Primitive Man Part 7

In order to explain the presence of so many foreign objects by the side of the human skeletons--such as animals' bones--implements of flint and reindeers' horn--necklaces or bracelets--we must admit as probable that a funeral custom existed among the men of the great bear and mammoth epoch, which has been preserved in subsequent ages. They used to place in the tomb, close to the body, the weapons, hunting trophies, and ornaments of all sorts, belonging to the defunct. This custom still exists among many tribes in a more or less savage state.

In front of the cave, there was, as we have already said, a kind of flat spot which had afterwards become covered with earth which had fallen down from the top of the hill. When the earth which covered this flat spot was cleared away, they met with another deposit containing bones.

This deposit was situated on a prolongation of the ground on which the skeletons were placed in the interior of the cavern. Under this deposit, was a bed of ashes and charcoal, 5 to 7 inches thick. This was, therefore, the site of an ancient fire-hearth.

In other words, in front of the sepulchral cave there was a kind of terrace upon which, after the interment of the body in the cavern, a feast called the _funeral banquet_ was held.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 27.--Upper Molar of a Bison, found in the Ashes of the Fire-hearth of the Sepulchral Cave at Aurignac.]

In this bed, situated in front of the cavern an immense number of the most interesting relics were discovered--a large number of the teeth and broken bones of herbivorous animals (fig. 27); a hundred flint knives; two chipped flints, which archaeologists believe to be sling projectiles; a rounded pebble with a depression in the middle, which, according to Mr. Steinhauer, keeper of the Ethnographical Museum at Copenhagen, was used to flake off flint-knives; lastly, a large quant.i.ty of implements made of reindeers' horn, which exhibit the most varied shapes. We may mention, for instance, the arrow-heads fashioned very simply, without wings or barbs (fig. 28); some of these heads appear to have been subjected to the action of fire, as if they had been left in the body of the animal during the process of cooking; a bodkin made of roebuck's horn (fig. 29) very carefully pointed, and in such a good state of preservation that it might still be used, says M. Lartet, to perforate the skins of animals before sewing them; and this must, in fact, have been its use; a second instrument, similar to the preceding, but less finely pointed, which M. Lartet is inclined to consider as an instrument for tatooing; some thin blades of various sizes, which, according to Steinhauer, much resemble the reindeer-horn polishers still used by the Laplanders to flatten down the seams of their coa.r.s.e skin-garments; another blade, accidentally broken at both ends, one of the sides of which is perfectly polished and shows two series of transversal lines at equal distances apart; the lateral edges of this blade are marked with deeper notches at almost regular intervals (fig. 30). M. Lartet considers that these lines and notches are signs of numeration, and Mr.

Steinhauer has propounded the idea that they are hunting-marks. Both hypotheses are possible, and the more so as they do not contradict each other.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 28.--Arrow-head made of Reindeer's Horn, found in the Sepulchral Cave of Aurignac.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 29.--Bodkin made of Roebuck's Horn, found in the Sepulchral Cave of Aurignac].

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 30.--Truncated Blade in Reindeer's Horn, bearing two Series of transversal Lines and Notches, probably used for numeration.]

Among the bones, some were partly carbonised, others, only scorched, but the greater number had not been subjected at all to the action of fire.

All the bones having medullary hollows, and commonly called marrow-bones, were broken lengthwise, a certain indication that this operation had been effected to extract the marrow, and that these bones had been used at a feast carried on according to the manners and customs of that epoch, when the marrow out of animal bones was regarded as the most delicious viand--many men of our own days being also of this opinion.

A certain number of these bones exhibited shallow cuts, showing that a sharp instrument had been used to detach the flesh from them. Nearly all those which had not been subjected to the action of fire bore the mark of the teeth of some carnivorous animal. This animal, doubtless, came to gnaw them after man had taken his departure from the spot. This carnivorous animal could have been none other than the hyaena, as is shown by the excrements left in the place.

The ossiferous mound situated immediately above the fire-hearth contained, like the subjacent ashes, a large number of the bones of certain herbivorous animals.

The discovery of the fire-hearth situated in front of the cave of Aurignac, and the various remains which were found intermingled underneath it, enable us to form some idea of the way in which funeral ceremonies took place among the men of the great bear epoch. The parents and friends of the defunct accompanied him to his last resting-place; after which, they a.s.sembled together to partake of a feast in front of the tomb soon to be closed on his remains. Then everyone took his departure, leaving the scene of their banquet free to the hyaenas, which came to devour the remains of the meal.

This custom of funeral-feasts is, doubtless, very natural, as it has been handed down to our days; though it now chiefly exists among the poorer cla.s.ses.

In accordance with the preceding data we here represent (fig. 31) a _funeral feast during the great bear and mammoth epoch_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 31.--Funeral Feast during the Great Bear and Mammoth Epoch.]

On a flat s.p.a.ce situated in front of the cave destined to receive the body of the defunct, some men covered merely with bears' skins with the hair on them are seated round a fire, taking their part in the funeral-feast. The flesh of the great bear and mammoth forms the _menu_ of these primitive love-feasts. In the distance may be seen the colossal form of the mammoth, which forms the chief dish of the banquet. The manner of eating is that which distinguishes the men of that epoch; they suck the marrow from the long bones which have previously been split lengthwise, and eat the flesh of the animals cooked on the hearth. The dead body is left at the entrance of the cavern; the primitive grave-stone will soon close on it for ever.

The relics found in the interior of the sepulchral cave of Aurignac have led to a very remarkable inference, which shows how interesting and fertile are the studies which have been made by naturalists on the subject of the antiquity of man. The weapons, the trophies, the ornaments, and the joints of meat, placed by the side of the defunct--does not all this seem to establish the fact that a belief in a future life existed at an extraordinarily remote epoch? What could have been the use of these provisions for travelling, and these instruments of war, if the man who had disappeared from this world was not to live again in another? The great and supreme truth--that the whole being of man does not die with his material body is, therefore, innate in the human heart; since it is met with in the most remote ages, and even existed in the mental consciousness of the man of the stone age.

An instinct of art also appears to have manifested itself in the human race at this extremely ancient date. Thus, one of the articles picked up in the sepulchral cave of Aurignac consisted of a canine tooth of a young cave-bear, perforated so as to allow of its being suspended in some way or other. Now this tooth is so carved that no one can help recognising in it a rough outline of some animal shape, the precise nature of which is difficult to determine, although it may, perhaps, be the head of a bird. It was, doubtless, an amulet or jewel belonging to one of the men interred in the cave, and was buried with him because he probably attached a great value to it. This object, therefore, shows us that some instincts of art existed in the men who hunted the great bear and mammoth.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 32.--Carved and perforated Canine Tooth of a young Cave-Bear.]

We shall close this account of the valuable discoveries which were made in the sepulchral cave of Aurignac, by giving a list of the species of mammals the bones of which were found either in the interior or at the exterior of this cavern. The first six species are extinct; the others are still living:--

The great cave-bear (_Ursus spelaeus_); the mammoth (_Elephas primigenius_); the rhinoceros (_Rhinoceros tichorhinus_); the great cave-lion (_Felis spelaea_); the cave-hyaena (_Hyaena spelaea_); the gigantic stag (_Megaceros hibernicus_); the bison, the reindeer, the stag, the horse, the a.s.s, the roe, the wild boar, the fox, the wolf, the wild-cat, the badger, and the polecat.

We think it as well to place before the eyes of our readers the exact forms of the heads of the three great fossil animals found in the cave of Aurignac, which geologically characterise the great bear and mammoth epoch, and evidently prove that man was contemporary with these extinct species. Figs. 33, 34, and 35 represent the heads of the cave-bear, the _Rhinoceros tichorhinus_, and the _megaceros_ or gigantic stag; they are taken from the casts which adorn the great hall of the Archaeological and Pre-historic Museum at Saint-Germain, and are among the most curious ornaments of this remarkable museum.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 33.--Head of a Cave-Bear found in the Cave of Aurignac.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 34.--Head of the _Rhinoceros Tichorhinus_ found in the Cave of Aurignac.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 35.--Head of a great Stag (_Megaceros hibernicus_) found in the Cave of Aurignac.]

Of all these species, the fox has left behind him the largest number of remains. This carnivorous animal was represented by about eighteen to twenty individual specimens. Neither the mammoth, great cave-lion, nor wild boar appear to have been conveyed into the cave in an entire state; for two or three molar or incisive teeth are the only remains of their carcases which have been found.

But still it is a certain fact that the men who fed on the _Rhinoceros tichorinus_ buried their dead in this cavern. In fact, M. Lartet a.s.serts that the bones of the rhinoceros had been split by man in order to extract the marrow. They had also been gnawed by hyaenas, which would not have been the case if these bones had not been thrown away, and left on the ground in a fresh state.

The burial-place of Aurignac dates back to the earliest antiquity, that is to say, it was anterior to the European diluvial period. Thus, according to M. Lartet, the great cave-bear was the first of the extinct species to disappear; then the mammoth and _Rhinoceros tichorhinus_ were lost sight of; still later, the reindeer first, and then the bison, migrated to the northern and eastern regions of Europe. Now, the _diluvium_, that is to say, the beds formed by drifted pebbles and originating in the great derangement caused by the inundation of the quaternary epoch, does not contain any traces of the bones of the cave-bear. It, therefore, belongs to an epoch of the stone age more recent than the cave of Aurignac.[6] All this goes to prove that this sepulchral cave, which has furnished the science of the antiquity of man with so much valuable information, belonged to the great bear and mammoth epoch, which preceded the diluvial cataclysm.

FOOTNOTE:

[6] 'Nouvelles Recherches sur la Coexistence de l'Homme et des grands Mammiferes fossiles.' ('Annales de Sciences naturelles, Zoologie,' vol.

xv.)

CHAPTER IV.

Other Caves of the Epoch of the Great Bear and Mammoth--Type of the Human Race during the Epochs of the Great Bear and the Reindeer--The Skulls from the Caves of Engis and Neanderthal.

With regard to the bone-caves, which have furnished us with such valuable information as to the men who lived in the epoch of the great bear and the mammoth, we have laid down a necessary distinction, dividing them into caves which served as dens for wild beasts, those which have afforded a refuge for man, and those which were used as his burial-places. In order to complete this subject and set forth the whole of the discoveries which have been made by science on this interesting point, we will say a few words as to the princ.i.p.al bone-caves belonging to the same epoch which have been studied in France, England and Belgium.

We will, in the first place, call attention to the fact that these caverns, taken together, embrace a very long period of time, perhaps an enormous number of centuries, and that hence a considerable difference must result in the nature of the remains of human industry which they contain. Some certainly manifest a perceptible superiority over others in an industrial point of view; but the reason is that they belong to a period somewhat nearer our own, although still forming a part of the epoch of the great bear and mammoth.

We shall divide the caves in France into three groups--those of the east, those of the west and centre, and those of the south.

In the first group, we shall mention the _Trou de la Fontaine_ and the _Cave of Sainte-Reine_, both situated in the environs of Toul (Meurthe).

These two caves have furnished bones of bears, hyaenas, and the rhinoceros, along with the products of human industry. That of Sainte-Reine has been explored by M. Guerin, and especially by M.

Husson, who has searched it with much care.

The second group includes the grottos _des Fees_, of Vergisson, Vallieres, and La Chaise.

The Grotte des Fees, at Arcy (Yonne), has been searched and described by M. de Vibraye, who ascertained the existence of two distinct beds, the upper one belonging to the reindeer epoch, the lower one to the great bear epoch. These two beds were divided from each other by matter which had formed a part of the roof of the cave, and had fallen down on the earlier deposit. In the more ancient bed of the two, M. de Vibraye collected fractured bones of the bear and cave-hyaena, the mammoth, and the _Rhinoceros tichorhinus_, all intermingled with flints wrought by the hand of man, amongst which were chips of hyaline quartz (rock-crystal.) His fellow-labourer, M. Franchet, extracted from it a human _atlas_ (the upper part of the vertebral column).

The cave of Vergisson (Saone-et-Loire), explored by M. de Ferry, furnished the same kind of bones as the preceding cave, and also bones of the bison, the reindeer, the horse, the wolf, and the fox, all intermixed with wrought flints and fragments of rough pottery. The presence of this pottery indicated that the cave of Vergisson belonged to the latter period of the great bear epoch.

The cave of Vallieres (Loir-et-Cher), was worked, first by M. de Vibraye, and subsequently by the Abbe Bourgeois. There was nothing particular to be remarked.

The cave of La Chaise, near Vouthon (Charente), explored by MM.

Bourgeois and Delaunay, furnished bones of the cave-bear, the rhinoceros, and the reindeer, flint blades and sc.r.a.pers, a bodkin and a kind of hook made of bone, an arrow-head in the shape of a willow-leaf likewise of bone, a bone perforated so as to hang on a string, and, what is more remarkable, two long rods of reindeer's horn, tapering at one end and bevelled off at the other, on which figures of animals were graven. These relics betray an artistic feeling of a decided character as existing in the men, the traces of whom are found in this cave.

Among the caves in the south of France, we must specify those of Perigord, those of Bas-Languedoc, and of the district of Foix (department of Ariege).

The caves of Perigord have all been explored by MM. Lartet and Christy, who have also given learned descriptions of them. We will mention the caves of the _Gorge d'Enfer_ and _Moustier_, in the valley of the Vezere, and that of _Pey de l'Aze_, all three situate in the department of Dordogne (arrondiss.e.m.e.nt of Sarlat).

The two caves of the _Gorge d'Enfer_ were, unfortunately, cleared out in 1793, in order to utilise the deposits of saltpetre which they contained in the manufacture of gunpowder. They have, however, furnished flints chipped into the shapes of sc.r.a.pers, daggers, &c., a small pebble of white quartz, hollowed out on one side, which had probably been used as a mortar, and instruments of bone or reindeer's horn, three of which showed numerous notches. Bones of the great bear clearly indicated the age of these settlements.