Prehistoric tool

“ MICROLITHS
One peculiar set of tools seems to serve as a marker for the very last phase of the Ice Age in southwestern Europe. This tool-making habit is also found about the shore of the Mediterranean basin, and it moved into northern Europe as the last glaciation pulled northward. People began making blade tools of very small size. They learned how to chip very slender and tiny blades from a prepared core. ”

“ The earliest bones of men we now have—upon which all the experts would probably agree—are those of Meganthropus, from Java, of about 450,000 years ago. The earlier australopithecines of Africa were possibly not tool-users and may not have been ancestral to men at all. ”

“ Here are some of these names, since you may see them used in museum displays of flint tools, or in books. Within each tradition of tool-making (save the chopper tools) , the earliest tool type is at the bottom of the list, just as it appears in the lowest beds of a geological stratification.3
3 Archeologists usually make their charts and lists with the earliest materials at the bottom and the latest on top, since this is the way they find them in the ground. ”

“ Those with the remains of the mammoth, woolly rhinoceros and other extinct species, or with paleolithic man (see Archaeology) , are termed Pleistocene. These are sometimes called Quaternary, under the mistaken idea that they belong to an age succeeding the Tertiary period. (3) Those which contain the remains of the domestic animals in association with the remains of man either in the Neolithic, Bronze or Iron stages of civilization are termed Prehistoric. ”

“ This geological claim for a vast antiquity of the human race is supported by the similar claims of prehistoric archaeology and the science of culture, the evidence of all three departments of inquiry being intimately connected, and in perfect harmony.
During the last half century, the fact has been established that human bones and objects of human manufacture occur in such geological relation to the remains of fossil species of elephant, rhinoceros, hysena, bear, &c., as to lead to the distinct inference that man already existed during the ancient period of these now extinct mammalia. ”

“ There are many hafted implements of various kinds in existence in museums to-day—particularly in the case of specimens collected one hundred years ago—which present trustworthy evidence as to how similar things may have been mounted in prehistoric times. ”

“ In the same manner, if we detect in any strata of the past any undoubted products of human industry—such as weapons, or implements and ornaments—in such position that we know they could not have been deposited there since the formation of the bed itself, we have no hesitancy in asserting that man himself is of the same antiquity as the strata containing the implements. In the great majority of cases, this is the only kind of evidence possible to advance.
It is now well known that the first stage in the culture of any people, is what is called the Stone Age. ”

“ It is therefore a legitimate source of interest to the archæologist, to observe the mingling of extinct and familiar species among the fossil mammals found in the superficial deposits, wherein so much of the evidence of his own science must be sought. It discovers to him the precise link by which his pursuits take hold of the great chain of truth, and in a new sense shews man, not as an isolated creation, but as the last and best of an order of animated beings, whose line sweeps back into the far removed shadow of an unmeasured past. ”

“ Our knowledge of prehistoric man is based naturally upon the study of certain parts of the human skeleton preserved in a fossil state. In addition to these materials, other evidence is available in the form of certain products of human industry. These include such objects as implements of various kinds, owing their preservation to the almost indestructible nature of their material, or again artistic representations, whether pictorial or glyptic. ”

“ The Prehistoric period for lack of all other means of dating has been divided by antiquarians, according to the material of which man formed his implements, into the Stone, the Bronze, and the late-Celtic or Iron Ages; the Stone age being further divided into an older, or Palaeolithic, section, in which all the so-called “celts,” or flint implements, were formed simply by chipping, and a newer Neolithic section, in which they were often ground and polished. ”

“ And through all the countless ages revealed to the geologist, with ever new orders of successive life; with beast, bird, crustacean, insect, and zoophyte, endowed with wonderful constructive instincts, and perpetuating memorials of architecture and sculpture, of which the microscope is alone adequate to reveal the exquisite beauty and infinite variety of design: yet so thoroughly is the use of tools the exclusive attribute of man, that the discovery of a single artificially shaped flint in the drift or cave-breccia, is deemed proof enough that man has been there. ”

“ The group of phenomena with which it attempts to grapple occupies a sort of neutral territory or borderland between geology and history proper, from both of which, however, it receives large nutrient offshoots. The essential element which characterises the science of prehistoric archæology is an inductive process which depends on the clearness and precision with which the most primitive remains of human art and industries can be identified. ”

“ It is naturally a matter of no small surprise that, after we have collected many hundred flint implements (including knives, many thousands) , not a single human bone has yet been met with in the old alluvial sand and gravel of the Somme. This dearth of the mortal remains of our species holds true equally, as yet, in all other parts of Europe where the tool-bearing drift of the Pleistocene period has been investigated in valley deposits. Yet in these same formations there is no want of bones of mammalia belonging to extinct and living species. ”

“ It is this statement that causes many to shut their eyes to what would be otherwise at once admitted and refuse to believe the genuineness of the discovery. If the implements brought to light had been of the rude River Drift type—celts but little removed from nodules of flint—scholars would not be so cautious about accepting them. But when we learn they are Neolithic, we at once see why they hesitate, and ask for more conclusive proofs ”

“ But for a great many reasons, portions of the human skeleton are very rarely found in such circumstances that we are sure they date back to the Paleolithic Age, and especially is this true of the men of the River Drift. ”

“ In a zoological point of view they include man and the existing races of animals, as well as extinct races which appear to have been contemporaneous with indigenous species. To the archæologist they are rich in records of that primeval transition in which the beginnings of history lie. How early in that closing geological epoch man appeared, or how late into that archæological era the extinct fossil mammals survived, are the two independent propositions which the sister sciences have to establish and reconcile. ”

“ Their works, found in great abundance in the graves, especially of the Bronze and Iron periods, but a detailed account of which belongs to the province of archaeology, interest us in many ways. The painted earthenware vases and incised metal-ware of all kinds enable the student to follow the progress of the arts of design and ornamentation in their upward development from the first tentative efforts of the prehistoric artist at pleasing effects. Human and animal figures, though rarely depicted, occasionally afford a curious insight into the customs and fashions of the times. ”

“ Our historical horizon has been pushed back very considerably, and every year adds new knowledge concerning the Palæolithic and Neolithic races, and the first users of bronze and iron tools and weapons. We have learnt to prize what they have left, to recognize the immense archæological value of these remains, and of their inestimable prehistoric interest. ”

“ Of the three series, (1) human remains, (2) mammalian remains, (3) stone implements, the first two, (1) and (2) , have been compared as well as (1) and (3) . A comparison between (2) and (3) has now to be instituted. And this is of interest, for mammalian remains have been found in the presence of implements where no human bones could be discovered. Moreover the expectation is well founded, whereby the mammalian fauna will prove to supply information unobtainable from either human skeletons or implements by themselves. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Insofar as the reconstruction of the characteristics of prehistoric races can be based on extensive material, there will be a certain justification for a reconstruction of the soft parts, if a detailed comparison of the osteological remains of prehistoric types and of present types proves them to be conformable. ”

“ Should we be so fortunate as to find portions of the bones of the human skeleton in a geological formation in such positions that they could not possibly have been introduced there since the deposition of the containing bed, it would of course prove that man was at least as old as the formation itself. But it happens that human remains in beds of a previous geological age are very rare. Indeed, human remains in formations of the Pleistocene Age,43 during which we have ample testimony, as we shall see, of the presence of man, are very rare. ”

“ The science of archeology has contributed to our knowledge some of the most fascinating chapters in culture history, for it has brought to light, from the night of the past, periods of human development hitherto unrecorded. As the paleontologist through his method has revealed faunas whose like were formerly unknown to the naturalist, the archeologist by the use of the same method of research has resurrected extinct phases of culture that have attained a high development and declined before recorded history began. ”

“ He may even indulge the fancy that in the large, unshapely flint implements recovered from ossiferous caves and alluvial deposits, alongside of remains of the extinct fauna of a palæolithic period so dissimilar to any historical era, he has traced his way back to the first crude efforts of human art, if not to the evolutionary dawn of a semi-rational artificer. It is a significant fact that no such clumsy unshapeliness characterises the stone implements of the most degraded savage races. ”

“ In that primeval transition of the ethnologist in which geology draws to a close, and archæology has its beginning, amid all the rudeness of palæolithic art, we may still recognise the rational lord of creation, the being endowed, not with physical but moral supremacy; in whom intelligence and accumulated experience were to prove more than a match for all the brute force of those gigantic mammalia so familiar to us now in fossil disclosures of the drift-gravels and cave-earth. ”

“ HOW PREHISTORIC MANKIND IS REVEALED
Most of our knowledge of the earliest life of man has been revealed by the excavator. When at a certain depth below the earth’s surface the skeleton of a man is found, surrounded with rude stone weapons, ornaments, and the remains of domestic animals, a whole chapter in the life of Prehistoric Man stands revealed at one glance. Our photograph shows an actual skeleton and grave of the Stone Age, as discovered in the year 1875 near Mentone. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Of all the discoveries of ancient remains, whether possibly or certainly human, two in particular stand out pre-eminently in marked relief. The specimens thus distinguished are known as the remains of Pithecanthropus erectus, on the one hand, and on the other a jaw-bone which is attributed to a human type described (from the locality of the discovery) as Homo heidelbergensis.
The geological antiquity assigned in each instance [Pg 2] is greater than that claimed for any bones acknowledged unreservedly to be human. ”

“ The evidence of man's antiquity revealed by his discoveries consisted of flint implements and remains of human skeletons, associated with bones of the hyæna, cave-bear, cave-lion, rhinoceros, mammoth and reindeer. ”

“ The term prehistoric, invaluable to anthropologists since Professor Daniel Wilson introduced it more than thirty years ago, stretches back from times just outside the range of written history into the remotest ages where human remains or relics, or other more indirect evidence, justifies the opinion that man existed. Far back in these prehistoric periods, the problem of Quaternary man turns on the presence of his rude stone implements in the drift gravels and in caves, associated with the remains of what may be called for shortness the mammoth-fauna. ”