The first unmistakable relic of man in Europe is a human lower jaw found in the Mauer sands near Heidelberg, some seventy-nine feet below the surface of the bluff.[20] It seems to belong to the second or Mindel-Riss interglacial epoch, and its age is estimated by Osborn at about 250,000 years. Remains characteristic of the oldest Paleolithic epochs occur between thirty and forty-five feet below the surface. If we are to find an archæological name for this epoch, there seems to be no better one than Eolithic, the dawn of the Stone Age, when European man had hardly more than begun to chip a stone implement, although we must recognize the unreadiness of many or most archæologists to find a place for such rude products.[21]
The third interglacial period (Riss-Wurm) and the fourth period of advance (Wurm) cover what is known as Lower Paleolithic time, which is the earlier four-fifths or more of the Old Stone Age or Paleolithic period, extending approximately from 125,000 B. C., to 25,000 B. C. During the greater part of this period Europe was occupied by the Neanderthaloid people. Neanderthal man had a very large head with heavy, overhanging eyebrows meeting above the nose, and a markedly retreating forehead. The face was high and the large nasal opening indicates a broad, flat nose. The lower jaw was heavy and the chin retreating. The trunk was short, thick, and robust, the shoulders broad; the limbs short and heavy, the arms and lower legs relatively short, and the hands very large. Although the much-discussed Piltdown skull may quite probably be regarded as belonging to the earliest part of this period, the finer form of cranium seems to testify to a higher race of better mental development than the Neanderthaloids, huddling in their caves and shelters. It may easily represent a far more progressive ancestral race, of which they are somewhat degenerate descendants, though Osborn dissents from this view.[22]
Their remains are found in caves and rock-shelters all over Europe. Here we find their hearths; the bones of the animals which they had hunted for their food; their almond-shaped flint axes, “hand-stones” (Coups-de-Poing), the scrapers for dressing skins and shaving wooden tools, and a variety of other forms. Here they buried their dead. During the third warm interglacial epoch they lived in the open, as at the station of Chelles, which has given its name to the earliest Paleolithic epoch.[23] Their origin and route of migration is quite uncertain, but it seems probable that they entered Europe from the southern shore of the Mediterranean.
The post-glacial period is characterized by the final retreat of the ice. The change of climate was not steady but marked by a series of oscillations, repeating on a much smaller scale the glacial and interglacial epochs of the long past. The climatic change is accompanied by the appearance of tundra and steppe, followed by meadows and the forest conditions of modern times. Game was abundant and general conditions severe but healthy and fairly favorable.
A new race has appeared on the scene which replaced the Neanderthal folk, and had practically none of their primitive or degenerate, ape-like characteristics.[24] The Cro-Magnon people have excited the wonder and admiration of all anthropologists. They were of tall stature, had long legs, especially below the knee, giving swiftness in running. The forehead is broad and of good height, the features are rugged but attractive, and the brain is very large. They seem to represent a new race and new immigration, probably from Asia, which spread over Europe.
The Cro-Magnon brain was anything but dull. In this remote time, more than 20,000 years ago, there sprang up an art never since surpassed in its own field except, perhaps, by that of the Greeks. Their bone implements are adorned with the most lifelike carvings or sculptures. On the walls of caves we find paintings as realistic and alive, and often as finely executed in detail and coloring, as the best animal painters of our day could produce. These people must have had a high and keen appreciation of the beauty of form and proportion. All this artistic movement must have had its source in new ideas and conditions, springing from a thinking as well as a feeling and observing mind. They also frequently buried their dead, decorated with strings of perforated shells, and surrounded by flints or sometimes by a layer of red earth or ore. With them were the bones of food animals and the flint weapons needed for the journey into or use in the life beyond.
The life of the Cro-Magnon hunters on their arrival in Europe was anything but unendurable, especially along the Riviera. There were open-air encampments where men passed at least the summer months in tents or huts. The race seems to have culminated during the cold middle Magdalenian epoch, which indicates that they were well adapted to its conditions. Game was abundant and relatively easily captured. They had food and raiment, fair shelter, excellent art, alert brains, and probably a fair degree of social life. They may well have been content, courageous, and full of hope for themselves and their descendants.
