Page:Smithsonian Report (1909).djvu/727

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ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN EUROPE—MACCURDY.
583

are kept in mind, the apparent mélange of arctic and tropical types need no longer present insuperable difficulties. It will be readily seen, also, that in the table (pl. 1) no attempt has been made to give either the horizontal or the vertical range of a given species. Each dominant species simply appears once and in one of its favorite horizons.

With man the case is different. Already in the paleolithic he exhibited those universal tendencies for which he has ever since been famous. His horizontal range was over the whole of Europe not preempted by the glaciers and his vertical range covered the entire Quaternary. Fortunately, he can be traced not only by the presence of his own bones, but also by that of his industries. In fact, the bulk of the evidence rests on industrial remains, due in part, at least, to their indestructible character. The decade's discoveries of osseous remains, however, have added immensely to our knowledge of fossil man. The already familiar Neandertal type has become still better known through the finding of well-preserved specimens whose faunal and cultural associations are also more clearly defined than ever before.

New types have been discovered at various horizons, ranging from the Mafflean to the Asylian, giving a fairly comprehensive composite picture of human evolution from near the beginning of the Quaternary to its very close. Neandertal man seems to have been a direct descendant of Homo heidelbergensis, there being little evidence of somatological changes due to admixture of races until after the close of the middle Quaternary. The somewhat sudden appearance of a distinctly higher type in the Aurignacian epoch (Combe-Capelle) is a fact difficult to explain without recourse to the theory of an influx of new blood. Curiously enough, the appearance of this new race is signalized also by great cultural changes— the use of bone implements and the beginnings of sculpture, engraving, and painting. To this Aurignacian element, inherited by the succeeding Magdalenian races belongs much of the credit for the phenomenal art development of the upper paleolithic.

I have endeavored to trace the principal lines along which the science of prehistoric anthropology has been developing, lines that are yearly becoming more distinct. If hitherto they have seemed obscure, it has not been the fault of our ancestors who left their story upon each age in its turn, but is due rather to our slowness to discover the record and interpret it aright. I have also endeavored to show that in both discovery and interpretation the achievements of the past decade are not only highly creditable in themselves, but are also prophetic of a promising future.

Yale University,
New Haven, Conn., April 6, 1910.