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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.
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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
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(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.
769
« on: March 20, 2018, 12:09:42 AM »
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.
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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.
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« on: March 20, 2018, 12:08:32 AM »
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
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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
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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/Paleolithichttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesolithichttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neolithichttps://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 $
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435
nonest but dark-minded possessors into the most senseless and
childish superstitions, the most absurd doctrines, the most re-
lentless intolerance of belief, and the most bloody and murder-
ous persecutions; thus proving that conscience unenlightened
is a very unsafe and a very dangerous moral and religious
guide. The popular Christian proverb, that “man can not be
too religious,” comprehends a very fatal error in moral ethics:
for the man who possesses more religion than intellect, or more
devotional piety than intellectual cultivation and philosophical
enlightenment, is sometimes a more dangerous man to society
than the highway robber or the midnight assassin; because,
always finding many accomplices to aid him in his direful deeds
of blood}" persecutions, and frequently being able, also, to in-
voke the strong arm of the law, his work of defamation and
spoliation, if not of open persecution and bloodshed, is wider
spread than that of the burglar or the stealthy assassin.
A review of history shows us : 1. That, up to the installation
of the era of science, which dates back less than three centuries
ago, the world—that is, the Christian world — was literally a vast
prison-house of chains, and a theater of butcher}" and blood, —the
result of a practical effort of men, devoutly pious, to “ promote
the glory of God,” and the establishment of a supposed-to-be-
true religion. 2. The perpetrators of those tragical deeds upon
men and women were, many of them, as religiously honest and
conscientious “ as ever breathed the breath of life; ” and they
verily believed they were doing God sendee in thus punishing
and exterminating dissenters and heretics. The very fact that
some of these pious persecutors perished themselves at the fiery
stake in the conscientious and unflinching maintenance of their
principles, shouting “ Hallelujah ” while the burning fagots con-
sumed their bodies, leaves no possible ground for doubt that
a deep religious conviction had actuated them in the work of
persecuting and punishing the enemies of their religion, and in
attempting to convert the world to its “ saving truth” by the
sword. Much is said about “ conscience,” “ the internal mon-
itor,” “ the still, small voice,” &c., as a guide for man’s moral
actions; but, if experience and history ever proved or can prove
any thing, they demonstrate most conclusively that conscience,
436
THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.
unenlightened by the intellectual department of the mind, or a
conscience grown up amid the weeds of scientific ignorance, is
as dangerous a pilot upon the moral ocean as the helmsman of
a ship, in midnight darkness, surrounded by dangerous shoals
and resistless whirlpools. Conscience without science or phil-
osophy is a lamp without oil, which consequently*, being without
light, is more likely to lead us astray than to guide us to the
temple of truth. Science is the pilot-lamp by which we discern
our way on the pilgrim-voyage of life; while religion is the
feeling, the motive-power, which impels us onward. Hence the
latter should at all times be subservient to the former, and
should be checked and restrained from spontaneous develop-
ment and exercise until the former is duly installed upon the
mental throne as ruler of the moral empire. It is as dangerous
to cultivate and stimulate the religious feelings, until the fires
of science or practical philosophy have been kindled up in the
intellectual chambers to furnish the light necessaiy to guide them
in their impulsive course, as it would be to steam up the boilers
of a boat when approaching a precipice in the night, with the
pilot asleep upon his hammock, and all the lights extinguished
in his chamber. Neither religion nor conscience possesses pri-
mordialty any light of its own. Both are born blind; and all
the light they ever possess is by reflection from the intellectual
light-house. Prolific, indeed, of the proof of this statement,
are human nature, human experience, and universal history.
Let the polic}r, then, be, in all cases, to cultivate science before
religion. The intellectual mind, we repeat, should be thorough-
ly cultivated and enlightened before the religious feelings are
called into action.
Query. Reader, what do you now think of Dr. Cheviot’s
statement, “ The Bible does not contain the shadow of a shade
of error from Genesis to Revelation
CONCLUSION.
437
CONCLUSION.
SEVERAL IMPORTANT POINTS.
1. As this work was announced several }7ears ago, it seems
proper to explain the causes of the long delay in its pub-
lication. Want of health for completing it, and want of means
for publishing it, furnish the true explanation. But by the prac-
tical application of a remedy constituting a new and extraordi-
nary discovery in the healing art, the author’s health has so far
improved as to enable him to resume the work, and re-write
nearly the whole of it in a few weeks time. The work advei-
tised embraced but forty pages. The present volume comprises
nearly eleven times that number of pages, and includes only
two chapters of the original, except the small portion which has
been re-written.
2. While u The World’s Sixteen Crucified Saviors ” was de-
signed principally to trace the doctrines, traditions, and miracu-
lous events of the Christian Bible to their primary pagan or
Oriental origin, the main object of u The Bible of Bibles ” is to
expose their logical absurdity, and the evils resulting from their
propagation and practical application.
3. The objection is frequently raised in this work against
placing the Bible in the hands of children, and also in posses-
sion of the heathen. This would, of course, keep it out of our
common schools; and the author rejoices in knowing, that,
although the Bible was used as a regular school-book in his
youthful da}Ts, it has been banished as a text-book from nearly
every schoolroom throughout the country. This denotes prog-
ress.
4. Christian professors regard it as a sufficient refutation of
all the arguments and facts designed to prove and demonstrate
the immoral influence of the Bible upon society, to assert that
438
THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.
Christian countries are superior in morals to those not in posses-
sion of their Bible. But many facts cited in this work tend to
prove, that, if the assumption were correct, it could not with any
show of reason or sense be attributed to the influence of the
Bible. It is clearly, if not self-evidently, impossible that such
* moral or immoral lessons as are derived from the history of such
characters as the father and founder of the Jewish nation (Abra-
ham), who is represented as living up to all the commands, all
the statutes, and all the laws of God (see Gen. xxvi. 5), while
practicing the abominable crimes of treachery, deceit, falsehood,
incest or adulteiy, and potygam}", &c, — I say it is moralty impos-
sible for such examples and such lessons to exert other than a
demoralizing influence upon society; or that of David, pro-
nounced u the man after God's own heart,” while practicing a
long catalogue of the most shocking crimes (see chap. xxx).
Such cases blasphemously represent God as sanctioning the
most atrocious crimes and the most revolting deeds, which is a
virtual licence to the whole human race to practice them. If a
book containing such lessons does not exert an immoral influence
upon society, then human language, when employed in writing
Bibles, fails to make its ordinary impression upon the mind.
But we will here cite three cogent and incontrovertible historical
facts, which will settle the matter at once and for ever, bj^ proving
the truth of our oft-repeated proposition, that the Christian Bible,
notwithstanding the apparent improvement in morals of most
Christian countries in modern times, has, on the whole, tended
to demoralize every nation where it has been generally read, be-
lieved, and practiced. First, look at the moral condition of the
whole Christian world during the period known as u the Dark
Ages,” and 3011 will see the proof in overwhelming torrents.
During that long night of moral darkness and human depravity,
which lasted nearly a thousand years, all Christendom was reek-
ing with moral corruption, and practicing the most abominable
crimes. Ljdng, deceit, hypocrisy, moral treason, licentious-
ness, adultery, fornication, lighting, and drunkenness were the
order of the day among all classes, including the clerg}r and the
deacons, simply because the light of science had not reached
them, and the Bible was their sole guide in morals and religion.
CONCLUSION.
439
This state of things continued until the introduction of Greek
literature dispelled the thick clouds of mental darkness, and ar-
rested the swift tide of moral corruption. Second, the Greeks
without our Bible were both morally and intellectually superior
to any Christian nation. Third, “ the Dark Ages ” were brought
to a close by the introduction of Greek learning and Greek mor-
als into Christian nations. This dates their first tendency to
rise out of the sloughs of heathen barbarism, and their first ap-
pearance of moral improvement. And thus the proposition is
proved and demonstrated by the facts of history that the Bible
continued to demoralize society till its influence was arrested by
the dawn of moral and physical science. In no nation has there
been an}’ marked improvement in morals with the use of the
Bible alone.
5. It will doubtless be regarded as an extraordinary circum-
stance that so many thousand biblical errors as are disclosed in
this work should have passed from age to age unnoticed by the
millions of disciples of the Christian faith, and more especially
the startling fact that all the cardinal doctrines of the Christian
religion are founded in error. But it should be borne in mind
that it was regarded and taught as a religious duty to suppress
and conceal all such errors, and absolutely wicked, sinful, and
dangerous to admit the possibility that the Holy Book can con-
tain errors. And this negative policy alone was sufficient to
keep them concealed and out of sight.
6. It is stated in chapter thirty that none of the Old Testa-
ment writers teach the doctrine of immortality or the doctrine of
future rewards and punishments. The proof and a full elucida-
tion of this subject will be found in u The Biography of Satan.”
7. It is stated in chapter fifty-five that all human language
is more or less ambiguous and uncertain, and in chapter fifty-two
that skillful linguists of this age can construct language whose
meaning can not be misunderstood ; and hence God should
have been able to do so when the Bible was written. The first
statement refers to language as ordinarily used when the Bible
was written, and especially the imperfect Hebrew of the Bible.
The last statement implies that with the modern improvements
language can be so employed as to leave no doubt of its mean-
ing in any case. Both statements, then, are correct.
440
THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.
8. The author, in abridging citations from history and the
Bible, has in some cases deviated from custom in using quota-
tion-marks. This is especially true of chapter twenty-two (on
Bible contradictions).
9. It is believed that no errors of any importance can be
found in this work, unless some mistakes have been committed
in making scriptural references.
10. £@r”Each reader of this work is desired to examine care-
fully and critically the author’s exposition of “ The Twelve Car-
dinal Doctrines of the Christian Faith,” and report to him his
views .of that exposition. Those twelve leading doctrines are
embraced in the twelve chapters commencing at chapter 38 (on
revelation) and ending at chapter 44 (on a personal God).
THE 'WORLD’S
SIXTEEN CRUCIFIED SAVIORS;
Or, Christianity Before Christ.
CONTAINING
New, Startling, and Extraordinary Revelations in Religious History
which disclose the Oriental origin of all the Doctrines, Principles,
Precepts and Miracles of the Christian New Testament, and
furnishing a hey for unloching many of its Sacred
Mysteries, besides comprising the History of
Sixteen Oriental Crucified Gods, etc,, etc,
BY KERSEY GRAVES,
Author of “The Biography of Satan,” and “The Bible of Bibles; or, Twenty-
Seven ‘Divine Revelations.* ”
This wonderful and exhaustive volume by Mr. Graves will, we are certain, take
high rank as a book of reference in the field which he has chosen for it. The
amount of mental labor necessary to collate and compile the varied information
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such convenient shape the student of free thought will not willingly allow it to go
out of print. But the book is by no means a mere collation of views or statistics;
throughout its entire course the author follows a definite line of research and argu-
ment to the close, and his conclusions go, like sure arrows, to the mark.
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OF
THE DEVIL AND HIS FIERY DOMINION.
BY IT GRAVES,
Author of “The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors,” “The Bible of Bibles; or,
Twenty-Seven ‘ Divine Revelations,* ” etc.
This work discloses the Oriental origin of the belief in a Devil and Future
Endless Punishment. Also, the Pagan origin of the Scriptural terms, Bottomless
Pit, Lake of Fire and Brimstone, Keys of Hell, Chains of Darkness, Casting out
Devils, Everlasting Punishment, The Worm that Never Dieth, etc., all explained.
Paper. Price 35 cents, postage 3 cents.
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THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.
popular intelligence advanced. “All the learned ancients,”
says Mr. Higgins, “gave their sacred writings two meanings,—
one literal, and the other spiritual.” Philo confessed that the
literal sense of the Old Testament is 4 4 shocking :9 9 hence 4 4 a
divine science, believed by intuition, is necessary to penetrate
the hidden meaning.” The Essenes declared, the literal sense
of their scriptures was devoid of all power. Origen, finding
Moses’ writings replete with error and immoralit}", got rid of
the difficulty by declaring, 44 It is all allegory.” He makes the
remarkable confession, that44 there were some things inserted in
the Bible as history which were never transacted : ’ ’ hence he
concludes they must be interpreted spiritually, or set down as
false. And St. Hillary declares, 44 There are man}7 historical
passages in the New Testament, which, if taken literally, are
contrary to sense and reason ; and therefore there is a necessity
for a mystical interpretation.” Not that we have any evidence
that such an interpretation was ever thought of by the writer;
but this new and forced interpretation is the onl}T alternative to
save the credit of the Book. Any senseless expedient or sub-
terfuge that could be invented was dragged in, rather than admit
the Holy Book contained errors ; for this would prove it to be
the work of man, and not of God. This has been the policy
from time immemorial of the votaries of all sacred books.
Origen — after declaring, 44 There is no literal truth in the story
of Christ driving out the money-changers ” — asserts that it is an
allegoiy, indicating that we are to cast out our evil propensities.
He says the early Christians seldom used the literal sense of the
scriptures, because it taught something objectionable ; and, ever
since the inauguration of this mode for concealing the errors and
defective moral teachings of the Bible, all kinds of ridiculous
interpretations of scripture have been resorted to ly orthodox
writers to make it teach what each one desired. Since they
arrogated to themselves the liberty to depart from the literal
meaning of the text, hundreds of meanings have been ingrafted
upon the same text by as many writers and readers; thus
launching all scripture import upon the quicksands of uncer-
tainty. The Rev. Mr. McNaught of England points to one
text in Galatians — on which, he says, two hundred and forty
SPIRITUAL OR IMPLIED SENSE OF BIBLES. 429
meanings have been saddled by different Bible interpreters — as
a specimen of this land of license, that is, two hundred and
forty guesses at the meaning: thus making Bible interpretation,
and the s}'stem of salvation founded on it, an entire system of
guess-ivork ; and I would suggest, that, if we have thus to guess
our way to heaven, we can do so as well without the Bible as
with it. A God who is so ignorant of human language as to
give forth a revelation to the world couched in such unintelli-
gible and ambiguous terms that no two people can understand
it alike, it seems to us, should not have attempted it. All will
be chaos and confusion and wild guess-work with respect to
the meaning of a large portion of the Bible, while its readers
are allowed to depart from the established meaning of words as
defined by our dictionaries, and fabricate new meanings of their
own. As for example: St. Andrew tells us, that, when Christ
spoke of removing mountains, he meant the Devil; and, when
he spoke of selling two sparrows for a farthing, Bishop Hillary
says he meant “ sinners selling themselves to the Devil.” The
red heifer offered by Moses on the day of Pentecost was “ spir-
itualty Jesus Christ; ” thus identifying Gods with beasts. The
wool and hyssop used for sprinkling the-people, we are told,
means spiritualty, “ the cross of Christ.” Christ’s injunction
to hate father, mother, brother, and sister, &c., we are told,
means that we must love them; and many similar examples
of manufacturing new meanings for obnoxious texts might be
cited.
Now, we ask, of what practical value can the Bible be, when
there is no certain clew to its meaning, or when any of its read-
ers, on finding a word or text whose literal signification does not
suit their religious fancy, can assume the liberty to renounce
the dictionary, ignore the common and established acceptation
of words, and fabricate a new meaning contrary to, and in di-
rect conflict with, the common signification? To get rid of some
obvious error in the text, they bestow upon it an}' kind of fan-
ciful, and sometimes ridiculous, signification their imagination
can invent, and then insist with a godly zeal that it is the in-
tended meaning of the writer. If such lawless license in the
use of words is to be tolerated, as Bible believers are in the
430
THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.
habit of assuming, in order to make it teach something which
they devoutly desire it should teach, then all rules with respect
to the employment of language and the use of words are at an
end: our dictionaries may be banished from the schoolroom.
We will no longer have use for them if words are no longer
the symbols of ideas, which must be the case if people are
allowed to attach any signification to them they please, or as-
sign them a meaning at variance with common custom; and a
person can learn as much by casting his eyes over the blank
pages of the book as by tracing its printed lines. And the art
and labor of printing, so far as he is concerned, is superseded;
for, as he fabricates his own meaning, this can be done as well
without type as with it. Mr. Ernstein, in his u Principles of
Biblical Interpretation” (p. 37), affirms that ua proposition
ma}r be strictty true which is not contained in the words of the
text; ” which is tantamount to saying, “ The meaning exists in-
dependent of the text, and is to be found outside of it:” so
the text is not needed, and is of no practical use ; for the sen-
timent of the text can be traced as well on the blank page.
The unwarrantable license which Bible adherents assume of
ingrafting new meanings into the words of a text when its
literal reading shocks their moral sense by its immodesty, its
falsity, or its puerility, would not be tolerated with respect to
an}T other book ; and, if it is just and warrantable in this case,
wh}r not adopt it for interpreting the pagan Bibles, and thus
spiritualize them into truth and harmony ? It would take every
objectionable statement out of them, and make them pure, un-
mixed truth. With this kind of license a book can be made to
teach any thing desired. Grant me the liberty that Christians
assume in deviating from the established use of language, and
coining a new meaning for words, and I will take all the infidel-
ity out of 44 Tom Paine’s writings,” and make them chime with
the smoothest and soundest orthodoxy.
It should be borne in mind that the custom of spiritualizing
the apparently immoral and obscene portions of the Bible is
something the common people know nothing about, but suppose
that Bible writers, in all cases, mean just what they say. Hence
it is evident the practice has been attended with no practical
SPIRITUAL OR IMPLIED SENSE OF BIBLES. 431
benefit to society; and Infinite Wisdom should have foreseen
(and would if it had been his production) that the use of such
language would have a demoralizing effect upon the world, and
consequentty would have made use of better language. Bishop
Holbrook says that the notion of an inner sense to the Bible is
a mere creation of fancy, and will take the errors out of airy
book. And, as different writers differ in their mode of spirit-
ualizing the Bible, it proves it is a mere invention and forced
expedient to save the credit of the Book. The resort to a
spiritual sense for the Bible was simply an attempt to conceal
its bad sense,—its nonsense, its vulgarity, its immoral teach-
ings, and its numerous contradictions, which scientific and pro-
gressive minds are constantly bringing to light. But it is as
illusory and ineffectual as the ostrich hiding its head in the
sand to evade its pursuers. In both cases the danger is blinked
out of sight, but not removed.
Any sense of a text not clearly expressed or unequivocally
indicated by the language, we claim, is a slander and a deroga-
tion upon Infinite Wisdom, as it assumes he was too ignorant
of language to be able to say what he meant, thus placing him
lower in the scale of intelligence than a common schoolbo}^; and
assumes his priesthood are infinitely wiser, as they are able to
reveal his u Holy Book ” all over again, and thus make the nu-
merous blunders of Infinite Wisdom plain and intelligible to
common sense and the poorest understanding.
I can not conclude this chapter without bestowing my thanks
upon Emanuel Swedenborg for the service he has rendered the
cause of truth and theological reform by an improved system
of theology he has made out of the Bible, or rather out of his
own brain. Being a man of unusual intellect and moral aspira-
tions, and a man of considerable literary attainments, he could
not brook the absurd system of theology taught in the pulpits,
professedly drawn from the Bible. . And whether his system is
more conformable to the teachings of “ the Holy Book’’ is a
matter of no importance. It is in many respects a rational
and beautiful system, and is thus far very acceptable, and must
be very beneficial as a substitute for the irrational, and in some
respects immoral, system taught by the orthodox churches;
432
THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.
and, were it universally adopted by Christian professors, it
would be a great improvement on the popular system, and a
step toward the attainment of a true and perfect system.
CHAPTER LXY.
WHAT SHALL WE SUBSTITUTE EOR THE BIBLE?
The disbelievers in Christianity in all past time, when object-
ing to it as being fraught with too many moral defects to consti-
tute a basis or guide for the religious opinions and moral actions
of men in an age more free from superstition, and much farther
advanced in a knowledge of the true science of morals and the
general principles of philosophy, have been met with the reply,
u Show us a better system before you pull down Christianity
and throw aside the Bible. Let us know what you are going to
substitute in their place.” Very well, good friend, we will
meet }Tour objection, and hope we can remove the difficulty.
We think that either of the following answers should prove
satisfactory, and, all taken together, more than satisfactory : —
1. We do not propose or desire to destroy or supersede any
valuable truth, precept, principle, or doctrine taught in the
Bible, or to set aside an}T thing that can in any way prove to be
practicalty useful. We only propose to sift out the errors from
the truth, rejecting the former and retaining the latter, and to
employ as many of the old timbers in constructing the new
superstructure as are not rotten or otherwise defective.
2. Truth can not be u pulled down” or destroyed, as it pos-
sesses an omnipotency of principle that is indestructible. Like
gold in the refiner’s crucible, it shines the brighter for every
effort to destroy it.
3. It must be presumed, therefore, that whatever portion of
your religion is susceptible of destruction is false, and should
he destroyed.
4. It is the nature of truth to spring up voluntarily the mo-
ment error is removed, as naturally as air or water rushes in to
RELIGIOUS RECONSTRUCTION.
433
fill a vacuum. The instant the clouds are rifted, the sun darts
down its vivifying rays upon the earth. You want no substi-
tute for weeds when exterminated from your garden. When
eradicated, those plants which are more useful and beautiful, and
which they have been choking and repressing the growth of,
will then assume a more healthy appearance. You ask no sub-
stitute for sickness or disease, but desire it removed that you
may again enjoy the blessings of health. Moral health will
likewise ensue by the removal of noxious weeds from the mind.
And, finally, you can find a complete answer to this objection
in your own Bible : “ Cease to do evil, and (then) learn to do
well; ” that is, the moment you discover an error in your faith or
practice, abandon it, and you will soon “ learn ” what its proper
substitute is. Truth is always at hand as a substitute for error.
We may assume, then, that, if any of the erroneous doctrines
now propagated were abandoned, they would find their own
substitute immediately, as sickness finds its substitute in health.
But we will not leave the pious Christian in this negative condi-
tion, but will furnish him with a “ substitute ” which holds out
much better hopes and promises than he has anchored in his
idolized system, whether those hopes appertain to a virtuous and
happy life here, or to an ever-blessed eternity beyond the con-
fines of time. That substitute will be found fully explained in
Chapter XIV., under the head of “ The Infidel’s Bible.” Or,
if he desires a system in fuller detail, and one possessing great
beauty, let him examine the principles of “The Harmonial
Philosophy.”
CHAPTER LXVI.
RELIGIOUS RECONSTRUCTION; OR, TIE MORAL NECES-
SITY EOR A SCIENTIFIC BASIS FOR RELIGION.
A philosophical analysis of the human mind, viewed in con-
nection with the practical history of man from the early morn-
ing of his existence, fully demonstrates it as an important truth,
that individual happiness and the moral welfare of society de-
434
THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.
pend essentially upon the uniform action and harmonious co-
operation of all the mental faculties; and that, on the other
hand, their individually excessive and inharmonious action con-
stitutes the primary source of nearly all the crime, miser}-, and
discord of society. And it may be well to note here, as another
important preliminary truth, that the progressive development
of the science of mental philosophy has settled the division of
the mental faculties into the following classification: viz.,
1. The animal, which imparts energy and impulsive strength to
the whole character, mental and ph}Tsical. 2. The social, which
is the source of famil}r ties and the social and co-operative insti-
tutions of societ}^. 3. The moral, which makes us regardful
of the happiness and welfare of other beings than ourselves.
4. The intellectual, which is the great pilot-chamber or light-
house of the whole mind; though it is but recentty that dis-
coveries in mental philosophy have fully disclosed this as being
its natural and legitimate office. It has thus demonstrated it to
be the most important department of the mind. Its position in
the cerebrum — occupying, as it does, the superior frontal lobe
of the brain — might, however, have suggested this. Now this
is no fanciful delineation, no mere ideal mapping of the mind, but
has been demonstrated thousands of times, since the discoveries
of Gall, to be the true condition and classified analysis of the
mental faculties. The religious faculties constituting that de-
partment of the mind which often controls our actions and
conduct toward others, and being situated at the apex of the
brain,—the point where the most intensified feelings and im-
pulses are supposed to concentrate their misdirection or ab-
normal exercise, is consequently attended with more direful
consequences to societ}' than that of an}T other portion of the
mind. All history demonstrates this as a tragical fact; for
religion, more especially, is always born blind. This being a
tenable fact, and the religious faculties being awakened to ac-
tion at an early period of human societ}’, — before the intellectual
chambers of the mind were lighted up by the illuminating rays of
science, or supplied by a philosophical education and a thorough
and untrammeled stud}’ of nature's laws,—their natural inten-
sity of feeling, thus uncurbed and unenlightened, drove their
RELIGIOUS RECONSTRUCTION.
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THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.
eral Bibles were thus deified. In some nations they were kept
under lock and key, or cloistered in a golden box, to prevent
unsanctified hands from opening them. The notion was preva-
lent with the devotees of several Bibles, that they should be
read differently, if not held differently, from other books.
Kissing the “ Holy Book” was also prevalent among the Hin-
doos, Mahomedans, and early Christians,—indeed, in nearly
all religious countries. Bible worship knew no bounds in the
days of ignorance and superstition, when people had more piety
than philosophy. Believing that the spirit of God permeated
their Bibles, nearly all the blessings of life were ascribed to their
influence. Such a belief, fostered from age to age, and trans-
mitted from parent to child, could but operate to blind the judg-
ment of all Bible believers so as to disqualify^ them for detecting
defects or perceiving their errors, though they may abound on
every page. And these Bibles have been read by millions
of their disciples with a kind of solemn awe or holy fervor,
which not only wholly incapacitates the mind for perceiving
its errors, but shuts out the possibility of a doubt of its truth.
Indeed, they glory in assuming it to be “ a perfect embodiment
of divine truth,” u without the shadow of a shade of error from
Genesis to Revelation,” to use the language of Dr. Cheviot with
respect to the Christian Bible. The reasoning faculties are put
to sleep, and the intellect bound fast in chains, before “ God’s
Holy Book ’ ’ is opened; and if the reasoning faculties should
by chance arouse, and rebel against such tyTannj’, and try to
assert their rights by permitting a doubt to spring up in the
mind that some statement or text is not true, the Bible devotee
becomes alarmed, and exclaims, with trembling fear, “ Lord, I
believe : help thou mine unbelief.” In this state of fearful and
prayerful mental strife against reason, doubt, and disbelief, he
again sinks into the “darkness of devotion,” determined still
longer to hug his canonized and idolized book to his bosom with
all its errors and immoralities. This has been virtually the
experience of thousands of Bible believers, to a greater or less
extent, in all ages and all countries in possession of “Holy
Books.” In this way Bibles have been an obstacle to the
progress of mind and the progress of society. An unchangea-
SPIRITUAL OR IMPLIED SENSE OF BIBLES. 425
' ble and infallible book must inevitably cramp the mind, and hold
it in chains. Hence a Bible-believing community can make no
progress in morals, science, or civilization, only so far as they
violate their own principles by transcending its teachings.
Society would remain for ever in an ignorant, uncultured state,
were there not some minds in it possessing a sufficient amount
of intellect to outgrow their Bibles ; and, but for the publication
and perusal of other books, society would make but little
progress. A mind which is religiously and conscientiously
bound to believe in a Bible is bound to all its errors and all its
ignorance, and hence can make no progress while it adheres
rigidly to its own principles or its own scruples; but, thanks
to the progressive genius of the age, the “Holy Books” which
j embody the moral and religious errors of the past are nearly
i outgrown, so that they are seldom read now even by their
professed admirers. People are assuming the liberty of becom-
i ing “wise above what is written” in “God’s Holy Book.”
! Even Christians themselves often assume this liberty: other-
| wise we should have a community characterized by ignorance
{ and superstition; and our writers would be as liable to stum-
| ble into errors and contradictions as the Bible writers when
the}T penned “God’s perfect revelation.” It requires the
acquisition of but little knowledge and intelligence to become
“ wise above that which was written” in that illiterate and ig-
norant age.
The practice seems to have been very early conceived and
adopted in various countries by the disciples of different Bibles,
which have been long extant in the world, of attaching to all
the offensive texts of their sacred books (which, when taken
literally, convey either a vulgar, immoral, or foolish sense)
a new and more acceptable meaning than earlier custom had
CHAPTER LXIV.
SPIRITUAL OR IMPLIED SENSE OE BIBLES.
I
426
THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.
sanctioned, or more devout minds had ever thought of. As the
growing intelligence of the people was constantly disclosing
long-unnoticed and important errors in the Holy Book, this ex-
pedient was adopted to cover them up, or put them out of sight.
As Jesus, if not Paul, by virtue of the growth of the moral and
intellectual perceptions, was able to distinguish some errors
and moral defects in the first installment of Bible revelation as
found in the Jewish Old Testament, so the people in every
age since, in those countries where any cultivation has been
bestowed upon the mind, have been capable of bringing to light
numerous errors incorporated into the sacred books of past
ages ; and as some of those books called Bibles were claimed
by their disciples to be perfect, divinely inspired, and infallible,
and consequently free from error, some expedient had to be
devised to sustain this claim, and show that the man of science
was guilty of falsehood when he charged u God’s Holy Book ”
with containing errors. The expedient finally adopted was to
take the long-established signification of the words of the text
out, and put in a new meaning, coined by the prolific brain of
the devout defender of the Book for the occasion; and this new
sense was called “the spiritual sense.” It was presumed it
would be more acceptable to the intelligent minds of the age.
In this wa}", whenever a new scientific discovery has been an-
nounced, demonstrating some of the statements of the venerated
volume to be erroneous, the clerg}” have set themselves to work
with their clerical force-pumps to extract the meaning which
our standard dictionaries assign to the words of every text that
seemed to conflict with the newly discovered scientific truth,
and ingraft into it a new meaning of their own invention. This
practice finalty became, and has long been, an established prac-
tice and art in nearly every country where a Bible has been
known, whether Jewish, Pagan, or Christian. In fact, no
nation having a Bible has omitted to practice it.
No matter how vulgar, how disgusting, or how shocking to
the bettor feelings, or how immoral the literal reading of the
text, a hundred ways could be found to get rid of its offensive
signification ; a hundred spiritual interpretations could be thrust
under its verbal coverings. The most senseless, the most in-
SPIRITUAL OR IMPLIED SENSE OF BIBLES. 427
decorous, and the most demoralizing verbiage could thus be
made to pass for great “spiritual truths.” The pagans and
the Jews practiced this art laboriously and extensively; and
the disciples of the Christian faith, in all ages of the Church,
have been their strict imitators. That it is a very ancient heathen
custom is evident from the declaration of “The Nineteenth
Century,” which quotes Plutarch as saying, “The spiritual or
allegorical mode of interpreting words and language was applied
to the poems of Orpheus, the Egyptian writers, and the Phry-
gian traditions ” (p. 337). Grote tells us that the plain and
literal meaning would not have been listened to, as it did not
suit the mental demands of the people. (See Grote’s “History
of Greece.”) He assigns this mode of interpreting sacred
books to ancient Egypt; and Mr. Wilson says the Christians
caught the passion for spiritualizing and allegorizing their Bible
at an early date, and of converting them on all occasions into
spiritual mysteries, from the later Platonists, the example of
Philo, and the Jewish rabbis. “ The Mahomedans,” Mr. Kant
informs us, “ gave a spiritual sense to the sensual descriptions
of their paradise,” and thus the Hindoos also interpreted their
Vedas. “The Mahomedans,” says another writer, “indulge
in glowing allegories concerning love and intoxication, which,
like some of the Hindoo devotional writings, seem sensual to
those who perceive only the external sense, while the initiated
find in them an interior meaning.” The Greeks and Romans,
according to the testimony of Mr. Kant, explained away some
of the silliest legends of their polytheism by spiritualizing
them, or giving them a mystical sense. Speaking in general
terms, Mr. Taylor says, “ An allegorical sense was the apology
offered for the manifest absurdities of paganism.” The Roman
Julian once remarked, that the poetic stories concerning the
Gods, though regarded as fables, he supposed contained a
spiritual treasury. Kant declares, in like manner, that the
ancient pagans “gave a mystical sense to the man}’ vicious
actions of their Gods, and to the wildest dreams of their poets,
in order to bring the popular faith into agreement with their
doctrines of morality;” that is, they resorted to a spiritual
interpretation in order to save them from being condemned as
428
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THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.
preaching. And Paul sets forth the same doctrine in Rom. xi.
5 when he speaks of a remnant being u saved by the election
of grace.” Here, then, are three roads to heaven, which so
multiply the chances of being saved that but few can be lost.
Such conflicting statements show that confusion and ambiguity
characterize the Bible, and render it impossible to learn any
thing definite from its statements.
Note.—How can Christians believe in the immortality of the soul after reading
Paul’s declaration that “ Grod alone hath life and immortality dwelling in the light”?
If so, then man is not an immortal being (see 1 Tim. vi. 16).
2. Character and Erroneous Doctrines of Peter.
In his practical life St. Peter was a singular and angular
being. He presents us with the opposite extremes of virtue
and vice. He appears to have been about as distinguished for
wickedness as for piety. He told the same falsehood repeat-
edly, and backed it up with an oath (Matt, xxvi.) : hence
ljfing, cursing, and swearing are laid to his charge. And then,
we are told, he was put in possession of the ke3's of the kingdom
of heaven (Matt. xvi. 19). How a man, guilty of such moral
derelictions, could have had a higher honor bestowed upon him
than was ever bestowed upon any other human being, or how
he could have been considered a safe custodian for such an im-
portant charge, it is difficult to see; and then it looks too
much like a bribe for immoral conduct. It weakens the incen-
tives to a virtuous life to reward the criminal, and shows
imperfection in the moral s}’stem which he was allowed to
represent. As for his doctrines, they are characterized by the
same moral and scientific errors and defects as those of St.
Paul, and embrace some of the same doctrines of heathen
mythology.
1. lie speaks of the earth as “ standing out of the water and
in the water ” (2 Pet. iii. 5). Here is the old Hindoo tradition
which taught that the earth floated on a sea of water, traces of
which are also found in Genesis.
2. He tells us, also, that the earth has been once destroyed
by water, and in the day of judgment will be destroyed by fire
(2 Pet. iii. G, 7). It has been from time immemorial a very
CHABACTEB OF PETEB, AND HIS EOCTBINES. 419
prevalent tradition amongst the Oriental nations that the world
had been, and would be again, alternate^ destroyed.by water
and fire. Peter and Josephus also seem to indorse this tradi-
tion.
3. Peter also indorses and teaches the absurd and unphilo-
sophical doctrine of fore-ordination (1 Pet. i. 20).
4. He also enjoins “servants to be in subjection to their
masters,” not only the good, but the froward (1 Pet. ii. 18).
This is absolute tyranny. There is to be no resistance to the
bloody lash. The motto of Patrick Hemy is much better, —
“ Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.”
5. "Wives are to be in subjection to their husbands (1 Pet.
iii. 1). even as Sarah obeyed Abraham (verse 6). There is
nothing said about husbands obeying wives, probably because,
as he says, woman is the weaker vessel (1 Pet. iii. 7). Won-
derful logic ! A sage conclusion for a Christian moralist. He
thus places Christian morality below that of the ancient Druids,
who placed women on a level with men in both Church and
State.
6. Peter tells us, u Christ bore our sins in his own body on
the tree ” (1 Pet. ii. 24). This is the old Jewish idea of carry-
ing away sins by scapegoats, and the Oriental heathen doctrine
of putting innocent Gods to death as a punishment for the sins
of the people, — a doctrine which posterity will condemn as bar-
barous. (See “ The Sixteen Crucified Saviors,” Chapter xxi.)
7. Peter says a u dumb ass spoke with man’s voice ” (2 Pet.
ii. 16). He thus indorses the story of Balaam’s ass becoming
endowed with human speech.
8. Peter, like Paul and Christ, indorses the absurd story of
Noah and the flood (1 Pet. iii. 20).
9. But space will not permit us to notice all the erroneous
doctrines set forth by Peter. He teaches the doctrine of a gen-
eral judgment (2 Pet. ii. 9)-, the doctrine of election and
reprobation (2 Pet. i. 10), the doctrine of a general conflagra-
tion of all things terrestrial (2 Pet. iii. 12).
10. But the most remarkable incident in the life of Peter is
his connection with the fate of Ananias and Sapphira. We
find many logical absurdities and moral errors in this story re-
420
THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.
corded in Acts v. 1. It is very strange that Peter, who denied
his Lord and master three times, and hence was repeatedly
guilty of telling positive falsehoods, should be the chosen in-
strument under Christ’s religion to pronounce sentence of death
upon Ananias and Sapphira for the same sin. 2. Why should
Ananias and Sapphira be punished with death for a crime that
Peter, Abraham, and Isaac were all guilty of several times?
3. Is it not strange that Jehovah should be considered as being
strongly opposed to lying, if he himself, as stated in 1 Kings
xxii., converted four hundred of his prophets into liars, and
then indorsed the lying Peter? 4. Is not the crime of Ananias
and Sapphira — that of attempting to withhold a little money
from the priests by tying — of less magnitude than that of ruin-
ing a whole nation by robbery, as we are told God’s holy people
did? The}’robbed and u spoiled the Egyptians ” (Exod. xii.
36). 5. Is it not probable they needed it more than the
priests did ? The moral law teaches that it is necessity, and not
might, that makes right. 6. Does it not look rather unreason-
able that Sapphira should repeat the same falsehood for which
her husband had just been struck dead, as it must have been
known to her? Who can believe it? 7. And can we suppose
that God would be so partial as to kill a man and woman for
the first offense of tying, and let Abraham, Isaac, and Peter,
and others, escape after committing the sin several times?
These considerations seriously damage the credibility of the
story.
CHAPTER LXIII.
IDOLATROUS VENERATION FOR BIBLES.
“ Should reason, science, and philosophic lore
Against my faith combine,
I’d clasp the Bible to my breast,
Believing still that it’s divine.
Here I am told how Christ hath died
To save my soul from hell:
Not all the books on earth beside
Such heavenly wonders tell.
IDOLATROUS VENERATION FOR BIBLES.
421
This simple book I’d rather own
Than all the gold and gems
That e’er in monarch’s coffers shone,
Than all their diadems.
Nay, were the seas one chrysolite,
The earth a golden ball,
And diadems the stars of night,
This book were worth them all.”
A Christian writer, in attempting to portray the Protestant
view of the Bible, says, u It is a miraculous collection of mirac-
ulous books. Every word it contains was written by miraculous
inspiration from God, which was so full, complete, and infalli-
ble, that the authors delivered the truth, and nothing but the
truth. The Bible contains no false statements of doctrine or
faith, but sets forth all religious and moral truth which man
needs to know, or which it is possible for him to receive, and not
a particle of error ; and therefore the Bible is the only authorita-
tive rule of faith and practice.” These two pious effusions—one
in prose, the other in poetry— exhibit the views and feelings very
prevalent among the disciples of the Christian faith only a few
centuries ago; and they are cherished yet, to a considerable
extent, by a large portion of Christian professors. This blind,
idolatrous veneration is gradually giving way to the light of
science and general intelligence; and the thick mental gloom
and darkness of superstition out of which they grow is being
dispelled. When the intellectual mind becomes fully devel-
oped and enlightened, the Bible will find its true level, and will
command no more homage than other books. It will be read
and estimated, like other human productions, according to its
real merits. In this enlightened and scientific age, Bible devo-
tees never go to such extreme lengths in pouring fulsome adula-
tions upon the idolized book. They would be laughed at for
their ignorance and superstition if they should attempt it.
But the time has been when every religious nation which pos-
sessed a u Holy Book ” attached extreme sacredness and exalted
holiness to the book and all its contents, and often indulged in
the most extravagant language and the wildest rhapsodies in
their attempts to eulogize and idolize its virtues. In this re-
422
THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.
spect there was but little difference between Jews, pagans, and
Christians: all idolized their Holy Books. A sacred regard
was shown not onty for the book, but often for every manu-
script, scrap of paper, or text which it contained, or which was
supposed to contain a message or revelation from God. But
few religious nations have existed, even in the remote past, who
have not possessed some kind of Bible or sacred record which
they treated with an enthusiastic veneration bordering on idol-
atry. The Hindoos, the Eg3Tptians, the Persians, the Chinese,
the Mahomedans, and the early Christians were all Bible idola-
ters. The Hindoos, like the Christians, were religiously en-
joined to read and study “the Holy Scriptures;” and the
priests, as those in Christian countries do now, made them a
stud}", and reduced the interpretation of them to an art. And,
like Christians in another respect, they were interdicted from
transcending in knowledge what was taught in their assumed-
to-be divinely illuminated pages. The disciple of the Hindoo
faith was not allowed to become “ wise above what was written ”
in the Yedas (see chapter vi.) ; and the same solemn prohibi-
tion, “ Add not to, or take not from, the word of God,” was
reverently obeyed b}T the devout disciple of the Yedas. The
Mahomedans believe the Koran has been received and trans-
mitted from generation to generation by the direct agency of
God. They claim that it is not only an infallible rule of faith
and practice, but “ God’s last will and testament to man,” and
that it is designed by God for the whole human family; and
the}r pray and hope for its universal extension and adoption.
One pious Mussulman (Sadak), on being asked whjr the Koran
appeared to be newer cveiy time it was read, replied, “ Because
God did not reveal it for any particular age or nation, but for
all mankind down to the Judgment Da}r.” Mahomedans tell
us that, “ such is the innate efficacy of the Koran, it removes
all pains of bodjT and all sorrows of mind. It annihilates what
is wrong in carnal desires, delivers us from the temptations of
Satan and from fears. It removes all doubts raised by satanic
influences, sanctifies the heart, imparts health to the soul, and
produces union with the Lord of holiness.” With the ancient
Persians the great test and touchstone of all faith and all
IDOLATROUS VENERATION FOR BIBLES.
423
moral action was their “ Holy Word of God.” To know
whether a thing was right or wrong, they had only to inquire,
“ Is it taught, or is it forbidden, by the Zenda Avesta? ” The
Persians, like the Jews, had four days set apart in each month
for religious festivals, on which occasions, Mr. Hyde informs
us, “ they met in their temples, and read portions of their Holy
Books, and preached and inculcated morality and virtue ”
(chap, xxxviii. p. 352). But Bible exaltation and adoration ran
much higher than is here indicated in some countries. They
were not only believed to be “words ” or “ the word of God,”
but to have a portion of the spirit of God impressed into every
chapter, every verse, and every word ; and hence the}' received
a portion of that veneration and adoration usually ascribed to
Deity. And here we find both Jews and Christians have been
strict imitators of the heathen in the practical exhibition of this
species of book idolatry. We are told that the ancient Bud-
hists ascribed inherent sacredness and supernatural power to
the identical Sanscrit word of their scriptures. Hence it was
considered sacrilegious to make any alteration in the arrangement
of those words; and, for fear some alteration of this kind
might be made, they objected to the missionaries translating
“the Holy Book” into the English language. Mr. Hyde in-
forms us, they not only read their Bible in their temples, but at
their festivals and in their families; and, like the Jews and
primitive Christians and the Mahomedans, they carried them
in their travels, and slept with the Holy Book under their pil-
lows. Nearly all Bibles in that age were treated with this kind
of veneration. Brahmins, Persians, Jews, Mahomedans, and
Christians, in their earlier history, were in the habit of attaching
texts or detached portions of scripture to their clothes, or insert-
ing them into their hats or shoes, — an act prompted by the
belief that the}' would impart some supernatural charm; and
the Persians, Hindoos, and Mahomedans have been seen cov-
ered from head to foot with scripture texts. In the days of
St. Justin and St. Jerome such scenes were often witnessed
among Christians also. Even the handling of the Bible was
believed to impart a supernatural or miraculous power, mani-
fested in the cure of diseases, driving away devils, &c. Sev-
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THE BIBLE OF BIBLES. 17. When Paul calls the Cretans “liars, evil beasts,’’ &c., he descends to a low position, both in the scale of manners and morals : he is not only uncivil, but exhibits bad passions. They did not merit such personal abuse, as they had never done him an injury, at least we have no proof of it. 18. Paul tells us that God sends people a strong delusion, that they may believe a lie and be damned (2 Thess. ii. 12). More fatalism. To delude people with lies in order to damn them is worse than hardening Pharaoh’s heart in order to find a pretext for drowning him. Let it be borne in mind, that, if there is any spiritual signification justly assignable to this text, it can only benefit the few, as the common people always accept language with its common signification. But can we assume that Paul was such a blunderer that he frequently used language conveying exactly the opposite meaning from that intended, and that in this way he taught fatalism and immoral doctrines when he did not intend to do so? And then,, as it is claimed he was inspired, is it not a slander upon Infinite Wisdom to assume that God was so ignorant of human language that he put these pernicious doctrines in Paul’s mouth by mistake? One or the other of these conclusions we are driven to accept, in order to save Paul from condemnation; but this only saves his moral character at the expense of his good sense. The most rational assumption appears to be, that Paul lived in an age and country which knew nothing of mental or moral science, and honestly believed and taught these pernicious doctrines. We will now learn something about the moral code of bachelors. 10. “I suffer not a woman to speak in the church.” “It is a shame for a woman to speak in the church ” (1 Cor. xiv. 35). lie says, if they want to know any thing, let them ask their husbands at home. But this, in some cases, would be the blind leading the blind ; and, in other cases, only the leaders would be blind. Paul should have learned the lesson of O’Connell, the Irish agitator, who said, “Since I have learned that my mother was a woman, I have great respect for women, and advocate their rights.” 20. We will now notice the reason Paul assigns for having CHARACTER OF PAUL, AND HIS DOCTRINES. 413 wives subject to their husbands : it is simply because man was created before woman (1 Tim. ii. 13). What profound logic! Tvorth}^ a Locke or a Newton! But, if there is any logical force in the argument, then monkeys should have the preference of men in the churches, as they came still earlier in the order of creation. 21. Paul’s doctrine that all governments are ordained of God, and that those who resist them shall receive to themselves damnation (Pom. xiii. 1), is a virtual condemnation of those noble philanthropists who in various ages and countries resisted the authority of tyrants. It makes Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, and others sinners and criminals for opposing the tyrann}’ of King George. 22. Paul evinced a very intolerant spirit when he said, u If any man preach any other doctrine than that which I declare unto you, let him be accursed” (1 Gal. i. 9). This is the spirit of intolerance, persecution, and bigotr}^,—the spirit which has erected the scaffold, piled the fiery fagots around the stake, wielded the guillotine, adjusted the halter around the neck of the martyr, and crimsoned the earth with the blood of the righteous. This very text has had the effect to fire up such a spirit; and it has frequently been quoted as authority for such cruel deeds as those just cited. 23. Paul gives utterance to a very singular doctrine when he says that even nature teaches that it is a shame for a man to wear long hair, but the glor}^ for a woman, because nature gave it to her for a covering. (See 1 Cor. xi. 14.) He was certainty not much of a philosopher, or he would have made the dis- covery that nature promotes the growth of the hair upon the heads of men and women exactly alike. If nature did not permit any hair to grow upon the head of man, or did not allow it to grow more than an inch in length, there might be some plausibility in the assertion. But, as the case stands, it is the shears, and not nature, which teaches that it is a shame for a man to w^ear long hair; or rather, if there is any shame in the case, it consists in man cutting off his hair after nature has been so kind as to supply him vTith such a useful covering. 24. Paul’s indorsement of the doctrine of the atonement, and 414 THE BIBLE OF BIBLES. his declaration that ‘ c without the shedding of blood there can be no remission for sin” (Heb. ix. 22), show that he had not advanced beyond the old Jewish and pagan superstition of u blood for blood.” The doctrine is a relic of heathen bar- barism, and is shocking to persons of fine moral sensibilities; but this subject is treated in another chapter. 25. Paul also indorses the old heathen tradition that God is an angr}^, revengeful being. (See Eph. ii. 3.) He lent the influence of his powerful mind and- pen to perpetuate this demoralizing and blasphemous doctrine, which has had an injurious effect upon the minds and morals of the people in all past ages. 26. We again call attention to Paul’s declaration that God sent the people a strong delusion that they might believe a lie and be damned. Think of a just and righteous God deluding people in order to damn them! The doctrine is certainty blas- phemous. It is enough to charge a demon with such acts as this. Some writers suppose that Paul did not mean what is here literalty expressed ; but it is probable he did, for it is the old Jewish idea that every thing that takes place is the achieve- ment of a God. We must assume that the Devil, who now attends to such business, had not been sworn into office at that time. lienee he supposed that Jehovah still attended to such business. 27. One indelible stigma on Paul’s character is found in his indorsement of the pagan and Jewish rite of circumcision, — a cruel and blood}" custom,—which no truly enlightened and sen- sible man would lend his sanction to perpetuate, much less per- form with his own hands, as Paul did on Timothcus (Acts xvi. 3). Paul also contradicts himself with respect to the matter, lie says, uIf }^e be circumcised, Christ shall profit 3^011 nothing ” (Gal. v. 2). Yet he afterward performed the act on Timothcus, as stated above. This is preaching one doctrine and practicing another. 28. Paul said that he was a Roman citizen ; but no Jew could be a full Roman citizen till the reign of Philip or Dccius, long after, lie also passed for Paul of Tarsus ; but Tarsus was not a Roman cit}' at that time, nor until about a hundred 3’cars after- CHARACTER OF PAUL, AND HIS DOCTRINES. 415 ward. This was being all things to all men in order to gain a few prose^fles ; and truly he carries out the doctrine quite well. At one time he professes to be a Roman (Acts xxii. 2G) ; at another time he professes to be a Pharisee, and says that his parents were Pharisees (see Acts xxiii. 6) ; and then, again, he was an apostle of Jesus Christ (Acts xv. 10). 29. Paul uses some rather doughy arguments on the subject of the resurrection. He says that on the last da}r, at the sound of the trumpet, we shall all be raised, the dead in Christ first (1 Cor. xv. 52). We are also told that 44 this mortal shall put on immortally.” We are compelled to believe, from the lan- guage here used, that Paul believed in the sleep of the soul in the grave ; and the resurrection of the natural body is a ridiculous absurdhy and a physical impossibility. The sleep of the soul is a still worse assumption. Why should the soul lay in the ground covered with filth and worms? What possible benefit could it derive from la3fing in a state of insensibilit3r for centuries? And what would become of it if some one should remove the decomposed remains of the body, and all the earth contiguous, to some other localhy, or toss it into a running stream ? And this has been done. What becomes of the soul in such a case? Does it float down the stream with the plysical debris? If so, where will it stop ? and how will it be found in the day of resur- rection ? 30. And his doctrine of his resurrection is attended with still greater difficulties and logical obstructions. The ply si cal body, according to Paul, is to become a spiritual bod3^. But a portion of the bod3T is consumed b3" worms during the process of decom- position in the grave; and those worms, when they die, are consumed b3r other worms. Will it not, then, require a search- warrant in the da3T of resurrection to find all those worms, and to gather eveiy minute particle of the old body together to form the spiritual bod3’ ? Wly not make the new bod3r of a stone or a stump, or some other material, instead of the old, decayed, de- composed bod3T ? It would require a miracle in either case. Cases have been reported of Christian missionaries being eaten up by cannibals. The flesh of the Christian in such cases becomes a part of the plysical body of the cannibal; and the cannibal 416 THE BIBLE OF BIBLES. will, according to Christian theology, come forth unto u the resurrection of damnation,” and will take a portion of the bod}" of the missionary with him to the bottomless pit. How will it be obtained? A serious difficult}", certainly! How is it to be met and surmounted? Many other logical difficulties lie in the way of making a practical application of the doctrine. 31. When Paul calls our physical tenements “vile bodies” (see Phil. iii. 21), he reveals the old pagan idea of the body being sinful. They looked upon it as a kind of prison for the soul, and a thing to be hated and contemned as you would a tyrant with a rope around your neck. This error discloses great ignorance of the functions of the human body, and its relation to the soul or mind. It would be impossible to have a pure soul in a vile body. Here Paul discloses still further igno- rance of science. There are other acts and other erroneous doctrines, which mark the practical life of Paul, that are quite obnoxious to criticism; as, for example, the curse he pronounced upon Elymas, whom he stigmatized as a sorcerer, though he does not prove he was one, but says that was his name by interpretation (Acts xiii. . This act, which it is stated produced total blindness, must be regarded as an act of bigotry and intolerance. Elymas is not charged with any crime or immoral conduct; and, so far as we can learn his history, he was an honest, upright man: but he sought “ to turn away the deputy from the faith ” (Acts xiii. ; that is, like the Greek philosophers, he attempted to point out the absurdity of some of Paul’s doctrines. There is something very significant in the statement of Paul, that some of his doctrines were “to the Greeks foolishness” (1 Cor. i. 23) ; for they were a learned, intelligent, and sensible nation of people. And no such nation ever has, or ever will, accept as true and sound doctrine some of the theological nonsense and absurd doctrines which Paul preached. Future generations will wonder that such doctrines were ever taught by people claiming to be sensible and intelligent. The circumstance which Paul relates of a viper coming out of a bundle of sticks, and fastening on liis hand without inflict- CHARACTER OF PAUL, AND HIS DOCTRINES. 417 ing a deadly wound, evinces a degree of superstition which no philosopher could entertain. The assumption is, that God, after bestowing upon the reptile the disposition and means of defend- ing itself, interposed by a divine act to prevent their action. Christ and his apostles (including Paul), instead of studying and understanding the laws of nature, were constantly looking for something to contravene them, and set them* aside. Of course the}1* were honest in this ; but it shows their want of sci- entific knowledge, which was characteristic of the age. The circumstance of Paul’s handkerchief and apron heal- ing the sick, as related in Acts xix. 12, is evidently regarded as another interposition of divine power. But cases are frequently performed in this manner in various parts of this country by Dr. Newton and other healers, who impart their magnetic aura to a handkerchief, or some article of clothing, or a piece of paper, and send it to the sick, who are cured as effectually as those were by Paul’s magnetized handkerchief; for it was undoubt- edly his magnetism imparted to the handkerchief that effected the cures. Modern science is solving the mysteries and mira- cles of the past. We will only observe further, that Paul la}rs down three systems of salvation, which, when arranged side b}r side, cer- tainty make the road broad enough to enable nearly every son and daughter of Adam to reach the heavenly kingdom: — Salvation by Faith. —66 By faith ye are saved, and not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” (Eph. ii. . It being the gift of God, we, of course, can have no agency in the matter. u A man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law” (Rom. iii. 28). This is a direct contradiction of James, who declares, “ Faith, if it hath not works, is dead ” (Jas. ii. 17). Salvation by Works. —“ God will render to every man according to his deeds ” (Rom. ii. 6). “ The doers of the law shall be justified” (Rom. ii. 13). Thus, it will be observed, Paul, in the above-cited texts, not only contradicts James, but contradicts himself. Salvation by Divine Predestination. —“As many as were ordained to eternal life believed” (Acts xiii. 48). This is not given as Paul’s language; but it is spoken with respect to his 418
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x. 23) ; (21) his penalty for wrong-doing, or sin; (22) his pen- alty for falsehood (John viii. 44) ; (23) his superstitious belief in an undying worm; (24) his penalty for idle words; (25) his statement about speaking in new tongues (Mark xvi. 17), (26) about handling poisonous serpents, (27) also swallowing deadly poisons, (28) and that these acts should furnish a proof of divine power; (29) his frequent confabs with imaginary devils ; (30) his views of the marriage relation (Luke xx. 34) ; (31) why a certain man was born blind (Matt. vii. 22) ; (32) his ignorance of the natural causes of physical defects; (33) his conduct toward the fig-tree (Matt. xxi. 20) ; (34) his statement relative to the Queen' of Sheba, (35) and relative to Noah’s flood (Luke xvii. 27) ; (36) hrisr frequent denunciation of unbelievers; (37) his injunction to become perfect as God; (38) his erroneous views of love, (39) and of the peacemakers, (40) and of the tax-gatherers, (41) and of divorce; (42) his views of alms; (43) his statement about Moses (John v. 46), (44) about Nicodemus, (45) about- bearing witness, (46) about letting our light shine, (47) about his disciples praying, (48) about praying for the kingdom of heaven, (49) about the law (Matt. v. 17), (50) about his being the Christ (Matt, x. 23), (51) about performing miracles, (52)'about* bringing a sword, (53) about his disciples sitting on the twelve thrones, (54) about judges in heaven, (55) about the fate of Judas; (56) his deception by Judas ; (57) his mistake about Peter ; (58) his promise to the sons of Zebedee (Matt. xx. 23)r; (59) his parable of the unjust judge ; (60) his new commandment; (61) his promise of a hundred-fold reward; (62) his’ ideas about paying tribute, (63) also about marrying a divorced woman; (64) his promising Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven; (65) his declaration relative to binding things in heaven ; (66) his notion of merit in religious belief, (67) and that faith is the gift of God; (68) his ideas of lust, (69) and about earthty treasures, (70) also treasure in heaven, (71) about tomb- stones, (72) and about an arbitrary personal God ; (73) his ignorance of science and natural law. (74) He never spoke of a natural law, (75) nor used the word “science,” (76) nor “ natural philosophy.” (77) And, finallyyhis spending nine- 406 THE BIBLE OF BIBLES. tenths of his time in idleness or obscurity is historic, scientific, and practical proof against his divinity. From all the facts and precepts enumerated above, we are compelled to conclude he was no philosopher, and was ignorant of the principles of natural science. And this accounts for the numerous scientific errors which abound in all his teachings and preachings and his whole practical life, as set forth in the work of which this is a synopsis. III. Christ’s Errors of Omissiox. Had Christ been an all-wise and omniscient God,—the char- acter his orthodox disciples claim for him,—he would have noticed and understood, and consequently have condemned, various demoralizing practices, customs, and institutions then existing in society. He would also have discovered and taught the grand moral and scientific truths and principles which have since been brought to light, and have proved such signal bless- ings to society, so that the world could have enjoyed them two thousand years ago. (1) He would, in the first place, have discovered and exposed the evils of the despotic form of government under which he lived, (2) and have suggested a better system. (3) He would have taught the people the beauties and benefits of a true democ- racy, (4) and would have exposed the evils of physical as well as mental slave ly; (5) also the deleterious and demoralizing effects of intoxicating drink, instead of manufacturing it. (See John ii. 7-9.) (G) He would also have exposed the errors and evils of the many' popular religious superstitions then and there prevalent, instead of indorsing them. (7) lie would have taught the science of anthropologj” as essential to human hap- piness, ( including the principles of mental science; (9) and likewise the true principles of moral science, (10) and the necessity of mental culture, (11) and the most important lesson of all,—that of self-development. (12) lie would have taught the people that every thing is controlled by natural law, (13) in- stead of b}’ the caprices of an angiy God. (14) lie would have taught the people that right and wrong are natural principles; (15) that virtue contains its own reward, (16) and sin or crime DOCTRINES OF THE APOSTLES. 407 its own punishment. (17) He would have taught the science of life and the laws of health as essential to human happiness; (18) and that the violation of natural law must be attended with suffering; (19) and that every immoral act a man com- mits against another must injure himself, (20) and destroy his true happiness, (21) and tend to make him a victim to his own passions. (22) He would have taught the true principles of mental freedom, (28) and the rights of conscience in matters of belief; (24) and that man is responsible to himself alone for his belief. (25) And, finally, he would have taught the'modern doc- trine of evolution as furnishing the true and philosophical solu- tion of all human actions, both good and bad. Certainly a being possessing infinite wisdom could have discovered and brought to light these grand practical truths, and thus greatly aug- mented the sum of human happiness, instead of leaving the world to drag on in suffering ignorance. And his omitting to do it must be characterized as an error of omission. For a fuller exposition, see the pamphlet. CHAPTER LXI. CHARACTER AND ERRONEOUS DOCTRINES OF THE APOSTLES. Christ’s apostles, although reputedly inspired, were very far from being exemplary characters. Quarrels, -jealousies, and emulations are frequently disclosed in their practical lives. We are told there were “ envyings and jealousies and divisions” among them (1 Cor. iii. 3), and that “ they disputed among themselves who should be the greatest” (Mark ix. 34). This implies that there was selfishness and worldly ambition at the bottom of their movements. Paul also represents them as u defrauding” and la wing each other (1 Cor. vi. 7, ; and Paul himself had a serious quarrel with Barnabas, as we are told: “ The contention was so sharp that they departed asunder one from the other ” (Acts xv. 36). These incidents in the prac- l THE BIBLE OF BIBLES. 403 tical lives of the apostles show that they were frail and fallible mortals, and under the control of selfish feelings like the rest of us, and that their “ inspiration/’ if they possessed any, was not of a very high order. Such men are very unsuitable exam- ples for the heathen to imitate, as they are impliedly recom- mended to do when the Bible is placed in their hands. With respect to the. doctrines taught by the apostles or New- Testament writers, we will here assume the liberty to say they contain more errors than we can allow space to enumerate. For those of Paul and Peter we shall appropriate a separate chapter, but will only cite a few of the errors of the other New-Testament writers as mere samples of others. James’s superstitious idea of curing the sick by prayer and oil we have already noticed (chapter xli,). He also indorses the foolish and incredible story of Elijah controlling the elements so as to cause a three-years’ drought (chap. v. 17). He tells us we qan get, wisdom by simply, ashing it of God (chap. i. 5). Then- why do millions of people devote years to hard mental labor to acquire it ? He speaks approvingly of the practical life of Abraham, also of • the- miserable harlot Rahab (chap. ii. 23, 25), and avows his belief in a devil, &c. John also avows his belief in this superstition (1 John ii. 13), and likewise in the bloody atonement (1 John i. 7) and the doctrine of pre- destination (1 John v. 18),; and, worse than all, he issues the bigoted mandate, “Receive;np man into your house” who does not preach the doctrine I do (2 John i. 10). Jude indorses the foolish story of Sodom and Gomorrah, the contest between Michael and the Devil, the second advent, a day of general judgment, &c. These will do for specimens of apostolic errors. CHAPTER LXII. CHARACTER OF PAUL, AND HIS DOCTRINES. Paul, standing at the head of the Church in the apostolic age, and being the principal New-Testament writer and the CHARACTER OF PAUL, AND niS DOCTRINES. 409 principal teacher and doctrinal expounder of the New Covenant, or gospel dispensation, his practical life and his doctrines must therefore be regarded as constituting a part, if not the princi- pal part, of the basis of the Christian religion. We shall there- fore make no apology for presenting here a brief exposition of his character and his doctrines; and we shall show that both present numerous defects and inconsistent and contradictory features. 1. In his First Epistle to Timothy (i. 13) he states that he had been 44 a blasphemer and persecutor, and injurious,’’ and confesses that he was particeps criminis in the martyrdom of Stephen; yet, in the Acts of the Apostles, he declares, 441 have lived in all good conscience before God unto this day” (Acts xxiii. 1). Here is one specimen of his many incongru- ous statements. 2. He relates the account of his miraculous conversion three times, and in three different ways. In the first statement he says, 44 The men stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man ” (Acts ix. 7). In the second account he says, 44 They heard not the voice that spake to me” (Acts xxii. 9). In the third statement, when relating the case to King Agrippa, he says, u They were all fallen to the earth” (Acts xxvi. 14) ; while, in the first account, he had stated, 44 The men stood speechless.” It is evident they could not stand speechless while they were all fallen to the earth. 3. In one account he states that Jesus told him to stand up, and receive his mission; but in another place he says he was ordered to go to Damascus to receive the message. 4. He told the king that he showed himself first at Damas- cus, and then at Jerusalem (Acts xxvi. 20) ; but in his Epistle to the Galatians he declares that he did not go to Jerusalem. 5. Again he says he went to Jerusalem, and Barnabas took him by the hand, and brought him to the apostles (Acts ix. 27). 6. And then, again, to the Galatians he declares he saw none of the apostles, 44 save James, the Lord’s brother ” (Gal. i. 18). 7. In 1 Cor. x. 35 he says, 441 please all men in all things ; ” but in Gal. i. 10 he says, 44If I yet pleased men, I should not 410 THE BIBLE OF BIBLES. be the servant of God.” Here, then, is another palpable con- tradiction. 8. In Rom. xi. 5 he speaks of the “ election of grace ; ” but in Tit. xi. 9 he says the grace of God has appeared to all. 9. In his letter to Timothy he says, “ God will have all men to be saved (1 Tim. ii. 4) : but in Rom. ix. 22 he speaks of “ the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction; ” and in Rom. ix. 27 he says, “A remnant shall be saved.” All will not be saved if only a remnant are saved. 10. When about embarking for Rome he stated, “ I perceive the voyage will be of much hurt and damage to life” (Acts xxvii. 10) ; yet on the voyage he declared, “There shall be no loss of any man’s life among you” (Acts xxvii. 22). An “ inspired apostle” and oracle of God should be punctiliously accurate in all cases, or all his statements will be brought under distrust, and it will be impossible to arrive at the truth in the case ; or, in any case, all will be involved in doubt and conjec- ture. 11. Paul’s errors in doctrinal inculcations are numerous. His confession to the Corinthians, that, “ being craft}r, I caught you with guile ” (2 Cor. xii. 16), sets forth a bad example, and indicates a bad s3Tstem of morals, which is calculated to have a demoralizing effect upon Bible readers and believers, especially the heathen and the }^outh of Christian countries. 12. And his statement.that the truth of God “hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory” (Rom. iii. 7), is still more demoralizing in its tendencies. Many have looked upon it as a justification for lying. It seems to imply that tying is all right if done for the glory of God; and as he states in 1 Cor. x. 31, that whatsoever wre do should be done to the glory of God, it logically follows that tying is justifiable in all cases. And Mr. Higgins states that such doctrine had the effect to re- duce lying to a S3’stem among the earty Christians, and that the3T considered it a duty to lie when the interest of the Church could be promoted b3r it. A book inculcating such bad morali- t3’ should not be circulated amongst the heathen. 13. Paul’s reason for recommending a life of single blessed- ness is deserving of notice. lie sa3’s the unmarried man careth CHARACTER OF PAUL, AND HIS DOCTRINES. 411 for the things of the Lord ; but the married man careth for the things of the world, — u how he may please his wife ” (1 Cor. vii. 33). The last act he named here does not trouble men much nowadays, at least after the honeymoon is passed ; and a man who considers God worthy of more attention than wives, as Paul did, would not be likely to bestow a very high apprecia- tion on the latter. But the greatest objection to the doctrine is, that, if practically carried out in accordance with his recom- mendation, there would soon be no wives to please. 14. We must notice another objectionable doctrine of Paul with respect to marriage. Instead of acknowledging an honorable and virtuous motive for marriage, he would tolerate it as the least of two evils ; that is, as a means of mitigating a burning lust (1 Cor. vii. 9). This makes marriage a mere animal attrac- tion, — the union of a man and woman drawn together from lustful motives. Paul advises bachelors not to marry or touch a woman, but remain single like himself (1 Cor. vii. 1). But such advice, if practically complied with, would soon depopulate the globe. If not so strongly adverse to human nature, it would doubtless ere this have filled the world, first with Shakers, and then with the graves of an extinct race. 15. Paul says to the Romans (Rom. vii. 17), u It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I prove . . . that in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.” Here are taught two erroneous doctrines: (1) The essentially corrupt and sinful nature of the human body, taught anciently by the Hindoo as- cetics ; (2) that sin or the Devil operates on the mind independ- ent of the human will or volition, which savors of fatalism. And his statement that some vessels are made to honor, and some to dishonor (Rom. ix. 21), seems unequivocally to set forth the same doctrine. Many commentators have puzzled their brains over it to make it mean something else, but with ill success: the declaration is not, that men become vessels of honor and dis- honor, but that they are made so. 16. Paul’s exhortation to servants to be obedient to their masters has furnished pious Christian slaveholders a good text to preach from throughout slaveholding Christendom, and has done much to rivet the chains tighter upon the limbs of the slave. 412
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CHAPTER LIX. CHARACTER OF THE CHRISTIAN’S GOD. The object in selecting and presenting the list of texts quoted in this chapter is to show that Bible writers entertained a very low and dishonorable conception of the “ all-loving Father,” and that, on this account, the reading of these caricatures of Infinite Wisdom must have a demoralizing effect upon those who habit- ually read them, and accept them as truth. Even if they were all accepted as metaphors, or mere figures of speech, that would not prevent or destroy their injurious effect upon the mind ; for descriptions by metaphor or pictures have the same effect upon the mind as literal descriptions or representations. And what must be the effect upon the mind of the ignorant heathen who read the Book with no suspicion of its being aught but reality, as much of it was unquestionably designed to be ? 1. “ There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it ” (2 Sam. xxii. 9). Suggestion of a volcano. 2. “ He had horns coming out of his hand” (Hah. iii. 4). 3. “ Out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword” (Rev. i. 16). Rather a fright- ful monster to look at. 4. “ fie shall mightily roar from his habitation” (Jer. xxv. 30). Wonder if it fright- ened the saints in glory. 5. “ He shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes ” (Jer. xxv. 30). 6. “ He awaked as one out of sleep ” (Ps. lxxviii. 65). The presumption would he he had been asleep. 7. ‘ ‘ And like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine ” (Ps. lxxviii. 65). Would not this lead to the conclusion he was drunk? 8. In his anger he persecuted and slew without pity (Lam. iii. 43). Good authority for persecuting and killing enemies. No wonder all Christendom is noted for persecu- tion and bloodshed. 9. “ His fury is poured out like fire ” (Nah. i. 6). Rather a frightful God. 10. “ The rocks are thrown down by him” (Nah. i. 6). Throwing stones is rather a ludicrous business for a God to engage in. 11. He became angry, and sware (Ps. xcv. 11). It is easy to see why swearing is so common in Christian countries. 12. He burns with anger (Isa. xxx. 27). Who would wish to live in heaven with such a being? 13. “His lips are full of indignation” (Isa. xxx. 27). Who saw his lips? and what peculiar aspect did they present to lead to this conclusion ? 14. “ And his tongue as a devouring fire ” (Isa. xxx. 27). How came the writer to see his tongue ? 15. He “is a jealous God” (Exod. xxxiv. 14). Jealous of what? “Jealousy is a hateful fiend ” (Cato). 400 THE BIBLE OF BIBLES. ? _V\v. 16. “He shall stir up jealousy like a man of war ” (Isa. xlii. 13). Of course, if he in- dulged in jealousy himself, his example would stir up this vile passion in others. 17. He rides upon horses (Hab. iii. . In what part of the universe are those horses kept? and how many does he ride at a time? 18. “ He shall cry, yea, roar” (Isa. xlii. 13). Rather a frightful object. 19. “ He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision” (Ps. ii. 4). “ But thou, O Lord, shalt laugh at them; thou shalt have all the heathen in derision ” (Ps. lix. . Who ever heard him laugh? 20. “ The Lord is a man of war ” (Exod. xv. 3). What kind of arms does he use? 21. “I will make mine arrows drunk With blood ,?:(Deut. xxxii. 42). A good archer. 22. “ They have provoked me to anger.”—“Anger shows great weakness of mind” (William Penn). . . 23. “I will heap mischief upon them.” — “Mischief-makers are enemies to society” (Socrates). 24. “I will spend my arrows upon them” (Deut. xxxii. 23). “Arrows are the weapons of savages ” (Goodrich). * 2-3. “A fire is kindled in mine anger” (Deut. xxxii. 22). “Angei' resteth In'the bosom of tools” (Solomon). 26. “I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents” (Deut. xxxii. 24). This exhibits a more fiendish spirit than that of Nero. 27. “ I myself will fight against you in anger and fury and great wrath ” (Jer. xxi. 5). Anger and fury disclose a weak and unbalanced mind ” (Publius Syrus). 28. “I will laugh at your calamity” (hov. i. 26). f* Only brutal savages can be happy while others are miserable” (Publius Syrus). 29. “ I frame evil against you” (Jer. xviii. 11). Who, then, can deny that God is the author of evil ? 30. The spirit said, “ I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets ” (1 Kiiigs xxii. 22). Of course, then, all the lies they told would be his, andnot theirs. 31. “ If I whet my glittering sword” (Deut. xxxii. 41). What a frightful picture for the all-loving Father! 32. “ Spare them not, but destroy both men and beasts, infant and suckling” (1 Sam. xv. 3). We would neither worship such a God on earth, or dwell with him in heaven. 33. “He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places” (Lam. iii. 10). Think of the God of the universe descending from heaven, and crouching in ambush, like bears and lions, to spring upon the unsuspecting traveler! The tendency of such a thought is to weaken both moral and intellectual growth. 34. He will “ cry like a travailing woman ” (Isa. xlii. 14). • 35. He is full of vengeance and wrath, and is furious (Nah. i. 2). A savage monster. Who would worship such a God ? 36. “ The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs (Deut. xxxii. 25). 37. “ The sword shall devour, and make drunk with their blood” (Jer. xlvi. 10). The language of the above is blasphemous and shocking to refined feelings, whether accepted as literal or figurative. Though but just begun, we will pursue this sickening theme no further at present. It is an unpleasant task to pen these shocking pictures of u Divine Goodness ;” but the time has ar- rived when these evils should be fully exposed, that Christian professors ina}r see the error of preaching the doctrines of the semi-barbarous ages, which have the effect to dwarf the intel- lect and repress the growth of every healthy moral emotion of the mind, and thus retard the moral and intellectual progress of society. Such considerations loudly call for a full exposition of the errors and evils of biblical theolog}T, feo long concealed under the sacred garb of u inspiration.” Note.—This chapter might easily be extended to a hundred pages of similar ex- amples. ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY ERRORS. 401 CHAPTER LX. ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY ERRORS OF JESUS CHRIST. In 44 The World’s Sixteen Crucified Saviors,” under the head of 44 The Two Hundred Errors of Christ,” the author has pointed out sixty errors in his teachings and practical life. It was the intention of the author to have completed the expo- sition in this chapter; but he has discovered that a full and thorough elucidation of all the errors would swell this volume beyond its proper size. He has therefore concluded to present a mere abstract of one hundred and fifty of those errors in this work, and reserve a fuller exposition to be comprised in a pamphlet to be published soon, and to contain also thirteen powerful and unanswerable arguments exposing the numerous absurdities and impossibilities of the orthodox theory that Christ possessed two natures, human and divine,—that he was both God and man. This assumption is known as 44 the hypostatic union,” or dual nature of Christ. The pamphlet, comprising these two subjects, can be had when published, of the usual booksellers or the author, for twenty-five cents. The admirers and worshipers of Jesus Christ adore him as a being of absolute perfection,—perfect in intelligence, perfect in wisdom, perfect in power, perfect in judgment, perfect in his practical life, and perfect in his moral inculcations. We are told, 44 He spake as never man spake;” and, finally, that he taught a system of religion and morals so absolutely faultless as to challenge the criticism of the world, and so perfect as to defy improvement: and to doubt or disbelieve this dogmatic assumption is to peril our eternal salvation. With this kind of teaching and preaching in the Christian pulpit for nearly two thousand 3~ears, it is not strange that the great mass of Chris- tian professors have been blinded and kept in ignorance with 402 THE BIBLE OF BIBLES. respect to his numerous errors, which modern science has brought to light both in his teachings and his practical life, a portion of which will be found briefly noticed in this chapter under three heads: viz., (1) “ Christ’s Moral and Religious Errors,” (2) “Christ’s Scientific Errors,” (3) “Christ’s Errors of Omission.” ;j» > I. The Moral and Religious Errors of Christ.. In “The World’s Sixteen Crucified Saviors” we have, under the above heading, shown (1) that' Christ possessed a very ardent religious nature ; (2) that he was unenlightened by scientific culture, (3) and that consequently he often indulged in the most extravagant views of the duties of life; (4) that he inculcated a moral and religious s}"stem carried to such extremes as to render its obligations utterly impossible to be reduced to practice ; (5) that his injunction, “ Take no thought for to-mor- r6w,” is of impracticable application, and never has b&en lived up to by any of his disciples in that age or since; (6) that, if reduced to practice, it would starve the world to death in less than twelve months ; (7) that his injunction, “ La}" not up treas- ures on earth” (Matt. vi. 19), has been ignored and trampled under foot by the whole Christian world ; ( that his injunction to his disciples to part with all their property (Matt. xix. 21) would soon fill the world with paupers ; (9) that his promise to supply all the necessaries of life to those who shall “ seek 'first the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. vi. 33) has never been ful- filled; (10) that his injunctions, “Resist not evil,” (11) when smitten on one cheek, turn the other also, are virtual invita- tions to personal abuse ; (12) that his mandate, “ Love not tho world;” (13) also, “to hate father and mother, brother and sister,” &c. (Luke xiv. 26) ; (14) also, to give up voluntarily our garments when attacked by a robber (Matt. v. 40) ; (15) also, to make no defense of our lives when they arc sought by murderers (Luke xvii. 33), are all extravagant, unnatural, and unreasonable moral obligations ; (1G) that his declaration to his disciples, that they would be “hated by all men ” (Matt. x. 22), (17) and his injunction to shake off the dust of their feet against their skeptical hearers, (18) and “go and.teach all na- ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY ERRORS. 403 tions,” (19) and “ take nothing for your journey ” (Mark. vi. , are all indications of a mind run wild with religious fanaticism ; (20) as is also the declaration, “ He that believeSth not shall be damned ;” (21) and “ He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved ” is equally unreasonable ; (22) that?’all things asked for in prayer believing has never been realized by any person ; (23) that it sets aside all natural laws. (24) It is calculated to encourage idleness and sloth, (25) and thus bring on misery and starvation. (26) The commands to “call no man ‘ father ;9 v (27) also, “ Call no man c a fool; ’ ” (28) also, to “ pray without ceasing; ” (29) also, to forgive our enemies four hundred and ninety times (“ seventy times seven”); (30) also, to “ love your enemies ” (Matt. v. 46) ; (31) also, to pluck out our eyes and cut off our hands if they offend us ; (32) and, also, to be- come eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s Sake, are utterances which bespeak a mind devoid of a knowledge of either natural or moral philosophy; (33) as does also the injunction to be- come perfect as (God) our Father in heaven (Matt. v. 48). (34) His belief in an angry God; (35) his injunction to fear God (Matt. x. 28) ; (36) his advice to his followers to live like the lilies of the field (Matt. vi. 26) ; (37) his statement that “the meek should inherit the earth,” (38) that his disci-' pies would be hated hy all men ; (39) his reasons for forbidding them to swear ; (40) his blessing on the poor ; (41) his denun- ciation of the rich; (42) his parable of Dives ; (43) his en- couragement to mourn ; (44) his blessing on the pure in heart, (45) and on the hungry and thirst}"; "(46) his choosing the ignorant for companions; (47) his setting the mother against the daughter (Matt. x. 36) ; (48) his getting angry - (Matt, xxi. 12) ; (49) his treatment of his mother, (50) also of the money-changers, (51) and of the Pharisees ; (52) his usurpation of property (Matt. xxi. 2) ; (53) his calling men “ fools and hypocrites,” (54) also “vipers,” (55) and* “ children of the Devil” (John viii. 44) ; (56) his enjoining his disciples to shake off the dust of their feet against them, (57) and to call no man “rabbi,” (58) and no man “master;” (59) his falsehood about going to Jerusalem (Johnvii.* ; (60) his substituting water for wine; (61) his * strong sectarianism 404 THE BIBLE OF BIBLES. (John x. 1) ; (G2) his treatment of the Gentiles (Matt. x. 5) ; (G3) his threat toward Jerusalem ; (G4) his calling honest men u robbers ” (John x. ; (Go) his denunciation of Sodom and Gomorrah, (GG) and Chorazin and Bethsaida (Matt, xi. 21), (G7) and Capernaum; (G8) his answer to the woman of Samaria, (69) and his calling Peter u Satan;” (70) his hatred of the world, (71) and contempt of life, —all these pre- cepts and practices, when critical^ examined, are found to be at variance with the laws of moral science as taught in this enlightened age, which establishes the fact that Christ was no moral philosopher. II. Scientific Errors of Christ. The following scientific errors of Christ, a portion of which are exposed in u The World’s Sixteen Crucified Saviors,” show that he was neither a natural nor a moral philosopher: (I) He assumed that disease is produced by demons, or evil spirits. (2) He generally treated disease, not as the result of natural causes, but as produced by evil beings. (3) His rebuk- ing a fever (Luke iv. 39) discloses an ignorance of the science of pliysiolog}". (4) His declaration about the stars falling (Matt. xxiv. 29) evinces his ignorance of astronomy ; (5) as does also his belief in the conflagration of the world (Matt. xxiv. 34). (G) His belief in a personal devil (Matt. xvii. 18), (7) also his belief in a literal hell (Matt, xviii. , ( also a belief in tho unphilosophical doctrine of repentance (Mark ii. 17), (9) and also that of divine forgiveness (Matt. vi. 12) ; (10) his repeated assumption that belief is a voluntary act of the mind ; (11) his frequent reference to the heart as being the scat of consciousness; (12) the great importance he attaches to a right faitli; (13) his unpardonable sin against the Iloly^ Ghost; (II) his superstitious idea of casting out devils ; (15) his com- paring faith to a grain of mustard-seed (Matt. xi. 23) ; (1G) the promise of u well done” (Matt. xxv. 21) as a reward for well-doing; (17) his statement about man increasing his stat- ure, (18) and about two men joining in pra3’cr (Matt, xviii. 19) ; (19) his promise to come in the clouds of heaven (Matt, xxiv. 30) ; (20) the time that event was to take place (Matt. ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY ERRORS. 405
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