THE ART OF PREHISTORIC MEN

THE works of art produced by the cave-men are, as we have already seen, of five kinds or classes—(1) All-round small statuettes, or "high-relief" carvings, in ivory, bone, or stone (examples of which are shown in Figs. 14, 25, 26, 27, 28 of the present chapter); (2) small engravings on bits of ivory, deer's antler, bone, or stone (examples are shown in Figs. 15, 16, 20, and 24); (3) large statues, hewn in rock, and left in place; (4) drawings of large size—two to five feet in diameter (partly engraved and partly coloured) on the rocky walls and vaults of limestone caverns (shown in Figs. 11, 12, 13, 17, 18, 19, 23, as well as in the figures of mammoths in the last chapter); (5) models (high relief) worked in clay. I give reproductions in the present chapter of several samples of this art, showing how skilfully these men of 50,000 years ago could portray a variety of animals.

Who were these men, and why did they make these remarkable carvings and drawings? First, as to their age. We now know of a long succession of human inhabitants of this part of the world, namely, Western Europe. The earliest reach back to an antiquity never dreamed of fifty years ago. We cannot fix with any certainty the number of thousands, or hundreds of thousands, of years which is represented by this succession, but we can place the different periods in order, one later than the other, each distinguished chiefly by the character of the workmanship belonging to it, though in a few instances we have also the actual limb-bones, skulls, and jaw-bones of the men themselves, which differ in different periods. It is practically certain that these prehistoric successive periods of humanity do not represent the steps of growth and change of one single race belonging to this part of the world, but that successive races have arrived on the scene of Western Europe from other parts, and it is usually very difficult even to guess where they came from and where they went to!

It is convenient to divide the human epoch, the time which has elapsed since man definitely took shape as man—characterized by his large brain, small teeth, upright carriage, and large opposable thumb and still larger and more peculiar non-opposable great toe—into the historic and the prehistoric sections. In this part of the world (Europe) the first use of metals (first of all copper, then bronze, and then iron), as the material for the fabrication of implements and tools of all kinds, occurs just on the line between the historic and the prehistoric sections; that is to say, between those times of which we know something by tradition and writing, and those earlier times of which we have no record and no tradition, but concerning which we have to make out what we can by searching the refuse heaps and ruins of man's dwelling-places and carefully collecting such of his "works" as have not utterly perished, whilst noting which lie deeper in the ground, which above and which below the others.

Practically the men of the prehistoric ages in Europe had not the use of metals (though our quasi-historical records go back to a less remote time in many parts of Europe than they do in Greece, Assyria, and Egypt). The prehistoric peoples are spoken of as the men of the Stone Age, because they used stone, chiefly flint, as many savage races do to-day, as the material from which they fabricated by means of deftly struck blows all sorts of implements. Undoubtedly they also, by aid of stone knives, saws and planes, made weapons and other implements of wood and of the horns, bones, and teeth of animals. But these latter substances are perishable, and have only been preserved from decay under special circumstances, such as their inclusion in the deposits on the floors of caverns.

The Stone Age is itself readily and obviously divisible into two periods. The latter is a comparatively very short and recent period, when great skill in chipping flints and other stones was attained, and the implements so shaped were often rubbed on large stones of very hard material (siliceous grit), so as to polish their surfaces. This is the "Neolithic," or later Stone, period, and extends back in Europe certainly to 7000 B.C., and probably a few thousand years further. Passing further back than this, we leave what are called "recent" deposits, and come to those associated with great changes of the earth's surface. We enter upon "geological" time, and vastly changed climatic and geographical conditions. We are in the older Stone period, called the "PalÆolithic period." It is not really comparable to the "Neolithic," since it comprises many successive ages of man, and, although called the "PalÆolithic" or "ancient Stone" period, has no unity, but, whilst readily divisible into several sub-periods or epochs of comparatively late date, stretches back into immense geologic antiquity indicated by flint implements of special and diverse types, which are found in definitely ascertained geologic horizons.

The Pleistocene strata—the latest of the geologists' list—are the river gravels of existing river valleys, the deposits in many caves, and the sands and clays piled up by ice action during the repeated glacial extensions or epochs of glaciation which alternated with milder climate for many thousands of years over north and middle Europe. It is identical with the PalÆolithic period, which, however, probably extends beyond it into the Pliocene and even further back. In the later deposits of the Pleistocene, which necessarily have been less frequently disturbed and re-deposited than the older ones, we find more numerous remains of man's handwork, and in less disturbed order of succession, than in the older deposits. Lately we have obtained in East Anglia beautifully-worked flint implements—the rostro-carinate, or eagle's beaks—from below shelly marine deposits—the Red Crag of Suffolk and the Norwich Crag—the oldest beds of the Pleistocene. They were made by men who lived in the Pliocene period, and carry the ancient Stone period of man back to a much earlier period than was admitted nine years ago.

The Pleistocene series or "system " of strata—also called the "Quaternary" to mark its distinction from the underlying long series of "Tertiary" strata—does not comprise the actual surface-deposits in which the remains of Neolithic man are found. It is usual, though perhaps not altogether logical, to separate these as "Recent" and to begin the long enumeration of "geologic" strata after a certain interval when the relative levels of land and sea and the depth of river-valleys were not precisely what they are to-day, and the human inhabitants of Western Europe were hunters using rough unpolished flint implements—in fact, when the "PalÆolithic" period of human culture had not given place to the "Neolithic," which was after some ten thousand years itself to be superseded by the age of metals. "Prehistorians," the students of prehistoric man—divide the Pleistocene series of deposits with a view to a systematic conception of the successive changes of man and his surroundings during the period occupied by their deposition, into an upper, a middle and a lower group—and further have distinguished certain successive "horizons" in these groups—characterized by the remains of man and animals which they contain. They are exhibited in the tabular statement here given in the ascertained order of their succession, and are represented in the southern part of Britain as well as in France.

HORIZONS OR EPOCHS OF THE PLEISTOCENE OR QUATERNARY SYSTEM

The amount of the sedimentary deposits of the earth's crust belonging to the Pleistocene or Quaternary Period—about 250 feet in thickness—is exceedingly small, and represents a surprisingly short space of time as compared with that indicated by the vast thickness of underlying deposits. It has nevertheless been possible to study and classify the "horizons" of this latest very short period minutely because the deposits are easily excavated, and having been more recently "laid down" have not suffered so much subsequent breaking up and destruction as have the older strata; and further, because they embed at certain levels and in favourable situations an abundance of well-preserved bones and teeth of animals and the implements and carvings in stone and bone made by man. It is worth while to look at this matter a little more exactly.

The total thickness of sedimentary deposits—that is, deposit laid down by the action of water on the earth's surface, and now estimated by the measurement of strata lying one over the other in various parts of the globe—tilted and exposed to view so that we can trace out their order of super-position—is about 130,000 feet. The lower half of this huge deposit contains no fossilized remains of the living things which were present in the waters which laid it down; they were soft, probably shell-less and boneless, and so no fossilized trace of them is preserved. Thus we divide the sedimentary crust into 65,000 feet of "archaic" non-fossiliferous deposit, and an overlying 65,000 feet of fossil-containing deposits.

The earliest remains of living things known are not very different from marine creatures of to-day; they are the strange shrimp-like Trilobites and the Lingula-shells found in the lower Cambrian rocks of Wales. Over them lie 65,000 feet of sedimentary deposit teaming with fossils—the petrified remains of animals and plants. The Trilobites and the Lingulas must have had a long series of ancestors leading up to them from the simplest beginnings of life—for they are highly organized creatures. But no trace of those ancestors is preserved in the 65,000 feet of sedimentary rock underlying the earliest fossils.

This great basal mass of non-fossiliferous deposit is called "the ArchÆan series." The 65,000 feet of deposit above it are divided by geologists into three very unequal series. The first and lowest is the Primary or PalÆozoic series, occupying the enormous thickness of 52,000 feet; above these we have the Secondary or Mesozoic series of 10,000 feet, and lastly, bringing us to recent time, we have the Tertiary or Cainozoic of only 3000 feet. These three series amount in all to 65,000 feet. The PalÆozoic series is more than five times as thick as the Mesozoic, and these two taken together are twenty times the thickness of the Tertiary. Each series is divided by geologists into a series of systems, distinguished by the fossils they contain, which, on the whole, indicate animals of a higher degree of evolution as we ascend the series.

The PalÆozoic series include the vast thicknesses of the Cambrian, the Ordovician, the Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous and Permian systems. The first "trilobite" is found in the lowest Cambrian rocks, and the last or most recent existed in the Permian period—after 50,000 feet of rock had been deposited. None are known of later age. The first fossil remains of a vertebrate are found in the uppermost beds of the Silurian—in "beds" (that is to say, stratified rocks) which are just half-way in position so far as the measurable thickness of the deposits are concerned, between the earliest Cambrian fossils and the sediments of the present day. To put it another way, 34,000 feet of fossiliferous rock precede the stratum (upper Silurian) in which the earliest remains of vertebrates are found. These first vertebrates to appear (others soft and destructible preceded them) are fishes—a group which, apart from this fact, are shown by their structure to present the ancestral form of all the vertebrate classes. In later PalÆozoic beds we find the remains of four-legged creatures like our living newts and salamanders. The Secondary or Mesozoic series is divided into the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous systems. It ends with the familiar chalk deposit of this part of the world, and is often called the age of Reptiles, because large reptiles abounded in this period. The Tertiary or Cainozoic series are divided into the Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene, Pliocene and Pleistocene systems. The huge reptiles disappear and their place is taken by an endless variety of warm-blooded, hairy animals—the Mammals—small at first, but in later beds often of great size. As we pass upwards from the Eocene we can trace the ancestry of our living Mammals such as the horse, rhinoceros, pig and elephant in successive forms. Complete skeletons are preserved in the rocks and show a gradual transition from the more primitive Eocene kinds—through Miocene and Pliocene modifications—until in the Pleistocene strata many of the species now inhabiting the earth's surface are found. A number of horizons, characterized by the special mammalian and other animal remains preserved in them, are distinguished by geologists in each of the "systems" of sands, clays and harder beds known as Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene and Pliocene. At last we arrive at the latest or most recent 250 feet of deposit, consisting of sand, clay and gravel. This is called "Pleistocene." It is only a very small fraction (1/260^th) of the thickness of the whole fossil-bearing sedimentary crust of the earth—about the proportion of the thickness of a common paving-stone to the whole height of Shakespeare's cliff at Dover. This Pleistocene or post-glacial Tertiary—often now called Quaternary—has been so carefully examined that we divide it as shown on page 39 into upper, middle and lower, and each of these divisions into successive horizons (only a few feet thick) characterized by the remains of different species of animals and often by the differing implements and carvings as well as the bones of successive races of men.

When we are concerned with written history, ancient Egypt seems to be of vast and almost appalling antiquity; on the other hand, if we study the cave-men, ancient Egypt becomes relatively modern, and the first cold period and extension of glaciers, which 500,000 years ago marked the passage from Pliocene to Pleistocene, becomes our familiar example of something belonging to the remote past—beyond or below which we rarely let our thoughts wander. That is a natural result of concentration on a special study. But it has had the curious result, in many cases, of making students of ancient man unwilling to admit the discovery of evidences of the existence of man at an earlier date than that which belongs to the deposits and remains to which their life-long studies have been confined and upon which their thought is concentrated. The last 500,000 years of the earth's vicissitudes, which resulted in the 250 feet of "Pleistocene" deposit and the marvellous treasures of early humanity embedded in them, form but a trivial postscript to the great geological record which precedes it.

No estimate can be made of the time represented by the 65,000 feet of fossiliferous strata known to us and the same thickness of non-fossiliferous deposit which precedes them. There are no facts known upon which a calculation of the related lapse of time can be based. But most geologists would agree that whilst we have good ground for assigning half a million years to the formation of the Pleistocene strata, it is not an unreasonable supposition that the period required for the formation of the fossiliferous rocks which precede them in time, is not less and probably more than five hundred million years.

The pictures and carvings with which we are for the moment concerned all belong to the later Pleistocene or Reindeer epoch. None have been found in the middle and earlier Pleistocene, though finely-chipped flints of several successive types are found in those earlier beds. So that it is clear that many successive ages of man had elapsed in Western Europe before these pictures—immensely ancient as they are—were executed. The men who made these works of art had ages of humanity, tradition, and culture (of a kind) behind them. Yet they were themselves tens of thousands of years earlier than the ancient Egyptians!

Our illustrations show a variety of drawings and carvings. It appears probable that the primitive intention of ancient man in depicting animals was "to work magic" on those which he hunted. This is the case at the present day among many "savage" races. The drawings of bisons in Fig. 19 are from the walls of the cavern of Font de Gaume, in the Dordogne, and are about 5 ft. long, partly engraved and scraped, partly outlined in black, and coloured. The body is often coloured in red, white and black, so as to give a true representation of the masses of hair and surface contours. A specially well preserved painting of this kind—from the cavern of Altamira—is shown in Fig. 18, where the colours of the original—black, red, and brown, and white are indicated by the varied shading. These drawings, like those of the mammoths figured in the last chapter, are found in the recesses of caverns where no daylight reaches them, and must have been executed and viewed by aid of torch or lamp-light. They probably were exhibited as part of a ceremony connected with witchcraft and magic. These, like the mammoths and all the specimens figured here, were executed in the Reindeer, or later Pleistocene period. The exact "horizon" of each is, as a rule, well ascertained, but there is uncertainty as to whether some specimens should be attributed to the Aurignacian or to the Magdalenian horizon—and as to whether work by men of the Magdalenian race is not in some cases associated in the cave deposits with that by the earlier negroid Aurignacians.

The horses shown are from various caves. Fig. 12 is drawn in black on the wall of a cave at Niaux (AriÈge), and Fig. 11 is a similar drawing from a cave in the Haute Garonne. Both are remarkable for the exact representation of natural poses of the horse. Figs. 13, A and B, are also from the walls of caves. The latter is remarkable for the large head, short mane, and thick muzzle, which closely correspond with the same parts in the existing wild horse of the Gobi desert in Tartary (to be seen alive in the Zoological Gardens in London). The horse drawn in Fig. 11 seems to belong to a distinct race, suggesting the Southern "Arab" horse rather than the heavier and more clumsy horse of the Gobi desert. Fig. 13, C, is engraved of the size here given, on a piece of reindeer's antler. It is remarkable for the halter-like ring around the muzzle. A similar cord or rope is seen in Fig. 12 and in Fig. 13, A.

The most remarkable horses' heads obtained are those drawn (of the actual size of the carvings) in Figs. 14 and 15. Fig. 14 is from the cave of St. Michael d'Arudy, engraved on a flat piece of shoulder-bone. It shows what can only be interpreted as some kind of "halter," made apparently of twisted rope (b, c, d), disposed about the animal's head, whilst a broad, flat piece ornamented with angular marks is attached at the regions marked "a." This and other drawings similar to Fig. 13, C (of which there are many), go far to prove that these early men had mastered the horse and put a kind of bridle on his head. Fig. 15 is a solid all-round carving in reindeer's antler from the cave of Mas d'Azil, AriÈge (France). The original is of this size, and is supposed to be one of the oldest and yet is the most artistic yet discovered, and worthy to compare with the horses of the Parthenon.

In Fig. 20 we have a wonderful outline of a bear engraved on a piece of stone, from the cave of Teyjat, in the Dordogne; Fig. 22, the head of a wolf on the wall of the cave of Combarelles, Dordogne; Fig. 23, lion (mane-less), engraved on the wall of the same cave; Fig. 21, small bear, engraved on a pebble; Fig. 24, a duck engraved on a piece of reindeer's antler (Gourdan, Haute Garonne); Fig. 17, the square-mouthed, two-horned rhinoceros, drawn in red (ochre) outline on the wall of the cavern of the Font de Gaume. This drawing is 2-1/2 ft. long. In successful characterization the bear (Fig. 20), the wolf (Fig. 22), and the feline (Fig. 23) far surpass any of the attempts at animal drawing made by modern savages, such as the Bushmen of South Africa, Californian Indians, and Australian black fellows.

Fig. 27 is an outline sketch of a rock-carved statue, 18 in. high, proved by the kind of flint implements found with it to be of Aurignacian age. It was discovered on a rubble-covered face of a rock-cliff at Laussel, in the Dordogne, by M. Lalanne. The woman holds a bovine horn in her right hand. The face is obliterated by "weathering." Four other human statues were found in the same place, one a male, much broken, but obviously standing in the position taken by (Fig. 28) a man throwing a spear or drawing a bow. [3] Near these were found a frieze of life-sized horses carved in high relief on the rock. These are the only statues of any size, executed by the Reindeer men, yet discovered.

The representations of men are rare among these earliest works of art, and less successfully carried out than those of animals. But several small statuettes of women in bone, ivory, and stone of the early Aurignacian horizon are known. They suggest, by their form of body, affinity with the Bushmen race of to-day (Fig. 25). The all-round carving of a female head (Fig. 26) also suggests Ethiopian affinities in the dressing of the hair. Some regard this hair-like head-dress as a cap. Here and there badly executed outline engravings of men, some apparently wearing masks, have been discovered.

The fact that the "Reindeer men" were skilful in devising decorative design—not representing actual natural objects—is shown by the carving drawn in Fig. 29 and in many others like it.

The later horizons of the Reindeer period or Upper Pleistocene yield some beautiful outline engravings of red deer and reindeer (Fig. 16) on antler-bone, as well as of other animals. One celebrated carving I have described in the first chapter of this book. It is now regarded as probable that whilst the art of the Aurignacians persisted and developed in the South of France and North-West of Spain until and during the time of the Magdalenian horizon, yet a distinct race, with a different style of art, spread through South-East Spain and also from Italy into that region, and affected injuriously the "naturalistic" Aurignacian art, and superseded it in Azilian and Neolithic times. We find late drawings (Azilian age?) in some of the east Spanish caves of a very much simplified character, small human figures armed with bow and arrow, and others reduced to geometric or mere symbolic lines derived from human and animal form (see Fig. 52, p. 206). The latest studies of Breuil on this subject tend to throw light by aid of these simplified inartistic and symbolic drawings on the migrations of very early races in the south and south-east of Europe, and to connect them perhaps with North African contemporary races. The subject is as difficult as it is fascinating. Those who wish to get to the original sources of information should consult the last ten years' issues of the invaluable French periodical called "L'Anthropologie," edited by Professor Marcelin Boule.