The human species

by A. de Quatrefages

In the cavern of L’Homme-Mort, situated upon a high plateau of the Lozère, and so thoroughly investigated by MM. Broca and Prunières, animal bones of the present epoch alone have been found; there were neither reindeer, nor even horse, ox, or stag. Moreover, the head of a lance or javelin had been worked with a fragment of hatchet in polished stone. We here, then, find ourselves in the presence of a population much posterior to the quaternary period, and very probably contemporary with that which raised numerous dolmens in the neighbourhood.

Now, the remains of this population betray in a high degree traces of the Cro-Magnon type, modified partly, perhaps, by the action of new conditions of life, but also by ethnological changes. The stature is sensibly diminished; having descended to a mean of 1·62 m. (5 ft. 3·7 in.). The breadth of the upper part of the face is less striking, and the whole head has become almost harmonic. But the dolichocephaly remains; the lines of the skull are almost unaltered, the orbits are always elongated, the nasal orifices narrow, the great majority of the bones of the limbs especially have preserved their very characteristic features. The same grooves are observed in the fibula as at Cro-Magnon; the tibia is platycnemic; in the femur may be observed that extraordinary prominence of the linea aspera which constitutes one of the most curious features of the race; finally, the ulna in every case possesses the sigmoid cavity, the curve so often pointed out as simian. But at the same time we observe a feature as yet foreign to the pure race of Cro-Magnon. The olecranon depression of the humerus is perforated in a number of specimens in as great a proportion as 26, or, perhaps, 33 per cent. This feature, which we find in other fossil races, is of itself a sufficient indication of crossing, and confirms the inferences which we might have drawn from the diminution in height, modifications of the face, etc.

Similar facts are proved by the two skulls, and the group of bones from Géménos, near Marseille, which were saved from destruction by M. Marion.

Thus, both upon the Lozère and in the neighbourhood of Marseille, the Cro-Magnon race appears in the midst of the polished stone period, but with a mixture of characters which indicates the influence of a fresh element. We come upon it in the upper Cévennes and on the shores of the Mediterranean just at the time when its tribes were beginning to blend with those who had introduced among them the first elements of modern civilization. We cannot be surprised that these simple hunters should have been more or less absorbed by a denser population, who possessed domesticated animals and raised dolmens.

XI. It may, however, be said with equal, and even with greater truth, of the Cro-Magnon as of the Canstadt race, that it has not disappeared. It may be traced through intermediate ages, and met with again in certain populations of the present day.

In the neolithic tombs placed close beside the quaternary burial places at Solutré, the old hunters of the horse are represented by their descendants, of whom the more or less modified skulls have been discovered. In the sepulchral grottoes of the Marne, so intelligently and successfully explored by M. J. de Baye, the Cro-Magnon type is found associated with those of four other quaternary races, and with one neolithic race. In Germany, near the Taunus; in Belgium, in the caverns of Hamoir and at Nivelles; in the neighbourhood of Paris, in the recent alluvium of Grenelle; in the clays of the harbour of Boulogne, human remains dating from the same epoch, and belonging to the same race, have been found. M. Piette discovered a Cro-Magnon skeleton in the Aisne, whilst excavating a Gaulish cemetery of the iron age. At Paris even, the excavations of the Hôtel Dieu, those of the Boulevard de Port Royal, etc., have brought to light skulls of the same race, of probably as late a date as the fifth century, and there are some more recent still. Modern specimens will most certainly be found. I have myself twice observed in women features which could only accord with the cranial and facial bones of the race under discussion. In one of them, the dysharmony between the face and skull was at least quite as striking as in the old man of Cro-Magnon: the eye depressed beneath the orbital vault had the same heavy appearance; the nose was straight rather than arched, the lips somewhat thick, the maxillary bones strongly developed, the complexion very brown, the hair very dark and growing low on the forehead. A thick-waisted figure, slightly developed breasts, hands and feet relatively small, served to form a whole, which, without being attractive, was in no way repulsive.

The labours of M. Hamy have extended and enlarged this field of research. He has again met with the type in question amongst the Zaraus collection of Basque skulls, collected by MM. Broca and Vélasco; he has followed it even into Africa in the megalithic tombs explored principally by General Faidherbe, and to the Kabyles of the Beni-Masser and the Djurjura. It is, however, chiefly in the Canary Islands, in the collection of the Barranco-Hundo of Teneriffe, that he has met with skulls, the ethnical relation of which with the old man of Cro-Magnon is beyond discussion. On the other hand, some points of comparison, unfortunately very few in number, have led him to regard the Dalecarlians as connected with the same stock.

XII. However strange these results may appear, they are only a repetition in the human race of what has already been proved in the case of animals. It is now a long time since Lartet showed that at the close of the quaternary age, and as the species peculiar to this age were finally disappearing, the survivors were divided into three groups. Some remained where they were, others migrated to the north, and others again to the south. Perhaps the latter were only persistent in Africa, from whence they had despatched their representatives to us, and where we meet with them still, whilst their colonies, which were at one time in a flourishing condition in France, perished under the influence of the winters of the present period. Finally, as an explanation is given of the ancient fauna, and the cause which brought about their separation, we cannot be surprised to find human populations presenting analogous facts.

During the quaternary period, the race of Cro-Magnon had its principal European centre of population in the south-west of France. The little basin of the Vézère was, so to speak, its capital; its colonies spread into Italy, the north of France, the valley of the Meuse, etc., where they encountered other races, to whom our attention will soon be turned. But they themselves were perhaps only a branch of an African population, which had emigrated to France with the hyæna, the lion, the hippopotamus, etc. In this case, there is no difficulty in explaining its existence at the present day in the north-west of Africa, and in islands where it would be protected from crossing. Some of its tribes, carried away in the pursuit of the reindeer, will have preserved, in the Scandinavian Alps, the tall form, black hair, and brown complexion which distinguishes Dalecarlians of the neighbouring populations; others, mixing with all the races by which France has been successively invaded, only betray their ancient existence by the phenomena of atavism, which lays upon some individuals the mark of the old hunters of Périgord.