Читать книгу Historic Ornament - James M Ward - Страница 8

Table of Contents

This period is divided from the Palæolithic Stone age by a great unknown gap. It is sometimes called the Later or Newer Stone age. In this period the flint implements were better shaped, many of them were ground and polished (Figs. 17, 18). Some of the flint and other stone implements were very like in form to those of the Bronze period, and as these implements were made, and continued to be used, in Northern Europe after the Bronze periods of the East had developed, it is quite possible that they were copied from the bronze objects (Figs. 10, 11, 17, 18).

A remarkable sickle or knife fourteen inches long is seen at Fig. 11; a flint saw (Fig. 12), semicircular knives or saws at Figs. 15, 16, and a bone and flint harpoon at Fig. 9. Some of the stone hammers or axes are of great beauty in shape and in workmanship (Figs. 17, 18); also pottery slightly burnt, but well decorated by incised straight lines and zigzags (Figs. 21 to 24).

Fig. 8.

Fig. 9.

Fig. 10.

Fig. 11.

Figs. 8 to 11.—Flint Implements of the Neolithic Period (From Danish Arts.)

Fig. 12.

Fig. 13.

Fig. 14.

Figs. 12, 13, 14.—Flint Implements of the Neolithic Period. (From Danish Arts.)

Fig. 15.

Fig. 16.

Figs. 15, 16.—Flint Implements of the Neolithic Period. (From Danish Arts.)

Fig. 17.

Fig. 18.

Fig. 19.

Fig. 20.

Figs. 17 to 20.—Polished Stone Hammers and Celts, Neolithic Period. (From Danish Arts.)

Fig. 21.

Fig. 22.

Fig. 23.

Fig. 24.

Figs. 21 to 24.—Pottery of the Neolithic Age. (From Danish Arts.)

The cultivation of land, the breeding and rearing of domestic animals, plaiting, and weaving was known and practised by these people. Amber, bone beads, and shells were used as personal adornments. Their burials were with or without cremation. The burial-places of these people are found all over the world, in Europe, Japan, India, and other parts of Asia, and in North America. They are named “Cromlechs” (stone circles), “Dolmen” (stone tables) (Fig. 25), “Menhir” (long stone). The burial-place, called a “Tumulus,” is a great mound of earth, usually containing a burial chamber constructed in stone in the centre of the mound. The illustrations of the “Menhir” (long stones) (Fig. 26), and of the so-called Giants’ Tombs (Fig. 27) belong to the Stone age, and are found in the island of Sardinia.

Fig. 25.—Dolmen at Hesbon (P. & C.).

Fig. 26.—Menhirs, Sardinia (P. & C.).

We have seen that the Palæolithic men were hunters, and evidently had a lot of leisure time on their hands, which they turned to good account by devoting some of it to their artistic culture; while the Neolithic men were more of a race of mechanics and farmers, who had neither time nor inclination for the cultivation of art, but were altogether more scientific and mechanical than the men of the Palæolithic period.

Fig. 27.—Giants’ Tomb, Sardinia (P. & C.).