A Manual of the Antiquity of Man Part 8

_Danish Peat Bogs._--The peat bogs of Denmark, so faithfully investigated by Professor Steenstrup, mark three periods of deposition.

The most ancient is called the _Scotch-Fir_; the second, immediately above, the _Oak_, and the uppermost, the _Beech_. The peat is from ten to forty feet in thickness, and to form a layer from ten to twenty feet thick would require, according to Steenstrup, _at least_ four thousand years, and perhaps even from three to four times that period.[68] These three epochs denote three periods of time. The lowest belongs to the neolithic, the middle to the bronze, and the last to the iron epoch. In the lowest, or _Fir_ period, have been found worked flints and bones.

Human bones have been found, which correspond with the bones taken from the tumuli of this epoch.

_The Lake-Dwellings of Switzerland._--Dr. Ferdinand Keller and his a.s.sociates have made known to the world the wonderful remains of villages situated in the lakes of Switzerland and other countries. The villages of Switzerland do not all belong to the same period, and they represent the neolithic, bronze, and iron epochs; but there was no hard line of demarcation between these three periods. These habitations are so numerous that more than two hundred settlements hare been discovered in Switzerland alone. Among the lakes furnis.h.i.+ng these remains may be counted the Lake of Neuchatel (forty-six settlements); Lake Constance (thirty-two settlements); Lake of Geneva (twenty-four settlements); Lake of Bienne (twenty-one settlements); Lake of Morat (sixteen settlements); Lake of Zurich (three settlements); Lake of Pfaeffikon (six settlements); Lake of Sempach (six settlements); Lake of Moosseedorf (two settlements); Lake of Inkwyl (one settlement); Lake of Nussbaumen (one settlement); Lake Greiffensee (one settlement); Lake of Zug (six settlements); Lake of Baldegg (five settlements), and others.

The habitations belonging to the neolithic are Lake Constance thirty, Neuchatel twelve, Geneva two settlements; one each at Morat, Bienne, Zurick, Pfaeffikon, Inkwyl, Moosseedorf, Nussbaumen, the settlement of Concise, the bridge Thiele, the peat-bog of Wauwyl, and others.

These dwellings were built near the sh.o.r.e, on piles of various kinds of wood, sharpened by tools and fire, and driven into the mud at the shallow bottom of the lake. In some of the settlements the piles were fastened by heaping stones around them. The piles were sometimes placed together, at others apart. The heads were brought to a level and then the platform beams were fastened upon them. This basis served for the foundation of the rude rectangular huts they erected. These piles are not now seen above the water, yet they are visible above the bottom of the lake. The number of piles in some of these settlements is as high as one hundred thousand, and the area occupied, not less than seventy thousand square yards. It has been estimated that the population of the Lake-villages during the neolithic was over thirty thousand.

The object of these dwellings was to protect the inhabitants from wild animals, the attacks of enemies, and for the ready obtaining of food by fis.h.i.+ng. They were not only occupied by the inhabitants, but also by their herds and the stores of fodder.[69]

_Robenhausen._--It is not necessary to go into an account of a number of these settlements to represent the neolithic epoch, for the settlement at Robenhausen (Lake Pfaeffikon) takes the first rank in giving the domestic arrangements of the ancient inhabitants. This settlement covered a s.p.a.ce of nearly three acres, and one hundred thousand piles were used in the whole structure. Its form was an irregular quadrangle.

It was about two thousand paces from the ancient western sh.o.r.e of the lake, and about three thousand from the sh.o.r.e in the opposite direction.

With the last-named side there was a communication by means of a bridge, the piles of which are still visible. On this side were the gardens and pastures. The dwellers of this settlement were unfortunate, as their habitation was twice burned up, and each time, they rallied and rebuilt their huts. They remained a long time as would seem from the depth of the peat and the vast amount of relics found.

At a depth of eleven feet were found the earliest or most ancient relics; at ten and one-half feet, the remains of the first conflagration--charcoal, stone and bone implements, pottery, woven cloth, corn, apples, etc.; at seven and one-half feet, flooring, relics of the second settlement, and excrement of cows, sheep, and goats; at six and one half feet, remains of second conflagration--charcoal, stone and bone implements, pottery, woven cloth, corn, apples, etc.; at three and one-half feet, broken stones, flooring, and relics of the third settlement; at two and one half feet, stone celts, pottery, but no traces of fire. Above this was two feet of peat and one-half foot of mould.

Without going into detail, the objects found in these various beds are as follows: Made out of wood, are knives, ladles, plates, clubs of ash, in which is fixed a socket of stag's horn containing a stone celt, a boat made of a single trunk, twelve feet long, two and one-half feet wide, and five inches deep, flails for thres.h.i.+ng out grain, bows notched at both ends, fis.h.i.+ng implements, floats for the support of nets, suspension hooks, tubs, chisels, sandals, yokes made for carrying vessels, and a peculiar ornament. These implements were all made out of yew, maple, ash, fir, and the root of the hazel bush. Out of stag's horn--arrow-heads, daggers, piercing and sc.r.a.ping tools, implements for knitting and for agriculture. The implements of stone were polished, and of the usual form. The objects of clay were fragments of pottery, in the shape of urns, plates, and cups, in great abundance. There were also found spoons, and a perforated cone, supposed to have been used as a weight for the loom. Several crucibles or melting pots have been found, which were used for melting copper. The third building of this village was on the borderland between the stone and bronze ages.

The remains of animals found here and at Moosseedorf and Wauwyl, all of the neolithic, belong to the brown bear, badger, marten, pine-marten, polecat, wolf, fox, wild-cat, beaver, elk, urus, bison, stag, roe-deer, wild-boar, marsh-boar; the domestic animals were the boar, horse, ox, goat, sheep, and dog. The remains of the domestic hog are absent from all the pile works of this period, save the one at Wauwyl.

Among cereals (Robenhausen) were found several varieties of wheat and barley; fruits and berries--service-tree, dog-rose, elder, bilberry, and wayfaring tree; the nuts--hazel, beech, and water-chestnut; the oil-producing plants--opium, or garden poppy, and dogwood; the fibrous plants--flax; plants used for dying--weld; forest trees and shrubs--silver fir, juniper, yew, ash, and oak; water and marsh plants--lake scirpus, pondweeds, common hornwort, marsh bedstraw, buckbean, yellow waterlily, ivy-leaved crowfoot, and marsh pennywort.

Besides these there have been found many specimens of plaited and woven cloth; also ropes, cords, and a portion of a linseed cake.[70]

In the different settlements the same axes and knives abound, and are of small size. The arrow-heads and saws are an improvement on those of the preceding epoch. Among domestic implements, spindle-whorls of rude earthenware were abundant in some of the villages, and corn-crushers are occasionally met with from two to three inches in diameter. About five hundred implements of stone have been found at Wauwyl, consisting of axes, small flint arrow-heads, flint-flakes, corn-crushers, rude stones used as hammers, whetstones, and sling-stones.

As these Lake-Dwellings not only belong to the last of the neolithic, but extend beyond, they naturally have a place in the close of this period. M. Troyon says the dwellings of this period came suddenly to an "end by the irruption of a people provided with bronze implements. The lake-dwellings were burned by these new-comers, and the primitive inhabitants were slaughtered or driven back into remote places. This catastrophe affects chiefly the settlements of East Switzerland, which entirely disappeared, and also a number of those on the sh.o.r.e of the western lakes. Some few settlements, however--namely, those of the so-called transition period--are said not to have been destroyed by the new people till after the inhabitants had begun to make use of bronze implements."[71]

Dr. Keller takes exception to these views. He says there is no sudden leap from one cla.s.s of civilization to another, and that the metals came gradually into use. The lake-dwellings were not burned down by the irruption of a foreign people; for at Niederwyl, and several settlements of the Unter-See, no traces of fire have been observed. The fact that but a very few human skeletons have been found in the whole settlements, contradicts the supposition of a battle having taken place between the aborigines and the supposed conquerors, and of the destruction of the former by the latter.[72]

Lake-dwellings belonging to this age and the bronze, have been found in Bavaria, Northern Italy, Mecklenburg, Pomerania, France, England, Scotland, and Ireland. Herodotus says that the Paeonians lived this way in Lake Prasias (Thrace), and Lubbock says that the fishermen of Lake Prasias still inhabit wooden huts built over the water. The town of Tcherkask in Russia, is constructed over the river Don, and Venice itself is but a lacustrine city.[73]

Several attempts have been made to estimate the time which has elapsed since the neolithic period. The estimates of M. Morlot are based on the discoveries made in a hillock formed by the river Tiniere at its entrance into the lake of Geneva. This cone contained three distinct layers of vegetable earth placed at different depths between the deposits of alluvium. The first was at a depth of three and one-half feet from the top, and was from four to six inches thick, and in it were found relics of the Roman period; the second was five and one-fourth feet lower, and six inches thick, in which were fragments of bronze; the third was at a depth of eighteen feet from the top, and varied in thickness from six to seven inches, and contained fragments of the stone age. History proves that the layer containing the Roman relics is from thirteen to eighteen centuries old. Since that epoch the cone has increased three and one-half feet, and if the increase was the same in previous ages, then the bed containing the bronze is from twenty-nine hundred to forty-two hundred years old, and the lowest layer, belonging to the stone age, is from four thousand seven hundred to ten thousand years old.

The calculation by M. Gillieron was made from the discoveries near the bridge of Thiele. About one thousand two hundred and thirty feet from the present sh.o.r.e is the old abbey of Saint Jean, built in the year 1100. There is a doc.u.ment which seems to show that the abbey was built on the edge of the lake. Then, in seven hundred and fifty years the lake retired one thousand two hundred and thirty feet. The distance of the present sh.o.r.e from the settlement of the bridge of Thiele is eleven thousand and seventy-two feet, and consequently the settlement is not less than six thousand seven hundred and fifty years old.

M. Figuier a.s.signs to the lake-dwellings an antiquity of from six to seven thousand years before the Christian era.[74]

CHAPTER XI.

MAN OF THE NEOLITHIC.

From the human bones found in peat-bogs and tumuli, man is represented as having a narrow but round skull, with a projecting ridge above the eyebrows, showing he was round-headed, his eyebrows overhanging, small of stature though stout, and having a great resemblance to the Laplanders. In many respects the race was much superior to that of the preceding epoch. Man advanced rapidly in the arts, and made great progress in civilization. He had pa.s.sed out of the barbarous, and might be called a semi-barbarian.

_Habitations._--Man's habitation varied according to the locality. In the extreme south of France he continued for a considerable length of time to occupy the caves and rock-shelters; in Switzerland, the pile-buildings, and in Denmark he undoubtedly had rude huts placed close together and in proximity to the sh.e.l.l-heaps.

_Clothing._--Clothing also varied according to locality. Where the wild animals were numerous their skins were used--there being no incentive to subst.i.tute other material. Coa.r.s.e material made of fibrous plants had come into use. The lake-dwellers clothed themselves with this material, and completely protected their bodies. They also used sandals for their feet, as these have been found with the usual indications of usage.

_Food._--Where wild animals could be obtained they were used, and the marrow of the long bones extracted. To this, fish and birds were added.

In Denmark the princ.i.p.al food was the different species of the edible mollusk. In Switzerland a higher order and greater variety of food was used. The meat of the wild animals, birds, and fish was varied with bread made of barley and wheat, and fruit and berries. The meat was not only obtained from the wild animal, but they provided against the uncertainty of the chase by domesticating the boar, ox, sheep, and goat.

The horse and dog were domesticated to a.s.sist in the chase, but sometimes served for food, probably during a famine.

If these people were cannibals, the evidence must rest solely on the human bones discovered at a dolmen near the village of Hammer, Denmark, which had been subjected to the action of fire. They were found together with some flint implements. But this evidence is not sufficient to lead to the conclusion that at the funeral banquets human flesh was used along with the roasted stag.

_Arts and Manufactures._--The flint hatchets of the refuse-heaps are generally of an imperfect type; the long knives indicate a considerable amount of skill; the bodkins, spear-heads, and sc.r.a.pers are but little improved. In the latter part of this epoch, the various kinds of implements, especially in Switzerland, attained to a surprising degree of perfection, in so much so, it is difficult to understand how this was achieved without the use of metal. They were made into various shapes, and with the design of pleasing the eye.

Besides the various types of implements common to the different countries, the tribes of Denmark manufactured a drilled hatchet, which is combined in various ways with the hammer. A specimen of this type is represented in Fig. 16, now in the Museum of Copenhagen. It is pierced with a round hole, in which the handle was fixed. The cutting edge describes an arc of a circle, and the other end is wrought into sharp angular edges.

New inventions were brought into use. Among them was a comb which, according to shape, might be compared to the dung-fork of the American stables. Ornaments for the body, made of various materials were fas.h.i.+oned. Pottery was still in a rough state, though gradually improving. The loom was invented, and various kinds of cloth were manufactured. Also out of the fibrous plants cordage was made, which again was fas.h.i.+oned into nets for fis.h.i.+ng. Many canoes at various places have been found, showing that they were not only used for fis.h.i.+ng but also for carrying cargoes. Workshops were established, and there the stone implements were made and polished; one of these shops was at Pressigny.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 16. DANISH AXE-HAMMER, DRILLED FOR HANDLE.]

Some idea may be had of the vast number of stone implements which occur, when it is considered that in the Museum of Copenhagen there are about twelve thousand, consisting of flint axes, wedges, broad, narrow, and hollow chisels; poniards, lance-heads, arrow-heads, flint flakes, and half-moon-shaped implements. In other collections in Denmark there are twenty thousand implements. The museum at Stockholm contains about sixteen thousand, and the Royal Irish Academy owns seven hundred flint-flakes, five hundred and twelve celts, more than four hundred arrow-heads, fifty spear-heads, seventy-five sc.r.a.pers, and numerous other objects of stone, such as sling-stones, hammers, whetstones, grain-crushers, etc.[75] Some of these implements, however, may belong to other epochs.

War must have been carried on to a considerable extent, as fortified camps have been discovered in Belgium, at Furfooz, and other places.

Their weapons were the axe, the arrow, the spear, and possibly the knife. These were wrought with great care.

_Agriculture._--Man commenced to till the ground in this age, and thus laid the true foundation of civilization. He probably was forced to do it. The beasts of the forest were gradually decreasing. They had nourished him in the infancy of his mind, and now he should begin to look to the soil, and by the cultivation of its products he must sustain his life. His princ.i.p.al implement of agriculture must have been the sharpened stick, pointed with deer-horn. He cultivated the cereals, made his corn-mill, and stored the grain for winter use.

_Burial._--How the colonists of the lake-dwellings disposed of their dead is unknown. In Denmark, and many other places, the dead were buried in dolmens or tumuli. A dolmen is a monument consisting of several perpendicular stones covered with a great block or slab. When it is surrounded by circles of stone it takes the name _cromlech_. The dolmens occur also in Scandinavia, France, and Brittany. They were formerly considered to have been Druidical sacrificial altars. They were usually covered over with earth, and in them were buried from one to twenty persons, accompanied with their implements. When a person died, the tomb was reopened to receive the new occupant. At such a time fire was used for the purpose of purifying the atmosphere of the tomb. In Brittany, in the vicinity of the tombs, there were set up in the ground enormous blocks of stone, that have received the name of _menhirs_, the most noted of which is that at Carnac. When these dolmens remain in the state in which they were left, still covered with earth, they take the name of _tumuli_. Comparatively few of the tumuli belong to the neolithic. In these, large numbers of bodies have been found, and none of them in a natural position, but cramped up and their heads resting between the knees.

Judging from the calcined bones, which are frequently met with at the tomb, it may be inferred that victims were offered during the funeral ceremonies, perchance a slave, or the widow. Lubbock is of opinion that when a woman died in giving birth to a child, or even while still suckling it, the child was interred alive with her.[76]

This hypothesis is substantiated by the great number of cases in which the skeleton of a woman and child have been found together. In the ceremonies at the tomb, some read the belief in a future state of existence. The evidence, however, is no clearer than that in the previous epochs. Man undoubtedly had such a belief, but science does not reveal it.

CHAPTER XII.

BRONZE EPOCH.

The Age of Bronze bears no direct relation to the antiquity of man, for it is largely embraced in written history. Although history does not record the events of the age of bronze in Western Europe, yet history covers the time which embraces the use of bronze. This epoch has more to do with the archaeologist than the geologist. It is marked by the abundance of swords, spears, fish-hooks, sickles, knives, ornaments, and other articles made of bronze. The bronze implements are princ.i.p.ally found in England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Denmark, Norway, Italy, and Switzerland. The lake-settlements of Switzerland known to belong to this epoch are: Geneva, ten settlements; Neuchatel, twenty-five settlements; Bienne, ten settlements; Morat, three settlements; and Sempach, two settlements. To these may be added some of the crannoges of Ireland; also many tumuli and mounds.

_Type._--The man of this epoch was not unlike that of the preceding. His head was rather broad than long, he was small, energetic, and muscular; his hands were small, as is proven by the remarkably small handles of their swords, which are too small for a hand of the present day. This type of man has maintained itself in the north of Switzerland to the present time.

_Habitations and Food._--The caves and rock-shelters gave way entirely to the rude huts which now protected man. If they were resorted to, it was only from some peculiar cause or danger. The food was the same as in the neolithic, with additions to the cereals.

_Clothing._--The skins of animals were used less than formerly for clothing. Garments made of other material have been found, and even the whole dress of a chief. In a tumulus of Jutland there were found a thick woollen cap, a coa.r.s.e woollen cloak (Fig. 17), semicircular in form, scalloped out round the neck, s.h.a.ggy in the inside, three feet four inches long, and wide in proportion; two woollen shawls, a woollen s.h.i.+rt, woollen leggings, and the remains of a pair of leather boots.

Fibrous plants also contributed to the comfort of man, and were possibly used for summer wear, and under garments in winter.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 17. WOOLLEN CLOAK OF THE BRONZE EPOCH, FOUND IN 1861, IN A TUMULUS IN JUTLAND.]