteen feet above the present level of the river and contain mammals belonging to the Third Interglacial Stage. Similarly, the 'high terraces' of the River Eure contain mammals of First Interglacial times, such as the southern elephant (E. meridionalis) and Steno's horse (E. stenonis); these fossils occur in coarse river sands and gravels which were deposited by a broad stream that flowed at least ninety feet above the present waters of the Eure.
The human interest which attaches to these dry facts of geology appears especially in the valleys of the Somme and the Marne in northern France; here again we find 'high terraces,' 'middle terraces,' and 'low terraces'; the latter are still subject to flooding. In the deep gravels upon each of these terraces we find the first proofs of human residence, for here occur the earliest Pre-Chellean and Chellean implements associated with the remains of the hippopotamus, of Merck's rhinoceros, and of the straight-tusked elephant (E. antiquus), together with mammals which are characteristic both of Second and Third Interglacial times.
This raises a very important distinction, which is often misunderstood; namely, between the materials composing the original terraces and those subsequently deposited upon the terraces. It appears to be in the latter that human artifacts are chiefly, if not exclusively, found.
Times of the Loam Stations
The 'loam' which washes down over the original sand and gravel 'terraces' from the surrounding hills and meadows is of much later date than the 'terraces' themselves, and the archæologist in the valley of the Somme as well as in that of the Thames may well be deceived unless he clearly distinguishes between the newer deposits of gravels and of loams and the far older gravels and river sands which compose the original 'terraces.' This is well illustrated by the observations of Commont on the section of St. Acheul.(56) The loams and brick-earth are of much more recent age than the original gravels and sands of the 'terraces' which they overlap and conceal; the lowest and oldest 'loam' (limon fendillé) contains Acheulean flints, while the overlying 'loam' contains Mousterian flints. Although occurring on the 'higher terraces,' these flints are of somewhat later date than the primitive Chellean flints which occur in the coarse gravels and sands that have collected upon the very lowest levels (Fig. 59).
A similar prehistoric inversion doubtless occurs in the 'terraces' of the Thames, for materials on the 'highest terrace' (Fig. 8) contain Acheulean flints, while materials on the 'lowest terrace' belong to a much more recent age.
Larger Image
Fig. 8. Section—Four terraces indicated in the valley of the Thames at Galley Hill, near London. Site of the discovery of the 'Galley Hill Man' in deposits overlying one of the high terraces. Site also of Gray's Thurrock, a deposit of Third Interglacial times containing mammals and flints of Chellean age. A typical camping station of 'river-drift man.' Drawn by Dr. C. A. Reeds.
We have no record of a single Palæolithic station found in the true original sands and gravels of the 'higher terraces' in any part of Europe; only eoliths are found on the 'high terrace' levels, as at St. Prest.
The earliest palæoliths occur in the gravels on both the 'middle' and 'upper terraces' of the Somme and the Marne, proving that the gravels were deposited long subsequent to the cutting of the original terraces. Geikie,(57) moreover, is of the opinion that the valley of the Somme has remained as it is since early Pleistocene times, and that even the 'lowest terrace' here was completed at that period; this is contrary to the view of Commont, who considers that this 'lowest terrace' belongs to Third Interglacial times; a restudy of the stations along the Thames may throw light upon this very important difference of opinion.
Times of the 'Loess' Stations
The glacial stages were generally times of relatively great humidity, of heavy rain and snow fall, of full rivers charged with gravels and sands, and with loam the finest product of the erosive action of ice upon the rocks. This loam on the barren wastes left bare by the glaciers or on the river borders and overflow basins was retransported by the winds and laid down afresh in layers of varying thickness known as 'loess.' There was no 'loess' formation either in Europe or America during the humid climate of First Interglacial times, but during the latter part of the Second Interglacial Stage, again toward the close of the Third Interglacial Stage, and finally during Postglacial times there were periods of arid climate when the 'loess' was lifted and transported by the prevailing winds over the 'terraces' and plateaus and even to great heights among the mountain valleys. As observed by Huntington(58) in his interesting book The Pulse of Asia, even at the present time there are districts where we find 'loess' dust filling the entire atmosphere either during the heated months of summer or during the cold months of winter.
Fig. 9. Magdalenian loess station of Aggsbach, in Lower Austria. A quarry camping station of the open-plains type. This typical Postglacial loess deposit contains flints of early Magdalenian age. After Obermaier.
In Pleistocene Europe there were at least three warm or cold arid periods, accompanied in some phases by prevailing westerly winds,(59) in which 'loess' was widely distributed over northern Germany, covering the 'river terraces,' plateaus, and uplands bordering the Rhine and the Neckar. These 'loess' periods can be dated by the fossil remains of mammals which they contain, also by the stations of the flint quarries in different culture stages. Thus we find late Acheulean implements in drifts of 'loess' at Villejuif, south of Paris. Among the most famous stations of late Acheulean times is that of Achenheim, west of Strasburg, and not far distant is the 'loess' station of Mommenheim, of Mousterian times; both belong to the period of the fourth glaciation. An Aurignacian 'loess' station is that of Willendorf, Austria.
Times of the Limestone Shelters and Caverns
Beginning in the late or cold Acheulean period, the Palæolithic hunters commenced to seek the warm or sheltered side of deepened river-valleys, also the shelter afforded by overhanging cliffs and the entrances of caverns. It is quite probable that during the warm season of the year they still repaired to their open flint quarries along the rivers and on the uplands; in fact, the river Somme was a favorite resort through Acheulean into Mousterian times.
In general, however, the open rivers and plateaus were abandoned, and all the regions of limestone rock favorable to the formation of shelter cliffs, grottos, and caverns were sought out by the early Palæolithic men from Mousterian times on; and thus from the beginning of the Mousterian to the close of the Upper Palæolithic their lines of migration and of residence followed the exposures of the limestones which had been laid down by the sea in bygone geologic ages from Carboniferous to Cretaceous times. The upper valleys of the Rhine and Danube traversed the white Jurassic limestones which are again exposed in a broad band along the foot-hills of the Pyrenees, extending far west to the Cantabrian Alps of modern Spain. In Dordogne the great horizontal plateau of Cretaceous limestone had been dissected by branching rivers, such as the Vézère, to a depth of two hundred feet. Under overhanging cliffs long rock shelters were formed, such as that of the Magdalenian station at La Madeleine.
Fig. 10. Ideal section of the bluff overlying the Düssel River, near Düsseldorf, showing the mode of formation of the famous Neanderthal Cave, where the original type of the Neanderthal race was discovered in 1856. A typical resort of the 'cave man.' After Lyell.
c. Entrance of percolating waters from above.
f. Exit from the grotto.
a-b. Interior of the cavern.
Many caverns were formed, some of them in early Pleistocene times, by water percolating from above and (Fig. 11) resulting in subterranean streams which issued at the entrance; this formed the expanded grotto, sometimes a chamber of vast dimensions, such as the Grotte de Gargas. Outside of this, again, may be an abri or shelter of overhanging rock. In other cases the rock shelter is found quite independent of any cave.
Where the glaciers or ice-caps passed over the summits of the hills the subglacial streams penetrated the limestone of the mountain and formed vast caverns, such as that of Niaux, near the river Ariège. Here a nearly horizontal cavern was formed, extending half a mile into the heart of the mountain. The material with which the floors of the caverns are covered is either a fine cave loam or the insoluble remainder of the limestone forming a brown or gray clayey substance. The Magdalenian artists produced drawings on these soft clays and, in rare instances, used them for modelling purposes, as in the Tuc d'Audoubert. The sands and gravels were also swept in from the streams above and carried by strong currents along the wall surfaces, smoothing and polishing the limestone in preparation for the higher forms of Upper Palæolithic draughtsmanship and painting.
Fig. 11. Formation of the typical limestone cavern. After Gaudry.
V. Vertical section of limestone cliff showing (S) waters percolating from above; (A-O) interior of the cavern; and (G) grotto entrance, original exit of the cavern waters. H. Horizontal section of the same cavern showing the (G) grotto entrance and (A, G, O, B) the ramifications of the cavern.
It would appear that the majority of the caverns were formed in pluvial periods of early glacial times; the formation had been completed, the subterranean streams had ceased to flow, and the interiors were relatively dry and free from moisture in Fourth Glacial and Postglacial times, when man first entered them. There is no evidence, however, that the cavern depths were generally inhabited, for the obvious reason that there was no exit for the smoke; the old hearths are invariably found close to or outside of the entrance, the only exception being in the entrance to the great cavern of Gargas, where there is a natural chimney for the exit of smoke. There was no cave life, strictly speaking—it was grotto life; the deep caves and caverns were probably penetrated only by artists and possibly also by magicians or priests. It is in the abris or shelters in front of the grottos and in the floors of the caverns that remarkable prehistoric records are found from late Acheulean times to the very close of the Palæolithic, as in the wonderful grotto in front of the cave at Castillo, near Santander. Thus, as Obermaier(60) observes: "In Chellean times primitive man was a care-free hunter wandering as he chose in the mild and pleasant weather, and even the colder climate of the arid 'loess' period of the late Acheulean was not sufficient to overcome his love of the open; he still made his camp on the plains at the edge of the forest, or in the shelter of some overhanging cliff." Only in rare instances, as at Castillo, were the Acheulean hearths brought within the entrance line of the grotto.
DIFFERENCES OF OPINION AS TO THE GEOLOGIC AGE OF THE PALÆOLITHIC CULTURE STAGES
The right-hand column represents the theory adopted in this volume.
| Geologic Time | Penck, 1910 Geikie, 1914 | Wiegers, 1913 | Boule, Breuil, Obermaier, 1912 Schmidt, 1912 |
| Postglacial. | Magdalenian. | Bronze. Neolithic. Azilian. | Magdalenian. Solutrean. Aurignacian. |
| IV. Glacial. | Solutrean. | Magdalenian. Solutrean. Aurignacian. Mousterian. | Mousterian. |
| Third Interglacial. | Mousterian. | Mousterian. | Early Mousterian. Cold Acheulean. Warm " Chellean. Pre-Chellean. |
| III. Glacial. | Mousterian. | Cold Acheulean. | |
| Second Interglacial. | Acheulean. Chellean. | Warm Acheulean. Chellean. | |
| II. Glacial. | Pre-Chellean. | ||
| First Interglacial. |
Interpretation of these four kinds of evidence as to the antiquity of human culture in western Europe still leads to widely diverse opinions. On the one hand, we have the high authority of Penck(61) and Geikie(62) that the Chellean and Acheulean cultures are as ancient as the second long warm interglacial period. An extreme exponent of the same theory is Wiegers,(63) who would carry the Pre-Chellean back even into First Interglacial times. On the other side, Boule,(64) Schuchardt,(65) Obermaier,(66) Schmidt,(67) and the majority of the French archæologists place the beginning of the Pre-Chellean culture in Third Interglacial times.
In favor of the latter theory is the strikingly close succession of the Lower Palæolithic cultures in the valley of the Somme, followed by an equally close succession from Acheulean to Magdalenian times, as, for example, in the station of Castillo. It does not appear possible that a vast interval of time, such as that of the third glaciation, separated the Chellean from the Mousterian culture.
On the other hand, in favor of the greater antiquity of the Pre-Chellean and Chellean cultures may be urged their alleged association in several localities with very primitive mammals of early Pleistocene type, namely, the Etruscan rhinoceros, Steno's horse, and the saber-tooth tiger, as witnessed in Spain and in the deposits of the Champs de Mars, at Abbeville.
It is true, moreover, that at points distant from the great ice-fields, like the valley of the Somme and that of the Marne, we have no other means of separating glacial from interglacial times than that afforded by the deposition and erosion of the 'terraces'; in fact, the interpretation of the age of the cultures may be similar to that applied to the age of the mammalian fauna. There are no proofs of periods of severe cold in western Europe in any country remote from the glaciers until the very cold steppe-tundra climate immediately preceding the fourth glaciation swept the entire land and drove out the last of the African-Asiatic mammals.
Geographic Changes
The migrations of mammals and of races of men into western Europe from the Eurasiatic continent on the east and from Africa on the south were favored or interrupted by the periods of elevation or of subsidence of the coastal borders of the Ægean, Mediterranean, and North Seas, and also of the Iberian and British coast-lines. The maximum period of elevation of the coastal borders, as represented in the accompanying map (Fig. 12), never occurred in all portions of the continent of Europe at the same time, because there were oscillations both on the northern and southern coasts of Europe and Africa. The early Pleistocene, especially the period of the First Interglacial Stage, was one of elevation remarkable for the broad land bridges which brought the animal life of Europe, Africa, and Asia together. The Mediterranean coast rose 300 feet. Land bridges from Africa were formed at Gibraltar and over to the island of Sicily, so that for the time there was a free migration of mammalian life north and south. It is to this that western Europe owes the majestic mammals of Asiatic and African life which dominated the native fauna.
