How to Observe in Archaeology Part 5

As the development of Flint Implements follows more or less the same course in all the districts with which this volume deals, a general description is given here, to avoid repet.i.tion in the special sections.

The earlier periods of man are so remote that geological changes, wet, and decay, have removed nearly all his works except the flint tools. It is to these chiefly that we must look for our knowledge of his abilities. Flints are nearly all that we have for the early stages, to supply what arts, history, and literature give in later stages. To preserve and educe all we possibly can obtain from their situation, and purpose, is a main duty to history. To destroy or confuse the evidence, by removing specimens without a record, or by shifting them to a different place, is a crime in science. As there is no temptation to ignorant peasants to move flints until they are induced by collectors, so the whole fault of the wreckage that has taken place in many sites lies on the plundering collector. No money or reward should be given for any flints; a few fine specimens may be lost, but vastly more harm would be done by encouraging mere raiding.

The periods and styles that are now recognized are shown on the diagram--and their conditions were:

Style Climate Sea level

Eolithic (Pliocene) ?

Rostrocarinate (Crag) ?

Strepyan warmer lower Ch.e.l.lean warm low Acheulian cooler rising Mousterian cold high Aurignacian less cold lower Solutrean warmer low Magdalenian colder rising Neolithic as present

Differences of heat may be 20 degrees or 30 degrees + or - Differences of level may be 600-800 ft. + or -

The information required of all observers is the level and conditions of all flint tools that they may see or collect.

Gravels containing tools may be surface gravels on a plateau; note then the level, and the relation of them to any cliffs; do they end abruptly at a cliff edge, showing that the valley was filled up; or do they fade away to the edge, showing that they are older than the valley erosion? Gravels may be the filling up of a valley which was previously eroded; note the highest level at which they can be traced; often little pockets of deposit, or traces of sandy strata, can be found clinging high up on cliffs; also note the depths in the gravel at which any tools are found. Any sh.e.l.ls or bones in the gravels are of the greatest value; the depth at which they are found should be written on them at once, with the locality.

Surface flints should have levels noted on them. If sharp they show that probably submergence has not reached that level since; if worn, then water has been up to a higher level, from which they have been washed down.

Levelling may be read from a contour map, if there is such available. In most countries it must be done by reading feet on an aneroid barometer, set with zero of level scale to 30 ins. or 760 mm. Then visit as soon as possible some point where a level is marked on the map, as a hill top, and read the barometer. This will give the correction to be made to all the previous notes. If there is no level recorded, get down to a stream bed (the larger the better) and read it there, recording the exact place on the map. The level may then be worked out approximately by points above and below on the stream, for accurate reading, hold the aneroid face up, gently tap it, and read; then face down similarly, and take the mean. Guard that the wind does not blow against any keyhole in the case.

Pencil all levels and localities on flints as soon as found. Ink in the notes on the least prominent parts of the flint, in small capital letters, when in camp, with waterproof China ink.

Styles of flint work.

The Eoliths are worn pebbles, chipped as if for sc.r.a.ping. The Rostro- carinate flints found at the base of the Crag are long bars with a beak-end, suited for breaking up earth. The human origin of both of these cla.s.ses is contested. Flints of Strepy type are nodular and partly trimmed into cutting edges, the smooth surface being left as a handle. The Ch.e.l.les types are remarkable for regularity and fine bold flaking; the worn b.u.t.t (though best for handling) was eventually flaked away to obtain an artistic uniform finish. The St. Acheul series has finer flaking, the crust being completely removed: there is a tendency to ovate or almond shapes, and the edges are often curved, the reverse S-curve being preferred, They diminish in size towards the end of the period. The Ch.e.l.les and St. Acheul series are core implements, made by detaching flakes; and the succeeding (Le Moustier) method is to use the flakes, generally for sc.r.a.ping. The LA, EM the diagram is transitional from St. Acheul to Le Moustier.

The form marked M is the predecessor of the Solutrean form next below it. The Aurignacian is a smaller flake industry, with many lumps more or less conical, and often with careful parallel flaking or fluting.

The Solutre culture brought in a new style, particularly thin blades with delicate surface flaking which seems to have reappeared in the late Neolithic. The pointed borers, certain arrow-heads and minutely chipped rods of flint are characteristic of the period, and flints of this age are found on the Egyptian and Syrian deserts. Longer blades, sometimes very coa.r.s.e, with ends worn by sc.r.a.ping, mark the period of La Madeleine. They are found in prehistoric Egyptian graves, along with Neolithic knives and lances. As a technical advance on flaking by blows or pressure, grinding and incidental polishing of flint implements are regarded as characteristic of the Neolithic period; and the practice may have started in areas devoid of flint, where it was necessary to utilize local material that could not be flaked like flint. In Europe generally, polished celts belong to the Megalithic or latest division of the Neolithic, but this implement appeared much earlier, and in a sense succeeded the Palaeolithic hand-axe. The latter is not known to have been hafted, and its working edges were at the pointed end; whereas in Neolithic times the implement had become an axe in the modern sense, with the pointed end inserted in a haft, and the cutting edge removed to the broader end. There are many other Neolithic types, used with or without a haft, and only a small proportion were finished by grinding on sandstone.

CHAPTER II

GREECE

[See the diagrams of flint implements, [Ill.u.s.tration II] of pottery, [Ill.u.s.tration III]; and of alphabets, [Ill.u.s.tration IV]]

The Periods into which the subject must be divided are roughly as follows: I. Prehistoric down to about 1000 B.C.

II. Prehistoric Greek down to about 700 B.C.

III. Archaic Greek 700-500 B.C.

IV. Cla.s.sical Greek 500-300 B.C.

V. h.e.l.lenistic after 300.

VI. Roman.

VII. Byzantine.

I. PREHISTORIC

A. NORTH GREECE.

NEOLITHIC.--Neolithic settlements on low mounds (_maghoules_) rising from the plains.

Stone implements.

Axes, hammers, chisels, querns, &c. Flint chips, bone needles, obsidian.

Pottery.

Hand-made burnished, yellow, brown, black or red. Handles rare. Holes in rim, or lugs pierced for suspension, Earliest remains show painted sherds. Long period of unpainted ware followed. Patterns irregular, rectangular and curved. No naturalism. (Figs. 1 and 2.)

Ware differs slightly with locality. In Thessaly fine red ware undecorated contemporary with red decoration on white. Chocolate paint on deep buff follows. Incised ware, geometric patterns white rubbed in.

Figurines.

Rude clay. Steatopygous.

This civilization extended from northern edge of Thessaly as far south as Chaeronea. Use of bronze before end uncertain. Civilization undisturbed by Aegean culture that spread over southern Greece until just before both were swept away by iron-using people.

B. CRETE, AEGEAN, SOUTH GREECE.

CRETE.

NEOLITHIC.

Black or red burnished pottery.

BRONZE AGE.

Early Minoan.

Painted pottery, dark paint on light ground, geometric designs.

Unpainted, surface mottled red and black.

Middle Minoan.

circa. 3000 B.C.--White designs geometric on dark ground. Orange and crimson added. Pottery very thin and fine (Kamares ware).

Patterns very various but not naturalistic except in rare instances.

(Figs. 3 and 4; hatched lines=red.)

Late Minoan.

circa. 1500 B.C.--Return to use of light ground. Brown l.u.s.trous paint, fine surface to clay. Decoration naturalistic, flowers, cuttle-fish, sh.e.l.ls, spirals, ripple patterns, white and orange dots and bands occasionally super-imposed on dark glaze (Figs. 7, 10, and 12).

White and orange disappear. Decoration stiffer and more conventional.

AEGEAN.

NEOLITHIC. Nothing known.

BRONZE AGE.

Contemporary with Early Minoan.