Speak about these subjects and more > History
Our Early Ancestors by M. C. Burkitt Publication date 1929
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(8). 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.
(8) 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.
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