Samuel Kneeland

“ In the next epoch, with a continued mild climate, man became agricultural, had polished implements, and made the dog his companion. In the bronze age man made still greater advances, domesticating animals, cultivating grains and fruits, and smelting metals, especially copper. The iron age insensibly merges into the historic period. The mound-builders M. Lartet considers intermediate in civilization between the polished-stone and the bronze epochs of Europe, not in time, but in stage of advancement ”

“ The domestic economy of these early races is shown by their hearths, boiling stones, rough hammers, and hollowed dish-like pebbles; there is a total absence of pottery. The remarkable similarity of the stone implements from different parts of the world is worthy of notice; this form of primitive industry has been traced in Europe from Greece to Scandinavia, and from the Atlantic coast to the steppes of Russia ”

“ The use of bronze proves commerce, and the tin must have been brought from Cornwall, and copper must have been used before bronze. As copper implements are not found in western Europe, it is probable that the knowledge of bronze was introduced into and not discovered in Europe ”

“ Even at this early period two kinds of skulls are found, one long and the other round, indicating the existence of at last two human races, the first perhaps belonging to men of the stone age, and the last to the bronze period, which was now coming on. ”

“ Many thousand polished-stone implements are collected in the museums of northern Europe and America; they are not found in the river-drift gravels, and are especially abundant in Den- mark and Sweden, while the ruder implements of the palæolithic age are unknown there, indicating that these northern countries were not inhabited during the earlier period. No bones of the reindeer nor of the great extinct mammals are found with the polished implements, and nothing made of metals ”

“ The Danish shell mounds are the refuse heaps of the people around their dwellings or temporary stopping places; they contain no remains of reindeer, but bones of the domestic animals, and all kinds of household objects lost or broken, including rude pottery made by hand. ”

“ They are found from Maine to Florida, and are made up of the shells of the mollusks used by them as food, especially the clam and quahog, with bones of the elk, deer, beaver, bear, dog, various fur-bearing mammals, birds, and especially the great auk, now believed to be extinct; occasional pieces of charcoal, and implements of bone and stone, but no human remains, are found. The growth upon them of large trees proves that they must be several centuries old, though not so ancient as the shell heaps of Denmark; they show a great variety of animal food, to say nothing of the vegetable ”

“ Neither bronze nor stone weapons were used in northern Europe at the beginning of our era, and the people of the north and west were considerably above the savage state. The resemblance of the rude implements in the old and in the new world, in the same stage of civilization, is very striking.—M. Lartet makes only two prehistoric ages, the stone and the metal. ”

“ A cold climate is also indicated by their habit of allowing bones and offal to accumulate in and near their cave dwellings. The cave period is probably less ancient than the gravel epoch, and, from the abundance of their remains, is often called the "reindeer" period. In the Reliquiæ Aquitanicæ, by Messrs. Lartet and Christy, there is a full account of the archæology of the old stone age, as exhibited in the south of France, especially in the caves in the valley of the Dordogne and of Cro-Magnon and Moustier. ”

“ Remains of man and of his works have been found mingled with the bones of the above post-tertiary extinct mammals in the caves of Europe, and especially of southern France by Messrs. Christy and Lartet, seeming to place it beyond doubt that man began his existence at this remote epoch. The implements found are invariably those of the early stone age, and the bones never those of the domestic animals afterward subjugated by man.—See Archæology, and the works of Dr. ”

“ Similar villages have been found in Italy, Savoy, the French Jura, Germany, Scotland, and Wales; and from their number and size they must have been the centres of a numerous population, a single one having had more than 40,000 piles. Some of the people on the coast of Borneo and in parts of Polynesia make their huts on similar platforms at the present day. ”