Primitive Man Part 18

After this, Boucher de Perthes entertained no doubt whatever that these bones had been formerly employed as handles for flint implements. The same handle would serve for several stones, owing to the ease with which the artisan could take one flint out and replace it with another, by the aid of nothing but these wooden wedges. This is the reason why, in the peat-bogs, flints of this sort are always much more plentiful than the bone handles. We must also state that it seems as if they took little or no trouble in repairing the flints when they were blunted, knowing how easy it would be to replace them. They were thrown away, without further care; hence their profusion.

These handles are made of extremely hard bone, from which we may conclude that they were applied to operations requiring solid tools.

Most of them held the flint at one end only; but some were open at both ends, and would serve as handles for two tools at once.

Figs. 119 and 120 represent some of these flint tools in bone handles--the plates are taken from those in Boucher de Perthes' work.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 119.--Flint Tool in a Bone Handle.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 120.--Flint Tool with Bone Handle.]

Generally speaking, these handles gave but little trouble to those who made them. They were content with merely breaking the bone across, without even smoothing down the fracture, and then enlarging the medullary hollow which naturally existed; next they roughly squared or rounded the end which was intended to be grasped by the hand.

In fig. 121, we delineate one of these bone handles which is much more carefully fas.h.i.+oned; it has been cut off smooth at the open end, and the opposite extremity has been rounded off into a k.n.o.b, which is ornamented with a design.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 121.--Ornamented Bone Handle.]

During the polished-stone epoch, as during that which preceded it, the teeth of certain mammals were used in the way of ornament. But they were not content, as heretofore, with merely perforating them with holes and hanging them in a string round their necks; they were now wrought with considerable care. The teeth of the wild boar were those chiefly selected for this purpose. They were split lengthwise, so as to render them only half their original thickness, and were then polished and perforated with holes in order to string them.

In the peat-mosses of the valley of the Somme a number of boars' tusks have been found thus fas.h.i.+oned. The most curious discovery of this kind which has been made, was that of the object of which we give a sketch in fig. 122. It was found in 1834, near Pecquigny (Somme), and is composed of nineteen boars' tusks split into two halves, as we before mentioned, perfectly polished, and perforated at each end with a round hole.

Through these holes was pa.s.sed a string of some tendinous substance, the remains of which were, it is stated, actually to be seen at the time of the discovery. A necklace of this kind must have been of considerable value, as it would have necessitated a large amount of very tedious and delicate work.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 122.--Necklace made of Boars' Tusks, longitudinally divided.]

In the peat-bogs near Brussels polished flints have likewise been found, a.s.sociated with animal bones, and two specimens of the human _humerus_, belonging to two individuals.

The peat-bogs of Antwerp, in which were found a human frontal bone, characterised by its great thickness, and its small surface, have also furnished fine specimens of flint knives (fig. 123), which are in no way inferior to the best of those discovered at Grand-Pressigny.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 123.--Flint Knife, from the Peat-bogs near Antwerp.]

On none of the instruments of bone or horn, of which we have been speaking, are to be found the designs which we have described as being the work of man during the reindeer epoch. The artistic instinct seems to have entirely vanished. Perhaps the diluvial catastrophe, which destroyed so many victims, had, as one of its results, the effect of effacing the feeling of art, by forcing men to concentrate their ideas on one sole point--the care of providing for their subsistence and defence.

A quant.i.ty of remains, gathered here and there, bear witness to the fact that in the polished-stone epoch the use of pottery was pretty widely spread. Most of the specimens are, as we have said, nothing but attempts of a very rough character, but still they testify to a certain amount of progress. The ornamentation is more delicate and more complicated. We notice the appearance of open-work handles, and projections perforated for the purpose of suspension. In short, there is a perceptible, though but preliminary step made towards the real creations of art.

In the caves of Ariege, MM. Garrigou and Filhol found some remains of ancient pottery of clay provided with handles, although of a shape altogether primitive. Among the fragments of pottery found by these _savants_, there was one which measured 11 inches in height, and must have formed a portion of a vase 20 inches high. This vessel, which was necessarily very heavy, had been hung to cords; this was proved by finding on another portion of the same specimen three holes which had been perforated in it.

_Agriculture._--We have certain evidence that man, during the polished-stone epoch, was acquainted with husbandry, or, in other words, that he cultivated cereals. MM. Garrigou and Filhol found in the caves of Ariege more than twenty mill-stones, which could only have been used in grinding corn. These stones are from 8 to 24 inches in diameter.

The tribes, therefore, which, during the polished-stone epoch, inhabited the district now called Ariege, were acquainted with the cultivation of corn.

In 1869, Dr. Foulon-Menard published an article intended to describe a stone found at Penchasteau, near Nantes, in a tomb belonging to the Stone Age.[20] This stone is 24 inches wide, and hollowed out on its upper face. It was evidently used for crus.h.i.+ng grain with the help of a stone roller, or merely a round pebble, which was rolled up and down in the cavity. The meal obtained by this pressure and friction made its way down the slope in the hollowing out of the stone, and was caught in a piece of matting, or something of the kind.

To enable our readers to understand the fact that an excavation made in a circular stone formed the earliest corn-mill in these primitive ages, we may mention that, even in our own time, this is the mode of procedure practised among certain savage tribes in order to crush various seeds and corn.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 124.--Primitive Corn-mill.]

In the 'Voyage du Mississippi a l'Ocean,' by M. Molhausen, we read:--

"The princ.i.p.al food of the Indians consisted of roasted cakes of maize and wheat, the grains of which had been pulverised _between two stones_."[21]

In Livingstone's Expedition to the Zambesi (Central Africa), it is stated that "the corn-mills of the Mangajas, Makalolos, Landines and other tribes are composed of a block of granite or syenite, sometimes even of mica-schist, 15 to 18 inches square by 5 or 6 inches thick, and a piece of quartz, or some other rock of equal hardness about the size of a half-brick; one of the sides of this subst.i.tute for a millstone is convex, so as to fit into a hollow of a trough-like shape made in the large block, which remains motionless. When the woman wants to grind any corn, she kneels down, and, taking in both hands the convex stone, she rubs it up and down in the hollow of the lower stone with a motion similar to that of a baker pressing down his dough and rolling it in front of him. Whilst rubbing it to and fro, the housewife leans all her weight on the smaller stone, and every now and then places a little more corn in the trough. The latter is made sloping, so that the meal as soon as it is made falls down into a cloth fixed to catch it."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 125.--The Art of Bread-making in the Stone Age.]

Such, therefore, was the earliest corn-mill. We shall soon see it reappear in another form; two mill-stones placed one over the other, one being set in motion above the other by means of a wooden handle. This is the corn-mill of the bronze epoch. This type maintained its place down to historic times, as it const.i.tuted the earliest kind of mill employed by the Roman agriculturist.

In order to represent the existence of agriculture during the polished-stone epoch, we have annexed a delineation of a woman grinding corn into meal in the primitive mill (fig. 125).

In the same figure may be noticed the way of preparing the meal coming from the mill for making a rough kind of cake. The children are heating in the fire some flat circular stones. When these stones are sufficiently heated, they rapidly withdraw them from the fire, using for the purpose two damp sticks; they then place on the stones a little of the meal mixed with water. The heat of the stones sufficed to bake the meal and form a sort of cake or biscuit.

We may here state, in order to show that we are not dealing with a mere hypothesis, that it is just in this way that, in the poor districts of Tuscany, the _polenta_ is prepared even in the present day. The dough made of chestnut-meal, moistened with water, is cooked between flat stones that are placed one over the other in small piles as portrayed in the annexed plate.

In the background of the same sketch we see animals, reduced to the state of domestic cattle, being driven towards the group at work. By this particular feature we have wished to point out that the polished-stone epoch was also that of the domestication of animals, and that even at this early period the sheep, the dog and the horse had been tamed by man, and served him either as auxiliaries or companions.

The traces of agriculture which we have remarked on as existing in the caves of Ariege, are also found in other parts of France. Round the hearths in the department of Puy-de-Dome, M. Pommerol discovered carbonised wheat intermingled with pottery and flint instruments. The men of the period we are now considering no longer devoted themselves exclusively to the pursuits of hunting and fis.h.i.+ng. They now began to exercise the n.o.ble profession of agriculture, which was destined to be subsequently the chief source of national wealth.

_Navigation._--The first origin of the art of navigation must be ascribed to the polished-stone epoch. With regard to this subject, let us pay attention to what is said on the point by M. G. de Mortillet, curator at the Archaeological and Pre-historic Museum of Saint-Germain--one of the best-informed men we have in all questions relating to the antiquity of man.

In M. de Mortillet's opinion, navigation, both marine and inland, was in actual existence during the polished-stone epoch.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 126.--The earliest Navigators.]

The earliest boats that were made by man consisted simply of great trunks of trees, shaped on the outside, and hollowed out in the interior. They were not provided with any rests or rowlocks for the oars or paddles, which were wielded by both hands. In hollowing out the tree they used both their stone implements and also the action of fire.

In the earliest boats, the trunk of the tree, cut through at the two ends as well as their imperfect tools allowed, preserved its original outward form. The boat, in fact, was nothing but the trunk of a tree first burnt out and then chipped on the inside by some cutting instrument, that is, by the stone-hatchet.

Some improvement subsequently took place in making them. The outside of the tree was also chipped, and its two ends, instead of being cut straight through, were made to terminate in a point. In order to give it more stability in the water and to prevent it from capsizing, it was dressed equally all over, and the bottom of the canoe was scooped out.

Cross-stays were left in the interior to give the boat more solidity, and perhaps, also, to serve as a support to the back, or, more probably, to the feet of the rowers, who sat in the bottom of the canoe.

Sails must soon have been added to these means of nautical progression.

But it would be a difficult matter to fix any precise date for this important discovery, which was the point of transition between elementary and primitive navigation, and more important voyages. This progress could not have been made without the help of metals.

In an article ent.i.tled 'Origine de la Navigation et de la Peche,' M. de Mortillet pa.s.ses in review all the discoveries, which have been made in different countries, of the earliest boats belonging to pre-historic man.

After stating that the Museum of Copenhagen contains drawings of three ancient canoes, he goes on to say:--

"The first canoe is the half-trunk of a tree 17 inches wide, cut straight at the two ends, about 7 feet in length, and hollowed out in a trough-like shape. This canoe much resembles that of Switzerland.

"The second was about 10 feet in length, one end terminating in a point, the other more rounded. It was formed of the trunk of a tree hollowed out into two compartments, a kind of cross-stay or seat being left at a point about one-third of the length from the widest end.

"The third canoe, No. 295, likewise made of the trunk of a tree, was much longer, having a length of at least 13 feet, and was terminated by a point at both ends. At the sharpest end, the hollow is finished off squarely, and there is also a small triangular seat at the extremity.

Two cross-stays were left in the interior.

"These three canoes are cla.s.sed in the bronze series; a note of interrogation or doubt is, however, affixed to the two latter.

"Ireland, like Scandinavia, has a history which does not go back very far into the remote past; like Scandinavia, too, Ireland has been one of the first to collect with care not only the monuments, but even the slightest relics of remote antiquity and of pre-historic times. The Royal Irish Academy has collected at Dublin a magnificent Museum, and the praiseworthy idea has also been put in practice of publis.h.i.+ng a catalogue ill.u.s.trated with 626 plates.

"In these collections there are three ancient canoes. The first is about 23 feet long, 31 inches wide, and 12 inches deep, and is hollowed out of the trunk of an oak, which must have been at least 4-1/2 feet in diameter. This boat, which came from the bogs of Cah.o.r.e on the coast of Wexford, is roughly squared underneath. One of the ends is rounded and is slightly raised; the other is cut across at right angles, and closed with a piece let in and fitted into grooves which were caulked with bark. In the interior there are three cross-stays cut out of the solid oak.