The second maximum of the Würm glaciation seems to have culminated about 15,000 B.C.,[22] and about that time, or conceivably earlier, modern man first arrived in North Africa, if we may judge by the appearance of a fresh type of flint industry, known usually as Capsian.[23] Whence he came is uncertain. It has been suggested that he may have reached the north from tropical Africa,[24] but no evidence has been adduced in support of this hypothesis. It seems more likely that he came from Asia, probably by means of the Sinaitic peninsula, or possibly across the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb. This much is certain; about this time the Capsian culture is found extending along the north of the continent, from Egypt as far west at any rate as Algeria, and perhaps beyond, though at no point but one is it found far from the Mediterranean coast.[25] The one exception is in Egypt, where implements of this type have been found as far south as Luxor,[26] so that we may be satisfied that modern man in his earliest movements passed up the Nile valley at least as far as the First Cataract. It would seem probable that in Egypt the invaders came into touch with their Neanderthal predecessors, who retreated before them up the Nile valley towards Luxor, where Dr. Seligman has found implements of Le Moustier type more developed than any discovered elsewhere[27]; it is possible that some retreated further south and may even have reached Rhodesia.
Other of these Neanderthal refugees seem to have gone westward, and perhaps passed up the Italian land-bridge to western Europe; if so it was probably these, who had come into contact with the Capsian culture of North Africa, who were responsible for the Audi industry. They were followed before long by the invaders, and in Celtic lands at least were soon exterminated, though it is just possible that they survived to a later date further east.[28]
The culture of the newcomers is known as that of Aurignac, and seems to have started in Europe about 12,500 B.C. A great many skeletons of this period have been discovered and described, and though all of these show us men very like those of the present day, there is a considerable range of variation among them.[29] The skulls of the upper palæolithic periods, apart from the Chancelade skull[30] to be discussed later, may be divided into three marked groups, though it is well to remember that there is no strict uniformity among all the members of each group. All the skulls of this period, however, are long, for the broad-headed type, so prevalent in Central Europe to-day, did not arrive until the closing phase.
Of the first of these three groups we have only two examples, the mother and son from the Grotte des Enfants, near Mentone.[31] But as these are the earliest in date, and differ in some respects very markedly from the remainder, they have been distinguished by the name of the Grimaldi race, after the owner of the cave, the Prince of Monaco.
This type was small, being less than 5 ft. 3 in. in height, the skulls were of the long variety, having length-breadth indices of 68.5 and 69.2, and the jaws and teeth project, so that they exhibit a character known as prognathism. This latter character has caused the race to be termed negroid, and unjustifiable deductions have been drawn from this term. It has been shown, however, that there is no reason for supposing any affinity between this type and the negro race of tropical Africa.[32] Both of these skeletons were found in a contracted position, and that of the boy was covered with red ochre.[33]
Our second group is the Cromagnon, and is based largely on the skeletons found in the cave of Cromagnon, near Les Eyzies. By many anthropologists this term is used to cover all the skeletons from this period except those of the Grimaldi type, but more recently it has been shown that all these remains cannot conveniently be placed in one group, for the distinguishing characters are but faintly visible in some and totally absent from a large number.[34] The term is now becoming used in a more restricted sense.
The Cromagnon type is tall. The men were often 5 ft. 10 in. or 5 ft. 11 in. high, though the women were frequently much shorter. Their heads were large, larger than the average in Europe to-day, but not very high; they were long as compared with their breadth, having a cranial index of about 74; their noses were narrow, but their faces were short and relatively broad. This combination of a long head and a short face is unusual, and is called disharmonic, and this disharmony is one of the most striking characteristics of Cromagnon man.[35]
It is often thought that this disharmonic trait, the long head and the short face, is evidence of the mixed ancestry of the race which exhibits it,[36] and if this were the case we might expect Cromagnon man to be the result of a crossing of two other races. There is no other evidence to indicate that this was the case, and if such crossing had occurred, it seems likely that it took place before the Cromagnon type reached Europe.
It seems probable that it is to the men of the Cromagnon type that we must attribute the beginnings of that art, which reached its finest development in a later age, and has provided the most conspicuous as well as the most pleasing feature of the upper palæolithic culture.[37]