The human species

by A. de Quatrefages

VII. The troglodytes of Belgium painted the face and perhaps the body, like those of Périgord. The ornaments in use at Chaleux and Furfooz were almost the same as those which we have found in the south of France. We never, however, find amongst them any object borrowed from marine fauna. This is a curious fact, as the man of the Lesse journeyed in search of his jewels, as well as of the rough material for his implements and arms much greater distances than that which separated him from the sea.

In fact, the principal ornaments of the men of the Lesse were fossil shells. Some, it is true, were obtained from the Devonian rocks in their vicinity; but the greater part came from a considerable distance, chiefly from Champagne and from Grignon near Versailles. The flints, which our troglodytes used in such great numbers, were obtained, not from Hainault or the province of Liège, but almost entirely from Champagne. There are some even which could only have been collected in Touraine, on the banks of the Loire. Judging from the localities of these different objects, we might conclude that the known world of the troglodytes of the Lesse scarcely extended in a northerly direction for 13 to 25 miles, whilst to the south it stretched to a distance of 250 to 300 miles.

There is something very strange in this fact, of which, however, M. Dupont seems to have given what is, at least, a very plausible explanation. He holds that two populations, perhaps two races, were placed in juxtaposition in the countries in question during the quaternary period. There must have existed between them one of those many instances of, we may say, instinctive hatred similar to that which prevails between the Red-Skins and the Esquimaux. Encircled on the north and the east by their enemies, who occupied Hainault, the aborigines of the Lesse could only extend towards the south, and, through the Ardennes, communicate with the basins of the Seine and the Loire.

But did they themselves undertake the long and difficult journeys, by which alone they could procure the shells which they used for ornaments, and the immense quantity of flint which they worked in their caverns? We do not hesitate to assert with M. Dupont that nothing is less probable. Everything, on the contrary, proves that they obtained their supplies by means of a veritable commerce, organised in a regular manner and upon a large scale; whether by the existence of populations devoted to this form of industry, of which there are several examples known to us in the present day; or by the shells and flints passing from hand to hand through successive exchanges, and reaching at length the banks of the Lesse. We cannot explain in any other way the abundance of foreign flints at Chaleux, Furfooz, etc., the prodigality with which they were used, and the evident carelessness displayed in the preservation of tools which had been manufactured from them.

VIII. In direct opposition to the men of Cro-Magnon, those of Furfooz appear to have been eminently pacific. M. Dupont has not discovered either in their grottoes or burial-places any warlike arms, and he applies to them Ross’s remarks upon the Esquimaux of Baffin’s Bay, who did not understand what was meant by war.

In the sepulchral grotto of Le Frontal, where the tribe of Les Nutons buried their dead, a number of objects have been found, as at Cro-Magnon, proving the existence of a belief in another life. They consisted of a number of perforated shells, ornaments in spar, flat pieces of sandstone traced with sketches, the vase which we have mentioned above, and some selected flint implements. All these objects are, moreover, of the same nature as those in the Trou des Nutons. It is clear that they had been laid in the sepulchral vault under the impression that they would serve to supply the wants of the deceased in the new existence which was opening before them.

Another fact, upon which M. Dupont has with justice insisted, adds to the probability arising from various considerations, of our being right in attributing to these quaternary men a kind of religion more or less analogous to Fetishism. In the Trou de Chaleux, a mammoth’s ulna was placed by the side of a hearth upon a slab of sandstone. Now the mammoth no longer existed in Belgium at the close of the age of the reindeer, and this bone must have been found in the alluvium of the preceding age. It had doubtless been the cause of an error which may be observed even at the present day, and had been looked upon as having belonged to a giant. The place of honour which was allotted to it in the dwelling of the troglodytes seems to intimate that it had become an object of veneration.

IX. Very few remains of the two races of Furfooz and that of Grenelle, have been discovered in other quaternary deposits than those which have just been mentioned. The former are, however, represented in the basins of the Somme and the Aude; the latter has been met with at two or three points in the basin of the Seine. We have seen that it existed at Solutré, and the skull of Nagy-Sap in Hungary must probably be referred to it. These facts are sufficient to show that since the glacial epoch the races in question have occupied an extensive area.

In the neolithic age, we find the mesaticephali of Furfooz extending from the Var and Hérault to Gibraltar; the sub-brachycephali are represented from Verdun to Boulogne-sur-mer, and to Camp-Long from Saint-Césaire; they intermingled with the ancient inhabitants of Cabeço d’Arruda in Portugal.

The brachycephalic race of Grenelle, has, however, left the most distinct traces. It has been discovered in France in several dolmens, and in the Round Barrows in England. In Denmark it constitutes the brachycephalic type of Eschricht, and in Sweden forms a dozen of the total number of the skulls found in dolmens by Retzius and his successors.