[29] Some of the Eskimo followed a solstitial reckoning also, but probably as a result of the unusual astronomical phenomena of their high latitudes rather than as the consequence of cultural influence.
[30] The tonalamatl was not divided into 13 discrete month periods of 20 days each, but was a permutation system of 20 names with 13 numbers, yielding a recurrent cycle of 260 days each designated by its particular combination of name and number. See § [106].
[31] The years in this reckoning were somewhat short: 360 days.
[32] So primary is the distinction within the Palæolithic of its Lower and Upper halves, that some authors, for purposes of elementary presentation, have felt justified in calling these halves the Old and the Middle Stone Ages. This is unfortunate because this “Middle” Stone Age is in scientific writings always included in the Palæolithic, whereas the Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age of many archæologists embraces the more or less transitional periods such as the Azilian and Maglemose (below, § [216]) between the end of the Palæolithic and the definitive or Full Neolithic. Nevertheless, the unorthodox terminology has the merit of condensing detail with a broad sweep.
[33] These are the proportions of implements of flint to those of bone or horn in several stations of different age:
| Hundsteig, Austria, early Aurignacian | 20,000 | 2 |
| Sirgenstein, Würtemberg, Aurignacian | 1,000 | rare |
| Sirgenstein, Würtemberg, early Solutrean | 700 | 10 |
| Predmost, Czecho-Slovakia, Solutrean | 25,000 | many |
| Schweizersbild, Switzerland, late Magdalenian | 14,000 | 1,300 |
| Maglemose, Denmark, Azilian | 881 | 294 |
| Oban, Scotland, Azilian | 20 | 150 |
[34] The horse seems to have survived wild in parts of Europe until the Neolithic, but the first domesticated forms, in the Bronze Age, appear to have been brought in from Asia.
[35] In France, four or five periods are distinguished: 2500-1900; 1900-1600; 1600-1300; 1300-900 B.C. The first of these is a time of copper rather than bronze, with northern France still Neolithic. If five periods are admitted, an era around 1300 B.C. is recognized as a separate division.
[36] A Uralic Bronze Age culture-area is recognizable as stretching with considerable uniformity from the Dniepr in southwestern Russia to Lake Baikal in the latitude of eastern Mongolia, and centering about Minusinsk on the upper Yenisei. It possessed horse trappings, an abundance of sickles that argue a population primarily agricultural, and socketed axes related to the type that occurred in western Europe between about 1400 and 1000 B.C. This bronze culture shows definite resemblances on the one hand to that of the Danubian area—and, it may be added, of the Caucasus; on the other, to the ancient bronzes of China.
[37] In India, “Hindu” means any native who adheres to the higher cults of native origin which collectively constitute the “religion” known as Hinduism; in effect, the non-savage and non-Mohammedan inhabitants. Hindus and Mohammedans are contrasted in local usage. In this book, Hindu is synonymous with Indian, irrespective of religion.