Chapter VIII.
THE HISTORY OF ARCHÆOLOGICAL DISCOVERY
Prehistoric Man.
Dr. Johnson was not in advance of his time in anthropological matters. While he was gibing at Lord Monboddo for his belief in man’s simian affinities, he was also making a pronouncement on the subject of prehistoric archæology that later discoveries were soon to disprove. Up to his time history was content to start from the earliest written documents, supplemented, now and then, by the evidence of coins and inscriptions; and Dr. Johnson summed up contemporary opinion in his statement, “All that is really known of the ancient state of Britain is contained in a few pages. We can know no more than what old writers have told us.”
But it was not long before it was recognised that there was other evidence besides that of the “old writers,” evidence the nature of which has been well described by Sir W. R. Wilde:—
We possess what cannot be falsified by the scribe, and, although styled prehistoric, they are far more truthfully historical than the writing that no doubt was largely interfered with, and which, if old, now requires a gloss to interpret it. The grassy mound or circle, the stones erected into a cromleach, the great sepulchral mound, the cinerary urn, the stone weapon or tool, the grain-rubber for triturating cereal food, the harpoon for spearing fish, the copper and bronze tools and weapons, and the gold ornaments of the most early tribes—all are now, in their way, far more truthful than anything that could have been committed to writing, even if there were letters in that day. They are litanies in stone, dogmata in metal, and sermons preaching from the grassy mound.[[85]]
[85]. Brit. Ass., Belfast, 1874.
Much of this evidence already existed, but even when rightly interpreted it was for a long time ignored and scoffed at. It has been noted in the life-history of a scientific truth, “People first say, ‘It is not true,’ then that ‘It is contrary to religion,’ and lastly that ‘Everybody knew it before.’” The first attitude of incredulity was to a great extent justified by the doubtful character of the earlier finds, many of which later investigation has had to reject or to hold in suspense as “not proven.” The second stage was more serious, and for a long time the new science was hampered by the accusation of irreligion. But “Anthropology,” as Huxley pointed out, “has nothing to do with the truth or falsehood of religion.” “Je suis naturaliste,” said Abbé Bourgeois, “je ne fais pas de théologie.”
Gradually the accumulated evidence became too insistent to be ignored. The work of various archæologists in Denmark, the explorations of caves and lake dwellings in Britain and on the Continent, and the patient labours of Boucher de Perthes in the Somme Valley, all gave proof of the existence of prehistoric man, and the science of prehistoric archæology was established.
Flint Implements.
Long before this time, as far back as the sixteenth century, flint implements had been discovered in various parts, and proved as great a puzzle as the fossils which perplexed and tried the faith of the earlier geologists.
The uncultured folk of Europe recognised that the chipped arrow-heads which occasionally occur on the surface of the ground were the implements of an alien people, as the names “elf darts” and “fairy darts” imply. The country folk in the more backward districts believe that fairies still exist; but better informed intelligent people believe they are purely mythological, while students are aware that these arrow-heads were the implements of earlier populations, who are classed in folk-memory under the generic term of “fairies.”
Typical neolithic implements, such as stone adze and axe heads, had attracted the attention of writers in the Middle Ages, such as Gesner and Agricola, who, as Sir John Evans[[86]] informs us, regarded them as thunder-bolts—a belief which is still widely spread not only in Europe, but over the greater portion of the Old World. But Mercati, physician to Clement VIII. at the end of the sixteenth century, appears to have been the first to maintain that what were regarded as thunderbolts were the arms of a primitive people unacquainted with the use of bronze or iron. Certain later writers, as de Boot (1636) and la Peyrère (1655), also regarded them as of human workmanship. Buffon, too, in 1778, declared the “thunder-stones” to be the work of primeval man.
[86]. Ancient Stone Implements, 1872; 2nd ed. 1897, chap. iii.
In 1797 John Frere found numerous flint implements at a depth of about twelve feet in some clay pits at Hoxne, Suffolk, and referred them to “a very remote period indeed, even beyond that of the present world, and to a people who had not the use of metals.”[[87]]
[87]. Archæologia, xiii., p. 204.
But the discovery does not seem to have attracted any interest, or raised any discussion; and the Hoxne implements lay unnoticed for more than half a century, until Evans, returning from Amiens and Abbeville in 1859, recognised the importance of the collections, and by further excavations proved their antiquity.
The belief of the Middle Ages, that everything inexplicable was the work of the Devil, was succeeded by an ascription of all objects of unknown antiquity to the Druids or the Romans; but to neither of these could be attributed the finds which were being made at the beginning of the nineteenth century in the Danish kitchen-middens and dolmens, in the Swiss lake dwellings, and in the caves and gravels of Britain and of France. Still many years were to pass, and many heated discussions were to be held, before archæology came to be recognised as an ally of anthropology, and Prehistoric Man obtained credence.
Denmark.
In this new science Denmark took the lead. In 1806 a Commission was appointed to make a scientific investigation into the history, natural history, and geology of the country; and among the first problems to be met with were the dolmens and shell-mounds, abounding in stone implements, which found no period in Danish history capable of accommodating them. History and the sagas were searched in vain. Meanwhile more and more of these prehistoric implements were brought to light. A new Commission was appointed, and the various sites were carefully examined. The collection of Professor R. Nyerup formed, in 1810, the nucleus which, in 1816, expanded into the Royal Danish Museum of Antiquities at Copenhagen, now, as the National Museum, lodged in the Princessen Palace. C. J. Thomsen held the post of curator from 1816 to 1865. He ordered, arranged, and classified the collections, dividing the objects according to their epoch of culture, and setting them in chronological order, establishing the sequence of the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages. This was the first attempt to classify the archæological contents of a museum on a chronological basis, and it was continued, elaborated, and developed by his successor, Professor J. J. A. Worsaae, 1865 to 1885.[[88]]
[88]. The classification itself was not new; it had been adumbrated by many writers. See Evans, 1872, pp. 3 ff.
Caves.
Another class of evidence which was of great importance in determining the pre-history of man was that derived from the caves. The beginnings of cave-exploration are described by Professor Boyd Dawkins:—
The dread of the supernatural, which preserved the European caves from disturbance, was destroyed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by the search after “ebur fossile,” or unicorn’s horn, which ranked high in the materia medica of those days as a specific for many diseases, and which was obtained, in great abundance, in the caverns of the Hartz, and in those of Hungary and Franconia. As the true nature of the drug gradually revealed itself, the German caves became famous for the remains of the lions, hyænas, fossil elephants, and other strange animals, which had been used for medicine.[[89]]
[89]. Cave Hunting, p. 11.
These caves were investigated mainly by geologists or palæontologists, searching for evidence as to the extinct animals that formerly occupied them. Indications of the presence of man were unsuspected, and, if found, disregarded. Thus much of the evidence of man’s early history was doubtless unwittingly destroyed.
The Franconian caves were explored towards the end of the eighteenth century, and described by Esper (1774), Rosenmüller (1804), and Dr. Goldfuss (1810). The most famous of these was the cave of Gailenreuth. Here, for the first time, investigations were carried out systematically, the finds classified, and, since they indicated the co-existence of man and extinct mammals, theories as to their significance and derivation filled the air.
In 1861 William Buckland (1784-1856), Professor of Mineralogy at Oxford (afterwards Dean of Westminster), visited the caves, and kindled that interest in cave-exploration which was to produce such remarkable results in England.
Oreston.
In the same year the first bone-cave systematically explored in the country was discovered at Oreston, near Plymouth, and the deposits proved the former existence of the rhinoceros in that region.
Kirkdale.
More famous was the exploration of the Kirkdale Cave, near Helmsley, in Yorkshire, discovered in 1821, in a limestone quarry, and investigated and described by Dr. Buckland.[[90]] He found remains of the broken and gnawed bones of the rhinoceros, mammoth, stag, bison, etc., which had been the prey of the hyænas inhabiting the cave, and he traced their origin to a universal deluge. Subsequently he examined the remains from other caves, and summarised his conclusions in Reliquiæ Diluvianæ, published in 1824. Dr. Buckland was henceforward the acknowledged authority on bone caves and their contents, and to his disbelief in the contemporaneous existence of man with the cave animals may be traced much of the incredulity with which all evidence of early man in Britain was received for more than a generation.
[90]. Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc., 1882.
So far but few traces of man’s presence in the caves had been detected, and, when found, had generally been explained away as later intrusions, though human occupations had been proved in Franconia, in the French caves explored by MM. Tournai de Christol and Marcel de Serres in the south of France in 1828, and later by the discoveries of Dr. Schmerling in the caves of Liège about 1832.
Liège.
From the forty caves examined Dr. Schmerling found not only bones of extinct animals, but also a few human bones, and a large number of bone and flint implements and flakes, which he attributed to human workmanship. Unfortunately, these discoveries were discredited both by Dr. Buckland and Sir Charles Lyell, but have since been fully substantiated by Dr. E. Dupont.[[91]]
[91]. Les Temps Antéhist. en Belgique, 1871.
Kent’s Cavern.
The most important of all the cave explorations in England is that of Kent’s Cavern, Torquay. This cavern was known from time immemorial; but the first investigation recorded was that of Mr. Northmore, of Cleeve, Exeter, who visited it in 1824, in expectation of finding evidence of the worship of Mithras.
The next year he returned there again, accompanied by the Rev. J. MacEnery, the Roman Catholic chaplain at Tor Abbey, whose name will always be honourably connected with the explorations of the cave. He was not a geologist or a palæontologist, but to him fell the distinction of discovering the first flint implement ever found in unmistakable association with remains of extinct animals. On another occasion he visited the cave together with Mr. Northmore and Dr. Buckland. “Nothing remarkable was discovered that day, excepting the tooth of a rhinoceros and a flint blade. This was the first instance of the occurrence of British relics being noticed in this or, I believe, any other cave. Both these relics it was my good fortune to find.”
He subsequently found many other flint implements, but Dr. Buckland was not convinced that they occurred in an undisturbed area. He believed that the ancient Britons had scooped out ovens in the stalagmite, and that through them the flint implements had reached their position in the cave earth. In 1846 the Torquay Natural History Society appointed a committee of investigation, consisting of Pengelly and two others, who confirmed MacEnery’s discovery of flint implements in conjunction with extinct animals. Nevertheless, their evidence was not accepted. In Pengelly’s words: “The scientific world ... told us that our statements were impossible, and we simply responded with the remark that we had not said they were possible, only that they were true.”[[92]]
[92]. Kent’s Cavern, 1876. Lecture delivered at Glasgow (1875).
Lake Dwellings.
Before chronicling the final triumph of the cave explorers in 1859, we may briefly note another series of investigations which was being carried on at the same time, and which also shared in the work of throwing light on the shadowy figure of prehistoric man. This was the excavation of crannogs and lake dwellings.
Irish Crannogs.
In 1839 Sir W. R. Wilde explored some of the Irish crannogs, or semi-artificial islands, usually made of layers of stone, logs, sticks (the so-called fascine dwellings), resting on cluans or islets in the Irish lakes. The first crannog explored was that at Lagore, famous in ancient times as Loch Gobhair, near Dunshaughlin, co. Meath, and mentioned in the Annals of the Four Masters as having been plundered in the ninth and tenth centuries. It was originally discovered by accident. Some labourers, when clearing out a stream in the neighbourhood, came across very numerous bones, and also a vast collection of objects of all descriptions, warlike and domestic, made of stone, bone, wood, bronze, and iron, and a few human remains.
The next crannog to be disclosed was one in Roughan Lake, near Dungannon; and thereafter more and more came to light, until in 1857 forty-six had been recorded.
The crannog finds, and the depth of the deposits, indicated great age; and Sir William Wilde at once recognised their significance in determining the history of early human occupation in the island. This evidence was strengthened by the discoveries shortly afterwards made in Switzerland.
Swiss Pile-Dwellings.
These were also partly the result of an accident. The winter of 1853-4 happened to be particularly cold and dry, and in consequence tracts of the shores of the Swiss lakes, which were normally covered by water, stood bare and dry. The inhabitants of Ober Meilen, near Zürich, took advantage of this to enclose part of the foreshore, building walls, and filling the reclaimed space with mud. During the necessary excavations various remains came to light, stumps of piles, stone and horn implements, etc. Dr. Ferdinand Keller, President of the Antiquarian Society at Zürich, hearing of these discoveries, hastened to explore the newly-revealed area. Fishermen had long before reported on the existence of a submerged forest, the stumps of which caught their fishing nets and spoilt the fishing on the sloping shores. In 1829, during excavations, some piles were found, but, being attributed to the Romans, no further notice was taken of them. Dr. Keller discovered that the “submerged forest” was in reality of human origin, formed of sharpened and pointed piles, driven into the ground at regular intervals, and he recognised here evidences of prehistoric human occupation, corresponding with that recently proved for Denmark. Pile dwellings were subsequently discovered in the lakes of Biel, Sempach, Neufchatel, Geneva, and Wallenstad, though investigations were only carried out in Biel and Zürich. These yielded animal remains, numerous stone implements, pottery, a skull, parts of several skeletons, and one piece of bronze.
At first the evidence was merely ignored, then it was listened to, but discredited, or various ingenious explanations were made to explain it away.
But gradually the accumulated evidence became too insistent to be ignored, and was supported by too great names to be neglected. The caves of the Mendips, explored by Williams and Beard, of North and South Wales, explored by Stanley, of Yorkshire and of Devonshire, the crannogs of Ireland and the pile dwellings of Switzerland, all told the same tale.
Brixham.
The turning point was reached in 1858. During that year a new cave had been discovered while excavating for building foundations at Brixham, on the shores of Torbay, Mr. Pengelly persuaded the owner to grant him a refusal of the lease of the virgin site, and it was submitted to a most careful examination. Thirty-six rude flint implements were discovered in association with the remains of hyænas, cave, brown and grizzly bears, woolly rhinoceros and mammoth, in undisturbed red loam beneath a layer of stalagmite.
This was conclusive evidence. A paper read by Mr. Pengelly at the meeting of the British Association at Leeds, 1858, and supported by such authorities as Charles Lyell, Ramsey, Prestwich,[[93]] Owen, and others, clinched the argument, and the contemporary existence of man with Pleistocene fauna was firmly established.
[93]. “It was not until I had myself witnessed the conditions under which these flint implements had been found at Brixham that I became fully impressed with the validity of the doubts thrown upon the previously prevailing opinions with respect to such remains in caves.”—Prestwich, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc., 1860.
It was not long before the same concession of the antiquity of man was reached on the Continent.
Boucher de Perthes.
Boucher de Perthes, the son of a distinguished botanist, was early attracted to the work of cave-exploration, and in 1805 and again in 1810 made discoveries of animal bones and of flint implements which he recognised as the work of man. Later on, when extensive excavations for fortifications and railroads were being carried on at Abbeville, he found the same type of implement in situ, and in 1838 submitted some of his discoveries and deductions to the Society of Emulation of Abbeville, of which he was president. The next year he brought the same evidence to Paris and showed his flints to several members of the Institute. In 1847 he published a description of his finds. In 1855 Rigollot,[[94]] by his finds at Amiens, had confirmed the evidence produced by Boucher de Perthes.
[94]. Mémoire sur des Instruments en silex trouvés à St. Acheul près Amiens.
In 1858 Hugh Falconer, the palæontologist, visited Abbeville to see the collection of implements made by Boucher de Perthes, and “became satisfied that there was a great deal of fair presumptive evidence in favour of many of his speculations regarding the remote antiquity of these industrial objects, and their association with animals now extinct.”[[95]] Acting on Falconer’s suggestion, numerous geologists visited Abbeville in the following year, including Sir Joseph Prestwich, Sir John Evans, and Sir Charles Lyell; and Arthur J. Evans, then a boy accompanying his father, had the good fortune to find one of the chipped flints in situ. This established the horizon of the flints beyond question, though there were still some who disputed the human workmanship. The English archæologists and geologists however, had already been convinced by the evidence of the Devonshire caves, and the acceptance of “palæolithic man” on the Continent dates from their visit.
[95]. Palæont. Mem., ii., p. 597.
Subsequent Progress of Archæology.
Thenceforward archæology made greater progress abroad than in Great Britain, mainly, perhaps, on account of the more numerous materials for study.
France.
To indicate the share that France has had and maintains in the elucidation of Prehistoric Anthropology, we have only to mention the work of É. Lartet with Mr. Henry Christy on the French caves of Aurignac (1861) and Périgord (1864); A. J. L. Bertrand and G. Bonstetten on dolmens (1864, 1865, and 1879); É. Rivière on the Mentone caves (1873); and the numerous works of E. Chantre, especially with regard to the Rhone basin. These and others prepared the way for the classic work of G. de Mortillet (1883), whose masterly summary and methodical treatment of the subject have been of great service to all subsequent workers. While recognising the labours of other investigators, special mention must be made of Judge E. Piette (1827-1906), whose excavations in the cave of Mas d’Azil constitute a landmark in such studies. Professor E. Cartailhac, Dr. Capitan, and l’Abbé H. Breuil have done further service in their investigations in French caves; and the two latter, in their beautiful memoir on the cave of Altamira in North Spain, have further demonstrated the wonderful artistic sense and technique of the cave-dwellers during the later phases of Palæolithic times.
In Britain we may note the names of J. Barnard Davis, J. Thurnam, Rolleston, Sir Charles Lyell, Sir John Evans, Canon Greenwell, and Professor Boyd Dawkins, whose standard works have largely helped to mould the course of archæology in our own country.
In Germany, among the earlier writers may be mentioned C. Fuhlrott, L. Lindenschmidt (1864-1881), J. A. Ecker (1865-1870), A. Lissauer, and, above all, Rudolf Virchow, the author of numerous and valuable contributions.
Elsewhere, G. Nicolucci studied prehistoric man in Italy, and during the last thirty years the investigations of the illustrious Dr. Oskar Montelius, of Stockholm, have been valued by all archæologists.
Tertiary Man.
Boucher de Perthes was the vindicator of Quaternary Man in France; l’Abbé Bourgeois stands as the protagonist on behalf of Tertiary Man.
The first discovery of any traces of man’s existence during Tertiary times was made in some sand and gravel quarries at Saint Prest, near Chartres, by M. Desnoyers in 1863. He found various incised bones bearing evidence of human workmanship, together with remains of Elephas meridionalis and Rhinoceros leptorhinus. But Sir Charles Lyell gave it as his opinion, on examining the beds, that they were rather late Quaternary than true Tertiary.
The whole question was hotly debated at the Second Congress of Archæology and Prehistoric Anthropology at Paris, in 1867, where l’Abbé Bourgeois (1819-1878), Professor of Philosophy at Blois, exhibited his famous flint implements from Miocene beds at Thenay, near Tours, Loir-et-Cher. These were undoubtedly Miocene beds, but it was open to doubt if the implements were of human origin, and, if so, if they were found in undisturbed positions. At the Congrès International d’Anthropologie at Brussels in 1872 a committee of fifteen was formed to discuss the problem, and opinions were divided. Nine authorities recognised human workmanship (one changed his opinion later); four denied it; one was favourable, but with reserve; and one was unable to decide at all. De Mortillet believed that they had not been made by man himself, but by a semi-human precursor of man, which he named Homosimius Bourgeoisii.
Other finds of Tertiary man, those of the Upper Miocene, by C. Ribeiro, at Otta, in the Tagus Valley, 1860; of Tardy in the same year, and of Rames in 1877, in beds of the same horizon at Puy-courny, Auvergne; of Capellini, in Pliocene beds of Monte Aperto, near Siena, and of Fritz Noetling in lower Pliocene beds in Burma, 1894, have none of them been received without question, and are still classed by most authorities, as by Sir John Evans in 1870, and again in 1897, as “Not proven.”
Eoliths.
Closely connected with the question of Tertiary Man is the “raging vortex of the eolith controversy,” as Sollas describes it. Benjamin Harrison, of Ightham, Kent, first drew attention to these rude chipped flints, which he found in the chalk plateau, and claimed to be of pre-glacial age, and of human origin. Prestwich accepted this view; Evans rejected it, and anthropologists are still divided into opposite camps on the question. Eoliths have since been discovered in various parts of the world, and have merely served to confirm the respective points of view of the partisans on either side.
Sollas, after summing up all the evidence, says: “When experts are thus at variance nothing remains for the layman but to preserve an open mind.” These discussions as to the existence of quaternary and Tertiary man would have been settled once for all had actual undoubted human bones been found in any of the beds, but this was rarely the case, and disputants had to rely almost entirely on questionable artifacts.