Robert Munro

“ The idea that death was a severance for ever of all social ties and friendships formed on earth, would, probably, be more repugnant to them than to some of the philosophical minds of the present day. To the former, death was the mere portal to the community of departed heroes and friends, to which they looked forward across the span of human life with hopeful anticipation of a more perfect state of existence. ”

“ The quest for food, protection from enemies, and sexual impulses seem to furnish the chief motives of their respective life-activities; and hence the raison d'être for the invention and differentiation of special organs to carry out these purposes. The policy adopted in propagating the species seems to be to flood the environment with their young progeny, with the result that there is a perpetual struggle for existence which always ends in the premature death of the vast majority. For, of the multitudes born, there is room for only a small fraction to come to mature life. ”

“ The inference that the Silures were the descendants of the long-headed British immigrants is not unreasonable, more especially as by that time the eastern parts of Britain had been taken possession of by successive waves of Gaulish and Belgic people from the Continent, thus causing the earlier inhabitants to recede more and more westwards. If this be so, it follows that the long-headed man of the chambered cairns of Britain and Ireland had a swarthy complexion with dark hair and eyes, like so many people still living on the more secluded and out-of-the-way portions of the British Isles. ”

“ THE TRANSITION FROM PALÆOLITHIC TO NEOLITHIC CIVILIZATION—THE HIATUS PROBLEM AND LAND SUBMERGENCE
In the last chapter we had a passing glimpse of the Palæolithic races of Western Europe—their physical attributes, social industries and artistic attainments—as disclosed by their tools, weapons, ornaments and works of art. In moving down the stream of time, still keeping as far as possible within the same geographical area, we find the land inhabited by other races whose social organizations and general methods of living appear to have been totally different from those of the former. ”

“ The introduction of bronze into the arts and industries of the Stone Age people of Europe speedily revolutionized their whole system of social economy. Not only had all the primitive implements and weapons to be remodelled in accordance with the principles of a metallic régime, but new industries and higher artistic aspirations were engendered which, by degrees, greatly modified the commercial and social aspects of life. ”

“ Half a century has now passed since the theory of organic evolution captured the philosophic mind of the day, and at once placed the science of anthropology into the position of being one of the most fascinating of intellectual pursuits. Our object in the present chapter is to give some idea of the progress that has been made during this long interval, in investigating the history of humanity and civilization from the new standpoint. ”

“ When Palæolithic civilization began to be curtailed in virtue of cosmic changes in the environment, and new methods of living were forthcoming, it is possible that the British fringe of the Palæolithic population would shrink back to Europe, and thus, for a time, leave a gap in the continuity of human life in Britain. ”

“ We have already seen that during the Palæolithic period caves and rock-shelters were resorted to as, perhaps, the best and readiest means of securing personal protection, not only from enemies but from the exigencies of a variable climate. When, however, caves and rock-shelters were no longer sufficient to accommodate the increasing families of these nomadic people, the surplus population would have to migrate to localities which might not possess these natural means of shelter. ”

“ But the mammoth soon left the neighbourhood, retiring to Siberia, doubtless with the hope of adapting his hereditary modus Vivendi to Arctic conditions of life. The experiment was, however, unsuccessful, as he soon succumbed to the severity of the climate, and, sad to relate, the last lingering individuals of the species met the fate of extinction by being frozen in ice, where their carcases are still to be found. With the final amelioration of the climate the reindeer also disappeared from Central Europe; and so the Palæolithic Age and its unique civilization came to a close in Europe. ”

“ They were skilled in the ceramic art, and in the manufacture of cloth by spinning and weaving wool and fibrous textures. In hunting the forest fauna they used, in addition to spears, lances and daggers, the bow and arrow. They built houses both for the dead and the living—thus showing that religion had become a governing principle in their social economy. But of the artistic taste of their Palæolithic predecessors they possessed not a vestige, and whatever they did by way of ornament consisted of a few incised scratches arranged in simple geometrical patterns. ”

“ Had the bed of the English Channel been raised some forty or fifty feet, instead of being depressed to that extent, we would probably find many shell-heaps and other remains of feasting along the raised beaches of its shores. The only thing that improved the social life of this primitive population was the incoming of the first Neolithic immigrants from Europe, who brought with them the arts of cultivating plants and cereals, and the rearing of animals in a state of domestication. ”

“ A mere glance at these bone implements, especially the harpoons, shows their striking similarity to those from Mas-d'Azil and other Azilian stations on the Continent. No archæologist can fail to be astonished at so remarkable a coincidence as that a group of human relics, from such widely distant localities as Oban and France, should be so similar. The harpoons agree not only in the material of which they were made, but also in the shape of the stem, the method of cutting the barbs, and the occasional presence of an aperture on the butt-end. ”

“ But yet, in an environment of such primitive resources and limited culture associations, these wild hunters developed a genuine taste for art, and cultivated its principles so effectually that they have bequeathed to us an art gallery of some four or five hundred specimens of engravings, sculptures, and even paintings in colour, many of them being so true to their models that they bear a favourable comparison with analogous works of the present day. ”

“ He is abundantly represented in the population of modern England. To what race, when we see this type of man in the flesh to-day, do we assign him? He and his successors are ancient British, if you will, but it is better to follow the example of the sharp-sighted Huxley and speak of a type rather than of a race. In 1862, twenty-one years before the Tilbury man was discovered, Huxley had recognized and described a form of prehistoric skull found in England under the name of the 'river-bed' type. ”

“ We have not as yet discovered caves in this country indicating continued occupancy of man during all the stages of progressive civilization. But this is not the only evidence available by which a similar result may be reached. At no time was Palseolithic man an inhabitant of North Britain, but yet we have laid before our readers incontrovertible facts to show that a pre-Neolithic race of savages existed there during the Transition or Azilian period. Who were these troglodyte hunters, shell-eaters and devourers of stranded whales? ”

“ This system of classification is founded on the fact that there was a time, in the history of mankind, when all industrial tools were made of stone, horn, bone, teeth, etc. After human organizations continued to exist for many ages with the assistance of such objects as could be manufactured from these limited resources, a discovery was made which ultimately revolutionized all mechanical appliances for cutting purposes, and thus raised the culture and civilization of the people to a higher degree than was previously possible. ”

“ Early Discoveries.—Prior to the publication of Sir Charles Lyell's work on The Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man, isolated discoveries were recorded in different parts of Europe, disclosing anthropological facts which, in the opinion of a few savants, could only be accounted for by assigning to man a higher antiquity than was then the current opinion in scientific circles. These discoveries consisted of the fossil remains of man associated with flint implements and the bones of extinct animals in undisturbed deposits of the Quaternary period. ”

“ But it was not till the advent of Neolithic civilization that the disposal of the dead assumed archæological importance, in consequence of the number of sepulchral monuments then constructed. There can be no doubt, judging from the relics associated with these structural remains, that the Britons of that period believed in the existence of a supernatural world which, after death, became the home of the soul or ghost. ”

“ It would thus appear that, subsequent to the construction of the English megalithic chambers, there was a period of decadence in this kind of architecture in South Britain, during which the well-known barrows of the Bronze Age became the prevailing type of burial. Another inference, and not an improbable one, is that the Neolithic invaders of Britain were already familiar with the art of constructing dolmens and megalithic monuments, before they left their European homes. ”

“ Those who deny the existence of a Bronze Age, as distinct from that of Iron, are in the habit of accounting for the entire absence of iron relics in graves and early habitations by the theory that they have disappeared in consequence of the natural law of decomposition, it being well known that iron is more liable to oxidation than copper or bronze. ”

“ The stage in European history we are thus called upon to inspect is known by the name Neolithic Age, so-called because a new and improved mechanical principle then came into general use, viz. the art of polishing stone implements by rubbing them with some hard material, so as to give them a sharper cutting edge than was possible by the old process of chipping. How far we have travelled in time to reach this phase of culture we cannot say in so many years, or centuries, or even millenniums. ”

“ It seems to me that the real hindrance to the adoption of iron in the manufacture of cutting implements was the softness of the metal itself, as, until the method of tempering it, by suddenly plunging it when heated into cold water, became known, tools and weapons made of it would be actually inferior to those of bronze. ”

“ Thus, taking the human skull at the starting-point of humanity as comparable to that of one of the higher apes, we know, as a matter of fact, that during the onward march of time it has undergone some striking changes, both in form and capacity, before reaching the normal type of modern civilized races—changes which can be largely classified in chronological sequence. ”

“ As the knowledge of the new metal slowly spread to the outlying districts in the north and west of Europe, partly through commerce and partly through immigrants, and probably through warlike expeditions, it is but natural to expect that antiquarian remains of the period found in Central Europe would disclose the metallurgical changes which had been effected in consequence of the substitution of iron for bronze in their manufacture. ”

“ Rocking-stones.—Just on the borderland between the works of Nature and Art comes the so-called Rocking-stone, or Logan-stone, which is usually nothing more than an ice-transported boulder, poised so nicely on its rocky bed that gentle pressure by the hand may cause it to rock, or oscillate. ”

“ The most characteristic animal was the reindeer, which shows that the climate had still a sub-Arctic character. The mammoth, though abundant at the commencement of the epoch, was gradually becoming scarce, and towards its close the extinction of the last of the Palæolithic elephants was a fait accompli in Central Europe.
The Magdalénien people started life, as it were, with a working knowledge of the discoveries and mechanical inventions of their predecessors; and hence their arts, industries, accomplishments, etc., represent the final out- come of Palæolithic culture and civilization. ”

“ Here, an underground structure presented the peculiarity of having, in addition to the usual long curved gallery, a circular beehive chamber attached to it by a low passage, and to which there was also a second entrance. About six or seven paces north of the underground gallery a circular space, twenty feet in diameter, and rudely paved with flagstones, was detected a few inches beneath the surface soil. This, upon examination, was recognized as the site of a habitation, of which, however, nothing then remained except the floor, and a few relics which its occupants had left behind them. ”

“ Beehive Huts.—The beehive hut consists of a circular or oval building of dry stones, so constructed that each layer of stones overlaps the one beneath it, till the opening of the apex becomes so small as to be closed by one stone. Such buildings, when constructed in the open, are on architectural principles necessarily limited in their dimensions, being only a few feet in diameter; but when surrounded by an accumulation of stones or earth they are capable of attaining a considerable size, as may be seen in the tombs of Mycenæ, Orchomenos and other sites in Greece. ”

“ It was a wave-like undulation which upheaved the north and depressed the south of Britain. At any rate there can be no doubt that a submergence of the land has taken place in the south of England since man inhabited it in proto-Neolithic times. The evidence in support of this statement consists of submerged forests and old inhabited land-surfaces, associated with edible shells, and bones of the stag, hog, horse and Bos longifrons, together with rude implements of horn and flint, which are occasionally to be seen at low-water mark in many localities. ”

“ Menhirs.—Standing stones appear to have been erected at all times for a variety of commemorative purposes, such as to mark the site of a burial, a battlefield, or boundary line. Throughout the British Isles such isolated monuments are widely distributed, especially in the less cultivated districts. Many of them, however, are but remnants of more elaborate structures, such as avenues, circles and dolmens, which formerly occupied the site, but which, in the course of time, have been removed by the ruthless hands of builders and agriculturists. ”

“ Weapons.—Bronze daggers are usually of two kinds: (1) those with a thin, flat, tri- angular or oval blade, generally known as knife-daggers; and (2) those with a blade larger and heavier than the former and having a thick midrib. As a rule both varieties are hafted by rivets to a wooden or horn handle; but there are a few exceptions in which a tang takes the place of rivets.
Another class of weapon, sparingly found in Britain, but frequently in Ireland, is that which Sir W. Wilde calls the "broad scythe-shaped sword." ”

“ Even the great iron sword of Hallstatt had apparently disappeared from the armamentary of Western Europe. Shields and helmets of iron became then parts of military costume of the day. The superabundance of personal ornaments in the form of iron fibulæ, beads and bracelets of glass, the use of coral as a setting, and ultimately the invention of enamel, etc., show that amber and bronze had then become less necessary. In decorative art geometrical designs gave way to various symmetrical combinations of curves, spirals, involutes and figures of fantastic animals. ”

“ Animals.—Concurrent with these fluctuations in the formation and distribution of continental land-areas the organic world was pursuing its marvellous course on the lines of evolution, producing, with unstinted copiousness and ever-changing adaptations, multitudes of living organisms, strange and sometimes fantastic-looking objects, whose sole life-purpose seemed to be to propagate their kind, after which their functional activities began to wane and finally ended in somatic dissolution. ”

“ As soon as the metallurgic art had taken root among the prehistoric people of Europe each country began to manufacture its own bronze objects, modelling them, in the first instance, after their analogues in stone, or imported metal specimens. Such a derivative connection can be traced not only between the flat bronze axe and the stone celt, but also between most of the other bronze implements and weapons and their prototypes in non-metallic materials. ”