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

[Prometheus]

 
 UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON LIBRARIES

Estate of Solomon Katz
 
 
 OUR EARLY ANCESTORS
 Mew York

The Macmillan Co.

London

The

Cambridge University Press

Bombay, Calcutta and

Madras

Macmillan and Co., Ltd.

Toronto

The Macmillan Co. of
Canada, Ltd.

All rights reserved

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.

[Prometheus]

It seems probable that in Late Palaeolithic times
England, like Moravia and other parts of eastern Europe
as well as Mentone and South Spain, had been peopled
by the Aurignacian race but was never actually inhabited
by Magdalenian man, whose cradle and focus appears
to have been to the west in France. The influence of this
glorious French culture was, however, felt far and wide1,
indeed isolated finds of true Magdalenian type have
been recognised here and there in our own country;
especially in the cave area of the south-west, but also
as far north as Creswell Crags on the border line between
Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. England was no
very suitable land for mankind at this date, especially
the eastern parts2 that remained long under the direct

1 The Aurignacian culture developed in England contemporary with,
and influenced by, the Magdalenian culture of France is sometimes
called “Provincial Magdalenian

z An Upper Palaeolithic industry similar to that found at Belloy-
sur-Somme (France) has been noted in East Anglia and at North Cray
in Kent.

It-3
 164 FROM MESOLITHIC TO COPPER

influence of the Scandinavian icefields. However, U pper
Palaeolithic culture as a whole seems to show a simple
evolution from an original Aurignacian stock, and at
Creswell Crags recent investigation would seem to
indicate a direct evolution to something recalling Meso-
lithic industriesd). A small but interesting industry,
comprising core scrapers, burins, blades and points
(though without the Tardenoisean burin) has been
lately found by Miss Layard one to two feet below the
surface at a site in the Colne Valley. This industry
probably also belongs to the very late Upper Palaeo-
lithic development.

Occurrences of Azilian culture in West Yorkshire
near Settle, on the shore at Whitburn near Newcastle,
in the River Dee near Kirkcudbright, and in West
Scotland, at Oban and on the island of Oronsay, have
been noted. These are extremely anomalous finds, and
it is by no means easy to see how such examples link
on with the culture of the Pyrenees. The nearest con-
necting link is a not very typical harpoon found near
Liege in Belgium, which connects it with typical in-
dustries found just south of Basle(2).

The West Yorkshire site near Settle is in Victoria
Cave, which was excavated with great care towards the
end of the nineteenth century, almost every object being
carefully mapped on to a sort of latitude and longitude
framework, so that it is almost possible to reconstruct
the whole deposit to-day as it was before it was dug.
Unfortunately, however, at the time of the excavations
the effects of burrowing animals were not recognised,
and for practical purposes the results from a strati-
graphical point or view are perfectly useless. The
deposits themselves are not horizontal, but at the back
of the cave the floor level rises with the result that the
 AGE TIMES IN ENGLAND   165

burrowing animals, which abound, had only to excavate
horizontally to intermix objects on the bottom layer
with those from the top. Thus we find bones of cave
bear from the basal level, not to speak of a hippopotamus
bone weathered almost to a pebble, intermixed with
Romano-British objects at the top of the deposit; while
at the base, below Glacial deposits, are found bones
clearly cut by a metal tool 1 Only two definite occupa-
tion layers can be recognised: a top one, Romano-
British in date, that has yielded much rich enamelled
work, and an under layer with but few objects, the age
of which is difficult to determine. An Azilian harpoon
(Plate 1, fig. la), very definite and typical, though with-
out any attachment hole through the centre of the base
of the stem, was found at the mouth of the cave in a
talus from this lower level. That nothing can be hoped
from stratigraphy at this site is further attested by
the fact that a carved bone bead of Late Celtic date
was found close to the harpoon. The difference
in the preservation of the two objects is marked.
The bead still contains a certain quantity of organic
matter whereas the harpoon has become completely
fossilised.

The finds at Oban are still more definitely Azilian.
There are two sites, the one, called MacArthur’s Cave,
was discovered as long ago as 1894 during quarrying
operations, it is near the centre of the modern town;
the other is a rock shelter at Drumvaig—a suburb of
Oban—now in the back yard of a row of tenement
houses.

There havebeen considerable earth movements affect-
ing the coast line of West Scotland in comparatively
recent times, geologically speaking, and the cliff in
which MacArthur’s Cave was situated—it has been
 166   FROM MESOLITHIC TO COPPER

almost completely quarried away now for building
purposes—has always been considered as marking an
old sea shore. The section in the cave was as follows:
at the top shingle, which covers a layer of black earth
in which two long-headed skulls were found. Under-
neath this black layer occurred the main archaeological
deposit comprising a sort of midden mixed with ashes
and some sea sand. An industry consisting of scrapers,
flakes, etc., as well as bone awls and harpoons, was
collected. The latter were made of deer’s antler and
were for the most part of good size, the largest measur-
ing some six inches in length, having four barbs on
each side of the stem, and being pierced with an oval
hole through the centre of the base of the stem, for
attachment purposes. Some of the other and smaller
examples, as in the case of the example from Victoria
Cave, Settle, have no attachment hole.

It is important to realise the significance of the fact
that sea sand was found intermixed with the main
archaeological layer, for the sea to-day lies some 30 feet
below the level of the site of MacArthur’s Cave, and
100 yards or so away. Again, the shingle layer covering
the black earth deposit must have been blown in by
storms at a time when the cave stood near the high-
water-mark level. The earth movements, then, that
caused this raised beach of West Scotland must be
subsequent to the inhabitation of MacArthur’s Cave
by Mesolithic man; they would seem, therefore, to be no
older than the Neolithic Age.

Somewhat similar finds have been discovered in
the island of Oronsay. They consist of at least five
shell mounds or middens, the most important being
locally called Caisteal-nan-Gillean. This site consists of
a hillock some 150 feet in diameter and 25 feet high,
 AGE TIMES IN ENGLAND   167

the upper layers of which are composed of sands
with a covering of turf and the archaeological deposit
is only some eight feet in thickness. This deposit,
consisting of ashes and sand, has yielded, besides
quantities of shells, limpets, etc., an industry similar
to that of MacArthur’s Cave, including eleven har-
poons said to have been lost at the Fishery Exhibition
in London in 1883. Except that bones of the great auk
occur, the fauna of those days appears to have been the
same as that of mediaeval times.

Tardenoisean culture spread over our country, and
persisted late. It is not always easy to determine
whether a given pigmy industry is really Tardenoisean
or Early Neolithic in date; H. Warren claims to have
found in very Late Neolithic or Copper Age cultures
geometric types, but without the typical tools. Pro-
bably Tardenoisean in culture are finds from Con-
stantine Bay, near Pads tow (3), North Cornwall; near
Brighton (4); at Hastings (s); at Aberystwith; on the
Pennines(6); near the coast of Northumberland and
Durham where the few sites that are known are about a
quarter of a mile inland from the present coast line (7).
Pigmy industries have been found in Surrey, Sussex,
at Land’s End, on the Cleveland Hills and at many other
sites, but the culture is uncertain. There is some doubt
as to whether the microliths found in East Anglia and
Lincolnshire should be assigned to the Tardenoisean
or to the Maglemosean culture. The most important
and carefully studied of these areas is that of the Pennines
between Rochdale, Manchester and Huddersfield, where
the chain narrows and sites are therefore concentrated
(Plate 23). At a time when the lowlands were doubtless
filled with forests, this upland area must have been
fairly suitable for habitation. Various sites have been
 l68 FROM MESOLITHIC TO COPPER

excavated by F. Buckley. They consist for the most part
of -workshop “floors ” on the tops of hillocks, the actual
height above sea level varying from 1000— iyoo feet.
Two distinct types of industry have been noted, the one
—on stratigraphical grounds judged to be slightly later
than the other—closely connected with the Tarden-
oisean culture of Belgium, the other probably more
local in origin. This sequence, however, is based solely
on what was found in an excavation at a single site on
the north side of Warcock Hill, Marsden (Yorkshire),
where the two industries are in contact, and further
evidence is required before the matter can be conclusively
proved. Both industries comprise small scrapers,trimmed
flakes and various pigmy tools; the difference between the
two is mainly that the later industry, which is rare, con-
tains broad flakes and tools, no angle gravers but abund-
ant Tardenoisean ones, while in the earlier or local series
the implements and flakes are narrow, Tardenoisean
gravers are absent but the angle type though rare does
occur. Almost all these workshop sites had a small
hearth; and burnt flints and carbonised wood, that can
sometimes be identified as oak, birch, etc., have been
collected. While the newer broad-blade industry is
undoubtedly closely related to the Tardenoisean culture
of Belgium, the earlier local series may be compared
with the final developments of the British Upper
Palaeolithic culture, the first phases of which, at any
rate, are to be seen in the top levels at Creswell Crags.
It is certainly true that in the narrow-blade series a
number of pigmy shouldered points are found corre-
sponding somewhat to similar finds at Creswell and in
the upper levels at Mentone where a rather similar
evolution of the Aurignacian culture seems to have been
going on. To the east of the Pennines in South-East
 Plate 23. English Tardenoisean industries from: W, Yorkshire and Penmnes near Marsden (a~j).
Feacehaven near Brighton {k, l, m). Hastings («). Bamburgh (0, p). Narrow-blade industry
from the Marsden district (r, s, t, u, *v, wo, x). Broad-blade industry from the Marsden
district (j’>   a'> b'y q)*

ON

NO

AGE TIMES IN ENGLAND
 170 FROM MESOLITHIC TO COPPER

Yorkshire two Maglemosean harpoons and a stone
industry have been discovered (. The situation is
therefore of very great interest; to the west of the
Pennines we have Azilian, on the hills Tardenoisean,
and to the east Maglemosean industries. One day,
perhaps, a definite stratigraphy will give us the relation
of the three to one another. Pigmy tools, but without
gravers, are found at Scunthorpe in Lincolnshire, as well
as further south over the sandy areas and “brecks” of
Norfolk and Suffolk. These pigmy tools sometimes
show a very deep and apparently old patina, and it is
not impossible that some at any rate will be found to
belong to the Maglemosean culture (Plate 24). At the
flint mines at Grimes Graves (Norfolk) a stratigraphical
sequence has been in part made out by L. Armstrong,
who has discovered a certain amount of art in the older
layer. This consists for the most part of rather mean-
ingless lines scratched on flint crust; but in one case a
not badly drawn deer is figured. The technique, how-
ever, cannot be described as Palaeolithic, and it may
be that this early industry at Grimes Graves is also of
Maglemosean or possibly of “Arctic” culture, which,
as has been seen, is closely connected with the Magle-
mosean, though rather later in time.

Coming to post-Mesolithic times we are enabled,
thanks to the researches of H. Warren, to call geological
evidence to our aid and so obtain a sort of stratigraphical
sequence in the low-lying areas of Essex(g). It appears
that at some moment in Neolithic times a land submerg-
ence set in with the result that the land sank below the
level of the sea. This is just the reverse of what took
place along the coast line of the west of Scotland, as has
just been seen above.

An ideal section—never yet seen in its entirety, but
 AGE TIMES IN ENGLAND   *7*
 172 FROM MESOLITHIC TO COPPER

deduced from a combination of various sections is as
follows:—

Re-emergence of the
land

Land below sea level

Land sinking
Land sinking

Present salting sur-
face

Tidal silt or scrobicu-
laria clay
Peat

Buried prehistoric
sites surface
Rainwash = locally
grey marsh clay
Pleistocene brick-
earths

Beaker folk industry

Neolithic industry
with arrow heads

Other important sites in this connection are on the
coasts of northern Ireland in Antrim, Londonderry,
etc. A good example is at Whitepark Bay(io). The
geological situation resembles that in Scotland, there
having been a considerable submergence of the land in
very early post-Glacial times and re-emergence in Late
Mesolithic times. On this re-elevated land surface lived
Neolithic man, as is evidenced by the finding of great
quantities of rough tools—cores, scrapers, flakes,
chipped axes and the like. By the River Bann many
small chipped flints have been collected which at first
recall a Mesolithic industry. No burins occur, how-
ever, and H. Warren claims that similar industries, with
typical Late Neolithic or Earliest Metal Age .types,
occur sporadically in Essex, and so these River Bann
specimens are probably also to be classed as Late
Neolithic in age. A peculiar type of tool is also found
in the same locality. This consists of a broad, flat,
pointed flake, having at the basea short stout central tang.
The tool resembles a coarse arrow head without any
secondary working except around the tang. This type
has not been recognised elsewhere in Neolithic in-
dustries (Plate 14, no. 3).
 AGE TIMES IN ENGLAND   173

Neolithic man has left for us, as evidence of his
culture, stone industries, and more rarely pottery, mines
where the raw material for tool making was procured,
and burials in megalithic constructions known ordin-
arily as “Long Barrows.” The stone industries are
for the most part surface finds and comprise the usual
celts, fabricators, scrapers, awls, arrow heads, etc. They
occur commonly on the sandy upland regions of Suffolk
and Norfolk overlooking the Cambridgeshire fens;
they are not found in the former forest lands and hardly
even along the river valleys. As has been pointed out
in a previous chapter the Neolithic celt starts by
having a circular section at the butt end, while at the
dawn of the Metal Age the tool became flatter and
consequently the section through the butt more oval.
Both varieties are found in East Anglia and it may
therefore be presumed that the whole of Neolithic times
is represented by these surface finds. However the
matter is not quite simple, and certain tools, at any
rate, will probably be found to be older and to belong
to the Mesolithic period. On the other hand flint was
in use in England until Iron Age times and, without
stratigraphy to help the investigator, it is often almost
impossible to be certain of the Neolithic date. True
Neolithic pottery is rarely found in this country, though
a few examples have been found in some finds de
cabanes near Peterborough excavated by Wyman
Abbott (11). Neolithic pots have also come from the
Thames, as for example a beautifully decorated vessel
with a round bottom from Mortlake (Plate 16, no. 9 ), and
once or twice fragments have been found in long barrows.

Flint mines whence prehistoric man obtained the
raw material necessary for his tool making have been
found in several places in England; they approximate
 174 FROM MESOLITHIC TO COPPER

in type to that of St Gertrude, South Holland, already
described in chapter m. The two most important flint
mines in England are those at Grimes Graves (Norfolk),
and at Cissbury (Susses). Crossing the railway line at
Brandon station, take the right hand road towards
Mundford. After a mile or so, again take the right-
hand fork and half-way between it and a little wood
seen ahead take a cart track to the right which more or
less follows a shallow valley in the heath. A mile or so
ahead, just to the right of the shallow valley, a coppice
is seen, this is Grimes Graves (ia). In the coppice one
finds numerous shallow cup-like depressions, which are
the nearly filled up shafts—originally some forty feet
or so deep—that were sunk to tap the flint-bearing
strata of chalk and from the bottom of which radiated
horizontal galleries as at St Gertrude. The so-called
“floors” where the raw chunks of flint were roughly
trimmed, lie along the edge of the shallow valley already
mentioned. A certain amount of stratigraphical evidence
has been accumulated showing that these floors are not
all contemporary and that two ages can be demonstrated.
Some rough scratched lines, as well as a quite well-
drawn engraving of a deer, on pieces of flint crust
were collected from the earlier industry. These have
already been mentioned in another connection. They
may be connected with the Maglemosean or its des-
cendant the Arctic culture, though examples of rough
scratched lines were also observed at another mine (or
rather prehistoric quarry) and factory site in North
Wales at Penmaenmawr which is of Neolithic date (13).
The industries at Grimes Graves have been claimed as
Palaeolithic, in part at any rate, and it has been urged
that flint mines existed at this site as early as Mous-
terian times. A miner’s bag of tools is not “home”
 AGE TIMES IN ENGLAND   175

[Prometheus]

furniture, and the industries, comprising as they do
tools useful for extraction of the raw material in the
mines themselves and their subsequent rough trimming
at the “floors” or factory sites, would lead us to expect
rather unusual types of tools. There is really nothing
peculiarly Palaeolithic, Neolithic types occur and the
fauna is modern. At the Cissbury mines a chalk lamp
was discovered placed on a shelf of chalk so as to light
the miner at his work.

For Neolithic burials we must turn to the so-called
“Long Barrows”(i4) which occur most frequently in
the counties of Wiltshire and Gloucestershire and their
surrounding districts. Such barrows are elongated oval
mounds frequently pointing east and west, being higher
and broader at the eastern end. The body or bodies
were placed in a chamber built of large blocks of stone
and approached by a similarly built passage with some-
times a door or portal on the outside. In other words
we are dealing with the “passage grave” or its deriva-
tive. A good example of a long barrow occurs at West
Kennet near Avebury (Wiltshire). Here the barrow,
336 feet long by 75 feet wide at the eastern end, was
originally surrounded by a line of upright stones, the
intervals between which were filled up by horizontal
courses of dry-walling. Some of the stone slabs forming
the roof of the passage and chamber under the eastern
end of the barrow weighed about a ton each. Four
long-headed skeletons were found in the chamber, also
some scraps of Neolithic pottery. These four persons
may have been the original tenants of the barrow, but
unfortunately it must have been reopened, possibly
more than once, as apparently later pottery and other
bones were also found. In the Cotswolds the dry-
walling edging sometimes forms a heart-shaped rather
 176 FROM MESOLITHIC TO COPPER

than an oval ground-plan at the eastern end. Such a case
is “Hetty Pegler’s Tump” at Uley (Gloucestershire)
excavated by Dr Fry in 1821. Originally four chambers
opened from the central passage, 22 feet long, which
was terminated by a low portal only three feet high but
roofed by an enormous stone lintel 8 feet long and 41-
feet thick. This doorway is in the middle of the eastern
end, where the incurving heart-shaped walls meet.
Several skeletons of mixed dates were found—two of
the crania were sent to Guy’s Hospital museum. An
interesting fact about the skeletons found in these
barrows is that they do not seem to have been placed
there immediately after death. Indeed occasionally, as
at Pole’s Wood South (Gloucestershire), the chamber
is too small to have contained the complete bodies of
the skeletons had they been so interred. In other words
these tombs were in many cases mere ossuaries.
Cremation does not occur. It must be noted that some-
times one barrow contains several chambers, with
possibly incomplete passages, and that often the door-
way seems to have become merely symbolic as it has
sometimes been found as a purely external structure
leading to no chamber behind. Large stone doorways
to the chamber itself, pierced with a hole big enough to
admit a body and called “porthole” entrances, are feirly
common on the continent but rare in England. Fre-
quently the covering mound or tumulus has, to a greater
or less extent, disappeared, leaving the large stones
standing naked, thus giving a somewhat dolmen-like
impression. A Late Neolithic date is generally admitted
for these barrows, a few scraps of Neolithic pottery,
arrow heads and javelin points, but never metal, having
been found with the primary interments.

Another kind of barrow of circular form is frequently
 AGE TIMES IN ENGLAND

177

found in England. These are called “Round Barrows.”
They are, however, of later date often containing
cremation burials of a round-headed folk associated
with Bronze Age industries. They appear to correspond
with the stone kist as there is no passage to the internal
chamber which is generally completely closed. But all
megalithic monuments are not necessarily graves, even
though they may be connected therewith, and their
purposes have given rise to much speculation. Such
monuments are the stone circle at Avebury (Wiltshire),
the Deer Park near Sligo (Ireland) and of course the
classic example of Stonehenge, about which a few words
must now be saidcu).

Originally Stonehenge must have consisted of (1)
a surrounding earthwork circle approached from the
north-east by a similar avenue, (2) an outer circle of
local, so-called “sarcen” stones with lintels joining
their tops. These lintels were held in place by tenons
on the uprights and corresponding sockets on the under
surfaces of the crosspieces, while each lintel was secured
to its neighbour by a similar groove and ridge joint.
(3) an inner circle of smaller upright “blue stones”—
a rock foreign to the district, (4) five great sarcen tri-
lithons arranged to form a horseshoe, opening towards
the avenue. The largest central trilithon must have been
some 25 feet high, (5) an inner horseshoe of upright
“blue stones,” (6) the altar stone, a large recumbent
slab, 16 feet by 3 feet 4 inches, placed in the arch of
the “blue stone” horseshoe on the so-called axis. This
axis is an imaginary straight line passing from the centre
of the middle trilithon, through the centre of the circle
and out down the earthwork avenue. Unfortunately of
course a very large number of the stones are no longer
in position. Besides these stones belonging to the main

B

12
 178 FROM MESOLITHIC TO COPPER

building there are, or were, some half-dozen isolated
ones variously placed with reference to the circle. Of
these four, or rather two now existing ones and the holes
where two others must have been, are to be found just
within the surrounding earthwork. They are arranged
symmetrically, each occupying a position the same dis-
tance from the centre of the circle and each making an
angle of 22% degrees with that diameter of the building
which cuts the axis at right angles. Each pair thus
makes an angle of 45 degrees at the centre of the circle.
Then there are the “Slaughter Stone” and “Hele
Stone,” which stand in the avenue but not centrally.
There has been much unproductive controversy as to
the purpose of the latter. It now seems fairly certain
that the blue stones of which the inner circle and horse-
shoe are formed must have been brought from the
Prescelly mountains in Pembrokeshire. They are made
of a rock quite foreign to Wiltshire and Dr H. Thomas
says that no other area in Britain except Prescelly can
meet all the requirements necessary as a source of supply
for these Stonehenge megaliths(i6). Also it can hardly
be coincidence that the Prescelly neighbourhood is very
rich in stone circles, etc., and was clearly a sacred area.
As regards a possible date for the erection of Stone-
henge, opinions vary, some assigning it to the end of
the Neolithic or beginning of the Copper Age. No
tools really helpful for dating purposes have been found,
and we may dismiss, as not giving any conclusive
evidence, a small copper stain on a stone which was once
made much of by archaeologists. Neither does the
complete absence of metal tools prove a Neolithic date,
as even in the Copper Age such precious and somewhat
soft implements would hardly have been used for the
rough work of dressing the stones. Again various ere-
 AGE TIMES IN ENGLAND   179

mations have been found around, in one case in the hole
for one of the four symmetrically placed stones men-
tioned above, and here, though the cremation is of a
later date than the Neolithic period, it is difficult to
deduce any satisfactory theory therefrom. Lastly the
all-important question of the direction of the axis must
be noted. It has often been observed by persons stand-
ing behind the central trilithon and looking down the
avenue that this axis seems to be directed to the point
on the horizon at which the midsummer sunrise takes
place. As a matter of fact this is not strictly so, and
observations and calculations as accurate as fallen stones,
etc. permit, have shown by how much it is incorrect.
But this point of the midsummer sunrise has for some
time been moving slowly eastwards at a rate approxi-
mately known, and it is therefore possible to arrive at
a date when the direction of the Stonehenge axis would
have been correct. Such a date is given as about
b.c. 1840 or, allowing for the maximum of possible
error, between b.c. 2040 and b.c. 1640. It is con-
sidered more than probable that the builders of the
monument did intend their axis direction to be correct,
and this may perhaps give us some clue as to the pos-
sible purpose of the building. Religiously it may have
marked the northern limit of the “Sun God’s” path,
or more practically, may have had calendar-like uses
very helpful to primitive agriculturists. At any rate
the vicinity of Stonehenge was long regarded as a sacred
area, for many barrows of the Bronze Age have been
discovered in the neighbourhood.

A distribution map of the Neolithic cultures
in England is very instructive, as we note how
dependent these folk were on forest growth. Sites occur
thickly on the sandy borders of the fen country in

12-2
 l8o FROM MESOLITHIC TO COPPER

Suffolk and Norfolk, where game of many kinds was
plentiful; agriculture was little practised, as is evidenced
by the almost complete absence of sickles. The hinter-
land on the “brecks” and warrens doubtless provided
a scanty but sufficient pasturage for the few flocks.
Even the valleys of the fen rivers were hardly occupied,
and the great mass of the country contains scarcely any
remains of these peopled). Most of the Midlands and
the western border of England proper were also un-
inhabited, and in Late Neolithic and Early Metal Age
times, when considerable movements of people took
place westwards, it was North and South Wales that
received independent contributions from the east, the
whole of the central district remaining barren. Doubt-
less these forest lands were unsuitable for human
existence in Neolithic times.

England was not wholly neglected by the Battle-Axe
folk and examples of their axes occur; but the chief
event that took place at the end of Neolithic times was
the arrival of a new folk called the Beaker people,
whom we have already mentioned in chapter v. Appa-
rently cradled in Spain the culture spread over large
parts of Europe, though the industries show certain
variations in different districts. It was our eastern
shores that were first invaded and the immigration
seems to have come by way of the Rhine. It is important
to note that the type of beaker found in Brittany is
absent or very rare in England and that it was certainly
not by that route that the culture was introduced into
this country. The invaders differed somewhat from the
former inhabitants of the land. The Neolithic folk
seem to have been of moderate stature, long-headed,
oval-faced, narrow-nosed, with small features. They
were not at all a powerfully built race. The new-comers
 AGE TIMES IN ENGLAND   l8l

on the other hand—according to Abercrombyos)—
were characterised by a short square skull showing a
great development of the superciliary ridges and eye-
brows. The cheek-bones, nose and chin were prominent
and the powerful lower jaw was supplied with large
teeth. They were a tall, strongly built race and must
have presented—at any rate as far as the men were
concerned—a fierce, brutal appearance. The dead were
buried in round barrows, inhumation being practised.
They knew about the use of copper and introduced into
England the beaker type of pot (Plate 19). These are
often beautifully decorated by means of a sort of cogged-
wheel tool,the pattern running in zones round the pot. But
the ornamentation was also often incised with a pointed
instrument and combinations show beautiful and com-
plicated motifs. For the most part the beakers had no
handles, but a few handled cups ornamented with
characteristic decoration have been collected. These
may be connected with variations which were produced
in Central Europe in Beaker Age times. Abercromby
distinguishes three main types of beaker common in
England. Each of these types can in turn be sub-
divided—a matter of considerable local importance.
Although these people introduced copper, they still
manufactured most of their tools from flint, and scrapers,
arrow heads and the like—often beautifully made—
have been found. It is the opinion of the writer that
the glassy or waxy appearance often seen on some of
the finely made scrapers, “slugs,” etc., due to fine
ripple markings on each facet caused by the use of
pressure flaking technique, can be taken as indicating
the presence of the Beaker culture. This is sometimes
helpful in determining whether a given industry is to
be classed as of Neolithic or of Beaker Age. The glassy
 182 from mesolithic to copper

or waxy appearance on the tools was very marked in
the case of some Beaker Age interments in a barrow at
Barton Mills, excavated by Dr Cyril Fox in 1924(19).
It must not be considered, however, as a sine qua non
for all tools made by the Beaker folk. The immense
majority of English beakers, generally associated with
burials, are found in the eastern part of the island (so).
But examples are found in Wiltshire and in South
Wales, and a specimen has also been described from
Baroose farm, Lonan parish, Isle of Man—its unusual
flattened and decorated lip showing “Food vessel”
influence of the Bronze Age1. One or two have also
been discovered in Co. Down, Northern Ireland, and
some further examples have been found in North Wales
and a number in the Peak district. In East Anglia the
Beaker folk, as did their Neolithic forerunners, pre-
ferred the high sandy lands overlooking the fens where
food was easily obtainable, and it would seem that,
arriving as invaders, they in part displaced the older
inhabitants. It is in Beaker Age times that the fen
islands were for the first time inhabited properly, and
the theory that the old inhabitants were driven by the
new-comers to take up their abode in less favourable
and more fever-stricken quarters is plausible. Honey
Hill near Manea is a good site for studying this ques-
tion, as a rich industry, by all appearances contemporary
but comprising Beaker folk examples among the
numerous Neolithic types, has been collected there.
At various sites in Scotland, as for example the Culbin
sands and Cruden Bay (Aberdeenshire), tiny scrapers
and well-made arrow heads, associated with “whorls”

1 Certain “scribed” stones have also been published. The carving
consists of a series of grooves intercrossing and running in all directions
over the rocks. A few more definite figures, including a spiral, do,
however, occur. No certain age can be assigned for this art group (ai).
 AGE TIMES IN ENGLAND   183

and small polished celts, sometimes pierced with a small
hole for suspension purposes, have been found. The
date of these industries is uncertain, but a very early
Metal Age is probable. The Beaker folk never obtained
a permanent footing in this country; after a time they
simply seem to have merged with the older folk, though
their influence continued to affect the original Neolithic
stock which seems to have come again into its own.
This has been rather neatly shown by R. Smith, of the
British Museum, in a study of the evolution of a particular
kind of pot dating from the Bronze Age and called the
“Food vessel.” This is a peculiarly British type and
its origin can be clearly traced to aNeolithic ancestors).
Neolithic pottery is rare in England, though one or
two examples, recalling in shape a proto-type of the
Bronze Age “Food vessel,” have been dredged from
the Thames.

But England was not to be left completely isolated
to work out her own salvation. A fresh invasion, this
time of a bronze-using people practising cremation,
arrived on our shores, and the history of the country
passes off the stage set for this little book.

BIBLIOGRAPHY and REFERENCES

(1)   L. Armstrong. £4Excavations at Mother Grundy’s Parlour,

Creswell Crags, Derbyshire.” Journ. Roy. Anth. Inst. vol. lv,
Jan.—June, 1925.

(2)   See bibliography (5) at end of chapter 1.

(3)   R. A. Bullen. Harlyn Bay. Padstow, 1912. A not very complete

account with little reference to the earlier Mesolithic industries.

(4)   J. B. Calkin. “Pygmy and other flint implements found at Peace-

haven.” Sussex Arch. Coll. vol. lxv.

[Prometheus]

(5)   W. J. L. Abbott. The Prehistoric Races of Hastings. Reprinted

from St Pauls Magazine, 1898.

(6)   See bibliography (10) at end of chapter 1.

(7)   F. Buckley. “Microlithic industries of NorthumberlandArchaeo-

logia Aeliana, 4th series, vol. 1, 1925. See also Proceedings of
the Soc. Antiq. of Newcastle, 3rd series, vol. x, 1923.
 184 MESOLITHIC TIMES IN ENGLAND

(   L. Armstrong. “Two East Yorkshire bone harpoons.” Man,

1922 (Sept).

(9)   S. H. Warren. “On the correlation of the Prehistoric cFloor’

at Hullbridge with similar beds elsewhere.” Essex Naturalist,
vol. xvi, 1911.

-----“The classification of the Prehistoric Remains of Eastern

Essex.” Journ. Roy. Anth. Inst. Jan .-June, 1912.

-----“The dating of Surface Flint Implements and the evidences

of the Submerged Peat Surface.” Proc. Prehist. Soc. E. Anglia,
vol. m, pt 1, 1918-1919.

(10)   W. J. Knowles. “Report on the Prehistoric Remains from the

Sand-hills of the Coast of Ireland.” Proc. Roy. Irish Acad.
Series 111, vol. 1.

---- “ Prehistoric Stone Implements from the River Bann and

Lough Neagh.” Proc. Roy. Irish Acad. vol. xxx, sect, c, No. 7.
G. Coffey. “The Larne Raised Beach.” Proc. Roy. Irish Acad.
vol. xxv, sect, c, No. 6.

(11)   G. W. Abbott and R. Smith. “The Discovery of Prehistoric

Pits at Peterborough and the Development of Neolithic Pottery.”
Archaeologia, vol. lxii.

E. T. Leeds. “Further Discoveries of the Neolithic and Bronze
Ages at Peterborough.” Ant. Journ. vol. n.

(12)   A Special Committee. “Report of the Excavations at Grimes

Graves....” Prehist. Soc. of E. Anglia,, March-May 1914.
L. Armstrong. See Proceedings of the Prehist, Soc. of E. Anglia,
vol. hi, pt 3; vol. hi, pt 4; vol. iv, pt 1; vol. iv, pt 2.

(13)   See bibliography (9) at end of chapter n.

(14)   O. G. S. Crawford. The Long Barrows of the Cotswolds. 1925.

(15)   E. H. Stone. The Stones of Stonehenge. 1924.

(16)   W. D. Bushell. “Amongst the Prescelly Circles.” Arch.

Cambrensis, July 1911.

(17)   C. Fox. Archaeology of the Cambridge Region. 1923.

(18)   J. Abercromby. A Study of the Bronze Age Pottery of Great

Britain and Ireland. 1912.

(19)   C. Fox and Earl Cawdor. “The Beacon Hill Barrow, Barton

Mills, Suffolk.” Camb. Antiq. Soc. vol. xxvi, 1925.

(20)   C. Fox. “On two Beakers of the Early Bronze Age...with a

record of the distribution of Beaker-pottery in England and
Wales.” Cambrian Arch. Assoc. June 1925.

(21)   J. Quine. “Early Scribed Rocks of the Isle of Man, with notes on

the early pottery ofthe Island.” Camb. Antiq. Soc. vol.xxiv, 1923.
 CHAPTER VIII

THE MEDITERRANEAN AREA AND
THE COPPER AGE

In prehistoric times the Mediterranean area was
culturally considerably in advance of the rest of
Europe, and it has therefore to be treated separately.
While throughout the rest of Europe metal was un-
known and only stone was used for tool making, the
Mediterranean folk were not only using copper, but
in some cases had learnt the hardening effects of the
addition of tin, and had begun to manufacture bronze.
The use of metal and consequent progress in culture
extended right round the central sea; in Spain for ex-
ample we find copper in full use at a time contemporary
with the later developments of the New Stone Age
further north. Doubtless this was due in part to the
fact that there are large quantities of easily worked
copper ore in the country, but there are as well clear
indications of influences from the progressive eastern
Mediterranean. In spite of the diversity of cultures
situated around the central sea this influence engendered
a certain unity which runs through the whole.

The Neolithic industries of North Africa, in spite
of certain similarities, are not uniform. For example
the stone tools found in the Oran are not quite identical
with those of the oasis of Siwa and these in turn differ
to a certain extent from the industries of the Fayum
and Egypt. It seems that from the Capsian (= African
Aurignacian) was developed a Mesolithic culture with
pigmy tools similar to, if not identical with, the Tar-
denoisean of Europe. This in turn gave place to a true
 186 MEDITERRANEAN CULTURES AND

Neolithic with small polished stone axes and quantities
of little arrow heads. These latter are sometimes leaf-
shaped, vaguely recalling in shape Solutrean laurel
leaves, sometimes tanged and winged. Now and then
small, extremely beautifully made examples are found
with their edges denticulated. Pottery was manufactured
and was in full use. Exact correlations between these
several industries and sub-division into successive
cultures have not yet with certainty been determined.

The most important area from the prehistorian’s
point of view is naturally Egypt(i). The earliest known
cultures have been found at Badari (Upper Egypt)1
and in the Fayum. The latter is probably rather the
earlier, though the industries show many common forms.
Rough pottery, polished axes, hoes, sickles, knives, and
a few bone tools occur in middens, and granaries, con-
sisting of large buried straw baskets, have also been
found. The Fayum lake then stood about 200 feet higher
than it does to-day, and the Neolithic families lived at
the edge. In spite of the time gap, the life of these people
must have been not unlike that of the modern desert
dweller of the region. At Badari skeletons have been
found, but the type seems quite ordinary and slightly
negroid.

There follows a succession of industries not easily
classed into a “cut and dried” sequence, but the
Neolithic Egyptian was certainly a past master in
the flaking of flint by a chipping and pressure tech-
nique. Late in Neolithic times graves were made

1 This industry has been claimed to be Solutrean in culture by no
less an authority than Professor Flinders Petrie, but his evidence is,
to say the least, extremely slender. The occurrence of a quantity of
pottery, not to speak of the stone industries themselves, would seem to
argue definitely that the culture is Neolithic.
 THE COPPER AGE

187

just beyond the cultivated land on the edge of the
desert, of which the best known are those of Nakadah,
a site some miles to the north of Thebes. The graves
often contain a rich funeral furniture and so are
of the greatest assistance in obtaining a chronological
picture of the life and ideas of these early folk. The
body was wrapped in a reed cloth and placed in a
wicker box or under an earthenware pot to protect it
from being crushed. A flexed position, with the hands
up near the face, is usual. The funeral furniture in-
cludes pots, the earliest being made of a red polished
ware, the tops left black by regulated firing. All sorts
of shapes are found, including vases, saucers, etc. Later
appears a buff ware, decorated with figures of humans,
animals, boats and geometric patterns, including the
spiral executed in red paint. Objects of ivory, wood,
gold, silver and copper, as well as necklaces of crystal,
etc., are found in the graves. Other interesting objects
are the so-called palettes made of slate and often cut into
the shapes of animal silhouettes; these were perhaps
used when tattooing and painting their eyelids. There
seem to have been close relations with neighbouring
peoples whose influences doubtless helped the rapid
progress in culture. Just before the creation of the
First Dynasty, when the country was united under one
leader, copper was introduced and bronze not long
afterwards. Soon after the coming of the Dynasties
calligraphy was developed and the story passes out of
our purview.

The island of Crete (2) where a maritime race grew
up which later had the whole of the sea commerce in
its hands is a very important locality. Thick Neo-
lithic deposits have been discovered underlying the
Bronze Age palaces at Knossos, and these have yielded
 l88 MEDITERRANEAN CULTURES AND

well-made pottery, including the well-known “ripple
ware,” first cousin to a very similar pottery found at
Badari. However these Neolithic finds at Knossos do
not seem to be very early and are probably later in date
than the Badarian discoveries. Cretan Neolithic vases
with handles and spouts occur; also steatopygous female
figurines of baked clay, these latter connect the culture
ofthe island with the worship of the Great Earth Mother,
so widely extended throughout Asia Minor and the
Near East generally in very early times1. On the north
coast of Crete, not far from the modern town of Hera-
kleion, an industry with rough quartzite picks and
obsidian flakes and tools (the obsidian probably im-
ported from Melos as it is not found on the island) has
been discovered.

The Neolithic industries are succeeded by a rich
series of Copper Age or earliest Bronze Age industries
called Early Minoan. These are sub-divisible into
three periods. In the pottery—sometimes painted with
simple geometric patterns—we find various and often
grotesque shapes. Long spouts, imitating a bird’s beak,
the eyes being also in many cases indicated, are of
common occurrence. The potter’s wheel does not occur
till the succeeding full Bronze Age cultures. In the
Peloponnese Neolithic pottery has been found near
Corinth, smooth, hand-made, and of a greyish colour,
apparently undecorated. In some ways the mainland
of Greece was less important than the Cycladic Islands,
for these latter had rich natural material to export. Thus
we find a Parian marble bowl in a First Dynastic tomb
in Egypt, while South Russia and Bulgaria, as well as
other far distant lands, have yielded objects made from

1 In this connection the discovery of female figurines in baked clay
from very early deposits at Anau III should be noted.
 THE COPPER AGE

189

materials only found in the islands. Melos supplied
obsidian, Paros marble, Naxos emery, and copper ores
occurred both in Paros and Siphnos. But, curiously
enough, no very definite Neolithic cultures have been
found in the islands themselves. For example, the
emery supplied from Naxos to Pre-Dynastic Egypt
was apparently collected by prospectors without any
considerable habitation of the island even by traders.
A little later, at the dawn of the Bronze Age, however,
the islands were thickly populated, presumably partly
from Asia Minor, partly from Egypt. From now on-
ward the islands came more and more under the in-
fluence of the Cretan culture which dominated the
Aegean throughout the Bronze Age.

Mesopotamia is still in process of being excavated
and much further light on its earliest cultures will no
doubt be thrown in the course of the next few years.
The Sumerian people, whose origin is unknown, were
at one time considered to be the earliest folk in the land,
but now painted pottery and other industries of still
earlier date have been unearthed at Eridu and many
other sites(3). A glance at chapter 1x1 will show that on
a priori grounds we should expect to look to the south-
east, to the now desert wastes of Seistan, for a cradle
for the cultures that later sprang into such great promi-
nence between the “rivers”; and in this connection it
is interesting to note that lately in the Panjab an industry
very similar to that of the Sumerian has been discovered.
Whether these two are to be directly connected, or
whether they both spring from a common intermediate
source is still unknown. We shall refer again to the
Sumerian and the cultures immediately succeeding it in
the chapter on the Bronze Age, for in this region writing
was early invented, and documentary evidence enables
 X90 MEDITERRANEAN CULTURES AND

us to visualise to some extent what life in the Bronze
Age must have been like in these regions.

An important trade centre grew up near the coast of
Asia Minor; this was Troy, or Hissarlik as it is often
calledu). Many cities, one on top of another, have been
unearthed, the sixth from the bottom being the well-
known city of Homeric fame. The earliest town, though
simple in construction, had stone foundations. A black
pottery (the paste being mixed with charcoal), slipped
and polished, occurs, occasionally decorated in a simple
linear design with white paint. The common form is a
bowl of globular shape with eyed lugs for suspension.
These are not dissimilar to those found in Crete belong-
ing to the earliest Metal Ages, but there is also a high
footed bowl such as is found in Danubian II. Stone
celts and a few perforated axes occur, but no metal.
The fauna includes sheep, goats, cattle, pigs, and
apparently fishing was practised. In the next town,
Troy II, which was of considerably greater importance,
there were stout walls of stone, metres high, sur-
mounted by a brick rampart with, as in Mesopotamia,
false buttresses at intervals. The houses were of the
Megaron type with porch and central hearth; this
rather points to a northern influence. This second city
of Troy was twice destroyed and rebuilt and can thus
be regarded as having had three periods. In the oldest
a red pottery was still made by hand, but a little later
the wheel appears and also the use of the muffle furnace,
which enabled the potter to obtain a black pot by the
reduction of the metallic salts contained in the clay.
Gold and silver decorated objects occur, but in the latter
part of Troy II’s existence analysis shows that the
advantage of a standard bronze, containing io per cent,
tin, had been discovered and was in full use; we pass
 THE COPPER AGE

191

therefore into the Bronze Age. Troy II had a commerce
stretching far and wide, and we find connections as far
north as the Danube valley.

Following round the Mediterranean (5), we note that
South Italy and the island of Sicily yield industries in
many ways quite different from those of North Italy
and more strongly influenced by the cultures of the
eastern Mediterranean; Central and Upper Italy were
more connected with the northern European cultures.
In South Italy regular villages are found and the burials,
sometimes in caves, sometimes in oval trenches, are
found near by. The people were long-headed—doubt-
less survivals of some of the old Upper Capsian stock
transformed—and the fauna includes goats, sheep, cattle
and swine. The industries, which are not very inter-
esting, include polished stone celts, which are rare, and
rough picks made from local rock; the occurrence of
obsidian, however, shows that a sea commerce existed,
this material not being obtainable locally. Pottery
occurs, occasionally painted, but more generally decor-
ated by being impressed, before burning, with an en-
graved stamp, the incised pattern thus formed being
sometimes filled in with a white or, more rarely, red
material.

The island of Malta, with its satellite Gozo(6), is of
especial interest as a rich culture, starting in Late
Neolithic times and persisting during the Bronze Age,
was developed there. Elaborate temple buildings were
constructed, which on excavation have yielded much
pottery including figurines. On the stones of one of
these temples a spiral decoration is carved. What
appear to be trackways—probably of the same age—
have been noted running across the island; there is
clear proof that earth movement has depressed the
 192 MEDITERRANEAN CULTURES AND

eastern end of the region since they were in use, for in
low-lying districts portions of the trackways are to-day
under the sea.

Another locality where important cultures were
developed is Sardinia, a region rich in obsidian, copper
and silver. The earliest industry found there in some
respects closely resembles the Maltese, and has been
compared with the Early Minoan. Later appeared the
true Copper Age of the island when the industries
include flat copper celts and bell beakers and show
connections with Catalonia and western Europe. The
material examined has been largely collected from a
great necropolis of chamber graves called Anghelu
Ruju.

In Spain very rich Late Neolithic and Copper Age
cultures were developed(7), and these are not by any
means the same all over the peninsula. To the north,
of course, the folk of the Western Area culture supplied
a strong influence; but even southwards the industries
of the east and centre and west are by no means quite
the same.

[Prometheus]

The old transitional Tardenoisean culture, with the
addition of the trapeze and a knowledge of pottery,
long survived, and was replaced by an industry with
polished stone axes. That the folk of this time were
already wealthy is evidenced by the find of a gold
diadem in the cave of Los Murcielagos near Albunol
in the province of Granada. Two Copper Age periods
followed, each capable of sub-division locally and differ-
ing to a certain extent in various parts of the country.
The pottery was already well made and the stone
industries, including arrow heads and the like, show
very considerable skill. In the full Copper Age, or
second period, often named Palmella culture, we have
 THE COPPER AGE

193
 194 MEDITERRANEAN CULTURES AND

well-made pots engraved with figures of convention-
alised stags and human beings (Plate 25, nos. 1, 2, 3).
These correspond closely to the paintings in Spanish
Art Group III described in chapter x. The best-known
sites that have yielded this engraved pottery are Los
Millares and Las Carolinas just south of Madrid near
Ciempozuelos (Plate 25, no. 3).

The tombs of this period are of very considerable
importance (. Certain peculiar developments that occur
have already been described in chapter vi; there are
also artificial caves, as at Palmella itself, which have
been used as tombs. It is the southern part of the
peninsula with which we are now mostly concerned
and here influences from the eastern Mediterranean
made themselves felt. In the north the types and
developments of megalithic constructions are of the
normal Western Area variety and show clear connections
with France. Thanks to the explorations of Siret,
Obermaier, and a number of Spanish investigators, it
has been found possible to make out a sequence for the
megalithic monuments of the southern area, which
includes parts of South Portugal, as follows:

END OF TRUE NEOLITHIC AGE

At this time we find:

1.   Precursors of the true dolmens in the form of
rectangular boxes or circular enclosures. No lid, if
there ever was one, has survived. Little tumulus exists
over the construction.

2.   Simple chamber dolmens constructed of rough
flags of a quadrangular or polygonal shape.

In both types are found stone celts with massive
round shafts; ordinary Neolithic flint tools and some
pigmies; points, awls and chisels of bone; simple
 THE COPPER AGE

*95

pottery (cups and beakers) with a few circles or pointille
engraved on them. A few poorly made ornaments such
as bored teeth, shells or fragments of bone, etc., occur.

3.   Dolmens with small entrances and little covered
galleries, their contents being the same as before only
of better workmanship. Armlets made from Pectunculus
shell. The first appearance of a simple form of schist
idol.

EARLY COPPER AGE

1.   Large passage graves.

2.   Big roofed galleries (the latter often of trapezoid
shape), their contents being celts frequently made from
choice stone; flint arrow heads trimmed over their
whole surface, often with tangs and basal wings; large
fine dagger blades; pottery with rich linear decoration
—geometric pattern, wavy lines or spirals, etc.—the
first appearance of bell beakers; beads of callais; schist
idols; amulets of animal phalanges. In the south of the
peninsula copper now appears for the first time.

FULL COPPER AGE

(Two zones—one in the south; the other in the
north.) In the south or rather south-west zone we find:

1.   Cupola dolmens with or without entrance galleries
or interior annexes.

2.   Ordinary dolmens with entrances and covered
galleries.

At the beginning of this time the change in building
referred to in chapter vi appears. Formerly, as has been
said, the uprights of the chamber and gallery supported
the roof, but now the excavation method is employed.
Locally, however, the simple passage grave with the
old technique continues to exist.
 196 MEDITERRANEAN CULTURES AND

The contents of the dolmens are similar to those last
enumerated. Besides these we find well-made little
votive celts; fine daggers and blades of flint; arrow
heads, some with long tangs and tail-like basal wings,
either willow or reed shaped; bone beads and round-
eyed needles; tools and weapons of copper—flat axes
and blades; pottery of the Ciempozuelos type with bell-
beakers, the decoration purely geometric or figurative—
sun pictures, conventionalised animals, eye ornaments,
etc. (Plate 25, nos. 1-3). Painted vessels are rare. We
also find beads, etc., of gold, silver, copper, gilded lead,
ivory, amber, amethyst, turquoise, callais; armlets of
ivory or thin stone plates; palettes; ointment jars;
human-shaped flat idols of stone; schist idols, often with
rich engravings of rough representations of humans—
frequently painted; cone-shaped idols of alabaster, lime-
stone, etc.; idols made from phalange bones, often
richly painted or engraved.

In the north zone we find:

1.   Short passage graves.

2.   Kist-shaped chambers.

The contents are more or less similar to those of the
last list, the finely worked flint arrow heads, sometimes
tanged and with basal wings, sometimes leaf-shaped,
being specially numerous. There are fairly rich copper
finds; pottery slightly decorated with patterns of Ciem-
pozuelos type; bell beakers; beads of stone and mussel
shell; small ornaments of gold, silver, copper, amber.
Rare examples of trephining have been noted.

EARLY BRONZE AGE

In this we find small stone kists with covering lids.
The contents of the kists show a falling off in the flint
industry, but are rich in copper tools along with which
 THE COPPER AGE

197

bronze becomes more frequent. We find awls, chisels,
thin flat axes with curved edges, sword blades and
triangular daggers, rings and armlets. Also plain
matt pottery of the El Argar type, as well as square-
shaped bone beads and ornaments of gold, silver and
amber.

The finding of beakers in Spain at such a very early
date is naturally of first-class importance, and it is
believed that the peninsula was actually the cradle of
this mysterious and elusive people. Their subsequent
wanderings carried them and their pots over most of
Europe and as far east as Hungary. They spread north-
wards to Brittany and perhaps via the pass of Belfort
down the Rhine to our own country. They crossed to
Italy and probably attained Central Europe via the
Brenner Pass. Naturally some modifications in pot type,
etc., occur in different districts; thus the pots at Carnac
are not quite the same as those of England, and in
Bohemia (?) handled cups develop, these in turn being
distributed over an area far outside their original home.
The Beaker folk were round-headed and burials were
by inhumation.

Spain was doubtless very important to the progressive
eastern Mediterranean cultures from its having metal
ores, and it is surprising to note the failure of this
brilliant cradle of culture to develop further. The early
Bronze Age (El Argar) culture proved to be of some
importance and spread to Italy, but from that time
onwards Spain for long ceased to count. One is tempted
to wonder whether the hardy and by now skilful mariner
from Crete may not have penetrated even beyond Spain,
and whether we should not look to him as the cause of
the great developments that took place in South Brittany
in Early Metal Age times ? Although the cultures found
 198 MEDITERRANEAN CULTURES AND

at Carnac point to a limited use of metal, there is no
reason to consider that the date is anything far anterior
to that of the Early Bronze Age in Crete; the occurrence
of tin ores in Brittany, not to speak of callais and other
products, might well tempt the Mediterranean merchant.
Much has been written by some authors of the influ-
ence of Phoenician traders in very early times; it may
be that further discoveries will substitute the word
Cretan for Phoenician in the prehistoric periods at the
dawn of the Metal Age in northern Europe.

Should the above really represent a true state of
affairs then the anomalous and splendid development of
culture in the south of Brittany—especially near Carnac
—becomes explicable, and as it would have owed its
origin to the Mediterranean influence this is the place
to give a brief description of it rather than when the
Neolithic of the Western Area was under review.
French prehistorians have long classed the finds at
Carnac as Late Neolithic, but metal has been found
and the Age is really Copper or Early Bronze. The
modern village of Carnac lies some two or three miles
from the sea in sight of the long peninsula of Quiberon.
The surrounding district is poor, from an agricultural
point of view, and there is but little depth of soil. But
what it lacks in fertility is made up in the interest of
its prehistoric remains, and the whole country-side must
have been a sacred area, being more than rich in men-
hirs, cromlechs, alignments, dolmens, and other com-
plicated megalithic tombs. To the eastward lies the
shallow Morbihan Sea full of islands, and there is direct
evidence of land submergence since “ Carnacian” times,
there being several menhirs and cromlechs that are now
no longer above high-water level. The menhirs are of
the usual kinds and are often of immense size. The
 THE COPPER AGE

199

alignments are world-famous and have been described
in chapter vi. It is interesting to note that the align-
ments at Carnac cross, without regard, over an earlier
burial marked by a menhir which is out of line with
the smaller menhirs forming the main alignment. Such
a definite sequence is important though naturally it
does not indicate that all single menhirs are necessarily
early. Cromlechs and dolmens are of the usual type and
much in the way of funeral furniture has been recovered
in spite of the fact that a large number of the monuments
had been long known and pillaged. Owing to the
scarcity of soil the artificial earth mounds previously
covering the tombs were of great importance to agri-
culturists. Simple and complicated passage graves occur
—the most famous being that of St Michel, near the
modern village of Carnac overlooking the alignments
of Menec, where there is a complicated series of cham-
bers and passages. Apparently a person of great im-
portance was buried here with perhaps his servants
and oxen. Some metal was also discovered therein.
Many of these megalithic buildings have rough carvings
on them. These include serpents—said to be drawn in
connection with polished celts, a conventional octo-
pus (?) looking in reality rather like a shield, so-
called waving corn, etc. In one instance, in a tomb at
Gavr’inis, an island in the Morbihan Sea, there is a
design closely resembling that on a tumulus grave at Sess
Kilgreen in Ireland. Probably Gavr’inis was actually
an Irish colony in Brittany. Among the natural pro-
ducts of South Brittany is a very fine bluish-green
serpentine rock and finely polished celts of a very late
type are found far and wide made from this material;
which seems to have been a favourite article of commerce,
though not rivalling the well-known honey-coloured
 200 MEDITERRANEAN CULTURES

flint of Grand Pressigny. Two such celts have been
found for example near Cambridge.

But it was not only through Spain that the progressive
cultures of the eastern Mediterranean reached northern
Europe. Direct intercourse between Cyprus and Troy on
the one hand and Hungary on the other is proved by the
finding of southern types of tools in the north. This
commerce seems further to have introduced the copper
worker of Hungary to the tin producer of Bohemia,
and the result was naturally fertile in progress. The
bell beaker folk added their quota and there arose in
these lands the so-called Marschwitz culture with its
handled cups, etc. that just preceded the true Bronze
Age. Flat graves containing contracted bodies occur
and the funeral furniture includes eastern types of
battle axes.

BIBLIOGRAPHY and REFERENCES

(1)   E. A. W. Budge. Egypt. (Home University Series.)

(2)   H. R. Hall. * Aegean Archaeology. 1914.

(3)   H. R. Hall. “The Excavations of 1919....” Man, 1925,1. See

also V. G. Childe, The Most Ancient East. 1928.

(4)   Dorpfeld. Troja uni Ilios. 1902.

(5)   See bibliography (1) at end of chapter v.

(6)   M. A. Murray. Excavations in Malta. 1923. Miss Murray

gives a number of plates illustrating her finds and the whore
forms a convenient volume. Most of the excavation in Malta,
however, and its subsequent publication is due to the labours of
Professor T. Zammit.

(7)   N. Aberg. La Civilisation LUniolithique dans la Pininsule Ibirique.

1921.

(   H. Obermaier. “Die Dolmen Spaniens.” Mitt.d. Anth.Gesellsck.

in Wien, Band l, 1920.
 CHAPTER IX

PRELIMINARY NOTES ON THE
BRONZE AGE CULTURES

Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin. True bronze
contains io per cent, of the latter metal and is a
harder and tougher material than copper itself and
therefore more useful for the purpose of tool and
weapon making.

No hard and fast line can be drawn between the
Copper and Bronze cultures of Europe; the alloy was
not introduced by invading warriors from outside, but
appears as an autochthonous development. That copper
could be hardened by the addition of other metals—
tin, antimony, etc.—had already been discovered in the
Copper Age and apparently many experiments were
tried before standard bronze was evolved. Cultural
developments were not uniform all over Europe and
it is near tin producing areas—tin ores are rarer than
those of copper—that the earliest true Bronze Age
industries develop. As formerly, however, the eastern
Mediterranean area was the most progressive and the
use of bronze started earlier there than in northern
Europe, the necessary tin being obtained through an
extensive commerce, which incidentally introduced
many objects from the Aegean into the northern lands
and helped to forward the new culture there.

The Bronze Age can be divided into four periods,
the earliest being called Bronze I and the latest Bronze
IV. In some districts, e.g. East Anglia, only two periods
can be clearly demonstrated; the sharp dividing line is
always between Bronze IV and the earlier periods co.
The periods are demonstrated partly on stratigraphical,
 202   PRELIMINARY NOTES ON

but largely on typological grounds, the evolution of
various tools being determined. An outline study of
the development of some of the more important im-
plements1 * will therefore be necessary before proceeding
further, stress naturally being laid on types belonging
to the earlier periods, as Bronze IY is really outside
the purview of this bookco.

CELTS

One of the commonest tool families is that of the
Celt. It commences in the Copper Age and its evolu-
tion can be seen by reference to Plate 26, nos. 1—9.
At first the shape is that of a simple chisel—usually
made of copper—and the tool is clearly derived from
the stone celt. Next side ridges appear, doubtless to
keep the tool in place when hafted, and in this connec-
tion there also grows a transverse ridge, called a stop
ridge, which prevents the haft being pushed down too
far. Thus there develops the so-called “Palstave”3 * * * * *
(Plate 26, no. 5). But side by side with this there was
evolved the winged type, where the side ridges increase
to such an extent that they bend over and. meet. At
first the wings appear at the middle of the celt, later at
the butt end (Plate 26, nos. 6 and 7). The winged
type is a continental development and from it the

1 Chance finds of bronze tools occur, especially near such places as

convenient fords where trackways converged. Implements are found
too in burials and also form hoards—these being formerly the “capital’9

of an individual or the stock in trade of a merchant. The so-called

Wilburton hoard—preserved to-day in the Cambridge Museum of

Archaeology and Ethnology—may be taken as an example. Apparently

it was being transported across a mere when the boat capsized: the tools

were preserved in the peat below.

% Side rings for attachment purposes are often found in several

types of celt.
 

[Prometheus]

Plate 26* Examples illustrating tlie principal types of Bronze Age tools. 1-9 show the evolution

of the celt during the Bronze Age.

O

THE BRONZE AGE CULTURES
 PRELIMINARY NOTES ON

204

socketed celt was derived by the complete closing of
the wings and suppression of the central septum. Some-
times an idea of the wings persists as an art motif
engraved round the socket (Plate 2 6, no. . The
socketed celt only occurs in Bronze IV, a statement
applicable to most of the socketed types of tools which
are seldom found earlier than the end of the Bronze III
period. The evolution of the celt can be tabulated as
follows:

x. Flat celts ............

2.   Slightly raised edges ...

3.   Stop ridges ...........

4.   Much raised edges

$. Palstaves .............

6.   (a) Wings at middle of celt
(l) Wings at butt end of celt

7.   Socketed celts:

(a) Round socket hole ............. Bronze IV

(&) Square or oblong socket hole ... Bronze IV



Bronze II
Bronze II
Bronze III

Bronze III and Early IV
Bronze III

Bronze III and Early IV

DAGGERS

Only in period Bronze I and II are the types of
daggers at all distinctive. There are three varieties as
follows: (a) Triangular shaped with a large base, the
blade being flat or ridged centrally on both faces to
ensure strength. There are rivet holes for attachment
to hafts but neither tongue nor tang, except very rudi-
mentarily (Plate 26, no. 19). This variety is found in
Copper Age industries and during Bronze I and II
periods. (b) Similar to (a) but with a distinct tongue
(Plate 26, no. 20). This variety is found too in the
same industries. (c) Slender and with a long tang,
which, especially in the eastern Mediterranean area,
is often turned over at the end. There is a central ridge
to ensure strength to the long narrow blade (Plate 26,
 THE BRONZE AGE CULTURES 20_$

no. 18). This variety is called Cypriote and it occurs at
the end of the Bronze I period1.

RAPIERS AND SWORDS

There are many varieties of these, two of which are
derived from dagger prototypes, i.e. from the triangular
dagger (Plate 26, nos. n and 12); and the Cypriote
dagger (Plate 26, nos. 10 and 13). A third variety has
no dagger prototype, but the blades are leaf-shaped
and the handles are varied and complicated (Plate 26,
nos. 14, 15, 16, 17, 22). The first two varieties are
mostly to b e dated to Bronze 11 or 111 periods, occasionally
to the end of Bronze I while the third is typical of the
Bronze IV period.

LANCES

Of these there are two varieties. The one called the
Amorgos lance has a flat blade with tongue and methods
for attachment to a haft, and occurs at the end of the
Bronze I and during the Bronze II periods (Plate 26,
no. 23; I2a shows ditto hafted). The other is a socketed
variety, there being several means of firmly affixing a
haft which gave rise to numerous different types. The
socketed lance does appear very occasionally as early
as the end of Bronze II, but is rare before the end of
Bronze III and Bronze IV periods (Plate 26, no. 24).

ARROW HEADS

Although bronze arrow heads occur, flint continued
to be used in most districts for arrow head making till
the Bronze IV period and it is not easy to say whether
any given arrow head, found on the surface without

1 Several specimens were found in the second city of Troy which
can be correlated with the last phases of the Early Minoan culture in
Crete.
 206 preliminary notes on

datable associated objects, is of Neolithic or Bronze
Age. As a rule the later examples are better made and
it has been suggested that the basal wings are more
parallel, whereas in the case of Neolithic examples they
tend to be divergent.

PINS

Types of pins vary considerably during the Bronze
Age and some of them are also especially characteristic
of certain areas. Thus the examples figured on Plate
26, nos. 27 and 28, belong to the Aunjetitz culture,
which is the earliest Bronze culture in the north and is
especially centred in the districts now known as Bohemia.
In France pins are rare before the Late Bronze Age.

There are many other kinds of Bronze articles, such
as gouges (Plate 26, no. 25), knives, sickles (Plate 26,
no. 26), bracelets (Plate 26, no. 29), buttons, armour,
harness and the like. But these are perhaps of less
importance for our purpose and those desiring a detailed
.study of them must consult works specially devoted to
the Bronze Age. Sandstone moulds for making all the
foregoing tools have been found.

POTTERY

There is considerable variety in the pottery, both in
the shapes and decorations; also many modifications in
different localities. In England three important types,
usually associated with burials, can be noted(3): (a) the
“cinerary urn" (Plate 26, no. 30), (b) the “food vessel”
(Plate 26, no. 31), and (c) the “incense cup” (Plate 26,
no. 32).

TRADE ROUTES

Although districts bordering the eastern Mediter-
ranean were far more progressive than regions further
 THE BRONZE AGE CULTURES 207

north, trade routes sprang up in Early Bronze times
and an interchange of culture developed. The chief
article of commerce seems to have been amber, the
Baltic variety being especially prized by the dwellers
in the south. The trade routes followed as far as pos-
sible river valleys and spread from Jutland up the valley
of the Elbe and thence through Bohemia and along
the Moldau over to the valley of the Inn. Italy was
reached by the Brenner Pass, which being under 5000
feet in height was already open in Copper Age times (4).
There was a second main route from the eastern Baltic
to Italy via Styria, but it was only opened in Early Iron
Age, i.e. Hallstatt times. The trade routes and their
use by folk of the various periods is demonstrated by
observing industries of a given period, restricted to
narrow belts following the courses of suitable rivers
and converging on possible passes.

HABITATIONS

Two kinds of Bronze Age village are known—lake
dwellings and land habitations. The former were
exactly like the Neolithic prototypes, except that'they
were usually built further out in the lakes. The latter
were ordinary primitive villages with narrow streets
often surrounded with a well-built mortarless wall.
A variety is however known where the villages were
built on piles over dry land. They are known as Terre-
mare settlements (s).

BURIALS

It is often said that cremation first appeared with
the Bronze Age cultures. This is not strictly true for
cremation has been observed occurring sporadically as
early as Neolithic times. However in the Bronze IV
 208

PRELIMINARY NOTES ON

period cremation becomes the usual mode for disposal
of the dead, the ashes being either placed in a pot and
buried under a round tumulus or collected into a small
scooped out hollow in the ground under the mound.
Many causes may have led to the rise of cremation.
Probably practical reasons underlay its use at first—
elimination of infection in cases of epidemics among
a by now numerous population, etc.; later doubtless
religion became involved in the custom and a ritual
interpretation was evolved. Frequently a necropolis is
formed by the grouping together of Bronze Age
tumulus graves and such a necropolis is of especial im-
portance to the student as the graves generally contain
a rich funeral furniture. Three of these grave fields are
to be noted in connection with the study of the earlier
periods. The one is at Aunjetitz in Bohemia^) and has
given much information about the earliest Bronze Age
north of the Alps, the others at Remedello and Fonta-
nella (Brescia) lie south of the mountains in North
Italyo).

AEGEAN AREA

As before, the most brilliant cultures were developed
in the Mediterranean area and those of the island of
Crete are in some ways to us the most startling(. Here
have been dug up not only whole Bronze Age towns
with their narrow paved streets just wide enough for a
pack-horse and clearly not meant for wheeled traffic,
for regular steps were formed where the road became
too steep, but also great palaces once occupied by
wealthy king-priests. These palaces are not only richly
decorated with frescoes and the like, but have yielded
wonderful coloured faience figures and other objects
from their magazines and treasuries. Nor is it only from
 THE BRONZE AGE CULTURES 209

the point of view of beauty and decoration that we are
astonished, for we even find baths and a completely
furnished drainage system. One of the things that
struck the writer most when he visited Knossos was a
flight of steps at the back of the palace leading down
towards the river. The steps turned at the bottom, and
by their side ran a gutter to carry water into a settling
tank whence it was conveyed into a cistern, fresh water
being a valuable commodity. The gutter, if it had run
straight down and then turned at right angles would
have been useless and the water would have flooded
over the steps and been lost. The gutter was therefore
shaped into a series of parabolic curves, so that there
was no rush of water and it flowed quietly into the
settling tank.

The Bronze cultures of the island are called Minoan
and have been divided by Sir Arthur Evans into three
periods, each period being in turn sub-divided into
three. We thus speak of an Early Minoan 1, 2, 3,
Middle Minoan 1, 2, 3, and a Late Minoan 1, 2, 31.
The pottery shows influences both from Egypt and
Asia Minor. It was often extremely beautifully made
and decorated, generally speaking the fashion being
dark paint on a light ground in the Early Minoan,
light on dark in the Middle Minoan, and again dark
on light in the Late Minoan times.

In the Late Bronze Age or Late Minoan times the
culture spread to the mainland of Greece and there gave
rise to the splendid Mycenean culture, described, at a
much later date, by Homer. But Greece had its own
Bronze Age cultures long before this Cretan invasion;

1 A comparative dating of Cretan with Egyptian cultures is obtained
by the finding of datable Egyptian objects in the various Cretan in-
dustries and vice versa.

B


 210   PRELIMINARY NOTES ON

they are called Helladic(<>). At first only a simple hand-
made, yellow-coloured, generally undecorated pottery
was manufactured, but in Middle Helladic times a
matt-painting technique developed, and this coincides
with the appearance of a bluish-coloured, undecorated
ware with a soapy feel called Minyan; it perhaps indi-
cates connections with Asia Minor. That Asia Minor
played a part in the development of Bronze Age culture
in Greece is further shown by the finding in an early
chamber tomb at Mycenae of a seal engraved with
symbols clearly from Asia Minor. The Middle Helladic
culture was swept away with the coming of the Cretans.

If a European of 150 years ago could have been intro-
duced into the Bronze Age world—especially into the
Aegean regions—he would probably soon have been able
to adapt himself to the prevailing conditions of life. Even
in the north he would not lack for such a small matter as
clothes. A sort of woven dressing-gown-like garment
has actually been recovered in Denmark perfectly pre-
served in the peat. In Egypt and Mesopotamia docu-
mentary evidence early helps us to fill in the life picture.
Mesopotamia(io) especially is proving of interest for,
unlike Egypt, it was never a naturally isolated area.
Of the earliest Mesopotamians we know little, except
that a well-burnt painted ware was manufactured. But
with the arrival of the Sumerians, writing on clay tablets
commenced. These people were cradled to the east-
wards—possibly in the then more fertile, but to-day
desert, regions of Seistan and Baluchistan1. They were
a bureaucratic, business-like folk living in city kingdoms.
They had powers of organisation as is shown by the
temple records. The temple was the centre of the city,

1 A nearly related culture—possibly derived from the same centre
—has lately been found in the north of India.
 THE BRONZE AGE CULTURES 211

being both church and government offices while the
king was also the chief priest. Fusion of the Sumerians
with a Semitic people lying to the north introduced a
new outlook on life and to this period must be dated
the growth of legends about the creation of the world,
a great flood, etc.—legends which at a later date were
drawn upon by the Jewish priesthood after the “Cap-
tivity” for the writing of their more spiritualised
account of the origin and early history of humanity.

Railways, motor cars and wireless were not yet in-
vented, but in many ways it was all very modern. Man
had indeed not yet harnessed nature and forced her to
do his work for him—doubtless therefore unemploy-
ment was less rife!—but, though primitive, life was
essentially modem in organisation. The domain of the
prehistorian is over.

BIBLIOGRAPHY and REFERENCES

(x) C. Fox. The Archaeology of the Cambridge Region. 1923.

(2)   J. D£chelette. Manuel d* Archiologie— Tome n, 19105 and

H. Peake. The Bronze Age and the Celtic World. 1922.

(3)   See bibliography (18) at end of chapter vii.

(4)   J. M. de Navarro. 64Prehistoric Routes between Northern Europe

and Italy defined by the Amber Trade.” Geographical Journal,
December 1925.

(5)   T. E. Peet. The Stone and Bronze Ages in Italy^ 1909.

(6)   J. Schranil. Studie 0 vzniku cultury bronzovi v Cechdch. (French

resume.) Prague, 1921.

(7)   See Bullettino di PaletnologiaItaliana, x and xxiv. AlsoT. E. Peet,

ibid.

(   See bibliography (2) at the end of chapter vni.

(9)   C. W. Blegen. “Korakou,” American School of Classical Studies

at Athens. 1921.

(10)   H. R. Hall. The Ancient History of the Near East. 5th ed. 1920.
J. H. Breasted. Ancient Times.... 1916.
 CHAPTER X

ART

study of the art of a people is always of particular

interest whether the art is intended for utilitarian
purposes, as was the case with Upper Palaeolithic man,
or whether we are dealing with art for art’s sake, as
seems to have been the case in later prehistoric times.
A great deal of the archaeologist’s work consists of
excavating the dust bins of the prehistoric folk, and we
are apt to think only in terms of the kitchen. Art
introduces us to some of the higher emotions of the
people and gives us a glimpse at their thoughts and
feelings. Art decoration is incidentally extremely im-
portant to the prehistorian when tracing out connections
of cultures and movements of peoples. Art technique
and designs are as a rule far more specialised than any
tool—even more specialised than the form of a pot or
its handle. The occurrence of two objects similar in
design and decoration in widely separated areas proves
a connection between the areas, either racially or com-
mercially.

But little in the way of Mesolithic art existed or has
survived to-day. That of Azilian culture as well as
that from the Maglemosean and Kitchen Midden sites
has already been noted. So far noTardenoisean or Asturian
art has been recognised. An art-group of rock engravings
(Plate 28, Fig. 2) is, however, known, occurring in sites
along the coast of Norway as far north as Narvik, but
only spreading eastwards into Sweden at one place near

MESOLITHIC ART
 ART

213

Trondhjem where passage of the hills is practicable
and easy 00. The date of this group of rock engravings
appears to be the full Neolithic Age, for at one site at
Bar dal, near Trondhjem, examples are found engraved
on rocks that, according to Scandinavian geologists,
form a terrace that was below sea level until Passage
Grave times. Again, at the same site engravings
belonging to this group are found underneath other
engravings belonging to a much later art-group of the
full Bronze Age, thousands of examples of which are
found further south in Bohuslain, just north of Gothen-
burg. Although the Norwegian group cannot be earlier
in time than the Passage Grave Period, yet the fact that
the figures are often drawn in a naturalistic, or at any
rate semi-naturalistic manner, suggests that they were
made by folk belonging to the Arctic culture which,
it will be remembered, was probably derived directly
from the Maglemosean culture of Mesolithic times,
but which survived and continued to develop on its
own lines in areas not occupied by the Neolithic civil-
isation that took its place around the shores of the
Baltic.

The Norwegian group of drawings includes both
engravings and paintings, although the former are by
far the most numerous. The engraved figures are
generally found carved on extraordinarily hard glacier-
worn rocks which turn the blade of a knife to-day;
presumably the engravings were elaborately pecked
out with a pointed stone chisel. The animals figured
include a beautifully drawn reindeer at Bola and others
at Bogge, at the end of the Langfjord and elsewhere.
An engraving of a fish occurs at another site further
north. The animals are often poorly drawn, but this is
not to be wondered at considering how extraordinarily
 ART

214

[Prometheus]

refractory the hard rock is. Sometimes only two legs
are figured, sometimes four, but even in the latter case
there is no attempt at perspective. Often a peculiar
method is employed and the lines representing the legs
are produced till they meet the line of the back. Only
one or two instances of painting are known, which is
not surprising as paint cannot sink into these hard rock
surfaces and is therefore liable to suffer damage from
weathering action, although, on the other hand, it is
saved from the dangers which attend the disintegration
of rock surfaces due to the action of lichens and
other rock-growing plants. A goo d example of paintings
of this group can be seen in a small rock shelter which
is situated almost opposite where the road coming over
from the head of Langford meets the Sundalsfjord.
The paintings are in red and represent reindeer, etc.,
but are not very well drawn. Further north at a site
called Leka some little conventionalised human figures,
also painted in red, have been observed.

Attempts have been made to connect this art with
that of the Laplanders, but though perhaps it is not fair
to compare art techniques when used on such differ-
ent surfaces as rock and bone, it can safely be said that
the Lap technique, as seen in the engravings on pieces
of bone, etc., has little in common with that of the
Norwegian group that we have been describing.

No similar finds elsewhere have been recorded and
it would seem likely that we are dealing with an isolated
manifestation of art made by folk belonging to the
Arctic culture; why and for what purpose they were made
is completely unknown. At a later time Bronze Age
folk inhabited the district, at any rate around Trond-
hjem, and at Bardal the art of these new people is found
superimposed on examples of the older group. Probably
 ART

2'5

the Arctic culture people became extinct or were ab-
sorbed by the new comers, unless it should prove that
some distant connection between them and the Laps of
to-day can be clearly determined.

NEOLITHIC AND EARLIEST METAL AGE ART

Two groups can be distinguished in the Neolithic
and Copper Age art: the first comprises decorated
objects, such as pots or tools, etc., and the second
drawings on rocks or in rock shelters which are, how-
ever, of rare occurrence. The first of these groups has
been largely discussed in chapter iv, and it is only
necessary here to remind readers of the extremely fine
and well-drawn patterns on the beautifully made pots
of Early Neolithic date in the Eastern Area, or, again,
of the elaborate decoration on the collar flasks of
Scandinavia, not to speak of the complicated and ex-
tremely decorative motifs found at the end of Neolithic
times for them to realise that Neolithic man was not
in the least devoid of artistic sense. Prehistorians are
rather apt, after studying the wonderful cave art of
Upper Palaeolithic man, to underrate the powers and
the artistic appreciation of his Neolithic successor, but
this is largely due to the fact that the Neolithic decora-
tion of pots consisted exclusively, or almost exclusively,
of finely drawn geometric patterns. Naturalistic draw-
ings of animals were not employed as motifs, as on the
rounded surface of a pot they would not only have been
exceedingly difficult to execute, but also not particularly
adaptable. In the Mediterranean area, at that time
always far in advance of northern Europe in culture,
it was not till Late Minoan (Bronze) times that plants
and other natural objects were employed as motifs for
decoration.
 ART

2l6

One or two chipped pieces of rock marked with
rough geometric patterns have been found at the stone
factory site at Penmaenmawr in North Wales. That
Neolithic man was not incapable of drawing a natural-
istic figure of an animal when he wanted, can be seen
in the drawing of a fish on a cork float (a) found by the
Lake of Lucerne, figured in Plate 25, no. 4; and a fish,
though very poorly executed,can be recognised engraved
on a polished piece of greenstone now in the Museum
at Carnac, Brittany (Plate 25, no. 5).

Neolithic man was also capable of painting his pots
before firing so that the paint cannot be removed by
friction or washing. Although this painting decoration,
as far as Europe is concerned, is only found in certain
circumscribed localities at the very end of Neolithic or
rather at the dawn of the Copper Age, it was probably
practised in the very earliest times, for we find painted
pottery in the earliest levels at Anau in Russian Turkes-
tan, and Neolithic painted pottery has been described
from the loess in China. Although the folk who made
the wonderful painted pots found in the bottom layers
at Susa(3), as well as the people of Abu Shahrein
(=Eridu, Mesopotamia) ana other places who have
left us examples of their workmanship, probably of
Pre-Sumerian times (4), knew about the use of metal, it
must be remembered that in these areas by the great
rivers Euphrates and Tigris the use of metal dates back
to extremely early times, far earlier than was the case
in northern Europe; and, on the other hand, little is
known as to an earlier true Neolithic stage of culture
in these regions. In Moravia, at the end of Neolithic
times, a painted pottery was developed, but in this case
the paint was not fired with the pot and can be removed
by friction. The oft mentioned pottery figurines of
 ART

217

humans and animals are naturally of great importance
(Plates 20, 21 and 29, no. 5). Bronze Age pottery
continued to be decorated with incised geometric
patterns and painting developed to a high degree in the
Aegean area. Even metal tools are sometimes found
decorated with zigzag or lozenge patterns.

ROCK SHELTER ART

An extremely interesting art-group that occurs in
rock shelters belonging to the Late Neolithic and
Copper Age periods has been studied in the Spanish
Peninsula(s). Although it occurs sporadically over a
great part of South Spain where natural rock shelters
in limestone or sandstone occur and conditions are
favourable, it can be more or less grouped into distinct
areas. The first of these areas is in the extreme south-
west of Spain, and is the tract of country bounded by
the sea coast and an artificial line drawn from Malaga
to Seville and Cadiz. The examples are especially
numerous around the Laguna de la Janda where a few
years ago M. Breuil and the writer explored nearly
sixty sites. Another area is in Murcia and Almeria,
South-East Spain, with a focus at Velez Blanco, a little
village some sixty miles or so west of Murcia. Here
examples of this Copper Age art (often called Spanish
Art Group III) come in contact with a naturalistic group
( Spanish Art Group II) probably dating back to Quater-
nary times and contemporary with, though different in
technique from the well-known Upper Palaeolithic cave
paintings of France or Spain. It is interesting to note,
as a proof of the relative ages, that where examples of
these two groups, easily differentiated by their vastly
different techniques, are found in one and the same
rock shelter, if superposition occurs examples of Spanish
 2X8

ART

Art Group III are invariably painted over and are there-
fore younger than examples of Spanish Art Group II.
Painted rock shelters have been discovered in the Sierra
Morena, and in the chains of mountains that connect it
with the high land of South-East Portugal. An analogous
art has been found in some rock shelters in the well-
known valley of Las Batuecasm, mentioned by Borrow
in his Bible in Spain as being a mysterious and dreaded
place, though whether this was due to its lonely position
or to legends and traditions dating as far back as Copper
Age times when the paintings were being made, cannot
of course be determined. Las Batuecas lies to the south-
west of Salamanca. In North Spain few examples of
Copper Age paintings have been recognised, with the
exception of an anomalous find at Pena Tti, to be
described later.

This art-group, as a whole, is highly conventionalised
and especially noteworthy for the large number of
geometric patterns, including in one instance the spiral,
and the variety of conventionalisations of the human
form. Some of these are figured in Plate 30; they are
important as they help to show the connection between
the interesting Copper Age culture of the southern
Spanish Peninsula with that of regions elsewhere.
Besides conventionalised human beings, a number of
still more conventionalised animals can be recognised,
including stag, hind, ibex and carnivorous animals
whose species it is difficult to determine. At Las Figuras
near the Laguna de la Janda a large number of birds
are also figured, but, with the exception of one example
in a rock shelter in the Sierra Morena, they do not
appear in the drawings elsewhere. At the same site
is portrayed the figure of a man having in his hand what
seems from its shape to be a metal axe, but on the other
 ART

219

hand at Los Molinos, a site near Velez Blanco, there is
another example portraying equally clearly a stone axe,
and examples of this can be duplicated from Bacinete,
a site not far from Los Barrios in the region of Gibraltar.
At the rock shelter of Los Letreros (Velez Blanco)
a man is figured carrying a sickle in each hand. Judging
by their size, relative to the human figure, they would
seem to be wooden sickles hafted with flints, and not
metal sickles, which, owing to the value of the metal,
were always relatively very small in the Early Metal
Ages. That the folk who made these paintings practised
the domestication of animals is shown by a very charm-
ing example found at Las Canforras de Penarrubia in
the Sierra Morena of an animal being led by a halter.
In the district to the west of the Sierra Morena, lying
between it and Portugal, can be seen some very inter-
esting paintings of wheeled vehicles<7). The paintings
consist of two more or less converging lines with cross-
bars between them, and these converging lines, after
joining, are continued as one line indicating the central
shaft of the vehicle. Two or sometimes four wheels
are indicated by round circles placed just outside these
lines. It is as if the vehicle had been laid out flat, with
the wheels spread on the ground, and was viewed from
above. Exactly the same type of farm cart can be seen
used by the peasants in parts of Spain to-day. The
wheels depicted usually show four spokes, forming
two diameters of the circle at right angles; but in one
instance they are formed by one diameter to the wheel
and two chords at right angles to this diameter, thus
dividing the wheel into three sections (Plate 27, no. 3).
A somewhat similar type of spoking is still used to-day.
At Las Batuecas (Estramadurajw the art is not quite
analogous to that further south, and more than one
 220

ART

series of different ages can be determined by a study of
their superposition. The lowest is considerably more
naturalistic and it may be that this is earlier in date
than the art we have been discussing, being possibly
true Neolithic or even Azilian. Drawings of comb-
shaped figures can be matched with similar finds in
the south-west of Spain and are common in the latest
examples of art at La Pileta cave near Rhonda(s). The
anomalous example of Pena Tu already mentioned is
extremely important^). If the student alights at the
little station of Vidiago on the narrow gauge railway
from Santander to Llanes (Asturias), he will find, on
looking westward, that the sea shore is close by on his
right hand, while on his left the ground rises rapidly
forminga firstfoot-hill of the PicosdeEuropa massif. On
the top of this first ridge is a large and very visible
block of rock standing up rather like a small Dartmoor
tor. On one side it is heavily undercut by natural action,
and it is here that the paintings have been preserved.
They consist of innumerable red dots, a few very
poorly made animal figures, some simple conventional-
ised human forms, and a sword, evidently metal, deeply
engraved, with five rivet holes near the handle shown
in red; there is also a large coffin-shaped idol, partly
painted, partly also deeply engraved, this is best de-
scribed by reference to Plate 27, no. 1. Pena Tti is the
only site in this group where engraving has been em-
ployed in conjunction with painting, and it forms a link
with the punctuations, the poorly drawn animals and
the conventionalised human beings of the regular
Spanish Art Group III art on the one hand, and with the
carved and painted schist idols in the funeral furniture
of the megalithic tombs on the other. The presence of
the long triangular sword or dagger indicates an Early
 3

Plate 27. 1* Rock shelter art at Pena Tu (Spain). 2. Rock carving at Clonfinlough (Ireland),
3. Fainting of a wheeled cart from the Spanish Art Group III. 4, Rock carvings similar to 2
but from Galicia (Spain).

ART   221
 222

ART

Metal Age. In North-West Spain Dr Obermaier has
studied in the province of Galicia a series of rock
carvings(io). These are deeply cut on hard rocks and
can be divided into an older and newer series. Although
Dr Obermaier suggests a Bronze Age for both series
it may be possible to date the earlier as belonging to the
Copper Age culture. Figures of the human form con-
ventionalised as well as other geometric figures occur
and though not exactly similar would appear to have
relationships with Spanish Art Group III. The art
of the older series closely recalls that on the stone at
Clonfinlough (Athlone), Ireland. The newer series in
Galicia is far more developed than the older; it must
probably be referred to the full Bronze Age. Some
semi-naturalistic figures of animals are occasionally
found.

But Pena Til is not alone in supplying us with a clue
to the age of this art-group. Engravings on pots, with
figures of stag and human beings in exactly the same
technique as those painted on the rock shelters in South
Spain, have been found at Las Millares, at Velez
Blanco itself and at Ciempozuelos near Madrid (Plate
25, nos. 1, 2, 3) (ix), where these pots can be definitely
assigned to the full Copper Age of the Spanish Penin-
sula.

Why the Copper Age folk took such trouble in
decorating certain natural rock shelters, is difficult to
determine. That they were not “homes” is proved by
the fact that examples occur in rock shelters and situa-
tions where nobody could possibly have lived. Broadly
speaking, though not invariably, the more important
sites command a very extensive view and are often found
near springs of fresh water. In one case at Gabal near
Velez Blanco, where a rock shelter probably was used
 ART

2 23

as a home, the paintings are not in the rock shelter
itself, but in a niche above the doorway extremely
difficult to get at, and a somewhat similar state of
affairs is also known elsewhere. Possibly they were
not all drawn for the same purpose, and in some cases
they may have been a magic protection for the home, in
others the decoration of some very visible spot that for
various reasons had become a sacred sanctuary and
where perhaps religious observances took place.

Another very interesting group of rock drawings
occurs in the Maritime Alps not far from San Dalmazo («)
on the modern frontier between Italy and France. They
are found on the slopes of and near by Monte Bego,
which mountain and the Grand Capulet form two very
striking peaks visible from the railway between Nice and
Antibes. Col di Tenda, at the head of the Roja valley,
was probably used from the very earliest times by
people passing from the sea coast area of the district
around Ventimiglia to the plains of Piedmont behind.
Between Monte Bego and Grand Capulet lie the lakes
of “wonders,” and it is near these that many of the
engravings in question occur. The figures drawn in-
clude bulls with very exaggerated horns, other horned
animals, men, possibly villages, spirals, geometric
patterns, and weapons, such as small triangular daggers
with tongues, etc. (Plate 28, Fig. 1). Ploughing
scenes are also depicted, there being two, more rarely
four, oxen yoked, and sometimes one, sometimes two
men hold the other end of the plough. Their date
would seem to be some time at the beginning of the
Metal period; whether Bronze was known and in use
for tool-making is uncertain. The technique is a shallow
pecking out of the surface of the figure, probably with
a sharp stone chisel or pointed tool. But the peculiarity
 ART

224

of this so-called Fontanalba art-group is that all the
drawings are made as if seen from above; they are, as
it were, aeroplane pictures of what is going on down
below. Thus in the case of what seem to be drawings
of villages we just find the plan of a house with the open
court yard and the surrounding wall, but no elevation.
The makers of these drawings apparently watched what
was going on far below them and then just engraved
what they had seen. Why they should have done so is
a complete mystery. The plough scenes are of particular
interest, the only engravings at all analogous being a
plough scene, also with oxen, from the Bronze Age
Scandinavian group in Bohuslain (13), a district lying to
the north of Gothenburg (Sweden), where drawings of
ships, men, weapons and signs occur in the greatest
profusion and a ploughing scene and a cavalry battle
are also depicted. More than 500 sites, where these
drawings occur, have been discovered. They date to
the Bronze Age and, although the motive for their
creation is unknown, it is obvious when the hard nature
of the glacier-worn rock surfaces on which they are
carved is taken into account that a very considerable
amount of work was expended in their production. This
art-group had a fairly wide distribution in Scandinavia
and an “outlier” of it has been found in North Russia
on the eastern shore of Lake Onega(i4).

ART ON AND IN TOMBS
Not infrequently we find very rough drawings on
menhirs and other upright stones. These are mostly
geometric though sometimes what are probably meant
to be human beings, conventionalised into sort of cross-
shaped figures, and rough figures of animals, have
been noted. A good example is a small kist tomb near
 ART

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

B'

*5
 ART

22 6

[Prometheus]

Gohlitsch (Saxony) (is) where the representation of an
axe as well as a complicated zigzag pattern is engraved
on each stone. Other engravings on dolmens have
been found in France and elsewhere. Some of the most
elaborate examples of this style of art are found near
Carnac in Brittany<i6) and comprise complicated figures
whose exact significance has not been determined, with
any certainty, although waving corn in some instances,
and the octopus in others, have been suggested. Repre-
sentations of serpents have been noted, and these have
been found in conjunction with polished stone axes.
But in one instance at any rate, at Gavr’inis, in Brittany,
the walls of a little passage grave have been covered
with concentric circles and spiral decoration (Plate 29,
no. 1), evidently showing connection with a different
art-group, probably of Early Metal Age, that had its
focus in Ireland.

The Irish examples, some apparently Late Neolithic,
others as late as the Bronze Age, are restricted to an
area bounded by imaginary lines drawn from Dublin,
through Monaghan to Sligo, and thence to Athlone
and back to Dublin (7). The most important stations
are the great tumulus at Dowth, that of New Grange
and a number of small tumuli on the Loughcrew hills
(Co. Meath). Another example of extreme interest, as
the decoration is very similar to that at Gavr’inis (Plate
29, no. 1) is found in a partially destroyed tumulus at
Sess Kilgreen (Co. Tyrone) (Plate 29, no. 2), as well as
on a single small standing stone near by. Again, the
chamber under a now destroyed tumulus occupying a
commanding position at the top of a hill, Knockmany
(Co. Tyrone) was decorated in a similar manner. Of
perhaps rather earlier date than the above monu-
ments and possibly of true, though very late, Irish
 Plate 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 Kilgreen (Ireland). 3. Conventionalised engravings on the Folk ton
chalk drum (reproduced by permission of the Trustees of the British Museum). 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.

to

ART
 ART

228

Neolithic times—in all probability contemporary with
the Copper Age of the Spanish Peninsula—are the
engravings on the lid of a small dolmen, at Rathkenny
(Co. Meath), and others on the surface of a natural
slope of rock in the field behind the church at Clonfin-
lough (Kings Co.) (Plate 27, no. 2) not far from Athlone.
The engravings at this latter site, with their peculiarities
and conventionalisation, recall strongly similar conven-
tionalisations in the Spanish Art Group III already
described, and the stone at Clonfinlough is not at all
unlike the earlier series of rock engravings in Galicia
which have already been mentioned. The connection
with Spain is not to be wondered at, for right through
Early Metal Age times Ireland was of very great im-
portance on account of the gold found there. At a
rather later date the tumulus engravings developed,
and, as has been seen, spread as far as Brittany.

These are not all of the same age, and four distinct
methods of manufacture or technique have been noted:
first and earliest, plain incised lines; secondly, pocked
lines; thirdly, broad deep lines made by first pocking
and then polishing and smoothing; fourth and lastly,
figures pocked over the whole surface and not simply
outlined. Superposition has been observed; and (1)
and (2) are clearly older than the construction of the
great tumuli themselves: the engravings disappear into
the wall itself. In other words, the builders of the
tumuli utilised stones that had already, in some in-
stances, been engraved. It may also be observed that
in some cases figures are contracted so as to fit into
spaces where other and earlier techniques occur. This
shows (a) that the engravings of the other technique
are earlier, and (b) that the later people recognised and
respected them. The significance of the art, of course,
 ART

229

Plate 30. Examples of the paintings of the Spanish Art Group III. Note
the various conventionalisations of the human form.
 ART

230

is -unknown. The figures consist of spirals, lozenges,
zigzags, star-shaped, figures, circles, the famous boat-
shaped figure (New Grange), and possibly convention-
alised human faces (Knockmany). In one instance,
at Loughcrew, on a surface painted red a narrow zigzag
is left unpainted.

The connections of this group with those elsewhere
are not easy to determine, it is difficult to trace any
connection with the Bronze Age art of Bohuslain in
Scandinavia with its rock carvings of ships, men using
a plough drawn by bulls, and a cavalry battle scene.
Turning southward to Spain we may note cruciform
human figures on the left hand wall of the great passage
grave of Cueva Menga which may have been a later
addition, although the patina of the engravings is the
same as that of the rock around. There are some poor
paintings in red (18) in dolmens in the provinces of Beira
and Tras-os-Montes, the north of Portugal, as well as a
head stone in a little dolmen under the disused church
of Cangas d’Onis (19). In this latter the painting consists
of wavy bands of reddish colour.

One of the most interesting art manifestations in the
Spanish Peninsula is seen in the so-called schist idols
(Plate 29, nos. 6 and that represent the human form
in a very conventionalised manner, and are roughly
triangular in shape and covered with engravings (Plate
29, no. 6). These are found buried in dolmens both in
Spain and Portugal; they are very common, for example,
in the great tumulus field near Pavia, to the south-east
of Portugal(20). They, together with “idols” made
from phalange bones, etc., form a very interesting
series of objects which are doubtless of ritual significance,
and should in all probability be considered in connec-
tion with the terra-cotta human figures that occur at
 ART

23I

the end of Neolithic times, especially in the Eastern
Area, and appear to be connected with the general
worship of the great Earth Mother in the Near East.
In this connection may be mentioned the so-called
Menhir Idol (Plate 29, no. 7) of which several examples
have been found in France. The most characteristic
are those of Saint-Sernin, Arribats, and Pousthomy.
They represent a conventionalised human form, the
nose and eyes as well as the legs and arms being carved
in relief. A close relationship doubtless exists between
these carved grave stones and the small schist idols of
the dolmen funeral furniture and M. Pottier has also
discussed their relationship with Ethiopian megalith
monoliths (ai). It would seem probable that we are
dealing with influences from the eastern Mediter-
ranean. A find of three small solid chalk drums engraved
all over with geometrical designs and the human face
conventionalised (see Plate 29, no. 3) found in a barrow
at Folkton Wold (Yorkshire) is of especial interest^).
The barrow, which is 54 feet in diameter, covered a
chamber containing two adult skeletons and a beaker.
The drums were not found actually in the chamber
itself, but in a trench 22 feet away eastwards. They
date presumably to the Copper Age or perhaps Bronze
Age and should be compared with the Menhir Idols
just described.

BIBLIOGRAPHY and REFERENCES

(1)   G. HallstrSm. “Nordskandinaviska Hallristningar.” Fornvannen%

1907 and 1908.

---- “Hallristningar i norra Skandinavien.” Ymtr, 1907.

(2)   F. Sarasin. “Note sur une gravure pr&iistorique provenant des

tourbi&res de l’ancien lac de Wauwil (Lucerne).” Archiv.
Suisses d’Anti, ginirale, tome n, no. 3 (1917).
 ART

232

(3)   See bibliography (10) at end of chapter v.

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

(5)   M. C. Burkitt. Prehistory. 2nd ed. (1925), p. 290.

------“Spanish rock-shelter paintings of* Aeneolithic Age (Spanish

Group III).” Antiq. Journ. vol. iv, no. 2, 1924,

(6)   H. Breuil. “La vallde peinte des Batuecas.” UAnthropologic,

tome xxix, 19x8-19.

(7)   H. Breuil. “Le char et le trafneau dans Fart rupestre d’Estrd-

madure.” Terra Portuguese, nos. 15 and 16 (1917).

(   H. Breuil and H. Obermaier. La Pileta. Monaco, 1915.

(9)   E. H. Pacheco. “Las Pinturas prehistoricas de PeiSa Tii.” Mem.

comm, de invest. pal.y prehist. num. 2,1914.

(10)   H. Obermaier. “Die Bronzezeitlichen Felsgravierungen von

Nordwest-Spanien (Galicien).” I.P.E.K. Leipzig, 192;.
(n) H. Obermaier. “Yacimiento prehistorico de las Carolinas
(Madrid).” Mem. comm. de invest. pal. y prehist. num. 16,1917.

(12)   C. Bicknell. A Guide to the Prehistoric Rock Engravings in the

Italian Maritime Alps. Bordighera, 19x3.

(13)   L. Baltzer. Glyphes des Rochers du Bohnslan. Goteborg, 1881.

(14)   M. C. Burkitt. Prehistory. 2nd ed. Plates XLIII-XLVII.

(15)   A photograph of the engraved stones is reproduced on p. 115 m

vol. 11 of Human Origins, by G. G. MacCurdy, 1924.

(16)   Z. le Rouzic. Carnac, Menhirs-statues avec signes figuratifs et

amulettes on Holes des Dolmens du Morhihan. Nantes, 1913.
----Locmariaquer, la Table des Marchands. Nancy, 1910.

(17)   H. Breuil. “Les Pdtroglyphes dTrlande.” Rev. Arch, tome xm,

pp- 75-78 (1921)-

R. A. S. Macalister (with H. Breuil). “A study of the Chrono-
logy of Bronze-Age Sculptures in Ireland,” Pm. Roy. Irish
Acad. vol. xxxvi, sect, c (1921).

(r J. L. de Vasconcfxlos. “ Peintures dans des Dolmens de Portugal.”
UHomme prihistorique, February 1907.

(19)   Conde de la Vega del Sella. “El Dolmen de la capilla de

Santa Cruz (Asturias).” Mem. comm, de invest, pal. y prehist.
num. 22 (1919).

(20)   See bibliography (1) at end of chapter vi.

(21)   See VIllustration, 30 May, 1925.

(22)   See British Museum Guide to the Antiquities of the Bronze Age.

2nd ed. p. 80*
 INDEX

Abbott, G. W., 173, 184
Abbott, W. J. L., 23, 183
Abercromby, J., 126,128,181,184
A berg, N., 154, 162, 200
Aberystwyth, pigmy industry at,
167

Aegean, see Mediterranean
Africa, Mesolithic industries in, 16,
18; sickle from, x 18; megaliths in,
151-2, 231; Neolithic industries
in, 185-7

Agriculture, Pre-Neolithic, 2, 4, 43 j
Neolithic, 50-6,118; in the Eastern
Area, 1315 in England, 179, 180
Aichbtthl, pottery from, 126, PL 18.

7-9j culture, 137
Alpera, rock shelter near, 18 n,
Alpine race, the, 99, 100
Alsace, and Danubian culture, 133
Amber, Baltic, r; figurines, 38,
Pl. 35 trade in, 84, 2075 in Spain,
196, 197

Amorgos lance, the, 205
Anau, domestication of animals at,
58, $3«.j excavations at, 84-65
pottery at, 85, 142, 143, 2165
population of, 99
Ancylus Lake, the, 29
Apples, Neolithic, 54
Archers, wrist-guards for, 137
Arctic culture, 154,1705 in Norway,
213, 215, PL 28. 2
Argali, ancestor of domesticated
sheep, 61, PI. 6
Armstrong, L., 183, 184
Arne, T. J., xoi
Arribats, “menhir idol** at, 231
Arrow heads, 195 transverse-edged,
40,42, 44,46,108, PL 5. b and PL
11. 125 at Anau, 86; Neolithic,
113-16, 120, 158, 159, 172, Pl.
14. 3, 1765 from Scotland, 182;
African, 1865 Spanish, 192, 195,
196; Bronze Age, 205-6

Art, and magic, 2, 6, 655 in Azilian
culture, 11-13, Z1Z > absent in
Tardenoisean culture, 20, 2125
in Maglemosean culture, 38, 212;
in Kitchen midden culture, 43;
and pottery, 64-5; at Anau, 86;
Neolithic, 95-6, 215-175 in Danu-
bian culture, 134,   143-4; at

Grimes Graves, 170, 174; of the
Spanish dolmens, 1965 in Brit-
tany, 199; in Crete, 208-95 Meso-
lithic, in Norway, 212-15, PL 28.
2; of Spanish rock shelters, 217,
PL 30; and tombs, 224-31, PI. 29
Asia, Central, and Neolithic civilisa-
tion, 58-62, 78-86, 131, 2io;
N orthern, 155; Minor, 18 9,190,21 o
Asturian culture, 10, 24-6; pick, 24,
Pl. 1. 2

“Atlantic” period, the, 76
Aunjetitz culture, 206, 208
Aurignacian culture, at Mentone,
19-20, 163; in Moravia, 39, 163;
in England, 163

Australia, pigmy flints in, 16, Pl. 2.2
Avebury, long barrow near, 175;

stone circle at, 177
Awls, Neolithic, 116, Pl. 10. 6
Axe, Campigny, 32, 40, 46, 47?
PL 5. c; shell mound, 44 n.$
Neolithic, 69, 70, 103, 190, 1925
hammer, 116, PL 13. 1, 132, 136,
143; battle, 118-19; PL 9. 5, 136,
138,   155-7, 180, 200; boat-

shaped, 118-19, Pl. 9. 6, PL 145
in art, 218-19, 226
Axpea, Tardenoisean burial at, 22.
Azilian culture, 10-14, 160; in
Britain, *64

Azilio-Tardenoisean man, 20
Azda, P. R. de, 49

Bacinete, axe figured at, 219
Badari, industry at, 186
 INDEX

234

Baden, and Danubian culture, 133
Ballymena, Antrim, implement from,
120, PL 14. 2

Baltic, the, and Maglemosean cul-
ture, 27-39, 154; celts from, 1045
culture of, 97, 124; amber, 207
Baltzer, L., 232

Bann, River, implements from, 172
Bardal, Norway, rock-engravings,
213, 214

Barley, Neolithic, 53,545 at Anau, 8$
Barrows, Long, see Passage Graves;

Round, see Kists, stone
Barton Mills, barrow, 182
Battle Axe Folk, 136, 138, 156-7;
in England, 180

Bavaria, Mesolithic culture in, 20;
Neolithic pottery in, 124; and
Danubian culture, 133, 134
Beads, shell, 22; cornelian, 85;
Egyptian, 187; Spanish, 196, 197.
See also Necklaces and Ornaments
Beaker Folk, the, habitations of, 89;
tools of, 112; culture of, 137-8,
200; in England, 180-35 in
Spain, 197

Beaker, pottery, 84, 126, PI. 19,
137; in England, 180-3; in
Spain, 195, 196, 197
Belgium, Azilian culture in, 13, 164;
Tardenoisean culture in, 14-15,
18-19, 21, 168; Neolithic sites in,
87-8; Neolithic implements from,
113, 1x4, PL 12. 3 and 125 and
Danubian culture, 134
Belloy-sur-Somme, industry at,
163 n.

Biarritz, Asturian culture at, 26
Bicknell, €., 232
Bienne, Lake, dug-out from, 94
Birds, in Spanish art, 218
Birseck, Azilian station at, 160
Bishop, A. H., 48

Blangy-sur-Bresle, Campignian site
at, 46-7

Blegen, C. W., 211
Bohemia, 197; tin from, 200;
Aunjetitz culture in, 206, 208

Bohuslain, rock-engravings at, 213,
224, 230

“Boreal” period, the, 76
Boulogne, Maglemosean culture
near, 27

Brandon, Suffolk, implements from,
116, PL 11. 8, 119, Pl. 10. 1,
Pl. 24. A

Breasted, J. H., 211
Brenner Pass, the, 84, 138, 197, 207
Breuil, H., 48, 217, 232
Brighton, pigmy industry near, 167
Britain, Azilian culture in, 10, 13;
Tardenoisean ^culture in, 18, 19,
23; Maglemosean finds in, 275
climatic changes in, 28, 77-8;
Campignian culture in, 47; Neo-
lithic culture in, 97, 173-83;
Beaker pottery in, 126, Pl. 19,
180-3. $ee ak° England
Brittany, culture of, 197-9; pre-
historic art in, 199, 228. See also
Carnac

Bronze, occurrence of, in Egypt,
187; at Troy, 1905 in Spain, 197;
composition of, 201
Bronze Age, influence of, in Thes-
saly, 140; in Egypt, 187; in the
Greek islands, 1895 in Malta, 191;
in Spain, 196-7; cultures, ch. IX;
art, 213, 224, 226, 231
Brooks, C. E. P., 101
Buckley, F., 48, 49, 168, 183
Budge, E. A. W., 200
Bukowina, painted pottery in the, 138
Bulgaria, earth-houses in, 90; and
the Greek islands, 188
Bullen, R. A., 183
Burials, 6; Azilio-Tardenoisean, 20-
3, 39; Kitchen midden, 43-4; at
Anau, 85; Neolithic, 96, 132-3,
136, 137, 145-53, i^ga~
lithic, i45~53?   i75”9?   *98-95

Battle Axe Folk, 181; Beaker
Folk, 182, 197; Egyptian, 186-7;
Italian, 191; Spanish, 194-75 2065
Bronze Age, 206, 207-8
Burin, Tardenoisean, 15, 19, 168
 INDEX

Burkitt, M. C., 7, 48, 232
Burnt Fen, Neolithic implements
from, 104, 113, 116, PL 8. 6,
Pl. 11. 7, 9

Burwell Fen, implements from, 104,
106, Pl. 8. 1, 3, Pl. 10. 7
Bushell, W. D., 184
Butmir, Bosnia, wheat from, 54;
figurines from, 86, 143; indus-
tries, 143-4, Pl* 21

Cabego d*Arruda, see Mughem
Caisteal-nan-Gillean, see Oronsay
Caithness, “painted pebbles”in, 12n.
Calkin, J. B., 183

Callais, from Brittany, 158, 1985
beads of, in Spain, 195, 196
Cambridge, implements from, 120,
200

Camel, at Anau, 86
Camp de Chassey, pottery from,
124; Neolithic village at, 159
Campignian culture, 10, 32, 45-75
axe, 32, 40, 46, PL 5. c
Cangas d’Onis, painting at, 230
Capitan, L., 40, 49
Capsian culture, 185
Carnac, megaliths at, 146, 148, 158;
pottery at, 1975 culture of, 197-85
designs at, 199, 226
Cartailhac, E., 49
Castillo, human figures at, 13
Catalonia, Asturian culture in, 26
Cattle, occurrence of, 25, 475 Neo-
lithic, 62-3; at Anau, 85-6. See
also Ox

[Prometheus]

Cawdor, Earl, 184
Celts, Neolithic, 102-6, 173; from
Scotland, 1835 from Troy, 190;
from Italy, 1915 in Spain, 194,
195, 196; from Brittany, 199;
Copper and Bronze Age, 202-4,
PL 26. 1-9

Chalcolithic culture, 3
Chamblandes, burials at, 159
Childe, V. G., 134 n,, 144, 157 n.
China, painted pottery from, 79,
143, 216

ns

Chisels, Neolithic, 106-8, PL 10.

7, 8, Pl. 11. 2. See also Shoe last
Ciempozuelos pottery, 196, 222,
Pl. 25

Cissbury, chisels from, 108 j flint
mines at, 174, 175

Cleveland Hills, pigmy flints from,
167

Climate, Palaeolithic, 55 Mesolithic,
10, 28, 755 Neolithic, 74-9, 97,
X3X> x33> 135

Clonfinlough, design at, 222, 228,
Pl. 27. 2
Coffey, G., 184
Colne Valley, industry, 164
Combs, occurrence of, 43
Constantine Bay, Padstow, pigmy
industry at, 167

Copper, in Spain, 50, 150, 152, 185,
192, 195-6; in eastern Europe,
138; at Carnac, 158; in the Swiss
Lake Dwellings, 161; at Stone-
henge, 178; in Egypt, 187; in
the Greek islands, 189; at Troy,
190; in Sardinia, 192; in Hun-
gary, 2005 and tin, 201
Corded pottery, 126, 135-6, 156
Cornwall, Mesolithic industry in,
19, 167

Correia, V., 162
Coton, celt from, 104, Pl. 8. 4
Crannogs, in Ireland, 93
Crawford, O. G. S., 184
Cremation, occurrence of, 133, 136,
137, 183, 207-8

Creswell Crags, industry at, 163,
164, 168

Crete, Neolithic culture in, 1875
Copper and Bronze Ages in,
188-9, 190, 208-95 influence of,
197-8

Crimea, Tardenoisean culture in
the, 18

Cromlech (stone circle), description
of, 146, Pl. 225 at Carnac, 148,
x99

Cucuteni, Moldavia, painted pot-
tery at, 138, 140
 INDEX

236

Cueva Menga, passage grave at, x 50;

human figures at, 230
Cypriote daggers, 205
Cyprus, tools from, 200, 205

Daggers, Neolithic, 113, PI. 12. 3,
155; Spanish, 195, 196, 197,
220; Copper and Bronze, 204-5,
PL 26

Danube, the, and migrations, 97,
100, 146; pottery, 122, 124, 190,
Pl. 15. 10-12, 14, 15; civilisation
of, ch. V passim, 154, 160; trade
with Troy, 191
D6chelette, J., 162, 211
Deer Park, Sligo, megaliths, 177
Denmark, pigmy industries in, 165
and Maglcmosean culture, 27 fF.;
and Kitchen midden culture, 44,
56; Neolithic implements from,
104, 105, 108, 118, 120, Pl. 14. 4;
Bronze Age garment from, 210
Dimini, Thessaly, painted pottery
at, 140, 142
Discs, Neolithic, 120
Dorpfeld, W., 200
Dog, Azilian, 10, 56; Tardenoisean,
23 j Kitchen midden, 40, 43;
Neolithic, 635 at Anau, 86
Dolmens, description of, 148-9, Pl.
22. 1, ia; Spanish, 194-65 at
Carnac, 198; designs on, 224-31
Domestic animals, 2, 4, 9, 23, 25,
26, 40, 46, 47, 50-2, 56-64; at
Anau, 85-6; of Troy, 190; in
Italy, 191; in Spain, 219. See also
Cattle, Dog, Goat, Horse, Pig,
Sheep

Dowth, tumulus at, 226
Drumvaig, see Oban
Dupont, E., 21
Dzungarian Gate, the, 82, 83

East Anglia, tools of, 102-22;
microliths in, 167, 170, PL 24;
Neolithic culture in, 170, 172,
173, 174, 179, 1825 Beaker Folk
in, 182; Bronze Age in, 201

Eastbourne, scraper from, no, PL

10. 5

Eastern Area, described, 97; pottery
of the, 122, Pl. 15, 126; culture
of the, 131-43

Egypt, sickle from, 55; plough
from, 55 n.$ domestic animals of,
64; painted pottery in, 143; and
megaliths, 151-2; Neolithic in-
dustries of, 185-75 Copper and
Bronze Ages in, 187, 210; and
Crete, 209 n.

El Argar culture, 197
Eneolithic culture, 3
England, megaliths in, 151, 153;
Mesolithic times in, 163-70; post-
Mesolithic times in, 170-2; Neo-
lithic times in, 173-83. See also
Britain

Eolithic period, 3
Eridu, painted pottery at, 189
Eriswell, Neolithic implements from,
108, 114, Pl. 10. 9 and Pl. n.
10

Erosd, Transylvania, painted pot-
tery at, 138

Essex, post-Mesolithic industries in,
170, 172

Evans, Sir A., 209
Ewart, J. C., 72, 73

Fabricator, Neolithic, 108-9,

10. XI

Fayum, the, Neolithic industry in,
185

Federsee, Wiirttemberg, and the
“Boreal” period, 75, 765 pottery
from, 126, Pl. 18. 7-9
Figurines, human, 86,134,143,188,
191, 216-17, Pis. 20. 3, 5, 21. 3
and 29. 5

Finland, Maglemosean culture in,
27, 30 “comb” decoration in,
*54

Fish, hooks, 36; engravings of, 213,
216, PL 25. 4, 5
Fishing, at Troy, 190
Flax, in Neolithic civilisation, 54
 INDEX

Flint, flaking, 15, 16, 67, 68, 69;
quarrying of, 70-2; in Neolithic
huts, 88; in England, 173
Flint implements, see Tools
Folkton Wold, chalk drums from,
231, PI. 29. 3
Fontanalba, art of, 224
Fontanella, Bronze Age culture at,
208

Fordham, arrow-head from, 114,
Pl. 11. 5

Forests, and Neolithic culture, 97,
167, 179, 180

Fox, Dr Cyril, 94, 182, 184, 211
France, Azilian culture in, 12, 13,
14; 23; Asturian culture in, 26;
Maglemosean finds in, 27
Fry, Dr, 176

Furfooz, Mesolithic industries at, 21

Gabal, rock shelter at, 222
Galicia, painted pottery in, 138; rock
carvings in, 222, 228, PI. 27.4
Gams, H., 101

Gavr’inis, designs at, 199, 226, PI.
29. 1

Germany, Azilio-Tardenoisean cul-
ture in, 20-1; climate of, 75-7,
97; Neolithic houses in, 88-9;
migrations into, 97, 156
Gimpera, P. Bosch, 162
Glastonbury Lake village, 93
Goat, found in Swiss Lake dwellings,
62

Gobi Desert, and Neolithic civilisa-
tion, 79, 82, 83

Gohlitsch, Saxony, kist tomb near,
226

Goessler, 89

Gold, in prehistoric times, 1, 2; in
Egypt, 187; at Troy, 190; in Spain,
192, 196, 197; in Ireland, 228
Gouge, Neolithic, 108, PL 9. 3
Gozo, culture of, 191
Granaries, in Egypt, 186
Grand Pressigny, flint from, 19,122,
159, 161, 199
Grapes, Neolithic, $4

m

Greece, Neolithic houses in, 905
pottery in, 118, 188; Bronze Age
in, 209-10

Grenelle, human remains at, 23
Grimes Graves, flint from, 71; im-
plement from, no, PL 10. 4;
industry at, 170, 174-5
Grossgartach, Neolithic house at, 89
Grotte des Enfants, 18, 19-20
Guden River, pigmy tools from, 45,
PL 5

Habitations, Palaeolithic, 5; Neo-
lithic, 86-95; pottery models of,
90; of the Eastern Area, 132,

136-7; at Troy, 190; Bronze Age,
207

Haddon, A. C., 101
Haldorf, Hesse Cassel, Neolithic
house at, 89
Hall, H. R., 200, 211
Hallstatt culture, 3, 207
Hallstrom, G., 231
Harpoons, 6, 10; Azilian, 13, 18,
164, 165, Pl. 1. 1 a, 166, 167;
Maglemosean, 36, Pl. 3, 38, 43,
44, 1705 Neolithic, 119, PL 13. 3
Hastings, pigmy industry near, 19,
167

Havelse Ros, Kildefjord, harpoons
from, 36

Helladic culture, 210
Hesbayt,fonds de cabanes at, 87, 132
Hesse, and Danubian culture, 133
Hinkelstein pottery, 122, Pl. 15.6.8,
133

Hoernes, M., 72
Holland, in Neolithic times, 158
Holmegaards Mose, shoulder point
from, 32

Horse, occurrence of, 23, 25, 47, 565
Neolithic, 63-4; at Anau, 85
Hungary, pottery in, 124; knife
blades from, 132; trade with, 200

Icklingham, Neolithic implements
from, 106, no, 114, Pl. 10. 3. 8,
Pl. 11.1
 INDEX

238

India, pigmy industries in, 16; and
Sumerian culture, 189, 21072.
Ireland, implements from, 120,
Pl. 14. 2. 3, 172; beakers from,
182; connexion of, with Brittany,
199, 226; prehistoric art in, 226-
30, PI. 29. 2

Italy, Mesolithic culture in, 18, 19,
2oj pile-dwellings in, 915 Neo-
lithic burial in, 96} Beaker Folk
in, 138; Copper Age culture in,
191 j Bronze Age culture in, 197

Javelins, Neolithic, 120, 155, 176
Johansen, K. F., 49
Jutland, animal figures from, 38;
shell mounds in, 44} pigmy tools
in, 45} 118; Battle Axe Folk in,
*55> *57

Kasemose, pigmy tools from, 37
Keller, F., 91
Kempchik Bom, the, 83
Kentford, Neolithic fabricator from,
108, PL 10. 11

Kirkcudbright, Azilian culture near,
*3> 164

Kists, stone, burial in, 136} de-
scription of, 149, PI. 22. 6} in
Scandinavia, 150} in England,
151, 177} in Spain, 196
Kitchen middens, 4, 10, 40-5 j Folk
of the, 43, 45, 154
Knockmany, tumulus, 226, 230
Knossos, Neolithic industries at,
187-8} Bronze Age at, 209
Knowles, W. J., 184

La Franca, cave of, 25
Laguna de la Janda, rock shelters at
the, 217

Laibach, see Loubliana
Lake-dwellings, 91-4, 106 j culture
of the, 100, 137, 145, 160-1;
pottery of the, 124, PL 16. 3, 8,10,
126, 135} *n the Bronze Age, 207
Lakenheath, Neolithic implements
from, 103, 108, Pl. 8. 2, PL 11. 2

Lamp, from Cissbury, 175
Lances, Bronze Age, 205, PL 26
Land’s End, pigmy flints from, 167
La Pileta, rock paintings, 220
Lapis lazuli at Anau, 85
Las Batuecas, rock shelters at, 218,
219

Las Carolinas, pottery from, 194,
PL 25. 3

Las Figuras, paintings at, 218

La Tkne culture, 3

La Tourasse (Pyrenees), dog at, 10,56

Layard, N., 73

Leeds, E. T., 184

Leka, Norway, paintings at, 214

Lengyel, Hungary, barley from, 54;

pottery from, 134
Lequeux, L., 48

Lincolnshire, pigmy flints in, 167,
170

Littorina Utorea, evidence from, 26,29
Los Letreros, wall-painting at, 55,
219

Los Millares, pottery from, 194, 222
Los Molinos, painting at, 219
Los Murci61agos, cave of, 192
Loubliana (Laibach), lake-dwellings
near, 91, 925 pottery, 137, PL 20,
159, 161

Loughcrew, tumuli, 226, 230
Lydekker, R., 72, 73

Macalister, R. A. S., 232
McArthur’s Cave, see Oban
MacCurdy, G. G., 232
Magdalenian culture, influence of,
in England, 164
Magic, and art, 2, 6, 65, 223
Maglemosean culture, 10, 27-39,
554> 213, Pl* 3 5 name of, 31 w.j
in Yorkshire, 170
Malta, culture of, 191-2
Man, Isle of, beaker from, 182}
“scribed stones” from, 182 n.
Manea, Honey Hill, industry at, 182
Marschwitz culture, 200
Marsden, see Warcock Hill
Mas d’Azil, cave of, 8
 INDEX

239

Mayen, “post-houses” near, 88-9
Mediterranean area, 98, ch. vin;
race, 99; Bronze Age culture in
the, 201, 208-10, 217; and the
Earth Mother, 231
Megalithic constructions, 31, 145,
146-9, 151-2, 154; in England,
173, 175-95 in Spain, 194-6; art
and, 224-31

Melos, obsidian from, 188, 189
“Menhir Idol” the, 231, PL 29. 7
Menhirs, description of, 1465 at
Carnac, 148,198-9; drawings on,
224; carvings on, 231
Mentone, Grotte des Enfants, 18,
19-20; 163, 168
Merejkowsky, C. de, 49
Merseburg, and the Rossen culture,
136^

Mesolithic period, 3, ch. I passim;
influence of, 1455 in England,
164-70, 173

Mesopotamia, the battle axe and,
157 pottery from, 189; Bronze
Age culture of, 210-11, 216
Metals, use of, 50, 56, 216; at Anau,
85-6; and megaliths, 151, 158,
176, 197, 198, 199. See also
Copper, Bronze, etc.

Michelberg, pottery from, 126,
PL 17. 1-2

Mill for grinding grain, 54, 56
Millet, Neolithic, 53
Minoan cultures, 209-10, 215
Minyan pottery, 210
Mondsee, pile dwellings in the, 137,
161

Montmorency, Neolithic site at, 55,
159

Moravia, and Danubian culture,
133, 134; Beaker Folk burials in,
137; and Thessaly, 140, 142; 163;
painted pottery in, 216
Morgan, J. de, 46 n.

Mordake, pot from, 124, 173,
Pl. 16. 9

Mouflon, ancestor of domesticated
sheep, 58-60

Muller, M. H., 48
Muller, S., 49, 162
Mughem, tumuli at, 23, 100
Muller up, great bog of, 31, 32. See
also Maglemosean
Munro, R., 48
Murray, M. A., 200
Mycenean culture, 142, 209-10
Myres, J. L., 155

Mytilus edulisy evidence from, 25, 26

Nakadah, burials at, 187
Narvik, rock engravings, 212
Navarro, J. M. de, 211
Naxos, emery from, 189
Necklaces, 6, 21, 22
Needles, 6, 36, 119, Pl. 13. 4, 196
Neoanthropic Man, 99
Neolithic civilisation, 3, 50-101;
races, 98-101; typology, ch. IV;
culture in Eastern Area, ch. V;
culture in Northern and Western
Areas, ch. vi; culture in England,
170-83; in Africa, 186
New Grange, tumulus, 226, 230
Nostvet, Mesolithic industry at, 45
Nordhagen, H., 101
Nordic race, the, 99, 100-1
North Cray, industry at, 163 n.
Northern Area, the, described, 97;
celts of, 1045 pottery of, 124,
Pl. 17, 126; influence of, on
Eastern Area, 135, 136; culture
of, ch. VI

Norway, Mesolithic industry in, 45;
art in, 212-15

Notenschrifty pottery decoration, 122,
132

Oban, Azilian culture at, 10, 13, 56,
164, 165-6, 167

Obermaier, Dr H., 7, 12, 48, 194,
200, 222, 232

Obsidian, occurrence of, 16, 188,
191, 192

Ochre, use of, 12, 21, 22

Ofnet, Bavaria, burials at, 20-1, 100

Oltingen, Neolithic house at, 89
 INDEX

24O

Omalian industry, 124, 134, PI. 15.
it. 12, 159

Ornaments, 21, 22, 43, 136} in
Spanish dolmens, 195
Oronsay Island, Azilian culture on,
13, 164, 166-7
Osborn, H. F., 7

Ox, occurrence of, 22, 62-3, PL 6. 1,
199; in rock drawings, 223, 224,
230. See also Domestic animals

Pacheco, E. H., 232
Painted Pottery Folk, 142-3
Palaeolithic period, 3, 4, 5-7, 8,
51, 755 in the Baltic Area, 27-85
in Moravia, 39; domestic animals
in the, 56-7, 645 pottery in the,
65; tool-making in the, 67-8;
in China, 79; in England, 163-4,
174; art of the, 212, 215
Palliardi, J., 144

Palmella culture, in Spain, 193-4,
Pl. 25. 1-3

Palstaves, 202, Pl. 26. 5
Pamirs, the, 81; pass in, 82, 83
Paros, marble from, 188, 189
Parry, T. W., 101
Passage Graves, culture of, 89; pot-
tery of, 124; description of, 149,
Pl. 22. 2-4, 150; English, 151,
153; Spanish, 195, 1965 in Brit-
tany, 199
Patiri, G., 48
Peake, H., 211
Pears, Neolithic, 54
Pebbles, painted, 12-13, PI* 1
Peet, T. E., 211

Pena Tti, paintings and engravings
at, 218, 220, Pl. 27. 1
Penmaenmawr, quarry at, 70;

scratched lines at, 174, 216
Pennines, the, pigmy Bints from,
167-70

Peterborough, finds de cabanes near,
173

Petreny, Bessarabia, painted pottery
at, 138

Petrie, Sir Flinders, 84.fi., 186 n.

Picks, Asturian, 24, PL 1. 2; Neo-
lithic, 42, Pl. 5. <2,108-10, Pl. 10,9
Piette, E., 8, 48

Pig, occurrence of, 23, 255 “Tur-
bary,” 63; at Anau, 85
Pigmy flints, 15-20, 22, 23, 32,
36-7; in England, 38, 167-70; in
Kitchen middens, 45; in Jutland,
ib*\ in Africa, 185; in Spain, 194.
See also Tardenoisean
Pile-dwellings, see Lake dwellings
Pins, Bronze Age, 206, Pl. 26
Plough, Neolithic, 54-5, 118, PL
13. 2; in rock drawings, 223, 224,
230, PL 28. 1

Poland, pigmy industries in, 16;
Tardenoisean culture in, 18;
Maglemosean culture in, 27, 39
Pole’s Wood South, barrow at, 176
Poppy, Neolithic, 54
Portugal, Mesolithic industries in,
13 n., 18; megaliths in, 151,
194-6; rock shelters in, 217, 218
Potter’s wheel, evidence of, 86, 188,
190

Pottery, criterion of, 2, 3, 9, 22, 23,
26; “comb,” 31, 124, 154-5; in
kitchen middens, 40, 43; Cam-
pignian, 46, 47; Neolithic, 50,
64-7, 88, 122-8,^ 173, 185-95,
2x5-17; Palaeolithic, 65; painted,
79? 9°> 95? 138-43? 189, 216;
from Anau, 85-6; of the Eastern
Area, 122, Pl. 15, 126, 131-435
of the Northern Area, 124, PL 17,
126, 154; of the Western Area,
124, Pl. 16, 126, 153-4; corded
ware, 126, 135; Butmir, 143,
PL 215 Camp de Chassey, 159,
Pl. 16. 4-7, 11, 12; Egyptian,
186-7; Cretan, 188; from Greece,
/&.; Mesopotamian, 189; in Asia
Minor, 190; in Italy, 191; in
Malta and Gozo, 191; in Sar-
dinia, 192; in Spain, 192-4; PL
25.1-3, 222; Copper Age, 195-6,
200; Bronze Age, 197, 206, Pl. 265
Aegean, 209-10
 INDEX

24I

Pottier, E., 144, 231
Pousthomy, “menhir idol” at, 231
Prescelly, blue stone from, 178
Pullenhofen, climatic changes at, 76
Pumpelly, R., 72, 85, 86
Puydt, M. de, 73, 101

Quine, J., 184

Quy, implement from, 116, PI. 11.

11

Races, Neolithic, 98-101
Rahir, E., 48

Rakhmani, Thessaly, pottery at,
142

Rapiers, Bronze Age, 205, Pl. 26
Rathkenny, engravings at, 228
Ravensburg, climatic changes at, 76
Reach Fen, celt from, 103, PI. 8. 5
Reindeer, occurrence of, 10, 19, 30,
39, 75j painting of, 214
Reinerth, H., 144

Religion, Sumerian, 210-115 and
art, 223; and idols, 230-1
Remedello, Bronze Age culture at,
208

Remouchamps, Belgium, Tardenoi-
sean site, 15, 19
Ridgeway, Sir W., 101
Ripple ware, 188

RSssen pottery, 122, Pl. 15. 5, 7, 13,
I33>   i56

Romanelli (Otranto), cave at, 18
Rouzic, Z. le, 232
Rushford, implement from, 120
Russia, pigmy industries in, 165 and
painted pottery, 1385 Battle Axe
Folk in, 156, 157; 188; rock
drawings in, 224

St Gertrude, Maestricht, flints from,
71-2, 174

St Nicholas (Cardiff), chambered
tomb at, 89

Saint-Sernin, “menhir idol” at, 231
San Dalmazo, rock drawings near,
223, Pl. 28. 1
Sarasin, F., 48, 231

Sarauw, G., 49
Sardinia, culture of, 192
Scandinavia, and Maglemosean cul-
ture, 27, 39; and Shell Mound
culture, 45; Neolithic implements
from, 104, 108, 113; megaliths in,
150, 151; rock drawings in, 212-
15, 224. See also Sweden, Nor-
way

Schipenitz, Bukowina, painted pot-
tery at, 138, 140, 142
Schist idols, in Spain, 195, 196, 220,
230-1, Pl. 29, 6. 8
Schmidt, R. R., 49
Schr&nil, J., 211

Scodand, implements from, 182.

See also Oban and Oronsay
Scrapers, Neolithic, 110-12, PL 10.

3? 4? $> 10

Scunthorpe (Lines.), pigmy tools at,
170, Pl. 24. D

Seistan, 835 and the Sumerians, 210
Serpents, on megalithic monuments,
199, 226

Sess Kilgreen, design on tumulus at,
199, 226, PL 29. 2
Settle, see Victoria Cave
Sevenoaks, pigmy industry near,

[Prometheus]

23

Sheep, occurrence of, 23; domesti-
cated, 58-62, Pl. 6; at Anau,
85-6

Ships, rock engravings of, 224, 230
Shoe last tool, 116,118, Pl. 13. 2 and
21. 15, 132, 136, 140, 143
Sickle, criterion of, 43; Neolithic
54-6, PL 12. 5 and PL 30, 112;
at Anau, 85; from the Camp de
Chassey, 1595 180; Egyptian,
186; Bronze Age, 206, PL 26. 265
in Spanish art, 219
Sierra Morena, rock shelters in, 218,
219

Silver, occurrence of, 187, 190, 192,
196, 197
Siret, L., 194

Siwa oasis, sickle from, 112, Pl. 12.6
185
 INDEX

242

Slate palettes, Egyptian, 187
Slugs, Neolithic implements, 112
Smith, R., 183, 184
Snail shells, evidence from, 10, 25,
26, 78

Sollas, W. J., 7

Spain, Azilian culture in, 12,13, 14;
Tardenoisean culture in, 16, 18,
22, 23; Asturian culture in, 24-65
and the Beaker folk, 137, 180,
197; megaliths in, 150-2; 163;
copper in, 185, 192-4; Bronze
Age in, 197; rock shelter art in,
217-24; and Ireland, 228; art in
prehistoric tombs in, 230-1, PI. 29
Sphagnum peat, 76
Spiennes, flint mine at, 72
Spiral, the, in Egypt, 187; in Malta,
191; in Spain, 195, 218; near San
Dalmazo, 2235 at Gavr’inis, 226,
PL 29. 1; in Ireland, 226, 230,
PL 29. 2

Spiral-Meander pottery, 122, Pl. 15.
x-4> 133

Stein, Sir Aurel, 82
Stickband9 pottery decoration, 122,
PL 15. 9, 133
Stone, E. H., 184

Stonehenge, interpretation of, 177-9
Studer, T., 73
Sumerians, the, 189, 210-11
Susa, painted pottery from, 142,143,

2t6

Sussex, pigmy flints from, 19, 167
Svaerdborg, Maglemosean culture
at, 31, 32, PL 4

Sweden, Mesolithic industry in, 45;
celts from, 104; ‘‘comb” decora-
tion in, 154; conquests by, 156-7;
rock engraving in, 213, 224
Switzerland, Azilian culture in, 13;
Neolithic husbandry in, 53, 93;
Neolithic stock-raising in, 60-25
pile-dwellings,9r, 106,154, r6o-i;
migrations into, 100; harpoons in,
119; and Danubian culture, 134
Swords, Bronze Age, 205, PL 26
Syria, Mesolithic industries in, 18

Tardenoisean culture, 10, 14-23,
132, Pl. 2; human origins, 20, 99;
in England, 167-70, Pl. 23; in
Africa, 185; in Spain, 192
Termini Imerese, Sicily, industries
at, 18

Terremare settlements, 207
Textiles, Neolithic, 54, 935 Bronze
Age, 210

Thessaly, painted pottery in, 138,
140

Thomas, H., 178
Thompson, M. S., 144
Thuringia, corded pottery in, 135,
156

Tin, occurrence of, at Anau, 86;
at Troy, 190; in Brittany, 198;
in Bohemia, 200; and bronze, 201
Tools, antler and bone, 6 5 Azilian, 10;
Tardenoisean, 19, 235 Asturian,
24; Maglemosean, 30, 32, 36-9;
Kitchen midden, 40, 42, 44,
PL 5. d, e; at Anau, 85, ch. IV
passim; from the Camp de Chassey,
159; Egyptian, 186; see also Har-
poons

Tools, flint and stone, 6; Azilian, 10;
Tardenoisean, 15-2 3; Asturian,
245 Maglemosean, 30,   32-65

Kitchen midden, 40-25 Cam-
pignian, 46-7; Neolithic, 50,
67-72, ch. IV; from Central Asia,
82, 85; typology, ch. iv passim;
of the Eastern Area, 132, 136;
Butmir, 143; of the Northern and
Western Areas, 153, 155, 158,
159; of the Swiss Lake Dwellings,
160, 1615 from Colne Valley, 164;
from the River Bann, 172, Pl.
14. 3; of Long Barrows, 1735
Egyptian, 186-7; Cretan, 1885
Italian, 191; Spanish, 192, 194-6
Tools, metal, 202-6, Pl. 26, 217
Trade, prehistoric, 158, 161, 188,
191,192,198,199-200,201,206-7
Transport, 1; by water, 14,31,93~4>
224,230; by wheeled vehicles, 219,
Pl. 27 3
 243

index

Transylvania, painted pottery in,

Tras-os-Montes, paintings at, 230
Trephining, prehistoric, 10 r, 196
Tripolje culture, 89, 138
Trochus lineatus, evidence from, 25,
26

Troy (Hissarlik), discoveries at, 190-
1; trade with, 200; daggers at,
205 n,

“Turbary” sheep, 61, 85, 86
Typology, 99 j Neolithic, ch. rv$
Bronze Age, 202-6

Uley, “Hetty Peglers Tump,”
176

Undley, arrow-head from, 114, Pl.
11. 4

Urial, ancestor of domesticated
sheep, 60-1, Pl. 6

Valle, cave of, 16
Vasconcellos, J. L. de, 232
Vassits, M. M., 144
Vega del Sella, Conde de la, 24, 49,
232

Velez Blanco, rock shelters at, 217,
219, 222

Victoria Cave, Settle, Azilian culture
in, 13, 164-5, 166
Vinca, Danubian site, 134
Viollier, D., 72
Vouga, P., 160, 162

Wace, A. J. B., 144
Warcock Hill, Marsden (Yorks.),
pigmy industries at, 168, Pl.
23

Warren, S. H., 73, 167, 170, 172,
184

Weber, on Sphagnum peat, 76
West Kennet, long barrow, 175
Western Area, described, 98; celts
of the, 1035 pottery of the, 124,
Pl. 16, 1265 culture of the, ch. Vi
Wheat, Neolithic, 53, 54; at Anau,

85

Whitepark Bay, Neolithic tools at,
172

Whorl, stone, 119, Pl. 13. 5; at
Anau, 855 terra-cotta, 1445 Scot-
tish, 182

Wilburton hoard, the, 202 n.
Wiltshire, long barrows in, 1755
beakers in, 182
Wosinski Mor, 144
Writing, invention of, 187, 189,
210

Yoldia Sea, the, 28
Yorkshire, microlithic industry in,
19, 167-705 Maglemosean culture
in, 38

Zammit, T., 200

Zemljanka, the, in South Russia, 89
Zonhoven, Tardenoisean site, 14, 19
 CAMBRIDGE: PRINTED BY
W. LEWIS, M.A.

AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS