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

by Henry Fairfield Osborn

How far this revolution is due to the decline of the Crô-Magnon race and how far to the invasion of one or more new races is very difficult to determine in the absence of the anatomical evidence derived from skeletal remains. Two new races had certainly found their way along the Danube as shown in the burials of Ofnet, in eastern Bavaria; one is extremely broad-headed and perhaps of central Asiatic origin, while the other is extremely long-headed and perhaps of southerly or Mediterranean origin. It is possible that these two races correspond respectively with the easterly and southerly industrial influences which are observed in the Azilian-Tardenoisian stage. The former is the first brachycephalic race to enter western Europe, for it will be recalled that all the previous races, the Crô-Magnons, the Brünns, and the Neanderthals, are dolichocephalic. The long-headed race found at Ofnet is very clearly distinguished from the disharmonic long-headed Crô-Magnon race by the narrowness of the face; in other words, it is an harmonic type of head and face, which may have been Mediterranean in origin, like the so-called 'Mediterranean race' of Sergi.

This fresh invasion of western Europe by two races arriving by one or more of the great migration routes from the vast Eurasiatic mainland to the east, races with a relatively high brain development, is certainly one of the most surprising features of the close of the Palæolithic Period, for we have long been accustomed to think that these fresh easterly and southerly invasions began only in Neolithic times.

As the Upper Palæolithic draws to an end, there is, according to Breuil, still another industrial influence making itself felt: it comes from the northeast along the shores of the Baltic.

Putting together all the fragmentary evidence which we possess, we may regard western Europe at the close of the Old Stone Age as peopled by four and possibly by five distinct races, as follows:

5. Arriving late in Palæolithic times, a race along the shores of the Baltic, known only by its Maglemose industry; possibly a Teutonic race.

4. A south Mediterranean race, known only by its Tardenoisian industry, migrating along the northern shores of Africa and spreading over Spain; with a conventional and schematic art; probably an advance wave of the true 'Mediterranean' race of Sergi; possibly identical with race 3 below. (The same as Race 4, p. 278.)

3. A long-headed race found at Ofnet, in eastern Bavaria; possibly a branch of the true 'Mediterranean' race 4 above, but not related to the Brünn. (Possibly the same as Race 4.)

2. The newly arriving Furfooz-Grenelle race, broad-headed; known along the Danube at Ofnet, in eastern Bavaria, and northward in Belgium; possibly a branch of the 'Alpine' race. (The same as Race 5, p. 278.)

1. The surviving Crô-Magnons, in a stage of industrial decline, pursuing the Azilian industry, probably inhabiting France and northern Spain.

The broad-headed Ofnet race mentioned above is apparently the same as the Furfooz-Grenelle race, and may also correspond with the existing Alpine-Celtic race of western Europe. The long-headed race of Ofnet may correspond with the existing 'Mediterranean' race of Sergi.