Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 07.djvu/344

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
*
296
*

EUROPE, PEOPLES OF. 296 EUROPE, PEOPLES OF. Climatic and Otuer Changes in the Paleolithic Epochs No. Climate Geologic action Plants Animals 1 Tourassian As at present Fauna of to-day, Cervus elaphus. abundant. Reindeer disappears. 2 Magdalenian Cold and dry Formation of red earth with angular pebbles Polar moss in Wurtteniberg Man, race of Laugerie Basse Great development of northern fauna, reindeer, etc. 1 turn of mammoth. 3 Solutrean Mild and dry Retreat of the glaciers Horse abundant. Reindeer, Mammoth. Increase of rhi- noceros. 4 Mousterian Cold and moist Great extension of glaciers, and consequent changes of the soil and levels Flora of cold re- gions Arctic fauna. Mammotli, Rhi- noceros tiebjorinus, Cave-bear. Musk-ox. 5 Acheulean Mild and moist ■ Alluvium of the high levels. Loam of the plateaus Flora in transi- tion Fauna intermediate. Appearance of mammoth. Disappearance of Elephas antiquus. 6 Chellean Warm and hu- mid Subsidence. Filling of the valleys. Alluvium every- where at lower levels Flora sub -trop- ical. Mediter- ranean plants in Seine "Valley Man. Neanderthal race. Trop- ical fauna. Hippopotamus. Rhi- noceros Merckii, Elephas an- tiquus. Extinction of Tertiary forms. Classification of Quaternary Culture is Europe Period Epoch Technic Characteristic implements End of the Paleo- lithic Tourassian Workmanship in bone and stone degenerated Harpoon heads flat, with large barb?, in antler. I'asj-a^e from the Paleo- lithic period into the Neolithic. Upper Magdalenian Development of work on bone and hard substances Burins or gravers in flint. Flint blades thin and symmetrical. Development of bone implements and of tine art. Paleolithic Solutrean Flints worked by pressure Laurel-leaf blades. The skin-scraper appears. Apogeeof stone implements. Middle Paleolithic Mousterian Flints that show retouching (chipped and flaked) Stone blades to be held in the hand, knives and choppers. Blades wide and thick, and chipped on one face only. Disappearance of the flaked axe (coup de poing). Transition Paleolithic Acheulean Mixed art Leaf-shape blades, Jangue de chat, nar- rower, thinner, more delicate, and carefully finished. Lower Paleolithic Chellean Made by direct blows Only one stone implement, the coup </<* poing, large, coarse, with large facets on each side. found in the later prehistoric and historic graves and dolmens., and individuals of the same type exist in Europe and America at the present time. The Laugerie-Chancelade type was also long-headed like the other, but the forehead was higher and the skull more capacious. The pro- jecting brow-ridges were absent, the orbits were higher, the face with its prominent cheek bones was elevated and broad, but the stature was low. After these two types, short of stature, came the so-called Cro-Magnon race, who were extremely long headed, the ratio of the head length to the width being from 63 to 75 ; the face and the orbits iii low, but the stature was lofty, approaching 68 in- Vfter these vague epochs came the Neolithic or Polished Stone Period, followed by the Bronze or n Period, and this by the Age of Iron, id nni come by sudden breaking down r >f the stone and bronze ages, but by transi- tional Bteps with :i separate historj in each of luntries of Europe. For instance, the I'd ished Stone Period was not developed simul- taneously over the Continent. Scandinavia, in it- northern parts, was covered with glaciers, and only in the refuse-piles in Denmark arc polished stone hatchets found contemporaneously with Neolithic tools of the rest of Europe. There were even, until quite recently, tribes in Russia who wen- still in this grade of progress. These ancient Neolithic peoples were sedentary and industrial. Their fund was not obtained wholly by natural processes, hut artilicialism in the cultivation of the soil and the domestication nf animals progressed. Their homes were no longer movable tents, but substantial buildings. They constructed the pile dwellings of Switzer- land, France, Italy, and perhaps of Ireland. They buried their dead under dolmens, and it was they who set up huge megalithic i luments in England, Brittany, and Spain. The Neolithic people- of the British Isles M well as of other part- of western Europe, were quite long-headed, the ratio of the length to the