A Manual of the Antiquity of Man Part 1

A Manual of the Antiquity of Man.

by J. P. MacLean.

PREFACE.

In lecturing upon the Antiquity of Man I have found the minds of the people prepared to receive the evidences, and ready to believe the conclusions of the geologists. I have felt the need of a popular work to place in the hands of the public, that would be both instructive and welcome. The works of Lyell and Lubbock are too elaborate and too expensive to meet the popular need. My object has been to give an outline of the subject sufficient to afford a reasonable acquaintance with the facts connected with the new science, to such as desire the information but cannot pursue it further, and to serve as a manual for those who intend to become more proficient.

As the Unity of Language and the Unity of the Race are so closely connected with the subject, I have added the two chapters on these questions, hoping they will be acceptable to the reader. It was my intention to have written a more extended chapter on the relation of the Holy Scriptures to this subject, but was forced to condense, as I had done in other chapters, in order not to transcend the proposed limits of the book.

In the preparation of this work I have freely used Lyell's "Antiquity of Man" and "Principles of Geology," Lubbock's "Pre-Historic Times,"

Buchner's "Man in the Past, Present, and Future," Figuier's "Primitive Man," Wilson's "Pre-Historic Man," Keller's "Lake-Dwellings," the works of Charles Darwin, Dana's "Manual of Geology," Huxley's "Man's Place in Nature," Prichard's "Natural History of Man," Pouchet's "Plurality of the Human Race," and others, referred to in the margins.

I am indebted to my friend, Mr. Frank Cus.h.i.+ng, for the ideal restoration of the Neanderthal Man. The engraving was made especially for this work.

The references to Buchner are from his work ent.i.tled, "Man in the Past, Present and Future."

A MANUAL OF THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION.

No subject, of late years, has so much engrossed the attention of geologists as the antiquity of the human race. The interest was greatly increased by the publication of Sir Charles Lyell's "Antiquity of Man."

This work called the attention of the public to the subject, and so great became the interest that many volumes and memoirs have been added to the list, discussing the question in various ways, and, for the most part, in such a manner as to add fresh interest and throw more light on the subject. The scientific men were slow to take advantage of the discoveries continually being made of the bones and works of man found in caves and a.s.sociated with the remains' of extinct animals. It is probable, even at this late day, there would not have been so much discussion of this subject had not Sir Charles Lyell lent the weight of his great name to it. Educated men, everywhere, began to doubt the correctness of Archbishop Usher's chronology, and so complete has been the revolution of opinion that it is almost impossible to find an intelligent man who would limit the period of man's existence to 6,000 years.

To Aime Boue, a French geologist, must be attributed the honor of having been the first to proclaim the high antiquity of the human race; to Dr.

Schmerling, the learned Belgian osteologist, on account of his laborious investigations, untiring zeal, and great work on the subject, the merited t.i.tle of being the founder of the new science; to M. Boucher de Perthes, its great apostle; while to Sir Charles Lyell and Sir John Lubbock must be ascribed the honor of having made the new theory popular.

The new science soon became permanently established, and the geologists at once set about cla.s.sifying the facts before them, in order to a.s.sign to them their respective places in the geological epochs. All are agreed in respect to the chronological orders, but all have not used the same nomenclature, in consequence of which more or less confusion has been the result. Sir J. Lubbock has divided pre-historic archaeology into four great epochs, as follows:

"I. That of the Drift; when man shared the possession of Europe with the mammoth, the cave-bear, the woolly-haired rhinoceros, and other extinct animals. This we may call the 'Palaeolithic' period.

"II. The later or polished Stone Age; a period characterized by beautiful stone weapons and instruments made of flint and other kinds of stone; in which, however, we find no trace of the knowledge of any metal, excepting gold, which seems to have been sometimes used for ornaments. This we may call the 'Neolithic' period.

"III. The Bronze Age, in which bronze was used for arms and cutting instruments of all kinds.

"IV. The Iron Age, in which that metal had superseded bronze for arms, axes, knives, etc."[1]

These divisions are recognized by Lyell and Tylor.

Edward Lartet has proposed the following cla.s.sification:

I. THE STONE AGE.

1st. Epoch of extinct animals (or of the great bear and mammoth).

2d. Epoch of migrated existing animals (or the reindeer epoch).

3d. Epoch of domesticated existing animals (or the polished stone epoch).

II. THE METAL AGE.

1st. The Bronze Epoch.

2d. The Iron Epoch.

This mode of division is adopted by M. Figuier, in his "Primitive Man,"

by the Museum of Saint-Germain in that portion devoted to pre-historic antiquities, and adhered to in essential points by Troyon and d'Archiac.

Professor Renevier, of Lausanne, has proposed a somewhat different scheme, founded upon the epochs of Swiss glaciation. It is as follows:

"I. _Pre-glacial Epoch_, in which man lived cotemporaneously with the elephant (_Elephas antiquus_), rhinoceros (_R. hemitaechus_), and the cave-bear (_Ursus spelaeus_).

"II. _Glacial Epoch_, in which man lived cotemporaneously with the mammoth (_Elephas primigenius_), rhinoceros (_R. tichorrhinus_), cave-bear, etc.

"III. _Post-glacial Epoch_, in which man lived cotemporaneously with the mammoth and reindeer (_Cervus tarandus_).

"IV. _Last Epoch_, or epoch of the _Pile-buildings_, in which man lived cotemporaneously with the Irish elk (_Megaceros hibernicus_), aurochs (_Bison Europaeus_)," etc.[2]

Westropp divides the periods of man, in respect to his stages of civilization, as follows: _Savagery_, _hunters_, _herdsmen_, and _agriculturists_.

In the following pages a somewhat different cla.s.sification has been adopted, and may be thus explained:

I. _Pre-glacial Epoch_; that period antedating the glaciers of the post-tertiary, in which man lived cotemporaneously with the animals of the tertiary, southern elephant (_E. meridionalis_), etc.

II. _Glacial Epoch_; that period of the post-tertiary when man was forced to contend with the great ice-fields and the floods immediately succeeding them, when the mammoth (_E. primigenius_), rhinoceros (_R.

tichorrhinus_), cave-bear, etc., began to flourish.

III. _Interglacial Epoch_; that period between the glacial and the second advance of the ice, in which man lived cotemporaneously with the animals of the preceding epoch, and the cave bear became extinct.

IV. _Reindeer Epoch_; that period when the glaciers again advanced; in which man's chief food consisted of the flesh of the reindeer (_C.

tarandus_), that animal having made its way in numerous herds as far south as the Pyrenees.

V. _Neolithic Epoch_; that period in which man polished his weapons of stone, and sought to domesticate certain animals, the dog, etc.

VI. _Bronze Epoch_; that period characterized by weapons and implements being made chiefly of bronze.

VII. _Iron Epoch_; that period in which bronze was generally superseded by iron.

This cla.s.sification, on the whole, seems to be the best that could be devised, for the reason it attempts to place the evidences of the existence of man in their relative geological positions.