Men of the Old Stone Age: Their Environment, Life and Art

by Henry Fairfield Osborn

In the whole racial history of western Europe there has never occurred so profound a change as that involving the disappearance of the Neanderthal race and the appearance of the Crô-Magnon race. It was the replacement of a race lower than any existing human type by one which ranks high among the existing types in capacity and intelligence. The Crô-Magnons belonged to Homo sapiens, the same species of man as ourselves, and appear to have been the chief race of the Upper Palæolithic Period up to the very close of Magdalenian times, after which they apparently underwent a decline.

Although there were one or more other races which influenced the industrial development of western Europe, the Crô-Magnons were certainly dominant, as shown both by the abundance of their skeletal remains and by the wide distribution of their industry and art; the Upper Palæolithic may almost be said to be the period of the Crô-Magnons as the Lower Palæolithic is that of the Neanderthals and the Pre-Neanderthals. Their arrival toward the end of Mousterian times effected a social and industrial change and a race replacement of so profound a nature that it would certainly be legitimate to separate the Upper Palæolithic from the Lower by a break equal to that which separates the former from the Neolithic.[(1)]

The arrival of the Crô-Magnons and the introduction of the Aurignacian industry are the first events of the prehistory of Europe to which we can assign a date with any degree of confidence; they correspond geologically with the close of the fourth glaciation and the beginning of Postglacial time, the duration of which has been estimated by geologists from evidence of many different kinds, but which brings us, nevertheless, to substantially similar conclusions. It seems that 25,000 years is a conservative estimate for the duration of the Postglacial Period; this is supported by the independent observations of Lyell, Taylor, Penck and Brückner, and Coleman; it is within the estimates made by Chamberlin and Salisbury, Fairchild, Sardeson, and Spencer; it is somewhat larger than the estimates of Gilbert and Upham.[AJ] Thus, with considerable confidence we may record man of the modern type of Homo sapiens as entering western Europe between 25,000 and 30,000 years ago.

The Lower Palæolithic industrial cycle, comprising the Chellean, Acheulean, and Mousterian, seems to have been similar in evolution both around the Mediterranean coasts and in the northern portions of Europe. From the fact that the Crô-Magnons arrived with the Aurignacian industry it would appear that they came through Phœnicia and along the southern coasts of the Mediterranean, through Tunis, into Spain; also perhaps along the northern coasts of the Mediterranean through Italy. Their evolution had probably taken place somewhere on the continent of Asia, for their physical structure is entirely of Asiatic type, and not in the least of African or Ethiopian type; that is, they exhibit no negroid characters whatever. The reason that Breuil considers that the Aurignacian did not come in through central or eastern Europe is that there are no early Aurignacian stations in either region, whereas the Aurignacian is abundantly developed along the Mediterranean coasts, both of Europe and Africa. The passage of the Crô-Magnons along these coasts was, therefore, like the subsequent wave of the true Mediterranean race, dark-haired, long-headed, narrow-faced people, which followed this coast in early Neolithic times, or, again, like the wave of the Arabian or Moslem advance, which pressed forward along the northern coast of Africa and into southwestern Europe.

Fig. 131. Entrance to the great Grotte du Prince at the base of the limestone promontory known as the Baoussé Roussé, with a view of Mentone in the distance. After Davanne.

Some support of this theory of migration along the north coast of Africa is given by the presence of the skeletons of two members of an entirely distinct race, which are commonly known as the 'negroids of Grimaldi' because of their discovery in the Grottes de Grimaldi near Mentone, and because they alone among all the Upper Palæolithic races thus far discovered in Europe display a number of resemblances to the African negroid race. Anatomically they are related neither to the Neanderthals nor to the Crô-Magnons. Their archæologic age appears to be early Aurignacian because they are found immediately above the layer which marks the close of Mousterian time and the last climate favorable to the warm fauna of mammals.

This sunny coast where modern France joins Italy has supplied some of the most valuable records of the racial and industrial transition from the Lower to the Upper Palæolithic. Of the nine Grottes de Grimaldi three at least show evidences of occupation in closing Mousterian times, probably by men of the Neanderthal race, although no skeletal remains of Neanderthals have been found here. Four of the grottos, namely, the Grotte des Enfants, the Grotte de Cavillon, the Barma Grande, and the Baousso da Torre, have yielded altogether the skeletal remains of sixteen individuals, all associated with implements of Aurignacian culture and evidently representing a number of ceremonial burials. Fourteen of these skeletons are attributed by Verneau to the Crô-Magnon race; the other two are the 'negroids of Grimaldi' above referred to. This is, therefore, a prehistoric record of the greatest significance, which we shall now examine more in detail.

Racial Succession along the Ancient Riviera

Where the southern spurs of the Alps descend into the Mediterranean and separate France from Italy we find a limestone promontory, known as the Baoussé Roussé, projecting in a long cliff, beneath which the rocky shore descends abruptly into the sea. Opening toward the south, and at intervals along the base of this cliff are the nine Grottes de Grimaldi. Doubtless the Neanderthals migrated along these shores at a time when the hippopotamus, the straight-tusked elephant (E. antiquus), and Merck's rhinoceros (R. merckii) still abounded as the last representatives of the great African-Asiatic fauna. These hunters of Mousterian times entered the sea-swept floor of the great Grotte du Prince[AK] (Fig. 131), with a ceiling height at that time perhaps of over 80 feet, carrying in their game to the fire-hearths, and leaving Mousterian implements in the accumulating deposits. In the succeeding layers of this grotto the changing forms of animal life demonstrate the effect of the fourth glaciation and the cooling of the climate toward the close of Mousterian times.