In the collection of materials and illustrations from the vast number of original papers and memoirs consulted in the preparation of this volume, as well as in the verification of the text and proofs, I have been constantly aided by one of my research assistants, Miss Christina D. Matthew, who has greatly facilitated the work. I am indebted also to Miss Mabel R. Percy for the preparation and final revision of the manuscript. From the bibliography prepared by Miss Jannette M. Lucas, the reader may find the original authority for every statement which does not rest on my own observation or reflection.
Interest in human evolution centres chiefly in the skull and in the brain. The slope of the forehead and the other angles, which are so important in forming an estimate of the brain capacity, may be directly compared throughout this volume, because the profile or side view of every skull figured is placed in exactly the same relative position, namely, on the lines established by the anatomists of the Frankfort Convention to conform to the natural pose of the head on the living body.
In anatomy I have especially profited by the co-operation of my former student and present university colleague Professor J. Howard McGregor, of Columbia, who has shown great anatomical as well as artistic skill in the restoration of the heads of the four races of Trinil, Piltdown, Neanderthal, and Crô-Magnon. The new reconstruction of the Piltdown head is with the aid of casts sent to me by my friend Doctor A. Smith Woodward, of the British Museum of Natural History. The problem of reconstruction of the Piltdown skull has, through the differences of interpretation by Smith Woodward, Elliot Smith, and Arthur Keith, become one of the causes célèbres of anthropology. On the placing of the fragments of the skull and jaws, which have few points of contact, depends the all-important question of the size of the brain and the character of the profile of the face and jaws. In Professor McGregor's reconstruction different methods have been used from those employed by the British anatomists, and advantage has been taken of an observation of Mr. A. E. Anderson that the single canine tooth belongs in the upper and not in the lower jaw. In these models, and in all the restorations of men by Charles R. Knight under my direction, the controlling principle has been to make the restoration as human as the anatomical evidence will admit. This principle is based upon the theory for which I believe very strong grounds may be adduced, that all these races represent stages of advancing and progressive development; it has seemed to me, therefore, that in our restorations we should indicate as much alertness, intelligence, and upward tendency as possible. Such progressive expression may, in fact, be observed in the faces of the higher anthropoid apes, such as the chimpanzees and orangs, when in process of education. No doubt, our ancestors of the early Stone Age were brutal in many respects, but the representations which have been made chiefly by French and German artists of men with strong gorilla or chimpanzee characteristics are, I believe, unwarranted by the anatomical remains and are contrary to the conception which we must form of beings in the scale of rapidly ascending intelligence.
Henry Fairfield Osborn.
American Museum of Natural History
June 21, 1915.
CONTENTS
| PAGE | ||
| [INTRODUCTION] | ||
| Greek conceptions of man's origin | [1] | |
| Rise of anthropology | [3] | |
| Rise of archæolgy | [10] | |
| Geoligic history of man | [18] | |
| Geographic changes | [34] | |
| Climatic changes | [37] | |
| Migrations of mammals | [42] | |
| [CHAPTER I] | ||
| Ancestry of the anthropoid apes | [49] | |
| Pliocene climate, forests, and life | [60] | |
| Transition to the Pleistocene | [62] | |
| The first glaciation | [64] | |
| The First Interglacial Stage | [66] | |
| Early Pleistocene fauna | [69] | |
| The Trinil race | [73] | |
| Eoliths, or primitive flints | [84] | |
| The second glaciation | [86] | |
| The Second Interglacial Stage | [90] | |
| The Heidelberg race | [95] | |
| Migrations of the reindeer | [102] | |
| The third glaciation | [104] | |
| [CHAPTER II] | ||
| Date of the Pre-Chellean industry | [107] | |
| Geography and climate | [116] | |
| The river-drift stations | [119] | |
| Pre-Chellean industry | [126] | |
| The Piltdown race | [130] | |
| Mammalian life | [144] | |
| Chellean industry | [148] | |
| Chellean geography | [154] | |
| Palæolithic stations of Germany | [159] | |
| Acheulean industry | [161] | |
| The use of fire | [165] | |
| Acheulean industry | [166] | |
| The second period of arid climate | [173] | |
| Late Acheulean implements | [177] | |
| The Neanderthal race of Krapina | [181] | |
| [CHAPTER III] | ||
| Close of the Third Interglacial | [186] | |
| The Fourth Glacial Stage | [188] | |
| Arctic tundra life | [190] | |
| Environment of the Neanderthal race | [196] | |
| Mammals hunted by the Neanderthals | [202] | |
| Cave life | [211] | |
| The Neanderthal race | [214] | |
| Mousterian industry | [244] | |
| Disappearance of the Neanderthals | [256] | |
| [CHAPTER IV] | ||
| Opening of the Upper Palæolithic | [260] | |
| The Grimaldi race | [264] | |
| Arrival of the Crô-Magnons | [269] | |
| Upper Palæolithic cultures | [275] | |
| Upper Palæolithic races | [278] | |
| Geography and climate | [279] | |
| Mammalian life | [284] | |
| The Crô-Magnon race | [289] | |
| Burial customs | [303] | |
| Aurignacian industry | [305] | |
| The birth of art | [315] | |
| Origin of the solutrean culture | [330] | |
| Human fossils | [333] | |
| The Brünn race | [334] | |
| Solutrean industry | [338] | |
| Solutrean art | [347] | |
| [CHAPTER V] | ||
| Origin of the Magdalenian culture | [351] | |
| Magdalenian culture | [354] | |
| Magdalenian climate | [360] | |
| Mammalian life | [364] | |
| Human fossils | [376] | |
| Magdalenian industry | [382] | |
| Upper Palæolithic art | [392] | |
| Magdalenian engravings | [396] | |
| Magdalenian painting | [408] | |
| Art in the caverns | [409] | |
| Polychrome painting | [414] | |
| Magdalenian sculpture | [427] | |
| Extent of the Magdalenian culture | [434] | |
| Decline of the Magdalenian culture | [449] | |
| Crô-Magnon descendants | [451] | |
| [CHAPTER VI] | ||
| Close of the Old Stone Age | [456] | |
| Invasion of new races | [457] | |
| Mas d'Azil | [459] | |
| Fère-en-Tardenois | [465] | |
| Azilian-Tardenoisian culture | [466] | |
| Mammalian life | [468] | |
| Azilian-Tardenoisian industry | [470] | |
| The burials at Ofnet | [475] | |
| The new races | [479] | |
| Ancestry of European races | [489] | |
| Transition to the Neolithic | [493] | |
| Neolithic culture | [496] | |
| Neolithic fauna | [498] | |
| Prehistoric and historic races of Europe | [499] | |
| Conclusions | [501] | |
| APPENDIX | ||
| NOTE | ||
| I. | Lucretius and Bossuet on the early evolution of man | [503] |
| II. | Horace on the early evolution of man | [504] |
| III. | Æschylus on the early evolution of man | [505] |
| IV. | 'Urochs' or 'Auerochs' and 'Wisent' | [505] |
| V. | The Crô-Magnons of the Canary Islands | [506] |
| VI. | The Length of Postglacial time and the antiquity of the Aurignacian culture | [510] |
| VII. | The most recent discoveries of anthropoid apes and supposed ancestors of man in India | [511] |
| VIII. | Anthropoid apes discovered by Carthaginian navigators | [511] |
| Bibliography | [513] | |
| Index | [533] | |