Topic: Our Early Ancestors by M. C. Burkitt Publication date 1929

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 OUR EARLY ANCESTORS
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleolithic

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesolithic

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neolithic




https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.168265



 
 RECONSTRUCTED VIEW OF'PILE DWELLING AND VILLAGE
 OUR EARLY ANCESTORS

AN INTRODUCTORY STUDY OF MESOLITHIC,
NEOLITHIC AND COPPER AGE CULTURES
IN EUROPE AND ADJACENT REGIONS

by

M. C. BURKITT, M.A., F.S.A., F.G.S.

University Lecturer at Cambridge in the Faculty of Archaeology and Anthropology.
Author of Prehistory, Our Forerunners, South Africa's Past in Stone
and Paint, etc.

NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND: AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS

1929
 First Edition 1926
Reprinted 1929

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
 PREFACE

It is far easier to write a text-book on Palaeolithic than
on Neolithic times. Just as the average geologist will
readily sketch out a clear and comprehensive account
of Palaeozoic times, but may fail to derive any con-
sistent story from Quaternary gravels and other late
deposits, so the prehistorian finds the earlier Palaeolithic
cultures much easier to deal with, than the far more
complicated, though later and more fully preserved,
Neolithic and early Metal Age remains. The difficulties
are of three kinds. Firstly, where so much has been pre-
served for us to study, a far more detailed and wider
knowledge is required, and this is for the most part
only gained by actual work in the field or prolonged
study in many a foreign museum. Published results
are generally to be found scattered through numberless
papers and journals, many of them local publications
not always easy to come across. Secondly, having
acquired a certain number of facts, the writer has to
settle what he is going to leave out, and this is by no
means his lightest task. The following book, as the
title states, is meant to act as an introduction to the
study of the Mesolithic, Neolithic, and earliest Metal
Ages and, as such, details of purely local significance
are naturally out of place. The writer in the course of
lecturing has felt the lack of such a book and, although
he is painfully aware of the shortcomings of the present
volume, he feels that such an introductory text-book
may be welcome to many a student who, with the help
of the bibliographies, will afterwards be able to pro-
ceed further either in the elucidation of the industries
 VI

PREFACE

of a given area or in some more general problem.
Curiously enough very few text-books, covering the
periods in question, have been published, but among
serious works are The Cambridge Ancient History, vol. i,
and V. G. Childe’s The Dawn of European Civilisation,
a book that no student of the subject can afford to
leave unstudied, though brilliant as it is with its wealth
of detail, a certain knowledge of typology is unavoidably
assumed. Thirdly there is the difficulty that con-
fronts the writer of such a book as this, namely the
choice of a method of approach. Naturally the area to
be considered has first to be decided upon, the whole
world cannot be covered in a single work. But humanity
is so interrelated and outside influences from far-off
districts have all so played their part in the building
up of European Neolithic and early Metal Age cultures
that it is not easy to know where to draw the line. Again,
should a geographical or a chronological scheme be
followed ? If the former the pre-history of many areas
must be followed separately, and a number of histories
produced, consistent in themselves but not always easy
to interrelate, while the interaction of all the different
cultures makes the second method one of great diffi-
culty. However one may expect in the future that still
more importance will be attached to making and utilising
distribution maps, in which all finds of a given industry
are carefully plotted out on an ordinary large scale map
with the result that the exact limits of a given industry
or culture, and sometimes its movements and inter-
actions, can be determined. This long and painstaking
work is far from completion, even as far as Europe is
concerned, and it will be many years before the work,
which requires detailed knowledge of every find both
ancient and modern, is in any sense finished.
 PREFACE

VU

My most sincere thanks are due to many kind friends
for help in the compilation of the present work. Firstly
I want to thank my wife who has not only helped
materially in the text itself, but has also drawn all the
plates that were not directly reproduced from other
works, except the map, for which I am indebted to
my father. Mr V. Gordon Childe has been most kind in
making suggestions and criticisms. Dr Haddon, always
a tower of strength to the would-be author has, as
always, been more than kind and helpful. Miss Askwith
and Mrs Quiggin have relieved me of all the mechanical
troubles connected with its production, not to speak of
the index making. I also desire to thank my aunt,
Miss Parry, who has taken upon herself the correcting
of the proof-sheets. Several colleagues have most kindly
allowed me to copy illustrations from their published
works; to Dr F. Johannsen, Dr Reinerth, Dr Aberg
and Mr F. Buckley I am especially indebted in this
respect. The figures of implements in chapter iv are
mostly drawn from originals in the Cambridge Museum
of Archaeology and Ethnology or in my own collection.
A number of references to a small bibliography appear
at the end of each chapter. Certain works of especial
importance to the student are marked with an asterisk.

M. C. BURKITT

Cambridge, 1926
 
 CONTENTS

PREFACE   V

INTRODUCTION ...... I

CHAP, I. MESOLITHIC TIMES   ...   8

II.   NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION ,   .   50

III.   NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION {cofltd') „   74

IV.   TYPOLOGY .....   102

V.   NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF THE EAST-
ERN AREA AND LATE NEOLITHIC
TIMES IN CENTRAL EUROPE .   .   X 31

VI.   NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF THE

NORTHERN AND WESTERN AREAS .   I45

VII.   A BRIEF SKETCH OF ENGLAND IN
MESOLITHIC, NEOLITHIC, AND EAR-
LIEST METAL AGE TIMES   .   . 163

VIII.   THE MEDITERRANEAN AREA AND

THE COPPER AGE ....   1B5

IX.   PRELIMINARY NOTES ON THE

BRONZE AGE CULTURES ,   .   . 201

X.   ART ...... 212

INDEX

*33
 ILLUSTRATIONS

Reconstructed view of Pile Dwelling and Village Frontispiece      
Plate I.   (1) Azilian harpoons and examples of “painted pebbles.” (2) A typical Asturian pick .   page 11
2.   (1)   Tardenoisean pigmies from France, Belgium, Portugal, and the Mediterranean basin  (2)   Small industries from far-off countries. Australia, Ceylon, India ....   17
3-   Maglemosean tools: harpoon, adze, spatula. Two amber figurines .....   33
4-   Examples from Svaerdborg: pigmy tools, scraper, pick, adze      35
5-   Examples of pottery and tools from the kitchen middens and shell mounds ....   41
6.   (1) Head of Bos prtmigenius. (2) Head of a Urial ram. (3) Head of a Urial ewe. (4) Head of a Mouflon ram. (5) Head of an Argali ram .   59
7-   Sketch map showing physical geography of Cen- tral Asia      81
8.   Neolithic tools      I05
9-   Neolithic tools      107
xo.   Neolithic tools ......   109
XX.   Neolithic and Earliest Metal Age tools . «   in
12.   Neolithic and Earliest Metal Age tools   115
*3-   Neolithic tools ......   1x7
14.   Neolithic tools   121
 ILLUSTRATIONS

XI

Plate 15. Examples of decorated Neolithic pottery belong-
ing to the culture of the Eastern Area .   . page

16.   Examples of Neolithic pottery belonging to the

culture of the Western Area

17.   Examples of decorated Neolithic pottery belong-

ing to the culture of the Northern Area .

18.   Examples showing types of “mixed culture”

pottery that developed in Late Neolithic times
in Central Europe...........................

19.   Examples showing types of the Beaker pottery of

the Copper Age..............................

20.   Laibach pottery: Forms and designs drawn from

rough sketches made in the Museum at Loub-
liana (Laibach).............................

21.   Examples of the industry found at Butmir (Bosnia)

2 2. Sketches to show forms of megalithic constructions

23.   English Tardenoisean industries from: W. York-

shire, Pennines, Peacehaven, Hastings, Bam-
burgh. Narrow-blade industry from the Mars-
den district. Broad-blade industry from the
Marsden district .....

24.   East Anglian small industries from: Brandon,

Kenny Hill, Lakenheath, Scunthorpe, Undley,
Weston near Stevenage ....

25.   Decorated pottery of Copper Age from Spain.

Examples of Neolithic naturalistic art

26.   Examples illustrating the principal types of Bronze

Age tools. The evolution of the celt during the
Bronze Age..................................

27.   (1) Rock shelter art at Pefla Tu (Spain). (2) Rock

carving at Clonfinlough (Ireland). (3) Painting
of a wheeled cart from the Spanish Art Group
III. (4) Rock carvings similar to (2) but from
Galicia (Spain) ......

123

125

127

129

130

139

141

H7

169

171

193

203

221
 ILLUSTRATIONS

XII

Plate 28. (1) Rock carvings from the Maritime Alps of
Early Metal Age, (2) Rock carvings from
Norway belonging probably to the “Arctic”
culture.................................................page 225

29.   Carvings on the side wall of a megalithic tomb at

Gavr'inis (Brittany). (2) Carvings on the side
wall of a small tumulus at Sess Kilgrccn (Ire-
land). (3) Conventionalised engravings on the
Folkton chalk drum. (4) Pottery model of a
house of Neolithic Age, now in the Museum
at Brno. (5) Pottery figure from Anau. (6-8)

“Schist ” and “Menhir” idols .   .   *   227

30.   Examples of the paintings of the Spanish Art

Group III .   229

The frontispiece is reproduced from The New Stone Age in Northern
Europe, by permission of Messrs Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York,
and G. Bell Sc Sons, Ltd., London.
 OUR EARLY ANCESTORS

INTRODUCTION

Th e history of mankind—like the journals or pro-
ceedings of many learned societies—has been
divided into several volumes, each of which comprises
a number of separate parts. The third, and still un-
finished, volume of mankind’s history is concerned with
the so-called Iron Age which begins when this metal
came into common use for tool-making and other
general purposes. The second volume contains the
history of an earlier epoch before the smelting of iron
ores had been properly discovered, and when copper
and its alloy with tin—bronze—were the only metals
usually employed for tool-making, although gold, silver
and lead occur and were sometimes worked up into
objects of ornament, etc. The history and conditions
of human existence in this, the earlier, age of metal, is
one of surpassing interest and already very complex.
Whether we turn our eyes to the wonderful palaces and
towns of Bronze Age Crete, Greece, and the Aegean
generally, with their wealth of gold objects and artistic-
ally painted pots, faience figures, wall paintings, etc.,
or to the important trade routes that first sprang up
at this time across northern Europe, enabling the
highly prized Baltic amber to be conveyed up the valleys
and over the passes to the more settled ana developed
Mediterranean lands, we cannot fail to be astonished
at the modernity of these early cultures. Of course
nature had not yet been harnessed to the service of
man to the same extent as she is to-day, but after all, on
analysis, this harnessing of nature can, to a very large
extent, be expressed in the word transport. To-day
we transport ourselves and our goods in trains ana
 2

INTRODUCTION

steamships, and our thoughts and words by telegraphs,
telephones and wireless. Although Bronze Age Crete
had no broadcasting, the germs of much of our modern
civilisation can be already discerned. Beyond the Alps,
in spite of the fact that trade routes were springing up,
and an interchange of commerce and culture with the
south was growing, the cultures of the northern lands
lagged behind those of the Mediterranean basin, and
there is nothing comparable to the brilliance of the
south. Wealth there was in abundance in the shape of
gold, as can be seen to-day by anyone who delves into
the vaults of the National Museum at Budapest, but
the art, decoration and workmanship remain barbaric,
and there is nothing corresponding to the delicacy and
skilful design of such objects as the cups from Vaphio
in Laconia with their embossed scenes of the wild
ox being caught in a net and then, tamed, being led
by a foot rope.

The history of mankind that Volume i lays before
us is very different. Here we find no knowledge of
metals manifested; all tools were made of wood, bone,
or stone; moreover, during the earlier and far longer
portion of this period (corresponding in our “pro-
ceedings” analogy to Parts i, a, 3, 4 and 5, out of a
total of 6), there was no knowledge of agriculture or
pottery, and animals had not yet been domesticated.
Mankind—in Europe and the Mediterranean basin,
the area mainly under review in this little book—was
still in the hunting stage; and, in spite of the existence
of a wonderful art practised for magic purposes by
the folk of the Later Old Stone Age—an art that,
given the circumstances, we should have a difficulty
in rivalling to-day—it must be admitted that during
most of the time included in Volume 1 humanity was
 INTRODUCTION

3

in a very different and more primitive state of culture
than exists in Europe to-day, and that the germs of our
modern civilisation are not much in evidence.

At this point it will be convenient to give a table
showing in a simplified manner the various sub-
divisions of the history of mankind.

Volume III, part 3 = Steel Age.

part 2 = Newer Iron Age or La Tene Culture,
part 1 = Older Iron Age or Hallstatt Culture.
Volume II, part 3 = Later Bronze Age.

part 2 = Earlier Bronze Age.
part 1 = Copper Age (Eneolithic or Chalcolithic
Culture).

Volume I, part 6 = Neolithic Period.

part 5 = Mesolithic Period,
part 4 = Upper Palaeolithic Period,
part 3 = Middle Palaeolithic Period,
part 2 = Lower Palaeolithic Period,
part 1 = Eolithic Period.

Our concern in this book is with Volume 1, parts 5
and 6, and Volume n, part 1, but naturally a word or
two must be said of the cultures just preceding and
just following in order that our particular period may
be satisfactorily placed in its proper sequence and thus
be duly realised in relation to both its background and
foreground.

The older prehistorians did not admit the Mesolithic
Period as a separate entity. For them there was the
Palaeolithic, grouped as in our table, but including
the earlier part of what we have classed as Mesolithic,
while the later part of this same period was grouped
as Early Neolithic. The criteria employed to determine
whether a given industry on the border line should be
classed as Palaeolithic or Neolithic were: (1) the pre-
sence or absence of pottery, (2) the presence or absence of
 INTRODUCTION

4

evidencefor domesticanimalsandagriculturc, (3) whether
polishing and grinding were employed in the making
of tools, or merely chipping. It is now recognised, how-
ever, that these criteria alone lead to anomalies. The
two contemporary folk who have left us heaps of their
kitchen refuse, the one on the shores of the Baltic and
the other in North Spain, and who, in spite of many
differences, are in many ways very similar in culture,
would, under the old scheme, have to be completely
separated, the former being classed as Early Neolithic,
the latter as Late Palaeolithic. At the end of Upper
Palaeolithic times a rapid change of temperature took
place in Western Europe and the climate ameliorated,
and with this change of climate the Palaeolithic history
of mankind closed. On the other hand we cannot class
everything after this change as Neolithic, for during a
long period mankind was living a very different life
from that of the true New Stone Age. It is therefore
convenient to create this Mesolithic stage to include all
those industries and cultures yet but dimly known that
start at the end of Magdalenian times on the change
of climate and finish with the appearance in quantity,
in western and northern Europe, of the polished stone
celts and the megalithic tombs. Although the Old
Stone Age hunter was no doubt largely exterminated
or, at any rate, became extinct with the change of
climate and conditions, a remnant probably survived
throughout Mesolithic times and even influenced the
higher culture of the New Stone Age invader before
becoming finally absorbed into the new civilisation.
How great an influence this Old Stone Age element
had in moulding the history of the newer folk it is
difficult to say with any degree of certainty. There have
been some students of the subject, however, who see
 INTRODUCTION   $

[Prometheus]

the influence of the older cave burials in the desire to
build the large megalithic tombs which are so fre-
quently found in the so-called Western and Northern
Neolithic Areas.

To paint in our background it will not be necessary
to summarise the whole of Palaeolithic times; those who
are interested in this dim past have many works, both
large and small, to consults), but a brief picture of the
life and times of Upper Palaeolithic folk (Volume i,
part 4, of our table) will not be out of place.

The roots of Palaeolithic study are to a great extent
firmly fixed in geological history, and we must therefore
start by seeing what the Quaternary geologists can tell
us as to the climate, conditions and fauna that the
Upper Palaeolithic hunter had to contend with. If
readers could be borne back through the ages in
Titania’s car and landed in France during Palaeolithic
times, they would find the situation very different from
that which obtains to-day. During most of the time
under review cold, dry, steppe conditions prevailed,
except near mountain masses like the Alps, where ice-
fields and long glaciers penetrating far into the plains
produced tundra conditions. There were short hot
summers, it is true, but these were no compensation
for the long cruel winters. The Upper Palaeolithic
hunter and his family lived on the sunny side of valleys,
under overhanging rocks or in the mouths of caves.
It is not true to say that he actually lived in the depths
of the caves themselves, for his industries, the cinders
of his fires and so on, are never found in these places.
Nor should we expect it; the interiors of caves are not
only absolutely dark, requiring artificial light con-
tinually, but are also often very damp, and rheumatism
was apparently not unknown even in that remote past.
 INTRODUCTION

6

Again, it would be unsatisfactory to have left your
family in the depth of a cave, while necessary hunting
for food took place, and to return to find that a cave
bear had taken up his residence in the vestibule! Food
consisted of game, which included many animals extinct
to-day, such as the mammoth and the woolly rhinoceros,
and others which no longer exist under the warmer
skies of our western Europe, such as the reindeer
and the bison. The objects found in the “homes” in-
clude flint scrapers, graving tools, awls, etc., antler
harpoons, lance points and needles. These latter are
often small, beautifully made and eyed, and were no
doubt employed in the sewing together of small skins
for the purpose of making clothes. Objects of art are
common in the latter part of this period, and paintings
and engravings have been found in the depths of
caves. These caves, however, seem to have been of the
nature of temples, and this art seems to have been a
sympathetic magic to help the food supply^). The cave
home was kept warm by the fires at which the food
was cooked, and no doubt a rude degree of comfort
was obtainable. Cups for drinking purposes, in the
form of carefully shaped pieces of skull, have been
discovered, as well as necklaces made from animals’
teeth or shells—these being sometimes sea-shells
brought, in more than one instance, from as far as
sixty miles away. Careful ceremonial burial was often
practised.

The population of such a country as France must in
those days have been very small. A land, under the
best conditions, only supports a small hunting popula-
tion, and the climate in those days did not provide the
best conditions.

Then all at once, due to unknown causes, every-
 INTRODUCTION

7

thing changed. The climate suddenly ameliorated, the
old fauna and flora vanished, and with them went the
old hunter; the last page of part 4 is closed and we
turn next to part 5.

BIBLIOGRAPHY and REFERENCES

(1)   See, for example, Fossil Man in Spain, by Dr H. Obermaier;

Ancient Hunters, by W. J. Sollas; Men of the Old Stone Age,
by H. F. Osborn; Prehistory and Our Forerunners, by M. C.
Burkitt (Home University Series).

(2)   M. C. Burkitt, Our Forerunners (Home University Series).

Chapters 9 and 10.
 CHAPTER I

MESOLITHIC TIMES

The problem of the Transition Period lying be-
tween the series of cultures that are grouped
together as Palaeolithic and the Neolithic civilisation,
and which is often named the Mesolithic Period, has
long occupied the attention of the prehistorian investi-
gator. Formerly nothing was known of the many
industries that characterise this Mesolithic Period, and
the investigator found himself face to face with an
apparently catastrophic change in everything at the end
of Palaeolithic times, when the old industries and fauna
and wonderful art all suddenly disappear, their place
being taken by the, it must be admitted, dreary in-
dustries and cultures of early post-Palaeolithic times.
The hiatus between the Old and the New Stone Ages
seemed to be so marked that for a long time it was con-
sidered that at the close of the Quaternary Period
Europe became desolate and uninhabited, until, at a
much later date, fresh invasions, from the east, of New
Stone Age folk, repopulated the continent. Towards the
end of the nineteenth century Piette, a French pre-
historian and one of the pioneers of the subject, started
digging operations in the cave of Mas d’Axil (Arihge,
France). The situation of this cave is remarkable; the
River Arise flowing down a shallow valley suddenly
turns to the left and plunges through a low limestone
range. The tunnel so formed, which is about a quarter
of a mile in length, is large enough to be utilised to-day
for the main road which runs alongside the river. Half
way through further caves open on the right-hand side,
 MESOLITHIC TIMES

9

looking down stream. They are of very great extent,
and it is said that at the time of the Albigensian Wars
an army took refuge in them and was completely con-
cealed. At their junction with the main tunnel rich
Upper Palaeolithic deposits of the Magdalenian Period
had already been discovered, but it was on the left bank
of the river (always looking down stream) where it
enters the hill, that Piette commenced digging opera-
tions and the following succession of deposits was
observed (i):

Surface soil.

Neolithic: Bronze (with foundry).

Loam with new industry = Azilian.

Sterile loam with reindeer bones.

Black loam with reindeer bones and Magdalenian industries
similar to those of the right bank. See above.

Sterile gravels.

From this section it will be seen that a new industry
lying between the Neolithic and Bronze cultures on the
one hand and the Late Magdalenian on the other had
been demonstrated, and for a time it seemed as if the old
problem of a hiatus had been solved and the Transition
culture connecting the two found. Later investigation,
however, showed that this was only partly true. This
new Azilian culture was found to have only a limited
distribution, and it has been shown that in Europe alone
there are certainly four different cultures of Transitional
date that, under the old classification, would still have
to be considered as Palaeolithic, As has been said before,
the modern Mesolithic section comprises also what used
to be classed as Early Neolithic cultures because some-
thing was known about pottery and domestic animals,
etc. But, as will be seen, they are very different from
the cultures of the true Neolithic folk, and have close
 IO

MESOLITHIC TIMES

connections with those of the earlier Transitional
peoples. The Mesolithic Period includes the following
cultures:

X. Azilian.   4.   Maglemosean.

2.   Tardenoisean.   5.   Kitchen Midden.

3.   Asturian.   6.   Campignian.

(N.B. No chronological sequence is indicated by this table of
cultures.)

AZILIAN CULTURE

This was the first Transitional culture discovered.
The climate and conditions under which the folk lived
were not so very different from those of to-day, although,
judging from the quantity of snail shells found in the
excavations in South France, it was at any rate there
rather damper. Forests probably abounded. The fauna
also was not dissimilar and the Quaternary animals had
disappeared. With the exception of dogs found in
Azilian excavations at La Tourasse (Pyrenees) and at
Oban (a) domesticated animals are absent. In place of the
splendid bone tools and beautifully made, if monotonous,
flint work of Magdalenian times, the industries consist
of bone polishers, spatulae or chisels, rough bone awls
and poorly made flint tools, including especially a large
number of small round scrapers. A new type of harpoon
occurs, broader and flatter than that made by Magda-
lenian man and with poorly cut barbs cut into, rather than
projecting from, the line of the edge (Plate 1, fig. 1, a, i).
As a rule the material is stag’s antler; reindeer, ex-
clusively used by the older folk for this purpose, being
very rare. A hole for attachment to a haft is common,
taking the form of a round or more often almond-shaped
splayed hole through the base of the stem. With the
old Palaeolithic hunter went his wondrous art, and in
 MESOLITHIC times
 12

MESOLITHIC TIMES

Azilian deposits we no longer find decorated bones,
tools and harpoons. Only one engraved object of
Azilian date is known, and this merely consists of a stone
covered with meaningless engraved lines. On the other
hand the so-called “painted pebbles” occur (Plate i,
fig. i). These consist of river pebbles, rounded and
smoothed by natural water action, that had been col-
lected and smeared over with red ochre in the form of
dots, bars, wavy lines, or combinations of these. The
pebbles, consisting as they do for the most part of hard
quartzite, have not absorbed the ochre paint which
remains on the surface and can be removed altogether
by slight friction. That they belong to this period is
shown by their being found in Azilian deposits associated
with the harpoon and other tools, and, in one case at
any rate, being encrusted with stalagmitic deposits that
have accumulated in the Azilian layer owing to the
dampness of the cave. Their distribution is not quite as
wide as the Azilian culture itself; they are not a sine qua
non in Azilian industries, but they have been found in
North Spain, the Pyrenees, and East France, etc., up to
just south of Basle1. The motive for painting these river
pebbles and their use is unknown. Dr Obermaier sug-
gests that in some cases, at any rate, the paintings are
meant to represent conventionalised human forms. This
idea arises from a suggested analogy with undoubted
conventionalisations of human beings found in rock
shelters which belong to the Copper Age art of Spanish
Art Group III, to be described in chapter x. It is however
a little difficult to connect the two. There is a consider-

1 So-called Azilian “painted pebbles” were long ago discovered in the
precincts of Late Celtic brochs in Caithness and published tentatively
as such. Later writers have copied this tentative suggestion as fact. An ex-
amination of the specimens themselves at once disproves this contention.
 MESOLITHIC TIMES

13

able difference in time between them, not to speak of
culture. It has been suggested that these painted pebbles
were of the nature of money, counting boards, talismans,
etc., but none of these explanations seems to fit the case
satisfactorily. In one place all the painted pebbles were
found to be carefully broken in two (whether by friend
or foe is of course unknown); this would seem to indi-
cate that they were objects of some considerable import-
ance there. It has been suggested that they were only
playthings, and there is no particular reason why this
explanation should be much less likely than any of the
others. Certain cave paintings, shown by their super-
position to be later than the last phase of Magdalenian
art, which consist of barbed lines, etc., there being no
animal figures or the like, have been considered to be
Azilian in date, also a few conventionalised human
figures, such as the two little men in the vestibule at
Castillo u); but of this there is no proof. It is still uncer-
tain whether any of the art found in rock shelters in
Spain south of the northern mountains is Azilian.

The distribution of Azilian industries, using the flat
harpoon above described as the “type fossil,” is im-
portant. They have been found in: North Spain as far
west as Asturias1; the central districts of the French
Pyrenees; East France(4); Switzerland, just southwards
of Basle (5); Belgium, near Libge; Britain, at Victoria Cave
near Settle, western Yorkshire (Plate 1, fig. 1, b), near
Kirkcudbright, at Oban (Argyll) in, at least, two sites—
McArthur’s Cave and Drumvaig*, on Oronsay Island,
and elsewhere.

The cradle of this culture is not yet very clearly

1 Probably the culture will also turn up in Galicia, though it has
not yet been noted in Portugal.

1 The finds from these places are in the Museum at Edinburgh.
 MESOLITHIC TIMES

14

known and will be considered in conjunction with the
next or Tardenoisean culture. It would seem, however,
that Azilian influence was felt by the Late Magdalenian
folk of the Pyrenees before it had reached the Dordogne.
In other words, Azilian culture either arrived in western
Europe from the south, i.e. Spain, south of the Pyrenees,
or possibly from the south-east. Difficulties arise be-
cause there is as yet so little evidence for the occurrence
of Azilian cultures in Spain south of the Pyrenees or
south of the Cordillera Cantabrica which really form an
extension of the Pyrenees. Again, eastwards, the mouths
of the Rh6ne and the flood lands around must have
proved a barrier that could not have been easily crossed
much lower than the latitude of Nimes without rafts or
canoes, and of these there is no evidence in Azilian
times unless we allow that the English Channel had by
now been formed, in which case the British Azilian folk
must have arrived in our country by boat. All the same,
if a culture did cross the Rhone somewhere about where
the lowest railway bridge over the river exists to-day,
it would still reach the Pyrenees before the Dordogne,
which is separated from the Rh6ne valley by the whole
massif of the central highlands of France.

TARDENOISEAN CULTURE

The Tardenoisean culture introduces a very different
state of affairs. The Azilians, for the most part, lived in
the mouths of caves or in rock shelters, and we generally
find a definite stratigraphy with deposits containing
Palaeolithic industries. But in the case of the Tarde-
noisean deposits there is seldom such clear and definite
stratigraphical sequence. The industries are for the
most part found on or close to the surface, except at
a few sites, as for example at Zonhoven and at the cave
 MESOLITHIC TIMES

lS

Remouchamps (6), both in Belgium. The industries
consist of pigmy flints, generally chipped to form geo-
metrical shapes such as the triangle—equilateral, isos-
celes or scalene—little crescents or lunates, and, at a
slightly later date, though not in true Tardenoisean in-
dustries, trapezes (Plate 2, fig. 1). The small pigmyburin
is also common, and it may be remarked that, though its
absence from an industry does not disprove a Tar-
denoisean culture, its presence makes it almost certain1.

As regards the chipping of most of these pigmy flints
it should be noted that it consists in the blunting of the
edge by the removal of small flakes rather than in the
sharpening of it. The working edge of a tool was the
sharp natural flake cutting-edge which is left untrimmed
for use in the completed tool.

Pigmy industries have a very wide distribution, and
in their connection a word of warning must be sounded.
What happened was that mankind discovered the advan-
tages of a composite tool, that is a tool composed of
several elements each of which have their special useful
properties. A flint flake is very sharp and very suitable
for a knife blade or saw tooth, but is very brittle. The
combination, however, of a wooden or bone haft into
which little pigmy flakes are fixed to form either a

1 The term burin or graving tool is perhaps rather a misnomer, as
it is hardly conceivable that this minute tool, sometimes not a centimetre
in length, had much to do with engraving. The fact to emphasise, how-
ever, is the occurrence of the highly specialised and peculiar “burin
technique” so common in Upper Palaeolithic times, which has here
survived and which consists of the removing of a small facets known as
the burin facet, more or less along a side of the tiny flake, starting at
the working edge, a blow being delivered vertically, the flake being
also held vertically. In the case of trimming and most other forms of
flint chipping the blow is delivered vertically but the object is held
horizontally (Plate 23, b, c, i, n, P).
 MESOLITHIC TIMES

16

[Prometheus]

continuous knife blade or, in the form of irregular teeth,
a kind of saw, is very serviceable. Such a discovery may
have been made at different times in different parts of
the world. But it should be noted that for a composite
tool only certain shapes of little pigmy flakes are con-
venient. A carefully formed square of flint or a circle
would be singularly useless, while the practical properties
of a triangle with one side blunted for convenience of
hafting as shown on page 34 (the blunting preventing
the flake being driven too far into the haft and so splitting
it) can be readily appreciated. Little flakes hafted along
the lengths of bone stems have actually been found in
the peat bogs in Denmark, belonging to another and
doubtless contemporary Transitional culture. The occur-
rence, then, in different sites, of pigmy industries does
not denote either a similarity of culture with that of the
Tardenoisean of Europe and the Mediterranean basin,
nor, of course, contemporaneity. Quite conceivably the
pigmy industries near by in Poland or Southern Russia
may belong to this Tardenoisean culture, but there is
no proof as yet adduced to show that similar pigmy
industries south of the Panjab in India, or others in
Australia, or elsewhere in far distant lands, have any
connection whatever with the Transitional culture we
are describing, or that they are anywhere near this
culture in date (Plate 2, fig. 2). In the special case of
the Obsidian industry found in the district east of the
Victoria Nyanza and near Lake Naivasha (Africa), where
scrapers, knife blades, pigmies, etc., occur, the above
argument does not apply as the burin—absent in India
and Australia—is frequently found. The age of this
industry must be Transitional or even Late Palaeolithic,
Tardenoisean industries are found at one site in the
cave of Valle near Gibajaw (a station on the railway line
 Plate %, fig. i. Tardenoisean pigmies from France, Belgium,
Portugal, and the Mediterranean basin.
 \SN

1 Inch.

Plate 2, fig. 2. Small industries from far-
off countries. 1-6 Australia, 7 Ceylon,
8-io India.

MESOLITHIC TIMES
 MESOLITHIC TIMES

18

from Bilbao to Santander, Spain) associated with little
round scrapers and other Azilian tools including the
harpoon. This fact is important as showing the contem-
poraneity of the Azilian and Tardenoisean industries.
In view of the fact that the Tardenoisean has a much
wider distribution than the Azilian, although of the same
age, it is convenient for many purposes to group the two
together and to talk of an Azilio-Tardenoisean culture.

The distribution of the Tardenoisean culture is im-
portant. It seems to be especially concentrated around the
Mediterranean basin, but westward of the Alpine ranges
it spreads sporadically as far north as England,and east-
wards it is found in the Crimea (a*), in Poland at As-
sowka(I9), etc. and in the south of Russia. At Termini
Imerese( in Sicily there has been found a series of tools,
apparently much more recent than those of undoubted
Upper Palaeolithic (Aurignacian) culture which occur in
the cave of Romanelli (Otranto) and other places. These
Termini Imerese industries are very similar to those
found in the upper beds at the Grotte des Enfants, Men-
tone, which we shall have to consider in connection with
the origin of the Azilio-Tardenoisean culture as a whole.
The same sort of thing is found in Syria and in North
Africa, where the last Capsian (that is the African Aurig-
nacian) shows a decrease in the number of graving tools
but a big increase in geometric microliths, which,
although not especially Azilian in appearance, are typi-
cally Tardenoisean. Various sites in Portugal and in
both North and South Spain1 have yielded typical Tar-
denoisean industries. In Belgium (9> two well-defined
geometric microlithic industries have been observed at

1 It is interesting to note that in a rock shelter near Alpera, covered
with paintings both in the Spanish Art Group II and III styles, was found
a typical geometric-shaped tool.
 MESOLITHIC TIMES

19

Zonhoven; the first comes from some depth below the
surface soil, the other from the surface. The former has
not been intermixed with outside material and com-
prises long and round scrapers, gravers, microlith knife
blades and little triangles. The surface industry includes
Neolithic arrow heads and a flint blade the flint of
which must have come from Grand Pressigny, as well
as polished Neolithic axes of a late type. Associated
with these are late Tardenoisean types including the
trapeze. The Belgian cave of Remouchamps (6) has yielded
small round scrapers, gravers and long microliths.
Reindeer bones occur and trapezes are absent. In our
own country a typical Transitional industry is found in
North Cornwall and microliths with the burin are found
at Hastings. On the Pennines near Huddersfield (10)1
rich finds, showing Belgian connections as well as local
variations, have been collected. Pigmy tools occur else-
where at many sites, but the absence of typical imple-
ments, especially of the Tardenoisean burin, precludes
any certainty as to the culture—e.g. the pigmy indus-
tries from most of the Sussex sites, etc.

The origin of the Azilio-Tardenoisean is well seen at
the cave called the Grotte des Enfants near Mentone (u).
Here rich Upper Palaeolithic (Aurignacian) deposits
have been found undisturbed by the Solutrean and
Magdalenian phases occurring elsewhere. The Aurig-
nacian folk seem to have developed on their own lines,
and their fauna shows us that they existed under the
various changes of climate that elsewhere in France
coincided with the coming of the Solutreans and the
occurrence of the Magdalenian cultures. This Aurig-
nacian culture at Mentone continued its development

1 See chapter vii and Plate 23 for an account of these English
pigmy industries.
 20

MESOLITHIC TIMES

undisturbed, and as we observe the evolution of the
shouldered points we note how they get smaller and
smaller, how the scrapers get tinier and tinier, until in
the upper levels we suddenly realise that we are in the
presence of true Azilio-Tardenoisean industries though
without the harpoon, the source and original form of
which is unknown. In other words, there seems very
little doubt that the Azilio-Tardenoisean Transitional
culture as a whole was developed in Europe by the old
Aurignacian (Neoanthropic) stock. The original Aurig-
nacian invader of Europe underwent many modifica-
tions, as is attested by the considerable differences that
exist in the skeleton form in various times. Azilio-
Tardenoisean man seems then to be a modification of
this old stock that took place at the change of climate,
more especially around the Mediterranean coasts, a
stock that continued to survive, undergoing many
further modifications caused by the pressure of the
oncoming Neolithic civilisation, until it finally went
under and Europe passed definitely under the sway of
the New Stone Age.

As in the case of the Azilian culture so in that of the
Tardenoisean nothing has been noted in the way of art,
there are not even such unsatisfying objects as the
“painted pebbles”!

Accounts of several careful burials of peculiar interest
belonging to the Azilio-Tardenoisean culture have been
published. One of the most important of these is a cave
burial at Ofnet in Bavaria (ia>. The section in the cave
shows fallen blocks at the base with dolomitic sand
lying about them; on this sand rests an Aurignacian
layer, then a Solutrean and then an Upper Magda-
lenian; on this latter is found an Azilian layer, which
in turn is covered with Neolithic and recent deposits,
 MESOLITHIC TIMES

21

Here two shallow pits or nests that penetrated into, but
of course had nothing to do with, the underlying Mag-
dalenian layer had been excavated in Azilian times. In
these pits or nests a number of human skulls were found
buried with ochre, but without any trace of the skeletons
that belonged to them. In fact, when the base of the
skulls is carefully examined scratchings and cut lines
can be observed, indicating a carefully executed decapi-
tation. The skulls were deposited in these shallow pits
or nests in concentric circles all facing towards the
setting sun. One nest contained as many as twenty-
seven skulls. The heads were those of old women, young
women and young men; it is stated that as a general rule
the heads of the old women had associated with them
many more necklaces and other objects of ornament
than those of the young women, while the men had none.
In one case, that of a child, with the skull were found
hundreds of shells all placed very close together per-
haps by some grieving parent. The associated industries
comprise Azilian implements, though without the har-
poon and Tardenoisean tools. It is important to note
that though long-headed skulls predominate, a number
of round-headed ones also occur and these show the
further peculiarity that while the forehead is only mode-
rately broad, the back of the skull is exceedingly wide.
The occurrence of a round-headed people is of especial
importance but their exact racial affinity is not yet clearly
known. Another Tardenoisean burial containing round-
headed skulls was found in the cave of Furfooz, in the
valley of the Lesse, Belgium. This was discovered by
Dupont in 1867. The industries associated with the
burial rest on a Magdalenian layer; they are typical and
reindeer bones occur. In Belgium, however, the tundra
fauna continued to exist into early Mesolithic times
 22

MESOLITHIC TIMES

being contemporary with the stag and forest fauna
further south.

Another burial, apparently of Tardenoisean date, has
been found near the mill called Axpea close to Tres
Puntes, Alava(i3), in the vicinity of Vittoria, Spain. In
this case the burial is under a tumulus, which itself shows
evidence for a certain amount of revetment, and stones
gathered in the vicinity have been heaped together. On
excavation the following section was determined: on the
top was a capping of vegetable earth intermixed with
stones, below which occurred a layer of black earth a
foot or two in thickness, under this was found another
layer of clay full of stones, which rested directly on a
natural limestone bottom. As there was a slight de-
pression in the limestone at the spot chosen by Tarde-
noisean man, the total height of the tumulus above the
general level of the ground was not more than about
a yard. All the archaeological finds came from the black
layer lying between the upper turfy layer and the under-
lying clay with boulders. No complete skulls but a
number of human remains were found, as well as frag-
ments of oxen. Lower jaws of at least five adult indi-
viduals and the fragment of the jaw of a child were
observed. In these jaws there were still a number of teeth.
Besides as many as 159 isolated teeth, some of them from
upper jaws, were found. Flint tools, comprising knife
blades and typical little geometric flints, as well as traces
of ochre, were collected, also little pierced beads made
from fragments of shell. In spite of the fact that one or
two scraps of a sort of vague pottery, of very poor manu-
facture, were also observed, the industries point defi-
nitely to a latish Tardenoisean culture.

Another important site—of late Tardenoisean date,
at earliest, as the trapeze occurs—is in the marshy valley
 MESOLITHIC TIMES

23

of Mughem (i4) near the Tagus. There are several tumuli,
the most important being that called Cabejo d’Arruda.
This consists of an oval tumulus 7 metres high built on
ground rising some 5 metres above the level of the
marshy land around; its longer diameter is about 100
metres, its shorter 60 metres. The contents of this hil-
lock include shells, chipped flints, cinders and frag-
ments of stone, as well as human skeletons. The shells,
which are those of Lutraria compressa, Tapes, a small
variety of Cardium, Ostrea, Buccinum, Nucula, Pecten
and Solen, are only found to-day by the salt water far
away. Clearly, then, when the folk lived at Mughem the
sea was there, though to-day it is over twenty-five miles
away and the land has risen considerably. The fauna
includes stag, sheep, horse, pig, and dog, etc.; the
industry, which is poor and rare, consists of small flakes,
pigmies, the trapeze and rough bone awls. A small
pebble pierced for suspension and possibly used as an
ornament was also found. A little very poor pottery
occurred, but only in the top layers of the mound. The
industries, and the fauna alone, might suggest a Kitchen
Midden Age and culture, but the considerable earth
movement that has since taken place would argue for
a slightly earlier, i.e. Tardenoisean, date.

As regards the famous “Grenelle” human remains,
found in the alluvium near Paris in 1870,. no accurate
data as to the find exist, and it is not safe to base any
theory on a find of human remains when the exact age
is quite uncertain. Another burial under tumulus,
where quantities of small pigmies occurred, but this
time associated with cremation, has been described by
L. Abbot as found near Sevenoaks.
 24

MESOLITHIC TIMES

ASTURIAN CULTUREds)

The Asturian culture has only comparatively recently
been recognised. It has been so named by its discoverer,
Conde de la Vega del Sella, from the Province in North
Spain where it was first noted, and where its occurrence
is so plentiful. The remains of this culture consist
apparently of kitchen middens or dust-bin rubbish
thrown away into convenient caves, and is formed
mainly of tests of shell-fish, which have been cemented
together by stalagmitic growth into a compact deposit.
A small industry has been determined including a new
type of tool or pick made by roughly pointing a hard
river pebble, but leaving its under-surface entirely un-
trimmed (see Plate i, fig. 2). Smooth, round pebbles,
probably used as rubbers or sometimes as hammer stones,
also occur, as well as a few bone borers and two or three
stag’s tines pierced with a hole, differing from, though
vaguely recalling, a simple form of Palaeolithic “ bSton.”

But in spite of the occurrence—literally in hundreds
—of this new type of tool, the industry of the Asturian
culture is not its most interesting feature. Many of the
caves into which this rubbish was thrown already con-
tained Palaeolithic deposits, and it has thus been possible
to determine accurately the stratigraphical sequence.
The Asturian industries are always resting on, and
therefore younger than, layers containing typical Azilian
tools; it is clear, therefore, that it was only in post-
Azilian times that these masses of shells and rubbish
were thrown into the caves or rock shelters, until they
often became nearly filled up with the material. Sub-
sequent denuding action has in many cases removed the
greater part of this Asturian rubbish, but patches of
midden material adhering to the ceilings and in crannies
 MESOLITHIC TIMES

25

high up on the walls of the caves attest the fact that the
original heaps were much greater in volume even than
those that still exist; and when one considers the enor-
mous mass of material still to be seen in such a cave as
La Franca, it is necessary to postulate either a very large
or very greedy population, which is not likely, or the
lapse of a very considerable time during which these
folk were living on shell-fish in North Spain.

As has been said these middens consist mainly of
tests of shell-fish, but the following fauna oS) has been
observed by the Count in the course of his investigations:

Capella rupicapra (chamois)2 Mustela putoris (pole-cat)
Lutra vulgaris (otter)   Males iaxus (badger)

Cams vulpes (wolf)   Felts catus (wild cat)

Lepus timidus (hare)

The shell-fish are of the following species:

Patella, both medium and small size (very common)
Trochus lineatus (very common)

Cardium edule (very common)

Nassa reticulata (frequent)

Tuberculata atlantica (rare)

Mytilus edulis (rare)

Ostrea edulis (frequent)

Triton nodiferus (frequent)

Echinus (very common)

Cancer pagurus (frequent)

Portunus puber (very common)

Two species of land molluscs, viz.:

Helix nemoralis and Helix arlustorum

FAUNA

Equus caballus (horse)
Sus scrofa (pig)

Capra pyrenaica (izard)1

Bos (ox)

Cervus elaphus (red deer)1
Cervus capreolus (roe deer)

1   Existed in historical times in North Spain.

2   Exists to-day in the Picos de Europa.
 26

[Prometheus]

MESOLITHIC TIMES

A study of the fauna is important as giving us a clue
to the climatic conditions and possibly to the period to
which this culture should be assigned. It will be noticed
that whereas on the one hand Littorina shells, common
in Palaeolithic deposits, and on the other Mytilus edulis,
common in deposits of true Neolithic or Copper Age,
hardly occur, the typical shell of these Asturian rubbish
heaps is the Trochus. This is very significant, for Littorina
litorea is found to-day in the Atlantic and not in the Medi-
terranean, while the Trochus occurs in both. This latter
shell is therefore a more warmth-loving mollusc than
the Littorina. As to-day both occur in the sea off the
north coast of Spain and the Littorina is not found in the
middens, it follows that the climate of Asturian times was
probably rather warmer than that of Asturias to-day.
Again, the occurrence of a large number of Helix nemo-
ralis shells in the upper layers of the midden would
seem to indicate that damp conditions set in towards
the end of this time. It has been claimed that the climate
during the Kitchen Midden period in Denmark was
also rather warmer than that of the same region to-day,
an indication perhaps of the contemporaneity of the
Asturian and Kitchen Midden cultures. The absence,
however, of the Campignian axe and other tools typical
of the kitchen middens of the Baltic area shows that we
are not by any means dealing with one and the same
culture, and this is further attested by the absence of
pottery or of any kind of domestic animal in the
Asturian remains.

The distribution of this culture has not yet been fully
determined; it certainly occurs eastward of Asturias at
Biarritz and as far away as Catalonia; possibly, also,
there is a hint of it in the north of France.
 MESOLITHIC TIMES

27

MAGLEMOSEAN CULTURE

The focus of the Maglemosean culture is undoubt-
edly Denmark and the coasts of the Baltic. Although
isolated finds have been discovered as far south as near
Boulogne, as far east as Finland1 and in south-east
Yorkshire to the west, this culture was distinctly re-
stricted in its distribution.

Danish prehistorians are apt to divide the prehistoric
periods of their country into an Older and a Newer
Stone Age. This is perhaps a little unfortunate, as, to
the average student of Western Europe, the Old Stone
Age refers to Palaeolithic times, and nothing definitely
Palaeolithic has been demonstrated with certainty from
the Baltic areas. Old Stone Age in Denmark refers not
to the Palaeolithic but to Mesolithic industries and
includes the Maglemosean and Shell Mound cultures,
while the Danish New Stone Age comprises everything
post-Shell Mound in date and earlier than the intro-
duction of metal into the country. As this introduction
took place very late in Scandinavia, the Danish New
Stone Age includes cultures that we should class as true
Neolithic, as well as others of rather later date, where,
though the industries are still made of flint and stone,
the culture has been influenced by and coincides in
date with the Copper Age cultures of more favoured
lands elsewhere in Europe, where ores of this metal had
been early discovered.

Before considering the various Mesolithic industries
of the Baltic area, a word or two must be said as to the
geological conditions. During most of the Palaeolithic
Period, except perhaps during the long warm Inter-

1 Also certainly in Poland (19).
 MESOLITHIC TIMES

28

Glacial interlude corresponding to Penck’s Mindel-
Riss, Scandinavia, lying so far to the north and com-
prising high mountainous areas, was covered with im-
mense ice sheets. During the last phase of glacial
activity the southern border of this ice sheet ran roughly
through the middle of Mecklenburg and the northern
provinces of Germany, where the remains of its terminal
moraine can still be traced. The presence of this im-
mense ice sheet had profoundly affected the climate of
the area generally; England, especially East Anglia,
was long under its influence, and much of the difficulty
in correlating English Quaternary chronology with that
of areas further south must be attributed to the fact that
the ice sheets of Scandinavia did not allow such small
changes of temperature to manifest themselves as was
the case further south; for, except perhaps during the
Mindel-Riss Inter-Glaciation, East Anglia had little in
the way of warm Inter-Glacial periods. The anti-cyclonic
influence of a great ice mass as far south as Scandinavia
must have been considerable. Again, the weight of
such an ice mass has to be remembered; the earth’s
crust is by no means solid and even to-day Scandinavia
is not a completely stable area. It is demonstrable that
the peninsula is not unlike a gigantic seesaw, the south
sinking, the north rising about a central stable line, and
that this movement is as much as several inches a cen-
tury. With the post-Glacial changes of climate the ice
sheet began rapidly to retreat and the shores of the
Baltic for the first time for many a century lay open for
mankind to inhabit. Owing to the depression in the
earth created by the ice mass, when the ice retreated
from the Baltic area a great sea known as the Yoldia Sea
was exposed, open to the north and to the west by wide
channels connecting it with both the Arctic Ocean and
 MESOLITHIC TIMES   29

with what is now the North Sea. But the removal of the
ice pressure rapidly led, through isostatic movements,
to an elevation of the area. The Baltic became a lake,
completely cut off from both the Arctic Ocean and the
North Sea; this lake is known as the Ancylus Lake from
a small shell then abundant therein. It was at this
period that pines were especially numerous, and it is to
this time and just after it that the Maglemosean culture
in question must be assigned. But just as a pendulum
swings so far and then swings back, so the land under-
went another depression which opened a wide channel
from the Ancylus Lake to the North Sea, though it was
not sufficient to reopen any connection with the Arctic
Ocean. The new sea thus formed is named the Littorina
Sea from the abundance of the shell Littorina litorea
therein contained. By now the pine had, for the most
part, been replaced by the oak and the Maglemosean
culture by that of the Kitchen Middens. Thereafter a
further slight elevation took place, but not sufficient to
close the connection with the North Sea, a connection
which, though much reduced, still exists to-day through
the “Belts.” The oak then gave place to the beech and
the birch, and the Shell Mound or Kitchen Midden
industries to those of the true Neolithic and later cul-
tures.

The geologist, therefore, has enabled the prehis-
torian to obtain a fairly definite stratigraphical sequence
for these early Baltic cultures. The presence of the pine,
as well as of Ancylus fauna including the pine partridge,
a bird never found far removed from pine forests, de-
monstrates conclusively the Ancylus Age for the Mag-
lemosean culture, while the occurrence of the Shell
Mound industry in association with the oak at a slightly
later date shows us that this Kitchen Midden culture
 MESOLITHIC TIMES

30

must be assigned to the Littorina period1. That the
kitchen middens are later in date than the Maglemosean
finds can be also proved on typological grounds, for
some tool types which were abundant in Maglemosean
times are also found in the lower layers of the shell
mounds or kitchen middens, though not in the upper
layers. They cannot therefore have had their origin in
Shell Mound times and been passed on to a Magle-
mosean folk at a later date.

The earliest evidence for the presence of mankind
in the Baltic area consists of three or four roughly made
bone picks or, more properly speaking, hafts made of
reindeer antler. Unfortunately the finds are isolated
and there is no stratigraphy and but little detail is avail-
able as to the circumstances of their discovery. But as
antler tools of Maglemosean and Kitchen Midden times
are always made of stag’s antler, it is reasonable to pre-
sume that these few examples were left by some earlier
hunters who had drifted up from the south at a time
when the country was hardly yet habitable. Following
on this scanty evidence come the rich finds of Magle-
mosean date, and these in turn are replaced in certain
areas by the culture of the Shell Mounds or Kitchen Mid-
dens. It would seem that the old Maglemosean culture
continued to survive in certain parts of the hinterland
of the Baltic area developing on its own even well into
true Neolithic times, unaffected by contact with the
more highly developed cultures of the coast. It is very
probable that the so-called Arctic culture is nothing
more nor less than the continued development of the
old Maglemosean culture, with possible additions from
the Shell Mound times.

1 In some regions such as Finland the Maglemosean continued to
exist right into the period of the oaks.
 MESOLITHIC TIMES   31

The Shell Mound folks under influences from the
south-west developed the idea of the megalithic tombs,
while the so-called “comb pottery” was introduced
from the north-east. The true Neolithic industries then
arose. These will be dealt with in the chapter on the
Northern and Western Areas.

The type station of the Maglemosean Mesolithic
culture is in the Maglemose or great bog of Mullerup,
on the west of the island of Zealand (16).

Another site of very considerable importance has been
discovered in the south of Zealand at Svaerdborg(i7)
where the section is as follows: At the base is found
a thin layer of sand which is covered by shelly mud; on
this shelly mud but under two distinct overlying peat
layers rests the Maglemosean industry, its strati-
graphical position being perfectly definite and clear.
The two overlying peat layers are in their turn covered
by the grass and humus of the modern heath land.
These Zealand heaths are dry in summer but, especially
in their lower areas, tend to become waterlogged in a
wet winter, and correspond closely to some of the drier
Irish bogs. They were evidently formerly lakes which
have been filled in. Thus at Svaerdborg the bottom layers
are of sand and shelly mud, and to-day the site is but
little above sea level. The Maglemosean folk seem to
have lived on the banks of these lakes, or even on rafts
of some sort in the shallow water at the margin.

The Maglemosean industries, in the various sites

1 It is obvious the name Maglemosean or “Great Bogian” given to
this culture is far from sensible. If a type station name must be given
to the culture, it would be much more reasonable to call it Mullerupian.
Still as the name Maglemose has come definitely into the literature of
the subject and prehistorians have learnt to understand what is meant
by it, it would be difficult or well-nigh impossible to introduce any
new term.
 MESOLITHIC TIMES

32

which have been excavated, are not absolutely uniform.
For example, Svaerdborg has yielded innumerable small
pigmy tools, whereas only a few examples of them have
come from the type station of Mullcrup itself. When
describing the industry, therefore, it must be remem-
bered that the results of the diggings in various sites are
here combined.

The tools fall readily into two groups: first, those
made from flint, and secondly, those made from bone
or antler. The material used for the latter was generally
obtained from the stag, although elk and roe buck, etc.,
were sometimes used. Shed antlers were usually utilised.

flint tools (Plate 4)

Flint tools include pigmies, scrapers (both core and
on flakes), picks, a small number—not at all typical—
of a tool known as the Campigny axe which is found
abundantly in the kitchen middens and will there be
described.

The pigmies recall those of the Tardenoisean culture
but, as has been said, this is not surprising in view of the
fact that for a composite tool only certain shapes are
really convenient; they include triangles, generally
rather elongated and of scalene form, one short and one
long edge being carefully blunted, the other long edge
being left sharp. The uses and methods of hafting these
little tools will be discussed later. We also have to note
little blunted backs, lunates and blunt-ended flakes with
little notched shoulders. One beautifully made, finely
pointed shoulder point from Holmegaards Mose may be
noted. Nothing particular need be said as to the
scrapers. They are of the usual kind and range from a
rough core and a sort of keel-scraper to fine scrapers on
the end of blades. Round oval scrapers are also found.
 MESOLITHIC TIMES

33

Plate 3 (for legend and description, see p. 34)-

B

3
 34

MESOLITHIC TIMES

LEGEND AND EXPLANATION OF PLATES 3 AND 4

Plate 3 shows examples of Maglemosean bone tools, often decorated. A typical
harpoon is figured as well as an antler adze or haft—that an adze not an
axe was desired is clear from the direction of the round hafting hole.
Most of the decoration is purely geometric, but that on the bone
spatula to the right of the harpoon probably represents conventionalised
human beings. The two amber figurines alas have no provenance, but
very possibly belong to this Maglemose culture.

Plate 4 shows examples from Svaerdborg. Note, on the left, the pigmy
tools so common at this site, the core below, and alongside it a small
round scraper j on the right the pick, and below it a small edition haftcd
as an adze. The bone tools are important. There is a hafted antler
point, a pierced tooth ornament and a bone point armed along its
sides with small sharp flakes hafted in longitudinal grooves. Such
tools with the flints still in place, attached by a mastic possibly made
from amber, have been found.

The hafting of these pigmy tools—as well as those of the Tardcnoisean
culture—is of interest, and below are two drawings to illustrate how it
was probably done. Naturally the matter is largely conjectural.
 MESOLITHIC TIMES

35

Plate 4 (for legend and description, see p. 34).

5-a
 MESOLITHIC TIMES

36

The picks resemble the Kitchen Midden or Campigny
picks, though as a rule they are considerably smaller in
size. There is nothing particular to mention in regard
to the simple cores and flakes.

ANTLER AND BONE TOOLS (Plate 3)

The most typical tool of the culture, a small, narrow
harpoon barbed on one side, is contained in this series.
The barbs vary in number from one near the point to
many along one side of the shaft. It is the “type fossil”
of the Maglemosean industries, and does not survive
even in a modified form into Shell Mound or Kitchen
Midden times, except perhaps in one single instance at
Havelse Ros, Kildefjord, where a few harpoons have
been unearthed apparently of very early Kitchen Midden
Age, though with their enormous coarse barbs they have
very little likeness to the slender, beautifully worked
true Maglemosean harpoon. Bone points, occasionally
eyed when they become needles, have been discovered,
as well as various forms of fish hook. The bone points
themselves were doubtless used as awls and are often of
considerable size. They were easily made, a suitable bit
of bone or antler being merely rounded and pointed, no
attempt being made to form anything like a regular
needle. The fish hooks are sometimes V-shaped; some-
times one limb is longer than another, thus (-/)• One
of the most interesting bone tools consists of a bone
point grooved along its length, sometimes only on one
side of the stem, sometimes on both; in these grooves
attached by some suitable mastic, possibly manufactured
from amber, were laid little flint flakes or pigmy tools;
specimens have been actually found with the flints still
in position. They must have made very efficient lance
points or darts, the end of the bone forming the point
 MESOLITHIC TIMES

37

and the row of sharp flint flakes giving either a single
or double edge to the weapon. These very delightful
tools survive in the base of the shell mounds, as is proved
by their being found at Kasemose. Bone chisels are of
common occurrence and there is little of importance to
remark about them. They are made on a long bone, the
end of which has been carefully rounded and sharpened.
In some cases they approximate rather to the polishers
or spatulae of Palaeolithic times than to actual
chisels.

The most numerous and perhaps the most character-
istic objects in the Maglemosean industries are the
pierced antler tools and hafts. In general a portion of
antler is chosen, usually about two inches in diameter
and seven or eight inches in length; it is selected from
near the thickened base of an antler, thereby ensuring
considerable strength even when the hole is pierced for
hafting purposes. It is very rare for a piece of antler to
be prepared by being cut off at both ends, and so with-
out a natural thickened base, though this method, on the
other hand, is in common use in the Shell Mound period
of a later date. At this point we must differentiate two
uses: in the first the portion of the antler is itself the
tool, in the second it is only the haft in which a small
stone is inserted as the working edge. In both cases,
however, the antler in question was itself hafted, pos-
sibly on a wooden staff, as is proved by its being pierced
by a more or less rounded hole. It is important to note
the direction of this hole relative to the working edge
either of the antler, when it is itself the tool, or of the
stone hafted into an oval hole scooped out at the end of
the antler. Where the direction of the hole is parallel
to the working edge, the tool, when hafted, is an axe.
Where, on the other hand, the direction of the hole is
 MESOLITHIC TIMES

38

at right angles to the working edge, the tool is an adze.
This will be clearly seen on reference to Plates 3 and 4.
It is interesting to note that in Maglemosean times the
adze is a far commoner tool than the axe, while later,
in Shell Mound times, the axe is more frequently
found.

[Prometheus]

Animals’ teeth pierced for ornament are not unknown,
and the Maglemosean hunter was not averse to a certain
amount of decoration. His bone tools are often orna-
mented with a series of fine engraved lines and punctua-
tions forming geometric patterns, such as zigzags,
lozenges and the like. More or less naturalistic figures
of animals have been found in Jutland, and in at least
one instance it is interesting to recognise conventionalisa-
tion of the human form as a decorative motif (Plate 3).
Several rough little sculptures of animals carved in
amber have also been collected, and, though there is no
absolute certainty as to their date, Danish prehistorians
are inclined to class them as Maglemosean w. It must
always be remembered that accurate dating is by no
means easy; the Maglemosean industries are found
near the surface, and we are not dealing with a simple
state of affairs, such as a Palaeolithic cave deposit com-
pletely sealed in by stalagmite!

The general distribution of this culture has already
been given, attested by the discovery of the typical har-
poon in the various regions. As regards south-east
Yorkshire, not only were two typical harpoons found, but
also a small stone industry, and it is possible that some
of the apparently early pigmy tools found on the surface
of East Anglia generally will have in the end to be
assigned to this culture.

The origin of the Maglemosean folk remains to a
certain extent a mystery. If we except the one or two
 MESOLITHIC TIMES

39

finds of reindeer bone, already mentioned, that seem to
have been left by chance by some still earlier hunter,
Maglemosean man was the first inhabitant of Denmark,
southern Scandinavia, and the Baltic area generally.
Like the Tardenoisean he was aware of the advantages
of a composite tool, but there is no reason for inter-
relating the two cultures. The occurrence of a certain
amount of art might suggest Upper Palaeolithic con-
nections, but, except in one or two instances found in
Jutland, the absence of well-drawn naturalistic figures
would militate against there having been any connection
with the Magdalenians of France. On the other hand,
if we turn to the Upper Palaeolithic of Moravia, a
region where Magdalenian man does not seem to have
penetrated though his influence was undoubtedly felt, we
find an Aurignacian culture developing on its own lines,
contemporary in part with the French Magdalenian
culture but exhibiting a different art which has perhaps
slightly greater affinity to the Maglemosean. Should
future investigations demonstrate that this is the case
we should have to consider the Maglemosean culture
as being a child of the Upper Palaeolithic culture of
eastern and central Europe, driven north-west into the
still inhospitable, but now ice-free, area of the Baltic by
the pressure of the on-coming true Neolithic folk who
were themselves slowly advancing from Central Asia
probably forced thence by the ever-increasing drought
of regions that had previously been so suitable for human
development. It may be noted that industries similar
to the Maglemosean have been recognised in Poland(i«>).

No burials of Maglemosean date have been noted, but
lately some skeletal remains have been found in the
peat, including a lower jaw, said to show Palaeolithic
affinities.
 40

MESOLITHIC TIMES

KITCHEN MIDDENSW

Under the old classification Kitchen Middens or
Shell Mounds are described as belonging to the Neo-
lithic Period because a certain amount of pottery is found
in them, and, although other domestic animals are for
the most part absent, the dog is common. However,
actually in the field, it is not easy to distinguish between
the Maglemosean and the Kitchen Midden industries,
and the close affinity that exists between the two cultures
cannot be too strongly urged.

The shell mounds or kitchen middens consist, as
their name implies, of masses of shell-fish and other
kitchen refuse that has been cast aside by man; they are
glorified dust bins. These masses have become cemented
together and form to-day veritable hillocks, often cover-
ing immense areas. They have been known to measure
as much as ioo yards in length by 50 in breadth by
1 yard high. The quantity of shell-fish consumed by
these primitive folk, who seem to have largely subsisted
on this diet, is prodigious. The industries (Plate 5)
obtained from the shell mounds include, as in the case
of the Maglemosean culture, both stone and bone tools,
but in this case we also have a poorly formed pottery
made of an inferior coarse paste. The pots are commonly
cylindrical, with rounded, or sometimes pointed, bases,
and expand slightly at the top to form a rim. The stone
industry includes the typical transverse-edge arrowhead
and the Campigny axe (Plate 5, b or Plate 11, no. 12
and Plate 5, c). The latter is formed on a piece of flint or
split stone pebble by squaring the sides, removing a
large flake at one end and so obtaining a cutting edge
by the intersection of this flake with the flat under-sur-
face of the piece of flint or split pebble. As has been
 MESOLITHIC TIMES

4i

of a Shell-mound.   From Guden River.

Plate 5. Examples of pottery and tools from the kitchen middens and shell

mounds.
 MESOLITHIC TIMES

42

noted, only two or three examples at most, and these
only approximating to this type, have been found among
the Maglemosean industries, but they are very common
in the shell mounds. As always, scrapers, both core and
on flakes, are common, and some very fine examples
made on the ends of blades have been discovered. Neo-
lithic picks are also common (Plate 5, a) and range from
comparatively large examples down to small fine tools,
so beautifully chipped that at first sight they almost
recall Proto-Solutrean laurel leaves. Awls, often of the
Campigny type with irregular trimming up the point,
may be noted, sometimes small in size, sometimes com-
paratively coarse and large. Small fine examples are
sometimes made at the concave or bevelled end of a
blade, thus forming as it were the two horns of a scooped-
out crescent, sometimes the awls are long and medial,
somewhat resembling the base end of a “Font Robert”
point if broken in half. Cores, both small and of im-
mense size—recalling those found at various sites near
Lihge, Belgium—and flakes occur in any quantity, as
well as hammer stones and rough chopping tools. So-
called “fabricators” are not infrequent, as well as little
transverse-edge arrow points with carefully squared
blunted sides, and the trapeze pigmy tool. Polished or
ground tools have not been found, except occasionally
at the extreme top of shell mounds (and therefore at the
very end o'f the period) where a few examples have been
observed doubtless heralding the beginning of the true
New Stone Age of Denmark.

The bone or antler industry, made, as in Magle-
mosean times, mainly from stag’s antler, includes awls
and chisels, and especially the type, already described
under the Maglemosean antler industry, where a portion
of antler is taken, pierced for hafting, and one end pre-
pared either for use itself as a working edge or for the
 MESOLITHIC TIMES

43

hafting of a stone tool. In the shell mounds it is the axe
rather than the adze that seems to have been commonly
required, as is attested by the direction of the hafting
hole through the portion of antler relative to the working
edge of the tool. Although, as before, Shell Mound
man usually prepared a portion of antler at the base of
a tine where it thickens, so as to ensure strength for the
hole pierced for hafting, yet we now often find that he
deemed it sufficient merely to cut off a portion of antler
at both ends and to use this for his purpose (compare
on Plate 5, d and e). Front teeth of animals carefully
ground and prepared to form gouges may be noted,
and the very rare survivals into Shell Mound times of
a coarse form of Maglemosean harpoon, as well as of
the bone points fitted with flakes along their sides, has
already been noted. The use of wood for hafting pur-
poses is not only inferred but proved by the actual
finding of examples with the stone tools still attached to
their wooden hafts. Coming to objects of decoration,
etc., we note something of the nature of small combs
from at least one site, as well as a few pendants. Orna-
mentation in the form of a lozenge pattern in fine en-
graved lines has been observed on an antler haft, but art
as a whole is far less common in Shell Mound than in
Maglemosean times. We are dealing with a rich, if
primitive, culture, though mainly that of the hunter.
In spite of the presence of pottery the sickle has not been
found, therefore agriculture, if practised at all, was
extremely rare. Again, domestic animals are repre-
sented almost entirely by the dog, and polished tools
are absent. Perhaps the nearest analogous culture was
that of the Strandloopers of South Africa, who, like
these northern folk, lived mainly near the coast and
subsisted almost entirely on shell-fish.

Burials in the kitchen middens are not unknown.
 MESOLITHIC TIMES

44

The body is often found simply laid out full length,
though sometimes it is outlined, as it were, by a few big
stones placed round it at intervals. Nothing in the
nature of careful ceremonial burial has been observed.

A comparison of the Maglemosean and Shell Mound
cultures would not be out of place at this point. It
should be observed in passing that whereas shell mounds
are common in Jutland and rare in Zealand, exactly the
opposite is the case for the Maglemosean industries.
Again, it would appear that Shell Mound folk lived
exclusively by the coasts, whereas this was not neces-
sarily the case with regard to their Maglemosean fore-
runners. It is true that shell mounds are often found
to-day far from the sea shore, but this can be explained
by the fact that the level of the land has changed so that
mounds that once were close to the sea are now far in-
land; in flat areas like Denmark very small changes in
the relative levels of land and sea will cause very great
differences in the position of sites. Perhaps some of the
connections and differences between the two cultures
can be best expressed in condensed form.

The bone points studded longitudinally with flakes that
flourish in the Maglemosean times only just survive into the
base of the shell mounds. On the other hand, the transverse-
edge arrow heads with small square blunted sides appear very
rarely, or not at all, in the earlier industry, but flourish in Shell
Mound industries and even survive into true Neolithic times.
Again, the adze is common in the Maglemosean tools and the
axe considerably rarer, whereas in Shell Mound times the exact
opposite is the case, the axe being by far the more usual tool.
Antler hafts, cut off at both ends, as already described, are ex-
tremely rare in Maglemosean sites, though this was a common
mode of preparing the tool among the Shell Mound folk. Then
the typical Maglemosean harpoon disappears with this culture
and, practically speaking, no harpoon of this kind is found in
 MESOLITHIC TIMES

45

the kitchen middens. Finally the trapeze form of pigmy tool
only appears with the coming of the Shell Mound culture,
though it survives well into true Neolithic times.

Enough has been said to show that these two cultures
are distinct, although there is a close affinity between
them, and for anyone who has studied the two on the
spot it is impossible to separate them as belonging to
two totally different civilisations.

An industry, said to be of intermediate type and date,
has lately been recognised near Gothenburg in south-
western Sweden, and certain pigmy finds—though
including trapezes—from by the Guden River in Jut-
land also seem to belong to a very late Maglemosean
stage of culture in course of transition to Shell Mound
types.

The extent of the Kitchen Midden culture is not
easy to determine with certainty, as, though different,
there seems to be close connection between it and the
Campignian of Western Europe, which it will be our
next business briefly to describe. The origin of the Shell
Mound culture is also unknown, although one might
perhaps hazard a guess that the Maglemosean on the
one hand and the Campignian on the other both had
a share in its formation.

An allied culture, doubtless derived from the same
stock as that of the shell mounds, occurs in Norway.
It survived late, there being admixture with polished
celts. Rock rather than flint is preferred for toolmaking.
The name Nostvet—a site near Oslo—has been sug-
gested for this culture.

CAMPIGNIAN CULTURE

The Campignian is another of these Mesolithic cul-
tures that, under the old classification, was classed as
 MESOLITHIC TIMES

46

early Neolithic owing to the presence of coarse pottery
and a few rare examples of domesticated animalsx.

The type stations of Campigny are to be found near
the little town of Blangy-sur-Bresle, not far from
Bouillancourt-en-Sery in the Department of the Seine-
Inferieure(2i). The site consists of a number of land
habitations in the form offonds de cabanes 2. The pits are
oval in shape and vary in size, being sometimes as much
as 5 yards in the longer diameter. The following section
is vouched for by M. Capitan. At the base a clayey
chalk, above which occur gravels containing mammoth
bones. The huts are hollowed in this gravel and at the
bottom of them were found the cinders and charcoal of
a Campignian hearth. Above these cinders was a yellow
sandy loam infilling, containing Campignian tools. On
the top was modern humus containing, it is stated, a few
polished stone tools. Should the section really be as here
given, it will be noted that the Campignian is strati-
graphically post-Quaternary and earlier than the true
Neolithic, as attested by the presence of polished stone
tools in the overlying humus. The industries themselves
comprise the Campignian axe already described, as well
as the pick and transverse-edge arrow head. There are

1 A number of prehistorians are rather inclined to-day to claim that
the original excavation at Campigny was not well done and that no
proofs for the existence of a separate early culture at this spot can be
made out. This is largely due to the late M. de Morgan, who claimed
to have found a polished celt in a hearth—doubtless derived from the
overlying Neolithic humus! The tools collected at Campigny and the
similar industries found in Belgium, France and elsewhere resemble
those found in the shell mounds, and it is hardly wise to summarily deny
the existence of this Mesolithic culture. All Campigny industries, how-
ever, are not of the same age, survivals occur showing admixture with
more recent objects.

1 For description of fonds de cabanes see chapter 111.
 MESOLITHIC TIMES

47

also rough awls, scrapers, flakes, cores, etc. The rare
finds of one or two burin-like tools probably indicate
a reminiscence of older Palaeolithic times. The fauna
at Campigny consisted only of fragments and species are
difficult to determine, but the ox, the horse, and the stag
have been recognised. The charcoal was examined and
included identifiable remains of oak and ash, as well as
remains of other trees that could not be determined.
Taking the Campignian axe (Plate 5, c) as the type tool,
with perhaps also the large rough awl and the roughly
made pick, the absence of any polished industry or well
made pottery being also a characteristic, the existence
of this Campignian Mesolithic culture can be demon-
strated over large areas of north-western Europe. The
culture was common in Belgium, probably also in our
own country, as well as in the north of France. Further
south in the Mediterranean basin the Campignian is not
so common, because that district is nearer the focus of
the older Tardenoisean culture, which culture seems to
have persisted with little change, except for the intro-
duction of the trapeze and the disappearance of the
burin, until true Neolithic times.

Mesolithic times as a whole are perhaps rather un-
progressive and present scenes of primitive culture little
relieved by either wealth of industries or beauty of art.
But with the arrival of the Neolithic civilisation among
these primitive people a sudden change took place and
cultures containing the germs of many modern develop-
ments soon grew up and progressed rapidly.
 48

MESOLITHIC TIMES

BIBLIOGRAPHY and REFERENCES

(1)   E. Piette, Many articles in L9Anthropologic round about 1895

deal with, his various Pyrenaean excavations. But one of the
best sections at Mas d’Azil that he describes appeared in 1892,
Assoc.fr. pour Pav. des Sc., Congrls de Pau.

(2)   R. Munro. For an excellent brief account of the Scottish Mesolithic

sites, see Prehistoric Britain (Home University Series).

A. H. BrsHOP. “An Oronsay shell-mound....1” Proc. Soc. of Antiq.
of Scotland, vol. XLvm.

(3)   M. C. Burkitt. An illustration of these paintings can be seen in

the Presidential Address to the Prehistoric Society of East
Anglia for 1925. Vol. v, pt 1.

(4)   M. H. Muller. “Une station pateolithique en plein Vercors,

Tunnel de Bobache (Drdme).” Assoc. Jr. pour Pav. des Sc.,
Congtis de Reims, 1907.

----- “Nouvelles fouihes k la station pateolithique de Bobache

(Vercors) ” Soc. d’Anth. de Lyon, 5 Nov. 1910.

(5)   F. Sarasin. “Die steinzeitlichen stationen des Birstales zwischen

Basel und Delsberg.” Nouveaux Mdmoires de la SocUti
Relvitique des Sciences Nature lies. Vol. liv, 1918.

(6)   E. Rahir. UHabitat tardenoisien des Grottes de Remouchamps.

1921.

(7)   H. Breuil and H. Obermaier. “Les premiers travaux de Pln-

stitut de Pateontologie humaine ” VAnthropologic, tome xxm,
1912.

(   G. Patiri. VArte Minuscula paleolitica delP officina Termttana

nella grotta del Gastello in Termini-Interese. 1910.

(9)   L. Lequeux. For the best account of the Belgian Mesolithic

industries see: “Stations tardenoisiennes des vallees del’Ambl&ve,
de la Vesdre et de FOurthe,” Communication made to the
Soc. d’Anth. de Bruxelles, 4 March 1923; “Emplacements
d’habitations tardenoisiennes et objets n^olithiques d^couverts
k Langerloo,” ibid., 26 March 1923; “Industrie tardenoisienne
k Cailloux routes de Vossem (Brabant),” ibid., 28 May 1923.
The preliistoric site at Zonhoven is described in a short work
by M. de Puydt and others called Milanges d*Archdologie
prihistorique and published at Ltege.

[Prometheus]

(10)   F. Buckley. A Microlithic Industry. Privately printed (1921),

Spottiswoode Ltd., Marsden, Yorks.
 MESOLITHIC TIMES   49

F. Buckley. “Yorkshire Graves.” Proc. Prehist. S oc. of E. Anglia,
vol. hi, pt 4, 1922.

------ A Microlithic Industry of tke Pennine Chain. Privately

printed. 1924.

(xi) E. Cartailhac. Les Grottes de Grimaldi. Tome 11, fasc. 2.
1912.

(12)   R. R. Schmidt. “Die Vorgeschichtlichen Kulturen der Ofnet.”

Ber. d. Nat.-Wiss. Fer.f Schwahen u. Neuherg,, 1908, pp. 87-
107. For the question of decapitation see Comte Begouen’s
article in the Bull. Soc. Prihist. Frangaise, 29 March, 1912.

(13)   P. R. de AztiA. “Sepultura tardenoisiense de Axpea.” Bol. de la

Soc. espanola de hist, nat., Dec. 1918.

(14)   E. Cartailhac. Still the best account is probably Les Ages

prdhistoriques de FEspagne et du Portugal, p. 51. r886.

(15)   Vega del Sella. “El Asturiense.” Mem. Num. 32 of Com. de

invest, pal. y prehist. 1923.

(16)   G. Sarauw. “En stenalders boplads i Maglemose ved Mullerup,

sammenholdt med beslsegtede fund.” Aarbfger for Nordisk
Oldkyndighed og Historic, 1903, 11 raekke, 18 bind.

(17)   K. F. Johansen. *“Une station du plus ancien &ge de la pierre

dans la tourbiere de Svaerdborg.” Mim. de la Soc. Roy. des
Antiq. du Nord, 1918-19, published in 1920.

(18)   S. Muller. For Prehistoric decorative art in Denmark Oldtidens

Kunst i Danmark should be consulted—published in 1918.

(19)   L. Kozlowski. See “L’dpoque Mesolithique en Pologne.”

UAnthropologie, tome xxxvi, 1926.

(20)   S. Mtjller and others. For a full description of the kitchen

middens see Ajfaldsdynger fra stenalderen i Danmark, published
in 1900 for the Nat. Museum at Copenhagen.

(21)   L. Capitan. “LeCampignien.” Rev.de V A cole d’Antk. de Paris,

1898.

(22)   C. de M^rejkowsky. “Recherches prdliminaires sur Page de la

pierre en Crimde.” Bull. Soc. russe de geographic, tome xvi, 1880.

B

4
 CHAPTER II

NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION

It is by no means incorrect to employ the term Neo-
lithic Civilisation. The difference between the life and
conditions of the New Stone Age folk and those of their
Palaeolithic forerunners is profound and not in any way
to be compared with the smaller differences that exist
for example between the various Mesolithic cultures.
It will be our first duty, then, to consider what were the
causes that led to this profound change in human life,
and, as far as possible, how these various causes operated.

The most notable additions to human experience
that we discover in Neolithic times are: (x) the practice
of agriculture; (2) the domestication of animals; (3) the
manufacture of pottery; (4) the grinding and polishing
of stone tools, instead of, as formerly, shaping them
merely by chipping.

It will of course be noted that the use of metal was
still unknown among the true Neolithic folk of Western
Europe but, for all that, knowledge of its possibilities
was not far off, especially in areas like the Spanish Penin-
sula where copper ores occur in abundance, and it is
highly probable that in the eastern Mediterranean
metal was in use from very early times indeed, in fact
during most of the period of the Neolithic or New Stone
Age in western Europe.

AGRICULTURE AND THE DOMESTICATION
OF ANIMALS

The influence of agriculture and of domestic animals
on mankind’s outlook on life is fundamental. Instead
 NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION   51

of small groups of men gaining a precarious livelihood
by hunting, we find more or less settled communities
growing up. To a hunting people the fear is ever present
lest the game should fail to return at its usual time, and
lest owing to their inability to store food-stuff for more
than a short time, starvation may overcome them; but
now we find villages with full granaries able to with-
stand difficult seasons. Naturally the difference must
not be forced too far. Crops, like any other gift of
nature, may suffer so severely through successive
droughts and other natural disasters that, as in the case
of the hunters, starvation may overtake the settled com-
munity; but there is much more chance of surviving
such disasters, and of having a store sufficient to tide
over difficult times, in the case of an agricultural people
having flocks and herds, than in the case of mere
hunters.

Agriculture and the domestication of animals not
only engender community life and a relatively safer
existence, but also introduce other changes into man’s
social habits. The change from the life of a small,
sparse, hunting population to that of thickly populated
villages introduces the necessity for a well-regulated
community life. Actions that have little effect on isolated
families may become seriously inconvenient in the com-
paratively crowded conditions of the village. Again the
congregation into communities favours the growth of
specialisation. In Palaeolithic times the man who had
a special talent for chipping flint probably found him-
self promoted to be tool-maker for the party, and doubt-
less had his food hunted for him in return; but com-
munity life not only gives a tremendous impulse to such
division of labour, but the introduction of the new arts
of agriculture and stock-keeping not to speak of the

4-2
 52   NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION

new industry of village-building and repair gives scope
for further specialisation. Again, the possession of crops
and herds, whether owned by the individual, by the
family, or by the community, involves the necessity for
protection which was far less pressing in Palaeolithic
times. The conception of property, now introduced for
the first time in human history on anything like a large
scale, involves automatically the conception of war.
This war may have been, and doubtless largely was, a
war against wild animals, who would be always pre-
pared to prey upon the fat cattle or crops. To even the
village idiot could be assigned the definite work of pro-
tecting the crops from the havoc of birds, as has been
done in rural districts to our own times. But protection
was also required against man himself who was presum-
ably equally ready then, as now, to take somebody else’s
goods for himself if he could get hold of them. A bad
season or two, supplies running low in a given com-
munity, what more natural than that they should at-
tempt to plunder the folk near by in a more favoured
district or possessing larger reserves.

Thus we find the introduction of agriculture and
domestic animals, by necessitating community life,
postulates not only specialisation, which is good for
progress, but also the destructive element of aggression,
and its corollary—defence. But, above all, the harnessing
of nature and the consequent possession of reserves of
food automatically brings into play the Malthusian
Law, and as a result we note a rapid rise in population;
this, in turn, has its natural repercussion both on
specialisation and aggression. In a word the old order of
things is coming to an end in western Europe and the
modern world is being born with all its problems.
 NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION

S3

HUSBANDRY

We are still somewhat ignorant as to the various
crops raised by Neolithic man and his methods of hus-
bandry. Fortunately, however, certain Neolithic vil-
lages were built over the margins of shallow lakes for
purposes of better protection, and a certain amount of
material has been collected from the peat and mud be-
low(o. Investigations have shown that in Switzerland the
small-grained six-rowed barley (Hordeum hexastichum
sanctum) and the small lake-dwelling wheat (Triticum
vulgare antiquorum) were amongst the earliest and the
most important of the various farinaceous crops culti-
vated. After these come the beardless compact wheat
(Triticum vulgare comp actum muticum) and the larger
six-rowed barley (Hordeum hexastichum densum) and
iccasionally its two-rowed relative. With these latter
)ccuf two kinds of millet, the common millet (Panicum
miliaceum) and the Italian millet (Setaria italicd). The
one-rowed wheat (Triticum monococcum), the two-rowed
wheat (Triticum dicoccum), and the Egyptian wheat
(Triticum turgidum) have also been found, but were by
no means general. The oat and the spelt did not appear
till a much later time—well into the Metal Ages—and
rye has not been found. Of course it is not safe to
assume that these crops were sown by Neolithic man
all over Europe. As has been said, our knowledge is
mainly derived from lake dwellings, more especially
those of Switzerland, and these, as will be seen in the
sequel, have but a limited distribution in area and belong
to only one of the several branches into which Neolithic
man can be divided. But in the few Neolithic sites, out-
side the Lake Dwelling areas, where farinaceous seeds
have been collected and permit of study, the results
 54   NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION

indicate a similar state of affairs. Thus at Lengyel (Late
Neolithic), in Hungary, the six-rowed barley has been
noted, as well as the beardless wheat and the one-rowed
wheat. Beardless wheat is also found at Butmir (Late
Neolithic), a site near Serajevo, Bosnia^).

Apples and pears, split and dried, have been ob-
served, also the poppy {Papaver somniferum) and,
although these were no doubt largely collected wild,
the size of the former, at any rate, sometimes suggests
a certain amount of care taken in their cultivation. The
parsnip, carrot, pig weed, walnut and grape were cer-
tainly used, though these again may have been collected
wild. Other berries, such as the raspberry, blackberry,
etc., occurred abundantly wild, and there would be no
need for their cultivation.

Although the staple clothing of Neolithic man was
still made from the skins of wild and domestic animals,
the peat under the old lake dwellings has preserved for
us a certain amount of woven and plaited material indi-
cating the knowledge and use of flax {Linum angusti-
folium); not only for the making of clothes, but also for
other purposes, such as fishing nets, etc.

Three new implements would be necessary for the
agriculturist: the first is a ploughing tool to prepare
the ground; the second is a sickle to harvest the crops;
the third a mortar or milling stone to reduce the grain
to flour. The first of these may have taken the form of
a ground or polished celt mounted adze-wise and used
simply as a hoe, but it is quite likely there was also in
use a wooden plough similar to the primitive pattern that
is still sometimes seen to-day in out-of-the-way parts
of such countries as SpainI. The obvious advantage of

1 Rock carvings depicting ploughs drawn by oxen and directed by
men have been found and belong to the Copper or Bronze Ages
 NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION   55

some harder material for making the share must have
been early realised, and it has been suggested, probably
with truth, that some of the coarsely chipped, roughly
pointed bars of flint or quartzite, such as have been
found at a Neolithic site in the Forest of Montmorency,
North France, were used for this purpose. Some of these
bars are seven to nine inches long by about an inch and
a half broad, and the idea is that they projected slightly
from the end of a short wooden share to which they
were attached. Although most of the strain would, of
course, be borne by the wooden share, the quartzite bar
would to some extent protect it.

Sickles are quite commonly found in Neolithic
stations. They consist of a series of slightly curved,
generally toothed, blades that were hafted lengthways
in a sickle-shaped wooden handle (Plate 12, no. 5).
Even when not toothed they can be identified with
certainty by carefully examining the working edge and
noting how continuous contact with the straw has
produced a peculiar and characteristic polish and shine
on the edge of the flint. The only other phenomenon
in the least comparable to this appearance is the sand
polish produced on flints by desert action. These wooden
sickles, armed with their flint blades, continued in use
even after the general introduction of metal, and they
have been collected, complete with haft, from Egypt.
What may well be such a wooden haft, judging from its
size, can be seen painted on the walls of the rock shelter
at Los Letreros near Velez Blanco, not far from Lorca

(Plate 28, fig. 1). Whether or not these ploughs were solely made of
wood cannot be determined, but an Egyptian example stamped with
the cartouch of Amenophis IV complete with share and coulter—the
former made of hard wood—has lately been found in the tomb of
Ramose, vizier to the Pharaoh.
 56   NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION

in south-east Spain (Plate 30, fourth row). The art in
this rock shelter is of Copper AgeI. It is unlikely that
these sickles would have been represented so large if
they had been made of metal and no longer consisted of
the old wooden haft with flints. For a long time after
metal was introduced it was a very valuable commodity,
and the sickles that are found even in Early Bronze Age
times are comparatively small articles.

The mill consisted of (1) a slab of some hard rock or
sandstone hollowed out to a greater or less extent with
use, the surface being smooth, and (2) a sort of stone
rolling pin with which the actual grinding process was
performed.

In these early times probably nothing was realised
as to the exhaustion of land, and so on, but with all the
country around to choose from it would only be neces-
sary to break up new ground and leave the old
fields fallow for a period, a practice the advisability of
which would be soon learnt by experience, even if the
reason were not understood.

STOCK-RAISING

Considerable controversy has raged as to how far, if
at all, Palaeolithic man had any notion of the domestica-
tion of animals. It is admitted that already in Azilian
times the dog had come to live with man, for remains
have been found at La Tourasse and Obanfe), and in
the kitchen middens of Denmark bones of this animal
have also been found. It is argued by many that certain
engravings on bones of Magdalenian Age from Mas
d’Azil show that horses had already been pressed into
the service of man, as some lines on the heads of the
animals definitely demonstrate the use of a halter. The
1 For description of this group see chapter x.
 NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION   57

opponents of this theory argue that the lines in question
merely denote the muscles of the face and that there is
no proof whatever that they were intended to represent
harness.

At this point it may be well to define what is meant
by the domestication of animals. Domestication is not
the same thing as taming. The young of many wild
animals (especially is this the case with foals) are not
particularly timid in the presence of small encampments
of men, and it is more than conceivable that after the
Palaeolithic hunter had killed a dam for food the foal
might be induced to take up his quarters and become
tamed by his human neighbours. Once tamed there is
no reason to refuse the possibility that he was made to
do a little work in the way of drawing loads and so on,
and for this purpose some form of simple harness made
from reindeer thong would naturally be necessary. But
for true domestication there must be the added factor
of continuous breeding in captivity, and of this there is
no evidence in Palaeolithic times. Nothing in the nature
of a stable has yet been discovered in connection with
the “homes,” and the bones of the animals found in the
deposits, as far as has yet been observed, are those of the
wild species. Long domestication tends to produce new
varieties and a certain thinning and fining in the bones,
and this has not yet been observed in Palaeolithic sites.

[Prometheus]

It is admitted by most students of the subject that
domestication first took place somewhere in the east,
outside Europe, and the suggestion is made that this
discovery had a close connection with the climatic
changes which, as we shall see later in this chapter, were
taking place in Central Asia, where the desert condi-
tions that we find to-day were setting in. There is no
better situation for the first domestication of animals
 NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION

than the oasis. An occasional tame individual would not
give rise to the idea of breeding the species in cap-
tivity for the use of man, but a number of individuals
forced by natural conditions to live near man, and there
breeding normally, might start the notion, which would
then be easily elaborated. An oasis in a country which
was rapidly becoming more and more desert provides
just this natural propulsion. Animals are forced to ap-
proach nearer and nearer to man, who can then with
very little effort tame them and turn them to his uses,
and the natural breeding that results would be noted and
very soon regulated. When we turn to actual sites in
Central Asia, such as Anau in Russian Turkestan(4),
we find that the facts uphold this a ?priori reasoning.
The deposits at Anau date back to very early days in-
deed, possibly corresponding in time to the Upper
Palaeolithic of western Europe, although the culture
there is never earlier than Neolithic. From very early
times there is evidence that a knowledge of domestica-
tion of animals existed and was practised. The most
important species we have to consider in this connection
are sheep, cattle, the pig, and perhaps the horse.

sheep (Plate 6) (5). In the wild state sheep and goats,
both members of the subfamily Caprinae, are extremely
alike and the true sheep (Ovis) has been differentiated,
as such, from its relations when it has skull depressions
in front of the orbits for scent glands and has glands
between the toes of the hind as well as the fore feet.
There exist to-day four types of wild sheep from which
all our modern varieties seem to be descended. The
first of these is the Mouflon (Ovis musimon) (Plate 6,
no. 4). This type has a reddish brown coat with hair
on the top and wool below; there is a dark dorsal band
and the breast and forelimbs above the knee are also
 NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION

59

Plate 6. i. Head of Bos primigenius. The animal had been killed with, a
stone implement. Now in the Sedgwick Museum at Cambridge,
a. Head of a Urial ram.   4. Head of a Moufton ram.

3. Head of a Urial ewe.   5. Head of an Argali ram.
 60   NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION

dark. Around the muzzle and eyes, inside the ears, on
the buttocks and below the knees, the hair is white.
Only the rams carry horns, which normally are curved
backwards and outwards. The infraorbital pit is exceed-
ingly shallow and the tail of negligible length. In
Europe to-day the Mouflon is found in Sicily, Corsica,
Sardinia, and Cyprus (Ovis orientalis); but in western
Asia its varieties occur in Armenia, Persia, and on the
south of the Elburz mountains, the range which bounds
northern Persia and separates it from the Caspian Sea,
running eastwards till it disappears in the sandy wastes
of Russian Turkestan. This type was formerly found
in the early Quaternary deposits of East Anglia and
elsewhere, but seems to have become extinct by the end
of Quaternary times. It is not certain where the Mouflon
was first domesticated, but its descendants do not
appear in the domesticated state in Europe till the very
end of Neolithic, or more accurately, Copper Age times,
when we find them as Ovis aries studeri, the large horned
“Copper” sheep of the pile dwelling deposits of Lake
Bienne, Switzerland.

The second type of wild sheep existing to-day is the
Urial (Ovis vignei) (Plate 6, no. 2). In colour and ap-
pearance it is not unlike the Mouflon, although the
colour is usually lighter, the summer coat being generally
of a fawn shade. The rams have curved horns, and the
ewes also have small goat-like horns (Plate 6, no. 3). The
face pit is larger and deeper than that of the Mouflon.
Representatives of this type range from north of the
Elburz mountains to Tibet. It would seem that this
variety was that first domesticated somewhere east of
the Caspian Sea near the borders of Persia, as at Anau,
and brought to Europe by the Neolithic invaders, for
there seems no doubt that Ovis aries palustris, the
 NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION   61

“Turbary” sheep of the Swiss lake dwellings is its
descendant, belonging to the same race. Its bones, dug
up from the lake deposits, agree substantially with
those found in the later layers of Culture I excavated at
Anau (see chapter iii, p. 85). Later in the Bronze
Age it met and was crossed with the Mouflon, by then
introduced in a domesticated state into western Europe,
and produced among other hybrid forms the four-
horned sheep.

The third type of still existing wild sheep is the
Argali (Ow ammon) (Plate 6, no. 5). In the highlands
of the Pamirs, in the Tien-Shan range, and the Altai
mountains of Central Asia it still provides some of the
most sporting and without doubt fascinating game-
shooting possible. This sheep is of a very considerable
size and is characterised by its long coiled horns. Out-
side Central Asia it no longer exists to-day, but the
Merino and Norfolk Black Face are perhaps our nearest
equivalents and doubtless contain Argali blood. An
Argali-Urial hybrid seems to appear at Anau, but not
until the end of the Neolithic Age. In England a very
large sheep, probably of Argali stock, appears in the
Bronze Age deposits of the Thames alluvium.

The fourth type still existing is the American Big-
horn, but as this seems to have played no part in the
European domestication and is exclusively a develop-
ment of the New World we need not discuss it here.

It will thus be seen that in Neolithic Europe we
are entirely concerned with Ovis dries palustris, the so-
called “Turbary” sheep, which was of Urial stock and
had been domesticated in the region now called Russian
Turkestan and brought to Europe by the Neolithic
invaders of the Eastern Area (see chapter v), who had a
considerable share in the development of the earliest
 62   NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION

cultures of the Swiss lake dwellings, where the bones
of this sheep are abundant in the deposits. Later we
include Ovis aries studeri of Mouflon ancestry. From
deposits of manure found it would seem that during
the winter periods these sheep were kept in stables in
the lake huts and fed on the products of agriculture.
Both these varieties of sheep occurred in various parts
of England during our periods.

goats. One variety of goat (Capra hircus riitimeyen)
has been identified in Switzerland, at Sutz and at
Vinelz.

cattle(6). The Palaeolithic wild ox (Bos primi-
genius) (Plate 6, no. i) continued to exist in Western
Europe all through the changes of climate that took
place at the end of Palaeolithic times. Unlike the bison
this species was able to adapt itself to the new condi-
tions, and in fact the last specimen was killed in the
forests of Germany as late as the Middle Ages. But the
first domesticated cattle that appear in the oldest lake
dwellings of Neolithic date are quite unlike this wild
European form and were almost certainly imported,
possibly from Central Asia. They belong to the species
Bos taurus brachyceros or, as it is more generally called,
Bos taurus longifrons. They had comparatively short
horns thus differing completely from Bos primigenius
(the Urus), as well as being of altogether smaller build.
At a later date, however, crossings took place with the
old European variety, with the result that many hybrids
were introduced. The remains of a hornless variety,
Bos taurus akeratos, have also been found. Though the
raising of cattle was practised in Neolithic times, it did
not reach its height until well into the Early Metal
Ages. As regards the two main species it is interesting
to note, when travelling in Hungary, how the wide
 NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION   63

outspreading horns and big build of the oxen at the
plough proclaim them descendants of the native Urus,
while westwards our patient grazing cattle obviously
owe more to the parentage of Bos taurus longifrons.

pigs. The wild pig existed in Late Palaeolithic times,
and was painted more than once, as for example the
“galloping pig” on the ceiling at Altamira. But the so-
called “Turbary” pig (Sus scrofapalustris), found in the
Neolithic lake dwellings, is a much smaller animal with
comparatively long legs; and once again, if we study the
finds from Anau, we shall discover the origin of this
domesticated form. Sus scrofa domestkus also occurs.

dogs(7>. The dog was the first animal to be domesti-
cated—he naturally is of prime importance to man
for purposes of protection and the herding of flocks.
In Neolithic times we find firstly Cams familiaris palus-
tris, a small variety, possibly of jackal descent. Later,
but still of Neolithic date, are found the bones of Cams
familiaris matris optimae, a larger wolf-like animal, pro-
bably an excellent sheep-dog1. His appearance at a
time when the number of flocks of sheep was increasing
is significant. Canis intermedius, a third type, has also
been found, as well as another wolf-like variety, named
Inostranzewi, that has been collected from Stone Age
sites in Northern Europe and has been recognised at
Lake Bienne in Switzerland.

horses(. The origin of our modern horse has per-
haps given rise to more investigation than that of any
other domestic animal, but it is not intended to discuss
the problem here at any length, as it seems to have
played but a very small part in the life of our Neolithic
forerunners. Perhaps this was owing to the difficulty of

1 What are probably the remains of this dog have been observed at
Anau in Culture 2.
 64   NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION

domesticating it in pre-Metal Ages before effective
bridles with bits could be manufactured. The original
ancestor in Pliocene times was Equus stenonis. Four
varieties are found in Quaternary times which Palaeo-
lithic man seems to have hunted for food and drawn in
the caves. These were, according to Cossar Ewart, the
Steppe Horse (Equus przewalskit), the Plateau Horse
(Equus agilis) including a northern “Celtic" and a
southern “Libyan” variety, the Forest Horse (Equus
robustus), and the fine-limbed Equus sivalensis. Only a
small remnant of these Palaeolithic horses appear to
have survived into Neolithic times, and as domestica-
tion hardly seems to have been practised, their use in
the service of man does not seem to have been general
till the Bronze Age.

Egypt with its rich early cultures and its teeming
wild animal life only managed to domesticate two
animals. The one was the ass, the other was the cat.

POTTERY

The influence of pottery on human existence, although
less startling than that of agriculture and domestic
animals, is by no means negligible. Instead of a frag-
ment of a skull for a drinking cup and other purposes a
new material was introduced that increased the possi-
bility of refinement in the home. Its uses are innumer-
able, as any required shape can be readily obtained.
Further it provides a surface that simply calls for decora-
tion, and it is fairly safe to say that it is not till the
introduction of pottery that we get anything that can
be described as art for art’s sake on a large scale. The
pottery of Middle Minoan times (Middle Bronze Age)
in Crete dates from a moment at the very end of our
period or even outside it, but anyone faced with the
 NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION   65

wonderful decoration of this pottery as seen, for ex-
ample, in the Museum at Candia, is astounded at the
progress in comfort and refinement made by mankind
since Palaeolithic times, and even if we go to the
opposite extreme and examine the so-called Spiral
Meander pottery of some of the first comers into
eastern Europe who had a truly Neolithic civilisation,
we are amazed at the power over their medium and the
skill in decoration displayed. Of course the old Upper
Palaeolithic hunter in the depth of his cave temple
remains unsurpassed in the beauty, skill and naturalism
of his drawing, but it should be remembered that in this
case it was not art for art’s sake but for very definite
utilitarian sympathetic magic purposes. The invention
of pottery did a great deal to promote the use of art,
whether painting or engraving, for decorative purposes.

Many people have claimed that Palaeolithic man
was not without a knowledge of pottery technique, that
is to say, of burning plastic clay to produce a hard sub-
stance. Examples of fragments of so-called pottery have
been cited from a few Palaeolithic sites, especially in
Belgium, but, apart from the fact that the lack of avail-
able evidence necessitates caution when it is remem-
bered how often objects of much later date occur
out of their place in a wrong milieu, the occasional
burning of a piece of clay in the camp or home
fire and the production of a fragment of what might
be described as pottery is by no means impossible.
Before Palaeolithic pottery can be really admitted, un-
deniable finds of intentionally shaped pots or other
objects from Palaeolithic layers must be recognised.
Even a pot shaped out of clay and then sun-dried does
not constitute true pottery and might have been manu-
factured at any moment in man’s history. True pottery
 66   NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION

involves careful and scientific firing of the shaped
material so as to produce a smooth hard object.

Clay, if used alone for pot making, may contract and
crack when fired, or if on the other hand it is too greasy,
although it does not dry and crack, it may fail to keep
its shape when burnt. It was soon found that the clay
material must be mixed with something to render it
porous, so that the steam formed when it is heated may
readily escape. The most usual materials used from
early times were sand or other micaceous matter, and
it was not long before it was discovered that charcoal,
made from burnt wood or bones, is another very useful
substance for this purpose, and that clay with such
admixture produces a pot, which, when fired, has a
surface that can be easily burnished. Most clays natur-
ally contain a small proportion of iron salts in their
composition, and if they are fired in the open hearth
with free access of air these iron salts get oxidised and
the result is a red-coloured pot. If, however, free air
is kept away oxidisation does not take place and the
resulting colour is grey, or, if charcoal has been used
to mix with the clay, black.

It seems that a pot with a smooth surface was always
the ideal, and the early folk of the Danube river basin
obtained this end by using only very carefully prepared
materials containing no hard lumps. The result of this
good paste is a pottery that it is a joy to handle to-day.
But good paste requires a lot of preparation and the
raw material is not always readily obtainable, and so
there followed the invention of what is known as “slip.”
Here the pot is modelled of comparatively coarse
material and allowed to dry. It is then dipped in a thin
paste of the fine material reduced to the consistency of
very thick soup; the fine paste adheres to the coarse
 NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION   67

material of the pot in the form of a thin film; the whole
is then fired. A vessel so made has, as it were, a veneer,
often exceedingly thin, giving it a fine smooth surface,
though underneath it is made of the coarse, easily
obtained paste.

Among modern primitive peoples to-day pots are
shaped not only by hollowing out a ball of clay with the
hand, but also by rolling the clay into a sort of elongated
sausage with which the pot is built up corkscrew wise
by twisting this sausage into concentric rings. This
method, however, does not seem ever to have been em-
ployed by Neolithic man in Europe., The potter’s wheel
was not introduced until well into the Bronze Age.

Nothing will be said here as to the decoration of
pottery in Neolithic and Early Metal Ages, as this will
be treated of separately in chapter iv.

THE GRINDING AND POLISHING
OF STONE TOOLS

The only method employed by our Palaeolithic fore-
runners for the shaping of their stone tools had been
flaking and chipping. In some cases the tool was
formed by chipping off flakes in all directions until the
tool required had been finally fashioned. In other cases
a large flake already removed from a block of flint was
chosen, and this in turn trimmed and flaked to the
required shape. It is obvious that not every kind of
stone is suitable for these operations; a coarse-grained
granite, for instance, will not flake evenly, and it is
almost impossible to produce anything like a satis-
factory edge by chipping alone. Practically speaking,
the only suitable rock is flint as this can be flaked
readily and evenly. Flint is a hydrated silica and is of
common occurrence in chalk where it often occurs in
 68   NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION

[Prometheus]

bands or layers, the formation of which still remains
obscure, although in some cases it is seen to be due to
the action of lowly organisms. The flint, being resistant,
remains when the softer limestone has been weathered
away, and so it is common to find layers of flint covering
large areas where chalk formerly existed but has since
been completely denuded. Flint can be readily flaked
by percussion or by pressure, that is, by striking a blow
or by applying pressure at a given point, so setting
up a fracture system, and thus removing a tiny flake,
leaving a flat flake facet. The intersection of such facets
readily yields a fine edge of extreme sharpness—cer-
tainly as sharp as an ordinary bluntish penknife. Tools
made from flint have however one great disadvantage;
although a sharp edge can be easily obtained it is
exceedingly brittle, and anything like continuous use
for hard or tough work is impossible. Man of the Neo-
lithic civilisation discovered that an edge could also be
obtained by a process of grinding or polishing or both,
and on other materials than flint. The result was the
obtaining of a sharp edge on such rocks as diorite or
even on a fine-grained granite; an edge which had the
quality of toughness as well as sharpness. The method
employed was simple; all that was required was a flat
slab of hard sandstone up and down which the stone
to be sharpened could be worked in exactly the same
way as our own metal chisels are sharpened on a stone
to-day. The importance of this discovery was very con-
siderable, as for the first time carpentry came within
man’s grasp. In former days under the climatic con-
ditions of Quaternary times trees were often scarce, and
Palaeolithic man had little incentive to skill in wood-
work, but with the change of climate and the growth
of forests the utilisation of this readily workable material
 NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION   69

became a matter of great importance. A ground and
polished stone axe was still not very suitable for the
working of hard woods, and such trees were still as a
rule spared from the service of man until metal came
into regular use1; but softer woods, like the fir and the
spruce, are readily amenable to the stone axe. As long
ago as 1879 a number of prehistorians in Denmark
made experiments with Neolithic stone axes and found
that forest fir trees could be felled and worked without
the aid of any other tool, and as late as our own day
there have been primitive peoples who were capable of
manufacturing dug-out canoes of immense length and
beautiful finish without any other than stone tools. But
it must, of course, be remembered that even though
Neolithic man had learnt the advantage of grinding
and polishing an edge on his stone axes, the old method
of flaking was by no means abandoned, and the student
must beware of assigning an implement or an industry
to an older culture simply because of the absence of any
grinding or polishing. Although flint itself is some-
times prepared in this way to obtain a sharp edge, and
although the process of polishing does produce a certain
toughening, yet when a sharp cutting edge on flint was
required it still remained easier and more efficient to
obtain that edge by the older methods of flaking. Grind-
ing and polishing being a slow process, the heavy, rough,
chopper-like tools of everyday life would often be
roughly fashioned from nodular flints by flaking, as it
would hardly be worth while to go to the trouble of
the lengthy process of grinding and polishing. Again,
it must be remembered that for the grinding and

1 Occasionally objects made of oak have been found and perhaps
too some of the piles of the Lake Neuchatel Neolithic villages were made
of this material.
 70   NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION

polishing of tools slabs of sandstone of suitable lengths
were necessary, and that in many areas, as, for example,
in-East Anglia in our own country, sandstone does not
exist naturally. Where this was the case either the
“grind-stone” or the finished article was imported from
elsewhere. As this was a difficult matter in these early
times, when commercial routes were not yet organised,
we often find the curious phenomenon of a ground and
polished axe, become blunt and worn with use, that has
been re-sharpened at a much later date by the older
flaking methods. In the perfectly made ground and
polished tool the whole surface of the object is smoothed
and polished, but there was also a “cheaper variety”
where only the actual working edge was ground and
polished and the body of the tool was formed by the
easier flaking method. Thus it sometimes happens that
the prehistorian has to determine in a given instance
whether the flaking of the tool was prior to or contem-
porary with the polishing, or whether the flaking was
long posterior and of the nature of re-sharpening and
re-shaping; this is by no means always easy.

mines. Raw material for tool-making was, of course,
of the utmost importance, and, roughly speaking, may
be divided into two categories: (i) rocks suitable for
grinding and polishing into axes or celts, and (2) flint
capable of being readily chipped into small sharp knife
blades, awls, scrapers, or into rough, heavy, chopper-
like tools. For the first of these a fine-grained igneous
rock was required, and at Penmaenmawr, Wales, for
example, a quarry site has been discovered where blocks
of the greenish grey rock obtained were first roughly
shaped by flaking processes, until a more or less desired
form was obtained, and then for the most part exported
elsewhere to be finally ground and polished. But the
 NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION   71

occurrence of suitable igneous rock is so common in
certain parts of our own country and in Europe, that
the concentration into definite manufactory sites would
seem to have been hardly necessary. The material was
easy to hand and could be worked up into tools almost
anywhere in these favoured districts. With flint, however,
this is not always the case, and suitable natural deposits
are much less frequent. Again, although flint often
occurs on the surface, washed out of the chalk or left
when the chalk itself has been washed completely away,
the greatest quantity of this material is found in the form
of nodules occurring in bands in the chalk or limestone;
and so, from Neolithic times onwards, there grew up a
flint-mining industry; two or three such mines have
been studied in our own country as well as some abroad.
As we shall mention the most famous of these—Grimes
Graves—in a later chapter, it might be more convenient
to take now a foreign example, such as St Gertrude in
Maestricht(io), south-east Holland, on the borders of
Belgium. Here bands containing flints occur in the
chalk and were reached by means of vertical shafts,
sometimes twenty feet or so in depth, and horizontal
passages communicating with the base of the shafts
were dug out. Blocks of chalk were left at intervals to
hold up the roof of these galleries, which were con-
structed in quite a scientific manner. The implements
employed—the miner’s bag of tools—were naturally
specialised and consisted among other things of picks
made from stag’s antler. The flint was brought to the
surface in the form of large nodules which were at once
roughly worked by flaking processes into the shapes
required; this was, of course, to avoid having to transport
a useless weight of material. When an area served by a
shaft, and its attendant galleries at the bottom, was
 NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION

72

exhausted, the rubbish from these workings was thrown
back into the pits, and to-day at St Gertrude we find
them almost completely filled up with such rejected
fragments.

A pathetic note is struck at a flint mine at Spiennes
in Belgium. A miner seems to have gone into a gallery
with his little son when the roof fell in killing them
both. However, they now have the honour to repose
in a glass case at the National Museum at Brussels.

Neolithic industries will be more particularly de-
scribed in their due place, but in general the reader
should remember that the only tools that have survived
are those that were made from imperishable material,
and that such things as wooden tools have not been
preserved. It is not therefore fair to judge of an industry
or compare it with others when we have only a portion
of that industry remaining. This should be specially
borne in mind in the case of Neolithic civilisation, when
the forest growth around was continually inviting the
use of this abundant and easily worked material.

BIBLIOGRAPHY and REFERENCES

(1)   D. Vi Ollier and others. “Pfahlbauten.” Mitt, der Antiq.

Gesell. in Zurich> Band xxix, Heft 4, 1924.

(2)   M. Hoernes. Die Neolithische Station von Butmir. Vienna, 1895.

(3)   See bibliography (2) at end of chapter 1.

(4)   R. Pumpelly. Explorations in Turkestan, published by the Carnegie

Institution in 3 volumes—the first in 1905, the other two in
1908.

(5)   J* Cossar Ewart. “Domestic Sheep and their Wild Ancestors,”

two papers, one 1913 the other 1914, in the Trans, of the
Highland and Agricult. Soc. of Scotland.

R. Lydekker. The Sheep and his Cousins. 1912.

(6)   R. Lydekker. The Ox and its Kindred. 1911.

J. Cossar Ewart. The animal remains at Nezvstead, incorporated
with A Roman frontier post and its people, by J. Curie, Glasgow,
1911.
 NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION   73

(7)   T. Studer. Article in the Zoologischer Anzeiger, Band xxix,

Heft x, p. 24, June 1905.

(   R. Lydekker. The Horse and its relatives. 1912.

J. Cossar Ewart. “The Multiple Origin of Horses and Ponies.”
Trans, of the Highland and Agricult. Soc. of Scotland. 1904.

(9)   H. Warren. “A Stone-Axe Factory at Graig-Cwyd, Penmaen-

mawr.” Journ. Roy. AntL Inst. vol. xlix, July-Dee. 19x9.
(xo) M. de Puydt. A short account will be found with bibliography
in the Bull. de Plnst. arch, liigeols, tome XL, 1910.

See also Miss Layard. “Excavations on the Neolithic site of
Sainte-Gertrude.” Proc. Prehist. Soc. ^ £. Anglia> vol. v, pt
if 1925.
 CHAPTER III

NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION (contd.)

Having briefly described the Neolithic civilisation
and the effect of certain new discoveries on human
existence, it is now necessary to turn to the climatic
conditions under which Neolithic man lived and then
attempt to trace his origin and describe his homes.

CLIMATE

The various changes of climate that took place in
post-Glacial times have of late been more and more
studied and their importance more and more realised <o.
Mankind was formerly almost completely at the mercy of
climate, and it is not till comparatively recent times that
he has been enabled to exist tolerably under adverse con-
ditions. Post-Glacial changes of climate are undoubtedly
of considerably less intensity and differ to a certain extent
from those of Quaternary times, but none the less they
have played an extremely important role in human
history. In thinking of climate two things must be
remembered: the first is temperature, the second is
humidity. We were most concerned with the former
when considering Palaeolithic times, but it is the latter
to which we must now turn our attention. A warm,
dry climate, for example, is not favourable to forest
growth, which is especially stimulated by a warm, damp
atmosphere. This alone is an important factor in human
history, for even with ground and polished tools man-
kind would hardly be able to make much headway
against the growth of forests as a whole; in fact it will
be seen, when distribution maps for such an area as our
 NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION   75

own country are studied, that clay forest-bearing lands
were not inhabited by Neolithic man. When, however,
these forests dwindled, owing to changes of climate, the
virgin ground would at once be occupied. Neolithic
man had not harnessed nature by means of a steam saw;
to a large extent he was necessarily under her control.
Again, with warm damp conditions would come an
increase of fens and morasses, breeding fever and other
diseases, and although Neolithic man may have been
more resistant to disease than we are to-day, there is no
reason to think that he was any more able to cope with
such a thing as an epidemic of malaria, than the modern
peasant of the north coast of Crete or any other fever-
stricken spot. Neolithic man had no Burroughs and
Welcome’s quinine pills, nor did he possess any paraffin
or the knowledge that a barrel of it poured on a morass
will kill mosquito larvae and so prevent future fever!
Even in our own days we are hardly able to snap our
fingers at nature in respect of disease, and our forebears
had neither the means nor the knowledge for coping
with it.

As has been seen in chapter 1, the Mesolithic Period
was ushered in by a catastrophic change of temperature,
when the climate over large parts of Northern Europe
suddenly became warm and dry and the old almost
Arctic conditions of Upper Palaeolithic times disap-
peared, along with the old fauna. The reindeer left
Germany never to return; everywhere the glaciers with-
drew, in Norway almost to their present limits. Forests
spread rapidly, especially birch and fir, and the water-
levels in lakes shrank back. In this connection the
conditions of the Federsee, a small lake near Buchau
in Wiirttemberg, have been specially studied and it
seems that at this period the water-level was very low
 76   NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION

indeed and only the muddy detritus is found. Bogs
dried up, peat was formed and loess deposited—all
circumstances pointing to a climate probably warmer
and drier in summer than ours is to-day. Towards the
end of this “Boreal” period, as it has been called, oaks
appeared in greater quantities, coinciding with the
sinking of the Baltic Sea and we find ourselves in the
“Atlantic” period when, though still warm, it was very
damp. This, even more than the “Boreal” period, was
the hey-day of the forests of Central Europe. They
flourished exceedingly, and as a result the only human
cultures we find at this time are the peripheral ones of
late Mesolithic type. In drier places firs were predomi-
nant, but the oak and spruce were the main forest trees.
On the alps Rhododendron ferrugineum replaced the larch.
Lake levels rose, bogs increased, so-called “atlantic”
plants like Hereda, Taxus, and Abies spread rapidly and
Weber says the “older” Sphagnum peats were now
laid down in the North German moors. It has been
suggested that in South Sweden the annual rainfall
must have been forty inches at least.

But later again, in full Neolithic and Bronze Age
times the land rose once more and renewed dryness
set in. We have now entered a climatic optimum known
as the Sub-Boreal period. Forests began to thin, water-
levels fell, the Bodensee and Federsee were once more
very low; bogs, including those of Ireland, dried up,
heaths took their place, trees grew where before Sphag-
num flourished, surface springs failed, and desiccation
layers are found, for example at Ravensburg (Wurt-
temberg) and at Pullenhofen on the Moosach, a stream
of the Inn system. Loess was once more deposited,
warmth-loving water-plants, such as Najas marina and
Tra-pa natans, abounded, and it has been concluded that
 NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION   77

the summer temperature reached its post-Glacial maxi-
mum. These conditions lasted till the climate again
deteriorated in the Early Iron Age (a period outside
our present study) and this deterioration may have been
in part responsible for the movements of peoples which
then took place.

Such climatic changes as these of course took place
gradually and their full effect would not be felt at once.
For instance in the Sub-Boreal time, although the
forests began to thin with the increasing dryness, they
were not penetrable to man till the end of Neolithic
times.

As has been indicated, the evidence for these climatic
changes is obtained from a study of moorlands, heaths
and peat-lands and the plants that go to make their
composition. There is often a stratigraphical super-
position that can be determined, and correlation with
human industries is possible when definite recognisable
cultures are found in certain layers. Our knowledge,
however, is still imperfect and much further work is
required. Although in early times these climatic
changes were doubtless the largest factor determining
migrations of people and the like, at later dates, although
they still played their part, other factors were introduced,
and the student must keep a sense of proportion and
not be led away into considering, as has been suggested
by more than one author, that the history of the wander-
ings of people up to mediaeval times can be completely
interpreted in terms of climatic changes. It must be
remembered that what we have said of climatic changes
in northern Europe as a whole does not preclude local
variations. For instance in the Boreal Period the British
Isles were for the most part, thanks to Atlantic Cyclonic
depressions, having a far damper climate and bogs were
 78   NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION

being formed. South-eastern England escaped, and
enjoyed the continental warmth and dryness.

Further the Pyrenean districts of the south of France,
outside the area already described, also seem to have
had a warm, damp climate in Mesolithic times if the
quantity of snail shells in the Azilian deposits can be
taken as a guide.

There is one area of the earth’s surface of special im-
portance to us here in Europe, and that is Central Asia,
for it is here that we have to look for the origin of much
of our Neolithic culture. The matter is intimately inter-
mixed with questions of climate so that it will not be
out of place to consider it at this point.

[Prometheus]

Central Asia to-day contains some of the loftiest
mountains in the world and some of the largest deserts.
It is an inland area without any access to the sea, and
what precipitation and rainfall there is drains to no
ocean, but is either engulfed in the sands or evaporated
into the air. In Quaternary times, however, a very
different state of affairs existed. Over a large area now
desert there stretched a huge inland ocean, of which
the Caspian, the Aral, Lake Balkash, and many another
small sheet of water are to-day the shrivelled remains.
This inland ocean had communication also with the
Black Sea, as at that time the water level of what is now
the Caspian Sea stood something like 600 feet higher <3).
The influence of this large sheet of water, fed from
glacier streams due to the melting of the ice sheets of
the end of Quaternary times, was naturally enormous.
Large sheets of water not only act as a governor on
temperature, holding the warmth of a warm period,
thus preventing the temperature getting too hot, and
giving it out again during a cold season, thus preventing
the temperature getting too low; but also the evapora-
 NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION   79

tion and subsequent precipitation from such a great
expanse of sea produced the moisture necessary to make
large areas of Central Asia, which are now desert, fertile
and fruitful lands. We therefore have to consider the
likelihood that towards the end of Quaternary times
when western Europe was not the most suitable place
on earth for human habitation, Central Asia, in spite
of the possession of high glacier-covered ranges and
mountains, was far more favourably situated. But the
dryness that set in in post-Glacial times, and more
especially it would seem during Mesolithic times, while
it considerably bettered the situation in western Europe,
brought untold ruin to mankind in Central Asia.
Doubtless, too, this was augmented by earth movements,
by the opening of the Bosphorus, and by the draining
and disappearance of the great central Asian sea. Man
was faced with either extinction or migration and he
apparently chose the latter alternative; hence from this
time we find in Europe a continual pressure from the
east. Whether we are to look to Central Asia for the
cradle of agriculture and domestic animals, pottery, and
all the other things that go to make up our modern
civilisation we may never know. The desert holds its
secrets. It may be that we ought to look still further
eastwards remembering that the arid stretches of the
great Gobi Desert must at one time have yielded fertile
land for mankind’s herds and crops. The recent dis-
covery of painted pottery of Neolithic or Early Metal
Age in northern Chinaco—not to speak of the earlier
Palaeolithic industries—may have an important bearing
on this question; but there is as yet no evidence what-
soever to show whether the movements of Neolithic
man were westwards from China, to Central Asia, and
thence to Europe, or whether—as seems more likely
 80   NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION

to the author—the movement was eastwards as well as
westwards from the intermediate cradle of Central Asia.

But if we are to look to Central Asia as the source of
our modern civilisation we must examine its geography
in more detail. Although the desert areas hold, and
may perhaps for ever hold, their secrets, the main out-
lines of the geography of the district do not seem to
have changed with the deterioration of climate. There
is no evidence for any earth movement on a large scale
since Neolithic times, and a note on the geography of
the area may help clear thinking in respect to possible
movements of peoples.

Suppose that a student could go up to an incredible
height in an aeroplane and see, laid as a map under his
feet, the whole of Asia and Europe. He would observe
that, except in the extreme east where the plains of
China allow free passage north and south, Asia can be
divided into a northern and a southern area (Plate 7).
The backbone is formed by some of the highest moun-
tains in the world. To the east lies the high plateau of
Tibet bounded to the northwards by the still higher
Kuen Lun mountains that border the southern edge of
the Tarim basin and the now desert Chinese Turkestan.
These high ranges north of Tibet merge into the great
Karakoram range, the Hindu Kush, and the main massif
of the Pamirs. To the south of Tibet arise the Hima-
layas and the Trans-Himalayas. To the north the
Pamirs link with the Tien-Shan range or Celestial
Mountains, which ultimately run along the northern
edge of Chinese Turkestan and vanish into the Gobi
Desert near the oasis of Hami. Westwards of the
Pamirs the mountains slope away into the deserts of
Russian Turkestan, and at this point there is an im-
portant gap between the mountains just described that
 
 82   NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION

form an almost impassable barrier for mankind between
north and south, and the Elburz Mountains that border
the southern shore of the Caspian Sea and in turn link
on with the very difficult mountain masses of the
Caucasus area and Asia Minor. Between the two
Turkestans, over the Pamirs where they join the Tien-
Shan range to the north, there has been a passage for
human intercourse east and westwards since immemorial
antiquity. The main pass is the watershed between the
upper waters of the Tarim, that to-day disappear in the
sandy waste of Lob-Nor in Chinese Turkestan, and the
head waters of the Oxus basin, that to-day get no further
than the Aral Sea. Over this pass, b.c. 200, were taken
the coloured silks from China that delighted the Greek
world, and the woven tapestry that travelled eastwards
in exchange. Even then the climate of Chinese Turkes-
tan was very different from that of to-day, as is shown by
the work of Sir Aurel Stein, who has also collected from
this area stone implements the culture and age of which
have not yet been determined. They may possibly be
connected with some other early industries discovered
in Mongolia and the Gobi Desert which are in all
probability of Neolithic date. The Tien-Shan range,
which runs east and west just north of the Pamirs, is
joined by mountain masses running north-eastwards
that link it with the various Altai groups. These
mountain masses are pierced by a very important,
although extremely narrow, gap that again allows
intercourse between east and west; this is the so-called
Dzungarian Gate which to-day connects the plains of
Siberia with the desert area of Dzungaria, a continuation
of the great Gobi Desert. In the Middle Ages when
the “Mongol” hordes around the Gobi Desert were
beginning to expand and feel their strength this passage
 NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION   83

was of great importance. At one point the Altai group
north-east of the Dzungarian Gate, stretching up past
Lake Baikal, divides in two and encloses a large inland
area as yet little known. Here are the head waters of
the great Yenisei River that breaks through the moun-
tains in the famous pass called the Kempchik Bom. In
this region there still live to-day primitive hunters with
flocks of tame reindeer, men who until recently used
only the bow and arrow, now replaced, through the
agency of Siberian traders, by the more modern firearm.

To a certain extent, then, Central Asia is con-
nected with the vast stretches of the Gobi Desert,
which are in turn linked on without interruption with
the plains of China and of Chinese Turkestan. The
main connecting passages are over the Pamirs and down
the Oxus valley into Russian Turkestan, or through
the Dzungarian Gate direct into the Siberian plains.

South of the mountains to the west of the Hindu
Kush there exist to-day other great desert areas—
Seistan and Iran generally—and these communicate
without undue difficulty with the northern plains of
India. The only easy connection, however, between
these large desert areas to the south and the northern
regions is through the gap of Russian Turkestan.

Continuing westward, the backbone, including the
mountains of Georgia and Caucasia generally and those
of Asia Minor, ends with the Black and Aegean Seas.
The desert areas of Iran and Persia are to a certain extent
cutoff by mountain chains from the fertile lands watered
by the Euphrates and Tigris, but these mountain chains
can be passed or readily turned. Beyond lie deserts and
the coastal lands of Syria and Palestine which form
one limb of a fertile horseshoe-shaped area running
thence into Mesopotamia which forms the other limb.

6-2
 84   NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION

Westward again lies the open sea, not readily traversed
until a later date when the art of navigation had been
properly discovered. Southwards, along what is now the
north coast of Africa, and down the Nile valley, com-
munication by water would be an easier matter. At only
one other point besides the Russian Turkestan gap could
migrations from the southern (now desert) areas in-
fluence Europe, and that is at the narrow passage of the
Dardanelles.

It would seem probable therefore that the migrations
that gave rise to the Early Neolithic cultures of Europe
came from areas north of the main backbone already
described, influenced more or less from the southern
area through the comparatively narrow Russian Turkes-
tan gap, while Syria, Mesopotamia and Egypt derived
their different, if analogous, early cultures rather from
the southern areas1. By Early Metal Age times mankind
had become more skilful and more venturesome, prob-
ably with the rise of commerce; many of the simpler
mountain ranges were traversed, and we find the in-
fluence of such a centre of culture as Mesopotamia
spreading far and wide. It must also be remembered
that with the continual drying process that set in towards
the latter half of Neolithic times, mountain masses,
hitherto impassable owing to snow and glaciers, now
became free and open. We note from this date the
beginning of the use of the Brenner Pass for bringing
the Beaker pots of Italy to the folk of what is now
Bohemia; and at a slightly later date the amber of the
Baltic to the shores of the Mediterranean.

One of the few sites that have been investigated in
Central Asia is Anau, a delta-oasis now situated close to
the Central Asian Railway, not far from Astrabad. It

1 Sir Flinders Petrie has lately sought to prove that the earliest
Egyptians came from the southern Caucasus.
 NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION   8$

lies to the north of a small range of mountains that to
some extent occupy part of the Russian Turkestan gap
that we have already alluded to. Two mounds (or
kurgans, as they are called) were investigated at the
beginning of the present century by an American
expedition under the direction of Raphael Pumpellyo).
These mounds were formed by successive human habi-
tations, each new generation building on the ruins of
the former. Four different and successive cultures were
discovered and the following account gives a very brief
resume of the finds. It is interesting to note that wheat
and barley, denoting agriculture, appear before the
domestication of animals.

culture i (Earliest)

Handmade painted ware, geometric designs only.

Cultivation of wheat (Triticum vulgar e) and barley (Hordeum
distichuni).

Rectangular houses of air-dried bricks.

Flint awls and flakes, mace heads of stone, bone awls.

Spindle whorls, milling stones, turquoise beads.

Some evidence of the existence of copper and lead.

Children buried in contracted position under the houses.

At first, during early centuries only, wild animals such as ox,
sheep, gazelle, deer, horse, fox, wolf, probably hunted for food.

Later local domestication of ox (Bos nomadicus\ pig (Sus
palustris, the turbary pig), horse (doubtfully domesticated), and
sheep. Of the two varieties of sheep one was large-horned,
while the other, the turbary sheep, is not found till towards the
end of this period.

Note absence of: potter’s wheel, gold, silver, tin, celts, arrow
heads, lapis lazuli, dog, camel, and goat.

CULTURE II

Similar to I but showing in addition:

Polychrome painted ware.

Bottomless earthenware bake-oven pots, pivotal door stones,
flint sickles, sling stones, copper pins, lapis lazuli and cornelian
beads.
 NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION

86

Domestic animals now include: short-homed oxen, camels,
the dog, and hornless sheep.

Note continued absence of: potter’s wheel, gold, silver, bronze,
arrow heads, celts, etc.

CULTURE III

Similar to above but showing addition of:

Potter’s wheel and furnace, and some incised pottery.

Alloying with tin and lead appears, also arrow heads made of
copper, stone and obsidian.

Terra-cotta figurines (comp. Butmir) of goddesses, bulls,
cows, etc., are found.

Note continued absence of: stone or metal celts or burnt
bricks. Still no iron or glazed or incrusted ware present.

CULTURE IV

Iron used and therefore outside our subject.

Practically speaking this is the only site in this
most important area that has been at all properly in-
vestigated, we cannot therefore build too much theory
upon it; it is to be hoped that, when political circum-
stances permit, continued investigation may be under-
taken and further work accomplished. Mr Pumpelly
attempted to establish an absolute chronology for these
cultures, mainly by consideration of the growth of the
mounds and so on. Naturally this is an exceedingly
difficult proposition, and there is no reason to assume
that the rate of growth of the material was constant.
It is probable that the estimate of ten thousand years
ago for the earliest culture is considerably too high.

HABITATIONS

A word or two must be said as to the actual Neolithic
houses and habitations. These may roughly be divided
into three series: (i) Land habitations, (2) Pile dwel-
lings, (3) Cave homes.
 NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION

87

LAND HABITATIONS

The floor of the hut consisting of dried mud, or in
loess lands of compressed loam, was often partially sunk
in the ground. It was often surrounded by large boulders
which supported the wall and roof beams. Wattle and
daub work filled the interstices between the wooden
framework. Huts were usually congregated together to
form definite villages and these were sometimes placed
in sites well chosen for defence and even fortified with
ramparts. In the prehistoric villages each house or
group of houses generally possessed what is known as
a food pit. This consists as a rule of a funnel-shaped
shaft some two or three yards deep and in it provisions
were probably stored. The food pit is found still in
villages of as late a date as the Early Iron Age, if not
later. It is rather depressing for the excavator who was
hoping that he was dealing with a Neolithic food pit,
to come across, after hours of patient work, an Early
Iron Age chisel from near its very bottom!

As a typical example of one of these Neolithic homes
we may take a Belgian fond de cab anew. Let us join a
party of exploration from Libge to the Hesbayen plateau.
In all directions spread ploughed fields. The leader of
the party is armed with a long thin staff something over
a metre long and ending in a sort of corkscrew. Every
now and then in suitable places where fonds de cabanes
have been reported this staff is plunged into the ground
and then carefully withdrawn. The corkscrew end is
then examined; if the fragments of earth brought up
on it are merely the ordinary soil there is nothing to
hope for on excavation at that point. If, on the other
hand, a certain amount of black cinder material is seen
with the earth then we are in the middle of an old
 88   NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION

Neolithic house. Excavation is started from that point
down to a depth at which the cinder layer is reached;
then continued carefully to right and left to determine
the exterior walls of the hut emplacement, which in
the case of these Belgian jonds de cabanes are always
buried a foot or two in the ground. On being excavated
the hut emplacement is usually found to be circular or
oval, besides being somewhat splayed, so that the
diameter is wider at the top than at the bottom. The
sinking of the hut emplacement in the ground was no
doubt due to the added warmth thereby gained, and
also to the fact that a lower roof would be needed;
naturally this would only be possible in dry areas, such
as the high Hesbayen plateau, as in low lands such
hutments would be continually water-logged. A hearth
marked out with stones occurs within the hutment as
well as tools, pots and other household furniture.
Occasionally it is found that not a home but a workshop
hut has been excavated, and here pottery is for the most
part absent, while blocks of flint, nuclei, finished and
unfinished tools, and fragments flaked off abound. That
the roofs of these hutments were formed of joist-like
beams with a sort of wattle and daub filling the inter-
stices is attested by the finding now and then of frag-
ments of clay which have fallen on the hearth and been
burnt hard, but still bear the imprint of the twigs and
small boughs on which they had been smeared.

Elsewhere in Europe still more complicated and well-
built rectangular houses, sometimes with an internal
division, are found, especially towards the end of Neo-
lithic times. The store pit and, of course, the hearth, are
the chief features. Corner posts with a varying number of
intermediate wall posts supported the roof. Near Mayen
in the Rhine province of Germany three or four such
 NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION   89

[Prometheus]

“post-houses” were found in a row of which the middle
two, having a common wall, seem to form a two-roomed
house. The larger of these two rooms had a central post
to support the peak of the roof; such a central post being
of quite frequent occurrence. Later it appears that
sometimes an outer row of posts helped to support the
wide overhanging roof thus making a veranda or passage
on two sides of the house. Of Passage Grave times (see
chapter vi) are a few horseshoe-shaped houses built of
thick wicker-work and plaster between widely separated
posts. Sometimes a stone table or seat appears in a
fairly central position, the hearth being in the wide
opening. Can we in this connection compare the
Chambered tomb at St Nicholas near Cardiff which
has a dry-walling in front forming a horseshoe-shaped
perron in front of the tomb ? Many people see in the
great grave constructions only “soul-houses.” At
Haldorf, near Melsungen (Hesse Cassel) is a small
model house of megaron form having a nearly square
inner room and a narrow forecourt with immense
corner posts. Goessler describes a two-storied rect-
angular house from the Neolithic village of Gross-
gartach near Heilbronn in Wtirttemberg in which the
upper room in the angle of the roof was apparently
used as a sleeping place. The Beaker folk in the Spanish
peninsula, France and England seem to have built
round houses of from 3*5 to 5-25 metres diameter,
necessitating a central support. Only one example of
this type has yet been found in Germany, i.e. at Oltingen.
Of Late Neolithic date in South Russia is found the
“Zemljanka” or earth-house of the Tripolje culture
(see chapter v). It consists generally of an oblong pit
surrounded by an earth wall which is roofed in. In the
middle a smaller deeper pit is dug where is the hearth
 90   NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION

below a smoke hole. A sort of raised sleeping bench
runs all round, reached by earthen steps. Stone Age
finds in Bulgaria show a similar earth-house with fire-
hardened and sometimes painted walls. In Thessaly,
at Dimini and Sesklo, we meet once more the megaron
form in which the slight prolongation of the long walls
makes a sort of outer court. The hearth is in the inner
room and sometimes there are one or more further rooms
built out at the back. These megaron houses belong to
Period II in Thessaly when the culture is closely allied
to, if not identical with, the important “painted pottery ”
culture which invaded Europe at the end of the Neo-
lithic and the beginning of the Copper Age.

Small pottery models of houses were sometimes made
and are found in the deposits. A well-made example
can be seen in the museum at Brno (=Brunn) (Plate 29,
fig. 4).

When these land habitations were gathered into
regular villages, something of the nature of paved
streets are occasionally found. Several such villages,
dating from various periods of the Neolithic Age, have
been excavated, for example, in Lower Austria. Often
there seems to have been a courtyard just outside the
house, which cannot have been very different in appear-
ance from many of the small farmhouses of the same
district to-day. In these a more or less small courtyard
is generally surrounded on three sides by bungalow
buildings (with at most a loft), comprising living,
sleeping and kitchen quarters, as well as sheds for the
pigs and the stock. In the courtyard is the pump, and
from it often radiate narrow paved paths to the kitchen
and elsewhere. The whole thing is far less straggly
than our own farm yards and has a much more compact
appearance.
 NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION

91

PILE DWELLINGS

The lake or pile dwellings were developed in certain
districts with an eye to safety both from attacks of
hostile humans as well as wild animals. For their
growth suitable conditions were necessary, and although
in Metal Age times, especially in the Iron Age, their
existence has been proved over a wide area in Europe,
in Neolithic times they are for the most part restricted
to the comparatively narrow belt of country forming
the lower slopes of the Alps. They are common, for
example, in Switzerland round Lake Neuchatel, the
Lake of Lucerne, and the Lake of Constance, and are
found right along until the mountains disappear into
the plains of Hungary. On the other side of the hills
have been found what are called the Italian lake dwel-
lings, and others also occur along the Julian Alps, as is
testified by their presence near Loubliana (Laibach)—
a site or rather sites of extreme richness that have
yielded Late Neolithic objects of great beauty, but which
are as yet but imperfectly studied and excavated.

The existence of these pile dwellings was first re-
cognised as long ago as 18 53 during chance excavations
on the shore of one of the Swiss lakes at a time when,
owing to the dry season, the water was standing especi-
ally low, the piles themselves being uncovered and the
whole matter investigated by Keller. The piles consist
of blocks of wood varying from 3 to 9 inches in
diameter and from 15 to 30 feet long, generally roughly
pointed and driven into the ground along the shallow
edge of the lake or more probably into the marshy
margins. On these piles rested cross beams, forming a
platform on which the houses were built. As many as
fifty thousand of these piles have been noted at a single
 92   NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION

site. Connection with the mainland was kept up by
means of a narrow causeway, which could readily be
destroyed in time of danger. The Neolithic lake
dwellings are quite close to the shore, but in Early
Metal Age times they were often built over the water
at a considerable distance from the land. Naturally
not every lake is suitable to have pile dwellings round
its shores. A mountain lake with rocky bottom would
obviously be unsuitable; what is required is a com-
paratively large sheet of water with a wide shallow
margin and a muddy or peaty bottom. Such conditions
occur far excellence near Loubliana in the Julian Alps,
where there is an immense mountain plain, which has
now become moor, owing to infilling brought down by
glacial streams from the surrounding ranges, but which
was formerly an immense sheet of shallow water, the
overflow of which was carried off by the River Save. The
lower slopes of the surrounding mountains abounded
in game, and, to a certain extent, could be cultivated
and used for pasturage in later Neolithic times. At
many places around the edge of the plain pile dwellings
have been discovered, and there are doubtless countless
more Neolithic villages to be revealed. In the case of
the Swiss or Italian lake dwellings, where the lakes
still exist, excavation can only be carried on at certain
seasons of the year when the water is low before spring
melts the snow of the higher mountains, or when a long
and very hot summer has not only completely melted
them but the water therefrom has been drained away.
At Loubliana (Laibach), on the other hand, owing to
the disappearance of the lake and its replacement by
heath conditions, excavation is easy and will in the
future yield very important results.

The frontispiece will give a better idea of what one of
 NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION   93

these pile-dwelling villages looked like than any amount
of description. There must have been a good deal of
rude comfort, and seemingly the close proximity to
water had no very evil effects. Again, rubbish was
readily got rid of by throwing it overboard, probably
to the benefit of the health of the inhabitants, but also
to the assistance of the modern prehistorian; for in many
cases this rubbish and other objects that fell into the
water by chance or design have been preserved in the
mud and peat at the bottom and can be dug up to-day.
Not only do we find pots, stone implements and other
objects made of resistant material, but also implements
made from antler, as well as seeds of plants, pieces
of woven material used for clothes-making and fishing
nets and the like.

In our own day there still exist among certain primi-
tive peoples—for example, at Brunei in Borneo—
similar lake dwellers, and judging from the remains we
have of their Neolithic counterparts, the general life
and conditions seem very similar. Even much nearer
home we find something of the same sort, although
the lake is absent, in the case of granaries and store-
houses that are built up on short pillars two or three
feet from the ground, their object being to checkmate
rats and other vermin that would destroy the store.

The English lake dwellings are all later in date than
Neolithic times. The best known, perhaps, are those
of Glastonbury which date from the Iron Age; to which
era belong most of the so-called crannogs in Ireland,
etc.

The building of these lake villages must have neces-
sitated the use of a boat and in exceptional cases the
pile dwellings appear to have remained as islands un-
connected with the shore so that a boat would be
 94   NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION

continually needed. No traces of Palaeolithic boats
remain, none have been found of Mesolithic date
though conditions must often have necessitated the
use of simple boats or rafts. In the Metal Ages various
forms of boat were common, but only a few Neolithic
examples have been found. The simplest type would
of course be a scooped-out log with untrimmed ends;
such a specimen has been preserved at Lake Bienne.
Dr Fox points out that boat-evolution may have pro-
ceeded somewhat as follows. After the use of a hollowed
log would come the discovery that the pointing of one
end was a great advantage while the other would be
left square and untouched; finally the builder would
find it quicker and easier when hollowing his log to
scoop away the whole of this square end and to replace
it afterwards with a simple stern-board. Examples of
Neolithic boats pointed at one end have been found,
and in one or two instances footrests and seats appear.

CAVE HOMES

The use of caves as homes was, of course, perfectly
natural, but because in certain parts of the world the
Neolithic folk followed the customs of their Palaeolithic
forerunners in this respect there is no reason to see any
connection between the two civilisations. Obviously
caves could only be employed as homes where they
occur naturally, that is where the formation of the
ground is suitable—practically speaking, only in lime-
stone districts. When excavating Palaeolithic deposits
in French or Spanish caves it is very common to find a
Neolithic and Early Metal Age layer at the top, and at
first sight it might be imagined that the occurrence of
Neolithic industries in cave deposits would enable the
 NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION   95

prehistorian to use the same stratigraphical methods as
are used for the Palaeolithic cultures and thus obtain a
sequence of succession for the Neolithic civilisation
generally. Unfortunately this has not proved possible;
for one thing, the use of caves for homes by the Neo-
lithic folk was too sporadic, and for another, being close
to the surface and unprotected by layers of stalagmite
(the formation of which was favoured by the changes
of climate in Palaeolithic times) the Neolithic layers
have been the prey of burrowing animals, such as the
rabbit, and little is left of any stratigraphy there may
once have been. It is often common to find Neolithic
and Metal Age layers, all intermixed with mediaeval
material, resting on a layer of stalagmite formed during
the change of climate in Palaeolithic times, which, owing
to its hard compactness, has protected all the older
Palaeolithic industries underneath. At the same time
these cave homes have yielded many Neolithic and
Early Metal Age objects of great interest.

NEOLITHIC ART

Art is such an important index to human thought
and culture that the subject has been treated in a special
chapter. It need only be said here that although the
wondrous Palaeolithic art disappears for ever with the
advent of Mesolithic times, and naturalistic art is ex-
tremely rare, pottery is often beautifully engraved with
complicated designs in various techniques; these will be
considered in their proper place. Painting on pots was
practised at the end of the Neolithic and in the beginning
of the Metal Ages in certain definite areas, and the rela-
tionships of the different pot-painting cultures is one
of extreme interest. Rock carvings and rock-shelter
 NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION

96

paintings occur mostly in the Copper Age, the latter
especially in Spain where they form an extremely
interesting group.

BURIALS

Burials form a very important branch of study, but
these can be dealt with better when the various areas
of Neolithic culture are described. They consist for
the most part of (1) ordinary graves dug in the ground
with little or no indication on the surface, (2) graves
with definite mounds, and (3) various megalithic struc-
tures sometimes forming tombs of gigantic size. Caves
were also sometimes used for the purpose of burial, and
interesting examples have been found in North Italy
where the bodies., laid straight out, were surrounded
with large stones, while close by was buried rich funeral
furniture consisting of beautifully made polished tools
and other objects. The fact that some of these beautiful
tools have been carefully broken in two has given rise
to the idea that in some districts Neolithic man had a
complicated cult of the dead. Judging from modern
analogy these weapons may have been broken so that
the spirit of the weapon might accompany the dead man
and aid him in the beyond;—it is certainly the case that
whatever kind of burial we take, a rich funeral furniture
is commonly found. That such a cult should exist is
not surprising when we consider that ceremonial burial,
involving also the burying of choice weapons, objects
of ornament, etc. with the dead had been practised from
Middle Palaeolithic times onwards. Death would be
one of the first things to strike the imagination of
primitive man, and a cult of the dead is after all to be
expected as one, at any rate, of the several roots of his
religio-emotional development.
 NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION

97

AREAS1 OF CULTURE

If the reader will look back to the section on climate
he will see that the Sub-Boreal warm, dry, period did
not set in until Mid-Neolithic and the beginning of
Early Metal Age times. The warm wet climate prior
to this was favourable to forest growth, and it was not
everywhere even in western Europe that mankind could
penetrate. In England we find Neolithic remains for
the most part confined to down lands and the sandy
heights overlooking the fens in Norfolk and Suffolk, as
well as, of course, along main river valleys. Areas like
Huntingdonshire and the clayey midlands were forest
areas, and were generally left uninhabited. Again, the
greater part of what is to-day Central Germany formed
one long stretch of primeval forest, and it is only along
its edges or on loess lands unsuitable for forest growth
that we should expect to discover rich Neolithic cultures.
It was not until the dawn of the Metal Ages was in
sight that the increasing dryness caused the forests to
dwindle and the great areas that they had occupied to
be inhabited. There grew up, therefore, in Europe a
certain number of more or less disconnected areas of
Neolithic development, which developed independently
and only coalesced and bred hybrids when the inter-
vening forest lands became clear. For convenience sake
we can take as separate areas the following: an Eastern
Area populated by various Asiatic migrations that in-
vaded Eastern Europe firstly by way of the Danube
and its tributaries, occupying the loess lands of southern
Germany; later via Transylvania. Again, there is a
Northern Area that includes Scandinavia and the shores
of the Baltic, but which was modified in its development
1 The word “circle” is sometimes used in place of tf carea/*

B

7
 98   NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION

not only by influences from the south-west, but also
from the east and south-east. Then there is the Western
Area, which includes our own country and western
Europe generally. The folk of this last area seem
to have played a considerable part too, in the de-
velopment of the later Pile-Dwelling cultures of the
highland backbone of the continent. Lastly there is the
area of the Mediterranean basin and its shores, where
the development was culturally far in advance of that of
northern Europe, although it must be allowed that the
Spiral Meander pottery of the Eastern Area will stand
comparison with even the beautiful ripple ware of Crete.

It must be remembered that the very fact of the com-
munity life of Neolithic times, with the specialisation
which it engendered, tended to the multiplication of
local differences which add enormously to the diffi-
culties of the student, as the industries are far less
uniform than was the case in Palaeolithic times.

This division into areas, which were to a great extent
separated from each other by forest growth until the
end of Neolithic times, must not be taken too strictly.
It is convenient to create them for the purposes of study
and they have real existence, but at no moment were
they completely cut off from one another; and the
hybrids produced at the dawn of the Metal Age, when
they coalesced in the then forest-free lands, are perfectly
bewildering.

[Prometheus]

RACES(s)

Nothing has been said so far as to the Neolithic race
or races. Various criteria have been adopted by the
physical anthropologists to differentiate the races of
mankind. Thus hair, pigmentation, skull-form, stature,
etc., are all employed, and when taken together demon-
 NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION   99

strate with fair certainty the relationships of any par-
ticular people. But taken singly these criteria may be
deceptive, just in the same way as typology without the
checks of stratigraphy, patina, etc., often leads the
student of Palaeolithic times into hopeless error. Only
skeletons have survived to help us in determining pre-
historic races and these remains—even in the Neolithic
and earliest Metal Age Periods—are not very common
and often not too well preserved. It follows that it is
not always possible to differentiate races with any clear-
ness, and the matter is further complicated in that a
school exists which suggests that even such a thing as
skull form is partly a resultant of environment, and that
a change in latitude or altitude will in time definitely
affect the structure of the body (6).

However, the old division of the early inhabitants of
Europe into Mediterraneans, Alpines and Nordics, still
remains very useful. The Mediterranean race was long-
headed, oval-faced and of slender build. This type is
found around the Middle Sea and as far north as south-
ern Britain. The same description applies to the Neo-
lithic folk at Anau, which is very important for it is
more than possible that the Neolithic civilisation had its
cradle in Central Asia. Again, it has been shown that
in all probability the old long-headed Capsian folk
developed into the Tardenoiseans and, learning some-
thing of the new civilisation, became “neolithicised”
and formed no small part of the Neolithic stock of the
western Mediterranean. Possibly it is better to refer
all to a larger race group (Neoanthropic Man) who first
arrived in Europe in Upper Palaeolithic times and there
underwent considerable modifications. If this be so the
men of Anau and of the western Mediterranean would
be cousins, as it were, and physically not very dissimilar.
 too   NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION

The Alpines were as a whole a very round-headed,
broad-faced, thick-set folk, rather taller than the Medi-
terraneans. They occupied the mountains forming the
backbone of Europe and Asia. It used to be thought
that it was the round-heads who introduced the Neo-
lithic civilisation into Europe and this theory was
strengthened by the finding of a few round-headed
skulls associated with the long-headed variety in Meso-
lithic burials (comp. Ofnet, Mughem, etc.). As it was
then an acknowledged fact that no round-heads appeared
in Europe before Neolithic times, this seemed con-
clusive, and it was believed that these Mesolithic round-
heads were the forerunners of an invading Neolithic
people. The finding of round-headed skulls at Solutr6
of Upper Palaeolithic (Aurignacian) age has rather
modified this conclusion. Again, the earliest Swiss lake
culture owes everything to the long-headed Danubians
of the Eastern Area, who pushed up the Danube and
spread northwards by the Moravian gap into Silesia, and
southwards by the Rhine to the Lake of Constance and
elsewhere, founding there a culture which only ceased
with the rising and overflowing of the lakes, due to
climatic changes. The Pile-Dwelling culture later owes
more to the Western Area. The Alpines thus were not
the first Neolithic folk in the field, at any rate not in
western Europe, although further east they no doubt
played a greater rdle in very early times.

The cradle of the last or Nordic race is roughly
placed in the south of Siberia. This folk seems to have
arrived in Europe at a rather later date than the other
two unless we are to consider as a proto-Nordic invasion
the Upper Palaeolithic Solutreans, who, coming from
eastwards, dominated parts of western Europe before
vanishing at the rise of the Magdalenians. Burials
afford little evidence as they are few and unsatisfactory.
 IOI

NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION

Nordic man was tall and long-headed; some modern
Swedes to-day conform closely to the type.

It is interesting to note that trephination of the living
human skull was sometimes practised in prehistoric
times (7). This fact was noted by Prunieres as long ago
as 1865. Sometimes a large hole was simply bored;
sometimes the same result was obtained by drilling a
series of small holes or by scraping out a small circular
furrow and then removing the enclosed portion of bone.
How this delicate operation could have been performed
with only sharp flint tools, and the actuating motive,
remain a mystery.

Trephining after the death of the individual is also
known, but this was probably merely for convenience
in suspending the head, possibly of a dead friend, more
probably of some redoubtable foe.

BIBLIOGRAPHY and REFERENCES

(1)   H. Gams and R. Nord hagen. * Postglaziale Clintaanderungen

und erdkrusten Bewegungen in Mitteleurofa, Munich, 1923.

C. E. P. Brooks. “The evolution of climate in North-west Europe.”
Quart. Journ. Roy. Meteor. Soc. vol. xlvii, 1921, p. 173.

----- The Evolution of Climate, London, 1922.

(2)   T. J. Arne* Palaeontologia Sink a, series P, voL 1, fasc. 2. Peking,

1925.

(3)   See bibliography (4) at end of chapter 11.

(4)   M. de Ptjydt. A good account will be found in tome xxix, 1910,

of the Mim. Soc. d’Anth. de Bruxelles. This author has published
much on this subject

(5)   A. C. Haddon. The Races of Man. 1924.

(6)   Sir W. Ridgeway. See Brit. Ass. (Anth. Sect.), Dublin, 1908.

(7)   T. W. Parry* “The Prehistoric Trephined Skulls of Great Britain,

etc.” Proc. Roy. Soc. of Medicine, vol. xiv, no. 10, Aug. 1921.

----- “Trephination of the living Human Skull in prehistoric

times.” Brit. Med. Journ. March 1923.

----- “The collected evidence of Trephination of the Human

Skull in Great Britain during prehistoric times.” Proc. Third
Internat. Congress of the Hist, of Medicine, London, July 1922.
 CHAPTER IV1

TYPOLOGY

In dealing with Neolithic industries methods similar
to those used in describing our Palaeolithic fore-
runners can be employed. The various tools can be
classed into families, each family containing a number
of different types clearly related to one another.
Naturally overlap sometimes occurs, and there are cases
when it is impossible to say whether a given specimen
is the final development of one family or of another.
Neolithic man was obviously concerned in making a
tool that would do the particular job required, and had
little thought or care about conforming exactly to any
accurate pattern. From the student’s point of view,
however, the evolution of these families is very useful,
and, to a greater or less extent, they doubtless corre-
spond with the various works which had to be performed
by prehistoric man.

CELTS

From a typological point of view the most important
family in Neolithic times is undoubtedly the celt. This
tool is sometimes made of flint, sometimes of any fine-
grained hard rock, whether igneous or sedimentary. As
it would seem that a tough edge was required, the latter
was mostly used, the former only being requisitioned in
areas, like East Anglia, where flint is very common and
other hard rocks are almost absent. The tool was made

1 This chapter is largely for reference purposes and describes the
various types of tools and pottery; it should be read in conjunction with
the succeeding chapters.
 TYPOLOGY

103

either by chipping, or by grinding and polishing, or by
a combination of the two techniques. The basal type
is the same for both the Northern and Western Areas;
celts are not found in the Eastern Area; but from the
basal type sprang developments, which are not the same
in the north as in the west. The basal type can be seen
on reference to Plate 8, nos. 2 and 5. No. 2, from
Lakenheath, Suffolk, is made of hint, a chipping
technique being alone employed. There is a sharp
convex cutting edge, the other or butt end being more
or less pointed. In the case of the particular specimen
in question a considerable amount of natural crust has
been left at the top end, possibly useful as a handhold.
The sides are straight and converge towards the butt.
No. 5, from Reach Fen, Cambridgeshire, is a ground
specimen made of igneous rock. The working edge,
as before, is convex, and a section cut through the
tool towards the butt end would be circular; which fact
is of some importance. Whether these tools were hafted
as axes or adzes, or whether they were used as hand
tools, it is not easy to say, possibly in both ways. It is
not unlikely that in some cases the tool was used as we
should use a cold chisel, that is, it was held in position
by the hand and the butt end was hammered with a
wooden mallet. This would explain the peculiar frac-
tures that are sometimes to be noted at the top end of
the tool.

WESTERN AREA

The evolution of the celt in the Western Area is
simple to follow. The tool becomes flatter, the section
through the butt end from being more or less circular
becomes very oval, and in the final development there
is little to distinguish the object from a chisel. Plate 8,
 TYPOLOGY

IO4

no. x, from Burwell Fen, Cambridgeshire, is a good
example of a partially polished, partially chipped speci-
men, with straight, sharp, slightly converging sides
running up from the convex working edge to a narrow
sharp butt end. No. 4 from Coton, Cambridgeshire, is
similar in form though polished throughout. No. 6, as
was the case in no. 1, is partly polished, partly chipped,
but in this instance the polish is confined solely to the
working edge. It comes from Burnt Fen, Cambridge-
shire, and is more pointed at the top end than 1 or 4
though the section is very oval. Possibly this is a
slightly later characteristic. Varieties, such as Plate 8,
no. 3, from Burwell Fen, Cambridgeshire, showing a
very definite waist to the tool, are to be considered as
chisels, but they cannot logically be separated from a
final development of the celt.

NORTHERN AREA

The developments of the celt around the Baltic are
not quite the same. If a section through the middle of
the basal type be taken, either in the Northern or the
Western Area, it will be found to be circular rather
than oval; in the first northern development the celt
has squared sides and the section becomes an oval, the
two ends of which are truncated. This type, which in
Scandinavia is found in the dolmens, is figured on
Plate 9, no. 4; this specimen, from Sweden, is partly
chipped, though mostly polished. As before, the two
slightly convergent sides run up from a convex working
edge to the butt end, which is not very pointed and is
sharp. In the next development the section through
the middle of the tool becomes rectangular: many large
and beautiful examples of this variety, made solely by
chipping, have been found in Danish passage graves.
 TYPOLOGY

105

Plate 8. Neolithic tools.
 TYPOLOGY

106

Plate 9, no. I, from Denmark, is an example made
mostly by a chipping technique, though polishing,
especially on the side shown in the figure, is not absent.
In the final development of the celt the section remains
rectangular, but the sides become much more conver-
gent and the butt end more pointed and less sharp.
Plate 9, no. 2, is a typical example made of the grey
flint so common in Scandinavia; the thick squared sides
are boldly blocked out by coarse vertical chipping; a
certain amount of polishing is present on the specimen.
A small toy example, pierced for suspension, possibly
used as an ornament or an amulet, is figured on Plate
12, no. 4; it was found in Aberdeenshire. Many
halted specimens of celts have been found in the Swiss
lake dwellings. The haft consists of a piece of antler,
the celt being inserted in the hollowed end and held in
place by some mastic. Plate 13, no. 7, is a good example,
and that such a hafted tool would form a useful hand
implement is very evident. No. 6 of the same Plate
shows a small celt from the Swiss lakes without its
antler haft.

CHISELS, GOUGES, ETC.

It has already been stated that in some cases the final
developments of the celt graded into what one would
naturally describe as a chisel, but other types exist, as
reference to Plate 10, nos. 7 and 8, will at once show.
No. 7, from Burwell, Cambridgeshire, is of flint made
partly by flaking, partly by polishing. The well-made,
working edge is pointed and flattened so as to resemble
a screw-driver and is polished on both sides, but the
other end, fairly sharp and not very regular, has been
mostly chipped; possibly this other end was hafted in
a hollow stick. No. 8, from Icklingham, Suffolk, is
 TYPOLOGY

107

Plate 9. Neolithic tools.
 TYPOLOGY

108

made mostly by chipping; the working edge is regular,
differing from the butt end which, though also fairly
sharp, is very irregular: it has been damaged in recent
times, the patina showing that a modern flake has been
removed. Broad chipped chisels, flat on the under-
surface and convex on the upper are common at Cissbury.
Plate 8, no. 3, a specimen already mentioned in con-
nection with the celts, is very thin compared with its
length; the convex working edge shows polishing,
though most of the rest of the specimen, including the
sharp butt end, is wholly formed by chipping. Plate 11,
no. 2, figures a peculiar type of tool from Lakenheath
Warren, Suffolk, the exact use of which is unknown.
From some points of view it should be classed in the
family of the arrow heads, being connected with the
transverse-edge variety (see p. 114), the convex sharp
edge being the working edge and the lower pointed
end being hafted in a stick or bone. Other students
have considered, however, that the tool was used as a
small convex-edge chisel. Such a shape would be very
useful in leather work.

Plate 9, no. 3, illustrates a gouge from Denmark
with a section below showing the gouge-like hollow.
It is a tool rarely found in Great Britain or the Western
Area, but is common in Scandinavia. It is exactly
similar to the celt, except that the convex working edge
is hollowed out, as in the case of a large modern gouge.

PICKS AND FABRICATORS

A typical pick from Eriswell, Suffolk, is shown on
Plate 1 o, no. 9, and a typical fabricator, from Kentford,
Suffolk, on the same plate, no. 11. Implements of the
pick type were almost certainly used as cold chisels.
They are rough, irregular tools usually made almost
 TYPOLOGY

109

Plate 10. Neolithic tools.
 no

TYPOLOGY

solely by chipping; and have a fairly narrow sharp end,
and a blunt butt end. They were quite suitable for use
with a wooden mallet. This tool is very common in Neo-
lithic industries, and with its roughly parallel sides cannot
be mistaken for any Palaeolithic forerunner. Examples
ten inches or more in length have been found.

The fabricator is a much smaller tool, often blunt at
both ends. The student might perhaps regard it as a
stone finger, and it was probably used for the thousand
and one purposes in which a live finger would get
damaged. Doubtless, too, it was used as a small punch.

SCRAPERS

Scrapers of all varieties and shapes abound in Neo-
lithic industries. Examples can be seen on Plate io,
nos. 2, 3, 4, 5 and io. The first of these, which is a
Belgian example of Omalian date, shows a typical end-
scraper on a short blade. No. 3, from Icklingham,
Suffolk, is a core-scraper—sometimes called a “tea-
cosy,” being in shape not unlike one of these articles.
Nos. 4 and 5 are made on flakes, no. 4 comes from near
Grimes Graves and no. 5 from Eastbourne. Slight
differences can be noted; for example, no. 4 has a low
keel running up the flake which is completely absent
from no. 5. In the case of these four examples the
working edge was obtained by chipping, percussion
being used. In the case of no. 10, from Icklingham,
Suffolk, however, pressure flaking has been employed;
the flake scars show a scaling as if fragments of flint
like fish scales had been removed; the facets are covered
with fine ripple marks, giving to the whole a rather
glassy or waxy appearance1. This latter appearance, due
to pressure flaking, is in all probability a sign that the
1 This is not seen when the object is patinated.
 TYPOLOGY

III

Plate ii. Neolithic and Earliest Metal Age tools.
 112

TYPOLOGY

tool can be regarded as being of the Early Metal Age.
Similar tools have been found with burials in the
Beaker Age.

SLUGS

Another tool on which this glassy or waxy appearance
is common is the so-called slug—Plate n, no. 3.
This tool is made on a blade, the under surface being
the flake surface; the upper surface is convex, trimmed
all over by pressure flaking. Where this top surface is
very convex and the flint is unpatinated, the appearance,
at first sight, is not unlike those repulsive slugs found
in damp bogs. However, in many cases the top surface
is not so convex, and in some instances, where the
specimens are patinated, the name no longer applies.
The use of these tools is unknown.

SICKLES

Some form of sickle is essential to the agriculturist
and examples of such a tool are not infrequent. They
usually consist of several medium-sized stout flakes
with sharp, often denticulated edges, hafted in some
such fashion as indicated in Plate 12, no. 5. If the
working edge of a sickle is turned to the light, it will
be seen, except in cases that have been subsequently
heavily patinated, that the action of the straw on the
flint has produced a veritable polishing at the extreme
edge, with an appearance comparable to that of sand
polishing in the desert. This is a very good test as to
whether a not particularly denticulated blade has been
utilised as a sickle. Naturally it is quite impossible to
give this appearance in a pen and ink drawing. Plate 12,
nos. 2 and 6, are examples of sickle tools, the former
from Scandinavia, the latter an African specimen from
the Siwa Oasis.
 TYPOLOGY

llZ

[Prometheus]

DAGGERS

Metal appeared early in the south of Europe and
much later in the north, but certain stray metal tools
were introduced, doubtless by commerce, which were
copied in stone. The result, as seen in Plate 12, no. r,
is a splendid dagger, the blade being beautifully
trimmed and very thin when compared with its length.
The handle is much stouter, and in many specimens is
decorated by a small row of tubercles along its length,
doubtless to ensure a good handgrip. The specimen
figured is from Scandinavia where metal was particularly
late in being introduced. Plate 12, no. 3, is an example
of a different type, from Belgium; the material is Grand
Pressigny flint introduced by commerce, and the lower
third has its edges carefully blunted to ensure a satis-
factory grip, the upper two-thirds being chipped sharp
to make the object into a satisfactory weapon. These
daggers are late in age and possibly should be con-
sidered as belonging to the dawn of the Metal Ages,
even though metal itself was hot yet in full use in the
regions where they are found.

ARROW HEADS

The family of the arrowheads is large and complicated.
One type is figured in Plate 11, no. 7, from Burnt Fen,
Cambridgeshire, and shows a more or less thin tri-
angular piece of flint chipped all over, having a stout
central tang, into which the backbone of the flint runs,
and two side wings. These wings doubtless functioned
as barbs. Sometimes the barbs are very divergent: some-
times, as in the example figured, they curve round so
that they run almost parallel to one another. The former
type is thought to be slightly earlier than the one

8

B
 TYPOLOGY

114

illustrated. Plate 11, no. 10, from Eriswell, Suffolk,
shows a variety having two wings but no tang, this type is
generally called a hollow-base arrow head. In Plate 11,
no. 6, however, we note the tang without the wings.
These arrow heads begin in definitely Neolithic times,
although fairly late on in the period, but they continue
well into Metal Age times. Plate 11, no. 5, from
Fordham, Cambridgeshire, is an example of a barbed
point. From some points of view it might be considered
as a single-winged example to be hafted, like the other
arrow heads, on the end of a stick; but in all probability
it is more of the nature of a large harpoon barb, the
shorter edge being let into a groove on the side of a
pointed stick or bone and held in place by some mastic,
a method similar to that described in connection with
Maglemosean culture. The point (a) would then form
the barb of the tool: both right and left handed barbed
points have been found. Plate 11, no. 4, from Undley,
Suffolk, is a large example of what is known as a trans-
verse arrow head and no. 12 is a typical example from
Belgium; unlike the other varieties it is an early type
and is found in Mesolithic times. The business end
instead of being a point is a cutting edge, the sides being
squared and the butt roughly pointed. A clear con-
nection with Plate 11, no. 2, has already been men-
tioned. Plate 11, no. 1, from Icklingham, Suffolk, is a
good example of a small leaf-shaped javelin head. These
tools are very similar to the Solutrean laurel leaves of
Upper Palaeolithic date, being chipped on both the
upper and the lower surfaces. They are often of great
size; and these large, thin, beautifully made tools have
been found in burials associated with the first appear-
ance of metal. Small, thin-as-paper, leaf-shaped arrow
heads are known; these being also in most cases of
 TYPOLOGY

*r5

f One inch   *

(except sickle, no. 5)

Plate 12. Neolithic and Earliest Metal Age tools.

8-2
 TYPOLOGY

Xl6

Early Metal Age date. Plate n, no. 9, from Burnt
Fen, Cambridgeshire, is a good example. On account
of its oval shape this variety has sometimes been called
a lozenge. Plate 1 x, no. 11, from Quy, Cambridgeshire,
shows a long, very pointed and particularly thin speci-
men, and Plate 1 r, no. 8, depicts a variety from Brandon,
Suffolk, which has “hips” a third of the way up on
either side, in some specimens these are even more
marked. This angularity undoubtedly indicates a late
age.

AWLS

Two kinds of awl exist: the real awl and the pseudo-
awl. In the real awl the working point is chipped all
round, so that its section would be roughly circular.
In the pseudo-awl the whole is made on a flake, and
the flake surface continues right up to the point; the
section instead of being circular is therefore Q -shaped.
The latter is by far the commoner, although it would
seem to be more liable to break and less efficient for
use. Plate 10, no. 6, is an example of an awl, the butt
end on the upper surface being largely covered by
natural crust. These tools were no doubt constantly
required for piercing holes in skins and for many other
purposes.

HAMMER AXES AND SHOE-LAST
SHAPED TOOLS

There are two tools typical of the Eastern Area: one
is the hammer axe and the other is the so-called shoe-
last shaped tool; the former is figured in Plate 13, no. 1,
the latter on the same plate, no. 2 and on Plate 21, no. 15.
The hammer axe, as its name implies, has an axe edge
at one end, the other being heavy and blunt, so that it
 5~

Plate 13. Neolithic tools.

TYPOLO GY
 TYPOLOGY

118

could be used as a hammer; in fact the object resembled
a household chopper. It is pierced with a hole for
hafting purposes, the direction of the hole showing that
an axe not an adze was required. These tools are often
not particularly well made, nor are the sides particularly
regular; though they are generally ground. The shoe-
last tool, on the other hand, made of fine-grained
igneous rock is often beautifully made and polished;
it shows a flat under surface, the upper surface being
highly convex. One end is blunt; at the other, the
convex upper surface curves round to join the flat
under surface which rises slightly to meet it. The imple-
ment was certainly an agricultural tool, possibly used
as the share of a plough, as discussed in a previous
chapter, or it may have been hafted on to a forked piece
of wood, as in Plate 13, no. la, and used as a hoe; it
may also sometimes have been used as a cold chisel.
The type is not found in the west.

BATTLE AXES

Battle axes are a large and complicated family and
were made by a folk who, possibly cradled in South
Russia, invaded the Northern Area fairly early on in
Neolithic times, and there developed. As a warrior
people they spread far and wide, dominating large
tracts of Europe and forming hybrids with other
peoples. Plate 9, no. 5, shows a late example, prob-
ably dating from the period when the northern influence
had penetrated right down to Switzerland, and illus-
trates the characteristic form, blunt at one end, with a
sharp working edge turned up like the prow of a boat,
the whole being pierced for hafting. Plate 9, no. 6,
shows an example from Denmark, almost certainly from
Jutland, of a late development called the canoe-shaped
 TYPOLOGY   119

or boat-shaped axe, where both ends are turned up and
the whole has been likened, perhaps fancifully, to a
Canadian canoe. Many other examples are known,
various districts providing special varieties. A few of
these can be seen on Plate 14. Battle axes were always
pierced for hafting.

VARIOUS

Plate 13, nos. 3 and 4, are examples of a bone harpoon
and a rough bone needle from Switzerland. Bone
needles or awls (the former being eyed, the latter not)
are fairly common in Neolithic industries, but the bone
harpoon is more or less confined to Switzerland. The
base is pierced with a round hole for suspension; the
tool is sometimes single and sometimes double-barbed;
the material is stag’s horn, and the technique of the
barbs, especially in the rough stag’s horn varieties, is
such that no student who has once seen examples would
mix these Neolithic harpoons with either Palaeolithic
or Mesolithic specimens. Plate 13, no. 5, is a stone
whorl from Scotland, decorated with lines radiating
from the central hole. These whorls, which are often
made of terra cotta, are common in Neolithic industries
and were probably used for a variety of purposes where
a weight was required: in weaving, for example, or
perhaps, in the case of rough specimens, as sinkers for
fishing nets, etc. There is little to remark about them;
they vary in size to a certain extent, and are found from
Neolithic to quite late times. Plate 14, no. 1, is an
example of a pierced hammer stone, the hole being
splayed both above and below. This is a Neolithic
characteristic, and it was not till Early Metal Age
times that primitive man was able to drill a cylindrical
hole through stone. Plate 10, no. 1, is an ordinary
hammer stone, formed from a lump of flint and found
 120

TYPOLOGY

at Brandon, Suffolk. Where possible, a tougher material
was preferred, as flint is inclined to shatter easily. It is
not always easy to tell when one of these round, spherical
objects has really been used as a hammer stone, for
when made of hard material they do not bruise easily.
Plate 14, no. 2, has been described as a hollow scraper.
It is a type common in the north of Ireland but very
rare elsewhere, although an example has been found at
Cambridge; it has been suggested that the tool was used
for rubbing down small wooden shafts, but it would
seem to be almost too fragile for this purpose. The
hollow is formed by fine, careful, regular chipping. The
specimen figured comes from Ballymena, Antrim. Plate
14, no. 3, is another Antrim type which does not seem
to occur elsewhere. It consists of a roughly pointed
blade or flake, there being little or no secondary working.
The under surface is a flake surface showing a good
bulb of percussion but without a prepared striking
platform. The base, however, has been formed by
careful chipping into a definite, though coarse tang,
and the whole would seem to have been used as a rough
arrow or javelin point. The nearest analogous type is
seen on Plate 14, no. 4, an example from Denmark,
which also shows a single, carefully made tang; but in
this case the specimen shows a lot of secondary working,
and although thick and coarse, can only be distinguished
from the one shown in Plate 11, no. 6, which has already
been described, by the fact that it is not chipped all
round; but the under surface, as in the case of the last-
mentioned Antrim specimen, is a flake surface. Exam-
ples have been found in East Anglia, e.g. at Rushford.
The Danish example, however, is probably very late
in date, whereas the Antrim tool would appear to belong
to an earlier Neolithic Age. Round and squared discs
 Plate 14. Neolithic tools.

TYPOLOGY   121
 122

TYPOLOGY

occur in Neolithic industries; the latter are sometimes
called skinning knives. The tool is chipped all over
on its upper and lower surfaces and the circumference
forms a sharp cutting edge. Large cores are also fairly
common; from large examples found at Grand Pres-
signy and called “pounds of butter” very long, regular
blades were obtained.

POTTERY

Types of pots, as well as their decoration, vary so
much in different localities that only a generalised
description, giving certain well-defined types, is here
possible. Plate 15, nos. x—4, illustrate the pottery and
decoration typical of the Spiral-Meander culture of the
Eastern Area. Note in no. 3 how, twice, the line of the
Meander ends in a small depression. In some cases
these depressions become more numerous and the
Meanders more angular and the resulting decoration
has been likened to the large notes in old cathedral
psalter books and called Notenschrift. Note also nos. 1
and 4 where the small lugs are pierced with vertical
holes, for suspending the pot in a sort of net. Nos. 6 and
8 illustrate decorated pots of the so-called Hinkelstein
ceramic, another Eastern Area pottery group; nos. 5, 7,
13 are the South German Rossen types which are yet
another variant, and perhaps rather later in date. No. 9
is a typical example of Stichband where the lines are no
longer engraved but consist of punctuations. This
technique was developed at the end of Spiral-Meander
pottery times in the Danube area. Note that the decora-
tion has become much more angular; the Meanders
have become zigzags. Much punctuation decoration
occurs at the end of Danubian I times and the sherds
nos. 10, 11 and 12 are interesting in this connection.
 TYPOLOGY
 TYPOLOGY

124

No. 10 comes from the Danube valley, nos. 11 and 12
from the Omalian industry of Belgium. Already before
the Danubian II period the eastern culture was in-
fluencing the western. Nos. 14 and 15 are types
typical of Danubian II. The first is a footed vessel and
should be compared with Plate 17, no. 4, from the
Northern Area. However, the great quantity of these
footed vessels found in Hungary and Bavaria as early
as Danubian II times precludes the likelihood of their
having been derived from a northern type. Note the
small button-like protuberances on these Danubian II
pots. By Danubian III times the “mixed” cultures had
already begun and influences from elsewhere were
affecting the Eastern Area.

Plate 16 illustrates types from the Western Area
and Pile-Dwelling cultures. No. 1 is a “tulip pot” and
nos. 4, 5, 6, 7, 11, 12 represent types of pots and
decoration motifs from the French fortified village site
of Camp de Chassey. No. 8 is a portion of a Pile-
Dwelling cup showing the typical handle. Nos. 3 and
10 are also examples from the pile dwellings and show
the typical finger print decoration just by the rim.
No. 9 is an example from Mortlake on the Thames and
is beautifully decorated.

The pottery of the Northern Area is represented on
Plate 17. Nos. 7 and 11 are examples of the “Comb”
pottery made by a little known folk who apparently
invaded the Baltic area early in Neolithic times. Nos. 3,
6 and 1—the collar flask, the round amphora and the
high-necked round amphora—are the most typical exam-
ples of the Northern Area culture. No. 10 is a deriva-
tive of the round amphora which was found in Germany
and no. 5 is a double-conical hanging pot typical of
later Passage Grave times in Denmark. The close,
 TYPOLOGY
 TYPOLOGY

126

deep zigzag decoration, as seen on nos. 2 and 9 is also
specially typical of the northern cultures. As a general
rule the northern pottery gives the impression of great
vigour but some ruggedness; the fine delicate work we
find in the Eastern Area is absent. The results, how-
ever, show a high degree of artistic skill.

Plate t 8 gives some examples of the so-called “Mixed”
cultures due to the coalescing of the cultures of the
various areas when the primaeval forests disappeared
on the change of climate at the end of Neolithic times.
Naturally the influence of different cultures predomin-
ates in different localities and it would be instructive
for the student to determine which dominates in any
given instance on Plate 18. Thus nos. 1 and 9 are
clearly Pile-Dwelling types. No. 10 shows the close
zigzag of the Northern Area. No. 6 is an example of
the corded ware, the decoration being obtained by
impressing the paste before firing with a twisted string
or cord. This culture is clearly allied with that of the
north, as the round amphora (no. 4) is found in it.
No. 5 is an example of a late development of the corded
ware. Nos. 7, 8 and 9 come from Aichbtihl on the
Federsee and clearly owe most to the Pile-Dwelling
culture; nos. 1 and 2 from Michelberg also show the
western influence.

Plate 19 shows some typical beakers, mostly English
specimens. These have been divided by Abercromby
into three groups: (1) high-brimmed globose cups,
(2) ovoid cups with low curved brims, (3) low-brimmed
cups. The first of these, shown by Plate 19, no. 2, is a
common type in South Britain; the body of the beaker
is more or less globular and separated by a constriction
from the upper portion, which spreads out like a flower,
often equalling the body in height and forming the rim,
 
 128

[Prometheus]

TYPOLOGY

rising perhaps obliquely but not recurved. In the second
type there is no distinct division between the body and the
rim, and the rim is strongly curved outwards at the lip
(Plate 19, nos. 1 and 5). The main body of the pot is
globular rather than oval. The material used for making
the pots was extremely carefully chosen and the pots
are generally thinner than those of the first variety.
They were often fired in presence of air and so had a
red colour. Type 3, which is especially common in
the north of England and Scotland, is considered by
Abercromby to be only a debased variety of type x;
the body is oval rather than globular, but the brim is
much lower and is only a fraction of the length of the
body (Plate 19, no. 3). Foreign examples show many
varieties (Plate 19, no. 4). In some cases the vessel
rests on little legs (Plate 19, no. 6). Mugs with handles
are also found, and these latter were introduced later
into England, where a few examples occur (Plate 19,
no. 7) *.

1 Note that the decoration motifs are not confined to the particular
type of beaker on which they are shown in the plate.
 Plate iS. Examples showing types of “mixed culture** pottery that developed in Late Neolithic times

in Central Europe.

TYPOLOGY   129
 Plate i9- Examples showing types of the Beaker pottery of the Copper Age.

TYPOLOGY
 CHAPTER V

NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF THE EASTERN
AREA AND LATE NEOLITHIC TIMES
IN CENTRAL EUROPE

Central Asia with its present desert wastes,
where formerly, under different climatic conditions,
broad pasture lands doubtless extended, was probably
the cradle of our Neolithic civilisation and of many
of our domestic animals. So we should naturally expect
to find that a Neolithic culture would early be
flourishing in eastern Europe and are not therefore
surprised to find in the earliest Neolithic period around
the basin of the Danube peoples practising agriculture
and the domestication of animals, apparently unwarlike
and leading a simple peasant existence«. They were
expert in pottery making, being very careful in the
choosing of the raw material, with the result that their
pots are a joy to behold and handle. The pots are as a
rule of a greyish colour, being made from beautifully
smoothed paste and often finely decorated. The usual
shape is that of a cup or basin with rounded bottom,
and a certain amount of neck is sometimes added. There
is nothing in the way of a true handle, though two or
more lugs are often attached around the pot about two
thirds up from the base. The lugs themselves are little
conical projections sometimes pierced with a small
vertical hole, though larger varieties, pointed and rather
like the horn at the ends of a long-bow, are not un-
known (»). The holes are usually quite small in diameter,
and it seems probable that these pots with their rounded
 CULTURES OF THE

132

bottoms were carried in small hammock-like nets, the
ends of which were passed through the holes. The
decoration in early times was exclusively by engraving
and consisted of a series of spiral-like curved lines or
zigzags. A favourite motif consists of large zigzag lines,
small depressions occurring where the lines meet; the
general appearance is a little like early manuscript music
and has been named, therefore, rather fancifully, Noten-
schrift decoration. Two stone agricultural weapons are
common: one known as the shoe-last chisel or hoe and
the other the hammer axe1. Small chipped flint and
obsidian flakes and knife blades occur, both the coloured
and the black variety of the latter material being very
common in Hungary, although examples have also been
found in Lower Austria and elsewhere. Some of these
little chipped flint tools almost recall the so-called
Tardenoisean types, although there is no reason to
suspect any connection between the cultures. The
people lived in villages, the houses being usually small
and oval in shape, and generally slightly excavated in
the manner of the Belgianfonds de cabanes of the Hesbaye
which they closely resemble and which have been already
described. The food pit is generally found inside or
close to a hut, sometimes one pit may have served
several houses. These villages grew up in suitable
localities; a good supply of fresh water being, of course,
a sine qua non.

Little is known about the people themselves as
hardly any of their graves have been preserved. They
would seem however to have been a tall long-headed
folk. Apparently the dead were buried in flat graves
without mound or tumulus, the body being flexed.
Although inhumation was the almost universal rule
1 For description of these see the chapter on Typology.
 EASTERN AREA   133

both in Periods Danubian I and Danubian II, isolated
cases of cremation have been observed.

Although the cultures of this Eastern Area are
called Danubian, it must be noted that their distribution
was far wider than the valley of the Danube. In different
districts local names have been given and the cultures
to which they refer are of course not all precisely similar.
Thus in the Danube regions the earliest culture is named,
from the typical decoration on the pottery, Spiral-
Meander; elsewhere there is the Hinkelstein culture
of Wiirttemberg, Baden, Bavaria, Hesse, and as far
west as Alsace, and the South German Rossen culture
which as a whole is perhaps rather later in date judging
from the fact that certain influences from the true Rossen
people living to the north can be traced in the pottery.
But differences in time as well as area exist and a
sequence of at least three periods has been determined.
These are due partly to an evolution in situ, partly to
the action of outside influences. The latter were par-
ticularly strong in the last (Danubian III) period when
the influence of the Northern Area became especially
marked owing to the partial disappearance of the great
primaeval forests of Central Germany.

It is convenient to treat Moravia as the typical area as
many examples of the splendid pottery already described
have been found there. At first the decoration consists
usually of curves and meanders and is firm and clear (Plate
15,nos. 1—4). Later the pots still remained simple in form,
but the plain spiral-meander and Notenschrift decoration
in single engraved lines was replaced by a technique of
fine punctuated lines known as Stichband. The whole
appearance of the decoration became more angular, the
meanders becoming straight and the wide zigzags long
and narrow, their angles acute instead of obtuse. New
 134   CULTURES OF THE

decoration motifs also appear. This development of
Danubian I, like the true Spiral-Meander culture,
spread up the Danube and its tributaries as well as
northwards through Moravian). The earliest industries
of the Swiss lake dwellings owe practically everything
to the Danubian culture. The whole of Central Germany
was still covered by forests and therefore as yet un-
inhabited, but, following the forest-free loess lands, this
eastern European peasant folk actually seem to have
penetrated as far west as Belgium where a Neolithic
industry called Omalian certainly contains examples of
its pottery with the punctuation decoration motifs
(Plate 15, nos. 10, 11, 12—the first is an eastern
European sherd, the two latter from Belgium). South-
wards the Danubian culture came in contact with the
far more developed and brilliant cultures of the Medi-
terranean basin, where metal was not unknown. Con-
siderable intercourse between the two regions can be
traced by a study of the respective industries.

The Danubian II culture which followed is largely
an evolution of the older culture; but in Hungary (for
example at the well-known site at Lengyelw) and in
Bavaria it is especially characterised by the occurrence
of large numbers of footed vessels (Plate 15, no. 14)
and pots ornamented with little round knobs (Plate 15,
no. 15). Numbers of socketed ladles also occur.
Human figurines had already been made by the first
Danubian folk, but in second Danubian times they
show great skill in manufacture—a seated figure
carrying a baby, from the second level at Vin£a (s), a
site near Belgrade, is really delightful1.

1 The earliest level at Vinca can be correlated with Danubian I
of Moravia. V. G. Childe believes that the Danubians arrived in
Europe by the Danube, Vinca I being, therefore, especially early.
 EASTERN AREA

135

By the next period (Danubian III) the change of
climate at the end of Neolithic times had already begun
to operate and the forests of the central lands were
gradually disappearing. Influences from the north
begin to appear and at the same time the Pile-Dwelling
culture of the highland region to the south began to
spread beyond its borders. The result was that the
peasant population of the loess plains became affected
by these northern and southern influences, the intensity
of each varying naturally with the particular locality.
In such an area as Lower Austria the Pile-Dwelling
influence is the stronger, and we find handled cups of
coarse though well-burnt pottery, typical of the Pile-
Dwelling industries; but little influence from the north
is apparent, except the occasional occurrence of a few
potsherds engraved with deep lines forming close
zigzags, which strongly recall northern types.

A little later when the central districts of Germany
were forest-free and definitely inhabited, hybrids de-
veloped between the cultures of the various areas and
these in their turn influenced and sometimes dominated
the old peasant stock which we have been describing
and who, engaged as they were in agriculture, never
seem to have developed the warlike arts.

But this brings us to the whole question of the Late
Neolithic cultures in Central Europe formed by the
intermixture of the old stocks. The matter is extra-
ordinarily complicated and only a brief sketch is here pos-
sible. In Thuringia there developed a culture character-
ised by its methods of pottery decoration. Before being
burnt the paste was impressed with a twisted cord or
string and its makers are therefore known as the Corded
Ware folk. These people were hardy and warlike,
owing as they did a great deal to the northern stock
 CULTURES OF THE

X36

from which they largely sprang. They possessed the
battle axe, and their northern relationship is further
seen by the presence of the round amphora. They were
a long-headed people who interred their dead, in either
a squatting or an extended position, in small stone kists
or in shallow pit graves covered with a low mound. A
rich funeral furniture including pottery, battle axes,
hammer axes, pierced teeth, and the like, is often found.
Cremation was very rarely practised. A careful study
of the Corded Ware culture has enabled investigators
to determine an older and a later series showing con-
siderable development in the interval. These were some
of the folk who lived side by side with and dominated
the old peasant Danubians; it is the Corded Ware
people who inhabited the hills, living in fortified
localities, while the Danubians lived in unprotected
villages in the valleys below.

The so-called Rossen culture (2), whose cradle seems
to have been near Merseburg, is another hybrid which
owes much to the Northern Area folk. As before, the
round amphora occurs as well as round and flat-bottomed
bowls which are profusely and beautifully decorated
with small complicated geometric patterns. On the
other hand, especially in South Germany, the hammer
axe and shoe-last shaped chisel or hoe (Plate 11, no. 2)
are found together with ceramic forms which demon-
strate that the Danubian culture of the Eastern Area
also entered largely into the admixture. The cemeteries
near Merseburg show inhumation in small kists under
barrows, the body being flexed, but cremation was
practised at a rather later date. The Rossen folk spread
to the regions of the Elbe, Saale and central and south-
western Germany, where, like their Corded Ware
relations, they formed a warrior race. The houses, as
 EASTERN AREA

137

seen at the village site of Grossgartach in Wiirttemberg,
were usually square or rectangular, and were often on
two levels. Below was the kitchen and hearth, with a
refuse pit near the exit, above were the sleeping quarters.
As usual in Neolithic times the walls were constructed
of wooden joists interfilled with wicker work daubed
over with clay.

Towards the south the influence of the Pile-Dwelling
folk was more strongly felt, and there arose a series of
cultures that were all closely interrelated. They have
been classed together as the Aichbtihl mixed culture,
from the finds at Aichbuhl in Wiirttemberg00. The
admixture was doubtless of hybrids like the Corded
Ware folk, etc.; not of the pure races of the several
areas. The decoration motifs on the pottery show
strong influence both from the north and from the pile-
dwellings; thus we note the fine deep lozenge and
zigzags recalling Scandinavia, and the small round pits
around the rims typical of the Lake-Dwellings pottery.
But though a general name has been adopted to denote
these Late Neolithic mixed cultures of the south, they
are by no means all alike and the pottery of Aichbuhl
is by no means exactly similar to its contemporary of
the Mondsee nor to that found at Loubliana (Laibach)
(Plate 20).

Lastly the Beaker folk, cradled in Spain, arrived to
add their quota to the welter of peoples that had by
now grown up in Central Europe. Their typical vessel
was the beaker described in chapter iv, and archers’
wrist guards made of stone are common. They already
knew of the use of copper for the purposes of tool-
making. Their dead were generally interred though
two instances of cremation have been found in Moravia.
How they reached Central Europe and spread as far
 CULTURES OF THE

138

east as Silesia and Hungary is not quite clear. The
natural route would be via France and the Belfort gap,
but it is just here that finds are rarest. However, Beaker
folkwere at this timeinthenorthofItaly,anditis possible
that the warm dry climate had by now opened the Bren-
ner Pass, which a little later, in Bronze Age times,
became such an important commercial route.

In Late Neolithic times a new folk appear in eastern
Europe, who made a well-burnt, beautifully painted
pottery. Stratigraphically two periods have been deter-
mined, but as yet little is known about them; did they
originate in South Russia or further eastwards? An
acquaintance with the use of copper, especially in the
later period, is certain.

It appears that these people were already inhabiting
fortified villages in Transylvania in Late Danubian II
times for, at a site called Erosd numbers of the footed
vessels typical of the Danubian II culture have been
found together with their painted pottery. Were
these people in Transylvania and the lands to the east-
ward at a still earlier date? Was it they who forced
the Battle-Axe folk to go northwards towards the
Baltic when they left South Russia to trek westwards ?
Although the painted pottery culture did not spread to
any very great extent, it has been recognised in a number
of localities from the south of Russia to Thessaly. The
more important sites are, Tripolje, 40 miles south of
Kief; Petreny, in Bessarabia; Erosd, in Transylvania,
the industry at which last place can be correlated with
that found in the lower levels at the next site Cucuteni,
in Moldavia, where two distinct levels are found.
Several sites are known in Galicia. In the Buko-
wina Schipenitz(6>, one of the type stations of this
painted ware culture has been excavated. The typical
 Plate 20. Laibach pottery: Forms and designs drawn from rough sketches made in the
Museum at Loubliana (Laibach).

\©

EASTERN AREA
 CULTURES OF THE

I4O

Schipenitz pottery was carefully burnt throughout, even
in the case of thick specimens. A reddish coloured,
well-washed and carefully selected clay has been used.
The colours employed include deep red, yellow, and
brown and creamy white: they are sometimes applied
direct to the polished surface, sometimes a slip is em-
ployed.

The occurrence of this painted ware in Thessalyo) is
important and in that region four cultural periods have
been recognised. The pottery of Period I was beautifully
made and decorated with well painted geometric patterns,
red and white as well as brown paint having been em-
ployed. There was also some incisedware with a punctua-
tion techniqueand a fine, thin, grey, undecorated ware not
unlike some Neolithic pottery found in the Peloponnese.
It is not yet known whence this culture arrived in
Thessaly or what its relationships are, the occurrence
of some shoe-last shaped tools with the pottery indicates
an influence from the Danubian culture further north,
though the pottery itself is, of course, quite different.
In Period II the country seems to have been overrun
by the Schipenitz and Cucuteni painted-pottery folk.
At Dimini occur large numbers of hand-made, shallow
bowls narrowing at the base; these are painted inside
and out in monochrome, geometric patterns being
employed. There is also an incised ware, the decoration
being done with deep firm lines. The third period in
Thessaly shows influences from the Bronze Age cul-
tures developing in the south. There also occurs a
painted crusted ware, the paint on which was not burnt
in when the pot was fired but can be removed by friction
or washing. This is an important find as it makes it
possible to correlate the industry of this period in
Thessaly with that of Moravia where a similar painted
 Plate zi, Examples of the industry found at Butmir (Bosnia).

[Prometheus]

EASTERN AREA
 CULTURES OF THE

I42

?ware developed at the end of Neolithic times. Perhaps it
was an unsuccessful attempt to copy the splendid painted
pottery ware of the Schipenitz type by a folk who had
not yet learnt the method of firing pots already painted.
The Moravian painted pottery is decorated with geo-
metric patterns; a white or red paint being usually laid
on a dark groundr.

The fourth Thessalian period does not concern us
here; the Mycenean culture from the south overran
the whole region. These Thessalian cultures are very
interesting and varied. Not only can the four main
periods be determined, as at such sites as Dimini and
Rakhmani, but in each period—except perhaps the last
—there were certain local variations in both the shapes
of the pots and the technique. For example, one local
technique consists in decorating a pot not by adding paint
but by scraping a pattern through the slip before firing,
so as to show the colour of the underlying paste of which
the pot had been made. The investigator is often able
to tell with fair accuracy not only the age of a pot but
the site whence it must have come.

Returning to the Painted Pottery folk themselves, no
burials either in Thessaly or in Transylvania are as yet
known, so we can say nothing about the race to which they
belonged. The source of the culture and its relationships
remain a mystery. The whole forms a rather restricted
and very anomalous group. It may be remembered that
painted pottery had been manufactured long before at
Anau in Russian Turkestan and a very fine painted ware
has been dug up from the earliest levels at Susa, as well as

1 At this time in Moravia and some other districts an appliqu6
work mode of decoration for pottery was employed. The decoration
was obtained not by engraved lines, but by a technique rather recalling
the icine of a cake: the result is that the motifs stand ud in hivh relief.
 EASTERN AREA

H3

at other pre-Sumerian sites in Mesopotamia. Painted
pottery is also found in the Neolithic industries of Egypt
and China(. But the motifs of this West Russian and
eastern European group are not the same as those at
Anau(9) or Susaao), and at present we can do nothing
but accept the existence of these people with their fine
painted pottery culture and wait until further excavation
supplies a clue as to their origin.

From Hungary there also comes a well-baked pottery
decorated with fine engraved lines and simple geometric
patterns. The age seems to be Late Neolithic but the
origin of this variety is not yet clearly known.

A very important site about which a separate note
is necessary is at Butmir near Serajevo, Bosnian). The
industries are rather anomalous and their relationships
not all quite certain. The age is Late Neolithic and no
metal has been found. Butmir itself seems to have been
a focus of culture with an influence that can be traced
over a wide area. For example somewhat similar types
of pottery have been excavated from Stone Age tumuli
as far south as the Vardar valley above Salonika. The
excavations at Butmir have exposed a land-village site,
the industries including polished and chipped celts,
shoe-last celts, perforated hammer axes, picks, tanged
arrow heads, trimmed flakes, scrapers, hammer stones,
etc. The pottery is often beautifully decorated with
geometric patterns in fine lines or punctuations, etc.
Spirals occur as a motif. There appear to be strong
influences from the Pile-Dwelling cultures. A special
feature is the large number of terra-cotta figurines that
have been found. These represent the human form in
a rather conventionalised way. Figurines of “goddesses”
become commoner from Late Neolithic times onwards
and form a widely spread group which occurs over a large
 144 CULTURES OF THE EASTERN AREA

part of the Near East1. Terra-cotta spindle whorls also
come from Butmir. Although not belonging strictly
to the Eastern Area series, its geographical situation
makes it necessary to give this description here. Plate
21 will show examples of the finds.

BIBLIOGRAPHY and REFERENCES

(1)   V. G.Childe. *The Dawn of European History. 1925. (Ch.xn.)

(2)   H. Reinerth. *Chronologie derjiingeren Steinzeit.Tubingen, 1924.

(3)   J. Palliardi. “Die relative Chronologie der jiingeren Steinzeit in

Mahren.” Wriener Prahistorischc Zeitschrift, 1, 1914.

(4)   Wosinski Mor. Das prahistorische Schanzwerk von Lengyel.

(5)   M. M. Vassits. Prahistorische Zeitschrift9 Berlin.

(6)   V. G. Childe. “Schipenitz: a Late Neolithic Station with painted

pottery in Bukowina.” Journ. Roy. Anth. Inst. vol. liii, July-
Dee. 1923. From this paper references to accounts of other
sites belonging to the same culture can be obtained.

(7)   A. J. B. Wace and M. S. Thompson. Prehistoric Thessaly. 1912.

(   See bibliography (2) at end of chapter in.

(9)   See bibliography (4) at end of chapter 11.

(10)   E. Pottier. Mimoires de la Diligation en Perse. Tome xm,

Recherches Archeologiques, Ceramique peinte de Suse.

(x 1) See bibliography (2) at end of chapter 11.

1 They occur too in the West as for example in Brittany.
 CHAPTER VI

NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF THE
NORTHERN AND WESTERN AREAS

Having briefly sketched out the story of the Neo-
lithic development in eastern Europe, we must
now turn our eyes westwards. There are two districts,
a Northern and a Western, to be considered, but there
is close connection between them and they are more
conveniently treated in a single chapter.

The culture of the Western Area had a special develop-
ment along the mountain backbone of the continent in
the shape of a Lake-Dwelling culture, which seems to be,
in part at any rate, an early hybrid between the Danubian
culture of the Eastern Area and that of the Western Area.

As a whole the Neolithic cultures of the Western
and Northern Areas owe considerably more to the Meso-
lithic folk who preceded them than is the case in eastern
Europe, where the Mesolithic is rarer and the Neolithic
culture was distinctly intrusive. So much is this the
case that it has been suggested that the older Mesolithic
cultures, transformed and become Neolithic by the
introduction of the fundamental discoveries that had
been made by true Neolithic man, formed a considerable
part of the Neolithic cultures of the Western and North-
ern Areas. It has been urged, further, that the great
megalithic tomb structures, that we shall describe
before long, are an attempt to reproduce artificially the
cave graves of a former time; certain it is that, though
the Mesolithic folk were probably few in numbers,
they must have contributed enormously to the new
culture, and further, it is not very easy to see exactly

s

IO
 T46 CULTURES OF THE NORTHERN

how and whence a totally new people bringing the
Neolithic civilisation from outside could have arrived.
By the end of Danubian I times the Danubians had,
it is true, penetrated as far as Belgium at any rate, and
it is quite possible that this period is not far removed
in time from the early true Neolithic times of western
Europe and that while the Danubian peasant of Period I
was cultivating the soil of the Lower Danube area, the
Mesolithic hunter and fisher may still have been in-
habiting the west. But that anything like an extensive
intrusion of the Danubians into the Western and
Northern Areas occurred is wellnigh impossible.

The Western and Northern Areas are linked together
by the presence in both of megalithic constructions,
and it will be necessary, therefore, before going further,
to say a word or two about these monuments.

The simplest megalithic monument is the Menhir
which consists of a single monolith set up, as a rule,
at or near a burial spot. The monolith may be small
or gigantic in height, examples being known as much
as 30 feet high near Carnac in Brittany. Menhirs some-
times consist of natural stones of suitable shape; some-
times they are roughly shaped and squared, tapering
towards the top. Some prehistorians have seen a phallic
significance in certain instances; this may or may not
be the case. Engravings on menhirs are known, though
these are usually very rough and apparently of no very
great significance.

Another construction is the Cromlech or stone circle
of varying size and often found surrounding a menhir
(Plate 22, no. 5). It is composed of a ring of large
stones carefully placed. A series of alleys, formed by
long lines of small menhirs covering an immense area
of ground, are known; these are called Alignments.
 AND WESTERN AREAS

147

so-a
 148 CULTURES OF THE NORTHERN

The most important yet discovered are those at Carnac
in Brittany, where there are as many as ten alley-ways
leading down from a large cromlech; they run in a
straight direction for more than a quarter of a mile;
then, after a short gap, turn slightly to the left and run
on for some considerable distance, then after another
gap, continue again a little further. The motive
and use of these alignments is not known. That they
were not built for an astronomical purpose, is seen by
the fact that at Carnac they do not run in a straight line
throughout, there being at least two bends in them. It
has been suggested that the changes in direction are
merely due to the fact that these alignments tend to
follow a slight ridge of higher ground. In age they are
somewhat newer than a large neighbouring menhir and
the grave it marks, for recent work has shown a strati-
graphical sequence between this grave, and the small
menhirs of the alignment which strike straight across
without regard to the earlier interment. However all
menhirs are not of the same age, and these simple tomb-
stones are found in many periods.

The most important megalithic structures are the
Dolmen, the Passage Grave and the Stone Kist. The
dolmen (Plate 22, nos. 1 and la) consists of a series
of large stones upon which has been laid a huge slab
of rock as a lid; the whole was covered by a mound of
earth or tumulus which has often wholly or in part dis-
appeared. Under the lid, in the chamber so formed, the
body or bodies and the funeral furniture were buried.
The lids are sometimes of enormous size and tremendous
weight; how they were removed from the quarry to
the site and placed on the uprights remains a mystery.
That it was a matter of difficulty can be seen in the case
of a large dolmen just south of Dublin, the lid of which
 AND WESTERN AREAS   I49

is many tons in weight. The dolmen itself is situated
at the bottom of a little valley, and the lid or cap-stone
was apparently quarried high up on the valley side, so
that all that was required was to lower it to the uprights
below. But even this must have been no light task. In
the case of another dolmen, the lid of which is smaller
but by no means a feather-weight, found in South Wales
near Cardiff, we can actually see the site near by whence
the lid was quarried; but in this case the dolmen is not
constructed below in a valley, and one can only remain
amazed at the ability of these early folk to perform what
even now would be quite a complicated mechanical
task.

Passage Graves (Plate 22, nos. 2, 3, 4) may be con-
sidered as more or less elaborated and complicated
dolmens. They consist of a chamber composed of
large upright slabs, covered by a lid or cap-stone; from
this chamber there emerges a passage, varying in length,
itself composed of upright slabs roofed with flagstones;
the whole covered with a tumulus or earth mound1
(shown by dotted lines in the Plate). Between the
sepulchral chamber and the passage there is some-
times placed a stone slab with a hole in it, large enough
to admit a body. Such slabs are called port-hole
entrances.

The Stone Kist (Plate 22, no. 6) may be regarded
as being a degenerate form of Passage Grave, the
chamber itself having disappeared, and the end of
the passage acting as the burying place. Later these
stone kists were made quite small and developed into
glorified coffins.

1 A variety has been found in France where the chamber consists
of an artificially excavated cave in the hillside, reached by a passage
of the usual kind.
 15© CULTURES OF THE NORTHERN

In Scandinavia it can be shown that the dolmen
is earlier than the passage grave or the stone kist
but continues to exist up to Metal Age times. Later
the passage grave, and finally, at the end of Neolithic
times, the stone kist appears. The Spanish Peninsula
is another good area for studying the development of
these megalithic buildings, for here, especially in the
south, we find a rich Copper Age from very early times,
due partly to the influence of the progressive eastern
Mediterranean folk and resulting in a very highly
developed culture. At the end of the period there was
a rapid and peculiar development in construction. We
often find large passage graves where the sepulchral
chamber has grown at the expense of the passage, with
the result that, as at Cueva Menga for example, we
find a chamber of enormous size, the gallery being
merely a short and wide entrance passage. In the
instance given the chamber measures over 25 metres
long by rather more than 6 metres wide and nearly 3
metres high. There are central roof supports, and when
it is remembered that this chamber was completely
covered by only five lid-stones, something of the task
accomplished by these primitive folk will be realised.
Obviously building these gigantic constructions was no
easy task, and a simplified method was later introduced
which enabled the builders to form them without the
difficulty of heaving the lid-stones up onto the uprights,
and which also did away with the necessity of having
uprights stout enough to support their weight. A suit-
able small hill was chosen on the top of which a wide
trench was dug. At the bottom of this trench the lid-
stones were laid and the whole then filled in. Excava-
tion was then carried through the side of the hill under
the lid-stones, and a chamber was hollowed out, care
 AND WESTERN AREAS

151

being taken that the chamber was always less in width
than the lid-stones above, which therefore rested on
undisturbed earth on either side. Finally a rough
walling was built, often of small stones (dry walling),
or thin slabs, that finished off the work; this last was
for appearance rather than use as it had no weight to
support.

At the end of the period in Spain we also note a new
method of roof construction for the sepulchral chambers;
corbelling (again a lazy way of avoiding the transport
of large heavy lids or cap-stones) becomes common,
doubtless due to influence from the east.

In England we have examples of most megalithic
monuments, there being dolmens at Kidscot in Kent,
also near Cardiff and elsewhere, passage graves (gene-
rally called “Long Barrows” on account of the oval
shape of the tumuli) in many places on the mainland and
in the Channel Islands, etc., and stone kists (generally
called Round Barrows from the circular shape of the
tumuli). Metal was already in use by the folk who made
these barrows in our own land, and it is only in outlying
areas, such as Scandinavia, where the introduction of
metal for common use took place very late, that the
stone kist can be considered as truly Neolithic.

The origin of the idea that led to the building of
these megalithic tombs is a matter of great controversy,
and it is by no means generally accepted that they repre-
sent a survival of Palaeolithic cave burials. Attempts
have been made to trace their origin to Egypt. It has
been pointed out that dolmens of all kinds flourish in
the south of the Spanish Peninsula, are very common
in Portugal (the dolmen field near Paviaco has yielded
hundreds of examples), and that megalithic tombs have
also been found in North-West Africa; the exponents
 I£2   CULTURES OF THE NORTHERN

of the Egyptian theory therefore point triumphantly
to a complete chain following round the coast lines up
to Scandinavia. They are not found to any great extent
far away from coastal areas, in Central Europe for
example. But unfortunately there is a flaw in the argu-
ment; the North-West African examples have yielded
an industry belonging to the Iron Age! Again, it is
not fair to consider Spain as a mere intervening link,
for southern Spain, with its brilliant Copper Age cul-
ture, that grew up when the rich native ores were
exploited, was just as capable of initiating a new cult
as Egypt itself. The developments of the megalithic
monument in South Spain were far more elaborate
than those found further north, and if the Spanish
Peninsula received the idea from Egypt and passed it
on northwards, why did it not also pass on its discovery
of easier methods of construction ? No, the origin of
these buildings remains a mystery. That they had a
splendid development in Spain is undoubted; that they
were widespread over western France is a fact; and
that they were introduced into the Northern Area from
the west is probable. All that can be said is that they
point to a definite cult of the dead, a desire to protect
bodies from the ravages of wild beasts and at the same
time from being crushed by the weight of a mound of
earth, which would have been the case if they had
merely been covered with a heap of stones or earth,
though simple burials under heaps of stones are some-
times found.

At the moment it is not possible to go further as to
their origin in western Europe; comparisons with some-
what similar constructions built for the same purpose
in far distant lands, such as India and other areas, but
of very different date, do not seem helpful. Somewhat
 AND WESTERN AREAS   I53

the same sort of argument must be used in the case of
the dolmens as a whole as was used in the case of the
pigmy stone industries. They indicate an idea which
may well grow up at different times in different places
in the spirit of mankind, but once this idea, namely
protection of the body intact, neither crushed by over-
laid stones nor free to be devoured by wild beasts, is
introduced, the building of these tombs is a natural
sequel. That these monuments, ultimately, had a ritual
significance is shown by the continuance of their form
even when no longer needed. Thus in England we
sometimes find, at the end of long barrows, a portal
that leads to no passage; the body being buried in a
small chamber unconnected with the exterior.

[Prometheus]

The Neolithic civilisation introduced well-made polished
stone axes into western Europe. As has been noted,
these are not found in Mesolithic times and only begin
to appear, for example, in the upper layers (that is the
latest in date) of the shell mounds. These polished axes
or celts vary to a certain extent in shape, and a definite
evolution has been determined both for the Western
and Northern Areas. They have been described in
chapter iv.

Pottery was not unknown in certain Mesolithic
industries, as, for example, in the Kitchen Midden
and the Campignian, but with the coming of the true
Neolithic civilisation the use of pottery was extended.
Its manufacture was improved and a certain amount of
decoration added. This, in Mesolithic times, had been
of the very simplest, often merely a row or two of
imprints left by the finger on the soft clay before firing.

Neolithic pottery in the west, however, was not made
of such carefully prepared paste nor had it anything
like the beauty of form or design that we find eastwards,
 154 CULTURES OF THE NORTHERN

among the Danubian folk, nor can it be compared
with the beautiful contemporary productions of the
eastern Mediterranean cultures. In the Northern Area,
however, we can note the development of well-made
and well-decorated pots, especially towards the end of
the period. It is not fair to take the pottery of the early
Swiss Lake-Dwelling culture as an example of ceramic
art in Western Areas, as the Danubian culture itself
played a very large part in its development. Reference
should be made to chapter iv for shapes and decoration
motifs found in these areas.

NORTHERN AREAS)

In a previous chapter we have already noted the
presence in Scandinavia and the Baltic areas of the
Maglemosean culture replaced later by that of the
Kitchen Middens; the Maglemosean probably con-
tinued to exist and develop in the hinterland, away
from the coasts, and in other inhospitable regions, and
formed what we call to-day the Arctic culture. The
Kitchen Midden folk at an early date seem to have come
under two influences, the one from the Western Area,
which lay south of them, and the other perhaps from
the east, though the exact direction is unknown. The
former of these influences introduced the polished
stone axe of the basal type already described and the
idea of the megalithic tombs. The eastern development
introduced at an early date into the Northern Area the
so-called “comb” pottery, so named because its decora-
tion was done with a tool resembling a comb (Plate 17,
nos. 7, ix). However, as Aberg has pointed out to the
author, a “comb” decoration is not at all uncommon; it
is found on the pottery of the “Arctic” culture in Sweden
and Finland as well as in several sites in Central Europe,
 AND WESTERN AREAS   l $ $

etc. Nevertheless its appearance in the Northern Area
fairly early in Neolithic times denotes a definite outside
influence. Many prehistorians consider that there was
an actual migration of some people westwards from an
unknown cradle in northern Asia. Whether these in-
fluences alone were sufficient to develop the brilliant
Neolithic civilisation of the north, or whether there was
an actual replacement of inhabitants by new folks is
not yet determined. The development of the polished
stone celt and its association with various types of
megalithic tombs1 has been described in chapter iv.
Associated with this celt began to appear the battle axe,
whose connection will shortly be described. At the end
of Neolithic times are found the beautifully made stone
daggers and the large leaf-shaped javelin points that
can be seen in so many museums; they were doubtless
copies of metal weapons from the south.

From the end of Dolmen times onwards we have to
note the existence, side by side with the regular mega-
lithic tombs, of a new kind of burial in single-graves
containing one body each and ringed with or covered
by a heap of stones, the whole surmounted by a low
mound of earth. These were first found in Jutland
and were apparently due to the incursion of a new
and warlike people who introduced the battle axe. It
was not till after Passage-Grave times, however, that
they dominated the whole of the Northern Area.
German archaeologists consider that they were a native
growth in the north whence they spread far and wide,
dominating the folk of other areas when they came into
contact with them on the disappearance of the primaeval
forests of Central Europe. Professor Myres and his

1 These tombs in Scandinavia have yielded as many as five types
of skeletons, showing that the population was of a very mixed character.
 156 CULTURES OF THE NORTHERN

school, on the other hand, consider that they originated
in South Russia, where a number of such single-graves
with the bodies buried in heaps of ochre have been found
associated with the battle-axe type of weapon. The
question is: was the movement from this South Russian
area northwards an early one, or is this South Russian
culture due to a late incursion from the north ? Again,
in Central Germany when the forests disappeared many
hybrid forms arose, one of the most important of these
being as we have seen the Corded Ware folk, who,
before firing, decorated their pottery by impressing it
with a twisted cord. These people, whose cradle was in
Thuringia, certainly had close connections with the
Battle-Axe folk and were themselves a warlike, domin-
ating race. Are we to consider that their origin was
due to hybridisation from the north, or, if we accept
the South Russian area as the cradle of the Battle-Axe
folk, are these Corded Ware people derived direct from
the same cradle ? Again we have divergent views between
the two schools of archaeologists. Possibly both are
partly true. It may be that the Battle-Axe people
originated in South Russia and thence migrated north-
west round the forests to settle on the shores of the
Baltic; that they absorbed the Neolithic culture of the
people there, and finally dominated them; that when
the forests disappeared they spread southwards forming
hybrids like the Rossen folk of the Merseburg district
and the Corded Ware people. Their typical tool, the
battle axe, has been found spread over a great part of
northern Europe and indicates the wide extension of
this warlike race. Perhaps we may for once reverse the
usual process and use later history to explain earlier.
In the ninth century of our own era the Swedes were
a dominating people; they spread widely southwards
 AND WESTERN AREAS

157

and eastwards; organised the incoherent tribes of what
is now Russia, and even took tribute from Byzantium.
Anyone who has seen the great earthworks thrown up
by these old Swedish warriors at such a place as
Bielosersk in North Russia must admit the strength
and virility of these Scandinavian conquerors. But
Scandinavia, although it bred, then as always, a virile
race, was not big enough and its climate not suitable
for such a rapid increase of population as is neces-
sary to control wide lands obtained by conquest. The
result was that this early domination fell to pieces.
Probably the same thing happened at the end of Early
Neolithic times. Whether the Battle-Axe folk were
developed around the shores of the Baltic in situ, or
whether the stock was introduced from South Russia,
their evolution did to a certain extent take place in this
Northern Area during a considerable period of time;
but when, at the end of Neolithic times, the climate
permitted, and they spread and dominated far and wide,
the increase of population was not sufficient to meet
the requirements, with the result that their influence
gradually waned \

1 V. G. Childe does not stop at South Russia for a cradle, but sees
the origin of the battle axe itself in certain weapons in Mesopotamia.
Other archaeologists, however, are inclined to see a reverse movement.
The question is a difficult one, and it must be added that between
Mesopotamia and South Russia lies some very difficult and not
easily traversed country. The pottery of the Northern Area is distinctive,
the usual types being the large amphora and the collared flask which
often has a ring where the collar and the body meet Other types can
be seen in the chapter on Typology. The collared flasks with rings are
interesting, as a similar example, but having the ring of gold, has been
found in South Russia.
 158 CULTURES OF THE NORTHERN

THE WESTERN AREACa)

The Western Area is in many ways distinct in its
development from the Northern, due to the fact that a
large part of what is now the north of Holland was in
Neolithic times below the level of the sea, and that
contact, although always possible, was not so easy as it
would be to-day. The typical tool, the polished stone
axe, develops differently, and the squaring of the edges
and the flattening of the top and under surface are not
seen to anything like the same extent: see chapter iv.
Pottery in the Western Area never reached anything
like the development that took place in the north, and
although decoration was practised it was on the whole
crude in comparison with that of the other areas. The
only exception to this is in localities under the influence
of the Mediterranean culture, but as here copper was
already being used the culture is no longer really
Neolithic. Even the wonderful developments at Carnac
with their tumulus burials, alignments, beaker-pots,
etc., so long classed as Late Neolithic, date from a time
at the very extreme end of the true Neolithic period;
in fact the finding of a certain amount of metal associated
with the monuments has forced prehistorians to con-
sider Carnac as definitely of Copper Age. Possibly the
richness of Brittany was due to sea commerce in tin and
callais (a rock rather like turquoise), and other minerals
that were required by the more advanced Mediterranean
folk who had already developed a sea trade.

In fact the cultural development over France and
the Western Area generally in Neolithic times was
rather dull and monotonous. The native decorated
pottery is not very interesting and the series of polished
stone celts becomes dreary. Little arrow heads, scrapers,
 AND WESTERN AREAS   159

knives, etc., of the usual types occur and plough-shares
made of quartzite from the Forest of Montmorency
have already been mentioned. The occurrence of hand-
some easily worked honey-coloured flint at Grand
Pressigny (Indre et Loire) gave rise to a brisk commerce
in this commodity, but it did not reach its climax till
Copper Age times. The Omalian fonds de cabanes of
Belgium have already been described. Some burials in
a sort of stone kist at Chamblandes near Lausanne, of
Middle to Late Neolithic date, are not without a certain
interest. The Camp de Chassey, situated on the borders
of the Departments of Sa6ne et Loire and Cote d’Or,
would seem to have been a well-fortified village. Some
800 yards long, with a breadth varying from 120 to
220 yards it occupied a strong position on the top of a
narrow rocky plateau dominating the right bank of the
River Dheune. Each end of the emplacement was pro-
tected by a raised embankment which in places is even
now 15 yards high on the outside. The remains of habi-
tations and hearths have been discovered as well as rich
finds of pottery, implements, etc. The flint finds include
scrapers, awls, fabricators, sickles and arrow heads in
such quantities as to suggest their manufacture for trade.
There are implements in polished stone, massive pierced
stone rings, stone polishers and hones: bone points,
stag antler hafts for tools, also small cups beautifully
made from the base of the antler. Finally there is
an immense variety of pottery; there are vases with
saucer-like stands, small twin cups, spoons, and an
infinity ofbowls and vessels (Plate 16, nos. 4—7,11,12).
The decorations are varied, some recalling those on
Laibach pottery. The date of the village would seem
to be Late Neolithic, though it continued to be used
sporadically till the Iron Age (4).
 i6o

CULTURES OF THE NORTHERN

SWISS LAKE DWELLINGS(s)

The Swiss Lake-Dwelling and the Pile-Village culture
as a whole, found on both sides of the Alps stretching
from eastern France right away through Austria and
on into Jugo-Slavia, is of very special interest. A de-
scription of the pile dwellings has already been given
in the chapter on Neolithic civilisation, and it only
remains here to discuss the industries found and the
origin and connection of the culture itself. The brilliant
work of Vouga in recent years has determined a
definite stratigraphy in the peat and mud under some
of these Lake-Dwelling villages. Four distinct cultures
have been determined. In the first of these occur
beautifully made pottery, recalling the Danubian, and
well-made stone axes, often from very choice rocks,
such as serpentine, that must have been imported from
some distance; these little polished stone axes are often
mounted in the hollowed-out ends of portions of antler.
Quite clearly there is a distinct connection with the
later phases of Danubian I culture, although it would
seem probable that the connection is not so much racial
as an influence acting possibly on older Mesolithic folk
who certainly existed previously in these regions, as has
been proved by the finding of an Azilian station south
of Basle at a site called Birseck, and elsewhere. In the
second period, according to the stratigraphy of the
Swiss Lake Dwellings, there was a very distinct falling
off and the Danubian influence ceased. Possibly a more
distinct influence from the Western Area can be traced.
Between the first and second periods, owing to climatic
changes, great floods occurred and the lakes rose. No
cultural connection, therefore, is traceable between
them. In the second period the implements were
 AND WESTERN AREAS

161

generally made from local rocks, and they and the
pottery are of very inferior manufacture. In the third
level there is distinct improvement and foreign rocks
were again imported for the making of small polished
tools. In the fourth or latest stage we note the intro-
duction of copper, and the extensive commerce that
grew up in parts of Europe at this time brought to the
Swiss lake dwellers the especially valued dark honey-
coloured flint from Grand Pressigny (West France).

The extension of the Pile-Dwelling culture along the
foot-hills of the Alps on both sides of the central chain
is of great interest, and the question arises: was the
movement from the west eastwards; was the connection
of Loubliana (Laibach) with Switzerland; or are we to
look further east for the relationships and an east to west
movement ? On the whole, in Switzerland at any rate,
there seems little need to postulate the introduction of
a new racial element, and it does not seem inconceivable
that much of the culture of the Pile Dwellings further
east may be of autochthonous growth, undergoing
influences to a greater or lesser extent from the Danubian
industries of the loess lands. Laibach, itself contem-
porary with and in a way similar to, though different
from the Pile-Dwelling cultures of the Mondsee in
Austria, is late in time and must be considered in con-
nection with the movement at the end of Neolithic
times that brought together the various cultures, forming
hybrids which themselves played a considerable part
in the development of the peoples around.

No burials belonging to the Pile-Dwelling culture
have as yet been discovered.

2

IX
 16a NORTHERN AND WESTERN AREAS

BIBLIOGRAPHY and REFERENCES

(1)   V. Correia. “El NeoKtico de Pavia.” Mem. comm. de Invest.

pal. y prekist. num. 27 (1921).

(2)   N. Aberg. *Das Nordische Kultur Gebiet in Mitteleuropa

wakrendder jungeren Steinzeit.   Uppsala, 1918.

S. Muller. “L’Age de la Pierre en Schlesvig.” Mim. de la Soc.
Antiq. du Nord, Copenhagen, 1913-14.

(3)   A passage country lying between the Northern and Western
Cultural Areas was the Netherlands. For a description of the Stone
Ageothere see:

N. Aberg. Die Steinzeit in den Niederlanden. Uppsala, 1916.
J. Dechelette. * Manuel d}Arckiologie prihistorique.... Vol. 1.
Paris, 1908. The chapters on the Neolithic period still remain
very important for the student.

See also bibliography (2) at end of chapter v.

(4)   Those wishing detailed studies on the Western Area cultures
should consult:—

P. Bosch Gimpera. “Les civilisations de la Peninsule Iberique
pendant le Neolithique et r£neolithique,” V Anthropologies
tomexxxv, 192 5,nos. 5-6: “Studes surleNeolithique etl’fineo-
lithique de France,” Revue Antkropologique, 1926, nos. 7-9.

It should be noted that in the latter work the Campignian culture
is classed as Early Neolithic. It should be recalled, however, that
the Neolithic Civilisation in the west was due rather to the intro-
duction of new ideas than of actual hordes of Neolithic folk.
These ideas enabled the old Mesolithic stocks to become “Neo-
lithicised ” and permitted an increase in population which rapidly
followed naturally according to the Malthusian Law.

(3) See bibliography (2) at end of chapter v.

See also bibliography (1) at end of chapter 11.

P. Vouga. “Essai de classification du Neolithique lacustre d’apr^s
la stratification.” Three articles in the Anzeiger fur Schweizerische
Altertumshunde, Band xxii, Heft 4, 1920; and in the same
journal for 1921 and 1922.
 CHAPTER VII

A BRIEF SKETCH OF ENGLAND IN
MESOLITHIC, NEOLITHIC, AND
EARLIEST METAL AGE TIMES

It has never been the purpose of this book to go into
any kind of detail, and even in this chapter dealing
with a restricted special area little more than a frame-
work for more detailed study will be attempted. The
problems of these post-Palaeolithic prehistoric cultures
are very intricate, and there is seldom a well attested
stratigraphy to assist the investigator.