John Lubbock

“ Carrying our imagination back into the past, we see before us on the low shores of the Danish Archipelago a race of small men, with heavy overhanging brows, round heads, and faces probably much like those of the present Laplanders. As they must evidently have had some protection from the weather, it is most probable that they lived in tents made of skins. The total absence of metal from the Kjökkenmöddings proves that they had not yet any weapons except those made of wood, stones, horns, and bones. ”

“ L.—The Kjökkenmöddings: recent Geologico-Archæological Researches in Denmark. By John Lubbock, Esq., F.R.S. Denmark occupies a larger space in the history, than in the map, of Europe. The nation is greater than the country; and even if with the growth of physical power in surrounding populations, she has lost somewhat of her influence in political councils, still the Danes of today are no unworthy representatives of their ancestors. Many a larger nation might envy them the position they hold in Science and in Art, and few have contributed more to the progress of human knowledge. ”

“ Intensely interesting, therefore, as are the antiquities of Northern Europe, it is, after all, in a hotter part of the world, and probably in the tropics themselves, that we must look for the true cradle of the human race.
Prof. Steenstrup has promised to send us an account of his recent progress in the investigation of the Kjökkenmöddings; and I hope also, perhaps in a future number of this Review, to compare the early history of Denmark, as indicated by the tumuli and the ancient weapons, with that of other neighbouring countries. ”

“ Professor Steenstrup does not believe that the domestic hog of ancient Europe was directly derived from the wild boar, but rather that it was introduced from the East, and the skulls which he showed us in support of this belief certainly exhibited very great differences between the two races. It is extremely unlikely that an animal so powerful and so intractable as the Urus appears to have been, can have been domesticated by these savages, and the condition of the bones themselves confirms the idea that they belonged to wild animals. ”

“ It would appear from the remains found near the lake habitations of Switzerland, that, though, during the Stone period, neither goat, the sheep, nor the domestic ox can be proved to have existed in Denmark, they were already present in Southern Europe, but, even if the lake-habitations do not, as seems probable, belong to a period subsequent to that of the "Kjökkenmöddings," it is easy to believe that in many respects the inhabitants of these more genial countries may have been more civilized than their Northern contemporaries. ”

“ It seems almost inconceivable that a bee should live with such an immense number of parasites in its body; and still more so, that it should, meanwhile, go about its daily duties as if nothing was the matter. ”

“ Those who are so fortunate as to meet with a large female, or queen, may enter it, as young Gordii have been seen to enter other insects, but do not, in all probability, increase much in size at first. This I infer, firstly, because I have not found Sphærulari in autumn, but principally because they would in this case be much less injurious to the bee than if they immediately began to increase in size. When the spring commences, the female Sphærularia probably begins to grow rapidly, and soon lays eggs. ”

“ Before arriving, however, at a knowledge of bronze, it is evident that mankind must have passed through an age of copper, and the absence in Northern Europe of any evidence of such a fact (though a very few hatchets of copper have been found) is one among several reasons for regarding the acquisition of bronze, not as a discovery made by the men of the Stone period, but rather as introduced into Northern Europe by a new race. ”

“ The characters which induce us to separate Sphæralaria, Gordius, and Mermis, from the Nematodes being principally negative, are not to my mind quite satisfactory. Schneider differs also so much from Meissner as to the anatomy of Gordius and Mermis, that it will be necessary to say a few words on this subject, before considering the affinities of Sphærularia. The so-called supra-œsophageal ganglion of Mermis he denies to be a portion of the nervous system at all, and considers it rather to be an œsophageal bulb, homologous with what is found in many Nematodes. ”

“ Much as still remains to be made out respecting the men of the Stone period, the facts already ascertained, like a few strokes by a clever draughtsman, supply us with the elements of an outline sketch. ”

“ For the formation of such a collection Denmark offers unrivalled opportunities. The whole country appears to have been, at one time, thickly studded with tumuli: where the land has not been brought into cultivation, several of them are often in sight at once, and even in the more fertile and thickly populated parts, the plough is often diverted from its course by one of these ancient burial places. Fortunately, the stones of which they are constructed are so large and so hard, that their destruction and removal is a laborious and expensive undertaking. ”

“ Sphærularia offers so many points of agreement with Mermis, that the development of the eggs naturally became specially interesting; and although my observations are very incomplete, I can ac least say, that, if the account given by Meissner is correct, there is in this respect, at least, no similarity between the two genera.
At the extreme end of the ovary I found a large cell with a nucleus. Following this cell are a great number of small vesicles, which much resemble true nucleated cells. They occupy the whole cavity of the ovary, and each of them is about 1/5000 of an inch in diameter. ”

“ A very similar organ to this has been described by Meissner in Mermis albicans, where also it consists of a double series of large cells, with nuclei. The large cells, however, are full of oil globules, and the nuclei contain crystals. In Mermis nigrescens and in Gordius the fat-body consists of a large number of much smaller cells. In the last-named genera this fat body is continuous, with a very short œsophagus; and I have therefore examined the two ends of it, to see whether the same was true for Sphærularia. ”

“ The lower parts of the valley are now occupied by peat, in which are found remains referred by M. Boucher de Perthes to the Stone period, and it would seem therefore that we have here, at least, good evidence of two Stone ages, one of which would be much older than the other, and would carry back the origin of the human race to a date, at least, twice as remote as that usually assigned to it. Further, it is evident that man must have originated in a hot climate, and he could not have supported the climate of the North until he had made some steps in civilization ”

“ While, therefore, we have many skulls belonging to the Stone age, there is scarcely one, well authenticated, as appertaining to the Bronze: and though this custom of burning the dead deprives us of the assistance of osteology, it is in itself some indication of Eastern origin. ”

“ Indeed, until within the last few years, we had scarcely any reliable knowledge of the nervous system in any of the Nematoids; lately, however, it has been figured and described at length in several genera, as, for instance, in Strongylus, Ascaris, Oxyuris, Gordius, and Mermis; but even in Van Beneden's Prize Memoir, "Sur les Vers Intestinaux," the nervous system is scarcely so much as mentioned; and it seems very doubtful whether the filaments referred to by Meissner in Mermis as nerves, do not rather belong to the muscular system ”

“ If the absence of cereal remains justifies us, as it appears to do, in concluding that they had no knowledge of agriculture, they must certainly have sometimes suffered from periods of great scarcity, though, on the other hand, they were blessed in the ignorance of spirituous liquors, and saved thereby from what is at present the greatest scourge of Northern Europe. ”

“ At first it appears remarkable that bronze should have been discovered before iron: but copper itself is found native, its ores are strongly coloured, and have a metallic appearance, while those of tin are black, very heavy, and easily smelted. On the other hand, iron ore, though very common, is not peculiar either in colour or in weight, and its reduction requires a very high temperature. ”

“ These experiments, however, give but a faint idea of the number of young to which a single female Sphærularia might give birth. In every case the whole ovary was full of eggs, in various stages of development; and, considering the minuteness of the eggs, and the size of the ovary, the number present must be enormous. If the young worms can in any manner leave the bee without destroying it, there seems no reason why nearly all of these should not succesively come to maturity, and be hatched ”

“ As, however, land grows more valuable, or perhaps when the stones themselves become available for building or other purposes, no conservative tradition, or feeling of reverence for the dead, protects them from desecration: and it is estimated that not a week passes without witnessing the destruction of one or more tumuli, and the loss of some, perhaps irrecoverable, link in the history of our race. ”

“ Every barrow indeed, is in itself a small museum of Northern Antiquities, and the whole country even may be considered as a Museum on a great scale. The peat bogs, which occupy so large an area, may almost be said to swarm with antiquities, and Professor Steenstrup estimates that every column of three feet square contains some specimen of ancient workmanship. ”

“ In the same manner it would be impossible to reconstruct a perfect skeleton of the quadrupeds, certain bones and parts of bones being always absent. In the case of the ox, for instance, the missing parts are the heads of the long bones (though while the shaft only of the femur is found, in the humerus one end is generally perfect) , the back bone except the two first vertebræ, the spinous processes, and generally the ribs, and the bones of the skull except the lower jaw and the portion round the eyes. It occurred to M. Steenstrup that these curious facts might, perhaps, be referred to the dogs ”

“ On the other hand it must be confessed that the antiquities of Norway and Sweden, of Switzerland and of Ireland, indicate a different progress of civilization in these countries. Thus domestic animals were already known in Switzerland during the Stone age; in Northern Scandinavia bronze appears to have been much rarer and iron to have been discovered earlier, than in Denmark ”

“ Meissner's extraordinary account of the digestive organs in Mermis is well known. According to him, the œsophagus is open along one side, thus constituting a trough rather than a tube, which sends out from time to time lateral branches, each of which terminates in a spherical cavity, which he calls a stomach-cell. According to Schneider, however, the œsophagus is a closed tube, and the "stomach-cell" is only a round, firm body, containing a nucleated structure, but without any central cavity, or any communication with the fat-body. ”

“ No antiquities are found in the lowest amorphous peat, but stone weapons are found amongst the pines: an interesting fact, when coupled with the presence in the "Kjökkenmöddings" of the Tetrao urogallus, whose food consists mainly of pine buds.
Articles of bronze have not been found below the oaks: while iron occurs only among the beeches. Thus we find in Denmark three great periods of arborescent vegetation, corresponding to the three great stages of civilization: the Stone period, with the pine forests; the Bronze age with the oaks ”

“ It is, perhaps, not uncharitable to conclude that, when then hunters were unusually successful, the whole community gorged itself with food, as is the case with many savage races at the present time. It is evident that marrow was considered a great delicacy, and every single bone which contained any was split open in the manner best adapted to extract the precious morsel. ”

“ It was observed, however, in the first instance, I believe by Professor Steenstrup, that in these supposed raised beaches, the shells belonged entirely to full grown, or nearly full grown, individuals: that they consisted of four species which do not live together, nor require the same conditions, and would not therefore be found together alone in a natural deposit: and thirdly, that the stratum contains scarcely any gravel, but consists almost entirely of shells. ”